Volume 24 | Number 8096 | 2 RiyalsThursday 5 December 2019 | 8 Rabia II 1441 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 01 SPORT | 12

Qatar, Saudi Arabia readyfor high-octane semi-final

QDB to launch fintech

accelerator programme

Amir chairs fifth meeting of SCEAIQNA/DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Chairman of the Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment (SCEAI), chaired yesterday the coun-cil's fifth meeting of 2019 at the Amiri Diwan.

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani, Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani and Their Excel-lencies the members of the Council attended the meeting.

The Council discussed topics on the meeting’s agenda and took the appropriate measures regarding them. The Council also reviewed governmental initiatives that aim to incentivise the private sector through public-private part-nerships to guarantee that projects are completed quickly, enhance the contribution of the private sector in the economy, attract local and foreign investments, encourage innovation, and create new job opportunities.

The council also reviewed the public-private part-nerships in the fields of logistics, food security, con-struction, industry, manufacturing, education, and healthcare. They also discussed future projects related to establishing low-cost warehouses and central markets in different areas in the country. The council then viewed a presentation on connecting government initiatives and Qatar Vision 2030 programmes, par-ticularly strategic programmes in food security, man-ufacturing, Tawteen programme, and free-zones. Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani chairing the Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment's fifth meeting of 2019 at the Amiri Diwan, yesterday.

Cabinet approves draft 2020 budgetQNA/DOHA

Prime Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani chaired the Cabinet regular meeting held at its seat at the Amiri Diwan yesterday.

Following the meeting, Min-ister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Dr. Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi stated that the Cabinet reviewed topics on its meeting’s agenda.

The Cabinet approved the State’s draft budget for the fiscal year 2020 and a draft law approving the budget, and

referring the main sections of the draft budget and the draft law to the Shura Council.

The draft budget was pre-pared on the basis of providing the necessary allocations for the plans and projects of Qatar National Vision 2030 and the requirements of the Second National Development Strategy 2018- 2022 with its various eco-nomic, social, human and envi-ronmental pillars; providing funds for the completion of major projects and projects asso-ciated with the 2022 World Cup; allocating funds for the devel-opment of infrastructure in free,

economic, industrial and logistic zones and for the development of lands for citizens; supporting business development initiatives to enhance the role of the private sector and its participation in various economic activities; sup-porting food security and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs).

The Cabinet also approved a draft law on the unified eco-nomic register and to referred it to the Shura Council.

The preparation of the draft law came to replace Law No. 14 of 2018 on the unified economic register, within the framework

of updating legislation and keep abreast of developments.

A Draft Amiri Decision amending some provisions of Amiri Decision No. 17 of 2015 on the establishment of Naufar Centre.

The centre aims to provide the best level of treatment, reha-bilitation, preventive, compre-hensive care, and integrated community care, in addition to providing educational pro-grammes and applied research for the patients of addiction, within the framework of the methodology adopted by hos-pital resorts. �P2

Qatar a leading model in statistics modernisationSACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Qatar occupies an advanced position in the field of devel-oping statistical systems, which led the United Nations Statistical Commission to choose it a leading model in the field of statistical modernisation and transformation, said H E Dr. Saleh bin Mohammad Al Nabit, President of Planning and Statistics Authority.

Speaking at an event, organised to mark Qatar Sta-tistics Day, H E Dr. Saleh bin Mohammad Al Nabit said that the statistical data issued by the Authority are very transparent and adhere to the scientific cri-teria and standards set by the designated international agencies and organisations.

He pointed to the efforts made by the agency in cooper-ation with the partners to build a national statistical system that complements national strategies with accurate statistical data, measures the level of growth at various levels, and monitors and tracking the state’s progress in various international indicators.

The event was organised at the headquarters of Planning and Statistics Authority and was attended by several senior officials.

H E the President of the Planning and Statistics Authority pointed out that the celebration of the Qatari Statistical Day, which falls on December 6,

coincides with the implemen-tation of the first phase of the Qatar Census 2020, an important national project.

The event included presen-tations on the statistical efforts of the Planning and Statistics Authority. The presentations focused on the Qatar 2020 Census, progress made by the State of Qatar in the Sustainable Development Goals 2030 indi-cators and the Foreign Trade Portal on the website of the Authority.

The presentation on the census revealed that more than 50 percent of the field work on the census of buildings has been completed.

The presentation also focused on the most important administrative uses of the census data, including knowing the extent of the change in the social, economic and demo-graphic characteristics of the population, determining the boundaries of the electoral dis-tricts, distributing the per-centage of population represen-tation in those districts and other important aspects.

The presentation on the indi-cators of the Sustainable Devel-opment Goals 2030, revealed the progress made by Qatar in achieving the goals. The presen-tation on the foreign trade portal focused on introducing inter-active portal, which deals with monitoring the exchange of goods between Qatar and other countries and regions. �P3

Over 100,000 benefit from MoPH's anti-flu vaccination driveTHE PENINSULA DOHA

A total of 105, 000 persons has received vaccination against flu since the launch of influenza vaccine campaign, the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH) said yesterday.

The MoPH, Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) and Hamad Medical Corporation

(HMC) along with semi gov-ernment and private clinics have again joined forces to offer the public and healthcare workers the free flu vaccine this year to ensure easy accessibility for all.

“The most common miscon-ception surrounding the vaccine is its potential to give you the flu. It’s possible to experience slight side effects like soreness, redness

or swelling in the vaccination site, or a low-grade fever, headache and muscle aches. These reac-tions typically last one or two days,” said Dr. Hamad Al Romaihi, Manager, Health Protection and Communicable Diseases at MoPH.

“After receiving the shot, it takes your body about two weeks to build up antibodies to fight the flu, so if you come in contact with the virus

during that time, you may still get sick, which is why you should get your flu shot as early as possible.”

Dr Al Romaihi said there was also a common misconception that the flu is just a “bad cold” and nothing to worry about. “Influenza is a serious condition which can cause hospitalization and even death. Anyone can get the flu, but especially people whose immune

systems are more vulnerable. Most people will recover within a few days, but some can develop serious complications that can lead to death,’’ added Dr Romaihi.

According to Dr Soha Albayat, Head of the Vaccination Section at MoPH, the vaccine is safe for pregnant women and they are urged to have the vaccine as soon as possible before the winter

season hits in full force. “Pregnant women should

especially get the flu vaccine since their immune systems are weaker than usual,” Dr. Albayat said. “Pregnant women have a higher risk of hospitalisation compared to non-pregnant women of child-bearing age if they get influenza so it’s important to be vaccinated as soon as possible.” �P2

International Junior Science Olympiad begins in DohaSANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

Under the patronage of Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, the 16th edition of the Interna-tional Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO-2019) opened yesterday with a grand ceremony held at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).

Held under a theme ‘Inspiring Today’s Young Generation for the Skills of Tomorrow’, IJSO-2019 of Doha version received 409 students (boys and girls) from 70 countries, the highest number of participation in the history of the Olympiad.

The IJSO-2019 also, for the first time, turned green in its 16th edition in Qatar where the papers have been

replaced with electronic devices for question and answers of the compe-titions making the event environmentally-friendly.

Addressing the opening ceremony, Minister of Education and Higher Edu-cation, H E Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi said that the Olympiad hosts a selection of the world’s highest performing students to compete honestly and exchange expertise with other people from all around the world.

H E the Minister stressed that the Olympiad helps students develop their problem-solving skills, as well as develop their sense of creativity and innovation under a variety of conditions. He said that the event was unique, given that 409 students from 70 countries all over the world take part. �P5

Minister of Education and Higher Education, H E Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi addressing the International Junior Science Olympiad, yesterday.

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Shura Council member to participate in RomeMediterranean Dialogues Conference for WomenDOHA: The Shura Council

will take part in the Wom-

en’s Forum of the Rome

2019 Mediterranean Dia-

logues, which starts in Rome,

Italy, today. The Shura Coun-

cil will be represented by H E

Member of the Shura Coun-

cil, Reem Bint Mohammed Al

Mansoori. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWSAmir meets Libyan Interior Minister

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met at the Amiri Diwan yesterday with the Minister of Interior of the state of Libya H E Fathi Ali Bashagha and his accompanying delegation, on the occasion of their visit to the country. The Minister briefed H H the Amir on the latest developments in Libya, expressing his gratitude and appreciation to H H the Amir for the support of the State of Qatar to the Libyan people. In turn, H H the Amir affirmed Qatar’s firm stance and support for the aspirations of the brothers in Libya in order to preserve unity, security and stability of Libya. The meeting was attended by Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani.

Cabinet approves draft 2020 budgetFROM PAGE 1

The Cabinet moreover approved its decision on estab-lishing the Permanent Committee for addiction treatment. Under the provisions of the draft decision, a committee called the Permanent Committee for addiction treatment shall be established at the Ministry of Public Health headed by the Min-ister of Public Health. General Direc-torate of Public Security at the Min-istry of Interior shall be the vice pres-ident with the membership of representatives of concerned authorities.

The Committee aims to coor-dinate national governmental and non-governmental efforts in the treatment and follow-up of addicts. The Cabinet also approved the draft executive reg-ulation of the Income Tax Law promulgated by Law No. 24 of 2018. The Cabinet approved a draft decision of the Cabinet on establishing the General Medical Committee at the Ministry of Public Health and defining its competencies.

This draft law, which will replace the decision of the Min-ister of Public Health No. 1 of 1986 on restructuring the Ministry’s medical committee and defining its competencies as part of legis-lation modernisation. A com-mittee called “General Medical Committee of the Ministry of Public Health’’ will be established; it is competent to consider appli-cations referred to it by govern-mental and non-governmental bodies, including medical exam-ination to study cases of work injuries and occupational diseases and determine the percentage of total and partial disability resulting therefrom and its impact on the competence of the employee or worker to carry out the work assigned.

This Committee will also study the requests related to

reduction of working hours according to health status of the employee and make the appro-priate recommendation thereon and grant leave to a Qatari female employee in order to care for her children with disabilities or with illnesses that require the mother to accompany them or to accompany her sick child during his stay for treatment in a public or private hospital within the State and to make a recommen-dation thereon.

The Cabinet also approved a draft law of the Minister of Justice to issue the rules of the obliga-tions of lawyers, authorized notaries and real estate agents to the requirements of combating money laundering and financing of terrorism.

This draft law will replace Law No. 81 of 2012 on obligations of law firms and companies oper-ating in the State of Qatar to combat money laundering and terrorist financing, within the framework of updating legislation and keeping abreast of develop-ments. The Cabinet took the nec-essary measures to ratify an agreement for cooperation in the field of education, higher edu-cation and scientific research between the Governments of Qatar and the Republic of Italy.

The Cabinet also approved the following: A draft air services agreement between the Govern-ments of the State of Qatar and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan. A draft memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of family, women and social services between the Gov-ernments of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Turkey. A draft agreement on cooperation in research on giant Panda conser-vation between the Ministry of Municipality and Environment of Qatar and Wildlife Conservation Society of China.

Over 100,000 benefit from MoPH’s anti-flu vaccination driveFROM PAGE 1

Pregnant women who take the vaccination are also pro-tecting their unborn babies. “When a pregnant woman is immunized, antibodies that fight the flu virus cross the pla-centa and can protect her baby in those critical months after birth when babies are too young to be vaccinated against the flu themselves,” said Dr. Albayat. For more information about influenza and where to get to the vaccine for free in Qatar, go to www.fighttheflu.qa

Qatar, Morocco discuss strengthening security cooperationQNA RABAT

The joint meeting between the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Morocco to support and to enhance security cooperation concluded in Rabat.

The meeting was chaired by Director of Public Security H E Staff Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi and

Director-General of Morocco’s National Police and of National Territory Surveillance H E Abdellatif Hammouchi.

During the meeting, they reviewed the development of mechanisms of implementation of the security agreement signed between the two coun-tries in 2014, and exchanged views on regional and interna-tional security challenges and

ways to address them.In a press statement on

this occasion, H E the Director of Public Security Staff praised the distinguished relations between Qatar and the Kingdom of Morocco at all levels, especially in the various security fields.

He stressed that combating crime and enhancing security at the regional and

international levels require concerted efforts and pursuit to strengthen relations between the various security agencies, especially in light of the signif-icant development of cross-border crimes, which requires activating security cooperation frameworks and joint efforts to achieve security and stability and to address various types of crimes.

Qatar Statistics Day observed

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Deputy Premier and Minister of Foreign Affairs meets Libyan Interior Minister

The Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, met yesterday with the Minister of Interior of Libya, H E Fathi Ali Bashagha, who is currently visiting the country. The meeting discussed the mutual cooperation between the two countries, in addition to issues of common concern.

H E Dr. Saleh bin Mohammad Al Nabit, President of Planning and Statistics Authority, speaking at the event held to mark Qatar Statistics Day. PIC: ABDUL BASIT / THE PENINSULA

QFSW hosts panel on migration, refugees and persons with disabilitiesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Foundation for Social Work (QFSW) has hosted a discussion panel on migration, refugees and persons with disa-bilities in preparation for the Doha International Conference on Disability and Development (DICDD) scheduled to take place next Saturday under the theme “Leaving no one behind”.

The discussion brought together several dignitaries and subject-matter experts including Amal bint Abdul Latif Al Mannai, CEO of QFSW; H E Sheikha Hessa bint Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Thani, the Special Envoy of the Secretary-General of the Arab League for Human-itarian Affairs; and represent-atives from UNHCR office in Doha; Qatar Fund for Devel-

opment; Qatar Charity.The participants discussed

the alarming surge in the number of refugees and migrants over the past 15 years across the globe. Speakers tackled the chal-lenges faced by refugees with dis-abilities. According to the World Health Organization recent reports, there are 2-3 million forced migrants around the world, 25% of which are children.

“Refugees with disabilities, are facing a myriad of chal-lenges. It is our responsibility to help them overcome everyday obstacles and increase their inclusion in the community”, the CEO of QFSW Amal bint Abdul Latif Al Mannai, said.

DICDD will take place from December 7-8, 2019, at Qatar National Convention Centre Under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Founder of QFSW.

The conference will cul-minate with the announcement of the ‘Doha Declaration’, which, in the context of disability, will represent a milestone in the history of human rights and sus-tainable development. The Doha Declaration will be a core ref-erence point for policy devel-opment in these areas on a global scale.

Qatar reaffirms commitment to integrate people with disabilities into sustainable developmentQNA/NEW YORK

The State of Qatar has reaffirmed its commitment to work to inte-grate persons with disabilities into sustainable development, calling for best efforts to support the implementation of the United Nations Disability Inclusion Strategy, in order to provide a basis for tangible progress and transformation through the participation of persons with disabilities in achieving UN’s goals with peace, security, human rights and development.

This came in a statement delivered by Permanent

Representative of the State of Qatar to the UN, H E Ambassador Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, during her participation in an event organized by the United Nations Department for Economic and Social Affairs, on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities, which falls on December 3 each year.

The UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, President of the 74th session of the UN General Assembly Ambassador Tijani Mohammed Pandey, and a number of Member States’ permanent rep-resentatives and experts.

Her Excellency Ambassador

Sheikha Alya reviewed the actions and policies taken by Qatar to integrate persons with disabilities into society and to promote positive perception and recognition of the importance of their contributions to society.

In this context, H E said that the Qatari law prohibits discrim-ination against persons with dis-abilities, and requires that 2 percent of all jobs in government bodies and public institutions are reserved for persons with disabil-ities, and that private sector busi-nesses employing a minimum of 25 persons were required to hire persons with disabilities. She

noted the services of Qatar Assistive Technology Center (Mada) provided to people with disabilities, parents and professionals, in terms of the provision of extensive information on assistive technology in both English and Arabic languages, which is the first of its kind in the Arab world

The Ambassador referred to the international conference which will take place on December 7-8 under the aus-pices of H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Devel-opment (QF).

“Refugees with disabilities, are facing a myriad of challenges. It is our responsibility to help them overcome everyday obstacles and increase their inclusion in the community”, the CEO of QFSW, Amal bint Abdul Latif Al Mannai, said.

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Ooredoo offers superfast broadband for businessTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

Ooredoo, the region’s leading enabler of digital business inno-vation, has revamped its Business Broadband portfolio with superfast broadband speeds and the most comprehensive portfolio of Value Added Services, including improved web space allowance, at no addi-tional cost.

With faster Internet speeds, organisations across all sizes and industry verticals—especially small- and medium-sized enterprises – can accelerate their digital transfor-mation journeys and in turn support Qatar’s diversified economic growth and competitiveness.

Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi, Chief Operating Officer, Ooredoo Qatar, said: “In response to customer demand, our new Business Broadband packages offer Qatar’s organisations a comprehensive solution covering all of their Internet-related needs, with superfast fibre-optic-enabled Internet offering unri-valled data speeds and value. From supporting new levels of business apps and office workforces to state-of-the-art websites, Business Broadband is the foundation for digital transformation.”

Under the revamped Business Broadband portfolio, the popular entry-level package’s Internet speed has more than tripled to 50 Mbps from 15 Mbps. The premium package, which previously featured an internet speed of 300 Mbps has increased to 1 Gbps. The mid-tier packages, which previously featured internet speeds of 60 Mbps and 120 Mbps have increased to 150 Mbps

and 300 Mbps respectively.Ooredoo has also improved and

standardised the web-hosting space across the packages. Customers using the 50 Mbps and 150 Mbps packages will now get 2 GB of web space, up from 500 MB and 1 GB under the previous packages.

The packages in the portfolio also feature a free domain name, free web hosting space, option to add Smart Wi-Fi, the option of a Microsoft Office 365 package at a 50 percent discount, and the option to get ‘Ooredoo tv Business’ for free, is included in all the new plans.

Business customers can lev-erage the Ooredoo Advantage, making Ooredoo “Best for Business”, thanks to its breadth and depth of talent, best fixed and mobile net-works, broadest portfolio of ICT services and solutions, and trusted partner for 60 years.

General Authority of Customs honours 29 inspectorsThe General Authority of Customs honoured 29 inspectors from Hamad International Airport Customs, Air Cargo Customs, and Land and Sea Customs, for their efforts in spoiling a number of drug-smuggling attempts. The Chairman of the General Authority of Customs, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah Al Jamal expressed his pride at the achievements of the inspectors who look after their precious country’s interests, to guard its security and grow its economy. He also said that the customs do not hold back from supporting the employees throughout providing them all kinds of support and constant training methods to be aware of the latest drug smuggling methods used. The customs are carrying out numerous awareness campaigns to spread customs-related guidance and laws. The authority warned that whoever would smuggle drugs of any kind into the country will be caught, as the customs’ employees are always on the lookout for them.

Students from Boys Rehabilitation Center participate in Ashghal’s Tree Planting InitiativeTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

A group of students from Boys Rehabilitation Center and volunteers from Qatar Red Crescent part icipated yesterday with the Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’ in planting trees in Plazas at Al Buhaira Street Project.

The activity was in com-pletion of “Qatar Beautification and Our Kids Plant Trees” campaign held by the Super-visory Committee of Beautifi-cation of Roads and Public Places in Qatar to ‘Plant One Million Trees’ in cooperation with the Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment (MME).

The activity was marked in conjunction with the Inter-national Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) that falls on every December 3. The digni-taries who attended the event include Eng. Jassim Al Fakhroo, Ashghal’s representative in the Supervisory Committee of Beautification of Roads and Public Places; Mohammed Abdullah, Head of Doha Munic-ipality Parks Section at MME; Salah Mohammed Al Mahmoud,

Volunteer Relations Coordinator along with several volunteers from Qatar Red Crescebt; in addition to Mohammed Saqr Al Enzi and Ashraf Eliwa repre-sentatives of the Boys Rehabil-itation Center.

At the start of the event, Eng. Jassim Al Fakhroo, Ash-ghal’s representative in Super-vision Committee of Beautifi-cation of Rods and Public Places briefed about the project stressing on the impor-tance of afforestation in pre-serving the environment.

On his part, Mohammed Abdulla, Head of Doha

Municipality Parks Section at MME, said, “Such events instill the importance of participating students in maintaining clean-liness and beauty of streets and public parks in the country.”

Salah Mohammed Al Mahmoud, Coordinator of Vol-unteer Relations at Qatar Red Crescent praised the initiative and underscored the impor-tance of participation of all segments of society in the vol-untary and humanitarian works to improve the quality of life in Qatar and the world at large. Whereas Mohammed Saqr Al Enzi, a teacher of the

Boys Rehabilitation Center said, “we are glad to partic-ipate with our children in this event, as we always educate students about the importance of preserving environment, and it is very important to allow them to participate in planting trees”.

Ashraf Eleiwa expressed his delight in the interaction of students seeing them happy in this event, stressing the impor-tance of educating the com-munity groups on the preser-vation and prosperity of the environment. Ashghal imple-ments Plazas at Al Buhaira Street Project within the tasks of the Supervisory Committee of Beautification of Roads and Public Places in Qatar, which includes developing 25,000 square meters of green areas as well as planting 222 Trees and Palm Trees. The project works also include con-struction of public spaces linking Al Buhaira Street with the University Street, in addition to 1.85 kilometers of pedestrian and cycling lanes to serve the residents and vis-itors of the area.

Generation Amazing opens community football pitches in Mumbai and Nagpur for youthTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

The Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC)’s G e n e r a t i o n A m a z i n g programme has inaugurated two new football pitches in India this month, marking further milestones for the human and social legacy programme as the 30th pitch was inaugurated.

The newly opened facilities for youth are located in Colaba Causeway, Mumbai and the Dr. Ambedkar School in Kamptee, Nagpur, with the purpose of creating a safe space in which the GA football for devel-opment programmes can operate locally for young girls and boys.

At the pitch launch cere-monies held at the Sabina Chandrashekar Memorial Municipal Garden and Play-ground in Mumbai, and the Khatija Bai School in Nagpur, officials gathered alongside Generation Amazing pro-gramme participants and members of the community.

H E Saif Bin Ali Al Mohannadi, the Qatari General Counsel in Mumbai, attended the Mumbai pitch opening and praised the programme’s efforts in India as well as its achievement of positively impacting 500,000 people across Asia and the Middle East, saying: “It has been fan-tastic to witness the pitch from the start of construction all the

way to completion here in Mumbai, I am proud and excited to see first-hand the invaluable work that Gener-ation Amazing is doing to leave a lasting legacy for Qatar 2022 across the entire continent. Since Xavi Hernandez came here in March to inaugurate pitch construction, I have been following the local community and the many young people that the programme is reaching through football for devel-opment to give them better opportunities for their future.”

On hand to inaugurate the pitches was Generation Amaz-ing’s Communications and Marketing Director Moza Al Mohannadi, who spoke about Generation Amazing’s long-term plans to provide youth with hubs to learn and develop through football: “We are proud that this pitch is a real tangible legacy of Qatar 2022 right here in India, and we are looking forward to helping to change and improve the lives

of many more young people until 2022, and beyond.”

Al Mohannadi went on to reflect on Generation Amaz-ing’s successful partnership with OSCAR Foundation and streetfootballworld in devel-oping the pitch in Mumbai, before sharing some heartfelt words and messages of encouragement with young participants:

“You the youth are the most important part of our Generation Amazing pro-gramme, and we believe and

trust that this new pitch, and the programmes delivered on it, will be a vital part of you becoming leaders and game-c h a n g e r s f o r y o u r community.”

At the Mumbai ceremony, young beneficiaries Poonam Gautam and Umesh Rathod spoke about their experiences as Generation Amazing partic-ipants, with 19-year-old female footballer Poonam expressing how the programme has given her community a greater sense of rights for girls in football.

Qatar reviews experience in protection of labour rights in BangkokQNA BANGKOK

Qatar’s Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs and Qatar Chamber took part in a tripartite inter-regional consultative meeting held under the theme “Labour mobility between Asia and the Arab States: Sharing of experiences” in the capital Bangkok and concluded.

A special session on Qatar’s legislation in the field of labour reviewed the laws and the distinguished procedures adopted by the State of Qatar to ensure the protection of workers, especially women.

The participants in the various sessions praised the legislations and steps taken by the State of Qatar in the field of labor.

The two-day meeting was attended by more than 100 delegates rep-resenting governments and international organizations and labor unions.

Officials and participants during the pitch launching ceremony in Mumbai,

Students with Ashghal officials and volunteers from Qatar Red Crescent.

Under the revamped Business Broadband portfolio, the popular entry-level package’s Internet speed has more than tripled to 50 Mbps from 15 Mbps. The premium package, which previously featured an internet speed of 300 Mbps has increased to 1 Gbps. The mid-tier packages, which previously featured internet speeds of 60 Mbps and 120 Mbps have increased to 150 Mbps and 300 Mbps respectively.

05THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

National Museum of Qatar announces third edition of Mal LawalTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

The National Museum of Qatar (NMoQ) is inviting collectors to showcase their private collections at the Mal Lawal 3 exhibition.

Under the patronage of Qatar Museums’ (QM) Chairperson, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin

Khalifa Al Thani, the highly antici-pated exhibition is set to take place in the last quarter of 2020 at NMoQ.

Mal Lawal, meaning “from the old days”, is an exhibition that showcases collections owned by private collectors from Qatar. Items presented in the exhibition can include manuscripts,

weapons, Islamic collections, maps, coins, ethnographic and heritage items, jewelry, clothing, accessories and even cars.

Mal Lawal 3 is the only event of its kind in the region and acts as a platform that brings together private collectors, helping support and further establish the practice of

collecting in Qatar. The collections that will be showcased in 2020 will present the personal stories of the collectors and highlight their passion for art, culture and heritage.

Interested collectors are asked to submit a portfolio by the end of January 2020 which includes: a short description of the selected

objects, object images and dimen-sions and record of authenticity.

“Mal Lawal is an opportunity for private collectors to play a key role in developing Qatar’s cultural sector,” said Tania Al Majid, Asso-ciate Curator at NMoQ. “We encourage anyone who is pas-sionate about collecting to submit

their portfolio and share their passion with the wider com-munity, providing inspiration to aspiring collectors through the stories of their pieces.”

Interested collectors should contact the Mal Lawal team: Phone: +974 55714513 (7.30am to 2.30pm) or Email: mallawal@qm.org.qa

THE PENINSULA/DOHA

Thirteen teams comprising a total of 39 students from across the Middle East, including three students from Qatar, have competed in the final of the Huawei Middle East ICT Compe-tition 2019-2020, held at Huawei’s global headquarters in Shenzhen, China. Amongst the awards, a team from Qatar was recognised with an ‘Outstanding Performance’ recognition.

Over the course of 2019, the competition attracted more than 21,000 student registrations from 437 colleges and univer-sities in Bahrain, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates. This year’s final had a total of 13 teams and 20 ministries partic-ipate from countries across the Middle East.

The information and commu-nications technology (ICT) sector is having an increasing impact on societies and businesses alike. Countries across the region rec-ognize this, and have imple-mented plans – such as Qatar National Vision 2030– to best

take advantage of new technol-ogies such as 5G, artificial intelli-gence (AI), and cloud, which can support the realization of digital transformation, national plans and visions. In order to do this, however, there is a need to address the talent gap that cur-rently exists within the ICT sector.

Huawei is keen to support the development of the ICT ecosystem in Qatar. One of the ways in which it does so is the Huawei ME ICT Competition, which nurtures local ICT talent, working with gov-ernment authorities, colleges and universities in the Middle East to identify, support, and grow the future leaders of ICT.

The Competition promotes innovation and creativity while increasing national ICT compet-itiveness and encouraging local communities to contribute towards achieving digital trans-formation and economic growth.

Participating students have

the opportunity to enhance their ICT knowledge, practical and application skills as well as raising their innovation awareness, thereby enhancing their employ-ability within the sector – espe-cially with national winners receiving an immersion expe-rience within an ICT company’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China, in addition to employment oppor-tunities and other prizes.

Charles Yang, President of Huawei Middle East, said: “We congratulate our winners, and all of the teams who made it to the Huawei Middle East ICT Competition 2019 Final. This year’s field of competition was especially strong. Each team par-ticipating in the final round rep-resents some of the brightest talent from their country, as well as from the region. Seeing so many gifted young people gives us great confidence in the future of ICT in the Middle East.”

Member of Qatari team at Huawei Middle East ICT Competition.

High-level delegations from Ecuador to visit QatarFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

Several high-level delegations from Ecuador will visit Qatar this month to enhance bilateral rela-tions and take part in some conferences here.

Otto Sonneholzener, Vice-President of Ecuador will pay a four-day visit during which he will attend the inauguration of Doha Forum 2019, said, Ivonne A Baki (pictured), the Ambassador of Ecuador to Qatar.

“The aim of this visit is mainly to boost the bilateral cooperation and launch new opportunities for investment in both countries, as well as expand trade volume between the two countries. Son-nenholzner will hold bilateral talks and visit several institutions including Qatar Foundation, Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy and Hamad Port,” said A Baki speaking to media persons on Monday.

Sonneholzener will be accom-panied by the Minister of Transport and Public Works and the Minister of Production, Foreign Trade, Investments and Fisheries of Ecuador.

“Two bilateral memorandums of understanding on culture and port services are supposed to be also signed during the visit. The Memorandum of Understating on

expanding cultural ties will be ori-ented to strengthen and develop the ties and organizing confer-ences, workshops and congresses. The one related to ports will be signed with Mwani Qatar for greater corporation and man-agement of respective national ports, improve and develop services,” said A Baki.

Xavier Torres Ecuador’s Gov-ernment Advisor in Disability and Minister of Urban Development and Housing will be attending Doha International Conference on Disa-bility and Development behalf of Lenin Moreno President of Ecuador, in response to an invitation from H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser.

Torres is an Activist for the Rights of Persons with Disabilities, President of the National Council for Disability Equality (CONADIS), Representative of Ecuador and Latin America in the Committee

of Nations Units for the Surveil-lance of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disability. “Doha International Conference on Disability and Development is a vital initiative for achieving tan-gible and lasting changes to the lives of people with disabilities not only in Qatar and the Middle East, but across the world,” said A Baki.

César Litardo, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Ecuador will represent his country in the 7th Global Organ-ization of Parliamentarians Against Corruption Conference.

“The conference is a joint ini-tiative of the Shura Council of Qatar and Global Organization of Parliamentarians Against Cor-ruption (GOPAC), an international alliance of legislators working together to combat corruption, strengthen democracy and uphold the rule of law,” said A Baki.

“We are pleased to participate in such an important Conference in order to support Qatar in its battle against corruption as it is the scourge of nations, and I strongly believe that it is a premier opportunity for Ecuador’s dele-gates to participate in thoughtful discussions and workshops that are aimed at ensuring parliamen-tarians have the skills to combat corruption and to provide a platform to share challenges and successes,” added A Baki.

SJC participates in Assembly of States Parties to Rome Statute in the Hague QNA THE HAGUE

A delegation from the Supreme Judicial Council (SJC) participates in the eighteenth session of the Assembly of States Parties to the Rome Statute of the Interna-tional Criminal Court, which is being held in The Hague, Neth-erlands.

The meeting of the Assembly,

in which Qatar has an observer status during its current session, discusses two topics, the first of which relates to the performance of the International Criminal Court in the cases related to crimes of aggression in its various classifi-cations, especially those related to crimes against humanity such as ethnic cleansing, genocide and siege of civilians leading to death and others.

The second topic discusses the mechanisms of international cooperation of the Court and its relationship with the countries of the world and the facilities provided in light of the develop-ments and events in the inter-national arena, which was rep-resented in some opposition to the jurisdiction of the Court and descriptions of crimes under the Rome Statute.

IJSO 2019 begins in DohaFROM PAGE 1

H E the Minister noted that the participation level is the highest in the history of the event. H E the Minister also said that Qatar’s hosting of the event reflects the country’s growing stature in the field, especially given that it is the first Arab country to organise the Interna-tional Junior Science Olympiad.

H E the Minister said that the country’s strategy, laid by Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, will continue to be the development of the educational system in order to bring up a new generation that has access to the most modern skills and the most modern scientific research capabilities.

H E the Minister said that this edition’s theme is com-patible with the strategy of Qatar for education, and with the State’s ambition of pre-paring a future generation full of distinguished individuals that can use their skills and gifts to benefit society. The Minister noted that the commitment to young talented youth was one of the outcomes of the world’s move towards a knowledge-based society.

Undersecretary of the Min-istry of Education and Higher Education and Chairman of the Scientific Committee for IJSO 2019, Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi, described the event

which brings together a large number of delegations from around the world to Qatar as unique and that it is a source of pride for Qatar.

Dr. Al Nuaimi said we have been keen to develop this edition and create unique roles, which will be used for the first time in this Olympiad, through the long experience of Qatar in organ-ising such global events in terms of preparation, organisation, results and overall satisfaction.

Spokesman IJSO 2019 Dr. Mohamed Yousuf Al Ali focused on the importance of science in all categories and components, scientific and cosmic discoveries and their impact on life.

President of IJSO Dr. Paris Joshi expressed his great thanks to Qatar for hosting this world-

wide scientific event. He said that students are the

main players in this compe-tition. “I wish you a good and healthy challenge that will show the best of you,” said Joshi inviting students to make this competition a turning point in their career.

He said that this year’s Olympiad was witnessing a pos-itive change in competition with Qatar taking a leading role in making the competition envi-ronmentally friendly.

“We plan for electronic competitions to reduce the use of paper. IT has made a tre-mendous effort and I hope that we will all succeed in this endeavor, because it will open new dimensions to compe-tition,” said Joshi.

Members of Qatar Team, the winner of the International Scientific Competition organised by the Scientific Committee of IJSO 2019 and QEERI with their prizes during the opening ceremony of Olympiad.

Qatar’s team recognised for Outstanding Performance

06 THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019HOME

QCDC releases 9th edition of its annual Career Guide magazineTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Career Development Center (QCDC) has released the 9th edition of its annual Career Guide magazine, which features a wealth of articles, interviews, and useful tips from experts.

The new issue of Qatar Career Devel-opment Center’s (QCDC) guide touches on a variety of topics, from medical studies and related work prospects, to Qatari women’s success stories in the healthcare sector.

It also sheds light on a series of key ini-tiatives launched by inspiring Qatari figures, who have spearheaded efforts to support youth and help develop their skills. The pub-lication also highlights the contribution of national service in developing the characters of Qatari youth and empowering them to tackle future challenges.

The cover of the new issue features Olympic medalist, Ibtihaj Muhammad, who made history by becoming the first American, hijab-wearing athlete to participate in the Olympic Games during the summer of 2016,

before winning the bronze medal in the Saber fencing competition to, once again, enter the history books as the first female Muslim-American athlete to claim an Olympic medal.

The former world champion visited Doha during the National Sport Day cele-brations, where she participated in various activities, including an inspiring lecture hosted by QF as part of its Education City Speaker Series.

In his welcome note, Abdulla Al-Man-soori, Director, QCDC – a member of Qatar Foundation – said: “We are pleased to present the 9th edition of Career Guide mag-azine to our dear readers. Your unprece-dented interaction with the previous edi-tions, both through the mobile application and the print and digital copies, showed us how keen you are to acquire every piece of information possible that might help you in exploring your abilities and enhancing your perspectives.”

In the Exploring Careers section, readers learn about the professions of a clinical phar-macist, museum curator, aviation security inspector, chemical engineer, and translator

through interviews with industry profes-sionals, who discuss their job prospects and dynamics. The issue also features a special interview with legal expert Hussain Khalil Heji, Director of Visually Impaired Friends Qatar.

This issue also features a special report on national service. The release of the report coincides with the National Service Academy’s graduation ceremony of its 11th batch of students, and reflects its role in equipping committed Qatari youth with military skills that empower them to ensure the security of Qatar and the devel-opment of its society, in light of the unprec-edented challenges facing the country in the region.

Education programs can help to build stronger marriagesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Poor understanding between husbands and wives, lack of responsibil i ty, parental involvement, and a lack of awareness about what being married really means are among the key factors behind the breakdown of marriages and divorce in the Arab world and beyond, experts have told a conference at Qatar Foundation.

During a panel discussion at the Arab Family Forum on Mar-riage: Approaches to Research and Policy – organised by Qatar Foundation member the Doha International Family Institute (DIFI) – speakers focused on the positive impact that marital edu-cation programmes can have, and the importance of married couples making use of them.

The session on the second day of the forum at Qatar National Convention Centre brought together Rashed Al Dosari, Executive Director, The

Family Consulting Center (Wifaq), Qatar; Max Palmer, Director and National Trainer at New Zealand’s Prepare/Enrich initiative; Shaikha Faisal Medndi, Head of the Mawada Program, Kuwait; and Abdul Shukur Abdullah, Director General of the National Popu-lation and Family Development Board, Malaysia. It was led by Dr. Anis Ben Brik, Director, Family Policy Department, DIFI.

Speaking about programme that seek to educate couples who may be intending to marry, Al-Dosari said,”We aim to encourage young people to join marital education programmes in order to better understand the marital relationship, strengthen the bonds between family members, and gain the knowledge of the behaviours that individuals who are going to marry need to show, helping to build a strong and sustainable emotional relationship between the couple. “

Al-Mandani highlighted her perspectives on marriage and marital education programmes in Kuwait, saying: “We noticed that most divorces were among newly-married couples, because of their lack of awareness about married life.

“This emphasises the impor-tance of marital education, because it provides couples with the knowledge that will help them enter marriage in the right manner, with awareness of what it entails.

During the forum, DIFI also organised five sessions focusing on the state of marriage in the GCC; the wider Middle East; North Africa; the Nile Basin; and Yemen, Somalia, Djibouti, and Comoros.

In a panel discussion addressing marriage within the GCC, Dr. Fatima Al-Kubaisi, Head of the Department of Social Sciences at Qatar University, gave a presentation on the social factors surrounding marriage in the “pre-oil” era, including parity

ratios, marital upbringing, and the material costs of marriage; and in “post-oil” times, such as the role of education in marriage, parental involvement in marital life, and social networking programs.

The forum featured the

discussion of topics and findings highlighted in two DIFI research reports, titled The State of Mar-riage in the Arab World and Marital Education Programs in the Arab world.

The reports are intended to provide new knowledge that

helps to address the problems faced by Arab families related to marriage and marriage patterns, age and marriage, marital rela-tions, work and marriage, migration and marriage, and marriage during conflicts and wars.

Panellists during a discussion at the ‘Arab Family Forum on Marriage: Approaches to Research and Policy’ conference at Qatar Foundation.

QU takes part in ‘China-Gulf Strategic Cooperation’ seminarTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Peking University in Beijing, China hosted a seminar on ‘China-Gulf Strategic Cooper-ation,’ which was organised jointly by the University’s Department of Arabic Language and Culture in the School of Foreign Languages and the Qatar Chair for Middle East Studies in Peking University, China.

The Qatar Chair, which is supervised by the College of Arts and Sciences at Qatar University (QU), was set up following a visit to Beijing by Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in 2014.

A number of international dignitaries as well as a large number of experts in the field of Middle East and Gulf studies attended the seminar including Ambassador Wu Sike, Former China’s Special Envoy on the Middle East Issues; Ambassador Patrick Theros, Former US Ambassador to Qatar; and Pro-fessor Gerd Nonneman from Georgetown University in Qatar.

Qatar Chair for Middle East Studies Professor Dr. Wu Bingbing commented on the seminar saying, “It’s a com-munity, all the professors and scholars and former diplomats, met with each other and through activities, we are deepening our understanding with other parts. This is going to be happening annually in the future, so we can follow up on situations, and what we have done to see the results and the fruit of the cooperations.”

Dr. Wu Bingbing discussed the work of the Qatar Chair for Middle East Studies in 2019 saying, “We have had a series of symposiums and seminars, and exchange of visits where we have hosted faculty members and in the new year we will exchange students. We want to

promote cooperation beyond Middle East studies, for example medical science, engineering and environmental science, so it is a comprehensive cooper-ation not limited to one disci-pline. More than that, we bring scholars from the region and around the world to build a network of top scholars.”

He added, “This seminar in 2019 is the first one, we have three topics this year, the situ-ation in the Gulf, the regional cooperation and the China-Gulf relations. Next year, we will have more specific and concrete topics and also include more fields.”

Cesar Wazen, Director of International Affairs Office, Qatar University, made a pres-entation on behalf of Qatar University during the event’s Opening Ceremony in which he discussed Qatar National Vision 2030, QU’s focus on research, the university’s strategy and its various functions.

Dr. Mahjoob Zweiri, Director of QU’s Gulf Studies Center delivered a speech at the event, where he covered the new understating of Gulf security.

MIA hosts Shafallah photo exhibitionTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) has hosted a photography exhibition to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Shafallah Center and to mark the International Day of Persons with Disabilities 2019.

Guests who attended included Dr. Julia Gonnella, Director of MIA; Amal Al Mannai, CEO of Qatar Foundation for Social Work; Laalei Abu Alfain; Managing Director of Best Buddies Qatar and CEO of Shafallah Center; and Salem Al Marri, Deputy Director of Learning and Outreach at MIA.

The exhibition featured 70 photographs that captured various activities, events and milestones that Shafallah Center has achieved over the past 20 years.

Various activities for members of Sha-fallah Center were also organised including a treasure hunt and an arts workshop among others.

The first group of students visited the library for a storytelling session, while the second group worked as a team to recreate one of the pieces displayed in the Set in Stones: Gems and Jewels from Royal Indian

Courts exhibition. The final group visited the galleries and explored the pieces displayed at MIA.

The event was jointly organized by Qatar Museums, Shafallah Center, Best Buddies Qatar and Seashore Group of Companies.

Dr. Julia Gonnella (second right), Director of MIA; Amal Al Mannai (second left), CEO of Qatar Foundation for Social Work; Laalei Abu Alfain (right), Managing Director of Best Buddies Qatar and CEO of Shafallah Center, and Salem Al Marri, Deputy Director of Learning and Outreach at the launching of the photography exhibition at the Museum of Islamic Art.

PhD for Qatar-based media person THE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar-based media person and author, Thajudeen V. Aliar (aka Taj Aluva) has obtained the Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) degree from the University of Madras, India, recently.

Taj Aluva is employed at Qatargas Operating Company as Corporate Communications Specialist and has been pursuing a

PhD in Journalism and Mass Communications (Compar-ative Literature as inter-dis-ciplinary major) since 2009. The title of his thesis was ‘A Comparative Study of the Role of Resistance Literature in the Nationalist Move-ments of India and Palestine with special reference to the works of Mahmoud Darwish and Vallathol Narayana Menon’.

He was awarded the PhD degree in the

convocation ceremony held recently at the University campus in Chennai, India, by Dr. P Duraisamy, Vice Chancellor, University of Madras. The ceremony was officially chaired by the Governor of Tamil Nadu and the University’s Chancellor, Banwarilal Purohit.

Dr. Taj Aluva is the pres-ident of Cultural Forum, a socio-cultural organisation of expatriate Indians in Qatar. He is an inspirational

speaker and has authored a book Falapradamaya Jeevitham (Effective Life) in Malayalam which has already seen three editions.

Dr. Taj Aluva was previ-ously employed in Dubai Municipality as Principal Media Officer, and was a staff reporter at The Gulf Today newspaper in Sharjah, UAE, and Times of Oman daily in Muscat, Sul-tanate of Oman.

Dr. Taj Aluva (second left) receiving his PhD certificate from Dr. P Duraisamy, Vice-Chancellor, University of Madras, at the convocation ceremony held recently in Chennai, India.

We want to promote cooperation beyond Middle East studies, so it is a comprehensive cooperation not limited to one discipline. More than that, we bring scholars from the region and around the world to build a network of top scholars: Dr. Wu Bingbing

07THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

Ooredoo is OfficialCommunicationsPartner of IJSO 2019THE PENINSULA DOHA

Ooredoo is the Official Commu-nications Partner of the 16th International Junior Science Olympiad (IJSO), being held from December 3-12, at Qatar National Convention Centre.

Organised jointly between Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Qatar Uni-versity and Qatar Foundation, the IJSO is an annual individual and team competition in the Natural Sciences for students aged under 16.

It aims to promote the pursuit of excellence in science; to challenge, stimulate and encourage gifted students to further develop their talents and to connect science students around the world.

The IJSO consists of a series of practical and theoretical examinations for science stu-dents based on a set syllabus. Teams of six from various coun-tries around the world compete for top spot, being tested on a variety of subjects within Natural Sciences.

Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi,

Director PR and Corporate Com-munications, said: “We’re delighted to be associated with such a prestigious event on the science calendar. Supporting events that promote education is a key focus for us as part of our corporate social responsi-bility strategy, in line with the United Nations sustainability goals, and being partners of IJSO 2019 allows us to show our support in a practical way. We look forward to seeing some impressive scores in the exam-inations, and wish all the par-ticipating students the best of luck.”

QU students hold antibiotic awareness campaignTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Students and faculty from QU College of Pharmacy (CPH) held a campaign at Landmark Mall during the global antibiotic awareness week under the title “Antibiotic resistance: Be part of the solution. Speak to your phar-macist”.

The campaign aimed to educate the public on the safe use of antibiotics and the causes of antibiotic resistance. The focus was to engage in honest conversations with members of the public and tackle any misconceptions they have about antibiotics.

The campaign booth consisted of four different stations, some were interactive and others informative. One of the attractive stations was the spin-the-wheel quiz in which the students would go over key points about antibiotic resistance and how as a com-munity we can fight it. After com-pleting the station, the students offered the visitors “antibiotic guardian” badges certifying that they are actively participating in decreasing antibiotic resistance. The campaign was organized by Qatar Pharmacy Undergraduate Society (QPhUS) executives, working under the supervision of CPH faculty members.

Dr. Maguy El Hajj CPH Head of Clinical Pharmacy and Practice department and Clinical Associate Professor commented, “Antibiotic resistance is one of the major threats for public’s health around the globe. This week is World Antibiotic Awareness week. Pharmacists have a great role in combating this threat. They have all the knowledge and resources to prevent resistance to antibiotics. It was really a great opportunity for us as faculty and for our pharmacy students to educate

the public in Qatar about the appropriate use of antibiotics.”

CPH Assistant Professor Dr. Zachariah Nazar said: “This is a very enriching experience for the students, and one in which the public also benefit tremendously. I’ve seen the students use their scientific knowledge of a highly significant and contemporary issue that is antimicrobial resistance, to educate and inform the public in a way that is appro-priate and relevant to them. The public have been very receptive and hugely impressed with the

information they’ve received and how the students were able to respond to their questions.”

QPhUS President and third-year pharmacy student Hend Al Naimi said: “I believe that the antibiotic outreach was one of the successful outreach events we held. The biggest highlight is that we had the chance to interact and educate visitors of different ages. I am really grateful for such an opportunity which allowed us as students to express and share what we learned in classes to the real world.”

QU College of Pharmacy students during the antibiotic awareness campaign at Landmark.

Bedaya Center invites Qatari home-based businesses to participate in ‘Qatar Food Fest’THE PENINSULA DOHA

Bedaya Center for Entrepre-neurship and Career Devel-opment (Bedaya Center), a joint initiative by Qatar Development Bank and Silatech, has announced that home-based and startup businesses can still avail the opportunity to participate in the Qatar Food Fest within the Bedaya pavilion. The Qatar Food Fest, which runs tilll the end of March 2020 is being held at the Sheraton Park.

Bedaya will be offering a great chance for all entrepre-neurs to be part of this prodi-gious event through monthly basis registration and nominal charges (QR3,000 per month only) to facilitate participation of promising businesses allowing the largest number of them to be part of this splendid occasion and utilise this platform to promote their products.

Entrepreneurs can exploit the fest to further develop their products and promote them in a way that suits the market requirements in addition to enhancing the competitiveness of existing projects.

On this occasion, Reema Al Khater, Marketing Manager

at Bedaya Center, said: “We would like to thank Al Noor Company for the collabo-ration and support they pro-vided for startups in their festival.

“We are participating in this year’s Qatar Food Fest with an area that was dedi-cated to Bedaya Center with subsidized price with the aim of providing the opportunity for home-based food projects and emerging food businesses as well as small project spe-cialised in producing food

related products to partic-ipate in this public event, which attracts different seg-ments of society because of the diversity of products offered.”

She said that the priority will be given to new local startups which have been operational for less than three years, and to projects which have a home-based licence or commercial registration, and to those who don’t have existing restaurant/shops or any outlets.

Entrepreneurs can exploit the fest to further develop their products and promote them in a way that suits the market requirements in addition to enhancing the competitiveness of existing projects.

Submissions open for 2020 WISE AwardsTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has opened submissions for the 2020 WISE Awards. The deadline to apply is 13.00 GMT, January 20.

Each year, the WISE Awards recognize innovative and impactful initiatives addressing today’s most urgent education challenges. Past WISE Awards projects have addressed a range of diverse topic areas, and more access and inclusion, design and ecosystems, digital and multi-media, society and workforce, and youth employment.

Submissions are judged according to strict criteria. They must show innovation, have a clear development plan, and be financially stable, scalable, and replicable. They must also

demonstrate a transformative impact on individuals, commu-nities, and society. During the course of 2020, a panel of inde-pendent judges will select 12 to 15 projects from those submitted, to progress into the final round.

Evaluations will be conducted on site in this final round, and six winners will then be selected from these finalists, by yet another panel of judges.

Finalists and winners gain global visibility and opportunities to collaborate through various plat-forms, including the global summit and WISE events across the world, WISE communications and publi-cations. The winning projects will also receive $20,000 (US).

Applications and nominations for the new cohort of WISE Awards can be submitted online at: https://programs.wise.org.qa/

Accessible Qatar supports Museum of Illusion to become more inclusive for people with disabilitiesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Sasol, the international inte-grated chemicals and energy company, as part of its ongoing efforts to promote inclusion and accessibility under its Accessible Qatar initiative, supported the newly opened Museum of Illusion to become more inclusive for people with disa-bilities, and arranged a special visit of the initiative’s Ambas-sadors on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities on December 3.

A United Nations initiative, The International Day of Persons with Disabilities aims to promote the rights and well-being of persons with disabilities in all spheres of society and development.

The Museum of Illusions have designed their premises to be suitable for the disabled com-munity as part of their aim to be an accessible and inclusive museum for all people. However, to ensure proper inclusion, the Accessible Qatar initiative con-ducted an accessibility audit at the museum and supported in having the museum exhibit descriptions to be displayed in braille language to become accessible for the visually impaired.

The Museum of Illusions offers interactive, immersive and

fun experience for people of all ages and has become one of the fastest growing education and entertainment places, with loca-tions in 18 cities around the world. The Doha branch of the Museum opened in September 2019 at the Gate Mall and is cur-rently the only branch which includes braille language for the blind.

Commenting on the visit, Chris Molefe, President of Sasol in Qatar said: “Accessible Qatar initiative aspires to build an inclusive society where disabled people can explore and enjoy

more of Qatar without limits. Our ambassadors of the disabled community were pleased to visit the Museum of Illusions and were appreciative of the efforts taken by the management to make the museum’s premises accessible and friendly for the

disabled community.”Ioana C. El Watidy Executive

Director at Museum of Illusions said: “One in four families has a disabled member and we want to welcome those members, their families and friends and ensure they have an amazing

experience. We are delighted to welcome the Ambassadors of Accessible Qatar to the museum, and very thankful to Sasol and its Accessible Qatar initiative for offering us an accessibility audit and advising us how to become more inclusive.”

Ambassadors of Accessible Qatar initiative during their visit to the Museum of Illusions on the occasion of the International Day of Persons with Disabilities.

The Museum of Illusion offers interactive, immersive and fun experience for people of all ages and has become one of the fastest growing education and entertainment places, with locations in 18 cities around the world.

The IJSO consists of a series of practical and theoretical examinations for science students based on a set syllabus. Teams of six from various countries around the world compete for top spot, being tested on a variety of subjects within Natural Sciences.

HEC Paris in Qatar to host workshop on ‘Creating a Roadmap for Successful Innovation’

THE PENINSULA/DOHA

HEC Paris in Qatar, ranked umber 3 worldwide in Executive Education by the Financial Times in 2019, is hosting a public Masterclass designed to engage senior business professionals in the renowned HEC Paris degree programs, with a focus on enhancing innovation skills.

The interactive masterclass, titled ‘Creating a Roadmap for Successful Innovation’, will be held on 11 December at the HEC Paris campus in Tornado Tower, Doha. The session will be delivered by HEC Paris Affiliate Pro-fessor Hélène Musikas.

Professor Musikas teaches courses in the fields of strategy innovation, growth strategy, corporate social responsibility, strategic alignment, stra-tegic planning and general management.

HEC Paris masterclasses are designed to strengthen leadership skills necessary for senior business managers to flourish in their roles, and this inter-active discussion will give participants insight around innovation topics such as becoming more creative in a profes-sional context; the levers to be a more innovative individual; creating a context for their immediate team to be more innovative; and the levers at an organ-isational level.

08 THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019VIEWS

QUOTE OF THE DAY

European defence was not an

alternative to Nato but a pillar within

the alliance.

Emmanuel Macron French President

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Qatar’s humanitarian assistance

The world today is facing enormous challenges posed by some of the worst humanitarian crisis, which makes it impossible for a few organisations or one or two

countries to respond to the needs of people affected by these crises regardless in which part of the world they are.

UN and other humanitarian organisations could not develop and provide the required support without generous support of some countries around the world; among these is Qatar which is known for its commendable generosity and continued humanitarian response and commitment.

Last July Qatar’s Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN in Geneva Abdullah Al Nuaimi pointed out that “Qatar’s foreign assistance for the period from 2013 to 2017 amounted to QR23bn ($6.3bn) and included more than 140 countries in partnership with the United Nations and many international and regional organisations”.

Qatar’s humanitarian role has attracted global praise and it was achieved under the wise leadership of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, who issued several directives to launch aid to supports people in affected areas. This includes directive to launch an airlift for flood relief to

the people of the Federal Republic of Somalia affected by the floods that hit towns in the south and centre of the country in November this year.

Accordingly, Qatar sent a new batch of aid amounting to 46 tonnes of various medical and relief materials, bringing the total aid to 88 tonnes, trans-ported by a plane of the Qatari Amiri Air Force. It was accom-panied by a team from the Qatari International Search and Rescue Group (Lekhwiya).

The Somali government commended the assistance pro-vided by the State of Qatar to those affected by floods that hit large parts of the country.

In a ceremony attended by Somalia’s ministers, top officials,

parliamentarians and ambassadors accredited to Somalia, Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) recently participated in inauguration of the Diplomatic Institute rehabilitation project which was renovated by the QFFD.

The organisation is currently implementing a range of different development projects in Somalia, where the work is underway on the construction of the 90-km Mogadishu-Jowhar road and the 22-km Mogadishu-Afgoye road.

Minister of Foreign Affairs and International Cooper-ation of Somalia Ahmed Issa Awad has praised the Qatari government’s continuous support to Somalia.

Qatar’s support for the Somali people comes in the context of a well established foreign policy based on bilateral cooperation and provision of support for humanitarian commitments.

Qatar is affirming its will to continue to be a key sup-porter of Somalia, making remarkable efforts in the fields of development and humanitarian aids to help brotherly and friendly countries.

Qatar’s support for the Somali people comes in the context of well established a foreign policy based on bilateral cooperation and provision of support for humanitarian commitments.

H E the Ambassador reiterated the State of Qatar’s commitment to provide all kinds of political and developmental support to the Palestinian brothers, stressing Qatar’s firm position in solidarity with the Palestinian people to achieve their just and legitimate rights.

DANIEL W DREZNER THE WASHINGTON POST

Qatar reiterates support for efforts to resolve Palestinian cause

The State of Qatar reiterated its support for all sincere efforts aimed at resolving the Pales-tinian issue and achieving

peace in the Middle East.It also affirmed its support for the

annual resolutions of the General Assembly on the question of Palestine and the Middle East based on the prin-ciples of international law, the pur-poses enshrined in the Charter of the United Nations and international norms and the need to respect the rights of all and to maintain interna-tional peace and security.

This came in a statement delivered by Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations Ambassador H E Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly on the “Question of Palestine” item.

Her Excel-lency stated that Israel’s occupation of Arab lands, settlement activity in the occupied ter-ritory, measures aimed at changing the character of Jerusalem, its legal status and demo-graphic com-position, the siege of the Gaza Strip, the use of excessive vio-lence against civilians, arbi-trary arrest, obstruction of freedom of movement, demolition of Palestinian homes,

exploitation of their natural resources and other violations are all in flagrant violation of international law and United Nations resolutions.

She expressed concern at the dete-rioration of the economic situation in

the Occupied Palestinian territory, especially in the Gaza Strip, which has been under siege for 12 years, causing great human suffering. HE explained that economic stability is a key factor to ensure security and peace.

The State of Qatar continues to provide political and humanitarian support to the Palestinian brothers, she said, pointing out that Qatar’s support over the past eight years has reached $1 billion through the Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD) in cooperation with the Gaza Recon-struction Committee , in addition to contributions from civil society organizations.

In this context, H E the Ambas-sador pointed out to the instructions of the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to provide humani-tarian and developmental support to the brotherly Palestinian people to secure the urgent and long-term needs in areas including education, elec-tricity supply, infrastructure enhancement, housing maintenance and construction, and job finance.

H E drew attention to the contribu-tions made by the State of Qatar to ‘UNRWA’, the latest of which was a multi-year pledge of $16 million in addition to the support of the Agency’s activities and programs of in the amount of $50 million. Her Excellency

affirmed in this regard the critical importance of the Agency’s indispen-sable role in meeting the basic needs of millions of Palestine refugees and ensuring stability.

She stressed that there is no alter-native to an agreed peaceful set-tlement to resolve the Palestinian issue through negotiations between the two parties, adding that this solution is based on agreed terms of reference, resolutions of international legitimacy, the principle of land for peace, the road map, the Arab Peace Initiative and the two-state solution that guarantees the establishment of a viable independent State of Pal-estine on the basis of the 4 June 1967 borders with East Jerusalem as its capital.

H E called also for an end to the Israeli occupation of the occupied Arab territories, including the Syrian Golan, stressing the need to ensure the rights of the Palestinian people and a just solution to the refugee problem.

At the end of her statement, H E the Ambassador reiterated the State of Qatar’s commitment to provide all kinds of political and developmental support to the Palestinian brothers, stressing Qatar’s firm position in soli-darity with the Palestinian people to achieve their just and legitimate rights.

QNA NEW YORK

Did Macron figure out how to manage Trump?

It would be safe to say that US allies were just a wee bit nervous about the Nato summit in London this week. On Monday, The Wash-

ington Post’s Michael Birnbaum detailed the myriad ways the summit was being engineered to prevent a repeat of the less-than-perfect 2017 and 2018 summits. This time “every last detail of this anniversary get-together has been choreographed to ensure that Trump’s happiness will be maximized and any opportunities to blow up the program, or the alliance, minimized,” Birnbaum wrote.

That included scrubbing the formal dinner and condensing the traditional two days of meetings into a single three-hour session. Birnbaum was hardly the only reporter to detect this nervousness from US treaty allies in the run-up to London.

Still, on Tuesday, there was some rather remarkable behavior by the president of the United States. First, The Post’s Ashley Parker and Philip Rucker reported that “President Trump on Tuesday slammed as ‘very, very nasty’ and ‘very disrespectful’ recent comments by his French coun-terpart about the diminished state of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization alliance. . . . ‘You just can’t go around making statements like that about Nato.’ Trump said.” This is certainly some odd rhetoric coming because Trump has spent most of his political life making statements like that against Nato.

If you watch the video, it’s apparent that for once Trump and German Chancellor Angela Merkel agree on something: They are both quite put out with French President Emmanuel Macron and his comments

about Nato being “brain-dead.” It sure seemed like Trump’s meeting with Macron would be a blockbuster.

Instead, according to the New York Times’s Katie Rogers and Annie Karni, something altogether different played itself out: “By the time their 45-minute appearance at the American ambassa-dor’s residence in London was over, the French leader had managed a rare role reversal, putting Mr. Trump on the defensive about his vision for Nato and his handling of a military conflict involving Turkey, and swatting away the president’s joke about sending Islamic State fighters from Syria to France . . .

“When asked during the afternoon meeting to address his earlier comments about Mr. Macron, Mr. Trump, a leader averse to face-to-face confrontation, initially demurred. When it was his turn to speak, Mr. Macron was direct.

“ ‘My statement created some reac-tions,’ Mr. Macron said. ‘I do stand by it.’ . . .

“Mr. Trump slumped back in his chair, while Mr. Macron sat on the edge of his chair, bobbing and ges-turing energetically.

“Mr. Macron’s aggressive approach appeared at times to unsettle Mr. Trump.” What happened? What the heck is going on? As New York’s Jonathan Chait observed, “Manipu-lating children into doing what you want by pretending to demand they do the opposite thing is a trick most parents learn to use. It usually stops working around the age of 5.” Trump is biologically older than 5, but his oppositional behavior has been prom-inent throughout his political life. During the 2016 campaign, Howard Kurtz reported that Trump’s aides labeled this “defiance disorder.” In 2017, Axios’s Mike Allen reported, “Aides say the quickest way to get Trump to do something is to tell him

he can’t.” Did Macron figure out that the way to get the best of Trump is to exploit his psychological weaknesses such as defiance disorder and an abhorrence of direct confrontation to get him to support Nato? It’s not quite that simple. Politico’s David Herszenhorn suggests that Nato Sec-retary General Jens Stoltenberg also deserves some credit, as he has spent the past three years doing what he can to make Trump happy. There is some-thing to that, although the degree to which Stoltenberg has attempted to please Trump seems like toddler psy-chology as well.

There is another alternative, however. Trump needs Nato because he is running for reelection and does not have other global deals to point to as successes. The Post’s Toluse Olor-unnipa pointed out that on the same day Trump tried to play nice on Nato, he was in the awkward position of saying that the phase one trade deal with China that he announced as done two months ago might not actually be done until a year from now: “As Trump campaigns for reelection, he has aban-doned more deals than he has struck, and his boasts about eager negotiating partners could face scrutiny from voters who expected more results from the self-described master dealmaker, said Barbara Perry, a presidential his-torian at the University of Virginia’s Miller Center of Public Affairs.

“ ‘Three years into his term, are there going to be people who say, “He promised me X, and I didn’t get it, and now I’m not voting for him” ‘? she said. ‘It’s certainly a high-wire act.’ “In some cases, other countries have flatly contradicted Trump or expressed sur-prise about his assertions, indicating that some of his claims of favorable negotiating conditions are more wishful thinking than reality.”

Ambassador H E Sheikha Alya Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, speaking at the 74th session of the United Nations General Assembly.

The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, affirmed that the organization of this celebration comes within the framework of the increasing attention paid by the State to childhood and its issues, and in implementation of UN General Assembly resolution 73/301 on inviting States to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

09THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 OPINION

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In nations rich and poor, climate-related disasters on the uptick

Panel discussion on UN Convention on the Rights of the Child anniversaryQNA DOHA

MARLOWE HOOD AFP

Japan, the Philippines and Germany top a list of countries worst hit by climate-enhanced extreme weather last year, with

Madagascar and India close behind, researchers said yesterday.

Flood-inducing rains, two deadly heatwaves, and the worst typhoon to hit Japan in a quarter century — all in 2018 — left hun-dreds dead, thousands homeless and more than $35 billion (31.5 billion euros) in damage nationwide, according to a report from environmental thinktank Germanwatch.

Category 5 Typhoon Manghut — the most powerful tropical storm of the year — ripped through northern Philippines in September, dis-placing a quarter of a million people

and unleashing lethal landslides, according to the group’s updated Global Climate Risk Index.

In Germany, meanwhile, a sus-tained summer heatwave and drought along with average tem-peratures nearly three degrees Celsius (5.4 degrees Fahrenheit) above normal over a four-month stretch resulted in 1,250 premature deaths and losses of $5 billion, mostly in agriculture.

2018’s top weather disasters showed that even the world’s most advanced and resilient economies can find themselves at the mercy of meteorological events amplified by global warming.

“Recent science has confirmed the long established link between climate change, on one side, and the frequency and severity of extreme heat, on the other,” said German-watch researcher Laura Schafer.

“In Europe, for example, extreme heat spells are now 100 times more likely than a century ago.” A sustained heatwave in 2003 claimed 70,000 lives across western Europe, mostly in France.

India was also ravaged by crip-pling heat in 2018, along with the worst flooding in over 100 years and a pair of cyclones. Total damages: nearly $38 billion.

Across the last 20 years, it is still the poorest regions that have suf-fered the most, the report found.

Puerto Rico, Myanmar and Haiti were hit hardest, mostly due to tropical storms that have grown more destructive due to sea-level rise. A single cyclone, Nargis, claimed some 140,000 lives and destroyed the property of 2.4 million people along coastal areas in Myanmar in 2008.

The new report came a day after the UN’s World Meteorological Organization (WMO) confirmed that the last decade is the hottest on record, and up to 22 million people will have been displaced by extreme weather this year alone.

“Once again, in 2019 weather and climate-related risks hit hard,” WMO Secretary-General Petteri Taalas said. “Heatwaves and floods

which used to be ‘once in a century’ events are becoming more regular occurrences.”

While it is hard calculate how much climate change contributes in each case, its signature fingerprint has become unmistakable with barely 1C (1.8F) warming above preindustrial levels.

On current trends, the planet is on track to heat up an additional three degrees, and even if the world’s nations — gathered this week in Madrid for UN climate talks — honour carbon cutting pledges under the Paris climate treaty, Earth will see it’s surface warm another 2C.

“We are not even adapted to 1.1 degree of warming,” noted Fried-erike Otto, Deputy Director of the Environmental Change Institute at the University of Oxford.

In their 25th year, the UN climate talks have so far failed to secure the commitments needed to drawdown the greenhouse gases fuelling global warming.

“It’s shocking how much climate change in 2019 has already led to lives lost, poor health, food inse-curity and displaced populations,” commented Joanna House, a reader in environmental science and policy at the University of Bristol.

TThe Ministry of Foreign Affairs, represented by the Department of Human Rights, held a panel dis-

cussion on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child, entitled “Convention on the Rights of the Child and the reality, achievements and priorities for the promotion of children’s rights in the State of Qatar”, in cooperation with the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), Doha, and the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs and Doha Interna-tional Family Institute (DIFI).

The panel discussion, which was held at the Diplomatic Club, was attended by a number of specialists, experts and officials from various sectors concerned with child and family affairs and legal experts.

In his opening speech, H E Sec-retary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, affirmed that the organi-zation of this celebration comes within the framework of the increasing attention paid by the State to childhood and its issues, and in implementation of UN General Assembly resolution 73/301 on inviting States to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Convention on the Rights of the Child.

His Excellency pointed out that the State of Qatar has joined the vol-untary global convention designed to recognize solidarity on the prin-ciples set forth in the Convention on the Rights of the Child on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of

the

Convention.His Excellency pointed out that

the promotion and protection of human rights, including children’s rights, is a strategic choice for the State of Qatar, and it is the backbone of the State’s comprehensive reform policy, of which human devel-opment and the protection and pro-motion of human rights are the top priorities.

He added that this was empha-sized in Qatar National Vision 2030, the first National Development Strategy 2011-2016 and the Second National Development Strategy 2018-2022, which included important themes that touch on key human rights issues in the areas of education, health, environment, migrant labor rights, women’s empowerment and children’s rights.

He pointed out to the Permanent Constitution of the State of Qatar and the provisions related to the family, motherhood and childhood, including what is stipulated in Article 21 that the family is the foundation of society, based on religion, morality and patriotism, and the law shall regulate the means to protect it, strengthen its existence, its ties and preserve maternity, childhood and elderly.

His Excellency added that the Permanent Constitution of the State of Qatar and related legislation have guaranteed the right of the child to health, education, social and eco-nomic care and comprehensive pro-tection from various forms of vio-lence and exploitation. The Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs noted the huge achievements witnessed by the State in recent decades in the field of building and spreading the primary health care network and maternal and child health care centers, and this has helped to provide health services to the entire population of the country, as well as the expansion of education

in all stages to make it accessible to all children.

His Excellency said that the State of Qatar has achieved an improvement in lifestyles and more forms of economic and social well-being for all segments of society, and these achievements reflected a sig-nificant and positive development in the indicators of childhood and motherhood, most notably the low level of child mortality, the high enrollment rates in all educational levels for both sexes, and the high level of social welfare services.

For his part, the Head of Unicef - Doha Office Anthony MacDonald, thanked the State of Qatar for all its efforts in the promotion and mainte-nance of the rights of women and children, describing the opening of the UNICEF office in Doha as a his-toric event, stressing that this is an indication of the distinguished part-nership between Qatar and the Organization.

Anthony pointed to the impor-tance of this celebration, given its attachment to the field of children’s rights, especially with the successive developments and major changes that the world has witnessed for three decades, and this also included children, requiring the need to protect the child, communicate his voice and focus on the family that is the primary custodian of the child.

The Head of the Unicef Doha Office noted the achievements of the State of Qatar in this field, pointing to investment in childhood, stressing that this is what the State of Qatar has focused and which was trans-lated into tangible results on the ground.

He praised the development achieved by the State of Qatar in this area, and its national vision 2030 to focus on this aspect, as well as all legislation, laws, initiatives and strategies developed by the State in all sectors, which indicates the

importance attached by Qatar to children in particular and the family in general.

He stressed in the same context that governments should emulate the country experience by investing in children to provide them with a decent life, stressing that it is difficult to achieve sustainable development without focusing on these values.

In her intervention during the panel discussion, the Head of Human Rights Treaties Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Hanadi Al Shafei, addressed the nature and features of the Con-vention on the Rights of the Child, and the State of Qatar’s provisions related to the Convention, as well as the achievements of the State of Qatar in this regard.

She pointed out that the growing international interest in the field of family and children’s rights began with the end of the first World War, and because of its consequences, there is increasing interest in the development of a system to ensure human rights in general and in par-ticular the most vulnerable and needy groups such as children and persons with disabilities and the elderly.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Administrative Development’s Najat Duham Al Abdullah discussed the strategy of the ministry related to children. She also discussed the Qatari family law and highlighted the state’s commitment to families in the legislations they undertake. She reviewed the laws issued by the state in the field of the right of children as well as initiatives such as the estab-lishment of the National Committee for Woman, Child, Elderly and Persons with Disabilities Affairs.

She pointed to Qatar National Vision 2030 and what the vision seeks to achieve by building a social system based on justice and equality to provide its members with an

appropriate income and a decent life in accordance with the Consti-tution, in addition to the devel-opment of a sound social structure that is active and strong. Al Abdullah said that the social pro-tection department of the ministry places a strategy that prioritizes these goals. She also addressed the empowerment of children and orphans and raising the level of protection against violence and achieving family cohesion.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education’s Dr Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti dis-cussed in detail the guarantees pro-vided by the constitution and the principles of Qatar National Vision 2030 of good education that will guarantee children high quality care regardless of their gender, race, nationality, religion, or color. She noted that education in Qatar focuses on the importance of respecting all cultures.

For her part, Chief Executive of the Doha International Family Institute (DIFI) Dr. Sharifa Al Emadi addressed during the session the report of the Institute on the welfare of children in GCC States, focusing on the results related to the State of Qatar. She also talked about the role of the Institute in conducting studies and preparing reports that have a role and contri-bution in the development of legis-lation and laws to achieve the well-being of the family and children.

The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, and other dignitaries during panel discussion at the Diplomatic Club on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

10 THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019HOME

Royal visit

11THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Iran: Still ready for talks if US lifts sanctionsAFP/TEHRAN

President Hassan Rouhani said yesterday that Iran is still ready for nuclear talks on condition the United States first lifts “unlawful” sanctions.

“If they are prepared to put aside the sanctions, we are ready to talk and negotiate, even at the level of heads of the 5+1 countries,” Rouhani said in remarks aired live on state television.

Rouhani has long demanded the lifting of US sanctions for Iran’s return to talks under the auspices of the so-called P5+1 that reached a 2015 nuclear deal — the five veto-wielding per-manent members of the UN Security Council plus Germany.

“We are under sanctions. This situation... is (because of) incitement by the Zionists and the region’s reactionary,” he said, referring to Israel and Saudi Arabia.

“This situation... is a cruel act by the White House. We have no choice but to resist and per-severe against those imposers of sanctions.

“At the same time, we have not closed the window for nego-tiations,” Rouhani said.

“I tell the nation of Iran that

any time America is prepared to lift and put aside its wrong, cruel, unlawful, incorrect, ter-rorist sanctions, immediately the heads of 5+1 can meet and we have no problem.”

The landmark 2015 deal gave Iran relief from economic sanctions in return for curbs on its nuclear programme.

It has been at risk of falling apart since US President Donald Trump unilaterally withdrew from it in May last year and reimposed sanctions on Iran.

Known formally as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), it was agreed between Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, plus Germany.

Twelve months on from the US pullout, Iran began reducing its commitments to the deal hoping to win concessions from those still party to the accord.

Iraqi security forces patrolling during the ongoing anti-government protests, in Baghdad, Iraq, yesterday.

Tunisia: Youth’s suicide tests new presidentBLOOMBERG/TUNIS

The honeymoon may be over for Tunisia’s outsider president, whose landslide electoral win in October signaled a resounding rejection of the political estab-lishment. Almost nine years after street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi torched himself and sparked the Arab Spring uprisings, another youth in the same impoverished central region followed suit, protesting the inequality and lack of opportunity that’s long plagued the area.

Several nights of unrest have followed Abdelwahab Hablani’s act of suicidal despair in Sidi Bouzid province last Friday. Coming so soon after Kais Saied’s presidential win, the turmoil reflects Tunisia’s struggle to find economic relief even as it, alone

of Arab Spring nations, boasts a vibrant democracy.

The tension in the town of Jelma is the “first political test” for Saied, said political analyst Boulababa Salem. He “must prove that he is aware of the concerns of these young people and that he has real solutions to their problems.”

Saied, a 61-year-old former constitutional law professor, has yet to visit the area. He hasn’t publicly addressed the unrest either, which reflects a deep-seated frustration with the North African country’s failure to escape a rut of lackluster eco-nomic growth and youth unem-ployment around double the national average.

What Tunisians and their nine successive governments since 2011 have discovered is

that there are no easy fixes. A series of terrorist attacks in 2015 battered the vital tourism sector, while political bickering and a powerful union’s demands for higher pay hobbled efforts to cut government spending.

Inflation, meanwhile, hovered stubbornly near 25-year highs for the better part of 2018 before gradually slowing to 6.3% in November — its lowest level in about two years.

The International Monetary Fund, which agreed in 2016 to extend a $2.9bn loan, said in June that Tunisia’s fiscal performance has been “mixed” and urged authorities to focus on improving fiscal and external deficits while strengthening social safety nets.

Saied, who vowed a “new page in Tunisia’s history,” may be constrained in what he can

do. “Expectations are very high, and it will be very difficult for Saied to meet them adequately,” said Hamish Kinnear, Middle East and North Africa analyst at Verisk Maplecroft. Even, so, “the fact that his program for government has been vague also gives him scope to make more promises that could keep hopes up.”

Constitutionally, the day-to-day policy making powers fall to the prime minister. The likely incoming premier took the role with the support of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which failed to secure a majority in October parliamentary elections and is struggling to form a gov-erning coalition.

That will only delay the kind of reforms being demanded in places like Sidi Bouzid, which has suffered from a lack of

development for decades. Here Tunisia’s economic woes are even more pronounced— and patience is in short supply.

“Young people on fire: the same tragic scene is being repeated,” said Mohamed Lazhar Guemmoudi, the general sec-retary of the Tunisian General Labour Union in the province. Saied must “deliver on his promises to the youth who elected and trusted him.”

When one local protester, Ismail Abdelaoui, was reached by phone, he was standing outside Jelma’s mayoral office among a crowd watching yet another young man on the brink.

“He’s holding a jerrycan of gasoline in his hand and threat-ening to set himself on fire,” said the 37-year-old, who’s also without a job. “This is our daily life.”

40 Palestinians launch hunger strike in Israeli jailANATOLIA RAMALLAH

Some 40 Palestinian prisoners launched an open-ended hunger strike yesterday in a prison in southern Israel

Held in Ashkelon prison, they are protesting deterio-rating living conditions and escalating repressive measures by the prison administration.

Qadri Abu Bakr, head of the Palestinian Authority Prisoners’ Affairs Commission said: “Pris-oners in Ashkelon prison informed the prison adminis-tration of their intention to start an open-ended hunger strike until their demands are met.”

Abu Bakr told Anadolu Agency that the prisoners were subjected to repressive measures and that their belongings were damaged by the authorities.

Several prisoners rights groups reported that the Israeli prison administration has esca-lated repressive policies against Palestinian prisoners since the beginning of this year.

According to Palestinian figures, roughly 5,000 Pales-tinians— including 200 children and 40 women — are lan-guishing in Israeli detention facilities.

Aoun calls for consultations to designate PMREUTERS/BEIRUT

Lebanese President Michel Aoun called for formal consultations on Monday with lawmakers to designate a new prime minister, a statement from the presidency said yesterday.

Aoun is required to des-ignate the candidate with the greatest support among Leba-non’s 128 lawmakers. The prime minister must be a Sunni Muslim according to Lebanon’s sectarian system of gov-ernment. Saad Al Hariri, the outgoing prime minister, quit on October 29, said on Tuesday he backed Khatib for the post but added that “some details” still had to be hashed out. He said his party would only name technocrats as ministers.

Algeria’s twoformer PMs facecorruption trialAP ALGIERS

The trial of two former Algerian prime ministers on corruption charges has begun.

Ahmed Ouyahia, who was forced out as prime minister in March as protests against President Abdelaziz Bouteflika escalated, and his predecessor Abdelmalek Sellal, are facing questions yesterday at the Sidi M’Hamed court in Algiers

Both are charged with “cor-ruption and the misappropri-ation of public funds” and both deny any wrongdoing.

Two former Industry min-isters and several busi-nessmen are also facing charges. The December 12 pres-idential election is looming over the trial. Algerians are voting for a new president after Boute-flika, who was in office for two decades, was forced out in April.

Rouhani calls for release of innocent, unarmed protestersREUTERS/DUBAI

Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani called yesterday for the release of any unarmed and innocent people who were detained during protests against gasoline price hikes, after two weeks of violent clashes.

The unrest, which began on November 15 after the gov-ernment abruptly raised fuel prices by as much as 300%, spread to more than 100 cities and towns and turned political as young and working-class pro-testers demanded clerical leaders step down.

“Religious and Islamic

clemency should be shown and those innocent people who pro-tested against petrol price hikes and were not armed... should be released,” Rouhani said in a tel-evised speech.

Iran’s clerical rulers have blamed “thugs” linked to its opponents in exile and the coun-try’s main foreign foes.

“The aim of our enemies was to endanger the existence of the Islamic republic by igniting riots in Iran... But America and the Zionist regime (Israel) lack political wisdom about Iran and Iranians,” said chief commander of Iran’s elite Revolutionary Guards Hossein Salami in a

televised speech. Tehran has given no official death toll, but Amnesty International said on Monday it had documented the deaths of at least 208 protesters, making the disturbances the bloodiest since the 1979 revolution.

A lawmaker said last week that about 7,000 protesters had been arrested. The judiciary has rejected the figures.

The Intelligence Ministry said last week that at least eight people linked to the US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) had been arrested during the unrest, which was snuffed out last week by a security crackdown.

Britain’s Prince William meets with Omani fishermen during a visit to Muscat, Oman, yesterday.

Iraq death toll rises to 460: Rights groupANATOLIA/BAGHDAD

The death toll from anti-government protests in Iraq rose to 460 and at least 17,000 others injured during the last two months, according to Iraq’s Inde-pendent High Commission for Human Rights.

“At least 460 protesters were killed in October and November in various central and southern cities, including Baghdad,” Ali al-Bayati, a representative of the commission, said in a statement.

He stressed that the number of injured protesters exceeded 17,400 and more than 3,000 are

permanently disabled as a result of amputation or loss of vision or other injuries.

He commented on the res-ignation of the former Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi and possibility of an end to the pro-tests, saying that Iraq is in “an ongoing political and security crisis.” “The government’s res-ignation will not suffice to absorb the anger of the pro-testers,” Al Bayati said. On December 1, the Iraqi parliament accepted the resignation of Abdul-Mahdi amid protests against corruption and poor living conditions in the country.

Turkey jails former oppn MP for terror propagandaANATOLIA/ANKARA

A former lawmaker of opposition Peoples’ Democratic Party (HDP) was sentenced yesterday to more than one year in prison for spreading terrorism-related propaganda, according to

judicial sources. Mizgin Irgat, a former HDP

lawmaker from eastern Bitlis province, was accused of having attended a commemorative cer-emony for the terrorists neu-tralised by the Turkish security forces in a counter-terrorism

operation on January 4, 2016. Around a dozen HDP law-

makers are currently in prison pending trial for terrorism-related offenses after their parliamentary immunity was lifted in May 2016. Turkey’s government accuses the HDP of having links to the PKK.

In its more than 30-year terror campaign against Turkey, the PKK —listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU —has been responsible for the deaths of some 40,000 people, including women, children and infants.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani speaking at the National Insurance and Development Conference in Tehran, yesterday.

“If they are prepared to put aside the sanctions, we are ready to talk and negotiate, even at the level of heads of the 5+1 countries,” Rouhani said.

12 THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019ASIA

India’s Cabinet clearscontentious CitizenshipAmendment BillAFP/REUTERS NEW DELHI

India’s cabinet signed off yesterday on legislation that stands to give citizenship to certain religious minorities but not Muslims, in what critics say is a fresh attempt to sideline the 200-million-strong Islamic community.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), re-elected in a landslide in May, has long been accused of following a “Hindutva” agenda favouring officially secular India’s majority Hindus.

The amendments to the six-decade-old Indian Citizenship Act, approved by Modi’s cabinet yesterday, could go before the lower house of parliament as soon as this week.

The bill would grant nation-ality to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Parsis fleeing persecution in Muslim-majority Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan even without any documentation.

Modi’s party has said that Muslims are not included because they are able to take refuge in Islamic nations across the globe.

Senior Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters yes-terday that the legislation would follow the principles of “natural justice” and is “not against anyone”.

Modi government tried to get similar legislation passed in its first term but failed to garner enough support in the upper house, and it is unclear whether it would succeed there this time.

Apart from stoking unease among Muslims, the proposed changes have also provoked anger in north-east India that for decades has seen major influxes of people of different religions — including Hindus.

Modi’s right-hand-man, Home Minister Amit Shah, held talks with representatives from the region on Tuesday over their concerns.

Shah has been vocal in pushing through the bill that he says is aimed at “saving the lives” of persecuted religious commu-nities in neighbouring Muslim-majority countries.

He has also proposed a “national register of citizens” that he said this week would see “each and every infiltrator iden-tified and expelled” from India by 2024.

Shashi Tharoor from the main opposition Congress party told reporters on Wednesday that the bill “violated” the basic idea of a secular India as pushed by Mahatma Gandhi.

“Those who believe that religion should determine nationhood... that was the idea

of Pakistan,” Tharoor said, calling the legislation “funda-mentally unconstitutional”.

“It is simple. Citizenship CANNOT be determined by or linked to religion,” tweeted Sitaram Yechury, a senior poli-tician from Communist Party of India.

Under Modi, the Islamic-sounding names of several cities have been changed, while some school textbooks have been altered to downplay Muslims’ contributions to India.

There has been a string of lynchings of Muslims over cows, sacred for many Hindus, and other hate crimes including Muslims forced to perform Hindu chants.

Meanwhile, the cabinet also approved a data protection bill for tabling in parliament, taking the country a step closer to framing a privacy law.

“The protection of personal data is a very important subject globally,” Environment Minister Prakash Javadekar told a news conference after the cabinet meeting.

“How that will be done (here) and how work will progress keeping India’s interest and peo-ple’s interest in mind, this is what this bill is about.”

The Personal Data Pro-tection bill, drafted by a panel headed by a former Supreme Court judge and submitted to the government last year, is key for how firms including global tech giants Amazon, Facebook, Alphabet’s Google and others process, store and transfer Indian consumers’ data.

A police officer removes burning effigies that were set on fire by activists from the All Assam Students Union during a protest against the Citizenship Amendment Bill in Guwahati, yesterday.

NESO flays decision on citizenship billIANS SHILLONG

The North East Student’s Organ-isation (NESO), here yesterday, hit out at the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government over the cabinet decision on the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill, 2019, saying the government had imposed the Bill on the indigenous commu-nities.

“We resent the cabinet decision. They are forcefully imposing the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill on the indig-enous communities of the north-eastern states,” NESO supremo Samuel Jyrwa said.

He said the central gov-ernment was aware that the people of the region were opposed to the Citizenship

(Amendment) Bill and they still went ahead to hurt our sentiments.

“We, at the NESO, will be meeting in a day or two to discuss the cabinet decision and will decide our next course of action to prevent the Bill from being passed in Parliament,” Jyrwa said.

The NESO is an apex body of the indigenous student groups across the seven northeastern states and has been leading protest against the amendment to the Citizenship Act, 1955.

It had also cautioned the central government that “such an undesirable step by Par-liament will again agitate the entire Northeast.”

The NDA government had introduced the Bill in its previous tenure, but could not push it through due to protests by

opposition parties and it lapsed following the dissolution of the last Lok Sabha.

The Bill has been opposed by the Congress, the Trinamool Con-gress, the DMK, the Samajwadi Party, the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Left. Even regional parties, like the Biju Janata dal have expressed reservations.

Yesterday, Union Cabinet gave its nod to the Citizenship (Amendment) Bill.

The cabinet approval came after Union Home Minister Amit Shah held consultative meetings with Chief Ministers of the North-eastern states, leaders of different political parties and civil society groups and other stakeholders in New Delhi.

The NESO, which attended the meeting, had voiced its oppo-sition to the CAB.

ITBP soldier shoots five colleagues, self to deathAP PATNA

A paramilitary soldier fatally shot five of his colleagues and later killed himself yesterday in a firing incident in a camp in central India.

State administrator Dinesh Kumar Nag said the incident occurred in Narayanpur district in Chhattisgarh state.

What provoked the firing by the soldier is being investigated, said Vivek Kumar Pandey, a spokesman for the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

He said the soldiers were walking in a group when the shooting started. Those who tried to seize the weapon were gunned down by the soldier, he said.

Pandey said five soldiers were killed on the spot and one of the three injured soldiers later died in a hospital.

Four soldiers die in Kashmir avalanchesANATOLIA SRINAGAR

Four soldiers were killed — three in an avalanche and another in a blizzard — in two northern Kashmir areas, an army official said.

Three soldiers were buried in their post after being hit by an avalanche in the Tangdhar area of Kupwara district, which is close to the Line of Control, army spokesperson Colonel Rajesh Kalia said in a statement.

Another soldier died when an army patrol was caught in a blizzard in Gurez area in Band-ipora district, the statement reads.

Bodies of all the deceased have been recovered by rescue teams, the spokesperson said.

These areas remain snow-bound during winter months and several such casualties occurred in the past.

SC grants bail to Chidambaram in corruption caseAFP NEW DELHI

Former finance minister Palaniappan Chidambaram was granted bail yesterday, 106 days after his dramatic arrest on corruption charges that he says are part of a government witch-hunt against political opponents.

Chidambaram, 73, a political veteran from the main

opposition Congress party, was told to submit a bond of Rs200,000 ($2,800), not make any public statements on the issue and to surrender his passport.

Congress had earlier described Chidambaram’s arrest in August by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), India’s equivalent to the FBI, as a “shameless witch-hunt” by Prime Minister Narendra

Modi’s government.Chidambaram, a wealthy

lawyer from a land-owning family from Tamil Nadu state, served twice as finance min-ister and once as home min-ister during Manmohan Singh’s 2004-14 tenure as premier.

He is accused of receiving bribes, money-laundering and approving illegal investments.

His son Karti Chidambaram

and several government officials are also being investigated over their role in the scandals when Singh’s Congress-led alliance was in power.

His arrest saw CBI officers scale the boundary wall of his upscale residence in central New Delhi before escorting him to their headquarters for questioning.

The Congress party wel-comed the court decision,

tweeting, “Truth Finally Prevails”.

Rahul Gandhi, former Con-gress party president and the scion of Nehru-Gandhi political d y n a s t y , d e s c r i b e d Chidambaram’s jailing as “vengeful and vindictive.” “I am glad that SC (the Supreme Court) has granted him bail. I am con-fident that he will be able to prove his innocence in a fair trial.”

Royals out on beach cleaning driveSweden’s King Carl XVI Gustaf (second right) and Queen Silvia (right) participate in a beach clean-up project a the Versova Beach in Mumbai, yesterday.

Parliament passes bill to legalise 1,731 colonies in DelhiIANS NEW DELHI

Seeking to legalise 1,731 unau-thorised colonies and grant property rights to nearly four million residents of Delhi, the Rajya Sabha yesterday passed the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Recognition of Property Rights of Residents in Unauthorised Colonies) Bill 2019 by voice vote.

The bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha and would now be sent to the Pres-ident for his assent.

Members from across the political divide including the Congress, BSP, RJD and AAP supported the bill but many Opposition leaders questioned the timing of the bill.

Replying to members on the bill, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Singh Puri said that the issue of unorganised colonies was on the agenda of the Narendra Modi government ever since it came to power in May, 2014.

He termed the opposition members’ remarks as uncalled for.

The bill does not include nearly 66 unauthorised colonies such as Sainik Farms and

Mahendru Enclave in the list for regularisation as they have been classified as “affluent”.

Properties in these unau-thorised colonies are generally held through general power of attorney (GPA), will, agreement to sale, payment and possession documents. The properties in these colonies are not being reg-istered by registration author-ities and thereby the residents do not have any title documents in respect of such properties.

This bill is aimed at recog-nising the power of attorney, will, agreement to sell, purchase and possession documents as a special one-time relaxation.

Following the regularisation of the colonies, property holders in these colonies would be able to get loans from banks. They would also be entitled for public facilities like schools, parks, roads, electricity and water.

While members of the treasury benches claimed that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the real champion of the people’s cause and has been consistently delivering on promises, the Opposition ques-tioned the timing of the bill.

ED takes possession of Chautala’s assetsIANS /NEW DELHI

A team of Enforcement Direc-torate (ED) officers yesterday arrived in Haryana’s Sirsa and Panchkula to take physical possession of the properties of former Haryana chief minister O P Chautala in connection with a disproportionate assets case.

A senior ED official, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said: “Our team had gone to Sirsa and Panchkula to take physical possession of the properties owned by Chautala and we also pasted the notice that we are taking over the possession of the said property.” He said that the ED has earlier attached

properties to the tune of Rs6 crore of the former chief minister.

According to the ED officials, the central probe agency had taken the CRPF troopers along with it to take possession of the farmhouse located in Teja Khera area of Sirsa.

Chautala is currently serving a 10 year jail term in connection with the teachers recruitment scam case.

The bill would grant nationality to Hindus, Buddhists, Sikhs, Christians, Jains and Parsis fleeing persecution in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan even without any documentation.

13THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 ASIA

Japanese doctor who helped Afghans for decades dies in attackAFP KABUL

A Japanese doctor whose long career was dedicated to helping some of Afghanistan’s poorest people was among six people killed yesterday in an attack in the east of the country, officials said.

The armed assault in Jala-labad city, the capital of Nan-garhar province, was the second deadly incident involving aid workers in recent days and prompted appalled reaction in A f g h a n i s t a n a n d internationally.

Tetsu Nakamura, 73, was the head of Peace Japan Medical Services — known as Peshawar Kai in Japanese — and had been working in the region since the 1980s, when he began treating patients with leprosy in Peshawar in neighbouring Pakistan.

A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani called Nakamura “one of the closest friends of Afghanistan”.

He “dedicated his life to helping and cooperating with our people”, spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said.

Attaullah Khogyani, a spokesman for Nangarhar’s gov-ernor, said Nakamura, who had been shot in the chest, was in the process of being transferred to a hospital in Bagram near Kabul when he died.

Five Afghans were also killed: three of Nakamura’s security guards, a driver and another colleague, Khogyani said.

The attack comes as human-itarian groups are on high alert just days after an aid worker for the UN was killed in a bombing in Kabul.

On November 24, Anil Raj, an American who worked for the UN Development Programme in Afghanistan, died when his vehicle was targeted.

In a statement condemning Wednesday’s incident, the UN Assistance Mission in

Afghanis tan expressed “revulsion” at Nakamura’s killing.

It was “a senseless act of vio-lence against a man who dedi-cated much of his life to helping” Afghanistan’s most vulnerable, UNAMA said.

Mitsuji Fukumoto, an official with Nakamura’s organisation, told reporters in Tokyo the motive for the attack was unclear.

“We have no idea what was the reason behind the attack, whether it was a simple robbery

or whether it was conflict of interest,” Fukumoto said.

Nakamura was famous in Japan for his aid work, which dates back decades.

Peshawar-kai was founded by associates of Nakamura, who had lived and worked in Afghan-istan and Pakistan since 1984.

In 2003 Nakamura, a native

of the southwestern Japanese city of Fukuoka, won the Philip-pines’ Ramon Magsaysay Award for peace and international understanding — often called Asia’s Nobel Prize.

Fond of sporting Pashtun dress, Nakamura was an out-spoken opponent of the 2001 US-led war that ousted the Taliban regime, whom he d e f e n d e d a s a b l e administrators.

“I am not fooled by the jus-tification that violence is nec-essary for the sake of democracy and modernisation,” he wrote in an old posting on his website.

“True happiness for mankind should be realised not through violence or money, but in a humane way.” Nakamura also described a variety of his organ-isation’s projects to help Afghans, including the construction of wells and irrigation canals, as well as health services.

The Taliban denied respon-sibility for the attack, saying they have “good relations” with organ-isations that “contributed to the reconstruction of Afghanistan”. Aid agencies and non-govern-mental groups are sometimes tar-geted in Afghanistan’s war.

Men carry a portrait of Japanese doctor Tetsu Nakamura, in Jalalabad, Afghanistan, yesterday.

A file photo of Tetsu Nakamura taken on February 16, 2009

After stabilising economy, PM Imran to now focus on improving cricketINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan will now focus on improving sports, especially cricket, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Senator Faisal Javed Khan said yesterday.

In a conversation with local media, Javed said the premier could not concentrate on cricket earlier as he was focused on sta-bilising the economy and strength-ening the institutions, which were in a shambles.

The PTI senator said his party’s government will try to fix cricket through a long-term policy.

He added that PTI leaders have held discussions on the recent deci-sions by the Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) regarding the national team.

Javed, while commenting on the appointment of Azhar Ali as the Test captain, said, “Appointing Azhar Ali as Test captain was not the right decision.”

He added that Pakistan always lost in Australia, but such a

humiliating loss by the team was not expected.

Commenting on PCB’s new domestic structure, the senator said that the new domestic structure will give results.

Pakistan will next play Sri Lanka in two Tests. The first Test will start on December 11 in Rawalpindi near the capital Islamabad, followed by the second in Karachi from December 19.

Prime Minister Imran Khan

Pakistan central bank says tough steps earned Moody’s outlook lift INTERNEWS KARACHI

Moody’s upgradation of Paki-stan’s outlook from negative to stable is the recognition of tough decisions taken by the policymakers including the steep devaluation of exchange rate, said Governor of the State Bank of Pakistan (SBP) Reza Baqir.

Moody’s international credit rating agency raised the outlook on Pakistan’s credit rating from negative to stable on Monday.

The ratings firm said improvements in the balance of payments is a primary driver of the rating action, but added that foreign exchange buffers will still take time to rebuild.

“Moody’s expects Paki-stan’s current account deficit to continue narrowing in the current and next fiscal year (ending June of each year), averaging around 2.2 percent of GDP, from more than 6pc in FY18 (the year ending June 2018) and around 5pc in FY19,”

the rating agency said in its accompanying note.

Commenting on the increase in the stock market, he said the rally is a reflection of the improving market sen-timent and a growing reflection that the country’s finances are on a sustainable footing.

“These steps have made our exports competitive, curbed expensive imports and given an incentive to domestic industries to compete with imports,” said the governor adding that it resulted in a sus-tained improvement in the current account which has been the key driver of the increase in SBP’s reserves net of liabilities.

The current account deficit recorded its first surplus in four years in the month of October. Foreign exchange reserves also stopped declining in recent months, registering their first increase in nearly three years.

The developments have given heart to the govern-ment’s economic team that the

critical deficits that were responsible for the economy’s slide have finally been arrested and reversed.

Baqir said that while such market developments are welcome, it is critical to ensure that the emerging financial improvements are translated into real gains for the middle and lower income classes.

“These sections of the society have borne the bulk of the burden of adjustments from higher income taxes deducted at source for salaried workers, higher indirect taxes, and higher inflation.” The gov-ernor said the rising inflation has partly been a result of restoring exchange rate com-petitiveness, increase admin-istered prices to reduce fiscal deficits in the public sector, and unforeseen food supply disruptions.

The structural constraints on private investment, as reflected in ease-of-doing business indicators, have to be addressed further to stimulate private job creation, he added.

Stuntmen’s wellStuntmen perform on ‘the well of death’ during a festival at Bariyarpur in Nepal, yesterday.

Musharraf says he is being ‘victimised’INTERNEWS/KARACHI

A day after he was admitted to hospital following deterioration of his health, former military ruler retired General Pervez Musharraf said he was ready to record his statement in the high

treason case against him.He showed mistrust in the

judicial process, saying “I have not been heard and I’m being victimised”.

In a video statement, he said he had fainted and had to be admitted to hospital.

“As far as this [treason] case is concerned, this is absolutely baseless,” said Musharraf.

“I have served my country for 10 years. I have fought for my country. This is the case in which I have not been heard and I have been victimised.”

Justice Gulzar appointed as next CJPINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The Ministry of Law and Justice of Pakistan has issued notifi-cation of appointing Justice Gulzar Ahmed as the Chief Justice of Pakistan after approval from President of Pakistan, Arif Alvi.

Justice Gulzar Ahmed will replace Justice Asif Saeed Khosa who will retire on December 20. The new chief justice will assume charge on December 21.

Justice Gulzar will be the 27th chief justice of Pakistan and his tenure will end on Feb-ruary 1, 2022. The new chief justice was born in Karachi in 1957 and pursued his career in Law. After becoming a lawyer, Justice Gulzar started practicing in the Sindh High Court in 1986.

He was sworn in as the Sindh High Court judge in 1992. He has been serving as the apex court judge since November 16, 2011.

AP ISLAMABAD

Dozens of angry protesters swarmed the building of an independent Pakistani news-paper in the capital, Islamabad, blocking its entrance for several hours, threatening the staff and demanding its editor be hanged, the paper reported yesterday.

A simultaneous protest also took place on Tuesday evening in Karachi, where protesters gathered at the Press Club, demanding that Dawn’s editor and publisher be hanged.

The demonstrators, who later dispersed, were angered that the English-language paper had reported that the London Bridge attacker was of “Paki-stani origin”. The protest was condemned by Pakistani rights groups, journalist organisations, politicians and members of civil society advocating for the rights of journalists.

Pakistani journalists said they would hold nationwide rallies today to condemn the besieging of Dawn’s offices. The Human Rights Commission of Pakistan backed the call, expressing its support for media freedoms.

Protesters besiege Dawn paper’s offices

Sri Lanka rejects Swiss request to fly staffer outAP COLOMBO

Sri Lanka’s foreign minister said yesterday that the government has rejected a request from the Swiss Embassy to allow one of its local employees to be flown out for medical treatment after a group allegedly abducted and threatened her to disclose embassy information.

Foreign Minister Dinesh Gunawardena said the woman has not made a statement to police about the incident despite repeated requests. Switzerland has said the woman is not able to give a statement because of ill health.

“A request has come to fly her and her family out of the country to Switzerland for medical treatment,” Guna-wardena said, adding that Swiss officials tried to bring an ambu-lance aircraft for the purpose.

On Tuesday, the government obtained a court order blocking the embassy employee from leaving the country without making a police statement.

Gunawardena said despite not receiving a formal complaint from either the woman or the Swiss ambassador about the November 25 incident, police

carried out an investigation based on limited information provided by the ambassador and found there was “very little truth” to the allegation.

“We feel this is all another step of misinformation, bringing falsehood, throwing mud at the political leadership of our country,” Gunawardena said.

Gunawardena yesterday summoned all foreign envoys based in Colombo to explain the government’s position.

The Sri Lankan government said earlier that evidence col-lected on the woman’s move-ments and technical information did not support the sequence of events given by the embassy.

The Swiss foreign ministry said on Monday that State Sec-retary Pascale Baeriswyl sum-moned Sri Lankan Ambassador Karunasena Hettiarachchi and asked him to explain the evidence.

She also said Switzerland had no interest in delaying investigations by Sri Lankan authorities, but that the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs “takes its responsibilities to its staff very seriously.” A Sri Lankan police investigator, Nis-hantha Silva, fled to Switzerland on November 16.

Three of Tetsu Nakamura’s security guards, a driver and another colleague — all Afghans — also died with him in the gun attack in Jalalabad.

14 THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019ASIA

China warns of a ‘price’ after US House passes Uighur billAFP BEIJING

China warned yesterday that a “price must be paid” after the US House of Representatives over-whelmingly passed legislation seeking sanctions against senior Chinese officials over the crackdown on mainly Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang.

The legislation adds to ten-sions between the two super-powers just as they are locked in negotiations to finalise a “phase one” deal to resolve their protracted trade war.

US President Donald Trump had already angered Beijing after he signed legislation supporting pro-democracy protesters in Hong Kong, prompting China earlier this week to impose sanc-tions on US-based NGOs and suspend future visits by US war-ships to the semi-autonomous territory.

Hours after the Uighur Act of 2019 passed the House late Tuesday, the Chinese foreign ministry said the bill should not become law and issued an ominous warning: “For all wrong actions and words... the proper price must be paid.” China’s vice minister of foreign affairs also later summoned William Klein, acting US charge d’affaires in China, to lodge a protest.

In response to Klein’s

meeting with vice-minister Qin Gang, a US embassy spokes-person said the US would con-tinue to call on Beijing to “end its draconian policies that for more than two years have ter-rorised its own citizens in Xin-jiang.” The legislation condemns Beijing’s “gross human rights violations” linked to the crackdown in the northwestern region of Xinjiang, where upwards of one million Uighurs and other mostly Muslim minor-ities are believed to be held in re-education camps.

The measure, which passed 407 to 1, is a stronger version of the bill that cleared the Senate in September. The texts must be reconciled into one bill for Trump’s signature.

The latest House measure condemns the arbitrary mass detention of Uighurs and calls for closure of the re-education camps where, according to rights groups and US lawmakers, they have been held and abused.

The bill notably urges Trump to slap sanctions on Chinese offi-cials behind the Uighur policy, including Chen Quanguo, the Communist Party chief for Xinjiang.

“Today the human dignity and human rights of the Uighur community are under threat from Beijing’s barbarous actions, which are an outrage to the col-lective conscience of the world,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told her colleagues shortly before the vote.

Congress “is taking a critical step to counter Beijing’s horrific human rights abuses against Uighurs,” she said.

Pelosi lashed out at Chinese authorities for orchestrating a crackdown that includes per-vasive mass state surveillance, solitary confinement, beatings, forced sterilisation “and other forms of torture”.

When asked if the bill could impact trade talks, Foreign Min-istry Spokesperson Hua Chunying did not directly answer the question.

But she said there was “no way this can have no effect on China-US relations as well as the two countries’ cooperation in important areas”. In an earlier statement, Hua said the bill “wantonly smears China’s efforts to eliminate extremism and combat terrorism” in Xinjiang.

Kim rides white horse again North Korean leader Kim Jong Un (right) riding a horse as he visits battle sites at Mount Paektu, Ryanggang, North Korea. Mount Paektu and white horses are symbols associated with the Kim family’s dynastic rule. Kim has made previous visits there before making major decisions.

N Korea’s army chief disappointed by Trump comments, warns against force: KCNAREUTERS SEOUL

North Korea’s army chief said he was disappointed by US Pres-ident Donald Trump’s suggestion of using military force against Pyongyang, and warned that any strike would meet a quick response, state media reported yesterday.

Pak Jong Chon, chief of the General Staff of the Korean Peo-ple’s Army, said North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un was also “displeased” by Donald Trump’s comments at a NATO summit in Britain, according to official Korean Central New Agency.

Trump said on Tuesday he still had confidence in the North Korean leader but noted that

Kim “likes sending rockets up, doesn’t he?”. Trump added that Washington could use force. “If we have to, we’ll do it.”

Pak said that it would be a “horrible thing” for the United States if Washington launched an attack, and that North Korea would take “prompt corre-sponding actions at any level,” KCNA said.

Chinese foreign ministerin South Korea for talksAP SEOUL, SOUTH KOREA

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi arrived in South Korea yesterday for his first visit in four years amid efforts to patch up relations damaged by Seoul’s decision to host a US anti-missile system that Beijing perceives as a security threat.

Meeting South Korean Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha in Seoul, Wang described the countries as “close neigh-bours” that should strengthen cooperation in the face of fast-moving regional politics.

In what appeared to be a jab at the Trump administration, which has been locked in a tense trade dispute with China, Wang asserted that “unilateralism” is currently the biggest threat to world peace and stability and called for Seoul and Beijing to jointly uphold “multilateralism” and free trade.

Kang said Wang’s visit pro-vides an opportunity to hold dis-cussions on improving “weak” areas in bilateral relations and exchange views on denuclear-ising the Korean Peninsula and stabilising peace.

Upon his arrival at Incheon International Airport, Wang told reporters it was unclear whether Washington and Beijing could strike a trade deal by the end of the year and said negotiations should be based on “mutual respect and equality.”

Wang also repeated Beijing’s criticism over new legislation signed by Trump last week that enables US authorities to impose sanctions on Chinese and Hong Kong officials responsible for human rights abuses in Hong Kong. Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters have repeatedly clashed with police in past months.

“It is 100% an interference in China’s domestic affairs,” Wang said. “We totally oppose to this. This is also not completely in the interests of our people in Hong Kong.” Wang is scheduled to meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in today.

His visit comes after years of tensions over the US Terminal High Altitude Area Defense, or THAAD, system placed in southern South Korea and amid concerns that a US-led diplo-matic push to resolve a nuclear standoff with North Korea is

beginning to fall apart.Wang and South Korean offi-

cials are likely to discuss details of a planned trilateral summit between Seoul, Beijing and Tokyo in China later this month. There could also be discussions about diplomacy with North Korea and a possible visit to South Korea by Chinese Pres-ident Xi Jinping next year.

Wang last visited South Korea in 2015, a year before rela-tions soured over Seoul’s decision to deploy THAAD. South Korea has said China retaliated by limiting Chinese tour group visits to South Korea, whose economy is increasingly dependent on Chinese tourism, and demand for its industrial products.

South Korea’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha (right) shakes hands with China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi during their meeting at the foreign ministry in Seoul, yesterday.

17 dead as typhoon passes south of ManilaBLOOMBERG MANILA

The death toll from Typhoon Kammuri rose to 17 people after destroying houses and displacing hundreds of thousands on its path across the Philippines.

As it neared its exit, tropical cyclone wind signals have been lifted as of Wednesday for 10 out of about a hundred areas placed on alert this week, according to the nation’s weather bureau.

Five people died in Bicol region on the southern tip of main Luzon island, 11 others in other parts of Luzon and one in Visayas, according to reports from police and local disaster management agencies.

At least 800 million pesos ($15.7m) of damage to agri-culture was recorded in Bicol and Southwestern Tagalog regions alone, local disaster management officials reported.

Parts of 12 roads and three

bridges remain closed, said the national disaster management council’s latest bulletin. About half a million people were evacuated.

Kammuri is the 20th storm

to hit the Philippines in 2019 where about 20 cyclones pass through each year. In 2013, Super Typhoon Haiyan killed more than 6,300 people in the Southeast Asian nation.

A resident walks past debris from destroyed houses after Typhoon Kammuri hit the city of Sorsogon, south of Manila, on Tuesday.

AFP WELLINGTON

Authorities in Samoa asked unvaccinated families to display a red flag outside their homes yesterday to help a mass immu-nisation drive aimed at halting a measles epidemic that has killed dozens of children.

The tiny Pacific nation of 200,000 will grind to a halt today and tomorrow as non-essential government services close so public servants can help the vaccination campaign. Over the two-day period, teams will go door-to-door adminis-tering vaccines in a desperate bid to raise the low immunity levels in Samoa that have fuelled the epidemic.

Immunisation is com-pulsory under a state of emer-gency imposed last month and officials asked unvaccinated famil ies to ident i fy themselves.

“The public is hereby advised to tie a red cloth or red flag in front of their houses and near the road to indicate that family members have not been vaccinated,” a public advisory said. “The red mark makes it easier for the teams to identify households for vaccinations.” Official data released Wednesday put the death toll from the outbreak at 60, up five on the previous day.

Most of the dead are children, with 52 aged four or under. Infection rates continued to climb, with 171 new cases in 24 hours, bringing the national total to 4,052. Vaccination efforts in recent weeks have concentrated on children but the government has now broadened its programme to include the entire population.

The immunisation rate was about 30 percent before the outbreak and officials say it has now reached about 55 percent.

But Prime Minister Tuilaepa Sailele Malielegaoi vowed to get the figure above 90 percent.

“Our children and people will never become immune to any future epidemic unless we have almost 100 percent vac-cination coverage,” he said.

Unvaccinated to show red flags as Samoa battles measles

Australia repeals law giving refugees onshore medical careAFP SYDNEY

Australia’s conservative government yesterday repealed a contentious law that allowed ill asylum-seekers languishing in Papua New Guinea and on Nauru to travel to the country for medical treatment.

The so-called “Medevac” law was passed in February, permitting refugee transfers from the Pacific nations if they were requested by two or more doctors.

About 180 have since been brought to Australia for medical support under the law, which was pushed through parliament by opposition and independent lawmakers.

Canberra has sent anyone attempting to arrive in Australia by boat to Papua New Guinea’s Manus island and Nauru, and have argued the “Medevac” law

offered a back door entry to the country.

It claimed the law had “exposed Australians to unac-ceptable risk” and weakened national security.

The law was repealed yes-terday in a tight vote after the government negotiated the support of outspoken inde-pendent Senator Jacqui Lambie, who refused to detail the con-ditions of giving her support.

“I can’t let the boats start back up and I can’t let refugees die, whether it’s sinking into the ocean or waiting for a doctor, and I am voting to make sure that neither of these things happen,” Lambie told the Senate.

A dozen people have already died in the Pacific processing camps, and a number have attempted suicide, including children. More than 460 people remain in limbo in Papua New Guinea and Nauru.

Body of woman found after two weeks lost in Australia AFP SYDNEY

A body has been found in the search for a woman lost for more than two weeks in Australia’s arid outback, police said yesterday after two of her friends were rescued.

The three friends had set out to explore the country’s vast interior near Alice Springs on November 19 when their car became bogged down in a river bed.

After three days staying put and waiting for a rescue, the group feared supplies were dwindling and two of them decided to walk along a property fence in the hope of finding help.

Northern Territory police said Wednesday they had located a body “which is believed to be that of Claire Hockridge during search efforts.”

Police were conducting “formal identification” as they prepared a report for the coroner.

China’s vice-minister of foreign affairs yesterday summoned William Klein, acting US charge d’affaires in China, to lodge a protest.

15THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 EUROPE

Nato members insist on unity despite summit splitsAFP WATFORD, UNITED KINGDOM

Nato leaders vowed to stick together against threats from Russia and terrorism and recog-nised the challenge of a rising China yesterday, despite another summit overshadowed by US President Donald Trump’s angry outbursts.

The 29 leaders meeting outside London to mark the 70th anniversary of the Atlantic alliance agreed a joint statement despite divides over spending and strategy and sharp exchanges between several of the heads of state.

But the bad blood continued to the end of he two-day get together, with Trump branding Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau “two-faced” after a group of allied leaders were caught on video at a Buckingham Palace reception mocking the US leaders’ rambling press appearances.

The run-up to the summit had been marked by Macron branding the alliance “brain dead” and demanding a new strategy, reopening a dialogue with Russia and refocusing on the fight against Islamist terrorism.

But despite the rancour, the 29 managed to agree a “London Declaration” and Turkey

withdrew its objections after Trump held an unscheduled side meeting with Erdogan.

“In challenging times, we are stronger as an alliance, and our people safer,” the declaration said.

“Our bond and mutual com-mitment have guaranteed our freedoms, our values, and our security for 70 years.” The statement was the first from Nato to acknowledge the growing strategic challenge posed by China, and also stressed the need for a stronger coordinated response against terrorism.

It held out the possibility of “a constructive relationship with Russia when Russia’s actions make that possible” but stressed the threat posed by Moscow’s deployment of intermediate range nuclear missiles.

And, in a nod to French and German concerns about Nato’s strategic direction, the members asked Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg to consult experts to strengthen the alliance’s

“political dimension.” On Tuesday the leaders met in various groups in London before attending a reception with Queen Elizabeth II in Buckingham Palace, but Macron refused to withdraw his charge that Nato strategy is “brain dead” and Trump continued to insist some capitals were “delinquent” in paying their way. The row set up

a tense last day of what Nato had hoped would be a 70th anni-versary show of unity for the “most successful military alliance in history”, and a demonstration that the West can stand up to challenges from Russia and China.

In recent weeks Macron tried to shake up the agenda by demanding a review of alliance

strategy, but Trump — who arrived boasting that he had forced members to boost defence spending — hit back hard.

“I think that’s very insulting,” Trump said of Macron’s assertion last month that Nato is experi-encing “brain death”.

“Nobody needs Nato more than France,” he warned.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (left), Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg (right), US President Donald Trump (second right), and British Foreign Minister Dominic Raab attend Nato Leaders’ Summit at the Grove Hotel in London, yesterday.

Trump cancelsplanned newsconferenceAFP WATFORD, UNITED KINGDOM

US President Donald Trump cancelled yesterday a planned final scheduled news conference after the Nato summit, following two days of sharp disputes with allies.

“When today’s meetings are over, I will be heading back to Washington,” Trump tweeted.

“We won’t be doing a press conference at the close of Nato because we did so many over the past two days. Safe travels to all!” During his two days at the Nato summit near London, Trump has repeatedly engaged in lengthy question and answer sessions with reporters — taking up so much time that his fellow leaders were caught on video mocking him.

Hungary to block Kiev’s Nato membership over language lawREUTERS BUDAPEST

Hungary’s foreign minister yesterday said Budapest would block Ukraine’s membership in Nato until Kiev restored the rights that ethnic Hungarians had before a language law curbed minorities’ access to education in their mother tongues.

Hungary has clashed with Ukraine over what it says are curbs on the rights of roughly 150,000 ethnic Hungarians to

use their native tongue, espe-cially in education, after Ukraine passed a law in 2017 restricting the use of minority languages.

“We ask for no extra rights to Hungarians in Transcarpathia, only those rights they had before,” Szijjarto told state news agency MTI at the Nato summit in London.

Hungary has said it was open to consultations with Ukraine over the issue.

Relations between Ukraine and Russia collapsed following Moscow’s annexation of the

Crimea peninsula in 2014 and its support for separatist rebels in eastern Ukraine in a conflict that has killed more than 13,000 people.

Language is a sensitive issue in Ukraine, where some Ukrainian speakers argue that the prominence of Russia is a legacy of the Soviet era that undermines Ukraine’s identity.

There has been a push in recent years to promote the Ukrainian language in state insti-tutions, schools, television and the media.

The Venice Commission, an EU rights body, urged Ukraine in 2017 to ensure a substantial level of teaching in official lan-guages of the European Union, such as Hungarian and Romanian, both of which have significant minorities in Ukraine.

It also said Ukraine should ensure a sufficient proportion of education in minority languages in addition to Ukrainian, allow more time for gradual reform, exempt private schools and enter into a new dialogue with minorities.

British PM on election campaignBritain’s Prime Minister Boris Johnson changes a wheel in a Formula One car during his visit at Red Bull Racing in Milton Keynes, Britain, yesterday.

EU to miss 2020 green goals: AgencyAFP COPENHAGEN

The EU will not meet its envi-ronmental targets for 2020 but could achieve those for 2030 and 2050 if urgent action is taken, the European Envi-ronment Agency (EEA) said yesterday.

“While most of the 2020 targets will not be achieved, especially those on biodiversity, there is still a chance to meet the longer-term goals and objectives for 2030 and 2050,” the EEA said in a report published during the COP25 summit that opened in Madrid on Monday.

It said Europe needed “urgent action” during the next 10 years to address “the alarming

rate of biodiversity loss, increasing impacts of climate change and the overcon-sumption of natural resources.” The report noted that while there had been a 22 percent decrease in greenhouse gas emissions between 1990 and 2017 and a rising share of renewable energies, more progress was needed.

The EEA said that of the 13 biodiversity policy objectives set for 2020, only two would be met: designating marine protected areas and terrestrial protected areas.

However, the protection of species and natural habitats, water ecosystems and wetlands, and soil conditions remain a concern, as do chemical

emissions and air and noise pollution.

“Policies have been more effective in reducing environ-mental pressures than in pro-tecting biodiversity and eco-systems, and human health and well-being,” the report said.

Current trends show a “slowing down of progress in areas such as reducing green-house gas emissions, industrial emissions, waste generation, improving energy efficiency and the share of renewable energy. Looking ahead, the current rate of progress will not be enough to meet 2030 and 2050 climate and energy targets.”

The COP15 on biodiversity will be held next year in China where states will set new targets.

Dozens held in global money laundering swoop: EuropolAFP/THE HAGUE

More than 200 people have been arrested in 31 countries as part of a global crackdown on money laundering, the European Union’s police agency Europol said yesterday.

The swoop during September and November resulted in 228 arrests of people involved in so-called money muling — when people often unwittingly help transfer illegally obtained money between accounts or countries — Europol said in statement.

Law enforcement authorities in European countries as well as Australia, the United States and Ukraine took part in the oper-ation. “More than 650 banks, 17 bank associations and other financial institutions helped to report 7,520 fraudulent money mule transactions, preventing a total loss of ¤12.9m ($14.3m),” the statement said.

Italy authorises arrival of two migrant shipsAFP ROME

Italy authorised the arrival of two charity ships carrying more than 100 migrants rescued in the Mediterranean, under the terms of an agreement with other EU countries, the interior ministry said late Tuesday.

“The European Commission has started the procedure of distributing the 61 migrants on the Alan Kurdi and the 60 aboard the Ocean Viking,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Some European countries, including Germany and France, have offered to accommodate some of these migrants,” it said.

German charity Sea-Eye’s Alan Kurdi — named after a Syrian child whose drowning in the Mediterranean in 2015 brought global attention to the migrant crisis — will dock in the Sicilian port of Messina while the Ocean Viking of SOS Med-iterranean will put in at Poz-zallo, also in Sicily.

Rome gave the green light thanks to a temporary system agreed in September with France, Germany, Italy and Malta. The deal was meant to end the long, drawn-out nego-tiations that have seen vul-nerable asylum-seekers including babies stranded at sea, sometimes for weeks.

Denmark to contribute more planes to Nato after talks with TrumpREUTERS COPENHAGEN

Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said her country would provide four more planes to Nato after holding “positive” talks with US Pres-ident Trump at an alliance summit in London yesterday.

“Regarding Nato, there is a wish for an additional Danish contribution on plane capacity, and we have said ‘yes’ to accommodate that,” Freder-iksen told a news briefing.

The planes would be added to Nato forces in 2020 and 2021, Frederiksen said, without specifying the type of aircraft.

Frederiksen also said she did not sense conflict between the United States and Denmark over Greenland, after she had rebuffed Trump’s idea of buying the island in August.

She said Denmark, Greenland and the Faroe Islands were working to establish greater strategic cooperation in the Arctic region together with the United States, in an area where she said a stronger security focus was needed.

“There is a major power rivalry, which we are starting to see in the Arctic. We also see an increased Russian presence with submarines, and here we also need a closer cooper-ation,” she said.

In an interview with Danish daily Berlingske pub-lished ahead of the summit on Tuesday, Frederiksen sug-gested increasing surveillance of the Arctic sea and airspace with radars and satellites in response to increased Russian activity there.

“Our bond and mutual commitment have guaranteed our freedoms, our values, and our security for 70 years,” the declaration said.

UK art prize winners launch attack on British govtAFP LONDON

The Turner Prize has stoked controversy again after the joint winners attacked the British government and the rise of far-right politics across the world.

Oscar Murillo, Lawrence Abu Hamdan, Helen Cammock and Tai Shani were handed the coveted visual arts award at the Turner Contemporary gallery in the seaside town of Margate on Tuesday night.

The four shortlisted artists sent a plea to the judges to award the prize to them all jointly, explaining they had formed a collective to show sol-idarity at a time of global “political crisis”.

Cammock, whose sub-mission examined women in the civil rights movement in 1960s Northern Ireland, said the four had decided among themselves that they were all winners.

She said after accepting the award they were “all engaged in forms of social or

participatory practice”, which, taken together, were “incom-patible with the competition format”.

“Placing in contention the issues in our work would undermine our individual artistic efforts to show a world entangled,” she told the audience.

“The issues we each deal with are as inseparable as climate chaos is from capi-talism,” she said, adding the prize had “sought to expand what it means to be ‘British’”.

“We find this significant in an era marked by the rise of the right, and the renewal of fascism in an era of the Conservatives’ hostile environment that has paradoxically made each of us and many of our friends and family again increasingly unwelcome in Britain.”

Shani wore a necklace saying “Tories Out” when she appeared on stage to collect the award.

Britain votes in a general election next week.

16 THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019EUROPE

Germany expels Russian diplomats over Chechen murderAFP BERLIN

Germany expelled two Russian diplomats yesterday after pros-ecutors said Moscow could be behind the killing of a former Chechen rebel commander in a Berlin park.

Zelimkhan Khangoshvili, a 40-year-old Georgian national, was shot twice in the head at close range in Kleiner Tiergarten park on August 23, allegedly by a Russian man who was arrested shortly afterwards.

The case has been compared with the poisoning of former Russian agent Sergei Skripal in Britain last year with a Soviet-era nerve agent, widely blamed on Russian intelligence.

The attempted murder

plunged relations between Britain and Russia into a deep freeze, leading to tit-for-tat dip-lomatic expulsions.

After Germany’s move yes-terday, a Russian foreign min-istry representative pledged “retaliatory measures”.

“A politicised approach to investigation issues is unac-ceptable,” said the representative, adding that Germany’s statements were “groundless and hostile”.

The suspect in the Berlin killing was said to be riding a bicycle and was seen by wit-nesses afterwards throwing the bike and a stone-laden bag with a gun into a river.

He has until now been named by police only as Vadim S but evidence revealed by German prosecutors yesterday indicated a possible fake identity.

“The foreign ministry has today declared two employees of the Russian embassy in Berlin as personae non gratae with immediate effect,” the ministry said in a statement.

“Despite repeated high-ranking and persistent demands, Russian authorities have not cooperated sufficiently in the investigation into the murder.”

Federal prosecutors in

charge of intelligence cases said they had taken over the investigation.

“There is sufficient factual evidence to suggest that the killing... was carried out either on behalf of state agencies of the Russian Federation or those of the Autonomous Chechen Republic,” the prosecutor’s office said in a statement.

Chechnya has been led with an iron fist since 2007 by Ramzan Kadyrov, a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Outlining the results of their investigation so far, the statement said Vadim had trav-elled from Moscow to Paris on August 17 and then on to Warsaw on August 20.

He left his hotel in Warsaw on August 22 and his movements

between then and the murder were unclear, it said.

Prosecutors said his visa for travelling to Europe indicated he was a civil engineer working for a company in Saint Petersburg.

But the company was not operational and a fax number for the firm was registered to another company belonging to Russia’s defence ministry.

Prosecutors said the man’s features matched those of a suspect in a 2013 murder in Moscow in which the suspect also approached the victim on a bicycle.

The investigative website Bellingcat on Tuesday said the suspect in both murders was 54-year-old Vadim Krasikov, who grew up in Kazakhstan when it was part of the Soviet

Union before spending time in Siberia.

German media said the sus-picion was that Russian intelli-gence agencies had recruited him after the 2013 killing.

Bellingcat said the victim had fought in the second Chechen war in 1999-2002, then con-tinued supporting Chechen sep-aratists from his native Georgia.

He also lived for a time under an assumed identity as Tornike Kavtarashvili, according to media reports.

Bellingcat said he “recruited and armed” a volunteer unit to fight Russian troops in Georgia in 2008. After surviving two assassination attempts in Georgia, he had spent recent years in Germany and applied for asylum.

Russian foreign ministry representative pledged “retaliatory measures”, adding that Germany’s statements were “groundless and hostile”.

Prosecutor reopensprobe into CzechPM’s fraud caseBLOOMBERG PRAGUE

The top Czech prosecutor renewed fraud charges against Prime Minister Andrej Babis, ordering further investigation and raising the prospect that the billionaire politician may be tried in court.

Pavel Zeman overturned a decision yesterday by his subor-dinate, who in September cleared the premier and five other people of allegations that they had ille-gally obtained EU funds for one of Babis’s businesses.

Zeman said that dropping those charges was “unlawful and premature” in the case of the prime minister and one other person. He’s sending the case back to the same prose-cutor with specific guidance for investigators.

“My decision is not a statement on whether a crime took place or not,” the chief prosecutor told reporters in the Czech city of Brno, adding defendants should be seen as innocent until potentially proven guilty. “At the moment there is not enough evidence to either indict or drop the charges.”

It’s not clear how the probe will evolve from now on as President Milos Zeman, has pledged to use his pardoning powers to stop any further prosecution of his ally Babis. The president is scheduled to comment on the decision of the chief prosecutor.

Grenade attack hits police patrol vehicle in BelfastAFP LONDON

Northern Irish police said one of their patrol vehicles was hit in a grenade attack in Belfast yesterday, in an attempt to kill or injure officers.

The vehicle was struck overnight, the Police Service of Northern Ireland said, as it drove on a routine patrol through Republican heartland in west Belfast.

The Land Rover was hit, officers heard a loud bang but no officers were injured and the vehicle was undamaged, Chief Superintendent Jonathan Roberts said.

“The remnants of a sus-pected grenade have been recovered and taken away for forensic testing,” he said.

“Further searches are being conducted this morning to ensure there are no other devices present which could endanger members of the public. “This was undoubtedly an attempt to kill or injure police officers.”

The incident comes just over a week before Britain’s December 12 general election, called on the issue of Brexit, which is particularly sensitive in Northern Ireland.

Maintaining the free flow of goods and people across the currently invisible border between the province and the Republic of Ireland was one of the main points of con-tention in the divorce negoti-ations between London and Brussels.

The 1998 Good Friday peace accords largely ended three decades of violence in Northern Ireland.

The Police Federation for Northern Ireland, which repre-sents rank and file officers, said the attack showed the “mur-derous intent of dissident Republicans with nothing but misery to offer”.

Middleman gives details to Malta court of plot to assassinate journalistREUTERS VALLETTA

The self-confessed middleman in the murder of a journalist said yesterday a wealthy Maltese businessman was the brains behind the killing but said people tied to the government might also be implicated.

Melvin Theuma received immunity from prosecution last week in return for information that would lead to the conviction of the alleged plot ring leader, multi-millionaire entrepreneur Yorgen Fenech.

Fenech has been charged with complicity over the 2017 murder of anti-corruption jour-nalist Daphne Caruana Galizia by a car bomb. He has denied the accusations and blamed former government chief of staff Keith Schembri and other top officials.

Schembri was arrested last month but later released. He has denied involvement in the murder which has shone a spot-light on allegations of rampant corruption in Malta’s overlapping worlds of politics and business.

Theuma gave a detailed account of how the 38-year-old

Fenech had contacted him in 2017 to organise the hit, pro-viding $165,000 for the contract.

The plot was put on hold before national elections in June 2017 but reactivated the night the ruling Labour party was returned to power, Theuma told a packed courtroom.

“I can assure you, Yorgen Fenech was the only mas-termind. Only he spoke to me,” said Theuma, a taxi driver with links to criminal underworld.

Fenech wanted Caruana Galizia dead because he thought she was going to publish an incriminating story about his uncle, Theuma said.

He said he was called to gov-ernment headquarters after agreeing to arrange the killing and that Schembri himself gave him a tour of the building, which includes Prime Minister Joseph Muscat’s offices. The pair had their photograph taken.

Muscat has denied wrong-doing but acknowledged he could have handled the aftermath better and said he will step down next month.

Theuma was subsequently

told he had been put on the gov-ernment payroll and received a paycheck for three or four months. “If you asked me, I wouldn’t know what my job was at the ministry, as I never went,” he said.

He said he paid three local men to carry out the killing. The trio were later arrested and are awaiting trial, having pleaded not guilty.

Theuma recounted his panic after the alleged triggermen were arrested and news emerged that

one was cooperating with police.He said he was then con-

tacted again by an employee from in the government head-quarters whom he named as Kenneth. In an apparent attempt to buy their silence, Kenneth said the three suspects would be released on bail and given 1 million euros, though the bail and did not arrive.

Theuma said he asked Fenech whether Schembri had sent Kenneth to him, but got no

answer. Scared for his own safety, he started making secret recordings of his conversations with the businessman, which he has given police.

“I started to think they would either lock me up or kill me,” he said. He also acknowledged writing a note where he said both Schembri and Fenech ordered the hit.

In court, he distanced himself from the accusation, making clear he had no evidence.

Melvin Theuma, who allegedly acted as a middleman in a plot to murder journalist Daphne Caruana Galizia, is seen in a police car as he leaves the Courts of Justice in Valletta, yesterday.

Record numbers require humanitarian assistance: UNANATOLIA GENEVA

One in every 45 people on the planet needs food, shelter, healthcare, emergency education, protection or other essential assistance, the UN said yesterday in an annual report.

The Global Humanitarian Overview 2020 is based on needs in Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Central African Republic, Chad, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Haiti, Iraq,

Libya, Mali, Myanmar, Niger, Nigeria, occupied Palestinian territories, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Ukraine, Venezuela and Yemen.

“In 2019, many more people needed assistance than a year ago. The reason is that because more people were affected by conflict and by climate change than we had thought,” UN Relief Coordinator Mark Lowcock said at the report’s launch in Geneva.

The UN said a record 168 million people worldwide would need humanitarian assistance

and protection in 2020.Lowcock also noted that

armed conflicts are killing or maiming a record number of children.

“Climate change, conflict and economic instability are devas-tating millions of lives,” he said, noting that along with crumbling economies, they had pushed mil-lions to the brink of survival.

At the same launch, the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (Unicef) released its $4.2bn 2020 emergency appeal to reach 59

million children with life-saving support in 64 countries across the globe.

The five largest individual Unicef appeals are for Syrian ref-ugees and host communities in Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Iraq and Turkey ($864.1m); Yemen ($535m); Syria ($294.8m); the Democratic Republic of the Congo ($262.7m); and South Sudan ($180.5m).

Unicef said it is the biggest request of donors yet, repre-senting 3.5 times the funds requested in 2010.

Bosnia to take full control of its air space from todayREUTERS SARAJEVO

Bosnia will take full control of its air space from today for the first time ever after its 1990s war of independence led to a period of oversight by international peace forces.

Control over its air space was main-tained by Nato-led peace forces from 1995 until 2003 when it was transferred to neighbouring Serbia and Croatia while Bosnia built up and modernised its own system.

“This is the first time ever that Bosnia takes control of its air space and it is an enormous success, bearing in mind that (neighbouring) Montenegro, a Nato member, does not control its own skies,” Davorin Primorac, head of Bosnia’s Air Navigation Services Agency (BHANSA), said.

Bosnia took control of air space below

10,000 metres in 2014 following a 10-year project to establish its own air navigation management system and after the training of some 400 staff.

Serbia and Croatia retained control above 10,000 metres just as they were doing when all three countries were republics in the old Yugoslav federation.

Primorac said it had taken decades for Bosnia to take over its air space because its 1992 to 1995 war, prompted by its secession from Yugoslavia, had dev-astated major infrastructure and equipment and left it short of skilled workers.

It took considerable time to train flight controllers, rebuild infrastructure and obtain necessary equipment, including radar systems, he said, adding that BHANSA intended to further upgrade its capacities.

Primorac said Bosnian flight con-trollers will oversee up to 1,600 flights on

a busy day, eight times more than previously.

Air traffic staff working in the control tower at Sarajevo airport, in Bosnia and Herzegovina, yesterday.

17THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 AMERICAS

Trump calls Canada Premier ‘two-faced’AP WATFORD

Nato leaders professed unity yesteday at a summit near London — but a spat over off-the-cuff chit chat at a royal reception rattled their show of solidarity.

US President Donald Trump branded the leader of America’s northern neighbour “two-faced” after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau appeared to gossip about Trump in comments caught on camera and microphone.

Trudeau was seen standing in a huddle with French Pres-ident Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte and Britain’s Princess Anne, daughter of Queen Elizabeth II at Tuesday evening’s Buck-ingham Palace reception for Nato leaders.

Trudeau could be heard saying incredulously, “he takes a 40-minute press conference off the top.” Trudeau confirmed that was a reference to Trump’s long and unscheduled question-

and-answer session with jour-nalists earlier Tuesday.

Trudeau also said: “You just watched his team’s jaws drop to the floor.” He explained yes-terday that was in reference to Trump’s decision to hold the next Group of Seven meeting at Camp David, the presidential retreat.

Footage of the palace reception was recorded by a pool camera. The clip was posted online by Canadian broadcaster CBC and has been viewed more than 5 million times.

Speaking yesterday at the summit venue in Watford, outside London, Trump said Trudeau was likely upset that the US president had broached the fact that Canada falls short of the Nato target of spending 2% of its

gross domestic product on defence.

“Well he’s two-faced,” Trump told reporters. “And hon-estly, with Trudeau he’s a nice guy, I find him to be a very nice guy but you know the truth is that I called him out on the fact that he’s not paying 2% and I guess he’s not very happy about it.”

Trudeau had a quiet word and a handshake with Trump as he arrived at the summit yes-terday, and later tried to shrug off the episode.

“As you all know, we have a very good and constructive rela-tionship between me and the president,” Trudeau told reporters at a news conference.

Asked if the incident had given him pause for thought, Trudeau said that ensuring the focus of attention remained on matters of substance “is some-thing that we’re all going to try to do a little harder.”

Johnson, meanwhile, pro-fessed ignorance when asked by reporters about the conversation. “That’s complete nonsense,” he

said, adding: “I really don’t know what is being referred to there.”

Leaders of the 29 Nato states met to mark the 70th anni-versary of the military alliance

- and trying to patch up differ-ences over defense spending, the alliance’s strategic direction and member nation Turkey’s military action in northern Syria.

Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Canada’s Foreign Minister Francois-Philippe Champagne leave after a news conference at the end of the Nato Summit in Watford, Britain, yesterday.

Trump said Trudeau was likely upset that the he had broached the fact that Canada falls short of the Nato target of spending 2% of its gross domestic product on defence.

House Judiciary Committee opens Trump impeachment hearingANATOLIA WASHINGTON

The House of Representatives Judiciary Committee opened its first impeachment hearing into US President Donald Trump yesterday as Republicans sought to draw out the process with repeated parliamentary motions.

Committee Republicans placed several motions before the committee that when tabled required a roll call vote under committee rules with each member on the panel having to individually voice their support or dissent. All of the motions have been met with party-line votes, and were rejected by the

Democratic majority. The hearing is centered on

testimony from legal experts who are examining whether Trump’s repeated requests to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to publicly declare criminal investigations, including into Democratic challenger Joe Biden, rise to the level of “high crimes and misdemeanors,” the bar set for impeachment.

Democrats have called three witnesses to testify yesterday, among them, Pamela Karlan, a professor at Stanford Law School; Michael Gerhardt, a con-stitutional law professor at the University of North Carolina; and Noah Feldman, a professor at

Harvard Law School. Republicans called George

Washington University Law School professor Jonathan Turley.

All of the Democratic wit-nesses testified that the president carried out impeachable offenses with Karlan saying Trump has “doubled down on violating his oath to ‘faithfully execute’ the laws and to ‘protect and defend the Constitution.’”

“If we are here to keep faith with the Constitution and our Republic, President Trump must be held to account,” she said.

Turley, however, said the case against Trump is “slipshod,” questioning the impacts of

Trump’s impeachment on future commanders-in-chief.

“It is not wrong because President Trump is right,” he said in a 53-page written testimony before the committee. “His call was anything but ‘perfect’ and his reference to the Bidens was highly inappropriate.”

But, Turley said, “It is wrong because this is not how an American president should be impeached.”

The House’s impeachment investigation is centered on Trump’s multiple requests to Zel-enskiy to declare criminal inves-tigations into Biden and his son, Hunter, as well as claims that it was Ukraine, not Russia, who

meddled in the 2016 election. Also at issue is the holdup of

$400m in congressionally appropriated military aid to Ukraine and whether Trump conditioned the release of that assistance and a possible Oval Office meeting with Zelenskiy on the Ukrainian president publicly announcing the investigations.

Trump has repeatedly lashed out at the impeachment probe as a “witch hunt” and denied wrongdoing, ordering his top officials not to participate in the proceedings.

Roughly a dozen witnesses have offered sworn public tes-timony before the Intelligence Committee.

US govt moves to end food stamps for 700,000 peopleBLOOMBERG WASHINGTON

The Trump administration announced a plan yesterday to end food-stamp benefits for about 700,000 Americans, issuing a new regulation that makes it harder for states to gain waivers from a requirement that beneficiaries work or participate in a vocational training programme.

Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue said the new rule will move more food-stamp recip-ients “toward self-sufficiency and into employment.”

Conservatives have long sought cuts in the federal food assistance programme for the poor. House Republicans tried to impose similar restrictions last year when Congress renewed the program but were rebuffed in the Senate.

The work requirement covers “able-bodied” recipients. A US Department of Agriculture spokeswoman said it doesn’t apply to recipients who are over 50, disabled or pregnant, or anyone with a child under 18.

The measure would be the first of three Trump adminis-tration initiatives curtailing food stamp benefits to take effect. The Urban Institute estimated in an analysis last month that the measures together would cut 3.7 million beneficiaries from the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, often known by its previous name, food stamps.

Currently, states can receive waivers for work requirements if their unemployment rates are

at least 20% above the national rate, which was 3.6% in October. The regulation, which will be published in the Federal Reg-ister Thursday, imposes stricter standards for the waivers.

Democratic Congress-woman Marcia Fudge of Ohio said the new regulation was worthy of “the Grinch who stole Christmas.” In an e-mailed statement, she called it “an unacceptable escalation of the Administration’s war on working families.”

A Brookings Institution study published last year found more stringent work requirements are likely to hurt people who are already working but whose employment is sporadic. Recip-ients must work an average of 20 hours a week each month to meet the requirement.

The USDA estimates 688,000 people will lose food stamps by 2021 and 709,000 by 2024 under the new work requirement rule, according to a department spokeswoman. The rule will cut food-stamp spending by $5.5bn over five years, according to a regulatory analysis the department published.

States seeking waivers to the work rule would have to meet the new, more stringent standards by April 1, said the people, who asked for ano-nymity to discuss the plan.

As of August, 36.4 million Americans received food stamps, according to USDA. Enrollment has declined as the economy has improved and was down 1.7 million from a year earlier.

SpaceX delays ISS deliveryAP CAPE CANAVERAL

SpaceX has delayed its delivery to the International Space Station because of dangerous wind gusts.

The Falcon 9 rocket came less than an hour from launching yesterday. But the company halted the countdown because of excessive upper-level wind at Cape Canaveral and also out in the Atlantic. SpaceX wants to land the brand new booster on an offshore barge following liftoff so it can be reused.

SpaceX said it would try again early Thursday afternoon. While the wind should be calmer, it may be cloudier. The Dragon capsule contains 3 tonnes of supplies for Nasa.

US First Lady Melania Trump poses with a children choir after joining local school students and US Marines stationed at the US Embassy, wrapping holiday presents to be donated to the Salvation Army, at the Salvation Army Clapton Center, in London, yesterday.

UK children sing holiday tune to MelaniaAP/LONDON

London fifth graders sang “All I Want for Christmas is You” after Melania Trump added to their merriment yesterday by joining them to make wreaths and orna-ments at a Salvation Army centre.

At the centre in the Clapton neighbourhood of east London, Mrs Trump helped attach pine cones to a wreath covered in yellow tinsel.

She also helped US Marines put gifts into large holiday-themed plastic sacks.

The first lady nodded in apparent enjoyment as the pupils serenaded her, then

clapped and appeared to say “bravo” when they finished the song.

Melania also donated presents for the charity’s holiday drive, including white baseball caps, white Frisbees and soccer balls all stamped with the logo of her “Be Best” youth initiative.

She gave the fifth graders “Be Best” ornaments as gifts before she departed.

The appearance in London was a vast improvement over the reception she received last week in Baltimore, when many middle and high school students booed her address at an anti-drug summit.

The first lady’s husband,

President Donald Trump, had upset many residents with dis-paraging comments about their Maryland hometown.

Melania visited the Salvation Army center in London while Trump attended a Nato leaders’ meeting in nearby Watsford. She was accompanied by Suzanne Johnson, the wife of Woody Johnson, the US ambassador to the United Kingdom.

Ten-year-old Isabelle Bates said afterward that she and the first lady talked about what holiday is like in the US and how she decorates her tree.

Bates said she was surprised Melania had never tasted a mince pie.

Man charged in fatal shooting of Detroit officerAP DETROIT

A 28-year-old convicted felon was charged in the fatal shooting last month of a Detroit police officer and the wounding of another as they searched for him following a home invasion.

Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy said JuJuan Parks is scheduled to be arraigned today on 16 charges, including first-degree premeditated murder, murder of a police officer, assault with intent to murder, and resisting and obstructing police. He also could face charges in other shootings.

“The investigations ... are far from over,” Worthy said. “I don’t want to taint any kind of jury pool.”

Parks was arrested on November 20 after a third officer shot him in the arm as he tried to flee from the home on the city’s west side. Police Chief James Craig has said he may be connected to several earlier shootings, including one that killed a 31-year-old man on Detroit’s east side.

Today’s arraignment will be via video in 36th District Court. It was not immediately clear Tuesday if Parks has an attorney who could comment on the allegations.

Officer Rasheen McClain was shot in the neck and later died at a hospital. His partner, Officer Phillippe Batoum-Bisse, was shot in the leg as he, McClain and two other officers descended basement stairs to look for Parks.

Actor DiCaprio among celebritiesbacking new climate initiativeAFP NEW YORK

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio joined former US vice-president Al Gore and other personalities yesterday in backing a new initiative to seek solutions to climate change.

Leading figures from pol-itics, economics, science and entertainment are lending their support to Countdown, which seeks to build support for zero-net emissions and is organised by the TED conference platform.

TED President Chris Anderson and former UN envi-ronment chief Christiana Figueres launched the pro-gramme in New York yesteday.

“The idea is not to plunge in with something competitive that’s already out there but identify the best solutions ... to amplify them and activate them by bringing together these dif-ferent groups,” Anderson said.

18 THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019AMERICAS

Bolivia’s interim govt unveils anti-terror unitAFP LA PAZ

Bolivia’s interim government yesterday unveiled a new anti-terrorism police force it said was aimed at dismantling foreign groups “threatening” the troubled South American country.

“This anti-terrorist group has a mission of dismantling absolutely all the terrorist cells that are threatening our homeland,” Interior Minister Arturo Murillo said during an official ceremony to present the 60-strong force.

Murillo reviewed the ranks of masked, black-clad troops that make up the new force, called the GAT, at the ceremony in La Paz.

The minister said the state had to act to “free Bolivia from these narcoterrorists who have settled in the country in the last 14 years” — a pointed reference to former president Evo Morales’ term in office.

Morales resigned on November 10 amid swelling pro-tests over what political oppo-nents said was his rigging of October 20 elections.

He fled to Mexico the fol-lowing day after losing the support of the military and

police, claiming to be the victim of a coup.

Morales wrote on Twitter that “the coup plotters who attacked power in Bolivia are now inventing incredible stories to blame others for the terror that they themselves are imposing from the state.”

“The only terrorist plan they are carrying out is theirs, with

blood and fire against all Bolivians.”

The new interim government of right-wing president Jeanine Anez has denounced foreign influence in the country since taking power, naming Colom-bians, Peruvians, Cubans and Venezuelans at different times.

Her government has blamed foreigners for provoking violent clashes during more than a month of post-election violence in Bolivia that has left dozens of people dead.

Police say an Argentine national arrested and held in the eastern city of Santa Cruz is a former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) guer-rilla who they say stoked vio-lence there.

Bolivia’s Interior Minister Arturo Murillo (right) with National Police chief Rodolfo Montero during the presentation of the GAT anti-terrorist unit in La Paz, yesterday.

Bolivia’s Interior Minister said that the state had to act to “free Bolivia from these narcoterrorists who have settled in the country in the last 14 years”.

Rights observers find crimes against humanity in BoliviaANATOLIA ANKARA

Argentine human rights observers reported crimes against humanity committed by Bolivia’s de facto government, local media reported.

“We have found that the repressive system set up by the de facto government has

caused dozens of deaths, hun-dreds of arbitrary detentions, thousands of wounded, countless cases of coercion and torture, rapes and other crimes against the physical, psycho-logical and integrity of the victims who are men, women, children, the elderly and members of vulnerable groups,” said the report of

researchers, which was released yesterday in a news conference, according to Argentina’s daily Pagina 12.

“It is clear that what is needed is the action of a supra-national body such as the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights or that a country opens an instance of trial,” said Roberto Carles, among lawyers

participating in the work of delegation.

A-week-long investigation carried out by the researchers includes testimonies of victims and witnesses of state violence after the ouster of former Pres-ident Evo Morales.

The most serious violation cases, which the delegation treats as “crimes against

humanity” in the report, were committed in Sacaba and Sentaka.

The delegation was stopped on Thursday by the interim government of Jeanine Anez on their way to the capital La Paz, where they seek to make contact with the Ombudsman’s Office in La Paz, the daily said.

Rio Treaty nations move to further isolate VenezuelaAP BOGOTA

Representatives from over a dozen nations that are signa-tories to a Cold War-era defence treaty for the Americas moved to further isolate close allies of Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro with economic sanc-tions.

The 1947 Rio Treaty signa-tories concluded a meeting in Bogota by vowing to cooperate in pursuing sanctions and travel restrictions for Maduro gov-ernment associates accused of corruption, drug trafficking, money laundering or human rights violations.

“The political, economic and social crisis in the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela represents a threat for the peace and security of the continent,” Colombian Foreign Minister Claudia Blum said in the meet-ing’s final remarks.

While the United States and the European Union have tar-geted Maduro associates with economic sanctions, Latin American nations who are sup-porting opposition leader Juan Guaidó have largely resorted to diplomatic pressure — and it will be up to each individual nation to decide how to move forward.

The promise of enhanced

economic pressure against Maduro comes at a time when Venezuela’s opposition is faltering.

Guaidó has struggled to mobilise supporters onto the streets and dipped in popularity. Meanwhile, fissures within the opposition are coming to light amidst recent controversies involving alleged abuses of power.

David Smilde, a senior fellow at the Washington Office on Latin America, said the Rio Treaty’s resolution marks a “small victory” for the opposition but “not enough to really put them in a different place.”

“Their strategy of maximum

pressure seems to be stalling,” he said.

The 19 Rio Treaty member nations have been treading cau-tiously in pursuing economic restrictions against Venezuela while vowing not to invoke a provision in the accord that authorises them to pursue a mil-itary intervention. The accord instructs signatories to consider a threat against any one of them a danger to all.

Colombian President Iván Duque contends that Maduro is offering a safe haven to rebel factions of the National Liber-ation Army and dissidents with the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, an assertion

the Venezuelan leader denies. Duque urged that nations embark on tougher sanctions going forward.

“Here there’s no invitation for use of force,” he said.

Despite repeated remarks from Rio Treaty members indi-cating they will not pursue a mil-itary response, Venezuelan leaders contend the signatories are plotting to overthrow Maduro and warning citizens that an intervention could be imminent.

“The people should be pre-pared and alert on the streets,” Diosdado Cabello, head of Ven-ezuela’s all-powerful National Constitutional Assembly, said yesterday.

Canadian fugitive in murder case arrested in CaliforniaAP OROVILLE, CALIFORNIA

A Canadian man considered one of British Columbia’s most wanted fugitives in a 2008 killing has been arrested in Cali-fornia, authorities said yesterday.

The Butte County Sheriff’s Office said that Brandon Teixeira, 28, was arrested on Sunday in Oroville after he rammed his SUV into a sheriff’s armored van while trying to escape.

Two SWAT teams from other law enforcement departments and US marshals helped arrest Teixeira, who was subdued by a police dog after exiting his vehicle, the office said.

Teixeira was taken to a hos-pital and released and is in federal custody pending his extradition.

It was not immediately clear

if Teixeira had attorney who could speak on this behalf.

Deputies said they found 12kg of heroin, over 1,000 pain-killer pills, and an estimated 18kg of marijuana.

They also arrested a New York man on charges of har-bouring and concealing a wanted felon, possession of heroin for sale, and possession of marijuana for sale.

The sheriff’s office said Teixeria was one of British Columbia’s most wanted fugi-tives but gave no other details.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation reported that Teixeira is facing a charge of first-degree murder in the 2017 shooting death of Nicolas Khabra, 28.

Canadian police had described Teixeira as extremely violent and offered a $55,000 reward for information leading to his arrest, the CBC reported.

Book fairA woman visiting the pavilion of India, the invited guest of the 33rd edition of the Guadalajara International Book Fair, in Guadalajara, Mexico, yesterday.

Kid Rock’s Detroit eatery closing after his profane commentsAP DETROIT

Kid Rock won’t renew his licensing agreement for Kid Rock’s Made in Detroit restaurant, the owners of the sports arena in which it’s housed said yesterday.

The news comes after the singer and musician was recently filmed delivering a vul-garity-laced rant against Oprah Winfrey.

Chris Granger, group pres-ident of sports and enter-tainment for Ilitch Holdings, said in a statement that Kid Rock “voluntarily decided” not to renew the deal that comes up in April for the restaurant inside Little Caesars Arena.

The statement added that the Ilitch organisation had been in contact with the musician, a Detroit-area native whose real name is Robert Ritchie.

The Associated Press sent an email seeking comment from a spokesman for Kid Rock.

The Ilitch statement also says its “venues are open, inviting, inclusive and respectful to all.”

The restaurant opened in 2017 in the arena that’s home to the Detroit Pistons and Red Wings.

Apparent cellphone video obtained by TMZ shows Ritchie onstage last month at his stea-khouse in Nashville, Tennessee, using graphic language to convey his dislike of Winfrey and Joy Behar, co-host of ABC’s “The View” talk show.

A Detroit activist group said it plans to hold a news con-ference about what it calls a “reprehensible tirade.

Protest at Louisiana jail ends after pepper spray used: ICEAP HOUSTON

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement said officers inside one of its Louisiana jails pepper-sprayed migrants to end their protest over prolonged detention.

Spokesman Bryan Cox said that “a brief, calculated use of pepper spray was employed”

during a Tuesday protest at the Winn Correctional Center in rural Winnfield. Cox said about 50 migrants were pepper-sprayed and the protesters “sub-sequently became compliant,” adding that medical staff eval-uated anyone who came into contact with the pepper spray and no injuries were reported.

Family members of people

detained at Winn said some migrants had refused to go back to their cell and were sleeping outside. Others had written the word “Libertad” — Spanish for ‘liberty’ — on bedsheets and towels.

According to lawyers asylum seekers have staged protests at other ICE jails in Louisiana, where the immigrant detainee

population has surged in recent months and hit 8,000 earlier this year. Asylum seekers from Cuba and other countries said they’re being detained for months without a court date or a chance to request their release even after passing an initial screening to determine whether they have a viable asylum claim.

One 43-year-old man from

Cuba, Roylan Hernandez Diaz, died by apparent suicide in October at another Louisiana jail, the Richwood Correctional Center. Hernandez had applied for asylum at a border bridge in El Paso, Texas, was deemed “inadmissible” by border agents and was placed in detention for five months.

“The psychological impact of

situations like this is hor-rendous,” said Nathalia Dickson, an immigration attorney based in Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

A federal judge in September sided with the Southern Poverty Law Center, which sued on behalf of asylum seekers detained in Lou-isiana, Alabama and Mississippi, and ordered ICE to follow its own guidelines in releasing detainees.

19THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

Pediatric care and reconstructive surgery discussed at WCM-Q Grand RoundsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Two expert speakers gave pres-entations on critical care pedi-atrics and craniofacial recon-structive surgery at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar’s Grand Rounds lecture series.

Dr. Ashok Aralihond, attending physician in the pedi-atric emergency department at Sidra Medicine and assistant pro-fessor of clinical pediatrics at WCM-Q, gave a lecture explaining the evaluation and stabilisation of acutely ill children in the emer-gency room.

Speaking to an audience of physicians, nurses, students, edu-cators and other healthcare pro-fessionals, Dr. Aralihond stressed that children must not be viewed as ‘little adults’ because their anatomy, physiology and pathology are all very different. Physicians treating children in emergency situations should follow a systematic, structured approach, he explained.

“When we see the child in the

emergency department as a pedi-atrician or any other physician, it is important to focus on the primary assessment and identify the problems, and then to resus-citate. Then we go to secondary assessment, which is basically a focused history, the next step is more investigations and

examinations, which allow us to give appropriate emergency treatment, after which we move to stabilisation and transfer to definitive care.”

Dr. Graeme E Glass, attending plastic and craniofacial surgeon at Sidra Medicine and assistant professor of clinical (plastic)

surgery at WCM-Q, gave a lecture entitled ‘Innovations in Cranio-facial Reconstructive Surgery’ in which he explained various abnormalities in the devel-opment of the skull in children and the interventions used to treat them.

These included craniosynos-tosis, in which the plates of the skull fuse too soon or abnor-mally, which often requires sur-gical treatment, and plagi-ocephaly, in which a flat spot or other unevenness develops, and which can be treated with a custom-designed helmet.

Dr. Glass said: “In the most severe cases (of plagiocephaly), we can use a moulding helmet, which are made by a company in the US. Thanks to a great inno-vation we don’t actually need a CT scan to get these custom-designed helmets – all we need is a 3-D picture. So, we take a 3-D picture of the patient’s head, which is uploaded to a server in the US, they make the helmets for us and post them back within three weeks.”

Dr. Ashok Aralihond during the lecture at WCM-Q.

QCS raises awareness about common cancers among menQNA/DOHA

Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) has concluded ‘You can do it’ campaign to raise awareness about the most common cancers among men especially prostate cancer which is the third most common cancers in Qatar according to Qatar National Registry (QNCR) – Ministry of Public Health 2016.

Hiba Nasser head of the Health Education Department at QCS, said that this campaign was launched within the framework of November which is men’s health awareness month, and aims to raise awareness

about the risk factor of prostate cancer that begins when cells in the prostate gland start to grow uncontrollably. The prostate is a gland found only in males. The prostate is a gland located in the lower urinary tract, under the bladder and around the urethra.

The chance of having prostate cancer rises rapidly after age 50 , family history, having a father or brother with prostate cancer more than doubles a man’s risk of devel-oping this disease. Men who eat a lot of red meat or high-fat dairy products and fewer fruits and vegetables appear to have a slightly higher

chance of getting prostate cancer.Obese men have a higher risk

of getting more advanced and serious prostate cancer.

Smoking has been linked to increased risk of dying from prostate cancer,

Chemicals exposure at work-place such as firefighters may increase their risk of prostate cancer.

Inflammation of the prostate gland may be linked to an increased risk of prostate cancer.

Hiba Nasser stressed the importance of early detection of prostate cancer ‘ Early prostate

cancer usually causes no symptoms. More advanced prostate cancers sometimes cause symptoms. In most cases, symptoms are caused by benign prostatic enlargement, or an infection.

Because of this it is important that you see a doctor to understand what causes the symptoms such as problems urinating, including a weak or interrupted urinary flow, pain while urinating, inability to urinate, sense of incompletely emptying the bladder, intense need to urinate, or the need to urinate more often, especially at night.

CROSSWORD

Kettiyolaanu ente Malakha’ is a small, convincing family movie that evokes some serious thoughts among the youngsters who look forward to.

KETTIYOLAANU ENTE MALAKHA’

MALL ROYAL PLAZA

Arctic Dog (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 5:30pm Kamala (2D/Malayalam) 2:00pm Puzhikkadakan (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 9:15pmOmar Wa Bisat El Rih (2D/Animation) 3:45pm Frozen II (2D/Animation) 4;15, 6:00 & 7:15pmKettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 4:30pmPati Patni Aur Woh (2D/Hindi) 7:00 & 11:15pmPanipat (2D/Hindi) 8:00 & 11:00pmDaniel Isn’t Real (3D/Thriller) 9:15pm

Puzhikkadakan (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 3:45 & 9:15pm; Panipat (2D/Hindi) 11:45am, 6:45 & 11:45pmFrozen II (3D/Animation) 11:45am, 2:00, 4:15 & 6:30pm; Kettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 1:00, 6:30 & 12:00pm; Pati Patni Aur Woh (2D/Hindi) 3:00 & 9:00pm; Jada (2D/Tamil) 8:15pm; Irandam Ulagaporin Kadaisi Gundu (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Enai Noki Paayum Thota (2D/Tamil) 12:30pm; Helen (2D/Malayalam) 8:30pm; Panipat (2D/Hindi) 3:15, 10:45pm & 2:00amKettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 12:30, 3:15, 6:00, 8:45, 11:30pm & 2:00am; Pati Patni Aur Woh (2D/Hindi) 6:15pm; Puzhikkadakan (2D/Malayalam) 3:15, 8:45pm & 2:00am; Kamala (2D/Malayalam) 11:15pm; Android Kunjappan (2D/Malayalam) 11:15pm; Dhanusu Raasi Neyargalae (2D/Tamil) 12:30pm; Jada (2D/Tamil) 3:15pm; Irandam Ulagaporin Kadaisi Gundu (2D/Tamil) 12:30 & 6:00pm;

ASIAN TOWN

ROXY

FLIK Mirqab Mall

A Score To Settle (2D/Action) 11:45am, 1:50, 3;55, 8:25 & 10:30pmArctic Dog (2D/Animation) 10:40am & 12;35pmCharlie’s Angels (2D/Action) 11:25pmCode 8 (2D/Sci-Fi) 3:45 & 7:45pmDark Waters (2D/Biography) 6:00pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 10:50am, 11:30am, 12:15, 1:00, 1:35, 2:20, 3:05, 4:25, 5:10, 5:40, 6:30, 8:35, 9:10 & 10:40pmFrozen II (3D/Animation) 7:15pmKnives Out (2D/Action) 11:25am, 2:00, 4:30, 9:45pm & 0:20amLe Mans ’66 (Ford Vs Ferrari) (2D/Action) 10:50am, 1;45, 2:30, 4:40, 5:25, 7:35, 8;20, 10:30 & 11:15pmPanipat (2D/Hindi) 9:35pm; Pati Patni Aur Woh (2D/Hindi) 7:00pmUnbreakable (2D/Tagalog) 4:00 & 6:20pm

Daniel Isn’t Real (3D/Thriller) 11:00am, 1:00, 1:30, 3:50, 6:00, 6:20, 8:10 & 8:30pm; Dark Waters (2D/Biography) 11:00am, 1:10, 3:15, 3:40, 6:00, 8:15, 8:40, 10:30, & 11:00pm; Dhanusu Raasi Neyargalae (2D/Tamil) 10:15 & 11:40pm; Frozen II (3D/Animation) 11:00am, 1:15, 12:30, 2:45, 3:30, 5:00, 5:45, 7:15, 8:00 & 9:30pm; Kettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 6:00, 8:00, 11:00 & 11:30pm Panipat (2D/Hindi) 10:30am, 1:00, 4:20, 6:50, 10:10, 11:15 & 11:20pm; Pati Patni Aur Woh (2D/Hindi) 1:50, 4:20, 7:40 & 10:10pm Puzhikkadakan (2D/Malayalam) 10:30, 12:30, 1:00, 3:00, 3:30, 5:30 & 8:45pm

Kettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 2:00pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 2:15, 4:30 & 6:15pmPati Patni Aur Woh (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 9:15pmOmar Wa Bisat El Rih (2D/Animation) 4:00pmPuzhikkadakan (2D/Malayalam) 4:45 & 11:15pmArctic Dog (2D/Animation) 5:30pmDark Waters (2D/Biography) 7:00pmUnbreakable (2D/Tagalog) 7:15pmPanipat (2D/Hindi) 8:00 & 11:00pmCode 8 (2D/Sci-Fi) 9:30pmHigh Strung: Free Dance (2D/Romance) 11:30pm

Pati Patni Aur Woh (2D/Hindi) 2:00 & 9:15pmArctic Dog (2D/Animation) 2:00pmKamala (2D/Malayalam) 2:00pm Frozen II (2D/Animation) 3:30, 5:15 & 6:45pmPanipat (2D/Hindi) 4:15, 8:30 & 11:15pmKettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 4:15 & 11:30pmUnbreakable (2D/Tagalog) 7:00pmA Score To Settle (2D/Action) 7:15pmPuzhikkadakan (2D/Malayalam) 9:00pmCode 8 (2D/Sci-Fi) 11:30pm

20 THURSDAY 5 DECEMBER 2019MORNING BREAK

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum19oC 27oC

HIGH TIDE 10:42 – 00:00 LOW TIDE 19:49 – 00:00

Moderate temperature daytime with some

clouds and relatively cold by night.

FAJRSHOROOK

04. 44 AM06. 05 AM

11. 24 AM02.24 PM

04. 46 PM06. 16 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS Why Qatar – and M F Husain – embraced modern artTHE PENINSULA DOHA

If there is one aspect of Maqbool Fida Husain that seems to have been consistent, it was his respect for human psychology; a deference that helped him build a relationship with his viewers — through modern art.

It is a relationship that sur-faces and cements itself across Husain’s repertoire of crea-tions, including his final work — the Seero fi al Ardh — that will soon be unveiled at Qatar Foundation’s Education City. Although it was conceived by the artist as a portrayal of the progress of Arabic and Islamic civilization, Husain, as always, wanted to leave the interpre-tation of this experiential installation in the hands of those he considered his best critics — the public.

“The strength of modern art is often seen as its weakness,” said Wadha Al Aqeedi, Assistant Curator at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, which is also based at Qatar Foundation. “Because it allows viewers to decipher the art work in any way they want, it causes quite a few raised eyebrows. But for me, that’s the beauty of it. And I believe Husain felt the same.”

Al Aqeedi said that giving viewers complete freedom to

interpret an art piece in the way they choose to is the hallmark of an art movement whose evolution and existence can be traced to the Renais-sance period, and up until the mid-20th Century.

“Modern art accepts that there are differences in the way the human mind analyses information, be it textual, sensual, visual or auditory,” she said. “Both artists and viewers take advantage of this latitude in creating and inter-preting an art piece that is styled as modern.

“In other words, the artist

is comfortable with the notion that the idea behind their cre-ation of a piece of modern art may be understood as some-thing completely different by the beholder.”

Tracing the evolution of modern art in Qatar, Al Aqeedi explains that although the art form was late to leave Europe’s shores and reach the MENA region, it was introduced and evolved through dialogue and in parallel with other similar art movements around the world.

Right from the outset, Qataris embraced this artistic

style — so much so that, more than five decades ago, the country’s art aficionados were already building their personal collections of modern art pieces.

Artists such as Jassim Mohamed Zaini, Yousif Al Homaid and Sheikh Hassan Al Thani were the stalwarts of Qatar’s fledgling art scene of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. All three, having travelled and trained extensively in the region and abroad, produced modern art pieces of their own, while promoting those of other artists. As the collec-tions of Sheikh Hassan Al Thani grew, so did their urge to share them with the public.

“Art can exist and thrive when it is shared with a third person — and this gives it meaning,” says Mathaf’s Assistant Curator. “The popu-larity of modern art, especially, rides on it being offered for interpretation by a varied audience, and it is our role as curators to be the conduit between art and the public.

“Mathaf’s patron, Sheikh Hassan Al Thani, realised this. He offered his personal col-lection to Qatar Foundation to be accessed in a museum ded-icated to modern art. And that is how Mathaf was born.”

Today, modern art in Qatar has grown to complement Islamic art, a style specific to

the Arab world, and one that focuses on geometric patterns, calligraphy and mosaics. A visit to Mathaf provides proof of this; the minimalist building houses canvases, sculptures and installations that present a modern take on Islamic art, alongside non-Islamic pieces.

Al-Aqeedi’s personal affinity for art was what led to her current role at Mathaf.

The Qatari curator, who also co-curated Husain’s Horses of the Sun exhibit with Ranjit Hoskote at Mathaf in early 2019, shares more than a love of art with the Indian-born artist, who was granted Qatari citizenship. Like Husain, her roots lie both in India and the Gulf region, giving her a better understanding of the relevance of modern art to the Indian artist, and to Qatar.

“Husain’s ancestors hailed from Yemen,” she said. “So while his heart was entrenched in India, he had a subconscious pull towards this region. Modern art — with its innate malleability — gave Husain an outlet to express that dual relationship.

“I believe Qatar views this artistic style in the same manner: as a tool to articulate the complexities of humanity and cultures in the region, and as a mode of expression that befits the country’s identity – inclusive, yet explorative.”

Wadha Al-Aqeedi, Assistant Curator at Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art

Thin skin: Japan firm develops ultra-fine spray-on facemaskAFP TOKYO

A Japanese cosmetics company yesterday unveiled what it said was the world’s first spray-on skin, a moisturising facemask made of fibres one-100th the thickness of a human hair.

After applying an absorbent

lotion, users spray the fibres onto their face and a thin translucent sheet is quickly formed, acting as a “greenhouse” for the real skin below to soak up the moisture and still be able to breathe.

The “second skin” can be worn overnight or peeled off after about a minute.

“This is the world’s first cos-metic product using such tech-nology,” according to Masayuki Uchiyama, skincare researcher at Kao, the firm behind the innovation.

The hand-held diffuser was 10 years in the making, said Uch-iyama, who admitted: “We struggled to make the device

small.” Kao researchers did not initially think of using the tech-nology of ultra-thin fibres to create a layer on the skin, he said, adding that the precise material from which they were made was a secret.

“But we learned that the skin can still breathe under the thin fibres for many hours” in an

environment akin to a greenhouse.

Such cutting-edge tech does not come cheap though, with each diffuser costing 50,000 yen ($460). Nevertheless, Kao pre-dicts cosmetic sales could reach 100 billion yen if the technology is applied to the medical field.

In the future, Uchiyama said

it could be used to cover scars or to create an invisible medical patch.

Similar technologies already exist, including those using cells or polymer, but Uchiyama said Kao’s technology is different.

“Ours is focused on fibres. They’re more flexible and hard to break even if you move.”