Volume 24 | Number 8119 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 28 December 2019 | 2 Jumada I 1441 www.thepeninsula.qa

Pack up to 100 GB when you travelwith the new Qatarna 5G plans

BUSINESS | 13 SPORT | 19

Dominant PSG march towards another Ligue 1 title

UK eyes March budget and spending

boost in North of England

Qatar adopts regulations for anti-money laundering law

QNA DOHA

Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has announced the adoption of the new executive regulations for Law No. (20) of 2019 issuing the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Law, which is based on the innovative and strict regu-latory and legislative initiatives stipulated by this law regarding combating money laundering and terrorist financing issued on September 11, 2019.

According to a statement by Qatar Central Bank issued on Thursday, the new executive regulations reflect the State of Qatar’s firm and continuous commitment to combating money laundering and terrorist financing as well as fighting illicit financing in all its forms, in light of updating the interna-tional standards adopted by the main international organiza-tions, including the Financial Action Task Force (FATF).

The executive regulations also highlight the pioneering and influential role of the State of Qatar in the region in terms of setting standards for its legal and regulatory framework for com-bating money laundering and terrorist financing.

The new executive regula-tions are the result of the untiring

efforts made by Qatar Central Bank along with other ministries and government bodies members of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Com-mittee, which is responsible for protecting the financial system of the State of Qatar from the risks of illicit financing.

QCB Governor H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud Al Thani said: “The new executive regulations come within the framework of upholding the provisions of Law No. 20 of 2019 issuing the Anti-Money Laundering and Com-bating the Financing of Terrorism Law, and the State of Qatar, thus stresses that combating money laundering and terrorist financing requires a strict and effective regulatory and legis-lative framework, whereby it determines the powers and responsibilities of each of the government agencies and rel-evant ministries, in relation to combating money laundering and terrorist financing”.

H E the Deputy Governor of QCB and Chairman of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Committee, stated that the new executive regulations are “the result of the tireless work and untiring efforts made by members of the Committee during the past two years”. �P2

Souq Waqif exhibition focuses on folk gamesRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

In this age of exponential tech-nological advances, traditional games in more developed coun-tries have been put on the side-lines while video gaming in various platforms have now become a major preoccupation for many children.

Souq Waqif Art Center attempts to remind the young generation of the importance of reviving the games that children in Qatar played in the past through its latest painting exhi-bition currently on show at Gallery 2.

Art enthusiasts visiting the gallery enjoy over a dozen works by Qatari and Doha-based artists

Al Mouz Al Ogaimi, Wafaa Al Sebaie, Muna Al Bader, Fatima Al Naimi, Kristina Al Adwan, Suzanne Ghadanfer, Mansour Al Shibani, Khalid Al Fahad, and Hessa Khalla that depict the various local traditional chil-dren’s games.

Using oil and acrylic as medium, the artists depicted children in their traditional cos-tumes engaged in folk games such as those that use simple props including marbles, spinning top, small stones, sticks and seeds, among others.

One of the typical game for boys showcased in the exhibition is called ‘dahoury’ which exhibits children’s ingenuity at the time when technologically advanced toys were not yet available. Al

Bader and Al Sebaie painted images of children in a quiet and quaint neighbourhood feeling amused as they play with toys made from recycled materials including old wheels attached to a rod.

While some of these games are occasionally played during festivals and in some areas in city outskirts, they are now disap-pearing as many households prefer to provide advanced toys and computer and video games as pastime for children.

The exhibition also displays a number of paintings showing traditional Qatari dhows in the sea, a herd of grazing sheep and a typical desert scene in Qatar.

Situated in the heart of Souq Waqif, which is a major tourist

attraction in the country, Souq Waqif Art Center enjoys a good position as a major art hub which witnesses a large number of vis-itors year round.

The art centre is home to dozens of Qatari and expatriate artists who create their art pieces in various mediums in front of visitors. The centre also hosts drawing, pottery, sculpture, painting and hand skills work-shops, among others.

With tiled walls accented by a multitude of multi-coloured lamps hanging from the high ceilings crafted with wood poles, the centre’s interiors which dominantly reflect Qatari and Islamic architecture are one of the most Instagrammable spots for tourists visiting the souq.

Qatar, Russia sign MoU onentry visa exemptionQNA MOSCOW

The governments of the State of Qatar and the Russian Federation signed, at the head-quarters of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Moscow yesterday, a memo-randum of understanding (MoU) on mutual exemption from entry visas for citizens of both countries who hold ordinary passports.

The memorandum of understanding was signed on behalf of the State of Qatar by Secretary-General of the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs H E Dr Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi and for the Russian side by Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Envoy of the Russian President to the Middle East and North Africa H E Mikhail Bogdanov, during a ceremony in Moscow yesterday.

Qatar’s nine projects in international prize contestIRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

Nine leading ICT-related projects of Qatar have been nominated for prestigious World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS) Prizes 2020.

The 18 winning projects and 72 champion projects will be

recognised at the WSIS Forum 2020, to be held from April 6 to 9, 2020 in Geneva, Switzerland, according to information on the WSIS Prizes website.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications has also urged people to vote for Qatar’s projects on its social media plat-forms. The projects which are

taking part in the global contest include ‘Centralized Connectivity in the Schools Network’, ‘SafeSpace’, ‘National Digiti-sation Program’, ‘Metrash2’, ‘Digital Transformation of Small & Medium Business Enterprises’, ‘Government Media Analysis Service’, ‘Better Connections’, ‘Open Data Policy and Portal’

and ‘Multi Languages Electronic Labor Contract System’.

During the period from July 22, 2019 to November 29, 2019, all WSIS stakeholders were invited to submit WSIS related projects to the WSIS Prizes 2020 contest. The list of nominated projects was publicly announced on December 21, 2019 and WSIS

multi-stakeholder community has been invited to participate and cast their vote for one project in each of 18 categories. The deadline for voting is January 24, 2020, says the WSIS Prizes website.

Qatar’s nine ICT projects have been nominated in various categories. �P3

A view of the prototype of the first Turkish-made electric car by the TOGG company, during the launch ceremony in the Gebze district of Kocaeli in Turkey, yesterday.

Turkey unveils prototypes offirst domestic electric carAP ANKARA

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday unveiled prototypes of a domes-tically produced electric car, putting him closer to fulfilling a long-held dream of building Turkey’s first “national” automobile.

Erdogan showcased the SUV and sedan models of the car, known for now as TOGG after a consortium of Turkish companies that will produce them, at a ceremony in Gebze, in Turkey’s north-western industrial heartland.

The president was scheduled to test drive a car across a suspension bridge over the Gulf

of Izmit. He offered to put his name down on a possible list for advance orders. The vehicles are expected to hit the market in 2022.

“We are witnessing a historic day, realizing a 60-year dream,” Erdogan said. “I know that our people is impatiently waiting for the day they can own this car.” The Turkish leader has long pushed indus-trialists to build a domestic automobile as part of his vision for making Turkey an economic powerhouse.

The vehicle is being produced by the Automobile Initiative Group of Turkey, or TOGG, in cooperation with the Turkish Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges.

The new executive regulations reflect the State of Qatar’s firm and continuous commitment to combating money laundering and terrorist financing as well as fighting illicit financing in all its forms.

A troupe performing on one of the streets in Souq Waqif as part of the Spring Festival, yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

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02 SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019HOME

Hot Air Balloon Festival ends on a high noteTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar’s first-ever Hot Air Balloon Festival has concluded on a high note as thousands of spectators flocked to Aspire Park to witness more than 30 hot air balloons from 13 countries in a stunning show.

For 12 days, visitors enjoyed the sight of the skies over Aspire Park adorned with the colorful hot air bal-loons in the free-to-enter family-friendly festival which culminated on Qatar’s National Day.

In addition to watching the majestic sights of this unique international event, guests enjoyed various cuisines from the country’s best food brands as well as live music, children’s enter-tainment and more.

The festival was organized by Safe Flight Solutions and Asfary.com, which earlier this year introduced Qatar’s first hot air balloon as a tourism product.

“We are honored to have had the opportunity to host Qatar’s first Hot Air Balloon Festival, where we welcomed thousands to witness this International spectacle for free. To mark the beginning of our great country’s National Day celebrations, we could not have had a more befitting time to conclude the Hot Air Balloon Festival than on the 18th of December,” said Captain Hassan Al-Mousawi, CEO of Safe Flight Solutions.

“The success of this event would not have been possible without our strategic partner Qatar National Tourism Council, our venue partner Aspire Zone Foundation, our official airline partner Qatar Airways, our ground transportation partner Hertz, our children entertainment partner

Celebrations Palace, and other sponsor partners as well as all governmental agencies that facilitated a smooth oper-ation of this festival.,” said Mariam Al-Mousawi, Event Director of Qatar Balloon Festival 2019.

“With the continued support of our partners, we envisage to turn this into an annual global event with more countries participating each year,” said Ali Al-Mousawi, COO of Safe Flight Solutions.

Jawaher Al-khuzaei, from Qatar

National Tourism Council, lauded the event, saying: “Qatar’s first Hot Air Balloon Festival was a great success, promoting a new tourism product for our visitors and residents alike. We were pleased to see festival-goers experience the city from the ground as well as the sky and see our destination from a new perspective. We thank the organizers for the innovation and ini-tiative taken in adding to Qatar’s growing calendar of world-class events and festivals.”

Abdulla Aman Al Khater, Director of Events and Facilities at Aspire Zone Foundation, said: “We at AZF had the pleasure to have hosted Qatar Hot Air Balloon Festival in its first edition in Aspire Park. We are proud of the huge success the event had, and how it attracted the families during the National Day celebrations. Much appreciation to the organizing com-mittee and all who participated in the success of this event, and hope to col-laborate in the future.”

In its inaugural edition, Hot Air Balloon Festival witnessed huge success as thousands of people visited Aspire Park to watch the 12-day event. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

Amir condoles with President of KazakhstanDOHA: Amir H H Sheikh

Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani

and Deputy Amir H H

Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad

Al Thani sent yesterday

cables of condolences to

President of the Republic

of Kazakhstan, H E Kassym-

Jomart Tokayev, on the

victims of a plane crash in

southern Kazakhstan, wish-

ing the injured a speedy

recovery.

The Prime Minister and

Interior Minister H E Sheikh

Abdullah bin Nasser bin

Khalifa Al Thani also sent

a cable of condolences

to Prime Minister of the

Republic of Kazakhstan

H E Askar Mamin, on the

victims of a plane crash in

southern Kazakhstan, wish-

ing the injured a speedy

recovery. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWS

Bangladesh Quran Sunnah Parishad Qatar holds blood donation driveTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Around 400 people attended in the 2nd Blood Donation Campaign of Bangladesh Quran Sunnah Parishad (BQSP) Qatar, a community organization in Qatar, conducted at Al Arabi Sports Club yesterday.

The event was organised on occasion of 49th Victory Day of Bangladesh in cooperation of Hamad Medical Corporation. The event was organized as part of the Parishad’s regular activities in presence of the Dr. K M Bahavuddeen, the Community Coordinator, Community Policing Department of MOI, Qatar.

The central and divisional representatives of Parishad across Qatar were present on the event presided over by Parishad’s Acting President Jubair Ahmad Chowdhury and directed by Secretary-General Hafiz Mawlana Anwarul Islam at Al Arabi Sports Club, Doha.

Starting with Quran reci-tation by Hafez Yousuf Chow-dhury, a speech with the heading “Four decades of victory: our expectations and achievements” was presented by Kamrul Ahsan. Ahsan in his speech said: “It has been four decades of our victory,

yet we have to go a long way for realizing all our dreams. The country is still struggling to elim-inate the corruption that has spread its root deep in various public sectors as well as the private.”

He further said: “The

prosperity and purity of the society lays on the unity and not on the divisive motive. The time has now come to unite the nation on single platform. The overall well-being and progress of the country lays on self-a w a r e c o r r u p t i o n - f r e e

accountable leadership. Such leadership is only possible from amongst the people conscious of Allah, aware of their accountability in hereafter and keeping deep devotion in the well being of entire humanity.”

Dr. K M Bahavudddd as chief

guest addressed the gathering and praised BQSP for organ-ising such a noble act of humanity and urged them to keep it up. He also also con-veyed the gratitude of MOI for the organisers and Bangladesh community as a whole.

Dr. K M Bahavuddeen, the Community Coordinator, Community Policing Department of MOI, Qatar, and other officials at the event.

Qatar, Russia sign MoU on mutual exemption from entry visas

The Secretary-General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, H E Dr Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, and the Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Envoy of the Russian President to the Middle East and North Africa, H E Mikhail Bogdanov, exchanging the signed documents in Moscow, yesterday.

Qatar adopts regulations for anti-money laundering law

FROM PAGE 1He extended thanks to all the members

of the National Committee for their efforts in issuing the new executive regulations that come in the framework of enhancing the effectiveness of the State of Qatar’s system in combating money laundering and terrorist financing. The issuance of the new executive regulations is part of the State of Qatar’s con-tinuous efforts to develop an effective legal and regulatory framework that defines the responsibilities and competences of the National Anti-Money Laundering and Com-bating the Financing of Terrorism Committee and its members of the other government bodies, in taking the necessary measures to effectively combat illicit financing.

Qatar’s election to Deputy Chair of ALESCO Executive Council hailedQNA/DOHA

The Secretary-General of Qatar National Commission for Education, Culture and Science (QNCECS) Dr Hamda Hassan Al Sulaiti said that electing the State of Qatar as Deputy Chairman of the Executive Council of the Arab League Educational, Cultural and Scientific Organization (ALESCO) is in appreciation of Qatar’s efforts and significant contributions at various levels in the fields of science; culture: education; and heritage preser-vation as well as its role as an active and efficient member of the Executive Council.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum18oC 25oC

HIGH TIDE 06:04 – 17:02 LOW TIDE 13:59 – 00:00

Misty at some places at first becomes

moderate temperature daytime and rela-

tively cold by night.

FAJRSHOROOK

04. 56 AM06. 18 AM

11. 35 AM02.33 PM

04. 55 PM06. 25 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

FROM PAGE 1

‘Centralized Connectivity in the Schools Network’, the project of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has been nom-inated in category ‘Information a n d c o m m u n i c a t i o n infrastructure’.

‘SafeSpace’ project has been nominated in category ‘Building confidence and security in use of ICTs’. On the website of WSIS Prizes, brief descriptions of all projects and their web links have also been given for voters to evaluate the projects.

SafeSpace is a cyber-safety awareness website and the hub for several initiatives under the cyber-safety section in the Min-istry of Transport and Commu-nications. It is built on three fun-damental principles: prevention, protection, and empowerment. Its goal is to guide the com-munity of Qatar and the Arab region towards safe use of Infor-mation and Communication Technologies.

In ‘Enabling environment’ category of the Prizes, Qatar’s ‘National Digitization Program’ has been nominated. The project seeks to facilitate the digital transformation of the gov-ernment sector in Qatar by dig-itizing active and legacy physical documents. The project provides

a catalogue of diversified digiti-zation and Record Management services.

Qatar’s iconic ‘Metrash2’ project has been nominated in ‘E-government’ category. Metrash2 is a smart application designed and developed to be the Ministry of Interior’s electronic service delivery channel for smart devices. Metrash2 is based on the Qatari government’s long-term strategy to offer electronic, integrated, and sustained services for citizens, residents, public and private organizations and to make them accessible to all categories of the Qatari com-munity. Metrash2 supports six major languages for a com-munity that accommodates nationals and residents from dif-ferent countries. These languages are English, Arabic, Spanish, French, Urdu, and Hindi.

‘Digital Transformation of Small & Medium Business Enter-prises’ project has been nomi-nated in contest’s ‘E-business’ category. The vision of the program is to enhance Qatar’s SME ecosystem in key sectors through digital enablement by creating value for all stake-holders in Qatar’s digital economy, aligning its strategic goals with Qatar ICT Sector Vision 2022 of leveraging

technology to develop a regionally competitive smart economy that improves and pro-motes ICT innovation with a niche focus on international activity and exports.

Till today, the program has successfully raised awareness on digital adoption among over 5600 SMEs through the exe-cution of over 270 interactive sessions, connecting further over 50 technology enablers’ digital partnerships & government

entities in the digital ecosystem with business establishments in Qatar.

In ‘Media’ category of the WSIS Prizes 2020, ‘Government Media Analysis Service’ has been nominated. This is one of the government shared services that is offered to ministries and gov-ernment departments in order to enable them to listen to and analyze any public e-Content over the internet.

Government departments

now can proactively determine the users’ satisfaction about their provisioned services, identify any opportunity to enhance their current services or introduce new services, based on users’ public discussions. The can also respond to users’ complaints, even if the user doesn’t approach the right complaints channel (such as email or call center). Qatari embassies are able to track and analyze news about Qatar in their presence countries. Qatari univer-sities are able to monitor research progress in specific areas, and many others can utilize the service for different use cases.

‘Better Connections’ project is contesting for the WSIS Prizes in ‘E-environment’ category. The Better Connections Programme is a research-based national pro-gramme that was launched in 2015 in order to tackle the digital divide that workers in Qatar face.

The Better Connections is based on establishing ICT facil-ities inside the workers accom-modations to minimize the travel time to 0, these facilities are equipped with furniture and donated refurbished computers connected to the internet, loaded with content tailored to their needs in 5 most common lan-guages among the workers communities.

‘Open Data Policy and Portal’ has been nominated in ‘E-science’ category. The Gov-ernment of Qatar announced the adoption of open government policy in 2014. Therefore, a project was initiated to establish an open data platform that would allow the agencies to release and manage their datasets as well as the recipients to discover and make use of the datasets at a single place in the most efficient manner.

In ‘Cultural diversity and identity, linguistic diversity and local content’ category of the WSIS Prizes, ‘Multi Languages Electronic Labor Contract System’ has been nominated. The project came as part of State of Qatar’s initiative to enhance the level of awareness of expatriate workers of their rights according to Qatari Labor Law and other related legislation.

An Electronic Labor Contract Management System supporting Multilanguage’s (currently 11 major languages) available through different electronic channels locally and globally, provides the expatriate workers an authentic way to fully under-stand their rights of the con-tractual agreement terms with their potential employees in their native language.

03SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

L’Occitane collaborates with Qatar’s first mother and son artist duo for packaging artworkTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

For the first time in the Middle East natural beauty brand L’Occitane en Provence has collaborated with a local artist for their packaging artwork, offering a stylistic interpretation of landmarks of Qatar.

Qatari artistic duo, Ahmed Al Jufairi - a graduate from Virginia Commonwealth University and his mother Hanady Al Othman, have combined their artistic talent to design the packaging for L’Occitane’s most famed Shea Butter hand cream.

This “Beauty-Must-Have” Shea Butter hand cream is sold every three seconds in the world! Which is why they chose this specific product to give a

National Day twist. It’s enriched with 20 percent organic Shea Butter and blended with a yummy blend of honey, almond and coconut oil leaving your hands soft and nourished.

The artwork romanticises the beautiful cultural ties between the South of France and Doha, depicted by the flying Lavenders across Qatar’s sky indicating a sense of happiness, whilst the iconic yellow bicycle represents the ideology of spreading joy.

Al Jufairi also added some of Qatar’s iconic monument’s like the Al Fanar Mosque, the Museum of Islamic Arts, and incorporating a touch to Qatar National Day, Hanady brought to life her love of the majestic Oryx that represents the

international presence of Qatar’s beauty and persona. Given an artistic twist, the Oryx is painted

with two different sides, one being maroon and white repre-senting the Qatari flag, and the other in a black and white pattern showcasing the history of Islamic art.

Talking about this collabo-ration Ahmed mentions: ‘After so much hard work and dedi-cation, I have broken boundaries once again. We are celebrating a strong relationship between Qatar and France in the Year 2020, and I was fortunate to be a part of it.’ Hanady also com-ments: ‘After so many years of not being able to accomplish my dream of becoming an artist, myself and my son have in a sense made history with this col-laboration. This is a very important tie between Qatari

artists and the world.’The special artwork with

‘Qatar National Day’ inscription on L’Occitane’s hand cream packaging will be available in all five stores across Qatar throughout the month of December. Following on, exclusive to Qatar starting

January, 2020 till March, the same artwork will be carried over to L’Occitane’s top three products, but rather with just a ‘Qatar’ inscription on the pack-aging; marking this as a great ini-tiative to the start of the Year of Culture between Qatar and France.

Weather, Metro prove crowdpullers for Spring FestivalSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

The Spring Festival at Souq Waqif and Souq Al Wakrah in the last seven days has attracted large number of visitors, especially families, to enjoy many features, games, rides and circus shows which impressed visitors.

Cold weather and the avail-ability of Doha Metro attracted a large numbers of people to visit the Souqs as favourite tourist destinations specially on Thursday and yesterday.

This year’s festival combined traditional games and modern electronic games, which were not available in some previous festivals, and also traditional tents made of animal fur or hair

were installed in the market squares, where it attracted many visitors who were able to learn more about the county’s culture and the importance of such tents in old desert life style.

The festival features around 60 games and rides in the two souqs. Visitors can see wild animals like lions and tigers at

the circus shows. Singers and dancers enthral the spectators with a variety of songs and dances. The festival opens daily from 4pm until 10pm and runs until January 4.

The festival also offers a number of diversified enter-tainment games at reasonable prices for children. In addition to other cultural performances by popular teams from a number of countries, including Arab countries.

The managements of both the Souqs have deployed many supervisors and security men to secure events and help the public. To protect children in such big festivals that attract large numbers of visitors, the managements distributed hand bracelets to children carrying

Visitors at the Spring Festival at Souq Waqif yesterday. BELOW LEFT: Artistes performing during the festival. PIC: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

child’s name and the phone number of parents. Popular res-taurants and food vendors at Souq Waqif, also had their portion. They attracted a large crowd of visitors especially from tourists of all ages, who preferred to eat popular Qatari meals to learn more about tradition cuisine.

A number of vendors at Souq Waqif have confirmed that the Spring Festival has contributed to the revival of the buying and selling movement, compared to normal days, due to the market visitors from tourists and fam-ilies who are keen and buy dis-tinctive souvenirs.

Many visitors affirmed that Souq Waqif needs such events, especially as it included recre-ational games for children

demanding more of such festivals.

“We enjoyed a lot at this fes-tival, which is still going. It came at an important time, which is the mid year-vacation, as it provided a fun time for the children. It also came at the end of the month, where we get salaries so eve-ryone can enjoy and entertain such shows and games presented by the festival,” said Rana.

For his part, Salah said, “Souq Waqif has always been our favourite destination but the opening of the metro has increased its visitors and I have seen many visitors use the metro during the past many days to reach the activities of the Souq Waqif Festival. The opening of the metro has

attracted many visitors to Souq Waqif, especially families.”

“Before 10pm Souq square becomes very crowded, thanks to the Souq management for organising such events.”, he said.

The event is being organised by the Private Engineering Office in order to draw local and inter-national tourists and give them an opportunity to enjoy various entertainment and shows.

Khalid Saif Al Suwaidi, Manager of Souq Al Wakrah said that the aim of the festival is not only to provide quality entertainment to people but also to make people visit these markets and know more about Qatari culture. That is the reason why we are organising the festival during mid-year vacations in order to attract more people.

Qatar’s nine projects in international prize contest

Ahmed Al Jufairi

Cold weather and the availability of Doha Metro attracted a large numbers of people to visit the Souqs as favourite tourist destinations specially on Thursday and yesterday.

04 SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Netanyahu sweeps party primary in re-election boostAFP/OCCUPIED JERUSALEM

Embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told supporters yesterday he would win a March general election after scoring a landslide victory in the leadership primary of his right-wing Likud party.

Israel’s longest-serving premier, who faces a corruption indictment as well as a third general election in 12 months, was expected to beat rival Gideon Saar in the leadership primary.

But the convincing margin of victory — by 72.5 to 27.5 percent — strengthens his position in the party he has dominated for 20 years.

Netanyahu, 70, called it a “huge win” and pledged to emerge vic-torious in the March 2 general election.

“Now is the time to unite and bring a tremendous victory for the Likud and the right in the election,” Netanyahu told a press conference. “Most of the people support the right and support me to lead the government.”

In what appeared to be a general election campaign speech, Netanyahu did not mention the defeated Saar once.

He thanked US President Donald Trump, a close ally, for his support for Israel and said a Likud victory in the next election would b r i n g m o r e “ h i s t o r i c achievements.”

Likud and the centrist Blue and White party were deadlocked after elections in both April and Sep-tember, with neither able to command a parliamentary majority under Israel’s system of proportional representation.

Last month, Israel’s attorney general indicted the prime minister for fraud, bribery and breach of trust over a series of corruption allegations he denies.

Blue and White leader Benny Gantz also used Friday’s primary result as a rallying call for the general election.

He said Netanyahu’s victory showed Likud members had “elected a leader facing three indictments, who is seeking to unravel the rule of law and secure personal immunity”.

“These elections demand that we place a mirror in front of ‘the Netanyahu party’ and make the choice for unity, dignity and internal reconciliation.”

Ofer Zalzberg, Israel analyst with the International Crisis Group think tank, said the result kick-started the election campaign.

“Netanyahu is going for a third shot, hoping the next election will prove more successful,” he said.

“This strengthens his position within the right wing who saw he is still able to achieve victories but it doesn’t fundamentally change the arithmetic for the next election.” Early polls indicate that the March 2020 election could again result in stalemate.

Demonstrators carry an Iraqi flag during the ongoing anti-government protests in Baghdad, yesterday.

Iran-backed groups flay Iraq President over premier postAP/BAGHDAD

Iran-supported groups in Iraq blasted the country’s president yesterday over his refusal to designate a prime minister candidate nominated by the Tehran-backed bloc in parliament.

Groups affiliated with the Fatah bloc accused President Barham Salih of implementing an American will to pull the country into chaos.

Salih has said he refused to appoint Asaad al-Eidani because of broad opposition by the anti-government protest movement. Protesters poured into the streets Wednesday demanding an inde-pendent candidate.

Demonstrators first took to

the streets on October 1 to call for the overthrow of Iraq’s entire political class over corruption and mismanagement. The mass uprisings prompted the resig-nation of former Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi late last month. More than 450 people have been killed since October, the vast majority of them protesters killed by security forces firing tear gas and live ammunition.

The decision by Salih on Thursday not to appoint Al Eidani and his offer to resign threaten to plunge the country into further political uncertainty amid nearly three months of unprecedented mass protests.

A statement issued by the Hezbollah Brigades, or Kataeb Hezbollah, criticised Saleh’s move

as “suspicious” adding that he “violated the constitution by refusing to carry out his duties by naming the person who was chosen by the parliament’s largest bloc.”

Salih said in a statement issued by his office that he would not name al-Eidani, the governor of southern Basra province, as the country’s next prime minister “to avoid more bloodshed and in order to safeguard civil peace.”

“We know that he is carrying out an American will that aims to pull the country toward chaos,” a statement by Hezbollah Bri-gades read. The statement said no one should be allowed to name a prime minister candidate who is “known to be an agent of the Americans.”

IS says it beheaded 10 captives in NigeriaREUTERS/MAIDUGURI

Islamic State (IS) released a video purporting to show its militants beheading 10 men in Nigeria, saying it was part of a campaign to avenge the deaths of its leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi and its spokesman.

The militant group posted the footage on its online Tel-egram news channel on Thursday, the day after Christmas, with Arabic captions but no audio.

The video showed men in beige uniforms and black masks lining up behind blind-folded captives then beheading 10 of them and shooting an 11th man.

An earlier video seen by Reuters said the captives had been taken from Maiduguri and Damaturu in Nigeria’s north-eastern state of Borno, where militants have been fighting for years to set up a separate Islamist state.

Reuters could not verify the

authenticity of either video.Islamic State in West Africa

Province (ISWAP) split from the militant group Boko Haram in 2016 and has become the region’s dominant militant group. The insurgents have killed about 30,000 people in northern Nigeria in the past decade.

Islamic State leader Baghdadi died during a US mil-itary raid in Syria and Muhajir in a separate military operation, both over the same weekend in late October.

Morocco jails YouTuber, detains journalistAFP/RABAT

A Moroccan YouTuber was sentenced to four years in prison for “insulting the king” in a video broadcast on social networks, his lawyer said.

In a separate case, a Moroccan journalist and activist was charged and detained over a tweet that had criticised a court decision, his defence council said.

The YouTuber Mohamed Sekkaki, known as “Moul Kaskita”, was sentenced by a court in the western city of Settat to four years in prison, his lawyer Mohamed Ziane said.

Sekkaki, whose videos usually exceed 100,000 views, was arrested in early December after posting a video in which he insulted Moroccans and crit-icised King Mohammed VI, who is considered inviolable under the constitution.

Ziani said his client would appeal the verdict.

Hundreds join final Gaza-Israel border protests for three monthsAFP GAZA CITY

Hundreds of Palestinians took part in protests along the Gaza-Israel border yesterday, the last of the Hamas-backed demon-strations until March.

Amid heavy rain and wind, the rallies had the lowest turnout in months, with ten-sions far lower than in previous

weeks and no live fire by the Israeli army, a correspondent said.

The often violent weekly protests began in March 2018, calling for an end to Israel’s blockade of the Gaza Strip and for Palestinians to be allowed to return to their ancestral homes inside the Jewish state.

Israel contends that any return of Palestinian refugees or

their descendents would mean an end to its status as a Jewish state and accuses Gaza’s Islamist rulers Hamas of orchestrating the protests as a cover for attacks.

At least 348 Palestinians have been killed in Gaza by Israeli fire since the marches began, the majority during the demonstrations.

A further 7,800 people have

been wounded by gunfire, according to the World Health Organization.

Demonstrators have hurled rocks, Molotov cocktails and explosives at the Israel soldiers along the border. Organisers announced Thursday the pro-tests would halt until March 2020 amid dwindling turnout.

Hamas has over the last year shaped a precarious informal

truce with Israel, which has slightly eased its blockade of the enclave in exchange for calm along the border, despite inter-mittent flare-ups.

As part of the agreements, Israel has allowed Qatar to bring millions of dollars worth of fuel and cash into Gaza every month, easing a humanitarian crisis. Israel and Hamas have fought three wars since 2008.

The convincing margin of victory — by 72.5 to 27.5 percent — strengthens embattled Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s position in the party he has dominated for 20 years.

Ethiopia charges 50 for profiteering from Blue Nile damAFP/ADDIS ABABA

The former head of Ethiopia’s public electric company and 49 others were charged with corruption linked to a dam on the Blue Nile river, the state-owned ENA press agency said yesterday.

The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD), set to be Africa’s largest hydro-electric dam, has already troubled relations with neighbouring Egypt, which depends on the downstream Nile River for almost all of its water.

Azeb Asnake, former head of Ethiopian Electric Power, and 49 other people were “charged with corruption in relation to a forest clearing project for the country’s flagship mega hydro project, a 5,150 Mega Watts hydro dam,” the Ethiopia News Agency reported.

Syrian oppn calls on the world to aid rebel-held IdlibAP/BEIRUT

A Syrian opposition leader called yesterday on the inter-national community to help millions of civilians in the country’s last rebel-held stronghold amid a crushing government offensive, calling it a “disaster area.”

After weeks of intense bombardment, Syrian gov-ernment forces launched a ground offensive on the southern and eastern parts of Idlib province in the northwest last week. It has forced tens of thousands of people to flee their homes.

Idlib, which is dominated by Al Qaeda-linked militants, is also home to 3 million civilians. The United Nations has warned of the growing risk of a humanitarian catastrophe along the Turkish border.

Opposition leader Nasr Hariri told reporters in Istanbul that the international com-munity “should turn on the red lights because there is a humanitarian catastrophe inside Syria.”

He added that large numbers of people are fleeing toward the Turkish border in what could trigger a new refugee crisis.

“We declare this area a dis-aster area and it should be dealt with accordingly,” said Hariri, who heads the High Negotiations Committee. He said work should be done to reach a permanent cease-fire in Idlib, not a truce that would crumble later.

Hariri said if the interna-tional community cannot protect those civilians, they should send them humani-tarian assistance “so that they will be able to survive in this cold weather and difficult

circumstances.”The UN Office for the Coor-

dination of Humanitarian Affairs said that as a result of hostilities more than 235,000 people have been displaced between December 12 and December 25. It said many of those who fled moved out of the town of Maaret Al Numan, toward which Syrian troops have been advancing since Thursday.

Mercy Corps, a global humanitarian aid group, said aid workers were rapidly scaling up operations to respond to the massive influx of newly displaced people. In just the past three days, Mercy

Corps has handed out new arrival kits containing essen-tials for cooking and hygiene to more than 3,000 people and reached an additional 2,500 with fresh water, it said.

“Thunderous bombs and shelling keep getting closer to major civilian areas,” said Wolfgang Gressmann, Syria country director for the organ-ization. “For thousands of innocent civilians the only choice is to flee, and now even their escape is a violent and frightening affair.”

The town sits on a key highway linking the capital Damascus with the northern city of Aleppo, Syria’s largest.

The immediate goal of Syrian President Bashar Assad’s forces appeared to be reopening the strategic highway, which has been closed by the rebels since 2012.

Meanwhile, the United Nations yesterday dispatched 46 truckloads of humanitarian aid to Idlib, a northwestern Syrian province torn by the years-long civil war.

The trucks passed through the Cilvegozu border gate in southern Turkey, with the aid to be distributed to residents in urban areas of Idlib, as well as the surrounding countryside.

A view of supplies outside tents of displaced Syrians, who fled from government forces’ advance on Maaret Al Numan in the south of Idlib prvoince, at a camp for the displaced near the town of Dana near the border with Turkey.

05SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019 ASIA

Internet curbs as protesters keep up pressureAFP LUCKNOW

Mobile Internet was cut yesterday in parts of India’s most populous state and thousands of riot police were deployed as fresh protests erupted in Delhi and Mumbai against a citizenship law seen as anti-Muslim.

Twenty-seven people have died in two weeks of at times violent demonstrations after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government made it easier for non-Muslims from three coun-tries to be naturalised.

Coupled with a mooted cit-izens register, it has stoked fears including in Washington and the UN rights office about the mar-ginalisation of Muslims who make up 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people.

Armed policemen patrolled Muslim-dominated areas of the capital as hundreds of demon-strators gathered outside the grand mosque in Delhi’s old quarter after Friday prayers.

Riot police and paramilitary troops erected steel barricades on roads leading to the mosque, where violent clashes broke out last week following protests.

Yesterday, demonstrators chanted slogans against the gov-ernment, vowing to keep up the pressure until the law was revoked and plans for the reg-ister cancelled.

“They want to drive out the poor, Muslims and those who don’t agree with them,” protester Muntazir Bashir said.

Modi, facing his biggest chal-lenge since storming to power in 2014, said on Sunday that Muslims whose “ancestors are

the children of mother India” had nothing to fear.

He has also said that the cit-izenship law is a humanitarian move, giving refuge to perse-cuted religious minorities from Muslim-majority Pakistan, Bang-ladesh and Afghanistan.

But it has unleashed a wave of protests across the country, and not just by Muslims, with several state governments saying they will refuse to implement the legislation.

In Mumbai, where a string of protests were held yesterday, including one in support of the government, hundreds of police were deployed to prevent unrest and man dozens of checkpoints set up along the city’s roads.

Around 200 people showed up at the pro-government dem-onstration, clutching flags and posters in favour of the new law.

“We should welcome perse-cuted Hindus back home without any restrictions,” said Mahindra Shah, an 82-year-old protester.

“Why do Muslims need to come here when Pakistan, Afghanistan and Bangladesh are Muslim-dominated?” Officials in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, where 20 percent of

people are Muslims, said they have suspended mobile Internet and SMS services in 21 districts out of 75 including the state capital Lucknow.

Access to data on cellphones was only restored in many areas on Tuesday following a week-long cutoff in a country that activists say is the world leader in snapping Internet access.

The state, home to India’s best-known tourist site the Taj Mahal, witnessed large-scale clashes last Friday between pro-testers and police. Nineteen people were killed, mostly from gunshot wounds.

Heavy-handed police tactics

have fuelled anger, with many accusing authorities of arbitrary force against dissenters.

The protests in Uttar Pradesh, whose chief minister is a Hindu monk from Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party, are among the biggest there in decades.

Police in the state have arrested more than 1,000 people and taken more than 5,000 others into preventive custody, some of them as young as 16 according to media reports.

About 200 people have been ordered to pay compen-sation for damage caused to public property during the pro-tests, failing which their assets

will be confiscated.More than 100 people have

also been booked over social media posts deemed to be objec-tionable or misleading, with tens of thousands of messages on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms reported.

Authorities are keeping a close eye on foreigners with a Norwegian tourist saying she was told to leave India after par-ticipating in a protest in the southern state of Kerala.

This week a German student was also ejected after taking part in demonstrations in the southern city of Chennai, according to media reports.

Guards take a demonstrator into custody during a march against the new citizenship law in New Delhi.

Norwegian, 71, told to leave India after joining protestREUTERS KOCHI

A Norwegian woman on holiday in India’s southern state of Kerala has been told to leave the country after she joined a protest against Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new citi-zenship law, authorities said yesterday.

“The Norwegian lady has participated in a protest in vio-lation of her visa condition,” said Anoop Krishna, the For-eigners’ Regional Registration Officer at Kochi airport.

“She has been asked to leave the country as early as possible. The tourist visa on which she visited the country does not allow participation in any protests.”

The tourist, Janne-Mette Johansson, 71, declined to comment.

There was no immediate response to a request for comment from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs and the Nor-wegian Embassy in New Delhi.

Johansson posted on her Facebook page about a December 23 protest in Kochi.

“No riots, just people deter-mined... lifting up their voices, saying what has to be said,” she wrote alongside pictures of the march, including one of her brandishing a sign.

Johansson told the Times of India said she had first asked police if she could take part. “I was given a verbal assurance that I could,” she told the newspaper.

77 infant deaths in Kota in a month: CM orders probeIANS JAIPUR

Days after complaints of shortage of life-saving equipment at Kota’s JK Lon Hospital, which might have resulted in deaths of 77 children in the hospital in the last one month, Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot yesterday said that a team has been sent to Kota to look into the deaths. He said strict action will be taken against those found guilty.

Hospital sources said 77 children died in December alone while 10 died on Monday and Tuesday.

Gehlot has given instructions to medical education secretary Vaibhav Galeria to visit Kota and submit a detailed report on an urgent basis.

“The chief minister has taken this issue very seriously and hence, I am here to find out the reason for neonatal deaths. A special committee will inves-tigate if there were hygienic or clinical issues behind the death of these kids. Besides, all other issues will also be taken up,” Galeria said after visiting Kota.

On being asked if there was a staff crisis hitting the hospital, he said: “A crisis has in fact been there, but I cannot comment upfront without complete

investigation. We are trying to figure out the lacunae present here and also trying to find solu-tions.” Sources said that of 535 life-saving equipment, 320 were non-functional. Besides, only 27 out of 71 infant warmers were working. Some ventilators were also not working properly.

The hospital administration is, however, in denial mode.

Sources at the CMO con-firmed that Gehlot is taking the case seriously and is himself monitoring the investigations.

Additional Principal of SMS college Dr. Amarjeet Mehta, senior paediatrician also visited Kota, along with Galeria.

Hospital sources said that all the children were brought in a critical condition to the hospital.

“Our investigation says that 10 deaths were normal and children did not die because of any negligence”, said Dr HL Meena, hospital superintendent.

Similarly, head of the department (paediatrics) Amrit Lal Bairwa said, according to national Neonatal Intensive Care Unit records, 20 percent deaths of infants are acceptable while 10-15 percent deaths have been reported in Kota “which is not at all alarming”.

The children were admitted in a serious condition, he added.

Congress to hold all-India flag marchesIANS NEW DELHI

The Congress will undertake flag marches named “Save Constitution - Save India” across the country on its foundation day on December 28, the party announced yesterday.

The All India Congress Com-mittee (AICC) General Secretary KC Venugopal told media-persons that the Indian National Congress will celebrate its foun-dation day by hoisting its flag at the AICC headquarters here this morning.

“In addition to the customary

flag hoisting in the respective state capitals, the Presidents of Pradesh Congress Committees will there-after undertake flag marches car-rying the message of ‘Save Consti-tution-Save India’. They will also read the preamble of the Consti-tution in their respective languages at public meetings organised for this purpose”, he said.

“Former Congress President Rahul Gandhi will join the program in Guwahati, Assam, tomorrow (Saturday), with other senior leaders participating in their respective states,” he added.

Venugopal accused the Prime

Minister and the Home Minister of being contradictory while giving statements on the National Register of Citizens (NRC), the Cit-izenship (Amendment) Act (CAA) and on the National Population Register (NPR).

“The government has put itself in a bind on these issues with the PM (Prime Minister), Home Min-ister and Raksha Mantri (RM) making contradictory statements on different occasions. The CAA proposes to flout the guarantees of Article 14, in contravention of the Constitution of India,” he said.

Venugopal also said that the

government’s move to announce the NPR updation amid protests over CAA and NRC and to divert public attention from unemployment and economic gloom, have raised suspi-cions about their motives.

“Amidst massive public outrage, the government decided to take a step further and announced the updation of NPR. This has again raised hackles and suspicion because of RSS-BJP’s long hidden agenda to implement NRC following completion of NPR exercise amid historic unem-ployment and the pall of economic gloom,” he said.

Sri Lankan police arrest second former Cabinet ministerAP COLOMBO

Sri Lankan police arrested a hospitalised former Cabinet minister yesterday for partici-pating in a news conference about abductions of critics under the government of the current president’s brother.

Lawyer Gunaratna Wanni-nayake said Rajitha Senarathna, now an opposition lawmaker, was arrested at a private hospital

where he was admitted on Thursday.

A magistrate visited Senar-athna at the hospital on Friday and approved his detention until Monday for investigation.

Wannianayake said Senar-athna, who earlier underwent heart surgery, will be kept under guard at the hospital.

He is the second opposition lawmaker to be arrested since President Gotabaya Rajapaksa took office in November. Former

Cabinet minister Patali Champika Ranawaka was arrested last week over a 2016 traffic accident and was released on bail this week.

Opposition lawmakers say both arrests were political retribution.

Both Senarathna and Ranawaka were Cabinet members in the government of Rajapaksa’s brother, ex-Pres-ident Mahinda Rajapaksa. They defected on the eve of a 2015

presidential election, triggering the fall of that government.

The Attorney General issued an order to police on Tuesday to obtain a warrant for Senar-athna’s arrest over a November 10, 2019, news conference during the campaign for the most recent presidential election, which Gotabaya Rajapaksa won by a comfortable margin.

At the news conference led by Senarathna, two people described “white van” squads

that abducted critics under Mahinda Rajapaksa’s gov-ernment. The two who spoke were arrested earlier and are being held by police.

Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who was the top defense official in his brother’s government from 2005 to 2015, has been accused of overseeing the abductions. Some victims were returned after being tortured, while others were never seen again. He has denied the allegation.

Locust invasion destroys cropsLocusts sit in trees near Miyal village in Banaskantha district, some 250km from Ahmedabad, yesterday. A massive locust invasion has destroyed thousands of hectares of crops in northwest India.

Violent protests against 3-capital move rocks AmaravatiIANS AMARAVATI

Violent protests rocked Amar-avati yesterday as a crucial meeting of the Andhra Pradesh cabinet was underway to take a decision on the three-capital proposal.

A thick security blanket was thrown around 29 villages as farmers intensified the protest over Jagan Mohan Reddy-led government’s proposal to develop Visakhapatnam and Kurnool as the capital cities in addition to Amaravati.

Police sealed roads leading towards the State Secretariat at Velagapudi, where the chief minister was presiding over the cabinet meeting.

Three policemen were injured when protestors pelted stones in Velagapudi.

Hundreds of protestors came onto the roads despite prohibitory orders imposed under Section 144.

Men and women squatted on the roads, demanding that Amaravati be retained as the full-fledged capital.

Violence also broke out during the protest at Uddhandarayunipalem village where Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid the foundation stone for the capital in 2015.

Demonstrators chanted slogans against the government, vowing to keep up the pressure until the law was revoked and plans for the register cancelled.

06 SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019ASIA

Investigators raid party office of Nawaz SharifINTERNEWS LAHORE

The Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) has raided the PML-N’s provincial secretariat to obtain purported videotapes of accountability Judge Arshad Malik who had convicted former prime minister Nawaz Sharif in the Al Azizia Mills corruption case.

Four members of the FIA’s cybercrime wing accompanied by a heavy contingent of police raided the PML-N secretariat at 180-H in Model Town to find the “tapes”.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said the raid was aimed at harassing its leaders and decided to get an FIR regis-tered against FIA chief Wajid Zia and hold a demonstration outside the agency’s building on Temple Road on Friday to lodge its protest.

According to a source, the FIA team searched the PML-N secretariat’s main hall and IT room for about 40 minutes and took away the hardware of the computer believing that the pur-ported video was run on it.

A heavy contingent of police was deployed ahead of the FIA raid to stop the PML-N workers from creating any hindrance. PML-N deputy secretary general Attaullah Tarar allowed the search after seeing the [search] warrants.

On July 6, PML-N vice-pres-ident Maryam Nawaz had held a press conference at the Model Town secretariat and played a

‘secretly recorded’ video in which judge Arshad Malik was allegedly seen saying that he was pressurised into convicting her father Nawaz Sharif in the Al Azizia reference.

Judge Malik was suspended subsequently and is facing an inquiry in this respect.

Maryam had claimed that the video tapes had been pro-vided by a ‘PML-N sympathiser’.

The FIA has summoned PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid and party’s Punjab information secretary MPA Azma Bokhari on Dec 30, and Attaullah Tarar on Dec 27 (today) at its Lahore office to record their statements.

The source believes the FIA may also summon Maryam Nawaz as part of its extended investigation into the matter. “However, without an order from the top, the FIA will not proceed against Maryam,” he said.

After releasing the pictures of the FIA raid later in the evening, PML-N information secretary Marriyum Auranzeb announced getting an FIR reg-istered against the FIA chief for “vandalism”.

“The PML-N has decided to register an FIR of dacoity and vandalism against Wajid Zia. This illegal raid by FIA has proved that everything the judge said in the video was true to the last word.

This also proved that the video of judge Malik was abso-lutely authentic and he sen-tenced Nawaz Sharif under pressure.”

She claimed that the raid had been conducted at the behest of Prime Minister Imran Khan. “Just because this imposed regime of the selected prime minister could not find a single evidence of corruption, he has now stooped down further to use FIA to harass and pressurise PMLN.”

Auranzeb said the party would hold a rally on Friday in protest against the FIA raid. She said that after the failure of NAB-Niazi nexus against the PML-N, the PTI government engaged the FIA for the purpose.

She said the raid had also proved a story behind replacing FIA chief Bashir Memon with Wajid Zia. “Memon had refused to become a tool of Imran Khan Niazi. After which a man known for his anti-Nawaz sen-timents has been given the task [to go after the PML-N],” she added.

Heavy smog envelops IslamabadPakistani commuters drive their vehicles amid heavy smog conditions and fog in Islamabad, yesterday.

Nepra approves hike in power tariffINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The National Electric Power Regulatory Authority (Nepra) of Pakistan has approved an increase of Rs1.56 per unit in power tariff on account of fuel adjustment cost of electricity consumed in October.

The Central Power Pur-chasing Agency (CPPA) had sought an increase of Rs1.73 per unit. The raise will put an addi-tional burden of Rs14.50 bn on electricity consumers.

The government has again put on operation furnace oil plants owing to lesser availability of gas to produce electricity.

Nepra chairman Tausif H Farooq presided over a public hearing on a request for increase in power tariff in the wake of CPPA’s monthly fuel adjustments. Nepra does monthly and quar-terly adjustments in power tariff.

During the hearing, the CPPA representative stated that 25.48 percent of electricity was gen-erated from hydel, 12.17 percent from local gas and 25.41 percent from imported LNG in October, but no electricity was produced from high speed diesel.

Prime Minister Imran Khan presided over a meeting to assess and review progress in construction of important hydropower projects, including

Mohmand dam, Dasu hydro-power project, Tarbela IV (extension) and Diamer- Bhasha dam.

The prime minister was informed that these projects will generate 9,620MW additional electricity and increase water storage capacity by 11.3 million acres feet. Owing to these projects, over Rs23bn will be spent on social welfare projects, which will create 23,000 jobs for youths.

The meeting was apprised that construction of Mohmand dam started in the middle of this year and would be completed by 2024. The project will store 1.2m acres feet of water and produce 800MW electricity.

Pakistan seizes five suspected Qaeda militantsREUTERS LAHORE

Pakistan has arrested five suspected Al Qaeda militants planning an attack on security personnel, authorities in the eastern state of Punjab said yesterday.

The raid in Gujranwala city hit an important media cell and financing network for the jihadists, Punjab’s counter-ter-rorism department said. Laptops with encrypted data, cell phones, a printing press, explosives, five Kalashnikov rifles, ammunition and cash were found.

For years militants have held sway in remote north-western regions on the Afghan border but some have also established networks in Punjab, Pakistan’s richest and most populous province.

“They were planning attack on law enforcement officials in Gujranwala,” the police statement added, without giving more details on the plot.

The Gujranwala group recently relocated from Karachi and was running Al Qaeda’s media operations for the Indian subcontinent and sending funds to central leadership in Afghan-istan, it added.

The Pakistan government says the number of militants in the country has decreased due to an army crackdown.

Musharraf appeals against his death sentenceINTERNEWS LAHORE

Former military dictator General (retired) Pervez Musharraf yesterday filed a petition in the Lahore High Court challenging a special court’s verdict sentencing him to death in a high treason case.

The petition was filed by Azhar Siddique on behalf of Musharraf in the High Court. The special court on December 17 had sentenced the former mil-itary ruler to death for imposing a state of emergency on

November 3, 2007.The petition stated that

Musharraf was not given a chance to present his arguments and that the “special court quite abruptly and hurriedly wrapped up a trial that was far from its conclusion.”

“The hastily announced judgment is emanating from a prosecution case which suffers, for all intents and purposes from an admitted, noticeable and unexplained delay of over five years from the date of the alleged offence and initiation of pro-ceeding,” the petition stated.

“The then government, by failing to follow the mandated procedure laid down in Section 5 (1) of the Special Courts Act, 1976, lodged the complaint against the applicant in an unlawful manner. Therefore, the complaint against the applicant is void ab initio. The law clearly prescribes that the special court shall only commence pro-ceedings once a complaint of high treason is completely filed by the ‘federal government’.”

The petition also challenged paragraph 66 of the special court’s verdict, which read, “We

direct the law enforcement agencies to strive their level best to apprehend the fugitive/convict and to ensure that the pun-ishment is inflicted as per law and if found dead, his corpse be dragged to the D-Chowk, Islamabad, Pakistan, and be hanged for three days”.

“The honourable respective president of the special court has crossed all religious moral, civil and constitutional limits, while ruthlessly, irreligiously, unlaw-fully, unrealistically awarding a debilitating, humiliating, unprec-edented and against the dignity

of a person sentence,” the petition stated.

“The wordings in paragraph 66 of the impugned judgement, although holding minority view, are still an exercise of languages which directly violates Article 2 of the code of conduct to be observed by the judges,” the petition read.

It added that Justice Nazar Akbar in his dissenting note had mentioned that the actions taken by Musharraf on November 3, 2007 can be termed illegal and unconstitutional, but they cannot be tantamount to treason.

Fire damages shelters in DhakaSlum dwellers, whose shelters were destroyed after a fire broke out in a slum in Dhaka, collect leftovers from the ashes, in Bangladesh, yesterday.

Lahore faces gas shortage as mercury dropsINTERNEWS LAHORE

With a drop in mercury level, gas shortage has gripped various cities of Punjab especially congested neighbourhoods of the provincial capital. The situ-ation further aggravates when every second household illegally installs compressors or gas pumps on pipelines to boost gas pressure, it was learnt Friday.

According to a market survey, all city markets, espe-cially Hall Road and Liquified Petroleum Gas (LPG) dealers are flooded with various kinds of local and Chinese gas pumps to suck natural gas from pipelines.

LPG gas dealer Shafiq Butt said that they have very good quality gas pumps with auto cut-off function in case of leakage.

He pointed out that most of these pumps are being imported from China and the cost ranges between Rs1,500 and Rs4,000, depending on the size of the pump and quality of the product.

Since mercury level dropped and acute shortage of gas in the city took hold, sale of gas pumps and LPG cylinders has witnessed a dramatic increase, he disclosed.

“We sell 10-15 pumps and

over a dozen cylinders every day as gas supply in most neighbour-hoods gets suspended during peak hours due to very low pressure.”

Another menace is the sale of illegally manufactured LPG cylinders. An LPG cylinder man-ufacturer Muhammad Afzal pointed out that most locally manufactured small LPG cyl-inders are of very poor quality and could cause fatal accidents anytime.

“Instead of improving sheet gauge and quality, most small manufacturers install wood blocks in the base of the cylinder to increase its weight. It is unethical and illegal at the same time because it can cause fatal accidents.” Afzal indicated that there is a little difference of a few hundred rupees in the retail price of certified and locally manufac-tured substandard LPG cylinder.

A small domestic use cer-tified LPG cylinder costs around Rs2,500 to Rs3,500, depending on its fuel carrying capacity, while their locally manufactured replicas of different sizes and shapes are being sold for Rs1,200 to Rs2,500.

“It was the government and the Oil and Gas Regulatory Author-ity’s (OGRA) responsibility to reg-ulate the market and curb the sale of substandard cylinders.

PTI govt seeks in-camera hearing of review petitionINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The government has sought “in-camera hearing” of its review petition against the Supreme Court judgement of November 28 on the reappointment/extension of the chief of army staff (COAS).

The request was made in a separate “instant application” filed with the review petition in

the apex court, pleading that it would be in the interest of justice and also in the interest of national security that the case may be heard in-camera.

Listing the reasons, the peti-tioner prayed that “foreign hostile media is endeavouring to propel the narrative/misper-ception of internal institutional rift through misreporting on the proceedings of the case”.

It said that social media was being used to “mischievously project hostility” between the national security stakeholders.

“Since the issue is intrinsically linked to command of Army and has direct bearing over moral of troops, security and defence of Pakistan, therefore, given the sit-uation on LoC (Line of Control) and development linked to Western Borders, its debate over

media and projection has potential to undermine moral of troops, national security and defence of Pakistan,” reads the petition.

The petitioner states that the court proceedings are being fol-lowed by talk shows, articles and analysis over social, electronic and print media at domestic as well as at global level thereby, affording space for undermining the state institutions.

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz said the raid was aimed at harassing its leaders and decided to get an FIR registered against FIA chief Wajid Zia and hold a demonstration outside the agency’s building on Temple Road on Friday to lodge its protest.

07SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019 ASIA

12 dead as plane crashes in KazakhstanAP ALMATY

A plane with 98 people aboard crashed shortly after takeoff yesterday in Kazakhstan, killing at least 12 people, Kazakh offi-cials said. There were 54 people hospitalised with injuries, at least 10 of them in critical condition.

The cause of the predawn crash in the Central Asian nation was unclear, but authorities were looking at whether pilot error or technical failure were factors, said Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar, adding that plane’s tail hit the runway twice during takeoff, indicating that it struggled to take off.

The Bek Air aircraft, identified as a 23-year-old Fokker 100, hit a concrete wall and a two-story building after takeoff from Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city and former capital. It lost altitude at 7:22am (0122 GMT), the Almaty International Airport said.

One survivor said the plane started shaking less than two minutes after takeoff.

“At first the left wing jolted really hard, then the right. The plane continued to gain altitude, shaking quite severely, and then went down,” Aslan Nazaraliyev said by phone.

Government officials said the plane underwent de-icing before the flight, but Nazaraliyev recalled that its wings were covered in ice, and passengers who used emergency exits over the wings were slipping and falling.

The plane was flying to

Nur-Sultan, the capital formerly known as Astana.

Local authorities earlier had ut the death toll at 15, but the interior ministry later revised the

figure downward.Officials in the Almaty

branch of the health ministry couldn’t explain why the figure was revised, but attributed the

confusion to the “agitation” at the site of the crash.

In a statement on its Facebook page, the airport said there was no fire and a rescue operation began immediately.

In Almaty, dozens of people lined up at a local blood bank to donate for the injured.

The government promised to pay families of the victims around $10,000 each.

The Fokker 100 is a medium-sized, twin turbofan jet. The company manufacturing the air-craft went bankrupt in 1996 and production stopped the following year.

All Bek Air and Fokker 100 flights in Kazakhstan have been suspended pending the investi-gation of the crash, the country’s authorities said.

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev ordered an inspection of all airlines and avi-ation infrastructure in the country.

Rescue personnel working at the site of a plane crash outside Almaty, yesterday.

Manila bans 2 US Senators, mulls visa curbsAFP/MANILA

The Philippines banned two US senators and threatened to introduce visa restrictions for Americans entering the country, the president’s spokesman said, if Washington pushes ahead with sanctions against Filipino offi-cials involved in jailing a leading opposition leader.

Senators Richard Durbin and Patrick Leahy were banned from entering the country after intro-ducing a provision in the 2020 US budget that would prevent officials involved in the incarcer-ation of Senator Leila de Lima from entering the US, presidential spokesman Salvador Panelo said.

De Lima, one of the highest-profile critics of Duterte’s contro-versial war on drugs, has been

imprisoned since 2017 over a drug charge — but has claimed inno-cence, and accused him of perse-cuting political opponents.

“If they will enforce this pro-vision in the US budget, then we will be compelled to require all Americans entering into this country to secure a visa before they can be allowed entry,” Panelo said yesterday.

American tourists — who can enter visa-free for up to 30 days — account for more than a tenth of arrivals, according to the Phil-ippines tourism department.

The senators’ provision allows the US to deny entry to Philippine officials if the state department finds “credible information” on those involved in the “wrongful imprisonment” of De Lima.

“We will not sit idly if they continue to interfere with our processes as a sovereign nation,” Panelo said.

De Lima, in a written statement from jail, thanked the senators for the provision, saying “impunity cannot last”.

A former human rights com-missioner, she has said her imprisonment was an act of revenge for her decade-long effort to expose the president’s alleged death squads during his time as mayor of the southern city of Davao.

The US is a long-time Phil-ippine ally as well as its largest defence partner and — following nearly half a century of rule — many Filipinos have relatives who migrated to the US who are American citizens.

Japan’s NHK delivers erroneous North Korean ‘Christmas gift’REUTERS TOKYO

Japanese public broadcaster NHK yesterday sent a news bulletin that incorrectly reported North Korea had launched a missile that fell into waters east of the Japanese archipelago, issuing an apology hours later explaining it was a media training alert.

The news alert came as the United States and its East Asian allies have been on tenterhooks after Pyongyang’s warning this month of a possible “Christmas gift” for Washington in what experts took to mean a possible long-range missile test.

The NHK bulletin, sent out 22 minutes after midnight on its

website, read: “North Korean missile seen as having fallen into seas about 2,000km east of Hokkaido’s Cape Erimo”, sug-gesting a flight path over Jap-anese territory.

At 2:28am, NHK issued an apology on its website, explaining that the text was meant for training purposes and was “not true”.

“We apologise to our viewers and the public,” NHK said.

Warning citizens about dis-asters and security threats is one of the mandates for the publicly funded broadcaster, whose news casters regularly and fre-quently hold drills for earth-quakes and other disaster coverage.

Kazakhstan’s Deputy Prime Minister Roman Sklyar said that plane’s tail hit the runway twice during takeoff, indicating that it struggled to take off.

Two policemen held in Indonesia over acid attackAP JAKARTA

Indonesian authorities said yesterday that they have arrested two elite police officers suspected in an acid attack on a senior anti-corruption inves-tigator nearly three years ago.

Novel Baswedan, a leading investigator at the Corruption Eradication Commission, known by its Indonesian abbreviation KPK, was almost blinded when two men attacked him with acid near a mosque as he left dawn prayers in April 2017.

The attack drew nationwide condemnation in Indonesia, which suffers from endemic corruption. KPK, one of the few effective institutions in the nation of more than 260 million people, is frequently under leg-islative attack by lawmakers who want to reduce its powers.

National Police chief of detectives Listyo Sigit Prabowo said two members of an elite police mobile brigade were arrested late Thursday in Depok city on the outskirts of Jakarta.

Police were still interro-gating the suspects.

“This is just a preliminary interrogation and we cannot provide more details before our questioning process is com-pleted,” National Police spokesman Argo Yuwono said.

He said the arrests followed a long investigation that included medical, forensic and technical teams and involved the ques-tioning of 73 witnesses.

Baswedan was leading the investigation of a case in which 80 people, mostly officials and legislators, and several com-panies allegedly used the intro-duction of a $440m electronic identity card system in 2011 and 2012 to steal more than a third of the funds.

Across the country, protest encampments are bustling with volunteers trying to fill in for an absent state and cash-strapped charities that have closed their doors or reduced their activities in recent months due to deteriorating economic conditions.

08 SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019VIEWS

As poverty deepens, Lebanon protesters step in to help

With volunteer kitchens, makeshift clinics and donation centres, Leba-non’s protesters are

helping their compatriots survive the worst economic crisis since the civil war by offering services many can no longer afford.

“Our goal is to create a state of social solidary among all segments of society,” said Wael Kasab, a volunteer at an open-air kitchen in the southern city of Sidon.

Across the country, protest encampments are bustling with volun-teers trying to fill in for an absent state and cash-strapped charities that have closed their doors or reduced their activities in recent months due to deteriorating economic conditions.

Their efforts come amid warnings by the World Bank of an impending recession that may see the proportion of people living in poverty climb from a third to half the population.

In Sidon’s main protest camp, volun-teers scoop rice and stew onto plastic plates.

They reg-ister names of people in need of medical

care to refer them to a clinic for free treatment.

Under a plastic tent, Zeinab Najem arranges clothes on a metal rack as a group of women peruse a collection of thick winter jackets.

Najem said she first started the donation centre with only 10 items of clothing, but now her tent “looks like a store”. “There are many people in need,” she said.

A few metres (feet) away from Sidon’s protest camp, charity groups have set up a kitchen that serves free meals to around 100 people per day.

Sitting at a plastic table in the res-taurant, Abu Ahmad eyes a tin tray filled with stuffed courgettes, salad and rice. “I cannot afford to buy my own food,” said the 83-year-old. “I will be full today... but I’m scared of the coming days.”

Lebanon, rocked by two months of anti-government protests and a political deadlock, faces its worst eco-nomic crisis since the 1975-1990 civil war. A liquidity crunch has pushed Lebanese banks to impose capital con-trols on US dollar accounts, capping withdrawals at around $1,000 a month.

As a result, the value of the Leb-anese pound against the dollar has dropped by around 30 percent on the unofficial market, leading prices to rise. The faltering economy has also pushed many companies into bank-ruptcy, while others have laid off staff and slashed salaries.

In the northern city of Tripoli, where more than 50 percent of the population lives in poverty, the effects of the crisis are stark.

The volunteer kitchen in the main protest camp there serves around 2,500 meals a day to long queues of hungry people flocking from all corners of the country’s second city.

Stores near the encampment are empty of clients, while shop owners sit idly outside.

To help small businesses survive the crisis, a group of volunteers col-lected 7m Lebanese pounds (around $4,500 based on the official exchange rate) in donations.

They used the money to buy 130 food baskets consisting of rice, sugar, lentils, flour and oil, said Sara al-Sharif, who started the project.

The food was purchased from around 30 stores in Tripoli’s poorest district to help boost business, she said. Had it not been for that initiative, grocery store owner Damal Saqr, 50, said he would have closed shop.

“I was on the verge of closing down... because of inflation and the (de facto) devaluation of the Lebanese pound.”

He said that his daily earnings do not exceed $12, barely enough to cover the $500 he needs every month to cover rent for his home and store.

“I can’t afford to buy goods for the store anymore,” he said.

In Beirut’s main protest camp, vol-unteers dressed in neon-yellow vests pack the back of a truck with piles of donated food. Near the main central bank building in the capital, cardboard boxes and rubbish bags filled with donations line the sidewalk.

Protesters there chant against the ruling class as they distribute clothes, blankets and mattresses to the needy.

“It is our national duty to mobilise and help each other,” said Sarah Assi, a volunteer.

“We have no other solution.”

MAHMOUD ZAYYAT & JANA DHAYBY TRIPOLI AFP

LEONID BERSHIDSKY BLOOMBERG

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We will not sit idly if they (US) continue

to interfere with our processes as a

sovereign state.

Salvador Panelo Philippine Presidential

Spokesman

Putin’s grand gas project makes sense now

In the space of just a few momentous weeks, one of Russian President Vladimir

Putin’s most ambitious projects - a Russian natural gas export system to match the new geopolitical reality rather than the Cold War-era one - has taken its final shape. It will probably last, without major change, until the end of Russia’s run as a top energy exporter.

The finishing touches to the project, begun in 2001 with the construction of the Blue Stream pipeline to Turkey, include the launch of the Power of Siberia pipeline to China on Dec. 2, last week’s US sanctions on the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to Germany, a new gas transit deal with Ukraine and the commissioning of the TurkStream pipeline, planned for January.

External pressure and market circumstances have helped shape the new Russian gas export system so that it can’t really be used as a sinister tool of Putin’s rogue foreign policy. Meanwhile, it’s structured in a such a way that post-Putin Russia will

still be able to maintain its energy market share and use it as a basis for useful trade partnerships. That makes it a positive part of Putin’s legacy, if not entirely thanks to Putin.

Russia inherited con-tracts from the Soviet Union to supply natural gas to Europe, one of the biggest sources of hard currency for Russia’s reeling post-Communist economy. But the Soviet pipelines were laid across Ukraine and Belarus, which were part of the empire. But they became inde-pendent nations that demanded transit fees and low-priced energy supplies in exchange for main-taining Russia’s energy supplies to Europe, or rather, to its ex-Communist part, where Russia and everything that came from it were newly unpopular.

At the same time, gas suppliers in Central Asia and Azerbaijan presented a com-petitive threat: It was rela-tively easy for them to pipe gas to Turkey, which could deliver it further to Europe.

In the 2000s, when Putin and his advisers nur-tured the notion of Russia as an “energy superpower,” it became clear to Kremlin strategists that they needed more flexibility to increase supplies and get more eco-nomic leverage over neighbors in Europe and Asia. Blue Stream, laid

across the bottom of the Black Sea to the Turkish port of Samsun and opened in 2003, was the opening move of the Putin gas game.

But Blue Stream’s capacity of 16 billion cubic meters of natural gas per year was dwarfed by the roughly 180 billion cubic meters the Soviet-built pipelines could export to Europe via Ukraine and Belarus. It helped Russia compete in Turkey, but didn’t solve the bigger problem of Russia’s dependence on Ukraine and Belarus. The share of European natural gas imports that came from Russia kept falling.

In 2011, Russia obtained full control over the Bela-russian gas transit system in exchange for discounted gas supplies. But Ukraine remained firmly in control of its pipelines, which accounted for the lion’s share of Russia’s export capacity.

Putin wanted more direct access to southern and western Europe. He wanted to be able to bypass Ukraine, for both economic and political reasons. The Ukrainian pipeline system, run by National JSC Naftogaz Ukraine, was falling into disrepair, and Gazprom, the Russian export monopoly for pipeline gas, feared it might have to invest in fixing it without

having much influence over its operation. At the same time, Putin wanted leverage over the Ukrainian government to keep it in Moscow’s orbit. Twice in the 2000s, Russia cut off gas supplies to Ukraine to try to bring it to heel, but without alter-native export routes, such tactics were unsustainable.

In 2012, Russia made another major move with the opening of Nord Stream, stretching across the bottom of the Baltic Sea to northern Germany. With a capacity of 55 billion cubic meters a year, it boosted Russia’s share of European imports. At the same time, Russia was planning a major pipeline to southern Europe, South Stream, across the Black Sea to Bulgaria. From there it would branch out to carry gas to Greece, Italy, Serbia and on to central Europe.

The 2014 Crimea annexation made it imper-ative for Putin to redraw the gas export map. Now, Ukraine wasn’t just an inconvenient partner, it was an adversary, and bypassing it became a geopolitical necessity for Putin. Europe, too, was more worried than ever about increasing gas exports from Russia, which could use it to expand its political influence. The European Union scuppered South Stream in late 2014 by putting pressure on Bulgaria.

Qatar has so far taken a number of strict measures to defeat terrorism and has adopted national legislation reflecting country’s sincere compliance to the international instruments to which it has acceded.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI

osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIALPivotal contribution

Being a responsible member of the world community, Qatar has taken a number of crucial steps to fight against the scourge of terrorism and combat money

laundering and terrorism financing.Qatar has so far taken a number of strict measures to

defeat terrorism and has adopted national legislation reflecting country’s sincere compliance to the international instruments to which it has acceded.

Qatar is also working in close coordination with coun-tries in the region and world to confront terrorism and achieve common goals towards peace and global stability. Along leg-islations and active role played by the country in coordi-nation with its allies to defeat terrorism globally, Qatar through Education Above All, Silatech and a number of other charity works is working to defeat the reasons behind ter-rorism like poverty, illiteracy, unemployment among others hence Qatar’s contribution to global fight against terrorism stands pivotal.

Qatar established the National Counter Terrorism Com-mittee at Ministry of Interior on March 26, 2007. The Com-mittee assumes its responsibilities in one of the most important security areas in order to ensure the achievement

of the strategy of countries in the fight against terrorism through the security related efforts and cooperation with the relevant bodies as well as the implemen-tation of the articles of conven-tions and laws to combat terrorism.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani issued on Thursday Amiri Law No. 27 of 2019 on counter-terrorism. H H the Amir also ratified a Cabinet decision No. 41 of 2019 issuing the executive regulations for law No. 20 of 2019 on combating money laundering and terrorism financing.

Meanwhile, Qatar Central Bank (QCB) has announced the adoption of the new executive regulations for Law No. (20) of

2019 issuing the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Law, which is based on the inno-vative and strict regulatory and legislative initiatives stipu-lated by this law regarding combating money laundering and terrorist financing issued on September 11, 2019.

The new executive regulations reflect the State of Qatar’s firm and continuous commitment to combating money laun-dering and terrorist financing as well as fighting illicit financing in all its forms.

QCB Governor H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud Al Thani said: “The new executive regulations come within the framework of upholding the provisions of Law No. 20 of 2019 issuing the Anti-Money Laundering and Combating the Financing of Terrorism Law, and the State of Qatar, thus stresses that combating money laundering and terrorist financing requires a strict and effective regulatory and leg-islative framework, whereby it determines the powers and responsibilities of each of the government agencies and rel-evant ministries, in relation to combating money laundering and terrorist financing.”

Protesters push carts loaded with food aid in Lebanon’s southern city of Sidon.

09SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019 EUROPE

Russia’s first hypersonic missiles enter serviceAFP MOSCOW

Russia’s defence minister told President Vladimir Putin yesterday that the first Avangard hypersonic missiles had been put into service, in a move hailed as a major coup for Moscow.

Analysts said Russia is the first country to put into combat service intercontinental ballistic missiles armed with hypersonic weapons that Putin said can travel 20 times faster than the speed of sound.

“The first missile regiment equipped with latest strategic missiles with the Avangard hypersonic glide vehicle entered service at 10am Moscow time on December 27”, Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu told a meeting in televised remarks.

He congratulated the military on what he said was a “landmark event for the country and the armed forces.”

Shoigu reported to Putin when the missiles entered service, a defence ministry official said.

Defence officials have earlier said that the first Avangard reg-iment was placed in the Orenburg region in the Urals.

“This is the f irst

intercontinental ballistic missile with the hypersonic glide vehicle in the world,” Vasily Kashin, a senior research fellow at Mos-cow’s Higher School of Eco-nomics, said. “It’s a major scien-tific achievement.”

Moscow said that it showed the Avangard missiles to US arms inspectors in late November in accordance with the New START treaty, which is due to expire in 2021.

The missile does not violate the treaty.

Putin unveiled the new weapon during his state of the nation address in 2018, saying it would defeat all existing missile defence systems.

He said at the time the missile was highly manoeuvrable and flew at 20 times the speed of sound.

Senior officials later said the intercontinental projectile was considerably faster.

Officials said the missile during tests reached the speed of Mach 27, or roughly 33,000 km per hour.

Mach 1 is a unit of meas-urement equivalent to the speed of sound.

In December last year, Deputy Prime Minister Yury Borisov claimed it was impos-sible to predict the missile’s movements, which meant “missile defence is practically rendered obsolete.”

“At this speed, not a single interceptor missile can shoot it down,” Borisov said at the time.

Speaking in December last year, Putin praised the successful tests of the missiles.

“This is a great, wonderful

gift to the country for the New Year,” he gushed.

Russia boasts of developing a number of “invincible” weapons that surpass existing systems and include Sarmat intercontinental missiles and Burevestnik cruise missiles.

This week, Putin said that Russia was no longer trying to catch up with the West on arms development.

“This is a unique situation in our modern history: they are playing catch-up with us,” he said.

Shoigu has said that new Russian weapons allow Moscow to ensure the country’s security without starting a costly new arms race with the West.

The New START, which caps the number of nuclear warheads well below Cold War limits, is the

last remaining major arms control treaty between Russia and the United States.

The Russian president has called for the speedy renewal of the treaty and complained that Washington showed no genuine interest in conducting talks on extending it.

He has warned of “global catastrophe” if Washington keeps dismantling an interna-tional arms control regime.

The United States earlier this year withdrew from the Cold War-era Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) treaty, which limited missiles that could hit European cities, after saying that Moscow was in violation.

Together with the INF treaty, New START was considered a centrepiece of superpower arms control.

Russia says Germany sought its help in murder caseANATOLIA MOSCOW

Germany requested Russia’s help in investigating the murder in August of a Georgian man in Berlin, but only after expelling two Russian diplomats in connection with the case, Moscow said.

“Official requests from Berlin were sent to Moscow on December 6 and 10, 2019. It was about providing legal assistance in the investigation of the murder of a former member of a North

Caucasian terrorist group, (Zelimkhan) Khangoshvili. This was done after the German gov-ernment’s groundless decision to declare two employees of the Russian Embassy in Berlin persona non grata,” said Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova.

“I can also say that the con-tacts between Russian and German law enforcement agencies and special services about the Khangoshvili case have been maintained since late August. Berlin itself admits this,”

the ministry spokeswoman added.

On December 4, Berlin expelled two Russian diplomats over Moscow’s alleged refusal to assist in the murder investi-gation. Russia has rejected the allegation, calling it “baseless.”

Khangoshvili fought against the Russian army during the Second Chechen War from 1999 to 2009 and worked in both Georgia and Ukraine against Russian interests, according to local media.

Commenting on relations

with the European Union, Zakharova said Moscow is “dis-appointed” about the EU’s decision to expand the term of sanctions against Russia.

“Unfortunate ly , the European Union has once again missed an opportunity to take the path of improving relations with its largest neighbour on the continent. Today, it is more than obvious that the tools of uni-lateral sanctions do not work,” she said, adding the EU has lost “hundreds of billions of euros” because of sanctions.

This is the first intercontinental ballistic missile with the hypersonic glide vehicle in the world. It’s a major scientific achievement: Vasily Kashin

Union boss defiant on France’s longest strike in decadesAFP PARIS

The boss of a hardline French trade union yesterday vowed to press on with a strike that has crippled transport in Paris for the past three weeks and is now the longest-lasting such action since the 1980s.

The strike against pension reforms championed by Pres-ident Emmanuel Macron began on December 5 and has cast a long shadow over celebrations in France for Christmas and the New Year.

Now on day 23, the union stoppage is longer than the noto-rious 22-day strike of the winter of 1995 under late president Jacques Chirac against welfare cutbacks which forced the then government into a U-turn.

The longest transport strike in France lasted for 28 days, also over Christmas, in 1986 and early 1987.

“It’s a strong movement and

still supported by public opinion,” said Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the CGT union as he visited picketing workers at a bus depot.

He lashed out at Prime Min-ister Edouard Philippe, who has said he wants no confrontation with the strikers, accusing him of not being true to his word.

“The government shows how agitated it is with this kind of conception of social dialogue,” said Martinez.

The strike was still para-lysing transport in Paris yes-terday, day the French capital should be crammed with shoppers seeking post-Christmas bargains or preparing for the New Year.

There appears to be no end in sight to the current movement with talks between the gov-ernment and unions only set to resume on January 7.

Just two driverless metro lines were working normally Friday and five lines were

completely shut down. National rail operator SNCF said six out of every 10 high-speed TGV trains were running.

Union activists also blocked four depots of Paris buses —which have largely kept running in the strikes with a much reduced service — early yes-terday before being dispersed

peacefully by Paris police, the local authorities said.

The unions are demanding that the government drops a plan to merge 42 existing pension schemes into a single, points-based system.

The overhaul would see workers in certain sectors —including the railways — lose

early retirement benefits. The government says the

pension overhaul is needed to create a fairer system.

But workers object to the inclusion of a so-called pivot age of 64 until which people would have to work to earn a full pension — two years beyond the official retirement age.

Passengers sit in a waiting room at Gare Montparnasse train station during a strike by all unions of French SNCF and the Paris transport network (RATP), in Paris, yesterday.

Austria’s Kurz, Greens chief see coalition deal by mid-JanuaryREUTERS VIENNA

Negotiations between Sebastian Kurz’s conservatives and the Greens in Austria are in their final stages and expected to result in a coalition government by mid-January at the latest, both party chiefs said yesterday.

“It is our goal to have a government by early to mid-January,” Kurz told a news conference in Vienna in reference to his talks with the Greens, who would enter national government in Austria for the first time.

The two parties’ positions differ con-siderably on many issues ranging from environment to migration and taxes, leaving many Austrians deeply septical about the prospects for a deal — but both sides had little option but to find ways to compromise.

Kurz’s previous governing coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPO) collapsed when a video surfaced showing then Vice-Chancellor and FPO leader

Heinz-Christian Strache at a dinner party in Ibiza offering to fix government con-tracts while in discussion with a woman posing as a Russian oligarch’s niece.

A coalition of the Greens and his Peo-ple’s Party would be a ticket back to power as chancellor for the 33-year-old Kurz and a chance to polish his credentials with the global climate movement that is having a big impact on policy-making in Europe.

Austria’s new coalition-building is being followed closely in Europe and especially in Germany where Chancellor Angela Merkel’s coalition with the Social Democrats is in jeopardy. Early elections could transpire, with Merkel’s Christian Democrats facing similar choices to Kurz in Austria.

“First, I hope this venture does not fail and second, I do not expect it to fail either,” Austrian Greens party chief Werner Kogler told reporters when asked whether the negotiations could still fall through.

The FPO scandal led to early

parliamentary elections in September in which the Greens made big gains, pro-pelled by climate change campaigners led by Swedish teenager Greta Thunberg. They secured 13.9% of the vote, their best result ever, after failing even to win a seat parliament in 2017.

Austrian media have said one area of apparent agreement is that “environmen-tally damaging emissions” will become more expensive but commuters unable to use public transport instead of their car will receive some kind of compensation.

Bosnia court jails former IS fighter for four yearsREUTERS SARAJEVO

A man who pleaded guilty to terrorism charges was sentenced to four years in prison yesterday for organising a terrorist group and fighting for IS in Syria, a Bosnian court said.

Ibro Cufurovic, from the northwestern town of Velika Kladusa, has been in custody since his extradition from Syria in April. He had previously been detained for about two years by a Kurdish militia in Syria.

The court cited mitigating circumstances while explaining its ruling on Cufurovic, who had used the name Abu Kasim Albosni during his five years in Syria, where he took part in militant activities alongside other Bosnians.

“The defendant admitted he was guilty,” said Hasija Masovic, the court council’s chairwoman. “At the time when he made the decision to leave for Syria, the defendant was only 19”.

Masovic said Cufurovic had repeatedly expressed regret for his actions and had attempted to return to Bosnia, according to the defence and witnesses.

Hundreds of Bosnian cit-izens are believed to have left to fight for IS in Syria and Iraq. Many foreign nationals are now in detention camps waiting to be handed over to their coun-tries of origin.

Last week, a group of 25 former IS fighters, women and children, some of them orphaned, returned to Bosnia.

Cufurovic had told the court that he fought in Syria in 2014 and 2015, but that he was detained in 2016 while trying to escape to Turkey with his family, and imprisoned.

Austrian Conservative leader Sebastian Kurz and Greens party chief Werner Kogler meet for coalition talks in Vienna.

Two asylum seekers commit suicide in GreeceAFP ATHENS

Two asylum seekers in their 30s who were living in a hotel packed with refugees in northern Greece hanged them-selves over Christmas, a charity said.

The two men, an Afghan father of two aged 32 or 33 and an Iraqi aged about 30, were found in the village of Mouries near the border with North Macedonia.

“We have terrible news from Mouries... two young men committed suicide yesterday and today,” the Greek Forum of Refugees said in a statement.

It said they had been living in a hotel housing between 350 and 400 refugees in Mouries.

The Afghan national was found on Wednesday hanging near a bridge not far from the hotel, while the Iraqi man was discovered by his roommate in one of the hotel corridors.

According to Greek author-ities, more than 40,000 migrants and refugees are being held often in desperate conditions in camps on several Greek islands.

Greece was overwhelmed by the migrant crisis which erupted in 2015 with tens of thousands of people arriving after making perilous crossings in barely seaworthy vessels via neighbouring Turkey.

Doctors Without Borders (MSF) has drawn attention to the particular plight of children in the Greek camps, and voiced fears that some are suicide risks.

10 SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019HOME

11SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Ireland issues record number of passports as Brexit date nearsBLOOMBERG LONDON

Ireland issued a record number of passports in 2019 as appli-cations from its citizens in the UK surged amid Brexit uncer-tainty.

More than 900,000 Irish passports were handed out this year, the foreign ministry said in an emailed statement. That was an increase of 7 percent on a year earlier.

Foreign Minister Simon Coveney said that “2019 was another bumper year for the passport service.”

Ireland has seen a jump in passport applications from people in the UK since the Brexit vote.

People with an Irish grand-parent or those born in Northern Ireland are also entitled to an Irish passport, making it the choice for many UK citizens seeking to retain an EU passport.

There were about 94,000 first-time applicants from people born in the UK.

The busiest months for UK applications were February and March, ahead of the original March 31 deadline for the UK to leave the EU.

There was another increase in UK applications in October, the foreign ministry said, before the revised Brexit date of October 31, which has since been extended until the end of January 2020.

Religion bill: Montenegro oppn leaders arrestedAFP PODGORICA

Montenegro’s opposition leaders were arrested yesterday after a dramatic night in parliament when their deputies violently protested the passing of a contro-versial law on religious freedom.

The law has become a flash-point for tensions between the government and the pro-Serb opposition which is close to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC), Montenegro’s main religious body.

The Church is particularly incensed over a clause requiring religious communities to prove ownership of properties from before 1918, when Montenegro lost its independence and joined a Serb-led kingdom, in order to keep them.

During the tense parlia-mentary debate that started on Thursday and stretched into the night, opposition MPs from the Democratic Front threatened to stoke unrest if the law was passed.

When amendments they proposed were rejected, oppo-sition members attempted to set

off a firecracker in the par-liament hall, destroy micro-phones and physically attack other politicians, according to a reporter at the scene.

After the melee, however, the law was passed.

A total of 22 people including 17 MPs were initially detained and escorted out of the assembly, police said in a statement early yesterday.

All but three were released yesterday morning, with oppo-sition leaders Milan Knezevic, Andrija Mandic and another MP held on accusations of “assaulting an official in the per-formance of his duties and pre-venting a policeman from car-rying out his duties”, police said.

The Serbian Orthodox Church, which runs hundreds of medieval monasteries and

churches on tracts of valuable land throughout the tiny country, has accused the government of using the law to appropriate church heritage and purloin its assets.

The ruling party denies this, saying it only wants to sort out ownership rights.

Church authorities in Mon-tenegro yesterday blamed the government for the incidents which it said caused “unimagi-nable divisions and hatred”.

“Orthodox believers are now expecting one of the hardest Christmases in Montenegro’s recent history,” the church said of a holiday that most followers celebrate on January 7.

It added that the police beat a priest and two supporters in northern Montenegro when they joined a protest over the law, which police denied as “untrue”.

On Thursday, Orthodox priests took part in a demon-stration against the legislation in the capital Podgorica, where a heavy police presence was deployed as the parliamentary debate began.

There were also attempts to

block roads in other parts of the country by the opposition’s sup-porters, local media reported.

In its statement, the Church accused Montenegro’s President Milo Djukanovic of wielding the law as part of his effort to revive the country’s independent Orthodox Church.

The Montenegrin Orthodox

Church declared its separation from the Serbian one in the mid-1990s, but it is still not recog-nised by most major churches.

President Djukanovic has, however, openly called for the “renewal” of the Montenegrin church, setting off tensions with Belgrade and with pro-Serb opposition groups.

Montenegro was part of the former Yugoslavia as was Serbia for nearly 90 years until its inde-pendence in 2006, and relations between the neighbours remain complicated.

Nearly 72 percent of Mon-tenegro’s population of 620,000 follow the Orthodox faith, mostly the Serbian branch.

Police officers carry away opposition deputy Slaven Radunovic from the Democratic Front, after they tried to prevent the vote on a bill on religious freedoms and legal rights of religious organisations in Montenegro Parliament, in Podgorica, yesterday.

Mexico President urges Bolivia to respect right of asylumREUTERS/MEXICO CITY

Mexico yesterday urged Bolivia’s new conservative government to respect its right to grant asylum to nine people at its embassy in La Paz, days after complaining that Bolivian government surveillance there has grown excessive.

“The right of asylum must be guaranteed,” Mexico’s leftist president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said when asked about the disagreement in a regular news briefing.

On Thursday, Mexico said it was asking the International Court of Justice to mediate in the dispute, which has chilled rela-tions between the two Latin American countries.

Bolivia’s government, headed by interim President Jeanine Añez, a former senator, took power last month when

long-serving leftist president Evo Morales resigned and fled to Mexico.

Morales quit under pressure from Bolivia’s armed forces after a presidential election that the Organization of American States (OAS) said was rigged in his favour.

He quickly accepted an offer of political asylum from Mexico, putting a strain on ties between Mexico the government headed by Añez, an opponent of Morales.

According to the Bolivian government, a former senior aide to Morales, Juan Ramon Quintana, is among the nine people who have taken asylum in the Mexican embassy.

The Bolivian government has not named all of the nine people inside the embassy. Those who have been identified, including Quintana, are allies of Morales wanted by the government for crimes including sedition and

armed revolt.Morales left Mexico this

month and is now in Argentina.

According to Mexico’s gov-ernment, Bolivia has issued arrest warrants for at least four

of the people inside the Mexican embassy and says they must face justice.

Virginia school system to allow students day off to protestAP FALLS CHURCH

One of the largest school districts in the United States has announced that it will allow students one excused absence per school year to participate civic activities such as protests.

Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia plans to start allowing the absences on January 27, 2020, news outlets reported. The district is the largest school system in the state.

Students in seventh through 12th grades can use the day for

“civic engagement activities” such as attending marches or meeting with lawmakers, according to district spokes-woman Lucy Caldwell.

The new policy was intro-duced by Fairfax School Board member Ryan McElveen, according to The Washington Post. He says the rule may be the first of its kind in the US.

“I think we’re setting the stage for the rest of the nation with this,” McElveen said. “It’s a dawning of a new day in student activism, and school systems everywhere are going to have to

be responsive to it.”But, some experts told the

Post that skipping school to attend protests tends to favour liberal causes.

“Kids on the right who are active, they tend to be doing it by preparing to run for school board, or being aides in legis-lature,” said Meira Levinson, a Harvard University professor who studies education.

“People who call themselves conservatives probably do still count respecting authority - staying in school — as a crucial and central tenet of the social order,”

said Thai Jones, a lecturer at Columbia University who studies radical social movements.

Students must give at least two days notice before the absence, school officials said. A parent or guardian has to give permission and students must fill out a form to explain the reason they’re missing school, McElveen said.

To address worries about accreditation, the student must stop by their school campus at least once on the day of their excused absence, McElveen said.

“The school board felt that

this was something that could be formalized and wanted to put it in writing,” Caldwell said. “There were many students who were engaged and have been engaged and it was decided that it was time to go ahead and put into place.”

Oakton High School senior Wendy Gao, 18, leads several groups that fight climate change and has missed five days of school in recent months to par-ticipate in activism. She told the Post she hopes the new policy will increase the number of stu-dents who attend climate strikes.

Church authorities in Montenegro blamed the government for the incidents which it said caused “unimaginable divisions and hatred”.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador addressing a press conference at the National Palace, in Mexico City, yesterday.

George Michael’s sister dies on anniversary of pop icon’s deathAFP LONDON

The sister of the late British pop icon George Michael was found dead on Christmas Day, three years to the day after the singer-songwriter passed away, the family and police said yesterday.

Melanie Panayiotou, 55, was found dead by her sister Yioda Panayiotou on Wednesday at her home in north London, according to reports.

“We can confirm that very tragically Melanie has passed away suddenly,” the family’s lawyer John Reid said in a statement. “We would simply ask that the family’s privacy be

respected at this very sad time,” he added.

George Michael died from natural causes at his home in

central England on Christmas Day in 2016.

Michael, whose real name was Georgios Kyriacos Panayiotou, sold more than 100 million albums throughout his career, producing hits including “Last Christmas” and “Wake Me Up Before You Go-Go”.

With the third anniversary of his death approaching, the family shared a statement on Michael’s official website her-alding the love still shown for him by fans.

Melanie Panayiotou was a hairdresser and makeup artist, who reportedly used to travel with her brother on tour to cut his hair.

Tributes are seen outside the late singer George Michael after his sister, Melanie Panayiotou, 55, was found dead, in London, yesterday.

Three dead in California fireAP HEMET

Two girls and their father were killed early yesterday when fire erupted in a Southern California apartment building and a boy rescued from the inferno was in grave condition, according to police.

Seven people were in the second-floor unit in an apartment complex in the city of Hemet, 120km southeast of Los Angeles, when the fire broke out.

Hemet police spokesman Nate Miller said the dead were 4- and 12-year-old girls and their father.

“One of the victims — a 41-year-old male was the father — and he went back inside to rescue other family members that were not able to get out,” Miller said.

An 8-year-old boy was hospitalised in grave condition, Miller said.

The names of the victims were not immediately made public.The cause of the fire was under investigation. Miller said there was nothing to indicate any criminal aspect to

the fire.

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Woman dies after entering US border custodyAP HOUSTON

“A 41-year-old Congolese asylum seeker died on Wednesday in US government custody shortly after she entered a border station in South Texas,” US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) said yesterday.

The CBP said the woman, who the agency did not identify, had arrived at an official port of entry in Laredo, Texas, early Tuesday afternoon. The woman came with paperwork that doc-umented a “previous medical condition,” CBP said.

The agency’s medical per-sonnel cleared her to be detained overnight.

The agency’s statement said the woman told CBP officers early Wednesday that “she was suffering from abdominal pain and had vomited.” The agency says it contacted emergency per-sonnel “immediately” and had

her taken to a local hospital.According to a statement CBP

gave members of Congress, the woman was diagnosed with acute kidney failure.

A congressional aide who spoke on condition of anonymity provided details from the statement. CBP did not identify her illness in its public statement.

“The subject’s health declined rapidly and she passed away at the hospital,” the CBP statement said.

She was traveling with her husband and two children, who were subsequently released.

Agents at official crossings between the US and Mexico have stopped tens of thousands of asylum seekers from entering the

country under policies enacted by President Donald Trump’s administration, limiting crossings at many ports to just a few people daily and forcing others to wait in Mexico.

CBP told Congress that its officers admitted the woman and her family as part of the daily number of people allowed to enter at the Gateway to the Americas bridge.

The agency says the Webb County medical examiner “has determined that the death is not suspicious, as the individual had a preexisting medical condition.”

CBP declined to answer follow-up questions about the case. The medical examiner’s

office and the embassy for the Democratic Republic of the Congo in Washington, DC, did not return messages.

At least 11 people died this year after entering CBP’s custody, according to statements posted on the agency’s website. Those people include a 16-year-old teenager from Guatemala who died of the flu inside a Border Patrol cell in Weslaco, Texas, in May. Surveillance video later showed Hernandez had been lying unresponsive for several hours despite the agency’s claims that it did regular checks on him.

The Department of Homeland Security’s inspector general last week cleared CBP of

any wrongdoing in the deaths of two children last December, 7-year-old Jakelin Amei Rosmery Caal Maquin and 8-year-old Felipe Gomez Alonzo. Both cases raised questions about whether the children received medical care quickly enough.

Jakelin was not transported from a remote border outpost to a larger Border Patrol station for seven hours. Felipe was taken to a hospital in New Mexico with a fever, released, than taken with his father to a holding facility at a highway checkpoint.

Several hours later, after agents had helped clean up his vomit, he was taken back to a hospital where he soon died.

Trump supporters enraged by cut scene in ‘Home Alone 2’ANATOLIA TRENTON

Donald Trump fans reacted angrily as news spread that the Canadian Broadcasting Corpo-ration (CBC) edited out the US president’s cameo appearance in the film ‘Home Alone 2’.

While Trump’s supporters were angry, Fox News hosts went apoplectic.

“Fox and Friends” co-host Ed Henry said the removal of the seven-second scene featuring Trump was a prime example of “Trump Derangement Syndrome” and co-host Katie Pavlich said it was “also censorship.”

But the CBC — Canada’s national public broadcaster —said the furor over the cut is much ado about nothing because the edit took place in 2014, a couple of years before Trump became president. He was removed from the 1992 tel-evised film to make more room for commercials.

“As is often the case with feature films adapted for

television, Home Alone 2 was edited for time,” said CBC spokesperson Chuck Thompson. “The scene with Donald Trump was one of several that were cut from the movie, as none of them were integral to the plot.

“These edits were done in 2014, when we first acquired the film and before Mr. Trump was elected president.”

But backers of the president, who is in the process of being impeached, tweeted their dis-pleasure with the CBC.

Frank DiBiase@DiBiase-Frank tweeted: “@CBC, how pathetic that Trump was edited out of Home Alone 2 while being aired on CBC.”

And Ryan Fournier@RyanA-Fournier tweeted: “CBC TV in Canada has cut Donald Trump’s Home Alone 2 cameo out of their broadcast. They’re so triggered by him that they had to edit him out of the film. Absolutely pathetic.”

The president’s son, Donald Trump Jr, took to Twitter, also calling the cut “pathetic.”

Newseum set to close its door

The CBP said the woman had arrived at an official port of entry in Laredo, Texas, early Tuesday afternoon. She came with paperwork that documented a “previous medical condition”.

Patrons viewing an exhibit on the September 11th attacks, including the television transmission antenna from the World Trade Center’s North Tower, as they visit the Newseum during its last week of operation before closing the museum, dedicated to news gathering and the First Amendment, in Washington, DC, yesterday. According to the Newseum website, they will close at the end of 2019 and place many of their artifacts in storage because “remaining in the current location has proved to be financially unsustainable”.

Search intensifies for lost helicopter off Hawaii islandREUTERS HONOLULU

Rescuers in Hawaii intensified their search for a missing tour helicopter with seven people aboard as daybreak hit the island of Kauai, the U.S Coast Guard said.

The owner of the helicopter reported on Thursday evening that the aircraft, whose six pas-sengers included two children, was overdue returning from a tour of the Na Pali Coast, the Coast Guard said in a statement.

At first light, the Coast Guard said it was deploying an HC-130 Hercules airplane an MH-65 Dolphin helicopter from the air, and the Cutter William Hart and a response boat from the sea.

Joining the search will be a USNavy Seahawk helicopter, the Kauai National Guard and the Kauai Fire Department, which will use its helicopter to search the shoreline and inland canyons, it said.

Spotify to suspend political ads in 2020REUTERS WASHINGTON

Spotify Technology SA said yesterday that it would pause selling political advertisements on its music streaming platform in early 2020.

The world’s most popular paid music streaming service, with nearly 141 million users tuning into its ad-supported platform in October, said the pause would extend to Spotify original and exclusive pod-casts as well.

The move, which was first reported by Ad Age, comes as campaigns for the US presidential election in November 2020 heat up.

Online platforms including Facebook Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google are under growing pressure to police misinformation on their platforms and stop car-rying political ads that contain false or misleading claims.

Twitter Inc banned political ads in October and, last month, Google said it would stop giving adver-tisers the ability to target election ads using data such as public voter records and general political affiliations.

“At this point in time, we do not yet have the nec-essary level of robustness in our processes, systems and tools to responsibly validate and review this content,” a Spotify spokeswoman said in a statement said.

“We will reassess this decision as we continue to evolve our capabilities.”

Spotify, which was only accepting political adver-tising in the United States, did not answer a question on how much revenue the company generates from political ads.

“Spotify wasn’t a widely used online advertising platform for campaigns before,” said Eric Wilson, a Republican digital strategist.

“But as other online platforms restricted their political ad inventory, advertisers were on the hunt for new options.”

The new policy will cover political groups such as candidates for office, elected and appointed officials, political parties, political action committees (PACs) and SuperPACS, as well as content that advocates for or against those entities.

The Spotify added that it will also not sell adver-tisements that advocate for legislative and judicial outcomes.

The move only applies to Spotify’s ad sales, not advertisements embedded in third-party content, though those will still be subject to Spotify’s broader content policies.

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Oil steadies near 3-month highs on US, Chinese economic data

Opec+ cuts can’t last forever, says Novak

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Steady growth in tourismto support real estate, hospitality sectors: EzdanTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar’s tourism sector is witnessing a remarkable growth and development across all levels, both in terms of legisla-tions and infrastructure, bolstered by development plans adopted by Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC). These factors contribute significantly to the hiking demand for resi-dential and hotel units, which will have positive impacts on the real estate sector, Ezdan weekly report noted.

According to figures on number of visitors to Qatar, it has been reported that visitors from abroad received during the first ten months of the year (from January to last October) increased to 1.66m, nearing an annual growth of 13 percent compared to the same period in a year earlier, Planning and Sta-tistics Authority revealed in a report.

This coincides with the opening of QNTC representative offices in the major exporting markets including United States,

Britain, France, Italy, Turkey, Russia, India, China and Southeast Asia. In addition, World Tourism Organization (WTO) has declared Qatar in the eighth rank in openness index and the first in the Middle East.

The incessant growth seen in tourism and its positive out-comes on the real estate sector are affirmed by the government measures applied to facilitate visa procedures, which allow natives of more than 80 coun-tries to enter Qatar without prior visa arrangements, in addition to increasing the overall occu-pancy levels in all hotels in variant rates.

With regard to real estate activity by value and the volume during the period from 15-19 December 2019, the Real Estate Registration Department regis-tered 51 real estate sales trans-actions, with a total value of approximately QR 256.6m, and transactions were distributed over seven municipalities: Umm Salal, Al Khor, Al Dhakhira, Doha, Al Rayyan, Al Shamal, Al Daayen and Al Wakra. The sales included land lots, residences,

multi-use buildings, multi-use space, and residential buildings.

Doha Municipality domi-neered by the highest deal in terms of value by selling a mixed-use land lot in the Leg-taifiya area on 14,180 square meters with a price per square foot that accounted for QR400, totaling QR 61.1m. Doha Munic-ipality ranked the second in terms of deal value emanating from the sale of a residential building in Al Sadd area spreading over 2249 square meters, at QR 1239 square foot, totaling QR30m.

China bucks global research cuts with record analyst countBLOOMBERG BEIJING

China’s brokerages have a record number of analysts on the rolls after a fourth straight year of hiring, bucking a global trend of investment banks scaling back on research.

Analysts registered with the Securities Association of China climbed to 3,225 as of December 26, an increase of 8 percent from 2018. By comparison, headcount at 12 major global banks shrank 8 percent to 3,500, on pace for the sharpest annual decrease since research firm Coalition Development started collating the numbers in 2012.

The divergence underscores seismic shifts in China’s $21 trillion capital markets. Rising foreign fund inflows as well as an uptick in stock and bond

issuance have boosted demand for analysis on everything from the macro economy and indus-tries to fixed-income and com-modities. Policy makers are also pushing local brokerages to become more competitive in preparation for a build-up by Wall Street giants including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. and JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Research is becoming a core offering with even smaller firms building teams, said Liu Yuanrui, president of Changjiang Secu-rities Co., a mid-size brokerage based in central China, which had over 90 analysts. “Every company realises it needs one.” Globally, research has been buf-feted by changes in technology and the demands of the market-place with the rise of auto-mation and passive funds -- trends that have been slower to catch on in China.

European rules known as MiFID II spurred the most recent wave of job cuts by forcing research costs to be separated from trading fees. Chinese firms focus on the vast domestic retail market and are largely shielded from MiFID II, which only applies to banks and brokerages that interact with European asset managers.

That’s not to say analysts in China has been insulated from bad news. Compensation struc-tures at local brokerages rely heavily on commission income from funds, something that’s been falling away since the market rout of 2015.

The dwindling commission pool has pressured salaries lower. About 45 percent of respondents to a recent New Fortune magazine survey of over 1,000 analysts reported a salary cut over the past year,

with almost a fifth saying their compensation declined by over 20 percent.

Analysts have been forced to focus on professional rankings to signal their abilities and boost earnings. While run-of-the-mill analysts with five years of experience make the equivalent of about $75,000 a year in China, someone on the New Fortune rankings, a hyper-competitive version of the Insti-tutional Investor poll and China’s biggest analyst contest, could easily take home $1 million or more.

The ploy came under regu-latory fire last year amid rising questions about how analysts behaved in order to secure votes for the competition. New Fortune suspended last year’s contest before resuming it in October with much less fanfare.

Despite the questions

around commissions and com-pensation, new research depart-ments are popping up at smaller brokerages such as Kaiyuan Securities Co. with China’s financial liberalization building optimism about new lines of business.

The Nasdaq-style STAR market launched to much fanfare earlier this year and brokers are looking for increased demand from new-comers to the asset man-agement space, including banks’ wealth management units and foreign institutional investors.

Still, Changjiang’s Liu doesn’t expect a significant pick up in income unless brokerages change their business models.

“Firms have to rethink the function of research teams because more profits cannot be derived from the current model,” he said.

UK eyes March budget and spending boost in North of EnglandBLOOMBERG LONDON

Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s (pictured) freshly re-elected government is seeking to hold its first Budget in March, rewriting spending rules as it does so, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Chancellor of the Exchequer Sajid Javid was forced to scrap his planned Autumn Budget because of this month’s snap election. A rescheduled event wasn’t expected until after the UK left the European Union on January 31, with some specu-lation it would happen as early as February.

Since winning the election, Johnson promised to heal divi-sions in a country that’s been split by Brexit, in particular by showing support for people in districts in the North of England who voted for his Conservative Party for the first time. Johnson’s

top adviser Dominic Cummings has also criticized Treasury spending rules for favoring London and the South East.

Ahead of the Spring Budget, the Treasury will change the formula used in its so-called “Green Book”, which guides investment decisions on every-thing from infrastructure to business development.

The aim is to narrow the productivity gap between the

north and south of England, which academics at Cambridge University last year described as “extreme” compared with other wealthy nations. They found the current cost-benefit analysis model favors investments in areas where the economy is already stronger.

A spokeswoman for the Treasury said: “We work across government to ensure investment is focused on where it is needed across the U.K. and delivers value for money for the taxpayer.” The changes to the investment rules were earlier reported by the Times newspaper.

Javid has set three fiscal rules for this government: To have the current budget in balance no later than the third year of the forecast period, to allow some borrowing for capital investment, and to reassess plans in the event of a pronounced rise in interest rates.

IMF says Turkish monetary easing went “too far”, calls for neutral fiscal policy in 2020REUTERS/ANKARA

The International Monetary Fund said yesterday that Turkey’s monetary policy easing had “gone too far” and called on Ankara to ensure that fiscal policy remained a main policy anchor. The central govern-ment’s budget deficit has widened this year as Ankara ramped up spending in the wake of a currency crisis that drove the country into recession.

In September, Ankara revised its budget deficit forecast for 2019 to 125bn lira ($21bn) from 80.6bn lira previously.

“While the recent fiscal stimulus has helped the economy recover, the underlying deficit has increased significantly. Directors recommended a broadly neutral fiscal stance in 2020,” the IMF said in its executive board assessment, adding that a “modest consoli-dation” is needed to ensure public debt remains low.

The central bank has cut its policy rate by 12 percentage points since July, after President Tayyip Erdogan fired the former governor for not heeding his calls to lower interest rates.

“Given still-high inflation expectations, directors stressed

that monetary policy should focus on durably lowering inflation, which would help per-manently lower interest rates. In this context, they noted that recent monetary policy easing has gone too far,” the IMF said. The independence of Turkey’s central bank has been a longlasting concern of investors, with Erdogan supporting the view that high interest rates stoke inflation.

The IMF called for clearer monetary and intervention policy to bolster the trans-parency and the credibility of the central bank.

Analysts registered with the Securities Association of China climbed to 3,225 as of December 26, an increase of 8 percent from 2018. By comparison, headcount at 12 major global banks shrank 8 percent to 3,500, on pace for the sharpest annual decrease since research firm Coalition Development started collating the numbers in 2012.

Robotic paintingRobotic arms paint a car at the BYD Automobile Company Limited Xi’an plant, in Shaanxi province, China.

Oi3oe

Cutting carbon footprint

China and the United States cooled their 17-month long trade war earlier this month, announcing a Phase 1 agreement that would reduce some US tariffs in exchange for more Chinese purchases of American farm products.

Oil prices hover near3-month highs on US,Chinese economic dataREUTERS LONDON

Oil prices steadied yesterday, hovering just under three-month highs as upbeat economic data from China and the United States and optimism over a trade deal between the two major econ-omies improved investor sentiment.

Brent crude was up 1 cent at $67.93 a barrel at 1307 GMT, and the West Texas Intermediate was up 4 cents at $61.72 a barrel.

Volume of oil trade remained thin in the Christmas holidays and New Year breaks.

Data yesterday showed profits at China’s industrial firms rose at the fastest pace in eight months in November.

Among sectors, the chemical, petroleum processing and steel industries reported recovering profits last month due to rebounding market demand and rising prices amid easing trade hostilities with Washington.

China and the United States cooled their 17-month long trade war earlier this month, announcing a Phase 1 agreement that would reduce some US tariffs in exchange for more Chinese purchases of American farm products.

The lingering ripple effect of

the trade row, however, showed up in data from Japan, the world’s third-biggest economy, on Friday as industrial output shrank for a second month in November.

In the United States, a survey on Thursday showed that online holiday purchases by US con-sumers reached a record, beating analysts’ expectations and sending US stocks to fresh.

US consumers are “showing few signs of tightening their purse strings, which is positive for oil also,” said Stephen Innes (pictured) chief Asia market strategist at AxiTrader.

US crude oil stockpiles likely declined last week, while inven-tories of gasoline were set to extend their build for the seventh straight week, an extended Reuters poll showed on

Thursday. The latest poll was conducted ahead of the weekly status report from the Energy Information Administration (EIA), an agency of the US Department of Energy.

The price Brent has jumped more than a quarter in 2019, while WTI is up around 35 percent, boosted by moves by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and other producers, including Russia, to curb production.

Opec+ this month decided to prolong its oil output restriction deal until the end of March and to deepen the cuts in order to balance out the oil market.

Nigeria LNG to boost output by 35% BLOOMBERG LAGOS

Nigeria LNG Ltd decided to proceed with the construction of the country’s seventh liquefied natural gas production train, which will boost the company’s output by 35percent.

Train 7 will increase the company’s competitiveness in the global LNG market, state-owned Nigerian National Petroleum Corp., said in a statement on its Twitter account.

“We are going to put in place a project that will ulti-mately deliver at least $20bn in net revenues to the country, create 10,000 direct jobs and 40,000 indirect jobs” Mele Kyari, group managing director of the NNPC, said in Abuja, the nation’s capital.

Africa’s largest oil producer lost its position as the fourth-biggest exporter of the fuel glo-bally to the US last year. Qatar and Australia produce three times as much as the West African nation. Russia also threatens to overtake Nigeria in global production.

The agreement to go ahead with the plant is a show of con-fidence in the country, Kyari said. Nigeria built its last LNG plant in 2007 and the decision to be build a seventh plant had been postponed several times before now.

The new train, which will take five years to complete, will cost about $10bn and will boost LNG output to 30 million tons a year from 22 million tons.

The NNPC is the company’s biggest shareholder with a 49 percent stake, followed by Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which owns 25.6 percent, Total SA which has 15 percent and Eni with 10.4 percent.

Bitcoin’s purported creator says his fortune may remain lockedBLOOMBERG PORTLAND

The man who claims he invented the world’s largest cryptocur-rency and was ordered by a judge to surrender about $3bn of his Bitcoin holdings said he may not be able to do so anytime soon.

In a statement to Bloomberg News, Craig Wright said that he “cannot be certain that infor-mation will in fact arrive” to help identify the coins he has to split in a legal dispute. The Australian scientist added that he hasn’t said the “private keys” to those coins would become available or be actually used next month.

Earlier this year, US Magis-trate Judge Bruce Reinhart in West Palm Beach, Florida, said Wright submitted false docu-ments and lied in the legal dispute. He ruled that the late Dave Kleiman owned half of all Bitcoins that Wright mined through 2013, and half of all intellectual property he created. At the time, half of the Bitcoins was valued at about $4bn, but the digital token’s price has declined since. The ultimate test may be whether Wright is actually able to deliver the

Bitcoins to his former partner’s estate.

Wright is a controversial figure, with many in the crypto-currency community believing he didn’t invent Bitcoin and doesn’t have any extensive holdings. Still, some investors have been concerned that a dump of the coins, supposedly locked in a complicated trust holding about $6 billion, could affect the market.

“I do not intend to dump my family’s BTC as some people suspect or want, as this would hurt many people in the industry,” Wright said in the statement, referring to his Bitcoin fortune.

Judge Reinhart found “clear and convincing evidence” that demonstrates the encrypted trust file doesn’t exist and that Wright’s testimony about it was “intentionally false,” Vel Freedman of Roche Freedman LLP, representing the Kleiman estate, said in an email. The plaintiffs’ position has always been that Wright has access to the Bitcoin now and “no bonded courier” needs to arrive for him to get access, he added.

The lawsuit hasn’t been resolved yet.

In this file photo Cargo ships seen berthed at Tanjong Pagar and Pulau Brani container terminals in Singapore. Several maritime transport organisations are proposing to create an innovation fund which would be financed by a fuel tax in order to conduct projects to reduce the carbon footprint of the sector, one of the most polluting in the world.

VW raises forecast for electric car productionAP FRANKFURT

Automaker Volkswagen is raising the bar for its plunge into battery powered cars, saying it will reach its goal of 1 million electric cars per year two years earlier than planned. The announcement yesterday comes as European automakers are under pressure to meet lower emissions limits aimed at fighting global warming.

The Wolfsburg-based auto-maker said that its core Volkswagen brand would turn out a million battery-only cars by the end of 2023 instead of end 2025, and would reach 1.5 million by the end of 2025.

Those numbers are a stark contrast to this year’s pro-duction of more than 70,000 e-cars and last year’s total of 50,000. Volkswagen is planning to raise its production and sales numbers by intro-ducing the ID.3, a battery model the company says will have the low price and longer range needed to transform

such cars from a niche product to one with mass acceptance. The ID.3 base model will cost under 30,000 euros ($33,500) and travel 330 to 550 kilom-eters (205 to 340 miles) on a single charge.

European carmakers must meet tougher limits on fleet average emissions of carbon dioxide from 2021 or face heavy fines. Analysts and carmakers say the only way they can do that is to significantly increase their sales of electrics.

Carbon dioxide is the primary greenhouse gas blamed by scientists for global warming. The new limit of 95 grams of CO2 per kilometer was set by the European Union to help meet the goals of the 2015 Paris climate accords aimed at lim-iting the global rise in temperature.

The company showed off the ID.3 at the Frankfurt auto show in September and will start delivering it to customers next year. It says it can make 330,000 per year at its factory in Zwickau in eastern Germany.

A grumpy 2020 for global growthAFP PARIS

US political clouds coupled with wider climate and digital trans-formations point to a tricky 2020 for the world economy, although experts say a lurch back to crisis is improbable.

The Organisation for Eco-nomic Co-operation and Devel-opment said last month that activity had been hobbled by weaker trade and investment in the past two years, as US Pres-ident Donald Trump pursued a trade war with China.

The OECD expects global growth to dip in the coming year to 2.9 percent, its lowest level since the world recession of 2009.

Trump appears to have struck a truce with China for now, under a “phase one” pact announced this month, but pre-existing tariffs remain in place and it will take time to demo-bilise their effects.

More broadly, the OECD contrasted proactive actions taken by central banks with the policy foot-dragging by govern-ments in the face of climate

change and the march of technology.

The International Monetary Fund was a little more optimistic in its latest World Economic Outlook, forecasting 2020 growth of 3.4 percent but warning nevertheless of a “syn-chronised slowdown and uncertain recovery”.

The rise of technological giants sitting on mountains of data is meanwhile challenging the distribution of wealth between governments and big business, and has the potential to reshape the world of work as artificial

intelligence exploits that data.The online arena has

emerged as another front for Trump’s trade wars, after he threatened tariffs on France over its digital tax imposed on the likes of Amazon, Facebook and Google. Europe is threatening a collective response.

Ludovic Subran (pictured), chief economist of German insurance giant Allianz, sees a global “purgatory of growth” coming up. Any systemic shock next year “will probably not be born in finance, but will be exog-enous, for example a big regu-latory shock on personal data, or in relation to the climate”, he said.

If Trump survives the impeachment process and wins a second term, he could “double the bet against China” at the risk of military confrontation, Subran added.

“The big issue is transfor-mation, digitalisation, electric mobility,” he said, fretting that an influx of cheap Chinese car batteries means “we are dreading the loss of many jobs”.

Since the financial crisis a

decade ago, central bank pol-icies have led to negative interest rates spreading in some countries, squeezing bank prof-itability and inflating private debt.

With growth faltering, the debate about wealth distribution will likely become still more acute. Anger at inequality runs like a thread through protest movements from rich Hong Kong to developing Chile.

US investor Steve Eisman of “The Big Short” fame thinks that another global crisis is unlikely, but the best that can be hoped for is a slow strangulation of growth.

“What will happen next time, whenever it does happen, will be your normal garden variety of recession where the economy slows and goes negative and people lose money. That’ll be painful enough,” Eisman said.

“A systemic crisis? Once was enough for our lifetimes,” he said, reflecting back on the implosion of 2007-2008 that made hundreds of millions for his hedge fund when he correctly foretold the US subprime collapse.

Vietnam makes ‘impressive’ growth despite global slowdownAFP/HANOI

Vietnam’s economy notched up an “impressive” 7 percent growth this year to beat its government-set target as the sustained US-China trade war dented economies worldwide. The spat between Washington and Beijing has dragged on for 18 months, as both have inflicted punitive tit-for-tat tariffs on hundreds of billions of dollars of goods.

But Vietnam has seen a leap in exports to the US, which has prompted businesses to migrate there from China as it is viewed as a safer, and cheaper, manufac-turing hub. Analysts have warned that short-term gains for coun-tries like Vietnam may drop off if the ongoing row continues. Yet 2019’s GDP surpassed the com-munist government’s set target of 6.8 percent, hitting 7.02 percent, according to figures released by

the General Statistics. The gains were “impressive” given the global context of slowing growth and worsening US-China trade tensions, said an online statement posted by the agency.

Trade turnover reached a record $517bn this year. But there remains a gradual decline in export growth, according to a World Bank report -- dropping from 21 percent in 2017 to 8 percent in 2019.

10,426.37 -18.15PTS0.17%

QSE FTSE100 DOW CRUDE

7,644.90 +12.66PTS0.17%

28,677.72 +56.33 PTS0.20% Dow & Brent before going to press

$61.72 +0.04

MARKETWATCH

14 SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019BUSINESS

Opec+ cuts can’t last forever, says NovakBLOOMBERG MOSCOW

Opec+ output cuts have stabi-lized the global oil market but can’t last forever, Russia said as uncertainty persists over the future of the agreement beyond March.

“Oil-production cuts can’t be eternal; we will gradually need to make a decision on exiting” the accord, Energy Minister Alexander Novak (pictured) said in an interview with state tele-vision channel Rossiya24. As one of the architects of the Opec+ deal, Russia’s view is key, though the nation’s oil producers have long pushed for a relaxation of output curbs.

Russia needs to defend its market share and let its oil com-panies develop new projects, Novak said. The minister didn’t specify when the country may decide to withdraw from the agreement, but said he expects to discuss the matter with his Opec+ counterparts next year. Global oil demand may surge as soon as next summer, he said.

Russia, which helped to cement the original deal

between the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries and its partners back in 2016, has shown this year that it’s getting weary of limiting supply. The nation has consistently failed to comply with its quota, over-shooting its target for eight months so far in 2019, according to Bloomberg calculations based on official statistics.

That trend has continued in December, with Russia pumping 11.252 million barrels a day so far this month, about 62,000 a day above target, according to official data seen by Bloomberg.

The country has come up with various explanations for its lack of compliance -- from the

limitations of a harsh climate to technical issues resulting from the Druzhba oil-contamination crisis. The nation’s largest oil producer, Rosneft PJSC, has crit-icized the Opec+ deal, saying it serves the interests of Saudi Arabia -- the de facto leader of Opec -- and the US.

In a revision to the deal in early December, Russia and its Opec+ partners agreed to deepen their curbs in the first quarter of 2020 to 1.7 million barrels a day. Russia is set to enlarge its cuts by 70,000 barrels a day to about 300,000 a day.

Nevertheless, the nation requested that condensate be excluded from its target. Novak has denied that the change is a loophole allowing Russia to pump more oil and claim com-pliance. While Russia’s official statistics don’t provide a breakdown for crude and con-densate, the Energy Ministry will regularly inform analysts, the media and OPEC about the composition of its output, Novak said.

Opec+ will meet in early March to discuss options for future cooperation on supply.

EU may need to extend deadline for trade talks with UK REUTER SPARIS/BERLIN

The European Union may need to extend the deadline for talks about a new trade relationship with Britain, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told French daily Les Echos in an interview published yesterday.

Von der Leyen said both sides needed to seriously think about whether there is enough time to negotiate a new trade deal and work out agreements about a series of other issues.

“It would be reasonable to evaluate the situation mid-year and then, if necessary, agree on extending the transition period,” she told the paper. Britain has set a hard deadline of December 2020 for reaching a new trade deal with the EU, betting that the prospect of another Brexit cliff-edge would force Brussels to move quickly to seal an accord.

In separate comments to German magazine Der Spiegel, von der Leyen said of Britain’s departure deadline, currently set as Dec.ember 31, 2020: “That worries me a lot, because time is extremely short for the mass of issues that have to be negotiated.” She said earlier this month.

Gold heads for best week since August BLOOMBERG SINGAPORE

Gold is heading for its biggest weekly advance in more than four months, setting the metal up for its best year since 2010.

Bullion held near the highest in seven weeks on Friday even as stocks climbed worldwide and US-China trade concerns eased,

which typically reduces investor appetite for haven assets like gold.

This week’s jump was probably driven by bargain-hunting, as investors bet that gold was poised for a rebound fol-lowing three months of price con-solidation, said Margaret Yang, an analyst at CMC Markets Singapore Pte. “A weakening dollar helped to propel precious metals prices

but this single factor is insufficient to explain a jump like this.”

Gold has gained about 18 percent so far this year, supported by trade frictions, easier mon-etary policy across the world’s leading economies and sustained buying from exchange-traded funds and central banks. Spot gold was little changed at $1,511.27 an ounce by 7:56 a.m. in

New York, after earlier touching $1,514.09, the highest since November 4. Prices are up 2.2 percent this week, heading for the biggest weekly gain since August 9.

Still, trading volumes are low, “warning that the magnitude of these moves might owe more to illiquidity than conviction,” said DailyFX strategist Ilya Spivak.

CROSSWORD

Ip Man 4: The Finale is a 2019 Chinese martial arts film directed by Wilson Yip and produced by Raymond Wong.

IP MAN 4: THE FINALE

MALL ROYAL PLAZA

Hero (2D/Tamil) 2:00pm; Spies In Disguise (2D/Amination) 2:00pm; Frozen II (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 4:15pm Miracle In Cell No. 7 6:45pm;3 Pol Trobol Huli Ka Balbon 4:30pm; Jumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 4:15 & 8:30pm; Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 6:00 & 11:30pm Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 8:30pm; El Folous A.K.A The Money (2D/Arabic) 2:15 & 6:30pm; IP Man 4: The Final 9:00pm; Ruler (2D/Telugu) 11:00pm; Trauma Center 11:15pm

Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 10:30am, 1:45, 5:00, 8:15 & 11:30pmHero (2D/Tamil) 11:45am, 5:45 & 11:45pmJumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 11:45am, 11:30pm; Thambi (2D/Tamil) 3:00 & 9:00pm; Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 2:30pm; Mamangam (2D/Malayalam) 5:30pm

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Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 1:10, 3:55 & 6:40pEl Folous A.K.A The Money 4:50, 9:35 & 11:55pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 10:30, 11:00am & 2:40pmGood Newwz 3 (2D/Hindi) 1:10, 6:40, 9:25pm & 0:10amIp Man 4: The Finale 5:25 & 11:45pm; Jumanji: The Next Level (3D/Action) 10;20am, 12:45, 3:10, 5:35, 8:00 & 10:25pm; Miracle in Cell No.7 (2D/Animation) 11:35, 2:00, 4:25, 6:50, 9:10 & 11:35pmSpies in Disguise (2D/Animation) 10:15am, 12:15, 2:15, 4:15, 7:35, 8;15 & 10:15pm;Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 11:50am, 2:40, 5:30, 8:20, 9:25 & 11:10pm; The Courier 12:40 & 1:20pmTrauma Center 11:20am, 3:20 & 9:40pm

Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 12:30, 1:00, 3:10, 3:40, 6:20, 8:20, 9:00 & 11:40pm; Frozen II (2D/Animation) 11:00, 4:00, 3:15 & 6:00pm; Good Newwz 3 (2D/Hindi) 12:30, 3:15, 6:00 & 11:45pm; Ip Man 4: The Finale 6:00, 9:20, 10:45 & 11:30pm; Jumanji: The Next Level (3D/Action) 110:30am,11:00am, 12:30, 3:30, 6:15, 8;15 & 8:45pmSpies in Disguise (2D/Animation) 2:00, 5:00 & 8:45pm; Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 1:00, 1:20, 2:45, 3:00, 10;45 & 11:15pmThambi (2D/Tamil) 11:00pm; El Folous A.K.A The Money (2D/Arabic) 4:20, 5:50, 6:20, 7:45, 8:00, 8;15, 10:15, 10:30 & 11:10pm

Prati Roju Pandaage (2D/Telugu) 2:00pm;Spies In Disguise (2D/Amination) 2:00pm; Hero (2D/Tamil) 2:15pm; Dabangg 3 4:00pm;Frozen II (2D/Animation) 2:15pm; Valiya Perunnal (2D/Malayalam) 4:00pm; Miracle In Cell No. 7 (2D/Tagalog) 2:30pm; Jumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 4:30 & 7:00pm;Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 6:15pm;Kettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 6:45pm; Driving License (2D/Malayalam) 7:00 & 11:15pm; El Folous A.K.A The Money 7:00 & 9:15pm; Ruler (2D/Telugu) 11:30pm;Trauma Center 9:15pm; IP Man 4: The Final 9:30pm

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16 SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019CLASSIFIEDS

ANATOLIA/THE PENINSULA ANKARA

Major sports events that took place in the year of 2019.

JANUARYJanuary 11:��UEFA, European football’s

governing body, announced the Team of the Year 2018. Fans voted online to select players. Superstars Lionel Messi (Bar-celona) and Cristiano Ronaldo (Juventus) were in this team.

January 17:��Qatari driver Nasser Saleh

Al Attiyah and co-driver Matthieu Baumel of France win the 2019 Dakar Rally in Peru. It was Al Atti-yah’s third Dakar Rally title.

January 21:��Argentine football player

Emiliano Sala gets killed in a plane crash in the English Channel. Sala, 28, was on his way to join his new club Cardiff City from Nantes.

January 26:��Japan’s Naomi Osaka, 22,

beats Petra Kvitova 2-1 to gain the 2019 Australian Open Women’s Singles title.

January 27:�� Serbian tennis player

Novak Djokovic wins the 2019 Australian Open title in Men’s Singles after he defeats his Spanish rival Rafael Nadal 3-0 in final.

FEBRUARYFebruary 1:�� Qatar national football

team win their first Asian Cup, beating Japan 3-1 in final.

February 4:��New England Patriots beat

Los Angeles Rams 13-3 in the Super Bowl to win sixth NFL title in history.

MARCHMarch 7:�� Los Angeles Lakers’

American superstar LeBron James scored 31 points against Denver Nuggets in NBA game to beat a Chicago Bulls legend, Michael Jordan, who had 32,292 points in his career. James tallied 32,311 points in total to surpass Jordan. The NBA’s all-time top scorer is a retired player, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, who dropped 38,387 points in the league.

March 11:��French manager Zinedine

Zidane returns to Spanish La Liga giants Real Madrid to work as a manager for the second time in his career.

APRILApril 2:�� The German Football

Association (DFB) President Reinhard Grindel resigns.

April 20:�� Italian football power-

house Juventus lift their eight consecutive Serie A title, beating Fiorentina 2-1 at home.

�� Juventus forward Ronaldo becomes first player to win titles in three major

leagues, English Premier League, Spanish La Liga and Italian Serie A.

April 27: ��Barcelona win Spanish

La Liga title with three weeks remaining in the season.

MAYMay 12:�� Manchester City beat

Brighton 4-1 to win the English Premier League title.

May 15:��Ajax Amsterdam win 34th

title in Dutch top-tier Eredivisie league, beating De Graafschap 4-1.

May 18:�� Bayern Munich hit Ein-

tracht Frankfurt 5-1 to win their 28th title in Germany’s top football league, Bundesliga.

May 29:��Chelsea bag UEFA Europa

League trophy over 4-1 win against Arsenal.

JUNEJune 1:�� Liverpool claim UEFA

Champions League title over a

2-0 victory against Tottenham Hotspur in Madrid.

June 5:��A Swiss-Italian national,

Gianni Infantino is re-elected FIFA President for another four years.

June 9:�� Spanish tennis player

Rafael Nadal wins the French Open title, beating Austria’s Dominic Thiem 3-1.

June 11: ��Barcelona superstar Messi

becomes the most paid athlete in the world with $127m, Forbes says.

June 13:�� Spanish football giants

Real Madrid sign Belgian mid-fielder Eden Hazard from Chelsea. “Los Blancos” (The Whites) pay $112 million transfer fee to Chelsea to set new club record.

June 14:��The Toronto Raptors -- the

only NBA team outside the US- become 2019 NBA champions after beating Golden State War-riors 114-110 in the finals.

JULYJuly 12:��Barcelona sign French star

Antoine Griezmann from La Liga rivals Atletico Madrid, paying €120m ($134.9m) for the buyout clause to acquire Griezmann.

July 13:��Romanian tennis player

Simona Halep beats her US opponent Serena Williams 2-0 to win the 2019 Wimbledon title in women’s singles.

July 14:�� Serbian tennis player

Novak Djokovic defeats Swiss Roger Federer 3-2 to win the 2019 Wimbledon title in men’s singles.

July 19:�� Algeria earn their first

Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) title in 29 years, defeating Senegal 1- 0 in the Egyptian capital Cairo.

AUGUSTAugust 12:�� A former Inter Milan,

Galatasaray and Al Gharafa star, Dutch attacking midfielder Wesley Sneijder, 35, retires from football. Sneijder helped Inter win 2010 UEFA Champions League.

August 14:��Liverpool capture the 2019

UEFA Super Cup in Istanbul’s Vodafone Park Stadium after beating Chelsea 5-4 on penalties.

August 18:��English football veteran

Ashley Cole retires from football at the age of 38, ending a 20-year professional career.

August 29:��Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool’s

Dutch defender, is named the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year.

SEPTEMBERSeptember 8:��American Serena Williams

is defeated 6-3, 7-5, in the women’s final of the United States Open by Bianca Andreescu who becomes the first Canadian to win the title.

September 9:��Spanish Rafael

Nadal wins the US. Open to claim his 19th Grand Slam title.

September 15:

�� Spain win 2019 FIBA Basketbal l World Cup title, beating A r g e n t i n a 95-75 in final in Beijing. Spanish play-maker guard Ricky Rubio is picked as the Most Valuable Player (MVP) of the World Cup.

September 21: ��Barcelona’s Messi receives

the Best FIFA Men’s Player 2019 award.

September 29: ��Serbia bag the gold medal

in the CEV Men’s Volleyball European Championship by beating Slovenia 3-1 in the final.

OCTOBEROctober 4:�� American Dalilah

Muhammad breaks her own world record in the 400-meter hurdles in 52.16 seconds at 17th World Athletics Championships in Doha.

�� Mutaz Essa Barshim, Qatar’s champion high jumper has wins the Gold Medal at the IAAF Doha 2019 after clearing the 2.37m.

October 8:�� Female athlete Simone

Biles becomes the most decorated gymnast in World Championships history with her 21st gold medal.

October 30:�� A Nepali mountaineer

Nirmal Purja climbs the world’s tallest 14 peaks in six months to break the world record.

NOVEMBERNovember 3:�� Kenyan athlete Daniel

Kipkore Kibet wins the 41st Istanbul Marathon men’s title by breaking the 42 km Istanbul Mar-athon track record while Ethi-opian athlete Hirut Tibebu wins women’s title at the interconti-nental Istanbul Marathon.

�� Mercedes team’s driver Lewis Hamilton secures the 2019 Formula 1 title at the US Grand Prix with a second-place finish at the Circuit of the Americas.

DECEMBER December 3:��Messi receives the 2019

Ballon d’Or award, his sixth.December 9:��The World Anti-Doping

Agency (WADA) hands a four-year ban to Russia for major sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 World Cup.

December 15:��Tokyo National Stadium

declared ready for 2020 Summer Olympics as the Japanese prime minister, Shinzo Abe opens it.

December 19:�� Belgium’s National

Football Team tops the FIFA World Ranking in 2019.

December 21:��Liverpool win 2019 FIFA

Club World Cup after beating Bra-zil’s Flamengo 1-0 in the final in Qatar.

December 25:��Spain’s Real Madrid heads

UEFA’s list of all-time top 30

clubs of European Cup with 6 0 0 points.

SPORT17SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019

I don’t think it is fair on the boys at all. I don’t think it is

fair to be expected to perform at the best of your level, both

mentally and physically, 48 hours after you have played.

Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer becomes the latest EPL manager to complain about the packed programme of fixtures over Christmas and New Year.

Highlights of the year

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August 29:� Virgil van Dijk, Liverpool’s

Dutch defender, is named the UEFA Men’s Player of the Year.

SEPTEMBERSeptember 8:� American Serena Williams

is defeated 6-3, 7-5, in the women’s final of the United StatesOpen by Bianca Andreescu who becomes the first Canadian to winthe title.

September 9:� Spanish Rafael

Nadal wins the US.Open to claim his 19th Grand Slam title.

September 15:

� Spain win 2019 FIBABasketbal lWorld Cup title, beatingA r g e n t i n a95-75 in finalin Beijing. Spanish play-maker guard RickyRubio is picked asthe Most Valuable Player (MVP) of theWorld Cup.

QDecember 25:� Spain’s Real Madrid heads

UEFA’s list of all-time top 30

clubs of European Cup with 6 0 0points.

December 2: Barcelona's Lionel Messi wins his 6th Ballon d'Or award

Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) President Stanislav Pozdnyakov holds a

press conference in Moscow after WADA handed a four-year ban to Russia for

major sporting events including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2022 World Cup.

Qatar’s captain Hassan Al Haydos (centre) raises the trophy as he celebrates their win during the AFC Asian Cup final against Japan held at the Mohammed Bin Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on February 1.

January 17: Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and co-driver Matthieu Baumel of France win the 2019 Dakar Rally in Peru.

October 4: Qatari high jumper Mutaz Essa Barshim becomes the world champion after winning the gold medal at the IAAF Doha 2019 World Athletics Championships.

Australia vs New Zealand

Boxing Day Test, Day 3 in

Melbourne

South Africa vs England

Boxing Day Test, Day 3 in

Centurion

CRICKET CRICKET

TO

DA

Y’S

AC

TIO

N

AFP MELBOURNE

Australia snatched two early wickets to leave New Zealand facing an uphill battle to stay in the second Test yesterday as they chase the home team’s 467, built on the back of a gritty 114 from Travis Head.

At the close on day two, the Black Caps were 44 for two with Tom Latham not out nine and Ross Taylor on two as a series defeat looms.

Captain Kane Williamson lasted only 14 balls, skying a James Pattinson delivery to wicketkeeper Tim Paine on nine while Tom Blundell, called up for the out-of-form Jeet Raval, was out to Pat Cummins for 15.

The visitors need to win to square the three-match series after crashing by 296 runs in the opening day-night clash in Perth.

Australia looked in complete control at tea on 431 for five, but they then collapsed to be all out for 467 within nine overs of the restart.

Skipper Paine departed for 79 seven balls after tea, with Mitchell Starc gone soon after for one. Head, Cummins and Nathan Lyon rapidly followed with Neil Wagner (4-83) and Tim Southee (3-103) doing the damage.

Australia started the day at 257 for four with Steve Smith on 77 and Head not out 25.

Head came into the match under pressure after a lean spell, but silenced his critics with only his second Test century, reaching three figures off 222 balls.

It was a patient innings from the 25-year-old, who scored his only other century (161) against Sri Lanka in Canberra. After reaching his ton he began hitting out and finally fell to a Wagner full toss, slicing it to Mitchell Santner. He was ably supported by the impressive Paine, who

played an array of shots to notch his seventh Test half-century off just 72 balls. The 35-year-old had a golden opportunity to score a maiden ton, but he blew it, out lbw to Wagner after a review.

That brought Starc to the crease, but he lasted just three balls before spooning a Southee delivery to Williamson at mid-off. Cummins and Lyon managed just one run between them with Pattinson left not out 14.

It was a big turnaround for New Zealand who were buoyed after snaring the vital wicket of Smith for 85 before lunch, but then failed to capitalise.

Smith looked set for a 27th Test century and his fifth in as many Tests at the Melbourne Cricket Ground before a Wagner bouncer ended his 242-ball knock. It had been slow going as pace spearheads Trent Boult, Southee and Wagner kept the batsmen in check,

Australia (1 Innings)J Burns b Boult .......................................0

D Warner c Southee b Wagner .......... 41

M Labuschagne b de Grandhomme .. 63

S Smith c Nicholls b Wagner ...............85

M Wade c Watling b de Grandhomme ..

38

T Head c Snatner b Wagner .............. 114

T Paine lbw Wagner .............................79

M Starc c Williamson b Southee ...........1

J Pattinson not out .............................. 14

P Cummins c Latham b Southee ..........0

N Lyon c Wagner b Southee ..................1

Extras (lb22, b5, w4) ......................... 31

Total (all out) ............................. 467Fall of wickets: 1-1, 2-61, 3-144, 4-216,

5-284, 6-434, 7-435, 8-458, 9-463, 10-

467

Bowling: Boult 31-3-91-1, Southee

33.1-6-103-1, de Grandhomme 30-5-68-

2, Wagner 38-11-83-4, Santner 20-1-

82-0, Blundell 3-0-13-0

New Zealand (1 Innings)T Latham (batting)..................................9

T Blundell c Paine b Cummins ............ 15

K Williamson c Paine b Pattinson ........ 9

R Taylor (batting).................................... 2

Extras (LB3, B4, W1, NB1) ...................9

Total (two wickets) ..................... 44Fall of wickets: 1-23, 2-39

Bowling: Starc 4-0-18-0, Cummins 7-3-

8-1, Pattinson 5-1-9-1, Lyon 2-0-2-0

SCOREBOARD

18 SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019SPORT

I won’t go into it too far because I’ll get in trouble but I’m just seeing time and time again, what I see to the naked eye, or watching it on television in real time, and then what it comes up is sometimes a little bit off the mark: Tim Paine

Wickets tumble on day two at CenturionAFP CENTURION, SOUTH AFRICA

Vernon Philander led a relentless South African bowling performance before England fought back on the second day of the first Test at Centurion’s SuperSport Park yesterday.

Philander took four for 16 in 14.2 overs as South Africa appeared to have taken control by bowling out England for 181, a first innings lead of 103.

But England struck hard at the start of the second innings. South Africa were 72 for four at the close, an overall lead of 175 on a pitch which has proved dif-ficult for batsmen throughout.

Philander, 34, who has announced he will retire from international cricket at the end of the four-Test series, produced a master class of control to com-plement the strike power of fast bowlers Kagiso Rabada (three for 68) and Anrich Nortje (two for 47).

Wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock equalled the South African Test record by holding six catches, a feat which had been accomplished six times before - on four occasions by new head coach Mark Boucher.

Joe Denly hit a half-century for England after a shaky start.

He shared in partnerships of 55 for the third wicket with captain Joe Root (29) and 72 for the fourth wicket with Ben Stokes (35).

Denly was dropped on nought and took 28 balls to score his first run as Philander had an opening spell of one wicket for no runs in five overs.

But Denly survived the initial fast bowling storm and gradually asserted himself to make 50 off 111 balls with nine fours.

England collapsed, however, after Denly was caught behind off an inside edge to give all-rounder Dwaine Pretorius his first Test wicket.

Fast bowler Anrich Nortje bowled Jonny Bairstow for one in the next over and then claimed the key wicket of Stokes when he switched to bowling around the wicket and induced a loose drive which presented wicket-keeper Quinton de Kock with his fifth catch of the innings.

Nortje bowled at high pace, with a top speed of 149kmh.

From a promising position at 142 for three, England lost their last seven wickets for 39 runs. But wickets continued to fall when South Africa batted again. James Anderson, who dis-missed Dean Elgar with the first ball of the match on Thursday, again claimed a wicket in his first over when Aiden Markram played around his pads and was leg before wicket. Zubayr Hamza was caught by wicketkeeper Jos Buttler down the leg side before Elgar was caught behind for 22 off Jofra Archer’s second ball to reduce South Africa to 29 for three.

England’s Jofra Archer is bowled out by South Africa’s Vernon Philander during the first Test at the Supersport Park, Centurion, South Africa, yesterday.

Australia take charge of second Test

Australian batsman Travis Head celebrates scoring his century against New Zealand on the second day of the second Test match at the MCG in Melbourne, yesterday.

Archer in no-ball controversyAFP CENTURION, SOUTH AFRICA

England’s Jofra Archer was no-balled and warned for a high no-ball but appeared to escape sanction for a second high delivery in a controversial end to the second day of the first Test yesterday.

South African captain Faf du Plessis and coach Mark Boucher were understood to have approached match referee Andy Pycroft after the close of play but there was no imme-diate statement on what transpired.

“The match referee has deferred the situation for comment to the International Cricket Council communica-tions department. We have been asked to leave it to them,” said a South African team spokesperson.

“There was a little bit of conversation going on after the game,” said South African opening bowler Vernon Philander.

“The umpires have to deal with it. Hopefully they will make the right call.” Although Philander said it was a matter for the umpires he offered his own opinion.

“For me it’s plain and simple. You are setting an example for the rest of the people looking into this game. You have to make the right call. Are you going to tolerate it at another game or are we going to put a stop to it right here?”

Square leg umpire Chris Gaffaney signalled no-ball when an attempted slower ball by the England fast bowler went past nightwatchman Anrich Nortje in the penultimate over of a dramatic day during which 15 wickets fell.

The next delivery also was high and full, which had Nortje falling to the turf to avoid being hit, as Archer again tried to bowl his slower “knuckle” ball.

Umpire Gaffaney appeared to start signalling another no-ball, which could have resulted in Archer not being allowed to bowl again according to International Cricket Council regulations. But he seemed to check his signal. The umpires spoke to Archer and the over was called.

Paine blasts DRS technology after controversial dismissalAFP MELBOURNE

Australia captain Tim Paine blasted cricket’s Decision Review System yesterday, saying it left him “disap-pointed and angry” after he was dismissed controversially in the second Test against New Zealand.

Paine played one of his best innings and was on track to score a maiden Test century when he was removed lbw by Neil Wagner for 79 after New Zealand reviewed the umpire’s original not out decision.

He was asked about the DRS by broadcaster ABC afterwards and replied: “Don’t start.”

“I thought from the length that it pitched, and the bloke bowling around the wicket, it’s pretty difficult to hit you in line, and hit the stumps,”

he said of the delivery. Some com-mentators agreed that it was hard to see how Wagner’s ball could have cut back into Paine so much, struck him in line and gone on to hit middle stump.

Paine’s disappointment was compounded by New Zealand’s Ross Taylor surviving a review late in the day after initially being given out lbw. The ball looked to be hitting the stumps but the tracking technology showed it going over.

“And then you get one late tonight which, the guy’s stuck on the crease, he’s hit really full and it’s going over, so it’s disappointing and it makes me angry,” said Paine.

“I’ve got a few doubts, no doubt about that,” he added of the tech-nology’s accuracy.

“I won’t go into it too far because I’ll get in trouble but I’m just seeing time and time again, what I see to the naked eye, or watching it on tel-evision in real time, and then what it comes up is sometimes a little bit off the mark.”

Australian batsman Tim Paine pulls a ball away from the New Zealand bowling on the second day of the second Test match at the MCG in Melbourne, yesterday.

South Africa (1 Innings)D Elgar c Buttler b Anderson ...............0

A Markram c Bairstow b Curran .........20

Z Hamza c Stokes b Broad ..................39

F du Plessis c Root b Broad ................29

H van der Dussen c Root b Curran ....... 6

Q de Kock c Buttler b Curran ..............95

D Pretorius c Root b Curran ................ 33

V Philander c Buttler b Broad ............ 35

K Maharaj c Stokes b Archer .................6

K Rabada b Broad ............................... 12

A Nortje (not out) ..................................0

Extras (LB4, NB2, W3) .........................9

Total (84.3 overs) ..................... 284Fall of wickets: 1-0, 2-32, 3-71, 4-97,

5-111, 6-198, 7-245, 8-252, 9-277

Bowling: Anderson 20-4-69-1, Broad

18.3-4-58-4 (1nb, 1w), Curran 20-5-58-4

(2w), Archer 19-4-65-1(1nb), Root 4-0-

26-0, Denly 3-0-4-0

England (1 Innings)R Burns c De Kock b Philander .............9

D Sibley c De Kock b Rabada ................4

J Denly c De Kock b Pretorius .............50

J Root c De Kock b Philander ..............29

B Stokes c De Kock b Nortje ............... 35

J Bairstow b Nortje .................................1

J Buttler c De Kock b Philander .......... 12

S Curran c Hamza b Rabada ...............20

J Archer b Philander .............................. 3

S Broad c Elgar b Rabada ..................... 2

J Anderson (not out) ..............................0

Extras (B4, LB5, NB2, W5) ................ 16

Total (53.2 overs) ...................... 181Fall of wickets: 1-11, 2-15, 3-70, 4-142,

5-143, 6-150, 7-176, 8-176, 9-181

Bowling: Rabada 15-1-68-3 (2nb), Phi-

lander 14.2-8-16-4, Pretorius 8-2-23-1,

Nortje 12-2-47-2 (1w), Maharaj 4-1-18-0

South Africa (II Innings)A Markram lbw b Anderson .................. 2

D.Elgar c Buttler b Archer ...................22

Z Hamza c Buttler b Broad ...................4

F du Plessis c Curran b Archer ............20

H van der Dussen not out .................... 17

A Nortje (batting) ..................................4

Extras (b1, lb1, nb1) ............................. 3

Total (4 wkts, 20 overs) .............. 72Fall of wickets: 1-2 , 2-25 , 3-29, 4-62

Bowling: Anderson 4-0-19-1, Broad 5-2-

6-1, Archer 6-1-37-2 (1nb), Curran 4-2-8-0,

Stokes 1-1-0-0

SCOREBOARD

19SATURDAY 28 DECEMBER 2019 SPORT

Liverpool thrash Leicester to stretch leadAFP LONDON

Liverpool stretched their Premier League lead to 13 points by outclassing second-placed Leicester in a 4-0 win on Boxing Day as Manchester United and Tottenham cut the gap on fourth-placed Chelsea.

Mikel Arteta got off to an underwhelming start as Arsenal manager with a 1-1 draw at Bournemouth, but Carlo Ance-lotti had a more positive impact on his Everton bow as Dominic Calvert-Lewin’s brilliant diving header earned a 1-0 win over Burnley.

Chelsea beat Tottenham in a big win for Frank Lampard over his former mentor Jose Mourinho on Sunday, but the gap between the two is back down to three points as the Blues lost 2-0 at home to lowly Southampton.

Spurs came from behind to beat Brighton 2-1 thanks to goals from Harry Kane and Dele Alli, while United moved just a point further back in seventh as they too overturned a poor start to thrash Newcastle 4-1 with Anthony Martial scoring twice.

Liverpool’s trip to their closest challengers was the top billing of a busy Boxing Day card, but there was no contest as the newly crowned world cham-pions showed their class.

“It’s one of many successful nights so far this season,” said

Liverpool midfielder James Milner.

“We are not even halfway and so much can change and happen. The strength of this team is we take it one game at a time.” Roberto Firmino’s header was scant reward for a dominant first half display as Sadio Mane and Mohamed Salah wasted big chances.

However, three goals in seven minutes in the final

quarter ensured the scoreline fairly reflected their control.

Milner doubled the visitors’ lead before Firmino’s classy finish made it 3-0.

Trent Alexander-Arnold helped set up all of his side’s first three goals and rounded off a stunning individual display by drilling home the fourth from outside the box.

After the highs of Sunday, Chelsea again struggled when

faced with breaking down stubborn defensive opponents in Southampton.

The Blues have now lost to West Ham, Bournemouth and the Saints in their last four home league games.

Southampton boss Ralph Hasenhuttl’s decision to rest in-form talisman Danny Ings paid off as his replacement Michael Obafemi scored just his second Premier League goal with

a calm finish into the top corner.The visitors then secured a

second straight win to move up to 14th when Nathan Redmond prodded past the onrushing Kepa Arrizabalaga 17 minutes from time.

Spurs were still feeling the after-effects of that Chelsea defeat with Son Heung-min sus-pended and confidence low when Adam Webster headed Brighton ahead midway through the first half.

Kane swept home at the second attempt after his first shot was saved by Mat Ryan before Alli then delivered all three points with a delightful chipped finish from an acute angle.

United were also beaten 2-0 at bottom-of-the-table Watford on Sunday and another frus-trating evening seemingly beckoned when Matty Longstaff scored his second Premier League goal - both of which have come against the Red Devils.

However, unlike when the Magpies beat Ole Gunnar Solska-jer’s men 1-0 in October, the response from United was emphatic.

Martial fired in at the near post with the help of Newcastle ‘keeper Martin Dubravka before a thundering finish from Mason Greenwood and Marcus Rash-ford’s header made it 3-1 before the break.

Another defensive error then teed up Martial to dink over

Dubravka for the fourth early in the second half.

Arteta got an early lesson in the flaws that have blighted Arsenal’s season as they were caught out trying to play from the back to concede the opening goal when Dan Gosling put Bourne-mouth in front.

Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang again rode to the Gunners’ rescue to equalise just after the hour mark, but a point leaves Arsenal still down in 11th.

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp celebrates after the English Premier League match against Leicester City at King Power Stadium in Leicester, central England on Thursday.

English Premier League English Premier League results

on Thursday:

Aston Villa 1 (Hourihane 64) Norwich 0Bournemouth 1 (Gosling 35) Arsenal 1 (Aubameyang 63)Chelsea 0 Southampton 2 (Obafemi 31, Redmond 73)Crystal Palace 2 (Kouyate 68, Ayew 90) West Ham 1 (Snodgrass 57)Everton 1 (Calvert-Lewin 80) Burnley 0Leicester 0 Liverpool 4 (Firmino 31, 74, Milner 71-pen, Alexander-Arnold 78)Manchester United 4 (Martial 24, 51, Greenwood 36, Rashford 41) Newcastle 1 (M Longstaff 17)Sheffield United 1 (Norwood 36-pen) Watford 1 (Deulofeu 27)Tottenham 2 (Kane 53, Alli 72) Brighton 1 (Webster 37)

Solskajer slams festive fixture pile-upAFP LONDON,

Manchester United’s Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has become the latest Premier League manager to complain about the “unfair” packed programme of fixtures over Christmas and New Year.

United play their final league match of 2019 against Burnley today, just over 48 hours since competing a 4-1 comeback win over Newcastle.

Those matches form part of a sequence of seven games in 21 days that is hard to square with modern notions of rest and recovery.

But such is the commercial appeal of the traditionally con-gested programme that change does not appear likely anytime soon, even though Jurgen Klopp, the manager of runaway leaders Liverpool said recently it was a “crime” for teams to have to play on both December 26 and 27.

“I don’t think it is fair on the boys at all,” said United manager Solskjaer.

“I don’t think it is fair to be expected to perform at the best of your level, both mentally and physically, 48 hours after you have played.

“But I think we are in the best position to perform on Sat-urday. One -- the game was over after 45 minutes. Two -- we are young,” the former United striker added.

“We have a great chance against Burnley to perform at the best level because our boys, when you are 23, which is the average age of the outfield starting players (against Newcastle), that will make it easier for us to recover than Burnley, for example. I think.

“They played until the end against Everton. We were done after 45 minutes and used the second half as recovery.

“But it is not fair, especially when a game at Watford has just gone and there will be a game New Years’ Day.

“Two games in three days is possible once in a while but not when it is as tight as this.”

Defending champions PSG march towards another Ligue 1 title AP PARIS

Paris Saint-Germain has not been as ruthlessly dominant as last season but the defending champion is again enjoying a comfortable lead at the winter break thanks to its inconsistent rivals.

PSG has played 18 of 38 matches - meaning it has one game in hand on most teams - but its three defeats so far are three more than at the same point last year and equal to the entire previous season.

Why has this made little dif-ference? Second-place Marseille left it late to get going, and Lyon appears incapable of main-taining good form over long spells. Despite taking 19 points from the last seven games, Mar-seille sits seven points behind PSG - effectively 10 if PSG wins its extra game.

Monaco, the flamboyant 2017 champion, still has title-winning coach Leonardo Jardim in charge.

But the Principality club is 17 points behind in seventh place and is no threat.

Even less so Lyon, which finished third last season but has been cut adrift and lan-guishes embarrassingly in 12th spot as new coach Rudi Garcia struggles.

Anything other than another PSG title seems unrea-sonable to expect given its immense firepower, the regular goals from loan signing Mauro Icardi and, especially, the increasingly menacing part-nership between Neymar and Kylian Mbappé.

Still, André Villas-Boas has done well in his first season in charge of Marseille, a tur-bulent club where managerial changes happen regularly because demands from the soccer-mad city’s fans are often so unreasonably high. After all, Marseille remains

France’s only Champions League winner - in 1993 - while PSG has never reached a European Cup final.

Rudi Garcia paid the price at Marseille and made way for Villas-Boas, little more than one year after leading the south-coast club on a remarkable run to the Europa League final in 2018.

Villas-Boas has won the dressing room over - which is often the hardest thing to do at Marseille - and stylish attacking midfielder Dimitri Payet is recapturing his form in a bid to make France’s European Cham-pionship squad next year.

In tandem, Villas-Boas and Payet can be expected to help secure second place and bring Champions League soccer back next season.

Mbappé has taken the league by storm, with his pace, ball control at speed, and lethal finishing.

After clinching both the league’s Player of the Year and top scorer awards last season, don’t bet against him doing so once more.

Despite only recently turning 21, he has already netted 105 career goals - including 18 in 19 games overall this season - and provided 50 assists in a career seemingly destined to take him to great heights.

Mourinho hopeful Ndombele will return against NorwichAFP LONDON

Tottenham Hotspur manager Jose Mourinho hopes club-record signing Tanguy Ndombele will declare himself fit to play at Norwich today.

The Spurs boss has revealed that the French mid-fielder asked not to be included for Thursday’s Boxing Day win over Brighton as he was concerned he might not be fit.

But he has trained since and now Mourinho is looking to help him fill a midfield gap caused by the absence of the suspended Harry Winks and Moussa Sissoko, while Son Heung-min is also serving a ban and Dele Alli looked to be strug-gling in the latter stages against the Seagulls.

Mourinho, asked if he was upset by the decision of Ndombele, whose transfer from Lyon could yet cost Spurs some $79m, to make himself una-vailable against Brighton, answered: “I think Ndombele was honest. Football players like to play football.

“For him to say, ‘I don’t feel confident, I don’t feel in the best condition due to my previous injuries’, he was just being honest.

“And we had solutions. We had (Eric) Dier, we had (Harry) Winks, we have (Oliver) Skipp who is a great kid fighting to improve, for a place.

“I hope Friday morning after training he can come back to me and say ‘I’m ready to help the team’.”

Erik Lamela, however, had no qualms about throwing back himself into the fray, even though he has been sidelined since October with a hamstring injury.

After only two sessions under Mourinho, he told the Portuguese manager he was ready to play against Brighton if needed.

“Lamela, he was fantastic,” said Mourinho. “I think it was 56 or 57 days that he didn’t train with the team.

Arsenal’s Xhaka wants Hertha Berlin move in January: AgentREUTERS LONDON

Arsenal midfielder Granit Xhaka (pictured) wants to leave the Premier League club in the January transfer window and sign with Bundesliga side Hertha Berlin, the player’s agent said.

Xhaka has had a fractured relationship with the fans since he reacted angrily to being booed when he was substituted against Crystal Palace in October.He was subsequently stripped of captaincy by former manager Unai Emery.

“Look, I will say it frankly and honestly, we are in agreement with Hertha BSC and would like to go to Berlin,” Xhaka’s agent Jose Noguera told Swiss publication Blick.

“We told Arsenal’s (head of football) Raul Sanllehi and sports director Edu as well as the new coach Mikel Arteta.

“Arsenal were informed about all the steps, the player and Hertha are clear. It is only (a matter of) the transfer fee for the clubs.” Xhaka was signed from Borussia Monchengladbach in 2016 for around $39m and has

made 150 appearances since, scoring 11 goals and providing 17 assists. New boss Arteta had publicly backed Xhaka to succeed at the north London club, even mentioning that the Swiss international was on his transfer list when he was assistant manager at Manchester City. However, the agent said the Spanish coach had privately told Xhaka that he was free to leave the club in the close season, which irked the 27-year-old.

Hertha are 12th in the standings with 19 points -- four points above the relegation zone.

Paris Saint-Germain forward Kylian MBappe runs with the ball during the French L1 match against Amiens at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris in this December 21 file picture.

AFP MOSCOW

Russia yesterday formally contested a four-year ban from major sporting events over doping violations that President Vladimir Putin has condemned as “unjust,” the head of its RUSADA anti-doping agency said.

“In accordance with estab-lished procedure, today we have sent a package of documents to the World Anti-Doping Agency,” RUSADA director general Yury Ganus told reporters in Moscow.

“The package contains a notice about disagreement with WADA sanctions.”

Ganus, who has long argued for a major crackdown by Russia against doping cheats, warned that the legal challenge could backfire, however.

The formal statement of dis-agreement with WADA will trigger an appeal process against the ban at the Lausanne-based Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

Ganus, whose rigorous stance puts him at odds with his own government and super-visory board, argues that

Moscow needs to accept the sanctions and own up to its faults in order to be able to reform.

He however said he was obliged to relay the position of the supervisory board.

He said he also sent a letter to WADA informing the anti-doping agency of his personal stance.

“I regret to inform you that all my attempts, including attempts to introduce changes to the RUSADA notice, have failed,” said the letter.

Ganus told AFP on Thursday that “it is practically impossible” to contest the ban.

WADA this month banned Russia for four years from major global events, including the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, over manip-ulated doping data.

Under the sanctions, Rus-sians will still be allowed to compete, but only as neutrals and if they can demonstrate that they were not part of what WADA believes was a state-sponsored system of doping.

Putin has called the sanc-tions politically motivated,

indicating a lengthy legal battle loomed.

He argued that the majority of Russian athletes were clean and should not be deprived of the right to compete under the Russian flag due to the actions of some individuals.

Ganus warned that con-testing the doping ban could in fact make matters worse because CAS could make sanctions against Russia more severe.

He referred to the position

of United States Anti-Doping Agency chief Travis Tygart who has called for a blanket ban on Russian athletes at the Tokyo Olympics.

Tygart said that allowing “neutral” Russian athletes to compete at the Olympics in 2016 and 2018 had been ineffective.

“WADA must get tougher and impose the full restriction on Russian athlete participation in the Olympics that the rules allow,” Tygart said in November.

Speaking to AFP on Thursday, Ganus said he had information that his British counterpart could also call for severe sanctions against Russia.

The suspension was handed to Russia over falsifying data from a doping testing laboratory that was handed to WADA earlier this year as part of a compliance re-instatement process.

The significant extent of state-sponsored doping in Russia, notably between 2011 and 2015, was revealed in an independent report by sports lawyer Richard McLaren, released in 2016.

The issue has dealt a colossal blow to the status of post-Soviet Russia as a major sports power after hosting events such as the 2013 World Athletics Champion-ships, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi and the 2018 World Cup.

The Sochi Games later became notorious for the number of doping violations by prominent Russian athletes.

The doping scandal has also divided Russian sports stars, with three-time world champion high jumper Mariya Lasitskene calling for sports officials to be held to account over the ban.

SPORTPAGE | 18 PAGE | 19

Wickets tumble on day two of

first Test at Centurion

Premier league: Liverpool thrash Leicester 4-0 to stretch lead

Saturday 28 December 2019

Qatari national volleyball team players and officials during a training session in Doha. Qatar will play a friendly match against Iran today as they prepare for the Asian qualifiers for 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. The Asian qualifiers are scheduled to be held in China from January 7 to 12. The team is coached by Ali Abdullah Al Haddad.

Russia appeal against WADA ban

Young riders shine at 1st round of QMA ChallengeQNA DOHA

Qatar Motorsports Academy (QMA) celebrated the1st round of the QMA Challenge at Losail Circuit Sports Club (LCSC). A total of 44 children took part in the event.

The QMA Challenge is a new championship with three races scheduled during all the 2019 / 2010 season.

All the young riders that have been training during the season

competed in the on road track (Karting Area) in different cate-gories: 18 riders in Minimotard 70, 11 riders in MiniGP 110, 4 riders in Supermotard 125, and 6 riders in SSP300.

There was an exhibition with 5 beginner riders in the Rookies category where they practice different technical exercise in front of the public.

In the Minimotard 70 cat-egory, there was a qualifying round to decide which riders pass to the final race. British

rider Bobby Danvers and Qatar’s Shaikha Al Remaihi finished first and second respectively to advance.

In the Minimotard 70 final race, the victory was for the American rider Salman Pathan, who complete the 8 laps with a total time of 6:25.322. Pathan was followed by the Spanish rider Miguel Roda and in third place by Agatha Muscolino from Italy.

In the category of MiniGP 110, there was also a Last

Chance race where the first and second position was for the Malaysian riders Alya Maisarah and Johaan Ameer Zarfan respectively.

In the MiniGP 100 Final race, the podium was for last years winner in the Minimotard70, Nolann Macary from France, who completed the 12 laps with total time of 8:12.228. Egyptian rider Mahmoud Elbanna finished second and Carlos Baquero fin-ished in third place respectively.

There was one Final race only for the Supermotard 125 with the victory of the Italian rider Nicola Muscolino with a time of 8.46:164 to compete the 12 laps. Sami Salvaggio from Belgium finished in second place and the Malaysian rider Syafiq Bin Zairin completed the podium.

In SSP300 there was also one Final race, with the victory of the Qatari rider Hamad Al Saouti with a time of 8.21:492 to compete the 14 laps. Saad

Alharqan also from Qatar fin-ished in second place and the French rider Alexian Macary completed the podium.

Trophies were presented by LCSC Vice President and General Manager Khalid Al Remaihi, LCSC Chief Executive Officer Juan Baquero, Head of QMA Jose Luis Cardoso and QMA Coaches Alberto Moncayo, Ruben Herrera, Andrea Sibaja and Mateo Tunez.

The other rounds will be held on April 4 and 18.

gue: rash0 to

AC Milan’s Swedish forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic celebrates in during the UEFA Champions League round of 16 first leg match against Arsenal in this February 15, 2012 file photo.

Ibrahimovic returns to AC MilanAP MILAN

Veteran striker Zlatan Ibrahi-movic is returning to help his struggling former club AC Milan.

The 38-year-old Swede has agreed a deal until the end of the season with the option to extend the contract for another season, the Italian club announced in a statement yesterday.

Ibrahimovic scored 56 goals in 85 appearances for the club and helped it to win the league title in 2011 and the Italian Super Cup the same year.

Although he then moved to Paris Saint-Germain, and sub-sequently to Manchester United and the LA Galaxy, he always spoke fondly of his time with the Rossoneri and left the door open for a move back.

“I’m coming back to a club

I hugely respect and to the city of Milan I love,” he said after rejoining.

“I’ll fight together with my team-mates to change the course of this season. I will do everything to make it happen”.

Having also played for cross-city rival Inter Milan and Juventus, Ibrahimovic has been named the best player in Serie A three times and best foreign player five times.

The deal is subject to

medical examination and Ibra-himovic will be in Milan on January 2 to take it, before joining his team-mates for his first training session.

His arrival will be a boost for seven-time European champion Milan, which is mired in 11th place - a humili-ating 21 points behind leader Inter - and endured its heaviest league defeat in 21 years when it lost 5-0 at Atalanta on Sunday.

Boxing Day Test under threat from climate change: Report suggestsIANS MELBOURNE

One of the most famous fixtures in world cricket, the Boxing Day Test played in Australia at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, could soon be under threat from climate change, a new report has suggested.

In decades to come, extreme heat will eventually make the yearly match which sees Australia take on a visiting nation at the MCG a thing of the past, according to Monash University’s Climate Change Com-munication Research Hub.

“Despite the extensive heat management resources available to professional teams, continuing to play the Boxing Day Test in its current format at the end of December will expose players and fans to unprecedented levels of extreme heat,” ABCnews quoted the report as saying.

“If no effective climate miti-gation action is taken, consideration should be given to moving the Mel-bourne Test to the shoulder season.”

The report further suggested that the Boxing Day Test must be moved to either November or March.

The study, commissioned by the Australian Conservation Foun-dation (ACF), urges Cricket Aus-tralia to use its prominence to push for greater climate action and do more to look after player and spec-tator welfare.

In 2018, England Captain Joe Root had to be rushed to hospital with severe dehydration during the Sydney Test as temperatures reached 42 degrees Celsius on the pitch.

The report further said that Aus-tralian summers would only get hotter, with more days over 35 degree Celsius in December in the next 40-60 years.

Qatar to play friendly against Iran

Head of Russian Anti-Doping

Agency (RUSADA) Yuri Ganus

demonstrates a calendar during a

news conference in Moscow, Russia.