Volume 24 | Number 7955 | 2 RiyalsWednesday 17 July 2019 | 14 Dhul-Qa'da 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 13 SPORT | 20

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2019/3786

PM visits Kahramaa control centreQNA DOHA

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani visited the National Control Centre (NCC) of Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) in Al Thumama Area.

During the visit, H E the Prime Minister and Interior Min-ister was briefed on the oper-ation mechanism in summer, readiness of electricity and water networks, maintenance and emergency plans and reading of control room indicators.

H E the Prime Minister and Interior Minister also listened to a detailed explanation about the system’s working mechanism,

demand forecast, response time and repair of failures.

H E the Prime Minister and Interior Minister then inspected the progress of the strategic

projects implemented by Kah-ramaa in the sectors of elec-tricity, water, solar energy, cus-tomer services and projects implemented by Kahramaa to

serve vital projects in the country, including World Cup stadiums, rail stations, economic zones and many services pro-vided by the Corporation.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani during a visit to Kahramaa's National Control Centre in Al Thumama yesterday. �P2

Qatargas delivers 3,000th LNG cargo to JapanTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatargas, the world’s premier LNG company, yesterday announced a historic milestone as it successfully delivered the 3,000th Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) cargo to Japan since the first Qatari shipment was delivered to Kawagoe LNG Receiving Terminal on January 10, 1997.

Commenting on this historic achievement, H E Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, Minister of State for Energy Affairs, President & CEO of Qatar Petroleum, and Chairman of Qatargas Board of Directors, said: “We are delighted to celebrate the 3,000th LNG delivery to Japan. This significant milestone comes over two decades following the first delivery to our foundation cus-tomer in Japan. Qatar, as the largest LNG producer in the world, is committed to delivering LNG safely and reliably to our cus-tomers across the globe.”

H E Al Kaabi added:

“Qatargas’ commitment to serving Japan’s energy needs has never been stronger. We are focused on boosting future cooperation with Japan, and building even stronger relations with our Japanese cus-tomers and friends.”

Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chief Executive Officer of Qatargas, said: “Utilising our flexible and reliable operations, we celebrate the uninterrupted supply of this 3,000th LNG cargo to Japan, which is a major mile-stone reflecting the relationship between Qatargas and our esteemed Japanese customers. This delivery demonstrates Qatargas’ commitment to con-tinue providing Japan, and all of our customers around the globe, with a safe and reliable source of clean energy.”

The 3,000th LNG cargo, which was transported onboard ‘Al Jasra’, a conventional LNG vessel with a capacity of 135,000 cubic metres, was delivered to JERA, a joint venture between Chubu Electric and Tokyo Electric. �P2

Real estate sector to attract more long-term investmentsSACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Qatar’s real estate sector will attract more long-term invest-ments, helped by government measures and softening in real estate prices. The real estate market will favour buyers over landlords in the coming quarters, according to second quarter 2019

review report released by real estate consulting firm ValuStrat.

The recent law amendment of expanding freehold ownership in residential and commercial sectors will boost the real estate sector, said the report.

“The sales transaction volume accumulated to QR9.5bn in value during the first five months of 2019. Residential capital values

have reduced, though the quar-terly rate of decline has slowed. On the other hand, the rental market showed a relatively noticeable softening, during the first half of 2019,” Pawel Banach, ValuStrat’s General Manager, Qatar ,told The Peninsula.

“This trend is expected to persist as oversupply will con-tinue to favour tenants over

landlords in the coming quarters. Consumers can take advantage of increasingly competitive prices and flexible payment plans available in Qatar. This coupled with government initiatives such as the introduction of freehold ownership law in the previous quarter could lead to more long-term investments by expatriates in Qatar” he said. �P2

United Development Company awards

marine works at QR3bn Gewan Island

Unbeaten Al Attiyah seals Silk Way Rally title in style

02 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019HOME

Qatar condemns

Baghdad bombing

DOHA: The State of

Qatar expressed its

strong condemnation

and denunciation of the

bombing that targeted a

funeral ceremony south of

the Iraqi capital Baghdad,

and killed two people

and wounded others.

In a statement issued

yesterday, the Ministry of

Foreign Affairs reiterated

the State of Qatar’s

firm stance on rejecting

violence and terrorism,

whatever the motives and

reasons.

The statement expressed

the State of Qatar’s

condolences to the

families of the victims, as

well as the Government

and people of Iraq,

wishing the injured a

speed recovery. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWS

Qatar condemns

bombing of

hospital in

southern Tripoli

DOHA: The State of Qatar

condemned in the strongest

terms the bombing of a field

hospital in southern Libyan

capital of Tripoli, leaving

deaths and injuries.

The Ministry of Foreign

Affairs said in a statement

issued yesterday that the

bombing of the hospital

is a flagrant violation of

international humanitarian

law, which aims to ensure

the safety of patients and

medical staff working in

hospitals and to maintain

health facilities in times of

war.

The statement stressed that

the bombing of the hospital

necessitates an urgent

international investigation

in order to bring the

perpetrators to international

justice, calling on the

international community to

take urgent action to protect

civilian targets.

The Ministry expressed the

condolences of the State of

Qatar to the families of the

victims, the government and

people of Libya, wishing the

injured a speedy recovery.

QNA

HIGH TIDE 03:41 – 17:24 LOW TIDE 00:47–10:56

Hot daytime with slight dust to blowing

dust at places at times.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum37oC 44oC

FAJRSHOROOK

03. 26 AM

04. 53 AM

11. 40 AM

03.05 PM

06. 28 PM

07. 58 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

Qatar Youth Hostels gets silver rating of International Youth Hostel FederationQNA/DOHA

Qatar Youth Hostels obtained the silver rating of International Youth Hostel Feder-ation for the first time in its history.

This came after the periodic evaluation by the International Youth Hostel Feder-ation which is rating different youth hostels members in the Federation, rep-resenting 64 countries.

The classification is based on the objectives achieved in the strategic plan for youth hostels 2018-2021, which was approved at the 52nd International Con-ference of the Federation in Iceland. Qatar Youth Hostels are among the few hostels that have achieved this category, scoring 9 points out of a total of 16 points in record time. Qatar Youth Hostels are imple-menting various programs and events in line with the plans of the International Federation and the vision of the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

HMC wins Microsoft QatarDigital Transformation AwardTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has been honoured by Microsoft with the Qatar Digital Transformation Award. The award was presented during a special ceremony that distinguished the coun-try’s most innovative organisations in the field of digital transformation.

Microsoft Digital Transformation Awards recognise organisations and entities that are playing a leading role in driving successful digitisation initia-tives that result in better engagement of customers, empowered employees, opti-mised operations, and reinvented products and services.

HMC was awarded the Digital Trans-formation Award for rolling out an intel-ligent security platform and imple-menting platforms that empower employees and care teams to do more with fewer resources.

“HMC started the journey to a secure modern digital workplace to empower employees and care teams to be more productive and to do more with less. HMC’s modern digital workplace creates experiences that put our people at the center and provide the collaborative, intelligent, and secure experience required for today’s fast-paced work environment,” said Richard Storey, Chief of the Health Information and C o m m u n i c a t i o n s T e c h n o l o g y Department at HMC. “We started rolling out an intelligent security platform for

HMC employees with Windows 10 upgrades, diverse Office 365 services, and a secure collaboration tool using Microsoft Teams. We believe that Microsoft Teams can streamline com-munication and collaboration, and improve the efficiency and success of our care teams. With Windows 10, and Advanced Threat Protection, Enterprise Mobility, Security, and Office 365, we achieved the high level of agility, man-ageability, and security that we were looking for to support our journey,” added Storey.

Microsoft Teams is a unified com-munications platform that combines persistent workplace chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration.

Lana Khalaf, General Manager, Microsoft Qatar said the award recog-nizes the success of organizations who have taken a leap in their digital trans-formation journey.

“The Qatar National Vision 2030 aims to transform the country into an advanced society that is capable of sus-taining its development and providing a high standard of living for its people. Technological innovation is an integral part of this effort,” said Khalaf.

“The customers we celebrate with these awards are remarkable examples of how the intelligent cloud and the intelligent edge can be leveraged to innovate and get ahead of the curve to gain a competitive advantage in a dig-ital-first world,” added Khalaf.

Richard Storey, Chief of the Health Information and Communications Technology Department at HMC. RIGHT: The Qatar Digital Transformation Award.

PM visits NCC of Kahramaa

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani at the National Control Centre (NCC) of Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa) in Al Thumama Area as part of a visit yesterday.

Real estate sector to attract more long-term investments

FROM PAGE 1Residential supply reached

294,700 units as of Q2 2019 with the delivery of 1,700 apart-ments and villas in The Pearl, Lusail, Fereej Bin Mahmoud, Old Ghanim, Fereej Abdul Aziz, Musheireb, Al Dafna, Al Kheesa, Al Wajba and Umm Salal Ali, according to the report.

With the addition of 200,000 square metre (sq m) Gross Leasable Area (GLA) total office stock totalled 4.54 million sq m GLA at end of second quarter (Q2) 2019, said the report.

As of Q2 2019, a total number of 26,890 hotel rooms were available across 129 prop-erties. There were no additions during the second quarter according to ValuStrat research. Till May 2019, visitor arrivals reached 922,132, up by 11 percent compared to the same

period last year.Approximately 600,000 sq

m GLA of offices are expected to be added by the end of this year.

Qatar’s organised retail stock reached 1.81 million sq m GLA as of second quarter of 2019, owing to new additions of neighbourhood retail centres in Lusail. Galeries Lafayette (4,350 sq m GLA) announced a soft opening of its flagship store within Katara Cultural Village. Amid competition from newly opened super regional malls, relatively older shopping centres have reduced asking rents by an estimated 5 percent YoY in order to maintain occu-pancy. Median monthly asking rent among street retail units in Doha stood at QR195 per sq m and outside Doha at QR180 per sq m. “As per ValuStrat’s

research, countrywide occu-pancy of office space is esti-mated at 65 percent. With the existing pipeline of supply, vacancies are projected to increase, and landlords may continue to offer even more favourable terms for tenants,” Anum Hasan, Senior Market Research Analyst for ValuStrat, told The Peninsula. An esti-mated 500,000 sq m GLA of warehousing space is projected to be completed by end of 2019.

Pawel Banach

Qatargas delivers 3,000th LNG cargo to JapanFROM PAGE 1

The cargo was delivered to the Kawagoe LNG Receiving Terminal, owned and operated by JERA Qatargas has term

contracts to supply LNG with many of the key Japanese buyers including JERA, Tohoku Electric, Kansai Electric, Chugoku Electric, Tokyo Gas, Osaka Gas,

Toho Gas and Shizuoka Gas. Apart from these term contracts, Qatargas also delivers a signif-icant amount of Japan’s spot LNG requirements.

Al Jasra LNG vessel

HBKU College of Law opens registration for conference in MoroccoTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Building on its mission to address issues and policies from a comparative and international legal perspective, Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)

College of Law is organising the 2019 Middle East Environmental Law Scholars Conference from November 4-5, 2019 in Settat, Morocco.

Registration is now open for the conference that will see leading environmental

law practitioners, scholars and policymakers come together to examine teaching Climate Change in the Middle East and North Africa. The Morocco con-ference will enable participants to assess current opportunities, challenges, best practices, and

innovation in teaching environ-mental law, particularly climate change law and policy, in MENA universities.

Participants will leverage their specialised knowledge to explore how best to advance investment in climate-smart

infrastructure in the region.This year’s conference is

sponsored by the United Nations (UN) Environment Programme and held in collaboration with Hassan the First University, Settat, Morocco; Laboratory for Research on Comparative

Democratic Transition, Morocco; UN Regional Office in the Middle East and North Africa; LexisNexis Middle East and North Africa; and the Association for Environ-mental Law Lecturers in Middle East and North African Univer-sities (ASELLMU).

03WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019 HOME

The Commander of the Amiri Naval Forces, Major General Abdullah bin Hassan Al Sulaiti, met yesterday with the Commander-in-Chief of Russian Federation Navy, Admiral Vladimir Korolev, on the sidelines of the maritime exhibition currently taking place in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg. During the meeting, they reviewed the military relations between the two countries and means of enhancing them.

Qatar-Russia military relations reviewed

MME campaign to remove all violations of farms in Al Shehaniya MunicipalityTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), represented by the Munici-pality of Al Shehaniya, launched a campaign yesterday to remove all irregularities in the farms located within the municipality as part of the Ministry’s comprehensive plan to put an end to the violations from all state farms, in accordance with the provisions of the Public and Private State Property Law and Building Regulation Law.

This campaign, which is being carried out in cooper-ation with the General Clean-liness Department, the Department of Mechanical Equipment of the Ministry and the security authorities in the State, will continue until all

violations are removed before the end of 2019.

The Director of the Al She-haniya Municipality, Jaber Hassan Al Jaber, said that the campaign aims at removing all irregularities in the farms, such as the construction of buildings for workers’ housing, stores, garages, etc., that are in vio-lation of the farmer’s use for non-agricultural purposes and in violation of the certificate of possession granted to the owner of the farm.

He pointed out that the Municipality has taken the nec-essary legal measures against these violations since the beginning of 2019 in coordi-nation with the concerned authorities in the State. He added that the notices of removal were given to the owners of farms, companies, workshops and stores.

The MME also explained that the measures taken against the infringing farms include making a record of offence and issuing warning to the violator to remove the violation and evacuate housing units, as well as the implementation of removal by force in the case of refraining from the eviction, and that if the violator refused to reconcile, the record and actions taken will be referred to the security authorities.

The ministry called on the owners of the farms to abide by the laws governing the activity and work of the farms, empha-sising the importance of the exploitation of these farms in agricultural activity, especially in response to the requirements of food security. It urged all companies to vacate their vio-lating sites and facilities to avoid legal accountability.

The officials of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), represented by the Municipality of Al Shehaniya, and staff during an inspection as part of the campaign to remove all irregularities in the farms at Al Shehaniya area.

Sidra Medicine and CMU-Q sign agreement to promote research THE PENINSULA DOHA

Sidra Medicine, a member of Qatar Foundation, and Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar (CMU-Q), have signed a memo-randum of understanding (MoU) to promote scientific collabo-ration and research in line with Qatar’s national research prior-ities.

The MoU formalises an already close partnership. Sidra Medicine has hired more than 40 CMU-Q graduates over the past four years to pursue careers in research, technology, business operations and laboratory med-icine. The women’s and children’s

healthcare organisation, is one of the few in the world with an inno-vation-based approach to pro-viding patient and family cen-tered care, which makes it a par-ticularly good fit for CMU-Q graduates.

Michael Trick, Dean of CMU-Q, said: “Sidra Medicine is an organisation that values both scientific rigor and innovative thinking. Graduates from each of CMU-Q’s four main programmes of study are now working at Sidra Medicine, helping to shape how technological tools can improve patient care. We look forward to many more years of cooperation.”

Dr. Robert Crone, Acting CEO

of Sidra Medicine, said: “We are delighted to partner with Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar. The agreement provides a unique opportunity for CMU-Q students and alumni to gain real-world exposure to cutting edge areas in healthcare and medical research. Sidra Medicine is embarking on an important journey towards precision med-icine. Our partnership will also provide the students’ access to thought leaders and innovators within Sidra Medicine, who play an integral role in enhancing our mission to provide world-class patient care as well as to build Qatar’s scientific expertise and resources.” CMU-Q and Sidra

Medicine scientists and researchers will also share expertise in the fields of biological sciences, business administration,

computational biology, computer science, and information systems. Through this collaboration, both parties will seek to promote

research and raise health awareness through specialised conferences, seminars and workshops.

Officials from Sidra Medicine and CMU-Q after the signing of MoU to promote scientific collaboration and research in line with Qatar’s national research priorities.

LEFT: The Minister of Foreign Affairs of Italy, Enzo Moavero Milanesi, received a written message from the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, pertaining to the bilateral relations and ways to boost and develop them. The message was handed over by the Ambassador of Qatar to Italy, Abdulaziz bin Ahmed Al Malki, when Italy’s Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Emanuela Del Re, met him yesterday. CENTRE: H E the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs sent a written message to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, David Zalkaliani, pertaining to bilateral relations and means of advancing them. The message was handed by the Ambassador of Qatar to Georgia, Mubarak bin Nasser Al Khalifa, during his meeting yesterday with the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Georgia, Alexander Khvtisiashvili. RIGHT: The Minister for Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan, Sirodjiddin Muhriddin, received a written message from H E the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs pertaining to bilateral relations and means to boost and develop them. The message was handed over by Ambassador of Qatar to Tajikistan, Ibrahim bin Mohammed Al Abdullah, when Tajikistan’s Foreign Minister met him yesterday.

Deputy PM sends messages to Italy, Georgia and Tajikistan

PPC promotes awareness of population issuesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Permanent Population Committee (PPC) marked World Population Day 2019 which aims at promoting community awareness of population issues, issues of family planning, gender equality, combating poverty and improving maternal health and human rights.

At the ceremony, organised in cooperation with Qatar National Library, Director of the Technical Office of the PPC, Abdul Hadi Al Shawi, said that the celebration was aimed pri-marily at reminding all segments of society of population issues and their importance.

Al Shawi reviewed the role

of the committee in following up the national efforts aimed at accomplishing the population document and its specific measures aimed at controlling the rate of population growth and reducing the imbalance of the country’s population structure and its implications.

He also stressed the role of governmental, non-govern-mental bodies and institutions and their contribution to the effective implementation of the program of work contained in Qatar’s Population Policy Doc-ument 2017-2022.

The ceremony screened a short film about the PPC and its role in following up the said Population Policy Document in terms of its main purpose and

its objective of ensuring a better life for all who live in the country.

The basic goal of Qatar’s population policy is “achieving balance between population growth and sustainable devel-opment requirements, so as to ensure a decent life for the inhabitants of Qatar, enhance their abilities, broaden their options and raise their partici-pation in the progress of the Qatari society.”

Dr Mostafa Kharoufi of the PPC, gave a brief overview of the date of the proclamation of World Population Day issued by the United Nations, pointing out the importance of celebrating this day and its role in recalling pressing population issues.

04 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019HOME

Dreama sheds light on how to inform orphans of their status THE PENINSULA/DOHA

The Orphans Care Center (Dreama) has organised a training workshop for specialists, service and care providers, and foster families entitled ‘Arts of Dealing with Orphans and Shariah Provisions of Orphans’.

The workshop was held within the ‘Family Stability Project’ pre-pared by the centre to help the foster family inform the orphan child of his social status through psychological and educational sound methods, The workshop presented by Nasser Hamad Al Khalidi, psychological and educa-tional counsellor from Kuwait, aimed at educating workers of service providers to fostered

children. The workshop also aimed to train foster families, and support professionals of the orphan child needs and inform him of his social status before and after fostering through gradual psychological methods from childhood to youth.

The five-day course tackled the methodology of dealing with the orphan child from several axes, some of which are: the art of dealing with orphans and their needs, psychological, emotional and behavioural effect on orphans.

The course discussed the concept of alternative family, the conditions and instructions of the foster family, the basic objective of the foster family, the concept of shelter, and the role of the shelter institution.

The officials of Dreama with the participants of the workshop.

Qatari filmmaker to lead DFI screenwriting labTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Doha Film Institute (DFI) will host a creative writing workshop in Arabic, the Screenwriting for Beginners Lab, from August 24 to 28, to be led by Qatari writer and art director Fahad Ahmed Al Kuwari.

The screenwriting lab aims to introduce aspiring filmmakers to the creative process of writing for the screen and focuses on developing dialogue and story-telling techniques in the Arabic language. An English version of the lab will be offered from August 3 to 7.

The aim is for participants to come out of the lab with a minimum of one scene of their screenplay. They can continue to work with DFI’s development team after the lab and work towards applying for other labs or grants. The deadline for appli-cations to the lab is July 20.

Between eight and 12 participants will be selected for each lab, which will cost QR500 per person. To apply please submit applications to: development@dohafilminstitute.com and for more information visit: www.dohafilminstitute.com

Al Kuwari will mentor par-ticipants through a mixture of lectures, assignments, and group discussions. The English session of the lab will be hosted by Pal-estinian screenwriter Dana J. Atrach, Assistant Professor in Residence at Northwestern Uni-versity in Qatar, where she teaches screenwriting.

The lab will complement the existing screenwriting pro-grammes offered by DFI, Hezayah for development of feature screenplays and the Short Scriptwriting Lab and will be an entry point to guide budding cre-atives into the basic principles of storytelling. Fatma Hassan Alre-maihi, Chief Executive Officer of

DFI, said: “Screenplay story structure is probably the most important component in the cre-ation of original and compelling content. Our screenwriting lab for beginners will help partici-pants learn how to tell a story, develop a story concept and write a screenplay, especially in the Arabic language. We are excited that a local filmmaker like Fahad is leading the workshop and will bring in his filmmaking experience in Qatar to mentor the next generation of aspiring writers. This will be a first step for our young emerging talent to learn the skills of devel-oping a good story and creating content that will engage with the audiences.”

Al Kuwari is an award-winning writer and art director who began his career in film-making on the sets of Mira Nair’s The Reluctant Fundamentalist. As an Art Director with DFI he worked on several Qatari Film

Fund short films including Aljohara, Our Time is Running Out, and A Journey to from Love. He also wrote and directed Ruqya and wrote the screenplay for I. He is the joint recipient of a Merit Award from The CIDA Awards for Excellence for devel-oping a production design cur-riculum for the Virginia Com-monwealth University in Qatar, where he is a guest lecturer.

The Screenwriting for Beginners Lab will cover all aspects of writing and be divided into two parts. The first part is focused on the architecture of screenplays and covers the foun-dations of storytelling, screen-writing guidelines, non-verbal storytelling, and characterisation. The second part is focused on formatting scripts, looking at visual grammar and the use of software programmes like Celtx and Final Draft. The lab will follow the same format in both English and Arabic.

Ooredoo launches ONE all-in-one home serviceTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Ooredoo announced yesterday the launch of Ooredoo ONE, its exciting new service providing everything a family could need in the way of connectivity and entertainment at home.

The new Ooredoo ONE com-bines everything customers need in their home to keep the entire family connected and entertained in one single plan that includes home Internet, smart Wi-Fi, landline, and TV.

Customers selecting Ooredoo ONE with home internet speeds of 150 Mbps, 500 Mbps, 1 Gbps and 10 Gbps get access to a premium sports package, movies and series, in addition to Starz Play on-demand channel available for all packs, giving them the best entertainment in town.

Ooredoo ONE provides the fastest Internet speeds and the most extensive fibre internet coverage in Qatar, with smart Wi-Fi provided by Ooredoo ONE Wi-Fi, which easily streams HD films, music, and gaming to more than 50 devices at once. This provides customers with a seamless experience across the entire house with a single Wi-Fi name for everyone.

With the new service, cus-tomers can enjoy the best TV experience with the new Ooredoo tv set-top box, 4K TV, and the best games and apps,

giving them access to best-in-class local, regional and global content with beIN and OSN; pre-mieres, movies, series, kids entertainment, world-class sports and so much more. Plus, customers can enjoy TV on the go with the Ooredoo tv App, which also includes the option of using a smartphone as a remote control.

Whether it’s a small family in an apartment or a big family in a villa, Ooredoo ONE caters for all. Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, Director PR and Cor-porate Communications at Ooredoo, said of the service: “We’re extremely excited to announce the launch of our new Ooredoo ONE service and are delighted to be able to offer eve-rything our customers want and need under one new umbrella, enhancing convenience and delivering on our goal of com-plete customer satisfaction.”

Temporary closure of Al Rayyan Roundabout on 22 February StreetTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) has announced a temporary full road closure of Al Rayyan Roundabout located on 22 February Street and Al Rayyan Road, while keeping the whole bridges and underpass on 22 February street open to traffic. The diversion will be

implemented from today to Saturday for a specific time interval of 11:30pm to 5am on July 18 and from 11:30pm to 11 am on July 19 and 20, 2019, in coordination with the Traffic Police Department. The diversion is required to complete the reinstatement of bitumen surface, Pedestrian and footpath upgrade works in the roundabout.

THE PENINSULA / DOHA

Saleh Al Hamad Al Mana Co., the exclusive agent for Renault in Qatar, has announced a sensa-tional offer on two of its flagship models, the Koleos and the Talisman.

With this offer customers can make big savings when they buy any of these two models. This offer will be available for a limited period only, for just seven days, from July 15 to 21,

2019. Customers are urged to take advantage of this immedi-ately, to enjoy great savings on these two distinctive Renault models. Renault Koleos is a true mix of power and passion. A symphony of style, comfort and advanced technology, the Koleos is charisma personified. Some of its captivating attributes include Powerful, muscular exterior lines, all-terrain ability thanks to ground clearance of 210mm.

Big offer on Renault for 7 days

Al-Ahli Hospital highlights importance of hand hygiene THE PENINSULA DOHA

Al-Ahli Hospital held several events for the staff, physicians and patients about the impor-tance of clean hands and it coin-cides with the International Hand Hygiene Day.

One of the activities involves glo-germ that is a neon gel to apply on hands before washing.

“Hand hygiene is one of the most important things we can do in health care to prevent illness,” said a hospital infection disease specialist, Dr. Mohammad El Ahmadi. He is also the Director

of Pathology &Laboratory Med-icine Department at Al-Ahli Hos-pital. “And hand washing is the easiest thing we can do.”

Snehalata Syed, Infection Control Coordinator at Al-Ahli Hospital, said: “That each year the hand hygiene campaign aims to progress the goal of impor-tance of hand hygiene in Al-Ahli Hospital and to bring the health care workers and patient together in support of hand hygiene that reduces the risk of health care associated infection.”

“The theme of WHO world hand hygiene day for this year is ‘Clean Care For All, it’s in your

hands,” she added. Poor hand hygiene leads to germs trans-mission including of those resistance to antibiotics this can put patients in to risk of poten-tially fatal Health care associated infection. “With the support of the management and the infection control specialists Al-Ahli Hospital marked the hand hygiene day by visiting every unit of the hospital. They demonstrated the importance of hand hygiene. Everyone was reminded of the five moments of hand hygiene and causes of antibiotics resistance and its combat,” said Snehalata.

The officials of Al-Ahli Hospital during an activity highlighting the importance of clean hands in view of the International Hand Hygiene Day.

The new Ooredoo ONE combines everything customers need in their home to keep the entire family connected and entertained in one single plan that includes home Internet, smart Wi-Fi, landline, and TV.

The chic German city of Hamburg continues to be a magnet for Qatari travellers this summer season as it boasts new and varied attractions that appeal to the entire family.

“Hamburg is known for its exclusive maritime flair, being an elegant harbour city in Northern Germany. Here, Qatari travellers enjoy the beautiful nature, outdoor activities together with new interactive and digital experiences that are popular among Qatari families and couples alike,” Sigrid de Mazieres, Director German National Tourist Office for Gulf countries, told The Peninsula.

“This Hanseatic city provides superb hotels, where local tra-ditions and customs are being accommodated to Qatari trav-ellers. We are proud to say: Hamburg is the greenest metro-politan area in Europe and is one of the top ten travel destinations in Europe,” added de Mazieres.

The Gulf region has always

been a very important source market to Germany, she said.

“The GCC market is Ger-many’s third-largest non-European source market behind China and the US. GCC travellers stay an average of 11 nights and spend on average $5,300 per person per trip, significantly more than other international travellers,” noted de Mazieres.

Latest figures have shown increase in the number of vis-itors from the Gulf region.

“In the year 2018, the city of Hamburg witnessed an increase of 11% reaching 82,520 overnight stays by GCC nationals. From January to April 2019, GCC trav-ellers reached 15,717 overnight stays in Hamburg with an increase of 3.4%. It was observed that 40% of all the overnight

stays by GCC nationals in Hamburg are generated during the months of July and August,” she said. She added that in 2009 overnight stays in Germany by GCC nationals, amounted to 770,000. By 2018 the number of overnight stays had increased to 1.8 million, which demonstrates that the annual number of over-night stays has grown by 130%

over the past decade. Among the new attractions

in Germany’s second biggest city are Discovery Dock with high-tech VR technology, Big Break Hamburg featuring an escape room, the soon-to-be launched Märchenwelten with time travel mystery games, the chocolate-making museum Chocoversum and Miniatur Wunderland,

offering the world’s biggest model railway.

For shopping lovers, Hamburg is the perfect desti-nation to enjoy outstanding shopping facilities and boutiques in the city centre offering a wide range of brands.

To further explore the sur-roundings of Hamburg, among the highly recommended areas are the unique and ancient land-scape of ‘Lüneburg Heath’ and the quaint city of Lübeck.

Families and adrenaline enthusiasts can choose their favourite entertainment park out of ‘Heide-Park’ in Soltau or ‘Hansa-Park’ at the Baltic Coast in Sierksdorf — both offering a great day excursion for the entire family within an easy reach of Hamburg city.

“Whether boat trips on the inner city lake Alster or river Elbe, city tours or visits to the traditional Hagenbeck zoo and the Miniatur Wunderland — the world’s largest railway model: Hamburg is the ideal desti-nation for families,” said de Mazieres.

05WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019 HOME

Hamburg top destination for Qatari travellersRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

The Miniatur Wunderland attraction in Hamburg, Germany, offers world’s biggest model railway.

MG Motor becomes Global Partner of Liverpool FCTHE PENINSULA DOHA

MG Motor has signed a contract with Liverpool FC that sees the British-born automotive brand become the world-famous football club’s official global partner.

As a brand that appeals to young, sporty and passionate individuals, this high-profile partnership will further boost MG’s popularity in the global market and extend its status internationally.

MG’s relationship with Liv-erpool FC started in 2016, when the brand became its official partner in China. After more than three years of cooperation, MG has engaged with huge audi-ences of fans across the world.

For more than 130 years, Liverpool FC has been one of the most successful football clubs in the world, and in June this year won the 2019 Champions League, the sixth time the club has lifted Europe’s premier trophy.

Similarly, MG is a British-born brand with a strong legacy and impressive sporting her-itage. It has achieved 43 world speed records, and continues to innovate to deliver the best performance.

Through their cooperation, a range of benefits is offered to fans of both brands, including LFC VIP experiences to watch the team training, LFC signed merchandise, match viewing parties and much more.

MG’s total global sales for

the first half year exceeded 120,000 units, with a YOY gross rate of 3.8% as MG’s global awareness continues to increase.

Tom Lee, Managing Director for SAIC Motor Middle East, parent company of MG Motor, commented: “Football is a natural territory for MG Motor. With our roots firmly placed in Great Britain — the birthplace of the sport — we share many synergies with Liverpool Football Club. As well as shared values, MG Motor and Liverpool FC also have long and illustrious histories and are both icons within their fields.”

He added that this global partnership extends beyond the UK to all corners of the Middle East.

Officials of MG Motor and Liverpool FC pose for a group picture after signing the partnership agreement.

Lulu Hypermarket launches green checkouts to promote re-usable bagsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

LuLu Hypermarket Qatar has been regularly promoting Green Checkout to raise awareness on the necessity of caring about the nature and to promote the benefits of using re-usable bags in commemoration of Interna-tional Plastic Bag Free Day, which is celebrated on July 3 every year.

The initiative was part of the retailer’s corporate social responsibility to raise awareness of the environmental benefits of reducing the use of plastic bags.

LuLu Hypermarket has launched its campaign ‘I Choose

to Reuse’ for reducing the plastic bags. The awareness initiative will feature a ‘green checkout’ programme at LuLu’s cash counters that promotes the use of eco-friendly bags.

An official spokesman said: “This great initiative is one key to provide a cleaner envi-ronment and promote sus-tainable development through simple and little ways with a substantial impact”.

LuLu has chosen optimal solutions to teach shoppers about choosing less harmful options for the world we live in. It is not just about shopping, but shopping smartly through reducing waste. With this

campaign, LuLu endeavoured to put in place an all-inclusive approach by involving its retail partners, staff, and the entire cli-entele for sustainable environ-mental practices. LuLu stores have been the first retail in the region to introduce and to switch over in to Oxo-biodegradable bag — a type of plastic bag that degrades much faster than the usual plastic bag. Normal plastic bags take considerable amount of time to biodegrade. Compli-mentary reusable bags were dis-tributed free among customers for one day i.e. on 3rd July, 2019 as part of commemoration of the International Plastic Bag Free Day celebrations.

A Lulu Hypermarket Qatar cash counter promoting re-usable and eco-friendly shopping bags.

Texas A&M at Qatar’s faculty elected Fellow of ACSTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Dr Hassan S Bazzi (pictured), Associate Dean for Research at Texas A&M University at Qatar, has been elected a Fellow of the American Chemical Society (ACS) in recognition of his outstanding achievements in chemistry and contributions to science, the profession and the society.

This is the second fellowship for Bazzi (pictured) who was named Fellow of the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC) in December 2018.

Bazzi is one of 70 interna-tional chemists selected this year to the prestigious Fellows program, and he is the only one from outside the US.

Bazzi will be honoured along with his Fellow Class of 2019 inductees with a lapel pin and certificate during an August 26

ceremony and reception in con-junction with the society’s 258th National Meeting and Exposition in San Diego, USA.

In the award citation pub-lished in the ACS Chemical & Engineering News, Bazzi was recognised for “his leadership in Science and Engineering pro-grammes in Qatar, for organ-ising and chairing multiple international chemistry confer-ences in Qatar since 2004, and for his teaching and research successes.”

Qatar Diabetes Association holds Al Bawasil health club for children with diabetesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Diabetes Association, a member of Qatar Foundation, organised the Annual Summer Al Bawasil programme recently at its premises in Al Muntazah.

Al Bawasil Health Club is an annual programme of recrea-tional and educational activities organised by the Association for children diagnosed with dia-betes from the age of six years to eleven years during the summer.

The programme gives the children with diabetes a full day in a safe environment to have much fun and relate to each other while learning about their diabetes.

The programme included several ice breaker activities for the children to interact with their

peers. They also participated in the Insulin Injection Sites workshop, the ceramic colouring workshop, the (Little Chef)

session where the children pre-pared healthy snacks by them-selves under the supervision of QDA dieticians.

Dr Abdullah Al Hamaq, Exec-utive Director of the Qatar Dia-betes Association, said, “Our approach is to learn by playing to reviewing and correcting chil-dren’s information like children’s response to learning is usually great in fun and enjoyable atmosphere.

“We also have introduced the children to (The International Al bawasil camp for children with diabetes) for a smooth transition and to gain their confidence and encourage them to join the camp, which is organised annually by the association during January and requires the children to stay away from home for a week.”

The children interacted vig-orously during the programme, enjoyed the wonderful time with their peers and enjoyed the healthy meals, certificates and the gifts presented to them.

Children taking part in Al Bawasil Health Club programme.

Vodafone Qatar launches offer for GigaHome 5GTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

Vodafone Qatar has launched a limited time offer that allows customers to be among the first in the world to connect their homes to 5G. Under the offer, customers can now GigaPower their homes for free with Vodafone GigaHome 5G.

Now a new customers who subscribe to the GigaHome 5G Classic plan will get high speed 5G Internet at home with two months free rental valued at QR700. Customers will also receive a free 5G router plus two free Giga Wifi Hubs that enable Wi-Fi coverage in every room, Alongside this, customers will enjoy free lifestyle offers including ‘Vodafone Enter-tainer’ and WAVO by OSN - that provides great family enter-tainment with an array of live channels from around the world, award-winning TV shows and on-demand movies.

Vodafone Qatar has been leading the deployment of 5G in the country.

An official said the GCC market is Germany’s third-largest non-European source market behind China and the US.

06 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

10 Turkish sailors abducted by pirates off Nigeria coastANATOLIA LAGOS, NIGERIA

At least 10 Turkish sailors trav-elling aboard Paksoy-1 have been abducted off Nigerian waters, an official said.

“We got information that 10 sailors were abducted from Paksoy-1 as it headed towards Brass in Rivers State,” said the official, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on speaking to the media.

The official said the ship is operated by Kadioglu Maritime and had 18 crew members on board at the time it was attacked by pirates suspected to be from Nigeria’s volatile delta region.

A statement from Kadioglu Maritime said the ship was sailing without freight from Cameroon’s port city of Douala to Abidjan in Ivory Coast when it was boarded in the Gulf of Guinea.

The statement said the 8,900 dead weight-ton ship’s communication and navigation equipment were damaged in the

process. “No injuries or loss of lives occurred according to initial information. Our efforts continue for the safe and sound release of all of our personnel,” according to the statement.

Meanwhile, Turkey’s Foreign Ministry yesterday said initiatives were being taken to release 10 Turkish sailors who had been abducted off Nigeria. “The ship which the pirates left has been taken to Tema Harbor (Ghana), and the necessary initiatives are taken with Nigerian and Ghanaian authorities for the release of our abducted citizens,” the ministry said in a statement.

It recalled that a Turkish-flagged ship bound to Abidjan city of the Ivory Coast from the Port of Douala in Cameroon was attacked by pirates on Saturday evening off Nigeria.

“As a result of the attack, some of the crew members, who are Turkish nationals, have been abducted by the pirates,” the ministry added.

Civil defence crew members carry an injured person away from the scene after air strikes by Syria regime hit the de-escalation zone of Maar Shurin village in Idlib, Syria, yesterday.

11 civilians dead in Syria regime strikesAFP MAAR SHUREEN, SYRIA

Regime air strikes yesterday killed 11 civilians in opposition-held northwest Syria, the target of months of bombardment by the government and its ally Russia, a war monitor said.

Three children were among 10 civilians killed in the village

of Maar Shureen in the south of Idlib province, said the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.

An AFP photographer said the strike hit near a mosque in the centre of the village, destroying vegetable stalls and shops. Another man was killed in regime air strikes on the northern countryside of nearby

Hama province, according to the Britain-based Observatory, which relies on a network of sources inside Syria.

Russian and Syrian regime aircraft have ramped up strikes on Idlib since late April, kill ing more than 600 civilians, while 52 others have died from rebel fire, according to the monitor.

Khamenei says Iran to keep rolling back nuclear commitmentsAFP TEHRAN

Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said yesterday that his country will keep rolling back its commitments under the landmark 2015 nuclear deal.

“You did not carry out a single one (of your commit-ments), why do you want us to stick to our commitments?” Khamenei said, criticising European countries which are party to the deal.

“We have just started to decrease our commitments (in the deal) and this process will certainly continue,” he said in a speech in Tehran partly aired on state television.

Iran-US tensions have soared since last year when President Donald Trump withdrew the United States from the hard-won 2015 nuclear deal and reimposed sanctions on Tehran.

Angered that its beleaguered economy is not receiving sanc-tions relief it believes was promised under the deal, Iran has intensified its sensitive

uranium enrichment work.European parties to the deal

have called on Iran to return to its commitments under the deal.

On Sunday, President Hassan Rouhani said Iran had changed its strategy from one of “patience to that of retaliation”.

“If they decrease then we too shall decrease our commitments (in the deal)... If they fully implement their commitments than we too shall fully implement ours,” he said, quoted by the gov-ernment website dolat.ir.

Tensions have since soared, with the US calling off air strikes against Iran at the last minute after Tehran downed an American drone, and Wash-ington blaming Tehran for a series of attacks on tanker ships.

On July 4, British forces helped Gibraltar authorities detain an Iranian tanker which US officials said had been trying to deliver oil to Syria in violation of separate sets of EU and US sanctions — claims denied by Iran.

In his speech yesterday, Khamenei vowed to retaliate against the British for the ship’s

seizure.“The vicious British... have

committed piracy and stolen our ship... God willing the Islamic republic will not leave these vicious acts unanswered,” he said.

Meanwhile, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif warned that the United States is “playing with fire,” echoing remarks by President Donald Trump.

“I think the United States is playing with fire,” Zarif told NBC News.

Iran announced last week that it had enriched uranium past the 3.67 percent limit set by the nuclear deal, and has also sur-passed the 300-kg cap on enriched uranium reserves.

But “it can be reversed within hours,” Zarif told the channel, adding: “We are not about to develop nuclear weapons. Had we wanted to develop nuclear weapons, we would have been able to do it (a) long time ago.” Zarif’s comments came as the United States imposed unusually harsh restric-tions on his movements during

a visit to the United Nations.Weeks after the United States

threatened sanctions against Zarif, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said that Washington issued him a visa but forbade him from moving beyond six blocks of Iran’s UN mission in Midtown Manhattan.

“US diplomats don’t roam around Tehran, so we don’t see any reason for Iranian diplomats to roam freely around New York City, either,” Pompeo told The Washington Post.

No US diplomats are based in Iran as the two countries broke off relations in the aftermath of the 1979 Islamic revolution that toppled the Western-backed shah.

“Foreign Minister Zarif, he uses the freedoms of the United States to come here and spread malign propaganda,” the top US diplomat said.

UN spokesman Farhan Haq told reporters that the UN Sec-retariat was in contact with the US and Iranian missions about Zarif’s travel restrictions and “has conveyed its concerns to the host country.”

Palestinian detainee dies in Israeli prisonANATOLIA RAMALLAH, PALESTINE

A Palestinian detainee held in Israel died yesterday due to medical negligence, according to a local NGO.

“Nassar Taqatqa, 31, died in the Israeli prison of Nitzan after he was held in solitary con-finement,” the Palestinian Prisoner Society said in a statement.

Taqatqa was detained a month ago in an Israeli raid on his family home in the town of Beit Fajjar near the West Bank city of Bethlehem.

According to the NGO, Taqatqa was being interrogated when he was declared dead.

The cause of his death remains unclear.

According to his family, Taqatqa did not suffer any medical or health problems.

The detainee’s demise has drawn fire from the Palestinian Foreign Ministry, which demanded an investigation by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) into the death.

UK’s Hammond presses Saudis to deal with sports rights theftBLOOMBERG LONODN

UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond urged senior Saudi officials to crack down on the theft of valuable sports r ights, according to a person familiar with the situation.

During a trip to the Gulf state earlier this month, Hammond and his entourage referred repeatedly to illegal broadcasts of UK events that hold global appeal such as Wimbledon tennis and Premier League soccer, said the person, who asked not to be identified as the meetings were confidential.

BeoutQ is a satellite-TV broadcaster and streaming service that global sports bodies say is tapping illegally into coverage of their top events and selling it on to viewers across the Middle East.

BeIN Media, a broadcaster based in Qatar, holds many of the rights to sports that are

shown by BeoutQ. It sees the operation as a deliberate attempt to sabotage its business and has threatened to withdraw from some top competitions unless more is done to stop it.

Sports rights owners have called on the British gov-ernment to help them get BeoutQ shut down.

On Sunday the All England Lawn Tennis Club, which puts on the Wimbledon champi-onship, said it would make “the strongest representations” to the government to put pressure on Saudi Arabian authorities to immediately close BeoutQ following its “illegal exploitation of world sport.”

Premier League Culture Secretary Jeremy Wright told

the head of a committee of British lawmakers in May that the government was discussing the issue of BeoutQ’s “illegal” broadcasts of Premier League games with the Saudis via dip-lomatic channels.

“It is important the Saudi Arabian government upholds commitments undertaken through the World Trade Organisation’s agreement on trade-related aspects of intel-lectual property rights and in the EU-Gulf co-operation agreement,” Wright wrote in a letter to the committee’s chairman, Damian Collins.

A spokesman for the UK Treasury declined to comment on any specific meeting involving Hammond but said the government has repeatedly raised the issue with Saudi Arabia.

BeIN Media lodged an international investment arbi-tration case seeking $1bn in damages last October, con-tending that illegal re-broad-casts of its content have driven it out of the Saudi market.

Sports rights owners have called on the British government to help them get BeoutQ shut down.

Rights group says civilians pay human cost of Yemen’s warAP PARIS

A Yemeni human rights group says civilians are paying the human cost of the country’s five-year war.

In a report released yes-terday in Paris, Mwatana for Human Rights says humani-tarian aid has been blocked at a time of impending famine and civilians can no longer move around the country freely or leave. The group documented 74 cases of obstructing aid or

access, largely blaming Iran-backed rebels known as Houthis.

The report was based on more than 2,000 interviews with Yemenis. The group doc-umented 52 cases of land mines wounding civilians and 150 coalition air strikes, together killing at least 435 people.

A Saudi-led coalition allied with Yemen’s government has been at war with the Houthis since 2015. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people.

Martin Griffiths (centre), UN Special Envoy for Yemen, arrives at Sana’a international airport yesterday.

07WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019 ASIA

Floods: 25 dead and over2.5 million hit in Bihar; Assam situation worsensAGENCIES PATNA/GUWAHATI

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar yesterday confirmed 25 deaths due to flood in Bihar. The situation continues to remain grim with over 2.5 million people affected, officials said.

Nitish Kumar had carried out an aerial survey of the flood-affected Seemanchal and Koshi regions on Sunday and Monday. He told the Assembly yesterday that relief and rescue operations were underway.

“More relief camps would be set up if needed,” he said during the ongoing Monsoon session.

A total of 26 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) have been deployed in the 12 flood-hit districts of the state. At least 1,25,000 people have been moved to safer areas, the Chief Minister told the House.

Nitish Kumar said other than the 199 relief camps that had been set up, some 676 com-munity kitchens were providing food to the people residing at these camps and elsewhere.

The Chief Minister also informed that the flood had damaged 335 rural roads and some small bridges, and added that he had directed officials to arrange fodder for the cattle as well as compensation for loss of

crops and animals.In the state, which was

swamped by waters flowing down from neighbouring Nepal, some 100,000 people are living in relief camps but evacuation operations were being wound down, a state official said.

“The water level is receding in many parts,” Pratyaya Amrit, Principal Secretary of Bihar’s dis-aster management department said.

“Overall, the situation is under control.”

Since Monday, all the major rivers in Bihar have been flowing above the danger mark, leading to embankment breaches. There were also reports of fresh floods in three new districts of Saharsa, Katihar and Purnea.

Dozens of villages have been

inundated, forcing people flee their homes and seek shelter at safer places, a disaster man-agement official said. In the worst-hit Sitamarhi and Araria districts, roads have also been damaged.

The flood were caused by heavy rain in north Bihar and the catchment areas of major rivers in neighbouring Nepal.

However, Water Resources Department officials said the water level in rivers originating in Nepal was likely to decrease as rain in those areas had stopped.

Meanwhile, three people were killed as monsoon rains continued to lash Uttarakhand with full ferocity, blocking highways and triggering land-slides at number of places.

The Met Department has issued warning of heavy rains at number of places in various dis-tricts in the next 24 hours.

Three persons, including two youths, were killed when a jeep fell into a river at Madkot area of Pithoragarh district amidst heavy rains there on Monday night, police said.

The national highways leading to Badrinath and Gan-gotri were blocked as landslides blocked these roads. However, most of these have been cleared, police said.

The Gangotri highway was blocked at Badeti area in

Uttarkashi district due to which the traffic was being diverted from the alternate road.

Heavy rains also lashed several towns cities including Dehradun and Mussoorie, dis-rupting normal life.

Floods in northeast region worsened yesterday with incessant rain swelling already raging rivers, inundating villages and a rhinoceros sanctuary as 1,000 soldiers were deployed to rescue people fleeing the rising waters.

Assam state was still battling the monsoon, a four-month-long season that is responsible for most of the region’s annual rainfall, with 4.5 million people driven from their homes due to flooding, authorities said.

“This is one of the worst floodings in recent memory,” Assam’s Water Resources Min-ister Keshab Mahanta said.

Water levels in major rivers, including the Brahmaputra that flows down from the Himalayas through Assam and into Bang-ladesh, rose overnight, and an additional 200,000 people dis-placed, Mahanta said.

Traffic on the main road that runs the length of tea-growing Assam has also been disrupted, and rail links with some neigh-bouring states have been severed by flooding.

The state government said in a report late on Monday that 30 school buildings and 12 child-care centres had been sub-merged, and thousands of hec-tares of crops hit by the waters.

All except one of Assam’s 31 districts have been hit by flooding, with satellite imagery from the Indian Space Research Organisation showing vast swathes of the state inundated.

India’s weather office said

the intensity of rainfall over northeast, including Assam, was likely to ease over the next four to five days.

The Kaziranga National Park, home of the endangered one-horned rhino, was almost entirely under water, the state government said, forcing animals to seek shelter on higher ground, i n c l u d i n g i n h u m a n settlements.

“The animals are having a tough time with large number of rhinos, deer, elephants, trapped,” state legislator Mrinal Saikia told Reuters.

The national park is bound to the north by the Brahmaputra river and has highland areas in its south.

In 2017, an estimated 361 animals, including 31 rhinos and one tiger, drowned during two bouts of flooding, according to government data.

Villagers travel on a boat in the flood-affected Jhargaon village in Morigaon district of Assam.

Toll system to continue, says Gadkari in Lok SabhaIANS NEW DELHI

Maintaining that people need to pay if they want good services, Road Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari yesterday said in the Lok Sabha that toll system would continue to mop up funds for building roads in the country.

“If you want good services, you have to pay for it. Gov-ernment does not have money...,” Gadkari said while replying to the members on the demands for grants of his Ministry.

After his reply, the Lower House passed the demands for Grants of Road Transport and Highways Ministry for 2019-20 by voice vote.

During his reply, the Min-ister said that Road Transport and Highways Ministry had built over 40,000km highways in the last five years which is 60 percent more than the pre-vious five years.

He also said that the Min-istry would soon implement a policy to ensure 100 percent electronic tolling on all national highways.

Gadkari also informed the House that 786 black spots have been identified which are accident-prone and the Min-istry has taken corrective measures to rectify 300 such spots.

Underscoring the role of good highways in the country, Gadkari quoted the late former US President John F Kennedy.

“American roads are not good because America is rich. America is rich because of American roads,” he quoted Kennedy.

The Minister said India has become a manufacturing hub for automobile sector and could become one of the top manu-facturers of electric vehicles. The subsidy provided for pro-motion of electric vehicles would help the country grow faster in the adoption of green vehicles.

Karnataka: SC reserves order on rebel MLAs’ pleaIANS NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court has reserved till today its order on petitions filed by 15 rebel MLAs of the Congress and JD-S in Karnataka seeking directions to the Assembly Speaker to accept their resig-nations.

During the day-long arguments on Tuesday, the parties involved pointed out to a bench, headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi, the implications of the ongoing political crisis in Karnataka on the state as well as elsewhere, and also questioned the apex court’s jurisdiction power to entertain the rebel MLAs’ petition.

Hearing rebel MLAs counsel senior advocate Mukul Rohatgi, the bench said: “We cannot say, in which way, the Speaker should decide the resignation or disqualification of MLAs. We cannot fetter him. Although, the important question is, is there any constitutional obligation for the Speaker to decide upon the resigna-tions before the disqualification of the MLA or to club his decisions on both?”

The bench asked counsel Abhishek Manu Singhvi what stopped Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar from deciding on whether to accept or reject the resigna-tions tendered by the MLAs on July 6.

“You were silent on the resignations till the MLAs came to the Supreme Court. Why? If you have decided on the resig-nations, then where is the scope for dis-qualification?” the Chief Justice asked Singvhi. Singhvi replied that the Speaker

had filed an affidavit in the apex court explaining what had happened.

Asked why wasn’t a decision taken when the MLAs went to the Speaker with their resignations, Singhvi said it was a written communication, and the Speaker was not available on that day. “But the decision was communicated to him on July 6,” the court added.

Singhvi argued that the first con-dition of a genuine resignation tendered by an MLA was that “he has to be per-sonally present before the Speaker” and added that the MLAs first met the Speaker on July 11.

Reacting sharply to the argument, the court said that the provision did not negate resigning by letter, but if the MLAs did make a personal visit to the Speaker then he was expected to decide on their resignations immediately. “Why didn’t it happen on July 11?” the bench further queried.

Asking if the Speaker was challenging the Supreme Court’s jurisdiction power, the Chief Justice said: “For your benefit, the court had ordered a floor test (referring to the last year’s floor test) and appointed a Protem Speaker in a midnight hearing. The exercise of jurisdiction of our power depends only on self-restraint.”

Singhvi said the Speaker was in no way questioning the court’s jurisdiction and added: “Suppose a Speaker goes crazy, then Your Lordships can intervene.” The Chief Justice also heard senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, who was representing Karnataka Chief Minister H D Kumar-aswamy, and questioned the veracity of the petition filed by the rebel MLAs.

Three women among 7 dead in Mumbai building collapseIANS MUMBAI

At least seven people, including three women, were killed as an old, four-storied residential building collapsed in south Mumbai while eight injured persons were rescued from the debris, BMC Disaster Control officials said here.

Another dozen odd families are still believed trapped under the rubble of the Kesarbai Building in the Dongri area.

Those killed have been identified as Sabiya Nissar Shaikh, 25, Saira Rehan Shaikh, 25, K Amirajan, 13, Abdul Sattar

Kaloo Shaikh, 55, Muzammil Mansoor Salmani, 15, Javed Ismail, 34, and Arhan Shehzad, 4 0 , s a i d a p o l i c e spokesperson.

Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis ordered a probe into the building crash and assured strict action against those found guilty.

Opposition leaders like Vijay Wadettiwar, Prithviraj Chavan, Ashok Chavan (Con-gress), Dhananjay Munde, Majeed Memon, and Nawab Malik (Nationalist Congress Party), and Abu Asim Azmi (Samajwadi Party) lashed out at the government for lapses

leading to the tragedy.They unitedly demanded a

detailed investigation into the causes leading to the accident, identifying the culprits and booking them under charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder.

Meanwhile, an RTI activist said that the name of the dilap-idated structure, is mysteri-ously omitted from a compre-hensive list of 499 “dangerous” buildings prepared by the Bri-hanMumbai Municipal Corpo-ration (BMC).

“The BMC, as per the direc-tions of the Bombay High Court, had compiled the list of the

dilapidated buildings, which we secured through a RTI reply. Shockingly, Kesarbai Building’s name is not mentioned any-where in the list,” Shakeel Ahmed Sheikh said.

Later last evening, the Maharashtra Housing and Area Development Authority’s (MHADA) chief spokesperson Vaishali Gadpale cleared the air on the building’s status.

In a statement, she said that the main dilapidated structure, Kesarbai Building 25/C was completely evacuated by the MHADA last year and the building which collapsed yes-terday “was the illegal rear

portion of this building which is not within the purview of the Mumbai Building Repair & Reconstruction Board”.

Earlier in the day, MBRRB Chairman Vinod Ghosalkar had said that the dilapidated structure, believed to be over 80 years old, had been handed over for redevelopment to B.S.B. Developers, which has not yet started the work.

“This is a serious matter and we shall investigate why the redevelopment work was not initiated, what caused the delays and take appropriate action against those respon-sible,” Ghosalkar said.

A total of 26 teams of the National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force have been deployed in the 12 flood-hit districts of Bihar. At least 1,25,000 people have been moved to safer areas, the Chief Minister told the House.

AFP

08 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019VIEWS

Last week, mostly lost amid the deafening din of President Donald Trump’s serial outrages, the House of Representatives

finally began asserting common sense and the congressional prerogative over war and peace. By passing a series of amendments to the must-pass National Defense Authorization Act, it has started to take action against the United States’ increasingly unpopular endless wars.

The House voted 251-170, with 27 Republicans joining all but seven Dem-ocrats, to prohibit any military strike against Iran without explicit congres-sional approval. As Rep. Ro Khanna of California, the Democratic leader in the effort, put it, the vote was a “clear statement from members of Congress on both sides of the aisle that this country is tired of endless wars, that we do not want another war in the Middle East.” A right-left coalition pushed for the measure, including both the con-servative Concerned Veterans of America and VoteVets, a liberal political action group. Progressive groups such as Indivisible and MoveOn were joined by right-wing groups such as Freedom-Works, the tea party advocacy group.

The House also voted to end funding for the Saudi-led savaging of Yemen, a conflict that has created the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.

A majority voted to phase out the post-9/11 Authorization for Use of Mil-itary Force that has been misused by presidents of both parties to justify mil-itary attacks on dozens of countries. And the bill also restored the right of transgender people to serve in the military, blocked

funding for Trump’s proposed tactical nuclear weapon and prohibited use of the funds to build Trump’s wall.

It wasn’t all victories. Sadly, an amendment offered by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and others to prohibit the use of military force at the border was voted down. While the Republican Senate voted to give Trump the entire $750bn he requested for the Pentagon, the Democratic House sup-ported a still-bloated authorization of $733bn (up from $717bn this year). Neither chamber voted to withdraw troops from Afghanistan or Syria.

But the successful amendments are beginning steps toward reasserting con-gressional power over questions of war and peace. A conference committee

with members from both houses of Congress will now wrestle with recon-ciling the House bill with that of the Senate that contained none of the restrictions.

A true reckoning with the United States’ failed national security policy is long overdue. While Trump’s impulsive machinations are perilous, so, too, is a bipartisan establishment consensus that remains in place despite its evident bankruptcy. The misadventures in the Middle East and the global financial col-lapse laid bare the failures of the estab-lishment. Only now do we see the first stirrings of a challenge to that entrenched consensus.

Trump might have campaigned on ending the “stupid wars,” but in office, he has broken that promise. Military operations in Afghanistan continue, as does US involvement in Yemen’s civil war. Drone attacks in several nations have escalated. The president’s tweet that the troops would come home from Syria was reversed overnight. Now his advisers - particularly the bellicose John Bolton - seem intent on sparking conflict with Iran. Efforts to end this folly have been led by pro-gressives - particularly Khanna and Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. - and now support on both sides of the aisle has been growing.

That transpartisan revolt will gain new clout with the creation of the Quincy Institute for Responsible State-craft, an “action think tank” which will launch this fall with seed donations from the liberal George Soros and the conservative Charles Koch. That unlikely pairing is jarring and has already been attacked by voices left, right and center, but the recent trans-partisan progress in criminal-justice reform demonstrates its potential.

A co-founder of the institute is con-servative Andrew Bacevich, one of the country’s most compelling conservative realists. With other co-founders including progressive realists Trita Parsi and Stephen Wertheim, it is purpose-fully reaching across partisan lines. The institute’s mission is to provide a think tank with a focus on ending endless wars, democratizing the formulation of foreign policy and moving US policy toward greater realism and restraint, particularly in the Middle East and East Asia. Its focus gives it the potential to put together broader alliances and new connections with progressives and con-servatives. The institute will be a vital

complement to the increasingly active citizens lobby against the failed estab-lishment foreign policy consensus, now spearheaded by groups such as Win Without War, Just Foreign Policy and others.

This push will find a receptive public. A recent Pew Research Center poll showed that broad majorities of Americans and even veterans do not believe the wars in the Middle East were worth fighting. That applies to Iraq, a country that 64 percent of veterans and 62 percent of all adults oppose fighting in, to Afghanistan (58 percent of vet-erans and 59 percent of all adults) and Syria (55 percent of veterans and 58 percent of all adults). Skepticism about new conflicts - such as going into Iran - is even deeper.

The 2020 presidential contenders are getting the message. Sanders has made his opposition to the endless wars a centerpiece of his campaign while leading the fight in Congress. In major foreign policy addresses, Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Mayor Pete Buttigieg of South Bend, Indiana, have echoed that call, as has former vice president Joe Biden, who, in an otherwise lackluster speech, pledged to end the “forever wars,” promising to bring home “the vast majority of ourtroops” from Afghanistan and the Middle East and to end support for the Saudi assault on Yemen. With cata-strophic climate change emerging as the greatest threat to our national security, the folly of wasting resources and attention on endless wars will be more and more self-evident.

In the bitterly partisan Washington divide, the effort to curb presidential war-making and to end the wars in the Middle East is one of the few areas where a right-left coalition could jell. Real change won’t happen right away. Reconciliation of the House and Senate bills is yet to begin. Trump continues to threaten a veto if the bill doesn’t give him the money he wants or restricts its use to build his wall. The administra-tion’s escalating pressure on Iran could easily trigger conflict. But the American people have turned against wars without end and without victory. Pro-gressives inside and outside the House are reaching out across party lines to mobilize opposition. That challenge can only grow.

Katrina Vanden Heuvel, editor and publisher of the Nation magazine, writes a weekly column for The Post.

KATRINA VANDEN HEUVEL THE WASHINGTON POST

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The task ahead of us humbles me. It’s a big responsibility and my

work starts now

Ursula von der LeyenNewly elected

EuropeanCommission President

More than 821 million people suffered from hunger

worldwide last year, the United Nations reported — the third year in a row that the number has risen. After decades of decline, malnu-trition began to increase in 2015, mainly because of climate change and war. Reversing the trend is one of the 2030 targets of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals which aim to improve the planet and its people.

But getting to a world where no one is suffering from hunger by then remains an “immense challenge,” the report said, noting the number of people without

enough to eat had risen from 811 million in 2017.

“We will not achieve zero hunger by 2030,” said David Beasley, head of the World Food Programme, one of the UN agencies contributing to the report. “That’s a bad trend. Without food security we will never have peace and stability,” said Beasley, deploring that the media carry more talk about Brexit and Donald Trump than children dying of hunger.

He warned that extremist groups were using hunger and control over food sup-plies as a weapon to divide communities or recruit new members. “The State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World” report was produced by the UN Food and Agri-culture Organization (FAO)

and other United Nations agencies including the WHO.

“To safeguard food security and nutrition, it is critical to already have in place economic and social policies to counteract the effects of adverse economic cycles when they arrive, while avoiding cuts in essential services, such as healthcare and education, at all costs,” it said.

A “structural transfor-mation” was needed to include the poorest people in the world, the authors said. This would require “integrating food security and nutrition concerns into poverty reduction efforts” while tackling gender inequality and the exclusion of certain social groups, they said.

Malnutrition remains

widespread in Africa, where around 20 percent of the pop-ulation is affected, and in Asia where more than 12 percent of people experience it. In Latin America and the Caribbean, fewer than seven percent of people are affected.

Adding those hit by food insecurity gives a total of more than two billion people, eight percent of whom are in North America and Europe, who don’t regularly have access to enough nutritious, safe food, the report said.

The FAO said current efforts were insufficient to meet the goal of halving the number of children whose growth is stunted by malnu-trition by 2030. Around 149 million of the world’s children currently suffer from hunger-related growth delays.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI

osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Eco-friendly transport system

QQatar made a major push toward making the country more environment-friendly when recently the Minister of Transport and Communications

H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti announced that between 20 and 25 percent of Qatar’s transport system will be envi-ronment-friendly before the start of the FIFA World Cup 2022.

Environment has always been a priority for Qatar. The State has been very keen in cutting down its car-bon footprint by turning its industries into eco-friendly ones and launching projects for reducing pollution caused by vehicle emission. Last year, the Ministry of Transport and Communications (MOTC) in collabora-tion with Qatar General Electricity & Water Corporation (Kahramaa), Mowasalat and China Harbor Engineer-ing Company, started the pilot testing of electric buses. This was part of the MOTC’s endeavours to provide eco-friendly and sustainable transport modes that help reduce carbon emission by public transit. The project was part of the Green Vehicle Initiative which was launched jointly by the Ministry of Energy and Indus-

try, MOTC and Kahramaa’s wider National Programme for conservation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed).

The project promoted the use of more eco-friendly materials, something that helps strike the aspired-after economic and environmen-tal balance in all transport infrastructure projects. It also works on developing transport modes in accord-ance with the world’s best environment-friendly sys-tems, in addition to using alternative and clean energy in the field for lesser carbon emissions. The MOTC has placed environment issues and energy efficiency at the top of its priorities and in all transport projects. It not only supports cooperation

between government and non-government entities to reach a clean environment and boost the culture of sus-tainable transportation, but also creates its own best models for a safe and eco-friendly transport system.

Qatar has been a vociferous advocate for the pro-tection of the fragile environment, raising such issues at every possible opportunities across the world and hosting environment-related conferences. The Doha Climate Change Conference held from November 26 to December 8, 2012, at the Qatar National Convention Center resulted in a major breakthrough in the protec-tion of the environment in a global level, drawing praise from world’s leading countries, environment activists and organisations.

The State of Qatar is fast becoming a leader to be reckoned with in the world stage, creating the best mod-els in almost every sector whether it is in education, social security, diplomacy or protection of the environ-ment. With its role as the leading clean energy (natural gas) supplier, the country is pushing the use of eco-friendly fuel and thus contributing to keeping the world a better place for the posterity.

Environment has always been a priority for Qatar. The state has been very keen in cutting down its carbon footprint by turning its industries into eco-friendly ones and launching projects for reducing pollution caused by vehicle emission.

The transpartisan revolt against America’s endless wars

A true reckoning with the United States’ failed national security policy is long overdue. While Trump’s impulsive machinations are perilous, so, too, is a bipartisan establishment consensus that remains in place despite its evident bankruptcy.

Worsening world hunger affects 821 million: UN

09WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019 ASIA

Pakistan hopes to ‘refresh’ US ties with Imran’s visitAFP ISLAMABAD

Pakistan expressed hopes yesterday that Prime Minister Imran Khan’s maiden trip to the White House later this month would help repair its acrimo-nious relationship with Wash-ington as the US seeks its help in ending the war in Afghanistan.

Observers believe that the nearly 18-year conflict will be the major focus of talks between Imran and President Donald Trump when they meet on July 22, as Washington presses for Pakistani assistance in securing a peace deal.

“Pakistan has been facilitating the US-Taliban talks in good faith, underscoring that

it remains a shared responsi-bility,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said during a seminar in Islamabad.

“It will therefore be appro-priate to work for broader engagement from Afghanistan to bilateral issues, economic and trade cooperation, to peace and stability in South Asia,” he added.

Imran and Trump — both celebrities-turned-politicians — have clashed in the past, with the Pakistani premier once describing a potential meeting with the US president as a “bitter pill” to swallow.

But yesterday, Qureshi said that Trump’s invitation to Imran reflected the “importance of the

relationship for both sides”.Relations between Pakistan

and the United States have been turbulent since Trump took office in 2017, with the US leader frequently singling out Islamabad for failing to rein in extremists and being an unfaithful partner in the fight

against militants.The White House has

repeatedly accused the Pakistani military establishment of helping fund and arm the Taliban, both for ideological reasons and to counter rising Indian influence in Afghanistan.

Pakistan denies the claims and says it has paid the price for its alliance with the US in the so-called “war on terror”, with thousands of its citizens killed in its long struggle with militancy.

Last year, Trump suspended $300m in military aid to Islamabad, saying Pakistan has given Washington “nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools”.

Commuters and pedestrians crossing a flooded street after heavy monsoon rains in Lahore, Pakistan, yesterday. In Pakistan-administered Kashmir, officials said at least 23 people were killed after heavy rain triggered flash floods and damaged more than 120 houses and 30 shops, while crippling the water and electricity supplies.

SC seeks recommendationfrom Attorney-General onvideo leak controversyINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The Supreme Court (SC) of Pakistan yesterday issued a notice to the Attorney General (AG) and asked for recommen-dations in the judge Arshad Malik video scandal case.

The SC heard the video scandal case of judge Arshad Malik, who was removed from post last week upon Islamabad High Court’s request.

The apex court’s three-member bench under Chief of Justice of Pakistan (CJP), Asif Saeed Khosa, heard the case yesterday.

During the hearing, the applicant’s lawyer presented his arguments, saying that the SC should take suo motto in the matter.

The court in its response stated that it will no longer be independent if it functioned upon what people suggested.

The CJP remarked that the court shouldn’t be directed on how to conduct investigation, adding that there is no doubt on extraordinary circum-stances of the case.

He said that the basic issue is of trust of the nation on judiciary and if people fail to trust it then justice will be dif-ficult to found.

The apex court remarked that the issue of judge Arshad Malik will be heard by the court, however, the dust must settle regarding the issue.

Subsequently, the SC

adjourned the hearing until July 23.

In view of today’s hearing, security was beefed up around the federal capital and 1,000 police personnel were deployed in the Red Zone and at SC premises.

Earlier in an affidavit sub-mitted to the IHC, Malik denied the contents of the video and termed them edited, fabricated, and aimed to defame him.

The court had issued notices to Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) Vice-Pres-ident Maryam Nawaz, former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, Raja Zafarul Haq, and others.

The Supreme Court took up the case on a petition sub-mitted by a citizen named Ishtiaq Ahmed, who appealed to the apex court for an inde-pendent judicial inquiry into the video scandal.

On July 12, judge Arshad Malik was relieved from his duties by the federal gov-ernment for his alleged involvement in the contro-versial video scandal.

Arshad Malik, in his letter to the IHC, alleged he was offered a bribe by Nawaz Sharif’s son Hussain Nawaz.

“I was told that Mian Sahib is willing to pay whatever I demand on acquitting him in both references. However, I declined the bribe offered to me while sticking to merits,” the judge said in his letter.

After 5 months, Pakistan airspace opens fullyINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s airspace has been reopened to civil aviation with immediate effect, the country’s Civil Aviation Authority said yesterday, following months of restrictions imposed in the wake of a standoff with India earlier this year.

“With immediate effect Pakistan airspace is open for all type of civil traffic on published ATS (Air Traffic Service) routes,” according to a notice to airmen

(NOTAM) published on the authority’s website.

An official at the authority, reached by telephone, confirmed that the change was in effect.

Pakistan had fully closed its airspace following the violation of its international boundary and airspace by Indian fighter jets on February 26. In March, it par-tially opened its airspace but kept it banned for the Indian flights. India had also banned its airspace for flights to Pakistan.

Pakistan lies in the middle

of a vital aviation corridor and the airspace restrictions affected hundreds of commercial and cargo flights each day, adding to flight time for passengers and fuel costs for airlines.

The announcement came hours after United Airlines Holdings Inc said it was extending the suspension of its flights from the United States to Delhi and Mumbai in India until October 26, citing continued restrictions of Pakistani airspace.

One survivor, nine bodies pulled out of Pakistan mineAFP QUETTA

Pakistani authorities said yesterday they had rescued one miner who survived two days trapped in a coal mine after a fire that killed nine other workers.

An electrical short circuit sparked the blaze on Sunday at the mine east of Quetta, the capital of Balochistan province.

Eleven miners were working around 4,000 feet underground at the time. One was quickly saved but poi-sonous carbon monoxide gas hampered rescue efforts.

Officials confirmed yes-terday that just one of the remaining ten had been dis-covered alive.

“We have found nine dead bodies,” Abdullah Shahwani, a top provincial official for the industry, said.

The surviving miner was critically injured, he said.

Provincial government spokesman Liaquat Shahwani confirmed the toll.

The coal mine is run by the state-owned Pakistan Mineral Development Corporation.

Most coal mines in the province are notorious for poor safety standards and facilities, and similar deadly accidents have occurred in the past.

Maryam to lead protest rallies across PakistanINTERNEWS LAHORE

Maryam Nawaz, the daughter of incarcerated former premier Nawaz Sharif and a vice-pres-ident of the main opposition PML-N party, announced yesterday that she would be leading protest rallies across the country and asked people who wish “to live in a free, democratic and just Pakistan” to join.

“Insha’Allah I shall be

leading protest rallies across Pakistan that will not only ask for justice for Nawaz Sharif but demand rule of law, freedom of expression, end to manipulation of the entire system to punish public representatives, stealing people’s mandate, imposition of selected,” said Maryam on Twitter.

“Every Pakistani who wishes to live in a free, democratic and just Pakistan must join,” she added.

Although Maryam did not specify when the protest rallies would start, PML-N shared on Twitter that she would address a rally in Faisalabad on Sunday, July 21.

Maryam has been at the forefront of PML-N’s allegations against judge Arshad Malik, who convicted Nawaz Sharif in the Al Azizia reference last year.

On July 7, while addressing a rally in Mandi Bahauddin, she asked Prime Minister Imran

Khan to resign and “go home”, urging the crowd to chant slogans along with her.

Speaking on the leaked video of judge Malik, she said that keeping the PML-N supremo in jail would be a crime now, alleging that his sentencing had been “given under immense pressure”. Maryam was given a rousing welcome by a large number of party workers on the Motorway and other points on way to Mandi Bahauddin.

NAB likely to seek freeze on Shehbaz assetsINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The National Accountability Bureau (NAB) has decided to approach the accountability court to freeze movable and immovable properties of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif.

Official sources said the NAB Lahore office has written a letter to the NAB headquarters in Islamabad with recommen-dations to freeze properties of Shehbaz Sharif which were allegedly raised through illegal means. The sources said the NAB Lahore office had recom-mended freezing 96-H Model Town residence, Murree resi-dence, other properties and two luxury vehicles so that the properties could not be sold out.

It has been learnt that further process to freeze prop-erties would be undertaken once the NAB chairman gives go ahead. Sources said the NAB has written caution letters to the Federal Board of Revenue, Securities and Exchange Com-mission of Pakistan and State Bank of Pakistan with regard to expected freezing of prop-erties. NAB says Shehbaz failed to furnish money trail regarding properties owned by him and his family members.

An elephant is being transported on a truck in Dambulla, Sri Lanka, yesterday.

Ride to wildlife

Swine flu death toll rises to 54 in MyanmarANATOLIA YANGON

At least 54 people in Myanmar have died from swine flu, a health official said yesterday, after the H1N1 virus spread to a larger part of the country.

The latest outbreak of the virus began nearly a month ago with the first death reported in the country’s largest city, Yangon, on June 19.

Phyu Phyu Aye, an infor-mation officer at the Health and Sports Ministry, said six more people died in Yangon on Monday, taking the death toll to 54.

“Yangon is still the worst affected area, with 43 causal-ities,” she told Anadolu Agency by phone.

“H1N1 positive patients were found in three more regions, so the outbreak is happening in six regions.”

According to the ministry’s data, 274 out of a total of 671 patients tested positive for the virus in six regions — Yangon, Sagaing, Magway, Bago, Aye-yarwady and Mon.

The ministry said swine flu is among the strains of flu that have been circulating in Myanmar seasonally since a global pandemic in 2009.

Afghan radio station closes down after Taliban threatsAP KABUL

A local radio station in eastern Afghanistan was forced to shut down after repeated threats from the area’s Taliban commander, the head of the station said yesterday.

Ramez Azimi, director of the Samaa station in the city of Ghazni, the capital of eastern Ghazni province, said he had received phone calls as well as written warning notes pur-portedly from the Taliban com-mander. The commander was not identified.

Azimi said Taliban insur-gents, who control several dis-tricts in Ghazni province,

threatened them because three of the station’s 16 employees are women. The Taliban are against women’s rights to education and work.

Zabihullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, denied the insurgents had threatened Samaa. The Taliban currently control nearly half of Afghan-istan and are more powerful than at any time since the October 2001 US-led invasion.

On Saturday, a local radio journalist was killed in neigh-bouring Paktia province. The police said it was not immedi-ately clear if the killing of Nader Shah, a newsreader for Radio Gardez, was linked to his work or a personal dispute.

Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi says Trump’s invitation to Pakistan’s leader reflected the “importance of the relationship for both sides”.

Pakistani PM, Imran Khan

Flooded Lahore streets

10 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019ASIA / EUROPE

North Korea warns US over military exercisesAFP SEOUL

North Korea yesterday said looming US-South Korea military drills could impact the proposed resumption of nuclear talks between Pyongyang and Washington, and hinted that it could reconsider its moratorium on nuclear testing.

It was the first statement from Pyongyang on the talks since US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un agreed to their resumption at an impromptu meeting in the Demilitarized Zone in June, following months of deadlock between the two sides.

The joint drills have been held for years but were scaled down to facilitate dialogue with the North after Trump’s historic first summit with Kim in Sin-gapore last year.

“If the military exercise really goes ahead, it would affect the DPRK-US working-level talks,” an unnamed foreign min-istry spokesperson said in com-ments carried by state news agency KCNA, using the official acronym for North Korea.

The official described next month’s drills as “clearly a breach” of a joint statement signed by the leaders in Sin-gapore and hinted that Pyongyang may resume weapons tests in response.

Pyongyang’s moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests was a commitment aimed at improving bilateral relations and “not a legal document inscribed on a paper”, the official said. “With the US unilaterally reneging on its commitments, we are gradually losing our justifi-cations to follow through on the commitments we made with the US as well.”

Trump and Kim’s latest meeting took place as negotia-tions between Pyongyang and Washington were at a deadlock, following a rocky negotiation process brokered by Seoul after a thaw in tensions in early 2018.

During the encounter, Trump stepped into North Korean territory in the border village of Panmunjom, becoming the first US president to set foot on North Korean soil.

There are close to 30,000 US troops stationed in South Korea, and their annual drills with tens of thousands of South Korean soldiers have always infuriated

the North — with Pyongyang condemning the manoeuvres as provocative rehearsals for invasion.

But following the Singapore summit, Trump announced the suspension what he called Washington’s “very provocative” joint military exercises with South Korea.

A smaller-scale version of the exercises was last held in March, with more scheduled for August.

Washington has previously insisted on North Korea’s com-plete denuclearisation as a con-dition for lifting punishing US sanctions.

At the Singapore summit, the two adopted a vaguely-worded statement on “complete denu-clearisation of the Korean peninsula” and agreed to “establish new US-DPRK relations”.

But failure to reach an agreement over sanctions relief and what the North was willing to give in return led to the col-lapse of the leaders’ second summit, which was held in Feb-ruary in Hanoi.

Pyongyang had taken “humanitarian measures without conditions” to implement the Singapore statement, the foreign ministry spokesperson said yes-terday, in reference to the return of the remains of US service members killed during the 1950-1953 Korean War.

Indonesia seizes vessel wanted by InterpolAFP JAKARTA

A notorious Panama-flagged vessel wanted by Interpol for illegal fishing has been seized by Indonesia, authorities said yesterday.

The MV NIKA — a vessel with an extensive maritime rap sheet — was intercepted by the navy on Friday in the Strait of Malacca, the fisheries ministry said on Twitter.

The 750-tonne vessel had 18 Russians and 10 Indonesians aboard, the Jakarta Post reported. The crew have been

detained and are now being questioned.

The ship is suspected of fal-sifying registration documents and claiming it was a bulk carrier instead of a fishing boat in order to avoid detection, said fisheries minister Susi Pudjiastuti said.

“This ship has been wanted by Interpol in many countries for a long time,”she said.

“The ship kept changing flag. The last one it used was Pan-ama’s... which is typical of ships used in illegal, unreported, and unregulated fishing.”

Boats involved in illegal

fishing often obscure their origins by using foreign flags, a system that complicates moni-toring and oversight by allowing ships to register outside of the vessel owner’s country.

Indonesia, the world’s biggest archipelago nation, has launched a crackdown on foreign vessels fishing illegally in its waters, claiming it costs the economy billions of dollars annually.

Jakarta has sunk hundreds of foreign vessels caught fishing without a permit after impounding the boats and removing the crews.

Indonesian officers checking the MV NIKA vessel after it was detained by Indonesia’s authority in Batam, Kepulauan Riau, yesterday.

Duterte ‘seriously considering’ cuttingties with IcelandAP MANILA

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte is “seriously consid-ering” cutting diplomatic ties with Iceland, which spear-headed a resolution that asked the UN’s top human rights body to look into the thousands of deaths of suspects under his anti-drug crackdown.

Presidential spokesman Sal-vador Panelo said that the Iceland-initiated resolution, which was adopted by the UN Human Rights Council in a vote last week in Geneva, showed “how the Western powers are scornful of our sovereign exercise of protecting our people from the scourge of prohibited drugs.”

Duterte told Panelo that he “is seriously considering cutting diplomatic relations with Iceland,” Panelo said, adding that the resolution was “gro-tesquely one-sided, outra-geously narrow, and maliciously partisan.”

Human rights groups,

however, have lauded the res-olution as crucial to helping end the drug killings and bringing perpetrators to justice.

Duterte’s threat is the latest show of his disdain for critics of the deadly campaign against illegal drugs that he launched as his centrepiece project after taking office in June 2016. He withdrew the Philippines from the International Criminal Court, a move that took effect in March, after its prosecutor began exam-ining complaints over the killings.

About 6,600 people, most of them accused of petty drug crimes, have been killed in the crackdown, based on police records. But non-government groups claim a much higher death toll.

Duterte and the police have denied authorising extrajudicial killings.

The president, however, has repeatedly threatened drug sus-pects with death in televised speeches and encouraged law enforcers to shoot suspects who fight back.

Thousands flee forest fire on Croatian islandAFP ZAGREB

Some 10,000 tourists were evac-uated from a popular party beach on a Croatian island after a forest fire erupted early yesterday, police said.

Police ordered visitors to clubs on Zrce beach on the northern island of Pag to leave

after the blaze erupted in a pine forest at around 1:00am (2300 GMT Monday), a police statement said.

No one was injured in the fire which was brought under control, the mayor of the nearby town of Novalja, Ante Dabo, said.

The cause was not immedi-ately known.

Three firefighting planes

were rushed to the scene to help extinguish the blaze which spread to a local road that had to be closed.

The island of Pag and its Zrce beach are popular with young tourists who party there. Tourism is a pillar of Croatia’s economy, with visitors flocking to hundreds of islands and islets along its stunning Adriatic coast.

An official described next month’s drills as “clearly a breach” of a joint statement signed by the leaders in Singapore and hinted that Pyongyang may resume weapons tests in response.

A general view of Zrce beach on the northern Croatian island of Pag.

French minister resigns over spending scandal

Malaysian MPs back lowering voting age to 18AFP/KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia ’s parl iament yesterday backed lowering the voting age from 21 to 18, a change that would add millions of people to the electoral roll and was pushed by the coun-try’s reformist government.

The Southeast Asian nation is one of a handful of countries around the world that limits voting to those aged over 21, and the change still has to be debated and passed in the country’s senate before it can become law.

The overhaul was cham-pioned by the government of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad about a year after it came to power by defeating a corruption-plagued coalition.

Speaking in the lower house of parliament before MPs voted on the law, Mahathir argued that young people in Malaysia were more politically aware than in the past. “This move is so that they be given the chance, space and voice to... design the country’s democracy through elections.”

Ukraine, Russia agreeto swap prisoners REUTERS KIEV

A senior Ukrainian official said yesterday that his country and Russia had agreed to exchange prisoners from the conflict in eastern Ukraine over the next month.

Kiev’s forces have been bat-tling pro-Russian separatists in the Donbass region of eastern Ukraine since 2014, in a conflict that has claimed more than 13,000 lives. Sporadic fighting continues despite a ceasefire agreement.

In the last prisoner exchange, conducted in December 2017, Ukraine handed over about 300 captives to pro-Russian separatists and took back around 70, but dis-agreements have prevented any further swaps since then.

“We have agreed to exchange a certain number of our captives

during one month,” Vadym Prys-taiko, a senior presidential official and the nominee for the post of Ukrainian foreign minister, told reporters.

There was no immediate con-firmation from Moscow of the agreement.

“Our task now is to exchange, to return our people home...,” Prys-taiko said.

The official provided no details on the numbers involved or when the process might start.

Russian government still holds dozens of Ukrainian captives from the conflict but it is unclear how many Russians are being held in Ukraine.

The ombudsmen of Russia and Ukraine said in Moscow later yes-terday that they were discussing the possibility of the Ukrainian and Russian presidents pardoning some prisoners.

AFP PARIS

A senior French Cabinet minister and close ally of President Emmanuel Macron resigned yesterday after reports accused him of extravagant state-funded lobster dinners and misusing public housing in a blow to the centrist government.

Francois de Rugy (pictured), who was named environment minister in September 2018, announced his departure after a week of revelations from the left-wing website Mediapart.

“The attacks and media lynching tar-geting my family force me to take the nec-essary step back,” said de Rugy, who was number two in the government after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

Mediapart has published pictures of de Rugy and his journalist wife enjoying lavish lobster dinners and a Valentine’s Day meal while he was speaker of parliament in 2017 and in 2018.

The website alleged that the events — at the expense of taxpayers — were largely social, while de Rugy contends they were part of his work representing

the National Assembly. Mediapart also revealed that de Rugy

had benefited from an apartment near his hometown of Nantes in western France that was rented at a preferential rate intended to be for low-income workers.

The 45-year-old was also forced to fire his cabinet director last week after it tran-spired she had retained an apartment in a social housing bloc in Paris since 2001.

The image of a row of plump lobsters at a function hosted by de Rugy caused an outpouring of commentary and social media memes in France, which has been

rocked by months of “yellow vest” protests.

The protests have been fuelled by anger over economic inequality and claims that French leaders are out-of-touch with ordinary people.

De Rugy has denied any wrongdoing and even claimed in an interview last week that he was allergic to lobsters and didn’t like champagne because it gave him a headache.

“He is someone who is solid, coura-geous,” ruling party MP Olivia Gregoire told reporters after his resignation. “I think he was at the end of his tether.”

She urged people not to judge him on the images and give him the benefit of the doubt.

De Rugy joined Macron early in his suc-cessful bid for the presidency in 2017 and was rewarded with a series of plumb jobs including parliament speaker and latterly environment minister.

But the former Green campaigner’s ability to hang on to his job took a blow on Monday evening when Macron failed to give his full backing while on a trip to Serbia.

11WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019 EUROPE

Hackers hit Bulgarian tax agency; Russian link seenAP SOFIA

Bulgarian officials said yesterday that unidentified hackers have stolen the personal details of millions of people from Bulgaria’s national revenue agency and noted a possible Russian link in the case.

Prime Minister Boyko Borissov called an emergency meeting of all law enforcement

services to consider the potential harm to the country’s national security.

Finance Minister Vladislav Goranov told reporters after the meeting that the hackers behind the breach contacted local media using a mailbox from a Russian domain.

The leak, the biggest in the Balkan country, contains names, personal data and the financial earnings of individuals and

companies. According to local media, the hackers have stolen the details of some 5 million of the country’s 7 million people.

Goranov said the gov-ernment has requested help from the European Union’s cyberse-curity agency.

Speaking to the bTV channel, Interior Minister Mladen Marinov said the attack coincided with Bulgaria’s pur-chase of US F-16 fighter jets for

its air force and that it could likely be motivated by that.

“Organised criminal groups involved in cyberattacks usually seek financial profits, but here political motives are possible. The government decided yesterday to buy F-16 jets.”

The finance minister, however, rejected a possible link to the jet purchase, saying the cyberattack had occurred

before the deal was approved.Bulgarian media, which

received an email from the hackers, said it came from Russian mail provider Yandex. The email also called for the release of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Bulgarian media quoted the hackers’ email as criticising the Bulgarian government and saying “the state of your cyber-security is a joke.”

Plain-clothes police officers escorting the suspect (centre) for the murder of American biologist Suzanne Eaton, to the prosecutor in Chania, on the island of Crete, in Greece, yesterday.

Activists arrested in London for disrupting concrete supplierREUTERS LONDON

Six climate activists were arrested yesterday after the Extinction Rebellion group disrupted London Concrete, the British capital’s biggest supplier of ready-mixed concrete which supplies a major road tunnel project under the River Thames.

Dozens of activists holding a banner saying “The air that we grieve” blocked entrances to the site in east London in an attempt to halt the expansion of the works.

“Concrete has a huge envi-ronmental impact and building another tunnel will only make air pollution across East London worse,” said Eleanor McAree, 25, from Extinction Rebellion.

“Air pollution is already at

dangerous levels and is affecting the health of children and adults in the area.”

Police said the protest had prevented companies in the area from going about their business and officers had arrested six people aged between 30 and 67 on suspicion of aggravated tres-passing and obstruction of a highway. “The activists had since left the area.”

London Concrete is a unit of Franco-Swiss group Lafarge-Holcim. The Silvertown Tunnel under the Thames will link the Greenwich Peninsula and Silvertown.

Extinction Rebellion wants non-violent civil disobedience to force governments to cut carbon emissions and avert a climate crisis it says will bring starvation and social collapse.

Man charged for US scientist’s murderAP ATHENS

A 27-year-old man was charged with murder and rape yesterday in the killing of an American scientist who disappeared on the Greek island of Crete and whose body was found in a tunnel formerly used as a storage site during World War II.

Crete police said a Greek man from the island confessed to the “violent criminal act,” telling investigators he struck Suzanne Eaton with his car and abducted her “motivated by the

intention to commit sexual assault,” Crete police spokes-woman Eleni Papathanasiou said.

Eaton, 59, went missing on July 2 while attending a scientific conference in Crete. Relatives said she had gone for a hike. Her body was found six days later after an extensive search.

The suspect remains in police custody and will appear in court before being placed in pre-trial detention, court offi-cials said. He has not been pub-licly named in accordance with Greek law.

Papathanasiou said a coroner determined Eaton had “many broken ribs, and facial bones, and multiple injuries to both hands” and died from asphyxiation on the day of her disappearance.

The suspect said he hit Eaton twice to stop her, the police spokeswoman said.

“According to his claims, he placed the victim, unconscious, in the trunk of his car and trans-ferred her to a ventilation drain in the wartime storage (tunnel), where after raping her, aban-doned her there.”

Salvini to respond to Parliament over Russia caseREUTERS ROME

Italian Deputy Prime Minister Matteo Salvini bowed to demands to address parliament on allegations that his right-wing League party had sought illegal funding from Russia, saying he would take questions on the topic in regular question time.

Salvini’s coalition partner and opposition parties have been pressing him to make a parlia-mentary statement since US website Buzzfeed reported last

week that a Salvini aide had sought to use an oil deal to divert Russian funds to the League.

Buzzfeed published audio recordings of a Moscow meeting in which a possible oil deal was discussed. There is no evidence that a deal was struck, and Salvini has denied any knowledge of the meeting or that the aide, Gianluca Savoini, acted for him.

Savoini has declined comment on the allegations, the subject of a criminal investi-gation. Milan prosecutors

questioned him for about an hour on Monday but he exer-cised his right to silence, said two sources familiar with the matter.

Salvini has denied that the League took any money from Moscow, adding he would sue anyone who accused him of such crimes. It is illegal for Italian political parties to accept foreign funding.

“I certainly will go to par-liament,” Salvini said. “I go there twice a week for the question time session, during which I respond about all human knowledge.”

Migration from eastern Europe raises German population to record highREUTERS BERLIN

Germany’s population reached a record high of more than 83 million people last year, largely because migration, most of which came from eastern

Europe, data showed yesterday.Net migration fell to some

400,000 people in 2018 from 416,000 in the previous year, the Federal Statistics Office said. European Union states remained the main origin of new arrivals with net migration of 202,000.

Within this group, net migration was highest from Romania (68,000), Croatia (29,000), Bulgaria (27,000) and Poland (20,000), the data showed.

Record-high employment and falling joblessness have led

to a tightening labour market in Europe’s largest economy, with employers struggling to staff more than a million positions and work-related bottlenecks limiting overall economic growth.

An ageing population and

low birth rates mean Germany’s workforce is likely to shrink over coming decades, so migrants are considered crucial to help com-panies find workers, whose pension contributions support the growing number of retirees.

Fewer refugees from

war-torn countries seem to be arriving in Germany. Net migration from Syria nearly halved to 34,000 in 2018 from 60,000 in the previous year. Net migration from Africa slipped to 34,000 from 35,000.

Swiss authorities agree to extradite suspected Chinese ‘pharma spy’ to US

AFP GENEVA

Swiss authorities said yesterday that they have agreed to extradite a Chinese national to the United States where he is wanted on charges of corporate espionage in the pharmaceu-tical industry.

Gongda Xue, aged around 50 and living in Switzerland, is the brother of Yu Xue, a bio-chemist who last year pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets from drugmaker GlaxoSmith-Kline (GSK).

Switzerland’s federal justice office OFJ decided on Friday that Gongda Xue, a researcher arrested on May 28, should be extradited in line with a Pennsylvania state court request.

He has 30 days to appeal, an OFJ spokeswoman, Ingrid Ryser, said.

Yu Xue pleaded guilty to stealing trade secrets on GSK work in biopharmacy, notably for cancer treatments and other serious illnesses.

Five people have been charged in the case to date, including three who formed a Chinese-based startup, Renop-harma, in the hope of allegedly benefiting from GSK’s stolen proprietary data.

Von der Leyen elected as EU Commission chiefAFP STRASBOURG

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen was narrowly elected President of the European Commission yesterday after winning over sceptical lawmakers.

The 60-year-old conserv-ative was nominated to become the first woman in Brussels’ top job last month by the leaders of the bloc’s 28 member states, to the annoyance of many MEPs.

The Strasbourg parliament would have preferred a can-didate chosen by one of its political groups, but in the end a small majority — 383 members of the 751-member assembly voted — for her.

She will now replace Jean-Claude Juncker as head of the EU executive on November 1, one day after Britain is due to leave the union, and serve for a five-year mandate.

“The task ahead of us humbles me. It’s a big responsi-bility and my work starts now,” the polyglot mother-of-seven told lawmakers, thanking all members “who decided to vote for me today”.

If von der Leyen had lost, Europe faced a summer of insti-tutional infighting instead of pre-paring for Brexit, battling Italy over its debt and confronting Hungary and Poland over threats to democratic values.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel congratulated her long-standing ally von der leyen, hailing the current German defence minister as a committed European.

“I’m glad because a per-suasive and committed European will become president of the European Commission,” she said in a statement posted on Twitter. “Even as I lose a long-serving minister, I gain a new partner in Brussels.”

In a hearing before the vote, von der Leyen promised: “A climate-neutral Europe in 2015. A more social and competitive Europe. A Europe that makes use of its full potential.

“A Europe that has a new

push on European democracy and a strong Europe that protects our European way of life.”

Von der Leyen has had only a short time since the 28 EU leaders nominated her to win over the main centre-right EPP, socialist S&D and liberal Renew Europe blocs she hoped would get her the necessary 374 votes.

In the hours between her speech and the start of voting, party officials suggested she could count on the centre-right, almost all of the liberals and maybe two-thirds of the left.

The election was by secret ballot, but the tight margin of victory suggested that she had only won over the pro-European centre — and that several main-stream members abstained.

The nominee announced on Monday that she would step down from Angela Merkel’s German government this week whatever happened in the vote, underlining her European ambitions.

Five years ago, Juncker received 422 endorsements, and falling far short of that will be seen as disappointing for von der Leyen, who was born in Brussels and was backed by

figures like France’s President Emmanuel Macron.

Von der Leyen’s nomi-nation was part of a package of so-called “top jobs” and out-going Belgian premier Charles Michel is still in line to head the European Council of EU leaders.

IMF director Christine

Lagarde’s appointment to the European Central Bank also remains on course, and the French former finance minister announced he resignation from the global body.

In addition to Brexit and the other issues facing the EU, member states are also wran-gl ing over new rules

for distributing migrants and refugees after Italy’s populist government began to prevent rescue boats from landing.

For that, the commission president will need a reliable majority in Strasbourg, after this year’s elections threw up a more fragmented EU par-liament than ever.

Newly elected European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen delivering a speech at the European Parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France, yesterday.

The task ahead of us humbles me. It’s a big responsibility and my work starts now: Ursula von der Leyen

12 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019AMERICAS

Trump unveils new immigration and border security billREUTERS WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump presented a bill to his Cabinet yesterday aimed at boosting border security and overhauling the current immigration system to make it more merit-based, a senior administration official said.

With US lawmakers’ August recess looming, the official did not give a timetable for intro-ducing the bill to Congress, but described it as laying out the president’s vision to rally Repub-licans around a detailed proposal.

The president will meet with Republican congressional leaders Mitch McConnell and Kevin McCarthy to map out a way forward, the official added, requesting anonymity.

“The goal of this has been to unify the Republicans as much as possible around a plan,” he

said, noting that divisions with the GOP over policy issues had hindered immigration reform bids in the past.

“We’ll see what leader McCo-nnell and McCarthy want to do, if they want to put it for a vote. But at least the Democrats will know what the Republican unified position is,” the official said. “The bill has 10 Republican Senate co-sponsors.”

While the White House has discussed it with some Demo-crats, the person added, it was unclear if it would win the support of members of the Dem-ocratic Party, which controls the House of Representatives.

Trump pledged to build a wall on the southern border with Mexico in his 2016 run for office, and has since fought with Con-gress and in the courts for funding to pay for the barrier.

On Monday, he touted weekend raids aimed at immi-grants who had been ordered

deported, as his administration seeks to deter a surge in Central American families seeking asylum in the United States after fleeing poverty and gang vio-lence in their home countries.

The administration also said it would take steps to make it more difficult for immigrants arriving at the southern border

to seek asylum in the US, putting the onus on them to first ask for shelter in other countries.

In May, White House officials laid out principles for the plan which they have been working on over the past seven months.

The plan does not deal with the “Dreamer” children of immi-grants in the country illegally or

immigrants under Temporary Protected Status, both priorities of Democratic lawmakers.

It does include a modified version of the so-called E-Verify program, which relies on a database that allows employers to electronically check the immi-gration status of potential employees.

US President Donald Trump and other officials applaud during a Cabinet meeting at the White House in Washington, DC, yesterday.

House moves to condemn Trump’s tweetsREUTERS WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump pres-sured fellow Republicans yesterday to stand with him and vote against a symbolic measure condemning his racially charged attacks on four Democratic congresswomen.

Democrats, who have a majority in the US House of Rep-resentatives, were expected to pass the symbolic resolution of condemnation today. But it is Republican lawmakers who will be in the spotlight as they will be forced to either vote against their party’s leader, who has strong support among conservatives, or effectively defend him.

Outrage over Trump’s

Sunday tweetstorm — in which he told four prominent minority Democratic congresswomen to “go back and help fix the totally broken and crime infested places

from which they came” — has since diverted attention from all other business in Washington.

All four lawmakers are US citizens; three were born in the United States.

“These are our sisters,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said of the four lawmakers targeted by Trump, who are in their first terms in Congress, during a closed caucus meeting yesterday, according to an aide who was present. Pelosi said she hoped some Republicans would support the resolution. “If they can’t support condemning the words of the president, well, that’s a message in and of itself,” she said.

The lawmakers - Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, Ilhan Omar of Minnesota,

Ayanna Pressley of Massachu-setts and Rashida Tlaib of Michigan — have been critical of Trump, as well as of the current Democratic leaders of the House, straining party unity in that chamber.

Trump has a history of what critics consider race-baiting. He led a movement that falsely claimed former President Barack Obama was not born in the United States and he said after a deadly, white supremacist-led rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, that “both sides” were to blame for violence there.

Only a handful of Republican lawmakers have spoken out against Trump’s tweets about the congress-women, doing so in muted tones.

The resolution said the

House “strongly condemns Pres-ident Donald Trump’s racist comments that have legitimised and increased fear and hatred of new Americans and people of colour.”

House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy said he would encourage his members to vote against the resolution con-demning Trump.

“It’s all politics,” McCarthy told reporters.

Trump later retweeted McCarthy’s comments and thanked him.

Trump was asked by reporters at the White House where he thought the four American lawmakers should go.

“It’s up to them. Do what they want. They can leave. They

can stay. But they should love our country, and they should work for the good of our country,” Trump said, adding that com-plaints about some of their past remarks.

Earlier, Trump had warned Republicans on Twitter against voting against him.

“Those Tweets were NOT Racist. I don’t have a Racist bone in my body! The so-called vote to be taken is a Democrat con game. Republicans should not show ‘weakness’ and fall into their trap.”

In response, Ocasio-Cortez tweeted: “You’re right, Mr. Pres-ident — you don’t have a racist bone in your body. You have a racist mind in your head, and a racist heart in your chest.”

Judge restricts social media use of Roger StoneAP WASHINGTON

No more Instagram for Roger Stone. Facebook and Twitter are out, too.

A federal judge barred Stone from posting on social media yesterday after finding that the longtime confidant of President Donald Trump repeatedly flouted her gag order. Stone, who is charged with lying in the Russia investigation, has used social media repeatedly to dis-parage the case against him and the broader election interference probe.

Though US District Judge Amy Berman Jackson did not send Stone to jail or find him in contempt, she said his behaviour was more appropriate for middle school than a court of law.

“You’ve shown me that you’re unwilling to stop talking about the investigation, which means that you’re unwilling to conform your conduct to the orders of the court,” the judge said. The social media ban lasts for the duration of the criminal case.

The arguments underscored how some of the Trump aides charged in special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation

have repeatedly tested the limits of the court.

While most defendants nor-mally look to avoid the govern-ment’s ire, Stone has regularly thumbed his nose at the prose-cution with Instagram posts to tens of thousands of followers that denigrate the Mueller investigation.

Jackson had posted a gag order on him in February after Stone posted a photo of the judge with what appeared to be cross-hairs of a gun.

In court yesterday Jackson went through Stone’s posts one-by-one with defence lawyer

Bruce Rogow. The posts included screenshots of news coverage calling into question the intelli-gence community’s assessment that Russia had hacked Demo-cratic email accounts.

Rogow argued that Stone was using social media to com-municate to others what is hap-pening in the case, “but not doing it in a way to infect or affect what the whole underlying reason is for the court order” - to ensure an impartial jury and a fair trial.

But Jackson said another, more basic question was of concern: whether Stone violated her original order.

Three dead in Canada float plane crashAP ST JOHN’S, NEWFOUNDLAND

At least three people died and a search is under way for four others missing after a float plane crashed into a lake in the Eastern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador.

Air Saguenay President Jean Tremblay said that the de Havilland DHC-2 Beaver was carrying four fishermen, two guides and the pilot. It left Three Rivers Lodge on Crossroads Lake, east of Schefferville, Quebec, on Monday morning headed to a remote fishing camp on Mistastin Lake in Labrador.

The wreckages was spotted from a Hercules aircraft at about 5am local time yesterday. It was submerged about a mile from the shore.

Neil Armstrong’s spacesuit on display

‘Game of Thrones’gets 32 Emmy nominationsAP/LOS ANGELES

HBO’s “Game of Thrones” has slashed its way to a record-setting 32 Emmy nominations yesterday for its eighth and final season. The bloodthirsty saga’s total eclipsed the all-time series record of 27 nods earned by “NYPD Blue” in 1994.

The showing by “Game of Thrones” led HBO back to dom-inance over Netflix.

Last year’s best comedy series, “The Marvelous Mrs. Maisel” led the pack with 20 bids.

The 71st Emmy Awards will air September 22 on Fox, with the host yet to be announced.

US Vice-President Mike Pence attending the unveiling of Neil Armstrong’s Pressure Suit, A7-L, Apollo 11, that he wore to walk on the moon on July 20, 1969, with Rick Armstrong (left), son of Neil Armstrong, Dr. Ellen Stofan, The John and Adrienne Mars Director of the National Air and Space Museum, at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, DC, yesterday.

No federal charges against NY cop in choking death of manAFP NEW YORK

A New York police officer accused of placing a 43-year-old black man in a chokehold that may have contributed to his death in 2014 will not face federal charges, US Justice Department officials said.

The decision effectively closed the five-year-old case that had fuelled national “Black Lives Matter” protests calling for police around the country to be held accountable for the deaths of unarmed African-Americans in their custody or facing arrest.

Richard Donoghue, the US attorney in Brooklyn, said there was “insufficient evidence” that officer Daniel Pantaleo broke the law or contributed to the death of Eric Garner when he placed him in a chokehold during an arrest on July 17, 2014.

Garner, who was being detained for allegedly illegally

selling cigarettes on a sidewalk, repeatedly said “I can’t breathe” to officers holding him down and after Pantaleo pulled away from his neck.

He then appeared to lose consciousness, and the father of six was taken to a hospital where he was pronounced dead.

“The death of Eric Garner was a terrible tragedy. But having thoroughly investigated the surrounding circumstances, the department has concluded that the evidence would not support federal civil rights charges against any officer,” Donoghue said.

“We know and we under-stand that some will be disap-pointed by this decision but it is the conclusion that was com-pelled by the evidence and the law.”

“The DOJ has failed us,” Gar-ner’s mother Gwen Carr said.

I’m not feeling very good right now. But I still have hope,” she added.

Brazil’s top court halts probe of President’s sonAP SAO PAULO

Brazil’s top court said yesterday it has suspended an investi-gation into the finances of Pres-ident Jair Bolsonaro’s son, saying the initial steps in the probe hadn’t been authorised by a judge.

Rio de Janeiro prosecutors have been investigating 48 deposits made to Senator Flávio Bolsonaro from his former driver Fabrício Queiroz in 2017.

But Supreme Court Chief Justice José Dias Toffoli ruled that the government’s financial control agency should have gotten judicial authorisation before handling data of sena-tor’s finances to investigators.

The ruling is valid until November 21, when a full court session is expected to examine the case.

The far-right politician has said the series of small pay-ments he received from Queiroz came from the sale of real estate and he did not hide the transaction from authorities.

A former Rio state law-maker, Flávio Bolsonaro was elected senator last year in the same vote that brought his father to Brazil’s presidency with a pro-gun and anti-cor-ruption message.

Brazil’s financial control agency reported late last year that 74 staffers and former staffers of Rio’s state legislature had made suspicious banking transactions.

Queiroz, who worked for the Bolsonaros for many years, saw more than $300,000 come in and out of his bank account in only one year, the control body said.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that, If they (Republicans) can’t support condemning the words of the President, well, that’s a message in and of itself.

BUSINESSPAGE | 14 PAGE | 16

QIC Group holds in-house

training program for staff

Qatar banksare strongand resilient:KPMG

13WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019

United DevelopmentCompany awards marine works at QR3bn Gewan IslandTHE PENINSULA DOHA

United Development Company (UDC), a leading Qatari share-holding company and the master developer of The Pearl-Qatar and Gewan Islands, has tasked UrbaCon Trading & Contracting Company & Promar Marine Contracting Company with the execution of marine works at Gewan Island.

Ibrahim Jassim Al-Othman, UDC President and Chief Exec-utive Officer and Member of the Board; Ramez Al Khayyat, Vice-Chairman and Group Chief Exec-utive Officer of UrbaCon Trading & Contracting Company; and Juliana Chamoun, Chairman and Managing Partner of Promar Marine Contracting Company co-signed the agreement during a ceremony held at the Oyster Building at The Pearl-Qatar, in the presence of representatives from all parties.

Commenting on the occasion, Ibrahim Jassim Al-Othman, UDC President and Chief Executive Officer and Member of The Board, highlighted that the total investment value in Gewan Island amounts to approximately QR3bn.

Al-Othman added: “The agreement with UrbaCon Trading & Contracting Company & Promar Marine Contracting Company demonstrates that Gewan Island’s construction and development works are proceeding according to the plans to complete our latest

flagship project by the expected 2022 deadline. We have initiated the preparation works for the con-struction of the Island, where the completion of building the boardwalk wall will be in Feb-ruary, 2020”.

Ramez Al-Khayyat, Vice Chairman and Group Chief Exec-utive Officer of UrbaCon Trading & Contracting Company com-mented on this agreement: “Working with UDC towards Gewan Island project is an imperative and exciting point of our business. We look forward for a fruitful partnership with UDC, where we will strive for the highest quality and success to accomplish this project”.

Juliana Chamoun, Chairman and Managing Partner of Promar Marine Contracting Company said: “Being awarded by UDC, one of the most real estate rep-utable firms, means a great deal to our business. We are proud to

be part of this development ini-tiative that seeks out a fulfilling, positive and developed future”.

Urbacon Trading & Con-tracting Company is a Qatari-based international construction services company and grade one licensed builder, and Promar Marine Contracting Company is a leading marine works con-struction firm, founded in Lebanon since 1985 and expanded towards gulf market since 2007. The two companies will undertake the design, man-ufacture, supply, delivery, con-struction, installation, erection, commissioning and testing of Gewan Island’s marine works package.

The marine works involve dredging, reclamation fill, and the provision and installation of core, armour, geotextile mate-rials and concrete elements as well as the supply and instal-lation of selected fill and beach sand material.

Gewan Island, UDC’s latest real estate project next to The Pearl-Qatar Island, will span 400,000 sqm. Once completed, the Island will accommodate 3,500 residents and 3,000 daily visitors and will be home to 712 units, including 639 apartments, 41 waterfront villas (out of which 20 villas are standalone villas), 26 beachfront villas, 6 island villas, in addition to 11,000 sqm of retail space and a number of multiuse buildings. �P14

Commercial Bank’s net profit grows to QR934mTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Commercial Bank and its subsidiaries and associates achieved a net profit of QR 934m for the first half of 2019 (H1, 19) , up by 9.2 percent compared to the same period in the previous year. The Group’s operating profit for the period is up 6.8 percent to QR1.29bn. Total assets increased one percent to QR141.3bn.

Sheikh Abdulla bin Ali bin Jabor Al Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Com-mercial Bank, said, “Qatar is pro-gressing well with its economic transformation, strengthening the country’s capital market by taking significant steps to attract inward investment and improve liquidity on its stock exchange through a ten-to-one stock split.

“I am proud that Commercial Bank as a leading financial insti-tution in Qatar is able to play a key part in the development of the nation by offering a myriad of innovative banking and financial services to government entities, businesses and retail customers. We had the honour of becoming the first company to implement the stock split and look forward to supporting the continued growth and prosperity of the Qatari economy.”

Hussain Alfardan, Com-mercial Bank’s Vice Chairman, added, “We continue to see

excellent results from the exe-cution of our 5-year strategic plan. The bank has developed a strong franchise in Qatar and is renowned for its exceptional client experience and innovative services. We continue to extend our capabilities to better serve the needs of our clients and strengthen our position in the market.”

Net interest income for the Group reduced by 8.3 percent to QR1.21bn for the half year ended 30 June 2019 compared to QR1.32bn achieved in the same period in 2018. Net interest margin reduced to 2.1 percent for H1 19 compared to 2.3 percent achieved in H1 2018. The reduction in margins is mainly due to the increase in cost of funding in Turkey, although margins have been managed through active loan book re-pricing and diversifying liquidity sources to minimize the increasing cost of funding. However, NIM has improved quarter on quarter from 2.0 percent in Q1 2019 to 2.2 percent in Q2 2019.

Non-interest income for the Group increased by 24.7 percent to QR629m for the Half year ended 30 June 2019 com-pared with QR504m in the same period 2018. The overall increase in non-interest income was mainly due to increase in foreign exchange earnings. �P14

Ibrahim Jassim Al Othman (centre), UDC President and Chief Executive Officer and Member of the Board; Ramez Al Khayyat (left), Vice-Chairman and Group Chief Executive Officer of UrbaCon Trading & Contracting Company; and Juliana Chamoun, Chairman and Managing Partner of Promar Marine Contracting Company, during the signing ceremony held at the Oyster Building at The Pearl-Qatar.

QR1.29bn

The Commercial Bank Group’s operating profit for the period is up 6.8 percent to

Gewan Island, UDC’s latest real estate project next to The Pearl-Qatar Island, will span 400,000 sqm. Once completed, the Island will accommodate 3,500 residents and 3,000 daily visitors and will be home to 712 units.

Foreign investments in Qatar rise to QR722.6bn in Q1 this yearMOHAMMAD SHOEB THE PENINSULA

Foreign investments, including foreign direct investment (FDI) and portfolio investment, in Qatar amounted to QR722.6bn by the end of the first quarter of this year, recording a month-on-month increase of 1.1 percent, or QR7.9bn, compared to QR714.7bn reported for previous quarter (Q4 2018), findings of an official survey show.

When compared on yearly basis, the level of investments in Qatar increased by QR44.9bn,

or 6.6 percent, in Q1 2019 com-pared to QR677.7bn reported for the corresponding quarter last year (Q1 2018), according to the quarterly Foreign Investment survey by the Planning and Sta-tistics Authority and Qatar Central Bank.

Qatar’s FDI has increased by QR400m to QR123.7bn in Q1 2019 from QR123.3bn in the pre-vious quarter. On year-on-year it has slipped marginally by QR200m compared to QR123.9bn in Q1, 2018.

The survey covers major enterprises - private and public - operating in the national

economy. It targeted some of the largest enterprises in the private sector which accounted for 84 percent of the value of inward FDI of non-banks enterprises in 2016, while QCB surveyed all financial institutions under its supervision.

Other foreign investments accounted for 67.9 percent, or QR490.5bn, followed by foreign direct investment at QR123.7bn, or 17.1 percent, portfolio invest-ments at QR105.6bn, or 14.6 percent, and financial deriva-tives at QR2.8bn, or 0.4 percent, of the total liabilities.

The portfolio investments,

which include financial secu-rities and investments in equity market, recorded a month-on-month growth of 5.7 percent (QR5.7bn) compared to QR99.9bn in Q4 2018. When compared on yearly basis, the level of portfolio investment in Qatar has increased by over 11 percent, or QR10.5bn, against QR95.1bn in Q1 2018.

Qatar’s assets with non-res-idents (outward investment) at the end Q1 2019 increased by QR17.7bn from QR392.2bn at the end of the previous quarter to QR409.9bn.

Other foreign investments

consisting of long-term loans and trade related short term financial instruments, at the end of Q1 2019, accounted for 53.3 percent, or QR218.6bn, of the total assets, followed by foreign direct investment abroad at QR153.8bn, or 37.5 percent, portfolio investments (financial securities) at QR37.3bn, or 9.1 percent, and financial deriva-tives at QR200m, or 0.05 percent, of the total assets.

During Q1 2019, stock of outward FDI had increased by QR7bn due to net outflows of FDI and other changes during the quarter, noted the findings

of the survey. Qatar’s’ Foreign Other

Investment to the rest of the world, at the end of Q1 2019, increased by QR11.1bn to QR218.6bn from QR207.5bn in Q4 2018. On year-on-year it has increased by QR1.6bn compared to QR217bn in Q1 2018.

While Qatar’s outward port-folio investment, at the end of Q1 2019, almost remain stable at QR37.3bn, showering only a marginal decline of QR200m (QR0.2bn) from the previous quarter. On yearly basis, it has declined by QR800m (QR0.8bn) against QR38.1bn in Q1 2018.

IMF to begin search for new leaderAFP WASHINGTON

Christine Lagarde will resign from the International Monetary Fund on September 12 as she awaits final word on her nomi-nation to the presidency of the European Central Bank, she announced yesterday Her departure allows the IMF board to begin the search for her replacement.

“With greater clarity now on the process for my nomination as ECB President and the time it will take, I have made this decision in the best interest of the fund, as it will expedite the selection process for my suc-cessor,” Lagarde said.

EU leaders early this month picked Lagarde to succeed ECB chief Mario Draghi, whose single, eight-year term ends in November.

Lagarde stepped away from the IMF leadership post she has held since 2011, sparking a wave of speculation about who would replace her.

The IMF board tapped her number two, American David Lipton, to serve as interim man-aging director, but by tradition a European always leads the fund while an American runs its sister institution, the World Bank.

“With this decision by Man-aging Director Lagarde, the IMF Executive Board will initiate promptly the process of selecting the next managing director and will communicate in a timely fashion,” the IMF board said in a statement.

Early candidates mentioned as possible successors to Lagarde include Mark Carney, a Canadian who also holds British and Irish citizenship and whose term as leader of the Bank of England is up in January; French politician Pierre Moscovici, who is the EU finance commissioner, and former British finance minister George Osborne.

Christine Lagarde

14 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019BUSINESS

10,600.98 5.43 PTS0.05%

QSE FTSE100 DOW CRUDE

7,531.72 +25.75 PTS0.34%

27,316.10 -15.93 PTS0.058% Dow & Brent before going to press

$60.10 -0.11

MARKETWATCHRenewable energy gains momentum in Arab regionTHE PENINSUL DOHA

Renewable energy developments in the Arab world are gaining momentum. The main driver behind these developments is the strong support from governments that recognise the urgency of tackling rising demand for energy and are attracted by the declining costs of solar PV, the Arab Petroleum Investments Corpo-ration (Apicorp) noted in its Mena annual energy investments outlook 2019.

In addition to the gov-ernment supports, multilateral development banks (MDBs) and development agencies have played a critical role in financing projects. Gas shortages, an increasing reliance on high-value liquids and environmental concerns have also added to the urgency of energy diversifi-cation. Equally important, renewables continue to rapidly improve their cost competi-tiveness against other sources of power generation.

To support their renewable sectors, the Arab countries have introduced several supporting mechanisms including compet-itive bidding, feed in tariffs (FiTs), tax exemptions, and power-purchase agreements (PPA), in addition to land and financial incentives. Apicorp

estimates that in the next five years, close to $350bn could be invested in the Mena’s power sector with renewable energy accounting for 34 percent of power investment, or 12 percent of total energy investment.

Jordan and certainly Morocco have so far led the region with their renewable ini-tiatives. Morocco’s target for renewable energy as a share of total generation is amongst the most ambitious in the world, standing at 42 percent by 2020. The Noor-Ouarzazate project is the largest Concentrated Solar Power (CSP) complex in the world. With an estimated capacity of 580MW, the project has already helped the country achieve 35% of its energy r e q u i r e m e n t s t h r o u g h renewables.

In Tunisia, renewable energy is expected to play a bigger role in the country’s generation capacity, where it could account for 12 percent by 2020, and 30

percent by 2030. The country has recently granted licenses to four European firms (ABO WIND AG, UPC Tunisia Renewables, LUCIA HOLDING and VSB Energies Nouvelles) worth $134m for the production of 120MW from wind.

For countries facing chal-lenging fiscal conditions, financing has had to be sourced from the private sector or the international community. MDBs and development institutions have played a critical role in the financing of renewable projects in these countries at a time when international banks have been reluctant to enter riskier markets. In Morocco, the 850MW of wind projects cur-rently under construction are being financed by the European Investment Bank and KfW. In Jordan, in addition to providing financing solutions, the IFC helped the government address regulatory and sector risks to improve the business envi-ronment and attract more investment. Whilst this has attracted other private sector investment, the role of MDBs and development institutions are likely to remain key in the future. The next phase will be to facil-itate funding for grid rein-forcement and storage technol-ogies required for massive pen-etration of renewables.

QIC Group holds in-house training program for staffTHE PENINSULA DOHA

As part of its ongoing efforts to empower its staff with the right mix of technical know-how, business acumen and capabilities, Qatar Insurance Group, the leading insurer in the MENA region recently conducted an in-house introductory training program on Risk Management & Insurance.

With the support from its Senior Management, QIC Group consistently endeavors to fulfill its objective of facilitating knowledge sharing & enhancement by con-ducting in-house training programs that are considered pivotal for the development of its human capital.

The in-house training pro-grams are an integral part of the QIC Learning Academy, which was established last year. It focuses on providing comprehensive devel-opment programs in the form of formal and informal learning modules, mentoring and work-based experiences to accelerate personal development and

enhance career progression of the company’s workforce. Attendees of the programme are trained by a set of highly experienced Mentors, who are experts in various fields of the insurance business.

Stressing on the importance of the various in-house training pro-grams, Senior Deputy Group Pres-ident & CEO of QIC Group, Ali S. Al Fadala stated, “Nurturing our human capital through interactive training courses have always been a business priority for QIC Group. We shall continue to invest in our staff & empower them so that they can accomplish growth, both at a personal and a professional level and have career satisfaction.”

“This also highlights our key role in building a knowledge based economy and achieving the Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030. In order to support the anticipated long-term growth and sustainability of QIC Group, we will continue to provide unrivalled opportunities to our staff to fulfil their ambition in this way.”

FROM PAGE 13Total operating expenses were tightly managed at a Group level, down by 11.1 percent to QR552m for the half year, compared with QR621m from a year ago.

Costs reductions were pri-marily driven by lower staff and administrative expenses.

The Group’s net provisions decreased by 1.7 percent to QR428m. The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio has reduced to 4.9 percent in H1, 19 compared to 5.6 percent in December 2018. The loan coverage ratio has increased to 97 percent in H1, 19 compared to 78.8 percent in December 2018.

The Group’s loans and advances to customers increased by 1.3 percent to QR84.8bn. The increase was mainly in the gov-ernment and services sectors.

The Group’s investment secu-rities increased by 7.6 percent to QR23.3bn. The increase is mainly in Government bonds. The Group’s customer deposits increased by 7.8 percent to QR76.9bn, and has resulted in the loan deposit ratio reducing from 117.4 percent to 110.3 percent.

Joseph Abraham, Commercial Bank’s Group Chief Executive Officer, commented, “I am pleased to announce a strong set of financial results for the first half of 2019. Consolidated operating profit was QR1.29bn for the first half of 2019, an increase of 7 percent compared to the same period last year and consolidated net profit was QR934m in H1 2019 an increase of 9 percent com-pared to the same period in 2018. The strong execution of our five-year strategic plan continues to

yield positive results along with the continued focus on produc-tivity enhancements through dig-itization of operational processes.

“The increase in consolidated operating profit was driven by careful management of operating expenses and positive contribu-tions from fees and other income. Operating expenses decreased 11 percent to QR552m during the first half of 2019 compared with the same period last year, a result of careful cost control and savings from our insourcing programme.

“Fees and other income were up 25 percent during H1 2019, compared with the same period last year, to QR629m. The increase was driven by gains in foreign exchange trading income and investment income.

Consolidated net profit was also supported by a reduction in net loan provisioning which declined 2 percent during H1 2019, sup-ported by an improved asset quality and increased recovery of NPLs”, the Group CEO said.

Consolidated net interest income was down by 8 percent to QR1.21bn during the first half of the year, due to weakness in the Turkish Lira and higher cost of funding in the Qatari market during the first quarter of 2019. However, when comparing the second quarter of 2019 with first quarter of 2019, there was an improvement of 9.7 percent as a result of systematic efforts to improve net interest margins during the quarter. This was achieved through a reduction in the cost of funding through careful management of our cost

of deposits and repricing of our loan book.

Loans and advances were QR84.8bn in the first half of 2019, down 2 percent compared to the same period last year, largely due to the depreciation of the Turkish Lira. Customer deposits increased moderately to QR76.9bn, up 3 percent in H1 2019, compared to the same period last year.

The Domestic Bank reported net profit of QR870m, an increase of 11 percent compared to the same period last year. The improvement was largely driven by a reduction in net provisioning which decreased 15 percent com-pared to the same period last year. Operating profit increased to QR1.16bn during the period, driven by cost optimisation and an increase in total fees and other income which partially offset the

decline in net interest income. Loan and advances to customers were stable at QR 73.7bn. Cus-tomer deposits increased 5 percent to QR67.5bn.

The Lira’s depreciation by circa 26 percent compared to the same period last year has impacted Alternatif Bank’s com-paratives when translated in terms of Qatari Riyal. Alternatif Bank reported an increase in net profit to TL 99m, up 25 percent compared to the same period last year. In Turkish Lira, Alternatif Bank grew customer deposits by 15 percent and loans and advances by 8 percent, however in terms of Qatari Riyals, cur-rency depreciation led to a 15 percent decline in loans and advances to customers and a 9 percent decline in customer deposits.

FROM PAGE 13The Island, which derives its name from the full-round, pink-tinted and perfectly shaped pearl from Qatar’s marine heritage, will support a mix of property types, catering for different accommo-dation and investment needs.

The Island will offer its resi-dents a comprehensive living space merging entertainment and retail outlets with smart technol-ogies. It is expected to attract a

warm, welcoming and youthful community seeking an urbane and vibrant lifestyle.

The Island will include a golf course, an air-conditioned outdoor Crystal Walkway which acts like the Island’s spine, green parks and which will attract new brands to Doha. The Island will also be home to entertainment facilities, a sports club and a mosque. The Island’s design incorporates a number of

sustainability features to reduce the use of vehicles and encourage walking and biking through ded-icated pedestrian and cycling net-works in addition to roads con-necting the Island to the public transportation network.

The Island is also designed to reduce urban heat by incorpo-rating green roofs, shading, and reflective surfaces, where appli-cable. UDC, the master developer of The Pearl-Qatar and Gewan

Islands, is a leading Qatari public shareholding company with a mission to identify and invest in long-term projects contributing to Qatar’s growth and providing good shareholder value.

UDC activities cover a mul-titude of vital investment sectors including real estate devel-opment, property management, infrastructure and utilities, mar-itime and hospitality related businesses.

United Development Company awards marine works at QR3bn Gewan Island

Commercial Bank’s net profit grows to QR934m

Oman’s OCTAL secures $625m in loansREUTERS DUBAI

Omani plastics packaging manufacturer OCTAL has secured $625m in banking facilities, it said yesterday, after pulling last year a planned $300 million debut bond.

The company continues to look at the bond market for future funding requirements should market conditions be favourable, its finance chief said. OCTAL, which makes thermoplastic sheets and resin for use in packaged goods, will use part of the bank financing to refinance some of its existing debt and to fund expansion.

The facilities include a $225m syndicated term loan and $400m in working capital. “This deal allows us to increase our production by almost 100,000 tonnes of sheet,” Chief Financial Officer Scott Ewen said in an interview, from current production of around 250,000 tonnes.

OCTAL last year hired Citi, Credit Suisse, HSBC, and Standard Chartered to arrange a $300 million bond issue, its debut in the international debt markets. The debt sale however was pulled in October, at a time of choppy conditions across emerging markets.

Apicorp estimates that in the next five years, close to $350bn could be invested in the Mena’s power sector with renewable energy accounting for 34 percent of power investment.

Officials from United Development Company (UDC), UrbaCon Trading & Contracting Company, and Promar Marine Contracting Company

posing for a group picture on the sidelines of the signing ceremony.

Pound extends plungeREUTERS

LONDON

Sterling plunged to a six-month low against the euro yesterday and approached two-year lows against the dollar, as the two candidates to be Britain’s next prime minister vied to outgun each other on taking a harder Brexit stance.

Markets see their positions as sharply raising the risk of Britain leaving the European Union on October 31 without any transition trading agreements in place, potentially forcing the Bank of England to cut interest rates to stave off economic catastrophe.

Boris Johnson, front-runner to be chosen leader by the Con-servative Party, as well as his rival Jeremy Hunt said late on Monday they would not accept the so-called Northern Irish backstop element of Theresa May’s Brexit deal.

Both are trying to appeal to the majority of the Tory party members who are keen to make a clean break with the EU.

The contest between Johnson and Hunt “has trans-formed into an arms race of who is a bigger Brexiter,” said Vasileios Gkionakis (pictured), global head of forex strategy at Lombard Odier.

The backstop, one of Brussels’ principal demands in

Brexit negotiations, is designed to prevent the return of a hard border between EU-member Ireland and British province Northern Ireland. If imple-mented, the UK would follow many EU rules until arrange-ments are made to avert a hard border.

The Brexit concerns, coupled with signs of a rapidly deterio-rating economy, have taken sterling near its lowest levels in years.

“The market is pricing in a higher probability of a no-deal Brexit and an increase of eco-nomic pressure,” said Gkionakis.

“You have the perfect storm for sterling.” The British cur-rency weakened 0.5 percent yesterday to $1.2455, a six-day low. If it falls below $1.2439 it would sink to its lowest in more than two years, excluding the “flash crash” on January 3 when it dropped to $1.2409.

Against the euro the pound fell 0.3 percent to a low of 90.25 pence, the lowest since January 11.

It failed to budge higher even after employment data showed average weekly earnings unexpectedly rose 3.4 percent year-on-year in the three-months to May. However, the labour market strength is widely attributed to employers hiring workers who they can later lay off if needed.

15WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019 BUSINESS

CROSSWORD

Based on life of Patna-based mathematician Anand Kumar who runs the famed Super 30 program for IIT aspirants in Patna.

SUPER 30

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 4:15, 8:45 & 11:30pm; Gorilla (2D/Tamil) 2:00pm; Rustum (2D) 2:30pm; Coconut: The Little Dragon (2D/Animation) 2:15pm; Aladdin (2D) 5:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 3:45pm; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 7:45pm;Spider-Man: Far From Home 7:00 & 9:15pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 4:45 & 11:30pm; Escape Plan: The Extractors 7:00 & 9:45pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 9:45pm; Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 11:30pm

Gorilla (2D/Tamil) 2:00pm; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 2:00 & 11:00pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 6:15, 8:30 & 11:30pm;Coconut: The Little Dragon (2D/Animation) 2:15pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 2:00, 3:45 & 7:15pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 6:00pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 9:30pm; Escape Plan: The Extractors 7:45pm; El Mamar (2D/Arabic) 8:30pm; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 11:15pm

Spider-Man: Far From Home 12:45, 3:30, 6:15, 9:00 & 11:45pm; Shubha Rathri 10:30am, 4:00 & 9:30pm;And The Oscar Goes To 8:45 & 11:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:45am; Gorilla 1:00 & 6:15pm; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 1:00, 6:30pm & 12:00midnight; Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 3:30 & 11:00pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 8:45pm

MALL

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 5:30, 8:00, 10:30pm; Gorilla (2D/Tamil) 8:15pm; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 5:45, 8:45, 11:45pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 5:45pm; Kakshi: Amminipilla (2D/Malayalam) 5:30 & 10:30pmThamasha (2D/Malayalam) 8:00pm;Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 10:45pm

ASIAN TOWN

FLIK Mirqab Mall

ROXY

Aladdin (2D/Comedy) 10:00am, 12:35, 3:10pm;Anna (2D/Action) 11:00am, 1:20, 3:05, 5:20, 8:20 & 10;35pm; Annabelle Comes Home (2D/Comedy) 7:10, 9:20 & 11:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 10:50, 11:15am, 12:45, 1:05, 2:55, 4:35, 6:30, 8:25, 10:20pm & 12:20am; Hamlet Faroun 5:50 & 7:50pm;Men In Black International 11:05am, 1:20 & 3:35pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:20am, 11:00, 12:25, 1:00, 2:30, 3:00 & 5:00pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 4:45, 7:25pm & 12:10am; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 5:40, 8:00, 9:00, 10:05 & 11:20pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 10:15, 11:15am, 12:50, 2:40, 3:25, 5:15, 6:00, 7:00, 8:35, 10:10, 11:10pm & 12:15am 3D 1:50, 4:25 & 9:35pm

Spider-Man: Far From Home 11:00, 1:00, 5:10, 7:50, 8:00, 7:20, 10:00 & 10:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 11:00am, 12:30, 1:00, 2:30, 3:40, 4:00, 6:20 8:20 & 10:30pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 3:10, 8:40, 9:10pm & 12:10am; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 1:40, 6:00, 5:40, 7:10, 9:30, 10:40 & 11:30pm; The Extractors 8:20 & 11:50pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 1:10, 3:10, 6:00, 6:30, 11:40pm & 12:30am;Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 10:30am, 12:30, 1:50, 3:00, 3:50, 4:30, 10:00 & 10:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 12:40, 2:20, 2:50, 3:20, 4:50, 5:00 & 7:00pm

Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 9:00pm;Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 2:15, 6:15 & 11:15pm; Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 2:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 4:30pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 5:00 & 9:15pm; Step-Up: Year of The Dance (2D/Drama) 6:15pm Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 7:15pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 9:30pm;Escape Plan: The Extractors 11:30pm; Gorilla (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Fidelity steps up fee war with VanguardBLOOMBERG BOSTON

Fidelity Investments is stepping up its rivalry with Vanguard Group by launching five new index mutual funds with expense ratios it says are lower than the equivalent products at its competitor.

Fidelity, which has $2.8trillion under management, on Tuesday announced the addition of four index funds with expense ratios of 0.05 percent that invest in either mid-cap or small-cap growth or value stocks, as well as a municipal bond vehicle charging 0.07 percent. Expense ratios on equivalent funds at Vanguard range from 0.6 percent to 0.19 percent depending on the class of investor, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

Fidelity has been engaging in a price war with competitors as investors flock to the cheapest products. Last year, it offered the first zero-fee index mutual funds. Across US stock and bond mutual funds and ETFs, passively managed products attracted net deposits of about $252.9bn in the first half of this year, while the active side of the industry saw $28.5bn flee, according to data from research firm Morningstar Inc.

In addition to the new mutual funds, Fidelity’s 53 existing stock and bond index funds and 11 sector exchange-traded funds carry lower expense ratios than Vanguard, the Boston-based firm said in a news release. Fidelity last month cut fees on target-date mutual funds and expanded its commission-free ETF platform.

In an interview with Bloomberg Markets magazine in November, Chief Executive Officer Abigail Johnson said offering a series of zero-fee funds and eliminating investment minimums were aimed at allowing the firm to “find other ways for people to give us a try.”

valio

Qatar banks are strong and resilient: KPMGSATISH KANADY THE PENINSULA

The financial institutions in Qatar will need to readjust themselves according to the changing global financial services industry land-scape. Local financial institutions will have to increase their focus on international reporting protocols, regulatory compliance, forth-coming VAT implications, digital transformation, mitigating fraud and cybercrime risks and facili-tating a highly valued corporate governance culture that will benefit all stakeholders, KPMG said here yesterday.

KPMG’s ‘Qatar Banking Per-spectives 2019’ released yesterday noted its evaluation of the financial and non financial trends indicates strength and resilience in the banking sector in Qatar. KPMG also sees a positive outlook, with prom-ising opportunities for growth and transformation of the traditional ways of doing business.

The banking sector is con-stantly evolving and to successfully navigate through this environment, local financial institutions will need to increase their focus on interna-tional reporting protocols, regu-latory compliance, forthcoming VAT implications, digital transfor-mation, mitigating fraud and cyber crime risks and facilitating a highly valued corporate governance culture that will benefit all stakeholders.

2018 has been a positive year for listed banks in Qatar, with an average 9.5 percent growth in net profit and 3.2 percent growth in total assets, which demonstrates strength and opportunities in the sector.

Omar Mahmood (pictured), head of Financial Services for KPMG in the Middle East & South Asia, and partner at KPMG in Qatar, commented: “The banking per-spectives looks at some of the key

trends we are seeing globally, through the lens of the local banking industry here in Qatar and provides insights that we hope readers will find valuable.

Qatar’s banking sector con-tinues to maintain resilience, amidst an evolving regulatory land-scape and continued technological change, while also embracing the digital agenda.”

In the constant drive for growth, Qatar banks would do well to swiftly adapt to a shifting regu-latory and consumer landscape. Banks need not, however, be overly cautious of venturing into uncharted territory. Rather, they can pioneer practices and products that cater to gaps in the market or improve operational efficiency and competitive positioning, Omar added.

Qatar banks continue to encourage a healthy corporate culture, and are now considering practices that are in line with the sustainability agenda, while strides in digital innovation can be exploited to their full potential as traditional banking methods are transformed by the digital age.

The KPMG report noted Qatar is committed to adopting revised Basel IV guidelines and the QCB has already initiated consultative guidelines on the subject. The country has already adopted and implemented the Basel III framework ahead of some of its GCC peers. Governance culture has moved rapidly up the global agenda

of financial institutions in recent years, which has driven an increasing interest amongst com-panies in Qatar to focus on this very important subject.

The growth of the Islamic financial market is becoming sys-temically important as the GCC consolidates its position as a glo-bally significant economic hub. The growth of Islamic finance may be sustained by addressing some key points. These include the ‘form over substance’ debate and the need for harmonization of standards.

On the cybercrime, the report warned that cybercrime committed these days by criminals are dem-onstrating a growing knowledge of our financial systems and their potential weaknesses. The security response of firms must be managed through carefully controlled and audited control environments, delivered at the pace that this ver-ification and accounting process allows.

On IFRS9, KPMG said credit management practices will be impacted in the future, as banks will have to estimate forward-looking expected loss over the life of the financial facility and monitor for ongoing credit-quality deterioration. The credit benchmarks have become higher and more relevant; costs and recoveries will have to be cap-tured and monitored frequently. Banks may have to revise per-formance indicators, incentives and compensation schemes to reflect IFRS 9 adjusted profita-bility. The collections team would have to start their work sooner, considering the 30 days past due (DPD) threshold for significant increase in credit risk (SICR). Shocks on the economy would require vigorous monitoring and transferring of borrowers from stage 1 to stage 2. Such monitoring will lead to an increase in col-lection and recovery costs.

Omar_Mahmood

16 WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019BUSINESS

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REGENCY RESIDENCE (WEST BAY): �3���+�.���������0����������)�0�%����-������������������������������������������������������������������� ���������� ������������� �����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()� (�������� *����� �+��� ��������-�� *�+� ������������-�����������*��������������������������A�������������+�� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� ������ (������+�� ������������ ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829�:::2�;887� �:::0�?=2;� ::<7�;2?0����"%�'4)������+�������@�������������������

BEVERLY HILLS TOWER (WEST BAY): � 3���+� .��������� >��������� �� � � ����������� � ��� >� ���������� ������ �����������-�� ����� � � ������� ��������� ������� �� ������� ��� ���������� ����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+������������*� ���,����������������������������������������������-��*�+�������������-�����������*����������������������������..��� ���*�� ����+� ������ .��� ���� �� ������� ��!�"�#$�("�/'�"()� 02� (������+�� ����������� 4��������� �������� ������������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829�:::2;887 � ::<7� ;2?0� � ??;;� 2?>?� :::=� 08>2� ��� "%�'4)������+�������@�������������������

REGENCY PEARL 3 (THE PEARL):�(����.������������������������*��B� ����� ������� ��� ����� ���� ������ ��� /���� C���+�(��������*������+���������������������D��*�+����3!��%!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� 8;02� ??20 � ::<8�<=7>�� �::<7�<070� �??;;�=>07� �>>07�2>0=����"%�'4)������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 3 (THE PEARL): (����.������������������������*��B� ����� ������� ��� ����� ���� ������ ��� /���� C���+�(��������*������+���������������������D��*�+����3!��%!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� 8;02� ??20 � ::<8�<=7>�� �::<7�<070� �??;;�=>07� �>>07�2>0=����"%�'4)������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 3 (THE PEARL): (����.���������������������*������� ��� ����� ���� ������ ��� /���� C���+� (��������*����� �+��� ����� ��� ����� �� ���D�� *�+� ��� 3!�� %!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� 8;02� ??20 � ::<8� <=7>�� � ::<7� <070� � ??;;� =>07� � >>07� 2>0=� ��� "%�'4)� �����@������������������ ����+�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 3 (THE PEARL):�(����.���������������������*������� ��� ����� ���� ������ ��� /���� C���+� (��������*����� �+��� ����� ��� ����� �� ���D�� *�+� ��� 3!�� %!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� 8;02� ??20 � ::<8� <=7>�� � ::<7� <070� � ??;;� =>07� � >>07� 2>0=� ��� "%�'4)� �����@������������������ ����+�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 5 (THE PEARL):� (���� .���������=���������*������� ��� ����� ���� ������ ��� /��� C���+� (��������*����� �+��� ����� ��� ����� �� ���D�� *�+� ��� 3!�� %!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�::8;�=802� �::<8�<=7>�� �::<7�<070� �??;;�=>07� �>>07�2>0=����"%�'4)������+���+@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 5 (THE PEARL): (���� .��������� �������*������� ��� ����� ���� ������ ��� /��� C���+� (��������*����� �+��� ����� ��� ����� �� ���D�� *�+� ��� 3!�� %!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�::8;�=802� �::<8�<=7>�� �::<7�<070� �??;;�=>07� �>>07�2>0=����"%�'4)������+���+@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 1 (THE PEARL): 3���+�.���������(�������+*������������ ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � � ����������� ��-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..����������������D��*�+�������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02�������E��*��������������+��� ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)�5678298;02�??20 �::<8�<=7>�� �::<7�<070� �??;;�=>07����"%�'4)����*���=�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 2 (THE PEARL): 3���+�.���������(�������+*������������ ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � � ����������� ��-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..����������������D��*�+�������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02�������E��*��������������+��������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�8;02� ??20� � ::<7<070� � ??;;� =>07� � ::<:� ;2=>� ��� "%�'4)����*����������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 1 (THE PEARL):�3���+�.���������(�������+*������������ ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � � ����������� ��-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..����������������D��*�+�������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02�������E��*��������������+��������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�::<8�<=7>�� �::<7�<070� �??;;�=>07����"%�'4)����*����������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 2 (THE PEARL): 3���+�.���������(�������+*������������ ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � � ����������� ��-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..����������������D��*�+�������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02�������E��*��������������+��� ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)�567829�8;02�??20 �::<7<070� �??;;�=>07� �::<:�;2=>����"%�'4)����*����������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 2 (THE PEARL): 3���+� .���������=�C����������������� ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � � ����������� ��-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..����������������D��*�+�������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02�������E��*��������������+��������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�8;02� ??20� � ::<7� <070� � ??;;� =>07� � ::<:� ;2=>� ��� "%�'4)����*���=�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 1 (THE PEARL): Fully furnished 1 bedroom ��� ��������� ������ �������� ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � ��������������-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..��� �������� ���D�� *�+� ���� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� ������E��*��������������+��������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("� ��44)� 567829� 8;02� ??20 � ::<8� <=7>� � ::<7� <070� � :::2� =?;<� � ::<:� ;2=>� ��� "%�'4)� � ���*���=�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 1 (THE PEARL): Fully furnished 1 bedroom ��� ��������� ������ �������� ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � ��������������-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..��� �������� ���D�� *�+� ���� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� ������E��*��������������+��������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("� ��44)� 567829� 8;02� ??20 � ::<8� <=7>� � ::<7� <070� � :::2� =?;<� � :::0� ?=2;� ��� "%�'4)� � ���*���=�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 2 (THE PEARL):� 3���+� .���������=�C����������������� ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � � ����������� ��-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..����������������D��*�+�������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02�������E��*��������������+��������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�8;02� ??20� � ::<7� <070� � ??;;� =>07� � ::<:� ;2=>� ��� "%�'4)����*���=�������@�����������������

REGENCY PEARL 1 (THE PEARL): Fully furnished 1 bedroom + �.H��������������������������������������������������������� ��������������-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..��� �������� ���D�� *�+� ���� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� �������������+��������������������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�::<8�<=7>� �::<7�<070� �??;;�0>72� �??;;�0>:?����"%�'4)����*���=�������@�������������������

REGENCY PEARL 2 (THE PEARL): 3���+�.���������0������������ ��������� ������ �������� � ������� �� ������� ���� �������� � ��������������-�����!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()�(��������*������+�����..��� �������� ���D�� *�+� ���� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� �������������+��������������������������3!��%!�"�'&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�8;02�??20� �::<7�<070� �??;;�0>72� �??;;�0>:?����"%�'4)����*����������@�������������������

UMM BAB TOWER (WESTBAY): 3���+�.���������0����������0�%����-����������������������������������������������������������������������������!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()� '������ ���������*����� .���+� �I��**��� �+��� �����+�� ��������D�� *�+������� ���������� *������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)�567829�>>072>0=� �:::0�?=2;� �::<7�;2?0����"%�'4)������+�������@�������������������

UMM BAB TOWER (WESTBAY):� 3���+� .��������� >� ��������6� ���-� ����� � � J�����)� >� %����-�� �������� ����� �������������������������������������������������������������!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()� '������ ��������� *����� .���+� �I��**��� �+��������+�� ��������D�� *�+������� �� �������� *������� 3!��%!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� >>072>0= � ??;;�2?>?� � :::=� 08>2� ::<7� <070� ��� "%�'4)� �����+�������@�������������������

COMPOUNDBEVERLY HILLS GARDEN 10 (Al WAAB): (���� .��������� 2��������� ����)� >� ��������� ������ �������� �����+� ������ ��������� ������� ���� �������� � � �*���� ��-��� ��!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()�(�������� *����� C�������� ��������-�� *�+� ���� K+����������!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()� 02� ������ �������+� �� ����������� 3!��%!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)� 567829�>>:0�=8=>� �??;;�0>:?� � ::<:� ;2=>� � :::2� =?;<� � ::<7� ;0;8��� "%�'4)� ����������@�������������������

AIN KHALID GATE: 3���+� .��������� 2� �������� ����� ����� 0�%����-������������������������������� ��������������������� �����������-�� ������ �����+� ������0� ������� ����������������� �������� � � ����������� ��-��� ���+��� ��� �� *��������������� *����� ��!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� ��������������� A������� ������� K+��� ������� A������� ���� ����������� ������ �������� ������� ������� ������� �I���� ���������I������*��������������+����*��������+����������������������������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02��������������+��������������3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&� �4"�("� ��44)� 567829� ::?=� 870?� �::<:� :08=� � � ??;;� 0>:?� � � ::<7� ;2?0� � ��� "%�'4)� ��������������@�������������������

AIN KHALID GATE: 3���+� .��������� 0� �������� ����� ����� 0���������� �������� 5�*��� ��� ������9� � � ����������� ��-�����!�"�#$� �%"&'#'"()� (�������� ������� �������� A��������������K+����������A����������������������������������������������������������I�������������I������*��������������+����*��������+����������������������������!�"�#$�("�/'�"()�02� ������ �������+� �� ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�::?=�870?� �::<:�:08=�� �::<7�;2?0� ����"%�'4)���������������@�������������������

BEVERLY HILLS GARDEN 2 (AL WAAB):� (���� .��������� 2��������� �����)� 0� %����-�� C������� ����� ������� ����������� .���+� ��������������������������� �������� �*���������������� ����� �����+�� ���-�� ����� ����� ��������� ������� ����������������������������������*���������+������!�"�#$��%"&'#'"()� (�������� *����� �+��� �������� ������ ������� ��������������� ������� ��� ��������-�� *�+� ���� ��!�"�#$� ("�/'�"()�02� ������ �������+� �� ����������� 3!�� %!�"� '&3!�%�#'!&��4"�("���44)�567829�>>:0�=8=>� �??;;�0>:?� �::<:�;2=>� �:::2�=?;<� �??;;2?>?����"%�'4)�����������@�������������������

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17WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019 CLASSIFIEDS

SPORT18WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019

This (World Cup win) will give the guys confidence and we’ve

talked about taking that forward into a series like that

(a series like Ashes).”

England’s Test captain

Joe Root ATP World Tour 250

Tournament

Newport, Rhode Island, USA

Tour de France

Stage 11

From Albi to Toulouse

TENNIS CYCLING

TO

DA

Y’S

AC

TIO

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Bangladesh rest Shakib for Sri Lanka ODIsAFP DHAKA

Bangladesh are resting all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan but have retained skipper Mashrafe Mortaza for the three-match one-day interna-tional series against Sri Lanka later this month, officials said yesterday.

Left-arm spinner Taijul Islam and top-order batsman Anamul Haque were also recalled to replace Shakib and batsman Liton Das, who has been rested for personal reasons.

Medium pace Abu Jayed, who was part of World Cup squad but did not play any games, was the other player to miss out.

Bangladesh finished eighth in the World Cup after just three wins -- against struggling South Africa, West Indies and Afghanistan.

The Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) sacked coach Steve Rhodes after the team returned home last week and announced it will not renew the contract of bowling coach Courtney Walsh.

Mashrafe, who claimed just one wicket in eight matches, shouldered the responsibility for the team’s lacklustre performance, but the BCB has kept faith on him.

The teams will play three one-day interna-tionals on July 26, 28 and 31 at the Premadasa International Stadium in Colombo.

BANGLADESH SQUAD: Mashrafe Mortaza (Capt), Tamim Iqbal,

Soumya Sarker, Anamul Haque, Mohammad Mithun, Mushfiqur Rahim, Mahmudullah Riyad, Mosaddek Hossain, Sabbir Rahman, Mehidy Hasan, Taijul Islam, Rubel Hossain, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur Rahman.

BCCI invites applications for head coachREUTERS NEW DELHI

India’s cricket board (BCCI) yesterday invited applications for the position of head coach and support staff for the men’s side, with incumbent Ravi Shastri and his team given automatic entry in the recruitment process.

The contract of the current coaching staff is set to expire after the tour of the West Indies starting Aug. 3, where India play three T20 inter-nationals, three ODIs and two tests.

In a statement, the BCCI said it was inviting applications for the positions of head coach, batting coach, bowling coach, fielding coach, physiotherapist, strength and conditioning coach as well as an administrative manager.

Former India all-rounder Shastri was appointed in 2017 and succeeded former captain Anil Kumble, who stepped down after falling out with skipper Virat Kohli despite a successful run while in charge of the team. Under Shas-tri’s guidance, India won a maiden Test series in Australia earlier this year and are ranked number one in the world in the format. They also reached the semi-finals of the 50-over World Cup.

World Cup success can spur England to Ashes glory: RootREUTERS LONDON

England’s Cricket World Cup triumph can be the perfect launch pad to complete a memorable double by winning the Ashes series against Australia this year, Test skipper Joe Root has said.

Hosts England ended a 44-year wait to win the World Cup as they beat New Zealand side on boundary count after

a tied Super Over in a dra-matic final on Sunday.

Shifting focus to the five-match Ashes series, which begins on Aug. 1, the 28-year-old said England were full of confidence as they bid to reclaim the urn having already achieved one of their targets.

“It’s what we set out to do two or three years ago and we’re halfway there. This will give the guys confidence and we’ve talked about taking that

forward into a series like that,” Root said.

England beat Australia in the World Cup semi-finals at Edgbaston, the venue for the first Ashes test, and Root said they were looking forward to getting back there.

“The way we played against Australia in that semi-final... the guys who were involved relished it and will want a bit more: the feeling of euphoria we felt at that ground,” Root added.

“To potentially be able to experience all that again is very exciting. Ashes cricket always has a different edge to it so that in itself will get everyone going.

“The atmosphere, the way it builds up and the way the guys get excited about it, it’s like no other series in test cricket.”

However, England must ensure their ODI success does not affect preparations, all-rounder Ben Stokes said.

“Everyone here deserves to feel like a champion because we’ve just won it, but when it comes to the Ashes it’s going to be heads on again because it has to be,” Stokes said.

“Whether you’re winning or losing, you’ve just got to wipe the slate clean.”

England warm up for the series with their first ever test against Ireland, a four-day contest, starting on July 24.

Gary Woodland of

the US during a practice

session at the Royal

Portrush Golf Club in

Portrush, Northern

Ireland, yesterday,

ahead of the 148th Open

Championship which begins

tomorrow.

Woodland keen to extend American major dominanceREUTERS PORTRUSH, NORTHERN IRELAND

Americans have won nine of the last 10 major championships and US Open winner Gary Woodland is keen to extend that domination at this week’s British Open.

The non-American to win a recent major was Italian Francesco Molinari at the Open Championship in Carnoustie, Scotland 12 months ago.

“I like that trend, it’s obviously good. The game is in a great spot. You have a lot of young guys, Justin (Thomas), (Jordan) Spieth, all these guys that have won,” Woodland told a news conference yesterday.

“But you’ve still got a lot of Europeans and people from all over the world.”

Woodland will play with Northern Irishman Rory McIlroy, the 2014 British Open champion, and England’s Paul Casey in the first two rounds at Portrush.

“Rory, obviously this is a huge week for him. So I anticipate there will be some fireworks out there for him this week,” Woodland said.

The 35-year-old is still adjusting to the demands of being a major champion after his maiden triumph at Pebble Beach last month but likes the Portrush course which he described as “spectacular”.

“I think it sets up great for me. I think more than typical Opens that I played, you’ve really got to ball strike it,” Woodland said.

“A big emphasis on controlling the golf ball into the greens. Not a

lot of run-ups, you’re going to have to fly it on the greens, which I think sets up pretty good for me. Game is feeling really good. I’m excited for this week.” he added.

The Open is being held at Por-trush for the second time -- 68 years after the only other occasion the Northern Ireland venue hosted the major.

“The golf course is really, really good. It’s in unbelievable condition. It’s very lush, very green, I would say, compared to last year it was so firm and fast. This one a little softer, I would say, right now,” said Woodland, who is visiting Northern Ireland for the first time.

“The town, went to dinner the

other night, it’s very busy, but the weather has obviously been spec-tacular. The golf course, the views, everything has been very, very nice,” Woodland said.

Woodland used to live near Northern Ireland’s Graeme McDowell, the 2010 US Open champion.

“I was Graeme McDowell’s neighbour for eight years in Orlando. I heard a lot about it. I hadn’t been over here yet and I’m glad I did, because it’s a beautiful place,” Woodland said.

English cricketers pose for a photograph with Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May, outside No. 10 Downing Street with

the trophy, on Monday, a day after they won the 2019 Cricket World Cup after beating New Zealand in the final at Lord’s.

Umpires are ‘human’: New Zealand coach SteadREUTERS WELLINGTON

New Zealand coach Gary Stead has shrugged off the debate as to whether an umpiring error cost the Black Caps dearly in the World Cup final against England, saying umpires are “human” and the result could not be changed anyway.

England beat New Zealand on boundaries after a tied Super Over, but former Australian umpire Simon Taufel suggested that the umpires had incorrectly awarded an extra over-throw run to Ben Stokes in the 50th over when the ball deflected off his bat on the way to the boundary.

While Taufel said it was an “error of judgment” by the umpires, he added that it was “unfair” to say the extra run had decided the outcome.

Stead was also sympa-thetic with the umpires and said he had accepted his team’s heart-breaking defeat at Lord’s.

“At the end of the day the umpires are there to rule and they’re human as well and like players sometimes errors are made, That’s just the human aspect of sport and probably why we care so much as well,” he said.

The manner of England’s win has sparked fierce debate around the world and some level of angst in New Zealand, where disappointed fans

vented their fury on social media.

The extra run aside, former New Zealand coach Mike Hesson was unhappy that the Super Over was used

as a tiebreaker, followed by total boundaries scored.

“Using a Super Over to decide it was farcical and the International Cricket Council needs to give itself an uppercut

for even entertaining it as a tiebreaker,” he wrote in a column for Fairfax Media.

Stead said he expected the ICC to review the way future finals were decided but added there was nothing New Zealand could do now.

“I’m sure there’s going to be many things they will look at over the whole tournament. I’m sure when they’re writing the rules they never expect the world cup final to happen like that so I’m sure it’ll be reviewed, absolutely.

“It’s a very, very hollow feeling that you can play 100 overs and score the same amount of runs and still lose the game. But that’s the technicalities of sport sometimes.”

The ball deflects off England’s Ben Stokes before rolling to the boundary during the World Cup final on Sunday.

Former Al Sadd skipper and current coach Xavi (left) speaks to his players during the team’s pre-season training session in Olot, Spain. The training camp that started on Sunday will conclude on July 29. Al Sadd players, who represented Qatar at Copa America, also joined the team in Olot following a break. CENTRE: Xavi during the session. RIGHT: Former Iceland coach and now Al Arabi manager Heimir Hallgrímsson (centre) supervising the team’s training camp, under way in Spain. The team, which arrived on Thursday will play five friendly matches to prepare for the new season. Al Arabi’s first game will be against Girona today.

QNB Stars League clubs prepare for new season

PSG sign Diallo from DortmundREUTERS PARIS

Paris St Germain have signed French defender Abdou Diallo on a five-year deal from German side Borussia Dortmund, the French cham-pions said yesterday.

No financial details were disclosed but media reports said the fee was worth about £29m ($35.98m).

“It is a great honour to be involved with such a pres-tigious club as Paris Saint-Germain. I have always said that the Parisian project was very attractive,” the 23-year-old said in a statement on the club’s website.

“Joining the capital club today is another important step in my career. I am committed to giving my all for my new club and look forward to bringing my qualities and desire to this team renowned for its high quality and high ambitions.”

Diallo joined Dortmund last season from Mainz 05 and went on to make 38 total appear-ances for the German side who finished runners-up in the Bun-desliga behind champions Bayern Munich.

“We’re in a good position in the defensive area, both in terms of player numbers and quality, and Abdou really wanted to accept the offer from his home country, and it’s a very valuable one for us,”

Dortmund sporting director Michael Zorc said.

“We thank Abdou Diallo for his commitment to Borussia Dortmund and wish him good health and much success in his new workplace,” Zorc added.

Meanwhile, Barcelona have re-signed left back Marc Cucurella from Eibar after the 20-year-old’s impressive first season in the Spanish top flight.

A statement from the La Liga champions said they had exercised a buy-back clause in the player’s contract for four million euros, less than two

months after Eibar had agreed to sign him on a permanent basis for €2m.

Cucurella, who can play on the left side of defence and on the left wing, came through Barca’s youth ranks but only played seven minutes of first-team football in the Copa del Rey before moving to Eibar on loan last season, playing 31 La Liga games.

He made his name with a stunning performance in the Basque team’s 3-0 win over Real Madrid and scored against Barca in a 2-2 draw on the final day of the season.

In this file photo taken on December 1, 2018 Dortmund’s

defender Abdou Diallo runs with the ball during a

Bundesliga match against SC Freiburg

in Dortmund.

Atletico to rope in England’s Trippier from Spurs: ReportsREUTERS MADRID

England defender Kieran Trippier is on the verge of moving from Tottenham Hotspur to Atletico Madrid, reports in the Spanish and British media said yesterday.

English newspaper the Daily Telegraph said Trippier, 28, has travelled to the Spanish capital ahead of a move worth £20m ($24.83m).

Spanish daily Marca said Atletico, who finished runners-up in La Liga last season, have turned to Trippier after failing to sign Portugal right back Nelson Semedo from Barcelona.

Atletico did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the reports.

Trippier helped Spurs reach the Champions League final for the first time in their history last season, where they were beaten 2-0 by Liverpool in Atletico’s Wanda Metropolitano stadium.

Speaking after the final, the right back admitted his future with Tottenham was unclear, saying: “I want to stay in England but what can you do? I’ll see what happens and what the club wants, most importantly.”

Trippier was part of the England side which reached the semi-finals of the 2018 World Cup, scoring from a free kick in their 2-1 defeat by Croatia in the last four.

Marca also said that Atletico are set to sign Spain defender Mario Hermoso from Espanyol as they look to continue to bolster their back line after a spate of high profile departures.

Atletico bid farewell to former captain Diego Godin and fellow stalwart defenders Filipe Luis and Juanfran after their contracts all expired.

Chelsea do not need new players to be successful, says LampardREUTERS TOKYO

Chelsea are facing a transfer ban but new manager Frank Lampard is confident the Premier League club do not need to bring in new players to taste success.

Lampard, who is the club’s record goals-corer from his time as a player, was appointed Chelsea’s new manager this month.

With Chelsea unable to add new players to their squad following a FIFA ban, Lampard has been tasked with improving the players he inherited from predecessor Mauricio Sarri and promoting young players from the club’s academy.

Speaking shortly after arriving in Yokohama yesterday for the Japan leg of the club’s pre-season tour, Lampard said he was impressed with the attitude of his new charges.

“I think I have inherited very good players,” Lampard said ahead of Chelsea’s pre-season friendly against Japanese cham-pions Kawasaki Frontale on Friday.

“We can’t bring in any new players, we know that this year. But I don’t need new players. I am very happy with the squad and determined for us to be successful.

“I have my own way that I want to work with the players and I have to say, in the one week we have been training, I have been very happy with the attitude and the qualities of the players.”

Friday’s clash with Kawasaki will be the third game of Lampard’s tenure, with Chelsea having secured a win and a draw during two pre-season matches in Ireland last week.

Lampard will be assisted at Stamford Bridge by former academy coach Jody Morris.

As Olympics near, swimmers look to shine at WorldsREUTERS SEOUL

The slogan for this month’s World Aquatics Championships in South Korea is “Dive into Peace” but geopolitics will be the last thing on swimmers minds as they plunge into the Gwangju pool looking to lay down a marker ahead of the 2020 Olympics.

A total of 42 swimming gold medals will be up for grabs at the biennial championships, a platform which catapulted future Olympic great Michael Phelps onto the global stage as a 15-year-old in 2001.

While Phelps has long since hung up his goggles, American swimming looks no less dom-inant with freestyle queen Katie Ledecky and sprint powerhouse Caeleb Dressel spearheading the US roster for the July 21 to 28 meet.

Ledecky, who is looking to add to her haul of 14 gold medals, is the world record holder in the

400, 800 and 1,500 and will compete in all three events, plus the 200.

How the five-times Olympic champion handles that punishing schedule will be a good indicator of her chances of sweeping all four at next year’s Tokyo Games, which has added the 1,500 to the programme.

Even if the 22-year-old struggles to peak in all four it is highly unlikely she will drop the 1,500 since she holds nine of the 10 fastest times ever swam in the event. If she is to be beaten in Gwangju, however, the 200 is

where it might happen. Aus-tralian Ariarne Titmus has emerged as a real threat with the fastest time of the year (1:54.30) with compatriot Emma McKeon close to that mark at last month’s Australian trials.

Swede Sarah Sjostrom and Italian Federica Pellegrini have also swam faster than Ledecky in the 200 this year.

Sjostrom has won her pre-ferred event, the 100 butterfly, at four previous world champi-onships and victory next week would make her the first female swimmer to win the same event

five times. Hungarian Katinka Hosszu could also collect her fifth win in the 400 individual medley on the final day of the championships.

For 2020 Olympics hosts Japan, gold medals may be in short supply.

Rikako Ikee, who became the first swimmer to win six gold medals at an Asian Games last August, will be absent as the 19-year-old battles leukaemia, while Rio Olympics 400 indi-vidual medley gold medallist Kosuke Hagino is taking time off to get in the right physical and mental shape for 2020.

A decade after Phelps won seven gold medals at the 2007 championships, Dressel repeated that record feat in Budapest and the American heads into the worlds in solid form for the 50 and 100 freestyle and butterfly.

The Florida native will not have it all his own way, though, with Australia’s Kyle Chalmers leading the way in the 100 free this year while Brazil’s Nicholas

Santos has been setting the times to beat in the 50 fly.

Santos was originally left off Brazil’s roster as his event is not on the Olympic pro-gramme but organisers FINA issued the 39-year-old with a special invitation to compete in Korea.

South Korean swim fans will be denied the chance to see their own superstar with an undercooked Park Tae-hwan not competing at the championships, though his freestyle arch-rival S u n Y a n g will be t h e r e looking to add to his nine w o r l d titles.

Santos has been setting the timesto beat in the 50 fly.

Santos was originally left off Brazil’s roster as his eventis not on the Olympic pro-gramme but organisers FINA issued the 39-year-old with a special invitation tocompete in Korea.

South Korean swim fans will be denied the chance to see their own superstar with an undercooked Park Tae-hwan not competing at thechampionships, though his freestylearch-rival S u n Y a n g will bet h e r e lookingto add to his nine w o r l d titles.

A total of 42 swimming gold medals will be up for

grabs at the biennial championships, a platform

which catapulted future Olympic great Michael Phelps

onto the global stage as a 15-year-old in 2001.

While Phelps has long since hung up his goggles,

American swimming looks no less dominant with

freestyle queen Katie Ledecky and sprint powerhouse

Caeleb Dressel spearheading the US roster for the

July 21 to 28 meet.

Sarah Sjostrom

19WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019 BUSINESS

PAGE | 18 PAGE | 19

World Cup success can spur England

to Ashes glory: Root

As Olympics near, swimmers look to shine at Worlds

20WEDNESDAY 17 JULY 2019

Qatar’s Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan in action in this file photo.

Al Attiyah, Baumel capture Silk Way Rally title in style

Qatar Cup set to kick off in January

THE PENINSULA DOHA

The 2020 Qatar Cup will be held in January, Qatar Stars League (QSL) announced yesterday.

The tournament which kicks off the new domestic season will see the top four clubs from the 2018-19 season in action.

Accordingly, top Al Sadd, Al Duhail, Al Sailiya and Al Rayyan will contest for the first title of the season.

The decision came after coordination of the concerned authorities to choose a suitable time for the tournament and after studying the calendar of the new season, it was decided to stage the event in January.

The decision has been made considering the busy schedule of the national team and that of the clubs who will also feature in the 2020 AFC Champions League.

The selection of the January date has been finalised to give the tournament more space in terms of marketing and promotion and to ensure coverage from the media in a distinctive manner.

The format of the tournament remains the same. The four sides will play the semi-finals and then the final.

THE PENINSULA DUNHUANG, CHINA

Overdrive Racing’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel completed a clean sweep of stage wins to secure an emphatic maiden victory in the gruelling 2019 Silk Way Rally after the final stage between Jiayuguan and Dunhuang in the People’s Republic of China yesterday.

The Toyota Gazoo Racing South Africa driver secured a winning margin of 1hr 25min 04sec with a ninth successive stage win that also gave Toyota a first ever victory at the Central Asian event that was being observed for future inclusion in the FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Rallies.

The Qatari was in a class of his own and survived the last of three demanding stages through the Gobi Desert to earn a stage time of 2hrs 27min 30sec and beat team-mate Erik Van Loon by 2min 25sec on the day. China’s Wei Han finished second overall and Frenchman Jérôme Pelichet rounded off the podium places.

Al Attiyah said: “I am so happy. This was one event that I really wanted to win and I have now managed that. It was a long demanding rally with several difficult stages towards the end in the dunes in China. This win is also a first for Toyota and means that Matthieu and I have now won every rally in which we have taken part this year.”

A delighted Baumel added: “Nine stage wins out of nine. This is an his-toric record in a major rally…”

Dutchman Erik van Loon and Frenchman Sebastien Delaunay ruined their chance of challenging for the title after transmission woes on the second stage in Russia. But the Dutchman fought back strongly with several second fastest stage times and moved up from the foot of the general classification to finish in 10th overall in the second of the Over-d r i v e Toyotas.

Al Attiyah had taken a l e a d o f 59min 58sec into the

penultimate special stage and the second of the passes through the treacherous dunes of the Gobi Desert. Around 290km were timed against the clock between Alashan and Jiay-uguan and Al Attiyah stopped the clocks in a time of 3hrs 52min 17sec.

That enabled the Qatari to extend h i s overall lead to 1hr 10min

46sec over Han Wei heading into the final stage after Frenchman Jérôme Pelichet

dropped 39 minutes on the tricky special.

“The first two stages in the Gobi desert were not easy. There

were a lot of dunes, camel grass and the average speed was really slow. We took more than four hours to cover the first one and nearly four hours for the second one. I think the organi-

sation had kept these

tough stages up their sleeves until the end,” Al Attiyah said.

Van Loon was third quickest, 9min 24sec behind his Toyota team-mate, and moved up to 10th in the overall rankings, but Matthieu Ser-radori damaged his car’s suspension on a big rock and lost sixth position to Russia’s Denis Krotov.

Overdrive Racing now switches its attention to the Baja Spain Aragón, round four of the 2019 FIA World Cup for Cross-Country Bajas, at the end of July.

2019 SILK WAY RALLY FINAL POSITIONS: TOP 5

1. Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive24hrs 25min 29sec2. Wei Han (CHN)/Liao Min (CHN) Geely SMG Buggy 25hrs 50min 33sec3. Jérôme Pelichet (FRA)/Pascal Larroque (FRA) Optimus 26hrs 09min 08sec4. Ping Sun (CHN)/Li Ma (CHN) Hanwei SMG Buggy 26hrs 19min 48sec5. Ming Zhang (CHN)/Xu Qin (CHN) Hanwei SMG Buggy 27hrs 08min 28sec

Top Qatari duo Cherif, Tijan climb up in FIVB rankings

THE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar’s top beach volleyball duo, Cherif Younousse and Ahmed Tijan finished, climbed up in the latest FIVB Beach Volleyball

rankings released yesterday.The Qatari pair have col-lected 5120 points fol-

lowing successful runs in international tour-

naments over the past few months.

Few days ago, Cherif and Tijan, the reigning Asian cham-pions were placed fifth in the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour Swatch Major Gstaad.

Cherif and Tijan will compete in the next stop of the World Tour, the Four-star event in Espinho, Portugal, which started yesterday.

Lyles to run only 200m atUS trials for Doha Worlds

REUTERS RALEIGH, NORTH CAROLINS

World 200 metres favourite Noah Lyles has ruled out also running the 100 metres at next week’s US champion-ships/world trials, the sprinter and his coach said on Monday. The longer sprint has always been Lyles’ chief objective for September’s World Cham-pionships in Doha but fast times this year had whetted his appetite to ponder a potential double.

“I’ve been discussing the idea of running the 100m along with the 200m at the US Champs with Coach over the weekend,” Lyles said in a text message.

“After Lausanne, it was really tempting to go for the 100m as well,” he added, referring to his 200m time of 19.50 seconds that made him the fourth fastest man of all-time at the distance.

“I feel like I’m improving in the 100m every race. But after thinking about it the last couple days, we decided it is better to just stick to the plan we’ve had since the fall and focus on the 200m this year,” Lyles added.

“Well, and the 4x100m!”The 100-200m double is coming

in 2020, the American, who celebrates his 22nd birthday tomorrow, said.

This year’s US championships/world trials are set for July 25-28 in Des Moines, Iowa.

Preparation and this being Lyles’ first opportunity to win a world cham-pionship played key roles in the decision to run the 200m only, Brauman said in an email.

Along with his 200m, which made him the fastest man at the distance since Usain Bolt won the 2012 Olympics, Lyles also ranks joint second best on this year’s 100m world list at 9.86 seconds.

Asian qualifiers draw to provide pathway to Qatar 2022 and beyondQNA KUALA LUMPUR

The Asian Qualifiers draw for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 Preliminary Competition and AFC Asian Cup China 2023 will be held today at the AFC House in Kuala Lumpur, providing Asia’s top 40 nations with their pathway to glory.

The seedings for the draw will be based on the latest FIFA Rankings issued on June 14, 2019 and following the conclusion of the Pre-liminary Joint Qualification Round 1 where Bangladesh, Cambodia, Guam, Malaysia and Mongolia - advanced to Round 2, according to the AFC.Com

The 40 nations will be drawn into eight groups of five teams and compete in a double round robin format, with matches to be held from September 5, 2019 to June 9, 2020. Fol-lowing the June 14, 2019 FIFA World Ranking

The group winners and four best runners-up (total 12 teams) will advance to the AFC Asian Cup China 2023 finals and the final round of qualifying for the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022.

The next best 24 teams from the prelim-inary stage of the joint qualifiers will compete in a separate competition for the remaining slots in the 24-team AFC Asian Cup China 2023.

Asia’s five representatives at the FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 Australia, Islamic Republic of Iran, Japan, Korea Republic and Saudi Arabia as well as AFC Asian Cup reigning champions Qatar have all confirmed their spots in Pot 1 after sealing their places among Asia’s top eight in the June 14, 2019, FIFA World Ranking.

In the last edition of the Asian Qualifiers, Asia’s emerging sides - India and Yemen -pro-gressed from the first round to the Continents ultimate stage in the UAE earlier this year. Hoping to emulate their success in this edition are Mongolia who qualified for the second round for the first time in their history.

Likewise, Sri Lanka, who last competed in the second round in 2004 as well as Indo-nesia and Nepal, who return after nearly eight years, will also be eyeing a similar inspiring run against some of Asias powerhouses.

AFC General Secretary Dato Windsor John said: “The last edition of the qualifying tour-nament was a resounding success in closing the gap between our Inspiring, Developing and Aspiring nations and also in raising the standards of Asian football.”

Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (right) and his French co-driver Matthieu Baumel celebrate after winning the Silk Way Rally 2019 in Dunhuang, China, yesterday.

Al Attiyah and Baumel

earn Toyota a first ever

victory at the Central

Asian event, also

becoming the first duo to

win both the Dakar Rally

and the Silk Way Rally in

the same year.