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Dust envelops DohaVehicles moving on G Ring Road amid heavy dust storm that gripped the city last evening.PIC: ABDUL BASIT / THE PENINSULA

MEC initiative to regulate laundry shops THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Ministry of Economy and Commerce announced yesterday initiatives to regulate the services of laun-dries and dry cleaning shops to protect consumer rights. The initiative, which is based on Circular No. 1/2018, outlines mechanisms and principles that guarantee rights of consumers and service providers, compen-sation policy, pricing and other related aspects.

The initiative requires laun-dries to preserve items for three months from the date of receipt. The Ministry has granted laun-dries and dry cleaning shop a three-month deadline, starting from yesterday, to comply with the terms and conditions of the initiative.

Under the initiative, laun-dries are required to develop uniform and binding mecha-nisms to compensate con-sumers in the event of damage, loss, change of colour or other damage to the item. Previously, each laundry had its own com-pensation policy regarding damage to clothing or other items amid the lack of a uniform compensation policy.

The compensation is clas-sified in two categories - com-pensation by agreement and mandatory compensation. In case of agreed-upon compen-sation, both parties agree on the compensation value before the

provision of the service and the delivery of clothing or other items to the laundry, particu-larly expensive items. The com-pensation must be documented in the invoice relating to the item as a reference in case of a damage.

In the absence of an agreement between both parties, the laundry owner shall seek an agreement with con-sumer on the value of compen-sation for the damage, loss, colour change, to settle the dispute without infringing the rights of the consumer. He will take into account the condition, price and date of purchase of the concerned items by referring to invoice or through other means. The Ministry noted that mandatory compen-sation would be based on the estimated value (provided that the purchase invoice of the item is presented).

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IRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Every year 10 Turkish companies will establish their industrial units in Special Economic Zones of Qatar, said Ibrahim Uyar, Chairman of Foreign Organizational Devel-opment Commission of Musiad.

“As per an agreement between Turkey and Qatar, every year 10 Turkish com-panies would establish their units in Special Economic Zones

of Qatar,” Ibrahim Uyar said while talking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of Expo Turkey by Qatar 2018 which concluded on Friday.

He said that Musiad (Inde-pendent Industrialists and Busi-nessmen Association) with 11,000 members and 60,000 companies would also facilitate and guide intending Turkish investors to invest in Qatar’s economic zones. Uyar said that Musiad delegation also had a meeting with Manateq officials to find ways to bring

Turkish investments to Qatar’s economic zones.

He pointed out that Musiad represented 15 major sectors hence was in a position to facil-itate and guide investors from both countries for their potential investments in Turkey and Qatar. He added that opening of new industries in Qatar was a good step that would diversify its economy but would also bring self-sufficiency.

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FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The number of patients travelling to foreign countries for head and neck surgeries has dropped significantly in the recent years, says a senior official at the Hamad Medical Corpo-ration (HMC). Also, patients from regional countries continue to visit the country for treatment, despite the blockade imposed by neighbouring countries,

Professor Dr Moustafa Alkhalil (pictured), Senior Consultant and Head of Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery Department at the HMC, told media on Thursday.

“The number of people going abroad for cranio-maxillofacial surgeries has decreased by more than 80 percent. Most Qatari patients get treated here, rarely they decide to go abroad,” said Dr Alkhalil, who is also the Chairman of Head and Neck Tumor Board.

“We are serving cases not only from Qatar but still we have patients coming from the region. Recently, I operated patients from Bahrain, Saudi Arabia and the UAE even after the blockade. Qatar has not stopped them and we treat them the same way we treat patients here,” he added.

Dr Alkhalil also said that patients also come from coun-tries such as Sudan and Egypt and seek for cranio-maxillofacial surgeries at the HMC.

Cranio-maxillofacial surgery specializes in treating many dis-eases, injuries and defects in the

head, neck, face, jaws and the hard and soft tissues of the oral (mouth) and maxillofacial (jaws and face) region.

The Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery Department at HMC is the first of its kind in Qatar. It has achieved great success in sur-gical management cases such as head and neck oncologic surgery of advanced tumors, recon-structive surgery using modern techniques, aesthetic surgery, congenital cranio-facial

deformities and syndromes. The results of these surgeries match up with the high international standards, with a 100 percent success rate, according to Dr Alkhalil.

“Our services match inter-national standards. It’s because of efforts taken by the hospital management, Ministry of Public Health and healthcare system of the country,” he said.

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The initiative outlines mechanisms and principles that guarantee rights of consumers and service providers, compensation policy, pricing and other related aspects.

Turkish firms to establish industrial units in SEZs yearly

WASHINGTON: Qatar’s Attorney General H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, who is currently visiting Washington, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Attorney General of the United States, Jeff Sessions. The MoU aims at strengthening coop-eration between the Qatari Public Prosecution and the US Department of Justice in the field of capacity building, as well as cooperation in the fight against terrorism and its financing and combating cybercrime.

Qatar, US sign MoU to fight terrorism

Number of patients going abroad for head, neck surgeries decline by 80%

QNA

DOHA: Qatar Chamber (QC) has announced that a delegation of more than 55 Qatari businessmen will travel to Kuwait on Tuesday led by QC Chairman H E Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani.

The two-day visit aimed at estab-lishing a forum for business in both countries to discuss ways to enhance trade relations, review investment opportunities in Qatar and Kuwait and build alliances and joint ventures between Qatari and Kuwaiti businessmen.

H E Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim bin

Mohammed Al Thani said that the visit underscores the deep brotherly rela-tions between Qatar and Kuwait.

The visit will explore ways to strengthen relations between Qatari and Kuwaiti businessmen for further cooperation in various fields of trade and investment.

The Qatar Chamber Chairman pointed out that the Qatari busi-nessmen have a great desire to go to the Kuwaiti market to establish part-nerships and alliances lead in trade and economic areas .

The QC Chairman praised the Kuwaiti position on the Gulf crisis and the unfair siege imposed by three Gulf

states on June 5, 2017. He also hailed the efforts exerted by H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, Emir of the sisterly State of Kuwait, to resolve this crisis.

He pointed out that the Kuwaiti private sector has contributed to sup-plying the Qatari market with many products and commodities since the beginning of the crisis.

He noted that the visit of the Qatari businessmen delegation to Kuwait will open the horizons between the two sides to sign agreements between Qatari and Kuwaiti companies to enhance trade exchange and joint ventures.

Qatari businessmen to visit Kuwait

DOHA: Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) expressed its regrets over the verdict of North Cairo Military Court in absentia to award life impris-onment to Qatari citizen, Sheikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi, Chairman of International Union of Muslim Scholars.

The committee said yes-terday that it considers the verdict as incompatible with international standards of fair and equitable trial conditions aas well as relevant to interna-tional and regional human rights conventions. It called upon National Council for Human Rights of Egypt and UN Special Rapporteur concerned with independence of judges and lawyers and High Com-missioner for Human Rights to intervene quickly and take necessary measures to protect rights of Sheikh Qaradawi.

NHRC regrets verdict against Yusuf QaradawiMaking Qatar proud

Qatari Rally Driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (right) celebrating with Qatar’s flag after claiming the runner-up spot of the 40th Dakar Rally, held in Peru, Bolivia and Argentina, yesterday. →REPORT ON PAGE 27

02 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018HOME

Malabar Golds & Diamond Festival winnerDeepan, the first raffle draw winner of ‘Malabar Gold & Diamonds Festival’, receives the prize of 250 gram gold from Santhosh T V, Regional Head, Qatar in the presence of officials from Malabar Gold & Diamonds at Grand Mall branch.

QNA

DOHA: Qatar Charity (QC) has launched an urgent relief campaign for the affected people of Yemen because of the wors-ening humanitarian situation, in the name of “urgent relief for Yemen”.

The campaign aims to provide care and support to more than 18 million Yemenis in urgent need of various forms of assistance including shelter, food, medicine, drinking water

and heating supplies. In the field of food, food baskets are also made up of eight main food items, with a value of QR300.

In the field of the healthcare, the campaign will provide medical supplies and medicines to displaced Yemenis.

Due to the scarcity of clean water and the near total lack of environmental sanitation, which has become a source of danger for more than eight million Yemenis, the campaign will con-tribute to the provision of potable

water to most of the regions and governorates there.

As more than four million Yemeni refugees struggle to survive the harsh winter cold, the campaign will provide blankets, mattresses and clothes for dif-ferent ages.

Khalid Al Yafie, Director of Project Management at the Exec-utive Directorate of International Operations at Qatar Charity, said: “The humanitarian crisis that Yemen has been experiencing for years has exacerbated the

humanitarian situation in various fields, especially those affecting the daily lives of citizens. Thou-sands of water cuts, lack of food, and almost complete collapse of medical services due to lack of medicines and the paucity or lack of medical consumables. This has exacerbated the situ-ation to large internal displace-ments from major cities to rural areas, increasing human suf-fering, he added.

He pointed out that interna-tional reports sounded the alarm

that in 2018 the world may witness the worst humanitarian disaster in Yemen if everyone does not unite to stop this tragedy urgently, especially since the harsh winter increases the suffering of thousands of Yemeni families.

Al Yafei urged Qatari and expatriate philanthropists to donate to the campaign in order to alleviate the suffering of the people of Yemen, pointing out that the exceptional situation that Yemen has been going

through for many years has exacerbated the humanitarian crisis there due to lack of food and medicine and deterioration of services. The main issue, which requires standing with them in their plight as a brotherly and humanitarian duty.

Qatar Charity (QC) has carried out several previous relief campaigns for the affected people of Yemen between 2008 and 2017 in areas of healthcare, food, shelter, and various projects.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: As temperatures have continued to drop during the past weeks, Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) five Pedi-atric Emergency Centers (PECs) have seen an increase in the number of patients presenting with cold and flu symptoms.

Dr Mohammed Al Amri (pictured), Senior Consultant for Pediatric Emer-gency Medicine and Assistant Director of the PECs, said the increase in the number of children coming to the PECs since the onset of winter also coincides with the start of the new school term.

“Across all five of HMC’s PECs, we see around 3,000 cases per day with Al Sadd PEC receiving the highest number of patients at around 1,700 cases per day. This is followed by Al Rayyan PEC, which sees up to 750 cases daily. The Old Airport PEC receives around 300 cases each day while the PECs in Al Daayen and Al Shamal receive around 200 patients each day,” he said.

He added that during times of higher patient volumes, the number of nursing and medical staff is increased. In treating patients, priority is given to critical sit-uations where the child is experiencing dangerous or life-threatening

symptoms, such as a cardiac arrest or convulsions. The PECs are equipped to handle a wide range of conditions – from chronic disease to critical illness; however, patients of children with minor illnesses are asked to seek treatment at their local health centers, with only emergency cases going to the PECs.

Dr Al Amri explained that the cooler climate is ‘fertile ground’ for the spread of viruses. “Winter is the perfect season for the spread of viruses such as the flu and common cold, and especially for a virus known as respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) — a common and very con-tagious virus that infects the respiratory tract of most children before their second birthday. RSV is characterised

by a high temperature, cough, and sore throat. It appears in newborns in the form of bronchitis and can also cause children to feel lethargic,” he said.

Speaking about prescribing antibi-otics in treating children with a high temperature, Dr Al Amri warns against excessive use. “Antibiotics should be given only in cases of bacterial infection or ear infections. Antibiotics are not effective in the treatment of viral infec-tions as they destroy beneficial bacteria in the digestive system. It is also important for parents to know that cough inhibitors are strictly prohibited for newborns and should not be given

to children under six years of age as they could affect their nervous system,” he cautioned.

He added that teachers and other school staff can play an important role in preventing the spread of illness by being observant and recognising symptoms of illness, such as a high tem-perature, and then ensure prompt com-munication with the child’s parents. He also recommends schools promote the importance of good personal hygiene, such as hand washing especially, when a child is sick. He noted that it is better to keep sick children at home for at least

two days and prevent them from having contact with other children, especially newborns.

The PEC has a dedicated 24-hour telephone hotline that is managed by registered nurses and aims to provide quick and appropriate advice about common pediatric health conditions and to decrease unnecessary visits to its facilities. The hotline can be reached at 4439 6011 and 4439 6066.

“We receive about 200 calls per month on our hotline, most of which are related to medications,” said Dr Al Amri.

Qatar Charity launches urgent relief campaign for Yemen

Increase in number of child flu patients as mercury dips

HMC’s PECs provide high-quality, safe, and compassionate clinical care.

Dr Mohammed Al Amri, Senior Consultant for Pediatric Emergency Medicine and Assistant Director of the PECs, said the increase in the number of children coming to the PECs since the onset of winter also coincides with the start of the new school term.

UAE paid US data firm to spread negative information about QatarTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: A US data firm has admitted that it was paid money by the UAE to spread negative information about Qatar. NBC News reported that the parent company of Cambridge Analytica, SCL Social Limited, filed documents with the US Justice Department’s Foreign Agents Registration Unit disclosing $333,000 in payments by the UAE for a 2017 social media campaign linking Qatar to terrorism.

The data firm filed paperwork showing it had helped spread negative infor-

mation about Qatar.According to NBC, the flood of

new filings provides a small window into the long-opaque industry of foreign lobbying in Washington in which money is spent by foreign governments to sway the opinions of the American public and US officials, most often against their adversaries.

Many UAE sponsored media outlets were at the forefront of the negative campaign against Qatar. They also spread fake news against Doha, which was called out by international organisations and prominent persons, like the time Assange called out a fake news published

by one of the UAE media outlets.The $333,000 contract

between SCL Social Limited and the National Media Council of the UAE included creating multiple ads on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social media sites with the hashtag #boycottqatar, drawing ties between terrorism and Qatar, NBC said in its report.

It’s been said by many Qatar officials that UAE is paying for advertisements that are tar-geting Qatar with fake infor-mation and insinuations.

SCL Social Limited spread the negative ads during the United Nations General Assembly meeting in September.

03SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 HOME

FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

DOHA: An average of 1,500 surgeries are performed in different specialities at the Hamad General Hospital and the number exceeds 2,200 each month at the Rumailah Hospital, said a senior official.

Among them at least a 50 percent are general surgeries and orthopedic related procedures, said Professor Dr Moustafa Alkhalil, Director of Operation Theaters at Hamad Medical Cor-poration (HMC).

HMC’s hospitals within Doha have around 50 operation thea-tres with advanced facilities and also expansions continue due to the increasing demand.

“We have a big number of theaters and soon will increase it to meet the growing demand. There are new hospitals and expansion plans, we have

state-of-the-art theaters, we have newest equipment and largest number of surgeries per-formed in different specialities,” said Dr Alkhalil.

“Majority are general and orthopedic surgeries and it makes about half of all surgeries. The General Surgery Department deals with common surgeries including surgery of the pan-creas, liver, colon, stomach and gallbladder – among others. Orthopedic Department also has a big number of theatres as they

deal with many cases including trauma. They deal with emer-gency and elective surgeries and the capacity of theatres will be increased soon to meet the increasing demand,” he added.

The new surgical unit at the Hamad General Hospital with sophisticated equipment and services is revolutionising sur-gical practice at HMC’s largest hospital and providing patients with even better care, according to Dr Alkhalil.

The 10,000 square metres operating theater expansion fea-tures 20 newly equipped surgical theatres. The facility has three highly advanced hybrid oper-ating rooms to complete surgical procedures as well as CT and MRI imaging.

These operating rooms allow surgeons and radiologists to work on five to seven specialities at the same time. One of the new oper-ating theaters also features the

latest high-tech robotic surgery apparatus – the da Vinci Xi sur-gical robot, which Hamad sur-geons use to perform a variety of specialist and general surgeries.

“There is a revolution all the time for expansion and improvement at our hospitals. To achieve the improvement which happened here within 15 years, some countries might

need more than 50 years,” said Dr Alkhalil.

“Also that guests from Europe and the US while visiting HMC are fascinated and impressed with equipment, tech-nology and the design of our the-atres,” he added.

Dr Alkhalil said that the vacant spaces created by the shifting of Women’s Hospital

clinics to the new Women’s Well-ness and Research Centre will be occupied by the Surgical Depart-ment, as part of the expansion plan.

“However, it’s not easy and requires a lot of time as patient safety is very important and we have to make sure everything is perfect and ready for opera-tions,” he said.

Over 3,500 surgeries a month at HMC hospitals

“We have a big number of theaters and soon will increase it to meet the growing demand. There are new hospitals and expansion plans,” said Dr Moustafa Alkhalil.

One of the operating theaters in the new surgical unit at Hamad General Hospital. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

MEC initiative to regulate laundry shopsContinued from Page 1

The compensation value owed to the consumer is deter-mined by calculating the esti-mated monetary value of the item when the damage occurred and subtracting from the invoice purchase price the depreciation calculated based on the value table, the Ministry added.

In case the damage occurred within three months from the date of purchase, the value of the compensation shall be 70 per-cent of the value of the item. In

case of damage after three months to six months from the date of purchase, the value of the compensation shall be 50 per-cent of the value of the item.

If the damage occurs between six months and one year from the date of purchase, the compensation value would be 30 percent of the item value.

If the damage occurs one year after purchasing the item, the compensation value is set at 20 percent of the item’s value.

In case of mandatory com-pensation in the absence of a

purchase invoice, the consumer is compensated for the damaged items (damage, loss, colour change, etc) at 15 times the cost of the service provided to the consumer by the seller.

The Ministry noted that con-sumers must present the pur-chase invoice of an item to obtain compensation according to the estimated monetary value.

The Ministry urged con-sumers to retain the purchase invoice of clothes and items delivered to laundries and dry cleaning shops to ensure their

rights to compensation when a damage occurs.

The initiative also compels laundries to clearly inform con-sumers whether these advertised services are actually offered at the same shop, or through another one. This was not the case in the past, when some laundries advertised services that they did not provide or offered through other shops without the consumer’s knowledge.

In addition, the new initia-tive compels laundries to

provide proof of the condition of clothing and other items upon receipt by the laundry.

In this context, laundry shops are required to inspect the con-dition of the items upon receipt and to indicate whether the items are defective or damaged, and to document this condition in the invoice before the service is provided.

Prior to the initiative, laundry shops were not required to document the con-dition of clothing items (clothes, carpets and others) upon

receipt and before the service was provided.

As for the distinction between the prices and terms of a regular service as opposed to an urgent service, the initi-ative compels laundries to announce the service delivery period and to distinguish between normal deadlines and urgent deadlines and their prices. Previously, most laun-dries did not announce the dif-ference in price between reg-ular and urgent service delivery.

04 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018HOME

QC improves surgical services in GazaTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Charity Office in the Gaza Strip implemented a project to improve the services of the surgical department at the Indonesian Hospital of the Gaza Strip, by proving Harmonic Scalpel, a surgical instrument, in cooperation with the Palestinian Ministry of Health.

More than 350,000 residents of the northern Gaza Strip will benefit from the services pro-vided under the project, which costs more than QR182,000. It will result in reducing the waiting

lists of patients, as they used to wait longer in the queue to receive health services due to the lack of the advanced surgical instrument, thus exposing them to the risk of complications and the deterioration in their health condition.

Director of the Qatar Charity Office in the Gaza Strip, Engineer Mohammed Abu Haloub, said that the project was intended to improve the surgical services offered at the Indonesian Hospital in the northern Gaza Strip as well as to ensure the continuation of such services in a quick way by providing this advanced sur-gical instrument.

Abu Halub stressed that the importance of the project lies in

the fact that the medical devices are the basis for conducting gen-eral and specialised surgeries in hospitals, highlighting that Qatar Charity is bound to support the most needy sector, especially patients.

Director of the hospital Dr Shawqi Salem expressed that the laparoscopic instrument pro-vided by Qatar Charity contrib-utes to reducing waiting lists of patients by 80 percent and ensures that they receive treat-ment in a timely manner.

Dr Salem said that the project, in general, creates an opportunity to provide safe and better quality services through the development of the surgical operation department, stressing that the new hospital requires advanced medical devices to raise the level of health services provided therein.

Director General of Interna-tional Cooperation at the Min-istry of Health Dr Ashraf Abu Mahadi thanked Qatar Charity for its support to the health sector, especially for providing the surgical instrument, stressing that the traditional surgery causes bleeding complications and wound infections, which

force patient to stay longer in hospitals.

Abu Mahadi explained that the project implemented by Qatar Charity greatly helps alle-viate the suffering of patients from the complications that

occur as a result of the of tradi-tional surgical operation as well as reduces the bill of treatment abroad, thus lightening the finan-cial burden.

Qatar Charity has imple-mented many projects to

support the health sector in Gaza, including fuel for hospitals, med-icines and medical equipment, sterilizing devices, X-ray machines and endoscopy devices in addition to building health clinics.

Officials of Qatar Charity and Indonesian Hospital at the hospital. LEFT: A view of the scalpel.

More than 350,000 residents of the northern Gaza Strip will benefit from the services provided under the project, which costs more than QR182,000.

Turkish firms to establish industrial units in SEZs yearlyContinued from page 1

Ibrahim Uyar said that many big Turkish c o m p a n i e s w e r e already doing busi-nesses in Qatar and some companies had contracts of mega infrastructure projects including a 2022 World Cup stadium.

Uyar highlighted that the volume of bilat-eral trade last year (2017) was $900m and in a couple of years “we will take it to $5bn per year”.

Qatar had successfully countered effects of the blockade he said, adding that “Turkey from the very first day of siege announced its unconditional support for Qatar. We are supporting Qatar, not for financial gains but it is also an emotional attachment.”

On Expo Turkey by Qatar 2018, Uyar said that the event was being organised the second time in which 129 major Turkish companies were participating. “This expo will improve bilateral trade establishing new partnerships between Turkish and Qatari com-panies and will boost business relations” he outlined.

He said that on the first day of expo (January 17), as many as 500 local businessmen had business-to-busi-ness meetings with Turkish companies. “Expo Turkey by Qatar brings new trade and investment opportunities for businessmen of both countries. Our political relations are deep-seated and now we have to convert them into strong business relations as well.”

Uyar emphasized that investment opportunities were for both sides: for Turkish investors to invest in Qatar and Qatari investors to invest in Turkey. He said that through investments in industries both coun-tries could tap markets of whole the Middle East and beyond.

“For this purpose, my delegation alone had around 10 meetings with Qatari investors on the first day of expo (January 17) in which Qatari businessmen and investors expressed their interest to invest in Turkey.”

He said that Turkish investors could invest in food, medical and construction sectors in Qatar. For Qatari investors, Uyar said, the opportunities were vast in con-struction and real estate sectors of Turkey.

Ibrahim Uyar said that Qatari businessmen could invest in setting up industries in Turkey as Turkey had all required expertise, infrastructure etc. “Through these production units, they will not only satisfy Qatar’s needs but can export their products to the whole world.”

He said that currently, the volume of Qatari invest-ments in Turkey was $20bn. “Turkey is the fourth country in terms of Qatari investments. Some Qatari companies have bought stakes of some Turkish companies while others fully acquired some entities there.”

Uyar stressed that Musiad would hold 17th Musiad Expo in Istanbul in November this year. “This expo, held every other year, is the biggest business expo in the Muslim world. In 2016, 7000 companies participated in it from 124 countries. This year we are expecting the participa-tion of nine to ten thousand companies from across the world.”

Qatari companies would also participate in 17th Musiad Expo Uyar said. “This year we are also giving an opportunity to startup companies to meet and learn from mega-corporations from this platform and we will also discuss Islamic finance system in the expo.”

Ibrahim Uyar

05SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 HOME

Mega reservoirs project nears completionSANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The first phase of the Water Security Mega Reservoirs Project, which is designed to increase storage capacity by a week during normal times and several months in case of emer-gency, is close to completion.

Under State’s strategy of pro-viding multiple water resources to ensure the water security in Qatar, the Qatar General Elec-tricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) readied ground water wells, distributed desalinated water producing units geograph-ically and is all set to add a giant water reserve facility, said Presi-dent of Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kah-ramaa), Issa bin Hilal Al Kuwari in a talk show on Al Rayyan TV.

“Water security is very impor-tant because Qatar is

geographically located in a desert and dried land where rainfall is low and groundwater stock is rel-atively low,” said Al Kuwari.

He said that Qatar is sur-rounded by sea, Arabian Gulf but the source is one that required diversification of sources to help in different situations therefore the government approved water secu-rity policy based on multisource.

“First source is producing

water from desalinating sea water,” said Al Kuwari, adding that the country is running desalinated water production units at different places including Ras Abu Fantas, Ras Laffan, Umm Al Houwl. New water plants will be established at other coastal areas of the country. “The geographical distribution enabled us to introduce diversifi-cation in taking water from dif-ferent places for desalination but the sea as a source is one. If any contamination happens then. Therefore, the government moved towards another dimension (option) to store the desalinated water. As the existing storage capacity was limited so Water Security Mega Reservoirs Project, the largest concrete water storage facility in the world was launched at a cost of QR14bn in the first phase,” said Al Kuwari.

He said that this project, back-bone of Qatar’s water policy has

reached the stage of experimental operation. “First phase will be opened completely by mid 2018. The project is located at five places north, middle and southern parts of the country. Every location has several tanks as there are a total of 15 tanks with a capacity of 100 million gallons per tank.”

“First phase of the project will add 1,400 million gallon storage capacity to the existing storage capacity 1,000 million gallons water,” said Al Kuwari, adding that the second phase of mega reserve water project will provide 2,300 million gallons by 2025. He said that the tanks of Water Security Mega Reservoirs Project can pump enough water to meet the require-ments for seven days with regular consumption but in emergency cases it could be extended for months depending on the situa-tion. “Water security policy was made and it was approved by the

government to cover normal con-dition to comfort the citizens and expatriates and help expand the economy,” said Kahramaa chief adding that the storage facility in case of any emergency will be able pump water for weeks and months with a restructured distri-bution programme.

Qatar also has ready-to-use groundwater stock under water security plan. He said that ground-water is in limited quantity in Qatar and it is considered precious resource of the country therefore law and regulation were made to regularise its uses. “We prefer desalinated water from sea for daily consumption to preserve the groundwater and regularize the uses of groundwater for agricul-tural purpose,” said Al Kuwari.

He said that Qatar will achieve water and food security without harming groundwater reserve, adding that country has many

groundwater wells and certain areas are considered strategic areas for groundwater security.

“We have groundwater wells enough for people in Qatar in emergency. The wells are equipped with tanks linked with pumping stations. We keep testing the wells regularly and they are fully capable to operate any time.”

Al Kuwari added that these wells were renovated in an advanced scientific way. “We placed plumb-line in the wells to measure the quantity and quality of the water, contamination and other necessary things.”

He said that the groundwater wells are equipped with water pumping motors to take out the water whenever needed. “Now they are working with electricity with option to operate with diesel powered generators. Plans are afoot to connect them with solar power system,” said Al Kuwari.

QSAP supports Karmakol Festival QNA

DOHA: Qatar Museums (QM), under the auspices of the Qatar Sudan Archaeological Project (QSAP), recently took part in a novel heritage festival in Sudan.

The Karmakol Festival brought together Sudanese, Swiss and international artists to sup-port Sudanese culture through capacity building, knowledge exchange and a series of cultural projects.

QM said in a press release that the Festival was launched two years ago with the help of the Sudanese and Swiss Commissions for Unesco and the “Swiss Initia-tive Culture Projects Sudan” NGO. The overall goal of the Karmakol Festival is to contribute to inter-cultural understanding and inter-national cultural cooperation. The

three-week event featured artists and workshops focused on cre-ating awareness about the arts and culture of Sudan.

Professor Thomas Leisten, Director of International Heritage Sites Protection, Archaeology and Conservation Division at QM said: “It was a pleasure to take part in the Karmakol Festival, something that fits perfectly with the mission of Qatar Museums QSAP project to empower the people of Sudan to protect and preserve their her-itage through education, financial and skills-based support. We have had a very successful five years with QSAP helping to build the knowledge and material infra-structure to sustain the countrys heritage and are looking forward to further accomplishments in the remaining years of the initiative.”

QM helped provide essential logistical infrastructure for the Karmakol Festival by making it possible to build visitor facilities and water tanks. Under the QSAP umbrella more broadly, the State of Qatar, represented by QM, has provided more than $50m in financial support for the archae-ological missions working in Sudan since 2012. This unprece-dented investment has provided dramatic change in the way research, preservation and edu-cation are carried out around Sudans historical landmarks.

As part of QSAP, QM is cur-rently funding 42 missions from 25 institutions and 12 countries involved in the excavation and conservation of heritage sites that date from the prehistoric era until the pre-modern period.

As a result of the funding

offered by QSAP, local and inter-national missions are able to work for up to three months, recruiting additional experts and using inno-vative and cutting-edge technol-ogies, including 3D modelling, photography and sophisticated anthropological survey techniques.

All these activities are sup-ported by the dissemination of research results, the digitisation and cataloguing of archival doc-uments that have not previously been accessible to researchers in Sudan and universities abroad, and the presentation of informa-tion to the general public, including university students, to build local capacity in Sudan.

The work QSAP has done has already contributed to increasing the awareness of Sudan’s cultural heritage in the Sudanese society

through public campaigns and the establishment of a series of visitor service centres. In this context, the project promotes opportunities for young Sudanese to create jobs in the field of cultural heritage and to improve the cultural tourism industry through local communities.

As a next step, a roadmap to

jumpstart cultural tourism in Sudan to the two World Heritage sites of Meroe and Jebel Barkal is being developed in accordance with Unesco standards. A modern touristic infrastructure has already been developed in their proximity, including two tourist villages which will serve to house tourists during their visits in the area.

The project is located at five places in the north, middle and southern parts of the country. Every location has several tanks as there are a total of 15 tanks with a capacity of 100 million gallons per tank.

The Dohat Al Barkal project.

06 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018HOME

ISL Qatar hosts annual Model United Nations meetTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Following on from the success and positive reception of last year’s Model United Nations (MUN) conference, the Executive Team of the MUN Club at the International School of London (ISL) Qatar hosted the successful and productive fourth annual ISLMUN Conference.

With a common theme of International Partnership for Global Advancement, high school students from international schools around Doha engaged in dynamic, diplomatic and profes-sional debate, devising feasible solutions to problems and con-cerns facing the international political community. With the theme reflecting the growing i m p o r t a n c e o f

international co-operation in facilitating effective peace-building, development and secu-rity in an increasingly globalized world, delegates discussed var-ious issues.

These issues range from the protection of the rights of Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, countering transnational threats of organised crime to interna-tional peace and security and devising measures to regulate the role, which private military con-tractors play in armed conflict worldwide, amongst others.

Over 150 delegates attended the conference from the Inter-national School of London Qatar, Birla Public School, Doha Col-lege, English Modern School, Middle East International School, The Next Generation School,

Pakistan International School and SEK International School. Debate in the Security, Human Rights and Economic and Social Councils, as well as the First Committee of the General Assembly, reflected the students’ excellent awareness of the inter-national political scene and the mechanisms developed to facil-itate international co-operation. For the first time, the ISLMUN International Court of Justice was in session, allowing delegates to explore the legal aspects of the United Nations.

The two days of the confer-ence have been truly fruitful for all delegates, allowing them to improve their diplomatic, public speaking and critical thinking skills.

AURA Hospitality & Food

Services and Entertainment, who provided the delegates with lunch during the first day, gra-ciously sponsored the event. The ISLMUN Executive Team would additionally like to thank the Worldwide Immigration Consul-tancy Services for their financial support of the conference.

ISLMUN 2018 has been a true success and an excellent learning opportunity for all attendees. The ISLMUN Executive Team will be looking forward for welcoming d e l e g a t e s a t f u t u r e conferences.

ISL Qatar has an outstanding reputation for high academic standards, prestigious Interna-tional Baccalaureate (IB) pro-grammes and an impressive record of admission to the world’s best universities.

International media professionals to visit NU-QTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: A group of distinguished journalism and media professionals will be visiting Qatar as part of a delegation to Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q). The group, which includes key members of Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications’ Board of Advisors, will spend time in Education City to learn more about the University’s international campus.

“Their visit reinforces an already strong relationship between NU-Q and Medill,” said Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO. The delegation, led by Medill’s Dean Brad Hamm, will meet with media, government, and educational leaders and will visit Al Jazeera among other venues. Members of the Medill Board of Advisers who will be visiting NU-Q are, Al From, a communications expert who founded the Dem-ocratic Leadership Council, which The New York Times called one of the “…most influential think tanks in history”; Rance Crain, president and editorial director of Crain Com-munications; Patricia Blackburn, an award-winning cor-porate communications executive; Sue Bohle, president of The Bohle Company; Scott Klug, managing director, public affairs for Foley & Lardner LLP and a former member of the US House of Representatives; Elizabeth Heller Allen, senior counselor for PulsePoint Group; Andrea Cunningham, founder and president of Cunningham Collective and who worked with Steve Jobs in helping to launch the Apple Mac-intosh; David Louie, business editor and tech reporter for the ABC affiliate in San Francisco; and Thomas Schaffner, principal, founder, Schaffner Communications Inc.

Other members of the delegation are Abe Peck, pro-fessor emeritus in service and director of business to busi-ness communications at Medill as well as Medill staffers Julie Fraha, Josephine Goldberg, and Beth Moellers.

International School of London Qatar hosted the successful and productive fourth annual ISLMUN Conference.

07SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 HOME

Joyalukkas Shop & Win drawThe winners with Ministry officials at the final draw of Joyalukkas Shop & Win Audi Car & 200gm gold promotions held at Barwa Village.

Budding librarians of HOPE visit QNL & NU-QTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Final year Library Science students of HOPE Qatar Center for the differently abled children visited Qatar National Library and Northwestern University in Qatar’s (NU-Q) Library at Qatar Founda-tion for Education, Science and Commu-nity Development recently.

The visit was organised as part of the students’ week without walls program at HOPE Qatar where the students are taken for experiential learning outside their class-rooms. On visiting the recently opened Qatar National Library, the students were met by Nagat Gindil, Rency Thomas, and Muneera Al Buainain representatives of QNL who showed them around the facili-ties and introduced them to the various col-lections, departments, and advanced tech-nology in use at the library such as the automatic book sorters and conveyors. Hind Al Khulaifi the Head of the section who coordinated the visit expressed her

best wishes to the students who would be taking up National Open Schooling exam-inations in Library Science shortly.

The students also visited Northwestern University Library where they met with Mark T Paul, Library Director who intro-duced the students to the functions and departments of the library. He also took questions from the students and explained

to them the various types of content that were at the library.

The students Ayman, Arun, Hamza, Aaditya, and Mustafa were accompanied by Dr. Ciby Mathew the Director of HOPE Qatar. She said, “HOPE Qatar has always considered the importance of a comprehensive learning experience when teaching our students various subjects including pre-voca-tional programs.” “Bringing these students to Qatar National Library which is one of the best

libraries in the region, has given them a firsthand practical exposure to concepts that would otherwise have been confined to the realm of textbooks” she added. “Their visit to the Northwestern University in Qatar’s library has also given them more information about the collections related to the media studies and various digital content” she concluded.

QNL staff complete leadership programTHE PENINSULA

DOHA: Two librarians at Qatar National Library (QNL), a member of Qatar Foundation, recently completed a two-year leadership course to improve their librarian-ship skills and knowledge through the International Network of

Emerging Library Innovators - MENA program (INELI-MENA).

Abeer Saad Al Kuwari, Research and Learning Director, QNL, and Amal Al Shammari, Information Services Librarian, QNL, were selected through a competitive process for the oppor-tunity to become future library and

information services leaders.

Participants in the program attended ses-sions in Germany and Egypt, where they worked on collaborative projects, identified issues and challenges facing public libraries in the Arab region, learned about the functioning of public libraries in devel-oped countries, and dis-cussed the possibility of applying unified Arab standards in public libraries.

The program also included library visits in Berlin and Hamburg, Germany.

Al Kuwari’s group’s final project, on estab-lishing a ‘Human Library’, was awarded second place among the program participants.

Students with QNL officials.

08 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018HOME / MIDDLE EAST

ANATOLIA

ISTANBUL: A retired US army officer has said the United States made a “terrible mistake” by supporting Syrian Kurds (PYD/PKK).

In an exclusive interview with Anadolu Agency, Edward J. Erickson, who is currently a pro-fessor at the Marine Corps Uni-versity, talked about the recent developments in Syria’s Afrin and the relations between the US and Turkey. “The Afrin

operation is a continuation of Operation Euphrates Shield,” Erickson said.

Turkish military units are already deployed in Afrin, a dis-trict of Aleppo province near the Turkish-Syria border, which is under siege by the PYD/PKK ter-rorist organization.

The PYD/PKK is the Syrian offshoot of the PKK terrorist group, which has been desig-nated a terrorist organization by Turkey, the US and the EU.

“What is happening to

Turkey right now is in the same way my country (U.S.) was sucked in to Iraq and Afghani-stan, Turkey is being sucked in to Syria,” Erickson said. “It is very difficult to draw the line and say ‘we are going to stop right here’, that is Turkey’s problem.”

United States’ problem is to be a player in Iraq and in Syria, Erickson said. “We tried to sup-port the Free Syrian Army (FSA) and failed, they collapsed. Our next client, the next choice was the YPG, the Kurds.”

“The problem now is in Afrin, as you know there are not just the rebel forces, there are also YPG, Kurdish forces. This has brought Turkey and United States into direct competition.”

When asked about the US arming of PYD/PKK, Erickson said the U.S. needed a group on the ground to fight against Daesh.

“We then sent weapons to Kurds. We promised Turkey -- our president, our secretary of state, defense Trump, Tillerson and Mattis -- that we will get the

weapons back. I don’t think Turkey believes that, personally I don’t believe that. I don’t think Syrian Kurds will return weapons. This is going to lead to big problems between Turkey and the U.S,” he said.

“I think we made a mistake, personally. I don’t speak for the US government. I think the United States made a terrible mistake supporting Syrian Kurds.” When asked about his opinion on what is United States’ policy in Syria, Erickson said

initial Obama policy was that “Assad must go.” “And when the situation in Syria became so complicated, the Obama admin-istration changed that to ‘maybe Assad can stay but we got to work with it, somehow’,” he said.

“The Trump administration has not revealed (its policy) on what Assad will be,” he added.

Erickson said currently there are 2,000 U.S. soldiers fighting against Daesh in Syria, but their future is unknown after Daesh is crushed.

AFP

HASAKEH: Around 500 Syrian fighters graduated yesterday from a US-led training course aimed at establishing a contro-versial “border security force” in the country’s north.

Last week, the US-led coa-lition battling the Islamic State group announced it had begun forming a 30,000-strong secu-rity force to patrol territory cap-tured from IS.

About half its fighters would hail from the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the alliance of Kurdish and Arab fighters that has emerged as Washington’s best ally against jihadists, and the rest would be new recruits.

Yesterday, a batch of around 500 fighters marked their completion of the nearly three-week training pro-gramme at a ceremony near Syria’s northeastern city of Hasakeh.

Dressed in military fatigues, the graduates stood in neat rows and took an oath to pro-tect the country’s borders “against all attacks and threats”.

Trainers from the SDF and US-led coalition looked on, with pistols strapped to their waists or thighs.

“This is the second (gradu-ating) class of the Border Secu-rity Force. They’re made up of every demographic in the area,” said Kani Ahmad, who headed the training.

The first class graduated on Friday. The BSF would be deployed from northeast Syria, t h r o u g h o u t t h e

Kurdish-controlled north across to the northwestern province of Idlib, he said.

“Their mission is to protect the border, especially threats by Turkey and its mercenaries because we’re being threat-ened,” Ahmad added.

Turkey vehemently opposes the creation of the border force because it con-siders the SDF’s Kurdish com-ponent -- the People’s Protec-tion Units (YPG) -- a “terrorist” group.

The BSF’s unveiling prompted an outcry from Ankara, whose escalating threats to attack YPG-held ter-ritory on Saturday culminated in Turkish air strikes inside Syria.

The force has also been denounced by Damascus and Tehran, as well as Syria’s main-stream opposition.

After completing the 20-day course, graduates would go on to receive more specialised training, officials at the graduation said.

“I’m happy I finished this training,” said 21-year-old border guard Jamal Issa, who hails from the town of Kobane near the Turkish border.

“We learned how to use light and heavy weapons, deal with mines and bombs, and first aid,” Issa told AFP in Kurdish.

Amer al-Ali, an Arab fighter from the town of Tal Abyad, also along the frontier, said he began fighting alongside the SDF three months ago and was glad to be switching to border monitoring.

REUTERS

DUBAI: Yemen’s Houthi movement fired a ballistic missile toward the southern Saudi province of Najran yesterday, the group’s official Al Masirah TV reported, and a Saudi military spokesman said air defence forces had intercepted the missile.

The TV channel said the short-range missile targeted a military base. There were no reports of casualties or damage.

The Iranian-aligned Houthis have launched scores of missiles at the kingdom. While causing little serious damage, they have deepened tensions between Riyadh and Tehran. Saudi Arabia accuses Iran of supplying missile parts and expertise to the Houthis, who have taken over the Yemeni capital Sanaa and other parts of the country during its civil war. Iran and the Houthis deny the charge.

REUTERS

BAGHDAD: Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi met yesterday with the semi-autonomous Kurdistan region’s Prime Minister Nechirvan Barzani for the first time since conflict broke out over a Kurdish independence referendum, officials said.

The Kurdish referendum on September 25, which produced an overwhelming ‘yes’ for inde-pendence, angered Baghdad and Iraq’s neighbours Turkey and Iran, which have their own res-tive Kurdish minorities, and brought a rebuke from the United States and European Union, the Iraqi Kurds’ Western supporters.

At the meeting, Abadi renewed his conditions for lifting restrictions imposed on the Kurdistan region after the refer-endum, including a direct inter-national air travel ban.

He said the Kurdistan Regional Government’s (KRG) airports and border crossings have to come under the control of the federal authorities, according to a statement from his office.

Abadi also demanded that the Kurds stop exporting crude

oil from the KRG independently from the central government.

“Kurdistan delegation headed by @PMBarzani is in Baghdad now, met with @Haid-erAlAbadi,” Hemin Hawrami, a senior official of Barzani’s Kurdistan Democratic Party said on Twitter. “Later today the del-egation will fly to Tehran for offi-cial meetings with senior Iranian officials Sunday,” added Hawrami, who is also an assistant of ex-KRG president Massoud Barzani.

Iraq’s central government said “an atmosphere of trust” marked talks held on Monday with the KRG to resolve their conflict, which saw armed clashes in October.

Under Abadi’s orders, gov-ernment forces responded to the

referendum by dislodging Kurdish militia from disputed regions including the oil city of Kirkuk.

Abadi also retaliated with a series of measures curtailing the KRG’s autonomy, including a ban

on direct international travel to the two main Kurdish airports.

A TV channel close to the KRG, Rudaw, said on Monday Iraqi and Kurdish negotiators agreed on a series of points to jointly manage the airports of

Erbil and Sulaimaniya. The KRG would accept that representa-tives of the Iraqi civil aviation authority would be posted in the two airports to oversee the implementation of federal reg-ulations, it said.

Iraqi, Kurdish PMs in bid to resolve row

Unique performance A man performs as people watch him during a sunny day at Balat district in Istanbul, yesterday.

500 new trainees join US-backed Syria border force

Iraqi Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi (centre) meeting with Nechirvan Barzani (second left), prime minister of Iraq’s Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG), at his Baghdad office.

At the meeting, Abadi renewed his conditions for lifting restrictions imposed on the Kurdistan region after the referendum, including a direct international air travel ban.

AFP

MADRID: It is over a year since Bashar Al Assad’s regime, with the help of Russian air strikes and barrel bombs, pounded the rebel-held east of Aleppo into submission.

Buildings were flattened, those who survived were left terrorised, hungry and filled with despair, and the stench of dead bodies rose up from the rubble as families searched for their loved ones.

Now, having largely destroyed the city it sought to control, the Assad regime wants the world to visit what remains: as a tourist destination.

This week the Syrian gov-ernment is advertising Aleppo, along with other destinations in

Syria, at the Fitur International Tourism Trade Fair in Madrid, “promoting” the country’s attractions to the world.

It is the first time Syria has attended the trade fair since 2011, before the war broke out.

Along with the ruins of Aleppo, it also encourages people to visit the ancient Roman-era ruins of Palmyra, the UNESCO-listed archaeolog-ical site which was twice con-trolled by the Islamic State (IS) group.

IS fighters blew up some of the temples and burial towers before being forced out of the city for the final time last year by Syrian government forces and their Russian backers.

“This year is the time to rebuild Syria and our economy,”

Bassam Barsik, director of mar-keting at the Syrian Ministry of Tourism, said.

Barsik said 1.3 million for-eign visitors travelled to Syria last year, although that figure includes those who came from neighbouring Lebanon for only one day.

“We’re targeting two million visitors this year,” he said.

He argued that religious destinations, such as the historic Christian town of Maaloula, one of the last places on earth where Aramaic is still spoken, are still a draw to tourists.

Damascus, Tartus, Latakia and the historic Crusader castle of Krak des Chevaliers close to the border with Lebanon, although damaged by bombing, are other possible attractions.

Syria ‘promoting’ country’s attractions to the world

US ‘made terrible mistake’ by supporting PYD/PKK

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

“The demand for these surgeries has increased due to several reasons such as population and the reputation we have developed by pro-viding high quality services. We triage patients and pro-vide a multi disciplinary approach to every case. We take many measures before the surgery, in corporation with other specialties such as neurology, ophthalmology, ENT and orthodontics,” he added.

Also the patient path way at the cranio-maxillofacial surgery department at the HMC has been designed easy for the patients and cancer cases are given priority with a minimum waiting time. Although the number of sur-geries conducted for deform-ities and trauma is higher than cancer cases.

“When a cancer case is referred, we give it priority. Within two weeks from diag-nosis we start the treatment plan. For head and neck sur-geries there are 12 medical and surgical specialties involved. We meet every week, collect and analyze all reports of cancer cases and then clinicians discuss and decide on each case and put a treatment plan,” said Dr Alkhalil.

“Together for cancer, deformities and trauma, in some months we have 12 cases, in other months, there are one or two cases. Cancer cases take long time for a sur-gery, like more than 12 to 18 hours,” he added.

The Cranio-Maxillofacial Surgery Department at HMC also runs clinics on sub specialties.

Patients going abroad for head, neck surgery lessen

Houthis fire missile toward Saudi

09SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

REUTERS

HASSA: Turkey opened a new front in Syria’s war yesterday, launching airstrikes against a US-backed Kurdish militia in Afrin province that raise the prospect of worsening relations between Ankara and Nato ally Washington.

The operation, which the Turks dubbed “Operation Olive Branch”, sees Ankara con-fronting Kurdish fighters allied to the United States at a time when ties between Turkey and Washington - both members of the coalition against Islamic State - appear dangerously close to a breaking point.

The attacks could also com-plicate Turkey’s push to improve its relationship with Russia. Moscow will demand in the United Nations that Turkey halt the operation, RIA news reported, citing a member of the Russian parliament’s security committee.

The Syrian government con-demned what it called Turkish aggression and said Afrin was an intrinsic part of Syrian land.

“We are carrying out this operation from land and air,” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavu-soglu told broadcaster NTV. He said the attacks were being car-ried out to target the

Syrian-Kurdish YPG militia and that no civilians had been hurt.

“In a situation like this our expectations from everyone and especially from our allies is that they side with us, not with ter-rorists,” he said, appearing to refer to Washington.

Some 108 targests had been hit in airstrikes, the Turkish mil-itary said. A Turkey-backed rebel group in Syria, the Free Syrian Army, was also providing assist-ance to the operation in Afrin, a senior Turkish official said.

The YPG said the attacks left it with no choice but to fight back, saying Ankara had hit civilian neighbourhoods and a number of people had been wounded.

“We will defeat this aggres-sion, like we have defeated other

such assaults against our villages and cities,” the YPG said.

Rojhat Roj, a YPG media offi-cial in Afrin, said warplanes pounded parts of Afrin city and villages around it, while there were skirmishes with Turkish forces and their rebel allies at the edge of Afrin.

Hevi Mustafa, a top member of the civilian administration that governs Afrin, said people were holed up in shelters and homes and several wounded people had arrived in hospitals.

Authorities in the Afrin region and war monitors say at least a million people live in the Afrin canton. Many of them are displaced from other areas.

Reuters cameramen in Hassa, near the border with Syria, heard the sound of heavy bombardment and saw thick plumes of smoke rising from the Syrian side of the border. The warplanes appeared to be striking from the Turkish side of the border, one of the camer-amen said.

The attacks follow weeks of warnings against the YPG in Syria from President Tayyip Erdogan and his ministers. Turkey considers the YPG to be an extension of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which has carried out a deadly, three-decade insurgency in

Turkey’s mainly Kurdish southeast.

Turkey has been particularly outraged by an announcement that the United States planned to train 30,000 personnel in a part of eastern Syria under the con-trol of the YPG-spearheaded Syrian Democratic Forces.

Turkish officials have said the operation is likely to continue toward Manbij, further east. They

also said that thousands of pro-Turkey civilians had escaped the YPG-controlled areas in an attempt to reach Aleppo.

However, the Syrian Observ-atory for Human Rights, a U.K-based monitoring organisation said it was not true that people were fleeing en-masse.

The YPG’s growing strength across large parts of northern Syria has alarmed Ankara, which

fears the creation of an inde-pendent Kurdish state on its southern border. Syrian Kurdish leaders say they seek autonomy as part of Syria, not secession.

The Turkish military said its Afrin operation was to provide safety for Turkey’s border and to “eliminate terrorists... and save friends and brothers, the people of the region, from their cruelty.”

Turkish jets pound Afrin in Syria

AFP

LAGOS: Two American and two Canadians who were kidnapped in an ambush by gunmen in northern Nigeria this week were freed yesterday, police said.

Nigerian armed forces had launched a manhunt for the four after they were seized on Tuesday evening in the state of Kaduna by kidnappers who shot dead two of their police escorts.

“They have been rescued thanks to the efforts of the police,” Kaduna state police spokesman Muktar Aliyu said.

“All of them are a good con-dition of health,” he said, and are now with their embassies.

One person has been arrested, he added.

The four North Americans were on private business in Kaduna when they were snatched on the road from the town of Kafanchan to the state capital of Abuja, the latest abduction in Nigeria involving foreigners.

Aliyu said they were rescued at about 5am (0400 GMT) in the same area where they were kidnapped.

“I cannot confirm if there have been negotiations or a ransom paid,” Aliyu said, adding that it was “classified information”.

A State Department travel advisory urges US citizens to “reconsider” travelling to Nigeria, warning that “violent crime such as armed robbery, assault, carjacking, kidnapping and rape is common throughout the country”.

Kidnapping has long been a problem in Nigeria’s southern states, where high-profile indi-viduals, including the families

of prominent politicians, are regularly seized.

But as the economy stalled in recent years, the crime began creeping north.

A crackdown on cattle rus-tling has been blamed for rising numbers of abductions in the north, with criminals turning to kidnapping.

The Kaduna-Abuja road is notoriously unsafe. It is a journey of about two-and-a-half hours by car through vil-lages and past tracts of fields and forests.

Security on the route came

under intense scrutiny last year when the federal government announced the closure of the capital’s only airport for essen-tial runway repairs.

Many foreign missions and companies advised staff to limit their travel during the closure period, as all domestic and some international flights were switched to Kaduna.

In July 2016, Sierra Leone’s defence attaché to Nigeria was kidnapped by men in military fatigues armed with AK-47 rifles at a fake checkpoint on the Abuja-Kaduna road.

Four US, Canadian captives freed in Nigeria

REUTERS

JOHANNESBURG: South Afri-ca’s ruling African National Congress (ANC) declined yesterday to comment on a report its executive planned to force Jacob Zuma to quit as president, as its leaders gather to outline the party’s programme for the coming year.

Broadcaster eNCA said the ANC’s National Executive Com-mittee (NEC) had resolved the previous day to ask Zuma - whose presidency has been tainted by a series of corruption allegations - to resign.

If he refused, he would be forced to step down by the par-ty’s six-strong leadership group, the channel said, without naming its sources.

An anonymous member of the newly-elected NEC - which met for the first time under new ANC leader Cyril Ramaphosa on Thursday and Friday - was quoted by online news site News24 as saying the decision to force Zuma to resign had been unanimous.

eNCA also said authorities would within 24 hours name a new head of troubled power utility Eskom, which has been at the heart of allegations of ille-gality and undue influence in awarding tenders to the Gupta family, friends of Zuma.

Zuma, whose second term is due to run until 2019, has denied any wrongdoing, as have the Guptas. The NEC made no mention of Zuma’s possible early exit in a statement it issued

after the first two days of what is a four-day meeting.

Asked about the reports that Zuma would be asked to resign, an ANC spokeswoman said: “We can’t confirm rumours of things that we don’t know. The NEC has issued a statement on the totality of discussions yes-terday.” Zuma retains the sup-port of one part of the ANC

leadership, but many others in the party argue that he has tar-nished the image of Africa’s oldest liberation movement. While he has been in office, the economy has also slowed to a near-standstill. Ramaphosa suc-ceeded Zuma as ANC head last month, making him likely to replace Zuma as the country’s next president.

AFP

CAIRO: US Vice-President Mike Pence (pictured) arrived in Egypt yesterday to begin a delayed Middle East tour over-shadowed by anger in the Arab world over Washington’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital.

Controversy over President Donald Trump’s decision to move the American embassy in Israel to Jerusalem had led to the cancellation of a number of planned meetings ahead of the trip originally scheduled for December.

While the deadly protests that erupted in the Palestinian territories at the time have sub-sided, concerns are mounting over the future of the UN aid agency for Palestinians (UNRWA).

Washington has frozen tens of millions of dollars of funding for the cash-strapped body, putting at risk operations to feed, teach and heal hundreds of thousands of Palestinian ref-ugees. The Palestinian leader-ship, already furious over the Jerusalem decision, has denounced the US administra-tion and had already refused to meet Pence in December.

But the vice-president’s press secretary, Alyssa Farah, said he would still meet the leaders of Egypt, Jordan and

Israel on the high-stakes four-day tour.

Pence is scheduled to hold talks with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi yesterday before travelling to Amman for a one-on-one meeting with King Abdullah II today.

The trip had been pushed back in December as a crunch tax vote loomed on Capitol Hill.

The leaders of both coun-tries, the only Arab states that have peace treaties with Israel, would be key players if US mediators ever manage to get a revived Israeli-Palestinian peace process off the ground, as Trump says he wants.

They are also key intelli-gence-sharing and security partners in America’s various covert and overt battles against extremism in the region and Egypt is a major recipient of aid to help it buy advanced US mil-itary hardware.

REUTERS

BAGHDAD: Iraq’s parliament failed yesterday to approve May 12 as the election date, as suggested by the govern-ment, as Sunni and Kurdish lawmakers demanded a delay to allow hundreds of thou-sands of war-displaced people to return home.

Shia politicians, including Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi, insist on holding the election as planned on May 12, saying a delay would be against the constitution.

Speaking after yesterday’s session in Baghdad, Parlia-mentary Speaker Salim Al Jabouri, a Sunni, expressed hope that parliament would be able to vote on an election date by tomorrow, state TV reported.

Election datein Iraq postponed

Pence arrives in Egypt amid Arab anger over Jerusalem

ANC to force Zuma to quit

This file picture shows Deputy president of South, Cyril Ramaphosa (left), looks on as President of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, addresses the 54th National Conference of the ruling African National Congress (ANC) at the Nasrec Expo Centre in Johannesburg.

REUTERS

TRIPOLI: The only func-tioning airport in the Libyan capital reopened yesterday after a five-day closure caused by deadly clashes that left passenger jets damaged.

Mitiga airport, located just east of Tripoli city centre, appeared to be operating nor-mally, with both departures and arrivals areas busy with passengers.

“All domestic and inter-national flights have ...resumed,” said an airport official who asked not to be named for security reasons. “No technical problems have been reported and security is under control.”

At least 20 people were killed and 60 wounded. The four Libyan airlines operating out of Mitiga have been rushing to repair or replace aircraft that were hit by gun-fire or artillery while parked there during the battle.

Flights to evacuate or repatriate foreign migrants from Tripoli were suspended because of Mitiga’s closure.

Airport in Libya’s capital reopens

A photo taken from Turkey’s Hatay shows smoke rising after Turkish military aircrafts hit PYD/PKK terror group’s observation posts and targets within the ‘Operation Olive Branch’ launched in Syria’s Afrin, yesterday.

The operation, which the Turks dubbed “Operation Olive Branch”, sees Ankara confronting Kurdish fighters allied to the United States at a time when ties between Turkey and US appear dangerously close to a breaking point.

In its pursuit to make Qatar a leading force in the field of Research and Development (R&D) and an international hub for technology innovation, Qatar Foundation Research and Development

(QF R&D) is playing a major role with excellence and innovation. Growing focus on R&D will further increase the culture of innovation in the country.

Last week, QF R&D in association with and the Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics organised a workshop to announce the findings of a survey on R&D highlighting the importance given to the sector by the country.

The survey follows the first R&D Survey of Qatar in 2012 and shows more researchers are joining the field as Qatar witnessed a 55.4 percent rise in number of R&D personnel between 2012 and 2015. During this period, the number of R&D personnel in the country jumped from 3,038 to 4,720.

But the highlight of the survey is the quantum jump of women researchers. The number of female researchers stood at 377 in 2012 and it has gone up to 894 in 2015, showing a 137 percent rise. The female researchers have also increased their share in the total number of researchers from 21.86 percent in 2012 to 31.40 percent in 2015. The growth in the number of female researchers is also more than the rise in the number of male researchers.

This shows how the country provides right atmosphere for people from all walks of life to enter into a field where their presence was miniscule a couple of years back.

The other interesting part is the involvement of Qatari government in the field. It is the largest funder of R&D in 2015, providing 37% of total funding, followed by research institutes with 32.6% and other national sources 28.54%. This shows the far-sightedness of the leaders and the policy makers of the country. Other interesting aspect is that 19.5% of positions within R&D in the country are held by Qataris, who account for 11% of researcher roles, 6% of support staff roles, and 3% of technician roles.

The Gross Expenditure on Research and Development (GERD) in Qatar reached QR3.1bn in 2015 and the ratio of GERD to GDP rose from 0.43% in 2012 to 0.51% in 2015.

Such surveys are pertinent to develop understanding of the R&D ecosystem of a country and Qatar’s commitment to innovation as a means of economic diversification makes this survey more important.

It’s commendable that QF R&D through the Qatar National Research Strategy along with Qatar National Research Fund and Qatar Science & Technology Park, are making tremendous changes to the lives of the people of the country. It’s a matter of pride for the research community as well as the country.

It’s commendable that QF R&D through the Qatar National Research Strategy along with Qatar National Research Fund and Qatar Science & Technology Park, are making tremendous changes to the lives of the people of the country.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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

10 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018VIEWS

EDITORIAL

Innovation through R&D

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Democrats are far more concerned with Illegal

Immigrants than they are with our great Military or Safety at our dangerous

Southern Border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play

Shutdown politics instead.

Donald Trump US President

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

No signs of recovery in Yemen’s Mukalla

FAISAL EDROOS & SALEH AL BATATI AL JAZEERA

BURNED-OUT cars, rusted bullet casings and debris from levelled buildings line the narrow, winding streets of Mukalla, a jarring reminder

of the intense fighting that ravaged the seaport nearly three years ago.

In a blitzkrieg similar to when the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) surged across Syria and Iraq, hundreds of fighters from Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) overran Yemen’s coastal city of Mukalla in April 2015, exploiting chaos unleashed by the Saudi-led coalition’s war with Houthi rebels in the north.

The ensuing turmoil, which has killed and wounded more than 60,000 people since March 2015, presented AQAP with an opportunity to make huge territorial gains, thanks partly to the acerbic, sectarian tone espoused by the coalition.

The Houthis, a group of rebels who emerged from Yemen’s northern highlands where Zaidi Shia Muslims are concentrated, allied with troops loyal to former President Ali Abdullah Saleh in early 2015, capturing large expanses of the country, including the capital, Sanaa.

Saudi Arabia and a coalition of Sunni Arab states intervened in the conflict in March of that year, launching a massive aerial campaign to restore President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi’s internationally recognised government which was forced into exile.

Air strikes decimated areas held by the Houthis, dislodging them from most of the south. However, until today, the rebels control a section of land larger than England, ruling a population of around 18 million people.

AQAP exploited this chaotic milieu to attack Mukalla on April 2, 2015, a city of more than 300,000 people, pounding military installations with mortars and RPGs they had seized in previous battles.

The Yemeni military spectacularly crumbled. Troops were unable to repel AQAP’s advance and dumped their weapons and even

their uniforms, fleeing through arid valleys and deserts to government-controlled areas to the west of Hadramout province.

With military bases left undefended, AQAP came to acquire some of the world’s most fearsome weapons -

seizing tanks, American-made Humvee vehicles and copious heavy weaponry as spoils of war. But mighty war machines were not the only things AQAP got their hands on. The group also looted around $100m from local banks, and would later use these funds to launch a cynical public relations campaign to shore up support for their so-called Islamic Emirate.

Raking in around $2m a day by extorting national companies and taxing goods coming into the lucrative port, AQAP used its growing economic power to provide residents with drinking water, electricity, healthcare and other basic services. The group abolished taxes on local residents, paid civil servants their salaries on time and went about making slick propaganda videos in which they boasted about their state-building project as a “liberation” movement. But exactly a year later, they gave it all up, in a sudden, bloodless withdrawal.

Yemeni soldiers, backed by Emirati special forces, entered the city on April 24, 2016 after AQAP withdrew, following secret negotiations, to the rugged mountains of Shabwa, Al Bayda and Marib provinces. The group, which has long boasted about preparing its soldiers for “martyrdom”, said it fled to protect civilians from advancing forces. Only a handful of its fighters remained, blending into the local population.

Now, nearly two years on, residents have told Al Jazeera that the Yemeni government and their Emirati handlers failed to provide them with the most basic of services, with their lives having been “better” under the armed group. “Al Qaeda paved roads, built hospitals. It was far from perfect, but they were better than the current administration,” said Abdur Rahman Khaled, a 30-year-old fisherman from Mukalla’s Khalaf district.

“When they set up their administrative council, it was headed by prominent tribal elders who didn’t ascribe to their ideology. So they weren’t this group of power-hungry

jihadists that the media portrays. “They were forced to fill a void left by the cowardly army and government when they fled,” Khaled said. In a view echoed by several other residents, Khaled added: “Life was better under Al Qaeda, compared with now. Now it’s just a mess.”

Many of AQAP’s leaders hailed from established Hadrami families, and the group even rebranded themselves as the “Sons of Hadramout” to sidestep local and international stigma. Despite employing a deadly campaign of suicide bombings against state authorities since the late 1990s, AQAP in Mukalla was “less cruel” than the image touted in the media, Khaled said.

“While they resorted to the stoning of at least one man and woman accused of adultery, as well as the crucifixions of two men suspected of being Saudi spies, such incidents were rare.”

Glimpses of life under AQAP are still evident on the streets, Khaled added, with the groups’ slogans still hanging on buildings and graffitied on walls.

Under AQAP, Hisbah (religious police) walked the city’s streets, supervising the implementation of their interpretation of the Shariah, where free-mixing between the sexes was forbidden and music was banned. “Women of faith: Protect your pure bodies from prying eyes,” one poster hanging at a busy junction reads.

Charred buildings and crumpled cars are also a frequent sight, but with electricity still not fully restored after a coalition air strike flattened a power plant in 2016, most of the city is shrouded in darkness at night.

Residents complained to Al Jazeera of the nauseating stench of sewage fermenting in the hot climate, saying it could be smelled from “hundreds of metres away”.“The city is drowning in sewage and darkness,” Afkar Alshanbati, a local resident and human rights activist, told Al Jazeera.

Water treatment and distribution facilities are constantly disrupted by power shortages, she said, with the government always avoiding blame with “lame excuses. “The situation is unacceptable and reflects the ignominious failure of the local authority,” Alshanbati said. “Mukalla was liberated nearly two years ago, yet nothing has been done to repair buildings.”

Fingers have been pointed at both AQAP and the Saudi-led coalition for the devastation, but, wherever the blame lies, entire areas are unlikely to be repaired anytime soon, she said. “We understand that there is a war, but the government should pay employees their salaries, especially in ‘liberated’ areas. But it’s one excuse after the next, under the pretext of the war,” Alshanbati added.

Residents also told Al Jazeera that the government’s refusal to allocate funds to repair destroyed pipes was heightening tensions in some neighbourhoods, where raw sewage would flow through the streets into peoples’ homes.

Last year, a wave of cholera cases further devastated the population, infecting more than a million Yemenis and killing at least 2,200. The rapid spread of the disease was largely due to the collapse of sanitation infrastructure, the WHO said, after rubbish collection services ceased and sewage pipes were ruptured by air strikes.

President Hadi’s government refused to comment to Al Jazeera on the issue. While some residents blamed Yemeni authorities for the slow rebuilding effort, a local official said there had been little financial support from the UN and international charities. “The president is in exile, and members of his government are based in Aden, that’s why we’ve had difficulties in repairing the city,” said Riyadh Al Jareeri, director of Mukalla’s health office.

Hadi and much of his inner circle - his sons, aides and military officials - have

been based in Riyadh since 2015 and made only sporadic visits to Aden.

“The government has reduced its operational budget by 70 percent since March 2015, and international donors are concerned about the security situation when it comes to repairing destroyed buildings - they don’t want to risk their money going to waste. “Donors are wary that if they repair buildings, they may be targeted again,” Al Jareeri added.

Mukalla airport has been shut to commercial flights since AQAP’s takeover, with only sporadic aid deliveries arriving since then. “Since the

closure of Mukalla airport, international journeys have become exhausting,” said Salim Saeed, a Mukalla resident. “First we have to travel 360km north to

Seiyoun, then wait and hope our flights are confirmed. “It’s a more arduous trip than flying from Seiyoun to Amman”, he added.

The economic situation for Yemenis has also worsened since Hadi’s government relocated the Central Bank from Houthi-held Sanaa to Aden, a move aimed at dealing the rebels an economic blow.

The repercussions, however, have affected all public sector workers, with medical personnel and teachers rarely getting paid their salaries, leaving more than a million state employees and their families without a regular income.

Abu Mohammed, a 31-year-old bus driver, said a shortage of fuel, caused by a recent Saudi-led blockade, meant he had to queue for days to fill his bus, often sleeping in his car as crime had surged since police refused to patrol the streets. “I don’t go home, I spend days at the gas station. I sleep at the gas station. I can’t sleep at home because it’s not safe for my bus to be left alone,” he told Al Jazeera. “This is the worst fuel crisis we’ve ever witnessed. Life under AQAP was so much easier in terms of receiving fuel supplies.”

The UAE’s role in rebuilding the Yemeni army has also deepened resentment in the city. While Saudi Arabia has expressed it “wants out” of Yemen, the UAE has become more involved in the conflict, indicating a divide in the two countries’ agendas.

The oil-rich Emirates has been at the heart of a series of dramatic events and shifting alliances over the past two years, including Hadi’s inability to return to Aden, and the UAE’s unabashed support for the southern secessionist movement. But it was the UAE’s decision to fund and direct a “Security Belt” — a force created in 2016 that has been responsible for arbitrarily detaining and abducting people, that has caused the most outrage.

Just like across much of Yemen, where the nearly three years of war has caused widespread misery, Abu Mohammed says he knows he’s among the relatively fortunate.“I used to hava good life, but now I, like most Yemenis, barely earn enough to make ends meet,” he said. While his rent has almost doubled, and his family struggles to cook regular meals, he knows he’s not among the more than eight million people who are a “step away from famine”.

The country’s already inflated food and fuel prices have skyrocketed, further hurting already impoverished families. With the civil war showing no signs of ending, the legacy of the fighting will be felt for generations, he says. “Life was once good, now ... it’s only misery we’ll know.”

AQAP exploited this chaotic milieu to attack Mukalla on April 2, 2015, a city of more than 300,000 people, pounding military installations with mortars and RPGs they had seized in previous battles.

The country’s already inflated food and fuel prices have skyrocketed, further hurting already impoverished families. With the civil war showing no signs of ending, the legacy of the fighting will be felt for generations.

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CONGRESSIONAL Democrats are taking a page from the playbook of President Donald Trump and hard-line conservatives: Fight for your

base and don’t blink.In forcing a showdown over

immigration — and triggering a government shutdown — Democrats have embraced a confrontational, rule-breaking strategy they once blasted as irresponsible when practiced by the other party. But the Trump-era appears to come with new rules for both sides. Rather than playing it safe in an election year, Democrats are calculating the bigger risk would be missing the moment to challenge a deeply unpopular president and

deflating the energy that could drive liberal voters to the polls in November.

“No one wants to conduct themselves in a way that you are running scared and being a milquetoast moderate in a way that dampens the enthusiasm,” said Brian Fallon, a former aide to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and 2016 Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton. It’s a strategy shift for Democrats, who negotiated repeatedly with Republicans during the punishing Obama-era budget battles. Those showdowns were prompted by conservatives who were swept into Congress during the tea party wave and who refused to compromise on the fiscal issues that motivated their voters.

As a candidate and as president, Trump has frequently employed similar tactics to the tea party, preferring to satisfy his core supporters rather than seek positions backed by a broader swath of Americans. Last week, he rejected a compromise spending bill that addressed Democrats’ top demand — protection for hundreds of

thousands of young immigrants facing deportation — because he said it didn’t include enough funding for his long-promised border wall.

As Friday’s midnight deadline passed without a deal, the White House and Republican lawmakers argued that Democrats were playing politics and holding government funding hostage over an unrelated issue. It’s the same charge Democrats made against Republicans in 2013, when the GOP shut down the government for 16 days in a bid to repeal President Barack Obama’s health care law.

“This is exactly the tactic that they decried four and a half years ago. And yet here we are,” said Brendan Buck, an adviser to Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan. “I think it’s quite a moment in American politics that Democrats have so quickly embraced what they once called ‘arsonist’ tactics. This is a party moving so hard and fast to the left that it’s almost difficult to process.” The Democratic strategy comes with risks. While the party has had a string of victories in recent elections, including a state Senate win this week in a Wisconsin district Trump won by 17 points, the Senate landscape for Democrats in November is perilous. Incumbents are on the ballot in several Republican-heavy states, including North Dakota, Montana and Missouri.

Late Friday, all but five Democrats voted against a GOP measure that would have kept the government open through Feb. 16, but did not address immigration. Four of the Democratic “yes” votes were from senators on the ballot in red states in November. Five Republican senators also voted against the measure, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, whose vote was for procedural reasons.

Democrats believe a series of factors made this the right moment for the party to risk a shutdown. Among them: a feeling that Trump’s stunning comment in a private meeting last week calling for less immigration from “shithole” countries in Africa has put the onus on Republicans to show sympathy for the “Dreamers” — the roughly 700,000 young people brought to

the U.S. illegally as children.Democrats also believe that the party’s

willingness to help Republicans pass a short-term spending bill at the end of December, when liberal activists were already pushing for a showdown over immigration, shows the party was willing to negotiate a broader deal and can inoculate lawmakers from charges that they’re simply playing politics.

“We did it for a month,” said Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va. “At some point it starts to look like the purpose is delay, not to get a deal.”

Sen. Jon Tester of Montana, who is among the Democrats up for re-election in November, said he couldn’t stomach another short-term bill and blamed GOP leaders for having intentionally “played politics and kicked the can down the road.”

There’s no guarantee that Democrats will ultimately benefit from a shutdown. A Washington Post-ABC News poll out Friday showed 48 percent of Americans pin the blame for a potential shutdown on Trump and Republicans, while 28 percent fault Democrats. And while numerous surveys show the public overwhelmingly supports finding a solution for the young immigrants in the US illegally, a CNN poll also out Friday shows that 56 percent of Americans say approving a budget agreement to avoid a shutdown is more important than continuing the deportation deferral program.

Trump announced in September that he was ending an Obama program that allowed the young immigrants to avoid deportation and legally work. He threw the issue to Congress, calling for lawmakers to reach a solution before March 5. But the president has sent repeated mixed messages over what legislation he would sign on immigration. Last week, he told a bipartisan group of lawmakers that he would sign a bill that funded the government and protected the Dreamers if it included more money for border security. But when senators brought him that compromise bill, he rejected it.

Democrats say that helped open the door for the party to take a harder line in the shutdown fight. “It’s now or never,” Fallon said..

Emboldened Democrats take a risk on a shutdown

JULIE PACE REUTERS

11SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 OPINION

The Democratic strategy comes with risks. While the party has had a string of victories in recent elections, including a state Senate win this week in a Wisconsin district Trump won by 17 points, the Senate landscape for Democrats in November is perilous.

Abbas’ pivot from quiet diplomacy to loudly challenging the US and Israel brings him in line with his aggrieved public and quashes any last expectations of a US-brokered peace deal, but could also unleash forces that might eventually bring down his self-rule government.

KARIN LAUB AP

THERE seems to be no going back for Mahmoud Abbas after the Palestinian leader

cursed and ridiculed President Donald Trump and his aides in a pugnacious speech — a very public break with the 82-year-old’s long-standing efforts to cultivate Washington’s goodwill as the sole pathway to Palestinian statehood.

Abbas’ pivot from quiet diplomacy to loudly challenging the US and Israel brings him in line with his aggrieved public and quashes any last expectations of a US-brokered peace deal, but could also unleash forces that might eventually bring down his self-rule government. Some questions and answers about the conflict:

The mostly unscripted barnburner — out of character for the typically buttoned-down Abbas — marked the culmination of his frustration with the US administration. In the span of a few weeks, Trump smashed what Palestinians see as the ground rules of US mediation in their conflict with Israel.

Trump recognised contested Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, then portrayed Abbas’ subsequent rejection of Washington as an unfit broker as a blanket refusal to negotiate, followed by threats to cut US aid to the Palestinians.“Yekhreb

beitak!” (literally “May your house be demolished”) Abbas exclaimed to laughter from a hall packed with Palestine Liberation Organization officials, cursing Trump as he recounted the recent US measures. Burning more bridges, Abbas also lashed out at Trump’s ambassadors to the UN and to Israel, Nikki Haley and David Friedman.

His core message was to reject pre-emptively what he fears to be an upcoming US plan for a Palestinian mini-state on only some of the lands captured by Israel in 1967 and without a foothold in Jerusalem. “We will not accept a deal America dictates,” Abbas said defiantly.

On Tuesday, a US official said the Trump administration was withholding $65m of the planned $125m installment for the UN Relief and Works Agency, which focuses on giving health care, education and social services to Palestinians in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, Jordan, Syria and Lebanon. A day after Abbas’ “exit speech” from two decades of intermittent, US-led talks with Israel, a PLO decision-making body outlined a confrontational approach — at least on paper.

The Palestinian Central Council called for suspending the PLO’s 1993 recognition of Israel, halting security coordination with Israel and

ending Palestinian compliance with interim peace deals from the mid-1990s. These so-called Oslo Accords had created the Palestinian autonomy government, headed by Abbas since 2005, and defined Israeli-Palestinian relations.

The final decision lies with Abbas. Aides and Palestinian analysts suggested he will move cautiously Implementing the council decisions could quickly escalate tensions with the hard-line government of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and possibly bring about the collapse of Abbas’ financially fragile self-rule government which administers parts of the West Bank.

Ending compliance with the Oslo Accords could also remove any justification for the continued existence of the Palestinian Authority. On the other hand, Netanyahu and Abbas have overlapping interests that helped maintain the status quo for years, despite many crises and an adversarial relationship.

Both benefit from continued security coordination against a shared enemy, the Palestinian militant group Hamas, which dominates Gaza. The foreign aid-dependent Palestinian Authority shoulders the responsibility for the welfare of millions of Palestinians that would otherwise fall on Israel as the occupier. The Oslo Accords have also created a Palestinian political class eager to protect its perks, while hundreds of thousands of Palestinians depend on autonomy government salaries.

Abbas says he remains committed to a two-state solution, or setting up a Palestinian state alongside Israel. But he hasn’t explained how he can now get there, in the absence of the old framework of the ultimately unsuccessful “peace process” that called for a negotiated border deal. Palestinians face years of uncertainty, as they

try to strengthen alliances with Europe and the Arab world to make up for frayed ties with the US.

Abbas hopes to generate more pressure on Israel, including international sanctions, to force an end to its half-century-old occupation, said PLO official Hanan Ashrawi. “Without accountability, without Israel understanding that there is a price to be paid for its intransigence, it is not going to budge,” she said. But there are no firm commitments of support, despite sweeping condemnation of Trump’s Jerusalem move in recent UN Security Council and General Assembly votes.

Europe, for years relegated by Washington to the role of Middle East paymaster, hasn’t signaled a new assertiveness in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Sunni Arab states such as Saudi Arabia and Egypt are bent on curbing the influence of regional rival Iran, even at the expense of the once-central Palestinian cause, including the fate of Jerusalem, sacred to Muslims, along with Christians and Jews. Netanyahu has strengthened Israel’s trade and security ties with countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. This week, for instance, he is in India, signing trade deals with the one of the world’s largest and fastest-growing economies.

Abbas’ rambling remarks seemed to provide fodder for Israeli hard-liners, who claim that he has not truly accepted Israel and lacks the credentials of a partner for peace.

Abbas at one point described the settling of Jews in the Holy Land as a colonial conspiracy, seemingly denying their historic ties to the land, and also claimed that Israel is “sending us lots of (illegal) drugs” that might tempt Palestinian children.

Dan Shapiro, a former US ambassador to Israel, said he understands Abbas’ frustration with Trump and the Israeli government, but that this

With a vent at Trump, Abbas exits peace process“doesn’t justify returning to the most outrageous canards about Israel’s very legitimacy.”

“If he has chosen to go that route, he has chosen to end his role as a partner in the two-state solution,” Shapiro, a visiting fellow at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, said of Abbas.

Netanyahu has demanded that Abbas accept Israel as a Jewish state, as proof of peaceful intent.

Abbas, a staunch proponent of nonviolence, has said it’s not his role to define Israel’s character, and that Netanyahu is simply trying to deflect attention from Israeli actions such as settlement building.

Israel might be able to score a short-term public relations win by portraying Abbas as rejectionist, but this won’t lessen the existential threat posed by the unresolved conflict. Arabs and Jews will soon reach demographic parity in the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan River, with Palestinians poised to become a majority.

Without a partition deal — even less likely after the latest crisis — Israel will either continue to rule over Palestinians with lesser rights in an apartheid-like situation or will have to give them citizenship in a single, binational state, an option most Israelis reject.

Abbas has dismissed the idea of an interim state in parts of the West Bank and Gaza, fearing the temporary will become permanent.

After 13 years in office, Abbas shows no willingness to step aside and has refused to groom an heir. His fiery speech reflected a broad Palestinian consensus and might help restore some of his tattered domestic legitimacy. And even when he is eventually replaced, his successor is unlikely to accept what Abbas is now resoundingly rejecting.

Protest against ‘Padmavat’ release Activists of Akhand Rashtrawadi Party holds placard and shouts slogans as they protest against the release of upcoming Bollywood movie ‘Padmaavat’ in Mumbai, yesterday.

IANS

YAMUNANAGAR: In a shocking incident, a woman principal of a private school in Haryana’s Yamunanagar town was shot dead yesterday by an agitated Class 12 student who had been rusticated.

Principal Ritu Chhabra was shot at thrice allegedly by the student in her office at the Swami Vivekanand Public School in Thapar Colony of Yamunanagar town, around 110 km from Chandigarh.

The victim was rushed to a nearby hospital where she suc-cumbed to the bullet injuries.

The armed student was overpowered by school staff and beaten up. He was later handed over to the police.

Police said the boy’s father is a financier and the licensed pistol used in the incident belonged to the father.

“School staff, students and teachers caught the accused while he was trying to escape

and handed him over to police,” said a senior police officer.

There was panic in the school as five gunshots were fired by the assailant.

Police officials investigating the case said the assailant came to the school along with a friend on a motorcycle and headed straight for the Principal’s office.

School staff told the police that the student was angered over recent developments in the school which led to his expul-sion. The student had been rus-ticated as he had low attendance and used to pick fights with other students.

Yamunanagar Superin-tendent of Police Rajesh Kalia said the student has been detained and investigations were on.

School principal shot dead by student in Haryana

IANS

NASHIK, MAHARASHTRA: A court here yesterday send six men to the gallows in the honour killings of three Dalit youths in Ahmednagar district five years ago.

On January 15, Nashik Dis-trict and Sessions Court Judge Rajendrakumar R Vaishnav pro-nounced six of the seven accused guilty for the brutal murder of Sachin S. Gharu and two others on January 1, 2013.

Special Public Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said the convicts have also been ordered to pay a fine of Rs20,000 each and directed the government to com-pensate the victims’ families.

Some of the compensation has already been paid.

Those who have been

awarded the capital punishment include: Popat V. Darandale, Ganesh P. Darandale, Prakash V. Darandale, Ramesh V. Daran-dale, Ashok S. Navgire and San-deep M. Kurhe.

Gharu, 24, had fallen in love with an upper caste Maratha girl

of the Darandale family from Sonai village. The lovers planned to marry against her family’s wishes.

The convicts include the girl’s father, Popat V. Darandale, her brother Ganesh, other relatives and friends of the family. All six would be hanged for various crimes including murder, crim-inal conspiracy, etc.

One of the co-accused in the case Ashok R. Phalke was acquitted for lack of sufficient evidence, which was handed over to the state CID by the then state Home Minister, the late R.R. Patil.

Besides Gharu, his friends Sandeep Thanvar, 25, and Rahul Kandhare, 20, were also killed and their bodies disposed off.

Gharu, Thanvar and Kand-hare, who belonged to the

Mehtar caste, worked as con-servancy staffers in Trimurti Pawan Pratisthan’s High School and Junior College, in Newasa, around 30 km from Sonai, the investigation report said.

On learning of the love-affair of the girl, who was a student, with a lower-caste boy, her family called the three Dalit youths to their home on New Year, ostensibly to clean their septic tank.

First the girl’s family elimi-nated Gharu. They chopped his head and limbs off the body with a sickle and dumped the pieces inside the septic tank.

Then they attacked Thanvar and Kandhare with spades. They took their bodies outside the vil-lage where they were buried in a dry well.

After the three suddenly

“disappeared”, on the basis of complaints registered by their families, the police launched a search and finally recovered Gharu’s rotting body pieces from the septic tank after more than 24 hours, and the remains of the other two after 72 hours.

A total of 54 witnesses were examined during the trial, lasting nearly five years in one of the most high-profile cases of honour killings in Maharashtra.

While Nikam argued that it was “a rarest of rare cases as it was a very gory and gruesome crime and with larger ramifica-tions for society”, defence lawyer S.S. Adas pleaded for leniency on grounds that while one accused (Ganesh P. Darandale) was very young, the others were of advanced age.

Pronouncing the verdict,

Judge Vaishnav observed that the manner in which the convicts had killed the three victims, “they had forgotten to understand the feelings of others”.

“Such people have no right to live in society and hence hanging them till death is the only way to save the society,” Judge Vaishnav ruled.

Making a forceful argument for death sentence for all the convicts, Nikam said that the “girl’s family, which opposed the inter-caste affair hatched a con-spiracy and brutally killed the three Dalit youths”.

“The judgement by the court is very important. The prosecu-tion argued the entire case based on circumstantial evidence since there were no eyewitnesses. Yet, we managed to link the sequence of events,” said Nikam.

Six get death for murder of 3 Dalit youthThe convicts include the girl’s father, Popat V. Darandale, her brother Ganesh, other relatives and friends of the family. All six would be hanged for various crimes including murder, criminal conspiracy, etc.

IANS

RANCHI: Former Bihar Chief Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Yadav appeared in a special CBI court of Ranchi, yesterday, in connection with another fodder scam case over fraud-ulent withdrawal from a treasury here.

Besides Lalu Yadav, other accused in the case also appeared in the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) court. The case relates to fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 139.35 crore from Doranda treasury of Ranchi. The court recorded statements of the CBI witnesses. The court has instructed the accused to be present in the court again on January 23.

IANS

PATNA: Two crude bombs were recovered near the Mahabodhi temple in Bihar’s Bodh Gaya district, where Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama is camping, prompting authorities to heighten security. An NIA team was at the site yesterday to probe the incident.

The bombs were found on Friday night, police said.

A low intensity bomb blast

had taken place near the site where the two crude bombs were recovered on Friday night.

Police denied media reports that claimed the bombs were found inside the revered Maha-bodhi temple.

“The explosive materials were found in the vicinity of the Kalachakra ground near the temple and kept far away from the temple,” Inspector General of Police, Patna Zone, N.H. Khan said. A senior police official in

Bodh Gaya said three suspected persons have been found roaming in Bodh Gaya.

Police will identify them soon, he said.

The NIA team is to defuse the two crude bombs, police said.“A team of NIA reached Bodh Gaya and visited the Mahabodhi temple to probe the incident,” a district police official said. A forensic team from Patna was also in Bodh Gaya to investigate the matter. “We have given all

the information to the NIA team. And if it requires more informa-tion, the state police will provide it,” a senior police officer camping in Bodh Gaya said.

Security of foreign monas-teries and other sensitive places has also been beefed up and additional security forces deployed.

In 2013, a series of bombs exploded at Bodh Gaya’s Maha-bodhi temple in which two Bud-dhist monks were injured.

2 bombs found in Bodh Gaya; NIA begins probe

Lalu Yadav appears in CBI court in another fodder scam case

Performing ‘Gatka’ A Sikh participant performs ‘Gatka’, an ancient form of Sikh martial art, during a competition in Amritsar yesterday.

IANS

NEW DELHI: As many as 17 persons were burnt alive or asphyxiated and 30 others injured yesterday in a massive fire in a plastic warehouse in west Delhi’s Bawana area, a Delhi Fire Services officer said.

“Seventeen bodies have been taken out from the godown (warehouse). As many as 30 persons, including some women, have reportedly sus-tained burn injuries. Some others are still feared trapped inside,” he said, adding that the condition of four persons is critical.

The officer said the fire in Bawana industrial area was reported to the control room around 6.20pm following which 10 fire tenders were rushed to the spot. The fire was doused after three hours.

“Police as well as fire bri-gade and ambulances were rushed to F-83 in Sector 5 of Bawana industrial area. The cause of the fire is not yet known,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajneesh Gupta said.

A man who jumped from the second floor of the building in a bid to save himself later succumbed to injuries at a hos-pital. The victims were trapped in the basement, first and second floors when the fire spread from the basement to the floors above, the officer said. The bodies have been kept in mortuary for identifi-cation. Relatives of some of the dead and the injured have been informed, he added.

Delhi Health Minister Saty-endar Jain has ordered a probe into the fire incident in a plastic warehouse in west

Delhi’s Bawana area in which as many as 17 persons were burnt alive or asphyxiated and 30 others injured.

“Learnt about a serious fire incident in a private factory at Bawana. Several casualties reported. Monitoring the situ-ation. Ordered enquiry,” Jain said in a tweet yesterday.

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, along with Jain rushed to the site of the fire.

Union Minister Harsh Var-dhan, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Manoj Tiwari and Leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly Vijender Gupta and North Delhi Municipal Corpo-ration Mayor Preety Agarwal also reached the spot.

Speaking to reporters, Agarwal said: “ I got the infor-mation about fire at 9 p.m. (on Saturday) and we rushed to the spot. The fire is under control now.”

According to fire officials, at least 17 people, including 10 women, died in the fire.

“Seventeen bodies have been taken out from the ware-house. As many as 30 persons, including some women, have reportedly sustained burn inju-ries. Some others are still feared trapped inside,” he said, adding that the condition of four persons is critical.

“Police as well as fire bri-gade and ambulances were rushed to F-83 in Sector 5 of Bawana Industrial Area. The cause of the fire is not yet known,” Deputy Commissioner of Police Rajneesh Gupta said.

“Owners of the factory have been identified and will be questioned about the licensing aspect and negli-gence,” Gupta said.

17 dead, 30 injured in Delhi warehouse fire

AFP

BANGKOK: Thai police have arrested an alleged kingpin in Asia’s illegal trade in endan-gered species, dealing a blow to a family-run syndicate that smuggles elephant ivory, rhino horn and tiger parts to Chinese and Vietnamese dealers.

Boonchai Bach, 40, a Viet-namese national with Thai cit-izenship, was arrested on Friday evening over the smug-gling of 14 rhino horns worth around $1 million from Africa to Thailand.

His downfall follows the December 12 arrest of Nikorn Wongprachan, a Thai National Parks and Wildlife Conserva-tion official, at Bangkok’s main airport as he attempted to smuggle the rhino horn from the quarantine section to a nearby apartment.

The horn was smuggled into Bangkok by a Chinese man who was arrested a day before on arrival from Johannesburg, South Africa.

The police sting led to

Boonchai, who financed the network. “This is a major smuggling syndicate and Boon-chai is a ringleader,” General Chalermkiat Srivorakan, deputy national police chief, told reporters Saturday after the suspect arrived at Suvarnab-humi airport ahead of his remand.

“Boonchai admitted he was involved,” Chalermkiat said, adding he faces up to four years in jail for smuggling parts of protected animals.

For years Boonchai and the Bach family are believed to operated with impunity from Nakhon Phanom in northeast Thailand, bordering Laos -- linchpin players in a multi-mil-lion-dollar trade in illegal wildlife.

The town is a pivot point in Asia’s wildlife trafficking chain, in part because it is the nar-rowest neck of land for smug-gled goods to transit through Thailand, into Laos and onto Vietnam, a major market for animal parts used in traditional medicine.

Thai police arrest ‘kingpin’ in Asian wildlife trafficking

Principal Ritu Chhabra was shot at thrice allegedly by the student in her office at the Swami Vivekanand Public School in Thapar Colony of Yamunanagar town, around 110km from Chandigarh.

12 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018ASIA

Gunmen attack Kabul’s Inter-Continental HotelAFP

KABUL: At least four gunmen attacked Kabul’s landmark Intercont inental Hotel yesterday and started shooting at guests, officials said, in an assault that is still under way.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the latest attack in the Afghan cap-ital that followed a series of security warnings in recent days to avoid hotels and other locations frequented by foreigners.

“Four attackers are inside the building,” an official at the National Directorate of Secu-rity (NDS) spy agency told AFP.

They are “shooting at guests”, he said.

A guest hiding in a room told AFP he could hear gunfire inside the state-owned 1960s hotel.

“I don’t know if the attackers are inside the hotel but I can hear gunfire from somewhere near the first floor,” he said by telephone without giving his name.

“We are hiding in our rooms. I beg the security forces to rescue us as soon as possible before they reach and kill us.”

His phone was switched off when AFP tried to contact him again.

An official said the attackers were armed with small weapons and rocket-propelled grenades when they blasted

their way into the hotel, which often hosts weddings, confer-e n c e s a n d p o l i t i c a l gatherings.

“They are now on the third and fourth floors fighting with our forces. We don’t know the details of casualties yet but they set the kitchen on fire,” interior ministry spokesman Nasrat Rahimi told AFP.

“Firefighters are also there to put out the fire.”

The fourth floor of the hotel, which has four restaurants and a swimming pool, is also on fire, the NDS official said.

Ministry of interior spokesman Najib Danish con-firmed that several attackers had entered the hotel and one has been killed.

“We don’t know the details yet but our forces are in the

area to bring them down,” Danish said.

There was no immediate information on casualties.

Some of the occupants inside the hotel are hiding on the second floor, a security source said.

Electricity was cut after an initial explosion at the hilltop hotel, a counterterrorism source said. A conference on Afghanistan-China relations was held at the hotel earlier yesterday, attended by the Chi-nese embassy’s political coun-sellor Zhang Zhixin.

The Intercontinental was last targeted in June 2011 when a suicide attack claimed by the Taliban killed 21 people, including 10 civilians.

Security in Kabul has been tightened since May 31 when a massive truck bomb ripped through the diplomatic quarter, killing some 150 people and wounding around 400 others—mostly civilians. No group has yet claimed that attack.

The Islamic State group has claimed most of the recent attacks in the Afghan capital, but authorities suspect that the Taliban-affiliated Haqqani Net-work has been involved in some of the assaults.

The deadliest of the recent attacks happened at a Shiite cultural centre on December 29 when a suicide bomber blew himself up, killing more than 40 people.

Pakistan offers tourist visas to 24 countries

INTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: The interior ministry of Pakistan has announced offering visa on arrival to tourists from 24 countries, including the United States and United Kingdom, reversing yet another decision taken by former interior minister Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan. Other countries on the list include Canada, China, Japan, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, S w e d e n , N o r w a y , Denmark, Greece, Belgium, Austria, Finland, Iceland, Korea, Portugal, Singapore, Thailand, and Luxemburg. However, India, Iran, Russia, Arab and African countries are not on the list.

According to the immi-gration wing of the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA), multiple entry tourist visas valid for 30 days will be issued to tourists from these countries, if the tour is organised through des-ignated tour operators.

They have been asked to talk to one of the immi-gration officers or the des-ignated visa officer on arrival for additional infor-mation and list of tour operators.

Tourist groups will be required to submit an undertaking to the immi-gration authorities along with some other documents.

An official said tourists to Pakistan were an asset for the country.

He added that the immigration authorities were committed to facili-tating them and making their arrival and departure hassle-free.

Concerns over credibility & quality of Pakistani electionsINTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: A coalition of over four dozen non-governmental organisations has expressed concern over the quality and credibility of upcoming elections, to be held amid political insta-bility and uncertainty in Pakistan.

“The excessive dragging of military and judiciary in the polit-ical discourse and disagreements among all political actors does not augur well for the credibility of future elections,” said a declara-tion issued by the Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen)

yesterday. It said the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), being the custodian of integrity of elections, should assert its con-stitutional powers reinforced under Elections Act, 2017 to ensure that the general elections to be held this year were trans-parent, credible and fair so that public confidence in democracy and its values was reinforced.

Approved by the coalition’s general council, the declaration urged all democratic forces to ini-tiate a national dialogue to reverse the dangerous trends of negativism, polarisation and

uncertainty. It called upon the political parties, media and civil society organisations, and public and state institutions to make prompt and conscious efforts to reverse the deepening polarisa-tion that had created fault lines within society at a time when the country was facing serious internal and external challenges amid terrorism and changing geopolitical situation in the region.

The Fafen statement said it had become imperative for all political and social actors to put aside their petty political

disagreements and respond to the greater challenges, ranging from poverty, unequal distribution of wealth and resources, erosion of human rights and civil liberties, rise of extremism, social conflicts and tensions among organs and institutions of the state.

There was a need to put an end to increasing social and polit-ical exclusion of women and minorities, it added.

Fafen regretted that the country’s ‘political dichotomy’ had undermined state institu-tions, the Constitution, parliament and judiciary, the National Action

Plan and above all democratic and human values. The NGOs stressed the need for state insti-tutions to only act within the con-stitutionally defined limits and said the trichotomy of powers must be preserved.

“Let the parliament be supreme, let the judiciary act independently, let the state insti-tutions be insulated from polit-ical interference and let the law deal with public and elected offi-cials transgressing their powers and those who are involved in corruption,” they said in the declaration.

Park engulfed by bushfire after heat wave in AustraliaREUTERS

SYDNEY: Holidaymakers trapped by bushfire had to be rescued by boat from a national park south of Australia’s largest city of Sydney and 200 people were evacuated by fire-fighters

as a heat wave struck the eastern seaboard yesterday.

Firefighters in the state of New South Wales said on Face-Book they were escorting 200 people to safety from the Wat-tamolla area to Bundeena as two fires raged south of Sydney

yesterday evening. The Rural Fire Service had earlier issued an emergency warning to vis-itors in the Royal National Park as the blaze threatened the main access road to a popular tourist spot called Wedding Cake Rock where people

posted pictures of the billowing smoke to social media. “Beaches may offer safety,” the NSW Rural Fire Service (RFS) said in a FaceBook post as air-craft water-bombers attempted to slow the fire and emergency warnings were sent to the mobile phones of all people in the area.

“Fire-fighters, police, surf lifesavers and National Parks personnel are working with people at beaches in the Royal National Park to help manage their relocation as it’s safe to do so - including by boat and road escort,” The RFS wrote on FaceBook.

The park was crowded with visitors and had closed shortly before noon because the car parks were full to capacity, local media outlet news.com reported.

A number of bushfires sparked across the state of New South Wales on Saturday, with temperatures soaring above 39C in some areas as a heat wave advanced across the eastern states where the Bureau of Meteorology issued fire weather warnings.

On Friday, the heat struck the south-eastern state of Vic-toria, causing discomfort at the Australian Open tennis tournament.

A man uses his phone to take a photograph of a bushfire burning in the Royal National Park, located south of Sydney in Australia, yesterday.

An official said the attackers were armed with small weapons and rocket-propelled grenades when they blasted their way into the hotel, which often hosts weddings, conferences and political gatherings. Thailand tourism festival

Thai dancers take part in a parade at the Thailand Tourism Festival 2018, a government campaign to boost the tourism industry in Bangkok, Thailand, yesterday. The fair is the country’s largest domestic tourism fair, showcasing Thai traditions, cuisine and cultures from all regions of the country.

Two Indonesian fishermen freed in PhilippinesAFP

JOLO: Two Indonesian fish-ermen have been released by militants after more than a year in captivity in the southern Phil-ippines, police said yesterday.

There were no official com-ments on the physical condition of the two who were snatched from their fishing vessel in the waters between the southern

Philippines and Malaysia in November 2016, a police state-ment said.

The two were reportedly turned over by a “concerned cit-izen” late Thursday to a former governor on the southern island of Jolo, a longtime haunt of the Abu Sayyaf extremist group, some of whose members have pledged allegiance to the IS mil-itant group, the statement added.

The ex-governor called the police who picked up the two. Officials would not say if ransom, a frequent motive for such abductions, was paid in this case. The Abu Sayyaf is a loose net-work of militants formed in the 1990s. There has been allegations that the group has earned mil-lions of dollars from banditry and kidnappings-for-ransom, often targetting foreigners.

Philippine troops clash with militants since Marawi battleREUTERS

MANILA: Philippine troops clashed briefly with pro-Islamic State militants in the volatile south yesterday, the army said, in their first engagement since the government retook Marawi city in the country’s biggest battle since World War Two.

Army spokesman Major Ronald Suscano said six sol-diers were wounded in the encounter.

The clash erupted after government forces encoun-tered about 10 members of the Maute group in a district in Lanao del Sur, a stronghold of the rebel group, which has pledged allegiance to Islamic State, Suscano said in a statement.

The siege of Marawi, the country’s biggest security crisis in years, has stoked wider con-cerns that Islamic State loyal-ists have learned how to thrive in impoverished Muslim areas of the island of Mindanao and use its jungles and mountains as staging posts to launch attacks.

13SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 ASIA

14 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018ASIA

Protest to free journalistA protester wearing a mask of Reuters journalist, Wa Lone (centre) takes part in a demonstration demanding his release at Inya lake bank in Yangon, Myanmar, yesterday.

Myanmar gets ready for Rohingya returnREUTERS

YANGON: Myanmar was making final preparations to take back the first batch of Rohingya Muslims who had fled conflict in troubled Rakhine state, state media said yesterday, despite growing doubts about the plan among refugees and in the United Nations.

Rakhine state Chief Minister Nyi Pu “insisted on completion of the finishing touches on build-ings, medical clinics and sanita-tion infrastructures” during a visit to repatriation camps in the state on Friday, the Global New Light of Myanmar newspaper said.

It published a photo of his delegation standing by a long, wooden house that will be used to house returnees at the camp near the town of Maungtaw. A wire-mesh fence topped by barbed wire appears in the back-ground of the photo.

Over 655,500 Muslim Rohingya fled to Bangladesh after the Myanmar military cracked down in the northern part of Rakhine in response to militant attacks on security forces on August. 25. The United Nations described the operation

as ethnic cleansing of the Rohingya, which Myanmar denies.

Myanmar will start receiving Rohingya refugees from Bang-ladesh at two reception centres and the temporary camp near Maungtaw starting on Tuesday and continuing over the next two years, under an agreement the two countries signed this week.

Bangladesh will provide an advance list of prospective returnees with forms attesting to their residency in Myanmar, the newspaper said.

Some returnees will cross over by land and others via a river along the border, it said.

Rohingya refugees at the sprawling Kutupalong camp in Bangladesh are balking at going back until Myanmar can guar-antee their safety, among other

demands listed in a petition drawn up by camp leaders and shown to Reuters.

Even as Myanmar gets ready to start receiving the Rohingya next week, more of them are fleeing continued military oper-ations in Rakhine, newly arrived refugees camp have told this news agency.

More than 100 Rohingya Muslims from northern Rakhine fled into Bangladesh and scores more were waiting to cross the Naf river that forms the border, they said.

Rohingya Muslim insurgents said on Saturday the repatriation plan was “not acceptable” and “the Burmese terrorist govern-ment is deceitfully and crook-edly offering Rohingya refugees to settle down in so-called tem-porary camps”. Burma is the former name of Myanmar.

”Repatriated Rohingya ref-ugees from Bangladesh will never be able to settle down in their own ancestral lands and villages, rather than spending not only the rest of their lives but also the lives of their next gen-erations to come in those con-centration camps,” the Arakan Rohingya Salvation Army (ARSA) said in a statement on Twitter.

Myanmar has said it would build a transit camp that can house 30,000 returnees before they are allowed to return to their “place of origin” or “nearest to their place of origin.” Govern-ment spokesman Zaw Htay did not respond to requests for com-ment on the ARSA statement.

Paul Vrieze, the United

Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) spokesman in Myanmar, cautioned that the returnees must not be rushed out of Bangladesh prematurely “without the informed consent of refugees or the basic elements of lasting solutions in place”.

”Further measures are also r e q u i r e d t o e n s u r e

safe, voluntary and sustainable repatriation of refugees to their places of origin and to address the underlying root causes of the crisis,” he said. The UNHCR, which is helping to administer the refugee camps, is not involved in the repatriation exer-cise between Bangladesh and Myanmar.

Myanmar will start receiving Rohingya refugees from Bangladesh at two reception centres and the temporary camp near Maungtaw starting on Tuesday.

Yanghee Lee (second left), the United Nation’s Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Myanmar, visiting a Rohingya camp in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar, yesterday.

AFP

HONG KONG: A collision between a mainland Chinese fishing boat and the American-Danish team’s yacht during the fourth leg of the Volvo Ocean Race left one man dead, police said yesterday, overshadowing a historic victory for the Hong Kong team as the city hosted the race for the first time.

Local group Sun Hung Kai/Scallywag triumphed despite some significant setbacks in the gruelling 5,800 nautical mile stage from Melbourne, Australia, closely followed by China’s Dongfeng Race Team in second place.

But the finish was bittersweet for crew members as news rolled in about the accident involving American-Danish team Vestas 11th Hour Racing.

Hong Kong police told AFP that one man from the fishing boat had died after being airlifted to hospital while nine others were rescued from the sea. In a state-ment organisers confirmed the death and said the incident hap-pened about 30 miles from the finish, outside of Hong Kong waters at around 1:23 am yesterday.

“The Volvo Ocean Race is deeply saddened to inform that the collision between Vestas 11th Hour Racing, a team competing in the Volvo Ocean Race 2017-18, and a fishing vessel has resulted in a fatality of a crew member of the fishing vessel,” it said. “We offer our deepest con-dolences to the loved ones of the deceased. All involved organisa-tions are co-operating with the authorities and are fully sup-port ing the ongoing

investigation.” All Vestas crew members were safe, the state-ment said, but the boat was dam-aged in the collision which tore a hole in its side, and the incident forced the team to officially retire from the fourth leg. The fishing boat sank following the accident.

The Dongfeng team’s web-site said the Vestas was in second place and being chased by Dongfeng when the collision occurred. French skipper Charles Caudrelier had offered help to his Vestas counterpart Mark Towill but was told none was required, it said.

“Our first thought is that this is terrible news. We are of course very sad to hear it and very con-cerned about the fishing boat and await further news on that,” Caudrelier was quoted as saying minutes after finishing.

“It is always very dangerous when sailing in these fishing areas when there are so many boats and some have no lights.”

The seven boats had embarked on the fourth leg in early January, heading north up the east coast of Australia with the navigational challenge of dodging numerous islands.

Scallywag, skippered by Aus-tralian David Witt, led the flotilla into their home port at around 0145 am local time, crossing the line in 17 days, 14 hours, 30 min-utes and 42 seconds.

A tough passage and time spent recovering a man over-board had challenged the team but Witt said they stuck to a plan to claw their way into the lead.

“I was really impressed by the way we operated over the past couple of days,” he was quoted as saying on the race website.

One dead in Volvo Ocean Race accident

AP

BEIJING: The Chinese govern-ment yesterday accused the US of trespassing in its territorial waters when a US guided missile destroyer sailed near a disputed shoal in the South China Sea.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Lu Kang said China-would take “necessary measures” to protect its sovereignty after the USS Hopper sailed within 12 nau-tical miles of Scarborough Shoal on Wednesday evening without China’s permission. Scarborough is a tiny, uninhabited reef that China seized from the Philippines in 2012. Known in Chinese as Huangyan Island, it lies about 200 kilometers (120 miles) west of the main Philippine island of Luzon, and about 600 kilometers (370 miles) southeast of China.

Defense Ministry spokesman Wu Qian said a Chinese missile frigate moved to identify and verify the US vessel and warned it to leave the area.

”We hope that the US respects China’s sovereignty, respects the efforts by regional countries and do not make trouble out of nothing,” Wu said in a statement on the ministry’s website. The South China Sea has crucial shipping lanes, rich fishing

grounds and potential oil, gas and other mineral deposits.

China claims virtually the entire South China Sea and has carried out extensive land recla-mation work on many of the islands and reefs it claims, equip-ping some with air strips and mil-itary installations.

The United States does not claim territory in the South China Sea but has declared it has a national interest in ensuring that the territorial disputes there are resolved peacefully in accordance with international law. The Navy regularly sails through the area to assert freedom of navigation.

”The United States conducts routine and regular FONOPs, as we have done in the past and will continue to do so in the future,” Lt. Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman, a spokeswoman for the US Navy’s Pacific Fleet, said after China’s claim. FONOP is the military’s term for freedom of navigation operations. She said such opera-tions are “not about any one country, nor are they about making political statements.” Instead they aim to “demonstrate our commitment to uphold the rights, freedoms and lawful uses of the sea and airspace guaran-teed to all nations under interna-tional law.”

AP

BANGKOK: A Myanmar military tribunal has sentenced six soldiers to 10 years in prison with hard labour for killing three civil-ians in war-torn Kachin state, officials said yesterday, in a move welcomed by rights groups.

The Kachin state police office said the tribunal handed down the sentence Friday after finding the soldiers guilty of killing three ethnic Kachin civilians in Sep-tember. The prosecution came after an internal investigation by the military.

Min Zaw, a Kachin state police officer, said that during the hearing the six confessed that they were responsible for the kill-ings during a hearing. He said it

was up to the army to determine at which prison the soldiers would serve their sentence.

Kachin state is home to an ethnic rebel army that has been fighting the Myanmar military for more than seven years. More than 100,000 people in the state have fled the fighting and live in refugee camps there.

Calls to the military informa-tion office rang unanswered yesterday.

The three civilians were among a group of five detained by soldiers last May while they were heading back to their ref-ugee camp after gathering fire-wood near Hka Pra Yang village. Two of the men were released and returned to the camp, while the other three never returned.

AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s pres-ident announced yesterday that he would take control of the island’s economy from the prime minister, as relations worsen between the ruling party and its main coalition partner.

Maithripala Sirisena said he would directly manage the economy through a special economic council headed by him, taking over the respon-sibility from Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and his United National Party (UNP).

“Although the UNP was allowed to manage the economy in the past three years, from this month, the President will take it over,” his office said in a statement.

Sirisena joined hands with the UNP to topple Mahinda Rajapakse in January 2015, ending the strongman presi-dent’s decade in power.

But since then their alli-ance has fractured, with Sirisena clashing with free-market champion Wick-remesinghe over economic policy.

REUTERS

MOSCOW: Diplomats from Russia and the United States are likely to hold their next round of consultations on North Korea in Moscow on a date yet to be decided, TASS news agency

quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Igor Morgulov as saying yesterday.

He also said a delegation from North Korea might visit Moscow before the start of next month’s Olympic Games. The talks about North Korea’s

missile programme and nuclear aspirations are taking place amid accusations from US Pres-ident Donald Trump that Moscow was helping Pyongyang evade international sanctions. Russia denies the allegations.

China says US violated its sovereignty

Myanmar soldiers sentenced for deaths of Kachin civilians

Sri Lanka’s president takes charge of ministry as rift grows

Russia & US to hold next round of North Korea talks in Moscow

15SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 EUROPE

Merkel and Macron map out EU’s futureAFP

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said that his ambitious EU plans to reform the European Union need German backing, as Chancellor Angela Merkel gears up for a crucial vote on forming a new coalition government.

“Our ambition cannot come to fruition alone,” Macron told a joint press conference with Merkel before talks in Paris. “It needs to come together with Ger-many’s ambition.”

Merkel’s immediate focus is domestic, with her political future on the line after more than 12 years in power.

On Sunday, some 600 dele-gates from Germany’s Social Democrat (SPD) party will be asked to give the green light to a preliminary coalition agreement reached with her conservatives last week.

“I am confident of the path ahead and I believe that at the SPD congress many will be open to the coalition negotiations,” Merkel told reporters in Paris.

“But the decision is for the Social Democrats in Germany alone.”

At Merkel’s meeting with Macron, which appeared aimed at giving her a boost, the German leader said a “stable German government” was crucial for the EU to move forward with its reform agenda.

In November, she was left considerably weakened after her first attempt to form a new coa-lition government collapsed when the pro-business FDP party walked out.

She then turned to the SPD, her outgoing governing partners with whom she hopes to form another grand coalition.

Macron, who is driving attempts to reform the EU in the wake of Britain’s decision to leave

the bloc, refused to be drawn into trying to predict the outcome of Sunday’s vote, saying it could be “counterproductive”.

But he stressed the pro-European credentials of the SPD and said the coalition blueprint showed “true European ambition”.

“The chancellor has ambi-tions for Europe, SPD leaders have shown they have ambitions for Europe, and the coalition out-line has them too,” Macron said.

Macron has made no secret of the fact that he would like to see the SPD, which is enthusi-astic about his proposals for closer eurozone integration including a common budget, remain on Germany’s front benches.

Social Democrats are hesi-tant to renew a right-left “grand coalition” with Merkel’s conserv-atives, fearing their vote at the next election could plunge yet further from last year’s historic low of 20.5 percent.

In an interview, German For-eign Minister and SPD stalwart S igm ar Gab r ie l sa id

both countries “have a joint responsibility to develop all of Europe further” highlighting “reform of the economic and monetary union” as a top priority.

“We have to grasp the his-toric opportunity that we have with Macron, a convinced Euro-pean,” Gabriel insisted, “other-wise one day the EU will only

exist on paper.”Some of Merkel’s conserva-

tive allies are, however, more reticent about the prospect of closer economic integration.

Last week Macron said a conservative-social democrat tie-up would be “good for Ger-many, good for France and above all good for Europe”.

Leading economists from

both countries on Wednesday published a “blueprint for reform” for the eurozone that calls for new fiscal rules and an independent watchdog to make the currency more resilient against crises.

But the economists declined to specifically back Macron’s idea for a joint budget or eurozone finance minister.

AFP

PARIS: Paul Bocuse, one of the greatest French chefs of all time, died yesterday aged 91 after a long battle with Parkin-son’s disease.

Dubbed the “pope” of French cuisine, Bocuse helped shake up the food world in the 1970s with the Nouvelle Cui-sine revolution and create the idea of the celebrity chef.

F r e n c h P r e s i d e n t Emmanuel Macron led the trib-utes yesterday, calling him a “mythic figure who trans-formed French cuisine. Chefs are crying in their kitchens across France.”

“He was one of the greatest figures of French gastronomy, the General Charles de Gaulle of cuisine,” said French food critic Francois Simon, comparing him to France’s wartime saviour and

dominant postwar leader.A giant in a nation that

prides itself as the beating heart of gastronomy, Bocuse was France’s only chef to keep the Michelin food guide’s coveted three-star rating through more than four decades.

The heart of his empire, L’Auberge de Collonges au Mont D’Or, his father’s village inn near Lyon in food-obsessed southeastern France, earned three stars in 1965, and never lost a single one.

“Monsieur Paul,” as he was known, was named “chef of the century” by Michelin’s rival guide, the Gault-Millau in 1989, and again by The Culinary Insti-tute of America in 2011.”

A great upholder of tradi-tion as well as an innovator, several of his trademark dishes at the Auberge remained unchanged for decades.

‘Immunity won’t save Puigdemont from arrest’AFP

MADRID: Catalonia’s ex-leader Carles Puigdemont, currently exiled in Brussels after a failed independence bid, faces arrest if he returns home despite having parliamentary immunity, Spanish prosecutors said yesterday.

Puigdemont, who fled to Bel-gium in late October after Madrid sacked his cabinet over their breakaway attempt, is eyeing a return to power after scoring big in regional elections in December.

But back at home, he risks being detained on charges of rebellion, sedition and misuse of public funds.

Several other separatist law-makers are already in custody in Spain over their role in the regional parliament unilaterally declaring independence on October 27.

“It’s inadmissible that the privilege of parliamentary immunity should be interpreted as impunity,” the office of Spain’s general prosecutor said in a statement.

“The guarantee of immunity does not mean that we can’t place him in custody on a court order,” the statement said.

“By running away and sup-porting acts which culminated in the declaration of independ-ence, (Puigdemont) shows that he persists in his criminal plan.”

Prosecutors also pointed to the separatist leaders already behind bars, saying they were also detained despite their par-liamentary immunity because of the “extreme gravity” of the facts.

Earlier this month, the Supreme Court had decided not to free former Catalan vice pres-ident Oriol Junqueras, in custody since November 2.

Judges said there was a risk he would “re-offend as there is no sign that the defendant has any intention of abandoning the route he has followed until now”.

Junqueras and Puigdemont were instrumental in Catalo-nia’s push to break away from Spain via a referendum that

took place on October 1 despite a court ban.

In a major blow to the cen-tral government in Madrid, pro-independence parties won an absolute majority in regional elections on December 21.

As the sole candidate from Catalonia’s separatist grouping, Puigdemont announced this week that he could govern the region from Brussels if he is re-elected president.

The parliamentary vote to choose a new Catalan leader is due to take place by the end of January.

But Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy reiterated yes-terday that governing Catalonia from abroad would be “illegal”.

Renowned French chef dies at 91

Fresh proposals for French jail guardsAFP

PARIS: Two of France’s three major prison unions suspended their protest action yesterday as fresh proposals on security and employment were submitted to striking staff after a week of tension.

Guards across the country have staged strikes and protests following a string of attacks by inmates and scuffles at jails, including Europe’s biggest, Fleury-Merogis.

“We have sent the text to our rank and file members, and we are waiting for their feedback,”

general secretary of the CGT Penitentiaries Christopher Dor-angeville, said.

CGT, as well as the majority union UFAP-UNSA, has been taking part in negotiations which started on Tuesday with the prison administration.

However, the third major union, FO Penitentiaries, did not join the talks and has called for an even tougher stance.

Friday’s draft agreement proposes the creation of 1,100 guard jobs over four years, “including a first tranche of 100 jobs from 2018”. Currently, the prison service employs 28,000

guards in 188 establishments.The text, which was sent to

Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet (pictured), also proposes meas-ures to improve security for guards and a defined regime for “terrorist and radicalised detainees”, allowing for a “total lockdown on the management of most dangerous detainees”.

FO fiercely opposes the pro-posals, with the union’s deputy secretary general Yoan Karar labelling them as “window dressing”.

On Friday, in Borgo on Cor-sica, three inmates, including one under surveillance for

radicalisation, attacked two guards with a knife, wounding one of them seriously.

On January 11, German con-vict Christian Ganczarski, a former top Al Qaeda militant, attacked three officers with scissors and a razor blade at a high-security prison in northern France.

Two other attacks followed in less than a week, prompting guards to launch a nationwide strike calling for improved secu-rity at often overcrowded prisons.

Prison authorities said the strikes were affecting 80 of France’s facilities.

Ministers call for more help on animal welfareREUTERS

HAMBURG: Greater attention should be given worldwide to the welfare of farm animals and to reducing the use of growth-enhancing medica-tions, agriculture ministers from about 70 countries meeting in Berlin said.

There is a global need to improve animal health and animal welfare by promoting good animal husbandry man-agement practices, biosecu-rity and biosafety and knowl-edge exchange, said a communique after the 10th Berlin Agriculture Ministers’ Conference.

The ministers said more international cooperation is necessary “in order to make livestock production and animal husbandry more sus-tainable, responsible and efficient”.

There is also a require-ment to bring livestock breeding and husbandry fur-ther into line with consumers’ expectations of humane care of farm animals.

“We note that the demand for food of animal origin, in particular food derived from meat, milk and eggs, is pro-jected to rise significantly in many regions of the world due to the growing popula-tion, increasing purchasing power and changes in con-sumer behaviour,” the com-munique said.

Our ambition cannot come to fruition alone. It needs to come together with Germany’s ambition: French President

French President Emmanuel Macron (right) and German Chancellor Angela Merkel during their meeting at Elysee Palace, in Paris, yesterday.

A file photo of French chef Paul Bocuse during a visit to Amsterdam.

Ukraine’s phone signal partially fixedAFP

DONETSK: Mobile phone access was partially restored in war-torn eastern Ukraine after it was lost more than a week ago, the last major Ukrainian provider in the area said.

Almost two million people lost mobile connection in the devastated region after a Voda-fone Ukraine fibre optic line was cut on January 11 as a result of fighting.

The provider sought to restore service after its workers had received security assur-ances from the warring parties in a conflict that has claimed more than 10,000 lives in nearly four years.

“Repair work on the resto-ration of communications... is

completed. In the Lugansk region, communication services are provided in full,” Vodafone Ukraine said in its statement, referring to the smaller of two breakaway provinces.

Meanwhile, the insurgent-controlled parts of the bigger Donetsk region still remain without a mobile connection.

“In the Donetsk region, the network does not work for rea-sons unknown to us. There is a possibility that the equipment is out of order or there is no power supply,” Vodafone added.

The separatist authorities of the self-proclaimed Lugansk republic confirmed the restora-tion of mobile phone access as Donetsk leaders declared no changes in the area under their control.

The outage all but severed communication between family members living on opposite sides of the frontline splitting eastern Ukraine.

Russian-backed operator Pheonix, now the sole provider in Donetsk, only this week intro-duced a service that is theoret-ically able to place calls to Kiev-controlled regions at international rates.

The departure of Ukraine’s KyivStar in the year 2015 and Lifecell last year left Vodafone as the only major provider in the region of some 3.5 million people.

This has left Phoenix filling the void in Donetsk, but it has only 600,000 subscribers and is already operating at full capacity.

16 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018EUROPE

US to sell F-35 jets to Belgium REUTERS

WASHINGTON: The US State Department yesterday said it has approved the possible sale of 34 Lockheed Martin Corp F-35 jets to Belgium for $6.53bn, a potential new customer for the No. 1 US defence contractor’s most important product.

“The proposed sale would include 34 conventional takeoff F-35s as well as 38 Pratt & Whitney F-135 engines and other equipment for the radar-evading high-tech fighter,” the Pentagon said.

“This proposed sale will contribute to the foreign policy and national security of the United States by helping to improve the secu-rity of an ally and partner nation which has been, and continues to be, an important force for political and eco-nomic stability in Western Europe,” the State Depart-ment said in a statement.

The governments of Fin-land, Germany, Spain, Swit-zerland, the United Arab Emirates and others have also been eyeing a purchase of the stealthy jet as potential new customers.

Belgium is still in the midst of an ongoing compe-tition for a new jet fighter. The announcement clears the potential purchase of the jets by the Belgian government.

If Belgium elects to buy the F-35, it would become the fourth foreign military sales customer for the F-35 fol-lowing South Korea in the year 2014.

Russia calls for practical steps on AfghanistanANATOLIA

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called for necessary practical steps to launch a process of national reconciliation in Afghanistan as he welcomed Uzbekistan’s initi-ative to convene a ministerial meeting on an Afghan settlement next spring.

Speaking at the UN head-quarters in New York yesterday, Lavrov said: “The situation in Afghanistan requires a compre-hensive approach by regional states and the international com-munity as a whole,” according to excerpts of his speech pub-lished on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs’ official website yesterday.

“The experience of the last 20 years has graphically dem-onstrated the inefficiency of attempts to resolve Afghan prob-lems by force.

“The adoption of practical steps to launch a process of national reconciliation based on UN Security Council resolutions

is on the agenda today.”He said it was Russia that ini-

tiated a dialogue in the Moscow format, resumed the work of the Shanghai Cooperation Organi-sation-Afghanistan contact group and are developing Afghanistan’s partnership with the Collective Security Treaty Organization, in cooperation with our partners and fellow-thinkers.

“We welcome Uzbekistan’s

initiative to convene a ministe-rial meeting on an Afghan set-tlement next spring.

“We continue helping Kabul train national civilian and law enforcement personnel and enhance the combat ability of the armed forces of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.

“We consistently advocate the start of direct talks between the Afghan government and the Taliban as soon as possible with a view to ending the fratricidal war, based on UN Security Council-approved criteria.”

He also mentioned that

terrorist and drug threats from Afghanistan are mounting and having a destabilising influence on Central Asia and beyond its borders.

Lavrov also noted that Russia considers that involvement of Afghanistan in the regional eco-nomic unions like “One Belt and One Road” or the Eurasian Eco-nomic Union would have a pos-itive influence on the settlement in this country.

Before his visit to the United Nations office, the Russian for-eign minister offered to organise direct talks between Afghan

government and the Afghan Tal-iban in Russia.

Later, Washington declined this proposal.

Meanwhile, Turkey has already hosted an informal ses-sion of talks between the Taliban and Afghan officials in Istanbul that was positively evaluated in Kabul.

In an interview, chief adviser to Afghanistan’s High Peace Council, Mohammad Ismaeel Qasimyar, hailed the goodwill of the Turkish people and Ankara g o v e r n m e n t t o w a r d s Afghanistan.

Man faces charges in France over alleged terror plotAFP

PARIS: French authorities yesterday charged a 33-year-old man, who had pledged allegiance to the IS militant group in a video, with plan-ning a terror attack, judicial sources said.

The man, who was not known to police, was arrested near the southern city of Nimes on Tuesday. Bomb making materials were found in his house but there was no indi-cation of the targets he was planning to attack, they said.

“This is the first attack foiled this year,” a source close to the investigation said.

The man was charged with “associating with ter-rorist criminals” and placed in custody.

“The investigation started when police saw on social media and attempt by a man in the Nimes region with Islamist leanings trying to procure a weapon.”

The raid on the man’s house yielded a tube filled with powder which could likely be used as an explosive, different powders and a device to start a fire, the source said.

AP

MITROVICA: Serbia’s president yesterday pledged to help build a lasting peace in Kosovo days after the killing this week of a moderate Kosovo Serb politi-cian fueled fears of instability in the Balkans.

Amid tight security, Ale-ksandar Vucic arrived for a two-day visit that officials said was designed to ease concerns among Kosovo’s Serbs following the slaying on Tuesday of one of their leading politicians, Oliver Ivanovic.

Waving Serbian flags, hun-dreds of people cheered Vucic as he arrived in the

Serb-dominated, northern part of the former Serbian province that declared independence in 2008.

Serbia has refused to recog-nise the statehood of the majority ethnic Albanian Kosovo and maintains strong influence in Serb-populated areas, mostly in the north.

Upon arrival, Vucic first vis-ited an Orthodox Serbian mon-astery before laying a wreath at the site of the attack on Ivanovic in the divided town of Mitrovica.

“Serbia not only wants peace, but will do its best to pre-serve it,” Vucic said in Banjska yesterday.

“We will do all we can to solve decades- and centuries-old disputes, to secure a lasting peace and security for each (ethnic) Albanian and Serbian family.”

Under EU mediation, Serbia and Kosovo have opened talks on normalising relations in order to advance in efforts to join the European Union.

The talks were due to resume this week, but were sus-pended after Ivanovic was gunned down in Mitrovica.

Ivanovic was a rare voice of tolerance amid persistent ethnic tensions in Kosovo, nearly two decades after the 1998 to 1999 war.

Vucic urges Kosovo Serbs to stay united

AFP

DUBLIN: Mary Lou McDonald is set to become the president of Sinn Fein, replacing Gerry Adams who is stepping down after 34 years as the dominant figurehead of Irish republi-canism.

McDonald, 48, the left-wing party’s deputy leader, was con-firmed as the sole candidate to take over from Adams, 69, at a party meeting yesterday.

The change represents a major shift for Sinn Fein, so closely associated with Adams’ leadership, which started in November 1983.

Sinn Fein’s president-elect will be confirmed in the posi-tion at a special party gathering on February 10.

“I know I have big shoes to fill taking on the role from Gerry Adams, and I know that is impossible,” McDonald said.

“But I have brought my own shoes and together, with all of the party membership, we will walk on a journey that will lead to Irish unity. We are entering a new era and we can look for-ward with confidence.”

McDonald became a member of the European Par-liament in 2004. She was appointed Sinn Fein’s deputy leader in 2009 and has repre-sented central Dublin in the Irish parliament since 2011.

She is also the party’s public expenditure and reform spokeswoman in the Republic of Ireland.

McDonald presents a fresh face for the party and has no historic links to the Irish Repub-lican Army (IRA), the now-defunct paramilitary wing of Sinn Fein responsible for more than 1,700 deaths during the conflict known as the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

Ukraine rules out lifting ban on ‘Stalingrad’ bookAFP

KIEV: Ukraine yesterday ruled out lifting a legal ban on the Russian edition of renowned British historian Antony Beevor’s book “Stalingrad”, a decision the writer said had “no justification”.

A Russian edition of Beevor’s 1998 popular history book on the pivotal World War II battle between the Soviets and Nazis was blacklisted by Kiev on Jan-uary 10 under a law restricting the import and sale of books

published in Russia.The law is part of measures

by Kiev to restrict Russian “prop-aganda” as the neighbours’ rela-tions hit a post-Cold War low and the war in eastern Ukraine with pro-Russian separatists backed by Moscow has claimed more than 10,000 lives.

The head of the Ukrainian committee that rules on publi-cation of books from Russia, Sergiy Oliynyk said: “The com-mittee will not review its decision.”

“That’s what the law is and we must carry it out,” he said.

He said that Ukraine has per-mitted the sale of the Russian edition of another book by Beevor on the same period, “World War II” and that the ban does not cover any other Rus-sian-language editions of “Stal-ingrad” nor the original English book.

The Russian edition that has been banned was first published in 2015.

The committee said

“Stalingrad” was blacklisted after receiving a “negative conclusion” from an expert commission.

However, Oliynyk said that the ban was over specific para-graphs referring to Germans ordering Ukrainian nationalists to shoot children under World War II Nazi occupation.

He said the paragraphs were baseless and sourced to Soviet secret police reports and correspondence.

However, Beevor hit back, saying: “That’s absolute rubbish...

All of the reports are from German sources.

“We double-checked, the translation is absolutely accu-rate, and it also gives the sources accurately so they have no jus-tification whatsoever for banning it or even attacking it.”

“It’s a sign of a government which is not confident, particu-larly one which has to start to control the past.

“Every country has embar-rassing elements in their past, but most democracies do not try to

eliminate that or destroy archives”.

The Russian embassy in London jumped on the scandal, posting on Twitter that the ban was a “shameful act of censor-ship and betrayal of WWII victims”.

In 2015 a Russian region ordered books by Beevor and another British historian John Keegan to be pulled from libraries, saying that they misin-terpreted information about World War II.

Ireland’s left-wing to get new leader

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov (centre) takes questions from the media at United Nations headquarters, in New York, yesterday.

Sergei Lavrov also noted that Russia considers that involvement of Afghanistan in the regional economic unions like “One Belt and One Road” or the Eurasian Economic Union would have a positive influence on the settlement in this country.

A file photo of Sinn Fein's Michelle O'Neill (left), outgoing Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams (centre) and Sinn Fein deputy leader Mary Lou McDonald during the party's annual conference, in Dublin.

President of Serbia Aleksandar Vucic (left) and Serbian Orthodox Bishop Teodosije visit the Banjska Monastery in the northern Kosovo's Mitrovica province, yesterday.

17SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 AMERICAS

Blame game as US govt shuts downREUTERS

WASHINGTON: The world’s most powerful government shut down yesterday after President Donald Trump and the US Congress failed to reach a deal on funding for federal agencies, highlighting America’s deep political divisions.

For the first time since October 2013 - when a similar standoff that lasted 16 days kept only essential agency operations intact - federal workers were being told to stay at home or in some cases to work without pay until new funding is approved.

The shutdown began a year to the day after Trump was sworn in as president.

His inability to cut a deal despite having a Republican majority in both houses of Con-gress marks arguably the most debilitating setback for his crisis-plagued administration.

In a Twitter post early yes-terday, Trump blamed Democrat lawmakers.

“Democrats are far more concerned with illegal immi-grants than they are with our great military or safety at our dangerous southern border,” he said. “They could have easily made a deal but decided to play shutdown politics instead.”

Democrats had insisted that any bill to renew government funding also contain permanent protections for approximately 700,000 young, undocumented immigrants who were brought illegally into the US as children.

Last week, Trump rejected a

bipartisan Senate deal that would have accomplished that as well as hand the White House $2.7 bil-lion in new money for immigra-tion enforcement at America’s borders.

In a statement issued min-utes before Friday’s midnight deadline for a funding deal, Trump’s White House also held

the Democrats responsible. “We will not negotiate the status of unlawful immigrants while Dem-ocrats hold our lawful citizens hostage over their reckless demands,” it said.

The shutdown was cemented when the Senate, meeting late into Friday night, blocked a bill to maintain the federal govern-ment’s funding through Feb. 16.

The vote was 50-49, well short of the 60 needed in the 100-member chamber to vault the bill over a procedural hurdle.

Four Republicans joined most Democrats in killing the measure. A fifth Republican, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, voted “no” too, but only as part of a parliamentary maneuver to make it easier to bring another bill to the floor.

The breakdown ended a long day of closed-door meetings in Congress and at the White House.

Even as they promised to

work on getting the government back up again as soon as pos-sible, Republicans and Demo-crats blamed each other for the predicament.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell joined Trump in attacking Democrats.

“What we’ve just witnessed on the floor was a cynical deci-sion by Senate Democrats to shove aside millions of Ameri-cans for the sake of irresponsible political games,” McConnell said.

Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer said his party took significant steps to reach a deal, including raising the pos-sibility of funding for Trump’s proposed wall along the US border with Mexico, which they have ardently opposed.

“It’s almost as if you were rooting for a shutdown,” Schumer said in comments on the Senate floor aimed directly at Trump.

Republican and Democratic leaders were expected to renew negotiations on Saturday in the

hope of restoring government financing before Monday.

The immediate impact of the government shutdown was also eased somewhat by its timing, starting on a weekend when most government employees normally do not work anyway.

No matter the timing, the Defense Department said its combat operations in Afghani-stan and other military activities would continue, while federal law enforcement officers also would remain on duty.

Without a quick deal, most day-to-day operations in the federal government will be disrupted.

Hundreds of thousands of government employees will be put on temporary unpaid leave, including many of the White House’s 1,700 workers.

Trump’s administration said it planned to keep national parks open with rangers and security guards on duty. The parks were closed during the last shutdown in 2013, upsetting many tourists

and resulting in the loss of $500m in visitor spending in areas around the parks and at the Smithsonian museums.

No one is likely to be on hand, for instance, to manually wind an historic clock outside the US Senate chamber. Many Capitol maintenance workers also were being instructed to stay home.

The shutdown will start to have more serious consequences on Monday as government employees ranging from finan-cial regulators and tax collectors to scientists and civilian staff at the Pentagon will have to stay away from work.

Early yesterday, McConnell offered up a new plan. Instead of the February 16 end date for the temporary spending bill, he proposed February 8.

Senate Democrats had argued this week for an exten-sion of just four or five days to force both sides into serious negotiations on the immigration issue.

Russian interference on US poll far wider than estimatedREUTERS

WASHINGTON: Twitter Inc, which is reviewing Russian interference during the 2016 US elections, said yesterday it would notify some of its users whether they were exposed to content generated by a suspected Russian propaganda service.

The company said it would email 677,775 people in the US who followed, retweeted or liked content from accounts

associated with the Internet Research Agency (IRA) during the election.

The IRA is a Russian organ-isation that according to law-makers and researchers, employs hundreds of people to push pro-Kremlin content under phony social media accounts.

Twitter added that because it has already suspended these accounts, the relevant content is no longer publicly available on its platform.

Twitter executives on Wednesday told US lawmakers that it may notify the users about the Russian propaganda.

The company in September said it had suspended about 200 Russian-linked accounts, and followed it by suspending adverts from media outlets Russia Today and Sputnik in October.

The top Democrat on the US House of Representatives intel-ligence committee on Friday

praised Twitter’s move and urged technology companies to keep looking into abuse of their platforms by Russia during the 2016 elections.

“The Committee’s open hearing last November with Twitter, Facebook and Google revealed the extent to which the Russians exploited vulnerabili-ties inherent in the openness of our society and social media platforms, and it is vital these companies are transparent with

users who were likely exposed to Kremlin propaganda and dis-information,” Representative Adam Schiff said in a statement.

Senator Mark Warner, the ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence panel, echoed this view, tweeting: “I’ve been tough with Twitter on this, but I’m encouraged to see the company beginning to take responsibility and notify its users of Russia’s influence on its platform.”

Democrats are far more concerned with illegal immigrants than they are with our great military or safety at our dangerous southern border. They could have easily made a deal but decided to play shutdown politics instead: Trump

Protesters are seen on Capitol Hill while the government begins a shutdown, in Washington, yesterday.

A sign announcing the closure of the Statue of Liberty sits near the ferry dock to the Statue of Liberty at Battery Park, in Manhattan.

Hawaii holds hearing on false missile alertAP

HONOLULU: The Hawaii National Guard’s top commander said yesterday he told Governor David Ige that a missile alert was a false alarm two minutes after it went out statewide. But the governor didn’t tell the public until 15 minutes later.

Maj Gen Arthur “Joe” Logan told state lawmakers at a hearing that he called the gov-ernor at 8:09am on Saturday after speaking to a supervisor at the Hawaii Emergency Man-agement Agency, whose employee accidentally sent the alert.

Ige spokeswoman Cindy McMillan said the governor had to track her down to prepare a message for the public. She said the governor’s communications team handles his social media.

Ige’s office relayed an emergency management agency tweet about the false alarm at 8:24am. Six minutes later, a notice went up on his Facebook page.

Rep Kaniela Ing, who ques-tioned Logan about the alert mishap, said he wanted to ask the governor himself about the events. But Ige had left the hearing by the time it was Ing’s

turn to ask questions.McMillan said Ige departed

the hearing early because he had “various things to do.” In response to criticism from Ing and other lawmakers that Ige left prematurely, McMillan said: “He is the governor. He has other duties to attend to today.”

McMillan would not say what other obligations the gov-ernor had.

Lawmakers held their hearing nearly a week after a state employee caused wide-spread panic and confusion by mistakenly sending an emer-gency alert to mobile devices and TV and radio stations warning of an incoming missile strike.

A corrected alert was not sent to mobile devices for nearly 40 minutes because state workers had no prepared mes-sage for a false alarm.

Hawaii emergency workers immediately started calling city and county officials to tell them there was no threat. They posted social media messages about 13 minutes after the erro-neous warning.

Hawaii governor took 15 minutes to announce missile alert is false.

Crippling crisis: Venezuelans flee to Colombia AFP

BOGOTA: More than half a million Venezuelans have taken refuge in Colombia to escape the crippling economic crisis in their country, Bogota’s migration authority said.

It said the number of Ven-ezuelans entering the country -- 550,000 -- had increased by 62 percent in the last year.

Venezuela’s crisis “has not only forced thousands of nationals to return to Colombia, but also caused Venezuelans to see our country ... as a means to transit to other destinations, to settle or to purchase essential prod-ucts,” said Migration Colombia director Christian Kruger.

The South American neighbours share a 2,200km border.

Finance Minister Mauricio Cardenas said earlier this week that the government has assumed the cost of its “policy of openness and sol-idary” up to now. “We have offered emergency medical care and school for all Vene-zuelans,” he said.

However, he warned that Colombia “has limitations if these migratory processes escalate.”

The migration authority said some 1.3 million people had registered for a border mobility card which allows them to travel between the two countries.

The authority said 37,000 people used the card to criss-cross the border on a daily basis in 2017 to buy food and medicine, amid severe short-ages in Venezuela.

Apart from the 550,000 Venezuelans who remain in Colombia, another 231,000 traveled through the country en route to Ecuador last year.

Yellow fever emergency in BrazilAP

SAO PAULO: The government of Brazil’s southeastern state of Minas Gerais has decreed a state of emergency for its public health system due to an outbreak of yellow fever in 94 of its 853 cities.

The decree was published yesterday in the state’s official gazette and allows the govern-ment to contract health pro-viders without going through a bidding process.

Since July 2017, 35 cases of yellow fever have been con-firmed in Brazil and 20 people

have died, according to the latest figures from the health ministry.

The World Health Organi-zation said earlier this week that all of Sao Paulo state is also at risk for yellow fever and recom-mended that international vis-itors to be vaccinated.

A kid receives a vaccination against yellow fever, at Mairipora municipality, in Sao Paulo, yesterday.

18 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018AMERICAS / BREAK TIME

VILLAGGIO & CITY CENTERCROSSWORD NOVO Pearl Qatar

MALL

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

12 STRONG

LANDMARK

ROXY

AL KHOR

ASIAN TOWN

12 Strong (2D/Action) 10:30, 11:30am, 12:00noon, 1:00, 2:00, 2:45, 3:30, 4:30, 5:30, 6:00, 7:00, 8:30, 8:15, 9:30, 11:00, 11:15pm & 12:00midnightThe Commuter (2D/Action) 10:00, 10:30am, 12:15, 12:45, 2:30, 3:00, 4:45, 5:15, 7:00, 7:30, 9:15, 9:45, 11:30pm & 12:00midnightJumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:20, 2:40, 5:00, 7:20, 9:40pm & 12:00midnight The Post (2D/Drama) 10:30am, 12:45, 3:00. 5:15, 7:30, 9:45pm & 12:00midnightDownsizing (2D/Comedy) 10:00am, 12:40, 3:20. 6:00, 8:40 & 11:20pmThe Pirates Of Somalia (2D) 10:00am, 2:45, 7:30pm & 12:10amlnsidious: The Last Key (2D/Horror) 12:30, 5:15 & 10:00pm12 Strong (2D IMAX/Action) 11:00am, 1:30, 4:00, 6:30, 9:00 & 11:30pm

Nirdosh (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 9:30pm Diwanji Moola (2D/Malayalam) 4:30pm Addu 2 (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 11:30pm Bunya And Babe (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:00pmDownsizing (2D/Comedy) 5:00 & 7:00pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:30pmThe Post (2D/Drama) 7:30 & 9:30pm The Pirates Of Somalia (2D/Drama) 7:30pm 12 Strong (2D/Action) 9:15 & 11:30pm Gulae Bhaghavali (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Diwanji Moola (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 11:15pm Gulae Bhaghavali (2D/Tamil) 2:30 & 11:00pm Bunya And Babe (2D/Animation) 3:00 & 5:00pmJumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:00pmAadu 2 (2D/Malayalam) 5:00pm The Commuter 9:30pmDownsizing (2D/Comedy) 6:30pm The Post (2D/Drama) 7:00 & 9:00pm The Pirates Of Somalia (2D/Drama) 7:15pm 12 Strong (2D/Action) 9:00 & 11:00pm

Aadu 2 (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 11:30pm Bunya And Babe (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 5:00pm Gulae Bhaghavali (2D/Tamil) 2:30pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 4:00pm The Commuter 7:00pm Diwanji Moola (2D/Malayalam) 5:00pm Downsizing (2D/Comedy) 6:00 & 9:15pm The Pirates Of Somalia (2D/Drama) 7:15pm 12 Strong (2D/Action) 8:30 & 11:00pm The Post (2D/Drama) 9:00 & 11:00pm

Aadu (Malayalam) 6:45, 8:15, 9:30 & 11:00pm Nirdosh (Hindi) 5:45pm Sketch (Tamil) 11:15pm Gulae Bhaghavali (2D/Tamil) 6:00pm Diwanji Moola (2D/Malayalam) 5:45, 8:30 & 11:15pm

Aadu (Malayalam) 11:15am, 2:15, 5:15, 8:15 & 11:15pm The Post (2D/Drama) 10:30am, 4:00 & 9:30pm 12 Strong (2D/Action) 12:45, 6:15 & 11:45pm Ferdinand 10:30pm Thaana Serndha (Tamil) 1:00, 6:30pm & 12:00midnight Downsizing (2D/Comedy) 3:30 & 9:00pm

Bunya And Babe (Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30 & 6:30pm Diwanji Moola (Malayalam) 1:00, 4:00, 7:00 & 10:00pm12 Strong (Action) 10:30am, 1:10, 3:50, 6:40 & 9:20pm

Aadu (Malayalam) 10:30am, 1:40, 4:50, 8:00 & 11:20pm The Pirates Of Somalia (Drama) 8:30, 10:30 & 11:00pm

12 Strong tells the story of the first Special Forces team deployed to Afghanistan after 9/11; under the leadership of a new captain, the team must work with an Afghan warlord to take down the Taliban.

Haiti’s cholera epidemic could end this year: UNAFP

PORT-AU-PRINCE: Haiti’s killer cholera epidemic could be over this year, the United Nation’s children’s fund said, as the number of cases declines following the world’s most viru-lent outbreak in modern times.

Roughly 100 suspected cases

were recorded in January, which is the lowest level since the epi-demic began in October 2010, and there was no explosion of cases last year even during the rainy season.

“It’s possible to eliminate cholera this year,” said Marc Vin-cent, Unicef’s representative in the Caribbean nation.

“It’s now or never and it’s an opportunity that should not be missed.”

About 10,000 people have died since the epidemic began.

It was introduced by infected Nepalese UN peace-keepers sent to Haiti after the country’s devastating year 2010 earthquake.

“We have asked the govern-ment to gather all partners to see how we could really benefit from this historic moment to reach elimination,” Vincent said, expressing hope for a rapid response from authorities.

During the epidemic Haiti has recorded more than 800,000 cases of cholera, an

acute diarrheal infection caused by contaminated food or water.

Haiti’s poor sanitation helped the disease spread.

Vincent praised the work of Haitian rapid response teams fighting the disease and “who are committed because they want to eliminate cholera themselves. They do that for their children,

for their community.”But funding of these local

efforts is only assured for the next six months.

“Our worry is that, if financing for these teams does not continue until the last case of cholera, we risk having then another outbreak, an explosion of cases,” he said.

Thousands attend anti-Trump ralliesREUTERS

WASHINGTON: Thousands of protesters turned out across the nation for the second Women’s March yesterday, marking the first anniversary of President Donald Trump’s inauguration with rallies aimed at channeling female activism into political gains in elections this year.

The coordinated rallies in Washington, New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and about 250 other cities are a reprise of the mass protests that marked the beginning of Trump’s presidency. Sister rallies were also planned in Britain, Japan and other countries.

“We will make our message heard at the polls this fall,” Emily Patton, a rally organiser, told thousands of demonstrators at the Reflecting Pool on Washing-ton’s National Mall. “That is why we are urging people to register to vote today.”

The rallies also come during what has been seen as a pivotal year for women’s rights with the #MeToo and #TimesUp social

media effort against sexual har-assment and abuse that was born out of a string of scandals in Hol-lywood, Washington and elsewhere.

The Washington rally fea-tured Democratic politicians from neighboring Virginia, including Senator Tim Kaine, who blamed Trump and Repub-licans for the shutdown of the government yesterday.

“The Trump shutdown is due to the inability of the Republican Party to do basic governing, like making a budget,” he said to cheers.

Many of the protesters wore pink knit “hats,” which were cre-ated for last year’s march as a reference to a comment made by Trump about women, The caps quickly became a symbol of women’s empowerment and opposition to the new president in the early days of his administration.

“We want to continue the fight to resist this president and the policies we’re against,” said Sara Piper, 59, a geologist from Reston, Virginia.

Some critics said this year’s march lacked a focus. Targeting an issue such as immigration would have greater impact, said Shikha Dalmia, a senior analyst at the Reason Foundation, a lib-ertarian think tank.

“Beating the feminist drum just seems to me beside the point. Maybe they are trying to cast as wide a net as possible,” Dalmia said by telephone.

One of the biggest marches is expected in New York, where 37,000 people had signed up on the march’s Facebook page. But the number of participants in this year’s rallies is likely to fall well short of the estimated 5 million who marched on January 21, 2017, and made that one of the largest mass protests in US history.

In Chicago, thousands of mostly female marchers gath-ered ahead of a rally in Grant Park, carrying signs that read “Strong women raising strong women.

”Michelle Saunders, 41, a software saleswoman from Des Plaines, Illinois, came to the rally

with her 14-year-old daughter Bailey. They attended last year’ s march and anticipated that the crowd this year would not match the 250,000 that attended last year, but for them the message is just as strong.

“A smaller crowd will not mean people are any less angry,” Michelle Saunders said. “We are unhappy with the current administration and what it stands for and want our voices to be heard.”

Since last year’s march, women have become more vocal and that is a positive sign, said Cathy Mutz, 63, a retired nurse from Chanahan, Illinois.

“I think change will come from the midterm elections,” she said.

Organisers hope to build on the energy felt by Trump oppo-nents after his surprise election victory in 2016 and channel it into gains for progressive candi-dates in November’s midterm

elections, using the theme “Power to the Polls.”

Organisers want to register 1 million new voters and get more strong advocates for wom-en’s rights into office.

Activists say Trump’s policies rolling back birth control and equal pay protections have pro-pelled many women into activism for the first time. In Vir-ginia state legislative polls, 11 of the 15 Democrats elected were women.

People line Central Park West as they participate in the Women's March in Manhattan, yesterday.

19SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018 HOME

20 SUNDAY 21 JANUARY 2018MORNING BREAK

Cat in the snow A Van cat, under the protection of Van Yuzuncu Yil University’s Research and Application Center, is seen between branches of a tree after snowfall in Van, yesterday.

AFP

PARIS: Film-maker Claude Lanz-mann has sold 112 passionate love letters sent to him by the legendary French feminist Simone de Beau-voir, Christie’s auction house.

The director of the acclaimed Holocaust documentary “Shoah” said he has been forced to part with the correspondence because of a “scandalous” French inheritance law which means that they must go to her family on his death.

The letters, which are filled with the “mad passion” the couple shared during their seven-year affair in the 1950s, have never been published.

They were bought by Yale Uni-versity, which already holds de Beauvoir’s manuscripts and per-sonal archives. “I never planned for these letters to come out or be pub-lished,” said 93-year-old Lanzmann, who was the secretary of de Beau-voir’s long-term lover, the philoso-pher and playwright Jean-Paul Sartre.

The golden couple of French mid-20th century intellectual life had a famously open relationship,

and enjoyed -- and endured -- a number of similar love triangles.

Lanzmann, who was 18 years de Beauvoir’s junior, fell in love with her while he was editing “Les Temps Modernes”, the ground-breaking review she and Sartre founded after World War II, which the film-maker still heads.

Agnes Poirier, author of “Left Bank”, a new book about how “the ideas that shaped the modern world” were formed in the French capital during the intellectual tumult of the 1940s, said Lanzmann was the only man that de Beauvoir lived with.

“She and Sartre always kept sep-arate apartments, but she let Lanz-mann move in with her. He was about 26 she was 44 when the affair started, and he always said was she a ‘grande amoureuse’, a very pas-sionate lover,” she said.

“After the age of 40 de Beauvoir thought she was not desirable any-more but she had a second youth with him,” Poirier said .

Most were written while de Beauvoir was travelling with Sartre on their headline-making visits to Russia, China, Japan and Cuba.

AFP

MIAMI: Jeanette Epps (pictured) , 46, a former CIA agent turned astronaut, was about to become the first African-Amer-ican to embark on a mission lasting several months at the International Space Station.

It’s still unclear why, but plans for her June liftoff sud-denly changed, and another astronaut was chosen in her place, Nasa has announced.

“A number of factors are considered when making flight assignments; these decisions are personnel matters, for which Nasa doesn’t provide information,” US space agency spokes-woman Brandi Dean said in an email to AFP on Friday.

“Epps has returned to the active astronaut corps at Johnson Space Center to assume duties in the astronaut office,” Dean added. “She will be considered for assignment to future mis-sions.” Epps was supposed to blast off aboard a Russian Soyuz rocket from Kazakhstan in June, to serve as a flight engineer on the ISS as part of Expedition 56, and remaining on board for Expedition 57. Each expedition’s tour of duty typically lasts three months.

It would have been the New York native’s first trip to space, and the first long-duration stay at the orbiting outpost by an African-American.

Six other African-American astronauts have traveled to the space station, but those were shorter missions during the space shuttle era when the ISS was being assembled.

Nasa announced in a statement late Thursday that Serena Aunon-Chancellor, who was initially meant to fly on a later mission, will launch in June instead of Epps.

Aunon-Chancellor “joined the astronaut corps in 2009 and has been at Nasa since 2006, when she became a flight surgeon,” according to her biography.

“Before being selected as an astronaut, she spent more than nine months in Russia supporting medical operations

for space station crew members, including water survival training in the Ukraine, and served as the deputy lead for medical operations for Nasa’s Orion spacecraft.”

Epps earned her doctorate in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland in 2000.

“She spent seven years as a CIA technical intelligence officer before being selected as a member of the 2009 astro-naut class,” her biography says.

African-American astronaut replaced

FAJRSHOROOK

05.01am

06.21 am

ZUHRASR

11.45 am

02.49 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.12pm

06.42pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 07:45 – 19:15 LOW TIDE 00:15 – 15:00

Expected strong wind over most areas

and poor visibility at places.

WEATHER TODAY

COURTESY: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum 15oC 21oC

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The 18th Al Bawasil Diabetes Camp, organised by Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), held its opening cere-mony under the patronage of H E Sheikh Mohammed Bin Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani.

The camp, which will run until Jan-uary 25, at Aspire Academy, is open to boys and girls aged 7 to 11 who have diabetes. It is now in its 18th year and has grown to become one of the key events on the regional diabetes calendar.

Dr Abdulla Al Hamaq, Executive Director, QDA, said, “The mission of our camp is to focus on children with diabetes, and to facilitate their expe-rience in a medically safe environment. In addition, the programme enables children with diabetes to meet and share their experiences with one another while they learn to be more responsible about their condition.”

“Each year we provide support and advice to the parents of children with diabetes who, in return, encourage their kids to participate in the camp to improve their health and enhance their self-confidence as participants,” Dr Al Hamaq added.

The QDA initiative, held in collab-oration with Aspire Academy, will bring together 55 children from 10

different countries, including Sudan, Morocco, Pakistan, Lebanon, Iran, Kuwait, Palestine, Oman, and Iraq.

The Al Bawasil Diabetes Camp is designed to serve as a platform to teach diabetes self-management skills. The five-day programme will feature topics such as: blood glucose monitoring, rec-ognition and management of hypo-/hyperglycemia and ketosis, insulin types and administration techniques, carbohydrate counting, Healthy life-styles issues – including integration of

healthy eating and physical activity, problem-solving skills for caring for diabetes at home versus camp, and life skills for independent living.

Additionally, the camp will incor-porate simple sports activities with entertainment events, where the chil-dren’s artistic and creative talents will be explored. There will also be a number of visits to local recreational and cultural sites of interest in Qatar, including Qatar National Library, also a member of QF, and Oxygen Park in

Education City. The Al Bawasil Diabetes Camp is

run by a team of professionals and made up of six committees, com-prising: Medical, Nutrition, Activities & Programs, Communication, Media & Information, and Finance and Organizing Personnel. A number of skilled medical and event staff will be available round-the-clock to ensure optimal safety and an integrated edu-cational experience during the initiative.

QDA camp enables kids to manage diabetes

Children with volunteers, healthcare practitioners and other officials during the 18th Al Bawasil Diabetes Camp, organised by Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA).

112 ‘passionate’ letters of Simone de Beauvoir sold

IANS

WASHINGTON: To provide safe and plentiful energy for future robotic and human missions for Mars and beyond, Nasa is conducting experiments on Kilopower -- a small nuclear reactor that can generate a reliable power supply.

This pioneering space fission power system could provide up to 10 kilowatts of electrical power -- enough to run two average households -- con-tinuously for at least 10 years, the US space agency said in a statement on Friday.

Four Kilopower units would pro-vide enough power to establish an out-post. “We want a power source that can handle extreme environments. Kilopower opens up the full surface of Mars, including the northern lati-tudes where water may reside,” said Lee Mason, Nasa’s Principal Technol-ogist for power and energy storage.

On the Moon, Kilopower could be deployed to help search for resources in permanently shadowed craters, Mason added.

When astronauts someday ven-ture to the Moon, Mars and other des-tinations, one of the first and most important resources they will need is

power. A reliable and efficient power system will be essential for day-to-day necessities, such as lighting, water and oxygen, and for mission objec-tives, like running experiments and producing fuel for the long journey home. Fission power can provide abundant energy anywhere. On Mars, the Sun’s power varies widely throughout the seasons, and periodic dust storms can last for months.

On the Moon, the cold lunar night lingers for 14 days.

The prototype power system was designed and developed by Nasa’s Glenn Research Center in collabora-tion with Nasa’s Marshall Space Flight Center and the Los Alamos National Laboratory.

Nasa Glenn shipped the prototype power system from Cleveland to the Nevada National Security Site (NNSS) in late September.

The team at the NNSS recently began tests on the reactor core.

According to Marc Gibson, the Kil-opower lead engineer, the team will connect the power system to the core and begin end-to-end checkouts this month. The experiments should con-clude with a full-power test lasting approximately 28 hours in late March, Nasa said.

Nasa’s small N-reactor to power a habitat on Mars

IANS

MEXICO CITY: Underwater archae-ologists in Mexico have discovered the worlds largest flooded cave, a report said.

The Great Maya Aquifer Project (GAM) team spent years exploring the caves of Sac Actun and Dos Ojos stud-

ying the mysterious waters of Mexi-co’s Yucatan peninsula in Tulum.

They have now been able to con-nect the two caverns together, the CNN reported. The discovery marks the identification of an “incredible” archaeological site, illuminating the stories and rituals of the lost Mayan civilisation.

Largest flooded cave discovered