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THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016 • 26 MOHARRAM 1438 • Volume 21 • Number 6962 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar

Included with today’s edition is an 8-page

supplement onPublic Health

Public Health

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

PAGE | 2 PAGE | 8

Mental Health Day: A healthy mind for a healthy body

HMC promotesimportance ofgood eye health

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By Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

Qatar and neighbouring states are not different from many developed countries around the world with stroke being one of

the leading causes of mortality and the reason behind chronic disability.

But the main difference within Qatar to many countries is the younger average age of stroke vic-tims, says Prof Ashfaq Shuaib Director, Neurosciences Institute of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC).

“The average age of a stroke vic-tim in Qatar is 54, which is roughly in line with other GCC countries. However, it’s much younger than the average age of 77 for stroke patients in the US and UK,” he told The Peninsula.

According to Prof. Shuaib this average age is influenced somewhat by the relatively young population in Qatar – due to most expat work-ers leaving Qatar when they reach retirement age. However, the most common risk factors for a stroke – including hypertension, diabetes, smoking and a lack of exercise – are prevalent across Qatar’s population,

World StrokeDay 2016

On this backdrop HMC will hold

community engagement activi-

ties in malls to raise awareness

of stroke on October 29 to

coincide with the 2016 World Stroke

Day. Activities will include HMC staff

offering advice and guidance about

stroke. The theme for 2016 World

Stroke Day is ‘Face the Facts: Stroke is

Treatable’ with the tagline of: Lives can

improve with better awareness, access,

and action.’ Stroke can happen to any-

one at any age. Stroke affects everyone

including survivors, family and friends,

workplaces and communities.

Stroke happens when the blood

supply to part of the brain is cut off.

Without blood, brain cells can be dam-

aged or can die. This damage can have

different effects depending on where it

happens in the brain. It can affect peo-

ple’s body, mobility and speech, as well

as how they think and feel.

The key objectives during this year’s

awareness campaign will be to raise

f h i id f kFace the facts:

October 29

2 Riyals

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce is seeking feed-back from private investors on four fish farming and aquacul-ture projects being established in the country to ensure stable sup-ply of fish and shrimp throughout the year.

The projects with an expected production capacity of 7,000 tonnes of fish and aquatic produce are being set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipality

and Environment, with participa-tion of the private sector.

The Technical Committee to stimulate private sector partici-pation in economic development projects at the ministry said that the project aims to increase domestic fish production to meet the contin-uing increase in the demand and provide high quality products to the market.

Fish farming and aquaculture are one of the most active pro-duction systems with the ability to control the climatic factors to achieve mass production.

The aquaculture project to be set up along the coastal site of El Arish will cover an area of 111 hectares, with an estimated pro-duction capacity of not less than 1,000 tonnes per year. The project is expected to reach its maximum production capacity within 42 months.

The three projects for fish farming and aquaculture through floating cage system within the deep water will be set up in the northern part of the state with a total area of 270 hectares.

Each project covers an area of 90 hectares, with a production capacity of not less than 2,000 tonnes per year.

The three projects are expected to reach their maximum production capacity within 36 months.

→ Continued on page 6

The Peninsula

DOHA: As winter camping season is set to start next month, authori-ties yesterday warned the campers against violating the camping rules and driving cars and motorcycles without taking the safety measures around the camping site.

The officials of the Ministry of Interior and Ministry of Municipal-ity and Environment also announced launching awareness campaign in the middle of next month for potential campers to avert accidents.

The participants of a workshop organised by General Directorate of

Traffic observed that major violations committed in the winter season by campers included driving cars with-out license and driving of motorcycles without safety measures especially by children. They noted that these were main cause behind accidents.

“Also there are many people who drive caravans without back lights and in this case the authority con-cerned books the caravan and takes legal action against the violator,” said Lieutenant Jaber Ali Al Hajri from Al Dukhan Security while addressing the workshop.

Saad Al Kaabi from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment said that the most violations committed in winter camping season were digging

the earth. “Another violation usually committed is throwing litter and leav-ing wastes,” he said, adding that another commonly found violation was driving by underage campers in desert’s banned areas during rainy days.

Al Kaabi said the ministry was cooperating with the authorities concerned especially the Ministry of Interior on safety conditions and was in complete coordination with traffic department to raise awareness among youth. Lieutenant Abdul Wahid Al Anzi, from the Traffic Awareness sec-tion said that the section had set focus on conducting awareness campaign in camping season.

→ Continued on page 6

Ministry seeks investor feedback on aqua farms

QNA

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khal-ifa Al Thani met at Al Wajba Palace yesterday with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Defence, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, who offered condolences on the death of H H the Grandfather Emir Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Saudi crown prince was

accompanied by Prince Abdullah bin Bandar bin Abdulaziz Al Saud and Prince Turki bin Hathloul bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. The Emir and the Father Emir also met Prime

Minister of Bahrain Prince Khal-ifa bin Salman Al Khalifa. The Emir received telephone calls from Paki-stani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Indian Prime Minister Narendra

Modi, during which they offered con-dolences on the death of H H the Grandfather Emir.

→ Continued on page 4→ See also page 19

Schoolchildren dead in Syria air strike BEIRUT: Air strikes by Syrian or Russian warplanes killed at least 26 people, most of them schoolchildren, in a village in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province yesterday, rescue workers and a monitoring group said.

The raids hit a residential area and a school in Haas village, the Syrian Civil Defence rescue workers network said on its Facebook account.

A report on Syrian state TV quoted a military source saying a number of militants had been killed when their positions were targeted in Haas, but did not mention a school.

Syria’s civil war pits President Bashar Al Assad, backed by Russia, Iran and Shia Muslim militias from Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan against an array of mostly Sunni Muslim rebel groups including some backed by Turkey, Gulf monarchies and the United States.

→ See also page 9

Emir, Father Emir receive more mourners

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Saudi Deputy Crown Prince, Second Deputy Premier and Minister of Defence, Mohammed bin Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, at Al Wajba Palace. RIGHT: Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani with Prime Minister of Bahrain Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa.

Campers warned against rash driving

The projects with an expected production capacity of 7,000 tonnes of fish and aquatic produce are being set up in collaboration with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, with participation of the private sector.

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HOME 03 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

By Sanaullah AtaullahThe Peninsula

DOHA: The weekly comparative price list issued by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce shows huge differ-ences in the prices of commodities at different shopping outlets.

The Ministry has been issuing the price list, com-paring the prices of different essential commodities at leading shopping outlets to promote competition and help the consumers identify the lowest prices.

The move aims at providing prices of products displayed at 17 major outlets across the country to con-sumers, especially low income families, for comparison.

The comparative price list named “Where To Shop” for this week (from 23 to 29 October) has shown a dif-ference of QR94 in the prices of a bag of rice of a popular brand from one outlet to other.

The price list includes 132 food items, 42 non-food items and 38 products for children and could be accessed via the website of the Ministry at http://market.mec.gov.qa/index.aspx. The major outlets are Carrefour, Al Meera, Giant Stores, Lulu, Daheel, Safari, Family Food Centre, Al Safeer, Mega Mart, Food Palace, Food World, Saudia, Al Rawabi, Quality, Grand, Masskar and Grand Mart.

According to the price list, a 40kg bag of Punjab Gar-den Basmati Rice is available at QR200 (the minimum price in an outlet) and at QR294.5, the maximum price in another shopping center.

The price of a 5kg bag of Sun White Rice ranges between QR30 and QR38.50 in various outlets. Sadia Frozen Chicken for 1kg and 1.2kg are being sold with the differences in prices of up to QR3.75 (QR11-QR14.75) and QR4.75 (QR13.25-QR18) respectively.

Taybat Frozen Chicken of 1kg is available at QR14 (minimum) and QR17 (maximum). Prices of Sadia Beef Burger 24pc/1.34kg range between QR31.5 and QR38.25 from one outlet to other. The price of the chicken burger of the same brand of 672gm varies from QR16.50 to QR20. American Sweet Corn of 450gm pack is available

between QR9.25 and QR11. Prices of non-food items have a minor difference

at QR1 and QR1.5 from one shop to the other. But chil-dren’s products witnessed differences in the prices of upto QR10. A packet of J& J baby powder of 500gm ranges between QR20 and QR30.25. Baby joy diaper medium No 3 of 34PCs ranges between QR27.25 and QR29. Nido milk powder 2.5kg is being sold at QR60.75 and QR71.75.

The price list has indicators to show that the prices of the products are higher or lower. Punjab Garden Bas-mati Rice and Sun White Rice are indicated in red for higher prices. However, Sadia Frozen Chicken and Sun-bula French Fries are indicated in greed for lower prices.

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has launched a service “Where to Shop?” as part of its efforts to control the prices of consumer goods, food and non-food items. The move aims at bringing parity to prices to protect the rights of consumers, especially for low-income residents, reads a note on the website.

The service provides prices of some key items to cus-tomers so that they can compare the prices at various outlet s before going for shopping.

Differences in prices of commodities at outletsMinistry issues price list to promote competition and help consumers identify the lowest prices.

HOME04 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

Continued from page 1

The Emir received yesterday at Al Wajba Palace Pres-ident of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas, Governor of the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia Prince Saud bin Nayef bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, Minister Responsible for Defence Affairs of Sultanate of Oman Sayyid Badr bin Saud bin Harib Al Busaidi, Prince Mohammed bin Fahd bin Abdulaziz Al Saud, former president of the Republic of Tunisia Mohamed Moncef Marzouki, former President of the Republic of Leb-anon General Michel Sleiman, Chairman of the Political Bureau of the Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Kha-led Meshaal, Deputy Chairman of Hamas Political Bureau Dr Ismail Haniyah and General Coordinator of the High Negotiations Committee for the Syrian Revolution and Opposition Forces Dr Riad Hijab, who offered condolences on the death of H H the Grandfather Emir Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani was also present along with H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, the personal representative of the Emir, H E Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani, H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani, H H Sheikh Mohamed bin Khalifa Al Thani, H E Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa Al Thani, and a number of Their Excellencies sons of the Father Emir.

The Emir and the Father Emir received at Al Wajba Pal-ace yesterday more mourners including members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Qatar who offered their condolences on the death of the Grandfather Emir. Their Excellencies Sheikhs, dignitaries and citizens prayed to Allah to have mercy on his soul and make his residence paradise.

Emir receives condolences

HOME 05THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Doha Film Institute (DFI) and Qatar Animation Center (QAC) have partnered with Primetime Emmy® Engineering Award winning Cana-dian entity Toon Boom Animation to support the development of the animation industry in Qatar by providing intensive workshops on advanced animation.

The partnership will provide intensive training sessions on Har-mony and Storyboard Pro software for professionals within Qatar’s film and creative industries. The pro-gramme includes two sessions of three workshops each that will intro-duce the participants, from beginner to advanced concepts, and help them create efficient and high quality assets, animations, and drawings.

In addition to receiving a certifi-cate on completion, participants also receive a one-month pre-training session software licence, and con-sultancy services for animation film projects led by DFI.

Toon Boom Animation has an

outstanding track-record in anima-tion, and this is its first-of-its-kind partnership in the Arab world. Over the past two decades, it has been the go-to organisation for premiere sto-ryboarding and animation software that have been deployed for high-profile productions by the world’s leading studios.

DFI CEO Fatma Al Remaihi said: “The rise in interest in animation is a recent development that is pow-ered by the demand for original Arabic content, a growing interest from regional television stations and an internet savvy population. From film to advertising and social media engagement, animation

offers exciting career opportunities and has the potential to evolve into something much bigger. Our part-nership underlines our commitment to provide the best in knowledge & resources to the Qatari community, and to strengthen their skills in an industry that is undergoing a fasci-nating transformation.”

Abdulla Al Mosallam, Direc-tor of the Qatar Animation Center, said, “We are excited to partner with DFI to host these workshops that help filmmakers explore the vast opportunities available within the animation industry sector in Qatar and the region. Even though the Qatari animation industry is still in

the formative stages, the interest the medium has gained from local film-makers signals strong growth over the coming years and we are con-fident they will pave the way for a major presence in the global market.”

Led by Stacey Eberschlag, Con-sultant/Senior Animation Instructor at Toon Boom Animation Inc., the workshop is the first of its kind in the region that opens the opportunity for participants to contribute to the fast-growing animation industry sector. “I am delighted with the fantastic response from the Qatari commu-nity to our training programme in partnership with the DFI and Qatar Animation Center,” said Eberschlag.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Thani bin Abdul-lah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) has distributed food baskets worth QR300,000 to more than 6,000 poor people in remote islands of Indonesia.

The project was implemented in hard-to-access areas in the islands located between north of Sumatra and west of Java in Indonesia. The project aimed at delivering aid materials to poor people who could not reach the distribution centres because they were far away from their homes or they could not afford the transpiration charges from their homes to the centres.

The project was financed by the people in Qatar as donations.

Most of the families living in these areas are poor. They do not have enough money to buy the daily food due to financial crisis caused

by the natural disasters. Hundreds of poor families,

teachers of Holy Quran, preachers and students received food baskets with enough foods for two months.

Two local organizations, Al Resala and Al Raya, coordinated with RAF in the disbursal of the food material to the beneficiaries across the islands scattered over a large area.

A family received a basket com-prising basic food items like rice, edible oil, pasta, milk, soya, flour, meat and biscuits for children, enough for two months.

Situated between the Indian and Pacific oceans, Indonesia is the world’s largest island country, with thousands of islands.

It is the world’s fourth most populous country, and the most populous Muslim country.

People are suffering from pov-erty and lack of resources due to natural disasters.

RAF distributes aid to 6,000 people in Indonesian islands

Representatives from RAF carrying food items in a boat for distribution to poor people in an Island in Indonesia.

DFI and QAC in deal with Toon BoomThe deal will support the development of the animation industry in Qatar by providing intensive workshops on advanced animation.

Officials and some participants at the first animation workshop organised recently at the DFI.

Campers given information on weather and safe driving → Continued from page 1

“We will guide people about weather condition, safe driving etc. and our main focus will be youth,” he said, adding that the section

will also distribute some aware-ness leaflets among motorists and campers.

Lieutenant Hamad Ali Al-Nabet said that most accidents occurring during winter camping season were

reported on internal streets. He also added they had established check-points in places like Al Mazroua because it witnessed more accidents.

Omar Al Awadi from General Authority for Specification and

Standardization talked about con-ditions to be followed by caravans and trailers mentioning that the traffic rules applicable to cars were also applicable to them in regard to dimensions, weights and lights etc.

HOME06 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

A customer who won a trolley full of items in the innovative promotion campaign running at all Lulu outlets under the title ‘Win 1500 Free Trolleys with Lulu’ receives his prize from a supervisor of Lulu Hypermarket, Al Khor. The wow factor is that customers buying supermarket items will have the opportunity to win the full trolley of items shopped by them while they make the payment at the checkout on the POS machine. It is a promotion entirely controlled by the computer system, which started yesterday and will continue until November 6 at Lulu outlets on D-Ring Road, Al Gharrafa, Al Khor Mall and Barwa City.

Lulu customer wins trolley full of items

Ministry warns against use of illegal hunting equipmentBy Sidi Mohamed The Peninsula

DOHA: The Wildlife Section at the Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment has warned that people using illegal hunting equipment face hefty fines and even jail time.

The warning comes with the beginning of hunting season for birds that extends until May.

“Anyone caught using illegal hunting tools and equipment as well as violating the law on hunt-ing will be fined not more than QR10,000 and be given an impris-onment of not more than one year.

All equipment used in hunting such as car, guns and other tools will be confiscated,” Mubarak Ali Al Marri, head of Wildlife Section at the Minis-try of Municipality and Environment, told Al Rayyan Channel recently.

“Hunting at night, using all types of guns , webs, devices which attract birds and all other banned hunting equipment are against the law,” Al Marri said.

Houbara and Al Karaween are among the birds allowed to be hunted while Al Adraj is the spe-cies that should not be hunted, he pointed out.

The rabbit hunting season, the official said, will run for 45 days

starting from November 1 and end-ing on December 15.

Asked on how the period for the hunting season had been deter-mined, he said it came after studies which showed the right time for hunting. The ministry is set to beef up its patrolling capacity by increasing the number of inspec-tors especially as the hunting season coincides with the winter camping season, he said. He also urged people to be vigilant and report violators.

There had been some people who are critical of the law on hunt-ing and penalties, he said, adding “Our aim is to maintain balance in the environment.”

Breast Cancer

Conference

kicks off

tomorrowThe Peninsula

DOHA: Under the patronage of Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) will host a Breast Cancer Conference (BCC) tomorrow, to be held under the theme “present standards and new perspectives ” at Sheraton hotel in Doha.

The breast cancer conference was developed to be of interest to health care practitioners from all specialities, and will provide prac-tical information to enhance the quality of care in breast cancer, to be delivered by speakers and top experts in the field, from Qatar, GCC countries, Austria, Canada, USA, and Egypt.

Along with the Breast Cancer Conference, there will be a spe-cialised health care exhibition, which is an important opportu-nity for health care companies to keep the attendees abreast of latest innovations in the field of breast cancer care under one roof at the international level.

This activity is a Category 1 - Accredited Group Learning Activity as defined by the Qatar Council for Healthcare Practition-ers — Accreditation Department and is approved for a maximum of 7.25 hours.

Overall learning objectives include updating the participants’ knowledge of novel prevention, screening, diagnosis, and treat-ment approaches to breast cancer without any branding, provide practical information to enhance the quality of care in breast can-cer, familiarise the participants with the current standards of breast cancer care in Qatar, highlight the importance of psy-cho-oncologic support for breast cancer patients, emphasise the importance of the life after treat-ment for breast cancer survivors.

Experts lined up for mental health meet

The Peninsula

DOHA: Hamad Medical Corpo-ration (HMC) has announced the names of some key international speakers who form part of the core faculty at the upcoming 5th Qatar International Mental Health Con-ference, which will be held at the Westin Hotel in Doha on Decem-ber 2 and 3.

“The Qatar International Men-tal Health Conference is the premier conference in the Arab World on this topic,” said Dr Suhaila Ghuloum, Senior Consultant Psychiatrist at HMC’s Mental Health Service and Chairperson of the Mental Health Conference. “This is the fifth event organised by HMC to promote learn-ing and international best practice exchange among healthcare profes-sionals with an interest in mental health in this region.”

Dr Ghuloum outlined the exciting new developments of the conference, which include wide ranging topics on various fields related to mental health and spe-cialist care for children, adolescents, adults and older adults: “Men-tal health research is so essential and as yet underrepresented in this region and a core objective has been to encourage more research initiatives. This year’s programme features several oral sessions which will showcase the research

and quality initiatives in Qatar and from the region; and our aim is to use the conference as a platform to explore and promote research collaborations.”

Professor Peter Woodruff, Chair of Psychiatry and Medical Direc-tor of the Mental Health Service at HMC, said: “Mental illness is com-mon across the world and can have a major impact on people’s lives and those of their families. Research in understanding the causes of men-tal illnesses and the best ways to treat them is essential in order to provide the most appropriate up-to-date treatments and services. This conference will provide an opportu-nity for all those involved in helping people with mental illness to learn the latest developments in mental health research so as to apply that understanding in order to pro-vide the best possible care for their patients”.

The lectures and workshops aimed at healthcare professionals will be delivered by experts from around the world.

Experts such as Dr Zeina Che-mali, who is the Director of the Neuropsychiatry Clinics and Train-ing in the Departments of Psychiatry and Neurology at Massachusetts General Hospital, will attend the conference. She is one of the few physicians in the US who is dually boarded in psychiatry and neurology.

Colm McDonald, Professor of Psychiatry at National University of Ireland, Galway and Consultant Psychiatrist, West Galway Men-tal Health Services has his clinical research programme in Ireland focused on investigating neu-robiological and neuroimaging abnormalities associated with major psychotic and affective disorders, as well as health services research.

Conference to focus on research in the field.

Qatar University researchers developing lifelong learning frameworkThe Peninsula

DOHA: A research project con-ducted by faculty and researchers at Qatar University (QU) in collab-oration with a team of international researchers is developing a lifelong learning framework that facili-tates the enhancement of graduate attributes and continuous profes-sional development (CPD) in Qatar based on national skills and compe-tency requirements.

Themed “A Life Long Learning Framework for Enhancing Grad-uate Attributes and Continuous Professional Development in Qatar

(LEARNER)”, the research project is conducted by a team of researchers from QU and Brunel University Lon-don. The team includes QU Associate Vice President for Academic Planning & Development Dr Nitham Hindi, Director of QU Continuing Educa-tion Office and Assistant Professor of Accounting at QU College of Busi-ness & Economics Dr Rajab Al Esmail, Professor of Digital Governance at Brunel Business School and Editor-in-Chief of the International Journal of Electronic Government Research (IJEGR) Prof Vishanth Weerakkody, Founding Dean of Brunel Univer-sity London College of Business, Arts and Social Sciences Prof Zahir Irani, Senior Lecturer at Brunel Business

School Dr Tillal Eldabi, Research Fellow Dr Mohamad Osmani and Research Assistant Paul Waller.

The team is formulating a framework that provides the nec-essary guidelines for policy and decision-makers to monitor and actively engage in lifelong learn-ing and CPD activities in Qatar. The framework and its related informa-tion will be available to the public through a web-based platform that will allow senior management and HR functions in local organisations to appraise and recommend the Qatari workforce for CPD training workshops based on international standards and accreditations. The information and knowledge

generated through this platform will be dynamically accumulated and summarised to inform national policy-makers and engage them in shaping attributes of the new grad-uate workforce.

Commenting on the project, Dr Nitham Hindi said: “We take it for granted that our doctors, law-yers, accountants and architects are well-trained, behave properly and have up-to-date expertise, but we don’t give much thought to how that trust is built up and maintained by those professionals. If we want to grow our own workforce, we have to think about how we improve our graduates’ skills while at uni-versity, and also about continued

professional development after they graduate and start their employ-ment journey.”

He added: “The project con-tributes towards the fulfilment of the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030, and the national aspirations to build a sustainable knowledge-based economy. It also highlights Qatar’s positioning as a model for economic, social and human capi-tal development in the region. This is just one of the many examples of the level of innovative research being conducted at QU and its collabora-tive efforts with researchers from around the world in line with the uni-versity’s strategic plan and research roadmap.”

Forum showcases leading initiatives of Dubai govtThe Peninsula

DUBAI: The ninth edition of Dubai Forum for Government Best Prac-tices 2016, organised by Executive Council’s Dubai Government Excel-lence Programme (DGEP) concluded here yesterday.

The events that highlighted exceptional experiences and show-cased leading initiatives were held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, UAE Vice-President, Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai.

“We are grateful that the forum achieved our desired goals and wit-nessed unprecedented success and remarkable attendance. We wit-nessed the vital role this Forum plays in supporting excellence and development plans pursued by government entities in Dubai,” said Abdullah Abdul Rahman Al Shaibani, the Secretary General of

the Executive Council of the Emir-ate of Dubai.

“The Dubai Forum for Govern-ment Best Practices 2016 witnessed many distinctive events, such as a number of leading global and local experiences that represent new models to follow in government work and youth empowerment, so they can contribute in building the future of the country. These will also

transform creative ideas into efforts to achieve a prosperous and bright future. Hence, the Forum is a global platform for excellence, and a bea-con of creative ideas in government performance” he added.

Dr Ahmed Abdullah Al Nusei-rat, the General Coordinator, DGEP, stressed that each year the Forum offers new perspectives and acts as a platform to show Dubai’s capa-bility in reaching the highest levels of excellence in all sectors of the government.

“This year, the Forum came to establish two major ideas: the power of youth and accelerated tran-sition into the future. Both were linked to realise the government of the Future. This is in synergy with Dubai’s Future Accelerators initiative launched recently, now a focal point in business. The aim is to maintain alignment with the unique devel-opment and progress that Dubai anticipates in the coming period.”

Technical panel

poll to seek

investor feedback

Continued from page 1

The committee, in coordi-nation with authorities will be responsible for delivering all the necessary facilities for the imple-mentation of the four projects, and facilitating the procurement of approvals, permits and licences.

The committee has launched an opinion poll seeking feedback from potential investors on varie-ties of aquatic organisms that can be farmed in these projects and on ways to achieve good production rates and the cost of the capital for establishment of these farms.

The survey also seeks opinion regarding the appropriateness of establishing such projects within their allocated space and the pro-posed technologies that suit the climatic conditions of the country, which are crucial for food security.

The poll will reflect the opin-ion of the interested entrepreneurs regarding the ability to reach full production capacity specified for each project based on the pro-posed schedule for these projects, and their vision about the degree of competitiveness for such prod-ucts, in terms of quality and price, for both domestic and imported products.

The Technical Committee for the Promotion of Private Sector Engagement in Economic Develop-ment Projects is a sub-committee of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce with representatives from the Ministry of Finance, Ministry of Municipal and Envi-ronment, Ministry of Energy and Industry, Ministry of Transport and Communications, the State Audit Bureau (as an observer), Public Works Authority, Economic Zones Company “MANATEQ”, Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation “KAHRAMAA”, the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy and Qatar Chamber.

Diversion on North Road for 3 months

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Public Works Author-ity, ‘Ashghal’, will divert traffic on the Doha-bound carriageway between Al Kheesa Interchange and Al Kharaitiyat Interchange on the North Road for three months, from tomorrow until January 28, 2017.

In coordination with the Gen-eral Traffic Department, a four-km long southbound segment will be shut between Al Kheesa Interchange and Al Kharaitiyat Interchange, and traffic will be diverted onto the existing northbound carriageway.

The diversion will maintain three lanes with reduced width, for each direction of traffic.

A participant at the forum.

HOME 07THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

More workers at Labour City may get free Wi-Fi

By Sanaullah Ataullah The Peninsula

DOHA: More workers staying at Labour City in Mesaimeer are expected to get free Wi-Fi service soon.

Preparations are currently under way to provide the service to an additional 3,500 workers. Some 3,000 workers, occupying two and half buildings in Labor City were provided the service last month.

The Labour City is located next to the Asian Town near the Indus-trial Area.

The facility operator has begun installing necessary equipment in three more buildings to provide free Wi-Fi services to the labourers, said a source from the city. A building accommodates 1,200 workers.

“Works like wiring and installa-tion of servers and other machines for Wi-Fi internet service started at the building adjacent to my accom-modation”, said the source.

“We have been using free inter-net service at our accommodation for the last one month. It is pretty fast. I make audio and video calls to my family and friend in my hometown through the mobile applications. The sound and pic-tures are quite clear”, said Husain, a Nepalese construction worker

staying at Labour City.“The Wi-Fi saved my money. I

used to buy an internet mobile pack for about QR100 per month. I got more accessibility to the internet. Now I can use WhatsUp, YouTube, Facebook for longer. I can watch and download videos through the Wi-Fi. It is generally fast but sometimes becomes slow espe-cially on Friday when everyone at the accommodation is busy on their smart phones”, said another worker.

“The Wi-Fi disciplined the workers. The accommodation became more calm and quiet. Work-ers hardly could be found involved in shouting, fighting and arguing loudly with their co-workers. They are rather busy with their smart phones”.

Labour City has another advantage for workers — to create awareness about their rights. Now they can compare the services pro-vided by their companies and ask for what they are missing. The city is accommodating workers of many companies.

“A small group of workers from my company complained against the catering company for provid-ing poor quality food. The company immediately took action and launched an investigation. A survey was conducted to check the quality of the food.

“Copies of the questionnaires were provided to all workers ask-ing their views about quality, quantity, variety of the food being served to them,” said the official of a company which has rented accommodation for their workers at the Labour City.

A condolence message projected on a digital screen in Education City yesterday on the death of Grandfather Emir H H Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani. The country has observed three days of mourning in honour of the former Emir who passed away on Sunday. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

Mourning H H Sheikh Khalifa

Qatari student awardedThe Peninsula

DOHA: A Qatari student, Abdul-lah Khalid Al Kaabi, from Hamza bin Abdulmuthalib Preparatory School was recently honoured at the awarding ceremony of Arab Reading Challenge Contest held in UAE.

Al Kaabi made it to the finals of the contest, along with 240 students from 21 countries. The contest was held under the patronage of Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai. The award carried a total prize worth 11m UAE Dirham. Al Kaabi competed with over 3.5 million students participat-ing from all Arab countries.

Workshop discusses modern means of police trainingThe Peninsula

DOHA: The workshop on “modern means of police training and educa-tion” started yesterday at the Police Training Institute headquarters to develop the training and education skills of the police.

The opening was attended by Staff Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi, Director Gen-eral of Public Security, Brigadier Dr Muhammad Abdullah Al Mohanna Al Marri, Director Gen-eral of Police College, Brigadier Nasser Muhammed Al Sayed, Direc-tor of Police Training Institute and

a number of MoI officers and other trainers.

The two-day workshop holds discussions on three important themes that include modern means in police training and police educa-tion and experiences in the fields of training and education. Many experts in training in the country are taking part in different sessions of the workshop.

In his opening remarks, Briga-dier Al Sayed said that the two-day workshop was meant to develop the training and education features of the police cadre in line with the Qatar National Vision 2030 and MOI Strategy 2011-2016.

Qatari student Abdullah Khalid Al Kaabi (centre).

3,500 more expected to get facility.

Ford Mustang recalled for air bag defectThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce, in collaboration with Al Mana Motors Company, dealer of Ford vehicles in Qatar, has announced the recall of Ford Mustang, model year 2005-2014 over a potential defect in the replacement of the driver air bag inflator.

The Ministry said the recall campaign comes within the framework of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers and ensure that car dealers follow up on vehi-cle defects and repairs.

The Ministry said that it will coordinate with the dealer to fol-low up on the maintenance and repair works and will communi-cate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out. The Ministry has urged all cus-tomers to report any violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department.

HOME08 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

Improvement in quality of stroke care at HMC

The Peninsula

DOHA: Hamad Medical Corpora-tion (HMC) has made significant advances in providing highest standards of care for stroke patients in the recent years, say senior officials.

One important achievement is maintaining the ‘door to needle time’ in stroke patient care accord-ing to international standards. This is the length of time that passes between when an acute stroke patient arrives at the emergency department to when they receive specialist treatment.

The recruitment of specialist nurses and expert consultants, the opening of dedicated facilities and introduction of advanced technol-ogy — including a dedicated stroke ward, a telemedicine service and a Neuroangiograhy Suite — as well as the redesign of care processes, have

all delivered improved outcomes for stroke patients in Qatar.

“The assessment, evaluation and imaging of acute stroke patients is a very complicated process. Because of this complexity, the American Stroke Association sets a target for hospitals to treat approximately 50 percent of acute stroke patients in under 60 minutes,” said Professor Ashfaq Shuaib, Director of HMC’s Neurosciences Institute.

“In early 2014, our stroke pro-gramme began an integrated programme to improve the door to needle times for acute stroke patients. In the two years since the programme was implemented, the team has consistently achieved times of less than 40 minutes for 44 per cent of patients and under 60 minutes for 68 per cent of patients. This compares very favourably to the majority of tertiary stroke cen-tres in Europe and North America, which achieve this 60-minute door to needle goal only 50 to 60 percent of the time,” he added.

The rationale behind the need for fast treatment of stroke patients is that ‘time is brain’, meaning the faster treatment can be given fol-lowing a stroke, the better the chances of recovery are for patients. The sooner acute stroke patients can be given thrombolysis, a clot break-ing drug, to open the artery and renew blood flow to the brain, the better the outcome for them.

Sayed Musharaf Ali Haroon, winner of the ‘Delightful Diwali’ campaign by Malabar Gold & Diamonds receives 500 gold coins from Santhosh T V — Regional Head, in the presence of officials from Malabar Gold & Diamonds.

The sooner acute stroke patients can be given thrombolysis, a clot breaking drug, the better the outcome.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds customers

win more than 25,000 gold coins The Peninsula

DOHA: Malabar Gold & Diamonds, the leading jewellery retailer, is giving customers an opportunity to win big this festive season. The ‘Delightful Diwali’ campaign that commenced in GCC on October 19, 2016 has already given chances to its customers to win big this festive season.

Over 25,000 gold coins have already been won by customers so far as a part of the ongoing Diwali campaign at Malabar Gold & Dia-monds’. Furthermore, one lucky customer — Sayed Musharaf Ali Haroon won 500 gold coins on the 3rd day of the campaign.

This season, Malabar Gold & Diamonds has showcased the latest collection of gold, diamond and pre-cious gems jewellery in their outlets, to celebrate this festive period. Cus-tomers can win a guaranteed gold coin or up to 500 gold coins instantly on purchase of gold jewellery worth QR 2,500 via Scratch N Win coupons.

Adding to the above, custom-ers also get two gramme gold coin on diamond jewellery purchase of QR5,000 and a one gramme gold coin on purchase of diamond jew-ellery worth QR3,000.

Other exciting offers that customers can avail during the cam-paign are ‘no making charges’ for 8 gramme gold coins. Also, customers can protect the gold rate at Malabar

Gold & Diamonds on payment of 10 per cent of the entire amount on the selected gold jewellery. Fur-thermore, customers can avail the zero deduction offer on 22K (GCC) gold jewellery exchange as well. All these offers are valid until Novem-ber 5, 2016. They have also unveiled the latest collection of jewellery spe-cially designed for Diwali in gold, diamonds and precious gems.

Malabar Gold & Diamonds has incorporated these designs as part of various brands presented at Malabar Gold & Diamonds namely Ethnix - Handcrafted Designer Jewellery, Era - Uncut Diamond Jewellery, Mine - Diamonds Unlimited, Divine- Indian Heritage Jewellery and Precia - Pre-cious Gem Jewellery.

A raffle draw held on October 24 at the Jumbo Airport Road showroom in the presence of a Ministry official.

Jumbo and LG mark 30

years of partnership

The Peninsula

DOHA: Jumbo and LG are celebrating 30 years of partnership in Qatar. To mark this special occasion, Jumbo & LG rewarded customers shopping at Jumbo Electronics special offers on its products and a chance to be part of a raffle draw to win excit-ing prizes like a LG 65” OLED TV, LG 60” UHD TV’s, Door in Door Refrigerators, projectors, smartphones, HI FI systems, air purifiers and vacuum cleaners. The promotion ended on October 22 and on Oct 24 the draw was held at the Jumbo Airport Road showroom in the presence of a Ministry official.

Thirty winners marking 30 years of the partnership between Jumbo & LG have been picked. CV Rappai, Director & CEO, Video Home & Electronic Centre, said: “We thank our customers who have supported us through the years and this was our way to bring joy to some of them. We hope that these winners enjoy these gifts that they have won.”

GU-Q student bats for right to education at UNThe Peninsula

DOHA: Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) student advocated the right of access to educa-tion for children around the world, at the United Nations General Assembly recently.

Dana Al Anzy, who is a youth advocate for Edu-cation Above All (EAA), attended the 71st session of the assembly in New York .

EAA, an initiative founded in 2012 by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, aims to build a glo-bal movement that contributes to human, social and economic development through the provision of quality education. The initiative particularly focuses on the needs of children, women and the youth affected by poverty, conflict and disaster, and aims to empower them to become active com-munity members.

“My role was to represent Qatari youth and indicate their active involvement through our training and projects in the field of access to edu-cation,” said Al Anzy of her participation in the recent UN meeting.

“Education alone is not enough. For it to be effective, it needs to sit alongside economic empowerment, leadership skills and psychoso-cial support. This is a model unique to EAA that is not just about supporting individuals to improve their lives, but building the skills of whole commu-nities to build a better future. My aim was to relay these messages continuously on a platform where

political leaders and influencers existed to insist for change and action. A shift in ideas is the first step towards creating change — and what better way to shift the narrative on youth and education than by hearing from youth and a student herself.”

Al Anzy has been part of the EAA youth advo-cacy programme since her first year at GU-Q, which has enabled her to benefit from training in

leadership skills, vocational skills, cultural sen-sitivity, project management and facilitation, to support her work with the organisation.

“EAA’s youth advocacy programme is – first and foremost – about strengthening relationships between young people in Qatar and those across the rest of the world to promote the importance of access to education for all,” explained Al Anzy.

“As an EAA Youth Advocate, I have travelled to Ethiopia to help establish a youth mentoring project to keep young people in school and at the UN, I was given the opportunity to publically address the need for education to be at the heart of all development planning.”

“I am proud to be part of an organisation which has set a target of educating 10 million out-of- school children, is expanding its higher education and leadership skills programme to offer support to thousands of Syrian refugees, and is advocating for a change in international law to protect edu-cation in areas affected by conflict.”

Over the summer, Al Anzy interned at the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations in New York. She also participated in a General Assem-bly High Level Thematic Conversation at the United Nations headquarters on youth and chil-dren affected by violent extremism. This led to her work at the recent United Nations General Assem-bly session, where she participated in side events and meetings to draw attention to the needs of the youth, and reported back to public through social media and official outlets about EAA activities.

Dana Al Anzy, youth advocate for Education Above All (EAA).

Al Rawabi group begins 10/20/30 promotionThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Al Rawabi group begins their 10/20/30 promotion today. All their outlets are participat-ing in the promotion that lasts until November 20. The promotional event is taking place simultane-ously in retail outlets of Rawabi Group — Grand Hypermarket Kharthiayth, Grand Shopping center Abu Hamour, Rawabi Food center, Wakra, and Al Rayyan, Rawabi Hypermarket New Rayyan, Rawabi Mini Hyper Market Ummsalal.

The ongoing promotion “Megh Gold Win” that offers 1kg gold is also getting overwhelming response from their customers who will be eligi-ble to receive the coupons for every purchase of QR50. This promotion is valid until November 16.

Quality products at astonishing prices is what Rawabi has always offered during its 10-20-30 promotional events, said Jamseer Muhammad, Group Admin Manager.

Diversion on Onaiza StreetThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Public Works Authority, ‘Ashghal’, will implement a tempo-rary closure on the right lanes of Onaiza Street leading from the Civil Defence Intersection to Qasr Al-Marmar Roundabout, in order to lay the wearing course on the road. The closure will last from 1am tomorrow

to 5am of Saturday, in coordination with the Traffic Police Department.

During this period, traffic head-ing from Onaiza Street towards Qasr Al-Marmar Roundabout using the Civil Defence Intersection can turn right into Mohammed bin Thani Street towards the Medical City Intersection, or turn left to Moham-med bin Thani Street towards the Corniche to reach their destination, as shown in the attached map.

HEC Paris in Qatar

and QSTP in

deal to promote

education

The Peninsula

DOHA: HEC Paris in Qatar, one of the world’s top three pro-viders of executive education programmes, has signed a mem-orandum of understanding (MoU) with Qatar Science and Technol-ogy Park (QSTP) as part of the Doha campus’ efforts to promote the importance of a knowledge-based economy.

The MoU was signed between Prof Laoucine Kerbache, Dean and CEO, HEC Paris in Qatar and Dr Maher Hakim, Managing Director, QSTP, during a cere-mony. Part of Qatar Foundation Research and Development, QSTP is Qatar’s primary incubator of technology development.

The agreement between the two Qatar-based education and research & development institutes aims to promote mutual educa-tional, research, development, training and service cooperation.

“The MoU marks an important milestone towards a knowledge-based economy for Qatar. By working alongside QSTP on ini-tiatives, sharing research and utilising our individual exper-tise, we are taking a definite step towards a stronger commitment to education and value creation in line with Qatar’s National Vision,” Prof Kerbache said.

Throughout the course of the agreement, executives enrolled in the EMBA program at HEC Paris in Qatar will advise teams in the QSTP Accelerator programme as part of their Capstone Project.

MIDDLE EAST 09THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

AP

BEIRUT: Air strikes in Syria killed up to 22 people, mostly children, yesterday when warplanes struck a residential area housing a school complex in the northern rebel-held province of Idlib, activists and res-cue workers said.

A team of first responders, the Syrian Civil Defence in Idlib, said 22 people were killed and at least 50 wounded in the raids on the vil-lage of Hass. Most of those killed were children, the group said in a posting on its Facebook page.

Another activist group, the Brit-ain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, gave the same death toll and said 14 children and a woman were among those killed.

The activist-operated Idlib News network, which gave a lower toll of 17 people killed, said the strikes hit as the children were gathered out-side the school complex. It said the death toll could rise as some of the wounded were reported to be in crit-ical condition, the network added.

Idlib is the main Syrian oppo-sition stronghold, though radical groups also have a large presence there. It has regularly been hit by Syr-ian and Russian warplanes as well as the US-led coalition targeting Islamic State militants. Footage posted by activists online shows a huge plume

of smoke rising from the area of the strikes and rescuers rushing casu-alties away along a dusty road lined with destroyed buildings.

A woman’s body is seen being carried on a stretcher while other bodies, covered in cloth and one with only a hat, lie under shrubs and other

casualties are ferried away in pick-up trucks. An activist at the scene, Muaz Al Shami, said as many as 10 air strikes were believed to have hit the residential area.

Earlier in the day, the northern Aleppo province saw a new escala-tion as a helicopter believed to belong

to Syrian government forces dropped barrel bombs in a deadly attack on Turkey-backed opposition forces in the border area, Turkish officials said.

A statement attributed to the field commander of Syria’s pro-government troops said any Turkish advances in northern Syria under the pretext of fighting IS militants would be dealt with “forcefully and appro-priately.” The barrel bombing was said to have occurred in the village of Tal Madiq, in a part of northern Aleppo where rival groups have been operating, mostly to rout IS militants.

If confirmed, it would be the first attack by Syrian government forces on the Turkish-backed fighters. Tur-key’s state-run news agency didn’t say when the attack occurred and said at least two Syrian opposition fighters were killed and five oth-ers wounded. A Syrian opposition spokesman said it took place Tuesday.

The Observatory’s chief, Rami Abdurrahman, said helicopters struck as intense clashes were under-way between Kurdish-led fighters and Turkey-backed forces in Tal Madiq and that 11 Syrian opposition fighters and five Kurdish fighters were killed.

Syria: Kids among 22 dead in bombing outside school

AP

KHAZER, IRAQ: Iraqi special forces have moved more than 1,000 peo-ple out of villages near the front lines of the battle to retake the Islamic State (IS)-held city of Mosul and sur-rounding areas, where the UN says militants have committed a number of abuses in recent days, officials said yesterday.

Special forces Maj Gen Haider Fadhil said residents of Tob Zawa and other villages were taken to a camp in the nearby Khazer region for their

safety. The International Organisa-tion for Migration says around 9,000 people have been displaced since the operation to retake Mosul began on October 17.

The special forces were under-taking cleanup operations in areas retaken from the militants to the east of the city, where troops uncovered a vast tunnel network used by IS to shut-tle fighters and supplies by motorcycle, Maj Salam Al Obeidi said.

To the south of Mosul, another Iraqi commander said IS has been withdrawing from the town of Shura toward the city, taking civilians with them to use as human shields and

leaving behind explosive booby-traps to slow the troops’ advance.

“These small villages are sec-ondary to them, Mosul is much more important,” said Brig. Gen. Alaa Mehsin, of the Iraqi army’s 15th Divi-sion. “They don’t want to waste their energy.” He said a small number of fighters and civilians were still inside the town.

Iraqi forces have been pushing toward Mosul from several directions since the launch of the wide-scale offensive, which involves more than 25,000 Iraqi soldiers, Kurd-ish forces, Sunni tribal fighters and state-sanctioned Shiite militiamen.

It is expected to take week, if not months, to drive IS from its last urban bastion in the country.

The militants have had months to prepare for the long-awaited operation and are believed to have developed extensive defenses in and around the city.

“They’ve really dug in, literally, and started putting up the berms, the trenches, the tunneling systems,” said a US military official, speaking on condition of anonymity to discuss the subject with reporters. “And they’re quite extensive tunneling systems, some of them stretching upward of two kilometers (over a mile).”

Iraq president for revision of alcohol ban law

BAGHDAD: Iraqi President Fuad Masum called yesterday for parliament to revise a law passed over the weekend that included a provision banning alco-hol. The ban on the sale, import and production of alcohol, which was slipped into a draft law on municipalities in parliament on Saturday, has been criticised as an infringement on minority rights. Masum’s statement did not specifi-cally mention the alcohol provision, but did say the law in question should be revised, and criticised the surreptitious way in which an article was inserted into it as being inconsistent with “democratic legal principles”.

Israel recalls Unesco envoy after Jerusalem vote

JERUSALEM: Israel recalled its ambassador to Unesco for consultations Wednesday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced, after a sec-ond resolution accused of denying the Jewish connection to Jerusalem. “The theatre of the absurd continues and I decided to recall our ambassa-dor for consultation,” Netanyahu said in a statement. “We will decide what the next steps will be.”

1,000 civilians from Mosul front lines evacuated

Syrian children run for cover following air strikes on the rebel-held town of Douma, east of Damascus, yesterday. RIGHT: A wounded child cries as he receives treatment at a make-shift hospital following the shelling.

Air strikes hit as the children were gathered outside the school complex.

VIEWS10 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

The killing of at least 35 people, most of them schoolchildren, in air strikes by Russian or Syrian forces in a village in the rebel-held Idlib province is another war crime that the international community must condemn and act against. The Russian-Syrian

forces are continuing their relentless aerial bombardment of residential areas of Aleppo in a bid to retake the city from the rebels. Hundreds of innocent civilians, including children, have been killed; schools, hospitals and other vital infrastructure have been destroyed. But even amidst this assault, Aleppo remains resolute in its rejection of Bashar Al Assad’s regime. The Russian-Syrian forces haven’t been able to make much headway, and in their desperation and fury, are bombing the city into destruction.

Yesterday’s raid targeted a residential area and a school in Haas village. According to the Civil Defence network, which operates in rebel-held areas in the country, twenty of the dead

were children. Idlib, situated near Aleppo in northwest Syria, is the largest populated area controlled by rebels.

Aleppo is the last remaining stronghold of rebels and its capture is crucial for Assad to establish his control all over the country. But Aleppo is proving to be a fortress, and hence the scorched earth policy of Russian-Syrian forces. The United Nations and the international community must act more decisively to stop Russian war crimes in Syria.

The international, especially Western, inaction is deplorable in the face of mounting evidence and more acts of war crimes. An international inquiry has found that Syrian forces are

responsible for a third toxic gas attack during the conflict. The fourth report inquiry by the United Nations and the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW), the global chemical weapons watchdog, blamed Syrian government forces for a toxic gas attack in Qmenas in Idlib governorate on March 16, 2015. Syrian officials have denied the use of chemical weapons, but Assad regime has always denied war crimes. There is no need to distrust the latest report because the investigation was not conducted by Western or Arab countries who are opposed to Assad, but by the UN and an independent organization.

Syria is already witnessing many wars and one more war is likely to join the chaos. The US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter and his British counterpart Michael Fallon said yesterday that an offensive to drive IS out of its Syrian stronghold of Raqa would begin in the next few weeks.

Syrian wars

Russian and Syrian forces are committing war crimes with immunity.

Quote of the day

I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops.

Rodrigo DutertePhilippine President

E S TA B L I S H E D I N 1996

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One would not believe the things that a president would say in a doorstopper volume of a collec-

tion of interviews that French President Francois Hollande gave two journalists (Gerard Davet and Fabrice Lhomme) from Le Monde during his presidency. The title says it all: Un président ne devrait pas dire ça (A Presi-dent Should Not Say That) and one cannot be sure whether the pres-ident had been serious or if the 61 interviews were casual con-versations among close friends. The book came out last week and caused quite a stir in France since it contains seemingly private thoughts of Hollande on vari-ous subjects such as his dislike of Nicolas Sarkozy, the previous president that he beat in the 2012 election, his repugnance of cer-tain magistrates of the French judiciary, immigration, his rela-tionships with women and his regrets, and Muslims living in France. Everyone is aware of the fact that France has been in a problematical relationship with Islam in recent decades, espe-cially with the public visibility of Islamic clothing like l’affaire du foulard (the scarf affair) and the recent attempts to ban the bur-kini on French beaches. There are even investigations on “Why the French Don’t Like Headscarves” (John R Bowen, 2006, Princeton University Press) when they cover Muslim women’s heads for reli-gious reasons but they are totally acceptable when worn by the ordinary French women as fou-lards for esthetical reasons.

From the book that just came out, it is understood that a part of French society has had a prob-lem with Islam and the president admits it unreservedly and resil-iently without any doubt. Perhaps the diplomatic language would require a more mindful approach when dealing with sensitive issues like the faith of a spe-cific group. Yet, we understand that Monsieur Hollande repeats his sincere opinions time and

again without leaving anything to the imagination. Everything he says on Islam, and more specif-ically on Muslim women, is not just a Freudian slip. His problem probably stems from the fact that France is a staunch secular coun-try and the French identity strictly depends on this understanding of secularism. In other words, to be French, one must speak French and be secular above all else. The French Republican tradition and legacy is rooted in the principle of laïcité à la française, which is an extreme militant secularism that attempts to create a society in which religion is imprisoned in the private life of citizens. Along with the language, this militant laïcité defines French citizen-ship and in cases of violation of this principle, it is feared that the “values of the Republic” are under threat. For Hollande, since “Islam wants to assert itself within the French society and wishes to be recognized as a religion”, which implies public visibility and demands like opening new mosques, it threatens laïcité.

France is home to some 8 mil-lion Muslims, the largest Muslim population in Europe, and this issue seems to be the hottest theme in the upcoming presi-dential election. It seems that the “problem” with Islam will be taken up and probably mistreated by the candidates regardless of

their political orientation. In the past, the right wingers would demonise immigrants and reli-gious minorities but today it seems the leftists have realized the importance of unemploy-ment, which is currently at 10 percent, and they have begun to take a stand against “foreigners”. Foreigners are not only the peo-ple who have migrated to France recently but also the people who were born in France, yet whose religion, culture or understand-ing of laïcité are “foreign”.

Hollande’s attacks mainly tar-get French Muslim women. He believes that the Muslim women are enslaved by their veils and they must prefer freedom by taking off their headscarves. In this way they would not only become French but also appropri-ate their place in French society. Then comes a shocking statement: “La femme voilée d’aujourd’hui sera la Marianne de demain” (The veiled woman of today will be the Marianne of tomorrow), a refer-ence to the treasured figure of a woman bearing the tri-colour who symbolizes liberty, rea-son, and the staunchly secular French Republic. Probably he recently read the famous work of Roland Barthes (Mythologies, (1957) Seuil) and assumes that the Muslim woman would take the place of young black soldier, on the cover of the magazine Paris

Match, who salutes “with his eyes uplifted, probably fixed on a fold of the tricolour”. Similarly, the Muslim woman, like Mari-anne, would faithfully serve her country without being discrim-inated against if and when she liberates herself from the male dominance under the guise of headscarf. He insists that all cit-izens must subscribe to the same (republican) values in the public sphere in order to be integrated into society. Yet, he seems to for-get another important issue: the principles and values of a mul-ticultural society. Who knows, one day a veiled Marianne would rouse the French people to action but this time not against foreign-ers or immigrants but those who try to destroy the values of plural-ism. Finally, targeting Islam and Muslims, Hollande must under-stand, will not help him in gaining popularity but makes him a per-son, in his ex-girlfriend’s (Valérie Trierweiler) words, “froid, sans coeur, totalement dépassé par les événements, calcula-teur, parfois méchant, enfermé dans une bulle” (cold, heartless, overwhelmed by the events, cal-culating, sometimes nasty, shut in a bubble). He should remember that opportunism does not always work as a tool to win elections, let alone the hearts of “sans-dents” (without teeth) and other margin-alised groups in France.

A left-wing president puts Muslim women at heart of identity

By Prof Dr Ali Murat YelAnatolia

A file picture shows a woman protesting in Tours, France, against the government’s plan to restrict Muslim women from wearing full-face veils.

OPINION 11THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

Future of democracy in the Muslim world

By Hamid DabashiAl Jazeera

DDuring a recent rally, Iran’s President Hassan Rowhani ridi-culed and dismissed the kind of democracy we are witnessing

in the United States during this presiden-tial election.

“Look at their way of speaking,” he said, “the way they accuse each other and the way they mock one another. Do we want such a democracy in our country? Do we want such elections in our country?”

“America claims it has more than 200 years of democracy,” he declared, “and they have had 50 presidential elections, but there is no morality in that country.”

He has some bloody nerve. As the whole world is witness, Ameri-

cans as a nation are now suffering through one of the worst manifestations of their democratic institutions.

But of all people, Rowhani is not in a position to criticise this dastardly US election for he is himself the product of a constitutionally flawed and shamelessly rigged system, where a gang of octoge-narian clerical tyrants censor the electoral process for a nation of 80 million human beings, the majority of them under the age of 40. Any lesson from the current presidential election in the US is for Ira-nian people who just a few years ago were clubbed, kicked, punched, tortured, impris-oned, and point-blank murdered for having questioned the validity of a presidential election. Their leading reformists are to this day political prisoners in the dun-geons of the Islamic Republic.

Rowhani ought to be ashamed of him-self in objecting to the US election when the last two Iranian presidential can-didates who dared to question the very rigged system that now calls him pres-ident, Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, are still under house arrest and mostly incommunicado.

Rowhani is confusing himself and the entire undemocratic, theocratic, ideolog-ically infested regime that has produced his presidency, with the democratic will of the Iranian people that has every right to denounce this horrid US presidential election and learn from it to strengthen its own democratic intuitions - as indeed millions of Americans do.

Underlying Rowhani’s comment is still the ignorant and self-denigrating assumption peculiar to his clerical class that presidential elections in the US ought to be the model for Iran or anywhere else in the world.

The fact that people in and out of the Muslim world can learn from the horror of both his favourite theocracy in Iran or elsewhere and the cul de sac of Ameri-can oligarchy and find alternative modes of self-governance is beyond the limited imagination of Hujjat al-Islam wa al-Mus-limin Hassan Rowhani.

Iran and the rest of the Muslim world from one end to the other suffer from a massive and structural democratic deficit. Hassan Rowhani is the poster boy of that democratic deficit. He is not in a position to cast a stone at the current calamity of the US presidential election.

Masses of millions of Americans, just like masses of millions of Iranians, Arabs, Turks, etc, are trapped inside a vicious and violent political system that does not rep-resent their democratic will. They need no lecture from an incompetent politician who just last year forfeited the national sovereignty of his homeland by an igno-minious nuclear pact reminiscent of the Golestan and Turkmanchai treaties of the early 19th century that the equally

incompetent and corrupt Qajars yielded to the Russian empire. Iranians, Americans, Arabs, Turks and other nations continue their historical marches towards the dignity of their democratic aspirations. The name of the functional equivalent of Mir-Hos-sein Mousavi in the US is Bernie Sanders, who, though he failed to mobilise enough votes to become the next president is free and active to continue his struggles for the political aspirations of millions of his supporters.

Go and set Mousavi, Zahra Rahna-vard and Mehdi Karroubi free, Rowhani, before you utter any inanity about any other country.

Right now in this very United States with all its flaws, I remain severely criti-cal of the US election and its entire foreign policy - and yet I continue to speak my mind openly, teach in its top universities, publish my books with its top university presses, travel freely around the world, and live peacefully with my family right here in New York. Can I do this in my home-land, Mr Rowhani? Do you have an iota of decency left in you?

From right here in the heart of this deeply flawed democracy, like millions of other Iranians in the US and around the world I have opposed crippling sanctions and warmongering against our people when

you, your predecessors, and your entire regime were wasting precious resources of our nation on a wasteful, dangerous, and misbegotten nuclear project. You may have the delusion that you prevented a military threat against Iran. You did not. The Iranian people did. Right now the state-control-led media in Iran is broadcasting the TV series House of Cards. Indeed, House of Cards is a magnificent series exposing the deep pathological corruption in US politics, and Iranian people have every right to watch and learn from it. But can any Iranian filmmaker make a film about the depth of enduring corruption in the Islamic Republic, over which state appa-ratus you preside?

You, Mr Rowhani, and the entire calam-itous regime you represent have over the past three decades and more presided over massive university purges, ghastly cultural revolutions, slaughter of political prison-ers, and forced into early retirement, exile, and silencing leading scholars and intel-lectuals of my homeland.

You and your ilk have gutted out the very foundation of social sciences and humanities in Iran. How dare you point the finger at a country that with all its endur-ing flaws and corruptions still allows me to think critically and write freely even against its ruling elite? I would be in Evin

prison if I were in your Islamic Repub-lic and its cruel rule over my homeland.

“Garlic one day turned to onion sar-castically and said ...” - Do you even know or care to remember that immortal poem of Parvin Etesami, Mr Rowhani? - “you wretched thing you really smell terribly.”

You and your entire cabinet are grounded until you go to the blackboard and write this down 10 times each.

Nations grow, nations learn, nations triumph over the tyranny of cruel power and obscene wealth that rules over them. The combined calamity of Clinton and Trump can never do to Iran what you and three and a half decades of your Islamic Republic have done to our homeland.

Neither the ruling regime in Iran nor any other tyranny in the Muslim world should take the current calamity of the US presidential election as a green light to continue their illegitimate and abusive power. No state - the United States, the Jewish state, or the Islamic Republic - is the model or the aspiration for nations and their continued struggles around the globe.

You do your violent vulgarity and we will do our nonviolent defiance. At the end you will lose, and we the people will win: Iranians, Arabs, Turks ... and Ameri-cans. Mark my words and mind your own business!

Iran and the rest of the Muslim world from one end to the other suffer from a massive and structural democratic deficit.

File picture of Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton and Republican nominee Donald Trump during the second presidential debate at Washington University in St Louis, Missouri.

US stuck with nobody left to sanction in Russia over Syria

By Nick WadhamsBloomberg

The US put sanctions on Russia’s main arms exporter, Kremlin aides and the black leather-loving

head of a motorcycle gang nicknamed “The Surgeon” after the 2014 invasion of Ukraine. Now, as Washington seeks ways to punish Moscow for its actions in Syria, it may be running out of options.

The Obama administration says new sanctions are among its alternatives as it seeks to ease the humanitarian crisis in Syria, where Russia backs President Bashar Assad’s

drive to recapture the city of Aleppo. But Secretary of State John Kerry won’t give any details, and European allies failed last week to consider tighter restrictions.

“While the president has full sanc-tion authority, there’s nobody left to sanction in Russia besides the janitor in the Kremlin,” said Michael Kofman, a global fellow at the Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute in Washington. “In terms of expanding any kind of com-mercial or financial sanctions, we’re basically maxed out.”

Penalties against Russia already include hundreds of people, from sen-ior allies of President Vladimir Putin to the Night Wolves, a motorcycle gang led by a former medical student accused of aiding Russian forces in Ukraine. The State Department had to issue an exemption from sanctions on Russia’s main weapons exporter, Rosoboronex-port, because the restrictions made it impossible for Afghanistan’s security forces to get spare parts for their Rus-sian Mi-17 helicopters.

Experts say potential next steps include expanding what’s known as the Specially Designated Nationals list to

include more military officers or weap-ons companies that provide munitions used in Syria. Such moves would limit their access to American banks and block visits to the US, although critics have long scoffed that Russians on the list can find other ways to move their money and different destinations for family vacations.

“What you may see is the designa-tion of a couple Russian officers that are known to be involved in Russian operations in Syria, particularly around Aleppo” said Eric Lorber, a lawyer who worked in the Office of Foreign Assets Control, which oversees the US Treas-ury Department’s sanctions programs, and is now a senior adviser at the Center on Sanctions and Illicit Finance at the Foundation for Defense of Democra-cies. “Anybody who has been involved in the deliberation process of the use of force in Syria might be someone they would go after.”

Supporters of the sanctions tied to Russia’s actions in Ukraine say they have had an economic impact. The International Monetary Fund said the Russian economy contracted 3.7 per-cent 2015 because of falling oil process

and what it called the “quasi closure of international financial markets to Russian entities.” Gross domestic prod-uct is forecast to fall an additional 1.2 percent this year.

But those sanctions haven’t forced Russia to fulfill its promises under the Minsk II agreement aimed at bringing peace to Ukraine. Russia has been able to evade the worst fallout from sanc-tions, and its energy exports to Europe remain uninterrupted. And they haven’t stopped Putin from aggressively sup-porting Assad in Syria’s civil war.

“There’s some situations where sanctions can work, but if we’re talk-ing about Russia, they’ve been largely ineffectual so far,” said Emma Ashford, a research fellow at the Cato Institute in Washington. “The Kremlin has not shown any inclination to change its behavior based on sanctions, and it’s hard to make the argument that more sanctions would change its approach toward Syria.”

A State Department official said a range of sanctions options are being prepared for the White House, which will make the final call on whether to impose them. The official, who asked

not to be identified because the discus-sions are private, said several possible sanctions regimes could have an impact, though they “are not ideal” in Syria’s case. One challenge is a matter of tim-ing: Sanctions may take a long time to kick in, but the US wants an immediate halt to the Aleppo campaign.

US lawmakers also are agitating for more punitive measures. In an editorial in “The Hill” on October 13, Republican Rep. Ed Royce of California, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, called for new sanctions to “disrupt ter-rorist financing and deter our enemies.”

The administration does have more drastic options. If the US wanted to truly damage Russia’s economy, it could bar American banks from buying Rus-sian ruble bonds, or cut the country off from the Society for Worldwide Inter-bank Financial Telecommunication, or SWIFT. The “nuclear option” would be an embargo on Russian energy exports.

The US official said that option wasn’t on the table. Europe gets about one-third of its energy supplies from Russia, so any such embargo would deal a severe blow to already strug-gling European economies.

European Union leaders said at their meeting in Brussels last week that they would consider “all available options” if Russia doesn’t back down in Syria, accordion to a statement, though they stripped out language from an ear-lier draft that said those options could include “further restrictive measures targeting individuals and entities sup-porting the regime.”

Commenting on future options, Italy’s Prime Minister, Matteo Renzi said “it is difficult to imagine that this could involve further sanctions against Russia.”

The Obama administration wants to be careful not to hurt the US or EU econ-omies or disrupt the global financial system, said Andrew Weiss, the former director for Russian, Ukrainian, and Eurasian Affairs on the National Secu-rity Council who’s now vice president for studies at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

“That’s the core quandary -- you impose sanctions not just to say, ‘See, we’re responding,’ but to have impact on behavior,” Weiss said, “and I think it’s challenging unless you disconnect Russia from the global economy.”

All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the Editor-in-Chief.

ASIA / AFRICA12 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

Gambia decides to pull out of ICC

AFP

DAKAR: The Gambia has become the latest African nation to announce its withdrawal from the Interna-tional Criminal Court, accusing the war crimes tribunal of persecuting Africans.

The move by the poor West Afri-can nation follows similar decisions this month by South Africa and Burundi to abandon the troubled institution, set up to try the world’s worst crimes.

Banjul’s announcement late Tuesday will be a personal blow to The Hague-based tribunal’s chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, a Gambian lawyer and former justice minister.

Gambian Information Minister Sheriff Bojang said on state television that the ICC had been used “for the persecution of Africans and espe-cially their leaders” while ignoring crimes committed by the West.

He singled out the case of former British prime minister Tony Blair, who the court decided not to indict over the Iraq war.

“There are many Western countries, at least 30, that have com-mitted heinous war crimes against independent sovereign states and their citizens since the creation of the ICC and not a single Western war criminal has been indicted.”

“The ICC, despite being called International Criminal Court, is in fact an International Caucasian Court for the persecution and humiliation of people of colour, especially Africans”.

The ICC, set up in 2002, is often accused of bias against Africa and has also struggled with a lack of cooperation, including from the United States, which has signed the court’s treaty but never ratified it.

The Gambia has been trying

without success to use the court to punish the European Union for deaths of thousands of African migrants trying to reach its shores.

The announcement comes just weeks before a December 1 presiden-tial election in The Gambia, which has been ruled by Yahya Jammeh since he took power in 1994 coup.

Rights groups accuse Jammeh of having created a climate of fear and of having quashed any dissent against his regime.

South Africa’s announcement on Friday followed a dispute last year when Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir visited the country despite being the subject of an ICC arrest warrant for alleged war crimes including genocide.

The ICC has appealed to both South Africa and Burundi to recon-sider. “I urge them to work together with other States in the fight against impunity, which often causes mas-sive violations of human rights,” Sidiki Kaba, president of the assem-bly of state parties to the ICC’s founding treaty said.

Kaba had said he was concerned that South Africa and Burundi’s deci-sions would pave the way for other African states to leave the court, a possibility also raised by Kenya and Namibia.

AFP

CAPE TOWN: South African police yesterday fired stun grenades to disperse student protesters outside parliament as the finance minister delivered a speech warning of the country’s weakening economy.

Pravin Gordhan cut the 2016 growth forecast sharply from 0.9 percent to 0.5 percent as South Africa struggles with political uncer-tainty, violent university protests and high unemployment.

Students and police have clashed

regularly on campuses nationwide in recent weeks during protests against rising tuition fees, and Gordhan used his mid-term budget speech to pledge more money for universities.

But he also delivered grim news over the economy, as South Africa faces the prospect of a damaging rat-ings downgrade to junk status later this year.

“Our economic growth will be just 0.5 percent this year, rising to 1.7 percent in 2017,” Gordhan said.

“It is not just that our economic outlook is distressed, and there is the possibility of downgrades in credit ratings.

“Much more disturbing, and more difficult, is the rise in our own communities of anger and discon-tent, spilling over into violence and destructive protests.”

Gordhan is at the centre of a political power struggle after vowing to cut down on government corrup-tion and excessive spending, leading him to clash with loyalists of Presi-dent Jacob Zuma.

Next week Gordhan, who enjoys wide-ranging popular support in South Africa, is due in court on cor-ruption charges that he has said are a politically-motivated attempt to oust him.

AFP

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopia yesterday denied that a string of withdrawals of troops from towns in Somalia were connected to the state of emergency declared in response to nearly a year of anti-government protests.

G over n ment spokesma n Getachew Reda insisted the removal of troops from a string of Somali towns -- including at least three

since Ethiopia declared a six-month state of emergency on October 9 -- was to do with the “financial burden” and “lack of support” rather than the need for more troops at home.

“It has nothing to do with the state of emergency,” Reda said.

“We have been making a very conscious and responsible decision to evacuate our forces from many parts of Somalia. We cannot remain there indefinitely.”

Reda said the domestic challenge represented by the unprecedented

months of sometimes deadly anti-government protests was not “enormous enough for us to shift our policy in Somalia”.

Ethiopian troops deployed to fight Shabaab militants in Somalia have left towns in the western Bakool and Hiraan regions in recent weeks, allowing the insurgents to immedi-ately reclaim them.

Most recently, Tiyeeglow in Bakool region was abandoned on Wednesday and hours later Shabaab fighters moved in.

“We were informed about the pullout of the Ethiopian troops and this morning they have proceeded with their plan to vacate the town,” said Abdulahi Moalim Hassan, a security official in Hudur.

“We are not sure about the fate of Hudur as well,” he added.

“People are worried and they are not relying on the Ethiopian troops anymore.”

Reda also said recently the withdrawn troops were not from Ethiopia’s 4,400-strong contingent

of the internationally-funded African Union peace-enforcement mission, AMISOM, but rather were some of the “few thousands” deployed in Somalia unilaterally for which his government is “paying all the expenses”.

“These troops are not under AMI-SOM and unfortunately are not being helped in their efforts to assist the Somali national army,” said Reda.

He added that the AMISOM troops were not affected and neither were all non-AMISOM forces being withdrawn.

AFP

JAKARTA: Eleven Indonesian men are feared dead after water and mud engulfed an illegal gold mine, an official said yesterday, the lat-est deadly accident to hit the illicit industry.

The men were in a narrow, 50-metre deep shaft on Sumatra island on Monday when heavy rain sent water and earth surging into the mine.

Rescuers have headed to the remote site in Jambi province to hunt for the miners, who were aged between 21 and 55 and had been working in a pit they dug

themselves, said police spokesman Kuswahyudi Tresnadi.

He said none were believed to have survived.

Illegal gold mining has boomed in Indonesia in the recent years as the price of the precious metal has surged, and deaths are also common.

Twelve people were killed in October last year when a shaft col-lapsed on them after they tunnelled into a disused mine on Java island in the hope of finding the precious gold.

Heavy downpours during Indo-nesia’s months-long rainy season regularly cause landslides, which often bury villages and cause fatalities.

Ethiopia denies Somalia troop withdrawals linked to unrest

South African police clash with students

Police arrest eight

activists protesting

Congo poll delay

Reuters

KINSHASA: Eight democracy activists were arrested in east-ern DR Congo yesterday before a planned demonstration against the delay of the presidential elec-tion, fellow activists said.

President Joseph Kabila has ruled Congo since 2001 and is required by the constitution to step down in December.

But the ruling coalition and part of the opposition agreed this month to delay the vote to pick his successor from this November to April 2018, citing problems enroll-ing millions of voters.

Eight members of youth activist group Struggle for Change (Lucha) were arrested in the eastern city of Goma as they prepared to hold a sit-in near the headquarters of the UN peace-keeping mission, Lucha said in a statement.

Six other Lucha members were arrested in Goma on Monday for distributing tracts on a univer-sity campus calling for peaceful protests and three more who went to check on them on Tuesday were arrested too, the statement released recently added.

A police spokesman con-firmed yesterday’s arrests. He said the public prosecutor would bring charges today of troubling public order and spying on police against the nine arrested.

Denuclearising N Korea a ‘lost cause’: US Envoy

AFP

WASHINGTON: Convincing North Korea to abandon nuclear weap-ons is a “lost cause,” America’s top intelligence official said on Tues-day, causing concern in the State Department and ally South Korea over an issue of long-standing US policy.

The United States has always maintained it cannot accept North Korea as a nuclear state and, under President Barack Obama, has made any talks with the North conditional on Pyongyang first

making some tangible commit-ment towards denuclearisation.

But in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations think-tank, US Director of National Intelli-gence James Clapper suggested such a policy was based on wish-ful thinking.

“The notion of getting the North Koreans to denuclearise is probably a lost cause. They are not going to do that. That is their ticket to survival,” Clapper said.

“They are under siege, and they are very paranoid. So the notion of giving up their nuclear capability, whatever it is, is a

nonstarter with them,” he added recently.

His comments reflected an opinion widely-held among North Korea experts but one only expressed in private by senior US administration officials who feel a policy change on North Korea is overdue.

State Department spokesman John Kirby rebuffed Clapper’s position, stressing that “nothing has changed” with the Obama administration’s policy of pushing the North -- through a toughened sanction regime -- to give up its nuclear weapons.

Students protest outside the parliament in Cape Town, yesterday.

Zuma graft report is final: WatchdogReuters

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s anti-graft watchdog has told Presi-dent Jacob Zuma that its report into possible undue political influence of his friends is final, dimming his hopes of adding to its findings as he battles pressure from within his own ANC party to resign.

Zuma filed an affidavit in court on Tuesday asking whether the report was final and if he would

be able to question witnesses him-self and respond to accusations he allowed an Indian-born business family to interfere in state affairs.

The Gupta brothers, Ajay, Atul and Rajesh, are subject of a report on allegations that they swayed appointments of ministers and use political connections to win tenders.

Zuma, facing calls to quit from opposition parties and even within the ruling African National Con-gress due to his links with the Gupta family, denies any impropriety, as

do the three (Guptas) businessmen.The Public Protector said the

report had already been com-pleted by Thuli Madonsela, whose seven-year term as head of the constitutionally-mandated watch-dog ended this month. She has been succeeded by Busisiwe Mkhwebane.

“The Public Protector has the president’s latest affidavit and has through the attorneys confirmed that the report was finalised and signed by Adv Madonsela on 14 October 2016,” Mkhwebane’s spokeswoman said.

11 feared dead as mine

collapses in Indonesia

Gambian official said that the ICC had been used ‘for the persecution of Africans and especially their leaders’ while ignoring crimes committed by the West.

South African President Jacob Zuma laughs ahead of Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan’s medium term budget speech in Cape Town, yesterday.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES 13THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

Only economic deals with China: Duterte

Reuters

TOKYO: Philippine President Rod-rigo Duterte sought to assure Japan yesterday that his high-profile visit to China last week was about eco-nomics not security.

The volatile Philippine lead-er’s visit to Japan comes amid jitters about his foreign policy goals after weeks of verbal attacks on ally the United States and overtures towards China.

Duterte last week announced in China his “separation” from the United States, but then insisted ties were not being severed and that he was merely pursuing an independ-ent foreign policy.

His perplexing comments pose a headache for Japanese Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe, who has tightened ties with Washington while build-ing closer security relations with Manila and other Southeast Asian countries as a counter-weight to a rising China.

“You know I went to China for a visit. And I would like to assure you that all there was, was economics.

We did not talk about arms. We avoided talking about alliances,” he told an audience of Japanese businessmen.

Calling Japan a “long-stand-ing friend and ally”, he also said the Philippines was trying to improve its business environment and called for Japanese firms to invest more.

Duterte said he did not pick quarrels with his neighbours, but had tough words for Washington, threatening once again to revise or cancel Manila’s defence pacts with the United States.

“I have declared that I will pur-sue an independent foreign policy. I want, maybe in the next two years, my country free of the presence of foreign military troops. I want them out,” he said.

“And if I have to revise or abrogate agreements, executive agreements, this shall be the last manoeuvre, war games between the United States and the Philippines military.”

Duterte has threatened to abro-gate defence agreements with the United States several times but has yet to take any concrete action beyond cancelling some minor navy patrol exercises.

In a pattern already becoming familiar, Duterte’s foreign minis-ter, Perfecto Yasay, tried to soothe concerns raised by the president’s remarks.

He told a news conference that Manila would respect treaty obli-gations as long as mutual interests converged and there was no reason to end them at present.

“There is no reason at this time to terminate our agreements,

because our national interests still continue to converge,” Yasay said recently.

Duterte met Abe for bilateral talks later yesterday.

Japanese officials have said they would not seek to intervene directly in his feud with Washing-ton but would make the case for the

importance of the United States to security in the region.

Both Tokyo and Washington are worried that the commitment under former Philippine President Benigno Aquino to stand up to China in the hotly disputed South China Sea is under threat.

Aquino angered China by lodging

a case with an arbitration court in the Hague challenging the legitimacy of Beijing’s maritime claims in the resource-rich sea.

A ruling earlier this year emphat-ically favoured Manila but was rejected by China, which has warned Washington and Tokyo to stay out of the feud.

AFP

HONG KONG: Hong Kong’s legis-lature was again reduced to chaos yesterday as political divisions deepen over the swearing in of two new lawmakers who advocate a split from Beijing.

There are growing concerns in the semi-autonomous city that China is tightening its grip, fuelling an independence movement.

But new pro-independence law-makers Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung are yet to be sworn in to the Legislative Council (Legco).

Their oath-taking was put on hold and they were temporarily barred from meetings on Tuesday.

At that ceremony, they draped themselves in “Hong Kong is not China” flags and altered the wording

of their pledges, including deroga-tory terms and expletives.

But yesterday morning, they were bundled in to the chamber through a media scrum by support-ive legislators demanding they be allowed to take their oath.

The pair ignored repeated calls from pro-Beijing Legco president Andrew Leung for them to leave, with some pro-democracy law-makers shouting for him to resign.

The session was abandoned after around 30 minutes.

New lawmaker Nathan Law, who advocates self-determination for Hong Kong, said that while he may not endorse the pair›s behav-iour when they first took their oaths, they should be allowed to sit as elected lawmakers.

“What we are trying to protect is people’s rights to vote, and Hong Kong’s legislative system,” Law said.

AFP

BANGKOK: Sixty-five war refugees returned to Myanmar yesterday from Thai border camps, the United Nations said, in the first formal repa-triation scheme for exiles trapped in limbo between the two countries.

Thailand has sheltered tens of thousands of Myanmar refugees since the early 1980s, when families

began fleeing Karen state to escape the then-junta’s brutal counter-insurgency campaign.

But Thailand does not legally recognise refugees or offer asylum, while safety fears and a lack of land rights across the border have left many Karen exiles unconvinced about returning despite the end of junta rule.

Sixty-five people crossed back yesterday, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for

Refugees (UNHCR) and Thailand’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, a day after a family of six left.

“Many say they feel encouraged by the reforms in Myanmar and see a better future for themselves and their families back home,” said Vivian Tan, a Thailand-based spokesperson for UNHCR.

This scheme is the first volun-tary repatriation backed by both governments and supported by international aid groups, who are

assisting with the transportation and resettlement.

But the conditions are not yet right for a mass exodus, Tan added, urging Myanmar to further de-mine its borders and move forward with a fledgling peace process.

Several thousand refugees from the Thai camps have slipped home on their own since Myanmar began a democratic transition in the year 2011 that saw the former junta-run country embrace free elections and

loosen the military’s grip on power. A 2012 ceasefire between the

army and ethnic Karen rebels also significantly eased violence.

The nation’s new de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has devoted her first few months in power to organ-ising peace talks between the army and dozens of rebel leaders.

But despite a much-vaunted sum-mit in August, the military continues to clash with a myriad of ethnic mili-tias around the country.

Reuters

SYDNEY: A water ride that killed four people at an Australian amuse-ment park in one of the world’s deadliest theme park accidents had completed an annual safety inspection less than a month ago, the park’s owner said yesterday.

Police were examining the Thunder River Rapids Ride at Dreamworld, near Gold Coast in Queensland state, where the four adults died Tuesday after being trapped under an upturned raft.

The owner of the park, Ardent Leisure Group, said the ride had completed its annual mechanical and structural safety engineering inspection on September 29.

“As per regulations, this safety audit was conducted by a specialist

external engineering firm,” Ardent said in a statement.

The ride, meant to simulate going over river rapids, uses round floating devices that seat six and can reach speeds of 45kph.

It is described by Dreamworld as a “moderate thrill” attraction for those older than two.

“A collision between two rafts flipped one, throwing two children, aged 10 and 13, free and trapping four adults beneath it,” Queensland assistant police commissioner Brian Codd tsaid.

He said the adults became caught in the ride’s conveyor-belt machinery.

Police have called for witnesses to come forward.

The victims, two men aged 33 and 38 and two women aged 32 and 42, all lived in Australia, police said recently.

Hong Kong legislators defy ban as standoff continues

Japan court orders

damages for pupils’

tsunami deaths

AFP

TOKYO: A Japanese court yester-day ordered millions of dollars compensation be paid to fami-lies of children swept out to sea by a massive 2011 tsunami.

The Sendai District Court in northern Japan ruled two local governments must pay a com-bined $13.7m to 29 plaintiffs -- parents of 23 children who were killed in the disaster -- according to a court spokesman.

The victims, from the public Okawa Elementary School in the city of Ishinomaki, were among a total of 74 children who perished in rising waters after being told to wait for more than 40 minutes at the school grounds with teachers, 10 of whom also died.

The plaintiffs had demanded that Ishinomaki and the Miyagi prefecture of which it is a part pay a total of 2.3 billion yen in compen-sation, arguing that their children would have survived if they had evacuated to a hill just behind the school rather than waiting.

“The teachers were able to predict the massive tsunami would reach the school,” presid-ing judge Kenji Takamiya said.

Beijing to carry out more drills in S China Sea

Reuters

BEIJING: China will carry out mil-itary drills in the South China Sea all day today, the country’s mar-itime safety administration said yesterday, ordering all other ship-ping to stay away.

China routinely holds drills in the disputed waterway, and the latest exercises come less than a week after a US navy destroyer sailed near the Paracel Islands, prompting a warning from Chi-nese warships to leave the area.

The maritime administra-tion gave coordinates for an area south of the Chinese island prov-ince of Hainan and northwest of the Paracel Islands, which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan, but controlled by China.

The statement gave no other details, apart from prohibiting other ships from entering the area.

China’s Defence Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

China has a runway on Woody Island, its largest presence on the Paracels, and has placed surface-to-air missiles there, according to US officials.

Brunei, Malaysia, the Philip-pines, Taiwan and Vietnam all have rival claims in the South China Sea, but Beijing’s is the largest. It argues it can do what it wants on the islands it claims as they have been Chinese since ancient times.

Dozens of Myanmar refugees return after decades in Thai camps

‘No room’ for royal insult in ThailandReuters

BANGKOK: Thailand’s police chief said yesterday insulting the monarchy would not be tolerated and anyone considering doing so should get out of the country, after a spike in cases following the death of King Bhumibol Adulyadej on October 13.

Speaking ill of the king and the royal family is not only taboo but also illegal under the crimi-nal code which makes anyone who “defames, insults or threatens

the king, queen, heir-apparent or regent” liable to 15 years in prison.

Following the king’s death, many Thais have become sensitive to anything they deem disrespect-ful, especially in an outpouring of material about the king and the royal family posted online.

National police chief Jakthip Chaijinda said police were inves-tigating 20 cases of royal insult, or lese-majeste, since the king’s death and arrest warrants have been issued for eight out of 20 suspects.

‘For lese-majeste cases, if peo-ple don’t want to live in Thailand they should go abroad,” Jakthip

said. “If they don’t have money for the air fare I will pay for it, they can ask me to buy their ticket”.

The government has also been taking steps to stop what it regards as royal insults being committed abroad.

The foreign ministry said on Tuesday it had asked for the extra-dition of several people suspected of insulting the monarchy but it did not give details.

The military has long seen itself as the defender of the monarchy and it has over decades invoked its duty to protect the monarchy to jus-tify its intervention in politics.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte shakes hands with Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during their joint press conference at the prime minister’s office in Tokyo, yesterday.

Pro-China protesters demonstrate outside the Legislative Council in Hong Kong, yesterday.

Australia theme park ride

passed safety check: Owner

Dreamworld CEO Craig Davidson and staff members lay flowers at a makeshift floral tribute at the Dreamworld theme park on the Gold Coast, yesterday.

The Philippine leader clarifies and assures Japan that there’s no discussion of arms and alliances with China.

PAKISTAN14 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan yesterday accused India of killing two civilians and wounding eight others after allegedly opening fire over their border.

The incident occurred near the frontier divid-ing Indian-held Kashmir from Pakistan’s Punjab province, known as the working boundary, Paki-stani officials said. “Two civilians embraced sha-hadat (martyrdom) in Chaprar Sector on the working boundary due to India’s unprovoked firing today,” the military said in a statement.

It added “eight civilians were also injured by the Indian fire”. The military added: “Another civil-ian... who was injured by the Indian firing at Line of Control (LoC) Monday, suc-cumbed to injuries today.”

The latest incident came as Pakistan sum-moned a senior Indian diplomat to its foreign ministry to lodge a pro-test “over the unprovoked firing by India on the LoC and the working boundary on October 25 and 26”.

Two civilians dead

in Indian shooting

IS abducts and slays 30 civilians in Afghanistan

AFP

KABUL: Militants linked to Islamic State abducted and killed around 30 civilians, including children, in central Afghanistan, officials said yesterday, raising concerns about the group’s expanding presence beyond its eastern stronghold.

The killings occurred late Tues-day north of Firoz Koh, the capital of Ghor province, with the local govern-ment calling it a revenge attack after a local IS commander was killed.

IS, which controls territory across Syria and Iraq and is making steady inroads in Afghanistan, has so far not officially claimed responsibility for the attack.

“Our security forces with the help of locals conducted an operation and killed a Daesh (IS) commander yesterday. Daesh fighters in return abducted around 30 villagers, mostly shepherds,” Ghor Governor Nasir Khazeh said. “Their dead bodies were found by local people this morning.”

Abdul Hameed Nateqi, a Ghor provincial council member, gave a similar account, adding that the assailants were self-proclaimed sup-porters of IS.

The killings underscore unrav-elling security in Afghanistan as the resurgent Taliban continue a push into urban centres 15 years after they were toppled from power.

IS fighters have been trying to expand their presence in Afghan-istan, winning over sympathisers, recruiting followers and challenging the Taliban on their own turf, prima-rily in the country’s east.

In March Afghan President Ashraf Ghani announced that the IS had been defeated after local security forces claimed victory in a months-long operation against the group.

But IS militants have continued to launch deadly strikes in the country.

The latest devastating attack in Ghor represents a major escalation for IS, which so far has largely been confined to the eastern province of Nangarhar where it is notorious for brutality including beheadings.

The Afghan government is cur-rently in the middle of an operation backed by Nato airstrikes against IS in the province.

Nato recently said the group’s influence was waning as it steadily lost territory, with fighters largely confined to two or three districts in Nangarhar from around nine in

January. “Right now we see them (IS) very focused on trying to establish their caliphate... inside Afghanistan,” John Nicholson, the top US and Nato commander in the country, said.

“Of course with our Afghan part-ners we have been able to reduce that territory significantly and inflict heavy casualties on them.”

In July, IS militanst claimed responsibility for twin explosions

that ripped through crowds of Shi-ite Hazaras in Kabul, killing at least 85 people and wounding more than 400 others.

The bombings marked the dead-liest single attack in Kabul since the Taliban were ousted from power in a 2001 US-led invasion. The kill-ings sparked an avalanche of global condemnation, with the United Nations labelling the direct assault

on civilians a “war crime”.The Taliban, who are in the mid-

dle of their annual summer offensive and are more powerful than IS, have so far not officially commented on the Ghor killings. The militant group, which has stepped up nationwide assaults on the Western-backed gov-ernment, is not generally known to launch attacks directly targeting civilians.

Afghan men gather around the bodies of civilians, including children, who were killed by Islamic State militants in Ghor province yesterday.

The latest devastating attack in Ghor represents a major escalation for IS, which so far has largely been confined to the eastern province of Nangarhar.

National Geographic’s famed

‘Afghan girl’ arrested in PakistanAFP

PESHAWAR: An Afghan woman immortalised on a celebrated National Geographic magazine cover as a green-eyed 12-year-old girl was arrested yesterday for living in Paki-stan on fraudulent identity papers.

The haunting image of Sharbat Gula (pictured), taken in a Pakistan refugee camp by photographer Steve McCurry in the 1980s, became the most famous cover image in the magazine’s history.

Her arrest highlights the des-perate measures many Afghans are willing to take to avoid returning to their war-torn homeland as Paki-stan cracks down on undocumented foreigners.

Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) arrested Gul for fraud following a two-year investigation on her and her husband, who has absconded.

Investigators, who have uncov-ered thousands of fraud cases over the last decade, launched a probe into her application shortly after she procured the card. “FIA arrested Sharbat Gula, an Afghan woman, for obtaining a fake ID card,” Shahid Ilyas, an FIA official, said.

Ilyas said the authorities were also seeking three National Database

Registration Authority (NADRA) offi-cials found responsible for issuing Pakistan’s national identity card to Gula, who have been at large since the fraud was uncovered.

He said that Gula faces seven to 14 years in prison and a fine of $3,000-$5,000 if convicted.

In reality she is unlikely to serve such a harsh sentence — many Afghans who have been convicted in similar cases have been deported before they could be sent to prison.

Officials say Gula applied for a Pakistani identity card in Pesha-war in April 2014, using the name Sharbat Bibi. Thousands of Afghan refugees have managed to dodge Pakistan’s computerised system

to get an identity card. The photo attached to her application featured the same piercing green eyes seen in McCurry’s famous image, only older.

The original photograph was taken in 1984 in a refugee camp in northwest Pakistan during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan.

McCurry later tracked her down, after a 17-year search, to a remote Afghan village in 2002 where she was married to a baker, and the mother of three daughters.

Pakistan has for decades pro-vided safe haven for millions of Afghans who fled their country after the Soviet invasion of 1979.

The country hosts 1.4 mil-lion registered Afghan refugees, according to UNHCR, making it the third-largest refugee hosting nation in the world.

The agency also estimates a further one million unregistered refugees are in the country.

Since 2009, Islamabad has repeatedly pushed back a deadline for them to return, but fears are growing that the latest cutoff date in March 2017 will be final.

Meanwhile, refugees are increas-ingly worried about their future in Pakistan as the country cracks down on those who have obtained fake ID cards. Officials say NADRA has so far reverified 91 million ID cards and detected 60,675 fraudulent cards.

Islamabad to execute schizophrenic manconvicted of murderReuters

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan issued a death warrant yesterday for a par-anoid schizophrenic convicted of murder, his lawyers said, after the Supreme Court ruled his condi-tion was not a permanent mental disorder and therefore not legally relevant.

Imdad Ali, 50, was certified by government doctors as suffering from paranoid schizophrenia in 2012, following his conviction for the 2001 murder of a Muslim cleric. He is due to be executed on Novem-ber 2, his lawyers said.

They argue he should not be executed because he is unable to understand his crime and doing so would violate the International Cov-enant on Civil and Political Rights, a UN treaty to which Pakistan is a signatory.

“Imdad’s death will serve no retributive purpose, as he remains completely unaware of this reality,” said defence lawyer Sarah Belal in an emailed statement.

A government psychiatrist said he has no doubt about the diagnosis.

“I have been treating this man for the last eight years, and there is absolutely no room for doubt in this that he suffers from paranoid schizophrenia,” said Tahir Feroze.

On October 20, hearing Ali’s final appeal, Pakistan’s Supreme Court ruled that schizophrenia is “not a permanent mental disorder” and therefore could not be defined as a mental illness.

With his execution date set, Ali’s only hope of a reprieve is a pardon from President Mamnoon Hussain, who rejected an earlier mercy peti-tion in May. Ali’s legal team filed a new petition last month.

Pakistan has hanged 425 peo-ple since 2014, when it ended a virtual moratorium after a mas-sacre at a Peshawar school where Taliban gunmen killed more than 150 people.

As a last resort, Ali’s wife says that she is seeking forgiveness for her husband from the heirs of the murder victim, which could avert his execution under a feature of Islamic law used in Pakistan.

“We are trying to contact them, but they are never available to us. We are trying to set a meeting,” Safia Bano said.

Quetta shuts down; 60 police cadets laid to restAP

QUETTA: Pakistan’s city of Quetta was completely shut down yester-day following a militant rampage at a police academy the day before while families buried 60 police cadets and an army officer killed in the attack — one of the deadliest targeting Paki-stani security forces in recent years.

The brazen assault in which unarmed cadets and police trainees — many of whom were asleep in their dorms when the attack started — jumped from windows and rooftops, fleeing for their lives, saw troops bat-tle the attackers for four hours before the siege was over.

The academy houses about 700 cadets, nearly all in their early 20s. Local Quetta hospitals were treating 123 wounded from the attack.

In conflicting claims, an Islamic State affiliate and a Taliban splinter group both said they were behind the attack in Quetta, the capital of Balu-chistan province.

But Pakistani officials later said they intercepted communication between the attackers and their

purported handlers across the border in Afghanistan, blaming an Al Qaeda and Taliban-linked group, Lashkar-e-Jhangvi Al-Almi, for the assault.

Quetta trade leader, Abdur Rahim Kakar, said all businesses and offices were closed in the city yesterday, while marketplaces were deserted.

Law offices and business com-munities elsewhere in some Pakistani cities also closed doors in solidarity. Pakistan’s flag was

lowered at half-mast at govern-ment buildings and other official institutions.

Kakar said there were not enough ambulances and funeral vehicles to transport all the bodies home, so some families were forces to take away their dead on top of passen-ger vans.

Naseer Khan Tareen, a mer-chant, said the government was not doing enough to prevent large mili-tant attacks, citing an August suicide bombing that killed more than 70 at a gathering of lawyers on the grounds of a government-run hospital in Quetta. “We had an incident hardly three months ago where 70 lawyers were killed and yet we have another one,” he said. “There can’t be any big-ger tragedy.”

Forensic teams and investiga-tors were combing the academy on Wednesday to collect evidence, said Quetta police spokesman Shahzada Farhat.

According to authorities, three attackers with suicide vests had stormed the academy — two blew themselves up with explosive vests and the third was killed by army gunfire.

Polio worker

gunned down

PESHAWAR: A polio worker was gunned down yesterday as he was administering vaccines to children in northwest Pakistan, officials said, the latest casualty in the country’s long campaign against the crippling disease.

The incident occurred in Jamrud area of the tense Khyber tribal dis-trict that borders Afghanistan and was once a haven for Taliban militants, though recent military operations have put the insurgents under pressure there. “A polio worker was shot at as he was administering polio drops in Jamrud area of Khyber,” local administra-tion official Asmat Ullah Wazir said.

He said the worker succumbed to his injuries as he was rushed to the hospital. It was the third day of the anti-polio drive in the province.

A police cadet, who was injured during an attack by militants on the Balochistan Police College, is surrounded by paramedics as he was undergoing treatment in hospital in Quetta yesterday.

INDIA 15THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

NEW DELHI: In a bid to curb the menace of pub-lic drinking in Delhi, those consuming liquor in pub-lic places will be arrested from November 7 onwards, Deputy Chief Minister Man-ish Sisodia said yesterday.

A strict vigil will be maintained at liquor stores and surrounding areas to discourage public con-sumption of liquor and causing public nuisance, he said. The decision in this regard was taken at a high-level meeting of the Excise Department chaired by him.

“We have decided on a three-fold approach. Over the next week, spe-cial teams will inspect all liquor stores across the city to ensure that the licence terms are not violated.” Sisodia said.

SRINAGAR: Legendary Kashmiri singer Raj Begum, the voice that mesmer-ised millions for over seven decades, died here yester-day, family sources said. She was 89. Begum, called the “Nightingale of Kash-mir”, breathed her last after a protracted illness, a rela-tive said.

She was one of the most recognized female singers in the Kashmir Valley, having rendered thousands of songs from Radio Kashmir in Srinagar .

Liquor consumption

publicly in Delhi will

lead to arrest

‘Nightingale of

Kashmir’ Raj Begum

passes away

CBI court acquits Yeddyurappa in corruption case

IANS

BENGALURU/NEW DELHI: A Spe-cial CBI court in Bengaluru yesterday acquitted former Karnataka Chief Minister and BJP state unit presi-dent B S Yeddyurappa in a bribery case, which the Congress dubbed as shocking.

Pronouncing the verdict in a packed courtroom in Bengaluru, Judge R B Dharamaguder also exonerated Yeddyurappa’s two sons B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijay-endra, his son-in-law R N Sohan Kumar and seven others in the Rs.40-crore graft case for lack of evidence.

“Justice is done. I stand vin-dicated,” a relieved Yeddyurappa tweeted soon after the verdict even as frenzied BJP cadres celebrated the verdict by bursting fire crackers and hailing him outside the court complex.

“I am happy that false alle-gations and politically motivated charges have been dismissed,” asserted Yeddyurappa.

The Central Bureau of Investi-gation registered the case on May 15, 2012, under the Indian Penal Code and the Prevention of Cor-ruption Act, 1988, regarding alleged grant of leases to mining firms as quid pro quo for donations made to Yeddyurappa’s family-run Prerana Education Trust at Shimoga during his tenure from 2008-2011.

The other accused included former Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Minister S N Krishnaiah Shetty, South West Mining Company, Jindal Steel Works (JSW)), Real Technical Solutions Ltd. and Industrial Techno Manpower Supply and Services Ltd.

The Supreme Court on May 11, 2012, directed the CBI to register the case on the recommendation of a Central Empowered Committee (CEC) appointed by it for investiga-tion into the alleged kickbacks for granting mining leases to the JSW and its subsidiary South West Min-ing Ltd.

The cases pertain to the Rs 10-crore donation by South West Mining to Prerana and the mining firm purchasing 1.12 acres of land that was freed from government control (denotified) from Raghav-endra and Vijayendra in 2010 when Yeddyurappa was the Chief Minister.

The CEC also accused Yeddy-urappa’s kin of receiving Rs 6 crore as bribe from mining baron Praveen Chandra through real estate firms set up by them.

Yeddyurappa, who was the first Chief Minister of the ruling BJP in south India, resigned after the Lokayuktha (ombudsman) Jus-tice N Santosh Hegde (retd) indicted him and recommended his trial in the mining scam.

New Zealand backs India’s NSG membership bidIANS

NEW DELHI: New Zealand yesterday affirmed its constructive contribu-tion towards India joining the Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) as the two countries called for stopping cross-border terrorism while agreeing to strengthen their political, defence and security relationship.

Addressing a joint press con-ference here with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, visiting New Zealand Prime Minister John Key assured of his country’s “consistent support” to New Delhi’s bid to become a member of the reformed UN Security Council.

“I acknowledge the importance of India joining the NSG. New Zealand will continue to contribute con-structively to the process currently underway in the NSG to consider India’s membership. New Zealand is committed to working with the NSG members to reach a decision and as soon as possible,” he said.

Modi, in his remarks, said ter-rorism was “one of the greatest challenges to global peace and security”.

“The barriers of geography do not safeguard against the threat of radi-calisation and terrorism. Nations who

believe in humanity need to coor-dinate their actions and policies to counter this threat,” he said.

He said India and New Zealand have agreed to strengthen their secu-rity and intelligence cooperation

against terrorism and radicalisa-tion, including in the domain of cyber security.

World leaders’ personal chefs meet in DelhiAFP

NEW DELHI: The chefs who cook for the world’s leaders usually keep a low profile, leaving the limelight to their bosses. But once a year it is their turn to be wined and dined and treated as honoured guests in a for-eign country.

Billed as the world’s most exclu-sive gastronomic society, the Club des Chefs des Chefs brings together the men and women who cook for heads of state to exchange ideas and -- presumably -- insider information on their bosses’ tastes.

They have met annually since the club was first established in Paris in 1977 and this year for the first time they are doing so in India, hosted by the president’s personal chef, Montu Saini.

“The presidents all met each other. I thought it was a good idea to make a sort of G20 of the chefs,” the club’s founder Gilles Bragard told journalists in Delhi.

“If politics divides men, a good table will unite them.”

Naturally, the tradition involves trying out local delicacies. But Saini has left little to chance when it comes to the Indian capital’s most notorious complaint.

Rather than subjecting the chefs to Delhi street food, he has had the kitchen of their five-star hotel rec-reate golgappas and aloo tikkis -- popular fried snacks made of wheat flour and potato and served with sweet and spicy chutneys.

“I can’t take them to the street because they are foreigners. Their tummies are too sensitive,” said Saini.

IANS

NEW DELHI: With reports of three more birds dying in the national capital, including one in Delhi zoo, both the Delhi and central gov-ernments yesterday geared up to contain further spread of avian flu. The number of birds dying due to bird flu has reached close to 70 in the national capital.

The central government, in line with a request from the Delhi Ani-mal Husbandry Minister Gopal Rai, announced yesterday formation of a committee to maintain constant vigil on the situation arising out of outbreak of bird flu.

According to an official announcement, the committee to monitor the bird flu situation will be headed by Joint Commissioner of Animal Husbandry Department and will have representatives from the Health, Environment and the Forest Ministry, apart from repre-sentatives of the Delhi government.

“Besides monitoring the situa-tion, the committee will assist the state government in taking steps to contain the spread of avian influ-enza (H5N8),” the statement said.

All bird sanctuaries and areas where there are lakes have been advised to keep a close watch on the situation and in case of any suspicious death of birds, the state government and the Centre should be notified. On the other hand, the Delhi government told the Delhi High Court that the government has already taken all necessary steps to contain the bird flu.

Maneka’s call for action against stray

dog killers draws criticism in Kerala

IANS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Union Minister Maneka Gandhi yesterday said the Kerala Anti-Social (Pre-vention) Act (KAPA) should be used against those who kill stray dogs, and drew wide criticism in the state where stray dogs have become a major menace.

The minister’s comment also drew ire of people as it came on a day when a 90-year-old man succumbed here to his injuries he suffered when stray dogs mauled hiim.

Speaking to Asianet TV channel in Delhi, Gandhi, the union Women and Child Development Minister, said Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan should not sit silent when people are killing stray dogs.

She also said Kerala’s Director General of Police should charge such

people under Kerala Anti-Social (Pre-vention) Act.

Hours after the minister’s com-ments, there has been an all-round protest against her in Kerala.

The first to react was leading businessman Kochuouseph Chitti-lapally, who said “those who speak like this should undergo a mental check-up”.

“I am fine and it’s she (Gandhi) who has to undergo it. And rather than being so much concerned about dogs, she should be worried for her son,” said Chittilapally, who has been in the forefront of the war against stray dogs in the state.

Kerala Minister for Local Self Government K.T. Jaleel said Gandhi is not seeing anything as she is in Delhi.

“Since she is not seeing or know-ing anything, she can make such statements like KAPA and such things. We do not subscribe to such

things,” said Jaleel.State Congress President V.M.

Sudheeran said that use of the KAPA is not a sensible solution at all.

Soon after Gandhi’s statement came the news that a 90-year-old man was mauled by stray dogs while he slept outside his home here yester-day and later succumbed in hospital, officials said.

Raghavan, who stayed at tourist destination Varkala, on the outskirts of Thiruvananthapuram, died of his severe injuries later in the evening.

This is the second death in Ker-ala following a stray dog attack. In August, a 65-year-old woman was mauled to death near Kovalam, a popular tourist destination.

All eyes are on Thursday’s ses-sion of the Kerala assembly as public sentiments are overflowing against Gandhi and her statement on stray dogs.

Akhilesh briefs UP governor on developments

IANS

LUCKNOW: Amid a bitter and very public turf battle in the ruling Sama-jwadi Party (SP), Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav yester-day met Governor Ram Naik and is believed to have informed him of developments within the party.

While officials maintained that it was a routine meeting in which the Chief Minister extended “advance greetings” for Diwali to the Gov-ernor, sources told IANS that the 30-minute meeting was “detailed

and exhaustive” and the Chief Min-ister informed the Governor of the developments within his party.

Expulsion of Minister of State for Forests Tej Narayan Pandey aka Pawan Pandey earlier in the day was also discussed. Akhilesh has been asked by the party to sack him from the ministry as well, which he has declined to do. Governor Ram Naik said he had called Akhilesh to be briefed about the situation within the ruling party in the last one week.

He said he wanted to know the situation to satisfy himself on the constitutional aspects.

An informed source said that Akhilesh Yadav handed over a letter of support from 205 legislators of his party and briefed Naik about the legis-lature meeting of his party MLAs. The move is being seen as an attempt by the Chief Minister’s camp to pre-empt any move by his uncle Shivpal Yadav and father Mulayam Singh to upstage him at any point of time in near future. Akhilesh has reportedly refused to take back the four sacked Ministers in his cabinet until some young leaders and Rajya Sabha member Ram Gopal Yadav, all expelled from the party for six years, are taken back.

No toll tax for DND flyway users

IANS

LUCKNOW: In a big relief to commuters on the busy Delhi-Noida-Direct (DND) flyway, the Allahabad High Court (HC) yes-terday waived the toll tax.

A division bench of Justice Arun Tandon and Justice Sumita Agar-wal said vehicles plying on the toll road need not pay the toll tax any longer. The court also observed that the toll tax being levied on vehicles was illegal and ordered the state government to ensure that it was not levied any further.

A petition was filed before the division bench by the Feder-ation of Noida Residents Welfare Associations, which had sought cancellation of the contract between the Noida Authority and the company running the toll.

The court has been hearing the matter for the last four years.

The court had completed all hearing on August 8 and had

reserved its decision. The company, however, is

likely to petition the Supreme Court against the HC decision on Thursday. The DND authorities stopped charging toll from vehi-cles from Wednesday evening.

The court pronounced its order on a public interest litigation (PIL) that was filed by the Federation of Noida Resident Welfare Associa-tion (FONRWA). The PIL, filed four years ago, sought to remove toll collection on the Flyway.

The DND flyway started operations in 2001. The nine-km stretch was built at a cost of Rs 407 crore and it is believed to have col-lected total toll tax amounting to Rs 2,000 crore already.

The toll tax slab currently was Rs 12 for two-wheelers and Rs 28 for four-wheelers on a one-way trip. People in Noida have welcomed the decision and said this will not only stop illegal fleecing of commuters but would bring to an end the long traffic jams on the route.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi shaking hands with New Zealand’s Prime Minister John Key during an agreement signing ceremony in New Delhi yesterday.

Chef to the US President, Cristeta Comerford, looks out of a rickshaw as she and other chefs to various heads of state visit the spice market in the old quarters of New Delhi, yesterday.

The judge also exonerated Yeddyurappa’s two sons B Y Raghavendra and B Y Vijayendra, his son-in-law R N Sohan Kumar and seven others.

Delhi & Central govt

take steps to check

spread of bird flu

French police members take part in a march to protest over mounting attacks on officers in Nantes, western France, yesterday.

French cops take to the streets

EUROPE16 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

Migrants were seen milling around despite the announcement, but authorities said they would stop processing people.

AP

CALAIS, FRANCE: French author-ities declared the Calais migrant camp known as “the Jungle” empty yesterday, after fires set by depart-ing migrants accelerated plans to evacuate the burgeoning slum.

Local officials announced the destruction of the camp, where thousands fleeing war and pov-erty have lived in squalor as they waited for a chance to sneak across the English Channel into Britain. Migrants are being moved to recep-tion centers around France where they can seek asylum.

“The camp is completely empty. There are no more migrants in the camp,” said Prefect Fabienne Buc-cio, the state’s highest authority in

the region. “Our mission has been fully fulfilled.”

She said fires that engulfed wide swaths of sprawling camp after midnight and continuing yester-day “show the camp is empty.”

Authorities said four Afghans had been detained yesterday on sus-picion of setting fires, which slightly injured one person who was taken to the local hospital. “When Afghans leave, they set fires. It’s not our cus-tom,” Buccio said.

Cleaning crew were moving to clear debris and remove remaining tents and shelters, she said. Migrants were seen milling around despite the announcement, but authorities said they would stop processing people.

Migrants have flocked to Cal-ais region for decades, but the camp has grown as Europe’s migrant crisis expanded. As it evolved into a mas-sive slum supported by aid groups, France finally decided to shut it down.

Officials said that 1,500 migrants would be sent to recep-tion centers around France. A total of 5,000 have been given shelter since the first day of the operation on Monday. That includes unac-companied minors being housed in heated containers in the camp, apparently untouched by the blazes.

As the reality of the mass evac-uation took hold, fearful migrants braced for a new reality. Some pledged to just keep moving.

25 found dead

in Mediterranean

migrant boat

AFP

ROME: The French aid group Doctors without Borders (MSF) said yesterday it had found a pile of 25 migrants who died in apocalyptic conditions, per-ishing in a pool of fuel and seawater aboard a crowded dinghy off Libya.

MSF said its chartered rescue ship, the Bourbon Argos, picked up 107 people aboard inflatable boat 26 nautical miles off Libya.

Its crew initially counted 11 corpses on the dinghy’s floor, which was flooded with a murky mixture of fuel and seawater. The Bourbon Argos was then called away to another rescue operation nearby, saving 139 people aboard another vessel.

The crew returned to dinghy and found on closer examination that 25 people had died, probably from suffo-cation, skin burns or drowning.

The bodies were retrieved from toxic mixture with help of a team from the German NGO Sea-Watch.

“The mixture of water and fuel was so foul that we could not stay on the boat for long periods,” MSF project leader Michele Telaro said. Twenty-three survivors suffered burns from exposure to fuel, 11 of whom were seri-ously hurt. Seven were taken to hospital.

In a horrific case, a man was left clutching his eight-month-old baby after his wife died. “It’s a tragedy, but sadly one cannot say this was an excep-tional day in the Mediterranean,” said Stefano Argenziano, in charge of MSF’s migrant assistance activities.

“Last week was terrible for our teams. They were engaged around the clock in rescue operations in which too many men, women and children lost their lives.”

Reuters

ATHENS: A group of Syrian refugees protested yesterday at the Euro-pean Asylum Support Office (EASO) premises in a migrant camp on the Greek island of Chios, forcing its staff to evacuate, officials said.

It was the second protest by asy-lum seekers this week against delays in the processing of their claims. On Mon-day, a group on island of Lesbos hurled

rocks and burning blankets at an EASO office, damaging three of its containers.

Tensions have boiled over in over-crowded migrant camps on Greece’s islands, hosting about 15,000 asy-lum seekers. A European Union deal with Turkey prevents them from going beyond Greece, or even its islands, until their claims are assessed. Those who do not qualify are deported to Turkey.

A police spokesman for the north-ern Aegean region said minor damage was caused to EASO’s offices on Chios

during yesterday’s protest. Riot police stepped in to break up the crowd, he said.

EASO Spokesman Jean-Pierre Schembri said the agency’s 30 staff had to evacuate the camp, suspending interviews. Work has yet to resume on Lesbos following Monday’s attack, he said.

More than 60,000 refugees and migrants are stranded in Greece since March, when Balkan countries closed their borders and intercepted their journey to northern Europe.

Migrants carry their belongings as they walk past burning makeshift shelters and tents in the ‘Jungle’ on the third day of their evacuation and transfer to reception centres in France, yesterday.

Protesters attack EU asylum office on Greek island

Authorities declare Calais camp empty

AFP

MADRID: Russia yesterday scrapped plans to refuel Syria-bound warships in a Spanish port after Madrid came under pressure to refuse access to a flotilla that may be used to help attacks on Aleppo.

The Spanish foreign ministry said that three Russian ships — part of a wider flotilla led by aircraft car-rier Admiral Kuznetsov—had been due to take on fuel and supplies from tomorrow at port of Ceuta, a Span-ish territory on north coast of Africa.

There has been concern that ships could take part in air strikes in Syria, where Russia has been stag-ing a bombing campaign for the past year in support of President Bashar al-Assad and has deployed a naval contingent to back up its operation.

“The Russian embassy in Madrid has just told us that it is withdrawing its demand for permission to stop over

for the boats, which means the stop-overs have been cancelled,” Spanish foreign ministry said in a statement.

Moscow’s decision comes against a backdrop of increasing tensions between Russia and the West over the war in Syria, as well as the con-flict in Ukraine.

Just last week, the European Union’s 28 leaders — including Span-ish acting prime minister Mariano Rajoy — signed a draft statement condemning “attacks by Syrian regime and its allies, notably Rus-sia, on civilians in Aleppo.”

Russian ships have for years made stops in Spanish ports, with permission granted on a case-by-case basis, taking into account safety of local residents and environment, the ministry said.

It added that Spain had given Rus-sia permission in September to stop over from October 28 to November 2.

But “faced with information that materialised about the possibility that these ships would help support

military actions in the Syrian city of Aleppo, the foreign ministry asked the Russian embassy in Madrid for clarification on this information,” it said in a statement.

Following this, Russia cancelled the planned stop-over, although it is unclear whether this decision was made voluntarily or under Spanish pressure.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg had expressed concern that the flotilla could take part in Syria air strikes.

“It’s a decision which has been taken by individual allies, whether they provide fuelling and supplies to Russian ships,” he told reporters in Brussels.

“But this time I have conveyed a very clear message that we are con-cerned about the potential of this carrier group to increase attacks in Aleppo,” he added. “All allies are aware of our concerns, they share our concerns about Russian air-strikes against Aleppo.”

AFP

MOSCOW: A Ukrainian pilot released from a Russian prison in May was in Moscow yesterday to throw her support behind two compatriots jailed in Russia, her lawyer said.

This is the first time Nadiya Savchenko, who was elected to Ukrainian parliament in absentia during her detention, has visited since her release in a prisoner swap.

Savchenko was at Russia’s Supreme Court to attend an appeal against Moscow’s sentencing of Ukrainians Stanislav Klykh and Mykola Karpyuk, who were slapped with up to 22 years in prison for fighting in the 1990s Chechnya war, lawyer Ilya Novikov wrote on Twitter.

The surprise visit comes as Ukrainian government troops remain locked in a conflict with pro-Russian insurgents in east-ern Ukraine that has killed nearly 10,000 people since it erupted more than two years ago.

Russian state television showed Savchenko walking through the cor-ridors of the Supreme Court, wearing a traditional embroidered Ukrain-ian blouse.

“Even if I do not return from Russia alive, I am still going there to support Mykola Karpyuk, Stanislav Klykh and all our guys who are in captivity in Russia,” Savchenko said in a video recorded before her depar-ture, posted on her Facebook page yesterday morning.

“I personally know how impor-tant it is when you see a Ukrainian in court, when you hear your native language, when someone shouts ‘Glory to Ukraine!’” she added.

Savchenko was sentenced to 22 years in prison in March over 2014 killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine in a high-profile trial that drew international condemnation.

Savchenko—who was fighting in a pro-Kiev militia group against rebels in east Ukraine — insists she was kidnapped by separa-tist fighters before the journalists were killed in June 2014 and then

illegally smuggled to Russia.She was swapped in May for two

alleged Russian soldiers who fought in eastern Ukraine.

In Ukraine, she has become a symbol of resistance against what Kiev calls Moscow’s aggression in the east.

AFP

STRASBOURG, FRANCE: European Parliament head Martin Schulz said yesterday he would ask the French authorities to look into a violent altercation which left the favourite to lead anti-EU UK Independence Party, Steven Woolfe, in hospital.

“Given the seriousness of the incident—we are talking about punches and injuries with penal implications—we have to continue to try and clear up what happened,” Schulz told MEPs.

“I have therefore decided to follow the recommendation of the (code of conduct) committee and ask French authorities to look into the matter,” he told Parliament sit-ting in Strasbourg, eastern France.

Schulz said those involved in the early October incident had given very different accounts of what

happened and there appeared to be no witnesses.

“But very clearly it involved a blow to the head,” he said, adding that he had no doubt about Woolfe’s version of events.

Woolfe spent several days in hospital, claiming that his erstwhile colleague Mike Hookem had been involved.

Reports said the row came after Woolfe admitted he had considered joining Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative Party. Hookem has denied the allegations.

Woolfe later withdrew from both the UKIP leadership contest and the party which he said had no future without long-time leader Nigel Farage.

Farage told MEPs yesterday that “while it is regrettable that two of our MEPs fronted up to each other, there is no evidence that anybody was punched at all ... I would like to put that on the record.”

Russia scraps Spain fuel stop for Syria-bound warships

Freed pilot back in Russia for jailed compatriots

Ukrainian lawmaker Nadiya Savchenko speaks to media following a hearing against Moscow’s sentencing of Ukrainian prisoners, at Russia’s Supreme Court in Moscow, yesterday.

EU parliament asks France

to probe UKIP fracas

EUROPE 17THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

Students raise placards during a strike, in Madrid, Spain yesterday. The students protested against university entry exams dubbed “revalidation” that the ruling Popular Party government voted into practice last summer.

Students’ voice

Fog covers fields and forests near Tolzin, northern Germany, yesterday.

Foggy weather

Germany, Canada and other Nato allies also pledged forces at a defence ministers meeting in Brussels.

Reuters

BRUSSELS: Britain said yesterday it will send fighter jets to Romania next year and the United States promised troops, tanks and artillery to Poland in Nato’s biggest military build-up on Russia’s borders since the Cold War.

Germany, Canada and other Nato allies also pledged forces at a defence ministers meeting in Brussels.

Russia is reinforcing its Baltic Fleet in Kaliningrad with two small warships armed with long-range cruise missiles to counter what it sees as a worrying Nato build-up in the region, Russia’s daily Izvestia reported yesterday. There was no official con-firmation from Moscow.

Nato S e c ret a r y- G ener a l Jens Stoltenberg said the troop

contributions to a new 4,000-strong force in the Baltics and eastern Europe were a measured response to what the alliance believes are some 330,000 Russian troops stationed on Russia’s western flank near Moscow.

“This month alone, Russia has deployed nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to Kaliningrad and suspended a weapons-grade plutonium agreement with the United States,” Stoltenberg said, also accusing Russia of continued sup-port for rebels in Ukraine.

Those ballistic missiles can hit targets across Poland and the Baltics, although Nato officials declined to say if Russia had moved nuclear warheads to Kaliningrad.

Nato’s aim is to make good on a July promise by Nato leaders to deter Russia in Europe’s ex-Soviet states, after Moscow orchestrated the annex-ation of the Crimea peninsula in 2014.

Nato’s plan is to set up four bat-tle groups with a total of some 4,000 troops from early next year, backed by a 40,000-strong rapid-reaction force, and if need be, follow-on forces.

As part of that, US Secretary of Defence Ashton Carter announced a “battle-ready battalion task force” of about 900 soldiers would be sent to eastern Poland, as well as another, separate force equipped with tanks and other heavy equipment to move across eastern Europe.

“It’s a major sign of the US com-mitment to strengthening deterrence here,” Carter said.

Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon said Britain would send an 800-strong battalion to Estonia, supported by French and Danish troops, starting from May. The United States wants its troops in position by June.

London is also sending Typhoon fighter aircraft to Romania to patrol around the Black Sea, partly in sup-port of Turkey.

“Although we are leaving the European Union, we will be doing more to help secure the eastern and southern flanks of Nato,” Fallon said.

Others Nato allies joined the four battle groups led by the United States, Germany, Britain and Canada to go to Poland, Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia. Canada said it was sending 450 troops to Latvia, joined by 140 military per-sonnel from Italy.

Germany said it was send-ing between 400 and 600 troops to Lithuania, with additional forces from the Netherlands, Norway, Bel-gium, Croatia and Luxembourg.

Stoltenberg said allies’ com-mitments would be “a clear demonstration of our transatlantic bond.” Diplomats said it would also send a message to Republican presi-dential nominee Donald Trump, who

has complained that European allies do not pay their way in the alliance.

For the Kremlin, the US-led alli-ance’s plans are already too much given Russia’s grievances at Nato’s expansion eastwards, although

Stoltenberg denied going too far.But Nato’s troop announcements

in the Baltic states and Poland were partly overshadowed by the dispute about whether Spain should refuel the Russian warships, which was

later resolved by Moscow’s decision to withdraw its request.

Nato’s tensions with Russia have been building since Crimea and the West’s decision to impose retaliatory sanctions.

Britain & US to send troops to deter Russia in East

Hungarian

neo-Nazi

suspect shoots

cop to death

AFP

BUDAPEST: A 76-year-old Hun-garian suspected of running a far-right paramilitary group shot dead a policeman during a house search in a village in northwest Hungary yesterday, officials said.

The officer was shot in the head before entering the suspect’s house in the village of Bony 110km, northwest of Budapest and died at the scene, police said.

“An elderly male fired five to six shots in Bony, killing a police officer,” senior Hungarian prose-cutor Imre Keresztes told a press conference in the city of Gyor.

Police had been sent to the house to investigate a report of illegally held firearms.

Local media reported that the property was known as a base for a neo-Nazi paramilitary group called the Hungarian National Front (MNA).

The MNA, formed in 1989, is “one of the largest and most organ-ised paramilitary hate groups in Hungary,” according to the Ath-ena Institute far-right watchdog.

The suspect was injured in the incident and taken to hospital where his condition has stabilised, said Janos Hajdu, head of Hunga-ry’s counter-terror police (TEK).

The man—who according to local media is MNA leader Istvan Gy.—was arrested on suspicion of murder and possession of illegal firearms.

AP

ROME: A 5.4-magnitude earth-quake rattled central Italy yesterday, knocking out power, closing a major highway and sending panicked resi-dents into the streets just two months after a powerful temblor killed nearly 300 people.

There were scattered reports of damage to buildings, including with pieces of masonry crumbling down, but no immediate reports of victims, said Ornella De Luca, a spokeswoman for Italy’s civil protection agency.

“We’re without power, wait-ing for emergency crew,” said the mayor of Castel Santangelo Sul Nera, a tiny town just north of some of the hard-hit areas of the August 24 quake. Speaking to Sky TG24, he

said: “We can’t see anything. It’s tough. Really tough.”

He said some buildings had collapsed, but that there were no immediate reports of injuries. He added that darkness and a downpour were impeding a full accounting.

Italy’s National Vulcanology Center said the quake struck at 7:10 pm local time (1710 GMT) with an epicentre at Macerata, near Peru-gia in the quake-prone Apennine Mountain chain. The US Geologi-cal Survey put the epicentre near Visso and said it had a depth of some 10 km.

Yesterday’s quake was felt from Perugia in Umbria to the capital Rome to the central Italian town of L’Aquila, which was struck by a deadly quake in 2009. The mayor of L’Aquila, however, said there was no immediate report of damage.

AFP

LONDON: Paul Beatty became the first US author to win the Man Booker Prize—the world’s most prestigious English-language literary award—for his novel The Sellout.

The jury said the novel was a “shocking and unexpectedly funny” portrayal of his native Los Angeles, using satire to explore racial equality in a fictional neighbourhood.

“I can’t tell you guys how long a

journey this has been for me,” the 54-year-old writer said, overwhelmed as he received the award from Prince Charles’s wife Camilla.

The jury said that through his “equally affectionate and bit-terly ironic portrait of the city and its inhabitants, Paul Beatty dodges inherited views of race relations, solu-tions or assumptions”.

The author “presents through his beguilingly honest and well-inten-tioned hero an innocent’s view of his corrupt world,” the jurors added, bringing “the unendurable status quo

of present day US race relations to an absurdist conclusion”. The award was announced at a glitzy black-tie ceremony with leading authors in London’s historic Guildhall building.

The winner of the Man Booker Prize receives £52,500, ($64,100, €59,000), although greater sums come from the huge sales prompted the moment judges announce their decision.

The Man Booker was launched in 1969 and has awarded writers includ-ing Ian McEwan, Iris Murdoch and Salman Rushdie.

It was only opened to non-Com-monwealth authors from 2013 — a decision that was highly controver-sial in Britain.

No US author had won it until now, despite concerns that writers from the United States would dom-inate the prize.

The Sellout is Beatty’s fourth novel and earlier this year won the National Book Critics Circle Award in the US.

It is narrated by Bonbon, an African-American resident of the run-down town of Dickens in Los Angeles county, which has been

removed from the map to save Cal-ifornia from embarrassment.

Bonbon is on trial for attempting to reinstitute slavery and segregation in the local high school as a means of bringing about civic order.

The judges said that “the frame-work of institutional racism and the unjust shooting of Bonbon’s father at the hands of police are particularly topical”.

Five other authors were nom-inated for the prize in a shortlist celebrated for taking risks and tack-ling tough subjects.

AFP

PODGORICA, MONTENEGRO: Montenegro’s longtime leader Milo Djukanovic will not continue as prime minister in next government, according to his party, which topped the country’s parliamentary polls.

The Democratic Party of Social-ists (DPS) early yesterday said its leadership had decided to propose Djukanovic’s deputy and former national security chief, Dusko Markovic, as candidate for prime minister-designate.

The move, expected to be approved by a party committee, would end rule of the longest-serving

head of government in the Balkans, who has dominated the country for more than 25 years.

But analysts said 54-year-old Djukanovic, who has twice before stepped down only to return to power two years later, was likely to remain a powerful force.

“He is ever-present in Mon-tenegro,” Balkans specialist James Ker-Lindsay said, adding news should be “taken with a pinch of salt”.

Djukanovic rose to prominence in the communist party in the late 80s when Montenegro was part of Yugo-slavia, becoming prime minister for the first time in 1991 at the age of 29.

He has since several times as pre-mier and once as president, stepping down from power in 2006 and again

in 2010 but both times retaining his position as party leader.

He led Montenegro to independ-ence from Serbia in 2006 and has since brought it to doorstep of Nato and EU membership, but his critics accuse him of corruption, cronyism and links to widespread organised crime.

Djukanovic, who faced large anti-government rallies last year, pitched the recent election as a choice between ties with the West or with traditional Slavic ally Russia, whom he accuses of funding opposition parties.

The DPS, which has topped all the elections in Montenegro since 1991, took 36 of the 81 seats in parliament in October 16 elections, meaning it requires coalition partners to form a government.

FROM LEFT: Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, US Defence Secretary Ashton Carter and Britain’s Defence Secretary Michael Fallon pose for a photo during a Nato defence ministers meeting at the Alliance headquarters in Brussels, yesterday.

Beatty becomes first US author to win Man Booker Prize

Montenegro’s veteran PM to step down for new govt

Quake shakes central Italy

near devastated zone

A member of the presidential guard offers a cake to Bolivia’s President Evo Morales for his birthday, at the Presidential Palace in La Paz, Bolivia, yesterday.

A birthday gift

AMERICAS18 THURSDAY 27 OCTOBER 2016

Democratic Unity coalition also called for a national strike tomorrow.

Reuters

CARACAS: Hundreds of thousands of opposition supporters rallied across Venezuela on Wednesday against socialist President Nico-las Maduro, whom they accuse of becoming a dictator by blocking a plebiscite to remove him.

Escalating its anti-Maduro cam-paign, the opposition Democratic Unity coalition called for a national strike for tomorrow and a march to the Miraflores presidential palace in Caracas next week, activists and local media said.

The country is in the throes of a punishing economic crisis that has many poor families skipping meals

or surviving on starches amid scarce food and triple-digit inflation.

The opposition coalition says Maduro must go, but Venezuela’s electoral board last week cancelled a signature drive to hold a recall ref-erendum against him, citing fraud.

Enraged foes said Maduro had crossed the line.

After launching a political trial against him in the National Assembly legislature on Tuesday, the coalition organised marches called the “Take-over of Venezuela” in all major cities yesterday.

“This has gone too far. I do not like confrontation, but we have been too compromising and soft with the government, with this farcical dic-tatorship,” said carpenter Grimaldi Lopez, 50, carrying a large Venezue-lan flag covered in the signatures of well-known opposition leaders.

“The referendum was our consti-tutional right, and they have denied it. What are they scared off?,” he added at a Caracas rally, echoing accusations that Maduro has leaned on compliant electoral and judicial authorities to block the plebiscite.

Roadblocks by security forces delayed some opposition supporters,

while various underground metro stations were also closed in Caracas in an apparent tactic by authorities to impede the demonstrations.

Journalists in several Venezue-lan cities reported large crowds at the opposition rallies, especially in the capital Caracas, collectively number-ing hundreds of thousands of people.

Wary of trouble, many busi-nesses stayed shut and some parents kept children away from school. Some protesters brought vinegar and makeshift masks to use in case of teargas.

“I’m willing to give my life for Maduro to go,” said 80-year-old Jose Perez, marching in the western city of Maracaibo.

In the restive western city of San Cristobal, protesters clashed with security forces, witnesses said.

Just back from a tour of major oil-producing countries plus meetings with the Pope and UN Secretary General-designate Anto-nio Guterres, Maduro counters it is in fact the opposition vying for a coup beneath the veneer of peace-ful protests.

Chavez was briefly toppled in a 2002 putsch, when some of the

current opposition leaders played key roles.

“We have to stop the cycle of politi-cal violence,” Maduro said at a specially convened Committee for the Defence of the Nation at the presidential palace.

Opposition protests two years ago led to 43 deaths, including security officials and both government and opposition supporters. As a result, some Venezuelans are wary of

demonstrations or see them as futile.Venezuela’s poor have to priori-

tise the all-consuming task of finding affordable food, while many remain sceptical of the opposition, which has a reputation for elitism and whose internal squabbles have for years been a boon for “Chavismo.”

Maduro convened the defence committee to analyse the National Assembly’s actions against him and

a tentatively scheduled dialogue with the opposition this weekend.

National Assembly head Henry Ramos, a veteran politician who swaps insults with Maduro almost daily, declined an invitation to attend. “Here’s his chair, empty again,” said Maduro, urging participation in talks supported by the Vatican, regional bloc Unasur and various ex-heads of state.

1 dead & 3 injured

in Haiti aid

distribution chaos

AFP

PORT-AU-PRINCE: A teenage girl was killed and three people wounded by gunfire early yester-day in Haiti when chaos broke out during humanitarian aid distribu-tion to hurricane victims, the UN mission here said.

The much-needed aid was being unloaded from a Colombian ship at the port in southwestern town of Dame-Marie when a stampede occurred on the dock.

“The Brazilian peacekeep-ers who were there supporting the Haitian national police fired rubber bullets and two tear-gas grenades,” Mourad Wahba, the UN humanitarian coordinator in Haiti, told journalists.

National police fired live ammunition on the crowd dem-onstrating over the slow pace of aid some three weeks after Hur-ricane Matthew struck southern Haiti, killing at least 546 peo-ple and leaving 175,000 without homes.

The girl who died was struck in the chest by a bullet and three other victims suffered gunshot wounds, Wahba said, adding that a UN investigation was under way.

The exact circumstances sur-rounding the death, however, were not immediately clear.

A spokesman for Haiti’s national police said he was una-ble to confirm details surrounding the fatality.

Reuters

MEXICO CITY: Eager to clean up its image before the 2018 presiden-tial election, Mexico’s ruling party is weighing whether to discipline two former state governors after expelling another wanted on corruption charges.

Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) Senator Arturo Zamora said yesterday the party’s justice

committee was reviewing whether to act against former governors Rob-erto Borge from Quintana Roo and Cesar Duarte in Chihuahua, whom the opposition have accused of fraud and corruption. The governors deny any wrongdoing.

“Proceedings have been initiated, and we don’t know what the result of these two cases will be,” Zamora said in a radio interview, noting the party was still gathering evidence.

Battered by allegations of graft,

misuse of public funds and con-flict-of-interest scandals, President Enrique Pena Nieto’s PRI has vowed to go after corrupt officials to counter entrenched public skepticism.

On Tuesday, the PRI expelled outgoing Veracruz governor Javier Duarte, who has been missing since the attorney general’s office said a week ago it was seeking his arrest on suspicion of involvement in organ-ised crime and money laundering.

Both Borge and Duarte’s terms in

office ended in the months after the PRI lost control of their states in a string of regional election defeats in June.

Corruption allegations have swirled around several state gover-nors in recent years, but few have led to prosecution.

Pena Nieto himself became embroiled in a conflict-of-inter-est controversy in late 2014 when it emerged he, his wife and then-finance minister Luis Videgaray had all bought or made use of houses

owned by government contractors.A subsequent investigation

ordered by Pena Nieto found no evidence of any wrongdoing by the three, though it was panned as a whitewash by the opposition.

On Tuesday, Pena Nieto said pres-idents of Mexico do not wake up thinking how to “screw” the coun-try as he sought to defend his record.

Opinion polls show the centrist PRI faces a tough battle to retain power in the next presidential elections.

Reuters

WASHINGTON: A 16-year-old boy was shot and critically wounded during an argument outside a middle school in Sandy, Utah, and a 14-year-old boy was taken into custody, police said.

Sergeant Dean Carriger said the bell excusing students at Union Mid-dle School had just rung when the shooting took place.

“Union had just released and students were leaving the property when two juveniles got into an argu-ment that led to shooting,” he said.

Carriger said the 14-year-old boy was a student at Union Middle School but the victim was not.

The 16-year-old victim was

taken to a hospital in critical con-dition, where he was undergoing surgery for two gunshot wounds. Local media initially reported the victim was 12, citing authorities.

Carriger said it was not immedi-ately clear if the suspect had brought the gun to school or acquired it before the argument. He added it was not yet clear what led to the ini-tial disagreement.

“There were so many students in the area, our investigators have dozens of interviews to do,” he said.

The Canyons School District said on the middle school was placed on lockdown at the request of police following the shooting.

“We understand that police have apprehended the subject and that stu-dents are safe,” the district said. The lockdown was lifted in the afternoon.

AFP

WASHINGTON: Battleground states dominated the race for the White House yesterday as Republican Donald Trump and Democrat Hillary Clinton press their fight just 13 days before Americans pick a new president.

Clinton marked her 69th birthday campaigning in Florida as a new poll showed Trump edging past her in a state crucial to his political fortunes.

Fresh off a three-day swing through Florida, Trump is pivoting to North Carolina, another key bat-tleground—after first carving out precious time for grand opening of his new luxury hotel in Washington, Trump International Hotel.

The event was billed as a “corpo-rate ceremony” but in the final stretch

of a tumultuous presidential cam-paign no occasion is without political significance.

Clinton holds a comfortable 4.7 percent lead nationally over Trump in a poll average compiled by tracker RealClearPolitics, but it has narrowed by over half a point since Tuesday.

In Florida, a Bloomberg poll put Trump 45 to 43 percent among likely voters in the must-win state when third party candidates are included. A Real-ClearPolitics poll average still puts Clinton ahead in the state by 1.5 percent.

But Bloomberg’s survey, which was taken during first two days of Trump’s Florida swing, shows him doing somewhat better than Clinton with independents, who may hold the key to victory.

“There are 13 days left. Most Amer-icans are going to cast their votes on Election Day. And we know we are

going to win this election because enthusiasm and momentum, the movement in the polls,” Trump cam-paign manager Kellyanne Conway said on CBS This Morning. “She’s the one with huge advantages. We’re with the momentum,” she said of Clinton.

Clinton meanwhile taped radio interviews, reaching out to audiences in Florida and North Carolina, before beginning her day of campaign.

To a Hispanic audience on Miami-based Univision’s National Radio she trumpeted her promises to introduce comprehensive immigration reform with a path to citizenship “as soon as I get there.” “I’ll do everything I can to keep families together, and to ensure that people living here who have been here for years, who’ve raised their kids here, who’ve worked hard, will have a chance to come forward and finally become citizens,” she said.

Venezuela oppn escalates protests against Maduro

People demonstrate against the government of President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, yesterday.

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton reacts before boarding her campaign plane at Miami International Airport in Miami, Florida, yesterday.

Battleground states dominate race for the White House

Utah boy shot outside

school; 14-year-old held

Mexico ruling party probes two former governors for graft

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DOHA: National Car Company (NCC), the sole distributor for Hyundai trucks and buses, has launched the special “Total Peace of Mind” package offer of 3 year/unlimited kilometre warranty and 7 free services up to 30,000Km or 1 year, whichever comes first. The limited period offer is applicable for Hyundai light duty trucks and is valid until 15th Decem-ber, 2016.

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equipment enables HD 46 to deliver high return on investment.

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From refrigerated vans (chiller/

freezer), to mobile service trucks, dump trucks as well as crane trucks, Hyundai HD series will ful-fill your needs whatever be your specific business requirements. Tanker, aerial platform, recovery, maintenance & waste management etc. are the other commonly used applications for HD series.

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NCC offers unbeatable warranty and service package on Hyundai trucks

Emir and Father Emir receive condolences

QNA

DOHA: The Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani offered their condolences to the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khal-ifa Al Thani, the Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and to Qatari people on the death of H H the Grand-father Emir Sheikh Khalifa bin Hamad Al Thani, praying to Allah to bestow mercy upon his soul, make his residence par-adise, and grant him the best reward for what he achieved for his homeland and nation.

Cabinet offers condolences

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