Barcelona end Sociedad hoodoo

BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 22

Oil surges two percent ahead of producers’

compliance meeting

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Volume 21 | Number 7048 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 21 January 2017 | 23 Rabia II 1438

Fireworks during the Spring Festival at Souq Waqef Al Wakrah, yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin/The Peninsula

Fireworks dazzle visitors at Al Wakrah

Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

With intensified inspections b y t h e authorities, beauty salons

across the country have become more cautious about the qual-ity of products and services.

Beauty salons have started to take extra care in complying with the expiry dates and stand-ards of products being used especially for skin and hair care, according to industry sources.

Inspections at beauty salons have been conducted by the Ministry of Economy and Com-merce as well as by the municipalities.

Several beauty salon man-agers and staff, The Peninsula spoke to, said that detailed inspections are held by differ-ent teams of inspectors as often as once a week.

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce recently issued a circular to managers of bar-ber shops and beauty salons banning the use of substandard products in line with Law No. 8 of 2008 on consumer protection.

The Ministry asked outlets to strictly comply with the law, which prohibits the sale, dis-play, promotion and use of products with lower standards, fake and expired. Barber shops and beauty salons have also been instructed to avoid display of false or misleading product descriptions and advertise-ments, as its banned by the law.

“Inspections are very strict and we are extra careful with the products, expiry dates and clean-liness of the salon. Sometimes

one team of inspectors will come in the morning and if they find that a more detailed inspection is needed, another team will follow within one hour time. It’s actually good on us, as it pre-vents from any negative impact on the clients, which could bring trouble, ” said manager-ess of a beauty salon in Al Wakrah.

“Expiry date of products are taken very seriously. Usually beauty products will mention the manufacture date and the expiry period. So if a product is manufactured in 2015, the label would say it will expire in two years. We generally think the product can be used through-out 2017, but actually the inspectors will calculate the expiry date as of beginning of 2017. There are some products used for hair care, once we open the lid of the tube or con-tainer we should finish using within six months. And it’s essential to write the date we opened the lid of every prod-uct. Inspectors will be looking at all these details. Also all products should be from well recognized brands,” she added.

→ Continued on page 2

Washington

Reuters

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of the United States yes-

terday, succeeding Barack Obama and telling a bitterly divided country he will pursue “America First” policies at home and abroad.

As scattered protests erupted elsewhere in Washing-ton, Trump raised his right hand and put his left on a Bible used by Abraham Lincoln and repeated a 35-word oath of office from the US Constitution, with US Chief Justice John Rob-erts presiding.

“This moment is your moment, it belongs to you,” Trump told a large crowd that had earlier booed Chuck Schumer, the Democratic minority leader in the US Sen-ate. Revisiting themes from his improbable campaign victory, Trump said his presidency would aim to help struggling middle-class families, build up the US military and strengthen US borders.

“We are transferring power from Washington DC and giv-ing it back to you,” he said.

“From this day forward a new vision will govern our land,” Trump said. “From this day forward it’s going to be only America First.”

The transition from a Dem-ocratic president to a Republican took place on the West Front of the domed US Capitol before a crowd of former presidents, dignitaries and hundreds of thousands of people on the grounds of the National Mall. The crowd stretched westward on a cool day of occasional light rain.

Trump, 70, takes over a country divided after a savage election campaign. A wealthy New York businessman and

former reality TV star, he will set the country on a new, uncertain path at home and abroad.

Away from the Capitol, masked activists ran through the streets smashing windows with hammers at a McDonald’s restaurant, a Starbucks coffee shop and Bobby Van’s Grill steakhouse several blocks from the White House.

They carried black anar-chist flags and signs that said, “Join the resistance, fight back now.” Police used pepper spray and chased them down a major avenue, a Reuters eyewitness

reported. In another location not far from the White House, protesters also scuffled with police, at one point throwing aluminum chairs at them at outdoor café.

Hillary Clinton, the Demo-cratic candidate who Trump defeated on Nov 8, attended the ceremony with her husband, former President Bill Clinton. Former presidents George W. Bush and Jimmy Carter were also present with their wives. Bush’s father, former President George H W Bush, 92, was in Houston recovering from pneumonia.

Trump and his vice presi-dent, Mike Pence, began the day attending a prayer service at St. John’s Episcopal Church near the White House. Trump, wear-ing a dark suit and red tie, and Melania Trump, clad in a clas-sic-styled, powder blue ensemble, then headed into the White House for a meeting with Obama and his wife, Michelle.

Trump took office with work to do to bolster his image.

During a testy transition period since his stunning elec-tion win, Trump has repeatedly engaged in Twitter attacks against his critics, so much so that one fellow Republican, Senator John McCain, told CNN that Trump seemed to want to “engage with every windmill that he can find.”

An ABC News/Washington Post poll this week found only 40 percent of Americans viewed Trump favourably, the lowest rating for an incoming president since Democrat Carter in 1977, and the same percentage approved of how he has handled the transition.

Beauty salons fall in line after crackdown

Ankara

Anatolia

Syrian opposition and Rus-sian delegations mediating peace talks due next week

in Kazakh capital of Astana met yesterday in Ankara.

The meeting was held in coordination with the Turkish co-guarantor of the cease-fire in Syria, the Syrian opposition's military delegation said in a statement.

According to the statement, the two delegations discussed the structure, the goal, and agenda of the Astana talks.

"The meeting also covered how they would lead to a polit-ical solution in Syria in accordance with the UN secu-rity council terms of reference, the Geneva communique and resolution 2254," read the

statement. "The opposition delegation stressed its respect and observation of the cease-fire and detailed the breaches of the cease-fire perpetrated by the Assad regime and Ira-nian militias," the statement added.

The statement also

highlighted that the opposition delegation presented an initia-tive to the Russian side for observing the cease-fire, which went into effect on Dec. 20, and invited them to check the facts about what is happening in Wadi Barada and other threatened Syrian regions.

WASHINGTON: A US air strike targeting an Al Qaeda training camp in Syria killed more than 100 militants, a US defence offi-cial said. The strike took place just a day before the end of President Barack Obama’s presidency and a day after more than 80 Islamic State militants were killed in U.S. air strikes in Libya.

The official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the air strike was primarily carried out by a B-52 bomber and dropped 14 munitions. The official added that the strike against the camp took place in Idlib province, west of Aleppo, and there was a high level of confidence that there were no civilian casualties.

America first: Trump

Beauty salons have started to take extra care in complying with the expiry dates and standards of products being used, especially for skin and hair care, according to industry sources.

US strike kills over 100 militants

Syrian rebels meet Russian delegates ahead of talks

US President Donald Trump speaks to the nation during his swearing-in ceremony at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, yesterday.

InsidePage 9:>>Relax and give Trump a chance>>Marching to ease the pain of TrumpPage 11: >>New vision to govern our land: Trump>>Washington protests turn violent

From this day forward a new vision will govern our land. From this day forward it’s going to be only America First.”

02 SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017HOME

A scene from Natyanjali, a dance programme organised by the Indian Cultural Centre at the Birla Public School in Doha, on Thursday. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

A cultural performace held as part of the ongoing Spring Festival at Souq Waqef at Al Wakra, yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Dance feat

Spring festival

King of Spain meets Nassir bin Abdulaziz QNA

Madrid King Felipe VI of Spain has met with HE Nassir bin

Abdulaziz Al Nasser, the High Representative for the United Nations All iance of Civilizations.

The meeting touched on the UN objectives and activi-ties aimed at promoting tolerance and dialogue among cultures and respect for oth-ers as well as the promotion of religious and cultural pluralism.

HE Al Nasser praised the King, and the Spanish govern-ment support of the Alliance. Both Spain and Turkey sup-port the United Nations Alliance of Civilizations since its inception. The meeting with King Philip came within the context of HE Al Nasser's participation in the Interna-tional Tourism Organization meeting, which opened on January 18 in Madrid under the title: "2017 a year of sus-tainable tourism."

The UNAOC aims to bridge divides, and promote harmony among the nations, all with a view toward pre-venting conflict.

Concern over children's online safetyRaynald C RiveraThe Peninsula

Parents in Qatar are more concerned now when it comes to child safety online as chil-dren get increasingly

connected with the digital world, according to Dana Haidan, Head of Corporate Social Responsibil-ity at Vodafone Qatar.

In an exclusive interview with The Peninsula, Haidan said a study undertaken by Vodafone, which became the basis for AmanTECH, revealed that par-ents from various nationalities in Qatar had the same level of concern when it came to child safety online.

“We did a focused group research with about 300 parents here from different nationalities, and we noticed the concern level was the same across all nation-alities,” said Haidan, adding they also found some parents to be also concerned on how chil-dren’s personalities were different in real life and online.

Vodafone has been actively involved in raising awareness on online safety as children are now always connected, thus it launched in 2014 AmanTECH, a digital parenting programme.

“This online safety

programme is something we started because of the huge worry and concern of parents when it comes to the ever-evolv-ing digital world, as well as the fact that many schools are now using iPad in place of books,” she explained.

“Children are learning more from apps than books. It has become clear that children are born in a digital world which is a fact of life that parents have to accept and deal with in a better way,” she added.

Haidan was speaking on the sidelines of Treasure Hunts held yesterday at Gulf Mall which is one of the key programmes under AmanTECH.

Treasure Hunts have proved

effective and popular among parents because it is a departure from traditional educational workshops as parents solve puz-zles on online safety together with their children. More than 2,500 families have taken part in this programme since its launch in March 2015.

“We also have a program called Connected Families which is an interactive workshop with different stations tackling cru-cial issues about online child safety. In order to understand the concept, parents have to work together in an activity where they need to solve an issue together.”

Among the important con-cepts tacked are digital parenting, privacy, and online reputation and footprint.

Vodafone targets all the par-ents in 15 schools for the Connected Families programme this year, said Haidan.

As a further enhancement to AmanTECH, a self-assessment tool for parents on online safety will also be launched in a cou-ple of weeks, she added.

“It’s called “How safe is my child online?” in which they assess themselves regarding cer-tain skills related to online safety. After the quiz, they get a custom-ised report on exactly the areas

where they are good at and where they need to improve, in addition to where they go for advice,” she explained.

“We also have an online plat-form which is the AmanTECH website we developed with parenting experts in Europe to put together excellent content for par-ents, which has everything on online child safety. I encourage parents to visit our website and use the resources available.”

Treasure Hunts run until

today at Gulf Mall from 3pm to 10pm and from January 26 to 28 at Hyatt Plaza Mall. These activ-ities will be held year round in various public places which fam-ilies frequent.

"We will continue doing these activities to reach more and more parents. We also focus on reaching more schools this year because we want to link the programme as much as we can with the educational system," she said.

Common concern

Vodafone actively involved in raising awareness on online safety as children are now always connected.

Parents from various nationalities in Qatar have the same level of concern.

Al Muraikhi and Bangladesh minister discuss Rohingya issueThe Peninsula

State Minister for Foreign Affairs of Bangladesh Shahriar Alam met with

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs of Qatar H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi on the side-lines of the Extraordinary Session of the OIC council of Foreign Ministers on the situa-tion of the Rohingya Muslims on Thursday in Kuala Lumpur.

During the meeting, the two ministers discussed the situa-tion of the Rohingya Muslim minority in Myanmar and reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries and means of boosting and devel-oping them in addition to issues of mutual interest, said a state-ment issued by the Bangladesh embassy.

In his speech at the Extraor-dinary Session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers, Bangladesh State Minister expressed deep concern on recurrence of instability in the Rakhine State resulting in Rakhine Muslims being dis-placed and uprooted from their ancestral homeland and com-pelled to take shelter in Bangladesh.

Referring to the recent

influx of Rakhine Muslims into Bangladesh for shelter, he demanded Myanmar to bring back normalcy into the Rakhine state immediately and take steps for rehabilitation and reconstruction.

He stressed on the need for ensuring basic rights of the Rakhine Muslims for a durable solution of the problem with particular emphasis on restor-ing their citizenship through necessary review of the existing exclusionary citizenship law.

The State Minister also demanded urgent measures from Myanmar for a sustainable

repatriation of refugees and all documented and undocu-mented Myanmar nationals temporarily sheltered in Bang-ladesh and beyond to their centuries-old homeland - Rakhine State with safety, security and ensured livelihood. He urged the OIC to continue working for a durable solution to the problem.

Member states also appre-ciated Bangladesh’s generosity and efforts in hosting hundreds of thousands Rohingya Muslims for decades and called for early repatriation to their homeland in Rakhine State.

The Peninsula

Craig LaMay, a Northwest-ern University scholar, has returned to the Qatar cam-

pus where he previously taught a course in Sports, Media, and Society. LaMay (pictured) is an expert in freedom of expression and media development in democra-tizing and post-conflict societies, as well as sport as a social institution, said a press release.

LaMay,who is currently on leave from his position as associ-ate professor at Northwestern’s Medill School, is also a former

associate dean at Medill. He will be in residence at NU-Q until 2019. While at NU-Q, he will develop a program on sports, media, and leadership. He will also teach undergraduate courses

on sports and media, drawing heavily on the local Qatari sports culture. “Professor LaMay has been a strong supporter of NU-Q since it was first established. His presence on campus brings a broad portfolio of creative teaching as well as providing an increased depth of knowledge and research across several areas especially relevant to NU-Q and Qatar. NU-Q students will find his international expe-rience of great value in helping them master sports analysis and coverage,” said Everette E Den-nis, dean and CEO.

→ Continued from page 1The Ministry of Economy

and Commerce has also asked the beauty salons to inform cus-tomers about the characteristics and potential side effects of the products.

“We always make it a point to inform the nature and effects of the product to our clients because some people might have an allergy to certain prod-ucts, and sometimes we do a testing to confirm that the prod-uct would not have any negative effect on the person,” said Sheela, who runs a chain of

beauty salons in Qatar. “To comply with the

requirements of the law, we do take care of everything at the salons and standards and expiry dates of the products we use,” she added.

Beauty salon mangers also say that the inspections are held in a very extensive manner and even the smallest details are taken into consideration by the inspectors.

“The efficiency and details which inspectors look at are unbelievable. They don’t just look at products only but also at

the condition of the salon, staff and equipment. Even a small bit of dust or a crack on the floor tile would bring trouble to us,” said the manager of a beauty salon in New Salata area.

“The inspectors will hold hair brushes upside down to check if it’s clean; they look at combs, scissors, sterilizers, wash basins and everything in detail,” she added.

The ministry had warned the salons that any violation of the consumer protection law could result in fines and even a clo-sure of the erring outlet.

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, with Shahriar Alam, in Kuala Lumpur.

Inspectors 'look at every detail'

Craig LaMay returns to NU-Q faculty

Dana Haidan, Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at Vodafone Qatar. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

03SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Gambia

AP

The chief of Gambia's defence forces pledged his allegiance yesterday to the

new president, while the lead-ers of Guinea and Mauritania tried to persuade the defeated one to cede power in the West African nation.

A regional military force awaited orders to roll into the capital and force Yahya Jammeh from the office he held for 22 years. Adama Barrow, who was elected president last month, was sworn in Thursday, and the UN Security Council voted unanimously to approve the regional military intervention. The inauguration took place at the Gambian Embassy in neigh-boring Senegal for Barrow's safety. Defence forces chief Ous-mane Badjie told The Associated Press that Gambia's security services all support Barrow and would not fight the regional force that was poised to push out Jammeh if talks failed.

"You cannot push us to war for an issue we can solve polit-ically," Badjie said. "We don't see any reason to fight."

With his security forces abandoning him and his

Cabinet dissolved, Jammeh was increasingly isolated as the last-minute talks continued at his official residence in the capital, Banjul, with the leaders of Guinea and Mauritania.

The West African regional force, including tanks, moved in during the evening without fac-ing any resistance, said Marcel Alain de Souza, chairman of the West African regional bloc, ECOWAS. At least 20 military vehicles were seen yesterday at the border town of Karang. The regional force included troops from Senegal, Ghana, Nigeria, Togo and Mali, and they moved

in after Barrow's inauguration and the UN vote.

Guinean President Alpha Conde arrived in Banjul with Mauri tanian President Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. Mauritania has been mentioned as a possible home in exile for Jammeh. After a first round of talks, they broke for Friday prayers and resumed.

Conde will offer Jammeh the chance to step down peacefully, de Souza said. Jammeh "has the choice of going with President Alpha Conde," he said, but if that fails, "we will bring him by force or by will."

NEWS BYTES

MAPUTO: At least 40 people have been killed and 76,000 oth-ers affected by floods and storms since Mozambique's rainy season started in October, officials said yesterday, warning of further heavy rainfall.

The government declared a nationwide alert this week, Paulo Tomas, spokesman for the Institute of Management of Natural Disasters (INGC), said. "18,000 families have been affected," Tomas said, adding that 8,000 houses had been destroyed.

40 dead in Mozambique rainy season

Tehran, Iran

Agencies

As many as 30 people -- including a number of firefighters -- may have been killed in yesterday’s building col-

lapse in central Tehran, according to Iranian officials.

On Thursday morning, a massive fire broke out in the 17-floor Plasco Tower, one of central Tehran’s best-known commercial buildings. Not long afterward, the building collapsed, killing an as-yet-undetermined number of people, including firefighters who had been trying to extinguish the blaze.

According to subsequent reports in the Iranian media, material losses caused by the building collapse have been estimated at a whopping $440m. Yesterday, firefighters and rescue teams continued to pull survivors out from under the rubble of the collapsed build-ing. Iran’s official IRNA press agency quoted Ali Fazeli, the head of Iran’s Chamber of Craftsmen, as saying the fate of several shop-owners and employees -- who had been working in the building when it collapsed -- remained unknown until now.

Mojtaba Khaledi, a spokesman for Iran's emergency services department, for his part, put the number of those injured by the build-ing collapse at 84. Khaledi went on to note that, according to assessments by Tehran’s official firefighting authority, between 25 and 30 firefighters still remained unaccounted for. Later Thursday, Tehran Mayor Moham-mad Bagher Ghalibaf said there were no

civilians inside the building at the time of the collapse, though witnesses said people had slipped through a police cordon to try and save their valuables inside the burning build-ing. Authorities said an injured firefighter died at a local hospital. No survivors or bod-ies have been pulled out of the rubble so far. The disaster had stunned many Iranians and triggered an outpouring of grief across Tehran.

Iran's government announced that Sat-urday would be a day of mourning for the

nation following the incident that "claimed lives of several people and brave firefight-ers," according to a statement carried by the official IRNA news agency. Jalal Maleki, spokesman of the Tehran Fire Department, told state TV that along with firefighters who are believed to be under the rubble, "we assume that there are some other people."

Iranian media said Behnam Mirzakhani, one of the firefighters hospitalized in Tehran, died yesterday from his injuries sustained in the building's collapse.

Beirut

AP

Islamic State (IS) militants have destroyed parts of the second-century Roman amphitheatre and an iconic monument known as the

Tetrapylon in Syria's historic town of Palmyra, the govern-ment and experts said yesterday.

It was the extremist group's latest attack on world heritage, an act that the UN cultural agency called a "war crime." A Syrian government official said he feared for the remaining antiquities in Palmyra, which IS recaptured last month.

Turkey's military said IS killed five Turkish soldiers and wounded nine in a bomb attack in northern Syria.

Turkey is leading Syrian opposition fighters in an offen-sive against the IS-held town of Al Bab in the Aleppo province, a push that has been bogged down since mid-November. Since its military intervention, Turkey has lost 54 soldiers in Syria, most of them in the Al Bab offensive.

After suffering several set-backs in Syria, IS has gone on the offensive— reclaiming ancient Palmyra in December and launching an at tack

on a government-held city and military air base in Deir El Zour in eastern Syria.

The state news agency SANA said seven civilians were killed when IS shelled a residential area in the city of Deir El Zour.

However, IS remains under pressure in northern Syria from Turkey and US-backed Kurdish forces, as well as in neighbour-ing Iraq where Iraqi troops backed by the US-led coalition is fighting to retake the city of Mosul from the militants.

Palmyra, a UNESCO world heritage site that once linked Persia, India, China with the Roman empire and the Mediter-ranean area, has already seen destruction at the hands of the Islamic State group.

The ancient town first fell to IS militants in May 2015.

IS destroys part of Roman theatre in Palmyra

This file picture shows the Roman Theatre in the historical city of Palmyra, in Homs Governorate, Syria.

'War crime'

It was the extremist group's latest attack on world heritage, an act that the UN cultural agency called a "war crime."

Iran building collapse toll at 30

Iranians light candles and lay flowers in front of a fire station, in downtown Tehran yesterday, in honour of the trapped firefighters.

Jerusalem

AFP

Lawyers for a Bedouin Arab man killed during clashes in southern Israel

announced yesterday they had filed a petition calling for his body to be returned.

Yacoub Abu Al Qiyan, 50, died in disputed circumstances on Wednesday when police raided the Bedouin village of Umm Al Hiran in order to demolish several homes.

An Israeli officer also died in what police said was an attack. The Adalah NGO, along with an Arab Israeli parliamen-tarian, filed a petition with

Israel's Supreme Court calling for his body to be released i m m e d i a t e l y w i t h o u t preconditions.

Family members had been asked to agree to a number of stipulations before returning the body, their lawyer said.

"They want to give the body back only at night, and also to have only a limited number of people at the funeral -- 40-50 people only," Attorney Nadeem Shehadeh from the Adalah NGO said. They also demanded the funeral not take place in the Bedouin village of Umm Al Hiran, where Qiyan came from, but in the nearby town of Hura, Shehadeh said.

Gambia defence chief supports new president

Senegalese soldiers patrol near a camp of the Red Cross in Karang, Senegal, near the border with The Gambia, yesterday.

Jerusalem

AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu said yesterday he wants rela-

tions with the United States to be "stronger than ever" after Donald Trump becomes president.

Netanyahu congratulated his "friend" Trump in a tweet before his inauguration, say-ing he was looking forward "to working closely with you to make the alliance between Israel&USA stronger than ever".Meanwhile, Israel's leftwing newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday that secu-rity services have presented Netanyahu with a series of scenarios about potential Pal-estinian violence if Trump follows through on his prom-ise to move the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.

Such a transfer would break with the consensus of the vast majority of the inter-national community, which does not recognise Jerusalem as Israel's capital.

Israel captured east Jeru-salem during the 1967 war and later annexed it, declar-ing all of the city its unified capital.

Netanyahu seeks stronger ties with Trump

Israel's supreme court asked to release body of Bedouin

Car bomb wounds 12 in BenghaziBENGHAZI: A car bomb exploded yesterday near a mosque in Libya's second city of Benghazi, wounding 12 people including a former interior minister, medical and security sources said.

Ashour Shwayel, who served as interior minister in the government of former prime minister Ali Zeidan, and his son were seriously hurt in the blast, said the spokeswoman of Al Jala hospital, Fadia Al Barghati. A security source said the blast was caused by an explosive device placed inside a car parked near Abu Houraira mosque in the central Al Majouri neigh-bourhood of the eastern coastal city.

Death toll at 90 in Nigeria air strikeKANO: The death toll from a botched Nigerian air strike against Boko Haram that hit a camp for displaced people has risen to 90, and could climb as high as 170, Doctors Without Bor-ders said yesterday.

Most of the victims of Tuesday's strike in Rann in the res-tive northeast on Tuesday were women and children, said the medical charity, which has called the strike "shocking and unacceptable". Meanwhile, security sources said Boko Haram fighters launched an attack on the town in the far north of Borno state on Thursday evening that left at least 14 Islamist fighters dead.

Kenya's electoral commission sworn inNAIROBI: Kenya's new electoral commission was sworn in yesterday to replace a team forced to quit after violent pro-tests by opponents who accused them of bias, mismanagement and corruption.

The seven new commissioners have only seven months to organise presidential and parliamentary elections which already have emotions flying high in the east African country.

The new chief of the electoral commission (IEBC), lawyer Wafula Chebukati, promised to deliver a "free, fair and credible election" after taking the oath of office at the Supreme Court.

The previous nine-member commission resigned in October under pressure from the opposition which led violent protests in May and June. The IEBC had been mired in controversy since its establishment in 2010, when it replaced a discredited body that had presided over the disputed 2007 election which trig-gered politically-motivated ethnic violence.

04 SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017ASIA

Abe to boost ties with Trump adminTokyo

Reuters

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, speaking in par-liament hours before US President-elect Donald Trump takes office, said yes-

terday he wanted to further strengthen the Japan-US alliance.

Trump sparked worries in Tokyo and the rest of the Asia-Pacific with campaign comments which included a pledge to make allies pay more for the security provided by US forces and oppo-sition to the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade deal.

"The Japan-US alliance has been, is and will be the corner-stone of our country's diplomatic

and security policies. This is an immutable principle," Abe said in his policy speech at the start of the regular parliament session.

"I am aiming to visit the United States as soon as possi-ble to further fortify the bond of alliance together with new Pres-ident Trump."

Abe met with Trump in New York after the election in Novem-ber and called him a "trustworthy leader".

In his speech to parliament, the prime minister repeated his support for TPP, which will go into deep freeze if the United States drops out.

"As a flag bearer for free trade, we will build an economic system of the 21st century based

on fair rules. The TPP agreement sets the standard for that pur-pose and serves as the foundation for future economic cooperation," he said.

Japan has ratified the TPP and yesterday notified New Zea-land, secretariat for the TPP, it had completed the domestic pro-cedures for the pact, becoming the first country among the 12 signatory nations to do so.

New Zealand has ratified the TPP, but not completed the whole domestic procedures.

Koichi Hamada, an adviser to Abe and emeritus professor of economics at Yale University, said that Japan should push back if Trump bases trade and other

economic policy on "wrong eco-nomics", in an unusually direct expression of concern about potential protectionism.

Echoing the sentiment in Abe's speech, Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called strength-ening the Japan-US alliance key to regional peace and prosper-ity, and said Japan is ready to play a role as a stabilising power in a world ripe for change.

"Uncertainty is growing in the international community, while Japan has conducted

stable politics and diplomacy over the past four years and increased its international pres-ence," Kishida said.

"As a stable power, Japan needs to work with countries it shares fundamental values with and take a leading role in the international community, so that this...will be the year of advance-ment of Japan's national interest and of global peace and prosperity."

Abe's ruling coalition enjoys a two-thirds majority in

parliament's powerful lower house, while the transition of power in the United States, key elections this year in France and Germany and Britain's departure from the European Union are making the global economic and political outlook uncertain.

Trump's inauguration cere-mony will take place later on Friday in Washington, which braces for more than a quarter-million protesters expected during the New York real estate tycoon's swearing-in.

Taipei

Reuters

Taiwan aspires to create a "new era" of peace with China as military action

cannot resolve problems, Tai-wan President Tsai (pictured) Ing-wen said in a letter to Pope Francis, lauding Taipei's peace-ful intentions at a time of tension with Beijing.

In her January 5 letter to the Pope, released by her office yesterday, Tsai said upholding peace across the Taiwan Strait needed goodwill and communication.

"Based on many years of experience in cross-Strait nego-tiations during my political career, I am convinced that mil-itary action cannot resolve problems," Tsai said.

"Taiwan and mainland China were once embroiled in a zero-sum conflict that caused tension in the region and anx-iety among our peoples."

"In contrast, today people on the two sides of the Taiwan

Strait enjoy stable lives and normal exchanges under peaceful separate governance," she added.

Tsai added that Taiwan was committed to maintaining its democracy and the status quo of peace but would not bow to pressure.

"I urge the governing party across the strait, together with the governing party in Taiwan, to set aside the baggage of his-tory and engage in positive dialogue," Tsai said.

Korea prosecutors summon another Samsung official

Indonesia court jails Briton for abusing teenMataram

Reuters

A COURT in the eastern Indonesian holiday island of Lombok sentenced a British man to five years in prison for abusing a teenage boy, the man's lawyer said.

Stuart Richard Pike, 45, was also fined $4,488 for repeatedly abusing a 17-year old, who he said he did not know was underage at the time.

Pike's lawyer said his cli-ent was considering appealing the verdict.

"He would like to spend some time, about one or two days, to think about whether he will appeal or not. Basi-cally he still feels that he is not guilty of abusing the child," the lawyer, Bambang Hardiyanto, said after the trial on the island east of Bali.

A string of paedophilia cases in tourist destinations, like Bali and Lombok, has prompted police to cooper-ate with some foreign counterparts in preventing child abuse offenders from traveling to Indonesia.

Official data on abuse remains scarce in Indonesia, where more than 90% of abuses go unreported, accord-ing to a recent survey.

Bangkok

Reuters

Thailand's junta is setting up a rec-onciliation panel of generals and experts to find common ground

between political factions ahead of elections, the general named to lead the body said yesterday.

But critics questioned how neu-tral the panel would be given decades of military involvement in politics.

General Chaichan Changmongkol (pictured), appointed by the junta to lead the panel, said it would include the head of the armed forces, army specialists and civilian experts.

"We will spend three months lis-tening to the views of every side and on every subject whether it is politics, reforms or education," said Chaichan, who is permanent secretary at the Ministry of Defence.

The panel would then come up

with an agreement that all sides would sign to ensure a peaceful transition, he said.

Thailand's political divide is broadly between a traditionalist elite, centered on Bangkok, and the less prosperous parts of the country, which largely backed populist governments before the most recent coup.

Both Thailand's main political par-ties said they were open to

reconciliation if it was done fairly."The reconciliation process must

be neutral, must be fair and must be according to the law," said former Pr ime Minis ter Yingluck Shinawatra.

Kan Yuenyong, executive director of the Siam Intelligence Unit think-tank, said that reconciliation by an army-led panel would be hard.

"If they were sincere they would admit that they have been part of the problem and appoint a neutral panel," he said.

Since helping to overthrow an absolute monarchy in what was then Siam in 1932, the military has staged 19 coups, 12 of them successful, and has provided 12 of its 29 prime min-isters in that time.

The junta dismissed suggestions that it should also sign any reconcili-ation agreement and agree not to stage more coups.

Thai junta sets up reconciliation panel

Taiwan wants 'new era' of peace with Beijing Seoul

Reuters

South Korea's special pros-ecutor's office said yesterday it summoned a

Samsung Electronics Co Ltd executive for questioning as it investigates a widening influ-ence-peddling scandal that has embroiled President Park Geun-hye.

The office said it had sum-moned Executive Vice President

Hwang Sung-soo for question-ing at 2pm yesterday, adding he was classified as a witness. It did not elaborate.

Hwang is the fifth executive of Samsung Group, the country's top conglomerate, the prosecu-tor has summoned.

Samsung Electronics is the flagship company of Samsung Group and is the world's top manufacturer of smartphones, memory chips and flat-screen televisions.

A Samsung Group spokes-man declined to comment.

Samsung Group leader Jay Y Lee and Vice Chairman Choi Gee-sung have been classified as suspects by the prosecution, which has been investigating whether the conglomerate paid bribes to Park's confidant, Choi Soon-sil, to win support from the National Pension Service for the 2015 merger of two Samsung Group affiliates.

Park, 64, was impeached last

month by parliament over alle-gations that she allowed her friend, Choi, to exert inappro-priate influence over state affairs.

Both have denied wrongdo-ing, although Park has apologised for exercising poor judgment.

Yesterday, the special pros-ecution said it was mulling whether to make another arrest warrant request for the 48-year-old Samsung chief.

Japan drill to simulate China-Taiwan clash

Unchange allegiance

"The Japan-US alliance has been, is and will be the cornerstone of our country's diplomatic and security policies. This is an immutable principle": Abe

Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida called strengthening the Japan-US alliance key to regional peace and prosperity, and said Japan is ready to play a role as a stabilising power in a world ripe for change.

People hold a US flag and placards during a rally ahead of Donald Trump's inauguration, in Tokyo, yesterday.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other Diet members attend the opening ceremony of a 150-day ordinary Diet session in Tokyo, yesterday.

Tokyo

AFP

Japan will carry out a table-top exercise next week to simulate its response in the

event of a military clash between China and Taiwan, Japanese media said.

The Self-Defence Forces will conduct drills from Mon-day through Friday with the

US military participating as an observer, a Japanese govern-ment source told Kyodo News.

The exercises, which do not involve actual troop deployments, assume that the US and Japan are responding to a military conflict, Kyodo said.

A Japanese defence min-istry spokesman declined to comment.

China's foreign ministry said Japan should keep out of what it called an "internal affair".

"I think this reflects that some people in Japan have a certain mentality that the last thing they want is a stable world," ministry spokes-woman Hua Chunying told a regular press briefing in Bei-jing yesterday.

05SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017 ASIA

Filipinos denounce Trump's presidencyManila

AFP

Hundreds of Filipinos converged on the US embassy yester-day to denounce Donald Trump

ahead of his inauguration as president of the United States.

Chanting "Dump Trump", the protesters from leftist groups also expressed concerns that Trump was a threat to the mil-lions of Filipino immigrants living in the United States.

"It is alarming to know that a known racist and xenophobic man is assuming the presidency of the strongest capitalist coun-try in the world," Joms Salvador, secretary-general of women's group Gabriela, said.

"The decades of struggle of women across the world to fight for their rights is threatened by Trump's presidency."

The roughly 300 people who gathered near the US embassy in Manila held placards with the

message "@realDonaldTrump hands off Filipino immigrants" and "Trump you're trash". They symbolically dumped photos of

Trump in the rubbish bin. Trump defeated the Demo-

crat's candidate Hillary Clinton after a divisive campaign in which the real-estate billionaire vowed to deport millions of ille-gal migrants and faced multiple accusations of harassment.

"We are very concerned about Filipino workers in the US dealing with a rise of racism. Some Filipinos there are getting paranoid about their personal safety and their job security," Salvador said.

The Philippines, a former American colony, has strong cul-tural and economic ties with the United States.

The two are bound by a mutual defence treaty and US forces have for many years helped the Philippines on vari-ous security issues.

However, leftist groups have long railed against the United States for exporting its capitalist model and for what they see as continued American domination of the Philippines.

Protesters at yesterday's rally also burned an American flag as they reiterated their longtime demands for US troops to leave the Philippines and the tearing up of what they called "unequal" military agreements.

Bilateral relations have soured under firebrand Philip-pine President Rodrigo Duterte, a self-declared socialist who has p ivoted h is nat ion 's

foreign policy towards China and Russia since taking office nearly seven months ago.

In Hong Kong, a man chained himself to the gate of the United States consulate yesterday after-noon in protest over Trump's inauguration.

Refusing to give his name or nationality but identifying him-self as "Snufkin", the bearded man said that Trump "represents

everything bad in the world"."Sometimes it feels like we

are in 1933 or 1934 again," he said, saying he was protesting because he wanted to be on the right side of history.

Police detained the man after releasing him from a bike lock around his neck and a chain around his torso which he had used to attach himself to the exterior gate of the consulate.

Islamabad

Reuters

Authorities in Pakistan's largest province have ordered several women's

and human rights groups to shut down, accusing them of unspec-ified "anti-state" activities, an official of a human rights group said.

Pakistan has toughened its stance against local and inter-national non-government bodies in recent years, accusing some of using their work as a cover for espionage.

In 2015, it ordered Save the

Children expelled but reversed the decision.

"They are shutting up peo-ple by harassment," I A Rehman, an official of the independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, said.

Police and security officials have ordered about a dozen non-government organisations (NGOs) to halt operations, mostly in southern Punjab province, Rehman added, with groups working on women's and human rights appearing to be the main targets.

"The provincial government has given orders to district police

offices that so-and-so organiza-tion has been indulging in anti-state activities, so ban this organization," he said.

Punjab's home minister, Rana Sanaullah, did not respond to written queries about the orders.

Two officials of non-govern-ment bodies in Punjab said police had ordered their employ-ees to halt work.

"Yesterday, the police went to one of my colleagues in Baha-walpur and asked him to shut our office over there," said Mohammad Tehseen, director of South Asia Partnership

Pakistan, which focuses on women's rights.

The police gave him a letter issued by the Punjab Home Department alleging that his organisation was "pursuing (an) anti-state agenda".

Tehseen denied the charge, and said the police would not specify any actions to support the accusation.

Telephone calls to police in the city of Bahawalpur went unanswered on Thursday and yesterday.

Other organisations have received similar letters, Rehman said.

Filipino gunmen abduct three IndonesiansZamboanga City

Anatolia

SUSPECTED IS-linked gunmen have taken three Indonesians from a fishing vessel in the Sulu Sea, in the southwestern Philippines, the military said yesterday.

Maj Gen Carlito Galvez Jr, newly assumed chief of the Western Mindanao Command, confirmed the abduction of three foreign fishing vessel crewmen off Sulu.

He said they were taken by Abu Sayyaf on Thursday, the same day soldiers rescued two Filipino hostages from their captors in the town of Indanan.

Lt Col Raphael Alano, WesMinCom’s acting spokes-person, citing the Indonesian Police Attache list, said the three were among six crew members of a Sandakan-reg-istered fishing vessel who were initially reported miss-ing after an attack by gunmen along the Philippine-Malay-sian sea border.

"The Indonesian author-ities called up us here to verify the abduction of three Indonesian crew members in the waters of Sulu," he said.

Last year, Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte forged an agreement with his Indonesian and Malaysian counterparts allowing their navies to enter Philippine waters to capture pirates that kidnap ships and tourists.

Humans destroyed Australia's big beasts

Pakistan bans NGOs over anti-state activitiesFour dead as car rams Melbourne shoppersMelbourne

AFP

A car ploughed into pedestrians on a pop-ular shopping strip in

the heart of Australia's sec-ond-largest city yesterday, killing four people including a young child and injuring dozens more.

Police said they were not considering the incident an act of terrorism.

Witnesses described "bodies flying through the air" and people running out of the path of the speeding

vehicle in the central mall area of Melbourne.

Moments before, passers-by had watched astonished as the driver gesticulated out the window and spun the maroon-coloured saloon round a major intersection, blocking traffic.

Police shot the 26-year-old male driver in the arm and arrested him.

"This individual is not related to any counter-terror-ism or any terrorism-related activities," said Graham Ash-ton, chief commissioner for the state of Victoria.

Anti-Trump protest

Chanting 'Dump Trump', the protesters from leftist groups also expressed concerns that Trump was a threat to the millions of Filipino immigrants living in the US.

Protesters also burned an American flag as they reiterated their longtime demands for US troops to leave the Philippines and the tearing up of what they called "unequal" military agreements.

Anti-riot policemen escort activists as they march for a rally in front of the US embassy in Manila, yesterday.

Policemen and emergency services attend to an injured person after a car hit pedestrians in Melbourne, yesterday.

Three dead in Afghan Buzkashi match explosionMazar-i-Sharif

AFP

A BLAST hit spectators after a game of buzkashi, or polo with a carcass, in northern Afghanistan yesterday, kill-ing at least three people in the latest spasm of violence in the wartorn country.

The explosion triggered by an improvised explosive device in Khulm district in Balk province apparently tar-geted an anti-Taliban militiaman attending the buz-kashi match.

"An IED was detonated outside the venue of a buz-kashi match, killing three people and wounding four others," Balkh deputy police chief Abdul Razaq Qaderi said.

"The explosion happened just as people were leaving after the match".

Paris

AFP

Humans exterminated an array of weird and won-derful Austral ian

creatures within only 4,000 years of arriving on the conti-nent, according to a study published yesterday that shifted blame away from climate change.

Before the arrival of homo sapiens, Australia boasted 450-kilogramme kangaroos, wombats weighing as much as a rhino, eight-metre lizards, larger-than-human birds, and car-sized tortoises.

More than 85% of Australia's big mammals, birds and reptiles went extinct "shortly" after our species appeared, a team of sci-entists reported in the journal Nature Communications.

The cause of the megafauna die-off Down Under some 45,000 years ago has been the subject of much scientific debate.

A study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences in 2013 said Australia's giant ani-mals were already mostly extinct by the time humans arrived -- and pointed the finger at climate change.

That study, based on fossil finds, said there was no evidence that a human ever killed a sin-gle mega-animal.

The new research, on the contrary, concluded the mass extinction was much more likely caused by "overkill", specifically the hunting of juvenile animals.

The team based its findings on the remains of ancient meg-afauna excrement found in a sediment core drilled in the Indian Ocean, off the southwest Australian coast.

The core contains chrono-logical layers of material that was blown or swept from the land into the sea, including dust, ash, and spores from a fungus that thrived in the dung

of plant-eating creatures, the University of Colorado at Boul-der said in a statement.

This allowed the team to "look back in time" and recon-struct climate and ecosystem conditions up to 150,000 years ago.

The abundance of fungus spores in the core "is good evi-dence for a lot of large mammals on the southwestern Australian landscape up until about 45,000

years ago," CU Boulder scientist Gifford Miller explained.

The team found no associa-tion between environmental change and megafauna extinc-tion, or evidence that the animals suffering a slow demise as the area became drier.

"These findings rule out cli-mate change, and implicate humans as the primary extinc-tion cause," the researchers concluded.

Two foreign insurgents arrested in Afghan raidKabul

AP

An Afghan official says four Taliban have been killed and two insur-

gents, with suspected ties to the jihadist group the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, arrested in a raid in northern Afghanistan.

The movement has become increasingly active in northern Afghanistan in recent years.

The overnight raid took place in Afghanistan's Sar-i-Pul province, Zabiullah Amani, the spokesman for the provin-cial governor said Friday.

The Taliban insurgency has gained strength in

northern Afghanistan where successive reports have indi-cated the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan has a growing presence. Many Uzbek insur-gents reportedly fled to northern Afghanistan from Pakistan's North Waziristan tribal region following a Paki-stani military crackdown in the area over the past two years.

An artists impression of a menagerie of megafauna that inhabited Australia some 45,000 years ago.

06 SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017ASIA

Chinese workers installing a rooster lantern, as part of the measures to welcome the Lunar New Year, outside a museum in Chengdu, in southwest China's Sichuan province, yesterday.

For the New Year

NEWS BYTES

BEIJING: China has appointed a new naval chief, state media said yesterday, citing as confirmation his comments at an offi-cial function, which were attributed using the new designation.

The change comes at a time when China’s rapid mili-tary development has alarmed its neighbours, particularly through the expansion of its naval fleet to back its growing assertiveness over territorial claims in the South China Sea.

The new PLA Navy commander is Lieutenant Admiral Shen Jinlong, who had led China’s South Sea fleet, said the China Daily, the official English-language newspaper.

“Although the Navy did not disclose when the transition took place, observers believe it was this week,” it added.

China names new navy chief

New Delhi

IANS

Cash flow, restricted post-demonetisation, will normalise soon but might take longer in rural and remote

areas, Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governor Urjit Patel informed a parliamentary panel yesterday.

Patel told the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) of Parliament that the situation of cash flow in the country was "almost normal" in urban areas, informed sources said.

When panel members expressed concern over online transactions charges, Patel told them that RBI was trying to come out with a new mechanism to bring down online transaction costs, and was in talks with all stakeholders, including banks and service providers, the sources said. He further asserted that demonetisation would be beneficial for the economy in the

medium- and long-term.He added that efforts were

on to improve cash flow to rural and remote areas in the country. "It will take a few more weeks for the situation to improve in rural and remote areas," the sources quoted him as saying. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on November 8 last year announced demonetisation of `

500 and ` 1,000 currency notes, saying the move was aimed against black money, counterfeit currency and terror financing.

Asked by the members about multi-fold increase in deposits in cooperative banks following demonetisation, Patel is learnt to have said the matter was being probed by Financial Intelligence Unit-India (FIU-IND). Earlier this week, the RBI Governor had told the Parliamentary Standing Com-mittee on Finance that new currency notes, worth `9.2 lakh crore, were introduced into the financial system post-demone-tisation. The issue of demonetisation was mentioned by PAC Chairman K.V. Thomas in his initial remarks but a BJP member objected to it, saying the agenda of the meeting was "review of monetary policy". The member said the demonetisaion of legal tender comes under the RBI Act, while Monetary Policy falls under the purview of the Finance Act.

Cash flow to be normal soon: RBI Governor

Money matters

Patel told the Public Accounts Committee of Parliament that the situation of cash flow in the country was "almost normal" in urban areas

He further asserted that demonetisation would be beneficial for the economy in the medium- and long-term.

Yangon

Agencies

Myanmar's government lashed out at Malaysian Prime Minister Najib

Razak yesterday, accusing him of using the Rohingya crisis unfolding in Rakhine state for his own "political interests".

In the meantime, a United Nations human rights investi-gator criticised Myanmar's crackdown on the Rohingya Muslim minority and urged the military to respect the law and human rights.

Authorities say the military launched a security sweep in response to what they say was an attack in October by Rohingya insurgents on border posts near Myanmar's border with Bangladesh in which nine police officers were killed.

The premier of Muslim-majority Malaysia has been a vocal critic of Myanmar since violence erupted in the north of the state in October, when the army started hunting attackers behind deadly raids on police border posts.

Since then at least 66,000 Rohingya have fled to neigh-bouring Bangladesh alleging security forces are carrying out a campaign of abuse, torture and mass killings that Najib has said amounts to "genocide".

On Thursday he used an extraordinary meeting of the Organization of Islamic Coop-eration (OIC) to call for an end to the "unspeakable cruelty" being unleashed against the Muslim minority.

His comments drew an angry response from Myanmar, which denies the allegations of

abuse of the Rohingya, instead blaming "fake news" for spread-ing unfounded accusations.

Najib is "is using Myanmar for his own political interests, against the principles of Asean," Deputy Director of Myanmar's Foreign Ministry, Aye Aye Soe, said. "They criticise us without hesitation based on news reports from different places, including news from unreliable sources, without discussing the issue like a good neighbour. We are deeply sorry about this."

Analysts say Najib's embrace of the Rohingya is at least in part aimed at burnishing his image after allegations of massive graft linked to state fund 1MDB -- a claim he denies. His criticism of Myanmar marks a rare public spat between Asean members, which prides itself on non-interference.

Myanmar rebukes Malaysia PM

Yangon

Reuters

Farmers locked in a land dispute with Myanmar’s armed forces pledged to

renew their fight after being released from jail yesterday, in a case testing leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s resolve to chal-lenge the military’s economic interests.

Maw Maw Oo, a leader among the 55 villagers released, said they would seek government help to resolve the dispute in Ye Bu, a village in eastern Myan-mar’s Shan State.

Suu Kyi’s ruling National League for Democracy came to power in April after an election victory in part driven by rural anger over land sei-zures under military rule.

But the Ye Bu case showed that farmers across the country were yet to see significant changes.

Beijing

Reuters

China urged foreign diplo-mats to help “weave a cooperative network

against corruption,” state media said yesterday, as it scrambles to build international support for President Xi Jinping’s four-year war on graft.

Xi has vowed to fight deep-rooted graft at all levels of the ruling Communist Party until officials “dare not, cannot and

don’t want to” be corrupt, and has warned that failure to stamp out the rot could threaten the party’s future.

China has taken the battle global, publishing a list of the 100 most-wanted corruption suspects who have fled overseas to countries such as the United States, Canada and Australia, often taking their wealth with them.

Authorities have said they clawed back 2.3bn yuan ($334m) in graft proceeds from more than

70 countries and regions in the first 11 months of 2016. But China has struggled to win full coop-eration in tracking and repatriating such fugitives, with foreign countries blaming an under-developed legal system for their reluctance to sign extra-dition treaties.

In an unusual step, Wu Yuliang, deputy head of the top graft watchdog, the Central Commission for Discipline Inspection (CCDI), briefed rep-resentatives of 113 diplomatic

missions and 13 international bodies on Thursday about Chi-na’s efforts to fight graft, the official Xinhua News Agency said. It did not list the countries, but said the Greek ambassador to China, Leonidas Rokanas, was among those who attended.

Efforts to strengthen super-vision constitute a “major political reform”, Wu said, giv-ing examples such as tougher laws against corruption and the establishment of a national supervisory body.

Chennai

IANS

The central government yesterday gave its nod to an ordinance enabling the

holding of Jallikattu as proposed by the Tamil Nadu government, officials said.

They said the Home Minis-try cleared the ordinance after the Law Ministry approved the draft ordinance proposed by the Tamil Nadu government to ena-ble resumption of the ancient bull taming sport of Jallikattu.

The swarming mass of youth in Chennai's Marina Beach and in Madurai were in no mood to call off their pro-tests for Jallikattu yesterday, and declared they would end their spontaneous demonstra-tion only after the bull taming event takes place.

The youth protest in support of Jallikattu - a hugely popular ancient bull taming sport -- was

continuing despite assurances given by Chief Minister O Pan-neerselvam that legal steps were being taken to enable holding of the sport and that it would be held in a couple of days. Speaking to reporters in New Delhi, Panneerselvam yes-terday said the state government would promulgate an ordinance to conduct Jallikattu.

The Chief Minister said the state government has drafted an amendment to some provi-sions in the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act and has sent it to the central government yesterday morning.

He said the amendment will be promulgated as an ordinance after getting the assent of Pres-ident Pranab Mukherjee and state Governor C H Vidyasagar Rao. Once the Governor approves it, the ordinance would be promulgated follow-ing which Jallikattu can be held

in the state, he said. "We will call off the protest only after Jal-likattu is held in Tamil Nadu. The measure announced by the Chief Minister seems to be a stop-gap arrangement. The per-manent solution is that the central government by a noti-fication remove bull from the list of performing animals in The Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Act," said a protester.

Even several hours after Panneerselvam's announce-ment the number of protesters at Marina beach continued to swell. In several localities groups of youth carrying plac-ards assembled playing drums.

Many young people, includ-ing married couples with children in tow, gathered at Marina. "Jallikattu is Tamil Nadu's identity and pride. We want Jallikattu," Venkatesh employed in a private company said while going to Marina with his family.

Indian sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik gives final touches to his sand sculpture of US President Donald Trump at Puri beach, some 65km away from Bhubaneswar, yesterday.

Myanmar detains Kachin BaptistsYANGON: Myanmar's army has detained two Kachin Bap-tist leaders for giving journalists information about a church allegedly hit by military air strikes, accusing them of spying for insurgents.

The two men, named by the army as Didi Naung Latt and Langyaw Gamsai, were arrested on December 24 in northern Shan state, where thousands have fled weeks of heavy fighting between the army and armed rebels. In a statement announc-ing their arrest late Thursday, the army chief's office accused the men of being "recruiters, informers and rumour-mongers for insurgents," including the Kachin Independence Army.

Some 4,000 people have been displaced since the fighting erupted between the military and four major armed ethnic groups in November, including the powerful KIA.

The unrest has rippled across Shan and Kachin states, threatening the next round of peace talks between the gov-ernment, military and ethnic groups scheduled for February.

Interpol's project targets wildlifeKATHMANDU: A new project to identify and dismantle the organised crime networks making billions of dollars in illicit profits behind wildlife trafficking between Africa and Asia has been launched by Interpol.

The decision was taken in Kathmandu yesterday during the concluding session of the Interpol's Asian Regional Con-ference. Targeting high-profile traffickers in Asia sourcing wildlife from Africa, the project will provide a strengthened law enforcement response in source, transit and destination countries, particularly those linked to the illicit trade in ivory, rhinoceros horn and Asian big cat products. With environ-mental crime estimated to be worth up to $258bn and linked to other criminal activities, including corruption, money laun-dering and firearms trafficking, the project led by Interpol's Environmental Security programme will draw on the exper-tise of other specialised units.

China woos diplomats in hunt for graft suspects

Indian government gives nod to ordinance allowing Jallikattu

Freed Myanmar farmers renew fight over land

Well finished

07SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017 EUROPE

Firefighters demonstrate in central Athens, during an anti-austerity protest, yesterday.

Anti-austerity protest

The sculpture Tiger and Turtle — Magic Mountain is pictured in Duisburg, western Germany, yesterday.

Magic Mountain

Numbers vary

There was confusion over the exact numbers located and extracted amid conflicting updates from different branches of the emergency services.

Penne, Italy

AFP

Italian rescuers yesterday began pulling survivors from ruins of a mountain hotel, after it was buried under a devastating avalanche.

Amidst relief that anyone at all had survived, there was con-fusion over the exact numbers located and extracted amid con-flicting updates from different branches of the emergency services.

But there were hopes that a total of 11 people would have been removed from the rubble by nightfall, leaving at least another 14 to account for.

A group of six people were found in an air pocket yesterday morning but only two of them, a mother and her young son, had been extracted by mid-after-noon, contrary to earlier briefings from rescuers.

Roberto Carminucci, one of the coordinators of the rescue operation, said contact had been made with another group, reported by Italian media to count five survivors.

“We are in contact and we

hope to find survivors but we don’t know how many voices we are hearing or the state (of health) of those trapped so we cannot give any firm numbers yet,” he said.

By late afternoon any survi-vors would have spent a full two days under the snow-covered rubble of the Hotel Rigopiano, a three-storey spa hotel on the eastern lower slopes of Monte Gran Sasso, the highest peak in central Italy.

Marco Bini, one of the offic-ers who reached the first group of six survivors, said rescue team had been alerted to their possi-ble location when they detected smoke.

He said six people had been

found together in an air pocket, including the mother and child, who were later shown emerging from a vertical tunnel in the snow.

“They were all in reasonable health, if very cold. The fire will have been using up the oxygen so we were lucky to find them.

“Their faces said it all, it was like they had been reborn.”

A video released by firefight-ers showed the boy, thought to be seven, emerging into the air to cheers from firemen who mussed his hair.

Bini said the rescue had raised hopes others would be found in similar air pockets.

“The snow will have pre-vented anyone inside from getting too cold, it isolates like an igloo,” he said.

More than 25 people, includ-ing several children, were thought to have been in the hotel when it was hit by a massive wall of snow.

Revised estimates yesterday suggested the total could have been as high as 34. Two bodies were recovered when rescuers first reached the site.

Most of the guests

were waiting to leave when the avalanche struck late Wednes-day afternoon.

The had decided to leave after earthquakes in the region earlier in the day but the heavy snow blocked roads and

delayed their transport.Scores of mountain police,

firefighters and other emergency personnel were deployed at the hotel. Progress was agonisingly slow, with rescuers wary of triggering further movements

in the snow piled up on top of the masonry.

Lorenzo Gagliardi, mountain police officer and his colleagues had trekked for more than eight km through two-metre-high snow to reach the hotel.

Madrid

Reuters

Spain has arrested a 32-year-old Russian com-puter programmer at

Barcelona airport who is alleged to have designed and used soft-ware to steal bank account details from banks and individ-uals, Spanish police said yesterday.

Working with the US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the man, named Lisov, was arrested by Spanish police on January 13 as he waited to take a flight to another European country. He is suspected of leading a financial fraud network, the police said.

Lisov, wanted by the US under an international arrest warrant, had been under

observation by authorities for several days in Catalonia.

Lisov had been under investigation by the US for two years for developing and using “NeverQuest,” a computer virus that spreads itself via social media, email and file transfers and has led to the loss of mil-lions of dollars.

An investigation of servers operated by Lisov in France and Germany revealed databases with lists of data stolen from banks, including account bal-ances. One of the servers had files with millions of bank account access details such as user names, passwords and security questions, police said.

He is held in Catalonia before Spain’s court decides whether to extradite him to the US.

Brussels

AFP

A BELGIAN court yesterday upheld French comedian Dieu-donne’s two-month jail sentence for incitement to hatred over racist and anti-Semitic comments during a show in Belgium, a lawyer said.

Dieudonne M’Bala M’Bala, who has faced sim-ilar court cases in France, also had his €9,000 ($9,566) fine confirmed by the appeals court in the city of Liege, said Eric Lemmens, a lawyer for Belgium’s Jewish organisations.

“The appeals court in Liege upheld the verdict from criminal court in Liege,” Lem-mens told reporters.

He said the court warned the comedian he would be sentenced to “three extra months in prison if he fails to pay the fine.”

It is unlikely Dieudonne will serve any jail time because the Belgian author-ities usually do not to enforce short sentences to avoid over-crowding in prison.

The lower court ruling in November 2015 convicted Dieudonne of “both incite-ment to hatred and hate speech but also Holocaust denial” relating to a show in Liege in 2012, Lemmens said at the time.

Athens

AFP

The EU’s migration chief yesterday huddled with mayors of five Greek islands

where anger is mounting over continued presence of more than 15,000 refugees and migrants.

Dimitris Avramopoulos, who is in Greek, sought to reassure the mayors of Lesbos, Samos, Chios, Kos and Leros, who have repeatedly accused the Athens government of ignoring calls to alleviate pressure on their con-gested migrant camps.

The dispute peaked earlier this month when Greek immigra-tion ministry accused local officials of impeding efforts to find replacement accommodation for hundreds of migrants sleeping in sub-zero temperatures.

“We agreed that last week’s images must not be seen again,” Avramopoulos told reporters after the meeting, referring to footage of migrant tents buried in snow.

A group of Lesbos islanders last year were nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize for helping thousands of refugees and migrants landing ashore in 2015

after risking their lives to cross the Aegean Sea.

But the island’s mayor Spy-ros Galinos says the authorities must permit the relocation of the most vulnerable refugees to the mainland, and remove a minor-ity linked to petty crime.

“Things are not going well. We are bearing a burden that local society can no longer man-age,” Galinos told reporters.

There are over 60,000 mainly Syrian refugees and migrants from other nations trapped in Greece since early 2016, when neighbouring

countries further north shut their borders to prevent a massive flow to wealthy European countries.

While a deal subsequently signed between the European Union and Turkey has drastically cut new arrivals, nearly 700 peo-ple have arrived in Greece in the last two weeks, the International Organisation for Migration said on Tuesday.

Most of the migrants have joined an overcrowded and increasingly desperate popu-lation on the islands, packed in camps that have now exceeded

their original capacity.Avramopoulos said the EU

had already set aside funds for additional refugee accommoda-tion and that they should be utilised.

The immigration ministry has refused to permit large-scale relocation from the islands to the Greek mainland, fearing that such a move could jeopardise the EU-Turkey agreement.

There are frequent brawls in the island camps, with the resi-dents tired of the long wait for asylum papers and fearful of being returned to Turkey.

Dublin

Reuters

Sinn Fein will name a suc-cessor to Mart in McGuinness on Monday to

lead the Irish nationalist party into Northern Irish elections in March, its president Gerry Adams said yesterday.

McGuinness, a key figure throughout five decades of con-flict and peace, bowed out of politics on Thursday, saying ill-ness and Northern Ireland’s current political crisis had led to him to step down several

months earlier than planned.The new leader will need to

repair relations with the pro-British Democratic Unionist Party, with which Sinn Fein led the British province’s power-sharing devolved government for a decade before its collapse this week.

“We will consult our Ard Chomhairle (national executive) over the weekend and we will make the announcement of Martin’s successor on Monday. We’re blessed with a huge number of candidates,” Adams told national broadcaster RTE.

Adams would not say who was in contention. Michelle O’Neill and Conor Murphy, younger parliamentarians not directly involved in Northern Ireland’s three decades of con-flict that ended in 1998, played more prominent roles during McGuinness’ illness.

Sinn Fein and the DUP are expected to remain the largest parties after the March 2 elec-tion, which will be followed by lengthy renegotiations on the terms of power-sharing to avoid a return to direct rule from London.

Survivors pulled from hotel hit by avalanche

Firefighters clear snow at Hotel Rigopiano in Farindola, central Italy, yesterday.

Spain arrests Russian hacker wanted by FBI

Belgian court upholds jail sentence for French comic

EU migration chief in Greece over islands’ refugee ‘burden’

North Ireland’s Sinn Fein to name successor to McGuinness on Monday

08 SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017VIEWS

E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Together we will make America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And, yes, together, we will make America great again.

Donald TrumpUS President

Turkey declared that is was exercising its rights of self-defence codified under the UN Charter Article 51, and launched Operation Euphrates Shield. A National Security Council

press release stated that the operation’s objec-tives were to maintain border security and confront Daesh terrorism within the frame-work of the UN charter; it also emphasised that the PKK terrorist organisation, as well as its affiliates the PYD/YPG, will not be allowed to establish a corridor of terror on Turkey’s doorstep.

The campaign, especially in its initial stages, captured its operational targets rapidly starting from Jarablus. Operation Euphrates Shield cleared an area of 1,100 sq km within its first 50 days, and subsequently, secured an area of 2,000 square kilometers at the time of writing. In October-November 2016, capture of the territories to the east of Azaz-Mare, and Dabiq – a centre of resistance for Daesh’s morale and motivation – has played an important part in paving the way towards Al Bab. Gaining this depth has been very impor-tant for Turkey’s defence in preventing Daesh’s rocket attacks, and for overcoming the Daesh terror threat posed by rockets launched by mobile platforms.

PKK’s corridor plan foiledFurthermore, the shift of the operation

southwards following the military achieve-ments in Dabiq has been a critical maneuver in hindering the efforts of the PKK terrorist organization, and its PYD/YPG affiliates, aimed at linking the eastern territories under their de facto control with Afrin in the west. On the other hand, as Euphrates Shield reached its Al-Bab stage in November-December 2016, there have been changes in the characteristics of the conflict which brought along increases in Turkish casualties.

The above operational advancements have been fairly satisfactory in terms of oper-ational tempo and military-geostrategic progress. Furthermore, Ankara’s enhance-ment of its area of influence in northern Syria has visibly paid off with more room for diplo-matic maneuvering. This was mainly due to the fact that Al Bab has remained a Daesh stronghold west of the Euphrates River. More-over, the slowdown of anti-Daesh coalition operations in Raqqa and Mosul has made it easier for the terrorist organization to relocate its forces. In addition, the inability to besiege Al-Bab and destroy Daesh’s lines of communi-cation completely is among other factors that have complicated the situation.

Against the transforming threat, the Turk-ish Armed Forces (TSK) has altered its force generation strategy for Operation Euphrates Shield and deployed elements from its elite units that have gained experience in counter-terrorism operations against the PKK.

The Al Bab campaign will primarily consist of two main combat phases, and a subsequent “holding the town” phase. The first combat phase refers to the current situation in which

Operation Euphrates Shield: Aims and gains

Daesh is showing an aggressive resist-ance in immediate areas surrounding Al-Bab, whereas the second combat phase would begin after this resistance is broken. Most probably, the second com-bat phase will consist of clashes through which the terrorist organization aims to increase the costs of the campaign by using disruptive means such as impro-vised explosive devices (IED) and tunnels, and attempts to provoke the local populace.

The limited amount of literature on Daesh’s military strategy suggests that while the terrorist organization is very lethal at the tactical level, it has major vulnerabilities in defending the territory it holds at the operational level. These sources argue that the vulnerabilities at the operational level stem from the dif-ferences in the composition of the groups that make up Daesh (eg. Salafist radicals, former military personnel of the Iraqi

Baathist regime, local militias and foreign ter-rorists), and emphasize that these differences result in ruptures between the strategic and tactical levels.

Between January 2015 and December 2016, the terrorist organization lost approximately 25 percent of the territory it held, and witnessed a 16 percent loss in 2016 alone.

Military experience gained in com-bating Daesh’s presence in Iraq has shown that contrary to expectations, the organization does not portray a “resist until the last man” approach in defenses. Instead of defending urban areas to the last street, Daesh adopts a tactical approach that aims to increase the lethality rate as much as possible by using snipers, booby-trapped house-holds, and improvised explosive decides – especially vehicle-borne IEDs. Lessons learned, especially in Ramadi, indicate that the rural terrain surrounding urban areas is where Daesh puts up the most resistance.

Another operational vulnerability that Daesh shows when on defense is its obsession with offensives, and the heavy casualties it suffers by conducting poorly planned offensives when facing heavy firepower. Nonetheless, VBIEDs used in

such poorly planned offensives still pose a threat and merit caution.

It is not possible to gather the exact number of Daesh terrorists present in Al-Bab through open-source information. On the other hand, the slowing pace of the campaigns in Raqqa and Mosul may have given the terrorist organization some freedom of movement to fortify Al-Bab. Moreover, estimates on Daesh elements in the area suggest that the number of suicide bombers may be in the hundreds, and the terrorist organiza-tion’s web of relations with the local population formed through marriage and ideological oppression pose further chal-lenges to military operations.

Force generation issues Due to regional security factors and

the changes in the characteristics of the conflict, Ankara has overhauled the com-position of its military forces deployed for the campaign. Operation Euphrates Shield was planned as a joint operation from its outset with the participation of mechanised infantry, armoured and artillery units, unmanned aerial vehicles, and air force platforms, as well as engi-neering and signal units. Turkey’s successful use of its combat UAV plat-forms – Bayraktar TB-2 – in such a critical campaign is not only significant for the result of the operations, but also for the future of Turkish defense indus-try. Although manned, fixed-wing platforms (e.g. F-16s) have been heavily relied upon due to operational condi-tions, lessons learned through Operation Euphrates Shield will remain essential for Turkey’s experience on combat UAVs.

The Jarablus campaign, especially in its initial phase, has fully displayed the joint operations characteristics of Opera-tion Euphrates Shield, with fire-support provided by artillery and multiple launch rocket systems (MLRS) culminating in swift tactical gains by the armored and mechanized units, and with air force platforms making successful use of the target acquisition provided by special forces elements. After the success in Jarablus, the campaign quickly turned westwards and took over Cobanbey and Dabiq, a Daesh stronghold. After the sec-ond week of November 2016, press sources reported that the Turkish Air Force started to target defensive posi-tions and command and control centers belonging to Daesh. Airstrikes on these targets, and troop concentrations in sur-rounding towns, have also signaled the launch of land operations on Al Bab.

The Al Bab campaign has also been influenced by developments related to the political-military framework of Operation Euphrates Shield, including publicised differences of opinion between Turkey and the US-led anti-Daesh coalition. It is understood that a diplomatic understanding was reached with Washington and Moscow for the initial phase of the operation. US sources claim that this preliminary agreement would have allowed Turkey to expand up to a 20-25km area from its border.

Against the transforming threat, the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) has altered its force generation strategy for Operation Euphrates Shield and deployed elements from its elite units that have gained experience in counter-terrorism operations against the PKK.

E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

As Donald Trump takes office as the 45th president of the United States, it’s time for that time-honoured tradition of assessing the legacy of the president that leaves the

White House. But if legacy is all about comparison, comparison between the predecessor and the successor, Barack Obama should be one of the luckiest presidents. He took over from a president whose name was tarnished by the wars he fought and is succeeded by a president whose name itself stands tarnished for several reasons. Obama took office on a 68% approval rating on the eve of his first inauguration in 2009, and leaves office with a 60% approval rating. Trump is starting from the depths. He is riding a wave of racism, hatred and unpopularity and is entering the White House with the lowest approval ratings of any incoming US leader in modern history – just 40%, which looks set for further fall going by his belligerent divisiveness.

Obama will be remembered for many things, but what endears him to Americans and the whole world is his affable personality, the optimism and positive energy that characterise his conduct. It was these characteristics which enabled him to govern impeccably for eight years without any ethical scandal when the Republican opposition, often vicious and unforgiving, had several microscopes turned towards him to catch even the most minute

failings. Obama kept his composure and confidence under the most vicious of attacks, like the birther and Muslim controversies, which posited that Obama was not born in the US and he was a Muslim.

Obama also has an excellent record on economy, launching stimulus packages to revitalize the economy

while many other economies in Europe stumbled in a cycle of destructive austerity. His healthcare programme, called Obamacare, too won praise by giving coverage to the poorest of the poor in America. Trump has called it a “complete and total disaster” but he doesn’t have a workable replacement. Even after leaving office, he promises to be a positive influence on Trump, promising to intervene when the country’s great values are at risk.

At the same time, there have been omissions and failures, what we call the gulf between rhetoric and action. On Middle East peace, Syria and a slew of other issues he has been a failure, caused more by his reticence and lack of determination. His unprecedented use of drones to kill people also has come under negative spotlight. His spectacular speech in Cairo promising ‘a new beginning’ with Muslims also failed to take off.

Some of Obama’s failings can be attributed to the failure of the US system, which restricted his ability and freedom to act. But when history judges Obama, he is likely to fare well.

Obama’s legacy

Despite some of his failures, history is likely to judge Barack Obama favourably.

E D I T O R I A L

Sinan Ulgen &Can KasapogluAnatolia

09SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017 OPINION

As a young girl, I will never forget witnessing my Uncle George, after working a full day to exhaus-tion, refuse to take the last open seat on a public bus in Indianapolis, because it would place him next to a white woman. I didn’t understand it then, but he feared his life might be in jeopardy if he took that seat.

White men had granted white women the power to order a black man’s execution just by pointing a finger at him. No trial was needed. Skin colour was proof enough.

The Trump campaign illustrated the reverse: Unless there’s a black man in the room, white women are on their own.

Trump supporters were free to call Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton a “bitch” who should be put in jail. Some even solicited her assas-sination by superimposing a bull’s eye over her image with the words “Killary Rotten Clinton.”

The spine-chilling chants of “lock her up” were not mere expressions of political exuberance, but dark echoes from the era of the Salem witch trials.

Whatever Clinton’s failings, she conducted her-self in a dignified and exemplary manner throughout her long career of public service.

But the man who measures women by the size of their breasts and not the content of their brains declared that the former

Relax and give Trump a chance

My wife and I welcomed Mike and Deb-bie for dinner at our California home Tuesday night. Our longtime friends are not alarmists, and they are not lib-eral Democrats. They are in fact the

sort of genuine “moderate middle” voter that most consultants would die to have in a focus group: smart, caring, connected in their community, suc-cessful parents and employers.

I’m more conservative than they are. I voted for Donald Trump, and they did not. Our conversation was probably similar to one going on around a mil-lion tables in America.

Mike and Debbie are genuinely worried. Anxious. Even distressed by the inauguration of President Trump. I did my best to allay their fears, to point to people such as retired Gens. James Mattis and John Kelly, headed to the Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, respectively, to Rep. Mike Pom-peo, R-Kan., and former senatorDaniel Coats, R-Ind., on the national security team, and to my friends Scott Pruitt and Andy Puzder, nominated to lead the Envi-ronmental Protection Agency and Labor Department, respectively.

Discount the rhetoric, I argued. Pruitt’s not a “cli-mate denier.” Puzder is an evangelist of opportunity, a true believer in small business and successful employer-employee relationships. The vice presi-dent-elect, Mike Pence, is a wonderful man, I explained, a conscientious person of compassion and action. I stressed how incoming White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus possesses a perfect skill set for the job that James Baker defined in President Ronald Reagan’s first term, and that he could grow into it. Trump has assembled a superb team and is daily adding more talent to it.

I even made the case for why they could rely on Jeff Sessions - as an experienced Justice Department veteran and senator and, more important, a man of superb character - to take care as attorney general that the laws are faithfully executed. The new justice of the Supreme Court - whether the extremely able William Pryor or another rock-solid originalist - will

not change the court’s direction. Even if Trump secures a second or even third Supreme Court appointment, the Obergefell decision decreeing same-sex marriage the law of the land will not be overturned. My arguments led to some feigned, hopeful smiles. Still, I know I did not persuade. Peo-ple of moderate dispositions are unsettled by Trump’s approach, and the single word they use is “temperament.” This is a cultural clash as much as an ideological one. The president-elect is Jacksonian in his thunders, not Lincoln-like in his appeals regard-ing “malice toward none, with charity for all.” Trump is loud and proud and big and bold and full of scorn for his opponents. That very nature carried him to his win. It isn’t going to change.

Trump is the temperamental opposite of Presi-dent Barack Obama. Imagine changing the temperaments of your next-door neighbours as radi-cally as we are about to change those of our president. Even if you grew to like the new folks, it would take some getting used to. Those alarmed by Trump should recognise that those personality char-acteristics do not define the entire man or his agenda for the next four years - and that, in fact, there are good reasons to welcome the brashness. The vast, suffocating bureaucratic state has grown so powerful and utterly muffling of genuine ideological diversity

that we need to break the ice forming over the national conversation. Trump is Thor’s hammer in that regard. It could get loud, but we could also end up hashing some hard things out.

Finally, there is this: The Constitution is very, very strong. House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., not to men-tion the independent judiciary, represent significant checks on Trump, who, as Hillsdale College President Larry Arnn likes to point out, has never raised a word against the Constitution’s design or institutions. Gov-ernors such as Arizona’s Doug Ducey didn’t like being pushed about by Obama, and they won’t like it any more if Trump is doing the pushing. The media - asleep and smiling through much of the past eight years - woke up with a hangover and a backache, and are in a collective mood to go full Sam Donald-son. Terrific. Checks and balances.

So, if you are among the Mikes and Debbies - good people and great Americans - please relax and give it a chance. Trump intends to do good things for a great country and to do them via constitutional means. He is open for business on America’s behalf.

When Trump declared his candidacy, I immedi-ately purchased the rights to a new website: TrumpTheMusical.com. I expect it will get used. And I suspect it will have a happy ending. Really.

As an African-American woman, I find the 2016 campaign - and now the 2017 inauguration - doubly painful. Donald Trump’s victory revealed inconvenient

and ugly truths about the United States and its political system, including the per-sistence of racial discrimination and the continuing sting of misogyny.

From D W Griffith’s “Birth of a Nation” to the “birther” effort championed by Trump to delegitimise President Barack Obama’s citizenship, racial hatred has played an invidious role in this land of unequal rights and opportunities.

Once, it was possible to think that Obama’s presidency proved that the United States had entered a post-racial era in which color no longer defined one’s character or value. Trump shattered that illusion.

Trump’s campaign also exposed the degree to which all women, black and white, remain at risk of mistreatment - and the hypocrisy of the notion that white men hold white women in special reverence.

Since the day my ancestors arrived here in chains, we were told that white women were precious and pure. Their sanctity was never to be breached. White women were strictly off- limits to black men, who were instructed to never look a white woman in the eye and to step off the sidewalk whenever one approached. Refusal to obey these rules invited a lash or a lynching.

Marching to ease the pain of Trump

Inauguration ceremonies swearing in Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States take place on the West front of the US Capitol in Washington, yesterday.

first lady, US senator and secretary of state was not worthy of respect. She was just another “nasty woman” to be loathed along with Rosie O’Donnell, Megyn Kelly, Alicia Machado and innumerable others.

Something is very wrong with this picture. Black men - and teens as young as 14-year-old Emmett Till - have been lynched for merely looking or whistling at a white woman. Yet a white man who brags about treating women as sexual playthings whose genitals he’s free to grab was given the keys to the Oval Office.

Just imagine what would have happened if Obama had been shown to have used such crude language and vulgar “locker room” bravado during his campaign against Clinton in 2008.

No imagination is necessary with Trump. Despite his misogynistic words and deeds, 53 percent of white women voted for him.

Apparently, they dismissed any concern that his words might encourage or condone rape culture. And, as signifi-cantly for me, those women didn’t seem to care about the life-and-death consequences that Trump’s racist rhetoric would have for people of color. Being both black and female, I found their indifference disturbing.

What is equally troubling are reports that some white women may have canceled plans to attend Saturday’s Women’s March on Washington, because women of color expressed their disappointment that so many white women voted for Trump. Under the circumstances, they feel “alien-ated.” The march is not about feelings. It’s about rights.

When I was a young professional woman, I understood and sympathised with the feminist agenda that was led by Gloria Steinem and others in the late 1960s and early 1970s. I was unable to devote myself to breaking through glass ceil-ings because my burden was pushing against the iron gates of racism.

I take hope, though, in the undaunted courage of Sojourner Truth, a former slave who became a leader in the fight for women’s right to vote. When she asked if she could join the suffragettes in their movement, her white sisters said: Yes, but you have to go to the back of the line.

I will continue the effort to break through the barriers constructed to keep all women down. But I will not be going to the back of the line.

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The writer hosts The Hugh Hewitt Show. He is an NBC News political analyst and the author of “The Queen: The Epic Ambition of Hillary and the Coming of a Sec-ond Clinton Era.”

Hugh Hewit The Washington Post

Janet Langhart CohenThe Washington Post

Those alarmed by Trump should recognise that those personality characteristics do not define the entire man or his agenda for the next four years - and that, in fact, there are good reasons to welcome the brashness.

Once, it was possible to think that Obama’s presidency proved that the United States had entered a post-racial era in which color no longer defined one’s character or value. Trump shattered that illusion.

10 SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017EUROPE

Visitors pass the booth of Switzerland during the “Gruene Woche” (Green Week) agricultural fair in Berlin, Germany, yesterday. The International Green Week opens its doors to the public until January 24.

Green Week expo

Sounding bugle

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said another vote was “more likely” than ever after British Prime Minister Theresa May outlined her plan to pull the country out of the EU’s single market despite Scotland’s objections.

Edinburgh

AFP

The countdown to a sec-o n d S c o t t i s h independence refer-endum appears to have begun after Prime Min-

ister Theresa May laid out the course towards a “hard” Brexit—but Scots are as divided as ever.

Scottish First Minister Nicola Sturgeon said another vote was “more likely” than ever after May on Tuesday outlined her plan to pull the country out of the EU’s single market despite Scotland’s objections.

“Time is fast running out for the UK government to convince us that they care one jot about Scotland’s interests,” Sturgeon told the Scottish parliament.

“If they don’t, Scotland does face a choice: do we go down damaging path set out by May... or do we want to take control over the future of our country?”

Following a meeting with Brexit minister David Davis on Thursday, Sturgeon’s represent-ative Mike Russell said yesterday: “The clock is ticking”.

Scotland voted in 2014 by a margin of 55 to 45 percent to stay in the United Kingdom.

But Sturgeon argues that last year’s vote for Brexit has left

Scotland in “uncharted waters” since a majority of Scots instead opted to stay in the EU.

She has put forward propos-als for Scotland to be allowed to remain in the single market even as the rest of Britain leaves and has drafted an independence referendum bill just in case.

Her independence ally Patrick Harvie, co-convener of the Scottish Greens whose votes she needs to get a second refer-endum through parliament, has predicted it will be held some time in 2018.

The dilemma for Sturgeon is that many Scots say the EU ref-erendum has not changed their minds on independence.

The latest poll of 1,002 respondents carried out by BMG Research for the Herald news-paper last month found 55 percent against and 45 percent in favour—the same split as in the 2014 vote.

Mother and daughter Irene

and Cara Henney, from Paisley on the edge of Glasgow, are typ-ical of the generational divide seen in both the independence and EU referendums.

Irene, 55, who works in sales, said no to independence but yes to Brexit.“Sturgeon has lost sight of what matters to the Scottish people, like health and education... By calling for a second referen-dum she’s probably alienating a lot of people,” she said.

Cara, 18, a student, voted yes to independence in her first ever national vote after the Scottish government lowered the voting age to 16.

Cara missed the EU referen-dum, which was reserved for over-18s, but said she would have voted to stay.

“While I don’t agree with some of Sturgeon’s priorities, now that Scotland is being taken out of the EU against its will she is giving us an opportunity to fight back,” she said.

Asked about the differences with her mother, she said: “It does cause some tension in the family”.

Stuart Salter, 34, a town planner from Edinburgh, voted No to independence and wants to remain in the EU.

He said: “The Brexit vote hasn’t changed my mind about independence.

“Driving Scotland towards another independence referen-dum will only add to the present uncertainty”.

Campbell Fraser, 50, a drama workshop director from Clarkston, south of Glasgow, said he wanted Scotland to be an independent EU member state.

“We have to make sure we win because I don’t think we’ll get another chance in my life-time,” he said.

Political experts believe Sturgeon may be left with little choice but to call a referendum.

Bucharest

Reuters

ROMANIA’S president urged the government yesterday to scrap draft decrees pardon-ing thousands of prisoners and decriminalising some graft offences, joining other critics who accuse it of undermining an anti-corruption drive.

According to the drafts, the government intends — among other changes — to decriminalise abuse of power actions causing financial damage of less than 200,000 lei ($47,500), an offence the leader of ruling Social Dem-ocrat party is accused of inciting a third party to commit.

Critics including the pros-ecutor general, the supreme court, civil rights groups and diplomats have expressed concern about the proposed decrees, as well as a lack of transparency and public debate over the ir implementation.

“The judiciary’s most authorised voices are saying the emergency decree drafts ...are null and void (and) unacceptable,” President Klaus Iohannis said on his Facebook page.

“These are sufficient arguments to urge the gov-ernment to withdraw these emergency decrees.”

Romania’s president holds a largely ceremonial role, but Iohannis’ comments will increase pressure for a rethink by the leftist government.

Romanian prosecutors have investigated lawmak-ers, ministers, mayors, magistrates and businessmen in recent years, in a crack-down that has exposed widespread graft and won praise from Brussels.

Belfast

Reuters

Children in Northern Ire-land suffered decades of cruel physical and emo-

tional abuse in institutions run by the state, charities and the Catholic and Protestant churches, an official report said yesterday.

Instances of abuse by priests and lay people were detailed in a 2,300 page, 12-vol-ume report that identified widespread systemic failings and extended responsibility to the Northern Irish government and church authorities.

“Some institutions provid-ing residential child care were responsible for a range of insti-tutional practices which constituted systemic abuse,” Sir Anthony Hart, a retired High Court judge who chaired the four-year inquiry, told a news conference.

“There were individuals who provided excellent care and oth-ers who were cruel and abusive, physically and emotionally towards the children for whom they were responsible. This abuse has affected many people for rest of their lives.”

Victims at the news confer-ence applauded Hart as he concluded his more than two-hour findings.

“We have waited a lifetime. Today were are vindicated, our time has come,” Margaret McGuckin, a campaigner for fellow abuse victims, told reporters.

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIAI) heard evidence from hundreds of people who spent their child-hood in homes from 1922 to 1995, the latter three decades against the backdrop of con-flict during Northern Ireland’s “Troubles”.

Hart said the poverty, social conditions and government policies of the period had a sig-nificant impact in creating the setting in which the abuse occurred.

Of the 22 institutions inves-tigated, systemic failings to “a greater or less degree” were found in 20. Rather than pro-tecting children, institutions sought to protect their reputa-tions and individuals, the inquiry said.

Those failures also included running of so-called child migrant scheme, administered by Northern Irish government, where up to 144 children as young as four were sent to res-idential homes 15,000 km away in Australia.

It was wrong to send chil-dren so young, Hart said, and to deny parents truthful infor-mation when they inquired over their whereabouts. Hart said the institutions and North-ern Irish government should apologise to victims, and should be entitled to compensation of up to £100,000 each.

Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams, whose party has shared power in Northern Ireland since 2007, welcomed the publication.

Berlin

AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pictured) will host French presidential

hopeful Francois Fillon for talks in Berlin on Monday, but rules out any meeting with his far-right opponent Marine Le Pen.

“France is our closest polit-ical partner and such an exchange of opinions with the leading candidate of the Repub-licans in France is part of the very close political, very close personal contact between Ger-many and France,” said Merkel’s spokesman Steffen Seibert.

The meeting will take place at chancellery, rather than at Merkel’s party headquarters

where she hosted two other conservative candidates, Nico-las Sarkozy and Alain Juppe, on separate occasions last year before they lost their party's primary to Fillon.

Fillon’s Republicans and Merkel’s Christian Democratic

Union are both conservative parties. But the leader of Europe’s biggest economy will not meet Le Pen, who heads the anti-immi-gration National Front, Seibert said, a day before the far-right leader is due to headline a gath-ering of populist parties in the western German city of Koblenz.

“I believe that it is obvious that there are no points in com-mon between the policies that the National Front stands for and the policies of the chancellor as well as this government,” Seib-ert said.

Rejecting any accusations of meddling in the neighbour-ing country’s domestic political affairs, Seibert recalled that ahead of the 2007 elections, the chancellor had not only

hosted conservative candidate Sarkozy but also his challenger, Segolene Royal of the Socialist Party.

Polls currently show Le Pen qualifying for the second round of the presidential election in May where she is forecast to face—and lose to—Fillon.

Le Pen is hoping to surf on a wave of populist sentiment that has helped propelled Donald Trump to the White House.

The far-right leader, who says children of illegal immi-grants should be refused public schooling, is a sharp critic of Merkel’s liberal refugee policy that led 890,000 people from mostly war-torn countries to seek refuge in Germany in 2015 alone.

London

Reuters

A banner reading “Build bridges not walls” was draped across London’s

Tower Bridge yesterday as part of a series of protests across the world aimed at expressing dis-pleasure at inauguration of Donald Trump as US president.

Protesters on the draw-bridge, with its two Gothic-style towers, held up pink letters read-ing “Act now!” soon after sunrise, while others unfurled the ban-ner over the railings and a speedboat with a black flag read-ing “build bridges not walls” raced down the River Thames.

Beside the British parliament,

protesters draped banners say-ing “Migrants welcome here” and “Migration is older than lan-guage” over Westminster bridge.

Julie Chasin, a 42-year-old teacher originally from New York who has lived in London for a decade, said she joined the protest to hold up one of the pink letters on Tower Bridge as she was concerned about the Trump presidency.

“Yes Donald Trump is Pres-ident, but he still needs to protect everybody’s rights,” said Chasin, a Democrat who said she worked on Hillary campaign in North Carolina.

“It’s scary. I hope he’s kept in check. I hope everyone who is telling me not to worry,

and saying that we have a strong system of checks and balances, I hope that it’s true,” Chasin said.

Trump has repeatedly pledged to “make America great again”, drawing strong support especially from areas of indus-trial decline. He said on Twitter that he would fight very hard to make his presidency a great jour-ney for the American people.

The protest in London was organised by the campaign group also called “Bridges not Walls”, in reference to Trump’s pledge to build a wall on the Mexican border.

“We won’t let the politics of hate peddled by the likes of Donald Trump take hold,” Nona Hurkmans of Bridges not Walls

said in a statement.Trump opponents have been

angered by his comments dur-ing the campaign about women, illegal immigrants and Muslims and his pledges to scrap the Obamacare health reform and build a wall on the Mexican border.

The Republican’s supporters admire his experience in busi-ness, including as a real estate developer and reality television star, and view him as an outsider who will take a fresh approach to politics.

For some on the protest in London, Trump’s victory a little over four months after the United Kingdom voted to leave the European Union, symbolises a

Clock ticking on Scottish independence vote Romanian president calls to scrap decree on graft offences

N Irish children suffered decades of abuse: Report

Merkel to host France’s Fillon for talks

Protesters tell Trump to build bridges not walls

rise of populism across the West.“For me it’s about not just

the inauguration of Trump, but about the rise of right wing populism across Western

Europe and the US, and Trump’s inauguration is a celebration of that,” Jac St John, 26, a doctoral student from London, who unfurled one of the banners.

Activists from the ‘Bridges not Walls’ movement display messages on Tower Bridge in London, yesterday.

Power to people

“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, DC. And giving it back to you, the people.”

11SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017 AMERICAS

Washington

AFP

Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th president of United States yesterday, issuing a staunchly

nationalist vow to put “America first” in his opening address to a country—and a world—watch-ing a page of history turn.

“From this day forward, a new vision will govern our land,” Trump said, pronouncing an end to business as usual in Washington.

“Today we are not merely transferring power from one administration to another or from one party to another, but we are transferring power from Washington, DC. And giving it back to you, the people.”

“From this day forward, it’s

going to be only America first.”“Together we will make

America strong again. We will make America wealthy again. We will make America proud again. We will make America safe again. And, yes, together, we will make America great again,” Trump said.

Just moments before, the 70-year-old Republican billion-aire placed his left hand on a bible used by Abraham Lincoln and recited the 35-word oath spoken since George Washington.

Trump’s inauguration caps the improbable rise to power of the Manhattan real estate mogul, who had never before held elected office, served in the gov-ernment or the armed forces.

A crowd of hundreds of thou-sands looked on, including outgoing president Barack Obama and Trump’s defeated election opponent Hillary Clin-ton—who narrowly missed out on becoming America’s first female president.

Obama and his wife Michelle departed the Capitol by helicop-ter moments after the swearing-in ceremony, turning a page on eight years of

Democratic leadership in the White House.

Key quotes from Trump's inaugural speech

"We are not merely transfer-ring power from one administration to another, or from one party to another -- but we are transferring power from Washington, DC and giving it back to you, the American People."

"January 20th, 2017 will be remembered as the day the peo-ple became the rulers of this nation again. The forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer."

'American Carnage'"For too many of our citizens,

a different reality exists: Moth-ers and children trapped in poverty in our inner cities; rusted-out factories scattered like tombstones across

the landscape of our nation; an education system, flush with cash, but which leaves our young and beautiful students deprived of knowledge; and the crime and gangs and drugs that have sto-len too many lives and robbed our country of so much unreal-ized potential. This American carnage stops right here and stops right now."

No more enriching others"For many decades, we've

enriched foreign industry at the expense of American industry; subsidised the armies of other countries while allowing for the very sad depletion of our mili-tary; we've defended other nation's borders while refusing to defend our own; and spent trillions of dollars overseas while America's infrastructure has fallen into disrepair and decay."

New vision: America first"From this day forward, a

new vision will govern our land. From this moment on, it's going to be only America First. Amer-ica First. Every decision on trade, on taxes, on immigration, on for-eign affairs, will be made to benefit American workers and American families. We must pro-tect our borders from ravages of other countries making our products, stealing our compa-nies, and destroying our jobs. Protection will lead to great prosperity and strength."

"We will follow two simple rules: Buy American and Hire American."

"We will reinforce old alli-ances and form new ones — and unite the civilised world against Radical Islamic Terrorism, which we will eradicate completely from the face of the Earth."

Donald Trump is sworn in as the 45th US President by Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts in front of the Capitol in Washington, yesterday. RIGHT: Vice-President Mike Pence shakes hands with justice Clarence Thomas as he takes the oath of allegiance during his swearing-in. His wife Karen Pence and others look on.

Washington

Reuters

Black-clad activists angry about US President Don-ald Trump’s inauguration

smashed store and car windows in Washington yesterday and fought with police in riot gear who responded with pepper spray and stun grenades.

About 500 people, some wearing masks and kerchiefs over their faces, marched through city, breaking the win-dows of a Bank of America branch, a McDonald’s outlet and

a Starbucks shop, all symbols of the American capitalist system.

The crowd chanted anti-Trump slogans and carried at least one sign reading “Make Racists Afraid Again,” a play on the New York businessman-turned-poli-tician’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan.

They also vandalised several cars and hurled trash cans and newspaper vending boxes into the streets before being largely dis-persed by police about 90 minutes before Trump was sworn in at the Capitol, 2.4 km away.

“The message I want to send

is that Trump does not represent this country. He represents the corporate interests,” said Jessica Reznicek, a 35-year-old aid worker from Des Moines, who was part of the protest but did not participate in the violence.

Not far from the White House, protesters scuffled with police, at one point throwing aluminum chairs at an outdoor café. A mem-ber of “Bikers for Trump” group in town to celebrate inauguration was struck in face when he tried to intervene.

“I know, law and order and all that. We need more order.

This ain’t right,” said Bob Hrifko, who was bleeding from a cut under his eye.

Two Washington DC police officers were injured in alterca-tions with protesters. Police detained about 50 people a few blocks away, as a crowd chanted “Let them go.”

The number of people who turned out to view swearing-in, on a gray day threatened by rain, appeared to be significantly smaller than the estimated 2 mil-lion who turned out for President Barack Obama’s first inaugura-tion in 2009.

Washington

Agencies

The administration of Pres-ident Donald Trump is committed to eliminating

former President Barack Obama’s Climate Action Plan and other environmental initi-atives, according to the recently updated White House website.

“President Trump is com-mitted to eliminating harmful and unnecessary policies such as the Climate Action Plan and the Waters of the US rule. Lift-ing these restrictions will greatly help American workers, increas-ing wages by more than $30 billion over the next 7 years,” the website said.

Obama’s climate plan pro-posed cuts to US carbon dioxide emissions, in part by preserving

forests and encouraging increased use of cleaner renewable fuels.

Trump’s efforts to boost the US oil and gas sector will help increase government revenues to “rebuild our roads, schools, bridges and public infrastruc-ture,” the website said.

Later in the day after taking over as 45th US president and in doing so inherited the White House Twitter account from outgoing leader Barack Obama.

In the first “social media tran-sition” at the White House, Trump became owner of Twitter handle @POTUS, which represents pres-ident of the United States.

The transition on Twitter got off to a bumpy start, with an image from Obama’s 2009 inau-guration briefly on the account, before being fixed minutes later.

The White House last year

indicated it would hand over to Obama’s successor control of the account and other social media platforms which were launched during Obama’s eight-year tenure.

Obama, meanwhile, assumed a new Twitter handle @POTUS44, keeping some 13.9 million followers and his archived tweets in the shift.

Incoming first lady Melania Trump took over the @FLOTUS handle and Michelle Obama shifted to @FLOTUS44.

The accounts of both the president and first lady started with a clean slate.

Trump quickly garnered some 4.3 million followers for new Twitter handle in the first hour. But he continued tweet-ing from his old @realDonaldTrump account.

New vision to govern our land: Trump

US President Donald Trump and First Lady Melania Trump, with former president Barack Obama and Michelle Obama before their departure from the US Capitol, yesterday.

Supporters in rain gear gather in front of US Capitol, at the inauguration of President Donald Trump.

Washington protests turn violent

Trump takes aim at Obama Climate Action Plan

12 SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017AMERICAS

Members of a carnival group participate in the inaugural parade of the Uruguayan Carnival in Montevideo, yesterday.

Carnival fever

Several charges

Now in his late 50s, "El Chapo" faces the possibility of life sentence in a US prison under indictments in six jurisdictions around the United States.

New York

AP

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, one of the world’s most notorious drug kingpins, is finally headed for a court date the United States

sought for two decades while he made brazen prison escapes and spent years on the run in Mexico.

Extradited yesterday to face US drug trafficking and other charges, Mexico’s most wanted man was expected to appear in a federal court in New York today.

The Drug Enforcement Administration flew Guzman to New York from Ciudad Juarez early yesterday, according to federal officials.

The US has been trying to get Guzman in a US court since he was first indicted in South-ern California in the early 1990s. Now in his late 50s, he faces the possibility of life in a US prison under indictments in six juris-dictions around the United States, including New York, San Diego, Chicago and Miami.

He’s expected to be

prosecuted in Brooklyn, where an indictment accuses him of overseeing a massive trafficking operation that sent billions of dol-lars in profits back to Mexico. It says Guzman and other members of the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world’s largest drug trafficking organisations, employed hit men who carried out murders, kidnap-pings and acts of torture.

Guzman, the cartel’s con-victed boss, had been held most recently at a prison near Ciudad Juarez, a border town across from El Paso, Texas.

He was recaptured a year ago after escaping from a max-imum-security prison for a second time, an episode that

was highly embarrassing for President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government.

Mexican officials were seen as eager to hand him off to the United States. But Guzman’s lawyers fought his extradition, and attorney Andres Granados accused the government of car-rying it out yesterday to distract from nationwide petrol hike price protests.

“It was illegal. They didn’t even notify us,” Granados said. “It’s totally political.”

Mexico’s Foreign Relations Department said a court had ruled against Guzman’s appeal and found that his extradition would be constitutional.

The extradition came at a charged political moment in the US, when Trump was sworn-in.

Carl Pike, a former DEA agent who spent the last part of his career helping the drug agency chase Guzman, said yes-terday he was always confident that the drug lord would be sent to the US, but the timing was “interesting.”

“It’s one way of thanking

Obama and another way of say-ing, ‘Mr. Trump, welcome to the arena,’ “ Pike said.

Derek Maltz, who headed the DEA’s Special Operations Divi-sion until his retirement in mid-2014, said the extradition reaffirms Mexico’s commitment to working with the United States and curbing the power of its drug cartels, and the timing could be seen as a good-faith effort by the Mexican government.

After breaking out of prison

the first time in 2001, Guzman spent more than a decade at large, becoming something of a folk legend among some Mexi-cans for his defiance of authorities. He was immortalized in ballads known as “narco-corridos.”

Captured in 2014, Guzman then made an even more auda-cious escape, coolly stepping into a hole in floor of his prison cell shower and whizzing to freedom on a motorcycle modified to run

on tracks laid the length of the tunnel. While again on the run, he secretly met actors Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo in a fall 2015 encounter that Penn later chron-icled in Rolling Stone magazine.

Guzman was unapologetic about his criminal activities, say-ing he turned to drug trafficking at age 15 to survive. “The only way to have money to buy food, to sur-vive, is to grow poppy, marijuana, and at that age, I began to grow it, to cultivate it and to sell it."

Washington

AFP

Months before his death, Osama Bin Laden fret-ted about the Islamic

State (IS) group’s impatient, vio-lent tactics and the fading of Al-Qaeda, documents released by the CIA yesterday showed.

The latest release from the trove of documents found when Navy Seals stormed the Al-Qaeda chief’s secret Pakistan compound and killed him in 2011 show Bin Laden trying to keep his jihadist

followers around the world aligned in his war against the United States. They also reveal a worried father warning his sons that they could be injected with electronic chips to track them.

He also spent significant time trying to manage the handling of foreigners kidnapped by far-flung affiliates of his radical Islamic group.

And he showed a strong focus on affairs in his family’s original homeland, Yemen, where a pow-erful new branch—Al-Qaeda on the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) --

was having a strong impact.One letter to AQAP founder

Nasir Al-Wuhayshi warns not to move too fast against government because conditions were not yet right anywhere to form an IS that could govern effectively and resist attacks from outside.

“Blood should not be shed unless we have evidence to show that the elements of success to establish the IS and maintaining it are available or if achieving such goals is worthy of shedding such blood,” he wrote.

“There might be a huge

reaction that could drag us into a real war.”

The documents—which appear to date mostly from around 2010 — some written by Bin Laden and others on his behalf, show the Al-Qaeda chief determined to keep his group’s focus on the US as its enemy.

“The Ummah’s enemies today are like a wicked tree,” he wrote, using the term for the world community of Muslims. “The trunk of this tree is the United States.”

The letters also reveal that

Anwar Al-Awlaki, a US-born Al-Qaeda cleric in Yemen, was a candidate to be named emir or chief of AQAP, with Bin Laden asking for more biographical detail about him.

Bin Laden registered his doubts at the same time, noting that “here we trust the people after we send them to the front line and test them.”

Awlaki, whose writings inspired numerous converts to the jihadist cause, was killed by a US drone strike in September 2011.

A letter written by one of his aides suggests Bin Laden’s rising frustration over his organisation nearly a decade after the shock 9/11 attacks on the United States.

Bin Laden “talked about the fear of our organisation aging, and reaching decrepitude like other organisations,” the letter said.

But the jihadist leader also had time for personal advice for Al-Qaeda fighters in Northern Africa bound by “unfortunate celibacy” because of a lack of available wives.

Rio De Janeiro

AP

Brazilian Supreme Court Justice Teori Zavascki’s died in a small-plane

crash just weeks before he was to rule on a major corruption case that could implicate high-ranking politicians in several Latin American countries.

While the cause of yester-day’s crash off a popular Brazilian coastal town had not been determined, Zavascki held such an important role in the sprawling “Car Wash” investi-gation into a multibillion-dollar bribe scheme at the state oil company Petrobras that many Brazilians and even interna-tional groups like Transparency International immediately voiced fears of possible foul play and demanded a full investigation.

“Justice Teori Zavascki had been strongly driving the #Car-wash investigation in the Supreme Court. It’s hard to believe this was a mere acci-dent,” tweeted Alan Mansur, director of the National Asso-ciation of Prosecutors.

Federal police said yester-day that they were launching an investigation.

The plane, which was carry-ing Zavascki and four others, crashed outside Paraty, a coastal town about 250km west of Rio de Janeiro. Witnesses speaking to Globo television said it was

raining hard at the time, which is typical during the Southern Hemisphere summer.

Within an hour of the news of Zavascki’s death, President Michel Temer, who has been implicated by some suspects caught up in the Petrobras investigation but has not been charged, addressed the nation.

Zavascki “was a good man, and a (symbol of) pride for all Brazilians,” said Temer, who called for three days of national mourning.

Authorities said three bod-ies had been recovered so far. The other dead men were iden-tified as businessman Carlos Alberto Filgueiras and pilot Osmar Rodrigues.

While the largest corruption probe in Brazil’s history has been led by a team of prosecutors and Judge Sergio Moro in the city of Curitiba, Zavascki handled cases involving politicians. Under Bra-zilian law, only Supreme Court can decide to charge or jail fed-eral politicians.

Most recently, Zavascki had been reviewing dozens of plea bargains of former and current executives of the big Odebre-cht construction company, which was one of the main players in kickback scheme at Petrobras that investigators allege involved more than $2bn in bribes. Over the last two years, dozens of politicians and businessmen have been jailed in the sprawling probe.

Lima

Reuters

HEAVY rain and equipment failure stalled efforts in Peru yesterday to rescue seven miners who were trapped in a tunnel hundreds of feet under a landslide three days ago, officials said.

Four of the miners may already be dead, according to a miner who escaped, a day after the small copper deposit mined in region of Arequipa was engulfed.

The breakdown of a gen-erator used to power machinery clearing a path to entrance of the 660 feet-deep tunnel stoked fears that time was running out to find the men alive. Sounds coming from one of the miners stopped early Thursday, said regional mining official Vladimir Bustinza. “That’s not a good sign,” Bustinza told local broadcaster RPP.

The miner who escaped said he believed three of his seven colleagues were alive when he got out.

Rescue efforts at the mine in the Acari district did not begin until late Thursday when word of the landslide reached emergency respond-ers. Attempts to reach the miners were then slowed by debris from landslides that blocked roads and a torren-tial downpour.

Cannon Ball, North Dakota

Reuters

Tensions have increased this week near construction site of the Dakota Access

pipeline, with repeated clashes between protesters and police.

Police used tear gas and fired bean-bag rounds to dis-perse crowds, and have arrested nearly 40 people, many of them on a bridge that has been the site of frequent confrontations.

Demonstrators at the shrinking protest camp have voiced desperation and

declining morale, citing weaker support from local Standing Rock Sioux tribe that launched the effort last year.

“It’s closing in on the inau-guration, and people want to make sure that their voices are heard while they still have a chance,” said Benjamin Johansen, 29, a carpenter from Iowa who has been at the camp for two months.

“There’s a very real possi-bility that once the new president is inaugurated, our voices won’t matter.”

This week’s clashes between

protesters and police are the most serious since the US Army Corps of Engineers denied an easement in December for the pipeline to travel under Lake Oahe.

Native Americans and envi-ronmental activists have said that the pipeline threatens water resources and sacred lands.

Members of the Standing Rock Sioux, whose reservation is near the pipeline, asked pro-testers to disperse following the Corps’ decision, but around 600 remain in the main camp, now called Oceti Oyate.

Mexican drug kingpin extradited to US

Mexico's top drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is escorted as he arrives at Long Island MacArthur airport in New York, yesterday.

Bin Laden documents: Worry over IS tactics & aging Al Qaeda

Brazil judge dies in crash ahead of graft probe ruling

Bad weather stalls bid to rescue Peru miners

Tensions rise at N Dakota pipeline

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ASIAN TOWN

AL KHOR

XXX: The Return of Xander Cage (2D/Action) 10:00, 10:45, 11:20am, 12:00noon, 12:20, 1:00, 1:40, 2:20, 2:40, 3:15, 4:00, 4:40, 5:00, 5:30, 6:20, 7:00, 7:20, 7:45, 8:40, 9:20, 9:40, 10:00, 11:00, 11:40pm, 12:00midnight & 12:15amBallerina (2D/Animation) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00pm The Bye Bye Man (2D/Horror) 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight A Monster Calls (2D/Adventure) 10:30am, 3:00, 7:30pm & 12:00midnight Assassin’s Creed (2D/Action) 12:45, 5:15 & 9:45pmPatriots Day (2D/Thriller) 10:00am, 2:45, 7:30pm & 12:10am The Great Wall (2D/Action) 12:30, 5:15 & 10:00pm Sing (2D/Animation) 10:45am, 12:45, 2:45 & 4:45pm Passengers (2D/Drama) 6:45, 9:15 & 11:45pm La La Land (2D/Musical) 10:30am, 1:05, 3:40, 6:15, 8:50 & 11:25pm XXX: The Return of Xander Cage (3D IMAX/Action) 10:30am, 12:50, 3:10, 5:30, 7:50, 10:10pm & 12:30am

Guppy (Malayalam) 2:30 & 11:15pm Ballerina (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 3:45pm The Bye Bye Man (2D/Horror) 3:00 & 7:00pm Shathamanam Bhavati (Telugu) 4:15pmXXX: The Return of Xander Cage (2D/Action) 5:00, 7:30, 9:30 & 11:30pm Moana (2D/Animation) 5:30pm Bairavaa (Tamil) 6:30pm Dangal (2D/Action) 8:45pm Mantaka Mahzoura (2D/Thriller) 9:00pm The Family Fang (2D/Comedy) 11:30pm

Bairavaa (Tamil) 2:00 & 8:45pm Ballerina (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 5:15pmSurf’s Up 2: Wave Mania (2D/Animation) 3:45pmGuppy (Malayalam) 5:00 & 11:15pm Shathamanam Bhavati (Telugu) 5:30pmMantaka Mahzoura (2D/Thriller) 7:15 & 11:30pm XXX: The Return of Xander Cage (2D/Action) 3:45, 7:00, 9:00 & 11:00pm The Bye Bye Man (2D/Horror) 2:00 & 9:30pm The Family Fang (2D/Comedy) 7:45pm

Ballerina (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 5:30pm Guppy (Malayalam) 2:00 & 11:00pmXXX: The Return of Xander Cage (2D/Action) 3:00, 7:15, 9:15 & 11:15pm Surf’s Up 2: Wave Mania (2D/Animation) 3:45pm The Family Fang (2D/Comedy) 4:30 & 11:00pm The Bye Bye Man (2D/Horror) 5:00 & 9:00pm Bairavaa (Tamil) 6:30pm Mantaka Mahzoura (2D/Thriller) 7:00 & 9:30pm

Bairavaa (Tamil) 12:30, 3:00, 3:45, 6:15, 7:00, 9:30 & 10:15pmShathamanam Bhavati (Telugu) 12:30 & 6:30pm Kirik Party(Kannada) 1:00 & 7:00pmGautami Putra (Telugu) 4:00pm Guppy (Malayalam) 12:30, 3:30 & 9:00pmDangal (Hindi) 10:00pm

XXX: The Return of Xander Cage (2D/Action) 12:00noon, 2:15, 4:30, 6:45, 9:00 &

11:15pm Bairavaa (Tamil) 1:15, 4:30, 7:45 & 11:00pm

Ballerina (2D/Animation) 11:00am, 1:00, 3:00 & 5:00pm

The Bye Bye Man (2D/Horror) 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm

Yesterday's

A falcon hunts a Houbara bustard at Al Marzoom Hunting reserve, 150km west of Abu Dhabi, yesterday.

Falconry

16 SATURDAY 21 JANUARY 2017MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

05.01 am

06.21 am

ZUHRASR

11.45 am

02.49 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.12 pm

06.42 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 01:00 - 10:30 LOW TIDE 04:30 - 18:15

Hazy to misty/foggy at places at

first becomes mild daytime and scat-

tered clouds and chance of light

rain at places later.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

17oC 24oC

Los Angeles

Reuters

The man who turned a popular California ham-burger stand into the

McDonald's global fast-food empire is having a posthu-mous Hollywood moment.

Michael Keaton plays Ray Kroc, a hard-drinking, some-what desperate middle-aged milkshake equipment sales-man who 60 years ago out-hustled the McDonald brothers to gain control of their namesake brand in "The Founder," which is opening in US movie theaters yesterday.

Kroc, who died in 1984,

convinced Richard and Mau-rice McDonald to let him franchise their clean, quick-service restaurants that helped end the US carhop era. He then wrested so much control over the brand that the broth-ers agreed to be bought out in 1961 for $2.7m.

"I'm drawn to stories about polarizing, difficult men," said screenwriter Rob-ert Siegel, who also wrote "The Wrestler."

"Keaton is good at that oily charm," Siegel told Reuters.

The film closes with the bombshell allegation that Kroc cheated the McDonald broth-ers out of what would have been a massive annual roy-

alty payment.The McDonald brothers'

survivors, who struck a rights deal with the film's producers, have made that charge. How-ever, it was not confirmed by other sources or in media interviews with the brothers themselves, whose major complaint appeared to be Kroc's appropriation of the McDonald's founder title.

McDonald's Corp declined comment on the issue.

"The Founder" arrives on screens on the heels of "Ray & Joan: The Man Who Made the McDonald's Fortune," a 2016 book by journalist Lisa Napoli that turns the spotlight on Kroc's third wife.

Joan Kroc, who died in 2003, lived lavishly while using Kroc's billion-dollar for-tune to promote causes sure to have sent her husband, a pro-business conservative who supported US President Richard Nixon, spinning in his grave.

The book traces their tumultuous relationship, which blossomed through a mutual love of music and business. But Napoli says it was Ray's unwavering devo-tion to bargain-barrel "Early Times" whiskey that fueled both conflict in the marriage and aspects of Joan's charita-ble giving.

In keeping with the times,

Joan did not speak openly about Ray's drinking, which "doesn't square well with the mythology of McDonald's," Napoli said. "She couldn't get him to quit, so she helped other people like herself to deal with people who drink," Napoli said.

Joan supported addiction research, awareness and treatment through gifts to major universities and facili-ties such as the Hazelden Foundation and the Betty Ford Clinic. Other major recipients include the Salvation Army, National

Public Radio and the Ron-ald McDonald House Charities.

HAWAII

Reuters

Six scientists have entered a dome perched atop a remote

volcano in Hawaii where they will spend the next eight months in isolation to simulate life for astronauts traveling to Mars, the Uni-versity of Hawaii said.

The study is designed to help Nasa better understand human behavior and per-formance during long space missions as the US space agency explores plans for a manned mission to the Red Planet. "I'm proud of the part we play in helping reduce the

barriers to a human journey to Mars," said Kim Binsted, the mission's principal investigator.

The crew will perform geological field work and basic daily tasks in the 1,200-square-foot (365 m) dome, located in an aban-doned quarry 8,000 feet (2.5 km) above sea level on the Mauna Loa volcano on Hawaii's Big Island.

There is little vegetation and the scientists will have no contact with the outside world, said the university, which operates the dome.

Communications with a mission control team will be time-delayed to match the

20-minute travel time of radio waves passing between Earth and Mars.

"Daily routines include food preparation from only shelf-stable ingredients, exercise, research and field-work aligned with NASA's planetary exploration expec-tations," the university said. The project is intended to create guidelines for future missions to Mars, some 35 million miles away, a long-term goal of the US human space programme.

The NASA-funded study, known as the Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (Hi-SEAS), is the fifth of its kind.

The HagueAFP

The EU's corridors of power and the mean streets of Brussels form an ominous backdrop to a new

pay-TV series debuting yesterday on a Dutch channel, portraying the Bel-gian capital as never seen before.

"Brussel" is a 10-part series by glo-bal content provider EndemolShine, taking viewers into the dark under-belly of European politics, power, deceit and lust.

The interwoven tale involves mul-tiple characters, but focuses mainly on Dutch top oil executive Moniek van Dalen, who returns to the Belgian city to try to clinch a massive oil deal.

There she runs into her former lover Viktor Petrenko, who in the chaotic years after the fall of the Soviet Union became a Russian oligarch, now worth billions of dollars. "Both are in Brussels to lobby for their own energy interests, but there's room for only one deal," the publishers said in a synopsis.

Elsewhere in the city, a father and decorated soldier scours the streets for his radicalised son, fearing he might join jihadists fighting in Syria.

The series also introduces viewers to Moniek's daughter Nadja, who has a Russian boyfriend Pjotr, whom she wants to marry.

Meanwhile in Afghanistan, a young man named Mahmud plans a journey to Brussels with a secret mission -- and

so too does the Congolese Ekweme, who wants to travel there to find his lost lover.

"On one fatal evening, everybody finds themselves in Brussels, driven by revenge or love, or both," accord-ing to the synopsis.

Series writer and celebrated Dutch author, Leon de Winter, said "Brussel" was inspired after watching an epi-sode of the popular Netflix US drama series "House of Cards", featuring actor Kevin Spacey as scheming Washing-ton politician Frank Underwood.

"I thought, hang on, here in Europe we have a city similar to Washington: Brussels," De Winter said.

"It's the EU's capital, a metropolis with more departments, think tanks

and lobbyists than even in DC. At once my head filled with intertwining ideas about politics, the economy, crime and terror," he said.

During shooting, the producers sometimes came closer to reality than their fictional tale.

"We were busy with the second day of filming when Brussels was attacked" in March last year by suicide bombers, series director Arno Dier-ickx said.

"At Zaventem airport, a bomb even exploded where we were going film later," he said.

"Brussel" will be screened on the subscription channel of Dutch tele-coms company KPN at 2100 GMT on Friday.

McDonald's gets movie spotlight

New Dutch TV series shows underbelly of EU

Scientists enter Hawaii dome in 8-month Mars mission study

Massive Antarctic ice shelf ready to break apartParis

AFP

A chunk of ice half the size of Jamaica which is breaking away from

West Antarctica is now attached to its parent ice shelf just by a thread, scientists reported yesterday.

Covering 5,000 square kil-ometres and nearly 100 storeys deep, the formation is poised to snap off from Larsen C ice shelf, creating "one of the largest ice-bergs ever recorded," the researchers said in a statement.

A widening rift running the length of the finger-shaped, 350-metre (160-feet) -thick ice block grew 10 kilometres (six miles) longer some time during the last three weeks, satellite images revealed.

"The rift is likely to break off in the next few months -- if it doesn't, I'll be amazed," said Adrian Luckman, a professor at Swansea University in Wales, and leader of Britain's Project Midas, which tracks changes in West Antarctic ice formations.

"It's so close to calving that I think it's inevitable," he said.

In late December, the rup-ture had already extended by 18 kilometres, leaving the future iceberg connected along only a small fraction of its length.

Just by itself, the gargan-tuan ice cube will not add to sea levels, the consequence of ice sheet disintegration that most worries scientists.

The real danger is from inland glaciers.

Ice shelves float on the sea, extending from the coast, and are slowly fed by glaciers from the ice sheet on land.

They act as giant brakes, preventing the glaciers from sliding directly into the ocean.

The West Antarctic ice sheet, where Larsen C is located, holds enough frozen water to raise global oceans by about six metres (20 feet).

If the glaciers held in check by Larsen C spilt into the Ant-arctic Ocean, it would lift the global water mark by about 10 centimetres (four inches), the researchers said.

The nearby Larsen A ice shelf collapsed in 1995, and Larsen B dramatically broke up seven years later.

Recent studies have sug-gested that climate change may already have condemned large chunks of West Antarctica to disintegration, though whether on a time scale of centuries or millennia is unknown. The breaking off, or calving, of ice shelves occurs naturally. But global warming is thought to have accelerated the process.

Warming ocean water erodes their underbelly, while rising air temperatures weaken them from above.

The ice block currently sep-arating from Larsen C contains about 10 percent of the ice shelf's mass, Luckman said. "We are convinced -- although oth-ers are not -- that the remaining ice shelf will be less stable than the present one," Luckman said in a statement.