Pacquiao to fight Britain's Amir Khan on April 23

QIIB Moroccan venture named

Umnia

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Chairman of the Board of Directors of BNP Paribas Bank, Jean Lemierre, at the Emiri Diwan, yesterday.

Emir meets Chairman of BNP Paribas Bank

BUSINESS | 21 SPORT | 32

Volume 21 | Number 7085 | 2 RiyalsMonday 27 February 2017 | 30 Jumada I 1438

QNA/The Peninsula

The meeting between the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and

President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev today will reflect the com-mitment of both sides to develop bilateral relations.

President Aliyev arrived in Doha yesterday on an official visit. He was received at the Hamad International Airport by Minister of Economy and Com-merce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, Qatar's Ambassador to Azerba-ijan Yousif Hasan Alsae, and Azerbaijan's Ambassador to Qatar Tofiq Abdullayev.

It is the second state visit by Aliyev, and it looks to explore the scope for bilateral cooperation in light of the two countries' strate-gic partnership. The two leaders will also discuss investment

opportunities in a number of fields, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reported yesterday. The two-day

visit is likely to see the signing of many agreements in a number of fields such as civil aviation,

culture, sports, youth, and envi-ronment, among others.

→ Continued on page 2

Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

In an important initiative to promote breastfeeding, the Ministry of Public Health has finalised a draft law regulating breast-milk sub-

stitutes and it is ready to be submitted for approval, a senior official said yesterday.

Once implemented the law will prohibit promoting prod-ucts that are used as breast-milk substitutes in the country, said Dr Sheikha Al Anoud bint Mohamed Al Thani, Director of Health Promotion and Non-communicable Dis-easesat, the MoPH.

The law will align with the International Code of Market-ing of Breast-milk Substitutes, an international health policy framework for breastfeeding promotion adopted by the World Health Assembly (WHA) of the World Health Organiza-tion (WHO). “We have finalised the law on breast milk substi-tutes. it is in the final stage and will soon be submitted to the Cabinet for approval,” said Dr Al Anoud.

“Qatar signed the Interna-tional Code of Marketing of Breast-milk Substitutes in 1998. The new law will be complying with its recommendations and will stop promotion of breast-milk substitutes. Such substitutes will be prescribed

by doctors only if needed for the child in an exceptional situ-ation. Also all healthcare providers will be prohibited from attending any event promoting breast-milk substitutes,” she said speaking on sidelines of a work-shop being held to train assessors for the Baby Friendly Hospital Initiative (BFHI).

This initiative focuses on adopting best practices in breastfeeding with the aim of promoting wellness of the mother and her baby.

This includes the creation of a supportive hospital envi-ronment for pregnant women, mothers after giving birth and their families, with well-moti-vated, knowledgeable and highly skilled hospital staff.

The ministry is preparing to implement BFHI in all hospi-tals and primary health care centres across the country within two years. In this regard a five day workshop is being held at the Shangri La Hotel in Doha to train health care providers.

→ Continued on page 5

The Peninsula

Major shopping malls are planning to increase parking fees to stop mis-

use of their parking lots by some motorists especially those visit-ing the neighbouring buildings leaving their cars for long hours.

The issue was raised in a meeting of the Trade and Research Committee at Qatar Chamber (QC) with some own-ers and representatives of major shopping malls in line with a decision of Qatar Chamber taken recently to set up a committee for malls and shopping complexes.

The panel discussed many issues related to the shopping malls including pay parking charges, partitioning inside the facility and electricity bills, said

a QC statement yesterday.The parking fees announced

by the Ministry of Economy and Commerce for visitors of shop-ping complexes are nominal, argued the panelists.

The low fee encourages some motorists to park their cars at the parking areas of shopping com-plexes for long hours and go out of the malls and return after the facility was closed down. This is not good also from the security point of view, said the participants.

It was proposed to impose parking charges for the first two hours as per instructions of the Ministry and after that the man-agement of shopping malls should be allowed to charge extra for the remaining hours.

Regarding partitioning inside shops and malls, the panelists

said that the Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment has made its approval mandatory for making any changes inside the facilities over more than 150 sqm.

The panelists demanded that management of malls should be allowed to make any partition-ing without taking prior permission from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and Civil Defence unless it was not made in the passage, corri-dor and outer portions of the facility.

They also demanded revis-ing the electricity bill and put nominal prices for them.

The meeting was chaired by Adil Abdurrahman Al Mannai, Head of the Trade and Research Committee at Qatar Chamber. A representative from Qatar Tour-ism Authority was also present.

New law soon on breast-milk substitutes

Aliyev arrives to boost ties with Qatar

Shopping malls seek rise in parking fee to curb misuse

President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Ilham Aliyev, being received at the Hamad International Airport by the Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mohammed Al Thani, yesterday.

QP announces plan to integrate two companies

Adil Abdurrahman Al Mannai (centre), Head of the Trade and Research Committee at Qatar Chamber, with owners and representatives of major shopping malls in a meeting at the headquarters of Qatar Chamber.

Once implemented the law will prohibit promoting products that are used as breast-milk substitutes in the country.

MONDAY F CUSRoad closures add to traffic woesin Industrial Area → Page 2

The Peninsula

QATAR PETROLEUM (QP) yesterday announced a plan to integrate the activities of Qatar Vinyl Company (QVC), which is part of Mesaieed Pet-rochemical (listed in Qatar Stock Exchange), into Qatar Petrochemical Company (Qapco), which is part of Industries Qatar (listed in Qatar Stock Exchange), through a service agreement arrangement.

The result will be a single company, Qapco, operating the facilities of both companies.

The integration will not result in any change to the shareholder ownership but will allow the realisation of synergies through creating a single entity that operates the assets on behalf of both com-panies’ shareholders.

→ Report on page 21

02 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017HOME

Sanaullah AtaullahThe Peninsula

Navigating through the streets in Industrial Area near Doha has become a tough task with a number of

road closures and diversions resulting in heavy traffic conges-tions. Road diversions due to the ongoing infrastructure develop-ment projects and damaged roads, together with the rains, have made life miserable for motorists due to big potholes and rainwater collected in low-lying areas.

The most affected areas are Al Attiya Street, Al Wekalat Street, Street Nos 10, 15 and 23, among others. Roads leading to the Industrial Area from Salwa Road are packed with cars, heavy vehicles - trucks and buses - due to diversion, mostly at 5pm when workers return from the sites to their accommodations.

The snail's pace traffic can be seen in these areas during peak-hours - from 8am to 1pm and 4pm to 8pm.

On weekends, Street No 10 has huge traffic jams, on Thurs-day, Friday and Saturday, when people visit the area to buy and sell second-hand cars.

The rains, over the last two weeks, have made the situation worse with water-filled potholes bringing traffic to a halt at places where the flow was already slow.

People have urged the authorities to take immediate action to bring about a tempo-rary solution to the congestion till the projects are completed. They suggest the deployment of traffic police during peak hours and reconsidering the decision to make so many diversions at a time.

“My company is on Street No: 39, and with the current pace of works, direct access to the street has been closed. We have to go through gaps between buildings on Street No 38 to reach the work site. During the recent rains, all workers had to park their vehi-cles far away and wait for the company transport to take us through the water-filled street,” said an engineer working in a company at Industrial Area.

“Industrial Area has been witnessing huge traffic jams due to diversions at many places,” Maqbol Ahmad, a Pakistani national, working with an elec-tric shop, told The Peninsula.

“Last week, I was stuck in the traffic on Street No. 23. It took about two hours to reach Al Attiya market,” said Ahmad.

“I avoid Industrial Area unless it is very urgent due to the heavy traffic there,” said Moha-mad Ali, a Bangladeshi national operating a construction site. “A temporary solution is needed to cope with traffic blocks. Deploy-ment of traffic police could be a great help to ease the vehicle flow”, he added.

“My accommodation is on Street No. 42. Our bus gets stuck for long hours in the evening when we come back from con-struction sites,” said Ram Kumar, a Nepali worker. “There are diversions at many places at the same time and we have to take a long trip to access certain areas, especially those falling between Street No. 10 and 15,” a motorist, who came to a garage in the Industrial Area said.

"With all these diversions and closures, Industrial Area has become a maze. I come to the area for business purposes and on each visit, traffic gets diverted at differ-ent points and at times I lose my way. Added to this, the bad roads also cause damage to the vehicles," an Indian business man said.

The Public Works Authority

(Ashghal) is working on a major infrastructure development project in Doha Industrial Area that includes developing sewage system and building roads. The project that began in early 2014 is being executed in phases.

“Some countries provide traffic police upon the requests of construction companies

involved in developing infra-structure like road and sewerage to ease the traffic flow,” a traffic expert from the Traffic Depart-ment told The Peninsula.

“The Department then dis-patches traffic personnel in their free time, on overtime duty, at the expense of construction com-panies. This trend is not in Qatar

but such services could be help-ful,” said the expert.

The Peninsula has learnt that the development works are in an advanced stage at the Industrial Area. Many roads on Al Attiyah Street are almost ready. Traffic signals are being set up at some intersections giving a clear sig-nal for partial opening of some

roads. The new roads with mul-tiple lanes are expected to ease the traffic jam problems.

The authorities concerned have repeatedly urged commut-ers to put up with the inconveniences till the opening of the new road projects.

The development project aims to upgrade the existing road network and isntall other serv-ices like sewerage, electricity and water network and lay cables of telecommunication. The major project was to build 38km road and 19 intersections to ease the traffic flow.

Upgrading the draining sys-tem is also part of the project. The drainage project includes laying down sewerage pipes and building big tanks for collecting rain water.

Road closures add to traffic woes in Industrial Area

Roads leading to the Industrial Area from Salwa Road are packed with cars and heavy vehicles, mostly in the evening when workers return from the sites to their accommodations.

Roadwork in progress in the Industrial Area between Streets 10 and 23. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

→ Continued from page 1Around 30 business person-

alities are accompanying the Azerbaijani President during the visit. They are set to meet their Qatari counterparts to discuss enhancing strategic partnership. The Emir visited Azerbaijan in March 2016. During the visit, the Emir held talks with the President of Azerbaijan and discussed coop-eration in commerce, investment, energy and culture.

The two leaders also expressed their commitment to extend cooperation in the eco-nomic and political fields. They agreed on the importance of capitalizing on great investment opportunities in energy, tour-ism, agriculture, technology, and transport.

The Emir was present dur-ing the signing of a number of agreements and MoUs. The most notable of them was amending an agreement on lifting visa requirements for holders of dip-lomatic passports from both countries. All Qatari citizens were allowed entry to Azerba-ijan without an entry visa.

The two sides coordinate their positions heavily at the United Nations and the Organ-ization of Islamic Cooperation.

Azerbaijani officials praise Qatar's support for a just reso-lution to the Nagorno-Karabakh region, where more than 20% of the land remains under the control of Armenian groups.

Qatar was also one of the first countries to recognize in 1991 the

independence of Azerbaijan from the Soviet Union.

Qatar and Azerbaijan enjoy deep-rooted bilateral ties for more than 23 years, which were crowned by the establishment of a Joint Commission and the con-clusion of 25 agreements, including eight agreements dur-ing 2016 covering various sectors such as information technology, telecommunications as well as security and military sectors.

A number of agreements on bilateral anti-drug coordination, police training, exchange of information, emergencies and disasters were signed between the two countries. The two sides seek to conclude more agree-ments during the current visit of the President of Azerbaijan to enhance the strategic part-nership. In the context of enhancing bilateral relations in the cultural field, a solid foun-dation for stronger cooperation was laid in 2004 and the Azeri capital of Baku was chosen as the Capital of Islamic Culture in 2009, where Qatar's participa-tion in this celebration was distinguished.

In 2010, Azerbaijan took part in the activities of Doha Arab Capital of Culture while Doha hosted the Azerbaijani Cultural Days in the same year.

Various heritage and musi-cal events were also organized on the occasion of Azerbaijan Embassy's celebration of the National Day while a delegation from Azerbaijan will take part

in the Silk Road Festival due to be held at the Cultural Village Foundation (Katara) later.

The First Session of the Eco-nomic, Commercial and Technical Joint Committee between Qatar and Azerbaijan wad held in Baku last year in implementation of an agreement signed in Baku in March 2016 to establish the Committee.

The Azeri tourism sector has attracted a growing number of Qatari tourists, who were in the last year almost five times more than the previous years.

The diplomatic relations was established on Sept. 14, 1994 starting with the opening of the embassies.

Azerbaijan's economy is the fastest growing in the Central Asia and the Caspian Sea region. According to the World Bank Economy Ranking, it holds one of the strongest economies due to the economy reform policy the country is adopting.

Azerbaijan's petrochemical industry is one of the oldest and most advanced in the world, and owns an abundant stock of min-eral resources such as iron, copper and aluminum, and is famous for cultivating all crops such as fruits, timber, tea,...etc.

In the recent period, Azerba-ijan has linked between Europe and the Far East and it also holds the Baku–Tbilisi–Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline which transports oil from the Caspian Sea to the shores of the Mediterranean in Turkey.

Qatar-Azeri ties to reach new heights

The Peninsula

Children at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) hos-pitals will soon have

mobile libraries with a wide col-lection of books in different languages.

The British Council and HSBC, with HMC, yesterday launched the new initiative. Mobile libraries are well-estab-lished in many parts of the world and the benefits they bring to hospitalised children are widely recognised.

The mobile libraries at HMC will have books in English, Ara-bic and Urdu selected by the British Council and the HMC to suit children of all ages, reading levels and interests. In addition, the British Council will provide access to its Learn English Fam-ily website for the parents in addition to a collection of iPads

and tablets so that children can access educational games.

Dr Frank Fitzpatrick, Direc-tor of the British Council Qatar, said, “The Mobile Library is an opportunity to help children and their families who spend lengthy amounts of time in hospital to benefit from the creative and imaginative world of books, whilst enhancing their English Language proficiency. Our teach-ers have carefully selected stories that will both entertain and edu-cate hospitalised children.”

Also, twice a week, trained storytellers and volunteers from British Council, HSBC and HMC amongst others will approach children at the hospital and ask them to choose the story they find most appealing. Once the decision is made, it is time for the storyteller to begin the story.

Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi, CEO of HSBC said, “ The mobile

library project speaks to many aspects of our approach to cor-porate sustainability by encouraging children in hospi-tals to continue to read for their enjoyment, education and to improve their language skills. Our volunteers look forward to spending time with the children and help to develop their crea-tive thinking and English skills."

Maitha Al Bouainain, Exec-utive Director, Community Affairs and Patient Engagement at Hamad General Hospital said, “In addition to offering mental stimulation, reading has many scientifically proven benefits such as stress reduction and memory improvement. We believe this initiative will not only provide a great source of information and entertainment for our patients, it will also really help them during their recovery process.”

FROM LEFT: Abdul Hakeem Mostafawi, CEO, HSBC; Maitha Al Bouainain, Executive Director, Community Affairs and Patient Engagement at Hamad General Hospital (HGH); Dr Frank Fitzpatrick, Director, British Council Qatar (BCQ); and Dr Waseem Kotoub, Head of Programmes and Partnerships, BCQ, at a press conference to announce the Mobile Library, yesterday.Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

Mobile libraries for kids at hospitals

MONDAY F CUS

The authorities concerned have repeatedly urged commuters to put up with the inconveniences till the opening of the new road projects.

03MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 HOME

04 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017HOME

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with the Deputy Foreign Minister of Turkmenistan Matiyev Berdyniyaz in Doha yesterday.

FM meets Turkmenistan minister

Khartoum

QNA

Sudan's Minister of Tour-ism, Antiquities and Wildlife Dr Mohammed

Abu Zaid Mustafa praised the invaluable role played by the State of Qatar in global peace and its international endeav-ours aimed at ending conflicts, advocating non-violence and resolving conflicts through peaceful means.

He said that this policy was highly respected glo-bally and placed Qatar among leading countries in establishing international peace and security through diplomatic and political means.

The Sudanese Minister said that Doha is a beacon of peace as it has hosted numerous events and regional and international conferences to consolidate peace and has made a pio-neering contribution in the Arab reunion and Islamic unity by finding a coherent

system that seeks to over-come challenges and obstacles arising from cri-ses, conflicts and disputes.

With regard to the Qatari- Sudanese relations, the Sudanese Minister of Tourism, Antiquities and Wildlife stressed the depth of relations between the two countries, saying that Doha stood with Khartoum in the most difficult circumstances, and that the Qatari leadership was the first government in the world to break the blockade imposed on Sudan and dealt with it despite the difficulties and risks.

This step, he said, led later to achieving a break-through and openness and was followed by the lifting of US sanctions on Sudan, pointing out that Khartoum has benefited greatly from Qatar's efforts at the regional and international levels, a matter which helped Sudan to convey its message and obtain the necessary support required to resolve its inter-national issues.

Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

At least 15 percent of people with diabe-tes in Qatar develop disorders in foot and some 18,500 such

cases were seen at Hamad Med-ical Corporation (HMC) last year, says a senior official.

However, the number of limb and foot amputation is very low due to advanced treatment methods available in the coun-try, said Dr Talal Khader Talal, Head of Podiatric Services at HMC yesterday.

“According to international data, around 23 percent are dia-betic in Qatar. Among them, 15 percent have diabetic foot pathologies and conditions like foot ulcers and neuropathy (patients have a reduced ability to feel pain) are common,” said Dr Talal.

“Most patients come to us at a later stage of the complication

and it takes a minimum of three months to cure them. But the number of amputation is very low here and Qatar has the best medicines and treatment meth-ods,” he said at a press conference held to announce the third Gulf Diabetic Foot Conference.

The conference will bring together more than 700 local, regional and international

participants between March 3 and 4. It aims to address the growing global healthcare chal-lenge posed by diabetes-related limb amputations. Experts from across the world will discuss and share the latest developments in the assessment and manage-ment of diabetic foot disease.

“The conference will bring together global experts in the field of diabetic foot care in Doha. We have an impressive lineup of speakers who are lead-ers in their respective fields. They will highlight the preven-tion, diagnosis, and treatment associated with the surgical and medical management of diabetic foot. Around 80 presentations and several workshops will be held over the two days,” said Dr Talal, who is also the head of the scientific committee for the conference.

The third Gulf Diabetic Foot Conference is organized by the HMC in collaboration with the Gulf Diabetic Foot Working Group.

The Gulf Diabetic Foot Working Group has undertaken major initiatives to raise aware-ness about the prevention of diabetes, noting that foot com-plications related to uncontrolled diabetes can have life-altering consequences for the patient so diabetic foot care and amputation prevention efforts must become a collec-tive agenda for practitioners worldwide.

“Diabetic foot is the major complication, people might even lose their limbs and foot. But it is preventable and our main aim is to create awareness among people to reduce complications,” said Dr Salma Khuraibel, Dia-betic foot and wound care surgeon from Kuwait.

At least 15% of diabetics 'develop foot disorders'

Prime Minister meets UAE officialQNA

The Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin

Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani met yesterday with the Undersec-retary of the Ministry of Interior of the UAE, Lt General Saif Abdullah Al Shafar, and his accompanying delegation on the occasion of their visit to participate in the meeting of the Committee on Security Cooperation and Coordination between the two countries' Ministries of Interior.

Diabetes meet

Limb and foot amputation cases very low in Qatar due to advanced treatment methods.

Third Gulf Diabetic Foot Conference to bring together more than 700 experts.

GAC holds workshop on security threatsQNA

The General Authority of Customs (GAC) concluded yesterday a workshop on

Programme Global Shields (PGS) which saw the participation of some of the best experts from the World Customs Organiza-tion. Some 60 participants from the region's different customs authorities participated in the workshop.

The General Authority of Customs said that the workshop aimed to discuss security threats related with commerce, and how customs authorities can deal with them in the light of the political turmoil in many of the world's regions.

The head of the training evaluation department at the General Authority of Customs Abdulrahman Al Kuwari said that one of their main goals in

training is the protection of soci-ety. He added that the goal of PGS by the World Customs Organization was to target crim-inal groups that use cargo shipments to smuggle chemical materials and use it in making improvised explosive devices (IED).

The programme also directs different customs authority on how to deal with such situations.

Qatar Airways Cargo receives Global Cargo Airline of the Year awardThe Peninsula

Qatar Airways Cargo received the Global Cargo Airline of the Year award

at a grand gala held last week at The Barnyard Theatre, Johan-nesburg, as part of Africa’s biennial air freight industry trade exhibition and conference, Air Cargo Africa, that took place from 21 to 23 February.

The award is a significant recognition of Qatar Airways Cargo’s success in the air freight industry. The cargo carrier was nominated and voted the Glo-bal Cargo Airline of the Year award by STAT Times readers via online voting prior to the awards announcement. Qatar Airways Cargo made the cut with the highest reader votes among the top five nominees in this award category.

Commenting on this momentous achievement, Qatar Airways Chief Officer Cargo, Ulrich Ogiermann said: “The ‘Three Rs’ approach - which stands for rates, reliability and relationship - is at the very heart of our business. We are grateful and thankful to our customers who place their trust in our brand and services. Having started off with three freighters in 2003, we have come a long way to reach the number three position on IATA’s international FTK (freight tonne kilometres) ranking today. This award goes out to each and every employee at Qatar Airways Cargo, who strives to ensure we live up to our ‘customer first and service excellence’ motto.”

Qatar Airways Cargo won the Global Cargo Airline of The Year at the recent STAT Times’ International Award for Excel-lence in Air Cargo event. Nicholas Danton, Regional Cargo Manager for Africa received the award and certifi-cate from Glyn Hughes, Global Head of Cargo.

“Congratulations to Qatar Airways Cargo on this well-deserved win. This victory is testimony to the cargo carrier’s continuous drive and emphasis on delivering the highest levels of service within the air cargo industry,” said R.K. Patra, Chair-man and Founder of STAT Media Group.

Qatar Airways Cargo has invested substantially in auto-mating its systems and processes with the rollout of its Cargo Res-ervat ions , Operat ions , Accounting and Management Information System (CROAMIS) to enhance efficiency in its

end-to-end business processes. The carrier also launched its first mobile app, QR Cargo, which is linked to CROAMIS, to provide ease and convenience to its glo-bal customers, enabling instant access to real-time data and updates for each logistic mile-stone achieved, while the introduction of web-based online services encourages cus-tomers to manage their bookings and businesses online with Qatar Airways Cargo.

The state-of-the-art hub at Hamad International Airport (HIA) in Doha that opened in 2014 has a capacity to handle 1.4 mil-lion tonnes of cargo annually. The 292,000 square metres cargo complex area has separate areas for pharmaceuticals, perishables, dangerous goods, valuables also includes a 4,200 square metres live animal facility. The airline is currently planning the construc-tion of a second, even larger cargo terminal at its Doha hub.

Sudan praises Qatar's role in peace-making

Dr Talal Khader Talal, Head of Podiatric Services at HMC, with Dr Salma Khraibit, diabetic foot surgeon and Board Member of GCC Group for Diabetic Foot, during a press conference at the HMC yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Nicholas Danton, Regional Cargo Manager for Africa (left), receiving the award and certificate from Glyn Hughes, Global Head of Cargo.

05MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 HOME

Aspetar initiative

The two-day conference organised by Aspetar, addressed important current topics in field of sports medicine and orthopedic surgery such as emergency care management skills for sports injuries.

The Peninsula

The weather bureau has warned of low visibility due to foggy conditions today.

With increasing relative humid-ity, a chance of mist to fog patches are expected over some areas during early morning and late night today.

The weather today will be hazy to misty or foggy at places becom-ing mild by day. Offshore the condition will be similar by late night. The wind speed will be between 5 to 15 knots inshore and offshore it will be variable going less than 5 knots by late night. Vis-ibility will be between 4 to 8 km, at times going less than 2 km.

Doha and Al Khor would have a maximum temperature of 26 degrees Celsius, while Mesaieed,

Al Wakrah and Abu Samrah would have maximum tempera-ture of 24 degrees Celsius, and a maximum temperature of 23 degrees Celsius is expected in Ruwais and Dukhan.

Minimum temperature in Doha would be 16 degrees Cel-sius, while Abu Samrah would have least temperature today at 13 degrees Celsius.

Mesaieed, Al Wakrah, Al Khor, Ruwais and Dukhan would have a mnimum temperature of 15 degrees Celsius.

Meanwhile, the weather bureau published cumulative rainfall recorded from last Friday until yesterday morning. Turayna received the highest rainfall at 9mm, followed by Messaieed at 7.1mm and Abu Samra recording 4.8 mm.

Amna Pervaiz Rao The Peninsula

Celebrating 10 years of success, Aspetar yes-terday concluded ‘First Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Nurs-

ing Conference’ which brought together nursing healthcare pro-fessionals in the field of sports medicine to improve patient care.

The two-day conference had a series of workshops covering key trends, developments and hands-on training sessions deliv-ered by experts from Aspetar. To receive certificates, the partici-pants were supposed to fill in an online evaluation form, after the qualifying session. The certifi-cate was on CME/CPD Credits

The conference was organ-ized to provide the ideal opportunity for all employees to join with nursing healthcare pro-fessionals in sharing insights on how to apply enhanced inter-professional collaboration to advance patient care.

Commenting on the confer-e n c e , I b r a h i m Al-Hussain,Director of Nursing at Aspetar said: “Aspetar realised at an early stage importance of

investing in developing the skills and capabilities of specialist nursing healthcare profession-als, helping to build their knowledge and scientific under-standing. This conference provides the ideal platform for healthcare providers, particu-larly nurses, who wish to hone their skills and improve their knowledge in the field of sports medicine.”

“The conference is further evidence of Aspetar’s continued efforts to remain at the forefront of the latest developments in sports medicine and orthopae-dic surgery with a view to assist athletes in achieving maximum performance and realising their

full potential. It constitutes another step on Aspetar’s path to achieve its vision to be a glo-bal leader in sports medicine and exercise sciences,” he noted.

“Today we are celebrating 10 years of success. We have organ-ised first Aspetar nursing conference. We brought together experts from Qatar and partici-pants from other GCC countries

as well. We have discussed health issues that athlete faces in field, screening of athlete before they step in field because we don’t want to compromise on athlete’s life if he is not fit to play,” Ibrahim Al Hussein, Direc-tor of Nursing Department at Aspetar told The Peninsula on the sidelines of the conference.

“Secondly we have

highlighted the prohibited list provided by WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency), drugs prohibited all around the world. This two-day conference was a combination of awareness and educational workshops for ath-letes and nursing department. In future we will expand our con-ference within GCC countries and all around the world,” he

added. The conference addressed some of the most important cur-rent topics in the field of sports medicine and orthopedic surgery such as the assessment and man-agement of cardiac problems as well as emergency care manage-ment skills for sports injuries and illnesses sustained on the field. Other topics included overview of the list of substances that are banned for athletes, emerging role of nurses within sports med-icine teams, advanced patient care, details of common sports medicine surgeries and approaches to assessing surgi-cal wounds.

Nelly Khalil, Head Nurse Ath-lete Screening Department at Aspetar said,“As we are celebrat-ing ten years of Aspetar success, the nursing department became a part of these festivities. To cel-ebrate success, we hosted first nursing conference dedicated to sports medicines and orthopedic. The agenda comprised many interesting topics related to sports medicine. The confer-ence's main idea is to train everyone in case of emergency, these skills will provide them confidence while treating the patient in hospital and in field as well.”

Experts discuss vital issues in sports medicine

Dr. Ibrahim Al Hussein, Director of Nursing at Aspetar, speaking at the First Aspetar Sports Medicine and Orthopedic Nursing Conference, yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

The Peninsula

The Gulf Organisation for Industrial Consulting (GOIC) will organise a

training programme on 'Green Industries' from April 25 to 27 here under the patronage of Min-istry of Municipality and Environment.

This course is part of GOIC’s 2017 Training and Capacity

Development Program that includes a number of courses aiming at developing industrial staff’s skills and helping them keep up with the latest develop-ments in this vital sector.

It aims at introducing strat-egies adopted by industries throughout the world to limit pollution. It also sheds light on clean industry technologies that reduce pollution and diminish

its harmful effects. Furthermore, participants will understand how to develop production methods, factory operation procedures, how to reduce the risk of indus-trial waste on the environment, in addition manufacturing the latest products based on green industry technologies and suc-cess stories in the field of green industries.

The training programme is

developed for staff of ministries of energy and industry in the GCC, organisations and author-ities operating in fields of energy, industry, environment and industrial cities throughout the GCC and chambers of commerce, in addition to representatives of the industrial private sector and industrial companies.

GOIC offers a number of training workshops to concerned

parties according to their spe-cific needs in various fields through the Organisation’s Training and Capacity Develop-ment Program (TCD).

The objective is to increase individual and organisational skills in the industrial sector of GCC countries and Yemen. Those interested can register online www.goic.org.qa or through Face-book, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Continued from page 1“By now five government and

public hospitals have taken some steps in becoming baby-friendly hospitals. During the workshop we will train assessors from hos-pitals and primary healthcare centres on how to evaluate the initiatives taken by their health-care facilities to promote breastfeeding. Then they will do the assessment and report to the ministry,” said Dr Sheikha Al Anoud bint Mohamed Al Thani, Director of Health Promotion and Non-communicable Diseases, at the MoPH. Also the the ministry will soon launch a campaign to increase awareness about the importance of breastfeeding.

“Breastfeeding rates are low in Qatar due to myths like it’s not good for the mother’s health, while some women don’t have enough support from the spouse and the family as well as a

correct knowledge about breast-feeding,” said Dr Al Anoud.

Separately, the ministry is also working with the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs to

extend the period of maternity leave. At present the labour law allows 50 days of maternity leave and new mothers can take one hour break every day until the child is one year old.

The Peninsula

THE Environmental Studies Center at the Ministry of M u n i c i p a l i t y a n d Environment yesterday organised a training programme for 116 new employees of the ministry to acquaint them about their work.

The programme will continue for 10 weeks at Al Rayyan Municipality and includes theoretical and practical side.

The new employees will get information about the work and the ministry’s vision and its goals in addition to information about rights and duties of the employee.

The centre will evaluate the employees’ abilities and will conduct tests for the theoretical part.

Employees will also get training about how to draft technical and administrative reports. At the end of the program, the centre will distribute certificates to employees and will honour the toppers.

Five hospitals becoming baby-friendly

Dr. Sheikha Al Anoud bint Mohammed Al Thani, Director of Health Promotion and Non-Communicable Diseases speaking at workshop for evaluators of child friendly hospitals initiative yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Low visibility forecast

116 new employees imparted training

GOIC to organise workshop on 'Green Industries'

Directors and producers attached to 18 narrative feature films, 7 feature documentaries and 9 short films will participate in the six-day programme to be held from March 3 to 8 at Souq Al Waqif and the Museum of Islamic Art.

06 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017HOME

MoU signed

The terms of the MoU include collaboration on conducting a feasibility study of the project including capturing the organic gas, squeezing and purifying it to use it as a fuel for dual-fuel vehicles.

Sidi Mohamed The Peninsula

On the eve of Qatar National Environ-ment Day, Qatar University (QU) and Ministry of Munici-

pality and Environment (MME) yesterday signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to exchange of information and consultancy on latest techniques to capture organic gas released from waste and recycle it into an organic fuel for dual-fuel vehicles.

It was signed by QU Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies Prof Mariam Al-Maadeed and MME Assistant Undersecretary for General Services Affairs Sheikh Eng Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani in presence of QU President Dr Hassan Al Derham, CENG Dean Dr Khalifa Al Khalifa, MME Waste Treat-ment Department Director Hamad Al Bahar, and ministry

representatives, as well as QU leaders, faculty and staff.

The terms of the MoU include collaboration on conducting a feasibility study of the project including capturing the organic gas, squeezing and purifying it to use it as a fuel for dual-fuel vehicles. Fuel will be tested through cars that will be oper-ated using the new fuel.

“The agreement comes to contribute in recycling wastes and it a result of fruitful

cooperation between MME and QU to provide solutions that help preserve the environment and

achieve sustainable environ-mental development, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030”, said

Sheikh Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani commenting on the MoU.

“The MME is committed to

provide full support in the ven-ture to fulfill its objectives that benefits Qatar’s environment and economy, and we look for-ward towards more cemented cooperation with QU in other areas”, he added.

Prof Mariam Al Maadeed said: “Through this agreement, QU con-tinues to demonstrate its commitment to address environ-mental issues by investing in research that will contribute to finding sustainable solutions to the environment challenges in Qatar. This MoU comes on the sidelines of Qatar Environment Day, which aims to highlight the continuous efforts of the Qatari government to preserve the environment, in line with the pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030.”

Speaking about the project, Hamad Al Bahar said: “The first phase will include a feasibility study on organic gas released from waste and its recycling. This recycled gas will be first used in the ministry’s vehicles.”

QU & MME in deal to make fuel from organic gas

Dr. Faleh bin Nasser Al Thani; ( left); Assistant Undersecretary of Agricultural Affairs, Livestock and Fisheries, Ministry of Municipality, exchanging agreement documents with Prof or Mariam Al-Maadeed; Vice-President for Research and Graduate Studies at Qatar University.Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

The Peninsula

Under the patronage of Minister of Municipality and Environment H E

Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi, the ministry yester-day marked Qatar National Environmental Day under theme “together to protect Al Ghaf trees”.

Several events were held at Katara, in presence of Ahmed Al Sada, Assistant Undersecre-tary for Environmental Affairs at Ministry, Khalaf Ajlan Al-Anzi, Director Public Relation Department and other officials and a number of students from different schools.

The environmental activi-ties include workshops and competitions for students. It also included display of latest devices in environmental mon-itoring and protection.

Al Sada said: “This year we chose the theme ‘together to protect Al Ghaf trees’ because

it is considered as our heritage tree and is now endangered. Therefore, we chose this theme to encourage people to take care of this plant and have asked them to plant more of it in the Qatari environment.”

For his side, Khalaf Ajlan Al-Anzi said the ministry marked the day of environment to increase awareness about the importance of environment. “The ministry wants to use this slogan this year so that people about this kind of trees.”

The Public Parks Depart-ment also marked the day and provided awareness lectures to a number of students about the danger of plastic and the proper ways to get rid of it. It also focused of the importance of planting trees and how to rationalize irrigation water.

Students were also educated about the campaign launched by the ministry to curb wall-chalk-ing and the need to save streets from visual pollution.

The Peninsula

The third edition of Qumra, the industry initiative by the Doha Film Institute to

nurture the new generation of film talents, will extend mentor-ing and networking opportunities for 12 projects helmed by Qatar-based talent.

Qatar-based film projects by first and second time filmmak-ers at Qumra 2017 include five feature narratives along with seven shorts from national and resident filmmakers that are currently in development. The line-up includes three projects supported through the Institute’s Qatar Film Fund.

In all, Qumra 2017 has 34 projects from 25 countries for mentoring through Master-classes and networking opportunities.

Directors and producers attached to 18 narrative feature films, 7 feature documentaries and 9 short films will participate in the six-day programme to be held from March 3 to 8 at Souq Al Waqif and the Museum of Islamic Art.

The Feature Narrative Projects from Qatar under devel-opment include, The Other Wife by Meriem Mesraoua (Qatar, France), Hitch 60 (working title) by Sara Al Obaidly (Qatar, United Kingdom), iPhone Memory by Mahdi Ali Ali (Qatar), Azooz- the Bully Slayer by Mohammed Al Hamadi (Qatar) and DNA of Love by Hafiz Ali Ali (Qatar).

The Qumra Shorts by Qatar-based talent are currently in development and include two recipient films from the Qatari Film Fund: Sh’hab by Amal Al-Muftah (Qatar) and Ya Hoota by Latifa Al Darwish and Abdulaziz Yousif Ahmed (Qatar).

The other shorts from Qatar chosen for Qumra 2017 are: Reem Planted a Flower by Rawda Al-Thani (Qatar); Angels, Spiders and Other Miserable Creatures by Fahad Al-Kuwari (Qatar); in Awakenings by Fahad Al-Obaidly (Qatar); Selective

Mutism by Khalifa AlMarri (Qatar) and Burn the Bird by Zahed Bata (Jordan, Qatar).

Further, five films by Qatari directors are being screened in the New Voices in Cinema pro-gramme of Qumra, all of which were also supported by the DFI through year-round initiatives.

These films include: Kashta by A J Al Thani; I Have Been Watching You All Along by Rawda Al-Thani; Turtles Are Always Home by Rawane Nas-sif; RED by Kholood Mohammed Al-Ali and Our Time Is Running Out by Meriem Mesraoua.

Talents associated with the projects will have the opportunity to be mentored by this year’s

Qumra Masters - contemporary Iranian master Asghar Farhadi; French auteur Bruno Dumont; Cambodian creative documenta-rian Rithy Panh, Argentina’s eminent filmmaker Lucrecia Mar-tel and internationally acclaimed producer Paulo Branco.

Qumra 2017 programming includes industry meetings designed to assist in propelling selected projects to the next stages of development, through Master Classes, work-in-progress screenings, bespoke matchmaking sessions and tai-lored workshops with industry experts, as well as the newly introduced Accredited Delegate programme and Qumra Talks.

Qumra to explore opportunities for 12 projects

A still from Azooz- the Bully Slayer.

The Peninsula

Qatar University College of Engineering (QU-CENG) yesterday began

the Second International Con-ference on Energy and Indoor Environment for Hot Climates at Intercontinental Doha - The City Hotel.

The two-day conference is organised in association with American Society of Heating, Refrigerating and Air-Conditioning Engineers (ASHRAE) and ASHRAE Qatar Oryx Chapter, under the sponsorship of Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy. It aims to address energy and indoor air quality (IAQ) issues in humid and arid hot climates.

The event attracted over 150 experts and researchers to exchange their ideas and dis-cuss latest development in the field of indoor environmental quality in high ambient tem-perature climates.

Keynote speakers on the

first day of conference were ASHRAE President Bjarne Olesen, University College of London Institute for Environ-mental Design and Engineering (IEDE) Deputy Director and Research Leader Prof Dejan Mumovic, Feder-ation of European Heating, Ventilation and Air-condi-tioning Associations (REHVA) Vice-President Prof Jarek Kurnitski, and Oak Ridge National Laboratory (ORNL) Group Leader and Senior Research Staff Dr Omar Abdelaziz.

The experts presented papers on “Can International Standards for Indoor Envi-ronmental Quality Be Applied in Hot Climates?”, “The Impact of Temperature, Ventilation Rates and Indoor Air Quality on Students' Health and Performance”, “Nearly Zero Energy (nZEB) Regulation Progress in Europe”, and “Alternative Refrigerants for Air Condi-tioning in Hot Climates”.

Events mark National Environment Day

Meet aims to address indoor air quality issues

Mohammed Osman The Peninsula

As the current war has displaced around four million Yem-enis internally, Yemen needs enor-

mous humanitarian aid on urgent basis as well as support in areas of education and health, said a senior Yemeni official.

Yemenis did not leave their country to become refugees abroad but they have been internally displaced but the host areas have no facilities to accommodate them or provide with social services like educa-tion and health and shelters, said Mohammed Muhsin Askar, Dep-uty Minister of Human Rights, and Acting Minister at the Legit-imate government.

Speaking to The Peninsula at the sidelines of the “Interna-tional Conference on Human Rights Approach to Conflict Sit-uations in the Arab Region” held last week here, he said the humanitarian crisis in Yemen began to deteriorate since the entry of the Houthi militants to the capital Sana’a in 2014, and the overthrow of legitimacy.

Askar emphasised that there are no alternatives to negotiations, and Yemenis will sit to solve problems today or tomorrow, and changes of mil-itary balance on the ground will force Houthis to sit and negotiate.

No need for concern about th unity of Yemen, because the government has a strategy to control all the country gradu-ally moving from South to the North, he noted.

SCHOOLS DESTROYEDMost of the schools and hos-

pitals either have been destroyed or affected by the ongoing war in Yemen and this has raised the number of chil-dren who are out of the school seats.

There are considerable efforts being carried out by relief agencies and charities from Qatar and other GCC states, but the continuation of the war is creating more victims, who need

urgent support.The minister commended

Qatar’s support for his coun-try in different aspects and crises and said his government is keen on enhancing cooper-ation and partnership with Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee in order to boost human rights issues in Yemen.

SITUATION IMPROVINGAny war is associated with

humanitarian crisis, but after liberation of many areas in the country the situation has begun to improve, but populated areas occupied by Houthis are facing acute shortage od food, health and education services.

This is happening because Houthis are preventing aid to reach the needy people and this is one of the major challenges for the legitimate government.

There is governmental High Commission for Relief which coordinate reliefs, set up prior-ities and type of aid needed in different areas of the country. Needs of the people in Yemen differ from one place to another in accordance with the situation and climate, said the Deputy Minister.

UN organisations in Yemen released recently shocking fig-ures of people facing hunger with no access to aids, specially women and children.

Askar further pointed out that Yemen even before the current crisis was classified among the most poor countries and 60 percent of the popula-tion were below the poverty line according to UN reports.

Adding to this crisis of the war challenges likes lack of job

07MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 HOME

Talks inevitable

There are no alternatives to negotiations, and Yemenis will sit to solve problems today or tomorrow, and changes of military balance on the ground will force Houthis to sit and negotiate, said Mohammed Muhsin Askar.

Askar commended Qatar’s support for his country in different aspects and crises and said his government is keen on enhancing cooperation and partnership with Qatar’s National Human Rights Committee in order to boost human rights issues in Yemen.

Yemen minister hails Qatar's support

opportunities, destruction and suspension of industrial premises, trade activities and different type of investments, all together have dramatically increased the number of needy people in Yemen. If there was no Houthis coup this would not have happened.

Security remains major chal-lenge hindering access to relief and many international organi-zations are not putting enough pressures on the Houthi militias. Askar said that “only two weeks ago six trucks of World Food Pro-gram which were transporting food stuffs were looted” and there was no strict reaction from the UN.

Similar thing happened in Makha when the militia used civilians as human shields and prevented them from leaving the city when besieged by govern-ment forces.

The Houthi group has no legal or moral or humanitarian obligation towards the people of Yemen therefore interna-tional community and

organisation need to put more pressure on them to allow humanitarian aid reach the peo-ple in the areas they are controlling.

Government effortsHe noted that the legitimate

government is depositing all kind of public revenues and taxation incomes in the Central bank in order to pay salaries and provide the services but the Houthis are still reluctant and instead they looted the public exchequer, and they looted more than $5bn from central bank which is now left to bankruptcy.

After moving the central bank to Aden, the government is able to pay salaries on regular basis to employees in the liberated areas said Askar. Houthis created black market and benifitting from the war, confiscating lands, real estate and properties of others.

I do not expect the alliance between Houthis and former President Ali Abdullah Saleh will continue for long but it wiil end when the common interest is over.

Mohammed Muhsin Askar, Deputy Minister of Human Rights, and Acting Minister at the Legitimate government of Yemen speaking to The Peninsula.

QNA

QATAR’S Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) yes-terday inaugurated a medical clinic at headquarters of Supreme Committee for Deliv-ery and Legacy, Qatar 2022 tower, to serve the employees working in the building.

The clinic will receive emergencies and refer them for appropriate medical attention depending on their condition. Executive Director of the Operating Department at PHCC Dr Samia Al Abdullah said the step indicates the corporation’s belief in role of primary healthcare. It is also a reflection on the Supreme Committee’s role in Qatar, Al Abdullah added.

She added that PHCC was keen on enhancing partnerships with different segments and organisations in the Qatari society, whether public or private. She highlighted that National Primary Health Care Strategy 2013-2018 stresses the commitment to providing best health care services to citizens and residents of the State of Qatar.

Administration Executive Director of Supreme Commit-tee for Delivery & Legacy Mohamed Al-Marzouqi said the new clinic will provide primary health care to more than 400 employees who work in the building.

PHCC was established in 2012 and runs 23 medical centres in three regions.

The medical centre help protects from disease and maintain the health of peo-ple living in Qatar across all age groups.

PHCC opens clinic at SC headquarters

08 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

NEWS BYTES

SA minister named in police probeJOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s Deputy Finance Minister Mce-bisi Jonas is being investigated by the Hawks elite police unit as part of a probe into allegations of corruption at state-owned South African Airways (SAA), the City Press newspaper reported. As part of the probe into SAA, the unit is investigating allega-tions that Jonas used his political influence to secure US aircraft company AAR Corp contracts to supply components and tyres to the state airline, the newspaper cited three unidentified Hawks sources and one SAA source as saying. Treasury spokes-woman Yolisa Tyantsi declined to comment. Spokespeople for Jonas and the SAA did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Hawks spokesman Hangwani Mulaudzi was quoted by City Press as saying there was an investigation into allega-tions of corruption at SAA but it was policy not reveal names of those being probed.

Germans kidnapped in Nigeria freedKADUNA: Two German archaeologists who were kidnapped in central Nigeria have been freed, a police official said. No ran-som was paid when they were freed late on Saturday, the official said, without giving details. The two Germans had been abducted on Wednesday during excavation work at Jajela village in Kaduna state. The kidnapping took place near a road running between Abuja and Kaduna, which will serve as a temporary entry point for air travellers coming to the capital next month, when Abu-ja’s main airport will be closed from March 8 for six weeks for repairs. Abuja-bound travellers will have to make the 160km journey from Kaduna to Abuja by bus. Several kidnappings have occurred along the road in recent years - one victim, last July, was Sierra Leone’s deputy high commissioner.

Egypt puts off higher entry visa feesCAIRO: Egypt's plans to more than double charges for entry visas paid by foreign visitors arriving in the country have been put off until July 1, according to the Tourism Ministry. A min-istry statement gave no other details, but Egyptian officials explained that the postponement was made at the request of leaders of the tourism sector who warned that introducing the higher charges now — from $25 up to $60 — would further hurt the struggling industry as the off-season approaches. Egypt's vital tourism industry has been decimated after militants downed a Russian airliner over the Sinai Peninsula in October 2015, killing all 224 people on board.

Geneva

Reuters

Syrian activists called yesterday for the Assad government to engage in serious talks on political transition and

for the United Nations to strengthen the fragile ceasefire as violence engulfed parts of the country.

UN mediator Staffan de Mis-tura said a militant attack in Homs on Saturday was a delib-erate attempt to wreck the Geneva peace talks, while the warring sides traded blame and appeared no closer to actual negotiations.

Several more rounds of peace talks will be needed to reach any accord, the UN envoy bidding to kickstart the sputter-ing process has told the rival sides, setting out three key dis-cussion areas.

In a paper given to both sides, he said that by the end of the current session "we would have a deeper shared

understanding of how we can proceed in future rounds" in dis-cussing each area.

Syrian regime and opposi-tion negotiators are in Geneva for a fourth round of UN-spon-sored talks, but they have been overshadowed by deadly attacks on the ground.

The talks could last until March 5, a couple of days longer than originally scheduled, according to an opposition source. The first full day of talks

was Friday. “Our hopes are not high given the incidents on the ground and the continuous vio-lations by the regime forces and its backers of the ceasefire,” Mutasem Alysoufi of ‘The Day after Syria’ campaign that sup-ports democratic transition, said in Geneva.

Warplanes bombed rebel-held areas around several Syrian cities yesterday including in the Al Waer district of Homs, and in towns around Damascus, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war mon-itor said.

One person was killed in the

Damascus suburb of Douma and three in Al Waer, the Observa-tory said, while shells and rockets were launched at insur-gent districts in Deraa and Idlib provinces. Rebels fired several shells at a suburb of govern-ment-held Aleppo.

Under Security Council res-olution 2254, de Mistura is meant to develop a plan to monitor the ceasefire and sanction those who violate it, Alysoufi said.

“So this is a duty of the UN” On the government delegation led by Syrian Ambassador Bashar Ja’afari, Alysoufi said: “We believe that they are not

serious to engage here in seri-ous political discussion, rather they are gaining more time and continuing their military strat-egy on the ground.”

He is set to hold talks with two opposition groups that curry favour with Russia, Pres-ident Bashar Al Assad’s main backer. The UN envoy indicated to the High Negotiations Com-mittee, which is leading the opposition delegation, that he would like to unify the dispa-rate groups to facilitate face-to-face talks with the gov-ernment to end the nearly six-year-old conflict.

Mosul

AFP

Iraqi forces battled militants in west Mosul yesterday, aim-ing to build a floating bridge

across the Tigris to establish an important supply route linked to the recaptured east bank.

A week into a major push on

the western side of the city, where an estimated 2,000 hold-out jihadists and 750,000 civilians are trapped, govern-ment forces made steady progress.

But after relatively easy gains on the city's outskirts, they encountered increasingly stiff resistance from the Islamic State

group (IS) defending its emblem-atic stronghold.

"We had an important oper-ation this morning to move towards the bridge," Colonel Falah Al Wabdan, from the inte-rior ministry's Rapid Response units that have spearheaded the breach into west Mosul, said in the Jawsaq neighbourhood.

"We have moved past a large berm constructed by Daesh (IS) with tunnels underneath," he said, adding that the area was heavily mined and that his forces had killed 44 militants yesterday alone.

Wabdan was referring to what is known as "the fourth bridge", the southernmost of five

bridges — all of which are dam-aged and unusable -- across the Tigris River that divides the northern Iraqi city.

Government forces retook the east bank from IS a month ago, completing a key phase in an offensive on Mosul that began on October 17 and has involved tens of thousands of fighters.

Cairo

Reuters

AN Egyptian lawmaker started collecting signatures yesterday for a motion to extend presidential terms and lift restrictions on re-election — a year before general-turned-president Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s first term is due to expire.

As defence minister, Sisi overthrew elected president Mohammed Mursi, a Muslim Brotherhood official, in mid-2013 following mass protests against his rule and launched a crackdown on Egypt’s old-est Islamist movement.

Sisi, now 62, went on to win a presidential vote in 2014. He has not said whether he will seek re-election when his current term ends in 2018, but has made much of his popular mandate and prom-ised to respect the will of Egyptians. The move by inde-pendent lawmaker Ismail Nasreddine to amend article 140 of the constitution would enable Sisi to stay in power longer than the two four-year terms currently permitted.

Nasreddine, a low-profile lawmaker, will need the sup-port of 20 percent of MPs to table a discussion on the issue in parliament. “It will be the right of the president to nom-inate himself for the office as he wishes... and the right of the people to choose him or reject him,” Nasreddine told report-ers, adding that he would begin putting the idea to lawmakers. Even if he is able to push an amendment through parlia-ment by the required two-thirds majority, the con-stitution also stipulates that any revision be approved by popular referendum.

Ankara

Anatolia

The nation saying Yes to the April 26 refer-e n d u m o n

constitutional changes will end all kinds of terrorism in Turkey, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said.

"With the new constitu-tion, Turkey will be cleared of FETO, the PKK, as well as the Daesh terror group," Yildirim told a Yes rally, refer-ring to the FETO terror group, blamed for last July’s defeated coup; the PKK, which has killed over 1,100 people since July 2015; and Daesh,

currently active in Syria and responsible for numerous attacks in Turkey.

"Turkey will get rid of living with terrorism. It will have a clear view of its future," he added.

Yildirim, speaking in the Kahramankazan district of the capital Ankara — where nine citizens were martyred during FETO’s coup attempt — argued that approving the referendum will bring peace and stability and strengthen Turkey and also provide a bright future to its people. He added that approval will fur-ther strengthen Turkey's successful counter-terrorism

efforts against FETO, the PKK, and Daesh.

"We struck great blows against the PKK, FETO and Daesh. Qandil [northern Iraq, the PKK’s so-called headquarters] collapsed on the PKK, [Kahraman] Kazan collapsed on FETO, and Al-Bab collapsed on Daesh," he said, referring in the last instance to a key northern Syrian city in the fight against Daesh. The July 15 defeated coup, led by U.S.-based Fetullah Gulen and his terrorist group FETO left at least 248 people mar-tyred and nearly 2,200 injured.

Dubai

Reuters

PRESIDENT Hassan Rowhani yesterday accused his hardline critics of wanting to deprive Iranians of the basic joys of life and isolate the country, as an aide said he had decided to run for a second term, state media reported.

Iran will hold a presidential election on May 19, but Rowhani, a moderate who is eligible to seek a second four-year term, has stopped short of saying he would run to push ahead with reforms resisted by powerful hardliners. “Soon it’s the (Iranian) New Year, so let the people have some joy,” Rowhani, who has advocated greater social freedoms, said in a speech carried live on state television. “In recent weeks, Mr Row-hani has reached the conclusion to take part in the presidential election,” said Vice-President Hosseinali Amiri.

MP seeks end to restrictions on presidential terms in Egypt

Iraq forces in west Mosul aim for key bridge

Constitutional changes will end terrorism in Turkey: PM

Rowhani may seek re-election

Call for talks on transition and truce in Syria

Move to derail talks

UN mediator Staffan de Mistura said a militant attack in Homs on Saturday was a deliberate attempt to wreck the Geneva peace talks, while the warring sides traded blame and appeared no closer to actual negotiations.

A Syrian man gestures as he inspects the damage following reported government air strike on the rebel-held town of Douma, on the eastern outskirts of the capital Damascus, yesterday.

Kuwait Emir congratulates nationals and expatriatesKUWAIT CITY: Kuwait Emir H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah yesterday congratulated the citizens and residents of the country on the 56th anniversary of the National Day and the 26th Anniversary of the Liberation Day.

The Emir expressed appreciation for jubilation by the nationals and the residents on these two national occasions, through their participation in the celebratory festivals held throughout the coun-try, Kuna reported.

The Emir called for sincere and constructive action to serve the homeland, gearing up all potentials for its development, promotion and prosperity, lauding the wide-scale coverage of the festivities by the official and private media, thus promoting the great efforts exerted by the Ministries of Interior, Defence, the National Guards, to secure a comfortable atmosphere for the revelers.

The Emir recalled on the occasions the martyrs who deemed the homeland with their pure blood praying for heavenly blessing for their souls.

He also thanked leaders of the other GCC states and Arab countries who expressed good wishes during Kuwait's celebrations, expressing good wishes to them and their nations.

Kuwaitis drive a car bearing stickers in the colours of the national flag during celebrations marking the country's 56th National Day and the 26th anniversary of the Lberation Day.

09MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 ASIA

All clear

There is no hazardous material found at the terminal KLIA2, it is free from any form of contamination of hazardous material and it is declared a safe zone, said Abdul Samat Mat, the police chief of Selangor state who is leading the investigation.

Kuala Lumpur

Reuters

Malaysia yesterday declared its inter-national airport a “safe zone” after completing a

sweep of the terminal where the estranged half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un was assaulted with a deadly chemi-cal last week.

Kim Jong Nam died on Feb-ruary 13 after being smothered at the airport’s budget terminal with VX nerve agent, classified by the United Nations as a weapon of mass destruction.

Since then, tens of thousands of people have passed through the terminal, with the location of the assault remaining accessible.

The police forensic team, fire department and Atomic Energy Licensing Board swept the budget terminal of Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA2).

“We confirm, number one, there is no hazardous material found in KLIA2, number two, KLIA2 is free from any form of contamination of hazardous material and thirdly, KLIA2 is declared a safe zone,” Abdul Samat Mat, the police chief of Selangor state who is leading the investigation, told reporters at the airport.

The location of the assault

was cordoned off during the sweep but the rest of the ter-minal remained open.

Security camera footage released by Japanese broadcaster Fuji TV showed the moment two women assaulted Kim Jong Nam with a cloth authorities suspect was laced with the nerve agent.

In later clips Kim is seen ask-ing airport officials for medical help. Airport authorities said he complained of dizziness and died on the way to hospital.

Authorities have said there have been no anomalies in med-ical cases reported at the clinic since the incident. They also said medical staff at the clinic are in good health.

The two women - one Indo-nesian and one Vietnamese

- have been detained, along with a North Korean man.

Seven other North Koreans have been identified as suspects or are wanted for questioning, four of whom have since left for Pyongyang, police said.

Police are also sweeping other locations in Kuala Lumpur that suspects may have visited.

Police chief Abdul Samah said that authorities raided an apartment in an upscale Kuala Lumpur suburb earlier this week in connection with the death, and were checking for any traces of unusual chemicals in the apartment.

Kim Jong Nam, who had been living in exile with his fam-ily in Macau under Chinese protection, had spoken publicly in the past against his family’s dynastic control of the isolated, nuclear-armed state.

South Korean and US offi-cials said he was assassinated by North Korean agents. North Korea has not acknowledged his death.

Malaysia’s health minister Subramaniam Sathasivam said at a press conference yesterday that autopsy findings were con-sistent with police reports.

The minister said the chem-ical caused “serious paralysis which led to the death of the per-son in such a short period of time.”

The Indonesian attacker, Siti

Aishah, was reported to be unwell, possibly due to contact with the chemical.

Subramaniam said authori-ties were running tests to ascertain whether Siti was affected by the chemical.

At another event Subrama-nium said Kim Jong Nam would have died within 15-20 minutes after VX was applied on his face.

He added that identifying the body officially is still a challenge.

“Best would be to have the next of kin, blood-related kin, where we can do a DNA profil-ing...so that is the challenge,” he said.

No next of kin has claimed the body. While Malaysia’s Dep-uty Prime Minister has confirmed

Kim Jong Nam’s identity, official confirmation is pending.

Malaysia said on Saturday that it may issue an arrest war-rant for a North Korean diplomat wanted for questioning over the case, as diplomatic tensions between the two countries esca-lated over the killing.

The diplomat is not known to have met the police yet.

Malaysia declares airport safe for travel

Members of Malaysia's Hazmat team conduct a decontamination operation at the departures terminal of KLIA 2 in Sepang, yesterday.

Sydney

Reuters

Australia and Indonesia said yesterday that full military ties between the two

countries had been restored, after Indonesia’s military sus-pended cooperation in January because of “insulting” teaching material found at an Australian base.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull made the announce-ment alongside Indonesian President Joko Widodo, who arrived in Australia on Saturday for his first visit as president.

“President Widodo and I have agreed to full restoration of defence cooperation, training exchanges and activities,” Turn-bull said at a news conference in Sydney.

Widodo’s visit to Australia comes less than two months after military ties were sus-pended, an event that sparked a

minor diplomatic spat and led to an apology from Australia’s army chief in February. Military coop-eration between the two countries has ranged from joint

training and counterterrorism cooperation to border protection.

The “insulting” material sug-gested that Indonesia’s Papua

province should be independent and mocked the nation’s state ideology.

Indonesia and Australia have a history of patchy ties, but both leaders were keen yesterday to emphasise their commitment to a strong relationship.

“That robust relationship can be established when both coun-tries have respect for each other’s territorial integrity, non-interfer-ence into the domestic affairs of each other and the ability to develop a mutually beneficial partnership,” Widodo said.

While the primary focus of the visit was on security and eco-nomic issues, including the finalisation of a bilateral free trade deal by the end of the year, talks touched on tourism, cyber security and social links.

Widodo met Australian busi-ness leaders, telling them that investor confidence in Indone-sia was strong and reassuring them that Indonesia was a

stable country in which to do business.

Following one-on-one talks, Turnbull said tariffs would be cut for Australian sugar and Indone-sian pesticides and herbicides. He also praised changes to the export rules for live Australian cattle. Two-way trade between Australia and Indonesia was worth $15.3bn in 2015-16, according to Austral-ia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. Widodo said he was confident that a free trade deal would be finalised this year.

“I have conveyed to Prime Minister Turnbull some of the key issues,” he said. “First, is the removal of barriers to trade, tar-iffs and non-tariffs for Indonesian products such as Indonesia’s paper and palm oil.”

Widodo told The Australian newspaper he would like to see joint patrols with Australia in the South China Sea if they did not further inflame tensions with China.

Seoul

AFP

Trying to raise the world’s lowest birth rate is among the missions of South

Korea’s welfare ministry—a challenge starkly illustrated when one of its own working mothers died at her office.

The 34-year-old woman was an elite employee who had passed highest category of the highly competitive civil service entrance exams.

A mother of three, she only returned from maternity leave a week before her death last month, and immediately went back to working 12-hour days.

She returned to office on the Saturday. On Sunday, she was there again at five in the morn-ing to finish early and take care of her children later in the day.

Instead she suffered a heart attack and they never saw her alive again.

Her death has prompted widespread soul-searching over difficulties faced by overbur-dened and exhausted working mothers in a deeply workaholic and male-dominated society—which desperately needs to encourage more births.

South Korea’s fertility rate—the number of babies a woman is expected to have during her lifetime—has been declining for years and now stands at 1.2, lowest in the world in latest World Bank tally. The global average is 2.4. Experts call it a “birth strike”.

The civil servant who died has not been named, but Kim Yu-Mi, a 37-year-old IT engineer with two young daughters, said she could “totally relate to her”.

“It is exactly the reality for all working mums all across South Korea,” she said.

She was one of the minority of South Koreans who took advantage of legally available one

year of parental leave, which is paid for by the government.

Since 2006 authorities have pumped more than 100 trillion won ($88bn) into hundreds of programmes aimed at encourag-ing people to marry young and have larger families. But they have failed to arrest the trend.

Kim describes herself as “extremely lucky” for being allowed to go back to work.

“At least my employer did not kick me out when I asked for a maternity leave,” she said. “In the past, female employees like me were simply told ‘Go home and never come back’.”

But when she returned to the office after her first maternity leave, she added, she often worked past 9 pm, making read-ing a bedtime story impossible.

“Sitting with my child to play and eat dinner together was an unimaginable dream.”

According to official statistics, the average South Korean works

2,113 hours a year, the second-longest among OECD member nations, where the mean is 1,766. Mexico ranks number one.

At the same time, in double-income families, men spend only 40 minutes a day on house chores or childcare compared to three hours for women.

Cutthroat corporate culture, and a deep-rooted patriarchy that sees women as the sole family car-egiver, are pushing ever more women to shun marriage, said Lee Na-Young, sociology professor at

Chung-Ang University in Seoul.The vast majority of children

are born in wedlock in South Korea, but marriage rate has stead-ily declined to hit a record low of 5.9 per 1000 people last year.

“South Korean women are expected to be modern career women at daytime and traditional housewives as soon as they go home in the evening... so why bother to get married?” Lee said, noting burden on working women is far heavier in the South than elsewhere.

Civil servant’s death highlights world’s lowest birth rate

Australia & Indonesia restore military ties

Kim Yu-Mi, a 38-year-old IT engineer, and her young daughters during at her home in Seongnam, south of Seoul.

Seoul

QNA

SOUTH Korea and the United States are moving to employ their latest detection equip-ment to prepare for North Korean chemical and biolog-ical weapons in joint military drill planned for this year, sources said yesterday.

The move is in response to Pyongyang being accused of using lethal VX nerve agent to kill Kim Jong-nam.

The allies have been con-ducting Able Response chemical and biological war-fare exercise for the past six years. The training drill has been conducted during Ulchi Freedom Guardian (UFG) maneuvers.

Officials in Seoul said use of VX shows that the North is capable of making and employing various chemical and biological weapons, South Korea’s news agency (Yonhap) reported.

“Emphasis has been placed on countering VX, sarin, soman and the blister agent lewisite,” a military insider said. He said Seoul thinks the North has a stock-pile of artillery shells and missile warheads with chem-ical and biological agents that can be employed if the need arises. The expert said such weapons can also be delivered by airplanes.

He added South Korea’s military estimates 30-40 per-cent of North Korea’s Scud B and C missiles are built to deliver chemical weapons. These missiles can reach South in 4-5 minutes and if they hit populated areas can cause considerable losses of life.

To counter such threats the South Korean military said it has fielded the K-10 chemical and biological decontamina-tion vehicle and K-CAM2 detectors. The country also has various reconnaissance robots like the Hanuri-T-MIL that can detect chemical and biological agents.

S Korea & US gear up to counter NorthKorea threats

Indonesian President Joko Widodo (left) shakes hands with Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull at Admiralty House in Sydney, yesterday.

Negotiations on a political transition in Syria are slowing down after hitting fresh roadblocks, raising fears about the possibility of a deal anytime soon. The ongoing talks, held in Kazakhstan’s

Astana and Geneva, are hobbled by a lack of trust between the Syrian regime and the opposition and the continuing fighting on the ground which is adding to the animosity and uncertainty. The Syrian regime has entered the talks in a position of strength after capturing most of the territory from the rebels, while the latter, though disappointed at the defeat at the hands of regime forces, will not settle for anything less than the removal of Bashar Al Assad from power. The onus is on Assad and his allies to create an atmosphere conducive for talks and agree to the demands of the opposition.

Syrian activists said yesterday that their hopes were not high about the future of the negotiations given the tense situation on the ground and the recalcitrance of the regime, and urged the Assad government to engage in serious talks and for the United Nations to take steps to strengthen the fragile ceasefire. The talks held in Astana so far have been largely introductory, with the toughest and most contentious issues still far away. Until the main issues are discussed, there is a need to abide by the ceasefire currently in place. Rebels are accusing the

regime forces of violating the ceasefire by continuing their bombardment of the rebel areas and reacting disproportionately to minor cases.

At the same time, the rebels must refrain from actions that will jeopardize the ceasefire and negotiations because such violations will only serve as an excuse for the government forces to attack them. For

example, UN mediator Staffan de Mistura said that a militant attack in Homs on Saturday “was a deliberate attempt to wreck the Geneva peace talks”, while both sides traded blame. Syrian forces retaliated by bombing rebel-held areas around several cities yesterday, including in the Al Waer district of Homs, and in towns around Damascus.

Several ideas are being floated to find a political solution, like drafting a new constitution and the UN-supervised elections. But Syria cannot enjoy peace as long as Assad is in power and a political solution that paves the way for the continuation of Assad will not be a solution.

As the talks continue, there is a dire need for both sides to create conditions that will make life easier for Syrians. The current ceasefire must be strengthened, which can be done through a UN-sponsored monitoring mechanism, and unlimited access must be given to aid groups to reach civilians.

10 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

Breaking the stalemate

QUOTE OF THE DAY

My responsibility is to do everything to show the French people that the National Front‘s proposals are dead-ends hidden by lies.

Bernard CazeneuveFrench Prime Minister

Negotiations to find a political solution in Syria are slowing down after hitting fresh roadblocks.

This feels like the worst of times for Muslims in America. While hatred for and visceral fear of Muslims began long before President Donald Trump’s campaign hatched, his odious rheto-

ric and reckless decisions promise a potentially horrifying climax.

Given Trump’s intentions for a “Muslim ban” and the fury his followers harbor for Islam, the backdrop for Islam in America right now consists of white nationalist fliers on col-lege campuses, grisly hate crimes, tenuous civil liberties and profound suspicion. Friends and family fear that anything appearing remotely “Muslimy” will provoke malice. There are also concerns that the “clash of civ-ilisations” sought by Trump’s advisers will embolden groups like the Islamic State, which seek those disaffected by the West as recruits.

Trump’s presidency has become a moment of reckoning for the country’s 3.3 million Muslims as their faith finds itself embattled, besieged by uncertainty and under duress. Muslims face a temptation to embrace victimhood and retreat, but also a solace, as Islam has been in a similar place before.

In the dusty pages of old Sunday school books are the stories of early Muslim commu-nities that thrived when their faith was beset with challenges. Propelled forward by the universal themes of justice, equality and soli-darity that form the Holy Quran’s bedrock, their enlightened struggle resonates under Trump’s presidency.

Islam’s call for social and economic reform became a radical response to the growing inequities in the city of Makkah. Long honored tribal ideals had perished as wealth became disproportionately concentrated in the hands of a few oligarchs who controlled the city and all of its political, religious and economic affairs. Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) sought to topple this entrenched social order with Islam’s unprecedented mes-sage of equality, which embraced Makkah’s indigent and marginalised.

Those who chose to convert to Islam in its nascent stages voluntarily chose to oppose this status quo despite the great personal cost. Many sacrificed their lives, abandoned lives of privilege, severed bonds with family mem-bers, endured persecution and ignored ridicule because they were called to a purpose far greater than themselves.

The primacy of justice in Islam is captured eloquently in this verse from the Holy Quran: “O ye who believe! stand out firmly for justice, as witnesses to Allah, even as against your-selves, or your parents, or your kin, and whether it be (against) rich or poor: for Allah can best protect both. Follow not the lusts (of your hearts), lest ye swerve, and if ye distort (justice) or decline to do justice, verily Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do.”

In God’s eyes, justice is never a matter of choice, but the only choice. The pursuit of jus-tice then becomes a means of showing devotion and demonstrating commitment to God, a duty.

In his letter from Makkah in 1964, Malcolm

Why Muslims could actually thrive in President Trump’s AmericaJalal BaigThe Washington Post

X wrote of how Islam’s belief in the one-ness of God had bred equality within the religion’s adherents. After years of being hardened by America’s racism, oppres-sion and exploitation, he was heartened to see a world in which justice was manifested as love and brotherhood: “During the past eleven days here in the Muslim world, I have eaten from the same plate, drunk from the same glass, and slept on the same rug — while praying to the same God — with fellow Muslims, whose eyes were the bluest of blue, whose hair was the blondest of

blond, and whose skin was the whitest of white. And in the words and in the deeds of the white Muslims, I felt the same sincerity that I felt

among the black African Muslims of Nigeria, Sudan and Ghana.

We were truly all the same (brothers) — because their belief in one God had removed the white from their minds, the white from their behavior, and the white from their attitude.” There are echoes of a faith synonymous with justice in the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” where he wrote of a

church that acted not as a thermometer to merely gauge the prevailing social issues of the time but as a thermostat that could influence society’s bend toward justice. Similarly, when Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel returned from Selma after a march during the Civil Rights era, he was asked whether he found much time to pray. He responded, “I prayed with my feet.”

It is this same spirit that animated 20 rabbis who were arrested while demon-strating against the “Muslim ban” in front of the Trump Tower in Manhattan and that inspired evangelical Christian leaders to condemn Trump’s executive order for giving preference to Christian refugees over Muslim ones.

While Trump poses challenges for Muslims, his presidency also presents opportunity as we adopt the struggles of our neighbors and marry them to our individual struggles. Every instance of police brutality, an arrival of an Immi-gration and Customs Enforcement agent at a door, swastika graffiti, con-traction of LGBTQ rights or silencing of a woman extends the opportunity to strengthen our faith and forge new alli-ances. As American poet Emma Lazarus wrote, “Until we are all free, we are none of us free.”

Any injustice is an invitation from God to renew one’s faith and find empowerment by correcting it. Every street and every airport becomes sacred ground as each protest serves as an act of worship, each march as a prayer and each moment of dissent as a pilgrimage. Resistance will thus become an act of faith.

This moment provides a call to live the ideals of a faith that has sustained so many for centuries and allowed them to find God daily through their desire to create a more just community for all.

Actually, there is perhaps no better time to be a Muslim in America.

Trump’s presidency has become a moment of reckoning for the country’s 3.3 million Muslims as their faith finds itself embattled, besieged by uncertainty and under duress. Muslims face a temptation to embrace victimhood and retreat, but also a solace.

ED ITOR IAL

A file picture of anti-Trump protesters outside the Anaheim Convention Center.

11MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 OPINION

said. “And if they don’t solve the problem, we should make trade very difficult for China.”

Trump has vowed to “deal with” North Korea, and his administration is conducting a broad-rang-ing policy review, including how to make sanctions bite. Negotiations haven’t been ruled out, said a US official who wasn’t authorized to discuss internal deliberations and demanded anonymity.

Unofficial talks between North Korean govern-ment officials and former US officials tentatively scheduled for early March in New York were called off after the US government decided Friday against issuing visas, according to a person familiar with the decision who was not authorized to speak for the US government and discussed the matter on condi-tion of anonymity.

The State Department declined to comment Sat-urday, saying it does not discuss individual visa cases.

Although the US government was not due to participate in the dialogue, and such unofficial talks have little bearing on official US policy, allowing them to proceed could have signaled the Trump administration’s openness to US engagement with North Korea, whose delegation was due to be led by Choe Son Hui, director of the US affairs department in North Korea’s Foreign Ministry.

It was not immediately clear why the US gov-ernment nixed the dialogue — a decision first reported by the Wall Street Journal. But the decision came after Malaysian authorities announced earlier Friday that the exiled half brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong Nam had been assassinated using VX nerve agent — a killing which is widely sus-pected to be the work of North Korea.

Trump’s basic position on North Korea reflects a dusty old chestnut in Washington: That China can, and should, force Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear weapons but has instead, recklessly and shortsight-edly, become North Korea’s great enabler because it fears South Korea, an American ally that hosts US. troops, controlling everything right up to its border.

That is, after all, why China fought the US in the Korean War.

But the pervasive Chinese economic engage-ment with the North that so aggravates sanctions’ advocates in Washington has dramatically advanced the growth of a gray-zone market system, the swell-ing of an increasingly influential merchant class that

Russia’s new game in Afghanistan

A resurgent Russia is making new inroads into Afghanistan, not in the way the former USSR did, but by aligning itself with some of the very extremists whose leaders were involved in the defeat of the

Soviet Union’s decade-long invasion of Afghanistan.In December 2016, Moscow disclosed its contacts

with the Taliban, the group that is intent on toppling the Afghan government. The Russian Foreign Minis-try announced that it is sharing intelligence and cooperating with the Taliban to fight Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant group’s (ISIL, also known as ISIS) militants in Afghanistan.

Moscow has repeatedly declared its concerns about ISIL militants, in many instances exaggerating their presence and power in Afghanistan.

Meanwhile, Afghan government officials have claimed Russia has been delivering weapons to the Taliban, allegations that have been rejected by Rus-sian officials.

Russia’s recent posturing towards Afghanistan has opened a new chapter in what could be termed a new great game in the heart of Asia with multiple players, including Russia, the United States, China, India, Pakistan and others.

Russia’s diplomatic offensive coupled with bat-tlefield support to the Taliban has perplexed many about the Russian intention in Afghanistan.

Expansionist idealsRussia’s encroachment into Afghanistan could be

part of President Vladimir Putin’s expansionist ideals to restore Russia’s position as a geopolitical player.

Since coming to power in 1999, Putin has pursued what can be called an interventionist policy through armed conflicts, cyberattacks and propaganda wars. The second Chechen war in 1999, the conflict in Geor-gia in 2008, the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the military engagement in Syriain 2015 and the cyber operations on the US in 2016 are prominent examples.

President Putin has successfully exploited these wars to elevate Russia’s standing in the international political transactions and consolidate his position in Russia. So the question now is: what does Russia want in Afghanistan?

Russia is most likely following multiple objec-tives. By aligning itself with the Taliban, it could gain the ability to strengthen its bargaining position in broader dealings with Washington. Insecurity and instability in Afghanistan is on the rise, directly threatening the survival of the US-backed Afghan government and pose a great danger to the US and

Nato mission in the country.In Russian calculation, harassing US/Nato

attempts at this precarious situation could be the best time to extract concessions in the form of reducing US pressure on Russia regarding Crimea and easing US sanctions, among others.

Creating legitimacy It is also likely that Russia is trying to gather addi-

tional chips with regards to the future of Afghanistan so that it can then have a front row seat at any regional and global diplomacy/talks on the future of peace and security in Afghanistan. A key motivation in this regard could be Russia’s exclusion in most key discussions on Afghanistan in the past.

Russia’s attempts could have also been motivated by its concerns over the degrading status of the Kabul government and the lack of clarity of Kabul’s west-ern allies towards defending Afghanistan against the growing threat of the Taliban and other terrorist groups. By providing support to the Taliban, Russia might be hedging itself against the increasing fatigue of the Western countries, preparing to manage the political landscape, and shape the future government if the current government collapses.

By hyping the ISIL threat, Russia not only tries to create legitimacy for their collusion with the Taliban, but they may also want to pave the ground for their augmented military presence and political influence in Central Asia. As the Central Asian states have been falling under increasing economic influence of China,

Russia sees itself losing its hegemonic role.Increasing its military presence will enhance

Russia’s policing role in the Central Asian region and expand Central Asia’s security dependency on Rus-sia. There could also be economic motives behind Russia’s new game. The Central Asian republics have some of the richest natural gas and oil reserves in the entire region. Leaders of these republics have sought to find new markets, especially in the energy-thirsty South Asia. This is because if Central Asian states manage to diversify markets for their natural gas, it will further reduce Russia’s grip over the region’s energy markets.

As Afghanistan is the shortest route for Central Asian natural gas to reach South Asia, alignment with the Taliban would enable Russia to derail attempts to take Central Asian natural gas to South Asia, thus compelling Central Asian states to remain dependent on Russia and China as the main purchasers of Cen-tral Asian natural gas.

There is no doubt Russia has legitimate concerns about growing extremism in the region. A remarka-ble number of ISIL fighters come from the Central Asian countries, which Russia considers its security backyard. However, supporting one terrorist group to defeat another terrorist group is not a sustainable geopolitical strategy, particularly in the complex landscape of Afghanistan where history has proved many political and military calculations wrong.

Zero-sum game

China’s announcement that it has suspended North Korean coal imports may have been its first test of whether the Trump administration is ready to do

something about a major, and mutual, security problem: North Korea’s nukes. While China is Pyongyang’s biggest ena-bler, it is also the biggest outside agent of regime-challenging change — just not in the way Washington has wanted.

Judging from Trump’s limited com-ments so far, and the gaping chasm between Washington’s long-held focus on sanctions and punishment and Beijing’s equally deep commitment to diplomatic talks that don’t require the North to first give up its arsenal, a deal between the two won’t come easily.

But if Beijing is indeed sending a signal to Trump about Pyongyang, its opening bid was a big one. North Korea’s coal exports to China totaled $1.2 billion last year, according to Chinese customs. US officials say that represents about one third of the North’s total export income.

For Kim Jong Un, that’s going to hurt.In a bitter critique, the North’s official

media on Thursday likened the decision by Beijing to an enemy state’s move “to bring down” their social system and, in a tone it normally reserves for Washington, Tokyo or Seoul, accused Beijing of “dancing to the tune of the US” It was one of the most bit-ing attacks the North’s media has ever made against China.

Trump, meanwhile, has often appeared to be more interested in bashing China than dealing with it. He has accused Beijing of not helping at all with the prob-lem, and at the height of his bombast last year on the campaign trail, claimed China has “total control over North Korea.”

“China should solve that problem,” he

Will China be North Korea’s Trump card?

An Afghan National Army soldier walks on Nader Khan Hill in Kabul, Afghanistan.

is not utterly beholden to Kim Jong Un or his ruling party and shifts in popular attitudes and social relationships that could be extremely destabilizing for the entrenched North Korean status quo.

Beijing is no buddy of the Kims. And both sides know it.Though they fought on the same side in the 1950-53

Korean War, which cost China hundreds of thousands of lives, neither side trusts the other or harbors any illusions their relationship is, or ever was, anything like a friendship.

On the flip side, protecting stable trade relations with a prosperous Seoul is far more important and profitable for Beijing than its dealings with the Kims’ northern dynasty. That trade serves to keep Pyongyang in check and also undermines the assumption that a reunited Korea would have the same motivations to remain the stalwart ally of Washington that Seoul now is.

It’s also not a given the Korean public would continue to support the idea of hosting US troops at all since their only purpose post-unification would, indeed, be to threaten China. There is considerable popular opposition in the South to the US bases there even with the North intact and growing stronger. Exasperated US policymakers like to say there are no good options with North Korea.

China could make the same complaint.Beijing is as painfully aware that its influence over

Pyongyang has limits as Washington is aware that its military superiority alone cannot solve the problem.

China also knows the impact of a North Korean implosion — regional economic chaos, huge flows of refugees into its relatively poor northeast, which already has a sizable ethnic Korean minority — are far bigger problems for it than for the US and far more likely than a last-breath, suicidal nuclear attack by Pyongyang on Washington.

Seen in that framework, it isn’t surprising that China has half-heartedly gone along with UN resolutions on the North’s nuclear program while advocating for enough security on the peninsula for US-North Korea diplomacy to be a viable option. Its suspension of coal imports was done to comply with an import cap that was part of sanctions it agreed to last year — when Trump was still a private citizen.

But Beijing is also clearly tired of being scapegoated by Washington.

Repeated, self-righteous demands from the White House for China to take sole ownership over what Beijing considers to be a mess Washington created by rushing across the 38th parallel and on to the Yalu River when the North Korean army was in full retreat nearly 70 years ago almost guarantee it won’t. At least not in the way that Washington wants.

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It is hard to believe the hard-core ideologues could become strategic partners to Russia because of their deep-seated ideological animosity towards the country.

The best approach would be to work with the Afghan government and the regional and international partners to address the growing menace of extremism in the region. Partnering with a dangerous and unpredictable group to pursue a zero-sum game could easily backfire.

Russian support for the Taliban has already helped the militant group make battlefield gains and enhance their legitimacy. The ques-tion is to what extent will Russia support the Taliban and whether it will remain purely tactical support. This will most likely be determined by the state of relations between Putin and the Trump administration and their approach towards fighting terrorism in Afghanistan.

If Russia has begun to view the Taliban as an alternative to the Afghan government, then it is on the wrong side of history. Perhaps, in the short-run, Russia might gain in terms of undermining the US and its allies’ efforts in Afghanistan or even forcing them to abandon Afghanistan.

Yet in the long-run, Russia’s support for the Taliban militants will only unleash a new wave of terrorism in the region, which might see no end and endanger Russia’s very security and stability.

The writer is a political analyst and a

member of Afghanistan Analysis and

Awareness, a Kabul-based think-tank.

Eric TalmadgeAP

Najib Sharifi Al Jazeera

12 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017ASIA

A look alike of London's Tower Bridge in Suzhou, Jiangsu province, China, yesterday.

Revolution anniversaryPhilippine offensive to

continue amid threatManila

AP

Philippine troops will not get distracted by a threat from Abu Sayyaf militants to behead a German

hostage if a ransom was not paid and will press assaults to crush the group, military offi-cials said.

Military spokesman Brig Gen Restituto Padilla said troops were continuing opera-tions to rescue foreign and local hostages, including German captive Jurgen Gustav Kantner, who is believed to be held by the militants in the jungles of south-ern Sulu province.

In a video that circulated online earlier this month, Kant-ner said the militants would behead him by mid-afternoon of yesterday if a ransom were not paid. The militants, who belong to an Abu Sayyaf faction led by Hatib Sawadjaan, were demanding $605,000, officials said. There was no immediate indication whether the militants had pushed through with their threat to kill Kantner despite a last-minute appeal by President Rodrigo Duterte's adviser, Jesus Dureza, urging them to spare the hostage.

"Deadline or no deadline, troops are exerting all effort and means in order to go after the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf and to rescue all kidnap victims," the military command in charge of the Sulu region said in a statement.

"The armed forces will pur-sue the enemy and dictate the terms, not the other way around," Padilla said. "We will not be cowed by the demands

of evil individuals and groups who continue to perpetuate practices contrary to Islam."

The Abu Sayyaf is desperate for money and lacks encamp-ments where they could hide their hostages because of con-tinuing battle setbacks, including the killings of eight militants in a Feb. 7 clash with troops in Sulu and the capture of two others in Tawi Tawi prov-ince, near Sulu, military officials said.

Kantner, who also was kid-napped by Somali pirates years ago, tearfully spoke about the militant threat and the Feb. 26 ransom deadline in a video cir-culated by the SITE Intelligence Group, which monitors jihadi websites.

In the two-minute video, Kantner sits in front of four masked gunmen, including one aiming what appears to be a sickle at him, as he speaks in German in a clearing with thick foliage in the background. He sports a beard and was made to wear an orange shirt.

Military officials have dis-couraged ransom payments to the Abu Sayyaf, saying the funds would be used by the militants to purchase new weapons and perpetuate kidnappings for ransom.

Hostage rescue

Military spokesman Brig Gen Restituto Padilla said troops were continuing operations to rescue foreign and local hostages, including German captive.

Deadline or no deadline, troops are exerting all effort and means in order to go after the terrorist group Abu Sayyaf and to rescue all kidnap victims," the military command said.

24 detained in China after hotel fire

13 slip out of jail in Manila

Victims demand justice 70 years after Taiwan massacre

China urged to monitor spread of H7N9

Beijing

AFP

Authorities have detained 24 people after a fire sparked by unsafe

welding and cutting work killed 10 people in eastern China, state media said yes-terday. Three of nine injured people being treated in hospi-tal are in critical condition, Xinhua news agency said.

Three of those killed in the blaze at the HNA Platinum Mix Hotel in the Jiangxi provincial capital of Nanchang were guests and seven were con-struction workers, it cited the city government as saying.

A preliminary investiga-tion found the blaze was caused by welding and cut-ting work which violated safety rules, Xinhua reported.

It said hotel sharehold-ers, the contractor for the project and workers have been taken into police cus-tody. Over 260 residents of a 24-storey apartment build-ing connected to the hotel were evacuated after Satur-day's blaze. Fire safety is routinely ignored in China, with exit doors often locked and escape passages blocked. Earlier this month, 18 people were killed when a foot mas-sage parlour caught fire in the eastern province of Zhejiang.

Manila

AFP

Thirteen detainees facing drug charges escaped from jail yesterday, the latest in

a series of prison breaks in the Philippines, authorities said.

The 13 slipped out of the jail in a police camp in San Fern-ando city north of Manila before dawn, said Derrick Arnold Carreon, spokesman for the Philippine Drug Enforcement

Agency. "They sawed through the bars of the metal grille," he said, adding an investigation was under way to find out how they got the saw.

The Philippines has fre-quently suffered mass escapes from prisons which are usually overcrowded, poorly main-tained and inadequately guarded. In the country's big-gest jailbreak, more than 150 inmates ecaped a prison in the southern Philippines in January

after about a hundred gunmen stormed the facility.

In August 2016 members of a Muslim extremist group that pledges allegiance to the Islamic State group stormed a jail in the south and broke out 23 inmates.

More than 7,700 people have died in Duterte's war on drugs since he came to power on June 30. About 2,500 were killed during police raids and sting operations when suspects chose to resist arrest.

Taipei

AFP

For Pan Hsin-hsing the sight and smell of lilies held a particular horror for many

years — the pungent flowers decorated the room where his executed father lay before the funeral. He was just six years old when Pan Mu-chih, a doc-tor and local politician, was arrested, tortured and killed in a 1947 massacre that was the precursor to years of political purges in Taiwan, known as the "White Terror".

A last note from his father was scribbled on a cigarette pack given to him by a sympa-thetic jailer and smuggled out to the family.

"Don't be sad, I die for the residents of our city. I die with no regret," it read.

On Tuesday, Pan will speak at a national commemoration for the victims of the crack-down by troops under nationalist leader Chiang Kai-shek, whose Kuomintang party governed Taiwan at the time. On behalf of many who lost loved ones, he will call for long-delayed justice.

Pan's father was a critic of the KMT and was killed by a fir-ing squad alongside other local politicians in southern Chiayi city, where there were anti-government riots.

Those riots were part of

island-wide civilian unrest which started on February 28, 1947, after an inspector beat a woman selling untaxed ciga-rettes in Taipei.

The immediate crackdown on protesters is estimated to have killed up to 28,000 peo-ple. Pan also lost his 15-year-old brother, who was shot after going out to look for their missing father.

The family pretended the young boy had committed suicide for fear of repercus-sions if they told the truth. Another of his eight siblings held their dying father in his arms after finding the train station where the execution took place, says Pan, his voice cracking.

The body was brought to their family's clinic, where he had worked as a doctor, and laid out in the waiting room so people could pay their respects.

Pan says another of his brothers and a sister were jailed for months as "communist spies", several of his siblings have struggled with depression. For years, he associated lilies with that terrifying time.

"I remember looking at the lilies and smelling their scent as men who came to pay their condolences got angry that my father was killed, while women wept," he said. "It was difficult to bear."

Geneva

QNA

The World Health Organi-sation (WHO) yesterday called for Beijing to mon-

itor whether the fatal H7N9 bird flu virus gains the ability of sus-tained human-to-human transmission following reports of limited cases. The virus so far has not spread among humans in most cases.

From January 1 until Febru-ary 23, 94 deaths from H7N9 have been reported on the mainland. Most human cases

have been traced to exposure or contact with sick poultry.

"Authorities should be vigi-lant, and assess whether the virus gains the ability of sus-tained human-to-human spread," said Bernhard Schwart-lander, WHO’s representative in China. Kelvin said he was alarmed by the rising number of such cases this season.

"We strongly believe H7N9 has the capacity for human-to-human transmission," Kelvin said, adding it was "alarming" that the H7N9 virus continued to mutate. Most human cases

have been traced to exposure or contact with sick poultry.

In a small number of cases, individuals were infected by lim-i t e d , n o n - s u s t a i n e d human-to-human transmission of the virus. This could occur after prolonged, close, unprotected contact between individuals, the WHO said. Though sustained human-to-human transmission has not occurred so far, WHO said China should be vigilant. David Kelvin, director of the immunol-ogy department at the International Institute of Infec-tion and Immunity at Shantout.

Uber drivers protest outside Ministry building in TaipeiTaipei

Reuters

Hundreds of Taiwanese partner drivers of ride-hailing company Uber

rallied outside the Ministry of T r a n s p o r t a t i o n a n d Communications (MOTC) in Taipei yesterday to call for a n e w l a w g o v e r n i n g transportation network

companies. Some 300 drivers shouted slogans of "Sharing Economy, People Decide" and we "Have Management, Have a Platform" at the rally organized by the Taiwan Uber Drivers Alliance, a group of Uber partner drivers. The drivers called for a separate law to govern transportation network companies as exists in some countries instead of regulating

ride-hailing companies with laws covering taxis, said alliance member Adam Shen.

According to Uber Taiwan, more than 1,000 drivers partnered with the company before it suspended its services on February 10 in response to statutory changes that stiffened fines for the illegal operation of transportation services in Taiwan last December.

Uber drivers taking part in a protest outside the Ministry of Transportation building in Taipei, yesterday.

China's Tower Bridge

A blogger and supporter of Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, onstage with her colleagues displaying T-shirts decorated with a picture of arrested legislator Senator Leila De Lima during a pro-Duterte rally at a park in Manila, coinciding with the "People Power" revolution anniversary.

Taliban leader urges Afghans to plant trees

13MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 ASIA

PIA denies passengers forced to stand on flightIslamabad

AFP

Pakistan's national car-rier said yesterday it would investigate allegations that a plane flew from Kara-

chi to Saudi Arabia carrying seven extra passengers, but denied they stood in the aisles for the three-hour journey.

The probe was ordered after a report in the English-language daily Dawn.

The paper said the January 20 flight to Medina carried 416 passengers, seven more than its capacity of 409 including jump seats, in a serious breach of air safety regulations.

The newspaper quoted sources as saying that in case of an emergency, passengers with-out seats would not have access to oxygen masks and could block any emergency evacuation.

Pakistan International Air-lines' spokesman Danyal Gilani said media reports that some passengers travelled standing "are exaggerated and baseless. It is not possible for anyone to

travel like that in an aircraft, regardless of the duration of the flight."

But he said: "The matter per-taining to the travel of more passengers than the booked load...is under investigation," and the Pakistan International Airlines had ordered a "thorough probe into it, and all concerned

are being questioned"."PIA is committed to ensure

the safety of the passengers and cannot allow any incident to happen which compromises safety," he added.

It was the latest embarrass-ing incident for the airline, considered a global leader until the 1970s but plagued by con-troversies over recent years and saddled with billions of dollars of debt.

A PIA turboprop built by European manufacturer ATR plummeted into a mountain in a northern region on December 7, bursting into flames and kill-ing all 47 people on board.

The airline was later mocked after its staff were pho-tographed sacrificing a goat on a runway to ward off bad luck.

Domestic flights are often delayed for VIPs while flight employees have been caught smuggling goods ranging from iPhones to narcotics.

In 2013 one of its pilots was jailed for nine months in Brit-ain for being drunk before he was due to fly from Leeds to Islamabad with 156 people on board.

Suu Kyi eulogizes slain legal adviserYangon

AFP

Myanmar's de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has broken a month long

silence on the daylight assassi-nation of her adviser, calling his killing a "great loss" for the country's democracy struggle.

Ko Ni, a prominent Muslim lawyer and critic of Myanmar's powerful military, was shot dead on 29 January outside Yangon airport in a murder that sent shockwaves through the coun-try ' s young c iv i l ian government.

A taxi driver, Ne Win, was also killed trying to stop the gun-man who was arrested. Authorities say he was hired by a former military officer now on the run. Suu Kyi's ruling National League for Democracy (NLD) party branded the killing a polit-ical assassination and "terrorist act" against their policies.

But Suu Kyi, a close friend of Ko Ni, remained silent in the wake of the incident.

Yesterday she made a rare public appearance at a memo-rial service organised by her party for the two victims.

"Losing U Ko Ni is a great loss

for our NLD. He worked together with us for many years through his beliefs," she told a packed hall in Yangon, describing both he and the taxi driver as "martyrs".

A constitutional expert, Ko Ni was a prominent critic of the military's continued political influence including their con-trol of key security ministries and guaranteed seats in parlia-ment, something the NLD hopes to one day overturn.

He also condemned the increasing Islamophobia that has swept through the nation in recent years, stirred up by hard-line Buddhist nationalists.

Family members of slain lawyer Ko Ni arriving to attend his joint memorial ceremony with taxi driver Ne Win in Yangon, yesterday.

Safety breach

Pakistan International Airlines' spokesman Danyal Gilani said media reports that some passengers travelled standing "are exaggerated and baseless.

The matter pertaining to the travel of more passengers than the booked load...is under investigation," and the airline had ordered a "thorough probe into it, and all concerned are being questioned".

Kabul

AFP

The Taliban's leader called on Afghans to plant trees as Spring

approaches in a rare public statement yesterday that comes amid fears of another bloody fighting season.

Haibatullah Akhundzada, (pictured) who became head of the Taliban after his pred-ecessor was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan last May, urged for more tree planting in a message on the group's website.

Spring traditionally marks the start of the fight-ing season for the insurgents, so called their annual "Spring offensive", in which the Tal-iban launches a major campaign of attacks across the country.

Akhundzada said trees played "an important role in environmental protection, economic development and beautification of earth".

"The Mujahideen and beloved countrymen must join hands in tree plantation and not hold back any effort in this regard," he added.

Sediq Sediqqi, the interior ministry spokesman, responded by saying the Tal-iban should stop planting bombs instead.

"They should stop plant-ing IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) that are

killing so many innocent Afghans including children and women daily", he said on his Twitter account.

Afghan civilian casualties in 2016 were the highest recorded by the UN, with nearly 11,500 non-combat-ants killed or wounded.

More than 3,500 children were among the victims, a "disproportionate" increase of 24 percent in one year, the UN said in a recent report.

Afghanistan last year also saw the highest recorded civilian casualties caused by pressure-plate IEDs in a sin-gle year, according to the world body.

Islamabad

Internews

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif gave a final nod to the long-awaited

promotions of senior bureau-crats yesterday. At least 346 officers have been promoted to grade 20 and 141 officers to grade 21.

Establishment Division Sec-retary Syed Tahir Shahbaz confirmed that the prime min-ister had approved the summary submitted to him for the promo-tion of bureaucrats in grade 19 to 20 and from grade 20 to 21. The last such promotions were made in May 2015.

On November 28, 2016, the Supreme Court had directed the federal government to convene the Central Selection Board (CSB) to consider the promotion of all eligible officers.

Subsequently, the CSB was convened in mid-December, which recommended the pro-motion of officers from grade 19 and 20 and onwards.

The promoted individuals from the Pakistan Administra-tive Service (PAS) formerly known as the District Manage-ment Group include 34 who were promoted to grade 20 and 31 promoted to grade 21.

From the Police Service of Pakistan (PSP), 21 officers have been promoted to grade 20 and 14 officers to grade 21. In the For-eign Service, 12 officers were promoted to grade 20 and six into grade 21. From the Secre-tariat Group, 17 officers were promoted to grade 20 and 11 in grade 21.

In the Federal Board of Rev-enue’s (FBR) Inland Revenue department, 53 officers made it to grade 20, while 13 were

promoted to grade 21. At least 20 officers from Customs group were promoted to grade 20 and six to grade 21.

From Audit and Accounts, 15 officers were promoted to grade 15 and 22 were promoted to grade 20.

In the Information group, eight officers were promoted to grade 20 and one officer made it to grade 21.

Six officers from the Inter-Services Intelligence have been promoted to the post of deputy director general (DIS) in grade 20 and one officer has made it to the post of director general (DIS) in grade 21. Officers of other cadres including Railways, Commerce and Trade, Econo-mist group, Pakistan Public Works Department, Board of Investment, doctors working in federal government hospitals, the Statistics Division, Military

Land and Cantonments and other professional cadres have also been promoted.

According to the Establish-ment Division, the Prime Minister has deferred the pro-motions of 90 officers of different cadres, including PAS, PSP, Audit and Accounts Serv-ice, Inland Revenue, Customs group and others.

The deferred promotions include: three PSP officers deferred for grade 21 and six for grade 20; seven PAS officers deferred for grade 21 and 6 for grade 20; six Secretariat group officers each for Grade 20 and 21; three Inland Revenue for grade 21 and six for grade 20, three Customs group officers for grade 21 and six for grade 20; four Audit and Accounts serv-ice officers for grade 21 and four for grade 20; and one Informa-tion Group officer for grade 21.

Islamabad

Internews

Pakistan is gearing up to host the Asian Science Camp next year, for the

first time in the country. In this regard, the Ministry of Science and Technology has sub-mitted a proposal to the prime minister worth Rs80m ($0.769m).

The proposal was submit-ted after a group of students wrote to Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, urging him to host the Asian Science Camp (ASC) for 2018-19 in the coun-try. Pakistan is one of the countries in Asia which so far has not hosted the mega event in last ten years.

The group of students, which include students who had represented Pakistan at the 2016 camp in India, had written to Nawaz in Septem-ber 18, 2016.

“The Asian science Camp held in India this year is being arranged every year in differ-ent countries in Asia.

Kabul

QNA

At least 42 civilians were rescued from the captiv-ity of the ISIS group in

eastern Nangarhar province.According to the local secu-

rity officials, the civilians were abducted from the vicinity of Pacher Agam district around four months ago.

The officials further added that the civilians were rescued due to the efforts of the

local government and security officials. Provincial security chief General Syed Aqa Gul Rohani condemned the act by the ISIS militants for taking ordinary civilians as hostages, Afghan News Agency (Khaama) reported.

He said the Afghan forces are fully capable to confront ISIS militants and vowed that Nan-garhar will be turned into their graveyard.

Nangarhar has been among the relatively calm provinces following the fall of the Taliban

regime but the anti-government armed militant groups includ-ing the militants of ISIS group have increased their insurgency activities in some of its remote parts during the recent years.

In the meantime, the Afghan forces are busy con-ducting counter-terrorism operations in this province with the support of the US forces who resumed their operations under a broader role granted by the Obama administration earlier last year.

Islamabad

Internews

The coming 13th summit of the 10-member Economic Cooperation Organisation

(ECO) will focus on strengthen-ing transport and cyber linkages between the member states.

The summit being held on Wednesday in Islamabad will be preceded by meetings of the council of foreign ministersto-morrow and senior officials yesterday and today. The sum-mit theme is ‘Connectivity for

Regional Prosperity’.This is the second time that

Pakistan is hosting an ECO sum-mit. It last hosted the third summit in May 1995.

All members have confirmed their participation at the head of state/government level except for Uzbekistan that will be rep-resented by its deputy prime minister and Afghanistan which is still thinking over the level of representation after the latest row with hosts Pakistan over ter-rorist sanctuaries.

Representatives of the

Organisation of Islamic Cooper-ation and the United Nations will attend as observers.

“High level participation of the member states will greatly enhance the vitality and sub-stance of the summit,” Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said at a media briefing on the summit.

The summit comes as redemption for Pakistan that was prevented from hosting South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation summit last year after India refused to participate

and most of its regional allies fol-lowed suit. The ECO summit, which is being held after a gap of five years, takes place as major realignments are under way in the region with China and Russia becoming increasingly assertive, which to a certain extent can contribute to the region’s integration.

The situation is, however, being complicated by uncertain future of Iran’s nuclear deal with the West and continued insta-bility in Afghanistan.

At the summit Pakistan will

in particular seek to promote the China-Pakistan Economic Cor-ridor (CPEC), which it sees as a game-changer for the entire region, and explore the prospects of connecting it with other sim-ilar trade, transport and energy corridors in the region.

“The CPEC is an outstanding example of the summit’s theme of connectivity. It will augment existing and planned transit and energy corridors in the ECO region for greater progress and prosperity for our peoples,” Aziz said.

Pakistan okays promotions for 487 officials

42 abducted Afghan civilians rescued Pakistan to host Asian Science Camp next year

Islamabad ECO summit to focus on transport & cyber linkages

14 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017ASIA

Henna for marriage

New Delhi

AFP

India's Union Information and Broadcasting Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu yesterday

asked US to condemn the kill-ing of Indian techie Srinivas Kuchibhotla and take astrong-est' action to prevent such attacks.

Meeting reporters after con-soling family members of Kuchibhotla here, he said India had taken up the issue with the US at the highest level and stressed the need to take steps to provide security and assur-ance to Indians living there.

Voicing concern over series of incidents of alleged racial discrimination, Naidu said it was the responsibility of the US government and the civil soci-ety to put an end to this.

Terming the Kansas shoot-ing in which Kuchibhotla was killed and his colleague Alok Madasani was injured, as shameful, he said this was blot on US which claims to be the oldest democracy.

"American President and people should come out openly and condemn such actions and then take strongest action and send a message that this is not acceptable," Naidu said.

Stating that seven incidents of this nature occured, the Min-ister said that they are sending wrong message which was not good for US, its people and the

world. Naidu said that when small incidents occur in India, it was blown out of proportion and the country which claims to be the oldest democracy tell the world that this is what hap-pening in India.

The Minister said the US should answer the questions raised by Srinivas' wife so elo-quently even in this hour of grief.

He said the incident had caused anguish to Indians and brought sorrow to Telugus.

He said External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj acted swiftly and directed the Indian embassy to make arrangements for bringing home the slain techie's body. Naidu, who was accompanied by Union Labour Minister Bandaru Dattatreya, said while the series of incidents caused concern among the Indian community in the US, there was no need for panic.

He said it was not proper to take decisions like dropping plans to travel to the US or returning to India.

"There is elected govern-ment and democratic system there. Elected public represent-atives there are voicing concern on such incidents," he added.

Kuchibhotla, 32, was killed and Alok Madasani was injured when Adam W. Purinton, a white man who earlier served in the US Navy, shot them at the Austins Bar & Grill in Olathe, Kansas state.

New Delhi IANS

Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi yesterday heaped praise on Indian scientists for launching 104 satel-

lites into space in one go and for carrying out test of Ballistic Interceptor Missile.

In the 29th edition of his radio programme 'Mann Ki Baat', Modi said: "India has created his-tory by becoming the first country to launch successfully 104 satellites into space in one go on February 15. It is a day of immense pride for India.

"Our scientists have brought laurels to the nation, witnessed by the whole world. Over the last few years, ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) has accomplished various unprece-dented missions with flying colours."

Modi also said the test of the Ballistic Interceptor Missile gave India a "cutting edge compe-tency" in the area of security.

"During its trial, this missile, based on interceptor technology, destroyed an enemy missile at an altitude of about 100 km above the earth and thus marked its success.

"This is a significant, cutting edge competency in the arena of security. And you will be happy to know that hardly four or five countries in the world possess this capability," he said.

On February 11, India success-fully test-fired a Prithvi Defence Vehicle (PDV) interceptor missile designed to intercept and destroy

hostile ballistic missiles in space even before they re-enter the Earth's atmosphere.

"India's scientists have dem-onstrated this prowess. Its core strength lies in the fact that if, even from a distance of 2,000 km, a missile is launched to

attack India, our missile can pre-emptively destroy it in the space itself," Modi added. In the test, an incoming missile was suc-cessfully intercepted at a height of 100 km with a direct hit by an interceptor missile. The PDV can reach even higher altitudes.

About the launch of 104 sat-ellites, the Prime Minister said the cost effective, efficient space programme of ISRO has become a marvel for the entire world.

"The world has whole-heart-edly admired the success of Indian scientists," he said.

New Delhi AFP

Sixteen people were killed and more than 50 injured when a truck carrying

churchgoers overturned in a hilly region of northeast India early yesterday, police said.

The truck was carrying peo-ple from three villages to a local church when it came to grief in the West Khasi Hills district of Meghalaya state.

"The survivors have told us that the truck driver was rash and lost control of the vehicle. After it overturned, many peo-ple fell into the deep gorge in this hilly region," district police Superintendent Sylvester Non-gtnger said by phone.

"We rescued everyone from the accident spot and rushed them to hospital but many of the

survivors have serious injuries."

Nongtnger said all the vic-tims were proceedings towards Nonglang village to attend the synod of Presbyterian Church. The injured, including the driver

and helper of the truck, have been rushed to nearby hospitals and to the Shillong Civil Hospi-tal, the police said. Quoting witnesses, the police officer said the accident occurred due to speeding. "

Kozhikode

IANS

Hafeesudheen T K, the youth from Padne vil-lage in Kasargod

district of Kerala, who left the country to join the Islamic State, was killed in a drone attack at an IS-stronghold in Afghanistan on Friday.

The information on Hafeesudheen's death reached the relatives in Padne yesterday through a Telegram app message from the account of Ashfaq Majeed, who is a member of the 21-member group that joined the terrorist outfit.

"Hafees was killed by a drone strike yesterday. We consider him to be a Shuhada (martyr) and Allah knows best" said the message received by B C Abdul Rehman, local leader of the IUML and a relative of the slain youth.

"I got the message at 8.30 in the morning, which said the burial of Hafees was over. When I asked about others, Ashfaq said they are all waiting for their turn to become martyrs," Rehman told TOI. A similar message was received by Hafeesud-heen's mother yesterday morning Hafees was one among the 21 persons from Kerala, who left to join the Islamic State.

Chennai

IANS

Nine persons, including several children, were drowned and several

others injured when a boat capsized in the sea off Man-apadu in Tamil Nadu's Tuticorin district yesterday, said officials.

"Nine persons lost their lives and 19 were rescued when a boat capsized off Manapadu coast. Three fam-ilies from Tiruchendur seems to have booked the boat," Dis-trict Collector M Ravi Kumar said over phone.

He said the injured have been admitted in the govern-ment hospital.

Chennai

IANS

The United Forum of Bank Unions (UFBU), an umbrella body of nine

unions in the sector, has called a one-day strike tomorrow to protest the government's "anti-people banking reforms" as well as to demand compen-sation for employees for extra work done on account of demonetisation.

United Forum of Bank Unions, comprising nine unions in the banking sector, bank employees and officers in all public sector banks, including SBI, all old-gener-ation private banks, foreign banks, Regional Rural Banks and Cooperative Banks will observe one-day strike on February 28," All India Bank Employees Association (AIBEA) General Secretary C.H. Venkatachalam said in a statement here.

Colombo

AFP

Sri Lankan police yesterday formally denied hunting nationals who sheltered

fugitive whistle-blower Edward Snowden in Hong Kong and said their claims to the contrary could have been made to bol-ster asylum applications. Police said they had no interest in the two Sri Lankan men, both asy-lum-seekers, who in 2013 had

helped the former US National Security Agency contractor evade authorities in Hong Kong.

Snowden's Sri Lankan former hosts, Supun Thilina Kel-lapatha and ex-soldier Ajith Pushpakumara, told reporters in Hong Kong on Thursday that they were "scared and nervous" about Sri Lankan police agents' activities allegedly targeting them in Hong Kong.

"We confirm these allega-tions are frivolous, unfounded

and baseless," Sri Lankan police said in a statement. It said only one Sri Lankan police officer had travelled to Hong Kong last year, between November and December for five days to attend Interpol training on cyber crime.

The statement did not name the attorneys for the two Sri Lankan asylum-seekers, but said it had come across instances of lawyers making false allegations against law enforcement to strengthen their clients' asylum.

Dhaka

Reuters

Bangladeshi Prime Minis-ter Sheikh Hasina inaugurated yesterday

the country's first solar-pow-ered food warehouse with a capacity of 25,000 tonnes of grain in the northern part of the country. The modernised, multi-storey warehouse was built with financial and techni-cal support from Japan.

Food silos are crucial for natural disaster-prone Bang-ladesh to keep stocks safe from water and other threats.

The world's fourth-biggest producer of rice, Bangladesh uses almost all of its production

to feed its population of 160 million, and often needs imports to cope with shortages caused by natural calamities such as floods or droughts.

Bangladesh imports around 4.5 million tonnes of wheat a year to meet growing demand, while the country's output has stagnated at about 1 million tonnes. The prime minister planted a tree seedling at the warehouse’s premises. She then toured the facility. Food Minis-ter Qamrul Islam, Land Minister Shamsur Rahman Sharif, Jahangir Kabir Nanak MP, Abdur Rahman, Abu Sayeed Al Mahmud Swapan, Sheikh Fazle Noor Tapas MP, Israfil Alam also accompanied Hasina.

Indian PM heaps praise on ISRO scientists

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addresses the nation in his 'Mann Ki Baat' speech.

17 dead in Meghalaya accident

A damaged truck after it rammed into a concrete road barricade at an accident site near Shillong, yesterday.

India asks US to take strong action after Kansas shooting

Sri Lanka's police deny hunting refugees in Hong Kong

Keralite IS militant dead in Afghanistan

Nine drowned in boat tragedy off Tamil Nadu

Bank unions in India to strike tomorrow

Bangladesh opens first solar food warehouse

'Mann Ki Baat'

Modi said: "India has created history by becoming the first country to launch successfully 104 satellites into space in one go on February 15. It is a day of immense pride for India.

Brides display their hands decorated with henna before taking their wedding vows during a mass marriage ceremony in which, according to its organisers, 131 Muslim couples took their wedding vows in Ahmedabad, yesterday.

15MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 EUROPE

Cannabis plants discovered in a disused underground nuclear bunker RGHQ Chilmark, in the village of Chilmark, in southern England. Three men were arrested and charged with drug and slavery related offences following the discovery of cannabis plants worth over £1m at a cannabis factory located in a disused nuclear bunker.

A growing threat

Macron's prospects leap in French poll

Paris

AFP

Support for France's 39-year-old centrist presidential candidate Emmanuel Macron has jumped, a poll showed

yesterday, following a new elec-tion alliance and mounting legal problems for his rivals.

The survey from the Odoxa-Dentsu Consulting group showed Macron winning 25 percent of the first-round vote if it were held today, slightly behind far-right leader Marine Le Pen on 27 percent.

In a run-off contest between the two top candidates, Macron would beat Le Pen easily 61

percent to 39 percent, the sur-vey of 920 voters suggested.

France heads to the polls for the two-stage election on April 23 and May 7, with campaigning marked by a series of surprises that have made forecasting extremely hazardous.

Another poll by the Kantar Sofres Onepoint group was set to be published later yesterday.

Macron appears to be bene-fiting from a number of factors over the last week, notably an alliance with fellow centrist and political veteran Francois Bay-rou who opted against running a rival campaign last week.

Macron, who started his own political movement last April, has also started giving more detail about his pro-business, pro-European platform ahead of the official launch of his programme on Thursday.

His rivals, Le Pen and right-wing Republicans party candidate Francois Fillon, have also become more deeply embroiled in legal problems.

Both are accused of misus-ing public money by using fake parliamentary aides, while Le Pen faces a separate investiga-tion into the funding of election campaigns in 2014 and 2015.

They deny wrongdoing and have sought to portray the inves-tigations as politically motivated, saying they should be delayed or abandoned altogether.

"Imagine that during the

presidential campaign you can't investigate?" Socialist Justice Minister Jean-Jacques Urvoas told the Journal du Dimanche newspaper yesterday, ruling out any suspension of the investigations.

"There is no law allowing a suspension like that. What would be the reason? In the name of what exception? In my opinion, nothing could justify it."

The independence and neu-trality of the justice system is under scrutiny ahead of the vote and amid high-profile probes

into Fillon and Le Pen.Urvoas said that in the past

judges had sometimes taken into account the electoral calendar when fixing trial dates, but that judicial investigations had never been put on ice.

A peaceful demonstration against Le Pen in the western city of Nantes on Saturday afternoon degenerated into violence when groups of youths threw rocks and firebombs at police, injuring seven officers.

Shop windows were also smashed and public property

was vandalised. Le Pen went ahead with a rally in the city yes-terday where she railed against globalisation, France's political elite, the European Union as well as the banks and the media, which she said were backing Macron.

She said France was being "submerged" by illegal migrants and refugees.

"French people can't put up with mass immigration any more!" she said to cheers.

The 48-year-old former lawyer, who took control of the

National Front party from her father in 2011, has faced dam-aging headlines in recent days.

Le Pen's personal assistant Catherine Griset was charged on Wednesday with breach of trust in a probe into allegations the party defrauded the European Parliament of about ¤340,000 ($360,000).

On Saturday, legal sources said that a confidant had been charged with making an illegal loan to her party.

"My responsibility is to do everything to show the French people that the National Front's proposals are dead-ends hidden by lies," Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve told the Journal du Dimanche.

Fillon meanwhile faces a fraught two months ahead of the vote after French prosecutors' decided on Friday to launch a full judicial inquiry into claims he paid his family for fake parlia-mentary jobs.

The 62-year-old ex-prime minister, who was once the clear favourite to be France's next leader, will be investigated by three magistrates over allega-tions of embezzling public funds and misappropriating corporate assets.

The devout Catholic won the conservative nomination by campaigning as a "clean" candi-date unsullied by the scandals of his rivals.

Czech citizen released on orders of Sudan president

Khartoum

AFP

A Czech Christian aid worker sentenced to 24 years in jail left

Sudan yesterday after Presi-dent Omar Hassan Al Bashir ordered his release, a foreign ministry official said.

Petr Jasek, 53, had been arrested in December 2015 and sentenced last month.

A member of a small Protestant Czech church called Cirkev Bratrska, Jasek had travelled to Sudan to help local Christians, according to Czech media reports.

Sudanese authorities said he had entered the country "illegally" from neighbouring South Sudan and gone to the conflict-riven state of South Kordofan.

In January, a court found him guilty of entering Sudan without a visa, spying, tak-ing pictures of military installations and inciting hatred, according to his lawyer.

But yesterday Bashir par-doned him and ordered his release, Sudanese Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour announced at a joint press conference with his visiting Czech counterpart Lubomir Zaoralek.

"Mr Jasek will accompany the Czech foreign minister to his homeland," Ghandour said. Jasek left Sudan later yesterday along with Zao-ralek, a Sudanese foreign ministry official told report-ers outside Khartoum airport.

Zaoralek had flown in to Khartoum earlier yesterday to press for Jasek's release.

"I am very glad that we are able today to conclude the case of Mr Jasek," Zao-ralek, speaking in English, said at the joint press conference.

He said Khartoum was convinced that Jasek "had no intention to undermine" Sudan.

France's farm show not just a photo-op for politiciansParis

AFP

With France's election just two months away, glad-handing at the

annual farm show is not just a photo-op for presidential hope-fuls, it's a must.

And this year the candidates had better come bearing con-crete plans, not just smiles, union leaders and exhibitors say.

"We're waiting for them," said Jeremy Decerle, the head of the Jeunes Agriculteurs (Young Farmers) union, complaining that the would-be heads of state have given the distressed farm-ing sector short shrift so far.

"They should be more

worried about farmers — and not just next week but 365 days a year," he said. Behind Decerle, a huge poster spelled out his union's demands in oversized type, stressing the need for peo-ple-oriented policies over those favouring agri-business.

The flagship expo, which opened Saturday and runs until March 5, brings the countryside to the city, showcasing the wealth of France's agricultural output from all its regions as well as its far-flung islands and former colonies.

This year there are nearly 1,000 exhibitors displaying some 22,000 products, including 2,600 heads of livestock requir-ing hundreds of tonnes of straw

and hay, organisers say. With spring just around the

corner, it is a happy family day out for more than half a million people every year.

But politicians stopping by for the annual ritual that has come to be known as "stroking the cow" need to watch their step. Conservative president Nicolas Sarkozy lived to rue the day at the 2008 expo when he lost his cool with a punter who refused to shake his hand, say-ing: "Get lost, dumbass!"

Video of the exchange went viral on the internet. Four years later, when Sarkozy ran for re-election, many of his detractors delighted in turning the phrase against him, and he was turfed

out of office. Last year his Social-ist successor Francois Hollande suffered ignominy at the fair in

his turn, when farmers furious over collapsing milk prices heck-led him.

Fraught campaign

In a run-off contest between the two top candidates, Macron would beat Le Pen easily 61 percent to 39 percent, the survey of 920 voters suggested.

The independence and neutrality of the justice system is under scrutiny ahead of the vote and amid high-profile probes into Fillon and Le Pen.

People stand next to a banner reading: "Fillon. The million. In prison" during an anti-corruption rally on the Place de la Republique in Paris, yesterday.

Brexit sows seeds of doubt for UK farmersLondon

AFP

Dependent on foreign workers and subsidies from Brussels, Britain's

small but important agricultural sector is losing sleep over the possible fallout from Brexit, but hopes a future outside the EU will open up new export opportunities.

Since Britain voted last June to exit the European Union, the country's finance, car and air-line sectors have been lobbying the loudest for continued access to the European single market.

The agricultural sector — which represents less than one percent of Britain's national out-put — has been less vocal, although the stakes are just as high.

Meurig Raymond, chairman of Britain's National Farming Union (NFU), has said Brexit presents "a huge opportunity for agriculture" but has warned of the need for continued access to an EU-wide workforce.

Being outside the single market could make it difficult for British farms to hire

workers from elsewhere in the EU for the often back-breaking seasonal picking and harvesting.

Around six percent of the 480,000 people working in the UK agricultural sector were born outside the country, according to the most recent official data from 2014. But Prime Minister Theresa May insists that Britain will leave Europe's single market or tar-iff-free zone in order to control EU immigration in a so-called "hard" Brexit that will force the country to seek a series of new trade deals globally.

Britain imports twice as many farm products from the EU as it exports. And of agricul-tural produce made in the UK, 72 percent is sent to the Euro-pean Union.

For Britain's farmers, Brexit would also mean an end to vital and decades-long European subsidies paid for by the EU's Common Agricultural Policy.

In 2015, CAP provided farm-ers with just over ¤3bn, or about 55 percent of their total revenue.

Without such aid, British

farmers may either have to sell their produce at a loss or con-sumers will be forced to pay more for local goods that make up for nearly two-thirds of the nation's food basket.

According to consultancy Agra Europe, nine British farms out of 10 could close without CAP subsidies, while Brexit risks also causing a collapse in the price of the country's agricul-tural land.

May's government has reas-sured the industry that it will continue to pay the subsidies until 2020 but what happens beyond is far from certain.

Despite such challenges, some see Brexit as an opportu-nity to reform British agriculture.

"Brexit provides a unique opportunity to reset farming policy," said Dieter Helm, an economist at the University of Oxford. "Under the CAP, policy has been expensive and often perverse in its impacts. Few can be impressed by the net result: high costs to consumers, ineffi-cient land use, subsidies for land ownership and serious environ-mental damage," he wrote.

French Environment Minister Segolene Royal (left) smiles next to a lamb at the Agriculture Fair in Paris, yesterday.

16 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017EUROPE

A street vendor selling souvenirs waits for customers during snowfall in Aziarco village in Belarus, yesterday.

Hard-sell

Protests in memory of slain Nemtsov

Moscow

AFP

Thousands of Russians marched through central Moscow yes-terday in memory of slain opposition

leader Boris Nemtsov, two years after he was shot dead near the Kremlin.

The assassination of the former deputy prime minister on February 27, 2015 was the highest-profile killing of a critic

of President Vladimir Putin since the ex-KGB officer took charge in 2000.

Five Chechen men from Russia's volatile North Cauca-sus are currently on trial for carrying out a contract hit, but those who ordered the killing have not been brought to justice.

"We came to pay tribute to the honesty and bravery of Boris Nemtsov," pensioner Galina Zolina said, clutching a bunch of red carnations.

"We want to show the authorities that we haven't forgotten."

Charismatic Nemtsov — who went from Kremlin insider under Boris Yeltsin to one of Putin's fiercest foes — was hit in the back by four fatal shots as he walked home across a bridge by the Kremlin with his girlfriend.

The march yesterday was permitted by the authorities but not allowed to include a make-shift memorial officials have repeatedly sought to dismantle at the spot Nemtsov was killed.

Some 15,000 demonstrators, organisers and AFP estimated, surrounded by a heavy police presence waved Russian flags and posters criticising the Kremlin

and Moscow's intervention in Ukraine, which Nemtsov had fiercely opposed right up to his death.

"The march can maybe get the attention of the authorities," said unemployed biologist Alexei Kuznetsov.

"It might be able to influence the investigation, show that the case resonates in society even if the authorities try to ignore it."

Last October five men — including a member of an elite interior ministry unit in Chech-nya — went on trial in a military court in Moscow for carrying out the contract killing for 15

million rubles (currently $250,000, ¤240,000).

But despite claims from offi-cials that the case has been solved Nemtsov's family and allies insist that the probe into his death has left the master-minds untouched.

They insist he was killed to stop his political activities and the murder trail leads to those close to Chechnya's Kremlin-loyal strongman Ramzan Kadyrov. "The investigation stopped at the level of those who carried out the murder but nothing has been done to find those who ordered it," Vadim Prokhorov, the lawyer

for Nemtsov's family, said.Nemtsov's slaying sent a chill

through Russia's marginalised opposition, which has already been sidelined under Putin's authoritarian rule.

The march — which was accompanied by events in other Russian cities — came as author-ities released prominent activist Ildar Dadin from jail in Siberia.

Dadin, who spent 15 months behind bars, was the only per-son to be convicted under a controversial law against public protests that has helped snuff out demonstrations against the Kremlin.

Moscow march

Thousands of demonstrators waved Russian flags and posters criticising the Kremlin and Moscow's intervention in Ukraine.

Nemtsov's family and allies insist that the probe into his death has left the masterminds untouched.

A woman holds a portrait of opposition leader Boris Nemtsov with a message which translates as "not to forget" during a memorial march in central Moscow, yesterday.

German cops probe motive of man in deadly rammingFrankfurt am Main AFP

Investigators are probing the motives of a 35-year-old Ger-man student who rammed his

car into a group of pedestrians, killing one person and injuring two others, officials said yester-day, ruling out terrorism.

The suspect is being formally held on suspicion of murder and attempted murder over Satur-day's incident in the picturesque southwestern city of Heidelberg, local police and prosecutors said in a statement.

The accused, who was shot and wounded by police after fleeing the scene on foot while wielding a knife, is in hospital recovering from surgery.

A 73-year-old German man died from his injuries hours after being hit by the car.

A 32-year-old Austrian and a 29-year-old Bosnian woman, both Heidelberg residents, were lightly hurt while a fourth per-son was able to jump out of the way, according to the statement.

The driver was questioned by investigators for the first time yesterday after waking up from surgery but did not comment on the accusations against him, the officials said. "His motive remains unknown," they said, adding that it had yet to be deter-mined if the suspect had acted with diminished criminal responsibility. Media reports have suggested the accused may suffer from psychiatric problems, but the authorities have so far not commented directly on those claims.

"At this point in the investi-gation there are no indications

of a terrorist or extremist back-ground to the case," the officials said.

A video taken by a bystander in the immediate aftermath of the car attack shows a number of armed police officers apparently confronting the suspect on the street, before a shot can be heard. According to the statement, a policeman fired his gun after the suspect ignored repeated calls to put down the knife and began charging at the officers who had unsuccessfully tried to stop him with pepper spray.

The suspect, who has not been named, did not have a police record prior to the inci-dent. According to the authorities, he comes from the Heidelberg area and hired the car used in the attack from a rental agency about two weeks ago.

Forensic officers investigate a car in front of a business building in Heidelberg, western Germany, where a man ploughed into pedestrians before beeing shot by the police, late on Saturday.

Nearly 10 anti-migrant attacks a day in Germany: DataBerlin

AFP

Germany saw more than 3,500 attacks against refugees and asylum

shelters last year, interior ministry data showed, amounting to nearly 10 acts of anti-migrant violence a day as the country grapples with a record influx of newcomers.

The assaults left 560 peo-ple injured, including 43 children, the ministry said in a written response to a par-liamentary question seen by AFP yesterday.

The government "strongly condemns" the violence, the letter said.

"People who have fled their home country and seek protection in Germany have the right to expect safe shel-ter," it read.

A total of 2,545 attacks against individual refugees were reported last year, the ministry wrote, citing police statistics.

There was no immediate comparison with previous years as it was only intro-duced as a separate category under politically motivated crimes in 2016.

Additionally, there were 988 instances of housing for refugees and asylum seekers being targeted last year, the ministry said, including arson attacks.

That was slightly down on 2015 when there were just over 1,000 criminal acts against refugee shelters. In 2014, there were only 199 such cases. The sharp rise in hate crimes came after Ger-many took in some 890,000 asylum seekers in 2015 at the height of Europe's refugee crisis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel's decision to open the doors to those fleeing conflict and per-secution polarised the country and fuelled support for the rightwing populist Alternative for Germany (AfD) party. The number of arrivals fell sharply in 2016 to 280,000, mainly thanks to border closures on the Balkan overland route and an EU deal with Turkey to stem the inflow.

A lawmaker for Germa-ny's far-left Die Linke party, Ulla Jelpke, blamed the anti-migrant violence on far-right extremists and urged the gov-ernment to take stronger action.

Macedonia Social Democrats name leader as PM candidateSkopje

AFP

Macedonia's Social Dem-ocrats have officially nominated their leader

Zoran Zaev as candidate for prime minister, after gathering enough support to form a new government.

The announcement came after the ethnic Albanian party, a parliamentary kingmaker, decided to back the Social Dem-ocrats (SDSM) in forming a government following weeks of horsetrading since an inconclu-sive early election in December.

However, a spokesman for the Democratic Union for Inte-gration (DUI) said that the main ethnic Albanian party had yet to decide whether it would join a ruling coalition, leaving the pos-sibility for a fragile minority cabinet.

"All options remain open ... It is not in our interest to take part in the government at any price," spokesman Bujar Osm-ani said.

After the DUI's decision, the SDSM said its top body unani-mously confirmed Zaev as candidate for forming a new government.

Zaev now has to be officially named prime minister-desig-nate by President Gjorge Ivanov.

"It is an honour, both mine and SDSM's, to get as soon as possible an opportunity to form a new democratic Macedonian government after 11 years of a regime," a party statement quoted Zaev as saying.

He was referring to former premier Nikola Gruevski, who stepped down a year ago after a decade in power to pave the way for new elections.

Macedonia's crisis erupted in February 2015 when a mass

wiretapping scandal incited huge street demonstrations for and against the government, forcing the European Union to step in.

In the December vote Gruevski's conservative VMRO-DPMNE party secured 51 seats in the 120-seat parliament — two more than the SDSM.

However, Gruevski has failed to reach a deal with eth-nic Albanian parties.

Ivanov subsequently told Zaev that he would be appointed prime minister-designate once he secured the support of 61 MPs.

Two smaller ethnic Albanian parties, with eight MPs between them, have said they will back the SDSM, and with the support of 10 DUI deputies the party would have a majority.

EU Enlargement Commis-sioner Johannes Hahn hailed the developments.

17MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 EUROPE

Bulgarian men prepare a pile of tyres and tree branches for a ritual bonfire near the village of Dobrinishte, southwestern Bulgaria, yesterday.

Fired up

British police work at the scene where a car being driven along a main road collided with a wall and pedestrians in south London yesterday. Five people were injured in the collision and the driver was arrested.

Driven to the wall

EU parliament gets right to erase racist talkBrussels

AP

With the spectre of populism looming over a critical elec-tion year in

Europe, the European Parliament has taken an unusual step to crack down on racism and hate speech in its own house.

In an unprecedented move, lawmakers have granted special powers to the president to pull the plug on live broadcasts of parliamentary debate in cases of racist speech or acts and the abil-ity to purge any offending video or audio material from the system.

Trouble is, the rules on what is considered offensive are none too clear. Some are concerned about manipulation. Others are crying censorship.

"This undermines the relia-bility of the Parliament's archives at a moment where the suspi-cion of 'fake news' and manipulation threatens the cred-ibility of the media and the politicians," said Tom Weingaer-tner, president of the Brussels-based International Press Association.

After Britain's decision to leave the European Union, the rising popularity of anti-immi-grant candidates like Geert Wilders in the Netherlands or far-right Marine Le Pen in France is worrying Europe's political mainstream. Le Pen, who is run-ning for the French presidency this spring, has promised to fol-

low Britain's lead.At the European Parliament,

where elections are due in 2019, many say the need for action against hate speech, and strong sanctions for offenders, is long overdue.

The assembly— with its two seats; one in the Belgian capital of Brussels, and the other in Strasbourg in northeast France — is often the stage for political and sometimes nationalist the-atre. Beyond routine shouting matches, members occasionally wear T-shirts splashed with slo-gans or unfurl banners. Flags adorn some lawmakers' desks.

Yet more and more in recent years, lawmakers have gone too far. "There have been a growing number of cases of politicians

saying things that are beyond the pale of normal parliamentary discussion and debate," said Brit-ish EU parliamentarian Richard Corbett, who chaperoned the new rule through the assembly. "What if this became not isolated incidents, but specific, where people could say: 'Hey, this is a fantastic platform. It's broad, it's live-streamed. It can be recorded and repeated. Let's use it for something more vociferous, more spectacular,'" he said.

In a nutshell, rule 165 of the parliament's rules of procedure allows the chair of debates to halt the live broadcast "in the case of defamatory, racist or xenopho-bic language or behaviour by a member." The maximum fine for offenders would be around ¤9,000 ($9,500).

Under the rule, not made public by the assembly but first reported by Spain's La Vanguar-dia newspaper, offending material could be "deleted from the audiovisual record of pro-ceedings," meaning citizens would never know it happened unless reporters were in the room. Weingaertner said the IPA was never consulted on that.

A technical note seen by the AP outlines a procedure for man-ually cutting off the video feed, stopping transmission on in-house TV monitors and breaking the satellite link to halt broad-cast to the outside world.

A videotape in four lan-guages would be kept running to serve as a legal record dur-ing the blackout. A more effective and permanent sys-

tem was being sought.It is also technically possi-

ble to introduce a safeguard time delay so broadcasts appear a few seconds later. This means they could be interrupted before offending material is aired.

But the system is unwieldy. Lawmakers have the right to speak in any of the European Union's 24 official languages. An offending act could well be over before the assembly's President Antonio Tajani even has a chance to hit the kill switch. Misunder-standings and even abuses could crop up.

During a debate in

December, Gerolf Annemans, from Belgium's Flemish inde-pendence party Vlaams Belang, expressed concern that the rule "can be abused by those who have hysterical reactions to things that they qualify as racist, xenophobic, when people are just expressing politically incor-rect views."

Even those involved in the move acknowledge that it's a sensitive issue.

Helmut Scholz, from Germa-ny's left-wing Die Linke party, said EU lawmakers are elected — indeed the EU parliament is the bloc's only popularly elected institution — and must be able

to express their views about how Europe should work.

"You can't limit or deny this right," he said. He worries about fake news too, but of the kind made from selective extracts of debates. "If you are following the whole debate that is one thing, but if you have certain media who are taking out individual sentences you could falsify the whole issue," he said.

Still, Nazi rallying cries and racist obscenities are relatively rare but not unheard of. "We need an instrument against that, to take it out of the record, to stop distribution of such slogans, such ideas," Scholz said.

Special powers

Lawmakers have granted special powers to the president to pull the plug on live broadcasts of parliamentary debate in cases of racist speech or acts and the ability to purge any offending video or audio material.

The assembly is often the stage for political and sometimes nationalist theatre.

A file picture of the European Parliament in session.

IS planning attacks in Britain: OfficialLondon

Reuters

Islamic State militants are planning “indiscriminate attacks on innocent civil-

ians” in Britain on a scale similar to those staged by the Irish Republican Army 40 years ago, the head of the country’s new terrorism watchdog said.

In an interview with the Sunday Telegraph published yesterday, Max Hill, the lawyer tasked with overseeing British laws on terrorism, said the mil-itants were targeting cities and posed “an enormous ongoing risk which none of us can ignore”.

“In terms of the threat that’s represented, I think the inten-sity and the potential frequency of serious plot planning –with a view to indiscriminate attacks on innocent civilians

of whatever race or colour in metropolitan areas – represents an enormous ongoing risk that none of us can ignore,” he said.

“So I think that there is undoubtedly significant ongo-ing risk which is at least as great as the threat to London in the 70s when the IRA were active on the mainland.”

The IRA abandoned its armed struggle for an end to British control of Northern Ire-land and unification with Ireland in a 1998 peace deal. More than 3,600 people were killed, including more than 1,000 members of the British security forces, during a sectar-ian conflict that began in the late 1960s.

British security officials have repeatedly said that Islamic State militants, who are losing ground in Iraq and Syria, will target Britain. Swedes foxed by 'security adviser' on US TV

New York AP

A trans-Atlantic wave of puzzlement is rippling across Sweden for the

second time in a week, after a prominent Fox News pro-gramme featured a "Swedish defence and national security adviser" who's unknown to the country's military and foreign affairs officials.

Swedes, and some Ameri-cans, have been wondering about representations of the Nordic nation in the US since President Donald Trump invoked "what's happening last night in Sweden" while alluding to past terror attacks in Europe during a rally February 18. There hadn't been any major incident in Sweden the previous night.

Then, Fox News commenta-tor Bill O'Reilly convened an on-air faceoff Thursday over Swedish immigration and crime between a Swedish newspaper reporter and a man identified on

screen and verbally as a "Swed-ish defence and national security adviser," Nils Bildt.

Bildt linked immigration to social problems in Sweden, lamented what he described as Swedish liberal close-minded-ness about the downsides of welcoming newcomers and said: "We are unable in Sweden to socially integrate these people," arguing that politicians lacked a systematic plan to do so.

But if viewers might have taken the "adviser" for a govern-ment insider, the Swedish Defense Ministry and Foreign Office told the newspaper Dagens Nyheter they knew nothing of him. Calls to Swedish officials weren't immediately returned.

Bildt is a founding member of a corporate geopolitical strat-egy and security consulting business with offices in Wash-ington, Brussels and Tokyo, according to its website. His bio speaks of expertise on defence and national security issues,

saying his experience includes serving as a naval officer, work-ing for a Japanese official and writing books on issues ranging from investment and political climates to security issues in w o r k i n g i n h o s t i l e environments.

But security experts in Swe-den said he wasn't a familiar figure in their ranks in that country.

"He is not in any way a known quantity in Sweden and has never been part of the Swed-ish debate," Swedish Defence University leadership professor Robert Egnell said by email to The Associated Press on Satur-day. He and Bildt — also known then as Nils Tolling — were in a master's degree programme in war studies together at King's College London in 2002-2003, and Bildt moved to Japan soon after, he said.

The executive producer of "The O'Reilly Factor" said Bildt was recommended by people the show's booker consulted while

making numerous inquiries about potential guests.

"After pre-interviewing him and reviewing his bio, we agreed that he would make a good guest for the topic that evening," exec-utive producer David Tabacoff said in a statement.

The network said O'Reilly was expected to address the sub-ject further on today's show.

Bildt didn't respond Satur-day to email inquiries; a person who answered the phone at his company agreed to relay one. He told Dagens Nyheter on Friday that he was a US-based inde-pendent analyst, and Fox News had chosen its description of him.

"Sorry for any confusion caused, but needless to say I think that is not really the issue. The issue is Swedish refusal to discuss their social problems and issues," he added in a statement to the news website Mediaite, explaining his profession as being an independent political adviser.

Far-right leader arrested after Zagreb marchZagreb

AFP

Police arrested a Croatian far-right party leader yesterday after dozens

of supporters marched through the capital Zagreb chanting pro-Nazi slogans.

Supporters of the far-right A-HSP party, which has no presence in parliament, marched through downtown Zagreb before gathering at the main Ban Jelacic square.

There they chanted 'Za dom spremni' ('For the Homeland ready'), the slogan used by Croatia's World War II pro-Nazi regime.

The Ustasha regime per-secuted and killed hundreds of thousands.

18 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017AMERICAS

Asylum-seekers

Because of the hostile US political climate towards immigrants in general, and refugees in particular, following the election of President Donald Trump, it appears many are choosing to cross into Canada to demand asylum.

The US president has indicated he would shortly issue a new decree to replace his controversial immigration order — which is currently blocked by a federal court.

Protesters listen as Lindsey Brooks (centre) speaks during a rally held to support women's rights and to protest US President Donald Trump, in Seattle, yesterday.

Anti-Trump protest

Rio de Janeiro AFP

Millions of people in cos-tumes partied in street carnivals across Brazil

yesterday ahead of the elite samba school dance off in Rio de Janeiro.

Carnival officially started on Friday with the first parades of thousands of sequin-and-feather-covered samba school performers in cities across Latin America’s biggest country.

More informal street dances called “blocos” took up the beat through the weekend, drawing vast crowds. Despite the nature of the parties, there were few reports of trouble. However, a man in the northeastern city of Salvador died after being shot by a policeman in the middle of the carnival crowd, G1 news site reported. The officer said it was

in self-defence. Street party cos-tumes this year included nods to Brazil’s ongoing corruption crisis.

Some dressed as jailed pol-iticians and executives, others as law enforcement officials. A popular new character is the so-called “hipster federal cop,” a policeman whose muscular build and trendy hair-do made him a heartthrob when he was photographed guarding a cor-rupt politician.

For many Brazilians, how-ever, “blocos” are above all an opportunity to shed inhibitions, many men dressing in drag. A few spots of rain yesterday in Rio and the threat of thunder-storms later were not expected to dampen the mood when the country’s most prestigious samba schools start parading in Rio’s Sambodromo stadium.

The Sambodromo parades,

which combine wildly imagina-tive costumes, choreographed dancing by several thousand people, and heart-pounding singing and drumming, were to run all through the night, then start again today for a second night. Here the wild fun will get serious as the top ranking samba schools compete for the coveted prize of champion, which will be announced on Wednesday at the start of Lent.

Fans from each school pack the 70,000 capacity Sambod-romo, cheering and dancing along to their school’s anthem.

Judges up in boxes at the midpoint of the parade mark on strict criteria including cos-tumes, floats, lyrics, and singing. Rio is Brazil’s carnival capital. Tourism officials told Globo newspaper that as many as 1.5 million tourists have descended on the city.

Montreal

AFP

Most of the hundreds of people stream-ing over the US border into Can-ada in recent

weeks are asylum-seekers, com-ing from Syria, Yemen, Turkey or Sudan, according to the United Nations’ refugee point man in the country.

In an interview, Jean-Nico-las Beuze, the representative in Canada of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refu-gees, said it was too soon to know whether the cross-border flow of people is an uptick or sig-nals a longer trend.

The UNHCR led a mission to the border at Lacolle, about 70km south of Montreal, and the surrounding area, where entire families have been trekking with suitcases and strollers along Roxham Road that connects to the United States. The UN mis-sion was coordinated with the border police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police.

For weeks, people have been braving bone-chilling cold to walk across the US border, trudging through snow-covered prairies in the dead of night to make a claim in Canada.

“These people are more ref-ugees than migrants,” he said. For the United Nations the term “migrant” designates someone who has freely chosen to leave their country of origin — unlike refugees who are driven from their homes.

“They are not necessarily coming to Canada to have a bet-ter life but simply because they risk persecution in their coun-try of origin.” Illegal crossings have always existed, Beuze noted, and it remains unclear “if

Washington

AP

The federal prison popula-tion is on the decline, but a new attorney general

who talks tough on drugs and crime and already has indicated a looming need for private prison cells seems poised to usher in a reversal of that trend.

Jeff Sessions, a former fed-eral prosecutor sworn in this month as the country’s chief law enforcement officer, sig-naled at his confirmation hearing that he sees a central role for the federal government in combat-ing drug addiction and violence as well as in strict enforcement of immigration laws.

The result could be in an increase not only in the number of drug prosecutions brought by the Justice Department but also in the average length of sentence prosecutors pursue for even lower-level criminals.

If that happens, the resources of a prison system that for years has struggled with overcrowd-ing, but experienced a population drop as Justice Department lead-ers pushed a different approach to drug prosecutions, could be taxed again.

“Given the rhetoric coming out of the White House and the selection of Sessions as attor-ney general, an increase in the federal prison population and a chilling effect on state reforms is a very real possibility,” said Inimai Chettiar, justice program director at the Brennan Center for Justice.

The approach by Session, a former Alabama senator, to drug crimes will matter in

courtrooms across the country and also to the Justice Depart-ment’s bottom line.

More than half of federal prisoners are in custody for drug crimes, and the Bureau of Prisons budget accounts for about one-third of the depart-ment’s overall $29bn spending plan. The population ballooned during the 1980s-era war on drugs as Congress abolished parole and as federal prosecu-tors relied on mandatory minimum sentences — rigid pun-ishments strictly tied to drug quantity — to seek decades-long prison terms for drug criminals.

But in recent years, fiscal-minded Republicans, and Democrats pushing criminal justice efforts, have raised con-cerns about bloated prison costs and tried to develop ways to cut the population. The Justice Department’s inspector general has said mounting prison expenses detract from other pro-grams and initiatives, and a 2014 Government Accounting Office report said overcrowding at bureau facilities had caused additional double- and triple-bunking, higher inmate-to-guard ratios and long waiting lists for educational programs.

The federal prison popula-tion now stands at just under 190,000, down from a peak of nearly 220,000 in the summer of 2013. Justice Department officials in the Obama admin-istration say their efforts to shrink the prison population were driven not only by cost concerns but also by a desire to correct what they said were excessive punishments doled out by judges.

Refugees make up bulk of crossings to Canada

this phenomenon is growing significantly.”

However, because of the hostile US political climate towards immigrants in general, and refugees in particular, fol-lowing the election of President Donald Trump, it appears many are choosing to cross into Can-ada to demand asylum.

“People are afraid they will find themselves in the end in a situation where they wouldn’t have access to a fair system,” Beuze said. An agreement between the two countries pre-vents asylum seekers from lodging claims in Canada if they first landed in the United States, but it only applies to people arriving at border checkpoints, airports and train stations.

If there is no record of a family crossing the border, they can apply for refugee status, which explains why so many

people are making the journey on foot, and off the official radar.

The US president has indi-cated he would shortly issue a new decree to replace his con-troversial immigration order — which is currently blocked by a federal court.

The original decree barred people from seven Muslim-majority countries from traveling to the United States for 90 days, as well as all refugees for 120 days. Refugees from Syria were banned indefinitely.

According to the UN refugee official, the people encountered on the US-Canada border in recent days “are middle-to-upper class, well-educated, knowing what they were doing after hav-ing well-prepared their trip.”

“Most of them were in tran-sit in the United States, coming from their country of origin with, for various reasons, a valid visa for the United States,” Beuze said.

Whether from Sudan, Syria, Turkey or Yemen, most are fam-ilies and “above all people who had a good reason to leave their country with strong prospects of being recognized as refugees,” he said.

Among the would-be refu-gees are men between 18 and 35 years old who are at risk of being called up to fight in their country of origin and “don’t want to be enlisted by the reg-ular army or by an armed opposition.”

Thanks to information avail-able online, almost all had “figured out themselves” how to seek asylum and did not nec-essarily need the help of a smuggler, he said. Beuze sug-gested that the cost of clandestinely entering Canada could climb as high as Can$5,000 (US$3,800).

Brazil parties ahead of elite samba carnival dance-off

Washington

Reuters

US President Donald Trump’s first budget pro-posal will spare big social

welfare programs such as Social Security and Medicare from any cuts, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said in an interview broadcast yesterday.

Mnuchin said Trump would use a major policy speech to a joint session of Congress tomor-row night to preview some elements of his sweeping plans to cut taxes for the middle class, simplify the tax system and make American companies more globally competitive with

lower rates and changes to encourage US manufacturing.

Speaking on Fox News Chan-nel’s “Sunday Morning Futures” program, Mnuchin, who has acknowledged that tax reform is his top policy priority, said the budget plan would not seek cuts to federal benefits programs known as “entitlements.”

“We are not touching those now. So don’t expect to see that as part of this budget, OK,” Mnuchin said of the programs, according to a transcript provided by Fox. “We are very focused on other aspects and that’s what’s very important to us. And that’s the president’s priority.”

Mnuchin said Trump “will be

touching on tax reform” as part of his speech, which is not an offi-cial “State of the Union” address.

The plan will reduce the number of tax brackets for indi-viduals and offer a “middle income tax cut,” Mnuchin said. On the business side, Trump wants to “create a level playing field for U.S. companies to be able to compete in the world.”

Mnuchin said Trump was looking at a “reciprocal tax” that would help create more parity with other countries. Trump administration officials have complained that many countries charge value-added taxes on imports while exempting exports from taxation. The United States

mainly taxes corporate income.But Mnuchin again said he

was only studying a House Republican border tax adjust-ment plan that would levy a 20 percent tax on imports to encourage more U.S.-based pro-duction and exports. That plan aims to raise more than $1 tril-lion in revenue over a decade to offset lower tax rates for businesses.

“So let me just say this is something we are studying very carefully,” Mnuchin said. “There are certain aspects that the pres-ident likes about the concept of a border-adjusted tax, there are certain aspects that he’s very concerned about.”

A MASERATI is missing after police say a man conned a salesman during a test drive. Boca Raton police say 45-year-old Michael McGil-vary II went to a dealership to test drive a $150,000 Maserati GranTurismo.

He and a salesman drove to a marina so McGilvary could supposedly show his girlfriend the car. They walked down the dock, then McGilvary told the salesman he would get his girlfriend. When he didn’t return after 30 minutes, the salesman searched for McGilvary. The valet told him McGilvary had driven off.

McGilvary was arrested on Wednesday on auto theft charges, one day later, but the car wasn’t found.

Sessions’ tough crime talk may lead to fuller prisons

Trump budget plan won't cut Social Security & Medicare

Man cons salesman out of $150,000 Maserati GranTurismo

Revellers of the Mancha Verde samba school perform during the first night of carnival parade at the Sambadrome in Sao Paulo, Brazil, yesterday.

19MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017 AMERICAS

Leading the fight

Perez, a labour secretary under former president Barack Obama and the party’s first Hispanic-American leader, named the contest’s runner-up, leftist lawmaker Keith Ellison, as the party’s deputy chairman.

A third candidate, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg dropped out of the race before the vote, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia.

Washington

AFP

Donald Trump has ratch-eted up his feud with the US media by announcing

he will skip the annual White House correspondents’ dinner, the first US president to do so in 36 years.

By boycotting the event Trump breaks a tradition that began in 1921 in which journal-ists invite the US president for a light-hearted roast. “I will not be attending the White House Cor-respondents’ Association Dinner this year. Please wish everyone well and have a great evening!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The last time a president missed the event was in 1981, when Ronald Reagan was recov-ering after being shot in an assassination attempt. Reagan however phoned in with friendly

remarks. Richard Nixon, who despised the media, skipped the event in 1972. Trump frequently blasted the mainstream US press during the election campaign, and as president has intensified his media-bashing.

He ripped the New York Times yesterday for a television ad that the newspaper will air during the Oscars ceremony stating “The truth is more important now than ever”. “For first time the failing @nytimes will take an ad (a bad one) to help save its failing reputation. Try reporting accurately & fairly!” Trump tweeted.

Over the years the dinner organised by the White House Correspondents’ Association has evolved — or devolved, depend-ing on one’s point of view — into the self-described “Nerd Prom” packed with Hollywood celeb-rities. The WHCA said it will proceed with this year’s dinner,

set for April 29.The event “has been and will

continue to be a celebration of the First Amendment (on free-dom of the press) and the important role played by an independent news media in a healthy republic,” WHCA presi-dent Jeff Mason tweeted.

Some news groups have already pulled out of events related to the dinner. Conde Nast, publisher of The New Yorker, Vanity Fair have all cancelled their exclusive before- and after-parties, and Bloomberg is reportedly pulling out as a party co-sponsor.

The New York Times has skipped the dinner itself for years to avoid charges that its reporters are too close to the White House. The dinner normally features a big-name comedian to rib the president, but this year a funny person has yet to be booked.

Comedian Samantha Bee earlier announced a “Not the White House Correspondents’ Dinner” on the same night at a nearby hotel to raise money for the Committee to Protect Jour-nalists. Trump’s cancelation comes after the White House denied access on Friday to an off-camera briefing to several major US media outlets, including CNN and The New York Times.

Smaller outlets that have provided favorable coverage however were allowed to attend the briefing by spokesman Sean Spicer. The WHCA said it was “protesting strongly” against the decision to selectively deny media access.

The New York Times said the decision was “an unmistakable insult to democratic ideals,” CNN called it “an unacceptable devel-opment,” and The Los Angeles Times warned the incident had

“ratcheted up the White House’s war on the free press” to a new level. It is not uncommon for Republican and Democratic administrations to brief a lim-ited number of reporters on specific themes. However the Friday event was billed as a reg-ular briefing open to credentialed media before it became a closed event in Spicer’s office for a cho-sen group.

Several outlets that regularly cover the White House, includ-ing newswires Reuters and Bloomberg, attended. They are part of the “pool,” a small group of reporters who have access to certain events and share the con-tents with other media.

The Associated Press boy-cotted the event in protest at the exclusions, which included The Los Angeles Times and Politico. AFP was not included despite being part of the press pool. Its

journalist protested, and attended the briefing uninvited. Spicer gave no explanation for the media selection.

As protests erupted a Decem-ber interview re-emerged in which Spicer told Politico that the Trump White House would never ban a news outlet.

“Conservative, liberal or otherwise, I think that’s what makes a democracy a democ-racy versus a dictatorship,” he said. Ari Fleischer, a former George W Bush spokesman, said the White House’s stance was “unwise and counterpro-ductive,” but added that it should be kept in perspective. “Press secretaries need to meet with the whole press,” Fleischer told CNN. “But beyond that, there is nothing unusual about presi-dents meeting with selected reporters, and White House staffs do it all the time too.”

Washington

AFP

Opposition Democrats yesterday chose Tom Perez as their new leader, tapping an establishment

figure to lead the fight against President Donald Trump and the Republican Congress.

Perez, a labour secretary under former president Barack Obama and the party’s first His-panic-American leader, immediately named the contest’s runner-up, leftist lawmaker Keith Ellison, as the party’s dep-uty chairman.

“Someday, they’re going to study this era in American his-tory... and ask the question, of all of us, where were you in 2017 when we had the worst president in the history of the United States?” said Perez, 55. “And we will all be able to say, the united Democratic party led the resist-ance, ensured this president was a one-term president and elected Democrats across this country.”

Ellison, an 53-year-old Afri-can American who is the first Muslim elected to the US Con-gress, warned that “we don’t have the luxury to walk out of this room divided.”

The fight over who would chair the Democratic National Committee (DNC) appeared at times to be a proxy battle between the supporters of

Washington

Reuters

A 25-year-old man accused of plowing a pick-up truck into a crowd of spec-tators at a Mardi Gras parade in New

Orleans was arrested and charged with injuring 28 people in a crash that brought chaos to the city’s signature celebration, authorities said yesterday.

New Orleans police booked Neilson Riz-zuto after taking him into custody in “a highly intoxicated state” immediately after the acci-dent on Saturday evening, the department said. Rizzuto was charged with two charges of vehicular negligence injuring in the first degree, hit and run driving and the reckless operation of a motor vehicle, according to a statement. No further information about Riz-zuto was immediately available.

The truck driven by Rizzuto was travel-ling along the side of the street open to traffic along the parade route in the Mid-City neighbourhood of New Orleans when it struck three other vehicles, including a dump truck. It then veered onto the median where a crowd of people stood watching the pro-cession, police said. Five people were being

treated at hospital trauma centers and an investigation is ongoing, police said.

Police immediately apprehended the driver, who according to eyewitnesses inter-viewed by Fox television affiliate WVEU-TV appeared disheveled, glassy-eyed and under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

In a statement, Mayor Mitch Landrieu referred to the suspect as a “drunk driver”. Video footage from the scene showed pan-demonium immediately following the incident, but the Krewe of Endymion parade, the largest and most popular of numerous Mardi Gras season parades in New Orleans, continued with little or no interruption.

Of the 28 people injured, 21 were taken to local hospitals, including one police officer. Seven others who were hurt declined transport, Police Chief Michael Harrison said. Local media reports said 12 people were ini-tially listed as critically injured.

The Endymion parade incident was not the only one to mar Mardi Gras festivities in New Orleans on Saturday. Earlier in the day, someone’s gun went off accidentally in a portable toilet along the route of another, smaller parade, leaving one person wounded, police said.

Trump to skip correspondents’ dinner as media row heats up

Tom Perez electedto lead Democrats

defeated 2016 Democratic pres-idential candidate Hillary Clinton and her leftist primary rival Bernie Sanders.

Perez, who won 235 votes against 200 for Ellison - a strong Sanders supporter - was seen as the establishment pick. A third candidate, South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg —a 35-year-old Rhodes Scholar and military veteran — dropped out of the race before the vote, which was held in Atlanta, Georgia.

Unlike in other democracies the leaders of the two main US parties wield little influence on

policy, with leading party law-makers holding far more clout. But this backstage role is taking on greater significance following Clinton’s surprise 2016 defeat, and as Democrats prepare for next year’s midterm elections and the 2020 presidential vote.

Perez succeeds interim chair Donna Brazile, who took over after Representative Debbie Wasserman Schultz was ousted in mid-2016 when leaked emails showed that some DNC mem-bers, who are pledged to be neutral in presidential primaries, favored Clinton over Sanders. The progressive group Democ-racy for America was upset with the “incredibly disappointing” vote result.

Choosing Perez “is another missed opportunity for a Dem-ocratic Party desperately trying to regain relevance, and proves... how out of touch party insiders are with the grassroots move-ment currently in the streets,” said the group’s chair Jim Dean, an Ellison supporter.

But Obama, who has largely been silent since leaving office in January, called for mending rifts. After the vote Trump offered what appeared to be tongue-in-cheek congratulations on Twitter. “Congratulations to Thomas Perez, who has been named Chairman of the DNC. I could not be happier for him, or for the Republican Party!” he wrote. Perez’s response: “Call me

Tom. And don’t get too happy. @keithellison and I, and Demo-crats united across the country, will be your worst nightmare.”

According to Republican National Committee chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, by choosing Perez Democrats “only create deeper divisions within their own party by pushing a far left agenda that rejects a majority of their base outside Washington.” During a televised DNC debate on Wednes-day, Perez said Democrats need

to “get back to basics” by making house calls in all 50 states and reminding workers that the party represents their values and interests.

“When we lead with our mes-sage, our message of economic opportunity, that’s how we win,” he said. Perez also warned that Democrats must reform their par-ty’s presidential primary system, which he said has created “a cri-sis of confidence” because of its lack of transparency.

Tom Perez addresses the audience after being elected Democratic National Chair during the Democratic National Committee winter meeting in Atlanta, Georgia.

Man charged in crash at New Orleans Mardi Gras parade

A vehicle is seen crashed along the Endymion parade route at Orleans and Carrollton during Mardi Gras in New Orleans.

Santiago

AFP

Rainstorms and land-slides in Chile killed four and contaminated

a major river, forcing author-ities to cut off drinking water to four million people in the capital, authorities said.

The torrential rain that started on Saturday prompted mudslides and rubble to surge into the Maipo river which supplies most homes in the capital. “We are talking about 1.45 million homes that are going to be affected by the cutting off of the water sup-ply, which will be total or partial in 30 districts” of San-tiago, the region’s governor Claudio Orrego said.

He said the cut would therefore affect more than 60 percent of the city’s 6.5 million-strong population — about 3.9 million people. The move prompted many people to go out with buckets and pans to collect water at emergency water taps made available by the authorities.

Others rushed to super-markets to bag bottles of water from the shelves. “We still do not know when the drinking water will be turned back on,” Orrego said. “We cannot guarantee resumption of the service until the River Maipo clears up.”

Authorities ordered res-taurants and businesses without drinking water to stay closed. They also post-poned the start of lessons for the new school term today. The interior ministry said four people were known to have died and six were missing due to the rain.

Four million without water in Chile floods

‘Apollo 13’ star Bill Paxton dies HOLLYWOOD actor Bill Pax-ton, best known for his roles in such blockbusters as “Apollo 13” and “Titanic,” has died at the age of 61, a family repre-sentative said yesterday.

The versatile Texas-born actor was a familiar face on US movie screens, with a string of memorable credits to his name from a career spanning several decades.

“It is with heavy hearts we share the news that Bill Paxton has passed away due to complications from sur-gery,” said a statement from a family representative.

One of Paxton’s earliest character roles was as a thug in the 1984 “The Terminator,” and he left a mark as the ill-fated Private Hudson in the 1986 sci-fi thriller “Aliens”.

20 MONDAY 27 FEBRUARY 2017MORNING BREAK

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

H H Sheikha Jawaher bint Hamad bin Suhaim Al Thani, wife of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, on Saturday visited the Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition 2017, being held at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center. Sheikha Jawaher viewed the latest international designs of jewellery, watches, natural pearls and gems. Sheikha Jawaher also visited the pavilion of Qatari female designers participating in the exhibition under the 'Qatari Emerging Talents' initiative and praised the designs and expressed keenness over Qatari designers' work and creativity.

Sheikha Jawaher visits Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition

FAJRSHOROOK

04.43 am

05.59 am

ZUHRASR

11.47 am

03.06 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.36 pm

07.06pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

GCC nursing meet focuses on role of technologyThe Peninsula

Focusing on technology breakthrough in nursing care, a two day GCC

Nursing Conference 2017 opened here yesterday. The second edition of the confer-ence under the theme Evolution of Technology and its Impact on Humane Nurs-ing Care, will host a number of talks outlining the role technology will play in the future of the field.

The conference will cover a number of topics such as the advances in best practices and address the every day chal-lenges of using nursing technology to improve patient outcomes. Also, impact of technology on nursing care

methods will be discussed.“There is a unified strat-

egy for investing in nursing and encouraging GCC citizens to join the field. Some 80% of the sectors' workers are involved in nursing,” said H E Dr Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health.

“The conference is a plat-form for exchanging ideas in the field between Qatar and other GCC members in terms of undertaking strategies for developing the field and sup-plying it with the technology it needs to improve its serv-ices.The conference will discuss many of the technical details of the profession, as well as the impact of technol-ogy on nursing care,” she said.

Meanwhile, Director of Public Health, Sheikh Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, Member of the Execu-tive Board of GCC Health Ministers Council, stressed that the theme of the confer-ence was chosen to keep up with the technological advancements seen around the world and the different ways to apply it. “Technology has become a vital factor in all fields around the world including the health sector, improving the health care service and the structure of the health system. Qatar's health sector holds many technology advantages which contributed to its success through depending on bio-medical engineer ing

techniques, healthcare per-formance methods and health information systems, such as electronic medical records.”

“The nursing personnel in the GCC are able to meet the requirements of using mod-ern technology by easing the communication and building a professional relationship with the patient and remotely providing healthcare using smartphones,” he said.

He stressed that Qatar encourages modern technol-ogy in the health sector through the e-Health project in Hamad Medical Corpora-tion (HMC) and Primary Health Care Corporation by introducing robotic radio sur-gery system at the National Center for Cancer Care and

Research in HMC and the usage of information and communications technology at Qatar Assistive Technology Center (Mada) to empower the abilities of the handicapped and provide modern technol-ogies for assistance.

He pointed out the signif-icant effects of modern technologies in nursing care such as genetics and genom-ics, diagnostics and treatment, printing three-dimensional tissue and organs, robotic sur-gery and other treatment services. In addition to using technology to measure vital signs, electronic, medical, nursing and administrative information of the patient and Computer Physician Order Entry (CPOE).

Stargazers applaud as moon covers sunSarmiento

AFP

Stargazers applauded as they were plunged into darkness yesterday when the moon

passed in front of the sun in a spec-tacular "ring of fire" eclipse.

Astronomers and enthusiasts in Argentina were among the first to see the so-called annular eclipse as it crossed South America shortly after 1200 GMT, on course for Africa.

Staring up through special tele-scopes, protective glasses or homemade cardboard pinhole devices, they watched the Sun all but disappear briefly as the Moon crossed its path.

The eclipse was to be most visi-ble in a 100-kilometer band across Chile, Argentina, Angola, Zambia and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

More than 100 stargazers gath-ered yesterday morning in the southern city of Sarmiento, the point in Argentina where the eclipse was expected to be most visible.

"I have already seen six annular eclipses and each one was different," said Josep Masalles Roman, an enthusiast who came all the way from Barcelona in Spain.

"This one is going to be very fine and it is possible that we will be able to clearly see Baily's Beads," a string of points of light produced as the sun's beams break through peaks on the moon's surface.

The spectacle will reach Angola south of the town of Benguela around 1515 GMT, then move to Zambia and DR Congo just before the Sun sets and the light show ends.

An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Earth, Moon and Sun line up. But even when perfectly aligned, the Moon is too far from Earth to completely block out the Sun, cre-ating instead the impression of a fiery ring.

Terry Moseley of the Irish Astro-nomical Association warned that viewers should not observe the eclipse with the naked eye.

According to the Astronomical

Society of Southern Africa (ASSA), the eclipse can be safely observed using a basic pinhole projector.

Punch a tiny hole in a piece of paper with a sharp pencil, hold it into the Sun, and project the image onto a second sheet.

The gaps between tree leaves make for a similar effect on the ground, says the ASSA website, calling this "the coolest and safest way to watch a solar eclipse".

"As about 90 percent of the Sun is covered, you'll notice a distinct drop in temperature and brightness, and a change in the quality of the light which is hard to describe," Moseley said.

Locals in the province of Chubut around Sarmiento said they noted

changes in the height of the tide and ani-mals acting unusually.

Experts say that as the day darkens, birds and animals enter a night-time routine, thinking sunset is nigh.

At the height of the eclipse the Moon is right in the middle of the Sun, leaving a perfect ring of light around the edge.

It takes about two hours for the Moon to move across the face of the Sun, but the "ring of fire" peak lasted a mere minute. Starting in the southeast Pacific Ocean at sunrise, the eclipse passed over southern Chile then Argentina before sweeping over the South Atlantic.

At sea, the eclipse peak was to last 44 seconds and "only be visible to any ships that happen to be in the right place at the right time," said Moseley.

The moon moving to cover the sun for an annular solar eclipse, as seen from near Sarmiento, Argentina, yesterday. RIGHT: The moon almost completely covering the sun leaving a 'ring of fire' on the periphery.

HIGH TIDE 05:45 - 17:30 LOW TIDE 12:15 - 23:15

Expected low visibility at places at

first. Hazy to misty/foggy at places at

first becomes mild daytime.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum16oC 26oC