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Volume 21 | Number 7000 | 2 RiyalsSunday 4 December 2016 | 5 Rabia I 1438

Real Madrid's goalkeeper Keylor Navas in action with Barcelona's Lionel Messi during their Spanish League football match at the Camp Nou Stadium in Barcelona yesterday. El Clasico ended in a 1-1 draw. → See also page 32

Real Madrid hold Barcelona Saudi King on Gulf tour

Qatar and India sign deals

The Peninsula

Qatar and India yester-day signed a slew of agreements during the visit of Prime Min-ister and Interior

Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani to India.

The Prime Minister held offi-cial talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the latter’s residence, Hyderabad House.

The discussions were attended by members of the offi-cial delegation accompanying the Premier and a number of

Indian ministers. Talks dealt with bilateral relations and means of enhancing them to bet-ter serve the interests of the two countries and their people in addition to various areas of cooperation, Qatar News Agency reported yesterday.

The two sides also exchanged views on the latest developments in the region along with a number of regional and international issues of com-mon concern.

Following the session, the two leaders witnessed the sign-ing of a number of agreements and Memoranda of Understand-ing (MoU) between the two countries.

They included an agreement between Qatar and India on mutual exemption of entry visas for holders of diplomatic, spe-cial and official passports and a protocol for technical coopera-tion in cyberspace and fight against cybercrime between the

Qatari Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Home Affairs of India.

A Letter of Intent between Qatar and India, a MoU between Qatar's Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) and the Confederation of Indian Indus-try (CII) and another MoU between Qatar Ports Manage-ment Company (Mwani) and Indian Ports Global (IPG) were also signed.

→ Continued on page 2

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi yesterday.

Psychiatry Hospital sees rise in cases

'Qatar's Strongest Man' for second year

Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

Around 100 people with severe mental health problems are seen at the

Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Psychiatry Hospital on a daily basis, said a senior offi-cial yesterday.

These patients seen at the out-patient clinic of the hospi-tal mostly suffer from depression, anxiety disorder and schizophrenia, said Dr Suhaila Ghuloum, Senior Con-sultant Psychiatrist, HMC, speaking on the sidelines of the Fifth Qatar International Men-tal Health Conference.

“On average we see between 80 and 110 patients per day at the outpatient clinic and for in-patients we have 74 beds. The Psychiatry Hospital is the main provider of mental health services. We probably see the more severe conditions and mild to moderate condi-tions are more seen at the health centres,” she said.

Among 312 patients who sought emergency care for mental health problems at the Psychiatry Hospital within three-and-half months, 68 per-cent were men, according to a study presented on ‘Clinical profiles of patients presenting to the Psychiatry Hospital in Qatar’ during the conference.

They included 35 percent Qataris, 13.8 percent other Arabs, 36.5 percent Asians, 7.9 percent Africans and 2.4 per-cent Europeans. Among the female patients, 21.2 percent were domestic workers and 15.1 percent housewives. Majority of patients included in the study showed abnormal behaviour, aggression or self-harm ideas and high risk behaviour which would harm them or others. Some 50 percent of patients had a psychiatric history and 20 percent had been previously admitted to the hospital.

→ Continued on page 3

The Peninsula

Fahad Al Haddad was crowned champion in the Qatari nationals category for the second consecu-

tive year at the conclusion of the fourth “Qatar’s Strongest Man” competition pre-sented by Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) at Aspire Park on Friday.

“This year’s edition was far more challenging than previous ones, and I’m very proud of myself for winning a sec-ond time. The atmosphere inside the arena was incredible and the support and encouragement from the spectators really helped us keep going. AZF has done

a remarkable job every step of the way and I look forward to taking part again next year,” said Al Haddad.

In the expatriates’ category, Kenyan contestant Cristopher Oketch secured a well-deserved win after a remarkable show of strength in the truck pulling challenge.

The competition attracted unprece-dented number of spectators from the local community, with more than 1,500 people cheering the contestants from the stands during the contest which has become one of Qatar’s most popular events.

Designed as the ultimate test of

strength and endurance, competitors had to complete a number of intense chal-lenges that included lifting cars, heavy weights and sand bags, flipping giant wheels and truck pulling.

AZF Events Manager Abdullah Al Khater said: "We’re thrilled to see such a big turnout from the local community for this year’s competition. Its success during these past few years has been sup-ported by Aspire Zone’s logistical capabilities and its growing popularity is a further testament to the fact that Aspire Zone offers something for everyone."

→ Continued on page 6

Mohammed Osman The Peninsula

The just-concluded International Investment Conference-Tunisia 2020- held in Tunis under the

initiative of Qatar has reflected the importance Qatar has given to Tuni-sia and its democratic experience, says Rached Ghannouchi, chief of Ennahda Party, a member of Tunisia’s ruling coalition.

In an exclusive interview with The Peninsula in his office in Tunis, the Ennahda ideologue shared his views about the democratic process in Tuni-sia and Qatar’s role in developing the Tunisian economy.

“It is a historical event and I expect, after this conference Tunisia will not be the same as it was before. Our people have great confidence in the positive effects this conference will have in bringing opportunities for eco-nomic prosperity and a new life to them,” said Ghannouchi.

Ghannouchi described Qatar’s participation and support as “extremely exciting” considering the size of the Qatari delegation and attendance of the Emir H H Shiekh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in the conference.

→ Continued on page 5

CUSTODIAN of the Two Holy Moques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia arrived in the United Arab Emirates to begin a regional tour aimed at strengthening relations with four neighboring Gulf allies.

The visit yesterday will be followed by stops in Qatar, Bahrain and Kuwait in the days ahead.

It's his first Gulf tour since taking power in January 2015.

Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

AFTER the success of her book “A Piece of Peace”, Qatari author Sharoq Almalki is back with “A Tale of Two Beehives”— a contemporary corporate fable that delves into employee engagement and work culture she said are crucial to the advancement of every organisation.

Recent trends in corpo-rate align with employee engagement as key to suc-cess of companies in any part of the world, claims Almalki

→ Full report on page 3

Around 100 people with severe mental health problems are seen at the HMC Psychiatry Hospital daily.

Majority of patients included in the study had abnormal behaviour, aggression orself-harm ideas and high risk behaviour which would harm them or others.

Strong ties

A deal on mutual exemption of entry visas for holders of diplomatic, special and official passports and a protocol for technical cooperation in cyberspace & fight against cybercrime were signed.

Qatar's Prime Minister invited India's participation in infrastructure and investment opportunities coming up ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Ghannouchi hails Qatar's support to Tunisia

Qatari author pens book on work culture

Fahad Al Haddad

EXCLUSIVE

02 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

Continued from page 1Quoting a source at the

Indian government, the Indo- Asian News Service reported that the two leaders discussed cooperation in various sectors and acknowledged that the cur-rent level of trade and investment was much below potential.

"Prime Minister Modi high-lighted the tremendous opportunities available for Qatari investment in India's infrastruc-ture and energy sectors," the source was quoted as saying.

The two leaders also identi-fied civil aviation as a priority sector for enhancing coopera-

tion, reported the agency.On his part, the Qatari Prime

Minister invited India's partici-pation in infrastructure and investment opportunities com-ing up ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar.

He also welcomed Indian investment in the port sector of Qatar. "On energy cooperation, Prime Minister Modi said that we should go beyond the buyer-seller relationship to include joint ventures, joint research and development and joint explora-tion," the source said.

The two leaders discussed enhancing cooperation in defence and security, cyber security in

particular, and agreed on joint action to tackle money launder-ing and terrorist financing.

According to a statement issued by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, both sides agreed to increase the level of participation in infrastructure development projects on either side and undertook to exchange information on available invest-ment opportunities in a regular and timely manner.

"It was agreed to expedite steps to put in place the neces-sary framework so that economic actors on both sides can take full advantage of the opportunities available, particularly in the area

of infrastructure, special eco-nomic zones, civil aviation, energy, petrochemicals, health and pharmaceuticals, informa-tion technology, education, tourism and agriculture," the statement said.

"The two sides resolved to

work closely to combat terror-ism and radicalisation and noted the importance of consolidating the values of tolerance and pre-venting the spread of sectarianism,” It added.

H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani met

with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee and India's Interior Minister Rajnath Singh.

The Prime Minister and the accompanying delegation attended a luncheon banquet hosted by the Indian Premier in their honour.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi witnessing the exchange of documents after the signing of an agreement for cooperation between the two countries. RIGHT: The Prime Minister with Indian President Pranab Mukherjee. BELOW: The Prime Minister and his Indian counterpart at a meeting along with ministers and other officials.

Civil aviation identified as priority sector to enhance cooperation

03SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, Personal Representative of the Emir, yesterday attended the closing session of the two-day Conference on Safeguarding Endangered Cultural Heritage, held in Abu Dhabi. The session was attended by a number of heads of states and governments as well as Sheikhs, ministers, senior officials and the conference guests. Sheikh Jassim also attended a luncheon banquet hosted by Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum.

Sheikh Jassim attends Cultural Heritage meetThird Education City Career Fair in February QNA

COMPANIES and organisa-tions across Qatar have been invited to participate in the third Education City Career Fair to be held on February 6 and 7.

The annual initiative, hosted at the Hamad Bin Kha-lifa University (HBKU) Student Center, aims to pro-vide undergraduate and graduate students in Educa-tion City with the opportunity to engage with prospective employers, building valuable connections between indus-try and education, with participants representing both the public and private sectors in Qatar.

The event is being organ-ized in collaboration with HBKU’s eight partner univer-sities. The third Education City Career Fair seeks to rep-licate and expand on the success of previous events.

Raynald C RiveraThe Peninsula

After the success of her book “A Piece of Peace”, Qatari author Sharoq Almalki is back with

“A Tale of Two Beehives”- a contemporary corporate fable that delves into employee engagement and working cul-ture she said are crucial to the advancement of every organisation.

“It reflects through a fable the importance of employee engagement and working cul-ture and how they affect the organisation positively in increasing revenue and profits. When employees are pleased, customers are also pleased,” she told The Peninsula.

Recent studies and current trends in the corporate world show that employee engagement is key to success of companies in any part of the world, claims Almalki, a multi-awarded human resources practitioner in the Mid-dle East, international speaker and certified coach.

“It’s not anymore getting the top talent or retaining employees because it’s not anymore the financial aspect that matters most. Talents are seeking a more sta-ble and healthy working culture and that can be done only through employees engagement,” she said.

The story ponders on the reality of two entirely different working environments - one where employee engagement and working culture exists and the other without them.

Showcasing her exceptional skill in the art of storytelling, the author creatively weaves a tale using fable as an effective format to deliver a compelling universal message on leadership.

On why she opted to use fable to get her message across: “I think that the market has enough theoretical books. Fables inspire readers and it motivates them to continue reading to know how the story will end,” she said.

The book, she said, goes to

all CEOS, executives and employees who are seeking a quick win in employees engage-ment and how to fix their organizations in this respect.

“Is it doable? Yes. Is it easy? I would say yes, but it requires the mindset who believes in that concept,” she stressed.

She expressed optimism on employees engagement in the Qatari setting with government thrust on developing human resources as the country’s most valuable asset as stated in Qatar National Vision (QNV) 2030.

“We do care about invest-ment on human capital. QNV

2030 clearly states the devel-opment of human resources and that they are the most valuable assets. With regard to employee engagement some sectors have taken a better step compared to others, yet there’s a lot more that we can do,” she explained.

Launched in Chicago earlier this year, the book has been endorsed by NY Times bestsell-ing author Chester Elton.

Soon to hit the shelves of bookstores nationwide, “A Tale of Two Beehives” is in English but it will be available in Arabic and other languages in the com-ing months.

“I have my books in English but my articles are both in Eng-lish and Arabic. I’m looking at it as an advantage. Nevertheless, I respect that we are in an Ara-bic-speaking society and it is the readers’ right to get a copy of the book in Arabic.”

Almalki’s books are availa-ble at stand B51 at the 27th Doha International Book Fair at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center. She will have a book signing session on Thursday, 6pm at the Ministry of Culture and Sports pavilion.

Almalki delves into employee engagement with new book

Qatari author Sharoq Almalki at the ongoing 27th Doha International Book Fair at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Unique style

The author creatively weaves a tale using fable to deliver a compelling universal message on leadership.

The book has been endorsed by NY Times bestselling author Chester Elton.

Continued from page 1Ten percent of patients were

those who had got discharged from the hospital one week before. Their conditions were diagnosed as paranoid psycho-sis, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder; adjustment disorder and acute stress reac-tions. The study was based on data collected from June, 2015 to May 1, 2016 at the Psychiatry Hos-pital. The Fifth Qatar International Mental Health Conference held at the Westin Hotel saw 500 par-ticipants and 20 local, regional and international speakers.

“The conference covered a range of disorders, which affect

children, adolescents and old age people. Discussions also included acute management of disorders to rehabilitation after recovery,” said Dr Ghuloum.

A Doha-based new sanc-tuary ‘naufar’ for wellness and treatment of substance use and related behavioural disorders highlighted the importance of rehabilitation. “It’s important to get people with disorders and addiction back into normal life, but it’s not done everywhere in the world. In Qatar the efforts taken to bring these people into normal life is exceptional,” said Dr Jeffery Wilkins, Chief Medi-cal Officer, at naufar.

The three-day event dis-cussed case studies, research findings and methods to break the stigma related to mental health problems. “The conference has been about looking at the evi-dence that supports in providing good mental health care. I think it will help Qatar to look at what evidence says and find ways to provide better care to patients. But we should also look into cul-tural and religious aspects and involve families in giving care. So we have to look at scientific based approach but very much tailored to family-based methods of treat-ment,” said Iain Tully, CEO, Mental Health Services HMC .

Importance of rehabilitation highlighted

Qatar Charity projects benefit 8 million SyriansThe Peninsula

As many as 8 million Syri-ans have benefited from Qatar Charity's projects

implemented from April 2011 to September this year.

The relief projects targeted

people inside Syria or Syrian refugees in neighbouring coun-tries. Qatar Charity (QC) provided humanitarian assist-ance in various areas including food, medical, and educational services, said a press release.

QC provided food assistance

including food baskets and baby milk, established bakeries for the benefit of 3.8 million displaced Syrians and refugees. QC pro-vided shelter for 1.5 million Syrians, paid the houses' rents and provided them with essential items.

The Peninsula

The new central market in Umm Salal will become operational in the end of

first quarter of 2017, offering people basic food items at com-petitive prices. The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC), yesterday announced investment opportunities within the facility, mainly the fish outlets.

The Ministry will lease spaces at the Central Fish Mar-ket in Umm Salal for two years and it can be renewed for a sim-ilar period once expired.

Application can be down-loaded from the Ministry's

website and submitted at the MEC premise, between today till December 22. The winners will be announced on January 29, 2017. In case of increased number of applicants, three applicants will be selected and two of them will be kept as reserve tenant. The market includes space for selling fish, abattoir and related facilities including auction areas and ice factory.

The investment opportunity offered in the market includes 10 shops to sell fish, a sea food restaurant apart from a cafete-ria and a restaurant for visitors.

Some six shops, including

four for whole sale and two for retail, will be dedicated for veg-etable and fruits. A plant nursery space is also available.

Also 10 shop spaces for var-ious other services are also available. This includes four for selling meat and livestock prod-ucts, three for poultry products including frozen and three for juice and dairy products.

Other facility includes space for distributing and selling fod-der, and whole sale food stuffs. There will also be shops for sell-ing coffee, honey, nuts and other spices. There will be shops sup-plying marine equipment in addition to administration

offices. The ministry has stressed that the investors taking the space on lease are obliged to provide quality products at competitive prices. They are not allowed to sub-lease the space and should follow the timing, hygiene rules and uniform of the market.

Investor is obliged to open the facility with in one month of receiving the shops. The ministry has allocated QR40,000 for the investor to help with equipping and fur-nishing some of the shops.

Applicants should provide qualifying documents as valid commercial registration and have a previous experience not less than two years in run-ning similar facility. The Umm Salal fish market is expected to promote trade and agricul-tural growth in the area. The Ministry is establishing simi-lar facilities in different parts of the country to enhance the marketing of local products. The project when accom-plished will make daily life easier to residents and expats through helping them with the proximity of the services provided. The project is in line with the Qatari national Vision 2030 in creating a sus-t a i n a b l e e c o n o m i c environment.

04 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

Darb El-Saai gears up to host National Day eventsSidi Mohamed The Peninsula

Fifteen institutions are expected to participate in National Day cele-brations to be held at Darb El-Saai, the main

venue of celebrations which will start on Thursday evening.

Darb El-Saai will have a number of new features this year such as a private tent for women in addition to Traffic Department's exhibition which will feature, among other things, a 50-year-old driving licence.

“The Traffic Department participation in Darb El-Saai this year will be excellent. Our pavil-ion mimics the main headquarters of the Traffic Department and there are many activities for school students in the morning and for

other visitors in the evening to educate them about traffic rules,” said Major Jaber Mohamed Rashid Odaiba, Assistant Director of Media & T r a f f i c A w a r e n e s s Department.

“As a kind of awareness activity for children, we will focus more on safety rules for cars and bicycles. We are

providing bicycles and teaching them how to ride bicycles safely and how to wear protective gear, in addition to cars to help them know about traffic signals and how pedestrians cross and when,” he added.

There will also be competi-tions and prizes for visitors.

Commenting on the prepa-rations for Darb El-Saai and when it will be completed, a supervisor said: “All tents have been installed and also other facilities have been set up. The only things which remain are the preparations inside the tents.”

“This year, we upgraded most of the activities. We will have ten activities, three of which will be conducted for the first time, like theatre and the journalists of the future,” said a supervisor for education sector at Darb El-Saai.

New features

Darb El-Saai will have a number of new features this year such as a private tent for women in addition to Traffic Department's exhibition which will feature, among other things, a 50-year-old driving licence.

ibq wins excellence awards

International Bank of Qatar (ibq) has won the “Best Customer Service – Corporate”, “Best Customer Service – Retail”, and “Best Cus-tomer Loyalty Programme” awards from The

Banker Middle East Industry Awards for the year 2016. The Banker Middle East Qatar Product Awards provide a benchmark for the financial sec-tor, recognising the most successful and innovative banking solutions.

The awards are based on a peer-vote process and nominations are open to banks and financial institutions in nine countries across the Mena region. “We are proud of our success and growth this year and we believe that Banker Middle East’s recognition is a testament to our focus on custom-ers and the hard work, passion, and dedication of our people”, said ibq’s Managing Director, Omar Bouhadiba.

“As expressed in our highly successful brand campaign which focuses on the value of human relations in banking, at ibq,we believe that cus-tomers are relationships, names and faces, rather than book entries”, he said.

QNA

Prime Minister of Ukraine Volodymyr Groysman met on Friday Evening in Kiev

with H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar's candidate for the post of the Director-General at the United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco).

During the meeting, they talked about the Qatari candi-date vision for the advancement of Unesco. Dr Al Kawari

answered all the questions of the Ukrainian Prime Minister, and thanked him for the opportu-nity to explain his electoral programme.

For his part, Groysman expressed appreciation of Qatar's role in the fields of edu-cation and culture, wishing the Qatari candidate success.

The meeting also discussed Qatari-Ukrainian bilateral rela-tions, where Ukraine Prime Minister expressed desire to develop these relations espe-cially in investment, trade,

education and culture sectors.Earlier during his visit to

Kiev, Dr Al Kawari met with Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin, who wished the Qatari candidate success.

Dr Al Kawari also met with Ukraine's Minister of Culture Yevhen Nyshchuk, where they talked about culture and its importance in international relations.

The meetings were attended by Qatar's Ambassador to Ukraine Jassim bin Rashid Al Khalifa.

Prime Minister of Ukraine, Volodymyr Groysman, and other officials with H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, Cultural Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar's candidate for the post of the Director-General at the Unesco in Kiev on Friday.

Ukraine PM meets Al Kawari

New Umm Salal central market to be operational in first quarter of 2017

05SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

'Qatar has been incredibly generous'Continued from page 1

“This is not the first Qatari initiative to support Tunisia, but Qatar has been incredibly gen-erous and supportive and a partner in our revolution through the support we have got from Al Jazeera for the demo-cratic transition in Tunisia. Al Jazeera introduced our cause, revolution and its figures to the world,” said Ghannouchi.

Qatar’s moral and financial support to Tunisia continued after the revolution to all suc-cessive governments, as Tunis has seen multiple transitions of power since 2011.

Qatar provided with gener-ous loans, and deposits of $1bn in the Central Bank of Tunisia whose due time has been extended to contribute to bal-ancing the budget of the state,

G h a n n o u c h i added.

He added that Qatar being one of

the leading economies in the world, its support has encour-aged the world economic and financial institutions to invest in Tunisia.

Underlining the importance of the conference for Tunisia, Ghannouchi said that the inter-national financial institutions like World Bank, IMF, European Banks and counties like Ger-many, France, Canada and many others have restored their con-fidence on Tunisia.

Another factor is the strong participation of the GCC states, like Saudi Arabia and the UAE thanks to the Qatari efforts that played a significant role in mobi-lising their support.

Asked about the differences between this conference and the first conference held in 2014, Ghannouchi noted that Tunisia has now become stable.

“In 2014, the country was not stable, Ennahda decided to step down from power to maintain stability and the country was fac-ing terror attacks and it was at a crossroad. We are very lucky to have overcome that difficult period and the country approved the constitution and elected President and established a coa-lition government of five parties. Tunisia today is more stable and managed to curtail terrorism and began to lay the foundation for economic growth and invest-ment,” said Ghannouchi.

“All these developments have made the country gain con-fidence of the international community in the Tunisian democracy,” he added.

“This is not a conference ask-ing for loans but for investment,” he said adding that Tunisia wants to present a win-win situation to the investors convincing that it is a good deal to invest in a sta-ble country. “We hope to increase our partnerships with

Qatar, of course. The $1.25bn that the Emir has given to Tunisia need to be invested across var-ious projects, farming, infrastructure etc, and we hope to do much more to promote Tunisian exports. The Qatari support for Tunisia is a clear sig-nal of its support for not only the democratic changes in Tunisia but also for the economic revo-lution which our country is moving towards,” said Ghannouchi.

“Now, as 2016 comes to a close, the Tunisian government, representing liberal and con-servative parties, is signaling to the world that it is ready to move forward on building its economy with security, stability and peace. This has encouraged investors to come, who were not here before, and countries who have already been investing have

increased the volume of their investment,” he added.

Asked about fear of some counties about the Tunisian democratic experience, Ghan-nouchi said, “Tunisian democracy is not for export, it is only for domestic consumption and for cure of local diseases”.

“Tunisian democracy is not exclusive, it is built on a combi-nation of Islam and democracy. The Tunisian experience in fight-ing terrorism has proved that fighting terror through democ-racy is more effective and cost less compared to military solu-tions,” said Ghannouchi.

“As I travel around the world, I have seen and felt the impact of the Tunisian example in build-ing bridges between Islam and modernity, in combating terror-ism through social cohesion, peace, and national consensus,”

he added.About the international

award he received from Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation in India recently, Ghannouchi said that the award was for promoting Gandhian values outside of India.

“In the past this award to given to Nelson Mandela, Des-mond Tutu and many other notable international personal-ities who have used peaceful means to solve problems and resolve crises. This gift was not to me as an individual, but to the people of Tunisia and their expe-rience in democratic transition.”

“This award has opened new prospects for Tunisia –India ties. India is the largest democracy in the world, with more that 700 million voters, a democracy which never experienced rigging or attempt of coup,” he added.

Rached Ghannouchi (right), President of Ennahdha Party, in an interview with The Peninsula Correspondent Mohammed Osman at his office in Tunis.

Ooredoo Qatar Data Centre gets new ISO CertificationOOREDOO announced that Qatar Data Centre has suc-cessfully achieved the ISO 20000-1:2011 Certification for Excellence in Information Technology Service Manage-ment Systems (SMS), following a rigorous auditing process.

Achieving compliance with the globally-recognised ISO certification further positions Qatar Data Centre as a leading data centre for organisations in the region, and demonstrates that the facility is operating accord-ing to industry recognised standards.

Talking about the certi-fication, Yousuf Al Kubaisi, COO of Ooredoo Qatar, said: “The delivery of world-class IT services from our Data Centres has always been a central vision for Ooredoo, as we push to become the ICT provider of choice for Qatar. This ISO certification solidifies our reputation in the IT industry and demon-strates we have the procedures in place to con-sistently deliver cost effective, quality IT service to our customers.”

The certification will also significantly reduce the need for supplier audits, saving customers time and money as well as minimising disrup-tion for both parties. To achieve certification, all Qatar Data Centre processes had to be adequately docu-mented and demonstrated to an independent auditor to ensure that they are being executed based on docu-mented policies, procedures and work instructions.

This is not the first Qatari initiative to support Tunisia, but Qatar has been incredibly generous and supportive and a partner in our revolution through the support we have got from Al Jazeera for the democratic transition in Tunisia. Al Jazeera introduced our cause, revolution and its figures to the world.

06 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

Qatar’s Strongest Man 2016 Champion Fahad Al-Haddad along with other Qatari participants and AZF officials during the award ceremony.

'Qatar’s Strongest Man' is yet another success for Aspire Zone Foundation

Continued from page 1He added: "Qatar’s Strong-

est Man is yet another success for Aspire Zone Foundation, which aims to promote sport-ing activities and encourage the public to maintain a healthier lifestyle by hosting year-round sporting events. We congratu-late the winners and thank all participants and spectators for making this year’s event such a success."

Hamad Al-Jaidah and Fahad Al-Maadid — both competing for

the second-time this year —secured second and third place respectively, in the Qatari nationals’ category.

Other contestants in the Qatari nationals’ category included: Thamer Al Kuwari, Abdullah Al Mohannadi and Khamis Al-Khulaifi.

Meanwhile, in the expatri-ate category, Portuguese contestant Ricardo Ferreira fin-ished in second place, with Egyptian contestant Mohammad Duwaidar finishing in third

place. Other contestants included: Ahmed Ghassam (Syria), Haakon Miknas (Nor-way), Abraham Abonyo (Kenya), Meshack Ogola (Kenya), and Joseph Iroo (Kenya).

Winners in both categories were awarded trophies by rep-resentatives from Aspire Zone Foundation comprising Al Khater, Tariq Saeed Al-Abdul-lah, Venues Manager and Ali Hassan Al Mansouri, Head of K h a l i f a I n t e r n a t i o n a l Stadium.

Second season of 'Magical Festival Village' on anvilThe Peninsula

Bringing in more than 200 games, global plays, circus perform-ances and much more, the second sea-

son of “Magical Festival Village” is set to open at Katara soon. Ezdan World Company is gear-ing up to launch the village, with the support of the Qatar Tour-ism Authority (QTA) and in conjunction with the coming Tourism Festival.

The new season will include various activities and events along with more than 200 games, parades and shows tar-geting all segments of visitors including children, adults, fam-ilies and tourists.

The village plans to take advantage of its 1,200 seats the-atre to showcase four global plays, as Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, Snow White and World of Oz. The village will offer free art shows for 25 minutes and a main festive show for 40 min-utes for its visitors, in addition to two international Circus per-formances and other 15 diverse activities. The village will also have more than 29 new and sophisticated virtual reality (VR) games, the first of its kind in Qatar and the GCC. Visitors can enjoy highly advanced contents where all human senses over-lap in reaction to VR games. An area of 1,500 sqm has been

allocated for the village’s VR games, allowing gamers to enjoy the actives in such large space.

“Next season will bring about a dense programme full of recreational activities and high-tech games, some of which are brought to Qatar for the first time. We expect an exponential increase in visitors by up to 50% compared to the first season, which has also seen a great suc-cess, opening up vast prospects to propel the village into fame as the first entertainment, shop-ping and tourism project of such huge size and significance in Qatar,” said Abdul Aziz Al

Mohannadi, General Manager, Ezdan World Company.

“For the new Season, we have added more attractions that will undoubtedly gain the admiration of the public and enhance the popularity of the Village. The number of games and shows has amounted to about 200, with the main ones being “Space Trip”, Royal Horses, the Gyroscope, and “Sky View” which contains 18 com-partments accommodating 72 person, in addition to being the first of its kind in Qatar in terms of size and lighting,” he said.

The Village provides a unique space dubbed “Ladies Boulevard” to house global lux-ury clothing brands that offer interesting shows for ladies.

The “Magical Festival Village” is built on an area of about 50,000 sqm within Katara Cul-tural Village, and comprises about 400 retail outlets, including 357 commercial stores, 20 kiosks, 19 cafes and 20 restaurants of about 500 seats in overall.

The Village features a unique European countryside architectural design, its corri-dors and boundaries are decorated with colourful back-grounds. Ezdan Holding Group had recently announced the acquisition of up to 70% of the “Magical Festival Village” project, and the Group’s subsid-iary “Ezdan World” will manage the project.

Event at Katara

The Village is built on an area of about 50,000 sqm within Katara Cultural Village, and comprises about 400 retail outlets, including 357 commercial stores, 20 kiosks, 19 cafes and 20 restaurants of about 500 seats in overall.

The village will also have more than 29 new and sophisticated virtual reality (VR) games, the first of its kind in Qatar and the GCC.

Common challenges brought Turkey & Arab Gulf countries closer Mohammed Osman The Peninsula

With a unanimous voice, experts on the opening day of third Gulf Studies Forum observed

that common security challenges induced by Arab Spring and regional wars had brought Turkey and Arab Gulf countries closer to each other further stressing the need for strengthening relations between the two sides to thwart future threats.

"Turkey and Arab Gulf states have many things in common since the Arab Spring revolutions including regional threats posed by the wars in Syria, Iraq and Yemen," said Muhittin Ataman, Dep-uty General Coordinator at the SETA Foundation in Turkey.

Ataman who presented a paper enti-tled “Turkey and the Gulf: New Realities Require New Regional Projections”, said Gulf countries and Turkey were facing common challenges along the wars in neighbouring countries, the threat of increasing number of failed states in the

region, terrorist organisations like IS, and Iran’s expansion policies.

Ataman emphasised that these threats have brought these counties closer and improved their relations and suggested to develop joint political and

economical projects to serve their com-mon future. "The region is facing new realities such as hostility against refu-gees, Isamo-phobia, terrorism, and sectarian conflicts which need further coordination between the Gulf States and

Turkey," Ataman observed."The Arab Center for Research and

Policy Studies in his six year of the estab-lishment has became one of the key centres in the region thanks to the unlim-ited support provided by the hosting country Qatar which never interfere in the centre’s researches agendas," said Dr Azmi Bishara, the General-Director of the Center. One of the major achieve-ments of the centre along the researches, he said, was the establishment of Doha Institute for Postgraduate Studies which will be inaugurated today.

Bishara emphasised that the centre organises every year six conference which bring together 1000 researchers. "Since President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan took his presidential seat, and political changes in Saudi Arabia which brought youth to power, Turkish relationship with Gulf states has become pragmatic," said Abdullah Al-Shammari , Assistant Pro-fessor and Head of the Gulf Affairs Department at the International Middle East peace Research Center in Ankara.

There are many other factors brought Turkey and GCC countries closer includ-ing need for bolstering economic exchanges, and security requirements, said Al-Shammari, adding that there is need for coordination to manage their relation with the USA and to institution-alize the ties instead of keep it at the highest level of each state.

Mohammed Al-Misfer, Professor of Political Science at Qatar University, traced the Qatar-Turkish relation to the era of Shiekh Jassem bin Mohammed Al Thani, the founder, and Sultan Abdulh-amid. "The relations witnessed significant developments and signature of several agreements covered different areas of cooperation including security, defence, economy and education," said Al-Mes-fir. "Turkey supported people’s demands during the Arab Spring Revolutions although the outcomes of some of these revolutions were not always positive," said Mesut Ozcan, Director of Diplomacy Academy of MFA in his paper "Turkish Foreign Policy Towards the Middle East".

The General-Director of Arab Center for Research and Policy Studies, Azmi Bishara, addressing the Third Annual Gulf Studies Forum in Doha yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

Ooredoo named as 'Best Executive Team' at Arab Best Awards The Peninsula

Ooredoo received another major award last week, with the senior manage-

ment team winning the “Best Executive Team Award for the Telecom Sector” at the Arab Best Awards 2016.

The Arab Best Awards is a new event designed to celebrate leadership and excellence in three main areas — government and leadership; business excel-lence; and sports, social and community contribution.

Hosted in Marrakesh, Morocco on November 27, the award ceremony brought together leading executives and senior government figures from across the Arab World.

Ooredoo received the award for the decisive management style that has seen the company transform itself over the past three years since the launch of

the Ooredoo brand in 2013. In particular, the company was recognised for its data experi-ence leadership across its footprint in the Middle East, North Africa and Southeast Asia.

The award was received by Sheikh Saud bin Nasser Al Thani, Group CEO, Ooredoo, who attended the event in a

delegation that included Waleed Al Sayed, Deputy CEO, Ooredoo Group.

Sheikh Saud said: “We are pleased and proud to receive the ‘Best Executive Team Award’, as a recognition of the hard work and clear vision that Ooredoo has delivered over the past few years.”

Officials at the award function.

GLOBAL filmmakers screening their films at Ajyal said the event helps strengthen cul-tural exchange among filmmakers from across the world.

Addressing the media, director Goran Radovanović, whose film Enclave is screening at Ajyal, said: "It is really special for us to be here at Ajyal in Doha, a unique experience for us to come to this part of the world. We don't have a lot of cultural exchange between our two regions. For us, it has been a fascinating opportunity."

Serbia’s entry to the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film, Enclave is a hopeful vision of a world where young people can see beyond blinding hatred. “There have been a lot of wars in the Balkans; all these wars didn't solve the problem - hatred. There is still huge hatred in the Balkans. This is why I wanted to look at the last war in the Balkans - we have to get out of this hatred to see the future, see the hope, and get a mutual understanding of each other."

Director Babak Anvari of Under the Shadow, which is UK’s entry for the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film this year, said: “I am very grateful because the Doha Film Insti-tute supported this film from the beginning. I'm very happy and pleased so to be here at the festival, which is amazing. Bringing children from all over the world is very special.”

Event helps strengthen cultural exchange: Global filmmakers

07SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

Made in Qatar Awards announced at Ajyal festThe Peninsula

Kashta, directed by AJ Al Thani, and Amer: An Arabian Legend by Jassim Al-Rumaihi, won the

Best Narrative Short Film and Best Documentary Short Film Prizes, respectively, at the Made in Qatar Awards of the fourth Ajyal Youth Film Festival.

Al-Johara by Nora Al-Subai won the Special Jury Award and More Than Two Days by Ahmed Abdelnaser clinched the Honor-ary Jury Award.

Kashta, produced by The Film House in Doha, is supported by a Doha Film Institute grant, while Amer: An Arabian Legend and Al-Johara are recipients of the Qatari Film Fund, an initia-tive launched in 2015 to supporting Qatari filmmakers. More Than Two Days was sup-ported by the Film Training and

Development Department of the Institute.

While AJ Al Thani takes home the award for her debut narra-tive, Jassim Al Rumaihi is reprising the honour, having won the Best Documentary Prize last year at the Made in Qatar Awards for The Palm Tree.

Fatma Al Remaihi, Festival Director and Chief Executive Officer of the DFI, said that the winners were chosen from a tough competition that had 17 ‘Made in Qatar’ films.

She said: “Made in Qatar is a central showcase of our festival, and has evolved as a definitive platform for discovering local talent. With every passing year, we witness a remarkable enhancement in the quality and aesthetics of the films made locally.

“In addition to the support that Doha Film Institute extends to our filmmakers, we are

delighted to see local production houses stepping in to support our talents, thus helping creating a strong filmmaking ecosystem. I congratulate the winners for their commitment, passion and dedication to creating films that present our stories to the world.”

Presenting the citation, Qatari photographer and film-maker Khalifa Al Obaidly, a jury member, said the films reflected impressive visual aesthetics, pro-duction values, brilliant acting and insightful research.

Made in Qatar curates an annual slate of films conceptu-alised and produced by the new generation of filmmaking talent. Several of these films are screened at markets of interna-tional film festivals including Clermont-Ferrand, Cannes Short Film Corner, Berlinale, Dubai International Film Festival, Gif-foni Film Festival and Sarajevo Film Festival among others.

The Peninsula

Indonesian women living in Qatar attended an event organised by the Embassy of

Indonesia as part of a programme organised to celebrate the Indo-nesian Mother's Day, which falls on December 22 and the 88th anniversary of the establishment of the Indonesian Civil Service Wives Association (Dharma Wan-ita Persatuan / DWP) on December 7.

Consistent with the wisdom of the First President of Indone-sia, Soekarno, November 28 event sought to celebrate the spirit of Indonesian women as well as their fight to improve the condi-tion of the nation. The celebrations were on the theme "Indonesian Women, Building the Nation".

Indonesian Ambassador to Qatar Muhammad Basri Sidehabi applauded and acknowledged the crucial role played by women in continuously improving their society, the nation, as well as the world.

Nowadays, Indonesian women are not confined to a sub-ordinate domestic role and many have risen to the occasion to face the challenges ahead, Sidehabi said, and encouraged all Indone-sian women and mothers to be active and productive in improv-ing their intellectual, spiritual, and emotional capacity.

With the aim of empowering Indonesian women in Qatar, the Indonesian embassy arranged for Anniesa Hasibuan to share her life story. The informal discussion was hosted by the DWP's Noni Anwar, a writer and former news

anchor living in Doha. Anniesa Hasibuan is a well-

known entrepreneur and fashion designer of Indonesia. She took the fashion world by storm when she was invited as the first hijab designer to New York Fashion Week 2016. The prominent designer's decision to feature every model on her runway wearing a hijab has given new air to the modest fashion movement.

Andi Una Sidehabi, chairper-son of DWP, said that Anniesa's story was an inspiration to all women. "Her rise to fame was not achieved overnight and it requires a lot of effort and perse-verance," she said.

Sidehabi highlighted the fact that Anniesa gained success with-out neglecting her duties as a wife and mother.

Embassy celebrates spirit of Indonesian women

Fatma Al Remaihi (right), DFI CEO and Ajyal Festival Director, with the winners of this year’s Made in Qatar Awards.

Global displacement crisis is central theme at Ajyal todayThe Peninsula

The global displacement crisis is the central theme of movies and Ajyal Talks today at the fourth

Ajyal Youth Film Festival at Katara.Khaled Khalifa, United Nations

High Commissioner for Refugees Regional Representative to the States of the Gulf Co-Operation Council, will lead a discussion on the current glo-bal displacement crisis with a focus on the situation of Syrian refugees, at 7pm at Katara Opera House,

The discussion on ‘Why Refugees Matter’ is free and follows the screen-ing of Born in Syria at 5pm at the Katara Drama Theatre. Directed by Hernán Zin, it follows seven young refugees over the course of a year, witnessing everything from their escape from their homeland, their experiences in camps in the Middle East, their arrival in the “promised land” of Europe, and the settling into their new homes.

At 9pm, watch Fire at Sea, the winner of the Golden Bear at

Berlinale, a compelling documentary set in the tiny Italian island of Lampedusa on the first stop on the migrant route from Africa to Europe for about 400,000 people, a great number of whom died trying to make the perilous crossing.

Also watch a film that affirms the joy of life with Listen to the Silence by Mariam Chachia to screen at 8.30pm at Katara 12 – Theatre A. In Midnight Screenings, watch The Girl with All the Gifts directed by Colm McCarthy, at 11pm at Katara Drama Theatre.

A captivating collection of short films in all the three Ajyal Competi-tion categories – Mohaq, Hilal and Bader – will be screening, offering the opportunity to watch insightful films from across the world includ-ing short narratives by Qatari filmmakers. These screenings are free for the public.

In the Bader Shorts 2 programme to screen at 9.15pm at Katara 12 – Theatre B, watch Ely Dagher’s Palme d’Or-winning Waves ’98; In The

Waiting Room by Qatari filmmaker Hend Fakhroo; Dry Hot Summers by Sherif Elbendary A New Home by Žiga Virc; and Yellow by Mohammed Salman.

The Hilal Shorts programme to screen at 8pm at Katara Drama The-atre includes: Ari by Alex Murawski; Gaurav and the Kites by André Hör-mann; King’s Day by Steven Wouterlood; More Than Two Days by Ahmed Abdelnaser; Pien, Queen of the Bees by Ellen Vloet; and The Rifle, the Jackal, the Wolf and the Boy by Oualid Mouaness. The Mohaq Shorts showcase includes: Dana’s Kite by Noor Al-Nasr; Fish by Andrew Ruiz; Heer by Honey B. Singh; I Don’t Even Like Her by Christelle Al-Kayssar; I’ve Just Had a Dream by Javi Navarro; Kashta by AJ Al Thani; The Mous-tache by Anni Oja; Riceballs by Shingo Usami; and Tangency by Bashi Kasawneh.

Participants at the event.

08 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 MIDDLE EAST

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas casts his vote at the Muqataa, the Palestinian Authority headquarters, in the city of Ramallah, West Bank, yesterday.

Regime retakes half of east Aleppo

Aleppo

AFP

Syria's army advanced overnight deeper into east Aleppo where it now controls more than half of the former rebel

stronghold after a fierce assault that has sparked an international outcry.

Tens of thousands of civil-ians have fled eastern neighbourhoods of the battered city since President Bashar Al Assad's regime began its latest offensive in mid-November.

Overnight, government troops and allied forces seized the district of Tariq Al Bab where heavy fighting had raged a day earlier, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said yesterday.

The government has now recaptured around 60 percent of eastern parts of the city that the rebels overran in mid-2012, according to the Britain-based monitor.

The advance opens the road leading from the government-controlled west of the city to the international airport just outside Aleppo to the east, which is also held by the regime.

And it has prompted more civilians to flee, heading either further south into remaining rebel-held districts or crossing into government-held territory or areas under Kurdish control.

Assad's forces have made swift gains in east Aleppo, and its loss would be the biggest blow yet to Syria's opposition in the more than five-year-old war.

More than 300,000 people have been killed since the con-f l i c t s t a r t e d w i t h anti-government protests in

March 2011, and over half the country's population has been displaced.

The government has trum-peted its advances, and state television yesterday showed buses full of residents going from west Aleppo back to their homes in neighbourhoods retaken by the army. More than 300 civil-ians have been killed in the government's assault on east Aleppo since November 15, according to the Observatory.

The monitor says nearly 65 civilians have been killed in the

same period by rebel fire on gov-ernment-held west Aleppo, including nine on Friday.

Rebels have struggled to hold back government ground forces, who have advanced backed by air strikes, barrel bombs and artillery fire. On Friday, they rolled back some regime gains in the Sheikh Saeed district on Aleppo's southeastern outskirts, but it was unclear how long they could hold that line.

Sheikh Saeed borders the last remaining parts of Aleppo still in rebel hands — a collection of

densely populated residential neighbourhoods where thou-sands have sought refuge from advancing regime forces.

In preparation for street-by-street fighting in these districts, hundreds of fighters from Syr-ia's elite Republican Guard and Fourth Division arrived in Aleppo Friday, the Observatory said.

The fighting has prompted more than 50,000 people to leave east Aleppo for territory controlled by either the govern-ment or Kurdish forces.

On Friday, as the army advanced in Tariq Al Bab, an AFP correspondent said residents had emptied out of neighbouring Shaar district, anticipating the arrival of fighting there.

He said just a few rebels could be seen in the district, manning positions in front of shuttered shops and bakeries.

Vegetable stalls that had been selling the most meagre of supplies after more than four months of government siege were lying shattered in one street by artillery fire.

Yesterday, the Observatory said three people were killed and at least 10 others wounded in air strikes on Shaar, and that raids were targeting several other eastern neighbourhoods in the city. The escalating violence has been met with international out-rage, including a UN warning that east Aleppo could become "a giant graveyard".

Moscow, a staunch ally of the regime, has proposed setting up four humanitarian corridors into

Smoke rises after strikes on Aleppo city in Syria, yesterday.

Somalia govt forces eliminate seven IS-linked militantsBosasso

Reuters

SOLDIERS allied to the West-e r n - b a c k e d S o m a l i government said they killed seven insurgents from a fac-tion loyal to the Islamic State group in a clash in northern Somalia yesterday.

The soldiers from the semi-autonomous region of Puntland are part of a force headed to the port town of Qandala, which has been under the control of the insurgents since November.

The Puntland forces were attacked in the village of Bashaashin, which is 34km from Qandala.

“We killed seven IS and took their guns — now we are in the village,” Captain Mohamed Saiid, head of a Puntland military unit, told Reuters by satellite phone from the scene.

“The IS fighters retreated into a hill outside the village. Three soldiers were injured from our side. We shall keep on pursuing the fighters till we eliminate them from Qandala.”

The insurgents are thought to number in the low hundreds and are led by Abdiqadir Mumin, who broke away from the main Al Shabaab insurgency last year and swore allegiance to Islamic State.

40 nations set up fund to protect heritage sitesAbu Dhabi AFP

Representatives of around 40 countries yesterday approved plans to estab-

lish a fund to protect heritage sites in war zones and a network of safe havens for endangered artworks.

A closing statement issued after two days of talks in Abu Dhabi did not specify the total amount pledged for the fund but French President Francois Hol-lande said a target of $100m remained achievable.

The meeting, co-sponsored by France and the United Arab Emirates, was spurred by the systematic destruction and loot-ing of archaeological treasures in Iraq and Syria by the Islamic State group. The world watched in dismay as the jihadists sys-tematically destroyed temples and tower tombs in the ancient Syrian city of Palmyra last year.

In Iraq, videos showed IS using bulldozers and explosives to destroy Nimrud, a jewel of the Assyrian empire, and ransack-ing pre-Islamic treasures in the Mosul Museum. "This is the first

time that countries, organisa-tions, experts and donors have come together to protect the property of humanity and to pro-vide the means to achieve it," said Hollande. But proposals for ancient artefacts to be taken abroad for safekeeping met with reservations from some coun-tries — notably Greece and Egypt — which saw treasured artworks removed for display in museums in Europe and North America in the 19th and early 20th centuries.

Participants in the meeting, w h o a l s o i n c l u d e d

representatives of international organisations and private insti-tutions, pledged "to safeguard the endangered cultural herit-age of all peoples, against its destruction and il l icit trafficking."

The Geneva-based fund they set up will be charged with safe-guarding cultural heritage endangered by conflict, financ-ing preventive and emergency operations, combating the illicit trafficking of artefacts and help-ing restore damaged cultural property.

"The creation of this fund

breaks new ground," Unesco director Irina Bokova said. "I see this as the starting point of some-thing... global."

Abu Dhabi Crown Prince Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan urged all countries to "cooperate and coordinate to control the trafficking of cultural property.... especially in some Arab countries that have suffered from the dangers of violence and terrorism." France is to contrib-ute around $30m to the fund.

"Our objective is to collect at least $100m, and we can reach this," Hollande said.

Egypt's top court upholds ban on protestsCairo

Reuters

EGYPT’S Supreme Constitu-tional Court upheld yesterday a law that effectively bans protests, settling a years-long court battle and protecting the law from further challenges.

The law was passed in 2013 amid persistent dem-onstrations calling for the reinstatement of Muslim B r o t h e r h o o d l e a d e r Mohamed Mursi after the military overthrew him fol-lowing mass protests against his rule.

It requires would-be pro-testers to notify the interior ministry of any public gath-ering of more than 10 people at least three days in advance, imposes jail sentences of up to five years for those who violate a broad list of protest restrictions, and allows secu-rity forces to disperse illegal demonstrations with water cannons, tear gas and birdshot.

The court’s ruling keeps all of these elements of the law intact and there is no fur-ther appeal.

Egyptian rights organisa-tions have said the law criminalises all forms of peaceful assembly and gives the state a free hand to dis-perse peaceful gatherings by force.

Its strict enforcement has largely succeeded in ending the kind of mass demonstra-tions that helped unseat two presidents in three years as activists who have held even small, peaceful gatherings were detained.

The ruling means that hundreds of protesters arrested under the law will remain in prison.

Yemen troops to launch assault near key straitAden

AFP

Yemeni government forces have sent reinforcements to the Red Sea coast to

drive Iran-backed rebels away from a key global shipping route, military officials said yesterday.

Shia Houthi insurgents and their allies, forces loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, control most of the coun-try's Red Sea coastline.

That includes Dhubab, just 30km from the strategic and busy Bab Al Mandab strait link-ing the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean. Two US warships and an Emirati vessel in the Red Sea came under missile attack from rebel-held territory in Septem-ber and October.

The government now aims to "push back the rebels away from the western coast and Bab Al Mandab, and to secure mar-itime navigation in the southern part of the Red Sea," a military official said.

Pro-government forces have been sent to the area, backed by tanks, other armoured vehicles and

Katyusha rocket launchers, mil-itary officials said.

They said the offensive aimed to wrest back control of the coast from Dhubab as far north as Al Khukha, 90km far-ther north.

Troops were also sent by the Saudi-led Arab coalition which intervened in March 2015 to prop up the government of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.

Pro-government troops seized Dhubab in early Octo-ber 2015, giving them effective control of Bab Al Mandab.

The rebels managed to recapture the area in February. Hadi ordered the assault ahead of meeting UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed in southern port city and tempo-rary capital Aden on Thursday.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed was there to discuss a new attempt to end the country's conflict.

The government-run sabanew.net website said Hadi handed him a letter reiterating the government's rejection of a roadmap the envoy presented in October, which would see the president eased out of power.

Ramallah

AFP

Palestinian President Mah-moud Abbas' Fatah party yesterday held a vote for

members of its ruling bodies that could give clues to a possi-ble successor to the ageing leader.

Fatah, the oldest Palestin-ian party, is holding its first congress in seven years at a time when Abbas is seeking to quell dissent in the face of internal rivalries.

The 81-year-old has not publicly designated a successor, and the vote will be an indica-tor of the strengths and

weaknesses of the various fac-tions in Fatah.

Casting his ballot yesterday afternoon, Abbas called the poll-ing "democratic and transparent".

According to a recent poll, two-thirds of Palestinians are dissatisfied with Abbas and want him to resign.

Fatah elects party officials

Siege of City

The government has now recaptured around 60 percent of eastern parts of the city that the rebels overran in mid-2012.

09SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 ASIA / AFRICA

Healing environmentXi calls for smaller but more capable militaryBeijing

Reuters

China's armed forces must be smaller but more capable, and if reforms are not prop-erly carried out the

military risks falling behind, affecting its ability to wage war, Chinese state media yesterday cited President Xi Jinping (pic-tured) as saying.

Xi unexpectedly announced in September last year that he would cut troop numbers by 300,000, or some 13 percent of the world's biggest military, cur-rently 2.3-million strong.

The cuts come at a time of heightened economic uncer-tainty in China as growth slows and the leadership grapples with painful economic reforms.

In October, hundreds of pre-viously demobilized soldiers protested in Beijing.

The lay-offs are part of broader reforms to modernise the military, moving away from the old Soviet-era command module and putting more emphasis on high-tech weap-ons such as stealth jets.

Speaking at a two-day meeting on military reform, Xi said militaries must never stick to their old ways and need to change with the times.

"Otherwise, armed forces that were strong will become outdated, or even collapse at a single blow," Xi said in com-ments carried by the official Xinhua news agency.

"History and reality tells us that a military, if it falls behind the times on scale and strength, it will fall behind on war ideol-ogy and developments in waging war, maybe forfeiting strategy and right to initiate war," he added.

China's military needs to put more focus on technology rather than force of numbers, Xi said.

"This is a major, inevitable change," Xi told the meeting.

"We must seize the oppor-t u n i t y a n d m a k e breakthroughs."

China's military has not fought a war in decades and the government insists has no

hostile intents, simply needing the ability to properly defend what is now the world's second-largest economy.

But China has rattled nerves around the region with its increasingly assertive stance in the East and South China Seas and ambitious modernisation programme that includes air-craft carriers and anti-satellite missiles.

38 dead in China coal mine blastsBeijing

AFP

AT LEAST 38 people were killed in two separate Chi-nese coal mine blasts this week, according to death tolls reported by state media yesterday.

One blast occurred late Tuesday at a private mine in Qitaihe City,Heilongjiang province, trapping 22 work-ers, Xinhua news agency said recently.

Twenty-one were con-firmed dead Friday night, it said, citing provincial authorities.

Rescue efforts were ham-pered by debris from the blast in some of the tunnels, according to an earlier report.

In a separate incident, a mine in Inner Mongolia was struck by an explosion that left at least 17 dead, accord-ing to figures from local authorities, Xinhua said.

An unspecified number of miners were still buried under the ground and rescue efforts were underway, it added.

Gambia's political transition begins after election shockBanjul

AFP

The Gambia's President-elect Adama Barrow was to hold talks with his coa-

lition yesterday to plot his transition to power, following a shock election victory that ended the 22-year rule of Yahya Jammeh.

The scenes of jubilation on the streets after the results were released Friday gave way to a calm but buoyant mood in the capital Banjul as horsetrading got

under way behind closed doors.Barrow was to meet with the

seven opposition party leaders and one independent who make up the coalition team that pro-pelled him to power on Thursday.

He will then hold talks with Ibn Chambas, the UN's represent-ative for west Africa, as expectation grows that he will put together for a reform-led admin-istration which will reverse some the Jammeh regime's policies that have isolated The Gambia internationally.

Barrow has pledged to rejoin the International Criminal Court and the Commonwealth, both institutions which Jammeh railed against and withdrew the coun-try from, to the dismay of many.

Jammeh has 60 days to leave office, according to the consti-tution, but has promised Barrow will take over in January.

The strongman's wherea-bouts are currently unknown after Gambian television broad-cast an unexpected statement to the nation promising to step down in line with voters' wishes.

Jammeh congratulated Bar-row late Friday for his "clear victory" in a jovial conversation that saw him joking about becoming a farmer in his home-town, with the exchange caught on film and broadcast.

It was a shock for many to see the strongman, who had promised to bury critics "nine feet deep" and whose regime has prosecuted peaceful protesters, calmly accept defeat.

After late-night victory par-ties held by many Gambians to celebrate Jammeh's departure

after Barrow swept 45% of the vote in Thursday's election, life was returning to normal.

So far, the international community appears keen to work with the new administra-tion after what diplomats have characterised as Jammeh's pro-vocative statements, disregard for protocol and tendency to change his mind without warning.

The White House, UN, AU and regional body ECOWAS have all hailed Jammeh's respectful acceptance of the result.

Kin of MH370 passengers to search for debrisKuala Lumpur

Reuters

RELATIVES of those aboard Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 said yesterday they were tak-ing the search for the plane into their own hands to try to push governments to expand the search area along the east African coast.

Flight MH370, carrying 239 passengers and crew, dis-appeared on its way from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on March 8, 2014, sparking a search in the southern Indian Ocean that entered its 1,000 day yesterday.

Members of Voice 370, an MH370 next-of-kin support group, were speaking ahead of a trip to Madagascar, where they hoped to scour the coun-try's beaches for debris.

Spokeswoman Grace Subathirai Nathan said she hoped the trip would help spur the Malaysian, Chinese and Australian governments to collect debris along the continental coast where parts from the aircraft had been found.

"After repeated attempts, and repeated requests for a mobilisation of a search along the coastline, nothing has been done to date," she said

Hong Kong

Reuters

Leaders of Chinese-ruled Hong Kong widened their legal fight against the

city's fledgling independence movement on Friday, targeting four more lawmakers over oaths taken at a Legislative Council swearing-in ceremony in October.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Justice Secre-tary Rimsky Yuen began the action on Friday after lawmak-ers Baggio Leung and Yau Wai-ching lost a legal appeal over their disqualification, the government said in a statement.

The government proceed-ings seek "to declare their oaths

purportedly taken as invalid and their office as now vacant", the government said.

Beijing's Communist Party leaders are alarmed about the growing appeal of independ-ence and self-determination in the former British colony, which returned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a "one country, two systems" formula, allow-ing it wide-ranging freedoms, a separate legal system and specifying universal suffrage as an eventual goal.

The latest move came after Beijing staged a rare interpre-tation of Hong Kong's mini-constitution, known as the Basic Law, in early November to effectively bar democrati-cally elected Leung and Yau from taking office there.

Gabon delays parliamentary poll due to lack of funds

Three Burundi army officers held over assassination bidNairobi

AFP

Three Burundi army officers have been arrested for suspected

involvement in a failed bid to assassinate a top advisor to the president, according to police and security sources recently.

The attack took place late

on Monday when a group of gunmen ambushed Willy Nyamitwe, the government's top spokesman.

"It's terrorism," Burundi police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye tweeted.

"Two colonels and a cap-tain were arrested yesterday (Thursday) over the attempt on the life of Willy Nyamitwe."

HK widens legal attack on independence movement

An artwork is seen at a passage during the official opening of the Nelson Mandela Children's Hospital in Johannesburg.

Military reform

The lay-offs are part of broader reforms to modernise the military, moving away from the old Soviet-era command module and putting more emphasis on high-tech weapons such as stealth jets.

Xi said militaries must never stick to their old ways and need to change with the times. Otherwise, armed forces that were strong will become outdated, or even collapse at a single blow.

Ghana election

Libreville

AFP

Gabon's parliamentary elec-tions, which had been due to take place this month,

have been postponed for up to seven months, the interior min-istry said, citing lack of funds.

The decision to delay the

vote, which must now take place no later than July 29, 2017, was taken by Gabon's constitutional court after the electoral commis-sion told Prime Minister Emmanuel Ngondet it would be impossible to organise such an election this month.

Interior Minister Lambert Matha yesterday, referred to a

"shortage of funds" to organise the ballot in time, with the court taking into account the "unfor-seen costs" resulting from clashes which erupted follow-ing Gabon's divisive last August presidential race.

The vote was won by incum-bent Ali Bongo by a razor-thin margin of some 6,000 votes,

sparking two days of rioting and protests that left three dead and saw more than 800 people arrested in this oil-rich central African nation.

"It seems to make good sense to first begin by ensuring the necessary conditions for dia-logue to have a peaceful legislative election," said

Gabonese Communications Min-ister Alain-Claude Bilie Ny Nze.

The court decided "to delay the holding of elections, which must be held by July 29, 2017" and also sanctioned the "prolon-gation of the mandate of the current legislature" until the vote can be held, the ministry said recently.

A campaign billboard shows John Dramani Mahama, Ghana's president and National Democratic Congress (NDC) presidential candidate, and the opposition New Patriotic Party (NPP) presidential candidate Nana Addo on a street in Accra, yesterday.

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi has begun to feel the intense heat of international criticism of her abject failure to solve the Rohingya crisis in her country. Suu Kyi has

been astutely evading the issue, blaming the persecution of Rohingyas at the hands of the majority Buddhists and the country’s military on the subtle and delicate ethnic balances in the country. But it has been too long, and the atrocities too severe, the Nobel peace laureate can’t explain away her silence and apathy by resorting to flimsy arguments. Suu Kyi is being told in very clear and unequivocal language that there is a huge disconnect between her status as a Nobel peace laureate, which shows her as an embodiment of democratic values, and her action as the leader of Myanmar. Her stubborn refusal to protect the fundamental rights of a persecuted minority is in stark contrast to the principles she is supposed to espouse as a Nobel winner.

Despite having lived in Myanmar for generations, the country’s 1.1 million Rohingyas are denied citizenship and other fundamental rights like freedom

of movement and access to basic services such as healthcare and education. A recent army crackdown on them has killed at least 86 people and sent 10,000 fleeing to Bangladesh. The reason for the crackdown was an attack on border posts on October 9 that killed nine police officers. Though the attack can’t be justified, it was a desperate act of venting anger by Rohingyas after prolonged

suffering. But the revenge of the army has been brutal and insane. Soldiers have raped Rohingya women, burned houses and killed civilians. The UN’s human rights agency said this week that abuses suffered by the Rohingya may amount to crimes against humanity.

As the Rakhine state burned, Suu Kyi has chosen to look the other way though she could have helped to mitigate the crisis. And this apathy and wanton disregard are being flayed by the international community. Malaysia has been bitterly critical of Myanmar’s handling of violence in Rakhine state. “The fact that only one particular ethnicity is being driven out is by definition ethnic cleansing,” Malaysia’s foreign ministry said. The US government said the security crackdown has displaced tens of thousands Rohingyas and risks radicalising a downtrodden people and stoking religious tensions in Southeast Asia. And an international campaign is gaining momentum that calls for taking back Suu Kyi’s Nobel Peace prize.

Rattled by all these, Suu Kyi has appealed for understanding of her nation’s ethnic complexities. But that’s a feeble plea which fails to address the unpardonable crimes committed against a community. Suu Kyi must do more and fulfill her responsibilities.

10 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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Suu Kyi faces flak

QUOTE OF THE DAY

You can win a war but you can lose the peace. Who is interested in winning a war in Syria and getting at a price a country that is divided, armed, full of terrorists... isolated in the international community?

Federica MogheriniEU Foreign Affairs Chief

International pressure is growing on Suu Kyi to stop the ethnic cleansing of Rohingyas.

Gina Miller is paying the price for going to court. The financial entre-preneur says she has received death threats and racial and sexual abuse since she won a High Court

ruling forcing the British government to seek Parliamentary approval before leaving the European Union. She’s hired bodyguards and made “different arrangements” for her chil-dren at school.

“It’s turned into a poisoned chalice if you like,” Miller told The Associated Press as she prepared for the Supreme Court to begin hearing the government’s appeal on Monday. “But I’m still determined that I’m carrying on with this. I feel that if I didn’t do it, nobody would be asking the questions I’m asking.”

The EU exit, or Brexit, is only the most recent battleground for Miller, 51, who was born in the former British colony of Guyana but has lived in the UK since childhood. She decided not to pursue a legal career because of sexism. Potential investors dismissed her because of her gender. A campaign she led for transparency in money management led some opponents to call her “the Black Widow.”

But the criticism rose to another level last month when Miller became the face of a law-suit that legal experts call the most important constitutional case in a generation. Hers was among several lawsuits seeking Parliamen-tary input before Brexit, and judges made her the lead claimaint.

While Miller says she wants to protect the power of Parliament, Brexit supporters see the suit as an effort to circumvent the will of the people. Prime Minister Theresa May says the June 23 vote gave her a mandate to take Britain out of the 28-nation bloc and that dis-cussing her strategy with Parliament would weaken the government’s position in exit negotiations.

May plans to invoke Article 50 of the EU treaty, the legal trigger that starts talks on Britain’s exit, by the end of March using his-toric government powers known as royal prerogative. The powers are traditionally held by the monarch, but are now used by politi-cians to bypass a vote, enabling decisions as grave as declaring war or as basic as issuing passports.

Miller, who voted to remain part of the EU, argues that Parliament must have a vote because the rights of individuals in Britain are being revoked in the Brexit process. The free-dom of movement across the EU, the freedom of trade in the bloc and the freedom to vote in European elections are among the rights that will change.

Feelings remain intense on both sides. Following the High Court’s ruling last month, the Daily Mail newspaper featured photos of the judges under the headline “Enemies of the People.” The Sun described those who filed the lawsuit as “a motley band of EU-based campaigners led by a foreign-born multi-millionaire.”

Death threats for woman leading Brexit court fightDanica Kirka AP

The fury has surprised experts like Jeff King, professor of law at University College London.

“It has been common to criticize judges in the past, and I think criticism of judges is perfectly acceptable — they are public officials after all,” King said. “But this type of language, ‘enemies of the people,’ reminded me of the kinds of things we saw in Nazi Germany.”

Few have come under as much criti-cism as Miller, who in many ways personifies the cosmopolitan, London-based elite that largely backed EU membership. Miller counters that her critics don’t really know who she is.

From Guyana, Miller’s family sent her to Britain to attend a girls-only boarding school. But political trouble back home meant that bank accounts were frozen and Miller found herself with no money.

Though underage, she found work as a chambermaid and scrubbed floors before and after school. She later worked as a model to pay for her education.

After earning a bachelor’s degree in marketing and a law degree from the University of London, she decided against a legal career after she was advised that being a criminal barrister was not an appropriate job for a woman.

Instead, Miller found a job at German automaker BMW and went to work launching their UK fleet division, indulg-

ing her love of fast cars. In 1992, she started Sway Marketing to work with financial services firms.

“I have always been drawn to

male-dominated industries and adrena-line-filled pursuits,” she wrote in a short biography for “WeAretheCity,” a net-working organization.

Many British newspapers have focused on her personal life. She married young and has a disabled daughter, now in her late 20s, who still lives with her. She had two more children in her early 40s with her third husband, Alan Miller, an asset manager known in the tabloids as “Mr. Hedge Fund.” Following the glo-bal financial crisis, Gina and Alan Miller founded SCMDirect, a small money management firm. But it was her cam-paign for transparency in the fees that investment managers charge their cli-ents that first won Miller widespread notice in business circles — even as it made her unpopular among fellow asset managers.

Miller recalls attending an event at which she noticed a group of men star-ing at her. When she introduced herself, one of them told her she was known as “the black widow spider.” After an initial surge of anger, she paused. “And then I thought: ‘Well, thank you. That must mean I’m doing something right, because nobody in the city has managed to come up with an intellectual argu-ment as to why it was wrong,’” Miller says.

“It’s very much the same (with the Brexit lawsuit.) People do not talk about the case and the central pillars of our arguments of our case. They attack me personally, so I see it as they have noth-ing else to do. They are not attacking the message, they are attacking the messen-ger, which must mean I am winning.”

Still, she says the vitriol is wearing on her. The threats and concern for her chil-dren make her wonder whether she’ll be able to stay in Britain if the heat remains once the lawsuit is over. But there is no regret. “I love Britain, and everything about Britain is about its inclusiveness, about its tolerance, about the great Brit-ish way, “ she said. “If that all disappears and we become this divisive, hateful, intolerant country, then every single one of us loses something. We lose part of our heart and we lose the heart of our coun-try. And that’s got to be something we all have to fight for.”

The June 23 vote gave a mandate to take Britain out of the 28-nation bloc and that discussing Theresa May’s strategy with Parliament would weaken the government’s position in exit negotiations.

ED ITOR IAL

Gina Miller, the lead claimant in a legal challenge to the British government over triggering the EU divorce.

Today, different countries have widely diverging rules for so-called “prosumers” — people who both consume and produce electricity. Most commonly, these are the owners of rooftop photovoltaic plants. Earlier this year, The International Energy Agency reviewed the national policies and found all kind of quirks. In Belgium, for example, there’s no automatic compensation for excess energy: A prosumer can only sell the energy her household produces if she man-ages to find a buyer. In Germany, prosumers are not just paid for the energy they send into the grid but also rewarded for self-consumption. The UK also had a reward system which it recently scaled down.

Some countries only compensate solar battery owners through so called net metering: Their meters run backwards when their systems feed power to the grid. There’s no reimbursement for any energy pro-duced in excess of a household’s own consumption. Countries where the power companies have espe-cially powerful lobbies, charge prosumers for the use of the grid. The rules, as well as the local energy prices, affect the popularity of “energy citizenship.” The German model has caused a visible proliferation of solar batteries.

Though Germany’s skies appear to be perma-nently cloudy and the winter is oppressively dark, home photovoltaic plants are a far more common sight than, say, in sunnier Arizona. Three years ago (the latest data available from the IEA), residential rooftop installations in Germany produced more than twice as much energy as in the U.S., and there were about 1.4 million solar power producers in the coun-try, most of them households:

US rules are based on net metering in most states. Yet some, such as Hawaii and Nevada, have been rolling back these programs under pressure from energy companies. And even where the possibility of net metering or selling into an open market exists, it may be difficult for a solar battery owner to take advantage of it. Power companies often force them to install expensive additional equipment or raise their grid access tariffs to make the solar installations eco-

‘Two Trumps’ surface in president-elect’s transition

Donald Trump’s sceptics hope the presidency will reveal a serious side of the brash busi-nessman. His supporters want him to keep the freewheeling

style that rattled Washington. In true Trump fashion, so far he’s doing both.

Trump has soothed some Republican establishment anxieties with many of his early Cabinet picks, including the respected retired Gen. James Mattis to lead the Pentagon and Georgia Rep Tom Price, an orthopedic surgeon tapped to head the Department of Health and Human Serv-ices. He’s hinted that he’s open to shifting some of his most controversial policies, including his rejection of climate change and support for torture. He’s been full of praise for President Barack Obama and largely respectful of Hillary Clinton, his vanquished campaign rival.

But Trump is also refusing to abandon the raucous, stream-of-consciousness ral-lies and Twitter tirades that defined his presidential campaign. He’s continued to level false statements, claiming without evidence that millions of people voted ille-gally in the election. And he’s infused the normally staid Cabinet selection process with reality television drama, inviting cameras into his dinner with Mitt Romney, a leading candidate for secretary of state, and announcing the secretary of defense pick in an arena, seemingly off the cuff.

“He was a very unconventional candi-date,” House Speaker Paul Ryan said. “He’s going to be an unconventional president.”

Despite his tell-it-like-it-is reputation, Trump is fueled by a deep need to be liked, according to long-time associates. He often modulates his tone to his setting and frequently tries to curry favor with his audience by telling them what he thinks they want to hear. He often speaks in vague generalities, his policy plans short on details, and that allows supporters to read in what they wish.

And sometimes he seems to move in contradictions, as when he made simulta-neous appointments of Reince Priebus — a nod to the Washington establishment — and Stephen Bannon — a shot across the establishment’s bow — to fill two key roles in his administration, giving oppos-ing factions of his coalition something to cheer.

People who meet with the president-elect personally talk about there being “two Trumps” — the self-promoting celeb-rity that’s seen in public and the amiable and courteous grandfather who emerges in private.

“He’s charming in person,” said John Allison, the former CEO of BB&T, who recently met with Trump. “He absolutely has a lot of personal charisma.”

Indeed, Trump has appeared to win over some of his toughest Republican crit-ics since defeating Clinton. GOP lawmakers have praised all of his Cabinet nominees, some of whom hold more tra-ditionally conservative views than Trump

himself. Romney, who was one of Trump’s fiercest critics during the campaign, emerged from their dinner this week with warm words for a man he’d only recently called a “phony.”

“He continues with a message of inclusion and bringing people together and his vision is something which obvi-ously connected with the American people in a very powerful way,” Romney said in a stunning turnabout for the 2012 GOP nominee.

But Trump appears acutely aware that the enthusiastic supporters who propelled him to the White House are watching carefully to see if he’ll back away from his pledges to shake up the political system. Supporters shouted their opposition to Romney being in the Cabinet Thursday as Trump stood on stage in Cincinnati for the kickoff of a “thank you” tour for voters.

Trump gave them plenty else to cheer about, fully re-embracing his firebrand and raucous campaign persona.

He took the stage full of swagger and as focused on score-settling as he was during the campaign. He spent more than 10 minutes bashing the press, recounting how the media doubted his chances of winning.

“These are very, very dishonest peo-ple,” said Trump, one of several times during the night when he incited the crowd to jeer the press gathered in the pen at the back of the arena. “Ok, I love this stuff. Should I go on with this just a little bit longer? I love it.” Shifting to how he broke Clinton’s so-called Midwest firewall, he said, “We didn’t break it, we shattered

that sucker. We shattered it, man. That poor wall is busted up.”

Trump did hit some of the right notes in terms of unifying the nation when he managed to stick to the script rolling down the teleprompter. He called for a “truly inclusive society, where we support each other, love each other, and look out for each other.”

But he also reminisced how “fun” it was “fighting Hillary.” He stunned even his own advisers by announcing his nomina-tion of Mattis from the stage. And facing the pressures of the presidency, he seemed to still be reliving and relishing his victory. “We had a lot of fun,” he said, add-ing: “The bottom line is, we won.” An all-encompassing need to win seems to be one thing the “two Trumps” have in

11SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 OPINION

Julie Pace & Jonathan Lemire AP

The European Union’s new legislative proposals for a clean energy transition have disappointed environmentalists,

policy experts and even building insulation manufacturers. And yet, given US Presi-dent-elect Donald Trump’s lack of interest in sustainable energy, even this plan, cau-tious as it is, may well ensure Europe’s leadership in this area, especially if the Europeans manage to implement the best element of the package — its focus on con-sumers and on letting them also be energy producers.

From the point of view of macro energy architecture, the long-awaited, 1,000-page European plan is not particularly ambitious. Even though its drafters expect it to mobi-lize up to €177bn ($188bn) a year in private and public investment starting in 2021 and create 900,000 jobs as Europe moves to 50 percent renewable energy by 2030, it largely leaves the details of the energy tran-sition to member states, and only a small minority of them have specific sustainable energy policies today.

Among numerous gripes, the package has been criticized for allowing states to continue subsidizing coal power plants, allegedly because, given the instability of sustainable energy inputs such as wind and solar, they are needed to guarantee capacity is always available. The plan only intro-duces pollution limits for new plants. Environmental groups have wondered how a timid plan like this could help Europe achieve its stated goal, global green energy leadership.

The plan, however, does take on the incumbent industry giants in one important respect — their relationship to the con-sumer. It focuses on things like the introduction of “smart” meters that can be tracked from a smartphone, more detailed and easily understandable energy bills and the ease of switching from one utility com-pany to another. If the package gets approval from the European Parliament and member states, fees for switching energy providers will be restricted. And, perhaps most importantly, it declares: “All consumers across the EU will be entitled to generate electricity for either their own consumption, store it, share it, consume it or to sell it back to the market.”

Even if no other part of the package works as planned and none of its headline goals are reached, this alone would be tan-tamount to a revolution that would give Europe an edge over the US.

How Europe can claim clean energy leadership

Leonid BershidskyBloomberg

nomically inefficient.The EU energy package doesn’t contain a specific model for

dealing with prosumers. Yet if it succeeds in establishing a uni-form approach to “energy citizenship” and making sure gridholders do not restrict private citizens’ access, consumption and production models throughout Europe will change — and so, gradually, will the average consumer’s attitude toward energy. This is not about top-line goals like cutting greenhouse gases or increasing the share of renewables in the energy mix. The energy transition can only go so far with a top-down approach. Political leaders change, and often those carried to the top by the populist wave don’t prioritize the environment. Trump is a good example.

If renewable power is to prevail, it needs to become part of most people’s everyday calculus. The environmental consul-tancy CE Delft has calculated that by 2050, 60 million Europeans—about 10 percent of the EU’s population — may have solar batteries on their roofs, and about as many may par-ticipate in energy production through joint ownership of solar and wind capacity. If that projection is correct, enough Europe-ans will eventually have skin in the game to make sure there’s no backsliding on sustainable energy.

Environmental experts approve of that aspect of the EU package, even though they criticize it for other reasons. Manon Dufour, head of the Brussels office of E3G, an international energy policy think tank, told me in an email:

Overall, the elements of the package relative to the “demand-side” of energy markets, i.e. enabling demand-side response and self-generation by consumers, are necessary developments for shifting the European energy system towards a secure and sustainable future. As such, the propositions are broadly workable and will contribute to removing significant hurdles that have so far stymied the development of these flex-ible and low carbon resources across Europe. She pointed out, however, that implementing equal treatment for new sources of flexibility” would require strong regulatory oversight. The EU, given its cohesion problems, may be unable to deliver on the consumer focus of its energy policy. But at least its policy-makers — unlike the incoming US administration — understand what they need to do. That gives Europe a chance at global clean energy leadership, which the loser in the US election, Hillary Clinton, promised to claim for the US.

Trump did hit some of the right notes in terms of unifying the nation when he managed to stick to the script rolling down the teleprompter. He called for a truly inclusive society, where we support each other, love each other, and look out for each other.

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12 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 ASIA / PHILIPPINES

Trump praises Duterte's drug warManila

AFP

US President-elect Donald Trump told Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte that Manila was con-

ducting its deadly drug war "the right way", Duterte said yester-dat, in stark contrast to the criticism he received from Pres-ident Barack Obama.

The Philippine president called Trump late Friday evening to congratulate him on his elec-tion victory with Trump wishing him "success" in his controver-sial anti-crime crackdown, in which some 4,800 people have been killed since June, accord-ing to Duterte.

"He was quite sensitive also to our worry about drugs. And he wishes me well... in my cam-paign and he said that... we are doing it as a sovereign nation, the right way," Duterte said in a video released by his office yesterday.

"He was wishing me success in my campaign against the drug problem."

Duterte, 71, launched an unprecedented war on drugs that drew a wave of global criticism with Obama urging the leader in September to conduct his cam-paign "the right way" following

concerns over alleged extraju-dicial killings.

Trump's office released a brief statement following the conversation, saying Duterte had congratulated Trump and the two agreed to work together closely.

Duterte won presidential elections in May this year after pledging to kill tens of thou-sands of drug suspects, warning that otherwise the Philippines

would turn into a narco-state.Since assuming office, he has

called on police and even civil-ians to kill drug users.

Duterte also said he would be "happy to eliminate" three million drug addicts, and likened his campaign to Nazi leader Adolf Hitler's efforts to extermi-nate Jews in Europe.

In October, Duterte announced a "separation" from the United States and had called

for the withdrawal of American troops from his country, putting into question Manila's 70-year-old alliance with Washington.

But yesterday, Duterte said he "could sense a good rapport" with an "animated" Trump.

Duterte's spokesman said the "understanding" between the two leaders signalled better Phil-ippine-US ties.

"We can say at this stage that our relationship with the US is improving," Ernesto Abella said.

Video released by Duterte's office showed the Philippine leader laughing as he chatted on the phone, later saying Trump would would be "a good presi-dent for the United States of America".

Duterte said the president-elect invited him to visit New York and Washington DC and he returned the favour by asking Trump to attend a regional sum-mit that the Philippines is set to host next year.

"If I'm around, he wants to be notified of my presence," Duterte said.

Sri Lanka police fire tear gas at protestersColombo

AFP

POLICE fired tear gas and water cannon to disperse thou-sands of opposition-backed protesters outside parlia-ment yesterday as lawmakers debated the annual budget.

Demonstrators led by loy-alists of former president Mahinda Rajapakse held up traffic and blocked the main access to the parliament com-plex for several hours.

Opposition lawmaker Ranjith Soysa said protesters were demanding local elec-tions which were due last year, but postponed to devise a new electoral system.

"Police unleashed a vicious teargas attack and 10 opposition MPs, including myself, were hit," Soysa said.

The latest police clash fol-lows a protest by private bus operators and taxi drivers who stopped work over a proposed increase in traffic fines.

Thai activist arrested for defaming new king

Seoul

AFP

South Korea's opposition parties filed an impeach-ment motion against

scandal-hit President Park Geun-hye yesterday as a fresh weekly protest was expected to draw a million protesters, organ-isers said.

The motion, backed by 171 lawmakers in the 300-seat leg-islature, will be put to a vote in the National Assembly on Fri-day, lawmakers said.

The joint opposition

commands the most seats in the legislature, but will need the support of nearly 30 members of Park's Saenuri Party to secure the two-thirds majority needed to impeach the president.

"If the impeachment motion fails to get passed because of the lack of cooperation from the rul-ing party, it must take responsibility for all conse-quences", the main opposition Democratic Party's floor leader Woo Sang-Ho said.

Accused of colluding with a close friend who faces embez-zlement charges, Park said last

week she would be willing to step down in the face of weekly mass protests that have seen millions take to the streets of Seoul and other cities.

But the opposition says Park's offer, which put the man-ner and timing of her resignation in the hands of parliament, is an effort to buy time and avoid impeachment.

If passed, the motion would go to the Constitutional Court for approval -- a process that could take up to six months.

The ruling party has called on Park to stand down

voluntarily in April, allowing a presidential election to be held in June -- six months ahead of schedule.

Party officials have given her a week to accept the timeline or face impeachment.

Activists have called for a sixth protest Saturday in central Seoul, despite Park's announce-ment that she would be willing to cede power.

"About a million will come to the rally, more or less", spokesman Ahn Jin-Geol of an umbrella group of activists organising the rally said.

13 feared dead in Indonesia plane crashJakarta

AFP

AN Indonesian police plane carrying 13 people went missing yesterday on a short domestic flight and is feared crashed, police said, the latest blow to the country's aviation sector.

The M28 Skytruck plane lost contact with air traffic control during what was sup-posed to be a 1.5 hour flight in western Indonesia.

"Fishermen found clothes, suitcases and air plane seats we fear belong to the plane," national police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said.

The plane was on its way from Pangkal Pinang to Batam in the Riau Islands.

An earlier police state-ment said the plane had set off at 9:24am but that air traf-fic control lost contact with the plane at 10:15am.

Maungdaw

AFP

Malaysia accused Myan-mar of engaging in the "ethnic cleansing" of its

Rohingya minority yesterday, as former UN chief Kofi Annan vis-ited a burned out village in strife-torn Rakhine State.

"The fact that only one par-ticular ethnicity is being driven out is by definition ethnic cleans-ing," Malaysia's foreign ministry said in an unusually strongly-worded statement.

Myanmar has balked at such criticism, saying the Rakhine cri-sis is an internal issue -- but international pressure on the country is mounting.

Malaysia's statement noted that hundreds of thousands of Rohingya have fled to

neighbouring countries in recent years -- including some 56,000 to Muslim-majority Malaysia.

That, the statement said, "makes this matter no longer an internal matter but an interna-tional matter".

Yesterday morning, a con-voy carrying the former UN chief arrived outside the Rohingya vil-lage of Wapeik, which has seen signficant damage from fire.

Non-state media journalists were stopped by police from coming close to the convoy or entering the village, a photogra-pher at the scene said.

Annan is not expected to brief the media until Tuesday -- after his visit to Rakhine ends.

Myanmar has restricted access to the northern part of the state and says its military is hunting down the militants

behind the attacks. But rights groups and

Rohingya refugees who have made it to Bangladesh have accused the military of killing civilians and razing entire vil-lages as a form of collective punishment.

The Rohingya have long

faced persecution and govern-ment restrictions on movement that many have likened to apartheid.

Much of Myanmar views the Rohingya as illegal immigrants from Bangladesh even though many have lived there for generations.

"The Bengali people who brand themselves Rohingya are not Myanmar citizens," Par-maukkha, a nationalist monk, said.

"The one who is encourag-ing terrorism is the Malaysian Prime Minister (Najib Razak), he is also a terrorist," he added.

Malaysia hits out at Myanmar over 'ethnic cleansing'

Improving ties

He was quite sensitive also to our worry about drugs. he wishes me well... in my campaign and he said that... we are doing it as a sovereign nation, the right way: Duterte

Philippine leader's spokesman said the 'understanding' between the two leaders signalled better Philippine-US ties.

Rodrigo Duterte and Donald Trump

Oppn files impeachment motion against Park

Bangkok

Reuters

Thai police arrested an anti-junta activist yester-day for defaming the

monarchy in what rights groups said was the first case of lese-majeste brought under Thailand's new king.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn formally ascended the throne on Thursday following the death of his father, revered king Bhumibol Adulyadej.

Police Colonel Jaturon Trakulpan, a superintendent in northeastern Chaiyaphum province, said that Jatupat Boonpattararaksa, an activist who has staged several anti-junta protests, was arrested and charged with royal insult under Article 112 of Thailand's crimi-nal code.

"We caught him at a tem-ple," Jaturon said.

Thailand's junta has cracked down on critics of the monarchy since it took power in a May 2014 coup.

iLaw, a Bangkok-based group that monitors such cases, said they had increased since King Bhumibol's death.

Article 112 says anyone who

"defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir-apparent or the regent" will be punished with up to 15 years in prison.

Thai Lawyers for Human Rights, a rights group repre-senting Jatupat, said in a Twitter post that he was charged with royal insult for sharing a link on Facebook to a BBC Thai-lan-guage profile of the new king.

Anon Chawalawan of iLaw said the case was the first royal insult case to be filed under the new monarch.

"This (Facebook) post was shared many times. We ques-tion why he was singled out," Anon said recently.

"It might be because he has a history of staging anti-junta protests."

A group of Myanmar Buddhist monks stages a protest outside the Malaysian embassy in Yangon, yesterday.

People march toward the Presidential Blue House during a protest calling for South Korean President Park Geun-hye to step down in central Seoul, yesterday. RIGHT: Protesters shout slogans during a rally.

Lese-majeste

Article 112 says anyone who "defames, insults or threatens the king, the queen, the heir-apparent or the regent" will be punished with up to 15 years in prison.

Afghan children search for recyclable items amid the garbage in Mazar-i-Sharif, yesterday.

A replica of a Baluchitherium dinosaur is seen between the trees at the Natural History Museum in Islamabad, yesterday.

Used items hunt

Giant replica

13SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 PAKISTAN / AFGHANISTAN

Islamabad

Internews

Despite the movement of thick clouds towards Pakistan,

there are no chances of rain for at least 15 days due to the La Nina impact that experts said was blocking the cool moist winds from blowing towards South Asia from the west.The winds over eastern Iran were pushing the clus-ter of clouds coming from Europe and the Caspian Sea towards the north, as a result, only the shallow layer of clouds could penetrate into Pakistan.

“Under the impact of this system that developed a few days ago, there were thick fogs in some parts of the cen-tral Punjab, including Lahore on Wednesday and Thursday. But the clouds fizzled out by Saturday evening,” said an official of the Met Office.

Due to a lack of thick clouds from the west, the whole region from Malakand to India remained devoid of the winter rains.

The average maximum temperature in November and the first week of Decem-ber used to be around 20 degrees Centigrade whereas it is around 26 degrees this year in Islamabad, data col-lected from Met Office showed.

At the same time, the mercury used to drop to as low as three degrees in the last week of November and the first week of December but it is still hovering between four and eight degrees.“This is the reason leaves are still attached to trees and many wild flowers have started blooming again,” the official added.

Due to the lack of cold and less humidity, the plains of Punjab and Sindh are not facing the traditional dense fog too. “Another system is likely to develop after December 15 and there are chances that it would bring the first winter rain,” the offi-cial added.

Meanwhile, the water level at Simly Dam has reduced from its highest level at 2,315 feet to 2,297 feet in two months.

Islamabad

Internews

Experts from China, Pakistan and India have agreed that China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) has

changed the economic and secu-rity outlook of Pakistan and South Asia with far reaching international implications.

Speaking at United States Institute of Peace (USIP) here on the issue of $46bn trade initia-tive between China and Pakistan, experts said the Corridor had changed the narrative about Pakistan globally.

Expert on Indian affair, Sarah Watson, stressed that in the absence of any action from New Delhi about CPEC, India’s worst imagination would come to real-ity. China and Pakistan hope the project’s roads, rails and pipe-lines will help stabilise Pakistan and the broader region. “Unless India really engages in a very concentrated programme of infrastructure building and out-reach in next a few years, its worst imagination is more likely

to come true,” said Watson who is Associate Fellow, Wadhwani Chair in US-India Policy Studies, Center for Strategic and Interna-tional Studies.

She said increasing Pak-China cooperation would not only pose military challenge to India but also would affect its access to lucrative trade routes. Watson was of the view that India had three policy visions vis-à-vis CPEC.

Firstly, she said India looked at the Corridor as a kind of mil-itary alliance between China and Pakistan and it was concerned about that. Secondly, India’s also looked at CPEC as an economic opportunity which could bene-fit New Delhi if it became part of this initiative.Thirdly, she said India’s response to CPEC was Chabahar port which it was developing with Iran as alterna-tive route to Afghanistan and Central Asia.

“Out of these three possibil-ities, two needs action on part of India in near future while the first option does not require any-thing on part of India,” she said.

Pakistan expert at Asia

CPEC changing economic outlook of Pakistan: ExpertsMorale boost

Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal said $50bn Chinese investment came to Pakistan when the country was isolated economically but the initiative had changed the mindset of international community about Pakistan.

CPEC had changed the morale of Pakistani people and now they believed in their future and the country had started growing rapidly, an expert said.

Centre, USIP, Hussain Nadeem said CPEC had changed conver-sation about Pakistan even in Washington. “In 2012 when I vis-ited the United States

conversation about Pakistan was focused on security. But in 2016 thanks to CPEC, Pakistan is also discussed in terms of trade and economic opportunities,” he said.

On talks with Minister for Planning Ahsan Iqbal in Pakistan, he said 70 percent early harvest project under CPEC had already been completed. He said $50bn Chinese investment came to Pakistan when the country was isolated economically but the initiative had changed the mind-set of international community about Pakistan.

Nadeem was of the view that CPEC success was in the inter-est of world as it would make Pakistan more peaceful and pro-gressive. He said before CPEC China-Pakistan ties were devoid of substance but the initiative had changed the dimension of these relations. He said CPEC had changed the morale of Pakistani people and now they believed in their future and the country had started growing rapidly. He said CPEC had given people genuine hope that fate of their country would be changed. “This is something over $5bn US aid

under Kerry-Lugar Bill could not do.” Hai Zhao, Research Fellow at National Strategy Institute, Tsinghua said Chinese President Xi Jinping was personally involved in CPEC so all the com-panies and public institutions wanted to participate very enthusiastically.

“The biggest reason for China in CPEC is economic,” he said add-ing that China invested over trillions of dollars to avert the eco-nomic crisis in 2008 which inflated the Chinese industry.He said the inflated Chinese industry needed international market to use their resources and “Even if they do not get much profit from CPEC projects, Chinese compa-nies are giving them opportunity to gain experience to be interna-tional competitiveness,” he said adding that investment under CPEC would continue in near future for these reasons.

He said Chinese domestic media celebrated the first trade conveys arrival in Gwadar last month.However, he mentioned that some companies had con-cerned over internal political differences in Pakistan over

CPEC projects and they were try-ing hard not to get involved in domestic disputes of Pakistan.

Hai Zhao said many Indians were against CPEC but the project was not aimed at India as China was also working on another road which goes through India and Myanmar.’“However India is pro-posing road projects that are at 90 degree angle with Chinese pro-posed roads which is making the cooperation difficult,” he said. Arif Rafiq, Fellow at Center for Glo-bal Policy, highlighted challenges to CPEC within Pakistan. He said there were misconceptions about the project internationally as many considered it as a tunnel or long road but it was totally a different kind of initiative which was aimed at fulfilling Pakistan’s economic agenda.

He said most of the roads under CPEC were not new but they were being expanded to improve the speed of transporta-tion. He said the government claimed it would be able to gener-ate 17,000 megawatt of electricity under CPEC but his estimates sug-gested that around 8.000 megawat will be generated.

No chances of rain for at least 15 days: Met

Karachi

Internews

Pakistan International Air-lines (PIA) yesterday said it had attracted an addi-

tional one million passengers this year, which significantly helped to boost its share in air travel services. The market share of the state-owned air-line has “increased by 22 percent on domestic flights and 3 percent on the international sector during the current year,” said PIA spokesman Danyal Gilani in a statement.

“PIA Premier (service) has also played a key role in regain-ing the market share. [It] has played an important role in restoring passenger confidence and improving the brand image,” he added.The airline introduced the premier flights on Lahore/Islamabad-to-Lon-don routes in August 2016.

Another official of the air-line said the “departure of flights on scheduled time is [the] primary reason behind winning hearts and minds of the passengers.”Other reasons for the increase in passengers are induction of new planes - narrow-body aircraft (A-320) - into the fleet over the last two years and serving of better-quality and different varieties of food on the flights. PIA CEO

Bernd Hildenbrand said the other day PIA had achieved a regularity of 99 percent, while its on-time performance had reached 85 percent, which was second only to Saudi Airlines in the region. The official added that increased flight operation on various international and domestic routes had also attracted new passengers to the airline. In the current year, PIA has increased a number of flights on international routes, including Kuala Lumpur, Dubai, Jeddah and Kabul. It has also started flight operation to Sala-lah, Oman this week.

Moreover, it has increased flights on domestic routes, including Islamabad-Faisal-abad, Quet ta-Mul tan , Karachi-Lahore, Karachi-Fais-alabad and Karachi-Sialkot.The increasing number of pilgrims going to Makkah and Madina for performing Haj and Umrah remains a big source of passen-ger traffic to the airline.

As per recently unveiled plans, the airline aims to increase the number of aircraft in its fleet to 60 by 2020. At present, it has 38 aircraft.

It also aims to start flights to Barcelona, Leipzig and Bang-kok in the near future. In addition to this, PIA is planning to increase flights to Paris, New York, Beijing and Toronto.

Islamabad

Internews

Pakistani prime minister’s special assistant for for-eign affairs, Tariq Fatemi,

is coming to the United States this weekend to meet officials of the Trump transition team.

“Besides meeting members of the transition team, Fatemi will meet officials of the outgo-ing Obama administration,” said Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Jalil Abbas Jilani.US President-elect Donald

Trump is scheduled to take the oath on Jan 20 but he has already set up a provisional team, encouraging foreign lead-ers and officials to visit his headquarters in New York for familiarisation meetings.

Fatemi, who is coming on a two-week official visit, is also expected to meet some mem-bers of this team and in Washington, “he will also meet new US lawmakers elected last month,” Jilani told a news brief-ing at the embassy. “This is a very important visit as much has

happened in Washington since the Nov 8 elections,” Jilani said.

The visit follows a conver-sation between Nawaz Sharif and Trump on Wednesday dur-ing which the US leader expressed his desire to continue a productive relationship with Pakistan. The Trump-Sharif conversation has generated much interest in the US capital where the opposition Democrats and the media are both criticis-ing the president-elect for “talking to foreign leaders with-out consulting US officials’’.

Islamabad

Internews

A consensus US defence bill, set to be approved by the House, recognises

Pakistan as a key strategic part-ner and pledges more than $900m in economic and other assistance to the country. But the bill also conditions $450m from this assistance to a certi-fication from the US defence secretary that Pakistan is com-mitted to fighting all terrorist groups, including the Haqqani network.

This year the amount was $300m, which was not released

after Defence Secretary Ashton Carter refused to certify in Pakistan’s favour.

The US National Defence Authorisation Act for fiscal year 2017 was tentatively scheduled for a vote in the House of Rep-resentatives on Saturday evening, and in the Senate next week. Since it is a consensus bill, it is unlikely to face any opposition. The bill notes that “the United States and Pakistan continue to have many critical shared interests, both eco-nomic- and security-related, which could be the foundation for a positive and mutually ben-eficial partnership.”

PIA attracts over 1 million additional passengers this year

US bill pledges over $900m to Pakistan

Pakistan sending envoy to US

14 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 INDIA

New Delhi

Reuters

Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi (pictured) yesterday defended his crackdown on the cash economy that

has left businesses, farmers and families suffering, saying it was necessary to keep inflation in check and ensure basic amen-ities for all.

Modi’s decision last month to scrap 500 rupee and 1,000 rupee banknotes as part of a crackdown on tax dodgers and counterfeiters has caused a cur-rency crunch in a country where most people are paid in cash and buy what they need with cash. With a small stock of smaller notes available and new bills of 500 and 2,000 rupee in short supply, Indians are being forced to stand in queues out-side banks and cash machines to change their old notes.

Addressing his party’s elec-tion campaign rally in the state of Uttar Pradesh, Modi said: “Please support me in curing the disease that has been afflict-ing this country for the last 70 years. “I have put you all in a queue. But this is the last queue to end all the queues.”

While Modi has been praised for his intentions, he is facing flak from political oppo-nents as well as prominent

economists such as Amartya Sen and Paul Krugman for sucking 86 percent of the cur-rency out of circulation virtually overnight.

Nobel laureate Krugman on Friday said Modi’s decision was “highly disruptive” and would result in “significant” tempo-rary cost for the economy without producing major gains in the long-run.

Modi defends clampdown on cash economy

PM appeal

Modi said: "Please support me in curing the disease that has been afflicting this country for the last 70 years."

“I have put you all in a queue. But this is the last queue to end all the queues.”

Former British prime minister David Cameron arrives at the annual Hindustan Times "Leadership Summit" conference in New Delhi, yesterday.

Cameron attends summit

A bank employee checks the names of customers standing in a queue with his list in Mumbai, yesterday.

Vijayawada

IANS

Two persons were injured when stampede broke out at a bank in Andhra

Pradesh's West Godavari district yesterday. Glass doors and win-dow panes of the bank were also damaged.

The incident occurred at State of India's branch at Pala-kollu town in West Godavari district. The stampede broke out as several people who were standing in queues barged in when the bank opened for the day. Two customers sustained injuries in the incident. Fearing violence, bank officials stopped transactions. The situation was

controlled with the intervention of police. Utter chaos were seen at banks across Andhra Pradesh and Telangana for another day. Government and private employees and pensioners suf-fered for third consecutive day.

Though the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) infused `2,420 crore and ` 1,600 crore cash in And-hra Pradesh and Telangana on Friday, there was not much improvement in the situation. People lined up before the banks since early morning. Many banks ran out of cash within couple of hours. Employees and pensioners complained that despite the governments' direc-tion to banks to pay them `10,000 cash from their

salaries and pensions deposited in their accounts, the banks were not giving them more than ` 4,000 or ` 6,000. Despite the announcement that there will be separate counters, they were made to stand in common queues.

The elderly men and women were the worst-hit. At many places they were seen sitting on the ground to wait. Many returned disappointed as the banks ran out of money before their turn came.

There was no improvement in functioning of ATMs. Few were dispensing cash but were going dry within no time as hun-dreds were standing with the hope of drawing at least ̀ .2,000.

Bengaluru

IANS

About `30 lakh unac-counted cash was seized yesterday at two

places in the city and three persons were arrested for holding it without documen-tary proof, police said.

"In one case, Ishwarappa, 66, a farmer from Andhra Pradesh, was nabbed at Whitefield for illegally carry-ing `12.10 lakh in `2,000 notes in a car to exchange them for old notes at 20 per cent commission," said a police statement. In a similar case, two persons were arrested from near a private hospital at Hebbal for illegally carrying `18 lakh in cash.

A patrolling police team nabbed Ishwarappa and his friend after a hot chase from a petrol retail outlet.

"On interception, the farmer confessed that he was asked to go tp the city by his contact to hand over the cash in return for old currency with commission. As he did not have documentary proof for carrying so much cash, we called the Income Tax offi-cials and asked to ascertain the source of the amount," said the official.

In the other case, Sridhar and his friend Mohan, were caught waiting for their con-tact to deliver Rs 10 lakh in Rs 2,000 and new Rs 500 notes and Rs 8 lakh in Rs 100 notes.

"The duo was taken into custody and the cash was recovered from the car," added the official.

Stampede at bank in Andhra; two injured

Unaccounted `30 lakh seized in Bengaluru

New Delhi IANS

Tall, lean and dark, Jaipra-kash was an average 11-year-old who loved galli

cricket and chips. Then, to his parents dismay, the peppy fourth-grader from Junagadh in western Gujarat started falling ill frequently. Finally, he had to drop out of school.

On a December morning five years ago, Jai started bleeding from his nose and mouth. Doc-tors at the nearest government hospital referred him to another hospital in Rajkot, about 100km away. He died the next morning.

It turned out that Jai, who was a Thalassemic patient since he was just a year old, had con-tracted HIV through blood transfusion at the Junagadh Civil Hospital. And it wasn't just him; 35 other Thalassemic children being given transfusion at the same hospital had become HIV-infected. Of them, eight died.

"All our happiness died with our child. Who do we live for now?" said 50-year-old Rafeeq Ranava, Jai's father, a daily-wage labourer in Junagadh.

An IndiaSpend investigation, through a series of Right to Infor-mation (RTI) requests, has revealed that 14,474 cases of HIV through blood transfusion have

been reported in India over the last seven years. It also revealed that the Indian government has yet to order a study or inquiry into this medical crisis that puts millions of lives at risk.

Not just that, there has been a 10 percent rise in the number of such cases over the last one year -- from 1,424 in 2014-15 to 1,559 in 2015-16 -- according to documents obtained from that National AIDS Control Organi-sation (NACO), the apex government body dealing with India's HIV/AIDS control programme.

The 10 per cent increase in 2015-16 numbers is significant because it has reversed the

near-consecutive decrease in cases in the five preceding years. NACO, however, has down-played the rise in its report on blood banks: "Due to concerted and active efforts, the prevalence of TTIs (transfusion transmission infections) has come down sig-nificantly over the years."

NACO's data are based on self-reporting by people at its Integrated Counselling and Test-ing Centres spread across the country. Referring to this, Sob-hini Rajan, Additional Director General, Blood Safety, NACO, maintained that the data are "based on responses received from people and it is (sic) not sci-entifically corroborated". She

also added that the "figures have come down -- from around 15 per cent in the 1990s to less than 1 per cent now".

Developed countries rarely report such cases now. Canada, for instance, hasn't seen a single case of blood transfusion-related HIV since 1985, and the US, since 2008. While in India, one in every 100 HIV patients could be a victim of infected blood trans-fusion, the tally in the US is one in 300,000 cases, according to data shared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), a US national health agency. This means that the chances of an HIV patient in India having contracted the virus

through a blood transfusion are 3,000 times higher than in the US.

The data shared by the CDC said it diagnosed 312,860 HIV cases in the US between 2008 and 2014. Only one of them, in 2008, was the result of blood transfusion. The Indian govern-ment, meanwhile, seems to be denying its own findings.

"No," was Minister of State Anupriya Patel's answer to the question as to whether the "gov-ernment is aware that large number of persons across the country have been infected with HIV while getting blood transfu-sions", asked in the Lok Sabha in August 2016.

14,474 cases of HIV through blood transfusion: Report

New Delhi IANS

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj yesterday said those guilty in an

alleged gang abuse of an Amer-ican woman in March this year at a luxury hotel here won't be spared and has asked Delhi Police to register a case.

However, a case was yet to be filed even as the woman had, in an email written to Delhi Police, said that she was abused by five men at a Con-naught Place five-star hotel during her visit to India.

Taking cognizance of media reports about the alleged abuse, Sushma Swaraj in a series of tweets said she spoke to Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Indian Ambas-sador in US Navtej Sarna about the matter. "I have seen the media reports about gang

abuse of an American tourist in Delhi in March this year," she said.

She said she told Jung that "police should register a case and bring the guilty to book.

"I have also asked the Indian Ambassador in the US to contact the victim and assure her that we will not spare the guilty," Sushma Swaraj added.

Delhi Police had earlier received an e-mail complaint from the woman about the alleged abuse.

The woman has said she had hired a tourist guide who, she alleged, was one of the abuser.

Police sources said that they were investigating the allegations and have ques-tioned some employees of the hotel.

"A case will be registered soon on the basis of the victim's statement," a police officer said.

Sushma assures action in abuse of US national

Thrissur

IANS

A court here yesterday said it will monitor the Wadakancherry abuse

case of 2014, which came back into the focus last month when the 34-year-old victim along with her husband and two women activists appeared before the media in the state capital.

Following the victim's anguished plea, a special police team was constituted to probe the case, but the victim, unhappy with the way the case was progressing, approached the Wadakancherry First Class Magistrate's court seeking a court-monitored probe into it. The court after hearing the petitioner and police, agreed to monitor the case and directed police to submit a report every 10 days.

Court to monitor Wadakancherry abuse case

15SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 INDIA

Motorists ride through heavy rains in Chennai, yesterday. Tropical Cyclone Nada, which developed in the Bay of Bengal a few days ago, has made its way across southern India and is now fizzling out over the Arabian Sea.

Riding in the rain

Amritsar

Reuters

India and Afghanistan are likely to announce an air cargo service today to help increase trade that both say is stymied because of their

tense political relations with Pakistan that lies between them. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were meeting in the northern Indian city of Amritsar, a short distance from the Pakistan border, for the Heart of Asia conference aimed at sta-bilising Afghanistan.

Nuclear-armed India and Pakistan have gone to war three times and remain bitter foes while ties between Pakistan and

Afghanistan have become strained despite their shared reli-

gious and cultural identities.Officials say the focus of the

air cargo service is to improve landlocked Afghanistan’s con-nectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth prospects of its fruit and carpet industries

while it battles a deadly Taliban insurgency.

Afghanistan depends on the Pakistani port of Karachi for its foreign trade. It is allowed to send a limited amount of goods overland through Pakistan into India, but imports from India are not allowed along this route.

Afghan director general for macro fiscal policies Khalid Pay-enda said the potential for trade with India, the largest market in the region, was far greater than allowed by land and so the two countries had decided to use the air route. “That would be air cargo between Afghanistan and India. We have a lot of potential for trade on both sides. On our side, it’s mostly fruit and dried fruit and potentially through India to other places for prod-ucts like carpets and others.”

He said that a joint venture involving an Afghan and an Indian cargo firm would be set up and that the two governments were working to set up infra-structure at Kabul and Delhi airports.

An Indian government

source attending the meeting in Amritsar said air cargo route details were still being worked out and could include Kanda-har as a point of origin for shipping fruit directly to India. Indian foreign ministry official Gopal Baglay, who oversees Afghanistan, Pakistan and Iran, said several proposals were being discussed to improve Afghanistan’s trade and trans-port links. “There have been very many ideas on how to enhance connectivity, overcome current challenges and also expand the trade basket,” he said.

Pakistan’s top foreign policy adviser, Sartaj Aziz, will be attending the conference today. Ties with India have deteriorated further in recent months after a series of attacks.

India & Afghanistan plan air cargo link over PakistanStrategic move

The focus of the air cargo service is to improve landlocked Afghanistan’s connectivity to key markets abroad and boost the growth prospects of its fruit and carpet industries.

An Afghan official said the potential for trade with India was far greater than allowed by land and so the two countries had decided to use the air route.

Kolkata

IANS

West Bengal Governor KN Tripathi yesterday sternly cautioned

against "defaming" and "letting down" the Indian Army in the wake of Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee alleging that soldiers extorted money from truck driv-ers during their deployment at toll plazas. Asked about Baner-jee's accusation that the soldiers extorted money from truck driv-ers, Tripathi said: "Every person should take care in making alle-gation against a responsible organisation like the Indian Army. Don't let down the army. Don't defame the army."

Responding to Tripathi's caution, Banerjee accused him of speaking in the "tone of cen-tral government" on the issue of army deployment at toll plazas in the state. "The Governor is speaking in the voice of Central Government!! He was not in the city for about 8 days," she tweeted. Terming the Gover-n o r ' s c o m m e n t s a s "unfortunate", Banerjee, also the Trinamool Congress supremo, said Tripathi should have checked the details of recent developments in the state before commenting.

"Before making statements, all details should have been checked. It is very unfortunate," said Banerjee, who spent Thurs-day night at the state secretariat and stayed put for 36 hours pro-testing deployment of the army at toll plazas in the state alleg-edly without informing her government -- an issue that

snowballed into a major row causing disruptions in Parliament.

The central government and the army rubbished the allega-tions, saying too much was being read into a routine exer-cise. Meanwhile, a Trinamool Congress delegation, on Satur-day afternoon met the state governor and submitted a mem-orandum protesting against the deployment of army at several toll plazas in the state.

"We have informed him in detail about how the army was deployed at 18 places in West Bengal without the permission of the state government," said State Education and Parliamen-tary Affairs Minister Partha Chatterjee after meeting the governor.

Echoing party supremo Mamata Banerjee, the Trina-mool leader criticised the governor for his comments on the issue. "It is unbecoming of a governor to make such a state-ment. People might assume that the governor is favouring a spe-cific political party. we are not taking it in a good spirit," he said.

The Trinamool leader clar-ified that while the state government has the highest respect for Indian army, it strongly denounces the central government's ploy of using the army in a wrong way.

"We have highest degree of respect for the Indian army but if central government tries to break the federal structure of a state by using army as a shield, we have to protest against that," Chatterjee said.

Ahmedabad

IANS

Mahesh Shah, a business-man from Gujarat who made a surprising dis-

closure `13,860 crore in unaccounted wealth under the Income Declaration Scheme (IDS) two months ago, said yes-terday he was used as a front by some businessmen and politi-cians to declare the money and would name them soon.

Shah appeared at the ETV studio in Ahmedabad, nearly a week after he went absconding on November 29. Income Tax officers detained the property dealer to question him. Earlier he told the TV channel that "Rs 13,860 crore I declared under Income Disclosure Scheme is not mine".

The businessman said he had done the disclosure "out of compulsion" and was promised "commission" for declaring the wealth as his. "Those whose

money was disclosed under IDS backed out at the last moment so I could not pay the first instal-ment," Shah said.

He said he had realised the mistake and would reveal "eve-rything soon" after providing all information to the IT depart-ment.. Shah visited the Income Tax office on the night of Sep-tember 30, 2016, the last day of IDS. He submitted the statutory Form No. 2 under IDS on Octo-ber 14. The IT department later approved the submission.

Chandigarh

IANS

Foiling an infiltration bid, Border Security Force troopers gunned down

an intruder from Pakistan in north Punjab early yesterday, BSF sources said.

The incident took place near the Dinda border out post (BoP) in Bamiyal sector of forward areas of Pathankot district. The incident took place on a day when the two-day "Heart of Asia" conference got underway in Amritsar city in Punjab, about 100 km from the infiltration incident spot.

Amritsar is under a tight security umbrella with a number of international lead-ers converging here for the conference. The intruder was killed after he came close to the border fencing on the Indian side and did not heed to warnings. The National Investigating Agency, which had investigated the terror attack on the Pathankot air base on January 2 this year by Pakistani terrorists, had pointed out that the terrorists had entered India near the Dinda BoP. The BSF troopers in the border belt remain on high alert following the two terror attacks in Dinanagar (July 27, 2015) and Pathankot (January 2, 2016) in Punjab.

The "Heart of Asia" inter-national conference is for peace and stability in the war-ravaged Afghanistan.

Modi and Ghani are expected to reach Amritsar in the evening.

`13,860 crore disclosed in IDS not mine: Gujarat businessman

Afghan peace meet today Prime Minister Narendra

Modi arrived in Amrit-sar yesterday evening

and is scheduled to meet Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani for talks on bilateral issues before the inauguration of ministerial deliberations of a peace meet on Afghanistan today, an official said. Ghani

also arrived in the holy city in Punjab later in the evening for participation in the interna-tional endeavour for peace and stability in war-ravaged Afghanistan, informed sources who have knowledge about the matter. Pakistan's de facto foreign policy chief Sartaj Aziz also reached Amritsar.

Don't defame Army: Bengal Governor

Police carry a member of the All Jammu and Kashmir Handicapped Association (AJKHA) into a police vehicle as they detain him during a protest to mark the International Day of People with Disability in Srinagar, yesterday.

Challenging protest

New Delhi IANS

Households across India still overwhelmingly depend on private pro-

viders for healthcare services over public healthcare, a recent study has found.

Senior Fellow at Brookings India, Shamika Ravi, found in her study "Health and Morbid-ity in India: 2004-2014" that as much as 75 percent of outpatient (OPD) care in India was exclu-sively private in 2014.

Around 55 per cent of inpa-tient (IPD) care is from private hospitals, it added. Ravi, how-ever, noted that dependence on private healthcare is declining.

"Indian households' depend-ence on public care has risen by 6 per cent for OPD care and by 7 per cent for IPD care," she said.

The study based on analysis of National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) data was released on Friday at Teen Murti House here followed by a panel discussion on "Health and Mor-bidity in India: Evidence and Policy Implications".

The study is co-authored by Rahul Ahluwalia and Sofi Berg-kvist. Ravi added that "out of pocket" spending has risen sig-nificantly between 2004 and 2014, driven primarily by increase in IPD spending.

"There are large disparities across rural and urban house-holds in terms of real out of pocket expenses for IPD such as doctor's fees, medicines and diagnostics."Compared to a rural household, an urban household spends five times more on diag-nostics, 2.6 times more on medicines and 2.4 times more

on doctors' fees," she said.Her study noted that the

rural-urban differences were very small in 2004 with abso-lutely no difference in the average real expenditures on medicine per inpatient case.

During the panel discussion that followed, Regional Direc-tor of World Health Organisation Poonam Khetrapal said that health seeking behaviour of women is lower in India com-pared to men and they donot seek healthcare as much as they should. "We need to address these gaps," she said.

National Commission for Women Chairperson Lalitha Kumaramangalam added that most people talk about women health during pregnancy. "Good health needs to be lifelong and not just focused at the time of pregnancy," she said.

Most Indians dependent on private healthcare providers: Study

BSF guns down intruder from Pakistan

Breaking the ice

Japanese President Shinzo Abe is due to meet Putin on December 15 in the city of Yamaguchi in western Japan with the aim of making progress on the territorial dispute. It will be Putin’s first such visit since 2005.

16 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 EUROPE

People hold flags and a banner which translates as "Labour law, famine, pasta, rice" during a demonstration against unemployment and for social justice in Paris, yesterday.

Voicing demands

Rome

AFP

With campaign-ing over , media silence was imposed across Italy

yesterday on the eve of a consti-tutional referendum seen as crucial to the future of Prime Minister Matteo Renzi.

In the frantic final round of campaigning which ended on Friday, Renzi’s domestic rivals vowed to knock down referen-dum proposals to streamline parliament and force the centre-left leader out of office.

The prime minister is hop-ing for a last-minute turnaround in voter sentiment in favour of a “Yes” vote when Italy goes to the polls today.

All media comment on the vote is now banned until polling ends 2200 GMT tonight.

With #silenzioelettorale (electoral silence) widely in evi-dence on Twitter, most Italians online were rejoicing at the end of a highly-charged campaign.

Politically and economically, the stakes are high.

After Britain’s vote to leave the European Union and Donald Trump’s presidential triumph in the United States, Renzi is being portrayed as next in line to suf-fer a populist backlash from fed-up and forgotten voters in the country.

His pledge to quit if he loses the vote has focused the cam-paign on his record, exacerbating fears of political instability and economic turbulence in the eurozone’s third-biggest econ-omy should he be forced out.

At stake today is whether to slash the size and powers of the second chamber Senate and trans-fer other powers from the regions to national government.

Renzi says this will mean more effective leadership of a country that has had 60 differ-ent governments since the constitution was approved in 1948.

But it seems certain that some disgruntled voters will vote “No” as a protest—either against the prime minister or the years of economic stagnation.

The proposals have come under fire from opponents who see them as ill-considered and potentially opening the door to the kind of authoritarian rule the constitution is designed to prevent.

Some 50 million Italians are eligible to vote, with opinion polls showing many people still undecided.

The last permitted polls, published on November 18, gave the “No” camp at least a five-to-eight-point lead, with more than a quarter of voters undecided.

In the Mercato Trieste, a food hall in a leafy middle-class neighbourhood of northern Rome, most of traders and

shoppers yesterday morning appeared to be either opposed to the reform or yet to make up their minds.

Egg seller Emanuela Carosi, wrapping free range eggs in bun-dles of newspaper, said she would definitely vote “No”.

“The Constitution was writ-ten by chosen people, luminaries, not politicians like we have today. They are not up to it. And I’m worried that it could undermine our democ-racy, ” she told reporters.

Slicing Wagyu beef steaks at an upmarket meat counter, butcher Antonio Canestri said he also opposes the reform but may vote for it for fear of the consequences.

“I am afraid about what hap-pens in the event of a ‘No’. We know what we have now, we don’t know what we will find with the reform, but I am wor-ried about the possibility there could be economic chaos if the ‘No’ wins.”

A large majority of the polit-ical class, from the far-left to the extreme right, have warned

about the risk of concentrating too much power in the govern-ment’s hands.

Former premier Silvio Ber-lusconi initially gave his blessing to the proposed reform but switched sides as the rising tide of opposition put Renzi’s job on the line.

“Go out and vote so that Renzi doesn’t become our boss and the boss of Italy,” he told people early yesterday.

At the same time Renzi, was campaigning in Florence, where he was formerly mayor, urging supporters to convince the undecided.

“There are so many of them and we must go and seek them out, one-by-one, because eve-rything will be decided in these 48 hours,” he said.

The possibility that it could turn into a tight race has ener-gised Italians abroad, for whom voting ended on Thursday.

Expat Italians number around four million—or 7.7 per-cent of the electorate—and a strong showing there could likely boost Renzi’s “Yes” camp.

Vienna

Reuters

TWO migrants who had apparently hidden on a train bringing trucks from Italy to Austria were found dead yes-terday, either of cold or because they were crushed when the vehicles were unloaded, the police said.

A third migrant was seri-ously injured and taken to hospital, police in western province of Tyrol said, add-ing that the migrant’s nationalities were not known.

Having been swept up in Europe’s migration crisis last year, Austria led a coordi-nated effort with Balkan countries to shut down what was then the main route to the heart of Europe.

As the flow of people into Europe shifted this summer towards vital sea route linking North Africa to Italy, Austria threatened to introduce bor-der checks at Brenner crossing, a link connecting Italy to north-ern Europe, if too many migrants headed its way.

The Austrian police said migrants killed and injured were likely headed for Ger-many. The town at which the trucks were unloaded, Woergl, is roughly 15km from Austria’s border with Germany.

The train, which has no roof, is an alternative to driv-ing trucks across the border. It also goes through the Bren-ner pass.

A police spokesman said the migrants were hiding under the trucks and would have had about 20 minutes to leave between when the trucks switched on their engines and started moving.

“Since they stayed lying there we assume that because of the cold they may have lost consciousness or were per-haps already dead,” he said.

London

AFP

A former Nazi prisoner of war has left his entire estate in his will to a

small village in Scotland to show his appreciation for the kindness he received there dur-ing his captivity.

Heinrich Steinmeyer, a Waffen SS soldier during World War II, was captured in France and held in the Cultybraggan POW camp near Comrie in the Scottish highlands, where the 19-year-old received an unex-pectedly warm welcome.

The acts of kindness began when local children reportedly befriended him through the fence and smuggled him out of the camp to watch a film at a nearby cinema.

“Throughout his captivity, Heinrich Steinmeyer was very struck by the kindness shown to him by Scottish people, which he had not expected,” said Andrew Reid of the Com-rie Development Trust, which will administer the legacy fund worth £384,000 ($489,000, €458,000).

The former German soldier stayed on to work in the Perth-shire village for sometime after the war and later returned to visit, making last-

ing friendships, said Reid.“He vowed to leave every-

thing he owned for the benefit of older people in the place he wanted to thank,” Reid added.

Steinmeyer died in 2013, aged 90, a fortnight after the death of George Carson, a close friend he had made in the village.

However, his estate has only now been settled follow-ing a lengthy legal process in Germany.

In his will, cited by the Comrie Development Trust, Steinmeyer said: “I would like to express my gratitude to the people of Scotland for the kind-ness and generosity that I have experienced in Scotland during my imprisonment of war and hereafter.”

The money from the sale of his house and possessions will be spent on services for the eld-erly in the area, to be determined by members of the local community.

Carson’s son, also called George, described his father’s friend as “a wonderful man”.

“It sounds like an unbeliev-able story but it’s absolutely true,” he told BBC Radio 4 yes-terday, recounting how his mother and her friends befriended the prisoner through the camp fence.

The Hague AFP

The Dutch government will seek EU support to tempo-rarily freeze accession

talks with Turkey, Prime Minis-ter Mark Rutte said, in a move set to ratchet up tensions between Ankara and Brussels.

“We are going to see whether there’s support in Europe... to suspend talks for half a year,” Rutte said.

Turkey and EU had agreed

to speed up long-stalled mem-bership talks after both sides reached a deal in March to curb the flow of migrants into the European Union.

But the process has stalled after a failed coup in July fol-lowed by a crackdown that saw some 37,000 arrests.

Rutte reiterated his Foreign Minister Bert Koenders’ state-ment, who said the accession talks were “comatose”.

Koenders’ comments come after Dutch lawmakers on

Wednesday voted by majority for a temporary freeze of the talks, the public broadcaster NOS reported.

The top Dutch diplomat “was not in favour of a suspension of the talks but caved in after pres-sure from lawmakers, saying he would now take the tempera-ture among other European partners,” the NOS said.

The latest call follows a non-binding vote in the European Parliament last week when par-liamentarians overwhelmingly

voted in favour of suspending the talks.

That vote infuriated Ankara, which immediately labelled it as “insignificant and worthless”.

Most EU states want to keep the Turkey talks on track—but the leaders of the EU’s 28 nations have a final say on Turkey’s bid join the bloc.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has meanwhile threat-ened to retaliate by rupturing the March deal that sharply reduced the flow of migrants to Europe.

Moscow

AFP

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said yes-terday ahead of a visit

to Japan by President Vladimir Putin that the countries’ lead-ers are pushing to end a territorial row dating back to World War II.

Relations between Moscow and Tokyo have been strained for decades over of the status of four Pacific islands near Japan’s north coast, known as the Southern Kurils in Russia and the Northern Territories in Japan.

“The main area where our positions concur is the clear-cut political striving of our leaders for a mutually accept-able resolution,” Lavrov said after talks with his Japanese

counterpart Fumio Kishida in Moscow, yesterday.

Japanese President Shinzo Abe is due to meet Putin on December 15 in the city of Yamaguchi in western Japan with the aim of making progress on the territorial dis-pute. It will be Putin’s first such visit since 2005.

“We have an interest in resolving this protracted prob-lem,” Lavrov said, while admitting: “it’s clear that it’s not simple to bring the two sides’ positions closer.”

Kishida said the talks were “meaningful, important and useful” ahead of a visit he called the most important event in the countries’ relations this year.

The row dates from the end of World War II when Soviet troops seized the southernmost islands in an archipelago off the northeast coast of Hokkaido just after Japan surrendered.

The seven-decade dispute over the islands’ ownership has kept Moscow and Tokyo from signing a post-war peace treaty and hindered trade and invest-ment. Russia prompted protests from Japan last month by deploying coastal missile

systems to boost its military presence on the islands.

“On the question of the peace treaty, we would like to reach a result that would be welcomed by the people both of Japan and Russia,” Kishida said in comments translated into Russian.

He said he wanted “ener-getic talks” to “finally resolve the sovereignty of the four islands in a mutually accepta-ble form and conclude a peace treaty.”

Lavrov said the diplomats “expressed mutual readiness to try to move forward in resolv-ing practical questions.”

He said they agreed “to continue the line that our lead-ers agreed on the utmost all-round development of our relations in all spheres without exception.”

Referendum: Media silence across Italy Crucial day

Some 50 million Italians are eligible to vote, with opinion polls showing many people still undecided.

Japanese Foreign Minister Fumio Kishida (left) shakes hands with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov during a news conference in Moscow, yesterday.

Russia & Japan ‘striving to resolve’ island row

Two migrants found dead under trucks in Austria

Former German POW gives legacy to Scottish village

Dutch to seek EU nod for freeze on Turkey talks

17SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 EUROPE

Historical re-enactment enthusiasts dressed as soldiers march to Tvarozna village in Czech Republic, yesterday to take a part of a re-enactment of Napoleon's famous battle of Austerlitz.

Marching back to history

People gather to protest against the government's austerity policy in Athens, Greece.

Unending pain

Far-right hopeful

A victory today for Norbert Hofer from Freedom Party would make him Europe’s first far-right elected president since 1945.

Vienna

AFP

Austria’s long and ugly presidential cam-paign drew to a close yesterday, with a confident far-right

aiming to emulate Donald Trump and Brexit campaigners by deal-ing a hammer-blow to Vienna’s centrist establishment.

A victory today for Norbert Hofer (pictured) from the anti-immigration and EU-critical Freedom Party (FPOe) would make him Europe’s first far-right elected president since 1945.

The Austrian presidency is largely ceremonial but it would be another triumph for populist politics a month since Donald Trump’s victory.

The election comes on the same day as a closely-watched referendum in Italy and ahead of elections next year in France,

Germany and the Netherlands where anti-mainstream and anti-immigration forces are fore-cast to do well too.

“That a far-right candidate for a party founded partly by Nazis and with a history of anti-Semitism could be so close to power at heart of Europe is self-evidently troubling,” a Financial Times editorial said this week.

“But it should be a wake-up call to mainstream politicians rather than a cause for despair.”

One voter, Helwig Leibinger, told reporters at Hofer’s final rally in Vienna “we hope Hofer can ensure that our borders remain closed, that we have con-trols, that we have security”.

“We want a commander-in-chief of the armed forces who can give the right orders,” he said.

“There are new parties repre-senting different points of view on the rise... We want to be part of EU but not to lose our identity.”

The FPOe is “xenophobic face of Austria,” Vienna’s centre-left Mayor Michael Haeupl. The coun-try doesn’t need someone who will “bring shame on Austria”.

Polls suggest that the contest between gun enthusiast and former aircraft engineer Hofer, 45, and independent Alexander Van der Bellen, 72, a former head of the Greens and economics professor, is too close to call.

Hofer won first round in April, knocking out candidates from the centre-right and cen-tre-left that have dominated national politics since World War II.

Van der Bellen won a May runoff by just 31,000 votes but the FPOe got the result annulled due to irregularities. This time there are 20 percent fewer postal

votes, which might benefit Hofer, experts say.

The campaign, which has lasted 11 months including the first round in April, has become increasingly bitter. A final TV debate on Thursday saw Hofer call Van der Bellen a liar 24 times, vice versa three times.

Hofer has called his chal-lenger a “communist” and a “fascist green dictator”, while Van der Bellen has labelled Hofer a “demagogue”.

The Die Presse daily dubbed the final debate a “key scene in screenplay of the slow decline of Austria’s political culture”. The Oesterreich tabloid’s front page headline yesterday was “Hass-Wahl” (“Election of Hate”).

Populist groups across Europe, on the right and left, have benefitted from a growing sense of unease about globalisa-tion, multiculturalism, growing inequality and austerity cuts.

“There is huge frustration,” political analyst Thomas Hofer (no relation) said. Voters are “flocking to populist movements and the easy answers that are offered by those parties.”

What a Hofer victory might mean is unclear. He says he wants more referendums, including on continued EU membership if Tur-key joins or if the bloc becomes more centralised.

Hitherto unused presidential powers could, in theory, allow him to fire centre-left Chancellor Christian Kern’s government.

“You’ll be amazed by what’s possible,” Hofer said before the first round, a comment made much of by Van der Bellen and which Hofer says he regrets hav-ing uttered.

More realistically, though, his victory could prompt Kern and the centre-right to pull the plug on their unhappy coalition and call early elections.

Bucharest

Reuters

ROMANIA'S leftist Social Democrats (PSD) are likely to win a December 11 parlia-mentary election, an opinion poll showed yesterday, bol-stering their chances of returning to government after a year-long break.

The 10-year-old Euro-pean Union member has been governed by technocrats led by Prime Minister Dacian Cio-los since November 2015, when the PSD resigned from power after a deadly club fire in Bucharest triggered mass protests.

The survey of 1,000 respondents conducted on November 20 to 27 by poll-ing institute Avangarde, showed 43 percent of voters would choose the PSD, about five percentage points up from surveys published in early 2016.

The centre-right National Liberal Party (PNL) would win 27 percent of the vote, according to the poll pub-lished by private station Realitatea TV. It has an error margin of 3.1 percent.

The new Union Save Romania (USR) should get 8 percent, followed by junior PSD ally ALDE with 6 percent and the PMP party of former President Traian Basescu with 5 percent. A November poll conducted by Kantar-TNS for USR, put PSD at 40 percent, USR at 19 and PNL at 18 per-cent. The error margin was 3.1 percent.

Warsaw

AFP

Polish lawmakers voted to amend freedom of assembly law to give

preference to rallies organised by religious and state institu-tions over citizen initiatives.

The Law and Justice (PiS) party introduced the amend-ment after a year in power.

“Priority is given to assem-blies organised by public authorities as well as assem-blies held as part of church activity,” reads the amendment passed by the lower house of parliament, which still needs approval from the senate and the president.

It would allow authorities to prohibit citizens from

holding a demonstration if the Catholic Church or the state decides to organise its own rally at the same time and place.

Cyclical rallies that take place several times a year would also take precedence over citizen initiatives.

Permission to stage rallies up to now has been handed out on a first come, first serve basis.

Interior Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said the amendment will prevent “confrontations between rival demonstrators,” since two rallies will no longer be able to take place at the same location.

This is “an attempt to silence Poles who are not happy with government,” said Dorota Oko, spokeswoman for leftist extra-parliamentary party Razem.

Paris

AFP

Several people taken hostage in a Paris travel agency were released safe and

sound, police said, but the armed robber who seized them was on the run.

“Armed robbery on Massena Boulevard in Paris: operation over,” police tweeted. “Six peo-ple have left. The thief is not on the premises.”

Other police sources said seven hostages were “found safe and sound” after hold-up at the travel agency in the Chinatown area of southern Paris.

The incident sparked a major police operation in the French capital, where security jitters remain high after a string of ter-rorist attacks over the last two years, including the November 2015 Paris attacks which left 132 people dead.

Police set up a security perimeter around the Asieland travel agency, which specialises in Asian travel.

Drivers were warned to stay away from the area. Police told reporters earlier that the robber was armed with a handgun.

The agency sits in Paris’ 13th arrondissement, a residential area that is packed with Asian

restaurants and is home to a large Chinese community.

The ground-floor offices sit at the base of a large residential tower block and next to one of Paris’ main tram lines.

The robber had attacked the company trapping several peo-ple inside.

The hostages were let out around two and a half hours later, “their hands on their heads”, a police source said, add-ing that they were “taken into the care of emergency services in a neighbouring building”.

Police then searched the building and realised the attacker had fled the scene.

“We saw four or five people coming out with their hands on their heads, followed by around 15 officers,” local resident Zine-dine told reporters.

“There was no shooting, we heard no explosion. It’s over,” said the 55-year-old, who had left home to buy cigarettes.

Paris Mayor Anne Hidalgo thanked police for their “speed and professionalism” on Twit-ter, adding: “I offer all my support to the staff and cus-tomers of the agency that were confronted with this criminal act.”

The capital is under tight security, with troops patrolling

the streets daily, under a state of emergency imposed by President Francois Hollande after last year’s Paris attacks.

The hold-up in Chinatown comes at a time of heightened safety concerns among Paris’ large Chinese community fol-lowing a fatal attack on a tailor in August and a series of muggings.

More than 10,000 Chinese Parisians staged a protest march in September this year calling for increased secu-rity for the community following the killing of Zhang Chaolin, beaten to death dur-ing a robbery.

London

Reuters

Prime Minister Theresa May’s government launches a challenge

tomorrow against a court rul-ing that it requires parliamentary approval to start process of leaving the European Union, a decision that could upset Britain’s Brexit plans.

If the Supreme Court dis-misses the government appeal it could derail May’s timetable for triggering Article 50 of Lis-bon Treaty and leaving the EU.

The government’s legal fight comes against a backdrop of claims by some politicians and newspapers that judges want to thwart the Brexit process.

It will be the most high-pro-file and complex case the court has considered since it came into being seven years ago and is due to last for four days. For the first time all its 11 justices will sit on the panel with the verdict due later in January.

“The case raises difficult and delicate issues about the consti-tutional relationship between government and parliament,” Brenda Hale, the Supreme Court’s Vice-President said in a speech last month.

“What is meant by the exer-cise of the executive power of the state? We do not have a written constitution to tell us the answer. But I doubt whether many written constitutions would tell us the answer either.”

If May wins, she can proceed with her plans to invoke Article 50 by the end of March.

But if she loses, parliament could in theory block Brexit as most MPs supported staying in the EU in a referendum in June, though few observers expect such an outcome. Even so, lawmaker approval could open process to greater scrutiny and delay.

In a sign of how thorny the process could be for May, the pro-EU Liberal Democrat party says it would vote against Arti-cle 50 unless there is a new referendum on the final Brexit deal, a concession May is highly unlikely to make.

The party won a ninth seat in parliament on Thursday in a local by-election vote.

Poland approves change to freedom of assembly law

Austrian election campaign draws to a close

PSD likely to win parliamentary polls in Romania

Hostages safe in Paris armed robbery; thief on the run

Brexit plans face Supreme Court test tomorrow

18 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 AMERICAS

Shift in policy

The President-elect and Tsai noted “the close economic, political and security ties” between Taiwan and the US, Trump’s office said.

Venezuela's President Nicolas Maduro greets supporters during an event regarding the Local Committees of Supply and Production programme in Caracas.

Mustering support

New York

AFP

US President-elect Donald Trump broke with dec-ades of foreign policy to speak

with the president of Taiwan, prompting Beijing yesterday to accuse Taipei of a ploy but say-ing the move would not affect US-China ties.

It was not immediately clear whether Trump’s tele-phone call with President Tsai Ing-wen marked a deliberate pivot away from Washington’s official “One China” stance, but fuelled fears he is improvising on international affairs.

China regards self-ruling Taiwan as part of its own ter-ritory awaiting reunification under Beijing’s rule, and any US move that would imply support for independence would likely trigger fury.

During discussion, Trump and Tsai noted “the close eco-nomic, political and security ties” between Taiwan and the United States, according to the

President-elect’s office.“President-elect Trump

also congratulated President Tsai on becoming President of Taiwan earlier this year,” it said.

China—the target of much bombastic rhetoric during Trump’s election campaign—labelled the call a “ploy by the Taiwan side that simply cannot change... the One China framework”.

“I do not think it will change the one-China policy that the US government has insisted on applying over the years,” For-eign Minister Wang Yi told Hong Kong’s Phoenix TV, in a muted response.

“The One China principle is the cornerstone of the healthy

development of Sino-US rela-tions, and we do not want any interference or disappearance of this political foundation.”

As he came under fire for the move, Trump defended his deci-sion to speak with Tsai, saying the island’s president initiated the call and brushed off the resulting criticism.

“Interesting how the US sells Taiwan billions of dollars of mil-itary equipment but I should not accept a congratulatory call,” Trump tweeted.

President Barack Obama’s

White House said the outgoing US administration had not changed its stance.

“There is no change to our longstanding policy on cross-Strait issues,” National Security Council spokeswoman Emily Horne told reporters.

“We remain firmly commit-ted to our ‘One China’ policy,” she added. “Our fundamental inter-est is in peaceful and stable cross-Strait relations.”

Washington cut formal dip-lomatic relations with the island territory in 1979 and recognises

Beijing as the sole government of “One China”—while keeping friendly, non-official ties with Taipei.

But since coming to office this year, Tsai has refused to accept the “One China” concept, prompt-ing Beijing to cut off all official communication with the island’s new government.

Tsai’s Democratic Progressive Party government (DPP) defeated the Kuomintang (KMT), which had much friendlier ties with Bei-jing, in a landslide election victory in January.

Trump's call to Taiwan upsets China

New York

Reuters

US President-elect Donald Trump said he expected to have most members of his Cabinet announced next week, interview-ing more candidates at Trump Tower for top jobs in his admin-istration as he prepares to take office on January 20.

“We have tremendous people joining the Cabinet and beyond the Cabinet. You’ll be seeing almost all of them next week,” Trump said in an interview on Fox News.

Trump plans to move quickly after taking office on his goals to overhaul taxation, healthcare and immigration laws, Vice President-elect Mike Pence said in an interview published by the Wall Street Journal yesterday.

Top priorities include curb-ing illegal immigration, abolishing and replacing President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare programme, and filling a vacancy on the Supreme Court, Pence told the newspaper.

Asked what he would do on his first day in office, Trump told Fox News he may address his campaign pledge to build a wall on southern border with Mexico, though he did not go into specifics.

“We could do the wall, we’re going to do some repealing, we’re going to do some executive orders that we think are inappropriate,” Trump said .

Trump moves to quickly fill top Cabinet ranks

San Francisco

AFP

At least nine people were killed and 25 unaccounted for following a massive

fire at a party in Oakland, Cali-fornia, fire officials said.

Fire Chief Teresa Deloach Reed said most of those who died were found on second floor of two-story warehouse building, apparently being used as an art-ists’ studio, near San Francisco.

“It must have been a fast-moving fire,” she said.

It was not immediately known what sparked the blaze at the electronic dance music party featuring the group Golden Donna and other acts.

The fire broke out around 0730 GMT and was brought under control with crew sifting through the rubble searching for victims, fire officials said.

“We still have to do a more thorough search of the building and we don’t know the number of other victims,” Reed said.

There was no clear entry or exit path in the warehouse

building, she told reporters. It was unclear if people were liv-ing there.

“I don’t know where the fire started, but I do know that the way the building was situated made it difficult for people to escape,” Reed said.

Reed said firefighters were hampered in their efforts to put out the blaze by clutter.

“It filled end to end with fur-niture, whatnot, collections,” she said. “It was like a maze almost.”

She added that it appeared no smoke detectors were

activated in the building which also had no sprinkler system.

Friends and family of party-goers went to social media to try and find news about their loved ones, with some posting informa-tion on the event’s Facebook page.

Local KTVU station said about 50 people were inside the building when the blaze started.

“I literally felt my skin peel-ing and my lungs being suffocated by smoke,” Bob Mule, a photog-rapher who lives in the building, told KTVU. “I couldn’t get the fire extinguisher to work.”

Washington

AFP

The White House should lead a broad cybersecu-rity effort with the private

sector to guard against poten-tially crippling attacks and boost confidence in the digital economy, a presidential com-mission said.

The panel created by Pres-ident Barack Obama in 2013 delivered a 90-page set of rec-ommendations, noting that most would need to be carried out by incoming President-elect Donald Trump.

“It is critical that the next president and his administra-tion and Congress begin immediately to tackle each one of the issues raised in this report,” the panel said.

“The commission consid-ers this report a direct memo to the next president. The recom-mendations reflect what the commissioners believe are highest-priority actions to take. Some recommendations call for actions within first 100 days of the new administration.”

The report comes amid a wave of cyber attacks that com-promised data on tens of millions of US government employees, Yahoo users and other online services, and major companies such as Sony Pictures.

There are also concerns about risks to networks that control critical infrastructure such as electric grids and water systems.

The election campaign itself was also roiled by concerns about cyber attacks said to come from Russia.

The Commission on Enhancing National Cyberse-curity, headed by former US national security adviser Tho-mas Donilon and former IBM chief Samuel Palmisano, called for a wide range of actions from both the public and private sec-tor, while arguing that the White House has a responsibil-ity to lead the efforts.

“We need to recognise that neither the government nor the private sector can capably pro-tect systems and networks without extensive and close cooperation,” the report said.

The panel called for better public-private cooperation but said that “the government is—and should remain—the only organisation with the respon-sibility and, in most cases, the capacity to effectively respond to large-scale malicious or harmful activity in cyberspace caused by nation-states.”

Specifically, it said the pri-vate and public sectors “should collaborate on a roadmap for improving security of digital networks,” which can protect against so-called denial-of-service attacks that can shut down systems.

“The administration should focus on mitigating and, where possible, eliminating denial-of-service attacks, particularly those launched by botnets,” the report said.

Cancun, Mexico

AFP

BERTA Caceres, a Honduran activist murdered early this year, was posthumously awarded one of the UN’s top prizes for the inspiration she gave in standing up to pow-erful interests.

The UN Environment Programme made Caceres one its “Champions of the Earth,” which honors figures who fight for sustainable development.

The award was among six given by the UN agency’s executive director Erik Sol-heim at the world body’s conference on biodiversity in Cancun, Mexico.

Caceres, who led an indigenous association fight-ing the construction of a hydroelectric dam in Hondu-ras, was killed on March 3 by two gunmen who burst into her home.

Six people are in custody in relation to the crime, including an employee of the company building the dam.

Caceres’s death brought international attention to bear on the threats and intimida-t i o n f a c e d b y environmentalists and rights activists in the Central Amer-ican nation.

Brasilia

Reuters

Engineering conglomerate Odebrecht took out full-page advertisements in

Brazil’s main newspapers to apologise to Brazilians for its involvement in country’s biggest ever corruption scandal.

The apology was received with scepticism and many

Brazilians expressed their anger at the company on social media.

In a long-awaited leniency deal, the family-owned firm signed a 6.7bn real ($1.94bn) agreement with prosecutors admitting guilt and offering information on bribes paid. More than 70 of its executives, including family patriarch and Chairman Emilio Odebrecht and his jailed son and former CEO

Marcelo Odebrecht, have agreed to make plea statements.

The bargain will allow Ode-brecht SA to return to bidding for public works projects from which it was banned for its role, along with other engineering companies, in the massive bribe and kickbacks scheme centered on state-run oil company Petrobras.

The deal also has Brazil’s

political establishment on edge as plea statements are expected to name as many as 200 politicians who allegedly received graft money from the company. Pros-ecutors said Odebrecht had an office dedicated to paying bribes.

“Odebrecht recognises that it took part in improper practices ... we connived with such prac-tices and did not fight them as we should have ... It was a big

mistake,” the company said in its ad, vowing to mend its ways and turn the page.

Odebrecht is working on revamping its compliance rules that could lead to the appoint-ment of more independent board members and tougher oversight of the family that controls the conglomerate and its 15 subsid-iaries, two sources briefed on the plan told reporters.

Nine dead in fire at California party

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen speaks on the phone with US President-elect Donald Trump at her office in Taipei, Taiwan, yesterday.

Panel seeks efforts to boost cyber security

Slain Honduran activist gets top UN prize

Odebrecht apologises for role in Brazil graft scandal

19SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 AMERICAS

N Dakota protest

State Homeland Security Director Greg Wilz said his office has winter shelter plans in place and various agencies are ready to respond.

Fargo, North Dakota

AP

The head of North Dakota’s emergency management services said state is prepared to respond to Dakota

Access pipeline protesters who may need help during a winter storm or some other crisis.

State Homeland Security Director Greg Wilz said it would be a “huge challenge,” especially during a mass evacuation, but his office has winter shelter plans in place and various agen-cies are ready to respond.

“The bottom line here is, if we are in a situation of life and limb, we are going to be humane in anything and everything we do,” Wilz said. “We aren’t going to let somebody out there freeze. So if they start evacuating en masse looking for shelter — which I highly suspect will

happen — we would take care of that.”

The government has ordered hundreds of protesters to leave the Oceti Sakowin, or Seven Council Fires camp, on federal land in southern North Dakota by tomorrow, although demonstrators say they’re pre-pared to stay until changes are made to the route of the four-state, $3.8bn pipeline. The Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others say the pipeline north of reservation could pollute

drinking water and threatens sacred sites.

North Dakota Department of Transportation and Morton County Highway Department will be key players in any evac-uation plans, Wilz said, noting those agencies worked to keep roads clear around the protest site during a recent storm that dumped more than a foot of snow.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement the Department of Justice has offered community policing resources to local law enforce-ment as “winter begins to take hold.” “Our first concern is safety of everyone in the area — law enforcement officers, residents and protesters alike,” Lynch said.

Morton County Sheriff Kyle Kirchmeier said Lynch con-tacted him by phone to discuss the situation.

Los Angeles

AP

A student stabbed a psychol-ogy professor to death on the University of Southern

California campus in Los Ange-les in what was a personal dispute, authorities said.

Los Angeles Police Officer Meghan Aguilar said the profes-sor was killed inside the Seeley G. Mudd building in the heart of campus. She said a male student was arrested without incident immediately after police arrived at the scene of the attack but his

name was not released. Aguilar could not say who called police but said it wasn’t the professor or the student.

Aguilar said the student was set to be interviewed and that his name would be released after he was booked.

USC President C L Max Nikias identified the professor killed as Bosco Tjan in a letter addressed to the USC community.

Tjan joined USC in 2001, taught in the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, and served as co-director of the

Dornsife Cognitive Neuroimag-ing Center, Nikias said.

“As the Trojan family mourns Professor Tjan’s untimely pass-ing, we will keep his family in our thoughts,” Nikias said.

The USC Department of Pub-lic Safety said in a statement that investigators believe the attack was not random and “was the result of a personal dispute.”

Chris Purington, project manager at Tjan’s lab, said he never heard of anyone having a problem with Tjan — a married father of one son listed in public records as 50 years old — and

had no idea who would have wanted him dead.

“He was somebody who really cared about people. I know he cared about me,” Purington said through tears. “He mentored people and he looked out for them. He spent a lot of time thinking about what it means to be a mentor and guide people.”

He said the professor gave him a job both after he gradu-ated from USC and after graduate school at the University of California-Berkeley.

Purington travelled with Tjan for various science conferences

and said that everyone knew and loved the professor.

“People talk about scientists as very cold or robotic. Bosco is a guy that he could talk to any-body about anything,” he said. “He couldn’t move through a room without being sidetracked in all these conversations.

“He just had this energy about him. Kinetic might be the word,” Purington said. “He had a huge impact on my life.”

USC was rocked last year by the beating death of graduate student Xinran Ji, who was attacked and beaten by several

people as he walked back to his off-campus apartment late at night after attending a study session.

After Ji’s murder USC officials sought to reassure parents of Chinese exchange students that the campus and its surrounding areas are safe.

USC has 44,000 students enrolled, including more than 10,000 international students. A highly competitive school, it enrolled only about 16 percent of the more than 54,000 people who applied for its freshman class this year.

“While I appreciate the Attor-ney General taking the time to reach out to me, neither assist-ance for law enforcement nor a timeline for resolution was offered,” Kirchmeier said in a statement. “I hope the dialogue continues, but it’s time for more actions from the federal govern-ment, not more words.”

The North Dakota National

Guard is prepared to help with any emergencies, said Jeff Zent, spokesman for Governor Jack Dalrymple. The Republican gov-ernor issued a “mandatory evacuation” for the main encampment, though he said no one would be forcibly removed.

Officers at the staging area and traffic control points have tempo-rary warming houses,

cold-weather gear and other win-terisation measures, said Rob Keller, spokesman for Morton County Sheriff’s Department.

“All law enforcement person-nel who report for duty to Morton County Sheriff’s Department are now from North Dakota agencies and they are more than prepared for our North Dakota winters,” Keller said.

Officials gear up to protect protesters

A Mohawk helps to build a tipi at Oceti Sakowin Camp on the edge of the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation outside Cannon Ball, North Dakota, where protesters are camping in.

Professor fatally stabbed on USC campus; student arrested

20 SUNDAY 4 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

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HIGH TIDE 08:0 - 19:00 LOW TIDE 00:00 - 15:45

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The Peninsula

The winter season at The Pearl-Qatar arrived with the commencement of inaugural

Winter Musical Roaming Parade and Festival. Held at Porto Arabia, the thriving cosmopolitan heart of the Pearl-Qatar, this event captured the sophisticated essence of the Riviera.

From 7 to 10pm, the musical parade took place inside Porto Ara-bia’s several restaurants, retail arcades and boardwalk, and featured jugglers and mascots. This helped in creating an atmosphere full of joy amongst the residence and visitors to the many quality retail and restaurant outlets in the Porto Arabia district of The Pearl-Qatar.

Different themes and costumes will be featured each week, making the shows and performances all the more exciting for The Pearl’s residents and visitors.

UDC, master developer of The Pearl-Qatar, is known to intricately plan its events around joyful seasons

and national occasions that draw great interest from visiting crowds of locals, expatriates and foreign tourists. These events are usually held in the Island’s lively retail hubs of Porto Arabia, Medina Centrale or Qanat Quartier, to

attract footfall as well as provide a well-rounded atmosphere of enjoy-ment all year round as well as during weekends and special occasions.

The epitome of French Riviera liv-ing, and home to The Pearl-Qatar's

main harbor, Porto Arabia combines elegant towers and townhouses in a spectacular location set around a colorful waterfront – La Croisette – a lively pedestrianized concourse lined with fine shopping and dining.

Porto Arabia's Winter Musical Roaming Parade wows visitors