Magnificent Murray on top of the world

BUSINESS | 21 SPORT | 31

75% of outlets leased in Magical

Festival Village

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Volume 21 | Number 6972 | 2 RiyalsSunday 6 November 2016 | 6 Safar 1438

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation (QF), at the launch of QF's new 3D animation ‘edutainment’ TV series titled ‘Siraj’ yesterday.

Iraq's Air Force Club coach Basim Qasim Hamdan Al Suwaid (centtre) raises the trophy as he celebrates on the podium with his team after beating India's Bengaluru FC to win the AFC Asian Cup football final at the Qatar Sports Club Stadium in Doha, yesterday. Air Force Club beat Bengaluru FC 1-0. → See also page 31

Iraq's Air Force Club wins AFC Cup

QF's 3D animation series Siraj launchedThe Peninsula

HE Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation (QF) attended the launch

of QF's new 3D animation ‘edutainment’ TV series titled ‘Siraj’ yesterday.

The series, which premiered at Education City’s Ceremonial Court last evening, is designed to take children aged 2 – 8 years on an educational journey of discovery, while instilling a love of the Arabic language from an early age. The animated series follows Rashid and his older sister Noura, along with a group of friends. Their adventures, set and inspired by Qatari landmarks, aim to enter-tain and educate, while stimulating creativity and innovation through imagination. Each epi-sode is dedicated to a specific letter of the Arabic alphabet, and centers around helping children learn the Arabic language (Fus’ha).

H E Sheikha Hind said: “Preserving the Ara-bic language requires us to work together, encouraging our children to learn our language and uphold our culture.”

→ Continued on page 4

Revised rules for school licensingMohammed Osman The Peninsula

Private Schools are not permitted to receive gifts or donations from any sources without prior per-

mission from the Ministry of Education and Higher Educa-tion, according to revised licensing guidelines issued by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Private Schools are also required to provide the Minis-try, before the beginning of every academic year, with details of tuition fees and other charges that will be collected from the students.

The revised guidelines for licensing of private schools have been issued by the Private Schools Office at the Ministry as the ministry has invited appli-cations from individuals and companies who are interested to open new private schools.

The guidelines aim to achieve some specific goals including unification of the pro-cedures, requirements and conditions and streamlining the mandate of the competent departments at the ministry and their responsibilities towards

the applicant, as well as the responsibilities of the applicant, the Ministry said yesterday.

The conditions and proce-dures specified in the guidelines need to be fulfilled by the appli-cant to obtain a licence.

Private schools have been instructed to provide parents with all information about the school and its services, while the Ministry will provide par-ents with necessary data about the performance of the school and its grading to help them select a school.

→ Continued on page 4

Safety training for private school bus driversSidi Mohamed The Peninsula

Drivers of private school buses lacking safe driv-ing skills and awareness

about the traffic law face the risk of being subject to punitive action. School buses are also under monitoring to ensure they meet the required safety stand-ards, an official has said.

In a bid to upgrade drivers’ skills and teach them modern

safety procedures, a British com-pany’s traffic safety specialists will give awareness lectures on safe driving and traffic rules to drivers of private school buses.

The General Directorate of Traffic at the Ministry of Inte-rior in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education will execute the plan, in collaboration with the British company. According to the plan, drivers of private school buses will have to pass

an examination conducted by the company at the end of the three-day course. Otherwise their names will be sent to the Ministry of Education and Higher Education for necessary action, while the successful drivers will be given certificates of eligibility.

“The company will conduct a test at the end of the course and anyone who fails will be included in the list to be sent to the Ministry of Education and

Higher Education by the Traffic Department.

In case of mistakes commit-ted by any driver included in the list the Ministry will have to bear responsibility," an official of the Traffic Department told The Peninsula. The three-day course will include theoretical and practical lessons, and the schools will bear the cost of the course which will be moderate, the offi-cial added.

→ Continued on page 4

'Shop with Confidence' initiative launchedThe Peninsula

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce has launched an initiative

called “Shop with Confidence” for ensuring transparency in promotions and protecting con-sumer rights.

The aim of the initiative, according to the Ministry, is to enhance transparency in busi-ness transactions and develop confidence between suppliers and consumers.

The ministry emphasised that it has coordinated with all commercial complexes to put the initiative mark “Shop with Confidence” in a clear manner in their promotion advertisements to show

consumers that they have approval from the Ministry for the offer.

All invoices should include the initiative mark. The aim of this initiative is to prevent any violation or fake or unlicensed promotions.

Along the initiative mark, there is the direct contact number of the Ministry — 16001 — for approaching it in case of complaint, said the Ministry yesterday in a statement.

The ministry emphasised that it will inspect all shopping complexes to ensure compliance.

It urged consumers to have bills and check the price-list showing the price before and after promotion.

Race tightens as Hillary and Trump launch ultimate frenzyWashington

AFP

Polls in the last week of the presidential campaign showed the race tighten-

ing between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump.

Prone to dangerous tangents,

the Republican managed to stay on message. And Democratic heavyweights led by President Barack Obama launched a final frenzy of campaigning for Clinton.

A brutal, divisive and at times tawdry election campaign that began nearly two years ago ends

on Tuesday night, with 82 per-cent of Americans saying they are sick of it.

Clinton was the clear favour-ite two weeks ago but her lead has narrowed in battleground states and at the national level.

She has gone from a seven-point cushion at the national

level on October 18 to just 2.4 points, according to a polling average compiled by RealClear-Politics: 45.3 percent for her, compared to 42.7 percent for Trump as of Friday.

The candidates are neck and neck in several key battleground states including Florida and

North Carolina. Obama, Vice-President Joe Biden, former president Bill Clinton, Senator Bernie Sanders, Senator Eliza-beth Warren and Chelsea Clinton were all mobilised this week in a last ditch push to get out the Democratic vote in swing states.

→ See also page 18

Qatar elected to ILC for fourth straight timeNew York QNA

QATAR was voted for the fourth consecutive time to the UN Interna-

tional Law Commission (ILC) as Qatar's candidate H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, the public prosecutor and the UN special lawyer on anti-cor-ruption, was re-elected in the secret ballot that the UN Gen-eral Assembly held to choose 34 members of ILC on the sidelines of the 71st session.

Al Marri secured 128 votes out of 193 possible votes to carry on his membership of ILC, which dates back to 2002 when was elected for the first time.

Qatar contested the seat with Japan, China, Malaysia, Indonesia, Iran, South Korea, Vietnam, Jordan and India.

The Foreign Ministry and the permanent delegation to the UN in New York exercised huge efforts to garner support for the Qatari candidate, with the victory reflecting the high-level diplomatic coor-dination that resembles the distinguished role of Qatari diplomacy in multilateral international work.

→ Picture on page 4

School Guidelines

Private Schools are not permitted to receive gifts or donations from any sources without a prior permission from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Private Schools have been instructed to provide parents with all information about the school and its services.

02 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 HOME

Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani receiving Vice-President of Argentina, Marta Gabriela Michetti, who arrived in Doha yesterday. Also present were Qatar's Ambassador in Argentina Fahad bin Ibrahim Al Hamad Al Mana and Argentina's Ambassador in Qatar Rossana Cecilia Surballe.

Argentine Vice-President in Doha

Minister chairs ALO meetingGeneva

QNA

Minister of Administra-tive Development and Labour and Social

Affairs H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Arab Labour Organisation (ALO) Board of Directors, pre-sided yesterday over its meeting in Geneva.

Delegates from permanent Arab missions in Geneva

attended the meeting which was held on the sidelines of the 328th session of the ILO's governing body. The Minister welcomed the participants of the meeting and expressed his thanks and appre-ciation to Director-General of ALO Fayez Ali Al-Mutairi. He stressed the importance of find-ing an agreement over a joint Arab vision over different issues of interest to the three parties involved in the process of pro-duction in the Arab world.

The Peninsula

Expatriates in Qatar can now apply for a Turk-ish visa from the new Turkey Visa Applica-tion Centre which

opened here on Thursday. Turkish Ambassador to

Qatar Ahmet Demirok opened the centre, located at 301 Jaidah Square, Al Matar street (Airport Road) in Doha.

The Turkish embassy awarded the contract to provide visa processing services in Qatar to VFS Global, on October 6.

“Since last year, Qataris don’t need a visa to visit Turkey, but there are many expatriates who would like to visit Turkey. There has been a huge demand and our capacity does not allow us to provide easy visa application services. That’s why we chose to outsource the service. I believe that our partner VFS Global with its professionalism will provide good quality service to applicants.”

The centre, launched in part-nership with Mannai Trading Co is equipped with state-of-the-art security systems and facilities to ensure a convenient experi-ence for visa applicants, the Turkish embassy said yesterday.

It helps make the visa pro-cedure faster and smoother, with features such as photocopy, photo-booth, printing services and automated queue govern-ance for smooth flow of applicants.

It has dedicated security control room for round-the-clock monitoring and multi-lingual staff to handle queries and applications.

Dedicated country specific websites are also available for easy access to information about visa categories, require-ments, check-list and fees,

among others. The centre ensures safe and secured han-dling of passports, documents and personal information.

Srinarayan Sankaran, COO – Middle East, VFS Global, said, “Turkey has always been a highly attractive destination for outbound travellers from Qatar for leisure and business. We are privileged to partner with the embassy of the Republic of Turkey and believe this centre will well serve the needs of travellers from Qatar who are keen to visit this beautiful country.”

Over the last few months, VFS Global has expanded its net-work of Turkey Visa Application Centres in the Middle East, and globally, launching such facili-ties in India, Nepal, Iraq, and Algeria.

VFS Global is responsible

only for accepting applications on behalf of the Turkish embassy.

All applications submitted will continue to be assessed and processed by mission.

The timelines for turna-round of visas are as per the discretion of the authorities concerned. The center functions from 9 am to 5pm, Sunday to Thursday.

Applications are received from 9am 4pm and passports can be collected from 4pm to 5pm on all working days.

The Center Helpline: +974 40370014| Email: Info.turkeyq-atar@vfshelpline.com

Website: www.vfsglobal.com/Turkey/Qatar/

Turkey is a popular tourist destination with many expatri-ates and the number of visitors to the country is on the rise.

Turkey visa application

Helpline: +974 40370014| Email: Info.turkeyqatar@vfshelpline.com

Website: www.vfsglobal.com/Turkey/Qatar/

Business hours*: 0900 hrs to 1700 hrs (Sunday to Thursday)Submission Timings: 0900 hrs – 1600 hrs | Sunday - ThursdayPassport Collection*: 1600 hrs – 1700 hrs | Sunday - Thursday*(except holidays as declared by

the Embassy)

Turkey visa application centre opens

Turkish Ambassador to Qatar, Ahmet Demirok, inaugurating the new Turkey Visa Application Centre in Doha.

03SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 HOME

04 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 HOME

Yaounde

QNA

H E Dr Hamad bin A b d u l a z i z A l Kawari, Advisor at

the Emiri Diwan and Qatar's candidate for the director-general at the United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco), met yesterday with a number of senior officials in Cameroon, notably Secretary General of the Presidency, Ferdi-nand Ngoh Ngoh.

During the meeting, Dr Al Kawari made a detailed presentation on his vision and plan to promote Unesco, expressing his gratitude to Cameroon for the hospitality and support. In turn, the presidency's secretary-general wel-comed the Qatari candidate on behalf of President Paul Biya, voicing his apprecia-tion for Qatar and its leadership and his

aspiration to develop ties between the two countries. He also expressed his con-fidence in the abilities of the Qatari candidate and Cameroon's trust in him.

Dr Al Kuwari met also with Minister of Higher Education Jacques Fame Ndongo with talks focusing on a set of issues related to education as a main pillar of development. They also touched on the Qatari can-didate's vision for Unesco in the field of education.

The minister expressed his appreciation and admi-ration of Qatar's keenness on education and what it offers to some African countries in this field. He also voiced Cameroon's appreciation for the Qatari candidate and its wishes of success for him.

Dr Al Kawari met Min-ister of Arts and Culture Narcisse Mouelle Kombi and discussed the impor-tance of culture in international relations.

Minister visits Aquatic Research CentreThe Peninsula

The Minister of Municipal-ity and Environment H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al

Rumaihi yesterday visited the Aquatic Research Centre in Ras Matbakh. The Minister was accompanied by senior officials of the Ministry, Ashghal, and a member from the Central Munic-ipal Council (CMC).

Al Rumaihi toured the project and gave his instructions for completion of the remaining phases of the project, and exper-imental work in the project will start after the first quarter of next year.

According to officials, 86 percent of project has been com-pleted so far. The Research Centre consists of two floors and includes laboratories to estimate the age of the fish and analyse fish feed ingredients etc.

The centre is also equipped with electric generators, and includes 28 administrative offices, two meeting halls, a hall

for lectures, a library, and cafe-teria, among others.

The facilities related to fish farming and shrimp include a sta-tion for pumping marine water.

The project can increase its capacity production to produce 10m small fish in one year.

The project also has some extra space that can be used later to increase its capacity.

The project costs QR230m,

and is established on 110,000 square meters.

The type of fish which will be produced is local fish. The aim of the project is to conduct stud-ies and researches in order to

offer a suitable environment for breeding fish for achieving food security and to meet self-suffi-ciency in fish, in addition to protecting natural resources and the marine environment.

The world now depends on farms for 60 percent of its fish needs because of the challenges faced in the sea, and because of a decrease in production and higher demand.

Applicants must prove ability to run schoolsContinued from page 1

The guidelines has men-tioned a number of conditions that the applicant seeking a licence needs to meet, whether it is an individual, company or legal entity.

The applicant must not be an employee of the ministry or its affiliate institutions and must not have any direct interest with the Ministry throughout the licencing period.

Companies registered in Qatar as well as international companies with no local regis-tration can apply for opening private schools. Any changes in the preapproved school activi-ties and programmes require a

fresh approval of the ministry.Private school will be fully

under the monitoring of the ministry, especially its buildings, properties and teaching aids while the Ministry of Public Health will have the right to monitor the health situation in the schools.

The guidelines have also mentioned building specifica-tions, work system, education system, lists of documents needed to be submitted by the applicant, among other infor-mation required by the applicants.

The applicant needs to prove that he/she is capable to run the school financially and

administratively, provide with a feasibility study and education plan. Any delay in providing with the required documents could lead to delays in finaliz-ing the procedures.

Applications can be made online but the documents should be submitted only as hard cop-ies, said the ministry. Applications are received in November and December every year. There were guidelines for private school licensing issued by the erstwhile Supreme Edu-cation Council (SEC) and this is the first guideline being issued by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education since it replaced the SEC.

Lectures aimed at reducing accidents

Continued from page 1The lectures aim at promot-

ing a traffic culture among drivers and reducing accidents. “The reason behind organising these courses is that there is a lack of monitoring of drivers of private schools. No one knows about their behaviours and they need more awareness on how to deal with students," said the official.

“Soon we will start the course. We are waiting for approval by the schools,” he added. The Department will also

send a report about the condi-tions of private school buses and the safety requirements to Min-istry of Education and Higher Education.

He said that the company chosen for the programme has vast experience and specializa-tion and had conducted similar courses for many big companies, including those in the oil and gas sector. The Traffic Department had organized similar courses for around 900 drivers and super-visors of Independent school buses last month.

Project highlights

The Research Centre consists of two floors and includes laboratories to estimate the age of the fish and analyse fish feed.

The world now depends on farms for 60 percent of its fish needs because of the challenges faced in the sea.

Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi and other officials at the Aquatic Research Centre in Ras Matbakh.

Emir receivescall from Somalia leaderQNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received yesterday a

telephone call from President Hassan Sheikh Mahmoud of the Federal Republic of Somalia. The Emir and the Somali President reviewed relations between the two countries and prospects for promoting and developing them.

Serbia Presidentarrives today

President Tomislav Nikolic of the Republic of Serbia will arrive in

Doha today on an official visit. Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will hold talks with the Serbian Presi-dent tomorrow at the Emiri Diwan, on relations between the two countries and ways to develop and enhance them.

Continued from page 1

Children can also enjoy the educational Siraj app. The iPad app, which can be downloaded from the online Apple store, is designed to improve children’s literacy skills in Arabic through engaging and interactive games.

“Siraj touches on innovation through the use of modern tech-nological tools, such as a fun and interactive app, allowing our children to develop their skills in classical Arabic anytime,

anywhere. As a multifunctional educational tool, Siraj also helps parents and teachers provide exciting and interactive content that encourages creativity in children,” added Sheikha Hind.

Siraj is the result of regional collaboration, utilising the very best of GCC and local Qatari tal-ent. The series is produced by Lammtara Art Production, whose owner Mohammed Saeed Harib created the acclaimed UAE animated series, ‘Freej’.

A national call for artists,

including voice actors and script writers, proved to be immensely useful in attracting the best local Qatari talent, and has contrib-uted to the success of Siraj. Furthermore, the episodes were co-written by experts on the heritage of Qatar, while Arabic language specialists and teach-ers from around the country made significant contributions to the writing.

Siraj will be available online via: www.youtube.com/sirajshow

App designed to improve children's skills

Advisory forQataris visiting USThe Peninsula

The Qatari embassy in Washington has asked Qatari citizens intend-

ing to travel to US or already in US to follow instructions to avoid legal actions by the US authorities. The embassy advised its citizens to be sure that mobiles are free from any illegal content or anything that can expose them to any legal action, the embassy said it on its official twitter account.

The mission has also advised Qataris to meet all legal obligations and proce-dures like paying traffic penalties in case of violations. The American authorities said there was no tightening of procedures against Qatari students and citizens.

Customs officials honoured

Ahmed bin Ali Al Mohan-nadi, Chairman of the General Authority of

Customs, yesterday honored four custom inspectors for seizure of a big quantity of marijuana weighing 28kg from passengers.

Dr Al Kawari meets Cameroon officials

Al Marri in NY

Public Prosecutor and the UN special lawyer on anti-corruption, H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, at the UN hadquarters in New York.

05SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 HOME

The Peninsula

Lulu Group International, the Abu Dhabi headquartered retail and hospitality group,

further expanded its operations by inaugurating a food process-ing and logistics base in the USA. Y International, a wholly owned subsidiary of the group, launched its operation in Lyndhurst, New Jersey yesterday.

The world–class export cen-tre will purchase, process, re-label and export food, non-food, chilled and frozen products made in the US. In the first phase, there are 75 employees which will eventually grow to 200 to 250 employees within one year.

The facility was formally inaugurated jointly by Mayor Robert B Giangeruso, Mayor Michael J McPartland and Vinai Thummalapally, the Executive Director of SELECT USA in the presence of Yusuffali MA- Chair-man, Saifee Rupawala, CEO, Ashraf Ali MA – Executive Direc-tor and Mohd Althaf – Director of Lulu Group. Attendees at the ribbon cutting, including local and foreign officials as well as members of the Indian-Ameri-can business community from around the country, were thrilled by the impact the company can have throughout the state.

In his remarks, Yusuffali MA thanked the officials of SELECT USA, Choose New Jersey and State & county officials for their great support in helping Lulu launch their maiden venture in USA.

“Our group has been import-ing US products for a long time to cater to more than 700,000 shoppers who come to our 131 hypermarkets daily,” Yusufali added highlighting the long-standing relationships between Lulu and farmers and manufac-turers in the country, with a special emphasis on California. “There has been growing

demand for US products throughout our retail chain stores, across the GCC, India and Far East” he concluded.

Speaking to media during the ceremony Choose New Jer-sey CEO and President Michele Brown said “In addition to bring-ing new jobs to our state, Y International’s export center will give New Jersey and US manu-facturers the opportunity to reach new markets in the Mid-dle East and beyond.”

“Y International USA’s deci-sion to establish their first export distribution center in the United States offers the company excit-ing new opportunities in the world’s largest consumer mar-ket, as well as enhanced access to hundreds of millions of glo-bal consumers,” said Vinai Thummalapally, executive direc-tor, SelectUSA. “We look forward to working closely with all

parties as the investment progresses – and extend our warmest congratulations to Lulu Group International, Choose New Jersey, and the community of Lyndhurst.”

The $6.6bn turnover Lulu Group, operates hypermarkets, supermarkets and shopping malls, in addition to wholesale distribution, food processing and hospitality with operations in 37 countries, including the GCC, India and Far East. The company has a 32 percent market share in the Middle East.

Brown said New Jersey is a perfect fit “Our state is so diverse; we have populations from so many different coun-tries,” she said. “We felt they would feel both welcome and at home. The business they will be conducting out of this site is meeting American companies to buy goods and products to then

export to their own consumer base,” she said. “We have liter-ally thousands of companies in food in New Jersey.”

New Jersey, Brown said, is also home to companies in the apparel and consumer goods industries, which could serve the needs of the company’s Hypermarkets.

As per the latest report by Deloitte International, Lulu is ranked among the Top 10 fastest-growing retailers in the world.

An official from the Kingdom of Bahrain embassy in Washing-ton D.C., Mohamed Bahzad, said Ali’s company, aside from being successful, also is known for its corporate social responsibility. Bahzad said that a strong rela-tionship with the US is a core strategy for Bahrain, where Lulu is opening its 10th market, and anticipates a market will open soon in the US.

Lulu Group launches operations in US

Mayor Robert B Giangeruso, Mayor Michael J McPartland and Vinai Thummalapally, Executive Director of SELECT USA inaugurating the new food processing and logistics facility of Lullu Group in New Jersey, USA, in the presence of Yusuffali MA, Chairman; Saifee Rupawala, CEO; Ashraf Ali MA, Executive Director; Saleem VI – COO and Mohd. Althaf and Salim MA, directors of LULU Group.

The bakery and hot food division of Safari Mall, Qatar, is all set to tantalize

the taste buds of its most valued customers by one again intro-ducing the “Thattukada” exhibiting the authentic Kerala Street Food Culture to the peo-ple of Qatar.

More than 75 varieties of food items like erachi puttu, kappa biriyani, thattu dosa, crab curry, squid curry etc are the highlights of the event. Due to the overwhelming response received for the Thattukada fes-tival last year, the management has taken special attention to involve food items from all the districts of Kerala this year and

even the decoration and arrangements have been made to give the real feel of the festival.

Apart from the main dishes snacks such as elayada, achap-pam, uzhunnuvada, koyukatta, mulaku vada etc are also add-ing flavours to the festival. This festival is open to all public until 15th November 2016. This has been an attempt like never before to bring together all the various tastes of Kerala under one roof and for the same we have specifically flown down 2 special chefs for the same added Mr Zainull Abideen – Director and General Manager, Safari Group.

In line with the above festi-val the Readymades which includes Ladies wear, Gents wear, Kids wear and footwear divisions have also launched its Sale up to 50% off promotional activity which would conclude on 22nd November’16. The Health and Beauty promotion also from the Cosmetic division is currently in place. Apart from all these the exiting promotions the existing Win 10 BMW car Lucky draw, with the minimum purchase of 50 Riyal, is also drawing massive response of which the first draw for 2 BMW Cars will be on tomorrow 7th November’16 at Safari Mall, Abu Hamour.

Safari Mall introduces Thattukada

Minister stresses commitment to theatre

Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali said yes-

terday that the state is implementing a comprehensive plan to promote and improve the Qatari theatre. An aspect of that plan was launching theater at the school and university level

to encourage youth and children to embrace theatre at an early stage.

The Minister, who is also head of the Qatar National Day Organizing Committee, was speaking at a press conference held at the Qatar National Theater to discuss an initiative

called Theater held for the first time this year. Theater will include six plays performed from December 6-14 on Qatar National Theater. They will be written and directed by a host of Qatari stars in cooperation with school students to promote school theatre.

3,483 licences issued for donation driveSanaullah AtaullahThe Peninsula

Qatar’s Regulatory Authority for Chari-table Activities (RACA) issued 3,483 licences to local

charity and humanitarian organizations for collecting donations and implementing charity projects during first five months of this year.

Ninety-four percent of the total licenses were issued to implement various develop-mental, social, educational and humanitarian-related projects in Qatar and other countries from January till May, 2016.

Campaigns for collecting donations for certain causes and local social activities accounted for three percent, followed by cash charity boxes and donation collectors who took two percent.

The remaining one percent licences were issued for other miscellaneous purposes. The figures were posted by the Authority on its twitter account.

The non-governmental charity and humanitarian organ-isations operating in Qatar remitted over QR274m donations from Qatar to the beneficiary countries during first five months of this year, said RACA. Accord-ing to the Qatari Law, collecting donations without prior per-mission from RACA for any purpose is a punishable act.

RACA said it referred sev-eral individuals to security agencies for collecting

donations without taking per-mission from the Authority.

The violators face up to one year in jail and a fine of QR50,000 or one of them.

There are 14 charity organ-izations registered under RACA and authorised for collecting donations. The authority has urged the donors to make dona-tions to the authorised charity organizations. The donors were also asked to ensure the dona-tion collector is an authorized agent of a charity organization by checking his ID card. "And do not forget to collect receipts. In case of suspecion, the donors can call RACA on the hotline 16010," it said.

Twenty-nine respondents to a survey said that they did not know that the collectors of dona-tions required a licence. The survey was conducted by RACA in May this year. In another sur-vey, 71 percent respondents said they did not follow up their donations to ensure it reached the deserving people.

Charity rules

QR274m in charity sent from Qatar to beneficiary countries in first five months of this year.

Collecting donations without permission from RACA for any purpose is an offence.

A traditional food outlet opened at the Safari Mall.

06 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 HOME

Temperature likely to fall next week

The Police Training Institute (PTI) in collaboration with British Police College celebrated on Thursday the graduation of 24th session for officers, which was held for three weeks. About 34 mid-level officers from different departments of the Ministry of Interior attended the session. The aim of the session was to provide administrative and legal skills to participants. PTI also celebrated the graduation of 8th batch of the course teaching skills for preparing and writing security reports. It included learning about the concept of security reports, types of reports, specifications and common mistakes during preparing and writing reports.

Graduation ceremonyHBKU Press plans new projects on local workFazeena Saleem The Peninsula

Hamad Bin Khalifa University Press (HBKU Press), a publishing house of Qatar Foundation, is

planning to introduce projects in an initiative to promote local tal-ent, says a senior official.

In this regard, HBKU Press will publish more books that reflects research being conducted in the country and also will pro-vide a pre-submission editorial service to review manuscripts of local authors. “This focus on the local community aims to further assist the scholarly output from Qatar,” said Dr Alwaleed Alkhaja, Senior Editor at HBKU Press.

“HBKU Press plans to launch a pre-submission editorial serv-ice to assist local authors in improving the quality of their manuscripts before submitting them to the journals of their choice. HBKU Press also plans to publish more academic books that showcase the cutting-edge research that is taking place in Qatar, as well as publish more books that reflect the research topics that Qatar is focusing on:

from sustainability, to advance in therapy of genetic disease, to the social sciences,” he added.

In pre-submission editorial service, the team is consists of editors whose minimum qualifi-cation is PhD and many of them have postdoctoral research expe-riences with some of them have experience in working as reviewer of international jour-nals. This highly qualified team will judge the manuscript based only on scientific merit and offer suggestions to improve the qual-ity of work. HBKU Press formerly known as Bloomsbury Qatar Foundation, launched its publish-ing programme in 2010 as a publishing house founded on international best practices,

excellence and innovation.HBKU Press publishes aca-

demic books, peer-reviewed journals and conference pro-ceedings along with trade titles in Arabic and English for chil-dren, adults, and young adults. This includes a wide range of fic-tion, non-fiction, educational and reference material, and children’s literature. A significant portion of its projects involve translating well-known works of Arabic into English and vice versa.

In 2010, HBKU Press estab-lished QScience.com, an open access platform that gives the public access to thousands of published research articles. HBKU Press is also planning to enhance its Arabic journal port-folio, either by publishing more Arabic articles in existing jour-nals or by setting up new ones. “There are plans to introduce new Arabic journal titles in the future, using the open access models so that academics and the public do not have any barriers to access information, to meet these growing demands,” said Dr Alkhaja. At present Arabic lan-guage journals only contribute to a small fraction of international open access journals.

Promoting talents

HBKU Press plans to launch a pre-submission editorial service.

It will publish more academic books to showcase research that is taking place in Qatar.

Ooredoo tv customers can rent movies with Nojoom pointsThe Peninsula

Ooredoo has yesterday announced that Nojoom members will now be

able to enjoy on demand con-tent available on Ooredoo tv with their Nojoom points.

Nojoom members will have the option to redeem Nojoom Points for Movies on Demand from Ooredoo’s smart enter-tainment service, Ooredoo tv, which has a host of the latest titles.

The service has been designed to offer more enter-tainment options for Nojoom members, and has been launched in time for the upcom-ing blockbuster movie releases.

To redeem Nojoom points for a choice of movies, mem-bers simply have to visit the Ooredoo Nojoom website or Ooredoo App, select the Oore-doo tv redemption option and follow the instructions on screen. Members should then enter their voucher number and pin code in the “Pay by Mobile/Voucher” section on Ooredoo tv to enjoy the movie for free.

There are no restrictions on the time and day that movies can be redeemed.

November will see a host of blockbusters hit Ooredoo tv’s Movies On Demand service, including Disney’s “Finding Dory”, the action packed “Leg-end of Tarzan”, hit comedy

“Central Intelligence”, the true event inspired “Snowden”, and the magical “Harry Potter Collection”

To see the latest movies available, simply press the home button on your Ooredoo tv remote control and then select “Latest" or “Library" using the left/right directional keys.

Titles will be available for 48 hours after renting the con-tent, so users can watch it as many times as they wish.

Every Ooredoo residential customer with a Qatar ID can enrol to Nojoom, which enables them to earn Nojoom Points each time they purchase an Ooredoo service or use Nojoom’s earn partners.

The Peninsula

The Meteorology Department has forecast a significant fall in temperature from Tues-day until the weekend, with slight chances

of rain in some areas of the country.The maximum temperatures in Doha would

range between 29-31°C and the minimum between 20-23°C dipping to 16°C or less in the southern areas of the country. "The country will be affected by an extension of a ridge of high pressure centered over north Saudi Arabia dur-ing the period between Monday evening until

Wednesday," the Department said in a state-ment. This will be accompanied by northwesterly-northerly fresh to strong winds, with speeds ranging between 15-25 knots, reach-ing 30 knots or more in some areas.

Visibility would be reduced to 3km or less due to blowing dust. The strong winds would cause high waves ranging between 6-9 feet off-shore reaching 12 feet in some areas. "The presence of low pressure in the upper levels would lead to the formation of scattered clouds with weak chance of rain especially in north-ern areas during day time on Tuesday," it said.

TAMUQ brings job seekers & regional firms togetherThe Peninsula

More than 70 representatives from 35 businesses and com-panies in the region attended

the Career Networking Night at the Texas A&M Engineering Building in Education City.

Eighty Texas A&M at Qatar (TAMUQ) students and 30 former students were on hand to meet with the industry rep-resentatives about internship and employment opportunities.

The event was organised by the largest student organisation at the branch campus, the Student Engineers’ Council, which aims to provide profes-sional development and advancement to students. “We recognised the need

to shorten the gap between Aggies in the classroom and the corporate world,” said Saadat Khan, event co-organiser and mechanical engineering senior. “The event allows students to build con-nections with representatives from companies that they may possibly want to intern or work for in the future.”

The dean of TAMUQ, Dr César O Malavé said: “Aggie engineers are prob-lem solvers who are in the business of changing the world. We’re excited to host so many companies here tonight so you can see firsthand what I mean. Since 2007 we’ve graduated more than 700 students who have contributed sig-nificantly to the State of Qatar. Our students have a track record of leader-ship and excellence."

NU-Q forum on growth of media firms in regionNORTHWESTERN Univer-sity in Qatar (NU-Q) is hosting its biannual Qatar Media Industries Forum (QMIF), which brings together top representatives in publishing, electronic media, digital media, public relations, and advertising in a discussion to assess the present and future of Qatar's media landscape.

The forum, “Going Regional: Taking a Media Com-pany Beyond Borders,” will be held on November 8 in Doha.

NU-Q Dean and CEO Everette E Dennis will host the event and NU-Q Associ-ate Professor Ilhem Allagui will moderate. Participating in the panel discussion will be Fares Akkad, head of distri-bution and digital business development at MBC Group; Redha Al Haidar, board mem-ber at Tihama Holdings; and Raza Rizvi, head of TMT at Simmons and Simmons, Mid-dle East LLP. “QMIF is the first ever effort in Qatar to bring together leaders from differ-ent media industries and platforms — in the same room at the same time – to consider and solve common chal-lenges,” said Dennis.

The session on November 8 will address challenges media companies face when expanding beyond national borders.

Katara European Jazz extravaganza to conclude tomorrowThe Peninsula

The third edition of Katara’s European Jazz festival con-tinues to thrill and attract

jazz lovers through staging diverse selected tracks per-formed by renowned European bands, at Katara’s building number 5.

The grand musical event will conclude tomorrow with the performance of “Atom String Quartet”, from Poland who have constantly played at the great-est European music festivals, such as Berliner Jazztage, Jazz Baltica, Festival Veranos de la Villa Madrid, Jazz Jamboree,

Ethno Jazz Festival or Solidarity of Arts.

Jazz Lovers on Sunday, were dazzled by the performance staged by the Swiss band “Simon Wyrsch Quartet” and have ear-lier experienced the remarkable Spanish guitar that were per-formed by Pablo Novoa, an outstanding electric guitar player, along with Nono Garc�a, who is a pioneer in flamenco jazz during the performance of the Spanish band, “Radio Pesquera”.

Following the Spanish per-formance, visitors also enjoyed an Austrian performance by, Namby Pamby Boy that

consisted of; Saxophonist Fabian Rucker, multi keyboardist Philipp Nykrin and drummer Andreas Lettner in which the band grew up playing, listening, and exploring music together.

Friday musical night at Katara was culminated with per-formance of the German band; “Three Fall” that grabbed a sig-nificant of turnout of attendees. The German Trio consisted of wind instruments, and a drum-mer, excluding the standard bass and chord instruments.

Following the German band, a Bulgarian performance “Yildiz Ibrahimova Quartet” presented their musical performance at

Katara with the unique combi-nation between Yildiz Ibrahimova’s four octave range and her perfect vocal technique is unbelievable. At the age of 10 Yildiz Ibrahimova started to take piano and solfeggio lessons in a special music school for children. She is one of few artists who can choose between all styles not only in jazz but also in classical music, free improvisation and different types of folk music.

Commenting on the festival, a Canadian visitor, Margaret King, said, “It is my second year to attend the European Jazz Fes-tival that I personally enjoy tremendously, I certainly like the

variety, jazz is jazz but there is a different flavour from different communities around the world that you can distinguish it from the music played.”

Katara-European jazz festi-val is jointly organised by the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara, and several embassies including: Austria, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Spain and Switzerland in Doha and the Qatar Music Academy.

Supporting sectors od the jazz festival include: Qatar Air-ways, “Official Airline” for the event, Qatar Music Academy, and Fnac Qatar (Darwish Holding).

Participants at the Career Networking Night at the Texas A&M Engineering Building in Education City.

07SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 HOME

Meet on integration of children with disabilityThe Peninsula

The department of spe-cial education and care for gifted stu-dents at the Ministry of Education and

Higher Education held a meet-ing with Independent school’s operators to discuss the imple-mentation of the revised policy of integration for children with disabilities.

The integration policy requires a number of measures, on top, identification of the tar-get group, disability cases which need integration in normal schools, identification of schools which could serve children suf-fering from intellectual disabilities and autism in cer-tain geographical areas, said Hanadi Al Khater, Director of Special Education and Attentive Sponsoring.

The department in collabo-ration with Rua Center and Schools Affairs Department at the ministry will prepare lists with the necessary information about the children and identify schools for their integration. The first phase of the integration policy will target students with intellectual disabilities whether

the disability happened because of incidents during birth or after or because of infectious diseases or disorder associated with autism, said Al Khater.

The aim is to create educa-tional environment where the students could find all needs supporting them for learning and development as the minis-try believes that whenever possible, disabled children should be taught in a normal classroom-setting, he added.

With the new guidelines, the ministry is committed to inte-grating children with disabilities as well as gifted students to

learn in a normal classroom as all students have the right to participate in all educational experiences.

Al Khater pointed out that the registration of children with disabilities and autism disorders require comprehensive assessment to measure the level of their abilities and skills and this will be carried out by Rua Center. Selected schools will be equipped with the required facilities to accommodate the students. Schools with new buildings are preferable as they can be provided with more facilities for children with disabilities in areas of health and sport, elevators, entrances allowing free movement etc., said Al Khater.

Selected schools will be pro-vided with specialised cadres and supporting facilities and teaching aids. The teachers will be trained on the culture of inte-gration and how to handle the children's needs and assess their performances, she stressed.

The last stage of the integra-tion programme will include re-assessment of the students with disabilities to assess their needs, performances within the policy guidelines.

Better education

The first phase of the integration policy will target students with intellectual disabilities

The aim is to create educational environment where the students could find all needs supporting them for learning and development.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker (centre) with Abdul Aziz bin Ahmed Al Malki, Qatar’s Ambassador to Italy, and Marco Rigotti, Chairman of Meridiana Fly, at the event.

Qatar Airways celebrates its new Pisa service in FlorenceThe Peninsula

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker visited the Tuscan cities of

Florence and Pisa in celebration of the airline’s recent expansion in Italy. During his visit, Al Baker met with representatives from the Italian media and hosted a VIP dinner in the Tuscan capital Florence, at the exclusive St. Regis Hotel.

Qatar Airways recently launched direct flights between Pisa and Doha’s Hamad Interna-tional Airport, complementing the airline’s existing three destina-tions: Rome, Milan and Venice.

Al Baker, said: “Qatar Air-ways' growth in service to Italy represents the importance of the country in relation to our global route network, with business and leisure passengers alike

requesting access to the popular destinations of Rome, Milan, Pisa and Venice. I am delighted to have had the opportunity to meet local business and community leaders during my visit to Tus-cany and experience first-hand the attraction and charm of this wonderful area.”

The addition of Pisa to Qatar Airways’ Italian network on August 2 comes less than 12 months after the airline signifi-cantly increased capacity from Rome, Milan and Venice. Rome and Milan both benefited from a 30 percent increase in capacity in 2015 with the introduction of wide body aircraft on their dou-ble daily flights, and Venice increased its seat offering by 70 percent with the introduction of an A330 aircraft the same year, replacing the A320 previously serving the daily route.

The award-winning airline is flying the Airbus A320 daily to Pisa, the airline’s fourth Italian destination, and has been flying to Milan since 2002, Rome since 2003, and Venice since 2011. The airline now offers six daily fre-quencies to Italy: two to Milan and Rome and one each to Ven-ice and Pisa. The new daily flight to Pisa will increase the airline’s weekly flights from Doha to Italy from 35 to 42. The new gateway connects travellers from Tuscany to the Qatar Airways network, through its hub in Doha, to more than 150 business and leisure destinations including Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka, the Philip-pines, Thailand and Vietnam.

Mayor of Pisa Marco Filip-peschi was one of the many VIP guests who attended the event.

QRCS concludes breast cancer awareness campaign in LebanonQatar Red Crescent Socie-

ty's (QRCS) Mission in Lebanon has recently con-

cluded its breast cancer awareness and early detection project for Syrian refugees and Lebanese women, to raise awareness about the importance of regular examinations to detect breast cancer early, thus avoid-ing its serious risks in the future.

A closing ceremony was held at the end of October, which is marked globally as the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, in the presence of Omar Katerji, Head of QRCS's Mission, Dr Fadi Al Halabi, Medical Coordinator, and several volunteers and partici-pants. The campaign involved distributing awareness printouts at 56 shops and drugstores throughout the Bekaa area, handing 150 flowers and aware-ness fliers over to female pedestrians, both Syrian and

Lebanses. Other activities were the organisation of 21 educa-tional lectures at Syrian refugee camps and organisations con-cerned with women's affairs. The sessions were attended by a total of 586 women. Also, 6,500 informative fliers were distrib-

uted by volunteers at camps.The focus of the campaign

covered central and southern Bekaa, where QRCS has since January been offering regular examination, screening, and treatment for free to Syrian ref-ugees and Lebanese women.

HMC's Haidar bags Govt HR Leader of the Year awardThe Peninsula

Hamad Medical Corpora-tion (HMC) Chief Human Resources Officer Fatima

Haidar was recently named Government HR Leader of the Year during the annual Govern-ment HR Summit Awards in Abu Dhabi.

The summit brought together GCC government and public sector HR leaders to dis-cuss a broad agenda that featured regional best practice and attraction strategies to bring Arab women into the workforce.

The award judges recog-nised Haidar’s leadership in harmonising the national strat-egies of both workforce development and healthcare improvement. The award sub-mission highlighted a number of recent projects which have

had a significant positive impact at HMC. These included the decentralisation of HR offices to establish offices in each hospi-tal; the introduction of HR Self Service, reducing the amount of paperwork and time spent on administrative processes; and the launch of the National Development Program, which welcomes more and more new Qatari employees to HMC each month.

"I believe this award is rec-ognition not only for myself, but for my team's ambition and hard work in delivering the very best for employees of HMC. As Qatar’s largest employer, HMC’s Human Resources Department faces significant challenges - but I am proud of the way my team has risen to these challenges over the course of the past year and achieved significant progress," said Haidar.

Fatima Haidar, Chief Human Resources Officer at HMC, receiving the award.

Volunteers and participants of the campaign.

08 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 MIDDLE EAST

Iraqi troops fight IS south of MosulHammam Al Alil

Reuters

Iraqi troops advancing towards Mosul battled yesterday for the last town left between them and the Islamic State stronghold

to the north, which is already under assault from special forces fighting inside the city’s eastern districts.

Yesterday’s attack on Ham-mam Al Alil, about 15km south of Mosul, targeted a force of at least 70 Islamic State fighters in the Tigris river town, com-mander of the Mosul operations Major-General Najm Al Jabouri said.

Jabouri said the assault began around 10am (0700 GMT). Some militants had already tried to escape across the river, but others put up heavy resistance and the troops had thwarted three attempted suicide car bombings.

“(The battle) is very impor-tant — it’s the last town for us

before Mosul,” Jabouri told reporters. Iraqi helicopters were supporting the army, he said, backed also by jets from a US-led air coalition which had been hitting Islamic State targets in the town for several days.

A military statement said security forces had raised the Iraqi flag over a government building in the town, but did not say whether it was fully under their control.

The army and accompany-ing security forces aim to push the southern front up to Mosul to join troops and special forces

that broke into the city’s east this week, taking six districts and carving out a foothold in the mil-itants’ Iraq bastion.

Recapturing Mosul would effectively crush the Iraqi half of a self-proclaimed caliphate declared by Islamic State leader Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi from the pulpit of a Mosul mosque two years ago. His Islamist group also controls large parts of east Syria. A Reuters correspondent in the village of Ali Rash, about 7km southeast of Mosul, saw smoke rising from eastern districts of the

city yesterday. Air strikes, artil-lery and gunfire could be heard.

In Hammam Al Alil, the jihad-ists had taken hundreds of people as human shields, although Jabouri said it was not clear how many people were left in the town. Before Islamic State swept in more than two years ago, Hammam Al Alil and outlying vil-lages had a population of 65,000.

As well as forcing residents to remain as they came under attack in Hammam Al Alil, Islamic State fighters retreating north in the last two weeks have forced

thousands to march with them as cover from air strikes, villagers have told Reuters.

The UN said the militants transported 1,600 abducted civil-ians from Hammam Al Alil to the town of Tal Afar, west of Mosul, on Tuesday and took another 150 families from the town to Mosul the next day. They told residents to hand over children, especially boys aged over nine, in an appar-ent recruitment drive for child soldiers, UN human rights spokeswoman Ravina Shamdas-ani said.

Iraqis reunite with their relatives after they had separated because of fleeing clashes between Iraqi army and IS terrorists, at Hazir refugee camp in Mosul, Iraq.

Strategic Battle

Government forces try to retake last town before Mosul.

IS militants force civilians to move north of Mosul with them.

UN envoy urges focus on 'real' Gaza issuesJerusalem

AFP

UN MIDDLE EAST envoy Nickolay Mladenov said yes-terday that residents of the Gaza strip need jobs and hope more than a harbour and air-port, a reference to recent comments by Israel's defence minister.

In an October interview with Palestinian newspaper Al Quds, Israel's hardline defence minister Avigdor Lie-berman said that another war with Palestinian militants in Gaza would lead to their com-plete destruction.

He suggested however that if Gaza's Hamas rulers ceased hostilities "we will be the first to invest in a port, an airport and industrial areas."

In remarks broadcast yes-terday by Israeli public radio, Mladenov said Gaza, where thousands of homes were destroyed or damaged in a 2014 war with Israel, said res-idents in the enclave had more pressing concerns.

"Let's resolve the real problems that we have today. People live in desperate con-ditions in Gaza," he said.

"Yes, it's important to have an airport and a seaport in Gaza but I don't want us to be distracted by that from resolving the real issues that we face today."

Confusion over Turkey bombing claimsDiyarbakir

AFP

Confusion reigned yester-day over who carried out an attack in Turkey that

left 11 dead, with one source claiming it was the Islamic State but authorities insisting Kurd-ish militants were to blame.

Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim had said Friday's bombing near police headquar-ters in Diyarkabir was carried out by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has regularly targeted security forces since ending a truce in 2015.

But the US-based SITE Intel-ligence Group cited an "insider source" for the IS-affiliated Amaq news agency as saying "fighters from the Islamic State detonated an explosives-laden vehicle parked in front of Turk-ish police headquarters in Diyarbakir in southeastern Turkey."

The local governorate in

Diyarbakir yesterday then issued a new statement insist-ing the bombing was carried out by the PKK, saying this conclu-sion was based on intercepted radio conversations.

It said that the three tonnes of explosives used in the bomb-ing were activated by a PKK operative with the codename "Kemal".

"This information clearly shows that the attack was car-ried out by the separatist terror organisation," it said, using the customary official phrase for the PKK. The early morning attack on a police headquarters in the Kurdish-majority city of Diya-rbakir initially left nine people dead, including two police offic-ers, and over 100 wounded.

The state-run Anadolu news agency said the toll rose to 11 yesterday after two more civil-ian victims succumbed to their wounds.

The explosion left a swathe of devastation, blowing out the

entire front of a nearby apart-ment block and leaving the surroundings covered in rubble.

Emergency workers yester-day sifted through the damage while residents arrived to recu-perate whatever belongings they could salvage, an AFP photog-rapher said.

The pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP) said six of its MPs, including its co-lead-ers, had narrowly escaped injury in the attack as they were being held in the police complex fol-lowing their detention overnight.

If confirmed, the Islamic State claim of responsibility would be its first for an attack in Turkey, although the jihadist group has been blamed over the last year for a series of strikes against Kurdish activists, tour-ists and on Istanbul airport.

There has so far been no denial or claim of responsibil-ity from the PKK.

Turkish police forces stand near the bottom of a destroyed building in the southeastern Turkish city of Diyarbakir yesterday a day after a strong blast.

Kuwait opposition set to end election boycottKuwait City AFP

Kuwaiti opposition groups are aiming for a come-back in parliament after

a four-year election boycott. More than 30 prominent

Islamist and liberal opposition figures and former lawmakers have registered to run in the November 26 polls in the hope of forming a formidable polit-ical force.

Kuwait's 50-seat parlia-ment is considered the most powerful of its kind in the Gulf states thanks to its legislative and monitoring capacities.

The opposition groups boy-cotted two general elections in 2012 and 2013 in protest at a change in the voting system brought unilaterally by the government.

The opposition alliance said at the time that the change, later endorsed by Kuwait's constitu-tional court, would allow the

government to control parlia-ment and promote autocratic rule.

"The opposition has discov-ered that the boycott was not the right choice. In fact, they found that they have only iso-lated themselves," political analyst Nasser Al Abdali said.

"I think the boycott has considerably weakened the opposition as a whole," Abdali, the head of Kuwait Society for the Promotion of Democracy, said.

Kuwait's Emir H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Sabah last month dissolved parliament over a dispute over a hike in petrol prices and called for snap polls.

The opposition held mas-sive street protests in 2011 and 2012 demanding democratic reforms and an elected govern-ment in the country, which has a population of 4.3 million, of which 70 percent are foreigners.

Protests rage in YemenSana'a

AFP

HUNDREDS of supporters of Yemen's rebels protested in the capital Sana'a yesterday against a UN peace roadmap aimed at ending a devastat-ing war between the Shia insurgents and loyalists.

UN envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed last month put forward the peace plan aimed at halting fighting between the Houthis and forces loyal to the government of Presi-dent Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi.

The Mauritanian diplomat has led talks in Yemen since April 2015 and brokered sev-eral ceasefires that were often violated.

Turkey court jails nine staff of opposition dailyIstanbul

AFP

An Istanbul court yesterday remanded in custody ahead of trial nine staff

from the opposition Cumhuri-yet newspaper, in an intensifying crackdown a day after the lead-ers of the country's main pro-Kurdish party were also jailed.

There had been growing international alarm over the use of a state of emergency imple-mented in the wake of the failed July 15 coup against critics of President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Nine MPs from the opposi-tion pro-Kurdish People's Democratic Party (HDP), includ-ing its co-leaders Selahattin Demirtas and Figen Yuksekdag, were jailed ahead of trial by the courts Friday on terror charges.

The nine Cumhuriyet staff placed under arrest after their detention earlier this week include some of the most prom-inent names in Turkish journalism, the state-run

Anadolu and private Dogan news agencies said.

They include Cumhuriyet's editor-in-chief Murat Sabuncu, celebrated cartoonist Musa Kart and influential anti-Erdogan col-umnist Kadri Gursel.

The suspects are charged with links to the Kurdish mili-tant Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the movement of US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen blamed for the failed coup bid. Gulen denies the accusations.

The journalists will be held behind bars ahead of a trial, a date for which had yet to be set.

At total of 13 staff from Cum-huriyet had been detained in raids on Monday in a swoop that amplified concerns about press freedoms in Turkey.

While the nine were remanded in custody, column-ists Hikmet Cetinkaya and Aydin Engin were released on judicial control due to age and health grounds, the reports said.

Two other suspects — the paper's chief accountant Gun-seli Ozaltay and former chief

accountant Bulent Yener — were released without charge.

Demirtas and Yuksekdag meanwhile spent their first night behind bars after their arrest on Friday.

While their hearings took place in the southeastern city of Diyarbakir, both were flown to prisons in the west of Turkey well away from their strongholds

in the east. Demirtas is now in prison in Edirne province close to the Greek and Bulgarian bor-ders while Yuksekdag was taken to Kocaeli just east of Istanbul, reports said.

Dogan news agency showed dramatic footage of Demirtas arriving in Edirne province on a helicopter which landed in the middle of an athletics field.

Protesters sleep on a sofa during a demonstration at the Cumhuriyet newspaper's headquarters in Istanbul yesterday.

09SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 ASIA / AFRICA

Missing Chibok schoolgirl and son rescuedKano

AFP

Nigerian troops early yesterday rescued another of the missing Chibok schoolgirls seized

by Boko Haram Islamists, dur-ing an operation near the border with Cameroon, a spokesman said.

The girl, who was found along with her baby son, was one of the more than 200 schoolgirls taken by the Islam-ist group from their hostels in the remote town of Chibok in April 2014.

Army spokesman Sani Usman said that "Nigerian army troops rescued another Chibok schoolgirl at Pulka".

Usman later said in an offi-cial statement the girl was rescued "at about 6.00am while (the army was) screening some escapees from Boko Haram ter-rorists hideout in Sambisa forest."

He identified her as Mar-yam Ali Maiyanga, adding that she was carrying a 10-month-old son.

"She has been taken to the unit's (army's) medical facility for proper medical check up," he said.

The Bring Back Our Girls lobby group confirmed the

release. "We are happy with the news... We have confirmed the name of the freed girl to be among those on our data base," BBOG campaigner Aisha Yes-ufu said.

"Our hope is that the gov-ernment will work towards an early release of the remaining girls so that we can bring this sad episode to a close".

Usman said "it is impera-tive to state that troops have been working round the clock to clear remnants of Boko Haram terrorists wherever they might be hibernating and also rescue all persons held hostages by terrorists".

Boko Haram's insurgency in Nigeria's mainly-Muslim north has killed at least 20,000 people and made more than 2.6 million homeless since 2009.

Yangon

Anatolia

A total of 113 people have now been arrested for alleged involvement in

last month's attacks in Myan-mar’s western Rakhine State, some of whom could face the death penalty.

Nine border police officials were killed and dozens of weap-ons and thousands of rounds of ammunition were stolen Octo-ber 9 when around 400 armed men attacked three police sta-tion outposts in Maungdaw and Yathay Taung Townships.

Yesterday, Min Aung, a spokesperson for Rakhine's regional government, said that troops had arrested 113 suspects

during the area clearance operations.

“Thirty nine of them have

been released after being found to have had no role in the attacks,” he said, and 74 suspects

have been held on remand.“They are now under

interrogation.”According to a police official

in Yangon, the suspects face sev-e r a l c h a r g e s u n d e r Counter-Terrorism Laws and the country's Penal Code.

“They probably face the death penalty,” said the officer, who asked not to be named as he was not authorised to talk to media.

Although some sections of Myanmar's penal code carry the death penalty, in most recent cases it has been commuted to a life sentence.

The military's ongoing clear-ance operations have generated reports of widespread abuse.

On Friday, UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in

Myanmar Renata Lok-Dessall-ien told a press briefing in commercial capital Yangon that a probe independent of political pressure was needed.

“We are not there to inves-tigate," she said of a the UN-led 10-member delegation, which has been visiting Maungdaw and Buthidaung townships -- the two areas under military lockdown since the attacks.

"The visit is just the first step towards broader access. For a clear picture of the situation in the area, we urge the govern-ment to launch credible and independent investigations into the attacks and consequences."

Lok-Dessallien added that authorities had assured that aid would resume in the townships in “one or two days”.

Bangkok

AFP

Ousted Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra doled out sacks of rice to hundreds

of star-struck shoppers yester-day, in her latest move to outshine junta efforts to support farmers hit by a price plunge.

Tumbling rice prices have

spread anguish across Thailand's rural heartlands and sent the junta scrambling to roll out res-cue packages and head off potential unrest.

Yingluck, whose government was toppled in the 2014 coup, has also seized the moment to rally behind rice farmers -- the core support base of her fami-ly's political dynasty.

In her latest gambit to

connect with the party faithful without violating a junta ban on politics, Yingluck travelled to the rural northeast this week to buy several truckloads of rice from struggling farmers.

Yesterday, the ex-premier set up shop in a Bangkok park-ing lot to sell sacks of the staple grain to frenzied fans.

Hundreds of supporters lined up and squealed with

delight as the 49-year-old began handing out bags of rice from the back of a pick-up truck, priced at 20 baht per kilo.

"I am here to buy rice from Yingluck, I'm doing it to help her because she helps us," Umaporn Kaewthongkha, a 60-year-old motorcycle taxi driver, said.

"She is good-hearted, beau-tiful and helps the poor when she can."

Myanmar murders: 74 may face 'death penalty'

Shanghai

Reuters

People who advocate Hong Kong independence are in violation of the territory's

laws and China's constitution, and are not qualified to stand for public office, the ruling Chinese Communist Party's top newspa-per said yesterday.

The comments in the Peo-ple's Daily come ahead of what is expected to effectively be a ruling by Beijing on the fate of two newly elected Hong Kong legislators who pledged alle-giance to the "Hong Kong nation" and displayed a "Hong Kong is not China" banner when they first attempted to take office in October.

The oath-taking incident made waves in the former Brit-ish colony, where the topic of independence from China was

once regarded as taboo but has percolated to the fore since months of pro-democracy pro-tests in 2014 failed to secure any concessions from Beijing.

In the coming days, the lead-ers of the National People's Congress, China's legislature, will review a "draft explanation" of the section of Hong Kong's mini-constitution that stipulates the need for Hong Kong legisla-tors and other officials to swear allegiance to China when assum-ing office.

The People's Daily editorial said calls for Hong Kong inde-pendence by the Hong Kong lawmakers-elect and others were an insult to China and vio-lation of the national constitution and the Basic Law, Hong Kong's mini-constitution.

Such action "seriously touches the bottom line of 'one country, two systems', endan-gers national unity, territorial

integrity and national security, jeopardises the nation's core interests and the basic interests of the majority of Hong Kong residents, and is vile in nature," it said.

"The heart of the issue is that anyone who splits the

nation or promotes 'Hong Kong independence' is directly vio-lating the constitution, the Basic Law and related Hong Kong laws, and is unqualified to stand for election or hold public office provided for in the Basic Law," it added.

Zuma to supporters: I am not scared of jail

Congo police disperse protesters KINSHASA: Police in Congo's capital Kinshasa fired tear gas yesterday to disperse opposi-tion supporters seeking to defy a ban on public protests and rally against plans by Presi-dent Joseph Kabila to stay in power beyond the end of his mandate this year.

Police officers in riot gear and armoured trucks patrolled the perimeter of the field where opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi was m e a n t t o a d d r e s s supporters.

Outside Tshisekedi's house in the nearby district of Limete, police fired tear gas to disperse small groups of opposition supporters, wit-nesses said.

"The police shot tear gas at the activists near the entry to Limete," said Bienvenu Bambale, one of several opposition leaders milling about outside Tshisekedi's house, adding that the rally had been cancelled so as not to risk violence.

The signals of French broadcaster Radio France Internationale and UN-funded Radio Okapi had been disabled yesterday morning, as is often the case when the opposition protests.

Johannesburg

Reuters

In his first public appearance since investigators docu-mented signs of government

corruption, South African Pres-ident Jacob Zuma told supporters yesterday he wasn't scared to go to prison because he had been jailed during apartheid.

The Public Protector, an anti-graft watchdog, said in a report last week that a judge should investigate whether Zuma, cabinet members and some state companies acted improperly in their dealings with wealthy Indian businessmen.

Thousands of protesters called for the president to

resign after the 355-page probe was released and some oppo-sition politicians said Zuma should face criminal charges.

"I'm not afraid of jail. I've been to jail during the struggle," Zuma told a cheering crowd in his home Kwa-Zulu Natal province.

Zuma spent 10 years as a political prisoner on Robben Island with Nelson Mandela during white-minority rule.

"There's no longer any space for democratic debate. The only space there is for court arguments by lawyers. That's not democracy," Zuma added.

The Public Protector's investigation stopped short of saying crimes had been com-mitted, but recommended a judge take the investigation forward.

Nigeria foils Boko Haram suicide attacksLagos

AFP

Nigerian military have thwarted attempted sui-cide attacks in the

restive northeast, the epicentre of the seven-year Boko Haram insurgency, the army has said.

Army spokesman Sani Usman said in a statement that troops killed a suspected female suicide bomber on Thursday when she tried to enter a military site in Yam-take in Borno state.

"The failed suicide bomb-ing attack was followed up with futile probing attack by

terrorists which was decisively dealt with by the troops," he said.

Usman said the troops killed all four attackers includ-ing two suicide bombers and recovered a cache of arms and ammunition.

"Unfortunately, we lost a soldier in the process".

Army operation

Bring Back Our Girls campaigner hopes that the government will work towards an early release of the remaining girls.

Army official claims that troops have been working round the clock to rescue all persons held hostages by terrorists.

Report slams advocates of HK independence

Newly elected lawmakers Yau Wai-ching and Baggio Leung hold a press conference at the Legislative Council in Hong Kong.

Myanmar border guard police carry the coffin of a comrade, killed in an attack on a police outpost, during a funeral in Maungdaw, yesterday.

Thailand's ex-PM sells rice at lower rate Ousted Thai PM Yingluck Shinawatra doled out sacks of rice to hundreds of star-struck shoppers, yesterday.

T ension is the most palpable feeling in the air as the US presidential campaign enters its final days. The Democratic camp is in full panic mode after FBI Director James Comey

threw a bomb with his revelation of discovery of new emails that appear pertinent to its investigation of Hillary Clinton’s private email server. The FBI action was the equivalent of a Category 5 hurricane for the Hillary Clinton camp, which destroyed their crop just days before harvest.

Donald Trump is sprinting with devilish glee. Opinion polls show him in a neck and neck race, with victory very close if his luck and machinations favour him. The Clinton camp is sweating it out. It’s difficult to convince all the voters that the FBI action was reck-less and unethical.

And the anti-Trump brigade, both pundits and laymen who are convinced of the grave dangers to America of a Trump presidency, are making desper-ate and passionate appeals to the voters to see reason and defeat the Republican.

Anti-Trump column-ists, who thought their work was done, are repeating all that they have been saying, but their words weighty with reason and emotion. Their argument runs like this: We agree that both candidates are flawed and America deserves much better, but the huge risks of a Trump presi-dency throw the perils of

a Clinton presidency into relative eclipse. And that there more unknowns about Trump than knowns.

The campaign will get more toxic and vicious in the remaining days. There are fears of violence and confrontations on election day as claims of ‘rigging’ by Trump have been taken as a call for voter intimidation.

America will continue to be the America we know if Clinton wins. What if Trump wins? Trump in the White House, or Trump in the Trump House, as some scornfully put it, will shock the world. Under him, America will either continue to be America with some disturbing but not disruptive decisions, or it will cease to be so as he upends and destroys everything that the country has stood for.

It will be wrong to accuse voters of perfidy if Trump wins. The campaign has been so ferocious we can rightly assume that the voters now have all the facts about both the candidates.

If they still choose Trump, it’s not because he has been vile and vicious or voters dumb and reck-less, but because there is something grievously wrong with the American system which its past presidents have failed to rectify. The voters have the right to rebel.

10 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORHUSSAIN AHMAD

hussain@pen.com.qa

The final fury

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Our heroic forces will not retreat and will not be broken.Maybe in the face of terrorist acts, criminal acts, there willbe some delay,

Haider Al AbadiIraqi Prime Minister

It will be wrong to accuse voters of perfidy if Trump wins. Voters have a right to rebel.

The UN’s record of standing up to Israel’s bully-boy tactics is littered with failure. Last month, however, that trend was bucked when Unesco adopted two telling resolutions on

Jerusalem. Not only did the organisation reject Israel’s claims of ownership within the occupied city, but, more importantly, it also reaffirmed that all attempts by the self-styled Jewish state to change the demographic and religious character of Jerusalem are illegal, null and void.

Naturally, it would take much more than a Unesco resolution to deter the Israelis from their attempts to “Judaise” Jerusalem. Scores of similar resolutions have been passed before, all to no avail. Times have changed, though, and a growing number of member states are no longer prepared to be brow-beaten into supporting illegal policies that usurp the rights of other people.

As expected, the Netanyahu government reacted to the Unesco decision in the only way it knows how, with diplomatic tantrums, political threats and state violence. Incredibly, it produced, almost out of thin air, a “unique 2,700-year-old papyrus” which it claims is evidence of a connection between the city of Jerusalem and the period when the Kings of Israel were on their relatively unimportant throne.

This was taken immediately as a green light to intensify excavation activities beneath Al Aqsa Mosque. Yisrael Hasson, Director of the Israeli Authority of Antiquities, announced that it has agreed with the government that it will become mandatory for every Israeli youth to take part in the excavation works.

In what can only be interpreted as retaliation for the UNESCO vote, Israel followed up by razing a number of Muslim graves in the historical Bab Al Rahmeh Ceme-tery, east of Al Aqsa Mosque, and hoisting the Israeli flag over the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in the occu-pied Old City. The latter was not only an act of defiance to Unesco but also an insult to the Russian government, which voted in support of the resolutions; the Ortho-dox Church plays an important role in the administration of the historic site.

Though depicted by Israel and its allies as “controversial” and “inflammable”, the

Unesco must go one step further with a cultural boycott of Israel

Dr Daud Abdullah Unesco votes were by no means histori-cal oddities. As far back as December 1930 an international commission appointed by the British government and approved by the Council of the League of Nations, and headed by Eliel Lofgren, a former Swedish minister of foreign affairs, ruled unanimously that:

• “To the Muslims belong the sole ownership of, and the sole proprietary right to the western wall, as an integral part of al Haram Ash Sharif area.”

• “To the Muslims also belongs the pavement in front of the wall and the adjacent Maghribi (Moroccan) Quarter opposite.”

• “The Jews shall have free access to the wall for the purpose of devotion at all times” – subject to certain stipulations.

The circumstances which led to the 1930 commission were very similar to those that exist today. Back then, it was the Zionist claims to the Western Wall that led to the 1929 uprising in which more than 133 Jews and 116 Palestinians

were killed. Indeed, in a letter dated 30 May 1918, Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann wrote to Britain’s Foreign Sec-retary, Arthur Balfour,

demanding: The latest round of unrest in Jerusa-

lem has come in the wake of heightened Israeli attempts to create new facts on the ground in the Noble Sanctuary of Al Aqsa. Around 275 Palestinians have been killed by the occupation forces since October 2015. It was within this context that the Unesco resolutions were drafted and voted on.

Although the Unesco votes signal a welcome development, they do not go far enough to be regarded as a game changer. However, this is not a lost cause. The Unesco resolutions can be given real teeth if the organisation goes one step further and calls for a cultural boycott of Israel in support of the global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

This would isolate Israel, just as apartheid South Africa was banished from cultural and sporting activities around the world. The South African anti-Apartheid movement succeeded, in part, because it managed to develop a coalition of committed governments and people who were able to effect both domestic and international policy in institutions like the UN and its agencies.

Similarly, the BDS movement against Israeli apartheid must forge similar alli-ances and secure the support of governments in the global north and south. Some will, inevitably, be reluctant and even try to be obstructive (this has already been seen in Britain). In the long run, though, they will have to accept that the tide of history is moving towards the restoration of law and human rights for all of the people in and of Palestine.

The writer is the Director of Middle East Monitor (Memo).

Though depicted by Israel and its allies as “controversial” and “inflammable”, the Unesco votes were by no means historical oddities.

ED ITOR IAL

A general view of the leaders’ forum room during the 36th session of Unesco’s General Conference in Paris.

election in the pathologically flawed Islamic Republic. I have run out of any trust or hope in any electoral politics and consider it an exercise in futility. The rul-ing regime in Iran is increasingly drawn into the nasty geopolitics of its region, competing with Saudi Arabia in their equally illegitimate claims on regional politi-cal hegemony, with Russia and the United States as their respective patrons. Here I must hasten to add that my politics was not formed in a democracy but in a monarchical dictatorship, followed by an even more sinister Islamic theocracy. I have no electoral political culture rooted or cultivated in me. I am com-mitted to social movements that seek to uproot tyranny and corruption and only vote when I feel myself inside such a movement. Such movements are the indices of my democratic intuitions.

After almost 40 years of living in the US, this par-ticular election I consider a nasty confrontation between a rising fascism and an embattled liberal imperialism. These are not my fights. I detest them both. Judging by the latest “October Surprise” bomb-shell dropped by the FBI Director James Comey regarding the unending saga of Clinton’s emails, the system is rapidly self-destructing.

At this stage I have become totally suspicious of all state-sponsored organised politics as I have always been of organised religion. My solidarities are with the asymmetrical struggle of noble causes such as the Black Lives Matter movement, or the Standing Rock Sioux uprising against the Dakota Access Pipe-line, and a fortiori with the Zapatistas in Chiapas, with the Palestinians against the Zionist settler colony, or with the Kobane Rojava resistance in Syria.

None of those movements is electoral. None of them can organise to topple the tyranny that rules

Devastating cost of anti-refugee rhetoric fuelled by Trump

I have spent most of the last decade deeply invested in the refugee community in Aus-tin. I have heard dozens of stories about the moment when people realize they have to flee, whether it was from the Bur-

mese junta, Islamic State fighters in Iraq or rival militias in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

That gut-wrenching choice is one of the few things all refugees have in common. For asylum seekers to be officially declared “refugees” by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, they have to prove that they would be persecuted or killed for their race, religion, nationality, membership of a par-ticular social group or gender in their country of origin.

Less than 1 percent of the 65.3 million refugees in the world are eligible for reset-tlement. One of my closest friends is a refugee, and she has daughters the same ages as my little girls; we often have slum-ber parties together. Because her family still has relatives living in danger in Myanmar, she asked me to use only her nickname,

Kying. Her story is pretty typical.Kying and her husband had six hours to

make the decision to leave their village in Myanmar. Their neighbors told them that, as members of one of the country’s ethnic minorities, they were being hunted by the junta. They left to save their children’s lives. In the back of the truck where the smug-glers packed Kying’s family and others to cross the border out of Myanmar, she told me they stacked people like firewood. “What does that mean?” I asked. “Like fire-wood,” she said. She put one hand down, turned the other sideways, then turned it back and forth.

One group of people lay parallel to the floor, others were arranged perpendicularly on top of them, then parallel, then perpen-dicular, until the truck was full. She told me the smell was the worst. People vomited and peed, and some died.

I thought about Kying when a group of Syrian refugees were found dead in the back of a truck a few summers ago on the side of the road on their way to Germany. I wondered if they were stacked like fire-wood. I can’t breathe imagining it.

Understandably, most of my refugee friends have post-traumatic stress disorder and other health issues related to the hor-rific stress in their home countries or their harrowing journeys before being resettled in the United States. Those of us who love refugees have come to recognise a particu-lar grief: It is the devastation of people who would do anything to return home and who will never be able to go home again.

Over the years, I have seen numerous families move into apartment complexes in Austin. It is the first time in months or years

— for some, in their entire lives — that they can live in freedom and peace. It is a small start toward moving past their grief.

The process is like watching someone emerge from a cave into the sun. My refu-gee friends are almost universally grateful for the help they’re receiving, thankful for the opportunity to start a new life, deeply enthusiastic about their new home.

The political rhetoric against refugees is hitting these women and men in profound ways. They are afraid. After all, they know what happens when governments turn against entire groups of people.

I wish I could tell them they have noth-ing to fear. I wish the newest refugees could experience what my friends who have been in Austin for several years enjoyed: a warm Texas welcome from both sides of the aisle. In a predominantly conservative state in which most people identify as Christians, taking care of the victims of war and persecution has always been a high priority.

Instead, rumors are devastating our local refugee community. They are bewildered: Why would refugees, who are the victims of terrorism and war, be confused with the terrorists who perse-cuted them?

Those of us who are their friends are hard-pressed to answer those questions or to explain why a presidential candidate would call Syrian refugees “a great Trojan horse,” despite repeated confirmation that there is no evidence that terrorists are com-ing to the United States disguised as refugees. As Kathleen Newland, a senior fel-low at the Migration Policy Institute, wrote, “the refugee resettlement program is the

least likely avenue for a terrorist to choose.”Lubna Zeidan, who is the program

director of the refugee program at iACT, an interfaith group that has offered English-language courses to Austin’s newest refugees since 2002, told me that many ref-ugees report they are not sleeping.

As Zeidan put it, they are “already ago-nizing and suffering from their experiences back home. One of the things we try to tell them is, ‘You are welcome.’ “ In iACT’s most recent community lunch, they set aside their regular agenda to address the commu-nity’s concerns.

Zeidan and her staff let their English students know that, although Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) has declared that the state will no longer oversee the resettlement process, refugees will continue to come and things will go on much as they always have in our state.

Zeidan’s voice was warm when she told them: “There are certain groups of people who are suspicious because they are afraid, but we know that you don’t mean anybody harm.” At that lunch, one man said to Zeidan, “We just want to be able to get on our feet and work hard and show everybody who doubts us that we are a good investment, that your confi-dence in us is well founded, those of you who are standing by us.”

There are significantly more of us standing by refugees in Texas and around the country than not. Resettlement agencies in Texas are reporting an enormous spike in volunteers in the last few months. But what scares us is that there are people who are afraid of refugees, people who are capable of violence against them.

The political rhetoric against refugees is hitting these women and men in profound ways. They are afraid. After all, they know what happens when governments turn against entire groups of people.

11SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 OPINION

Jessica Goudeau The Washington Post

Why would anyone want to vote in this toxic and ignominious US presidential election? Participat-

ing in a democratic process is a privilege that must restore one’s trust in public good. This particular election is the epitome of a disgraceful public spectacle of corruption on one side, and neo-fascism on the other. Why would any self-respecting human being want to have anything to do with it?

There are those among the US citizens who are deeply concerned about the out-come of this election and who are planning to vote, for they fear a fascist takeover of their democracy by a deeply corrupt businessman. These are the most noble among those who will vote; and then there are diehard supporters of the two top competing candidates who are less so. If I lived in a swing state I would have begrudgingly voted with those who have a legitimate fear of Donald Trump’s fascist ideas. But I live in New York, a solidly and safely blue state so I can afford the luxury of the following meditation, which I offer in humble solidarity with those who fear fascism, plan to vote for Hillary Clinton not because they approve ?f her but because they disapprove of Trump.

Three times in my adult life I have had reasons and occasions to vote in three presidential elections — two in Iran and one in the United States — and each one of them has been in solidarity and support with the social movements these elections represented. In 1997, I voted for Moham-mad Khatami in an absentee ballot in New York, in 2008 I voted for Barack Obama, and in 2009 I voted with another absentee ballot for Mir-Hossein Mousavi.

I regret none of those three votes though I now look back at the two votes I cast for Khatami and Obama and cringe.

They were two nasty highfalutin hoaxes played on two genuine social movements: a reformist movement in Iran that has long since left Khatami behind, and like a fire is now hidden under the ashes of tyranny in the Islamic Republic; and a historic momentum to right malicious wrongs in the US that Obama decidedly betrayed. I am still proud of the vote I cast for Mir-Hossein Mousavi, who is under house arrest in Iran. Like him, his kindered soul Bernie Sanders has a snowball’s chance in hell of being elected president.

After Sanders did not make it through the primaries, I no longer have any candi-date in this US presidential election, nor indeed will I ever vote in any other

Why I will not vote in this US presidential electionHamid DabashiAl Jazeera

Voters wait to enter a weekend early voting polling station at the North Hollywood branch library in Los Angeles.

over them. They dismantle that tyranny via an entirely dif-ferent calculus of nations against states. To me a “Jewish” state is identical in its calamities with any “Islamic” Repub-lic, both mirroring a “Christian” empire, in the neighbourhood of a “Hindu” fundamentalism and a “Bud-dhist” nationalism, contested by the “secular fanaticism” now led by the European and North American new atheists. To me the monstrosity called “ISIL” is the prototype of them all. I am, therefore, not voting not because I am disillusioned about politics. Quite to the contrary: I am deeply invested and firmly rooted in a different political hope. I am more than ever convinced that this sham imperial politics and all its client states, from Israel to rich and poor tyrannies around the globe, have all categorically exhausted every ounce of legitimacy about them. Nations have entered a whole new calculus of self-sovereignty far beyond the reach of the states that lay false claims on them. Nations are in de facto revolt against states. From the Syrians who leave their homeland for other countries to Europeans who defy their racist politi-cal parties and help and welcome them, to millions of eligible voters in the US who refuse to vote (and I am proudly one of them): We are now all free from the delu-sion of electoral politics, refuse to lend credence to either of these two bankrupt factions of the single political party that, like the one in North Korea, wishes but cannot rule over us. They go their way and we go ours.

If I were to vote in New York I would have voted for Jill Stein. But at this stage voting for her is to lend credibility to a fundamentally flawed electoral system that has effectively barred her from being part of the national debates.

This as a result is an illegitimate and undignified elec-tion - every aspect of it, and walking into any voting booth on this November 8 is to be party to it. Only 9 percent of Americans have predetermined the course of this election and given the world an option between a Clinton and a Trump, and the rest are being dragged into its tail end by hook and crook to put a democratic stamp of approval on a deeply corrupt plutocracy.

The respective dangers of these two candidates to the world peace might not be identical, but they are certainly similar. And precisely for that reason there are millions of dignified, principled, hopeful, and uncompromising Ameri-cans who refuse to be party to this ignominy. I proudly stand with them. May God protect the earth from “American democracy”!

After almost 40 years of living in the US, this particular election I consider a nasty confrontation between a rising fascism and an embattled liberal imperialism.

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12 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 ASIA / PHILIPPINES

Protesters demand Park quit presidencySeoul

AFP

Tens of thousands of b a n n e r - w a v i n g protestors marched through the streets of Seoul yesterday,

demanding President Park Geun-hye resign, a day after she apologised and accepted full blame for a crippling corruption scandal.

In one of the largest demon-strations seen in the South Korean capital in years, there was little sympathy for Park who, in an emotional televised address to the nation on Friday, had talked of her loneliness and "heartache" at the explosion of public anger in recent weeks.

"Her speech made me even more angry," said Park Mee-Hee, 44, who was marching with her teenage daughter.

"She kept making ridiculous excuses as if she was totally innocent. She should step down right now," she said.

The scandal has focused on a close personal friend of the president, Choi Soon-Sil-- including official appointments

and policy decisions -- despite holding no official position.

The crisis has shattered pub-lic trust in Park's judgement and leadership, and her approval rat-ing has plunged to just five percent -- a record low for a sit-ting president.

Police said more than 40,000 had turned out for yes-terday's candlelight rally -- more than double the size of a similar anti-Park protest the week before.

Organisers said the number was closer to 200,000, after a Seoul court overturned a police ban on the demonstrators marching along the city's main ceremonial boulevard.

Around 20,000 police were

mobilised, but while the tone of the banners and slogans was angry, the event was largely peaceful, with many school and college students as well as cou-ples carrying infants or walking with their young children.

Punching their fists in the air, they chanted "Resign Park Geun-Hye" and "You are under siege".

"What is really irritating is the fact that Choi was acting like a regent for Park, controlling her decision-making", said

20-year-old political science student Kim Do-Hyun.

"I think she should step down as she has lost all her moral authority as president", one protestor, a 53-year-old who gave his family name Ahn, said.

Manila

AFP

A Philippine mayor that President Rodrigo Duterte named as being

involved in the illegal drug trade was shot dead in jail yesterday, police said, the sec-ond local official implicated in narcotics to be killed in two weeks.

Duterte, 71, won May elec-tions in a landslide on a promise to kill tens of thousands of criminals to prevent the Phil-ippines from becoming a narco-state, and has launched an unprecedented war on drugs that has left more than 4,000 people dead.

In August, he accused Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera town in the central island of Leyte, and his son of drug trafficking and demanded they turn themselves in, giving police a "shoot on sight" order if the two resisted arrest.

Mayor Espinosa then sur-rendered to the national police chief, saying he feared for his life, and was arrested last month.

But early yesterday morn-ing, police said Espinosa was killed in his cell in the

provincial jail after he shot at officers during a search for ille-gal firearms.

"He fired on the raiding team. The raiding team fired back and this led to the may-or's death," chief inspector Leo Laraga of the regional police said.

He added that another inmate accused of drug traffick-ing was also killed, after he too fired at the officers.

The national police said it was investigating the circum-stances surrounding Espinosa's death as well as possible collu-sion between guards and inmates to get guns and drugs into the jail.

Police chief Ronald dela Rosa previously said Espinosa had been listed in official records as a "drug protector", whose son Kerwin controlled the narcotics trade in the Albuera region.

Kerwin was arrested in the United Arab Emirates last month and is set to return to the Philippines to face drug traf-ficking charges.

More than 2,300 people have been killed in police oper-ations or by suspected vigilantes in connection with the anti-narcotics campaign since Duterte took office.

Detained Philippine mayor dead in prison shootout

Kuala Lumpur Reuters

Several hundred pro-gov-ernment demonstrators protested outside the office

of a media group yesterday, call-ing for it to be shut down after reports that it received funds from an organisation linked to business tycoon George Soros.

The largely Malay group, which calls itself "Red Shirts", has alleged that foreign funds received by the popular news portal, Malaysiakini, was to be

used to influence the next gen-eral election with an aim to topple Prime Minister Najib Razak's government.

The protest is expected to be dwarfed by a massive rally planned by democracy group Bersih on November 19, which will call for the resignation of Najib over corruption allegations.

Dressed in red shirts, the demonstrators were chanting "close down, close down! close down Malaysiakini!".

"We don't want outside interference in our country," said

Red Shirts leader Jamal Yunos, who is also a member of the rul-ing United Malays National Organisation (UMNO) party.

Over a hundred riot police officers were stationed in and around the Malaysiakini offices.

Widodo cancels Australia trip after violent protestsJakarta

AFP

Indonesian President Joko Widodo has postponed a trip to Australia due to start today

after violence broke out at a mass rally against a Christian governor accused of insulting Islam, the government said.

"Current development has required the President to stay in Indonesia," a statement released yesterday by the foreign minis-try said.

Widodo visited Australia in 2014 for the G20 shortly after being elected as president, but this month's trip would have marked his first official bilateral visit.

The statement added that Widodo had called Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turn-bull to inform him that the trip,

scheduled for November 6 to 8, would be delayed.

Turnbull responded in a statement: "We were sorry we would not be able to welcome him to Australia tomorrow but entirely understood the need for him to remain in Indonesia at this time."

The protest in Indonesia's capital was triggered

by accusations that Purnama, better known by his nickname Ahok, insulted Islam by criticis-ing opponents who used Quranic references to attack him ahead of an election in February.

Purnama apologised for the remarks, but his opponents have built a groundswell of support calling for his arrest and incar-ceration under Indonesia's tough blasphemy laws.

Police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said one man died of an asthma attack during the pro-test, although some local media sites suggested it could have been brought on by tear gas.

"About 160 people had to be treated for the effects of tear gas and eight police officers were also injured in the protest".

Ten people thought to have instigated the violence have been arrested.

Rally against Australia govt's refugee policyMELBOURNE: The Austral-ian government’s immigration policy was given a unanimous "thumbs down" yesterday by thousands of citizens who took part in rallies across the country.

Protesters in Melbourne, Sydney, Tasmania and doz-ens of regional centres called for the closure of offshore processing camps, which have been heavily con-demned by the United Nations refugee agency (UNHCR), and for asylum seekers and refugees to be brought to the mainland.

Organized by the groups Refugee Action Coalition, the Refugee Action Collective (RAC) and Doctors for Refu-gees, the rallies focused specifically on recent propos-als by the government to ban for life refugees, who trav-elled to Australia by boat.

Chris Breen, spokesper-son for the RAC, which organized the 3000-strong rally that took place in Mel-bourne issued a statement yesterday condemning the government's recently announced intentions to introduce new laws for a lifetime ban for refugees who came to Australia by boat.

“The proposed legislation is a discriminatory punish-ment for refugees that would permanently split families. If carried through it would result in hundreds of depor-tations from Australia to i n d e f i n i t e o f f s h o r e detention.”

Breen described the gov-ernment’s refugee policy as “callous, discriminatory, dys-functional and increasingly desperate”.

Protest against media group in Malaysia

Tens of thousands of South Korean people march during a rally calling on embattled President Park Geun-hye to resign over a growing influence-peddling scandal, in central Seoul, yesterday.

Indonesia President Joko Widodo talks to reporters after a protest by Muslim groups against incumbent governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, at the Presidential Palace in Jakarta, yesterday.

'Red Shirts' supporters demonstrate outside the office of popular online news portal Malaysiakini in Petaling Jaya, near Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.

People power

More than 40,000 had turned out for yesterday's candlelight rally.

Demonstrators believe Park should step down as she has lost all her moral authority as president.

Indonesia unrest

Violence in mass rally required the president to remain in Indonesia.

About 160 people had to be treated for the effects of tear gas and eight police officers were injured in the protest.

Indonesian boat accident toll climbs to 54Batam

AFP

The death toll from a speedboat accident in Indonesia has climbed to

54, an official said, after doz-ens of bodies were found floating in the ocean.

Search teams on Friday pulled another 36 corpses from

the sea around Batam island, south of Singapore, near where the boat struck a reef and sunk more than two days ago, local police chief Sam Budi Gusdian said.

The overcrowded speed-boat was carrying three crew and 98 passengers, mostly Indonesian migrant workers, from Malaysia to Batam at the time of the accident.

."Forty-one people have been found alive while six remain missing. The rest died, Gusdian said.

Only 12 passengers have been formally identified, he added. Among the dead were two young girls.

Police said the passengers were likely illegal Indonesian migrant workers returning from jobs in Malaysia.

13SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 PAKISTAN

Police training centres to get tighter securityLahore Internews

A high-level meeting of Punjab police yesterday proposed four-layer security for all police train-

ing colleges and centres in the province after the deadly ter-rorist attack on a police training college in Quetta killing over 60 cadets.

Punjab Police chief Mush-taq Sukhera called a meeting of all regional and district police officers of the province and directed them to improve secu-rity of all training colleges and centres.

The inspector general of police directed that a four-layer security strategy be devised for training colleges and centres across the province, patrolling improved and combing operations launched in and around a centre’s locality twice a week.

Addressing through video link at Central Police Office (CPO), the IG said all regional police officers (RPOs) and district police officers (DPOs) should ensure a minimum of two surprise visits to training colleges and centres in a week to check security.

He said monitoring and control rooms of all training centres should be more active and commandant or principal check security arrangements in and around a centre thrice a week at different times.

Sukhera said police personnel deputed for security of police training institutes should be fit, active and less than 30 years of age, adding duty hours of the personnel should not exceed nine and they should be given rest for three hours a day.

He also said bulletproof

jackets and helmets should be provided on a priority basis and security officials and snipers deployed on rooftops of barracks and lecture halls of training institutes.

Regular firing practice for officials on duty should be ensured. Automatic weapons and binoculars should be provided to security officials deployed at checkposts, he added.

The IG said monitoring of areas behind and adjacent to training colleges and centers should be given significance and patrolling and security duty in these areas beefed-up.

He further said panic button and siren horns should be operational in all colleges and centers so that the whole centre was informed in any emergency.

Additional IG (AIG) Training retired Capt Usman Khattak, AIG (Operations and Investigation) retired Capt Arif Nawaz, Deputy IG (Operations) Aamir Zulfiqar Khan, AIG (Operations) WaqarAbbasi and commandants and principals of all training colleges and centres were present at the meeting.

Security Cordon

The inspector general of police directed that a four-layer security strategy be devised for training colleges.

Police personnel deputed for security of police training institutes should be fit, active and less than 30 years of age.

Security forces destroy market after attackPeshawar

AFP

Pakistani security forces blew up a market in a res-tive tribal region near the

Afghan border to avenge the kill-ing of an army officer in a bomb attack, the authorities said yesterday.

The market housing more than 100 shops was destroyed on Thursday in Wana, the cap-ital of the South Waziristan

region, one of the seven semi-autonomous tribal areas where the army has been battling Tal-iban and Al Qaeda linked militants for more than a decade.

"The security forces ordered the shopkeepers to leave the market, which had over 100 shops and blew it up with explo-s i v e s , " s e n i o r l o c a l administration official, Zafar-ul-Islam said yesterday.

An improvised explosive

device (IED) killed an army major on Tuesday outside a weapons shop as the military staged a raid of the market.

Afghan national Kharoti Khan, who owned the shop, was arrested and his house demol-ished a day after the explosion, Islam said. He added the mar-ket was demolished as part of a "collective responsibility" to curb militancy from the area.

Since 2007 the government has encouraged vigilante forces

comprising tribesmen — locally known as peace committees — to defend their villages against the Taliban.

The tribal areas are off-lim-its to journalists and it is impossible to independently verify incidents reported by the military or militant groups.

The army launched an oper-ation in June 2014 in neighbouring North Waziristan to wipe out militant bases. As a result security has improved.

Survivors of Pakistan's ship fire incident recall horrorIslamabad

Internews

Inside the orderly burns ward at Karachi’s Civil Hospital (CHK), 20-year-old Abbas

Iqbal is fighting for his life.A doctor by his side tells

family members — his father and uncle — there is little chance that the young man will survive as he has sustained more than 40 percent burns.

Iqbal is one of scores of labourers seriously injured in a horrific accident at Gadani’s ship-breaking yard, where over 20 workers died as a fire broke out inside a fuel tank on Tuesday.

While the fire raged for days, rescue officials transported him and 25 other workers to hospi-tals in Karachi due to the absence of medical facilities in Gadani.

“I was working on the tank of a ship when one of my col-leagues accidentally dropped a blowtorch into a tank contain-ing about six feet of oil,” Iqbal recalls, speaking slowly.

“Within a split second, I heard a deafening bang and saw a flash of fire. I then found myself in the sea,” he remembers.

“I started to swim, desper-ate to stay alive. I was about to lose hope when I found a rope

attached to a ship. I grabbed it. I do not remember what hap-pened afterwards", he says.

The son of a labourer, Iqbal is the sole breadwinner in his fam-ily of eight. Like many other poor labourers working in high-risk conditions in Gadani, Iqbal left Chak 77 in Punjab’s Pakpattan when a fellow villager told him about the job in Balochistan and he was soon on his way to Gadani. Other workers recovering at the hospital shared similar stories of how they left their villages to work at the ship-breaking yard. Without the provision of accom-modation or daily meals, these labourers say they are paid between Rs57 and Rs72 per hour for a 14-hour working day.

There is no protective gear or training provided in case of an accident, with workers admitting that “smaller inci-dents” occur regularly.

No hopes as NSG to meet next weekIslamabad

Internews

THE Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) is convening again next week in Vienna to continue the bogged-down discussions on the admission of non-NPT states, but stalemate on the issue is likely to persist in the absence of a consensus on criteria that could be uni-formly applied to both Indian and Pakistani candidatures, officials privy to behind-the-scenes negotiations say.

The organisation, which controls the international nuclear commerce, is hold-ing an informal plenary session on November 11 for seeing what progress has been made towards admit-ting non-NPT countries after a June meeting failed to agree on new entrants.

Washington

AFP

The US military con-firmed Friday it had killed Al Qaeda's emir

for northeastern Afghanistan during an air strike last month, in a major blow to the group as it seeks to re-estab-lish safe havens in the country. Pentagon spokesman

Peter Cook described the assault that killed Farouq Al Qahtani as a "precision strike" and said it took place on Octo-ber 23 in Kunar, Afghanistan. "This successful strike is another example of US oper-a t i o n s t o d e g r a d e international terrorist net-works who seek to attack the US homeland, our interests and our allies abroad."

Crisis looms in Afghanistan as number of displaced rises Kabul

The Washington Post

Abdulhalim fled the northern city of Kunduz this month after mili-tants and security forces had been

clashing for days.Now he's 200 miles away in Kabul,

sleeping in a tent and living on aid. He is part of a looming humanitarian crisis aid agencies here are struggling to contain.

Before the current crisis, more than a million people had been uprooted last year. This year, at least another million Afghans are "on the move" inside Afghanistan and across its borders, in what the United Nations warns is an alarming new wave of displaced people.

Many, like Abdulhalim, fled violence or conflict; others escaped hardships such as poverty or drought. Still others were forced to return from Pakistan and Iran. Even as the numbers grew, Afghan-istan agreed to accept Afghan asylum

seekers deported from the European Union. The deal, signed in October, could lead the EU to construct a separate ter-minal for deportees at Kabul's international airport, and as many as 100,000 Afghans could return.

"This sudden increase [in the dis-placed] has put a lot of pressure on Afghanistan, which has had 30 years of war," said Nader Farhad, spokesman for the UN refugee agency in Kabul. "It's not easy to put together the infrastruc-ture, to provide the services that are required," he said, adding that the dis-placed need everything from food and blankets to jobs and health care.

"To the European countries, we say: Instead of investing in the return of Afghans to Afghanistan, tackle the root causes," Farhad said. If the United Nations and other aid agencies fail to provide emergency assistance, "it will be a humanitarian crisis," he said.

Massive displacement has plagued Afghanistan for years, beginning with the Soviet invasion in 1979.

That conflict kindled two decades of war. When the United States invaded in 2001, some 4 million Afghans were living in Pakistan and Iran.

Many of those refugees later returned, driven by hopes for stability and peace. But now, Afghanistan is wit-nessing some of its worst violence since the United States helped to topple the Taliban.

More than 1,600 civilians were killed in the first six months of 2016, accord-ing to a UN report released in July. That was the highest number of civilian cas-ualties in the first half of a year since the United Nations began keeping track in 2009.

The violence has been driven by Tal-iban assaults on Afghan cities, putting more civilians in the crosshairs. And the clashes have pushed even more people from their homes.

In Helmand province, in the restive south, more than 60,000 people have been displaced this year, according to the United Nations.

Tragedy

There is no protective gear or training provided in case of an accident, with workers admitting that “smaller incidents” occur regularly.Al Qaeda leader dead in air strike

US: Air strikes likely caused casualtiesKabul

AFP

US forces conceded yester-day that its air strikes "very likely" resulted in civilian cas-ualties in Afghanistan's volatile Kunduz province, pledging a full investigation into the incident which trig-gered angry protests.

The strikes early Thurs-day killed at least 30 people, many of them children, after a Taliban assault left two American soldiers and three Afghan special forces soldiers dead in the Boz-e-Kandahari area near the provincial cap-ital. The carnage triggered impassioned protests in Kun-duz city.

Afghans perform prayers at the funeral of victims killed by an air strike called in to protect Afghan and US forces during a raid on suspected Taliban militants, in Kunduz, Afghanistan.

At dawn, after driving from Pakistan the previous day, a family of Afghans boils tea after a night sleeping on top of the trucks that carried them, outside a UNHCR "encashment" centre on the outskirts of Kabul.

14 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 INDIA

Vendors arranging marigold flowers at a roadside stall to be sold ahead of the forthcoming Chhath Festival, in Siliguri, yesterday.

Marigold for sale

AT LEAST 18 persons were killed and 24 injured yesterday when an overloaded private bus plunged into the Beas river near Mandi town in Himachal Pradesh, police officials said.

Over speeding was the cause of the accident, said the police.

The ill-fated bus with over 45 persons on board was enroute to Kullu town from Mandi when it fell into the river near Bind-ravani, some 175 km from the state capital, on National Highway 21. Superintendent of Police P K Thakur said 18 per-sons died in the accident.

OVER 40,000 children, including 2,500 visually impaired kids and differ-ently-abled children, from over 800 schools across India will take part in the 21st edition of Salwan Marathon today.

The run will take place at the Army Equestrian Centre. The run this year has seen an increase of over 40 per cent in reg-istrations from students from rural areas over last year. Celebrated Indian athletes Shiva Thapa, Manpreet Kaur and Khushbir Kaur will be seen at the run as well as volunteers, cheering for the runners.

NEWS BYTES

18 dead as Himachal bus falls into river

40,000 children to run in Salwan Marathon today

Lalu: Ban on NDTV an attack on democracy

Future growth of IT is in innovation: Ansari

Lucknow

IANS

Rashtriya Janata Dal chief Lalu Prasad Yadav yes-terday hit out at the

BJP-led central government for the one-day ban handed over to NDTV India, terming it an attack on democracy and said there was an "emergency-like situation" in the country.

"Today you have seen what has happened to NDTV, they (government) said that you (channel) showed the Pathankot terror attack," Lalu said, addressing the Silver Jubi-lee celebrations of the Samajwadi Party here.

"Ban on NDTV is an attack on democracy. This country is heading towards dictatorship," he said, adding "There is an emergency-like situation in the country."

Lalu said that since NDTV channel "exposes certain

people", it has been targeted by the government.

His remarks came after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting directed the Hindi news channel to go off air for a day. The ban will be effective from the midnight of Novem-ber 8 to midnight of November 9 on NDTV India for allegedly breaching cable TV norms in its coverage of the January 2 ter-ror attack on the Pathankot Air Force base.

The RJD chief also asserted that there is no rift in the Sama-jwadi Party.

"There is no rift in the Samajwadi Party, and we gave proof by bringing Akhilesh Babu (Yadav) and Shivpal Babu (Singh Yadav) together on stage," he said.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minis-ter Akhilesh Yadav and his uncle Shivpal Yadav, the SP state unit chief, have been at loggerheads since September.

Hitting out at Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi, Lalu said, "We have seen the condition of Jammu and Kashmir for the last 100 days."

"Someone had told us about their '56-inch chest', but look what is happening at the (India-Pakistan) border now?" he said.

He also said that cross-bor-der surgical strikes were first carried by the Indian Armed forces when Mulayam Singh Yadav was the Defence Minister.

Noida

IANS

TThe future growth of the Indian IT industry lies in innovation, creating more

futuristic business scenarios and engineering digital disrup-tion, Vice-President Hamid Ansari said here yesterday.

"The future growth of our IT companies will, thus, be in being able to create futuristic business scenarios and engi-neering digital disruption rather than coping with its aftermath. In short, you will have to be more innovative," Ansari said at the inauguration of the new Nasscom building here.

Talking about the role of the IT industry, the Vice President said the sector has been a major contributor to the Indian growth story in the last 25 years.

It has provided improved brand image, created employ-ment, contributed to gross domestic product growth, cre-ated avenues in technology education and contributed to e-governance.

He said while the growth trajectory of the sector was well charted its challenges will come, in the shorter and inter-mediate term, from industry shifts such as cloud computing, evolution in Software as a Serv-ice model.

There is a constant need to develop new products to embrace the challenges.

"These challenges will come, in the shorter and inter-mediate term, from industry shifts such as Cloud Comput-ing, evolution in Software as a service models, need to develop new products,

Digital Disruption, and shrinking manpower needs because of software automa-tion. It is likely that your present and new clients will increas-ingly look for innovation partners rather than software partners," Ansari said.

Emphasising the central role of innovation, the Vice President said while the Global Innovation Index 2016 ranks India at 66 out of 128 countries, the government is proactive to create an innovation-friendly environment in the country.

Protests rock Srinagar after teen's death

'Conspiracy' by BJP to increase Delhi power tariff

Joint working group to resolve fishing disputesThiruvananthapuram

IANS

India and Sri Lanka yesterday agreed to hold twice a year meetings of their fisheries

ministers and also to set up a joint working group that will meet every three months in a bid to find a permanent solution to the long-standing fishing disputes between the two countries.

The decisions, which also

included setting up of a hotline between the coast guards of the two countries, were taken at a meeting between External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and her Sri Lankan counterpart Mangala Samaraweera here.

"They agreed on the setting up of a joint working group on fisheries to meet every three months and a meeting between the ministers for fisheries every six months," a Ministry of Exter-

nal Affairs statement said.The delegations for the work-

ing group would include representatives from the foreign ministries, the Coast Guards and the navies of both countries.

The first ministerial meeting would be held on January 2 next year in Colombo, the statement said. Fishing disputes have often complicated the ties between the two sides, with Sri Lanka accus-ing Indian fishermen of bottom

trawling with mechanised boats, a destructive method of fishing that destroys the marine ecosys-tem, in its territorial waters.

To help prevent the arrest or death of Indian fishermen, most of whom are ethnically Tamil, the two governments in the yester-day meeting "agreed to the request by fishermen associations that there should be no violence and no loss of life in the handling of fishermen by the navies and coast

guards of the two countries".Towards this end, the state-

ment said, the terms of reference for the working group would include ending the practice of bottom trawling at the earliest.

The group will also work out the modalities for the Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs) for handing over of apprehended fishermen and ascertain possi-bilities for cooperation on patrolling.

Srinagar

Anatolia

At least 35 people were wounded when forces attacked the funeral pro-

cession of a 16-year-old boy in Srinagar, the capital of Kashmir, yesterday, witnesses said.

Qaisar Ahmad Sofi died in hospital on Friday evening. He went missing on October 27 and was found unconscious the fol-lowing day.

His family claimed he was abducted, tortured and poisoned by security forces. The police denied the claims and said he consumed poison himself.

Early yesterday, mourners chanting pro-independence and anti-India slogans were taking his body to be buried when they

were targeted with tear gas by security forces.

“There was a huge presence of police and paramilitary [troops] on the roads and they fired tear smoke shells and pel-lets at the mourners,” Irshad Nabi, a resident of the city’s Safa Kadal neighbourhood, said.

“They do not even let us bury our dead,” one protestor said. “Then there were clashes between the mourners and the forces.”

Regular protests against gov-ernment have been held since July 8, when a Kashmiri com-mander was killed by security forces. More than 100 civilians have been killed by forces and around 10,000 wounded since then, according to the region’s health department.

However, police claimed that the boy had consumed poi-son. Ahmed died around 10pm on Friday.

His body was taken in a pro-cession yesterday morning for a funeral at the martyrs graveyard in the Eidgah area of old Srina-gar city.

A police spokesman said

some angry protesters from the procession threw stones at security forces, resulting in a clash.

Police used tear smoke shells and pellets to disperse the angry protesters, causing injuries to over a dozen civilians and secu-rity men.

In another incident, three policemen, including a junior level officer, were injured on Fri-day night in an improvised explosive device (IED) explosion in Dadsara village of Pulwama district.

Police have said 7,000 have been arrested for participating in demonstrations against govt rule. Kashmir, a Muslim-major-ity Himalayan region, is divided between India and Pakistan, which both claim the territory.

New Delhi

IANS

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday alleged a "conspiracy"

was on by the BJP-led Centre to increase power tariff in the national capital, and assured that he would not let the tariffs rise.

"We have not increased

power tariff in last two years. BJP is trying to increase the elec-tricity prices in Delhi, but I won't let this happen," he said.

Addressing a press confer-ence, Kejriwal said the DERC Chairperson's appointment was scrapped by Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung with a view to undo his efforts to regularise electricity bills. Krishna Saini's appointment

as the Delhi Electricity Regula-tory Commission (DERC) chairperson was scrapped by Jung in September on grounds that his approval was not taken.

"DERC chief had issued many orders in past eight months that fixes the account-ability of power companies. Power companies want the DERC chief to be removed.

Mourners watching the funeral procession of Qaisar Ahmad, 16, in Srinagar, yesterday.

Criticism

RJD Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav says country is heading towards dictatorship.

Since NDTV channel "exposes certain people", it has been targeted by the government.

Insurgency

There was a huge presence of police and paramilitary [troops] on the roads and they fired tear smoke shells and pellets at the mourners.

15SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 INDIA

New Delhi IANS

Nearly 1,700 primary schools under the three municipal corporations

in Delhi have been ordered to shut down yesterday due to high air pollution levels in Delhi, an official said on Friday.

About 10 lakh students are enrolled in these schools admin-istered by the South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC), North Delhi Municipal Corpo-ration (NDMC) and the East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC), he said. SDMC Leader of the House Subhash Arya con-firmed that all primary schools under the Corporation will remain closed yesterday due to

high pollution levels in Delhi."The decision was taken on

Friday at a meeting in the wake of severe pollution that the res-idents of Delhi are facing. We have decided to keep the schools closed yesterday, as the smog is worse during morning hours," Arya said.

The SDMC has issued guide-lines on strict action against garbage burning and has con-stituted teams at zonal level to take action against those found burning and throwing garbage in the open.

"We are deeply concerned about high levels of pollution since Diwali in Delhi. The Cor-poration has been working on an action plan to overcome the problem of pollution. The

Additional Commissioner will monitor the implementation of the plan," Arya said.

He further said the Sanitary Inspector and the Assistant San-itary Inspector concerned will be held responsible for burning of garbage at 'dhalaos' and near dustins. "We have ensured that one responsible employee remains present at each dhalao."

"The SDMC is striving hard to impose ban on burning of garbage. In case any employee of the Corporation is found burning garbage strict action will be taken against him," he said. Arya also appealed to the citizens, social organisations and RWAs to come forward to curb the rising pollution.

Canadian Minister of Immigration, Citizenship and Refugees John McCallum (centre) preparing chapati at a community kitchen during his visit to the Golden Temple in Amritsar yesterday.

Pedestrians walking through Central Park amid heavy smog in New Delhi, yesterday.

Canadian minister preparing chapati

Lucknow

IANS

Uttar Pradesh's ruling Samajwadi Party tried to put up a united face at its sil-ver jubilee gala here

yesterday, but the peace seemed fragile as state party chief Shiv-pal Singh Yadav took several pot shots at his nephew and Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav.

The two have been locked in a bitter turf war over the past two months, even coming to blows at a public function. Shivpal, who was sacked as a minister twice in a month by Akhilesh, said he wanted to once again reiterate that he was not after any post or ministry.

"I have said it in the past and am saying it again that becom-ing Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh was never my ambition, and I reiterate it," Shivpal said as his supporters applauded. He also said his contribution to the

party's growth and the state gov-ernment headed by Akhilesh was no less.

"Have I not worked hard? Have the departments I held did any lesser work?" he asked Akhilesh and informed how maximum work in the present government was done by his departments like PWD and Irri-gation, which he was divested of by Akhilesh. He listed various projects to support his contention.

Shivpal also informed the gathering at the sprawling

Janeshwar Mishra Park here that 42 new tehsils (revenue subdivi-sions) had been created in the last two years alone, while he was state minister. Asking for respect, a visibly emotional Shivpal said the Chief Minister can go on and ask for any sacrifice from him.

"If the party so requires, I am ready to even offer them my blood," he said. Referring to his dismissal from the state cabinet twice, Shivpal said he was nei-ther greedy for any post nor any ministry. He also said that while some people get power in line-age, there were many who were silent workers.

His apparent hint was at Akhilesh being anointed as the successor of party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. Later, when a former minister of state and member of the youth brigade Javed Abdi started speaking on the dais and started eulogising Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, he was pushed away by Shivpal Yadav. Before this, Shivpal was

called by party supremo and elder brother Mulayam Singh Yadav and asked to tell Abdi to go away. This, political

observers here say, was another indication that all is still not well within the party.

Earlier, the two sides showed

unusual bonhomie and when RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav tried to ensure a shake hand between Shivpal and Akhilesh.

New DelhiIANS

In response to global prices and currency fluctuations, the three state-owned oil market-

ing companies (OMCs) have decided to increase the price of petrol and diesel from midnight. According to the Indian Oil Cor-poration (IOC), petrol price will be increased by Rs 0.89 per litre excluding state levies, whereas diesel would become expensive by Rs 0.86 per litre.

"The current level of inter-national product prices of petrol and diesel and INR-USD exchange rate warrant increase in selling price of petrol and diesel, the impact of which is being passed on to the consum-ers with this price revision," IOC

said in a statement."The movement of prices in

the international oil market and INR-USD exchange rate shall continue to be monitored closely and developing trends of the market will be reflected in future price changes."

The new prices of non-branded petrol in metros like New Delhi would come to Rs 67.62 per litre, Kolkata Rs 70.24, Mumbai Rs 74 and Chennai Rs 67.13. The revised prices of non-branded diesel in New Delhi would come to Rs 56.41 per litre, Kolkata Rs 58.67, Mumbai Rs 62.15 and Chennai Rs 58.02.

On October 15, 2016, the three OMCs had decided to increase the price of petrol and diesel by Rs 1.34 per litre and Rs 2.37 per litre respectively.

New DelhiIANS

In a bid to counter the BJP's North East Democratic Alli-ance (NEDA), the Congress

yesterday reconstituted its North East Coordination Committee headed by Meghalaya Chief Min-ister Mukul Sangma.

"Congress President (Sonia Gandhi) and Vice-President (Rahul Gandhi) have reconsti-tuted the North East Coordination Committee,"

Congress leader Manish Tewari told reporters here.

"A new Committee has been constituted and would be con-vened by Mukul Sangma, Chief Minister of Meghalaya," Tewari said.

Among others who will be a part of the committee are former Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minis-ter Nabam Tuki and Manipur Chief Minister Okram Ibobi Singh.

The Congress leader also said that there is the whole "spectre

of internal subversion, the repeated destabilisation of elected Congress government notwithstanding, very severe strictures which were passed by none other than the Supreme Court of India".

He also accused the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) and the RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh) of making insidious attempts to try and communally polarise northeastern India.

The Congress party's coor-dination committee came

months after the BJP in July formed the NEDA as part of its 'Congress mukt northeast' move.

Tewari also said there were repeated intrusions by the Chi-nese into Arunachal Pradesh. In Ladakh, there was another stand-off with the PLA (People's Liberation Army).

Meanwhile, after being nom-inated to the new Coordination Committee, Sangma said, "India has its own inherent complexi-ties. It is important for leaders

who are familiar to deal with the var ious issues there (northeast)."

"There is no other party apart from the Congress, whose lead-ers have been able to create great change in northeast India," Sangma said.

Sangma also said that the Congress leaders will look at issues in the northeast, bring leaders on one platform and ensure that they protect the region from "agendas which are detrimental".

Shivpal & Akhilesh spar at jubilee gala of SPFamily feud

The two have been locked in a bitter turf war over the past two months.

Peace seemed fragile as Shivpal Singh Yadav took several pot shots at Akhilesh.

Samajwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav addressing the silver jubilee rally of the party in Lucknow yesterday.

Petrol and diesel prices to go up

Congress reconstitutes North East Coordination Committee

1,700 primary schools shut as Delhi chokes on pollution

THE Haryana govern-ment was conferred with the award for outstanding work in the field of e-gov-ernance at the 'State of the States Conclave 2016' organised by India Today in New Delhi, an official said yesterday.

Union Finance Minis-ter Arun Jaitley gave away the award. On behalf of Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar, his additional Principal Secretary Rakesh Gupta received the award.

Congratulating Gupta, Jaitley appreciated the work done in the field of e-governance in the past two years in Haryana.

Gupta apprised the Union Minister about the number of e-governance initiatives taken up by the Khattar Government and said that the Chief Min-ister wishes to transform Haryana into a digitally empowered society and knowledge economy.

A RELIGIOUS preacher and the father of a new-born were taken into custody yesterday for advising against breast-feeding of the infant until the fifth azan (prayer) call, and were sent to jail for two days.

The police acted after the new-born's mother, despite repeated per-suasion by the doctor and paramedical staff, refused to breast-feed her second child after delivery on Wednesday at 1.30pm due to religious reasons.

Abubacker, the father of the newborn, was taken into custody on Friday. After question-ing him, the police called in the Muslim preacher, Hydrose Thangal, early yesterday and took him into custody.

A police officer told IANS that the arrest of the two was first recorded and they were produced before a court near here, which sent them to two days judicial custody.

NEWS BYTES

Excellence in e-govt award for Haryana

Preacher & father of new-born sent to jail

Lawyers too worried

A group representing senior lawyers in England and Wales, the Bar Council, issued a statement yesterday, urging the government’s justice minister to condemn the “unjustified attacks” as a matter of urgency.

16 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 EUROPE

A gallery employee studies a painting “East LA Arcade” by Bob Dylan at Halcyon Gallery in London. Dylan, a music legend and Nobel laureate, is also a prolific painter whose works depicting the landscapes and culture of America are the focus of a major London exhibition that opened yesterday.

Dylan's art on display

Cabinet reshuffle

The move aims to speed up reforms that Athens has agreed to implement under its latest international bailout deal.

The conservative opposition New Democracy party called the reshuffle a “recycling of the same corrupt faces”.

Athens

Reuters

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras prom-ised “brighter days” yesterday after a cabinet reshuffle

aimed at speeding up reforms Athens has agreed to implement under its latest international bailout deal and to shore up his government’s popularity.

But Tsipras signalled he would stick to fiscal course agreed with EU Union and Inter-national Monetary Fund by keeping Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos in his post.

Greece wants to wrap up a review on labour reforms and fiscal issues swiftly to qualify for more debt relief and for inclu-sion in the European Central Bank’s bond buying programme. This will help it to regain bond market access by 2018, when its current bailout programme expires.

“We have the opportunity for a new start that will give us the necessary impetus for the

last critical steps of a marathon leading us to brighter days,” Tsipras told reporters after his new cabinet was sworn in on Saturday.

Tsipras switched his minis-ters around in the rejig late on Friday, but brought few new faces to his cabinet.

The conservative opposition New Democracy party called the reshuffle a “recycling of the

same corrupt faces”.“For Greece and its citizens,

there are no prospects by this dangerous government,” Spokesman George Koumout-sakos said.

Tsipras appointed Dimitris Liakos, chief of his economic office and a former fund man-ager, as the minister responsible for the implementation of Greece’s bailout programme.

To appease the creditors who have accused Greece of foot-dragging in selling state assets, Tsipras replaced Energy Minister Panos Skourletis, who has openly opposed some pri-vatisations, with George Stathakis, currently the econ-omy minister. Skourletis was moved to the Interior Ministry.

Shipping Minister Thodoris Dritsas was replaced by Pana-giotis Kouroublis, currently the interior minister. The shipping ministry oversees the privatisa-tion of Greek ports.

Head of Greece’s privatisa-tion agency, Stergios Pitsiorlas, was named deputy minister under Dimitris Papadimitrou,

Brussels

Reuters

European Commission Pres-ident Jean-Claude Juncker said he was shocked by

remarks by Germany’s Euro-pean commissioner that offended China and French-speaking Belgians this week, but was convinced they do not rep-resent his true views.

Juncker was commenting in his first interview on the matter since Guenther Oettinger last week called Chinese people “slit-eyes” and railed at a Bel-gian region’s efforts to block an EU-Canada trade deal.

“A Commissioner cannot hold such views. I told him he had to apologise to those who could have felt targeted,” Juncker said in an interview with the Belgian newspaper Le Soir yesterday.

Oettinger apologised on

Thursday, saying he realised his remarks had “hurt” people. But the long delay before he issued an apology sparked an outcry that threatened to jeopardise trade ties with China.

His U-turn came a day after the Chinese foreign ministry condemned his remarks and said they reflected a “baffling sense of superiority” among Western politicians.

Oettinger, 63, had previ-ously accepted only that his comments on October 25 had been “somewhat sloppy”.

Juncker said he only learned of the comments on Wednes-day night after a long holiday weekend: “I couldn’t immedi-ately turn my attention to this Oettinger’s clumsiness.”

But he said a conversation with the Commissioner convinced him the comments did not rep-resent his true opinion and that they “shared the same views”.

“I sincerely think these com-ments did not convey his thoughts. He is a liberal man on social issues, and so I was sur-prised,” Juncker told Le Soir.

Last Friday, Juncker announced a promotion for Oet-tinger, who has a reputation for plain talk, from digital affairs to vice-president for the budget.

The Commission is battling for public support for the EU in face of rising nationalist oppo-sition exemplified by Britain’s vote to leave the bloc in June.

Public outcry over Oetting-er’s comments comes after a scandal over whether former European Commission chief Jose Manuel Barroso broke ethics rules by taking a job at Goldman Sachs.

Juncker said he would pro-pose extending the period during which former EU com-missioners are banned from lobbying, from 18 months to three years.

London

Reuters

Britain’s government defended the independence of the country’s judiciary on Saturday after three

judges came under a wave of criticism from newspapers and a senior official for dealing a blow to the government’s Brexit preparations.

Justice minister Liz Truss, under growing pressure to back the judges, issued a brief statement saying the independence of the judiciary was the “foundation upon which our rule of law is built” and said Britain’s legal system was impartial.

England’s High Court ruled on Thursday that the decision to begin Britain’s formal divorce talks with the European Union should be approved by parliament and could not be taken by the government alone.

The ruling, which could delay Prime Minister Theresa May’s plans to start the Brexit negotiations by the end of March, was met with fury by some lawmakers and British newspapers.

Sajid Javid, a member of May’s cabinet, called the ruling an “unacceptable” attempt to “frustrate the will of the British people”, while The

Daily Mail newspaper said the three judges who handed down the ruling were “enemies of the people”.

Other Conservative lawmakers have now pushed back against the criticisms.

“There is something smacking of the fascist state about them (the attacks),” Dominic Grieve, a former British attorney general, was quoted as saying in The Times on Saturday.

“It shows either a total misunderstanding of the UK constitution, which such critics periodically extol - or a deliberate desire to destroy it.”

Bob Neill, the Conservative chairman of parliament’s justice committee, warned the attacks were

“threatening the independence of our judiciary” and had “no place in a civilised land” and he called on May to intervene.

A group representing senior lawyers in England and Wales, the Bar Council, issued a statement on Saturday, urging the government’s justice minister to condemn the “unjustified attacks” as a matter of urgency.

“A strong independent judiciary is essential to a functioning democracy and to upholding the rule of law,” the council said. A spokesman for Britain’s justice ministry said he had no immediate comment.

Stephen Glover, a columnist for the Daily Mail, stood by the newspaper’s coverage of the court ruling and said he did not think judges would be cowed by the criticism of their decision.

“To imagine this has had some terrible, devastating effect on British society is literally crazy,” he told the BBC.

May told other EU leaders on Friday she believed court ruling would be overturned and said she would stick to her Brexit timetable. May will lead a major business delegation to India this week, using her first trip outside Europe since Brexit vote to push for more trade with the fastest-growing major economy.

economist and president of Levy Economics Institute, who was appointed economy and develop-ment minister.

Effie Achtsioglou, a 31-year-old Labour Ministry official who participated in the negotiations with the foreign lenders, was appointed labour minister.

“The prime minister tidied up his cabinet,” head of Alco polling agency Costas Panagopoulos said.

“This scheme seems more capable to fulfil the country’s international obligations.”

Tsipras set up stand-alone ministries to handle tourism — the economy’s key driver — and crucial issue of migration, as Europe struggles with its worst migrant crisis.

Migration Minister Yannis Mouzalas kept his post, along with ministers of foreign affairs,

defence and tourism. Greece is expected to return to growth in 2017, an event which Tsipras hopes will convince Greeks that their sacrifices are paying off.

Tsipras’ closest aide and adviser Nikos Pappas — who as state minister oversaw an auc-tion on television licenses that was annulled by a top court, was appointed minister of digital gov-ernance and media.

Tsipras promises 'brighter days'

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras (second right) looks on as President Prokopis Pavlopoulos (right) leads a swearing-in ceremony under political oath of newly appointed members of the government at the Presidential Palace in Athens, yesterday.

UK judges face Brexit heat

Juncker shocked by German official's remarks on China

Detention

The ETA leader Mikel Irastorza was detained in a house in Ascain, a village near the Pyrenees mountains, bordering Spain, the police said.

17SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 EUROPE

People watch a light show projected on city's famed St. Isaac's Cathedral during the Festival of Lights in Saint Petersburg, Russia.

Colourful show

Pulling the plug

“The company has failed in its mission, generating enormous costs for taxpayers. We have decided not to recapitalise it,” Rome Mayor Virginia Raggi said.

Authorities to look at other ways to meet city's transport needs.

Rome

Reuters

Rome City Council voted to stop financ-ing a th ird underground trans-port line, pulling the

plug on a project that is years behind schedule, well over budget and embroiled in cor-ruption scandals.

The anti-establishment 5-Star Movement, which took control of Rome in June, said it could no longer justify pump-ing public money into the rail link and would now look at other ways to meet the capital’s transport needs.

“The Roma Metropolitane company has failed in its mis-sion, generating enormous costs for the taxpayers. We have decided not to recapitalise it,” Mayor Virginia Raggi said.

The decision means the Metro C will stop short at Col-osseum rather than crossing through heart of Rome, as orig-inally planned. The initial section of the driverless net-work was inaugurated in 2014 and 21 stations are now open.

Financing has been agreed for a further three stations up to Colosseum, which are set to

be operational by 2020. Work will continue, but plans for a further 14 stops to Vatican and beyond have been dropped.

The designers chose a costly, heavy-duty train system, expect-ing the route would carry up to 600,000 passengers a day. At present, the link carries just 50,000 people a day.

Building the initial 24 sta-tions to Colosseum was originally priced at €2.23bn ($2.54bn), but after a welter of design changes the figure to cover just as far as the Colos-seum stop is now put at €3.7bn, a Rome City Hall official told councillors at a meeting.

Munich

Reuters

The leader of Germany’s Christian Social Union (CSU) acknowledged he

was wrong to openly criticise conservative ally Chancellor Angela Merkel for her refusal to adopt limits on refugees.

But Horst Seehofer, Bavar-ian state premier, told a party congress he still wanted annual numbers capped at 200,000, warning the CSU and Merkel’s Christian Democrats (CDU) might fail to bridge their differ-ences on the issue before September’s federal elections.

The protracted dispute between the leaders of the sis-ter parties has hurt both in

opinion polls and contributed to a series of state election defeats.

Merkel, expected to seek a fourth term next year, insists there should be no cap. Yet she needs the support of the CSU, which operates only in Bavaria and delivers about a sixth of the combined CDU/CSU vote.

“It was a crass political mis-take,” Seehofer said of the public row with Merkel, who skipped this year’s CSU congress in Munich after he publicly humil-iated her with a lengthy lecture at last year’s gathering. “I’ve learned my lesson.”

Because of the unresolved dispute, Seehofer will also not attend the CDU’s party congress next month in Essen—an unprecedented mutual snub for

the leaders of the parties whose alliance has governed Germany for 47 of the last 66 years.

“I won’t sell CSU’s soul on this issue,” Seehofer told the party delegates. He said many Germans sense there has been a “loss of control” because more than a million refugees had arrived since September 2015.

“I won’t accept a lousy com-promise,” he added. “For me what is essential is that you can’t take in more refugees than you’re able to integrate effec-tively. No country is able to handle the number of refugees we took in last year. A limit of about 200,000 ... is needed.”

He said it was possible he and Merkel would not be able to find common ground by September.

Rome

AFP

Two Italians and a Cana-dian who were kidnapped in the south of conflict-

torn Libya in September have been released and flown to Italy, the Italian government announced yesterday.

The Italians, Danilo Calon-ego, 66, and Bruno Cacace, 56, and Canadian Frank Poccia were freed during the night “due to effective cooperation with local Libyan authorities,” it said in a statement.

The three men were kid-napped on September 19 in Ghat, close to the Algerian bor-der, where they worked for an Italian company that carried out maintenance at the airport. An armed group blocked their vehicle and took them hostage. Italy’s foreign ministry said the three arrived in Italy at around 0200 GMT, but gave no details

on their state of health. It was also not clear when Poccia might return to Canada.

Rome prosecutors, who had opened an investigation into a suspected terrorist kidnapping, were to speak to the two Ital-ians later today, it further said in the statement.

Several Italian companies are present in Libya, a former colony, and their expat staff have often fallen prey to kid-nappers in recent years.

In July 2015, four Italians working for a construction company were kidnapped near an oil field operated by Italian giant ENI in the region of Mel-litah, west of Tripoli.

Two of the hostages were killed more than six months into their ordeal, likely in clashes between jihadists and local militiamen. The other two were freed in March this year, in a raid on Islamic State group hideouts near the capital.

Madrid

Reuters

Spain said security forces had arrested the head of Basque militant separatist group

ETA in south-western France yesterday in a joint operation between the French domestic intelligence service and Spanish police.

Mikel Irastorza was detained in a house in Ascain, a village near the Pyrenees mountains, the Spanish Interior Ministry said in a statement, adding that the 41-year-old leader of the illegal organisation had been on the run since 2008.

Irastorza had led ETA for just over a year since arrests of two previous leaders in France last year, the ministry said.

“(The arrest) is a crushing blow to ETA, removing its lead-ership and eliminating the part that controlled arms and explo-sives,” it said, adding that the operation remained open.

French and Spanish media reported that Irastorza is being

held in French city of Bayonne.ETA, which does not nor-

mally comment in such situations, was formed in the late 1950s during the dictatorship of Francisco Franco and aims to establish an independent Basque state in northern Spain and southern France.

The group killed over 800 people over several decades through bombings and execu-tion-style killings.

However, ETA has been severely weakened in recent years after hundreds of its mem-bers were arrested and some of its weapons were seized. It called a unilateral ceasefire in 2011 and pledged to turn in its weapons,

although a full handover has yet to happen.

A Spanish man and a French woman were also arrested, the

ministry said, alleging they had given shelter to Irastorza and were the owners of the house where he was arrested.

Lyon

AFP

A FRENCH court has handed a three-month suspended jail sentence to a teenager who named his domestic wifi net-work after the Islamic State group, his lawyer said.

“There was no sympathy for terrorism! There was only word ‘Daesh21’,” explained lawyer Karima Manhouli, saying he would appeal his client’s criminal conviction.

“It was a stupid act by a young man of 18 who can’t explain why he did it,” he said. The case came to court in eastern town of Dijon after a neighbour saw the name pop up on a list of available Wifi networks in July and called the police.

“There was an investiga-tion and searches but nothing was found. There is nothing to suggest (my client) shares this ideology. On the contrary, he strenuously denies it,” Man-houli said.

The court handed the youth a suspended jail sen-tence after he turned down an offer of 100 hours of com-munity service. The lawyer said there had been a spate of similar criminal charges since January 2015 when authorities were instructed to quickly prosecute suspected cases of sympathy for terrorism.

Rome votes to put brakes on Metro project

Debate on migrants divides Germany’s conservatives

Naming Wifi network after IS backfires on French teen

Italy says kidnapped nationals freed in Libya

Basque separatist leader arrested in France

Former Spanish Basque refugee Xabi Arin Baztaric (centre) arrested by French police anti-terror judiciary police yesterday, at his home in Ascain, near the Spanish border.

18 SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 AMERICAS

Direct dialogue

Delivers first weekly radio address for the Republican party.

Promises to create 25 million jobs, cut taxes for the middle class and get rid of President Barack Obama’s landmark health care plan.

Washington

AFP

It’s time for US voters to say goodbye to Hillary and Bill Clinton, Donald Trump said yesterday in his first weekly radio address for

the Republican Party, with which he has clashed since launching his bid president.

“It’s time to close the his-tory books on Clintons, and to open a bright new chapter focused on great citizens of our country,” Trump said.

“I’m asking for your vote and your help in electing a Republican majority in Con-gress, so that we can finally change this broken system and make America great again. And when I say great, I mean great for everyone,” Trump said.

Trump touched on main themes of his campaign, such as a promise to create 25 mil-lion jobs, cut taxes for the middle class, get rid of Presi-dent Barack Obama’s landmark health care plan, halt illegal

immigration and bring US jobs back from overseas.

“For the past seventeen months I’ve travelled across this nation and met the amazing people of our country. Their hopes have become my hopes and their dreams have become my dreams,” Trump said.

He added: “This is not just a campaign, it’s a movement. It’s a once in a lifetime chance to take our government back from the donors and the special interests, and return the power to you, the American people.”

Cleveland

AFP

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump brandished starkly different visions

of America as they headed into a fierce final weekend of cam-paigning yesterday, one celebrating hope as the other bashed corruption.

Trump doubled down on his attacks on Clinton as a product of a venal and incompetent establishment, while Clinton headlined an optimistic concert spectacular featuring superstar singer Beyonce.

Forecasts based on polling averages still give the 69-year-old Democrat an edge over the 70-year-old Republican property mogul ahead of Tuesday’s vote.

But Trump has been buoyed by signs that he is closing the gap in the key swing states that will decide who secures an electoral college win.

So both headed to the US rustbelt, where blue-collar vot-ers that were once reliable Democrats may be tempted by Trump’s protectionist promise to repatriate jobs from Mexico and China.

Clinton’s campaign brought her to Cleveland, Ohio, a state that fellow Democrat President Barack Obama won in 2012 but where she now trails Trump in opinion polls by around five per-centage points.

She was introduced with a show-stopping set by rapper

Jay-Z and his even more famous wife Beyonce, who sang songs of emancipation and empower-ment wearing a version of Clinton’s trademark pantsuit.

“The world looks to us as a progressive country that leads change,” Beyonce declared. “I want my daughter to grow up to see a woman lead our country. That is why I’m with her”

Riffing on the theme, Clin-ton portrayed her campaign to become America’s first female president as the next step in the civil rights struggle.

“We have unfinished work to do, more barriers to break,

and with your help, a glass ceil-ing to crack once and for all,” she declared, to loud cheers.

Clinton earlier visited Detroit, Michigan, where sup-porters booed her populist rival when she attacked Trump’s affinity for Russian President Vladimir Putin and a “dark vision” of an America mired in poverty and failure.

“When I hear my opponent talking about America I don’t recognise it,” she declared, tout-ing her own “confident, optimistic, inclusive” agenda.

Trump has run one of most aggressive and populist campaigns

in history, browbeating his Repub-lican primary rivals into submission before launching into Clinton, “such a nasty woman.”

Trump was in Hershey, Pennsylvania hoping to use his popularity with the white, male working class to shatter the “firewall” pollsters once thought Clinton enjoyed in Democrat-leaning states.

“I want entire corrupt Wash-ington establishment to hear the words we’re about to say. When we win on November 8 we’re going to ‘drain the swamp’,” he said, as the 13,000-strong crowd took up the chant.

Washington

Reuters

A US judge in Ohio ordered Repub-lican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s campaign not to intimi-

date voters as voting-rights advocates scored a string of last-minute victories in several politically competitive states.

The ruling by US District Court Judge James Gwin creates possibility of fines or jail time for Trump allies who harass vot-ers, a significant victory for Democrats who had worried Trump was encourag-ing supporters to cause mayhem at the polls on November 8.

The ruling also deals a blow to a Trump-aligned “exit poll” that seeks to mobilise thousands of supporters. The Trump cam-paign appealed the decision.

Trump has warned that the election may be rigged and has called on support-ers to keep an eye on voting activity for possible signs of fraud in large cities.

Democrats have launched a legal blitz in Ohio and five other battleground states to prevent that from happening. They are also trying to stop a paramilitary group, the Oath Keepers, from conducting its own monitoring operation.

Voting-rights advocates also won legal victories in three other states, building on a string of decisions that have rolled back election restrictions across the country.

In Arizona, a federal judge suspended a state law that prohibits advocates’ abil-ity to collect absentee ballots.

“Having more options to turn in your ballot ensures that more people take part in the democratic process,” said Spencer Scharff, voter protection director of the Arizona Democratic Party.

In North Carolina, a judge ordered elec-tion officials to restore voting rights of thousands who were removed from regis-tration lists in recent weeks. And in Kansas, a state court blocked a dual-registration sys-tem that would have prevented 20,000 registered voters from casting ballots for local offices because they were unable to prove US citizenship. The Ohio ruling does not pre-vent state Republican Party from sending trained volunteers into polling places to make sure election laws are followed.

However, it does impose restrictions on Trump supporters who take it on themselves to monitor voting activity, saying they may not interrogate voters within 100 feet of a polling place, block them from entering, or photograph them.

Trump says voters must dump Hillary

Hillary touts optimism against Trump’s warnings

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton is joined by former NFL Pittsburgh Steelers player Mel Blount at a campaign rally at Heinz Field in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Fayetteville, North

Carolina/Hershey,Reuters

US President Barack Obama chastised supporters at a

rally for Democratic pres-idential nominee Hillary Clinton in North Carolina, as tensions spiked when a supporter of Republican opponent Donald Trump began protesting.

But that didn’t stop Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, campaigning a few states away at the time, from telling a completely oppo-site version of what happened, condemning Obama for screaming at the protester.

The incident hap-pened in clear view of

reporters covering the rally in Fayetteville, North Carolina, where a pre-dominantly African American crowd was jammed into a gym at a state university to hear Obama stump for Clinton.

Obama had just said Trump was unfit to lead the country when he was interrupted by a white-haired white man in a beret and suit jacket with what appeared to be mil-itary patches, who stood up in the stairwell of the bleachers, waving a Trump campaign sign.

The crowd turned its attention to the protester, screaming and booing at the man. Obama repeat-edly told the irate crowd to “focus” and to “settle

down.” “Everybody sit down and be quiet for a second!” Obama said. “You’ve got an older gen-tleman who is supporting his candidate,” he said as the protester was led away.

“We live in a country that respects free speech,” he said. “It looks like he might have served in our military - we’ve got to respect that.”

In Trump’s version, Obama scolded the pro-tester, not the crowd.

“He was talking to the protester, screaming at him, really screaming at him,” Trump said.

“By the way, if I spoke the way Obama spoke to that protester they would say, ‘He became unhinged,’” Trump said.

Trump supporter protests at Obama's rally

Ohio judge warns Trump not to intimidate voters

Washington

Reuters

Vatican-convened talks between Venezuela’s government and opposi-

tion are the last, best chance to find a peaceful solution to the country’s political impasse, US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon said early yesterday.

In his first remarks since vis-iting Caracas on Monday, Shannon said Washington would support the talks “as long as it remains viable.”

“From our point of view (the dialogue) really is the last best effort to try to find a negotiated, peaceful solution to this,” he told reporters. “Absent this dialogue process, Venezuela will find itself in a state in which both the government and the opposition will have to measure themselves through their ability to put peo-ple on to the streets.”

He said that this kind of

mobilisation would be “unpre-dictable and can be very dangerous.”

Shannon travelled to Cara-cas on October 31, a day after initial talks led by the Vatican. He has spearheaded efforts by Obama administration to ease tensions with Venezuela, which often accuses Washington of

trying to topple President Nico-las Maduro’s government.

Maduro’s adversaries accuse him of creating a dictatorship by blocking a recall referendum on his rule and of illegally overrid-ing the legislature, which was taken over by the opposition in a landslide election last year.

The opposition insists the government allow the referen-dum, release dozens of jailed opposition activists and respect congressional decisions.

There is no indication Maduro will agree to any of the opposi-tion’s demands, and in a speech on Thursday he criticized their timetable and urged patience.

“It is a fragile but very important process, and it’s a good faith effort to find a peace-ful way out of the political impasse that has crippled Ven-ezuela,” said Shannon, who described the negotiations as “the only game in town.”

The Vatican, which was instrumental in restoring

relations between the United States and Cuba last year, faces a difficult situation in Venezuela, given the few signs of agreement between Maduro and the opposition.

Shannon described the ini-tial meeting as “a huge step” but said the opposition wanted more gestures from the government ahead of the next round of talks on Nov. 11. This included a sig-nificant release of political prisoners, he added.

“How the issue of prison-ers is dealt with is obviously going to be key to the success of this process going forward,” he said, adding that the sides would try to agree on an e l e c t o r a l agenda.

Golden opportunity

US Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Tom Shannon said, “From our point of view (the dialogue) is last best effort to find a peaceful solution. Absent this dialogue, Venezuela will find itself in a state in which both the government and opposition will have to measure themselves through their ability.

19SUNDAY 6 NOVEMBER 2016 AMERICAS

Tourists observe a mural at the archaeological site Huaca El Brujo, a grand pyramid of the ancient Moche pre-Hispanic culture, in Trujillo, Peru.

Pyramid in Peru

Deadly encounter

The officers were responding to a call about the break-in and encountered the suspect’s vehicle when the suspect opened fire with a .45-caliber handgun.

An exchange of gunfire resulted with the suspect being pronounced dead at the scene.

New York Reuters

A New York City police sergeant was fatally shot and another was wounded in a shoot-out on the streets of

the Bronx that also resulted in death of the suspect, a man who had just broken into the apart-ment of his estranged wife.

The officers were responding to a call about the break-in and encountered the suspect’s vehicle about half a mile away where the man opened fire with a .45-cal-iber semiautomatic handgun, Police Commissioner James O’Neill told a news conference.

An exchange of gunfire resulted with the suspect being pronounced dead at the scene while the officers were taken

to the hospital, he said.Sergeant Paul Tuozzolo, a

19-year veteran of the force and father of two young children, was pronounced dead at the

hospital. The wounded officer, 9-year veteran Emmanuel Kwo, was shot in the leg and was in stable condition, O’Neill said.

“The city is in mourning and the family of the NYPD is in mourning,” Mayor Bill de Blasio told reporters about an hour after informing the officer’s wife and parents of his death.

The dead suspect, identified as Manuel Rosales, had a record of at least 17 prior arrests, O’Neill said. He had forced his way into the home of his 29-year-old estranged wife while their 3-year-old son was present, O’Neill said.

A 13-year-old child and a 50-year-old woman were also at the home, he said.

Tuozzolo became the first New York City police officer killed while on duty since Octo-ber 2015. Kwo was taken to the

same hospital, where he was informed his colleague had died.

“He’s devastated, as we all

are,” the police commissioner said.Upon encountering the sus-

pect’s red Jeep, police rammed

the vehicle with their patrol car, the New York Daily News and other media reported.

Washington

Reuters

US President Barack Obama (pictured) short-ened prison sentences of

72 convicts serving time for non-violent drug offenses in the latest round of commutations, the White House said.

The commutations are part of Obama’s effort to reform US criminal justice system. He has so far shortened the sentences of 944 convicts, including those of 324 who were serving life terms.

“Our nation is a nation of second chances, where mis-takes from the past will not deprive deserving individuals of the opportunity to rejoin society and contribute to their families and communities,” White House counsel Neil Egg-leston said in a statement about Obama’s commutation push. The president will continue to grant commutations until he leaves office on January 20, Eggleston has said.

Marijuana reform activists have urged the Obama admin-istration to legalise pot, which is on a list of the most danger-ous drugs such as heroin. But in August it declined to do so, only relaxing certain restric-tions on growing pot for medical research.

The administration has instead focused on the commu-tation programme Obama launched in 2014, the country’s most ambitious in 40 years.

Many of the convicts have been serving terms on crack cocaine offences. Crack

offenders have for years faced stiffer penalties than offenders of powder cocaine, even though the two substances are molec-ularly similar. Critics have said that disparity has unfairly hurt minority communities.

All 944 convicts were required to go through curric-ulums such as getting equivalency of a high school degree, vocational pro-grammes, or substance abuse programmes designed to pre-pare them to reenter society.

Convicts with shortened terms include Ricky Mitchell of Waycross, Georgia who was serving a life term since 1997 for crack cocaine and other offences. Mitchell will now be released in 2027, conditioned on enrollment in a drug treat-ment program.

Lasalle Boone of Port-smouth, Virginia was serving a 12-year term for possession with intent to distribute base cocaine that had been set to expire in 2020. Boone’s sen-tence was commuted to expire in 2017.

Washington

AFP

Imprisoned US soldier Chel-sea Manning tried to commit suicide while serving time in

solitary confinement for a first attempt in July, her representa-tives said.

Manning, a former Army intelligence analyst sentenced to 35 years in prison for hand-ing classified documents to anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, tried to kill herself on October 4, according to a statement she dictated to supporters by phone 11 days later and released by

The New York Times.American Civil Liberties

Union rights group attorney Chase Strangio confirmed the attempt on Twitter.

“After her July suicide attempt, I watched her begin to piece her life and spirit back together only to have shattered by the disciplinary proceedings brought against her and then the unannounced initiation of her term of punishment last month,” Strangio said.

Manning’s four-page state-ment, addressed to the inspector general of intelligence commu-nity, indicates she attempted to

commit suicide on the evening she was placed in solitary with-out prior notice. She was later placed on suicide watch in a spe-cial housing area.

Much of the statement described strange events that she said took place on the night of October 10, less than a week after the suicide attempt. These included a simulated attack on the prison and an mock rescue attempt, in which she refused to participate.

The events could not imme-diately be independently verified.

Manning, 28, who was

previously known as Bradley, was convicted in 2013.

Manning ended a five-day hunger strike in September after the Army agreed to provide sur-gery to treat her gender dysphoria.

She was arrested in 2010 while serving as an intelligence analyst at a US base near Bagh-dad after sending 700,000 documents—military war logs and US diplomatic cables—to WikiLeaks.

Manning has repeatedly decried her treatment at a men’s military prison in Fort Leaven-worth, Kansas.

New York Reuters

AUTHORITIES have discov-ered a body on a South Carolina property where a woman was found chained in a storage container, accord-ing to Spartanburg County coroner.

At least one body was found on a 100-acre property in the town of Woodruff, northeast of Greenville, Spar-tanburg County Coroner Rusty Clevenger said.

“In (the) beginning stages of investigation of one body,” Clevenger said by email. “No other information available I can release right now.”

Investigators with cadaver dogs began search-ing the property after police found Kala Brown, 30, inside the locked container, Sheriff Chuck Wright of Spartanburg County police department told a news conference.

Brown and her boyfriend, Charles Carver, went missing on August 31. A tip related to disappearance of the couple, who live in Anderson, about 55 miles southwest of Green-ville, led police to Woodruff property. Carver, 32, was still missing and police were look-ing for him.

Bogota

AFP

COLOMBIAN rebel group ELN yesterday said it hopes to free hostage ex-congress-man Odin Sanchez next week, clearing the way to begin peace talks with the government.

“We hope it will be in the coming week,” said Pablo Beltran, the chief peace negotiator for the National Liberation Army (ELN), in comments to Caracol Radio.

He said a “humanitarian commission” including inter-n a t i o n a l m e d i a t o r s , government and rebel nego-tiators, and representatives of the Catholic Church had been set up to oversee Sanchez’s release.

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FAJRSHOROOK

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ZUHRASR

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MAGHRIBISHA

04.52 pm

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HIGH TIDE 06:00 - 17:15 LOW TIDE 12:15 - 17:15

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at places at first due to fog. Hazy

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WEATHER TODAY

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Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

25oC 33o C

The Peninsula

The Ritz-Carlton, Doha cele-brated its 15th anniversary since the hotel first opened its doors on October 27, 2001. The Ladies and Gen-

tlemen of The Ritz-Carlton, Doha celebrated the special milestone with a team breakfast welcomed by the hotel’s Guidance Team, followed by a cake cutting ceremony hosted by gen-eral manager Erden Kendigelen, who thanked the Ladies and Gentlemen for their dedication, contributions and achievements on strengthening the company’s reputation locally and glo-bally, and for uplifting the renowned Ritz-Carlton Gold Standards in their daily lives.

The event continued with a spe-cial recognition to Ladies and Gentlemen who have served the hotel since pre-opening and still remain with the property today to build wonderful guest memories. 19 members of the team have been awarded for 15 Years of Service.

“It gives me great pride to celebrate this important day especially with our Ladies and Gentlemen who continu-ously seek ways to creating unique, memorable, personalised and inno-vative experiences for our guests. Timely to the 15th anniversary is another exciting milestone as The Ritz-Carlton, Doha will soon unveil a re-imagined experience with a new guest room design that will reflect the property’s refined ambiance and dis-t inct offering of luxury accommodations. The transformation showcases modern residential fea-tures, a centralized media hub, sophisticated sound system and also incorporates environmentally

responsible furnishing and technol-ogy elements,” said Mr. Kendigelen.

As one of Qatar’s finest luxury hotels, The Ritz-Carlton, Doha has become a symbol of hospitality excel-lence in the country, renowned for impeccable service and its brand motto

“We are Ladies and Gen-tlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen”.

Soaring 115 meters above Qatar’s sea and desert landscape, The Ritz-Carlton, Doha is an impressive symbol of the nation’s emergence as a destination for travellers to the Middle East. The 374-room, five-star hotel fuses contemporary styl-

ing with classic Arabic and European design. Located on its own exclusive island in the prestigious West Bay Lagoon district, the hotel has sweep-ing views, which overlook the turquoise blue waters of the Arabian Gulf. For more information or

reservations, please visit or join us on ??www.facebook.com/ritzcarltondoha, follow us @RitzCarlton, call +974 4484 8000, or visit our website ritzcarlton-com/doha.

The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, L.L.C., of Chevy Chase, MD., currently operates more than 90 hotels in over 30 countries and territories. More than 40 hotel and residential projects are under development around the globe. For more information or reservations, visit the company web site at www.ritzcarlton.com, for the latest company updates, visit news.ritzcarlton.com and to join the live conversation, use #RCMemories. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, LLC is a wholly-owned sub-sidiary of Marriott International, Inc. (NASDAQ:MAR).

The Peninsula

HEC Paris, one of the world’s top three provid-ers of Executive Education programmes, has successfully concluded its inaugural research

conference in Qatar hosting more than 80 interna-tional researchers, academics and business leaders.

The conference’s theme, ‘Setting the Stage for a Knowledge-Based Economy in the Gulf – with a Focus on Qatar’, was hosted by HEC Paris’ Doha campus.

Organised with academic support from Qatar Uni-versity and co-sponsored by Qatar National Research Fund, the conference brought together local and inter-national scholars to discuss the latest research findings and global experiences on the knowledge-based econ-omy while focusing on the applicability of global best practices and knowledge in Qatar.

H E Dr. Saleh bin Mohamed Al Nabit, Minister of Development Planning and Statistics in Qatar, joined Dr. Hassan Al-Derham, President of Qatar Univer-sity, for a keynote session on ’Qatar National Vision 2030 and the Knowledge-Based Economy’. “This con-ference and its distinguished participants go a long way in supporting our efforts in encouraging Qatar’s growth through essential research and the sharing of best practice. By working together to diversify the nation’s economy and enhance educational offerings, it will create a benefit for the whole region,” said Dr. Abdul Sattar Al Taie, Executive Director, Qatar National Research Fund. Distinguished speakers and panelists during the event included Dr. Tian Zhu Professor of Economics, China Europe International Business School (CEIBS), China, Dr. Martin Hvidt, Associate Pro-fessor, Centre for Contemporary Middle East Studies, Southern Denmark University, Denmark and Steven Geiger, Founder of Innova Partners, USA, and former original director of Masdar Institute, UAE, as well as representatives from Ministries and leading academic institutes in Qatar and the GCC.

The Ritz-Carlton, Doha marks 15th anniversary

The staff of The Ritz-Carlton, Doha, during the 15th anniversary celebrations.

HEC Paris concludes research conference

Participants during the conference.