Volume 22 | Number 7314 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 14 October 2017 | 24 Muharram 1439 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Terms and Condition apply

Flexi CardOur best rates ever International CallsLocal Calls Local Data International CallsLocal Data ILocal Calls

1000MINUTES

UP TO

7.7 GB

UP TO

1000MINUTES

UP TO

Al Amri, Al Marri bag top honours

QIIB to discuss partnerships at

Washington meet

BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 24

3rd Best News Website in the Middle East

QATAR

132UNDER SIEGE

DAY

ND

Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

Home-based business own-ers taking part in the Museum of Islamic Art

Park bazaar, a weekend market which opened last week for this season, are optimistic it will attract more residents as well as tourists with Qatar’s efforts to boost tourism.

This year, the bazaar gener-ated a lot of interest from home-based businesses as evi-denced by a huge increase in the number of participants, from around 150 last season to 250 stalls this year.

“We started with very good business last week, perhaps because people were excited a months-long break. For this season, we expect more tour-ists because of Qatar Tourism Authority’s efforts to attract more visitors to the country with improved tourist visa pol-icies,” Kaleem Ahmed told The Peninsula yesterday.

A professional photographer, Ahmed has been taking part in

the bazaar for the third time with his unique photo booth which offers visitors a chance to be photographed in traditional Qatari clothing in an Arabic Maj-lis setting.

Ahmed, who has joined the team which organises the bazaar, believes the bazaar is a signifi-cant addition to MIA’s attractions during weekends.

“The bazaar certainly is a very good platform for us to mar-ket our products to augment our income,” said Mohammed, a dealer of novelty items.

He was of the same view that the bazaar will attract more vis-itors despite the blockade as Qatar eases its tourist visa poli-cies making it the most open in the region in terms of the number of countries which can avail of visa-free entry.

When launched in February 2012, the bazaar was held first Saturday of every month, except in summer. Later it was expanded to every Saturday and last year, started operating on Fridays and Saturdays.

With a vibrant variety of

products sold in each stall, the bazaar is a melting pot of trade and tradition as vendors sell products, some of which are not available in the market and sourced from vendors’ home countries.

The bazaar offers a wide array of items at cheap prices including toys, ready-to-wear clothes, shoes, bags, beauty products, jewellery and other accessories, home display items, art and craft pieces and ornamental plants, among oth-ers. In addition, several stalls offering henna and face paint-ing are also available for visitors at the bazaar.

Visitors can also sample authentic Chinese, Indian, Turk-ish, Filipino, Thai and Egyptian cuisines as well as a wide selec-tion of tea, coffee, and fresh juices and shakes at the bazaar at affordable prices.

“I have been looking for-ward to this bazaar since it offers many options for my family. The beautiful Museum of Islamic Art which is just located beside the bazaar

makes it even worth the visit,” said Martha, who was with her entire family at the bazaar yesterday.

With its vast area, the bazaar is a perfect venue for families to

enjoy their weekends as temper-atures begin to dip. At the moment the bazaar is open from 3pm to 10pm during Fridays and Saturdays, according to organisers.

Weekend market at MIA Park eyes more visitors

QNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held a tele-phone conversation with the

Head of the Political Bureau of the Pal-estinian Islamic Resistance Movement (Hamas) Dr Ismail Haniyah.

At the beginning of the call, the Head of the Political Bureau of Hamas briefed the Emir on the results of the reconciliation agree-ment concluded between Fatah and Hamas movements. He lauded Qatar’s continued support for the Palestinian cause, Qatar’s role in reconstructing the besieged Strip, as well as its valuable efforts to push the Palestinian parties to end the Palestinian division, reconciliation

and unity in the face of the Zionist entity.

The Emir welcomed the recon-ciliation agreement saying it is good for the brotherly Palestinian people. The Emir reiterated Qatar’s firm support for the Palestinian people until they achieve their legitimate rights and establish their independ-ent State with East Jerusalem as its capital.

Sachin Kumar The Peninsula

Qatar Ports Manage-ment Authori ty (Mwani Qatar) has seen a steep rise in the movement of

cargo in the last six months. Ports in Qatar have seen strong surge in the movement of gen-eral cargo, containers, livestock and aggregates, which has once again confirmed that the siege has failed completely.

The movement of contain-ers from ports has jumped by around 81 percent during April- September period this year.

Mwani Qatar handled 83,260 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in September compared to 46,056 TEUs in April.

Since June, when siege was imposed, there is 247 percent rise in container movement as, 24,014 TEUs were handled in that month.

Movement of general cargo witnessed 376 percent surge since June and 26 percent rise since April as, the company cleared 148,217 tonnes of gen-eral cargo in September compared to 31,105 tonnes in June and 117,614 tonnes in April.

Similarly, livestock move-ment grew by 145 percent since

April and 49 percent since June as ports the port management authority cleared 90,881 heads in September compared to 37,160 heads in April and 60,858 in June.

The movement of aggregates have jumped by 405 percent since April and 293 percent since June as Mwani Qatar handled 25,196 tonnes of aggregates in September against 4,980 tonnes in April and 6,409 in June.

Strong growth in the move-ment of goods has ensured smooth flow of supplies for its residents.

The efforts taken by the Mwani Qatar has played crucial

role in maintain uninterrupted supplies.

Mwani Qatar in cooperation with its partners had, in the past few months, inaugurated a number of new direct shipping lines between Hamad port and a number of ports in the region and beyond.

The new routes connected Qatar ports to Sohar and Sala-lah ports in Oman, Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait, Karachi port in Pakistan, Izmir port in Turkey, Mundra and Jawaharlal Nehru Port, also known as Nhava Sheva Port, in India.

→ Continued on page 2

The Museum of Islamic Art Park bazaar was abuzz with visitors yesterday. Pic: Raynald C Rivera / The Peninsula

Steep rise in movement of cargo at portsThe movement of containers from ports has jumped by around 81 percent during April- September period this year, which has once again confirmed that the siege has failed completely.

Emir holds phone talks with Hamas chief

QNA & Agencies

EMIR H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has sent a cable of congratulations to President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic, on the occasion of the French candidate Audrey Azoulay’s winning the post of the Director-General of the United Nations Educa-tional, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement yesterday that H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, the candidate of Qatar, ran the electoral process with all honour and integrity and took the lead in the first four rounds of elections. He received 28 votes in the last round, two votes short of the French candidate. This reflects Qatar’s good reputation and international stand-ing as well as its distinguished relations with its regional and international surroundings.

→ See also page 2

Washington

AFP

President Donald Trump dumped the fate of the Iran nuclear deal on US

lawmakers yesterday, leav-ing open the question of whether they can turn the screw on Tehran without kill-ing the accord.

Unveiling of an aggressive new strategy against what he called the “rogue regime” in Iran, Trump said he will not certify under US law that the 2015 pact remains in the US interests. He threatened that he could as president cancel the deal “at any time” but, rather than doing so, he left it up to Congress to decide whether to levy new US sanctions on Iran that might capsize the agreement.

→ See also page 3 & 12

Trump refuses to certify Iran nuclear deal

Claims panel transfers cases to legal body

Emir sends cable ofcongratulations to French President

The Emir welcomed the reconciliation agreement saying it is good for the brotherly Palestinian people.

Sidi Mohamed The Peninsula

The Compensation Claims Committee has transferred all the com-

plaints received in the last two weeks to the legal com-mittee to study the files and evaluate them, said a source at the committee.

The complaints were filed by citizens and residents, who were affected by the ongoing blockade on Qatar imposed by the three GCC countries.The committee has received a number of complaints from companies working in Qatar for many years and are affected by the blockade when their goods and ship-ments had been confiscated in the siege countries.

→ Full report on page 2

02 SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017HOME

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi met yesterday with US Special Presidential Envoy for the Global Coalition to Counter ISIS, Brett H McGurk, who is visiting the country. The meeting discussed prospects of enhancing cooperation and a number of issues of common concern.

Muraikhi meets US Special Envoy

Sidi Mohamed The Peninsula

The Compensation Claims Committee has trans-ferred all the complaints

received in the last two weeks to the legal committee to study the files and evaluate them, said a source at the committee.

The complaints were filed by citizens and residents, who were affected by the ongoing blockade on Qatar imposed by the three GCC countries.

The committee has received a number of complaints from companies working in Qatar for many years and are affected by the blockade when their goods and shipments had been con-fiscated in the siege countries, especially United Arab Emirates.

Some citizens have also filed

complaints saying that they were barred from real state deals in siege countries because they were renting them and the tenants were transferring the rent to their bank accounts. Now all these transactions have been stopped. Some others, who have online businesses, are also not allowed to deliver goods to cli-ents because of the obstacles imposed by the siege countries on delivery companies.

Some Qatari students were also banned from obtaining visas to complete their study in Egypt, and even the ones who wanted to complete in other universities were also banned to get their school documents.

The committee also received complaints from people who lost their properties like apart-ments, villas and plots of land in siege countries. Some also

lost their livestock in Saudi Ara-bia and statistics show that the livestock comprises of more than 22,000 camels and other livestock.

The committee was estab-lished to protect the people’s rights, and most of the

complaints which were filed to the committee were transferred to the international law firms.

The committee is still receiving complaints from peo-ple at the committee headquarters at the Doha Exhi-bition and Convention Center,

while the complaints of compa-nies are received at Qatar Chamber.

The siege has violated the rights of people to travel, their right to education, work, and residency and also separated families.

Claims panel transfers cases to legal body

Officials listen to complaints of people affected by siege.

QNA

The Advisory Council will take part in the 137th assembly of the Inter-

Parliamentary Union (IPU) in the Russian city of Saint Petersburg with a delegation led by H E Advisory Council Deputy Speaker Issa bin Rabia Al Kuwari.

The assembly, which starts today, and lasts for five days, will discuss a number of issues, including the pro-motion of multiculturalism, peace through inter-faith and inter-ethnic dialogue, coop-eration with the United Nations system, and will also elect an IPU president for the next three years.

The delegation comprises a number of Advisory Coun-cil members and HE Secretary General Fahad bin Mubarak Al Khayareen.

Advisory Council to participate in IPU assembly

QNA

The State of Qatar, repre-sented by Qatar General Organisation for Stand-

ards and Metrology, is taking part in today’s celebration of the 47th World Standards Day, which is marked on October 14 of each year, the date that commemorates the establish-ment of the International Organization for Standardiza-tion (ISO). Qatar General Organization for Standards and Metrology highlighted the importance of this year’s cel-ebration theme “Standards make cities smarter” due to the significant role that standards play in serving communities and the different aspects of daily life.

In their joint annual mes-sage, ISO, the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC) and the International Tel-ecommunication Union (ITU) highlighted the efforts of thou-sands of global experts in drafting technical agreements of optional implementation that are published as interna-tional standards. The entities said the theme of this year’s celebration was chosen to focus on building smart cities that guarantee the availability of enough fresh water, access for everyone to clean energy, ability to travel at the lowest possible cost, feeling safe and secure thanks to the infrastruc-ture of information and communication technology, and creating sustainable and developed urban region.

Qatar joins World Standards Day celebrations

The committee has received a number of complaints from companies working in Qatar for many years and are affected by the blockade when their goods and shipments had been confiscated in the siege countries, especially United Arab Emirates.

The Peninsula

Ooredoo yesterday announced it was the Gold Sponsor of the

Hurricane Storm Touch Rum-ble Rugby tournament.

The tournament, which was held yesterday, at the Sheraton Hotel Park, was the biggest annual Men’s open touch rugby event in Qatar.

The tournament has been running since 2010, is played by all nationalities, and is fully sanctioned by the International Federation of Touch Rugby.

Over 200 players played in the tournament, which was open to any person over 15 years of age with a valid Qatar ID. Over the course of the tour-nament, 12 teams battled it out to win the 2017 title. As Gold Sponsors, Ooredoo held a spe-cial promotional booth at the event, where players and sup-porters could top-up their accounts and find out more about the latest services.

In particular, Ooredoo pro-moted its Hala Flexi Cards, which give customers ‘Flexi

Points’ to be used to buy local data or make international calls, local calls and SMS.

Hala Flexi Cards come in four denominations; QR60 (with 500 Flexi points), QR100 (1,000 Flexi points), QR150 (1,700 Flexi points) and QR200 (2,500 Flexi points) and have been designed to provide pre-paid customers with a o n e - s t o p - s h o p f o r topping-up.

Best of all Hala Flexi Cards will offer some of Ooredoo’s most affordable rates with local calls costing just one Flexi Point per minute (0.08 Dhs with a Flexi 200 card).

Ooredoo sponsors rugby tourney at Sheraton Hotel Park

Continued from page 1

Within a week after the three Gulf countries imposed a blockade on Qatar, Mwani Qatar launched a new direct service between Hamad Port and Sohar Port in Oman under Milaha’s DMJ service — three times a week. Mwani Qatar manages seaports, quays, dry

ports, container and other ter-minals, including cruise and passengers, and provides nav-igation assistance and pilotage, towage as well as Aids to Nav-igation (AtoN) in addition to loading, unloading and han-dling and storage of cargoes in all forms.

The company is closely involved in the development

of seaports and related serv-ices to the highest internationally recognised standards of safety, security and quality. The strategic goal of the company is to transform Qatari ports into the ports of choice for all port users, including main shipping lines through efficient operations and enhanced customer focus.

Steep rise in movement of cargo at ports

The Peninsula

Commuters need to be careful today while driv-ing as low visibility and

strong wind is expected at places early morning, accord-ing to the Qatar Meteorology Department.

Weather inshore in Qatar tonight until 6am today will be slightly dusty at places at times, while offshore it will be slightly dusty, the Department of Mete-orology said in its daily weather report.

The report also warns of strong wind at northern areas inshore, strong wind and high sea offshore. Wind inshore will be northwesterly at a speed of 8 to 18 knots reaching to 23 knots at places at northern areas

at first. Offshore, it will be north-westerly at a speed of 18 to 28 knots reaching to 35 knots at places at times. Visibility will be 4 to 8km. Sea state inshore will be 2 to 4 feet surging to 5 feet at places at times, while offshore it will be 6 to 10 feet, surging to

12 feet at places at times.With the fall in temperature,

residents have started enjoying outdoors and Qatar has wit-nessed an increase in the number of visitors at its public parks and other public places during the last couple of days.

Strong wind likely todayOoredoo held a special promotional booth at the event, where players and supporters could top-up their accounts and find out more about the latest services.

QNA

The State of Qatar has extended congratula-tions to the French Republic on the French candidate

Audrey Azoulay’s winning the post of Director-General of the United Nations Educational, Sci-entific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the Ministry of For-eign Affairs said in a statement yesterday.

The statement added that HE Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, the candidate of the State of Qatar, ran the electoral process with all honour and integrity and took the lead in the first four rounds of elections. He received 28 votes in the last round, two votes short of the French candidate. This reflects Qatar’s good reputation and

international standing as well as its distinguished relations with its regional and interna-tional surroundings.

The statement also expressed Qatar’s gratitude for all the friendly countries that supported the Qatari candidate and Qatar’s respect for the choices of other countries.

The statement praised the electoral process throughout the five rounds of fairness and transparency despite the des-perate attempts of some countries to exercise their usual behaviour in the political black-mail of the Member States. The State of Qatar has also con-ducted the electoral process in all its stages with all honour and honesty, committed to all its rules and presented a civilised and honourable image in the honest competition, and did not

slip into the polemics made by some officials in one of the com-peting countries, which was keen to see that Qatari candi-date loses rather than its candidate wins.

The statement expressed Qatar’s rejection and condem-nation of the statements made by the officials of that country, which included baseless allega-tions directed against the State of Qatar as these statements lacked honesty and the spirit of honest competition, and that such statements are nothing but desperate attempts to hide the failure and other reasons known for all.

The statement affirmed that the State of Qatar will con-tinue to support Unesco in the next stage in order to promote it to realize its lofty mission to humanity.

Qatar congratulates France

03SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Kirkuk

AFP

Iraqi forces yesterday retook positions controlled by Kurdish peshmerga fight-ers since 2014 in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk

amid a bitter row with the Kurds over a vote for independence last month.

A senior Kurdish official said thousands of heavily armed fighters had been deployed to defend themselves “at any cost” against the Iraqi operation and called for international intervention.

Ethnically divided but histor-ically Kurdish-majority Kirkuk is one of several regions that peshmerga fighters took over from the Iraqi army in 2014 when Islamic State (IS) group swept through much of north-ern and western Iraq.

Baghdad is bitterly opposed to Kurdish ambitions to incor-porate the oil-rich province in its autonomous region in the north and has voiced determi-

nation to take it back.The Iraqi army and the pesh-

merga have been key allies of the US-led coalition in its fights against IS and the threat of armed clashes between them poses a major challenge for Western government.

“The Iraqi armed forces are advancing to retake their mili-tary positions that were taken over during the events of June 2014,” an Army General said by telephone, asking not to be iden-tified. Speaking from an area south of the provincial capital Kirkuk, the general said federal troops had retaken “Base 102” west of the city after peshmerga fighters withdrew during the night without a fight.

The peshmerga’s Kirkuk commander, Jaafar Sheikh Mus-tafa, said his forces had withdrawn from areas they had recently entered during fighting against IS in the west of the province.

“We withdrew to our lines in the area around Kirkuk and we will defend the city in the event

of an attack,” he said. “If the Iraqi army advances, we will fight.”

Kurdish media said the pesh-merga had withdrawn from around 72 square kilometres (28 square miles) of territory.

Sheikh Mustafa said there had been an attempt to negoti-ate an agreed disengagement of forces through Iraqi Prime Min-ister Haider Al Abadi but it had been overruled by field com-manders. A top aide to Iraqi Kurdish leader Massud Barzani vowed the peshmerga would defend their positions “at any cost”.

“Thousands of heavily armed peshmerga units are now com-pletely in their positions around Kirkuk,” Hemin Hawrami said.

“Their order is to defend at any cost.” The Kurdish authori-ties accused the Popular Mobilisation Forces (PMF) -- par-amilitary units dominated by Iran-trained Shiite militia -- of massing fighters in two mainly Shiite Turkmen areas south of Kirkuk in readiness for an attack.

Hawrami urged the interna-tional community to intervene

and call on the Iraqi prime min-ister to “order PMF to pull back if he can or if they listen to him”.

Iraqi Kurdish premier Nechirvan Barzani urged Grand Ayatollah Ali Sistani, Iraq’s high-est Shiite religious authority, to intervene to prevent “a new war in the region” and called for dia-logue with Baghdad.

A legislator close to Abadi said Iraqi special forces, police and PMF fighters were advanc-ing “to retake control of the oil fields taken by the peshmerga when IS entered Iraq”.

It was “logical for the pesh-merga to withdraw” in the face of the advance, said Jassem Jaa-far. The PMF issued no statement but it published photographs of one of its fighters making a vic-tory sign in front of a Kurdish

flag. Hadi al-Ameri, head of the Iran-backed Badr group which is part of the PMF, called on the peshmerga to withdraw, saying it is the Iraqi army’s “duty” to retake those positions.

The surge in tensions comes two weeks after Kurdish voters overwhelmingly backed inde-pendence in a non-binding referendum that the federal gov-ernment condemned as illegal.

The September 25 polls were held in the three provinces that have long formed an autono-mous Kurdish region as well as several other Kurdish-held areas, including Kirkuk.

Iraqi President Fouad Mas-soum, a Kurd, was in Kurdistan for talks with Kurdish officials, sources there said. The Kurdis-tan Regional Security Council

said its intelligence reports sug-gested that Iraqi troops and armour were preparing to take over the Kurdish-held oil fields, an airport and a military base.

The Kurds export an average of 600,000 barrels of oil per day under their own auspices, of which 250,000 bpd come from the three fields they control in Kirkuk province.

Abadi has repeatedly denied any intention of ordering an assault on his own people but tensions have been high on the front line for days. Yesterday, residents in Kirkuk city queued at petrol stations with jerry cans to fill up while other civilians took up arms and deployed on the streets. One of them, Khasro Abdallah, vowed “to defend Kirkuk to the death”.

Iraq forces retake positions in disputed Kirkuk

Iraqi army vehicles are seen parked near a former Kurdish military position in the northern Iraqi town of Tuz Khurmatu, near Kirkuk, yesterday.

Abuja

AFP

Nigeria’s government yes-terday said 45 Boko Haram members had

been sentenced to between three and 31 years in jail after being convicted at secret trials.

The media has been banned on security grounds from attend-ing proceedings at four civilian courts set up at a military base in Kainji, in the central state of Niger. Information Minister Lai Mohammed gave no details about those jailed, such as their

names, ages, where and when they were arrested, what charges they faced and what pleas they entered.

But he said in a statement only that they were sentenced “following the conclusion of the first phase of the trial (in) which 575 Boko Haram suspects were arraigned”.

A total of 468 suspects were discharged as it was found they had no case to answer; 28 were remanded for trial in Abuja and in the Niger state capital, Minna.

Mohammed said the court ordered the 468 should undergo

“deradicalisation and rehabili-tation programmes before they are handed over to their respec-tive state governments”.

A total of 1,669 suspects -- 1,631 men, 11 women, 26 boys and one girl -- were brought to the Kainji facility to face trial.

The justice ministry plans to try 651 others held at the Giwa barracks in the northeastern city of Maiduguri once proceedings at Kainji are over.

Nigeria’s move to prosecute suspects has been welcomed as a small but positive step, given criticism of the military’s

apparently arbitrary arrest of civilians in the conflict.

Many have been held for years in overcrowded and unsanitary facilities, without access to lawyers or ever having appeared in court.

The Boko Haram conflict has left at least 20,000 dead and forced more than 2.6 million oth-ers to flee their homes since 2009.

The lead judge in Kainji on Monday criticised the govern-ment for failing to allow the country’s own human rights watchdog to monitor

proceedings. The UN rights office spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva they had “serious concerns” that defend-ants may not get a fair trial because of the huge numbers involved. Under article 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which Nigeria is a party, all defendants are entitled to a fair and public hearing, he said.

“Any restrictions on the pub-lic nature of a trial, including for the protection of national secu-rity, must be both necessary and proportionate,” he added.

Nigeria jails 45 Boko Haram members Ankara

Reuters

Iran said yesterday it would retaliate against action targeting its armed

forces and accused the United States of violating the spirit of the 2015 nuclear deal reached between Tehran and six major powers.

“Iran will strongly respond to action against its military forces, including the Revolutionary Guards Corps,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Bahram Qasemi was quoted as saying by state TV.

Qasemi said Iran will continue building up its bal-listic missile capability in defiance of Western criti-cism, with Washington saying the Islamic Republic’s stance violates the nuclear deal with the powers.

“Iran’s missile pro-gramme is only for defensive purposes ... we are deter-mined and serious about expanding it,” he said.

Qasemi also warned about possibility of pulling out of the deal. “Iran always acts based on its interests and will continue to do so. If nec-essary, we can also withdraw from the deal,” Qasemi said.

A senior US official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said yesterday that steps Trump is review-ing as part of a broader strategy also include impos-ing targeted sanctions in response to Iran’s ballistic missile tests, cyber espionage and backing of Lebanese Hezbollah and other groups on the US list of foreign ter-rorist organisations. The US administration earlier this year considered, this but then put on hold.

Gaza

Reuters

It didn’t take long after the firework smoke cleared in Gaza for some Palestinians to

start questioning whether a unity deal between their two most powerful factions would hold.

Thousands took to the streets overnight celebrating the pact between Fatah and Hamas sealed in Cairo. Loudspeakers blasted national songs as young-sters waving Palestinian flags danced and hugged one another.

“I am happy, no I am the happiest,” Ali Metwaly, a

30-year-old computer engi-neer, said the morning after. “But I am still afraid it will end in dis-appointment. My leaders have taught me they can easily disap-point us. I hope they don’t, this time.”

Under the reconciliation pact, Hamas is handing over administrative control of Gaza,

including the Rafah border crossing - once the main gate-way to the world for the two million Palestinians in the terri-tory - to a government backed by the mainstream Fatah party.

A decade ago, Hamas forces seized the Gaza Strip from Fatah forces in a brief civil war.

Analysts said the deal is more likely to stick than earlier ones, given Hamas’s growing isolation and realisation of how hard Gaza - its economy hobbled by bor-der blockades and infrastructure shattered by wars with Israel - was to govern and rebuild.

For Huwaida Al Hadidi, a 34-year-old mother-of-seven, economic relief cannot come soon enough. Like about 250,000 other people in the ter-ritory, her husband is unemployed. Unable to pay their rent, the family has been living in a tent since their landlord evicted them three days ago.

“Now that they signed a

reconciliation deal, God-willing the blockade will be lifted and people will find work and be able to earn a living for their chil-dren,” she said.

Control of the Gaza border crossings with Israel and Egypt by the Fatah-dominated Pales-tinian Authority, which exercises limited self-rule in the occupied West Bank, could allow freer movement of people and goods across the frontier.

And under the agreement, about 3,000 Fatah security offic-ers are to join the Gaza police force, although Hamas would remain the most powerful armed Palestinian faction, with around 25,000 well-equipped militants. Hamas and Fatah are also debat-ing a potential date for presidential and legislative elec-tions and reforms of the Palestine Liberation Organiza-tion, which is in charge of long-stalled peace efforts with Israel.

Joy and caution in Gaza after Palestinian unity deal

Iran will respond strongly to US action: Official

A senior Kurdish official said thousands of heavily armed fighters had been deployed to resist the offensive “at any cost” and called for international intervention with the federal government in Baghdad to prevent the confrontation worsening.

Palestinians wave the flags of the Fatah party and Palestine as they gather in Gaza City to celebrate after rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah reached an agreement on ending a decade-long split following talks, yesterday.

Kurdish Peshmerga fighters ride in a vehicule in the Southwest of Kirkuk.

04 SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Beirut

Reuters

Turkey’s military has begun setting up observation posts in northwest Syria’s Idlib province, its General

Staff said yesterday, part of a deployment that appears partly aimed at containing a Kurdish militia.

Turkey sent a convoy of about 30 military vehicles into rebel-held northwest Syria through the Bab Al Hawa cross-ing in Idlib, rebels and a witness said.

Video distributed by the Turkish army showed what it said was the convoy starting to move on Thursday night, with military vehicles travelling along a road in darkness.

Turkey says its operation, along with Syrian rebel groups it backs, is part of a deal it reached last month with Russia and Iran in Astana, Kazakhstan, to reduce fighting between insur-gents and the Syrian government.

The army said its forces in Syria were conducting operations in line with rules of engagement agreed with Russia and Iran.

“(It is) in line with Astana 6 resolutions to ensure the area is protected from Russian and regime bombing and to foil any attempt by the separatist YPG

militias to illegally seize any ter-ritory,” said Mustafa Sejari, an official in a Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebel group.

Broadcaster CNN Turk reported on its website that there was a clash in Idlib countryside near the Ogulpinar border post in Turkey’s Reyhanli district.

It said the sound of “doshka” (machine-gun) fire from across the border could be heard in Reyhanli district and it was not clear which forces were clash-ing. The convoy was heading towards Sheikh Barakat, a high area overlooking rebel-held ter-ritory and the Kurdish YPG-controlled canton of Afrin, the witnesses said.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced the deploy-ment, saying Turkey was conducting a “serious operation” with rebel groups it supports. Sejari, the rebel official, said it was important to contain the YPG to prevent any new military offensive to reach the Mediterra-nean, something that would require it to capture swathes of

mountains held by rebels and Syria’s army. “Today we can say that the dream of the separatists to reach the sea and enter Idlib and then to Jisr al-Shaqour and the coastal mountains has become a dream,” he said. Tur-key regards the YPG as an extension of the PKK, a Kurdish group inside Turkey that has been waging armed insurgency against Ankara for three decades. “We

said we may come unannounced one night, and tonight our armed forces started the operation in Idlib with the Free Syrian Army,” Erdogan said in a speech. “We are the ones with the 911km border with Syria, the ones who are con-stantly under threat,” he added, noting the YPG’s presence in Afrin. As the strongest part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), the YPG has received military aid

from Turkey’s Nato ally the US to fight Islamic State.

Last year, Turkey launched the Euphrates Shield operation, an incursion into northern Syria alongside Syrian rebel groups to take territory on the frontier from IS. That operation was also aimed at stopping the YPG using its own advances against IS from linking Afrin with the much larger area it controls in Syria.

Turkey sets up observation posts in Syria’s Idlib region

Children holding Turkish flags gather to show their support to soldiers at Ogulpinar in Turkey.

Bid for peace

Turkey sent a convoy of about 30 military vehicles into rebel-held northwest Syria through the Bab Al Hawa crossing in Idlib, rebels and a witness said.

The army said its forces in Syria were conducting operations in line with rules of engagement agreed with Russia and Iran.

Johannesburg

AFP

South Africa’s Supreme Court of Appeal ruled yes-terday that President Jacob

Zuma (pictured) can face pros-ecution on almost 800 charges of corruption relating to a 1990s arms deal.

Zuma had lodged a chal-lenge at the court in Bloemfontein after a lower court decided in 2016 to rein-state charges that were previously dropped by prose-cutors. The National Prosecuting Authority must now decide whether to pursue a prosecution. “The reasons for discontinuing the prosecution given... do not bear scrutiny,” said Supreme Court judge Eric Leach, who read the ruling which Zuma could now contest on appeal to the Constitutional Court, South Africa’s highest.

The opposition Democratic Alliance party had sought in 12 court appearances since 2009 to reactivate 783 charges regarding controversial post-apartheid military contracts that have dogged Zuma for much of his time in govern-ment. The president, who is accused of corruption, fraud, money-laundering and rack-eteering, has always insisted he is innocent. Just back in South Africa from a visit to Zambia, he has yet to comment on the judgement.

Zuma and other govern-ment officials were accused of taking kickbacks from the $5 billion (4.2 billion euros) pur-chase of fighter jets, patrol boats and other arms manufac-tured by five European firms, including British military equip-ment maker BAE Systems and

French company Thales.In 2005 Zuma’s former

financial adviser Schabir Shaik was convicted for facilitating bribes in exchange for military hardware contracts and sen-tenced to 15 years in prison. He was later released on medical parole.Charges were first brought against Zuma in 2005 but dropped by prosecutors in 2009 before their reinstate-ment some seven years later.

Charges were first brought against Zuma in 2005 but dropped by prosecutors in 2009 before their reinstate-ment some seven years later.

Constitutional expert Law-son Naidoo described the Supreme Court judgement as a “significant blow” for Zuma.

“He may petition the Con-stitutional Court but it appears that he has no legal basis for that after his legal team con-ceded that the decision to drop the charges was indeed irra-tional,” he said.

The Supreme Court heard arguments last month against reinstating the charges, but in an unexpected twist Zuma’s lawyer Kemp J Kemp agreed that the decision by prosecu-tors to drop them in the first place was irrational.

Zuma can face graft prosecution: Court

Mogadishu

AFP

Somalia’s defence minis-ter and army chief have both resigned, without

explaining why, in a poten-tial blow to the government’s fight against Shabaab Islam-ist militants.

The resignations come as Somali security forces strug-gle to contain attacks by the Al Qaeda-linked group.

Defence Minis ter Abdirashid Abdullahi con-firmed his resignation.

The prime minister’s office announced the resig-nation of Abdullahi and army chief Ahmed Mohamed Jimale Irfid. Somali President Mohamed Abdul lahi Mohamed, widely known by his nickname Farmajo, appointed Irfid in April as he declared a fresh war on the Shabaab.

Abuja

AFP

Nigerian lawmakers are to look into the financing of the country’s presidential

health facility, after criticism it lacks drugs and equipment despite massive government funding.

The main opposition Peoples

Democratic Party (PDP) said there was a need to probe “the deplorable condition of the State House Clinic” and alleged deduc-tions from payments to staff.

The clinic has been allocated just over 11bn naira ($30m, ¤26m) in the last three years for upgrading and the purchase of drugs and equipment. Earlier this week President Muhammadu

Buhari’s wife Aisha said doctors at the clinic in Abuja recently advised her to seek medical treatment abroad but she refused. She said there was “no single syringe” and “no equip-ment” at the clinic during a speech that criticised the over-all state of healthcare provision as “very, very, very poor”. One of the president’s daughters,

Zahra, recently called for an investigation of the medical cen-tre, claiming it lacked basic drugs such as paracetamol.

She said on her Instagram account that staff had no equip-ment to work with and asked “Where is the money going to?”

The posts, which were widely shared, were later deleted but the presidency responded,

promising the clinic would be “repositioned to offer qualitative and efficient services”.

The permanent secretary at the presidential villa, Jalal Arabi, denied there was “misappropri-ation and withholding of funds meant for medical supplies” at the facility. It was set up to pro-vide free healthcare to the president and vice-president.

Nigeria parliament backs probe into president’s clinic

Somalia’s defence minister and army chief resign

Nairobi

AFP

Two protesters were shot dead yesterday as oppo-sition supporters clashed

with police in western Kenya, with hundreds defying a ban on rallies to express their anger over an increasingly uncertain presidential election.

In the town of Bondo, the rural home of opposition leader Raila Odinga, a large crowd con-fronted officers outside the police station, scattering as live shots were fired.

Witnesses told AFP two peo-ple were shot dead. “One person had his head shattered by a bul-let while the other was hit on the chest,” said eyewitness Sam

Oguma. Police commander Leonard Katana said the dem-onstrators were shot after attempting to “attack” the police station. Regional security offi-cial Wilson Njega confirmed the two deaths, saying a full report would be issued once the cir-cumstances of the killings became clear.

In the main western city Kis-umu, 50 kilometres (30 miles) from Bondo, 20 people were admitted to hospital with seri-ous injuries, four of them with gunshot wounds including one man in a critical condition who had been shot in the neck, said hospital chief Juliana Otieno.

Several nursery school chil-dren were also hospitalised after police fired tear gas into the Mt

Carmel Academy in the Nyal-enda slum. “There was tear gas all over the school and more kept being fired by the police,” said Mary Ochieng, a witness.

The protests come as Kenya is mired in confusion over a presidential election that is due to take place in less than two weeks. Yesterday’s violence was the worst since clashes in the days after the August election which left 37 dead.

In early September, the country’s Supreme Court annulled the results of an August 8 election -- won by President Uhuru Kenyatta -- citing irreg-ularities in the counting process and mismanagement by the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

Two shot dead as Kenya oppn defies protest ban

Supporters of opposition coalition stand next to tires in fire during a protest in Kisumu, western Kenya, yesterday.

Yaoundé

AFP

Cameroon has opened a probe into recent deadly violence linked

to a symbolic declaration of independence in the west African nation’s English-speaking region, the defence minister said yesterday.

“Apart from the material damage, precise enquiries have been opened by judicial authorities on the toll,” Defence Minister Joseph Beti Assomo said on state radio.

According to an AFP tally, 14 people died in violence ahead of the symbolic Octo-ber 1 declaration of independence of Ambazonia, the name of the state the sep-aratists want to create.

But Amnesty Interna-tional said yesterday that “at least 500 people remained detained ...packed like sar-dines in overcrowded prisons” after “mass arbitrary arrests” in the anglophone regions, and reported that “more than 20 people were unlawfully shot dead” by security forces.

Cameroon probes recent deadly violence

05SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017 ASIA

An Indian school boy looks around as the children gather to make a portrait of the late former president APJ Abdul Kalam to mark the 86th anniversary of his birth in Chennai, yesterday.

Tribute to Abdul Kalam

New Delhi

IANS

The BJP and Congress clashed yesterday over the Election Commission not declaring the

poll schedule for Gujarat, with the Left joining the Congress in criticis-ing the poll body as well as the government. The Congress accused the Modi government of “grossest interference” in the working of the Election Commission, which the rul-ing BJP termed as “uncalled for” criticism.

Congress spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi told media persons here that the BJP was try-ing to convert the “Election Commission into Election Omis-sion” and its “shameless tactics” were “a last-ditch effort to save itself from the thrashing in Gujarat in the forthcoming elections”.

He said the decision was a “fun-damental assault on the level-playing field concept”.

“It is not a small matter. It cuts at the root of several constitutional fundamental principles. It is gross-est interference in a shameless manner. It violates the basic struc-ture of the Indian Constitution as holding free, fair elections is part of the basic structure,” Singhvi said.

“It has denigrated the author-ity and power of the Election Commission. A drowning man is des-perately clutching at a straw,” he added. The Election Commission onThursday declared assembly polls in Himachal Pradesh but not for Gujarat even as the term of assem-blies in both states ends in January. However, it said the elections in the state would be held by December 18. Singhvi said the “BJP had forced this change” so as to enable Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi to announce various sops “like a false Santa Claus” in Gujarat on October 16.

He said the development had also cast “a serious shadow of

suspicion on the working of the Election Commission”.

Singhvi said dates of the Gujarat polls should be announced imme-diately and the Model Code of Conduct be immediately enforced.

The CPI-M called the EC’s rea-soning to defer poll announcement in Gujarat as “strange”.

“It is strange that the Election Commission has announced the date of election for Himachal Pradesh Assembly while withhold-ing the announcement of date for Gujarat Assembly elections,” the Communist Party of India-Marxist said. Usually when elections are due within a period of six months, these states are combined and a joint announcement is made, it said. “This has been the practice fol-lowed so far.”

“The Chief Election Commis-sioner has announced that the Gujarat polls will be held before the results of Himachal Pradesh elec-tions are declared on December 18.

“This is even stranger if Gujarat Assembly elections are to be com-pleted before December 18, then the Model Code of Conduct must be applicable to that state as well,” the CPI-M said. Communist Party of India (CPI) leader D. Raja said that it is natural that questions would be raised over the EC’s decision.

“There are many questions raised in public domain as to why the EC did not announce schedule for Gujarat polls. There are many apprehensions, speculations appearing in public domain,” Raja said. However, the government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) have dismissed criticism of the EC.

Attacking the Congress for its criticism, Union Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said: “Let us fight properly in Gujarat if you have any issues. By miscellaneous ways the question is being raised on Election Commission, CAG and even Supreme Court.

Mumbai

Reuters

India’s second-biggest cot-ton producing state has stepped up seizures of

“unauthorised pesticides” after chemical poisoning killed at least 30 farmers in three months, a government minister said.

The western state of Maharashtra is investigating the deaths of the cotton farm-ers and labourers as a dry spell led to an outbreak of crop-eating bollworm pests that thrive in such weather.

“We have set up a commit-tee to investigate the deaths caused by poisoning,” Mahar-ashtra Agriculture Minister Pandurang Fundkar said in an interview. “We are also seizing stocks of unauthorised pesti-cides.” The use of spurious

pesticides, made secretly and sometimes given names that resemble the originals, has been rising in India. Counter-feits account for up to 30 percent of the more than $4 billion annual pesticide mar-ket, a government-endorsed study showed. (http://reut.rs/2ylvVU9)

Fundkar said it was also possible some farmers and workers were not following prescribed methods while spraying pesticides, which led them to inhale or ingest fatal quantities. Pesticide use has risen as genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds approved in early 2000s have started to lose efficacy, farmers and government officials say.

GM cotton seeds, devel-oped by U.S. giant Monsanto, have helped transform India into the world’s top producer

and second-largest exporter of the fibre. (http://reut.rs/2ncBknn)

“Since the pest attack was severe this year farmers were aggressively spraying pesti-cides. Some of the pesticides were not recommended and poisonous,” said a top Mahar-ashtra farm official, who declined to be named as he was not authorised to speak to media.

Some of the more than 600 farmers and labourers treated for pesticide poison-ing over the past few months are still in hospital, he added.

An independent fact-find-ing team that visited the state this week said farmers des-perate to save their investments were resorting to “various misadventures”, including use of larger dos-ages than recommended.

Police officer dead in shootingKOLKATA: One police officer was killed and four others were injured yesterday in a gunfight with suspected sep-aratists in Darjeeling, the famous tea-growing region of eastern India that has been roiled by protests in recent months. Police said the shootout followed a pre-dawn raid on a forest hideout used by members of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM), a regional party agi-tating for a separate state for the Gorkha ethnic minority.

Indian gets jail and caning for molesting nurse in Singapore SINGAPORE: An Indian busi-nessman was sentenced yesterday to seven months in jail with three strokes of the cane for molesting a private nurse employed to look after his cancer-stricken wife. Dis-trict Judge Mathew Joseph chided Indian national Pillai Shyam Kumar Sadashivan, 47, and called his actions “abhorrent and repugnant”, the Strait Times reported. “The victim was a profes-sional nurse looking after your sick wife... (not to) pro-vide non-nursing services, contrary to what you expected. This is Singapore. We have different standards here,” the judge said.

Talwars to walk free from jail on MondayLUCKNOW: Dentist couple Rajesh and Nupur Talwar will walk out of Dasna jail in Ghaz-iabad on Monday as the certified copy of the Allahabad High Court order acquitting them in the murder of their teenage daughter Aarushi failed to reach the prison authorities yesterday.

New Delhi

IANS

The Supreme Court yesterday asked the Centre to strike a balance between national security, economic interests and humanitarian consider-

ations with regard to the Rohingya women, children, old, sick and infirm.

The Apex Court granted more time to all parties and posted the contentious mat-ter of the government’s decision to deport Rohingya Muslims to Myanmar for fur-ther hearing on November 21, deciding to give a detailed and holistic hearing.

Until then, the apex court observed that no Rohingya refugee should be deported until the next date of hearing. News agency ANI quoted the SC bench as saying that national importance

cannot be secondary and at the same time, the human rights of the Rohingyas should be kept in mind.

The apex court also made it clear that in case any contingency arises in the intervening period, the petitioners have

the liberty to approach it for redressal. “We have to strike a balance between national security and economic interests and humanitarian considerations” involving Rohingyas, said Chief Justice Dipak Misra heading the bench also including Justice A M Khanwilkar and Justice D Y Chandrachud.

The top court said this as the Centre resisted its earlier observation that the government could take action involving Rohingyas where it was necessary but they should not be deported.

“You can take action where it is nec-essary, you will not deport them,” the bench had said. Additional Solicitor Gen-eral Tushar Mehta urged the court not to pass any such order as it would have international ramifications.

In an attempt to persuade the court not to pass such an order, Mehta said:

“Where there are international obliga-tions, we know our responsibility.”

The court also clarified that Article 21 guaranteeing right to life and liberty was not available to the citizens alone but all those living in India.

Article 21 lays down: “No person shall be deprived of his life or personal liberty except according to procedure estab-lished by law.” The court’s observation assumes significance as the Centre has questioned the maintainability of the petition by the two Rohingya refugees, contending that they could not invoke the jurisdiction of the top court under Article 32 seeking the protection of their right to life and liberty. As the court fixed November 21 for the hearing of the mat-ter for two days, the court permitted amicus curiae Fali S Nariman to approach the court in case of any contingency.

Nariman, who said he was only con-cerned about the human rights, told the Centre: “My stand is human rights.”

In his submission Nariman said the Foreigners Act that provides for the iden-tification and deportation of illegal foreign nationals, there are exceptions for cases of Hindus, Parsis, Buddhists and Sikhs. Nariman said the exceptions under the Foreigners Act should be extended to Rohingya Muslims and Rohingya Hindus.

The court permitted liberty to Nar-iman to knock its door in a contingency as Assistant Solicitor General Tushar Mehta raised an objection, saying that the matter was sub-judice. Mehta was discomfited when the court earlier, while directing the next hearing on November 21, had said: “Needless to say that the matter is sub-judice.”

India’s top court puts Rohingya deportation plan on hold

Oppn questions poll body for not declaring Gujarat vote dates

Indian state seizes spurious pesticides after 32 deaths

The Supreme Court observed that no Rohingya refugee should be deported until the next date of hearing on November 21. The Apex Court said that national importance cannot be secondary and at the same time, the human rights of the Rohingyas should be kept in mind.

Chandy meets Rahul in Delhito discuss solar scam caseNEW DELHI/THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who along with several senior Con-gress party leaders from the state is facing the heat in the solar scam case, met party Vice-President Rahul Gandhi in Delhi to dis-cuss the issue. Chandy expressed happiness after the over hour-long meeting with the Congress Vice-President.

“He (Gandhi) first met each one of us individually and then jointly. In my personal meeting with him, I told him everything (about the solar scam issue) and said that this is nothing but political witch hunt by the Kerala government,” he told reporters in New Delhi. Chandy and other Congress leaders were summoned by the Congress high command after the Pinarayi Vijayan government in Kerala decided to initiate a criminal and vigilance probe against the former Chief Min-ister and others in the Rs 7 million case.

“I am very clear and as I have always maintained that I have done no wrong, so I am confident. In the final outcome on the solar scam case, the Kerala government will be at the receiving end,” said Chandy. “The judicial commission report is still kept under wraps. In my letter through RTI seeking a copy of the report, I was told that it’s still not become a public document. But my conten-tion is that I am a party in the report and hence not ‘public’.

Supreme Court refuses to relax firecracker ban NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court yesterday refused to modify its October 9 order to ban sale of firecrackers in Delhi and NCR this Diwali and expressed anguish that the order was being given a com-munal twist. “We are pained to hear that some people are giv-ing the order a communal colour. Anyone who knows me knows that I am a very spiritual person in such matters,” said Justice A K Sikri, who along with Justice Abhay Manohar Sapre and Justice Ashok Bhushan had authored the October 9 ban order. The court’s observation came as counsel Prashant Bhushan drew court attention

to a statement by Bharatiya Janata Party Delhi unit

spokesperson that they would procure firecrackers and

distribute them free to children.

Hindu activists protest against a court-ordered ban on the sale of firecrackers to curtail air pollution in the Indian capital by setting off firecrackers during the protest in New Delhi , yesterday.

06 SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017ASIA

People display images of the late Thai King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in Ayutthaya, yesterday. Monks led sombre ceremonies across Thailand to mark one year since the death of the king as the grieving nation prepares to bid a final farewell to the beloved monarch in a spectacular cremation ceremony this month.

Farewell to late Thailand king

Manila

Reuters

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte retained a high public approval rating in an opinion poll released

yesterday, a stark contrast to a different survey earlier this week that showed a sharp decline in trust and satisfaction in the mav-erick leader.

Eighty percent of 1,200 Fili-pinos surveyed by pollster Pulse Asia late last month said they trust and approve of Duterte slightly down from 81 percent and 82 percent respectively in its June survey.

“Approval” rates the presi-dent’s performance and “trust” relates to his personality in the Pulse survey, which did not ask respondents to give a reason.

A poll by Social Weather Sta-tions conducted at the same time

and released on Sunday showed trust and satisfaction in Duterte - also ratings of personality and performance - fell to the lowest of his presidency.

The falls by 15 points and 18 points respectively were signif-icant, and came after a demonstration by thousands of Filipinos and unprecedented

public scrutiny on his war on drugs, triggered by the August 16 killing by police of a teenager.

Thousands of Filipinos have been killed during the past 15 months. Police insist none were executed, as activists have alleged.

Duterte this week ordered police to stand down from the campaign but has not said what motivated his decision. His office said that was to shift focus towards bigger targets.

Analysts were unable to explain the big difference in the results of surveys by two well-respected pollsters.

Academic Edmund Tayao said the Pulse poll showed the public still recognised the impor-tance of the war on drugs, and Duterte would stick to his policy agenda.

“The president’s tone does not change, regardless of the numbers,” Tayao said. “Whether

these surveys will result in major changes to his policy, I think not.”

Ranjit Rye of the University of the Philippines said the lat-est poll showed that, despite recent setbacks and adverse headlines, Duterte had not lost his appeal.

“Despite all the political

noise, all the opposition against the president, he continues to be wildly popular and people approve of his leadership,” Rye said.

Presidential spokesman Ernesto Abella said there was “an enormous amount of apprecia-tion” for Duterte, and suggested

the earlier poll may have been “some form of orchestrated information, disinformation”.

“It’s not for us to speculate. But there seems to be that par-ticular effort in order to the put the president and his adminis-tration in a particular light,” he told reporters.

Philippine Senator Leila De Lima, arrested on drug charges, waves to supporters as she arrives to appear before a local court for her arraignment in Muntinlupa city, south of Manila, yesterday.

New poll shows Philippine President still very popular

Islamabad

Reuters

The freeing of a hostage US-Canadian family by Pakistan’s army has been

hailed by officials as a positive step in mending ties between Washington and Islamabad, but those hoping fresh start in their fraught relationship seem likely to be disappointed.

Pakistan and the United States have for years been - at best - uneasy allies in the war against the Taliban and other Islamist extremists.

US President Donald Trump said the raid that rescued Amer-ican Caitlan Campbell, her Canadian husband Joshua Boyle and their three young children showed that Pakistan had started to “respect the United States

again” in response to his admin-istration’s tough-talking tactics.

But the two countries still have conflicting interests - and the Trump administration’s vow to apply more diplomatic pres-sure on Pakistan is unlikely to work, given Islamabad’s grow-ing alliance with regional heavyweight China, say analysts.

“This is a small occurrence between Pakistan and the US, and it should not be confused with the big issues that separate Pakistan and the US,” said Paki-stani security analyst Imtiaz Gul.

Yesterday, five years after they were kidnapped in Afghan-istan, Campbell and Boyle flew home with the three children born while they were captives of the Haqqani network, a feared

Taliban sub-group that Wash-ington particularly accuses Pakistan of failing to do enough to fight.

Some saw the timing as a goodwill gesture ahead of upcoming visits by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and Defence Secretary Jim Mattis.

“I don’t think it’s a coinci-dence that this hostage release was announced when you have a parade of top Trump adminis-tration officials in Islamabad to deliver strongly worded warn-ings to Pakistan,” said Michael Kugelman, a South Asia special-ist at the Woodrow Wilson Center.

He added that no one should take the good news as a definite sign that Pakistan would drasti-cally change its behaviour towards militants such at the

Haqqanis.“Going after hostages is not

the same thing as going after the terrorists holding them,” he said.

The United States has repeat-edly accused Pakistan of not doing enough to eliminate mil-itant havens on its territory.

For now, officials on both sides are talking up the cooper-ation on display in Wednesday’s rescue operation, when Pakistani troops acting on a US intelligence tip-off swooped on a vehicle car-rying the hostages.

But tensions remain.Pakistan is still angry at the

unilateral US operations on its soil to kill al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in 2011 and last year’s drone strike that killed Taliban supreme leader Akhtar Mansour.

United States officials, for

their part, suspect both bin Laden and Mansour were able to live in Pakistan with the tacit support of at least some elements of the powerful military.

Washington also argues that the Taliban - which has been fighting to re-establish its hard-line Islamist regime in Kabul since a 2001 US-backed military intervention - would not have been able to gain so much ground against Afghan govern-ment forces in recent years without safe havens in Pakistan.

Trump’s administration in August warned aid to Pakistan might be cut and Washington might downgrade its status as a major non-NATO ally, in order to pressure it to do more to help bring about an end to America’s longest-running war.

Drug campaign

Eighty percent of 1,200 Filipinos surveyed by pollster Pulse Asia said they still trust and approve of Duterte.

Thousands of Filipinos have been killed during the past 15 months in anti-drug campaign.

11 Indian crew missing after vessel sinks off PhilippinesTokyo

AFP

Eleven Indian crew mem-bers were missing yesterday after their

cargo ship sank in the Pacific off the Philippines as a typhoon churned in the region, Japan’s coastguard said.

The 33,205-tonne Emer-ald Star with 26 Indian nationals on board sent a dis-tress signal early Friday as the Hong Kong-registered vessel was sailing some 280 kilome-tres (174 miles) east of the northern tip of the Philip-pines, said a statement from the Japanese coastguard, which received the distress signal.

Three other vessels sailing near the area rescued 15 crew members but 11 others were still missing, a Japanese coast-guard spokesman said, adding that the cargo ship has sunk. “We have dispatched two patrol boats and three planes to the site but a typhoon has made a rescue difficult,” the spokesman added.

Three dead in skydiving collisionSydney

AFP

Three people died yester-day in what is believed to be a mid-air skydiving

collision, with one of the vic-tims found in someone’s garden. Two men in their 30s and a woman in her 50s were found dead at Mission Beach, south of popular tourist town Cairns, mid-afternoon.

“Initial investigations indicate that a solo skydiver may have collided with tan-dem skydivers in mid-air with their parachutes failing to deploy correctly,” police said.

Ambulance officials said one of them fell onto some-one’s lawn. “We had a report of a skydiver who had been found in the garden at a res-idence in Mission Beach,” said Queensland Ambulance Serv-ice’s Neil Noble.

“Shortly thereafter we received another report of another two skydivers that’d been found close by.”

Pakistan’s hostage rescue hailed; tensions with US remain

Japan wants US copters grounded over safetyTokyo

AFP

Japan urged the US military yesterday to suspend flights of its CH-53 helicopters until safety is guaranteed, after one of them burst into

flames in Okinawa.The US military had already

grounded the helicopters for 96 hours after a CH-53 was destroyed by a major fire on Wednesday after landing in an empty field on the western Jap-anese island. But Defence Minister Itsunori Onodera said the helicopters should be idled for a longer period if necessary while an investigation is carried out into what caused the blaze.

“Rather than setting a pre-determined period, we believe it is important that operations of CH53 aircraft are suspended

until such time that the cause of the accident and its safety are confirmed,” Onodera said.

He said he had dispatched Japanese military experts to Okinawa “so that there will not be an automatic resumption of operations after the pre-set period runs out” and to ensure a thorough investigation.

Onodera said the US had agreed to his request. Represent-atives of US Marine Corps. in Okinawa could not be reached for comment yesterday. But the Marines have said that the 96-hour “operational pause” began Thursday morning and promised to share information about the accident. “We will con-duct a thorough investigation working closely with air crew and maintenance experts to determine the cause of the inci-dent,” it said in a statement .

Beijing

Reuters

A Chinese court yesterday jailed the country’s number one most wanted

fugitive for eight years for graft and taking bribes, state media said.

Yang Xiuzhu, a former deputy mayor of Wenzhou city in the booming eastern province of Zhe-jiang, gave herself in to Chinese

authorities late last year, return-ing from the United States after spending 13 years in hiding.

China ranked Yang top in a 2015 list of its 100 most wanted graft suspects who were targeted with Interpol red notices. Many on the list had fled to the United States, Canada or Australia. Some 48 have since returned to China.

Yang’s prison sentence and a fine of 800,000 yuan ($121,500) was announced by the People’s

Intermediate Court in Hangzhou, the official Xinhua news agency said on social media.

The court gave Yang a reduced sentence as she had expressed regret, pleaded guilty and actively returned her illegal gains, as well returned to China, Xinhua reported.

In under three years in her position at the construction bureau, Yang had embezzled nearly 20 million yuan in public

funds and had accepted over 7 million yuan in gifts. Just under 27 million yuan of this had been recovered, the court said. It was not possible to reach Yang or a representative for comment.

President Xi Jinping’s war on graft has spread beyond China’s borders with overseas searches dubbed Operation Fox Hunt and Sky Net hunting down officials and business executives who fled overseas with their assets.

Wary that suspects might not get a fair trial and that accusa-tions may be politically motivated, some developed nations have been hesitant to comply with Beijing’s requests to return people to China.

Yang told Reuters in 2015 that she was innocent and called the most-wanted list a political document targeting enemies of the current regime rather than a roster of criminals.

China’s most-wanted fugitive jailed for eight years for graft

07SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017 ASIA

Yangon

Reuters

Myanmar’s military has launched an internal probe into the conduct of soldiers during a

counteroffensive that has sent more than half a million Rohingya Muslims fleeing to Bangladesh, many saying they witnessed killings, rape and arson by troops.

Coordinated Rohingya insur-gent attacks on 30 security posts on August 25 sparked a ferocious military response in the Muslim-majority northern part of Rakhine state that the United Nations has said was ethnic cleansing.

A committee led by military Lieutenant-General Aye Win has begun an investigation into the behaviour of military personnel, the office of the commander in chief said yesterday, insisting the operation was justified under Buddhist-majority Myanmar’s constitution.

According to a statement posted on Senior General Min Aung Hlaing’s Facebook page,

the panel will ask, “Did they fol-low the military code of conduct? Did they exactly follow the com-mand during the operation? After that (the committee) will release full information.”

Myanmar is refusing entry to a UN panel that was tasked with investigating allegations of abuses after a smaller military counteroffensive launched in October 2016.

But domestic investigations - including a previous internal military probe - have largely dis-missed refugees’ claims of abuses committed during security

forces’ so-called “clearance operations”.

Thousands of refugees have continued to arrived cross the Naf river separating Myanmar’s Rakhine state and Bangladesh in recent days, even though Myan-mar insists military operations ceased on September 5.

Aid agencies now estimate that 536,000 people have now arrived in Cox’s Bazar district, straining scarce resources of aid groups and local communities.

About 200,000 Rohingya were already in Bangladesh after fleeing persecution in Myanmar, where they have long been denied citizenship and faced restrictions on their movements and access to basic services.

Myanmar’s de facto leader, Aung San Suu Kyi, has pledged accountability for human rights abuses and says Myanmar will accept back refugees who can prove they were residents of Myanmar.

The powerful army chief has taken a harder stance, however, telling the US ambassador in Myanmar earlier this week that the exodus of Rohingya - who he said were non-native “Bengalis”

- was exaggerated.In comments to Japan’s

ambassador carried in state

media yesterday, Min Aung Hla-ing denied ethnic cleansing was taking place on the grounds that

photos showed Muslims “depart-ing calmly rather than fleeing in terror”.

Earthquake hits North Korea near N-test siteSeoul

AFP

A shallow 2.9-magnitude earthquake struck near North Korea’s nuclear

test site before dawn on Fri-day, weeks after Pyongyang’s biggest detonation, but South Korean experts said the tremor did not appear to be man-made.

The tremor hit at 01:41 am (1641 GMT Thursday) with a depth of around five kilome-tres, the US Geological Survey said, with the epicentre located north of the Punggye-Ri testing site.

“This event occurred in the area of the previous North Korean nuclear tests. The event has earthquake-like characteristics, however, we cannot conclusively confirm at this time the nature (natu-ral or human-made) of the event,” the US agency said.

But the Korea Meteorolog-ical Administration in the South said on its website that “anal-ysis shows it was a natural quake”. “It is believed to have caused no damage,” it added.

It came three weeks after a 3.5-magnitude earthquake struck near the same area, with seismic experts and a UN nuclear test ban watchdog calling that tremor on Sep-tember 23 a likely aftershock of the North’s sixth and larg-est nuclear test.

The test on September 3 triggered a much stronger 6.3-magnitude quake that was felt across the border in China and sparked global condem-nation, leading the United Nations Security Council to unanimously adopt tough new sanctions against Pyongyang.

The strength of Friday’s quake was much lower than the tremors registered dur-ing any of North Korea’s previous nuclear tests, includ-ing its first detonation in 2006, which triggered a 4.1-magnitude quake.

Tensions have soared in recent weeks following Pyongyang’s nuclear test as US President Trump engages in an escalating war of words with the North’s leader Kim Jong-un. Trump used his maiden speech to the UN to threaten to “destroy” the nuclear-armed nation if Kim did not back down.

Hanoi

AFP

The death toll from devas-tating floods and landslides in north and

central Vietnam has jumped to 54, officials said yesterday, in one of the deadliest weather disasters to hit the country in years.

Rescuers were desperately searching for 39 people still missing after heavy rains pounded several provinces this week, with forecasters warn-ing of another major storm heading toward the country.

Villages, roads and homes across several provinces remained submerged Friday, as authorities tried to clear roads and reach isolated residents in the mountainous north, which was hit by deadly landslides.

Entire families were killed in some areas as rivers tore a destructive path through vil-lages and towns.

Hoang Phuc Son said he lost two children and two grand-children as flood waters slammed into their house in Yen Bai province.

“We had no time to run. My children couldn’t run because water was coming in from all sides... my children and their two kids were swept away,” said Son, choking back tears.

The body of a Vietnam News Agency reporter was recovered Friday after he was washed away by a swollen river in Yen Bai province while

reporting on the floods this week.

Thousands of police and soldiers were deployed to help search efforts, reinforce dikes and hand out food as the death toll jumped from 37 people on Thursday.

“We have mobilised more than 2,500 soldiers and police-men and thousands of civilians for rescue and relief efforts,” said Do Duc Duy, chairman of the Yen Bai People’s Commit-tee. In recent days floods submerged or destroyed 33,000 houses, wiped out swathes of farmland, and left several dikes badly damaged, Vietnam’s Disaster Manage-ment Authority said.

Northern Hoa Binh prov-ince -- where a state of emergency was declared this week -- was the hardest hit with 17 dead and 15 missing, fol-lowed by central Thanh Hoa province where 14 were killed, the disaster agency added.

And the country is bracing for yet more adverse weather, with forecasters predicting that tropical storm Khanun will intensify over the South China Sea and could hit Vietnam early next week.

Vietnam has already been hit by severe rain and storms this year, with nearly 170 people dead or missing before the latest bout of bad weather. Typhoon Dok-suri killed 11 people and caused widespread destruction last month when it slammed into central Vietnam.

Kuala Lumpur

Reuters

Malaysia, which until recently had been one of Pyongyang’s closest

friends, has halted all imports from North Korea, as part of glo-bal efforts to cut off funding over its nuclear and missile programmes.

Malaysia did not buy any goods from North Korea in June and July, after buying 20.6 million ringgit ($4.89m) worth of goods in the first five months of the year, according to data from the Department of Statistics.

Malaysia’s ties with North Korea have deteriorated since

the February assassination of Kim Jong Un’s estranged half brother at Kuala Lumpur inter-national airport, which the United States and South Korea say was ordered by the North Korean leader.

Kuala Lumpur last month banned its citizens from travel-ling to North Korea, two weeks after Prime Minister Najib Razak met with US President Donald Trump at the White House. The visit gave Najib a political boost at home, with his popularity suf-fering over a massive scandal at a state investment fund, which the US Department of Justice is investigating.

Trump told reporters after

meeting with Najib at the White House last month that Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak “does not do business with North Korea any longer, and we find that to be very important.”

Malaysia had been a key source of revenue for the North. Citizens from both countries enjoyed visa-free travel. Malay-sia was host to hundreds of overseas workers. More impor-tantly were operations that funnelled money to the regime. Reuters reported earlier this year North Korea’s spy agency, the Reconnaissance Bureau, was running an arms operation out of Kuala Lumpur.

Malaysia’s halt to North

Korean imports came ahead of drastic UN and US sanctions last month that ramp up export bans and penalise companies and individuals doing business with North Korea.

The UN on September 11 banned North Korea’s lucrative textile exports as well as all joint ventures with North Koran indi-viduals or entities. Trump issued an executive order 10 days later penalising any company or per-son doing business with North Korea by cutting off their access to the US financial system, freez-ing their assets or both.

Other Southeast Asian nations have similarly reduced imports from North Korea. The Philippines

said last month it has suspended trade with North Korea to comply with sanctions. Thailand’s imports from North Korea dropped to $400,000 between January and August, compared with $1.8m in the same period last year, according to data from the commerce ministry.

Indonesia, on the other hand, increased its imports from North Korea to $1.8m in January-July before the latest round of sanc-tions, versus $910,000 in the same period last year.

Secretary of state Rex Tiller-son, on a swing through Southeast Asia in August, urged countries to do more to cut fund-ing streams for North Korea.

Myanmar army to probe abuse of RohingyaNo trust in probe

A committee led by military Lieutenant General begins investigation into the behaviour of military personnel.

Past investigations have largely dismissed refugees’ claims of abuses committed by army.

Rohingya refugees who arrived from Myanmar pick up their belongings to get onto a truck that will take them to a refugee camp from a relief centre in Teknaf, near Cox’s Bazar in Bangladesh, yesterday.

Malaysia halts all imports from North Korea

The Ohio-class guided-missile submarine USS Michigan pulls into Busan Naval Base for a routine port visit in Busan, South Korea, yesterday.

US & South Korea to launch navy drill Seoul

AFP

The United States and South Korea will kick off a major navy drill next week, the

US navy said yesterday, a fresh show of force against North Korea over its missile and nuclear tests.

Tensions over North Korea’s weapons programme have soared in recent months with Pyongyang launching a flurry of missiles and conducting its sixth and most powerful nuclear test in defiance of multiple sets of UN sanctions.

The United States has since ramped up military drills with South Korea and Japan, its two

closest regional in the region.In a statement the US 7th

Fleet said the USS Ronald Regan aircraft carrier and two US destroyers would take part in the drill alongside South Korean Navy vessels.

The exercise, slated for October 16 to 26 in the Sea of Japan and the Yellow Sea, would promote “communications, interoperability, and partner-ship,” the statement added.

The move will likely rile Pyongyang which had previous warned against any upcoming joint exercises.

“If US imperialists and the South Korean puppets ignite a nuclear war of aggression against us, it would only

advance their own demise,” the state-run KCNA news agency said.

There has been a flurry of US military hardware move-ment around the Korean peninsula in recent days.

On Friday the nuclear-pow-ered USS Michigan submarine arrived at South Korea’s south-ern port of Busan, according to Yonhap news agency, just days after another nuclear-powered submarine -- the USS Tuscon -- left after a five day visit.

Earlier this week the US flew two supersonic heavy bombers over the Korean peninsula, stag-ing the first night-time joint aviation exercises with Japan and South Korea.

Vietnam flood and landslide toll hits 54

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has sent a cable of congratulations to President Emmanuel Macron of the French Republic, on the occasion of the French candidate’s winning of top Unesco position. Qatar’s candidate Dr

Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari made a graceful exit with a narrow margin of two votes to the election for the top position at Unesco, the United Nations’ cultural body. Audrey Azoulay, the former French culture minister won the post in a neck and neck (30-28) race.

Though Qatar’s candidate for the post of Unesco director-general did not secure the top position, the way Al Kawari ran his campaign highlighting issues hindering the purposeful functioning of Paris-based UN agency and the vision he presented before the world are not less than a victory. The vision and willingness of Qatar, shown through its candidate throughout the campaign, to steer the agency clear of obstinate financial crisis and other political controversies, has won the trust of 28 members out of total 58-member executive board.

The defeat by just two votes in the final round of elections after winning over the candidates of Azerbaijan, Vietnam, China, Lebanon, and Egypt in initial four rounds is itself an outstanding achievement by Qatar and also reflects world’s trust on this nation, its vision and its contributions to the global causes.

Unesco’s declared purpose is to contribute to peace and security by promoting international collaboration

through educational, scientific, and cultural reforms in order to increase universal respect for justice, the rule of law, and human rights along with fundamental freedom proclaimed in the United Nations Charter. Qatar has always been contributing to achieve these objectives by loosening its purse strings.

Al Kawari had presented before the world his vision to reinvent an embattled Unesco struggling against serious financial crunch and unending political controversies. His vision of tackling menace of extremism and terrorism by promoting education, culture and science was appreciated across the globe. He had the vision for generating financial resources for cash-strapped organisation and also the

policies to safeguard the heritage which are constantly under threat by terrorists.

The agency which was founded after WW II to protect and preserve common cultural heritage is now facing grave challenges. Two days ago, the US and Israel quit the Unesco over political differences. The US has had rocky relations with the Unesco and has not paid its dues since 2011. Azoulay is inheriting an embattled body with serious questions over its future funding and mission.

Arab world will also not forget the role Egypt played in depriving the region from the honour of heading the UN’s cultural agency. After Egypt’s candidate Moushira Khattab bowed out of the race in the fifth round, Egypt announced its support for France.

08 SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

No less an achievement

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The enemy, the opponents, are out there on the other side of the table. Those are the people that we have to negotiate with. We have to negotiate hard to get the very best deal for Britain.

Philip HammondBritish Finance Minister

The defeat by just two votes in the final round of elections after winning over the candidates of Azerbaijan, Vietnam, China, Lebanon, and Egypt in initial four rounds is itself an outstanding achievement by Qatar and also reflects world’s trust on this nation.

Today, we are witnessing one of the most important turning points in Spanish political history since the country’s return to democracy. Only a few years ago, almost no one out-

side Spain knew anything about Catalonia’s historical aspirations of independence, but now most people have at least a vague idea about this region and the dreams of its people. When an internal crisis in a state reaches a ten-sion of such magnitude, it is not surprising that it ends up crossing national borders. Today, this is what’s happening in Spain - Catalonia is no longer a minor internal problem.

This position has allowed the demands of Catalans to be heard all over the world. It has made possible the start of an independence-seeking process which, unlike those experienced previously in the region, will not need to be carried out with violence.

The Catalan inclination to pursue a peace-ful path towards independence was most clearly articulated by President Carles Puig-demont when he addressed the Catalan parliament on October 10.

His speech, in which he suspended the declaration of independence and called for constructive dialogue with the Spanish state, demonstrated a value historically and cultur-ally recognised by the people of Catalonia: the so-called “seny catala” (Catalan sanity).

Yet it needs to be acknowledged that, throughout this ordeal, Spain also contributed significantly to the perception that Catalonia is the “sane side” of the conflict.

The security mobilisation which so greatly resonated internationally on October 1, the date of the referendum on Catalan self-deter-mination - which had not been agreed to by the Spanish state - showed a furious, clumsy, and savage Spanish government.

With the help of the state media, Spain’s central government tried to bury any ideas contradicting the state’s point of view, show-ing its darkest face since the brutal Franco dictatorship. Throughout that turbulent day, images of violence filled television screens all over the world, showing a large international audience what the Spanish state is capable of.

Images are the most useful and effective tools in political communication since they transmit emotions. That day the government of Mariano Rajoy, communicated a strong message: We can and we will use violence against our own citizens if necessary. Nor was this the only negative message they conveyed on that day. On October 1, the Spanish gov-ernment also demonstrated its impotence to the world, by using all means available to stop a referendum, and failing miserably.

The Catalan government, on the other hand, followed an intelligent strategy that is a lot more in keeping with the established polit-ical culture of the European continent.

Their action model was simple: to offi-cially request a referendum, and, when this request is denied, to disobey the state and do it anyway. Most importantly, to do all this without resorting to violence. The next - and

What’s next for Catalonia: Confrontation or dialogue?Rafa Perez BelAl Jazeera

maybe most important - stage of this game plan was put into action with Puig-demont’s historic speech to the Catalan parliament: A demand for dialogue.

The speech of PuigdemontCatalonia’s leader said he accepts the

“mandate from the people” to “become an independent state”, but has stopped short of declaring independence as he seeks dialogue with Spain.

This gesture denotes sanity and is in line with the political behaviour model of the European Union - a model based on dialogue, agreements and respect to democracy.

Unfortunately, the democratic immaturity of the Spanish state does not allow this type of dialogue, so Puigde-mont’s speech did not change the central government’s attitude towards the Cata-lan question.

Immediately after Puigdemont’s speech, Spain’s prime minister demanded Catalan leaders “clarify” whether they have for-mally declared independence before he

invokes a constitutional article that would strip the region of its autonomy.

With this answer, Mariano Rajoy has confirmed that the doors to dialogue with Catalonia are not open. This was also clear in the mainstream Spanish media’s coverage of the events, which followed an editorial line declaring the referendum “an illegality”, the support-ers of independence “delinquents”, and any dialogue or agreement with these “delinquents” an “impossibility”.

Spain’s strong response to Puigde-mont’s speech showed that the central government classifies any demand for dialogue coming from Catalonia as a ter-rorist act, a treason.

Another path?Currently, the situation in the coun-

try is one of complete disappointment for both sides of the conflict. On one hand, Catalans view the suspension of the declaration of independence as a betrayal of the overwhelming results of a referendum they fought hard to actual-ise. On the other hand, some sections of the Spanish society want the central government to take more forceful action against the demands for secession.

A day before Puigdemont’s highly anticipated speech, Pablo Casado, the Spanish government’s deputy secretary for communications, said during a press

conference that if the Catalan leader declared independence he may end up like Lluis Companys - the Catalan leader who was swiftly tried and sentenced to 30 years in prison for declaring inde-pendence in 1934. He was eventually executed by the Franco regime in 1940.

“Let’s hope that nothing is declared tomorrow because perhaps the person who makes the declaration will end up like the person who made the declara-tion 83 years ago,” Casado said.

Catalan supporters of independence and many others in Spain immediately reacted with fury to Casado’s ambigu-ous, yet threatening comments.

These are indeed frightening days for the citizens of the deeply divided coun-try. But there is still hope because many Catalans and Spaniards, whether or not they are in favour of Catalan independ-ence, are asking their political leaders to engage in political dialogue. The Catalan government already acknowledged this call, and the Spanish government can also choose to take this most sensible path, and demonstrate that Spain is indeed a European democracy.

The European Union can also play a more open and active role to facilitate mediation in the conflict - EU leaders should not be afraid of offending the so-called “Spanish pride” and they should take action to make sure the Spanish democracy, which is currently cracking with each move Rajoy makes, is functioning.

Rajoy said “there was no independ-ence referendum in Catalonia”, arguing that the referendum he deems illegal was not “a democratic tool”, as anything that is outside the law is not democratic. The Spanish state must open the door to dialogue and stop hiding its political incapacity behind the laws.

What will happen in Catalonia after this?

The Spanish government has already activated the mechanism known as Arti-cle 155 (an article that allows the cancellation of the powers of the auton-omous communities, in this case, Catalonia) and has forced the Catalan president to withdraw the proclamation of Independence - or more accurately his call for dialogue - through a judicial requirement.

Catalonia is now left with two options: to disobey the Spanish state and declare independence anyway - some-thing that would not be appropriate - or to give in and withdraw its proposal for dialogue on independence - discarding something the Catalan government was elected by its citizens to uphold.

If Catalonia defies the Spanish state and declares independence, the history will repeat itself: Spanish state will inter-vene, using the full strength of the law and its security forces. They will silence Catalan aspirations and add yet another bitter chapter to the political history of Catalonia. This will not in any way solve the problems of Spain’s Catalan citizens - it will only silence their voice until fur-ther notice.

Catalonia is now left with two options: to disobey the Spanish state and declare independence anyway or to give in and withdraw its proposal for dialogue on independence.

ED ITOR IAL

09SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017 OPINION

policies faded away, and with Obama replacing these policies with his own misinformed strategy, the world -- especially the Middle East -- resumed its unravelling.

Then came Donald Trump. If Bush overesti-mated America’s power and Obama underestimated it, Trump seems to have no clue what America’s tools of power are, how to project power, or to what end. If ever forced to take a pop quiz on world affairs, Trump would certainly flunk it.

Hence, while the Russian state-owned RIA Nov-osti boasted that King Salman of Saudi Arabia visited Moscow to build ties with the “new lord of the Middle East,” i.e.

Russian President Vladimir Putin, America’s Donald Trump was busy challenging his secretary of state to an IQ test. Trump insisted that he was smarter than Rex Tillerson.

The contrast between the Russian president and his American counterpart could not have been starker.

While Putin’s media broadcasted carefully cho-reographed scenes of his reception of the Saudi monarch, Trump was busy calling the U.S. media “fake news” and sharing numbers that he believed proved that the right-wing Fox News was ahead of its more liberal competitors, CNN and MSNBC.

While in Moscow, Salman announced that his country would be buying the Russian-made S-400 air defense system.

Weeks before Saudi Arabia’s announcement of this deal, Turkey had announced a similar purchase. Moscow had sold an earlier version, the S-300, to Iran. Tehran, for its part, publicly displayed its new Russian toy during a military parade in September.

The Turkish, Saudi, and Iranian announcements of their buying of Russian-made air defense systems came a few years after Putin had announced deploying both S-400s and S-300s to Syria, pre-sumably to “seal off” Syrian airspace to US fighter jets.

The efficiency of these S-400s and S-300s remains in question. Over the past few years, during their deployment in Syria, these Russian systems

No more excuses; the Rohingya need our help

In 1998, President Bill Clinton visited Rwanda, where he formally apologised for the US gov-ernment’s inaction during the 1994 genocide there that claimed approximately 800,000 lives. He lamented that the international com-

munity “did not immediately call these crimes by their rightful name.” Indeed, this was an omission of historic proportion, and the absence of outrage ena-bled policymakers to avoid considering bold measures that might have made a difference.

The US government is now risking the same kind of failure in the case of Myanmar’s Rohingya minority. On October 5, State Department testimony to the House Foreign Affairs Committee was strikingly remi-niscent of the initial descriptions of the situation in Rwanda 23 years ago. Members of Congress tried in vain to persuade the department’s East Asia witness, Deputy Assistant Secretary Patrick Murphy, to affirm-atively declare that ethnic cleansing was taking place in Myanmar, also known as Burma. Instead, he described the situation as a “cauldron of complexi-ties.” His remarks betrayed little sense of urgency.

The facts are hardly in dispute. On a visit to Bangladesh last month, I heard repeated testimony from refugees that confirmed what credible human rights groups have been reporting for many weeks. After attacks by a Rohingya militant group on Myan-mar’s security forces at the end of August, Myanmar’s military began systematically setting fire to Rohingya villages and shooting civilians as they sought to flee.

By now more than 500,000 Rohingya - about half of the Rohingya population living in Myanmar prior to August 25 - have fled to Bangladesh, joining hundreds of thousands of Rohingya who were already there as refugees. The exodus continues even now, and there is little doubt that Myanmar’s military is responsible for crimes against humanity.

To be sure, the State Department testimony on October 5 came after more pointed statements last month by Vice President Mike Pence, who declared that Myanmar’s military had responded with “terri-ble savagery,” and by Nikki Haley, the US ambassador to the United Nations, who referred to “a brutal, sustained campaign to cleanse the country of an ethnic minority.” But these statements haven’t been followed by a strong U.S. effort to rally the world to the cause of the Rohingya. As a result, the State Department testimony remains the most detailed discussion of US policy to date.

Our values demand that we should not simply sit by as if there were nothing we could do to prevent

the continuing tragedy. US interests in regional sta-bility and democracy in Myanmar also compel stronger action.

The persecuted Rohingya population has already attracted the attention of movements in the Islamic world. Militant groups may seek recruits among the roughly 1 million Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh. Future attacks by Rohingya insurgents in Myanmar would give the military a pretext to reassert control and end the country’s long-fought struggle for democracy.

Bold action is essential to diminish the likelihood of such an outcome and to enable the safe return of the Rohingya. It is true that the challenges are formi-dable. While civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi has expressed a willingness to accept the return of the Rohingya who have fled, no one knows what obsta-cles may be imposed by Myanmar’s authorities. It is unrealistic to believe Rohingya whose villages have been destroyed by the military would have sufficient confidence to dare return. Moreover, action to bring

Americans are under no illusion that their president, Donald Trump, has any coherent for-eign policy or strategy.

American experts have even coined new terms for their new lead-er’s incompetence, such as the “No World Order” and “Trump’s 19th Century World Order.”

In his 1997 second-term inaugural speech, then-President Bill Clinton boasted that the 20th century was an “American century.

” The beginning of the millennium, however, marked the ascendance of three successive American presidents, none of whom showed any skills in comprehend-ing the world or maintaining its order.

Former President George Bush overes-timated America’s capabilities. Having the strongest military that can project power anywhere around the globe is one thing, but asking the military to undertake social engineering and spread democracy is another. To his credit, Bush realized his missteps, and in his second term, started reversing most of his previous democracy-spreading initiatives.

Bush handed foreign policy back to the US establishment by recruiting his father’s contemporaries and friends, first and fore-most savvy Secretary of State James Baker, who drafted a blueprint on how the US could stabilize Iraq and leave it.

Baker’s plan, the Baker-Hamilton Report, worked, and the world seemed destined for the pre-Bush years, only to be shaken again, this time by a populist presi-dent who promised over-corrective policies. Instead of building on Bush’s progress, Obama had a few revolutionary foreign policies of his own.

Obama believed that the US should exchange its friends, such as Saudi Arabia, for its enemies, such as Iran. So mistaken was Obama that he lost both: America’s friends and its enemies.

Obama initially enjoyed a spell of world peace. As time went by and Bush’s

Global power balance tilting towards Russia

A Rohingya refugee man walking with a basket at Kutupalong refugee camp near Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh, yesterday.

never managed to head off any Israeli or American air attack inside Syrian airspace.

In fact, in the summer of 2007, the Israeli air force held training sessions over Greece, aimed at beating the S-300, which Athens possesses.

Tel Aviv does not seem that bothered that its archrival, Iran, now has the S-300. Israel is most probably confident that it can beat this system should Israeli fighter jets ever find themselves flying over Iran.

The capability of these Russian air defense systems aside, the S-400 and S-300, have become a sign of alliance with Russia.

Countries that announce buying such Russian systems -- such as Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Iran -- are in effect announcing some kind of strategic partnership with Moscow.

Iran entering into an alliance with Moscow is old news. What is surprising is to see Turkey, a member of NATO, and Saudi Arabia, one of America’s oldest allies in the Middle East, opting to buy Russian military hardware and seeking Russian friendship.

The Saudi step infuriated Washington, and Riyadh went into crisis mode in a bid to mitigate U.S. anger.

Less than 24 hours after the Saudi announcement of buy-ing the Russian S-400s, Washington announced that the Saudis are on their way to buying the American-made THAAD anti-missile system, for a whopping $15bn.

The American-Saudi arms deal was not enough to con-vince experts that everything was back to normal.

The “new lord in the Middle East,” Putin, is spreading his wings, and countries like Turkey and Saudi Arabia have cor-rectly calculated that betting on a shaken American, led by a drama queen president, might not be enough guarantee for their national interests.

In fact, Turkey learned the hard way that its alliance with America sometimes means little.

When a Russian fighter jet crossed into Turkish airspace and forced a Turkish fighter jet to warn it to change course, before shooting it down, Washington left Ankara alone to fig-ure out the consequences of the accident.

Obama was enraged at the time, as the White House put out a statement suggesting that the Turks were responsible for their own decisions, and that Americans would not step up to defend Turkey, militarily or diplomatically, should the situation between Ankara and Moscow deteriorate.

Turkey has internalized all the lessons from its alliance with America, and has as such decided to diversify its strate-gic investments by improving its ties with Russia. Saudi Arabia reached a similar conclusion, as other countries in the region seem willing to follow suit.

As Trump stands oblivious and unaware that the world order that America created, and maintained over the past 70 years, is now crumbling, Putin has been picking up the pieces and making his own crown out of them.

The S-400 is the name of a new world order, an order that is being carved by Russia, but one that nobody can pre-dict how it will look or in what direction it will go.

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OFFICETEL: 4455 7741 / 767FAX: +974 4455 7758

MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4462 7505

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4455 7769

LOCAL NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7743

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION TEL: 4462 7535

SPORT NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7745

ONLINE SECTION TEL: 4462 7501info@pen.com.qa

PUBLIC RELATIONSTEL: 4455 7613pr@pen.com.qa

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENTTEL: 4455 7837 / 780FAX: 4455 7870 adv@pen.com.qa

CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENTTEL: 4455 7857adv@pen.com.qa

SUBSCRIPTION & DISTRIBUTIONTEL: 4455 7809 / 839FAX: 44557819info@tawseelqatar.com

D-RING ROADPOST BOX: 3488DOHA - QATAReditor@pen.com.qa

All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.

All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the editorinchief@pen.com.qa

multilateral pressure to bear at the United Nations risks being stymied, above all by the Chinese govern-ment, which supports Myanmar’s military.

China also has an interest in good relations with Bangladesh and the Islamic world as well as in the long-term stability of Myanmar itself. For all these reasons, the United States should seek to join with China to press both Aung San Suu Kyi and Myanmar’s military to agree to the return of the Rohingya refugees and to provide them with genuine safeguards.

In particular, the United States, China and other UN Security Coun-cil members should urge that such safeguards include rapid deploy-ment of a UN peace observer mission to Rakhine state, home to the overwhelming majority of the refugees. The mission would moni-tor both the return of refugees and conditions facing all ethnic com-munities, including those Myanmar’s government are con-cerned may be threatened by Rohingya insurgents. The diplo-matic involvement of the Chinese, who now contribute more person-nel to UN peace operations than any permanent member of the Security Council, could provide reassurance to Myanmar’s govern-ment and military.

The politics of this effort would be extremely complicated. But it is worth a try, as it may be the only hope to promote regional peace and stability and keep faith with a Rohingya population whose most fervent desire is to live in peace in Myanmar.

Eric P SchwartzThe Washington Post

Our values demand that we should not simply sit by as if there were nothing we could do to prevent the continuing tragedy. US interests in regional stability and democracy in Myanmar also compel stronger action.

Hussain Abdul HussainAnatolia

If Bush overestimated America’s power and Obama underestimated it, Trump seems to have no clue what America’s tools of power are, how to project power, or to what end.

10 SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017EUROPE

Juncker urges UK to pay Brexit billBrussels

AP

The leader of the European Union’s executive com-plained yesterday that

talks on Britain’s departure from the bloc will take longer than expected and demanded that Prime Minister Theresa May’s government pay its divorce bill.

European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker (pictured) said the EU’s British partners “are discovering, as we are day after day, new prob-lems,” and he added that “this process will take longer than initially thought.”

A day after the EU’s Brexit negotiator said talks on the divorce bill were deadlocked, Juncker insisted in Luxembourg that “they have to pay. They have to pay.”

“If you are sitting in a bar and if you are ordering 28 drinks and then suddenly some of your colleagues is leaving and is not paying - that’s not feasible,” he said in English.

He insisted that the EU is not seeking outrageous sums, saying Britain’s bill does not have to be settled “in an impos-sible way. I’m not in a revenge mood.”

Various EU estimates sug-gest the bill could amount to $70 to $120bn. The British gov-ernment has rejected such numbers.

Juncker’s comments came

as EU leaders, without May, prepare next week to launch preliminary talks on the outline of the future EU-UK relation-ship once Britain leaves on March 29, 2019.

In a draft summit statement seen Friday by The Associated Press, the leaders order EU ministers and Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier “to start inter-nal preparatory discussions” on future ties.

This would allow the EU to move quickly on elements like trade relations if negotiators make “sufficient progress” by December on the terms of the EU-UKdivorce agreement.

Negotiations are moving slowly. EU leaders insist progress must be made on Brit-ain’s divorce bill, the rights of citizens hit by Brexit and the future state of the Northern Ire-land-Ireland border.

The leaders, who meet in Brussels on October 19 and 20 and again in mid-December, refuse to talk about future rela-tions until that happens.

UK police hub aims to curb online hate crime

Switzerland to vote on burqa ban Geneva

AP

The Swiss government says that voters will decide whether to ban face-covering garments like masks or burqas and niqabs.

The government said yesterday a vote on the ban, champi-oned by far-right groups, will take place.

That comes after advocates gathered over 100,000 signa-tures to put the initiative on the ballot under Switzerland’s system of direct democracy, which lets voters decide major policy issues.

The executive Federal Council will set a date for the referen-dum, not expected before next year.

Passage would put Switzerland alongside France, Austria and other European countries in prohibiting face-covering garments.

The Italian-speaking Swiss region of Ticino enacted such a ban last year.

The measure was proposed by a group including lawmakers from the nationalist Swiss People’s Party that was also behind a ban on building minarets in Switzerland.

Largest pink diamond could fetch $30mLondon

Reuters

“The Pink Raj”, an intense pink dia-mond described by

experts as the world’s largest, is expected to fetch up to $30m when it is auctioned in Geneva next month.

The stone, which weighs just over 37 carats, was dis-played by auction house Sotheby’s in London this week. “It is a wonderful shape. It is a cushion modi-fied diamond, with a lot of brilliance, a lot of facets, when you move it around and sort of have it on your finger,” Sotheby’s senior jewellery specialist Daniela Mascetti said. The rough diamond was mined in 2015 and is being auctioned by an anonymous owner. Previous sales for smaller pink diamonds have yielded more than $1m per carat at auction.

A 24.78 carat intense pink diamond sold for more than $46m - a record price per carat for pink diamonds - in November 2010 in Geneva.

600 migrants rescued at sea arrive in SicilyMilan

AP

Some 600 migrants rescued at sea arrived in Sicily yes-terday — one of the biggest

influxes since Italy struck a deal with Libyan authorities to limit migrant smuggling — raising concerns of a renewed surge on the Libyan human trafficking route.

The migrants, including many unaccompanied minors from sub-Saharan Africa, were rescued in seven operations over 36 hours, and transported yesterday to Palermo by the German non-governmental organisation SOS Mediterranee. They came as three weeks of

fighting around the Libyan city of Sabratha has destabilised militias that pledged to help reduce the flow of migrant smuggling across the Mediter-ranean Sea, leaving many migrants and refugees displaced.

SOS Mediterranee President Valeria Calandra said that the renewed instability in Libya has only increased the desire of migrants to escape the lawless North African country.

“It was very improbable that from today to tomorrow you can stop everyone,” she said.

“I think this rescue is the first of many others that will arrive,” she added.

London

Anatolia

A new UK police unit to crack down on a rising tide of online hate has been wel-c o m e d b y

campaigners, but some are warning the new measures do not go far enough.

The UK government announced last weekend a new unit of experts which will “chan-nel all reports of online hate crime”.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd described online hate crime as “completely unacceptable.”

“What is illegal offline is ille-gal online, and those who commit these cowardly crimes should be met with the full force of the law,” she said.

A surge in reports of hate crime followed Britain’s EU ref-erendum in June 2016, while official police figures said there was another spike around the terrorist attacks that hit the UK earlier this year.

A total of 62,518 hate crimes were recorded by forces in Eng-land and Wales in 2015/16, while the Crown Prosecution Service

dealt with a record 15,442 hate crime cases.

The new hub will become operational by the end of the year according to the Home Office, however, how it will operate and what tools it will use to identify and categorise tar-geted online hatred have yet to be specified.

Run by officers for the National Police Chiefs Council

(NPCC), it will work “to ensure online cases are managed effec-tively and efficiently,” according to the Home Office. “It will clearly set out the [police] force responsible for further action in each case, removing any uncer-tainty which could arise when, for example, a victim is located in one area, with the alleged per-petrator in another.”

Rudd said the online hate crime hub will be “an important step to ensure more victims have the confidence to come forward and report the vile abuse to which they are being subjected”.

“With the police, we will use this new intelligence to adapt our response so that even more vic-tims are safeguarded and perpetrators punished,” she said.

Its arrival comes as the number of hateful messages and fake news targeting Muslims and other minorities is on the rise. Islamophobic attacks on Mus-lims and mosques in the wake of this year’s Manchester and Lon-don terror attacks have also gone up.

Alison Saunders, a lawyer and Director of Public Prosecu-tions at CPS promised action and

stiffer penalties for offenders.Writing for British daily the

Guardian, Saunders said it was vital to counter hate speech online as it could fuel physical violence.

“Left unchallenged, even low-level offending can subse-quently fuel the kind of dangerous hostility that has been plastered across our media in recent days,” he wrote.

“That is why countering it is a priority for the CPS,” she added.

However, although this new initiative from a government buried under the enormous bur-den negotiating Brexit with the European Union was welcomed, much more needed to be done according to campaigners who have dealt with Islamophobia in the UK.

Iman Atta, director of Tell-Mama—an organisation registering anti-Muslim and Islamophobic hate crimes—said the hub was a positive step but swift justice should also be meted out to the perpetrators of online hate crime.

“The government’ s new ini-tiative to tackle online hate crime is certainly a step in the right direction,” Atta said.

“People who take to social media to express their hate and xenophobia to a fellow human being must be brought to justice,” she said.

“However, it is also impor-tant to distinguish between different types of hate crimes, particularly online crimes com-mitted out of racial and religious hatred,” she added.

“It is particularly worrying that anti-Semitism and Islamo-phobia are both on the rise in online platforms, and perpetra-tors of these heinous crimes must face the full force of justice quickly so that it works as a deterrent.”

Salman Al Azami, a senior lecturer from Liverpool Hope University and the author of the book Religion in the Media: A Linguistic Analysis thinks the government overall falls short when dealing with Islamopho-bia particularly.

Azami said May’s Conserv-ative Party should do more to identify anti-Muslim hate crime with its own ranks and”root out” those members and rep-resentative who “show their hatred against Islam and Muslims”.

Speaking in August, the NPCC’s leading officer on hate crime, Assistant Chief Constable Mark Hamilton, said the spike in hate crime showed how “terror-ist attacks and other national and global events have the potential to trigger short-term spikes in hate crime and so we have been carefully monitoring community tensions following recent hor-rific events”.

“As terrorists seek to divide us, it is more important than ever that we continue to stand united in the face of hostility and hatred,” Hamilton said.

The new police hub also comes as some far-right groups and individuals turn online pos-turing into physical threats.

Data from British police forces across the country com-piled by the UK’s Press Association this week said offic-ers recorded 110 hate crimes directed at mosques between March and July this year alone, up from just 47 over the same period in 2016.

But whether the new online hate crime hub will be able to curb offenders or not will be seen after it becomes operational in three months time.

Home Secretary Amber Rudd described online hate crime as “completely unacceptable.”

New measure

The new hub will become operational by the end of the year according to the Home Office, however, how it will operate and what tools it will use to identify and categorise targeted online hatred have yet to be specified.

Hungary & Ukraine clash over education lawBudapest

Reuters

The foreign ministers of Hungary and Ukraine clashed yesterday over

Ukraine’s new law banning teaching in minority languages, with Budapest threatening to retaliate by blocking Ukraine’s aspirations to integration in the European Union.

Hungary said on Tuesday it would ask the EU to review its ties with Ukraine over Kiev’s decision to stop secondary school instruction in ethnic minority tongues including Hungarian.

The language issue has

driven relations between Ukraine and Hungary to their lowest point since Kiev won independence with the Soviet Union’s 1991 break-up, Hungar-ian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.

At a joint news conference with Ukrainian counterpart Pavlo Klimkin following talks, Szijjarto said Budapest was also worried about two other bills about citizenship and language now in the Kiev parliament.

“We see the situation in a totally different light. This can lead to a suffocation of minor-ity language public discourse, which should be avoided,” he said.

“We would like for the citi-zenship law not to curb (local) Hungarians’ rights further. If they ask us to fight, that’s what we will do. We will not back down one inch.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin said Kiev did not intend to crack down on the Hungarian community in Ukraine, including their right to the use of their mother tongue.

“We will not close a single school, fire a single teacher,” he said. “Our logic is simple: every citizen must speak Ukrainian beside their mother tongue to ensure their future success. The education law replaced the old, post-Soviet laws.”

Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Pavlo Klimkin (left) and Hungary's Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Peter Szijjarto arrive to addresses a joint press conference, in Hungary.

Migrants wait to disembark from the Aquarius ship in the Sicilian harbour of Palermo, Italy, yesterday.

11SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017 EUROPE

Austria election campaign

Catalan leader faces heat on all sidesMadrid

Reuters

Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont came under pressure from one of his key allies yesterday to declare

full independence and ignore a threat of direct rule from the Spanish government.

Puigdemont made a symbolic declaration of independence on Tuesday night, only to suspend it seconds later and call for negoti-ations with Madrid.

Spain’s Prime Minister Mar-iano Rajoy has given him until Monday to clarify his position - and then until Thursday to change his mind if he insists on a split - threatening to suspend Catalonia’s autonomy if he chooses independence.

But far-left Catalan political group CUP called on Puigdemont to make an unequivocal decla-ration of independence in defiance of the deadlines.

“If (the central Madrid gov-ernment) wants to continue to threaten and gag us, they should do it to the Republic that has already been claimed,” the party said.

The CUP only holds 10 seats in the 135-seat Catalan parlia-ment. But Puigdemont’s minority government relies on its support to push through legislation and cannot win a majority vote in the regional parliament without its backing.

The wealthy region’s inten-tion to break away after a referendum has plunged Spain into its worst political crisis since an attempted military coup in 1981.

Sources close to the Catalan government said Puigdemont and his team were working on an answer to Rajoy though they declined to say what line he might take.

The CUP statement echoes the position expressed late on Thursday by influential pro-independence civic group Asamblea Nacional Catalana which said: “Given the negative position of Spain toward dia-logue, we ask the regional parliament to raise the

suspension (on the declaration of independence).”

But the leader of Puigde-mont’s party, Artur Mas, who served as the region’s president until 2016 and is still believed to influence key decisions, said yes-terday declaring independence was not the only way forward.

“If a state proclaims itself independent and cannot act as such, it’s an independence that is merely aesthetic,” he said.

“The external factor must be taken into account in the decisions that will be made from now on.”

The European Union, the United States and most other

world powers have made it clear they wanted Catalonia to remain within Spain.

“If we allow Catalonia - and it is none of our business - to sep-arate, others will do the same. I do not want that,” Jean Claude Juncker said in a speech at Lux-embourg University.

Spanish and Catalan flags are hung from the balconies of an apartment building in Madrid, Spain, yesterday.

Far-left Catalan political group CUP called on Puigdemont to make an unequivocal declaration of independence in defiance of the deadlines.

Under pressure

The European Union, the United States and most other world powers have made it clear they wanted Catalonia to remain within Spain.

Call for compromise on EU’s new border security ruleLuxembourg

AFP

The EU called yesterday for a “quick compromise” between countries push-

ing to extend checks on the internal borders of Europe’s passport-free zone and those afraid such a move would kill off European unity and freedom.

Interior ministers from France, Germany and several other countries said checks within the Schengen zone, first introduced to tackle Europe’s migrant crisis, are still needed to deal with terrorist threats.

However, Slovakia said the

border checks, first introduced as the migrant crisis peaked in 2015, were not needed for secu-rity and warned of undermining Schengen’s freedoms.

“The proposed changes in the Schengen borders code will make Schengen stronger and more resilient,” European home affairs commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos said.

They will allow “member states to respond to security threats when needed while maintaining the essence of free movement of goods, people and services,” he added.

“I reiterated to ministers today the need for a quick com-promise on this issue,” the

Greek commissioner said.However, a European dip-

lomat told AFP that bridging the divide will take at least a year. Another diplomat said that, besides Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Poland opposed prolonging checks.

The proposed change is “more political than a profes-sional one,” Slovak interior minister Robert Kalinak told reporters, adding there was no information that recent attacks were committed by people crossing Schengen borders.

The countries seeking longer border checks are France, Germany, Denmark, Austria, Sweden and non-EU

Norway. All but France, which was hard hit by terrorist attacks, introduced the checks initially to control migration.

The European Commission, the executive branch of the 28-nation EU, had said several times in the last few months that the extensions must end in November as the migration cri-sis was easing.

The EU has sharply slowed arrivals of asylum seekers and migrants through closer coop-eration with Turkey and Libya, gateways from the Middle East and Africa.

But in recent weeks, France, Germany and other countries notified the

commission they would extend the checks for another six months beyond November for security reasons, citing current rules.

Countries in the 26-coun-try Schengen travel area, 22 of them EU members, can cur-rently reintroduce frontier checks for six months for secu-rity reasons, and two years if that is combined with a threat to borders such as Europe’s migration crisis.

The Commission last month released plans to allow Schengen countries to reintro-duce border controls for security reasons for up to three years.

Ukraine bans banknote with Crimea imageKiev

AFP

Ukraine said yesterday it was banning a new Russian banknote

showing an image of the Crimean peninsula that the Kremlin annexed in 2014.

The announcement came one day after Moscow unveiled a new note worth $3.50 featuring a naval memorial in the city of Sev-astopol -- the base of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet -- and Unesco-protected Greek and Roman ruins at nearby Chersonesus.

The green design also includes the scenic peninsu-la’s map.

The National Bank of Ukraine (NBU) said the ban covered all Russian curren-cies showing “maps, symbols, buildings, monuments” and other objects “based in Ukrainian territories occu-pied by Russia”.

The ban will go into effect next Tuesday.

Russia on Thursday pre-sented two new notes -- the second one worth 2,000 rubles -- whose images were chosen after a national com-petition held last year.

Central Bank of Russia chief Elvira Nabiullina insisted the new images would “not harm the position of the ruble in any way.”

Bird flu outbreak at Dutch provinceThe Hague

AFP

Dutch poultry farmers, already left reeling by a contaminated egg

scandal, were in a new flap yesterday over an outbreak of bird flu with thousands of hens to be destroyed.

“An outbreak of a variant of H5 bird flu has been detected in a poultry farm in Zeeland province,” Economic Affairs Minister Henk Kamp said.

All 42,000 egg-laying hens in the southern Nether-lands farm will have to be culled “to stop the disease spreading” in accordance with European regulations, he added in a statement.

“A mild pathogenic vari-ant of H5 can mutuate into a very contagious and deadly strain for chickens, therefore in all such cases the animals have to be put down.”

The ministry also ordered an immediate ban on the transportation of poultry, eggs, meat and manure within a one kilometre zone around the farm located in the village of Sint Philipsland, although there are no other poultry farms in the area.

It is a new blow for the Dutch poultry industry which since August has been at the centre of a tainted egg scandal.

Norway to send armoured unit near Russian borderOslo

Reuters

Norway said yesterday it planned to send an armoured battalion near

its arctic border with Russia and buy more tanks and artillery to respond to growing threats.=

Defence Minister Ine Erik-sen Soereide did not mention Russia as she described her minority government’s defence plan, and said she did not see a

specific, current military threat.But the Nato member and

other nearby countries have grown increasingly alarmed about Moscow’s ambitions, par-ticularly following its annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and its naval and air force manoeuvres in the region.

“The security situation has become more challenging and less predictable. This has conse-quences for how we organise the military,” Soereide said.

The plan calls for the armoured unit - still referred to as a cavalry battalion - to be sta-tioned in the remote Porsanger district, in the far north on the edge of a long fjord leading into the Barents Sea, which also bor-ders Russia.

It also includes more invest-ment in tanks, artillery and long-range precision weapons in the area and other locations fur-ther south, together with an extension of the time people have

to spend in some national service positions to 16 from 12 months.

“We must be able to defend all parts of our country ... this is a clear signal that we have a par-ticular responsibility in the north,” Soereide said.

Norway’s minority goven-rment will need to get support from other parties to get the pro-posals through parliament, but there is a broad consensus on strengthening defences in the Arctic north.

Europe launches sixthenvironmental satelliteFrankfurt

Reuters

Europe launched the sixth of its Sentinel Earth observation satellites on

Friday as part of the multi-bil-l ion-euro Copernicus programme to monitor volcanic ash and ultraviolet radiation.

The Sentinel-5P satellite, part of a system of satellites that is to monitor Earth, blasted off on board a Rockot launcher from the Plesetsk cosmodrome in Rus-sia’s north-western Arkhangelsk region at 0927 GMT.

From its orbit 824km above Earth, it will monitor the plan-et’s atmosphere for occurrences such as volcanic ash that could put airplanes at risk or high lev-els of ultraviolet radiation that could cause skin damage.

In addition, scientists will use Sentinel-5P’s data to under-stand better how holes form in Earth’s ozone layer.

The Copernicus project is described by the European Space Agency (ESA) as the most ambitious Earth observation programme to date. The Euro-pean Union and the ESA have committed funding of more than $9.5bn to it until 2020.

The launch of the Coperni-cus project became especially urgent after Europe lost con-tact with its Earth observation satellite Envisat in 2012 after 10 years.

Sentinel-5P, also known as Sentinel-5 Precursor, was designed to reduce data gaps between Envisat and NASA’s Aura mission and the launch of Sentinel 5.

Social Democrats (SPOe) top candidate Christian Kern attends his party's final election campaign rally in Vienna, Austria, yesterday.

12 SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017AMERICAS

Trump administration toughens Iran strategyWashington

AFP

President Donald Trump launched a tougher strategy to check Iran’s “fanatical regime” yesterday and

warned that a landmark inter-national nuclear deal could be terminated at any time.

In a much-anticipated White House speech, Trump stopped short of withdrawing from the 2015 accord, but “decertified” his support for the agreement and left its fate in the hands of Congress.

And, outlining the results of a review of efforts to counter Tehran’s “aggression” in a series of Middle East conflicts, Trump ordered tougher sanctions on Iran’s Revolutionary Guards Corps and on its ballistic missile program.

Trump said the agreement, which defenders say was only ever meant to curtail Iran’s nuclear programme in return for sanctions relief, had failed to address Iranian subversion in its region and its illegal missile programme.

The US president said he supports efforts in Congress to work on new measures to

address these threats without immediately torpedoing the broader deal.

“However, in the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated,” Trump said.

“It is under continuous review and our participation can be canceled by me as president at any time,” he warned.

Simultaneously, the US Treasury said it had taken action against the Islamist Revolution-ary Guards under a 2001 executive order to hit sources of terror funding and added four companies that allegedly support the group to its sanctions list.

Trump’s criticism of the so-called Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) -- the nuclear control accord reached between Iran and Britain, China, France, Germany, Russia and the United States -- had raised global concerns.

World governments feared any US move to sabotage the arrangement could dash Wash-ington’s diplomatic credibility and relaunch Iran’s alleged quest for a nuclear weapon, in turn provoking a new Middle East arms race.

But Secretary of State Rex Tillerson made clear ahead of the president’s speech that his deci-sion does not necessarily mean an end to the accord.

“The intent is that we will stay in the JCPOA, but the pres-ident is going to decertify,” Tillerson said.

“We’re saying, fine, they’re meeting the technical compli-ance,” he said, indicating that the broader agreement would remain intact for now, and that US lawmakers will have an opportunity to revisit the US sanctions regime.

Trump had repeatedly pledged to overturn one of his predecessor Barack Obama’s crowning foreign policy

achievements, deriding it as “the worst deal” and one agreed to out of “weakness.”

Both the US government and UN nuclear inspectors say Iran is meeting the technical require-ments of its side of the bargain, dramatically curtailing its nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief.

US concerns about the Guards could also weaken the deal.

Trump stopped short of des-ignating the powerful military faction a global terror organiza-tion, as some hawks demanded, but his announcement of tar-geted sanctions is still likely to

trigger an angry Iranian response.

Apart from running swaths of Iran’s economy and Iran’s bal-listic program, the corps is also accused of guiding bellicose proxies from Hezbollah in Leb-anon, to the Huthi in Yemen to Shiite militia in Iraq and Syria.

“We have considered that there are particular risks and complexities to designating an entire army, so to speak, of a country,” Tillerson said.

Instead the US will squeeze those directly supporting the corps’ “terrorist activities, whether it’s weapons exports or it’s weapons components, or

cyber activity, or it’s movement of weapons and fighters around.”

Still, Trump’s tough-guy approach could yet risk undoing years of careful diplomacy and increasing Middle East tensions.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani lashed out at his US counterpart saying he was opposing “the whole world” by trying to abandon the landmark nuclear agreement.

“It will be absolutely clear which is the lawless government. It will be clear which country is respected by the nations of the world and global public opinion,” he added.

Trump offers support to Puerto RicoWashington

AP

President Donald Trump is assuring residents of hurricane-ravaged

Puerto Rico that he “will always be with them.”

His tweet yesterdaycomes a day after he lashed out at the island, insisting that the federal government can’t keep sending help “forever.” He’d also suggested the US territory is to blame for its financial struggles.

He took a softer tone yes-terday, saying that “the wonderful people of Puerto Rico” have an “unmatched spirit.” He tweeted, “I will always be with them!”

But he also said again that residents “know how bad things were before” the hurricanes.

Much of the island remains without power weeks after the storm.

Judge eases jail restrictions on El ChapoNew York

AP

A judge in New York has ordered prison officials to provide Mexican

drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman with some new methods for participating in his defence.

US District Judge Brian Cogan directed the govern-ment to modify an attorney-visiting room with a second computer monitor and a slot for passing legal docu-ments through a partition.

Guzman has pleaded not guilty to charges that his drug cartel laundered billions of dollars and oversaw a ruth-less campaign of murders and kidnappings.

The defence has claimed that he’s being held in inhu-mane and overly restrictive conditions at a high-security Manhattan jail.

Ousted Venezuelan prosecutor leaks Odebrecht bribe videoCaracas

AP

Venezuela’s ousted chief prosecutor leaked a video purporting to show an

Odebrecht executive saying he agreed to pay $35m toward Pres-ident Nicolas Maduro’s campaign in exchange for prioritizing the Brazilian construction giant’s projects.

Luisa Ortega Diaz (pictured), who fled Venezuela in August after being removed from office by a new, all-powerful constit-uent assembly, said on her website that the video shows Venezuela Odebrecht president Euzenando Prazeres de Azevedo

speaking to Brazil ian prosecutors.

In the video, a man identi-fied as Azevedo says a Maduro aide asked for $50m for the socialist leader’s 2013 campaign. The special presidential election

was convened shortly after the death of Hugo Chavez and Maduro was running a tight race with opposition candidate Hen-rique Capriles.

Azevedo said he agreed to pay $35m in exchange for assur-ances that if Maduro won, Odebrecht projects would receive “priority.”

“We negotiated, I agreed to pay and the resources were released,” he said.

Odebrecht acknowledged in a US Justice Department plea agreement that it paid bribes throughout Latin America to secure lucrative contracts.

Maduro did not immediately remark on the claim, but Tarek

William Saab, who replaced Ortega after her dismissal, said there is an order for Azevedo’s arrest.

He added that Venezuelan authorities will be alerting Inter-pol in hopes of obtaining his capture.

The same statement noted that former lawmaker German Ferrer, Ortega’s husband, is also a wanted man. The government has accused him of running a $6 million extortion ring with cor-rupt prosecutors under Ortega’s supervision.

Shortly after fleeing Vene-zuela, Ortega told a group of Latin American prosecutors she believed Maduro had ordered

her removal in order to halt an ongoing probe linking him and his inner circle to nearly $100 million in bribes from Odebrecht.

A longtime government loy-alist, Ortega has become one of Maduro’s fiercest critics after breaking with his government in late March. She declared that a Supreme Court ruling stripping the opposition-controlled con-gress of its last powers violated the constitution.

Ortega has repeatedly claimed that she has evidence implicating Maduro and other top officials in corruption involv-ing Odebrecht but has provided few details.

In the event we are not able to reach a solution working with Congress and our allies, then the agreement will be terminated. It is under continuous review and our participation can be canceled by me as president at any time: Trump

Warning

US President Donald Trump makes a statement on Iran nuclear deal in the Diplomatic Room of the White House, in Washington, yesterday.

31 dead in California wildfiresPG&E workers repair power lines in the Coffey Park neighbourhood following the damage caused by the Tubbs Fire in Santa Rosa, California, yesterday

Sonoma

Reuters

Firefighters faced more dry, windy conditions yester-day that could whip up

wildfires in Northern California that have killed at least 31 peo-ple and left hundreds missing.

The most lethal wildfires in California’s history have killed people while they slept in their beds and prompted authorities to order thousands of residents

from their homes, warning any-one deciding to stay: “You are on your own.”

The toll from the more than 20 fires raging across eight coun-ties could climb, with more than 400 people in Sonoma County alone still listed as missing.

Winds of up to 60 mph and humidity of just 10 percent will create “critical fire weather con-ditions” and “contribute to extreme fire behaviour” yester-day and into Saturday, the

National Weather Service said.A force of 8,000 firefighters

was working to reinforce and extend buffer lines across the region where the flames have scorched more than 77,000 hectares.

With 3,500 homes and busi-nesses incinerated, the so-called North Bay fires have reduced entire neighborhoods in the city of Santa Rosa to smoldering ruins dotted with charred trees and burned-out cars.

Cuba could stop ‘attacks’ on American diplomatsWashington

Reuters

US President Donald Trump’s chief of staff said yesterday that

Washington believes Havana could put a halt to the mysteri-ous incidents that have sickened nearly two dozen American diplomats and some tourists in Cuba.

“We believe that the Cuban government could stop the attacks on our diplomats,” White House Chief of Staff John Kelly said when asked about the situation at a White House briefing.

State Department spokes-woman Heather Nauert said later she thought Kelly was referring to the fact that the Vienna Conventions dealing with diplomatic relations between countries require the host nation to provide for the safety and security of diplo-matic personnel.

Nauert told a briefing at the State Department that the investigation into the attacks was “still under way” and the department did not know “who or what is responsible for it.”

She also suggested the United States believes Cuba might know more than it has divulged about the incidents.

“In a small country like Cuba where the government is going to know a lot of things that take place within its bor-ders, they may have more information than we are aware of right now,” she said.

The Trump administration last week expelled 15 Cuban diplomats to protest Havana’s failure to protect staff at the US embassy in the communist country.

Washington also has recalled more than half its dip-lomatic personnel from Cuba.

At least 22 US diplomatic personnel have reported hav-ing health issues after being subjected to the apparent attacks.

They have suffered hearing loss, dizziness, fatigue, cogni-tive problems and other health issues.

Nauert told a briefing at the State Department that the investigation into the attacks was “still under way” and the department did not know “who or what is responsible for it.”

13SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017 CLASSIFIEDS

SERVICES

ARTECHSage Accounting, Peachtree, QuickBooks, Dynacom,

Tel: +974 44375654 E-mail: artech@ar-technology.net

ACCOUNTING SOFTWARES

GEM ADVERTISING & PUBLICATIONS(Overseas Newspaper Advertisements)

44442001 - GSM: 55783303

ADVERTISING OVERSEAS NEWSPAPER

ATTESTATION

ASIA TRANSLATION & SERVICES CENTRE

AL HAYIKI TRANSLATION & SERVICES EST.

ELECTRONICS

BUSINESS SET-UP

HELPLINE GROUP OF COMPANIES

77711129/44351974/44919213 www.qatarhelplinegroup.com

ARMSTRONG

: 55860369 E-mail: @armstrongmachinery.com www.armstrongmachinery.com

A/C MAINTENANCE & SERVICES

COMPUTER & IT

COMPUTER TRAINING CENTRE

FAMILY COMPUTER CENTRE

44435361/44370779 44449130

AL MUTWASSIT CLEANING & PEST CONTROL

44367555 44367999 GSM: 55875920/55860432

CAPITAL CLEANING COMPANY W.L.L.

44582257 33189899/ 55565328E-mail: capitalcleaningwll@gmail.com

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE

IMMIGRATION SERVICES

Pen.MagTel: 44557857

adv@pen.com.qa

JEWELLERY

CANARA JEWELLERY

44422071, 44357283

WOKEER INDUSTRIAL AREA

660 02 704 E-mail: portacabins@iescoqatar.com

LABOUR CAMP

MAID SERVICES

APOLLO ENTERPRISES44426664

GSM: 55871914/ 55524897

METAL REPAIRS

ALWASEEM TRANSLATION & SERVICES CENTER

-

APOLLO FURNITURE

44689522 (3 Lines)

FURNITURE

QUEENS LAND SERVICESBusiness Set-up and Sponsorship.

77776917 info@qlsqatar.com

INVEST IN QATAR

APOLLO ENTERPRISES

44426664 GSM: 55830870/33599574 mlibor@belzona.org

GLASS COATING

GENERAL TRADING SERVICES

ARMSTRONG

: 558 60 369 E-mail: secretary@armstrongmachinery.com www.armstrongmachinery.com

GENERATORS (Sales & Rentals)

FACILITY MANAGEMENT SERVICES

FLORIST

LEADER MIDDLE EAST W.L.L.

+974 55745147

BUSINESS SET-UP

PEST CONTROL

PARTY KINGDOM

44353501/ 44366431 E-mail: partykingdom10doha@yahoo.com

PARTY ITEMS & BALLOON DECORATION

ARMSTRONG

: 557 80 396 E-mail: portacabins2@iescoqatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

PORTA CABINS (Sales & Rentals)

MASSAGE

HERBOLIFE MASSAGE (AYURVEDIC)

77521322/44764968

AUTHENTIC THAI MASSAGE CENTERS

KERALA AYURVEDIC MASSAGE CENTER - FOR LADIES.

44147741, 50007714

KOTTAKKAL AYURVEDIC MASSAGE CENTRE

44360061 GSM: 33453697

14 SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017CLASSIFIEDS

SERVICES

NEW STATE CLEANING & PEST CONTROL

466517556/55404339

PEST CONTROL

REAL ESTATE

AL MUFTAH SERVICES 44634444/44010700 55542067/55823100

APOLLO REAL ESTATE55864352/55506803/ 55872145

44689522

ADAM REAL ESTATE COMPANY

44366932 44366931 55500789 / 55803731

RENT A CAR

REGENCY FLEETS

44433822/44554046/44554048 44554047 Airport Branch (24hrs): 70482655

NATIONAL - ALAMO RENT A CAR

5547 8150, 5040 0624

OASIS RENT A CAR

6641 7354 4413 0011 -

AL DAR CAR RENTAL

44877789 44866637

EUROCAR RENT A CAR CO LLC44660677

Airport: 40108888 66967787/ 55849587

COUNTRY RENT A CAR - BARWA AL WAKRA

44154467/44687507 55048720/ 5544042/66995238

AL MUFTAH RENT A CAR

GO RENT A CAR

+974 44325500 44375753 33697075/ 66971703/55241629

SECURITY SYSTEM & SOLUTION

WATER TANK CLEANING

AL MUTWASSIT CLEANING & PEST CONTROL

443679 99 55875920/55860432

CAPITAL CLEANING COMPANY

55565328/ 33189899 44582257 E-mail: capitalcleaningwll@gmail.com

ARMSTRONG

: 557 80 396 E-mail: portacabins2@ qatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

SEWAGE & WASTE REMOVAL

SCAFFOLDING

APOLLO ENTERPRISES SCAFFOLDING DIVISION44693334

44416274 55521089/55560246/55536285

QATAR AL ATTIYAH INTERNATIONAL GROUP (QAIG)

UNIFORMS

TRANSLATION SERVICES

HELPLINE44919213

77711129 - www.helplinetranslation.com

ARMSTRONG

: 557 80 396 E-mail: portacabins2@ qatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

USED CONTAINERS (Sales & Rentals)

WOKEER INDUSTRIAL AREA

660 02 704 E-mail: portacabins@ qatar.com

WAREHOUSE FOR RENTRECRUITMENT SERVICES

APOLLO REAL ESTATE

Qatar’s first Real Estate Company under British Management

Call: Office: 44689522, Maureen 55864352Abubakar 55850815, Peter 55506803, Dexter 55872145

www.apollopropertiesonline.com

NOTICE

ARMSTRONG

: 557 80 396 E-mail: portacabins2@ qatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

PORTABLE & CHEMICAL TOILETS (Sales & Rentals)

Semi-Furnished 2-BHK Available in Maamoura

Near to all Schools.Please contact:

55877151 - 44369925 -66944540

FOR RENT

NOTICE

FOR RENT

MS. BONILYN SEASTRES DE GUZMANFILIPINO NATIONAL, PASSPORT NO. EC6268572

QATAR ID NO. 28860816548

Tel: 44360031/32 Fax: 44360021

The above said person is leaving Qatar for

good. Anybody who has any claim against her should contact us on the following numbers within 2 days from the date of this advertise-ment. We will not be responsible for any claim whatsoever after the above said date.

MR. CHESTER REDENA PALINSADFILIPINO NATIONAL, PASSPORT NO. EC0630659

QATAR ID NO. 29160805769

Tel: 44360031/32 Fax: 44360021

The above said person is leaving Qatar for

good. Anybody who has any claim against him should contact us on the following numbers within 2 days from the date of this advertise-ment. We will not be responsible for any claim whatsoever after the above said date.

MR. CHRISTIAN ARVIN COLINARES FAMANILAY

FILIPINO NATIONAL, PASSPORT NO. EC2996855QATAR ID NO. 29060807772

Tel: 44360031/32 Fax: 44360021

The above said person is leaving Qatar for

good. Anybody who has any claim against him should contact us on the following numbers within 2 days from the date of this advertise-ment. We will not be responsible for any claim whatsoever after the above said date.

MS. DANICA LANGUB MAGCALASFILIPINO NATIONAL, PASSPORT NO. EC6043151

QATAR ID NO. 29360802512

Tel: 44360031/32 Fax: 44360021

The above said person is leaving Qatar for

good. Anybody who has any claim against her should contact us on the following numbers within 2 days from the date of this advertise-ment. We will not be responsible for any claim whatsoever after the above said date.

MR. JAYVEE ESQUIVEL NAPALANFILIPINO NATIONAL, PASSPORT NO. EC4937646

QATAR ID NO. 29560800630

Tel: 44360031/32 Fax: 44360021

The above said person is leaving Qatar for

good. Anybody who has any claim against him should contact us on the following numbers within 2 days from the date of this advertise-ment. We will not be responsible for any claim whatsoever after the above said date.

MS. JOAN MARIE LEONCITO BALINGASAFILIPINO NATIONAL, PASSPORT NO. EC4186764

QATAR ID NO. 29160805729

Tel: 44360031/32 Fax: 44360021

The above said person is leaving Qatar for

good. Anybody who has any claim against her should contact us on the following numbers within 2 days from the date of this advertise-ment. We will not be responsible for any claim whatsoever after the above said date.

CHANGE OF NAME

SHIRLEY PANGILINAN PANTALEON.

MR. MARVIN AMURAO IBANEZFILIPINO NATIONAL, PASSPORT NO. EC4414417

QATAR ID NO. 29060811328

Tel: 44360031/32 Fax: 44360021

The above said person is leaving Qatar for

good. Anybody who has any claim against him should contact us on the following numbers within 2 days from the date of this advertise-ment. We will not be responsible for any claim whatsoever after the above said date.

15SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017 BREAK TIME

Yesterday’s answer

SHOWING ATVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

BABY

BLU

ES

ALL IN THE MIND

ABOVE, ABYSS, ACME, APEX, ATOP, BASEMENT, BELOW, BROW, CANYON, CHASM, CRATER, CREST, CROWN, DEEP, DEPRESSION, ELATION, ELEVATED, HIGHEST, HILL, HOLE, HOLLOW, LOFTY, LOWEST, MOUND, MOUNTAIN, NADIR, OVER, PEAK, PINNACLE, RAISED, RAVINE, ROOF, SUMMIT, TRENCH, UNDER, VALLEY, VERTEX, ZENITH.

7:00 News

7:30 Talk To Al Jazeera

8:30 TechKnow

9:00 Witness

10:00 News

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Listening Post

12:00 News

12:30 Counting the Cost

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Pricing The Planet

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 UpFront

18:00 newsgrid

19:00 News

19:30 People & Power

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Listening Post

23:00 Al Jazeera World

08:00 Strip The City

08:45 Abandoned

Engineering

09:30 Breaking Magic

14:20 How Do They Do

It?

14:45 How Do They Do

It?

15:10 Garage Gold

16:10 Deadliest Job

Interview

17:00 What On

Earth?

17:50 So You Think You'd

Survive?

18:40 Supertruckers

20:15 Abandoned

Engineering

21:00 How Do They Do

It?

21:50 Edge Of

Alaska

22:40 Alaskan Bush

People

23:30 Alaska: The Last

Frontier

05:02 Wildest Islands

Of Indonesia

05:49 Lone Star Law

06:36 Night

07:25 Whale Wars

08:15 Untamed & Uncut

11:55 Lone Star Law

12:50 Pit Bulls &

Parolees

13:45 Expedition

Mungo

14:40 Catching

Monsters

15:35 Dark Days In

Monkey City

18:20 Dr. Jeff: Rocky

Mountain Vet

19:15 Treehouse

Masters

20:10 Wild Animal

Rescue

22:00 My Cat From Hell

22:55 Untamed &

Uncut

23:50 Untamed &

Uncut

14:25 K.C.

Undercover

15:15 Jessie

16:05 Descendants

Wicked World

16:10 Disney

Cookabout

16:35 Girl Meets

World

17:00 Austin & Ally

17:25 Austin & Ally

17:50 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug & Cat

Noir

19:05 Best Friends

Whenever

19:30 Liv And

Maddie

20:20 Jessie

20:45 Bizaardvark

21:10 Disney

Cookabout

22:00 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug & Cat

Noir

22:25 Alex & Co.

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is a number-

placing puzzle based on a 9×9 grid. The object is to

place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

that each row, each column and each 3×3 box

contains the same number only once.

CROSSWORD

CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

Yesterday's answer

NOVO — PearlBlade Runner 2049 (2D/Action) 11:00am, 12:00, 2:00, 3:00, 5:00,6:00; 8:00, 9:00; 11:59pm & 1:00am Renegades (2D/Action) 10:00, 11:45am, 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 4:45, 6:00, 8:00, 9:45; 10:00 & 11:59pmThe Foreigner (2D/Thriller) 10:15; 12:30, 2:00, 2:45, 5:00, 7:00, 7:15, 8:00, 9:30 10:10, 11:45, 11:59 & 12:20amLeatherface (2D/Horror) 10:00am, 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00 & 11:59pmFlatliners(2D/Horror) 10:00am, 12:00, 2:00 & 4:00pmKingsman:The Golden Circle(Action) 12:15, 5:15 & 10:15pmThe Son Of Bigfoot(2D/Animation) 10:00, 12:00, 2:00 & 4:00pmThe Snowman (2D/Crime) 6:00, 8:30 & 11:00pmAmityville: The Awakening (2D/Horror) 10:00am, 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00pmMy Pet Dinosaur (2D/Crime) 10:00am, 12:00, 2:00, 4:00 & 6:00pm

MALL

Raju Gari Gadhi 2 (2D/Telugu) 2:00pm Parava (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 11:30pmMy Pet Dinosaur (2D/Action) 2:15 & 5:45, 7:30pmPulikkaran Stara (2D/Malayalam) 5:00pm The Snowman (2D/Crime) 5:45pmLast Night (2D/Tagalog) 9:15pm; Leatherface (2D/Horror) 10:30pmThe Son Of Bigfoot (2D/Animation) 4:00pm; Renegades (2D/Action) 4:00pmAmityville: The Awakening (2D/Horror) 7:30pm & 12:00midnightBlade Runner 2049 (2D/Thriller) 7:45, 9:00 & 11:30pm

LANDMARKPulikkaran Stara (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 9:15pm ; The Son Of Bigfoot (2D/Animation) 2:15 &4:00pm; My Pet Dinosaur (2D/Action) 2:30, 4:30 & 6:30pm; Raju Gari Gadhi 2 (2D/Telugu) 5:00pm; Renegades (2D/Action) 7:15pm; Amityville: The Awakening (2D/Horror) 5:45pm; The Snowman (2D/Crime) 9:00pm; Parava (2D/Malayalam) 11:15pm; Last Night (2D/Tagalog) 7:15pm; Blade Runner 2049 (2D/Thriller) 8:15 & 11:15pm; Leatherface (2D/Horror) 11:45pm

ROYAL PLAZA

ROXY

My Pet Dinosaur (2D/Action) 2:00 & 3:45 & 5:30pmAmityville: The Awakening (2D/Horror) 7:15 & 9:45pmBlade Runner 2049 (2D/Thriller) 7:00 & 9:00 & 11:30pm Parava (2D/Malayalam) 2:00 & 11:30pm; Pulikkaran Stara (2D/Malayalam) 4:30pm The Son Of Bigfoot (2D/Animation) 2:30pm; The Foreigner(2D/Thriller) 4:15pm ; Leatherface (2D/Horror) 6:15pm; Last Night (2D/Tagalog) 7:15pm; Renegades (2D/Action) 9:45pm; The Snowman (2D/Crime) 11:30pm

The Son Of Bigfoot (2D/Animation), 12:00, 2:00 & 4:00pm Renegades (2D/Action) 6:00, 8:15 &10:30pmBlade Runner (Thriller) 12:00noon, 3:15, 6:30, 9:45pm & 01:00am Pulikkaran Stara (2D/Malayalam) 12:00, 2:45, 5:30; 8:15pm & 11:00pm

ASIAN TOWNPulikkaran Stara (2D/Malayalam) 12:30; 315; 5:45, 8:30, 11:00pm, Parava (2D/Malayalam) 12:30, 1:00, 3:00, 3:45, 5:45, 6:30, 8:15; 9:15 & 11:00pm Raju Gari Gadhi 2 (2D/Telugu) 1:00, 3:45 & 6:30pm

AL KHORParava (2D/Mal) 11:30am, 5:30, 8:30 & 11:30pm Pulikkaran Stara (2D/ Mal) 3:15, 9:00 & 11:45pm; Raju Gari Gadhi 2 (2D/Telugu) 3:30 & 9:00pm The Snowman (2D/Crime) 2:45; 7:15 & 11:45pm Leatherface (2D/Horror) 10:45am; 12:45, 5:15 & 9:45

16 SATURDAY 14 OCTOBER 2017MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

04.15 am05.31 am

ZUHRASR

11.20 am02.40 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.10 pm06.40 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 12:30 – 00:00 LOW TIDE 04:30 – 20:30

Hot daytime with slight dust to

blowing dust at places with scat-

tered clouds.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

29oC 38oC

Tokyo AFP

The news that a young reporter at Japan’s public broadcaster had worked herself to death came as lit-tle surprise to those inside

the country’s media, where a culture of excessively long hours has become the norm.

“I thought it would happen even-tually because we work like crazy... like a slave,” said a journalist at one of Japan’s major newspapers.

“I really thought I would die,” she said on condition of anonymity, recall-ing her days chasing after the prime minister and lawmakers in Tokyo, when she would routinely come home from work at 1:00 am and wake up four hours later.

While journalists tend to work long hours in many countries, the situation in Japan is among the most extreme, with reporters expected to be on the job 24-7.

The newspaper journalist -- now in her 30s -- was one of a gang of

hardcore Japanese reporters who stake out the houses of politicians they were assigned to follow every single night whether there is news or not -- a rit-ual called “Yomawari,” meaning “night round”.

Even on a snowy night, she used to wait hours outside the house of a politician she was covering.

“I had disposable hand warmers everywhere on my body but it was still too cold. I couldn’t go to the bathroom. It’s bad for your health,” she said, add-ing that she’s seen fellow journalists becoming physically and mentally ill.

And forget the weekend, she added, as political reporters chase law-makers back to their constituencies on Friday night.

A former Tokyo TV reporter pointed the finger at the Japanese cul-ture of “fighting spirit,” in which you’re told to never give up no matter what.

The 32-year-old, who was no stranger to working around the clock, remembers the day she kept going even though she felt seriously ill.

“I didn’t have time even to check my body temperature. Later I realised

I had a 39-degree fever,” she said.“Bosses would say you shouldn’t

be lazy but they wouldn’t say you should get rest because you’re work-ing too hard.” “Then you become like a zombie... this has to stop.”

The case of NHK reporter Miwa Sado, who died of heart failure aged 31 after logging 159 hours of overtime in the month before she died, made global headlines but was far from an isolated tragedy.

Every year in Japan, long working hours are blamed for dozens of deaths due to strokes, heart attacks and suicides.

Death from overwork even has its own word in Japanese -- “karoshi”.

According to a government report released last week, there were 191 “karoshi” cases in the year ending March 2017. The report also showed that 7.7 percent of employees in Japan regularly log more than 20 hours of overtime a week.

NHK journalist Sado, who had been covering Tokyo assembly elec-tions and an upper-house vote for the national parliament, was found dead

in her bed in July 2013, reportedly clutching her mobile phone.

She died three days after the upper-house election.

A government inquest a year after her death ruled that it was linked to excessive overtime. She had taken two days off in the month before she died.

NHK eventually made the case public four years later, bowing to pres-sure from Sado’s parents to take action to prevent a recurrence.

It was especially embarrassing for NHK, which has itself taken aim at Japan’s long-hours culture.

“I was shocked that someone at NHK, which has been campaigning against Japan’s long working culture, died from overwork,” said Shigeru Wakita, emeritus professor at Ryukoku University and an expert on labour law.

“Mass media should be able to change the habit of long working hours but they just don’t,” he said.

NHK boss Ryoichi Ueda went to the house of Sado’s parents to deliver a personal apology and vowed reform of the broadcaster’s working practices.

Karoshi: Occupational hazard for Japan’s media

Facebook beefs up food delivery options from appWashington AFP

Facebook yesterday announced a new feature to make it easier for users to order meals from nearby restaurants and service providers with-

out leaving the social network.A new “order food” feature rolled out for US users

lets Facebook users order delivery or takeout from restaurant chains such as Papa John’s and Panera, and on-demand services including Delivery.com and DoorDash.

“People already go to Facebook to figure out what to eat by reading about nearby restaurants, and see-ing what their friends say about them. So, we’re making it even easier,” read a blog post by Facebook vice president Alex Himel.

“From local spots to national chains, Facebook connects you with old favorites and new discoveries in just a few taps. You can even check out what your friends have to say about a restaurant before you order your food.”

Facebook has been testing this feature since last year and is rolling out the service to users in the United States on its desktop, iOS and Android applications, with new partners.

The move expands Facebook’s ability to keep users on its platform, with services such as money-trans-fer, business services and ride-hailing available from its main application or messaging services.

Cambodia bans ‘Kingsman’ for portrayal as crime hubPhnom Penh AFP

Hollywood’s light-h e a r t e d s p y blockbuster “Kings-

man: The Golden Circle” has been banned in Cambodia due to a scene that portrays the country and one of its famous temples as a hotbed of crime, an official said yesterday.

The action-comedy sequel follows a fictional British spy organisation that joins forces with an Ameri-can counterpart to search for a drug lord’s hideout, which turns out to be a jungle-ringed temple in Cambodia.

Bok Borak, director of the Culture Ministry’s film department, said the “unac-ceptable” film was banned from theatres for “using the name Cambodia as a hideout for criminals”.

“And what is more worry-ing is that it uses one of our temples as a place to produce drugs, to kill people cruelly... ,” he added. He said the movie was not filmed in Cambodia but the drug lord’s temple resembled the well-known Ta Prohm. “Our temple is a world heritage site that we must protect,” Bok Borak said, adding that a letter will be sent to the film’s producers.

China museum removes photos after racism rowBeijing AP

A Chinese museum has removed photographs which compare Afri-can people to animals from a

controversial exhibition after being accused of racism, the curators said yesterday.

Social media users in Africa had led outrage over the montages, including one showing an open-mouthed African child alongside a monkey in the same pose, and another showing a black adult man baring his teeth alongside a pho-

tograph of a lion.Following the complaints, a dozen

offending works were removed from the exhibition called “This is Africa”, which has been showing for three weeks at the Hubei Provincial Museum, in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.

“To show our goodwill and sincer-ity, we have replaced the photos that our African friends find shocking,” cura-tor Wang Yuejun said.

The exhibition contained 150 images by photographer Yu Huiping, who has visited Africa many times and “greatly loves” the continent, said Wang.

In creating his collection the pho-tographer was simply trying to “show the harmony between man and animal in Africa”, the curator said. “There is no discrimination at all in this.”

It is not the first time in recent years that Chinese institutions have been accused of showing a lack of sensitivity on race.

Last year, a laundry product firm apologised after a TV advertisement for its detergent showed a black man being forced into a washing machine before emerging transformed into an Asian man.

People walk in front of a stage of the BIFF Village, a venue of the 22nd Busan International Film Festival (BIFF), at Haeundae beach in Busan, yesterday. BIFF will screen around 300 films from 75 countries, including 100 world premieres, across its 10-day run until October 21.

Busan film festival

Qatar Rail has installed the last section of the pedestrian bridge in the West Bay area. The 63-metre long bridge, which was installed in 24 hours, connects West Bay station with the QP District.

Qatar Rail bridge