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BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 23

MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016 • 9 MOHARRAM 1438 • Volume 21 • Number 6945 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar 2 Riyals

By Mohammed Iqbal

The Peninsula

DOHA: A two-month awareness campaign to familiarise companies and workers with the new law (No. 21 of 2015) regulating the entry, exit and residency of expatriates will begin this week, ahead of the law’s implementation in December.

The campaign is being launched by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior.

Issued on October 27 last year the law has replaced the Kafala (sponsorship) system with a contract-based system and cancelled the

exit permit system. The law is expected to be enforced by mid-December, one year after it was published in the official gazette.

Commenting on the campaign, the Min-ister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs H E Dr Issa bin Saad Al Jafali Al Nuaimi said, “The significant changes to Qatar’s labour laws in December will require employers, embassies, the Qatar Chamber and other official entities to understand how to comply with the new legal framework around Qatar’s labour laws. Workers will also need to be aware of their rights and obligations under the new law.”

The awareness drive will start with a series of workshops involving key seg-ments including members of the Qatar Chamber, representatives of embassies and community organisations, and managers and representatives of private companies and institutions.

“Organisation of these workshops repre-sents another concrete commitment towards reforming Qatar’s labour system. By engag-ing with these key stakeholders, our aim is to increase transparency. These workshops are vital for raising awareness among employ-ers about Qatar’s labour laws, and ensuring there are mechanisms in place for safeguard-ing employees rights,” said the Minister.

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New residency law to take effect in Dec

By Fazeena Saleem

The Peninsula

DOHA: An effective vaccine to protect against the Middle East Respiratory Syndrome Corona Virus (MERS-CoV) would pos-sibly be introduced by end of next year, said a senior official at the Ministry of Public Health yesterday.

Several pharmaceutical companies conducting research on developing a vaccine against MERS-CoV, in a recent meeting with World Health Organization (WHO) and other stake holders including Qatar, revealed their findings, said Dr Mohammed Mohammed Al Hajri, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response Department, Ministry of Public health.

“We were meeting with the WHO where many pharmaceu-tical companies doing research on the vaccine were also present. There is a good progress in developing a vaccine against MERS-CoV. We learnt from their presentations that may be a vac-cine will be introduced by end of 2017,” he said speaking on the sidelines of an infectious disease outbreak investigation course being held at the Marriot Mar-quis in Doha.

“In every six months there are discussions between the WHO, pharmaceutical companies and the countries concerned including Qatar. The discussions also focus on the prevalence of the disease and whether there is a need for the vaccine,” he said.

The economical aspect of introducing the vaccine and if the vaccine will benefit in elimi-nating or controlling the disease are also discussed during the meetings.

→ Continued on page 6

Vaccine against MERS likely by end of 2017

Cannondale-Drapac Team’s cyclists compete in the men’s team time trial event as part of the 2016 UCI Road World Championships in Doha, yesterday.

UCI Road World Championship under way

By Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

DOHA: The first Turkish school in Doha is set to open its doors to students next week, Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Demirok said yesterday.

“Our school will hopefully open next week. It is for the children of Turkish people living in Qatar. It has a capacity of almost 300 which is enough to meet the demand of the Turkish population which is almost 7,000,” Demirok told local media.

The ambassador said the school will offer Grades 1 to 8 following the Turkish curriculum with teachers coming from Turkey.

He also revealed lectureship on Turkish humanities at Qatar Uni-versity would be launched in the coming semester.

“We will also have lectureship at Qatar University to be inaugu-rated next semester. In the future it will be a full-fledged Chair but it will start as a lectureship at the moment,” he said.

The lectureship was the product of an agreement signed between the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Center in Doha and Qatar University dur-ing the visit of Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Qatar in December last year.

Demirok was speaking on the sidelines of yesterday’s launch of the Turkish language programme at the Yunus Emre Turkish Cultural Center in Doha.

The ambassador stressed the vital role the Cultural Centre plays in bolstering “people to people rela-tions in the framework of public diplomacy.”

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First Turkish school

to open next week

A two-month campaign to familiarise companies and workers with the new law regulating the entry, exit and residency of expatriates will begin this week.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Joint Human Food Control Committee at the Min-istry of Public Health has set up a work team to develop health control specifications for food.

The committee in its first meeting held recently also decided to restructure the scientific team which is respon-sible for food control and relevant matters.

The committee itself was restructured by Ministerial Decision No. 8/2016 issued by the Minister of Public Health

H E Dr Hanan Mohammad Al Kuwari, including new mem-bers from different ministries and municipalities.

The committee discussed possible means of raising pub-lic awareness on food-related issues and enhancing transpar-ency to confront rumours and wrong information being cir-culated frequently through the social media.

The committee which is responsible for health con-trol at the national level will also play the role as regulat-ing body for food items that are not included in the GCC specifications. It will also take decisions to settle violations

related to quality control and for banning some food items from entering the country, the ministry said yesterday.

The committee will also be responsible for withdrawal of food items from the local mar-ket, gathering information related to foods, coordination of stances in regional and glo-bal platforms.

The committee is headed by Sheikh Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, Director of Public Health at the minis-try. Dr. Mohammed bin Saif Al Kuwari, Assistant Under Secretary of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment (MME), is the vice chairman.

Members include Wasan Abdullah Al Baker, Director of Food Safety and Environmen-tal Health at the Ministry of Public Health, Yousef Saad Al Suwaidi, Director of Consumer Protection and Combating Commercial Fraud Department at the Ministry of Economy and Commerce, Khalid Yousef Al Sulaiti, Health Inspection Spe-cialist and Helal Al Khulaifi, from the Department of Legal Affairs at the Ministry of Public Health, among others.

Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani highlighted the role of the committee in strengthening coordination between the min-istries concerned.

Team to develop food control specificationsDOHA: A new law is in the making to protect the rights of people with disabilities and improve their conditions. This was announced yesterday by the Minister of Trans-port and Communications H E Jassim Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti at the opening of The Second National Autism Forum yesterday. The law is being drafted by the Minis-try of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs.

→ Full report on page 3

New law to protect rights of people with disabilities

Ashghal launches e-Services portalDOHA: The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) launched an e-Services portal that includes 23 services that cus-tomers can easily avail. The services provided by the Customer Zone to Ashghal’s customers can be easily reached and submitted by individuals and businesses through the new portal (customerzone.ashghal.gov.qa).

→ Continued on page 2

QSE’s Exchange Traded Funds to hit

market soon

Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB) H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani receiving the Governor of the Year award for the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region for 2016, at a ceremony held in Washington, yesterday.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Central Bank (QCB) Governor H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saud Al Thani has been presented with the “Governor of the Year” award for the Middle East and North Africa (Mena) region for 2016 by the Emerg-ing Markets Ltd. The awarding ceremony was held in Washington on the sidelines of the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund (IMF), on Saturday.

QCB Governor received the award in recognition of the policies and strat-egies adopted by the central bank in the wake of the global financial crisis, and in addressing the challenges imposed by the declining oil prices. His leadership and policies have contributed to achiev-ing an effective coordination with the government and other regulatory agen-cies in supporting growth and maintaining financial stability in Qatar during those conditions.

Last year, Sheikh Abdullah was awarded the “Central Bank Governor for the Year 2016” by the Union of Arab Banks dur-ing its annual conference in Beirut. Emerging Markets Ltd. is a US based currency dealer, since its inception in 1993. It provides spe-cialized foreign exchange services, for institutional clients only. Emerging Markets Ltd’s clients include the world’s largest, gov-ernmental, corporate and non-governmental organisations.

QCB Governor bags ‘Governor of the Year’ award for Mena region

HOME 02 MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud yesterday attended a dinner banquet hosted by Thailand’s Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha in honour of the delegations participating in the 2nd Asia Cooperation Dialogue Summit. Several heads of states and governments and ministers of Asian countries are attending the summit which opens in Bangkok today. Earlier, Al Mahmoud and his delegation were welcomed at Bangkok International Airport by Thai Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Virasakdi Futrakul, Qatar’s Ambassador to Thailand Sheikh Jassim bin Abdulrahman bin Mohammed Al Thani, officials from the Thai foreign ministry and members of the Qatari Embassy.

Deputy PM in Bangkok

The Lusail Bridge connecting Lagoon Roundabout with Lusail and Onaiza Roundabout has been temporarily opened for traffic until October 17 due to the UCI Road World Championships being hosted by Qatar. Motorists can use it to reach Lagoona Mall, Grand Hyatt Hotel and Legtaifiya areas through Lusail City. The entrance to these areas will be closed for some time this week as part of the championships.

Lusail Bridge temporarily opened

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Public Works Authority (Ash-ghal) has launched an e-Services portal that includes 23 services customers can easily avail.

The services provided by the Customer Zone to Ashghal’s customers can be easily reached and submitted by individuals and businesses through the new portal (custom-erzone.ashghal.gov.qa).

The portal was launched as per the time-line given by Qatar E-Government 2020 Strategy Management Office.

Through the portal, Ashghal aims at enhancing communication and direct inter-action with all customers, who can access

the services by registering on Ashghal’s web-site and move to the Customer Zone Portal or through the portal link that has all informa-tion and services it provides.

The new interface has an organised

and accurate design that enables custom-ers to easily access the services they need. The services, categorised in lists based on their type, includes Roads Services; Drainage Services; Infrastructure Services; in addition to Complaints; Suggestions; Enquiries; and Notifications. The application process is easy and fast; it only requires selecting the serv-ice, clicking on application’s icon and filling the required fields of information.

Documents can also be uploaded and attached with the application to complete the process and submit complete applica-tions electronically.

Roads Services include services and per-mits such as Dedicated Parking Permit; Road Events Permit; Scaffolding Permit for Con-tractors; Road Space Booking — for Skip; No-Objection Certificates; Traffic Diversion

Ashghal unveils e-Services portal for customers

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) will attend a meeting of the GCC Undersec-retaries of Tourism Ministries and authorities today.

Representatives of the member states will gather in preparation for a meeting between Tourism Ministers and Chairpersons of Tourism Authorities on Wednesday. The meeting will identify a comprehensive GCC vision and tourism strategy.

The representatives

will also discuss a report on Qatar’s experience in organ-ising and hosting the First Annual GCC Handicrafts Exhi-bition last year and explore ways of enhancing coopera-tion in the field of exhibitions and conferences.

The five-day exhibition at the Sheraton Doha Hotel last October was organised under the theme ‘Woven with the Thread of Heritage’ under the patronage of the GCC Min-isters of Tourism. It was held on the sidelines of the Sec-ond GCC Tourism Ministerial Meeting and showcased works of 30 craftsmen from the GCC.

Aimed at portraying GCC culture and heritage, the event came after an initial agree-ment during the first GCC Tourism Ministerial Meet-ing in Kuwait in 2014. Qatar hosted the previous round of meetings between tour-ism officials last year, the main outcome of which was a decision to celebrate a Gulf Capital of Tourism, begin-ning with Manama. The initiative also aims at high-lighting tourism offerings in each of the member state and raising awareness about the importance of developing the tourism industry.

The new interface has an organised and accurate design that enables customers to easily access the services, categorised in lists based on their type.

QTA to attend GCC tourism meet today

Plan; Directional Signage Request; Street Light Installation Request; Practical Completion Certificate Request; Removal/Relocation of Street Light Request; and Speed Hump Application.

Grease Trap Permit; Groundwater Dewa-tering Permit; Treated Sewage Effluent Tankers Permit; Tankers Permit; Treated Sew-age Effluent — New Connections are available under Drainage services.

Infrastructure Services include Plot Demarcation; Road Level Enquiry; and House Connections to Drainage Networks.

Customers can also provide opinions that would help Ashghal improve and enhance its services and the projects it implements through Suggestion service, while through Enquiry service, customers can request data or information related to Ashghal or any of its services. They can submit a complaint related to any problem in any of Ashghal projects or services on Complaints forum.

Through Notification service, they can submit a notification or information about of any problem, failure, or issue that might affect Ashghal or any of its services or projects and for corrective actions. Notifications are not related to a personal matter but rather to matters that may cause traffic accidents, injuries to others or bad practice by Ashghal’s workers or contractors.

HOME 03 MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

The Mega Draw of Lulu-Unilever Promotion was held at Lulu Hypermarket, D-Ring Road branch, under the supervision of Faisal Al Shumarry, Inspector from the Ministry of Commerce and Economy. A total of 100 winners were chosen for Lulu gift vouchers worth QR150,000 as prizes. Lulu and Unilever officials were present.

Lulu-Unilever Promotion winners named

By Amna Pervaiz Rao The Peninsula

DOHA: A new law is in the making to protect the rights of people with disabilities and improve their conditions.

This was announced yester-day by the Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti at the opening of The Second National Autism Forum yesterday.

The law is being drafted by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs.

He said the Ministry will distribute a monitoring device to help parents of autistic children to monitor their kids’ movement all the time to save them from any accident.

The Ministry, in collab-oration with the Ministry of Culture and Sports, would pro-vide customised stadiums for children with disabilities as part of efforts to integrate them in other sections of society, Al Sulaiti said

“There is a plan to expand Qatar Assistive Technology Center (Mada) that will be

announced by the beginning of next year within the annual plan of the Ministry,” he said.

“To accommodate large number of people with dis-abilities, the Ministry has programmes and initiatives to support vulnerable sections of the community. It will support people with disabilities through Mada, which is not only merg-ing them within the community, but also exploring their talents and giving them training in line with the requirements of Qatar National Vision 2030,” Al Sulaiti said.

It is important to support people with disabilities, espe-cially those who have “autism.” This support requires collec-tive efforts by the Ministry of Transport and Communication, the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social

Affairs and the Ministry of Pub-lic Health.

These ministries are work-ing together to support this section of the community and provide technology that can help children with disabilities, especially with autism.

Fatima Al Sulaiti, Chair, Qatar Autism Families Asso-ciation, said: “Families with children suffering from autism face severe challenges. When parents get to know about the symptoms of autism, they should get early check-up for their children. From the begin-ning parents should provide a proper treatment for the con-dition of their kids and proper education for them to avoid dif-ficulties in the future.”

The Mada forum is being held under the patronage of the Ministry of Transport

and Communications under the theme ‘Challenges & Achievements’.

Maha Al Mansoori, CEO, Mada, also attended the open-ing of the forum.

The three-day aware-ness event tackles key topics related to autism, including its definitions, diagnosis and char-acteristics and some of the facts and common misconceptions.

The forum features educa-tors, researchers and specialists who will share insight from scientific and educational standpoints. Topics include genetics of autism; family lives; strategies and approaches; prac-tical information and tips on challenging autism behaviours; fundamental parenting tools for positive behaviours; and tips to develop autistic children’s com-munication skills, among others.

DOHA: Qatar yesterday expressed condemnation and denunciation of the bombing, which targeted a gendarmerie station in Hakkari Province in southeastern Turkey, killing 18 people and wounding many.

In a statement, the Foreign Ministry stressed Qatar’s soli-darity with the fraternal Republic of Turkey in all procedures and measures to address heinous criminal acts and maintain the country’s security and stability of the country.

The Ministry also reiterated Qatar’s stance rejecting violence and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations whatever their motives and causes.

The Ministry also expressed condolences to the Turkish gov-ernment and people, wishing the injured a speedy recovery, reports QNA.

The Peninsula

DOHA: An official source at the Ministry of Munici-pality and Environment has denied reports appearing on social media placing Qatar among countries with heavy air pollution.

He said what has been posted by World Health Organisation (WHO) on its site was simply about the concentration levels of fine particles in the air and not about environmental pollution, and the rankings of countries based on pollution have not been issued yet by the international body. He said what has been released by WHO was about concentration levels of fine particles in the air and Qatar has ranked 41st among the countries on that chart.

WHO has said: “We should not accept any clas-sifications or comparison of air pollution among countries due to the difference of their geographical location and population density and other reasons.”

The environmental sector mentions that the Mid-dle East has a high average of dust spread due its nature, wind and desert areas.

Device to protect autistic kidsThe Minister announces plans to provide monitoring devices to parents and customised stadiums to help children with disabilities integrate in society.

Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti and other officials touring stalls after the opening of the Second National Autism Forum yesterday.

Qatar condemns

Turkey blastMinistry denies air

pollution reports

HOME04 MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Serv-ices (RAF) has dispatched the second caravan of 108 trucks carrying 3,200 tonnes of flour to Syria for internally displaced people.

The flour bags will be distrib-uted to the bakeries run by charity organisations at the refugee camps housing Syrian citizens in neighbor-ing countries.

Phase-II project of the initiative “Nuinu Bitahin” (We support with flour) is being implemented at a cost of QR3.1m to provide bread free of cost to the beneficiaries.

More than 55,000 internally displaced people and refugees shel-tering in neighbouring countries of Syria are expected to benefit from the project on a daily basis for two months.

The caravan moved from the humanitarian works coordina-tion centre for Syrian people in Al Raihaniya city of Turkey. Some 375 tonnes of flour will be distributed to charitable bakeries for Syrian

refugees inside Turkey. And 2,889 tonnes of flour will be provided to bakeries run by RAF and other char-ity and humanitarian organisations inside Syria.

A ceremony was held to dispatch the trucks, which was attended by Dr Ayed bin Dabssan Al Qahtani, Chair-man, Board of Trustees and General Director, RAF, and Dr Mohammad Salah Ibrahim, Deputy General Director, RAF, Ahamd Yusuf Fakhro,

Head of Financial Resources and Media, RAF, and Yavuz Dede, General Secretary of Turkish humanitarian organisation IHH, the strategic part-ner of RAF. “The project is meant to send a message that Qatari people will keep supporting their brothers in war-torn Syria, said Al Ibrhaim.

They have been providing humanitarian aid and other nec-essary things far last six years and it will be continue, he added. The

money for the project was collected from people in Qatar as donations.

Bags of flour will also be dis-tributed to bakeries providing bread free of cost to the displaced people in towns and villages. It is expected to benefit more than three million dis-placed people and those affected by the war from the project. The project is the brainchild of a representative of Sufra Al Rahma (Ambassadors of mercy) during his visit to Turkey.

RAF sends more than 3,200 tonnes of flour to Syria

Officials from RAF and Turkish humanitarian organisation IHH posing in front of trucks carrying 3,200 tonnes of flour from Turkey to Syria.

Mall of Qatar to open on December 10 The Peninsula

DOHA: Mall of Qatar yesterday announced it had moved its soft opening to December 10.

This new date will not only be significant to everyone in Qatar as it is just a week before Qatar National Day, but it will also ensure a higher percentage of fitted out shops for a more com-prehensive list of offerings that will delight customers from the first moment they set foot inside the Nation’s Mall.

“We are just as eager to open our doors and welcome our very first visitors and give them the experience that we have prom-ised. Our proposition has to ensure that all our visitors get what they are looking for and so much more from their very first interaction with Mall of Qatar. As a result, we have taken the deci-sion to move our soft launch date to ensure that a certain number of key offerings and facilities will be available at launch,” said Rony Mourani, General Manager, Mall of Qatar.

With the recent award of their building completion certificate, that verifies and ensures the Mall of Qatar readiness, the additional time given to the tenants will guarantee visitors receive only the best that Mall of Qatar has to offer.

Restaurant shutfor violationsDOHA: The Health Monitoring Section of Doha Municipality yesterday shut down a restau-rant at the Old Airport area for 30 days for selling food prepared in unhealthy conditions.

The Municipality’s inspec-tors also caught a supermarket in Al Najma area and a sweets and chocolate shop in Al Saad selling expired food. Legal pro-cedures against both outlets were initiated.

Al Shamal Municipality served a partial closure notice on a hypermarket in Al Shamal for seven days for displaying food unfit for human consumption.

The Doha Municipality, in collaboration with Al Fazaa Police Department and Pub-lic Cleaning Department, has caught 25 street vendors vio-lating laws during raids in the Industrial Area. Ali Al Hajri, the chief of Public Monitoring Sec-tion, said that the campaign will continue in collaboration with the concerned authorities.

Job contract to define relations between company and employees

→ Continued from page 1Under the new law, the job contract to be signed by

every expatriate worker with his employer will rule the relation between the two sides.

An exit permit from the sponsor will no more be required for an expatriate worker to leave the country. However, he will need a permission from the depart-ments concerned at the Ministry of Interior.

The law has removed the two-year period required for an expatriate worker to return to the country to take up a new job, after his departure.

The law also allows expatriate workers to change jobs subject to conditions.

The new law has raised the fine on employees for keeping the passports of expatriate employees from QR10,000 to QR25,000 for each passport.

Hailing the ministry initiative, Ahmed Al Khalaf, a prominent Qatari businessman said that the new law will help create a balance in the job market and ensure mobility of workforce.

“ The contract system that will replace the Kafala one is the most common system in many parts of the world. It represents a good progress in the work envi-ronment in Qatar because it will create a balanced relation between the employer and employees. It is also going to relieve companies from keeping big number of workers under their sponsorship. It will eventually benefit the Qatari job market.”

He said, with the new law, companies can allow their extra workers to move to other companies and save the money and efforts in sending them home on their expense.

“The law will also help eliminate run away and illegal workers,” said Al Khalaf.

He, however, noted that transferring workers from one company to another may create conflict of interest in some cases, especially when senior employees like directors and managers are involved and this aspect should be taken into account.

60 students enrol in 4-month course

→ Continued from page 1

He considers the launch of the Turkish language course as a “very important step to further enhanc-ing the relations between the two countries.”

“There is a huge demand in the Qatari society and the expatri-ate community towards learning Turkish and we take this chance to thank our government and the Qatari government who provided this opportunity.”

The Centre will not be limited to teaching the Turkish language. It will also organise other cultural events as well as arts and crafts activities,

said the ambassador, underscoring the importance of promoting Turk-ish culture to the host country.

“Turkish culture is a rich culture and has a huge similarity with Ara-bic culture. That’s why we would like to promote it in Qatar. We are invit-ing our Qatari brothers and sisters to come and learn Turkish language and culture,” he said.

A total of 60 students have enrolled in the four-month course and the embassy is open to the idea of moving to a bigger building as the number of students increases in the future, said the ambassador.

The cultural centre was named after Yunus Emre, a Sufi poet who

lived in Anatolia between 13th to 14th centuries, considered one of the greatest poets. It was established by the Yunus Emre Institute, founded in Turkey in 2009, and is consid-ered one of the most important and prominent cultural institutes, said Dr Mehmet Aykac, Institute Manager.

“Yunus Emre Institute is the offi-cial Turkish institution established in order to promote Turkish language, history and culture. It is an interna-tional institute aimed at advancing friendly relations with other coun-tries and we believe that our centre in Doha will develop positive rela-tions with Qatar through exchange in culture and arts sphere,” said Aykac.

HMC to host Arab Paediatric Pulmonology CongressThe Peninsula

DOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation is set to host the 4th Arab Paediat-ric Pulmonology Association (APPA) Congress in Doha from 17 to 19 November. This will be the first time the congress has taken place in Qatar.

The congress, which will offer valuable medical updates and scientific insights on pediatric pulmonology, will also provide a unique opportunity for delegates to network with peers and learn from the varying experiences in differ-ent countries.

The main congress program will take place at Doha’s Sharq Village & Spa, with delegates from Qatar, the GCC region, Arab world and inter-nationally expected to attend.

“The Arab Pediatric Pulmon-ology Association Congress is one of the leading events of its kind in the GCC and the Arab world. Each year leaders in the field of pediat-ric pulmonology come together to share the latest medical updates and research,” said Senior Consultant and Division Chief, Pediatric Pulmonol-ogy at HMC, and founding member of APPA, Professor Ibrahim A Janahi.

“Paediatric pulmonologists play

a vital role in caring for children with lung conditions. In Qatar, the wider GCC region and the Arab world, we see many cases of children with asthma, chronic coughs and breath-ing problems. This event provides a unique opportunity for pediatric pulmonologists to strengthen their knowledge and skills so that they are fully equipped to provide the high-est international standards of care to their patients,” explained Prof Janahi.

Chairman of this year’s Organ-izing Committee and Senior Consultant Pediatric Pulmonology at HMC, Dr. Muna Maarafiya, high-lighted the strength of the program for the congress: “I am delighted with the caliber of speakers we have recruited for this year’s program. Leading local, regional and inter-national pediatric pulmonologists experts will discuss a wide range of topics during the three-day event.”

The Organizing Committee would like to invite abstract submissions for poster presentations for the congress. Abstracts in all basic and clinical disciplines related to pediatric pulmo-nology may be submitted. To submit abstracts, and for more information and registration, visit the congress website in the event section on HMC’s main website www.hamad.qa

Phase-II project of the initiative “Nuinu Bitahin” (We support with flour) is being implemented at a cost of QR3.1m.

Turkish Ambassador Ahmet Demirok with other officials and guests during the inauguration of the Turkish language centre at Yunus Emre, Turkish Cultural Centre, yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

HOME 05MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

President of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, Tran Dai Quang, has received the credentials of Mohammed Ismail Al Emadi, as Qatar’s Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary Ambassador to the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. The Ambassador conveyed the greetings of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the Vietnamese President.

New Qatari envoy in Vietnam

By Mohammed Osman

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Education and Higher Education has recruited 190 new teachers for Independent schools for the new academic year, including 55 Qataris, said a senior official.

No new teachers have been recruited from abroad this year. However, 40 of the new teachers are from Jordan and Gaza who had passed the screening and inter-views last year, said Ali Abdullah Al Maraghi (pictured), Director of Human Resource and Administra-tion at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

They are teachers of science who had passed interviews with out-standing grades but their papers were not processed last year, he added.

According to Al Maraghi, the

total number of the Ministry’s employees has reached 1,664, including 34 employees of devel-opment projects and 23 seconded from Independent schools. He said the total number of employees in schools has reached 26,632.

In a post on the Ministry’s Face-book account, Al Maraghi said that the total number of staff in the min-istry and independent schools has reached 28,296. Employees of the schools are 26,632 and they include 32 employees of Childhood Center and 141 of Qatar Technical School.

The Department is responsible for recruitment of teachers and staff but the Ministry also cooperates with the Ministry of Administrative Devel-opment, Labour and Social Affairs regarding some positions, he added.

Al Maraghi pointed out that the Ministry has strategic plans to attract more Qataris to the teaching profession by offering them several privileges including monetary and moral incentives and training.

He added that the Ministry has established partnership with the Faculty of Education at Qatar Uni-versity (QU) and has made progress in attracting Qataris to the teach-ing profession to contribute to the achievement of Qatar National Vision 2030. The Ministry is also cooperating with Qatar Finance and Business Academy (QFBA) to train employees of the ministry.

QFBA conducted in September a training programme on crisis man-agement which was attended by a number of heads of departments and heads of sections and members of the health and safety department of the ministry.

The ministry is also cooperating with Qatar Leadership Center (QLC). The QLC yesterday launched a four-day training programme for school directors with the aim of improv-ing students› performances and achievements.

QLC was established under the directive of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to be a national platform for leadership excellence, in support of Qatar›s development goals.

Ministry of Educationrecruits 190 teachersFifty-five Qataris among the new teachers but no teachers recruited from abroad this year.

Vodafone launches ‘Smart platinum 7’ smartphoneThe Peninsula

DOHA: Vodafone yesterday announced the launch of the Smart platinum 7, its new flagship smartphone, to mark a decade of creating mobile devices. The device is available in Qatar at all Vodafone retail stores and online at www.vodafone.qa for QR1,599.

Vodafone began creating devices in 2006 to reduce the cost to its customers of owning the latest mobile technology, and to enable them to access well built, slim and sleek handsets and its fast and reliable mobile networks.

The first Vodafone Device was launched in October 2006. The Vodafone 710 was a low cost 3G clamshell feature phone. The Vodafone Devices range now includes 3G and 4G smartphones, tablets, mobile data products and broadband routers. Over 85 mil-lion Vodafone devices have been sold to date.

Vodafone has now leveraged its experience to create its most com-pelling smartphone, the Smart platinum 7. The phone is designed to meet customer requirements for a smartphone that contains the lat-est mobile technology, delivers top class performance and is tuned to the operator’s fast and reliable 4G+ networks. “A growing number of our customers take a closer look at Vodafone Devices when choos-ing a new smartphone because they deliver outstanding quality and value for money, particularly when combined with our Voda-fone Red price plans,” said Patrick Chomet, Group Director of Termi-nals at Vodafone.

The Vodafone Smart platinum 7 contains the latest smartphone technology. Its features include fingerprint sensor placed on the back of the device (in a convenient holding position) for fast activa-tion and added user security.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Public Health has stressed that all brands of imported edible oil are tested and not allowed to be released unless they are safe and fit for human consump-

tion, the Ministry said in its official social media accounts. The Ministry statement came after a video was circulated in social media showing residues inside a vegetable oil.

After checking the contents, spe-cialists at the concerned department said it was clear that the residue did

not come from the oil and that the content of the oil was totally differ-ent from the residue.

The Ministry has urged cus-tomers not to pay attention to such rumours, and to contact the Min-istry in case of any doubts or for enquiries.

QNL announces new Executive DirectorThe Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar National Library (QNL) has announced the appoint-ment of Dr Sohair Wastawy (pictured) to the position of Exec-utive Director. Dr Wastawy brings more than 30 years of international library and university management experience to the position, and has practiced and taught librarianship in Egypt, Saudi Arabia, and the US.

Dr Wastawy worked as Dean of Libraries at Florida Institute of Technology. She held the position of Dean of University Libraries at Illi-nois State University, and was the first Chief Librarian for the new Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt. Dr Wastawy also served as Dean at Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago from 1988 until 2004.

Fahad Saad Al Qahtani, Presi-dent of Community Development at Qatar Foundation, said: “We are delighted to welcome Dr Wastawy as the new Executive Director of Qatar National Library. This is an exciting time for QNL as it pre-pares for the forthcoming opening of the National Library’s new library building designed by architect Rem Koolhaas at Education City.”

All imported edible oil ‘checked for quality’

HOME06 MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

The American School of Doha (ASD) book launch of the fourth and final of the Values Books was attended by Simon Younger, Vice-President of ExxonMobil, Thomas Hawkins, ASD Director and other officials yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

ASD book launch

By Fazeena Saleem

The Peninsula

DOHA: A special training course for healthcare professionals on how to handle any outbreak of infectious disease in the country began yes-terday.

‘Infectious Disease Outbreak Investigation Course’ is being

conducted by Institut Pasteur, an international research institute on science, medicine and public health.

Several healthcare professionals from the Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC)and the Primary Health Care Cor-poration (PHCC) are taking part in the seven-day course being held at the Marriott Marquis-City Center Doha.

The course will focus on ten important steps to be followed during the outbreak of an infectious disease.

The training is being held as part of a five-year agreement signed in January between France-based Insti-tut Pasteur and Ministry of Public Health to develop cooperation and research in the areas of infectious diseases and immunology.

The agreement was developed with inputs from various organisa-tions such as HMC, Qatar Foundation

(QF) and Qatar University (QU).“The agreement was signed to

strengthen collaboration in health services by encouraging collabora-tive approach in education, training and research. Infectious Disease Outbreak Investigation Course is the first step of several educational activities to be conducted between Institut Pasteur and Qatar,” said Dr Mohammed Mohammed Al Hajri, Director of Emergency Preparedness and Response Department, Ministry of Public Health.

Dr Sheikh Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, director of public health, Dr Hamad Al Rumaihi, the director of health protection and combating infectious disease at the Ministry and French Ambassador Eric Chevallier were also present during the opening of the course.

More than 60 international experts attached to the Institute

Pasteur are visiting Qatar and are scheduled to meet with represent-atives of HMC, QF and QU, said Dr Al Hajri.

Speaking about the risk of infec-tious diseases in Qatar, he said prevalence of measles and Tubercu-losis (TB) is high and as the country

is becoming a hub for tourists, the chances of diseases spreading are more.

“Now Qatar is a hub, every dis-ease could come to the country. Also Qataris and residents are also visit-ing other countries, so they can also bring infectious diseases,” Dr Al Hajri

said. “We will start the national vac-

cination campaign for measles next week. TB is a major problem, because many people come here for work from foreign countries . However, we have to be aware of other diseases like malaria,” he added.

Special training course for healthcare professionals

Officials of Institut Pasteur and Ministry of Public Health during the opening of ‘Infectious Disease Outbreak Investigation Course’ yesterday at the Marriott Marquis-City Center Doha.

The Peninsula

DOHA: A panel discussion which shone the spotlight on the challenges documentary filmmaking in the Gulf faces was the highlight of the con-clusion of the three-day ‘Focus on Qatar’ presented by Doha Film Insti-tute (DFI) for the second year.

Speaking at a panel on ‘The State of Documentary in the Gulf,’ Qatari filmmaker Hafiz Ali Ali said that “financing is one of the main chal-lenges for filmmakers.”

On his experience in documen-tary filmmaking, Ali said that he started documentary filmmaking relying on his own sources then on any government entities. He urged for more support from the relevant ministries and government entities, to build on the existing base to create a sustainable film industry.

Emirati poet, scriptwriter and director Nujoom Alghanem said the domination of the television industry in documentary filmmaking makes them lose their creative and aes-thetic style while concentrating on reporting.

“Besides, some social traditions pose challenges for the filmmak-ers and the discontinuation of some regional funding opportunities was also a concern to achieve sustaina-ble growth,” said Alghanem

DFI CEO Fatma Al Remaihi described the role of DFI in sup-porting local filmmaking through year-round activities and training programs, in addition to extend-ing financing support through the Qatari Film Fund that is dedi-cated to Qataris and through DFI’s Grants that is open to filmmakers from across the world. She also highlighted the Institute’s annual film events of Ajyal and Qumra, that provides local filmmakers with a platform to showcase their projects in addition to opportuni-ties at international film festivals.

Jamel Dallali from Al Jazeera

Documentary Channel stressed on the importance of increased collaborations between creative organisations to support films from the region, so “we talk about our own stories rather than staying as con-sumers all the time.” He said that Al-Jazeera Documentary extends support to all documentaries not just for reporting or news based documentaries.

The second discussion on ‘Next Generation of Documentary Film-makers’ was an open forum for local talents Hamida Issa and Rawda Al-Thani, to discuss their experiences throughout the filmmaking process

including writing, directing and edit-ing their films.

The filmmakers showcased trailers of their works in progress and talked about their filmmaking journey, from inspiration and ideas to execution – highlighting their approach to the craft and the chal-lenges they face.

Held from October 5 to 7 at the Museum of Islamic Art, ‘Focus on Qatar’ celebrated local filmmaking talent on the art of documentary. The special showcase of documentaries put the spotlight on homegrown talents that have contributed to the growth of film culture in Qatar.

Finance ‘a major challenge for film makers’

Very few cases of MERS in Qatar

→ Continued from page 1

MERS is viral respiratory ill-ness that was recently recognized in humans. It was first reported in Saudi Arabia in 2012 and has since spread to several other countries, including Qatar. Most people iden-tified as infected with MERS-CoV developed severe acute respiratory illness, including fever, cough, and shortness of breath. In addition to humans, MERS-CoV has been found in camels in several countries.

Since 2012 Qatar has reported more than 15 cases of confirmed cases of MERS-CoV including two this year.

“In Qatar, since 2012 we have had relatively less cases of MERS-CoV. We had taken all needful measures to comabat an outbreak of the disease. We collaborated with Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) to com-bat MERS-CoV. We were the first in the region to do research on MERS-CoV and collaborate with WHO,” said Dr Al Hajri.

“Our transparency and will-ingness to prevent MERS-CoV helped us in combating the dis-ease. We are still doing research , we try to find the original source of MERS-CoV,” he added.

Globally, between September 2012 and February 2016 WHO has been notified of 1,769 laboratory-confirmed cases of infection with MERS-CoV, including at least 630 related deaths.

Chairman of the Qatari National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Dr Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri with Chairman of the State Council in the Sultanate of Oman Dr Yahya bin Mahfoudh Al Manthri.

NHRC chief meets Oman official

QNA

ALGIERS: The Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Major Gen-eral (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen Al Ghanem conferred yesterday with Lieutenant General Ahmed Gaid Salah, Deputy Minister of National Defence, Chief of Staff of People’s

National Army in Algeria.During the meeting, they

reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them, especially in military fields. Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Major General arrived in Algeria earlier yesterday on an official visit at the invitation of his Algerian counterpart.

The course will focus on ten important steps to be followed during the outbreak of an infectious disease.

Armed Forces Chief meetsAlgerian Deputy Minister

A panel discussion on ‘The State of Documentary in the Gulf’ held at the Museum of Islamic Art auditorium as a highlight of the second edition of ‘Focus on Qatar’.

Arab forum on building statistical capacityThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) will organize the Arab Forum on Building Statistical Capacity for a Data Revolution, in collaboration with the Partnership in Statistics for Development in the 21st Century (PARIS21) and the GCC-Stat Centre. The forum will be held at St Regis Hotel on October 10-11 and will be attended by a

number of ministers and heads of relevant national institutions. Participants will include Dr. Johannes Jütting, Manager of (PARIS21), and HE Saber Said Al Harbi, Director General of GCC-Stat Centre, as well as high-ranking officials from the State of Qatar and other Arab and foreign countries. This includes rep-resentatives of the ministries of planning, statistics, and development in the region, and those involved in the implementation of the 2030 Agenda for Sus-tainable Development.

MIDDLE EAST 07MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

Israeli minister urges

pardon for soldier

who killed Palestinian

JERUSALEM: Israel’s Educa-tion Minister Naftali Bennett demanded an amnesty for a soldier accused of killing a Pal-estinian who was lying wounded after stabbing another soldier in the occupied West Bank. The case has stirred controversy and rocked Israeli politics, with the far right defending the soldier, French-Israeli national Elor Azaria, and the military putting him on trial for manslaughter. “This soldier should not spend a single day in prison. If he is found guilty, he should immediately be pardoned,” Bennett told military radio yesterday.

Gunman shoots dead

two in Jerusalem

JERUSALEM: A Palestinian opened fire from a car in Jeru-salem as Israeli police chased him, killing an officer and a woman, officials said, as fears grew of a new spike in violence. The gunman, reportedly sched-uled to begin a prison term the same day, was killed soon after carrying out the attack near police headquarters, close to the line dividing mainly Pal-estinian east Jerusalem from the city’s mostly Jewish west-ern sector.

Aleppo assault continues

after UN fails on truce

BEIRUT: Syrian government forces yesterday kept up their blistering assault on rebel-held eastern Aleppo after a divided UN Security Council failed to agree on a truce to save the war-battered city. Regime forces and their allies were advancing street by street in the eastern sector which has been out of government hands since 2012.

AFP

SANA’A: The Saudi-led coalition fighting rebels in Yemen said yes-terday it will investigate an air raid that killed more than 140 people at a funeral, after Washington announced it was reviewing support for the alli-ance.

The Iran-backed Houthi rebels blamed the coalition for Satur-day’s attack, one of the deadliest since it launched a military cam-paign against the Shia insurgents in March 2015.

The attack could further sour US-Saudi ties already strained over the coalition’s military interven-tion which is suspected of causing almost half of the more than 4,000 civilian deaths in Yemen’s conflict. It also risks embarrassing Washington, which has vehemently criticised Mos-cow over the heavy civilian death toll from Russian air raids in support of Syria’s regime in Aleppo city.

After initially denying any responsibility, the coalition said it was ready to launch a probe into the “regrettable and painful” strike, which the UN said also wounded more than 525 people.

“The coalition will immedi-ately investigate this case along with... experts from the United States who participated in previous

investigations,” it said. “The coa-lition is also willing to provide the investigation team with any data and information related to its military operations today, at the incident’s location and the surrounding areas.”

UN chief Ban Ki-Moon demanded a “prompt and impartial” probe.

“Those responsible for the attack must be brought to justice,” he said.

The Houthis accused the coali-tion of a “massacre”, saying its planes hit a gathering of hundreds mourn-ing the death of the father of rebel interior minister Jalal Al Rowaishan. They did not say if Rowaishan was in the building at the time, nor did they indicate if other senior figures were attending the funeral.

But Sana’a mayor Abdel Qader Hilal was among those killed, said the rebels’ Almasirah television.

Thousands of angry protesters took to the streets of Sana’a yester-day, chanting slogans against the coalition and the United States. Riy-adh’s key ally Washington said it had

launched an “immediate review” of support to the Arab coalition.

“We are deeply disturbed by reports of today’s air strike on a funeral hall in Yemen, which, if confirmed, would continue the troubling series of attacks striking Yemeni civilians,” said White House National Security Council spokes-man Ned Price.

“In light of this and other recent incidents, we have initiated an imme-diate review of our already significantly reduced support to the Saudi-led coa-lition and are prepared to adjust our support so as to better align with US principles, values and interests.

“US security cooperation with Saudi Arabia is not a blank cheque,” Price said, and called for an “imme-diate” ceasefire. In August, the US military announced it had slashed its number of intelligence advisers supporting the coalition following concerns over civilian casualties.

In September 2015, a suspected coalition strike killed at least 131

civilians at a wedding near the Red Sea city of Mokha.

The Saudi-led alliance denied any involvement.

And in March this year, Saudi-led air raids on a market killed at least 119 people, including 106 civilians, of which 24 were children, in the north-ern rebel-held province of Hajja.

In an initial statement, the Saudi-led coalition said it had no operations at the location and “other causes” for the incident must be considered. The coalition “has in the past avoided such gatherings and (they) have never been a subject of targeting”, it said.

In its latest statement, however, the coalition expressed its “deep-est condolences and support to the families of the victims of hostilities since the coup takeover of power in Yemen during 2014”. The Houthis swept into Sana’a in September 2014 and advanced across much of Yemen, forcing the internationally recognised government of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi to flee.

Coalition to probe Yemen funeral carnage

Reuters

DIYARBAKIR, TURKEY: Eighteen people were killed yesterday when a van packed with five tonnes of explo-sives blew up in Turkey’s restive southeast in an attack blamed on Kurd-ish militants, the prime minister said. The bombing, which killed 10 sol-diers and eight civilians, was one of the most deadly attacks on Turkish security forces since the attempted coup of July 15 when a rogue mili-tary faction tried to oust President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The blast hit the Durak gendarmerie station, 20km from the town of Semdinli, in a moun-tainous part of Hakkari province near

the border with Iraq and Iran, where Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) mil-itants are active. Soldiers looked on as locals wandered amid mangled wreckage and debris from the explo-sion at a checkpoint where vehicle searches are conducted, video foot-age on CNN Turk showed.

Authorities were on high alert for possible attacks, 18 years to the day since PKK leader Abdullah Ocalan fled Syria before being captured by Turkish special forces. He has since been in prison on an island near Istanbul. On Saturday, a man and a woman who authorities suspect were PKK militants preparing a car bomb attack, detonated explosives and killed themselves near the capi-tal Ankara in a stand-off with police.

The coalition expressed its “deepest condolences and support to the families of the victims of hostilities since the coup takeover of power in Yemen during 2014”.

10 soldiers among 18 dead

in Turkey car bomb attack

Smoke billows after Kurdish militants detonated a car bomb outside a military station in Semdinli near the border with Iraq, yesterday.

VIEWS08 MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

The killing of two Israelis by a Palestinian should jolt the Israeli leadership from its false sense of security. The government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu believes that Israel can live peacefully forever without making peace with Palestinians. A number of factors

are contributing to this false belief: the death of the peace process, the failure of Palestinians to push their case and the deep divisions in their ranks and the leadership, the silence of the international community, especially the Western powers, towards the Israeli aggressions and finally, the civil wars in the Arab world, especially in Syria, which has hugely distracted the attention of the world.

The killing yesterday shows that the current status quo is untenable. Two Israelis were killed and six injured in a drive-by shooting at a Jerusalem tram stop near the Israeli police headquarters. The gunman was killed by police. The attack took

place in an area that has been the site of a number of attacks over the last two years. It is close to the line dividing mainly Palestinian east Jerusalem from the mostly Jewish western side of the city. Violence doesn’t help, and can only hinder peace. Israel says that anti-Israeli incitement by Palestinian officials and on social media networks is stoking these attacks. That could be true, but the incitement is the result of despair and helplessness. This despair is continuing to build up, and one day will explode, shattering the thin membrane of peace.

These lone attacks are individual explosions of anger. Palestinians, acting alone and with rudimentary

weapons, have killed at least 33 Israelis. There had been a lull in these incidents, but recent weeks have again seen an escalation. And Israel has reacted violently to these attacks -- about 218 Palestinians have been killed during this period.

The current peace which Israel is enjoying is not the result of its policies or due to the abandonment of the demand for a two-state solution by the Palestinians. It’s the result of Israel’s suppression and the use of brutal force by the military. Palestinians have the right to resistance as long as their rights are trampled on by the Israeli authorities.

The peace process is dead, and no sincere efforts are being made to resuscitate it. With the US preparing for a presidential poll, and the next president, whether Democrat or Republican, likely to follow a more pro-Israeli policy, the mood in the Arab and Palestinian camp is sullen. The onus is on Palestinians to draw up a new and effective strategy that takes into account the new global and regional realities. The first step towards strategy must be unity. The Palestinian movement would have achieved far more had they been not divided.

Attack in Jerusalem

The Palestinian peace process is dead, and no sincere efforts are being made to resuscitate it.

Quote of the day

The population of heavily bombarded eastern Aleppo are today the victims of war crimes. Those who commit these acts will be held responsible, including before the International Criminal Court.

Francois HollandeFrench President

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There’s lots of talk about Plan B in Wash-ington as the Obama administration looks for alternatives to its

failed Syria policy. The same goes for various other parts of the region, where the adminis-tration is floating ideas about a potential last-minute change of strategy.

Whether in Syria or Pales-tine - and even Iraq, Libya and Yemen - the United States has seen its hopes dashed, its advice ignored, its red lines violated, and its warnings and ultimatums ridiculed.

US President Barack Obama says he’s haunted by Syria; that he’s daunted by a repeat of the Libya intervention (which he sees as his biggest failure); that he’s troubled by Israel’s settlement activities in occupied Palestine, among others.

But he remains adamant that there isn’t much he could have done to produce better results in a region that, in his words, is “going through a transformation that will play out for a generation, rooted in conflicts that date back millennia”.

This is of course a cop-out, and he knows it. These are mostly contemporary conflicts exacerbated by regional and foreign powers, especially by his predecessors.

Be that as it may, the Obama administration is now looking for ways to save face and perhaps regain the initiative in the Mid-dle East. But what went wrong in the first place?

Obama had distinguished himself from his predecessor by taking the pragmatic path forward in order to chart new relationships in the Middle East.

He favoured working with the Europeans in Libya, with Iran in Iraq, with Russia in Syria and with Benjamin Netanyahu in Palestine.

But Obama’s bet on Netan-yahu, Vladimir Putin and Hassan Rouhani backfired when they

acted in their own - and not Washington’s - best interests. The American president was also disappointed by the performance of Francois Hollande and David Cameron in Libya.

The Obama administration invested huge political capi-tal in reaching the Iran nuclear deal, but it lost pretty much eve-rything else. It has come out empty-handed in terms of bet-ter alliances, with its credibility compromised and its deterrence weakened.

Obama’s aversion to get-ting involved in Middle East affairs has allowed others to do just that: Iran took advantage of the US withdrawal to enforce its own presence in Iraq; Russia took advantage of the US reluctance to intervene in Syria to deploy its military last year. And Israel expanded its presence in Pal-estine despite US appeals and objections. To reason with them, Obama dispatched his chatty Secretary of State John Kerry, knowing all too well he had little or no chance of succeeding with-out strategic leverage.

But if Kerry were to succeed, Plan B should have been an inte-gral part of Plan A: an explicit and credible escalatory threat to coerce his adversaries to accept his proposition. In that way, Plan B should be more of an ultima-tum than an alternative.

Not having a Plan B ready is bad diplomacy. Threatening to use a hypothetical one is plain stupid. Resorting to Plan B as a mere afterthought to save face is dangerously naive.

Unfortunately, Obama’s Plan B seems to be just that: an afterthought.

A No-Fly-zone in Syria is too late in the game; one or two years too late. With the Russian military

well-positioned in Syria, such a plan could trigger a major con-frontation or further accelerate the Putin-Assad plans to raze Aleppo.

Likewise, training the Syrian opposition to use advanced weap-ons, which remains far-fetched, would lead to more bloodshed, certainly not in the absence of a comprehensive strategy to deal with Moscow and Tehran. After hundreds of thousands of deaths, Plan B can’t be fighting the Rus-sians until the last Syrian. That seems to be Russia’s endgame to humiliate the US.

In Iraq, the Obama admin-istration failed to respond early and adequately to the deepening sectarianism of the Iran-backed government that led to the rise of ISIL (also known as ISIS).

Moreover, Washington’s appeasement of Tehran to secure the nuclear deal didn’t result in better relations, as Iran contin-ued to expand its influence over Iraq and Syria as it leaned closer towards Russia.

Now Washington is trying to regain the initiative by arm-ing various Kurdish forces and deploying more forces against ISIL, all of which is alienating Turkey without curbing Iranian influence in Iraq and Syria.

Likewise in Israel and Pales-tine. It’s too late for the Obama administration to devise a new plan to deal with Israel’s contin-ued illegal settlements after the White House agreed to a $38bn aid package for Israel. It simply has no leverage.

There is also talk of the US sponsoring a UN Security Council resolution setting the guidelines for resolving the Israel-Palestine “issue”.

But why would the admin-istration that did nothing of substance to advance the cause of peace and freedom in Palestine suddenly want to decide the con-tours of its final solution?

Could Obama act without Clinton’s consent come Novem-ber? This promises to be a terrible draft resolution. But I’d be more than happy to be proven wrong.

It’s clear the Obama admin-istration has no time left to take on new plans or strategies. It’s just playing on the lost time until Jan-uary 20, 2017.

Obama might have had better intentions and better reason than his predecessors (and successor), but for a leader who prides him-self on thinking things through and asking “why, how and what then?”, he sure underestimated his adversaries.

Just as it inherited a cha-otic region with diminished US influence in 2008, so the Obama administration will leave behind a violent and unstable region for the next administration to deal with.

And it will do so from an even weaker position than its prede-cessors because Washington’s adversaries are emboldened with no incentive to let go, and its allies are disenchanted with little rea-son to hang their hopes on the next president.

US-Middle East: Plan B stands for bankruptcy

By Dr Can Kasapoglu Al Jazeera

The Obama administration is looking for ways to save face in the Middle East - but what went wrong in the first place?

The sun sets over Aleppo, as seen from rebel held Syrian city.

OPINION 09MONDAY 10 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.

US forces increasing Iraq footprint in Mosul

By Susannah George

AP

Thirteen years ago, Chase Snow’s father was among the American troops who moved into the Iraqi city of Mosul during the US-led invasion

that toppled Saddam Hussein. Now Snow, a US Army specialist, is deployed in Iraq to help in the fight to retake the city from the Islamic State group.

The assault on Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, is bringing American forces into their most significant role in Iraq in years, in terms of numbers and presence on the front lines.

The lead-up to the assault has already brought some US forces into combat with the militants. Special forces carry out raids alongside Iraqi troops inside IS-held territory around Mosul. And now as Iraqi forces prepare for the operation to retake the city, those raids have increased in frequency, accord-ing to a coalition official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to brief the media.

The US has also sent Apache helicop-ters to aid in the Mosul fight, according to the Pentagon, a step that was not taken when Iraqi forces retook the western cit-ies of Ramadi and Fallujah.

The number of US troops in Iraq has steadily grown over the past two years to now nearly 6,000 service members, up from almost none following the 2011 withdrawal from Iraq. The latest group, numbering nearly 600, began to deploy in September to Qayara air base, the facility 30 miles south of Mosul that is to be the main staging ground for the assault on the city. Trucks have been roll-ing in the base for weeks with supplies and equipment, preparing it so coalition warplanes will be able to operate there.

“You’ve got to look at Mosul as the

crown jewel right now,” said Maj. Gen. Gary Volesky, the head of US ground forces in Iraq, regarding the build-up of forces. The deployments have “all been targeted to assist in the Mosul attack.”

Besides the hundreds of special forces, most of the American personnel operate back from the front lines, coordi-nating coalition airstrikes, tracking Iraqi ground troops, sharing intelligence and helping plan operations.

Snow, from Nashville, Tennessee, with the 101st Airborne Division, is advis-ing Iraqi officers carrying out the Mosul operation. His father was also with the 101st in Mosul in 2003. Now on Snow’s Iraq deployment, he carries the same American flag his father kept with him on all of his tours and his father’s good luck charm: a St. Michael prayer card.

“I know my father never thought I would be coming to Iraq,” Snow said

US presence at bases closer to Mosul in the lead up to operation is “essential” to the advise-and-assist mission, said US Army Col. Brett Sylvia, the commanding officer at Camp Swift, a small coalition base outside Makhmour, some 73 kilo-metres southeast of Mosul.

“If you’re not there, then you don’t have a voice,” Sylvia said, standing in front of the bank of televisions and desk-top monitors that he says constitutes the forward edge of the battle for his men.

As of last week, there were 4,565 US

troops in Iraq, according to the Pentagon. That doesn’t include another 1,500 troops considered there “on temporary duty,” whose number changes daily, accord-ing to the US officials

US troop levels in Iraq peaked at 157,800 during the 2008 surge under then-President George W Bush, accord-ing to the Pentagon. More than 140,000 US troops were in Iraq when Pres-ident Barack Obama took office in 2009. Obama drew down the forces until the complete withdrawal of late 2011 removed all combat troops from the country, leaving behind only a few hundred US trainers, mainly civilians, to assist Iraqi security forces.

US forces began returning after the Islamic State group overran Mosul in the summer of 2014 and blitzed across much of northern, central and western Iraq, joining it to territory it holds in Syria. Weeks later, President Barack Obama announced the start of the air campaign against the Islamic State. At the time, he underlined that he will not allow the US “to be dragged into fighting another war in Iraq.”

But the US role has steadily grown as Iraqi and Kurdish forces continue to rely heavily on coalition airpower and support in taking back the territory the militant group overran in 2014.

Over the past year, three American service members have been killed by IS

in Iraq, revealing the increasingly active role of US forces in a fight the Pentagon initially refused to describe as combat.

In October 2015, Master Sgt. Joshua Wheeler was killed as he and dozens of other US special forces participated in a raid alongside Iraqi Kurdish forces to free IS-held prisoners.

At the time, Defense secretary Ash Carter said it hadn’t been part of the plan for US forces to engage in combat during that raid and that Wheeler had “rushed to help” when the Kurdish fighters he was with came under attack.

Months later, Marine Staff Sgt. Louis Cardin was killed when IS fighters attacked a fire base near Camp Swift.

By the time of the third American death — Navy SEAL Charles Keating, who was killed in May — Carter imme-diately described it as a combat death. “He was in a firefight and he died in com-bat,” he said.

Carter noted that while the coalition’s overall approach is to enable local forces, “that doesn’t mean we aren’t going to do any fighting at all.”

Iraqi commanders say despite months of training, their men are still almost entirely dependent on coali-tion airpower and intelligence to retake territory.

“If we didn’t have airstrikes we wouldn’t be able to advance,” Iraqi Army Capt. Riad Ghafil with the Nineveh

Operation Command admitted.On a recent day at the Basmaya

base outside Baghdad, Snow attended a graduation ceremony for 1,000 Iraqi soldiers who finished training and will be deployed in the north against IS. About halfway through the long series of speeches, the graduates began fall-ing out of formation and slipping away from the ceremony to escape the mid-day sun. Coalition trainers at the event shook their heads in dismay, explaining that discipline was one of the skills the course focused on.

Throughout the steady intensification of the US war in Iraq over the past two years, coalition and US officials main-tained that ultimately a lasting solution will only come from political change and reconciliation among Iraqi Shi-ites, Sunnis and other communities. But Iraqi political leadership has repeatedly failed to meet benchmarks for political reconciliation.

At Camp Swift, Sylvia said that after his last tour in Baghdad in 2008 he said he never thought he’d be back again. He said he hopes the US doesn’t fully with-draw from Iraq a second time.

“I would like us to have a long-term, engaging relationship with our Iraqi partners,” he said.

“I think there is some admission (among some Iraqis) that it was a mis-take for us to leave.

A file picture shows US Army MRAP (Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected) vehicle traveling near Qayyarah Air Base in northern Iraq.

The nervous breakdown of British politics

By Anne Applebaum

The Washington Post

The vulgarity is missing, as is the celebrity glitz. There aren’t any candidates ranting about

sex tapes and adultery; there are no hacked emails. But even without the drama that only a US election can provide, the crisis is similar: On both ends of the spectrum, the two major British political parties are suddenly suffering from the same kinds of identity crises as their dis-tant American cousins - and with

the same kinds of costs for British democracy.

For most of the past three dec-ades, ever since Margaret Thatcher dragged it out of the shires and onto the international stage, the British Conservative Party has touted itself as the outward-looking, globally trading cheerleader for a country that “punched above its weight.” The party pushed privatisation, lower taxes, lower spending, a smaller state. Some of that language is still there: In her speech at the party’s annual conference this week, Prime Minis-ter Theresa May told her colleagues that “the Britain we build after Brexit is going to be a Global Britain.”

But almost in the next breath, she implied that her country would be severing its links with the Euro-pean Union in a manner that may well result in the construction of new tariff walls and will certainly require prolonged trade negotiations. Later, she threw a few bones to xen-ophobes, hinting she would like to kick out the tens of thousands of for-eign-born doctors who keep the vast

British health service functioning and updating the old “rootless cosmo-politan” slur for a new audience: “If you believe you are a citizen of the world,” she declared, “you are a cit-izen of nowhere.”

One of her Cabinet colleagues then spoke of forcing companies to publish lists of “foreign workers” - presumably this would include the multinational companies and banks that have made London their head-quarters; another described the EU nationals living in Britain as an important bargaining chip in future negotiations - apparently forgetting that Europe, if it wants to, might treat the 1.2 million Britons who live else-where in Europe as bargaining chips, too.

After occupying space formerly controlled by the UK Independence Party, Britain’s far right, the Tories moved to occupy the center-left, too. The idea of the small state has also been summarily scrapped, replaced by the prime minister’s declaration that “the state exists to provide what individual people, communities and

markets cannot.” While this is proba-bly what most Britons think, it wasn’t what the Tory party thought until this week. Offering a softer version of the nationalist populism promised by the far right elsewhere in Europe, May declared that the Tories would become the party of the National Health Service and the party of public servants. She’s also scrapping bal-anced budgets until further notice and will borrow as much as she can as long as she needs to.

Anyone uncomfortable with any part of this message - anyone who doesn’t like the encrypted xeno-phobia, anyone still attached to the Thatcherite ideals of the small state or worried about government bor-rowing, or indeed any member of the 48 percent who voted to keep Brit-ain part of the European Union - is out of luck. Because the opposition Labour Party, transformed under Tony Blair into a centrist party that won three straight general elec-tions, has now been captured by an extremist fringe that is so far outside the centre its leaders no longer seem

interested in parliamentary politics at all. Consumed by infighting, tarred by accusations of anti-Semitism, the party and its strangely detached leader, Jeremy Corbyn, are more interested in fighting Western democracy than authoritarianism, more interested in toeing extremist lines than winning elections.

Ironically, the European refer-endum - a poll that was intended, in the words of its proponent, to make Britain’s Parliament sovereign again - has made British legislators almost irrelevant.

May has declared she will not allow a parliamentary vote on the timing or nature of the British break with the European Union. She will not allow the governments of Scot-land and Northern Ireland, where voters opposed the changes, to have any voice in the process. From now on, the only important political debates in Britain will be the ones that take place within the ruling party. And if that ruling party sud-denly seems unrecognizable - too bad.

The assault on Mosul, Iraq’s second largest city, is bringing American forces into their most significant role in Iraq in years, in terms of numbers and presence on the front lines.

The European referendum - a poll that was intended, in the words of its proponent, to make Britain’s Parliament sovereign again - has made British legislators almost irrelevant.

ASIA / AFRICA10 MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

DiplomacyEthiopia declares state of emergency: Government

Reuters

ADDIS ABABA: Ethiopian Prime Minister Hailemariam Desalegn declared a six-month state of emer-gency yesterday, saying it was to restore order after weeks of pro-tests that have resulted in deaths and damage to mostly foreign-owned

factories and flower farms.Last week, protesters also

destroyed scores of vehicles, add-ing economic casualties to a rising death toll in a wave of unrest over land grabs and rights.

“A state of emergency has been declared because the situation posed a threat against the people of the country,” Hailemariam said.

“The state of emergency is vital. It is essential to restore peace and stability over a short period of time,” he said, adding the ruling Ethiopian People’s Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF) coalition was also looking at reforms, and planning to hold talks with opposition parties.

Hailemariam said the state of emergency was effective from Oct.8.

The violence has put a shadow over a nation where a state-led

industrial drive has created one of Africa’s fastest growing economies, but where the government has also faced rising international criticism and popular opposition to its author-itarian approach to development.

Last Sunday, at least 55 people were killed in a stampede in Ethi-opia’s Oromiya region that was triggered when police used teargas and shot in the air to disperse anti-government protesters at a religious festival.

That has added the toll to more than 450 the number of people rights groups and opponents say have been killed in unrest since 2015. A U.S. researcher was killed on Tues-day when her car was attacked by stone-throwers near Addis Ababa.

The government says the toll cited by critics is inflated.

South African varsities to reopen today

Reuters

ACCRA: Ghana’s main opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo launched a blistering attack on the govern-ment’s economic record yesterday as he released his party’s manifesto at a mass rally ahead of an election on December 7.

Akufo-Addo said President John Mahama had squandered the wealth the country has amassed since it began producing oil in year 2010 and is out of touch with people who have struggled economically since he came to power in 2012.

“President Mahama might not recognise the suffering of the people of Ghana and might not be hearing their cries because he has sadly insu-lated himself from the reality on the ground,” he told a cheering crowd at the Trade Fair in the capital Accra.

“We are offering solutions that will take this country out of the crisis in which we find ourselves,” he said.

Manifestos are key to elections in Ghana, a stable democracy where parties place emphasis on competing policy agendas and ideological dif-ferences. Akufo-Addo said his New

Patriotic Party (NPP) stood for busi-ness and the free market.

Mahama is expected to face a tight contest against Akufo-Addo as he stands for a second and final four-year term.

At the event in Accra, senior NPP officials outlined policy proposals

and Akufo-Addo focused on what most observers say is his party’s strongest suit, exposing the eco-nomic problems Ghana has faced since Mahama came to power.

In that time, Ghana has lost its reputation as one of Africa’s eco-nomic stars and inflation, the budget deficit and debt have risen sharply while the cedi currency has lost value.

The country has faced a slump in global prices for its exports of gold and oil. Since 2015 the government has also followed a $918m aid deal with the International Monetary Fund to restore economic stability. Ghana is also the world’s number two cocoa producer.

Mahama launched his party’s manifesto last month and said the government has taken tough deci-sions to tackle the economic crisis.

He said that GDP growth will rise to 8 percent by next year from

a forecast 4.1 percent this year.Akufo-Addo was foreign minis-

ter and attorney general during the NPP’s eight years in power from 20 country made significant strides eco-nomically and discovered oil. He lost elections in 2008 and 2012 and sen-ior party officials say this year’s vote will be his last chance at power.

In line with Ghana’s constitution, Mahama became President of Ghana in July 2012 on the death of his pred-ecessor, John Atta Mills.

He became the Ghana’s first president to have served at all lev-els of political office (Ghanaian and Pan-African MP, Deputy Min-ister, Minister, Vice-President and President).

As a result of his elevation to the presidency, Mahama made political history by becoming the first Ghana-ian head of state to have been born after Ghana’s declaration of inde-pendence in March 1957.

Reuters

KIDAL: A Tuareg militant leader in the volatile north Malian city of Kidal was killed yesterday when his car exploded barely 300 metres from a UN base where he had been talking with French and UN troops, a witness and officials said.

A cameraman saw the car still burning after the blast that killed Cheikh Ag Aoussa.

A spokeswoman for the UN Mali mission, Radhia Achouri, confirmed the incident, which is likely to further ignite tensions between rival pro and anti-government factions of ethnic Tuaregs in Kidal.

A spokesman for French forces in Mali did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Tuareg-led Coordination of Azawad Movements (CMA) and rival

pro-government “Gatia” militia fight-ers have clashed sporadically since

a power-sharing deal, in place since February, began to crumble. Up to

20 people were killed in two days of fighting between them in July.

Aoussa was a senior commander in a CMA-allied group.

A security source suggested Aoussa’s death was the accidental result of running over a land mine. But Almou Ag Mohamed, spokesman for his HCUA militant group, said “it is clear an explosive was attached to his vehicle inside the camp.”

The Tuaregs, nomadic pastoral-ists who have for centuries survived off trade crossing the Sahara and connecting Africa’s interior with its Mediterranean coast, were at the heart of a 2012 uprising that threw Mali into chaos.

Their rebellion was swiftly hijacked by jihadists whom the French then intervened in 2013 to chase out.

Mali’s military pulled out of Kidal after clashes between the army and Tuareg rebels killed 50 soldiers there in 2014.

Former Mali rebel leader dies in mine explosion Seoul complains to

China over ‘murder

attempt’ at sea

Anatolia

SEOUL: The South Korean government made an official complaint to China yesterday as it emerged that a coast guard vessel had reportedly sank after being rammed by Chinese fishing boats two days earlier.

While no casualties were reported, a 50-year-old South Korean officer had to be rescued from the water.

The Chinese vessel is reported to have subsequently fled the scene.

According to local media, Seoul’s foreign ministry called in Beijing’s consul general, blaming the incident on illegal fishing by Chinese crews after Incheon Coast Guard claimed the vessels in ques-tion deliberately collided with the much smaller South Korean patrol speedboat.

Coast guard chief Lee Joo-seong condemned the clash as “attempted murder,” and demanded that Chinese authori-ties arrest the two crews directly involved – although there were apparently dozens of unlicensed vessels operating in South Korea’s exclusive economic zone when the incident happened on Friday afternoon.

“China’s i l legal f ishing boats are crossing the line. We are considering using weapons against violent ships, which we have been refraining from, and will not allow such things to happen again,” Lee was quoted as saying by The Korea Herald newspaper.

Seoul and Beijing have plenty of recent diplomatic experience in handling tensions over illegal Yellow Sea fishing.

China’s attempts to appease South Korea have included edu-cating crews.

Men stand near the wreckage of the car of a former Malian rebel group leader Cheikh Ag Aoussa after it hit a mine in Kidal.

Reuters

JOHANNESBURG: Most South Afri-can universities will reopen today despite on-campus clashes between police and students protesters earlier this week, though some, including the University of Cape Town, would remain temporarily shut, media reported.

Demonstrations over the cost of university education, which is prohibitive for many black stu-dents, have highlighted frustration at enduring inequalities more than two decades after the end of apartheid.

Nationwide protests erupted last week while universities were on a study recess, with students demand-ing all universities be shut down

until the government provides free education.

The University of the Witwa-tersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg saw the worst clashes on Tuesday, with students overturning a police car and throwing stones, while police fired tear gas and rubber bullets. During the protest students danced the “toyi-toyi” - a common display of protest throughout decades of strug-gle against white rule.

Wits said in a statement yester-day that it would reopen today on several conditions, with students allowed to protest peacefully only in designated areas.

“We are committed to complet-ing the 2016 academic programme and to ensuring that examinations are written,” Wits said, adding that it has revised its calendar for 2016.

The academic year in South

Africa lasts from February to December.

Other universities set to reopen today after extended recess include Tshwane University of Technology, University of Venda, North West Uni-versity, University of the Free State and Sol Plaatjie University, accord-ing to newspaper City Press.

The University of Cape Town will remain shut down, accoridng to media reports, while the Univer-sity of Pretoria said in a statement it will conduct a meeting between staff and students today in a bid to resolve the standoff.

The government, grappling with a budget deficit of nearly 4 percent of GDP, has capped 2017 fee increases for next year at 8 percent, but warns that education subsidies should not come at the expense of other sectors like health and housing.

Ghana opposition leader attacks govt economic record

The state of emergency is essential to restore peace and stability over a short period of time: PM.

Portuguese Prime Minister Antonio Costa (left) speaks during a joint news conference with Chinese Premier Li Keqiang at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, yesterday.

Merkel heads to Mali on Africa trip focused on security and migrantsAFP

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday left for Mali, the first stop on a three-day Africa tour focused on security and stemming the migrant influx to Europe.

Merkel later heads to Niger and then Ethiopia where she is to visit the African Union headquar-ters in the capital Addis Ababa.

Her talks with leaders of all three countries are to focus on migration issues and the battle against terrorism.

“I believe we must take a far greater interest in Africa’s

destiny,” Merkel said. “The well-being of Africa is in Germany’s interest.”

She earlier told Die Zeit weekly that bringing more stabil-ity to Africa and improving living conditions on the continent would help reduce the numbers of peo-ple seeking to leave.

In Mali, Merkel was also due to visit German troops taking part in the UN peacekeeping opera-tion MINUSMA and the European Union Training Mission in Mali.

The German leader has said that she wants the EU and North African countries to do deals modelled on a controversial agreement with Turkey to curb migrant flows to Europe.

President John Mahama and opposition leader Nana Akufo-Addo

JAKARTA: An Australian and a Briton residing on the resort island of Bali have been arrested on suspicion of possessing hashish, an offence that can incur jail sentences of up to 20 years, Indone-sian police said.

Police found 7.32 grammes of suspected hashish at the residence of the Australian in Sanur. He led them to a Briton, who was found in pos-session of at least 10.09 grammes of hashish, as well as a bong.

Two foreigners

held in Bali for

drug possession

Nigeria seizes

assets of

senior judges

ABUJA: Nigeria’s secret police seized hundreds of thousands of dol-lars in cash and assets in a series of anti-corrup-tion raids targeting senior judges, drawing sharp condemnation from the bar association and rights groups.

During the nation-wide operation, which took place on Saturday, police also detained sev-eral judges.

In a statement, the Department of States Services said it had seized $800,000 in cash.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES 11MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

Dragon dance

BANGKOK: Thailand’s 88-year-old King Bhumi-bol Adulyadej, the world’s longest reigning monarch, is in an unstable condition after receiving haemo-dialysis treatment, the palace said yesterday.

The king has been treated for various ail-ments over the past year at Siriraj Hospital and was last seen in public on Jan-uary 11, when he spent several hours visiting his palace.

The statement was the second health bulletin this month after the pal-ace said on October 1 that the king was recovering.

Thailand king’s

condition unstable

after treatment

US vows to use all tools to isolate North Korea

Reuters and AFP

SEOUL: Washington will use all available means outside the UN Security Council to isolate North Korea over its nuclear weapons pro-gramme and counter its growing threat to world order, the US envoy to the United Nations said yesterday.

The United States will also use its military as a deterrent to the North’s threat, Ambassador Saman-tha Power said, after visiting the heavily armed Demilitarized Zone (DMZ) border between the rival Koreas.

“While Security Council reso-lutions are one tool in our tool box ... we are committed to using all the tools in our tool kit to address this serious threat including the diplomatic pressure that we are

mobilising around the world to con-vince other nations to isolate the regime,” Power said.

Power’s visit to the region, which included a stop in Tokyo last week, comes amid a push for tougher Security Council sanctions after the North’s fifth nuclear test last month in defiance of a series of UN resolutions.

The United States and South Korea have been pushing govern-ments around the world to take unilateral action including discour-aging countries from using North Korean workers and ending visa waivers for North Koreans.

North Korea conducted its fifth and biggest nuclear test on Sep-tember 9 and South Korea has said it believes the North is ready to con-duct another test at any time.

An increase in activity at the North’s nuclear test site could signal preparations for a new test, a US-based monitoring group, 38 North, said on Friday.

The North has defied UN sanc-tions since conducting its firth nuclear test in 2006 and has pressed ahead with the development of weapons programmes including a range of ballistic missiles, which it says it needs for self-defence.

Philippine govt and leftist rebels agree on peace pact framework

Reuters

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian police said yesterday they have arrested 16 people for suspected militant links after a two-week operation across the country.

The arrests were made between September 21 and October 6.

Fifteen were Malaysians and the other was a citizen of a North Afri-can country.

The suspects were aged between 20 and 38 years old.

Fourteen were arrested for sus-pected links to Islamic State and channelling funds to Muhammad Wanndy Muhammad Jedi, who was responsible for a grenade attack on the outskirts of Kuala Lumpur in June, police said in a statement.

Wanndy is a Malaysian known by police to be fighting with Islamic State in Syria.

Another suspect, a Malaysian student, was arrested on arrival at

Kuala Lumpur International Airport. The police said he had travelled to Istanbul with an intention to enter Syria, but was detained by Turkish authorities at the request of Malay-sian police.

The police also said they arrested a citizen of a North African coun-try for suspected links to Jahbat Al Nusra, an Islamic group in Syria. They did not specify which North African country.

The grenade attack on a bar on the outskirts of the Malaysian capital

in June is seen as the Islamist group’s first successful assault in the country.

Authorities in Muslim-major-ity Malaysia have been on high alert since Islamic State-linked militants carried out an armed attack in the capital of neighbouring Indonesia in January.

In late August, Malaysian police arrested three local supporters of Islamic State who had allegedly been planning several attacks in Kuala Lumpur ahead of independ-ence day celebrations.

Suspended

death sentence

for China official

BEIJING: A Chinese court yesterday handed a former top provincial offi-cial a suspended death sentence for bribery, it said, the latest senior politician to be jailed in anti-corruption campaign.

Bai Enpei, the former top Communist Party offi-cial in the southwestern province of Yunnan was handed the sentence for accepting bribes worth more than $36m a court in Anyang city said.

The court said he had accepted bribes in exchange for giving out rights to real estate and mining projects, and political promotions.

Anatolia

ZAMBOANGA CITY: With a new round of peace talks between the Philippines government and com-munist rebel panels entering a third day yesterday, negotiators have agreed on common frameworks and outlines that will comprise the final peace agreement.

The two sides declared indef-inite unilateral ceasefires in first round talks in Oslo in September as part of President Rodrigo Duterte’s efforts to end a conflict that has lasted almost 50 years and killed around 40,000 people.

In a statement emailed to Ana-dolu Agency yesterday, Labour Secretary and government panel chair Silvestre Bello said the com-mon frameworks and outlines had been completed after marathon sessions conducted by the various bodies involved in the talks.

“The efforts extended by the RWC (Reciprocal Working Com-mittee) and RWGs (Reciprocal Working Groups) of both panels are commendable. Exhibiting a great amount of patience, they literally worked round the clock and refused to be stymied by minor differences of opinion,” he said.

Bello said recently a report would be submitted to the nego-tiating panels of the two parties, which will meet yeserday to dis-cuss the agreements for approval before closing the second round of peace talks being held in Asker, a suburb near Oslo.

“It was a roller-coaster ride but in the end, both parties reached their desired destination. Sharing a common vision, they were will-ing to walk the extra mile just to move the peace process forward,” Bello added.

The statement said that as expected, the longest session was reserved for the discussion on the Comprehensive Agreement on Socio-Economic Reforms (CASER), which would eventually tackle the most contentious issues such as agrarian reform, national indus-trialization and foreign policy.

The overall objective set for CASER is the “eradication of Phil-ippine poverty and reduction of inequality in all their aspects and dimensions to have productive, decent and dignified lives.”

Rural equality and development to achieve food self-sufficiency; sovereign, self-reliant and industri-alized national economy; protected and rehabilitated environment, just compensation for affected popula-tions, and sustainable development were the major agreed outcomes for CASER.

The panels also agreed to tackle other issues such as uphold-ing social, economic and cultural rights of the working people; sus-tainable living incomes for all; affordable, accessible and quality social services and utilities; sover-eign foreign economic policies and trade relations supporting rural development and national indus-trialsation; and Monetary and fiscal policy regime for national development.

US Ambassador to the UN Samantha Powers walks with US soldiers away from the military demarcation line during a visit to the south side of the Joint Security Area at the truce village of Panmunjom inside the demilitarised zone which separates North and South Korea, yesterday.

AFP

YANGON: Nine Myanmar police officers were killed in coordinated attacks by insurgents on posts along the border with Bangladesh early yesterday, an official and police said.

No-one has claimed responsi-bility but a senior local Myanmar official pointed the finger at a mili-tant group from the Muslim Rohingya minority that has been dormant for years.

The assaults hit three border posts around 1:30am near Maungdaw in the impoverished western state of Rakhine, simmering with tensions between Buddhists and Muslim Rohingyas, who are forced to live in dire conditions.

“Altogether nine police were killed, four others were injured and one is still missing,” Tin Maung Swe, a

senior official within Rakhine’s state government said.

He added that eight insurgents were also killed in the attacks.

Police in the capital Naypyidaw confirmed the attack and said mul-tiple weapons were seized by the assailants.

Tin Maung Swe said the attackers were “RSO insurgents”, a reference to a group known as the Rohingya Sol-idarity Organisation.

He did not elaborate on how he knew this.

The RSO was a small Rohingya militant group active in the 1980s and 1990s but has not been heard from in nearly two decades.

Rakhine has been effectively split on religious grounds since bouts of communal violence tore through the state in 2012, killing scores and forc-ing tens of thousands to flee.

The Muslim Rohingya are largely confined to camps and face

restrictions which rights groups have likened to apartheid.

Several complex ethnic con-flicts are rumbling across Myanmar’s

borderlands, hampering efforts to build the economy after the end of junta rule.

But compared to the country’s civil

war-ravaged eastern and northern border states, Rakhine has not boasted a significant rebel military presence.

In the last few years, the Arakan Army, a small Buddhist militia which wants an independent homeland in the state, has fought sporadic battles with the military.

Despite their plight the Rohingya do not have a known militant faction fighting for them.

In May, attackers stormed a secu-rity post at a camp for Rohingya refugees in southern Bangladesh, just across the border from Maungdaw.

A Bangladeshi camp commander was shot dead and the attackers made off with weapons.

Police at the time said the Rohingya themselves could be suspects.

In recent years, Bangla-deshi police have also alleged that Rohingya refugees are involved in criminal activities.

Malaysia arrests 16 for suspected militant links

Activity at rocket site fuels test concerns

SEOUL: Analysis published yes-terday of recent satellite images fuelled concerns that North Korea may be on the brink of another nuclear test or long-range rocket launch.

Speculation that Pyongyang is preparing such a show of force has been linked to Monday’s anniver-sary of the founding of the North’s ruling Workers’ Party.

Past nuclear tests and missile launches have often coincided with key political dates. Its fifth nuclear test last month was conducted on the anniversary of North Korea’s founding as a state,

The latest satellite imagery anal-ysis posted by the US-Korea Institute at Johns Hopkins University noted increased activity at the North’s Sohae satellite launch station.

Nine Myanmar police die in attack on Bangladesh border

Chinese Buddhist devotees perform the drangon dance during a street procession marking the Shin Oo Pa Goke Festival, in Yangon, yesterday.

The United States will also use its military as a deterrent to the North’s threat: Envoy

An armed Myanmar border guard secures the camp in Maungdaw near the Bangladesh border yesterday.

PAKISTAN12 MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

Young people shout anti-India slogans during a demonstration in Lahore yesterday in support of Kashmiri Muslims.

Anti-India protestCPEC will lead to elimination of extremism: PM

Internews

LAHORE: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif yesterday said all the prov-inces and regions of the country are included in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) and all of them will be benefited from the project.

The prime minister said CPEC would lead to the elimination of extremism, poverty and unem-ployment from the region, adding that no country except China had ever invested such a large amount in Pakistan.

Nawaz said he was person-ally monitoring the development projects launched in Balochistan, Sindh, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and Punjab for their timely completion as well as ensuring quality and transparency.

Chairing a high-level meeting at the Governor’s House, he said the national economy was becoming stable and the country was eco-nomically stronger and safer than in 2013. The prime minister said the PML-N government had put the national economy on the right track during the last three years

and would facilitate the investors in consultation with the business community.

The meeting was also attended by Governor Rafiq Rajwana, Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, Finance Minister Ishaq Dar, Planning Min-ister Ahsan Iqbal, Water and Power Minister Khawaja Asif, Com-merce Minister Khurram Dastgir, renowned businessmen and offi-cials of the departments concerned.

Nawaz said the government had introduced fundamental reforms to attract more investment as a smooth business system would bring in more investment, ulti-mately creating more employment opportunities.

“We will take the business com-munity on board and consider their recommendations in order to facil-itate ease of doing business,” the prime minister promised.

He said out of $46bn being invested by China, $35bn were to be spent only on power projects which after completion would not only help overcome loadshedding but also provide low-cost electricity.

The prime minister especially mentioned various CPEC projects which are under construction across the country.

The renowned businessmen reposed their full confidence in the steps being taken for promotion of business opportunities in Pakistan.

Sharing their problems with the prime minister, they urged the gov-ernment to carry out tax reforms, cut the tax rates and end dou-ble taxation. They also demanded reduction in power and gas tariffs.

All provinces included in China Pakistan Economic Corridor: Sharif

Eight dead after army helicopter crashes in northern AfghanistanAP

KABUL: Eight Afghan soldiers were killed yesterday morning when a military helicopter crashed in north-ern Baghlan province, officials said.

Afghan Defence Ministry spokes-man Dawlat Waziri said that five crew members and three army sol-diers were killed in the crash.

The crash took place in Dand Ghori district while the helicop-ter was supplying a military base, he said. Waziri blamed a technical problem with the aircraft and said

he rejected any claims by insurgents to have downed the helicopter. One helicopter was on the ground while a second was patrolling in the air above, when “suddenly a technical problem caused the helicopter to catch fire and hit the ground”, Waziri said.

However, Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid issued a state-ment claiming responsibility for downing the helicopter, saying the aircraft was shot down by fighters.

Two provincial officials in Bagh-lan also said the helicopter had been shot down by insurgents while it was supplying the military base with food, water and ammunition.

Qarghan Tapa base has been surrounded by insurgents for a week, leaving more than a hundred soldiers trapped inside, according to the offi-cials. They said all roads to the base have been shut off by the insurgents and the only way to supply them is by air. Mahmood Haqmal, spokes-man for Baghlan’s governor, said that Taliban gunmen have stepped up their attacks in Dand Ghori and Baghlan-e Murkazi districts.

Taliban insurgents have increased their attacks on Afghan security forces in northern Baghlan and neighbouring Kunduz province in recent weeks.

34 IS militants dead in separate drone strikes in Afghanistan

QNA

KABUL: At least 34 militants of the IS were killed in separate airstrikes in eastern Nangarhar province of Afghanistan.

According to the Afghan secu-rity authorities, the airstrikes were conducted in different parts of the province, including Nazian and Haska Mina districts.

The officials further added that the militants were targeted in the airstrikes on Saturday night.

At least 31 of the militants were killed in Haroon Baba area of Haska Mina district, the offi-cials said, adding that three others were killed in a separate airstrike in Nazian district.

This comes as at least nine militants of the group were killed in a similar airstrike in Achin dis-trict on Friday.

Nangarhar is among the rela-tively volatile provinces in eastern Afghanistan where both the Tali-ban insurgents and militants loyal to IS group are actively operating.

Both the Afghan forces and the US forces in Afghanistan are con-ducting regular raids against the Taliban insurgents and IS loyal-ist in the districts where they are conducting insurgency activities.

Transporters’ strike hits border trade with AfghanistanInternews

ISLAMABAD: Trade between Paki-stan and Afghanistan across the Torkham border remained sus-pended for the fourth day yesterday because of a strike by transporters of both countries against the imposition of a new tax by the Afghan customs authorities.

Hundreds of vehicles were stranded on both sides of the border

as the Afghan authorities refused entry to them without paying the newly imposed ‘land tax’.

Pakistani transporters said every vehicle from here was required to pay 5,000 afghanis, while the Afghan transporters were charged half the amount upon their entry into Afghanistan. Transporters of both countries rejected the new tax and parked their vehicles on both sides of the border, leading to suspension of trade across the crossing.

Haji Azeemullah Shinwari,

president of the local transporters’ union, said he and his Afghan coun-terpart were holding negotiations with the Afghan authorities to per-suade them to withdraw the new tax.

He said the trade between the two countries had already been affected by the imposition of a visa requirement for all Afghans, includ-ing transporters, by the government of Pakistan in June. The border trade remained suspended for almost a week in June after tensions between both countries rose following a firing

incident over the construction of a gate at the Torkham border cross-ing by Pakistani authorities.

The government had imple-mented a border management policy to control cross-border move-ment at Torkham on June 1, which required every Afghan national to possess valid travel documents for entering Pakistan. However, trans-porters were exempted and allowed to cross the border after presenting a route permit.

According to customs authorities,

the trade volume between Pakistan and Afghanistan was recorded at $267m during the past four months.

Haji Azeemullah said that impo-sition of new taxes would affect the trade between the two countries.

According to media reports, the Khyber Transport Association’s pres-ident Shakir Afridi said the cargo transporters from both countries had been on strike for the past three days because the additional entry tax lev-ied by Afghanistan was unbearable for them.

Militant leader

dead in Afghan

& US joint attack

AP

DERA ISMAIL KHAN: A Paki-stani militant linked to a number of high-profile attacks was killed in a joint Afghan-US special forces operation in eastern Afghanistan, Afghan police officials and Tali-ban commanders said yesterday.

Qari Ajmal, allegedly respon-sible for several militant attacks in Pakistan, was killed in Pak-tika province, three Taliban commanders said. The opera-tion started at midnight and lasted until early morning.

Ajmal, a leader of the banned Al Qaeda-linked Pakistani sectar-ian group Lashkar-e-Jhangi, was wanted for major attacks, most notably one on the Sri Lankan cricket team in 2009 that killed six police officers and wounded seven players.

Paktika police chief Gen. Kha-lil Ziayee confirmed the operation, saying one militant was killed and three arrested. He gave no further details.

Brig. Gen. Charles Cleveland, the US military spokesman in Afghanistan, also confirmed the operation but did not say which militants were targeted. “Afghan and US forces did conduct a counter-terrorism operation in Paktika,” he said, but added that for security reasons “we do not discuss the details of counter-terror operations”.

Pakistan and Afghanistan share a sizable lawless border region, which serves as a safe haven for local and Al Qaeda-linked foreign Islamic militants. They routinely shuttle back and forth across the border to evade security forces.

Some Afghan refugees may get nod to stayInternews

PESHAWAR: With months to go for the expiry of the umpteenth extension, the fed-eral government of Pakistan has prepared a set of proposals to grant stay incentives to Afghan investors, students and those seek-ing medical treatment in addition to those having Pakistani spouses.

Official sources insisted the state and frontier regions ministry had suggested allowing certain categories of inter-ested Afghan nationals to continue with

temporary stay in Pakistan. They said under the proposed policy, the government would grant multiple entry visas to Afghan stu-dents, investors and those with Pakistani spouses, while the people coming for health reasons would be granted visa on arrival at Torkham.

A senior official said the draft policy would be put up to the cabinet for approval. He said the Safron ministry after receiv-ing proposals from various political parties had completed its homework on the mat-ter and was likely to send the summary to the Prime Minister’s Secretariat after Moharram.

The official said Afghan investors, stu-dents and those, who had married to local women, would apply for visas through the office of the chief commissioner for Afghan refugees in Islamabad or its pro-vincial offices, while the offices concerned would refer their visa applications along with documents to the interior ministry for verification. He said the proposed incen-tives would facilitate Afghan nationals, who had Pakistani wives, and didn’t want to go to Afghanistan for some reasons.

The sources said Afghan nationals, who wedded to Pakistani women, would be pro-vided five-year multiple visa.

Pakistan rangers stand guard during a procession in Quetta yesterday in the first week of Moharram.

Standing guard Remittances from GCC to go upInternews

ISLAMABAD: While remittances to South Asian countries from the Gulf Coopera-tion Council (GCC) countries are expected to decline by 2.3 percent in 2016, the World Bank says these are expected to grow by 5.1 percent in Pakistan during the year.

The World Bank’s latest paper on ‘Migra-tion and Development’ notes that remittances from the GCC countries continued to decline due to lower oil prices and labour market ‘nationalisation’ policies in Saudi Arabia. Remittances flows are expected to decline by 5

percent in India and 3.5 percent in Bangladesh, whereas they are expected to grow by 5.1 per-cent in Pakistan and 1.6 percent in Sri Lanka.

In 2016, the top recipients of remittances are, in nominal US dollar terms, India, China, the Philippines, Mexico and Pakistan and, in terms of remittances as a share of GDP, Nepal, Liberia, Tajikistan, Kyrgyz Republic and Haiti.

Amid a backdrop of weak global growth, remittances to developing countries are expected to increase only slightly in 2016. Remittances to low and middle income coun-tries are expected to increase 0.8pc to $442bn. The modest recovery this year is largely driven by increases in remittances sent to Latin America and the Caribbean.

INDIA 13MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

Radioactive leak at Delhi airport

IANS

NEW DELHI: A radioactive sub-stance leaked at the international airport here yesterday from a med-ical shipment flown from France but authorities later said there was noth-ing to panic.

Deputy Commissioner of Police Sanjay Bhatia quoted the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) as saying that the radioactivity follow-ing the leak was within permissible limits. No one at the airport was affected, officials said.

The NDRF, the Department of Atomic Energy, the Delhi Fire Serv-ice and security agencies rushed to the Indira Gandhi International Airport following reports that a

radioactive substance had leaked at the cargo terminal. Delhi Police received the first call around 10.25 a.m. “Six packets containing solid sodium molybdate had arrived from Paris by (Air France) flight AF226. The consignment was meant for the

cargo terminal but was mistakenly placed in an area meant for courier packets,” Bhatia said.

The officer said the consignee was identified as Dhitee Biotech India Pvt Ltd, located in Okhla indus-trial area in south Delhi.

“The transport of this type of material is subject to strict rules and carried out in accordance with the international regulations. Air France reminds that the security of its cus-tomers and crews is its top priority,” an Air France statement said.

Leak from shipment flown from France; National Disaster Response Force says no need to panic.

An ambulance, present as a precuationary measure, leaves a cargo area at New Delhi airport yesterday.

Outcry over death

of 13-year-old girl

after 68-day fastReuters

NEW DELHI: A children’s rights group has called for Indian police to arrest the parents of a 13-year-old girl from the minority Jain com-munity who died after observing a religious fast for 68 days.

The girl, Aradhana Samdhariya, died due to cardiac arrest on Octo-ber 3, a day after her family held a procession in Hyderabad in which she rode in a chariot with her par-ents to celebrate the end of her fast.

The tragedy exploded into the national headlines at the weekend, and raised new questions about whether the tradition of religious tolerance is failing to protect the most vulnerable.

The girl’s parents likely coerced the girl to participate in the ritual of surviving only on water, for a sec-ond straight year, the child rights body said in its complaint.

“It is a planned, cruel murder. We have complained to the police to arrest the parents and the priest,” P Achyuta Rao, honorary president of Balala Hakkula Sangham, an And-hra Pradesh-based children’s rights group, said.

Hyderabad police have regis-tered a so-called First Information Report that marks the initial step in an investigation, and summoned Aradhana’s father and grandfather for questioning on Saturday.

“We are booking the case. The investigation shall go on,” said the officer handling the case who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.

The relatives, who were not rep-resented by a lawyer, said in their

questioning that Aradhana had wanted to continue her fast for the full 68-day period. “In fact, in the meantime, they objected also but she didn’t listen to them and she was very much interested to continue for 68 days, is what they are saying,” the officer said.

Family members have publicly denied forcing the girl to fast dur-ing the holy period of Chaumasa, observed by the Jain community from July. About a fifth of India’s 1.27 billion people identify them-selves as belonging to faiths other than Hinduism.

“We did not hide anything. Eve-ryone knew Aradhana was fasting. They came and took selfies with her. Now some people are point-ing fingers at us for allowing her to fast for 68 days,” her grandfather, Manekchand Samdhariya, told news channel NDTV.

Jainism is an ancient religion whose central tenets are non-vio-lence and love to all beings. Jains, who make up around 0.4 percent of the population, typically observe a strict vegetarian diet.

“It is unfortunate that such an incident has occurred. People in responsible positions should take necessary steps to avoid such a sit-uation,” Uttam Kumar Reddy, from the opposition Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee, said.

The children’s NGO, the Balala Hakkula Sangham, gathered pho-tos of the procession on October 2, copies of which it made available to Reuters, as part of the documenta-tion to support its police complaint.

The NGO has also sought gov-ernment custody of the other two girls in the family, aged seven and five, Rao said.

Leaders visit hospital to enquire on JayalalithaaIANS

CHENNAI: Puduchery Chief Min-ister V Narayanasamy and leaders of various political parties on yes-terday visited the Apollo Hospital to enquire about Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s health.

The 68-year-old Jayalalithaa was admitted to the hospital here last month with fever and dehy-dration. The doctors have since said she was suffering from infection and was on respiratory support.

Speaking to reporters, Naray-anasamy said that the doctors had reported improvement in Jayala-lithaa’s condition.

CPI leader D Raja, Tamil Nadu Congress President GK Vasan and Tamil Maanila Congress leader S Thirunavukkarasar, MMK leader MH Jawahirullah and others visited the hospital to wish Jay-alalithaa speedy recovery.

DMK leader MK Stalin and Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi had gone to the hospi-tal earlier. Meanwhile, AIADMK leaders and cadres continue to hold special prayers for the Chief Minister’s speedy recovery.

On Saturday, Apollo Hospi-tal said: “The respiratory support is closely watched and adjusted. Lungs decongestion treatment is being continued.”

Modi failed to fulfil his promises: MayawatiIANS

LUCKNOW: BSP chief Mayawati yes-terday accused the BJP of trying to convert India into a “Hindu Rashtra” and said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had failed to fulfil his election promises.

Addressing a huge rally here, the four-time Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also accused the govern-ment of doing “natakbaji” over the army’s surgical strike on terrorist launch pads on Pakistani territory.

The event was called to mark

the 10th death anniversary of BSP founder and her mentor Kanshi Ram and comes ahead of assembly elec-tions in the state early next year.

A stampede during the rally left two aged women dead and a dozen others injured, one of them critically, police sources said.

Calling for Dalit-Muslim unity in the country’s most populous state, Mayawati accused the Bharatiya Janata Party of trying to convert the country into a “Hindu Rashtra”.

If Dalits and Muslims come together, it would be enough to defeat the BJP in the state, she thundered.

Accusing the BJP of spreading communal poison, she said Dal-its were also being targeted in the name of cow protection. Crimes against minorities had shot up dur-ing Modi’s rule.

Mayawati was particularly harsh on the Prime Minister, accusing him of “busy converting black money into white”.

Modi, she said, had done noth-ing but “fool” the people since taking power in May 2014.

“Modi sold a dozen dreams to the people in the run-up to the Lok Sabha polls but has done nothing to deliver on them.”

Vijayan’s fight against graft & nepotism a bluff: CongressIANS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Congress yesterday termed Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s (pictured) tirades against corruption and nepotism a bluff in wake of rev-elations that state Industries Minister EP Jayarajan, the No.2 in the govern-ment, appointed his close relatives at top posts in the state’s public sec-tor organisations. Vijayan, however, brushed away the charge.

“No one would have forgotten when during the assembly elections (in May), Vijayan and the CPI-M said they will fight corruption and all such evils and see what has happened when qualifications have been given the go-by and relatives of top CPI-M leaders have been appointed to senior

posts in the state public sector,” the Congress’s state President V.M. Sud-heeran told reporters here.

Jayarajan has no moral right to continue in office after the facts emerged and must quit at the earli-est, he demanded.

Leader of Opposition in the assembly Ramesh Chennithala told reporters that the Vijayan gov-ernment should cancel all such appointments. The appointment of PK Sudhir as Managing Director of Kerala State Industrial Enterprise (KSIE) last week had raised a furore even in the ruling Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M). As social media first took it up in a big way, followed by the media, the appoint-ment was cancelled.

Sudhir is Jayarajan’s nephew and also the son of CPI-M’s Lok Sabha member from Kannur P.K.

Sreemathy. A niece of Jayarajan’s was also appointed to a top post.

Among others who have been appointed to top posts are the grand-son of party veteran EK Nayanar and several close relatives of senior CPI-M leaders.

Incidentally, at the first cabinet meeting after Vijayan was sworn in as the Chief Minister, it was decided to look into all decisions made by the outgoing Oommen Chandy govern-ment and recommend such decisions for a vigilance probe. However, as soon as these cases cropped up, Chennithala and senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader M.T. Ramesh wrote to Vigilance Director Jacob Thomas that a probe should be ini-tiated in all the appointments of top CPI-M leaders’ relatives too.

Former Chief Minister VS Achuthanandan said that the image

of the CPI-M government has been dented because of all these appointments.

CPI-M politburo member S Ram-achandran Pillai, however, said there is no need for the politburo to inter-vene as the issue would be sorted out in Kerala itself. “It has already begun,” he said.

Vijayan, however, told reporters that there has been no loss of face to the government in the wake of what has happened. “The Congress oppo-sition might say so but the CPI-M is different from the Congress. We will take a collective decision on what has happened, which is of a serious nature,” he said.

With the assembly session already seeing disruptions over the opposi-tion’s allegations of collusion between the Vijayan government and the pri-vate medical college managements

over the hike in fees, the Congress appears to have got another weapon to use against Vijayan when the house reassembles on October 17 after the Durga Puja break.

A student pays tribute to 18 martyred soldiers, who were killed in a militant attack in Uri near the Line of Control (LoC) on September 18, at a Durga Puja event at Shastri Nagar in Allahabad yesterday.

Paying tribute Security at Taj Mahal beefed upIANS

LUCKNOW: Security has been heightened at many important places, tourist spots and govern-ment installations across Uttar Pradesh following an IB alert of a potential threat by terrorists, offi-cials said yesterday. Additional security has been deployed at the Taj Mahal, in Agra the biggest draw for foreign and domestic tourists.

Officials informed that 36 extra commandoes have been deployed at the Taj Mahal, on the outer periphery, in and around the entry points. Other than this, CISF personnel who guard the world famous monument of love, have also been alerted on the possibility of a terror attack, a senior home department official informed.

Security has also been beefed up important cities like Luc-know, Agra, Kanpur, Moradabad, Bareilly, Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Varanasi and Allahabad.

Sidhu’s wife questions BJP’s silence on mafiaIANS

AMRITSAR: A day after resigning from the BJP, cricketer-turned-politician Navjot Singh Sidhu’s wife Navjot Kaur yesterday ques-tioned the party’s silence on the mafia rule in Punjab. The mafia that Kaur referred to is allegedly linked to the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is an ally of the Akali Dal in the rul-ing alliance in Punjab since 2007.

“Before joining the alliance, they should have told us that we are not supposed to open our mouth. Whatever wrong was happening, we were supposed to just look away and support the wrongdoings. We were supposed to support the entire mafia and not allowed to point out anything,” Kaur said.

Kaur accused Akali Dal lead-ers, especially those associated with Punjab’s powerful Revenue Minister Bikram Singh Majithia of running a mafia in the state. Majithia is the brother-in-law of Punjab Deputy Chief Minister and Akali Dal pres-ident Sukhbir Singh Badal, and younger brother of Sukhbir’s wife and Union Food Processing Minis-ter Harsimrat Kaur Badal.

Kaur justified delaying her res-ignation from the BJP by saying that interests for her constituency were involved. “I did not resign earlier so that there is no by-election in my constituency. A lot of funds were to come to my constituency. I did not want the funds to go back,” Kaur said. Kaur, who was Chief Par-liamentary Secretary (CPS) had remained quite vocal about issues concerning her Amritsar East assembly constituency.

A man carries his belongings past a member of the self-proclaimed Luhansk People’s Republic forces on a road located on the troops contact line between pro-Moscow rebels and Ukrainian troops, in the settlement of Stanytsia Luhanska in Ukraine, yesterday.

Uncertain future

EUROPE14 MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

German policemen check cars at the entrance to Berlin-Schoenefeld Airport yesterday following suspicion that a bomb attack was being planned in Germany.

Nationwide alert in Germany as police hunt for Syrian AFP

CHEMNITZ: German police stepped up security at airports and train sta-tions yesterday as they pressed a nationwide manhunt for a Syrian man suspected of plotting a bomb attack.

The suspect, Jaber Albakr, 22, has been on the run since police com-mandos stormed his flat on Saturday and found explosives which a bomb disposal squad later detonated in a controlled blast.

Police said the man, pictured wearing a black hooded sweat-shirt, was “suspected of preparing

a bomb attack”, adding yesterday that they were following more than 80 possible leads. Albakr may have “an Islamist motive”, police sources told AFP. German news agency DPA, citing security sources, said he was believed to have links to the Islamic State (IS) group.

In a posting on Twitter, police warned the public to be vigilant.

“The search for the suspect is under way. We do not know where he is and what he’s carrying with him. Be careful.”

A day after arresting three of Albakr’s associates, police said one of them remained in custody, sus-pected of complicity, while the other two were released.

“Terror fear grips all of Germany,” ran a headline on the website of Bild newspaper. Police said “several hundred grammes” of an “explosive substance even more dangerous than TNT” were found in the apartment in the eastern city of Chemnitz, about 260km south of Berlin.

“Even a small quantity of this substance could have caused enor-mous damage,” police said.

Local media reported the sub-stance was TATP, the homemade explosive known as “mother of Satan” that was used by jihadists in the Paris and Brussels attacks.

German police say they have foiled a number of bomb attacks this year.

Leftists fight for survival as Lithuania votes

AFP

VILNIUS: Lithuanians fed up with economic inequality and mass emi-gration were voting yesterday in round one of a tight general elec-tion, which could oust the governing Social Democrats.

Russia’s latest deployment of nuclear-capable Iskander missiles to its neighbouring Kaliningrad exclave rattled nerves just a day ahead of the vote.

But the reassurance provided

by Nato’s beefed up presence in the Baltic state — a move that all major parties endorse — means that voters are more worried about their wal-lets than security.

Wage growth and job creation have been key rallying cries for can-didates in this eurozone state of 2.9 million people, plagued by an exodus of workers seeking higher wages, many of them in Britain.

Since Lithuania joined the EU in 2004, nearly half the estimated 370,000 people who have left went to Britain, where uproar over east-ern European immigration was seen as a key factor in the Brexit vote to leave the bloc.

Opinion polls show two parties running close behind Prime Min-ister Algirdas Butkevicius’s leftist Social Democrats, which have 15.6 percent support.

The centrist Lithuanian Peas-ant and Green’s Union (LPGU) would take 14 percent, while the conserv-ative Homeland Union enjoy 13.7 percent backing, local pollsters Spinter Tyrimai found.

Five to eight parties are expected to enter parliament, sig-nalling complicated coalition talks.

Butkevicius, 57, has promised further hikes in the minimum wage and public sector salaries, but a new labour law which makes it easier to hire and fire employees could eat away his party’s slim lead.

Voting in Vilnius yesterday, Butkevicius vowed to “live up to expectations” if his party wins.

B u t P r e s ide nt D a l i a Grybauskaite has said she voted “for changes” in an apparent swipe at him.

Running for the farmer-backed LPGU, political newcomer Saulius Skvernelis blames previous govern-ments for failing to stem the labour exodus.

Moscow says

US actions a

threat to

national security

Reuters

MOSCOW: Russian Foreign Min-ister Sergei Lavrov said yesterday he had detected increasing US hostility towards Moscow and complained about what he said was a series of aggressive US steps that threatened Russia’s national security.

In an interview with Russian state TV likely to worsen already poor relations with Washington, Lavrov made it clear he blamed the Obama administration for what he described as a sharp dete-rioration in US-Russia ties.

“We have witnessed a funda-mental change of circumstances when it comes to the aggressive Russophobia that now lies at the heart of US policy towards Rus-sia,” Lavrov told Russian state TV’s First Channel.

“It’s not just a rhetorical Rus-sophobia, but aggressive steps that really hurt our national interests and pose a threat to our security.”

With relations between Moscow and Washington strained over issues from Syria to Ukraine, Lavrov reeled off a long list of Russian grievances against the United States which he said helped contribute to an atmosphere of mistrust that was in some ways more dangerous and unpredictable than the Cold War.

He complained that Nato had been steadily moving military infrastructure closer to Russia’s borders and lashed out at Western sanctions imposed over Moscow’s role in the Ukraine crisis.

He also said he had heard that some policy makers in Washing-ton were suggesting that President Barack Obama sanction the carpet bombing of the Syrian govern-ment’s military air fields to ground its air force.

“This is a very dangerous game given that Russia, being in Syria at the invitation of the legit-imate government of this country and having two bases there, has got air defence systems there to protect its assets,” said Lavrov.

Lavrov said he hoped Obama would not agree to such a scenario.

Russia suspended a treaty with Washington on cleaning up weapons grade plutonium earlier this month in response to what it said were “unfriendly acts” by the United States.

Lavrov said both countries had the right to pull out of the treaty in the event of “a funda-mental change in circumstances”.

“The treaty was concluded when relations were normal, civ-ilised, when no one ... was trying to interfere in the (other’s) inter-nal affairs. That’s the fundamental change of circumstances,” said Lavrov.

Georgia’s ruling party wins parliamentary electionAFP

TBILISI: The ruling Georgian Dream party won Georgia’s parliamentary polls, early results showed yester-day, though accusations of vote fraud from the opposition sparked fears of political instability in the Caucasus nation.

Georgia’s Western allies are watching closely to see if the strategic nation — praised as a rare example of democracy in the former Soviet region — can cement gains after its first transfer of power at the ballot

box four years ago. With votes from more than 82 percent of precincts counted, the central election com-mission said Georgian Dream was leading main opposition force the United National Movement (UNM) by 49.26 percent to 26.46 percent.

For the first time in Georgia’s post-Soviet history, a small pro-Russian party, Alliance of Patriots, received five percent of the vote needed to enter parliament.

Western observers said polls were competitive though noted pro-cedural problems during counting.

After voting closed on Saturday the Georgian Dream was quick to

declare victory based on exit polls which gave it a strong lead over the UNM. “This was a truly free and fair election, which firmly cements Geor-gia’s democracy,” Georgian Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili said after the vote ended.

But the UNM accused the govern-ment of attempts to “steal elections” and held a protest rally outside the central election commission.

“Votes have been stolen from us. We will defend our votes,” Nika Melia, chief of UNM’s campaign and an MP candidate, told protesters.

Most opposition parties, includ-ing Democratic Georgia, the Labour

Party, and the State for People, also cried foul, accusing the government of “massive vote rigging.”

But international observers from the OSCE, Nato, Council of Europe and European Parliament said the elections “were competitive, well-administered and fundamental freedoms were generally respected.”

“The calm and open campaign atmosphere was, however, impacted by allegations of unlawful campaign-ing and some incidents of violence,” the monitors said in a joint statement.

Ahead of the vote, election mon-itors and opposition politicians had noted that Georgia’s electoral

environment and financing give an unfair advantage to the ruling party, which could potentially affect the vote’s outcome. Georgian Dream, led behind the scenes by billionaire ex-premier Bidzina Ivanishvili, and the UNM founded by exiled former president Mikheil Saakashvili, had been neck-and-neck in opinion polls ahead of the election.

Politics is still dominated by Saa-kashvili and Ivanishvili even though neither holds an official position.

The voting percentages that have so far been released are for a propor-tional ballot that will decide 77 of the 150 seats in the legislature.

Pope Francis to appoint 17new cardinalsAFP

VATICAN CITY: Pope Francis said yesterday he would appoint 17 new cardinals from across the world next month, 13 of whom are under the age of 80 and therefore eligible to succeed him.

Cardinals, known as the “princes of the church”, who are under 80 are eligible to vote in the papal conclave that picks the next pope.

“I am happy to announce that on Saturday, November 19... I will hold a meeting of cardinals to nominate the 13 new cardinals from the five continents,” said Francis.

Heading up the list of new cardinals is Mario Zenari who is currently the papal envoy to Syria — a “martyred” country, accord-ing to the pope. “The fact they are from 11 countries shows the uni-versality of the church,” said the Argentine pontiff.

UKIP MP discharged from French hospitalAP

LONDON: A UK Independence Party legislator was discharged from a French hospital yester-day following an altercation with another senior party member three days ago, officials said.

Steven Woolfe, who had been a leading contender in the race for party leadership, is thought to be returning to Britain. Woolfe “is focused on continuing his recovery and will not be making any further statements today,” UKIP said in a statement yesterday.

A small anti-EU party, UKIP was instrumental in getting Britain to hold a referendum on European Union membership, which ended in a June 23 vote to leave the 28-nation bloc. The result was a political tri-umph for UKIP, but since gaining its long-sought goal the party has been torn by infighting.

Nathan Gill, a UKIP colleague

who had visited Woolfe in the hos-pital in Strasbourg on Friday, had said that Woolfe was tired of French croissants and wanted to return home for a full English breakfast.

Woolfe, a member of the Euro-pean Parliament, had been rushed to the hospital Thursday with serious injuries after collapsing following an altercation of some type with fellow UKIP legislator Mike Hookem. They had been at a contentious meeting in the Euro-pean Parliament building. Woolfe says Hookem punched him, which Hookem denies.

Woolfe later suffered a seizure and collapsed. He was kept in the hospital for several days of tests and observations.

Both men have tried to bolster their version of events. Woolfe’s team released a statement Saturday indi-cating that an independent medical team found the bruising on his face to have been caused by something more than a fall or seizure.

Unemployment and emigration key concerns in nation of 2.9milion.

Lithuania’s Prime Minister Algirdas Butkevicius with his wife by his side holds his granddaughter Kamilla as she casts ballot papers in Vilnius yesterday.

AMERICAS 15MONDAY 10 OCTOBER 2016

Haiti fights cholera after deadly storm

Reuters

PORT SALUT: Cholera has killed at least 13 people in southwest Haiti in the wake of Hurricane Matthew, officials said, as government teams fanned out across the hard-hit southwestern tip of the country to repair treatment centres and reach the epicentre of one outbreak.

The storm took the lives of nearly 900 people in Haiti, many in remote towns clustered near the headland, according to a Reu-ters tally of numbers given by local officials.

Haiti’s central civil protection agency raised to 336 its official death toll, a slower count because officials must visit each village to confirm the numbers.

The government said there would be three days of national mourning.

Six people died of cholera in a hospital in the town of Randel, which is inland on the peninsula,

and another seven died in the coastal town of Anse-d’Ainault on the western tip, the officials said, likely as flood waters mixed with sewage.

Cholera causes severe diar-rhoea and can kill within hours if untreated. It is spread through con-taminated water and has a short incubation period, which leads to rapid outbreaks. “Randel is isolated, you must cross water, you must go high in the mountains, cars can-not go, motorcycles cannot go,” said Eli Pierre Celestin, a mem-ber of team that fights cholera for the health ministry. “People have started dying.”

“There are nurses but no doc-tors,” he said, concerned that cholera would spread due to lack of hygiene and as ground water moved because of rain and floods.

He said there were also out-breaks in Port-a-Piment and Les Anglais, towns at the end of the Tiburon peninsula hardest hit by Matthew this week. Dr Donald Francois, head of the Haitian health ministry’s cholera programme, said 62 others were sick with cholera as a result of the storm. He said he was traveling to the south to oversee the response.

Matthew slammed into South Carolina on Saturday, after skirt-ing the Atlantic coast of Florida and Georgia, causing widespread power outages and flooding.

An aeroplane lies overturned at the Ormond Beach Municipal Airport in the aftermath of Hurricane Matthew in Ormond Beach, Florida, yesterday. RIGHT: North Carolina emergency services evacuate residents of a neighbourhood that fell victim to flooding caused by the storm in Fayetteville.

Hundreds rescued as cyclone hits North CarolinaReuters

WINSTON-SALEM: Emergency crews in boats rescued hundreds of people from floodwaters and plucked oth-ers from rooftops by helicopter in North Carolina after former hurri-cane Matthew flooded much of the US Southeast before weakening yes-terday and turning out to sea.

Matthew, the most powerful Atlantic storm since 2007, was down-graded to a post-tropical cyclone yesterday after its rampage through the Caribbean killed nearly 900 peo-ple in Haiti and at least 16 people in the United States.

Haiti also has suffered from out-breaks of cholera and about 61,500

displaced people were in shelters, officials said. In the United States, more than 2 million US homes and business had lost power.

The storm was moving east-northeast out to sea, according to the National Hurricane Centre’s 11am report, which placed the centre of the storm 100 miles (160km) off the coast of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina.

Its maximum sustained winds blew at 75mph (120kph), down from 130mph (210kph) at full strength.

Officials said many coastal and inland communities were still under water, either from coastal storm surge or overrun rivers and creeks, and dangerous conditions existed from downed power lines and damaged homes. US President Barack Obama declared a state of emergency in

Georgia and Florida, freeing up fed-eral money to help the states repair damaged infrastructure and remove debris. North Carolina and South Carolina also could be in line for aid.

In North Carolina, where at least seven people died, Governor Pat McCrory warned flooding would be a “prolonged event” and pleaded for outside help, asking the country not to be too distracted by the US presiden-tial campaign, currently transfixed by a 2005 video of Republican nominee Donald Trump making vulgar com-ments about women.

“I realise political talk is dom-inating the airwaves on a lot of the other national channels but I want to let the rest of the nation know we need your help,” McCrory said. Florida reported five storm-related deaths,

Georgia three and South Carolina one. Flooding required 877 water rescues, including more than 500 in North Carolina’s inland Cumberland County, McCrory said.

The governor said officials were looking for new rescue personnel to relieve the 334 federal, state and local responders who had been working through the night.

“Special swift-water teams from throughout the state and out of the state are right now as we speak rescu-ing people from their homes, risking their lives,” McCrory said at a morn-ing news conference. “These rescue teams, I’ve got to let you know, they are extremely exhausted at this time.”

McCrory said he saw video of the Coast Guard rescuing several people from a roof by helicopter.

Affliction claims 13 lives as medics struggle to reach remote areas.

Trump faces Hillary in debate amid campaign chaosAFP

WASHINGTON: Donald Trump headed into a crucial debate with Democrat Hillary Clinton yesterday with his White House hopes in peril and the Republican party in chaos over his lewd boasts about women.

With the US election less than a month away, Republican lawmakers and governors abandoned Trump in droves, despite a rare televised apol-ogy by the candidate, whose remarks were caught on a live mike in 2005.

Trump himself was defiant, tweeting: “So many self-righteous hypocrites. Watch their poll num-bers — and elections — go down!”

But even his surrogates went to ground, leaving former New York mayor Rudolf Giuliani as the bil-lionaire’s lone defender on Sunday television talk shows.

Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway and Republi-can National Committee chairman Reince Preibus both backed out of scheduled television appearances ahead of the debate in St Louis, Missouri.

Mike Pence, Trump’s running mate, also suspended his campaign appearances after declaring on Sat-urday that he did not condone and “cannot defend” the Republican standard-bearer.

The scandal — just the latest involving his treatment of women — could not come at a worse time for Trump, who has taken a beating in the polls since his sloppy per-formance in the first presidential

debate on September 29. An average of national polls compiled by Real-ClearPolitics.com has Clinton in the lead by 4.5 percentage points.

National media, meanwhile, have dug up the candidate’s past behaviour.

The two candidates face off starting at 9pm (0100 GMT today) at Washington University in St Louis, with the added twist that this time they will take questions from the audience in a town hall-style forum.

“He’s as prepared as he’s ever been and he’s all ready for the debate tonight,” Giuliani said on NBC’s Meet the Press. “He obviously, you know, feels very bad about what he’s said. He apologised for it, will probably

do it again. What he’d like to do is move onto the issues that are facing the American people.”

How much the “elephant in the room,” as Republican House speaker Paul Ryan referred to the tape on Sat-urday, dominates the debate is an open question.

Giuliani warned that Trump could well go after Clinton’s past marital troubles with her husband Bill, the former president.

“I do believe there’s a possibility he’ll talk about Hillary Clinton’s situ-ation if it gets to that. I don’t think he prefers to do that. But I think he will.”

Tim Kaine, Clinton’s running mate, suggested that while audi-ence members would have questions

about Trump’s treatment of women, the former secretary of state intended to stick to basic issues like the econ-omy and national security.

“If Donald wants to talk about something other than what voters want to talk about, that’s his choice,” Kaine said on CNN’s State of the Union show. “But I suspect that Hil-lary Clinton is going to talk about the things that voters really care about.”

Clinton may also have to worry about a WikiLeaks disclosure of excerpts from private speeches she gave to major banks in 2013 and 2014.

Although overshadowed by the Trump tape, they show she expressed views in favour of open trade and Wall Street self-regulation to those

audiences that are at odds with her positions as a candidate.

John Podesta, a Clinton adviser from whose email account the excerpts were hacked, insisted there were taken out of context.

“They are not diametrically opposed,” he said on Fox News Sun-day. “Again, you can pull a few words out of context, but what he said on this campaign trail is she’ll be tough on Wall Street. That’s exactly what she’ll do.”

Republican breach Even a winning performance by

Trump, however, seems unlikely to mend the deep breach he has opened in the Republican party, alarmed about the scandal’s fallout in other down-ballot races.

Notable defectors included Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican nominee, who said Trump’s “demeaning comments about women and his boasts about sexual assaults, make it impossible to continue to offer even conditional support for his candidacy.”

The New York Times reported that by late Saturday 36 Republican members of Congress and governors had disavowed Trump’s candidacy.

Some leading Republicans called on Trump to quit the race, but he vowed he would never do that and legal experts said removing him from the top of the ticket would be extremely difficult.

Trump predicted Saturday that the controversy would blow over.

“I think a lot of people underesti-mate how loyal my supporters are,” he told the Times.

US Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton on her campaign plane in White Plains, New York, yesterday. RIGHT: Supporters of Donald Trump outside Trump Tower where Trump lives, in the Manhattan borough of New York.

African-American vote key for Hillary in North CarolinaAFP

CHARLOTTE: Under a canvas tent, African-American businessman and chef Santi Jones was offering barbeque meat to tailgaters outside a Carolina football game when he ruminated on Hillary Clinton and whether black voters will win her the White House.

The former secretary of state needs a strong turnout among

minorities, particularly African Americans, if she is to defeat Repub-lican Donald Trump and succeed the nation’s first black president.

Can she rally them to the ballot box on November 8 where it counts, in battlegrounds like North Carolina, Pennsylvania, and Florida?

“She can,” Jones, 37, said as hip-hop pumped from nearby speakers on a recent Sunday in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“But she’s got to try a little

harder.” Racial tensions, fuelled by a series of police shootings of black men, have simmered in the United States since last year.

Some have accused real estate billionaire Trump of fomenting the discord through his provoca-tive campaign rhetoric, his years of propagating the “birther” conspir-acy theory that Obama was not born in the United States, and embrace of the Republican by white nationalists.

And when he was asked about

what was necessary to heal the racial divide during his first debate with Clinton, in the aftermath of deadly unrest that rocked Charlotte, Trump answered by lamenting that “we need law and order in our country.”

North Carolina is seen as ground zero for Clinton’s efforts to convert tangible and historically high black support for President Barack Obama into her own victory in swing states that will decide the election.

Obama narrowly won North

Carolina in 2008, then lost it four years later. Clinton’s campaign is now in overdrive to turn the Tar Heel state blue again.

Blacks comprise 12 percent of the US electorate, and about nine in 10 support Clinton, according to polls. Yet many black voters remain luke-warm about her.

In a sign of the challenge Clin-ton faces, even Jones, who supports Clinton, said he is not sure whether he’ll vote.

Record 1,201

couples renew

wedding vowsAP

KALAMAZOO: A record 1,201 couples have renewed their wed-ding vows at a ceremony on the campus of Western Michigan Uni-versity.

The Kalamazoo Gazette reported a Guinness World Record official on site certified the record event Saturday. It broke the previous mark of 1,087 cou-ples renewing their vows at Miami University in Ohio in 2009.

Couples dressed in Western Michigan gear and even donned veils, white dresses and tuxes to celebrate their marriages. West-ern Michigan University President John Dunn and his wife, Linda, were among the couples who renewed their vows.

Report says

Mexico officials

ignored massacre

AP

MEXICO CITY: Mexican drug gang bosses furious at suspected turncoats sent commandos aided by local police to seize dozens — perhaps hundreds — of people, murder them and dispose of their bodies in a town near the Texas border, yet state and federal offi-cials ignored the massacre for years, according to a government-backed report released yesterday.

The long delay in the inves-tigation makes it impossible to determine just how many people were killed in the town of Allende in 2011, according to the report sponsored by the federal Execu-tive Commission for Attention to Victims.

The Coahuila state file lists 42 missing people related to the case.

But a Zeta drug gang member told a US court in 2013 that 300 died, though it was not clear if all the deaths occurred in the same incident.

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Stars of Science selects the brightest nineThe Peninsula

DOHA: Nine innovators from across the Arab world earned the chance of a lifetime yesterday, vaulting ahead of their fellow applicants to earn a place on the Qatar Foundation flagship media initiative Stars of Science this season. Viewers watched as the story unfolded on the Majlis episode, where 19 shortlisted innovators from the first three episodes waited nervously to see if their journey would continue to the next stage of the contest.

The nine candidates, each hailing from a different country in the region, follow in the footsteps of over 100 Stars of Science alumni. Racing against the clock and competing against each other, all nine candidates will pre-pare to face the jury once again at the prototyping stage. The jury members will only select six out of nine projects to move on to the customer validation stage. As the show progresses, two other candidates will be eliminated, leaving four finalists who will earn a share of a $600,000 prize based on jury and public voting.

Candidates on this year’s Stars of Science will develop projects that aim to solve problems in several sec-tors vital to region and the world — health, energy, and environment and information technology. This feeds into Qatar Foundation’s objec-tive of encouraging the next generation of science and technology innovators

while encouraging the development of impactful inventions on the show. Joining the show over the next few epi-sodes to support the candidates will be Stars of Science alumni Amina Al Hawaj, Majed Lababidi and Mohamed Watfa.

In the next episodes, audiences will witness candidates develop their pro-totypes with the guidance of mentors specialising in engineering and design and alumni support. Each group of candidates will work from their new professional home in Qatar Science & Technology Park, where they develop bonds of friendship and rivalry as they spend weeks tinkering with their prototypes in close quarters. Viewers

witness candidates’ triumph and frus-tration as they prepare to face the jury in groups of three.

Each of the next three Stars of Sci-ence episodes will give an in-depth look at a group of three candidates. One candidate from each group will be eliminated by the jury at the cul-mination of the episode, leaving six candidates standing going into the cus-tomer validation stage. Audiences will witness candidates develop their pro-totypes with the guidance of mentors specialising in engineering and design and alumni support.

Next Saturday’s episode contains determined and talented candi-dates whose inventions fall into the

health and information technology spheres. Ghassan Yusuf, a 33-year-old from Bahrain, will work on a proto-type of an automatic scoring system for Taekwondo matches. Jordanian cytogeneticist Sadeem Qdaisat, 29, aims to save lives with a machine that streamlines the process of genetic testing. Nizar Chelly, a 32-year-old Tunisian doctoral student, will develop a phone robotic platform auto scanner.

On October 22, viewers will meet 22-year-old Ali Al Sulaiti of Qatar, who will take on Egyptian Ahmed El Khatat, 34, and Algerian Abderrahim Bourouis, 29. The Qatari’s innovation is a draw-ing generator that turns 2D drawings into 3D animations. Al Khatat, a uni-versity professor, aims to make it to the next round with a shower especially designed to preserve the independence and privacy of elderly users. Bour-ouis wants to impress the jury with a smart shirt designed to monitor and soothe children with autism spectrum disorder.

In the final prototyping episode airing October 28, 28-year-old Syr-ian Yazi Alalo will be presenting an innovation that monitors the fresh-ness and safety of food. Challenging her is Omani Saif Al Farai, 24, and Lebanese engineer Sevag Babikan, 27. Saif, a mechatronics graduate, will work on a device designed to convert Arabic text to braille instantly. Sevag will try to revolutionise the 3D print-ing world with his printer invention, which he says will make current mod-els obsolete.

Stars of Science alumni Amina Al Hawaj with Stars of Science candidates.