Volume 22 | Number 7405 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 13 January 2018 | 26 Rabia II I 1439 www.thepeninsula.qa

3rd Best News Website in the Middle East

Subscribe to Shahry Packs and enjoy 6 months of savings! Terms and Conditions Apply

Brilliant Afif seals Qatar’s second win

New Eurogroup chief vows to press

ahead with reforms

BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 24

Minister of Youth and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser Al Ali marks the start of the Ooredoo Doha Marathon at the Museum of Islamic Art in Doha yesterday. Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman of Ooredoo is also present. →SEE ALSO PAGE 23

Melodies at KataraArtistes, Ali Al Marri and Ali Ibrahim performing at ‘Melodies at Katara’s Premises’ musical event. The event presents musical talents from all age groups and nationalities every weekend until the end of April around Katara Amphitheatre.

Qatar leads region with over $26m donations to UNHCR

QTA plans 130 events this year

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), the UN agency for refugees has received contribu-tions worth over $26m from Qatar, over the past year, making it the largest donor from the Middle East and North Africa region.

The figures were revealed in a summary of contributions to UNHCR for 2017 placing Qatar as UNHCR’s nineteenth donor. The generous donations helped UNHCR secure life-saving

assistance for hundreds of thou-sands of forcibly displaced women, children and men glo-bally, including uprooted fam-ilies in Iraq, Yemen, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Lebanon, Ethiopia, Somalia and others.

Commenting on the impor-tance of increased support for displaced persons globally, Khaled Khalifa, UNHCR Regional Representative to the GCC coun-tries noted, “At time where twenty people are forcibly dis-placed every minute, Qatar’s generous contributions are much needed, and have played an

integral role in UNHCR’s emer-gency response.”

“Thanks to the generous con-tribution, UNHCR was able to secure shelter, health services, cash assistance, education and other essential support for some of the world’s most vulnerable people,” Khalifa added.

In addition to contributions in 2017, Qatar recently responded warmly to the UNHCR’s emergency appeal for the Rohingya refugee emer-gency, where over 650,000 people have been displaced since August 2017. Moreover, the

Qatar Fund for Development has provided $6m to support basic needs and shelter for displaced people in Iraq.

“Qatar has a long-standing

history of addressing the needs of those affected by conflict and persecution. As a nation, we believe that we must, whenever possible, assist those less for-tunate, particularly those who have been forced to flee their homes” said Khalifa Al Kuwari, (pictured), Director General of Qatar Fund for Development.

“UNHCR’s work with regard to the oppressed and displaced people is of utmost importance, and we look forward to jointly alleviating the plight of the for-cibly displaced people globally,” he added.

Since 2012, Qatar has donated over $76m for refugees and IDPs globally through UNHCR, notwithstanding its bilateral contributions through local partners.

FAZEENA SALEEM

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The age limit for pedi-atric care in Qatar will be increased soon and trauma care will be included in pediatric emergency services, said a senior official yesterday.

The age for pediatric care will be increased from 14 to 18 years and a new area of trauma care will be incorporated in pae-diatric emergency services, Dr Khalid Al Ansari, Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine and Medical Director of Pediatric Emergency Services at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) told The Peninsula, while speaking on the sidelines of the second Pediatric Emergency Medicine Conference. The three-day Pedi-atric Emergency Medicine Con-ference opened yesterday and plenary sessions were held in the mornings and sessions dedicated to participants’ individual learning needs were held in the afternoons.

→CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

RAYNALD C RIVERA

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) targets to organise 130 business events this year, a senior QTA official has said. “Last year we had arranged about 120 business events. Up to April 2018, we have already planned 28 events. But our target for the year is around 130,” Ahmed Al Obaidli, Director of Exhibitions at QTA, said while speaking to reporters recently.

QTA has been working to facilitate the growth of business events in the country by working with the private sector to organise and deliver quality business events. In 2015, QTA launched Qatar Business Events sub-brand to promote the country as a leading destination for business meetings, events

and exhibitions.Al Obaidli stressed that the

business-events sector plays an important role in promoting the tourism industry and it makes vital contribution to the national economy. Therefore, QTA aims at increasing tourist arrivals in the country as it implements the Next Chapter of Qatar National Tourism Sector Strategy. “Our target is 5.6m tourists per annum by 2023.

The business events sector has been contributing to the whole tourism industry. The contribution of business events sector to the country’s GDP is about 2.3 percent,” he said, speaking on the sidelines of a press conference to announce the details of Doha Jewellery and Watches Exhibition 2018.

→CONTINUED ON PAGE 2

The authority sets a target of 5.6m tourists per annum by 2023. Business events sector contributes 2.3 percent to the country’s GDP, says Ahmed Al Obaidli, Director of Exhibitions at QTA.

Since 2012, Qatar has donated over $76m for refugees and IDPs globally through UNHCR, notwithstanding its bilateral contributions through local partners.

Age limit for pediatric care to be increased soon

Minister marks start of Doha marathon

Emir, Tunisian President review means to boost tiesQNA

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held a tele-phone conversation yesterday evening with H E President Beji Caid Essebsi of the sisterly Republic of Tunisia. During the phone call, the two sides reviewed bilateral relations and means of boosting and devel-oping them, in addition to the latest regional and international developments.

Emir congratulates Governor General of Barbados

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent yesterday a cable of congratu-lations to H E Sandra Mason, on the occasion of her inauguration as Governor-General of Barbados. Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent a similar cable to H E Sandra Mason, Governor-General of Barbados.Second airspace violation

by UAE; Qatar informs UNQNA

NEW YORK: The State of Qatar has sent two messages to the United Nations Secretary-General and to the President of the Security Council on a UAE military airliner flying from the airspace of the United Arab Emirates to the Kingdom of Bahrain, violating the airspace of Qatar at 10:10am on Wednesday, January 3 2018.

In a letter sent by the Per-manent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, Ambassador H E Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, Per-manent Representative of Qatar to the United Nations, drew the attention of the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the Security Council to a UAE military airlift carrying induction code (DHC-6) coming from the UAE airspace bound for the Kingdom of Bahrain to enter the airspace of the State of Qatar, at 10:10am on Wednesday, January 3, 2018, flying over the Special Economic Zone of the State of Qatar, without prior authorization of the competent Qatari

authorities.H E Sheikha Alia noted that

an emergency flight order had been given to a Qatari fighter jet for periodic patrols. It was later discovered that the UAE aircraft was flying between the Air cor-ridor UL-768 and the Air cor-ridor UM-600 and then landed in the Kingdom of Bahrain at 11:27am.

She stressed that the repe-tition of this terrible incident and the continuation of the United Arab Emirates in vio-lation of the sovereignty of the State of Qatar and its threat to the safety of its borders and ter-ritories is evidence of the UAE

authorities continuing their approach to violating interna-tional law, conventions, charters and international norms.

On Thursday, the State of Qatar also sent two identical message to the Secretary-General of the United Nations and the President of the United Nations Security Council regarding an Emirati fighter air-craft coming from the airspace of the United Arab Emirates vio-lating the airspace of the State of Qatar on December 21, 2017.

In a letter presented by the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, H E Ambassador Sheikha Alia Ahmed bin Saif Al Thani, the Permanent Representative of the State of Qatar to the United Nations, said that the aircraft carrying the Induction code (0403) flew over the exclusive economic zone of Qatar at a height of 33,400 feet, at 460 knots speed , for one minute. H E Sheikha Alia confirmed that the UAE plane entered the air-space of the State of Qatar without prior knowledge or approval of the competent Qatari authorities.

UN Secretary-General and President of Security Council informed about UAE military airliner flying from their airspace to the Kingdom of Bahrain, violating the airspace of Qatar at 10:10am on January 3 2018.

02 SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018HOME

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Cultural Village Foun-dation- Katara kicked off ‘Melodies at Katara’s Premises’ musical event on Thursday.

The event presents musical talents from all age groups and nationalities every weekend until the end of April around Katara Amphitheatre.

On Thursday, visitors enjoyed watching 12 musicians playing various instruments such as piano, violin, flute, drums, guitar and the oud.

Inaugurating the event, Katara General Manager, Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti said: “By hosting such events, Katara seeks to gather musical talents from different nationalities and age-groups to present their talents. The Cul-tural Village is the hub of all branches of creativity and arts. The event has been a big hit ever since its announcement, as a vast array of music enthusiasts, talents, professionals rushed to register to mark their presence in the music world.”

“Melodies at Katara’s Premises is an

opportunity for partici-pating musicians to exchange experiences, conduct and evaluate live interactions with the audi-ences. It is also a chance for Katara’s visitors to examine new musical talents as they will intend to find a pleasant and a delightful musical ambience,” he added.

Fatima Al Mansouri, one of the participants who is a student from Qatar Music Academy, said: “Six years ago, I chose to learn the violin and specialize in o r i e n t a l m e l o d i e s . Moreover, I’m thrilled to be one of the participants at Melodies at Katara’s premises, as it provides live-audience interaction and allows me to expe-rience performing out of the theatre. In addition, I’m also present here today to shed light on Qatari musical talents.”

Another participant, Hala Al Emadi, who has been playing the piano for 10 years, said; “My passion for the piano arose when my parents gifted me the piano, as I was closely-attached to music and eagerly played music as soon as I heard the tones. After that I was trained by teachers at

home and then began to practice and play with the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra.”

Omar Al Yafei, a music teacher who plays the guitar, said; “I play many musical instruments but the guitar has a special place in my heart, and I create my own music that tends to combine the rhythms of samba, salsa and other Latin rhythms.”

The event also saw a group of children who grabbed the audience’s admiration as they played drums.

Music feast delights visitors at Katara

QNA

KHARTOUM: Executive Director of Al-Neelain University Chair for Combating Corruption Dr Mohammed Al Alem, who is the Dean of Law School at Al-Neelain university, said that the support of Qatar has helped the chair to many regional and inter-national achievement in decisive issues for Sudan.

Speaking to Qatar News Agency (QNA), the Executive Director said that the chair benefited from Qatar’s international experiences in enhancing cooperation globally. The chair is the result of cooperation between Al-Neelain University and

Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Center. HE Qatar’s Attorney General Dr Ali ben Fetais Al Marri chairs the board of trustees of the chair, which is celebrating its second year this month.

Al Alem said the chair helped des-ignated entities find areas of weakness, enhance transparency, and improve legislation regarding regulation.

The chair also held a number of seminars, the most prominent of which tackled illegal immigration and its economic and social impacts.

The Executive Director also expressed his appreciation for the strong cooperation between the State

of Qatar and Al-Neelain University, saying it was an extension of the strong ties between the two countries. He noted that the State of Qatar sup-ports the university in many ways such as financially, as well as sponsoring scientific research awards.

He also said that the chair was established to become an academic center the promotes the best practices in achieving the rule of law and com-batting corruption. He added that the presence of the chair helped Sudan benefit from Qatar’s expertise in those fields.

He noted that the presence of HE the Qatari Attorney General to Sudan have acted as further support to the

chair, and will help open new horizons for the Qatari experience in Africa. He said that Sudan remains keen today as ever on benefitting from that expe-rience in order to pursue sustainable development and achieve stability.

Sudanese official praises Qatar’s support

Visitors enjoying a musical feast at Katara.

Visitors enjoyed watching 12 musicians play various instruments such as piano, violin, flute, drums, guitar and the oud.

QNA

KHARTOUM: The President of the Republic of the Sudan Omar Hassan Al Bashir met on Thursday night with H E Public Prosecutor Dr. Ali bin Fetais Al Marri.

The meeting discussed the outcomes of H E the public prosecutor’s current visit to the Republic of the Sudan as well as the memorandum of under-standing that was signed between the two fraternal countries for cooperation in the field of public prosecution.

Sudanese Public Prosecutor Omar Mohamed Ahmed said that HE President Al Bashir praised the significant role of the State of Qatar in the legal field.

He added that the visit of HE Dr. Al Marri has achieved positive results in the areas of enhancing legal and judicial cooperation between the State of Qatar and the Republic of the Sudan.

For his part, HE Dr. Al Marri said that he congratulated HE President Al Bashir on his decision to establish the public

prosecution in Sudan, which, he added, is a step in the right direction towards judicial inde-pendence and supporting the rule of law and institutions.

HE Dr. Al Marri reiterated the State of Qatar’s keenness on cooperation and working together with the public pros-ecution in Sudan in the fields of exchanging expertise and intelligence as well as activities related to the legal work.

Qatar’s Ambassador to the Republic of the Sudan Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Nuaimi attended the meeting.

Sudan’s President meets Public Prosecutor

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

The ongoing blockade imposed on Qatar by three of its neighbouring countries has not impacted the sector as shown by the excellent response from exhibitors overseas who wanted to participate at the upcoming DJWE, he said.

“Although we are now over 200 days of the blockade, we have 400 international brands coming to Qatar from 13 different countries. Even the exhibition space has increased. There were about 80 exhibitors who would like to come to the exhibition but we ran out of space. Year after year, this exhibition is getting bigger and more international. Next year, we are thinking of even extending the exhi-bition area,” he said.

Marking its 15th year, DJWE is one of the longest and highly anticipated exhibition in Qatar’s calendar of business events.

“The DJWE is characterized by long history; this is the 15th year and this exhibition enjoys high reputation among the luxury events on Qatar’s calendar. This exhibition is ever developing and ever improving in terms of participants, organization and exhibition space,” said Al Obaidli.

To be held from February 21 to 26, DJWE 2018 will feature an extensive display of classic and con-temporary luxury collections by internationally recognised brands and designers.

The exhibition will host a variety of new experiences for exhibitors and visitors, from the one-day DJWE Forum and daily industry talks, through to watches and jewellery workshops.

A highlight of the six-day event is the return of Young Qatari Designers (YQDs) initiative, which will shine spotlight on six talented Qatari designers including Nada Al Sulaiti (Hairaat), Nouf Al Meer (Nouf Jewellery), Ghada Al Buainain, Leila Abu Issa (Leila Issam Fine Jewellery), Shikha Mohamed (Al Ghla Jewellery) and Jawaher and Hissa Mohammed Al Mannai (Ghand Jewellery).

For the first time, the exhibition will offer a kids’ playground where parents can leave their children while visiting the exhibition.

QTA plans 130 events this year

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1

Jointly organised by HMC and Department of Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine, the conference gathered more than 600 experts at Grand Hyatt Doha to discuss about several topics related to pediatric emer-gency medicine.

Around 60 international attendees and several speakers are attending the conference from countries including Oman, the United States and Canada.

The conference will feature both local and international experts who will discuss current best practice in the treatment of common and critical pediatric emergency conditions. A number of specialized areas related to pediatric emergencies for healthcare professionals working in this field of medicine will also be discussed.

Participants include emer-gency physicians, primary healthcare physicians, nurses and more than 100 persons from the emergency medical services (EMS).

“It is a multidisciplinary conference that is meant for uplift of the level knowledge and education of different disci-plines that takes care of pedi-atric patients who seek emer-gency services,” Dr Al Ansari said.

The discussions and learning sessions during the conference will help pediatric care clini-cians provide even better care to children with urgent and

emergency health issues and this, in turn, will result in a happier and healthier pediatric population, he added. The con-ference has four tracks as EMS, nursing, child abuse and pedi-atric trauma.

“The conference will discuss and talk about hot topics in pediatrics emergency and related to child health specially to trauma care as we are uplifting the trauma care to be incorporated into pediatric emergency services very soon,” he informed.

Separate discussions will be held on treatment and man-agement of minor traumas such as fractures and burns as well about complex trauma,” said Dr Al Ansari.

“In the child abuse track, experts will discuss to increase the knowledge on attending cases of child abuse and about services available by different stakeholders for those who seek help. The EMS track will focus on management of pediatric patients while transferring them,” he added.

Also according to Dr Al Ansari, at present in Qatar the age for pediatric care is between zero and 14 years and it will be soon change to 18.

“Patients are not mature adults until the age of 18 and the patients would require special expertise and staff in providing treatment to such cases,” he said.

Age limit for pediatric care to be increased

Dr. Khalid Al Ansari, Chairman of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Sidra Medicine and Medical Director of Pediatric Emergency Services at HMC, during the Pediatric Emergency Medicine Conference held at Grand Hyatt Hotel yesterday.PIC: BAHER AMIN / THE PENINSULA

‘Tamim is glory’ The iconic ‘Tamim Al Majd’ image printed on fabrics displayed for sale at a shop in Souq Waqif. PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH / THE PENINSULA

The event presents musical talents from all age groups and nationalities every weekend until the end of April around Katara Amphitheatre.

The Executive Director also expressed his appreciation for the strong cooperation between the State of Qatar and Al-Neelain University, saying it was an extension of the strong ties between the two countries.

03SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018 HOME / MIDDLE EAST

RAYNALD C RIVERA

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Shop Qatar 2018 kicks off Bollywood Week tomorrow with an exciting lineup of events and activities celebrating the vibrant arts and culture of India.

A highlight of the week is the concert of Bollywood singing sensation Sonu Nigam on Friday (January 19) at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC). The multi-awarded singer, who is consid-ered one of the highest paid Indian singers, will be per-forming live some of his biggest

hits which propelled him to stardom. Tickets are priced QR50, QR100, QR200, QR350 and QR1,000 and are available at q-tickets.com.

Another feature of the week is the Bollywood Fashion Show set to witness a dazzling display of saris, shalwar suits, and lehenga dresses.

Over 100 designs will be showcased including creations by celebrity designers Vikram Phandis, Archana Kochar and Manish Malhotra at the show to be held on Wednesday at 7pm at Mondrian Doha. The event is for free and seats will be provided

on a first-come-first-served basis. Those interested to attend can register online via www.tal-e n t r e s o u r c e s . o r g /fashion-show-registration.

Malls participating in Shop Qatar will also host a variety of Bollywood-themed pop-up shops including fabric embroi-dery pop-up shop, bangles pop-up shop, cushion embroi-dery pop-up shop, and footwear making Pop-up shop.

City Centre Doha will also present Colours of India show on Thursday and Friday. There will be three one-hour shows at 4pm, 7pm and 9pm.

People can also visit 30 pop-up shops at Mall of Qatar where products by local entre-preneurs,, some of whom are SMEs supported and incubated by Qatar Development Bank, are on display.

For the outdoorsy, the three-month Fun Fair extrava-ganza opens on Monday at Mall of Qatar in front of AlRayyan Hotel Doha. It will feature over 15 different activities such as paintball, a wind-tunnel, and a trampoline park. The Souq Waqif Spring Festival is also ongoing offering over 60 attrac-tions and activities and more

than 20 food stalls. Embrace Doha’s Souq Waqif shopping tours will also start this week with women’s tour on Thursday, men’s tour on Friday and family

tour on Saturday. Promotions and discounts are still going on at various retail outlet at the 13 participating malls including Al Khor Mall, City Centre Doha, Doha Festival City, Gulf Mall, Hyatt Plaza Mall, Lagoona Mall, Landmark Mall, Mall of Qatar, Tawar Mall, The Gate Mall, Vil-laggio Mall, Ezdan Mall and Dar Al Salam Mall.

The second raffle draw will be held on Thursday, 9pm at Hyatt Plaza Mall in which a total of QR500,000 will be given away to 13 lucky shoppers in addition to two winners of BMW cars.

Exciting events lined up at Shop QatarA highlight of the week is the concert of Bollywood singing sensation Sonu Nigam on Friday (January 19) at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC).

AFP

UNITED NATIONS: Iran has violated a UN arms embargo by failing to block supplies to Yemen’s Houthi rebels of ballistic missiles that were fired at Saudi Arabia, according to a UN experts’ report yesterday.

The finding is expected to bolster accusations from the United States and Saudi Arabia that Iran has supplied weaponry to the Houthis in their war against the Saudi-led coalition.

“The panel has identified missile remnants, related mili-tary equipment and military unmanned aerial vehicles that are of Iranian origin and were

introduced into Yemen after the imposition of the targeted arms embargo,” said the report pre-sented to the Security Council.

“As a result, the panel finds that the Islamic Republic of Iran is in non-compliance with par-agraph 14 of resolution 2216” that imposed the ban on arms sales to Yemen in 2015, said the 79-page report presented on Tuesday.

Iran has strongly denied arming the Huthis and last month accused US Ambassador Nikki Haley of presenting “fab-ricated” evidence that a November 4 missile fired at R i y a d h a i r p o r t w a s Iranian-made.

Haley told the Security

Council last month that the United States will push for action against Iran for providing missiles that have been fired at its ally, but Russia quickly sig-nalled that it would not endorse such plans.

While the experts pointed to the Iranian origin of the mis-siles, they were unable to iden-tify the supplier and stressed that Iran had failed to provide information to the panel.

Iran “failed to take the nec-essary measures to prevent the direct or indirect supply, sale or transfer of Borkan-2H short-range ballistic missiles, field storage tanks for liquid bio-pro-pellant oxidizer for missiles and Ababil-T (Qasef-1) unmanned

aerial vehicles to the then Huthi-Saleh alliance,” said the report.

The UN experts traveled to Saudi Arabia in November and again last month to inspect the remnants of missiles fired by the Huthis in May, July, November and December.

Already one of the Arab world’s poorest countries, Yemen has been brought to its knees since the Saudi-led coa-lition intervened in March 2015 in support of the government.

More than 8,750 people have died in the war and the country is facing what the United Nations has described as the world’s worst humani-tarian crisis.

Iran violated arms embargo: UN reportAFP

JERUSALEM: The European Union voiced concern yesterday over the Israeli detention of two Palestinian minors, one of whom who was arrested after a video of her confronting Israeli soldiers went viral.

The Jerusalem and Ram-allah EU missions expressed “deep concern regarding the circumstances of the recent arrests of two Palestinian minors, Ahed Tamimi and Fawzi Muhammad Al Juneidi”, a statement read. Ahed Tamimi, 16, was on charged on January 1 with 12 counts including

assault for slapping and kicking Israeli soldiers near her home in the occupied West Bank.

Hailed as a hero by Pales-tinians who see her as bravely standing up to Israel in the December 15 incident caught on video, she could face a lengthy jail term if convicted.

She will face a military court on Monday which will determine whether she stays in detention until her trial begins.

Her mother and another relative who took part in the incident have also been charged. The EU also expressed deep concern over shooting by Israeli security forces of another Palestinian minor.

EU concerned over arrest of Palestinian ‘slap video’ teen

AFP

MOSUL: Even before the Islamic State group took over her home city of Mosul, Iraqi 31-year-old Nesrine never imagined she would have a job working late into the evening at a fashion boutique.

But now, in districts of Iraq’s second city not left totally dev-astated by the ferocious fighting to oust the jihadists, life is buzzing again -- with more vibrancy than ever.

“We have experienced depression, hunger, ruin and oppression. It is a miracle that we are still alive,” Nesrine said.

“We went through a long nightmare and now we have woken up transformed.”

Nesrine is employed at a gleaming new clothing shop that has opened up on the east bank of the river Tigris -- liberated from IS months before the group’s final defeat in western districts six months ago -- selling skinny jeans and col-ourful tops from Turkey.

As pop music blares from loud speakers, she works along-side male colleagues advising

customers lured in during a late-evening stroll by images of fashion models.

In the shop window, a man-nequin wearing an above-the-knee skirt is on display.

Mosul has long had a repu-tation as a bedrock of conserv-atism and became a hub for Sunni jihadists after the US-led ouster of Saddam Hussein in 2003. But when IS seized con-trol as it swept across northern Iraq in 2014 the group imposed a radical interpretation of Islamic law far more severe than anything residents had known before.

Now Mosul University where she studies English is busy with groups of boys with gelled up hair and girls wearing colourful headscarves. Even before the arrival of IS it was “unimaginable” for girls to get a job outside the home working alongside men, unless it was in a staid public administration office, she said. Ziad Dabbagh has just opened up a restaurant to give people somewhere else to go in the commercial neigh-bourhood of al-Zuhur.

“People in Mosul used to go

to other provinces of Iraq to go out,” the entrepeneur said.

Families dine and young men sip tea on the terraces and in the dining hall.

“It was as if we were lost in the middle of a desert, cut off from everything,” said Roua al-Malah, 34, who was out with her family. “And now all at once we have rediscovered that we can have a good time.”

Behind a green glass door men sip brightly coloured fruit juice in the neighbouring building as they play cards and billiards amid a cloud of smoke from hookah pipes.

Owner Mazen Aziz opened up in May even as fierce fighting was still raging across the river in Mosul’s Old City, which is still a deserted ghost town today.

His billiard club with its smoking, card playing and loud music would have been a prime target for the jihadists who dom-inated the city for a decade.

“For years in Mosul, after six in the evening there was no one in the streets. Now I can head home at two or three in the morning without fear,” he said.

“A new life is beginning.”

A new life sprouts up around Mosul after scars of IS rule

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: President of Kazakhstan Nursul tan Nazarbayev (pictured) says it is crucial to continue work on further indus-trialisation of the country.

In his annual State-of-the-Nation Address “New Opportu-nities for Development Amidst the Fourth Industrial Revolu-tion”, President Nazarbayev stressed that processing sector should become more innova-tive and based on the new tech-nological mode.

“In 2018, we need to com-mence the development of the third five-year plan of industri-alization focused on the devel-opment of ‘digital era’ industry. It is necessary to implement a pilot project on digitalization of a number of Kazakhstani indus-trial enterprises and, then, dis-seminate this experience,” the address reads.

At the same time, President Nazarbayev reminded it is nec-essary to develop and test new tools of modernization and digi-talization, said a press release.

The country needs its own ecosystem of developers of dig-ital and other innovative solu-tions for Kazakhstani innova-tive centers, including Nazarbayev University, the Astana International Financial Center and the International technological park of IT start-ups.

The Kazakh leader also instructed to take steps to elim-inate unemployment and adapt the national system of educa-tion, communications and the sphere of standardization to the needs of new industrialization.

He said that Kazakhstan has overcome many of the global challenges and is entering a phase of intensive economic transformation. Country’s long-term development strategy until 2050 is being implemented.

The nation is undertaking reforms within the framework of the National Plan of 100 Con-crete Steps. Systemic efforts are being made to facilitate

industrialisation. The country has passed constitutional reforms, and embarked upon the Third Modernisation.

Complex measures are being taken within the Rukhani Zhanghyru programme (Mod-ernisation of Kazakhstan’s Iden-tity programme). The Digital Kazakhstan program has been adopted. Facing that today humanity is entering an era of a new industrial revolution and modern technologies are changing the world, global tech-nological shifts bring about both challenges and new opportuni-ties for growth, this is a historic chance for Kazakhstan to rap-idly join the top 30 most devel-oped countries.

President’s vision is focused on the country’s development in the era of the Fourth Indus-trial Revolution and he sees 10 priorities that need to implement.

First, Kazakhstan’s industry must become the flagship for the introduction of new technolo-gies. Countries manufacturing industry needs to increase labour productivity through the digitisation of manufacturing chains and the adoption of modern business models.

Second, it is necessary to significantly improve the effi-ciency of our resource use. Information and technological solutions should be applied in order to achieve this. Third, Kazakhstan must raise agricul-tural industry to a new techno-logical level.

Fourth, a further develop-ment of the transportation and logistics infrastructure. Fifth, the application of modern technol-ogies in construction, housing services and utilities. New con-struction methods, increasing the requirements for energy efficiency of buildings and the introduction of intelligent infra-structure management systems will improve the quality of life of Kazakhstani citizens.

Sixth, a “Reset” of the finan-cial sector. Measures to enhance the banking system should be accompanied by increased supervision and take into con-sideration the interests of ordi-nary citizens. Seventh, a new quality of human capital. All levels of the education system have to meet the realities of the modern world and demands of the economy.

Eighth, effective public administration. Digital technol-ogies will allow to continue business deregulation, improve the quality of public services and state support, and help better meet the needs of citizens.

Ninth, the rule of law and the fight against corruption remains a priority of State policy. Regarding this point it is known that last year Kazakhstan held an event – International Day Against Corruption with an International Scientific and Practical Conference on “Modern anticorruption stand-ards and development of inter-national cooperation”.

Kazakh President stresses further industrialisation

Iraqi girls walk towards a ceremony, holding their national flag, for the re-opening of the Bab Al Saray market in the old city of Mosul, yesterday.

04 SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018MIDDLE EAST

REUTERS

ANKARA: Increased attacks in Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province will spark a new wave of migra-tion, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim said yesterday, calling on Russia and Iran to rein in a Syrian army offensive near Turkey’s southern border.

The Syrian government offensive supported by Iran-backed militia has gathered pace and displaced tens of thou-sands of people since November, according to the United Nations.

Turkey, which opposes Syrian President Bashar Al Assad but has been working with his allies Iran and Russia to reduce the fighting in Idlib, says the latest army assault could not have taken place without Tehran and Moscow’s support.

Already host to 3 million

refugees from the six-year-old conflict, Turkey fears a further influx across its border from Idlib. The northwestern prov-ince is the largest region still held by rebels driven out of other strongholds in Syria, and is home to more than 2 million people, many in need of aid.

“Carrying out increased attacks in Idlib will cause new migration waves and vicitimi-sation there. This is very dan-gerous and wrong,” Yildirim told reporters after Friday prayers. Turkey has been deploying forces inside northern Idlib and setting up bases there

after agreeing with Iran and Russia to establish a “de-esca-lation zone” in Idlib and nearby areas. “It is very wrong for the Assad regime to launch an offensive, without differenti-ating civilians, in order to gain land ... while the initiative by Turkey, Russia and Iran on a lasting peace in Syria has made progress,” Yildirim said.

“We are discussing this issue with Russia and Iran, we are making our warnings regarding the potentially horrible ramifi-cations of Assad’s attacks,” he said, warning that the fighting was hindering efforts to reach a political solution.

Russia aims to convene a Syria peace congress later this month, though it is not yet clear who will attend. On Thursday, rebels launched a counter attack against government forces and their allies in Idlib province.

‘Syria attacks will cause migration wave’

REUTERS

TUNIS: Tunisian authorities arrested another 150 people including local opposition leaders over unrest against price and tax rises that prompted troop deployments to restive towns, and activists called for renewed rallies at the weekend.

Protests, some violent, flared across Tunisia on Monday, when one protester was killed, before ebbing on Thursday.

Protesters have burned dozens of state buildings, prompting the government to send the army into several cities

and towns. Activists and oppo-sition politicians appealed for fresh demonstrations in the cap-ital, Tunis, on Friday and on Sunday, the seventh anniversary of the toppling of authoritarian president Zine El-Abidine Ben Ali.

On Thursday, unrest was limited to sporadic clashes in the northern city of Siliana, in Sidi Bouzid in central Tunisia and Douz in the south of the North African country.

“The protests have declined and there was no damage, but last night the police arrested 150 people involved in rioting in the past few days, bringing the total

number of detainees to 778,” Interior Ministry spokesman Khelifa Chibani said. Sixteen “Islamist extremists” were among those detained, he said.

Three local leaders of the Popular Front, the main oppo-sition bloc, were detained in Gafsa for allegedly setting fire to a government building, a judi-cial source said.

The Popular Front said its leaders had been targeted in a political campaign that was “reproducing the methods of the oppressive Ben Ali regime”. Party members had also been arrested in Mahdia and Kar-bariya, it said.

Tunisia arrests another 150 including opposition leaders

AFP

MAPUTO: Mozambique’s military and the opposition Renamo group were both guilty of serious crimes before a 2016 ceasefire, according to a Human Rights Watch report released yesterday detailing killings and torture.

HRW called for justice over the violence that erupted between November 2015 and December 2016 as Mozam-bique appeared at risk of returning to its long and bloody civil war.

Renamo rebels had fought a 16-year war against the ruling Frelimo party until 1992, and unrest again boiled over in 2015.

“More than a year since the ceasefire was declared, the Mozambican government has not held anyone from its security forces or Renamo accountable,” said HRW pro-gramme director Iain Levine.

“The government should investigate abuses by both sides and bring those respon-sible to justice.” The report gave evidence of torture and abduction by government soldiers, and of Renamo fighters launching deadly ambushes on public transpor-tation and health clinics.

Call to probe Mozambique’s 2016 unrestAFP

KANO: Boko Haram fighters have killed at least 20 loggers, militia members and residents said yesterday, in the latest attack against civilians in north-east Nigeria.

The attack happened on Monday when gunmen on motorbikes opened fire on a group of loggers collecting fire-wood at Kaje village, near the Borno state capital, Maiduguri.

“They (Boko Haram) killed 20 people in the attack. Fifteen others are missing and presumed kidnapped by the attackers,” civilian militia leader Ibrahim Liman said.

Details of the attack have been slow to emerge due to lim-ited communications infrastruc-ture after years of fighting in the remote region.

Kaje resident Shuaibu Sidi corroborated Liman’s account and said his brother was among the dead.

Nigeria’s government and military maintain that the Islamist militants, who have pledged allegiance to the Islamic State group, are on the verge of defeat.

The conflict, which began in 2009, has killed more than 20,000 and forced some 2.6 mil-lion others from their homes, triggering a dire humanitarian crisis in the region.

But despite clear military gains in major towns and cities, hard-to-reach rural communi-ties remain vulnerable to attack.

On December 30, 25 loggers were shot dead at Maiwa village, which is three kilometres (nearly two miles) from Kaje, and three truck-loads of firewood was burned.

Liman said: “We believe the same gunmen behind the Maiwa attack were responsible for the Kaje attack.” The attackers were believed to have come from Boko Haram’s main enclave in the Sambisa Forest area of

Borno, which is accessible from the two logging sites, he added.

Many of those displaced by the conflict are forced to rely on food handouts from aid agencies.

Others have turned to felling trees in the semi-desert region to sell as firewood and use the proceeds to buy food.

Boko Haram has increasingly targeted loggers in their armed campaign to establish a hardline Islamic state in northeast Nigeria.

They have accused them of spying for the military and the civilian militia, which assists troops with security.

At least 31 loggers have not been seen since January 2 and are believed to have been abducted near the town of Gam-boru, on the border with Cameroon.

They had left the town to fetch firewood in a Boko Haram hotspot, 15 kilometres away, where 10 other loggers had been killed two weeks earlier.

Boko Haram fighters shoot dead 20 in Nigeria

Syrian carry bread back to their home in Raqqa, the former “capital” of the Islamic State (IS) group in Syria, yesterday.

Already host to 3 million refugees from the six-year-old conflict, Turkey fears a further influx across its border from Idlib.

A woman who lost her husband cries and others try to console her during the funeral service for people killed during clashes between cattle herders and farmers, yesterday, in Ibrahim Babangida Square in the Benue state capital Makurdi.

REUTERS

JOHANNESBURG: African politicians labelled US Presi-dent Donald Trump a racist yesterday after he was reported to have described some immi-grants from Africa and Haiti as coming from “shithole” coun-tries.

Sources said that Trump had questioned why the United States would want immigrants from “shithole countries” like Haiti and some African coun-tries. “Ours is not a shithole country and neither is Haiti or any other country in distress,” Jessie Duarte, the deputy sec-retary general of South Africa’s ruling African National Con-gress told reporters at a news conference in East London.

“We would not deign to make comments as derogatory as that about any country that has any kind of socio-economic or other difficulties,” Duarte said, adding that much like their African counterparts millions of US citizens were affected by p r o b l e m s s u c h a s unemployment.

Botswana’s foreign ministry summoned the US ambassador in protest and called the com-ments “highly irresponsible, reprehensible and racist.”

It said in a statement that it had asked the US government, through its ambassador, to “clarify” if the derogatory remark also applied to Bot-swana given that there were Botswana nationals living in the

United States and others who wished to go there.

UN human rights spokesman Rupert Colville told reporters in Geneva that Trump’s comments were “shocking and shameful”.

Since taking office a year ago, Trump has pursued con-troversial policies aimed at curbing illegal immigration into the United States as part of a hard-line “America First” agenda.

Trump said on Twitter yes-terday that he merely used “tough” language when dis-cussing a new immigration bill with a group of US senators.

He said the bill was a step backwards because it would force the United States “to take large numbers of people from high crime countries which are doing badly”.

On the streets of Lusaka Trump’s reported remark rein-forced long-held views about the US.leader. “Trump has always been a racist, only a racist can use such foul lan-guage,” said Nancy Mulenga, a student at the University of Zambia. Robert Chiponda, a communications consultant in Lusaka, said he never took Trump seriously. Others used humour to ridicule the offen-sive comments. “As someone from South Shithole, Trevor is deeply offended by the presi-dent’s remarks,” US television programme wrote on Twitter, referring to its South Africa-born host Trevor Noah.

Africa calls Trump racist after remark

AFP

ISTANBUL: Turkey yesterday issued a travel warning urging its citizens to reconsider their travel plans to the United States, citing the risk of terror attacks and arbitrary deten-tions.

The move follows a US State Department advisory on Wednesday which urged Americans to reconsider vis-iting Turkey due to security concerns. The foreign min-istry — using almost identical language to the original US advisory — warns of an increase in terrorism and “risk of arbitry detention”.

Relations between the two Nato allies have become increasingly strained over a number of issues, including Turkey’s detention of two Turkish employees of US dip-lomatic missions in the country. Washington sus-pended visa services for Turkish citizens after Istanbul consulate staffer Metin Topuz was arrested in October over suspected links to a cleric blamed for 2016 failed coup.

Turkey issues travel warning for US

Tunisian protesters take to the streets in Siliana, some 130 kms south of Tunis, yesterday.

05SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018 ASIA

Protesting movie’s releaseMembers of the Rajput community protesting against the release of the upcoming Bollywood movie ‘Padmavat’ in Mumbai, yesterday.

FROM LEFT: Justices Kurian Joseph, Jasti Chelameswar, Ranjan Gogoi and Madan Lokur address the media at a news conference in New Delhi, yesterday.

ISRO chairman Kiran Kumar Reddy gestures druing a press meet after the earth observation satellite CARTOSAT-2, on board the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40), was launched at Satish Dawan space center in Sriharikota, yesterday.

Four judges criticise India’s SC in publicREUTERS

NEW DELHI: Four justices of India’s top court yesterday crit-icised its distribution of cases to judges and raised concerns about judicial appointments, in an unprecedented public airing of problems at one of the coun-try’s most respected institutions.

The move points to far-reaching implications for jurists and politicians in the chaotic South Asian democracy where the Supreme Court often sets the agenda on matters of policy and orders measures taken in the public interest.

Exposing a rift with Chief Justice Dipak Misra, the court’s four next highest-ranking judges said the issues involving its administration were serious enough to prompt them to go public.

“The four of us are con-vinced that unless this institu-tion is preserved and it main-tains its equanimity, democracy will not survive in this country,” Justice Jasti Chelameswar told

a news conference on the lawns of his home in the Indian cap-ital. The justices released a letter they had written to Misra.

In it they mentioned instances of cases with “far-reaching consequences for the nation and the institution” that were selectively assigned by the chief justice without rational “basis for such assignment”.

All Supreme Court judges should be involved in setting the procedures used to hire and promote judges in all the coun-try’s courts, they added.

The chief justice did not immediately respond to tele-phone calls from Reuters seeking comment. Law Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad declined to comment.

Two close aides of Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he was looking into the matter and had summoned top law ministry officials for consultations.

The judges did not give spe-cific details of their concerns during the press conference, but said “it is an issue of assignment of a case”. When reporters asked whether it was related to the case of a lower court judge B. Loya, who died in December 2014 while hearing a high-pro-file trial, one of the four judges said “yes”.

At the time of his death, Loya was hearing a case that accused Amit Shah, the president of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, of ordering extrajudicial killings when he served as home min-ister under Modi in the state of Gujarat. Shah has since been acquitted of those charges

Exposing a rift with Chief Justice Dipak Misra, the court’s four next highest-ranking judges said the issues involving its administration were serious enough to prompt them to go public.

India likely to revive mega missile deal with IsraelAFP

NEW DELHI: The Indian army and the government are discussing ways to revive a $500m order to buy Spike anti-tank guided missiles from Isra-el’s state-owned defence contractor Rafael, military chief Bipin Rawat said yesterday.

India recently called off the deal to procure 8,000 missiles, souring the build up to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netan-yahu’s visit to the country this week.

Rawat said the deal was scrapped after the state-run Defence Research and Develop-ment Organisation (DRDO)

offered to manufacture similar missiles in line with premier Narendra Modi’s pet ‘Make in India’ initiative.

“They (DRDO) said... why you are going for a missile that we are capable of manufacturing and can give you better results,” Rawat said. “That is what led to retracting of the RFP (request for proposal).”

Rawat said the DRDO mis-siles were yet to be tested and would not be ready till 2022, which could hit India’s opera-tional capabilities in the interim.

“So how do we bridge the gap between now and 2022? It’s through the Spike.

“Rather than going whole hog we are in the discussion with the government” to fill in the gap he said. “We can possibly look at a lesser number to meet the gap.”

India has been investing tens of billions of dollars in updating its Soviet-era military hardware to counter long-standing ten-sions with regional rivals China and Pakistan.

Israel is a major weapons supplier to India, exporting an average of $1bn of military equipment each year.

In April last year the two countries signed a military deal worth nearly $2bn which includes the supply of medium-range surface-to-air missiles,

launchers and communications technology.

But Modi has said he wants to end India’s status as the world’s number one defence importer and to have 70 percent of hardware manufactured domestically by the turn of the decade.

The visiting dignitary will be accompanied by a delegation of 130 Israeli business leaders.

Asked about the status of the India-Israel free trade agree-ment (FTA), Israeli Ambassador to India Daniel Carmon said yes-terday.said that the “FTA is def-initely on our agenda”.

“Quite a few rounds of dis-cussions on the FTA have been

held,” he said. “I can tell you now that the next round of discus-sions will be held in February in Jerusalem.”

Netanyahu is also scheduled to visit a Centre of Excellence in Agriculture at Vardad, Gujarat, that has been set up with Israeli assistance. Carmon said that by the end of this month “we will have 22 centres of excellence up and running across India”.

These centres of excellence set up with Israeli technology and knowhow cover areas like vegetables, citrus fruits, dates, mangoes, flowers, beekeeping, he said, adding that “we are now starting work on a dairy farm in Haryana”.

Cow causes chaos at Ahmedabad airportAFP

AHMEDABAD: First it was monkeys and rabbits. Now a cow has forced flights to be diverted from Ahmedabad airport and Indian authori-ties said yesterday human negligence may have had a role.

The brave bovine crept past security at a cargo gate at the airport in India’s Gujarat state to stray near the runway sparking a rodeo chase with guards.

A flight from Abu Dhabi and a cargo plane had to be diverted to Mumbai after one of the pilots spotted the beast. The arrival of five domestic flights and several departures were also delayed.

Aviation sources said air-port security guards and fire officials struggled for more than 90 minutes to move the cow away from the runway.

“The cow had entered from near the cargo gate of the airport. The security per-sonnel with sticks and air guns chased the animal away,” one source said.

Sardar Vallabhbhai Inter-national Airport and other Indian airports have had pre-vious troubles with disre-spectful animals.

In February last year, an IndiGo flight at Ahmedabad was delayed on the takeoff strip because of rabbits on the runway.

In November 2016, a Chennai-bound plane had to abort take off after some monkeys were spotted on the runway.

ISRO launches 100th satelliteRETUERS

NEW DELHI: India launched its 100th satellite yesterday as Prime Minister Narendra Modi seeks to project the country as a global low-cost provider of services in space.

A total of 31 small satellites were launched into space yes-terday. More than half of the micro and nano satellites were for the Unites States, and the remainder India, Canada, Fin-land, France, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

“The launch of the 100th satellite by @isro signifies both its glorious achievements and also the bright future of India’s space programme,” Modi said on Twitter.

India’s space programme has a budget of around $4 bil-lion and Modi’s government hopes the latest launches will improve its prospects of winning a larger share of the more than $300bn global space industry.

Modi’s government has been promoting a domestic space programme as a demonstration of low-cost technology and last February launched 104 satellites in a single mission, most of them for foreign customers.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) used its workhorse Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV-C40), part of an

advanced remote sensing satel-lite Cartosat-2 series or “eye in the sky”, for the yesterday launch from Sriharikota in southern Andhra Pradesh state at 9.28am (3:58 GMT).

The rocket weighs about 1,323kg, said a senior official at state-run ISRO, who did not wish to be named. India will use its latest satellites for better border surveillance and obtaining high resolution images of the earth.

“PSLV-C40 is a highly sophisticated surveillance tool to keep an eye on Indian borders and will help the government track progress of infrastructure projects,” said Pallava Bagla, a science writer. and co-author of “Reaching for the Stars: India’s Journey to Mars.”

Two scientists at ISRO said images collected by the satel-lites will be used by the Indian security agencies to track mili-tary activities in neighbouring Pakistan, China, Bangladesh Sri Lanka and Nepal.

A total of 31 small satellites were launched into space yesterday. More than half of the micro and nano satellites were for the Unites States, and the remainder India, Canada, Finland, France, South Korea and the United Kingdom.

3 militants killed near Bangladesh PM’s officeAFP

DHAKA: Three militants were killed yesterday in a raid by Bangladesh’s anti-crime elite force on a militant hideout near Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s office here.

Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) Director General Benazir Ahmed confirmed the death of the three militants, Xinhua news agency reported.

“Bodies of three militants were seen on the fifth floor of the building where they were hiding,” he told journalists.

He said security forces sur-rounded the house suspecting it to be militant hideout. Two RAB personnel were injured as the militants fired bullets and hurled a grenade.

The militants also exploded several bombs as the law enforcers asked them to

surrender. At least three persons, including the owner of the house, were detained.

It was not known whether the Prime Minister was in her office during the raid on the hideout, which is located less than a half kilometer away.

RAB spokesman Mufti Mahmud Khan said a bomb dis-posal unit of the RAB was working at the spot where some IEDs (improvised explosive devices) had been found.

In the wake of the deadly July 2016 cafe attack, Bangla-desh has conducted a series of large-scale operations against the militants.

Neo-JMB, an offshoot of the banned militant outfit Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, was blamed for an attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery which killed 20 hostages, mostly foreigners.

06 SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018ASIA

Uproar in ties with US ‘temporary’: PakistanAFP

ISLAMABAD: US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel has assured the head of Pakistan’s army that Wash-ington “is not contemplating any unilateral action” inside the country, a statement from the Pakistani military said yesterday.

Votel, who spoke to General Qamar Javed Bajwa by tele-phone “over the week”, also said that the “on-going turbulence” around a tweet by Donald Trump suspending aid to the country was “a temporary phase”, according to the statement.

The statement came after Trump froze up to $1.9bn in funding to Pakistan, in a move designed to force its military and intelligence apparatus to halt its support for the Afghan Taliban and other militant groups.

The move, first announced by Trump in a New Year’s Day tweet, sparked indignation in Pakistan, which has long denied the US accusations of militant support, and accused Wash-ington of dismissing the sacri-fices it has made in the war on extremism.

It also ignited speculation that the US could resume drone

strikes or launch operations along Pakistan’s border with Afghanistan, where militant groups once operated with impunity.

The Pakistani military said both Votel and an unnamed US senator phoned Bajwa to discuss security cooperation “over the week”.

“The General said that US values Pakistan’s role towards war on terror and expected that on-going turbulence remains a temporary phase”, the statement said.

Votel also told Bajwa the “US is not contemplating any unilat-eral action inside Pakistan”, it continued.

For his part Bajwa told Votel that the “entire Pakistani nation felt betrayed” over the US state-ments, but insisted Pakistan would continue to support peace efforts in the region despite being made a “scapegoat”.

He also said that Pakistan would not seek to unfreeze the funding, but does “expect hon-ourable recognition of our con-tributions, sacrifices and unwa-vering resolve in fight against terrorism”.

Spokesman Colonel John Thomas said Centcom is in “con-tinuous communication” with the Pakistan military, including recurring conversations between Votel and Bajwa.

“We value mutual under-standing of interests and con-cerns that we need to consider that might lead to a positive path forward,” Thomas said yesterday.

Trump has been less chari-table towards Pakistan.

“They give safe haven to the terrorists we hunt in Afghani-stan, with little help. No more!” he wrote in his New Year’s Day tweet, referring to Pakistan.

Officials said the adminis-tration had frozen payments from the “coalition support fund” set aside to reimburse Pakistani spending on counter-terror operations, worth $900 million.

Also in question is almost $1 billion of US military equipment that has allowed Pakistan access to advanced military technology.

Abe kicks off European tourAP

TALLINN: Japan’s prime minister has kicked off a five-day European tour to Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, Serbia and Romania -- becoming the first-ever head of the Asian nation to visit those countries.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe arrived yesterday in Estonia’s capital of Tallinn, where he focused on cybersecurity and information technology issues.

The small Baltic nation of 1.3 million people is considered one of Europe’s most advanced tech-nological nations.

Tokyo has been increasingly worried about potential cyber-threats from North Korea and China, and is looking to learn from Estonia, whose public institutions and private compa-nies were hit by a large-scale cyberattack in 2007.

Following a meeting with Estonian Prime Minister Juri Ratas, Abe said both leaders

agreed about the threat posed by North Korea’s nuclear arms programme.

He urged the international community to “maximise the pressure” on Pyongyang.

Abe announced that Japan would join Nato’s cyberdefence center in Tallinn to boost its capabilities to deal with digital threats.

Abe also met with Estonian President Kersti Kaljulaid over discussions on EU-Japan rela-tions and bilateral trade.

AFP

KABUL: US Forces carried out an airstrike on an Afghan government militia after an apparent insider attack in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan sources have said, killing as many as 13 fighters.

The incident occurred on

Thursday as US soldiers were patrolling in the IS militants stronghold of Achin in Nangarhar province, according to Hakim Khan, a commander of the gov-ernment militia involved in the incident.

He said there had been a “shooting incident” after which US forces conducted an airstrike

targeting the militia. Khan said at least 13 fighters

were killed in the airstrike, though other sources gave con-flicting figures. A witness saw at least eight militia fighters buried on Friday morning.

Nato’s Resolute Support mis-sion in Afghanistan confirmed there had been an airstrike, but

said it had targeted insurgents after they opened fire on an Afghan militia leader, a US sol-dier and an interpreter.

It said 10 insurgents were killed but denied reports from local sources saying that Amer-ican soldiers were among the dead.

“An insurgent affiliated

group posing as local militia... baited a local Afghan militia leader and a US service member with an Afghan interpreter into a compound under the pretense of a security...meeting,” said spokesman Captain Tom Gresback.

At the end of the meeting “multiple members of the

insurgent group” started shooting, killing the militia leader and wounding the US soldier and interpreter. Gresback did not disclose which branch of the mil-itary the troops were from.

Two sources said that the air-strike came after an “infiltrator” in the militia shot at the Amer-ican troops.

Four Rohingyas dead in Dhaka camp fire

AFP

COX’S Bazar: A Rohingya woman and three children perished when a fire gutted their tent shelter in a UN camp in Bangladesh, author-ities said yesterday.

Police and a Red Crescent official said a candle sparked the fire late Thursday at a UN-run transit camp for ref-ugees in Ghumdum border village.

“Seven people were severely burnt. They were shifted to a Red Crescent field hospital where two people died last night and another two died this morning (Friday),” Ikram Elahi Chow-dhury, a regional head of the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, said.

The victims had only arrived from Myanmar in the past week and were waiting at the transit centre to be shifted to a refugee camp in Cox’s Bazar district.

Joseph Tripura, a spokesman for the UN ref-ugee agency UNHCR, said an investigation had been started.

“We are working closely with the Bangladeshi author-ities to ascertain how the fire started and how tragedies like this can be prevented in the future,” he said in a statement.

More than 650,000 Rohingya have arrived in Bangladesh since August 25 after Myanmar’s security forces launched what the UN and US officials have called ethnic cleansing in the coun-try’s Rakhine state.

US Central Command chief General Joseph Votel told General Qamar Javed Bajwa that the “US is not contemplating any unilateral action inside Pakistan”.

Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe (right) shakes hands with Estonian Prime Minister Jüri Ratas as they meet in Tallinn, Estonia, yesterday.

Duterte’s trust rating back to ‘excellent’: PollREUTERS

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte’s trust rating bounced back to “excellent” in December from “very high” three months before, with four of every five adult Filipinos giving him the highest score in a survey that focused on his personality.

Duterte’s trust rating in pollster Social Weather Station’s(SWS) quarterly sur-veys had been “excellent” from the time he took power in June 2016 until June last year, before it dipped in the third quarter, raising questions about whether he might be starting to lose his almost rock-star appeal.

Although that rating was

still high, the size of the fall - 18 points - was notable for a former southern mayor who is regarded by millions of working class Filipinos as the best hope for long overdue change after a succession of Manila-centric leaders who failed to deliver.

But Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said the latest survey showed the public recog-nised that Duterte was exercising political will to address security and crime problems and ensure sustained economic growth.

“He has promoted the rule of law against the threats of ter-rorism and, of course, he is win-ning the war against drugs,” he told reporters, referring to Duterte’s signature and deadly anti-narcotics campaign.

13 militants killed in US airstrikes in Afghanistan

UN Security Council mulls trip to AfghanistanAFP

UNITED NATIONS: The UN Security Council is considering a visit to Afghanistan to get an up-close view of the conflict-ridden country and help develop a new strategy, Kazakhstan’s UN ambassador said.

US national security adviser H R McMaster on Tuesday briefed ambassadors of the 15-member council in New York following a series of high-profile US visits to Afghanistan, including that of Vice President Mike Pence last month.

“We think it’s important for Security Council members to get the update of the situation from the ground,” said Kazakh Ambas-sador Kairat Umarov, the council’s president for this month.

“We would like them to feel the situation there and work with the Afghan government on what the needs are.”

No date was announced for the visit, which would be the first by the full council to Afghanistan in seven years.

US President Donald Trump in August unveiled a new strategy for Afghanistan, vowing to deploy more troops, on top of the 11,000 already in the country, to train and advise Afghan security forces.

Jakarta protest ban on Facebook accountsAP

JAKARTA: Muslims marched in Indonesia’s capital yesterday to protest Facebook’s blocking of accounts belonging to their group.

About 200 protesters organ-ised by the Islamic Defenders Front, known by its Indonesian acronym FPI, marched after yesterday prayers from a mosque to the Facebook Indo-nesia office, which was guarded by hundreds of police. They halted traffic along the way as they chanted “Allah Akbar.”

Many carried banners saying “Don’t persecute Muslims” and “Please don’t judge our status on Facebook.”

The group wants to impose

Shariah law in the secular nation.

FPI spokesman Slamet Maarif said they were demanding an explanation of why Facebook had blocked the group’s accounts while allowing ones that denounced its leaders and Islam.

“We want justice and no more discrimination against Islamic accounts,” he said.

Facebook spokeswoman Putri Ariani said it allows people to use its social networking site to challenge ideas and raise awareness, but removes content that promotes hatred and vio-lence against people with dif-ferent views.

Indonesia is the world’s most populous Muslim country, but has a secular government and a reputation as a tolerant, pluralist society that respects freedom of expression.

Most Indonesians practice a moderate form of Islam, but a small extremist fringe has become more vocal in recent years.

FPI spokesman Slamet Maarif said they were demanding an explanation of why Facebook had blocked the group’s accounts while allowing ones that denounced its leaders and Islam.

Women hold banners during a demonstration against events, groups and profiles of Islamic contents being blocked by Facebook in front of Facebook office in Jakarta, yesterday.

07SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018 EUROPE

Merkel reaches deal with SPD for coalitionAFP

BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel said her conservatives reached a breakthrough deal yesterday with Germany’s second biggest party, the Social Democrats, to build a new coali-tion government to give Europe a “fresh start”.

After more than 24 hours of talks and months of political paralysis, red-eyed party chiefs and their negotiating teams reached an in-principle agree-ment that could lead to a new government for the biggest EU economy in coming months.

In the all-night negotiations in Berlin, the three sides—Mer-kel’s Christian Democrats, Horst Seehofer of her Bavarian allies the CSU, and the Social Demo-crats (SPD) of Martin Schulz—hammered out a 28-page paper as the basis for the formal coa-lition talks ahead.

The hope was to form a new government “before Easter”, which falls on April 1, said the CSU’s Seehofer.

In their joint blueprint, the parties agreed on key policy out-lines—to join EU partner France in a push to “strengthen and reform” the eurozone, to limit the influx of asylum seekers to Ger-many to around 200,000 a year, and to refrain from tax hikes given the healthy state of state coffers.

Merkel voiced relief that the trio of parties had passed a mile-stone, telling a press conference that “the world is not waiting for us—we need a fresh start in Europe. A fresh start for Europe is also a fresh start for Germany.”

European Commission

president Jean-Claude Juncker said the German deal was “sig-nificant” and “positive” for the EU’s future, while Paris also greeted it.

Despite the agreement, potential pitfalls remain, including upcoming votes by sceptical SPD delegates and members that could yet derail plans for another left-right “grand coalition”—the constel-lation that has ruled Germany for the past four years and remains in charge as a caretaker government.

Germany has been in polit-ical limbo since a September 24 election in which Merkel failed to win a clear majority—in part

due to the rise of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) which took millions of votes from all major parties.

Merkel initially turned to two smaller parties, the Free Demo-crats and Greens, to form a new coalition government for her fourth term. But when those talks collapsed in November, she had to once more woo a reluctant SPD for a new power pact.

Merkel, Seehofer and Schulz went into the talks Thursday warning of major obstacles ahead but also knowing that their political lives were on the line, given their poor election showings.

“It would be the end for all

three if this coalition does not come about,” said Karl-Rudolf Korte of Duisburg-Essen University.

The coalition blueprint starts with Europe, pledging to, “in close partnership with France, sustain-ably strengthen and reform the eurozone so that the euro can better withstand global crises”.

The plan supports the crea-tion of a European Monetary Fund that could lend to countries in economic crisis, but only pledges to study other Macron ideas, including a common euro-zone budget and finance minister.

The deal cleared a first hurdle when the SPD’s 45-member board approved it. But it could still be torpedoed when 600 party delegates need to approve it at a congress on January 21, or in a final vote by more than 400,000 rank and file members.

Scepticism is high after the SPD scored a humiliating 20.5-percent result in the Sep-tember ballot, its worst of the post-war era.

That initially led Schulz to vow to head into opposition to rebuild the party’s fighting spirit and voter appeal.

The SPD’s youth wing chief Kevin Kuehnert said he would embark on a national tour to

press his case against a new grand coalition, known as “GroKo” in German political shorthand.

The deal “smells strongly of a continuation of the governing style we know from the last grand coalition, which didn’t do much good for society or for the SPD,” he said.

Opinion polls suggest most Germans are less than enthusi-astic about a GroKo, with a Focus magazine survey giving it just 30 percent support.

Political observers also judge that Merkel, damaged by the poor election outcome and sub-sequent stalemate, is now in the twilight phase of her reign.

“Angela Merkel is past her zenith,” Oskar Niedermayer of Berlin’s Free University told business daily Handelsblatt recently.

“In the interest of her party’s electoral strength, she should not stay in office for the entire leg-islative term.”

In their joint blueprint, the parties agreed on key policy outlines—to join EU partner France in a push to “strengthen and reform” the eurozone, to limit the influx of asylum seekers to Germany to around 200,000 a year, and to refrain from tax hikes given the healthy state of state coffers.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (centre); Bavarian Prime Minister Horst Seehofer (left); and Social Democratic Party, SPD chairman Martin Schulz hold a joint press conference after the exploratory talks, in Berlin, yesterday.

Macron welcomes German political dealREUTERS

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron yesterday welcomed a deal in Germany between Chancellor Angela Merkel and Social Democrat (SPD) that paves the way for a coalition government, saying its provisional terms were good for Europe.

Macron in September offered an ambitious vision for Euro-pean renewal, but has had to wait since for a response from EU powerhouse Germany, with much on hold there after parliamen-tary elections.

The deal reached by Merkel and the SPD pledges close coop-eration with France on strengthening the euro zone, in Berlin’s first substantive response to Macron’s proposals.

“We have had this morning ... good news from the other side of the Rhine,” Macron told a news conference with Austrian Chan-cellor Sebastian Kurz. “We need more Europe and from what I saw of the provisional deal it acknowledges that.”

The terms of the deal are more favourable to the European project than previous attempts for a German coalition govern-ment did at the end of last year, Macron said, adding that he was happy to find in the deal echoes of his own proposals.

UK crown jewels hidden in biscuit tin during WWIIAFP

LONDON: Precious stones from Britain’s crown jewels were hidden in a biscuit tin and buried at Windsor Castle during World War II, a BBC documen-tary to be shown tomorrow reveals.

Gems, including the Black Prince’s Ruby from the Impe-rial State Crown, were buried under a secret exit from the mediaeval castle used in times of emergency.

The operation, intended to ensure the priceless gems did not fall into Nazi hands, was ordered by Queen Elizabeth II’s (pic-tured) father, king George VI.

It was such a closely-guarded secret that Queen Elizabeth, 91, who spent the 1939-1945 war at Windsor Castle for safety, did not know the details.

“What was so lovely was that the Queen had no knowl-edge of it. Telling her seemed strangely odd,” said royal com-mentator Alastair Bruce, who presents the documentary.

The details were unearthed by Oliver Urquhart Irvine, the assistant keeper of the Royal Archives.

Bruce told The Times news-paper that an “electric set of let-ters” from Owen Morshead, the royal librarian, to Queen Mary, King George VI’s mother, shed light on the mystery.

Morshead’s documents describe how a hole was dug in chalk earth and two chambers with steel doors were created.

The trap door, used to access the secret area where the tin box was kept, is still there.

Bruce discusses the crown jewels with Queen Elizabeth in an exceptionally rare conver-sation recorded for television. The monarch has never given an interview.

She described the Imperial State Crown, worn for the state opening of parliament and weighing 1.28 kilogrammes, as “very unwieldy”.

“Fortunately, my father and I have about the same sort of shaped head. But once you put it on, it stays. I mean, it just remains itself.”

“And you can’t look down

to read the speech—you have to take the speech up. Because if you did, your neck would break, or it would fall off.

“So there are some disad-vantages to crowns, but other-wise they’re quite important things.”

The crown, made for King George’s coronation in 1937, is set with 2,868 diamonds including 17 sapphires, 11 emer-alds and hundreds of pearls, including four known as Queen Elizabeth I’s earrings.

It also features the Black Prince’s Ruby, believed to have been worn by King Henry V in his helmet at the Battle of Agin-court in 1415.

Suspect over Russian envoy’s assassination remandedANATOLIA

ANKARA: A suspect was remanded in custody in capital Ankara yesterday as part of a probe into the assas-sination of former Russian ambassador to Turkey, according to a security source.

Ambassador Andrey Karlov died after being shot multiple times at an art exhi-bition in Ankara on December 19, 2016.

He was delivering a speech when the assailant, 22-year-old Turkish policeman Mevlut Mert Alt-intas, opened fire.

Yesterday, a former Infor-mation and Communication Technologies Authority worker, H K, was arrested, a security official, who asked not to be named due to restrictions on talking to the media, said.

A court in Ankara later remanded the suspect in cus-tody on the charge of “asso-ciation in plotting man-slaughter”, the source added yesterday.

Earlier, six people were arrested, including three police officers, Guru Media Broadcast Group Chairman Hayreddin Aydinbas and organizer of the exhibition, Mustafa Timur Ozkan.

Turkish-Russian relations were tested after Karlov’s assassination. However, Rus-sian President Vladimir Putin described the shooting as a “provocation” designed to undermine bilateral ties.

Putin last December signed an executive order awarding Karlov the title of the Hero of the Russian Federation.

Bulgaria to help boost EU-Turkey relations

‘Puigdemont cannot rule Catalonia’REUTERS

MADRID: The Spanish govern-ment dismissed outright yesterday the possibility of former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont ruling the region from self-imposed exile in Brus-sels, and said Madrid would contest any attempt to do so in the courts.

Catalan separatists agreed on Wednesday to try to re-elect Puigdemont as regional leader, raising the scenario of the fugi-tive former leader governing by video link from Belgium. He faces arrest in Spain for sedition and rebellion.

“Parliamentary rules are very clear,” said Spanish gov-ernment spokesman Inigo Mendez de Vigo at a weekly press conference. “They do not contemplate the possibility of a (parliamentary) presence that is not in person.”

“This aspiration is a fallacy, it’s totally unrealistic and it goes

against the rule books and common sense,” he added.

Puigdemont spearheaded a movement last year for the wealthy northeastern region of Catalonia to split from Spain, culminating in Madrid sacking his administration and imposing direct rule. He moved to Brus-sels shortly afterwards.

Spanish Prime Minister

Mariano Rajoy held local elections in December to resolve the crisis, which has led to thousands of companies to move their regis-tered headquarters to outside the region.

But the results of the vote delivered a slim majority to sep-aratists, heightening the possi-bility of a renewed push for secession from Spain this year.

AFP

SOFIA: Bulgaria said yesterday it wants to use its EU presidency to improve the bloc’s relations with Turkey “without hiding the problems”, after ties soured over Ankara’s crackdown following an attempted coup.

Bulgaria, which assumed the six-month rotating presi-dency on January 1, stressed the need to preserve the EU’s deal with Ankara to curb record flows of asylum seekers, some of whom cross the Turkish-Bul-garian border.

“We believe Turkey is an important partner of Europe on many issues like refugees, ter-rorism, economy, energy. We should try to improve the rela-tionship with them without hiding the problems,” Bulgarian Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva said.

“It is better to talk honestly -- (whether it is) realistic for Turkey to be a member of the EU or if it is not, what kind of relationship we should have with them.”

The EU has voiced serious concerns about human rights abuses in Turkey particularly during its sweeping purge of public services after the attempt to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in 2016.

Ankara’s relations with Germany have hit a particularly low ebb, with Erdogan notably accusing Chancellor Angela Merkel of “Nazi practices” for refusing to let his ministers campaign in Germany.

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker repeated the bloc’s position that with the crackdown Turkey was “moving away from its Euro-pean ambitions”.

Former Catalan leader Carles Puigdemont with members of his party ‘Junts per Catalunya’ parliament group in Brussels, yesterday.

The investments and cooperation between Qatar and Turkey indicate a long-lasting partnership and friendship.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

08 SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018VIEWS

EDITORIAL

Qatar-Turkey relations are accelerating at a fast pace in all fields. The depth of the friendship between the two countries can be ascertained from the fact that Qatar’s investment in Turkey has surged over $19bn

which happens to be the second highest value by any country in Turkey.

The investment is diversified in promising sectors such as real estate, banking, and food processing industries to name a few. Furthermore, many business and trade missions are visiting Qatar from Turkey and vice-versa. Qatar Chamber recently held a meeting with a business delegation from Turkey which included 21 leaders of companies operating in the furniture industry. The trade volume between the two countries witnessed a huge jump of more than 46 percent last year and is expected to touch $2bn this year.

Qatar Chamber Vice-Chairman Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari said bilateral trade volume between Qatar and Turkey reached over $1.44bn in 2016 against $1.43bn the previous year. Qatar’s exports to Turkey in 2016 stood at $908.5m, while imports of goods from Turkey was $538.9m. The trade balance continued to be in favour of Qatar at $369.6m. The total investments Turkish construction companies are working on exceed

$11.6bn, most of which are related to the 2022 World Cup projects. Major Qatari exports to Turkey included petroleum oils and its products and plastic and its products.

Taking the level of cooperation to newer heights, nearly 150 Turkish companies representing seven different sectors will showcase their products and services in Qatar in three-day Expo Turkey by Qatar 2018 from January 17 to 19. The Expo will present a range of Turkish companies highlighting the best in real estate, furniture and food,

as well as health and construction. Organisers say as many as 3,000 professional visitors and 10,000 visitors are likely to visit the expo.

Recently, Qatar Post launched e-commerce platform – Turkish Souq – in partnership with Turkish Post that will provide access to up to 5 million Turkish products ranging from clothing, shoes and accessories as well as vehicle parts and everything in-between. Also, Turkish pharmaceutical firm CinnaGen signed a $6m deal with Qatar’s leading drug company Ebn Sina Medical. Currently, Turkey’s pharmaceutical exports to Qatar stands at about $1.2m.

Since the siege in June last year, Turkey has sent cargo ships and hundreds of planes loaded with food items to help Qatar offset the blockade and the volume of this trade is still growing. The investments and cooperation between the two countries indicate a long-lasting partnership and friendship. Enhancing ties will achieve further growth and prosperity that will serve the industry well in both the countries.

Partners in progress

QUOTE OF THE DAY

These are shocking and shameful comments

from the President of the United States. There

is no other word one can use but ‘racist’.

Rupert Colville UN Human Rights

Spokesman

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

Ali Abdullah Saleh’s assassination and Yemen’s tribes

GAMAL GASIM

AL JAZEERA

GERMAN sociologist Max Weber’s highly cited definition of the modern state as a “community that (successfully) claims the

monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory” does not fit well with the case of Yemen.

In North Yemen, some tribes have enjoyed autonomous political and military power since the start of the civil war in 1962. In South Yemen, Yemeni Socialist Party (YSP) partially succeeded in controlling the

tribes, but military conflicts within the party, including the 1986 civil war in the south, were still fought along tribal lines. The unification of North and South Yemen in 1990 also failed to establish modern state institutions in the country, allowing some

tribal leaders to maintain their political influence to this day.

When Ali Abdullah Saleh came to power in North Yemen in 1978, and became the first president of unified Yemen in 1990, he was well aware of the importance of tribes. Thus, he expended an enormous amount of political capital and financial resources to establish alliances with key tribal leaders.

The most significant tribal alliance he established was with the late Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar, who headed the powerful Hashid tribal federation for more than four decades, until his death in 2007. The Sheikh, who also served as the speaker of the House of Representatives between 1993 and 2007, once described his complicated relationship with Saleh by stating that “Saleh is my president, but I’m his sheikh.”

During his time in power, Saleh showered tribal leaders and key figures from Hashid, Sanaa - Saleh’s own tribe and also part of the Hashid federation - and other tribes with the highest military positions, government contracts, and generous financial support. Saleh also allowed Saudi Arabia to continue its patronage of key Yemeni tribal leaders, including Sheikh al-Ahmar. Yet, in the final days before his assassination, none of Yemen’s tribal leaders answered Saleh’s calls for help. Why did these tribes decide to abandon Saleh? Why did they not come to his rescue? And does this indicate the end of tribal politics in Yemen?

The collapse of Saleh’s tribal alliances did not come as a surprise to anyone following Yemen’s political scene closely.

First, cracks in President Saleh’s alliance with the Hashid federation started

to appear in the 2000’s, when he attempted to pave the way for his eldest son, Ahmed, to succeed him. In an attempt to secure Ahmed’s path to power, Saleh started assigning a new generation of actors loyal to him to important posts, while simultaneously attempting to sideline his old tribal and military allies, including Sheikh al-Ahmar and General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, who was once Saleh’s top military aide.

Saleh’s decision to designate his son, Ahmed, as heir to the presidency raised significant concerns, as well as political jealousy, among younger sheikhs, including the likes of Hamid al-Ahmar, who is the wealthiest and most influential among the sons of Sheikh Abdullah al-Ahmar. Consequently, when the Yemeni uprising erupted in 2011, most tribal leaders positioned themselves against the president. During and after the Yemeni uprising, Saleh did not realise that by weakening the Hashid federation and his former military allies such as General Ali Mohsen al-Ahmar, he was actually undermining his own residual political and military power.

The delicate, domestic balance of power that had supported Saleh for more than three decades completely withered in 2014, when Saleh reached out to the Houthis, his former enemies, to forge the most controversial and bewildering political coalition of his lifetime.

Even when the Houthis demolished Sheikh al-Ahmar’s house in Khamir later that year, Saleh failed to question the reliability of his new allies. He mistakenly thought that his freshly-minted alliance with the Houthis would ensure his security and save him from a similar faith. This, of course, was not the case. What Saleh failed to understand was that political ambitions of the Houthis would not allow the survival of any rival political power in the long run, whether this political power was a tribal leader or a former president with ambitions of returning to power.

The Houthis, a group of Shia rebels that currently control the capital, Sanaa, and large expanses of the country, emerged on Yemen’s political scene equipped with deeply rooted social connections and an extensive understating of the best practices in tribal mobilisation. They shrewdly exploited the increased gap between rich tribal leaders and their economically deprived tribesmen. A large segment of the tribesmen who joined the Houthis had been neglected for years by both the government and their own tribal leaders. With little education and a “nothing to lose” mentality, these poor tribesmen saw in the Houthis an exciting opportunity to improve their own economic well being. These tribesmen, poor but highly skilled in military conflicts, have fuelled the Houthis’ quick rise to power.

With a slogan as unrelated to Yemeni domestic politics as “death to America, death to Israel”, these tribesmen eliminated all Houthi opponents in quick succession. Even though they belonged to various tribes, they wasted little time replacing their old tribal allegiances with a strong allegiance to the Houthis, who presented themselves as the progenies of the Zaydi heritage in North Yemen. Indeed, Zaydism has been the official doctrine of the government that ruled

North Yemen for about a thousand years.Some of Saleh’s tribal allies joined the

Houthis in their 2014 military march towards Sanaa to politically eliminate President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, the Islah Party, and the al-Ahmar family on direct orders from the former president. But it did not take very long for these tribesmen to see the Houthis as a rising power and Saleh as a lost cause, and they swiftly shifted alliances.

Furthermore, the Houthis used extreme coercive measures against tribal and military opponents, including demolishing homes, confiscating businesses, and displacing families. These brutal tactics made some of Saleh’s remaining tribal allies reluctant about coming to his rescue when he needed them most.

Saleh’s patronage system was significantly weakened once he stepped down from the presidency in 2012, because he was not able to support it financially. When he left the presidency, Saleh lost control of the state’s financial resources, as well as his influence over the Saudi patronage system in Yemen.

It is believed that Saleh accumulated vast wealth during his time in power, but he certainly did not spend this money to keep his tribal allies happy after he left office. Most importantly, when the Houthis targeted and humiliated some of Saleh’s tribal allies and loyal military officers, he did nothing to stop them. On the contrary, he continued to assure the public that his alliance with the Houthis was intact against the Saudi-led coalition. The Houthis exploited Saleh’s mistakes extremely well, and gradually worked towards alienating him further from his remaining tribal allies.

Thus, when Saleh called for his tribal allies to stand up against the Houthis, just two days before his assassination, nobody came to his rescue. Instead, the Houthis acted very swiftly and surrounded his residence before killing him and officially rendering his patronage system obsolete.

Does this mean that there will be no future return of tribal politics in post-Houthis’ Yemen? That is unlikely to happen. Ma’rb Sunni tribes’ support for the government of President Hadi suggests that Yemeni tribes will continue to play a significant role in the country’s future. It will undoubtedly require a strong political will and a lot more effort for Yemen to one day fit into the Weberian definition of a modern state.

Ma’rb Sunni tribes’ support for the government of President Hadi suggests that Yemeni tribes will continue to play a significant role in the country’s future. It will undoubtedly require a strong political will and a lot more effort for Yemen to one day fit into the Weberian definition of a modern state.

In North Yemen, some tribes have enjoyed autonomous political and military power since the start of the civil war in 1962.

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

MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4462 7505

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4455 7769

LOCAL NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7743

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION TEL: 4462 7535

SPORT NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7745

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be send to editor-in-chief office or mailed to the editorinchief@pen.com.qa

A few months into his campaign, Trump shared an image on Twitter that suggested that the vast majority of killings of white people in the United States were committed by black people. This isn’t at all true. Most white people are killed by white people.

PHILIP BUMP

THE WASHINGTON POST

DONALD Trump’s presidential campaign began - within the first five

minutes - with his accusing immigrants from Mexico of being criminals. Not all of them, mind you; some of them, he assumed, were good people. Some. A few. This ended up being a prominent theme in his presidency, painting immigrants as criminals with a broad brush, such as when he traveled to Long Island to position the violence perpetrated by the MS-13 gang as an unavoidable result of immigrants entering the country illegally.

A few months into his campaign, Trump shared an image on Twitter that suggested that the vast majority of killings of white people in the United States were committed by black people. This isn’t at all true. Most white people are killed by white people. But Trump never apologized or corrected the tweet, instead quietly

deleting it. The same theme cropped up repeatedly afterward, including his constant tying together of black Americans, inner cities and violent crime.

A month after that tweet, Trump declared that the United States should disallow entry to anyone who is Muslim. No other caveats or subcategories were identified, just “a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States,” full stop. Once in office, this became his ban on immigration from Muslim-majority nations, a ban that multiple courts understood as nothing more sophisticated than what he’d proposed in December 2015.

Nearly every time a Muslim is accused of terrorism, Trump seizes on it as a way to link Muslims to terrorism. Last month, he kicked up an international incident when he retweeted misleading anti-Muslim videos from a racist British

activist. (When a white supremacist was charged with terrorism last year, the administration was all but silent.)

All of that context - that Hispanics, Muslims and black Americans are dangerous - is worth considering in light of the comments that have trickled out of the White House over the past few weeks.

On Thursday, The Washington Post reported that during an Oval Office meeting earlier in the day, Trump had angrily lamented “having all these people from shithole countries come here.” Those countries were ones like Haiti or African nations, our Josh Dawsey reported - not like Norway, whose prime minister Trump met with Wednesday and whose citizens he expressed comfort in allowing across our borders. (Update: The New York Times writes that Trump also asked, “Why do we want people from Haiti here?”)

That view of immigrants is in keeping with his description of the visa lottery as a system that selects the “worst” immigrants for entry into the United States. Trump sees immigrants as belonging to one of two categories, good or bad - and the bad immigrants are often the ones who aren’t coming from Europe.

The comments reported by Dawsey also bring to mind a report from the Times about a similar meeting in June, during which Trump allegedly referred to Afghanistan as a terrorist haven, described residents of Haiti as all “hav[ing] AIDS” and migrants from Nigeria as being unlikely to “go back to their huts” once they came to the United States.

The White House press secretary denied that Trump made those comments. In a statement sent to Dawsey, the White House did not explicitly deny that Trump made the “shithole”

comment.We dance around the

word “racist” a lot, because calling someone a racist is a heavy charge that’s often nearly impossible to prove. New York radio host Jay Smooth once drew an important distinction that’s worth remembering. Instead of saying someone is racist, it’s more useful to point out that the things they said are racist, because that is both more defensible objectively and less likely to seem like an ad hominem attack.

So: Saying that Haiti and African countries are shitholes, unlike Norway, and claiming that Nigerians live in huts and that Haitians have AIDS and that Afghans are terrorists - and, for that matter, that Mexican immigrants are criminals and that black Americans live in the crime-ridden inner cities and that Muslims are too dangerous to allow into the country?

Those are racist statements.

Americans, perhaps unfamiliar with Mr. Smooth’s distinction, are generally willing to ascribe racial bias to the president. Half the country thinks he’s biased against black people, according to a November poll conducted by The Post and ABC News. A Quinnipiac poll last month found that 57 percent of Americans think Trump doesn’t respect people of color as much as he respects white people - a finding that’s certainly bolstered by the comments Dawsey reported today.

Those polls came in the aftermath of the unrest in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August, during which a woman was killed when a man slammed his car into a crowd of people peacefully protesting a white supremacist rally. After that violence, Trump equated the views of the neo-Nazi and racist protesters with the views of those who turned out to oppose the white nationalist views. Days after

IN a makeshift bamboo clinic, small children struggle to draw breath through surgical masks, victims of a forgotten but deadly disease that

has torn through the teeming Rohingya refugee camps in Bangladesh.

Diphtheria had been all but eradicated in Bangladesh until last year, when more than 650,000 Rohingya poured across the border fleeing a bloody military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

Packed into an area meant for a much smaller number of refugees and with little sanitation or healthcare, the new arrivals provided fertile ground for the highly contagious respiratory disease to take hold.

It quickly spread through the camps, with the World Health Organization reporting more than 3,600 cases.

The outbreak has already claimed the lives of at least 30 refugees, mostly children, while a handful of Bangladeshis living near the camps have also contracted the disease.

Carla Pla, head nurse at the specialist diphtheria unit run by medical charity MSF (Doctors Without Borders), said children were arriving with “severe” symptoms.

“This is a very challenging situation,

because everyday there are coming more children, and the challenge to get the vaccine is also something that is very difficult,” she told AFP at the unit.

Nearly 600 refugees have been referred there since it opened in December, putting enormous pressure on doctors also struggle to treat rampant malnutrition, water-borne disease and other diseases in the camps.

When AFP visited this week most of the patients were small children, some of them clearly struggling to breathe.

Bangladesh authorities were prepared for other diseases and moved quickly to inoculate the new arrivals against cholera and measles to prevent a health disaster.

But the emergence of diphtheria, which causes difficulty breathing and can lead to heart failure, paralysis and death if left untreated, caught aid workers off guard.

“We were taken aback when tests confirmed diphtheria in the camps. It was a long-lost disease in our country,” said Abdus Salam, the chief medical officer for Cox’s Bazar district, where the camps are located.

“Immediately, we acquired vaccines from abroad for an emergency response.”

In December, they launched a huge vaccination push. Nearly 320,000 children aged under 15 have now been inoculated and another 160,000 children are expected to receive the vaccine this month.

High rates of vaccination mean diphtheria has become increasingly rare in much of the world, although Yemen is currently suffering an outbreak.

But the Rohingya come from impoverished Rakhine state, where state-imposed restrictions have ensured abysmal living standards for the persecuted Muslim community, and many children are not vaccinated.

Pla said it was challenging for staff

treating a disease that “only existed in the textbooks for all these years”, with many doctors seeing live cases for the first time in their careers.

Mohammad Hossain assumed his son, now being treated in the MSF clinic, had the same minor throat infection affecting other Rohingya children in the refugee camp.

“I thought it was tonsilitis. But the doctors said it was much more serious,” Hossain told AFP, wearing a protective mask as he tended to the 11-year-old.

The appearance of diphtheria, long forgotten in many parts of the world, has compounded the misery for close to one million displaced Rohingya Muslims living in extreme hardship near the border with Myanmar.

Seven specialist diphtheria field clinics have been set up to treat the rising number of patients since the outbreak, said WHO’s Southeast Asia emergency director Roderico Ofrin.

Together the wards house 400 beds for patients, but a shortage of doctors has required medics to be flown in from Britain and elsewhere to help battle the outbreak.

Treatment involves administering an antitoxin and antibiotics.

At the MSF ward, where Hossain’s son Mohammad Rashed is making a slow recovery, medics wearing single-use scrubs work in tented-off wards treating patients.

Everyone coming into contact with the tents, set away in an isolated clearing, must wear masks and wash their hands in chlorinated water.

Preventing infected patients from coming into contact with the wider, largely unvaccinated population of Rohingya remains a priority, doctors said.

Rohingya community leaders meanwhile are trying to spread awareness about this resurgent disease to offset a full-blown epidemic.

Trump’s presidency laced with racist rhetoric

Deadly ‘long-lost disease’ rages through Rohingya camps

SAM JAHAN

AFP

09SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018 OPINION

Diphtheria had been all but eradicated in Bangladesh until last year, when more than 650,000 Rohingya poured across the border fleeing a bloody military crackdown in neighbouring Myanmar.

the protests, he called out the racism as unacceptable - and the next day declared that there were “very fine people on both sides,” including the side protesting arm in arm with the Nazis. Trump didn’t like to call the racists racist, but, as our Chris Ingraham noted, was often willing to call black people racist on Twitter - three times as often as he used the term to describe white people.

Racial tension is why Trump is president. His excoriation of illegal Mexican immigrants - and the fight with corporate entities and celebrities that ensued - built up a core base of support within the Republican Party that helped him earn the party’s nomination. Analysis of the general election found that a key reason that less-educated Americans were more likely to support his candidacy was racial attitudes. In swing states, voters preferred Hillary Clinton on the economy - and Trump on the issues of terrorism and immigration.

Often, successful presidential candidates shed their campaign-trail rhetoric in search of a message that can be used to unify the American people behind the presidency. Trump has never made any effort to do so. He has the same attitudes now as he did on the campaign trail, clearly, and those attitudes seem to be that blacks, Hispanics and Muslims are dangerous or otherwise undesirable..

10 SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018EUROPE

AFP

GENEVA: A family was taken

hostage in Switzerland yes-

terday to force the head of a

precious metals company to

hand over large amounts of

gold, police said.

The hostages were later

released unharmed, while

a manhunt was underway

for the six hostage-takers

in neighbouring France, the

regional Neuchatel police said

in a statement.

“At dawn, six individu-

als took a family hostage in

Chaux-de-Fonds.

Police spokesman Pierre-

Louis Rochaix said yesterday

that the family consisted of

a father, mother and a child

aged around 10.

“They were taken hos-

tage at their home,” he said,

adding that no physical vio-

lence appeared to have been

used.

NEWS BYTES

Family taken hostage in Swiss gold heist

Greece, Macedonia move to end name disputeREUTERS

SKOPJE: Macedonia and Greece have agreed to form working groups led by foreign ministers to hold talks on a solution to the 25-year dispute over the name of the former Yugoslav Republic, Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov (pictured) said yesterday.

Success in resolving the issue would open Macedonia’s path towards Nato and EU member-ship, which has been blocked by Athens which says the name Macedonia implies a territorial claim over Greece’s own northern region of that name.

The new government of Prime Minister Zoran Zaev which took over last May pledged to work closer with Greece to bring the 2 million-strong nation closer to EU and Nato membership.

Dimitrov met his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, on Thursday in Thessaloniki to dis-cuss ways to move forward in the long-standing dispute.

“We parted convinced that

there is a will on both sides to move forward,” Dimitrov said yesterday.

He said that both parties agreed to form working groups led by foreign ministers to directly negotiate possible solu-tions to the name dispute.

“I expect the first meeting could come as early as Feb-

ruary,” Dimitrov said.The talks on the name dis-

pute are mediated by a United Nations envoy, US diplomat Mat-thew Nimmitz, who is due to meet chief negotiators from both countries next Wednesday.

Foreign ministers have not been involved in negotiations directly.

Under a 1995 accord, Greece agreed to allow the country to be referred to internationally only as “the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia” until the dispute is resolved.

That is the formal name under which Macedonia was admitted to the United Nations in 1993, and still the name Nato, the EU and other bodies use for it, even though it broke away in 1991 from Yugoslavia, a country that no longer exists.

“We have a huge responsi-bility,” Dimitrov said adding that Macedonia is aware of concerns its neighbours may have.

“It is clear that the identity is very important for us. We have to find a way to convince our Greek colleagues that there is a clear distinction between our country and a region which includes northern Greece,” he said.

Dimitrov added that Mace-donia, which was granted Euro-pean Union candidacy status in 2005, hopes to set a date to start membership talks in June. It is also seeking an invitation to join Nato, which already includes most of its neighbours.

“I am a cautious optimist,” Dimitrov said referring to the resolution of the name dispute.

Greek government officials

have suggested Greece would try to focus on brokering an agree-ment which calls for a compound name with a geographical qualifier.

Macedonia avoided the vio-lence that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia, but was later rocked by an ethnic Alba-nian insurgency that almost tore the country apart in the year 2001.

The country’s ethnic Mace-donian majority speaks a Slavic language closely related to Bul-garian, while a large Albanian minority accounts for a third of the population.

Macedonia is also the name of the largest and second most-populous province in Greece, and of the ancient northern Greek kingdom ruled by Alex-ander the Great.

Czechs vote in presidential pollAFP

PRAGUE: Czechs started heading to the ballot box yesterday in a bellwether two-day presidential election in the EU country pitting pro-Russian incumbent Milos Zeman against his more liberal pro-European rivals.

Polls show the divisive 73-year-old former communist leading the pack of nine candi-dates ahead of Jiri Drahos, the pro-European former head of the Czech Academy of Sciences.

Although he is in pole posi-tion, the outspoken head of state—who uses a cane to walk—is unlikely to win an outright majority and is set to face a run-off vote on January 26 and 27.

A recent poll commissioned by Czech Television showed Drahos winning a second round

with 48.5 percent of the vote against 44 percent for Zeman.

“Of course I’m nervous,” Zeman told Czech daily Dnes, adding that he expected a “dif-ficult” run-off.

Zeman’s rhetoric echoes other populist-minded eastern EU leaders—especially in Hun-gary and Poland—at odds with Brussels over mandatory ref-ugee quotas and various rules they see as attempts to limit national sovereignty.

He also has anti-Muslim views, having once called the 2015 migrant crisis “an organ-ised invasion” of Europe and insisted Muslims were “impos-sible to integrate”.

Paradoxically, the country of 10.6 million people has received only 12 migrants under the EU quota system.

Drahos could not be more different. A mild-mannered

liberal centrist whom critics have dubbed “wishy-washy”, the physically-fit 68-year-old has called for Prague to “play a more active role in the EU”.

“The president should bring good manners to the political scene,” Drahos said in a TV debate.

“The vote shows a broader conflict, it shows how society is polarised,” independent polit-ical analyst Jiri Pehe said.

“It is a clash between... the post-communist part of society represented by Zeman and the other part, say, modern, pro-Western, which simply doesn’t want this president any more.”

Zeman has won the backing of embattled billionaire Prime Minister Andrej Babis, who said on Thursday he saw the incum-bent as “one of the most remarkable personalities” since the fall of communism in 1989.

AFP

WARSAW: The president of a Polish body overseeing judicial impartiality will resign “as a sign of protest” against controversial reforms introduced by the governing conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, its spokesman said yesterday.

Dariusz Zawistowski heads the National Council of the Judi-ciary (KRS), whose recent reforms according to critics risk reducing its independence.

“It’s a cry of despair on the part of the president of the council. The laws reforming the judiciary are on several grounds

a violation of the Polish consti-tution,” KRS spokesman Wal-demar Zurek said.

One of the reforms now allows parliament to choose members of the KRS, while other changes reinforce polit-ical control over the Supreme Court and the Constitutional Court.

The court changes have plunged Poland into a political crisis at home and abroad, leading Brussels to launch unprecedented disciplinary pro-ceedings against Warsaw over what it sees as “systemic threats” to the independence of the Polish judiciary from the

right-wing government. The European Commission’s

decision to trigger article seven of the EU treaty could eventually lead to the “nuclear option” of the suspension of the country’s voting rights within the bloc.

Zawistowski will officially resign on Monday, “on the eve of when the laws reforming the judiciary come into effect,” Zurek said.

Poland’s new Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said on Wednesday that he hoped to be able to explain to the European Commission the basis for the reforms without having to make any concessions.

EU warns Kosovo not to scrap war crimes courtAP

PRISTINA: The European Union has become the latest critic of an attempt by Kosovar lawmakers to amend a law on a war crimes court.

In a statement yesterday, the EU’s office in Kosovo said it is extremely concerned about an initiative from 43 Kosovo lawmakers to do away with a law on the Specialist Chambers and Specialist Prosecutor’s Office. The EU is urging them to withdraw their plan.

“Any attempt to repeal or amend the mandate of the Spe-cialist Chambers ... would jeopardise the joint EU-Kosovo work on the rule of law done in recent years,” it said. “This would adversely impact Kosovo relations with the EU.”

The law was passed in 2015 following US and European pressure on Kosovo’s government to confront alleged war crimes that the Kosovo Liberation Army committed against ethnic Serbs during the 1998-1999 war and after.

The Hague, Netherlands-based court is part of Kosovo’s legal system and has jurisdiction over potential war crimes suspects who were Kosovo citizens. It has yet to hear any cases.

Kosovo siphoned off from Yugoslavia following a three-month Nato air war in 1999 to stop a bloody Serbian crack-down against ethnic Albanian separatists.

It then declared unilateral independence from Serbia in 2008, a move recognised by 114 states but not by Serbia.

Foreign Minister Nikola Dimitrov met his Greek counterpart, Nikos Kotzias, to discuss ways to move forward in the long-standing dispute. He said that both parties agreed to form working groups led by foreign ministers to directly negotiate possible solutions to the name dispute.

An activist is clashing with Czech President Milos Zeman's bodyguards during the country's direct presidential election at a polling station, in Prague, yesterday.

Polish judicial body chief to quit

AP

ROME: Italy’s carabinieri

police say they’ve recovered

about 250 hand-crafted nativ-

ity scene figurines dating from

the 18th century that were

stolen from churches and pri-

vate homes in recent years.

The shepherds, crafted in

the traditional Neapolitan style,

are estimated to be worth over

2 million euros, though police

said their artistic and cultural

value was inestimable. The fig-

ures were displayed at a news

conference yesterday.

Paolo Albano, chief

prosecutor in Isernia, who

coordinated the investiga-

tion, said so far the rightful

owners of just 49 statues have

been identified. The remain-

ing statues will be entrusted

to a foundation until the own-

ers come forward.

Italy recovers stolen antique figurinesDoctor fined after marking

initials on patient’s liverAP

LONDON: A British surgeon who burned his initials into patients’ livers during trans-plant operations was fined $13,600 yesterday, and ordered to perform community service.

Simon Bramhall pleaded guilty last month to two counts of assault in a case a prosecutor called “without legal precedent in criminal law.”

The 53-year-old surgeon resigned from Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham in 2014 after another doctor discovered what he’d done.

The hospital said there had been “no impact whatsoever” on the success of the operations.

Passing sentence at Bir-mingham Crown Court in

central England, judge Paul Farrer said Bramhall displayed “professional arrogance of such magnitude that it strayed into criminal behaviour.”

The judge accepted that the patients were not physically harmed but said one had suf-fered “extreme and enduring” psychological stress after learning what had happened.

“What you did was an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust that these patients had invested in you.”

What you did was an abuse of power and a betrayal of trust that these patients had invested in you, the judge said.

Unrest in GreeceProtesters clash with riot police during a demonstration outside the Parliament building against planned government reforms in Athens, yesterday.

11SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018 AMERICAS

Trump’s ‘racist slur’ sparks outrageANATOLIA

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump yesterday denied using derogatory and vulgar language to describe immigra-tion from Latin American and African countries after wide-spread condemnation of his reported remarks.

“Never said anything derog-atory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country,” Trump wrote on Twitter in a series of posts. “Never said ‘take them out.’ Made up by Dems. I have a wonderful relationship with Hai-tians. Probably should record future meetings - unfortunately, no trust!”

The Haitian government has summoned the top American diplomat in Haiti to explain Trump’s remarks. The US does not have an ambassador in Haiti,

The denial followed the pub-lication of comments in which Trump was quoted as asking lawmakers during a meeting on immigration: “Why are we having all these people from

‘shabby’ countries come here?”He was reportedly referring

to El Salvador, Haiti and some African countries. Of Haitians specifically, Trump reportedly said the US should “take them out” of the country.

“The language used by me at the DACA meeting was tough, but this was not the language used. What was really tough was the outlandish proposal made - a big setback for DACA!” Trump tweeted, referring to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals programme he ended.

The denials, however, were dealt a setback by Democratic Senator Dick Durbin who was present during the meeting and told reporters Trump

“repeatedly” made the “hate-filled” remarks.

“I cannot believe that in the history of the White House, in that Oval Office, any president has ever spoken the words that I personally heard our president speak yesterday,” Durbin said. “You’ve seen the comments in the press. I’ve not read one of them that’s inaccurate.”

Trump made the comments after he grew frustrated about negotiations about renewing protections for people brought to the country illegally as chil-dren, known as “Dreamers”, the Washington Post reported citing people familiar with the discus-sions. Some lawmakers had sought to include protections for Haiti, El Salvador and African countries as part of the negotiation.

“Why do we need more Hai-tians?” Trump asked, according to the post.

One reason might be Trump. His ritzy Mar-a-Lago Club in the state of Florida reportedly hires most of its seasonal workers from Haiti, CNBC reported.

In all, the club received 70 H-2B visas for foreign workers, according to the finance-focused media network.

Trump is slated to head to the resort this weekend.

He will do so as the fallout continues to mount over his remarks. Already, US Ambas-sador to Panama John Feeley resigned from his post and reportedly told the State Depart-ment in a letter he can no longer serve the Trump administration on principle.

The State Department con-firmed Feeley’s retirement in a statement that said it was based on “personal reasons”. It will be effective March 9.

“Ambassador Feeley is a Career Minister in the Senior Foreign Service and one of the Department’s leading Latin America specialists,” spokes-woman Pooja Jhunjhunwala said.

The president has a long his-tory of derogatory remarks about Haitians, Mexicans, Nigerians and Syrian refugees, among others.

He has consistently made disparaging remarks about some ethnic groups, notably calling Mexicans criminals and “rapists”.

“Some, I assume, are good people,” he conceded while announcing his campaign for the White House.

Responding to Trump’s com-ments, Congressman Luis Guti-errez said, “As an American, I am ashamed of the President.”

“We always knew that Pres-ident Trump doesn’t like people from certain countries or people or certain colours. We can now we say with 100 percent confi-dence that the President is a racist who does not share the values enshrined in our Consti-tution or Declaration of Inde-pendence,” he said in a statement.

Gutierrez’s comments were part of a maelstrom of condem-nation that erupted following reports of the Trump’s remarks.

The NAACP (National Asso-ciation for the Advancement of Colored People) denounced Trump’s comments.

“Never said anything derogatory about Haitians other than Haiti is, obviously, a very poor and troubled country,” Trump wrote on Twitter in a series of posts.

Connecticut to release report on Sandy Hook school massacre REUTERS

HARTFORD: The Connecticut State Police are set to release a report analyzing their response to the 2012 Sandy Hook gun massacre of 26 young children and educators at Newtown elementary school, the Hartford Courant reported.

The report will detail state police response to the attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School, one of the five dead-liest mass shootings by a single gunman in US history. It is expected to run to 60 to 80 pages, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

A 20-year-old gunman armed with a high-powered assault rifle launched his attack at the school in a wealthy New York commuter suburb, after killing his mother at their home. He ended the rampage by shooting himself as he heard the sound of approaching police sirens.

Trump cancels UK trip; bashes embassy siteAFP

LONDON: US President Donald Trump announced yesterday he will no longer attend the opening of the new US embassy in London, a move welcomed by critics in Britain who had planned mass protests.

He wrote on Twitter that he was abandoning the trip—ini-tially scheduled for next month—because he did not like the loca-tion and price tag of the new building.

“Reason I canceled my trip to London is that I am not a big fan of the Obama Administra-tion having sold perhaps the best located and finest embassy in London for “peanuts,” only to build a new one in an off loca-tion for 1.2 billion dollars,” Trump wrote.

“Bad deal. Wanted me to cut ribbon - NO!”

There had been speculation that the trip would be merged with a planned state visit to

Britain offered to Trump by Prime Minister Theresa May, which has met with strong public and political opposition.

A spokesman for her Downing Street office said Friday said that the state visit plans have not changed, although no date has yet been set.

Opposition to Trump’s visit was initially focused on his travel ban on Muslim-majority coun-tries, and most recently his re-tweet of anti-Muslim videos posted by a far-right organisa-tion, Britain First.

“Many Londoners have made it clear that Donald Trump is not welcome here while he is pur-suing such a divisive agenda. It seems he’s finally got that mes-sage,” tweeted Mayor of London Sadiq Khan.

He said there would have been “mass peaceful protests”.

Stephen Doughty, an oppo-sition Labour lawmaker, tweeted: “Reason @realDon-aldTrump cancelled trip to

London is that we are not a big fan of his racist, sexist, unthinking behaviour.

“Big protests if he came to cut ribbon. He wanted the red carpet treatment and cheering crowds - NO!”

But leading Brexit cam-paigner Nigel Farage,

who visited Trump following his election, said the decision was “disappointing”.

“He’s been to countries all over the world and yet he’s not been to the one with whom he’s closest,” he said.

Farage said that plans for protests by Labour leader

Jeremy Corbyn and Khan—who has traded barbs with Trump on Twitter—may have been a factor.

“Maybe, just maybe, Sadiq Khan, Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party planning mass pro-tests, maybe those optics he didn’t like the look of.”

Three Chile churches firebombedAP

SANTIAGO: President Michelle Bachelet asked Chil-eans yesterday to receive Pope Francis in a “climate of respect,” hours after three Roman Catholic churches were firebombed and a note left at the scene threatening the pontiff.

In the overnight attacks in Santiago, the capital and largest city where the pope will arrive on Monday, the churches were hit with firebombs and then sprayed with accelerant. At one, the doors were burned before firefighters extinguished the blaze.

“The next bombs will be in your cassock,” read pam-phlets found outside one of the churches.

A bomb squad was also deployed to a fourth church, where a barrel of flammable liquid was believed to be inside.

The pamphlets also exhorted the cause of the Mapuche indigenous people, who are pushing for a return of ancestral lands and other rights. Francis will celebrate Mass and meet with Mapuches on Wednesday.

54% says no to Oprah’s presidential run

Canadian girl’s hijab cut in scissors attackAFP

OTTAWA: A Toronto school-girl was assaulted yesterday by a man who tried to cut off her hijab with scissors and then fled, police said.

Authorities are investi-gating the incident, which occurred at about 9am in or around the Pauline Johnson school in Toronto’s east side, police spokeswoman Katrina Arrogante said.

“The information we have currently is that the child was not injured and the suspect has fled the scene.”

The school serves nearly 300 kindergarten to grade six students “of diverse cultural and socio-economic back-grounds,” according to the local school board.

More than two-thirds speak a language other than English at home.

Pedestrians take pictures of a wax figure of US President Donald Trump outside the new US Embassy in Embassy Gardens, in southwest London, yesterday.

AFP

NEW YORK: Americans may love Oprah Winfrey, but most don’t want the chat show queen to run for president, although if she did she would beat Donald Trump, a poll revealed yesterday.

Winfrey’s rousing speech at on Sunday’s Golden Globe Awards ceremony ignited spec-ulation that the billionaire entertainment mogul, the first black woman to own a televi-sion network, is harboring Oval Office ambitions.

Sixty-four percent of respondents have a favourable view of Winfrey, including 43 percent of Trump supporters, according to the NPR, PBS NewsHour and Marist survey.

But when asked if they wanted Winfrey to run in 2020, only 35 percent said yes. A majority — 54 percent—said no and 11 percent said they were unsure.

Yet if a hypothetical presi-dential head-to-head was held today, 50 percent of national registered voters said they would vote in Winfrey as a Democrat. Only 39 percent said they would return Trump to office.

Voters were predictably

split along party lines. Ninety-one percent of Democrats backed Winfrey.

Eighty-five percent of Republicans said they would vote for Trump.

While there is little indica-tion that 63-year-old Winfrey wants the job, Hollywood’s loathing of Trump and Demo-crats’ bafflement that a reality TV star could win with no pre-vious government experience has fueled talk of finding their own celebrity candidate.

Trump said Tuesday he doubted Winfrey would run, but if she did, he would win.

The survey was carried out among 1,350 adults earlier this week, after Oprah’s speech made headlines.

The poll carried a margin of error of 2.7 percent and three percent among registered voters.

When asked if respondents wanted Winfrey to run in 2020, only 35 percent said yes. A majority — 54 percent — said no and 11 percent said they were unsure.

Peruvians urge leader to step downAFP

LIMA: Thousands of Peruvians took to the streets nationwide to demand that President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski step down over his pardon to former strongman Alberto Fujimori—rallies that ended in clashes between demonstrators and police.

Police used tear gas against protesters in the capital Lima and in San Isidro, to the south.

In Lima, as night fell, pro-t e s t e r s w e r e s t i l l

marching—police put turnout at 5,000, while local television estimated that 8,000 were in the streets.

The 79-year-old Fujimori, who was serving a 25-year sen-tence for human rights abuses committed during his time in office from 1990 to 2000, was pardoned last month.

The move came just days after his son Kenji and other Fujimorist lawmakers abstained from voting on Kuczynski’s impeachment in what was seen

by many as a backroom deal to save the president from corrup-tion charges.

Kuczynski—who defeated Fujimori’s daughter Keiko for the presidency in 2016 -- said he had pardoned the ex-presi-dent for humanitarian reasons, reneging on an election pledge never to do so.

R relatives of those killed under Fujimori’s rule—all dressed in black—led the cor-tege for the rally in central Lima, under the watchful eye of police.

Demonstrators march during a protest against the pardon granted by Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski to former leader Alberto Fujimori, in Lima, yesterday.

12 SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018CLASSIFIEDS

SERVICES

For advertisements, call: 44557857

ARTECHSage Accounting, Peachtree, QuickBooks, Dynacom,

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

ACCOUNTING SOFTWARES

GEM ADVERTISING & PUBLICATIONS(Overseas Newspaper Advertisements)

44442001 - GSM: 55783303

ADVERTISING OVERSEAS NEWSPAPER

ATTESTATION

ELECTRONICS

BUSINESS SET-UP

HELPLINE GROUP OF COMPANIES

77711129/44351974/44919213 www.qatarhelplinegroup.com

COMPUTER & IT

COMPUTER TRAINING CENTRE

FAMILY COMPUTER CENTRE

44435361/44370779 44449130

AL MUTWASSIT CLEANING & PEST CONTROLKharaba Street, Behind White Mosque,

44367555 44367999 GSM: 55875920/55860432

CAPITAL CLEANING COMPANY W.L.L.

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

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE

JEWELLERY

CANARA JEWELLERY

44422071, 44357283

WOKEER INDUSTRIAL AREA

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

LABOUR CAMP

APOLLO FURNITURE

44689522 (3 Lines)

FURNITURE

IMMIGRATION SERVICES

QUEENS LAND SERVICESBusiness Set-up and Sponsorship.

Mob: 77776917 info@qlsqatar.com

INVEST IN QATAR

GENERAL TRADING SERVICES

ARMSTRONG

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

GENERATORS (Sales & Rentals)

ASIA TRANSLATION & SERVICES CENTRE

AL HAYIKI TRANSLATION & SERVICES EST.

ARMSTRONG

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

A/C MAINTENANCE & SERVICES

ALWASEEM TRANSLATION & SERVICES CENTER

-

LEADER MIDDLE EAST W.L.L.

+974 55745147

BUSINESS SET-UP MAID SERVICES

PARTY KINGDOM44353501/

44366431 - E-mail: partykingdom10doha@yahoo.com

PARTY ITEMS & BALLOON DECORATION

ARMSTRONG

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

PORTA CABINS (Sales & Rentals)

MASSAGE

HERBOLIFE MASSAGE (AYURVEDIC)

77521322/44764968

AUTHENTIC THAI MASSAGE CENTERS

KERALA AYURVEDIC MASSAGE CENTER - FOR LADIES.

44147741, Mob: 50007714

KOTTAKKAL AYURVEDIC MASSAGE CENTRE

44360061 GSM: 33453697

MANPOWER SERVICES

NEW STATE CLEANING & PEST CONTROL

Mob+: 466517556/55404339

PEST CONTROL

ARMSTRONG

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

PORTABLE & CHEMICAL TOILETS (Sales & Rentals)

PEST CONTROL

RENT A CAR

REGENCY FLEETS

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

NATIONAL - ALAMO RENT A CAR

5547 8150, 5040 0624

OASIS RENT A CAR

6641 7354 4413 0011 -

AL DAR CAR RENTAL

44877789 44866637

AL MUFTAH RENT A CAR

Website: www.rentacardoha.com

GO RENT A CAR

+974 44325500 44375753 GSM: 33697075/ 66971703/55241629

For advertisements, call: 44557857

For advertisements, call: 44557857

13SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018 CLASSIFIEDS

SERVICES

TRANSLATION SERVICES

HELPLINE44919213

Mob: 77711129 - www.helplinetranslation.com

ARMSTRONG

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

USED CONTAINERS (Sales & Rentals) For advertisements,

call: 44557857

Pen.MagEvery Sunday - Thursday

For advertisements, call: 44557857

WATER TANK CLEANING

AL MUTWASSIT CLEANING & PEST CONTROL

443679 99 55875920/55860432

CAPITAL CLEANING COMPANY

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

WOKEER INDUSTRIAL AREA

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

WAREHOUSE FOR RENT

UNIFORMS

SECURITY SYSTEM & SOLUTION

ARMSTRONG

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

SEWAGE & WASTE REMOVAL

SCAFFOLDING

APOLLO ENTERPRISES SCAFFOLDING DIVISION44693334

44416274 55521089/55560246/55536285

QATAR AL ATTIYAH INTERNATIONAL GROUP (QAIG)

Mob: 33397858

REAL ESTATE

AL MUFTAH SERVICES 44634444/44010700 Mob: 55542067/55823100

APOLLO REAL ESTATE55864352/55506803/ 55872145

44689522

ADAM REAL ESTATE COMPANY

44366932 44366931 55500789 / 55803731

RECRUITMENT SERVICES

APOLLO REAL ESTATE

Qatar’s first Real Estate Company under British Management

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

www.apollopropertiesonline.com

FOR RENT

EUROCAR RENT A CAR CO LLC44660677

Airport: 40108888 66967787/ 55849587

COUNTRY RENT A CAR - BARWA AL WAKRA

44154467/44687507 55048720/ 5544042/66995238

RENT A CAR

One Bedroom Available for 2 Filipino Ladies

QR. 1,000 each including Water & Electricity. Free use of Kitchenwares &

all appliances available

Call: 66034652, 44881719

FOR RENT

Tel: 66680280 & 55525526binhelabismithy@gmail.com

REQUIREMENT

FABRICATORS AND FOREMAN

Upv & Stainless Steel, Metal Work, Painter

SITUATIONS VACANT FOR RENT

14 SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018BREAK TIME

SHOWING ATVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

BABY

BLU

ES

ALL IN THE MIND

AFTERNOON, BEDTIME, DARKNESS, DAWN, DAYBREAK, DAYLIGHT, DAYTIME, DIURNAL, DUSK, EVENING, EVENTIDE, FIRST LIGHT, FORENOON, GLOAMING, LIGHT, MIDNIGHT, MOONBEAM, MOONLIGHT, MORN, MORNING, NIGHT, NIGHTFALL, NIGHTTIME, NOCTURNAL, NOON, RAYS, STARLIGHT, SUNBEAM, SUNDOWN, SUNLIGHT, SUNRISE, SUNSET, SUNSHINE, TWILIGHT.

7:30 Talk to Al Jazeera

8:00 News

8:30 Artscape - The New

African Photography

9:00 Witness

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Listening Post

12:00 News

12:30 Counting the Cost

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 The Girls of The

Taliban

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 Super 30

18:00 newsgrid

19:00 News

19:30 People & Power

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Listening Post

11:30 Yukon Men

12:20 Extreme

Collectors

12:43 Container

Wars

13:05 How Do They Do

It?

13:55 Deadliest

Catch

14:40 Yukon Men

15:30 Diesel

Brothers

16:15 Supertruckers

17:05 Fast N’ Loud

17:50 Treasure Quest:

Snake Island

18:40 The Wheel: Survival

Games

19:25 Yukon Men

20:15 Street

Outlaws

21:00 Madiba

21:50 Deadliest Job

Interview

22:40 Ed Stafford: Left

For Dead

04:00 Swamp

Brothers

04:25 Keeping Up With

The Kruger

05:15 Blood Ivory

06:02 Wildest Latin

America

06:49 Untamed & Uncut

09:15 Untamed &

Uncut

13:50 North Woods

Law

14:45 Shark Feeding

Frenzy

15:40 Alaska

Monsters

16:35 Swamp Brothers

18:53 Swamp

Brothers

19:20 Wildest

Indochina

22:05 Wildest

Indochina

23:00 Wildest

Indochina

23:55 Untamed

15:30 Bizaardvark

16:20 Stuck In The

Middle

16:45 Star vs The

Forces Of Evil

17:00 Tangled: The

Series

17:25 Disney

Cookabout

17:50 K.C.

Undercover

18:20 Bunk’d

19:10 Disney Mickey

Mouse

19:15 Liv And

Maddie

20:05 Star Wars Forces

Of Destiny

20:10 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug & Cat

Noir

20:35 Disney The

Lodge

21:00 Alex & Co.

21:25 Alex & Co.

21:50 Lolirock

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is a number-

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

place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

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

contains the same number only once.

CROSSWORD

CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

Yesterday's answer

Yesterday's answer

NOVO — Pearl

MALL

LANDMARK

ROYAL PLAZA

ROXY

ASIAN TOWN

AL KHOR

The Commuter (2D/Action) 10:00, 10:05am, 12:15, 12:20, 2:30, 2:40, 4:45, 5:00, 5:45, 7:00, 7:20, 9:15, 9:40, 11:00 & 11:30pmlnsidious: The Last Key (2D/Horror) 10:00am, 12:10, 2:20, 4:30, 6:40, 8:50 & 11:00pmHoward Lovecraft & The Undersea Kingdom (2D) 10:00am, 1:50, 5:40 & 9:30pmGoodbye Christopher Robin (2D) 11:40am, 3:30, 7:20 & 11:10pmHollow In The Land (2D) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Darkest Hour (2D) 10:00am, 12:20, 2:40, 5:00, 7:20, 9:40pm & 12:00midnight Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:15, 2:30, 4:45, 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm Detroit (2D) 10:00am, 12:45, 2:45, 3:30, 6:15, 8:00, 9:00 & 11:45pm The Commuter (2D IMAX/Action) 10:15am, 12:30, 2:45, 5:10, 7:15, 9:30 & 11:45pm

Thaana Serndha Kottam (Tamil) 2:00 & 11:30pm Jai Simha (Telugu) 2:30pm Howard Lovecraft & The Undersea Kingdom (Animation) 2:30 & 4:30pm 1921 (2D/Hindi) 4:15 & 11:30pmJumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:30pmAgnyathavaasi (2D/Telugu) 6:00pm Hollow In The Land (2D/Drama) 6:45pm The Commuter (2D/Action) 7:30 & 9:30pm Sketch (Tamil) 9:00pm

Masterpiece (2D/Malayalam) 8:30pm Darkest Hour (2D/Drama) 11:30pm

Masterpiece (2D/Malayalam) 2:15pm Agnyathavaasi (2D/Telugu) 2:15pm Jai Simha (Telugu) 7:00pmHoward Lovecraft & The Undersea Kingdom (Animation) 3:00 & 5:00pm Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 5:00pmDarkest Hour (2D/Drama) 5:00pm The Commuter (2D/Action) 7:00 & 9:00pm Thaana Serndha Kottam (Tamil) 9:00 & 11:15pm

Sketch (Tamil) 6:30 & 11:30pm Hollow In The Land (2D/Drama) 7:15pm Nails (2D/Horror) 9:30pm Detroit (2D/Drama) 11:00pm

Sketch (Tamil) 2:30 & 8:30 Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (2D/Action) 2:30pmHoward Lovecraft & The Undersea Kingdom (Animation) 3:00 & 4:30pm Mukkabaaz (2D/Hindi) 4:30pm Darkest Hour (2D/Drama) 7:15pmThe Commuter (2D/Action) 7:00 & 11:30pm Goodbye Christopher Robin (2D/History) 5:00pm Thaana Serndha (Tamil) 6:00 & 11:00pm

Detroit (2D/Drama) 9:00pm Nails (2D/Horror) 11:15pm

Thaana Serndha Kottam (Tamil) 12:00noon, 2:45, 5:30, 8:15, 8:45 &11:00pm;

Sketch (Tamil) 12:00noon, 2:00, 2:45, 5:30, 8:15, 11:00 & 11:30pm; Masterpiece (Malayalam) 8:30 & 11:15pm

Agnyathavaasi 12:15 & 5:30pm Jai Simha (Telugu) 12:00noon & 6:00pm

Thaana Serndha (Tamil) 11:30am, 5:30 & 11:30pm Mukkabaaz (2D/Hindi) 5:00pmAgnyathavaasi (2D/Telugu) 2:00 & 8:00pm The Commuter 3:45, 9:00 & 11:15pm

Sketch (Tamil) 2:30, 8:30 & 11:00pm Ferdinand 10:30pm Jai Simha (Telugu) 11:00pm Masterpiece (Malayalam) 12:45 & 6:00pm

Howard Lovecraft & The Undersea Kingdom (Animation) 2:30, 4:30 & 6:30pm 1921 (Hindi) 10:30am, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30 & 10:30pm Tadeo 2 10:30am & 12:30pm

The Commuter 10:30am, 12:45, 3:00, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45 & 11:30pm Agnathavasi 10:30am, 1:30, 4:30, 7:30, 8:30, 10:30, 11:30pm & 02:00am

Jumanji: Welcome To The Jungle (Animation) 12:45, 3:15, 8:30 & 11:00pm

15SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018 HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

05.01am

06.21 am

ZUHRASR

11.42 am

02.43 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.06pm

06.32pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 03:45 – 13:15 LOW TIDE 10:00 – 20:15

Hazy to misty at places at first becomes

moderate temperature daytime and cold

by night.

WEATHER TODAY

COURTESY: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum 15oC 25oC

16 SATURDAY 13 JANUARY 2018MORNING BREAK

AFP

NEW YORK: A US museum has extended indefinitely a $10m reward for the recovery of 13 works of art, including priceless Rembrandts and a Vermeer, stolen three decades ago.

Last May, the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum doubled to $10m a

long-standing reward for information leading to the recovery of all 13 works in good condition, hoping that a dead-line of December 31, 2017 would con-centrate minds.

The institution said it was the largest private reward in the world at that time and continues to identify the 1990 theft as “the largest art heist in

history.” The stolen art includes three Rembrandts, a Vermeer, and five sketches and watercolors by Degas, together estimated to be worth more than half a billion dollars.

“The strategy generated some very good leads that continue to be pur-sued,” the museum said Thursday, announcing that the board of trustees

had voted to extend the reward. “We hope anyone with knowledge that might further our work will come for-ward,” said Anthony Amore, the muse-um’s director of security.

Thieves dressed as police officers walked into the museum in the early hours of March 18, 1990 and stole the 13 works of art in 81 minutes.

AFP

MIAMI: Buried glaciers have been spotted on Mars, offering new hints about how much water may be acces-sible on the Red Planet and where it is located, researchers said.

Although ice has long been known to exist on Mars, a better understanding of its depth and location could be vital to future human explorers, said the report in the US journal Science.

“Astronauts could essentially just go there with a bucket and a shovel and get all the water they need,” said co-author Shane Byrne of the Univer-sity of Arizona Lunar and Planetary Laboratory in Tucson.

A total of eight ice sites, some as shallow as a few feet (one meter) below the surface, and going as deep as 100 meters or more, have been exposed

by erosion.These underground cliffs, or

scarps, appear “to be nearly pure ice,” said the report. The discovery was pos-sible due to images and data sent by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter (MRO), launched in 2005.

The probe’s first find of water on Mars was published in Science in 2010.

But now, scientists realize that ice is more widespread than previously thought, said lead author Colin Dundas, a geologist at the US Geological Survey in Flagstaff, Arizona.

“There is shallow ground ice under roughly a third of the Martian surface, which records the recent history of Mars,” he said. “What we’ve seen here are cross-sections through the ice that give us a 3-D view with more detail than ever before.”

The ice contains bands and color

variations that suggest it was formed layer by layer, perhaps as snow accu-mulated over time, leading to ice sheets. Researchers believe the ice formed relatively recently, because the sites appear smooth on the surface, unpocked by craters that would be formed by celestial debris smashing

into the planet over time.But just how and when they

formed remains unclear. The cliffs are located in the northern and southern hemispheres of Mars, at a latitude of 55 to 58 degrees, which on Earth would be similar to Scotland or the tip of South America.

Deep and buried glaciers spotted on Mars: Nasa

This Nasa file handout image obtained shows snow and ice accumulated during Winter covering dunes in Mars’ Northern hemisphere.

AP

NEW YORK: Facebook is changing what its users will see to highlight posts users are most likely to engage with and make time spent on social media more “meaningful.”

By cutting back on items that Facebook users tend to passively consume, the change could hurt news organizations and other businesses that rely on Face-book to share their content.

The idea is to help users to connect with people they care about, not make them feel depressed and isolated.

“The research shows that when we use social media to connect with people we care about, it can be good for our well-being,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a post Thursday.

“We can feel more con-nected and less lonely, and that correlates with long term meas-ures of happiness and health. On the other hand, passively reading articles or watching videos -- even if they’re enter-taining or informative -- may not be as good.”

There will be fewer posts

from brands, pages and media companies and more from people. There will be fewer videos, which Facebook con-siders “passive.” People will likely spend less time on Face-book as a result, the company says.

That’s because even if people read such content on Facebook, they don’t necessarily comment or interact with it in other ways.

The move to highlight posts that Facebook considers “mean-ingful” and reduce the emphasis on others could shrink the social media giant’s role as a major news source for many people.

“It’s in the same direction that Facebook has been

pursuing for a while: offering a place for discussion among indi-viduals, a community space, rather than being a news source,” said Oh Se-uk, a senior researcher on digital news at the Korea Press Foundation.

“It wants people who have been friends to become even closer, to have deeper discus-sions (on Facebook). Traffic to news media’s websites via Face-book will likely fall,” he said.

The move will not affect advertisements — users will continue to see the same ads they have before, “meaningful” or not. But businesses that use Facebook to connect with their customers without paying for ads will also feel the pain.

AP

BILLINGS, Mont: Wildlife officials in the United States declared Canada lynx recovered on Thursday and said the snow-loving wild cats no longer need special protections following steps to preserve their habitat.

The Fish and Wildlife Service said it will begin drafting a rule to revoke the lynx’s threatened listing across the Lower 48 state under the Endan-gered Species Act. Wildlife advocates said they would challenge the move in court.

First imposed in 2000, the threatened desig-nation has interrupted numerous logging and road building projects on federal lands, frustrating industry groups and Western lawmakers.

Some scientists and wildlife advocates have warned that climate change could reduce lynx habitat and the availability of its primary food source — snowshoe hares.

Thursday’s decision came after government biologists shortened their time span for consid-ering climate change threats, from 2100 to 2050, because of what they said were uncertainties in long-term climate models.

An assessment by government biologists based on that shorter time span concluded lynx popu-lations remain resilient and even have increased versus historical levels in parts of Colorado and Maine. Canada lynx are about the size bobcats, but with huge paws to help them navigate deep

snow. The animals also are found in Montana, Minnesota, Idaho and Washington state.

There’s no reliable estimate of their popula-tion, leaving officials to rely on information about habitat and hare populations to gauge the spe-cies’ status “Based on what we know, we think the habitat has improved, protections around the habitat have improved, and therefore lynx pop-ulations have improved,” said Jodi Bush, U.S. Fish and Wildlife field supervisor in Montana.

In Maine, easements protecting more than 2 million acres of forest have benefited lynx. In Western states, the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management adopted land management plans providing similar benefits, they said.

Facebook edits feeds

US museum rewards $10m for art theft recovery

Snow-loving lynx no longer need protection

A lynx climbs a hill after crossing the finish area during the first training run for the men’s Downhill race of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics in Whistler, British Columbia.

RAYNALD C RIVERA

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Qatar stands as one of the top markets for ladies’ apparel in the Middle East, according to renowned Moroccan designer Meriam Belkhayat.

“Qatar is one of the best markets in the Middle East because the Qatari woman is always looking for something new. She wants to discover and try new things and she’s not afraid of bringing things from afar, to try to get them. That’s not the case for a lot of women who just get what they have in the (local) market,” Belkhayat told reporters.

She described Qatari women as “very fashionable” which stems from the fact that they are “very connected” fol-lowing the latest fashion trends via social media.

One of the most celebrated caftan designers in the Arab

World, Belkayat has already taken part in some of the world’s most acclaimed fashion weeks such as New York Fashion Week, London Fashion Week and Mercedes Benz Fashion Week. She is the first Moroccan designer to be featured in British Vogue magazine.

Belkhayat, who has been a caftan designer for ten years now, was in Doha to take part in the recently concluded Ara-bian Fashion Show, the first of the three fashion shows slated for the second edition of Shop Qatar organised by Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).Belkhayat’s latest designs from her “Lost in a Dream” collection lit up the runway at the fashion show held at Mondrian Doha on Wednesday.

“This collection is specially made for Qatar as it is an interesting market for women and I have a lot of clients here

so I tried to bring them what they would usually buy. I showcased 15 designs from the new collection. They are col-ourful caftans and every piece is a mix of colours tradition-ally handmade with a modern touch,” she explained.

She expressed satisfaction

on the same great response to her collection when she came for the Mercedes Benz Fashion Week Doha more than a year ago. She also lauded the excel-lent organization of the Ara-bian Fashion Show.

“I really thank QTA because it’s very well

organised and they provided all that we needed since we arrived. QTA has a very good team working on the show and this is something fan-tastic,” she said. The show also featured breathtaking designs by celebrity Kuwaiti fashion designers Yousef Al Jasmi and Sakba by Mohammed Hamada in addition to a number of local designers.

Two more fashion shows are scheduled in the coming weeks including Bollywood Fashion Show this coming Wednesday featuring crea-tions by celebrity designers Vikram Phandis, Archana Kochar and Manish Malhotra and the International Fashion Show on January 24 which will highlight creations by celebrity designers Fouad Sarkis, Maria B., Alejandro Resta, Imran Rajput and Thaher Baqer with an appear-ance by Pakistani actor and model Imran Abbas.

‘Qatar best market for women apparel’

Renowned Moroccan fashion designer Meriam Belkhayat at a media event at Mondrian Doha.