Murray, Kerber advance; Kyrgios booed in defeat

BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 23

QIB profit grows by 10.3%

to QR2.15bn

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Volume 21 | Number 7046 | 2 RiyalsThursday 19 January 2017 | 21 Rabia II 1438

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Organization of Islamic Cooperation Humanitarian Fund's (OICHF) delegation at Emiri Diwan, yesterday. → See also page 2

Emir meets OICHF delegation

Mohammed Osman The Peninsula

In a bid to reduce the high marriage costs and help Qatari youth get married, the government has opened a new wedding

hall in Al Wakrah, which will be available to the citizens free of charge from next month.

The Minister of Municipal-ity and Environment H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi yesterday opened the Al Wakrah Celebration Halls Complex. This is the third such facility after the wedding halls in Al Rafaa and Al Daayen opened in the past years.

“This halls will serve the people of Al Wakrah and the surrounding areas and play role in reducing marriage costs and encourage youth to get married as the government is providing these halls fully-furnished and free of charge with all the required facilities and in good locations,” the Minister told the media on the sidelines of the opening ceremony.

He added that the facility is available for residents of Al Wakrah and outside areas.

The project executed by the Special Engineering Office

on an area of 90,000 sqm consists of five halls equipped with latest audio-visual tech-nology and highest safety and security measures, said Engi-neer Faisal Abdullah Al Dawsari, Director of Projects at the Special Engineering Office. The work was com-pleted in 18 months.

Each of the halls has a capacity to accommodate at least 500 people and the five halls have been designed with internal partitions, that can be removed to convert the facility to one large hall with a capac-ity of 2,500 people, Al Dawsari added. The total area of the halls is 7500 sqm.

→ Continued on page 7

The Peninsula

The Organ Transplant Team at Hamad Medical Corpo-ration’s (HMC) Hamad

General Hospital has success-fully performed the first ever liver transplant from a living donor, in Qatar.

Since the commencement of the liver transplant programme at HMC all transplants were per-formed from deceased donors. The latest transplant takes the

total number of liver transplants in Qatar to 17. Each year, between 20 and 25 patients are added to the waiting list for organ trans-plantation in the country.

Dr Yousef Al Maslamani, Medical Director of Hamad Gen-eral Hospital and Head of the Organ Transplant Committee at HMC, said: “The transplant was planned and performed by HMC’s highly qualified team of liver transplant surgeons, anes-thetists, nurses and technicians.

The procedure consisted the partial resection of the donor’s liver, which took eight hours to complete, and the removal of the recipient’s liver. Implanting the donated portion of the liver in the recipient’s body who suf-fered from liver cirrhosis took 12 hours to complete. This suc-cessful transplant procedure also saw the participation of a team of visiting Korean organ transplant surgeons.”

→ Continued on page 7

Wedding hall for citizens opened in Al Wakrah

THE opening promotion of Sharaf DG at Mall of Qatar yesterday was cancelled due to safety concerns following huge turnout of visitors, Mall of Qatar said yesterday.

“At Mall of Qatar, the safety and security of our valued vis-itors, employees and tenants is a top priority. In line with our commitment to upholding international best practice reg-ulations when it comes to safety, the opening promotion of Sharaf DG was cancelled today,” said a statement. → See also page 5

HMC performs Qatar's first liver transplant from living donor

Promotion cancelled due to huge rush

This is the third such facility after the wedding halls in Al Rafaa and Al Daayen, and will be available to the citizens free of charge from next month.

Work on National Strategy for Transparency and Integrity beginsDOHA:The Administrative Control and Transparency Authority has started the first phase of the preparation of the National Strategy for the Promotion of Transparency and Integrity, as part of its commitment to implement-ing the terms of reference assigned to it and contribute to the achievement of the Qatar National Vision 2030.

The Authority held a meeting to discuss what had been achieved regarding the preparations of the strategy and the proposed future steps.

→ See also page 7

02 THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017HOME

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Rifat Hisarciklioglu, President of the Union of Chambers and Commodity Exchanges at the Republic of Turkey and Vice-President of the Association of European Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Eurochambers), and his accompanying delegation at the Emiri Diwan yesterday. The Turkish delegation is in Qatar to participate in the second Qatar Chamber SME Conference.

Emir meets Turkish delegation

QNA

The State Cabinet yes-terday approved a draft decision by the Minister of Economy and Commerce to

issue the executive regulations of Law No. 6 of 2012 on tourism regulation.

The draft regulations feature provisions related to the condi-tions and procedures of the licensing of hospitality and tour-ism facilities as well as tourism activities; the commitments of the licensee; relinquishing, trans-ferring and revoking the licence; the classification of hospitality and tourism facilities; and the tourist guidance job.

The Cabinet’s regular weekly meeting, chaired by the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser

bin Khalifa Al Thani, at the Emiri Diwan, also approved a draft decision by the Minister of Econ-omy and Commerce to issue the executive regulations of Law No. 17 of 2013 on the organisation of exhibitions.

The draft regulation included provisions on the types of licenses and conditions of grant-ing them; the types, number and period of exhibitions; the post-ponement and location of exhibitions; the classification of licensees; the commitments of licensees; and relinquishing, transferring, suspending and revoking the license.

The session approved draft decisions by the minister of municipality and environment

on adopting Gulf standard spec-ifications as Qatari standard specifications and adopting the amendment of numbers of Gulf technical regulations.

The Cabinet endorsed a pro-posal by the Ministry of Transport and Communications on Qatar's contribution to spon-soring five candidates in a five-year full scholarship in the field of civil aviation.

The Cabinet reviewed the outcomes of the international conference on Middle East peace, which was recently held in Paris.

The Cabinet welcomed the content of the conference's clos-ing statement that constitutes a proper foundation for a just set-tlement, stressing Qatar's firm

stance towards the Palestinian issue and the Palestinian people's right to establish their independ-ent state based on the 1967 borders with Jerusalem as its capital in line with the interna-tional legitimacy resolutions and the Arab Peace Initiative.

The cabinet also welcomed the United States' decision to lift some of the economic sanctions that were imposed on the Repub-lic of the Sudan, considering that such a decision would support the peace process and develop-ment in Sudan and alleviate the suffering of the Sudanese peo-ple, expressing hope that the U.S. sanctions on Sudan will be com-pletely lifted.

The cabinet reviewed a set

of issues and took the appropri-ate decisions. It reviewed a draft law on the amendment of some provisions of Law No. 8 of 2012 on Qatar Financial Markets Authority (QFMA) and the authority's views in this regard.

It reviewed a letter by the Minister of Development Plan-ning and Statistics, who is also the chairman of the Permanent Population Committee, on the document of Qatar's new popu-lation policy 2017-2022. The session also reviewed a letter by the Minister of Municipality and Environment regarding a draft decision by the Minister of Municipality and Environment to determine the prices of leas-ing government lands.

US decision hailed

Cabinet approves draft decision by the Minister of Economy and Commerce on the organisation of exhibitions.

America's decision to lift some of the economic sanctions imposed on Sudan welcomed.

Cabinet welcomes outcome of Paris conference

Emir meets charity officialsQNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met yes-terday at the Emiri Diwan

with Sheikh Dr Abdulaziz bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, chairman of the Board of Trustees of the Organization of Islamic Cooper-ation Humanitarian Funds (OICHF), Dr Abdullah Matouq Al Matouq, adviser to the Emir of Kuwait and board chairman of the International Islamic

Charitable Organization; Dr Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Muraikhi, the UN secretary-gen-eral's envoy for humanitarian affairs; and the accompanying delegation who called upon the Emir to greet him on the occa-sion of their visit to the country to participate in the UN initiative to honour leaders of humanitar-ian works.

GCC Secretary General Dr Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani also attended the meeting.

QRCS projects in South SudanQATAR Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has recently completed a number of water, sanitation, and hygiene projects in the states of Central Equatoria and Northern Bahr El-Ghazal, the Republic of South Sudan.

Benefiting up to 84,600 people, these deliveries are part

of a whole scheme undertaken by QRCS and Adeso, an African charity and development agency, with funding from Qatar Fund for Development (QFFD). The works involve drilling artesian wells, setting up toilets and providing hygiene kits to promote sanitation.

03THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017 HOME

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi met with Malaysian Foreign Minister Dato' Sri Anifah Aman in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. The meeting reviewed bilateral relations.

ayayayayayayay

QNA

HE Dr Mohammed bin Abdul Wahed Al Ham-madi, Minister of

Education and Higher Educa-tion and President of Qatar National Commission for Edu-cation, Culture and Science, met yesterday with Stanley Mutumba Simataa, president of the 38th General Conference of United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organ-ization (Unesco).

During the meeting, they discussed the agenda of the Unesco, including the elections for the director-general post and the importance of mem-bers' commitment to support the 2030 Agenda for Sustaina-

ble Development.They also discussed the

support Qatar provides to the organization to develop educa-tion, culture and sciences to the members, and also exchanged views on educational topics in the organization's agenda con-cerning education and the Education for All 2030 move-ment. Simataa expressed his thanks to Qatar and the educa-tion minister for the continuous support to the organization, and the UNESCO office in Doha, which has had a profound impact in achieving the organ-ization's goals.

H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kuwari is Qatar's candidate for the director gen-eral post at the Unesco.

Education minister meets president of Unesco session

Crackdown on parking in mosque premisesSanaullah AtaullahThe Peninsula

The General Directorate of Traffic's crackdown on parking in mosque premises is in full swing with at least a

dozen violations registered at single mosque in one day. Motorists are feeling the full force of the government’s move to free parking spaces in mosques for worshippers.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs, the traffic department recently began slapping a min-imum fine of QR300 against those who misuse mosque park-ing lots. Worshippers have hailed the move which takes stringent action on those who park their vehicles in mosques for long and force worshippers to commit parking violations.

Over a dozen penalty tick-ets have been issued in at least one mosque in New Salata area, according to sources.

“Recently, we had motorists rushing out from their offices located in neighbouring build-ings to remove their cars parked in the mosque premise to avoid the tickets of violation,” Imam of a mosque in New Salata told The Peninsula.

For over an year, the gov-ernment authorities had run

campaign to end the parking misdemeanour. Now, with the rule enforced, inconsiderate motorists who park their vehi-cles in mosque premise are in for a rude awakening.

“The police had come on a tip-off from one of the mosque employees. He called the police on 999 some 30 minutes after Zuhr prayer finished at 1:15pm. The police reached within 20 minutes and a number of cars were issued violation tickets.”

“The move came following an instruction issued by the Mosques Management Depart-ment of the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs. We, the mosque employees, received a text message from the ministry to call 999 or use Metrash serv-ice to inform about vehicles

occupying parking lots at mosques during non-prayer times,” the Imam said.

However, even after repeated warnings, many seem to disregard the warnings as bogus.

“We are have been asked to educate the worshipers during daily religious lectures and Fri-day sermons that the rule has came into force, and those vio-lating will be fined. Motorists are allowed to park their vehicles in the premises of mosques half-an-hour before and after the prayers. Since the prayer times change, parking time also will change accordingly,” Imam at another mosque said.

Currently, the Fajr prayer time begins from 5am, most mosques open by 4:30 and closes half-an-hour after sun rise. The motorists can park when the mosque is open from 4:30am to 6:51am.

“The mosque opens once again for Zuhr prayer by 11:15am and closes by 12:45pm. Third time, the mosque opens by 2:15pm and remains open till 7:45pm since the timing of three prayers Asr, Maqrib and Isha are very close with each other. In summer, the times will vary,” the Imam said.

Mosques premises had become permanent parking areas for residents and

employees of neighbouring buildings, mostly in the densely populated areas. This was mak-ing it almost impossible for worshippers answering the calls to prayers to park their cars in the lots. Often, many have to leave their cars on pavements or in no-parking areas expect-ing no traffic patrol would book them. At times, these indiscrim-inate parking of vehicles lead to congestion around mosques during prayer times, disrupting traffic.

“When some travel during vacations, they parked their vehicles in mosques premises for months. The issue had reached its zenith at some places that it was inevitable to take such stringent decision, and we really hail the move. Forget the worshipers, at times some Imams whose accommodation in not annexed to the mosques, do not find parking space when they to lead prayers,” another Imam at a mosque in Najma said.

The new rule meant to ensure the availability of park-ing spaces for worshippers.

“I was surprised to see empty parking spaces at the entrance of Bukhari mosque at Al Asmakh Street when i went for prayer recently. Later, I came to know about the remarkable new move,” a worshipper said.

Al Muraikhi in Malaysia

Parking tickets

Worshippers hail move as over a dozen penalty tickets issued at a mosque in New Salata area.

Even after repeated warnings, many people continue to use mosque parking space illegally.

QICDRC & Bahraini officials discuss legal cooperationQNA

Qatar International Court and Dispute Resolution Centre (QICDRC) CEO,

Faisal Rashid Al Sahouti, met yesterday with a Bahraini legal delegation and the GCC general-secretariat of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC).

During the meeting, they discussed topics of common interest concerning judicial affairs, where the delegation learnt more about the tasks of QICDRC and the nature of the cases it is specialized in.

Al Sahouti highlighted the importance of exchanging experiences between both countries in legal and judicial affairs in order to develop the legislative and judicial scene, and positively affecting legal and judicial services in order to achieve prompt justice. He added that he looks forward to more similar visits that contrib-ute to the development of legal

and judicial bilateral coordination. During the field visit to the arbitra-tion court room facilities the delegation learned more about the specializations of organization, civil, and commercial courts.

Traditional shows & games at 4th Katara Winter FestivalThe Peninsula

Katara’s esplanade will wit-n e s s w o r k s h o p s , traditional shows, games

and performances for the fourth Winter Festival from Sunday until January 26.

Katara General Manager Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al-Sulaiti said: “The Winter Festival in Katara offers a diverse array of events, a blend of educational programs and entertaining per-formances that are guaranteed to enthrall Katara’s visitors.

“Aside from these, numer-ous workshops and activities devoted to children will allow them to experience exciting moments, along with their fam-ily and friends. In addition, the launch of the Winter Festival at this time of the year, coincides with the schools’ spring break, providing our children an opportunity to invest their free time in activities that are both

meaningful and useful.” The head of the festival

organizing committee, Abdul-rahman Al-Tamimi, said:“The fourth edition of the festival, coupled with the serenely beau-tiful setting of Katara, offers an atmosphere for people from all walks of life to relax and enjoy the ambiance.”

“The launch of the Winter Festival will coincide with the inauguration of the Arabian Oud Festival, a new initiative in Katara. To be conducted on the festival’s sidelines, the Arabian Oud Festival will entail an exhi-bition that will display Arabian scents, explaining the specific history, literature, folklore and tradition associated with oud fragrances,” Al-Tamimi revealed.

He added: “The Winter Fes-tival will be hosted in collaboration with various min-istries and associations in Doha, including the Ministry of

Municipality and Urban Planning and the Childhood Cultural Cen-tre. Al-Gannas Association will participate with an interactive exhibition and workshop on fal-conry and Saluki. In addition, Katara Souq will host a display of local antiques and traditional food.”

Bin Muftah Medical Centre will present an informative ses-sion on preventing illnesses commonly associated with the onset of winter. An added attraction will be the presence of the famous Qatari blogger Vegas, who will be present at the venue to entertain visitors with his interpretation of the Winter Festival.

Furthermore, the organiz-ers of Al-Galayel Championship will host an exhibition display-ing collectables and equipment from previous championships. Visitors to the festival will receive gifts donated by various institutes in Qatar.

HE Dr Mohammed bin Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi with Stanley Mutumba Simataa.

04 THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017HOME

QNA

President of Nicaragua Dan-iel Ortega met yesterday with H E Dr Hamad bin

Abdulaziz Al Kawari, Cultural Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar's candidate for the direc-tor-general post at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco).

During the meeting, Qatar's candidate conveyed the greet-ings of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the pres-ident of Nicaragua and his best wishes of more progress and prosperity to the Nicaraguan people.

For his part, the Nicaraguan president entrusted Dr Al Kawari

to convey his greetings to the Emir, wishing him continued good health and happiness and the people of Qatar further devel-opment and prosperity.

After Dr Al Kuwari pre-sented his vision for the organisation, Nicaraguan pres-ident expressed his appreciation for the State of Qatar, stressing his country's support for the Qatari candidate.

He highlighted Qatar's role with Unesco and its keenness on education, culture and sci-ences, as well as its eagerness to serve the global community in vital sectors.

In addition, the president praised the candidate's qualifi-cation to handle the post, noting that his visit to the Caribbean

and Latin American countries shows his appreciation to the region. Dr Al Kawari, in turn, thanked the president for the support and trust.

Mohammed El Ashtar, Nic-aragua's minister for the Middle East, Africa and Arab affairs, attended the meeting along with Laureano Ortega, the Nicara-guan government's investment advisor.

Dr Al Kawari had met El Ashtar at an earlier stage and discussed bilateral relations between both countries as well as the Qatari candidate's vision for Unesco, with the minister wishing the Qatari candidate success in his mission and hop-ing to cooperate with him in the future. H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari with President of Nicaragua Daniel Ortega.

The Peninsula

Qatar Development Bank (QDB) has been collab-orating with Qatar

Tourism Authority (QTA) to create and provide opportu-nities for local companies to engage in the tourism mar-ket, according to Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al-Khalifa, Chief Executive Officer of QDB.

Speaking on the sidelines of Shop Qatar festival in which a number of local entrepreneurs and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs) supported by the QDB are participating, Al Khalifa said QDB has partnered with QTA in “ identifying the gaps that exist within the market and then convert them into opportunities for the local industries and SMEs.”

He said: “For example, we have established an incubation centre specifically for tourism at Qatar Business Incubation Center where we have more than 14 Qatari companies incubated to fill the gaps in the tourism sector.

“We have also conducted a study in 2015 which iden-tified more than 32 opportunities for the SMEs engage within in the tourism sector. In 2017 we are plan-ning to re-assess that study with QTA to identify fresh opportunities.”

He underscored the pres-ence of pop-up shops at the month-long festival as a result of the two entities’ strong rela-tionship which gives access for Qatari entrepreneurs and SMEs to sell directly to the market right away.

“This provides them more access to the market being able to sell directly and obtain feedback first hand from the shoppers. The shoppers, on the other hand, are given ccess to authentic Qatari products produced by Qatari SMEs,” he said.

On QDB’s Al Dhameen program, a partial guarantee scheme for local SMEs, he said, “We are continuing our advancement within the pro-gramme. We have exceeded QR1b terms of guarantee and have supported more than 500 entrepreneurs and SMEs through the project.”

He said QDB aims to expand the programme from its current status providing funding to more local entre-preneurs, in addition to conducting workshops through Bedaya Centre and QBIC or directly through QDB.

With the success achieved by its annual Al Fikra business plan compe-tition, QDB will be holding it again next year, he added.

Nicaragua supports Dr Al Kawari

QTA to support 60 entrepreneurs at Shop QatarRaynald C RiveraThe Peninsula

Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) aims at providing platform to 60 Qatari entre-preneurs and startups to promote their products at the ongoing Shop Qatar Festival, a QTA official has said.

“The main focus of Shop Qatar besides fur-ther enhancing the shopping offering in the country is to support the Qatari entrepreneurs. Our target is to reach out to 60 entrepreneurs and startups throughout Shop Qatar festival,” Hassan Al Ibrahim, Chief Tourism Develop-ment Officer at QTA told the media during a tour of the pop-up shops at Mall of Qatar yesterday.

Partnership

QDB has partnered with QTA to “ identify gaps that exist within the market and turn them into opportunities".

Incubation centre set up specifically for tourism at Qatar Business Incubation Center.

More opportunities for local firms in tourism

The festival, which runs until Feb-ruary 7, features 30 temporary pop-up shops spread across participating malls. Ten of them are set up at the newly-opened Mall of Qatar while several others are in Ezdan Mall, Landmark Mall, The Gate Mall and Lagoona Mall.

While the majority of the pop-up shops are selling clothing, kids’ fashion, men’s wear, abayas, jewellery and accessories, others are selling art, fur-niture and chocolate.

The initiative, Al Ibrahim said, is part of QTA’s partnership with Qatar Devel-opment Bank to connect entrepreneurs with QTA’s popular festivals allowing them to broaden their market access and visibility while enriching the festi-val’s offering.

There will be rotation throughout the festival period to give chance to more entrepreneurs to take part, he said.

The local entrepreneurs partici-pating in the festival were chosen according to their performance based on databases of QDB, Qatar Business Incubation Center (QBIC), and Bedaya Center for Entrepreneurship and Career Development, he explained.

“After the festival, we are going to assess their performance based on their experience with QDB and our experi-ence with them and hopefully invite them in future festivals as well,” he said.

Al Ibrahim is optimistic the pop-up shops will be sustained as a permanent feature of Shop Qatar for its upcoming editions.

Response to the inaugural festival has so far been very good based on sales and turnout of visitors in the malls.

“We are expecting bigger numbers in the coming weeks specially on the number of visitors from the Gulf region,” he said.

With regard to the entertainment

Hassan Al Ibrahim, QTA’s Chief Tourism Development Officer (right); Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al-Khalifa, CEO of Qatar Development Bank (second right), and Mashal Shahbik, QTA's Festivals and Tourism Events Director, during a tour of the pop-up shops at Mall of Qatar yesterday.

element of the festival, he said ticket sales to the shows are doing well including the Doha Comedy Festival.

“We want to invite everyone to grab this oppor-tunity to enjoy the different shows the festival offers,” he ended.

05THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017 HOME

Sharaf DG opens store in Mall of QatarThe Peninsula

In keeping with their expan-sion strategy, Sharaf DG, leading international elec-

tronics retailer, celebrated the launch of its second store in Qatar at Mall of Qatar.

To celebrate the launch of its second store in Qatar, Sharaf DG has promised its customers var-ious promo-tions that will take place over the upcoming months.

Sharaf DG’s prime focus is on enhancing the lifestyle of cus-tomers by addressing all their electronics needs through and asstortment of the latest high-tech products including TV, home entertainment, IT, tele-com, photography, home appliances, personal care, and gaming equipment, backed with unmatched product availability within its stores.

At Sharaf DG, customers can choose from more than 10,000 different electronic products and accessories from reputable

international brands that are available in the store and online. Sharaf DG’s specially trained and knowledgable staff provides cus-tomers assistance to make informed decisions. When it comes to serving customers, Sharaf DG does not stop only at product availability and pur-chase assistance, but also provides complete solutions in computer and home theatre packages.

To aid customers at home, Sharaf DG offers installation, support, audio/video and com-puter services.

To ensure that there is no dissatisfaction among custom-ers due to non-availability of products, Sharaf DG provides customers with the 24-hour brand promise, where Sharaf DG registers the enquiry and pro-cures the product from its

authorised distributor in the country within 24 working hours. In the first quarter of 2016, Sharaf DG launched DG privi-lege, a programme that recognises the most valuable customers, and provides them with exclusive experiences and benefits.

Customers are tiered into sil-ver, gold and platinum groups based on the purchases they have made in the last 12 months.

Customers get benefits including one time gifts, bonus air miles, complimentary in-store services, previews and invites to select launches and more.

Sharaf DG has further expan-sion plans in the future, that includes three more stores, in City Centre, Gate Mall and Fes-tival City.

Sharaf DG Owner Sharafauddin Sharaf (right), CEO Nilesh Khalkho (left) and Mall of Qatar General Manager Rony Mourani inaugurating the Sharaf DG Store in Mall of Qatar yesterday. Pic: Qassim Rahmatullah/ The Peninsula

Experts gather for English teaching meet

The Peninsula

Aimed to bring together language practitioners and experts to network and share research and teaching experiences,

Qatar University Foundation Pro-gramme (QU-FP) recently organised the second annual International Con-ference and Exhibition on English Language Teaching.

The event brought together over 350 researchers, practitioners and scholars from Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the UK. The conference held yes-terday and today is focused on a wide range of topics related to English lan-guage teaching and learning.

Themed “Promoting Innovation in English Language Teaching and Learning: The Future Landscape”, the two-day event is organised in col-laboration with Qatar Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and Teachers of English as a Foreign Language-Qatar (TEFL-Qatar) Association.

During the event, QU Foundation Programme and Core Curriculum Director Dr Maha Al Hendawi, announced the launching of TEFL-Qatar as a Foundation Programme

effort to bring together English lan-guage professionals under one umbrella. It is an associate of IATEFL (International Association for Teach-ers of English as a Foreign Language) which is formed to provide support and professional development opportunities for English Language Teaching professionals in Qatar and the Gulf.

The conference included a ple-nary session on “Meaningful face-to-face communication” pre-sented by Peter Grundy. Featured speaker, Dr Sufian Abu-Rmaileh, gave a presentation on “Critical thinking classroom experience”.

The event featured the screen-ing of two video messages by International Association of Teach-ers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL) President Marjorie Rosen-berg and TESOL International Association President Dudely Rey-nolds. It also included sessions in the form of panel discussion, work-shops, tech-workshops and research tips.

The event also included an exhi-bition featuring 20 booths presented by exhibitors from various QU teams, publishers, educational organisations and US Embassy.

“Today, employers have expec-tations from the higher education sector to prepare well-educated workforce with abilities to deal with constant challenges. Universities and have the responsibility to shape up a generation of professionals who would meet the expectations of future employers,” said Dr Hassan Al Derham, QU President.

Plenary session

The conference included a plenary session on “Meaningful face-to-face communication.”

The Peninsula

Qatar Ports Management Company- Mwani Qatar in association with the Qatar Diabetes Association

(QDA) has launched a campaign to raise awareness about diabetes among the employees.

The campaign was held on Tuesday, January 17, 2017 at the company head-quarters and offered free medical check-ups for employees.

The check-ups included blood sugar, blood pressure, weight and height, waist circumference. It also offered advice for the employee about the disease, symp-toms and prevention.

The campaign comes in the frame-work of health initiatives adopted by Qatar Ports Management Company- Mwani Qatar aimed at encouraging the creation of a healthy society and healthy work environments.

According to a recent statistic, dia-betes is one of Qatar’s biggest health challenges. The proportion of people with diabetes in Qatar is among the highest in the world, with 17 per cent of Qataris

having the condition. The QDA strives to help people with

diabetes and those who are at risk of developing it by providing innovative

patient care, diabetes education and related services with the hope of improv-ing the overall quality of life for those affected.

At Mall of Qatar, the safety and security of our valued visitors,

employees and tenants is a top priority. In line with our commitment to upholding international best practice regulations when it comes to safety, the opening promo-tion of Sharaf DG was cancelled.

This was due to the over-whelming number of visitors to the store that exceeded the number of people per-mitted by guidelines and was, as such, deemed unsafe.

Sharaf DG will directly communicate any further updates, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Mall of Qatar statement

Crowds waiting to enter the new Sharaf DG Store in the Mall of Qatar yesterday.Pic: Qassim Rahmatullah/ The Peninsula

Mwani Qatar raises diabetes awareness

Mwani Qatar's diabetes awareness campaign.

Eight varsities join QatarDebate event The Peninsula

QatarDebate - member of Qatar Foundation for Educa-tion, Science and Community Development- recently organised the third Qatar Universities Debate League

(QUDL). In collaboration with the “National Committee for the Prohibition of Weapons’ (NCPW),” a Public Debate between the top 4 teams of the debate league tournament was also organised

QUDL, held in English, on January 14, was hosted by Geor-getown University SFS-Q in Qatar. The event saw the participation of 20 teams from 8 universities, debating around three motions during the tournament .

The Public Debate, that followed directly after the conclu-sion of tournaments is part of a broader ongoing effort on the part of NCPW aimed at raising public awareness about the threat of weapons of mass destruction.

As the national debate organisation of Qatar, QatarDebate aims to create opportunities for debate and discussion about

topics of national, regional, and global importance. With this intersection of goals, and the organisation of QUDL, the pub-lic debate discussed proliferation of Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD).

The event showcased the talents and skills of debaters tak-ing on a topic of national interest and relevance.

“Qatar being aware of the gravity of these lethal weapons, has accelerated its accession to the conventions on the prohi-bition and disarmament of weapons of mass destruction, as well as internationally banned weapons, making Qatar one of the first countries supporting international efforts towards achieving the universality of these conventions and maintain-ing international peace and security,” said Brigadier (Air Force) Hassan Saleh Al Nesf, NCPW Deputy Chairman.

He stressed that the debate represented a model of inte-gration between the theoretical and practical aspects on challenging issues in the country and the international com-munity. It is also a step to invest youth energy to serve the nation and the humanity, he emphasised.

HBKU to host 'Beacon of Knowledge and Light'QNA

HAMAD bin Khalifa Univer-sity's (HBKU) College of Islamic Studies (CIS) will host the "Beacon of Knowledge and Light" event today and tomorrow at the Education City Mosque.

Open to the public, the activities, which will run from 1pm to 9pm, will include a live demonstration on how to make smoothies from fruits mentioned in the Holy Quran and Sunnah, a story-telling session for children, and a calligraphy art station.

Additionally, Islamic scholar and lecturer Dr Omar Abdelkafy will give the Fri-day sermon as well as hold a Q and A session before the activities commence.

"In an Islamic society, the mosque is very symbolic; people gather not just to per-form prayers, but also to seek knowledge as well as strengthen relationships. This event epitomises how Qatar Foundation is working to engage the wider community through its diverse eco-sys-tem of learning," said Qatar Foundation Community Development President Fahad Saad Al Qahtani.

Other activities on offer include exploring the flora and fauna mentioned in the Holy Quran and Hadith, watching a movie under the night sky, taking photos of the indoor waterfalls, and walk-ing through the gardens.

The Education City Mosque is open to the public and has the capacity to host 1,800 people.

06 THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017HOME

New trauma & emergency unit likely to open in 2019

The Peninsula

A new trauma and emergency facility at Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) is scheduled to

open in 2019 and is expected to add significantly to the expan-sion of existing services being provided at the Hamad General Hospital’s (HGH) Emergency Department.

The new facility will more than quadruple the existing Emergency Department's space, providing greater capac-ity to care for patients with a range of illnesses and injuries, with a focus on life-threaten-ing medical conditions.

“Qatar’s population has grown significantly in recent years, resulting in increasing number of patients relying on our trauma and emergency services,” said Hamad Al Kha-lifa, HMC’s Chief of Healthcare Facilities.

“The new facility represents a substantial investment in the

provision of leading edge, best practice emergency care and reinforces HMC’s commitment to providing the people of Qatar with high quality, world class facilities and healthcare,” he added. Located in front of the existing Emergency Depart-ment at HGH, the new trauma and emergency facility will be set up over four floors and will accommodate 226 patient sta-tions. A full range of diagnostic and treatment facilities will be provided, with enhanced oper-ational links to adjoining buildings for efficient transfer of patients, including a direct link to the new operating the-atre facility and the Trauma Intensive Care Unit at HGH.

Public drop-offs will be located on the ground floor and ambulance drop-off facilities on the upper level. A dedicated ambulance ramp will separate

public and emergency traffic movement and will ensure rapid transfer of patients.

The Emergency Depart-ment at HGH is one of the busiest in the world, with over a million patient visits last year.

“The new Trauma and Emergency building will be one of the largest dedicated emer-gency care facilities in the region and a world class emer-gency centre that will further enhance the quality of care we provide to our patients,” said Al Khalifa.

The construction of the new trauma and emergency build-ing is being completed in collaboration with the Public Works Authority, Ashghal. The overall built up area of the development is 29,000 square metres, making this one of the largest dedicated emergency care facilities in the region.

Organisers of Green Expo Qatar join Solar ExpoThe Peninsula

The organising committee of Green Expo Qatar 2017 has concluded its participation in Solar Expo corelated with the World Future Energy Summit in the UAE capital, Abu

Dhabi.Eizeldin Abdulrahman, Executive Manager of Green Expo

Qatar 2017, said that the objectives of participation in Solar Expo comes within the framework of promoting the exhibi-tion and conference of Green Expo 2017 in Qatar, which will be held in November this year, as well as introducing the del-egates and the participating companies to the mega size of the latest projects that the State has accomplished in applying the standards of sustainability in its vital and important facilities such as Lusail City, Msheireb Properties, the modern cities, shopping malls, stadiums, educational and health properties as well as the upcoming projects in which Qatar is investing billions of dollars which will attract investors and experts from all over the world.

Green Expo Qatar 2017 booth in Abu Dhabi attracted a wide spectrum of companies and pavilion representatives who expressed their willingness to participate or visit Qatar during the next show.

Moreover, some promotional and marketing agreements were signed to participate in Green Expo Qatar 2017 this year and the upcoming years.

Officials of Green Expo Qatar 2017.

Crowdsourced film to be screened freeThe Peninsula

#DariQatar, the crowd-sourced film initiative by

Doha Film Institute (DFI) and Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) will screen at the Museum of Islamic Art Park as part of DFI's ‘Cinema Under the Stars’ initiative.

Two consecutive open air showings will screen free to the public on Saturday at 7pm and 8pm, providing the community another opportunity to watch an inspirational work that cel-ebrates a year in the life of Qatar, through personal stories that give insights into the diver-sity of Qatar and serve as honest portraits of life in the nation.

The open-air screening fol-lows the film’s successful world premiere and public screenings at Novo Cinemas at The Pearl- Qatar in December.

#DariQatar received an overwhelming 10,000 plus sub-missions from over 200

enthusiasts, representing 22 nationalities. Among the top contributors are 17 Qataris, who joined others in submitting video clips of the nation, cov-ering six broad themes: hope, diversity, tradition, family, friendship and uniquely Qatar. The final cut of #DariQatar is created from video footage of over 250 hours.

From introducing viewers to Qatar though visual stories of its tradition and heritage to highlighting the Islamic herit-age and culture, #DariQatar will take viewers through to mod-ern Qatar, and incorporate personal stories of people who call Qatar home. They were encouraged to shoot on prac-tically any aspect of life in the country with an overwhelming response highlighted by sub-missions around the key themes. #DariQatar is sup-ported by Platinum Partners Occidental Petroleum Corpo-ration and United Development Company, the developer of The Pearl- Qatar.

Aerial view of the new trauma and emergency building at Hamad General Hospital.

HMC expansion

The built up area of the development is 29,000 square metres, making it one of the largest emergency care facilities in the region.

Q-Post offers free money transferThe Peninsula

Qatar Postal Services Company launched a free (IFS) money transfer service to several countries including Philip-pines, Morocco, Tunisia, Djibouti, and Bangladesh which

will last until the end of February. Customers can transfer money free to these countries in

a fast and reliable way without paying any additional fees. This initiative came in the context of launching new serv-

ices with the lowest cost within the transformation of the New Year 2017.

Study reveals genetic cause of neurological disorderQNA

A new study conducted by researchers at Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar has revealed the genetic cause of a neuro-logical disorder and the implications it has for marriage.

The research examined the genetics behind cerebel-lar ataxia, a congenital malformation of the brain whereby the total volume of the cerebel lum is diminished.

The cerebellum is a part of the brain that regulates muscle activity at the back of the skull. Cerebellar ataxia can also be associated with poor muscle tone, lack of coordination and learning disabilities.

However, because cere-bellar ataxia is often an inherited disease, it could have major implications for the consanguineous mar-riages that are common in Qatar.

The implications of such a marriage should, therefore, be carefully thought about and genetic screening considered.

The research was financed by Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), the Qatar Foundation Biomedi-cal research programme, and the Teebi Project.

07THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017 HOME

High demand for wedding hall seenContinued from page 1

There is parking space for 900 cars. As for the design and equipment, Al Dowsari pointed out that there is no difference from the halls in Al Rafaa and Daayen areas except in the exte-rior painting in which the marine nature of the area has been reflected by mixing white and blue colours.

Each person has a chance to book one hall and its use is only allowed for weddings as aim of building these halls is to facili-tate wedding celebrations and to use for other purposes, the operating company needs to be contacted, he said.

Khalid Tariq Al Shamlan, Director of Al Rayyan Company for Celebrations, which is a gov-ernment company running the halls in the three areas said out that the halls will start operat-ing from February 1, and will serve the Southern part of the country which had no such wed-ding halls .

Each of the five halls has special rooms for the groom and bride with the required facilities.

Interested people can apply online through the website of the company , said Al Shamlan. The halls can accommodate five weddings at one time.

Director of Al Wakra Munic-ipality, Mansour Ajran Al Bu

Aynain, said that the design of the halls reflects Islamic archi-tecture, and the halls will greatly support youth willing to get married.

“ It is a great support to the young people, and the location

is very good that people can access easily. The people in Al Wakra had been eagerly wait-ing for these halls and I expect high demand,” said the famous Qatari preacher, Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Bu Aynain.

Minister of Municipality and Environment H E Mohamed bin Abdullah Al Rumaihi inaugurating the Al Wakrah Celebration hall complex with Mohammed bin Mutlaq Al Qahtani, Vice President of Private Engineering Office, and other officials yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit/ The Peninsula

Meeting discusses ways to reduce divorce rateQNA

The Ministry of Culture and Sports held yester-day a seminar on the

issue of divorce in Qatar, with a host of experts across many fields taking part.

The seminar was organ-ised by the Ministry's Youth Affairs Department and saw experts in education, health, law, Islamic and social stud-ies take part in the discussion.

The seminar focused on the reasons, the implications and the best ways to encoun-ter the issue.

After discussions that lasted longer than six hours, the experts agreed that updating educational curric-ulums to focus on the importance of family was one of the key solutions.

They also suggested pre-paring a document on the

Muslim family, inspired by the Holy Quran and Sunnah.

Another recommendation was to hold sessions on the rights and responsibilities in a marriage, for those who are about to do so.

There were a total of four sessions held yesterday.

The first offered statistics by the Ministry of Develop-ment Planning and Statistics that showed the rise in the number of cases of divorce since 2000 to 2015.

The second session saw a host of experts give their view on how to tackle the issue.

The third session was on the role of the media in rais-ing awareness on the importance of having a strong family.

The f inal session reviewed a study on the tie between having a strong fam-ily and mental well being.

Nephew's liver saved HMC patient's life

Continued from page 1

“There are future plans to increase liver transplants in Qatar from live and brain-dead donors. HMC's Qatar Center for Organ Transplantation and the Qatar Organ Donation Center (Hiba) are relentless in their efforts to encourage new organ donors to enroll in the donor registry, with the ultimate goal of helping patients who are cur-rently awaiting a lifesaving transplant,” Dr Yousef Al Masla-mani, Medical Director of Hamad General Hospital and Head of the Organ Transplant Committee at HMC, added.

The organ recipient, 58 year-old Ashraf Zaid, expressed gratitude to the leadership of Qatar and HMC’s team of sur-geons for their compassion and the exceptional care provided to him.

“My journey with this illness started when I was diagnosed with liver cirrhosis in 2014. I was immediately provided with the necessary treatment at Hamad General Hospital. In 2016, I developed a liver tumour and needed to undergo chemother-apy. However, my health care team concluded that a liver

transplant was the only way to save my life. Therefore, doctors started with the required pre-operative tests with the hope of finding a donor in my house-hold. Unfortunately, organ donation by my son was not possible due to blood-type incompatibility so I went back home to Egypt in search of a possible donor. While in Egypt, I received a call from Hamad General Hospital advising that a donor was found and I had to return to Doha. Upon arrival in Doha, I was surprised to find out that the donor was my nephew,” said Zaid.

The donor, Usama Taher Zaid, 26 years old, said,“The love and compassion bestowed on me by my uncle following the death of my father prompted me to give him the gift of life. Dr Khalaf explained all aspects of the pro-cedure to me and gave me ample time to think about it before I made my final decision. Soon after that, the necessary tests and laboratory work were done and the procedure took place.”

Dr Hatem Khalaf, Senior Consultant and Clinical Lead of HMC’s HPB and Liver Transplant Services, who led the local transplant team, said, “There are

certain criteria that both a donor and recipient should meet before a procedure can be done. The criteria for the donor include motivation to donate the organ for altruistic reasons, ver-ification of the relation of donor to the recipient, compatibility of blood type with the recipient and being between the ages of 18 and 45 and free from chronic diseases.”

“Following these criteria being verified, a series of pre-operative tests are performed to determine if a donor is med-ically suitable for the procedure. These tests include x-rays and ultrasound imaging to assess the size of the liver, and a liver biopsy (sample of tissue taken from the body in order to exam-ine it more closely). A psychosocial and social evalu-ation of the donor are also conducted by a competent com-mittee from Hiba,” said Dr Khalaf.

The transplant was con-ducted in November last year and the donor has recovered and discharged from hospital one week after the procedure. The recipient remained under the care of HMC for two weeks and was then discharged.

Nephew's liver donation saved Ashraf Zaid's life.

Transparency Authority starts work on framing national strategy QNA

The Administrative Control and Transparency Author-ity has started the first

phase of the preparation of the national strategy for the promo-tion of transparency and integrity, as part of its commit-ment to implementing the terms of reference assigned to it and contribute to the achievement of the Qatar National Vision 2030.

In a press statement issued last evening, the Authority explained that its approach in developing the strategy focuses on cooperation and coordina-tion with all concerned parties in the State, including Qatar national team for implementa-tion of the United Nations Convention against Corruption in a way that the strategy reflects the visions of all these parties and involve them in d e v e l o p m e n t a n d

implementation of strategy and take advantage of the best inter-national experiences and practices, and in the light of the partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and crime, as a concerned body in the field of transparency and integrity.

Within this context, the Authority held a meeting to dis-cuss what had been achieved regarding the preparations of the strategy and the proposed future steps. The meeting also discussed ways to enhance cooperation between the Authority and the Office of the United Nations in the prepara-tion of strategy and related fields, where he met with Chair-man of the Administrative Control and Transparency Authority H E Saad bin Ibrahim Al Mahmoud met with Dimitri Vlassis, Chief, Corruption and Economic Crime Branch, United

Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC).

The Authority's statement said that the strategy aims to achieve higher transparency and integrity indicators in the State to promote systems to maintain the public money, enhance the quality of public services, improve the working and invest-ment environment, for that the strategy will promote all legisla-tive aspects and institutional awareness of transparency and integrity in the state, and will also take into account the importance of strengthening the leading role of Qatar in supporting interna-tional efforts concerned with integrity, transparency and the fight against corruption at regional and international levels.

The Authority confirmed that Qatar has made a lot of efforts to promote transparency and integrity.

08 THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Iran wants cooperation with Saudi over Syria and YemenDAVOS: Iran and Saudi Arabia should be able to work together to help end conflicts in Syria and Yemen, after suc-cessfully cooperating over Lebanon last year, Iran’s foreign minister said.

“I do not see any reason why Iran and Saudi Arabia should have hostile policies towards each other. We can in fact work together to put an end to miserable conditions of the people in Syria and Yemen and Bah-rain and elsewhere in the region,” Moham-mad Javad Zarif told the World Economic Forum.

“Iran and Saudi Ara-bia were able to actually stop impeding the proc-ess of the presidential election in Lebanon. We have a success story,” Zarif said in Davos.

UAE court jails 3 on terror chargesABU DHABI: A UAE court yesterday sentenced three people to up to five years in prison after convicting them of belonging to a "terrorist organisation," state media said. The Abu Dhabi-based Federal Supreme Court handed two Emiratis jail terms ranging from one to five years, the official news agency Wam said. A third defendant from an unnamed Arab country was sentenced to three years, after which he will be deported, it said, with-out giving details of the organisation to which they were alleged to belong.

Egypt puts retired player on terror listCAIRO: Egypt has added one of the country's most renowned athletes, retired football star Mohamed Aboutrika, to a terrorism list for alleged ties to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood. Fans expressed shock and called the government move an "injus-tice" against the former midfielder who led the coun-try's national team for roughly a decade and is widely consid-ered to be the most celebrated athlete of his generation.

Bahrain police disperse protestersDUBAI: Police in Bahrain used tear gas and buckshot to dis-perse protesters who took to the streets following prayers for three Shias executed over a deadly bombing, witnesses said. Dozens of people took part in the demonstration in the village of Sanabis, east of the capital Manama, following prayer services for the three men who were executed on Sunday.

Gao

AFP

A suicide bombing target-ing militia groups committed to restoring

peace in Mali left nearly 50 peo-ple dead yesterday and struck a fresh blow at long-running efforts to stabilise the troubled north.

The car bomb attack in Gao, the region's biggest city, targeted a camp grouping former rebels

and pro-government militia who are signatories to a 2015 peace accord struck with the government.

The attack occurred as former rebels from the Tuareg-led CMA movement prepared to go on a joint patrol with pro-government militia members, under the terms of the peace deal. Mali's north fell under con-trol of Tuareg-led rebels and jihadist groups linked to Al Qaeda in 2012. The Islamists

sidelined the rebels to take sole control.

Although they were largely ousted by a French-led military operation in January 2013, implementation of the peace accord has been piecemeal with insurgents still active across large parts of the region.

The patrols, which also include regular Malian army troops, are supposed to help prepare the reorganisation of the army.

Mali car bomb kills 50 in fresh blow to peace

Bartalla, Iraq

AFP

Iraqi forces have retaken control of east Mosul from the Islamic State (IS) group, commanders said, three months after a huge offen-

sive against the jihadist bastion was launched.

Elite forces have in recent days entered the last neighbour-hoods on the eastern side of Mosul, on the left bank of the Tigris River that runs through the city.

Speaking at a news confer-ence in Bartalla, a town east of Mosul, Staff General Talib Al She-ghati, who heads the Counter-Terrorism Service (CTS), announced "the liberation... of the left bank".

Sheghati added however that while the east of the city could be considered under government control, some work remained to

be done to flush out the last hold-out jihadists. The "important lines and important areas are finished," he said, adding that "there is only a bit of the north-ern (front) remaining."

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said "the efforts of our brave forces were successful in the shape of the completion of the main plan of clearing the left side."

Operations were ongoing to clear some parts of east Mosul, including some forested areas along the Tigris, Abadi said in a statement.Yesterday's announce-ment marks the end of a phase in the operation launched on Octo-ber 17 to retake Mosul, Iraq's second city and the last major urban stronghold IS has in the country.

The offensive, Iraq's largest military operation in years with tens of thousands of fighters involved, began with a focus on

sparsely populated areas around Mosul.

CTS entered the city proper in November and encountered tougher than expected resistance from IS, whose fighters launched a huge number of suicide car bombs against advancing Iraqi forces.

The going was tough for weeks but a fresh push coordi-nated with other federal forces and backed by the US-led coa-lition was launched in December

and yielded quick and decisive gains.

The west bank of Mosul is a bit smaller but is home to the narrow streets of the Old City — impassable to most military vehicles — and to some of the city's traditionally most dyed-in-t h e - w o o l j i h a d i s t neighbourhoods.

Brigadier General Yahya Rasool also stressed that despite Sheghati's announcement, there would be more fighting in east Mosul in the coming days.

"Sheghati is the head of CTS and he was talking about areas under CTS control. There are some neighbourhoods that are still being liberated and that could take a few days," he said.

Mohammed Hayal, a resident of Al Arabi neighbourhood in northeastern Mosul, said his part of the city was not yet free of IS fighters. "Daesh members are still in my neighbourhood and

firing mortar rounds on liberated areas," he said by phone.

All the bridges across the Tigris in Mosul have been either blown up by IS or destroyed by coalition air strikes, which has made it very difficult for IS to resupply its fighters in the city's east.

It will also make it difficult for elite Iraqi forces to attack the west bank without redeploying to other fronts west of the river that have been largely static for weeks.

Interior ministry and federal police forces have held positions just south of Mosul airport, which lies on the southern edge of the city and west of the Tigris, since November.

Punching into densely pop-ulated areas however and confronting intense resistance from IS in urban environments is a type of operation which is left largely to CTS.

Iraq declares liberation of east Mosul

Moscow

AFP

The main Palestinian parties announced a deal to form a national unity government prior

to the holding of elections, after three days of reconciliation talks in Moscow.

Ater the government is formed, the Palestinians would set up a national council, which would include Palestinians in exile, and hold elections.

“We have reached agreement under which, within 48 hours, we will call on (Palestinian leader) Mahmoud Abbas to launch consultations on the creation of a government” of national unity, senior Fatah official Azzam

al-Ahmad told a press conference, speaking in Arabic.

“Today the conditions for (such an initiative) are better than ever,” said Ahmad. The non-official talks in Moscow began on Sunday under Rus-sian auspices with the goal of restoring “the unity of the Palestinian people.” Representatives came from Fatah, Hamas, Islamic Jihad and other fac-tions. Abbas’s secular party Fatah and the Islamist Hamas have been at log-gerheads since the latter seized Gaza in a near civil war in 2007.

Last year the Palestinian govern-ment postponed the first municipal polls in the occupied West Bank and Gaza Strip in 10 years after the high court ruled they should be held only in the Fatah-run West Bank.

Palestinian parties to set up national council before polls

Final push

"The important lines and important areas are finished. There is only a bit of the northern (front) remaining,"Staff General Talib Al Sheghati said.

The Permanent Observer of the State of Palestine to the UN, Riyad H Mansour, addressing the Security Council meeting on the situation in the Middle East, including the Palestinian question at the United Nations in New York, yesterday.

09THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017 ASIA

China against Taiwan team at Trump's inaugurationBeijing

Reuters

The United States should not allow a delegation from Tai-wan to attend US President-elect Don-

ald Trump's inauguration, China's Foreign Ministry said yesterday, raising a new bone of contention in Beijing's rela-tions with the incoming government.

Trump broke with decades of precedent last month by tak-ing a congratulatory telephone call from Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen, and he has also said the "One China" policy was up for negotiation, a position Bei-jing strongly rejected.

A Taiwan delegation, led by former premier and ex-ruling party leader Yu Shyi-kun, and including a Taiwan national security adviser and some law-makers, will attend tomorrow's inauguration, Taiwan's Foreign Ministry said this week.

It is typical for Taiwan to send a delegation to US presi-dential inaugurations.

A spokesman for Taiwan President Tsai Ing-wen's office said no meetings were

scheduled with the new Trump administration while the dele-gation was there for the event.

China considers Taiwan a breakaway province, with no right to have any kind of diplo-matic relations with other countries.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was opposed to Tai-wan using any excuse to send

people to the United States to "engage in activities to interfere in or damage China-US ties".

"We again urge the relevant side in the United States not to allow the Taiwan authority to send a so-called delegation to the United States to attend the presidential inauguration and not have any form of official contact with Taiwan," Hua said.

"China's position has already accurately and unmistakably been given to the US adminis-tration and Trump's team."

China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, will attend the inauguration on its behalf, she added.

Defeated Nationalist forces fled to Taiwan in 1949 after los-ing a civil war with the Communists.

China has never renounced the use of force to bring Taiwan under its control, and proudly democratic Taiwan has shown no interest in wanting to be run by Beijing.

China is deeply suspicious of Taiwan's Tsai, whom it sus-pects of wanting to push for the island's formal independence, a red line for China.

Trump is to be sworn into office tomorrow.

HK leader slams independence pushHong Kong

AFP

Hong Kong's unpopular pro-Beijing leader Leung Chun-ying faced protests

yesterday as he spoke out against the city's independence move-ment in his final policy address.

Leung will step down in July after a four-year term marked by anti-Beijing rallies as fears grow that Chinese authorities are squeezing Hong Kong's freedoms.

As he struggled to start his speech due to heckling, some pro-democracy lawmakers held up signs calling Leung a "liar".

"As we benefit from the opportunities brought by the development of our country and the national policies in our favour, we must clearly recog-nise that Hong Kong is an inalienable part of our country," Leung said.

"This is both a legal fact and an internationally recognised political reality, leaving no room

whatsoever for Hong Kong to become independent or sepa-rate from the motherland in any manner," he added.

Residents must "safeguard national sovereignty, security and territorial integrity", said Leung, who did not mention any plans for kickstarting demo-cratic reform in his speech.

Answering reporters' ques-tions, Leung said his government had worked hard to push polit-ical reform and that a minority had resisted.

Tokyo

AFP

Caroline Kennedy yesterday stepped down as US ambassador to Japan, the

embassy said, ending a three-year tenure for the rookie envoy who was welcomed into the job with movie-star fanfare.

The sole surviving child of

assassinated US president John F Kennedy took up the post in November 2013 as her boss, Barack Obama, focused on Asia in the face of a rising China and unpredictable North Korea.

Despite being wartime ene-mies, the US and Japan are close allies and thousands lined the streets of Tokyo to catch a glimpse of Kennedy when she

arrived to start the job. The event was broadcast live on television.

Kennedy's replacement has not yet been appointed by incoming US leader Donald Trump.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, accompanied by Obama, visited Pearl Harbor in December, opening a new

diplomatic chapter for the two former enemies -- 75 years after Japan's surprise attack that led to America's entrance into the war.

"I think that both the presi-dent's visit to Hiroshima and the prime minister's visit to Pearl Harbor really show how far our two countries have come together," she said yesterday.

"To be able to be at both of those events during my ambas-sadorship, I feel so incredibly fortunate and privileged."

Kennedy also witnessed tense negotiations over moving a major US military base in Okinawa, which hosts more than half of the approximately 47,000 American military personnel sta-tioned in Japan.

Caroline Kennedy steps down as US ambassador to Japan

Baby elephant rescued near palm oil plantationBanda Aceh AFP

A baby elephant found terrified and malnour-ished near a palm oil

plantation is being nursed back to health at a conserva-tion centre on Indonesia's Sumatra island.

Last week, animal experts in Aceh province received a tip-off about a dead elephant without its tusks.

When the team arrived they found the dead animal,

along with the abandoned 11-month-old calf.

"We suspect the adult elephant was shot. He was probably with a group, so the others fled but the baby got left behind," Aceh conserva-tion centre head Sapto Aji Prabowo said.

"The baby was malnur-ished, so that's why we took him to the elephant conser-vation centre."

The youngster weighs around 300 kilogrammes, just over half the typical weight of an animal of his age.

East Timor presidential poll in March

Australia names first indigenous ministerSydney

AFP

AUSTRALIA government yesterday appointed its first indigenous minister, a former labourer who has credited edu-cation for his rise from humble beginnings in a country where Aborigines remain among the most disadvantaged.

Ken Wyatt became Min-ister for Aged Care and for Indigenous Health when Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull reshuffled his exec-utive following the resignation of the health min-ister in an expenses scandal.

Wyatt was the first Abo-riginal person elected to Australia's lower house in the year 2010 and had previously been assistant health minister.

Dili

AFP

East Timor will hold a presidential election on March 20, an official said

yesterday, and Nobel Peace laureate Jose Ramos-Horta may try to make a comeback as head of state.

It will be the third presi-dential vote in the tiny half-island nation since it won independence in 2002 follow-ing a brutal, 24-year occupation by neighbouring Indonesia.

"The president... issued a decree on Tuesday which stated that the first round of

the presidential election will be held on March 20," Nelyo Isaac Sarmento, state secre-tary for social information, said.

No candidate is expected to win the required 50 percent of the vote on March 20, meaning a run-off will likely be held on April 20.

A worker gives water to a baby elephant at the Elephant Conservation Center in Aceh, yesterday.

Sino-US relations

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said China was opposed to Taiwan using any excuse to send people to the United States to "engage in activities to interfere in or damage China-US ties".

China's ambassador to the United States, Cui Tiankai, will attend the inauguration on its behalf.

Hong Kong Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying speaks at a press conference after delivering his final policy address to the Legislative Council in the Admiralty district of Hong Kong, yesterday.

The latest production data released by the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) shows that the oil market is heading towards stability in the coming months as

members are strictly abiding by a landmark output deal reached on November 30 last year. The monthly December report by the cartel says that total output by its members fell 221,000 barrels per day (bpd) to 33.1 million bpd from November. Opec is supposed to slash its output ceiling to 32.5 million bpd, effective January 1. Saudi Arabia bore the brunt of the production cut in December, reducing production by 149,000 bpd to 10.5 million bpd. Other key members like Qatar, the UAE, Algeria, Ecuador, Gabon, Nigeria, and Venezuela also reduced production while Iraq, the second biggest producer in the group, increased its output by 43,000 bpd to 4.6 million bpd and Iran’s output rose 10,000 bpd to 3.7 million bpd.

The Opec output cut deal, which was the result of months of tough negotiations involving several key producers, has helped bring some sanity to the energy market which was on a reckless downswing. Oversupply was pushing prices to such depths that producers’ economies too started falling, and though every producer knew the reason for the malaise, there was no unanimity

and unity on how to proceed with a cut as non-Opec members too have become significant players in the market. Saudi Arabia and Qatar were in the forefront of talks to arrive at a deal, and finally all major producers were brought on board. The deal has helped prices to rise to $55 a barrel, from a 12-year low near $27 a year ago.

However, despite the rally in prices after

the deal, Opec will have to be constantly on guard and work harder to keep the prices high as some analysts believe the market volatility is likely to continue in 2017. “We are entering a period of much more volatility in the (oil) market”, Fatih Birol, the head of the International Energy Agency said. Fatih has warned that the outlook for oil prices is choppier and more volatile in 2017 “but the concept needs to be employed carefully”.

It’s difficult to predict the direction of the energy market because such predictions in the past by most experts have gone terribly wrong. But production cuts have proven to be the most effective method to push up prices when there is a drastic fall. Prices of any commodity are controlled by the demand-supply factor and oil producers must learn to produce just what the market needs.

10 THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

Market balance

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Nuclear weapons should be completely prohibited and destroyed over time to make the world free of nuclear weapons.

Xi JinpingChinese President

Opec production data shows that its members are abiding by the output cut deal reached on November 30 last year.

“Tomorrow will look different — and tomorrow is very close.”So said Israel’s Prime Minister Benyamin Netanyahu in response to the just-concluded

Paris conference on Middle East peace, which he denounced as “rigged”.

The Israeli leader sees a conspiracy under every bed, even those of his closest allies. Last month, he accused the Obama administration and British government of orchestrating UN Security Council resolution 2334, which con-demned Israel’s settlement activities in the occupied Palestinian territories. Such coloni-sation of occupied territory has been illegal for decades, but Netanyahu regards interna-tional law with contempt.

Now, though, he has turned on the French. By hosting the international conference they have, at their peril, crossed a red line. Netan-yahu claims that the conference was “rigged by the Palestinians under French auspices to adopt additional anti-Israel stances.”

He is clearly now pinning his hopes on Donald Trump,who becomes the 45th Presi-dent of the United States of America the end of this week. His hopes are well-placed; not only did Trump call on the Obama adminis-tration to veto the Security Council vote last month, but he also vowed in one of his famous tweets on 23 December that, “As to the UN, things will be different after January 20th.”

Whereas government officials and civil society groups from more than 70 countries came together in Paris and affirmed their opposition to unilateral action by either party, Palestinian or Israeli, President-elect Trump has made it clear that he will consider Israel’s demands for the US embassy to be moved to Jerusalem, in defiance of international law. This bodes ill for any and all in the region.

Furthermore, as expected, Trump’s elec-tion has released a torrent of extremist rhetoric from the highest levels of the Israeli government. Minister of Education and leader of the right-wing Jewish Home party Naftali Bennett, along with other political leaders, wrote to Israel’s prime minister urging the annexation of the West Bank (which they call “Judea and Samaria”) and the amalgamation with Jordan of what remains of Palestine.

Their ambition is clearly to convince Trump to accept the proposition that “Jordan is Palestine”; this preposterous notion is noth-ing new. It is a Machiavellian scheme that has long been in circulation and may well return to the fore under the new US president. After all, there is a pro-Israel constituency in Wash-ington which also advocates this idea.

Elliott Abrams, for example, served as deputy national security advisor to George W Bush; he argues the point in the conclusion of his book Tested By Zion: “If Palestinians on both sides of the Jordan River became con-vinced that this formula would best provide security as well as decent, legitimate, efficient government, the taboo would slowly disappear.”

Accordingly, when — if —Israelis speak of “two states” today they must be called upon to explain in detail exactly what they mean. Nothing should be taken for granted. Once the

Beware the ‘two-state solution’Dr Daud Abdullah

massive West Bank colony-settlements of Maale Adumim, Gush Etzion and Ariel are annexed to Israel, as is now pro-posed, that would account for 9 per cent of the occupied territory. The other, smaller settlements around Jerusalem and the Jordan Valley, which Israel also wants to maintain control of, would account for another thirty eight per cent.

Thus, in the best case scenario, the most that the Palestinians can even begin to hope to get is fifty-four per cent of the West Bank. In the event that this is what happens, the independent “State of Palestine” would thus come into being on a mere 11.8 per cent of historic Pales-tine. To put this in perspective, the 1947 UN Partition Plan — oft-cited as the international source of Israel’s legiti-macy — allocated forty-six per cent of Palestine for an “Arab state” (even though the Palestinian Arabs owned ninety-six per cent of the land). Think of this when Netanyahu insists on more “concessions” from the Palestinians.

A state built on less than twelve per cent of Palestine may well be a solution of sorts, but it is clearly far from being a just one. As such, it does not carry with it any promise of peace and an end to the conflict. It is no wonder, therefore, that the direction of travel is now head-ing towards a federated Jordan-Palestinian state.

The Palestinians and Jordanians have both rejected this out of hand, though; understandably, they insist that Jordan is Jordan and Palestine is Palestine.

Furthermore, one of the easily foreseeable outcomes of such machi-nations is that the annexation of the West Bank would lead to the expul-sion of yet more Palestinians from their land; Israel’s ethnic cleansing of the indigenous population would con-tinue apace.

The Israelis, it seems, want to realise their dream of “Greater Israel” at the

expense of not only the Palestinians but also the neighbouring countries.

However appealing this may seem to some in the West who back Israel right or wrong, one question needs to be addressed. Just as Israeli politicians are demanding the international community to recognise their conquest of the West Bank, so too are they demanding similar recognition for their annexation of the Syrian Golan Heights. Where will the Israeli land-grab end?

Given his penchant for showmanship and his ideological affinity with the Zionist project, President Trump may well bow to pressure and move the US embassy to Jerusalem, and endorse the annexation of 46 per cent of the West Bank for good measure, forcing the Jor-danians and Palestinians to accept such a fait accompli.

He should be under no doubt, how-ever, that it will backfire on Israel and its allies in such a way that will undo all agreements with the Palestinians, not least the Oslo Accords.

The Palestinians and Jordanians have strong cards that they can use to upset the apple cart as Trump weighs up his options. There are calls within Fatah and the PLO to withdraw their recogni-tion of Israel, for example.

Similar calls can be heard in Jor-dan for the abrogation of the Wadi Araba Peace Treaty with Israel. They are not likely to materialise in the near future but neither is impos-sible if Israel continues with its brinkmanship.

Those who still insist on calling for a two-state solution must do a fact check and discern exactly what they are calling for. Netanyahu’s notion of “tomorrow” spells trouble, but not just for the Palestinians; beware the “two-state solution”.

The writer is the Director of Middle East Monitor (Memo).

ED ITOR IAL

A picture showing a partial view of the Israeli settlement of Givat Zeev near the West Bank city of Ramallah.

11THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017 OPINION

“Who Is Telling Africa’s Stories”, covering efforts to develop photojournalism in various African countries.

The writer, Whitney Richardson, a photo editor for the paper, provided some contradicting points: Happy news about the growing number of talented photographers coming out of photography training institutes and collectives based in countries with divergent histories and presents - Ethiopia, Kenya, Nigeria, South Africa — but also that these photog-raphers do not produce work that is “professional” enough for agencies to hire them.

‘Uncomfortable conversations’Richardson offered some insight into continuing

problems that locally based photographers face get-ting international news agencies’ attention. What emerges as a solution is the need for young photog-raphers to get international exposure, where, according to acclaimed photographer Akintunde Akinleye, they may also “learn the ethical standards of the industry”.

The takeaway: unless international news agencies based in the North America and Europe like the Associated Press, Reuters and Agence France-Presse pick your work, you are a nobody.

Yet, it is these very agencies that contribute to problematic views that simplify Africa into a repeti-tive trope. Africa remains a monolithic space of violence and poverty uncomplicated by global poli-tics and military action, because the images and narratives chosen by powerful news agencies and newspapers continue to speak to foundational myths that Europe (and white ex-colonists and plantation owners in America) manufactured about Africa, in order to better ease their conquest and exploitation of a regionally, politically, and socially complex, dynamic continental shelf.

If the construction of the African as child-like, or not-quite-human, who has little agency or intellect aided the colonial project, today, the narrative con-tinues to aid the construction of the European self as civilised, maintaining the African and Africa as the location of savagery, helplessness, and devastation. It also creates Europe as a desirable location that those who have no agency and have done little to better themselves attempt to infiltrate — much to Europe’s chagrin.

Aida Muluneh, Ethiopian-born artist, documentary

May’s Brexit: Going it alone, hoping for an EU trade deal

Prime Minister Theresa May has finally outlined what Brexit really means for her: Britain going it alone, fully disentangled from the European Union while hoping the bloc will agree to a comprehensive

trade deal.Britain will exit the EU’s vast internal market

for goods and services and will instead try for a “bold and ambitious” free trade agreement (FTA), rejecting the kind of arrangements some other European countries, such as Norway and Switzer-land, have for trade with the world’s biggest economic region.

In her speech on Tuesday, May called for a deal to be done within two years, emphasised coopera-tion with the bloc and called for a “phased-in” transition to Brexit.

The value of the pound reversed recent losses and staged its biggest single-day rally against the US dollar since at least 1998. But there was a luke-warm reception from political leaders in EU countries, a reminder that agreeing the kind of trade deal May wants will be an arduous — even painful — task.

“Where is the give for all the take?” asked the Czech Republic’s secretary of state for EU affairs, Tomas Prouza, on Twitter. Ireland’s gov-ernment said it was under no illusion about the scale of Brexit.

May outlined 12 negotiating priorities, including limiting immigration, exiting jurisdiction

of the European Court of Justice, and ending full membership of the customs union that sets external tariffs for goods imported into the bloc.

Aiming for a comprehensive free trade agreement (FTA) means she can enter negotia-tions with an almost blank canvas, largely free of politically unpopular compromises around free-dom of movement or large payments into the EU’s budget.

FTA CHANCEBut the process of agreeing an FTA is fraught with

risk. May has said she wants to agree Britain’s future relationship with the EU within two years, followed by a period of implementation.

Free trade deals usually take far longer than two years to agree—Canada’s FTA with the EU will have taken seven years by the time it is expected to come into force.

“(The) prolonged uncertainty over forming agreements will present a significant challenge to the economy and one from which consumers cannot be called upon to buy our way out,” said Jagjit Chadha, director of Britain’s National Institute of Economic

and Social Research.Consumer spending has been a main

driver of Britain’s economy recently, with other sources of growth like trade and invest-ment lagging.

Getting rid of barriers to trade in services, the dominant sector in Britain’s economy, is also likely to be hard, although those back-ing Brexit argue barriers already exist within the EU.

And the deeper the trade agreement, the more EU regulation Britain would have to abide by, according to the Centre for European Reform think tank.

Supporters of the FTA option argue this would allow Britain to trade with the EU largely as before while also leaving it free to agree trade deals directly with other countries such as the United States, its biggest individual export partner, and emerging markets such as Brazil and India.

Brexit supporters also point to Britain’s large goods deficit with the EU—a record 8.59 billion pounds in November 2016. They say the bloc could

Whenever “Africa” is in the headline of mainstream US and European media sources, especially those that are highly regarded,

I wince. I know the storyline is going to suffused by disappointment and resigna-tion about Africa failing, once again.

While the rest of the world and its modern inhabitants are technologising and digitising, happily going about wear-ing jeans and t-shirts, there goes Africa, backwards into some apocalyptic, scarred past, wearing embarrassing tribal grab.

Sometimes, these media outlets allow Africa to come to the present, but of course, in dubious ways: embedded in the flow of “Islamist” terror-narratives: Nigeria and Boko Haram, Libya and its violent insurgents, Somalia and its trou-blesome “Islamist fundamentalists” raiding Kenyan universities.

It’s as though the editorial board is shaking its collective head with an exas-perated sigh, and showing us, with a lavish, full-colour photograph, exactly why they are frustrated with the entire continent.

Sometimes, though, I’m just confused. For instance, the influential New York Times recently published an article titled,

The problem with photojournalism and Africa

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May delivers a speech on leaving the European Union at Lancaster House in London.

photographer, and the founder of Desta for Africa (DFA) — a cre-ative consultancy that curates exhibitions and pursues cultural projects with local and international institutions — emphasises: “photography continues to play a key role in how we are seen, not just as Africans, but as black people from every corner of the world. Stereotypes and prejudice are incited by images, and if it’s used, yet again, to undermine those of us who are truly doing the difficult work, then we need to have some uncomfortable conversations.”

And when it comes to payment, there are further “uncomfortable” discrepancies that international agencies never reveal: “When we do get assignments, they want to pay us less because we are from the country; but for a foreign photographer, they will not blink to pay an arm and a leg,” adds Muluneh.

In Richardson’s piece, the prevailing view is that, even though top photo agencies are looking for local photogra-phers to “offset costs”, the Africans do not compare to western photographers.

Alice Gabriner, Time magazine’s international photo edi-tor, expressed disappointment with African photographers (note, again, an entire continent’s photographers are lumped together), because they lack “completed bodies of work”.

But photography training institutions — producing pho-tographers with “complete” bodies of work that have received international acclaim and awards — have mush-roomed in the past 10 years. Muluneh’s own focus is on developing internal networks: to be “independent and to cre-ate our own platforms … and institutions … to be self-sustainable and to be able to compete in the interna-tional market.”

Besides Muluneh’s DFA, which also runs AddisFoto Festi-val, there is Market Photo Workshop in South Africa, The Nlele Institute in Nigeria, The Nest Collective in Kenya, among others.

Despite the existence of photographers and journalists from African localities, they are not the go-to people that agencies based in the geopolitical West seek out. The New York Times’ reporters-in-Africa, Nicholas Kristoff and Jeffrey Gettleman, or R W Johnson, the London Review of Book’s go-to fave on South Africa, spin a good Africa story, seem-ingly with little self-critique, and with little thought to consequences.

The ideologies behind the image narratives and stories in English-language news sources are presented matter-of-factly, with little resistance from alternative media in the US and Europe; although they often contain deeply problematic perspectives of significant issues, they are trotted out on a regular basis, whenever there is a “crisis” involving Africa.

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

MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4462 7505

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4455 7769

LOCAL NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7743

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION TEL: 4462 7535

SPORT NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7745

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the editorinchief@pen.com.qa

not afford to cut it off.

NUCLEAR OPTIONMay seems to see this as a bar-

gaining chip, stating in her speech that no deal is better than a bad deal - effectively acknowledging that Britain could resort to World Trade Organisation rules, which set upper limits on tariffs countries can impose.

In such a scenario, Britain would face barriers on services, particularly in highly regulated sec-tors such as finance. That would be a “very dangerous path”, according to JP Morgan economist Malcolm Barr.

“One might expect a successful negotiating strategy to have ambi-tious objectives and a credible fall back position. May certainly has the former. But we doubt the prime minister has the latter,” he said in a note to clients.

Tellingly, just as May was set-ting out her pitch for an internationalist Britain built on cooperation, her finance minister Philip Hammond told parliament that Britain could get tough if a comprehensive FTA with the EU is not forthcoming, and slash business taxes in retaliation.

“If we don’t (get a sensible Brexit deal) the people of this coun-try are not simply going to lie down and accept that they will be poorer,” Hammond said.

“We will do whatever it takes to maintain our competitiveness and protect our standard of living.”

M Neelika JayawardaneAl Jazeera

Andy Bruce Reuters

The value of the pound reversed recent losses and staged its biggest single-day rally against the US dollar since at least 1998. But there was a lukewarm reception from political leaders in EU countries, a reminder that agreeing the kind of trade deal May wants will be an arduous — even painful — task.

Despite the existence of photographers and journalists from African localities, they are not the go-to people that agencies based in the geopolitical West seek out.

12 THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017ASIA

India to China: Respect territorial sovereigntyNew Delhi IANS

India yesterday said that China, which is "very sen-sitive" about its territorial sovereignty, had failed to show similar respect for

New Delhi's concerns.New Delhi also sought to

allay Beijing's apprehension about India's rise.

"China is very sensitive on matters concerning its sover-eignty. We expect they respect other people's sovereignty," Indian Foreign Secretary S. Jais-hankar said at the Raisina Dialogue here.

"The CPEC (China Pakistan Economic Corridor) passes through a territory that we see as our territory. Surely, people will understand what the Indian reaction is. There needs to be some reflection, and I am sorry to say we have not seen signs of that," said the Foreign Secretary to a query at the event.

India has strongly objected to the $46bn China Pakistan Economic Corridor, which passes through Pakistan-con-trolled Kashmir, claimed by India.

Jaishankar's reference to India's concerns on sovereignty

come a day after Pime Minister Narendra Modi had said in his inaugural speech: "Respect for sovereignty is important for regional connectivity to improve."

The CPEC is being pushed forward by China and Pakistan, ignoring India's concerns.

The issue is one of the irri-tants between Sino-India ties. India has raised the issue at the highest diplomatic level with China.

"Our rise is not harmful to China's rise just like China's rise

is not harmful to us," Jaishankar said.

The CPEC is one of the key projects of China's One Belt One R o a d c o n n e c t i v i t y programme.

The CPEC seeks to link Chi-na's Kashgar in restive Xinjian province to Pakistan's Gwadar port in Balochistan, giving Beijing land access to the Arabian Sea.

Bilateral ties with China have been clouded with Beijing repeatedly blocking New Del-hi's move to gain membership to the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG), and even the move for a UN ban on Jaish-e-Mohamed chief Masood Azhar, who India accuses of being behind the terror attack on the Pathankot air base in January last year.

On the South China Sea dis-pute, Jaishankar said India's position was "consistent" and "in tune with what international position".

China claims almost the entire South China Sea. Last year, an international tribunal rejected Beijing's claims in a case brought by the Philippines.

India had asked the parties concerned to show respect to the ruling, denounced as "ille-gal" by Beijing.

Pakistan not to free doctor who helped find Bin LadenIslamabad

Reuters

A JAILED Pakistani doctor believed to have helped the CIA hunt down Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden will be nei-ther released nor handed to the United States, Pakistan's law minister has told legisla-tors, media reported yesterday.

Dr Shakil Afridi, hailed as a hero by US officials, was arrested after US forces killed bin Laden in May 2011 in a secret raid in a northern Paki-stani town that plunged relations between the uneasy strategic partners to a new low.

"The law is taking its course and Afridi is having full opportunity of a fair trial," the Daily Times newspaper quoted Law Minister Zahid Hamid.

"Afridi work ed against the law and our national interest, and the Pakistan government has repeatedly been telling the United States that under our law he com-mitted a crime and was facing the law."

In 2012, Afridi was sen-tenced to 33 years in prison after being convicted of being a member of militant group.

Manila

Reuters

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday appeared to rule out

declaring martial law, but said he could do so if he wished, and anyone questioning his justifi-cation should "shut up" and stay out of his business.

The former prosecutor has threatened several times to invoke military rule to help his war on drugs and said he had the power to declare martial law,

even though narcotics did not meet conditions required by the constitution.

The mercurial leader has been criticised by opponents for acting in an authoritarian way and for showing willingness to circumvent the constitution. Some have ridiculed him for his contradicting remarks on whether he intends to pursue martial law.

"I will not declare martial law, and if I declare martial law, I will not make noise," he said in a speech yesterday.

"And if you ask 'what is the basis?', it's none of your business. Just shut up, all of you."

The constitution states mar-tial law can only be declared in the event of invasion or rebellion, when public safety requires it.

Congress can revoke a pres-ident's declaration, as can the Supreme Court, but there is no scenario in the constitution out-lining which of the two institutions would prevail should they disagree.

"Who decides now? Supreme Court says 'no', Congress says

'yes', who decides? The sitting president - me," he said.

"For me, it is not found in the constitution, it is not written there. But if I feel as a president that I have to preserve my coun-try, I will declare martial law."

He also said the military felt the security climate did not war-rant martial law. "The military is correct, there is no compelling reason really."

Legal issues aside, Duterte's comments offer little clarity about why he is discussing mar-tial law at a time when his

approval ratings are high, polit-ical opposition is muted, and the government is touting success in its crackdown on drugs.

Presidential Communica-tions Secretary Martin Andanar on Sunday criticised media for reporting Duterte's statements on martial law and for headlines that "sow panic and confusion". He called that "the height of jour-nalistic irresponsibility".

The presidential palace press corps hit back yesterday urging the government to stop chiding journalists.

Indian court jails 39 traffickers

Duterte: I can declare martial law if needed

Kuala Lumpur Reuters

The United Nations should intervene in Myanmar's Rakhine State to stop fur-

ther escalation of violence against Rohingya Muslims and avoid another genocide like in Cambodia and Rwanda, said the Organisation of Islamic Cooper-ation's special envoy to Myanmar.

The conflict which has left at least 86 dead and an esti-mated 66,000 people fleeing into Bangladesh since it started on October 9, 2016, is no longer

an internal issue but of interna-tional concern, said Syed Hamid Albar, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Special Envoy to Myanmar.

Syed Hamid said the OIC should seek UN intervention. His comments come ahead of a spe-cial OIC meeting called by Malaysia today to discuss meas-ures to deal with the conflict affecting Rohingya minority.

"We don't want to see another genocide like in Cam-bodia or Rwanda," Syed Hamid said.

"The international commu-nity just observed, and how

many people died? We have les-sons from the past, for us to learn from and see what we can do".

The OIC represents 57 states and acts as the collective voice of the Muslim world.

A Myanmar government spokesman said it will not attend the OIC meet as it is not an Islamic country, but that it had already made its actions clear to Asean members at their last meeting in December, and that UN intervention would only end up facing "unwanted resistance from local people".

"So that's why the interna-tional community should have

a positive approach and under-stand widely our country's conflict situation," said Zaw Htay, a spokesman for office of Myanmar President Htin Kyaw.

About 56,000 Rohingya now live in Muslim-majority Malay-sia having fled previous unrest in Myanmar.

Malaysia broke the tradition of non-intervention by members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) by speak-ing out on the conflict, calling on the 10-member bloc to coordinate humanitarian aid and investigate alleged atrocities committed against the ethnic group.

Seoul seeks answers in murder of KoreanManila

AFP

Philippine police kid-napped and murdered a South Korean busi-

nessman, then led his wife to believe he was alive for months to extort money from her, authorities said yesterday.

The man disappeared from his home in the north-ern city of Angeles in October last year, and his wife initially paid a ransom of $100,000, national police spokesman Dionardo Carlos said.

However, the man was strangled to death and burned to ashes in a

crematorium on the day he was abducted, the South Korean foreign ministry said.

The crematorium was owned by a former police officer, the foreign ministry said.

The South Korean govern-ment identified the man only by his surname of Ji and said he was in his 50s. Philippine media said he was a business-man who had been living in the Philippines since 2008.

South Korean Foreign Minister Yun Byung-Se demanded answers after receiving a phone call from Philippine Foreign Secretary Perfecto Yasay to inform him of the murder.

Chennai

Reuters

An Indian court has sen-tenced 39 people to 10 years in prison each for

buying and selling girls in Kar-nataka state, signalling a rare victory for prosecutors in a country where fewer than two in five trafficking cases ends in a conviction.

Human traffickers, pimps and brothel owners were among those convicted by a district court in Ballari on Tuesday, according to prosecutor Rathod Ramsingh, who said he hoped

the verdict would deter others."Normally only the pimps get

picked up but this time everyone involved in buying, selling and reselling of these girls has been found guilty," Ramsingh said.

The convicted offenders were also fined $3,630 each by the court yesterday.

The prosecution came after Ballari police raided several brothels in 2013, rescuing 43 women and 21 children, includ-ing a 13-year-old, and seizing evidence including cash and account ledgers.

Seven of the rescued victims were from Bangladesh and the

rest were from Indian states of Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, West Bengal, Karnataka and Odisha.

A further 48 suspects in the case are being tried in three sep-arate cases in Karnataka.

Campaigners welcomed the verdict, saying it should encour-age other victims to come forward.

"This conviction is because of the courage of the survivors, all young women, who walked into the packed courtroom to identify their traffickers and the men who abused them," said Adrian Phillips of non-profit Jus-tice and Care.

OIC urges UN to intervene in Rohingya crisis

$550m needed to confront Afghan crisisKabul

Reuters

International aid groups needs more than a half a billion dol-lars this year to help millions

of Afghans struggling with increased violence and a bleak economy, as a humanitarian cri-sis worsens, a senior UN official said.

The UN estimates at least 9.3 million Afghans, or nearly a

third of the population, will need humanitarian assistance in 2017.

Officials expect hundreds of thousands of refugees to return from Pakistan and Iran this year, even as an average of 1,500 peo-ple are newly displaced by fighting every day, said Mark Bowden, the UN humanitarian coordinator for Afghanistan.

"The majority of people returning are very poor... and have lost a lot".

An increasing number of people in Afghanistan are fac-ing prolonged displacement, Bowden said, creating more c h a l l e n g e s f o r t h e government.

The 2017 Humanitarian Response Plan, set to be launched by the UN and other organisations on Saturday, calls for $550m to help about 5.7 mil-lion of the most vulnerable people.

The wife of a South Korean businessman cries as she talks with officials at the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) headquarters, in Manila, yesterday.

Territorial dispute

China is very sensitive on matters concerning its sovereignty. We expect they respect other people's sovereignty: Official.

Bilateral ties with China have been clouded with Beijing repeatedly blocking New Delhi's move to gain membership to the elite Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG).

Demonetisation protest

India's Congress Party supporters shout slogans during a protest against demonetisation at the Reserve Bank of India, in Mumbai, yesterday.

13THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017 EUROPE

Verbal attack

The opposition lawmakers accused the British PM of pursuing bargain basement Brexit following her threat to undercut the EU economically if it did not get a new trade deal.

Migrants wait in line to receive plates of free food during a snowfall outside a derelict customs warehouse in Belgrade, Serbia, yesterday.

Long wait

London

AFP

British Prime Minister Theresa May was accused by opposi-tion lawmakers yesterday of pursu-

ing a “bargain basement Brexit” following her threat to under-cut the EU economically if it did not get a new trade deal.

In angry exchanges in the House of Commons, the day after May set out her negotiat-ing objectives on Brexit, opposition Labour leader Jer-emy Corbyn said she “demeans herself and her office and our country’s standing” by making such threats.

He urged the Conservative leader to “stop her threat of a bargain basement Brexit, a low-paid tax haven on the shores of Europe”—saying it could hurt Britain more than rest of the bloc.

The party has accused some in May’s government of using Brexit to turn Britain into a low-waged, low-skilled economy with low corporation taxes and light-touch regulation.

In her speech on Tuesday, May confirmed Britain would be leaving Europe’s single mar-ket when it exits the EU.

She hinted that if EU lead-ers sought to punish Britain, London may respond by slash-ing tax rates to attract companies and investors, changing “the basis of Britain’s economic model”.

Corbyn told the BBC’s Newsnight programme: “We do not want to go in the direction of a race-to-the bottom com-petition where we lower corporate rates of taxation because doing that would obvi-

ously hit government income.“If we model ourselves on

the Cayman Islands or the Brit-ish Virgin Islands or tax havens around the world then where is the money going to be for education, for health, for hous-ing - all the things that matter in people’s lives?” he said.

In the House of Commons yesterday, the British Prime Minister repeated her insistence that she wanted a free trade agreement that offers “the best possible access” for British businesses into the EU and EU businesses into Britain.

Scottish National Party (SNP) lawmaker Angus Rob-ertson also used the weekly prime minister’s question time to take aim at May’s plan, warning that one analysis sug-gested Scotland would lose up to 80,000 jobs if it left the sin-gle market.

“Does the prime minister believe this is a price worth playing for her Little Britain Brexit?” he asked.

Leading Brexiteers have been accused of isolationism, and German newspaper Die Welt headlined its coverage of May’s speech on Tuesday “Lit-tle Britain”.

The Shard skyscraper is pictured in London, yesterday. British business leaders welcomed Prime Minister Theresa May on her Brexit clarity but insisted that she must deliver on her pledge to secure access to the EU single market.

Strasbourg, Berlin

AFP

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker prom-ised yesterday to seek a

“balanced” deal for Britain’s exit from the EU and not be “hostile”, after Prime Minister Theresa May unveiled her Brexit plan.

“For my part, I will do every-thing so that the negotiations reach a balanced solution, with full respect for our rules,” Juncker told the European Parliament in Strasbourg, France.

“I welcome the clarifications given by Mrs May, but I said to her last night that a speech will not launch the negotiations,” he said, adding that could only hap-pen when Britain triggers formal divorce proceedings.

“There will be an unprece-dented negotiation which must finish within two years and the consequences will be considera-ble for the United Kingdom, its 27 partners and the whole union,” Juncker said.

He said he told May in a tel-ephone conversation that the

commission’s chief Brexit nego-tiator Michel Barnier and the rest of the executive “are not in a hos-tile mood”.

In Berlin, German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday wel-comed the clarity” provided by British Prime Minister Theresa May’s speech laying out her plans for Brexit.

After talks with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni in Ber-lin, Merkel said the remaining EU member states would enter into the negotiations with London with a united front.

Merkel said May’s keenly anticipated address had provided a “clear impression of how Brit-ain wants to move forward”.

“However the negotiations would only begin when Article 50 is triggered,” she told reporters, referring to the part of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty under which a country officially declares its intention to quit the bloc.

Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat, whose country holds the six-month rotating presidency of the EU, reiterated that any Brexit deal must be “infe-

rior” to membership of the bloc.“We want a fair deal for the

UK but that deal necessarily needs to be inferior to member-ship. This should not come as a surprise to anyone—indeed thinking it can be otherwise would be a detachment from reality,” Muscat said.

He said May’s determination to leave the single market was a “somewhat positive develop-ment” as it confirms the EU 27’s position that access to the mar-ket could not be separated from the bloc’s commitment to free-dom of movement.

The Maltese premier added that the EU would hold an “extraordinary” summit on Brexit “a short period of time” after Arti-cle 50 is triggered, probably four or five weeks later.

In the later news briefing with Juncker, Muscat said he did not see “the sort of declaration of war” some media are depicting when May warned the EU that it would be committing “an act of calamitous self-harm” if it backed a punitive Brexit deal to deter others from leaving.

London

AFP

BRITAIN’S Supreme Court will rule on Tuesday on whether or not Prime Minister Theresa May has to seek parliamentary approval to trigger Brexit, the court said yes-terday. “Judgment in these cases will be delivered at 0930 GMT on Tuesday 24 January 2017,” the court said on its website.

All 11 Supreme Court judges convened in December to hear four days of arguments on behalf the government and the claimants, who say May cannot begin Brit-ain’s departure from the European Union without first getting the go-ahead from lawmakers.

The appeal came after a High Court ruling in November that said the government did not have the executive power alone to invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, formally starting exit talks.

The decision enraged Brexit supporters with some newspapers accusing judges of thwarting the will of the 52 percent who voted “Leave” in the June 23 referendum.

The lead claimant in the case, investment fund manager Gina Miller, says she has received death threats and boycotts against her business.

She told reporters last year that she did not want to “subvert” the result of the referendum, add-ing: “This is not about whether we should stay or leave—this is actu-ally about how we leave.”

Her legal team successfully argued that parliament had to approve Article 50 as it would involve a change in domestic law.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright, the government’s chief legal advisor, countered that the government had authority over foreign affairs, including the right to withdraw from treaties, under so-called “royal prerogative powers”.

Geneva

Reuters

UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres (pic-tured) said yesterday he

is determined to reform the world body and to see a diplo-matic “surge” to overcome obstacles in peace talks.

Guterres said the United Nations was irreplaceable and its actions had reduced suffer-ing. “But I’m also aware of the shortcomings and the failures of

the UN,” he told reporters.“That’s why I’m totally com-

mitted first of all to a surge in diplomacy for peace, to make the UN more effective in trying to address the dramatic multipli-cation of conflicts that we are witnessing and to put full prior-ity on the prevention of those conflicts.”

Under Guterres’ predecessor Ban Ki-moon, the UN tried and has so far failed to make peace between warring sides in Syria, Yemen and Libya, while wars in

Ukraine, South Sudan, Nigeria and elsewhere have continued unabated.

An early test for Guterres will be UN-led talks to reunify Cyprus, a decades-old conflict that has pushed Greece and Turkey to the brink of war in the past.

Officials from both sides of the divided island, as well as Greece, Turkey and Britain, opened a round of technical talks at a secluded Swiss resort yes-terday to try to pave the way for a potential deal at talks in

Geneva later this month.“It will send a strong signal to

a conflicted world and a region in which we see many wars and many things breaking apart, if we could find one place where things just came together,” Eide said.

Eide cited UN Syria envoy Staffan de Mistura, who is plan-ning a new round of Syria peace talks in February, as saying that a sign of progress on Cyprus could help other peace processes around the world.

Guterres said he also wanted

to simplify and decentralise UN management and make it more effective, accountable and flexible.

He also pledged to “engage constructively” with the new US administration, and cited Don-ald Trump’s view that there was a lot of potential in the United Nations.

“That is exactly what I think, and we need to work to reform the UN in order to make sure that potential is fully met,” Guterres said.

Athens

Reuters

The vexed issue of security arrangements in a post-settlement Cyprus took

centre stage yesterday in talks on the island’s future, as officials played down chances of swift progress in a push towards reunification by its Greek and Turkish authorities.

A source involved in two days of consultations in Geneva between Greek, Turkish and British technocrats said security was a very difficult issue, add-ing it might be “too ambitious” to assume a deal on settling security issues as part of estab-lishing a two-state federation was in sight.

“We will try to ... maybe offer some alternatives for the political level to consider,” the source — who is close to Turk-ish Cypriot delegation — told reporters yesterday.

A second diplomatic source said one option under consid-eration was to establish four separate police forces — one for each post-settlement state, one for federal issues and a multi-national force.

A former British colony located on the edge of the vol-atile Middle East, Cyprus was split in a Turkish invasion in 1974, triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup.

The conflict remains a major source of tension between Greece and Turkey, which are

fiercely protective of their com-munities on the island.

They will reconvene once the technocrats have codified the sides’ respective positions, possibly by next week, the Turk-ish Cypriot source said.

Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras yesterday said progress had been made in ending dec-ades of stalemate, but urged Turkey to drop what he called “aggressive rhetoric”.

“We will continue to work hard... and hope that we have positive results in the near future,” he said in a speech in the Greek parliament.

The Greek side seeks aboli-tion of the guarantor system, accusing Turkey of abusing it through its 1974 invasion.

Opposition MPs attack May on Brexit

Juncker ‘not hostile' on deal

UK Supreme Court to issue Brexit ruling on Tuesday

Guterres vows UN reform and diplomatic 'surge'

Security issues sow divisions as Cyprus talks resume

14 THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017EUROPE

Scathing attack

With many countries in Europe slated to hold elections this year, we should expect further attempts by Russia to meddle in the democratic process. It will occur again, the US Vice-President said.

NEWS BYTES

BERLIN: A leading member of German anti-immigration party AfD sparked an outcry yesterday over his criticism of the Holocaust memorial in Berlin and calls to stop focusing on the country’s Nazi past.

“Up to now, our state of mind is still one of a totally defeated people... We Germans, our people, are the only people in the world who have planted a monument of shame in the heart of the capital,” Bjoern Hoecke told party faithful including youth members. “We need nothing less than a 180-degree turn in the politics of remembrance,” he said in the remarks on Tuesday to chants of “Germany, Germany”.

The comments triggered an instant uproar, with Social Democrat vice chief Ralf Stegner accusing Hoecke of making a “hate incitement speech” that called for history to be rewritten.

Chairwoman of the Greens Simone Peter said the com-ments were “unspeakable” and demanded an apology from the AfD to the Jews.

Snowden allowed to stay in RussiaMOSCOW: Russian authorities have extended US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden’s Russian residency permit by two years, the foreign ministry said yesterday.

The former National Security Agency contractor shook the American intelligence establishment to its core in 2013 with a series of devastating leaks on mass surveillance in the US and around the world.

Snowden has been living in exile in Russia since 2013, where he ended up after spending weeks in the transit area of Mos-cow’s Sheremetyevo airport.

Poland may buy 14 army choppersWARSAW: Poland is considering buying 14 army helicopters from either Airbus, Lockheed Martin’s Sikorsky subsidiary or Leonardo-Finmeccanica this year, the defence minister said yesterday.

Nato member Poland has sped up efforts to overhaul its military following Russia’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and Moscow’s renewed military and political assert-iveness in the region.

“We are in the process of choosing an offer,” Antoni Maciere-wicz told a news conference, without saying when a decision will be made. The defence ministry has said the contract could be worth 1bn zlotys ($244m).

The ministry is also considering buying more F-16 fighter jets and three new submarines, he said.

Switzerland drops war crimes caseGENEVA: Switzerland said yesterday it had no grounds to charge former Algerian defence minister Khaled Nezzar with war crimes, the latest twist in a controversial five-year-old case.

The Swiss attorney general’s office (OAG) said it could not move forward with a trial because there was no conclusive evi-dence of a “conflict” in Algeria during the period in question, leaving a key condition for prosecution unfulfilled.

Nezzar was in office from 1990 to 1994 when the mili-tary was battling an Islamist opposition in a bloody civil war.

Romania blocks draft graft lawBUCHAREST: Romania’s president yesterday held up a series of controversial legal changes that would have protected cor-rupt politicians in the graft-tainted country from prosecution.

The move came as the Social Democrat leader Liviu Drag-nea, whose PSD party won last month’s parliamentary elections, prepares to go on trial for alleged abuse of power.

“Prime Minister Sorin Grindeanu has committed himself to not rush the project through... but submit it for public consulta-tion, as is the law,” Klaus Iohannis told ministers. “I am sure that we all want to reinforce the rule of law, which means respecting the rules.” The bill sought to decriminalise certain offences and redefine what constitutes an abuse of power. The draft changes also included a new pardon law to help ease pressure on Romania’s overcrowded prisons.

Outrage over German populist’s call to end Nazi guilt

Davos, Switzerland

Reuters

US Vice-President Joe Biden, in his last major speech before leaving office, yes-terday described

Russia as the biggest threat to the international liberal order and said Washington must work with Europe to stand up to Vladimir Putin. Biden was speaking at the World Economic Forum in Davos two days before the inaugura-tion of Donald Trump as US President.

Trump has sent conciliatory signals to Putin and seemed to encourage disintegration of Eu by praising Britain’s decision to leave the bloc and predicting that more countries could bolt.

Biden pushed back forcefully against Trump’s message, warn-ing hundreds of leaders, CEOs and bankers gathered in the Swiss Alps resort town that Putin

was likely to try to influence a series of elections in Europe this year, as it is accused of doing in the recent U.S. vote.

“Under President Putin, Rus-sia is working with every tool available to them to whittle away at the edges of the European project, test the fault lines of western nations and return to a politics defined by spheres of influence,” Biden said.

“With many countries in Europe slated to hold elections this year, we should expect further attempts by Russia to meddle in the democratic process. It will occur again, I promise you. And again the purpose is clear: to col-lapse the liberal international order,” Biden added.

He did not address Trump directly, but warned of a “dan-gerous willingness to revert to political small-mindedness” in politics and said that “dangerous autocrats and demagogues” had tried to capitalise on people’s fears throughout history.

Biden called Article 5 of the Nato treaty, which states that an attack on one member of the transatlantic military alliance is considered an attack on all, a “sacred obligation”.

Trump has called Nato “obso-lete” and raised doubts about whether he would respect Article 5, stirring deep unease in Europe.

“Defending the liberal

international order requires that we resist forces of European dis-integration and maintain our

longstanding insistence on a Europe, whole, free and peace-ful,” said Biden. “It means fighting

for EU one of the most vibrant and consequential institutions on earth,” he added.

Berlin

AFP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government yes-terday set September 24

as the date for a general elec-tion, as she seeks a fourth term facing populist headwinds over a record migrant influx.

The decision, adopted by Mer-kel’s right-left coalition cabinet, must still be formally approved by President Joachim Gauck.

But the announcement fires starting gun for an election cam-paign that Merkel has said will be her toughest yet due to opposi-tion to her liberal asylum policy.

Merkel is nevertheless clear frontrunner in the race and enjoys solid popularity in Europe’s top economy.

A poll released yesterday

showed her conservative Chris-tian Union bloc (CDU/CSU) as strongest political force in the country with 38 percent.

It was followed in distant second by the Social Democrats (SPD), junior partners in Merkel’s “grand coalition” government, which polled at 21 percent.

The right-wing anti-immi-gration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which has railed against Merkel’s decision to let in more than one million asylum seek-ers since 2015, lost one percentage point compared to last week to reach 11 percent.

Head of the Forsa opinion research institute which con-ducted the poll, Manfred Guellner, said a jihadist attack on a Berlin Christmas market last month that killed 12 people and was committed by a rejected

asylum seeker had failed to boost support for the AfD.

“Although the security debate after the Berlin terror attack is running high, the AfD is unable to capitalise on it,” Guellner said in a statement.

The AfD has attempted to harness public unease with migration and asylum and, due to its relative strength, threatens to scramble the potentially com-plicated arithmetic of coalition building after the election.

It hopes to become the first populist party to gain seats in the Bundestag lower house of par-liament in post-war Germany.

The AfD, seeking to gain momentum from a surge of Euro-pean radical parties, will host a meeting of far-right leaders in the city of Koblenz on Saturday.

The Forsa poll, conducted

January 9 to 13 among a repre-sentative sample of 2,053 eligible voters, showed the ecol-ogist Greens and the far-left Linke each at nine percent and the pro-business Free Demo-crats at six percent.

The Greens, who have been mentioned as potential partners in government for Merkel after the election, on Monday chose two members of their pragmatist wing, Cem Ozdemir and Katrin Goer-ing-Eckardt, to lead the party into the general election.

Both have praised Merkel’s stance on refugees. However, Merkel has faced blowback from within her own conservative bloc, with the Christian Social Union in state of Bavaria agitat-ing for an upper limit on new asylum seekers—a bid Merkel has repeatedly rejected.

Brussels

AP

ANTONIO Tajani of the EPP Christian Democrat group was elected president of the European Parliament in a daylong polling series during which he defeated his social-ist opponent.

Before the first round of voting, the EPP, the largest group in European Union’s leg-islature, and the ALDE liberals, fourth-largest, announced a coalition that gave Tajani a big early lead over S&D socialist Gianni Pittella.

He maintained the lead through four rounds of vot-ing at the legislature in Strasbourg, France.

The battle among the two Italians was won by Tajani on a vote of 351-282 in the deci-sive final round, which only the top two candidates could enter.

Tajani’s victory gives the Christian Democrat group all the biggest jobs in the EU, with Donald Tusk as Council President and Jean-Claude Juncker as Commission chief.

Tajani, an ally of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, devoted his vic-tory to the victims of August’s earthquake in Italy and to all victims of terror.

“We must devote our attention to all those who are in tough living conditions,” he said during a short accept-ance speech.

Rome

AFP

Central Italy was left reel-ing again yesterday as a new wave of earthquakes

brought fresh terror to a snow-bound mountainous area.

Four shocks measuring more than five magnitude struck in the space of four hours with the epicentres all close to the town of Amatrice, where nearly 300 people died in an earth-quake in August.

There were no reports of casualties but there were fears for isolated residents of remote hamlets cut off by heavy snow-fall. The first shock struck at 0925 GMT.

Monitors put its strength at between 5.1 and 5.3 magnitude. A second, 50 minutes later, was measured at 5.7 by the European Mediterranean Seismological Centre (EMSC) and 5.4 by Italy’s INGV. Both monitors noted the third, minutes later, at 5.3, and one of more than 100 major aftershocks was measured at 5.1 at 2.30 pm.

The Italian Red Cross said dozens of people were trapped by the snow in their homes and that it had received reports of building collapses in hamlets near Amatrice.

“Happily there have been no victims,” Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni said at a press confer-ence in Berlin.

The tremors were felt pow-erfully across the Abruzzo, Lazio and Marche regions and clearly in Rome, over 100km away.

Train services on some mainlines and Rome under-ground were briefly suspended but resumed after safety checks. Some schools in Rome and all those open in quake zones were evacuated. Residents of Aquila rushed into the snow-covered streets in scenes of panic but the mayor said there had been no building collapses there.

In Amatrice, the belltower of 15th Century Church of Sant’Agostino crumbled. The latest quake came in the wake of 36 hours of continuous snow-fall in Amatrice.

Russia biggest threat to international order: Biden

Joe Biden, Vice-President of the United States, speaks at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, yesterday.

Merkel to face German voters on Sept 24

Tajani elected president of European Parliament

People stand on the road after leaving buildings following an earthquake in Rome, yesterday.

No casualties as more quakes rattle Italy

Los Angeles

Reuters

One of about a dozen women who pre-viously accused President-elect Donald Trump of

making unwanted advances filed a lawsuit against him in New York yesterday, alleging he had made false and defam-atory statements about her in rejecting the accusation, caus-ing her emotional and economic harm.

The lawsuit filed by Sum-mer Zervos, a one-time contestant on Trump’s reality television show The Apprentice, is focused on a stream of deni-als Trump aimed at her and other women accusers last October, weeks before the November 8 presidential elec-tion, when Zervos and others came forward to accuse the then-candidate of making unwanted advances.

Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks called the allegations “absurd.” “More of the same from Gloria Allred,” said Hicks, referring to Zervos’ high-pro-file attorney.

At the time the women made their allegations, Trump, who went on to win election, adamantly denied all the accu-sations in posts on Twitter, statements, interviews and comments at rallies. He sug-gested at one rally in Charlotte,

on October 14 that the accusers were fabricating their stories for publicity or to damage his campaign.

With regard to Zervos spe-cifically, Trump told the rally that it was “not hard to find a hand-ful of people willing to make false smears for personal fame, who knows maybe for financial rea-sons, political purposes,” according to the lawsuit.

“Mr. Trump’s false, defam-atory statements about Ms. Zervos, she made up her descriptions of Mr Trump’s misconduct as a hoax, and that she is creating a ‘phony’ story just so that she can be famous — have been deeply detrimen-tal to Ms Zervos’s reputation, honour and dignity,” the law-suit stated.

At a news conference in Los Angeles announcing the law-suit yesterday, Zervos said she wanted Trump to apologise.

15THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017 AMERICAS

Defamation charge

The lawsuit filed by Summer Zervos, a one-time contestant on Trump’s reality television show, is focused on a stream of denials Trump aimed at her and other women accusers last October.

Cubans gather at the migration office while waiting for their safe passage to cross Mexico after Washington repealed a measure granting automatic residency to virtually every Cuban who arrived in the United States, in Tapachula, Mexico, yesterday.

For safe passage

NEWS BYTES

BRASILIA: The Brazilian Air Force is planning to privatise the running of its telecom network used for defence, surveil-lance and air traffic control, an Air Force spokeswoman said yesterday. The planned public-private partnership is aimed at reducing the cost to the Air Force of modernising the system and would involve about 4.3bn reais ($1.3bn) in investment and operating costs.

Brazilian newspaper O Estado de Sao Paulo reported ear-lier that 17 companies participated in public hearings on the possible privatisation.

Scribe shot dead in HondurasTEGUCIGALPA: A journalist was shot dead in northern Hon-duras, yesterday hospital officials said, becoming the 69th member of the media killed in the violence-plagued Central American country since 2003.

Igor Padilla, a reporter for the Canal Hable Como Habla (HCH) network, arrived at the hospital “already dead” with “several bullet wounds” according to doctor Arturo Bendana of a private clinic in San Pedro Sula, Honduras’s second-big-gest city and one of the world’s most violent.

An unidentified cameraman who was with the reporter said that Padilla had stepped out to answer a phone call and was shot by men in police uniforms.

NY designer pleads not guiltyNEW York: A New York fashion designer who calls himself the “curator of cool” pleaded not guilty yesterday to charges stemming from a US bribery case that has ensnared relatives of former UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

Malcolm Harris, a self-described arts and fashion consult-ant and blogger, entered his plea in Manhattan federal court to charges that include wire fraud and aggravated identity theft after being arrested last week in Mexico. During a court appearance, Harris was ordered held without bail by a federal magistrate judge. His lawyer declined to comment.

Fugitive in cop’s fatal shooting heldORLANDO, FLORIDA: The suspect in the fatal shooting of an Orlando police officer was captured yesterday after elud-ing a massive manhunt for more than a week, authorities said.

Orlando police Chief John Mina said Markeith Loyd, 41, was flushed out of an abandoned house and taken into cus-tody, ending a manhunt that began with the January 9 killing of Lt. Debra Clayton outside a Wal-Mart store.

Local television stations showed Loyd with a bloodied face as a half-dozen officers and deputies took him into police headquarters.

Brazilian Air Force to privatise air traffic control telecom system

Washington

AFP

Republican Linda Cools jour-neyed from Chicago to Washington to be a part of

history: the upcoming inaugura-tion of her favourite candidate Donald Trump to be the United States’ 45th president.

“I’m very excited. It’ll be won-derful to see a new transition, that does not happen globally,” the 50-year-old public relations writer said.

Trump fans are converging on the nation’s capital ahead of Fri-day’s swearing in, keen to bear witness as the political novice

takes the reins of US govern-ment—and eager to see his legions of critics proven wrong.

As authorities fenced off parts of the inaugural parade route and viewing area, the weather was not obliging the city’s visitors yes-terday as rain drenched the US Capitol grounds and Washington Mall, where some 800,000 peo-ple are expected to gather on Friday. But several visitors were already soaking up the patriotic spectacle that accompanies the transfer of power every four years.

Reconciliation should be the first order of business when Trump delivers his inaugural

address, Cools said, acknowledg-ing the divisive campaign fight between Trump and Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

It will be Cools’s first inaugu-ration, and she spent the day visiting city’s monuments includ-ing the Lincoln Memorial.

Vasi Gaua and her husband travelled from San Bernardino, California for the inauguration, and despite rain and frustrations with catching a city tour bus they remained optimistic about Fri-day’s “historic moment.”

“I was always a big fan” of Trump, she said. “I like how he’s forward with people, tells it like it is.”

Washington

Reuters

US President Barack Obama yesterday shortened prison sentence of Chelsea Manning, former US military intelli-gence analyst who was responsible for a 2010 leak of classified materials to WikiLeaks, the biggest such breach in US history.

A White House official said there was no connection between Manning’s commu-tation and renewed US government concern about WikiLeaks’ actions during last year’s presidential election, or a promise by founder Julian Assange to accept extradition if Manning was freed.

Manning has been a focus of a worldwide debate on gov-ernment secrecy since she provided more than 700,000 documents, videos, diplomatic cables and battlefield accounts to WikiLeaks — a leak for which she was sentenced to serve 35 years in prison.

Obama, in one of his final acts before leaving office, reduced her sentence to seven years, angering some Republicans.

“This is just outrageous,” House of Representatives Speaker Paul Ryan said in a statement. Ryan, a Republi-can, said the decision was a “dangerous precedent” for those who leak materials about national security.

“Chelsea Manning’s treachery put American lives at risk and exposed some of our nation’s most sensitive secrets,” Ryan said.

Washington

Reuters

FORMER US President George H W Bush (pictured above) has been hospitalised in Houston since the week-end after he experienced a shortness of breath, a family spokesman said yesterday.

Bush, 92, the oldest living former American president, has been at the Houston Methodist Hospital since Sat-urday and “has responded very well to treatments,” spokesman Jim McGrath said.

“Doctors and everyone are very pleased, and we hope to have him out soon,” McGrath wrote.

Bush is father of former President George W Bush and former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. The elder Bush, a Repub-lican, served as vice-president during Ronald Reagan’s two White House terms before being elected president in 1988. He served four years in the White House.

Bush has used a wheel-chair in his later years and was hospitalised twice in 2014 — once for seven weeks with pneumonia and again for breathing difficulties. In July 2015 he broke a bone in his neck in a fall at home in Maine.

Cancún, Mexico

AFP

Mexico’s Mayan Riviera was rocked by a second shooting in two days,

leaving a total of nine people dead in a major tourist destina-tion that had avoided the violence plaguing other regions.

Three gunmen and a police officer died as the Quintana Roo state prosecutor’s office in Can-cun came under fire in broad daylight yesterday and police shot back, Governor Carlos Joaquin Gonzalez said. Five other assailants were detained, Gonzalez said.

The gunfight caused panic in the Caribbean coast city, a day after three foreigners and two

Mexicans died in a shooting in the nearby seaside resort of Playa del Carmen.

While it was not known whether the two shootings were linked, the back-to-back attacks broke the peace in a spot beloved by American, Canadian and European tourists that has been spared from the sort of drug-related violence afflicting other parts of Mexico.

The clash took place 7 km from the hotel area. Local media said authorities set up three checkpoints near the tourist zone. The motive for the attack was not immediately known.

“The only thing that (the shootings) reveal is that we are going in the right direction and

we won’t lower our guard,” Gonzalez said.

State security chief Rodolfo del Angel said in a video message that authorities activated “code red” after the shooting—a secu-rity protocol combining state and federal police and the army.

“At the moment the state is peaceful, the citizens can remain calm, Cancun is doing well at this moment,” Angel said.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong ordered deploy-ment of police reinforcements to back local authorities.

The US Consulate in Merida issued a security message urg-ing Americans to “follow local authorities’ warnings and con-sult with their hotels before leaving the premises.”

US President-elect Donald Trump (left) shakes hands with Vice-President-elect Mike Pence at the Chairman's Global Dinner, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Woman sues Trump for abuse denial

Trump supporters flock to Washington for inaugural

Obama cuts short sentence of Chelsea Manning

Ex-president Bush recovering after breathing problems

Second deadly shooting rocks Mexico's Caribbean coast

16 THURSDAY 19 JANUARY 2017HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

05.01 am

06.21 am

ZUHRASR

11.44 am

02.47 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.10 pm

06.40 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

The Peninsula

Qatar Museums (QM) will showcase some of the key series that made French street artist JR gain international renowned in a major retrospective to open on March 6 at QM Gallery in

Katara.JR is amongst a handful of world-famous art-

ists that combines art and engaged actions through large-scale outdoor installations, films, photographs and videos, using the streetscape as his canvas and his inspiration, which he claims as the largest art gallery in the world.

JR creates “Pervasive Art” that spreads unin-vited on the buildings and slums around Paris, on the walls in the Middle East, on the broken bridges in Africa or the favelas in Brazil.

He remains anonymous and doesn't explain his work, allowing the subjects, protagonists, spectators and passers -by to raise their own questions.

JR – Retrospective will also feature a video lounge where selected video works can be viewed.

Among JR’s best known projects is Face 2 Face in which he illegally pasted on both sides of the separation wall and in several Palestinian and Israeli cities large portraits of ordinary citizens with the same occupation of both ethnicities and religions.

In 2008, he created Women Are Heroes-a project that showcased poignant and powerful portraits of physical and emotional survival amidst atrocity, documenting the dignity of women in conflict zones and violent environments.

JR covered the streets of Rio with giant art installations representing Olympic athletes, each turning the city into their own personal playgrounds in Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games (2016) which he described as his ‘craziest’ project yet.

Among other prominent works of JR are The

Inside Out Project (2011), Ellis (2015 and The Lou-vre, Paris (2016).

Qatar Museums has done pioneering work in the Middle East to bring art out into the streets and into public spaces, notably commissioning the Tunisian artist, El Seed, to create one of the biggest art installations ever – works on a huge scale for the motorway tunnels in Doha, which El Seed called Calligraffiti, and Richard Serra’s breath-taking East-West/West-East, which is found in Qatar’s desert, spans over a kilometre in length and consists of four steel plates which rise to 14.7 metres and 16.7 metres above the ground.

Born in France in 1983, JR is based in Paris and New York. Beginning his artistic career at the age of 17, JR joined the GaleriePerrotin in 2011. Since then, JR creates monumental photographs that he pastes around the world, infiltrating in urban life anonymous portraits, witnesses of the present and the past.

He received the prestigious TED Prize in 2011 that offered him to make a “wish to change the world”.

This exhibition at QM Gallery Katara is in col-laboration with GaleriePerrotin.

French artist JR's work to be showcased in Katara

JR’s art: "The Wrinkles of the City, Istanbul, Kadir An, Turkey (2015)."

The Peninsula

As a busy 2017 begins for Ooredoo, the compa-ny’s Chief Operating Officer, Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi, (pictured) discussed growing demand

for Smart Satellite Services in Qatar. Ooredoo’s Smart VSAT services, which are cost-effective solutions for deliv-ering connectivity and ICT services to even the most remote locations, including desert areas and coastal waters, work by deploying a small sat-ellite dish capable of both receiving and sending satellite signals.

Talking about the services, Yousuf Abdulla Al Kubaisi commented: “Qatar is growing faster than ever and with this expansion comes the need for connection. Whether we are talking about off shore construction, new stadiums or remote locations, connectivity is a vital part of daily life and business, and our Smart VSAT services enables this.”

As well as providing connectivity and Internet solu-tions, Ooredoo’s Smart Satellite Services include Bandwidth Pooling, the most effective way to share band-width resources between multiple remote locations; Maritime Solutions, which ensure high-speed access to the Internet around the clock at sea; OverHorizon Advan-tage, which provides throughput availability on the move in real time; and “communication on the pause” for vehi-cles that need ad-hoc remote broadband.

“VSAT solutions are fast becoming one of our most important services in Qatar and we’re going to invest heavily to ensure latest solutions and best network experience is available for companies looking to stay connected in previously un-connectable areas.” Al Kubaisi added. Ooredoo’s Smart VSAT solutions pro-vide businesses with a full suite of services based on tailored designs, reliable deployment and integrated satellite solutions to meet any technical objectives.

For more details, customers can set a meeting with their Account Manager or ring the business team on 0800 8000.

Ooredoo’s Smart Satellite Services see huge demand

HIGH TIDE 09:15 - 23:15 LOW TIDE 02:15 - 17:00

Hazy to misty at places at first be-

comes mild daytime and partly

cloudy at times.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

17oC 23oC

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

LATEST NEWSUPDATE

HIGH TIDE 09:15 - 23:15 LOW TIDE 02:15 - 17:00

Hazy to misty at places at first be-

comes mild daytime and partly

cloudy at times.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

17oC 23oC

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

LATEST NEWSUPDATE