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Qatar and Argentina to bolster trade

relations

Advertisement hoardings lie on top of scooters and cars as super typhoon Meranti hit Pingtung county in southern Taiwan yesterday. Parts of Taiwan were brought to a standstill as the strongest typhoon of the year skirted past the island’s southern tip, knocking out power for more than 180,000 households.

→ See also page 6

Typhoon trail

Flying Superkids performing at Al Khor Mall during Eid Al Adha celebrations yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP → More pictures on pages 2, 3 & 16

Swirling celebrations

THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016 • 13 DHUL HIJJA 1437 • Volume 21 • Number 6920 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar 2 Riyals

Qatar urges world to enforce Syria ceasefireQNA & Agencies

GENEVA: Qatar has urged the international community to com-pel the Syrian regime to respect the implementation of the ceasefire agreement, to stop all forms of bom-bardments and forced displacement, and lift the siege on all cities.

This came in Qatar’s speech delivered by Ambassador H E Faisal bin Abdullah Al Henzab, Qatar’s Per-manent Representative to the United Nations and other International Organizations Office at Geneva yes-terday, during “the general debate

about the updated version state-ment of the High Commissioner for Human Rights ,” within the context of the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council item (2), being held from Sep-tember 13 to 30.

Meanwhile, UN chief Ban Ki-moon yesterday pressed Russia and the United States to do more to ensure the delivery of much-needed aid to Syrians as a ceasefire was largely holding.

Besieged civilians were still wait-ing desperately for relief in Syria’s war-battered second city of Aleppo, with 20 UN aid trucks stranded on the Turkish border over security

concerns. Russia said the Castello Road — the key supply route into Aleppo — had come under mortar fire, threatening the withdrawal of Syrian troops which had been set to begin at 0600 GMT today.

The truce that began at sundown on Monday, agreed after marathon US-Russia talks in Geneva last week, is part of the latest bid to end a five-year conflict that has killed more than 300,000 people.

Ban said he was in talks with Russia and the United States to turn up the pressure on all sides to guar-antee the security of the UN aid convoy.

Qatar also referred to the enor-mity of the scale and seriousness of the violations and crimes commit-ted by the Israeli occupation forces against the Palestinian people for more than six decades and the neg-ative repercussions on the whole situation in the region.

It also stressed the importance of continuing support of the consti-tutional legitimacy led by Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and ensure the implementation of the Gulf initiative and its executive mechanism as well as the outputs of the national dialogue, and the UN Security Council related resolutions.

Emir to meet British PM in London todayDOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will meet with the Prime Minister of Brit-ain, Theresa May, in London today, reports QNA. The Emir will discuss with the British Prime Minister relations between the two countries, and a number of issues of mutual interest.

Ministry starts back-to-school campaign

The Peninsula

DOHA: As the new academic year in Qatar is all set to begin on Sun-day, the Ministry of Education and Higher Education has launched a back-to-school campaign to help students and parents better pre-pare for the new session.

The 10-day campaign, titled “Bil Ilm Nabnee Qatar” ( With knowl-edge, we build Qatar) begins today with a variety of activities at two shopping malls in the city — Gulf Mall in Al Gharafa and Dar el Salam Mall in Abu Hamour. The campaign will continue until September 24.

Nearly 300,000 children in Qatar will return to their classes on Sunday, with opening of 191 Inde-pendent schools and 245 private schools and kindergartens. The new academic year begins after a long summer break that stretched over two-and-a-half months.

Hassan Al Mohammadi, head of Public Relations Depart-ment at the ministry said that the

back-to-school campaign was intended to make people physically and mentally prepared for the new academic year.

“There is a need for raising com-munity awareness to get children easily accustomed to the school environment after the long sum-mer holidays,” said Al Mohammadi.

Activities at the malls will take place from 4pm to 10pm on work-ing days and from 2pm to 4pm during weekends. They will pro-vide an opportunity for students and parents to interact with teach-ers and officials on issues related to education.

The ministry, in cooperation with Q-Post will issue a postal stamp carrying the campaign logo to welcome the new academic year at an event in Katara on Septem-ber 20.

Events at the malls will include a stage show titled “Maharatee” (My talent) and distribution of leaflets to raise awareness on children’s health and safety. Children and parents will be taught about the negative aspects of private tuitions through a video clip on the minis-try’s Youtube channel. They will also be introduced to the law pertaining to private tuitions.

Any educational services with-out a licence, including tuitions remain banned in Qatar.

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Desert safari operators see spurt in bookingsBy Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

DOHA: More people prefer safe dune bashing during Eid holidays as the jump in demand for desert safari bookings with tour opera-tors shows.

Many families as well as group of friends have booked half-day or night tours in the desert ahead of the holidays, say tour operators.

Dune bashing in four-wheel-drive vehicles is a popular activity during holidays in Sealine and Khor Al Udeid.

But driving in the desert can be hazardous, with numerous acci-dents reported each year, some of them fatal. Also, many desert vis-itors encounter difficulties when their vehicles get caught in rap-idly-rising tides, or in soft sand on the dunes.

Many motorists land in tricky and dangerous situations as they are not fully aware of the nature of the desert areas as well as the capabil-ities of their vehicles.

“Last Eid we went to the dunes in our vehicle and got stuck in the sand. We had to get help of some-one who charged around QR1,500 to take the vehicle out. So, this time we didn’t want to take a risk and booked with a tour operator,” said Anusha Ravi, an Indian expatriate. Her family and friends booked two vehicles for a half-day tour in the

desert. “Drivers were very profes-sional, it was a safe ride with lots of excitement,” she added.

Although safety on dunes cannot be fully assured, tour oper-ators assign adequately equipped four-wheel-drive vehicles with experienced drivers.

“There had been an increase in bookings for safaris after the Eid hol-idays were announced. The number of calls we receive are higher than on previous occasions,” said an official at Arabian Adventures.

“The holidays are quite long so a lot of people are choosing to spend half-day or a night in the desert. We are getting families as well as groups of friends choosing to spend at least part of their Eid holiday on a safari,” he added.

Answering a question about safety, he said that all drivers are very experienced and ensure the safety of passengers.

A half-day safari would cover around four hours in the desert and cost at least QR700 for four people. It would cost QR330 per person for a overnight stay in the desert.

In a half-day tour, passengers will be picked up at any agreed location in Doha and will be driven to Sealine. Following a brief stop there, professional drivers will first deflate the tyres. There are differ-ent paths through the dunes, from an extreme, fast and bumpy ride to a smooth and casual drive. The desert safari tour also takes passengers to the inland sea (Khor Al Udaid).

Twinkle...twinkle: Over a billion Milky Way stars mappedAFP

PARIS: The Gaia space probe, launched in 2013, has mapped more than a billion stars in the Milky Way, vastly expanding the inventory of known stars in our galaxy, the Euro-

pean Space Agency said yesterday.Released to eagerly waiting

astronomers around the world, the initial catalogue of 1.15 billion stars is “both the largest and the most accu-rate full-sky map ever produced,” said French astronomer Francois Mignard, a member of the 450-strong Gaia mission team.

In a webcast press conference at ESA’s Astronomy Centre in Madrid, scientists unveiled a stunning map of the Milky Way, including stars up to half a million times less bright than those we can see with the naked eye.

The images were captured by Gaia’s twin telescopes — scanning the heavens over and over — and a

billion-pixel camera, the biggest ever put into space.

The resolution is sharp enough to gauge the diameter of a human hair at a distance of 1,000 kilometres, said Anthony Brown, a researcher at Leiden University in the Nether-lands and a member of Gaia’s data processing and analysis team.

OIC flays Sept 11 bill QNA

JEDDAH: The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) warned yesterday of the implications of a bill recently passed by the senate to allow families of victims of Sep-tember 11 attacks to sue overseas governments for allegedly spon-soring terrorism.

Saudi news Agency SPA reported yesterday that Secre-tary-General of the OIC Iyad Madani described the bill as short-sighted. He warned if the bill were to become a law, it would remove the benefits of centuries old laws and international norms that pro-mote the comity of nations, and plunge the world, one nation or region at a time, into chaos as each nation could pass reciprocal laws in retaliation that would weaken the protections that sovereignty and presumption against extra-territoriality legally provides to all people, of all nations.

Nearly 300,000 children will return to their classes on Sunday.

Emir exchanges Eid greetings with Comoros PresidentDOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in a telephone call yesterday exchanged greet-ings on the occasion of the blessed Eid Al Adha with President Azali Assoumani of the Islamic Federal Republic of the Comoros.

HOME 02 THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Excellence Consulting WLL, in associa-tion with Sparen & Gewinn of India, conducted ‘Lean Six Sigma-Green Belt Certification’ work-shop at Concorde Hotel.

Dhiresh Patil, Managing Director, S&G and a Master Black Belt in Lean Six Sigma, stressed the importance of Lean Six Sigma in today’s eco-nomic scenario.

Lean Six Sigma helps companies reduce operating costs and increase productivity, performance and profitability. Participants from different industry segments attended the workshop.

T. V. S. Prasad, CEO, Excellence Consulting, said due to popular demand, the certification course will be conducted again on October 8 and 9. For details, please contact Prasad on 33467191 or email Prasad@excellenceconsultingwll.com

DOHA: Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Jassim Al Thani has passed away, aged 95. Funeral prayers will be offered after Asr prayers at Sheikh Jassim bin Thani Mosque in Azghawa and he will be laid to rest at the Azghawa cemetery. May Almighty Allah rest the bereaved in Paradise and grant solace and patience to his family, reports QNA.

Officials at the certification course.

Excellence Consulting holds ‘Lean Six Sigma-Green Belt’ workshop

The Peninsula

DOHA: Stars of Science, the region’s leading edutainment reality TV show that has inspired innovators and entrepreneurs across the Arab world, returns this week on MBC4 for its eighth season.

Initiated and supported by Qatar Foundation (QF), the new season brings a fresh approach, which will see candidates contributing creative solutions to regional problems within the information technology, energy, environment and health sectors.

The show, in line with QF’s

mission to encourage a culture of quality and excellence, serves as an instrument to foster creative and innovative thinking among the next generation of ambitious science and technology problem-solvers.

For eight years, audiences across the Arab world have seen groups of industrious innovators turn their impactful ideas into real-ity, developing and selling products around the world, picking up more than 50 international and regional awards along the way, and sharing knowledge and expertise on an inter-national scale.

Success stories of the show’s alumni, like Anwar Almojarkesh, Founder and CEO of Braci, which specialises in assistive technolo-gies for the hearing impaired, send a strong message to Arab youth.

Having narrowly missed out on a chance to reach the finals of the pro-gramme, he successfully launched his business in Denmark and the UK,

raising over $1m from international angel investors, governments and incubators.

“Stars of Science is the most amazing platform to kick-start innovative ideas. Taking part in the programme has been one of the most significant and rewarding learning experiences of my life,” said Anwar.

Fahad Al Qahtani, President, Community Development, QF, said: “We are always seeking to engage our local community by inspiring creativity and entrepreneurship to further promote scientific innova-tion in Qatar.”

In addition to their ability to raise funds, the power of Stars of Science alumni also lies in their capacity to inspire young minds to pursue their dreams and contribute solutions to regional problems.

Since leaving the programme as a finalist in Season 5, Mohamad Al Kuwari can regularly be seen promoting science and technology

education among young people as a public speaker.

During the search for the region’s most promising innovator, the first three episodes will focus on short-listing innovations that revolve around the biomedical, ICT, energy and environment sectors, reflecting the region’s research priorities.

Casting will culminate in a Maj-lis episode, featuring the best and brightest applicants.

The nine selected candidates will compete over the course of two newly introduced stages of the programme — prototyping; and customer validation rounds, which include a focus group of potential users.

Four candidates with the most viable projects will move on to the life-changing finale, where they will earn a share of $600,000 of seed-funding after online and jury votes.

The programme will be aired on MBC on Saturday at 10:00 KSA.

Pics: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Pics: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

Flying Superkids performing at Al Khor Mall

Eid celebrations at Ezdan Mall

Stars of Science back for eighth seasonQF-initiated reality show to be aired on MBC on Saturday.

Most Hajis return by air today

QNA

DOHA: Qatar has under-lined the importance training and education in the field of human rights, involving dif-ferent civilisations, religions, cultures and traditions of various countries.

This came in Qatar’s speech delivered by Noor Ibrahim Al Sada, Second Sec-retary at Qatar’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations Office in Geneva, during a high-level panel discussion on ‘The fifth anniversary of

the UN Declaration on edu-cation and training in the field of human rights’.

It was organised within the framework of the 33rd session of the Human Rights Council, which began on Tuesday and ends on Sep-tember 30.

She also stressed the importance of the UN Dec-laration on education and training in the field of human rights, reiterating the inter-est of Qatar’s leadership in human rights and the need to raise awareness at all lev-els, along with education and training.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The first batch of pilgrims from Qatar is expected to arrive at Hamad International Airport (HIA) today at 1am. The batch is served by Al Aqsa tour operator.

The second batch of Al Touba and Rukn Al Khamis tour opera-tors will also land today at HIA at 6am; the third at 2:30pm and the

fourth at 9pm. The third and fourth batches performed pilgrimage with tour operators Hatim, Al Qudus, Al Furqan and Al Harmain.

The last batch is supposed to travel by air and will land at HIA at 1am tomorrow. The pilgrims who will travel by road will return home on Sunday.

Officials said all pilgrims from Qatar are healthy and no untoward incident occurred with any of them during pilgrimage, Al Sharq reports.

Sheikh Faisal bin Thani bin Jassim Al Thani dies

Human ‘rights training and education vital’

HOME 03 THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Vodafone will start tak-ing pre-orders for iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus beginning 12:01am on Friday at www.vf.qa/preorderi-phone7 or through the Vodafone App in advance of the highly antic-ipated launch in Qatar on Saturday September 24.

iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, the best, most advanced iPhone ever, feature an all-new advanced cam-era system, dust and water-resistant design, stereo speaker system and the A10 Fusion chip which is the most powerful chip on any smart-phone while delivering the best battery life ever in an iPhone.

For details on iPhone, please visit www.apple.com/iphone

Vodafone to open pre-ordersfor iPhone 7 and Plus

By Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

DOHA: Three days of scrumptious food, great festivity and exciting competitions which attracted more than 6,000 visitors ended at the ‘Kulinarya Qatar 2016, Filipino Commu-nity Family Day and Food Festival at Westin Doha Hotel and Spa yesterday.

The festival was the highlight of Kuli-narya Qatar — a unique brand and movement initiated by the Philippine Embassy to pro-mote the Philippines as a preferred tourist and business destination, using Filipino

gastronomy as an effective vehicle.In its second year, the initiative has been

well received by Filipinos with major Fili-pino organisations making their best efforts to successfully hold the event. A core team under the leadership of United Filipino Entrepreneurs in Qatar (UFEQ) was formed to organise the event under the aegis of the embassy.

“This is a food festival and family fun day in which Filipinos and other nationalities are welcome. It has been a fantastic and awesome festival and all our vendors are happy and satisfied with the turnout,” Aisha Al Baker, member of the core team of Kulinarya Qatar 2016, told The Peninsula yesterday.

Al Baker, also a member of UFEQ and owner of Hillside restaurant, said every year two festivals are organised under the Kuli-narya Qatar brand during Eid Al-Fitr and Eid Al-Adha holidays. She said they are planning to host a bigger festival next Eid Al-Fitr at the same venue.

“All vendors at the festival have expressed

intention to join in festival next year,” she said, adding they expect the number of vendors to rise with the success of the current festival.

“We are also mulling to organise another event like this on Qatar National Day and hope it will again be successful,” said Al Baker. Winners of the best restaurant and best menu among the 15 Doha-based Fili-pino restaurants who took part in the festival were announced.

The participating restaurants laid out a rich line-up of their most delectable fare dur-ing the festival and winners were determined through public voting.

The winners of the first search for Little Mr. and Ms. Kulinarya Qatar 2016 were also crowned. Eleven children vied for the title after a series of training and competing in talent and casual and formal wear, among others. The winners will represent Kulinarya Qatar in activities promoting its mission and vision.

Earlier, a fruit and vegetable carving com-petition was held in which Filipino culinary

professionals from top hotels showcased turned fruits and vegetables into works of art.

Among other features of the festival were zumba sessions with Filipino celebrities and

health and fitness talks. The festival was also an opportunity for 20 companies and Filipino entrepreneurs to showcase their products and services to the general public.

Fun time at Aspire Park

Pics: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Pics: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Aladdin show at Hyatt Plaza

The Peninsula

DOHA: Abattoirs of Doha Central Market received some 16,000 sacrificial animals during past three days of Eid Al-Adha.

“So far, only 65 animals were destroyed after they were found unfit for human consumption. It means about 99.5 percent of animals were healthy, said Dr. Ahmad Kamal, a veterinary doctor inspecting animals pre- and-post-slaughtering at the abattoirs.

“The slaughterhouses at the Central Market are expected to sacrifice 25,000 animals during the four days of Eid holidays. Charity organisations received 2,700 slaughtered sacrificial animals from the abattoirs on the third day yesterday. The remaining abattoirs at the Cen-tral Market slaughtered 2,300 animals on Wednesday.

“The number of sacrificial animals for charity organ-isations are expected to increase on the fourth day today. The automated abattoir is serving charity organisations on the last two days.”

The slaughterhouse at Al Khor-Al Zakhira Munici-pality scarified 323 animals in the past three days. Only one animal was found unfit for human consumption and destroyed by the veterinary doctor from the Health Monitoring Unit of the municipality, Al Sharq reports.

Continued from page 1

Meanwhile, Independent and private schools are busy com-pleting preparations for the new academic year.

“All preparations are com-plete. Books and timetable are ready and will be distributed on the first day,” a teacher of an Inde-pendent primary school told this daily yesterday.

Independent school teach-ers resumed work early this month, although students will resume classes on Sunday. “We have an ice-breaking exercise in the beginning of every academic year. The teacher should get to know every student individually through observation, academic history, family background, health history, among others. No student should be left out,” she said.

Schools ready for new academic year

A medley of mouth-watering Filipino cuisine on offer at the festival at Westin Doha Hotel and Spa yesterday.

Over 6,000 visit Filipino food festival Kulinarya Qatar planning to organise similar event on Qatar National Day.

Scarified animals of charity organisations at the automated slaughterhouse at the Central Market.

Abattoirs at Central Market receive 16,000 sacrificial animals on last three days

Pilgrims leave Saudi Arabia’s holy city of Makkah at the end of the Haj annual pilgrimage yesterday. More than 1.8 million faithful from around the world have been attending the annual pilgrimage which officially ends today.

Haj coming to an end

Officials and relatives attend the funeral ceremony of Turkey’s army Specialist Corporal Burak Turkoglu, killed in Syria, at the Kocatepe Mosque in Ankara yesterday.

Funeral of Turkish martyr

MIDDLE EAST04 THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

Libya unity govt seeks talks after rival seizes ports

AFP

TRIPOLI: The head of Libya’s UN-backed unity government called for urgent talks yesterday after forces loyal to a rival administration seized the main eastern oil ports in defiance of world powers.

The fighting between the two sides — the first since the unity government started work in the capital Tripoli in March — was the latest escalation of the chaos that has gripped Libya since the over-throw of Muammar Gaddafi in 2011.

A bombing campaign by Britain and France was instrumental in the veteran dictator’s ouster, and a key British par-liamentary committee yesterday joined mounting criticism of the two gov-ernments for their failure to shape its aftermath.

This week’s seizure of all four export terminals in Libya’s so-called oil crescent was a major blow to the Government of National Accord (GNA), which is almost entirely dependent on oil revenues for its income.

UN envoy Martin Kobler, who had called repeatedly for a halt to the offensive led by controversial military strongman Khalifa Haftar, was to brief the Security Council on the crisis later yesterday .

The unity government is the centre-piece of UN efforts to restore stability to Libya and it now faces an even tougher battle to assert its authority over the rival administration in the east.

GNA head Fayez Al Sarraj said that Libya was at a “turning point” after the assault on the oil ports with its future as a united nation in serious question.

“I call on all sides to halt provocative actions and sit down urgently at the same table to discuss a mechanism that would enable us to get out of this crisis and put a stop to the conflict,” he said.

“I am not prepared to rule one part of Libya nor to lead a war against another part.”

The capture of the oil crescent means that the rival administration now con-trols virtually all of the eastern Cyrenaica region. The writ of Sarraj’s government is confined to the western Tripolitania region where its forces have been battling jihadists of the Islamic State group in the coastal city of Sirte for months.

The Petroleum Facilities Guard, which had been responsible for the defence of the oil ports, has played a prominent role in the fighting against IS, and Haftar’s forces took advantage of the absence of many of its members to seize all four ports in just three days.

Haftar, 73, who sees himself as Lib-ya’s saviour after battling jihadists out of most of the main eastern city of Benghazi, is the most powerful backer of the east-ern administration.

Western governments have voiced seri-ous concern that Libya’s deepening division can only play into the hands of the jihad-ists and their efforts to establish a base just across the Mediterranean from Europe.

The United States and its European allies issued a joint statement condemn-ing Haftar’s offensive and calling for the return of the oil ports to unity govern-ment control.

US President Barack Obama has voiced disappointment that Britain and France did not do more to prevent the col-lapse of central authority in Libya after their intervention in 2011.

Israel’s Shimon Peres in critical condition after major strokeAFP

RAMAT GAN, ISRAEL: Former president and Nobel Peace Prize winner Shimon Peres, the last of Israel’s founding fathers, showed improvement yesterday but remained in crit-ical condition after suffering a major stroke, his doctors said.

Concern mounted over the condition of 93-year-old Peres, widely respected as an

elder statesman both in Israel and abroad, after his stroke on Tuesday that included bleeding.

“He is still in a critical condition, stable, but we can see some improvement,” Yitzhak Kreiss, director of the Sheba Medical Centre at Tel HaShomer in Ramat Gan, told report-ers outside the hospital near Tel Aviv.

He was still sedated and breathing with a respirator, but doctors were seeking to reduce sedation to evaluate him and he was

occasionally awake, Kreiss said.Peres has held nearly every major office

in the country, including prime minister twice and president, a mostly ceremonial post, from 2007 to 2014.

A former hawk turned dove, the high-light of his career came in 1994, when he was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize along with Yitzhak Rabin and the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat for his role in negotiat-ing the Oslo accords with the Palestinians.

Peres’s personal physician and son-in-law, Rafi Walden, said the former president’s chances for survival were “pretty good,” with no immediate threat to his life.

He added that Peres was responsive dur-ing treatment.

“When we lessened the sedation, he woke up — not completely but definitely was responsive to our appeals to him,” he told AFP.

“He squeezed my hand and was def-initely listening and understanding what

was happening.” Doctors have decided not to operate for the time being.

Zeev Feldman, president of the Israeli Neurosurgical Association and involved in Peres’ treatment, told AFP “the fact that he regained consciousness gives us some cau-tious optimism.”

“The processes can go wrong in the next 48-72 hours. Some situation may hap-pen and that is why he is in intensive care,” he said.

South Sudan govt shuts down prominent newspaper Reuters

JUBA: South Sudan’s authori-ties have shut down a prominent newspaper, the Nation Mirror, the editor said yesterday, after it published details of a report released by a US-based group alleging misuse of state funds by the nation’s leaders.

The authorities did not give a reason for closing the paper, which has a daily print of about 2,500 copies and a website, edi-tor Aurelions Simon Cholee told Reuters. But he said it might be linked to the publication of the US Sentry report on corruption.

The move will add to

concerns by rights groups about media freedoms in South Sudan. The authorities have detained journalists and temporarily closed media outlets as the five-year-old African nation has been convulsed by civil conflict.

There was no immediate government comment.

Cholee said security officials summoned the editorial lead-ership and ordered the paper closed, saying it “indulges in activities that are incompatible with its status”.

“This is what we could not understand what status do they mean or what activities,” Cholee said. “We don’t really know whether it is in connection with the Sentry report or our previous

issue (with the authorities).”The paper was temporar-

ily closed in 2015 when it wrote an article related to the with-drawal of government forces from a region in the north of the country during a civil war that erupted at the end of 2013.

A peace deal was signed between President Salva Kiir and his former deputy Riek Machar in August 2015. But the pact faced months of wrangling before fighting between the two sides erupted again in July this year in Juba. Machar has since left the country.

The newspaper’s headline on Tuesday’s read “Kiir, Machar, Top Generals, Implicated in Sentry Corruption Report”.

Two arrested German aid workers freed by Libya coastguards

AFP

BERLIN: Two migrant aid work-ers from Germany who were held by Libyan coastguards have been freed, the group Sea Eye said yesterday, adding that the circum-stances of their arrest remain unclear.

The two were released late Monday, said Hans-Peter Buschheuer, spokesman for the humanitarian group that rescues migrants at sea who are trying to reach Europe from North Africa.

Libya’s navy had said the group’s vessel, Speedy, had entered Libyan waters, and that the aid workers had sought to flee but stopped after warning shots were fired. It later said the two men admitted falling asleep before realising they were no longer in international waters.

But Buschheuer questioned the Libyan account.

“We have no written proof of the original location at the time of the arrest because Speedy was also taken and is still in Libya,” he said.

“But close to where the arrest took place, there were other NGOs from different coun-tries... who saw the event and can attest that we were outside the 12-mile zone — that is, we were in international waters,” he said. Buschheuer said one of the groups which witnessed the event was Spanish non-govern-ment organisation Openarms.

Sea Eye is now working on securing the release of the ship, he said. “We are working with the help of the German embassy in Libya to obtain the release of the ship,” said Buschheuer.

“If that fails, then we would have to file a suit. The ship is worth ¤110,000 and an impor-tant part of our future rescues.”

Capture of oil terminals a blow to Government of National Accord.

Turkey blasts US envoy over ousted mayors commentAFP

ISTANBUL: Turkey yesterday blasted the United States’ top diplomat in Ankara after the American Embassy expressed concern over the ousting of two dozen mayors over suspected links to Kurdish rebels.

In a statement on Sunday, the US embassy in Ankara raised concerns over clashes in the southeast between protesters and police

after 28 mayors were suspended mainly for suspected ties with the outlawed Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK).

The embassy called for early local elec-tions to replace the ousted mayors, who had been elected in 2014 polls, “in accordance with Turkish law.”

The statement “is unacceptable, in par-ticular for independent countries,” Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu said, attributing the comments to US ambassador John Bass.

Soylu said “the way he (the ambassador) spoke, like he was trying to provoke us... has upset us.” He said the US administration should warn the ambassador.

“That’s what we expect because it is not the right approach,” he said. “It is a test of sincer-ity. It is unacceptable.” Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu also conveyed Turkey’s “concerns” over the embassy statement during a phone conversation with US Secretary of State John Kerry late Tuesday.

16 suspected PKK militants dead in Turkish air strikesReuters

DIYARBAKIR: Turkish air strikes have killed 16 suspected members of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) militant group in the south-eastern province of Hakkari near the border with Iraq over the past two days, security sources said yes-terday. The air strikes came after suspected PKK militants deto-nated a car bomb on Monday near local government offices in the city of Van further north, wound-ing 50 people including four police officers and four Iranian citizens.

The military said that nine suspected militants had been killed in air strikes yesterday.

ASIA / AFRICA06 THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

Floating in the wild

Strongest Typhoon in 21 years hits TaiwanAFP

TAIPEI: Parts of Taiwan were brought to a standstill yesterday as super typhoon Meranti skirted past the island’s southern tip, bringing the strongest winds in 21 years and disrupting traffic ahead of a major holiday.

Although typhoon Meranti did not make landfall, the storm brought violent winds and torrential rain to eastern and southern Taiwan.

At 0500 GMT, Meranti was 90km west-northwest of southernmost

Hengchun township, packing gusts of up to 234km per hour.

Hengchun’s observation station recorded the strongest winds in its 120 year history earlier yester-day, according to Taiwan’s Central Weather Bureau.

“Meranti will have its most signif-icant impact on Taiwan today,” said forecaster Hsieh Pei-yun. “It is the strongest typhoon to hit Taiwan in 21 years in terms of maximum sus-tained wind near the centre.”

Southern Kenting, a tourist des-tination known for its white-sand beaches, was battered by winds and floods.

Residents in a fishing port in southern Taitung county woke up to find that a small lighthouse had disappeared and believed that pow-erful winds blew it off into the sea, as waves almost 10 metres high lashed the shore in the area.

Trucks and cargo containers were overturned while electricity poles and trees were blown down by winds in some southern areas. One uprooted tree hit a car in southern Kaohsiung city, though the driver was unharmed.

There were no reports of fatali-ties or serious injuries, according to the Central Emergency Operation

Centre. School and work were cancelled for most eastern and southern counties, and the typhoon has knocked out power for more than 300,000 households.

There are severe travel disrup-tions for the Mid-Autumn Festival long weekend which starts Thursday, as over 300 domestic and interna-tional flights have been cancelled and trains running along the east coast have been halted.

More than 130 ferry services to offshore islets and to several Chi-nese coastal cities have also been suspended, Taiwan officials said recently.

Obama lifts sanctions against Ivory Coast

Reuters

WASHINGTON: US President Barack Obama yesterday lifted decade-old sanctions against Ivory Coast, the world’s biggest cocoa producer, cit-ing a successful presidential election

last year and its progress in tackling illegal trafficking of arms and natu-ral resources.

The sanctions were imposed in February 2006 under President George W Bush against Ivory Coast political figures for blocking a 2003 peace process. The country had been split in two since a 2002 civil war launched by rebels against then President Laurent Gbagbo.

Yesterday’s move follows the lift-ing a 12-year-old arms embargo and asset freezes and travel bans against six individuals by the UN Security Council in April, including against Gbagbo, who is on trial before the International Criminal Court.

“Côte d’Ivoire has taken impor-tant steps to strengthen its governing and economic institutions and rec-oncile the differences that led to war,” White House National Security

Council spokesman Ned Price said.“Challenges remain as the coun-

try continues to tackle difficult land reform issues and works to ensure that the benefits of economic growth are felt throughout the Ivoirian pop-ulation,” he said.

Five years after the country’s civil war that followed a 2010 elec-tion, Ivory Coast has been reborn as one of Africa’s economic stars and held up by many as a model of post-conflict reconstruction.

Deep-seated tensions between supporters of Gbagbo and Presi-dent Alassane Ouattara, who won the war with French backing, con-tinue to simmer, however.

The White House’s Price said tackling difficult land issues and ensuring that everyone benefits from Ivory Coast’s economic rise remained as challenges for the government.

China ‘to launch’ second space labAFP

BEIJING: China will launch its second space lab on Thursday (today), official media said yes-terday, as the Communist country works towards setting up its own space station, among several ambitious goals.

The Tiangong-2, or Heavenly Palace-2, will be sent into orbit from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in the Gobi desert, the offi-cial news agency Xinhua reported.

Engineers had begun injecting propellant into the Long March-2F rocket that would carry it aloft, it cited Wu Ping, deputy director of China’s manned space engineer-ing office, as saying.

Once it is in place the Shen-zhou-11 mission will take two astronauts to the facility, where they will stay for 30 days, she said.

China is pouring billions into its space programme and work-ing to catch up with the US and Europe.

It announced in April it aims to send a spacecraft “around 2020” to orbit Mars, land and deploy a rover to explore the surface.

Reuters

LIBREVILLE: The African Union (AU) says it plans to send observ-ers to help Gabon’s Constitutional Court with a legal complaint lodged by opposition leader Jean Ping, who accuses President Ali Bongo of cheat-ing to secure victory in an election last month.

The dispute has led to riots that killed at least six people and brought unwelcome international scrutiny for Bongo.

Ping, who officially lost by fewer than 6,000 votes, last week applied to the court to authorise a recount in the Haut-Ogooue province, Bongo’s stronghold, where the president won 95% of the votes on a 99.9% turnout.

The Peace and Security Council of the AU requested that its executive

branch deploy observers from other French-speaking African countries “to assist the Constitutional Court of Gabon”, it said in a statement.

The European Union, which sent an official observation team to the election and has cited anomalies in the poll results from Haut-Ogooue province, will maintain observers in the country.

It was not clear what level of access observers would have to the

internal deliberations of the court, which is due to decide on the recount by September 23.

Ping says he has no faith in the judicial body because of its ties to the Bongo family. The head of the court, Marie-Madeleine Mborantsuo, was the long-time mistress of Ali Bongo’s father Omar Bongo.

Ali Bongo’s opponents com-plained to the court after he won his first term in 2009, and the

court upheld his victory following a recount.

The government has stressed that the court is neutral and also accused Ping’s supporters of irregularities in the polls.

Gabon’s former colonial ruler France, which has a military base in the country and a large stake in the oil sector, has urged the court to examine the opposition’s complaint transparently and impartially.

Reuters

SYDNEY: The Australian govern-ment is reviving long-stalled plans to extend anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing laws to capture lawyers, accountants, real estate agents and jewellers, Justice Minister Michael Keenan said.

The law reforms have been repeatedly shelved since mid-2007 after opposition from some of the affected sectors - most notably the legal profession.

The first tranche of the anti-money laundering laws were put in place a decade ago to compel banks, fund managers and casinos to report the source of their money flows, but the anticipated follow-up to cover other sectors did not eventuate.

The Australian government is preparing to release proposals to the public for consultation.

“The first step in this process will be the release of industry consulta-tion papers by the Attorney General’s Department, which is expected to happen before the end of the year,” Keenan said in a statement.

The professions captured by the extended laws will have to conduct a risk assessment on their businesses, develop a compliance program, train staff, report suspicious transac-tions and any cash payments over $7,523.00.

Lawyers have long argued that the extension of the laws could clash with their obligation to respect legal professional privilege.

New Zealand has expedited the second phase of its anti-money laundering regime in response to the revelations in the Panama Papers.

AFP

MOMBASA: Sign language problems yesterday delayed hearings against three women refugees suspected of sheltering three female assailants shot dead while staging an unprec-edented attack against the main police station in the Kenyan city of Mombasa.

Sunday’s knife and firebomb assault was the first of its kind by female assailants in Kenya and has caused concern in the country.

The three Somali refugees were arrested hours later on suspicion of involvement in what police said was “an apparent terror attack.”

The so-called Islamic State group said its “supporters” carried it out, according to the SITE Intel-ligence Group, quoting the group’s Amaq news agency.

“The executors of the attack on the Kenyan police in the port city of Mombasa are supporters of the Islamic State and they carried out the operation in response to calls to target the Crusader states,” the agency said.

The three refugees were brought into court to be charged yester-day but police said one of them, Shukri Haji, who is said to be deaf, claimed she could not understand what the sign language interpreter was saying.

Resident magistrate Emmanuel Mutunga ordered recently the

three be detained for five more days.

Police have said two of the women involved in the knife and firebomb assault were Kenyans and that one was wearing a suicide vest that did not detonate.

After entering the police sta-tion saying they wanted to report a stolen phone, they shouted “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest), hurled a petrol bomb and stabbed two officers.

Kenya’s Muslim minority is largely concentrated along the Indian Ocean coast and the coun-try in the past has repeatedly come under attack by the Somalia-based Shabaab, East Africa’s long-time Al Qaeda branch.

Somali-led insurgents have staged repeated attacks in Kenya, including the killing of at least 67 people at Nairobi’s Westgate Mall in 2013 and the massacre of 148 people at a university in Garissa in April 2015.

But recent arrests show the Islamic State’s growing presence in East Africa, where they are recruiting young Kenyans for jihad abroad and raising fears some of them will return to threaten the country.

Kenyan intelligence agencies estimate that around 100 men and women may have gone to join the IS in Libya and Syria, triggering con-cern that some may come back to stage attacks on Kenyan and for-eign targets.

AU plans to send observers to Gabon over poll complaint

Tutu discharged from hospitalReuters

CAPE TOWN: South African cleric and anti-apartheid icon Desmond Tutu was discharged from hospital yesterday after a successful sur-gery to treat recurring infections that have afflicted him for more than a year, his family said yes-terday.

The 84-year-old Nobel Peace Prize winner has struggled with ill health in recent years, but his

family has not said whether his current ailment is related to the prostate cancer Tutu has battled with for nearly two decades.

“Archbishop Emeritus Des-mond Tutu was this morning discharged from the Cape Town hospital where he has spent the past three weeks,” the brief fam-ily statement said.

Tutu, the former Anglican archbishop of Cape Town, spoke against white-minority rule from his pulpit, earning him global acclaim.

Sydney to extend money laundering laws

Sign language hitch delays Kenya attack hearings

The US also lifted a 12-year-old arms embargo and asset freezes and travel bans against six individuals by the UN Security Council.

A hot air balloon carrying tourists is pictured during the annual wildebeest migration in the Maasai Mara game reserve, in Kenya, yesterday.

A huge wave breaking over port infrastructure as super typhoon Meranti lashes a fishing port in southern Taitung county, yesterday. RIGHT: Residents affected by the typhoon, being evacuated on a military armoured vehicle in southern Pingtung county.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES 07THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

Nationwide campaign to demand Najib’s ouster

AFP

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s lead-ing political protest group announced plans yesterday for a seven-week roadshow capped by a November 19 rally in the capital to demand the scandal-tainted prime minister’s res-ignation.

The Coalition for Clean and Fair Elections, which held a huge two-day demonstration last year seeking Prime Minister Najib Razak’s ouster over corruption allegations, said the nationwide action beginning October

1 was in response to the “repulsive magnitude” of a stunning graft scandal.

Najib is clinging to power despite increasingly damaging allegations that he took part in the alleged loot-ing of billions in state funds.

“We cannot have a prime minis-ter who steals money from the rakyat (people). That cannot happen in this country,” the coalition’s chair Maria Chin Abdullah said.

The independent alliance of NGOs and civil-society groups, com-monly known as “Bersih”, the Malay word for “clean”, has staged four major demonstrations since 2007 to demand electoral and govern-ment reforms.

Rallies in 2011 and 2012 ended with police employing tear gas and water cannon against demonstrators.

Bersih accuses Malaysia’s govern-ment, in power since independence in 1957, of systematic corruption, elec-tion abuses and repressing dissent.

The US Justice Department filed lawsuits in the US in July alleging a

massive international conspiracy by Najib relatives and associates to steal billions from Malaysian state invest-ment fund 1MDB.

US authorities moved to seize assets including real estate in Bev-erly Hills, New York and London, artworks by Monet and Van Gogh, a Bombardier jet, and corporate own-ership stakes which they allege were purchased with stolen 1MDB money.

The US suits also accused an unnamed “Malaysian Official 1” with diverting huge sums.

A Malaysian government minister has since acknowledged that official was Najib.

Najib, 63, and 1MDB have repeat-edly denied wrongdoing. The prime minister has fended off mounting calls to come clean. Last year he purged his government of critics and shut down domestic investigations.

Political opponents accuse him of using repressive laws to further pres-sure critics and stifle scrutiny of the scandal.

In August 2015, Bersih drew tens

of thousands to peaceful demon-strations in Kuala Lumpur and other locations to demand Najib’s removal over the then-emerging scandal.

Such calls have so far had little effect on Najib, who has consolidated his power.

Bersih officials said the nationwide

roadshow was aimed at spreading the word on 1MDB in rural areas where support for the ruling Barisan Nasional coalition remains solid.

Reuters

MANILA: A group in Manila are using art therapy to help addicts overcome drug addictions and show Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte that bloody retribution is not the only solution to drugs.

The Center for Christian Recov-ery, a religious organisation which manages a small private rehabili-tation facility west of Manila, has incorporated drawing into its daily sessions as a way for addicts to express their feelings.

“These drug dependents are not used to saying what they feel,” said Davis Dakis, the programme director.

“They do not know how to express their emotions. So now, through art, they can express what-ever they feel.”

The art sessions at the centre, which caters for 40 addicts, comes amid a bloody campaign against drugs since Duterte took office

More than 2,500 people have

been killed in the war on drugs, with about 900 deaths a result of police operations, police say.

Owie, a drug user undergoing rehabilitation, said he was afraid of going back on the streets despite his

attempts at reformation. “I hope our president will take a different action. I don’t want it to be like this. It’s as if he wants to just kill all of us addicts.”

“There is still hope for us, it’s not too late to change.”

AFP

MANILA: The United Nations has said Philippine President Rod-rigo Duterte has a “striking lack of understanding” of its human rights institutions in a rebuke over his crime war that has killed more than 3,000 people.

The fresh criticism came from UN rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hus-sein after Duterte called UN head Ban Ki-moon a “fool” and threat-ened to pull out of the organisation in response to the global body’s con-demnation of alleged extrajudicial killings in his anti-drug campaign.

The sharp-tongued Duterte has said he does not care about a wave of international criticism, includ-ing from the UN and US President Barack Obama.

“The President of the Philippines’s statements of scorn for international human rights law display a striking lack of understanding of our human rights institutions and the principles which keep societies safe,” Zeid said.

Duterte, 71, has launched an unprecedented crime war since taking office on June 30, warn-ing thePhilippines is in danger of becoming a “narco-state”.

He was elected in a landslide in May after pledging to kill 100,000 criminals and promising to protect police from prosecution if they are charged over the deaths.

Last month, Duterte announced a “shoot-to-kill” order against drug dealers. Zeid said such an order “undermines justice”.

But yesterday, Philippine Ambassador to the UN Cecilia Rebong said Duterte never empow-ered police to shoot to kill anyone.

“What he said was the police have the right to defend themselves when their lives are in danger.”

Duterte’s spokesman Ernesto Abella added that Duterte did not tolerate extrajudicial killings but that “human rights cannot be used as an excuse to let the spread of drugs in the country run rampant”.

Zeid urged the Philippines to invite a UN human rights expert to investigate the killings.

UN rebukes Duterte over human rights

Philippine rehabilitation centre drawing a future for drug users

US has ‘no right’ to lecture China over N KoreaReuters and AFP

BEIJING: The United States is a trou-blemaker and has no right to lecture China about taking responsibility for reining in North Korea as tensions on the peninsula are a direct result of US actions, the official People’s Daily newspaper said yesterday.

While China has been angered by North Korea’s fifth and largest nuclear test to date last week, it has also blamed the United States for taking what Beijing sees as equally provocative behaviour, like a deci-sion to base the Terminal High Altitude Area Defence (THAAD) anti-missile in South Korea.

China is North Korea’s most important diplomatic and trade part-ner, and while China has signed up for tough UN sanctions on the iso-lated state, it refuses to cut the country off completely, fearing it may collapse.

The US says it wants China to do more, with US Defence Secretary Ash Carter last week singling out the role he said China should play.

In a commentary, the ruling Communist Party’s official paper said the US was pretending it had nothing to do with the North Korea issue and was putting the blame on others.

“People have reason to doubt whether Washington is willing to make the effort to push the North

Korea issue in the direction of a res-olution,” the paper said.

“At the start of the year after North Korea carried out its fourth nuclear test, the United States did not hesitate to increase irritations to the peninsula’s security situation, did not hesitate to harm regional countries strategic security interests, strongly pushing THAAD’s deployment in South Korea,” it said.a

The US is doing less and less for the public good in international affairs, “but its vigour for trouble-making has not diminished an iota”, the newspaper said in the commen-tary, published under the pen name “Zhong Sheng”, meaning “Voice of China”, often used to give views on foreign policy.

North Korea is an example of this, as are Washington’s “brazen” efforts to provoke problems in the South China Sea by claiming to be a “protector of the rules,” is added.

China has been infuriated by “freedom of navigation” patrols con-ducted by the US in the South China Sea, where China is locked in dis-putes with several Southeast Asian nations.

The US is an “enormous obsta-cle” to a resolution of the North Korea nuclear issue, the paper said.

“The US needs to seriously look back at how things have developed with the nuclear issue on the Korean peninsula, and really think about an effective resolution method and assume its responsibilities.”

China-Philippines relations at ‘turning point’Reuters

BEIJING: Relations between China and the Philippines are at a turning point, a top Chinese diplomat has told a visiting Philippine delegation recently, adding that China hopes the Philippines can handle disputes “appropriately” and get relations back on track.

The remarks by Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Liu Zhenmin come as two countries at odds over sov-ereignty in the South China Sea try to sound each other out, and set parameters for dialogue on an issue in which both have vowed not to give way.

The mid-level visit was the lat-est part of some carefully calibrated engagement after a July ruling by an arbitration panel in The Hague

that overwhelmingly favoured the Philippines in its dispute with China over the South China Sea, invali-dating China’s claim to most of the waters.

China has declined to recognise the ruling while Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has repeatedly said he wants peace with China, but will not make concessions on any part of the tribunal’s conclusion.

Liu said their bilateral relations

had “sunk to a low edge for reasons everyone knows”, China’s Foreign Ministry said.

“At present, China-Philippine relations are at a new turning point,” it quoted Liu saying, adding that China hoped the Philippines “can meet China halfway, appro-priately handle disputes and push relations back onto the track of dia-logue, consultation and friendly cooperation”.

SYDNEY: A 19-year-old man has been charged in connection with planning a terrorist act in Australia, police said yesterday, after the Prime Minister warned the threat of an attack was “real”.

Police said the man, who is being held in jail over a separate issue, has been charged with making a document con-nected with preparation for a terrorist act.

Police did not reveal details but The Syd-ney Morning Herald said that documents alleg-edly found in man’s cell included a letter dis-cussing plans to behead people.

Australian police charge teen with terror offences

One dead as Thai cops raid drug dealers’ partyBANGKOK: Thai police shot dead a suspected meth trafficker and arrested 30 more dur-ing a raid on a party to reward drug dealers for hitting sales targets, police said.

A gunfight erupted after several revellers tried to flee the late-night bash held at an upscale resort near Khao Yai, a popular national park northeast of Bangkok.

A 24-year-old man wanted for drug trafficking was killed and one police officer was injured dur-ing a streetside shootout, said Rawat Klinkesorn, the commander of Thailand’s Narcotics Suppression Bureau.

US pushing Korean peninsula to point of ‘explosion’SEOUL: North Korea yesterday accused the US of pushing the Korean Peninsula to “the point of explosion” after it dispatched two huge bombers in a show of force against Pyongyang.

The supersonic B-1B Lancers flew over South Korea on Tuesday as Washington vowed its “unshakeable commitment” to defend its allies in the region following North Korea’s fifth and largest-ever nuclear test conducted last week.

Washington called the demon-stration “just one example of the full range of military capabilities”.

Indonesia captures IS-linked militantAFP

JAKARTA: Indonesian security forces yesterday captured a senior member of an Islamic State-linked militant network once headed by the country’s most wanted extremist, police said.

Muhammad Basri, from the Eastern Indonesia Mujahideen, was caught in a joint operation between the police and military in Poso district, on rug-ged Sulawesi island, while another member of the group was shot dead.

“He was caught on Poso’s south coast this morning,” police spokesman Boy Rafli Amar said, adding he had been taken to a nearby city.

It came two months after the group’s leader, Santoso, was shot dead by troops, ending a years-long hunt for the IS group supporter.

Maria Chin Abdullah (second left), chairperson of the coalition of Malaysian NGOs and activist groups known as Bersih, that also translates as ‘clean’ in the local Malay language, poses with other activists following a press conference in Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.

We cannot have a prime minister who steals money from the rakyat (people): Abdullah.

A drug user undergoing rehabilitation shows an artwork he made during art therapy at a Center for Christian Recovery drug rehabilitation centre in Antipolo City, east of Manila.

VIEWS08 THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

Myanmar leader Suu Kyi is in Washington on a path-breaking visit. One of the key objectives of her visit is to urge President Barack Obama to lift the remaining sanctions against her country and she seems to have succeeded in this mission, as

the US president announced that he was prepared to scrap the sanctions. “It is the right thing to do in order to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards from a new way of doing business and a new government,” Obama said, with Suu Kyi sitting next to him in the Oval Office.

While Obama’s gesture might seem justified in the wake of some measures taken by the Myanmar government to address the concerns of the international community on some grave human rights issues, the lifting of all sanctions could be a premature and hasty move. The reason is that Myanmar is yet to demonstrate its sincerity and take some practical, serious steps to end the suffering of the minority Rohingyas. The

lifting of all sanctions would deprive Washington of an opportunity to pile pressure on the Yangon government to address its dismal human rights record. And this is a genuine concern shared by human rights bodies, too. A group of 46 non-governmental organisations distributed a letter they wrote to Obama expressing concern about easing sanctions on Myanmar while human rights abuses by the military and against Rohingya Muslims persisted. Interestingly, in June, the Obama administration had listed Myanmar among the world’s worst offenders in human trafficking.

Despite being a Nobel laureate, Suu Kyi has done woefully little to bring justice to Rohingyas, though her government has taken some measures recently to placate the international community. For example, this month, at the invitation of Suu Kyi, a team led by Kofi Annan, the former United Nations secretary-general, visited Myanmar to try to mend ties between Buddhists and Rohingyas. But any success of Annan’s mission would depend on Yangon’s determination and sincerity. Local Buddhists are extremely hostile to rehabilitating Rohingyas and the government will have to work assiduously, even if it involves taking some unpopular decisions, to solve this issue.

The Rohingyas are deprived of basic rights, including citizenship, the freedom to worship and even to marry. More than 120,000 of them remain detained in government camps and thousands have fled the country.

It’s said that Suu Kyi’s ability to solve these problems is restrained by the constitution which gives the military an upper hand. If that’s the case, that’s one more reason to make the lifting of US sanctions conditional.

Need for caution

As Suu Kyi visits Washington, the Obama administration must move more cautiously on lifting all remaining sanctions against Myanmar.

Quote of the dayWe respect and at the same time regret the UK decision, but the European Union as such is not at risk. Europeans are tired of the endless disputes, quarrels and bickering, they want concrete solutions.

Jean-Claude JunckerEuropean Commission President

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Dona ld Tr ump’s presidential candi-dacy has triggered anguished soul searching among

many college-educated and afflu-ent Republicans who must decide whether to back him, sit out the election, or do the unthinkable: Vote for his opponent, Hillary Clinton.

With less than two months to go before the November 8 elec-tion, rural, white voters who lack a college degree have flocked to Trump. But his brash style and lack of experience in government are a much tougher sell among well-off Republicans who have long been a backbone of the party, according to Reuters/Ipsos polling and interviews with Republican-leaning white collar professionals.

Trump’s hopes of captur-ing the White House may rest on whether he can win over enough of these voters in battleground states such as Ohio, Virginia and Colorado to offset Clinton’s overwhelming advantages with minority voters, young people, urban voters and women.

“If you had told me two years ago that I would be voting for Hil-lary Clinton, I would have said, ‘No freaking way,’” said Michael Sheehan, chief operating officer of a Columbus-based apparel firm.

Sheehan is now leaning toward Clinton, the Democratic nominee, because he worries Trump would damage US rela-tions abroad.

Reuters/Ipsos polling shows that Clinton is doing better among affluent and college-educated voters than President Barack Obama did four years ago, even among Republicans. It’s a warn-ing signal for Trump, who has been shunned by blacks, Latinos and millennial voters.

In 2012, nearly nine out of every 10 Republicans with a college degree and annual income over $100,000 supported then Republican can-didate Mitt Romney. Now, about

Trump’s fate may rest with former supporters of critic Mitt Romney

By James OliphantReuters

seven in 10 support Trump.Romney won college-edu-

cated voters over Obama by 4 percentage points in 2012, but the Reuters/Ipsos tracking poll showed Clinton with a 48-28 percent advantage among those same voters last month.

The same gap is playing out in key swing states. In Ohio, Clinton has a 47-36 percent edge among the college educated, according to a Monmouth University poll in August.

“It’s amazing how few Trump supporters I’ve run into,” said James King, a partner in a prom-inent Columbus law firm who backed Romney in 2012 but who likely will vote for Clinton.

Marsha Blackburn, a con-gresswoman from Tennessee who is one of Trump’s biggest support-ers in Washington, said Trump’s proposal this week for a child-care tax credit was an example of policies that can appeal to more affluent Republicans.

Trump still needs to “keep pushing his economic message, keep talking about national secu-rity, keep talking about these issues that are so important to moms, these working-family issues,” she told Reuters.

Ohio, with its 18 electoral votes, is crucial for Trump and he has campaigned intensively in the state. But in populous, largely suburban central Ohio, Trump has a tougher task than in the rural counties that surround it.

The local economy skews toward white-collar workers and professionals and does not

depend on the manufacturing revival Trump has promised in his “Make America Great Again” message.

Romney, the scion of a wealthy family and former pri-vate equity fund manager, was a more natural fit with many Republicans in the area. He epit-omized what sometimes has been called the “country club Republicans.” They favor smaller government, less intrusive reg-ulations and put less weight on conservative social values.

Trump, the real-estate mag-nate from Manhattan, would seem similar, but some Republi-can professionals in central Ohio can’t get past his temperament and comments like the one sug-gesting illegal immigrants from Mexico are rapists and murder-ers. Romney himself has been a fierce critic of Trump.

“There’s no way I could ever vote for that guy,” said King, the law firm partner, adding that Trump’s criticism of the family of a Muslim soldier, Humayun Khan, who was killed in action, soured him on Trump for good.

An NBC News/Wall Street Journal/Marist poll of registered voters last month showed Clinton ahead among white, college-edu-cated voters in Colorado, where she held a 55-23 percent edge; in North Carolina, where she held a 47-40 percent advantage; and in Virginia, where she held a 43-37 percent edge.

Bradley Barbin, a white-col-lar criminal defence lawyer in Columbus, has decorated the

walls of his office with Repub-lican memorabilia stretching back a century. He faults Trump for stirring resentment and for encouraging violence at his rallies.

Trump has denied there is significant violence at his events and has blamed the media for exaggerating scuffles with pro-testers. Barbin said he likely won’t back Clinton. “Do I know exactly what I am going to do? No. But I do know that Trump’s the bigger problem,” he said.

Among affluent Republicans who do support Trump, several said that whatever reservations they may have about him as a candidate, it was more impor-tant to keep Clinton from the presidency.

“I think she’s a bad person,” said William Bay, a retired neph-rologist who lives in Hilliard, a suburb of Columbus, who lauded Trump as an agent of change.

Trump’s campaign has long contended there exists a swath of Trump voters who won’t talk to the press or pollsters for fear of being demonized, but who will show up at the polls in November.

But it’s also possible that some Republicans, once in the privacy of the voting booth, will go with Clinton because of their concerns about Trump. Barbin, the Colum-bus defense lawyer, said that’s the takeaway from conversations with his peers. “We all know,” he said, “that there are certain people you just cannot give that kind of unfettered power to. You just can’t.”

Republican presidential nominee Donald J Trump holds a campaign event with his daughter, Ivanka, at the Aston Township Community Centre in Aston, Pennsylvania.

OPINION 09THURSDAY 15 SEPTEMBER 2016

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 Editor-in-Chief.

Cornered Renzi changes tack in reform campaign

By Crispian Balmer and Silvia Ognibene Reuters

Having pegged his political future to a referendum on constitutional reform, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi called up US Pres-ident Barack Obama’s

communications maestro Jim Messina for advice on how to win the do-or-die vote.

Messina, who led Obama’s successful 2012 re-election campaign, met Renzi’s inner circle in late July to discuss what they should do to regain the initiative after opinion polls showed the Italian leader faced defeat.

“The prime minister needs to be a bit more malleable,” said Messina, according to someone present at the meeting. Ren-zi’s advisers burst out laughing: “We don’t need Obama’s guru to tell us that,” one said. Messina’s office declined to comment.

Seen by critics as arrogant and overbearing, Renzi is in trouble. He is struggling to sell his flagship reform to a sceptical public, the economy is slowing

Renzi originally said the referendum would be held in October, but with uncertainty over the outcome growing, the government is hesitating and has still not fixed a date. By law, it must be held in 2016. Two PD sources said they expected the date to be either November 27 or December 4.

India woos new Nepal PM to claw back ground from ChinaBy Sanjeev Miglani andGopal Sharma Reuters

INDIA is likely to offer Nepal’s new prime minister help build-ing an east-west railway line and better access to its ports on his first visit this week, as

it tries to regain ground lost recently to China.

Prachanda, a former Maoist rebel commander, has chosen New Delhi as his first foreign stop, seeking to rebalance ties that chilled under his pro-China predecessor. K P Oli had sealed trade deals that sought to reduce landlocked Nepal’s economic dependence on India.

“Relations with India have become frosty for some time. I want to remove the bitterness,” Prachanda told reporters on Tuesday evening in Kathmandu, adding India now “wants to help Nepal, which is in difficulties.”

Nepal has yet to complete a polit-ical transition after a decade-long insurgency and weeks of deadly street protests that brought down

the monarchy nearly a decade ago.A new republican constitution is

still a source of rancour for southern plains people who mounted a five-month border blockade that ended earlier this year.

The country’s last government said the fuel and trade embargo had the tacit backing of India — a charge New Delhi has denied.

Prachanda said that, on his four-day trip starting today, the two sides would discuss the railway line stretching from Mechi in east Nepal to Mahakali in the west that India will help build.

An Indian railway official said the project that runs parallel to Nepal’s 1,030km east-west highway has been talked about in the past, but that the two countries are now discussing financial terms.

“The plan is to push forward immediately with this project. It’s a big development project,” said the official involved in preparations for the visit. The mountainous coun-try has only one short rail line from Jaynagar on the Indian border to Janakpur.

Another possible project, Prach-anda said, was a hydro-electric power plant that could be built with Indian grant aid.

Nepal is one of several South Asian countries where India and China are vying for influence. India has long considered the country of 28 million people as a natural ally based on their close historical ties and long open border.

But China has gained a foothold, rapidly building roads and hospi-tals while there was little progress on long-standing Indian proposals for hydro-electric plants and trade and transit corridors that became mired in political disputes.

It is part of a broader push by China into South Asia, includ-ing a $46bn economic corridor across India’s neighbour and rival Pakistan and investment in a port in Sri Lanka, where a Chi-nese nuclear submarine docked in recent years.

Under Oli’s government, Nepal signed a deal to extend China’s Tibet rail network to Kathmandu, created special economic zones for Chi-nese firms and sealed a long-term agreement for petroleum imports, alarming New Delhi.

In July, Oli stepped down after months of stalemate over the new charter, which experts said underlined the vulnerability of gov-ernments in Kathmandu that take a

stridently anti-India line.Prachanda may have chosen to

come to Delhi first for that reason, they added.

“It is the politicians’ understand-ing that without keeping India in good humour they cannot remain long in power,” said Guna Raj Luitel, editor of the Nagarik daily.

RECALIBRATIONIndia is still Nepal’s biggest trade

partner, donor and supplier of essen-tial goods, as well as the only source of fuel for the impoverished coun-try that is struggling to recover from two earthquakes last year that killed 9,000 people.

“The previous government very definitely coordinated with China more explicitly than earlier gov-ernments. That was a response to the border situation and sent a message to New Delhi,” said one Western diplomat, referring to the blockade on the border that ended in February.

Prachanda is making “a delib-erate recalibration away from what the previous prime minis-ter planned, which was a closer relationship with China”, the dip-lomat added. Nepali media said Chinese President Xi Jinping

had put off a visit planned for October due to lack of progress on Nepal’s part on the projects agreed between the two coun-tries. Nepal’s foreign ministry denied any cancellation but gave no date for the visit.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokes-woman Hua Chunying would not directly confirm that Xi’s October visit to Nepal had been cancelled, but said instead that exact dates had not been set.

“The term ‘cancelled visit’ is not very accurate, because the two sides are maintaining communica-tion on high-level bilateral exchanges through diplomatic channels,” Hua told a regular press briefing in Bei-jing on Monday.

The Annapurna Post said Bei-jing was particularly unhappy about Nepal’s tardy progress on its One Belt, One Road initiative, Xi’s signature project to build out infrastructure and establish new trade routes across the region.

“Nepal should have moved faster on these projects as they are in our long-term interest. By now we should have submitted concrete proposals to the Chinese side on them,” Mahesh Maskey, a former Nepali envoy to China, said.

The plan is to push forward immediately with this project. It’s a big development project,” said the official involved in preparations for the visit. The mountainous country has only one short rail line from Jaynagar on the Indian border to Janakpur.

An April 7, 2016 file picture shows Italy’s Prime Minister Matteo Renzi gesturing during a news conference in Rome.

down again and the banks are beset by bad loans.

EU allies are awaiting the refer-endum, which is expected by early December, with alarm, fearing a ‘No’ vote could revive political instability in the euro zone’s third largest economy, with accompanying market turmoil.

“The biggest worry I have is Italy,” said a former top EU official, who declined to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject. “If Renzi loses the referendum then the euro zone is in trouble ... Without Renzi we are in no man’s land.”

Since Messina’s visit, Renzi has changed tack to try to win over scep-tics, adopting a less antagonistic tone and focusing on the merits of the reform rather than on his threat to quit.

He told party supporters last month: “I made a mistake in making this too per-sonal. We need to tell Italians that this is not a reform about one person, but a reform which will serve all of Italy.”

He has also started to lay the ground-work for possible defeat in an effort to allay investors’ fears of political paraly-sis should his government fall.

“Renzi tends to come across as arro-gant, but maybe Jim Messina has had a positive impact because he is now using the right arguments on why peo-ple should vote ‘yes’,” said Roberto D’Alimonte, politics professor at Luiss University in Rome who has advised the

prime minister on electoral reform.“No one knows how this will end.

The outcome is incredibly uncertain, like the Brexit vote,” he said, referring to the shock British decision in June to aban-don the European Union.

SEEKING STABILITYBuoyed by positive opinion polls,

Renzi promised last year to resign if he lost the referendum on his flagship reform, which will shrink the Sen-ate, the upper house of parliament, and strip it of the power to bring down governments.

Renzi, who came to power two-and-a-half-years ago following an internal party coup, says this will bring political stability to Italy, which has had 63 gov-ernments since World War Two.

Opponents, including within his own Democratic Party (PD), say the reform removes vital democratic checks and balances introduced after the war to prevent the rise of an all-powerful prime minister.

Buoyed by his pledge to quit, Renzi’s many foes across the political spectrum have united in calling for a ‘No’ vote, their arguments often having nothing to do with the reform itself.

“A record number of immigrant boats coming to Italy. This is an inva-sion. Send the government home by voting ‘No’,” rightist leader Giorgia Mel-oni said on Twitter on Aug. 31, referring

to a renewed influx of African refugees arriving from Libya.

The latest survey, released by EMG Acqua on September 12, put the ‘No’ camp ahead by 2.3 percentage points, up from 1.5 points a week earlier, suggesting a scandal shaking one of Renzi’s most vocal opponents, the Five Star Movement, was not helping him.

However, a source close to Renzi said private polls carried out by the PD at the start of September showed the ‘Yes’ camp was ahead by four points.

Seeking to grab the initiative, the PD will soon launch a public information campaign, based on images of ordinary citizens with no mention of Renzi, said a senior party source.

Looking to generate goodwill, the government has also floated potentially popular proposals, promising to facilitate early retirement, cut taxes and improve public sector salaries.

Renzi originally said the referen-dum would be held in October, but with uncertainty over the outcome growing, the government is hesitating and has still not fixed a date. By law, it must be held in 2016. Two PD sources said they expected the date to be either Novem-ber 27 or December 4.

In the meantime, no major legisla-tion will be put before the Senate, where Renzi has no clear majority, to prevent any political crises during the referen-dum campaign.

At the same time, major operations in the financial markets are being put on hold because investors are concerned about political instability.

Italy’s privatisation programme has been put on ice, Treasury officials say, while the country’s third largest bank, Monte dei Paschi di Siena, will almost certainly have to delay a desperately needed cash call.

Renzi remains outwardly confident of victory, selling it to Italians weary of politics as way to get rid of 215 of the country’s 315 senators and save €500m ($560m) a year as a result.

But he also acknowledges that suc-cess is not certain, and in an effort to allay market fears, is playing down the risks of defeat, saying a ‘No’ vote will merely extend the status quo.

In this context, he has ruled out elec-tions before the end of parliament’s term in 2018. Some politicians have speculated that if he loses, Renzi might tender his resignation, as promised, only for the Italian president to reject it, allowing him to carry on in power.

But having promised to quit, any attempt to cling to office could wreck his reputation.

“Renzi would emerge enormously weakened in the event of defeat and would lose all credibility if he carried on as prime minister,” said Luiss Universi-ty’s D’Alimonte.

A parliamentary source said possi-ble replacement prime ministers were Economy Minister Pier Carlo Padoan or Industry Minister Carlo Calenda. Renzi would remain head of the PD and would stand for re-election in 2018, the source said, declining to be named. The prime minister’s office declined comment.

Underscoring the high stakes, Ita-ly’s foreign allies have unusually got involved in the debate, much to the anger of the opposition, urging the country to embrace change.

The US ambassador to Italy, John Phillips, said on Tuesday that defeat for Renzi “would mark a step back” for for-eign investment in Italy. “What Italy needs is stability and this reform guar-antees stability,” he said.

Since Messina’s visit, Renzi has changed tack to try to win over sceptics, adopting a less antagonistic tone and focusing on the merits of the reform rather than on his threat to quit.

A man prepares a camel for slaughter on the second day of the Eid Al Adha festival in Islamabad, yesterday.

Eid Al Adha sacrifice

AFP

WASHINGTON: President Barack Obama moved to restore trade ben-efits to Myanmar and said broader sanctions would soon be scrapped, as he hosted de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi at the White House yesterday.

Welcoming Suu Kyi for the first time since her historic election vic-tory last year, Obama announced a series of steps that would end the rapidly changing southeast Asian country’s decades of economic isolation.

“The United States is now pre-pared to lift sanctions that we have imposed on Burma for quite some time,” Obama said, adding that the move would come “soon.” “It is the right thing to do to ensure that the people of Burma see rewards for a new way of doing business.”

Earlier in a letter to Congress, Obama said he was reinstating

preferential tariffs for poor coun-tries including Myanmar, where they had been suspended more than two decades ago amid rights abuses by the ruling junta.

The White House is keen to help Myanmar’s economy and Suu Kyi’s administration -- which is man-aging a difficult transition from military-run pariah to full-fledged democracy.

The 71-year-old Nobel Peace Prize laureate is barred by mili-tary constitution from technically heading Myanmar’s government, but she got a leader’s welcome in Washington.

After talks with Obama, Suu Kyi received a coveted Oval Office grip-and-grin photo shoot.

Obama turned to the once-imprisoned democracy leader and offered his “congratulations on the progress that has been made.”

“It’s a good news story in an era when so often we see countries going the opposite direction,” he

said, while acknowledging a lot of work remains to be done. Officially Suu Kyi is foreign minister and self-appointed state counsellor -- a role akin to prime minister.

After spending much of the last few decades under arrest, she now de facto presides over a skeletal gov-ernment, an economy hollowed out by decades of kleptocratic dictator-ship and a country riven with ethnic and religious violence.

The veteran campaigner must tackle all those problems while keeping an eye on the generals, lest they have second thoughts about reform.

US officials acknowledge Suu Kyi is working with some very tough political constraints and dare not push the military, or the public, too far or too fast.

“She has to tackle problems one by one” said Ben Rhodes, a key Obama aide who has spearheaded the administration’s Myanmar policy.

Reuters

LONDON: Nobel laureate Malala Yousafzai yesterday called on world leaders to provide education to girls in refugee camps to avoid them being forced into early marriage or child labour.

Yousafzai’s statement comes a week before US President Barack Obama hosts the first UN summit on refugees in New York where he is expected to urge leaders to do more to help refugees in countries like Lebanon, Turkey, Jordan and Kenya.

“Why do world leaders waste our time with this pageant of sympathy while they are unwilling to do the one thing that will change the future for millions of children?” Yousafzai said in a statement ahead of the Sept. 20 summit.

She said refugee girls were won-dering how long they can stay out of school before they are forced into early marriages or child labour.

“They’re hoping for more than survival” she said. “And they have the potential to help rebuild safe,

peaceful, prosperous countries, but they can’t do this without educa-tion.” Fighting in Syria, Afghanistan, Burundi and South Sudan has con-tributed to a record number of people who were uprooted last year, accord-ing to the UN refugee agency, which estimates there are 21.3 million ref-ugees worldwide, half of them children.

Almost 80 percent of all refugee adolescents are out of school, with girls making up the majority of those excluded from education, according to a report issued by the Malala Fund, which campaigns and fundraises for educational causes.

It also blamed donor countries for failing to provide adequate fund-ing for secondary education, and failing to deliver on funding pledges made earlier this year.

The report also criticised wealthy donor countries for diverting resources away from host countries in developing regions, such as Tur-key and Lebanon, to meet their own domestic refugee costs.

The report concluded by urg-ing donors to commit to providing $2.9bn by September 2019 to the Education Cannot Wait Fund, a new body to raise finance for the educa-tion of refugee children.

Yousafzai, 19, rose to interna-tional fame after surviving a 2012 assassination attempt by the Taliban in Pakistan’s Swat valley to continue her fight for girls’ rights.

A regular speaker on the glo-bal stage, Yousafzai visited refugee camps in Rwanda and Kenya in July to highlight the plight of refugee girls from Burundi and Somalia.

In 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest-ever Nobel Prize winner for her work promoting girls’ edu-cation in Pakistan.

Malala urges leaders to act for refugee kidsWhy do world leaders waste time with thi