www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Ricciardo claims season’s maiden win in Malaysia

BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 23

MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016 • 2 MOHARRAM 1438 • Volume 21 • Number 6938 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar 2 Riyals

The Peninsula

DOHA: Ooredoo has been awarded the 2016 People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Telecommuni-cations.

A global public vote was con-ducted over the summer, with the highest number of votes decid-ing the “people’s choice” winners across a range of industries. More than 33,000 votes were cast over-all, with Ooredoo Qatar receiving the most votes for the Telecommu-nications category.

Fatima Sultan Al Kuwari, Director, Community and Pub-lic Relations, Ooredoo Qatar, said: “Receiving this award is a great honour for Ooredoo, as it was voted for by the people and because we triumphed against international competition. This award is con-firmation that our dedication to our users, country and services is working. Our thanks go out to eve-ryone who voted.”

The People’s Choice Ste-vie Awards will be presented to winners at The International Busi-ness Awards banquet on October 21 in Rome, Italy. Ooredoo is also nominated for other significant awards at the event, including ‘Social Media Campaign of the Year’ for the Supernet campaign and ‘Telecommunications Com-pany of the Year’.

This is the latest in a series of high-profile awards for Ooredoo, with the Chief Executive Officer, Waleed Mohamed Ebrahim Al Sayed, most recently receiving the ‘Telecoms CEO of the Year’ at the CEO Middle East Awards.

The 2016 People’s Choice Stevie Awards for Favourite Com-panies, is a highlight award in The International Business Awards, the world’s only international, all-encompassing business awards program which is now in its 13th year.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday inaugurated a Masters programme in Corruption, Law and Governance, the first if its kind in Qatar and the region, in a ceremony held at St Regis Hotel.

The Rule of Law and Anti-Cor-ruption Centre (ROLACC) in Doha is implementing the programme in collaboration with the Sussex Cen-tre for the Study of Corruption within the University of Sussex in the UK, known for its world-leading research and expertise in anti-corruption.

The LLM in Corruption, Law and Governance is a part-time, two-year course at ROLACC. Leading Sussex academics have designed the course according to University standards.

The students are expected to be professional graduates working in

government, the commercial sector and non-governmental organisa-tions who are committed to tackling corruption.

Speaking on the occasion, H E Dr Ali bin Fetais Al Marri, Attorney Gen-eral and Chairman of ROLACC Board of Trustees, underlined the impor-tance of the Masters programme saying it comes as part of the wise leadership to make Qatar among the leading countries working to com-bat corruption and respect the law.

Al Marri said that the directives of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani have underlined the importance of the rule of law and the fight against corruption and that is

why it is important to establish spe-cialist resources in this field.

Al Marri, who is also the UN Special Advocate for fight against corruption, said that the late Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani, the founder of modern Qatar, estab-lished the country on the basis of justice. The subsequent devel-opment of the State resulted in a permanent constitution in the era of the Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, who instituted in his reign the separation of the three powers — legislature, judi-ciary and executive.

He underscored Qatar’s great achievement in the fight against

corruption and respect for the law, adding there is always a lot to be done to ensure that Qatar is among the advanced countries in this field.

Talking to reporters, the Attorney General said that the Masters pro-gramme will accept students from all scientific and literary disciplines as corruption shall be combated in all sectors.

This year, the master’s pro-gramme enrolled 20 students from 12 nationalities and next year will accept 30 students and later 40 stu-dents, with the possibility of granting scholarships to students either through UN specialised institutions

or through ROLACC, he added.Highlighting the importance

of the partnership with ROLACC, Professor Michael Davies, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research at the University of Sussex, said this Mas-ters programme is the first of its kind in the region.

“University of Sussex is one of the best 10 universities in the UK special-ising in research in anti-corruption. We are proud to provide this unique experience to students in Qatar,” said Davies.

The progamme is designed to be taught in Doha the same way it is taught in the parent university in the UK, he added.

Anti-corruption course launched

The Peninsula

DOHA: The online application for winter camping which opened yes-terday received a huge response from citizens, literally jamming the network and forcing the Ministry of Municipality and Environment to suspend the service on the very first day.

The Ministry tweeted later yes-terday that the ‘technical glitch’ was being repaired and the online serv-ice will resume soon.

“We would like to notify that the online registration system for

winter camping is being repaired and the time for opening regis-tration will be announced later,» tweeted the ministry at around 4 pm yesterday.

“The website is under tremen-dous pressure due to the huge number of requests for online reg-istration. Please try again,” said another post on the Twitter account of the Ministry.

The online service is expected to resume today.

Registration for winter camping started yesterday and will continue until November 17. The camping season will start from November 1 and end on April 15, next year.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The attack in Aleppo on Sat-urday put the Primary Healthcare Center managed by Qatar Red Cres-cent Society (QRCS) in Al Sakhoor area out of service and deprived thousands of civilians of much-needed medical assistance.

Two patients were killed and eight injured due to approximately four

bombs dropped from a helicopter on QRCS Primary Healthcare Center. These airstrikes have led to 50% dam-age of the medical centre which put the QRCS healthcare center out of service.

QRCS has condemned the attacks on Al Sakhoor hospital, a local ambulance and other med-ical facilities that are supported by international NGOs. It called upon the international commu-nity to intervene and put an end to such direct attacks on medical and

health facilities in Syria.Dr Hashem Darwish, Head of

Health Programme at QRCS’s Mis-sion in Turkey, said: “This direct targeting of the healthcare centre in Al Sakhoor area of Aleppo, which have killed and injured a number of patients who were visiting the cen-tre, is a war crime and a violation of the Protocols of 1977 additional to the Geneva conventions of 1949 that rec-ognises the importance of protecting the Red Cross and Red Crescent

national societies, other authorised relief organisations, and neutral gov-ernments that provide humanitarian service in areas of conflict”.

QRCS’s healthcare centre was established in April, and was par-tially funded by Humanitarian Pooled Fund (HPF) to provide health care and general medical treatment to 250,000 civilians who live in Aleppo, accord-ing to UN reports.

→ See also page 6

Ooredoo wins

global award

Aleppo bombing damages QRCS hospital

Heavy rush halts winter

camping online registration

The Primary Healthcare Center managed by Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) in Al Sakhoor area of Syria’s Aleppo, which was bombed on Saturday. The hospital is now out of service that deprived thousands of civilians of much-needed medical assistance.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani at the launching of the Masters programme in Corruption, Law and Governance, at the St Regis Hotel, yesterday. → See also page 2

The Rule of Law and Anti-Corruption Centre (ROLACC) in Doha is implementing the part-time two-year programme in collaboration with the Sussex Centre for the Study of Corruption within the University of Sussex in the UK, known for its world-leading research and expertise in anti-corruption.

AP

SANA’A: A Yemeni news agency says the former governor of the southern port city of Aden has been appointed prime minister by the joint leader-ship of rebel alliance that control’s Yemen’s capital.

The rebel-controlled Sabaa news agency says Abdel Aziz Ben Habtour was tasked yesterday with forming a “national salvation” government. Habtour is an ally of former president Ali Abdullah Saleh, who is aligned with Yemen’s Shia rebels. His appointment was decreed by Saleh Al Samad, chairman of the Supreme Political Council, the highest political body in rebel-held areas. Yemen, the Arab world’s poorest country, has been at war since the rebels swept into the capital, Sanaa, in 2014. A Saudi-led coali-tion of mostly Arab nations entered the war in March last year on the side of the internationally recognised government.

Yemen rebels name prime minister

German economic boom at risk from

complacency: Official

HOME 02 MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

A key handover ceremony of Lulu-Abu Issa Promotion was held yesterday by Lulu Hypermarket Group and Abu Issa Marketing at the regional office of Lulu Group on D-Ring Road. Winner Mohamed Husaini Uthumalebbe Achchi (Coupon No. 36052) collected the key of Nissan X-Trail Car, Model 2016, from Shanavas P. M., Regional Manager, Lulu Group, in the presence of Sajath Azeez, Division Manager; Sinoy P. Sham, Brand Manager, Abu Issa Marketing; and other Lulu Group officials.

Lulu-Abu Issa Promotion winner receives Nissan key

The Peninsula

DOHA: Passengers travelling with Qatar Airways (QA) this month can look forward to an exciting collec-tion of family-favourite movies from film powerhouse Disney/Pixar to enjoy during their journey.

Available from this month, QA will premiere the critically acclaimed movie Finding Dory — yet to be released on DVD — on Oryx One, along with other award-win-ning Disney/Pixar films, including the Toy Story collection of movies; A Bug’s Life; Monsters Inc.; Monsters University; Cars; The Incredibles; Ratatouille; WALL-E; Up; Brave; Inside Out; The Good Dinosaur; and Finding Nemo.

QA provides its travellers with one of the most extensive enter-tainment libraries available in the skies. Oryx One, the airline’s award-winning in-flight entertainment platform, provides up to 3,000 entertainment options, including

movies, TV box sets, games and music. From the latest Hollywood premieres to the best of Bollywood, Arabic blockbusters, children’s films, cinema classics and more, Oryx One offers passengers hours of enjoy-ment across QA’s global network of over 150 destinations.

Providing easy and enjoyable family travel is important to QA and its new children’s activity kits, fea-turing Hasbro’s Mr. & Mrs. Potato Head, were recognised at the Travel-Plus Awards for interactivity.

Four kits, each featuring a differ-ent game, are available to families flying to and from Doha on long- and short-haul flights. Young travellers can explore and play with glow-in-the-dark toys and stickers, interactive bags and a gadget stand.

Kits for infants include a peek-a-boo Mr. Potato Head plush toy and soft books, with similarly themed children’s meal packs distributed to young travellers with priority.

Salam Al Shawa, Senior Vice-President, Marketing and Corporate Communications, QA, said: “We’re

committed to continually innovating passenger experience on QA flights by providing the latest in-flight entertainment and connectivity.

“Oryx One is unrivalled in its wide selection of movies, TV, games and music provided in over 30 lan-guages to offer passengers the very best experience wherever they fly with QA. We will continue to update our collection every month to main-tain a rich and extensive selection and offer fresh and current content.”

Passengers can also enjoy the full Star Wars Saga collection, Mar-vel Cinematic Universe movies, best of Star Trek; and Batman vs Super-man collection.

Passengers flying on QA flights served by B787, A350 and A380 and select A330 and A320 aircraft can also access on board Wi-Fi. Passen-gers on all connected aircraft will enjoy free Wi-Fi for the first 15 min-utes courtesy of a global partnership with Ooredoo. Guests in First Class cabin on board the airline’s A380 will enjoy complimentary Wi-Fi during their trip.

QNA

KYOTO: Minister of Education and Higher Edu-cation H E Dr. Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi yesterday said Qatar attaches great importance to human development, thanks to its wise leadership.

Quoting Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Minister said the Emir has stressed the importance of the human element as the pri-mary tributary of development.

Speaking on ‘Role of Human Development in Qatar to Build Society of Future’ during a round-table as part of the 13th edition of the Science and Technology in Society Forum in Kyoto, Japan, Al Hammadi said Qatar has established schools, universities, colleges and research and training centres that contributed to developing human resources and rehabilitating young people’s capa-bilities to meet Qatar’s development needs.

The Minister said Qatar National Vision 2030

has prioritised human development and aims at raising capable and motivated citizens who actively take part in the economic, social and political life.

The progress and development of society has become dependent on citizens’ interaction with the new world order which is based on knowledge, research, technology and innovation, Al Hammadi said, pointing out that such a goal could only be achieved through educational systems at all levels.

He said achieving positive economic, scientific and social results depend on the existence of an educational system which meets quality, devel-opment and the needs of society and the labour market.

Al Hammadi also stressed the importance of implementing the latest technical and techno-logical developments in the field of education; encouraging creativity and innovation and pro-moting scientific research skills.

Ministers from around the world took part in the roundtable and the opening session of the forum.

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday sent a cable of congratulations to Guinea’s President Professor Alpha Conde on his country’s Independ-ence Day. Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister and Interior Minis-ter H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani also sent simi-lar cables to President Prof. Conde.

Civil aviation deal MONTREAL: Qatar signed an agreement and a memorandum of understanding in the field of air transport with Guatemala in the Canadian city of Montreal yester-day. It provides for open skies for national carriers of both countries for passenger and cargo flights with full traffic rights, reports QNA.

By Fazeena Saleem

The Peninsula

DOHA: Weill Cornell Medicine Qatar (WCM-Q) is preparing to study prevalence and causes of health problems affecting old peo-ple in Qatar.

The study will focus on neuro-logical disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s which affect people above 60, said Dr. Basim Uthman (pictured), Vice Chair and Professor, Clinical Neurology and Clin-ical Neuroscience, WCM-Q. It will also compare prevalence of the diseases in other countries to help reduce risk factors.

A l z h e i m e r ’ s affects memory, thinking, behaviour and emotion while Parkinson’s disease is a progressive disorder of the nerv-ous system that affects movement.

“The study will estimate preva-lence of disorders among the elderly above 60, including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s. We are

interested in looking at whether the prevalence of the diseases in Qatar is more or less compared to the US and other countries and whether related to any environmental causes,” Dr. Uthman told The Peninsula. “If the prevalence and causes are similar to those in the US and other coun-tries, some strategies implemented there to reduce risk factors and slow down the incidence of the disorders could be introduced here,” he said.

WCM-Q will begin the study after an approval from the Ethical Review Board or Research Ethics Board, a committee in the US that approves, monitors and reviews bio-medical and behavioural research involving humans.

According to Hamad Medi-cal Corporation, the number of Alzheimer’s patients is expected to increase by 30 times by 2050 although there are no formal stud-ies on the prevalence of Parkinson’s

disease and Alzhe-imer’s in Qatar.

Dr. Uthman said there is a lack of well designed studies to give actual numbers of people with other neurological disor-ders in Qatar.

“However, some of the common neu-rological disorders we see here include stroke, multiple scle-

rosis, headaches and epilepsy. Some chart studies have estimated that in Qatar 50 per 100,000 population are affected by strokes every year. The prevalence of epilepsy is not much different from international figures.

Emir congratulates

President of Guinea

Qatar Airways lines up exciting family movies this month

Human development ‘a priority’

Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Dr. Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi attending the forum in Kyoto, Japan.

WCM-Q to study health disorders among the elderly

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday inaugurated a Masters programme (LLM) in Corruption, Law and Governance, the first of its kind in Qatar and the region, in a ceremony at St Regis Hotel.

PM inaugurates LLM programme

The study will focus on neurological disorders such as Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s.

HOME 03 MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

By Irfan Bukhari

The Peninsula

DOHA: Several expatriate parents are annoyed over assessment tests allegedly being conducted by some private community schools for young children seeking admission in kin-dergartens.

The parents claim that such tests have negative psychological effects on children.

“We had been told that no entry test would be held for admission of my three-and-half-year girl. But, when we were sitting in the waiting room, a teacher took my daughter for the test in a separate room. She started crying. Next day we were informed that she could not pass the test,” Manish Kumar, a parent, told The Peninsula, recalling his experi-ence in an Indian school.

Terming the test unjust, Kumar from Al Wukair said, “How can a lit-tle kid perform well in a test under psychological pressure. An unknown building, unknown people and a sep-arate room — all these things make children confused and stressed.”

According to Kumar, another Indian community school also con-ducted an assessment test in written format for his daughter.

“Here too we were told that no

written entry test would be conducted but at the eleventh hour they took her along with other candidates for admission to KG1 to a separate room and informed us the same day that my baby had failed.

“She was provided with a paper with entries in two columns — one starting from one and ending at 10 and the second with entries from A to L,” Kumar said, adding courts of law in India had declared KG admis-sion tests illegal and barred private schools from conducting them. He said such tests are also not conducted in other parts of the world.

Contacted, Shahab-ud-Din, Vice-Principal, Shantiniketan Indian School, said the school is not taking any entrance tests for KG students. “We just have an interactive session with the parents, nothing else.”

Pakistani expats also question the test and say it is a useless exercise of evaluating kids who are starting education.

Riaz Bakali, Director, The Next Generation School, aired a different view. “It is not a written test but an evaluation of a kid’s psychological and medical condition.

“Sometimes either parents don’t know or are not ready to accept that their kid has autism. Therefore, this kind of test is meant to check

student’s communication skills and mental health condition,” he added.

Bakali said the test was just to check children’s understanding about colours, sounds and words, etc. Asked whether it was compulsory under existing laws covering education and schools, he replied, “The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has issued a policy regarding the age of children. The decision to conduct such tests or not is taken by schools.”

Parents also claim that some brilliant kids without any mental problem or disease also fail in such tests due to first-time exposure to a strange environment and remain unsuccessful in getting admission which is unjustified.

“My child has no physical or psy-chological problem but he failed due to anxiety. If schools are compelled to pass kids through an assessment process, it must be done in the pres-ence of parents to make them feel comfortable,” said Khalid Khan, a Pakistani expat.

Some international schools also make kids take a test which is never in a written format. They just check children’s hearing and speaking capabilities.

An official of Choueifat school said they used to check kids’ com-munication abilities and nothing else.

Parents decry KG entry tests as ‘unjustified’Parents claim assessment tests at some private community schools have negative psychological effects on children.

Kids in a kindergarten at one of the community schools.

HOME04 MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

Secretary-General of the Foreign Ministry H E Dr. Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi yesterday held a farewell ceremony in honour of outgoing Ambassador of India to Qatar, Sanjiv Arora. The ceremony, which was held at the Diplomatic Club, was attended by a number of Their Excellencies, heads of diplomatic missions and offices accredited to Qatar and Directors of Departments at the Foreign Ministry.

Farewell for outgoing envoyQU-CHS Assistant Professor gets fellowship award

The Peninsula

DOHA: Dr. Maha Al Asmakh (pic-tured), Assistant Professor at Qatar University College of Health Sci-ences (QU-CHS) Biomedical Sciences Depart-ment, won the 2016 L’Oréal-Une s c o “For Women in Sci-ence (F W IS)” Middle East Fel-lowship Award.

Dr. Al Asmakh is one of the four recipients of the fellowship. She was chosen from a pool of 55 scien-tists from the GCC countries. The L’Oréal-Unesco FWIS Middle East Fellowship Program aims to rec-ognise, honor and empower Arab female scientists whose findings have contributed to the advance-ment of scientific knowledge and helped change the world for the

better. The award was presented to Dr. Al Asmakh during a cere-mony that was held at the Zayed University campus in the United Arab Emirates.

Commenting on the award, Dr. Al Asmakh said: “I am very pleased to receive this recognition award which highlights the level of research and innovation in Qatar, and which aligns with the goals of Qatar National Vision 2030. This fellowship aspires me to contribute to the development of research in Qatar, to publish further research articles in high impact journals, and to participate in international conferences in which I represent my country.”

CHS Dean and Director of QU Biomedical Research Center (BRC) Dr. Asmaa Al Thani said: “Human Devel-opment is one of the essen-tial pillars of Qatar National Vision 2030, which aims to enhance the Qatari society and to support its citizens. Our

goal in participat-ing in such scientific competitions and research forums around the world is to uplift the scientists who greatly contribute to advancing the health care sector through their creative scientific findings.”

Katara Hospitality wins ‘Hospitality Company of the Year’ awardThe Peninsula

DOHA: Katara Hospitality, the global hotel developer, owner and opera-tor based in Qatar, has been named the ‘Hospitality Company of the Year’ within the Arabian Business Qatar Awards 2016.

The award was presented to Salem Al Kubaisi, Chief Corporate Services Officer at Katara Hospital-ity, on behalf of Katara Hospitality at the Arabian Business awarding cere-mony, held at The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa on September 27.

“This continued recognition highlights and reinforces our mis-sion to invest in and develop some of the world’s most luxurious prop-erties. We are proud to have been awarded Hospitality Company of the Year by Arabian Business, and we will continue on our journey to strive for hospitality excellence as we progress with our regional and glo-bal expansion”, said Hamad Abdulla Al Mulla, Chief Executive Office at Katara Hospitality.

“Under the leadership of H E Sheikh Nawaf bin Jassim bin Jabor Al Thani, Chairman of Katara Hos-pitality, this award merits our achievements on a global and

national level and the investments we make into iconic heritage prop-erties that continue to highlight Qatar as a growing luxury and life-style destination.”

The Arabian Business Awards Qatar is a premier event in the

regional business calendar, which consistently attracts and honours the biggest names in the Gulf business community. Each year, the awards celebrate the very best in business achievement, both on a corporate and individual level.

WISE & Cambridge

University team up

DOHA: The World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) has teamed up with Cambridge University, UK, to present WISE@Doha on Early Childhood Educa-tion. The gathering will take place on October 9 at 8.30am at the HBKU Student Center, Ballroom 3, in Education City.

The WISE@Doha event will include local WISE partners from the Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Qatar Acad-emy, and Qatar University’s Early Childhood Center, as well as Cam-bridge University.

Dr. Al Asmakh wins 2016 L’Oréal-Unesco ‘For Women in Science (FWIS)’ Middle East Fellowship Award.

Kahramaa’s 991 attends 40,000 calls monthly

The Peninsula

DOHA: The unified call centre of Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation ‘Kahramaa’ 991 receives around 1,000–1,500 calls daily and 7,500–8,000 calls weekly and 35,000–40,000 calls monthly

The centre has three main units called call centre, support, and quality & training. It provides high quality services 24/7 through well-trained 19 Qatari employees who works as agents, team leaders, and supervisors.

The centre acts as a link between Kahramaa and a customer to reply to all inquiries, com-plaints, and requests around the clock and as per the integrated qual-ity standards to achieve customer satisfaction. The services are unified to provide all customer services along other communication channels including Kahramaa App, emails, and website.

Salem Al Kubaisi, Chief Corporate Services Officer at Katara Hospitality, receiving the award on behalf of Katara Hospitality.

Milipol Qatar 2016 from October 31The Peninsula

DOHA: The organisers of Milipol Qatar 2016, the leading event ded-icated to homeland security in the Middle East, has announced a stel-lar line-up of industry figures for this year’s seminar when the event takes place from October 31 to November 2.

This year’s agenda brings together local, regional and inter-national security and defence experts, who will discuss current trends, challenges and innovations in the sector.

“The inauguration of the sem-inar agenda in Qatar this year is a testament to the success of the event and will offer attendees the oppor-tunity to learn from their peers at a time when international secu-rity provisions are being regularly

challenged,” Brigadier Nasser bin Fahad Al Thani, President of Milipol Qatar 2016 Committee, said.

A half-day Crisis Management & Resilience seminar will open pro-ceedings on November 1, with a particular focus on response, resil-ience, continuity and security issues arising from terrorist attacks and large scale natural disasters.

Concluding the day will be a half-day seminar focused on Safe/Smart Cities & Large Events Security Management. Covering an overview of the key threats cities are facing, international speakers will assess whether world cities are equipped to respond to new and more sophis-ticated attacks.

Milipol Qatar, a trade exhibition dedicated to homeland security, has been co-organised by the Ministry of Interior and the French-based Comexposium Security since 1996.

HOME 05MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti (second right) and Argentine Ambassador Rossana Cecilia Surballe (third right) with other officials cutting a cake to mark Argentina’s National Day at Grand Hyatt Hotel yesterday.

Minister attends Argentina National DayRAF launches 3rd edition of ‘Nuri Aktamil’ campaign

By Sanaullah Ataullah

The Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Serv-ices (RAF) has launched 3rd edition of its campaign ‘Nuri Aktamil’ to introduce the hijab (veil) to minor girls in a bid to preserve Islamic and

Arab identity. The campaign meant holding various programmes and lectures to educate minor girls about the importance of Hijab so they would wear it after getting mature.

Cartoon character depicting a decent religious girl “Nur” has been added to this edition to convince the participants for wearing hijab.

More than 300 girls aged nine to 13 years can participate to the cam-paign. The registration will be open for Qatari and expatriate girls from October 8 to 21 at women branch of RAF in Al Duhail, Katara, Villagio and Gulf Mall. Candidates can also make online registration through the RAF’s website. “The campaign was first launched in Kuwait under the supervision of famous Islamic preacher Dr. Nabil Al Awdi,” said Dr. Mohamad Salah Ibrahim, Dep-uty General Manager of RAF.

“Then RAF adopted the cam-paign and held it in past two

consecutive years. The campaign received pretty good response as 130 and 170 girls participated in first and second year respectively.”

“The campaign meant to intro-duce girls from early stage about the importance and value of the Hijab and to convince them that veil is an Islamic obligation. Hijab is a worship not merely a custom. RAF launched this campaign to serve Qatari com-munity and to preserve Islamic and Arabic identity,” said Ibrahim.

“The campaign is valuable and very important and needed to a lot of girls in our community,” said Ahmad Yusuf Al Fakhro, Head of the Finan-cial Resources and Media at RAF.

“A big conclusion ceremony for the campaign will be held on November 3 to honour the par-ticipants. The girls will be given valuable prizes for their active par-ticipations,” said Al Fakhro.

“Some programmes will be also held in collabora-tion with schools,” said Sheikh Khalid Moham-mad Abu Mawza, an expert of the campaign.

“A hotline will be set up for family con-solations for parents having problems in convincing their girls to wear hijab. Guard-ians and parents will be also offered fatwa on the obligation of hijab,” said Abu Mawza.

“Ooredoo sponsored this campaign under its social responsibil-ity to support various social programmes and activities for com-munity development”, said Abdullah Mohamad Saqar, a social expert from Ooredoo.

Dr. Obaidli is Chief Learning Officer at SidraThe Peninsula

DOHA: Sidra Medical and Research Center (Sidra) has appointed Dr. Kholode Al Obaidli (pictured) as its Chief Learning Officer (CLO).

Prior to joining Sidra, Dr. Al Obaidli was Vice-President of HR National Talent Management at Qatar Airways Group. She is credited with creating a competitive advantage for the Group through innovative talent management programmes and edu-cational initiatives linked to corporate strategy. Alongside her work in con-tinued executive education for the leadership, Dr. Al Obaidli instigated a new wave of Qatarisation, with learning and education as founda-tional elements. Dr. Al Obaidli holds a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Education

from the University of Birmingham in the UK. She also has a master’s degree from the University of Man-chester and a bachelor’s degree from Qatar University.

Chief Executive Officer Peter Mor-ris said, “Dr. Al Obaidli’s appointment comes at the right time for Sidra. We are moving forward at great pace, as we gear up for our outpatient clinic becoming fully operational early

next year as well as embarking on an extensive recruitment drive.”

Dr. Al Obaidli’s appointment comes at a crucial time for Sidra, as it prepares to step up its recruitment of the more than 4,000 employees needed in both clinical and non-clinical roles. “I am delighted to be joining Sidra at this exciting time. I am part of a dynamic team of inno-vative healthcare leaders, researchers and academics who are passionate about providing the very best special-ist healthcare services to the people of Qatar. I look forward to support-ing Sidra by strengthening it from the inside. I am also committed to build-ing and strengthening the capabilities of Qatari nationals in the healthcare sector and aligning our corporate learning and development goals with that of the Qatar National Vision 2030,” said Dr Al Obaidli.

FROM LEFT: Ahmad Yusuf Al Fakhro, Head of the Financial Resources and Media at RAF, Dr. Mohamad Salah Ibrahim, Deputy General Manager of RAF, Sheikh Khalid Mohammad Abu Mawza, an expert of the campaign and Abdullah Mohamad Saqar, a social expert from Ooredoo at a press conference held to announce the campaign at RAF’s women branch in Al Duhail yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP /The Peninsula

The campaign meant holding various programmes and lectures to educate minor girls about the importance of wearing Hijab.

MIDDLE EAST06 MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

Moroccan Prime Minister and Secretary-General of the ruling Islamic Justice and Development Party (PJD), Abdelilah Benkirane speaks during a party meeting in Larache, yesterday, ahead of the upcoming parliamentary election.

Election campaign

AFP

ALEPPO: Syrian regime forces advanced yesterday in Aleppo after Russia unleashed dozens of air strikes, as the UN’s top aid official decried the “living hell” suffered by residents in the city’s rebel-held east.

The devastating five-year war in Syria has ravaged second city Aleppo, once the country’s economic hub but now torn apart by fighting between government troops and rebel forces.

The army of President Bashar Al Assad announced a major push on September 22 to capture Aleppo’s

opposition-held east and has gained ground in the city with the help of ally Moscow. Dozens of air strikes pounded multiple battlefronts in the devastated city yesterday, a corre-spondent said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Russian raids “helped regime forces to advance in the north of the city,” where they reached the outskirts of the opposi-tion-held Al Heluk district.

If loyalist fighters seize Al Heluk, Bustan Al Basha and Sakhur — all rebel-controlled neighbourhoods in Aleppo’s north — they will confine opposition factions to a small sec-tion of the city’s southeast.

Assad’s Russian-backed mili-tary campaign in Aleppo has sparked international outrage after a series of air strikes on civilian infrastructure, including most recently on the larg-est hospital in the city’s east.

Two barrel bombs hit the M10 hospital on Saturday, according to the Syrian American Medical Society (SAMS), which supports the facility.

United Nations aid chief Stephen O’Brien fiercely criticised the attack and called yesterday for immedi-ate action to end the “living hell” of civilians in Aleppo’s east. “The health care system in eastern Aleppo is all but obliterated. Medical facilities are being hit one by one,” O’Brien wrote.

O’Brien said the latest indiscrimi-nate bombings subjected residents to “a level of savagery that no human should have to endure.

At the bombed hospital on Sat-urday, a journalist saw bloodstained hospital beds and dented equipment lying in disarray beneath blown-out windows. “The hospital is being destroyed! SOS, everyone!” said SAMS radiologist and hospital administra-tor Mohammad Abu Rajab in an audio message distributed to journalists.

M10 had already been hit on Wednesday along with the second-largest hospital in the area, M2.

That bombardment badly dam-aged the two facilities and left only six fully functional hospitals in east Aleppo, according to SAMS.

On Saturday, European Parlia-ment president Martin Schulz called the hospital bombing a “war crime”, tweeting that the international com-munity “must unite to prevent (the) city’s annihilation”. French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault said “the systematic targeting of structures and health work-ers is particularly unjustifiable”.

The World Health Organization has called Syria the world’s most dangerous place for health workers, and Aleppo in particular has seen much of its medical infrastructure destroyed or heavily damaged.

Syria’s armed forces yesterday

called on rebel fighters in east Aleppo to abandon their positions “and let civilians live their normal lives.”

“The Russian and Syrian armies will secure safe passage and aid” to any opposition fighters that defect, said the statement, distributed on Syrian state news agency Sana.

Also on Sunday, Russian strikes in the central Syrian province of Hama killed six members of a rebel group that has received US backing, according to the Observatory. Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said 13 Russian raids targeted a base used by Jaish Al Izzah, which was also hit by Moscow’s warplanes in the early days of its mili-tary intervention in Syria last year.

Reuters

SIRTE, LIBYA: Libyan forces resumed a ground attack yes-terday against Islamic State (IS) militants encircled in their former stronghold of Sirte, losing at least six of their fighters, according to a field hospital casualty list.

The list named six killed fight-ers, three of them from the city of Misrata.

The forces also said that the bodies of at least 10 slain Islamic State militants had been counted. The report could not be verified.

Forces dominated by fighters from Misurata and aligned with Libya’s UN-backed government have been battling to capture Sirte for more than four months.

Supported since August 1 by US air strikes, they have taken control of most of the city and have been besieging militants trapped in a thin residential strip near Sirte’s seafront for several weeks.

Their advance has been slowed by Islamic State snipers, improvised explosive devices and suicide bombings in close quarter street battles.

Occasional ground attacks are interspersed by rest peri-ods that al low fighters to regroup and hospitals to clear casualties.

The Misurata-led forces said in a statement posted on social media that they had conducted air sorties in preparation for a ground offensive on Sunday in Sirte’s neighbourhood Number Three.

As of Friday, the United States said it had carried out a total of 177 air strikes against Islamic State in Sirte.

AFP

CAIRO: Three photojournalists have been detained on charges of spreading false information after conducting interviews on the streets with members of the public in central Cairo, officials said yesterday.

The trio were arrested on Sep-tember 26 and remanded in custody for 15 days, according to a security

official and a member of the Egyp-tian journalists’ union.

Their lawyer, Fatma Serag, said the three had been “beaten and elec-trocuted” while in detention and accused of “belonging to an illegal organisation” and “spreading false news”.

Rights groups say President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s government has tried to repress all opposition since the former army chief overthrew his Islamist predecessor Mohamed Morsi

in 2013. Journalists Ossama al-Bish-bishi, Mohamed Hassan and Hamdy Mokhtar — all Egyptian — “were con-ducting interviews with passers-by near the journalists’ syndicate”, union official Khaled Elbalshy said.

Serag said they were accused of “using recording devices to spread false information through televi-sion channels in Turkey giving a bad impression of Egypt”.

A number of members of Morsi’s blacklisted Muslim Brotherhood have

sought refuge in Turkey as relations between Cairo and Ankara deterio-rated since the Islamist’s ouster.

Serag said the journalists were filming a segment on Islamic cloth-ing when a passer-by informed the police. The security official said the three men had been filming without the necessary permit.

Police in May raided the jour-nalists’ syndicate and arrested two reporters accused of “inciting pro-tests” against the authorities.

Libya loses six fighters in Sirte ground attack

Syria army advances as UN decries Aleppo’s ‘living hell’

AFP

ISTANBUL: Turkish police yesterday detained a brother of the US-based preacher Fethullah Gulen who is accused of masterminding the failed July coup aimed at ousting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the first time one of his siblings has been appre-hended.

Kutbettin Gulen was detained by police acting on a tip-off at the home of a relative in the Gaziemir district of the western Izmir prov-ince, the state-run Anadolu news agency said.

He is accused of “membership of an armed terror group”, Anadolu said, without giving further details.

Kutbettin Gulen was being ques-tioned by anti-terror police and Anadolu said books belonging to Fethullah Gulen himself were con-fiscated in the police raid.

Fethullah Gulen, a former Erdogan ally who has lived in self-imposed exile in the United States since 1999, is accused by Turkey of orchestrating the July 15 coup plot.

Gulen denies the claims and his supporters ridicule the descrip-tion of his group by the Turkish authorities as the Fethullah Ter-ror Organisation (FETO), saying he merely runs a peaceful organisation called Hizmet (Service).

According to previous Turk-ish media reports, Gulen has three living brothers, Mesih, Salih and Kutbettin, as well as two who are dead, Seyfullah and Hasbi. He also has two sisters, Nurhayat and Fazi-let. Their current whereabouts are not known.

In July, the authorities arrested Gulen’s nephew Muhammet Sait Gulen in the eastern city of

Erzurum, long seen as one of the hubs for his supporters.

Another nephew, Ahmet Ramiz Gulen, was arrested in August in the southeastern city of Gaziantep.

But this is believed to be the first time a brother has been detained following the coup bid.

Some 32,000 people have been arrested since the attempted putsch over their alleged links to Gulen, in a relentless crackdown that has caused international concern.

Those arrested include top former generals accused of organ-ising the coup but also people from every sector of life ranging from sweet pastry magnates to journal-ists to former footballers.

Speaking to a meeting of youth activists in Ankara, Prime Minister Binali Yildirim vowed the crackdown would continue until Gulen’s influence was erad-icated from every aspect of life in Turkey.

“Now it’s time to clear them out of all the structures. We will uproot these traitors from anywhere, from within the state, business, politics,” he said.

“No-one should play the victim here,” he said, vowing however to “act not with a feeling of revenge but with justice”.

Turkish officials have scoffed at any suggestion there could be sec-ond coup bid but Yildirim warned there “can be no complacency and we will be ready for anything day or night”.

In a televised speech to support-ers in the town of Kazan outside Ankara, Erdogan vowed to appre-hend the remaining alleged coup plotters still at large.

“’We are coming to your lairs!’ we said and we came to their lairs. Now they are fleeing, looking for a hole to hide in,” he said.

AFP

RIYADH: Houthi rebels in Yemen are posing a threat to shipping in the strategic Bab Al Mandab strait, the Saudi-led coalition supporting the government said yesterday after an attack on an Emirati vessel.

The coalition said Shia Houthi militiamen had attacked the ves-sel “on its usual route to and from (the southern port city of) Aden to transfer relief and medical aid and evacuate wounded civilians”.

“Coalition air and naval forces

targeted Houthi militia boats involved in the attack” near the Bab Al Mandab, it said, while “coalition forces rescued civilian passengers following the attack” on Friday night.

“This incident demonstrates Houthi tactics of terrorist attacks against civilian international nav-igation in the Bab Al Mandab,” the coalition said in a statement.

The strait is a major shipping lane between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden leading into the Indian Ocean.

The rebels, in a statement posted Saturday on their sabanews.net web-site, claimed the attack which it said

targeted and “completely destroyed” an Emirati warship with rockets as it neared Mokha on the Red Sea coast.

The United Arab Emirates mil-itary acknowledged “an incident” involving a chartered vessel under its command in the Bab Al Mandab as it was returning from a “routine” journey to Aden, further south, but it reported no casualties.

The UAE is a key member of the coalition that has been battling the Iran-backed Houthis and their allies since March last year in sup-port of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi’s internationally recognised government.

Yemen rebels pose threat to shipping: Arab coalition

Three photojournalists detained in Egypt Anatolia

BAGHDAD: A total of 1,003 people were killed in violence across Iraq last month, according to the UN Assistance Mission for Iraq (UNAMI).

In a report released Sunday, UNAMI said the fatalities included 609 civilians while 1,159 people were injured in September.

Baghdad was the worst affected province with 1,127 civilian casual-ties (289 killed, 838 injured), the UN mission said.

According to the report, a total of 394 Iraqi forces were killed and 208 injured in September. The report, however, did not include casualties from the western Anbar province, where the Iraqi army is currently engaged in battles against the Daesh terrorist group.

More than 1,000 Iraqis lost lives in September: UN

Turkey detains Gulen’s

brother in coup probe

Syrian Yehya Maatouq (right), the father of four-month-old Wahida, whose rescue video posted online by the White Helmets went viral, searches for their belongings amid the rubble of their destroyed house in the northwest city of Idlib, yesterday. BELOW: Yehya holds his daughter.

Assad’s Russian-backed military campaign in Aleppo has sparked international outrage after a series of air strikes on civilian infrastructure, including most recently on the largest hospital in the city’s east.

ASIA / AFRICA 07MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

A boy holding a Chinese flag runs with his father through water spilt onto the pavement along the Huangpu River in Shanghai yesterday. China celebrated National Day on October 1 and annually marks the time with a week-long holiday break.

Holiday break

AFP

PARIS: Gabonese intelligence wire-tapped EU election observers who voiced grave doubts over the out-come of hotly disputed August 27 polls in the oil-rich central African nation, a French weekly reported yesterday.

In what it dubbed Gabon’s “Watergate”, the Journal du Diman-che (JDD) did not say how it had obtained excerpts of around 20 recordings, but said one of the sub-jects had “formally identified his own voice”.

It said the wiretaps of some members of the 73-strong EU observer team “reveal heavy suspi-cions that the results were rigged”.

The announcement that incum-bent Ali Bongo won the vote with a razor-thin margin sparked two days of rioting and looting that left three dead in the former French colony, according to the government.

The opposition said dozens died in the unrest, during which some 800 people were arrested. On one

recording quoted by JDD, an uni-dentified EU observer is heard to say: “They are trying to work out how to cheat in a way that’s not too obvious.”

He adds: “Ballot boxes are on their way to (the capital) Libre-ville and will make the difference.” Gabonese Communications Minister Alain-Claude Bilie Ny Nze dismissed the report Sunday as “trickery aimed at covering up the involvement of some European Union observers in favour of the opposition”.

The EU mission was “neither neutral nor impartial,” Bilie By Nze said. The JDD report said the man in charge of security for the EU mis-sion, named as Pierre B., was the “main target” of the wiretaps.

He is heard saying that there had been “changes to the numbers last night on Wikipedia”, adding: “They increased the population of Haut-Ogooue. That’s not encouraging.”

The head of the EU mission, Bulgarian MEP Maryia Gabriel, told reporters on August 29 that the polls had been “managed in a way that lacked transparency”.

The EU also said its election

observers had had only limited access to witness the poll, in breach of the agreement the bloc signed with Gabon’s government.

The next day, officials announced that Bongo had defeated challenger Jean Ping by fewer than 6,000 votes thanks to a 95 percent score in Haut-Ogooue, the south-eastern fiefdom of the Bongo family. They said turnout there was 99.93 percent.

“They did exactly what I hoped they wouldn’t do,” the deputy head of the EU observer mission is heard saying to Pierre B. in an exchange quoted by JDD.

Ping appealed the result to the Constitutional Court, which upheld Bongo’s victory and put the win-ning margin higher at around 11,000 votes.

Bongo was officially sworn in to a second term last Tuesday, extend-ing his family’s rule in the country of 1.8 million people into a fifth decade.

A week ago, the EU mission said it “regretted” that the Constitutional Court “had been unable to satisfac-torily rectify anomalies observed during the count”.

AFP

SYDNEY: The tagging and reloca-tion of sharks off Australia’s most populous state will be sharply increased to protect surfers ahead of a busy summer season, authori-ties said yesterday, after a teenager was mauled in a recent attack.

The New South Wales govern-ment has come under pressure to act after a 17-year-old boy was bitten on the leg while surfing off Australia’s east coast last Monday.

The scene of the attack — Ballina’s Lighthouse Beach about 750km north of Sydney — is in a region that has become known as a shark hotspot after a spate of encounters over the past year.

But trials to protect local surf-ers with eco-barriers were recently scrapped due to rough conditions, with the government turning to “smart drumlines” where sharks are caught and tagged before being relocated further out to sea.

“Our testing shows smart drumlines are highly effective in catching sharks so they can be tagged and relocated so we will increase the number deployed off NSW from 15 to 100,” NSW Pri-mary Industries Minister Niall Blair said after meeting with Balli-na’s community leaders.

“The smart drumline rollout will be prioritised on the North Coast in response to strong com-munity support for the technology, which has now been proven with 31 great white and five bull sharks successfully tagged and relocated.”

The so-called smart drum-lines are meant to be more friendly to other marine life and are not designed to kill sharks, the govern-ment said. They alert officials when creatures are captured so they can be freed if conditions permit.

Conservationists and marine scientists have criticised tradi-tional drum lines — which use baited hooks attached to floating buoys to snare sharks — as being harmful to marine life. Five of the nine shark attacks in Australia this year occurred in NSW, according to data from Sydney’s Taronga Zoo. The state’s summer season begins in December.

Agencies

ADDIS ABABA: More than 50 peo-ple were killed in a stampede in Ethiopia’s Oromiya region that was triggered when police used tear gas and shot in the air yesterday to dis-perse anti-government protesters at a religious festival.

The state broadcaster put the death toll at 52, citing regional offi-cials. The opposition also said at least 50 people were killed at the annual festival where some people had chanted slogans against the govern-ment and waved a rebel group’s flag.

The Oromia regional government confirmed the death toll. The govern-ment is also declaring three days of national mourning.

Sporadic protests have erupted in Oromiya in the last two years, initially sparked by a land row but increasingly turning more broadly against the government. Since late 2015, scores of protesters have been killed in clashes with police.

The developments highlight

tensions in the country where the government has delivered stellar economic growth rates but faced criticism from opponents and rights groups that it has reduced political freedoms.

Thousands of people had gath-ered for the annual Irreecha festival of thanksgiving in the town of Bishoftu, about 40km south of the capital Addis Ababa.

Crowds chanted “We need freedom” and “We need justice”, pre-venting community elders, deemed close to the government, from deliv-ering their speeches.

Some protesters waved the red, green and yellow flag of the Oromo Liberation Front, a rebel group branded a terrorist organisation by the government, witnesses said.

When police fired tear gas and guns into the air, crowds fled and created a stampede, some of them plunging into a deep ditch.

The witnesses said they saw peo-ple dragging out a dozen or more victims, showing no obvious sign of life. Half a dozen people, also motionless, were seen being taken by pick-up truck to a hospital, one witness said.

“As a result of the chaos, lives were lost and several of the injured were taken to hospital,” the government communications office said in a statement, without giving figures. “Those responsible will face justice.”

Merera Gudina, chairman of the opposition Oromo Federalist Con-gress, told Reuters at least 50 people had died, based on details provided by families of the victims.

He said the government tried to

Anatolia

MELBOURNE: Australia’s foreign affairs minister has suggested that by the end of 2016 those respon-sible for the July 2014 Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 disaster in eastern Ukraine will be identified.

Then “there must be a pros-ecution”, Minister for Foreign Affairs Julie Bishop told the ABC yesterday.

Bishop maintained that a tri-bunal set up by the international community or “domestic prose-cutions in, say, the Netherlands” should be considered.

“As long as they had the pow-ers of extradition and the like, a prosecution could be mounted successfully in a domestic juris-diction, but that would cover the interests of the 298 victims aboard that flight,” Bishop said.

AFP

DHAKA: A Bangladesh court yes-terday granted bail to a student of Canada’s University of Toronto after police dropped charges against him over alleged involvement in the country’s deadliest terrorist attack, police and a lawyer said.

Tahmid Hasib Khan was picked up by security forces and later arrested after he was named as a suspect in the July carnage at Holey Artisan Bakery, Dhaka, where Islamist extremists killed at least 22 mostly foreign hostages.

Khan’s family vehemently

protested his innocence, saying the 22-year old was in the cafe as a cus-tomer and was not associated with the five gunmen who hacked and shot to death the hostages in an attack claimed by Islamic State group.

Police on Sunday said investi-gators had not found any evidence against Khan, prompting a court to grant his bail, two police officers said. “Police submitted a report on September 28, saying that he was not involved in the Holey Artisan attack,” Khan’s lawyer Motiur Rahman said.

“The Dhaka Metropolitan Mag-istrate court today granted bail to him. We hope he will be released later today,” Rahman said.

Police confirmed in August that

Khan and British citizen Hasnat Karim, of Bangladeshi origin, had been arrested and were being held.

Karim and Khan were both inside the Bakery when gunmen raided the cafe on the night of July 1, taking a group of mainly Western diners hostage and then killing 20 of them, along with two policemen.

But neither have been seen in public since the end of the siege when commandos stormed the cafe in the capital’s upmarket Gulshan neighbourhood on the morning of July 2.

The men’s families have said they were being held by security forces even though there was no evidence to link them to the attackers.

52 dead in stampede at Ethiopia event

Protesters run from tear gas launched by security personnel during the Irecha, the thanks-giving festival of the Oromo people in Bishoftu town of Oromia region, Ethiopia, yesterday.

The Oromia regional government confirmed the death toll. The government is also declaring three days of national mourning.

use the event to show Oromiya was calm. “But residents still protested,” he said.

The government blames rebel groups and dissidents abroad for stirring up the protests and provok-ing violence. It dismisses charges that it clamps down on free speech or on its opponents.

Protesters had chanted slo-gans against the Oromo People’s

Democratic Organisation, one of the four regional parties that make up the Ethiopian Peoples’ Revolutionary Democratic Front, which has ruled the country for quarter of a century.

In a 2015 parliamentary elec-tion, opposition parties failed to win a single seat - down from just one in the previous parliament. Opponents accused the govern-ment of rigging the vote, a charge

government officials dismissed.Protests in Oromiya province

initially flared in 2014 over a devel-opment plan for the capital that would have expanded its boundaries, a move seen as threatening farmland.

Scores have been killed since late in 2015 and this year as protests gath-ered pace, although the government shelved the boundary plan earlier this year.

EU observers were wiretapped during Gabon vote: Report

Bangladeshi granted bail over cafe attack

Reuters

JOHANNESBURG: The United Nations yesterday called for the shutdown of all legal domestic ivory markets as it looks to com-bat poaching and put pressure on countries that continue to trade in elephant tusks.

Member states of the UN’s Con-vention on International Trade in Endangered Species, known as CITES, agreed on a resolution that calls for legislative, regulatory and enforcement measures to be taken to close legal domestic ivory mar-kets around the world.

“Today saw a historic moment towards tackling the illegal ivory trade that is killing 20,000 to 30,000 African elephants each year,” said WWF-UK chief advisor on species, Heather Sohl.

Legal ivory markets, such as those in China and Japan, are often accused of fuelling elephant poach-ing because illegal ivory is sometimes sold through them.

“When there are legal markets for ivory it creates an opportunity for laundering of ivory into the country,” said Wildlife Conservation Society vice president of interna-tional policy and head of delegation, Sue Lieberman.

Elephant numbers have contin-ued to decline as poaching surges, with Africa’s elephant population falling around 20 percent between

2006 and 2015, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) said in a report.

“There’s a crisis right now - ivory poaching and trafficking are really out of control and something has to be done to crackdown on trafficking,” Lieberman said. Despite applause during the announcement of the resolution, some have criticised the decision, saying that prohibiting the sale of legal ivory will not curb the illegal trade.

The CITES resolution is not legally binding but can merely put pressure on countries to close their ivory trade because the convention only regulates international trade and not domestic trade. “It becomes an issue of political will and puts pressure on countries to take action on the domestic ivory market. It is significant that they have made this statement,” said Lieberman.

The UN has also banned global trade in wild African Grey Parrots, prized for their ability to imitate human speech, to help counter a decline in numbers caused by traf-ficking and the loss of forests.

The highly coveted species was placed on the convention’s “Appendix I”, which prohibits any cross-border movement in the birds or their body parts for commercial purposes. “Inclusion in Appendix I is in the best interests of the conser-vation of the species as it faces both habitat loss and rampant illegal and unsustainable trade for the interna-tional pet trade,” said Lieberman.

UN calls on countries to

shut legal ivory trade

Australia increases

shark tagging

after teen mauling

Australia expects

downed MH17

prosecution soon

VIEWS08 MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi led India to freedom from British suzerainty in 1947, two years after the Second World War ended. India celebrated the apostle of peace’s 147th birth anniversary yesterday as the northern part of the

country has been shaken by insurgency related to a dispute that has its origins in the partition of India.

Popularly called Mahatma Gandhi or bapu, he epitomised peace in the broadest sense possible. As we stare at a world riven by violence over territories, insurgencies for self-determination and wars over misleading ideologies, the principles of Gandhi are most relevant today. However, his ideals, largely considered closer to socialism, have remained of academic interest in a world given to the multiplication of wealth and acquisition of riches regardless of the means through which they are acquired.

According to Gandhian philosophy, the ends do not justify the means. In a global climate dominated by Wall Street and the greed of banks with their executives lured by fact cat bonuses, the frugal principles of Gandhi stand in contrast. However, even in a thick economic climate dominated by interest rates and the mumbo jumbo of the stock market, it is not impossible to follow Gandhian thought. He emphasised truth and honesty in dealings and didn’t justify reaching the right ends by the wrong means.

When it came to peace, Gandhi had the broadest canvas on which to base his principles. He stressed that non-violence is not merely the absence of violence but a positive state of love, of doing good even to the evil-doer. His principle of Satyagraha or passive resistance, based on the doctrine of non-violence, ultimately prevented much of bloodshed and deaths in the Indian freedom struggle. Satyagraha led to millions of Indians defying British laws and getting arrested in peaceful action against the government of the day.

As hospitals are bombed and thousands of people killed in the Syrian conflict, the stance of President Bashar Al Assad stands in direct conflict to Gandhian philosophy. The political philosopher in Gandhi stressed that nothing can be more egregious than getting people killed and their homes decimated for the pursuit of power.

His political and social thought is more relevant today than ever and his philosophy on non-violence practicable. No wonder Albert Einstein said of Gandhi: “Generations to come will scarce believe that such a one as this ever in flesh and blood walked upon this earth.”

Mahatma Gandhi lives

The ideals for which Gandhi stood during his lifetime are most relevant today.

Quote of the day

We want to remind you, and you know it, that France is able to host big events — recently with Euro 2016 but also with some 40 world and European championships across all sports these past years.

Francois HollandeFrench President

E S TA B L I S H E D I N 1996

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

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORHUSSAIN AHMAD

hussain@pen.com.qa

EDITOR IAL

EDITORIAL TEL: 44557741 / 44557743 FAX: 44557746 / 44557758 P. O. BOX: 3488, DOHA, QATAR E-MAIL: editor@pen.com.qaADVERTISING TEL: 44557837 / 780 FAX: 44557870 CLASSIFIED: 44557857 E-MAIL: adv@pen.com.qaSUBSCRIPTION / HOME DELIVERY TEL: 44557809 /839 FAX: 44557819 E-MAIL: info@tawseelqatar.com

As the battle for Aleppo continues unabated, this intense episode in the Syrian civil war harkens back to

a vicious battle for another Medi-terranean city, Barcelona, during the Spanish civil war.

July 2016 marked the 80-year anniversary of the outbreak of the conflict in Spain, lasting from 1936 to 1939. In July 1936, General Francisco Franco led a rebellion among the Spanish military and his allies, collectively referred to as the Nationalists, against the recently elected left leaning Republican Government.

The Republican government rallied its military forces to its defence, in addition to anarchist and communist militia, and a civil war ensued.

I refrain from invoking the cliched phrase, “history repeats itself”. Rather, this piece, part of a series of articles comparing the Spanish past and Syrian present, will elucidate similar dynamics in civil wars, and illustrate how they end or why they continue to endure.

Comparisons between these two conflicts have been made before. Two prominent political scientists, Laia Balcells and Sta-this Kalyvas write, “The Spanish Civil War became a focal con-flict in Europe, the ideological and military battleground where fascist and anti-fascist forces clashed while the entire world stared. Today, Syria has become the key battleground of Sunni and Shia ideologues and activists.”

While I disagree that the Syr-ian civil war can be reduced to Sunni-Shia tensions, their men-tion of how the “world stared” as the Spanish civil war unfolded holds true for most of the interna-tional community and Syria since the fighting broke out in 2011.

First, in terms of similarities, both conflicts involved rival for-eign powers which sponsored proxies in the Spanish civil war, akin to the roles Saudi Arabia and Iran have played in the Syrian

civil war, just to name a few.The USSR sided with the

Republicans and Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy provided its troops and military aid to the Nationalists, tipping the balance in Franco’s favour.

Franco was leading a rebel-lion against the government, which would seem to make his forces similar to the Nusra Front, but in terms of military hard-ware, he would be comparable to Bashar al-Assad in that he utilised most of the military hardware inherited from the state to com-bat his foes.

Both these parties dem-onstrated their dependence on airpower, even though 80 years have transpired, and aer-ial technology has developed significantly.

Franco had complete control of the air, due to the participation of the air forces of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy, which bom-barded pro-Republican towns. As of 2015, the intervention of the Russian air force tilted the bal-ance in Assad’s favour.

Both civil wars involved fight-ing for two major urban centres, the capitals, Madrid and Damas-cus, and two rebellious urban centres, Barcelona and Aleppo. The Republicans, like the Syrian rebels, suffered from infight-ing that ultimately weakened its ranks.

In the case of the Republi-can side, the aid delivered by the USSR to the Spanish communist militias, defeated the anarchist militias in Barcelona. ISIL has played a similar role in weak-ening Syrian rebels, particularly those forces who control Aleppo.

Despite the strength of Fran-co’s forces, in the spring of 1938 the Spanish civil war appeared to have reached a stalemate, yet a year later the Nationalists scored their final victory after conquer-ing Madrid. That conflict spanned three years. Why has the Syrian conflict endured so much longer?

There are numerous reasons why the Syrian civil war con-tinues. Differences in terms of military, geographical, and eco-nomic dynamics of the conflict provide some explanations.

First, the roles of the strongest military side are reversed. Assad has been ensconced in the capi-tal, and the onus has been on the rebels to seize it.

Franco was invading his own country from Morocco to capture Madrid. The stronger military force in Spain had to take the cap-ital, the ostensible seat of power, whereas in Syria the weaker power had to achieve this goal, which proved elusive.

Second, Spain is only bor-dered by France and Portugal, with the former providing min-imal aid to the Republicans, and the latter aiding the Nationalists.

In the case of Syria, it has many more neighbours, bordered by Turkey, Iraq, Lebanon, and Jor-dan, and each border serves as a conduit for perpetuating the con-flict in terms of arms flows and fighters. Those border nations, in addition to the United States, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Iran, all have a stake in the civil war, and all seek an end to the war that suits their national secu-rity interests.

Third, because the con-flict has lasted longer in Syria, another difference is the political

economy of the civil war.Since the war has lasted so

long in Syria a myriad warlords, some on the government side and others on the rebel side, have taken root during the conflict, developing their own parasitic set of micro-economies.

It is doubtful that these par-ties would support a negotiated political solution if their finan-cial base were to be threatened by an end to the hostilities.

Anarchist and communist militias in Spain had developed their own micro-economies, such as in Barcelona, but these were dismantled after the Nationalist victory there.

The Spanish civil war served as a battleground for Germany and Italy to test out their new military hardware, particularly their bombers targeting civilian centres. This tactic was a prelude to a much larger conflict, World War II.

Observers of the Syrian civil war argue that Russia is using this conflict to try out its new mili-tary hardware, ranging from cruise missiles to long-distance bombing raids from Iran, in order to send a message to the US and its Nato allies about its new mil-itary prowess.

As a historian, I dislike the phrase “history repeats itself”, because it is overly deterministic, and denies the agency to actors in the present.

In this case, the US, Russia, and the Syrian parties need to ensure that the bloody, half-a-decade civil does not become the prelude to a much larger conflict.

What the Spanish civil war can reveal about Syria

By Ibrahim Al Marashi Al Jazeera

Both civil wars involved fighting for two major urban centres, the capitals, Madrid and Damascus, and two rebellious urban centres, Barcelona and Aleppo. The Republicans, like the Syrian rebels, suffered from infighting that ultimately weakened its ranks.

A file picture shows a member of Nusra Front climbing on a pole to hoist the Nusra flag.

By Sanjiv Arora

Outgoing Ambassador of India to Qatar

Qatar has been second home to me and my family for the last over four years. Now that

it is time to move on, let me recall our first memory when we arrived at the old Doha Airport around 10 PM on 21 August, 2012 and were touched by the gracious gesture of Ambassador HE Ibrahim Yousuf Fakhroo, Director, Department of Protocol in Ministry of Foreign Affairs to welcome us at a late hour during Eid holidays.

Fakhroo is truly a friend, philos-opher and guide for all diplomats in Doha! My Embassy colleagues who had come to receive us have all left Doha one by one. The same is true of a part of the group of Indian com-munity stalwarts who came to greet us that very hot and humid, but wel-coming and friendly night.

I had the honour of presenting my credentials to the Emir [The Dep-uty Emir and Heir Apparent at that time] H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani on September 25, 2012. It was most gracious of Father Emir HH Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani to give me an audience soon after his return from a foreign tour in Octo-ber, 2012.

Having been part of many official meetings, the traditional Eid greet-ings and other ceremonies, I greatly admire the utmost graciousness of Qatar’s Royal family. My wife is also carrying fond memories of Eid greet-ings with H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser and visits to Majlises of other lady dignitaries and friends.

My office has a plaque, men-tioning the names and tenures of all ambassadors of India who have served in Qatar. I have never looked at it carefully until a few days back when I was pleasantly surprised to see that I had become the longest serving Indian Ambassador in Doha! I hope that my successor would sur-pass that record and serve in Qatar until FIFA 2022 when we certainly plan to re-visit this friendly, happen-ing and great country!

Having given official messages of greetings to celebrate India’s National Days and to the Indian community fora and schools, and delivered so many speeches on so many occa-sions, I do not wish to go into official details of what has truly been a most eventful and fulfilling assignment for me. I would only say that it has been an honour and a pleasure to contribute to the increasing partner-ship between our two great countries, illustrated most notably by the vis-its of the Emir HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to India in March,

2015 and Hon’able Prime Minister of India Narendra Modi to Qatar in June, 2016, besides a host of other signifi-cant developments.

I am humbled by the Sash of Merit presented to me by the Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani at my audience with him, preceded by my call on the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Kha-lifa Al Thani.

There are a myriad wonderful memories of Qatar that we would always cherish. Qatar is a small country with large hearted people. It is a very dynamic and important country. A country not only endowed with big resources but with a lofty aspiration and vision for its people.

It has truly been an exciting and educative experience to frequently visit Qatar’s touristic attractions and iconic institutions – Souq Waqif; Museum of Islamic Art; Sheikh Faisal Museum; desert dunes and Sealine beach; Katara; Qatar Foundation; Qatar Museums; Qatar National Convention Centre; Al Shaqab Centre; The Pearl Qatar; Aspire Zone; and Hamad International Airport, just to name a few... They symbolise Qatar’s centuries old rich cultural heritage and phenomenal progress in diverse sectors in recent years.

It has also been rewarding to work in close partnership with some of these institutions, for example, the first ever ‘A Passage of India’ Festival organised by the Indian community at Museum of Islamic Art Park in November, 2013 [the third edition of this unique event was held again at the same venue in April, 2016] and then at Katara in March, 2015. I join the Indian Community in renewing our sincere gratitude to H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Chairperson of Qatar Museums for her inspiration, guidance and support. I wish to convey the same sentiments to our friends at Katara for their overwhelming support for so many events that have contributed to further strengthening the historic cultural bonds between

India and Qatar and presenting India in a composite way to the residents of Qatar – ‘A Passage to India’; International Day of Yoga; performances of cultural and folk dance artistes from India and so on ....

Our interactions in Qatar have not only been limited to the call of official responsibilities. We have been for-tunate to have friendship and close associations with our gracious Qatari hosts at weddings, our homes and in other settings. We have also visited them to share their sorrow after the passing away of their dear ones...

While continuing my work until my last day in office on October 3, 2016, I renew my sincere thanks to the Government and people of Qatar, and the large, diverse, accom-plished and highly regarded Indian community for their overwhelming friendship, cooperation and support in the discharge of my duties. It has been an honour to contribute to the growing partnership between our two great countries and to serve the public.

My family joins me in sincerely thanking our gracious Qatari hosts and the vibrant Indian commu-nity for making our stay in Qatar so pleasant, successful and memora-ble. Wherever we are, our fondness, admiration and best wishes for Qatar will be ever lasting.

OPINION 09MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

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 Editor-in-Chief.

Trump’s taxes provide example of how the game is rigged

By Jared Bernstein

The Washington Post

It turns out that Donald Trump, he of the non-released tax filings, claimed a 1995 income loss so large - $916 million - that the tax soft-ware back then couldn’t handle it;

it didn’t have enough space for all the numbers. His lawyer had to separately type in -91 on front of 5,729,293 to report the loss.

Such losses can be claimed against taxes owed for three prior years and 15 future years, leading the New York Times, which broke the story, to con-clude that “it could have allowed him to legally avoid paying any federal income taxes for up to 18 years.”

To the extent that the story made a splash, it’s certainly not because it dis-abused anyone of the notion that Trump has been sending big checks to the IRS. The conventional wisdom, as purveyed by Hillary Clinton in their first debate, is that he pays little to no taxes, which is why he won’t release the returns to the public. The leaked returns just confirm our priors.

Trump even went as far as to claim, in response to Clinton’s allegations, that not paying taxes just means he’s “smart.”

So, is this a big deal or not?Politically, I’d guess not. Perhaps

some undecideds might be turned off by the exposure of an alleged billion-aire allegedly paying no taxes, while they pony up year in and out. Also, these losses were generated by a number of very big-ticket business failures by Trump in the (economically booming) mid-1990s,

which one might guess would undermine his claim that he’s such a great business-man. But if you’re still undecided at this point, I have no idea what makes you tick, and thus no idea how this plays out.

Here’s what’s important about this, though, again, I’m not at all claiming this as breaking news: When people like Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren say “the system is rigged,” this is what they mean.There’s nothing illegal in this story. Industries - real estate, in particular - have successfully lobbied the politicians whose careers they bankroll to give them precisely these kinds of tax breaks. This is just another case of the toxic and unjust interaction of wealth concentration and money in politics.

To get to the root of this, we’ve got a look a bit at Trump’s play here. Since profits equal revenue minus costs, “net operating losses,” or NOLs, occur when a business generates costs that exceed its revenue. The idea that firms can

claim such losses against past or future liabilities is not, obviously, a bad idea. Consider a startup that loses money for its first couple of years, finally squeezing out a profit in year three. Or a firm that gets whacked in a recession. As economist Michael Mazerov put it, “Allowing businesses to average profitable years and loss years recognizes both that start-up businesses often incur losses for several years before they become profitable and that many businesses experience temporary losses in the course of an economic downturn.”

But as is often the case in tax law, what sounds reasonable is ripe for abuse. Real estate losses are notoriously easy to book. Trump bought buildings with borrowed money, which he could then deduct. Then, as tax lawyer Robert Kovacev put it, “Due to special carve outs in the tax code he could take depreciation deductions for real estate even while the real estate is appreciating in value.” It’s

a very simple play: Once you combine debt-financing with booked (as opposed to real) depreciation, you’ve generated big losses against past and future tax liabilities.

The NOL rules could be changed to prevent such tax avoidance. The idea that you can claim losses for almost two decades is ludicrous, as is the case that wealthy (non-)taxpayers can simultaneously accrue large income gains while writing off liabilities with alleged losses. A rule that disallows losses in such cases seems commonsensical, even to the tax lawyer who set these deals up for Trump: “He felt keenly aware that Mr. Trump was living a life of unimaginable luxury thanks in part to (his) ability to relieve him of the burden of paying taxes like everyone else. ‘Here the guy was building incredible net worth and not paying tax on it,’ he said.”

I get that over the course of this benighted campaign, Trump has

normalized many aberrant behaviors, but that said, I do find myself asking “Where’s the outrage?” on a lot of this stuff. Why has his “That makes me smart” response to Clinton gotten so little attention? If billionaires, or whatever he is, don’t pay what they owe in taxes, there are only three unfortunate consequences: Those of us with less means make up the difference, we lack the revenue to meet the challenges we face, or we borrow and run up the deficit.

Last night, as this news was breaking, I happened to be watching the Disney movie “Zootopia” on Netflix. In order to get Nick, the sly fox, to help her crack the case, Judy Hopps, the bunny-cop, points out that he has paid no taxes on his ill-gotten gains. The usually unflappable fox is clearly shaken up by the accusation and becomes her valued partner. In today’s America, that’s how it goes down in Disney cartoons. In the real world, not so much.

Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaking at a campaign rally in Manheim, Pennsylvania, yesterday.

Myriad wonderful memories of Qatar to cherish

The NOL rules could be changed to prevent tax avoidance. The idea that you can claim losses for almost two decades is ludicrous, as is the case that wealthy (non-)taxpayers can simultaneously accrue large income gains while writing off liabilities with alleged losses.

My family joins me in sincerely thanking our gracious Qatari hosts and the vibrant Indian community for making our stay in Qatar so pleasant, successful and memorable. Wherever we are, our fondness, admiration and best wishes for Qatar will be ever lasting.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES10 MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

A mascot of the Philippine National Police (PNP), named after their Chief Director General Ronald Dela Rosa, marches with members of the K9 units and the Special Action Force in Eastwood, Quezon City, Metro Manila, yesterday,

K9 march

AFP

LAGOS: Balogun Shakirat woke up with a start at 3am and put on the light in her workshop in a crowded working class district of Nigeria’s commercial capital, Lagos.

In the following three hours, she was able to sew shirts, trousers and a jacket. Then the electricity supply went off again. “No light the whole day today,” she complained.

Instead she stitched the hems of traditional Yoruba hats with a nee-dle at her overheated single storey house and waited for night to fall.

“NEPA brings light at night these days,” said Shakirat, referring to the National Electric Power Authority, or, as it’s often been called, “Never Expect Power Always”.

The electricity provider hasn’t existed for years under the name NEPA, but it’s still talked about like a person, its presence or absence dictating the rhythm of Nigerian life.

Even at the best of times Nigeria, which is home to more than 170 million people, ranks among the lowest countries in the world for energy consumption at just 155 kil-owatt hours per person. But these are not the best of times: Production has wavered for the last few months between 1,500 to 4,000 megawatts.

In comparison, South Africa,

which has three times fewer peo-ple, capacity is more than 10 times greater at 45,000 MW. Between 8,000 and 9,000 MW is the bare minimum considered necessary for Lagos’ economy to function.

But the megacity only gets about 10 percent of what it needs, leaving its 20 million or so inhabitants to their own devices.

The richest use top-of-the-range inverters and huge diesel-powered generators to guarantee as much uninterrupted supply as possible. The less well-off have smaller gener-ators that are used sparingly because of the rising cost of fuel; the poor-est are stuck with kerosene lamps.

In Obalende, Shakirat said the power situation is affecting her busi-ness. “Before I could make 30,000 naira a week ($95). Now it’s 10,000 because of NEPA. It’s since April. We don’t know why,” she said.

In fact, April was when the Niger Delta Avengers group conducted its first major attacks in the creeks and swamps of Nigeria’s oil-producing south. The rebels have since regularly blown up energy infrastructure and promised to bring Nigeria to its knees as long as its demands are not met.

On Monday, Shell was forced to shut down the Trans Niger Pipeline, which feeds the Afam VI electricity power station in Rivers state.

As yet, none of the alphabet soup of armed groups sabotaging

the region’s oil and gas infrastruc-ture has claimed responsibility for the attack. But last week, the NDA said it had blown up the key Bonny pipeline, breaking a ceasefire it had declared a month before.

Dallas Peavey, the executive director of Egbin Power, the biggest electricity power station in Nigeria, has blamed government policy for the situation and had a stark warn-ing for the future. “It’s going to be dark in Nigeria soon,” he was quoted as saying in a newspaper interview.

Dolapo Oni, energy consultant at the Ecobank Group, said Nigeria needs an off-grid solution such as solar to tackle the energy deficit.

“The government signed a 1.1 MW solar power plan but it will come in three, four years,” he said. But to pay off its debts, the government “needs to collect revenues, and to imple-ment sanction for electricity thefts”.

“The gas price is not economic for producers, they can’t get return on their investments, so the gov-ernment needs to increase the electricity tariffs... But politically it’s an issue.”

Back in Obalende, Abiodun Bolanle is soldering a football goal-post. The noise of his generator is deafening. It’s been running for 12 hours straight, costing him at least 1,500 naira a day. “If there’s no light, I still have to pay NEPA and also fuel. This is not fair,” he said.

AP

MANILA: Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte apologised to Jews worldwide yesterday after his remarks drawing comparisons between his bloody anti-drug war and Hitler and the Holocaust sparked shock and outrage.

The tough-talking Duterte said

his apology was intended only for the Jewish community. He lashed out again at Western critics and human rights advocates who have raised concerns over his brutal crackdown, which is estimated to have left more than 3,000 suspected drug dealers and users dead in just three months.

Duterte said in a speech in the central city of Bacolod that he never had any intention “to derogate the memory of the 6 million Jews mur-dered by the Germans.” Historians say 6 million Jews were killed by the Nazis under Hitler before and during World War II. “I apologise profoundly and deeply to the Jewish community,” Duterte said.

On Friday, Duterte raised the rhetoric over his anti-drug cam-paign to a new level by comparing it to Hitler and the Holocaust and say-ing he would be “happy to slaughter” an estimated 3 million addicts in the Philippines.

In that speech, the president said without elaborating that he has been “portrayed or pictured to be a cousin of Hitler” by his crit-ics. Moments later, he said, “Hitler massacred 3 million Jews ... there’s 3 million drug addicts. There are. I’d

be happy to slaughter them.”While Hitler’s victims were inno-

cent people, Duterte said his targets are “all criminals” and that getting rid of them would “finish the (drug) problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition”.

Germany’s government slammed Duterte’s comments as unacceptable, and called in the Philippine ambas-sador to the Foreign Ministry over the matter. “It is impossible to make any comparison to the unique atrocities of the Shoah and Holocaust,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Martin Schaefer said in Berlin.

World Jewish Congress Presi-dent Ronald Lauder said Duterte’s remarks were “revolting” and demanded that he retract them and apologize. “Drug abuse is a serious issue. But what President Duterte said is not only profoundly inhumane, but it demonstrates an appalling disrespect for human life that is truly heartbreaking for the demo-cratically elected leader of a great country,” Lauder said in a statement issued from Jerusalem, where he was attending the funeral of former Israeli leader Shimon Peres.

The US State Department, which

is looking to sustain its long-standing alliance with the Philippines, called the comments “troubling.”

Phil Robertson, the deputy Asia director for Human Rights Watch, said it was baffling why anyone would want to compare themselves to “one of the largest mass murder-ers in human history”.

Robertson said that in today’s context, Hitler would be accused of crimes against humanity. “Is that what Duterte wants? Does he want to be sent to the International Crim-inal Court? Because he’s working his way there,” Robertson said.

Amid the criticisms, presidential spokesman Ernie Abella defended Duterte, saying his “reference to the slaughter was an oblique deflection of the way he has been pictured as a mass murderer”.

Duterte has asked for a six-month extension of his drug crackdown, saying he underestimated the mag-nitude of the problem.

His supporters and many Filipi-nos exasperated with widespread crime have welcomed his tough approach, but a growing number of critics, including UN officials, the European Union and the United

States, have voiced concerns over the widespread killings and human rights violations.

Turning to the United States, his country’s treaty ally but which has criticised his deadly anti-drugs crackdown, Duterte warned yes-terday without elaborating: “Better think twice now because I would be asking you to leave the Philippines altogether.”

Despite a constitutional ban on foreign forces in the Philippines, US troops have been conducting mul-tiple joint combat exercises with Filipino troops each year under a 1999 agreement.

The allies forged a 2014 defence pact which gives American forces greater access to designated Philippine military camps, but Duterte said that pact was only signed then by a Philip-pine defence secretary, suggesting he could push the accord back.

He repeated his desire to expand relations with China and Russia because of his unease with US officials, adding both countries have pledged to back his adminis-tration. “I’m going to China to make friends with them and also Russia,” he said.

Duterte apologises for Hitler remarksWhile Hitler’s victims were innocent people, Duterte said his targets are “all criminals” and that getting rid of them would “finish the (drug) problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition”.

AP

JAKARTA: Three Indonesian hos-tages have been released in the southern Philippines after being held by their Abu Sayyaf captors for more than three months, Indonesia’s for-eign minister said yesterday.

The men, who were freed just before midnight on Saturday, were undergoing health exams in the southern Philippine province of Sulu, Foreign Minister Retno Marsudi said at a news conference.

She said they would be trans-ferred to the city of Zamboanga before being handed over to Indo-nesian officials and flown back to Indonesia.

The three — Ferry Arifin, Muhammad Mabrur Dahri and Edy Suryono — were among seven crew members of a tugboat who were kid-napped by Abu Sayyaf militants in June. Two of the others were released previously, and two are still being held. It was not immediately clear whether the three released late on

Saturday had been ransomed off.In Manila, Philippine military

officials said the release, which brought to 10 the number of kidnap victims freed by the Abu Sayyaf in the past two weeks, was due to ongoing operations against the group.

Filemon Tan, a military spokes-man, said 12 more kidnap victims — two Indonesians, five Malaysians, four Filipinos and a Dutch — were still in the hands of the Abu Sayyaf.

Three Indonesian fishermen who were also being held by Abu Sayyaf militants were freed on September 17, along with a Norwegian man and two Filipinos.

Marsudi said the government is working for the release of the two remaining Indonesian hostages — the tugboat’s navigator, Robin Piter, and third engineer, Muhammad Nasir.

The seven Indonesians were abducted June 20 in southern Phil-ippine waters while returning from Cagayan De Oro port in the Philip-pines to Samarinda, the capital of East Kalimantan province on Bor-neo island.

The Abu Sayyaf has been

Three Indonesian hostages

freed in southern Philippines

Sulu Governor Sakur Tan (second right) stands beside Indonesian sailors Edi Suryono (second left), Muhammad Mabrur Dahri (centre) and Ferry Arifin (right) in the town of Jolo on the southern island of Mindanao yesterday.

blacklisted as a terrorist organi-sation by the United States and the Philippines for deadly bombings, kid-nappings and beheadings.

Philippine forces launched a

major offensive against the Abu Sayyaf after the beheadings of two Canadians early this year sparked condemnations from then-Philip-pine President Benigno Aquino III

and Canadian Prime Minister Jus-tin Trudeau. Trudeau has called on other nations not to pay ransoms to discourage the militants from carry-ing out more kidnappings.

IANS

K ATHMANDU: A day after Pakistan formally announced postponement of the 19th Saarc Summit in Islamabad, Nepal yes-terday said that it will contact all member states of the South Asian grouping and make efforts to convene the summit confer-ence at the earliest.

An official from the Nepali Foreign Ministry said Kathmandu will reach out to all Saarc mem-bers to reschedule the summit which was slated to be held on November 9-10, the Kathmandu Post reported. “As the chair of Saarc, Nepal has to ensure that the summit takes place at the earliest,” said Rishi Raj Adhikari, Foreign Affairs Adviser to Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal “Prachanda”.

“We will discuss both the venue and dates with other member countries.” Adhika-ri’s remarks come after India on Tuesday pulled out of the summit, saying that “increasing cross-bor-der terrorist attacks in the region and growing interference in the internal affairs of member states ‘by one country’ have created an environment that is not conducive to the successful holding of the 19th Saarc Summit in Islamabad”.

New Delhi’s decision was backed by Afghanistan, Bang-ladesh and Bhutan, who too on Wednesday expressed their ina-bility to attend the conference.

Sri Lanka on Friday became the fifth country in the eight-member regional grouping to pull out of the summit, prompting Pakistan to postpone the summit.

Nepali Minister for Foreign Affairs Prakash Sharan Mahat, who returned from the US after taking part in the UN General Assembly on Saturday, told the media that consultations would be held with member states “to ensure that the summit takes place”.

“A decision regarding the summit will be taken after holding consultations with all member countries. Dates should be finalised after assurance of participation from all countries,” said Mahat.

He called on all the member countries to be sensitive about the importance of the forum for the development of the region.

Nepal to make

efforts to

convene Saarc

Summit soon

More darker days for Nigeria as power supply gets worse

AFP

HONG KONG: Three people were injured yesterday after Hong Kong police fired shots to stop a knife attack on a man, in a rare case of street crime in one of Asia’s safest cities.

Police said those wounded were two assailants and the man being attacked, and that all three were of “South Asian” origin.

“Five to six...men, with some car-rying knives, were attacking another man,” police officer Ma Wai-hing told reporters at the scene of the incident in the city’s commercial

district of Yau Ma Tei. No further details were given about the attack.

“After verbal warnings were ignored, four shots were fired. Two men were shot,” he said. The pair were arrested and hospitalised with wounds to the forearm and waist. They, along with the knife attack vic-tim, are in a stable condition.

HK police fire shots in knife attack

PAKISTAN 11MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

The army took international media to the de facto border to make its case in a battle of competing narratives, after India said its commandos penetrated up to three kilometres into Pakistan on anti-militant raids.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani attends the signing ceremony of a contract for second phase of Kajaki dam at Presidential Palace in Kabul, Afghanistan. The contract has been signed between the Ministry of Energy and Water of Afghanistan and a Turkish company.

Contract signed for Kajaki dam

LAHORE: The Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) yesterday launched a comprehensive Voter Education Training in all provinces in preparation to general elections in 2018.

The Voter Education Training will be imparted to nine regional election commissioners, 43 district election commissioners and 40 election officers posted in Punjab.

Visa restrictions

for Afghan

truckers relaxed

ISLAMABAD: The bor-der authorities of Pakistan at Torkham crossing yes-terday initially disallowed Afghan truckers to enter Pakistan without valid travel documents on the expiry of deadline on Sep-tember 30, but restrictions were relaxed after talks.

The trucks were allowed to enter Paki-stan after negotiations between Pakistani and Afghan border officials and transporters. All Khy-ber Transporters President Shakir Afridi said they went to Afghan side of Torkham and met a group of Afghan transporters headed by Ghalib and Hashim.

Voter Education

training for

election officers

Internews

KARACHI: Unfazed by the attitude of MuttahidaQaumi Movement (MQM) lawmakers who paid no heed to a recent call of Altaf Hussain for res-ignation, London-based convener of the party Nadeem Nusrat yesterday asked all leaders and workers of the party to submit an apology for desert-ing Hussain and for joining him again.

The “appeal” came a week after emergence of an audio message on the social media in which Hussain was heard asking MQM legislators to resign and contest elections afresh

since they got votes in his name.Not a single MQM legislator

now part of Dr Farooq Sattar-led MQM-Pakistan has so far sent his/her resignation to the Senate and national or provincial assemblies.

In a statement released from London, Nusrat said: “Being the convener of the MQM who has been elected by MQM workers and endorsed by Quaid-i-TehreekAltaf Hussain, I am making this last appeal to leaders, elected represent-atives and workers to not dissociate themselves from the MQM founder because of the threats and pressure of the establishment, correct their mistakes and return to his caravan.”

Internews

ISLAMABAD: Funds for Women Entrepreneurs Skill Development Programme (WSDP) have been approved by Pakistan government to impart training to women entrepre-neurs in marketing skills and product design, officials said yesterday.

Export Development Fund (EDF) Board approved the finances as part of steps being taken by the govern-ment to encourage women towards

import and export business.Commerce division sources said

15 percent quota has been reserved for women participation in interna-tional trade fairs, exhibitions and delegations while 50 percent subsidy on participation fee is also provided to women entrepreneurs.

WEXNET is organised by Trade Development Authority of Pakistan (TDAP) as the only exhibition for the women entrepreneurs in Pakistan.

It provides women entrepre-neurs with the opportunities to exhibit their products network

and learn to collaborate with each other for mutual benefits.

The product focus in the event is ladies and children garments, woolen, hand-woven shawls, shoes, jewelry, furniture, handicrafts, clay ceramics, dry flowers, gift items of fiberglass and colored glass, jute wood lamps, embroidered items, boutique work, health products, bed linen products and leather products.

Moreover, the sources said Paki-stan’s trade offices abroad facilitate women entrepreneurs in developing market linkages.

AFP

MANDHOLE, PAKISTAN: Pakistani military officials point to an Indian army post high on a forested ridge along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir, insisting any incursions are impossible, after skirmishes ignited dangerous tensions between the nuclear rivals.

The army took the rare step of flying international media to the de facto border to make its case in

a battle of competing narratives, after India said its commandos penetrated up to three kilometres into Pakistan on anti-militant raids.

The media visit came as India’s army chief Dalbir Singh congratu-lated commandos involved in what New Delhi has described as “sur-gical strikes” to take out terrorist launchpads after a deadly attack on an Indian army base last month.

Pakistan has flatly denied the claim, saying two of its soldiers were killed but only in cross-border fire of the kind that commonly violates a 2003 ceasefire on the LoC.

The helicopter tour took jour-nalists to sectors just two kilometres from the dividing line, and near the locations India said it targeted in assaults on four militant camps.

On hand were senior local com-manders as well as army spokesman Lieutenant General Asim Bajwa—an omnipresent media personality who has taken centre stage on Pakistani television since the tensions erupted.

In villages like Mandhole, daily life was going on largely as normal despite the tensions, with shops and businesses open and children in pressed white uniforms walking to school.

“You have seen lay of land,” said Bajwa, speaking from a command

post overlooking lush green Bandala Valley, with Pakistani and Indian for-tifications visible on the opposite hill.

“You can see the way the for-tifications are built and the way Pakistan has layers of defence and they have layers of defence... the LoC cannot be violated,” he said.

“If they’ve caused that damage to us, we don’t know any has been caused to us! You can go and meet the civilian population. Our side is open: to the UN mission, to the media, to the general public,” he said.

It was not possible to verify the general’s claims, though villagers who spoke to a section of media in the area independent of the military-guided trip were also incredulous.

Sardar Javed, a 37-year-old journalist for Kashmiri newspapers and a resident of Tatta Pani sector, which lies just west of India-control-led Poonch sector where one of the strikes was said to have been carried out, said he had seen no evidence of a raid.

“I’m not saying it’s not true because that’s the army line. It’s because I’m from the LoC and I’m a local journalist. News spreads fast around here and people get to know whatever happens,” he said.

The bitter neighbours agreed on the de facto border in 1972, but both

claim the territory in full. Two of their three wars have been fought over the Himalayan region.

Areas close to 720km LoC are normally off-bounds even for Paki-stani nationals, and the past three

years have seen a surge in cross-border shelling. Tensions have been simmering for months over unrest on the Indian side, where more than 80 civilians have been killed, mostly in clashes with security forces, during

protests linked to the killing of a charismatic young separatist in July.

Some Pakistani observers say the vaunted raids are an attempt to shift the focus and allow India to escape scrutiny over its actions in Kashmir.

AFP

BRUSSELS: Afghanistan’s president will meet world powers at a major conference in Brussels next week in a bid to secure financial aid from the international community up to 2020 to rebuild the war-ravaged nation.

The meeting on October 4 and 5 will try to drum up support from an international community suffering from aid fatigue as it grapples with conflicts in Syria and Iraq plus the migration crisis.

US Secretary of State John Kerry and UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon are among those who will join hosts Afghan president Ashraf Ghani and EU President Donald Tusk.

Financial support is “crucial” in order “to bring about a new strategic shift towards stabilisation and pos-sibly peace” in Afghanistan, despite the country not having “been in the headlines for many years”, officials said ahead of the conference.

“Nobody can afford for Afghan-istan to destabilise again,” a senior EU official added.

More than 70 countries and 25 international organisations will attend the event, which comes just before 15th anniversary of the US-led invasion of Afghanistan after the 9/11 attacks.

Afghanistan is still struggling to negotiate peace with the Taliban and other militant groups who con-tinue to wage a bloody insurgency.

The Brussels conference fol-lows up from a meeting in Tokyo in 2012 where the international com-munity agreed to provide €4bn a year in funding until the end of 2016.

It also comes two years after the London Conference on Afghanistan at which then newly-elected president

Ashraf Ghani vowed to build a more self-reliant Afghanistan.

Ghani said last week in Kabul “in Brussels, your government will represent all of you women, men, all of you. In Brussels the world is going to reiterate their economic commitments again”. He added: “We are taking Brussels very seri-ously. After we return from Brussels we have to work together, this is the importance of it.”

The international community will make pledges for the next four years but officials would not be drawn on the level of funding in comparison to €4bna year agreed in Tokyo.

“The pledging exercise remains a difficult one and very fluid until the last moments,” one EU offi-cial said. “The three billion mark is passed, but we don’t know where we’ll end up.”

The EU itself will sign a state building contract of €200m for 2017-2018 at the conference, hon-ouring its commitment to an annual budget for that amount for Afghanistan.

But payouts will depend on whether Afghanistan meets its political and financial reform commitments, as well as political transparency.

The conference comes after Nato countries agreed at a sum-mit in Warsaw in July to maintain troop numbers in Afghanistan and uphold a pledge of $5bn a year for local security forces for the next four years.

EU officials expressed some optimism about Afghanistan’s human development. Under the country’s new unity government, “the speed of reforms has signifi-cantly increased when compared to previous administrations”, said an EU official.

Internews

LAHORE: Speaker of Pakistan’s National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq yesterday said a reference against Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif (pictured) has been sent to the Election Commission of Paki-stan (ECP) in accordance with the Constitution.

Addressing Council of Pakistan Newspapers Editors (CPNE) meet-ing, he said all references received by his office have been forwarded to the ECP. “I take decisions impar-tially according to the Constitution,” he added.

The speaker said attack on par-liament was an attack on democracy which was embarrassing for the country. He said he had given extra

time to the opposition in the assem-bly to discuss issues.

The speaker said he was under immense pressure on resignations of the PTI members but he did not dis-qualify them adding that it was not right to de-seat a person who had got thousands of votes.

“I played my role to strengthen parliament; however, it will take some time to make an ideal parliament.”

Ayaz said the energy audit of the assembly had been conducted for the first time in history and the power system of the assembly building had been switched to solar energy.

Discussing the China Pak Eco-nomic Corridor (CPEC), he said China

and Russia were taking interest in the project but India and other counties did not want this project to succeed.

It is the success of the gov-ernment that Russian forces are participating in the joint exercises with the Pakistan Army, he added.

He said all appointments in the assembly had been completed through the Public Service Commis-sion on merit.

PTI’s Information Secre-tary NaeemulHaq on Sunday said by sending the reference against Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif to the Election Commission, the National Assembly Speaker AyazSadiq had tried to correct his wrong done earlier.

Army flies media to LoC; rubbishes strike claims

Pakistani troops gather at a village in district Bhimber near the LoC in Pakistan-administered Kashmir during a media trip organised by the Pakistani army.

Afghanistan to seek aid at Brussels talks

Govt approves funds to promote women entrepreneurship

Altaf row: MQM leaders asked to apologise Reference for Sharif’s disqualification sent to ECP

INDIA12 MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

President Pranab Mukherjee (right) pays tribute on the 147th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat in New Delhi, yesterday.

Remembering the Mahatma

Parrikar: We are prepared for any escalation

IANS

NEW DELHI: Amid heightened ten-sion between India and Pakistan, Defence Minister Manohar Parri-kar yesterday said the country was “fully prepared for any escalation”.

“We are fully prepared for any escalation. My mother used to say if you go to the forest hunting for a rabbit, be prepared to face the tiger as well,” Parrikar told CNN NEWS18 channel in an interview aired yesterday.

The situation has been tense on the Line of Control (LoC) after the September 18 terrorist attack on an Indian army base camp in Uri in Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian retaliation on the terrorist launch pads through cross-border “surgical strikes” early on Septem-ber 29. However, Parrikar refused to say anything beyond what Direc-tor General of Military Operations (DGMO) Lt Gen Ranbir Singh said on the surgical strikes.

“I would only say that it was a successful operation. I would not comment beyond the stated official position because it’s a very sensi-tive security matter... The DGMO has

already given all the details in his statement,” Parrikar said.

On India’s relations with China in the light of China’s proximity to Pakistan, Parrikar said that a coun-try’s closeness to a particular nation does not stop it from having rela-tions with other nations, and that India’s relations with China have improved over the years.

“We are concerned about (cer-tain) issues, but I think our relations with China are better today. The border management is better,” he said.

He added that China’s refusal to acknowledge remarks made by the Pakistani media that China would side with Pakistan in case of a tussle with India is a diplomatic victory for India. “China’s statement (that they do not know of any senior govern-ment functionary pledging support to Pakistan) is a victory for our diplomacy vis-a-vis China,” Par-rikar said.

New Delhi ratifies Paris climate dealAFP

NEW DELHI: India, the world’s third biggest carbon emitter, ratified the Paris agreement on climate change yesterday on the birthday of the country’s famously ascetic independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

India, with a population of 1.3 billion people, is the latest big polluter to formally sign onto the his-toric accord which now takes a major step towards becoming reality.

Environment minister Anil Madhav Dave said “India deposited its Instrument of Ratification of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change” at the United Nations in New York.

“Great push to global actions to address cli-mate change,” he added on Twitter.

The accord, sealed last December in Paris, needs ratification from 55 countries that account for at least 55 percent of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions responsible for climate change.

With India’s move, a total of 62 countries accounting for almost 52 percent of emissions have now ratified the agreement to commit to take action to stem the planet’s rising temperatures.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced last month that October 2, a national holiday, had been chosen as the ratification date because freedom fighter Gandhi had lived his life with a low-car-bon footprint.

UN chief Ban Ki-moon and others have voiced confidence the accord will come into force by the end of the year, after a string of nations joined up, including the United States and China, the two largest emitters.

EU environment ministers also agreed last week to fast-track the ratification.

The accord requires all countries to devise plans to achieve the goal of keeping the rise of temperatures within two degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahr-enheit) above pre-industrial levels.

Environmentalists welcomed yesterday’s move, but urged India to work to phase out heav-ily-polluting coal, which it relies on heavily for electricity.

“India is one the very few large economies that has not made any promises of phasing out of coal,” said Joydeep Gupta, director of “the third pole” website which focuses on environmental issues.

“This government is good on renewable energy,

but not good on environmental issues. There is a lot of pushing back on air pollution, water pollu-tion, soil pollution,” he said.

India, the world’s fastest growing major econ-omy, has long insisted that it needs to keep burning cheap and plentiful coal to cut crippling black-outs and bring electricity to millions of poor living without it.

India, which accounts for 4.1 percent of global emissions and is the third largest

carbon-emitting country, has not agreed to cap or cut its emissions outright like some.

Instead it says it will hike up its use of green energy and reduce its emissions relative to its gross domestic product by up to 35 percent by 2030 from 2005 levels — meaning emissions will continue to grow but at a slower rate.

Modi has set an ambitious target of reaching 100,000 megawatts of solar power by 2022, up from about 20,000 at the moment.

Parrikar refuses to disclose details of operation across LoC.

A file photograph of smoke being emitted from the Badarpur Thermal Power Station in New Delhi.

180 cities free from open defecationIANS

NEW DELHI: A total of 180 cities and towns in Gujarat, including Mahatma Gandhi’s home district Porbandar, and 110 cities and towns in Andhra Pradesh were on Gandhi Jayanti yesterday declared free from open defecation.

Union Minister of Drinking Water and Sanitation Naredra Singh Tomar and Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani made the announce-ment at Porbandar, while Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrab-abu Naidu made the declaration during the Gandhi Jayanti pro-gramme in Tirupati.

Addressing the Porbandar pro-gramme through a video-link, Minister of Urban Development M Venkaiah Naidu said: “Declaration of Porbandar district and other areas as Open Defecation-Free is an interim

gift to Mahatma on the occasion of his birth anniversary today. The final gift of Swachh Bharat would be pre-sented to Gandhiji on the occasion of his 150th birth anniversary on Octo-ber 2, 2019.”

During the Gandhi birth anni-versary celebration at Tirupati, Chandrababu Naidu urged the peo-ple to become “Swachhagrahis” to make the country free from poor hygiene in the spirit of ‘Satyagra-his’ who won political freedom for the country under the leadership of the Mahatma.

He said that an amount of Rs1.86bn has been sanctioned for Andhra Pradesh for schemes of solid waste management in urban areas.

Naidu released a book “In the Footsteps of Mahatma: Gandhi and Sanitation” authored by Sudarshan Iyangar, a veteran Gandhian.

The Chief Minister also released a postal stamp on ‘Swachh Bharat Abhiyan’.

Jayalalithaa’s

condition

continues

to improve

IANS

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Chief Min-ister J Jayalalithaa, who has been in hospital since September 22, is responding well to the treatment given to her and has been advised a few more days’ stay in hospital, said Apollo Hospitals yesterday.

The hospital said Jayalalithaa continues to improve.

In a statement issued here, Apollo Hospitals said the cur-rent treatment plan, including appropriate antibiotics and other allied clinical measures, are being continued to treat infection the 68-year-old leader is suffering from.

The current treatment plan is based on the detailed discussions the expert group of doctors had with British doctor Richard Beale.

According to the statement, Beale is Consultant in Intensive Care Medicine at Guy’s and St Thomas Hospital, London.

As per the London hospital’s website, Beale is one of its criti-cal care consultants and clinical director, perioperative, pain and critical care directorate. He is an experienced investigator in the fields of sepsis, ARDS, haemody-namics, critical care nutrition and ICU informatics.

Jayalalithaa was admitted to Apollo Hospital for fever and dehydration.

Subsequently, Apollo Hospital said she was cured of fever and needed to be in the hospital for observation.

Though Jayalalithaa is in the hospital, major government deci-sions are being taken by her.

On September 27, Jayalalithaa after discussing the issues related to the Cauvery water row, dictated her speech to be read out by Chief Secretary P Rama Mohana Rao at the meeting of the executive heads of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka.

The meeting was held on Sep-tember 29 in New Delhi and Rao read out her speech.

Brain drain can be changed to brain gain: ModiIANS

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said the issue of “brain drain” can be con-verted into “brain gain” if the nation started looking at the 27-million-strong Indian diaspora spread across the world as a strength rather than a number.

“Brain drain worries can be converted into brain gain if we see the Indian diaspora as a strength rather than counting them just as numbers,” Modi said after inaugu-rating the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra, a state-of-the-art complex dedi-cated to overseas Indians.

“In more than 150 countries we’ve presence of Pravasi Bharti-yas. They are a huge strength for our Missions,” he added.

Noting that the world was more keen now than earlier “to engage with India”, he said: “In such times

‘fear of unknown’ can be an obsta-cle. Our diaspora can help overcome this. They just have to tell the world that we belong to India.”

The Prime Minister stressed on the need to connect with the diaspora and hailed his prede-cessor Atal Bihari Vajpayee who “coined idea of Pravasi Bhartiya Divas and it has been continued since then”.

Modi also said that it was very appropriate to inaugurate the Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra on October 2, the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi.

“Gandhiji had left India but the call of the nation brought him back. Nothing can be a bigger inspiration than this,” he said.

The Pravasi Bharatiya Kendra located in south Delhi’s Chana-kyapuri will serve as the focal point of the institutional framework to benefit from networks with and among overseas Indians.

Misquoted by media: AchutanandanIANS

T H I R U VA N A N T H A P U R A M : Former Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan yesterday blamed the media for misquoting him against the merger of local State Bank of Travancore with the SBI for the ongoing fast by legislators of the opposition Congress against the fee hike.

“I was returning after inaugurat-ing a protest meeting with regards to the merging of the State Bank of Travancore with that of State Bank of India and it was to that I said that this was a wrong move by the gov-ernment and a solution to this must be found out.

“But the media put out the news that what I said was about the ongoing indefinite fast by the Con-gress-led UDF legislators. This was purposely done to project that there was a difference of opinion between

me and the state government,” said Achuthanandan in a statement issued here last night.

However, the TV channels con-tinued to show Achuthanandan, in response to questions about the ongoing strike by the opposition legislators on the “steep” fee hike, saying that the state government was handling the indefinite fast in a wrong manner.

The Congress was quick to sup-port his statement.

“Anyone with sense will only say that an amicable solution should come from the govern-ment to end the ongoing impasse and we welcome the statement of Achuthanandan,” said State Con-gress President V M Sudheeran.

Since Wednesday, three legisla-tors of the Congress-led opposition have been on an indefinite fast in the foyer of the Kerala Assembly alleging that there was collusion between the state government, led by Pinarayi Vijayan, and private

medical college managements who raised fees steeply.

The opposition has taken a tough stand against the way the Vijayan government has handled the issue of fee hike by self-financing private medical colleges in the state and said that they would not call-off the pro-test till the hike was rolled back.

The fast entered its fifth day yes-terday and on Saturday the health of former state Minister Anup K Jacob deteriorated forcing him to be moved to hospital.

Achuthanandan, whose rivalry with Vijayan is well-known, appeared to have lost no time in putting Vijayan on the back foot and yesterday’s statement gave enough ammunition to the Congress-led opposition when the assembly meets today after a two-day break.

Last week, Achuthanandan called on the fasting legislators and spent some time with them, enquir-ing about their health, while Vijayan was yet to do the same.

Attack on army camp in Kashmir SRINAGAR: Two BSF troop-ers were injured in an ongoing heavy gunfight in Jammu and Kashmir’s Baramulla late last night as guerrillas attacked an army camp, police said.

Police said the ‘fidayeen’ (sui-cide attackers) attacked a camp of the counter-insurgency 46 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) in Jan-bazpora area of Baramulla town.

EUROPE 13MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

The Prime Minister said she hoped the announcement would lead to a “smoother process of negotiation” with Brussels.

President of the Basque regional government Inigo Urkullu (right) cheers supporters during the celebration of ruling Basque Nationalist Party “Alderdi Eguna” (Party’s Day) in the northern Spanish Basque village of Foronda, yesterday.

Basque celebrations

AFP

BIRMINGHAM: Prime Minister Theresa May said, Britain would start the formal process for leaving the EU before April as her governing Con-servative Party opened its annual conference yesterday.

Though many Conservatives headed to the congress in Birming-ham, central England still jubilant about Britain’s June referendum vote to leave the European Union, the centre-right government has come under increasing pressure to define what shape Brexit will take.

Before yesterday, May had only repeatedly insisted that Brit-ain would not invoke Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty—starting a maximum two-year departure

process—before January.“I’ve been saying that we

wouldn’t trigger before the end of this year so that we get some prep-aration in place,” she told BBC television.

“We will trigger before the end of March next year.”

May said she hoped the announcement would lead to a “smoother process of negotiation” with Brussels.

However, European powers keen to dampen euroscepticism in their own backyards have been taking an increasingly hard line, warning that Britain cannot expect special treat-ment on trade and immigration.

Access to the European single market means allowing free move-ment of people, they say. But May says she wants to curb the yearly influx of hundreds of thousands of people from other parts of the EU.

She said the referendum was a clear message that Britain should have control over the movement of people coming from the bloc.

“We will deliver on that,” she said.

Britain will be “able to decide who can come into, and set the rules for who can come into, the country.

“We will look at the various ways that we can bring in the control that the British people want.”

Some key Conservatives have said they want to sever all ties with

the EU by leaving the single market and imposing work visa rules.

They argue that the European Union would only be harming itself if it began imposing tariffs on British goods and services because the EU exports more to Britain than Britain does to the rest of the bloc.

However, May herself backed staying in the EU, while other key ministers such as finance minister Philip Hammond reportedly want a softer landing, with carve-outs for Europe’s most important financial centre, the City of London.

“There is so little known about Brexit,” said Tony Travers, a profes-sor of government at the London School of Economics.

“It begs the question of whether the government does have a view about exactly what it’s going to do with the country or not.”

May started addressing the concerns by announcing yester-day a Great Repeal Bill, ending the authority of EU law once Britain leaves the union.

It will overturn laws that make EU regulations supreme, enshrine all EU rules in domestic law and confirm the British parliament can amend them as it wants.

“This marks the first stage in the UK becoming a sovereign and inde-pendent country once again,” May told The Sunday Times newspaper.

“It will return power and

May: Britain to start EU exit process before April

authority to the elected institu-tions of our country. It means that the authority of EU law in Britain will end.”

On the face of it, May—whose keynote closing speech comes on Wednesday—goes to the convention in a strong position.

Opinion polls put the Conserva-tives well ahead of the deeply divided main opposition Labour Party under their veteran leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn.

But she has ruled out hold-ing a general election before one is due in 2020, telling The Sunday Times it would “introduce a note of instability”.

And when Article 50 is triggered, it is likely to be a painful process. This could worsen the decades-old arguments between eurosceptic and more pro-EU Conservatives, already inflamed by the referendum.

“The Brexit negotiations will take much longer and be far more

complicated than many British politicians realise,” said Charles Grant, director of the Centre for European Reform.

Yesterday was set to be the main day for debate on the EU, with addresses from May as well as Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson and Brexit minister David Davis.

They will be expected “to put some kind of meat on the bones,” said Victoria Honeyman, politics lecturer at Leeds University.

Reuters

SOFIA: Bulgaria’s ruling GERB party yesterday nominated Parliament Speaker Tsetska Tsacheva to run for president as the country steers deals with a migrant crisis and growing ten-sions between Russia and the West.

The vote on November 6 for the largely ceremonial post will also indicate the level of support for the centre-right government ahead of general elections in 2018.

Tsacheva, 58, the first female speaker and a former legal adviser, is seen as a front-runner for post but is also set to face stiff competition

and a run-off is likely, analysts say.“I have heard enough about fathers

of the nation. It is high time to have a mother and take indeed a motherly care for the people,” Prime Minister and GERB’s leader Boiko Borisov said upon endorsing Tsacheva.

Two years after coming to office, GERB is still the most popular polit-ical faction in the EU and Nato member country, praised for sta-bilising the economy and ensuring steady inflows of EU aid, recent opin-ion polls showed.

But pollsters also register increased activity among left-ist voters, frustrated with slower pace of increasing the living standards in the EU’s poorest

country and rampant corruption.The new president, who will take

office in January, will have to address a rising anxiety among Bulgarians in the wake of Islamist militant attacks in Europe and a possible increase of refugees fleeing conflicts in the Mid-dle East.

Bulgarians are also concerned with the impact the EU sanctions on Russia and Britain’s vote to exit the European Union would have on the small and open economy.

“I am loaded with political energy for stability and security,” Tsacheva said.

In a bid to address risks from military and political conflicts near Bulgaria, GERB party endorsed a

former navy commander, Plamen Manushev for vice-president.

More than a dozen candidates are running for president and with the winner needing a majority vote, a run-off is expected.

The most likely contenders are Socialist candidate Rumen Radev, a former air force commander, the centre-left’s Ivailo Kalfin, a former labour and foreign minister, as well as Tatiana Doncheva, leader of a left-wing faction.

Radev has said he would work to lift the EU sanctions on Russia, increase the funds for the Bulgarian army, help better protect the Bal-kan country’s borders and support reforms in education and healthcare.

Bosnian Serb polls

pits separatists

against EU backers

AP

SARAJEVO: Bosnians yester-day voted in municipal elections marked by a battle in the Bosnian Serb half of the country between a pro-European Union coalition and the pro-Russia separatist party that has ruled that region for more than a decade.

Some 3 million voters will choose mayors and municipal councils in both of Bosnia’s two semi-autonomous regions. Those areas — the Republika Srpska and the Bosniak-Croat Federation — have their own governments, presidents and parliaments, but are linked by shared federal-level institutions.

In Republika Srpska, the ruling Alliance of Independent Social-Democrats campaigned on a promise of Serb secession from Bosnia — something many nationalist Serbs have been seek-ing since Yugoslavia collapsed during the 1990s. The party is led by President Milorad Dodik, who has dominated the Bosnian Serb political scene for years but now faces political setbacks.

Dodik’s opponents — the equally nationalistic Alliance for Changes — see the future Repub-lika Srpska as a semi-autonomous region within a Bosnia that is an EU member. They have focused on bread-and-butter economic issues while accusing Dodik of corrup-tion and of throwing the region into poverty.

AFP

BUDAPEST: Hungarian Prime Min-ister Viktor Orban suffered a blow yesterday in his referendum against the EU’s migrant quota plan after he failed to rally enough votes to reach the required 50 percent turn-out, according to the first polls from the ruling Fidesz party.

A whopping 95 percent of vot-ers supported Orban’s ‘No’ camp, but only 45 percent of the eight-million-strong electorate cast their ballots, making the vote invalid, according to figures released by the party’s deputy chief Gergely Gulyas.

Gulyas nonetheless saw the result as “a sweeping victory for all those who reject the relocation plan, for those who believe that only nation states should remain, and for those who believe in democracy.”

Orban had earlier downplayed the significance of the low turn-out and said there would be “legal consequences” regardless, without giving further details.

His right-wing government led an expensive media offensive urg-ing voters to spurn the EU’s quota plan, which aims to share migrants around the 28 member states without the consent of national parliaments.

The firebrand leader has emerged as the standard-bearer of those opposed to German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “open-door” policy,

in the wake of the bloc’s worst migra-tion crisis since World War II.

Polling stations opened at 0400 GMT and closed at 1700 GMT. Oppo-sition parties and rights groups had called on Hungarians to boycott the referendum or spoil their ballot.

Orban warned on Satur-day that mass migration was a “threat... to Europe’s safe way of life” and that Hungarians had “a duty” to fight the failed “liberal methods” of the “Brussels elite”.

The proposal—spearheaded by Germany and approved by most EU governments last year after antag-onistic debates—seeks to ease pressure on frontline countries Italy and Greece, where most migrants enter the EU.

But implementation has been slow. Eastern and central European nations are vehemently opposed to the plan aimed at relocating 160,000 people, many having fled war in Syria.

Hungary has not accepted a sin-gle refugee of the 1,300 allocated under the scheme and instead joined Slovakia in filing a legal chal-lenge against it.

The referendum has incensed Western leaders and threatens to further split the quarrelling bloc, already weakened by Britain’s deci-sion in June to leave the union—a decision Orban has blamed on the EU’s handling of the migrant crisis.

European Parliament president Martin Schulz warned yesterday Hun-gary “played a dangerous game”.

Reuters

BERLIN: Unknown perpetrators set fire to three police cars on Saturday night in the eastern city of Dresden, where security has been tightened for three days of events to mark 26 years since German reunification, police said yesterday.

Two improvised bombs exploded in the city last week, one at a mosque

and one at an international conference centre, and around 2,600 police offic-ers are on duty to safeguard events.

No-one was hurt in Saturday night’s blaze, which investigators believe was a politically-motivated act linked to the police operation for the anniversary celebrations.

The influx of almost a million migrants last year has increased social tensions. Far-right violence and attacks on migrants have risen, with riots and arson attacks on refugee

shelters in the towns of Heidenau and Freital in the state of Saxony, of which Dresden is the capital.

German Chancellor Angela Mer-kel, criticised the “shamefully high number” of xenophobic attacks in eastern Germany.

Merkel also condemned misuse by far-right extremists of the phrase “Wir sind das Volk” (We are the peo-ple), a slogan originally used by East Germans in protests leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989.

Low turnout voids ‘No’ win in Hungary anti-migrant vote

Bulgarian ruling party backs Speaker for presidential bid

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban (left) casts his vote with his wife Aniko Levai at a polling station of a local school in Budapest, yesterday.

3 police cars set ablaze in Dresden

Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May delivers a speech on the first day of the Conservative party annual conference at the International Convention Centre in Birmingham, central England, yesterday.

AMERICAS14 MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

President Juan Manuel Santos’ government says it has no Plan B if voters reject the accord, but polls indicate it will pass by a wide margin.

Mexican authorities evacuated 400 people as a precaution as a major volcano Volcan de Fuego spewed lava, in Jalisco State. Authorities imposed a security perimetre of 12km around the volcano.

Volcano alert

AFP

BOGOTA: Colombians voted in a ref-erendum yesterday on whether to ratify a historic peace accord to end a 52-year war between the state and the communist FARC rebels.

The accord will effectively end what is seen as the last major armed conflict in the Western Hemisphere.

“Peace is the way for our children and grandchildren to have a better country,” President Juan Manuel San-tos said when he turned up to vote yesterday morning.

“We Colombians must all play a

role in this historic change.”His government says it has no

Plan B if voters reject the accord, but polls indicate it will pass by a wide margin.

“Colombia is betting everything on this plebiscite, socially, econom-ically and politically,” said Jorge Restrepo, director of conflict anal-ysis center CERAC.

Colombians are sick of war, even though many resent making conces-sions to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), which has carried out killings, kidnappings and extortion.

Now citizens are voting on the question: “Do you support the final accord to end the conflict and to build a stable and lasting peace?”

“My parents were born into the conflict in a town where there were lots of kidnappings by the guerrillas... The houses were full of bullet holes,” said one voter, Lina Romero, 25.

“I want the ‘Yes’ vote to win so that if I have children one day, they will not have to live in war.”

Around 35 million of Colombia’s 48 million people were eligible to vote. Opinion surveys by pollsters Datexco and Ipsos Napoleon Franco, published on October 26, indicated the ‘Yes” vote would win by a margin

of around 20 percent.Both polls indicated a ‘No’ vote

of about 35 percent.“October 2 is the only oppor-

tunity to correct these accords that Santos has rewarded FARC with,” wrote the leader of the ‘No’

campaign, former president Alvaro Uribe on Twitter.

“For my country, vote ‘No.’”The deal signed on September

26 by Santos and FARC leader Rod-rigo Londono calls for the rebels to disarm and convert into a political

group.It is guaranteed to have at least

10 seats guaranteed in Colombia’s Congress. The accord covers justice and compensation and an end to the cocaine production that has fueled the conflict.

Jamaica and Haiti

brace for hit from

fierce hurricane

Reuters

PORT-AU-PRINCE/KINGSTON: Haiti and Jamaica implored resi-dents in vulnerable coastal areas to evacuate and Cuba suspended flights yesterday as Hurricane Mat-thew, the strongest storm to menace the Caribbean islands in years, spun slowly toward the region.

Matthew is expected to scrape western Haiti today as a major storm bringing 230kph winds and life-threatening rain to the south-ern coast, while simultaneously lashing Jamaica.

Eastern Cuba also will feel bands of fierce wind and rains today, the US National Hurricane Center said.

The storm was slowly advanc-ing at 7kph, located about 475km southeast of Kingston yesterday afternoon. The hurricane center ranked it at Category 4 on the five-step Saffir-Simpson scale of hurricane intensity. Earlier it had been ranked at the top Category 5.

“Slow motion is almost always a bad thing for any land area impacted,” said John Cangialosi, a hurricane specialist and mete-orologist at the center, noting that the storm’s devastating rains and winds will linger over the region.

With tropical storm condi-tions expected to reach Haiti and Jamaica, officials on both islands urged residents to prepare. In Haiti, the prime minister’s office issued a red alert warn-ing for landslides, high waves and floods.

As many as 101 cm of rain could fall on parts of south-ern Haiti. That could trigger deadly flash floods and mud slides, the Miami-based hurri-cane center said. Haiti is the poorest country in the Ameri-cas and a combination of weak government and precarious living conditions for most of its people makes it particu-larly vulnerable to natural disasters.

In Cuba, where evacuations already were underway, many flights were suspended yesterday.

AP

LOS ANGELES: Officers shot and killed a man in south Los Angeles at the end of a car chase early yes-terday, sparking protest by several dozen people frustrated by another fatal police shooting of a black man.

The chase began when officers tried to pull over a car with paper plates, suspecting the vehicle may have been stolen, and the driver refused to stop, Sgt. Barry Montgomery said.

He said the passenger got out of the car during the pursuit and ran into the back of a house, where he was shot. The driver fled the scene and remained on the loose.

The Los Angeles Police Depart-ment said in a statement that it found a handgun at the scene of the shoot-ing. The department did not provide any more information about the gun.

The shooting drew several dozen people to the scene. As news of what happened spread, a group of several dozen protesters blocked an inter-section near the house. Some people waved signs that read “Black Lives Matter,” and others shouted at offic-ers standing behind yellow police tape and wearing riot helmets.

Tia Gonzalez, 36, told the Los Angeles Times that she came to the scene because she knew the com-munity was “going to be hurting.” She criticised shootings by police, saying officers should be better

trained to avoid killing people.“A police officer should not be the

judge, the jury and the executioner,” she said.

The demonstration is the latest sparked by a series of fatal shootings of black men by officers around the country. This past week, an unarmed black man was fatally shot by police in the San Diego suburb of El Cajon, triggering days of angry, sometimes unruly, protests. The fatal shooting of a black man armed with a knife by Pasadena, California, police on Friday led to two mostly peaceful protests.

Relatives of the dead man in Los Angeles identified him as 18-year-old Carnell Snell Jr., and they told the Times he was killed on the same

street where he lived.Snell’s mother, Monique Mor-

gan, appeared at the protest sight. “He was just at my house, and we got a phone call that said the police shot him five times in the back,” she said.

Police have not said how many times Snell was shot or if he was shot in the back. Trenell Snell, 17, said she was outside with friends when she saw her older brother running from police. She said she started running too, and that she hit the ground when she heard gunfire.

When she got up, her brother was on the ground, handcuffed, she said.

“At the end of the day, the cops came and shot my brother,” she said. “Killed my brother.”

Boy dies days

after S Carolina

school shooting

AP

COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA: A 6-year-old boy who was critically wounded in a school shooting died, days after a 14-year-old boy opened fire on a school playground, author-ities said.

Jacob Hall had been fighting for his life at a hospital after a bul-let struck him in a main artery in his leg, causing him a major brain injury due to a “catastrophic” loss of blood, doctor said.

Authorities say Jacob, another student and a first-grade teacher at Townville Elementary were wounded by the teenager, who had just killed his father at their home. After the slaying, the teen — who is not old enough to have a driver’s license — drove a pickup truck about 3 miles down a coun-try road, crashed at the school and started firing with a handgun, authorities said.

The wounded were struck as a door opened for recess. Another teacher who heard the first gun-shot was able to get other students safely inside, school officials have said. The other wounded student and the injured teacher, Meghan Hollingsworth, were treated and released from a hospital.

Jacob’s parents, Renae and Rodger Hall, thanked nurses and doctors who cared for Jacob and Hollingsworth, “who put her life on line to try to protect and save Jacob.”

Jacob died surrounded by his family at Greenville Health System Children’s Hospital, his parents said in a statement.

“Jacob came into our lives six years and four months ago and changed it completely. He showed us how to love, laugh and smile even on days we did not want to,” his parents said.

Reuters

SAN SALVADOR: A judge in El Sal-vador has reopened the case of a massacre allegedly carried out by soldiers in 1981 that is considered the worst atrocity committed dur-ing the country’s brutal civil war.

The massacre took place in the northeastern town of El Mozote, allegedly by an elite army unit, and resulted in deaths of between 900 and 1,200 people.

The decision by Judge Alberto Guzman to reopen the matter marks first time such a case has been allowed since an amnesty law was declared unconstitutional in July.

The law sought to absolve mil-itants on both sides of conflict who took part in war crimes, and was often invoked by judges to explain

why they could not hear such cases.“The reopening of case is an

open door to seek justice that has been denied for so many years to victims of crimes against human-ity in El Salvador,” lawyer Ovidio Gonzalez said.

Reopening of case follows for-mal complaints by local human rights groups and victims families seeking justice for those killed in El Mozote.

Those pushing the case seek a truthful accounting of what happened and the facts surround-ing who ordered the massacre, Gonzalez said. They are not seek-ing punishments, he added, but want those responsible to admit their roles and ask for forgiveness.

Judge Guzman has ordered mil-itary records from the time of the massacre to be turned over, as well as additional records on 14 named ex-army and security officials.

AFP

SAO PAULO: Brazilians furious at recession and corruption voted yes-terday in municipal elections amid heightened security after a series of murders of candidates.

Voting, which is mandatory in Brazil, got underway at 1100 GMT, with long lines immediately form-ing outside polling stations.

Among the first to cast his bal-lot in the financial capital Sao Paulo was President Michel Temer from the center-left PMDB party.

The impeachment of Dilma Rous-seff was part of the backdrop to the

tense first round of the municipal elections, which will go to a runoff round on October 30 in races where no candidate wins more than 50 per-cent of the vote.

Brazilians also want change as they struggle through a devastat-ing recession and the fallout from a massive embezzlement and bribery scheme centered on prestigious state oil company Petrobras.

Rousseff’s Workers’ Party, in power for the last 13 years, was pre-dicted to be in for a hammering.

The main battles were in Rio de Janeiro and Sao Paulo, where the incumbent Workers’ Party mayor, Fernando Haddad, risks being knocked out.

“The mayors’ posts held by the Workers’ Party will fall to less than half of those they won four years ago,” political analyst David Fleischer at Brasilia University said, predicting “disaster for the party.”

The gunning down of a string of candidates has cast a shadow over the already toxic political atmosphere.

The latest victim was Jose Gomes da Rocha, running for mayor in Itum-biara in the state of Goias.

Worries about violence have prompted deployment during the election of tens of thousands of troops to more than 400 municipalities, the defense minister said.

In the main hotspot, Rio de

Janeiro, 15 candidates or politicians have been murdered over the last 10 months, police say.

Police numbers are being dou-bled in the state for the election, with officers guarding the transport of ballot boxes and the voting stations.

“The police are prepared to secure the voting sites and to guar-antee that everyone can exercise the right to vote,” Colonel Luis Henrique Marinho Pires from police headquar-ters told the G1 news site.

Officials have given few details about investigations into the mur-ders but suspicions in at least some of the cases are falling on so-called militias—gangs formed by former or rogue police officers.

Colombians vote on historic peace deal

Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos (second left) poses with his family after casting his vote during a referendum on peace accord, in Bogota, yesterday.

Protest as another black man fatally shot

El Salvador judge reopens

case of 1981 massacre

Brazilians set to punish the Left in polls

Brazilian President Michel Temer (left) votes at a polling station during municipal elections, in Sao Paulo, Brazil, yesterday.

Idea on seed funding impresses judges at the final casting episode.

Forty-three graduates of two training courses were honoured at a function held at the Policing Training Institute recently. The honouring ceremony was attended by Brigadier Nasser Muhammad Al Sayed, Director of Police Training Institute.

43 graduates honoured

HOME 15MONDAY 3 OCTOBER 2016

ONLINE CHART BUST

MOST READ

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

FAJR

SHOROOK

ZUHR

ASR

MAGHRIB

ISHA

04.10 am05.27 am

11.23 am02.46 pm

05.21 pm06.51 pm

Minimum: 28o C Maximum: 36o C

HIGH TIDE 05:45 - 17:30LOW TIDE 11:30 - 23:45

Hazy at places at first becomes hot daytime with

slight dust and some local clouds.

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER

The Peninsula

DOHA: Stars of Science (SOS), the Arab world’s popular ‘edutainment’ reality show developed by Qatar Founda-tion, showcased Season 8 hopefuls with innovative ideas on energy and environment during its final casting episode on Saturday.

Those that impressed the judges took one step closer to their goal of win-ning a share of $600,000 in seed funding to make their idea a reality. They will take part in the Majlis episode on Octo-ber 8 at 10.30pm KSA to see who is invited to continue the journey.

Aysha Al Mudahka, a Qatari cata-lyst with a keen eye for up-and-coming entrepreneurs joined Professor Fouad

Mrad for a third week in her role as a permanent juror. Currently the CEO of the Qatar Business Incubation Center, she is widely regarded as one of the most influential people in the Middle East’ entrepreneurship ecosystem.

Rounding out the trio of jurors was Dr. Hosni Ghedira, a passionate environmentalist who holds a Ph.D. in Water Science from the University of

Quebec, with over 120 publications in peer-reviewed journals.

“Our mission is clear – to find young Arab innovators with the skill, knowledge and spirit necessary to make a true difference with his or her idea,” noted Al Mudahka. “Stars of Science, guided by Qatar Founda-tion, has been a driver of science and technology entrepreneurship in the

region since Season 1 in 2009.”The three jury members had their

hands full, judging the strengths and weaknesses of a diverse range of inventions. Some inventions focused on solar energy and wind power solu-tions, while others aimed to address problems like air pollution and waste management.

Nineteen candidates from the first three casting episodes have now successfully triumphed over the com-petition for a spot in the Majlis episode. Their next challenge is to be chosen as one of only nine candidates to be invited to develop their inventions with the help of the experts who will all work from the Stars of Science labo-ratories in Qatar Science & Technology Park.

Candidates will compete in small groups to advance from the prototyp-ing stages to the customer validation rounds, where they will work on devel-oping their idea from prototype to full-fledged product.

At the season finale, four final candidates left standing will receive a share of $600,000 in seed funding for their ideas. The winner will be cho-sen via a public and jury vote.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Lexus and The Weinstein Company will be heading to Rain-dance Film Festival opening night to premiere an exciting new film The Nation Holds Its Breath, created and directed by Kev Cahill, an award-winning writer and director.

Cahill comes from a VFX back-groundand is a frontrunner in this space – known for his dedicated work on popular films such as The Huntsman: Winter’s War, Thor: The Dark World and Alice Through the Looking Glass. Cahill has also con-tributed to the hit HBO television series Game of Thrones. This expe-rience coupled with his directorial expertise, has seen his career not only within the digital industry but also the film and television indus-tries overall.

The Nation Holds Its Breath is one of four films being produced by Joey Horvitz of The Weinstein Company as part of this third season of Lexus Short Films which is a partnership between Lexus International and The Weinstein Company to support up-and-coming filmmakers.

The Nation Holds Its Breath fea-tures an excitingstory about a young father to be who is torn between wit-nessing the miracle of childbirth and witnessing the miracle of Ireland reaching the quarter finals of the 1990 World Cup. This monumental event in Ireland was one of the most impor-tant football matches in the country’s history and the film explores this one man’s journey and the difficult and highly anticipated challenges that he faced along the way.

The Nation Holds Its Breath stars notable Irish actor Sam Keeley, who has recently appeared in the film Burnt alongside Bradley Cooper and in the film In the Heart of the Sea as well as Irish actress Barbara Bren-nan, who is known for her roles in the films Veronica Guerin and A Date For Mad Mary. Cahill’s cast embod-ies and highlights the momentous occasion that is featured in this film.Viewers will be captivated by their performance in more ways than one.

The Weinstein Company co-chair-man Harvey Weinstein said, “There’s tremendous untapped talent among aspiring filmmakers. Kev Cahill’s drive to make a name for himself within the industry was clear from the moment he was selected to participatein this series. We are thrilled that The Nation Holds Its Breath will be opening Rain-dance and look forward to many more incredibly directed films from Cahill.”

David Nordstrom, global brand-ing department General Manager of Lexus International, added, “Each year, the work of our directors never

cease to amaze us. We are hon-oured to be in partnership with The Weinstein Company to bring these filmmakers aspirations to life.”

According to Takayuki Yoshit-sugu, Chief Representative, Middle East and North Africa Representative Office, Toyota Motor Corporation, “We look forward to entertain-ing festival goers around the globe with this latest film from Kev Cahill as part of the third season of Lexus Short Films. The Lexus Short Films Series has given talented filmmak-ers a wonderful opportunity to gain exposure and turn their cellu-loid dreams into reality. We would also like to acknowledge the sup-port from our customers who have backed our efforts with the Lexus Short Films Series.”

Two of the other Lexus Short Films Series films, Friday Night and MESSiAH, were also selected for Raindance Film Festival, Vancouver International Film Festival and Cal-gary International Film Festival and other world famous film festivals.

Authorities inspect food outlets

in Al Khor and Al DakhiraThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Health Monitoring section at Al Khor and Al Dakhira Municipality in coordination with Consumer Protection Department at the Ministry of Economy and Commerce recently conducted inspection visits in food outlets.

The visits aim to ensure supermarkets, shops, restaurants, and stores meet health specifications. The inspectors checked the food expiration date and prices.

Al Wakra Municipality also conducted joint visits with Consumer Protection Department to inspect frozen and fresh meats at all outlets. Meanwhile, Umm Salal Municipality has started a campaign to remove all abandoned vehicles .

SOS hopefuls show innovative ideas

Qatar to attend

ACD summit

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar will attend the second Asia Cooperation Dia-logue (ACD) Summit to be held from October 8 to 10 in Bangkok, Thailand.

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi will head the Qatari delegation to the summit where leaders and ministers from member countries will convene to reshape cooperation and develop-ment in the region.

Inaugurated in June 2012 in Thailand, the ACD comprises 34 countries namely Bahrain, Bang-ladesh, Brunei Darussalam, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Kazakhstan, Republic of Korea, Kuwait, Kyrgyz Repub-lic, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Pakistan, Philippines, Oman, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Thailand, United Arab Emirates, Uzbekistan, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Turkey, and Nepal.

The objectives of the ACD are to constitute link in Asian cooper-ation and transform the continent into an Asian community, pro-mote interdependence among Asian countries by identifying their strengths and opportunities.

An “ACD Vision for Asia Coop-eration 2030”, which reflects shared aspirations and visions for Pan-Asian cooperation and con-tribution to achieving Sustainable Development Goals by 2030 will be announced at the Summit.

A Stars of Science Season 8 hopeful at the final casting episode on Saturday.

One of the food outlets being inspected.

Lexus short film winner Kev Cahill’s film

to premiere at Raindance Festival

TWEET OF THE DAY

Regime advances in Syria’s Aleppo after Russia raids: monitor

Alwaleed bin Talal sells Toronto Four Seasons

Bombing in Aleppo puts Qatar Red Crescent primary health care center out of service

1

2

3

Minimum: 27o C Maximum: 35o C

HIGH TIDE 06:15 - 18:00LOW TIDE 12:15

Hazy at places at first becomes hot daytime with

slight dust at times and some local clouds.

WEATHER

Follow us on Snapchat

Open Snapchat and

scan the Snapcode

to add The Peninsula

account.