qatar never a supporter of terrorism, emir tells trump

In brief

GULF TIMES

published in

QATAR

since 1978

WEDNESDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10785

April 11, 2018Rajab 25, 1439 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

QNB profi t jumpsto QR3.4bn in Q1

BUSINESSBUSINESS | SPORT | Page 1

Al Shamal qualify for Emir Cup draw

Boeing, Qatar Airways sign letter of intent for fi ve 777 FreightersThe five 777 Freighters are worth $1.7bn at list prices

Boeing and Qatar Airways have signed a letter of intent to pur-chase fi ve 777 Freighters, valued

at $1.7bn at list prices. When the purchase is fi nalised, it will

be posted to Boeing’s ‘Orders and De-liveries’ website.

The letter of intent was signed dur-ing a ceremony attended by HE the Minister of Finance and Qatar Airways chairman Ali Sherif al-Emadi, Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar al-Baker, Boeing Commercial Air-planes President & CEO Kevin McAl-lister.

“The addition of fi ve 777 Freighters is a signifi cant moment for our cargo di-vision,” said al- Baker.

“As the world’s third-largest cargo operator, Qatar Airways continues to

invest in fl eet expansion. This transac-tion will be a reinforcement of our con-fi dence in Boeing to continue to deliver an outstanding product that meets our exacting standards. We expect no less than perfection, and we are confi dent that Boeing will continue to deliver that.”

Qatar Airways currently operates a fl eet of nearly 100 Boeing widebody airplanes and has about 100 more Boe-ing airplanes on order.

“We are proud of our long-standing partnership with Qatar Airways and we deeply appreciate their business and the positive impact on Boeing, our em-ployees, suppliers and communities,” said McAllister.

“We are honoured that one of the world’s leading international cargo car-riers recognises the unmatched capa-bilities of the 777 Freighter and wants to buy more to lift their growing freight operations.”

The 777 Freighter is capable of fl y-ing 4,900 nautical miles (9,070km) with a payload of 112 tonnes (102 metric tonnes or 102,000kg).

The airplane’s long range translates into signifi cant savings as fewer stops mean lower landing fees, less conges-tion, lower cargo handling costs and shorter delivery times.

Boeing is the air cargo market leader, providing more than 90% of the dedi-cated freighter capacity around the world.

Qatar Airways Cargo serves more than 60 exclusive freighter destina-tions worldwide through its Doha hub and also delivers freight to more than 150 key business and leisure destina-tions globally with more than 200 air-craft.

The Qatar Airways Cargo fl eet in-cludes eight Airbus A330 freighters, 13 Boeing 777 freighters and two Boeing 747-8 freighters. Page 4

Al-Baker and McAllister sign the letter of intent as HE the Minister of Finance Ali Sherif al-Emadi and Qatar’s ambassador to the US Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad al-Thani look on.

His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani with US President Donald Trump in the Oval Off ice yesterday. Trump hosted the Emir saying eff usively: “He’s a friend of mine”. “He’s a great gentleman.”

Qatar never a supporter ofterrorism, Emir tells Trump

Sheikha Al Mayassa opens ‘Arab Women in Sport’ photo showQNANew York

HE Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Muse-

ums, opened yesterday at the UN head-quarter in New York, the ‘Hey Ya (Let’s Go): Arab Women in Sport’ photog-raphy exhibition, which is curated by the two international photographers Brigitte and Marian Lacombe.

The exhibition, which aims to shed light on the impact of sport on the empowerment of Arab women, is or-ganised on the occasion of the Inter-national Day of Sport for Development and Peace, which falls on April 6 every year to mark the launch of the fi rst edi-tion of the Olympic Games in 1896.

The exhibition features a number of the Sisters Brigitte and Marianne La-

combe works, displaying more than 50 of Brigitte’s pictures for a number of Arab female athletes who participated in the Olympic Games, including 31 Qataris.

It also includes short features, fi lmed

by Marianne Lacombe, giving a glimpse into the history of female athletes from more than 20 Arab countries, as well as shedding light on some issues related to gender, culture and sports in the Arab world.

The exhibition has been very suc-cessful since it was fi rst launched on July 25, 2012 in London, through Doha and a number of countries, including Germany last year, to UN headquarters.

The opening ceremony was at-tended by Secretary-General of the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy Hassan al-Thawadi, President of the UN General Assembly Miroslav Lajcak, and a number of member-states’ permanent ambassadors to the UN, as well as a number of prominent personalities in the sports sector, UN Goodwill Ambassadors, academics, media professionals and representa-tives of civil society.

Qatar Airways takesstake in JetSuite

Qatar Airways has taken a minority stake in JetSuite, a leading US private aviation company, as well as an indirect stake in JetSuiteX, the carrier said yesterday.The agreement means that Qatar Airways joins JetBlue Airways and a number of private investors as stakeholders in both JetSuite and JetSuiteX. With this investment, Qatar Airways will help fuel the growth of JetSuite’s private aviation business, which currently focuses on light and very light jets.The investment extends to JetSuiteX, the sibling company to JetSuite, further accelerating the expansion of its acclaimed semi-private air service on the US West Coast and beyond. Business Page 16

ARAB WORLD | Syria confl ict

Russia vetoes UN bid toset up chem arms probeRussia yesterday vetoed a US-drafted United Nations Security Council resolution that would have set up an investigation into chemical weapons use in Syria following an alleged toxic gas attack in rebel-held Douma. It was the 12th time that Russia has used its veto power at the council to block action targeting its Syrian ally. A rival measure put forward by Russia failed to garner enough votes for adoption. The showdown between the US and Russia at the United Nations came as the threat of Western military action in Syria loomed large. Page 10

AMERICA | Internet

Zuckerberg: Facebook in‘arms race’ with RussiaFacebook chief Mark Zuckerberg took personal responsibility yesterday for the leak of data on tens of millions of its users, while warning of an “arms race” against Russian disinformation during a high stakes face-to-face with US lawmakers. In his first formal congressional appearance, the Facebook founder and chief executive sought to quell the storm over privacy and security lapses at the social media giant that have angered lawmakers and the network’s 2bn users. Page 11

SPORT | Champions League

Roma, Liverpool in semis as Barca, City loseAS Roma pulled off one of the great Champions League comebacks by knocking Barcelona out with a 3-0 win in their quarter-final second leg yesterday, overcoming a 4-1 deficit from the first game to reach the last four on away goals. Liverpool, too, reached the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in 10 years as Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino struck decisive blows to secure a 2-1 win over Manchester City that completed a 5-1 aggregate victory.

BRITAIN | Espionage

Nerve agent poisoneddaughter leaves hospitalYulia Skripal, who was poisoned with a nerve agent in the English city of Salisbury along with her Russian ex-spy father, has been discharged from hospital, an off icial said yesterday. “This is not the end of her treatment but marks a significant milestone,” Salisbury hospital’s deputy chief executive Christine Blanshard said. Page 14

QNAWashington

His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani has stressed that Qatar does

not and will not tolerate people who support and fund terrorism.

In statements to the media at the beginning of his bilateral meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House, the Emir explained that Qatar co-operates with the US to stop the funding of terrorism around the region.

“I want to make something very clear Mr President. We do not, and we will not, tolerate people who fund ter-rorism,” the Emir stressed.

The Emir described the military co-operation between the two countries as solid and strong, reaffi rming that Al Udeid Airbase is the heart of operations in fi ghting terrorism, and noting that it has been a very successful campaign against terrorist groups in the region.

He said Qatar-US relations are strong and well established for more than 45 years, highlighting that the economic partnership between the two countries is more than $125bn and the they are looking forward to double it in the coming years.

Referring to his visit to the head-quarters of the US Central Command (Centcom) in Tampa, the Emir de-scribed it as important and successful. He said the visit showed the strong co-operation between the two countries in the military and security fi elds.

On the Gulf crisis, the Emir thanked the president for his personal eff orts and important role in fi nding a solu-tion. He praised the president’s per-sonal support to Qatar during the blockade and thanked the American people for their support to Qatar.

As for the Syrian issue, the Emir said

Qatar and the US are working together to put an immediate end to the suff er-ing of the Syrian people. “This mat-ter has to stop immediately,” he said adding that the two countries will not tolerate a war criminal who has killed more than half a million of his own people.

The US president welcomed the Emir and the delegation accompany-ing him at the beginning of the meet-ing, and stressed the strength of the personal relationship between him and the Emir. The US president said it “is a great honour to have the Emir of Qatar with us”. Heaping praise on the Emir, the US president called him a personal friend and a great gentleman.

Trump said the Emir “is very popu-lar in his country” and “his people love him”.

The US president said he has been working with the Emir for a number of years before the counter-terrorism op-erations, pointing out that it is impor-tant to stop the funding of terrorism in the region, especially in countries that are related to the US, including the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and others.

“We’re working on unity in that part of the Middle East, and I think it’s working out very well. There are a lot of good things happening.

“Also, we have a gentleman, on my right, who buys a lot of equipment from us.”

“We’re working very well together, and I think it’s working out extremely well,” Trump said.

During the meeting, the two friendly countries discussed bilateral strategic relations and ways to boost and develop them in diff erent fi elds, especially in ex-panding co-operation in economy, in-vestment and military and defence fi elds.

The meeting also dealt with a number of current regional and inter-national issues. Pages 23, 24

Qatar, US discuss ways to enhance co-operation in economy, investment, military and defence fields

Emir is very popular in his country and his people love him, says US president

‘Eff orts to restore regional unity working out well’ Emir calls for immediate end to suff erings of Syrians

QATAR

Gulf Times Wednesday, April 11, 20182

OFFICIAL

Attorney General meets Russian justice minister

Qatar attendsArmenian leader’sinauguration

HE the Attorney General Dr Ali bin Fetais al-Marri, who is visiting Moscow, met the Minister of Justice of the Russian Federation Alexander Konovalov yesterday.During the meeting, they exchanged views on a number of issues of common interest and discussed ways to strengthen judicial and legal co-operation between Qatar and Russia.The Attorney General also met the president of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation Vyacheslav Lebedev.

President of Armenia Armen Sarkissian met HE the Deputy Speaker of the Advisory Council Mohammed bin Abdullah al-Sulaiti, at the Presidential Palace in Yerevan, on the sidelines of the inauguration of the President of Armenia. At the outset of the meeting, HE al-Sulaiti conveyed the greetings of His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani on assuming the post of the president of Armenia as well as his wishes of more progress and prosperity for Armenia. The Armenian president reciprocated the Emir’s greetings and conveyed his thanks on the participation of Qatar in the ceremony of his inauguration besides wishing more progress in bilateral relations between Qatar and Armenia.Earlier, al-Sulaiti represented Qatar during the inauguration ceremony. The inauguration took place in the presence of a number of leaders, heads, representatives of a number of countries and members of the diplomatic corps.

Qatar, Iran discuss coastal security

The 14th joint meeting of Coast Guard directors of Qatar and Iran took place

in Doha yesterday.The meeting explored a

number of topics related to

coastal security between both countries.

The meeting was chaired by the Director of Coasts and Bor-ders Security Department, Staff Brigadier (Navy) Ali Ahmed al-Badeed, and commander of the Iranian border guards, Brigadier General Qassem Rezayee.

Al-Badeed said the meeting

comes as part of the agreement signed between Qatar and Iran to co-ordinate eff orts between the coast and borders security departments to discuss security issues and means of strength-ening them regarding maritime channels and other topics re-lated to coastal security and borders.

QNADoha

Director of Coasts and Borders Security Department, Staff Brigadier (Navy) Ali Ahmed al-Badeed, and commander of the Iranian border guards, Brigadier General Qassem Rezayee chairing the meeting in Doha yesterday.

Qatar signs air services, cultural agreements with Panama

Qatar signed an air services agreement and a co-operation

agreement in the cultural fi eld with Panama yester-day.

The air services agree-ment was signed by Chair-man of the Civil Aviation Authority Abdullah bin Nasser Turki al-Subaey and the Vice-Minister of Mul-tilateral Aff airs of the Min-istry of Foreign Aff airs of Panama Maria Luisa Navaro.

The agreement provides for opening the skies for national carriers of Qatar and Panama to operate an unlimited number of pas-senger and cargo fl ights between the two countries with full transport rights.

Separately, Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority Abdullah bin Nasser Turki al-Subaey yesterday met

the Director of the Middle East Regional Offi ce of the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) Mo-hamed Khalifa Rahma.

They discussed the lat-est developments related to civil aviation in the world and the Middle East, as well as ways of co-operation between the Authority and ICAO.

The co-operation agreement in the cultural field between Qatar and Panama was signed by HE the Minister of Cul-ture and Sport Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali and Panama’s Vice-Min-ister of Multilateral Affairs of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Maria Luisa Na-varo, in the presence of Panama’s ambassador to Doha, Oreste Del Rio San-doval.

The agreement aims for exchange of expertise and holding joint events be-tween the two countries.

QNADoha

HE the Minister of Culture and Sport Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali and Panama’s Vice-Minister of Multilateral Aff airs of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs Maria Luisa Navaro exchange documents after signing the agreement.

Chairman of the Civil Aviation Authority Abdullah bin Nasser Turki al-Subaey and the Vice-Minister of Multilateral Aff airs of the Ministry of Foreign Aff airs of Panama Maria Luisa Navaro signing the air services agreement.

The foreign ministries of Qatar and Russia held a round of political consultations in Moscow yesterday. The Qatari delegation was headed by HE the Minister of State for Foreign Aff airs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi, while the Russian side was headed by Russian President’s envoy to the Middle East and North Africa and Deputy Minister of Foreign Aff airs Mikhail Bogdanov. Bilateral relations and means of developing them, in addition to issues of common concern were discussed.

Qatar, Russia hold talks

QATAR3Gulf Times

Wednesday, April 11, 2018

HE the Minister of Transport and Communications Jassim Seif Ahmed al-Sulaiti held separate meetings in Doha yesterday with ambassadors Hans-Udo Muzel of Germany, Salah al-Salehi of Tunisia and Rashad Ismayilov of Azerbaijan. The three meetings discussed co-operation between Qatar and the three countries of Germany Tunisia and Azerbaijan in the fields of transportation and communications and means of further enhancing them, the Minister of Transport and Communications said in a statement.

Minister holds talks with German, Tunisian and Azerbaijani envoys

Doha conferenceto discuss workers’rights, labour issues

The Fifth Labour and Workers Conference will be held in Doha

on May 1, organisers an-nounced yesterday. It will be organised this year un-der the theme of ‘Building a state of prosperity and glo-ry’, and focus on the medical and legal aspects related to workers.

The conference, organ-ised by Dar Al Sharq, will be held under the patronage of HE the Minister of Ad-ministrative Development, Labour and Social Aff airs Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali al-Nuai-mi, with the participation of academics, legal experts, doctors, and human rights activists from within and outside Qatar.

The fi rst two working sessions will discuss the key issues related to the medical

care for workers, while the second will examine local, international and legal co-operation in the fi eld of la-bour rights.

Chairman of Fifth Labour and Workers Conference Committee Sheikh Thani bin Ali al-Thani said that the conference’s theme is in recognition of the em-ployers and workers who participate in building the renaissance of Qatar and contribute wholeheartedly to achieving the objectives of the state under an unjust siege.

He referred to the legisla-tive and legal directions and measures taken by Qatar to improve the workers’ en-vironment and guarantee their rights in keeping with the highest international standards, such as the new wage system, abolition of the sponsorship system, the provision of high-qual-ity health services and ad-

equate housing.Dar Al Sharq Group CEO

Abdul Latif al-Mahmoud said that the conference comes within the frame-work of the state’s efforts to improve and develop the labour environment, which has achieved re-markable success at vari-ous levels.

Al-Mahmoud added that the convening of this conference confirms that Qatar is moving ahead with its plans, programmes, and development achieve-ments, as well as its efforts in developing the working environment disregarding the lies of the siege coun-tries.

Director of Labour In-spection Department at the Ministry of Admin-istrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs Mohamed Ali al-Meer said that this conference comes amid great achievements

by Qatar to guarantee workers’ rights, which has received wide internation-al recognition.

He added that Qatar provides excellent work-ing conditions for workers and has formed committees to handle labour disputes, preceded by other meas-ures, such as wage protec-tion system, that provide an ideal working environment in the state.

Dar Al Sharq annual workers book, which comes this year under the title of development partners, and documents the achieve-ments made at the labour and workers’ level during the past year, will be inau-gurated during the confer-ence.

The winners of the workers’ awards will be honoured during the con-ference according to the categories decided by the prize committee.

QNADoha

PHCC: signifi cant increase in number

of medical devices at health centres

The Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) has revealed

a signifi cant increase in the number of medical devices used in its 23 health centres, in addition to the construc-tion of four new centres which will be inaugurated this year with the latest equipment according to the international standards ap-proved by the World Health Organisation.

PHCC will offi cially open next month two new health centres, at Al Wajbah and Muaither, as well as two other centres by the end of this year, at Al Jamaa and Al Waab.

In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), Direc-tor of the Engineering Medical Device Department at PHCC

Musameh Menahi al-Qahtani said that the four new health centres will be equipped with more than 2,000 modern medical devices, including radiology, medical analysis, dental, physiotherapy, and medical furniture.

He revealed a big increase in the use of devices at all health centres.

For example, fully equipped dental clinics will be increased from 89 to 125 units by the end of 2018, an increase of 40%. Mean-while, the number of radi-ology units used in health centres will be increased from 21 to 25 units by the end of 2018.

He noted that the total number of medical devices of all types and speciali-ties is currently more than 10,000 distributed at 23 health centres in Qatar and other new centres that will

be opened soon.He said that all devices are

linked to one electronic sys-tem, which shows the results of tests in all government medical facilities, includ-ing health centres, clinics of HMC and Sidra Medical Centre, in order reduce any human error and protect the privacy of the patient.

Al-Qahtani also revealed the procurement of three mobile units for the Nation-al Oral Health project, in-tended to examine students in schools and to operate in some emergencies when needed. He added that four more units would be pro-cured in the near future.

He noted that all health centres are equipped with mammography (FET) de-vices used in early detec-tion of cancer to meet the needs of the National Early Detection Programme for

Breast and Intestine Cancer implemented by the PHCC.

He added that there is a plan to connect all the medical devices used in the health centres with an electronic system for main-tenance so that the system will report electronically defective device, pointing out that the time of the re-sponse to the problems take between 24 to 48 hours.

Al-Qahtani underlined that PHCC is keen on at-tending many conferences and exhibitions specialised in medical devices in order to keep pace with the latest developments.

Regarding the import of medical devices, al-Qahta-ni noted that, while the process of supply and in-stallation took 3 to 5 months in the past, now, thanks to the direct shipping lines, it takes 2 to 3 months.

QNADoha

Post-siege Qatar ‘positively

diff erent from before’

Qatar after the siege isn’t the same country as before,

as the State is now positive-ly diff erent and the Qatari community has been and remains an example of civi-lised society, HE the Min-ister of Culture and Sports Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser al-Ali has stressed.

The minister’s remarks came on the sidelines of the inauguration of a book titled Tamim Al Majd by Mental Health Friends As-sociation (Weyak). The event was part of an ini-

tiative launched by Weyak on November 8, and which continues until next May, in the presence of HE Chair-man of Weyak Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah al-Thani and Weyak Vice-Chairman Hassan bin Abdullah al-Ghanim.

The minister underlined that Qatar has the human resources that rank it among the developed countries in the world - its youth, citizens and residents who are exem-plary in coexistence and civi-lised life.

The minister said that the book Tamim Al Majd is an important element in enhancing the awareness of the community.

Recently, Qatari Authors’ Forum was inaugurated, which saw the launching of many books and the hold-ing of several seminars, the minister added.

Minister al-Ali noted that the book Tamim Al Majd derives its importance from its association with the speech of His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, which was delivered on July 21, 2017, after the unjust siege imposed on Qatar by the Saudi-led quartet on June 5, 2017, and it was inspiring in every sense of the word.

He expressed hope that the book reaches all seg-ments of society.

Minister al-Ali added that culture is an important tool to stimulate positive behaviour, and the speech of the Emir was fi lled with this spirit, and the book was the result of positive inter-action with this historic speech.

Tamim Al Majd, which is written by researcher Amer Kamel, one of Weyak vol-unteers, is based on Emir’s speech of 21 July 2017, with enhanced feedback to men-tal health inspired by the speech by psychological counselling specialist Dr Al Araby Qwaidry.

The book, which begins with the text of the speech, consists of 22 chapters.

QNADoha

Lekhwiya hosts meeting on counter-terror measures

The Internal Secu-rity Force (Lekhwiya) hosted in Doha yes-

terday a meeting for the New Technologies and Lo-gistics Committee of the International Association of Gendarmeries and Police Forces with Military Status (FIEP), to discuss mecha-nism for responding to ter-rorist attacks in open spaces with the participation of 15 countries from the associa-tion’s member-states.

Participants in the meet-ing reviewed the experi-ences of their countries in combating terrorist opera-

tions from a logistical per-spective and with the use of information systems, and discussed enhancing capabilities and exchang-ing information and exper-tise in security areas among member-states.

In this context, Brigadier Ibrahim Khalil al-Mohanna-di, head of the Legal Aff airs Department at Lekhwiya and member of the National Counter-Terrorism Com-mittee, said that terrorism has become a serious threat to the world as a whole and not only to a specifi c people, which requires concerted eff orts to confront this phe-nomenon especially by the security institutions, which need more co-operation and

co-ordination among them-selves.

He highlighted the im-portance of the new tech-nology for security institu-tions, especially in light of the current challenges and risks and the developments taking place in the world, referring to Lekhwiya’s varied experience in this area, which has success-fully managed to use the latest technology systems in many tasks and duties carried out and supervised by national cadres of young offi cers.

Al-Mohannadi said that Lekhwiya’s participation in FIEP meeting aims at rais-ing capabilities and im-proving its performance

through the interactive relations developed dur-ing the meetings of the Su-preme Council of Leaders as well as the meetings of spe-cialised committees, which provide the opportunity to exchange experiences, co-ordination and encourage studies in the fi eld of hu-man resources.

These meetings help to exchange experiences in the fi eld of training and co-ordi-nation between training pol-icies, conduct comparative studies between the various methods, programmes and plans in force in each coun-try, and facilitate the ex-change of information and experiences between the competent authorities.

QNADoha

QATAR


Qatar Airways resumes service to two Iraq citiesQatar Airways yesterday

announced that it has resumed service to Erbil

and Sulaymaniyah in Iraq. The airline had suspended service to both routes in November 2017, per the Iraqi Civil Aviation Au-thority’s directive to all interna-tional carriers at the time.

The award-winning airline now operates seven weekly fl ights to each destination. From May 1, the airline will further boost its service to Erbil with double daily fl ights.

Qatar Airways Group chief ex-ecutive Akbar al-Baker, said: “Er-bil and Sulaymaniyah have always been two important destinations in Iraq, in addition to Baghdad, the

capital city, as well as Najaf and Basra. With an abundance of his-tory to unearth at each location, we are pleased to be relaunching our award-winning service to both of these destinations, off ering our passengers yet again a multitude of choice within Iraq.”

Qatar Airways operates an Air-bus A320 aircraft to both Erbil and Sulaymaniyah, which features 12 seats in Business Class and 132 seats in Economy Class. Pas-sengers will be able to enjoy the airline’s superior entertainment system, off ering a wide variety of entertainment options, including the latest blockbuster movies, TV shows, music and games.

Qatar Airways serves fi ve des-

tinations in Iraq. The airline fi rst began fl ights to Erbil in 2012, followed by the capital Baghdad, Najaf, Basra and Sulaymaniyah.

Qatar Airways enjoyed a record-breaking year in 2017, claiming more than 50 indi-vidual awards across multiple categories, demonstrating its continued commitment to ex-ceeding passenger expectations with its innovative approach to product development and dedi-cation to customer experience.

Leading the host of awards re-ceived by the airline last year is the prestigious accolade of 2017 ‘Airline of the Year,’ awarded by the 2017 Skytrax World Air-line Awards, which was held at

the Paris Air Show. This is the fourth time that Qatar Airways has been given this global rec-ognition. In addition to being voted Best Airline by travellers from around the world, Qatar’s national carrier also won a raft of other major awards at the cer-emony, including ‘Best Airline in the Middle East,’ ‘World’s Best Business Class’ and ‘World’s Best First Class Airline Lounge’.

Last month, Qatar Airways revealed a host of forthcoming global destinations in line with its expedited expansion plans, including the announcement that it will be the fi rst Gulf car-rier to begin direct service to Luxembourg.

Deal signed for five 777 Freighters: A Qatar Airways freighter flies over Doha’s West Bay. Boeing and Qatar Airways have signed a letter of intent to purchase five 777 Freighters, valued at $1.7bn at list prices.

2018 WISE Awardsfi nalists announcedThe World Innovation

Summit for Educa-tion (WISE) an ini-

tiative of Qatar Foundation has announced 12 fi nalists for its 2018 WISE Awards.

They are: Safe Space Club for Girls, Nigeria; Technol-ogy-Based Deaf Education, Pakistan; 1001 Nights Life Skills and Citizenship Edu-cation Programme, Canada; Generation, US; Life Project 4 Youth, France; Ghata, Lebanon; TAK-TAK-TAK, Mexico; African Children’s Stories, Australia; Partners for Possibility, South Afri-ca; ANEER (Action Nation-al pour l’Éducation de la

petite Enfance en zone Ru-rale), Morocco; StoryWeav-er, India; and One Village One Preschool, China.

The chosen projects tackle pressing educational issues including girls’ edu-cation, early childhood ed-ucation, refugee crises, cul-tural exchange, citizenship values, mother tongue lit-eracy, youth employment, entrepreneurship in dis-advantaged communities, deaf education, enhancing teacher motivation, and stimulating critical and creative thinking.

Stavros N Yiannouka, CEO of WISE, said, “Each

of the 2018 WISE Awards fi nalists has constructed an eff ective and tested solu-tion to a global educational challenge. Whether it’s en-suring fundamental educa-tion for refugees or creat-ing the next generation of empathetic and conscious leaders, each project is al-ready transforming lives, and provides an inspira-tional model for others to adopt.”

The fi nalists were evalu-ated according to strict criteria. They must be es-tablished, innovative edu-cational projects that have already demonstrated a

transformative impact on individuals, communities, and society of their context. They also need to be fi nan-cially stable, have a clear development plan, and be scalable and replicable.

Each year, the WISE Awards recognise and pro-mote innovative projects from across the world that address global educational challenges.

The WISE Awards win-ning projects will be an-nounced in July and cel-ebrated at WISE@NY in New York, USA, on September 22 and each will receive $20,000.

Sidra Medicine launchesself-referral facilitySidra Medicine is now

accepting self-re-ferrals from female

patients from the private sector. Women in need of obstetrics and gynaecology care can refer themselves directly via telephone or face-to-face.

Sidra Medicine has launched several new women’s services includ-ing an urgent care service to complement a growing number of specialties avail-able for both inpatient and outpatient care.

As a specialty healthcare organisation for children, young people and women, Sidra Medicine is ramping up services through mid-2018 to become a leading

centre for personalised and family-centred care.

The women’s urgent care service is for Sidra Medicine patients who go into spon-taneous labour, pregnant women under 20 weeks’ gestation as well as patients with urgent gynaecologi-cal problems. Patients who go into labour will be fi rst seen by the women’s urgent care unit located in the Pla-za Level of Tower D in the main hospital.

Dr Justin Konje, execu-tive chair, Women’s Serv-ices Clinical Management Group, said, “Sidra Medi-cine is adding capacity for women’s services in Qa-tar at a crucial time when the need for women’s and

maternal care is growing. Our personalised approach takes into consideration not only the patient, but the entire family.”

Sidra Medicine also per-mits fathers or a family member to be present in the delivery rooms to attend their baby’s birth. The or-ganisation provides emo-tional support programmes such as maternal mental healthcare services, edu-cation workshops related to breastfeeding and ante-natal classes for parents. In support of the breastfeed-ing mother, Sidra Medi-cine has lactation rooms located throughout its Outpatient Clinic.

Women considering

Sidra Medicine as a private healthcare option, can re-quest to speak to a repre-sentative within women’s services on 4003-3333. The women’s services depart-ment also off ers prospec-tive patients a tour of its birthing suites and other facilities. The women’s ur-gent care is available on 40031401 or 40031402.

Dr Justin Konje

Diversion on Furousiya Street from tomorrow

A section of Al Furousiya Street will be closed in the two lanes leading from Al Furousiya Roundabout (Equestrian roundabout) towards Al Rayyan al Jadeed Street from tomorrow for five months.During this period, traff ic will be diverted to two temporary lanes parallel to the closed section of Al Furousiya Street.The diversion aims to enable construction works as part of Al Furousiya Street development project, which includes increasing the number of lanes of Al Furousiya Street to four lanes in each direction with a service road on both sides of the street in order to enhance traff ic flow and increase the street capacity to accommodate current and future traff ic requirements.The project also includes converting Al Furousiya and Muaither roundabouts into signal-controlled intersections.The Public Works Authority – Ashghal will install road signs advising motorists of the closure. The authority has requested road users to abide by the speed limit and follow the road signs to ensure safety.

Qatari inventors take part in Geneva expo

Qatar, represented by Qatar Sci-entifi c Club (QSC) of the Min-istry of Culture and Sports,

is participating in the Geneva Inter-national Exhibition for Innovation, which kicks off today.

QSC executive director Hareb al-Jabri said that QSC aims to participate in the forums of inventions, and Geneva exhibi-tion is among the important international exhibitions, which QSC has participated in and achieved good results.

He added that this participation is

considered extensive, as QSC has six Qatari inventions, including one that has been entered on behalf of the GCC.

The QSC inventions in the exhibition are an interactive robot that provides instructions for learning sign language for deaf children, by the Qatari inven-tor Mohamed Hassan al-Jafi ri, and a project designed to monitor the health status of workers at their work sites, by innovator Rashid al-Mohannadi.

The third project is by inventor Saleh Safran – an electronic safety

valve used to prevent gas leakage, the device automatically shuts off the source of gas.

The fourth entry is a reservoir wa-ter cooler by inventor Mohsen Hus-sein al-Shaikh and the fi fth by Nasser Mohamed al-Marri who is involved in making movable homes.

The Qatari project, which is par-ticipating on behalf of the GCC, is an integrated system for fi ghting fi re in vehicles by Mohamed al-Mohannadi and Salem al-Shahwani. (QNA)

QATAR5


Typhoon jets to boost security for FIFA World Cup 2022: UK envoy

Qatar’s defence relations with the UK will get a further boost with the

acquisition of Typhoon jets, in time for the FIFA 2022 World Cup, British ambassador Ajay Sharma has said.

“There will be Typhoon ready for the World Cup,” the envoy told reporters yesterday. “We certainly see these jets as part of the way of securing the event.”

Sharma was highlighting the two countries’ strong and deep rooted relations especially in the fi eld of defence and secu-rity, stressing that British and Qataris have a shared interest in stability in the region.

The UK, he said, recognises

the importance of Qatar’s sta-bility not only to the region but also to the world and UK’s na-tional interest.

“Up to 25% of our gas comes from Qatar, we can’t aff ord any-thing that puts that in jeopardy and the rest of the world depends on Qatari gas,” the envoy noted.

“The rest of the world can’t aff ord Qatar to be unstable nor people in the region who are exporting oil and gas can’t af-ford that regional instability,” he added.

“That is one of the reasons why the stability of Qatar is very important to us, and the most important one is that at the end of the day, Qatar is our friend.” Sharma stressed.

Qatar and Britain, led by HE the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence

Aff airs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah and Britain’s De-fence Secretary Michael Fal-lon, signed a letter of intent in September 2017 to purchase 24 modern Typhoon aircraft with all their equipment.

“Qatar has been our friend for a very long time and that is the main reason why we have such a strong defence relation-ship,” Sharma said.

According to the envoy, the two countries’ defence rela-tionship is taking a major step forward through the acquisi-tion by Qatar of Typhoon jets.

“The life span of these air-craft and the relationship that it generates is not just a one off , it is not you buy the aircraft and that’s it,” Sharma explained. “What happens is you have to have training, maintenance,

exercises and all of these things, the UK Qatar relationship will be completely transformed by this.”

Such deal will see the UK working more closely and con-tinuously with Qatar through the former’s defence people, he said. “And it will not just for one year, or fi ve months, it will be for decades, a purchase of these kinds of aircraft is a decades-long commitment to each other.”

“What we will be able to have at the end of the day is a more eff ective defence relationship with Qatar as a result of this,” the envoy added. “Qatar’s de-fence capabilities will increase and our ability to do more to-gether will increase and that will be for the benefi t of both countries.”

By Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

EDI to hold iSTEMed conference from April 13

The Education Develop-ment Institute (EDI), part of Qatar Founda-

tion’s (QF) Pre-University Education (PUE), will hold its iSTEMed 2018 Conference at the Qatar National Convention Centre from April 13-15.

The purpose of iSTEMed 2018 is to enable educators to understand how to create au-thentic engagements for stu-dents across the areas of sci-ence, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). The con-ference will involve educators,

leaders, and students from across schools and universities within Qatar.

The opening keynote speech will be delivered by Dr Gina Cherkowski, founder and CEO of the STEM Learning Lab in Canada. Other notable inter-national speakers include sen-ior TED fellow Cesar Harada, an inventor, environmental-ist, and entrepreneur living in Hong Kong, who will, along with delivering workshops, be working alongside teach-ers and students to build and

test an ‘aquatic drone’. Jennifer Wathall, a leading author and speaker, will be off ering hands-on training in concept based mathematics.

The three-day conference will also include more than 25 workshops given by local and international presenters in the areas of STEM education.

Following a plenary session on April 15, from Cesar Harada, the event will conclude with a series of community sessions where students will be able to attend alongside teachers. Top-

ics for these sessions will range from creating whole school STEM initiatives to computer coding for younger students. The event will also include an exhibition and engagement space where participants can learn about diff erent initiatives and opportunities for student learning and STEM.

“iSTEMed 2018 will allow local and international voices to discuss the technical and creative skills students need to develop,” said Mehdi Benchaa-bane, director of EDI.

Concert by French singer Ambroisibe Bre on April 17

The newly-constituted Chamber Music Soci-ety of Qatar and embas-

sies of six countries have joined hands to hold a music concert by French singer Ambroisibe Bre on April 17.

The concert at The Mondrian Doha is the fi rst of a series fea-turing established musicians, according to organisers. The em-bassies involved include France, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Germany and The Netherlands.

French ambassador Eric Chevalier said yesterday that Bre will be backed by the event’s ar-tistic director and renowned pi-anist Sonja Park.

They will be accompanied by two musicians - Dmitri Torchin-sky (violin) and Hassan Moataz el Molla (cello) - from the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra (QPO).

“The concert will be in honour of the legendary French com-poser Achille-Claude Debussy,” the envoy said, adding that the concert supports the non-profi t foundation, Moving Young Art-ists, which has been promoting classical music and nurturing young local talent in Qatar for nearly four years now.

Belgian ambassador Bart De Groof said that his country cher-ishes a rich tradition, culture and heritage in musical composition from such Renaissance pioneers as Orlandus Lassus to classical era giants like Gossec and Gretry or from the 19th to 21st centu-ries, Cesar Franck, Peter Benoit, Eugene Ysave and more recently Wim Mertens and Dirk Brosse.

“These stalwarts wrote inti-mate music for small audiences, taking delight in the universality of the language of music. Thus Belgium as a small-scale coun-try produced some of the fi n-est small-scale masterpieces,” Groof added.

The Netherlands ambassador Bahia Tahzib-Lie observed that music can bring people from all walks of life and cultures togeth-er and has the power to bond and unify people beyond all man-made borders.

British ambassador Ajay Sharma said an up and coming British musician is to be invited to perform with the QPO as part of this initiative. “Qatar and the UK already enjoy strong musical links and through these events we hope to inspire a new genera-

tion of musicians,” said Sharma.German ambassador Hans

Udo Muzel said the series is a remarkable attempt to promote understanding on international level in Qatar through cultural diplomacy. “Our embassy is en-couraging this creative festival, bringing to life music and cul-ture from a wide variety of coun-tries and artists in a playful and engaging manner”.

Austrian ambassador Willy Kempel said, “Music is the ex-ternal language of our inner feel-ings, thus connecting us to our-selves and the world around us in more than one way”.

While echoing her feelings, Sonja Park said she believes in Khalil Gibran’s words “Music is the language of the spirit ... it opens the secret of life bringing peace, abolishing strife. Music, indeed, is a powerful tool and a global language that galvanis-es nations with its message of peace and unity.”

While Qatar Airways is the offi cial airline partner, The Mondrian Doha is the hospital-ity partner. Fifty One East and FNAC are also actively support-ing the event.

Eric Chevalier, Bart De Groof, Bahia Tahzib-Lie, Hans Udo Muzel, Willy Kempel, and pianist Sonja Park along with others at the meeting to announce the concert series yesterday. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

QATAR6 Gulf Times


Kahramaa, GE sign deal forpower sector co-operationThe Qatar General Elec-

tricity & Water Corpora-tion (Kahramaa) and GE

Power yesterday signed Princi-ples of Co-operation (PoC) for a ‘power effi ciency and fuel sav-ings campaign.’

Kahramaa president Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari and GE Pow-er president and CEO Russell Stokes were the signatories.

The signing ceremony was attended by Ryan Gliha, chargé d’aff aires ad interim of the US embassy in Doha; Joseph Anis, president and CEO of GE’s Power Services business in Af-rica, India and the Middle East; Ghassan Barghout, president and CEO of GE’s Gas Power Sys-tems-Sales business in the Mid-dle East and North Africa as well as other senior offi cials of Kah-ramaa, the US embassy and GE.

Al-Kuwari said “since its in-ception in 2000, Kahramaa has endeavoured to provide effi -cient, reliable, and sustainable services, and works through the National Programme for Con-servation and Energy Effi ciency, Tarsheed, to save resources and achieve energy effi ciency as per Qatar National Vision 2030 and Qatar development plans. GE will help us advance these ef-forts further with their solutions and on-the-ground knowledge. Our co-operation will help bet-ter utilise fuel supplies, and re-duce emissions to support sus-tainable development”

Under the PoC, Kahramaa and GE will co-operate to explore ways to drive higher effi cien-cy, fl exibility and fuel savings across Qatar’s power sector by utilising the latest technologies in the power generation sector, enhancing the performance of existing assets as well as sup-

porting Kahramaa in their future plans. The PoC followed talks between Kahramaa and GE at the United States-Qatar Strate-gic Dialogue held in Washington DC in January this year.

Gliha said “the US and Qatar have long enjoyed a strong bi-lateral relationship and a shared vision for progress. This sign-ing helps enhance the relations between our two countries even further, laying the foundation

for the transfer of GE’s advanced technology to support the strengthening of Qatar’s power sector, to the benefi t of both in-dustry and citizens.”

“Qatar National Vision 2030 defi nes a clear roadmap for the country’s long-term develop-ment. A central pillar of the vision is the effi cient use of re-sources to best serve current and future generations,” said Russell Stokes.

“By enabling the supply of best in class technology and the modernisation of existing power plants, this PoC will help Kahramaa to better utilise fuel supplies, reduce emissions and improve asset management, transforming Qatar’s power sec-tor to support the sustainable development goals of the coun-try.”

GE has over four decades of presence in Qatar, supporting

the country’s infrastructure requirements with its leading solutions for the energy, avia-tion and healthcare sectors. The GE Advanced Technol-ogy and Research Centre at the Qatar Science & Technology Park is also driving localised innovation by focusing on ap-plied research and knowledge transfer in key areas that drive Qatar’s social and economic growth.

First Qatari app for booking taxis launched

Real estate transactions

Mercedes S-Class, C-Class models recalled

Real estate transactions registered at the Ministry of Justice’s real estate registration department between April 1 and 5 stood at QR320,431,605. The department’s weekly bulletin said that the list of properties traded for sale included

empty land plots, houses, residen-tial buildings and multi-purpose buildings. The sale transactions were located in the municipalities of Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Daayen, Umm Salal, Al Khor, Al Thakhira, Al Wakrah and Al Shamal.

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC), in collabora-tion with Nasser Bin Khaled Automobiles, has announced the recall of Mercedes S-Class and C-Class models of 2016 because the driver and front passenger seatbelts do not match factory specification. The MEC said the recall campaign comes within the framework of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers and ensure that automobile dealers follow up on vehicles’ defects and repair them. The ministry said that it

will co-ordinate with the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works and will com-municate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out. The MEC has urged all customers to report any violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department through the following channels: Call centre: 16001, e-mail: [email protected], Twitter: @MEC_Qatar, Instagram: MEC_Qatar, MEC mobile app for Android and IOS: MEC_Qatar

Qatar Taxi, the fi rst Qatari application of its kind for booking cars, has been

launched by Al Dana, a local company.

At the launch, Sheikh Ha-mad al-Thani, CEO of Al Dana Company, said: “Qatar Taxi has partnered with one of the world’s leading companies in this fi eld, which will be based in Doha, to ensure the security, privacy and secrecy of our users and their data.”

“This is the biggest attraction of our app apart from various salient features to make it more user-friendly,” he said.

“Qatar Taxi is the fi rst of our technology projects in the lo-cal market, therefore we have

deployed the best international expertise in all fi elds, be it se-curity and cyber protection, or the telecom services in addition to collaboration with a group of local companies and providing unmatched services, which to-gether make Qatar Taxi the ap-plication of choice in Qatar,” he said.

On the sidelines of the event, Sheikh Hamad al-Thani also said that “Qatar Taxi will pursue sev-eral strategic partnerships with ministries and authorities in ad-dition to launching a wide range of off ers to meet the needs of the society. Enhanced features will be upgraded from time-to-time after receiving the feedback from industry veterans.”

Kahramaa president Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari and GE Power president and CEO Russell Stokes shake hands after signing the PoC as Ryan Gliha, chargé d’aff aires ad interim of the US embassy in Doha looks on. PICTURE: Thajudheen

7Gulf TimesWednesday, April 11, 2018

QATAR

DFI’s new Ajyal Film Series begintomorrowThe Doha Film Institute (DFI)

has launched the new Ajyal Film Series to screen mov-

ies that received audience acclaim at the Ajyal Youth Film Festival.

Doha Film Institute CEO Fat-ma al-Remaihi said: “The Ajyal Film Series upholds the spirit of Ajyal, meaning ‘generations’ in Arabic, by bringing together all ages of the public to celebrate the power of cinema.

“Every fi lm at the Ajyal fest is selected for its appeal to the family, which makes the Ajyal Film Series an event that fosters togetherness. Through this new initiative, we want to continue to build the culture of fi lm ap-preciation and education that we drive year-round.”

The inaugural Ajyal Film Se-ries will be held tomorrow from 6pm at the Katara Drama Thea-tre. Two fi lms will be screened including a Made in Qatar short fi lm, Dana’s Kite (Qatar, 2016), directed by Noor al-Nasr, and Paper Planes (Australia, 2015), a heart-warming feature fi lm di-rected by Robert Connolly.

The screening of Dana’s Kite will be followed by an audience Q&A with the director, moder-ated by two Ajyal jurors from previous years.

Qatari director al-Nasr’s fi rst short fi lm, Health Invaders (2015) was part of a challenge for Seha health organisation; it pre-miered at the Ajyal Youth Film Festival and was featured in the market of the Festival de Cannes. Dana’s Kite was made as part of the DFI’s Short Filmmaking Lab 2015.

Exploring love for family,

mankind’s ever-increasing reli-ance on impersonal technology and the gorgeous Doha seaside, the short fi lm is about Dana, who is playing with her kite on the beach at the water’s edge while her brother Ahmed sits on the sand messaging his friends on his mobile phone. She tries to get his attention but he is too busy to see the amazing shell she has found until he suddenly looks up and the young girl is nowhere to be found.

Robert Connolly’s Paper Planes is about 11-year-old Dy-lan, who discovers his excep-tional talent for creating paper planes. He becomes obsessed with his new hobby and even-tually competes at the national level in Sydney. Soon it looks like Dylan is on his way to the world championships in Japan – if he can come up with the money to get there. An endearing celebra-tion of talent and encourage-ment, the fi lm soars through a tale of friendship, creativity and the precious bonds of family and community.

Tickets to the screening are priced QR25 per person, and can be purchased at the Katara Dra-ma Theatre Box Offi ce or online at www.dohafi lminstitute.com

Dana’s Kite

Paper Planes

NBK staff undergo trainingto enhance customer serviceNasser Bin Khaled Auto-

mobiles, the authorised general distributor of

Mercedes-Benz in Qatar, has hosted ‘Our Passion — Best Customer Experience’ pro-gramme in Doha, allowing 165 staff and managers to have a dedicated, special training on the excellence of customer service.

This internal platform in-vests in ‘Customer Orientation’ training for all customer-facing employees.

‘Our Passion’ programme is part of a broader company ob-jective to provide the best cus-tomer and employee experience in the region to ensure that it maintains its position as the market leader.

The aim of the programme

was to engage and motivate employees as they play an equal role to the premier products themselves, in the brand’s suc-cess.

Participants were engaged with the growth objectives of the business and shown the im-portance of company perform-ance in parallel to customer sat-isfaction.

Sheikh Faleh bin Nawaf al-Thani, operations director - auto, NBK Holding said: “Nass-er Bin Khaled Automobiles and Mercedes-Benz give customers’ the utmost priority at all times. ‘Our Passion’ programme re-fl ects the brand principles and values as we continue to strive towards improving operational processes, customer handling skills and communication.

“The moment customers’ step into our showroom, they feel the diff erence in the level of care and service. This is also enhanced in the aftersales stage, where we spare no eff ort to respond to the customers’ enquiries and questions, pro-viding them the best possible experience.

“Driving excellence is what we seek to accomplish, to meet our motto “The Best or Noth-ing.” Excellence has no limits and we will continue to invest in our staff to exceed our clients’ expectations.”

Taking place over four days, the training included all sales, after-sales and support mem-bers who have direct interaction with customers.

The intensive training guid-

ed participants on the basic principles of the new Mer-cedes-Benz strategy, and how to apply Mercedes-Benz prin-ciples to accomplish the best results, refl ecting the brand identity of excellence and sat-isfaction.

The training included an analysis of the status of cus-tomer service experience and how to take it into the next level.

It is based on actual staff experience with customers to refl ect the real needs of every market, in line with Mercedes-Benz global sales strategy.

Established in 1957, Nasser Bin Khaled Automobiles is Qatar’s exclusive distribu-tor of Mercedes-Maybach, Mercedes-Benz and Mercedes-AMG.

A group of participants at the training programme.

QATAR


The United Kingdom will continuously look for op-portunities to resolve the GCC crisis as quickly as possible, Britain’s ambassador to Qatar Ajay Shar-

ma has said.“It (the crisis) is an important issue (for the UK) that

should be resolved because we would like to see a united GCC,” he told a press conference at the British embassy in Doha yesterday.

Sharma highlighted the UK’s continuing work with Kuwait’s mediation eff orts, led by its Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-Sabah, as well as UK’s “friends in the GCC” in encouraging the parties to sit down and re-solve the issue.

“Our desire for resolution hasn’t disappeared and our interest in supporting eff orts to resolve this remains very strong,” he stressed, also citing the support of countries such as the US.

Kuwait, the US and the UK have been calling for a rapid end to the Gulf crisis through dialogue, expressing their concern over the prolonging of the dispute.

The ambassador said that the UK has a special rela-tionship with the GCC, which it wants to develop further but is hampered by the ongoing crisis.

“This matters a lot for the UK. That is why it will con-tinue to do whatever it can to bring about a resolution,” he stressed.

“Sometimes it (the UK’s eff orts) may be indirect or di-rect. Quite often, it may not be noticeable in a public way,” the ambassador pointed out.

“But no one should doubt our commitment to try to re-solve this issue. The region is going through a tough time and we do not need to have more problems, any unneces-sary problems in the region,” Sharma said.

“We really want people in the Gulf to come together because we have a lot more big issues to deal with,” he added.

In February, 15 members of parliament (MPs) in the UK signed a petition demanding that Prime Minister Theresa May strive for an immediate lifting of the siege against Qatar.

The petition also encouraged blockading countries (Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, the UAE and Egypt) to respond to Kuwait’s eff orts as mediator to resolve the crisis, which began in June 2017. – By Joey Aguilar

Britain wants GCC crisisresolved fast, says envoy

Sharma: This matters a lot for the UK. That is why it will continue to do whatever it can to bring about a resolution.

UK fi rms looking to invest in Qatar

In health, the fi rst and largest trade mission in the healthcare sector took place in Qatar with people from foundations and companies coming and looking on how to support the country.

The ambassador said that they have ap-pointed a member of its team, designated the 2030 National Vision Offi cer, who will ensure that the embassy implements its commit-ment to support Qatar on its National Vision 2030 eff orts.

The UK is also exerting eff orts to get British businesses to support Qatar’s development, and to take advantage of the opportunities that have come, including out of the eco-nomic blockade against Qatar.

“We also recognised that the dispute has changed the way that Qatar looks at the

world, the way it is organising itself and we recognised that it creates a lot of opportuni-ties for the UK to do even more with Qatar,” the envoy said. “We are very keen to take advantage of these opportunities and to use those them for the benefi t of both countries.”

“We still have a high level of ambition to do even more with Qatar than we’re doing at present, and we recognise that there will be new areas where we can do even more to-gether,” he added.

The UK, Sharma stressed, is also working hard with the government, businesses, and experts to support eff orts that will make the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar a success.

“The dispute has not changed our commit-ment to working with Qatar on a really suc-cessful 2022 World Cup,” he added.

UK fi rms and businesses are now eyeing Qatar as the next investment destination after the British government made it a priority for these fi rms to

invest outside of the UK, Britain’s ambassador to Qatar Ajay Sharma has said.

“We are now looking much more closely at investments in Qatar, in particular to take advantage of the port and free zones,” he told reporters yesterday.

Sharma was addressing a press conference on the birthday celebration of Queen Elizabeth II, at a reception at the British embassy in Doha.

The celebration event takes place today.The embassy will also celebrate the strong and deep-

rooted relations between Qatar and the UK.Sharma said that they have started a dialogue between

the Qatar authorities and British businesses about the opportunities in Qatar, including through UK’s Confed-eration of British Industries, the body responsible for looking after the interest of the businesses in the UK.

“We started having institutional conversations, dis-cussions, in order to look at how they can invest more in Qatar,” he added.

Saying that the biggest British investor in Qatar is Shell, he noted that such investment “is a great example” on how investment in Qatar can benefi t both countries.

Royal Dutch Shell – known commonly as Shell – is a British-Dutch multinational oil and gas company incor-porated in the UK. Its headquarters is in the Netherlands.

The UK, Sharma said, is very supportive of Shell’s ef-forts to invest more in Qatar and to be part of the expan-sion of the North Field.

“That is really a very important area for us, to support Shell in its eff ort to gain part of the expansion of the North Field,” he added. “It is a priority area and we are also in-vesting in education in the way we are bringing University of Aberdeen and Northumbria University to Qatar.”

“I think we will see a lot of these kinds of investments in Qatar, which will be around the service sector, educa-tion and health care sectors, as well as perhaps in the oil and gas industry,” the ambassador said.

He hopes to see some investments in manufacturing in the country in the future.

Sharma said the UK is also looking at how it can work more with Hamad Port and take advantage of the trading route that Qatar has established.

The envoy also stressed that “a new spirit of partner-ship” between Qatar and the UK is focused on two areas: helping Qatar to attain its National Vision 2030, and to successfully host the FIFA 2022 World Cup.

“This is a historic relationship and we are continuing to deepen and make it more benefi cial for both our coun-tries,” Sharma told reporters yesterday.

The UK signed a memorandum of understanding with Qatar in March last year, during a visit by a delegation led by HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, on how the UK would help Qatar achieve its National Vision 2030.

In education, for example, Sharma said the University of Aberdeen and Northumbria University opened cam-puses in Qatar, which he considered as signifi cant events.

By Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

QATAR9Gulf Times


Volvo honours Domasco over parts sales growth

Doha Marketing Services Com-pany (Domasco), the exclusive distributor of Volvo trucks in

Qatar, has announced that it has been awarded for its ‘outstanding parts sales growth’ by Volvo Trucks.

The ceremony, which took place in Sweden’s Gothenburg last month, saw Domasco being ranked top for the en-tire Middle East, East, North and West Africa region comprising 57 countries.

The ‘Best Performance of the Year’ award was handed over by Helene Mel-lquist, senior vice-president, Volvo Trucks — Sales International, to Faisal Sharif, managing director of Domasco.

Commenting on the award, Sharif said: “We are extremely proud to have won the award from Volvo Trucks. Every day, our skilled and experi-enced technicians help our custom-ers get the most out of their vehicles — thereby ensuring increased vehi-cle uptime, lower cost of ownership, maximum safety and best-in-class fuel effi ciency. This award is further testament to their eff orts in provid-ing our customers with the highest levels of service and quality products and I would like to thank them for their outstanding contribution.”Domasco managing director Faisal Sharif at the awards ceremony in Gothenburg, Sweden.

Doha Bank signs up to UN Global Compact

Reinforcing its commitment to sustainability,

Doha Bank has become the fi rst Qatari bank to sign up to the UN Global Compact, a UN policy initiative en-couraging businesses worldwide to adopt sustainable and social-ly responsible policies.

“Doha Bank is known as one of the most active advocates of corporate social re-sponsibility (CSR), owing to the numer-ous green initiatives that we organise and support, including the Al Dana Green Run, ‘ECO-School Pro-gramme’, and beach cleaning and tree plant-ing initiatives, among others.

“Climate change represents a real challenge for the mod-ern world, and organisations have an important responsi-bility at hand to support the change towards a low-carbon emission future. We have recently published our annual Sustainability Report, as we have since 2009. Emphasis-ing our dedication to implementing responsible business practices and supporting the Qatar’s environment com-mitments, we are proud to be a signatory to the UN Global Compact,” said Doha Bank CEO Dr R Seetharaman.

Doha Bank’s pioneering work in raising environmental awareness has been recognised over the years through a series of awards and accolades, including the ‘Best Green Bank 2008 at the Industry Awards’ from Bankers Middle East, and the ‘Golden Peacock Global Award for Sustain-ability’ in 2010, 2011, 2013, 2014, and 2017.

The Doha Bank tower.

Vodafone Qatar woos customers with N8 launch

Vodafone Qa-tar yesterday launched the Vo-

dafone Smart N8, a 4G Android smartphone that retails for QR499.

The Vodafone Smart N8, which looks thin, is crafted with a slimming texture mid-frame and a wavy moiré pattern reminiscent of silk on the back panel.

The back panel also has a fi ngerprint sensor conveniently placed for use in a natural holding position.

It contains some of the very latest mobile technology available in the market, at a price that will enable all mem-bers of a family to enjoy the benefi ts of Vodafone’s fast and reliable 4G networks.

“The Vodafone Smart N8 lets customers get a smart-phone with award-winning design and the latest mobile technology, such as a fi ngerprint sensor, at a fair price,” said Diego Camberos, chief operating offi cer, Vodafone Qatar.

The inclusion of a fi ngerprint sensor provides increased security and added control for parents who can both con-trol access to apps, or temporarily unlock them as a reward for their children using their fi ngerprint.

Its features include fi ve inch 720x1280p screen with a resolution of 293 pixels per inch and in-plane switching for richer and more vivid colour reproduction and wider viewing angles to view photos and videos; Android Nougat 7.0 operating system with smooth usage driven by a quad core processor supported by 1.5 gigabytes (GB) of RAM; 16GB of internal memory (10GB available), which can be expanded by up to 32 GB with a micro SD card; 2400 milli-ampere hour battery; and 13 MP rear camera and 5MP front camera, with dual fl ash and Omnivision sensors for more precise photos, particularly in natural light.

The new Vodafone N8.

UK lauds Qatar steps on terror, extremismBy Joey Aguilar Staff Reporter

The UK has lauded the steps Qatar has taken in the fi ght against terrorism and extremism, British ambassador Ajay Sharma has said.

“Such fi ght is really an important element of our relationship and we are pleased with the steps that the country has taken and the progress that we are making with Qatar,” the envoy told a press confer-ence yesterday.

The UK, he stressed, vowed to work with Qatar on future steps and measures to combat terrorism and extremism.

The US State Department also earlier stressed that the country has taken very strong steps in re-cent months to assist the international community and the US in their campaign against IS, Al Qaeda and other transnational terrorist groups.

“We see Qatar as a friend and ally in the fi ght against terrorism and extremism,” Sharma said.

“We have worked very closely with Qatar on this agenda and we continue to work closely with our experts and with our offi cials.”

He noted that they also received a huge sup-port from the political level — from HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani, and especially from His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

“The Emir set the overall direction very positive about doing more with the UK on counter terror-ism and counter extremism activities,” the envoy pointed out.

Sharma hopes they will formalise soon the co-operation between Qatar and the UK their counter terrorism eff orts.

The two countries also established a joint Qatar-UK operational squadron (JOS) last year as part of strengthening military ties.

The squadron, which will play a vital role in se-curing the skies during the FIFA 2022 World Cup in Qatar, will include joint operations and train-ing squadron, and an electronic warfare system through continuous co-operation between the two countries.

JOS, a unique squadron in the region, is consid-ered the nucleus of future joint operations between Qatar Emiri Air Force and Royal Air Force.

REGION/ARAB WORLD

Gulf TimesWednesday, April 11, 201810

Yemeni rights group sues Saudi prince in FranceReuters Paris

A rights group fi led a law-suit against Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Sal-

man during his visit to France yesterday, accusing him of com-plicity in torture and inhumane treatment in Yemen, lawyers said.

The complaint on behalf of Taha Hussein Mohamed, direc-tor of the Legal Center for Rights and Development (LCRD), said the prince who is Saudi Arabia’s defence minister was responsi-

ble attacks that hit civilians in Yemen.

The case was fi led in a Paris court as pressure grows on Pres-ident Emmanuel Macron to curb arms sales to Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which spearhead a coalition fi ghting Houthi rebels who control of most of northern Yemen and the capital Sanaa.

Speaking to reporters in Paris, Foreign Minister Adel al-Jubeir dismissed the lawsuit and said the Houthis should be held ac-countable for the war in Yemen.

The rights group, based in the Houthi-controlled Yemeni capi-

tal Sanaa, says on its website it monitors and documents rights’ violations in Yemen.

“He ordered the fi rst bomb-ings on Yemeni territory on March 25, 2015,” the group’s law-yers, Joseph Breham and Hakim Chergui, said in the complaint seen by Reuters.

“The existence of indiscrimi-nate shelling by the coalition armed forces aff ecting civilian populations in Yemen can be qualifi ed as acts of torture,” they wrote.

The lawsuit may embarrass Macron at a delicate moment in French-Saudi relations.

France is the world’s third-biggest arms exporter and counts the kingdom as one of its biggest buyers.

The lawyers cited UN reports and documentation by rights groups such as Human Rights Watch, Amnesty International and Oxfam on arbitrary deten-tions and the use of illegal clus-ter bombs.

Authorities will now begin studying the suit and decide whether there is a basis to take further legal action.

If the case follows the usual course, the prince would be in-formed of the legal action, but

there would be no move to make him attend a hearing or detain him.

“The notion that the Houthis are victims is ridiculous. They are the aggressor. We have pro-vided more humanitarian assist-ance than any country in Yem-en,” Jubeir said.

“This notion of a lawsuit is ri-diculous. I think the whole world should be supportive of our po-sition with regards the legality of it.

Everyone understands that you can’t have a terrorist militia that launches ballistic missiles on your capital. What would

France do if six or seven ballis-tic missiles were launched on its capital?”

The Yemen confl ict has killed more than 10,000 people and displaced more than 3mn — more than 10% of the popula-tion. The complaint also accuses the coalition of depriving mil-lions of people of access to basic necessities due to indiscriminate bombings and a naval blockade of Yemeni ports.

The war has pushed the coun-try to the brink of famine.

Coalition air strikes targeting Houthi fi ghters have frequently hit civilian areas, although the

alliance denies ever doing so in-tentionally.

The coalition also says it is providing fi nancial support to help aid agencies and humani-tarian groups to help civilians.

The lawyers said French courts were competent to handle the case in line with the United Nations convention against tor-ture.

About 75% of French people want Macron to suspend arms exports to Gulf states.

Several rights groups have warned of possible legal action if the government does not halt its sales.

Global experts to inspect attack site in Syria as US ponders replyReuters Beirut/UN

International chemical weapons experts will go to the Syrian town of Douma to

investigate a suspected poison gas attack, their organisation said yesterday, as the United States and other Western pow-ers consider military action over the incident.

US President Donald Trump, who had been due to travel to Peru on Friday, cancelled a trip to Latin America to focus on re-sponding to the Syria incident, the White House said.

Trump on Monday warned of a quick, forceful response once responsibility for the attack was established.

France and Britain also dis-cussed with the Trump admin-istration how to respond to the incident.

Both stressed that the culprit in the incident still needed to be confi rmed.

At least 60 people were killed and more than 1,000 injured in Saturday’s suspected attack on Douma, then still occupied by rebel forces, according to a Syr-ian relief group.

Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s government and its ally Russia have said there was no evidence a gas attack had taken place and that the claim was bo-gus.

The incident has thrust Syria’s seven-year-old con-fl ict back to the forefront of international concern and pit-ted Washington and Moscow against each other again.

Russia and the United States were headed for a showdown at the United Nations over how to respond to the Douma attack.

Aggravating the volatile situ-ation in the region, Iran, Assad’s other main ally, threatened to respond to an air strike on a Syrian military base on Mon-day that Tehran, Damascus and Moscow have blamed on Israel.

In Syria, thousands of mili-tants and their families arrived in rebel-held parts of the country’s northwest after surrendering Douma to government forces.

Their evacuation restored Assad’s control over the eastern Ghouta, formerly the biggest rebel bastion near Damascus, and gave him his biggest battle-fi eld victory since 2016, when he took back Aleppo.

The Hague-based Organi-sation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said Syria had been asked to make the necessary arrange-ments for the deployment of an investigation team.

“The team is preparing to de-ploy to Syria shortly,” it said in a statement.

The mission will aim to de-termine whether banned mu-nitions were used, but will not assign blame. Doctors and wit-

nesses have said victims showed symptoms of poisoning, pos-sibly by a nerve agent, and re-ported the smell of chlorine gas.

The Assad government and Russia both urged the OPCW to investigate the allegations of chemical weapons use in Dou-ma, a move apparently aimed at averting any US-led action.

“Syria is keen on co-operat-ing with the OPCW to uncover the truth behind the allegations that some Western sides have been advertising to justify their aggressive intentions,” Syria’s state news agency SANA said.

Russian Deputy Foreign Min-ister Mikhail Bogdanov said there was no threat of the situ-ation in Syria resulting in a mili-tary clash between Russia and the United States.

TASS news agency quoted him as saying he believed com-mon sense would prevail.

Any US strike is likely to in-volve naval assets, given the risk to aircraft from Russian and Syrian air defence systems.

A US Navy guided-missile destroyer, the USS Donald Cook, is in the Mediterranean.

French President Emmanuel Macron said yesterday that any strikes would not target the Syr-ian government’s allies or any-body in particular, but would be aimed at the Syrian govern-ment’s chemical facilities.

Speaking alongside Saudi Crown Prince Mohamed bin Salman, Macron said a decision on whether to carry out military strikes would be made in the coming days after more consul-tations with the United States and Britain.

Last year, the United States launched strikes from two Navy destroyers against a Syrian air base. A US action similar to last

year’s would likely not cause a shift in the direction of the war that has gone Assad’s way since 2015. A European source said European governments were waiting for the OPCW to carry out its investigation and for more solid forensic evidence from the attack to emerge.

Any plan by the United States and its allies to take military ac-tion was likely to be on hold un-til then, the source said.

Trump met at the White House with Qatar’s Emir His Highness Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani. Trump gave no hints about potential US ac-tion.

The UN Security Council is due to vote on three draft reso-lutions on chemical weapons attacks in Syria later, setting up a showdown between the Unit-ed States and Russia.

The resolution was likely to

be blocked by Russia, which will put two draft resolutions on Syria of its own to a vote be-cause it does not agree with the US text, diplomats said.

“This is basically a diplomatic set-up,” said Richard Gowan, a UN expert at the European Council on Foreign Relations.

“Russia will inevitably veto the US resolution criticising Assad, and Washington will use this to justify military strikes,” he said. “A breakdown at the UN will also make it easier for France to justify strikes.”

Russian UN ambassador Vassily Nebenzia accused the United States, France and Brit-ain of stoking international tensions by engaging in a “con-frontational policy” against Russia and Syria.

France said it would respond if it was proven that Assad’s forces carried out the attack.

A Russian warplane fl ew over a French warship at low alti-tude in the eastern Mediterra-nean this weekend, a deliberate breach of international regula-tions, a French naval source said yesterday. The weekly magazine Le Point said the Russian plane had fl own over the frigate Aqui-taine and was fully armed.

The Aquitaine is equipped with 16 cruise missiles and 16 surface-to-air missiles.

It is currently operating off Lebanon alongside US ships as part of France’s contingent fi ghting Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq.

A previous inquiry by the United Nations and the OPCW found the Syrian government used the nerve agent sarin in an attack in 2017, and had also used chlorine several times as a weapon.

Despite the international revulsion over the chemical weapons attacks, the death toll from such incidents is in the dozens, a fraction of the hun-dreds of thousands of combat-ants and civilians killed since the war began in 2011.

Iraq will take “all the necessary measures” to prevent cross-border attacks by Islamic State militants in Syria, Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi said yesterday. Last year Iraqi warplanes carried out at least one strike on Islamic State targets inside Syria, in co-ordination with the US-led anti-Islamic State coali-tion and with the approval of the Syrian government. “Daesh are present in eastern Syria, at the Iraqi border. I will take all neces-sary measures if they threaten the security Iraq,” Abadi told a news conference in Baghdad.He said he had communicated this position to US President Don-ald Trump on the telephone on Sunday. He said he had asked the country’s military command “to lay out all possible plans, as I am keen to protect Iraqi citizens” from cross-border attacks. An expert close to the Baghdad govern-ment told Reuters last week that Iraq may carry out special forces operations against Islamic State militants in Syria. While troops could be dropped into Syria, the plan did not at this stage involve sending ground forces over the border, Hisham al-Hashimi, who advises several governments on Islamic State, including Iraq’s, told Reuters. Iraq has good rela-tions with Iran and Russia, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s main backers in the seven-year Syrian civil war, while it also has strong support from the US-led coalition.

Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has ordered the release of all politi-cal prisoners held in the country, state news agency SUNA said yesterday. The decision came in response to calls from political parties and groups that have par-ticipated in the country’s ongoing national dialogue to grant detainees the opportunity to engage in the political process, SUNA reported. Bashir, who has ruled Sudan since 1989, has said he will not stand in elections expected in 2020 and appointed a prime minister last year for the first time. “The release of political prisoners comes to strengthen the spirit of reconcilia-tion, national harmony and peace created by the national dialogue” and as part of “steps to prepare a permanent constitution for the country,” SUNA said. Since 2015 Bashir has held ongoing meetings with opposition and rebel groups under the banner of a national dialogue, in part to end conflicts in warring regions such as Darfur.

Untold thousands of men, women and children are being held in horrific conditions in Libya by armed groups who subject them to torture and other abuses, a UN report said yesterday. Fresh findings from the UN rights off ice and the UN Support Mission in Libya (UNSMIL) found that Libya was plagued by “widespread, prolonged arbitrary and unlawful detention and endemic human rights abuses in custody.”Since renewed hostilities broke out in 2014, armed groups on all sides have rounded up suspected opponents, critics, activists, medi-cal professionals, journalists and politicians, yesterday’s report said.“This report lays bare not only the appalling abuses and viola-tions experienced by Libyans deprived of their liberty, but the sheer horror and arbitrariness of such detentions,” UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein said in a statement.

Iraq govt to take ‘measures’ to prevent IS attacks

Bashir orders release of all political prisoners

UN decries ‘horror’ suff ered by thousands in Libya

UNREST

POLICY

RIGHTS

Israel makes false accusation against Gaza journoAFPJerusalem

Israel’s defence minister yes-terday accused a Palestinian journalist killed by the army

during protests along the Gaza border of having been a member of the military wing of Hamas.

The claim was immediately rejected by one of Yasser Mur-taja’s colleagues, who called the statement “ridiculous.”

Minister Avigdor Lieberman told journalists Murtaja held a “rank similar to captain.”

He said the journalist had been paid by Hamas since 2011 and had used a drone to collect information on Israeli forces along the border.

He did not produce evidence for the claims and did not say whether Murtaja had fl own a drone during Friday’s clashes, when he was shot.

Murtaja was wearing a press vest when he was hit a few hun-dred metres from the border during the protests, witnesses said.

The army has not said if he was deliberately targeted or hit by accident.

Murtaja was well known in

the Gaza media scene, working for the local production com-pany Ain Media.

He worked on documentaries published on Al Jazeera and with the Chinese artist Ai Weiwei.

Rushdi al-Serraj, director at Ain Media and co-founder

with Murtaja, said Lieberman’s statements were “ridiculous comments that are not worth responding to.”

“Yasser has been working for years in the press and mak-ing fi lms for the United Nations, China and others,” he said.

“They killed a journalist and should confess it is a crime.”

Murtaja’s funeral was at-tended by Hamas’ leader Ismail Haniya. He regularly attends funerals of those killed in con-fl ict with Israel, even if they are not members of the movement.

Israeli forces have killed 31 Palestinians since March 30 in protests and clashes along the border with Gaza, which has been blockaded for a decade.

Israel has rejected calls from the European Union, United Nations chief Antonio Guterres and other for an independent investigation into the deaths.

The army says its troops only open fire to stop attempts to damage the fence, infiltra-tions, bids to carry out attacks and at those seeking to harm soldiers.

Israel has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008 and says the blockade of Gaza is neces-sary to isolate the movement.

Palestinian women hold balloons at the site where tents are pitched in support of refugees returning to land they fled or were expelled from during the 1948 war surrounding Israel’s creation, near the border, east of Rafah, in the southern Gaza Strip, yesterday.

Video of soldier shooting Palestinian confi rmed

Israel’s military yesterday confirmed the authenticity of a widely shared

video showing a soldier shoot a Palestinian on the Gaza border followed

by rejoicing, actions that have added to scrutiny of the army’s use of live

fire. The video comes at a highly sensitive time for Israel’s military, which

has faced mounting criticism over its use of live fire on the Gaza Strip

border, where 31 Palestinians have been killed since late March as mass

protests have led to clashes. But the army alleged that the December

22 shooting in the video it said left the Palestinian with a leg wound

followed rioting and warnings from troops. Palestinians said it was proof

that Gazans were being shot along the border fence while posing no

threat to soldiers. Israeli right-wing ministers meanwhile defended the

actions of the soldiers in the video, which began to spread widely on

Monday night. Defence Minister Avigdor Lieberman said the sniper de-

served a medal — but that the soldier who filmed it should be demoted.

The army said in a statement that “the video depicts a short part of

the response to a violent riot, which included rock hurling and at-

tempts to sabotage the security fence, and lasted about two hours.” It

alleged the warnings including firing into the air were ignored. “A sin-

gle bullet was fired towards one of the Palestinians who is suspected

of organising and leading this incident while he was a few metres

from the fence,” it said.

Syrian onlookers gather around rescue teams clearing the rubble in the morning yesterday, at the site of an explosion of unknown origin which wrecked a multi-storey building the previous night in the war-battered country’s northwestern city of Idlib.

AMERICAS11Gulf Times


The former second in command of Canada’s military appeared briefly in court yesterday to face a charge that he leaked cabinet secrets related to navy shipbuilding plans. Vice-Admiral Mark Norman, 54, wearing his navy uniform and medals pinned to his blazer, did not enter a plea. Instead, defence lawyer Marie Heinen pushed for an expedited process. “I’m anxious to get to court, get this dealt with as quickly as possible and get back to serving the people of Canada,” Norman said following the court appearance. Norman, who was second in command of the military prior to being relieved of duty in January 2017, faces up to five years in prison, if convicted.

Brazil’s former president Dilma Rousseff yesterday called for “international solidarity” with her predecessor Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva who was jailed over the weekend on a corruption conviction. Lula, 72, remains the leftist Workers’ Party candidate for Brazil’s October presidential election though his incarceration casts doubts on whether he can legally run for off ice. “We need international solidarity,” Rousseff , who was impeached in 2016 for allegedly falsifying public accounts, told a conference in Madrid. She warned that “Brazilian democracy is at risk” because of the “parliamentary coup” which led to her impeachment and replacement as president by her conservative vice president Michel Temer.

A court yesterday ruled that controversial independent candidate Jaime ‘The Bronco’ Rodriguez can run for president, even though electoral authorities found he failed to collect the required signatures. Rodriguez will now be the fifth candidate on the ballot for the July 1 election, along with veteran leftist Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the front-runner; conservative Ricardo Anaya; ruling-party candidate Jose Antonio Meade; and former first lady Margarita Zavala, a fellow independent. Mexico’s electoral court ruled that the National Electoral Institute erred in not letting Rodriguez contest its March decision to exclude him from the ballot.

Colombia’s peace deal with the former Farc rebels is at risk of failure after the arrest of a soon-to-be congressman from the now-political party on drug traff icking charges, the group said yesterday. Seusis Hernandez, known by his nom de guerre Jesus Santrich, was indicted by US grand jury for conspiring with three others to export 10 tonnes of cocaine, worth $320mn in street value, to the United States, Colombia’s attorney general said on Monday. He will remain in Colombian custody until a US request for extradition is formalised, the attorney general said. Hernandez was a rebel negotiator for more than four years at peace talks between the government and the Farc.

The victims of the Austin serial bombing attacks that killed two people last month do not appear to have been linked, a US attorney said on Monday, adding that the bomber, who killed himself as police closed in, likely acted alone. Bomber Mark Conditt, 23, an unemployed man from the Austin suburb of Pflugerville, died on March 21 after detonating a explosive device as police ran toward his vehicle in an Austin suburb. “The investigation into motive and intent is ongoing. I have not seen information so far to believe that there is a common link between the victims,” John Bash, US attorney for the Western District of Texas, told a news conference.

Canadian vice admiral in court over leak charge

Rousseff seeks ‘international solidarity’ for jailed Lula

Mexico allows independent ‘Bronco’ run for president

Farc says peace process at risk after arrest of ex-rebel

Texas serial bombing victims appear not to be linked

IN THE DOCK POLITICSELECTION INDICTED INVESTIGATION

Texas to deploy troops to Mexico borderAFPEl Paso

Texas will send more than 1,000 National Guard troops to the US-Mexico border, in response to

President Donald Trump’s call for the military deployment to the southern frontier, the state announced yesterday.

An initial 250 Texas military person-nel were sent to the border over the weekend.

The Texas Military Department said the initial deployment was command and planning staff , along with support aircraft, vehicles and other equipment.

The department yesterday an-nounced it would activate 300 reserve troops this week, and each of the fol-lowing weeks, for a total of more than 1,000 troops.

“The number of people coming across the border has increased more than 200% over this time last year,” Governor Greg Abbott said in a state-ment.

“The addition of National Guard on the border has proven to have a mean-ingful impact to reduce the fl ow of peo-ple and illegal activities coming across the border.”

Texas already had approximately 100 troops at the border prior to Trump’s request. They were fi rst activated in 2014 and have been serving in an “ob-serve and support” role, offi cials said.

The additional troops will be tasked with assisting border patrol agents by carrying out surveillance, communica-tions, and other tasks. The US Defense Department last week signed an order calling for as many as 4,000 National Guard personnel to assist at the south-ern border. National Guard troops are normally commanded by governors.

The border state of Arizona has also responded to the federal request, de-ploying 225 members of its Guard on Monday.

The defence department said the troops would not carry out law en-forcement activities without federal approval and would be armed for self-defence when necessary.

Trump has indicated he might keep troops at the border until his promised border wall is built.

The deployment has heightened ten-sions with Mexico, whose President Enrique Pena Nieto on Monday ordered a review of its bi-lateral co-operation with the US.

Members of the Arizona National Guard listen to instructions on Monday at the Papago Park Military Reservation in Phoenix.

111-year-old WW2 veteran gets African-American museum tourThe oldest US veteran of World War

II, the 111-year-old grandson of a slave,

has received an exclusive tour of the

National Museum of African American

History and Culture after being flown

to Washington on a private jet by a

wealthy benefactor.

Richard Overton, who turns 112 next

month is believed to be the oldest man

in the United States and the third-oldest

in the world.

Overton grew up in Texas, where

his grandfather, a former slave, settled

after being granted his freedom in Ten-

nessee. He served in the Pacific during

World War II in an all-black battalion

and worked in a furniture store after

the war.

On Sunday, Overton took a private

tour of the African-American museum

in Washington thanks to Robert Smith,

a billionaire businessman and investor

who is richest African-American in the

country, according to Forbes magazine.

Volma Overton, a cousin, told AFP

that Smith met with Richard Overton

on Friday in Austin, Texas, where they

both live.

Smith, who donated about $20mn to

the museum, made the arrangements

“for us to have a personal tour, a special

tour,” Volma Overton said.

“We never thought about going to

the museum any time lately, but Mr

Smith came by his house to visit Rich-

ard for the first time,” he said.

“He sat and talked to Richard about

two hours on Richard’s porch, and he

said: ‘Would you like to go to DC to see

the museum? What about tomorrow?’

“It happened just like that.”

The Washington Post said that dur-

ing the tour, Richard Overton received

a call from Colin Powell, the former US

secretary of state and ex-general who

was the first African-American to serve

as chairman of the US military’s Joint

Chiefs of Staff . Reuters

A November 11, 2013, file photo of Richard Overton is applauded during a Veteran’s Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia.

Trump slams FBI raids on his lawyerReutersWashington

US President Donald Trump yesterday reprised his angry attacks on law

enforcement following FBI raids targeting his personal lawyer that were related to a federal investi-gation into possible collusion by Trump campaign aides with Moscow.

In two brief Twitter messages, Trump lamented that “attorney-client privilege is dead,” and de-nounced a “total witch hunt,” apparently restating his long-held view of Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation.

He did not elaborate.FBI agents executed a series of

search warrants on Michael Co-hen’s offi ce and home on Monday, law enforcement offi cials said.

One source said Cohen was under investigation for activity including possible bank and tax fraud and possible campaign law violations.

The searches, which Trump denounced on Monday as dis-graceful, were a dramatic new development in a series of probes involving associates of the Re-publican president.

“The raid is seismic,” Demo-cratic US Senator Richard Blu-menthal, a former US attorney, told MSNBC yesterday, adding that such searches by the Federal Bureau of Investigation indicate the possibility that a crime was committed.

The investigations have dogged Trump since he took of-fi ce last year, prompting him to publicly criticise Attorney Gen-eral Jeff Sessions for recusing himself from the Russia inves-tigation, and to suggest peri-odically that he might try to have Mueller dismissed.

Monday’s events renewed concerns that Trump could try to act against Mueller, who was

appointed last year by the Jus-tice Department to investigate alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 election and potential col-lusion by Trump’s campaign.

Critics have said that if Trump tried to remove Mueller it would amount to interference in the in-vestigation.

“It would be suicide for the president to want to talk about fi ring Mueller. The less the presi-dent said on this whole thing, the better off he would be, the stronger his presidency would be,” Republican US Senator Chuck Grassley said in an inter-view on the Fox Business Net-work.

Grassley is chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is among congressional panels conducting their own Russia probes.

Frank Montoya, a former sen-ior FBI offi cial, said it was ex-tremely rare for the bureau to get the authority to search a lawyer’s offi ce, let alone a residence.

“No question, a search warrant for a lawyer is an extraordinary act,” he told Reuters.

“Factor in that, in this in-stance, it was the president’s own attorney. Unprecedented.”

Montoya said the warrant re-garding Cohen would have re-quired rigorous scrutiny above and beyond the normal warrant process.

“Everyone involved in this process, including the judge who signed the warrant, understood the scrutiny that would follow its execution,” he said.

“As such, everyone in the process would have done their damnedest to make the warrant as bulletproof as possible.”

Cohen’s lawyer, Stephen M Ryan, said on Monday prosecu-tors seized communications be-tween Cohen and his clients based in part on a referral by Mueller.

The attorney-client privilege Trump referred to is intended to

encourage open communications between lawyers and their cli-ents, so that lawyers can provide sound legal advice.

But the privilege is not abso-lute, and there is an exception for communications made to further a crime.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer renewed a call by his party for bipartisan legis-lation to protect the US special counsel.

Moscow has denied US intel-ligence agencies’ fi ndings that it meddled in the 2016 presidential campaign and sought to tilt the race in Trump’s favour.

Trump has denied any collu-sion by his campaign.

Mueller’s probe has so far led to fi ve people, including four connected to Trump, pleading guilty to charges, many of them related to making false state-ments to investigators.

Mueller has also charged Trump’s former campaign chair-man, Paul Manafort, who has pleaded not guilty, and 13 Rus-sian nationals and three Russian entities.

Cohen has come under scru-tiny over a $130,000 payment he made shortly before the 2016 election to adult-fi lm ac-tress Stormy Daniels, who has said that she once had sex with Trump and was paid to keep qui-et about it.

Last week, Trump said he did not know about the payment.

“A well-regarded Republican appointed US Atty (attorney) obtaining valid search warrants, approved by a judge, that are then...carried out by career, up-standing FBI agents doing their job to search for the truth is NOT A WITCH HUNT. Period,” said Michael Avenatti, a lawyer for Daniels.

Cohen’s lawyer Ryan said on Monday the raid was inappropri-ate and that Cohen has cooper-ated with authorities.

Trump’s homeland security adviser Bossert resigns on Bolton requestReutersWashington

President Donald Trump’s homeland security adviser, Tom Bossert, has re-signed at the request of new national

security adviser John Bolton, an adminis-tration offi cial said yesterday, marking the latest departure from the White House of a senior adviser.

Bossert, a former deputy national securi-ty adviser to president George W Bush, had overseen the administration’s response to the Hurricane Maria disaster in Puerto Rico, as well as cybersecurity policy.

An offi cial said Bolton, who started his new role on Monday, urged Bossert’s departure.

“The president is grateful for Tom’s com-mitment to the safety and security of our great country,” White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said in a statement.

“Tom led the White House’s eff orts to protect the homeland from terrorist threats, strengthen our cyber defenses, and respond to an unprecedented series of natural disas-ters,” she said.

Bolton’s arrival at the White House also prompted the departure of Trump’s na-tional security council spokesman, Michael Anton.

The partial purge raised concern from Democratic Senator Chris Coons, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, who told CNN Bolton “seems to be swiftly moving to eliminate or to move toward an early retirement several of the president’s advisers.”

Jamil Jaff er, a former chief counsel to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and associate counsel to Bush, said it was a “huge mistake” to force Bossert out.

“Tom is a very smart and highly skilled national security leader who has been a bea-con of principle, capability, and discipline in an otherwise chaotic White House,” he said in a statement.

“Letting Bossert go at a time of height-ened threats and when there is signifi cant churn on the overall national security team is a yet another unforced error.”

Bossert joins a long list of senior offi -cials who have resigned or been fi red since Trump took offi ce in January 2017, including

previous national security advisers Michael Flynn and H R McMaster, White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus, communica-tions directors Hope Hicks and Anthony Scaramucci, economic adviser Gary Cohn and chief strategist Steve Bannon.

Former secretary of state Rex Tillerson, health secretary Tom Price and Veterans Aff airs secretary David Shulkin have also left.

Bossert was socializing with US intelli-gence offi cials and reporters at a conference on a coastal island off Georgia on Monday night, according to two people who were present.

One of the two people said Bossert gave no indication he was leaving the adminis-tration, but at one point joked that he was unsure of his future “like everyone else who works for Trump.”

Bossert was generally well respected by cyber security experts, who viewed him as a knowledgeable voice.

Rob Joyce, the White House’s cyber se-curity czar, who reported to Bossert, is still working in the administration, a White House offi cial said.

Chelsea Hornick-Becker of Avaaz.org holds a protest sign in front of dozens of cardboard cut-outs of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg outside of the US Capitol Building in Washington yesterday.

‘Angry face’ protest

AFRICA


At least 17 people died yesterday after their bus plunged into a river in Kenya, local off icials said. According to authorities, the driver lost control while trying to avoid a head-on collision with an oncoming vehicle. The accident happened while the bus was travelling from western Homa Bay county to the Kenyan capital of Nairobi. Narok County Commissioner George Natembeya said more than 40 people were rushed to hospital for treatment. He said the accident occurred after a person, who was controlling traff ic near the bridge the bus was travelling on, sent a wrong signal. Off icial statistics show that around 3,000 people die annually on Kenyan roads.

At least 14 people sustained burns in a fresh outbreak of fires at a camp housing tens of thousands of people displaced by Boko Haram militants in northeast Nigeria, according to an aid agency. The outbreak comes just two weeks after a blaze at the camp, located at Rann, about 175km east of the Borno state capital Maiduguri, killed five people. “There have been three separate fires reported,” stated a memo seen by AFP from the UN Off ice for the Coordination of Humanitarian Aff airs circulated among international aid agencies in Maiduguri. The incidents resulted in “reported 14 injuries (and) estimates that over 1,000 shelters have been burned,” said the memo.

Three Gambian men suspected of murdering a forest guard in Senegal’s troubled southern region of Casamance have been arrested, a Gambian police spokesman told AFP in Banjul yesterday. Senegalese authorities and Gambian police said Moustapha Gueye, a guard at Niaming forest on the Senegalese side of the border, was killed last week in a village in a region popular with tourists but where illegal cross-border logging of Casamance timber has sparked tension. “The police have arrested Ali Gai, Assan Sallah and Abdoulie Boye following the death of a Senegalese forest guard,” police spokesman David Kujabie said, adding police at Bansang in the Central River Region were investigating.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa yesterday paid tribute to the late anti-apartheid icon Winnie Madikizela-Mandela at a memorial service in her home town, ahead of her state funeral this weekend. Ramaphosa lauded Madikizela-Mandela for her role in the fight against the white racist regime, noting that she was tortured, placed in solitary confinement, banished and kept apart from her husband during his own 27 years in prison. However she never gave up, the president said. “Mama Winnie hated corruption and this new demon called state corruption and state capture,” Ramaphosa said at a memorial service in Mbizana in Eastern Cape province.

Sierra Leone’s new President Julius Maada Bio has announced that the first Saturday of each month will be “national cleaning day,” as part of a campaign to improve hygiene and the work rate of civil servants. The measures were announced by the president’s off ice late on Monday, two days after a rally in which Bio, a former general who was briefly in power in the 1990s, said he would be a stickler for “discipline”. “A National Cleaning Day is declared and scheduled for the first Saturday of each month, from 7am to 12noon,” it said in a statement. “The first National Cleaning Day scheduled by the ministry of health aff airs is Saturday, May 5.”

17 dead as Kenya bus plunges into river

14 injured in new fires at Nigeria displaced camp

3 Gambians arrested for Senegal guard’s murder

Winnie Mandela ‘hated corruption’: Ramaphosa

Sierra Leone gets national cleanup day

ACCIDENT SHELTERS BURNTILLEGAL LOGGING EULOGY NEW BROOM

Zimbabwe invites West to observe election for fi rst time since 2002ReutersHarare

Zimbabwe will invite Western powers to monitor its national

elections for the fi rst time in more than 15 years, of-fi cial papers showed yes-terday, ending a ban im-posed by veteran former leader Robert Mugabe.

The vote, scheduled for July, is seen is a major test for President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s democratic credentials since he came to power in November after a de facto army coup ousted 94-year-old Mugabe.

Zimbabwe will invite the United States, the Euro-pean Union’s Commission and parliament, Australia and the Commonwealth among 46 countries and 15 organisations, a list re-leased by the foreign aff airs ministry showed.

The countries and groups on the list were all previously banned from watching elections in 2002 after Mugabe accused them of favouring his opponents. The West slapped sanctions on Mu-gabe and members of his inner circle, accusing them of rigging a series of votes — charges they denied.

Joey Bimha, permanent secretary at the foreign ministry, said the invitations would be sent out soon but declined to give more details. The election will pit Mnangagwa against a clutch of opponents including 40-year-old Nelson Chamisa from the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change.

It will be the fi rst time that Mugabe has not been on the ballot since independence from Britain in 1980.

Parliament summons Robert Mugabe over diamond mining

A committee of lawmakers in

Zimbabwe is to summon former

president Robert Mugabe

to testify at a probe into lost

revenue from diamond mining,

a legislator said yesterday.

The lawmakers plan to question

Mugabe over his 2016 claim that

the country had lost $15bn in

income from diamonds due to cor-

ruption and foreign exploitation.

Mugabe — whose own

regime was accused of siphon-

ing off diamond profits — was

ousted last November after a

military takeover that ushered

his former deputy, Emmerson

Mnangagwa, to power.

“The committee resolved

to call the former president

to testify,” Temba Mliswa, an

independent lawmaker who

chairs parliament’s committee

on mines and energy, told AFP.

“He was the president, and

we want to know where he was

getting the $15 bn figure (from).”

He said no date had yet been

set to call Mugabe to testify.

Former presidents embroiled in Comoros passport sale scandalBy Aboubacar Mchangama, AFPMoroni

Two former Comoros presi-dents are suspected of em-bezzling millions of dollars

from a scheme that sold passports to foreigners to fi nance develop-ment in the Indian Ocean island nation.

A parliamentary report com-piled in December and seen by AFP accuses Ahmed Abdallah Sambi and Ikililou Dhoinine of involve-ment in systematic fraud and calls for criminal action against the pair.

“The courts must take up cases of embezzlement of public funds and conspiracy in which presi-dents and their associates are im-plicated,” the report said.

The scandal dates back to 2008 when Comoros launched a pro-gramme, in co-operation with the

United Arab Emirates and Kuwait, to give citizenship to stateless individu-als from the Gulf known as bidoons.

In return, Comoros — an archi-pelago between Mozambique and Madagascar and one of the world’s poorest countries — was expected to receive signifi cant investment from the oil-rich nations.

The initial deal agreed that 4,000 bidoon families would be-come naturalised Comorians in return for $200mn to be used for major infrastructure projects.

Over the following years, almost 48,000 passports were issued un-der the programme, according to data collected by the parliamen-tary inquiry — but just a handful were issued to bidoons.

However more than 6,000 pass-ports were sold “outside the legal channels”, the report said.

Comoros-issued passports en-title holders to visa-free travel to

several major economies includ-ing Indonesia, Malaysia and Hong Kong.

The passports were extensively traded on the black market, profi t-ing “parallel mafi a networks which sold them under the cover of eco-nomic citizenship,” the report said.

Former president Sambi’s neph-ew “was able to go and print as many passports as he wanted” at a contractor’s facility in Belgium.

Most of the money paid for the passports — between 25,000 and 200,000 euros — was stolen, ac-cording to the parliamentary probe.

“The programme generated signifi cant fi scal resources. Un-fortunately, a good chunk of the proceeds never arrived in state cof-fers,” said the fi ndings. “The state has ended up a laughing stock.”

The state is thought to have missed out on as much as $971mn,

the report said, roughly the equiv-alent of 80% of the country’s gross domestic product.

Ex-president Sambi received a “gratuity” of $105mn for signing off on the deal while Kiwan pock-eted $29mn for “encouraging” it, according to lawmakers.

The “investment for passports” scheme, suspended by current President Azali Assoumani follow-ing his 2016 election victory, had been criticised from its inception.

Ex-presidents Sambi and Dhoi-nine vehemently denied the accu-sations when they gave evidence to the parliamentary inquiry.

“We had fi nancial diffi culties and we were told that the pro-gramme could enable us to carry out projects,” Dhoinine told the commission.

“But it wasn’t clear,” he said, “no one knew, not myself in any case, what was happening.”

“President Sambi did not see anything of this scandal,” said one of his former ministers, Ahmed el-Barwane.

“It’s a commission intended to get at someone or to silence some-one,” he said, adding that Sambi remained a contender for presi-dential polls due in 2020.

Some fear that the revelations will not be followed with concrete action.

“In my opinion it will be buried,” said an adviser to president As-soumani who spoke to AFP on the condition of anonymity.

The report was submitted to the president last week, said federal parliament speaker Abdou Ous-seni.

“Our role was to understand what had happened, what follows is down to the executive and the judiciary,” he wrote in the govern-ment-run Al Watan newspaper.

Visitors look at a painting by Spanish painter Angel Mateo Charris displayed during an exhibition at the Musee des Civilisations de Cote d’Ivoire (Museum of Civilisations of Ivory Coast) in Abidjan.

Art exposition

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA13Gulf Times


Vietnam activists accuse Facebook of censoring contentAFPHanoi

A group of 50 Vietnamese activists and rights or-ganisations have written

an open letter to Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg suggesting his company may be colluding with communist authorities to scrub out online dissent.

Vietnam ranks among Face-book’s top 10 users by numbers and the site is hugely popular among dissidents in the one-

party state where independent media is banned and blog sites are routinely removed.

The letter to the head of the world’s largest social media platform was signed by 50 or-ganisations, activists and blog-gers who said they have seen an uptick in “account suspensions and content takedown” since last year.

Vietnam’s government said in April 2017 that Facebook has agreed to remove “bad and mali-cious” content that violates lo-cal laws, including fake news and

imposter accounts, but made no explicit mention of anti-regime material.

“It would appear that after this high-profi le agreement to co-ordinate with a government that is known for suppressing expression online and jailing activists, the problem of ac-count suspension and content takedown has only grown more acute,” said the letter published late Monday.

“We urge you to reconsider your company’s aggressive prac-tices that could silence human

rights activists and citizen jour-nalists in Vietnam,” it added.

The group said that several Facebook posts were censored last week during a high-profi le trial of six democracy activists who were handed heavy sen-tences for “attempting to over-throw the state”.

Vietnamese offi cials and Fa-cebook did not immediately re-ply to requests for comment. In-ternet in the country is classifi ed as “not free”, according to web watchdog Freedom House, the worst in Southeast Asia and sec-

ond only to China in all of Asia. Activist Le Van Son, who signed the letter, told AFP his Facebook page is frequently censored and his profi le was taken down tem-porarily last week after he post-ed in support of the activists on trial.

“My Facebook account re-fl ects my critical opinions and enables my right to talk about democracy, press freedom and freedom of expression in Viet-nam,” said Son. “I have never violated regulations by posting racy pictures, false information

or humiliating others with curse words.” Vietnam announced last year a 10,000-strong military cyber force tasked with fi ghting “wrongful views” online.

Activists have said the on-line brigade, dubbed ‘Force 47’, has fl ooded their sites with pro-government commentary and harassment.

Unlike in China, Vietnam does not employ a Firewall to block major social media sites, although Facebook access is sometimes interrupted during protests in the country.

The letter to Zuckerberg comes amid deepening con-troversy at Facebook over pri-vacy and security lapses after the revelation that British fi rm Cambridge Analytica — which worked with Donald Trump’s campaign — hijacked data on millions of users. Vietnam was among 10 countries aff ected by the breach, according to a Fa-cebook blog post last week say-ing that data from more than 420,000 users in Vietnam may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica.

Kim makes fi rst offi cial mention of US-N Korea talksAFPSeoul

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un discussed fu-ture talks with the US at

a party meeting, state media re-ported yesterday, in his fi rst of-fi cial mention of dialogue with Washington ahead of a planned summit with President Donald Trump.

Trump agreed last month to a landmark summit with the nuclear-armed North — which would be the fi rst between a sit-ting US president and a North Korean leader — but no specifi c dates or venue have been set, with questions mounting over Pyongyang’s participation.

At the meeting of party of-

fi cials Monday, Kim discussed the “development of the north-south relations at present and the prospect of the DPRK-US dialogue”, the offi cial KCNA news agency said, referring to the North by its offi cial acronym.

He delivered a report “on the development of the recent situ-ation on the Korean peninsula”, including the separate summit with South Korea to be held later this month, it said. In a growing rapprochement on the Korean peninsula, Kim is scheduled to meet the South’s president Moon Jae-in for a rare inter-Korean summit on April 27.

Trump has agreed to meet Kim for a historic US-North Korean summit to discuss denuclearisa-tion as soon as next month. But the North had remained publicly

silent since its leader’s invitation to talks was delivered to Trump by South Korean offi cials last month.

As offi cials in Washington scrambled to prepare for the prospective meeting, the weeks-long silence had reportedly made the White House nervous that Seoul had overstated the North’s willingness to negotiate over its own nuclear arsenal.

Kim’s remarks on Monday break that public silence, al-though he did not specifi cally refer to a “summit” with Trump.

Following multiple media reports of back-channel talks between the Cold War rivals, Trump said Monday he planned to meet Kim in “May or early June”. “I think there will be great respect paid by both parties and

hopefully there will be a deal on denuking,” he said. “Hopefully it will be a relationship that will be much diff erent than it has been for many, many years.”

North Korea’s recent frenetic diplomatic activity marks a stun-ning turnaround after a year of heightened tensions which saw the North fi re multiple missiles and carry out its most powerful nuclear test, further isolating the regime and triggering a fi ery war of words with Trump.

Since sending a high-profi le delegation along with athletes to the Winter Games in the South in February, Kim has made his international debut with a visit to Beijing — his fi rst overseas trip since taking power in 2011. The North’s Foreign Minister Ri Yong-ho arrived in Moscow

on Monday after making stops in Beijing, Azerbaijan and other former Soviet republics.

Ri also paid a visit last month to Sweden, which acts as a diplo-matic go-between for Washing-ton and Pyongyang. If the sum-mit does take place, many remain sceptical about the whether a meeting between the two no-toriously unpredictable leaders can succeed. It is scheduled to take place without the months

of groundwork that usually pre-cedes such meetings. No specif-ics have yet emerged concerning the date or venue of the proposed summit, with a third country such as Mongolia or Sweden under consideration to host the talks, according to multiple re-ports. Beyond that, a detailed agenda for the talks will need to be set.

Washington’s long-held stance is that it will not accept

a nuclear-armed North Korea. That means it wants to see “com-plete, verifi able, and irreversible” denuclearisation — a very high bar.

The North has previously de-manded the withdrawal of US troops based in the South and the end of the security alliance be-tween Seoul and Washington — an extraordinary concession that it is hard to imagine any previous US president acceding to.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un attending the Political Bureau of the Central Committee of the Workers’ Party of Korea in Pyongyang.

An F-18 fighter, on patrol, lands on the deck of the USS Theodore Roosevelt, transiting the South China Sea.

USS Theodore Roosevelt transits South China Sea

Scandal clouds darken for Abe ahead of Trump summitReutersTokyo

A cronyism scandal em-broiling the Japanese prime minister deepened

yesterday ahead of a summit with US President Donald Trump with a memo media said suggested an ex-aide had helped win approval for a friend of the premier to set up a veterinary school.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s ratings have been hit by several scandals over suspected favour-itism and cover-ups, raising questions about how long he can stay in power and his goal of re-vising Japan’s post-war, pacifi st constitution.

His domestic troubles are mounting ahead of the meeting with Trump next week and an expected onslaught over Japan’s trade policies.

The Asahi newspaper said that

a former Abe aide, Tadao Yanase, had told local authorities in 2015 that a plan by Abe’s friend for a veterinary school in a govern-ment-designated deregulation zone was a “prime ministerial matter” and they should work hard to realise it.

Abe has denied that he ever instructed offi cials to give pref-erential treatment to his friend, Kotaro Kake, the director of school operator Kake Gakuen, who wanted to open the school — Japan’s fi rst new veterinary school in more than 50 years.

Yanase, now a senior offi cial at the Ministry of Economic, Trade and Industry, said in a statement he had no memory of meeting authorities in Ehime prefecture or the city of Imabari to discuss the project.

Economic zone status exempts some localities from national regulations such as, in this case, limits on the number of veteri-

nary schools. Kake Gakuen got approval to open the school in a special economic zone in Ima-bari.

“I met many people every day but as far as I recall, I did not meet people from Ehime prefec-

ture or Imabari City,” Yanase said in a statement.

Yanase added that since the concrete selection process began after he left his post as Abe’s aide, he could not have told outsiders that the issue was a “prime min-

isterial matter”. The Asahi news-paper cited a document it said appeared to have been prepared by Ehime offi cials.

Ehime’s governor later told reporters that the memo had been prepared by one or more prefectural officials, NHK pub-lic TV and Kyodo news agency reported.

The content of the memo as reported by NHK and Kyodo matched that carried by the Asa-hi newspaper.

The aff air, which emerged last year, is one of several suspected cronyism scandals and cover-ups eroding Abe’s support as he eyes a third term as ruling Lib-eral Democratic Party leader in a September vote.

Opposition lawmakers re-peated calls for Abe to resign, and Shigeru Ishiba, an ex-cabinet minister eyeing a challenge to Abe, told reporters the govern-ment had the responsibility to

prove its previous statements were correct. Victory in the Sep-tember party poll would set Abe, who took offi ce in 2012 pledging to reboot the economy and bol-ster defence, on track to become Japan’s longest-serving premier.

Support for Abe’s cabinet fell six points to 38% in a weekend survey by broadcaster NHK, while his disapproval rate rose seven points to 45%, topping his approval rate for the fi rst time in half a year.

Abe has also denied that he or his wife intervened in the sale of state-owned land to an-other school operator, Moritomo Gakuen, which had ties to Abe’s wife, Akie.

Doubts over the sale deepened on Monday when a fi nance min-istry offi cial said another offi cial had proposed crafting a cover story with the school operator to justify the steeply discounted price.

Shinzo Abe

Australian linked to fake ‘Black Lives’ Facebook pageAFPSydney

A high-level Australian union offi cial was sus-pended yesterday amid

claims he was involved in a fake “Black Lives Matter” Facebook page that raked in thousands of dollars in donations. Broad-caster CNN reported that the fake page had almost 700,000 followers —more than twice as many as the offi cial Black Lives Matter page — before it was suspended.

It allegedly ran fundrais-ing campaigns earning more than US$100,000, purportedly for Black Lives Matters causes in the United States. CNN claimed that some of the mon-ey was transferred to Austral-ian bank accounts, raising new

questions about the integrity of Facebook’s platform and the content hosted there. A senior Australia’s National Union of Workers fi gure — who is white — was linked to the fake page and other black rights web-sites by the broadcaster. The union, which represents work-ers across various industries, said two people had been sus-pended.

“The NUW has launched an investigation into claims made by a CNN report and has sus-pended the relevant offi cials pending the outcome of an investigation,” National Sec-retary Tim Kennedy said in a statement.

Black Lives Matter is an ac-tivist organisation set up in the United States to campaign against violence and racism against black people.

Six Myanmar migrant workers killed in Thailand bus crashSix migrant workers from Myanmar were killed when a double-decker bus they were travelling in crashed into a ditch in Thailand, the second fatal accident in as many weeks involving migrants. Up to 3mn people from poorer neighbour Myanmar work in Thailand, many in menial jobs, with their remittances home contributing 5% of gross domestic product, the World Bank estimates.Some rights groups say the migrant workers face harsh working conditions, and Thai-land tightened rules for work permits last year. The bus was travelling late on Monday from the border town of Mae Sot to the province of Chachoengsao, a farming hub near Bangkok, the capital.

Japanese man, 112, is world’s oldest maleA 112-year-old Japanese man born months before Albert Einstein published his theory of special relativity was recog-nised yesterday as the world’s oldest man. Masazo Nonaka, born on July 25, 1905, took the title after Francisco Nunez Olivera of Spain died this year at the aged 113, Guinness World Records said. A farmer and lumberjack in his youth, Nonaka later ran a hot spring inn in his hometown of Ashoro, on Hokkaido island, 900km north of Tokyo, and raised two sons and three daughters.Nonaka enjoys dipping in a spa and is fond of sweets, especially a strawberry sponge cake. He was joined at an award ceremony yesterday by relatives and off icials. The Guinness World Records title for the oldest man who ever lived is held by another Japan man, Jiroemon Kimura, who died in 2013 at the age of 116 years and 54 days. The great-est authenticated age for any human is 122 years, 164 days by Jeanne Louise Calment of France, who died in 1997.

BRITAIN/IRELAND


Number of Britons seekingEU passportsoars in 2016Guardian News and MediaLondon

The number of Britons be-coming citizens of anoth-er European Union coun-

try more than doubled in 2016, the year the UK voted to leave the bloc, offi cial fi gures show.

Following the EU referendum, many Britons are thought to have applied for citizenship of other bloc members to be sure they will still have the right to travel and work freely in the remaining 27 states.

The data from Eurostat shows that 6,555 of British nationals ac-quired citizenship in other mem-ber states, up 165% from 2,478 in 2015.

The fi gures shows that Britons becoming nationals of other EU states has become a steadily ris-ing trend in over the past decade, with the 2016 fi gure more than four times higher than in 2007.

Germany was the biggest recipient in 2016, with 2,702 Britons taking citizenship there – more than four times the 2015 figure of 594. Belgium, where thousands of Britons hold jobs in Brussels that may depend on their being EU citizens, grant-ed passports to 506 of them in 2016, four times as many as in 2015.

Anti-Brexit campaign group Best for Britain said the govern-ment should be “ashamed that people feel they have no option but to give up their citizenship or apply to be a dual national”.

“These people are giving up part of their identity to try and secure their future,” the group’s spokesman Paul Butters said.

The figures from Eurostat came as ant-Brexit campaign-ers claimed that more than 120 questions about the future rights of EU citizens in the UK remain unanswered by the gov-ernment.

Grassroot activists at the3mil-lion group have sent the list to the Home Offi ce ahead of a meeting next week with the Immigration Minister Caroline Nokes.

The campaigners, who are lobbying for all social and em-ployment rights to be extended beyond Brexit, accused ministers

of failing to provide detail even though they are planning to start registering EU citizens for a new immigration status from Sep-tember.

“The list of questions shows the huge gap between the claim that citizens’ rights are done and dusted and the reality for EU citizens still waiting for answers, 655 days after the Brexit refer-endum,” said the3million co-founder Nicolas Hatton.

“Let’s say you have lived in the UK for 30 or 40 years, have lost all contact with family and friends in your home country and your application is rejected. Where do you go to start your appeal? What do you do? Where on earth do you go?” one Italian national, who preferred not to be named in the UK, said.

They also want answers on children’s rights, communica-tions plans and protection from the hostile environment policy the Home Offi ce operates for mi-grants it wants to deport.

The hostile environment in-volves a lockdown of benefits for the migrant deemed to be unlawfully living in the UK. This can include the freezing of bank accounts, cancellation of driving licences, child benefit, the ending of employment con-tracts and eviction from rental property.

They also want to know what protections are planned for EU citizens in the event of Home Offi ce errors. Last year, the gov-ernment was forced to apologise after mistakenly sending out de-portation letters to around 100 EU citizens.

“It is crucial for all 128 ques-tions to be answered so we can have confi dence in the govern-ment’s application scheme,” said Hatton.

The Home Offi ce said it met EU citizens’ groups monthly and it believes “this has provided re-assurance” to them about their future.

“We will be setting out fur-ther details before the summer and EU citizens will have plenty of time to make an application – once the scheme launches at the end of the year they will be able to apply up until June 2021,” it added.”

Daughter of Russianspy released into hidingLondon Evening StandardLondon

The daughter of former Russian double agent Ser-gei Skripal was released

from hospital yesterday, follow-ing an extraordinary recovery from the Salisbury nerve agent attack.

Hospital authorities said Ser-gei, 66, was also making “good progress” and is expected to be released in due course.

Yulia Skripal, 33, was dis-charged fi ve weeks after coming

into contact with the military-grade nerve agent Novichok. De-tails were kept secret until she had left the hospital yesterday morn-ing, under police protection.

She was taken to a safe house where she will be quizzed exten-sively by security offi cials and detectives in the hope she can provide vital clues to the coun-ter-terrorism investigation. The pair were found slumped un-conscious on a park bench in the Wiltshire on March 4 after com-ing into contact with the nerve agent.

There were reports at the

weekend that the substance had been specially designed to act slowly and take about four hours to kill, giving the would-be as-sassins time to fl ee Britain.

Dr Christine Blanshard, Salis-bury district hospital medical director, yesterday confi rmed Yulia had been released but add-ed: “This is not the end of her treatment but marks a signifi -cant milestone.”

She said of Sergei: “Although he is recovering more slowly than Yulia, we hope he too will be able to leave hospital in due course.” The Foreign Offi ce has

said the pair are likely to have “ongoing medical needs”.

The Kremlin has denied being responsible for the poisoning of the Skripals, but the incident has sparked a major confronta-tion between Britain and Russia.

In Moscow Sergei’s 45-year-old niece, Viktoria Skripal, called on Britain to prove that Yulia was healthy and out of hospital.

Viktoria, who has been denied a visa to visit Britain by the UK amid claims she is being used as a pawn by Russia, told a lo-cal news station: “I heard news

about her being discharged and my heart jumped. Have you seen her? How was she? No? Has anyone seen her? There has been no call or message from her to me or anyone in the family.”

The Russian embassy issued a statement saying: “We congrat-ulate Yulia on her recovery. Yet we need urgent proof that what is being done to her is done on her own free will.”

The announcement came amid speculation that the Skri-pals could move to America and be given a new identity under CIA protection.

Millions of families were yesterday facing higher energy bills as British Gas upped its benchmark tariff by 5.5%. It will add £60 to a typical household “dual fuel” bill, raising it to £1,161 a year. The new prices come into eff ect on May 29 and aff ect the 4.1mn customers of Britain’s biggest energy supplier who are still on the “default” standard variable tariff (SVT). British Gas, owned by Centrica, blamed rising wholesale costs and the burden of Government policy decisions for the increase. Mark Hodges, chief executive of Centrica Con-sumer, said: “We are not raising prices for 3.7mn customers, including those on fixed-term deals, on a prepayment meter, or who are vulnerable.”

An Indian billionaire has launched an extraordi-nary bid to take control of a site at the centre of one of London’s biggest regeneration plans and build a £1bn “peace theme park”. Media tycoon Dr Subhash Chandra said he was in advanced talks about buying the 62-acre Silvertown site in the Royal Docks centred on the derelict Millennium Mills building. Chandra, India’s 19th richest man with a fortune of $5bn (£3.5 billion) hopes to talk to Sadiq Khan about his vision. He said his com-pany, the Essel Group, would invest more than £1bn in a cultural centre highlighting the achieve-ments of Indian and other ancient civilisations over 6,000 years.

Emergency services mounted a full-scale res-cue operation, including fire engines, ambu-lances and lifeboats, after a passerby thought a group of heavy metal fans out camping were involved in a suicide pact. The three men were sitting around a camp fire on an island in Loch Leven, Perthshire on Sunday night, as their children slept in a tent, when they saw the lights from police boats rushing across the water towards them. “For some reason the police had received a tip that we might be in grave danger and they came to rescue us,” said Panadiotis Filis, a lecturer at Aberdeen University.

A jawbone fossil found on a rocky English beach belongs to one of the biggest marine animals on record, a type of seagoing reptile called an ichthyosaur that scientists estimated at up to 85 feet long - approaching the size of a blue whale. Scientists said this ichthyosaur, which appears to be the largest marine reptile ever discovered, lived 205mn years ago at the end of the Triassic Period, dominating the oceans just as dinosaurs were becoming the undisputed masters on land. The bone, called a surangular, was part of its lower jaw. The researchers estimated the animal’s length by comparing this surangular to the same bone in the largest ichthyosaur skeleton ever found.

A man who planned to smuggle 19 mobile phones and drugs worth £23,000 over the wall of Pentonville prison has been jailed. Joshua Lewis, 25, admitted trying to sneak MDMA, cocaine, cannabis, psychoactive substances as well as mobiles over the perimeter wall using a hook and line. After off icers spotted a length of string hanging over the wall they waited and saw Lewis approach in the early hours of August 13, 2016. He fled but dropped two bags containing the contraband and his own mobile. Lewis was identi-fied from DNA on the phone and was arrested in January last year. He was sentenced to 27 months in jail at Blackfriars crown court.

British Gas to hike bills formillions of customers

£1bn ‘peace theme park’plan for Silvertown

Campers mistaken forsuicide pact members

Jaw bone fossil ‘was of huge ancient reptile’

Man jailed for bid toget drugs into prison

DECISION PROPOSALOFFBEAT ARCHAEOLOGY VERDICT

N Ireland peacemakers warn of new dangers 20 years onReutersBelfast/Dublin

The leaders who brokered a peace deal for Northern Ireland in 1998 marked

its 20th anniversary yesterday by warning that a hardening political divide and Britain’s exit from the EU were creating new dangers for the region.

Former US President Bill Clinton and ex-prime min-ister Tony Blair joined Irish and Northern Irish politicians in Belfast to mark the break-through on April 10, 1998 that called an end to 30 years of sec-tarian violence in which around 3,600 people died.

But the collapse early last year of the power-sharing ad-ministration at the heart of that deal meant there was no devolved government to greet them — and little sign of the province’s Irish nationalists and pro-British unionists resolving the differences that have again divided them.

“We have to be very, very careful,” said former US senator George Mitchell, who chaired the talks that led to the agree-ment, when asked by Irish state broadcaster RTE if there was a danger of a return to violence. “Nothing in life is guaranteed.”

Northern Ireland was quickly transformed by the deal, with the Irish Republican Army, re-sponsible for most of the kill-ings, agreeing to give up its weapons and the British army dismantling its armed check-points and withdrawing.

But while the outbreaks of violence have all but ended, the region’s politics has become more polarised — leading in January 2017 to the collapse of devolved power-sharing for the first time in a decade.

The supporter base of North-ern Ireland’s liberal parties has shrunk, allowing the combined vote of the more divisive Demo-cratic Unionist and Sinn Fein to grow from around 34% in 1998 to 56% at the last election in 2017.

In recent months the rhetoric from both sides has hardened.

“Compromise has to become a good thing, not a dirty word and voters have to stop pun-ishing people who make those compromises and start reward-ing them,” said Clinton, whose role in the 1998 Good Friday Agreement is celebrated as one of the key legacies of his cheq-uered presidency.

“The only thing that would be calamitous would be to let the whole thing die,” Clinton said. “To...go back to hell instead of going into a future.”

The political tensions have been heightened by Britain’s decision to leave the European Union, with some Irish nation-alists highlighting the risk of next year’s departure leading to the reinstatement of a hard bor-der between the UK province and Ireland, inflaming nation-alist opinion.

Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to do a deal with the region’s largest pro-British party, the Democratic Union-

ists, to prop up her government has fanned nationalist rhetoric.

“The Tory government has actively encouraged the most negative, intransigent and sec-tarian elements of political un-ionism to attack and undermine the Good Friday Agreement,” Gerry Adams, the former Sinn Fein leader who also helped ne-gotiate the agreement, said in a speech yesterday.

Brexit, he said, was a direct threat to the Good Friday deal.

Some unionists pointed the finger instead at the Irish gov-ernment, saying its suggestion that Northern Ireland might be governed by EU rather than British regulations — or that it might unite with the Republic of Ireland in the coming years — risked inciting pro-British militants.

“I hope people realise that some of the things they are say-ing are dangerous,” David Trim-ble, head of the Ulster Unionist Party, the largest pro-British party in Northern Ireland in 1998, told RTE.

Artist Tracey Emin poses for a picture in front of her new piece at St Pancras station in London yesterday. The giant pink letters, a 20-metre sentence glowing below the clock in St Pancras station, spell out a love letter from Emin - but the words I Want My Time With You are addressed to Europe, not to a man. “I am deeply, deeply concerned about Europe, and that in a year’s time we’re going to be a tiny little island just floating around in the North Sea. It’s madness.”

Emin’s message

Blair and Clinton hold hands at an event to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, in Belfast, Northern Ireland, yesterday.

BRITAIN15Gulf Times


Queen’s secret passion for trees revealedAFPCannes

A new documentary about Queen Elizabeth II has re-vealed her previously un-

known passion for trees.The 91-year-old monarch has

planted hundreds of trees on royal visits all over the planet and has a deep and “touching” relationship with them, according to fi lmmaker Jane Treays.

“She has spent her life planting trees, and so have her ancestors,” the director said, as the fi lm pre-viewed at the MIPTV market in Cannes, France.

“It was very beautiful and touching to see how she relates to them, and how much they mean to her. She has a particular love of some London plane trees (at Buck-ingham Palace) planted by Queen Victoria”, her great, great grand-mother, she said.

The Queen’s secret passion emerged as she took the naturalist Sir David Attenborough on a “re-laxed and funny” tour of the gar-

dens of the Palace, which Treays shot in what she described as “the most magical afternoon of my ca-reer”.

The fi lm, The Queen’s Green Planet, which will be broadcast on ITV in Britain on April 16, high-lights her work trying to build a global network of protected for-ests, The Queen’s Commonwealth Canopy.

Dendrophilia clearly runs in the royal family.

Her son Prince Charles has previously admitted to talking to plants and trees to help them grow, but recently joked that rather than taking the softly-softly approach, “now I instruct them instead”.

Treays said the chemistry be-tween the Queen and Attenbor-ough, who are the same age and were born within three weeks of each other, helped her open up.

“It was a lovely hot summer’s day...They laughed and were quite playful with each other. They have known each other a long time and because of that we see quite sur-prising things,” she added.

In one hilarious moment, the

Queen reveals that her huge col-lection of new varieties of plants came from people who were un-sure of what to get her. “I’ve been quite diffi cult to give presents to,” she quipped, “so they’ve said, ‘Oh, let’s give her a plant’.”

And her dry humour was also clear when she talked about a mulberry tree planted in the early 1600s by James I in a failed at-tempt to get a royal silk industry going.

“They chose the wrong variety and so the silk worms didn’t pro-duce anything, which was a great disappointment to him I believe,” the Queen said.

In a separate excerpt from the Queen’s walk with Attenborough, released by ITV ahead of broad-cast, the quiet of the palace garden is broken by the noise of a helicop-ter hovering overhead.

“Why do they always go round and round when you want to talk?” the Queen asks, adding: “Sounds like President Trump, or President Obama”, apparently referring to the aircraft used by the US presi-dents during visits to her.

‘No toxins’ in deadRussian’s stomachReutersLondon

A scientist yesterday told an British inquest that no plant toxins had been

found in the stomach of a Rus-sian mafi a whistleblower who died suddenly in 2012, challeng-ing earlier evidence that a deadly plant poison had been found.

Alexander Perepilichny, 44, was found dead near his luxury home on the exclusive gated St George’s Hill estate in Weybridge, Surrey, southwest of London, after he had been out jogging in November 2012.

The sudden nature of the death of Perepilichny, who had sought refuge in Britain in 2009, and his role in helping a Swiss investiga-tion into a Russian money-laun-dering scheme raised suggestions that he might have been murdered.

As the inquest resumed yester-day after a lengthy delay, Monique Simmonds, a scientist from the botanical Kew Gardens, was asked to confi rm she had not identifi ed any plant toxins in the samples she had tested. “That’s right,” she said.

However she said some material

that was found in Perepilichny’s stomach had not been identifi ed, and that the small amount of ma-terial used to conduct a DNA test had been used up.

Bob Moxon Browne, the lawyer for Legal & General, with whom Perepilichny had taken out a large life insurance policy, told a pre-inquest hearing last year that po-lice had fl ushed away contents of Perepilichny’s stomach and re-trieved a small amount.

Simmonds yesterday said she did her test without knowing that other material had been disposed of. An earlier pre-inquest hearing had been told traces of a rare and deadly poison from the gelsemium plant had been found in his stom-ach.

The inquest resumed yesterday having been adjourned since last June. No reason was given for the delay.

It resumes as relations between Britain and Russia hit a post-Cold War low over the poisoning of former double agent Sergei Skripal last month.

Prime Minister Theresa May has said Russia behind the killing though Russia has denied any in-volvement.

Prince Charles visits NORFORCE at Larrakeyah Barracks in Darwin, Australia, yesterday. The NORFORCE (North-West Mobile Force) is an infantry regiment of the Australian Army Reserve.

Prime Minister Theresa May is shown the advanced radiotherapy system during a visit to announce new funding and research into prostate cancer, at Addenbrooke’s Hospital in Cambridge yesterday.

Charles in Darwin

May visits Addenbrooke’s HospitalTop TorycriticisesJohnsonGuardian News and MediaLondon

A senior Tory has ques-tioned the way Boris Johnson, the foreign sec-

retary, promotes Britain abroad.Tom Tugendhat, chair of the

cross-party foreign aff airs com-mittee, also criticised Johnson’s apparent suggestion that the Commonwealth was not a politi-cal priority.

In an interview with the centre-right Tory publication Bright Blue, Tugendhat said: “He (Johnson) has the ability to make his voice heard and that is a real asset for the United Kingdom. People lis-ten. But it is important, of course, that they hear the words that Brit-ain really wants to project.

“Those words must have to do with promoting the values of the United Kingdom and promoting our interests around the world.”

Next week the Queen will open the biggest gathering of Com-monwealth heads of government in London for 20 years.

Johnson appeared to suggest at a hearing by Tugendhat’s com-mittee last month that the Com-monwealth was not a priority. Tu-gendhat said in the interview: “If the Commonwealth is not one of the priorities in a post-Brexit era, one wonders what is.”

It is not the fi rst time the foreign aff airs committee has been critical of Johnson’s tenure at the Foreign Offi ce. It has previously chal-lenged him to explain what the slogan “Global Britain” means.

Johnson has been at the centre a series of controversies in recent months. On Monday he tweeted congratulations to Viktor Orban, the Hungarian prime minister, on his re-election at the weekend. Hours later, the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) condemned the conduct of the election campaign, saying there had been “intimi-dating and xenophobic rhetoric, media bias and opaque campaign fi nancing”.

Last month Johnson said he had been told by Porton Down that the nerve agent used in the Salisbury poisoning case could only have come from Russia, but the lead scientist at Porton Down later said this was not the sort of fi nding the lab could make.

No invite for May, Trump and Obama toroyal weddingAgenciesLondon

Prime Minister Theresa May has not been invited to the wedding of Prince Harry

and Meghan Markle on May 19, a government source said yes-terday.

The wedding guests will be peo-ple who have an existing direct re-lationship with one or both of the couple, a royal source said.

An offi cial spokesman for Prince Harry said: “It has been de-cided that an offi cial list of politi-cal leaders — both UK and interna-tional — is not required for Prince Harry and Meghan’s wedding. The government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household.”

The government source said the wedding venue, St George’s Chap-el in Windsor, was signifi cantly smaller than Westminster Abbey where Harry’s older brother Prince William wed Kate Middleton in 2011 in the presence of numerous heads of government.

The source said there had been no expectation from Downing Street, May’s offi ce, that the prime minister would be invited.

It has also been confi rmed that Barack and Michelle Obama, who are friends of Harry, have not been invited.

Earlier a White House offi cial confi rmed neither Trump nor fi rst lady Melania were invited.

Among the 600 guests who will be attending the ceremony at St George’s Chapel in Windsor on May 19, will be a 12-year-old girl injured in the Manchester Arena attack.

Amelia Thompson, from Dron-

fi eld Woodhouse, near Sheffi eld, was left traumatised after wit-nessing the bomb blow up after the Ariana Grande concert in May 2017. She also damaged her vocal chords from screaming in horror.

Meanwhile a new biography of Meghan details her lifelong embrace of good causes but also points to a calculating streak and claims she has her heart set on be-coming “Diana 2.0”.

She is fi ercely protective of “Brand Meghan” and sidelines people as she moves ahead in life, according to people who know her cited in the book.

Meghan: A Hollywood Princess, which is due out in Britain tomor-row, details how the 36-year-old Suits star ditched her fi rst husband in a way that also cost her a lifelong friend.

The biography was authored by Andrew Morton, the British royal writer who penned the blockbust-er Diana: Her True Story, with the late princess’s covert assistance.

Morton also details her fascina-tion with Harry’s mother Diana around the time of her death in 1997, watching her funeral in tears and old tapes of her marriage to Prince Charles.

Family friends said she was in-trigued by Diana “not just for her style but for her independent hu-manitarian mission, seeing her as a role model”. Her childhood friend Ninaki Priddy is cited as saying: “She was always fascinated by the royal family. She wants to be prin-cess Diana 2.0.”

Morton says comparisons with Diana are inevitable, given her hu-manitarian work and glamorous appeal.

However, he notes the crucial distinction between the timid Di-

ana, who married Charles aged 20, and the 36-year-old Hollywood professional. “In some ways, the groomed and camera-ready Mar-kle was the woman Diana always strove to become,” he wrote.

The book also claims that as she fi nally found success as an actress, Markle shed her old acquaintanc-es — including her fi lm producer husband Trevor Engelson, who helped her get on the acting ladder with early parts.

“Her friends in Los Angeles no-ticed the change in her now that she was on the way up,” Morton wrote. “She no longer had the time for friends she had known for years.

“A networker to her fi ngertips, she seemed to be carefully rec-alibrating her life, forging new friendships with those who could burnish and develop her career.”

Markle had been with Engelson since 2004 and they married in Ja-maica in 2011.

Shortly after their engagement, she landed her signature role as Rachel Zane in the US legal drama television series Suits. Filmed in Toronto, their relationship be-came long-distance as she became a star. The marriage collapsed in 2013.

“Trevor went from cherish-ing Meghan to, as one friend ob-served, ‘feeling like he was a piece of something stuck to the bottom of her shoe’,” it reads.

Another friend said the decision to end the marriage was made by Markle and another that she sent her rings back in the post.

Markle’s parents split when she was two and divorced fi ve years later. She went to a private school and was remembered for her strong sense of right and wrong.

Tributes to intruder killed during burglary torn downGuardian News and MediaLondon

Tributes to an intruder who died after a struggle during a botched burgla-

ry at a house in south London have been torn down outside the property amid signs of ris-ing tensions.

The balloons, cards and fl ow-

ers were believed to have been placed by the family and friends of Henry Vincent, 37, opposite the home in Hither Green.

It comes after Richard Osborn-Brooks, 78, was told on Friday he would face no further action after he was arrested on suspicion of murdering Vincent.

Osborn-Brooks and his wife, Maureen, remain under police guard amid reports that friends

of Vincent have threatened to take violent revenge.

The Metropolitan police have meanwhile released an image of the man alleged to have been Vincent’s accomplice in the ag-gravated burglary, which took place on a quiet residential street in the borough of Lewisham.

The man was named as Billy Jeeves, who the force said had links to Orpington and Swanley

in Kent, and Cambridge.Offi cers were called to reports

of a burglary at 12.45am on April 4, after two men entered the house.

One suspect, armed with a screwdriver, forced the home-owner into his kitchen when he discovered them, while his ac-complice went upstairs, police said.

Detectives believe there was

a struggle between one of the males and the homeowner and the intruder was stabbed in the upper body.

It is unclear what implement was used.

At the street yesterday, burst balloons and soiled cards littered the area near where the makeshift memorial had been erected.

A resident who gave his name only as Peter told the Press As-

sociation: “I wouldn’t want them on my wall anyway, put it like that. They were climbing the fence and everything yesterday. Will he ever be able to come back and live here? I doubt it. It’s sad.”

A woman who did not give her name added: “You just feel sor-ry for him as well, because he’s probably worked his whole life to get that house and now he’s out through no fault of his own.”

Nikita Hill, 39, who lives nearby, said: “I don’t think they should have put it outside his home. May-be they could have done it further away. But he’s got loved ones and family too so I understand why they did it.”

Offi cers have spoken with Vin-cent’s family about their reasons for not taking any further action against Osborn-Brooks, according to the Met.

EUROPE


Italian President Sergio Mat-tarella will hold a second round of talks about the for-

mation of a coalition govern-ment tomorrow and on Friday, his offi ce said yesterday, with no indication that any break-through is at hand.

Mattarella has the power to name a prime minister, but elec-tions on March 4 resulted in a hung parliament, and the fi rst round of consultations ended in

a stalemate last week.Since then, the various po-

litical blocs seem to have drifted even further apart, fi ring daily barbs at each other and showing no sign of wanting to lay aside the rancour of the election cam-paign and work together on a joint project.

Financial markets have so far shown little alarm about the prospect of prolonged deadlock in Italy, one of the eurozone’s most heavily indebted nations.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement (M5S) emerged as the largest single

party from last month’s vote, while a rightist alliance, includ-ing the anti-migrant League and former prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s Forza Italia, won the biggest bloc of seats.

M5S leader Luigi Di Maio has suggested forming a government with the League, but has refused to countenance any accord with Berlusconi, who has been con-victed of tax fraud and is stand-ing trial for bribing witnesses – a charge he denies.

The League unexpectedly overtook Forza Italia at the ballot box and its chief, Matteo Salvini,

has assumed the mantle of lead-er of the conservative bloc.

He has rejected the suggestion that he should split from his al-lies to hook up with M5S.

Looking to put on a display of unity, rightist leaders will see the president together tomorrow, rather than meeting him sepa-rately, as they did in the initial round of consultations.

However, Di Maio has not budged on his refusal even to talk with Forza Italia.

There is “0% chance that 5-Star will go into government with Berlusconi and the centre-

right crowd”, he said on Twitter on Monday.

“Di Maio, right now, interests me less than zero,” the League’s Salvini responded.

The third force in parliament, the centre-left Democratic Par-ty (PD), has reiterated that it has no intention of helping either side to form a government and plans to spend the coming par-liamentary term in opposition after suff ering a stinging defeat last month.

With coalition talks appar-ently going nowhere, political leaders have gone back on the

campaign trail for regional elec-tions later this month, suggest-ing they will wait for these to pass before considering the sort of painful compromises needed to form a government.

If Mattarella fails to overcome the impasse he would have to call new elections, almost certain-ly in the autumn, but a senior source in his offi ce said he was determined to avoid this.

Italy has a long history of fi nd-ing a way out of apparently in-tractable political stalemate and its shortest-lived parliament in the modern era lasted two years.

Italian president calls new govt talks amid bickeringReutersRome

Mattarella: will meet the leaders of the M5S and the League together.

Chancellor Angela Mer-kel gathered her new cabinet for a two-day

retreat yesterday, seeking to forge some team spirit among ministers already squabbling after just a month in offi ce.

Simmering antipathy be-tween the coalition partners – Merkel’s conservatives and the left-leaning Social Demo-crats (SPD) – boiled over at the weekend in a dispute over law and order, ending any honey-moon period for the awkward allies.

The two groups only agreed to team up to prolong their “grand coalition” – in power since 2013 – because they were desperate to avoid fresh elec-tions, after they both haemor-rhaged support in last Septem-ber’s national poll.

The government has achieved little since taking of-fi ce last month.

Merkel is using the meeting at Schloss Meseberg, her coun-try residence outside Berlin, to try to end the cabinet bickering and launch a fl ood of reforms before the summer break.

Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer said that ministers made a constructive start to their talks yesterday.

“We want to use this policy camp in Meseberg to fi nd solu-tions together for the coming months to give a clear signal that the grand coalition, with this government, wants suc-cess for Germany,” he told re-porters.

Ahead of the meeting, And-rea Nahles, who is expected to take over as SPD leader later this month, pressed Merkel to “get government business up and running”.

Nahles has chosen to stay outside the cabinet, instead opting to lead the SPD parlia-mentary group – a role that allows her both to press the government to pass reforms

important to her party mem-bers and to criticise the con-servatives.

The pressure is on for both camps to deliver.

Their coalition deal includes a clause that foresees review-ing government progress after two years – giving each the op-portunity to leave the alliance if it is not working for them.

An Infratest Dimap poll for ARD published on Thursday showed that just 32% of re-spondents were happy with the government.

The government situation is complicated by a regional elec-tion in Bavaria in October, at which Merkel’s Bavarian sister party, the Christian Social Un-ion (CSU), fears losing its ab-solute majority if the far-right makes gains.

Aiming to see off the rising far-right Alternative for Ger-many (AfD), Interior Minister Horst Seehofer of the CSU said last month that Islam does not belong to Germany – a com-ment that infuriated the SPD.

Coalition sources say the art of governing in the coalition will be to fi nd a happy medium between substantive policy work and party political skir-mishes that allow the camps to diff erentiate themselves from each other.

With over six months gone since September’s election, Merkel is keenly aware that voters expect the government to address their economic, social and security concerns quickly.

In the past, she has used cabinet retreats as team-build-ing exercises.

North Atlantic Treaty Or-ganisation (Nato) chief Jens Stoltenberg and European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker are joining the meeting – a way of Merkel signalling to her cabinet the importance of the biggest Eu-ropean Union country having a stable government.

Merkel gathers ‘warring’ ministers for 2-day retreatReutersBerlin

Merkel: has previously used cabinet retreats as team-building exercises.

Tens of thousands of air passengers were stranded yesterday as workers at

airlines Lufthansa and Air France staged strikes that crippled traf-fi c at several major European air-ports.

Germany’s biggest carrier Lufthansa was forced to can-cel 800 out of 1,600 scheduled fl ights, including 58 long-haul fl ights.

German public sector work-ers, including ground crew and airport fi refi ghters, walked out at 5am with the strike due to last until 6pm (1600 GMT).

Yesterday’s “warning strike” hit Germany’s biggest airport Frankfurt as well as other region-al hubs such as Munich, Cologne and Bremen.

Other airports such as Ham-burg, Leipzig and Hanover were hit with knock-on eff ects.

Half of the fl ights at Munich were delayed or cancelled ac-cording to the union Verdi, DPA reported.

Beyond airports, local trans-port, kindergartens, rubbish col-lection and hospitals were also aff ected, as civil servants walked out to demand a 6.0% pay raise for the 2.3mn people working for Germany’s federal, state and lo-cal governments.

Given the country’s econom-ic strength, “when if not now should there be signifi cant pay increases for workers, including those in the public sector?” asked Verdi leader Frank Bsirske in an appearance at Frankfurt airport. “We’re determined to achieve this.”

However, the ADV airport op-erators’ association accused un-

ions of “lacking all proportion-ality”, with the strike disrupting tens of thousands of journeys – 90,000 at Lufthansa alone – and costs that they said would run into the millions.

Airport operator Fraport said yesterday afternoon that service should return to normal in the early evening.

“It will take about 45 to 60 minutes for all the positions to be manned again and then we’ll go back to normal service,” a spokesman told DPA.

Travellers had plenty of notice of upsets to their plans, avoiding scenes of chaos at Frankfurt air-port, but some could not avoid travelling.

Sybille Metzler, who was due to travel to Amsterdam for a meet-ing, turned up at the hub despite warnings from the operator that her fl ight had been cancelled.

“I knew, but I wanted to see

if I can still get there, because it won’t work with the train,” the 41-year-old management ac-countant told AFP.

Some passengers who faced disruption were understanding of the walkout.

“It’s fair enough. Hope they get it,” said Ashley Gillham, 40, a manager in the auto sector, of the strikers’ pay demands – despite having to switch to rail for part of his journey from New Zealand via Frankfurt to Mallorca.

“This way we get to have a beer at 8am,” he joked.

In unrelated industrial action in France, air traffi c was also se-verely disrupted as the coun-try’s biggest airline Air France was forced to cancel one in four fl ights, in the sixth round of strikes launched by its employees since February.

Around 65% of long-haul fl ights will depart as planned, the

carrier said, with higher propor-tions on schedule among me-dium- and short-haul services from Paris and other French air-ports.

The group said the strikes be-tween February 22 and April 11 were estimated to cost the com-pany €170mn ($210mn).

Several Air France unions have called four further days of indus-trial action in April as they also seek a 6.0% pay raise.

Managers say that the compa-ny is not growing solidly enough to justify such salary boosts, which they reckon would cost €240mn per year.

Air France’s labour woes come at the same time as disruption for French state rail operator SNCF.

Workers are staging repeated walkouts in protest at the French government’s plan to reform the company and change the special status its employees enjoy.

Airline staff strikes ground thousandsAFPFrankfurt am Main

Poland’s President An-drzej Duda has demanded that Russia hand over the

wreckage of a 2010 presidential plane crash that has stoked fric-tion with Moscow and divisions at home as Warsaw marked eight years since the disaster.

President Lech Kaczynski and his wife Maria were among the 96 people who died in the crash in Smolensk, western Russia, on April 10, 2010.

Poland’s governing right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party, led by Kaczynski’s twin brother Ja-roslaw, has long insisted that the crash was no accident, with a new probe suggesting it was trig-gered by an explosion.

The previous liberal govern-ment blamed bad weather and errors by the Polish pilots and two Russian air traffi c controllers for the crash, regarded by some as Poland’s worst post-war dis-aster.

“The plane wreckage is proba-bly the most important evidence in this case – it’s still in Russia and the Russian authorities don’t want to hand it over,” Duda told Polish media.

“One can only ask why the Russians don’t want to return the wreck,” the president added, after laying fl oral tributes on the graves of Kaczynski and his wife in the southern Polish city of Krakow.

Warsaw has repeatedly asked Moscow to hand over the wreck-age and black boxes, but each time Russia has said it will only do so when its own inquiry is fi n-ished.

Ties between the two coun-tries have been strained since the crash, and also since Moscow’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine, as well as the recent spy poisoning row that prompted a string of tit-for-tat diplomatic expulsions between Russia and the West.

Later in the day, Duda called for unity among Poles as he un-veiled a controversial monument to the victims of the crash in the capital Warsaw.

“I believe that this monu-ment will unite us, regardless of our views, regardless of politi-

cal stripes or beliefs; it belongs to everyone and is for everyone,” Duda told several thousand peo-ple gathered in the square for the unveiling.

Known for his highly divisive us-against-them brand of poli-tics, Jaroslaw Kaczynski used the ceremonies to call for “the unity of all Poles” at a time when the opinion poll ratings of his gov-erning PiS party are plunging, amid public outcry over generous bonuses for its ministers.

The monument’s location on an historic central Warsaw square adjacent to Poland’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier has also triggered tensions, and a thick cordon of police blocked protest-ers in a nearby park as the monu-ment was unveiled.

The triangular black granite monument resembling the tail wing of an airplane as well as air-plane stairs is inscribed with the names of the crash victims.

They include senior Polish statesmen and politicians of various stripes who had been heading to a ceremony in Rus-sia’s Katyn forest in memory of thousands of Polish army offi c-ers killed by Soviet secret police in 1940 – a massacre the Kremlin denied until 1990.

Poles are divided over the causes behind the crash.

Some 57% of believe it was an accident, while 20% think it was an attack, according to a survey published yesterday by the Super Express tabloid daily.

Twenty-three per cent have no opinion.

In 2015, Polish prosecutors charged one of the Russian air traffi c controllers with “being directly responsible for having endangered air traffi c” and the other air traffi c controller with “unintentionally causing an air traffi c disaster”.

Having rejected as a cover-up the conclusions of the earlier investigation that put the blame on human error and bad weather, the PiS government launched its own probe using new investiga-tors.

They suggested last year that an explosion was likely to have caused the aircraft to break up in the air.

Polish justice offi cials have also exhumed the remains of the victims to test for traces of ex-plosives or combustion.

A defence ministry sub-com-mittee is due to present the par-tial fi ndings of the new probe to-day in Warsaw.

Poland demands Russia return 2010 jet wreckageAFPWarsaw

Left: The monument, marking the anniversary of the Smolensk air crash.

Jaroslaw Kaczynski attends a ceremony outside the Presidential Palace in Warsaw, marking the eighth anniversary of the Smolensk crash that killed 96, including his twin, late president Lech and his wife Maria.

The Turkish spy agency has fl own three suspected members of the move-

ment blamed for the 2016 failed coup back to Turkey from the African state of Gabon in a cov-ert operation, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday.

As part of a secret mission carried out by the National In-telligence Organisation (MIT), the men were brought back to

Turkey on a private plane from Libreville, the state-run Ana-dolu news agency reported.

The suspects are accused of belonging to the group of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen, who Ankara accuses of orches-trating the bloody July 15 coup bid two years ago, aimed at un-seating Erdogan.

Ankara calls his group the Fethullah Terror Organisation (FETO) but Gulen insists that he runs a peaceful movement and denies any link to the failed plot.

“Thanks to God, Gabon de-

livered three senior FETO mem-bers to our country,” Erdogan said in a speech in Ankara to lawmakers from his ruling party.

The latest MIT swoop comes on the heels of the expulsion of six alleged Gulenists from Kos-ovo in a similar operation.

Hinting at further operations, Erdogan added: “We got six from Kosovo, three from Gabon. Our MIT is chasing them. Let’s see where the new ones will come from.”

Gulen’s group had not only built up huge infl uence in Tur-

key but also abroad – notably in Africa, the Balkans and Central Asia – in particular through an education network.

In the Gabon operation, one of the suspects is accused of being the education co-ordi-nator of Gulen schools operat-ing across Kenya and another of being director general of Gulen schools in Gabon.

Erdogan has vowed to hunt down Gulenists inside and out-side Turkey, saying on Monday: “We will never allow those vile people to walk freely.”

Turkey fl ies suspected Gulenists from GabonAFPIstanbul

Major Hungarian opposition newspaper to close after Orban victoryOne of Hungary’s two national opposition dailies will shut down today due to financial problems, its publisher said, in a sign of rapidly deteriorating prospects for media freedom after the landslide re-election of Prime Minister Viktor Orban.The closure of Magyar Nemzet will be a milestone in the gradual disappearance of independent media in Hungary that western

European Union leaders and international rights groups say underlines the country’s slide into authoritarianism.The 80-year-old daily is owned by tycoon Lajos Simicska, once an ally of the right-wing nationalist prime minister who fell out with him and became one of his staunchest opponents in the election campaign.Simicska’s media holdings, once highly

profitable, incurred heavy losses after he fell out with Orban and his publications were deprived of government advertising.“Due to the financing problems of Magyar Nemzet, the owners have decided to cease media content production activity from April 11, 2018. Therefore Magyar Nemzet and its online version mno.hu will close,” the publisher said in on its website.

INDIA17Gulf Times


Opposition is trying todivide country: PM

18 killed inMaharashtra truck crash BJP income rises 81%,

Congress’s dips 14%

Deaths, injuries from accidents fall: railways

Modi to lead BJP’s hungerstrike on April 12

IANSMotihari, Bihar

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday accused the opposition of trying

to “divide” the country and cre-ating hurdles “from streets to parliament” in the governments’ eff orts to uplift the poor and the downtrodden.

“They (opposition) are creat-ing hurdles in the work of the government from the streets to Parliament. Today you have a government at the Centre which is working to unite the people of the country while the opposition is working to divide the people,” Modi told the national conven-tion of ‘Swachhagrahis’ here.

He was addressing over 20,000 Swachhagrahis (cleanliness vol-unteers) at the concluding cere-mony of ‘Champaran Satyagraha’ centenary celebrations.

Mahatma Gandhi launched the Champaran Satyagraha on April 10, 1917 against the British to fi ght for the rights of farmers who were forced to undertake indigo cultivation.

The prime minister’s attack on opposition parties comes at a time when the Dalit community across the country has been agi-tated after a Supreme Court or-der allegedly diluting the Sched-uled Caste/Scheduled Tribes Atrocities Act. Eight people were killed and dozens injured during Dalit protests turned violent on April 2.

Modi’s attack was also aimed at the opposition parties for dis-rupting parliament that led to the washout of the second edi-tion of the budget session which ended on April 6 due to protests

by the Telugu Desam Party, the All India Anna Dravida Munne-tra Kazhagam and opposition parties including the Congress.

Hitting out at the former gov-ernment led by the Congress for delaying projects, the prime minister said his administration was completing all its commit-ments with the co-operation of the people.

Describing the Madhepura Electric Locomotive Factory as a prime example of Make in India initiative and a source of employment in the region, Modi said work on the project was fi rst approved in 2007 but it began only three years ago when the Bharatiya Janata Party-led gov-ernment came to power.

Yesterday, the fi rst engine rolled out of the factory.

“This is the style of working of this government. Now the cul-ture of stopping fi les is not there. The government is committed to fulfi lling its mission,” the prime minister said.

He said the changes brought in the society through develop-ment works had created prob-lems for the opposition and they were unable to accept this.

“They cannot see the poor getting empowered. They feel if the poor are strengthened, then they (opposition) will not be able to speak lies. They will not be able to fool them,” Modi said.

The prime minister showered praise on Bihar Chief Minister

Nitish Kumar for his patience and able administration in fi ght-ing the corrupt and anti-social forces.

“It is not so easy,” he said, adding that the central govern-ment extended its full support to the eff orts of Nitish Kumar in fi ghting against corruption and his eff orts towards sanitation drive for social change.

The prime minister said that whether it is the Swachh Bharat (clean India) Mission, or the fi ght against corruption, or the development of civic amenities, the central government is work-ing shoulder to shoulder with the state government.

The prime minister said sani-tation coverage has expanded

from about 40% in 2014 to about 80% today.

“Toilet construction is ending social imbalances and becoming a means of socio-economic em-powerment and women empow-erment,” he said.

The prime minister launched several projects worth over Rs-66bn and said these would go a long way in the development of the region and the state.

He unveiled a plaque to mark the foundation stone of Moti-jheel Project, the Bettiah Nagar Parishad Water Supply Scheme and four Ganges projects beside laying the foundation stone for the doubling of railway lines between Muzaff arpur and Sagauli as well as between Sagauli and Valmikinagar.

At least 18 construction workers were killed when a speeding truck overturned in Maharashtra yesterday, police said.The labourers were on their way to work when the driver lost control of the vehicle, causing it to ram into a barricade on the highway in the district of Satara.“Seventeen people died on the spot, while another victim succumbed to his injuries in the hospital,” police off icial Yuvraj Hande said.The victims included two children under the age of 14, the police said.Child workers are common at construction sites in India.Another 17 injured were taken to a hospital near the accident site, located 220km south-east of Mumbai.“We suspect the driver was speeding and lost control of the truck while trying to negotiate a diff icult turn on a slope,” Hande said.The accident occurred on the Pune-Satara Highway after the Khambatki Tunnel in the Khandala ghats.Meanwhile, at least 12 people were killed in two separate road accidents in Uttar Pradesh’s Agra district, police said.

IANSNew Delhi

The income of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party in-

creased by 81.18% to Rs10.34bn crore while that of the Congress decreased by 14% to Rs2.25bn between 2015-16 and 2016-17, a report released yesterday said.

According to the As-sociation for Demo-cratic Reforms (ADR) report, seven national parties – the BJP, Con-gress, Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPM), Communist Party of In-dia (CPI) and Trinamool Congress – have de-clared a total income of Rs15.59bn and expendi-tures of Rs12.28bn.

The report, based on the submissions made

to the Election Com-mission, compared the total income of the BJP and Congress, their ex-penditure and sources of income.

The ADR said both parties have declared “donations/ contribu-tions” as one of their three main sources of income.

“The grant/ dona-tions/ contributions of Rs997.12 crore declared by the BJP forms 96.41% of the total income of the party during 2016-17. Declaration of Rs115.644 crore under revenue from issuance of cou-pons by the Congress forms top most income of the party, contribut-ing 51.32% of its total in-come during the fi scal,” it added.

The report said that the seven nation-al parties collected a maximum of 74.98% (Rs11.69bn) income

from voluntary contri-butions for 2016-17.

Voluntary contribu-tions accounted for 60% (Rs6.16bn) of their in-come in the previous fi s-cal year.

These parties received Rs1.28bn income in bank interest in the same fi s-cal year.

The report said the due date for submis-sion of annual audited accounts for the parties was October 30, 2017, but the BJP submitted its report on February 8 and Congress on March 19.

The ADR said the BJP, Congress, NCP and CPI have consistently de-layed submitting their audit reports for the past fi ve years.

It demanded that the political parties provide all information on their fi nances under the Right to Information Act as a step to strengthen elec-tions and democracy.

ReutersNew Delhi

Deaths and injuries from train collisions or derailment in In-dia more than halved to 254

people last fi scal year from a year ago, railways data showed, amid attempts to improve its shoddy safety record through mega investments and re-cruitments.

The state-run Indian Railways shared the data with Reuters days af-ter an incident in which the brakes on a 22-coach train carrying hundreds of passengers failed, letting it run freely in reverse for about 13km.

The railways has suspended sev-eral offi cials since the incident, and its chairman acknowledged that turn-ing around the culture and image of a government behemoth that employed 1.3mn and ran around 22,000 trains

daily was going to take time, despite the safety success seen in 2017/18.

The number of deaths and injuries last fi scal year ending March 31 was the lowest in at least 18 years for which data was provided.

The worst was in 2002/03, when 1,400 people were killed or injured. The fi gure in 2016/17 was 607, the data show.

“Safety is an end result. We need to focus on maintenance, and that also includes looking after the people,” Ashwani Lohani, who was brought in to helm the department last August after a spate of accidents led to a top-level shake-up, told Reuters in his of-fi ce on Monday.

“We have a tremendous inherent strength of our people. But I don’t have a magic wand.”

The railways is in the midst of a $130bn, fi ve-year modernisation plan and is hiring nearly 90,000 people

over the next few months to mainly fi ll positions left vacant by retirees.

Lohani said the world’s fourth-big-gest rail network was trying to make it easier for all levels of employees to approach top offi cials via WhatsApp or other media so that grievances can be addressed immediately and human error can be minimised.

“It is essential that the focus on safety must not be lost,” Lohani said in a recent posting on a railways What-sApp group.

“We are a 24x7 organisation and must be alert all the times.”

He also said the railways was con-sidering bringing in local private com-panies to run new tourist trains and be involved in overhauling of some sta-tions.

The railways has joint ventures with Alstom of France and US-based Gen-eral Electric for locomotive supply and maintenance.

IANSNew Delhi

In an unusual action, Prime Minister Narendra Modi will observe a day-long hun-

ger strike on April 12 to protest against the washout of the sec-ond part of parliament’s budget session due to continuous dis-ruptions, which the Bharatiya Janata Party blamed on the Con-gress.

While BJP president Amit Shah will observe a hunger strike in Hubli in Karnataka, party MPs will fast in their constituencies.

“The prime minister will ob-serve a fast even while engaged in his offi cial duty and offi cial engagements,” BJP spokesman G V L Narsimha Rao said.

Modi’s fast, the fi rst by a prime minister, will be part of the BJP’s day-long hunger strike that day to protest against the disruption of parliament by the opposition.

The opposition Congress termed the fast by the prime minister as a “farce” and said he should apologise over the way his party had “denigrated and disrespected” parliament.

“They have disrespected and denigrated the highest temple of democracy. So the prime min-ister should publicly say that he is sorry that is why he is hold-ing this fast on April 12 to tender this apology to various sections of India’s population,” Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala said.

On Monday, Congress presi-dent Rahul Gandhi led the par-ty’s day-long fast at the Rajghat in Delhi over alleged increasing atrocities on Dalits, adivasis, and minorities and dubbed the Modi

government as “anti-Dalit” while vowing to defeat the BJP in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.

The fast in Delhi was marked by controversies as Congress leaders Jagdish Tytler and Sajjan Kumar, accused in the 1984 an-ti-Sikh riots, were asked to leave the Rajghat before Gandhi’s ar-rival. Also, a picture showing some Delhi Congress leaders eating a heavy breakfast at a res-taurant before the protest went viral on social media.

The controversies gave the BJP an opportunity to attack the Congress, saying the main oppo-sition party was a “danga mas-ter” (master of riots) and Tytler and Sajjan leaving the stage was its “acceptance of guilt”.

On the concluding day of the budget session, Parliamentary Aff airs Minister Ananth Kumar had blamed the Congress for the disruptions and announced that the ruling BJP MPs will sit on day-long fasts in their respective constituencies on April 12.

The BJP had earlier announced that the National Democratic Alliance MPs would forego sala-ries along with allowances for 23 days due to the washout of the second half of the budget ses-sion.

The session started on Janu-ary 29 and went into a break on February 9. The two houses met for the second half of the session on March 5, which concluded on Friday.

While the fi rst half of the ses-sion – January 31 to February 9 – recorded 134% productiv-ity in the Lok Sabha and 96% in the Rajya Sabha, in the second-half, from March 5 to April 6, the lower house recorded just 4% productivity and the upper house 8%.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi flags off the first engine from the Madhepura Electric Locomotive Factory in Motihari yesterday. Also seen are Bihar Governor Satyapal Malik, Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, federal ministers Ram Vilas Paswan and Uma Bharti.

Parrikar likely to return by May, says BJP leader

CBI questions Rabri in IRCTC case

Pradhan for upgrading Sculpture Training Institute

The Delhi High Court yesterday issued a notice to the chartered accountant of Congress leader P Chidambaram’s son Karti Chidambaram on an Enforcement Directorate plea seeking cancellation of his bail in the INX media money laundering case. The court has listed the matter for hearing on August 16. The Enforcement Directorate has challenged the trial court’s order which granted bail to co-accused S Bhaskaraman on March 13. He was arrested on February 16 on charges of money laundering. The agency alleged that Karti took money to facilitate a Foreign Investment Promotion Board (FIPB) clearance to INX Media in 2007 when his father was the finance minister in the United Progressive Alliance government.

After facing flak over installing a saff ron-coloured statue of Dalit icon B R Ambedkar, district authorities in Budayun in Uttar Pradesh yesterday changed its colour to blue. The saff ron statue, unlike the usual blue, was installed in Dugraiyya village on Monday after the earlier one was vandalised on Saturday. Off icials said the new statue was ordered from Agra and the sculptor had sent its picture to the district authorities. The authorities, in turn, shared it with the villagers. The statue was installed after approval by the villagers. The saff ron statue was seen as an eff ort by the Bharatiya Janata Party government to impose saff ron - a colour representing the ruling party. In the past too, the government has been criticised by the opposition for imposing saff ron colour.

Court issues notice to Karti Chidambaram’s CA

Ambedkar’s saff ronstatue turns blue

INVESTIGATIONCONTROVERSY

Ailing Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar is responding well to treatment in the US for advanced pancreatic cancer and will return by next month, Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sadanand Shet Tanavade said yesterday. “He is responding well to treatment and is likely to be in Goa by May,” Tanavade said on the sidelines of a media interaction at the state BJP headquarters in Panaji. Parrikar is being treated in a New York hospital. He was hospitalised earlier at Mumbai’s Lilavati Hospital and then at Goa Medical College in Panaji after he complained of stomach pain on February 15. The chief minister was subsequently diagnosed with advanced pancreatic cancer. The Chief Minister’s Off ice has maintained that Parrikar is suff ering from “mild pancreatitis”.

PEOPLE CORRUPTION CULTURE

Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan yesterday sought the co-operation of Odisha government to upgrade the Stone Sculpture Training Institute in Konark to international standards. “There is need to upgrade the present institute and create an institute of international standard. The government of India will provide all necessary assistance for the purpose,” Pradhan said in a letter to Odisha Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik. He urged the chief minister to extend the co-operation of the state government to make the project successful. “An international standard skilling institute will not only help in upgrading the traditional skill sets of the sculptors, but will also help in keeping alive Odisha’s ancient heritage by training the entrants into the profession,” he added. This will help in the survival of an exquisite cultural facet of the state expressed through the intricate carvings on the stone, the minister said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation yesterday questioned former Bihar chief minister Rabri Devi in connection with its probe into alleged irregularities in the 2006 Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation hotels maintenance contract case. Rabri Devi, the wife of Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, was questioned at her residence in Patna. The case pertains to the time Yadav was the railways minister. In October last year, the CBI had questioned Yadav and his younger son Tejashwi Yadav, a former deputy chief minister, in the case at its Delhi headquarters. The CBI on July 5 filed a corruption case against Rabri Devi, Yadav, and Tejashwi Yadav for alleged irregularities in the allotment of contracts of two IRCTC hotels in Ranchi and Puri in 2006 to a private firm.


INDIA18

If Modi loses next year, he can only blame himselfDelhi Diary

By A K B Krishnan

Gulf Times Correspondent

Probe orderedafter passengerremoved fromIndiGo fl ightAgenciesNew Delhi

The government yesterday ordered an inquiry after a passenger was removed

from a domestic fl ight in a fi ght that began after he complained about mosquitoes.

IndiGo, India’s biggest air-line, said in tweets that surgeon Saurabh Rai was offl oaded from a fl ight on Monday for “unruly behaviour” and using the word “hijack.”

Rai told media that he was “held by the collar” and dragged by the crew off the aircraft, which was due to fl y from the northern city of Lucknow to Bengaluru in the south.

“I have ordered an inquiry into the incident of offl oading passenger Dr Saurabh Rai by In-diGo at Lucknow airport,” Civil Aviation Minister Suresh Pra-bhu said.

Rai said the fl ight was full of mosquitoes and when he ex-pressed concerns, he was called a “terrorist” and later threat-ened and manhandled by the crew.

“I heard the crew saying if you have a problem with mosquitoes then why don’t you leave India?” he told the ANI news agency.

According to Rai, he boarded the 6.05am fl ight. He said there were many mosquitoes hover-ing around his seat (22C) and some children on the plane were

also crying after being bitten by them.

Many co-passengers, he claimed, also complained of the mosquito menace after which he told a fl ight attendant Sonali that she should spray something to ward them off .

“I was told that she will ap-prise her seniors about the com-plaint but nothing happened and the plane doors were about to be closed when I raised the matter again only to face half a dozen security staff of the airline who literally threw me and my cabin luggage out of the aircraft,” he alleged.

He also said that the video he shot of the mosquitoes on his mobile phone was also forcibly deleted by the airlines staff .

Rai said he had three surgeries lined up in the day in Bengaluru and hence he took a 12.30pm fl ight later.

IndiGo, however, said in a statement that the passenger misbehaved with the crew and threatened to damage the air-craft.

“We have zero tolerance for such behaviour,” the airline said.

According to IndiGo, “he at-tempted to instigate other pas-sengers to damage the aircraft and used words such as ‘hijack’. Hence, keeping in mind appli-cable safety protocols, the crew apprised pilot-in-command, who decided to offl oad him.”

The incident generated a lot of buzz on the social media, lead-ing to the airline dealing with queries from passengers on what it does to keep insects and fl ies away from its aircraft.

This is not the fi rst time the carrier has been been the subject of controversy for its customer relations.

Last year, the airline apolo-gised to a passenger who was pushed and shoved by staff members on the Delhi airport tarmac.

Videos of the encounter had triggered a public outcry on so-cial media and were televised widely on domestic news chan-nels.

In one of the previous en-tries in this diary, I had said how Prime Minister Naren-

dra Modi could well retain power after next year’s parliamentary elections because there is no one on the horizon in any rival party who could replace him. The word TINA (There Is No Alternative) is a favourite with political analysts in the Indian capital.

But over the past ten days or so there has been a plethora of aspir-ing prime ministerial candidates who have raised their heads in the hope they will be counted and recognised when it was time for Indians to make their choice in the next one year.

West Bengal’s Mamata Ban-erjee, Uttar Pradesh’s Akhilesh Yadav and Mayawati, Andhra Pradesh’s Chandrababu Naidu and even Telangana’s Chan-drasekhar Rao have all started preparing for the big day without directly admitting - and in some cases even denying - that they were looking to become prime minister, but no good politician can ever be taken for her word when it comes to ambition.

Of course, there is Rahul Gan-dhi who, the Congress Party thinks, is the man ideally suited to replace Modi. And then there is Arvind Kejriwal who has always harboured grand ambitions ever since that tumultuous and stu-pendous victory in Delhi in 2015.

The party is dreaming for Rahul while Kejriwal is doing his own dreaming.

Be that as it may, with just a year to go, Modi’s chances of re-taining power looks a little less bright than it had a year ago. Cu-riously, this has more to do with his and his party’s own actions/inactions than what Mamata, Naidu et al are trying to do.

The fact that the regional sat-raps are hogging national lime-light once again is because Modi has fallen short of the expecta-tions he had raised when he be-came prime minister four years ago. He had disrupted the cozy old boys’ club in the national capital. The average Indian loved him for it. Even the hardships of demon-etisation did not deter her/his ad-miration for the new ‘disrupter in town’.

But the disruption stopped short of his own Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) whose members seemed to be a law unto themselves. Initially the blame was placed on the so-called “fringe”, meaning small-time local chieftains who worked with their own agenda. But soon it became clear there was a larger dimension to the whole scenario as amply il-lustrated by the ban, though short-lived, on the sale of livestock for slaughter at cattle markets. That one incident, strangely initiated by the Ministry of Environment and Forests and Climate Change, did

more damage to India’s economy in terms of job losses and export cancellations than many of the so-called fi nancial scams during the previous Congress-led regime.

Yet Modi seemed unmoved. He very well knew that all he had to do was speak up against the lawlessness of his party men and they would have been left with no choice but to fall in line. The lynching of Muslim men trans-porting cattle or the violence in the name of perceived shaming of a mythical queen of Rajasthan in a Hindi fi lm, to name just two examples, would have stopped immediately. But the prime min-ister, despite repeated entreaties from various quarters including columnists like Tavleen Singh, chose to maintain prolonged si-lence.

The opposition took full ad-vantage of the reluctance on the part of the prime minister to en-gage in the national debate. In all probability it even helped the rioters along as evidenced in the destruction of some statues in

Uttar Pradesh and Telangana and the attacks on Christian churches in Kolkata and Delhi. In these po-litically cynical times the opposi-tion will always look for chances to spite the government - the boot was on the other foot four years ago - so it is for the government, more especially the prime min-ister, to make sure that no such chance is given.

Post 2012 Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi gave ample chances to the BJP which made sure the Congress did not return to power. They may say it was Modi-Amit Shah machinations that did them in. But in their hearts they must be ruing the many missteps they had taken that eventually led to their downfall. If Modi does not win in 2019, he will have nobody but himself to blame.

Nothing fake about rap on Irani’s knuckles

Much before President Trump made ‘fake news’ famous, Indi-

ans were already introduced to the expression thanks to Naren-dra Modi. But as with McDonald’s or Pizza Hut or Pepsi, all things American had to have a local twist to suit the Indian palate to survive here. So, we had the Con-gress Party, smelling danger from Modi’s challenge to its till-then unquestioned supremacy over Lutyens’ Delhi, started calling him ‘Feku’, the innuendo being the man was fake and, therefore, had no right to be what he was aspir-ing to be - the prime minister of India.

That was 2014. The Congress realised, however reluctantly, that this particular ‘Feku’, in fact, was the real thing and there was no escaping that reality. We did not hear much of ‘feku’ or fake for quite a while although we all knew we were being regaled day in and day out by fake news on 24X7 television, the print media and, most importantly, the social network without which life seems to be worthless, at least for some.

I say ‘regaled’ because after the fi rst shock waves of sensational-ism that garnered much atten-tion, things settled down quite a bit so much so that most people knew fake news when they saw/read one and it just about man-aged to stay afl oat because of its entertainment value. The latest in that series of fake news was the “death’ of former chief election

commissioner T N Seshan and, like Samuel Clemens (Mark Twain to you and me) had once famously said, the news of Seshan’s death was “greatly exaggerated”.

Anyway, the short point is fake news is here to stay because the means of communication or dis-semination of news has greatly changed over the past decade and the chaff will perforce come with the wheat. This is especially so in the case of a democracy like India - and perhaps the US as well - be-cause the freedom of expression is guaranteed in our respective Con-stitutions.

So, how to curb fake news in a democracy? Will shooting from the hip do any good? It will look very macho in a Clint Eastwood spaghetti western but not with India’s minister for information and broadcasting. But that’s what Smriti Irani tried to do in her bid to curb fake news. Eastwood al-ways hit target at fi rst shot where-as Irani missed both the tree and the woods.

Last week the I&B Ministry issued a directive that journal-ists accredited to it will lose that coveted recognition if found in-dulging in disseminating fake news. The operative word here is “found” because how do you ascertain that a certain piece of news is fake and what is the yard-stick with which you gauge how seriously damaging that news is?

More importantly, who will judge the quality of news to decide if it is fake or not? The ministry guideline, in fact, said once the complaint is registered for de-termination of fake news, the ac-creditation of the journalist, who-ever “created and/or propagated” the fake news, will be suspended till the determination regarding the fake news is made. In short you are guilty until proven inno-cent!

The media in India is overseen by the Press Council of India (PCI) for the print version and the Na-tional Broadcasters Association (NBA) for television and FM radio. Till date they have been doing a reasonably good job of self-gov-ernance. But Irani felt she should do more to “clean up” the press.

Mercifully, Prime Minister Modi got wind of the ruling and within 24 hours of its promulga-tion forced Irani to withdraw the notice. With some crucial state assembly elections and even the general election not far away, it would have been a very dan-gerous but convenient weapon for the government had Irani’s diktat prevailed. Curiously, the Emergency during Indira Gan-dhi’s regime had witnessed the incarceration of several of Irani’s colleagues even as the press was muzzled. If Irani had hoped for a throwback to those dark days, that was not to be and rightly so.

Govt ordered to report on eff orts to rehabilitate bonded labourersReutersNew Delhi

A court has ordered the labour ministry, police and New Delhi govern-

ment to report on eff orts to re-habilitate people rescued from bonded labour, after allegations that many did not receive sup-port they were legally entitled to.

The order issued by the Delhi High Court on Monday came in response to a petition claiming that the government has failed to provide rehabilitation, in-cluding jobs, education and cash compensation.

“The government has the re-sponsibility to rehabilitate these workers,” said Nirmal Gorana,

convener of the National Cam-paign Committee for Eradica-tion of Bonded Labour, who fi led the petition last week.

The petition included a list of bonded workers who were rescued over the last two years but had not been rehabilitated, as well as details of people who have been reported as trapped in bonded labour but have not been freed.

Police must provide a list of all cases registered with them during the past fi ve years, “es-pecially of child victims who have been treated as bonded la-bourers”, said the court order.

The court has given the gov-ernment bodies one month to submit status reports on steps taken to rehabilitate bonded workers.

India banned bonded labour in 1976, but it remains wide-spread, with millions from the marginalised Dalit and tribal communities working in fi elds, brick kilns, rice mills, brothels or as domestic workers to pay off debts.

The Indian government an-nounced plans in 2016 to rescue more than 18mn bonded labour-ers by 2030, and increase com-pensation for rescued workers by fi ve-fold as part of its eff orts to tackle modern slavery.

However, delays in getting compensation, paperwork and lack of proper rehabilitation leads to many falling back into bondage, campaigners say.

Across India, villagers are lured by traffi ckers with the promise of a good job and ad-

vance payments, but they often end up trapped in debt bond-age.

Gorana said that India’s capi-tal, New Delhi, is a hotspot for bonded labour, because it draws migrants from around the coun-try who come in search of work.

“Migrant labour is more likely to get trapped in bonded labour,” he told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

He said that authorities have not done a survey in the last decade to determine of the state bonded labour in New Delhi and the number of people trapped in it.

“We wanted the government to carry out this survey and identify the many new forms of slavery that have come up,” Gorana said.

Rai: off loaded

Relatives and villagers of school children mourn at a cremation ceremony near Nurpur in Kangra District, in Himachal Pradesh yesterday, a day after a bus accident that killed at least 30 people, including 27 children. The accident occurred when the school bus plunged into a deep ravine in the Himalayan foothills.

Families mourn death of children

PAKISTAN19Gulf Times


Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and Op-position Leader in the Na-

tional Assembly Syed Khursheed Ahmed Shah will formally hold a meeting today to discuss the ap-pointment of a caretaker govern-ment for the upcoming elections.

Shah disclosed this to report-ers at his Parliament House chambers yesterday, and revealed that this would be his second meeting with the prime minister on the issue.

He said that the Pakistan Peo-ples Party (PPP) had not yet de-cided on a candidate for the offi ce of caretaker prime minister.

Neither had any other opposi-tion party put forward a name for

the offi ce so far, he added.The PPP leader is of the view

that if the government had thought of possible nominees, it should not declare them and wait for the opposition to share its nominees fi rst.

Shah said that he wanted to suggest names of people who had a good reputation because transparency and fairness of the election depended heavily on the conduct of the caretaker set-up.

He also suggested the forma-tion of a parliamentary commit-tee to ensure accountability of politicians.

Shah is of the view that such a committee could become more powerful than the National Ac-countability Bureau (NAB), the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), or any other institution.

He also urged the government

to name the new international airport in Islamabad after the PPP’s late chairperson Benazir Bhutto, and said that his party would take the matter to the Su-preme Court if the government did not agree to their demand.

The lower house Opposition Leader said that he would chal-lenge the names of all hospitals and universities named after pol-iticians who have been convicted of corruption.

Under the Constitution, con-sultation between the prime minister and the opposition leader is essential for the ap-pointment of a caretaker gov-ernment to carry out the general elections in a fair and transparent manner.

Shah has already organised in-formal meetings with almost all opposition parties on the issue,

and he is expected to hold anoth-er round of consultations with them after meeting the prime minister.

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), the other main opposi-tion party, also wants a say in the process of appointing members of the caretaker government in Islamabad and in all the prov-inces.

At a recent news confer-ence, PTI chairman Imran Khan stated that they would not allow the PPP and the ruling Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) to strike a deal on the appoint-ment of a caretaker set-up, as the two parties had allegedly done in 2013, without consulting the other parties.

However, political experts be-lieve that this time around, the PTI will not be in a position to

raise a hue and cry over the con-duct of caretaker governments, at least in Punjab and Khyber Pa-khtunkhwa, where the party will have a direct role in the nomina-tion of a caretaker set-up.

The PTI appears to be more worried about the future care-taker government in Punjab, knowing that in the general elec-tions, the party with the most seats in the province will claim the driver’s seat in forming a caretaker government in Islama-bad.

However, PTI’s vice-chairman Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that so far, he had not had a formal consultation with Shah on the is-sue of a caretaker set-up.

Responding to a question, Qureshi said that his party has not fi nalised the nominees for the future caretaker set-up.

Leaders meet today on caretaker govtInternewsIslamabad

Dancing and chanting in Swahili at a crocodile shrine outside Karachi,

hundreds of Pakistani Sheedis swayed barefoot to the rhythm of a language that they no longer speak – the celebration off ering a rare chance to con-nect with their African roots.

For many Sheedis, the swampy crocodile shrine to Sufi saint Haji Syed Shaikh Sul-tan – more popularly known as Mangho Pir – is the most po-tent symbol of their shared Af-rican past, as they struggle to uncover the trail that led their ancestors to Pakistan.

Many, like 75-year-old Mo-hammad Akbar, have simply given up the search for their family’s origins.

The descendants of Africans who have been arriving on the shores of the subcontinent for centuries, the Sheedis rose to lofty positions as generals and leaders during the Mughal Em-pire, which ruled swathes of South Asia.

But, actively discriminated against during British rule, their traditions began to fade, and when Pakistan was created in 1947, they were absent from the country’s elite political and military circles.

Figures are scant but it is generally accepted that Paki-stan holds the highest number of Sheedis on the subcon-tinent, upwards of around 50,000 people.

But their history has been scantily written, making it diffi cult if not impossible for Sheedis – including even those like Akbar whose ancestors arrived in Pakistan relatively recently – to trace their ante-cedents.

“I came to know in the 1960s that my grandfather belonged to Zanzibar, and we contacted the Tanzania embassy to fi nd our extended family,” Akbar told AFP outside his home in Karachi.

“We were told that we can never reach them until we can identify our tribe, which we don’t know,” he said. “I never tried again.”

His plight is common, with little in the way of documen-tation or scholarship on the community.

What is available suggests that many arrived as part of the African slave trade to the east – a notion rejected by many Sheedis, most of whom now reside in Sindh province.

“We don’t subscribe to the theories that someone brought us as slaves to this region be-cause Sheedis as a nation have never been slaves,” argues Yaqoob Qanbarani, the chair-man of Pakistan Sheedi Itte-had, a community group.

Others say that the com-munity’s origins can be traced back to the genesis of Islam, claiming a shared lineage with

Bilal – one of Prophet Muham-mad (pbuh)’s closest compan-ions.

As the knowledge of their origins has faded, so too have many of their traditions, in-cluding the vestiges of Swahili once spoken in parts of Kara-chi.

“Swahili has been an aban-doned language for some gen-erations now,” says Ghulam Akbar Sheedi, a 75-year-old community leader.

“I remember that my grand-mother would extensively use Swahili phrases in our daily conversation,” says 50-year-old Atta Mohammad, who now struggles to remember even a few sayings.

With so many traditions lost to the past, the Sheedi mela, or crocodiles festival, at the Man-gho Pir shrine has assumed rich signifi cance and been the epicentre of the community in Sindh for centuries.

They no longer know why it is held there, they are simply following in the steps and re-peating the words of their an-cestors.

Mehrun Nissa, 65, prepares a sacred drink during the mela while translating from what she says is a Swahili dialect.

“Nagajio O Nagajio, Yo aa Yo ... means now we are leaving to have a drink from the bowl,” she explains.

Mangho Pir is also home to more than 100 lumbering croc-odiles that waddle between the devotees near a swampy green pond where they have lived for generations.

Legend holds that lice on the Sufi saint’s head transformed into the reptiles that now live at the shrine.

The oldest crocodile – known as More Sawab, and be-lieved to be anywhere between 70 and 100 years old – is feted at the festival’s climax with garlands and decorative pow-der while being fed raw meat.

Even this tenuous link to the community’s past is in danger of being severed, however.

The celebrations this March were the fi rst time the festival has been held in nine years, after rising extremism saw Sufi shrines come under threat across Pakistan, with repeated gun and suicide bomb attacks.

“The situation was not suit-able for us as children and women also participate in the mela,” said Qanbarani, as heav-ily armed police commandos fl anked the crowd.

However, with dramatic improvements in security in recent years the community hopes to continue the mela, celebrating traditions that have survived slavery, colonisation, and modernisation.

“It is a Sheedi community belief that by honouring the crocodile, our whole year will pass in peace, tranquillity and prosperity,” explains Moham-mad. “We look forward to cel-ebrating the mela next year too, and forever.”

Crocodiles guard secrets of Pakistan’s lost African pastBy Ashraf Khan, AFPKarachi

In this photograph taken on March 4, Sajjad Burfat, the custodian of sacred crocodiles, feeds meat to a crocodile next to a pond at the Mangho Pir shrine, during the Sheedi Mela or crocodiles festival, on the outskirts of Karachi.

The authorities have warned that individu-als with foreign income

of over $10,000 (Rs1.15mn) or assets worth $100,000 risk in-curring penalties if they fail to annually fi le their returns un-der a new law.

On Sunday night the presi-dent promulgated four ordi-nances to make tax amnesty scheme, unveiled on April 5, into law.

An ordinance, amending Section 114 and Section 116 of the Income Tax Ordinance 2001, made the fi ling of income tax returns and wealth state-ment mandatory for resident taxpayers having foreign in-come above $10,000 a year or foreign assets with a value of $100,000 or more.

Individuals are required to submit details in wealth state-ment and returns, including total foreign assets and liabili-ties as of the last day of the tax year.

Individuals are also required to submit complete details of foreign income and expendi-tures during a tax year.

The presidential ordinance prescribed a penalty for non-compliance with the law of fi l-ing of returns and statements by individuals with foreign in-come.

“Where any person fails to furnish foreign assets and in-come statements within the due date then such person is

required to pay a penalty of 2% of the foreign income or value of the foreign assets for each year of default,” it said.

Tax experts said that sec-tion 111(4)(a) of Income Tax Ordinance 2001 had provided a blanket amnesty to inward re-mittances.

The president signed anoth-er ordinance to amend the Pro-tection of Economic Reforms Act (PERA) 1992.

After the promulgation of the ordinance, transfers to for-eign currency accounts could only be made if the account holders are on the active tax-payers list.

The presidential ordinance amended the Section 5 of PERA 1992, under which holders of foreign currency accounts en-joyed exemption from declar-ing the source of such funds before any authority.

Tax experts said that foreign currency account holders also need to fi le annual returns of income and wealth statement to keep their accounts intact after the amendment.

Under the other the ordi-nances issued by the president, liquid foreign assets that are not repatriated will incur a 5% tax, while immovable assets outside Pakistan will incur a 3% tax.

Liquid assets that are repat-riated and invested in govern-ment securities for up to fi ve years in US dollar-denominat-ed bonds with six-month pay-ment profi t rate in rupees (3% rate of return) will be “whit-ened” with a 2% tax.

Those with $10,000+ annual foreign income required to fi le returns

InternewsKarachi

Individual income tax burden slashedThe income tax burden on individuals in Pakistan will reduce by up to 70%, on top of outright exclusion of more than 500,000 persons from any tax liability with eff ect from July 1, provided the upcoming finance bill protects recent government decisions.Last week, Prime Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi announced reduction in tax rates on the income of individuals, with eff ect from next fiscal year, from existing rates of up to 30% to a maximum of 15%.Giving it legal cover, the government also promulgated an ordinance on Sunday to amend the Income Tax Ordinance 2001.In view of 120-day limit, the ordinance will need to be made part of Finance Bill 2018-19 to protect it for at least a full fiscal year.Under the ordinance, the threshold for income tax exemption was increased to annual income of Rs1.2mn (Rs100,000 per month) from existing threshold of Rs400,000, eff ectively pulling out about 500,000 people from any income tax liability.An annual income of between Rs1.2mn and Rs2.4mn will attract a tax rate of 5%, while the tax rate would be 10% on an annual income of Rs2.4mn to Rs4.8mn.An annual income of above Rs4.8mn would attract a 15% tax rate.

Even as the Higher Educa-tion Commission (HEC) decided to abandon a uni-

versity ranking system owing to “inaccurate data”, a ranking of top universities in the Islamic world has ranked two institu-tions from Pakistan amongst the top 50.

The Information Technol-ogy University (ITU) Qual-ity Research Ranking has listed the Quaid-e-Azam Uni-versity (QAU) Islamabad and the COMSATS in the top 50.

The list contains 185 universi-ties.

COMSATS is the acronym for Commission on Science and Technology for Sustainable De-

velopment in the South.The QAU has been ranked at

35 and is the top ranked Paki-stani university in the list.

It fi nds itself sandwiched be-tween Universite Mohammad Premier Ouja of Morrocco and the Sabanci Universitesi of Tur-key.

On the other hand, COMSATS comes in six places below at 41, fi nding itself between the Alex-andria University of Egypt and the Mohammed V University in Morocco.

In Pakistan, COMSATS comes in at second place on the list behind the QAU.

In the regional list, the Uni-versity of Agriculture of Faisal-abad (UAF) came in third while the National University of Sci-ence and Technology (NUST) in Islamabad is fourth.

They are followed by Lahore’s University of Punjab, the Uni-versity of Karachi at sixth, the Government College University Lahore at seventh, the Univer-sity of Sargodha at eighth, the University of Peshawar at ninth, the Bahauddin Zakaria Univer-sity at 10th, the International Islamic University Islamabad (IIUI) at 11th, and the Islamia University at 12th.

The UAF came in at 68 on the ranking of universities from the Islamic world, fi nding itself between the Babol Noshirvani University of Technology of Iran, and the University of Not-tingham in Malaysia.

The NUST, when compared to international educational es-tablishments, was ranked at 87, between Tabriz University of Medical Sciences of Iran and the

Bu Ali Sina University of Iran.The University of Punjab

comes in at 97 in the list of the top 100 universities in the Is-lamic world, sandwiched be-tween the University of Minia of Egypt and the Shahrood Uni-versity of Technology from Iran.

The top 10 rankings are domi-nated by universities from Iran, Turkey, and Saudi Arabia.

The King Abdul Aziz Univer-sity of Saudi Arabia is ranked top, with a score of 10.82.

Malaysia’s University Malaya is second with a score of 10.31.

Iran’s University of Tehran is third with a score of 9.98.

The King Abdullah Univer-sity of Science and Technology of Saudi Arabia is fourth with a score of 9.94, and the Sharif University of Technology of Iran is fi fth with a score of 8.58.

QAU, COMSATS among top 50 universitiesInternewsIslamabad

The Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa

(KP) province has taken out loans of around Rs3tn, which would take nearly 40 years to pay off .

KP Deputy Information Sec-retary Shaukat Yousufzai said that the need arose as the fed-eral government did not disburse funds to the province on time.

He added that they would pay back the loans by generating rev-enue from the projects for which the funds were borrowed.

However, the loans are said to burden the people of KP as they would be paid back over decades to come, on a markup of 0.6% to 2%.

As per documents available with Geo News, the PTI govern-ment has taken loans of nearly Rs3tn.

Out of the amount, nearly Rs99bn is for three projects, in-cluding the Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) scheme in Peshawar.

The PTI government bor-rowed Rs41.88bn from the Asian Development Bank (ADB) for the BRT alone, while the remaining Rs57bn is being spent on elec-tricity, schools, solarisation of basic health units and the Pehur High Level Canal in Swabi.

It is said that PTI borrowed fi ve times more money than the previous KP government of Awami National Party (ANP).

The ANP government bor-rowed approximately Rs21bn during their term in from 2007 to 2013.

KP govt sets record in taking loans

InternewsPeshawar

Baluchistan’s cabinet has decided to introduce a health policy.

A meeting of the cabinet presided over by Chief Minis-ter Mir Abdul Quddus Bizenjo was informed that a compre-hensive draft of the policy would be presented in the next meeting for its approval.

The offi cers of the health department briefed the meet-ing about the draft.

The draft was referred to a committee of the cabinet headed by Health Minister Abdul Majid Abro.

The cabinet members ob-served that an immediate in-

troduction of the healthy pol-icy is necessary for providing better health facilities to the people of the province.

It decided that no further delay would be allowed in im-plementing the health policy in Baluchistan.

The cabinet also decided to implement the Quetta Safe City Project without fur-ther delay and exempted the project from some clauses of the Baluchistan Public Pro-curement Regularity Author-ity.

It approved the issuance of a notifi cation from the law department for re-determi-nation of limits and headquar-ters of civil courts under the Baluchistan Civil Courts Ordi-nance, 1962.

The cabinet also approved a project for improving basic infrastructure in the industrial town of Hub under the chief minister’s programme for de-veloping divisional headquar-ters.

It extended the service of the chairman of the Balu-chistan Public Service Com-mission for two years.

The cabinet approved amendment in the Baluchistan Public Service Commission’s Act 1989, under Article 242 of the Constitutions.

Chief Minister Bizenjo warned that all government departments are bound to im-plement decisions taken by the cabinet and an action would be taken against offi cials who do not implement the decisions.

Baluchistan drafts health policyInternewsIslamabad

8th Wage Board for media persons is announcedPakistan’s Minister of State for Information, Broadcasting, National History and Literary Heritage Marriyum Aurangzeb has announced the constitution of the Eighth Wage Board.She said that a summary in that regard had been sent to the prime minister, with the necessary notification to be issued after approval of the cabinet in its next meeting.The minister said the Wage Board would include representatives of media organisations.Representatives of National Press Club, Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists and media organisations were present when she made the announcement.Aurangzeb commended the role of the media in strengthening democracy and in the war against terrorism.

PHILIPPINES

Gulf TimesWednesday, April 11, 201820

High court hears arguments to remove Duterte ‘enemy’ SerenoReutersManila

The Philippine Supreme Court began hearing arguments yesterday

on a government bid to in-validate the appointment of the court’s top judge, whom President Rodrigo Duterte is calling an “enemy” who needs to be removed.

Chief Justice Maria Lour-des Sereno’s fellow high court judges will decide on merit of arguments for and against a petition, referred to as a “quo warranto”, by the government’s chief lawyer, for alleged violations in the appointment process.

The embattled judge, the Philippines’ first woman chief justice, is facing chal-lenges on several fronts and is on a leave of absence to pre-pare for possible impeach-ment proceedings.

Duterte makes no secret of his dislike of Sereno. Sereno appeared at a Supreme Court

session in the city of Baguio, to defend herself against Cal-ida’s petition.

Dozens of her supporters, holding streamers and de-nouncing some of the judges,

held a protest outside the court.

Nearby, anti-Sereno pro-testers called for her resigna-tion.

Sereno has voted against several of his controversial proposals, including extend-ing martial law on a restive island and allowing late dic-tator Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in a cemetery for national heroes, but Duterte denies instigating two at-tempts to remove her.

Sereno has until now re-frained from blaming Duterte but directly questioned his intentions in a speech yes-terday.

“Mr President, if you have no hand in this, why did So-licitor-General Jose Calida, who reports to you, file the quo warranto?”, she asked. “Surely, you must explain this unconstitutional act”.

Within a few hours a fu-rious Duterte lashed out at

Sereno and indicated he was ready to use his influence over the legislature to get rid of her.

“I’m putting you on no-tice that I’m your enemy and you have to be out of the Su-preme Court,” he told report-ers before heading to an Asian leaders’ forum in China.

“I will see to it. And after that, I will request Congress go to the impeachment right away.”

The nearly 300-seat house returns from a recess next month and will convene for a plenary vote on the im-peachment complaint, which accuses Sereno of failure to fully declare her earnings.

If passed, an impeach-ment trial will be conducted in the upper house, with the 22 sitting Senators as judges. A spokesman for Sereno said she was eager to prove in court she had done nothing wrong.

Japanese

businessman

rescued from

kidnappers

AFPManila

A Japanese man has been freed after being lured to Manila and kidnapped

as part of a complex plot organ-ised by a business partner he had fallen out with, the Philippines’ police chief said yesterday.

Philippine police rescued the 32-year-old victim on April 5 and arrested two Filipinos and a Japanese fugitive who had been holding him in a house outside the capital, national police chief Director-General Ronaldo Dela Rosa said.

The unnamed victim, a Tokyo resident, arrived in the Philip-pines in March with a Japanese business partner, senior police offi cial Glenn Dumlao told re-porters.

“During the investigation we conducted, we found he was tricked by his friend. They were business partners and allegedly, they had a rift in their business,” he said, without elaborating on the men’s ties.

Shortly after arrival in Manila the business partner returned to Japan and the victim was met at his hotel by two Filipinos, who asked him to come with them.

The victim was initially reluc-tant, but agreed to accompany the men after being instructed to do so by the business partner.

The two Filipinos, along with a Japanese national took the victim to a house and held him while his family in Japan was contacted.

The Japanese embassy in Ma-nila, acting on the request of the kidnapped man’s family, sought the help of the local police who rescued the victim and arrested the suspects, Dela Rosa said.

The Japanese suspect, who had his passport cancelled in 2015, is also facing fraud charges in Japan, police said.

Dumlao said he could not elaborate on any ransom de-mands as the negotiations were carried out with victim’s family in Japan and it was Tokyo’s policy not to divulge such details.

The Japanese police were still looking for the victim’s business partner, he added.

The Japanese embassy in Ma-nila declined to comment on the matter.

Kidnapping for ransom gangs are known to be active in the Philippines, sometimes targeting foreigners with the assistance of their countrymen.

Maria Sereno: facing challenges on several fronts

President ‘did not buy data’ to win electionReutersManila

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s elec-tion victory in 2016 did not rely on informa-tion bought from anybody and his campaign

team did not hire political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, his spokesman said yesterday.

The Britain-based Cambridge Analytica is at the centre of a controversy over harvested personal data about users of Facebook, which was used to target voters in the US presidential election and Britain’s 2016 referendum on European Union membership.

A report last week in the South China Morning Post newspaper said that Cambridge Analytica’s parent fi rm, Strategic Communications Laborato-ries (SCL), had made the claim that it helped put Duterte in offi ce. But presidential spokesman Harry Roque said that was far from the case and Duterte’s win was “fair and square”. He said his then cam-paign treasurer and current fi nance minister, Car-los Dominguez, had assured him no transactions had taken place with Cambridge Analytica.

Duterte’s victory should not be undermined with “unsubstantiated allegations”, Roque said in a statement.

British legislators have questioned Alexander Nix, the suspended Cambridge Analytica chief ex-ecutive, over his role in harvesting data from mil-lions of Facebook users.

Outside the United States, the largest amount of user data acquired by Cambridge Analytica was from the Philippines.

The country’s National Privacy Commission, citing information it was given by Facebook, said it had data from 1.17mn Filipino accounts.

In a statement posted on its website yesterday, Cambridge Analytica said it did not “hack” Face-book and that a research company “licensed the data to us, which they legally obtained via a tool provided by Facebook”.

“To be clear: Cambridge Analytica did not ille-gally or inappropriately collect or share data with

anybody else,” it said. The South China Morning Post report said Nix had dined in Manila a year be-fore the election with Jose Gabriel “Pompee” La Vina and Peter Tiu Lavina, who played key roles in Duterte’s campaign, which relied heavily on social media, mainly Facebook, to get him elected.

Recent research has shown Filipinos spend more time on social media than people of any other country. La Via described the newspaper report as “not entirely accurate” saying he met Nix during lunch served at a May 2015 news conference, but had not since been in contact.

The newspaper included what it said was a pho-tograph of the meal.

Jose Joel Sy Egco, currently an undersecretary at the presidential communications offi ce, confi rmed that Nix was in Manila in May 2015 as guest speaker at a media forum his group organised on the role of information technology in elections.

“That was the fi rst and last time that I met Nix,” Egco told ANC news channel.

The Philippines’ National Privacy Commis-sion said it was seeking updates from Facebook on measures taken to mitigate the risks that ensued from the controversy.

Rodrigo Duterte’s election victory in 2016 did not rely on information bought from anybody and his campaign team did not hire political consultancy Cambridge Analytica.

NFA chief told to resign amid rice shortageBy Llanesca T PantiManila Times

The administrator of the National Food Authori-ty (NFA) should quit his

job as soon as possible amid a shortage of affordable NFA rice in the country, House Mi-nority Leader Danilo Suarez said yesterday.

In making the suggestion to NFA Administrator Jason Aquino, Suarez cited an an-nouncement made by the Grain Retailers Confederation of the Philippine that there is no more NFA rice supply in four regions namely Metro Manila (National Capital Region), Cagayan Val-ley, Central Luzon and Calabar-zon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon).

The government apparently confirmed this announcement by admitting that the NFA has only 200,000 sacks of NFA rice left that are only good for less than a day–short of the 15-day requirement for the NFA rice buffer stock.

“What is he (Aquino) wait-ing for? He should go and quit. He should not wait for the president to fire him. It is very

obvious that somebody made money in hoarding the NFA rice. They created this scenar-io,” Suarez said to reporters in a news conference.

“Consumers are suffering because of them (officials in the NFA),” he added.

The NFA rice shortage has al-ready prompted President Rod-rigo Duterte to reconstitute the NFA Council because of policy disagreements between the NFA and the council composed of Aquino; Cabinet Secretary Leoncio Evasco; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Nestor Espenilla Jr.; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo; Develop-ment Bank of the Philippines Chairman Alberto Romulo; Director Teodoro Jumamil of the Development Bank of the Philippines; Land Bank of the

Philippines President Alex Buenaventura; Land Bank of the Philippines Executive Vice President Julio Climaco Jr; Finance Secretary Carlos Dominguez; National Treasurer Rosalia de Leon; Trade Secre-tary Ramon Lopez; Trade and Industry Undersecretary Teo-doro Pascua; Secretary Ernesto Pernia of the National Econom-ic and Development Authority; Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea; and farmer sector representative Edwin Para-luman, among others.

But before President Duterte decided to reconstitute the NFA Council and place it under the jurisdiction of the Department of Agriculture alongside the National Irrigation Adminis-tration, the Philippine Coco-nut Authority and the Fertiliser and Pesticides Authority, Ma-nila Times had learned from a source in the Palace that the NFA has sold as much as 1mn sacks of NFA rice per month since November last year, caus-ing the shortfall.

Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez of Davao del Norte earlier ques-tioned Aquino’s competence as NFA administrator but did not call for Aquino’s resignation.

Under its food security and price stabilisation mandate, the NFA needs to have a stra-tegic rice reserve equivalent to 15 days’ national consump-tion and a higher 30-day buf-fet stock during the traditional lean months of July to Septem-ber.

The House Committee on Good Government and Public Accountability has been inves-tigating the NFA rice shortage stemming from a House resolu-tion fi led by Rep. Luis Raymond Villafuerte of Camarines Sur before Congress adjourned for a two-month break last March 21.

The House panel, however, is yet to adopt recommendations as a result of the probe. Pend-ing the committee report on the probe, Villafuerte called on the NFA to constitute a separate body to monitor the supply and prices of rice, much like how the Energy Regulatory Com-mission regulates power rates.

“In the same way that there exists regulatory control on the cost of electricity, there should also be regulatory control on the price of rice to prevent the profi teering schemes of un-scrupulous traders,” he said in a statement.

“What is he (Aquino) waiting for? He should go and quit. He should not wait for the president to fi re him. It is very obvious that somebody made money in hoarding the NFA rice. They created this scenario”

Five kidnappers, police offi cer killed in shootout

DPAManila

Five suspected kidnap-pers and a police offi cer were killed yesterday in a

shootout that led to the rescue of an abducted businessman in the Philippines, police said.

The businessman, a by-stander and three police offi c-ers were wounded in the fi re-fi ght on the outskirts of San Pablo City in Laguna province, 70 kilometres south of Manila, a police report said.

The hostage, identifi ed as Ronaldo Arguelles, was ab-ducted from his house in near-by Quezon province on Mon-day night, and police were in pursuit when they spotted the suspects in San Pablo during the ransom pay-off .

The shootout erupted when one of the suspects saw the police offi cers and opened fi re, said Senior Superintend-ent Glenn Dumlao, head of the national police’s anti-kidnap-ping group.

Dumlao said the suspects

had posed as police offi cers when they swooped down on Arguelles’ house, hogtied eve-ryone inside and seized him.

The suspects later messaged the Arguelles’ family with a ransom demand, he added.

Senior superintendent Rhorderick Armamento, the provincial police director in Quezon, said Arguelles was suspected of involvement in the illegal drugs trade.

“He is in our list of drug groups and personalities,” Ar-mamento said.

“This kidnapping is defi -nitely related to illegal drugs.” The Philippines’ campaign against illegal drugs has been criticised by foreign and lo-cal human rights groups due to the high death toll in police operations and killings by al-leged hired or vigilante killers.

Since the campaign started on President Rodrigo Duterte’s fi rst day in offi ce on July 1, 2016, police have killed more than 4,100 suspected drug pushers and users in anti-drug operations, according to police data.

Robredo urges president to hear people’s voicesBy Llanesca T PantiManila Times

Instead of governing with an iron fi st, President Rod-rigo Duterte should learn to

listen to sectors aff ected by his administration’s policies.

“The inability… the inabil-ity to listen to voices. It’s not just involving jeepney drivers…there are other sectors who are complaining of the same thing. On the Marawi rehabilitation, there is a group of people from Marawi who are also complain-ing that their voices are not being heard. It’s just that they are not given space to be heard. They are proposing a manner by which the modernisation can happen with the least amount of disruption on the livelihood of the jeepney drivers, but as in many instances and many policies, it’s being done with, you know, a hard fi st,” Robredo said during an open forum with students of the London School of Economics and Political Sci-ence on Monday when asked what the future of jeepneys in the country would be in light of the government’s Public Utility Vehicle (PUV) modernisation plan.

The PUV modernisation plan seeks to replace public util-ity transport that are 15 years old and above with e-jeepneys worth P1.6mn each.

Duterte warned jeepney drivers and operators of dire

consequences if they don’t modernise by January 2018.

The Ranaw Multi-Sectoral Movement claimed last March 30 that Maranaos were being left out in the plans that were laid out by Task Force Bangon Marawi during consultations held at city hall last week.

Marawi City was ravaged by the Islamic State-inspired ter-ror group Maute from May to October 2017, leaving the city in shambles, killing over 100 peo-ple and displacing hundreds of thousands.

“The challenge really is, be-cause they’re (in the Duterte administration) not good at giving a seat at the table to, you know, to people’s organisa-tions… even non-government organisations have been given a negative connotation. It’s

a continuing challenge. It’s something that we should con-tinue fi ghting for. It’s not one of the high points of this adminis-tration, but we have to continue pushing for a recognition than giving everyone a seat at the ta-ble which is still a better way to do things,” Robredo said.

Robredo then warned that sectors who were not being heard could not be ignored for long.

“Having said that, in many instances under this adminis-tration, when the push becomes harder, they do… they do retreat. It happened with the anti-drug war. It’s not in the way that we want it to be, but we have to ad-mit that there has been a source of, you know, a… trying to cali-brate what they’ve been doing into something that will be more acceptable to the people. And if the push becomes harder, I’m very positive that they will lis-ten,” Robredo said.

“They won’t back down from what they are fi ghting for, and for that they have a very good chance of being heard,” Robre-do added.

In the same forum, Robredo lamented that the fi ght for the protection of human rights in the Philippines was a big struggle due to Duterte’s huge popularity, especially with the masses.

“Human rights has been given a bad connotation in the Philippines. And it has not been that way before. But for the very

fi rst time, many Filipinos re-gard human rights as a sort of a bad thing. And it’s unfortunate. Whenever I open my mouth on protecting human rights, there are people who are able to shift the focus not on the issue that I talk about, but on the fact that I am very ambitious and I want to take the presidency out of our president,” Robredo said.

Duterte has repeatedly threatened to kill all drug per-sonalities and called human rights as “the anti-thesis of government.” He even went as far as saying in August 2017 that he might order police to shoot human rights advocates.

“There’s been so many road-blocks as far as the fi ght for hu-man rights is concerned, and those roadblocks, we’ve not allowed them to… not allowed them to constrain us in what we’re doing. The crucial thing here is that we can’t give up. We have to continue doing the pushback,” Robredo said.

Robredo recalled a video message ahead of a UN panel discussion in Vienna in March 2017 in which she criticised the Duterte administration’s war on drugs which, based on fi gures of human rights advo-cates, has left 12,000 suspected drug personalities dead with-out charges and trial, as well as the “palit-ulo” scheme wherein the police would take a member of the family of a drug suspect without a warrant if the suspect didn’t want to surrender.

Leni Robredo has warned that sectors who were not being heard could not be ignored for long.

SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL21


Student protests rattle Bangladesh for third dayHundreds of university

students across Bang-ladesh blockaded roads

yesterday in a third day of pro-tests against what they say are discriminatory quotas for government jobs.

Students took to the streets in Dhaka and elsewhere despite assurances from the govern-ment that it would review the controversial quota system.

The mass protests roiling campuses across the country have been among the biggest faced by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in her decade in power.

At Dhaka University – where more than 100 were injured in clashes with police in recent days – students vowed to stage sit-ins until the government re-form the quota system.

“We’ll continue our agita-tion until the authorities ac-cept our demands,” said Rahat, one of the roughly 500 students camped out at the university’s main square.

The protest was largely peace-ful, with no repeat so far of the tear gas and rubber bullets fi red by police to disperse crowds.

But outside the camps, traf-fi c was brought to a standstill as protesters blocked roads in the nation’s capital.

The protests also spread to private campuses for the fi rst time since the demonstrations erupted on Sunday, drawing hundreds to the streets.

Demonstrators want the share of top government po-sitions set aside for minority groups and the disabled

signifi cantly reduced. They are also particularly

irate that 30% of government positions are reserved for de-scendants of veterans from Bangladesh’s independence war in 1971.

The government promised to review the system yesterday, but that caused a rift among demonstrators, with some ac-cepting the assurance and others resisting it.

A pro-government faction of the student movement had postponed its protest action but left-leaning groups pledged to keep up the fi ght.

Hasina – whose father was the architect of the Bangla-desh’s independence from Pakistan – has in the past re-jected demands to slash the quotas.

AFPDhaka

University students block a road during a protest against the quota system used in government recruitment in Dhaka yesterday.

Minister’s visit raises hope for return of Rohingya

A Myanmar government minister will visit Ro-hingya refugee camps

in Bangladesh today, offi cials said, a rare trip Dhaka hopes will help speed the return home of hundreds of thousands of the neighbouring nation’s Muslim minority.

Win Myat Aye, Myanmar’s minister for social welfare, relief and resettlement, will speak with some of the roughly 700,000 Rohingya refugees the United Nations and aid groups say fl ed a military crackdown in their Buddhist-majority country since last August.

“So many people of his coun-try are here and it’s their moral obligation to see their condi-tions,” Mohammed Abul Kalam, Bangladesh’s refugee relief and rehabilitation commissioner, said.

“His country may want to show the global leaders that they are sincere to repatriate. Bangla-desh expects to resolve the prob-lem soonest, as it is a huge bur-den for this country, which we cannot bear.”

The Myanmar minister con-fi rmed to Reuters last week that he was visiting Bangladesh.

Kalam will accompany Win Myat Aye on the visit to the camps in Kutupalong, where many refugees live in shacks made of bamboo and plastic sheets that are unlikely to with-stand heavy rains and storms brought by the monsoon season when it starts in June.

A Bangladesh foreign ministry offi cial said his country wanted to show the visiting minister the challenges it was facing in host-ing the refugees in the coastal district of Cox’s Bazar, bordering Myanmar.

Win Myat Aye, the minis-ter charged by Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi with lead-ing rehabilitation eff orts in the country’s Rakhine State that the Rohingya call home, is likely to meet Bangladesh’s foreign min-ister tomorrow, said the offi cial, who declined to be identifi ed, citing government policy.

Myanmar has said it has al-ready verifi ed several hundred Rohingya refugees for possible repatriation.

The Rohingya exodus followed reported killings, burnings, looting and rape in response to Rohingya militant attacks on security forces.

ReutersDhaka

New Nepal constitution progressive: president

Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari yesterday said the constitution

had given top priority to human rights in the country.

Inaugurating the Interna-tional Human Rights Confer-ence in Kathmandu, the Nepali president said the constitution has incorporated provisions of inclusion and proportional representation as fundamental rights along with human rights as guaranteed by the United Nations.

Stating that the new con-stitution was undoubtedly ex-tremely progressive, the head of Nepal state said it is now the responsibility of the gov-ernment to draft required laws necessary for implementation of the guaranteed fundamental rights.

President Bhandari said the comprehensive Peace Ac-cord had provided a frame-work for transitional justice. “We should leave no stone unturned to internalise and embrace the mechanisms es-tablished to provide justice to confl ict victims,” the presi-dent said, adding the govern-ment is duty-bound to resolve problems that have emerged in attainment of transitional justice.

AgenciesKathmandu

President Bidhya Devi Bhandari

She hoped that strong at-tempts would be made to end impunity.

National Human Rights Com-mission chairman Anup Raj Sharma said that overall chal-lenges encountered by human rights institutions would be discussed in the conferences. “Almost all the countries of South Asia region faced com-mon challenges of impunity, en-demic violence and institutional discrimination, which would be discussed in the three-day conference.”

More than 50 international representatives from over 20 countries of South Asia and Asia Pacifi c region, including chair-persons and commissioners of the national human rights insti-tutions of Afghanistan, Bangla-desh, India, Maldives, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Myanmar, and Jordan, are taking part in the conference.

Likewise, chair of Asia Pacifi c Forum, Geneva Representa-tive of Global Alliance for Na-tional Human Rights Institu-tions along with international experts on human rights were also present, according to the NHRC.

The NHRC said that Kath-mandu declaration would be issued after the conference.

Govt mulls tax on online advertisements: minister

Bangladesh Finance Minister AMA Muhith yesterday said the gov-

ernment will impose tax on advertisements on Google and Facebook in the country.

“We will ask for tax on their earnings in the upcom-ing national budget… such taxes are paid everywhere, including India,” he told re-porters after a pre-budget discussion with owners of newspapers and private tel-evision channels at the State Guest House Padma.

The government will also impose “landing fees” on the Indian TV channels being

broadcast in Bangladesh, he said.

Besides, it will ask all the cable operators in the capi-tal and elsewhere to digitise their services in phases so that it could impose tax on their earnings.

Muhith also said the value added tax (VAT) on private universities will stay but that would be collected from the university owners, not the students.

“We don’t know how they [the owners] will deal with the issue but charging students for this will be illegal,” he said.

On the newspaper indus-try, the minister said it would get concessions on newsprint import. The current 5% im-port duty will remain in force

but the 12.5% VAT and 5% advanced income tax will be adjusted, he said.

However, the decision on the amount of the tax waiver was yet to be made.

Later, Muhith said the gov-ernment would “rational-ise” corporate tax in the next budget as the tax rate is very high.

The objective will be to re-move so many diff erent rates in the sector, he said.

Earlier at a meeting with senior offi cials of diff erent ministries, the minister had promised to examine the scope for reducing corporate income tax for the upcoming fi scal. The fi nance ministry organ-ised the meeting ahead of the budget.

Currently, the revenue au-thority collects corporate tax in six categories, ranging from 25% to 45%. Companies listed with the bourse face a 25% tax while non-listed ones pay 35%. Cigarette and bidi manu-facturers have to pay a 45% income tax.

Finance Secretary Moham-mad Muslim Chowdhury, Pro-thom Alo editor Matiur Rah-man, The Daily Star editor and publisher Mahfuz Anam, Daily Samakal owner A K Azad, The Financial Express editor AHM Moazzem Hossain, bdnews24.com editor-in-chief Toufi que Imrose Khalidi and National Board of Revenue chairman Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiy-an, among others, attended yesterday’s discussion.

AgenciesDhaka

Two Lankan corporals held on riot charges

Sri Lankan police have ar-rested two army corporals for their suspected in-

volvement in anti-Muslim riots in the central highlands district of Kandy last month, police said yesterday.

It was the fi rst arrest of serv-ing soldiers for the worst sectari-an violence since 2014. It was not immediately clear if any more senior offi cers are suspected. At least two ex-military offi cials have also been arrested.

Scores of mosques, Muslim homes and businesses were de-

stroyed as Buddhist mobs ran amok for three days early last month in Kandy, a district previ-ously known for its diversity and tolerance.

An offi cer at the police spokes-man’s offi ce said 342 suspects have been arrested. The corpo-rals were arrested on Monday.

Muslims comprise about 9% of Sri Lanka’s popula-tion of 21mn. Buddhists make up about 70% and Hindus about 13%.

The government ended a full-blown 26-year civil war by de-feating mostly Hindu Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam rebels in 2009, with claims of atrocities on both sides.

ReutersColombo

Cracks in coalition govt open door for return of Rajapakse

A familiar face is back on walls across Sri Lanka. The coun-try’s former president Mahin-

da Rajapakse has been grinning from thousands of posters and billboards recently, palms pressed together in gratitude.

Voters delivered a shock re-pudiation of Rajapakse’s gov-ernment three years ago, as the UN investigated war crimes against Tamil civilians, dis-sidents disappeared in un-marked white vans and warn-ings were issued that Sri Lankan democracy was at risk.

In February, however, they gave the Buddhist nationalist leader’s new party a surprise victory in local elections.

With polls for parliament and the presidency scheduled for two years’ time, the result has reaf-fi rmed Rajapakse as Sri Lanka’s most popular politician, and raised hopes among his support-ers – and fears in others – that he may yet return to power.

The Rajapakse-led opposition forced a no-confi dence motion in parliament against the prime minister, Ranil Wickremas-inghe, last week. It failed, but Wickremasinghe was criticised by several of his own ministers during the debate, widening

cracks in the already fragile coa-lition government that turfed Rajapsakse from offi ce in 2015.

“We are heading towards a snap election,” said Namal Rajapakse, an MP and the former president’s son and heir apparent. “The fu-ture of the coalition government is going to be very unstable.”

Campaign advertisements in the run-up to the February polls were stark. “Remember when winning a rugby match was pun-ishable by death?” asked one United National Party fl yer, in ref-erence to a murder allegedly linked to the Rajapakse family. “Remem-ber when white vans were a sym-bol of terror and repression?”

The resurgence of a leader with such heavy baggage is less sur-prising to close observers of Sri Lankan politics. “Rajapakse nev-er went away,” said Alan Keenan, an analyst with the International Crisis Group. “His shadow has loomed over this government, literally from the fi rst day.”

It took an unlikely coalition to unseat Rajapakse from the presidency in 2015. Appalled by a leader they regarded as breathtakingly corrupt and in-creasingly authoritarian, defec-tors from his own party forged an alliance with members of the opposition, campaigning on a unity platform of reviving civil society and tackling corruption.

In power, however, longtime political enemies have strug-

gled to work together, fi nding they are united by little more than antipathy toward the former president. “The rela-tionship between the president and prime minister is as bad as it could be,” Keenan said.

To win over minorities such as the Tamils, the current presi-dent, Maithripala Sirisena, promised to implement tough reforms, including devolving power to regional governments, pursuing the cases of those who disappeared during the Ra-japakse years, and reforming the constitution to ensure no presi-dent could accrue the power of his predecessor.

Commentators in Colombo agree too much of that agenda has been shirked by a govern-ment afraid of challenging Bud-dhist nationalist sentiment in the country, and kicking off a wave of rightwing anger that could lift Rajapakse and his family back into offi ce.

Less lofty issues have also sapped the government’s support. The price of staples such as onions, fi sh and coconuts has increased steeply, while a decision to remove an uneconomical fertiliser subsidy has burned the agricultural sector, which still employs nearly one in three Sri Lankans.

“Mahinda looked after us,” said Gamaga Nona, a paddy and banana farmer in Madilla, a village on Sri Lanka’s south

Michael Safi and Amantha Perera, GNSColombo

coast. Fertiliser was eight times cheaper under the Rajapakse government, she said, and the change has nearly halved the annual profi t of her family farm. “Now the fertiliser is delayed and sometimes we never get it.”

K A Karunanapala, another southern farmer, worries about Chinese infl uence in the re-gion. The Sirasena government agreed last December to lease a new port in Hambantota to a Chinese state-owned corpora-tion for 99 years. It was intend-ed to help pay back about $8bn in Chinese money borrowed by the Rajapakse government, but has provoked a furious back-lash. “What does [Sirisena] do for us, other than going around trying to sell our assets?” Karunanapala asked.

Civil society groups in Colombo acknowledge a pall has lifted since 2015. Newspapers that once la-boured under offi cial censorship, or the kind enforced by military vehicles parked outside journalists’ homes at night, now print boister-ous criticism of the government. Human rights groups chased out 10 years ago are re-establishing offi ces in the city.

People are breathing more

easily, said Asoka Obeyesekere, a lawyer and director of the lo-cal chapter of Transparency In-ternational.

Namal Rajapakse calls the allegations of corruption and violence that dogged his father “well planned, well executed propaganda”. “We are looking for a fresh start,” he said.

His party would seek a clean slate with western governments, he said, but added that continu-ing to participate in a UN Security Council investigation into the fi nal months of the civil war – in which about 40,000 Tamil civilians may have been killed – would need to be “looked into more deeply”.

“Any war will have casualties, we won’t deny that,” Rajapakse said. “But at the end of the day what matters is the future.”

That future is still uncertain for the family. Their party won about 45% of the vote in the local government elections, the larg-est share in the country, but not enough to win an outright parlia-mentary or presidential majority.

Should opposition groups fi nd a way to paper over their diff er-ences, and unite as they did in 2015, they may still have the num-bers to keep the Rajapakses out.

One of Mahinda Rajapakse posters launched during the February local elections.


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Opec in lead to boostoil prices but shalethreat looms large

To be sure, eff orts led by the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries to curb production since January 2017 have helped boost oil prices. Brent has rallied 5.1% in the fi rst quarter, the third straight quarterly gain, the longest streak since 2011.

Opec production has now dropped to the lowest in a year amid the woes in Venezuela’s oil industry.

Venezuela output declined by 100,000 bpd from February to 1.51mn bpd, according to a Bloomberg News survey of analysts, oil companies and ship-tracking data. The International Energy Agency said in its latest report that the Latin American nation remains the “biggest risk factor” when it comes to supply disruption amid a “worsening economic crisis.”

Output from Opec’s 14 members fell by 170,000 barrels to 32.04mn bpd in March, according to the Bloomberg survey. That’s the lowest since last April’s 31.9mn bpd.

While Libya saw production drop below 1mn bpd after some fi elds were shut down, output from Saudi Arabia fell 10,000 bpd from February to 9.87mn bpd.

Opec, Russia and other oil producers agreed in November to extend self-imposed limits on output until the end of this year, seeking to counter a glut fed partly by US shale drillers.

With a third of the surplus in global inventories still to be cleared, the oil market isn’t fully re-balanced yet. But Opec and Russia have reaffi rmed that they’ll persevere with their 1.8mn bpd oil-production cuts until the end of this year to clear the glut.

The allies have also signalled they’re ready to co-operate beyond 2018. Compliance with the production curbs Opec members have imposed on themselves reached a record 129% in December, an impressive feat for a group that has cheated on quotas in the past.

By keeping the 1.8mn bpd of cuts in place for a further nine months – and beyond if needed – the oil producers aim to return stockpiles to their fi ve-year average without overheating the market and eliciting a new fl ood of shale oil.

Opec’s obituary has been written many times, as spurts of new technologies and petroleum discoveries rewrite the global energy trade. But the group has, just as often, defi ed its critics.

Opec, which pumps 40% of the world’s oil is still in the lead to manage prices.

But rising oil prices also gift a catch-22 migraine to Opec.

Just as the production cuts have helped push oil prices higher, the IEA has warned of “explosive” US output growth this year. Opec, too, boosted its 2018 forecast for rival oil-supply growth by 16%, also cautioning of the eff ects of a higher price environment.

The US shale boom has brought the country closer to energy self-suffi ciency than at any time since the 1980s.

There are, of course, gainers and losers when it comes to consistently lower oil prices. But the world is in need of a stable oil market with price equilibrium.

Opec and its allies have succeeded in rebalancing the oil market. But here is the big question: Can Opec maintain prices high and sustainable without stimulating further growth in US shale oil production?

Opec production has now dropped to the lowest in a year

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CHAIRMANAbdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFFaisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka

Deputy Managing EditorK T Chacko

Italian politics and Europe’s futureBy Jeff rey D SachsNew York

More than ever, the European Union needs unity to assert its values and interests in an age when US global

leadership is on the verge of collapse, China is ascendant, and Russia wavers yet again between co-operation and confrontation with the EU. Divided, the EU is a mere helpless spectator to geopolitical upheaval. United, the EU can play a critical global role, as it uniquely combines prosperity, democracy, environmentalism, innovation, and social justice. And whether the EU regains unity of purpose, or instead spirals into disarray, will depend on what happens now in Italy.

Italy’s pivotal role stems from its position at the geographic divide between northern Europe’s prosperity and southern Europe’s crisis, and the intellectual and emotional divide between an open Europe and one trapped again by nationalism, prejudice, and fear. Italy stands also at the political divide, with an insurgent new party, the Five Star Movement (M5S), sharing the political stage with the right-wing, anti-immigrant, and anti-EU League party and the pro-EU but greatly weakened centre-left Democratic Party.

The insurgent M5S fi nished fi rst in the March 4 parliamentary vote with an astounding 33% of the vote, compared to 19% for the Democrats and 17% for the League. The implications of M5S’s strong victory are a topic of heated debate in Italy and around Europe.

Throughout the EU, traditional centre-left and centre-right pro-EU parties are losing votes. Just as in Italy, anti-EU nationalist parties like the League are gaining votes, and anti-establishment insurgencies like M5S

– for example, Podemos in Spain, and Syriza in Greece – are either winning power outright or holding the balance of power between traditional pro-EU mainstream parties and anti-EU nationalist parties.

There are three reasons for Europe’s changing politics. The first, and perhaps least recognised, is a generation of disastrous US foreign policy in the Middle East and Africa. After the Cold War ended in the early 1990s, the US and local allies aimed to establish political and military hegemony in the Middle East and North Africa through US-led wars of regime change in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Libya, and elsewhere. The result has been chronic violence and instability, leading to massive refugee flows into Europe that have upended politics in one EU member state after another.

The second reason is Europe’s now chronic under-investment, especially by the public sector. Under former Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble, a self-satisfi ed and economically successful Germany blocked European-wide investment-led growth, and turned the eurozone into a debtors’ prison for Greece and a dispiriting zone of stagnation for much of southern and eastern Europe. With the EU’s economic policy limited to austerity, it’s not hard to see why populism has taken root.

The third reason is structural. Northern Europe innovates, while southern and eastern Europe by and large do not, or at least not nearly at the same rate. Italy straddles the two sides of Europe: a dynamic north, and chronic malaise in the south (the Mezzogiorno). This is an old story, but also an ongoing one. It helps to explain the frontlines of EU politics. The M5S was triumphant especially in Italy’s stagnating south.

My political predilections lie with social democracy. I blame conservatives like Schauble for driving voters into the arms of populist parties. Yet too many mainstream social-democratic leaders went quietly along with Schauble. I also fault Chancellor Angela Merkel and other European leaders for failing to speak strongly enough against the US-led wars in the Middle East and North Africa. European leaders should have been much more energetic at the United Nations in opposing America’s hegemonic policy in the Middle East, with its catastrophic eff ects, including mass displacement and refugee movements.

Advocates of a strong and vibrant EU – and I am fi rmly among them – should be rooting for the insurgent parties to join forces with the weakened traditional social-democratic parties in order to promote sustainable development, innovation, and investment-led growth, and to block anti-EU coalitions. Or, as in Germany, they should urge the grand coalition of centre-left and centre-right parties to become much more dynamic and investment-oriented at European scale, both for the sake of economic good sense and to combat far-right nationalists.

Or, as in France, they should cheer the amalgamation of pro-EU traditionalists and insurgents in President Emmanuel Macron’s La Republique En Marche ! Such pro-EU alignments give the EU time to reform its institutions, stake out a common foreign policy, and initiate investment- and innovation-led green growth in place of austerity and complacency.

Traditional social-democratic parties mostly shun the new insurgent parties, viewing them as populist, irresponsible, opportunistic, and dishonest. Such is the view in Italy on the part of the Democrats, with key politicians

rejecting a coalition with M5S. That is understandable: the upstarts thoroughly defeated the Democrats at the polls, often with outsize populist promises. Yet the social democrats have been fl accid and even silent in the face of Schauble-style austerity and irresponsible US-led wars. The traditional social-democratic parties will have to regain their dynamism and appetite for risk-taking to win again at the polls as true progressive parties.

The stakes in Italy are high. With Europe politically and geographically divided, Italy’s politics could tip the balance. A pro-EU Italy governed by an M5S-Democrat coalition could join with France and Germany to reform the EU; regain a clear foreign-policy voice for EU vis-a-vis the US, Russia, and China; and implement a strategy for green, innovation-based growth.

To forge such a coalition, the M5S would have to adopt a responsible and clearly defi ned economic program, and the Democrats would have to accept being the junior partner of an untested insurgent force. A possible key to mutual confi dence would be for the Democrats to hold the crucial fi nance ministry, while M5S appoints the prime minister.

It is not surprising that US President Donald Trump’s utterly reckless former adviser, Stephen Bannon, rushed to Italy to encourage M5S and the League to form a coalition that he called the “ultimate dream,” because it would break the EU. That by itself should remind Italians of the importance of a pro-EU coalition that rejects such miserable nightmares. – Project Syndicate

Jeff rey D Sachs, university professor at Columbia University, is director of Columbia’s Centre for Sustainable Development and the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

11-04-2018

Luigi Di Maio, the 31-year-old Five Star Movement (M5S) leader, hopes to soon walk into the Italian Parliament as the youngest prime minister in Italian history.

QATAR23Gulf Times


Qatar, US sign slew of accordsto bolster economic relationsA number of agreements

were signed yesterday on the sidelines of the Qatar-

US Economic Forum in Wash-ington, DC.

The memorandums of under-standing (MoUs) covered vari-ous areas, including pharma-ceuticals, project management services and support for small and medium enterprises (SMEs), among others.

The signing of agreements was witnessed by HE the Min-ister of Economy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani in the pres-ence of HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim al-Thani, chairman of the Qatari Businessmen Asso-ciation, Sheikh Khalifa bin Jas-sim al-Thani, chairman of Qatar Chamber, and Robert Cresanti, president and CEO, Internation-al Franchise Association.

One of the MoUs was signed between Astad and Aecom to prepare a joint proposal on the provision of project manage-ment services for the expansion of Hamad International Airport and the establishment of joint projects.

Another MoU was inked be-tween Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and the Small Business Development Centre (SBDC), aiming at the exchange of best practices and innovative solu-tions between the two parties to support SMEs and the launch of various initiatives to assist Qa-tari entrepreneurs and prepare them for the market.

Meanwhile, QDB signed an MoU with TheVentureCity for the exchange of best practices and in-novative solutions between the

two parties in the fi eld of invest-ment services, and helping pro-mote the exports of Qatari com-panies in the US market.

The dignitaries also witnessed the signing of an MoU between Qatar Pharma and Dawah Phar-maceuticals. It envisages in-vesting for the establishment a state-of-the-art pharmaceuti-cal factory in Qatar to manufac-ture drugs for Qatar’s require-ments as well as for exporting them to Asia, Africa and Europe.

Another MoU was inked by Qatar Building Company and

Roadtec, aiming to establish a commercial dealership to serve customers in Qatar and provide

them with after-sales services and spare parts at reasonable prices.

Qatar-US Economic Forum begins in WashingtonThe Qatar-US Economic

Forum started yesterday in Washington DC, coin-

ciding with the visit of His High-ness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani.

The event is organised by the Ministry of Economy and Com-merce (MEC) in co-operation with Qatar Chamber, American Chamber of Commerce, Qatari Businessmen Association, Qa-tar-US Business Council and a number of US entities.

In a statement issued on the occasion of the start of the Fo-rum, HE the Minister of Econ-omy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani stressed the depth and power of the bilateral relation-ships between Qatar and the US.

“Washington is the second stop of the current US economic tour, which aims at focusing on the role of Qatari investment in enhancing partnerships between the two countries that produced more than one million job op-portunities in the US,” he said, while pointing out that the Qa-tari business community enjoys strong relationships in Wash-ington City.

HE Sheikh Ahmed pointed out that Qatar increased its invest-

ment in the US over the years, which contributed to the crea-tion of thousands of jobs across the country and investments through partnerships with many American companies such as ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, and Raytheon.

The minister noted there are about 15,000 Americans work-ing in Qatar, of whom about 5,000 are in jobs that require high skills within the private sector. Sheikh Ahmed stressed the role of the Qatar Investment Authority, which has allocated $45bn of investments in the US between 2015 and 2020, of which $10bn will be directed for in-vestment in the infrastructure sector.

“These investments consti-tute 23% of Qatar’s GDP,” he asserted. Referring to Qatari in-vestments in the US, HE Sheikh Ahmed said Qatar Airways has allocated about $92bn to support the US economy by purchasing 332 US-made aircraft, support-ing more than 527,000 jobs.

Highlighting the Qatari pri-vate sector’s investments in the US, the minister stressed that the latter injected more than $5bn in technology, hospital-ity, real estate and home trade,

which contributed to supporting the US economy.

US-Qatari bilateral economic relations have grown signifi -cantly since the signing of the Trade and Investment Frame-work Agreement, back in 2004. Today, the US is a strong trading partner and a primary source for Qatari imports.

During the past five years, the volume of goods trade between the two countries amounted to about $24bn. There are cur-rently about 650 US companies operating in Qatar, including about 117 wholly owned by the US as well as 55 US companies operating under the umbrella of the Qatar Financial Cen-tre. The volume of US invest-ments in Qatar amounted to QR26.3bn.

The Forum was attended by HE Sheikh Faisal bin Qas-sim al-Thani, chairman of Qa-tar Businessmen Association; Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani, chairman of Qatar Chamber; ambassador Anne Patterson, chairperson of Qatar-US Business Forum, in addition to 200 businessmen and offi cials from Qatar and 200 businesspersons and executives from the US. Qatari and US off icials at the Qatar-US Economic Forum which started yesterday in Washington, DC.

MoU signing by Qatar Building Company and Roadtec.

Agreement signing between QDB and SBDC.

The MoU signing between QDB and TheVentureCity.

HE Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani and other dignitaries at the signing of the MoU between Astad and Aecom. Signing of the agreement between Qatar Pharma and Dawah Pharmaceuticals.

Minister meets IFA delegation

HE the Minister of Economy and

Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin

Jassim bin Mohamed al-Thani has

met with a delegation from the In-

ternational Franchise Association

(IFA), headed by IFA president

and CEO Robert Cresanti, in

Washington, DC. Discussions

touched upon the prospects for

co-operation in the economic,

trade and investment fields, the

promotion of partnerships and

eff orts to attract investments to

new markets in the region.

24 Gulf TimesWednesday, April 11, 2018

QATAR

His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani was welcomed by US President Donald Trump in the Oval Off ice yesterday. His Highness the Emir praised the president’s personal support to Qatar during the blockade and thanked the American people for their support during the Gulf crisis.

His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani meets US Vice President Mike Pence at the Oval Office yesterday.

Emir meets President Trump and senior US officials in Washington

World Cup a ‘catalyst for Qatar and region to accelerate social progress’The 2022 FIFA World Cup is

seen as a catalyst for Qatar and the region to accelerate social

progress and build a better future for generations to come, Supreme Com-mittee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) Sec-retary-General Hassan al-Thawadi has said.

He made the observation while speaking during the offi cial opening session of a United Nations Offi ce on Drugs and Crime’s special event, titled ‘Crime Prevention and Sustainable Development Through Sports’, during which he discussed the transforma-tive power of sport and Qatar’s vision for the fi rst Middle Eastern FIFA World Cup.

Miroslav Lajcak, president of the United Nations General Assembly and former Slovakian foreign minister, opened the event at the United Na-tions (UN) headquarters in New York. The event brought together a wide ar-ray of fi gures, including member-state representatives at the ministerial and permanent representative level, dis-tinguished athletes, sporting person-

alities, UN goodwill ambassadors, civil society, academia, the private sector, media and international organisations.

The date of the event was selected to coincide with the United Nations’ International Day of Sport for Devel-opment and Peace, which falls on April 6 every year, in commemoration of the inauguration of the fi rst Olympic Games (1896) of the modern era.

Al-Thawadi spoke of the impor-tance of a multilateral approach toward ensuring sport’s transformative power is properly utilised for the benefi t of societies across the world and for the purpose of attaining the UN Sustain-able Development Goals. He said, “Our collective challenge is to convey to the world sport’s power to transcend lan-guages, faiths and culture and unite people. We must ensure that access to sport is facilitated and encouraged at all levels of society, whether as an edu-cational tool in the developing world, or at the organisational level of a mega event such as the 2022 FIFA World Cup.”

The secretary-general, speaking

in front of participants at the Ecosoc Chamber at the home of international diplomacy, explained to the audi-ence Qatar’s integrated vision for a FIFA World Cup that “leaves a legacy

of sustainable development for the host country, the region and the Arab world”, according to a report on sc.qa

“Hosting the fi rst FIFA World Cup in the Middle East is an opportunity that we consider of the utmost importance for the benefi t of our wider region and the Arab world as a whole,” he said. “We aren’t going to settle for hosting a month of football and then watch the world move on. We view the event as a catalyst for Qatar and the region to ac-celerate social progress and to build a better future for generations to come.”

Al-Thawadi detailed initiatives launched by the SC that specifi cally target youth, including Generation Amazing that focuses on contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals through projects that utilise the power of football to instigate social change, break down social barriers, increase access to sport and enhance community integration.

Qatar’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, HE Sheikha Alya bint Ahmed bin Saif al-Thani, said: “Qatar’s commitment to im-

proving society through sport is a key pillar in our international co-opera-tion through the United Nations. To-day’s event brought together leaders in the fi eld of sport development and showcased the shared determination that exists to make a diff erence in so-ciety at all levels through sporting ini-tiatives.”

In his remarks, Lajack said: “Sport can boost self-esteem, help commu-nities, help bridge political, ethnic or religious diff erences, can be a driver for peaceful societies and make commu-nity initiatives more eff ective. Young people must be the torch-bearers for sustainable development, though. Young people should be leading the discussion regarding the important role sport can and does play around the world. What can the rest of us do? We can help by fully supporting sport as a rule for both development and peace to ensure we see its full potential.”

In a video message, ex-FC Barce-lona legend, current Al Sadd player and SC global ambassador Xavi Her-nandez urged participants to “develop

strategies, which will give young gen-erations new opportunities”. He added that “Qatar is utilising the FIFA World Cup to create social development,” re-calling his experiences visiting refugee camps in Jordan, where he coached young boys and girls as part of the pro-gramme.

After the event’s conclusion, al-Thawadi attended the unveiling of the ‘Hey Ya (Let’s Go): Arab Women in Sport’ photography exhibition, which was opened by HE Sheikha Al Mayas-sa bint Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums.

The exhibit, curated by Brigitte and Marian Lacombe, is located at the United Nations Delegates’ Entrance, visually showcasing how sport em-powers Arab women and youths’ daily lives. The event was the latest in the SC’s outreach at the United Nations, with the continuing intention to com-municate the purpose and detail be-hind the legacy programmes that serve as a foundation for the overall vision of hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup, the report adds.

SC Secretary-General Hassan al-Thawadi.

Qatar economy, World Cup work progressing fast: al-EmadiBy Ghaida Ghantous &Dmitry ZhdannikovReuters

The economy of Qatar, the world’s top exporter of liquefi ed natural gas

(LNG), is set to grow 2.6% this year and closer to 3% in 2019, HE the Finance Minister Ali

Sherif al-Emadi told Reuters. The Gulf state’s economy has largely recovered from a boycott imposed by other Arab states last June and is again one of the region’s fastest-growing.

Qatar moved quickly to safe-guard its economy after Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emir-ates, Bahrain and Egypt cut dip-lomatic and transport ties with

Doha, accusing it of fi nancing terrorism. Qatar rejects the al-legations. The boycott disrupt-ed imports. But it developed new trade routes and helped local fi rms to develop output of some key goods.

“We are still doing very well and will make sure economic growth outpaces that of the re-gion,” HE al-Emadi said, fore-

casting private sector growth of 4% in 2018. He said Qatar was moving on fast with spending in preparation of hosting the 2022 World Cup and that 90% of in-frastructure work for the event would be completed by 2019.

Qatar is set to make its fi rst foray into the international bond markets since the Arab row erupted last year. It is

meeting UK and US investors ahead of issuing fi ve-, 10- and 30-year dollar notes.

Al-Emadi said before that announcement that the po-litical crisis had not dampened appetite for Qatari debt and that Doha was engaged in the market. “We haven’t seen any change in fi nancial institu-tions’ behaviour towards us. It

is business as usual,” he said. “If we see a good opportunity we will go out.”

Qatar’s banking sector is still very liquid and can pro-vide funding options for Qatari fi rms, while some of the more developed companies in the country have already accessed international bond markets, the minister added. HE Ali Sherif al-Emadi

The Emir meeting John Sullivan, Acting US Secretary of State.

The Emir holding talks with Wilbur Ross, US Secretary of Commerce.

The Emir meeting with Kirstjen Nielsen, US Secretary of Homeland Security.

The Emir holding talks with Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury.

The Emir in talks with Darren Woods, CEO of ExxonMobil.

qatar never a supporter of terrorism, emir tells trump

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