Volume 22 | Number 7364 | 2 RiyalsSunday 3 December 2017 | 15 Rabia I 1439 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

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Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended a part of the end of second stage of the 6th leg of local pure Arabian Camels Race Competition 2017/2018 season, which was held at Al Shahaniya Racetrack. The competition was attended by a number of their excellencies, Sheikhs, tribesmen and a large audience of camel lovers.

Emir attends Arabian Camels Race

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Emir sends message to PutinEMIR H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent a ver-bal message to the President of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, pertaining to bilateral relations between the two countries and means of enhancing and develop-ing them. The message was conveyed by H H the Personal Representative of the Emir Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani during a meeting with Russian President’s Special Representative for the Middle East and Africa and Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov in Moscow.

Qatar Cup most important event: FIFABangkok

QNA

FIFA President Gianni Infan-tino has confirmed that the FIFA World Cup 2022,

which will be held in Qatar after five years, will be a very impor-tant event for the Asian continent. This came on the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the mini-stadium project of the Thai Football Association, which was inaugurated in the Thai capital Bangkok, in the presence of the President of the Asian Football

Association Sheikh Salman bin Ebrahim Al Khalifa and members of the Executive Office of the Asian Confederation.

The stadiums were created with funding from the AFC Pres-ident’s Initiatives Program and the launch of the new stadiums was held at the Center of Excel-lence of the Thai Federation at Bangkok Thonburi University.

“The Asian continent is very important for the FIFA, especially after the continent has presented impressive examples both at the organisational level and at the

results level,” said Infantino.The President said Qatar’s

2022 World Cup is the most important event for the Asian continent after the series of events hosted by the continent. “The pro-vision of appropriate facilities is essential for the development of football,” the FIFA President said. “We are confident that these sta-diums will have a significant impact on the development of football in Thailand, these stadi-ums will help future generations of players, today, understand the future of this game” he added.

Stop power game in region: Deputy PM & FMThe Peninsula

Deputy Prime Min-ister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman

Al Thani has said that there exists a vacuum of international order for enforcement mecha-nism to enable the smaller countries submit their griev-ances against bigger countries having an arbitration platform.

“We need to stop the power game players (in Gulf) from con-tinuing their games and their adventures. We need to take a serious step right now to engage them in regional security dia-logue and to agree on principles, all countries should adhere to. Principles which unite us and make us move towards cooper-ation in different areas of development,” he said while addressing at Rome MED 2017 (Mediterranean Dialogues) in Rome themed “Beyond Turmoil - A Positive Agenda”.

The Deputy Prime Minister said that Qatar has always been a progressive force in the region. “We have our differ-ences with other Gulf states but those differences have never been put to the level of security threats and this always has been the principle and guidance for relations with other GCC countries,” he said.

“We never believed or imagined that these differences will lead to such aggressive measures against Qatar and

start a baseless campaign against Qatar, fabrication of cases against Qatar without solid bases,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

The Deputy Prime Minister said the current situation in our region is a regional disorder which is mainly driven by game of power, which led to power consolidation internally or regionally and all what is hap-pening in terms of crisis in this region is part of this power game. “The power game led to state of polarisation which is not only happening between states creating a proxy war or gave the country justification to interfere in other countries’ affairs and play damaging factor for stop-ping the national unity agenda such as cases of happening in Libya, Iraq and Yemen.”

→ Continued on page 2

Call for joint efforts to beat diabetes, obesityFazeena Saleem The Peninsula

Advanced methods of pre-vention, management and treatment of most preva-

lent metabolic disorders such as diabetes and obesity were dis-cussed over three days during a conference held in Doha.

The Second Qatar Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Conference was officially opened in the presence of

Minister of Public Health, H E Dr Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari, and brought together more than 700 local and international experts.

The conference was hosted by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and the Qatar Metabolic Institute and highlighted on dia-betes, obesity and metabolic and endocrine related diseases.

“Diabetes is one of the most pressing health challenges in the world today and Qatar has

among the highest incidence rates globally,” said Dr Hanan. “It is imperative that we collab-orate with local and international healthcare leaders and experts to find solutions and strategies to address this chal-lenge. This conference is an opportunity to share the work being done here in Qatar to deliver population-specific improvements in health and dis-ease outcomes, such as the establishment of the National

Obesity Treatment Center at HMC.”

Topics including, prevention of diabetes, the role of diabetes education in management of diabetes, life style modification and medical management and surgical management of obes-ity were discussed. Six international speakers and sev-eral local experts shared their experience, and expertise.

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Emir holds phone talks with Palestinian PresidentEMIR H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held a tel-ephone conversation with President of the State of Pal-estine, Mahmoud Abbas, on the latest developments in the Palestinian arena.

The President briefed the Emir on the developments in the city of Jerusalem, risks facing it and measures needed to protect it, as well as the need to protect Islamic and Christian holy sites. The President also thanked the Emir for Qatar’s permanent position in support of the Pal-estinian people and its continued support for its just cause. They also exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues of common concern.

Global recognition for Qatar and SC roleThe Peninsula

World’s leading human rights groups and sports organisations

have recognised services and role of Qatar and the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Leg-acy (SC) for using the 2022 FIFA World Cup to accelerate work-ers’ welfare improvements.

Following a speech by the SC’s Secretary-General Hassan Al Thawadi at the Sporting Chance Forum in Geneva this week, the work done by the SC

and the Qatari government was highlighted. Attended by influ-ential human rights groups and NGOs, as well as sport’s global governing bodies FIFA, the Inter-national Olympic Committee (IOC), UEFA and the Common-wealth Games Federation, the conference was organised by the Geneva-based Institute of Human Rights and Business (IHRB).

Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein, the UN’s High Commissioner for Human Rights; Guy Ryder, Director General of the ILO; and

Thomas Bach, President of the IOC; opened the two-day event, which was used to announce plans to open an independent Centre for Sport and Human Rights in 2018. In the presence of H E Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri, Qatar’s Permanent Represent-ative of the State of Qatar to the UN in Geneva, Al Thawadi out-lined the progress made on workers’ welfare and the com-mitment to leave a true legacy after 2022.

He said: “Sport’s ability to unite and to inspire is not

limited by language, borders, race or economic status – and at its pinnacle is the World Cup.”

“We knew the event could be an opportunity to make last-ing changes in our country, and hopefully, our region. This is not a vanity project. We fought for the region and insisted that the World Cup would serve as a cat-alyst for accelerating positive social progress and change. One area that we knew we had to address was workers welfare.”

→ Continued on page 6

Investment in knowledge helps Qatar thrive during siegeThe Peninsula

Qatar’s investment in knowledge and its leadership’s pro-found level of experience have been key factors that have enabled the nation to thrive in the face of the on-going block-

ade, said Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman of Ooredoo and CEO of Qatar Investment Authority.

In a wide-ranging speech at Georgetown University in Qatar, Sheikh Abdulla outlined the ‘ingredients’ that have enabled Qatar to continue its success and the measures that will sustain the nation in the future.

→ Full report on page 2

There exists a vacuum of international order for enforcement mechanism to enable the smaller countries submit their grievances against bigger countries having an arbitration platform, says Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs, H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani at Rome MED 2017 (Mediterranean Dialogues) in Rome.

02 SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017HOME

The Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, held talks with the Secretary-General of the International Maritime Organization (IMO), Kitack Lim, at IMO’s premises in London yesterday. They discussed relations between Qatar and IMO in the field of marine transport industry and means of further enhancing and developing them. The two officials also discussed Qatar’s backing of Council membership nominations from countries that show compliance and application of all IMO and UN maritime laws and agreements, at the IMO’s 30th General Assembly elections. The meeting was attended by Qatar’s Ambassador to the UK Yousef bin Ali Al Khater.

Minister meets IMO Secretary-General

Power game leads to state of polarisation, says Minister

Continued from page 1

He said now the polarisation is happening within the states using the justification of stabil-ity, and driven by leaders of those countries and this has become obstacle for any changes. “Using justification of stability, they are refusing changes, making people start lose hope, people feel the prob-lem will not be solved, and it has become a breeding ground for extremism for terror, and we start talking about the region spill over of this region.”

He said that if we are look-ing at the picture from this angle, we can underline three main reasons for this power game. “The first is absence of wisdom, impulsive and adventurous nature of leadership and the third is the vacuum of interna-tional order and the regional order for enforcement mecha-nism or grievance mechanism to enable the smaller countries sub-mit their grievances against bigger countries having a plat-form to arbitrate whatever measures being taken against them.”

He said that this

is happening with Qatar, with Lebanon, Somalia and Yemen, as well in Libya and Iraq.

“This is happening while we are living in the 21st century, the era of globalisation and all thing are interwoven and thus any-thing happening in the Middle East influences other parts of the world such as the transnational movement of terrorism or move-ment of refugees.”

He said that there are tacti-cal measures which have been

taken in order to address those results but we have only addressed the result without addressing the root causes for this entire phenomenon.

“In order to give the people hope, just solution for their cri-sis and humanitarian tragedies, and for creating positive condi-tions of human rights where they can practice their rights and have economic development, we need to look at the root causes. This may look dark picture for you but it is darker because of what is happening in the region and no one is moving to end this polarisation.”

“We put everything at side and we talk to everybody that we need to engage in a dialogue to understand those differences. If it is a security concern, it is also a security concern for Qatar as well. The blockading countries are in mood of denial to talks and dictating what Qatar have to do so and so.”

He said that all these demands are fabricated and they are 100 percent aware of that. So we need a sense of wisdom. “Our collective security is threat-ened by these measures. The GCC is becoming a falling apart.”

He said that Qatar is calm and behaved from the very beginning in a mature manner asking them to come to the dia-logue and address their concerns in civilized way. He said that there is no end game for any country will turn into submis-sion for another and this will never happen.

“We need to reach a level of understanding guiding security principles that eve-rybody is agreed on, adhere to, and committed to, from where we could build on for the next step of cooperation. Bullying other smaller coun-tries is not a solution for

differences, and this is not accepted by Qatar or the international community.”

The Deputy Prime Minister said that Qatar has strong rela-tions with Turkey and we developed strategic cooperation in different fields.

“This relation is continuing for years and this relation is pay-ing back for both countries. Turkey stood beside Qatar dur-ing this crisis, provided with line of supply which is highly appre-ciated by the Qatari people and the government.”

On Iran, he said that Iran is a bordering country with which we share gas field, and we

believe any differences could be overcome through dialogue to find solution. “GCC as a group agreed on this in December 2016 during summit meeting. After the current crisis, the differences are there but there is a dialogue to find solution for them and we call the other GCC countries to join us and talk to Iran collec-tively. Iran is our single land passage under the current siege and interest of our people is our priority.”

Regarding Palestine issue, he said that there is a peace proc-ess which all Arab agreed on and this is based on the border of 1967.

Deputy Prime Minister and of Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during the Rome MED 2017 (Mediterranean Dialogues) in Rome yesterday.

Investment in knowledge helps Qatar thrive in siege The Peninsula

Qatar’s investment in knowledge and its leadership’s profound level of experience have been key factors that have enabled the nation to thrive in the face of the on-going blockade, said Sheikh Abdulla bin

Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani, Chairman of Oore-doo and CEO of Qatar Investment Authority.

In a wide-ranging speech at Georgetown Uni-versity in Qatar, Sheikh Abdulla outlined the ‘ingredients’ that have enabled Qatar to continue its success and the measures that will sustain the nation in the future.

Qatar’s investment in education and its drive to create a knowledge-based economy have helped create a pool of experience that enables the coun-try to face risks and address challenges.

“Qatar is under a blockade, but there is no real impact on daily life within the country – shelves are full, business continues, and our airline is fly-ing high. This has been possible because our leaders anticipated this situation and took all nec-essary steps to protect the welfare of our people – their experience brought us through the chal-lenging first weeks and delivered us safely to our current stability,” said Sheikh Abdulla.

He outlined the key factors in building a cul-ture of success: a clear vision of what you want to achieve and where you want to go; an honest assessment of strengths and weaknesses; a deep understanding of the opportunities, risks and potential evolution of the environment in which you operate; and a strategy that matches your strengths, compensates for your weaknesses and deals with risks.

During the speech, he drew upon his experi-ence with Ooredoo and Qatar Investment Authority, to provide examples of how these prin-ciples have been applied in practice.

For Ooredoo, he outlined how the company has grown from being a one-nation operator with fewer than two million customers in 2005, to become a major operator with more than 150 mil-lion customers and a brand equity value of more than $3bn today.

He also outlined the remarkable depth of expe-rience that the company has acquired in some of its international markets, citing the company’s experience in delivering a major network upgrade in Iraq through its Asiacell operations, success-fully acquiring a stake in Indosat in one of the industry’s largest-ever deals, and winning a licence to operate in Myanmar against global competition.

“Through each of our bold steps overseas, we have developed significant experience. If we had stayed at home, serving two million people, would we have gained such in-depth expertise and forged such strong connections across global markets? Qatar’s willingness to push outside of its comfort zones has been a key ingredient in our success,” said Sheikh Abdulla.

Equally, Qatar Investment Authority’s man-date to invest and manage the State’s fund reserves has seen the organisation execute a range of high profile international deals in recent years. These

deals have created a wealth of experience within the Authority and also provided the financial sta-bility that enabled Qatar’s banking sector to weather the initial impact of the blockade.

At the close of his speech, Sheikh Abdulla urged his audience to consider the deeper mean-ing of success. Beyond the financial rewards, he argued, the real measure of success is your capacity to help people and enable others to succeed.

“Success ultimately depends upon you. The more you learn, the more you experience, the big-ger your success. As we work towards one of the most important National Days in recent years, we should remember and be grateful for our prede-cessors’ hard work and for the leadership of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani,” said Sheikh Abdulla.

“We should be thankful for those who went before us and for our leaders for their hard work in building our nation’s reserves of knowledge and experience. We can show our gratitude by giving back,” he concluded.

Qatar’s investment in education and its drive to create a knowledge-based economy have helped create a pool of experience that enables the country to face risks and address challenges.

Sheikh Abdulla bin Mohammed bin Saud Al Thani addressing the audience.

Qatar to host global meet on human traffickingThe Peninsula

Qatar will host the 5th Interpol Global Confer-ence on Trafficking in

Human Beings and Smuggling of Migrants on December 6 and 7.

The conference will high-light global developments in this regard.

The event is organised by Interpol in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior and the National Committee for Com-bating Human Trafficking. The Conference will be chaired by Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs, H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi.

It will be attended by Inter-p o l m e m b e r s t a t e s , international specialists and experts in the field from around the world, as well as a number of international organ-isations where key issues of trafficking in human beings and smuggling of migrants will be addressed.

It will also focus on dis-cussing the various criminal fields and the new trends of smuggling of migrants,

redefining human trafficking combating measures, interna-tional cooperation especially with the private sector and nongovernmental organisa-tions as well as a review on the policies and procedures adopted by countries to com-bat trafficking in human beings.

On the sidelines of the Con-ference, an expert group meeting and training sessions will be held from 4-5 Decem-

ber, 2017. H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al

Jafali Al Nuaimi, Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs and Chairman of the National Com-mittee for Combating Human Trafficking said that “hosting this conference by the State of Qatar is a sign of Qatar’s effec-tive role against this phenomenon nationally and internationally and the keen-ness to preserve human dignity.

The vision of National Committee for Combating Human Trafficking is to com-bat all practices and concepts of this phenomenon in all seg-ments of society and to have a secure society, which is in line with one of the Qatar National Vision 2030 objectives. Qatari society is based on the values of justice, benevolence, equality.”

“This is happening while we are living in the 21st century, the era of globalisation and all thing are interwoven and thus anything happening in the Middle East influences other parts of the world such as the transnational movement of terrorism or movement of refugees.”

03SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017 HOME

The Peninsula

On the occasion of the International Day of Disabled Persons, Hamad Interna-tional Airport (HIA)

conducted a bespoke airport tour for children with special needs from ‘Shafallah Center’, one of Qatar’s centres for social work. The occasion is an international observance promoted by the United Nations since December 3, 1992, with the aim to promote an understanding of disability issues and mobilise support for the well-being of persons with disabilities.

The children, aged between seven and twelve years, were taken through the departures hall where each of the check-in rows is equipped with spacious and lowered special handling desks to aid passengers with reduced mobility. They were then taken across the airport ter-minal in the airport passenger train which is designed to pro-vide easy access to Passengers with Reduced Mobility (PRM). The children were treated with entertainment in the form of a

magic show performed by the team at Qatar Duty Free (QDF).

Abdulaziz Al Mass, Vice-President Commercial and Marketing said: “At HIA, it is our priority to provide a seamless and comfortable journey to every passenger that passes through our terminal, regardless of their needs. On the occasion of Inter-national Day of Persons with Disabilities, we partnered with the Shafallah Center to organise a tour around the airport and showcase our commitment to providing an inclusive and

comfortable travel experience for everyone.”

HIA offers barrier-free access and dedicated facilities to make travelling more comfort-able for passengers who require special assistance. HIA’s network of elevators, escalators, ramps, walkways and passenger train offer simple access to Passengers with Reduced Mobility (PRM). Airport ground staff is trained on the basics of handling and assist-ing customers with special needs.

The airport terminal is equipped with various convey-ance equipment to assist with either vertical or horizontal cir-culation. All conveyance equipment for the purpose of assisting passengers with reduced mobility have smooth and level thresholds with con-trols, where required, mounted within easy reach.

Special handling lounges are available throughout the termi-nal for the comfort of passengers who require special assistance. All special handling lounges offer comfortable seating and trained attendants.

International Day of Persons with Disabilities is an annually

observed day created by the United Nations to promote the well-being of persons with dis-abilities and increase awareness of the situation of persons with disabilities in every aspect of life.

Shafallah Center was estab-lished in 1999 under the

guidance of H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser to meet Qatari soci-ety’s need to create a comprehensive, leading, and non-profit centre dedicated to children with special needs. The centre provides specialised services in accordance with

scientific basis and standards within the best practices to achieve maximum independ-ence for individuals with disabilities and to spread disa-bility awareness through a highly efficient team of staff and world-class programmes.

The Peninsula

ExxonMobil Qatar and Qatar University (QU) held a clos-ing luncheon yesterday for

the sixth annual Qatar Univer-sity ExxonMobil Teachers Academy.

The academy, which took place in Doha between Novem-ber 26 and 30 this year, was established in 2012 by ExxonMo-bil Qatar and Qatar University’s National Center for Education Development, in collaboration with the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

The Qatar University Exxon-Mobil Teachers Academy is a week-long intensive profes-sional development program that is held in Doha on an annual basis. The program is headed by a group of education experts from Qatar and the US who sup-port the math and science teachers from Qatar’s Independ-ent schools and a number of other education-based institu-tions to sharpen their skills and improve their ability to teach

science, technology, engineer-ing and math (STEM) subjects.

The overall purpose of the academy is to provide the teach-ers with the necessary skills to spark student interest and con-fidence in these areas by providing excellent instruction and hands-on application oppor-tunities in their classrooms.

This year’s academy included around 40 third to sixth

grade Independent school teach-ers, six Teach For Qatar (TFQ) fellows and four teachers from Maharaty — an initiative of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

Additionally, around 10 Supervisors form Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Maharaty and Teach for Qatar attended the full week workshop.

Abdullatif Al Naemi, Human Resources Manager at ExxonMo-bil Qatar, and Dr Abdallah Abu Tineh, Director of National Center for Educational Develop-ment- NCED, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership & HRD at Qatar University College of Education, attended the luncheon, together with several representatives from the Minis-try of Education and Higher

Education and Qatar University.

During the luncheon, partic-ipating teachers and faculty members were recognised for their hard work and dedication.

“Today we are celebrating another year of the Qatar Uni-versity ExxonMobil Teachers Academy’s success in providing a unique professional develop-ment opportunity for teachers from Qatar’s Independent schools and our partner organ-isations,” said Abdullatif Al Naemi, Human Resources Man-ager for ExxonMobil Qatar.

“I would like to thank the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and Qatar University for their ongoing support – by end of this year training, today, we have trained more than 250 teachers and in turn impacted and inspired more than 10,000 students in Qatar’s Independent schools. This is an incredible learning return on our educa-tional investment, and one we are very proud of.”

HIA holds airport tour for special children

Some of the children who took part in the tour with teachers and airport officials a the Hamad International Airport in Doha.

Abdulaziz Al Mass, Vice-President Commercial and Marketing said: “At HIA, it is our priority to provide a seamless and comfortable journey to every passenger that passes through our terminal, regardless of their needs.”

Lusail Publishing and Distribution House launchedThe Peninsula

Lusail Publishing and Distribution House was launched in the

presence of Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali at the 28th Doha Interna-tional Book Fair.

Many Qatari writers, artists, poets, actors and media personnel and other intellectuals and guests were present during the event.

Lusail Publishing House is established to meet the aspirations of Qatari, Arab and foreign writers for hav-ing professional publishing institutions which could embrace their publication and introduce their work in Qatar and outside.

The Publishing House seeks to attract and encour-age Qatari writers helping them to enrich the art and intellectual movement and discover talented and promising writers and sup-port their innovative projects by respecting their intellectual rights.

Lusail Publishing House seeks to be an open house for Arab and foreign writers in line with its publishing policies and its vision to develop aware-ness in the society.

The Publishing House is looking forward to become one of important Arab Publishing houses in the Arab World carrying Arab culture concerns and its civilisations and pre-senting it to the entire world to achieve cultural movement which contrib-ute to the development of the society and its open national vision to the world.

Khaled Mubarak Al Dilaimi, owner of the Publishing House said Lusail Publishing House will be incubator of Qatar, Arab and foreign writers and it will seek to become open to the world and implement the national vision.

ExxonMobil, QU hold closing ceremony for Teachers Academy

Officials with teachers during the ceremony.

QSSA launches Tamim Al Majd MedalsQNA

Qatar School Sports Associ-ation (QSSA) launched the new medals for the current

season of the Olympic pro-gramme under the theme ‘Tamim Al Majd’ in order to encourage more participations in the activities of the pro-gramme this year.

The current edition of the school Olympic programme will be different from the previous ones as its medals carry the theme ‘Tamim Al Majd’, said QSSA Secretary-General Ali Al Hitmi, praising the participation of both public and private schools in the event. This created exciting and strong competitions that enjoy a great follow-up by officials in various associations to unlock talents, he said.

Al Hitmi pointed out that the QSSA attaches particular impor-tance to the Olympic programme competitions and seeks to be as good as possible and to have a

record turnout. He thanked President of the Qatar Olympic Committee H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani for the contin-ued support for the programme and also appreciated the facili-ties and support extended by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education to the program.

QSSA Executive Director Abdulrahman Al Muftarh said that the programme’s current edition will achieve a range of objectives, especially after the increasing turnout rate among school students, which reached 214 schools for boys (119 public schools and 95 private schools), and 186 schools for girls (105 public schools and 81 private schools).

He added that this year’s edi-tion of the program will see participants competing in 11 games, including football, hand-ball, volleyball and basketball, as well as gymnastics, swim-ming, athletics, table tennis, fencing, tennis and shooting.

Qatar ports see huge rise in cargo movements in OctoberSachin Kumar The Peninsula

Ports in Qatar have seen huge rise in the movement of cargo in the October showing that

the ports are playing a crucial role in defeating the unjust siege.

Strong cargo traffic have ensur-ing the supply of goods remains uninterrupted in the country and res-ident do not face any problems.

Container traffic surged by 39 percent in October as ports han-dled 115,515 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) compared to 83,260 TEUs in September, according to Mwani Qatar data. Likewise, the movement of aggregates jumped by 16 percent as ports handled 29,326 tonnes of aggregates in October against 25,196 tonnes of aggregates handled in September. The ports cleared 126,288 tonnes of general cargo and 62,250 live-stock heads during the month.

Mwani Qatar, which manages ports in the country, hosted 458 vessels at its Hamad Port, Doha

Port and Ruwais Port in October.The ports handled strong

cargo movement in since the siege countries imposed block-ade on Qatar in June this year.

The cargo movement remains firm in the country despite siege, showed data.

Since June, when siege was imposed, there is 380 percent rise in container movement as, 24,014 TEUs were handled in that month compared to 115,515 TEUs in October. Similarly, the movement of general cargo surged by 306 percent as ports cleared 126,288 tonnes of gen-eral cargo in October compared to 31,105 in June this year.

Among the ports, Hamad Port, had a lion’s share in the cargo movement. The port, which the largest port in the region, saw a huge 44 percent year-on-year rise in cargo movement in Sep-tember this year compared to same month in 2016.

The port harboured 150 ves-sels in September this year

compared to 104 vessels in same month last year while net tonnage at the port rose to 143,750 tonnes in September against 65,470 tonnes in September 2016.

The rising cargo movement shows proactive steps by the Mwani Qatar as, in association with its partners, had inaugurated a number of new direct shipping lines between Hamad port and a number of ports in the region and beyond in the in the past few months.

Mwani Qatar manages sea-ports, quays, dry ports, container and other terminals, including cruise and passengers, and pro-vides navigation assistance and pilotage, towage as well as Aids to Navigation (AtoN) in addition to loading, unloading and handling and storage of cargoes in all forms.

The company is closely involved in the development of seaports and related services to the highest internationally rec-ognised standards of safety, security and quality.

04 SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017HOME

Sidra opens Paediatric Rehabilitation clinicThe Peninsula

Sidra Medicine, a mem-ber of the Qatar Foundation and Qatar’s new hospital for chil-dren, young people,

and women, is marking Inter-national Day of Persons with Disabilities (IDPD) today by announcing the launch of its Paediatric Rehabilitation Med-icine clinic.

Dr Lisa Thornton (pictured) — the former University of Chi-cago, Director for Paediatric Rehabilitation — has been appointed as the Division Chief of Paediatric Rehabilitation Medicine.

The clinic helps manage the health of children with physical disabilities such as paralysis, cerebral palsy and brain dam-age. Patients are currently referred internally from Sidra Medicine’s own in-house teams, as well as Hamad Medical Cor-poration (HMC) and Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC). The service will be expanded to accept referrals from doctors who practice outside of these institutions in 2018. The clinic expects to see more than 1,000 patients in its first year.

The clinic’s focus will be on a multidisciplinary, community-based approach - working with young patients and their fami-lies under the leadership of Dr Thornton, who has over 20 years of experience in the field. The IDPD’s theme this year ‘transformation towards sus-tainable and resilient society for all,’ also aligns with Dr Thorn-ton ’s phi losophy of strengthening the support net-work around a child and helping parents throughout the journey by empowering them with

knowledge and guidance. “During my research before

moving to Qatar, I found a series of favourable articles on Qatar supporting children with disa-bilities and the commitment made by H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser, to improving the lives of these children. I was grateful to see the kind of open-ness that Qatar has to this population and saw a chance to be part of its efforts. I feel priv-ileged to be part of Qatar’s

strategy to help children with special needs get to adulthood with dignity and with family and community support. Sidra Med-icine is most definitely a beacon of learning and discovery and I am delighted to be part of it and to join a diverse and dedicated team of specialists who are all committed to ensuring improved outcomes for patients and families alike,” said Dr Thornton.

The Rehabilitation Clinic ensures the patient is seen by Dr Thornton together with a phys-ical therapist and an occupational therapist. Combin-ing the collective expertise of a child’s rehabilitation team allows for the development of a more tailored, holistic approach for every child. As part of this wide-ranging spectrum of care and support, the family will also receive a personalised plan on what to expect regarding the impact their child’s disability will have on their lives, and receive guidance on the best ways to help their child reach their full potential.

Speaking about the clinic’s broader, long-term vision for creating a community-based ecosystem, Dr Thornton empha-sised that a child with a disability is just as healthy and capable as those without physical disabil-ities and should be encouraged to pursue any interest, be it sports, music or travel. “There are already a number of pro-grams and activities in Qatar designed to enable participation for children with physical disa-bilities. More collaboration between the various program owners and healthcare entiti-ties will help create a supportive and extensive community,” said Dr Thornton.

The clinic’s focus will be on a multidisciplinary, community-based approach — working with young patients and their families under the leadership of Dr Thornton, who has over 20 years of experience in the field.

‘Adopt a Fruit, Adopt a Vegetable’ at Lulu HypermarketsThe Peninsula

More children are being offered one free fruit or vegetable when they visit select Lulu Hypermarket out-

lets on select weekends between November 25 and December 16th, through the “Adopt a Fruit, Adopt a Vegetable” initiative, launched earlier this year by United for Healthier Kids – a programme developed by Nestlé to create partnerships that help nurture healthier generations.

Shaijan M O, Regional Director of Lulu Group, said: “This initiative has created a positive impact among kids on the impor-tance of consumption of fruits and vegetables in ensuring a healthy lifestyle. We are sure that kids will embrace the underlying message and will take it along throughout their journey ahead”.

“Our purpose at Nestlé is to enhance quality of life and contribute to a healthier

future, which we know can best be done through collaborations,” said Patricia El Chammas, United for Healthier Kids Man-ager at Nestlé Middle East.

“We are committed to promoting

healthy diets and lifestyles specifically among children, and evidence from our var-ious research indicates that children who try new fruits and vegetables are likely to consume more of them.”

Participants of the first round of training sessions for Honorary Cultural Ambassadors with officials.

First training session of QM Honorary Ambassador Programme endsThe Peninsula

Qatar Museums (QM) has successfully concluded the first round of training

sessions for participants in its recently launched community cultural ambassador pro-gramme. The initiative, which is organised by QM’s Cultural Tourism Unit, is designed to engage long-term residents of Qatar to become Honorary Cul-tural Ambassadors.

The programme has been immensely popular, with hun-dreds of residents representing nearly 60 nationalities apply-ing for the chance to represent Qatar. Following the applica-tion and review process, 70 people were chosen to be trained by QM’s expert guides to become Honorary Cultural Ambassadors.

The chosen ambassadors demonstrated keen interest in Qatar’s cultural offering and deep passion for sharing their knowledge with others. As part of their responsibilities, partic-ipants will have the honour of

meeting with distinguished VIP guests and accompanying them on tours of cultural sites, as well as offering their own views and interpretations of Qatar to allow guests to fully experience and enjoy Qatar’s cultural and his-toric highlights.

Somaya Al Tamimi, Direc-tor of Strategy and Quality Assurance at QM, said: “We are honoured by the interest and high-level engagement this programme received from the community and are proud of the group we selected. The 70

Honorary Cultural Ambassa-dors have broad knowledge and love for Qatar, which will help take the experience of vis-itors to Qatar to the next level of personalised care and attention.”

Honorary Cultural Ambas-sadors are currently taking part in comprehensive training ses-sions. This will be led by knowledgeable field experts and complemented by tours to some of Qatar’s most unique destinations.

To complete the programme and earn the HCA designation, participants will need to take part in two afternoon lectures and two full-day VIP tours to QM museums, exhibitions and heritage sites.

Trainings kicked off last week at the Doha Fire Station, which will be followed by sev-eral visits to QM institutions, including Museum of Islamic Art, Mathaf: Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha Fire Station, QM Gallery Al Riwaq and Qatar’s largest heritage site Al Zubarah.

UCL Qatar, QM shed new light on Qatar history with Origins of Doha public lectureThe Peninsula

UCL Qatar and Qatar Muse-ums will mark the latest milestone in their success-

ful archaeological collaboration with a public lecture this week to update on the achievements delivered through the Joint QM-UCL Qatar Old Doha Rescue Excavations (ODRE).

On Tuesday, Professor Robert Carter, Professorial Research Fel-low at UCL Qatar and Dr Ferhan Sakal, Head of Archaeological Operations at Qatar Museums, will explain how the excavation helps document lives of the people of Doha, from the foundation of the town at the start of the 19th cen-tury through to the impact of the discovery of oil in the 1950s.

They will explain the chal-lenges involved in tracing evidence of the historical

experiences of the people of Qatar and their ancestors, and explain how their findings shed light on people’s lives and eco-nomic existence within the urban environment.

Key findings uncovered by the project to date include how resilient the people of Doha have been, and how they have adapted to rapid change since the foun-dation of their town. Episodes of destruction and rebuilding in the mid-late 19th century and a period of increasing wealth dur-ing the peak of the pearl fishery in the late 19th-early 20th cen-tury. It will also include how Doha and its people interacted with the world, measuring how closely Doha was connected to regional and inter-national trading patterns, and demonstrating how its levels of con-nectivity rose and fell in step with global patterns of trade.

UCL Qatar’s contribution to the excavation was supported by its Origins of Doha and Qatar Project. The project is supported by the Qatar National Research Fund and has been running since 2012. It explores the foun-dation and historic growth of Doha and other coastal cities through archaeological inves-tigation, historical research, architectural studies and oral testimony.

Professor Carter, said: “Together with our partners at Qatar Museums, we have made remarkable progress in uncov-ering new and important aspects of Qatar’s rich history, building up a detailed understanding of the country’s past. The rapid, exciting development of Doha now adds real urgency to our work – and whilst a great deal has been achieved already,

thanks to the level of collabora-tion to date, we’re enormously excited about the next phase of the project.”

Dr Ferhan Sakal, Head of Archaeological Operations, Qatar Museums, said: “Through our work with UCL Qatar we’re mak-ing strong progress in a number of activities that enhance the her-itage of the country and improve awareness of it. We’re commit-ted to putting local communities in touch with their past and joint projects such as these provide yet further evidence of the country’s major progress in preserving its history and culture.”

The talk – The History Beneath Your Feet: What Urban Excavations Can Tell Us About Historic Doha and the World – takes place on Tuesday at 6pm in the Auditorium, Ground Floor, Georgetown Building.

Recording of wells at Nuaija with QM staff

To complete the programme and earn the HCA designation, participants will need to take part in two afternoon lectures and two full-day VIP tours to QM museums, exhibitions and heritage sites.

05SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017 HOME

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The Peninsula

After careful deliber-ation, Ajyal Youth Film Festival’s Made in Qatar jury reached their final decisions

on the sixteen entries in this year’s programme. The winning films, which are all locally-made, were officially announced at a ceremony following last night’s screening of the second Made in Qatar programme, presented by Occidental Petroleum Qatar.

The three judges, all indus-try professionals, Salah Al Mulla, a prominent actor from Qatar, Ely Dagher, a cross-media artist from Lebanon, and Dana Mado, a public relations and strategic marketing executive from Kuwait, released an official statement alongside the names, praising the quality of this year’s entries.

The Best Narrative Award went to Amal Al Muftah’s Smicha (Qatar/2017), which tells the heart-warming story of the bond between a seven-year-old girl, Lulwa, and her elderly grandfa-ther, who is beginning to show signs of senility. “The jury chose Smicha as the Best Narrative film

for the heart-touching and dif-ferent way it deals with love and care,” they said.

The Best Documentary/Experimental Award went to Rawan Al Nassiri and Nada Bedair’s Treasures of the Past (Qatar/2017) which follows three cheerful, engaging and hard-working Qatari grandmothers, who have spent their lives in service to their families, bring-ing to mind the adage that a woman’s work is never done.

Explaining their choice, the jury said: “The film broke the stereotypical image of women of this period and highlighted their involvement in occupations

that have almost died out. The characters were very proud and positive and had a sense of humour and the film presented feminism in a new and bold light.”

For the first time, the Special Jury Narrative Award was a tie between Aisha Al Jaidah’s 1001 Days (Qatar/2017), an animated film that explores the story behind the story of the famous 1001 Nights, addressing eternal issues like sacrifice, equality and bravery and Nibu Vasudevan’s Walls (Qatar/2017), a CG anima-tion in which a race of skeleton-like, robotic creatures are engaged in a pointless, seem-ingly endless war with an unseen enemy.

The Special Jury Documen-tary/Experimental Award went to Rawda Al-Thani’s I Have Been Watching You All Along (Qatar/2017), in which a girl explores an abandoned cinema and through a trancelike jour-ney into its past through the celluloid clips she finds, creates a freeform narrative of her own, breathing new life into forgotten artefacts. During the ceremony, the Doha Film Institute announced the new National

Films Competition from which the best five will be selected and two of which will receive awards on National Day. Launched in the

spirit of National Day and mind-ful of the circumstances facing the state of Qatar. Eligible to all people living in Qatar, applicants

can submit their 30 sec – 1 minute videos on www.doha-filminstitute.com. Deadline for submission is 16 December 2017.

Smicha wins best narrative film award at AjyalThe Best Narrative Award went to Amal Al Muftah’s Smicha (Qatar/2017). The Best Documentary/Experimental Award went to Rawan Al Nassiri and Nada Bedair’s Treasures of the Past (Qatar/2017).

The Peninsula

Vodafone yesterday reaf-firmed its global expertise and status as the ideal

partner for businesses in Qatar with the launch of a new cam-paign that highlights its capabilities in enabling custom-ers to grow their operations through tailor-made innovative solutions.

Vodafone is uniquely able to develop tailor-made, smart and specific solutions based on cus-tomers’ needs by leveraging expertise and solutions from around the world. This matters more than ever as businesses of every size are facing the same challenges and opportunities caused by the blurring of bound-aries between mobile, fixed communications and IT. They and their employees expect to be confidently connected to peo-ple, customers, data and applications wherever they are and whenever they want.

The timely campaign follows recently published figures that highlight the strength and resil-ience of the small business sector in Qatar. According to the

Ministry of Economy and Com-merce, the number of new company registrations increased by 52 percent between June and October 2017 , highlighting a strong entrepreneurial drive in the country in spite of the ongo-ing economic blockade.

According to the report, those sectors that recorded the largest number of new business registrations include contract-ing, grocery, cafeterias, trade of public goods and services and clearance transactions.

The newly launched cam-paign demonstrates how Vodafone supports businesses of all sizes in Qatar – from large to small businesses, and public

sector entities – enabling them to grow and develop by provid-ing innovative solutions, sharing its global expertise and bringing the latest Internet of Things (IoT) technologies to the market.

As the world’s second larg-est telecommunications group, Vodafone Qatar can draw on vast amounts of global experi-ence and expertise from its operations in more than 26 countries. In addition, Vodafone has been a pioneer in the field of Internet of Things (IoT) across the globe. With more than 20 years of experience and a glo-bal IoT platform, the business is able to put this to use locally and continuously bring innovation to Qatar.

As business customers increasingly look for more than just mobile services, and make mobility a central part of their business strategies, Vodafone is increasingly becoming a lead-ing Total Communications service provider. Its portfolio includes a range of mobile, fixed, Unified Communications, Cloud & Hosting and Internet of Things services.

Vodafone Qatar’s Chief

Business Officer, Mahmud Awad, said: “We understand fully the pressure facing organisations of all shapes and sizes – due to rapid changes in technology, increasing complexity and grow-ing customer demands and expectations. Businesses are under greater pressure than ever to connect their people, custom-ers and data with their operations as smoothly and effectively as possible. As one of the world’s leading telecommu-nications businesses, we’re perfectly placed to support organisations in grasping this new reality and have the neces-sary expertise and experience to enable them to grasp both the opportunities and address the challenges they face.”

Vodafone’s tailor-made solutions to boost business

Chief Administrative Officer of Doha Film Institute, Abdulla Jassim Al Mosallam (left), CEO of Doha Film Institute, Fatma Al Remaihi (right), pose with award winners Nada Bedair, Rawda Al Thani, Nibu Vasudevan and Amal Al Muftah after the ‘Made in Qatar’ presented by Occidental Petroleum award ceremony during the Ajyal Youth Film Festival in Doha on Friday.

The Peninsula

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education, represented by the

Department of Early Educa-tion, held the second annual forum for parents in “Maha-rati” (My Skills) project.

During the meeting, the project organised by the Min-istry was presented for the fourth year in a row to develop language and numeracy skills in primary schools and raise the level of performance of students from grades 1 to 6 in language and arithmetic skills through several educational initiatives.

The meeting also dealt with several topics, the most impor-tant of which was the fruitful communication and coopera-tion with the school administration, the board of trustees and parents, and the follow-up with the specialist in the interest of the student.

The student’s learning motivation was also discussed

in terms of individual differ-ences, providing a positive home environment for the learning process, identifying the appropriate motivational style, and helping the student deal with fears, challenges, dif-ficult courses, and other related issues.

The forum aims to raise awareness among parents about raising children and helping them to learn, to dis-cuss ways of cooperating with their children’s schools to improve their learning out-comes, to learn more about “My Skills” project for devel-oping language and numeracy skills, to open channels of direct contact with parents and to receive their proposals and observations.

The forum witnessed a great interaction by the par-ents, who praised the forum for its useful information and advice, which will enhance the positive attitude and learning motivation of students, said officials.

Ministry of Education holds 2nd annual forum for parents

The Peninsula

The Doha International Family Institute (DIFI), a member of Qatar Foun-

dation (QF), has concluded its Expert Group Meeting titled ‘Integrating a Family Perspec-tive in the SDGs in the Arab countries: Aspirations and Challenges’.

The meeting, which took place from 29-30 November at the Qatar National Convention Centre, was organized in part-nership with the Arab States Regional Office for the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA).

Through the event, DIFI successfully brought together a broad spectrum of academics, researchers, representatives of United Nations entities, civil society organizations, and other stakeholders to explore the role, value, and feasibility of a “fam-ily perspective” towards achieving several sustainable development goals (SDGs) and targets with emphasis on the goals supporting the welfare, protection, participation, and rights of individuals. Ms. Noor

Al Malki Al Jehani, Executive Director, DIFI, thanked the par-ticipants for their valuable contributions, giving special thanks to the UNFPA.

This Expert Group Meeting proposes the family lens as one way to shift the rhetoric from appreciating families, to prior-itizing and integrating family policies into national and regional plans.”The participants provided their expert analysis and policy recommendations

on the contribution of families to the achievement of SDGs and on the challenges Arab coun-tries face in integrating families in development strategies.

“Whether it’s for individual human beings or for families, the SDGs will ensure that peo-ple have access to basic human rights that will guarantee their welfare, and consequently the welfare of entire societies,” said Dr. Luay Shabaneh, UNFPA’s Director for the Arab region.

“We believe in equality between men and women in all aspects of life, including inside a fam-ily, and call for the abandonment of social prac-tices that perpetuate women’s position as secondary to men.”

The Expert Group Meeting concluded with an interactive session titled ‘The Road Ahead: Concrete Actions and Recom-mendations’, where participant recommendations were discussed.

‘SDGS to ensure access to human rights’

Noor Al Malki Al Jehani, Executive Director of Doha International Family Institute, opens the Expert Group Meeting.

Vodafone is uniquely able to develop tailor-made, smart and specific solutions based on customers’ needs by leveraging expertise and solutions from around the world.

The timely campaign follows recently published figures that highlight the strength and resilience of the small business sector in Qatar.

06 SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017HOME

The Peninsula

The Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) yesterday organised the 8th Community Round-Table Dis-cussion under the theme

“Communities Under the Siege: Solidar-ity and Challenges”.

The event was attended by a group of intellectuals and think-tanks from cit-izens and expatriate communities.

The seminar was divided into two sessions. The first session was entitled, “Challenges arising from the siege cri-sis and its impact on communities.”

This theme dealt with four main issues: human rights violations caused by the siege on Qatar, the humanitarian dimension of the blockade from the per-spective of the law, the economic challenges because of the crisis and the management of Qatari government of the siege crisis.

The second session was entitled, “Stand of expatriate communities in the face of the siege crisis and the lessons learned from it”. It included several issues, namely communities standing side-by-side with the citizens, the stand of expatriate communities and their

supporting role to Qatar, the lessons learnt from this crisis, the positions of the communities in support of Emir

H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the State of Qatar.

“The siege crisis is the

most important issues for citizens and expatriates in the country which is still continues today on 177 day,” said Dr. Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the DICID in his inaugural speech at the event.

He said therefore, this is one of the important opportunities in which the crisis of the siege is discussed from dif-ferent angles including political and economic approach from the aspects of expatriate communities in Qatar and its effects on them and the challenges they are facing in dealing with it, standing side-by-side with citizens.

Al Nuaimi quoted the speech of H H the Emir at the last General Assembly of the United Nations at its 72nd session: “Let me express my pride of my people and expatriates in the State of Qatar, from different nationalities and cultures, for resistance against the siege and rejection of dictations with dignity and determination for independence of Qatari sovereign decision. “

Al Nuaimi stressed that the phrase refers to two basic issues pertaining to the communities. The Emir addressed Qatari citizens and expatriates in Qatar because all of them are affected by the crisis and the issue is equally important for both communities.

For his part, the Archbishop of Qatar, Father Makarios, said: “Without iota of doubt, the people of Qatar, citi-zens and expatriates, have been affected by this siege imposed by the

neighbouring countries since last June, but we are looking at the crisis with a positive vision.”

He said that the coexistence between citizens and expatriates is a power point in dealing with the crisis.

The Christian community appreci-ates the Christian community’s stance towards the siege, saying that the com-munity of residents has supported the Qataris since the beginning of this siege.

Makarios pointed to the impact of the negative siege, as well as the posi-tive, saying: “This unfortunate situation or blockade affects both Qataris and residents alike. On the other hand, this siege has contributed to enhancing Qatar’s ability and capabilities towards self-sufficiency.”

During the seminar, Hussein Ahmed, former acting managing edi-tor of The Peninsula newspaper said that media is considered the real voice in any society and lauded the coexist-ence between Qatari citizens and various expatriate communities in the country.

Hussein Ahmed pointed out the contribution of the Qatari media on tak-ing the issues of expatriate communities and citizens of blockading countries.

Qatar looking at siege with a positive vision: Expert

Experts during the 8th Community Round-Table Discussion under the theme “Communities Under the Siege: Solidarity and Challenges” organised by The Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue.

Continued from page 1

Organisations such as the Inter-national Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International

Trade Union Confederation (ITUC) – traditionally critical of Qatar – acknowledged the progress made to tackle labour issues.

That praise was balanced by an expectation to see more done to con-front human rights, however the transparency of the SC and Qatar around the steps taken to date were well-received in front of more than 200 delegates.

The constructive feedback was acknowledged by Al Thawadi, who pointed to the ILO’s recent decision to close an official complaint into the alleged abuse of migrant workers in Qatar, as proof that dialogue was the only way tackle this issue.

He added: “Nations which resist scrutiny and constructive criticism are an impediment to our region’s progress. In Qatar, we embrace scru-tiny, understand the benefit of being under the international spotlight, and we are open to constructive criticism.”

“On that note, we welcome the ILO’s decision to close the complaint against Qatar earlier this month. It demonstrates their faith in our gov-ernment’s resolve to drive forward the reform and progress that we know we must deliver.”

Qatar’s progress was also recog-nised by Giovanni Di Cola, Special

Adviser, Office of the Deputy Direc-tor General of the ILO.

Speaking on a panel focusing on what lay ahead for sport and human rights, he said: “The articulation of what is happening in Qatar is impor-tant. Others may believe that when you resolve a complaint against a country, it is done. However, in real-ity Hassan Al Thawadi told us this tournament is helping to change the legislation of the country. For Qatar, this is about what happens for work-ers in the 50 years afterwards. This is the real legacy of Qatar’s World Cup. These legacies should not be under-estimated and we must communicate around this.”

Tim Noonan, Director of Cam-paigns and Communications for ITUC, echoed the sentiment of the ILO.

He said: “There is now a legisla-tive agenda and an ILO presence in Qatar for the first time. We need to make that work. There is a mandate for things such as a minimum wage, which has never happened before.”

Following his speech, Al Thawadi answered questions from the audi-ence on a number of issues including freedom of the press and the possibil-ity of the SC’s Workers’ Welfare Standards being incorporated across the entire State of Qatar.

Minky Worden, Director of Global Initiatives for Human Rights Watch, commended Al Thawadi for being open to scrutiny on the topic of work-ers’ welfare – before demanding more

action from the SC and the State of Qatar.

In response to Worden’s challenge of ensuring the Middle East’s first World Cup was about more than just football, Al Thawadi said: “The impact will be felt long after 2022. Our work doesn’t stop when the tournament heads off to the next host of the World Cup in 2026. We won’t go back to the status quo.”

Al Thawadi’s presence at the Sporting Chance Conference came during a week of engagements that saw him speak at the Play the Game conference in Eindhoven, before par-ticipating in a public question and answer session at a special screening of the Workers’ Cup documentary in Geneva.

Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland and Former United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and Chair of the Mega-Sporting Events Platform for Human Rights, praised Al Thawadi for tackling a difficult sub-ject head-on.

She said: “The conversation around this issue has been enriched because of Mr Al Thawadi’s presence. His decision to speak at this event – and attend the screening of the Workers’ Cup – was a brave thing to do.” Al Thawadi’s participation in the Sporting Chance forum came just a day after the SC extended their part-nership with global trade union BWI to conduct joint inspections on offi-cial FIFA World Cup™ projects.

FIFA 2022: SC’s role on workers’ welfare gets recognition

Continued from page 1

“The conference deals with most prevalent diseases in Qatar such as diabetes, obesity and endocrine disorders. There are between 600 and 700 delegates at the event and majority of them are physicians dealing with patients. The conference aims to update physicians with the best ways of disease management as well as prevention,” Dr Mah-moud Ali Zirie, Senior Consultant and Head of HMC’s Endocrinol-ogy and Diabetes Division and Chair of the Conference’s Organ-izing Committee told The Peninsula.

Emphasizing on the impor-tance of including discussion on obesity related issues Dr Ali Zirie said, “Obesity is disease and its

very prevalent in the region. Obesity can increase the chance of getting diabetes, high choles-terol, blood pressure and even some types of cancer. That’s why obesity is addressed very well in the conference. A team at HMC experience and review literature, on causes, prevention and best treatment methods including bariatric surgery.”

The QDEM-2 held a pre event workshops on November 30 and the conference on Friday and yesterday at the Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel.

Professor Abdul-Badi Abou-Samra, Chairman of the Department of Internal Medicine at HMC, and QMI Director, said, “It is estimated that approxi-mately 17 percent of the adult Qatari population currently live

with diabetes. Many of these people live with other associated complications such as high blood pressure, kidney disease, and vision impairment. These con-ditions not only reduce their life expectancy and compromise their quality of life but also neg-atively impact our health system. It is important for the medical

community to meet and discuss trends, best practice, and long-term strategies for the prevention a n d m i t i g a t i o n o f

complications.”QDEM-2 also saw several

plenary sessions and poster pres-entations. Also an exhibition on

the sidelines of the conference including several prominent organizations such as the Qatar Diabetic Association.

Call for joint efforts to beat diabetes, obesity

H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, touring the exhibition and poster presentation area during the Second Qatar Diabetes, Endocrinology and Metabolic Conference at Sheraton- Doha Hotel.

QDEM-2 also saw several plenary sessions, poster presentations and an exhibition on the sidelines of the conference.

07SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Ankara

Reuters

Courts in the United States cannot put Tur-key on trial, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said

yesterday, in reference to the case of a Turkish bank executive who has been charged with evading US sanctions on Iran.

Already strained ties between Nato allies Ankara and Washington have deteriorated in recent weeks as Turkish-Ira-nian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with US prosecutors, detailed in court a scheme to evade US sanctions.

Over three days of testimony, Zarrab has implicated top Turk-ish politicians, including Erdogan. Zarrab said on Thurs-day that Erdogan personally authorised two Turkish banks to

join the scheme when he was prime minister.

Ankara has cast the testi-mony as an attempt to undermine Turkey and its econ-omy, and has previously said it was a “clear plot” by the network of US-based Fethullah Gulen,

who it alleges engineered last year’s coup attempt.

Reuters was not immediately able to reach representatives for

the ministers implicated by Zarrab in the trial.

Turkey has repeatedly requested Gulen’s extradition,

but US officials have said the courts require sufficient evidence before they can extradite the eld-erly cleric, who has denied any involvement in the coup.

Erdogan, who has governed Turkey for almost 15 years, told members of his ruling AK Party in the northeastern province of Kars yesterday that US courts “can never try my country”.

Although he has not yet responded to the courtroom claims, he has dismissed the case as a politically motivated attempt to bring down the Turkish gov-ernment and on Friday the state-run Anadolu news agency said Turkish prosecutors are set to seize the assets of Zarrab and his acquaintances. Turkey has stepped up its pressure on the US and yesterday Anadolu quoted Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavu-soglu as saying that Gulen’s followers had infiltrated the US

judiciary, Congress, and other state institutions.

The United States says its judiciary is independent of any political or other interference.

Some 150,000 people have been sacked or suspended from their jobs over alleged links to Gulen since the attempted coup, while close to 50,000 people from the military, public and pri-vate sector have been jailed.

And in a further blow to Turkish-US ties, Turkish author-ities on Friday issued an arrest warrant for former US Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) officer Graham Fuller over suspected links to the abortive putsch.

Rights groups and Turkey’s Western allies have voiced con-cerns that Erdogan is using the crackdown to muzzle dissent, but the government says the purges are necessary due to the gravity of the threat it faces.

US courts cannot put Turkey on trial: ErdoganAlready strained ties between Nato allies Ankara and Washington have deteriorated in recent weeks as Turkish-Iranian gold trader Reza Zarrab, who is cooperating with US prosecutors, detailed in court a scheme to evade US sanctions.

Damascus

AFP

Syrian air defences inter-cepted at least two Israeli missiles fired at a govern-

ment “military position” in Damascus province early yes-terday but the attack still caused damage, state media reported.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based monitor of the war, said the missiles, presumably Israeli, targeted “positions of the Syr-ian regime and its allies”

southwest of Damascus. An Israeli military spokesman declined to comment.

“At half past midnight, the Israeli enemy fired several sur-face-to-surface missiles at a military position in Damascus province,” the state SANA news agency reported.

“The air defences of the Syrian army were able to deal with the attack... destroying two of the missiles,” it said, adding that the attack none-theless caused “material damage”. Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said the

missile strike targeted a mili-tary base near Kesweh, south of Damascus.

“An arms depot was destroyed,” he said, adding that it was not immediately clear whether the warehouse was operated by the Syrian army, or its allies Iran or Lebanese militant group Hezbollah.

Israel has acknowledged carrying out repeated air and missile strikes in Syria since the outbreak of the bloody civil war six years ago to stop arms deliveries to Hezbollah, with which it fought a devastating

2006 conflict. It has also sys-t e m a t i c a l l y t a r g e t e d government positions in response to all fire into terri-tory under its control, whoever launched it and regardless of whether it was intentional or not.

Israel seized 1,200 square kilometres (460 square miles) of the Golan Heights from Syria in the Six-Day War of 1967 and later annexed it in a move never recognised by the inter-national community.

The two countries remain technically at war.

Reuters

Zimbabwe

Zimbabwe’s new President Emmerson Mnangagwa dropped his education

minister, a day after reappoint-ing him to a cabinet which gave top posts to senior military offi-cials in what was widely seen as a reward for the army’s role in the removal of his predeces-sor, Robert Mugabe.

Mnangagwa made other changes to the cabinet that his

chief secretary. Misheck Sibanda called “adjustments to ensure compliance with the Constitution and considerations of gender, demography and special needs”. He replaced pri-mary and higher education minister Lazaraus Dokora with his deputy Paul Mavima. Doko-ra’s reappointment had caused an outcry from Zimbabweans on social media and radio shows who slammed him for poor performance and under-mining the education system.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greets his supporters during a meeting of ruling AK Party in Kars, Turkey, yesterday.

Syrian army intercepts Israel missiles near Damascus Mnangagwa drops education minister after public outcry

The siege was imposed by the blockading countries on Qatar thinking that it will weaken the country. But on the contrary, Qatar has emerged stronger and is on a stronger footing and ports have played a major role in defeating

the siege. Qatar’s ports have ensured smooth supply of goods for

residents. Though the land, air and sea routes are blocked by the unjust actions, Qatar managed it very well in areas of air and maritime transport. The data released by Mwani Qatar has showed that the cargo movement on ports has been increasing consistently after June, when the siege was announced by blockading countries.

As Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani said in his address at the opening of the 46th ordinary session of the Advisory Council, “The measures taken by the blockading countries were aimed at creating a political shock, affecting Qatar’s stability and forcing us to accept tutelage and cede our independence…. But they have erred in their evaluation of the will of the Qatari people and the State, as well as in their estimates of our economy.”

Hamad Port, one of the largest and most modern ports in the Middle East, has played a great role in this endeavour in achieving this march towards self-reliance. The opening of the new port is in continuation of Qatar’s efforts in accordance with the Qatar National Vision.

Several agreements have been signed with important shipping lines to connect the port to international ports.

These achievements were realised despite that the blockading countries have made relentless efforts to disrupt and obstruct them by various means.

The new Port has the potential to transform Qatar into a regional and international trade and logistics hub. This transformation will not only attract investments and enable economic growth, but will also increase the efficiency of operations for companies with core interests in maritime transportation and logistics.

As the world knows, Hamad Port continues to post

strong performance. The year-on-year growth in cargo traffic has continued every month after the siege was imposed on June 5.

In July, 136 vessels harboured at the port this year compared to 105 vessels in the same month last year, showing year-on-year rise of around 30 percent. Similarly, in August, vessel movement increased by 47 percent as 162 vessels harboured compared to 110 vessels in same month last year.

The port saw a huge 44 percent year-on-year rise in cargo movement in September this year, while 120 percent rise was seen in tonnage in the same month. The port harboured 150 vessels in September this year compared to 104 vessels in same month last year.

All these show that as H H the Emir mentioned, “The negative impacts of the blockade were temporary and our economy has managed to contain most of them very quickly, while adapting and developing itself in the course of the crisis management.”

08 SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

Great strides

QUOTE OF THE DAY

It is essential that there is a gradual demilitarisation, in particular of the Popular Mobilisation that established itself in the last few years in Iraq, and that all militias be gradually dismantled.

Emmanuel MacronFrench President

Qatar’s ports have ensured smooth supply of goods for residents. Though the land, air and sea routes are blocked by the unjust actions, Qatar managed it very well in areas of air and maritime transport.

The last three years dramatically reshaped the oil map in Iraq, OPEC’s second-largest producer. The dust from the military campaign against the Islamic State of Iraq and the

Levant (ISIL, also known as ISIS) will take weeks if not months to settle, and the Iraqi government’s grip on disputed and oil-rich Kirkuk, which the Iraqi Kurds recently vacated, remains infirm.

But when it comes to oil, it is clear that the conflict has left some stakeholders better off than others.

The Baghdad government got off to a very poor start. Even before ISIL stole the head-lines with its dramatic conquest of Mosul in June 2014, the “terror” group’s operations were damaging Iraq’s oil industry. More than three months earlier, ISIL attacks had brought oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline through which Iraq used to export the bulk of Kirkuk’s 550,000 barrels per day (bpd) pro-duction, to a complete halt.

Repair crews, afraid to reach the sites of leaks caused by explosives - even with army escorts - dubbed a stretch of the pipeline’s path Tora Bora, after the infamous stronghold of the Taliban and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Iraq’s losses mounted when ISIL took over Mosul. ISIL fighters captured Ajil and Himrin oilfields in Salaheddin province and Qayya-rah and three others in Nineveh province. The production potential of these fields, 72,000 bpd under ideal conditions, was rather minuscule from Baghdad’s perspective - the country at that time was exporting nearly 2.6 million bpd.

But the real damage was in enabling ISIL to finance its war machine. It was able to gen-erate an estimated $45 million a month selling the oil from these fields, and others in Syria, through a labyrinth of oil refining and smug-gling operations. The windfall allowed it, for a while, to pay its fighters generously by local standards and keep its murderous campaign going for three long years.

Indirectly, the impact was more profound, more geopolitically significant. In the confu-sion following the fall of Mosul, Kurdish Peshmerga belonging to the Kurdistan Regional Government (KRG) took over the prized Kirkuk fields. The largest of the fields, Avana and Bai Hassan, were swiftly inte-grated into the KRG’s oil production system, while others continued to be operated by the Baghdad-controlled North Oil Company.

Baghdad and the KRG made a short-lived deal in December 2014 under which Baghdad would pay the KRG 17 percent of the national budget in exchange for 550,000 bpd. The deal faltered within months as both sides accused each other of falling short of meeting their commitments under it.

The KRG started using Kirkuk’s crude to shore up its oil exports independent of Baghdad. By July of 2015, the KRG’s exports, which had been about 125,000 bpd before the fall of Mosul, quadrupled (pdf), allowing the KRG to generate

How ISIL changed the oil map of IraqOmar Al-Nidawi Al Jazeera

almost $4bn during the second half of 2015.

In the Middle East, oil fuels more than just engines. It can fuel a drive for independence.

The KRG, whose position was boosted with the possession of Kirkuk, grew more confident in its ability to be economically self-reliant and steadily asserted its autonomy from Baghdad. Hardly two weeks had passed since ISIL took Mosul when KRG President Masoud Barzani told CNN during a June 23 interview that “The Kurdistan people should seize the opportunity now to determine their future.”

The KRG’s position appeared to be getting stronger as Baghdad lacked a proper response. Internally, however, there were undercurrents of disagree-ment and resentment towards the ruling Kurdistan Democratic Party (KDP) for dominating the region’s affairs and managing the oil wealth without con-sulting other parties. The tensions were palpable in September 2016 when the Patriotic Union of Kurdistan (PUK), the KDP’s junior partner in control of much of Kirkuk, reportedly threatened to cut oil flows and strike its own oil export deal with Iran. In the following months, the PUK would reiterate its threat, this time with a show of military force.

Nonetheless, the cash-hungry KRG was seeking more oil deals with power-ful external actors both to generate much-needed revenue and hedge against possible retribution by Baghdad, Tehran or Ankara - all wary of the idea of an independent Kurdish nation.

One party that has been pulled into the squabble, or willingly inserted itself, is Russia. Since the beginning of 2017, there have been reports about state-owned Rosneft negotiating deals with the KRG, including buying a majority stake in the KRG oil export pipeline and potentially building another for natural gas export. This set of deals with Rosneft purportedly totals some $3.5bn, of which Rosneft has already paid out $1.3bn.

Securing Russian investment in its pipeline was perhaps a smart insurance policy that the KRG bought to make Baghdad and Ankara think twice before

taking draconian measures to shut it down altogether.

For observers will-ing to overlook the perilous lack of internal

cohesion, the KRG, as it geared up to hold a referendum on independence in September, seemed well on its way to become the Middle East’s youngest state.

But the KRG miscalculated. Tensions between the Baghdad and Erbil govern-ments culminated in the October 17 takeover of Kirkuk by the Iraqi military and Popular Mobilisation Units (PMUs). The Iraqi advance would’ve been unim-aginable if not for the PUK’s decision to cooperate with Baghdad, effectively tor-pedoing a decade-old strategic relationship with the KDP. The con-tested Kirkuk fields of Avana and Bai Hassan were once again under Bagh-dad’s control.

Overnight, half of the KRG oil exports evaporated, taking with it years of planning, and dealing a painful set-back to the decades-old aspiration for independence.

Baghdad almost immediately sought to translate the territorial gains into oil exports and revenue. Two days after the Iraqi military and PMUs walked into Kirkuk, the Iraqi oil minister called on British Petroleum (BP) to help develop Kirkuk fields. The federal oil ministry also announced a plan to repair its own northern pipelines so that it can divert the oil away from the KRG’s pipeline.

There’s a problem though. Pipeline repairs, by Baghdad’s estimates, need at least three months. News of a plan to build a completely new pipeline may indicate that repairs aren’t even feasible.

Baghdad hasn’t figured out exactly what to do with all the Kirkuk oil yet.

Enter Iran. The eastern neighbour, which for years stood jealous of KRG oil dealings with Turkey, is going to make some modest gains from the KRG’s plight. Desperate for an evacuation route, Iraq agreed to start trucking 15,000 bpd from Kirkuk to an Iranian refinery in exchange for Iranian oil delivered to Iraq’s south.

In all this drama, the overall supply picture did not skip a beat. Baghdad managed to boost its oil exports from its southern fields to reach about 3.35 mil-lion bpd in October, offsetting the shortfall from Kirkuk. The sales gener-ated $5.5bn in revenue, its highest monthly figure in almost three years.

The KRG is not completely out of luck. It remains in control of several fields inside Kurdistan proper, still pro-ducing about 300,000 bpd, of which about 250,000 bpd continue to flow through the Kurdistan-Turkey pipeline.

For a month now there has been a standoff between pro-government Iraqi forces and Peshmerga forces at the Faysh Khabur border crossing, where the Kurdish export pipeline enters Tur-key. Baghdad wants to assume control over all crossings to bring all northern exports, including from fields inside Kurdistan’s uncontested border, under state control - and bring the KRG to its knees.

ISIL attacks had brought oil exports through the Iraq-Turkey Pipeline through which Iraq used to export the bulk of Kirkuk’s 550,000 barrels per day production, to a complete halt.

ED ITOR IAL

09SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017 OPINION

If Social Security checks and tax brackets should be adjusted each year for inflation, they ought to be adjusted by the best measure we have. That’s the best argument for what Repub-licans are doing on taxes and what Obama suggested doing on Social Security.

But maybe inflation is not a sufficiently gen-erous index in either case. It might be better to let tax brackets and Social Security payments rise with wages instead.

When tax brackets are indexed only to infla-tion, it leads to “real income bracket creep.” Because wage gains move people into higher brackets, average tax rates increase and the fed-eral government gets a disproportionate share of any economic growth - and both effects occur without a deliberate vote for them.

If brackets rose at the same rate as average wages, on the other hand, neither effect would occur. People who made higher-than-average wage gains would move closer to the next-

higher tax bracket, and people who made lower-than-average

A technical change in the Republican tax bills adds up to a significant tax increase over time. The legislation would change the way tax brackets

are adjusted for inflation each year. The new measure of inflation, called the chained CPI, would be less generous than the old one. As a result, each year slightly more people would move into higher tax brackets than under the current measure.

The Tax Policy Center estimates that this shift would bring in $125 billion in extra revenue over the next decade - which helps Republicans reach their goal of cutting taxes by no more than $1.5 trillion.

President Barack Obama suggested that he might be willing to use the chained CPI to calculate the annual cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security, too. Over time that would lead to lower spending on the program.

Many economists believe that the cur-rent Consumer Price Index overstates inflation and that the chained CPI is a more accurate measure. (Conservative scholar Scott Winship wrote about the gory details a few years ago.) Opponents of moving to the chained CPI for Social Security say that it understates inflation among the elderly, but it is not clear that they are right - and even less clear that a better measure exists.

How to protect Social Security in the long termgains would move further away from it.

Letting cost-of-living adjustments for Social Security rise faster than inflation each year, meanwhile, would have the beneficial effect of causing people to get benefits with a higher real value as they age. When they are 85, that is, they will have more financial support than when they are 70.

More generous indexing for taxes and Social Security would, of course, make future deficits worse. Ideally, we should implement these changes anyway and make up for them in other ways. Rather than having stealthy tax increases on auto-pilot, we should legislate tax increases, spending cuts, or some combination of the two.

And while we should let retirees’ Social Security checks rise in real value each year they are getting them, we should also freeze the real value of initial benefit levels. The way Social Security now works, tomorrow’s retirees will get big-ger checks, even accounting for inflation, than today’s retirees, and they in turn get higher benefits than yesterday’s.

Stopping this generational escalation, at least for people with high lifetime earnings, would make the program sol-vent. A 75-year-old who retired 10 years ago should get a higher benefit, in real terms, than he got last year. But the 75-year-old of 10 years from now should not get a higher benefit than today’s 75-year-old.

The net effect of these changes to Social Security would be to give more assistance to the very elderly while keeping benefits the same in real terms for each age cohort. It would also ameliorate one drawback of the current system: An ever-larger initial benefit level is an ever-larger incentive for people to retire earlier.

What I’m advocating here, for both Social Security and taxes, amounts to short-term pain for long-term gain. Taxes might have to be set a little higher up front, but then they would grow at a slower rate. Initial Social Security benefit levels for the person who retires in 2030 would be lower than they are scheduled to be, but over time the checks would grow.

It’s the kind of trade-off that I think makes sense -- more sense than what the Republicans are doing in their tax bill. But it’s also the kind of trade-off our society seems to be getting worse at making.

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Maybe China shouldn’t open up just yet

CChina needs reform. This has long been the consensus advice from economists and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank, whose recent “China 2030” report argues that Chinese leaders should

strengthen the role of markets and liberalize legal, financial and other institutions governing the econ-omy. Their to-do list is virtually gospel by now: free up trade and investment, unshackle the exchange rate and ease capital controls.

Such reforms are held not only to be worthy in themselves, but critical to solving China’s biggest problem: its debt, which has skyrocketed to well over 260 percent of GDP from 162 percent in 2008. The speed and scale of credit expansion has raised fears of a financial crisis, even from such normally staid figures as central bank governor Zhou Xiao-chuan. The hope is that reforms will boost productivity enough to allow China to outgrow its debt burden before that crisis hits.

This logic is flawed for two reasons. First, China is unlikely to suffer a financial crisis, and this is pre-cisely because of the government’s ability to restructure banking-sector liabilities at will.

The real threat is different. Once a country’s debt burden is high enough to create uncertainty about allocating future debt-servicing costs, the debt itself becomes an obstacle to growth. This process -- known as “financial distress” -- is well-understood in finance theory but is still unfamiliar to many economists.

So, unfortunately, is the corroborating history. In the past two centuries, there have been dozens of cases of overly-indebted countries whose policy-makers have promised to implement liberalizing reforms meant to allow the country to outgrow its debt. None has succeeded. No excessively indebted country has ever outgrown its debt until a meaning-

ful portion has been forcibly assigned to one economic sector or another.

There are many ways this can occur. Mexico restructured its debt at

a

discount in 1990, thereby forcing the cost onto credi-tors. Germany inflated the debt away after 1919, forcing the cost onto pensioners and others with fixed incomes. A decade ago, China forced the cost onto household savers through negative real interest rates.

If it is going to regain sustainable growth, China, too, must deleverage. The only healthy way to do so is first, to force local governments to liquidate assets and assign part of the proceeds to debt reduction, and second, to wean China off its dependence on excessive investment by transferring wealth from local governments to households, so they can con-sume more.

One way or another, deleveraging is a necessary condition for further growth. Even those countries that have avoided financial crises have nonetheless had to deleverage, but have done so in the form of “lost decades” of very low growth -- most notably the Soviet Union in the two decades after 1967 and Japan in the two decades after 1990. In each case, the country’s share of global GDP collapsed by 60-70 percent. This is not a desirable alternative to crisis.

The second problem is that orthodox reforms implicitly assume that, as businesses and investors try to channel resources into higher-productivity investments, they’re constrained mainly by low sav-ings and institutional distortions. If that were true, liberalizing finance, enhancing capital flows and freeing up the market would indeed boost productivity.

But, in a deeply unbalanced economy with an insolvent financial system, incentives are warped in ways that undermine this assumption. China’s finan-cial sector is dominated by speculative investing and capital flight. Meanwhile, heavy state influence has distorted corporate governance and kept afloat insolvent companies.

Under such conditions, opening up the financial sector would only further accommodate distortions and worsen the misallocation of investment. The notorious behavior of U.S. savings-and-loans institu-tions in the 1980s is a classic example of how liberalizing a highly constrained and insolvent bank-ing system increases abuses and multiplies the eventual cost of resolution. There are other terrifying examples.

Moreover, as noted earlier, China has avoided a financial crisis precisely because its banking system is closed and its regulators can restructure liabilities at will. Removing constraints on capital flows would strip the government of the weapons needed to defend against a crisis.

In the end, while standard macroeconomic reforms may work in theory -- albeit under an unre-alistic set of assumptions -- they’ve never worked in practice. Rather than eliminating the controls that protect China from a financial crisis, leaders should confront their debt problem head-on and begin deleveraging.

For that to happen, it would help if the decision-making process were more, not less centralized.

Visiting leaders arriving at the CPC in dialogue with world political parties high-level meeting, at the Diaoyutai State Guesthouse, yesterday.

Only forceful action from the top can overcome the tremendously powerful vested interests that are blocking the redistribution of local-government wealth. A more liberal China may be desirable in the abstract -- but not until a more controlled China gets a handle on its debt problems.

Michael Pettis Bloomberg

Ramesh Ponnuru The Washington Post

The real threat is different. Once a country’s debt burden is high enough to create uncertainty about allocating future debt-servicing costs, the debt itself becomes an obstacle to growth. This process -- known as “financial distress” -- is well-understood in finance theory but is still unfamiliar to many economists.

The net effect of these changes to Social Security would be to give more assistance to the very elderly while keeping benefits the same in real terms for each age cohort. It would also ameliorate one drawback of the current system: An ever-larger initial benefit level is an ever-larger incentive for people to retire earlier.

10 SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017ASIA

Ockhi in Kerala: Four fishermen die, 102 missingThiruvananthapuram

IANS

The bodies of four Kerala fishermen were recovered yesterday, taking the toll to

six so far in the aftermath of Cyclone Ockhi, while there is no word about 102 fishermen from the state who ventured to the deep sea.

The bodies were found as part of rescue operations launched by the Indian Navy, Air Force and Coast Guard after Cyclone Ockhi hit the southern districts of Ker-ala and Tamil Nadu.

While the identity of one of the dead has been found, the other three bodies brought to the shores on Saturday were in a decomposed stage and identifi-cation became difficult.

According to official figures, 37 fishermen from Kerala were res-cued in the joint operations, while some others returned on their own. By last evening, the total number of fishermen who had returned stood at 450, while there is no word about 102 from the state who continue to be missing.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan told the media that Rs10 lakh each would be given to the families of the dead fishermen and Rs20,000 each to those injured, while those who have lost their fishing gear and other equipment would be compensated.

Asked about the missing fish-ermen, Vijayan was unable to give a figure, but said that infor-mation has been received that some Kerala fishermen have been located in Lakshadweep.

Thiruvananthapuram district Collector S Vasuki told the media that the 102 fishermen from Ker-ala cannot be termed as “missing”. “These fishermen had gone to the sea. They are yet to reach home

or they have not been able to con-tact their relatives here.”

“The search operations now are aimed towards the Alap-puzha area, as the boats would have run out of fuel. They would be drifting according to the wind direction. Hence the search operations are focusing on Alap-puzha,” said Vasuki.

She added that strict instruc-tions have been given that “none should venture into the sea for fishing”. “We have directed teams of fishermen who have started their own rescue opera-tions that only fishing boats more than 20 metres long are allowed and should not go beyond two nautical miles into the sea.

“They have been asked to inform the Coastal Police of the registration number of their boats going out,” said Vasuki.

Angry fishermen at two places in the capital city and at one place in Alappuzha blocked the highway protesting the “poor” rescue operations being carried out, with the Kerala gov-ernment coming under heavy fire for not informing the fisher-men of the impending cyclone.

Residents carry their belongings as they evacuate their house after flooding caused by Cyclone Ockhi in the coastal village of Chellanam, near Kochi in Kerala, yesterday.

Families protest in Tamil Nadu for rescue and reliefChennai

IANS

Family members of around 1,000 fishermen and res-idents of some Cyclone

Ockhi-hit localities in Tamil Nadu’s Kanyakumari hit the streets in protest yesterday to draw the attention of the authorities to their plight and seek intensified search for the kin out on the high seas.

Family members of around 1,000 fishermen who ventured into the deep seas when Cyclone Ockhi struck the southern Tamil Nadu coast have demanded that aerial searches and rescue oper-ations be launched to trace the missing men.

On the other hand people living in a locality in Nagercoil protested against the official apathy to their basic needs like drinking water, milk for children and power supply.

Protesting on the roads, the fishermen families yesterday

said the fisher folk had ventured into the sea in around 100 boats three days back and have not returned.

Several boats appear to have capsized due to heavy winds and rains after the cyclone made landfall in the state and neigh-bouring Kerala on Thursday and the stormy conditions continue in the area.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami also requested Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh to involve the Indian Navy and Coast Guard helicopters for search and rescue of fishermen caught in mid sea in the wake of the cyclone.

According to a statement issued by the state government, Rajnath Singh had called Palan-iswami and enquired about the damages suffered due to the Ockhi.

Palaniswami had requested deployment of helicopters in the search and rescue operations of fishermen who have not

returned.DMK Working President

M.K.Stalin also wrote to Defence Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, on behalf on the fishermen fam-ilies, saying: “Their families are very much afraid that the lives of the stranded fishermen are in great danger.”

He told Sitharaman “imme-diate rescue measures must be undertaken by the Indian Coast Guard”.

Kanyakumari is one of the districts heavily battered by the cyclone since Thursday.

According to the protesters, no one from the authorities has come and met them yet.

On Friday, Chief Minister Palaniswami had instructed officials to take steps to locate 30 fishermen on 11 boats who went missing at sea.

The state government in a statement said the Fisheries Department and coastal secu-rity agencies had so far rescued 76 fishermen in 18 boats.

NIA summons Odisha man in J&K terror funding caseNew Delhi

IANS

The National Investiga-tion Agency (NIA) summoned an individ-

ual from Odisha for questioning in the Jammu and Kashmir terror funding case, an official said yesterday.

A senior NIA official said that Akhthar Hussain, a resi-dent of Cuttack, had been summoned to appear before the agency on December 4 at its headquarters in Delhi.

The official said that earlier, a team of six officials of the coun-ter-terror probe agency had gone to Odisha and questioned Hussain for several hours.

He said that during the questioning, Hussain could not give proper reply to quite a few queries.

The NIA had registered several cases in connection with terror funding to stoke unrest in the Kashmir valley against several top separatist leaders in the month of May.

On July 24, the NIA arrested seven separatist leaders on charges of criminal conspiracy and waging war against India. Those arrested included Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate, Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Raja Mehrajud-din Kalwal and Bashir Ahmad Bhat alias Peer Saifullah.

In mid-August, the agency arrested Kashmir’s prominent businessman Zahoor Ahmad Shah Watali. The NIA on Sep-tember 5 also arrested two alleged stone-pelters—Javed Ahmad Bhat of Kulgam and Kamran of Pulwama—in con-nection with the ongoing probe into terror funding to keep unrest alive in the Valley.

On November 7, the agency seized nearly Rs 36.5 crore in demonetised cur-rency and arrested nine persons.

Why Modi frequents Gujarat, asks DikshitGandhinagar

IANS

Former Delhi Chief Minis-ter Sheila Dikshit yesterday asked if the

claim of the ruling BJP in Gujarat of having undertaken a lot of development is correct then why was Prime Minister Narendra Modi rushing off to the state practically every other day to campaign.

Addressing the media here, the former three-time Delhi Chief Minister said that the saffron party has realised that people are in a mood to change the government and that’s why Modi is paying fre-quent visits to the state.

She said after 22 years of BJP rule the people of Gujarat have now realised that they haven’t experienced real development. Dikshit said that the Congress is pretty confident of forming the gov-ernment in Gujarat.

“Why does a so-busy Prime Minister Narendra Modi have to visit Gujarat every other day when they have car-ried out so many development works in the state as they are claiming?,” she said.

She added, “Look at the prices of commodities that have risen so sharply during the three-and-a half years of NDA rule. There has been sudden and steep hike in onion, tomato prices.”

Australia’s former deputy PM wins by-electionSydney

Reuters

Australia’s former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce cleared the way for

his return to parliament yester-day, winning a by-election just over a month after he was kicked out over a dual citizenship crisis that cost the government its majority.

Joyce was not only returned in his New England seat in New South Wales but was forecast to

have lifted his primary vote by at least 10 points, giving Prime Min-ister Malcolm Turnbull a welcome boost after a tough few weeks.

“This has been a stunning victory,” Turnbull told support-ers as he joined Joyce at a pub in the town of Tamworth.

Exit polls were predicting “the largest swing to the government in the history of by-elections in Australia”, Turnbull said, adding it was a vindication of his coali-tion. “We’re getting the band back together.”

Joyce was one of the “Citi-zenship Seven” whose eligibility to sit in parliament was thrown into doubt when it was found they were dual citizens, a status that is barred for politicians under Australia’s constitution to prevent split allegiances.

The High Court ruled on October 27 that Joyce, along with four of the seven other lawmak-ers, was ineligible to remain in parliament, forcing a by-elec-tion. Joyce was found to be a dual citizen of New Zealand, a status

he has since rescinded.The deputy leader position,

traditionally held by a member of the junior coalition partner, the National Party, had remained vacant since the High Court ruling.

The result comes at a diffi-cult time for Turnbull, who earlier this week reversed his long-held opposition to a full-blown inquiry into the country’s scandal-hit financial sector amid mounting political pressure.

Turnbull has also seen a

splinter within his centre right Liberal-National coalition over same-sex marriage, with the conservative faction, led by some of the Nationals, angered by his promise to push through legis-lation after an historic public vote in favour of the unions.

The last day of campaigning for the by-election was marred by a call from New South Wales Nationals state leader and dep-uty premier John Barilaro for Turnbull to step down as a “Christmas gift” to the nation.

Students waving and cheering Pope Francis during a meeting with young people at Notre Dame College in Dhaka yesterday.

Pope winds up Asia tour after meeting RohingyaDhaka

AFP

Pope Francis wrapped up a high-stakes Asia tour yesterday after meeting

Rohingya refugees in Bangla-desh in a highly symbolic gesture of solidarity with the Muslim minority fleeing vio-lence in Myanmar.

The Catholic leader flew out of Dhaka after visiting a hospi-tal run by the order of Mother Theresa and addressing thou-sands of students on the final day of a visit to Bangladesh and Myanmar that has been domi-nated by the plight of the Rohingya.

Pope Francis is known for championing the rights of

refugees and has repeatedly expressed support for the long-suffering Rohingya, describing them as his “brothers and sisters”.

The usually forthright pon-tiff walked a diplomatic tightrope during his four days in Myanmar — the first papal visit to the country — avoiding any direct reference to the Rohingya in public while appealing to Buddhist leaders to overcome “prejudice and hatred”.

In Bangladesh he addressed the issue head-on, meeting a group of Rohingya refugees from the squalid camps in southern Bangladesh in an emotional encounter in Dhaka.

37 fishermen from Kerala were rescued, while some others returned on their own. By last evening, the total number of fishermen who had returned stood at 450, while there is no word about 102 from the state who continue to be missing.

11SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017 ASIA

Former prime minister of Pakistan Nawaz Sharif (centre) waves to supporters at a public rally organised by Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party in Quetta yesterday. The rally was arranged to mark the death anniversary of late Abdul Samad Khan Achackzai, father of the Chairman of Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, Mahmud Khan Achakzai.

Pakistan’s former prime minister attends rally in Quetta

Pakistan, British military ties taking new turnLondon

Internews

British security think-tank, the Royal Unites Services Insti-tute (RUSI), has said that relationship

between British and Pakistani armies is transforming from one based mostly on pomp cer-emony and personal friendships to one based on shared strate-gic interests.

In an analysis, the RUSI drew similarities and closeness between the two armies and said that armies of two coun-tries have grown closer in recent years.

It said that the Pakistan Army can sometimes be more British than the British Army, at least when it comes to pomp and ceremony as its cavalry officers have the best horses, and they play in the top polo competitions.

It added: “Many of their sons go to Britain’s top board-ing schools, and they even fashion their moustaches in the manner as Field Marshal Her-bert Kitchener.”

It said that Pakistan Army’s Major Uqbah recently served as a trainer at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst; now Brit-ish NCOs are on their way to becoming part of Pakistan’s mil-itary academy at Kakul; there is also talk of a British Major head-ing to become an instructor in Pakistan. This month, the report said, General Carter became the

first British Army chief to be the main guest to attend a Pakistan Army cadets’ passing out parade.

“In the past year alone, Carter has been to Pakistan three times, more times than he has been to any other non-Nato member. Now the British army wants to capitalise on this rela-tionship as it bids to evolve into a smaller, but smarter, force.

The report said that the UK-Pakistan relationship is becoming more strategic to the extent that the two armies could even fight together against a common enemy and that Brit-ish army is keen to learn from the Pakistan Army’s success in Operation Zarb-e-Azb, which Sanders praised, going so far as to say that what the Pakistan Army had achieved in the Fed-erally Administered Tribal Areas ‘has not been achieved for 150 years’.

The RUSI report said that Pakistan and UK hold regular security conferences with each other and share intelligence and ideas on numerous issues.

An Indonesian farmer passes a field as Mount Sinabung volcano spews thick smoke into the air in Karo, North Sumatra yesterday.

More Bali flights cancelled as volcanic threat persists Denpasar, Indonesia

Reuters

Airlines cancelled more flights departing the Indonesian holiday island

of Bali yesterday, citing forecasts of deteriorating flying condi-tions due to a risk of volcanic ash from the erupting Mount Agung volcano.

A Bali airport spokesman said the airport was still oper-ating normally, but airlines such as Jetstar and Virgin Australia had opted to cancel some flights “Bali flying conditions expected to be clear throughout the day, but forecast for tonight has dete-riorated so several flights have been cancelled,” Australian budget airline Jetstar said.

The erupting volcano had closed the airport for much of this week, stranding thousands of vis-itors from Australia, China and other countries, before the winds changed and flights resumed. Twenty flights were cancelled on Friday evening due to concerns over ash. Some airlines including Malaysia’s AirAsia Bhd have said they would only operate out of Bali during the day, as the ash could impair visibility at night and wind conditions in the area were unpredictable.

With some airlines contin-uing to fly normally yesterday, there was frustration among passengers. Australian couple Justine and Greg Hill were on holiday with their two teenage children and had been due to fly

out today but their flight later this evening was cancelled. “I don’t understand why if some airlines are flying, others aren’t. Obviously there must be safety protocols,” said Greg Hill.

Several foreign consulates have set up booths in the inter-national departures area to assist stranded passengers.

Subrata Sarkar, India’s vice consul in Bali, said that they had helped around 500 passengers so far this week.

“We have advised citizens the volcano may erupt. We never say ‘please don’t come’. But we have issued travel advi-sories. If it’s urgent business, then ok, but if it’s only tourism, then plans should be reconsid-ered,” said Sarkar.

IS attack in Afghanistan leaves two dead, 10 hurt Kabul

Agencies

At least two security forces died and 10 oth-ers wounded in an

attack by Islamic State group in eastern Nangarhar province.

Attahullah Khogyani, spokesman for the provincial governor, said the two killed were intelligence service members and one was direc-tor of the Jalalabad intelligence department.

The attack began when a rocket was fired toward a pri-vate TV station and when security arrived at the scene a blast took place followed later by a third explosion, said Khogyani. An Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the attack.

In Logar province, unknown gunmen shot dead two people including a tribal elder, said Salim Saleh, spokesman for provincial governor.

Meanwhile, around 20 ISIS and Taliban militants were killed in an air strike in eastern Nangarhar province, official said.

The air strike was carried out in the vicinity of the restive Khogyani district, leaving at least twelve fighters of the group dead or wounded, Khaama press reported.

The provincial government media office in a statement also confirmed the airstrike left at least four ISIS militants dead and eight others wounded. It added that the US unmanned aerial vehicles targeted a com-pound in Wazir Tangi area.

Ban on social media triggers concernIslamabad

Internews

Internet and digital rights organisation “Bytes For All” has expressed concern over

blanket ban on news and social media website by the Pakistani government over the last week-end and issued a detailed report on the technical evidence of the censorship.

A number of social media sites and news outlets were blocked in Pakistan during a a security forces crackdown against protesters of a some reli-gious parties after the blockade of a main road connecting Rawalipindi with the federal capital, Islamabad.

The protest sit-in that con-tinued for nearly three weeks

had virtually paralysed life in Pakistan’s capital.

As information about the government operation was reported by the media, protests spread across the country, liter-ally jamming roads and closing businesses.

The Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (Pemra) prohibited live cover-age of the operation at Faizabad, leading to governmental block-ing of social media sites and online news channels.

“The arbitrary ban over the internet website is a matter of great concern and a violation of relevant UN conventions,” said Haroon Baloch, Programme Manager at the ‘Bytes for All’ while commenting on the elec-tronic and social media blackout

on 25th and 26th November.He said the government has

in past also censored content on internet under the newly intro-duced cyber law and ignored its international obligations.

However Baloch also lamented lack of respect for code of conduct on part of some media channels which contin-ued live broadcast of the security operation but on the other hand Pemra should not impose blan-ket ban on media.

“Internationally no media outlet will provide live coverage of security operation as it could jeopardise the success of such operation,” he said.

The fresh report provides technical evidence of observed censorship events.

“We confirm the DNS

blocking of 14 news websites, as well as the censorship of appli-cations including Facebook Messenger, Telegram, and What-sApp’s web interface,” the report says.

“We share Open Observa-tory of Network Interference (OONI) network measurement data collected from Pakistan, confirming the DNS-based blocking of Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram.

All of these censorship events were temporarily imple-mented last weekend, and are no longer in place,” says the report.

The report is collaborative effort of ‘Bytes For All,’ Pakistan and Open Observatory of Net-work Interference, Haroon Baloch said.

Natural tremor near N Korea nuclear siteSeoul

AFP

A natural earthquake of magnitude 2.5 occurred yesterday near North

Korea’s nuclear test site, the fourth such tremor since the North’s most recent atomic explosion there, South Korean officials said.

The micro-quake occurred about 2.7 kilometers northeast of the Punggye-ri nuclear site in the country’s northeastern province of North Hamgyong, the Korea Meteorological Administration said on their official website.

“The quake is a natural one and it is believed to have occurred in the aftermath of the sixth nuclear test,” it said.

Minor tremors have been detected after the North carried out its sixth and most powerful nuclear test underground in September, damaging geolog-ical structures in the area, it added.

Monitors at that time said the nuclear test created an arti-f i c i a l 6 . 3 - m a g n i t u d e earthquake at the testing site, which South Korean experts said was nearly 10 times more powerful than the 10-kiloton test carried out a year earlier.

Philippines ‘prepared for worst’ in dengue vaccine concernsManila

AFP

The Philippines is prepared for a “worst-case sce-nario” following warnings

that an anti-dengue vaccine administered to thousands of children may worsen the dis-ease in some cases, a health official said yesterday.

Department of Health spokesman Eric Tayag said the country had already taken pre-cautions against potential mishaps when it became the first country to use the landmark vaccine in 2016.

The developer of the world’s first vaccine for the potentially deadly virus, French pharma-ceutical giant Sanofi, revealed earlier this week that it could

trigger more severe symptoms in people who had not been pre-viously infected with dengue.

More than 733,000 children have already received Dengvaxia, raising fears that many could develop the harsher form of the disease.

“The Department of Health is prepared for a worst-case sce-nario,” Tayag told a private television channel, a day after the agency announced it was suspending its mass vaccination programme.

Tayag said the government had been careful to only imple-ment the scheme in areas where dengue was already widespread and had only given it to children aged nine or older.

He further said that the department, which had

previously said there were no reported cases of worsened infection among those who received the vaccine, was also checking hospital records for severe cases of dengue.

Sanofi had said such acute dengue cases would not become apparent till about five years after vaccination, Tayag added.

“For those not previously infected by dengue virus, how-ever, the analysis found that in the longer term, more cases of severe disease could occur fol-lowing vaccination upon a subsequent dengue infection,” Sanofi said.

More than 1,000 people in the Philippines died from den-gue last year, out of more than 211,000 suspected cases, according to the government.

A RUSI report said that the UK-Pakistan relationship is becoming more strategic to the extent that the two armies could even fight together against a common enemy.

12 SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017EUROPE

Electoral campaign

Germany’s far right to pick new leadersHanover

AFP

Members of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) gathered yester-day to vote on

new leadership after the party’s triumphant turnout in Septem-ber’s general election, as thousands staged street protests against the anti-immigrant party.

The AfD captured nearly 13 percent of the vote and almost 100 seats in parliament—a watershed moment in postwar German politics that left Chan-cellor Angela Merkel the winner but required her to seek out a still-elusive coalition.

But a festering row between radical nationalists and more moderate forces has roiled the AfD’s top ranks, with co-leader Frauke Petry abruptly quitting just days after the election to form her own breakaway party.

About 600 delegates at the two-day congress in the

northern city of Hanover were to vote on a replacement for her as well as a new board, deter-mining the ideological direction of the party.

Outside, hundreds of dem-onstrators staged sit-ins to block roadways to the venue, delaying

the start of the congress by nearly an hour.

After reporting minor scuf-fles with protesters, police deployed water cannon in frigid weather to remove some of the blockades.

Several officers were injured in scuffles, one on the hand by a flying bottle, and a demonstra-tor who had chained himself to a barricade suffered a broken leg and was taken to hospital, police said.

Later yesterday, more than 5,000 pro-refugee demonstra-tors marched through the city centre supporting Merkel’s lib-eral border policy, which has allowed in more than one mil-lion asylum seekers since the year 2015.

Another anti-AfD rally by trade unionists was expected to draw around 3,000 people.

AfD leader Joerg Meuthen, who has allied himself with its hard-right nativist wing, has said he will stand for another two-year term.

He told cheering delegates that the AfD was Germany’s “only party for patriotic policies” and accused Merkel of “funda-mental political failure” during her 12 years in office.

Launched as a populist anti-euro party in 2013, the AfD has veered sharply to the right since then and campaigned for the September election with slogans such as “Bikinis Not Burqas”, “Stop Islamisation” and the ubiq-uitous “Merkel must go”.

It is now represented in 14 of Germany’s 16 state parliaments but has been shunned by main-stream parties as a potential partner at the national level.

A video shown at the start of the event celebrated the regional election victories and ended with

the rallying cry “We want our homeland back.”

Meuthen predicted the AfD would hold seats in all 16 states by the end of 2018.

The fractured political land-scape has made it more difficult than ever for Merkel to cobble together a governing majority.

Talks to form a coalition spanning the political spectrum for her fourth and probably last term broke down in acrimony last month.

She is now trying to woo the centre-left Social Democrats back into a right-left “grand coa-lition” government.

If she is successful and averts a snap election, the AfD would become Germany’s largest

opposition power, strongly boosting its profile.

Meuthen said the “pathetic little sandbox games” of the other parties leading to the political deadlock in Berlin were helping the AfD.

“It is good for us,” he said to applause. “It brings us more supporters.”

Delegates will debate a motion to have Meuthen as the AfD’s sole president.

Meanwhile, more centrist forces in the party are backing the party’s Berlin chief, Georg Pazderski, a former army colo-nel, as co-leader.

But speculation was rife that the party’s powerful parliamen-tary group chief, Alexander

Gauland, could mount a leader-ship challenge.

The list of motions to be debated in Hanover offered a snapshot of the party’s priorities.

They included a call for Ger-many to ban circumcision of male babies, targeting a common practice among Muslim and Jew-ish families, and a condemnation of a new definition of anti-Semitism adopted by parliament which it considers a “curb on free speech”.

The party recently sparked outrage by calling for the imme-diate return of tens of thousands of Syrian refugees in Germany, claiming that “large parts” of the war-ravaged country were now safe.

Police search for clues after Postdam market bomb scareBerlin

AFP

German police said yes-terday that it was “unlikely” a holiday

market in Potsdam was the target of a package found nearby that was initially believed to contain an explo-sive device.

The device was discov-ered late Friday at a pharmacy just off the market in central Potsdam, a picturesque city near Berlin, reviving fears of a repeat of last year’s terror attack at a holiday market in Berlin.

“Investigations are con-tinuing in all directions,” Brandenburg state police said on Twitter.

But “according to the first element of the investi-gation,” it appears “unlikely” that the holiday market was the target, the police said recently.

A pharmacist sounded alert after finding a canister with wires inside the package.

After initial reports that it was an explosive device, local authorities said the cylindri-cal canister was filled with nails, powder, batteries and wires but there was no sign of a detonator.

Investigators are now attempting to identify the sender of the package.

The market was only par-tially evacuated on Friday and will reopen as normal yester-day with a stronger police presence, a local police spokesman said.

Germany has been on high alert for possible mili-tant attacks after last December’s deadly assault at a holiday market in central Berlin.

Naples pizza twirling seeks nod as Unesco ‘intangible’Paris

AFP

Naples’ art of pizza twirl-ing is a candidate to join Unesco’s list of “intangi-

ble heritage” next week along with a wealth of other cultural treasures such as Saudi Arabian wall painting and Bangladeshi cane weaving.

Meeting on the South Korean island of Jeju, the UN cultural body’s World Heritage Committee will also consider whether to give special support for heritage that is struggling to survive.

Naples’ candidacy for pizza

twirling has created a buzz in the southern Italian city where the art has been handed down for generations—as well as around the world.

Some two million people have joined a petition of sup-port of Naples’ application, according to Sergio Miccu, head of the Association of Neapoli-tan Pizzaioli, who will be in Jeju for the proceedings.

“We’re confident the vote will be favourable,” Miccu said, adding: “We’ll be giving out free pizza in the streets” if the age-old culinary tradition joins the prestigious list.

The custom goes far beyond

the pizzaiolo’s spectacular han-dling of the dough—hurling it into the air in order to “oxygen-ate” it—to include songs and stories that have turned pizza-making into a time-honoured social ritual.

Thirty-four candidates are seeking to join the list of intan-gible heritage, which currently includes 365 traditions, art forms and practices from Spain’s flamenco dancing to Indonesian batik, to more obscure entries such as a Turk-ish oil wrestling festival and the Mongolian coaxing ritual for camels.

For its part, Bangladesh has

put forward its tradition of Shi-tal Pati, an intricate weaving craft using strips of green cane to pro-duce mats and bedspreads.

The list of “intangible” cul-tural treasures was created in 2003, mainly to increase awareness about them, while Unesco also sometimes offers financial or technical support to countries struggling to pro-tect them.

Morocco is sounding the alarm this year for its martial dance called Taskiwin, and Tur-key is concerned over its whistled language heritage.

Both are threatened by declining interest in the tradi-

tions among young people.Unesco began compiling a

list for cultural and natural world heritage—physical prop-erties such as Cambodia’s Angkor Wat or the Grand Can-yon in the US—in 1972.

The World Heritage list now comprises 814 cultural sites, 203 natural ones and 35 with both natural and cultural qual-ities such as Australia’s Uluru National Park, formerly known as Ayer’s Rock.

The committee winds up its review of nominations to the list of Representative Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity on Friday.

Hundreds evacuated amid persistent rain in AlbaniaTirana

AP

Soldiers and police evacu-ated hundreds of residents in southern Albania yes-

terday amid persistent rain in the country that has caused riv-erbanks to burst, flooding several villages and inundating thousands of homes.

Many roads in the region have been blocked by mud-slides. More than 100 families in five villages near the Vjosa River, about 120km southwest of the capital, Tirana, were evacuated overnight, the Defense Ministry said yesterday.

Police and soldiers have forcefully removed people from their homes in some cases, top emergency official Shemsi Prenci said.

About 2,300 troops have been deployed to the area along with six teams of emergency

responders from neighbouring Kosovo, he said yesterday.

At least one person has died in the last three days of heavy rainfall that has flooded many parts of Albania, temporarily paralyzing its ports and sus-pending flights from its only international airport.

But there haven’t been any fatalities in the latest spell of downpours in southern Albania.

“Fortunately there has been no loss of human lives, nor of cattle so far,” said Prenci, add-ing that warnings about the bad weather earlier this week gave residents enough time to bring their livestock to safety, and personal belongings to upper floors.

Prime Minister Edi Rama has said that a total of 6,400 emergency responders, rescu, police and soldiers are dealing with “a very critical situation.”

Alternative for Germany (AfD) anti-immigration party members and guests attend congress in Hanover, Germany, yesterday.

Demonstrators hold banners during a protest against the AfD far-right party.

About 600 delegates at the two-day congress in Hanover were to vote on a replacement for Frauke Petry as well as a new board, determining the ideological direction of the party.

Political crisis

More than 5,000 pro-refugee demonstrators marched through the city centre supporting Merkel’s liberal border policy.

Presidential candidate and opposition activist Ksenia Sobchak, met her supporters, in Saint Petersburg, yesterday.

13SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017 EUROPE

Kosovo PM removed from Serbia arrest listPristina

Reuters

Kosovo Prime Minis-t e r R a m u s h Haradinaj (pic-tured) was removed from an interna-

tional arrest warrant issued by Serbia, lifting an obstacle to him travelling outside the country, the justice minister said.

Early this year, Ramush Haradinaj, a former Kosovar guerilla leader who in Septem-ber took over as prime minister, was arrested in France on an arrest warrant issued by Serbia. He was released after a French court rejected Belgrade’s extra-dition request. Despite many attempts by Pristina, Belgrade refused to remove his name from the Interpol red notice.

“Today I was informed that Interpol has removed 18 people from Kosovo that are wanted by Serbia and this list includes also the prime minister,” Abelard Tahiri, Kosovo’s Justice Minis-ter said.

“After today’s decision all these individuals are free to travel outside the country with-out any problem.”

Haradinaj and others are wanted by Serbia for allegedly committing war crimes.

Serbia has charged Haradi-naj with murdering Serbs in the late 1990s war.

The 1998 to 1999 conflict ended after Nato bombed the

now-defunct Yugoslavia, then comprising Serbia and Mon-tenegro, for 78 days to force a withdrawal of its troops from Kosovo and end a counter-insurgency campaign against ethnic Albanians.

Haradinaj, who has twice been tried and acquitted by the United Nations war crimes tri-bunal in the Hague, denies any wrongdoing.

Kosovo declared independ-ence in 2008 but Serbia refused to recognise its former breaka-way province.

Today I was informed that Interpol has removed 18 people from Kosovo that are wanted by Serbia and this list includes also the prime minister. After today’s decision all these individuals are free to travel outside the country without any problem: Kosovo’s Justice Minister

Travel ban lifted

London

Reuters

Britain’s main cyber security agency warned British government

agencies to avoid using anti-virus software from Russian companies, the latest in a series of moves targeting Moscow-based security soft-ware maker Kaspersky Lab.

In a letter to departmen-tal permanent secretaries, the director of the UK National Cyber Security Centre, Ciaran Martin, said Russian-made anti-virus software should not be used in systems con-taining information that would harm national secu-rity if it was accessed by the Russian government.

He said his agency is in talks with Kaspersky Lab to develop a system for review-ing its products for use in Britain.

Kaspersky’s anti-virus software was banned from US government networks earlier this year on concerns the company has close ties to intelligence agencies in

Moscow and that its software could be used to enable Rus-sian spying.

“We are in discussions with Kaspersky Lab ... about whether we can develop a framework that we and oth-ers can independently verify,” Martin said in the letter, which was publicly released.

Kaspersky Lab said in a statement that it looked for-ward to working with the NCSC on the issue.

Kaspersky has strongly denied allegations about the safety of its products or ties to the Russian government, saying it has become a scape-goat in the midst of rising tensions between Washing-ton and Moscow.

British bank Barclays said on Saturday it had stopped offering Kaspersky anti-virus products to customers.

“Even though this new guidance isn’t directed at members of the public, we have taken the decision to withdraw the offer of Kasper-sky software from our customer website,” it said in a statement.

Protesters rally over Romania’s holiday fairBucharest

Reuters

Romanian protesters briefly clashed with riot police yesterday when

they stopped construction workers from building a hol-iday fair at the site of anti-corruption demonstra-tions in Bucharest.

Victory Square was host to big street protests at the beginning of the year follow-ing attempts by the ruling Social Democrats to decrim-inalise some corruption offences and has been a gath-ering place for largely peaceful protests since.

Further demonstrations have been announced on social media as parliament gears up to approve a judicial overhaul that has been criti-cized by centrist President Klaus Iohannis, the European Commission and the US State Department.

Earlier this wee, Bucha-rest Mayor Gabriela Firea, a senior Social Democrat mem-ber, said she would stage a holiday fair for most of December in the square.

EU delegates slam Malta after reporter’s death prompts visitValletta

AP

A delegation of European Union lawmakers ended a fact-finding

mission to Malta with a warn-ing that that “the perception of impunity” in the tiny EU nation continue.

The delegation’s two-day visit followed the October 16 bombing death of a Maltese journalist who investigated money laundering in the island country. Its inquiry was focused on that topic, as well as on corruption.

The European Parliament members sharply criticised the government’s implemen-tation of laws meant to combat money laundering in Malta, which has a reputation as a tax haven.

They also expressed “great concern” over Malta’s lucrative system of selling passports to wealthy foreign-ers without making public the identities of the passport-holders. Delegation leader Ana Gomes said the system, “with all its opacity, bears the risk of importing criminals and money laundering into the whole EU.”

“The delegation con-cluded its visit stressing that the rule of law is the EU’s basis for mutual trust and the perception of impunity in Malta cannot continue,” a statement from the European Parliament said.

‘Potassium cyanide found in Praljak’s blood’The Hague

AFP

Bosnian Croat war criminal Slobodan Praljak likely died from heart failure

after swallowing potassium cya-nide, Dutch prosecutors said, two days after his dramatic courtroom suicide in front of UN judges.

“The preliminary results of the toxicological test showed that Mister Praljak had a con-centration of potassium cyanide in his blood,” the Dutch prose-cution said in a statement.

“This has resulted in a fail-ure of the heart, which is pointed out as the suspected cause of death.”

The preliminary results were released after an autopsy was carried out on the body of the 72-year-old Bosnian Croat com-mander, whose shocking final act was broadcast live around the world.

On Wednesday, in a last show of defiance against the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), Praljak swallowed the poison before UN judges, just moments

after they upheld his 20-year jail term for war crimes.

The Dutch prosecution serv-ice said “Praljak passed away in Westeinde hospital in The Hague after consuming a fluid sub-stance in the courtroom”.

Two Croatian experts were also present during Friday’s autopsy carried out at the Neth-erlands Forensics Institute in The Hague.

Prosecutor Marilyn Fiken-scher confirmed the autopsy was over, but said “we are still await-ing the final results.”

She could not confirm

whether his body remained the forensics unit, or what arrange-ments may be being made to release it to Praljak’s family.

It remains a mystery how he managed to get the poison held in a small brown bottle past the tribunal’s tight security.

“Was the poison already in the prison, or in the courtroom? They need answers to all these questions, because obviously it raises suspicion about possible ‘complicity’ in quote marks by prison staff,” said international lawyer Celine Bardet, an expert in war crimes issues.

Four hurt as Prague footbridge collapsesPrague

AFP

Four people were injured, two of them seriously, when a pedestrian bridge

collapsed near Prague zoo yes-terday, rescuers said.

“A 60-year-old man was put in an artificial coma and a 63-year-old woman was also taken to hospital with multiple injuries,” Prague ambulance spokeswoman Jana Postova said yesterday.

“We also treated men aged

34 and 43 on the spot with less serious injuries, and we took them to hospital too,” she said,

adding that all four had fallen with the bridge as it collapsed around 1:00pm.

Built in 1984, the concrete bridge across the Vltava river, in the north of the Czech capi-tal, was 260 metres long and used by pedestrians and cyclists.

Czech media said a city company in charge of Prague’s bridges had complained some time ago that the bridge’s 156 steel ropes were corroded.

Local journalists and social media users shared images of the collapse on Twitter.

UK issues warning on Russian software

Protesting against migrants’ slaveryAustria to use Brexit to reopen EU N-power pactVienna

Reuters

Austria’s main conserva-tive and far-right parties, which are in coalition

talks, plan to use Britain’s departure from the EU to rene-gotiate the bloc’s main atomic pact so as to reward countries free of nuclear power, they said.

Austria has opposed the use of nuclear energy ever since a majority backed that position in a referendum in 1978, when the country’s first nuclear power plant was reada to be brought into service. The plant never went into operation.

The conservative People’s Party (OVP), led by Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz, which won a parliamentary election on October 15, and the far-right Freedom Party said they planned to keep that

anti-nuclear position once a government was formed, and to defend it on the international stage.

A joint statement issued after a day of talks on environ-mental issues said they planned to “intervene in the context of Brexit negotiations in favour of a revision of the Euratom treaty, with the goal of making states that fully renounce nuclear energy or want to renounce it in future better off financially”.

“We now want to use the Brexit negotiations to bring up this issue, including during our (European) Council presidency in the second half of 2018,” Elis-abeth Koestinger, chairwoman of the People’s Party and a sen-ior negotiator in the coalition talks, told a joint news confer-ence with a counterpart from the FPO.

People attend a concert organised by the pro-independence Catalan National Assembly to demand release of leaders currently jailed, at the Olympic Stadium, in Barcelona, yesterday.

A man with his hands chained, takes part in a march towards the offices of the European Union during a demonstration, in central Athens, yesterday. People are protesting against the slavery of migrants.

Czech media said a city company in charge of Prague’s bridges had complained some time ago that the bridge’s 156 steel ropes were corroded.

Catalan concert

14 SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017AMERICAS

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro (centre) dances during an event with supporters in Caracas, Venezuela. Amid marked scepticism, Nicolas Maduro’s government representatives and members of the Venezuelan opposition resumed negotiations aimed at finding a solution to the deep crisis in the country.

Trump gets glimpse of NY protestersWashington

AP

Protesters are making their voices heard in New York City as President Donald Trump arrived for

political fundraisers in New York yesterday.

Outside his first event, sev-eral hundred protesters stood behind barricades along 42nd Street. His motorcade ducked into a side street so he saw some of the action but not most of it. Chants of “Donald Trump is going to jail” rang out.

Signs read: “Tax the rich, not working people” and “New York hates Trump.”

Trump also took a victory lap at a New York City fundraiser, praising the Senate’s passage of a sweeping tax overhaul. The president was noting that Repub-licans had enough support to pass the bill without needing Vice-President Mike Pence. He said the fact that no Democrats voted for the bill will “cost them very big” in the next election.

Trump is raising $6m during a series of political fundraisers in New York yesterday.

President Trump also expressed thanks to Senate and House Republicans for their hard-fought victories on taxes. The Senate passed its legislation yesterday, and now that cham-ber and the House must try to reconcile differences in their two versions. It’s shaping up to be the largest tax overhaul in three dec-ades, and Trump said he aims to sign it into law before Christmas.

The Senate has also given a green light to opening Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. In a vote yesterday,

Republicans rejected an effort led by Democratic Senator Maria Cantwell of Washington state to block drilling. The vote was 52-48. Republican Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska has pushed for oil and gas drilling in the refuge.

Opening the remote refuge to oil and gas drilling is a long-time Republican priority that most Democrats fiercely oppose.

The 19.6-million acre refuge in northeastern Alaska is one of the most pristine areas in the United States and is home to polar bears, caribou, migratory birds and other wildlife.

The Senate has also adopted an amendment that would allow parents to use 529 college funds to pay private school tuition for students in kindergarten through high school.

Parents could also use the tax-exempt funds on home-schooling expenses.

Republican Senator Ted Cruz of Texas offered the amendment to Senate Republicans’ sweep-ing tax package. The vote was a 50-50 tie with Vice President Mike Pence casting the tie-breaker.

All Senate Democrats opposed the measure. Senators Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska were the only Republicans who voted against it.

No campaign collusion with Russia: TrumpWashington

Reuters

US President Donald Trump said yesterday there was “absolutely no collusion”

between his campaign and Rus-sia, his first comment on a guilty plea by his first national security adviser, Michael Flynn, to lying to the Federal Bureau of Investiga-tion. “What has been shown is no collusion, no collusion,” Trump told reporters as he departed the White House for fund-raising events in New York. “There’s been absolutely no collusion, so we’re very happy.”

Flynn was the first member of Trump’s administration to plead guilty to a crime uncovered by special counsel Robert Muel-ler’s wide-ranging investigation into Russian attempts to influence the 2016 presidential election and possible collusion by Trump aides.

As part of his plea on Friday, Flynn agreed to cooperate with the investigation. The retired US Army lieutenant general admit-ted in a Washington court that he lied to FBI investigators about his discussions last December with Russia’s then-ambassador to the United States, Sergei Kislyak.

In what appeared to be moves undermining the policies of out-going President Barack Obama, the pair discussed US sanctions

on Russia, and Flynn asked Kislyak to help delay a United Nations vote seen as damaging to Israel, according to prosecutors.

Flynn also was told by a “very senior member” of Trump’s tran-sition team to contact Russia and other foreign governments to try

to influence them ahead of the vote, the prosecutors said.

Sources said the “very senior” transition official was Jared Kush-ner, Trump’s son-in-law and senior advisor. Kushner’s lawyer did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Flynn, a former Defence Intel-ligence Agency director, only held his position as Trump’s national security adviser for 24 days. He was forced to resign after he was found to have misled Vice-Pres-ident Mike Pence about his discussions with Kislyak.

Arrest ordered for one of Messi’s brothersBuenos Aires AP

A prosecutor in Argen-tina has ordered the arrest of one of Lionel

Messi’s brothers. Authorities say that Matias Messi illegally carried a gun. The weapon was found inside a blood-stained boat after he crashed it in the Parana river.

Prosecutor Jose Luis Caterina says Messi is being investigated and will eventu-ally be detained for illegally possessing a firearm in “a suspicious context.”

The 35-year-old is recov-ering from a fractured jaw and other injuries at a hospi-tal in Argentina’s Santa Fe province.

Trump also took a victory lap at a New York City fundraiser, praising the Senate’s passage of a sweeping tax overhaul.

US President Donald Trump speaks with the media before boarding Marine One on his departure at the White House in Washington, DC, yesterday, to Joint Base Andrews.

Argentina urged to continue sub rescue missionBuenos Aires

AP

Families of 44 crew members aboard a submarine that has been lost for 16 days in the South Atlantic demanded that

Argentina reverse its decision to stop looking for survivors. The navy said that the search was no longer considered a rescue mission but it would continue looking for the missing sub with the assistance of other countries.

Experts said the crew only had up to 10 days of oxygen if the sub remained intact under the sea. Hope of finding survivors had also been crushed after an explosion was detected near the time and place where the ARA San Juan went missing on November 15. But relatives

of the sailors met with Argentina’s defence minister and the navy chief on Friday at the sub’s naval base in the coastal city of Mar del Plata and made a desperate plea to carry on with the rescue. Some held pictures of their loved ones. After the meeting, others clapped their hands and yelled out: “busqueda y res-cate!” or “search and rescue!”

“Just as they took them with them, they must now bring them back to us,” Marcela Moyano, wife of crew member Hernan Rod-riguez, told reporters. The San Juan, a German-built TR-1700 class submarine, dis-appeared as it was sailing from the southernmost port of Ushuaia to Mar del Plata.

The navy says the vessel’s captain had reported that water entered the snorkel and

caused one of the sub’s batteries to short cir-cuit. The captain later communicated by satellite phone that it had been contained.

Some hours later, an explosion was detected near the time and place where the San Juan was last heard from. The navy says the blast could have been caused by a “con-centration of hydrogen” triggered by the battery problem reported by the captain.

President Mauricio Macri has vowed a full investigation. But relatives of the crew say it is not enough. “I demand that Macri as com-mander in chief of the armed forces revert this absurd and arbitrary decision by the navy to abort the search and rescue,” Luis Tagliapie-tra, the father of 27-year-old crew member Alejandro Tagliapietra, said.

Venezuela arrests relative of ex-oil bossCaracas

Reuters

Venezuela has arrested Diego Salazar, a relative of former oil czar Rafael

Ramirez, as part of an investiga-tion into a money laundering scandal in Andorra, the state prosecutor said.

President Nicolas Maduro is overseeing what his administra-tion calls a “crusade” against corruption in the member of the Opec. Some 65 executives have been detained in a deepening purge that could also see the left-ist leader consolidate his grip over the energy sector and side-line rivals. The Salazar case appears to relate to what the United States in 2015 said were some $2bn in laundered funds

from Venezuelan state oil com-pany Petróleos de Venezuela, SA, known as PDVSA, at the private bank Banca Privada D’Andorra.

Saab did not specify Salazar’s role or details on the money laundering, except that it involved around €1.35bn in 2011 and 2012, but he said the case was bound to grow.

“I want to highlight that this citizen will likely not be the only one detained and the only one investigated,” Saab said in a phone call to state television announcing the arrest.

The arrest is bound to cast the spotlight on Ramirez, who was the powerful head of PDVSA and the oil ministry for a decade before Maduro demoted him as a envoy to the United Nations in 2014.

Honduras announces curfew, restrictions amid vote protestsTegucigalpa

AP

Honduras announced a curfew and suspended some constitutional rights to allow security forces to

contain protests and unrest over a dis-puted election in which both candidates have declared themselves winner and the ballot count is entering its sixth day.

Honduras’ electoral court had fin-ished counting nearly 95 percent of the vote boxes from last Sunday’s presiden-tial election by late Friday and said it

would conduct a hand count of 1,031 other boxes that presented “inconsisten-cies.” Incumbent President Juan Orlando Hernandez held a lead of more than 46,000 votes over challenger Salvador Nasralla before the last-stage count. It was not immediately clear how many votes could be at play in the uncounted boxes. As the wait for election results has dragged on rock-wielding protesters have increasingly taken to the streets against riot police armed with tear gas, batons and water cannons. National Police spokesman Jair Meza said 12

people had been wounded in clashes between police and protesters.

Meza said numerous businesses were also damaged and looted in the capital and in San Pedro Sula. Local press reported that protesters set a bank branch on fire and looted several other busi-nesses along a street in San Pedro Sula. Groups of demonstrators also continued blocking highways with burning tires and other debris, in some cases forcing par-ents to carry their children through the smoking barriers.

In a decree read out on radio and

television, the government’s Cabinet chief Jorge Hernandez said late Friday that some constitutional guarantees would be suspended for 10 days to allow the army and police to control the situation. The government declared a curfew from 6pm to 6am across the country. “The cur-few is to safeguard the security of the country,” President Hernandez said as he left a hotel in the capital after meet-ing with observers from the Organization of American States and the European Union. “This is the time for the people to feel supported by their armed forces and

their police because it cannot be that somebody decides to loot or rob.”

Earlier, electoral court president David Matamoros said that representa-tives of the political parties would be present for the vote counts and that no announcements would be made until there is a final result. After speaking with representatives of the opposition alliance and the National Party, Matamoros said Friday that each party would be able to accredit 60 people to participate in the afternoon count alongside international observers.

A dance for supporters

15SUNDAY 3 DECEMBER 2017 HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

04.42am

06.03 am

ZUHRASR

11.23 am

02.23 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

04.45 pm

06.15 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 04:45 – 15:45 LOW TIDE 11:15 – 22:15

Mild daytime with some clouds amd

slight dust to blowing dust at plac-

es at times.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

21oC 27oC

The Peninsula

Best Buddies Qatar will celebrate World Day of Peo-

ple with Disabilities, which falls on Decem-ber 3, each year with a number of activities, events and awareness campaigns throughout the week in various areas of the country.

The event will include activities aimed at highlighting the issues of per-sons with disabilities and achieving social integration, technical activities and distribution of brochures and awareness leaflets, the event will con-clude with a play with the participation of people with disabilities.

On this occasion, Executive-Direc-tor of Best Buddies Qatar, Laalei Abu Alfain, said that Qatar, through its National Strategy 2030 and through its five-year plans, provides all bene-fits to people with disabilities in Qatar. Best Buddies Qatar also ensure for people with disabilities equal oppor-tunities and full and effective participation in society in order to con-tribute to the prosperity of the country and to achieve its comprehensive development.

She explained that the initiative seeks to disseminate programs and to organise events and seminars and field

visits contributing to draw attention to the issues of people with disabili-ties and ways to integrate them in society.

The Executive Director of Best Buddies Qatar Initiative said that in recent years, the international com-munity had made significant progress in the rights of persons with disabil-ities and efforts to mainstream

disability issues have been main-streams into major global development programs, including the 2030 Program of Action which is a plan of action that seeks to push the entire world to achieve sustainable development in its three dimensions (economic, social and environmen-tal) in a balanced and integrated manner.

Best Buddies marks Day of People with Disabilities

Various activities organised by Best Buddies Qatar as part of the World Day of People with Disabilities.

The Peninsula

Despite nation-wide efforts to educate Qatari adolescents about health conditions and

how to stay healthy, a recent study by Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) found that health campaigns in Qatar are less impressive for young Qataris than one would hope.

The study, ‘Health Information and Monitoring Among Qatari Adoles-cents,’ provides an in-depth understanding of how Qatari youth acquire information about health issues of all kinds. The results of the study were launched at a symposium held at NU-Q, with attendees from health institutions around Qatar, including the National Center for Can-cer Care & Research, Qatar Cancer Society, Primary Health Care Corpo-ration, Sidra Medicine, and Weill Cornell Medical College in Qatar. This marked the first time that these organ-izations had come together to address the issue of health communication with adolescents.

Among the study’s key findings are that young people in Qatar still rely heavily on interpersonal sources of health information, including their parents, siblings, friends, and

medical providers. Nevertheless, the vast majority of teens also turn to the internet and social media for health information – important sources that are somewhat neglected by major health campaigns.

“Qatari youth are suffering from serious health conditions – above all being overweight,” said Klaus Schoen-bach, lead researcher and NU-Q senior associate dean. “Our study found that Qatari teens are turning to the inter-net to find solutions, cures, and understand symptoms; however, the judgment and skills are often lacking to know how to assess and deal with the abundance of information they come across online.”

Schoenbach, collaborated with Ellen Wartella, an expert on children’s media and health and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani Professor of Com-munication Psychology and Education at Northwestern University, and Salma Mawfek Khaled, assistant professor and survey researcher at Qatar Uni-versity’s Social and Economic Survey Research Institute (SESRI).

Everette E. Dennis, dean and CEO of NU-Q, said, “This study, the first of its kind in Qatar, underscores the importance of ensuring that accurate, appropriate, and easily accessible

health information is available to youth online. It also suggests the need to improve digital health literacy among Qatari adolescents.”

The study assessed results from interviews with more than 1,100 Qatari teenagers, aged between 13 and 20 years. The interviews were admin-istered in Arabic by the SESRI staff .

Other key findings of the study includes that more than 40 percent of Qatari teens claim to seek health infor-mation online at least once a week, and 20 percent do so daily. While,

‘Googling’ a topic is the most common way Qatari adolescents search for health information online and social media, specifically Twitter are popu-lar sources for health information.

Also major health campaigns have not been memorable among Qatari teens and Qatari teens choose their health information sources based on confidentiality and convenience.

The project was funded by the Qatar National Research Fund’s (QNRF) National Priorities Research Program (NPRP).

Health campaigns less impressive for young Qataris

The Peninsula

Dr Zhaoyang Liu, senior sci-entist at Hamad Bin Khalifa University’s

(HBKU) Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI), was selected for the edi-torial board for Scientific Reports – part of Nature, the prestigious international journal. This achievement further bolsters HBKU’s sterling reputation as a committed backer of developing and enriching innovative research in the sciences.

Scientific Reports is a publi-cation geared towards a global audience of researchers and pro-fessionals with diverse backgrounds. It includes the lat-est research conducted across a multitude of fields, including the environment, energy, medicine, physics, chemistry and many more. Dr. Liu joins reputed aca-demics and scholars from a myriad of scientific disciplines, around the world, publishing high-caliber primary research on the natural and clinical sciences.

Dr Liu said, “As members of

a prestigious publication’s edi-torial board, we are entrusted with the responsibility to ensure that research papers being pub-lished are entirely accurate, factual and of the highest qual-ity. I am extremely proud to represent HBKU on the interna-tional stage as a steward of knowledge in my role with Sci-entific Reports. A robust peer review process is the core foun-dation upon which any scientific community relies to validate research results. This guides

future cutting-edge research in the field and creates a positive cycle that leads to further advances in science and technology.”

Since joining QEERI in 2014, Dr. Liu, and his team, have been conducting advanced research, to find solutions to address Qatar’s water security grand challenge. He currently leads the pillar of water process develop-ment and optimization, as part of the Water Security Research Portfolio.

International science journal selects HBKU senior scientist

Representatives from leading health organisations in Qatar during a symposium at NU-Q held to discuss a recent research publication “Health Information and Monitoring Among Qatari Adolescents.

QNA

Qatar Council for Healthcare Practitioners (QCHP) has recently organised a workshop to train a new survey and inspection staff to pre-

pare and qualify them to review applications submitted by accredited organizations as provid-ers of medical education, continuing professional development and field visits.

The workshop was part of the efforts of the (QCHP) to ensure the optimal application of the National Program for Medical Education and Con-tinuing Professional Development.

It included presentations, scenarios and inter-active discussions during which the survey and inspection team was briefed on the policies, regu-lations and procedures related to the accreditation system for medical education and continuing pro-fessional development.

The survey team was selected by the (QCHP) from various health care institutions and academic institutions in Qatar in accordance with the quali-fications and skills necessary to accomplish the tasks entrusted to them.

The new group of the survey and inspection team was added to the current group, which in turn contributed to the six accreditation courses and par-ticipated in the review of 18 applications for the accreditation of continuing professional develop-ment providers.

The number of continuing professional devel-opment providers accredited by (QCHP) is 12 accredited providers for sponsoring health care edu-cation activities in the State of Qatar.

QCHP holds training for survey & inspection staff

Dr Zhaoyang Liu, senior scientist at HBKU Qatar Environment and Energy Research Institute (QEERI) during research works.

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