Business | 17 Sport | 27

LNG demand growing, says Qatargas CEO

Arsenal extend lead at top

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Sunday 3 November 2013

29 Dhul-Hijja 1434 - Volume 18

Number 5872 Price: QR2

C E R T I F I E D N E W S P A P E R

ISO 9001:2008

Greater role for private sector seen

Champion shooters

Qatar Skeet Team’s gold and silver winners at the Second CISM International Shotgun Championship pose for a picture during the prize distribution ceremony at the Losail Shooting Complex yesterday. Report on page 25

Amphibious car

Mait Nilson drives his amphibious car rebuilt from a Toyota Land Cruiser yesterday in Tallinn, Estonia. The 44-year-old mechanical engineer designed and built the car-boat Amphibear and started to drive and sail 60,000km around the world. He will return home in August 2014.

Ministry issues budget guidelinesDOHA: Guidelines issued by the Ministry of Finance to ministries and state agencies on their budget estimates for the fiscal year (2014-15) stress that the private sector’s greater involvement in the national economy should be encouraged.

The directives also emphasise that state entities should not compete with private businesses in bidding for projects, including the key ones.

In contrast to previous years, the Ministry of Finance is expect-ing comprehensive and detailed budget proposals this time. The guidelines insist that concerned entities give a comprehensive pro-posal for the next fiscal year and ask them to detail their expecta-tions for the next three budgets (2014-15, 2015-16 and 2016-17 ).

The guidelines make it manda-tory for the ministries and state entities to compare their perform-ance with regard to the budget estimates they provided for the current financial year (2012-13) while detailing their expectations for the 2014-15 budget, according to a copy of the ministry’s circular available with Al Sharq.

The ministries and government agencies should submit their budget proposals on or before November 17, 2013. Discussions on the proposals will start in January and continue through March. Qatar’s budget announcement normally comes in April as the fiscal year is from April to March.

Similar to the current budget, the new budget is also expected

to lay emphasis on the country’s ambitious expansion plans envis-aged in Qatar National Vision 2030. The new budget is expected to earmark a substantial amount for infrastructure development, education and health.

The 2014-15 budget is expected to be pro-private sector. The cir-cular suggests that the govern-ment agencies keep away from bidding for key projects, paving the way for the private sector to prosper. The ministries and government agencies are also expected to outsource a large number of their projects and works to the private sector.

The new budget will be prepared in such a way that it would not only ensure the country’s current credit rating is maintained, but also help enhance it. It will also be planned in a way to curb the inflation rate. The circular stressed that budget proposals must adhere to the guidelines. It also empha-sised that the proposals must be transparent and no attempt should be made to conceal concerned enti-ties’ sources of revenue.

The proposals must be sub-mitted under different heads or chapters. While preparing them for budget estimates and expected revenue sources, the ministries and government agencies must compare their previous year’s data. A highlight of the new budget will be that allocations will be based on performance. Judicious and result-oriented spending will be key in the next budget. THE PENINSULA

BY AZMAT HAROON

DOHA: While Qatar’s social media community continues to grow, a majority of government and private organisations do not see the benefits of engaging with people online, according to experts.

Many organisations think it is taxing to establish accounts online because social media cannot be ‘controlled’ and negative comments could cause more harm than good to their reputation.

Twitter and Facebook have become a source of news in Qatar and the influ-ence of the online community has grown in recent months. The controversial five-metre head-butt statue of Zinedine Zidane, for instance, was recently removed from the Corniche following strong reaction from the community that was largely wit-nessed through social networking sites.

Qatar Airways, Ooredoo and Qatar National Bank also have a large number of followers on their Facebook accounts, and

a team of experts manage them on social media. But many organisations have not yet incorporated social media into their mar-keting and media strategies.

“They do not see the potential in the digital market because they find it difficult to calculate working hours for those who would take up such jobs. They also want to know the level of control over the content and its response on social media,” argues Ammar Mohammed, a social media pioneer in Qatar. He has helped various agencies,

including the Interior Ministry, to build their accounts on social media, which now help them communicate with the public. However, one of the challenges faced by the organisations is that it is not easy to create social media-related jobs here.

“If they want to build a new section of social media in a ministry, they need a job title, description and it is not easy in Doha to create such job titles,” said Mohammed.

THE PENINSULAContinued on page 6

DOHA: Qatar will witness a partial solar eclipse for 33 min-utes this evening.

The eclipse will be visible from 4.19pm until 4.52pm, but people have been warned against looking directly at the eclipsed sun.

People could, however, watch the celestial spectacle, the last of this year, using a welder’s glass or indirectly with a pinhole filter.

The solar eclipse will sweep across parts of Africa, Europe, and the US as the moon will block the sun fully or partially.

In Qatar, the eclipse will be 37 percent, which means the moon will shadow a little more than a third of the sun.

“Qatari skies will witness par-tial solar eclipse. It will be 37 percent,” said prominent Qatari astronomer Sheikh Salman bin Jabor Al Thani (pictured).

“This will be the last solar eclipse of the year.”

The eclipse will be total only along a narrow path crossing the Atlantic Ocean and equatorial Africa (and it’s annular for the first tiny bit on the Atlantic).

A much larger part of the world will see a partial eclipse, includ-ing most of Africa, the Middle East, southernmost Europe, northern South America and the Caribbean. From the Eastern US and Canada, the viewing will be tricky but potentially spectacular. The greatest part of the eclipse will take place at 1237 GMT over the Atlantic Ocean, some 330km southwest of Liberia, according to experts.

The west African nation of Gabon will get peak viewing of the total eclipse as it sweeps over a path nearly 60km wide. At its

peak over land in central Gabon around 1350 GMT, the sun will be blocked out for about a minute.

Experts say the safe way to view an eclipse is by making a pinhole camera, a three millimetre hole in one piece of paper, then turning the back to the sun and using the pierced page to project the image of the sun on another sheet of paper. THE PENINSULA

RIYADH: Thousands of ille-gal foreigners, mostly unskilled workers from Asia, are rush-ing to leave Saudi Arabia as an amnesty expires today and they risk being fined or jailed.

Nearly a million Bangladeshis, Filipinos, Indians, Nepalese, Pakistanis and Yemenis, among others, have benefitted from the three-month amnesty — announced on April 3 and extended for four months — and left. Another roughly 4m have legalised their status by finding employers to sponsor them.

But the clock is ticking, and the labour ministry has said there will be no second chance, despite appeals from some Asian governments. “We have absolutely no intention of prolonging the amnesty,” said ministry spokes-man Hattab Al Anzi.

Pakistan says it has been pressing for an extension of the amnesty until January-end. Even so, foreign ministry spokesman Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry said: “We are trying our best to legalise as many Pakistanis as we can before the deadline ends.”

Indian foreign ministry spokes-man Syed Akbaruddin said: “We have not asked for extra time,” explaining Indians had been urged to “abide by the rules, and we have had remarkable success”.

Foreigners are queuing outside government offices to sort out the paperwork for leaving the king-dom or legalising their stay.

The Arab News daily said some Indians seeking repatriation had waited for more than 31 hours at the deportation centre in Jeddah for documents to leave.

The Immigration Department said more than 900,000 people have left with final exit visas. Expatriates account for around 9m of the country’s 27m popula-tion. Saudi Arabia’s unemploy-ment rate among natives is above 12.5 percent, which the govern-ment is aiming to reduce. AFP

LONDON: Spy agencies in Western Europe are working together on mass surveillance of Internet and phone traffic comparable to programmes run by their US counterpart denounced by European governments, Britain’s Guardian newspaper reported yesterday.

Citing documents leaked by fugitive former US National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden, the Guardian said methods included tapping into fibre optic cables and working covertly with private telecommunications companies.

The Guardian named Germany, France, Spain, Sweden and the Netherlands as countries where intelligence agencies had been devel-oping methods in cooperation with counterparts, including Britain’s surveillance agency GCHQ. The Guardian said the British spies were particularly impressed with Germany’s BND agency, which they said had “huge technological potential and good access to the heart of the Internet”. REUTERS

Partial solar eclipse today

Europe spies work on mass surveillance

Many organisations in Qatar overlook social media benefits

Illegals rush to leave Saudi as amnesty ends

WASHINGTON: US Secretary of State John Kerry headed to the Middle East yes-terday, aiming to shore up dec-ades-old alliances with Egypt and Saudi Arabia left frayed by the turbulence sweeping the region.

Egyptian state media said he would visit Cairo today for the first time since Washington froze part of its $1.5bn in annual aid, angered by the bloodshed and lack of democratic progress since the July ouster of president Mohammed Mursi.

It would come just a day before Islamist leader Mursi, the coun-try’s first democratically elected president, is due to go on trial on charges of inciting the murder of protesters outside the presi-dential palace in December 2012.

US officials said he would arrive in Saudi Arabia some time today, where he also faces tough talks with the kingdom’s leaders.

Kerry’s 17th trip since becom-ing secretary of state in February will also take him to Poland, Israel, Bethlehem, Jordan, the UAE, Algeria and Morocco, and he is due to return to Washington on November 12.

AFP

Kerry heads to Mideast to shore up key Arab ties

02 HOMESUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

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QNRF launches Postdoctoral Research AwardStipend, competitive package offeredDOHA: Qatar National Research Fund (QNRF), a key constituent of Qatar Foundation Research and Development (QF R&D), has launched a new funding programme, the Postdoctoral Research Award (PDRA).

Supporting scholars who will work within the research insti-tutes of QF R&D and other Qatar-based research entities, PDRA is designed to focus on the four major pillars outlined in the Qatar National Research Strategy (QNRS).

Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development, through H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser’s leadership, is committed to advancing education, research and social development in Qatar and the region, a press release issued by Qatar Foundation said yesterday.

PDRA is a part of its con-tinuous endeavours to support these goals of QF R&D as well as address the research grand chal-lenges of Qatar. This competitive funding programme will provide research institutions with sub-stantial funds to pay salaries and related expenses of successfully nominated scholars.

As part of PDRA, success-ful candidates will be awarded grants for up to two years, with an extension of one addi-tional year if required. They will also gain recognition for contributing socially and sci-entifically to Qatar’s research mission, with the potential for creating a worldwide

impact on the global research community.

Dr Abdul Sattar Al Taie, Executive Director of QNRF, said: “PDRA is the second in a series of new programmes to be launched by QNRF this fiscal year and joins a whole host of on-going fund-ing programmes. PDRA will be one of the mechanisms designed to attract outstanding local and international postdoctoral schol-ars to relocate them with invalua-ble work experience that will help them to cement their careers in research which, in turn, will sup-port the demand for researchers at universities and research insti-tutions in Qatar.”

PDRA will provide each suc-cessful postdoctoral scholar with a highly attractive stipend, in addition to a competitive package of benefits. Qatari nationals will receive an additional retention allowance, amounting to eight per cent of the stipend, to further encourage the growth of a high-quality, home-grown research community.

Elaborating on the eligibility for applying to the new programme, Dr Abdulnasser Al Ansari, Deputy Executive Director of QNRF explained: “Candidates who have earned their PhDs within the pre-vious five years or less, as well as graduating PhD students, located inside or outside Qatar are eligible to apply for this programme on a competitive basis. PDRA can-didates must be nominated for the award by QNRF-approved local research institutions located inside Qatar.”

THE PENINSULA

A child tries out a fire extinguisher at the Civil Defence tent at Souq Waqif.

Civil Defence tent at Souq Waqif draws crowdDOHA: A tent set up at the Souq Waqif in the model of a “safe home” is attracting large number of visitors.

The tent, opened yesterday, was part of a series of awareness pro-grammes being organised by the Civil Defence Department in the run up to the fourth Civil Defence Conference and Exhibition to be held in Doha on November 11.

Director General of Civil Defence Staff Brigadier Abdullah Muhammed Al Suwaidi

inaugurated the tent that covers 300 square metres of area.

Built as a model safe home, it includes many rooms and a well equipped kitchen which can be a source of fire if not used properly.

The activities include an inter-esting contest for the visitors. A group of people will enter the house and they will be asked to find out the safety errors in the house. Those who accurately iden-tify the mistakes will win prizes.

A fire in the house is simulated and the Civil Defence team teach the children how to fight the blaze. Children are also trained on the use of different types of fire extinguishers.

The tent also offers a variety of fun games for children, which also convey messages on safety. In one of the games, the participants dressed as two Civil Defence per-sonnel — Aman and Salama —search for a doll inside the house to save it from fire in a given time.

This game is intended to train people on evacuation. Henna and face drawing are also offered for children.

A pavilion has been set up for awareness lectures cover-ing a number of issues related to safety and first aid. Civil Defence vehicles remain parked in a neighbouring ground where awareness films and mes-sages are being shown on giant screens.

THE PENINSULA

Qatar condemns Israeli settlement expansionDOHA: Qatar has condemned the Israeli government’s deci-sion approving the construction of 1,500 housing units at Ramat Shlomo settlement in East Jerusalem.

An official source at the Ministry of Foreign Ministry said in remarks to Qatar News Agency (QNA) yesterday that the settlement decision constitutes a breach of international law, and a challenge to the interna-tional community, through which Israel is trying to impose a new geographic reality in occupied Jerusalem.

He pointed that Israel’s settle-ment and expansion practices, completely ignore the interna-tional resolutions and references upon which the peace process is based. The international commu-nity is demanded to take a firm stand obliging Israel to freeze settlement activities, the source concluded.

QNB introduces benefit scheme for retired QatarisDOHA: QNB has introduced a new package of banking ben-efits aimed at the best priced financial services for all retired Qataris.

As part of its keenness to implement the goals of its Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), QNB endeavours to improve the quality of life and living standards for all Qatari nationals through competitive and innovative banking services, a press release issued by QNB said yesterday.

The package offers a number of benefits that include a 25 percent discounted interest rate on QNB Credit Cards, a 50 percent discount on all bank fees, bonus rate on fixed depos-its, a discount on personal and vehicle loan interest rates and reduced cost comprehensive car insurance on QNB vehicle loans.

THE PENINSULA/QNA

HMC lecture to focus on rising number of cancer casesDOHA: Globally, the number of cancer cases diagnosed yearly will increase from 7.6 million to 11.4 million between 2005 and 2030, say experts.

This emergence of cancer glo-bally as a threat to public health will be focused during a lecture to be held at the Women’s Hospital, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), this week.

The lecture will be the sixth in a series bringing the latest medi-cal research to Qatar to improve patient care, and will be held on Tuesday.

The upcoming Academic Health System lecture will be given by Professor John Bartlett, Professor of Medicine, Global Health and Nursing, Duke University Medical Center, US (also known as Duke Medicine). Duke Medicine is one of the lead-ing academic health systems in the world.

Qatar is implementing a National Cancer Strategy built on the best international evi-dence to address cancer across the health and education sectors and through the full continuum

of services from awareness through to prevention, detec-tion, diagnosis, treatment and care.

“Worldwide, between 2005 and 2030 the number of cancer cases diagnosed yearly will increase from 7.6 million to 11.4 million. Almost 80 percent of the new cases in 2030 will be in low, or middle-income countries,” said Professor Bartlett. “Globally, the greatest number of deaths from cancer is due to breast cancer in women, and lung cancer in men. In cancer prevention, the best

outcomes are offered by screening and early diagnosis and almost 30 percent of all deaths from cancer could be avoided by changing key factors that increase a person’s risk of cancer.”

Key factors responsible for these increases may include increased life expectancy and life-style risk factors such as smoking, unhealthy diets and lack of physi-cal activity and exposure to toxic environments.

“The main challenges for global cancer include health promotion for cancer prevention among the

public, screening and early detec-tion, improved treatments and palliative care. There are extraor-dinary opportunities to address each of these factors, and thereby impact public health and suffer-ing due to cancer,” said Professor Bartlett.

“There are also fantastic research opportunities from understanding how cancer cells are created to studying methods to promote the integration of research findings into the deliv-ery of care.”

THE PENINSULA

QTA pavilion at WTM to host 23 participants DOHA: A number of hospital-ity and cultural institutions are representing at the World Travel Market (WTM) 2013, the biggest global annual event for the travel industry, being held in London from tomorrow to November 7 at ExCel London.

Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) is leading the delegation to the event.

Hosted by QTA, the Qatar pavilion, a 406sqm facility with 23 participants, is helping posi-tion Qatar as the world’s upcom-ing destination and a central hub in the region for business, leisure, culture, education and sport.

Issa bin Mohammed Al Mohannadi, Chairman of QTA, said: “We have an exceptionally strong presence at this global show. This is the largest Qatar participation since our first exhibition at WTM back in the 1980s.”

“Situated centrally between East and West, and a short flight from Britain on Qatar Airways, Qatar offers a unique experi-ence for its visitors. The coun-try merges the classic Arabian traditions with modern luxury facilities.

In 2012 alone, we had nearly

40,000 arrivals from Europe. This elevated Europe to Qatar’s third visitor market for the first time. With Qatar Airways non-stop flights to 30 European cities, we are sure arrivals from Britain and Europe will increase further,” added, Al Mohannadi.

At the world’s largest tourism and hospitality tradeshow, Qatar is represented by the Ministry of Culture, Arts and Heritage, Katara, Qatar UK 2013, Qatar Museums Authority, Qatar Airways and The Diplomatic Club, in addition to a range of tour operators and hotels.

QTA will represent and pro-mote Qatar to the UK and European market by focusing on buyers from the incentive, luxury travel and leisure sec-tors, among them associations, conferences organisers, incentive planners and large group travel organisers.

Already known as a progres-sive business hub, Qatar is well positioned to take advantage of the MICE market in the Middle East, offering state-of-the-art venues with a harmonious blend of upscale leisure and cultural attractions.

THE PENINSULA

Participants attending the QP Enterprise Risk Management Forum.

QP holds risk management forumDOHA: Qatar Petroleum held its first ‘QP Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Forum’ recently. The one-day event discussed the common risk management practices, their practical applications as well as the lessons learned and the challenges faced in implementing a corporate-wide ERM programme, said a statement issued by the

energy giant, yesterday.The forum, held on October 28,

was attended by over 100 ERM focal points representing QP’s var-ious directorates and departments from all its operational areas. The event was a follow-up to the com-pletion of QP’s first Corporate Enterprise Risk Management Report (CERMR), which was pub-lished in August 2013.

Director of QP’s Strategic

Planning & Policy Directorate, Issa Shahin Al Ghanim, in his opening address stressed that risk manage-ment was something that the cor-poration has been engaged in for a long time now and he also explained that the current ERM programme primarily intends to provide struc-tured framework to facilitate a proactive and systematic manage-ment of risks on a consistent basis.

THE PENINSULA

04 HOMESUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

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QRC nominated for Peace and Sports awardPeace Football Championship for Syrian refugeesDOHA: The Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) has been nomi-nated for the ‘Peace and Sports’ award for its ‘Peace Football Championship’ for Syrian refu-gees in Jordan.

Peace and Sports is an inter-national award placed under the patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco.

The football event was held in Zaatari Camp as part of QRC’s psycho-social support pro-grammes for Syrians in Jordan and received considerable inter-national admiration.

Several organisations have con-tested for this award, and QRC along with two other applicants have reached the finals. The winner will be announced on November 7, in Monaco, in the presence of Prince Albert II, QRC said in a statement yesterday.

QRC will be represented in Monaco by Dr Mohammed bin

Ghanim Al Ali Al Maadheed, Chairman of the Board of Directors. The award puts sport and its values at the heart of local development projects conducted within communities in crisis around the world.

Exercising its missions in post-conflict zones, areas of extreme poverty or lacking social cohesion, Peace and Sport makes sport a vehicle for tolerance, respect, sharing and citizenship at the service of sustainable peace.

QRC’s psycho-social support for Syrians in Jordan incorporates a large number of projects, with a focus on Camp Zaatari, includ-ing treatment programmes for adults, play therapy for children and sports for young people, help-ing refugee families adapt to their difficult circumstances.

The sports programme was one of the most successful sup-port programmes that has been

implemented for young people; attended by 132 youngsters.

The players prepared for the “championship of peace” by hold-ing a training session comprised of physical, mental and psycho-logical training.

The programme was car-ried out in cooperation with Al Arabi sports club which provided clothes and sneakers.

QRC also contributed to the preparation of a ground for the championship which was 75 metres long and 45 metres wide.

Every Friday a match last-ing 70 minutes is held between two different groups within the tournament.

QRC Secretary-General Saleh Muhanadi said: “This programme has brought considerable joy and made a positive contribution to alleviating the psychological pres-sure that young refugees face”.

THE PENINSULA

One of the Syrian teams participating in the Peace Football Championship.

Derk Haank and Dr Claudia Lux during the signing ceremony.

QNL-Springer pact provides residents access to eBooks, online journals DOHA: The Qatar National Library (QNL) and Springer have signed a agreement for access to eBooks and electronic journals on Springer’s platform SpringerLink.

The national licence entitles Qatar to use one of the largest eBook collections worldwide con-taining scientific, technical and medical content.

The agreement offers coun-try-wide access to Springer’s electronic scientific content. Anyone who lives in Qatar and has a valid Qatari ID or resi-dence permit is eligible to regis-ter at the library free of charge. In this way, all registered mem-bers of the library will benefit from the national license with-out any limitations on user classifications

Dr Claudia Lux, Project Director of Qatar National Library, said: “Qatar National Library’s approach is truly differ-ent. We have managed to open a library digitally first, while other national libraries have been doing it the other way round. We con-sider that access of knowledge is very important for the business in the region and for the entire community and we are glad to expand our service offerings by partnering with Springer to offer everyone in Qatar full access to Springer’s electronic scientific content.

“An agreement with Springer, the leading global scientific, tech-nical and medical publisher, will enable people to unlock their scientific potential and develop the skills that will support their

participation in the global knowl-edge economy.”

“Springer is very happy to partner with the Qatar National Library and, through this agree-ment, will provide valuable infor-mation to the whole country. Our publishing portfolio provides cut-ting-edge research results, solid scientific foundations and profes-sional knowledge in all fields of science and technology. The deal will help boost Qatar’s efforts in setting up its knowledge econ-omy,” said Derk Haank, CEO of Springer.

“We are cooperating closely with their academic institu-tions and are convinced that our content will help Qatar achieve its vision of progress and growth.”

THE PENINSULA

HOME 05SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

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Bakemart, Engineers Forum bake ‘longest cake’

The Engineers Forum, an organisation of Keralite engineers, in association with Bakemart, baked Qatar’s longest cake which measured 8.4 metres in length and 2.4 metres in width. It was made with over 1,500 eggs, 150kg of sponge mix, 200kg of fresh cream and around 50kg of jelly and almost a dozen kilo of caramel and mixed fruit filling. Weighing less than 500kgs, this massive cake was assembled by four pastry chefs and 20 assistants.

Lack of education root cause of Indian Muslims’ woes: ExpertBY MOBIN PANDIT

DOHA: There are very few Muslims in India’s defence forces but that’s because they don’t make any effort to get in there, and not due to any dis-crimination, says a retired Indian lieutenant-general from the community who was here on a brief visit late last week.

Zameer Uddin Shah, however, agreed to a suggestion that fellow Muslims back home may have a perception of being discriminated against when it came to recruit-ment to security forces.

But he quickly added that such thinking was faulty as the Indian defence forces were the most sec-ular. “If the talk of discrimination were true, I would have retired as a major or a colonel at the most,” said Shah.

He said the fact that he climbed up the rungs based on merit, and not only became a lieutenant-gen-eral but also deputy chief of army staff amply demonstrated the secular character of the Indian

defence forces.“I am not being hypocritical.

What I am saying is absolutely true,” insisted Shah. His son and several other relatives are also in the Indian defence forces.

According to him, during the selection process for the Indian security forces a candidate just has a “chest number” and no name identifying him.

“So how on earth someone is going to know who you are and what your religious affiliation is.”

Shah said the talk, or percep-tion, of discrimination stems from a lack of confidence which, in turn, is an outcome of a lack of education.

“Discrimination is in human nature. If you are uneducated you are prone to falling prey to discrimination. Discrimination is only about uneducated people.”

Shah currently heads an elite Muslim educational institution in India, Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), in the country’s most populous northern state of Uttar Pradesh (UP).

A large number of past stu-dents of AMU are employed in Qatar and other Gulf countries in different sectors.

During his stay here Shah attended, as chief guest, an event held by a key association of the university’s alumni (Bazm-e-Alig).

Shah insisted in remarks to The Peninsula during a brief inter-view that the root cause of all the malaise Indian Muslims suffered today was a lack of education.

He said one of the key ini-tiatives he had taken during his vice-chancellorship at AMU was to raise awareness among young Muslim students about making a career in defence.

“We got to be true to our salt,” he told a large group of secondary school students of AMU during such a campaign. His effort led to some 10 students eventually making it to the National Defence Academy (NDA) as a start, he said.

At AMU, Shah plans to revital-ise a residential coaching academy so meritorious Muslim students can be rigorously prepared to make it to elite Indian civil, police and allied services through com-petitive examinations.

Over 90 years old, AMU has a large residential campus, with its current student strength being 28,000. Of this, some 15,000 stu-dents stay in hostels.

But a severe shortage of hostel accommodation has led to over-crowding. “These 15,000 students are accommodated in rooms meant just for 6,000. So we are currently busy trying to address this problem,” he said.

He seemed upset about criti-cisms that a man with army back-ground should head as large an educational institution as AMU.

“The fact is that the Indian army lays tremendous emphasis on education,” said Shah, pointing out that during his over 40-year-stint with the Indian armed forces, he had headed various key training and army educational institutions as well.

Incidentally, Shah’s younger brother is a famous Bollywood actor, Nasseruddin Shah.

THE PENINSULA

Lieutenant-General (Retired) Zameer Uddin Shah with his wife during their visit to Doha. (KAMUTTY VP)

Seminar focuses on intellectual disparityExperts speak at Juvenile Police forumDOHA: Senior Ministry of Interior officials, experts and researchers attended a semi-nar on ‘intellectual connection between generations… real-ity and expectancy’ organised by Juvenile Police Department (JPD) at the Ministry on Thursday.

The seminar at the Officers Club auditorium in Civil Defence Department building at Wadi Sail was part of executing recommen-dations of a forum on cultural gap between generations held last March.

The JPD Director Brigadier Ibrahim Eissa Al Buainain said that the seminar discussed the issue from different perspectives such as religious, legal, social and psychological.

Profesor Najat Abdullah, Director of Social Security Department and specialist in chil-dren programme chaired the first session, in which three papers were discussed.

The first paper on “consider-ing religious and psychological dis-course in intellectual connection between the generations’ was pre-sented by Professor Mohammed Al Anzi, Social work specialist at

Aspire Academy. The second paper was presented by Captain Bana Ali Al Khulaifi, head of Awareness, Media and Research Section at JPD on “the role of security institutions in the protection of children from deviant behaviour resulting from the intellectual dis-parity between generations”.

Dr Ilham Badr, media and pub-lic relations director at Qatar Foundation for Protection of Children and Woman presented the third paper on ‘communica-tion skills”.

The second session was chaired by Professor Thoufeek Sakkar, a researcher at JPD and two papers were presented. Dr Abdul Nasser Saleh, Professor at Qatar University presented a paper on ‘social security in terms of social formats ... intellectual connec-tion between the generations’. Maryam Al Jabir, Head of Juvenile and Families Prosecution head presented a paper on ‘legal pro-cedures resulting from cultural disparity between generations’.

Later a film was shown high-lighting the cultural gap between the younger and older generations.

THE PENINSULA

Qatar to host World Social Security Forum from Nov 10DOHA: Qatar will host the World Social Security Forum (WSSF)/International Social Security Association (ISSA) in Doha from November 10 to 15. The forum will address some of the major issues facing social protec-tion systems worldwide.

The General Retirement and Social Insurance Authority (GRSIA), which is organising the event, said the forum would analyse chal-lenges and solutions to a range of key issues facing social security today, including global

developments and trends in social security, proactive and preventive approaches, shap-ing the future and social secu-rity in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries.

The forum will have a spe-cial session on social security and civil retirement systems in the GCC states. It will be attended by heads of GCC pension and social insur-ance authorities to assess the performance of pension systems, address challenges, and highlight the reforms and developments that have been achieved.

It represents a unique opportunity for the leaders of the social security sector to study and discuss ways and means to further promote and develop social security systems in the Gulf region.

Qatar has hosted many international conferences, but the WSSF will be the first global social security event in the country. It will be attended by over 1000 social security policy-makers and CEOs representing social security institutions from more than 120 countries.

QNA

NHIC to cover basic health servicesDOHA: The executive regulations of the national health insurance law to be issued shortly will clarify the role of the Supreme Council Of Health (SCH) as the regula-tor of the health insurance sector and the National Health Insurance Company (NHIC) in managing and implement-ing the insurance scheme, the NHIS has clarified.

The NHIC, fully owned by the government, will cover basic health services for citizens, residents and visitors. Any additional serv-ices will be provided by the private insurance sector. The details of what the health insur-ance packages will include are currently being developed and will be communicated to the public in due course, NHIC said in statement.

It will be the responsibility of employers to cover the cost of health insurance for non-Qatari employees and dependents, it added.

THE PENINSULA

Two killed in road accidentDOHA: Two people — a woman and a youth — were killed in a road accident on the Al Wakra-Mesaieed road on Thursday.

The incident happened when a Land Cruiser driven by the youth collided with a pick up, in which the woman and her husband were travelling, according to a report in Al Sharq. The husband was also criti-cally injured and admitted to the Intensive Care Unit at the Emergency Department of the Hamad Medical Corporation, the report said.

THE PENINSULA

06 HOME / MIDDLE EASTSUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

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TRIPOLI: A wave of attacks motivated by sectarianism in the northern Lebanese city of Tripoli has wounded 19 mem-bers of the minority Alawite sect this week, a security offi-cial said yesterday.

Nine Alawite workers were wounded yesterday when gunmen shot and beat them.

The bus they had been travel-ling in stopped to let two Sunni passengers off at the entrance to the Bab Al Tebbaneh area, where the gunmen were waiting.

“All nine Alawites had either gunshot or beating wounds and were taken to hospital for treat-ment,” the security official said.

“The bus they were on stopped at the entry of Bab Al Tebbaneh. That’s when the gunmen attacked,” the official added.

A doctor who treated the men said none had been injured critically.

Three more Alawites suffered knife wounds yesterday after they were attacked by unknown men

in Tripoli’s central Tal Square.Another Alawite man, who

works for the city municipality, was also attacked by a knife-wielding assailant in a separate incident.

Tripoli is Lebanon’s second city and is the scene of frequent Syria-linked battles, that pit Sunnis from Bab Al Tebbaneh against Alawites in Jabal Mohsen.

Most Sunnis support Syria’s

revolt against President Bashar Al Assad, while Alawites, who belong to the same Shia-offshoot sect as Assad, support his regime.

The latest fighting ended when the army deployed along Syria Street, which separates the two districts and acts as the make-shift frontline.

Tripoli’s population is 80 percent Sunni and 11 percent Alawite.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, a barber from Jabal Mohsen who works in central Tripoli said he is afraid of going to work.

“Ever since the latest bat-tle ended, I’ve received threats by phone. I’m scared of going to (central) Tripoli. I’m thinking of closing my shop down,” he said.

Many of Tripoli’s residents long for peace, as every fresh outbreak of violence forces schools and uni-versities to close.

“I condemn these attacks (against Alawites),” said 35-year-old Sunni resident, Khaled Al Rafei.

“What happened today is bad and the state must detain who-ever was behind the attacks, whatever their political or sec-tarian affiliations.”

Lebanon was dominated by Damascus for 30 years until 2005, and its population is deeply divided into pro- and anti-Assad camps.

AFP

BEIRUT: Syria’s air force struck Sbeineh south of Damascus yesterday, as loyal-ists pressed a fierce bid to crush rebel bastions around the capi-tal, a monitoring group said.

In northern Syria, Kurdish fighters made fresh progress in an advance against Al Qaeda-linked jihadists, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported.

South of Damascus, “war-planes struck areas of Sbeineh... as regime troops shelled the town,” said the Britain-based Observatory.

Rebels on the capital’s south-ern front were battling govern-ment troops backed by both pro-regime militias and fighters from the Lebanese Shia move-ment Hezbollah.

“The strike was part of the regime’s offensive against rebel areas in and around southern Damascus,” Observatory director Rami Abdel Rahman said.

There has been a marked esca-lation along Damascus’ southern belt, which has been under a suf-focating siege for months, giving rise to widespread malnutrition especially among children.

In eastern Damascus, battles raged between rebels and troops, while loyalists also pressed an advance in Barzeh, north of the capital, the Observatory said.

The regime has for months been trying to secure the capi-tal, which is surrounded by rebel positions.

State news agency SANA,

meanwhile, said two people were wounded in shelling by “terror-ists” of the Bab Jabieh neighbour-hood of central Damascus.

Southeast of Damascus, several mortar rounds smashed into the majority Christian-Druze neigh-bourhood of Jaramana, wounding nine people, said SANA.

In rebel-held Yabrud, northeast of the capital, one person was killed and several were wounded in a car bomb explosion, according to the Observatory.

Both central Damascus and Jaramana, which are firmly under army control, have come under frequent shellfire in past weeks.

Elsewhere, Kurdish fighters pressed an advance against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant in the majority Kurdish province of Hasake, said the Observatory.

Yesterday, they took over sev-eral villages and military positions surrounding Ras Al Ain, which borders Turkey.

According to the Observatory, Kurdish militia are now in control of a stretch of 25 kilometres along the Syrian-Turkish border, to the west of Ras Al Ain.

The advance comes less than a week after Kurdish fighters drove out jihadists and took over the Yaarubiyeh border crossing with Iraq.

Syria’s conflict, which has killed more than 120,000 people, was sparked by a regime crackdown on pro-democracy protests.

AFP

Germans abducted, freed then arrestedBEIRUT: Two German men kidnapped in eastern Lebanon were freed yesterday, hours after their abduction, but police immediately arrested them on drug trafficking charges, the offi-cial National News Agency reported.

“The Germans abducted last night in the eastern Bekaa Valley were released today,” NNA said.

“After they were freed, a police unit from the Internal Security Force arrested the Germans on charges of drug trafficking, and a search for the abductors is underway,” it reported.

The Germans were seized on Friday by unknown gunmen demanding a ransom for their release, in what a security official said appeared to be a criminal rather than a political act.

AFP

TEHRAN: Iran yesterday arrested the head of reformist daily Bahar, Saeed Pourazizi, for publishing an article seen by critics as questioning the beliefs of Shia Islam, Fars news agency reported.

“Today he was summoned to the prosecutor’s office... He was arrested and transferred to Evin prison,” in northern Tehran, his wife Masoumeh Shahriari told Fars.

Shahriari said the public pros-ecutor had “lodged a complaint” against Pourazizi, who was trying to negotiate being released on bail.

“We have not been informed about the amount of money needed for the bail,” she said.

Iran’s press watchdog banned Bahar last week because of an article seen by many as question-ing a core belief of Shia Islam.

Prior to the ban, the daily issued an apology note, saying publishing the article was an “unintentional mistake” and it had temporarily suspended activities to “ease the tensions”.

Culture Minister Ali Janati said the article “foments religious

conflicts” and that the daily had received earlier warnings.

And judiciary chief Ayatollah Sadegh Larijani warned Wednesday that his department will “act with determination against those who falsify the his-tory and try to undermine the fundamentals of the regime.”

President Hassan Rouhani pledged to work for more social freedom during his poll campaign.

AFP

DUBAI: The Bahraini police yesterday summoned the head of the main Shia opposition fac-tion for questioning, the group said, as tensions persist in the Sunni-ruled kingdom.

The summons was delivered to Ali Salman’s house in the morn-ing, the opposition Al Wefaq asso-ciation said in a statement, adding it was not clear why he was being called in for questioning.

“It is believed to be part of a campaign of political blackmail

and revenge against the peace-ful opposition that is demanding democracy and rejects tyranny,” the statement said.

The summons comes just over a week after Al Wefaq’s leading fig-ure Khalil Marzooq was released from jail at the opening of his trial for inciting terrorism.

Marzooq, a former MP, was arrested in September after being summoned for questioning and later charged by the general prosecutor with “promoting acts

that amount to terrorist crimes”.On September 29, a court sen-

tenced 50 Shias, including a top Iraqi cleric, to up to 15 years in jail for forming the February 14 Coalition clandestine group, which is blamed for most of the confrontations between security forces and members of Bahrain’s Shia majority.

The group is believed to be the main force behind a month-long protest that erupted on February 14, 2011 before it was dispersed in

a mid-March deadly crackdown.At least 89 people have been

killed in Bahrain since the Arab Spring-inspired protests erupted, according to the International Federation for Human Rights.

Demonstrators frequently clash with security forces in Shia villages outside Manama.

Bahrain is the home base of the US Fifth Fleet and Washington is a long-standing ally of the ruling Al-Khalifa dynasty.

AFP

Libya bombing

Jordanians protest

A man walks through the bombed out remains of the Rotana Cafe in Benghazi yesterday. According to the police, it was not known who was behind the bombing, but there were no casualties.

Relatives of Jordanian prisoners in Israeli jails hold up their photos during a protest to demand their release, in Amman yesterday.

Warplanes hit rebel area near DamascusBattles rage between rebels, troops

Police summon top Bahrain opposition leader

Nine dead in Egypt revenge killingsASSIUT: Security officials in Egypt say a fight between two families sparked by a dispute in a line to buy bread has killed nine people.

The officials said yesterday the feud began a month earlier in a town in the southern governo-rate of Assiut when a member of the Shaibaa tribe was killed in a fight over who was first in line to buy bread. Four members of the rival family were charged over the killing.

After a court hearing yester-rday, officials say members of the Shaibaa pursued the defend-ants’ relatives, killing two and their driver. The officials say the bereaved relatives then went to the house of the Shaibaa and killed six.

The officials spoke on condi-tion of anonymity in line with regulations.

Revenge killings are common in southern Egypt.

AP

Iran arrests head of reformist daily

19 Alawites wounded in Lebanon attacks

Continued from page 1

Alternatively, there are a hand-ful of social media experts who are familiar with media ethics.

Ghazanfarullah Khan, a blog-ger and social media expert, said one mistake that companies and organisations often make is that they put too much emphasis on numbers. “It’s all about numbers here. Companies are interested in how many followers they have on Twitter, how many people like their page on Facebook; but there is very little real-time communi-cation between these companies and the public on the Internet.”

Khan points out that as compa-nies become dependent on agen-cies for marketing and publicity,

social media often gets sidelined. These entities are also on the lookout for bilingual social media experts, who are difficult to find here.

Mohammed has recently formed the Qatar chapter of Social Media Club, which has more than 300 chapters world-wide, with the aim to change the approach to online communities.

“There are many projects going on in Qatar, we also have a clear vision. It is time for us to have our own social media strategies and engage with people, because the new media have given people the power to influence our repu-tation,” he said.

THE PENINSULA

Too much emphasis on numbers, says expert

New ‘Death to America’ songsTEHRAN: Hardliners in Iran have unveiled two new “Death to America” songs at the former US Embassy in Tehran, hoping to keep anger high ahead of nuclear talks with Western powers.

They performed the songs yesterday ahead of a planned massive protest tomorrow to mark the anniversary of the US Embassy takeover in 1979.

AP

MIDDLE EAST 07SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

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TUNIS: Tunisia’s ruling Islamist party Ennahda and the opposition were deadlocked in talks yesterday to choose a new prime minister tasked with steering the country out of a months-long political crisis.

After an unsuccessful meeting in the morning, the parties sat down again at around 1630 GMT to carry on with the discussions.

“We have not reached a con-sensus yet but we are on the way,” senior Ennahda official Ameur Larayedh told reporters.

Tensions have gripped Tunisia since the 2011 uprising that top-pled veteran dictator Zine El Abidine Ben Ali and were exac-erbated with the murder this year of two opposition politicians by suspected Islamist radicals.

Ennahda, a moderate Islamist party whose resignation has been demanded by the opposition, has pledged to step down and allow the creation of a government

of independents as part of a roadmap.

The Islamist-led government opened talks with the opposition on October 25 to form the new government, agree on a much-delayed constitution and prepare for elections.

The road map to resolve the crisis was drafted by mediators including the powerful UGTT trade union, which announced the latest setback.

It said a meeting on Friday of party leaders to chose a new premier bogged down in disagree-ment over four candidates.

The delegates agreed to set up a new committee tasked with over-coming the stalemate, the UGTT said in a statement overnight.

The committee compris-ing the head of the National Constituent Assembly, Mustapha Ben Jaafar, Ennahda chief Rached Ghannouchi and five opposition figures met yesterday morning

with UGTT secretary general Housine Abassi.

Ennahda and its opponents disagree on the frontrunners to become prime minister — Mohamed Ennaceur, 79, and Ahmed Mestiri, 88, two veteran politicians and former ministers.

Both are well respected and served under the late Habib Bourguiba, who led the fight for Tunisia’s independence from its French colonial masters and served as its first president (1957-1987).

Press reports said Ennahda and its secular coalition partner were backing Mestiri, while the opposi-tion was in favour of Ennaceur.

But Bourad Amdouni, a repre-sentative for a coalition of leftist parties, said Mestiri, who held several key portfolios in successive governments under Bourguiba, “is not (physically) up to fulfilling the mission of prime minister.”

AFP

JUBA: South Sudan’s contro-versial opposition leader Lam Akol returned home for first time in two years yesterday, after a presidential pardon cleared him of allegations of encouraging armed rebels.

Akol was a former warlord who fought on both sides during Sudan’s 1983-2005 civil war, and the biggest critic of South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir since split-ting from the ruling party in 2009.

“I am extremely happy to be in South Sudan,” Akol told reporters

as he arrived in the airport from the capital Juba.

“This is the time for the people of South Sudan to come together and hold together.”

Akol, who challenged Kiir in 2010 elections and heads the Sudan People’s Liberation Movement-Democratic Change party, was accused of backing a rebellion with troops armed by Khartoum, claims both Akol and Sudan have always denied.

Khartoum and Juba have traded accusations each is backing rebels

on the other country’s territory.Since leaving South Sudan in

November 2011, Akol spent much of his time in exile in Khartoum.

The presidential pardon last month — which also included other political rivals and rebel commanders — was seen as a way to trying to bolster political support and settle long-running disputes that originated during the war decades ago.

It also follows a complete reshuffle of government.

AFP

SANAA: Shia rebels and Sunni Islamist fighters have agreed to a ceasefire in a northern Yemeni town but the Red Cross is still being denied access, military and aid officials said yesterday.

Clashes that killed at least 11 people ended at 5 pm on Friday, the official said according to the defence ministry news website 26sep.net.

Troops have been deployed in areas evacuated by the two sides, he added.

The fighting with mortar and rocket fire had been concen-trated on the Mazraa mosque and a Koranic school held by the Islamists in the village of Dammaj in Saada province and surrounded by Zaidi rebels, also known as Huthis.

But the International Committee of the Red Cross said

yesterday that its teams were still being denied access to Dammaj.

“We deplore the lack of access to Dammaj, where the number of wounded people in need of evac-uation is growing,” said Cedric Schweizer, the ICRC director in Sanaa.

“We are particularly concerned about people who need emergency assistance. We appeal for a halt to the violence and for immediate and unconditional access, so that we can evacuate the wounded and deliver much-needed medi-cal assistance,” Schweizer said in a statement.

Tribal sources put the death toll at least 11, but the Sunnis have said the number on their side killed in the shelling was much higher.

On Friday, the ICRC urged an immediate ceasefire to allow

ambulances into the area.“Every minute we lose waiting

to get into Dammaj and the sur-rounding area is a potential life lost,” said Schweizer.

Dammaj has been the scene of frequent clashes between Sunni Islamists and the Huthis, for whom Saada is a stronghold.

Thousands of Sunni Salafist Islamists demonstrated in Sanaa yesterday in support of their co-religionists.

A statement by Ansarullah (Partisans of God), the official name for the Huthi rebels, has charged that Sunni extremists had “transformed the centre of Dammaj into a real barracks for thousands of armed foreigners.”

Last month, at least 42 people were killed in clashes in Amran province, and in the Ibb region.

AFP

Tunisian parties in deadlock over PMEnnahda, opposition disagree on contenders to top post

Islamists, Shias in Yemen truce

South Sudan leader back from exile

Men shout slogans during a protest outside the home of Yemeni President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi against fighting between the Shia Houthi movement and Salafi militants in the northern town of Damaj, in Sanaa yesterday.

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Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

BY COLBERT I KING

What’s this about govern-ments spying on their closest allies?

We called it “the bub-ble.” It was a 12-by-15-foot acoustic conference room made of clear plastic and aluminum. There were at least five inches of space between the walls of the bubble and the walls of the room in which it was located. The bubble’s plastic walls, ceiling and floor allowed visual inspection for electronic listening devices, or “bugs.”

As an extra security measure, a noise-generating machine was installed in the outer room to prevent interception of any discussions of classified information

within the bubble. The outer room was secured by a combination lock, the code known only to my office.

The first US “bubble” was installed after hidden m i c r o p h o n e s were found in American diplo-matic missions in Moscow, Prague and elsewhere in the 1960s.

Our bubble, within a room on an upper floor of the US Embassy in Bad Godesberg, West Germany, was a counter-

measure against possible technical penetration by the Soviet KGB and the East German Stasi. But Eastern Bloc countries weren’t the only concern.

Our bubble allowed classified dis-cussions to occur beyond the hearing of our host and ally, the-then Federal Republic of Germany, and our friends down the road in the French and British embassies.

That was nearly 50 years ago.

This year, in my current capacity, I was sitting in the office of an ambas-sador in Washington when a member of his staff alerted him to an important call. There was a phone on the ambas-sador’s desk. But he left the room to take the call.

It turns out that his prime minister was calling from overseas. The ambas-sador went to a secure location in the embassy where he could conduct a con-fidential conversation.

True, he was in the capital city of his nation’s closest ally. But the mat-ter to be discussed was for the ears of his countrymen only, US friendship notwithstanding.

Today, as the United States has been doing for decades, close allies in Europe, the Middle East and else-where take similar precautions even when their missions are in friendly countries.

Gentlemen may know that it is bad form to read each other’s mail or to eavesdrop. But in diplomacy and national security, the desire to know what another country is up to tends to overwhelm any sense of rectitude.

Consequently, the European outrage over snooping among friends may be slightly overdone. That is an entirely separate matter from the National Security Agency’s vacuum-cleaner-like collection of the communication records and metadata of millions of Americans, including private citizens and, appar-ently, foreign citizens both here and overseas.

The scope of that intelligence-col-lection programme, disputed by Gen Keith Alexander, the director of the NSA, this week is the cause of uproar around the country and in Congress. There is still much to sort out and probably reform.

The monitoring of foreign lead-ers’ phone calls, however, is closer to the larger deed of spying on allied governments.

Which takes us to an indelicate ques-tion: Why is a foreign leader, a reposi-tory of a nation’s secrets, communicating by text messages and smartphone?

The most junior Foreign Service officer or government civil servant entrusted with sensitive information assumes that emails and cellphones are susceptible to eavesdropping. What makes a head of state behave as if he or she is immune from monitoring?

Which brings up another tactless question: Why haven’t the security serv-ices of those foreign leaders developed countermeasures to prevent successful spying on personal communications?

The danger here isn’t simply that the NSA may have overstepped its bounds with respect to US allies. The intelli-gence services of the foes of Germany, France, Spain, Brazil and the like may have the capacity to listen in on high-level conversations.

The naivete of outraged foreign lead-ers and their vulnerability to spying are nearly — but not totally — as surprising as the scale of NSA snooping.

The NSA revelations, meanwhile, should not draw attention away from the revelations’ primary source: Edward Joseph Snowden.

How in the world is it possible that a high school dropout with a GED, a community college student who didn’t graduate, a failed Army recruit and security guard can catapult himself into a CIA information technology job, an overseas posting and subsequently a $200,000-a-year job with a company contracted to do NSA work in Hawaii, where he was able to gain access to the crown jewels of America’s secrets?

Whistle-blower, traitor, patriot: Debate the labels all you want. The gov-ernment has charged him with espio-nage. Take it up with Attorney General Eric Holder.

I want to know how Snowden got his hands on so much of the nation’s most sensitive intelligence and was able to flee the country, all within three months.

Damage? Done by the US government to itself.

King is a former deputy editorial page editor of The Washington Post.

WP-BLOOMBERG

THE tragedy of people who fly from poverty, war and persecution in their own country in the indestructible hope that

a golden future lies somewhere across the border only to be led to doom by the mirage of hope is becoming a too-often repeated leitmotif and is losing the power to move society and drive it to take action.

The discovery of the Sahara tragedy came after another human disaster. In October, nearly 200 people, including Eritreans, Syrians and Somalis, per-ished near Italy’s Lampedusa Island, triggering consternation. Prior to this there have been regular tales of people

braving perilous journeys in flimsy boats to reach Australia from Southeast Asian destinations.

This is a humanitarian crisis that can be solved only multilaterally. While the first refugees who trickle in are at times accommodated by the countries where they head, when the trickle becomes a steady flow national interests force charity to stop even though it goes against humanitarian principles. With the Syrian crisis raging on without any sign of a resolution, Turkey, for instance, was compelled to close its borders after having accommodated an ear-lier influx. Australia’s declaration that it would push back new boat arrivals and

would employ ships to keep the emi-grants in check, though criticised for its harsh tone, is nevertheless another sign of putting national interests before philanthropy.

The obvious solution is of course to prevent conflict. There are some instances when conflicts could have been averted had the warring sides’ neighbours or allies who exert a strong influence on them, had pressured them into crying off. However, such interven-tion is rarely proving successful these days. And at times they come in the form of greater violence, triggering an even greater cycle of suffering.

Perhaps the world would do well

to contemplate a greater crisis that is gathering force. Soon, there will be a new class of evicted, climate refugees who are forced to flee as lands turn barren or the sea rises up and begins to rapidly swallow sinking coastal regions. The thoughtless and unrestrained con-sumption of natural resources have brought in global warming and climate change. Extreme climates and changes in rainfall patterns have been stoking droughts, floods and glacial melts. Nature’s fury has far more greater power to harm than humans’ and to cope with then nations need to work together, not remain at one another’s throats. Khaleej Times

Security holes gave Snowden access to state secrets

Suspending Bassem Youssef ’s programme is an unwise decision that stirred resentment and concern about freedoms.

Quote ofthe day

Amr MoussaEgyptian politician

The other side

How in the world is it possible that a high school dropout with a GED, a community college student who didn’t graduate, can catapult himself into a CIA information technology job.

T HE decision of the Georgian Prime Minister to step aside in favour of his protégé is of crucial import for the nascent polity of the South Caucasus nation. Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili named Interior

Minister Irakly Garibashvili as the new prime minister to head the state, which is going to devolve major powers to the new parliament in a transition to a parliamentary form of government. The move comes in the wake of Georgy Margvelashvili winning the presidential vote earlier this week, bringing to power the Georgian Dream coalition in the politically fractious nation.

All eyes will now be on Garibashvili, likely one of the youngest prime ministers at 31. Georgia straddles an important gas route from Azerbaijan to Europe. The former Soviet Republic is of strategic importance to its northern neighbour Russia, which fought a five-day war over the breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossettia. The war, under the stewardship of outgoing President Mikheil Saakashvili, further strained ties with Moscow, which found it hard to let one of its outcrops lean towards Washington.

Ivanishvili, self-admittedly never the politician, felt the heat of Georgian politics even within the sequestered confines of his glass-and-steel mansion in the capital within months of taking over as the prime minister. The Forbes-ranked Ivanishvili

fought the widely-held belief within the country that he would make the nation subservient to Russian interests after coming to power in 2012. He had many former politicians belonging to Saakashvili’s United National Movement charged with corruption and thrown behind bars. With Saakashvili — his bete noire— squirming in the presidential palace, Ivanishvili kept the political heat up in the nation of 4.5 million. The former Soviet Republic’s fate now hinges on how the new dispensation deals with the challenges of economic

growth and poverty. Saakashvili was credited with introducing a zero-tolerance policy to corruption and brought it down with an iron hand. Lack of experience notwithstanding, Garibashvili will be expected to address major issues of governance with alacrity. The Georgian people, by now quite impatient with their politicians, are unlikely to give him much time.

On the international policy front, Garibashvili will have to deal with Georgia’s former master Russia, which is already jousting with former republics to keep its stranglehold on power. Georgia’s aspiration to join the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) and the European Union need to be nurtured with zeal to pave the way for the country to be part of the multilateral alliances in the future •

The major concern for the new democracy should be whether Ivanishvili will pull the strings from behind to rule the country. The relatively inexperienced Garibashvili may become susceptible to the tycoon’s influence, which may affect decision-making •

Young nation

Georgia’s new 31-year-old prime minister needs to address daunting domestic and international issues.

Editorial

08 VIEWS SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

A global crisis

Labour cautious about left-wing populism

BY JOHN MCCAIN and LINDSEY GRAHAM

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki visited Washington last week amid a political and security crisis in Iraq that is as bad as any the country has experienced since

the worst days of the insurgency in 2007 and 2008. Iraq is being lost. And while the Obama administration may seek to avoid blame, or shift blame yet again to the Bush administration, it should not be allowed to avoid its own responsibility for the ongoing deterioration of Iraq — or what to do about it now.

By nearly every indicator, the situation in Iraq has worsened dramatically since the beginning of the conflict in Syria and the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq in 2011. An analysis this month by the Washington Institute for Near East Policy captured the depths of the cur-rent crisis: “In 2010, the low point for the Al Qaeda effort in Iraq, car bombings declined to an average of 10 a month and multiple location attacks occurred only two or three times a year.

In 2013, so far there has been an aver-age of 68 car bombings a month and a multiple-location strike every 10 days.” The UN estimates that nearly 7,000 civil-ians have been killed in Iraq this year alone. What’s worse, the deteriorating conflict in Syria has enabled Al Qaeda in Iraq to transform into the larger and more lethal Islamic State of Iraq and Al Sham (ISIS), which now has a major base for operations spanning both Iraq and Syria. It may just be a matter of time until Al Qaeda seeks to use its new safe haven in these countries to launch attacks against US interests.

We are prepared to assign blame for failures in today’s Iraq to the Bush administration where they are deserved. Indeed, from 2003-2006, we were among President Bush’s toughest and most out-spoken critics on Iraq.

To be sure, most of the blame lies with Iraqis themselves, especially Prime Minister Maliki and his allies, who have too often pursued a sectarian and author-itarian agenda that has alienated Kurdish Iraqis, disenfranchised Sunni Iraqis, and alienated many Shia Iraqis who hold an inclusive, pluralistic and democratic vision for their country.

But the Obama administration cannot escape its own culpability for this enor-mous failure.

The “blame Bush” approach will not work this time. Whatever the Bush administration got wrong about Iraq, it got one very important thing right: The recognition in early 2007 that the conflict needed a different strategy, more troops and other resources, and different mili-tary leadership in the country.

This strategy, known as “the Surge,” helped create the political and security conditions upon which the Iraqi people could build. Additional US troops secured the streets and provided a security mech-anism through which the development of Iraq’s own military was accelerated. At the same time, Sunni tribal leaders began to fight back against the most radical ele-ments of the insurgency who had threat-ened their traditional power structures.

Known as the Awakening, or Sahwa, the Sunni tribal community turned against Al Qaeda and, with the help of US forces, degraded the insurgency. As Al Qaeda was crushed and its attacks against Shia Iraqi communities declined, the Maliki government and the Iraqi Security Forces were empowered to push back on Shia militants groups and play a more constructive role in the country’s security. This is how Iraqis were able to escape the depths of civil war.

In addition to the military successes produced by the surge, an equally impor-tant component of this strategy was the political signal sent by President Bush to the Iraqi people that the US was deci-sively committed to a successful outcome there.

This promise of US support guaran-teed the political process and, in so doing, created the necessary political space for dialogue and consensus-building. It reas-sured Iraqi politicians that they would not be abandoned as they made diffi-cult political decisions and guaranteed a framework by which all parties had a vested interest in building a stable, inclu-sive, and democratic Iraq.

Thus, as the Bush administration left office, Iraq was at long last heading in a more promising direction. Violence was down significantly; Sunnis were being reintegrated into the political system through a more equitable distribution of power and resources; some of Iraq’s most

corrupt leaders have been pushed out; more moderate Shia leadership had been empowered; and there was a real oppor-tunity through continued US support and engagement to strengthen a consti-tutional order in Iraq that was open to all Iraqis, regardless of sect or ethnicity.

Nowhere was the Obama administra-tion’s failure more pronounced than dur-ing the debate over whether to maintain a limited number of US troops in Iraq beyond the 2011 expiration of the 2008 Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA) — a debate in which we were actively involved.

Here, too, the administration is quick to lay blame on others for the fact that they tried, and failed, to keep a limited presence of troops in Iraq. They have blamed the Bush administration, of course, for mandating the withdrawal in the 2008 SOFA.

This does not ring true, however, because as former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has made clear, the plan all along was to renegotiate the agree-ment to allow for a continued presence of US forces in Iraq.

The Obama administration also blames Iraqis for failing to grant the necessary privileges and immunities for a US force presence beyond 2011.

This, too, is misleading because as we saw firsthand, the administration never undertook the necessary diplomatic

effort to reach such an agreement. We travelled to Iraq in May 2011, only several months away from the deadline that our commanders had set for the beginning of the withdrawal.

Such a strategy should unite Iraqis of every sect and ethnicity in a reformed constitutional order based on the rule of law, which can give Iraqis a real stake in their nation’s progress, marginal-ise Al Qaeda in Iraq and other violent extremists, and bring lasting peace to the country.

To be effective, an Iraqi political strategy should involve sharing greater national power and revenue with Sunni Iraqis, reconciling with Sunni leaders, and ending de-Baathification and other policies of blanket retribution.

It should include agreements with the Kurdistan Regional Government to share hydrocarbon revenues and resolve ter-ritorial disputes. And it requires a clear commitment that the elections scheduled for next year will happen freely, fairly, and inclusively in all parts of Iraq, and that the necessary preparations will be taken. While President Obama’s policies have certainly curtailed US influence in Iraq, our nation has enduring national security interests in Iraq that cannot be diminished.

The Obama administration inherited a policy in Iraq that was succeeding in

driving down levels of violence, signifi-cantly degrading Al Qaeda in Iraq, and building a constitutional order in which differences could be resolved peacefully and politically.

Five years later, Iraq is beset by esca-lating levels of violence, growing political polarisation, and a resurgent Al Qaeda in Iraq and Syria that now possesses a base of operations in the heart of the Middle East.

The current failure in Iraq has unfolded on the Obama administration’s watch, and it is the president’s responsibility to devise a strategy to address these seri-ous national security challenges — for it is folly to believe that the growing failure in Iraq will not ultimately impact the US.

One only need look at US policy toward Afghanistan in the 1990s to understand the problems inherent to such wishful thinking.

The US fought too hard and sacrificed and invested too much to allow Iraq to descend into violence once again. We owe it to the brave Americans who fought and lost their lives to do everything we can to ensure the realisation of the goals in Iraq that they fought so hard to achieve.

No one wants the Obama administra-tion’s legacy in Iraq to be one of squan-dering our many hard-won gains there but, at present, that is the unfortunate reality it is facing. WP-BLOOMBERG

How Obama turned Iraq victory into defeat

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al Maliki (left) with US President Barack Obama in the Oval Office at the White House on Friday.

After a terrorist attack in Beijing, there is no way that the government will relax grip on the area.BY RACHEL LU

On Monday, a jeep rammed into a group of pedestrians and burst into flames on the avenue next to Tiananmen Square, the massive

public square in Beijing that’s the symbolic heart of the Chinese capital. According to Chinese state media reports, the crash killed three people in the vehicle as well as two pedestrians, while injuring 40 others. The Chinese police announced Wednesday that the incident was an act of “terrorism,” a suicide attack carried out by three Uighurs — a man, his wife and his mother — from Xinjiang, a restive region in northwestern China about 2,000 miles from Beijing. Police also announced they had arrested five people with Uighur names for planning the crash. The attack came at a sensitive time, as China’s ruling Chinese Communist Party prepares for an important plenum meeting on November 9, and is the most high-profile suicide attack to strike China’s capital in recent memory.

Xinjiang, which means “new frontier”, has seen many bloody incidents in recent years. In June 2013, 35 people were killed in an attack against a police station in Shanshan county. In April 2013, clashes with police killed 21 people, including 15 police officers, in Kashgar. In July 2009, ethnic clashes in Urumqi, the capital of Xinjiang, left more than 100 dead. (While the precise death tolls are hard to verify, the severity of the conflicts is indisputable.)

If Xinjiang’s troubles seemed remote to resi-dents of Beijing, the Monday attack brought them much closer to home. “This is the first time that I’ve ever felt so close to a terror-ist attack,” remarked one user of Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter. Another tweeted, “My God,

they can do this in front of Tiananmen? I’m very worried all of the sudden, how do they prevent this type of attacks in the future? Vehicle inspections?”

Uighurs, mostly Turkic-speaking Muslims living in northwest China, are one of the coun-try’s 55 officially recognised ethnic minori-ties. An estimated 10 million Uighurs live in Xinjiang, making up approximately 40 percent of its population, and bristle under heavy-handed restrictions placed on their lan-guage, religion and way of life. Han officials there often fail to learn functional Uighur, and traditional Uighur male gatherings called meshrep are often banned as “illicit” or dis-persed by police. Making matters worse, anti-Uighur discrimination and profiling abound in their homeland.

In urban areas, the relationship between Han, China’s predominant ethnic group, and Uighurs — who are often migrants there eking out a living as street vendors or day labour-ers — can be quite contentious. Colored by poor personal experiences with vendors or pickpockets, many Han attach negative stere-otypes to Uighurs and bitterly complain about policies that they perceive to be favourable to minorities such as Uighurs.

Some of those complaints have found their way online. In December 2012, a tweet by a

local police department in Hunan province went viral on China’s Internet because it reported a scuffle between Uighur cake ven-dors and Han, which ended with the Uighurs being compensated $25,000 for the destroyed cake. For Han Internet users who related sto-ries of being forced to buy cake by Uighur migrants, sometimes at knife-point, the seemingly outrageous sum confirmed their long-held suspicion that Uighurs receive preferential treatment because of their ethnic minority status.

Qin Ailing, a reporter who has written about Xinjiang, argued that personal rela-tionships were the only way to change the dynamic. She tweeted on Wednesday that Chinese should “really pay attention to the Uighur friends around you and the difficult predicaments that they’ve encountered in their lives — even those who may be prepar-ing for ‘terrorist activities.’” But with the lat-est incident, rising comity between Hans and Uighurs is unlikely. “After a terrorist attack in the political centre, there is no way” the government will relax its grip on the region, one Weibo user said. Conciliation has failed, he wrote, and “keeping up the high pressure is the only way to go” — even if, he continued, a “vicious cycle” of crackdown and backlash is inevitable. WP-BLOOMBERG

Uighurs attend Friday prayers at a mosque in Beijing.

BY ROBERT PHILPOT

For much of the last three decades, left-wing populism has seemed something of a contradiction in terms. Even after Margaret Thatcher and Ronald Reagan departed the political stage, the right retained a powerful hold over much of the traditional

discourse of populism, inverting and perverting its narrative of the “people versus the powerful” to target government in general and the welfare state in particular, while suggesting to the middle classes that their economic interests were more closely aligned with the super-rich than the working poor.

Ed Miliband’s promise in his speech to the Labour party conference last month of a “government that fights for you”, his pledges to freeze energy prices and tell developers to “use the land or lose the land”, and his portrayal of the recovering economy as a “rising tide [that] just seems to lift the yachts” represents the latest attempt by the Labour leader to challenge neoliberalism’s domination of this important part of the political terrain. Over the past three years, we have seen Miliband frequently attack the “vested interests” and juxtapose wealth-creating “producers” with short-termist “predators”. In so doing, he echoes the language of late 19th-century American populism which, during a similar time of economic dislocation and recession, railed against the corporate “parasites” on behalf of the “producers” of the nation’s wealth.

Nonetheless, Labour should be cautious about the popularity of this left-wing populism for four reasons. First, as the YouGov poll indicates, there has been a big jump since 2010 in support for Labour among “squeezed middle” voters.

Second, as Labour’s experience in the 1980s and the Tories’ in the 1990s show, voters can agree with a party on a whole raft of policies – including many which they profess to care deeply about – but if they do not trust that party to run the economy, it will pay a heavy price at the ballot box.

Third, the correlation between good short-term politics and a credible long-term governing agenda is not always a strong one. As Roger Liddle has pointed out, Harold Wilson’s campaigns in the two general elections of 1974 promised to tackle the cost of living crisis with a string of price controls, rent freezes, and rises in benefits and subsidies which, when implemented, provoked the “worst postwar crisis in the public finances Britain experienced prior to the present one”.

Finally, history suggests populist messages tend to succeed when they are combined with a strong agenda around reforming the state and its institutions. Only when allied in the early 20th century with the progressive movement, which wanted to clean up the corrupt machines which dominated American urban politics, did the populist movement succeed. Under presidents Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, that fusion produced a raft of measures, including antitrust legislation which busted monopolies, the creation of regulatory agencies, and the introduction of income tax, which fundamentally altered the balance of power between citizen, state and market.

THE GUARDIAN

Tiananmen attack: Uighurs in spotlight

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The US has fought too hard, sacrificed and invested too much to allow Iraq to descend into violence once again.

10 INTERNATIONALSUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

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Silent protest in London

Demonstrators take part in a silent protest outside the Russian embassy in west London yesterday in sup-port of Kieron Bryan, a journalist held in a Russian prison. Kieron Bryan was among 30 environmentalists on board Greenpeace’s Arctic Sunrise ship, arrested by Russian forces in a commando-style operation when two activists tried to scale an oil rig on September 18.

LOS ANGELES: Police were hunting for a motive yester-day after a gunman opened fire at Los Angeles International Airport, killing an unarmed federal official, terrifying hun-dreds, and sowing chaos at the busy transport hub.

Panicked travellers scram-bled to escape after the shooter — identified as 23-year-old Paul Anthony Ciancia — armed with an assault rifle, blasted through a security checkpoint at the airport shortly after 9:00 am (1600 GMT) on Friday.

Ciancia then walked calmly through the terminal seeking further victims. He was eventu-ally stopped when police shot and wounded him.

TV footage showed people div-ing to the floor at the sound of gunfire and scrambling to escape the terminal.

The dead agent was the first Transportation Security Administration (TSA) employee killed in the line of duty since the group was set up following the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks.

The lone gunman, who report-edly had a grudge against the TSA, also wounded seven people in the rampage.

But he was still carrying plenty of ammunition when he was arrested, said Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

“There were more than 100 more rounds that could have lit-erally killed everybody in that terminal today,” he said, praising airport police. “If it were not for their actions, there could have been a lot more damage,” he said.

“My prayers are with the TSA family today and with your fallen. Thank you for your courage and your service. Our country is

indebted,” Garcetti later wrote on his Facebook account.

The mayor also ordered flags on city buildings to fly at half-mast in honour of the slain TSA agent.

While reports suggested Ciancia — who was shot several times before he went down — was a disgruntled loner, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it could not rule out terrorism.

The shooter opened fire in a crowded terminal of the country’s third-busiest airport.

He “came into Terminal Three, pulled an assault rifle out of a bag and began to open fire,” said Patrick Gannon, head of the air-port police.

“He proceeded up into the screening area ... and continued shooting,” he said.

Police chased the gunman, “engaged him in gunfire... and were able to successfully take him into custody.”

The terminal remained close yesterday as authorities carried out a detailed investigation of the shooting.

The TSA, which employs unarmed screeners at air-ports, confirmed that one of its employees had died. “Multiple Transportation Security Officers were shot, one fatally,” said a TSA statement.

The FBI later named the shooter, and said that he was a Los Angeles resident originally from the eastern state of New Jersey.

Police found a note on the gun-man voicing “disappointment in the government” but that he did not want to harm “innocent people,” a law enforcement offi-cial told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.

It appeared that Ciancia was

hunting for TSA agents. During the shooting spree, which lasted less than 10 minutes, he approached a number of people cowering in the terminal and pointed his gun at them, asking if they “were TSA.”

If they answered “no,” he moved on, the Times reported, citing witnesses who said he cursed the TSA repeatedly.

Late Friday, the TSA identi-fied the dead officer as Gerardo Hernandez, 39, US media reported.

Before the shooting, Ciancia texted his younger brother that he might harm himself, the Washington Post reported yester-day. This led the shooter’s father to contact local New Jersey police, who in turn contacted their coun-terparts in Los Angeles.

LAPD officers visited Ciancia’s home on Friday but could not find him, according to the Post.

Brian Adamick, 43, said he saw a wounded TSA worker, with a bloodied ankle, board a shuttle bus helping passengers escape.

“It looked like it was straight out of the movies,” he said.

Some 750 flights were dis-rupted after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued a national ground-stop.

Although there was no indi-cation that other people were involved in the attack, the FBI said it could not rule out terrorism.

“It would be premature to comment on a motivation at this time and joint investigators have neither ruled out terrorism, nor

ruled it in,” said an FBI state-ment. This being Los Angeles, a number of celebrities were caught up in the action.

Filming of an episode of the hit TV show “Mad Men” underway in nearby Terminal Four was halted, a crew member wrote on Twitter.

The shooting comes just weeks ahead of the stressful end-of-year travel period that includes Thanksgiving — traditionally the busiest travel time of the year — and Christmas. AFP

US police probe motive of airport shooting

Traffic fills airport streets, passing law enforcement vehicles outside Terminal 3, as access to airport terminal parking lots resumes after a shooting at the Los Angeles International Airport yesterday.

Lone gunman kills TSA agent, sows chaos at busy Los Angeles Airport

JOHANNESBURG: Nelson Mandela is “fine” after his critical lung illness earlier this year, fellow ex-political pris-oner Tokyo Sexwale said ahead of the premiere today of a film based on the South African icon’s autobiography.

“So all of you are wondering where is he. Madiba says of his state of health ‘I am not ill, I am just old’,” Sexwale told journalists yesterday, using Mandela’s clan name.

“So, he is fine, he is out of hos-pital, he is back at home, that much is known. But his spirit is with us.”

Mandela, 95, has been receiving intensive care for a respiratory illness at his Johannesburg home since September 1 after spending 86 days in a Pretoria hospital in a critical condition.

Sexwale, a former government minister who like Mandela had been imprisoned by the white-minority apartheid regime, was speaking ahead of the premiere of “Mandela, Long walk to freedom”, which is to hit South African cin-emas on November 28.

The film will be released in the US in December. The movie, largely based on Mandela’s autobiography of the same name traces the life of the anti-apartheid icon from his childhood in the rural Eastern Cape to his election as the country’s first black president in 1994.

“It was very emotional to watch it,” Mandela’s 53-year-old daugh-ter Zindzi said of the movie, refus-ing to comment on her father’s health.

Mandela spent 27 years in jail for activism against the rac-ist regime, and left his jail cell preaching equality and forgive-ness, winning him worldwide admiration as a peace icon.

His lung problems date back to his time in jail and the former statesman has faced several health scares, but his latest hos-pitalisation was his longest and forced adoring South Africans to come to terms with the mortal-ity of the man who brought them democracy. AFP

Italy justice minister faces calls to quit over influence allegations ROME: Italian Justice Minister Anna Maria Cancellieri faced calls to resign yesterday over accusations she used her influence to get the ailing daughter of a former insurance magnate out of prison.

The loss of an influential minister could further destabilise Prime Minister Enrico Letta’s fragile right-left coalition, where tensions are already running high ahead of a vote to expel centre-right leader Silvio Berlusconi from parliament later this month over his conviction for tax fraud.

The opposition 5-Star Movement said on Friday it would present a no-confidence motion against Cancellieri and the Democratic Party (PD), the largest bloc supporting the government, called on her to address parliament on the matter. Cancellieri stood firm against the resignation demands.

Georgian PM names successor TBILISI: Georgia’s prime minister yesterday proposed his close ally, Interior Minister Irakly Garibashvili, to succeed him when he steps down in the next few weeks.

Billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili has said he will quit as premier after Georgy Margvelashvili is sworn in as president on November 17. The prime minister’s position is now the most powerful in the former Soviet republic under constitutional changes which trans-ferred many of the president’s responsibilities.

Garibashvili still has to be nominated by parliament and approved by Margvelashvili, but both steps are a formality as Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream coalition dominates the assembly and the presi-dent is an ally of Ivanishvili. Margvelashvili was elected last month to take over from pro-Western Mikheil Saakashvili, who spent a decade in power.

Greeks fear more violence ATHENS: A brazen drive-by shooting that killed two young members of Greece’s far-right Golden Dawn party has shocked Greeks and prompted soul-searching about whether the crisis-hit country is slipping into a “cycle of violence”.

Greece’s anti-terrorism force is investigating whether Friday’s rush hour shooting outside the party’s offices in Athens was retalia-tion for a fatal stabbing of an anti-fascism rapper by a Golden Dawn supporter in September, police said. Rapper Pavlos Fissas’s death sparked protests across Greece and a government crackdown on Golden Dawn, which is widely considered neo-Nazi and is blamed for attacks against migrants. “We cannot let this cycle of violence con-tinue,” Makis Voridis, a senior lawmaker in Prime Minister Antonis Samaras’s New Democracy party, told Mega TV. “This must end here.”

Niger detains migrants after desert tragedy NIAMEY: Niger has detained 100 migrants crossing the Sahara to Algeria, a security source said yesterday, in a crackdown on illegal migration after 92 people died trying to make the same journey. The migrants, who were mostly men but also included children, were rounded up in the desert and have been placed in police cells in the northern town of Arlit, a transit point for people seeking passage to Algeria, the source said. “The migrants are being held at the gendarmerie but we do not yet know what will become of them,” said the security source. According to an aid group in Arlit, the group were travelling on board two lorries and three pick-up trucks. AGENCIES

Film on Mandela’s struggles opens in South Africa

NAIROBI: Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta will review a press law passed by parliament that has sparked outrage among the media, his spokesman said yesterday, promising not to “gag” journalists.

If passed into law the bill, which must first be approved by Kenyatta, would lead to huge fines against journalists and media organisations that violated a code of conduct.

Kenyatta “will review (the) media bill to ensure it is consist-ent” with the constitution, and will “talk with stakeholders if changes (are) needed,” spokes-man Manoah Esipisu said in statement.

MPs voted in a late-night sit-ting Thursday to set up a new Communications and Multimedia Appeals Tribunal with the teeth to impose penalties of up to 20m Kenyan shillings ($234,000) on offenders and even bar journalists

from working. The bill would also herald strict controls on radio and television broadcasts, with sta-tions obliged to ensure that 45 percent of programme content and advertising is locally-made.

The president “says Kenya will not gag media, but media must embrace responsibility with same zeal it deploys in pursuit of free-dom,” Esipisu added.

The passing of the bill comes as Kenya takes a string of meas-ures to reinforce national secu-rity in the wake of the September attack by Islamist gunmen on the Westgate shopping mall.

Kenyan media drew the ire of authorities by broadcasting secu-rity camera footage of troops who were dispatched to the scene of the attack purportedly robbing the upmarket mall.

Cyrus Kamau, managing direc-tor for Capital Group -- home to CapitalFM, one of Kenya’s most respected independent radio

stations and news websites — called the law “draconian and very punitive.”

The Nation newspaper splashed its Saturday front page with the bold headline “No, Mr President!”.

Under the new bill, media houses can be fined up to 20m Kenyan shillings and individual journalists up to one million, with the additional risk of being “de-listed”, or barred from receiving official press accreditation.

The tribunal also has the power to seize the property of an offender if a fine is not paid.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) called on Kenyatta to block the bill entirely.

“This draconian bill realises the media’s worst nightmare, where government makes itself both judge and jury of what journalists say and how they say it,” said CPJ East Africa representative Tom Rhodes. AFP

Kenyan president to review press law

ASIA / PHILIPPINES 11SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

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BEIJING: China’s ruling Communist Party aims to silence the voice of the Dalai Lama in his Tibetan home-land by tightening controls on media and the Internet, a top official said yesterday.

The party’s top-ranking offi-cial in the Tibet region Chen Quanguo vowed to “ensure that the voices of hostile forces and the Dalai group are not seen or heard,” in an editorial pub-lished in a party journal called Qiushi.

Officials would “make sure that the voice of the party is heard and seen everywhere in

this vast 120 million square kilometre region,” Chen wrote in the editorial.

China has worked for dec-ades to control the spread of information in Tibet, but some Tibetans remain able to access non-official sources of infor-mation including from exiles abroad by using radio, televi-sion and the Internet.

But the party will attempt to stamp out access to such sources by creating party cells in some websites, confiscating satellite dishes and register-ing telephone and Internet users by name, among a host of

other measures mentioned in the article. China calls Tibetan exiled spiritual leader the Dalai Lama a “wolf in sheep’s clothing” and accuses him of masterminding violent efforts to seek independence for Tibet.

The Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 after a failed uprising against Chinese rule, says he advocates greater autonomy for Tibetans rather than independence.

Chen referred to Tibet as “a front line of the strug-gle against separatism” and vowed to “strengthen the role of party committees at every

level, as the sole power”, in the editorial.

Tensions between Tibetans and the Chinese government continue run high, with more than 120 members of the minority setting themselves on fire in protest in recent years, leading to a security crack-down. Chinese police opened fire on Tibetans marking the Dalai Lama’s 78th birthday in July, shooting at least one monk in the head and seriously wounding several other peo-ple, according to the overseas rights groups in China.

REUTERS

China to block access to media, websites in Tibet region

Vow to silence Dalai Lama

Nepalese police officers decorate their dogs at the Central Police Dog Training School in Kathmandu as part of the Diwali festival yesterday.

Thai amnesty bill sparks protestsBANGKOK: Several thousand Thai anti-government protest-ers gathered in Bangkok yes-terday after MPs approved a controversial amnesty that could allow fugitive former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra to return.

Opponents say the legisla-tion, which was passed by the lower house on Friday but still needs the approval of the Senate, would “whitewash” past abuses, including the killing of unarmed protesters.

Some 3,000 protesters had joined the rally held by the opposition Democrat Party by early evening, police said, with

attendance expected to swell as the weekend goes on.

Demonstrators chanting “Government get out!” and wav-ing flags gathered for a third night in the Thai capital as political tensions flared in the turbulent kingdom.

“People doing wrong and then issuing laws to pardon themselves -- it’s impossible. It makes Thai law meaningless,” said 42-year-old protester Anong Niamtiang, who had driven to Bangkok from central Supanburi province with friends to take part yesterday.

Thaksin, who was toppled in a military coup in 2006, remains a hugely divisive figure in Thailand.

His younger sister Yingluck Shinawatra is now prime min-ister. An attempt by Thaksin to return to Thailand could inflame tensions in a country with a his-tory of political violence. But there are doubts that the Democrats can mobilise the same number of supporters as during previous bouts of political unrest.

Supporters of the legislation say it will draw a line under years of turmoil, culminating in mass pro-Thaksin “Red Shirt” protests in 2010 that left more than 90 people dead in a military crackdown.

The bill is expected to be sub-mitted to the non-partisan Senate on November 11. AFP

Diwali celebration

SEOUL: South Korea says is debating lifting sanctions imposed on North Korea after the 2010 sinking of a South Korean warship. South Korea’s opposition argues the trade limits originally aimed at punishing North Korea for sink-ing the ship are also hurting South Korea.

South Korea’s top official on North Korea relations says the government is considering calls to end the puni-tive sanctions. Known as the “May

24th sanctions,” they ban all trade and investment with the North.

The only exception to the sanc-tions is the joint Kaesong industrial park. But on Friday South Korea’s Unification Minister, Ryoo Kihl-jae, said the government was examining the possibility of lifting the sanctions.

“Public opinion on lifting the May 24 measures is divided. A decision by the government can be considered but they first need to take a look at the situation,” he said. AGENCIES

S Korea may drop North sanctions

Palace defends Aquino’s fiscal powersMANILA: Days after President Aquino appeared on national TV to defend the Disbursement Acceleration Programme (DAP) and castigate his critics, Malacañang made clear yesterday he remains firm in his position and is not about to temper with fiscal powers.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte maintained that Aquino’s power over savings — from which funds are drawn for DAP — is justified under the 1987 Constitution, contrary to what his crit-ics are saying.

“I’m not sure what kind of action they’re calling for because that would require a constitutional amend-ment,” she said, referring to calls for clipping the president’s fiscal powers.

She said Aquino is mind-ful of how taxpayers’ money is spent, and has put meas-ures in place “that would limit his powers over funds that are controlled by the executive. Another indica-tion of Aquino’s prudent use of fiscal powers is his limiting the use of the Malampaya funds to energy projects. AGENCIES

Japan gives $3.5m more for quake victimsMANILA: Japan is giv-ing additional emer-gency aid of $3.5m (about ¥287m) to support relief operations for earth-quake victims in Central Visayas.

The grant will be coursed through International Organization for Migration, International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, United Nations Children’s Fund and United Nations Development Programme.

The relief operations will be in the sectors of shel-ter, water and sanitation and debris removal. The emergency aid package is in addition to emergency relief goods worth ¥38m (tents and plastic sheets) given through the Japan International Cooperation Agency.THE PHILIPPINE STAR

12 PAKISTAN / AFGHANISTANSUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

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KP province approves Right to Information Bill

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan will not allow the death of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a US drone strike to derail pro-posed peace talks, Information Minister Pervez Rasheed said yesterday.

He said the government wanted to press ahead with its plan to negotiate with Mehsud’s Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). “We can say that this time drone struck the peace talks but we will not let the talks die.”

Mehsud was killed in a US drone strike in North Waziristan tribal district on Friday, a day after the government said it was taking steps to initiate dialogue.

Rasheed said Pakistan was committed to peace despite los-ing 40,000-50,000 civilians, sol-diers, and policemen to militant violence. “I am sure that the other party will show the same spirit which we had shown.”

The TTP’s ruling council was locked in talks to choose a replacement for Mehsud, who had led the network since the death of its founder Baitullah Mehsud in

2009. Opposition politician Imran Khan condemned the drone strike as an attempt to “sabotage” peace efforts.

Interior Minister Chaudhry Nisar denounced the killing as a US bid to derail talks and some politicians demanded the blocking of US military supply lines into Afghanistan in retaliation.

“The murder of Hakimullah is the murder of all efforts at peace,” said Nisar. “Americans said they support our efforts at peace. Is this support?”

Mehsud, who had a $5m US bounty on his head, was killed in the militant stronghold of Miranshah in northwest Pakistan. His vehicle was hit after he attended a meeting of Taliban leaders. His bodyguard and driver were also killed.

He was secretly buried in the early hours by a few companions amid fears that his funeral might be attacked by drones

“Every drop of Hakimullah’s blood will turn into a suicide bomber,” said Azam Tariq, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman.

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s decision to swallow the bitter pill of a tough IMF programme to unlock assistance from other international lenders is not proving feasible as the World Bank delayed the approval of a $1bn loan until Islamabad implements conditions in the energy and taxation areas.

The two development pol-icy credits, each worth $500m, were expected to be approved by the Board of Directors of the Washington-based lending agency before the end of this calendar year, according to sources in the Ministry of Finance. These credit lines were named Jobs and

Growth programme and Power Sector Reforms programme.

Unlike project loans that are disbursed over the project’s lifespan, these policy credits are disbursed upfront in a single tranche to strengthen the bor-rowers’ reserves and provide an amount for covering the budget deficit.

Officials said the government had estimated to receive the two loans in December in a hope to strengthen the fast-dwindling foreign currency reserves of the State Bank of Pakistan that have plunged to $4.299bn, insufficient to finance one month’s import bill. INTERNEWS

KARACHI: Alishba Nadeem had to wait to find out whether the boy’s family approved of her as their prospective daughter-in-law or not. As a petrol station worker in Pakistan’s largest city Karachi, she sort of expected that.

The fumes of petrol are some-how drowned out by the sense of accomplishment that Alishba wears her bright red uniform. She works on the forecourt of a Shell petrol station and is designated as a site coach.

Her responsibilities include performing safety drills, inspect-ing employee uniforms, customer care and refuelling cars.

Out of a 100 site coaches in the company’s pumps in Karachi, 98 are male. Alishba is only one of two women who have dared to venture into a field long

considered the domain of men.For a woman in Pakistan, a

site coach’s job is no cinch, since there is constant interaction with men.

However, Alishba is more than up to the task, managing her 35 male subordinates with ease. “At first, I felt weird as it was unnatu-ral to work mostly with men.

Cars would come and go and people would stare.

It would make me feel guilty (about my profession),” said Alishba as she recalled her first week on the job, three years ago.

Kiran Naz, the other female site coach for the company, is also based in Karachi.

Kiran recalled her brothers reactions when she decided to work at a petrol pump.

In the past she has endured incidents of hooting, whistling,

and errant customer behaviour. Alishba knows there is no guar-antee it won’t happen again.

There is no official process to report harassment on the fore-court of the petrol stations. Slowly but surely, Pakistani women are seen working in fields.

In the small steel box at the Karachi airport collecting park-ing receipts from vehicles or while driving people around in a rick-shaw, these women are the new pathfinders for their gender in certain professions.

“We actually prefer girls because they manage the tem-perament of clients (better),” said Samreen Afzal, a territory manager for the company.

She confirmed that petrol sta-tions receive plenty of applica-tions from women, but the hiring rate is very poor in comparison.

There are a number of factors to explain the lack of female pres-ence in such a profession.

“The women who apply have to be placed in areas that are female-friendly.’’

They tried hiring full-time female attendants in the past, but customers harassed them out of the job.

Apart from the security risks associated with a job in the pub-lic sphere, women require flex-ibility- something a petrol pump is not equipped to provide. “The timings [of such a job] are chal-lenging and require late shifts,” says Afzal.

And yet, despite the hurdles, Kiran and Alishba have managed to prove their worth in represent-ing the different layers of working women in Pakistan.

INTERNEWS

Mehsud killing will not ‘derail’ talks

All Souls’ Day

Pakistani Christians visit the grave of a relative as they observe All Souls’ Day in Karachi yesterday. The day is a Roman Catholic holiday, celebrated in commemoration of friends and loved ones who have died.

Factories to go without gas for three monthsLAHORE: Authorities in Pakistan’s populous Punjab province will pull the plug off gas supply to industries in the province between December and February, Petroleum and Natural Resources Minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi has said. The move is aimed at ensuring gas supply to domes-tic users.

“Piped gas will be available to only households in Punjab dur-ing winter as per the govern-ment’s gas management plan,” the minister told the British Broadcasting Corporation yesterday.

In the other three provinces the government will try to meet the demand of the CNG and industrial sector. Abbasi said that despite shutting gas to industry there was no assur-ance of uninterrupted supply of the fuel to households in Punjab during winter.

Interest rate increase likelyKARACHI: The market in Pakistan expects a rise in interest rate to control the galloping inflation in the monetary policy announce-ment later this month. Industry and equity investors, however, oppose the interest rate hike as they believe that it would retard growth.

The State Bank needs to curtail rising inflation by tightening the flow of liquid-ity through higher interest rate. A senior banker said that October inflation (Consumer Price Index) rose 9.08 percent. It has reached close to the pol-icy interest rate of 9.5 percent. It appears impossible for the State Bank to remain indiffer-ent to the prevailing rate since inflation may enter into double digit next month.

The rate was 9 percent before it was raised to 9.5 percent in the last monetary policy.

Bulletproof car owners ‘target’ISLAMABAD: The Federal Board of Revenue (FBR) has sought details of the own-ers of bulletproof cars from across Pakistan to ascertain potential tax evaders, official sources say.

“We have sought details from the Large Taxpayer Units (LTUs) and Regional Taxpayer Offices (RTOs) about the own-ers of bulletproof vehicles to reconcile whether they were tax filers or tax evaders,” the FBR said here yesterday.

According to communica-tion sent out by the FBR to all LTUs and RTOs, all concerned have been directed to furnish details about the bulletproof cars in their jurisdiction with immediate effect. The Member, Inland Revenue (IR) Policy, Shahid Asad, who is also the official spokesman, confirmed that the FBR had directed all the officers concerned to fur-nish these details with immedi-ate effect.

North Pakistan hit by quakeISLAMABAD: An earth-quake measuring 4.8 mag-nitude on the Richter scale struck the districts of Chitral and Shangla in northern Pakistan yesterday. The epi-centre was the Afghanistan- Tajikistan area at the depth of 200km. No loss of life and property was reported.

Gunmen shoot at Nato tankerISLAMABAD: Militants in Pakistan’s southwest-ern province of Balochistan shot at a tanker carrying oil for US-led Nato soldiers in Afghanistan. Pakistani secu-rity sources said the attack took place in Dasht area and the tanker was partially damaged. The driver and his assistant escaped unharmed. The attackers fled the scene.

AGENCIES

PESHAWAR: The Right to Information (RTI) bill approved by the legisla-ture of Pakistan’s northwest Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province with the select committee-inserted amendments is seen as a strong instrument to afford the peo-ple the right to access to information or record held by a public body.

A high-ranking official and one of the architects of the RTI says the road to approval of the bill proved bumpy as some members of the select committee of the provincial assembly wanted the new law to be toothless.

However, he gave the credit to the infor-mation minister and head of the select committee who, he said, did not bow to pressure of the members seeking drastic changes in the draft of the bill.

The official, however, said the RTI has seen four changes inserted into the final draft approved by the provincial legisla-ture. The amendments were made in the sections 24 and 28 of the RTI Act.

Section 24 mainly deals with the forma-tion of the Information Commission, selec-tion of Chief Information Commissioner and Information Commissioners, their tenure, remuneration, age limit and qualification. Section 28 deals with the offences and also the punishment to those who commit such offences under the new law.

The bill drafted by the bureaucracy and produced in the provincial assembly in its section 24 (3) provided for an inde-pendent Information Commission headed by a retired senior government servant appointed by the government. However, the amendment proposed by the select commit-tee, which was approved by the assembly, makes it mandatory for the government to appoint an officer not below Grade 20 on retirement.

Under Section 24 (4), the number of members of the Commission has been reduced from three to two members and one of the members, a retired judge of

the High Court who was supposed to be appointed by the chief justice of Peshawar High Court, was excluded.

Another member, a representative of the civil society to be appointed by the Human Rights Commission, has now been replaced under Section 24 (4-b) with “a person from the civil society having experi-ence of not less than 15 years in the field of mass communication, academic or right to information.”

Under Section 24 (5-6) the tenure of the chief commissioner and the commissioners has been shortened by one year. They will hold their office for a term of three years and will not be eligible for re-appointment. They will also not hold office after attain-ing the age of 65 years. Earlier, they were supposed to hold the office until the age of 66 years.

Another change that drew criticism and which the critics of the RTI said brought down the rating of the law at the interna-tional level is the insertion of a new clause

to the offences laid down in Section 28 of the bill. The new insertion has put the onus on the information seeker to make sure that the information obtained is used for bona fide purposes while the fine for offences has also been increased from Rs5,000 to Rs50,000.

Under Section 28 (1) (e), it would be a criminal offence if anyone wilfully “used the information obtained for mala fide purposes with ulterior motive with facial, fabulous design (typographical errors not corrected).”

And anyone (Section 28-2) who com-mits this offence will be liable to a fine not exceeding Rs50,000 or imprisonment for a period not exceeding two years.

The official said that this clause may prove to be a speed-breaker discouraging the information seekers in the first place as they would fear persecution due to the insertion of the somewhat vague offence of “mala fide purposes.”

INTERNEWS

No WB loan for Islamabad until conditions are met

Women pathfinders break new ground

Pakistani Taliban vow revenge

US energy forum to boost investmentin PakistanWASHINGTON: The US is hosting a three-day energy con-ference in Houston, Texas, later this month to encourage invest-ments in Pakistan’s energy sec-tors, sources said yesterday.

The Pakistani delegation, which may include the Minister for Water and Power, Khwaja Asif, and the Minister for Petroleum and Natural Resources, Shahid Khaqan Abbasi, is expected to reach Washington next week.

They will attend a meeting of the Energy Working Group as part of the strategic dialogue process which resumed earlier this year after a two-year gap.

The energy conference will be held in Houston on November 13, 14 and 15.

INTERNEWS

Taliban commanders said they wanted to replace him with the movement’s number two, Khan Said, also known as Sajna.

In Miranshah, residents said

dozens of tribesmen and militants opened fire on a drone flying low in the area where Mehsud was killed. Meanwhile, security was put on high alert in Pakistan.

In Kabul, the Afghan Taliban described the killing of Mehsud as “a big loss” and urged Islamabad to prevent any further drone strikes. AGENCIES

P olicemen search a vehicle in Peshawar as Pakistan went on high alert yesterday following the killing of Taliban leader Hakimullah Mehsud in a drone attack on Friday.

INDIA 15SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Diwali celebrations

Fireworks lit by athletes at the Madan Mohan Malaviya Stadium on the eve of Diwali in Allahabad yesterday. Diwali marks the homecoming of Ram after vanquishing the demon king Ravana and symbolises taking people from darkness to light and the victory of good over evil.

BNP leader’s ISI links worry IndiaNEW DELHI: Even as India termed the political crisis in neighbouring Bangladesh an internal affair and declined comment, there is growing concern over the activities of the opposition BNP chief and former prime minister Khaleda Zia’s son Tarique Rahman and his “close contact” with funda-mentalists and Pakistan’s ISI.

Rahman, 46, who is living in self-imposed exile in London because of corruption charges he faces in his country, is believed to be in close touch with funda-mentalist elements in the sub-continent and is also getting help from Pakistan’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI), according to intelligence inputs here. Though he moved to London after the Awami League gov-ernment came to power, he is known to be in close contact with Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s (BNP) senior cadre.

Rahman, who is senior vice president of the BNP, has a Facebook page with 198,362 likes with a bold banner saying “Hasina Must Go” and a recent posting from the Dhaner Shishe, or paddy sheaf, the BNP party symbol, terming India as the “number one enemy of Bangladesh”.

This fanning of hatred against India is something that New Delhi would not like to encounter again after having established friendly ties with the Sheikh Hasina government.

Elections are due in Bangladesh in January 2014. The country has voted Hasina and Zia alternatively

to power. India would be keen to maintain friendly and close ties with whichever side wins, but past memories of the BNP in power are not pleasant.

During the previous tenure of the BNP-Jamaat government, Bangladesh had become a free hunting ground for fundamen-talists of various hues who had the direct support and funding of the ISI. Some anti-India militant groups also set up their base in Bangladesh, to India’s worry.

India has tried to mend fences with Zia. During her visit to India last year, the BNP chief had held meetings with President Pranab Mukherjee and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

But during Mukherjee’s Dhaka visit this March, Zia, in a snub, declined to meet the Indian presi-dent. Her party in fact, along with the Jamaat, held dawn to dusk strikes to coincide with Mukherjee’s visit.

India is watching the situa-tion as the BNP and its 18-party alliance have decided on fresh street agitations after ending on Tuesday their three-day nation-wide shutdown that saw much violence.

India and the US have also dis-cussed the situation in Bangladesh with US ambassador to Dhaka, Dan Mozena, having visited South Block and interacted with Indian officials, including Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh.

Mozena had also met the Indian envoy in Bangladesh, Pankaj Saran.

IANS

Khaleda’s son fans hatred

CHENNAI: Finance Minister P Chidambaram yesterday said a decision is yet to be taken on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s participation at the Commonwealth Heads Of Government Meeeting (CHOGM) in Colombo from November 15 to 17.

Speaking to reporters after meeting DMK president M Karunanidhi here, Chidambaram said a decision is yet to be taken and the reports about Manmohan Singh’s participation in the CHOGM are incorrect.

Chidambaram declined to share details of his meeting with Karunanidhi. However, the meet-ing comes after Karunanidhi said on October 31 that there should not even be a token participation by India at the CHOGM to reg-ister its protest over the alleged war crimes against Tamils in Sri Lanka.

He also said Congress would face consequences if Manmohan Singh participated. Karunanidhi was responding to media queries on reports about Congress per-mitting the prime minister to attend CHOGM.

IANS

Decision awaited on PM’s Chogm participation

Eight run over by train in AndhraHYDERABAD: At least eight persons were run over by a train in Andhra Pradesh yesterday after they used the alarm chain to get off another train after rumours of a fire.

The horrific mishap occurred last evening near Gotlam, close to Vizianagaram town in north coastal Andhra, 700km from here. The toll may go up as it was dark at the time of the accident, making it hard to assess casualties.

Police said the incident occurred when some passengers of the Alappuzha-Dhanbad Express pulled the alarm chain after rumours of the train catching fire. According to eyewitnesses, they were run over by the Raigarh-Vijayawada passenger train on the adjacent track.

The dead include two women. Two passengers were injured. Railway authorities have set up a helpline at Visakhapatnam to provide information about the victims. The telephone numbers are: 0891-2843003, 2843004, 2843005.

IANS

PM delays visit 6 die in Delhi fireNEW DELHI: At least six peo-ple, including four women, died and over a dozen were injured in a fire at a factory here last evening, police said.

The fire broke out around 5.50pm in a purse manufactur-ing factory in Ranjeet Nagar area.

“Seven fire tenders rushed to the spot and doused the blaze around 7.50pm. Over a dozen peo-ple rescued from the factory were rushed to three hospitals,” said a fire service official.

“Six victims were declared dead while the others are undergoing treatment. Some others have been discharged from hospitals,” said a police officer. IANS

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has post-poned his visit to cyclone-hit Odisha and Andhra Pradesh, scheduled for yesterday, due to “scheduling issues”.

The prime minister was to undertake an aerial survey of the two states, hit by cyclone Phailin on October 12. “The visit has been postponed due to scheduling issues,” PMO sources told IANS. While reviewing the impact of the cyclone late last month, the prime minister had complimented the efforts of the Odisha and Andhra Pradesh governments as well as relief agencies in managing the cyclone’s aftermath. IANS

LONDON: London artist Keira Rathbone is acclaimed for her creative talent using typewrit-ers to create beautiful portraits, landscapes and still life.

Her fascination with the typewriter art technique she calls “Typeface” was sparked after she bought an orange Silver Reed 100 from a charity shop in 2003. Keira told BBC News, “I just had the typewriter in front of me and the desire to type but nothing to say… I just started pressing the same keys and look-ing at the marks to try and make something visual, rather than for making words.”

She types clusters of letters, numbers and symbols to build everything from little figures to elaborate landscapes. The smaller pieces can take just seconds for Keira to type out, while larger scale projects like the Hammersmith bridge, take between 10 to 12 three-hour sessions. The talented artist usu-ally chooses her subject matter spontaneously and begins with basic shapes using smaller characters then using larger characters to fill in shadows. “It’s more like the essence of what you see rather than the detail, which I enjoy,” says Keira. Typewriter art dates back to the 1800s. Then at an early point in the digital age, ASCII art using computers took off. But Keira keeps it vintage and works solely with ink ribbon and paper.

During her appearances, where she creates art live in front of audiences, she dresses in outfits inspired by the style popular during the year her typewriter was made. Keira also works out of a London café she’s fond of.

“I find it really inspiring because of the reaction that it gets wherever I go. They first of all they think, ‘What’s she doing there with a typewriter?’ And then if they want to pass, especially as the, a bit of a picture begins to build up they can see that I’m not just typing words, and then they feel safe to start asking questions,” she said.

Keira says that passer-bys will often share sen-timental stories telling her about their connection to typewriters. But she enjoys kids’ responses most saying, “When the kids come along and they’ve never seen a typewriter before. They’re kind of like, ‘What is it?!’”

Keira has a collection of 35 typewriters and when she gets a foreign

typewriter, it opens up a new world. She said: “It’s like a whole different set of tools for me. It’s like a different pallet. So um, and then when I got this Cyrillic alphabet, it’s a whole new different set of marks, so it produces different effect overall. So that’s what excites me.”

She’s attracted to the art form is not just because it subverts the conventional use of the writing machine, but also because she appreciates that the images are made up of smaller parts which are obvious, so the art can be experienced at different distances in new ways.

With that, Keira says that in typewriter art there are rarely any typos, “Generally it’s just build up. I like the stray marks.” AGENCIES

MORNING BREAK16SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

3CHART: 1

Source : https://www.fas.org

News in Numbers

The decline in GDP that has been seen in the Arab Region in 2009 was clearly felt more severely in the oil-producing countries, whose economies were significantly affected by the falling oil prices duringthe year. However, over the projection period 2009-2013, these countries are also expected to display the strongest recovery, showing significant GDP growth. In particular, Qatar and Sudan are forecast to see the strongest growth between 2009 and 2013, growing at 17pc and 14pc CAGR respectively. Meanwhile, the majority of countries from the Levant and North Africa are also anticipated to grow, but at a pace of between 6pc and 11pc.

���� Economic Outlook

2009 - 2013

GDP projections for the Arab Region, 2007 - 2013 (US$ bn)

2

Typewriter artist creates amazingly intricate images

AHMEDABAD: Tourists searching for peace and sim-plicity can for the first time check in to Mahatma Gandhi’s most famous ashram in India. But don’t expect modern com-forts. And chastity is required.

For `1,000 ($16) a night, tour-ists can sample the lifestyle of India’s famously ascetic inde-pendence leader by staying at the first ashram he established, set up in 1915 in the western state of Gujarat.

Guests at the ashram, which opened to holidaymakers earlier this month, can try their hand at spinning, visit local communities, pray and meditate, all while wear-ing khadi — hand-woven cloth — during their stay.

But they must adhere to Gandhi’s 11 vows that he pro-moted including non-violence, no possessions, use of local goods, working for daily food, self restraint, including chastity, and control of diet.

And they are also encouraged to follow Gandhi’s austere daily routine, such as waking at 5am and undertaking domestic chores.

“The objective of this pro-gramme is to allow people to experience a sustainable life-style, to enjoy the simplicity of Gandhi, experience the virtue of Mahatma,” said Nischalavalamb Barot, a travel agent who helped develop the programme called “Live Gandhi for a While”.

“This might change perceptions of tourists towards life, society and our natural resources. This might also help tourists find peace and satisfaction within,” Barot said.

Gandhi went to stay at the bungalow, now called Kochrab Ashram and then owned by a law-yer friend, after he returned to India from South Africa in 1915.

From this base, in a village on the outskirts of the city of Ahmedabad, he rejected mate-rial wealth and developed some of the ideas for which he became famous.

In one incident, he upset

neighbours by inviting a low-caste man, a so-called “untouchable”, to come and live at the ashram as part of his campaign against India’s rigid and deeply ingrained caste system.

The ashram is managed by a nearby university called Gujarat Vidyapith, which Gandhi himself founded in 1920 to “liberate the Indian youths from the shackles of British colonial rule”.

The “Live with Gandhi” pro-gramme was launched on October 2 to coincide with the 144th anni-versary of the birth of Gandhi. Tourists have not yet made book-ings, but Barot stressed there were lots of inquiries.

India has plenty of museums and monuments to honour the country’s independence icon, whose personal philosophy and ideas are considered outdated by many in rapidly modernising India.

Known as Mahatma or Great Soul, Gandhi spearheaded a non-violent campaign against the British Raj that finally saw India gain its freedom from colonial rule in 1947. He was shot dead by a Hindu hardliner in New Delhi just months later in 1948.

Despite the many commemo-rations for Gandhi, Barot, who

developed the programme with the university, said he hoped the ashram offered something different.

“This is the first time that we are attempting to understand the value and principles of a sustain-able life, which Gandhi believed in and practised,” said Barot, who operates a sustainable tourism agency.

However, he stressed a stay at the ashram would not be an easy one.

“They will have to follow the vows that Gandhi himself fol-lowed in the ashram.... They will also wear the khadi throughout the programme.”

Gandhi spun his own cloth and encouraged others to follow suit. He considered this an important part of his anti-colonial philoso-phy of self-reliance, known as “swadeshi”.

Khadi also became a symbol of how then India should base its economy — on village-based craft instead of industrially-produced cotton often imported from mills in Britain. The idea is a far cry from modern-day India, which dismantled government control over its economy in the 1990s, and opened up India, a member of the G20, to foreign investment. AFP

Tourists invited to live like Gandhi in his ashram

US President Barack Obama and (below) Queen Elizabeth II, two of Keira Rathbone’s typwriter art.

Gandhi’s ashram in Ahmedabad.

WASHINGTON: We’re all going to die (hopefully not too soon). And that means that someday, everyone currently on Facebook will be six feet under (metaphorically speaking).

The blog What If? (http://what-if.xkcd.com/69/) recently attempted to determine when (in ballpark figures) the number of dead people on Facebook will out-number those who are alive.

It’s a morbidly fascinating ques-tion, and the unidentified blogger behind What If? is more than up to the challenge. The conclusion: Depending on whether Facebook stays popular, the answer is either in the 2060s or the 2130s.

The blogger writes, “Based on the site’s growth rate, and the age breakdown of their users over time,there are probably 10 to 20 million people who created Facebook profiles who have since died.” Looking down the road, the blogger writes, “About 290,000 US Facebook users will die (or have died) in 2013. The worldwide total for 2013 is likely several million. In just seven years, this death rate will double, and in seven more years it will double again.”

The question, the blogger argues, is whether or not Facebook will continue to add more young users “to outrun this tide of death for a while.”

If the social network can get young people to keep joining, the blogger estimates that the dead won’t outnumber the living on Facebook until around 2130.

On the other hand, if Facebook face-plants and young people abandon the social network-ing site for something else, the crossover date will come much earlier, around 2065. For more questions from What If?, check out the archives (http://what-if.xkcd.com/archive/). There you’ll learn how much Force power Yoda can output, the odds of correctly guessing every answer on the SAT, and what would happen if the sun suddenly shut off. AGENCIES

Facebook of the dead

Fajr (Dawn) 4:25

Shorook (Sunrise) 5:42

Zuhr (Noon) 11:18

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Maghrib (Sunset) 4:53

Isha (Night) 6:23

PRAYER TIME

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Misty or foggy at places at first and a chance of rain to North.

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Volume 18Number 5872

Price: QR2

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DOHA: Asian economies are demanding not only more energy but also cleaner and more flex-ible energy sources with LNG expected to fill a sizable part of such demand, Qatargas CEO Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani said at a high-profile energy conference.

Delivering the opening keynote address at the just-concluded Singapore International Energy Week (SIEW), he said: “In 2012, Asia imported an additional 15.6 million tonnes of LNG over the 2011 figure which represents a year-on-year increase of 10 per-cent. As a consequence of its nuclear reactors shutdown, Japan alone represented over 50 percent of the Asian LNG consumption growth with imports reaching 87.5MT in 2012.”

He noted over the next three years, new LNG receiving

terminals with a total capacity of 23 MTA will be added in China alone. Moreover, there are cur-rently a dozen new LNG termi-nal projects at various planning stages. Similarly, India is expand-ing its LNG receiving capac-ity and its gas pipeline network will pave the way for increased imports over the coming years.

“South East Asian LNG demand is expected to be well over 40 million tonnes per annum by 2025 and will account for 13 per-cent of total Asia Pacific demand. Several factors are driving this increasing LNG demand, includ-ing this region’s strong economic growth, the need for diversified gas supplies and to offset declin-ing legacy and remote gas supply sources.”

On the current LNG scenario in Europe, the Qatargas CEO said: “The continued economic

LNG demand growing, says Qatargas CEO South East Asia to be key market in next three years

slowdown coupled with the impact of European energy and climate change policies and their unintended effects on the energy markets has seriously dampened and even reversed in some cases the growth of gas consumption that was achieved in the conti-nent during the last decade.”

However, his outlook on the future of the European LNG market was positive. “There is no doubt that the European econo-mies will start recovering in the near future and consequently, gas consumption growth will return. While at the same time, European domestic gas production contin-ues to decline. We are therefore hopeful that the serious loopholes and inconsistencies in energy and climate change policies will be addressed and corrected soon to encourage long term investment in gas infrastructure and enhance the energy security of Europe,” he said.

On the pricing structure, he noted that gas prices will remain regionalised for the foreseeable future and the North American exports pricing structure will not allow to significantly alter the current pricing structure in the regional markets of Europe and Asia. He said he was of the view that the opinion that the current expectations from consumers regarding the long-term LNG supply/demand balance and price trend may be overly optimistic.

“We believe that gas demand is outstripping gas supply especially in the Asia-Pacific region and that traditional forms of contracting will still be required to encourage sufficient growth in LNG supply.”

THE PENINSULA

Al Sada in Iran to attend GECF

The Minister of Energy and Industry H E Dr Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada (right) with Bijan Namdar Zanganeh, Minister of Oil of Iran, in Tehran yesterday. Talks during the meeting covered cooperation in the energy field and issues of mutual interest. Al Sada arrived in Tehran as the head of Qatar’s delegation to the 15th min-isterial meeting of Gas Exporting Countries Forum. The agenda of the GECF’s meeting includes discussion on current gas market developments, appointment of a new secretary-general, approval of the next year’s budget, as well as discussion of reports on GECF’s performance this year.

Qatargas CEO Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani addressing the SIEW.

LONDON: Barclays bank has suspended six traders amid an investigation into whether international currency mar-kets were rigged, the BBC, the Financial Times and other out-lets reported yesterday.

Barclays, Britain’s second-larg-est bank, revealed on Wednesday that it was the subject of an inves-tigation by regulators in Britain and other countries over “possible attempts to manipulate certain benchmark currency exchange rates”. The bank said it was “reviewing its foreign exchange trading covering a several year period through August 2013 and

is cooperating with the relevant authorities.”

Barclays spokeswoman Aurelie Leonard declined to comment on reports that traders had been suspended. Other banks including JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup and Switzerland’s UBS have also said they are being investigated over currency trading, and Britain’s RBS suspended two traders on Thursday in the same investigation.

The investigation is the lat-est bad news for Barclays, which overhauled its top management after being fined $453m for manipulating a key global interest rate and other wrongdoing. AP

WASHINGTON: Shell Oil said that it would try — again — to drill for oil in the Chukchi Sea off Alaska’s Arctic coast, where last year ice and late permits forced its rigs to abandon the area without completing a well.

Shell said it had not made a final decision about drilling next sum-mer, but it said that it would file an updated exploration plan with the Interior Department in the next couple of weeks. Its new pro-gramme will limit drilling to the Chukchi Sea and postpone plans to drill in the Beaufort Sea as well. The company said that it would lease Transocean’s Polar Pioneer drilling rig as well as the Noble Discoverer rig it used earlier.

“Our decision to resume explo-ration will be driven by our readi-ness to do so safely, not by the need to meet arbitrary timelines,” said Shell spokesman Curtis Smith.

Shell’s effort to drill in the Chukchi Sea is an expensive, long-running saga. Shell has spent sev-eral years and nearly $5bn to buy leases, fight environmental groups in court, and prepare to drill in an area about 70 miles off the Alaska coast. In the summer of 2012, however, Shell was thwarted by ice and trouble meeting per-mitting standards. Later, on its way to a warm water port, one of Shell’s drill ships, the Kulluk, ran aground and later needed repairs.

“Just because they have a new piece of equipment, that’s not evi-dence that they’re going to have any fewer problems than they had in 2012,” said Lois Epstein, the Arctic programme director for the Wilderness Society. Shell also had trouble obtaining an air permit from the Environmental Protection Agency for the emissions from the drill ships. Shell paid $1.1m in fines for air quality violations.

But in 2012, Sen Lisa Murkowski, a supporter of expanded drilling on federal lands and waters, attached a rider to the Interior appropria-tions bill that moved authority for the air permit to Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management. A spokesman for Murkowski, Robert Dillon, said that Interior already had air permitting authority for offshore drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and that Murkowski “felt DOI could do a better job without any loss of protection.”

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MUMBAI: Indian tax authori-ties have asked IBM’s local unit to pay Rs53.57bn in outstanding income tax on fiscal 2009 rev-enue, media reported yesterday.

In an emailed statement, an IBM India spokeswoman con-firmed the company had received a tax notice, but declined to com-ment on the amount of tax liabil-ity or the nature of the notice.

The Income Tax office issued the company a notice for under-reporting revenue for fiscal 2009 by the Indian unit, the Business Standard said, citing a tax official.

“IBM does not agree with the tax department’s claims and will aggressively defend itself through the appropriate judicial process,” the IBM India spokeswoman said.

IBM has been locked in a tax dispute with authorities related to its 2009 reporting year income, media have reported previously. Officials at the income tax office were not available for comment.

In its latest 10-Q filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, IBM said it had recorded $394m in prepaid income tax in India “at” September 30, 2013. IBM said a “significant por-tion” of that amount was paid in order to reserve its right to appeal previous tax assessments in India, which it said it expects to win in appeal.

REUTERS

HONG KONG: Year of the Horse, move over. For China’s class of 2014, it’s looking like Dawn of the Geek.

Alibaba Group plans a five-fold recruitment boost to snare top graduates, with 1,000 new hires being offered as much as triple last year’s average pay. There’s also the added lure of stock in what may be the biggest initial public offering since Facebook’s $16bn sale in 2012.

The Chinese e-commerce giant founded 14 years ago by Jack Ma and 17 friends in an apartment is taking to campuses nationwide as talent becomes the latest bat-tleground with Tencent Holdings and Baidu. China’s three big-gest Internet companies have announced $3.5bn of deals this year to win more of the country’s 590m Web users and the $230bn spent annually on e-commerce and online advertising.

Alibaba, valued by investment banks at as much as $190bn, is adding graduates to its 24,000 work force to develop products that will win mobile users ahead of an IPO. Recruiters for the Hangzhou, China-based company are visiting universities in Beijing, Shanghai and Hong Kong among 20 cities targeted, according to Alibaba’s website.

The average annual salary for last year’s 170 college recruits was 200,000 yuan ($32,850), about seven times the average annual wage for urban workers, accord-ing to Wen De, who supervises the

Barclays suspends six traders in rigging probe

Shell planningsecond attempt to drill off Alaskan coast

IBM urged to payRs53.57bn in outstanding tax

Tech firms battle for talent in China

Employees at Alibaba.com headquarters in Hangzhou, China.

campus hiring efforts in China.New recruits that join the com-

pany’s “A-Star” programme may be paid as much as 600,000 yuan as it targets engineers, product managers, and user-interface designers, Wen told prospective hires on a webcast last month.

“Once you get into the A-Star programme, you won’t need to worry about buying an apartment and a car; you don’t need to worry about your annual salary,” Wen said. “The key is that you have real talent and capability. Alibaba’s sal-ary offer is very competitive.”

The closely held company, which grants a type of share to employees, could raise about HK$100bn ($12.9bn) in an initial public offering, Ernst & Young LLP said in June.

The e-commerce company more than doubled second-quarter net income to $707m from $273m a year earlier. By comparison, the California-based Facebook earned $425m in the three months ended September 30.

Alibaba doesn’t sell mer-chandise itself. Instead, it runs platforms including Taobao

Marketplace and Tmall.com that connect retail brands with consumers — a cross between Amazon.com and eBay. The com-pany accounted for 70 percent of package deliveries in China last year, according to Ma.

With competition for mobile users intensifying as more con-sumer go wireless, candidates can afford to be more choosy.

The most sought-after people are those with skills in mobile, Internet finance and location-based services.

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Aldar Properties’ plan

Buildings seen at Abu Dhabi commercial centre in Abu Dhabi. Aldar Properties will focus on rental income and smaller projects instead of large developments in order to avoid the risk of becoming overstretched again, an official said.

BUSINESS18SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

DOHA: Indonesia has enor-mous long–term growth potential. The large and rap-idly growing population has favourable demographics and is increasingly wealthy. Indonesia has a rich endowment of natu-ral resources and a vibrant and dynamic private sector that underpins the growth outlook. It has already risen to become the 16th largest economy in the world with GDP of $878bn in 2012 and was the fourth fast-est growing economy among the G20 in 2008-12. With these strong fundamentals, emerging Indonesia has the potential to grow at near double digit rates.

However, according to QNB Group, there are risks to the economic outlook going forward and growth is likely to be below potential in the 5 percent-6 per-cent range. In the short run, the widening current account deficit and capital flight from emerging markets (EMs) could destabilise the economy. In the medium term, underinvestment in infrastruc-ture threatens to cage Indonesia’s tiger economy in crippling supply bottlenecks.

Indonesia’s long–term growth potential mainly lies in its favour-able demographics. It is the fourth most populous nation in the world (244 million people). The population is young and grow-ing quickly, with a rapid expan-sion of a consuming middle class. GDP per capita has more than doubled in 12 years to $4,977 in

2012 on a purchasing power parity basis. The scale of opportunity is breathtaking: there were 35 mil-lion new mobile subscribers in 2012 alone.

In addition, there will be 90 million new middle class consum-ers by 2030, according to a recent report from the consulting firm McKinsey. In addition, Indonesia is well endowed with a wealth of natural resources: It is the largest coal exporter in the world; was formerly the largest exporter of LNG (until Qatar took over the top spot); has vast areas of fertile land producing high value crops, such as palm oil and rubber; and has a large mining sector that extracts a broad range of metals from tin to gold as well as vari-ous basic materials. With these fundamentals, Indonesia should be able to achieve growth close to the double digit rates reached by China in recent years.

Notwithstanding this strong potential, the Indonesian econ-omy has recently run into a rough patch. The current account defi-cit has widened, reaching 4.4 per-cent of GDP in Q2 2013 as lower commodity prices and a drop in exports of natural resources reduced export receipts.

INVESTOR CONFIDENCEAt the same time, strong

domestic demand continued to push up the import bill. Investor confidence was further shaken by the announcement on May 18, 2013, of the Federal Reserve’s

Indonesian economy runs into rough patchCountry’s enormous potential challenged by short term instability and underinvestment: QNB Group

intention to taper its asset-pur-chasing programme (the so-called tapering of Quantitative Easing). This led to capital outflows from EMs, including Indonesia, as dol-lar liquidity tightened globally. The combination of a widening current account deficit and capi-tal flight led to a sharp deprecia-tion in the value of the Rupiah and a stock market correction of 23.9 percent from its peak in May to end–August 2013. As a result, real growth in investment slowed from 9.8 percent in 2012 to 4.7 percent in Q2 2013 (year-on-year).

According to QNB Group, weaker investment and exports will lead to a slowdown in over-all real GDP growth from 6.2

percent in 2012 to 5.5 percent in 2013 and 5.1 percent in 2014. The short term risk remains that growth could be even slower if the global economic recovery fails to materialise or if there is serious fallout from QE tapering. Slow global growth and weaker exter-nal demand could lead to lower commodity prices and a wider current account deficit. If QE tapering is actually implemented (now expected in March 2014), it could reignite capital flight from EMs destabilising the Indonesian economy. These factors would fur-ther erode investor confidence, leading to even slower growth in 2013-14.

However, it is the medium term

risks to growth that may be of even greater concern. Indonesia suffers from underinvestment in infrastructure, which plummeted from over 7 percent of GDP prior to the Asian financial crisis (1997-98) to around 2 percent in 2000 and has mainly been constrained in the 3 percent-4 percent range since then. According to the World Bank, this is well below average infrastructure invest-ment levels of above 7 percent of GDP for neighbouring countries: China, Thailand and Vietnam.

POOR INFRASTRUCTUREAs a result, Indonesia’s infra-

structure is in poor condition, which is clogging the economy. Indonesia suffers from heavy road traffic; delays and lack of capac-ity at ports; overcrowded airports; insufficient railways; power and water shortages; and a sluggish data network. Indonesia performs poorly compared to peers in rank-ings assessing the quality of infra-structure. Logistics costs are high, averaging 14.1 percent of sales in 2011, compared with 4.8 percent in Japan. It is 4-5 times more expensive to ship a container from Jakarta to West Sumatra (within Indonesia) than to Singapore, which is much further.

Cement is ten times more expensive in Papua (an Indonesian island) than in Jakarta (the capital). Power infrastructure is inadequate with at least 15 mil-lion households lacking access to electricity. Energy consumption

per capita is the lowest amongst seven major East Asian EM peers. Indonesia has the lowest broadband and Internet penetra-tion of its peer group, except for India. This all adds to the cost of doing business, erodes competi-tiveness, discourages investment and reduces Indonesia’s growth potential.

The poor state of infrastructure is probably already having a nega-tive impact on growth. McKinsey estimates that deteriorating infrastructure is restraining GDP growth by 3-4 percentage points every year. Infrastructure dilapidation is the main reason why QNB Group forecasts growth below trend at 5 percent in 2015-18. There is a downside risk that growth could be even slower over the medium term, should infra-structure crumble under the weight of its growing population, crippling the development of the private sector.

Overall, Indonesia’s long-term potential should continue to make it one of the fastest economies in the world. However, short term instability and poor infrastruc-ture mean that Indonesia is fail-ing to realise its full potential. Much will depend on the outcome of parliamentary and presidential elections in 2014. Once the elec-tions are out of the way, a new government committed to infra-structure development could eventually unleash the caged tiger that is Indonesia’s private sector.

THE PENINSULA

BERLIN: Ireland’s lenders should set some money aside for when the coun-try exits its bailout, which it should do step by step, a senior International Monetary Fund official said yesterday.

Ireland is scheduled to quit its ¤85bn

rescue programme next month, becoming the first euro zone country to do so.

“Ireland has done everything it can to stabilise its economy again but the economy remains weak,” David Lipton, first deputy managing director of the IMF, said.

Given this, the ‘Troika’ of lenders from the IMF, European Commission and European Central Bank should support Ireland with “precautionary measures” to cement its transition back to financial independence. REUTERS

BY BASHER YUSIF AL KAHLOUT

SUPPORTED by blue chip stocks, Qatar Exchange’s (QE) mar-ket capitalisation increased by QR10.6bn to QR533.1bn last

week. Total trade dropped by 3.3 per-cent to QR1.45bn, with the presence of special deals between more than one company.

The benchmark index rose by 185 points, up1.92 percent to reach 9837.5 points. The all-share indexes rose by 43.7 points or 1.80 percent to 2466.7.

The rise of benchmark index and all-share indexes resulted from the increase in scrip prices of all sectors. While the industrial sector index accounted for 3.1 percent, the index of banking and financial sector increased by 1.77 percent.

The transportation sector index rose by 1.41 percent, real estate sector by 0.97 percent, telecommunication sector by 0.65 percent, consumer goods and services sector by 0.41 percent, and the insurance sector by 0.29 percent.

The share price of 29 companies increased, while that of 11 decreased. The share price Masraf Al Rayan and Cinema remained unchanged. Islamic Holding Group gained the highest at 4.46 percent, followed Industries Qatar (4.25 percent), QNB (3.75 percent), Gulf International (3.17 percent), and the share prices of both Qatar Electricity & Water and Qatar Insurance Company increased by 2.58 percent.

On the flip side, the share price of

QE rebounds, index back to pre-Eid vacation levels

General Insurance decreased by 4.91 percent, followed by Doha Insurance (3.29 percent), Dlala (2.11 percent), Al Khaleej Takaful (1.40 percent), Widam (1.13 percent) and Mazaya (0.96 percent).

With regard to liquidity, the total trading volume decreased by 3.3 percent to QR1.4521bn, and the average of daily trading decreased to QR290.4m com-pared to QR300.4m the previous week. The total share trading of top six com-panies amounted to about QR855.3m, which represented 58.9 percent of the total value. Industries Qatar topped the trading value by QR224.3m followed by UDC at QR214.7m.

Non-Qatari portfolios bought a net worth QR85.7m and the Qatari port-folios bought a net of QR46.8m, while Qatari individuals sold net worth of QR106.9m and non-Qatari individuals sold stocks worth QR25.2m.

The bourse recovered last week, sup-ported by the main liquid supplier and drove the index back to the pre-Eid vacation level. All groups rose with the exception of trading volumes, which wit-nessed a limited drop.

THE PENINSULA

Lenders should set aside funds for Ireland: IMF

19BUSINESS SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Amazon Fulfillment Centre

Employees arrive at Amazon’s San Bernardino Fulfillment Centre in California. Amazon’s one million-square-foot facility in San Bernardino County has created more than 800 jobs at the centre. Fulfillment centres are where products sold by other vendors on Amazon.com store their inventory.

PARIS: A row has flared up between leading plane makers over the width of tourist-class seats on long-distance flights, setting the tone for a bitter con-frontation at this month’s Dubai Airshow.

The dispute focuses on the width of seats provided on long-haul flights for economy passen-gers — not always the ones most courted by airlines, but whose allocated space holds the key to efficiency claims for the latest jets offered by Airbus and Boeing.

Airbus called for an industry standard that would provide for a seat at least 18 inches (46cm) wide in economy cabins, but its US arch-rival Boeing says it should be for airlines to decide.

The dispute comes as plane makers vie to sell ever-larger ver-sions of their twin-engined long-distance aircraft, with potentially record orders expected at the November 17 to 21 event.

How the back of the plane is laid out — particularly whether seating is 9 or 10 abreast — is cen-tral to the economic performance claims being made for new ‘mini-jumbo’ jet designs.

Boeing says its revamped “777X” will hold 406 people based on economy seats over 17 inches wide and set out 10 in each row. Airbus says the competing version of its A350 will carry 350 people in 18-inch-wide economy seat laid out 9 abreast.

Plane giants often trade blows on technical matters through advertising in the trade press. Now, Airbus is appealing directly to the public ahead of the Dubai Airshow, where the 777X is expected to dominate with over 100 orders. It recently previewed what may be the start of a new ad war by showing financiers a slide illustrating three people squashed together at a restaurant, titled “Would You Accept This?”

“Boeing is proposing long-distance flying in seats narrower than regional turbo-props,” said

Airbus sales chief John Leahy. As diets change, people get bigger but plane seating has not radically changed.

Between the early 1970s, when the Boeing 747 jumbo defined modern long-haul travel, and the turn of the century, the weight of the average American 40- to 49-year-old male increased by 10 percent, according to US Health Department Data.

The waist of the average 21st-century American male is 39.7 inches, according to US health statistics, which equates to a diameter of 12.6 inches. This leaves 2 inches either side in many plane seats, which are nar-rower than at an average cinema.

Airbus says that is not enough for long-haul travel and says its rival is sticking to a seat concept from the 1950s, when the average girth of the newly christened ‘jet set’ was narrower. Airbus says it has commissioned research sug-gesting an extra inch in seat width improves sleep quality by 53 percent.

Boeing disputes Airbus’s figures on seat measurements and says it is not up to manufacturers to step into decisions on how air-lines balance fares and facilities. It also says research shows cabin experience depends on more than the width of a seat.

“It really comes down to provid-ing flexibility to airlines and allow-ing them to do the things that they believe they need to do to be suc-cessful,” said Boeing cabins expert Kent Craver. “They don’t want us to dictate to them what makes them profitable. They know their business better than anyone else.”

For flyers it is about more elbow room, but for suppliers it is increasingly an issue that could affect earnings. Behind the dis-pute is a race for plane orders with at least $700bn of estimated business at list prices in coming decades, enough to tip the scales of US and European exports.

REUTERS

High stakes at Dubai Airshow

Airbus, Boeing in dispute over seat width

WASHINGTON: Fannie Mae filed a lawsuit on Thursday against nine of the world’s larg-est banks over losses that the mortgage finance giant suffered from the alleged manipula-tion of the global interest rate known as Libor.

Fannie joins a long list of pen-sion funds, asset managers and municipalities that have sued banks involved in setting the London interbank offered rate, which serves as a standard inter-est rate for loans between banks and as a benchmark for about $360 trillion in lending to busi-nesses and consumers.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, said Fannie lost about $800m on “swaps, mortgages, mortgage-backed securities and other variable rate transactions” tied to Libor. Fannie Mae estimates that it lost $332m just on interest-rate swaps — financial instruments used to hedge interest-rate risk on prod-ucts such as mortgages.

Fannie Mae accused Barclays, UBS, Internal Rabobank Groep, Royal Bank of Scotland, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Bank of America, Citibank and JPMorgan Chase of colluding to artificially lower the rate from 2007 to 2010.

Rigging the rate could have caused banks to appear stronger than they were during the financial crisis of 2007 and 2008 by suggest-ing that they were trading with low interest rates. As a part its com-plaint, Fannie Mae is also suing the British Bankers’ Association, a private association that used to collect the data submitted by banks to set the daily Libor rate.

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NEW YORK: MasterCard, the second-biggest US payments network, is poised to further out-perform bigger rival Visa amid a 3 percent gain by the euro this year and signs that European consumer spending is picking up.

MasterCard, whose stock has outpaced Visa’s in 2013, could gain another 15 percent in two years as the sovereign-debt crisis eases, said Jason Kupferberg, an analyst at Jefferies Group LLC. Europe can boost MasterCard’s purchase volume, transactions and revenue for at least the next two quarters, Stern Agee & Leach Inc.’s Greg Smith said.

MasterCard does more business in Europe than Visa, which gener-ates about 2 percent of its revenue in the region. Should Europe’s economy and currency continue to strengthen at their current pace, MasterCard is more likely to see a boost in profits and stock perform-ance, both analysts said.

“Europe is a significant cata-lyst for MasterCard relative to Visa,” Smith said Thursday in a telephone interview. “Assuming these general short trends con-tinue, the underlying metrics are going to look a little better for MasterCard.”

MasterCard said that third-quarter net income rose 14 percent to $879m as Europe credit- and debit-card spending climbed 14 percent. Visa, led by Chief Executive Officer Charlie Scharf, said on October 30 that net income fell 28 percent as rev-enue missed analysts’ forecasts.

MasterCard, based in Purchase, Nnew York, has gained 46 percent this year, outpacing Foster City, California-based Visa’s 30 percent

advance. Europe accounted for 28 percent of MasterCard pur-chases in the first nine months of this year, the company said. That could boost the shares, said Scott Valentin, an analyst at FBR Capital Markets in Arlington, Virginia.

“Investors are looking at both companies and saying, ‘Europe is getting better, the U.S. is slow-ing down, MasterCard has more exposure to Europe, so therefore I’ll take MasterCard,’ “ Valentin said in a telephone interview.

The euro advanced 4 percent against the US dollar in the quar-ter ended September 30. US bor-rowers are raising twice as much debt in Europe this year as in 2012, amid an increase in confi-dence in the region’s economy.

MasterCard’s gross dollar vol-ume, which includes card pur-chases and cash transactions at automated teller machines, climbed 15 percent in Europe in the first nine months of 2013 from a year earlier. “European con-sumer confidence continued the recovery that has started in the second quarter and it’s now back up to the 2010 levels,” MasterCard Chief Executive Officer Ajay Banga, 53, said. “Business senti-ment has also improved over the quarter across major European markets like Germany, France, the U.K. and even Italy.”

Visa Europe Ltd, a separate firm owned by banks, handles Visa’s European transactions and pays royalties to the US-based com-pany. The banks hold a put option requiring Visa Inc to buy the over-seas namesake for “several billion dollars or more” if exercised.

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TOKYO: Carmakers, electronics manufacturers and other export-oriented firms have posted record profits through September due to the recent depreciation of the yen and an an increase in personal consumption.

Midterm account settlements for the six-month period that began in April reached a peak on Thursday. The weak yen espe-cially affected export-oriented companies, such as vehicle and electronics makers, while growth in consumer spending backed by higher stock prices positively affected leisure and transporta-tion-related companies.

The yen’s depreciation was the main factor in robust profits. The currency has been hovering in the high 90 range to the US dollar since April, having depre-ciated about 20 yen from the same period of the previous year. A weakened yen tends to push down prices of products exported to foreign countries, resulting in an increase in sales.

Fuji Heavy Industries Ltd’s sales rose by 25.3 percent to 1.12 trillion yen ($11.4bn) from the previ-ous year, and its after-tax profit increased about 2.5 times year-on-year to 99.8bn yen, both record highs. Honda Motor Co’s operating profit also saw a significant gain, rising by 29 percent to 356.4bn yen.

Panasonic Corp posted record net profit of 169.3bn yen for the six-month period to September, recovering sharply from a massive deficit for two years straight amid a sluggish sales of auto parts over-seas. Sharp Corp also reported an operating profit of 33.8bn yen.

The news was not all positive, however. Sony Corp reported a net loss for the third consecu-tive interim result due to a con-traction of the domestic market

for digital products and an eco-nomic slump in emerging nations. However, the operating profit of its mainstay electronics business moved into the black at 10.3bn yen, compared to a 17.7bn yen loss in same period last year.

The market turned lower against the yen than Sony expected, which increased sales of its products overseas. It also compensated for the sales slump by downsizing. However, Sony has a long way to go before it attains

a full-scale recovery, after it downwardly revised its fiscal 2013 sales target for liquid-crystal TV screens, personal computers and digital cameras.

Toshiba Corp saw profits from its smartphone business, though its television business remains in a slump. Sales of its semiconduc-tor memory, or flash memory, for smartphones was a major factor in the company’s solid business performance.

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Company employees distribute earnings reports at Tokyo Stock Exchange.

Weak yen brings profits for exporters Fannie Mae sues nine banks over Libor scandal

MasterCard momentum over Visa seen building

BAGHDAD: Big Oil is poised to spend over $25bn next year to boost output from Iraq’s giant oilfields towards record rates, Iraq’s deputy prime minister for energy said, even as Baghdad struggles to control spillover from the civil war in Syria.

Far from harm’s way, the prized oilfields of southern Iraq — drivers of the country’s oil expansion — are expected to pump an extra 500,000 barrels per day (b/d) in 2014, said Hussain Al Shahristani. Total out-put this year is set to average just over 3m b/d, holding Iraq’s rank as Opec’s no. 2 producer.

But Baghdad is raising its guard at the smaller fields of Najmah and Qayara — operated by Angolan Sonangol, which lie in the Al Qaeda heartland of Nineveh province in the north-west and at the Akkas gasfield, operated by South Korea’s Kogas, in the western Anbar province

near the Syrian border, he said.“We are definitely concerned

about the upsurge in violence, but our concern is for the Iraqi people throughout the country. Iraq is try-ing its best to combat terrorism,” he said in an interview in his office in the heavily fortified green zone.

“The security situation has not affected the oilfields in the south and central Iraq and we haven’t noticed any hesitation or slow down in investment by the companies.”

Oil titans BP, ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell and Eni have been at work in the south of the country at Rumaila, West Qurna-1 and Zubair since 2010 when they signed a series of serv-ice contracts with Baghdad.

After stagnating for decades due to sanctions and wars, their overall investment of around $30bn — from 2010 through 2013 — has ramped up these fields by

600,000 b/d. Shahristani said he did not expect militants to inflict any lasting damage on Iraq’s strategic oil network, which has helped generate nearly $60bn this year.

“Quite frankly, I’m not con-cerned about the impact of ter-rorist activities on our plans for oil production or power generation. We are going to go ahead,” he said. “These terrorist activities normally aim at soft spots where there are unarmed civilians — market places, mosques and schools.”

Senior oil executives said they remained committed to the coun-try that holds the world’s fifth big-gest oil reserves, but are taking no risks when it comes to personal safety. “The security situation is not affecting our investment deci-sions,” said an oil company source. “Iraq has such huge and easy to access resources: one way or another, the foreign oil companies

will find a way to make money.”Iraq is now suffering bomb-

ings on a scale not seen since the bloody chaos of 2006-08. . And that’s impacted oil and gas operations in Iraq’s neighbouring provinces. In Nineveh — where Baghdad’s own oil installations and vital pipeline to Turkey come under frequent attack — Iraqi forces are stepping up patrols of Sonangol’s projects.

Undeterred by the bloodshed in Anbar, Kogas has signed con-tracts for surface installations and invested hundreds of millions of dollars in pipelines.

Here, too, security is being tightened at the project, which is experiencing minor delays. “We have sent extra forces to the area, specifically to protect their opera-tions,” said Shahristani. A Kogas spokesman confirmed the com-pany was working as normal.

REUTERS

Oil titans to spend over $25bn in Iraq

BUSINESS20SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

NEW YORK: Twitter will be the talk of Wall Street next week when the social media company goes public in the stock market’s most anticipated initial public offering since 2012’s Facebook.

Twitter is expected to price its IPO on the evening of November 6 and begin trading on November 7 on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol.

“It’s not just about the stock. Twitter’s IPO will be a measure of how much liquidity is out there,” said John Rutledge, chief invest-ment strategist at SAFANAD, a private investment firm in New Canaan, Connecticut.

Twitter has said it will sell 70 million shares at a price between $17 and $20, valuing the online messaging company as much as $11bn, below the $15bn that some analysts had been expecting.

The market will be on alert to see if Twitter follows the fate of last year’s botched Facebook Inc IPO: The social networking company’s stock hit the market in May 2012 and was plagued by allocation problems, trading glitches and a selloff. The shares did not recover the IPO price until a year later.

Views have been mixed on what investing strategy to take for Twitter’s IPO. According to a Reuters survey of 29 broker-deal-ers and independent advisers, 23 said they are not recommending Twitter shares. Only one said he would recommend it — and only to certain clients. Five others said they would wait to snap up the stock if it plunges after it begins to trade.

But while retail interest might be low, tech industry analysts say there is expected to be a good appetite for Twitter’s stock from institutional investors at the cur-rent valuation.

On Friday, Morningstar joined three other brokerages in setting price targets for Twitter Inc well above its IPO price range, sug-gesting the stock has room to rise at least 30 percent.

The Wall Street brokerages set a price target of $26 a share. Last month, Pivotal Research had set its price target at $29 a share, SunTrust at $50 and Topeka Capital at $54.

Another event that will grab investors’ attention will be the Labour Department’s release of non-farm payroll figures for October on November 8. The announcement was delayed by the 16-day partial US government shutdown in early October. Some market participants warn that the data could be skewed due to the shutdown.

On Friday, the Institute for Supply Management’s index of national factory activity was not affected by the government shut-down, showing the best reading since April 2011. For the week, the Dow rose 0.3 percent and the S&P 500 gained 0.1 percent, while the Nasdaq slipped 0.5 percent.

Next week’s economic indica-tors also include factory orders tomorrow, followed by the ISM services index on Tuesday. On Thursday, third-quarter gross domestic product and weekly job-less claims will be released.

REUTERS

MUMBAI/NEW DELHI: A scarcity of gold and high prices are pushing Indians to look to silver or diamond jewellery as alternative gifts this festive season, adding to the gloom in the gold trade after government measures to restrict imports.

Indians are the biggest buyers of gold in the world and many believe that buying and giving it on holy days brings good for-tune. Diwali falls today. “So far, we have sold just two gold rings,” said executive Sanjay Kumar at Chawla Jewellers in New Delhi. Outside the shop, a big banner trumpets a Rs1,000 ($16) dis-count on gold market prices and a discount of up to 50 percent on diamond jewellery.

“People are suffering from cost inflation, they don’t have liquid cash,” TM Bhandari, selling jew-ellery at Mohan Silver Shoppe in

New Delhi. Last year over this festival period around 60 to 70 tonnes of gold was sold, roughly the amount imported in an aver-age month, according to Bachhraj Bamalwa, a director at the All India Gems and Jewellery Trade Federation.

This year, supplies in the domestic market have virtually dried up because of restrictions on gold imports imposed by the government to reduce the trade deficit and support the currency. Import duty on the precious metal is at a record high of 10 percent.

Gold is selling for around Rs30,700 per 10 grammes, about $120-130 an ounce over London prices. That’s encouraging some recycling, which helps supplies, but buyers that can wait are sim-ply deferring their purchases.

Given high inflation and low real interest rates, many Indians

see gold as an investment. If demand is being displaced any-where this year, it is to silver and diamonds, which hold their value in the same way.

SILVER IMPORTSImports of silver — which

costs just Rs500 per 10 grammes — are likely to hit a record this year after reaching 4,073 tonnes from January to August, more than double the 1,921 tonnes in the whole of 2012. Jewellers are pulling out all the stops to boost sales at this festival time and tel-evision channels are awash with sparkling commercials.

One slot from jeweller Tanishq has taken Twitter by storm, breaking new ground by starring a woman embarking on a second marriage, an event that doesn’t normally attract as much glitz as first weddings in India.

Gitanjali Gems, one of the larg-est branded jewellery retailers in the world, is pushing sales by cutting prices of diamond jewel-lery to as low as Rs4,900. Along with many other chains, it is also competing for business by offering vacations, handbags and other prizes to customers who buy gold. “Diamond jewellery sales may grow by 10-15 percent,” said Chairman Mehul Choksi.

But without gold, this year’s festival season just won’t be the same for housewife Sadhna Goel. “I bought just two silver coins worth Rs565 each,” said Goel, shopping in Karol Bagh, New Delhi’s gold hub.

“We used to buy gold coins or gold rings but this is the first time in many years that we have been forced to stick to buying silver, steel utensils and such.”

REUTERS

Berkshire Hathaway shareholders walk by a video screen at the company’s annual meeting in Omaha in this May 4, 2013 file picture.

to $3.66bn, or $2,228 per Class A share, from $3.4bn, or $2,057 per share. Michael Yoshikami, president of Destination Wealth Management in Walnut Creek, California, which invests $1.3bn and owns Berkshire stock, said the company can boost invest-ment results if bond yields rise once the US Federal Reserve pulls back on efforts to prop up the nation’s economy.

“The US economy is rather stumbling, and that is positive actually for their infrastructure investments such as railroads,” he said. “All things considered, we are

fairly pleased with the results.” Book value, Buffett’s preferred measure of the Omaha, Nebraska-based company’s worth, rose 11 percent this year to $126,766 per Class A share as of September 30, 2013.

Net insurance underwriting pre-miums fell 57 percent to $170m. Results weakened at the Geico auto insurance unit, which paid out a higher percentage of premiums to cover claims than a year earlier, and the General Re reinsurance unit, which had a $400m under-writing loss from a European hail-storm. REUTERS

BRUSSELS: Inspectors from Greece’s lenders have put a postponed visit to the country back on the agenda and will return early next week after Athens made a new proposal on filling a gap in the 2014 budget, the European Commission said.

The team of officials from the IMF, the European Commission and the European Central Bank — known as the Troika — will decide whether to pay out the next tranche of loans under Greece’s bailout programme.

The inspectors visit Athens regularly to check progress. Their most recent inspection began in September before being paused and was initially expected to resume at end-October and then slated for

resumption on November 4. On Thursday, eurozone officials

said the trip next week would be postponed because the parties had been unable to bridge differences over how to close a ¤2bn ($2.7bn) hole in Greece’s 2014 budget.

But the standoff was defused late on Friday when Greece sent the lenders information on how it could fill the fiscal gap and meet other bailout targets, including privatisations. “We have received further information from Athens which means we can confirm our travel plans. Our team will thus be in Athens at the beginning of the coming week,” European Commission spokesman Simon O’Connor said. The IMF said that its staff would resume work

in Athens on Tuesday.Greece has been kept afloat by

a financial lifeline from the euro-zone and the IMF since 2010, with ¤240bn ($330bn) pledged in exchange for spending cuts and reforms. After a six-year reces-sion that wiped out 40 percent of household disposable incomes and sent unemployment soaring to almost 28 percent, Greeks are saying they can take no more.

The government argues it deserves some slack after deliv-ering the biggest budget deficit reduction ever recorded in the eurozone, and Greece’s president has said the country would not yield to pressure from foreign lenders to impose more budget austerity. REUTERS

NEW YORK: Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc posted a 29 percent jump in third-quarter profit as it recorded big gains on investments made during the financial crisis, but operating results missed fore-casts amid weakness in insur-ance operations.

Quarterly results included $1.4bn of gains from investments that Buffett made in October 2008, including in General Electric Co and Goldman Sachs Group Inc warrants, and bonds related to candy maker Mars Inc’s purchase of rival Wrigley. Such investments helped give Buffett a reputation as a lender of last resort.

But investment and derivative gains do not factor into oper-ating results, and while profit rose at Berkshire’s Burlington Northern Santa Fe railroad and MidAmerican energy and utility units, insurance underwriting results deteriorated.

Net income rose to $5.05bn, or $3,074 per Class A share, from $3.92bn, or $2,373 per share, a year earlier, Berkshire said on Friday. Operating profit rose just 8 percent

Wall Street: All eyes on Twitter IPO this weekTrading to begin on Nov 7 on NYSE

Import curbs create gold shortage in India

Berkshire posts 29pc profit jumpin third quarter

Lenders put off visit to Greece

An employee shows gold bangles to a customer at a jewellery showroom in Mumbai.

21BUSINESS VIEWS SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

BY JAMES SAFT

Europe faces a threat of deflation, which it seems unlikely to be will-ing to fight.

Core inflation in the eurozone fell sharply in October to just 0.8

percent a year, the lowest since early 2010 and a level which sets the red deflation light flashing.

Deflation, or even low inflation, is par-ticularly bad news for Europe, whose par-ticular burden is too much debt. Inflation eats away at the real value of debt, thus making it easier to bear. Deflation does the opposite.

This raises pressure on the European Central Bank, which has a monetary policy meeting next week, to do something radical, though they have but limited options when it comes to the what and the how.

Buried in the inflation figures was one number which shed light on the eurozone’s plight: the prices of services fell 0.2 percent in October, and are down 1.2 percent from a year ago.

Services, of course, are what Europeans perform largely for one another, and since the number of people needing work so far outpaces the available opportunities, a crushing deflation in what they can charge ensues.

And because the eurozone ties all mem-ber states to the same exchange rate, those places like Greece and Spain with the worst unemployment are forced to compete inter-nationally to sell traded goods and services with the likes of Germany, making deflation the natural outcome.

Eurozone unemployment rose to a record high of 12.2 percent in September, according to data released on Thursday, with an all-time record of 24.1 percent of those under

25 years old jobless. Unsurprisingly, French consumer spending and German retail sales are both falling outright.

“So the question of the day can be couched into what can the ECB do to make policy more accommodative,” Bob Savage of Track Research wrote in a note to clients.

“Some banks are now calling for another 25 bps easing in the refi rate. Others stick to the 9M LTRO idea. Some are thinking of more forward guidance linked to CPI. All equal a lower euro.”

Though the eurozone common currency fell nearly 1 percent against the dollar on Thursday, that still leaves it some 6 percent higher over a year, a burden on exporters.

The idea of a new or additional LTRO — long-term loans offered to banks to drive market interest rates lower — is baked into most economists’ forecasts.

More than €1trn of LTRO loans were made in 2011 and 2012 and the first repay-ments are due early next year.

As for reducing interest rates, it will be tricky.

The main refi rate is at 0.50 percent, but the deposit rate is already zero.

If the deposit rate went negative, imply-ing a charge on banks for funds held at the central bank, banks might be more likely to make loans but would face dif-ficulties in their own operations. It would also cause problems in bond and other funding markets.

Forward guidance, a fancy central banker term for making a promise about what you will do in the future, is seen as a sort of magic bullet for banks facing the zero bound of interest rates.

Commit to keep rates low for longer and you can influence markets, the theory goes,

to price credit more cheaply for longer periods.

In its most recent ECB Monthly Report, the bank said again that rates will remain at the current low or lower levels for an extended period in order to support a gradual recovery in eurozone economic activity.

The other question, of course, is what reaction other central banks and govern-ments have to a falling euro.

The US on Wednesday took aim at Germany for what it said was creating a “deflationary bias” for the euro area by maintaining a large current account surplus.

In the absence of some sudden uptick in German demand for Greek, Italian and Spanish goods, a lower euro will only rein-force that, and might invite US ire.

As well, the Federal Reserve and Bank of Japan are both fighting their own wars against falling inflation in the US and out-right deflation in Japan.

While a small move in the euro might be tolerated, a larger one would raise tensions.

The real problem, as ever in the euro-zone, is that the solution will involve German authorities tolerating inflation at home, specifically inflation in German wages.

That would drive German consump-tion and narrow the competitiveness gap within the eurozone. To put it bluntly, this is unlikely.

That leaves the eurozone dependent on global growth, which may or may not deliver the inflation needed to make its debts bearable.

That growth may or may not arrive, but what is certain is a lot of suffering in periph-eral Europe while we wait and see.

REUTERS

BY LYN GOODEAR

Theodore Roosevelt once observed that the best thing to do is the right thing, the next best is to do the wrong thing and the worst is to do nothing. While there’s been some justifiable debate along those lines with respect to

the makeup of the first Abbott cabinet, by giving cabinet status to small business the new government has done one unequivocal right thing.

From time immemorial, sanctimonious rhetoric about small business is given voice during the flush of election campaigns and inevitably it amounts to a mask for doing nothing. Creating a single dedicated cabinet position signals a long overdue move away from mere tokenism.

When Bill Shorten announced the opposition portfolios last month, he located the shadow minister for small business in his office. The numbers speak for themselves. Well over 2m small enterprises are trading in Australia compared with just 6,000 large businesses. Enterprises employing under 19 staff account for 96 percent of all businesses and employ 46 percent of all pri-vate sector Australian workers. By contrast, big businesses with more than 200 employees account for 0.3 percent of businesses and employ 30 percent of workers.

Small businesses also contribute 34 percent of private industry value added, 20 percent to the GDP, and they employ around 4.8m Australians. In addition, around 18,000 small business exporters ship $1.2bn of goods, which amounted in 2010-11 to 41.6 percent of all exported goods.

Just as big business needs to do well if the nation is to prosper, small enterprises need to flourish. But unfortunately those exer-cising power need constantly to be reminded of the centrality of start-up enterprises and small entrepreneurs, and to be mindful also of their precariousness. Recent Mccrindle research reveals that of new businesses started four years ago, more than half are no longer trading. The most encouraging results are in health care, agriculture, forestry and fishing, as well as rental, hiring and real estate services, all with survival rates of around 70 percent.

But the attrition rate in many other industry sectors is seri-ously problematic and is the cause of significant hardship by small business owners and employees. Small businesses are especially susceptible to cash flow crises and lag times while they wait for marketing initiatives to get traction and turn into sales.

They are also exposed to the grubby behaviour of some big competitors that dominate markets at the expense of suppli-ers and honest traders. The callous destruction of small traders through unfair competitive practices is not in the interests of national prosperity. In times of suppressed demand and flag-ging confidence, it is up to all of us to contribute to a polity and an economy that is characterised by a widespread readiness to invest and consume. The big end of town will not thrive if small enterprises fail in large numbers.

As a case in point, Bruce Billson’s speech to the Industry Leaders Forum of the Food and Grocery Council this week made a very valid point about some of the issues around buyer power and how big players use that power. He signalled his intention as small business minister to contribute to a review of Australia’s competition laws so that small suppliers have genuine incentives to invest and innovate in the supply chain. As the head of the HR institute in this country, and with most of our members working in larger businesses, I am mindful that another reason for the failure of small businesses is that they do not enjoy an advantage that big business takes for granted: good management of their people.

Issues around staff disengagement can swiftly destroy small businesses. As customers, most of us can tell when we deal with employees who are surly or incompetent. Business owners who do not take steps to win the hearts and minds of their employees will inevitably risk having people in their midst who not only fail to work for the good of the enterprise, but who actually work against it. There are well tried techniques for recruiting the right people, training them well and keeping them engaged. These fundamental techniques tend to be neglected by small business owners whose minds are often elsewhere, usually on the cash flow or the marketing campaign.

I look forward to watching and reporting how Billson goes about implementing the enlightened small business policies that the Coalition took to the election. Small businesses face obstacles securing government contracts, and small suppliers are very often at the bottom of the list when it comes time for invoices to be paid. The Coalition policy has undertaken to remedy those types of practice and I for one am keen, on behalf of my board, to play a part in helping make those things happen.

THE GUARDIAN

For Australia, small business is beautiful

EU faces deflation threat

Welfare dependency isn’t UK’s problem; pitiful pay isBY POLLY TOYNBEE

How did Britain turn so docile, so passive, so obedient? In both good times and in bad, real

wages fell, the cost of living rose and the proceeds of growth were sucked up to the rapacious upper echelons. Yet even now, when real wages have fallen to their lowest since 2001, the question of shrink-ing pay hardly makes it on to the political radar.

A Rip Van Winkle from 1979 would be astonished that earn-ings have all but evaporated from British politics, as if pay were as ineluctable as the weather. Long before the crash, the wage share of GDP slid from 61 percent to 56 percent, money siphoned out of working pockets into profits in the longest wage squeeze in more than a century. Broken union power since those days was pain-fully displayed in the humiliation of Unite at Grangemouth. With no one to stand up for employ-ees, money flows to the employers, take it or leave it.

On Monday, this year’s new liv-ing wage rate will be set, currently

£8.55 an hour in London, £7.45 elsewhere. It’s calculated annu-ally by the Joseph Rowntree Foundation’s minimum standard, a sum set by what public opinion says is the least people need for a socially acceptable standard of living. A man should have a pair of shoes and a pair of trainers. A child should have four outings a year to a zoo, farm or Christmas panto. Parents should be able to afford a £50 birthday present for a child, plus £50 for a party. That’s luxury for those surviving on less, with the minimum wage at just £6.31. There are five million full-timers earning less than £13,350.

The Resolution Foundation persistently ferrets out the facts that show how the number of working people who earn below the living wage keeps rising. Two-thirds of poor children have parents who work: the social cri-sis is in pitiful pay, not welfare dependency.

The Living Wage Foundation has campaigned for a decade, brilliantly establishing the idea of a decency threshold that politicians dare not deny. The national minimum wage has nothing to do with decency:

it’s set by the low pay commission according to what it thinks mar-ket will bear, regardless of whether people can live on it. Since it began in 1999, the commission has let the real value of the minimum wage slide back by £1,000.

Citizens UK, originator of the living wage, works with a commu-nity base of faith and other groups to persuade and shame employers, not by demanding with menaces. It has 420 signed-up living wage employers, including 17 councils, with more to be announced. It has captured the imagination and raised political awareness, so every party pays it homage and no party leader in elections dares not appear at its rallies and to hear heart-rending testimonies of hardship from the low–paid.

But success has been slow: 30,000 workers are directly cov-ered by these official living wage employers, with some 250,000 estimated to get the living wage because of the campaign. But so far asking nicely has only taken a flea bite out of the body of 4.8m people still working below that decency line.

Meanwhile, at the top FTSE

100 boardroom pay rose again by 27 percent last year, while real wages fell. No significant change is happening to the structure of pay. People are disgusted by super-greed and George Osborne’s cutting of top tax — and yet pas-sivity reigns in the face of gross injustice. Instead, wrath is skil-fully misdirected by this govern-ment towards immigrants or the unemployed.

The chancellor’s autumn state-ment will offer cheery projections for growth and jobs, but others warn that wages falling below inflation year after year may choke off his recovery. JPMorgan reports that the failure of wages to rise is “the missing piece in the recovery so far”. Whose recovery is this? With 10 percent of those in work underemployed and unable to get longer hours, the economist David Blanchflower suggests “recovery” may yield nei-ther many more jobs nor higher wages nor more spending money. In this new cold climate, no one knows if unemployment will fall enough to cause wages to rise.

What could be done? The Treasury would save £3.5bn if the

living wage became the minimum wage in the private sector, by receiving more in tax and paying less in tax credit subsidies. Even paying the living wage in the pub-lic sector saves £2.2m, according to the Resolution Foundation. What better way to cut the ben-efit bill?

Before Margaret Thatcher abolished them, wages councils set minimum pay affordable for each sector. Both Labour’s pay review by KPMG’s Alan Buckle and the Resolution Foundation’s review by George Bain, first set-ter of the minimum wage, are likely to recommend a return to compulsory sectoral pay rates, sensitive to what employers can genuinely afford. The big super-markets could well afford to pay their staff the living wage. So could the social care sector, if the state faced up to a better way to fund care, with decent pay and training for care staff. Equal pay day falls on 7 November, the day women stop being paid because of the gender pay gap. Forcing equal pay audits, so employers had to reveal how much less they pay women, along with rights for

higher paid jobs to be part-time, might end the pay gap.

For the long term, power needs to flow back towards the utterly powerless employee. A German-style seat on the board, as well as on the remuneration committee, helps contain top greed. Why not oblige every employer to allow in trade union representatives regu-larly to talk to staff about rep-resentation? That requires trade unions too to make themselves more attractive to those who have never encountered them before. Companies should be obliged to publish their pay ratios, from top to bottom.

Ed Miliband is making a speech next week on the living wage. The first principle has to be this: a single person working full-time should, as a minimum, be able to live at what the public considers a socially acceptable standard of living without the need for state subsidy. Miliband has made the cost-of-living crisis and rip-off prices his own. Now he needs to make pay political too. As one of his advisers says: “Pay is the dog that doesn’t bark.” Yet.

THE GUARDIAN

Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

No. COMPANY TENDER NO. SUBJECTTENDER BOND

TENDER FEES

CLOSING DATE

22Ministry of

defence

TAC/CW/L/31/2013-

2014Construction of annex building(J-525-01) QR 12,000 QR 2,000

18/11/2013 before 12

noon

23

Ministry of Interior

88/ 2013-2014

Proposed guards quarter for communication facilities in Fahahil

QR 100,000 QR 750Monday

18/11/2013

2489/

2013-2014

Adminstration DATA centre building gymnasium and additional substation for

communication dept. in Al MurrahQR 900,000 QR 750

Monday 18/11/2013

2590/

2013-2014

Supply, installation and operationf of devices for hazardous materials for Civil

Defense Dept.QR 25,000 QR 250

Monday 18/11/2013

2686 2013-

2014Extension building for engineering division

at (Rayyan) QR 500,000 QR 750

Monday 18/11/2013

27 97/2013-2014 Asphalt paving works for MOI projects at

Salwa Road AreasQR 400,000 QR 750

Monday 25/11/2013

28

LTC 714/2013

Contact centre enhancement QR 150,000 QR 500

17/11/2013 Not later

than 11:00am

29GTC

606/2013

Transmission pipelines associated with QEZ desalination plant Detailed design, supply

of materials and construction of water transmission pipelines and associated fiber

optic cables of approx. 69.50km of 1600 mm dia., 35 m. of 1400mm dia. and 1.15 km of 1200mm including branch connections

from QEZ desalination plant

QR 7,000,000 for each package

QR 20,000

19/12/2013 not later

than 11:00 am

30LTC

698/2013

Consultancy services for QMS documentation & preparation for ISO 9001

certification for electricity distribution department (refloat)

QR 50,000 QR 500

24/11/2013 Not later

than 11:00 am

31 LTC 714/2013 Contact centre enhancement QR 150,000 QR 500

17/11/2013 Not later

than 11:00am

32GTC

556/2013

Three (3) years call-off contract for maintenance, replacement and upgrading

of water networks QR 3,500,000 QR 5,000

07/11/2013 Not later

than 11:00 am

33PWA/

STC/023/13-14

Pre contract professional consultancy services for an administrative building

for Al-Rayyan Municipality in Al Karaana BA/13-14/D/056/S

QR 16,000 QR 400 18/11/2013

34PWA/

GTC/055/13-14

Construction of boundary wall (precast concrete units) for Senior staff houses in

Dafna-West bay BA/13-14/C/039/GQR 240,000 QR 1,000 12.11.2013

35GTC

599/2013

Pipelines for mega reservoirs corridor main 22 nos. separate packages for

material supply, construction, testing and commissioning of water mains

and fibre optic cable ducts within the southern length of the Qatar national utility corridor from PRPS 3 (Rawdat Rashid) to

connections to the existing mains from Ras Abu Fontas as follows; Package A: 70.1km of 1600mm & 13.8 km of 1400 & 20.6km of 1200mm dia. mains Package B: 2.9km of 1600mm, 38.2km of 1400mm & 42.5km of

1200mm dia. mains

QR 10,000,000

QR 20,000

21/11/2013 not later

than 11:00 am

36

Aspire Zone

AF/C/ASP5385/13

Supply, delivery and installation of 3D markerless motion analysis at aspetar

QR 25,000 QR 300 10.11.2013

37AF/C/

AL5378/13Supply of lifting equipment on rental (call-off) basis for Aspire logistics in Aspire Zone

QR 35,000 QR 300 10.11.2013

38AF/D/

AF0140R1/13Volunteer training programme for Aspire

Zone events QR 25,000 QR 300 12.11.2013

39AF/C/

ALLC5387/13

Supply, delivery and installation of PVC sports flooring including repair of existing concrete slab for the indoor tennis court at

Ladies club in Aspire Zone

QR 25,000 QR 300 10.11.2013

40AF/C/

AL5376/13

Supply of light equipment on rental (call-off) Basis for Aspire Logistics in Aspire

Zone QR 15,000 QR 200 12.11.2013

No. COMPANY TENDER NO. SUBJECTTENDER BOND

TENDER FEES

CLOSING DATE

1 LT13110300Maintenance of fire alarm system at

various locsQR 60,000 QR 200 24/11/2013

2 GT13111400Epic football grnd facilities, upgrading main

gate & l/scape works in Dukhan QR 200,000 QR 500 8/12/2013

3 LT13110200Purchase, implementation of a

collaborative S/W for Injaz-PMSQR 40,000 N/A 1/12/2013

4 GT13MT0024 Stocking & supply of lubricating oil &

grease on call-off basis for a period of three (3) years

QR 141,000 QR 1,0001.12.2013 (12:00hrs)

5. GT13110200Turnaround maint work at FNGLCS in

Dukhan fields QR 200,000 QR 500 10.11.2013

6 GT13111700Epic for replacement of VSDS at production

stations and RGQR 1100,000 QR 500 15/12/2013

7 GT13110600Call-off contract for hire of equipment at

QP various locs.QR 480,000 QR 500 3/11/2013

8 LT13MT0065

Stocking & supply of various chemcials for hazardous waste treatment center at Mesaieed on call-off basis for a period of

three (3) years

QR 60,000 QR 50024/11/2013 (12:00hrs)

9 ST11MT0275 Supply & Install of parallel/

redundant (UPS)QR 10,000 QR 100

4/11/2013 (12:00hrs)

10 GT13111100Epic security building, boundary wall &

landscaping in RLCQR 3500,000 QR 500 8/12/2013

11 GT13111800Road maintenance works on call-off basis

within Dukhan fields QR 1200,000 QR 500 15/12/2013

12 LT13110100Overhauling and testing of petrol valves at

Khuff & NFIS within Dukhan fields QR 40,000 QR 200 24/11/2013

13 GT13111600Miscellaneous maintenance support

services at contractors workshopQR 175,000 QR 500 15/12/2013

14 GT13110100Combined quantitative risk assessment

for MIC QR 120,000 QR 500 3/11/2013

15 LT13110400Epic for replacement of flow computers in

NGl 1,2 & 4, GO, MesaieedQR 25,000 QR 200 24/11/2013

16 GT13111300Civil improvement works & fencing works

within QP gas operations QR 1000,000 QR 500 24/11/2013

17 ST13105800Hiring of crawler crane for compressor works at NGL-4, Gas OPNS, Mesaieed

QR 20,000 QR 200 11.11.2013

18 GT13110000Scaffolding services on a call-off basis in

Dukhan fieldsQR 500,000 QR 500 3/11/2013

19

Ministry of defence

TAC/CW/G/41/2013-

2014

Construction of industrial hanger (F-529-01)

QR 65,000 QR 2,00025-11-2013 before 12

noon

20TAC/

CW/G/42/2013-2014

Construction of gymnasium (M-308-01) QR 150,000 QR 3,00025-11-2013 before 12

noon

21TAC/CW/

G/34/2013-2014

Construction of barracks (F-412-01) QR 96,000 QR 2,00025/11/2013 before 12

noon

22 GECM & TENDERSSUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

TENDERS

GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS MAP (GECM)

Japanese consumers spending more as economy recoversTOKYO: Japanese consumers are spending more as the economy improves and people look to buy big-ticket items before the sales tax goes up in April. Household spending increased 3.7pc in September from a year earlier, while overall retail sales increased 3.1pc, official data showed on Tuesday. The spending rise was the highest since March.

MADRID: Spain’s biggest bailed-out lender, Bankia, showed on Monday it was on track to meeting yearly profit targets after it was cleansed of its worst assets, although a weak economy is still hurting its net lending income.

RBI Governor Rajan: India isn’t in danger of crisis

Has China’s debt crisis moment arrived?

Australian economy poised for new growth, says NAB chiefSYDNEY: The nation’s bank chiefs are the most optimistic they have been since the global financial crisis, believing the economy will emerge from the doldrums. National Australia Bank boss Cameron Clyne yesterday echoed claims that the borrowing strike may end soon.

SA’s economy faces challenges as outlooks deteriorate

Brazil’s BNDES crowding out private banks from loans: OECD

CAPE TOWN: South Africa faces considerable challenges as the growth and inflation outlooks have deteriorated while structural problems are increasingly being exposed, says Old Mutual Investment Group South Africa. Retail stocks have pulled back from historic highs but are by no means cheap, while the banking sector is looking like fair value.

BRAZILIA: Brazil’s state-run BNDES, the largest development lender in the Americas, is crowding out private sector banks from corporate credit markets, and the government should phase out financial support for the bank, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said on Tuesday.

The beginning of the end of the financial crisis

WASHINGTON: Five years later, it is clear that the decisive actions to stabilise the financial system were those of October 14, 2008, when the US put taxpayer money into banks and guaranteed their lending. The chief executives of nine large banks trooped past waiting television cameras into the Treasury to be told — or in a few cases, persuaded

— that they would receive $125bn in taxpayer money from the $700bn TARP fund.

NEW DELHI: The new governor of the Reserve Bank of India, Raghuram Rajan, told the BBC in his first international interview that India has enough foreign-exchange reserves to safeguard against a repeat of the 1991 balance of payments crisis. Mr Rajan said that India has enough money to pay for all of its short-term debts tomorrow if it needed to, as it has reserves that are equal to 15pc of GDP. This is a key difference from two decades ago when the country was rescued by the IMF.

BEIJING: China’s National Audit Office estimated in 2010 that local government debt stood at 10.72trn yuan ($1.75trn), or 27pc of GDP. But, by all accounts, it has exploded since then, with some estimates suggesting that the load now accounts for 60pc of the economy, much of it generated by special investment vehicles that were able to bypass nationally imposed borrowing limits.

Italy youth unemployment rises to record 12.5pc

Weak Spanish economy weighs on Bankia turnaround

ROME: Italy’s unemployment rate rose further in September, indicating businesses are still reluctant to hire as the recession continues in Europe’s third-largest economy. The rate increased to 12.5pc from an upwardly revised 12.4pc in August and 10.9pc a year earlier, national statistics institute Istat said on Thursday. It said the number of jobless rose on the month by 29,000 to 3.194 million.

Every Sunday

23SPORT SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Johnson maintains WGC lead A late blip gives the American a three-shot lead over Poulter; McIlroy six behind SHANGHAI: American Dustin Johnson threatened to run away with the $8.5m WGC-HSBC Champions tournament yesterday, before a double-bogey at the final hole of his third round gave a glimmer of hope to the field.

Johnson pushed his tee shot into the water at the par-five 18th - which followed an earlier dou-ble-bogey - yet he still managed a six-under-par 66 in perfect scor-ing conditions to lead England’s Ian Poulter (63), the defending champion, by three.

Soft greens and the absence of a breeze led to a birdie blitz and also a deteriorating air quality as a moderate smog hung unrelent-ingly over Sheshan International.

But Johnson was more both-ered by his tardy finish than the smoky air, despite posting an impressive 18-under 198 total with one round left.

“I’m still a little mad from my double bogey at 18 but obviously a three-shot lead going into Sunday (today) is good,” the long-hitting Johnson, a seven-time PGA Tour winner, told reporters.

“It’s a good score. I made 10 birdies, hit a lot of good shots. I’m definitely happy with what I shot, just not happy with the way I finished.

“Making two doubles, there’s no excuse for that, especially the way I’m playing.”

Englishman Poulter vaulted into second place on 15-under, with Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell (64) another shot behind.

McDowell’s compatriot Rory McIlroy (67), Englishman Justin Rose (65) and Canadian Graham DeLaet (65) are six strokes back of Johnson in a tie for fourth.

German Martin Kaymer, the 2011 winner, shot a course record 62 but he is still eight shots off the pace in a tie for seventh.

British Open champion Phil Mickelson plunged from conten-tion with a mediocre 72, though he still patiently signed auto-graphs for more than 10 minutes, but only after a local official gave the crush of frenzied fans a stern warning to stop pushing.

After running off five

consecutive birdies to the turn, Johnson’s first double bogey come at the par-four 10th, where his tee shot finished just left of the fairway, leaving what looked like a straightforward shot to the green.

But his approach shot came up short and then he twice chipped weakly and his ball rolled back down the hill. He eventually holed a 12-foot putt to salvage a six.

At the par-five 18th, he pushed his drive into the water and couldn’t be sure where it crossed the hazard line so he decided to re-tee, rather than risk any pos-sible penalty.

Poulter also took advantage of the easier front nine, reeling off five birdies in a row from the third hole to reach the turn in 30 strokes.

“As well as I played, I felt the other guys were still going to make birdies, so I had to keep pressing,” he said.

“He (Johnson) is a good player and in this form he’s going to make a lot of birdies. I just need to do my thing tomorrow (today) and make a lot more than he does.”

McDowell also plans to keep attacking. “I’ll have to go low to even finish second,” he said.

“Very receptive greens, very pure putting surfaces, eve-rything adds up to exactly what you’re seeing, which is a score-fest.” REUTERS

Dustin Johnson of the US cleans his ball before teeing off on

the 11th hole during the third

round of the WGC-HSBC Champions

tournament in Shanghai, yesterday.

Rory McIlroy of Northern Ireland reacts as he

watches his fair-

way shot on the

8th hole.

McIlroy wants ‘fast start’ for a Shanghai surprise

SHANGHAI: Former world number one Rory McIlroy will look to heap pressure on the final group in the $8.5m WGC-HSBC Champions in Shanghai with a blistering start to his final round today.

A third-round five-under-par 67 yesterday put McIlroy into a share of fourth place, six shots behind leader Dustin Johnson of the United States, three behind Ian Poulter of England and two behind fellow Northern Irishman Graeme McDowell.

“You need a fast start on this golf course,” McIlroy said after moving to 12-under par for the tournament.

McIlroy is not in the final group today and will play alongside Justin Rose of England and Canada’s Graeme Delaet.

Asked whether he could turn the situation to his advantage by mov-ing quickly up the board to join the leaders, the world number six, who is yet to win a tournament this year, replied: “Yeah definitely.”

“If they see me coming then hopefully I can put a bit of pressure on them and make them think about it a bit more.”

McIlroy shot nine-under par 63 at the same Sheshan Golf Club course in 2009 and believes he will need to score the same, or even lower, to have a chance of the title today.

“You look at guys like Ian (Poulter), Martin (Kaymer) and G-Mac (McDowell) who shot 62, 63, 64 today. Obviously it’s out there if you can take advantage of the holes you really should.

“The par fives, some of the short par fours in particular, holes seven and eight, they are ones you can score on.

“And there are some chances coming in on the back nine.”The 24-year-old did concede that his game was still a little off its

very best, even if he were to get back in the winners’ circle this week.“I’m giving myself plenty of chances for birdies and I’m up there

contending in a WGC, so it’s good signs,” said McIlroy.“Still a little bit of work to do on a few areas of the game, but it’s

definitely heading in the right direction.”During Friday’s second round McIlroy bogeyed the 11th hole and

then two more on the way in for a back nine of three-over par 39. On Saturday there were no such problems as birdies at 10, 14, 17 and 18 took him to a back nine of 32. AFP

NBA: Nets hold off Heat

Brooklyn Nets’ centre Brook Lopez (left) dunks in front of Miami Heat’s centre Chris Bosh (1) during the fourth quarter of their NBA match at Barclays Center in New York City. yesterday.

NEW YORK: Brooklyn snapped a 13-game losing streak to Miami and overcame a furi-ous Heat charge in the final three minutes for a 101-100 vic-tory in their home opener.

The score was tied 47-47 at halftime, but the Nets (1-1) began the second half on a 24-8 run to go up 71-55.

Brooklyn still led 96-84 when Joe Johnson hit a three-pointer with 2:47 to go, but a 10-0 Miami run capped by a Mario Chalmers three-pointer with 18 seconds to play got the Heat (1-2) within two.

Deron Williams hit one of two free throws with 18 seconds left, but Ray Allen could only make one of his two on the other end.

Two free throws from Paul Pierce pushed the lead back to four, but LeBron James hit a 3-pointer with four seconds to play to cut it back to 99-98.

Johnson hit two free throws to make it 101-98. Bosh answered with two of his own, but the Nets were able to run out the clock.

Pierce and Johnson led the Nets with 19 points, and Brook Lopez added 13. James led all scorers with 26 points and Wade added

21. Bosh, Chalmers and Allen also finished in double figures, but Miami was out-rebounded 40-30.

The NBA champions have started the season with two losses in their first three games.

Meanwhile, James Harden scored a game-high 34 points and carried the Houston Rockets through an uneven performance to a 113-105 victory over the Dallas Mavericks.

Harden ended his tug-of-war with Mavericks forward Dirk Nowitzki with 6:11 remaining, drawing a foul while converting a driving layup to send the foul-plagued Nowitzki to the bench once and for all.

Harden completed the three-point play to boost the Houston lead to 96-83.

Nowitzki finished with 22 points but only four rebounds as the Rockets’ interior tandem of

Dwight Howard and Omer Asik controlled the glass.

After totalling 40 rebounds against the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday, Howard and Asik snagged 28 boards against the Mavericks (1-1).

Dallas forced Houston (2-0) into 23 turnovers but converted those into only 18 points.

Veteran Aaron Afflalo scored 30 points and Maurice Harkless had 20 as the Orlando Magic cel-ebrated their home opener by burying the New Orleans Pelicans 110-90.

The Magic led almost from start to finish for their first vic-tory after two earlier losses.

The Pelicans, who had beaten the Magic twice during the exhi-bition schedule, offered little resistance after the first quarter. They remain winless this season so far. REUTERS

Sedin twins sign four-year extensions with CanucksVANCOUVER: Daniel and Henrik Sedin signed four-year contract extensions that will keep the high-scoring Swedish twins with the Vancouver Canucks through the 2017-18 NHL season, the team said yesterday.

Financial terms of the deals were not disclosed by the team but local media reports say the 33-year-old brothers, who could have become free agents after the current season, will each earn an average of $7m a season.

“Daniel and Henrik are exem-plary leaders, teammates and humanitarians and we’re very pleased to have them as part of our team for the long-term,” Canucks General Manager Mike Gillis said in a statement.

“Few players in the history of this club have had more signifi-cant roles in contributing to the success of this team and to our community and we look forward to many more years with their positive influence leading the way.”

Taken with the second and third overall draft picks by the Canucks in 1999, the Sedins have spent their entire NHL careers in Vancouver. REUTERS

New York Marathon to be run under massive security measures

NEW YORK: The New York City Marathon returns to the streets of the Big Apple today after a two-year absence, with massive secu-rity measures in place after the tragic April bombings at the Boston Marathon.

Last year’s 26.2-mile (42 km) run through the city’s five boroughs was cancelled in the aftermath of Superstorm Sandy, which devastated areas of New York about a week before the race.

Some 48,000 runners are expected for the renewal of the marathon, which draws hundreds of thousands of people along the race course in a city-wide celebration.

Off the course, scuba divers will check for explosives under city bridges and helicopters will provide overhead surveillance following the tragedy in Boston, where three people were killed and hundreds injured by bombs set off near the finish line.

Elite professional runners will lead the women’s and men’s fields from the starting line at the Verrazano-Narrows Bridge that connects Staten Island with Brooklyn, before heading into Queens and the Bronx before the finish in Manhattan’s Central Park.

Geoffrey Mutai of Kenya, returning to defend his 2011 title, said runners would not let the Boston tragedy affect them.

“What happened in Boston is terrible. As an athlete, we always feel free,” Mutai told reporters yesterday. “All security, I’m OK.”

Two men and two women will be going head-to-head with a chance to claim a share of the $1m World Marathon Majors (WMM) jackpot in addition to the $100,000 prize for winning the NYC Marathon.

Tsegaye Kebede, 26, of Ethiopia, the reigning London Marathon winner and world championships bronze medalist, would clinch the $500,000 prize if he wins or finishes second and beats Stephen Kiprotich of Uganda.

The 24-year-old Kiprotich, the world championships winner and 2012 London Olympics gold medalist, would claim the $500,000 bonus if he wins or finishes second and Kebede scores no points.

On the women’s side, Priscah Jeptoo, 29, of Kenya must win the race to pocket the half-million bonus. If Edna Kiplagat, 33, finishes first or second and beats compatriot Priscah Jeptoo, she would win the WMM.

Any other scenario would give the prize to Boston and Chicago champion Rita Jeptoo of Kenya, who currently leads the standings and is not competing in New York.

Most runners are trying to set personal bests, raise money for charity or simply meet the challenge of finishing the race.

In other measures taken to ensure safety, 1,400 surveillance cameras have been added to the more than 6,000 video cameras police already watch.

Runners will not be allowed to wear vests with large pockets, masks or any backpacks, and all bags will be checked before the start of the race. REUTERS

Ian Poulter of England looks

over his putt on the 18th green.

ScoresSHANGHAI: Leading scores yesterday after the third round of the $8.5m World Golf Championship-HSBC Champions at Sheshan Golf Club, Shanghai (par 72):

198 Dustin Johnson (USA) 69-63-66

201 Ian Poulter (ENG) 71-67-63

202 Graeme McDowell (NIR) 69-69-64

204 Graham DeLaet (CAN) 71-68-65, Justin Rose (ENG) 68-71-65, Rory McIlroy (NIR) 65-72-67

206 Martin Kaymer (GER) 70-74-62, Boo Weekley (USA) 70-67-69, Bubba Watson (USA) 68-69-69

207 Jamie Donaldson (WAL) 67-74-66, Keegan Bradley (USA) 71-68-68, Sergio Garcia (ESP) 70-68-69, Tommy Fleetwood (ENG) 68-70-69

208 Gonzalo Fernandez-Castano (ESP) 67-71-70

209 Scott Hend (AUS) 69-74-66, Jordan Spieth (USA) 68-71-70, Ernie Els (RSA) 69-69-71

210 Bo van Pelt (USA) 77-67-66, Gregory Bourdy (FRA) 75-68-67, Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 70-70-70, Jin Jeong (KOR) 70-69-71.

NBA Results Brooklyn Nets 101 Miami 100

LA Lakers 85 San Antonio 91

Atlanta 102 Toronto 95

Boston 98 Milwaukee 105

Phoenix 87 Utah 84

Sacramento 101 LA Clippers 110

Denver 98 Portland 113

Houston 113 Dallas 105

Memphis 111 Detroit 108

Minnesota 100 Oklahoma 81

Charlotte 90 Cleveland 84

Orlando 110 New Orleans 90

Washington 102 Philadelphia 109

NHL Results Washington 7 Philadelphia 0

Pittsburgh 4 Columbus 2

Tampa Bay 3 Carolina 0

NY Islanders 5 Ottawa 4

St Louis 4 Florida 0

Minnesota 4 Montreal 3

Colorado 3 Dallas 2

Detroit 4 Calgary 3

SPORT24SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

All Blacks maintain winning streakNew Zealand beat combative Japan TOKYO: An unusually sloppy New Zealand continued their unbeaten run this season with an eight-try 54-6 victory over a combative and tenacious Japan side in their rugby test at Prince Chichibu Memorial Stadium yesterday.

Charles Piutau (two), Sam Cane, Ben Smith, Richie McCaw, Jeremy Thrush, Frank Halai, Beauden Barrett all scored tries for the All Blacks, who efficiently put away their scoring opportunities but were let down by messy patches. Flyhalf Daniel Carter added five conversions while Barrett added two late conversions.

Japan fullback Ayumu Goromaru slotted two first half penalties for the home side, who were hemmed inside their own territory for much of the game but will take heart from their improved performance.

The match was significant for being the first outside of a World

Cup between the two sides, with the All Blacks having recorded victories of 145-17 and 83-7 and few had expected the result yes-terday to be any different.

The world champions had said they wanted to use the match to introduce some of their less expe-rienced players to test rugby, with nine players sent directly to Paris to prepare for their clash with France next week.

New Zealand coach Steve Hansen gave starts to Dominic Bird and Halai and also intro-duced Jeffrey Toomaga-Allen and Luke Whitelock off the bench to bring the total of new caps to 21 since he took over following the 2011 World Cup.

“It was a very good game for us in a number of ways. We got some new people on track, they got some experience and under-stood what its like to be an All Black,” Hansen told reporters.

“We got Richie (McCaw) and

Dan (Carter) back on track and they got some time.”

Japan had a troubled build-up with coach Eddie Jones hospi-talised with a stroke last month and assistant Scott Wisemantel taking over the reins for their November tests.

The ‘Brave Blossoms’ had been buoyed by their first win over an inexperienced and depleted Wales side in June and Wisemantel said the rare meeting with the All Blacks was a chance to show the world they were improving.

That was only too evident in the gloomy and wet conditions where the Japanese were combat-ive at the scrum, despite a sig-nificant weight disadvantage, and clinical at the lineout where they also contested on New Zealand’s throw.

“The Japanese put us under pressure at times. Their scrum was pretty good, they scrum-maged well,” said New Zealand

New Zealand All Blacks Ryan Crotty (centre) is tackled

by Japan’s Michael Broadhurst (right) and Ayumu Goromaru dur-ing their international

rugby test match at Prince Chichibu

Memorial Stadium in Tokyo, yesterday. New

Zealand beat Japan 54-6.

England rally to down AustraliaLONDON: Inspired by a half-time parade from the 2003 World Cup-winning squad, England came from behind to beat Australia 20-13 at Twickenham yesterday and put down a marker for the 2015 tournament.

Australia led 13-6 at halftime after a try from centre Matt Toomua as Owen Farrell missed three of his five penalty attempts but the hosts were re-energised after the break and were deserved winners of the first of three home November tests.

Australia, seeking a fourth win from five games at Twickenham, showed only glimpses of their dangerous attacking prowess and fell to their eighth defeat in 11 tests this year.

With the two sides due to meet back on the same ground in the pool phase of the 2015 World Cup it was an important victory for England, who have now won eight of their last nine games.

“I was pleased to get the win, no doubt about it,” said England coach Stuart Lancaster.

“We conceded a soft try but what I was really pleased about was the composure in the second half.

“We had a lot of young lads out there but I think we deserved it

in the end. “It was a stop-start first half and we didn’t get the momentum but the second half was about patience, not chasing the scoreboard.

“We didn’t get everything right in the last 20 minutes but we did enough.”

In a tight first half, played almost entirely between the two 22-metre lines, England edged the possession but failed to take advantage of their penalties while Australia scored the only try after a typically enterprising move.

Farrell missed three successive shots, all well within his range from the same area out on the

left, but slotted two after England got on top in the scrum.

Australia, though, struck after an explosive run by Israel Folau opened the way for centre Toomua to blast through Billy Twelvetrees and score from short range.

Quade Cooper converted and landed two penalties to give the Wallabies a 13-6 halftime lead and leave England worried.

Ten years ago England beat Australia to win the World Cup, an event being celebrated all month with a series of “legends” matches and dinners and the players from both teams were guests of honour at Twickenham

and England paraded on the pitch at halftime.

Perhaps the presence of the class of 2003, and a glimpse of the Webb Ellis Cup, lifted England and, after Cooper missed an easy penalty, the home side finally found some pace and aggression.

Marlon Yarde, who scored two great tries on his debut in Argentina in June, brought the crowd to their feet with an elec-tric break on the left wing after brilliant work by man of the match fullback Mike Brown, but a superb covering tackle by Adam Ashley-Cooper prevented the try.

England managed to spoil the subsequent lineout, how-ever, then charged down Will Genia’s clearance to allow cap-tain Chris Robshaw to pounce in the 50th minute. Seven minutes later Farrell slipped through a hole in the Australian defence - caused, the visitors claimed, by an obstruction - to score the second. The flyhalf converted and sud-denly England had completed a 14-point swing to lead 20-13.

Cooper missed the chance to reduce it when he sent another penalty wide after 67 minutes but it was a rare attack by the Australians, who were making mistakes all over the field.

AFP

Tennis: Italy close in on fourth Fed Cup title CAGLIARI, Italy: Italy closed in on a fourth Fed Cup title yes-terday when they opened up a 2-0 lead over a weakened Russia in the final in Cagliari.

Roberta Vinci gave Italy, the champions in 2006, 2009 and 2010, the first point with a hard-fought 5-7, 7-5, 8-6 victory over Alexandra Panova, the world number 136 making her debut in the tournament.

World number seven Sara Errani then breezed past teenager Irina Khromachava, ranked 236 in the world, 6-1, 6-4 to give the hosts a 2-0 lead ahead of today’s reverse singles and doubles.

Four-time champions Russia went into the final missing the injured Maria Sharapova while fellow top-30 players Maria Kirilenko, Elena Vesnina and Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova opted instead to chase points and prize money at the WTA Tournament of Champions in Sofia.

That left Panova, only the 12th best player in her country and without a win on the main tour since February, as Russia’s top player.

“When I played aggressively, it was much better. At the end, it was important to get the win,”

said Vinci after her three-hour 13-minute encounter.

Vinci had the partisan crowd on their feet after racing to a 4-0 lead on the slow red clay of the Cagliari tennis club.

However, the 30-year-old Italian, ranked 13th in the world, was stunned by an impressive fightback from her younger opponent who claimed the first set, 7-5.

Vinci was trailing 5-2 in the second set but was helped enor-mously when Panova committed a series of unforced errors.

The Italian served to reduce the arrears to 5-4 and dug deep in the next game, forcing more errors to break serve and draw level before gaining momentum and finally taking the second set 7-5.

In the deciding set, Vinci launched another spirited fight-back, drawing level at 5-5 and took the next game to love.

Panova dug deep on serve to pull level at 6-6 before Vinci took a 7-6 lead when she lobbed the Russian who had made a naive dash to the net before sealing the match when Panova’s nerves got the better of her in the final game.

“It’s hard to judge the ups and downs from the ground when you are on the court,” said Panova.

“You are just trying to figure out how to win a point.

“I felt like my serve wasn’t with me because I had a very low per-centage on the first serve. I only had one ace so I had to play every point of the rally and that’s not what I usually do.”

Errani had few problems against Khromacheva, also mak-ing her first Fed Cup appearance, wrapping up her win in just 85 minutes.

Khromacheva had been pre-ferred to Alisa Kleybanova, the only Russian player with Fed Cup experience, by team captain Shamil Tarpichev.

“She is young and has a lot of talent. It’s never easy to play against someone you do not know,” Errani told RaiSport1.

Errani will have the chance to seal the tie on Sunday when she faces Panova in the first of the reverse singles.

Vinci is due to meet Khromacheva before the final concludes with a doubles rub-ber between Flavia Pennetta and Karin Knapp and Kleybanova and Margarita Gasparyan. AFP

Event Competition Time Channel

Seattle vs Portland MLS 05:20 .TV

Getafe vs Valencia La Liga 14:00 HD6

Groningen vs Roda Eredivisie 14:30 .TV

Livorno vs Atalanta Serie A 14:30 HD3

Motherwell vs Hibernian Scottish Premier League 15:30 +3

Nice vs Bordeaux Ligue 1 16:00 HD5

Everton vs Tottenham Barclays Premier League 16:00 16:00

Go Ahead Eagles vs Heracles Eredivisie 16:30 .TV

Cambuur vs Cambuur Eredivisie 16:30 .TV

Udinese vs Inter Serie A 16:30 HD3

Hellas Verona vs Cagliari Serie A 17:00 +4

Lazio vs Genoa Serie A 17:00 +2

Sampdoria vs Sassuolo Serie A 17:00 +1

Atletico vs Athletic La Liga 18:30 HD2

Montpellier vs Nantes Ligue 1 19:00 HD5

Cardiff vs Swansea Barclays Premier League 19:00 HD6

Gil Vicente vs Guimaraes Portuguese League 20:45 .TV

Levante vs Granada La Liga 21:00 HD4

Santos vs Cruziero Brazilian Championship 22:00 2

Torino vs Roma Serie A 22:30 +3

Lille vs Monaco Ligue 1 22:30 HD5

Braga vs Rio Ave Portuguese League 22:45 HD1

Malaga vs Real Betis La Liga 23:00 HD2

San Lorenzo vs Boca Argentine Primera División 00:15 1

Your TV guide for live matches today

Roberta Vinci of Italy reacts to a point against Russia’s Alexandra Panova during their match for the Fed Cup final in Cagliari, Italy, yesterday.

Tunisia given one-year Davis Cup ban PARIS: Tunisia have been sus-pended from the Davis Cup for a year for preventing one of their players from competing in a match, the International Tennis Federation announced yesterday.

The ITF found the Tunisian Tennis Federation (TTF) to be in breach of their constitution when they ordered one of their players, Malek Jaziri, not to com-pete against Israeli player Amir Weintraub at the 2013 Tashkent Challenger in October.

The 29-year-old Jaziri, who is his country’s highest-ranked player at 215 in the world, had initially pulled out of the match in question citing a knee injury.

The ITF said that they were “not satisfied with the case put forward by the Tunisian Tennis Federation” and their board voted unanimously in favour of banning Tunisia from the 2014 Davis Cup, with the exception of a Tunisian board member who did not take part in the vote.

“There is no room for prejudice of any kind in sport or in society,” said ITF President Francesco Ricci Bitti.

“The ITF Board decided to send a strong message to the Tunisian Tennis Federation that this kind of action will not be tolerated by any of our members.” AFP

captain McCaw. All Black prop Ben Franks concurred, saying Japan’s low scrum, which pushed back the visiting pack on a few occasions, gave them trouble.

The visitors superior ball han-dling at pace, however, proved the decisive factor with the All Blacks striking from deep, running into space and exploiting the home side’s mistakes inside their own half to record the comfortable vic-tory. Japan still drew solace from the fact that they kept the point

differential below the half century mark for the first time against the toughest of opponents.

“We did really well in the first 20 minutes. The next step is we need to maintain it against those types of teams for 50 minutes to keep the pressure,” Japan’s stand-in coach Wisemantel said.

“We gave away a few cheap tries and that’s where we let the game slip.”

The home crowd, who painted the sold out stadium red, greeted

Japan’s rare attacking chances with enthusiasm, with excitement reaching a crescendo in the last minute of the match when Japan wing Kenki Fukuoka almost scored a try in the corner.

“We were disappointed we could not get a try since there were attacking opportunities to take advantage of. But we come away from the game confident we are on the right track,” Japan captain Toshiaki Hirose.

REUTERS

England’s Owen Farrell

celebrates his try against

Australia dur-ing their inter-national rugby union match at

Twickenham in London, yesterday.

25SPORT SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Shooting: Rich haul for Qatar at CISM Shotgun Championship

Qatar Basketball League kicks off

An Al Shamal player tries to score a basket. RIGHT: Action from the second match between Al Gharafa and Al Wakra at Al Rayyan Stadium, yesterday.

Action from the Qatar Basketball League (QBL) match between Al Shamal and Al Arabi at Al Rayyan Indoor Hall, yesterday. The QBL kicked off yesterday.

One-two for the hosts in Women Trap and Skeet team events; Italy finish on top DOHA: Hosts Qatar finished with a rich haul of 12 medals at the Second CISM International Shotgun Championship which ended at the Losail Shooting Complex, yesterday.

In the two-day champion-ship, sanctioned by International Military Sports Council (CISM), Qatar finished with three gold, four silver and five bronze, to fin-ish second overall.

Italy topped the overall medals tally with four gold, one silver and a bronze medal in the champion-ship which was contested by 75 shooters from 10 countries.

Qatar women shooters stole the show winning gold in the team events in the Skeet and Trap events, the third gold for Qatar came in the Men’s Skeet competition.

Qatar-1 Team Skeet team comprising of Deena Al Tebaishi, Reem Al Sharshani and Hanan Haji topped, while Qatar-2 Team consisting of Sarah Mohammed, Mashael Al Sharshani and Hajar Mohammed won silver.

Bahrain team comprising of Fatema Ali, Samah Ebrahim and Khulood Anwar won the bronze medal.

Qatar also won gold and silver in the Women’s Trap event, while Oman picked up the bronze.

The hosts also won medals in the Men’s Skeet individual event. Saeed Abusharib clinched silver while Mohammed Al Kuwari for bronze.

Qatar also won a bronze medal in the Men’s Trap event, where Italy topped and Kuwait had to settle for the silver.

In Men’s Skeet team, Qatar won gold and bronze while Italy clicnhed silver.

On the first day of the champi-onship, Qatar had won one silver and two bronze.

Sarah Mohammed finished second in the Women’s Skeet

Second CISM Shotgun ChampionshipHow They Finished

Rank Nationality Gold Silver Bronze Total

1 Italy 4 1 1 6

2 Qatar-2 2 3 1 6

3 Qatar1 1 1 4 6

4 Thailand 1 0 0 1

5 Kuwait 0 3 0 3

6 Bahrain 0 0 1 1

6 Oman 0 0 1 1

Medalists by eventPositions Trap Men Individual

1 Massimo Crosse (ITA)

2 Fehaid Al Deehani (KUW)

3 Daniele (ITA)

Trap Men Team

1 Italy

2 Kuwait

3 Qatar -1

Skeet Men Individual

1 Luigi Lodde (ITA)

2 Saeed Abusharib (QAT)

3 Mohammed Al Kuwari (QAT-2)

Skeet Men Team

1 Qatar-2

2 Italy

3 Qatar-1

Trap Women Individual

1 Romina Giansanti (ITA)

2 Sarah Al Hawal (KUW)

3 Nawal Al Khalaf (QAT)

Trap Woman Team

1 Qatar-2

2 Qatar-1

3 Oman

Skeet Women Individual

1 Isarapa Imprasertsuk (THA)

2 Sarah Mohammed (QAT)

3 Reem Al Sharshani (QAT)

Skeet Women Team

1 Qatar-1

2 Qatar-2

3 Bahrain

Qatar’s Nawal Al Khalaf (right) bronze medal winner in the Women’s Trap event at the Second CISM International Shotgun Championship poses for a picture during the prize distribution ceremony at the Losail Shooting Complex, yesterday. Italian Giansanti Romina (centre) topped the event fol-lowed by Kuwait’s Sarah Al Hawal. RIGHT: Massimo Crosse of Italy (centre), gold medal winner in the Men’s Trap event celebrates on the podium along with Fehaid Al Deehani (left) of Kuwait and Daniele Resca of Italy.

Qatar-1 Team and Qatar-2 celebrate on the podium after winning the gold and silver medals. Qatar-1 compris-ing of Deena Al Tebaishi, Reem Al Sharshani and Hanan Haji clinched gold, while Qatar-2 Team consisting of Sarah Mohammed, Mashael Al Sharshani and Hajar Mohammed won silver. Bahrain won the bronze medal. The bronze medal winning members included Fatema Ali, Samah Ebrahim and Khulood Anwar.

Q22 confirmed as Strategic Partner for Universities Football League

DOHA: The Qatar Football Association (QFA) and the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee (Q22) signed an agreement today confirming Q22 as a Strategic Partner for the Qatar Universities Football League and School Leagues for the 2013-14 season.

The signing ceremony took place at Al Bidda Tower and was attended by Khalid Al Kuwari, Director of Marketing and Communications for the QFA and Nasser Al Khater, Executive Director of Communications and Marketing for Q22.

“The QFA is pleased to wel-come the Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee as a Strategic Partnerforthe Qatar Universities Football League and School League,” Al Kuwari said here yesterday.

“We thank Q22 for their sup-port and are delighted to be work-ing with them on these significant community tournaments that aim to achieve greater commu-nity participation in football and sports,” he added.

He added: “The QFA plays a pivotal role in laying the foun-dation for community football. Organising these tournaments

showcases the QFA’s efforts in nurturing football culture in Qatar, particularly amongst youth.”

Al Khater said: “We firmly believe that hosting the 2022 FIFA World Cup can act as a positive catalyst for increas-ing youth participation in foot-ball in our nation. Universities and schools are important civic institutions and have the poten-tial to play an important role in encouraging more young men and women to play football, with the added incentive of representing their place of study. We are proud to partner with the QFA on this initiative as we work together to ensure that the power of football is harnessed for the benefit of our local communities.”

Organised by Qatar Foundation, in collaboration with the QFA, the action-packed tournament kicked-off on October 24 and will run until November 30. The compe-tition takes place on the football pitch outside Qatar Foundation’s Recreation Centre, with matches involving 17 teams from 12 col-leges and universities held every Thursday and Saturday.

THE PENINSULA

Khalid Al Kuwari (right), Director of Marketing and Communications for the Qatar Football Association (QFA), and Nasser Al Khater, Executive Director of Communications and Marketing for Qatar 2022 Supreme Committee (Q22) exchange documents after signing an agreement in Doha, yesterday. QFA and the Q22 signed an agreement yesterday confirming Q22 as a Strategic Partner for the Qatar Universities Football League and School Leagues for the 2013-14 season.

event, while compatriot Reem Al Sharshani clinched bronze to complete the two-three in the event.

Isarapa Imprasertsuk of Thailand clinched the top prize in Skeet. Qatar’s other bronze medal on the first day came in the Women’s Trap event.

Nawal Al Khalaf won a shoot-out with compatriot Amna Al Abdulla to win the third place.

Italian Giansanti Romina topped the event followed by Kuwiat’s Sarah Al Hawal.

Shooters from Bahrain, Finland, Iraq, Italy, Kuwait, Latvia, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and Thailand took part.

THE PENINSULA

SPORT26 SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Webber beats Vettel to poleFront row sweep for Red Bull; Raikkonen relegated to back of grid

Red Bull Racing’s drivers German Sebastian Vettel

(left) and Australian Mark Webber (cen-tre) pose for a pic-

ture with Mercedes’ German driver Niko

Rosberg following the

qualifying session at the Yas Marina

Circuit in Abu Dhabi ahead of the Formula One Grand

Prix, yesterday. BELOW: Spanish

Formula One driver Fernando Alonso of Scuderia Ferrari sits in his team’s garage.

ABU DHABI: Mark Webber seized pole position for the flood-lit Abu Dhabi Grand Prix with Red Bull team-mate and quad-ruple world champion Sebastian Vettel making a rare error and having to settle for second best yesterday.

The pole, with Webber approaching the end of his Formula One career this month, was the Australian’s 13th in 12 years and second in three races.

“Mark did a very good lap so congratulations to him,” said Vettel, who is chasing his sev-enth win in a row after wrapping up a fourth successive title with victory from pole in India last weekend.

“I should have done a little bit better, but I don’t know if it would have been enough. He did a great job, no mistakes,” added the German, whose team also secured their fourth constructors’ crown in a row in India.

“We lost it in turn one, sorry guys,” the 26-year-old had said over the team radio, explaining later that he had pushed too hard.

Mercedes filled the second row at the Yas Marina circuit, with Germany’s Nico Rosberg quali-fying third and Britain’s 2008 world champion Lewis Hamilton fourth despite spinning off on his final lap when the car’s right rear wishbone broke after he hit the kerb.

Until then, the split times showed the Briton had the pace to be on the front row.

“I don’t think there is any high risk for tomorrow and we should be able to fix it in parc ferme and race OK tomorrow (today),” said principal Ross Brawn.

Only Vettel and Hamilton, when he was with McLaren, had previously qualified on pole in the four races to date in the Emirate, but Webber has qualified well there before even if it is not a favourite track.

“I think it’s probably no secret that I like the more flowing cir-cuits,” he said. “I think it’s a strong type of layout for Seb, as he’s proved in Singapore and those type of tracks.”

Kimi Raikkonen, who is third overall and 24 points behind future Ferrari team-mate Fernando Alonso, qualified fifth for Lotus in a race he had con-templated not coming to only days earlier.

The Finn, who won in Abu Dhabi last year, had told reporters on Friday he had not been paid by Lotus all season, and he might have wondered why he bothered after his car failed a post-quali-fying floor test and he was sent to the back of the starting grid.

That lifted Alonso to 10th on the grid, a boost for the Spaniard in his battle to lift Ferrari back ahead of second-placed Mercedes in the constructors’ standings while staving off Lotus.

Brazilian team-mate Felipe Massa, who is leaving the team at the end of the year to make way for Raikkonen, starts seventh with Mexican Sergio Perez along-side for McLaren.

“All weekend we haven’t been so quick and in qualifying we were not so fast,” Alonso told reporters. “Also my laps were not so clean and I lost a couple of tenths.”

Raikkonen’s team-mate, Romain Grosjean moved up to sixth. REUTERS

Raikkonen solution down to owner, says Lotus chief ABU DHABI: Lotus team chief Eric Boullier admitted yester-day that he no longer has any control over unpaid driver Kimi Raikkonen’s immediate future with the team.

The Frenchman told report-ers at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix that, following Finn Raikkonen’s threat to boycott the final two races of the season in the United States and Brazil, it was down to team owner Gerard Lopez to resolve the problems.

“There is discussion between Gerard and Kimi and it obvi-ously involves our shareholders and parent companies,” he said. “More than that, I cannot answer you.”

Raikkonen, who will join Ferrari next year, is believed to be owed more than €15 euros (£12.7m, $20.3m) by the team and has not been paid this year.

Shortly before the third free practice session for today’s race began yesterday morn-ing, Raikkonen summed up his feelings.

He said: “You have to have some faith in people, but when it’s this length of time saying the same thing it’s not easy...

“Hopefully we’ll find a solu-tion. I try to do my best I can in every race and it’s not the happi-est moment, but I still try to do my best.”

Raikkonen was absent from Wednesday’s and Thursday’s media activities and arrived late, but in time to take part in Friday practice.

AFP

De Villiers feels pressure over South Africa batting

DUBAI: South African cap-tain AB de Villiers (pictured) admitted he was feeling pres-sure over shortcomings in bat-ting after his team’s 66-run defeat against Pakistan in the second day-night international in Dubai on Friday.

South Africa slumped to their second lowest total against Pakistan when they were bowled out for 143 in 40.4 overs after chasing a modest 210-run target.

L e g - s p i n n e r Shahid Afridi (3-26), paceman Mohammad Irfan (3-53) and Saeed Ajmal (2-15) rocked the South African batting to level the five-match series at 1-1.

South Africa pulled off a sensational one-run win in the first match in Sharjah on Wednesday, but even then they were bowled out for a pal-try 183.

South Africa have now failed to cross the 200-mark in five of their last seven matches, including a 4-1 defeat against Sri Lanka in July this year.

“To be very honest I am feel-ing pressure,” said De Villiers after Friday’s game. “I think any captain that leads a proud nation like South Africa and the Proteas team feels pressure and I do feel pressure.

“But I am enjoying my cap-taincy more than ever and feel that I am getting good response from the guys, especially on this tour, it didn’t show tonight but I have full confidence that it will come through in the next one,” said De Villiers, who praised Pakistani spinners.

“They have two bowlers in the top five in one-day rankings and it’s world class spinners we are playing against, but once again I have full confidence that we will come back,” said De Villiers, who has only one half-century in the last ten matches.

“I am passing 20 or 30 odds and I was flowing when I scored 50

(in Sri Lanka). I always try to get the 20 and 30 odd and then get a feel of the game and from there on I kick on but haven’t had that in the last few games,” said De Villiers, number one batsman in Test rankings.

De Villiers said his team was working hard to overcome bat-ting woes.

“We are all working, we are doing pretty much everything, doing the hard yard but that’s

not paying off, it’s a matter of one or two guys to put their hands up and give that performance.”

South Africa will hope star batsman Hashim Amla boosts their batting after he is expected to rejoin the squad in time for the third game in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday.

Amla returned home for the birth of his child ahead of the second Test, which South Africa won last week to level the two-

match series 1-1.Spearhead Dale Steyn will also

join the team after missing the first two one-days to have rest at home.

Pakistan captain Misbah-ul Haq admitted the series will get tougher.

“We have a very tough series on our hands, they are very tough opponents and going to give us a hard time,” said Misbah, whose team has never won a one-day series against South Africa.

Misbah said the morale of the team was high after staging a comeback.

“Obviously we lost the first match from a winning position and when such things happen you get disappointed. But at the back of our minds we had that confi-dence that we dominated the 95 overs, it was only that we lost the match in the last five overs or so.

“After this win the morale is high and we needed that come-back win,” said Misbah, who also completed 1,000 one-day runs in 2013. AFP

TOP: English bowler Ben Stokes delivers the ball on day three

of the Ashes cricket tour match against a Western Australian Chairman’s XI at the WACA ground in Perth, yesterday.

BELOW: Bangladesh cricketer Tamim Iqbal uses a newspaper

photographer’s camera during a training session at the Sher-e Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka yesterday, in prepara-tion for their third ODI cricket match against New Zealand

today.

Prior backs England’s showing in tour draw SYDNEY: Stand-in England captain Matthew Prior praised his team for improving dur-ing their tour opener against the West Australia Chairman’s XI despite managing only an unconvincing draw against the second-string side.

The three-day match in Perth ended when the home team called a halt at 168 for five in their sec-ond innings, representing an overall lead of 228 after England was dismissed for 391 in reply to the Chairman XI’s 451 for five declared.

Up against a side comprising fringe first-class players, the tour-ists were largely disappointing, aside from centuries to key bats-men Ian Bell and Jonathan Trott.

They didn’t appear to have gained much insight into their best side for the first Brisbane Test, starting on November 21, with almost all their fringe play-ers failing to fire.

However, Prior said the England team got exactly what they needed from the outing, claiming the tourists improved markedly as the match went on.

“I think we got a huge amount from it,” he said. “In all depart-ments, we gradually got better throughout the game, certainly in the field, and from a fielding and bowling point of view.

“The first day obviously wasn’t great. But there’s reasons for that - a bit of rustiness - and that’s why we’re here four weeks early.

“To make sure we have the games and to clear the cobwebs before the first Test match.”

England rested several key players for the match, includ-ing captain Alastair Cook (sore back), allowing the opportunity for some Test hopefuls to push their claims, most notably for the third seamer’s position and the spot at number six in the batting order.

Pace trio Chris Tremlett, Steven Finn and Boyd Rankin all laboured with the ball, tak-ing seven wickets between them in the match, but just two in the home team’s first innings.

Tremlett finished with just one wicket for the match, while Finn and Rankin picked up three each, and the trio conceded 425 runs between them.

However, Prior said he was pleased with the trio’s bowling on the final day.

Batting hopefuls Gary Ballance, who was dismissed first ball, and Ben Stokes (4) also failed to grasp their opportunity although Michael Carberry made the most of his chance at the top of the order, making 78 to advance his cause.

The tourists’ fielding also left a lot to be desired, with six catches going to ground.

One positive for England was the form of key batsmen Bell and Trott, who both scored centuries in the match.

Trott hit an unbeaten 113 and Bell retired when on 115, the pair spending valuable time in the middle as they shared in a 197-run partnership before the lat-ter decided to give his teammates the chance for some time in the middle.

Trott batted for 342 minutes, hitting 10 fours and one six, while Bell, who led the aggregates in the Ashes series earlier this year, faced 165 balls with 19 fours and two sixes. AFP

Paceman Harris struck down by virus ahead of Ashes series SYDNEY: Australia paceman Ryan Harris succumbed to a virus and was unable to bowl for Queensland in their Sheffield Shield game yesterday just weeks out from the Ashes series opener with England.

As the Bulls drew with South Australia in the Shield match in Adelaide, Harris became the lat-est victim of an illness which has disrupted the Queenslanders.

Harris and five of his team-mates were hampered by a stom-ach virus during the four-day match.

Harris batted earlier yester-day’s final day but was unable to bowl, unwilling to risk worsening his condition with the first Ashes Test in Brisbane just 19 days away.

Queensland coach Stuart Law said Harris should be fit to play against Tasmania in the next Shield game, starting on Wednesday.

“If we cooked him today, he wouldn’t have been right for Wednesday,” Law said.

“And that would have been a disservice not just to him, but to us and Australian cricket.” AFP

Grid: Starting grid for today’s Formula One Abu Dhabi Grand Prix following the final qualifying session yesterday:

1st row: Mark Webber (AUS/Red Bull), Sebastian Vettel (GER/Red Bull)

2nd row: Nico Rosberg (GER/Mercedes), Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes)

3rd row: Nico Hulkenberg (GER/Sauber), Romain Grosjean (FRA/Lotus)

4th row: Felipe Massa (BRA/Ferrari), Sergio Perez (MEX/McLaren

5th row: Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Toro Rosso), Fernando Alonso (ESP/Ferrari)

6th row: Paul di Resta (GBR/Force India), Jenson Button (GBR/McLaren)

7th row: Jean-Eric Vergne (FRA/Toro Rosso), Pastor Maldonado (VEN/Williams)

8th row: Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Williams), Esteban Gutierrez (MEX/Sauber)

9th row: Adrian Sutil (GER/Force India), Giedo van der Garde (NED/Caterham)

10th row: Charles Pic (FRA/Caterham), Max Chilton (GBR/Marussia)

11th row: Jules Bianchi (FRA/Marussia), Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Lotus)

27SPORT SUNDAY 3 NOVEMBER 2013

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Arsenal extend lead at top Sanchez strike helps Barca edge EspanyolCity, United stroll; Chelsea lose; goalkeeper Begovic scores for Stoke

QSL: Al Sadd held by Al Gharafa; Al Rayyan pick up three pointsDOHA: Defending champi-ons Al Sadd missed out on the chance to close the gap on points leaders Eljaish after being held to a 1-1 draw by Al Gharafa in round seven of Qatar Stars League (QSL) yesterday.

Former PSG striker Nene gave Al Gharafa the lead in the 27th minute but Ali Cumber equalised for the visitors in the 40th minute following a well-taken team move.

Ibrahim Al Ghanem was sent off for Al Gharafa deep into stoppage time for two bookable offences.

Al Sadd are now in fourth position with 12 points, while Al Gharafa have four points less.

In other results yesterday, Al Rayyan a scored late winner to edge past Al Kharaitiyat in a thrilling 3-2 victory.

After falling behind to Joseph Kadioa (39), goals from Karim Salem (44), Nilmar (75) put Al Rayyan ahead before Jesse John (77) made it all square.

Mohammed Salah Nile struck deep into stoppage (90+2) to help the Emir Cup champions register their second win of the season.

Al Rayyan are now in 10th posi-tion with a points tally of seven.

Al Kharaitiyat are one position ahead of them thanks to a better goal difference.

Qatar SC also picked up three points, courtesy of a 2-0 victory over Al Ahli.

Mohammed Omar Saeed (11) and Adriano Martins (77) were on target as Qatar SC now occupy sixth spot in the standings. Al Ahli remain in 13th position with a tally of five points.

Muaither registered their sec-ond victory of the season thanks to a wonderful long-range effort by Campos (41) in his side’s match against Al Arabi.

Muaither have seven points, and sit in 11th position, while Al Arabi have eight points and occupy seventh position.

THE PENINSULA

MADRID: Barcelona extended their lead at the top of La Liga on Friday as they overcame stiff resistence from Espanyol to win the Catalan derby 1-0 at the Camp Nou.

Alexis Sanchez scored the only goal of the game midway through the second-half when he tapped home Neymar’s pinpoint cross to score for the third consecutive game.

However, it was another frus-trating evening for Lionel Messi as he failed to score for a fourth consecutive La Liga match.

Barca now lead second-placed Atletico Madrid by four points and Real Madrid by nine with both sides from the capital hav-ing played a game less.

The hosts were almost back to full strength after resting a host of first-team regulars for the 3-0 win over Celta Vigo in midweek as Gerard Pique, Javier Mascherano, Xavi, Andres Iniesta and Neymar all returned to the side, whilst Martin Montoya deputised for the injured Adriano at left-back.

However, the toll of five games in 13 days appeared to affect the Spanish champions as their build-up play was laboured in the first-half and they caused Espanyol very few problems.

Kiko Casilla was forced into an early save from Alexis Sanchez after nice work by Iniesta and Messi.

But it was the visitors who had the best chance of the half when Victor Sanchez sneaked in behind Dani Alves and Victor Valdes had to race from his line to turn the midfielder’s effort behind.

Barca did come to life just before the break as Iniesta’s volley from the edge of the area was par-ried by Casilla before Alves struck the post from similar range.

The pattern continued after the restart with Espanyol happy to sit 10 men behind the ball and wait for Barca.

Gerardo Martino’s men nearly made the breakthrough on 54 minutes when Casilla produced a fine save to turn away Messi’s flicked header.

Neymar then bent a stunning effort inches wide of Casilla’s left-hand post as the pressure built from Barca.

And it was the Brazilian who finally unlocked the Espanyol defence as his wonderful low cross between the legs of two defenders left Sanchez with the simplest of finishes at the back post to regis-ter his seventh goal of the season.

Messi saw a free-kick fly just wide with nine minutes remain-ing as Barca went in search of the goal that would kill the game off. AFP

PARIS: Paris St Germain’s in-form striker Edinson Cavani scored twice to help them crush lowly Lorient 4-0 and move three points clear at the top of Ligue 1 on Friday.

Brazilian Lucas put the hosts ahead after three minutes by vol-leying home a Lucas Digne cross and Jeremy Menez made it 2-0 in the 39th after fine work by Marco Verratti outside the box.

Cavani, who took a couple of matches to settle after joining the Qatari-backed club from Napoli for a French record €64m euros ($86.32m), then showed he has recovered his scoring touch to reach seven goals in his last six league games.

The Uruguay striker headed PSG’s third from a Lucas cross just before halftime and added the fourth with nine minutes left. He is now the top scorer in the French league with nine goals, one more than Monaco striker Radamel Falcao.

Big-spending PSG, who are unbeaten in all competitions since March, have 28 points from 12 games, three ahead of Monaco who visit third-placed Lille, on 23, today.

Lorient stay just outside the relegation zone in 17th place with 10 points. REUTERS

Cavani scores twice as PSG thrash Lorient

QSL Standings P W D L G/F G/A Pts

Eljaish 7 4 3 0 9 4 15

Al Sailiya 7 3 4 0 15 9 13

Al Wakra 7 3 4 0 12 7 13

Al Sadd 7 3 3 1 11 6 12

Lekhwiya 7 3 2 2 14 9 11

Qatar SC 7 3 2 2 8 10 11

Al Arabi 7 2 2 3 12 10 8

Al Gharafa 7 1 5 1 8 7 8

AlKharaitiyat 7 2 1 4 10 10 7

Al Rayyan 7 2 1 4 13 17 7

Muaither 7 2 1 4 8 17 7

AlKhor 7 0 6 1 5 9 6

Al Ahli 7 1 2 4 7 13 5

Umm Salal 7 0 4 3 10 14 4

EPL Results LONDON: Collated English Premier League results on yesterday:

Arsenal 2 (Cazorla 19, Ramsey 59) Liverpool 0

Fulham 1 (Kacaniklic 65) Manchester United 3 (Valencia 9, Van Persie 20, Rooney 22)

Hull 1 (Cuellar 25-og) Sunderland 0

Manchester City 7 (Johnson 16-og, Silva 20, Nastasic 25, Negredo 36, Toure 60, Aguero

71, Dzeko 86) Norwich 0

Newcastle 2 (Gouffran 68, Remy 89) Chelsea 0

Stoke 1 (Begovic 1) Southampton 1 (Rodriguez 42)

West Brom 2 (Berahino 45, McAuley 83) Crystal Palace 0

West Ham 0 Aston Villa 0

Playing Today

Everton vs Tottenham (1330GMT), Cardiff vs Swansea (1600GMT)

Yesterday’s QSL Results

Al Gharafa 1 Al Sadd 1

Muaither 1 Al Arabi 0

Al Ahli 0 Qatar SC 2

Al Rayyan 3 Al Kharaitiyat 2

Friday

Al Khor 0 Umm Salal 0

Al Wakra 1 Al Sailiyah 1

Lekhwiya 0 Eljaish 1

Al Sadd’s Lee Jung Soo (right) controls the ball during the Qatar Stars

League (QSL) match against Al Gharafa at Al Gharafa

Stadium in Doha yesterday. BOTTOM: Al Sadd’s Raul (left) and Al

Gharafa’s Lawrence Quaye vie for the ball during the

same match.

PICTURES BY: OSAMA FAISAL

Bayern Munich equal record with 2-1 victory over HoffenheimBERLIN: Bayern Munich equalled the record for the long-est unbeaten run in the history of the Bundesliga with a 2-1 win at Hoffenheim yesterday.

The hard fought result was enough to extend their remark-able record of not having lost a top-flight game in more than a year.

In doing so, they have equalled the all-time Bundesliga record of 36 matches unbeaten set by Hamburg between January 1982 and January 1983.

Bayern manager Pep Guardiola said: “It was a difficiult win to get, but that’s always been the case for Bayern on this pitch.

“It wasn’t without a doubt our best performance but we’ve won so I’m satisfied.”

Bayern can go on and own the record outright by avoiding defeat against neighbours Augsburg next weekend.

Guardiola’s side trailed at the Rhein-Neckar Arena in Sinsheim when teenage defender Niklas Suele converted in the 34th minute after Manuel Neuer made a hash of dealing with a corner.

However, the visitors were level inside five minutes when Franck Ribery’s free-kick took a huge deflection off Mario Mandzukic to trump Koen Casteels in the home goal.

Then Thomas Mueller secured the win with quarter of an hour remaining when he tucked the ball in after a flurry of shots and rebounds in the Hoffenheim area.

Despite having Dante and Javi Martinez back in their starting line-up, Bayern were not at their very best but the win means that they end the weekend a point in front of Borussia Dortmund at the league summit.

Dortmund tore apart Stuttgart with a 6-1 win at the Signal-Iduna Park on Friday, with Robert Lewandowski scoring a hat-trick to take his personal tally for the season to nine league goals. AFP

Arsenal’s Santi Cazorla (right) celebrates with team-mate Bacary Sagna after scoring a goal against Liverpool during their English Premier League match at the Emirates Stadium in London, yesterday. RIGHT: Manchester City’s Sergio Aguero celebrates after scoring the sixth goal during the English Premier League against and Norwich City at Etihad Stadium, in Manchester, yesterday.

LONDON: Arsenal reasserted their title credentials yesterday with an impressive 2-0 victory over Liverpool that sent them five points clear at the top of the Premier League table.

Arsene Wenger had seen his side beaten by Borussia Dortmund and Chelsea in their previous two home games, but they prevailed through goals from Santi Cazorla and Aaron Ramsey to confirm their role as the team to beat.

Liverpool arrived at the Emirates Stadium hoping to leapfrog Arsenal to the top of the table, but the hosts took a 19th-minute lead when Cazorla hooked home after an initial header came back off the post.

The irrepressible Ramsey added a second just before the hour with a glorious strike, lifting a half-volley into the top-left cor-ner from 25 yards to take his tally of goals to 10 in all competitions.

Luis Suarez spurned two late chances for the visitors, but Arsenal emerged unscathed as they increased their advantage over second-place Chelsea and third-place Liverpool to five points.

“It was a convincing win against a good team and that’s what we wanted,” said Arsenal manager Wenger.

The display was particularly encouraging in the light of com-fortable wins for Manchester United and Manchester United earlier in the day, but Wenger played down the significance of his side’s early lead.

“It’s positive and nice, but of course it’s very early in the sea-son,” he told Sky Sports.

“It’s good for the confidence of the team and the ambition as well, and hopefully it gets every-body around the team to support us and continue to do that.”

United maintained their recent momentum by winning 3-1 over Fulham at Craven Cottage to record a fourth consecutive

victory in all competitions. David Moyes’s side effectively wrapped up the game inside 22 minutes through goals from Antonio Valencia, Robin van Persie and Wayne Rooney.

Alex Kacaniklic pulled a goal back for Fulham in the 65th minute with a shot that deflected in off Rooney, but the champions saw out a victory that elevated them to within two points of the top four.

“It’s always been my team since I’ve taken over from Sir Alex Ferguson,” said United manager Moyes.

“It can take time to settle in and it has for us, but Manchester United usually make slow starts and get better as the season goes on.”

City moved into the Champions League places after bouncing back from a 2-1 loss at Chelsea last weekend by demolishing Norwich City 7-0 at the Etihad Stadium.

City manager Manuel Pellegrini created a stir by dropping goal-keeper Joe Hart following a suc-cession of blunders, but he saw his side race into a 4-0 lead through a Bradley Johnson own goal and efforts from David Silva, Matija Nastasic and Alvaro Negredo.

Yaya Toure added a fifth with a sumptuous free-kick on the hour before Sergio Aguero bludgeoned home in the 71st minute and sub-stitute Edin Dzeko added a late seventh.

“We were very unhappy when we lost against Chelsea, but we didn’t deserve to lose that match,” said Pellegrini, whose side trail Arsenal by six points.

Chelsea could only watch as their rivals ran riot after fall-ing to an unexpected 2-0 loss at Newcastle United in the day’s early-off kick.

Chelsea captain John Terry hit the bar and had a header cleared off the line in the first half, but

Newcastle prevailed through Yoan Gouffran’s 68th-minute div-ing header and a late Loic Remy strike.

“I didn’t like it. I think we deserved to lose,” Chelsea man-ager Jose Mourinho told BT Sport. “We had a couple of good chances to score the equaliser, but they were in the game more than us, they fought more than us and they were much more commit-ted than us.”

The day also witnessed a freak goal by Stoke City goalkeeper Asmir Begovic, who scored the quickest goal of the season to date with a wind-assisted 98-yard clearance that bounced over Southampton counterpart Artur Boruc after only 13 seconds.

However, Jay Rodriguez’s 42nd-minute header from a raking James Ward-Prowse cross earned visitors Southampton a 1-1 draw that kept Mauricio Pochettino’s side in the top five. AFP

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All Blacks maintain winning streak

Webber beats Vettel to pole in Abu Dhabi

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Rohit smashes 209 as India win Indian opener becomes only the third batsman to score a double century in ODIBANGALORE: Rohit Sharma was always reckoned to be a special talent, and the rapturous Diwali holiday crowd marvelled at the pristine quality of his classy double century yesterday.

The knock virtually knocked the stuffing out of a flummoxed Australian team in the sev-enth and final ODI at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium.

The 57-run win gave India a 3-2 series win though the massive and unexpected resistance from the Australian ninth wicket pair of James Faulkner (116) and Clint McKay (18) spread panic through the Indian ranks.

Their 115-run partnership in just 89 balls was a credit to the never-say-die spirit of the Australians, whose response to India’s mammoth 383 was rousing.

Local lad Vinay Kumar (9-0-102-1) was taken to the cleaners, but Shami Ahmed, Ravichandran Ashwin and Ravindra Jadeja struck telling blows and made the difference.

Earlier, man of the match Rohit Sharma’s languid elegance was captivating and reassuring.

He used the cricket bat not like a bludgeon, but like an orchestra conductor’s baton. And when he is on song, like he was yesterday, there are few better sights in the game.

The Australians, who opted to field first, were bewildered when Rohit suddenly switched to over-drive. Till then they must have been reasonably satisfied with the way the decider was going.

They had India pegged back at 250 for four at the start of the

43rd over and must have fancied chasing a target around 300 runs. It was at this stage that Rohit Sharma decided to switch to a higher gear.

Fours and sixes were sprayed into the stands with the relent-less consistency of machine-gun fire as the final eight overs yielded a mind boggling 133 runs. It was an astounding demonstration of classy power-hitting. There was plenty of finesse and grace in the execution.

Crowd favourite Virat Kohli was unfortunately run out with-out troubling the scorers while Suresh Raina (28) and Yuvraj Singh (12) were unconvincing after Rohit and southpaw Shikhar Dhawan (60; 57b, 9x4) had given the team a head start.

Rohit’s running between the wickets was not reassuring even with Dhawan. However the open-ers put bat to ball in telling style and their 112-run first wicket stand in 19 overs was just the launch pad the home team needed in the decider.

But with Kohli, Raina and Yuvraj falling cheaply, India at 207 for four in the 34th over were not really on top of the game. It was then that the wily Indian skip-per MS Dhoni and a calculating Rohit chose to bide their time and keep the scoreboard ticking over without taking any risk.

They weathered the Australian fight back over the next six overs before the stunning counter-attack floored the men from Down Under.

Rohit slammed 12 boundaries and 16 gigantic sixes in his knock

INDIA:Rohit Sharma c sub (Henriques) b McKay . 209Shikhar Dhawan lbw Doherty ..................... 60Virat Kohli (run out - Coulter-Nile/Haddin) ..... 0Suresh Raina lbw Doherty ......................... 28Yuvraj Singh c Haddin b Faulkner ............... 12MS Dhoni (run out - Henriques/Haddin) ...... 62Ravindra Jadeja (not out) ............................. 0Extras (LB-5, W-7): ................................... 12Total (for 6 wkts, 50 overs): ................ 383Fall of wickets: 1-112; 2-113; 3-185; 4-207; 5-374; 6-383Bowling: Clint McKay 10-0-89-1, Nathan Coulter-Nile 10-0-80-0, James Faulkner 10-0-75-1, Shane Watson 5-0-26-0, Xavier Doherty 10-0-74-2, Glenn Maxwell 4-0-32-0, Aaron Finch 1-0-2-0.AUSTRALIA:Aaron Finch lbw Shami ............................... 5

Phil Hughes c Yuvraj b Ashwin .................. 23Brad Haddin b Ashwin ............................... 40George Bailey (run out - Yuvraj/Vinay/Dhoni) . 4Adam Voges b Shami .................................. 4Glenn Maxwell c Jadeja b Vinay Kumar ....... 60James Faulkner c Dhawan b Shami .......... 116Shane Watson c Shami b Jadeja ................ 49Nathan Coulter-Nile c Kohli b Jadeja ............ 3Cling McKay b Jadeja ................................ 18Xavier Doherty (not out) ............................... 0Extras (LB-1, W-2, NB-1): ............................ 4Total (all out, 45.1 overs): .................... 326Fall of wickets: 1-7; 2-64; 3-70; 4-74; 5-132; 6-138; 7-205; 8-211; 9-326; 10-326.Bowling: Bhuvneshwar Kumar 8-1-47-0, Mo-hammad Shami 8.1-0-52-3, Vinay Kumar 9-0-102-1, Ravichandran Ashwin 10-0-51-2, Ravindra Jadeja 10-0-73-3.Player-of-the-match: RG Sharma (India)

Scoreboard

Highest scores in One-Day International matchesPlayer Runs Balls 4s 6s Opposition, year & venue

V Sehwag (IND) 219 149 25 7 West Indies, Indore, 2011

RG Sharma (IND) 209 158 12 16 Australia, Bangalore, 2013

SR Tendulkar (IND) 200* 147 25 3 South Africa, Gwalior, 2010

CK Coventry (ZIM) 194* 156 16 7 Bangladesh, Bulawayo, 2009

Saeed Anwar (PAK) 194 146 22 5 India, Chennai, 1997

IVA Richards (WI) 189* 170 21 5 England, Manchester, 1984

MJ Guptill (NZ) 189* 155 19 2 England, Southampton, 2013

ST Jayasuriya (SL) 189 161 21 4 India, Sharjah, 2000

G Kirsten (SA) 188* 159 13 4 UAE, Rawalpindi,1996

SR Tendulkar (IND) 186* 150 20 3 New Zealand, Hyderabad, 1999

SR Watson (AUS) 185* 96 15 15 Bangladesh, Dhaka, 2011

MS Dhoni(IND) 183* 145 15 10 Sri Lanka, Jaipur, 2005

SC Ganguly(IND) 183 158 17 7 Sri Lanka, Taunton, 1999

V Kohli (IND) 183 148 22 1 Pakistan, Dhaka, 2012

of 209 (158 balls) while Dhoni was run out off the final delivery (62 in 38 balls, 7x4, 2x6).

Rohit Sharma joins compatri-ots Virendra Sehwag and Sachin Tendulkar, the only other two batsman, who have hit double centuries in the shorter version of the game.

Sehwag scored 219 against West Indies and Tendulkar (200) against south Africa.

But the match was ultimately all about Rohit Sharma. And for an Australian team seek-ing redemption there was the depressing realisation that in this Indian team if Kohli doesn’t get them, Rohit will. AGENCIES

India’s Rohit Sharma celebrates

after scoring a double century

against Australia in the seventh and

final ODI at the M Chinnaswamy

Stadium, Bangalore. India

won the series 3-2.

Ferrer stuns Nadal, faces Djokovic in Paris final PARIS: Defending champion David Ferrer upset compatriot and world number one Rafael Nadal yesterday to reach the Paris Masters final where he will meet Novak Djokovic who eliminated Roger Federer.

Ferrer, 31, who won his only Masters title last year in the French capital, dominated his fellow Spaniard 6-3, 7-5 to set up the championship decider against Djokovic who came back to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 against the 2011 Paris champion.

No player has successfully defended the Paris title after pre-vious winners Boris Becker, Guy Forget, Pete Sampras and David Nalbandian all failed after reach-ing a second straight final.

Nadal hit an uncharacteristic 25 unforced errors and converted just one break point in seven attempts as Ferrer defeated his rival for only the fifth time in 21 meetings. The world number four received plenty of support from the Paris crowd and carved out the decisive break to go 6-5 in the second set before serving out for the match.

“It was definitely the best match I’ve played all week and I was fighting for every ball but I’m really pleased because I played my best tennis,” said Ferrer.

“Now, I’m going to try and recover and play a strong match tomorrow (Sunday) but I love it here and I have great memories,” added the man who defeated

Poland’s Jerzy Janowicz in last year’s final. Nadal was sportsman-like in defeat against the player he beat to win an eighth French Open earlier this year.

“He played much better than me today,” said Nadal.

“The thing that I can do when these kind of things happen is congratulate my friend and wish him the best of luck for tomorrow (in the final against Djokovic).

“I hope he will have his chance tomorrow. For me, just have tomorrow and Monday to prac-tice a little bit in London (for the World Tour Finals). I need to work on a few things.”

Djokovic extended his winning streak to 16 matches as he came back from a set down to defeat Federer and keep his hopes of reclaiming the number one spot from Nadal firmly on track.

The six-time Grand Slam win-ner, who last suffered defeat in the US Open final against Nadal, overcame an inspired Federer

before finally taking victory 4-6, 6-3, 6-2 in just over two hours.

The 26-year-old Belgrade native had to reach the final in the French capital to have a chance of snatching back top spot from Nadal at next week’s World Tour Finals in London.

“Every time we play it’s a great match, challenging and intense,” said Djokovic.

Federer, whose only title this season was on grass at Halle, admitted he was beaten by the better man. Federer took the first set in dramatic fashion when he saved four break points at 5-4 up before converting his second set point when the Serb overhit a backhand that flew out the back of the court. Djokovic was bro-ken again to open the second set when Federer found the line with a passing shot but then he impor-tantly hit back to take the Swiss star’s serve for the first time in the match to level at 1-1.

Djokovic was gaining in momentum and got the break he needed to win the second set when Federer planted a routine volley into the net to go 2-4 down.

The 2009 Paris champion then held comfortably in his next two service games to close out the set 6-3 and level the match. An expected tight final set developed into a one-sided affair as Djokovic grew in strength and broke twice to take the match as he moved closer to a sixth title of the season. AFP

Djokovic drawn with Federer for Tour Finals PARIS: World number one Rafael Nadal will face com-patriot David Ferrer at next week’s ATP World Tour Finals in London, with last year’s champion Novak Djokovic and runner-up Roger Federer drawn in the second group yesterday.

Nadal, featuring for the sixth time but seeking a maiden title at the season-ending event, will also play against fifth-seeded Czech Tomas Berdych and sev-enth seed Stanislas Wawrinka of Switzerland in Group A.

Ferrer beat Nadal for the fifth time in 25 encounters in the Paris Masters semi-finals yes-terday, to set up a final against Djokovic, and now has a 4-3 win-loss record over his compatriot on hard courts.

But the third seed was angry at having to play his first match against his strongest opponent Nadal as a result of the rules being changed while the eight players who have qualified were participating in the Paris Masters quarter-finals.

“Normally, the top seed plays with the (seventh or eighth), and this time they change. I don’t know why... the ATP should have asked the players. They didn’t ask the players,” Ferrer told reporters in Paris.

Nadal and Ferrer will clash on Tuesday before Federer takes on

world number two Djokovic in the evening session.

Title holder Djokovic, who beat Federer last year at London’s O2 Arena to claim his second World Tour Finals crown, was drawn in Group B along with fourth-seeded Argentine Juan Martin Del Potro and Frenchman Richard Gasquet.

Six-times champion Federer, seeded sixth, will feature for the 12th consecutive year at the event with the only big name missing being Britain’s Andy Murray, who is recovering from back surgery.

“It’s unusual, no doubt about it, to go back-to-back matches against Novak, for instance,” Federer told a news confer-ence after Djokovic beat the

Swiss 4-6 6-3 6-2 in Paris. “I’m always excited about those chal-lenges. I’ve had a good couple of weeks (and) most important is to recover as much as I can, so maybe the extra day I will get over Novak now, who knows, could be an advantage. But I doubt it.”

Djokovic, who plays Ferrer in the Paris final today, declined to comment on the draw for the London event.

Berdych will take on Wawrinka in the curtain raiser tomorrow before Del Potro face Gasquet in the night session.

The winner of each group will face the runner-up from the other section in the semi-finals.

AFP

David Ferrer of Spain reacts after defeating fellow compatriot Rafael Nadal in their semi-final match at the Paris Masters men’s singles at the Palais Omnisports of Bercy in Paris, yesterday.

Paris Masters Series

PARIS, France: Results from the Paris Masters Series tournament yesterday (x denotes seeding):

Semi-finals

David Ferrer (ESP x3) bt Rafael Nadal (ESP x1) 6-3, 7-5

Novak Djokovic (SRB x2) bt Roger Federer (SUI x5) 4-6, 6-3, 6-2