Volume 24 | Number 7900 | 2 RiyalsThursday 23 May 2019 | 18 Ramadan 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

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BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 23

Djokovic concedes he has mountain to climb at French Open

QIIB honours CEO for his

achievements & contributions

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Included withtoday’s edition is a

special supplement

Thursday 23 May 2019

Like other Islamic injunctions, the benefits of Ramadan are not limited to either “spir-itual” or “temporal” elements of life.

In Islam, the spiritual, social, economic, political, and psychological intermingle in

a consistent and cohesive whole. For convenience of presentation, the significance of fasting is dis-cussed under four subheadings: spiritual and moral, psychological, social, and physical and medical.

SPIRITUAL & MORAL ELEMENTS 1- Above all, fasting is an act of obedience

and submission to God. Submission and com-mitment is based upon love for God and earnest effort to gain His pleasure and avoid His dis-pleasure. If this is the only reason for fasting, it surely suffices.

2- Fasting is an act acknowledging God as the Only Master and Sustainer of the universe. It is only through His bounties that we have our existence and sustenance.

3- Fasting is an act of atonement for our errors and mistakes, as the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) said: “Whoever fasts (the month of) Ramadan on the basis of faith and seeking (the pleasure of Allah), his past errors are forgiven.” (Ahmad)

4- Fasting trains the believer to act piously and fear God. If one volunteers to refrain from lawful food and sex, he or she will be in a better position to avoid unlawful things and acts.

5- Fasting trains the believer in sincerity.Unlike other acts of worship, it is entirely based

Ramadan’s four elementsJAMAL BADAWI

Ramadan TimingToday's Iftar: 6:18pm

Tomorrow's Imsak: 03:09am

Hotels and resorts offer up to 40% off in summerTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC) is bringing unmissable hospitality deals to residents and visitors this summer, in collaboration with leading hotel developers and operators Katara Hospitality, Al-Rayyan Project Management, and Marriot Inter-national Hotels. This Summer in

Qatar also allows residents to expe-rience Qatar’s award-winning hospitality sector firsthand, with discounts of up to 40 percent at top hotels and resorts available to those living in Qatar.

Rashed Al Qurese, Chief Mar-keting Officer at QNTC com-mented: “We are pleased to offer both domestic and inbound tourists the opportunity to enjoy the best of our hospitality sector

through these special offers. Together with our partners we remain committed to developing sustainable tourism offerings for locals, residents, as well as visitors.”

Katara Hospitality is offering discounts of up to 40 percent, valid for bookings at any of its 12 properties in Qatar between June 4 – August 16, 2019. Properties include Sharq Village & Spa,

Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel, and Sealine Beach, a Murwab Resort.

Katara Hospitality provides unique experiences within its hotels, and places high impor-tance on initiatives that enhance its offerings while highlighting the country’s passion for creating ultimate guest experiences. As the country’s flagship hospitality organisation, Katara Hospitality

supports Qatar’s long-term eco-nomic vision, and actively invests in peerless hotels in Qatar as well as internationally.

Marriott International have also unveiled enticing offers across its nine properties in Qatar, including 25 percent off for Marriott Bonvoy members and 15 percent off for non- members until 30th September 2019. �P2

Qatar holds symposium on healthcare quality in GenevaQNA GENEVA

The State of Qatar organised a symposium on healthcare quality and patient safety in the face of emergencies and adversities as a prerequisite for achieving universal health coverage, with the participation of 17 coun-tries, WHO Secretariat, WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean and a number of non-governmental organizations. The symposium was held on the sidelines of the WHO World Health Assembly held in Geneva.

Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari launched the sym-posium confirming that access to safe and

high quality health care is a human right in accordance with international humanitarian law. She added that securing this right worldwide requires regional and interna-tional cooperation and overcoming obstacles that face the path to safer healthcare and the pledge to leave no one behind, calls for safe comprehensive health coverage and making patient safety and care quality top priority.

Al Kuwari presented the efforts made in the patients’ safety field since the Alma Ata Declaration more than 40 years ago. She added that the WHO and the Global Ministerial Summits on Patient Safety had launched an agenda for safer care in low-and middle-income countries, and

Minister of Public Health, H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, speaking at the symposium in Geneva, Switzerland, yesterday.

FIFA: 2022 World Cup in Qatar to feature 32 teamsTHE PENINSULA & AGENCIES DOHA / ZURICH

The governing body FIFA yesterday announced that the 2022 World Cup will feature 32 teams, ending a long raging debate whether Qatar would be asked to host 48 teams.

Qatar, which opened its second multi-purpose World Cup venue Al Janoub Stadium by hosting the Amir Cup final on May 16, is rapidly completing its prep-aration to host 32 teams for the 2022 edition. Yesterday’s statement by FIFA means the 48-team concept will be officially

launched at the 2026 World Cup to be jointly held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

In a statement posted on www.fifa.com, FIFA yesterday said: “In line with the conclusions of the feasibility study approved by the FIFA Council at its last meeting, FIFA and Qatar have jointly explored all possibilities to increase the number of par-ticipant teams from 32 to 48 teams by involving neighbouring countries at the FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022. Following a thorough and comprehensive consultation process with the involvement of all the relevant

stakeholders, it was concluded that under the current circum-stances such a proposal could not

be made now.”The statement added: “Addi-

tionally, FIFA and Qatar have once again explored the feasibility

of Qatar hosting a 48-team tour-nament by in particular lowering certain key FIFA requirements. A joint analysis, in this respect, con-cluded that due to the advanced stage of preparations and the need for a detailed assessment of the potential logistical impact on the host country, more time would be required and a decision could not be taken before the deadline of June. It was therefore decided not to further pursue this option.”

FIFA concluded the statement by saying: “The FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022 will therefore remain as originally

planned with 32 teams and no proposal will be submitted at the next FIFA Congress on 5 June.”

Last week’s opening of Al Janoub Stadium - which can house 40,000 football fans - was another feather in Qatar’s cap as it races to complete six more venues before the FIFA World Cup is staged from Nov 21 to Dec 18 in 2022. Two years ago, Qatar opened the iconic Khalifa International Stadium by staging the Amir Cup final between Al Sadd and Al Rayyan. In just two years, Qatar has completed two state-of-the-art football venues that will host 2022 World Cup matches.

recently in areas of extreme adversity. HE the Minister of Public Health said the healthcare system in Qatar is of high quality and safety and that the modern and interna-tionally accredited hospitals as well as Hamad Medical Corpo-ration (HMC) health care workers work with local and international partners to ensure that patients are pro-vided with quality care and safety. �P3

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani chairing the Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment meeting at Al Bahr Palace, yesterday.

FIFA statement means that 48-team concept will be officially launched at the 2026 World Cup to be jointly held in the United States, Canada and Mexico.

1

QNA DOHA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Chairman of the Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment, yesterday chaired the council's second meeting in 2019 at the Al Bahr Palace.

Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani, Deputy Chairman of the Council, attended the meeting along with the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, Executive Member of the Council and Their Excellences the members of the Council.

The Council discussed topics on the meeting agenda and took the appropriate measures regarding them, including the approval of the establishment of the Investment Promotion Agency of the State of Qatar, which is tasked with attracting of foreign investment to the State.

The Council also reviewed a presentation on reg-ulating industrial and logistic sector, and an other on developments in the fields of energy and investments.

Amir chairs meeting of Supreme Council for Economic Affairs and Investment

02 THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019HOME

Armed Forces plans

training at Mesaieed

DOHA: The Directorate of

Moral Guidance at the Minis-

try of Defence announced that

the Qatari Armed Forces will

carry out training exercises at

the shooting maritime field

(O.B.D-28) located in east of

Mesaieed from June 23 to July

4, from 6am to 5pm according

to the local time for the city

of Doha. The field is located in

East of Mesaieed with a dis-

tance of approximately 40km,

at an angle of 105 from the

Port of Mesaieed next to

“Fasht Al Hadeed” from the

east and extends to the south

of Shuraawa Island. The Qatari

Armed Forces General Com-

mand has warned those who

frequently visit the area to

take precautions for their

safety. QNA

OFFICIAL NEWS Shura Council Speaker meets Iranian envoy

The Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, met yesterday with the Ambassador of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the State of Qatar, Mohamad Ali Subhani. During the meeting, they discussed parliamentary relations between the two countries and ways of boosting them. Issues of mutual interest were also discussed. The meeting was attended by a number of officials from the Shura Council.

Hotels and resorts offer up to 40% off in summer

FROM PAGE 1Guests can explore spectacular experiences across its brands,

including St. Regis, W Hotels, JW Marriott, Marriott Hotels, and Westin. Non-members can join Marriott Bonvoy free-of-charge and enjoy the benefits of this amazing offer by signing up for free at www.marriot-tbonvoy.com. Neal Jones, Chief Sales and Marketing Officer at Mar-riott International Middle East & Africa said, “In Qatar, we are fortunate to have a diverse portfolio of brands that are waiting to be explored. This is an ideal opportunity for our loyal members and guests to expe-rience more this season.”

Al Rayyan Project Management, whose hospitality properties include Al Messila Resort & Spa, Banana Island Resort Doha, as well as several boutique hotels in Souq Waqif, stated: “We are delighted to partner with Qatar National Tourism Council. Through our packages at Souq Waqif Boutique Hotels, Al Najada Hotel and Souq Al Wakra Hotel, guests can escape to refined indulgence and personalized service at a more affordable rate this summer.”

Other hotels are also participating in the rich offering of Summer in Qatar by offering up to 25 percent off. These hotels are Fraser Suites West Bay, The Curve Hotel, Wyndham Grand, Regency Doha, La cigale Hotel, Oryx Rotana, Marsa Malaz Kempinski, The Torch, Al Aziziyah Boutique Hotel and Amari Doha. In addition, hotel guests can avail of numerous offers on hotel facilities including restaurants, spas, gyms or even late check-out and free meals for children.

Sheikha Al Mayassa reviews steps to develop National Museum of QatarQNA / NEW YORK

Chairperson of Qatar Museums, Doha Film Institute and Reach Out to Asia, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, stressed that culture is a main component of human development.

This came in a statement read by Her Excellency at a round table discussion in the UN General Assembly on culture and sustainable development.

The roundtable discussion took place at the headquarters of the UN in New York. Her Excellency reviewed the steps taken by the State of Qatar to develop its national museum, pointing to the contribution culture can make to development by providing inno-vative solutions. Her Excellency said that focus during the project was on protecting the Qatari culture, and communicating with the Qatari people in all fields.

Her Excellency also dis-cussed the efforts made to

preserve the oral history and heritage of the people of the State of Qatar, which included holding 500 on-camera interviews that documented the experiences of many Qatari generations.

She stressed the importance of the initiatives made by the National Museum of Qatar in protecting the knowledge and wisdom of the people of the State of Qatar, and the contribution it will make to development.

She also discussed the role the museum can play in inspiring Qatar’s foreign visitors, who can see how Qataris are connected to both the desert and the sea. Her Excellency stressed that the museum also highlights the State of Qatar’s commitment to sus-tainable development as a main goal, as well as improving the lives of Qatari people and all people living in the country.

In c o n c l u d i n g her statement, she pointed to the challenges facing sustainable

development due to population sizes, stressing at the same time the importance of enhancing human development by investing in education. She said that the advantage of the development of the cultural field in Qatar was its ability to create a number of jobs on a regional level. She lamented the bad luck as the current political environment is acting as an obstacle in that regard, adding that it also obstructs efforts to combat poverty. Her Excellency also stressed on the important role played by culture in supporting forgiveness and dialogue. Meanwhile, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani has welcomed the increase in the number of school visits to QM’s museums, art workshops and education programs during the 2018/2019 school year. According to data released by QM’s Department of Education, 22,430 school

children took part in over 680 visits, with Doha’s iconic Museum of Islamic Art being the most popular destination.

In addition to visits to MIA, schools also participated in the education programs offered by Mathaf: Museum of Arabic Modern Art; the National Museum of Qatar, Fire Station and other institutions under QM’s umbrella. Sheikha Al Mayassa was particularly impressed by several government and inter-national schools which stood out for their commitment to instilling appreciation for arts, culture and heritage among its students.

QM’s Department of Edu-cation, which is committed to providing interactive opportu-nities for families, students and adults to create lasting memories and foster creativity in society, is currently preparing its program for the new school year with the expectation that engagement will continue to rise.

Chairperson of Qatar Museums, Doha Film Institute and Reach Out to Asia, H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, at a round table discussion on culture and sustainable development at the UN General Assembly in New York, yesterday.

03THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019 HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

03. 20 AM

04. 46 AM

11. 31 AM

02. 56 PM

06. 18 PM

07. 48 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum30oC 41oC

HIGH TIDE 06:17 –20:02 LOW TIDE 03:13 – 13:26

Hot daytime with slight dust at some plac-

es and some clouds at times.

Cabinet takes measures to ratify MoUsQNA DOHA

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani chaired the Cabinet regular meeting held at its seat at the Amiri Diwan yesterday.

Following the meeting, Minister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi stated that the Cabinet reviewed topics on its

meeting’s agenda.The Cabinet approved its

draft decision to amend some of the provisions of Decision No. 34 of 2011 regarding the reorganisation of the national coordinating committee in international trade affairs.

The Cabinet also took required procedures to ratify a memorandum of under-standing (MoU) to cooperate in the youth and sports fields between the Minister of Culture and Sports in the

State of Qatar and the Presi-dency of the Council of Min-isters department of youth and sports in the Italian Republic.

The Cabinet took required procedures to ratify an MoU to cooperate in the health sector between the Ministry of Public Health in the State of Qatar and the Ministry of Health in the Italian Republic.

The Cabinet took required procedures to ratify an MoU on food security and

cooperation in agriculture and agri-food industries between the Ministry of Municipality and Environment in the State of Qatar and Ministry of Agri-cultural Food, Forestry, and Tourism Policies in the Italian Republic.

The Cabinet approved a draft agreement to cooperate in the education, scientific research and technology fields between the governments of the State of Qatar and the Republic of Bulgaria.

The Cabinet reviewed and took the appropriate decision on the memo of the National Committee for the Prohibition of Weapons on report (43) on the committee’s work between January 1 and April 30, 2019.

The Cabinet reviewed and took the appropriate decision on the memo of Chairman of the Qatar Financial Centre Regulatory Authority on the report on the authority’s activ-ities between April 1, 2018 and March 31, 2019.

Qatar holds symposium on healthcare quality, patient safety in Geneva

FROM PAGE 1She highlighted the human-

itarian activities and commit-ments that the State of Qatar is known for. Relevant stake-holders in Qatar are working to improve the lives of those in need globally through a wide range of humanitarian assistance, relief services and development activities, where the 2018 World Summit on Innovation in Health Care (WISH) issued a report on chal-lenges and opportunities for achieving universal health cov-erage in conflict areas, she added.

The Minister of Public Health said part of its com-mitment to global health security, Qatar was one of the first countries in the Eastern Mediterranean region and the seventh in the world to be subject to the external assessment process to measure compliance with the Interna-tional Health Regulations 2005, to ensure that Qatar is ready to respond to any problems related to global health security.

Dr Al Kuwari despite

international priorities and country-specific commitments being identified, there is a gap in patient safety and this gap is more prominent in emergencies and tribulations and meeting this challenge has several complex aspects and requires intersectoral and global coop-eration between countries and organizations.

The WHO Regional Office for the Eastern Mediterranean is working on a promising study with a number of partners to review key challenges and pri-orities for quality and safety in times of adversity with a goal to formulate a framework or road map to help implement a flexible health care system capable of responding effec-tively to any challenges, she said.

Al Kuwari called on all political leaders and policy makers from around the world to work towards a common vision for the development and implementation of a global plan of action on patient safety, stressing that safety must be a prerequisite for achieving

comprehensive health coverage during emergencies and adver-sities, while strengthening the approach to serving those in need. She said that health and well-being are the core of peace and conflict resolution and that the shared vision of building a comprehensive and safe health care system that supports com-munities and prevents adversity is now essential.

In the conclusion of the symposium, Dr Al Kuwari called for intensified global efforts in treating patients who are living in rough environments. She called for a global implemen-tation of patient safety, and learning from the experience of WHO in that regard.

She noted that the State of Qatar, part of its efforts of implementing the resolutions

of the Global Action on Patient Safety, will contribute to building capabilities for that purpose and hosting consulta-tions and technical meetings to discuss the matter. HE the Min-ister also called on international organizations and states to think about their commitments and the procedures that they can carry out.

According to a World Health Organization (WHO) report on universal health coverage, at least half of the world’s popu-lation still lack access to basic health services, resulting in between 5.7 and 8.4 million deaths per year in low- and middle-income countries. The situation is even worse in fragile countries that are struck by armed conflicts, plagues or natural disasters. Health care

systems in those countries according to the report are ter-ribly affected by the increased demand and reduced resources.

Numbers show that around 350 million children currently live in conflict zones of some type. Additionally, 20 people are forcibly displaced every minute as a result of conflict or perse-cution, leading to a total of 65.6 million people, including some 22.5 million refugees, according to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR).

The symposium was organised to reflect the com-mitment of the State of Qatar to its responsibility towards inter-national community and humanity, and its commitment to enhancing regional and inter-national partnerships in the healthcare field.

Minister of Public Health H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari attending the symposium on healthcare quality and patient safety held in Geneva.

Katara GM meets envoy of the Republic of CyprusDr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara, received Michalis A Zacharioglu, Ambassador of the Republic of Cyprus at the Cultural Village Foundation yesterday. They discussed enhancing cooperation between Katara and the Embassy of Cyprus to enrich the cultural scene in Qatar and for further collaboration to support arts and culture. This cooperation will begin by opening an art gallery for the Ambassador who himself is an artist and will display some of his artworks through an art exhibition in September 2019. The envoy took a tour around Katara and was introduced to the different facilities and galleries which host various cultural and art events within Katara’s commitment to boost and support arts and culture and form a bridge between cultures of the world.

04 THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019HOME

QCS hosts annual ‘Hope Iftar’ THE PENINSULA DOHA

In support of cancer patients and survivors, the Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) hosted annual ‘Hope Iftar’ at the InterConti-nental Doha The City, yesterday.

Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Jabor Al Thani, Chairman of QCS; Pro-fessor Alexander Knuth, CEO and Medical Director at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)’s Hamad General Hospital and National Centre for Cancer Care

and Research (NCCCR); Dr Mohammed Ussama Al Homsi, Senior Consultant, Oncology Department, NCCCR and several others were present at the event.

The event gathered many patients and survivors who shared their inspiring journey to fight the disease. “Cancer comes into life as an uninvited guest. We have to fight it by getting proper medication and will power,” said Dr Mohamed Shaaban, a colon cancer survivor.

Lucy Mbugua, a Kenyan res-ident, said that in 2017 her son was diagnosed with leukemia at the NCCCR and was introduced to the QCS.

She said the QCS provide them with financial help for the entire treatment of the child and direct the family to concerned people for psychological support and counselling.

Dana Mansour at the QCS shed light on the support pro-grammes provided to individuals living with cancer.

Officials and participants during the Iftar event hosted by Qatar Cancer Society, yesterday.PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH / THE PENINSULA

QRCS Patient Benefit Fund provides activities for the disabledQNA /DOHA

The Qatar Red Crescent’s Patient Benefit Fund has stepped up efforts for its charitable activ-ities, especially in the field of establishing libraries that serve disabled patients in the state’s therapeutic institutions. The most recent achievement of the Fund in this regard was the delivery of two libraries, both physical and electronic, to serve several sections of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC). The physical library consists of 700 printed books, which will be distributed to seven treatment and specialized centres. The electronic library will include 10 tablets for patients enrolled in the day care programme in Muaither.

Senior Consultant in the Community Med-icine Department at HMC Dr. Mohammed Siddiqi said that these libraries will add edu-cational rehabilitation programs to patients and enhance cooperation with the Qatari Red Crescent in order to provide exceptional service. This contribution is a continuation of cooperation between the two sides, which in turn contributes to the integration of services provided by different medical and social care institutions in Qatar and present them as an integrated package to benefit patients as much as possible, Dr Siddiqi added.

For her part, Head of Local Devel-opment at QRCS Mona Fadhel Al Sulaiti explained that the libraries provided edu-cational materials in various fields for the benefit of the resident patients, adding that it also aims to entertain patients and help them make use of information and knowledge available on the Internet.

Qatar marks Biological Diversity DayTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The State of Qatar, represented by the Ministry of Municipality and Environment, yesterday marked the International Day for Biological Diversity, which is cele-brated on May 22.

The significance of the this year’s celebration is that it coin-cides the celebration of the 26th anniversary of the Convention on Biological Diversity, which was signed in 1992.

The celebration of the Inter-national Day for Biological Diversity aims to increase knowledge and raise awareness of the importance of healthy diet and ecological ecosystems, while contributing to the achievement of sustainable development goals, including reduction and adap-tation to climate change, resto-ration of ecosystems, access to clean water, elimination of hunger and other related issues.

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment stressed in a statement yesterday, that the State of Qatar attaches great impor-tance to the preservation of Bio-logical Diversity, being an important natural asset that sup-ports economic growth, and as it

contributes to the preservation of the natural vital system in terms of the availability of water, food and energy.

The Ministry indicated that it is working on the implementation of the requirements of the Con-vention on Biological Diversity, through operational procedures to be applied on a daily basis, pointing to development of the first national strategy for biological diversity in 2004, which have been updated in the second national strategy to contribute to the balance between the country’s large sustainable development components and to reduce signif-icant pressures on the components of biodiversity, including eco-systems, animals, plants and fungi.

Qatar National Vision 2030 has included innovative solutions to ensure sustainability, awareness and commitment to a flexible legislative regime to

protect the environment and mit-igate climate impacts. The National Strategy (2018-2025) included several programmes for the sustainability of fishery resources and land-use efficiency.

In addition, the national strategy to combat desertification includes proposals for initiatives that contribute to the conservation of the components of biodiversity. The National Development Strategy (2011-2016) emphasised the Green Areas Project Initiative, which aims to increase sus-tainable urbanisation and create a healthy living environment.

The State of Qatar has also adopted legislations to enhance the protection of biodiversity, including the ban on grazing, the protection of endangered sea turtles and the amendment of the law on damage to the plant envi-ronment, in order to ensure that such legislation is in line with the management of environmental developments.

The State of Qatar has signed and ratified different interna-tional, regional and bilateral agreements, conventions and pro-tocols within the framework of biological diversity and the fight against desertification.

The celebration of the International Day for Biological Diversity aims to increase knowledge and raise awareness of the importance of healthy diet, and ecological ecosystems.

Qatar Executive announces global expansion at EBACETHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Executive, the private jet charter division of Qatar Airways Group, is celebrating 10 years of success at EBACE with the announcement of plans to open new offices in Shanghai, China; Moscow, Russia; and London, United Kingdom later this year, as well as receiving two new additional certifications. The European Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (EBACE) is the annual meeting place for the European business aviation community and is taking place in Geneva, Switzerland from May 21-23.

Qatar Executive’s expansion

to Shanghai, Moscow and London in 2019 will further enable it to offer its bespoke and personal service to business and leisure clients on a global scale, regardless of where they are located.

Additionally, for the first time since its establishment in 2009, Qatar Executive has undergone an audit on two international standards in April 2019: IS-BAO (International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations) and Wyvern Wingman. These are two internationally recognised avi-ation safety standards in the business and charter jet fields; IS-BAO is based on ICAO (Inter-national Civil Aviation Organi-zation) standards while Wyvern,

popular in the USA market, also follows IS-BAO standard but dic-tates additional stringent require-ments. The audits concentrated on, among other critical subjects, the Safety Management System (SMS) implemented in Qatar Executive as an operator.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker, said: “Qatar Airways first announced the formation of a corporate jet subsidiary Qatar Executive at the Paris Air Show in 2009, as part of the airline’s global growth strategy and continued com-mitment to the Middle East, and the global business travel com-munity. I am extremely proud of where we are now, just 10 years later.”

Qatar Executive team members posing for a group photo during the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition being held in Geneva, Switzerland.

05THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019 HOME

Sidra Medicine, ACS NSQIP join forces for surgical careTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Sidra Medicine has joined the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP®). Named as “Best in the Nation” for surgical quality by the Institute of Medicine, NSQIP is used by top US News and World Report ranked hospitals to improve surgical care.

Professor David Sigalet, Chair of Patient Services at Sidra Medicine said: “Our top priority is to make sure our patients receive the best surgical care possible. By voluntarily participating in this programme, our hospital is joining forces with other leading hospitals around the world to uncover new ways to help our patients get the best results from surgical treatment and care.”

Sidra Medicine has joined the ACS NSQIP Pediatric programme, which is a validated, outcomes-based pro-gramme used to measure and improve the quality of pediatric surgical care.

ACS NSQIP enables participating hospitals to evaluate outcomes using a comprehensive database to identify opportunities to improve the quality of surgical care it delivers. Its data

collection mechanism uses a 30-day, risk adjusted surgical outcomes process that allows valid benchmarking among all participating hospitals. This process improves and advances surgical care as it offers a clear picture of what is cur-rently happening in hospitals where operations occur; and allows partici-pating hospitals to compare their results to other hospitals in the ACS NSQIP programme.

Dr. Mansour Ali, Chair of Surgery at Sidra Medicine said, “We are thrilled to have received our first risk adjusted out-comes report, which reflects surgical outcomes from Sidra Medicine’s first year of providing surgical care — both at the outpatient clinic and then the first six months in the main hospital.

Having reliable surgical outcomes data early on will allow to track our progress from the start and continue making improvements to patient safety

and care. The strength of joining ACS NSQIP is reliable comparable data that is actionable.”

ACS NSQIP will help the surgical team at Sidra Medicine track surgical patient outcomes in more than 40 key

areas called “measures.” Some of these measures — such as surgical site infec-tions — are also tracked after patients are discharged from the hospital to home care.

The certified surgical clinical

reviewer (SCR) at Sidra Medicine will collect and validate data on a host of variables related to the patient’s con-dition before, during and after the operation.

The measurement method adjusts for the complexity or severity of a patient’s illness or condition so that Sidra Medicine has the clinical data they need to evaluate their performance and find better ways to care for their surgical patients.

“As medical professionals, we know that the best way to deliver superior care is to participate in a scientifically-based program to measure, study and improve care. We applaud Sidra Medicine for being among the leaders in this national effort,” said Clifford Y Ko, MD, Director of Division of Research and Optimal Patient Care at the American College of Surgeons.

Dr Abdalla Zarroug, Chief of General and Thoracic Surgery at Sidra Medicine, is the Founding President of American College of Surgeons, Qatar Chapter.

The Qatar Chapter has members of local surgeons from almost every sur-gical specialty across multiple hospitals in Qatar and is extremely active in sup-porting its members in the country.

Dr. Mansour Ali (left) and Prof. David Sigalet

QU protects hawksbill turtles through Qatar Turtle ProjectTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Sea turtles are a group of reptiles that have adapted to live in the sea and are one of the most ancient creatures on planet Earth. Scientists recognise seven living species of sea turtles that live in our oceans today, including the critically endan-gered hawksbill turtle.

With funding from Qatar Petroleum (QP), The Environ-mental Science Center (ESC) at Qatar University (QU) is currently implementing the Qatar Turtle Project to protect Qatar’s hawksbill turtles. This project is one of the top-priority projects for the two institutions towards preserving Qatar’s wildlife and

a commitment to nature, which is run by Project Leader Pro-fessor Dr. Hamad Al Saad Al Kuwari, Director of the ESC along with a specialist team and technicians at the center.

Since 2002, QP and QU have been studying hawksbill turtles in the Qatari coasts and working to restore these turtle popula-tions and their habitat based on the best scientific evidence.

The conservation of sea turtles is an essential part of the ecological balance, which is achieved by the survival of the components and elements of the natural environment as they are. Unfortunately, human interven-tions have significantly altered the environmental balance, which has led to many negative

impacts on terrestrial and coastal habitats due to abuse such as increasing population, green-house gas emissions and envi-ronmental degradation.

The study of the hawksbill turtles this year includes the study of nesting beaches of Fuwairit, Al Mafyar, Al Ghariyah, Al Maroona and Al Huwailah. These beaches were supervised by a scientific team from the ESC in cooperation with a team of observers from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.

In addition, the study of hawksbill turtles included four Qatari islands, including the faraway islands of Halul and Sharaouh and the nearby islands including Umm Tais and Ras Rakkan. The island study is

implemented and supervised by a specialist team led by Field Director at the ESC Dr. Jassim Abdulla A Al-Khayat.

“This year, for the first time, the project included the deployment of satellite trans-mitters on a number of hawksbill turtles in Halul Island to track their movements and behavior in the Gulf,” said Shafeeq Hamza, Researcher at ESC who has been working with the Qatar Turtle project since 2009.

The nesting beaches in Halul Island are well fenced and guarded by the Halul Offshore management. With continuing cooperation and joint efforts of institutions, the hope is that this critically endangered species will thrive on the shores of Qatar.Tagging the turtle on Halul Island.

ACS NSQIP will help the surgical team at Sidra Medicine track surgical patient outcomes in more than 40 key areas called “measures.”

06 THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019HOME

The Westin Doha hosts Iftar for children from Shafallah & Aamal Centers THE PENINSULA DOHA

On the occasion of the holy month of Ramadan, The Westin Doha Hotel and Spa has hosted an Iftar for children and students with special needs from Al Shafallah and Aamal Center for Special Needs as part of its contribution to Save the Dream Global Pact for Sports.

The Iftar was held at The Westin’s Ramadan tent, and gathered around 25 children, ambassadors, members of the press and social media influ-encers along with delegates from sports entities and repre-sentatives from the Hotel and

Save The Dream.Ammar Samad, Manager at

The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa said: “For the second year in a row, we are pleased to be part of this significate initiative and we are extremely proud to support Save the Dream and share with them the Spirit of Ramadan.”

He added: “We are part of the community and are com-mitted to supporting children with special needs not just d u r i n g R a m a d a n b u t throughout the year. Our col-laboration with Save the Dream organization is an opportunity to remind people of the importance of sports

and its positive influence to bring peace and joy among all children.”

From his part, Massi-miliano Montanari, Executive Director of Save the Dream said: “On behalf of Save the Dream, I wish to thank The Westin Doha for hosting us today and for being a com-mitted member of our Global Pact for Sport.

It is great opportunity for us to be here with so many amazing children and to share Iftar with them; they give us inspiration and strengthen our motivation to continue our work at the service of sport and its values.”

The Iftar held at The Westin’s Ramadan tent gathered around 25 children, ambassadors, members of press and social media along with delegates from sports entities and representatives from the Hotel and Save The Dream.

Qatar Airways hosts Garangao event for children of employeesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

To mark the Holy Month of Ramadan, Qatar Airways cele-brated its annual Garangao event with its staff and their families on May 20, 2019 at Katara Hall. Special guests from Doha’s Shafallah Centre for Children with Special Needs were also present to enjoy the Qatari customs and traditions, alongside the community of Qatar Airways employees and their families. Qatar Airways’ mascots, Orry and Orrah, also made a special appearance to bring joy to the children.

The celebration featured a number of traditional Qatari houses and tents, each with a surprise awaiting the guests, as well as a range of traditional games that introduced the children to the way games were played in the past. Authentic Qatari cuisine was also served to further create an experience cel-ebrating the uniqueness of Qatari

culture for the children. Families were able to enjoy the festivities and celebrated this entertaining and culturally-engaging event as the children collected treats and listened to stories from the past.

Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Human Resources, Nabeela Fakhri, said: “Cele-brating Garangao is a wonderful way to rejoice in the spirit of Ramadan and to share Qatari culture with our Qatar Airways

family and our guests from Sha-fallah Centre. This joyous event was designed to highlight local traditions and customs, and provide a platform for our children to participate in a variety of traditional activities that have been passed down through generations.

Through this event, we hope to instill Qatari traditions among younger generations and to foster social engagement throughout the entire community.

“Qatar Airways is deeply committed to investing in the Qatari community though our range of CSR initiatives, and I am delighted that our Garangao cel-ebration brought families together in this atmosphere while also helping to maintaining a link between children and our rich cultural heritage.

As the national carrier of the State of Qatar, one of our primary values is pride in Qatar, and we are delighted to display this by providing a rich learning

experience and wonderful evening for our guests.”

Garangao takes place in the middle of Ramadan after sunset prayer. On Garangao, children walk through their neighbor-hoods, knocking on doors and collecting nuts and sweets. On this day, children are also encouraged to wear colourful traditional clothing to further

enhance the festivities.Qatar Airways is proud to

partner with Doha’s Shafallah Centre to provide adults with special needs with employment opportunities at Qatar Airways. This partnership is in line with the Qatar 2030 Vision to con-tribute to community development.

C o r p o r a t e S o c i a l

Responsibility is an important part of Qatar Airways’ values. The airline is a proud supporter of the Educate A Child (EAC) pro-gramme, an initiative that pro-vides educational opportunities to children without access to education due to constraints such as extreme poverty, cultural barriers and conflict-affected environments.

The children at Garangao event organised by Qatar Airways.

The celebration featured a number of traditional Qatari houses and tents, each with a surprise awaiting the guests, as well as a range of traditional games that introduced the children to the way games were played in the past.

Vodafone sees huge rise in customer donations during RamadanTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Vodafone Qatar has seen a huge rise in customers using “Red Easy Donations” to donate to charity during the holy month of Ramadan. Launched in 2017, “Red Easy Dona-tions” gives Vodafone Red Postpaid customers an easy way make auto-matic monthly contributions between QR100 and QR300 to either Qatar Charity or Qatar Red Crescent. One hundred per cent of the donation is given to the selected charity without any extra charges to the customer or the charity.

To date, close to QR500,000 has been raised that’s benefitted Qatar Charity’s various projects including Omneyati- making the wishes of orphans come true and Qatar Red Crescent’s urgent relief

projects that includes the funding of primary education of low-income students in Qatar.

Vodafone Red customers can activate “Red Easy Donations” via My Vodafone app, or by calling customer care, or by visiting their nearest Vodafone retail store.

QC’s mobile Iftar for workers distributes 39,000 mealsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Charity, with the support from the people in Qatar, continues to implement the mobile Iftar project for workers in industrial zones and other areas of the country.

The project which was started by the begining of holy month of Ramadan aims at distributing 39,000 Iftar meals (1,300 meals a day) throughout the spiritual month.

The Iftar meals are distributed daily at the rate of 300 meals for the workers of the Indus-trial Area in Doha, 100 meals for Doha Munic-ipality’s workers, 100 meals for Al-Ruwais Port’s workers, 100 meals for workers in Al Wakra, 100 meals for workers in Abo Nakhla, 100 meals for workers in Al Shahaniya, 100 meals for workers in Al Shahaniya, 100 meals for workers in Kharaib, 100 meals for workers in Al Khor, 100 meals for workers in Simsimah, and 100 meals for workers in Al-Ghuwayriyah.

Some 100 Iftar meals are also distributed daily to workers living in areas around the Mesaimeer Cemetery. Qatar Charity is keen to change the locations of distribution to cover the largest number of areas where the greatest number of workers can get the Iftar meals

during the holy month.The total cost of this project is estimated

at over QR700,000, benefiting 39,000 workers

in the Industrial Area, Al Khor, and other areas of the country. The mobile Iftar meals consist of meat/chicken, rice, dates, water, and juice.

A representative of Qatar Charity distributing Iftar meal.

Landmark Group brands certified as ‘Best Workplaces’ in Qatar THE PENINSULA DOHA

Landmark Group homegrown brands, Centrepoint, Home Centre, Babyshop, Max and Shoexpress were officially recognised as best workplaces in Qatar for 2019 by Great Place to Work institute, a global research and consultancy yesterday. The brands were presented with the certification during an awards ceremony held at Hilton Doha.

Great Place to Work is the global authority on workplace culture, employee experience and the leadership behaviours proven to deliver market-leading revenue and increased innovation. The GPTW rankings cover a wide cross section of businesses, from fur-niture and fashion retailers to

courier forwarders and hotels. Organisations are reviewed on multiple parameters - of credi-bility, respect, fairness, pride and camaraderie by employees within the organisation.

Currently, Landmark Group employs over 55,000 employees across 23 countries. Over the last few years, the Group initiated the Landmark Happiness Movement to build the foundation of a great workplace. As a part of this initi-ative, a dedicated people engagement framework was built that focused on four key pillars - reinforcing core organizational values, women in workforce, enhanced health and well-being of its employees, and ensuring a high degree of transparency amongst its employees.

Nisha Jagtiani, Group Director,

Landmark Group, said: “This rec-ognition from the Great Place To Work Institute, is a big achievement for us and we are pleased to have received this rec-ognition for four of our home-grown brands. As a Group, we are committed to providing our employees with a positive and happy work environment which helps us grow and build a strong business together.

We have a people-first strategy that focuses on keeping our people at the heart of our business as they positively impact us every single day, elevating our customer engagement. This rec-ognition is a testament to our con-tinued efforts at bringing in value to the lives of our employees and the community at large.”

Santosh Pai, Chief Operating

Officer, Landmark Group - Qatar said: “We are honoured to be rec-ognised with such a prestigious award. This truly is a reflection of our Group’s continued efforts in providing a happy and positive

work environment to all our employees. Our people are our greatest assets, and we believe that investing in their future will help us in achieving greater success in the long term.”

Landmark Group homegrown brands, Centrepoint, Home Centre, Babyshop, Max and Shoexpress were among few other companies in Qatar to receive the certification.

A view of the award ceremony held at Hilton Doha.

07THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019 HOME

HBKU joins hands to open Islamic Finance Centre in KazakhstanTHE PENINSULA DOHA

An Islamic Finance Centre was inaugurated recently in Kaza-khstan in corporation between the Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU), Al Farabi Kazakh National University and Astana Interna-tional Financial Centre (AIFC)

Dr Ahmad M Hasnah, Pres-ident of HBKU, attended the opening of the new Islamic Finance Centre at Al-Farabi Kazakh National University in Almaty, Kazakhstan, along with the Rector of the University, Dr Galym Mutanov, and Vice-Chairman of AIFC Board, Yernur Rysmagambetov, recently.

The Islamic Finance Centre is equipped with the most advanced technological tools offering training programs with the aims of being a hub for the research and educational cluster in Islamic Finance. The College of Islamic Studies (CIS) will support this Centre through faculty expertise in the area of Islamic finance and

economy. In addition, the two institutions will be working on student exchange programs, joint conferences, and mutual research projects to promote Islamic finance studies. CIS, as a global leader in Islamic finance, works to support other entities in estab-lishing academic programs and research in this area.

HBKU’s partnership with one of the leading universities in Kazakhstan will open the door for promoting the Islamic finance arena. Dr Ahmad M Hasnah said in his welcoming speech: “Our common goal is to develop rela-tionships based on success and

prosperity. This partnership adds a great value in contributing to building a unique bridge between Qatar’s strategy and Central Asia.

I look forward to the moment when we congratulate our first graduates.”

At the opening ceremony,

the Rector of Kazakh National University highlighted that the training of highly qualified per-sonnel is a vital tool for the

growth of the innovation economy. Moreover, the AIFC prepares professionals for the future where human capital is the main key for development.

During the event, a thought-provoking roundtable discussion was held under the theme of “Islamic Finance in Kazakhstan: Prospects and Opportunities”.

Arising from this part-nership, during the Astana Eco-nomic Forum 2019, a Memo-randum of Understanding (MoU) was also signed between HBKU, Al-Farabi Kazakh National Uni-versity, and AIFC on May 17 in Astana. This MoU describes a strategic partnership that will result in great benefits and out-comes for both sides. It will allow experienced professors to support the initial launch of the Islamic Finance Centre at Kazakh National University by bringing all the experience, expertise, and best practices to the classrooms from Islamic Finance and Islamic Banking practices in Qatar since the 1990s.

The officials at the inauguration of the Islamic Finance Centre that took place in cooperation with HBKU, Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, and the AIFC, in Kazakhstan.

The Islamic Finance Centre is equipped with the most advanced technological tools offering training programs with the aims of being a hub for the research and educational cluster in Islamic Finance.

QNRF & MME launch first cycle of food security callTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF) — a member of Qatar Foundation (QF) — in partnership with the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), has launched the first cycle of its joint Food Security Call. The initiative aims to foster the development of productive and sustainable food systems that increase food security and improve nutrition in Qatar.

The main objective of this call is to enhance food security measures in Qatar through investing in applied research for the primary theme of ‘Local Food Production’, along with ‘Com-munity Initiative Policy and Leg-islation’, ‘Strengthening Resilience among People’, and ‘Agrifood Systems Supply Chain’. The call also strives to utilise external expertise and knowledge in

science and technology related to food security in order to encourage the development of solutions which are designed to suit Qatari climatic conditions.

Dr Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani, Assistant Undersecretary of Agri-culture and Fisheries Affairs, said:, “In line with its mandate, the Min-istry of Municipality and Envi-ronment is working towards achieving a set of goals, mainly food security, and environmental balance and protection, through comprehensive and sustainable development for the benefit of future generations.”

“Agricultural research plays an important role in terms of applying modern and appropriate technologies to attain scientific solutions to bridge the gap in agri-cultural production in order to achieve self-sufficiency and food security,” he said.

“Through our partnership with

the Qatar National Research Fund, we seek to develop a joint coop-eration mechanism that enables both parties to make good use of their services and expertise to advance agricultural and fisheries-related research in Qatar. We also emphasize the important role that academic and research institutions play in developing joint projects in the agriculture and fisheries fields, in addition to enhancing the contribution of these industries to Qatar’s food security in a safe and sustainable manner,” he added.

The joint call encourages the development of a comprehensive, sustainable, and long-term national food system, and aims to use research that benefits the well-being of citizens of Qatar as a catalyst to help the country realize its goal of developing a sus-tainable, diversified economy.

The submission deadline for the call is October 2, 2019.

QIB implements Iftar project in collaboration with Qatar CharityTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) in collab-oration with Qatar Charity (QC), is sponsoring the Iftar project for people who are fasting. The Iftar project is part of the campaign ‘The Gift of Giving’ in Al Rayan Tent targeting workers and community gatherings.

The sponsorship of the program comes as part of the Bank’s community-focused CSR initiatives during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

Commenting on the spon-sorship Mashaal Abdulaziz Al Derham, Assistant General Manager, Head of Corporate Com-munications & Quality Assurance at QIB said, “Ramadan is a time of

giving, generosity, togetherness and tolerance. We are humbled and proud to know that our part-nership with QC is aiding com-munity members break their fast with a good meal in comfortable surroundings.”

Supporting low-income com-munity members during the holy month is part of QIB’s social responsibility agenda. It reflects the Bank’s adherence to Islamic values and Qatari traditions of social solidarity.

The people attending an Iftar at Al Rayan tent.

“Attempts at promoting an economic normalization of the Israeli occupation of Palestine will be rejected,” said Saeb Erekat, the Palestine Liberation Organization’s chief negotiator.

LEONID BERSHIDSKY BLOOMBERG

08 THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019VIEWS

The Trump-Kushner peace plan looks doomed already

The Trump administration unveiled Sunday its first sig-nificant move in a plan to forge peace between Pales-

tinians and Israelis. It will lead a two-day “economic workshop” con-ference in Bahrain next month where US officials will reveal more of their plan to resolve the decades-long impasse between Israelis and Pales-tinians, while raising tens of billions of dollars in investment for the occupied territories. Jared Kushner, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and the White House’s designated lead on bro-kering peace, appears to believe that working to improve Palestinian liveli-hoods and cultivating Palestinian busi-nesses should take precedence over political solutions.

That may make sense, given the political abyss into which the pros-pects for a viable independent Pales-tinian state have fallen.

But the abiding impression among Palestinians is that Trump and his lieu-tenants aren’t honest brokers. Instead, they see a series of debilitating moves enacted by the administration - from the unilateral recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital to cuts in Palestinian aid to the shuttering of diplomatic offices that cater to Palestinians - as

part of a cam-paign to confirm Israeli hegemony and undermine Palestinian political aspi-rations. With Trump firmly allied with Israeli Prime Minister Ben-jamin Netanyahu, who leads the most right-wing gov-ernment in Israeli history, Palestinians see no end to

the Israeli military occupation over their lands.

“Attempts at promoting an eco-nomic normalization of the Israeli occupation of Palestine will be rejected,” said Saeb Erekat, the Pal-estine Liberation Organization’s chief negotiator, in a statement. “This is not about improving living conditions under occupation but about reaching Palestine’s full potential by ending the Israeli occupation.”

Numerous Palestinian business executives invited to Bahrain by the Trump administration have already

signaled they won’t be coming. “It looks like they’ve invited many business people, but it’s an issue related to our national interest,” Ibrahim Barham, a founder of a Pales-tinian electronics and engineering company, told my colleagues. “We can’t divide it from what’s going on in the political arena.”

Speaking to the New York Times, one Palestinian American entre-preneur described the invitation as a “blatant payoff” and likened Kushner’s offers of investment to “trying to strangle a woman while giving her a manicure.”

Another argued that relief from the encirclement of Jewish settlements and the overweening control of Israeli security forces, not financing, is what Palestinians need. “We don’t lack money, know-how and interest,” Sam Bahour, a Ramallah-based consultant, told the Times. “We lack the resources: land, water, movement, access and frequency. It doesn’t require a grand plan, nor does it require a grand workshop. It requires Israel getting its boot off at least the economic part of our neck.”

Experts pointed to earlier false dawns, when grand plans of enterprise in the West Bank came to naught amid turmoil and destruction. “When political negotiations collapsed, violence erupted, and investments went up in flames,” wrote Shibley Telhami of the Brookings Institution. “To assume that the promise of economic improvement would outweigh ordinary human aspi-rations of a people who have painfully struggled for decades is to miss the nature of the human condition.”

Netanyahu is explicitly disinter-ested in lifting the occupation and has left open the possibility of annexing Palestinian lands. Israeli officials and their American supporters blame the failure of the peace process on the Pal-estinian leadership and the continued hostility of Islamist militant groups such as Hamas, which governs the beleaguered Gaza Strip. The Israeli and US officials urge the Palestinians to view the Kushner-led process with an open mind and to give peace, or at

least the Trumpist version of it, a chance.

On social media, Jason Greenblatt, Trump’s chosen negotiator on Israeli-Palestinian matters, insisted that the White House had a viable political plan in place, not just an economic one.

But critics cited Greenblatt’s rhetoric - he frequently berates Pales-tinian officials and commentators on Twitter - as evidence of the Trump administration’s bad faith. “In [Gold-blatt’s] telling, Israel is under attack by fanatical Arabs brainwashed with hatred,” wrote Hussein Ibish, a senior resident scholar at the Arab Gulf States Institute in Washington. “He has never acknowledged the impact of the Israeli occupation or Palestinian dispos-session, disenfranchisement and exile.”

Kushner’s adventure in peace-making is either willfully or naively leading Israelis and Palestinians down a path that cements the former’s suze-rainty over the latter. Supporters of the two-state solution fear that it may doom the last fleeting hopes for a meaningful agreement. “Kushner’s attempt to find an economic solution to this long-running political conflict is destined for failure,” Jeremy Ben-Ami, president of J Street, a liberal pro-Israel advocacy organization in Washington, said in an emailed statement. “It risks paving the way to disastrous steps such as formal annexation, which would undermine any future efforts to reach a lasting peace,” he added.

Robert Satloff, executive director of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, lamented the White House’s dismissal of “expertise” in its rush to hatch a deal, as well as the narrow, transactional mind-set that Trump and Kushner, schooled in the cutthroat world of New York real estate, bring to the proceedings.

“Unlike a real estate transaction in which one party gets the property and the other party gets the cash, a Middle East peace deal starts and ends with the two parties as neighbors, stuck with each other sharing a duplex for eternity,” Satloff wrote.

ISHAAN THAROOR THE WASHINGTON POST

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The people voted for change, and change

is what you are going to see. We will have

a government that is accountable.

Cyril Ramaphosa South African

President

Does Europe face a right-wing surge?

Whatever the results of this week’s European Parlia-mentary election, it’s already clear that the

region’s far-right, populists and euroskeptics have been struggling to gain the momentum they crave.

Analysis of the vote is often com-plicated by imprecise terminology that has little to do with the way the legis-lature works. It is organized by cross-national political group. The larger the caucus, the bigger its influence on the legislative process. So, parties of every political orientation have to forge alli-ances based on common ideologies or goals. When it comes to that alignment process, broad terms like “far right,” “nationalist” or “euroskeptic” matter less than specific points of agreement or disagreement.

There are lots of those. Europe’s political system is designed to ensure maximum representation. This creates a multitude of political flavors. The

German ballot for the upcoming vote is about a meter long. That, in part, is why Italian Interior Minister Matteo Salvini’s attempt to bring to bring together the region’s nationalist and euroskeptic parties in what he has dubbed the European Alliance of Peoples and Nations looks set to be both a political and organizational failure.

Salvini’s biggest success lies in uniting most of the current parlia-ment’s Europe of Nations and Freedom group with factions from another euroskeptic, populist grouping - Europe of Freedom and Direct Democracy. Most notably, Salvini has attracted EFDD’s key member, the Alternative for Germany party, which is projected to win five more seats than in 2014.

But electorally, the united group’s strength largely depends on Salvini’s own popularity in Italy. Elsewhere, the new alliance is expected only to make tiny gains in the Czech Republic, Finland and Estonia. Many of the better-known parties the Italian nationalist managed to attract to his

banner in France, Austria and Denmark don’t appear to be on any kind of a roll.

So the most recent Europe Elects data suggest the next parliament will be more diverse than its predecessor - but that forces described as far-right, nationalist or euroskeptic will fail to make big gains.

Even if one lumps together Sal-vini’s alliance, the European Conserv-atives and Reformers group, Britain’s Brexit party and Salvini’s Italian Five Star coalition partner, which hasn’t joined any group yet, they are pro-jected to win only 194 seats out of 751. That’s more than the 155 they have in the current parliament, but not so many more as to give them decisive legislative power on those occasions when these diverse parties, divided by contradictory national interests, can agree to make common cause.

And that won’t always happen. The eastern European national conserva-tives, for example, aren’t interested in disrupting the normal functioning of the EU - the incoming Brexiters’ only goal.

Tourism is high on Qatar’s agenda to forge new business partnerships with the outside world and to attract investments in the country ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup. The rapidly growing hotel industry is facilitating the country’s agenda-driven aim of welcoming tourists with open arms.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI

osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Tourism sector set for a boost

THERE’S delightful news for the tourism sector. Tues-day’s announcement of the Hamad International Airport (HIA) floating tenders for major expansion

works underlines Qatar’s rapidly growing tourism sector that has broken a significant record with a high number of visitors to the country in just three months and the subsequent revenue generated by the 2022 FIFA World Cup hosts. Qatar has welcomed nearly 600,000 visitors - a 10 percent increase from same time last year - in the first quarter of the year, an encouraging number in every sense. The tenders for HIA’s expansion - the third one since it launched operations in 2014 - will see work com-mencing in the second or third quarter this year. Qatar, however, has assured HIA’s carefully charted expansion plans will be completed well before the country gets ready to welcome the visitors for the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The latest HIA expansion plans also include the launch of the new Airport City that has been designed to provide investment opportunities for the business community - in the country and from overseas - besides the creation of a free trade zone and construction of new hotels. All

of this will create an engaging business buzz in the country that is fast becoming one of the major players in the region’s tourism sector. The HIA, the Doha Port - that wel-comed a whopping 140,000 visitors on 44 ships in the first quarter this year - along with Qatar Airways are the major players in converting Qatar’s ambitious tourism drive into reality. From the days of being just labelled as a desert stop-over, Qatar has in the last decade quickly turned into a seven-night destination thanks to the infrastructure development at HIA, the Doha Port and in the country overall. Billions of dollars have been spent to model Qatar as a tourist destination. The latest figures just show exactly how well the plans have been completed.

Tourism is high on Qatar’s agenda to forge new business partnerships with the outside world and to attract invest-ments in the country ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The rapidly growing hotel industry is facilitating the coun-try’s agenda-driven aim of welcoming tourists with open arms. Akbar Al Baker, the Secretary General of the Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC), on Tuesday under-lined the growing influence of tour operators in the country. Tour guides, according to Al Baker, are making a difference now that Qatar has trained and put to use more than 130 licensed tour guides to add muscle to the growing tourism industry in the country. ‘Discover Qatar’and ‘Summer in Qatar’ are just two of the more popular campaigns to drive the tourist movement in the right direction.

Let’s have more of the same, please!

A Palestinian woman walks past shops in Ramallah in the Israeli-occupied West Bank, yesterday.

A wicked storm is gathering strength across Canada. Rather than take easy comfort in the myth of Canada as an oasis of harmony, Canadians should join Mohamed Fakih in “shout[ing] down” intolerance “each and every time it raises its voice”.

09THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019 OPINION

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Europe says Spain’s economy is doing better thanGermany’s; that’s absurd

Islamophobia has grown louder and bolder across Canada

MATT O’BRIEN BLOOMBERG

ANDREW MITROVICA AL JAZEERA

One of the most economically important yet technically boring stories of our time is the way that policymakers

have defined down success to the point that they’re saying, for example, that Spain is doing better with its 13.9 percent unemployment rate than Germany is with its 3.1 percent one.

It has to do with what’s called the output gap, which is just how close the economy is to operating at its full - but not too full - potential. What do we mean by that? Well, it’s not about unemployment being as low as pos-sible, but rather being as low as pos-sible without making inflation go any higher. That last part is tricky, though, because we can’t really predict what that’s going to be ahead of time. All we can do is try to guess at it based on past experience - experience that may not be that relevant anymore because of how much the economy has changed in the meantime.

In any case, there are two ways that economists try to do this. The first is to look at inflation, and then try to figure out what the Goldilocks level of unemployment is that will neither make it go up or down. The idea being that low unemployment leads to

workers getting bigger raises, which, by cutting into companies’ profits, will eventually force them to raise prices. And that high unemployment does the reverse by hurting sales instead.

But the problem is that while this might have been a pretty good description of the way the world used to work, it isn’t right now. Why not? A few, somewhat contradictory, reasons. Part of it, you see, is that workers have lost enough bargaining power that even low unemployment doesn’t seem to give rise to the type of much higher wages that it did before. At the same time, though, this hasn’t changed the fact that workers are able to resist being forced to take pay cuts when times are bad, effectively putting a floor under how far prices can be cut. So, when you put it all together, it means that inflation no longer tends to spiral up or down in response to either higher or lower unemployment, but only moves within a fairly narrow range instead. Which is even more true now that central banks have done such a good job at getting people to expect inflation to stay the same no matter what.

The result is that inflation doesn’t change very much anymore whether unemployment is 4 or 6 or even 8 percent. And that means that trying to use it to judge the economy’s potential will, more often than not, be com-pletely misleading.

Not that the other way economists try to measure this is any better. That’s just looking at how the economy has done, on average, the last couple of years to try to get an idea of where it should be now. The assumption being that any shock to the economy - like, say, a housing crash - will be short-lived enough that

things will quickly revert to whatever their long-term trend was. What if it isn’t so temporary though? What if the crisis knocks the economy off course for five or six years instead of one or two? Well, in that case, this would tell you that a longer recession wasn’t a recession at all, but was rather the new normal that was all we could aspire to. In other words, it interprets a medium-term decline in actual output as a long-term decline in potential output too. This, as Paul Krugman points out, would lead you to believe in absurdities like that the United States having fully recovered from the Great Depression by 1935, when unemployment was still some-where around 17 percent...

... Or, as we mentioned before, that Spain’s economy is operating at a higher capacity than Germany’s is today. Now, on the one hand, it is true that for a variety of reasons, including an undereducated work force and a relatively large shadow economy, Spain has tended to have a higher official unemployment rate than other countries even when things are going well. But, on the other hand, it seems pretty crazy to say that this means Spain’s economy has gone past its potential into inflationary territory with its 13.9 percent unemployment rate while Germany is still below its with its 3.1 percent unemployment rate. Especially when, as the Institute of International Finance Chief Econ-omist Robin Brooks points out, other measures of labor market slack also show that Spain has a quite a bit of it left, and confirm that Germany does not. Or when Spain’s economy, adjusted for population, has grown 10 percent less than Germany’s since the crisis started in 2007.

However and wherever it manifests itself, to defeat hatred, you must confront it: head-on, with determi-

nation, uncowed by the apologists, who prefer, like so many politicians these days, to coddle, excuse or ingra-tiate themselves to the powerful hate-mongers in our midst.

Happily, Mohamed Fakih is not a politician. He is a successful restau-rateur who chose not to appease or cower before bigotry, but to confront it, head-on, in a Toronto courtroom.

Fakih is also a Muslim. Predictably, his faith made him a target of Kevin Johnston, who, like so many other hate merchants these days, traffics in Islam-ophobia online for notoriety and profit.

Decidedly less polished than the celebrity Islamophobes who camou-flage their venom behind academic credentials and agreeable, media-savvy dispositions, Johnston’s brand of hate is more direct and profane.

Still, despite his ugly resume, Can-ada’s corporate media are loath to call Johnston by his true name, opting instead to describe him as a “contro-versial” “provocateur” or “self-styled journalist”.

Well, Johnston recently got his long-overdue comeuppance, courtesy of Fakih, a Lebanese Canadian who has used his hard-won wealth to hire 150 Syrian refugees, to feed and shelter the homeless and to cover the funeral costs for the victims of the 2016 Quebec mosque massacre.

Turns out, Johnston chose the

wrong man to bully and defame as a “terrorist” whose clients were no more than complicit “jihadists” bent on doing “something nefarious”.

Fakih would not let that smear stand. So, he sued Johnston for libel and won. His just reward: 2.5 million Canadian dollars (US$1.8m) in damages and the satisfaction of pre-vailing over hate and the pathetic “provocateur” who peddled it.

Indeed, the presiding judge found that Johnston’s illiterate assault on Fakih’s name and character was “a loathsome example of hate speech at its worst, targeting people solely because of their religion”.

Clearly, Fakih grasps the import of his persuasive legal victory.

“Hate has always been with us. But lately, the people who hate have grown louder and bolder. They have emerged from the dark corners of the internet. They feel safe to announce, even to celebrate, their intolerance,” Fakih wrote. “There will always be people who hate from their bones. But together we can make them smaller in number, smaller in influence, smaller and smaller until they all but disappear.”

It is a noble goal, to be sure. But buried in the stories about Fakih’s juridical win is the sad, instructive fact that Canadians who “hate from their bones” have not only “grown louder and bolder,” but greater in number, emboldened to exact their retributive hate on Muslims and others.

As Fakih implicitly concedes,

Islamophobia is not an aberration in Canada as the prevailing caricature - promoted by starry-eyed writers - routinely suggests, but a stubborn, metastasising reality.

The proof? Johnston has, it appears, thousands of like-minded disciples. In late 2018, he ran to become mayor of Mississauga, Can-ada’s sixth-largest city and a bedroom community of neighbouring Toronto.

Johnston came in second place, winning slightly more than 16,000 votes, which translated into 13.5 percent of the total votes cast for mayor. This, despite Johnston facing a criminal charge of “willfully promoting hatred” against the local Muslim com-munity, which carries a two-year prison sentence upon conviction.

Those figures represent an alarming and exponential increase over his results during the 2014 may-oralty contest. At that time, Johnston won just 741 votes or 0.5 percent of the vote for mayor.

It has been suggested that John-ston’s surge in popularity was the by-product of the absence of an estab-lished, high-profile challenger to the “unpopular” incumbent. As such, his mushrooming support amounted to a “protest” vote, rather than an overt expression of solidarity with his fetid past and present. This exculpatory reasoning strikes me as dangerously pollyannaish since it rejects or, at least, diminishes the worldwide resurgence of far-right inspired racism, which seeks chiefly to demonise and ostracise immigrants, and, more particularly, Muslims, like Fakih.

Canada, like Hungary, Austria and the United States, is not immune to the appeal of demagogues who, treated too gently for too long by large, irre-sponsible swaths of the mainstream media, have exploited the opportunity to paint most Muslims as rabid, violent perpetrators and villains intent on destroying Western “values” and “way of life”.

Admittedly, Johnston is an obscure, municipal facsimile of much more well-known, national Islamophobes who gin up fear and hatred for their parochial aims.

He is, of course, not alone on this foul score. Johnston was joined on the hustings in 2018 by perhaps Canada’s most notorious racist, Faith Goldy.

The Islamophobic, white supremacist ran for mayor of Toronto, Canada’s largest and arguably most diverse city. Goldy came in a discon-certing third, with 25,600 votes or 3.4 percent of the ballots cast.

The unabashed neo-Nazi’s support is chillingly impressive given the fact that Goldy was barred from partici-pating in all-candidates debates, and

The result is that inflation doesn’t change very much anymore whether unemployment is 4 or 6 or even 8 percent. And that means that trying to use it to judge the economy’s potential will, more often than not, be completely misleading.

advertising on platforms owned by the telecom giant, Bell Media.

Taken together, Johnston and Goldy captured close to 41,600 votes in the epicentre of modern, “cosmopolitan” Canada which prides itself on its “openness” and “welcoming arms”.

This is a sobering number and its significance cannot be avoided or minimised. It has to be understood as a symptom of the same hateful malignancy that a Muslim busi-nessman vanquished in court earlier this month. Now, when that figure is extrapolated - even conservatively across Canada - it swells and reveals the scope of the scourge that first must be acknowledged, then chal-lenged without reservation or quali-fication. The failure to do so would mean allowing another telling and menacing number to climb precipi-tately, as well.

In 2017, Statistics Canada reported that hate crimes in Canada shot up by an astounding 47 percent. Muslims, Jews and black people were the principal victims of the 2,073 reported acts of hate, the most since these abhorrent statistics were first kept in 2009.

Canada’s two largest provinces, Ontario and Quebec, saw the biggest increases, with Ontario reporting a whopping 207 percent increase in hate crimes against Muslims, alone.

Understood in this broader and appalling context, the corre-sponding boom at the ballot box by racist fanatics like Johnston and Goldy is unsurprising.

A wicked storm is gathering strength across Canada. Rather than take easy comfort in the myth of Canada as an oasis of harmony, Canadians should join Mohamed Fakih in “shout[ing] down” intol-erance “each and every time it raises its voice”.

10 THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

US calls for ceasefire as heavy fighting hits northwest SyriaREUTERS WASHINGTON/BEIRUT

The United States called yesterday for a new ceasefire in Syria as rival forces clashed in the coun-try’s northwest, where the government is waging an offensive on the last big stretch of rebel-held territory.

Syrian President Bashar Al Assad launched his assault late last month saying rebels had breached an existing ceasefire, triggering a civilian exodus by bombarding Idlib and adjacent areas. Washington has said it sees signs that Assad has used poison gas in the latest offensive. He has denied such allegations throughout the war.

“What we really need in Idlib and throughout the country is a

ceasefire,” said James Jeffrey, the US special representative for Syria. “We are very much engaged in trying to get this stopped,” he added in a House of Representatives committee hearing. However, fighting raged yesterday as rebels sought to roll back army advances in the face of a heavy bombardment, state media, insurgents and a war monitor said.

Weeks of airstrikes, shelling and fighting have driven at least 180,000 people from their homes, raising fears of a new humanitarian disaster.

“We can no longer put up with living under bombardment or in the open under the trees,” said Abu Abdullah, one of thou-sands of Syrians in white tents dotted around the rock-strewn

olive groves close to the frontier.Turkey-backed rebels had

sent reinforcements on Saturday

to the front lines of the insurgent enclave, which is dominated by the Tahrir Al Sham group, the

latest incarnation of the former Al-Qaeda affiliate Nusra Front.

The war monitor, the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, said at least 100 airstrikes hit rebel-held northwest Syria yesterday.

Syrian state media reported that the army had stopped a large attack by rebel groups in several places, killing many insurgents.

Rebels said they had recap-tured the small town of Kafr Nabuda, which the government said it had taken early this month. “There are a large number...killed from Assad’s forces... there are many bodies still on the ground in the town,” said Naji Mustafa, a spokesman for the Turkey-backed National Liberation Front.

Assad has been backed during the eight-year war by Tehran and

Moscow, and the Russian defence ministry said the Syrian army had repelled three big attacks yes-terday by 500 fighters with seven tanks and about 30 trucks mounted with machine guns.

A truce was agreed in the northwest last year under a Russian-Turkish deal to avert a major government assault. However, Russia has voiced increasing frustration with what it calls violations of the agreement. Turkish army posts were established along the front line last year to monitor com-pliance with the agreement. Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday they would remain, despite reports in Turkish state media that the Syrian army had carried out attacks near one of them.

A Syrian fighter from the National Liberation Front (NLF) fires a heavy artillery gun from the rebel-held Idlib province against regime positions in the of Hama province, yesterday.

Houthis claim another drone attack on Saudi’s Najran airportBLOOMBERG DUBAI

Yemen’s Houthi rebels said they have attacked Najran airport in southwestern Saudi Arabia with a drone, the second such strike in 24 hours.

The attack this time tar-geted a fighter jet hangar at the airport, the rebel-held Saba news agency reported. This comes days after the rebels tar-geted one of Saudi Arabian Oil Company’s facilities in the kingdom.

The rebels announced this week that they have identified 300 targets in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Both countries are part of a coalition trying to unseat the Houthis from the capital Sana’a.

The coalition hasn’t imme-diately responded to reports of the drone attack.

West urges swift Sudan accord to install civil ruleAFP KHARTOUM

The United States, Britain and Norway called for a swift agreement between Sudanese protesters and generals on installing civilian rule, saying it would be harder for them to work with any other new authority.

Talks between protest leaders and army generals who seized power after ousting longtime leader Omar Al Bashir last month have stopped since late Monday following disagreement about who should lead a new ruling body — a civilian or a soldier.

The Western troika, which has previously been involved in mediation in Sudanese conflicts, said the country “urgently needs an agreement” to end the period of uncertainty, according to a joint statement released late Tuesday. “Any outcome that does not result in the formation of a government that is civilian-led, placing primary authority for governing with civilians, will not respond to the clearly expressed will of the Sudanese people for a transition to civilian rule,” it said.

“This will complicate inter-national engagement, and make it harder for our countries to work with the new authorities and support Sudan’s economic devel-opment,” added the statement, which was posted on the Facebook page of the US embassy in Khartoum.

Washington has consistently

called for civilian rule in Sudan since Bashir was ousted by the army on April 11 after months of nationwide protests against his regime of 30 years.

It has also suspended talks with Khartoum for removing Sudan from the US list of state sponsors of terrorism, a key factor which for decades has made foreign businesses wary of investing in the northeast African country.

Sudanese protest leaders are now preparing plans to call for a general strike to build pressure on the generals to cede power.

The ruling military council has been pushing for its chairman General Abdel Fattah Al Burhan to head the new sovereign body but protest leaders want a civilian.

The new ruling body when finalised is expected to install a transitional civilian government for three years after which the first post-Bashir election would be held.

Malawi starts vote count after tense campaignAFP BLANTYRE

Vote counting slowly got underway in Malawi yesterday after closely-contested general elections which local observers declared largely free and fair.

Millions of Malawians cast ballots on Tuesday in an election seen as a test for President Peter Mutharika who critics accuse of corruption and cronyism.

Mutharika, in office since 2014, squared off against a number of challengers, including his own deputy Saulos Chilima and former baptist preacher Lazarus Chakwera.

About 18 hours after polling closed, the electoral com-mission said only 20 percent of polling stations had reported results.

Jane Ansah, chairwoman of the Malawi Electoral Com-mission, told reporters there had been transmission problems. “The first result was received just after midnight,” said added.

Local election observers declared the elections free, fair, credible and peaceful.

The National Initiative for Civic Education, which deployed more than 5,000 monitors, said in a statement that despite iso-lated incidents of scuffles and disputes, election day was largely peaceful.

Iraq to seek compensation from Israel for 1981 airstrikeANATOLIA BAGHDAD

Iraq’s Parliament is considering legislation that would, if approved, call on the Iraqi government to formally demand compensation from Israel for a 1981 airstrike that destroyed the country’s French-built Osirak nuclear reactor.

Submitted to the assembly’s presidency yesterday, the draft legislation seeks compensation from Israel for casualties and material damage incurred by the strike. Along with destroying the reactor, the airstrike is believed to have left at least 11 Iraqis —including military personnel — dead. In a statement, MP Oday Awad, author of the proposed

legislation, said the 1981 airstrike represented a “clear violation of international treaties” for which Iraq “has the right to demand compensation”.

On June 7, 1981, Israel attacked Iraq’s half-built Osirak nuclear reactor, which had been under construction at the time with the assistance of French technicians.

Kuwaits Amir H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah with Iraq’s Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi in Kuwait City, yesterday. Mahdi described his country’s relations with the State of Kuwait as excellent, adding that the two countries have a common desire to ease the ongoing tension in the region.

Kuwaits Amir meets Iraqi Prime Minister

Ramaphosa starts crackdown on corruptionAP JOHANNESBURG

South African President-elect Cyril Ramaphosa has taken steps to crack down on corruption yesterday as the country’s new parliament voted him to lead the country for a five-year term.

South Africa’s lawmakers were sworn into the legislative body in Cape Town following elections earlier this month in which Ramaphosa’s ruling African National Congress party won a 57.5% majority. They then elected Ramaphosa.

In a sign that Ramaphosa is following up on his campaign promises to rid his party and gov-ernment of corruption, the current Deputy President David Mabuza,

was not sworn into parliament.Ramaphosa announced that

Mabuza’s investiture to parliament was delayed because of an incrim-inating report on him by the ANC’s Integrity Commission, which alleges he brought the party into disrepute. The commission probes allegations of wrongdoing within the party and maintains that ANC leaders should step down from leadership positions while facing disciplinary proceedings.

Other notable ANC leaders not sworn into parliament include two former Cabinet min-isters Nomvula Mokonyane and Malusi Gigaba. They have both been implicated by whistle-blowers at a government com-mission probing allegations of graft during former president

Jacob Zuma’s term of office.“We will have a government

that is accountable,” said Ram-aphosa, accepting his election in parliament. “We have a great responsibility to be accountable to the people of the country.” He said he is prepared to make “tough decisions” and boost economic growth and create jobs.

“The people voted for change, and change is what you are going to see,” said Ramaphosa.

By taking out suspect members of parliament, Ram-aphosa is clearly working on the “integrity ticket” that helped him to win the election, said political analyst and researcher at the Uni-versity of Western Cape’s Centre for Humanities Research, Ralph Mathekga.

South African President Cyril Ramaphosa is congratulated by opposition Economic Freedom Fighters party leader Julius Malema after Parliament elected Ramaphosa as President, in Cape Town, yesterday.

Over 26 killed in Central African Republic attackAFP BANGUI

More than 26 people were killed and many more wounded when an armed group attacked two villages in northwestern Central African Republic on Tuesday, the UN’s peacekeeping mission (MINUSCA) said.

The massacre took place in the villages of Koundjili and Djoumjoum, MINUSCA head Mankeur Ndiaye said in a tweet yesterday.

Ndiaye said the UN peace-keeping mission “utterly con-demns” the killing, and vowed: “The authors of crimes such as these will be sought, arrested and

brought to justice.” The slaughter was the biggest single loss of life since the government and 14 militias signed a deal in February aimed at restoring peace to one of Africa’s most troubled countries.

News of the bloodshed coin-cided with an announcement by the Vat ican that a

French-Spanish nun had been brutally murdered in a village in southwestern CAR where she had taught sewing to young girls.

A UN source said the killings in the northwest were carried out by a group called 3R, which hosted a meeting with the vil-lagers and then gunned them down indiscriminately.

Guinea Bissau protesters call for election winner to form govtAFP BISSAU

Thousands of supporters of Guinea Bissau’s historic ruling PAIGC party protested in the capital yesterday calling on Pres-ident Jose Mario Vaz to nominate party leader Domingos Simoes

Pereira as prime minister after an election victory back in March.

It had been hoped that the March 10 vote would draw a line under a crisis that erupted in August 2015 when Vaz — also a PAIGC member — sacked Pereira, his then prime minister.

The United States, Britain and Norway called for a swift agreement between Sudanese protesters and generals on installing civilian rule, saying it would be harder for them to work with any other new authority.

11THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019 ASIA

Amid row over EVM India counts vote todayAFP NEW DELHI

India’s enormous election took six weeks to hold, but organisers have alloted just one day to count all the ballots cast by some of the 900 million eligible voters.

The use of electronic voting machines (EVM) means the count itself, set for today, should be simple enough.

But with claims of fraud

already surfacing in some quarters, it could equally be a laborious affair that could delay the announcement of the final result.

More than 67 percent of the electorate turned out to use the machines during seven rounds of voting.

Armed police stand outside the strongrooms where the voting machines are kept to ensure no one touches them until

the count starts. Representatives of competing political parties can join the guards in the 24-hour vigil or watch a CCTV feed from cameras monitoring the area.

Representatives of the can-didates can also inspect the machines when they are taken to the counting room where each is put on a table.

Sudeep Jain, a deputy election commissioner with the national poll body, said an official then presses a button to get a readout of the votes cast for each candidate.

One round of counting including tabulation takes between 20 and 25 minutes, he said. The count is not final until all candidates, or their represent-atives, and electoral delegates are satisfied with the accuracy of the results.

Jain said the tally from machines around the country is expected to be ready in about eight hours. India is using a system where the electronic machine results are checked against paper tickets given out with each vote.

India’s Supreme Court ordered officials to randomly match paper ballots against the

machine results at 20,600 out of the total 1.3 million polling stations.

Jain said candidates could also demand a check if there were doubts about a machine result. The checks could delay the announcement of the final result by several hours, he added.

Every counting table must have a blue ballpoint pen and a paper knife to break open the seals on the electronic voting machines. Teams are also on hand to seal the machines with wax and a safety tag with a serial

number as soon as the count is completed to ensure their integrity if a result is contested.

Postal ballot papers are counted first. India’s rules allow security and other officials on election duty to cast their votes by post or electronically.

The counting of electronic votes will begin 30 minutes after the postal ballot count is finished.

Candidates have 45 days to contest a result. If a court orders a recount, a machine’s memory can be reactivated by

reconnecting the battery so it displays the result stored in its memory. When the final result sheet is ready, a returning officer in each constituency must pause for two minutes during which a candidate or his agent can ask for a recount.

The officer can reject any request that is considered unrea-sonable or frivolous. When dis-putes are resolved, the result is announced and the candidate’s agents sign the final document to be reported to the election commission.

Police officials walk in the premises at a counting centre on the eve of vote counting day of India’s general election in Ahmedabad, yesterday.

IANS NEW DELHI

The Election Commission (EC) yesterday rejected the Opposi-tion’s demand to count VVPAT slips before the commencement of counting of votes, saying that it didn’t find it “feasible to accede to this demand.” A dele-gation of 22 opposition parties had met the poll panel demanding that VVPAT (Voter Verified Paper Audit Trail) slips should be counted before the commencement of counting of votes polled in the Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs). They had also demanded matching of all VVPAT slips with the EVMs in an Assembly segment in case of a discrepancy in random matching.

The poll panel said in a

release that it deliberated on the issue with senior officials.

“After two rounds of in-depth discussions yesterday and today, it has neither been found possible nor feasible to accede to this demand in the overall context and especially in view of the judgment of the Supreme Court. The judgement says random selection of VVPATs shall be subjected to the process of slip verification as per the guideline 16.6 of the EVM Manual in force,” the EC release said.

It also said there were some other procedural issues. As per the Commission, the entire counting process, especially guarding the strong rooms and the counting centres, was being done in an absolutely fair and transparent manner.

EC rejects demand for counting VVPAT slips before vote count

ISRO successfully sends surveillance satellite to orbit IANS SRIHARIKOTA, ANDHRA PRADESH

India yesterday successfully placed into orbit radar imaging earth observation satellite RISAT-2B, the third in the RISAT series - after RISAT-2 and RISAT-1.

A total of about 5,000 vis-itors viewed the early morning launch from the viewers gallery here.

The new all-weather earth observation satellite with syn-thetic aperture radar (SAR) will send good clarity images for use in agriculture, forestry and dis-aster management support, said Indian Space Research Organi-sation (ISRO), the country’s space agency.

The images captured by the satellite will also be used for

surveillance purposes, though the ISRO is silent on this aspect.

At 5.30am, the PSLV rocket standing around 44.4 metres tall and weighing about 190 ton with a one-way ticket hurtled itself towards the skies ferrying the 615 kg RISAT-2B.

With the fierce orange flame at its tail lighting up the morning skies, the rocket slowly gathered speed and went up and up enthralling the people at the rocket port while the rocket’s engine noise like a rolling thunder added to the thrill.

About 15 minutes into the flight the rocket ejected RISAT-2B into about 555-km orbit.

Speaking about the suc-cessful satellite launch, K Sivan, ISRO Chairman said: “I am extremely happy to announce that PSLV-C46 has successfully

injected RISAT-2B in precise orbit.” He said with this mission, the PSLV rocket has crossed a landmark of lofting of 50 ton since it started flying.

According to Sivan, the PSLV rocket has so far put into orbit 354 satellites, including those by India, foreign countries and stu-dents. The PSLV rocket is a major foreign exchange earner for Antrix Corporation - the com-mercial arm of the ISRO.

The PSLV is a four-stage engine expendable rocket with alternating solid and liquid fuel. In its normal configuration, the rocket will have six strap-on motors hugging it’s first stage.

But the 44.4 metre tall PSLV rocket that lifted off with RISAT-2B yesterday was the ‘core alone’ variant - without the strap-on motors.

The Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO), Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C46) launches on board India’s radar imaging earth observation satellite RISAT-2B from Satish Dawan Space Centre in Sriharikota, Andhra Pradesh, yesterday.

Rahul says exit polls are false, urges workers to be vigilantIANS NEW DELHI

A day ahead of vote counting, Congress President Rahul Gandhi yesterday dubbed the exit polls as false and urged the party workers to keep faith in the party and asked them to remain vigilant.

“Dear Congress workers, next 24 hours are important. Remain alert and vigil. You are fighting for truth. Don’t get dis-heartened by the false exit polls. Have faith on yourself and the party, your efforts would not go in vain,” he tweeted. His remarks came two days after most of the exit polls predicted thumping victory for the BJP-led NDA alliance in the Lok Sabha elections. On Monday, Congress General Secretary Pri-yanka Gandhi Vadra said the exit polls only lower the morale of the party workers and asked them to remain alert near the strong rooms and the counting centres. The seven-phased polls came to an end on May 19. Counting of votes will take place today.

The Congress, which suf-fered a humiliating defeat in 2014 as it could only win 44 out of 542 seats, has given a tough fight to the ruling BJP this time.

India successfully tests world’s fastest cruise missileAFP NEW DELHI

India said the world’s fastest cruise missile passed another key test Wednesday when it success-fully hit a land target after being fired from a fighter jet.

India is developing the supersonic BrahMos missile - which has a top speed of 3,450 kilometres (2,140 miles) per hour - with Russia, and according to media reports wants to soon start selling it abroad.

The missile is one-and-a-half times faster than the old Concorde supersonic jet.

The Indian Defence Ministry said a specially converted Su-30 MKI fighter jet successfully fired the 2.5-tonne missile, which has a range of about 300 kilometres

(185 miles). “The launch from the aircraft was smooth and the missile followed the desired

trajectory before directly hitting the land target,” a Ministry statement said.

It did not say where the test was staged or give other details apart from saying “very complex” mechanical, electrical and software modifications were made to the Russian-origin fighter jet. The first test on a sea target was staged in November 2017. India said then it was the first country “to have success-fully fired an air launched 2.8 Mach surface attack missile of this category on a sea target”.

“The BrahMos missile pro-vides Indian Air Force a much desired capability to strike from large stand-off ranges on any target at sea or on land with pin-point accuracy by day or night and in all weather conditions,” the Ministry said. India has already ordered sea-launched versions of the missile for its

navy, and specialist defence media reports have said the BrahMos could start being intro-duced to the air force from 2020.

BrahMos is a joint venture between India and Russia and officials from the enterprise have said at recent international air shows that discussions on sales are being held with a number of countries. Media reports have said Southeast Asian countries have expressed particular interest, which could worry China. India and Russia are reported to be preparing plans for a longer range version of the missile which could fly at up to Mach 5, or 6,125 kilometres (3,800 miles) per hour. BrahMos is named for the Brahmaputra and Moskva rivers of India and Russia respectively.

This photograph released by the Indian Air Force yesterday shows a BrahMos air to surface cruise missile being launched from a Sukhoi Su-30MKI fighter aircraft.

SC stays Bengal BJP candidate’s arrest till May 28IANS NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court yesterday stayed till May 28 the arrest of Barrackpore BJP candidate Arjun Singh in several criminal cases, which he alleges the West Bengal Police filed against him motivated by political vindictiveness.

Singh’s counsel informed the court that 11 cases had been reg-istered against him in May.

The BJP candidate contended before the court that he is being deliberately prevented from being present on counting day on Thursday. A bench headed by Justice Arun Mishra said “no coercive action should be taken

against the petitioner till May 28”. Earlier in the day, the apex court agreed to hear Singh’s plea for bail in several criminal cases, which he claimed to be purely political in nature. Singh also mentioned the ongoing strike by lawyers in West Bengal, due to which he is unable to move any competent court in the state. The court noted

that the lawyers’ strike has para-lysed the courts in the state. The West Bengal counsel contended the petitioner was involved in several cases of violence. The court, however, observed that vio-lence is common in West Bengal, and the people who indulge in vio-lence do not belong to any political party.

NCP’s Jaydutta Kshirsagar joins Shiv SenaIANS MUMBAI

Senior Nationalist Congress Party leader and former minister Jaydutta Kshirsagar yesterday joined the Shiv Sena, saying he felt “suffocated” in the NCP.

Sena President Uddhav Thackeray and other senior leaders welcomed him into the party fold by tying a red thread symbolizing ‘Shiv Bandhan’ and handing him a miniature party flag. Speaking on the occasion, Kshirsagar said that he felt “suf-focated” in the NCP and criti-cized party President Sharad Pawar for the circumstances leading to his crossing over to the Shiv Sena.

Thackeray said the Sena would be further strengthened in Beed and Marathwada region with the entry of a senior and experienced leader like Kshirsagar. However, the Sena chief refused to reveal details of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) dinner meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.

Thackeray also refused to comment on the recent exit poll projections, nor speculated on the probable outcome.

Election Commission officials said the tally from electronic voting machines around the country is expected to be ready in about eight hours.

12 THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019ASIA

Pakistan, Russia agree to strengthen ties in diverse fieldsINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistan and Russia have agreed to enhance cooperation in various fields, including trade, energy and defence sectors.

The agreement was reached at a meeting between Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and his Russian coun-terpart Sergey Lavrov on the sidelines of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bishkek yesterday.

The two sides exchanged views on bilateral relations and security situation in the region, particularly the latest develop-ments in peace process in Afghanistan.

Speaking after the meeting, Shah Mehmood Qureshi said he discussed promotion of eco-nomic cooperation with his Russian counterpart.

He said different aspects for enhancing volume of bilateral trade came under discussion.

Pakistan and Russia also signed a joint statement on No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space in Bishkek yes-terday. According to the statement, Pakistan and Russia share a common position on the prevention of arms race in outer space and work collectively in various international fora towards that goal.

It said Pakistan and Russia reiterate their commitment to refrain from the threat or use of force in outer space activities. The two countries encourage other responsible space-faring nations to follow this example.

The statement said outer space is being used by an increasing number of states. Pakistan has been consistently highlighting the risks of weap-onisation of outer space, which threatens the long term sustain-ability of peaceful space activ-ities. The statement stressed the need for addressing gaps in the international legal regime gov-erning the exploration and use of outer space with a view to ensuring that no one threatens peaceful activities and applica-tions of space technologies for socio-economic development.

Meanwhile, addressing the two-day SCO Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting, Qureshi called for collective efforts amongst the SCO member coun-tries to meet the present day challenges and to achieve sus-tainable development.

The Foreign Minister said the SCO serves as an important platform for links amongst the regional countries. He said Pakistan was determined to implement the Charter of the SCO. Qureshi said China Pakistan Economic Corridor Project will help further promote links in the region.

People dine at a restaurant as they break their Ramadan fast in Islamabad, yesterday.

Suspect held in Islamabad rape-murder caseINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Police yesterday arrested a close relative for the alleged rape and murder of a minor girl who was found from the federal capital’s Shahzad Town area on Monday.

According to police, the man arrested is a close relative of the 10-year-old Farista, whose body was found after being thrown in the forest.

Police have refrained from divulging any further details regarding the case, however, they have widened the circle of their investigation.

A case has been registered against the station house officer (SHO) of Shahzad Town and other officers. According to the

FIR registered, the girl’s family visited the police station for the registration of the FIR and to find the missing girl.

However, the SHO instead of looking for the girl, speculated the victim might had run away with someone. Instead of regis-tering the FIR, police officials had the police station cleaned, the FIR said.

Action will be taken against the SHO and other officials involved for criminal negligence, officials said.

Farishta’s body was dis-covered from a forest two days ago and was later shifted to the Poly Clinic hospital for post-mortem. Her family, which belongs to Mohmand tribal dis-trict, said they had tried to file a

missing person report to police on May 15 after she had left her home in the evening.

The family, however, claimed it took police till May 19 to register a first information report (FIR) and, even then, a proper search was not initiated. The minor girl’s body was later discovered by locals who sub-sequently informed the police.

To protest against the police’s negligence in the case, the victim’s family protested alongside her body at Taramari Chowk.

Three suspects were arrested on Tuesday for being involved in the alleged rape and murder of the minor girl, police said, adding that the arrested suspects hailed from Afghanistan.

Nawaz to face another inquiry over using bulletproof carsINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Pakistan’s Former prime minister Nawaz Sharif will face another team of NAB officials in Kot Lakhpat Jail which is probing illegal use of 34 bullet-proof cars that were purchased from Germany sans duty for guests of the 19th Saarc Summit 2016.

An accountability court in Islamabad has granted per-mission to the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) to probe Nawaz Sharif over the purchase of more than 30 bul-letproof government vehicles.

Nawaz is being held since December 2018 after his con-viction in Al-Azizia corruption reference against him. A team of the NAB officials are set to question the ex-premier over the matter in Kot Lakhpat Jail (Lahore Central Prison).

The NAB states that Nawaz had used 20 bulletproof cars in his own motorcade and his daughter Maryam Nawaz also added these cars in her per-sonal use.

NAB had already ques-tioned former PM Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and ex-foreign secretary Fawad Hasan Fawad in this regard.

Sri Lankan President extends emergency for another monthAFP/REUTERS COLOMBO

Sri Lanka’s President yesterday extended by a further month the state of emergency imposed immediately after the Easter Sunday bombings that killed 258 people.

Maithripala Sirisena issued a proclamation saying that the emergency, which gives sweeping powers to security forces to arrest and detain sus-pects for long periods of time, would continue for another 30 days, citing “public security”.

Sri Lanka initially imposed the emergency to crack down on local jihadists blamed for the

April 21 bombings that targeted three churches and three luxury hotels.

Three weeks after the suicide bombings, anti-Muslim riots broke out in a province north of the capital in a backlash against the attacks. At least one Muslim man was killed and hundreds of Muslim-owned shops and homes were destroyed. Several mosques were also vandalised.

The police and the military say they have arrested scores of suspects, both in connection with the bombings and over what appeared to be organised vio-lence against the Muslim minority.

The authorities say they have

neutralised the jihadist threat after arresting almost all those involved in the Easter attacks, but troops and police remain on alert across the island.

Christians make up 7.6 percent and Muslims 10 percent of mainly Buddhist Sri Lanka.

Meanwhile, the President has pardoned a hardline Buddhist monk who is accused of inciting violence against ethnic minority Muslims and convicted of con-tempt of court, officials said yesterday.

The President’s office did not give any reason for the pardon, which was condemned by a security thinktank as a blow to Sri Lanka’s “battered rule of law”.

The pardoning of Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara, head of the hardline Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) or “Buddhist Power Force”, comes a week after extremist Buddhists attacked Muslim-owned homes, mosques and shops in apparent reprisal for the Easter bombings. One person was killed in the anti Muslim riots. Government ministers and Muslim leaders openly accused Gnanasara of stirring up violence against Muslims and Christians before his imprisonment, alle-gations he has denied.

Dilantha Vithanage, the chief executive of the BBS, said he had been informed that the President had pardoned Gnanasara.

“He will not be released today as the paperwork has not finished yet,” Vithanage said yesterday.

A Justice Ministry official said: “The President’s office has sent the relevant documents to pardon Gnanasara monk to the Ministry.” A prison spokesman was not immediately available for comment.

The Buddhist clergy has been pushing for Gnanasara’s release.

“A big blow to Sri Lanka’s already battered rule of law, sending precisely the wrong message after Easter attacks,” Alan Keenan, Sri Lanka project director at the International Crisis Group, said on Twitter.

For Kabul residents, crime a bigger problem than terrorAFP KABUL

In central Kabul last month, two men stabbed a teenager and left him for dead before escaping on a motorcycle - a brazen attack amid a rising tide of killings and kidnappings as war-scarred resi-dents complain of increasing lawlessness.

The brutal mugging hap-pened near the green zone, home to many of the Afghan capital’s foreign diplomats, but numerous armed guards posted along the street did not try to help the victim, thanks to arcane local lia-bility laws and restrictions.

The attackers fled after snatching the boy’s mobile phone and camera. He survived, but it took about an hour for authorities to arrive and take him to hospital. Officials and stressed-out residents say crime is surging in Kabul, where police are already pushed to their limits attempting to prevent insurgent attacks by the Taliban and other groups including Islamic State.

Jan Aqa Naweed, spokesman for Afghanistan’s Chamber of Commerce, said crime has grown so bad that business people and entrepreneurs were fleeing the country for fear they could be targeted. “The increase in the crime rate, the killing and

kidnapping of businessmen - this has forced many traders to leave the country,” he said.

“Some of them take their families and money to countries such as Turkey and Uzbekistan. The crime in the city has nega-tively affected investment.” Authorities have started to take note. On Saturday, the Interior Ministry sacked Mohammad Salim Almas, the head of Kabul’s c r i m i n a l i n v e s t i g a t i o n department, because of what

officials called a “dramatic increase” in crime.

The rise is hard to quantify. The Interior Ministry this month said it had recorded 100,000 crimes over a five-year period, but did not provide a breakdown.

Abdul Khaliq Zazai Watandost, a member of Kabul’s provincial council who helps monitor crime rates, told AFP that criminals have killed 70 people in the capital and its sur-rounding areas in the past two

months, with dozens more locals kidnapped.

“Crime has become a bigger problem than terrorism for Kabul residents,” Watandost said. “Terrorism is a big phe-nomenon - but at least we should be able to control the crime.” Aside from murder and kidnap-pings, car thefts are common, the narcotics trade is booming and criminal gangs sometimes target foes by slapping “sticky bombs” under their cars.

A general view of Afghan capital, Kabul. There has been a wave of killings, kidnappings, and blackmail cases that have made it an increasingly lawless city.

4 die as Afghan forces fire on explosives-packed HumveeAFP GHAZNI, AFGHANISTAN

At least four people were killed and more than a dozen injured when Afghan security forces fired a rocket on a Humvee stolen by the Taliban and packed with explosives, officials said yesterday.

The US-made armoured vehicle was being chased by security forces as it raced for the gates to the eastern city of Ghazni, an interior ministry spokesman said.

“After it failed to stop at the signal of security forces, they opened fire, first hitting its tyres, then hitting it with a rocket,” the spokesman, Nasrat Rahimi, said.

Local officials in Ghazni confirmed the account, saying that two civilians and two members of the Afghan security forces were killed in the explosion.

“Ten civilians and five security forces were injured,” Ahmad Khan Sirat, a spokesman for provincial police in Ghazni, told AFP.

Several previous deadly attacks in Afghanistan have begun with militants blowing up a Humvee or another vehicle

outside a target to devastate security forces protecting it, before gunmen rush to assault those inside.

Security forces can take hours to clear buildings after such attacks.

The Taliban claimed Wednesday’s attempted attack in a WhatsApp message, but said the Humvee blew up after its militants detonated their explo-sives, contradicting the official claim.

The interior ministry said as many as four militants were inside the Humvee, and were also killed in the blast.

The militant group, who have been waging a bloody insurgency to overthrow the Western-backed Afghan gov-ernment, have continued their attacks even during the holy month of Ramadan, and despite government calls for a ceasefire.

Afghanistan’s Interior Min-istry also said yesterday Afghan forces had killed at least seven “key members” of the so-called Islamic State group, in an oper-ation in the eastern province of Kunar.

IS holds some ground in parts of Afghanistan’s Nangarhar and Kunar provinces.

Senate panel to address issues facing expat PakistanisINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Senate Standing Committee on Overseas Pakistanis has decided to establish a subcom-mittee to examine whether or not expatriates have access to the facilities and welfare projects announced by the government for overseas Paki-stanis.

The committee, chaired by Senator Shaheen Khalid Butt, also recommended to the gov-ernment to devise a compre-hensive system to address the issues of overseas Pakistanis as they were the most precious assets as they send remittances.

The committee chairman stressed the need for protecting the rights of overseas Pakistanis and giving them awareness about their rights.

Pakistan and Russia also signed a joint statement on No First Placement of Weapons in Outer Space on the sidelines of the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers’ meeting in Bishkek.

Roadside Iftar in Islamabad

13THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019 ASIA

Six dead after election riots in Indonesia’s capitalAFP JAKARTA

At least six people were killed as Indonesia’s capital erupted in violence when police clashed with protesters opposed to the re-election of President Joko Widodo.

Police sirens blared as fresh skirmishes broke out yesterday evening with thousands of pro-testers chanting and waving Indonesian flags in the heart of the capital.

Some hurled stones and fire-works at riot police who lined up behind a razor wire barricade near the election supervisory agency building.

Police pushed back the main group of rioters about 10:00pm local time (1500 GMT) after firing rounds of tear gas and rubber bullets at the demonstrators.

At least three officers were injured in the clashes and carried away, an AFP reporter on the scene said.

Earlier, dozens were arrested and parts of Jakarta were littered with debris and burned-out cars, as the violence triggered security advisories from the US and Aus-tralian embassies.

National police chief Tito Karnavian said six people had died, but denied authorities had fired live rounds at protesters, and called for calm.

“Some had gunshot wounds, some had blunt force wounds but we still need to clarify this,” he told reporters.

Jakarta’s governor Anies Bas-wedan said yesterday morning that about 200 had been injured.

The violence came after Indonesia’s election commission on Tuesday confirmed Widodo had beaten retired military general Prabowo Subianto for the presidency in a poll held on April 17.

Authorities also restricted access to some social media in a bid to stop rumours and fake news from spreading online.

Subianto has said he would challenge the results in court -- as he did, unsuccessfully, against

Widodo in 2014 - but also warned his claims of widespread cheating could spark street protests.

That was borne out early yesterday as protesters set market stalls and cars on fire while hurling fireworks and rocks at security personnel clad in riot gear and holding shields.

Authorities blamed the vio-lence on paid “provocateurs”, citing money-filled envelopes found on some of the demon-strators arrested.

The early morning clashes started after several thousand Subianto supporters had rallied peacefully Tuesday evening.

Roads were blocked off in parts of the sprawling metropolis yesterday - with some shopping malls, busi-nesses and schools also closed as small groups of protesters engaged in skirmishes with police.

“I open myself to anyone who wants to develop this nation, but I won’t tolerate anyone who tries to disrupt public security, the democratic process or the unity of our... country,” Widodo said at a press briefing, flanked by his

chief security minister and the head of the military. Subianto repeated calls for supporters to avoid violence.

“We support people’s con-stitutional rights (to protest) as long as they are civilised, peaceful and non-violent,” he told reporters.

Election officials and analysts have discounted Subianto’s claims, but many supporters appeared convinced of rampant cheating in the world’s

third-biggest democracy behind India and the United States. “We came here to demand justice because there was fraud in this presidential election,” protester Mato said.

“We don’t want chaos, but that depends on the police,” he added.

More than 30,000 troops had been deployed across the city in anticipation of unrest, and the elections commission office was barricaded with razor wire and

protected by scores of security personnel. Elsewhere, hundreds took part in a peaceful rally over election cheating claims in Sumatra’s Medan city, while a police station was torched in Pontianak on Borneo island.

The protests in support of Subianto have sparked a backlash online from oppo-nents with the hashtag #Tang-kapPRABOWO (#Arrest-Prabowo) trending widely on social media.

Riot police officers guard during a protest near the Election Supervisory Agency (Bawaslu) headquarters in Jakarta, Indonesia, yesterday.

Philippines orders to ship garbage back to CanadaAFP MANILA

President Rodrigo Duterte has ordered tonnes of garbage dumped in the Philippines years ago to be shipped back to Canada, his spokesman said yesterday, escalating a festering diplomatic row.

Duterte’s spokesman warned also that if Ottawa would not for-mally accept the shipment of trash it would be dumped inside Canada’s territorial waters. The

rubbish is stored in dozens of containers which a Canadian firm sent to the Philippines in 2013 and 2014 -- ostensibly for recycling -- and the issue of what to do with it has rankled for years. Last week Manila recalled its ambassador from Ottawa because Canada missed a May 15 deadline to repatriate the garbage. “As a result of this offending delay, the president has instructed the appropriate office to look for a private shipping company which will

bring back Canada’s trash to the latter’s jurisdiction,” Duterte spokesman Salvador Panelo told reporters. “If Canada will not accept the trash, we will leave the same within the territorial waters or 12 nautical miles out to sea from the baseline of any of their country’s shores.” Panelo said the order would be carried out “immediately”.

The Canadian embassy in Manila referred requests for comment to officials in Ottawa, who were not immediately

available. Canada has agreed to take back the dozens of shipping containers, but has not given a timeline. Diplomatic ties were already tested after Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, soon after taking office, ques-tioned Duterte’s deadly drug crackdown.

Duterte fiercely pushes back against any international crit-icism of his signature policy, which has seen police kill over 5,300 alleged addicts and pushers since 2016.

Duterte’s allies win Philippine midterm polls in landslideAFP MANILA

Allies of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte stormed to a landslide victory in midterm polls, final results showed yesterday, dissolving a last bulwark against his controversial rule.

Loyalists won both houses of the legislature, shutting out all opposition candidates in the Senate, which had served as a buffer against Duterte’s most contentious plans.

The results open a path for Duterte - who has remarkably high approval ratings - to make good on his call to bring back the death penalty and advance his project to re-write the constitution.

“It’s a clear signal that the people will be behind him as he pushes bills and processes that went nowhere previously,” political analyst Ramon Casiple

said. With nine Duterte backers and three nominally unaligned politicians taking the 12 seats at stake in the 24-member Senate, only four oppositions members

will remain, results from the elections authority showed.

Duterte allies kept control of the lower House of Representa-tives, which has approved

legislation to bring back capital punishment and re-write the constitution since Duterte’s 2016 election. Among the new sen-ators is former national police chief Ronald dela Rosa, the first enforcer of Duterte’s narcotics crackdown that has killed over 5,300.

Campaigners say the true toll is at least triple that and may amount to crimes against humanity.

Senate seats also went to Christopher “Bong” Go, Duterte’s long-time advisor, and Imee Marcos, daughter of deceased dictator Ferdinand Marcos who was ousted in a 1986 popular uprising.

Opponents fear the majority will allow Duterte to push forward his legislative agenda, which includes re-writing the constitution.

In addition to opening avenues for him to stay in power beyond his legally mandated

single term that ends in 2022, a charter change could reshape the Philippines for decades.

Duterte has pitched consti-tutional reform to turn the Asian country into a decentralised federal republic where regions would have the power to fix local problems. But the various initi-atives launched in his first three years in office have also included proposals dropping term limits, allowing him to run for another term and weakening checks on presidential power.

“The pessimistic assessment is that what we’re looking towards is the complete trans-formation of the Philippine political system in the years to come, well beyond 2022 when Duterte’s term is supposed to end,” political analyst Richard Heydarian said.

The landslide victory was a crushing defeat for the oppo-sition, leaving it mostly in disarray.

Philippine Senators-elect, and allies of President Rodrigo Duterte, show the Duterte fist, while Independent candidates Grace Poe (6th right) and Nancy Binay (right) stand during the proclamation ceremony by the Commission on elections in Manila, yesterday.

A man enters a smoking cabin, developed by Southern Globe Corporation (SGC), outside an office building in Singapore, yesterday.

Smoking cabins: Singapore’s solution for cigarette puffersAFP SINGAPORE

Smokers in Singapore will no longer have to sneak a drag on the street, with the launch of the city-state’s first air-conditioned “smoking cabin”, but the expe-rience won few fans among ciga-rette puffers yesterday.

The city-state has some of the world’s strictest anti-tobacco laws and smoking is banned in most public places, with a fine of up to Sg$1,000 ($725) if caught. E-cigarettes are also banned outright.

The new cabins, which are fitted with a Danish filtration system that can purify cigarette smoke before it is released into the air, can reportedly fit up to

10 people at a time. But tobacco enthusiasts appeared unim-pressed, with many choosing to light up at a nearby open-air smoking corner instead.

“The atmosphere in there is stifling, honestly. Because it’s so small and squeezy, I feel a bit like a second-class citizen smoking in there,” e-commerce executive Azfar Zain said after using the cabin. “There are no seats, either. I’m not comfortable with smoking there unless they make the room bigger.” Office worker Rama Dass said he preferred to smoke outside, adding, “some-times I just need a bit of fresh air”.

Singapore-based Southern Globe Corporation said it planned to deploy 60 such structures by the end of the year.

Thai police summon activists to hear sedition chargesAP / BANGKOK

Thirteen Thai political activists appeared at a Bangkok police station yesterday to answer a summons on sedition charges that critics say are part of a plan to remove a rising progressive politician from the political scene.

The action came on the fifth anniversary of a military coup that ousted the last elected gov-ernment and almost two months after a general election that was touted as the next step toward restoring civilian rule.

The activists are among a small but dedicated group that has consistently challenged military rule, and several have been arrested multiple times. The charges stem from a peaceful protest four years ago against the ruling junta.

“The government likes to use laws as a tool to apply pressure,” said Jatupat Boon-pattararaksa, a prominent activist who is also known as Pai Dao Din and was only recently released from prison. “It’s not very just. They just do it to us.” Politician Thanathorn Juangroongruangkit was charged last month with sedition in connection with the same protest. Thanathorn’s Future Forward Party finished third in the March 24 poll.

N Korea state media hits out at BidenAFP SEOUL

North Korean state media yesterday slammed former US Vice-President Joe Biden as an “imbecile” and a “fool of low IQ” after he criticised leader Kim Jong Un.

Biden, who served two terms as President Barack Obama’s deputy, has been on the campaign trail since announcing last month his can-didacy for the Democratic Party nomination in the 2020 presi-dential election.

And some of his comments about the North Korean lead-ership during campaigning appear to have angered Pyongyang, sparking the col-ourful commentary by its official news agency KCNA.

It accused Biden of “slan-dering the supreme leadership” of North Korea -- a term usually referring to leader Kim -- and said the former senator had become “reckless and senseless, seized by ambition for power”.

“What he uttered is just sophism of an imbecile bereft of elementary quality as a human being, let alone a poli-tician.” KCNA did not give any further details, but at a rally in Philadelphia on Saturday, Biden had criticised Donald Trump’s approach to the leaders of North Korea and Russia, accusing the president of embracing “tyrants like (Vladimir) Putin and Kim Jong Un”.

Authorities have also restricted access to some social media in a bid to stop rumours and fake news from spreading online.

14 THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019EUROPE

Austrian Chancellornames new cabinet ministers after scandalAFP VIENNA

Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz appointed new cabinet ministers yesterday to replace those from the far right who have left their posts in the wake of the so-called “Ibiza-gate” affair.

The centre-right chancellor — who has called for snap elec-tions in September following the collapse of his coalition with the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) — named four of his allies to the interior, defence, transport and social affairs ministries.

Kurz also appointed his finance minister, Hartwig Loeger, as his new vice-chan-cellor. The new ministers were immediately sworn in by Aus-trian President Alexander Van der Bellen.

“The goal of the president and of course also my goal as

chancellor is to do everything in this phase to ensure stability in Austria,” Kurz said before his first meeting with the new cabinet.

The ruling coalition between the FPOe and Kurz’s People’s Party (OeVP) started to collapse on Saturday when vice-chan-cellor and FPOe chief Heinz-Christian Strache resigned over a hidden-camera sting.

In the recordings, filmed in a villa on the holiday island of Ibiza, show him appearing to offer contracts in return for cam-paign help from a fake Russian backer.

In the fall-out from the scandal, Kurz also fired the interior minister, another prom-inent FPOe member, leading to the resignation of three other FPOe ministers.

But the chancellor could still be forced out himself by a no-confidence motion expected in

a special parliament sitting next Monday.

It is not yet clear whether the FPOe and the main opposition Social Democrats (SPOe) will back the motion, even though the SPOe has accused Kurz of causing the current turmoil by entering an alliance with the far-

right in the first place.Meanwhile, the head of Aus-

tria’s Jewish Community (IKG) organisation, Oskar Deutsch, called on other parties not to allow the FPOe back into gov-ernment. “I said this at the last election, and we have now been proved right,” said Deutsch,

pointing to what he said were 70 anti-Semitic incidents linked to FPOe members during its time in government.

Kurz, 32, took office in late 2017, heading the coalition of the OeVP and the FPOe after both parties won votes on an anti-immigration platform.

A general view of a cabinet meeting in Vienna, Austria, yesterday.

UN rights expert slams UK welfare spending cutsAP BERLIN

A UN human rights expert yesterday sharpened his crit-icism of cuts to social support in Britain, pointing to “record levels of hunger and home-lessness” in the country and describing recent changes as window-dressing.

Philip Alston, the N Human Rights Council-appointed expert on poverty, visited Britain in November and was critical at the time of British policy. Releasing a new report in Geneva, he said there are 14 million people —one-fifth of the population — living in poverty, and cited increases in homelessness and food banks.

“The bottom line is that much of the glue that has held British society together since the Second World War has been deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos,” he wrote.

Alston said the government

has acted on some issues he raised previously, delaying the rollout of a new welfare program known as Universal Credit and improving it. But, he added, despite a booming economy and “for all the talk that austerity is over, massive disinvestment in social safety net continues unabated.”

Britain’s Conservative-led government enacted spending cuts in welfare as part of aus-terity programmes to balance the books after the 2008 financial crisis. In October, Prime Minister Theresa May declared the end is nigh for austerity.

“It is difficult to see recent changes as more than window dressing to minimise political fallout,” Alston said. “The situ-ation demands a new vision that embodies British compassion and places social rights and eco-nomic security front and center.”

His report also raised concern over the potential impact of Britain’s exit from EU.

Germany grants asylum to two HK activistsAP BERLIN

Germany has granted asylum to two Hong Kong activists in a sign of growing concern over how dissent is dealt with in the territory.

In interviews with The Wall Street Journal and Financial Times, Ray Wong Toi Yeung said he and fellow pro-democracy protester Alan Li Tung Sing were granted asylum last year.

Germany’s Interior Ministry would not give names due to privacy regulations, but con-firmed it had granted two people from Hong Kong asylum last year.

Germany’s Foreign Ministry said, without referring directly to the case, that it considers the human rights situation in Hong Kong to be “good as a whole.”

One dead as bus overturns in ItalyAP MILAN

A double-deck bus carrying 60 tourists from eastern Europe overturned on a Tuscan highway yesterday, killing one passenger and injuring more than dozen others, the news

agency ANSA reported.The victim, identified as a

woman in her 40s, was removed from the wreckage following the accident on the Siena-Florence highway, ANSA said.

The bus was travelling from Montecantini toward Siena when it crashed through a guard rail,

landing in a wooded area. It was carrying tourists from several eastern European countries and Russia who were on a tour of Italian cities.

The cause of the accident was not immediately known. ANSA reported that the driver passed an alcohol blood test.

A firefighter stands next to an overturned tourist bus which crashed in Tuscany, Italy, yesterday.

Theresa May resists growing calls to resign

REUTERS LONDON

British Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured) resisted growing calls to resign yesterday, vowing to press on despite mounting opposition from lawmakers and even some of her own ministers to her latest Brexit gambit.

True to form for a prime minister who has weathered months of calls to quit, May’s chief enforcer told a powerful group of Conservatives she would campaign for European Parliament elections today and then meet the group’s chair tomorrow for another discussion about the party’s leadership rules.

It was not clear whether that conversation would end with any decision on when she should step down.

But the loud calls for her res-ignation further deepened Brit-ain’s Brexit crisis, sapping an already weak leader of her authority. Almost three years since Britain voted to leave the EU and just under two months

after the scheduled departure, it is not clear when, how or even if Brexit will happen.

What was clear was that May planned to stay on for now. The chairman of the powerful Con-servative 1922 Committee, which can make or break prime min-isters, told lawmakers that she planned to campaign in the European poll today.

“It’s just more kicking the can down the road,” said one Conserv-ative lawmaker after the meeting.

May has so far fended off bids to oust her by promising to set out a departure timetable once parliament has had a chance to vote again on Brexit, but a new discussion on a pos-sible date could now take place

tomorrow. In her last pitch on Tuesday to get her divorce deal approved by Britain’s deeply divided parliament, she offered lawmakers a vote on whether to hold a second Brexit referendum — once her legislation passes the first stage — as well as closer trading arrangements with the EU in future as incentives.

But the backlash was swift and fierce.

Both ruling Conservative and opposition Labour law-makers rubbished May’s With-drawal Agreement Bill, or WAB, legislation which implements the terms of Britain’s twice-delayed departure. Even some of her ministers criticised the pitch.

The loud calls for May’s resignation further deepened Britain’s Brexit crisis, sapping an already weak leader of her authority.

Slow mail service prevents UK expats from casting EU voteREUTERS COPENHAGEN

Numerous British expatriates said they are being prevented from voting in this week’s European election because they didn’t receive their ballot papers in time.

Europeans go to the polls on May 23 to 26 to elect members of the European Parliament. Britain will vote today, and Britons living abroad who reg-istered in advance for a postal vote must have returned their ballot papers by then.

“I didn’t receive my ballot papers until two days before the election, nowhere near enough

time to get my vote back to the UK by normal post,” Rosie Sharpe, a Briton working in Copenhagen as a campaigner for environmental organisa-tions, said.

Sharpe and her partner received their ballot papers only on Tuesday even though they were posted via Royal Mail on May 10. Instead she paid $55 to send the ballot back by courier, she said. Sending letter from Denmark to the UK by normal mail normally takes at least a week.

In France, numerous British expats took to social media too to complain about being denied an opportunity to vote in the

election because of delays to receiving their postal ballot.

“Not received in France. My postal vote was not issued to Royal Mail until 13th May, so even if it had arrived I’d be pushed to get it back on time,” Twitter user @TheGrenobleGirl posted.

The BBC reported yesterday that British expats living in France had encountered similar problems because some local councils in the UK had used a postal service called Adare, rather than Royal Mail.

Adare said all ballots were posted “in line with election and council timetables.”

A b o u t 7 8 5 , 0 0 0

British citizens live in other EU countries, according to the latest Eurostat data.

“A large proportion of them are likely to be ‘remain’ sup-porters,” Sharpe said, referring people who want UK to remain part of the EU. “Given that remain and leave parties are currently neck-and-neck in the polls, it is an enormous problem if some of those Brits have been disenfranchised.”

The UK Electoral Com-mission said it “has no involvement in the distribution of postal votes at this election (and that) each local council is responsible for maintaining the electoral register in their area.”

Quake rocks NetherlandsAP / THE HAGUE

A magnitude 3.4 earthquake has shaken the northern Dutch province of Groningen, the latest in a series of tremors blamed on decades of gas extraction from underground reserves.

The country’s meteoro-logical institute said the quake early yesterday near the village of Westerwijtwerd was one of the most powerful ever to hit the Netherlands.

There were no immediate reports of any injuries.

The lucrative Groningen gas field is one of the world’s largest natural gas reserves but quakes caused by extraction have damaged thousands of homes.

Top European crime gang busted, 22 heldAFP THE HAGUE

Police have arrested 22 suspects in an operation across five countries that dismantled one of Europe’s top criminal groups behind drug trafficking and assassinations, the EU’s police agency said yesterday.

The operation codenamed “Icebreaker”, which took place last week, led to the arrest of the 48-year-old Lithuanian ringleader in Spain and other suspects in Poland, Lithuania, Spain and Britain, Europol said.

The “highly professional and dangerous” gang was “involved in large-scale drug and cigarette trafficking, assas-sinations and money laun-dering” netting an estimated $760m over the past two years, it said.

Around 450 police raided 40 properties, seizing 8 million euros in cash, diamonds, gold bars, jewellery and luxury vehicles, as well as hidden com-partments used to smuggle drugs, Europol said in a statement.

The gang made most of its money by trafficking drugs and cigarettes into Britain and then smuggling the cash to Poland, where it was laundered in cur-rency exchange offices and invested in property in Spain and other countries, said Europol.

The operation, which also involved Estonian police, took place on May 15-16 and was the “biggest of its kind to date in Europe against such an organised crime group”, the agency said.

The group used “specialised encrypted communication devices” and countersurveillance techniques to try to stay a step ahead of police, Europol said.

House of Commons leader resignsREUTERS/LONDON

Prominent Brexit supporter Andrea Leadsom Andrea Leadsom resigned from British Prime Minister Theresa May’s cabinet, saying she could no longer support the govern-ment’s approach after May’s latest gambit to pass her Brexit deal backfired.

Leadsom said she could not announce the new Withdrawal Agreement Bill in parliament as she did not believe in it.

“I no longer believe that our approach will deliver on the referendum result,” Leadsom,

who served as Leader of the House of Commons, said in a resignation letter to May. “It is therefore with great regret and with a heavy heart that I resign from the government.”

“I have always maintained that a second referendum would be dangerously divisive, and I do not support the gov-ernment willingly facilitating such a concession,” Leadsom said. “No one has wanted you to succeed more than I have. “But I do now urge you to make the right decisions in the interests of the country, this government and our party.”

15THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019 AMERICAS/EUROPE

Venezuela government turns to allies in health crisisREUTERS GENEVA

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government is increas-ingly turning to allies Cuba, China and Russia to offset a health crisis caused by US sanc-tions, a minister said yesterday.

Venezuelans have been suf-fering dire shortages of medi-cines and health equipment for several years as it has spiralled into economic chaos and political conflict.

The opposition blames that on economic incompetence and corruption by the leftist

movement in power for two decades, but Maduro said US economic sanctions are the cause.

In Geneva for a World Health Organization (WHO) assembly, Health Minister Carlos Alvarado (pictured) said that Western sanctions had led to the freezing of $5.6bn in assets, including gold in the Bank of England and funds in major institutions like Citibank.

That would cover Vene-zuela’s medical needs for six years, he told a news briefing.

“Today we can certainly say that the main health problem is

the criminal blockade that we are victims of by the United States,” Alvarado said.

“What are we doing

in Venezuela to overcome this situation? We do not stay with our hands crossed. We are strengthening our alliances with countries such as Cuba, China, Russia, Turkey, Palestine, and Iran.”

Sanctions were hurting the whole population due to insuf-ficient foreign currency for med-icine imports, and some diseases including measles had re-emerged, the minister said.

“The greatest threat that we have is the threat of war that the US government imposes on the Venezuelan people,” he said.

President Donald Trump’s

administration has not ruled out military action to remove what it and dozens of other nations consider an illegitimate gov-ernment that rigged a 2018 election.

The US, and many European and Latin American countries, have recognised opposition leader Juan Guaido, who invoked the constitution to assume an interim presidency in January, as Venezuela’s rightful leader.

But Maduro retains control of state functions and the support of the military’s top brass.

The crisis has driven 3.7 million Venezuelans abroad,

most since 2015, the United Nations said.

All 300 Venezuelan hospitals were functioning, but some lack medicines or spares for equipment, Alvarado said.

Aid agencies including the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) are bringing help, he added, and Russia pro-vided 26,000 tonnes of aid including medication in March.

“We are strengthening our bond with Russia regarding the purchase of medication, they even want to invest in Venezuela for further production of medi-cation,” he said.

Brazilian President revises gun decreeAFP BRASÍLIA

Brazilians will no longer be permitted to carry assault weapons on the street after pro-gun President Jair Bolsonaro yesterday revised an order that enabled millions of civilians to be armed in public.

Eligible “common citizens” will be allowed to carry handguns but not rifles, the gov-ernment said in a statement, admitting the change was in response to public outcry and legal and political challenges to the decree announced earlier this month.

Only rural landowners will be permitted to purchase such weapons, provided they are kept at home.

“There were criticisms that there might be some excesses (in the decree) and the government

was sensitive to these criticisms,” Justice Minister Sergio Moro said in an interview with Brazilian media yesterday.

“Normally the use of those weapons with the greatest potential for harm is restricted to the security forces,” Moro added.

The controversial decree still enables a wide range of profes-sions, including truckers, politi-cians, hunters and even some journalists, to carry weapons without having to prove why they need them.

Brazilian arms maker Taurus said on Monday that it had received 2,000 orders for its T4 assault weapon that is designed

for police and military use fol-lowing the loosening of restrictions.

Its shares soared 7.6 percent Tuesday, but yesterday had given up more than half of those gains.

The Supreme Court is con-sidering whether Bolsonaro’s decree breaches the constitution after an opposition party chal-lenged the order on the grounds it was “an abuse of power.”

The decree also faces political hurdles.

An open letter signed by the governors of 14 states, including some with high rates of violence, that was published Wednesday criticized the decree for failing to improve security.

“On the contrary, it will increase the amount of arms and ammunition that can supply criminals and also the risk of arguments and fights between citizens ending in tragedy,” they wrote.

Bolsonaro, a former army captain, has defended the order

as honouring the result of a 2005 referendum in which nearly 64 percent of Brazilians rejected a law that included, among other things, a total ban on the sale of firearms.

But experts warned the loos-ening of restrictions will fuel gun violence in a country which

already has one of the highest homicide rates in the world.

Brazil government recorded 64,000 murders in the year 2017 — a rate of almost 31 per 100,000 inhabitants, or three times higher than the level the United Nations classifies as endemic violence.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro seen at the Planalto Palace in Brasilia, yesterday.

Mexico aims to slow migrant flowsREUTERS MEXICO CITY

Mexico aims to slow a surge in US-bound Central American migrants from entering its territory from next year once a regional development plan begins taking hold, a senior Mexican official said.

Mass migration from Gua-temala, Honduras and El Salvador has strained relations between Mexico and US President Donald Trump, who has threatened to close the US border with Mexico if its government does not stop the flow of migrants.

The United Nations Eco-nomic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) presented a devel-opment plan for the three coun-tries and Mexico that seeks to address the migration surge by reducing violence and boosting economic growth.

Maximiliano Reyes, Mexico’s deputy foreign minister respon-sible for Latin America and the Caribbean, said the first priority was to cut the rate at which

migrants leave the three key countries, all of which suffer from high levels of violence and poverty.

“We hope that this year we can start with some steps (from the ECLAC plan) so that next year we can bring down the rate,” Reyes said. “We can get to a turning point as of month 13 or 14 from when we start applying public policy steps agreed.”

The ECLAC plan proposes raising investment to at least 25%

of gross domestic product in the targeted Central American coun-tries, better integrating their energy networks, improving education and ramping up local welfare spending.

Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador wants the United States to contribute to development plans, but Trump has instead threatened to slash aid to the region citing the spike in migrants pressing toward the US border.

Poland, US near deal for more American troopsREUTERS WARSAW

Poland and the United States are close to a deal on an increased US military presence in the central European state, including more personnel and infra-structure, ahead of a visit by President Andrzej Duda to Washington in June, officials said.

Disagreement remains, however, on who will pay for any new construction, as well as how long the American com-mitment will last.

Polish and US officials hope the deal, which was first pro-posed by Warsaw in September, will be approved by Duda and US President Donald Trump

during the trip.The agreement would

strengthen transatlantic efforts to deter Russia, a priority the West believes has become more pressing since Moscow annexed Crimea from Poland’s eastern neighbour Ukraine in 2014.

After months of lower levels talks, officials say the agreement won’t resemble Duda’s initial request for a permanent base he dubbed “Fort Trump.”

“There is no Fort Trump,” a US official, speaking on the con-dition of anonymity, said.

Instead, two US officials said Washington and Warsaw are closing in on a deal that would increase the number of non-permanent American troops in the country by

between 1,000 and 1,500. There are on average about

4,500 US troops in Poland on rotation as part of Nato force.

Instead of a new American base, the United States will either upgrade or build new facilities on existing Polish bases, US and Polish officials said.

“It doesn’t matter if it’s one base, or many bases ... some-times it’s even better from the perspective of deterrence and logistics for there to be many localisations,” a Polish official close to the discussions said.

The US officials said there are discussions about building an air strip for American unarmed drones as well. The Polish official confirmed an air strip wasn’t being ruled out.

A four-page working doc-ument described by one of the American officials initially con-tained language that said the United States would keep a presence in the country for “a few decades”.

After American resistance, the two sides are likely to stick with “enduring” American presence in the document, the US official said. “We don’t want to be boxed in.”

The US and Polish officials are also debating who will pay for the cost of construction and sustaining the troops, with Polish officials reluctant to shoulder the majority of the personnel support costs for US troops.

Duda in September offered to contribute over $2bn.

Migrants crossing the border between the US and Mexico at the Rio Grande river.

Brazil government admits that the change was in response to public outcry and legal and political challenges to the decree announced earlier this month.

Arabic author Jokha Alharthi (left) and translator Marilyn Booth pose after winning the Man Booker International Prize for the book ‘Celestial Bodies’ in London.

Omani novelist wins Man Booker International literature PrizeAFP LONDON

Jokha Alharthi became the first Arabic author to win the Man Booker International prize for her novel “Celestial Bodies” which reveals her Omani home-land’s post-colonial evolution.

Alharthi, 40, is the author of two previous collections of short fiction, a children’s book and three novels in Arabic.

She studied classical Arabic poetry at Edinburgh University and teaches at Sultan Qaboos University in Muscat.

The prestigious $64,000 prize, which celebrates trans-lated fiction from around the world, is divided equally between the author and translator.

Alharthi’s translator was US academic Marilyn Booth, who teaches Arabic literature at Oxford University.

The judges said Alharthi’s book was “a richly imagined, engaging and poetic insight into a society in transition and into

lives previously obscured”.The book is set in the village

of Al Awafi in Oman where we encounter three sisters: Mayya, who marries Abdallah after a heartbreak; Asma, who marries from a sense of duty; and Khawla who is waiting for her beloved who has emigrated to Canada.

The three sisters witness Oman’s evolution from a tradi-tional, slave-owning society to a complex modernity.

“Elegantly structured and taut, it tells of Oman’s coming-of-age through the prism of one family’s losses and loves,” the organisers said in a statement.

The Guardian said it offers “glimpses into a culture rela-tively little known in the west” and The National said it sig-nalled “the arrival of a major lit-erary talent”, calling the book “a densely woven, deeply imagined tour de force”.

Jury chair Bettany Hughes said the novel showed “delicate artistry and disturbing aspects of our shared history”.

Woman saved after car falls 450 feet off California cliffAP NAPA

A woman was rescued after the car she was driving plunged 450 feet down a Northern California cliff and a bicyclist just happened to witness the accident.

Authorities said the car could have fallen another 800 feet on Tuesday but it hit a tree that stopped it.

A California Highway Patrol flight officer tells the San Fran-cisco Chronicle it’s likely no one would have seen the wreck on the forested mountainside in the city of Napa if the bicyclist had not been nearby.

The cyclist called 911 and climbed down the slope to reach the victim.

A helicopter lowered para-medics through a narrow gap in the tree cover. They removed the car’s windshield and hoisted the woman out.

16 THURSDAY 23 MAY 2019AMERICAS

Trump shuts down Democrats meetingAFP WASHINGTON

Donald Trump erupted in fury yesterday at unrelenting probes into his links to Russia, as the top Democrat in Congress accused the president of a “cover-up” that could be an impeachable offense.

A livid Trump abruptly shut down a White House meeting with Democratic leaders Nancy Pelosi and Chuck Schumer, announcing he could not deal with them on policy until “phony investigations” are brought to a close.

The clash marked a dramatic escalation in Trump’s war of words with congressional oppo-nents seeking to bring him to account for what they say is presidential wrongdoing.

Trump’s ire was seemingly triggered by House Speaker Pelosi, his nemesis in Congress, who declared following an emer-gency meeting with lawmakers yesterday: “We believe that the president of the United States is engaged in a cover up.”

“I don’t do cover-ups,” Trump shot back at a hastily arranged Rose Garden press event, moments after the aborted talks. “So get these phony inves-tigations over with,” Trump said — warning a failure to do so would spell gridlock on issues like fixing the country’s infra-structure, on which the two sides

had hoped for a breakthrough yesterday.

A two-year investigation by special counsel Robert Mueller into Russia’s interference in the 2016 US election concluded there was no hard evidence Trump’s campaign colluded with Moscow.

But the prosecutor said he could not rule clearly on whether Trump obstructed justice, leaving it to the Trump-appointed attorney general, Bill Barr, to declare there was no obstruction.

The Democrats’ decision to

pursue the grey areas of the investigation — and their open discussion of whether to pursue the politically perilous process of impeachment — has enraged Trump.

“PRESIDENTIAL HAR-ASSMENT!” he tweeted yes-terday, as he stepped up his attacks on the probes.

ny pretense of cooperation on policy issues evaporated as Trump and Pelosi locked political horns, with the issue of impeachment inching toward center stage in Washington.

Speaking after she left the White House, Pelosi charged that Trump could have committed an “impeachable” offense by ignoring congressional sub-poenas connected to the Mueller probe, likening it to the “cover-up” that brought down former president Richard Nixon.

“This president is obstructing justice and he’s engaged in a cover-up,” she said. “And that could be an impeachable offense.”

Democrats argue that Barr is protecting the president, in part by refusing to comply with con-gressional subpoenas — although on Wednesday the House Intel-ligence Committee’s chairman said the Justice Department had agreed to begin honouring a sub-poena for material related to Mueller’s probe.

Despite her accusation of a

cover-up, Pelosi has been mindful of the politically-charged nature of an impeachment move ahead of a 2020 presidential election, especially one that is likely to fail in the Republican-led Senate.

She has argued in favour of keeping the focus on educating the public through the court process and congressional probes to “get the truth and facts to the American people,” rather than leaping to impeachment.

The issue has divided Dem-ocrats for months. Even as some in Congress — and several Dem-ocratic presidential contenders — are eager to assert its historical oversight powers as a check against the executive, there is a concern the tactic could backfire, energising Trump’s base ahead of the election.

“He’s really trying to goad Congress into impeaching him,” congressman Peter Welch, a member of Democratic lead-ership, told CNN.

Pelosi and Schumer mean-while offered their own scathing descriptions of yesterday’s heated scene.

Schumer called the dramatic cancellation of the meeting “a pre-planned excuse” and said “what happened in the White House makes your jaw drop.”

Likewise suggesting Trump manufactured the row to avoid committing to an enormously expensive infrastructure bill, Pelosi said: “I pray for the pres-ident of the United States.”

US President Donald Trump speaking in the Rose Garden of the White House, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

US intercepts Russian jets for 2nd straight dayANATOLIA WASHINGTON

US fighter jets intercepted Russian aircraft near Alaska for a second straight day, the US and Canada’s joint air defence command said.

The North American Aer-ospace Defense Command (NORAD) said it scrambled four F-22 stealth fighter jets and two E-3 Sentry reconnaissance air-craft to intercept an unspecified number of Russian Tu-95 “Bear” bombers, which are nuclear-capable aircraft, and Su-35 fighter jets.

The Russian aircraft then left the US and Canadian Air Defense Identification Zone before returning with two Su-35 fighter jets that were intercepted by an additional two F-22s and E-3 aircraft, the joint command said in a statement posted to social media.

The zone where the intercept occurred extends approximately 200 miles off Alaska’s western coast.

But the Russian aircraft stayed in international airspace and did not enter Canadian or USairspace, the command added.

The incident comes one day after NORAD confirmed the United States intercepted six Russian military planes off the coast of Alaska.

Former US ambassadornamed as Air Force headAFP WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump announced that he had nomi-nated a former ambassador and Arizona businesswoman to lead the Air Force.

Barbara Barrett, 68, served as the US ambassador to Finland from 2008 to 2009 under the George W Bush administration. She also chaired an aeronautics research and development centre, The Aerospace Corpo-ration, until 2017.

“She will be an outstanding Secretary!” Trump tweeted yesterday.

A former lawyer and test pilot, Barrett is also a board member at the Rand Corpo-ration, a think tank that provides research and analysis to the US armed forces.

She and her husband Craig,

the former CEO of American technology giant Intel, are major Republican donors. Barrett ran for governor of Arizona on the GOP ticket in 1994, the first woman to do so, but she failed to secure her party’s nomination.

If she is confirmed, Barrett will succeed another woman, Heather Wilson, in the position of secretary of the air force.

Wilson’s name had come up as a potential replacement for Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, who resigned in December because of differences over Trump’s policies on Syria and other issues.

Wilson stepped down in March, the highest level Pen-tagon departure since that of Mattis, once it became apparent that interim Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan would stay in that post.

The USS Tornado (PC 14) sails past the Statue of Liberty during the Fleet Week Parade of Ships in New York Harbor, in New York City, yesterday. Now in its 31st year, Fleet Week runs through May 28 and celebrates the sea services.

Fleet Week in New York

This president is obstructing justice and he’s engaged in a cover. And that could be an impeachable offense: Pelosi

NYC doubles spending on homelessness to $3.2bnBLOOMBERG NEW YORK

New York City spending on homelessness has more than doubled to $3.2bn since 2014, and the number of people in shelters hit an all-time high of 61,415 in January, Comptroller Scott Stringer said.

The figures offer no indi-cation that the problem is getting

less acute, according to a report Stringer released yesterday.

Emergency rent assistance requests jumped 34 percent between 2014 and 2018, with 1,400 more requests received through April this year than last year.

The alarming numbers prompted Stringer to put the city Department of Homelessness Services on his “watch list.” The

comptroller, who has said he wants to run for mayor in 2021, started the list last year to high-light agencies that raised con-cerns over increased spending, spokeswoman Tian Weinberg said.

The report notes that shelter costs have also more than doubled in the past five years, reaching $1.9bn this fiscal year, which ends June 30.

Although spending on pre-vention and permanent housing has risen to $1bn from $436m in that time, as of April the shelter population had increased by 11.5 percent.

While the number of fam-ilies with children has increased 9.4 percent, there are 7.6 percent fewer children in shelter now than in 2014, the report said.

The city Department of Buildings also got placed on the “watch list” after construction-related accidents increased 252 percent in the four years ending in 2018, including a 167 percent increase in fatalities.

The building department added 528 employees and increased its budget 62 percent to $160m in the same period, according to the report.

AP SACRAMENTO

California lawmakers moved ahead with tougher rules that limit parents from choosing whether to vaccinate their schoolchildren as a handful of opponents shouted “We will not comply” inside the Senate.

Senators sent the measure to the Assembly as the nation struggles to stem the highest number of measles cases in decades and as state efforts to strengthen vaccine requirements draw emotional opposition.

The California proposal would give state public health officials instead of local doctors the authority to decide which children can skip their shots before attending school.

Democratic Sen. Richard Pan of Sacramento said his proposal is needed because some “unscru-pulous physicians” have been selling medical immunization exemptions since California ended non-medical exemptions in 2016.

Under the plan, doctors would have to certify that they examined the patient and then send the state health department

the reason they are recom-mending the exemption. State and county health officials also could revoke exemptions if they are found to be fraudulent or don’t meet federal immunization standards.

“This is about keeping our community safe,” Pan said.

He said exemptions would still be allowed for the less than 1 percent of students who should avoid vaccinations because they have a severe allergic reaction or impaired immunity from a liver problem, the HIV virus, chemo-therapy or other conditions. But

those with legitimate concerns would then be safer in school because the vast majority of their fellow students would be vacci-nated, Pan said.

“It’s scary to me that this state is becoming a police state,” Victoria Kennicutt of Elk Grove, south of Sacramento, said after watching the debate with other opponents. “It’s an issue that should be between the parents and the doctor, not involving the government.”

She said her daughter, Char-lotte, broke out in hives after her shots at 6 months and 1 year,

developing a high fever that lasted a week and regressing in her speech. She worries that her now-2-year-old daughter’s medical exemption will be voided if the measure becomes law and said she will move out of state rather than comply.

The measure passed on a party-line 24-10 vote, with no Republican support. Four Dem-ocratic lawmakers did not vote, with two Democratic senators saying it goes too far or reneges on lawmakers’ earlier promise not to infringe on medical exemptions.

Several Republican law-makers said they agree the state should crack down on doctors who sell medical exemptions but that they should be sanctioned by the state medical board through the normal disciplinary process.

“Why isn’t the medical board dealing with these bad actors?” Sen. Jeff Stone said.

The Republican from Temecula called Pan’s bill “a dangerous intrusion, not only into the doctor-patient rela-tionship but also the personal lib-erties of parents and children.”

Tougher vaccine rules move forward in California