Volume 23 | Number 7734 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 8 December 2018 | 1 Rabia II 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 14 SPORT | 17

Al Sulaiti and Al Khelaifi start season in style

Nissan to recall 150,000 cars

due to improper checks

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, and UN Secretary-General’s Representative and Executive Director of UNODC, Yury Fedotov, with the winners of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award, during a ceremony held at Putrajaya Square, in Kuala Lumpur, yesterday. RIGHT: H H the Amir and the Malaysian Prime Minister unveiling Anti-Corruption Monument in Kuala Lumpur.

Amir honours winners of Anti-Corruption Award

QNA KUALA LUMPUR

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr. Mahathir Mohamad, and UN Secretary-General’s Representative and Executive Director of UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, honoured the winners of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award, during a ceremony held in Putrajaya Square, in the Malaysian capital Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

On this occasion, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, in his speech, congratulated the Government of Qatar on organising this important event and thanked the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime for its support.

“I would also like to take this opportunity to thank the committee of the Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award for choosing Putrajaya, Malaysia as the venue for this year’s ceremony. This event being organized in Malaysia is an important recognition from the international

community on our efforts in combatting corruption in Malaysia,” he said.

H H the Amir and the Malaysian Prime Minister also unveiled Anti-Corruption Monument in Kuala Lumpur. The monument, shaped like a hand of steel, symbolizes all countries around the world uniting to combat corruption. The geometrical configurations of the monument represent the combined efforts of all nations in stopping corruption. Spaces in the monument represent transparency. This, third monument, is the largest in size.

In his speech, the Prime Minister of Malaysia, said: “Malaysia and Malay-sians made history in its May 9th

election when the coa-lition that ruled since independence was voted out. Without doubt, it was the disgust for corruption that led the majority of Malay-sians to stand up and vote out the previous administration."

“It is therefore incumbent upon us to

ensure efforts to improve governance and introduce anti-corruption initiatives intended at bringing an end to corrupt practices and abuse of power,” he said stressing that the ceremony and the philosophy behind the Anti-corruption Excellent (ACE) Award emphasises that “we should uphold with high regard values of integrity and good governance in our countries and in our organisations.”

“If we want to join the ranks of developed countries, to be the tigers of Asia again, then we need to take cor-ruption seriously. We did not get there by taking shortcuts to success,” Malay-sia’s Premier said. �P2

Al Kaabi leads Qatar’s delegation to its last Opec meetingTHE PENINSULA DOHA

H E Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, led Qatar’s last dele-gation to the meetings of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), in the aftermath of the State of Qatar’s announcement on Monday withdrawing its membership in the organization.

The Minister took part in the 175th meeting of the Opec ministerial conference, which was held in Vienna on Thursday to discuss a number of developments related to the oil markets and production levels.

The meetings also reviewed a number of reports including the report of the Secretary General on oil market outlook, and the report of the 130th meeting of the Economic

Commission Board. Al Kaabi also held a series of talks with Opec oil ministers on the side-lines of the organization’s meetings.

The meetings included talks with Kuwait’s oil minister Bakheet Al-Rasheedi, Oman’s oil minister Muhammad bin Hamad Al-Rumhi, Iraq’s oil minister Thamer Al-Ghadban, Iran’s oil minister Bijan Zanganeh, and Malaysia’s economy minister Mohamed Azmin Ali.

Discussions during the meetings covered bilateral ties and cooperation in the field of energy, as well as the challenges facing the oil industry in general and Opec in particular.

Al Kaabi also held a meeting with Opec Secretary-General Muhammad Barkindo, during which he discussed Qatar’s decision to withdraw its membership of the organization, and thanked him for his efforts.�P3

Book fair a big hit among children, familySIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

The ongoing Doha International Book Fair which will conclude today has witnessed high demand from visitors specially from fam-ilies. What distinguishes the exhi-bition this year is the huge crowed in children’s pavilions, where 68 publishing houses for children are displaying there books.

The children book stalls are attracting more visitors, despite the fact that the fair has coincided with schools’ exams and the preparation for celebrations of the National Day, students and parents were seen interested in children books.

About 427 publishing houses representing 30 countries are par-ticipating in the exhibition. “Till now most of the sales is in children’s

books and literary books in general. Also demand is high from women compared to men,” said an exhibitor.

Another one noted that: “Most of the sale is in evening and the quantum of sale is satisfactory. There are factors that are encour-aging people to visit the book fair like nice weather and month-end period as most of the people have receive their salaries.”

“There is a clear focus this year on children’s books, which has a unique pavilion. �All the books are available whether educational or cultural books. We should not miss the chance of visiting the exhi-bition,” said Muna, a visitor.

She said “The exhibition is rare chance because it offers books which are not usually available in market. We came first to see the books that we want and now we are

coming to buy it because in the first days prices usually high.”

“As the Ministry of Culture and Sports said that the book fair is not just an event for selling books, it is also a place for exchanging ideas between intellectuals, readers and others. Visitors can come and attend a number of cultural events which are organised on the side-slines of the exhibition,” said Abu Yousef, a visitor.

“Visitors can also benefit from the cultural events and workshops which are held daily,” he added.

Around 272 cultural, artistic and entertainment activities are being held on the side line of the fair, including 25 cultural and intel-lectual seminars, 28 workshops in various fields, as well as poetry evenings for selected Qatari and Arab poets.

I was delighted to honor, alongside PM @chedetofficial, the International Anti-Corruption Award winners in Putrajaya. I lend my support to the winners. My thanks to the #UN for backing this initiative, and to #Malaysia for its great efforts in fighting this global challenge.

QNA KUALA LUMPUR

The Attorney-General and the President of International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA), H E Dr Ali bin Fattis Al Marri, affirmed that ‘Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excel-lence Award’, was launched at the initi-ative of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to support the efforts of the United Nations (UN), which aims to fight corruption in order to support development issues in the world, in addition to support and encourage those who have taken the task of combating corruption with financial prizes in recognition of their contributions.

At the press conference held yes-terday after the ceremony of the dis-tributing of ‘Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award’, the Attorney-General said that Malaysia’s choice to host such an event was an appreciation of the role of the Malaysian people in anti-cor-ruption issues, adding that the people and leadership’s belief in combating cor-ruption is the closest and shortest path to sustainable development. He stressed that a real war on corruption is the only way for sustainable development eve-rywhere in the world.

The Attorney-General praised the

role played by the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, to promote his country by fighting cor-ruption and eradicating crime, to make Malaysia a model for countries that have succeeded in achieving sustainable development, so it has been chosen to host the third edition of ‘Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award’.

Dr Al Marri explained that the Arab world suffers from two important issues, first is “the absence of justice and the rule of law” and the most serious issue is “corruption”.

The Attorney-General pointed out that the idea of H H the Amir for this award is to be a “warning bell”, which came in real time in cooperation with the UN, to confirm that the Arab world must pay attention to the fight against corruption, the state of law and the real separation of powers, in addition to assuring the weak citizen that he is pro-tected by the law and to allow justice bodies to fight all forms of corruption.

He stressed that H H the Amir award

is trying to send these high messages to the world in cooperation with the UN, which is the best partner in such cases.

The Attorney-General said that the award’s memorial, which was unveiled yesterday at the Putrajaya Square in

Kuala Lumpur, will send a message that there is someone fighting against cor-ruption and that transparency is a strong tool in the face of corruption.

On the importance of classifications issued by anti-corruption organisations

and their role in attracting foreign investments, Dr Al Marri said that eve-ryone knows that there are serious, strong and reliable organisations and that there are other organisations that exploit other political goals or distort them, these organisations lose their credibility in a short period of time, therefore it is important to rely on credible organisations such as the UN and its affiliated organisations.

Regarding the idea of establishing a Qatari advisory council for the award, the Attorney-General explained that this award is Qatari-born but it is a global award and cannot be linked to Qatar. The Attorney-General pointed out that H H the Amir’s initiative was not aimed at Qatar, as it is a developed country in the issues of transparency and the fight against corruption, but His Highness aimed through this award to help coun-tries of the world that suffer from these problems.

The Attorney-General added that good governance and sustainable devel-opment can not be achieved without fighting corruption.

The Attorney-General told Qatar News Agency that the fourth edition of ‘Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excel-lence Award’ is expected to be held in either in an African country or in a Latin American country.

02 SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018HOME

Amir honours winners of Anti-Corruption Award

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dr Mahathir Mohamad, and UN Secretary-General’s Representative and Executive Director of UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), Yury Fedotov, honoured the winners of Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award, during a ceremony held at Putrajaya Square, in Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.

FROM PAGE1

Dr. Mahathir Mohamad voiced his government support for the initiative proposed by the Inter-national Association of Anti-Cor-ruption Authorities (IAACA) to set up a special fund in support of the many incidences where the cham-pions of anti-corruption had suf-fered in line of duties, some were injured and others even killed.

“For this effort, we pledge support to the amount of RM500,000 to IAACA champion’s fund. We hope this small gesture will start the ball rolling for the foundation to raise more funds, in order to help the family of the fallen heroes.” For his part, Qatar’s Attorney-General and UN Regional Special Advocate for the Prevention of Corruption stressed that H H the Amir has given this

prize and hopes to strengthen this award on an international level through partnership with the United Nations. He added “Through this prize, H H the Amir wishes to send a message to those who fight corruption everywhere in the world that there are those who stand with you, there are those who see your work, there are those who will take your hand to give you an example to follow. You are those who can save your country from falling into the trap of corruption.” He stressed that the war on corruption can be won only when those fighting believe that it can be won. “The corrupt cannot fight corruption. Unless you find a leader that believes in the elimination of corruption, you will not win, no matter how hard you fight,” he said.

He pointed that the award is being presented in support of the United Nations, explaining the first award was held in Vienna in 2016 in the presence of the former Sec-retary-General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, and the second was held in Geneva at the United Nations Headquarters. He added that this year, this award is being held in Kuala Lumpur, in the presence of Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed, in recog-nition for his achievement through a long history of fighting against corruption, which has helped to bring this country to its present position and economic strength.

UN Secretary General’s Rep-resentative and Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) Yury Fedotov thanked the government of

Malaysia for hosting the award ceremony. He said fifteen years ago, there was no global instrument to criminalise cor-ruption. Now nearly every country in the world is a party to the UN Convention against Corruption and they cooperate and provide mutual legal assistance to prevent and fight corruption, stressing that the convention”represents the fundamental recognition that cor-ruption is neither an acceptable cost of doing business nor a nec-essary evil. It is a serious crime, and simply unacceptable”.

He said: “ This year, the Security Council and General Assembly have held high-level debates highlighting the role of corruption in conflict, and the importance of reducing corruption and bribery and returning stolen

assets to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals”.

He added: “Corruption harms us all. It stifles growth and inno-vation, and enables many other crimes, from the illicit trafficking of drugs, arms and people to the poaching and pillaging of natural resources and cultural heritage.” Concluding his speech, The UNODC Executive Director com-mended H H the Amir for Awards to recognise exceptional efforts made by individuals, groups and organisations around the world.

H H the Amir left Kuala Lumpur and returned to Doha yesterday evening. H H the Amir and the accompanying delegation were seen off upon departure at Kuala Lumpur International Airport by Malaysia Foreign Min-ister Saifuddin Abdullah, Qatar’s

Ambassador to Malaysia Fahad bin Mohammed Kafood and members of the Qatari Embassy.

H H the Amir sent cables to Prime Minister of Malaysia, expressing deep thanks and appreciation for the hospitality and honour accorded to him and the accompanying delegation during the visit, which allowed meetings, and the exchange of views on issues of common concern and means of strength-ening and promoting the friendly relations and cooperation between the two countries in various fields for the good and the benefit of the two peoples. H H the Amir wished the President and the Prime Min-ister the best of health and hap-piness, and the friendly people of Malaysia further progress and prosperity.

The Attorney-General and the President of International Association of Anti-Corruption Authorities (IAACA), H E Dr Ali bin Fattis Al Marri, at the press conference held yesterday after the ceremony of the distributing of ‘Sheikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani International Anti-Corruption Excellence Award’ in Kuala Lumpur.

Award supports UN’s efforts to achieve development globallyThe Attorney-General said

that good governance and

sustainable development

can not be achieved

without fighting corruption.

03SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018 HOME

Indian Navy ship to arrive at Doha Port todayTHE PENINSULA DOHA

INS Tarangini, the first sail training ship of the Indian Navy, will arrive today at Doha Port on a three-day visit to Qatar.

In the framework of the deep-rooted friendly ties, multi-faceted and growing cooperation between India and the State of Qatar, this is the second time in last three months that an Indian Naval Ship is visiting Qatar. Apart from the visit of Indian Coast Guard ship Samarth in November 2017, Indian Naval ships Kolkata and Mumbai had visited Qatar this year in March and September, respectively.

This visit is a testimony to the friendly ties between India and Qatar and will further enhance

maritime cooperation between the two countries. The name Tarangini is derived from the Hindi word ‘Tarang’ meaning waves; thus Tarangini means ‘the one that rides the waves’. Built in Goa Shipyard Limited, the ship was commissioned in the Indian Navy on November 11, 1997. The vessel has a steel hull, with an aluminium deckhouse and teak wood deck and interiors. She carries 20 sails, with a total sail area of almost 10,000 sq ft. The ship has excellent endurance and can remain at sea continuously for a period of over 20 days.

Tarangini has an illustrious history when it comes to long voyages and holds the distinction of being the only commissioned ship of Indian Navy to circumnav-igate the globe. During the 15

months voyage in 2003-04, Tarangini achieved this by cov-ering a distance of over 61,000km

and visited 36 ports in 18 coun-tries. Since then, Tarangini has sailed to The Great Lakes in

Canada for races and has also participated in European tall ship races. Tarangini won The Royal Thames Yacht Club Challenge Trophy in 2005 at Europe and stood third in Youth Sailing Division in 2007 at USA.

The ship has recently com-pleted a seven month long voyage to Europe in October 2018 vis-iting 15 ports in 13 countries. During the voyage, the ship par-ticipated in the culmination cer-emony of the Biscay Tall ship race at Bordeaux, France and also took part in a Tall Ship race starting from Sunderland, United Kingdom.

The primary role of the ship is to foster time-honoured virtues of courage, camaraderie and endurance in officer cadets embarking on a naval career. She

provides an ideal setting for first-hand experience of the natural elements by imparting training which includes sailing, setting and furling of sails, watch-keeping and sail manoeuvres.

‘Tall Ship’ is a term often used generically to describe large, classic sailing vessels and the ‘Tall Ship’ community believes that training onboard these ships is the best method of instilling among the trainees the indefinable ‘sea-sense’ and respect for elements of nature which are inseparable from safe and successful seafaring.

The ship is commanded by Commander Rahul Mehta and has a complement of eight officers and forty sailors. In addition, the ship can accommodate and impart sail training to 30 cadets.

INS Tarangini, the first sail training ship of the Indian Navy.

Qatar attends pre-negotiation deal signing of Sudan issuesQNA BERLIN

The Special Envoy of the Foreign Minister for Combating Terrorism and Mediation in Dispute Settlement, Dr Mutlaq bin Majid Al Qahtani, attended the signing ceremony of the pre-negotiation agreement to resume the Doha negotiations between the Government of the Republic of the Sudan and the Justice and Equality Movement led by Dr Jibril Ibrahim and the Sudan Liberation Movement (SLM) led by Minni Arko Minawi. The signing ceremony was hosted by the Federal Republic of Germany.

This agreement is intended to pave the way for the negotia-tions between the parties con-cerned, scheduled to be held early next year in Doha.

The Doha peace agreement

is the basis for negotiations between the parties concerned, with the possibility of discussing issues that the parties deem nec-essary for discussion to achieve a comprehensive and sustainable peace in Darfur, and establish appropriate mechanisms to implement the outcomes of these negotiations between the Gov-ernment of the Sudan and the two movements.

In his speech on the occasion, Dr Al Qahtani expressed Qatar’s appreciation to the regional and international efforts, the inter-national partners and the parties to the agreement for reaching this agreement and for their flex-ibility to overcome many chal-lenges, hoping that all parties will show the same positive spirit during the upcoming negotia-tions in Doha in order to com-plete peace process.

Panel discussion on importance of translation heldTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Steering Committee of Sheikh Hamad Award for Translation and International Understanding, in collaboration with the Qatar National Library, held on Thursday a panel discussion on “Translation: A Message of Peace, A Bridge of Communication”.

The panel discussion was held at QNL Auditorium with partici-pation of a number of experts in translation and interested parties.

Dr Imtane Al Samadi, a member of the media team, said that the seminar is part of a series of scientific and cultural seminars organised by the media team of the Steering Committee of the Award to introduce the message of translation and its role in the development of bridges of intel-lectual and human communi-cation. It also aims to create awareness of its importance and

role in the advancement of civili-sation among the generation of learners, and provide the Arab world with the most important intellectual achievements of qual-itative excellence.

Dr Hanan Al Fayyad, Media Advisor for the Award, said in her paper about the efforts of the award in building bridges of coop-eration between academic trans-lators. She also pointed to the history of the award which began on 2015, and aims to connect the nations of the world and its

peoples, and spread the culture of peace, noting the role of trans-lation throughout the history in the advancement of the nations.

Dr Alaa Abdel Moneim from the Arabic Language Center for Non-Speakers, at Qatar University said that: The importance of the awards as a tool of “soft power”, is that the translator has a civilised message that upholds human values of love, and peace. The translator — especially in our Arab context — bears additional burdens due to the decline of the

institutional role, which multiplies the need which requires us to support translators more.

Translation awards carry the recognition of the importance of the work of the translator and respect for its original achievement, pointing out that the increase in the number of trans-lation awards calls for optimism, which reflects in essence a deep awareness of the relationship between the police attempt to renaissance and the prosperity of the translation movement.

The dignitaries at the panel discussion on “Translation: A Message of Peace, A Bridge of Communication”.

Hundreds enjoy Qatar’s Strongest Man 2018RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

It was a great time out for hundreds of sports fans who thronged the Aspire Park yesterday to witness eight of the brawniest men of Qatar take on mammoth challenges which demanded extraordinary strength and endurance to be declared Qatar’s Strongest Man 2018.

The atmosphere in the packed venue was electric with the deafening cheers from the audience comprising compatriots and fans of the contenders each time their bets faced a challenge and inched closer to victory. “I have been following this event since its first edition entirely for the excitement of it. It is thrilling to watch how each contender compete and extremely satisfying to see one of them win in the end,” said Ahmed, who claims to be a fitness buff.

The competition was an integral part of a year-round

series of events hosted by Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) to promote sports activities and encourage healthy lifestyle among community members.

For James, who watched the event for the first time along with his friends, the competition serves as an inspiration for many people in their effort to lead a better and healthier lifestyle.

“More than their performance tonight, it’s their determination and months of training to get to that shape and acquire that strength that make the con-tenders admirable,” he said, while praising the organisers for hosting the competition and expressing hope it would continue in the years to come. The contenders included Jaron Greene from the US; Muhammad Mahmoud Al-Sheikh, Mohammed Dweidar, Hussam Uldin Rashad and Ahmad Mahmoud Dawy from Egypt; and Christopher Ojwang Oketch, Samuel Wainina and Joseph Iroo Ekadeli from Kenya.

They impressed the crowd as they lifted and carried a 180kg bar on a rotating platform in the Conan’s Wheel challenge; took sand bags off a box and placed them on high stands in the Sand Bag Lifting challenge; flipped a 120kg tyre down a 25m course in the Giant Wheel Tyre Flipping challenge; lifted 120kg in each arm and walked for 25m in Farmer’s Walk challenge; and pulled a six-tonne truck for 25m in the Truck Pulling challenge.

Apart from watching the contest, hundreds more including families enjoyed various sports activities organised by AZF on the sidelines of the event. An area where visitors could enjoy playing volleyball, basketball and football was set up adjacent to the venue of the competition.

People also availed of a variety of snacks at a dozen local food stalls. With the cool weather, the Aspire Park saw thousands of visitors who enjoyed spending their time with family and friends.

Mohammed Dweidar from Egypt takes on the Conan’s Wheel challenge as he competes at the sixth edition of Qatar’s Strongest Man held at the Aspire Park yesterday. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT/THE PENINSULA

Al Kaabi leads Qatar’s delegation to Opec meetingH E Saad bin Sherida Al Kaabi, the Minister of State for Energy Affairs, at the 175th meeting of the Opec ministerial conference in Vienna.

Chinese diplomats, academics hail Qatar’s success over siegeQNA DOHA

A number of Chinese diplomats and academics praised the efforts exerted by the Qatari government, in the areas of infrastructure, industrial projects, and self-suffi-ciency, considering the current crisis and the unjust siege imposed on the state. They stressed that Qatar had dealt with the crisis with great profession-alism and innovative initiatives that enabled it to overcome the ordeal it experienced in a very short period.

They said the people of Qatar made a good conscious decision by supporting their leadership, attributing to the state approach of investing in the human resource and reliance on young people, noting at the same time that this week will witness the signing of a cooperation agreement between Shanghai University of International Studies and Qatar University.

This came during a seminar held by the Center for Chinese-Arab Studies for Reform and Development at its headquarters in Shanghai, to mark the 30th

anniversary of Qatar-China rela-tions, on the geopolitical trans-formations in the Gulf region, the future of the GCC, the objectives and challenges of Qatar National Vision 2030, Qatar-China bilateral relations, reform and openness in China and the “Belt and Road” initiative.

They said the GCC is required to resolve the current Gulf crisis to face the external dangers that surround the region, especially as it was the only strong regional organisation after the decline of the role of the Arab League and the weakness that disables it.

04 SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Houthis reject proposal

to inspect Sana’a flightsREUTERS RIMBO

Yemen’s Saudi-backed government has proposed reopening the Houthi-held airport in the capital Sana’a on condition planes are inspected in the airports of Aden or Sayun which are under its control, two government officials said yesterday.

The Houthis rejected the pro-posal floated at UN-sponsored peace talks in Sweden that are aimed at cementing confidence-building measures that could lead to a ceasefire to halt air strikes by a Saudi-led coalition and Houthi missile attacks on Saudi cities.

But given this is only the second day of the talks due to last until December 13, and with both sides are coming under mounting pressure for action because of the human toll of the war, there could be room for concessions.

The war has killed tens of thousands of people and spawned what the United Nations calls the world’s direst humanitarian crisis,

since the coalition intervened in 2015 to restore a government ousted by the Houthi movement.

The warring sides agreed on Thursday to free thousands of prisoners, in what UN mediator Martin Griffiths called a hopeful start to the first peace talks in two years to end a war that has pushed millions of people to the verge of starvation.

Griffiths wants a deal on reo-pening the airport, shoring up the central bank and securing a truce in Hodeidah, the country’s main port, held by the Houthis and a focus of the war after the coalition

launched a campaign to capture it this year.

Sana’a airport, which has been bombed several times, is in Houthi territory but access is restricted by the Saudi-led coa-lition, which controls the air space.

Marwan Dammaj, Yemen’s minister of culture in the gov-ernment of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi, said Sana’a airport should be re-opened to put “an end to the people’s suffering regarding transportation”.

“But it should be a domestic airport from where Yemenis can go to Aden and then leave to international destinations,” added Dammaj, a member of the gov-ernment delegation.

Hamza Al Kamali, another member of the delegation, said airplanes must stop in airports in the southern city of Aden or Sayun, east of the capital, for inspection before leaving Yemen.

The Houthi delegation head at the peace talks, Mohammed Abdusalam, rejected the proposal. “The airport should be opened in

accordance to international standards, and we do not accept inspections,” Abdusalam told Al Jazeera television.

A UN source declined to comment.

The United Nations is also trying to avert a full-scale assault on Hodeidah, the entry point for most of Yemen’s commercial goods and aid. Both sides have reinforced positions in the Red

Sea city in sporadic battles after a de-escalation last month.

Yemen’s government is sticking to its position that Hodeidah should be under its control, said Kamali. “We say that the city should be controlled by a police force from Hodeidah’s sons and not the Houthis. We cannot legitimise the presence of the Houthi in Hodeidah.” Abdusalam said the port of

Hodeidah must be kept apart from the military conflict, and that a government should be formed first before all parties are disarmed.

The Houthis control Sana’a and the other most populated areas, while the ousted gov-ernment based in the southern city of Aden has struggled to advance despite the aid of Arab states.

Othman Hussein Faid Mujali, Yemen’s Minister of Agriculture and Irrigation, speaks to media during the peace talks on Yemen held at Johannesberg Castle, in Rimbo, Sweden, yesterday.

Parliament speakers meet in Iran

Turkey, US to make progress on Manbij roadmapANATOLIA ANKARA

Turkey and the US said Friday that the two countries hope to make concrete progress on the Manbij roadmap by end of the year.

The Turkish-US high level working group on Syria met for the third time in Ankara. The group included senior officials of Turkey’s Ministries of Foreign Affairs and National Defence and the US Departments of State and Defence.

A joint statement after the meeting said: “They com-mitted to accelerated and concrete progress on the Manbij Roadmap by the end of the year. “They agreed to continue to work on joint planning with regard to other areas as mentioned in the Manbij Roadmap.

“Both sides reaffirmed their resolve to fight terrorism in all its forms and manifesta-tions originating from within Syria and beyond.” They also affirmed their commitment to Syria’s sovereignty, inde-pendence, unity and territorial integrity and underscored the importance of sustained and irreversible progress on a political solution to the Syrian conflict. “They reiterated their shared commitment to provide humanitarian assistance to Syrians in need and acknowledged substantial efforts by both governments in this regard.”

Turkish Parliament Speaker Binali Yildirim (second right) and his wife Semiha Yildirim are welcomed upon their arrival at Tehran Mehrabad International Airport to attend a meeting of the parliament speakers of six countries (Iran, Russia, China, Pakistan, Turkey and Afghanistan) for combating terrorism and extremism in Tehran, yesterday.

Mascots participate with young Iraqis in the first children’s marathon run in Baghdad, yesterday.

First children’s marathon run in Iraq

South Africa minimum wage bill takes effect on January 1AFP JOHANNESBURG

South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa said yesterday that a landmark minimum wage bill to bridge the country’s notorious inequality will become law from January 1 as he eyes elections due in 2019. The bill legislates that the lowest paid workers receive a minimum of 20 rand ($1.42) per hour.

“This is a great achievement for the working people of South Africa, who have had to endure generations of exploitation,” Ramaphosa said at a signing cer-

emony in Johannesburg.The unprecedented piece of

legislation is expected to improve the wages and liveli-hoods of an estimated six million South Africans currently earning less than the new minimum.

The ruling African National Congress (ANC) party will hope that the move, along with recent decisions to lower taxes on key food staples, will appeal to its traditional electoral base — poor township and rural voters.

Support for the ruling party dipped during the rule of scandal-marred ex-president Jacob Zuma which saw it lose

control of the economic hub Johannesburg and the capital Pretoria in municipal polls two years ago.

“In this sense, the national minimum wage represents the triumph of cooperation over conflict, of negotiation over con-frontation,” said Ramaphosa.

The bill establishes exemp-tions for employers who cannot afford the new rate.

It faced fierce criticism from the political opposition and some labour unions while it was being debated in parliament.

The Democratic Alliance (DA), the main opposition party,

voted against the bill saying it had “not been subjected to proper public consultation and will push hundreds of thousands of people into unemployment”.

The leftist Economic Freedom Fighters, led by the fire-brand Julius Malema, also rejected the bill which will see workers earn a minimum 3,500 rand ($250) per month.

The second largest labour federation the South African Fed-eration of Trade Unions (Saftu) has labelled it a “slave wage”, demanding instead a monthly minimum wage of 12,500 rand ($890).

Turkey to inaugurate largest mosque in Djibouti in FebruaryANATOLIA DJIBOUTI

“Turkey’s gift to Djibouti”, East Africa’s largest mosque being built in the capital city, is set to be inaugurated in two months’ time. Turkey Diyanet Foundation (TDV) launched the construction of the mosque in 2017, which will be completed soon and inaugu-rated in February 2019.

Modelled in the style of classic Ottoman architecture, the mosque majestically stands at a suitable area of 10,000 sqm overlooking the Indian Ocean shores near the Djiboutian Pres-idential Palace.

The mosque has enough room for 5,000 people to pray at once, project manager of the construction, Furkan Kazim Yuksel, said. “There is also a green area, a courtyard, mod-elled after the Blue Mosque in Turkey,” Yuksel said, adding that part of the mosque rests on the ocean, which made the con-struction very challenging.

Two minarets jetting up to 45 metres each mark off one big dome and four small ones to give the cream-white mosque building an air of architectural grandeur. Inside, a low-hanging chandelier brightens illustrious Turkish hand-drawn patterns. “The compound also includes a quarter for teaching children,” he said, pointing beyond a fountain in the middle of the courtyard which he said would be used for ablution.

According to Yuksel, most of the materials come from Turkey, including cut stones that are used in Ottoman-style buildings.

He said that the mosque is “Turkey’s gift to the people of Dji-bouti” — a country with which Turkey came in contact in ancient times together with other countries and places in the Horn of Africa.

“Our forefathers made contact with the people of this region in ancient times and I feel honoured to be part of this project,” he said.

Ebola spreads to major Congo city as vaccines a concernAP DAKAR

The second-largest Ebola outbreak in history has spread to a major city in eastern Congo, as health experts worry whether the stock of an experimental vaccine will stand up to the demands of an epidemic with no end in sight.

Butembo, with more than 1 million residents, is now reporting cases of the deadly hemorrhagic fever. That complicates Ebola

containment work already chal-lenged by rebel attacks elsewhere that have made tracking the virus almost impossible in some iso-lated villages. “We are very con-cerned by the epidemiological sit-uation in the Butembo area,” said John Johnson, project coordinator with Medecins Sans Frontieres in the city. New cases are increasing quickly in the eastern suburbs and outlying, isolated districts, the medical charity said.

The outbreak declared on

August 1 is now second only to the devastating West Africa outbreak that killed more than 11,300 people a few years ago. There are currently 471 Ebola cases, of which 423 are confirmed, including 225 confirmed deaths, Congo’s health ministry said.

Without the teams that have vaccinated more than 41,000 people so far, this outbreak could have already seen more than 10,000 Ebola cases, the health ministry said.

Yemen’s government

has proposed

reopening the Houthi-

held airport in the

capital Sana’a on

condition planes

are inspected in the

airports of Aden or

Sayun which are under

its control.

The exit polls were

announced after

polling ended in

Rajasthan and

Telangana yesterday.

Polling was held

earlier in Madhya

Pradesh, Mizoram

and Chhattisgarh.

The results of all five

states will be declared

on December 11.

05SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018 ASIA

Exit polls: Congress may win Rajasthan, TRS to retain TelanganaIANS NEW DELHI

Exit polls yesterday predicted a Congress sweep in Rajasthan and a Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) win in Telangana while giving the Congress an edge over the BJP in a fiercely-contested battle in both Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh.

The surveys predicted that Mizoram, the only northeast state now with the Congress, may see a hung Assembly. Surveys by media organisations and agencies predicted a Congress victory in Rajasthan, continuing a trend in a state that has not re-elected the party in power for a second term in the last 20 years.

In the 200-seat Rajasthan Assembly, the India Today-Axis My India survey gave the Con-gress 119 to 141 seats with a vote share of 42 per cent. The BJP was poised to get 55-72 seats with a 37 per cent vote share. The Republic TV-CVoter predicted that the Congress would get 81-101 and the BJP 83-103 seats.

The Times Now-CNX survey forecast that the Congress was likely to win 105 seats and the BJP 85 seats. The BSP could get seven seats.

A survey by News24 gave the Congress a clear majority (110-120 seats) with the BJP likely to win 70-80 seats. In 2013, the BJP won 163 of 200 seats. The Congress finished a distant second with 21 seats.

In Telangana, the exit polls predicted that the ruling TRS will retain power and the gamble by Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar

Rao to dissolve the Assembly ahead of schedule may have worked in his favour.

According to various surveys, the Congress-led People’s Front will have to sit in the opposition in the Assembly. The Congress had stitched an alliance with the Telugu Desam Party, the Tel-angana Jana Samithi and the Communist Party of India to take on the TRS.

India Today-Axis My India exit poll predicted that TRS may win 79 to 91 seats in the 119- member Assembly while the Congress-led alliance may get 21 to 33 seats. The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) may end up with 4-7 seats and the BJP 1-3 seats.

The Times Now-CNX survey predicted that the TRS may win 66 seats and the Congress-led alliance 37 while the Republic TV-CVoter claimed that TRS would win 48-60 seats, Congress 47-59, BJP 5 and others 1-13 seats. TV9 Telugu-AARA pre-dicted that TRS may win 75-85 seats, Congress 25-35, BJP 2-3

Men stand in queue to cast their vote at a local polling station during Rajasthan’s Legislative Assembly election, in Jodhpur, yesterday.

and others 7-11 seats.However, NewsX-Neta pre-

dicted that TRS would emerge as the single largest party with 57 seats, three short of the 60 needed to form a government. It claimed that the Congress alliance may get 46, BJP 6 and others 10.

Exit polls in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh, the states ruled by the BJP since 2003, indicated a close contest but an edge for the Congress. A majority of exit polls predicted a Congress victory in Madhya Pradesh.

ABP News-Lokniti CSDS survey gave the Congress 126

seats, BJP 94 and others 10 in the 230-member Assembly. India Today-My Axis poll too gave the Congress an edge (104-122 seats) and the BJP 102-120 seats. It pre-dicted 1-3 seats for BSP.

C-Voter predicted a Congress win in 110 to 126 seats as against the BJP’s 90-106 seats. Other parties are likely to win 6 to 22 seats. As per iTV-Neta exit poll, the Congress may win around 112 seats and the BJP 106. Other parties, including BSP, could win around 12 seats.

However, Times Now-CNX poll gave the BJP the upper hand with 126 seats and 89 seats for

the Congress. In the 230-seat Assembly, a party needs 116 to form a government. In 2013, the BJP won 165 seats, the Congress 58, BSP four and Independents won three seats.

In Chhattisgarh, the Congress is likely to get enough seats to form a government, a majority of exit polls said. But some predicted the BJP would retain the state. According to India Today-Axis My India, the Congress would bag 55-65 seats in the 90-member Assembly, reducing the ruling BJP to 21-31 seats. Republic-C-Voters gave the Congress 40-50 seats and the BJP 35-43 seats.

But Times Now-CNX and ABP News-CSDS forecast that the BJP would retain power for a fourth straight time. The former projected 46 seats for BJP and 35 for the Congress while the latter saw BJP’s victory on 52 seats and that of Congress on 35.

News Nation predicted 40-44 seats for Congress, 38-42 for BJP and 4-8 for the alliance of former Chief Minister Ajit Jogi-led Janata Congress Chhattisgarh (JCC) with Mayawati’s Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), which can play a role of the kingmaker in the event of a split verdict.

News24-Pace Media exit poll said the Congress would emerge the winner with 45-51 seats while the BJP would settle for 36-42 seats. In 2013, the BJP formed the government after wining 49 seats.

If the exit polls are to believed, Mizoram may have a hung 40-member Assembly. As per CVoter, the ruling Congress is likely to get 14 to 18 seats and the Mizo National Front (MNF) 16-20. It has predicted 3-7 seats for the Zoram People’s Movement (ZPM).

According to India Today-Axis My India, ZPM may dent both the MNF and Congress in the state. According to Times Now-CNX, the MNF will win 18 seats and the Congress 16. The exit polls by Republic-C-Voter showed the MNF getting 16-20 seats.

The exit polls were announced after polling ended in Rajasthan and Telangana yes-terday. Polling was held earlier in Madhya Pradesh, Mizoram and Chhattisgarh. The results of all five states will be declared on December 11.

UK honour for Indian-born engineerIndian-born, British engineer Roma Agrawal poses with her medal after being appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire (MBE) at an investiture ceremony at Buckingham Palace, in London yesterday, for services to engineering.

Gulita, a bungalow which according to local media will be the marital home of Isha Ambani, daughter of the Chairman of Reliance Industries, Mukesh Ambani, is seen in Mumbai, yesterday.

Bollywood, Beyonce and bling as daughter of India’s richest man set to marryREUTERS & IANS MUMBAI/UDAIPUR

US singer Beyonce will perform at the wedding of the daughter of India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, along with Bollywood stars, and guests will be flown in on 100 chartered flights in lavish marriage celebrations.

Isha Ambani, 27, will marry Anand Piramal, 33, in the financial capital of Mumbai on Tuesday, but the festivities begin this weekend in the desert city of Udaipur, with three days of song, dance and pre-wedding rituals.

Wedding guests have access to an app mapping out the activ-ities, which include a private concert by Beyonce. More than 100 chartered flights are landing in Udaipur’s sleepy airport, a source on the spot, who declined to be identified, told Reuters.

Bollywood stars, including Priyanka Chopra, who got married last week, will also attend. Indian media have spec-ulated that the guest list includes former US president Bill Clinton, along with his wife and Demo-cratic candidate in the 2016 pres-idential election, Hillary Clinton.

“The event will have many visitors from abroad, so customs

and immigration counters have been set up at the airport and will remain active for the next five days,” the airport source said. The source declined to say how much Beyonce was being paid for the concert and media have not reported a figure.

The wedding will bring together two of India’s most influential families.

Ambani, the chairman of Reliance Industries, has a net worth of $47bn, Forbes mag-azine says. The Piramals have interests in pharmaceuticals and real estate, and according to a report in the news magazine India Today, have given the couple a 50,000-sq-foot sea-facing home in Mumbai.

Many in India have closely followed the preparations, including the couple’s engagement at the luxury Villa D’Este hotel on Italy’s Lake Como, attended by more than 600 guests, and featuring a private performance by singer John Legend.

Newspapers and websites have been full of details about the ceremonies, the designer jewellery and clothes, with some of India’s top designers dressing the wedding party. The wedding

invitation includes necklaces and precious stones stacked in a two-tier floral box, at a cost of Rs300,000 each ($4,236), India Today said.

Meanwhile, the families have started a special four-day ‘Anna Seva’ to feed 5,100 people, a majority with special abilities, in Udaipur, a family member said. These people shall be served food three times daily till December 10 as part of the other wedding-related ceremonies to be held today and tomorrow.

Yesterday, industrialists Mukesh Ambani and his wife Nita, and Ajay Piramal and his wife Swati, along with Isha and Anand were present at the Anna Seva function, serving and inter-acting with the people, at the Narayan Seva Sansthan, in Udaipur in Rajasthan.

During the festivities, a spe-cially curated exhibition called ‘Swadesh Bazaar’ shall be set up to showcase 108 traditional Indian crafts and arts form from all parts of India.

The wedding is the latest in a series of high-profile mar-riages that began last year, when cricket captain Virat Kohli tied the knot with Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma.

Two former CMs not invited to Kannur airport openingIANS THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Two former Chief Ministers who played a key role in the development of Kannur International Airport Ltd (KIAL) have not been invited to its opening tomorrow, Congress leader Ramesh Chennithala said here yesterday.

Chennithala told the media that it was rather unfortunate that V S Achuthanandan (2006-11), whose government acquired land for the airport, and Oommen Chandy (2011-16), whose government com-pleted 90 per cent of the work, have not been invited for the inauguration.

“To protest this high-hand-edness of the Pinarayi Vijayan government, we (leaders) will not be taking part in the inau-guration. But we will not stop our political workers and others who support the Con-gress-led UDF to take part in the function,” he said.

Vijayan, who hails from Kannur, has left nothing to chance to make the inaugu-ration a grand spectacle. Around one lakh people are expected to take part in the event. The first trial operation at the airport took place in February 2016 when an Indian Air Force aircraft landed and was received by then Chief Minister Chandy.

The Rs 1,892-crore airport is located at Mattanur, 16km from Kannur. With this, Kerala will be the only state in the country to have four interna-tional airports. The other three are at Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode.

The Kannur airport will have parking bays for 14 Code E aircraft or 20 Code C air-craft and will be able to handle 2,000 passengers at a time. The airport will start off with a runway of 3,050 metres. The runway length will increase to 3,400 metres, eventually touching 4,000 metres.

CBI to confront Michel with documents, statements of his associate NandaIANS NEW DELHI

The CBI is all set to examine British National and middleman Chritian Michel in the Rs 3,600-crore AgustaWestland VVIP chopper deal case in the light of documents and statements of his Delhi-based associate R K Nanda, sources said yesterday.

A senior CBI official said that the agency will confront Michel with the statement and docu-ments of his close associate Nanda and Nanda’s Mumbai-based partner J.B. Balasubra-manian. The official said that Michel was instrumental in the formation of a shell company in 2005 by Nanda, namely Media Exim Pvt Ltd, with Balasubra-manian as another Director.

He alleged that Nanda’s company was a dummy one and used for Michel to park illegal money and nominally to export jewellery and music CDs to Dubai from India.

The official also said that as per Nanda’s statement in 2015 to the agency, he received Rs6.5 crore from Michel’s

Dubai-based company Global Services FZE between 2005 and 2007. The official said that Nanda, who also ran a travel business based in Connaught Place here, had received the said amount from Michel’s Dubai bank accounts in HDFC Bank and Citibank into the account of Media Exim.

He said the company was set up in 2005 ostensibly to export jewellery and music CDs, but no export took place and later on, as directed by Michel, some properties were purchased in the name of Media Exim.

The official also said that according to the statement of Nanda, Balasubramanian came in contact with him through Michel. The official said that earlier, Balasubramanian in his statement to the agency dis-closed that he had met Michel through one Seturaman of Nelson Health Club in Samrat Hotel in 2005. He said that Michel and Nanda invested in real estate in Delhi and bought three properties, including a farmhouse in Chhattarpur, in the name of Media Exim.

“I would never want to have a relationship

where Pakistan is treated like a hired gun given

money to fight someone else’s war. We should

never put ourselves in this position again. It

not only cost us human lives, devastation of

our tribal areas, but it also cost us our dignity.

We would like a proper relationship with the

US,” Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said.

06 SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018ASIA

INTERNEWS & AFP ISLAMABAD

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan (pictured) has dismissed the notion that he was involved in a Twitter war with US Pres-ident Donald Trump and asserted that he would never want to have a relationship where Pakistan is treated like a “hired gun”.

In an interview to The Washington Post, PM Imran commented on the Twitter exchange between him and the US President and said: “It was not really a Twitter war, it was just setting the record right. The exchange was about being blamed for deeply flawed US policies the military approach to Afghanistan.”

When pointed out by the interviewer, Lally Weymouth, that Trump wasn’t blaming PM Imran but his predecessors, the Premier said: “No, he was saying Pakistan was the reason for these sanctuaries [for Taliban leaders]. There are no sanctu-aries in Pakistan.”

PM Imran continued: “When I came into power, I got a com-plete briefing from the security forces. They said that we have time and time again asked the Americans, ‘Can you tell us where the sanctuaries are, and we will go after them?’ There are no sanctuaries in Pakistan. Our border between Pakistan and Afghanistan has the greatest amount of surveillance. The US has satellites and drones. These people crossing would be seen.”

Regarding Trump’s letter to him earlier this week

seeking help in the Afghan peace process, PM Imran said: “Peace in Afghanistan is in Pakistan’s interest. We will do everything.” Whether he will put pressure on the Taliban to come to the negotiating table, the cricketer-turned-politician said: “We will try our best. Putting pressure on the Taliban is easier said than done. Bear in mind that about 40 percent of Afghanistan is now out of the government’s hands.”

More than 17 years after the US invasion, Washington has stepped up its bid for talks with the resurgent Taliban with a flurry of recent diplomatic efforts. Trump’s letter was

followed by a visit from US envoy Zalmay Khalilzad, who has said he hopes a deal can be in place before the Afghan presidential elections, set for April next year.

Responding to a question regarding his vision for Paki-stan’s relationship with the US, PM Imran said: “I would never want to have a relationship where Pakistan is treated like a hired gun given money to fight someone else’s war. We should never put ourselves in this position again. It not only cost us human lives, devastation of our tribal areas, but it also cost us our dignity. We would like a proper relationship with the US.”

He elaborated: “For instance, our relationship with China is not one-dimensional. It’s a trade relationship between two countries. We want a similar relationship with the US.”

When asked that some people think he’s trying to hedge his bets using China, PM Imran said: “The US has basically pushed Pakistan away.” On whether he thinks “Pakistan’s relationship with the US should warm up”, the Premier responded: “Who would not want to be friends with a superpower?”

Pakistan will no longer fight someone else’s war: Imran

This picture taken on December 3, 2018 shows Murtaza Ahmadi, a supporter of Argentine footballer Lionel Messi, playing outside his home in Kabul.

Young Afghan Messi fan being threatened by criminals, TalibanAP KABUL

A young Afghan soccer fan who shot to fame after he was pho-tographed in a Messi shirt made from a plastic bag has been forced to flee with his family to the capital after criminal gangs and the Taliban threatened to kill or kidnap him, his mother said yesterday.

Since becoming an Internet sensation, Shafiqa Ahmedi said her now 7-year-old son Murtaza — a fan of Argentinian soccer star Lionel Messi — has not been able to attend school and now they are living in an unheated room in Kabul. She said the cold and the damp are making

Murtaza sick. “He is always cold,” she said. Temperatures in Kabul hover around 11 degrees Celsius during the day.

The picture of Murtaza in his plastic plastic Messi shirt playing soccer went viral on social media two years ago. He met his hero in December last year. But his popularity has turned into a nightmare for Murtaza and his family. “I wish Murtaza had never become so famous,” she told The Associated Press. “It has created a big problem for us and for him. For the last two years we have not been able to send him to school. I wish none of this had ever happened.”

Criminals threatened to kidnap Murtaza after demanding

money, assuming the boy’s brush with fame somehow resulted in a windfall of money. Taliban insurgents stopped local school buses asking if anyone knew of Murtaza.

Last November, when Taliban fighters launched attacks in their home district of Joguri in Ghazni province, the family fled to the relative safety of Bamiyan province in Central Afghanistan. But the threats con-tinued. The move to the Afghan capital three weeks ago has been painful. Murtaza is the youngest of five children and the family is paying the equivalent of about $90 a month for a room in the Afshar neighborhood in northwest Kabul.

‘I feel powerful’: Afghan women find freedom in runningAFP KABUL

At the crack of dawn in Kabul, dozens of girls and women bounce along a path leading up a barren, rocky mountain on the edge of the Afghan capital, rel-ishing every step of freedom.

The all-female Free to Run group hits the city’s trails and parks several times a week, braving disapproving looks, verbal abuse and even physical violence to enjoy the rare pleasure of exercising outdoors.

“When I run, I feel free,” says Zahra, 26, whose family name, like that of other female runners, has not been used for security reasons. “I like to run because it motivates me, it gives me a meaning for living.”

But it is not easy. Running in public is something many in ultra-conservative Afghanistan consider shameful for women. It is not unusual for people to stare and hurl insults, says

Zahra, who began running a year ago and has already com-pleted two marathons and a half marathon. “I just laugh at them,” she says dismissively.

The marathons take place in safer cities, such as Bamiyan or

Mazar-i-Sharif. Minivans, whose male drivers double as chap-erones for the team, collect the girls and women from their homes and drive them to rela-tively safe running spots.

As the sun peeks over the

mountains that surround Kabul, the runners — wearing tracksuits and headscarves or stretchy ban-danas over their hair — begin their workout with the men in tow. Running at their own pace, the girls and women smile and giggle even as their noses run and lungs burn from Kabul’s cold, dry and dusty air.

“I feel good when I’m running,” says Marmar, 17, who has won three races and finished second twice in the two years she has been competing. “My family wants me to be a professional (runner). I am proud of myself. So is my family.”

Free to Run started in 2014, the brainchild of Canadian human rights lawyer and ultra-runner Stephanie Case. So far it has more than 380 members in Afghanistan. Recruiting girls and women to the team is hard.

While the early-morning starts may deter some, the biggest challenge is getting per-mission from families, says

Kubra, Free to Run’s country programme manager. “Families are worried about the security situation and won’t let their girls join the team,” she explains.

And many think it is not appropriate for girls to run, “especially in an open place”. For that reason, many of the runners are from the Hazara ethnic group, which is widely con-sidered to be the most open and progressive in Afghanistan.

“I feel powerful when I run,” says Jamila, 18, whose family is “open-minded” and encourages her to exercise. “Running gives me a good feeling, I forget all my stress.”

Around one-third of the team are serious runners, training for marathons and ultra-marathons in Afghanistan and abroad, including Mongolia and Sri Lanka. Others turn up to training sessions when they can, appearing to enjoy catching up with their friends as much as the physical exercise.

Sri Lanka court extends ban on President sacking parliamentAFP COLOMBO

Sri Lanka’s highest court yes-terday banned President Maithripala Sirisena from sacking the legislature until it decides on the legality of his move last month to call snap elections. The Supreme Court concluded hearing 10 petitions against Sirisena’s move as part of a bitter power struggle with his erstwhile prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, but reserved judgement for an unspecified date. The courts reopen on Monday.

Sirisena plunged the country into crisis on October 26 when he fired Wickremesinghe and appointed the contentious

Mahinda Rajapakse in his place. He then dissolved parliament on November 9 and called elections nearly two years ahead of schedule on January 5.

Four days after he sacked parliament through a special decree, the Supreme Court issued an interim ruling suspending Sirisena’s action and restoring parliament, which almost imme-diately passed a no-confidence motion against Rajapakse.

“The court issued a fresh order extending the ban on the president until the case is con-cluded,” a court official told reporters after the unusually long hearing yesterday marking four days of legal arguments.

Security was stepped up outside the Supreme Court. The

court’s seven-judge bench is expected to deliver a ruling on the constitutionality of Sirisena’s move as early as Monday.

Sacked premier Wickremes-inghe’s party and their allies, who command a majority in the 225-member assembly, have suggested they could begin impeachment proceedings against Sirisena depending on the ruling. Wickremesinghe’s party loyalists believe the court decision will go in their favour, a view held by many inde-pendent lawyers.

Problems for Sirisena were compounded on Monday when the Court of Appeal suspended the entire cabinet and asked Rajapakse to explain on what authority he was holding office.

Afghan members of the all-female Free to Run group run during a training session at the Wazir Akbar Khan hilltop overlooking Kabul.

Malala Yousafzai honoured by Harvard UniversityIANS WASHINGTON

Nobel Prize laureate Malala Yousafzai has been honoured by Harvard University for her global work promoting girls education.

T h e 2 1 - y e a r - o l d received the 2018 Gleitsman Award on Thursday from the Centre for Public Leadership at Harvard Kennedy School for her global movement to equip girls with 12 years of free, quality and safe education.

The award was presented to Malala at a public cer-emony at Harvard Kennedy School, NBC TV Network reported.

In 2014, Yousafzai became the youngest recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of her efforts for children’s rights. On October 2012, she was shot in the head at point-blank range by Taliban gunmen as she was returning from her school in Pakistan’s Swat valley.

Yousafzai is now a student at Oxford University in England. The Gleitsman Award provides $125,000 for activism that has improved quality of life around the world.

Earlier, David Gergen, professor of public service at Harvard Kennedy School and Director of the Centre for Public Leadership, said: “Malala speaks powerfully to the strength and perse-verance of women and girls who are oppressed.”

He continued: “Her remarkable story has inspired girls — and boys as well — to follow in her foot-steps and has activated a generation of practitioners and legislators who are fighting for equality in their own communities.”

Accountability court asked to end Sharif cases by December 24INTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The Supreme Court of Pakistan yesterday directed an account-ability court hearing the remaining two corruption ref-erences against the Sharif family to conclude the cases by December 24.

Accountability Court Judge Arshad Malik who has been hearing the Al-Azizia and Flagship Investment references against the prime minister wrote a letter to the top court to seek another extension in the deadline to conclude the cases.

The Supreme Court fixed the accountability court’s petition for immediate hearing and summoned the former pre-mier’s lawyer Khawaja Haris.

On November 19, the top court had directed the account-ability court to conclude the Al-Azizia case within three weeks.

Earlier, seven extensions to wrap up the corruption refer-ences initiated by the NAB were granted by the Apex Court. It had set a six-month deadline to conclude the four corruption ref-erences against the Sharif family.

The trial against the Sharif family commenced on September 14, 2017. On July 6, after four exten-sions in the original six-month deadline to conclude all three cases, the court announced its verdict in the Avenfield reference. Nawaz and his sons, Hussain and Hasan, are accused in all three ref-erences whereas Maryam and Safdar were accused in the Aven-field reference only.

07SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018 ASIA

China’s President Xi Jinping speaks to North Korean Foreign Minister Ri Yong Ho at the Great Hall of the People, in Beijing, yesterday.

Xi urges North Korea, US to meet halfway

REUTERS BEIJING

Chinese President Xi Jinping yesterday told North Korea’s foreign minister that he hoped North Korea and the United States could meet each other halfway and address each other’s reasonable concerns, China’s foreign ministry said.

China is the North’s most

important economic and diplo-matic backer, despite anger over its neighbour’s nuclear and

missile programmes. Ties have warmed in the last year as Pyongyang’s relations with both

Seoul and Washington have also improved.

Xi “hoped North Korea and

the United States meet each other halfway and address each other’s reasonable concerns, allowing positive progress on the peninsula’s nuclear talks,” the Chinese foreign ministry said in a statement.

In comments made before reporters, Xi added, “The inter-national and regional situation, as well as the situation on the Korean peninsula, remains in flux, so timely exchanges and the coordination of positions between China and North Korea are still extremely essential.” The North’s Foreign Minister, Ri Yong Ho, said its commitment to denu-clearisation and safeguarding peace and stability on the Korean peninsula were unchanged, the foreign ministry added.

Meeting the Chinese govern-ment’s top diplomat Wang Yi earlier, Ri said North Korea

hoped to build “required mutual trust” with the United States and “move in the same direction”, it said.

Ri visited Syria this week. Kim has visited China three times this year to meet Xi. Diplomatic sources say Xi will probably go to North Korea at some point soon. Last month, South Korea said Xi intended to visit North Korea next year at Kim’s invi-tation, which would make Xi the first Chinese leader to do so since 2005.

Last weekend, Trump said he was likely to meet Kim again in January or February, with three possible sites being considered for their second meeting.

The two countries have held talks over a second meeting after the unprecedented June summit, Reuters reported in October, citing a senior official.

Duterte seeks martial law extension in southern PhilippinesAFP MANILA

President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday asked legislators to extend martial law across the southern Philippines until the end of 2019 in order to quell continuing violence in the restive region, officials said.

Duterte’s request, which could be approved as early as next week, comes despite critics voicing concerns the move threatens human rights and places too much power in the leader’s hands. However, the president’s spokesman Salvador Panelo said a third extension was needed in the southern region of Mindanao to “protect the nation and its people”. “A halt may only frustrate the progress we are wit-nessing in Mindanao and may even strengthen the rebellion and propel it to other parts of the country,” Panelo said in a statement.

Duterte initially put the Mindanao region under military rule after gunmen flying the black Islamic State flag attacked the mainly Muslim city of Marawi in May 2017, sparking a five-month battle that killed 1,200 people. Martial law allows the military to establish control with measures like curfews,

checkpoints and gun controls in a nation where civilians are allowed to own firearms.

It is a particularly sensitive matter in the Philippines because martial rule was used by Fer-dinand Marcos to remain in power during his two-decade reign, which ended in 1986 with a bloodless uprising.

Military and police chiefs have both recommended to Duterte that martial rule remain in force in the area after December 31 to quell continuing violence by other Islamist groups and communist rebels, officials said. But critics warned that another extension is incompre-hensible after the abuses that occurred in the preceding year and a half. “The victims of martial law are the people’s rights — civil, political and human rights,” opposition lawmaker Edcel Lagman said.

Rights group Karapatan, pointing to its own tally, said about 1,450 people have been arrested illegally and nearly 150 hit with politically-motivated charges since May 2017.

However, there is a base of support for extending martial law, including among local leaders in the region of 20 million who face the ongoing threat of a decades-old insurgency.

Philippines to buy US helicopters and not RussianREUTERS MANILA

The Philippines will buy 16 Black Hawk helicopters from the Sikorsky Aircraft Corp for $240m, shunning cheaper Russian equipment due to US sanctions on Russian military exports, the Philippine defence chief said yesterday.

The Philippines had ini-tially agreed to buy 16 Bell 412 helicopters from Canada but the deal was scrapped in Feb-ruary after Canada expressed concern they could be used to fight rebels. The Philippines then considered several other helicopters including Sikorsky Aircraft’s S-70 Black Hawk, Russia’s Mi-171, South Korea’s Surion and Agusta Westland’s AW139.

Rebels declare holiday truce in PhilippinesREUTERS MANILA

Maoist rebels in the Philippines declared a ceasefire yesterday for the Christmas and New Year holidays, but the government said it would not be fooled into joining the truce.

Members from the Com-munist Party of the Philippines have been battling government forces for 50 years, in one of Asia’s longest-running insur-gencies. The party said in a statement it would suspend attacks on the military from December 24 to 26 “in unity with the Filipino people’s observance of traditional holidays”.

US scraps UN meeting on North Korea human rightsAFP UNITED NATIONS

The United States has dropped a bid to hold a UN Security Council meeting on North Korea’s human rights record after failing to garner enough support for the talks, diplomats said yesterday.

The decision to scrap the meeting held every year since 2014 also comes as the United States is seeking a second summit between President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

North Korea had written to council members last month to urge them to block the US request for the meeting that shines a spotlight on Pyongyang’s dismal record.

The US has, every year since 2014, garnered the nine votes needed at the council to hold the meeting, despite opposition from China.

But diplomats said that only eight countries sup-ported the US request this year, with non-permanent member Ivory Coast refusing to bow to pressure to lend its backing. China, which has strong expanding ties in Africa, has argued that the Security Council is not the venue to discuss human rights as a threat to international peace and security.

Former intelligence chief in Seoul found dead in possible suicideAP SEOUL

A former South Korean military intelligence chief was found dead yesterday, police said, in a suspected suicide.

Former Defence Security Command head Lee Jae-su was being investigated by state prosecutors for allegedly ordering the illegal surveillance of families of people killed in a

2014 ferry sinking. Lee, a retired three-star general, had denied the allegation.

The disaster killed more than 300 people, mostly high school students, and touched off widespread criticism of then President Park Geun-hye. She was eventually ousted from office over a corruption scandal in March 2017. Police said Lee’s body was found near a Seoul building yesterday.

Japan to approve bill allowing more foreign workersAP TOKYO

Japan is preparing to officially open the door to foreign workers to do unskilled jobs and possibly eventually become citizens.

Lawmakers were to vote today on government-proposed legislation allowing hundreds of thousands of foreign labourers to live and work in a country that has long resisted accepting out-siders. The bill is expected to pass because of the ruling party’s majority in parliament.

It’s seen as an unavoidable step as the country’s population of about 126 million rapidly ages and shrinks.

Many short-handed indus-tries, especially in the services sector, already rely heavily on foreign “trainees” and language students. The country also selec-tively grants visas to white-collar professionals, often from the west.

Bringing in foreign labourers is a last resort after Prime Min-ister Shinzo Abe’s deeply con-servative government tried to meet labour shortages by encour-aging more employment of

women and older workers and using more robots and other automation.

“Japan has come to a point where we had to face the reality that there is serious depopulation and serious ageing,” said Toshihiro Menju, an expert on foreign labour and population issues at the Japan Center for International Exchange.

“Shortages of workers are so serious... that (allowing) immi-grants is the only option the gov-ernment can take,” he said.

Abe’s latest plan calls for relaxing Japan’s visa requirements in sectors facing severe labour shortages such as construction, nursing, farming, transport and tourism — new categories of jobs to be added to the current list of highly skilled professionals.

The number of foreign workers in Japan has more than doubled since 2000 to nearly 1.3 million last year, out of a working-age population of 67 million. Workers from developing Asian countries used to stay mostly behind the scenes, but not anymore. Almost all convenience stores are partly staffed by Asian workers and so are many res-taurant chains.

The fastest growing group of foreign workers is Vietnamese, many of whom are employed in construction and nursing. Con-struction workers are particularly in demand as Japan rushes to finish building venues and other infrastructure for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Under the legislation,

two categories of workers will be accepted beginning in April: less-skilled workers and former interns with basic Japanese com-petency are allowed to stay in the country for only up to five years as visitors and cannot bring in family members. That is meant to encourage them to leave when

their visas expire, preventing them from settling in Japan.

The second category, those with higher skills, language and cultural understanding, would be allowed to bring their families and apply for citizenship after living in Japan for 10 years if they commit no crimes.

The North Korea’s

Foreign Minister,

Ri Yong Ho, said

its commitment to

denuclearisation and

safeguarding peace

and stability on the

Korean peninsula were

unchanged.

Parliament members of the ruling party vote during a plenary session of the upper house at parliament in Tokyo, yesterday. Japan’s ruling parties aim to pass through parliament on a bill to bring more blue-collar foreign workers into the country.

Wild swans glide across the lake of the Yinghuahu Park during snowfall in Rongcheng in China’s eastern Shandong province, yesterday.

Snowfall in China’s eastern Shandong province

I found myself

heading to Israel

during a moment

in my life when I

was at my most

fragile. But being

close to death can

give us a different

perspective on

life and instead

of destroying

me, my mother’s

death gave me a

certain strength:

the empathy to

feel the pain of

a Palestinian

grandfather and

the determination

to give him a voice.

THE WASHINGTON POST

08 SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018VIEWS

On death, forgiveness and revenge in the occupied territories

Israel took control of the West Bank after the Six-Day War in 1967 and sanctioned Jewish set-tlers to set up homes throughout

the area, who have occupied it ever since. Today, the occupied West Bank is home to two-and-a-half million Palestinians; it’s an integral part of their homeland.

There are constant hostility and frequent violence between settlers and Palestinians.

Thou Shalt Not Kill follows Israel’s Hilltop Youth, a hardline, religious, nationalist settlers’ organisation that sets up illegal outposts across the occupied West Bank.

In the following account, film-maker Fatima Lianes provides a per-sonal insight into the making of her film and the issues behind it.

Before embarking on this film, I had last visited Israel in 2007. I hadn’t known it then, but that trip would be the key to making Thou Shalt Not Kill, 11 years later.

When I first met Itamar more than a decade ago, he had just resigned from the Israeli army after years of leading military operations in the occupied territories. He had told me that, as a child, he’d never imagined he could kill someone, let alone have the desire to kill them. But, as a soldier, he had killed - and that tore him up. So much so that he’d contemplated com-mitting suicide.

He recalled a particular night when he’d entered a Palestinian village to arrest an “alleged terrorist” and the man’s son had stared at him intensely. He knew that look too well.

It was a look of hatred - the same hatred Itamar, whose grand-parents had all been killed in the Holo-caust, had felt as a child towards Nazis.

He realised then that “if that Palestinian child looked at me as I looked at a Nazi, there is something that does not work, some-thing has to change”.

From that moment, Itamar changed his life and dedi-cated himself

to working for peace. Forgiveness - particularly learning to forgive himself - helped him to heal his wounds. For-giveness, he taught me, is the only thing that can win over revenge.

So, when more than a decade later,

I learned that I was going to make a documentary about youth and radi-calism, the first person I called was Itamar.

But the call did not go as I expected. Itamar had stopped believing in peace. Things in Israel had grown worse and peace was now an unattainable utopia, he told me.

A few days before I was due to leave for Israel, I received a telephone call that would change my life. My mother had had a medical emergency. I postponed my trip.

During long hours spent waiting in the hospital, between laughter, tears and family confessions, I came across a picture of Palestinian Hussein Dawabshe.

Hussein had lost his daughter, son-in-law and 18-month-old grandson in 2015, when a group of radical Jewish settlers known as the Hilltop Youth had firebombed their home in the occupied West Bank. The only sur-vivor was Dawabshe’s four-year-old grandson, Ahmed, who had burns to more than half of his body.

The picture of Hussein had been taken at the entrance to the court where a hearing for the accused was due to take place. Young radicals sur-rounded him, singing about his deceased grandson: “Where is Ali? Ali is burned, Ali is on the grill.”

Hussein’s expression conveyed immense pain and frustration, but also a certain calm.

I suddenly knew the story I had to tell, and everything took a 360-degree turn - in my life as well as in my plans for the film.

My mother died.So I found myself heading to Israel

during a moment in my life when I was at my most fragile. But being close to death can give us a different per-spective on life and instead of destroying me, my mother’s death gave me a certain strength: the empathy to feel the pain of a Pales-tinian grandfather and the determi-

nation to give him a voice.When I landed in Tel Aviv, entering

the world of the Hilltop Youth seemed almost impossible. The group is reclusive and although our fixer had tried contacting them, they refused to talk. Our first insight into their world came through the Goldberg family, devoted followers of the late radical rabbi, Meir Kahane, and associates of the defendants in the arson attack.

Without an appointment, we trav-elled to their home in Tapuach, a Jewish settlement in the Judea and Samaria region. As expected, we weren’t welcome. But we decided to wait in front of their house. After a few hours, during which several people entered and left the house casting sus-picious looks our way, 20-year-old Rut Goldberg allowed us to enter her home.

The hall was filled with pictures of Kahane and the American-Israeli Baruch Goldstein. Ruth looked at them with pride, while telling me how Gold-stein, who was responsible for the 1994 Cave of the Patriarchs massacre, in which 29 Muslims were killed, gave his life “for his people”.

Gradually, more members of Rut’s family arrived - her father Lenny and her sisters - and we began to immerse ourselves into their lives.

Gaining their trust was a slow process that took several days, many conversations and moments of great internal struggle.

My intention was never to judge them but to listen and understand, which is difficult when a young woman is speaking proudly about the death of an 18-month-old Arab baby while affectionately hugging her two-year-old niece.

I felt angry. Sometimes I thought I was going to explode with anger. But I also felt compassion and even a certain sorrow for Rut. She was just a girl who had never had the oppor-tunity to know a different reality. Her father proudly said that he made sure to give her “the best Jewish values”.

FATIMA LIANES AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAYThe appropriate

authorities took the decisions in this (Huawei arrest) case without any political involvement or interference ... we were advised by them with a

few days’ notice that this was in the works.

Justin Trudeau

Canadian Prime Minister

‘A dark day for Hungary’

The iron curtain was a notion but also a reality: Freedoms were respected and common in the West, and extinguished

under all-powerful parties and strongmen in the East, in the nations of the Soviet bloc. When the division of Europe disappeared between 1989 and 1991, many exulted in the opportunity for democratic values to reach lands where they had been so long denied. This was the fundamental promise of Central European University, an insti-tution that would propagate openness and rule of law, based in a transformed Hungary, now a member of NATO and the European Union.

The graduate school, founded and financed by philanthropist and fin-ancier George Soros, became a respected outpost for thousands of students to focus on “open minds and open frontiers,” as the president and rector, Michael Ignatieff, once put it. On Monday, the university became a

casualty of a new Iron Curtain falling across the democratic world, in this case led by Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, an autocratic nationalist who has vilified Soros and waged a long campaign to oust CEU from Budapest. The university announced it had been “forced out” of Hungary, in “a flagrant violation of academic freedom,” a shattering blow to the ideals that led to the university’s founding. Planning to relocate pro-grams to Vienna, the university declared, “It is a dark day for Europe and a dark day for Hungary.”

It was also a dark day for US diplomacy and its traditional support for democratic values, now an occa-sional afterthought for the Trump administration. The State Department said the United States had “worked dili-gently” for a compromise that would allow CEU to remain in Hungary. As The Post’s Griff Witte reported last week, the US ambassador to Hungary, David Cornstein, an 80-year-old New Yorker who made a fortune in the

jewellery, gambling and telemarketing industries, and who boasts of a longtime friendship with President Donald Trump. But Orban rebuffed his efforts - at which point the ambassador obtusely described the conflict as little more than a grudge match between Orban and Soros. “It had to do with two men,” Cornstein said. “It doesn’t have anything to do with academic freedom.” Then, he perniciously cast the blame on Soros, comparing the uni-versity’s situation to his experience owning jewelry shops within a department store. “I was a guest in another guy’s store,” he said. “The uni-versity is in another country. It would pay to work with the government.”

This is entirely misguided. The ouster of the university is a matter of principle, a major setback for democracy at a time when autocrats such as Orban are on the march, smothering freedoms and the organi-zations, such as CEU, that are so vital in keeping the flame alive for this and future generations.

Hazm Mebaireek

General Hospital

in the Industrial

Area joins HMC’s

network of

hospitals offering

inpatient and

outpatient care,

surgical services,

and emergency

care.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

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

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Healthcare milestone

Qatar is developing a strong health system to ensure universal health coverage for the population in accordance with the best international standards.

The inauguration of Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital by Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, located in Industrial Area, is testimony to this.

Health is one of the key aspects of human development, and progress in health care is an integral part of Qatar National Vision 2030. And access to health services vis-a-vis high standards is the fundamental right of every citizen. Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital joins Hamad Medical Corporation’s network of hospitals offering inpatient and outpatient care, surgical services, and emergency care. Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital includes an emergency department and 118 beds distributed between inpatient and intensive care units, giving it the ability to treat hun-dreds of patients daily and provide the best levels of health care.

Minister of Public Health H E Dr. Hanan Mohammed Al Kuwari said the opening of the hospital is a continuation

of the State’s efforts to provide the highest levels of healthcare to all patients and represented an important milestone for both Qatar and the public healthcare system: “It is almost one year ago to the day that we saw the official opening of our new Medical City hospitals and it gives me a great sense of pride as we approach the occasion of Qatar National Day to be here to celebrate the opening of Qatar’s newest hospital,” the Minister said.

H E Al Kuwari said: “Our journey to provide the best pos-sible healthcare to all goes from strength to strength and the opening of Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital is another example of this success. It is a

result of successful collaborations between many stake-holders. I wish to thank the teams at the Ministry of Public Health and Hamad Medical Corporation who worked together to create a hospital to serve the needs of this community.”

By bringing care closer to where it is needed in the com-munity, HMC’s newest hospital is expected to alleviate some of the demand on other hospitals in the country, particu-larly emergency services at Hamad General Hospital and Al Wakra Hospital. Hazm Mebaireek General Hospital Exec-utive Director Hussein Ishaq highlighted the significance of having a hospital for the Industrial Area community. Those living or working in the Industrial Area will no longer need to travel to Doha for emergency care and other spe-cialist services, Ishaq said.

The National Health Strategy 2018-2022 with “Our Health Our Future” vision focuses on improving the health of Qatar’s population, meeting the needs of the current and future generations and providing an integrated system aimed at improving health and providing better health care and better value for all. Qatar’s health care system is imple-mented through a clear strategy, and aims to be one of the best health sectors in the region and in the world.

Palestinians gather to protest the US-sponsored draft resolution condemning Hamas in General Assembly of the United Nations meeting in Gaza City.

Some top aides to

President Moon Jae-in

stressed it was an

issue for the two

Koreas alone and there

was no need to involve

their US ally, two

people with knowledge

of the situation said.

09SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018 OPINION

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Angela Merkel needs to send a tough messageto Moscow. Here’s how.

Growing split in Seoul over N Korea threatens nuclear talks

JUDY DEMPSEY THE WASHINGTON POST

One of the top candidates vying to replace Chancellor Angela Merkel as leader of the Christian Democrats has

waded into the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline, which will increase Germany’s dependence on Russian gas.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer

said withdrawing political support for the project would be “too radical.” Instead, she said, Germany should reduce the amount of gas flowing into the pipeline.

Her comments will be a relief to industry, which has been lobbying hard for Nord Stream 2. But there is increasing cross-party opposition to the pipeline, which has become more vocal after Russia’s recent attack on Ukrainian ships in the Kerch Strait.

This is a replay of Moscow’s illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsula in 2014 and its subsequent proxy invasion of parts of Eastern Ukraine. By blocking Ukraine’s access to the ports of Mariupol and Berdyansk that are reached through the Kerch Strait, Russia is chiseling away at the terri-torial integrity of Ukraine.

And how is the West reacting?

With the usual high-level meetings in the European Union, NATO and the UN Security Council. These hand-wringing gatherings - in which the participants express “concern” and at the same time repeat support for Ukraine’s territorial integrity - are not only hypocritical. They betray a shocking lack of intelli-gence and strategy by these organizations.

The West is in reaction mode as Russia once again flagrantly breaks international law - two laws, in fact: The UN Convention on the Law of the Sea and a bilateral Ukrainian-Russian agreement of 2003 in which both countries agreed to unhindered access to the Azov Sea via the Kerch Strait.

The EU will try to look resolute. To give an impression of action, EU leaders next week will roll over the economic sanctions they have imposed on Russia since 2014. Yet, given that sanctions don’t seem to have deterred President Vladimir Putin from committing aggressive acts, it may be time to consider a much bigger stick than the EU (and Germany, in particular) could wield. That would be Nord Stream 2.

The monster gas pipeline, which runs under the Baltic Sea to Germany, is problematic for a number of reasons. It gives Russia’s state-owned energy giant Gazprom a permanent foothold in Europe, increasing European dependence on Russian energy. It deprives Ukraine of the transit fees it earns by allowing Russia to transport gas to Europe through its territory. If Ukraine loses its leverage as a transit country, that makes it more vulnerable to Russian pressure

over gas prices and quantities.All the more reason that it is high

time that Merkel buried this big, Russian-led project that her prede-cessor, the Social Democrat Gerhard Schröder, has supported since 2005. Schröder, an old pal of Putin (whom he once described as an “impeccable democrat”), now sits on the boards of Nord Stream 2 and Gazprom.

Now in her fourth term, Merkel should bite the bullet.

She has nothing to lose. She’s not going to stand again as chancellor. She’s on her way out. Stopping Nord Stream 2 would win her support from the Poles, from Ukraine, from the Baltic States, and from the EU Com-mission, which has lobbied against Nord Stream 2 despite bullying and pressure from Berlin.

Were Merkel to take this leap, it would break Germany’s growing dependence on Russian energy. It would show that Germany is com-mitted to diversification of energy sources, a key element of EU energy policy. It would end the disturbingly ambivalent ties between German political elites and Russia. Above all, it would finally break the cozy non-transparent relationship between Gazprom and the big German, Dutch and Austrian energy companies. That could be one of Merkel’s signature legacies: Breaking Russia’s energy grip on Germany and on Europe.

She faces huge pressure from Nord Stream 2 stakeholders: Ger-many’s Uniper and Wintershall (a subsidiary of the giant BASF chem-icals group), Austria’s OMV, France’s Engie and the Anglo-Dutch Royal Dutch Shell.

HYONHEE SHIN REUTERS

When Seoul was preparing to open a liaison office in the North Korean city of Kaesong this summer

after a decade of virtually no contact with its longtime enemy, South Korean officials had heated debates over whether they should seek approval from Washington.

Some top aides to President Moon Jae-in stressed it was an issue for the two Koreas alone and there was no need to involve their US ally, two people with knowledge of the situ-ation said.

But to the surprise of several offi-cials at the meeting, Unification Min-ister Cho Myoung-gyon argued Wash-ington must be consulted because Seoul’s plans might run afoul of sanc-tions imposed on North Korea over its nuclear weapons programme.

Two dozen countries including the Britain, Germany and Sweden already have embassies in Pyongyang, and other officials saw the proposed liaison office as a far lower-level of contact with the North.

And they certainly did not expect Cho to be a leading advocate of strict enforcement of sanctions. Cho was Moon’s personal choice to head the ministry, whose prime mission is to foster reconciliation, cooperation and eventual reunification with the North.

Cho, whose 30 year public service history has been inextricably linked to reunification, was even sacked from the ministry in 2008 over his “dovish” stance toward Pyongyang.

At the suggestion of Cho and senior diplomats, Seoul ultimately sought US consent before opening the

office in September, one of the sources said.

All the sources spoke to condition of anonymity due to sensitivity of the matter.

Cho declined to comment for this article, but a senior official at the Uni-fication Ministry said it was aware of criticisms of Cho.

“Inter-Korean ties are unique in their nature, but it’s been difficult, and there’s North Korea’s duplicity. It’s a dilemma we face, or our fate,” the official said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the issue.

The previously unreported debate among Moon’s top officials illustrates a growing divide within South Korea over how to progress relations with the North while keeping Washington on side.

Some corners of the adminis-tration argue Seoul can’t afford to be seen veering from the US-led sanc-tions and pressure campaign until Pyongyang gives up its nuclear weapons programme, while others feel closer inter-Korean ties can help expedite the stalled diplomatic process, several officials close to the situation say.

“If the internal rift leads to moving too quickly with the North without sufficient US consultations, it could pose a setback to not only the nuclear talks but also the alliance and inter-Korean relations,” said Shin Beom-chul, a senior fellow at the Asan Institute for Policy Studies in Seoul.

After the inter-Korean thaw gave way to reconciliation efforts between North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and US President Donald Trump earlier this year, Trump asked Moon to be “chief negotiator” between the two.

That task has become increasingly

difficult as Washington and Pyongyang blame each other for the faltering nuclear talks.

US officials insist punishing sanc-tions must remain until North Korea completely denuclearises. North Korea says it has already made con-cessions by dismantling key facilities and Washington must reciprocate by easing sanctions and declaring an end to the 1950-53 Korean War.

“Unlike other advisers, Minister Cho has balanced his staunch desire for peace with an understanding of the importance of retaining a strong South Korea-US alignment,” said Patrick Cronin of the Centre for a New American Security, an Asia expert in close touch with both US and South Korean officials.

“Some alliance discord is inevi-table and not worrisome. What would be worrisome would be a clear rupture in South Korea-US approaches for managing North Korea.” The presidential Blue House declined to comment, but Moon told reporters on Monday the view that there was discord between South Korea and the United States was “groundless” because there is no dif-ference in the two countries’ positions on the North’s denuclearisation.

A third source familiar with the presidential office’s thinking said there was mounting frustration with Cho within the Blue House and even inside the Unification Ministry amid concerns he worried too much about US views.

“What the president would want from him as the unification minister is to come up with bold ideas to make his pet initiatives happen,” the source said.

During three summits this year, Moon and Kim agreed to re-link railways and roads, and when condi-tions are met, restart the joint factory park in Kaesong and tours to the North’s Mount Kumgang resort that have been suspended for years.

None of those plans have made much headway, either because sanc-tions ban them outright, or as in the case of Kaesong, Seoul took time to convince sceptical US officials that cross-border projects wouldn’t undermine sanctions.

North Korea itself has been an unpredictable partner. Discussions through the Kaesong office have been few and far between, with Pyongyang’s negotiators often failing to show up for scheduled weekly meetings without notice, Unification Ministry officials say.

Even so, the Kaesong move has caused tensions with Washington.

US officials told Seoul that South Korea’s explanations on the Kaesong

Annegret Kramp-

Karrenbauer said

withdrawing

political support for

the project would

be “too radical.”

Instead, she said,

Germany should

reduce the amount

of gas flowing into

the pipeline.

office were not “satisfactory,” the South’s Foreign Minister Kang Kyung-wha told a parliamentary hearing in August.

Washington was also caught off guard when a group of busi-nessmen who used to operate fac-tories in the now-closed Kaesong industrial park were invited for the opening ceremony of the office, a diplomatic source in Seoul said.

The allies launched a working group last month led by their nuclear envoys to coordinate North Korean policy. It was borne out of US desire to “keep inter-Korean relations in check,” the source said.

Asked about the Kaesong office, a US State Department official said: “We expect all member states to fully implement UN sanctions, including sectoral goods banned under UN Security Council reso-lution, and expect all nations to take their responsibilities seriously to help end (North Korea’s) illegal nuclear and missile programmes.” Another State official said the United States endorsed April’s inter-Korean summit agreement during its own summit with North Korea “because progress on inter-Korean relations must happen in lockstep with progress on denu-clearisation.” Last month, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met Cho in Washington, saying inter-Korean cooperation and progress on nuclear negotiations should “remain aligned”.

“We have made clear to the Republic of Korea that we do want to make sure that peace on the peninsula and the denuclearisation of North Korea aren’t lagging behind the increase in the amount of inter-relationship between the two Koreas,” he told a news briefing a few days after the meeting.

A file photo of North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un (left) and South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in exchanging documents during a signing ceremony near the end of their historic summit at the truce village of Panmunjom.

10 SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018EUROPE

Merkel’s ally to succeed her as CDU chief

May deploys ministers to sell Brexit dealAP LONDON

British Prime Minister Theresa May sent 30 members of her government around the country Friday to rally popular support to pressure lawmakers to approve her Brexit agreement on leaving the European Union.

The Brexit deal is proving a tough sell, and May is coming under increasing pressure to delay a parliamentary vote scheduled for next week in hopes of wringing concessions out of the EU. With three days of British lawmakers’ five-day debate on the deal complete,

an analysis by Britain’s Press Associ-ation showed that just 27 of the 163 law-makers who have spoken out indicated they would back the deal, compared with 122 who say they will vote against it. That latter number includes 29 members of May’s own Conservative Party.

The biggest sticking point is the so-called backstop, which could keep the UK in a customs union with the EU indef-initely if the two sides can’t agree on another way to prevent physical border controls between Northern Ireland, which is part of the UK, and the Republic of Ireland, which is part of the EU.

The proposal has sparked opposition from all sides because the UK would be unable to leave the backstop without approval from the EU. Northern Ire-land’s Democratic Unionist Party, whose 10 lawmakers prop up May’s minority government, oppose the measure because it would treat Northern Ireland differently from the rest of the UK.

The House of Commons is scheduled to vote on the plan Tuesday. May’s gov-ernment has so far rejected calls to postpone the vote.

Instead, she has sent her most senior advisers, including Treasury chief Philip Hammond and Health Secretary Matt

Hancock, to schools, hospitals and small businesses around the country to take her case to the British people.

May said most people “want us to get on with it,” and that it’s important for min-isters speak with communities to explain how her Brexit deal “works for them.”

The prime minister argues that the agreement she spent the last 2 1/2 years negotiating is the best one Britain is going to get and the alternative is crashing out of the EU without a deal, which could have devastating effects on the economy. EU officials have warned that May’s Brexit deal is the only one on offer.

UK teen jailed over hoax bomb threatsREUTERS LONDON

A British teenager who sent hoax bomb threats to schools across Britain and the US and caused a security scare at an American airport was jailed for three years, prosecutors said.

George Duke-Cohan, 19, e-mailed thousands of schools in the UK with a bomb threat in March, Luton Crown Court had heard.

He was arrested just days later but while still under investigation, he sent more email threats to British and US schools, claiming a pipe bomb had been planted on their premises. His calls led to the evacuation of more than 400 British schools.

He was arrested again but after being released on bail Duke-Cohan caused havoc at San Francisco Airport with a call claiming a US-bound flight had been hijacked.

Duke-Cohan pleaded guilty to three offences of making bomb threats.

Croatia arrests 13 human traffickersAP ZAGREB

Police in Croatia have detained 13 people suspected of smuggling migrants who are trying to reach Western Europe through the Balkans.

Police said that they are searching for one more suspect accused of smuggling at least 119 migrants in and out of Croatia from late July until mid-October.

Police said the group was charging $1,114 to transfer a migrant through Croatia, making at least 64,000 euros.

AFP HAMBURG

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, a close ally of Angela Merkel, won a tight race to succeed her as party leader yesterday, seeing off a longtime rival of the German chancellor.

The contest, which required a runoff vote to secure a 52-percent majority for AKK as she is known, is expected to increase the likelihood that Merkel will be able to see out her fourth term until 2021.

AKK, 56, pledged to maintain continuity after 18 years of Merkel at the helm while opening up the Christian Dem-ocratic Union (CDU) to more grassroots democracy.

In a brief, upbeat address before the vote that brought many delegates to their feet, she called on the party to reject the politics of fear as the far-right makes inroads in Germany and Europe.

“We must have the courage to stay the course against the Zeitgeist,” she said.

AKK beat corporate lawyer

Friedrich Merz, 63, who had quit politics in 2009 after losing a power struggle to Merkel and long nursed a grudge against the more centrist chancellor.

The third candidate — vocal Merkel critic and current health minister Jens Spahn — lost in the first round.

Merkel, 64, had earlier mounted a staunch defence of her moderate course since becoming chancellor in 2005.

Accepting a lengthy standing ovation from delegates, many tearful and holding “Thanks, boss” placards aloft, a visibly moved Merkel said the party had won four national elections under her by holding fast to its principles.

“In difficult times we

shouldn’t forget our Christian and democratic stance,” she said.

Pointing to the rise of pop-ulism worldwide and what she called a breakdown of shared Western values, Merkel acknowledged the order she had championed was at risk.

“Whether it’s the rejection of multilateralism, the return to nationalism, the reduction of international cooperation to deal-making or threatened trade wars... hybrid warfare, destab-lisation of societies with fake news or the future of our EU

— we Christian Democrats must show in the face of all these chal-lenges what we’ve got,” she said.

Handpicked by Merkel as general- secretary of the party in February, AKK was immedi-ately seen as the chancellor’s anointed crown princess.

Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer greets the crowd after being elected as new party leader during the 31st Party Congress of the CDU at a Congress Center in Hamburg yesterday.

Annegret Kramp-

Karrenbauer pledged

to maintain continuity

after 18 years of

Merkel at the helm

while opening up

the CDU to more

grassroots democracy.

11SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018 EUROPE / AMERICAS

CNN offices evacuated after bomb threatAFP NEW YORK

CNN’s New York offices were evacuated yesterday after a bomb threat, but no explosive was found and police later gave the all clear, the network said.

The roughly 90 minute drama recalled a similar evac-uation in October after an explosive device was discovered at CNN’s New York headquarters.

Fire alarm bells rang inside the newsroom to signal an evac-uation shortly after 10:30pm, CNN said on its website, as the network went to pre-taped programing.

An hour later the network was broadcasting from Skype.

“People just tuning in won-dering why you’re seeing me on Skype, why there’s such tech-nical difficulties, it’s because we have been taken off the air because a bomb threat was called in to CNN,” said host Don Lemon.

“We were evacuated and we know as much as you do.”

“Due to a police investi-gation at Columbus Circle, West 58th Street between 8th and 9th Avenue is closed to vehicle and pedestrian traffic,” the New York Police Department tweeted, referring to the address of the news organization’s

offices. “Please avoid this area. Update to follow.”

Around midnight, CNN said police had given the all clear for people to go back into the building.

The bureau was previously evacuated in October after a package with an explosive device was discovered.

CNN was targeted amid a wave of pipe bombs sent to opponents of President Donald Trump.

A Florida man named Cesar Sayoc was arrested for allegedly sending them and was indicted on 30 federal counts. He faces up to life in prison if convicted.

A New York Police Department car is parked outside the Time Warner Center building, where CNN’s offices are, after it was evacuated by police following a bomb threat, in New York, yesterday.

French govt defends extreme police tactics against studentsTrump names former news anchor as UN envoy

AP WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump announced yesterday he’s nomi-nating State Department spokes-woman Heather Nauert to be the next US ambassador to the United Nations.

“Heather Nauert will be nominated,” Trump said yester-daybefore departing the White House on Marine One for an event in Kansas City. “She’s very talented, very smart, very quick, and I think she’s going to be respected by all.”

If she is confirmed by the Senate, Nauert, a former Fox News Channel reporter who had little foreign policy experience before becoming State Department spokeswoman, will replace Nikki Haley.

Haley, a former South Carolina governor, announced in October that she would step

down at the end of this year. Nauert would be a leading administration voice on Trump’s foreign policy.

President Trump told reporters last month that Heather Nauert was “excellent,” adding that, “She’s been a sup-

porter for a long time.”Plucked from Fox by the

White House to serve as State Department spokeswoman, Nauert catapulted into the upper echelons of the agency’s hierarchy when Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was fired in March and replaced with Mike Pompeo.

Nauert was then appointed acting undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs and was for a time the highest-ranking woman and fourth highest-ranking official in the building.

Nauert, who did not have a good relationship with Tillerson and had considered leaving the department, told associates at the time she was taken aback by the promotion offer and recom-mended a colleague for the job. But when White House officials told her they wanted her, she accepted.

Russian govt insists detained Ukrainian sailors will face trialAFP MILAN

Russia yesterday insisted that Ukrainian sailors it captured after seizing their vessels will go on trial for violating its maritime borders, despite inter-national calls for their release.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said the 24 Ukrainian sailors currently in pre-trial detention will be put in the dock for violations of Russian and international law.

“When the investigation is over, there will be a trial,” he told reporters after a meeting in Milan of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

Russia’s top diplomat sug-gested that after a trial verdict, measures could be taken to improve the sailors’ situation, without specifying if they could be pardoned or released as part of an exchange with Kiev.

“As soon as the trial is over, we will have different possibil-ities in accordance with Russian legislation,” he said.

“Then it will be possible to say how to make their lives easier or agree to some con-crete steps. But this will be done only after the trial has been completed.”

Last month, Russia opened fire on three Ukrainian navy vessels as they tried to pass through the Kerch Strait from the Black Sea to the Sea of Azov.

The 24 Ukrainian crew

members were detained.Despite international calls

for their release, the courts ordered the sailors to be held in pre-trial detention for two months and they are now in Moscow.

Three of them are under-going treatment for injuries. The seamen face up to six years in prison for illegally crossing Russia’s borders.

Critics of the Kremlin have warned Russia is preparing a show trial.

Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has insisted they are “prisoners of war” and should be immediately released. Ukraine has intro-duced martial law in border and coastal areas for 30 days fol-lowing the incident.

The seamen have joined a long list of Ukrainians jailed in Russia including filmmaker Oleg Sentsov, who refused food for 145 days in an Arctic penal colony earlier this year.

Speaking to reporters, Lavrov also denounced what he said were Washington’s plans to ditch the New START nuclear treaty, set to expire in 2021.

“There’s an impression that the groundwork is being laid for the destruction of this doc-ument too,” he said.

The two former Cold War enemies have recently clashed over the fate of another key arms-control treaty, the Inter-mediate-Range Nuclear Forces treaty (INF).

Migrant search and rescue ship ends operationsREUTERS LONDON

Search and rescue ship Aquarius, which has saved tens of thousands of migrants from drowning in the Medi-terranean, has ended its oper-ations, the charity that runs the ship, Doctors without Borders (MSF), said yesterday.

MSF and its partner SOS Mediterranee said they were forced to terminate its opera-tions due to “smear campaign” by European governments.

The ship has been blocked at the French port of Marseilles since it lost its Pan-amanian registration at the end of September.The Aquarius was the last charity rescue ship operating off of Libya.

“This is a dark day. Not only has Europe failed to provide dedicated search and rescue capacity, it has also actively sabotaged others’ attempts to save lives,” said Vickie Hawkins, head of MSF UK, in a statement.

“The end of Aquarius means more lives lost at sea; more avoidable deaths that will go unwitnessed and unrecorded. It really is a case of ‘out of sight out of mind’ for UK and European leaders as men, women and children perish,” she said.

Nearly 5,000 migrants died in 2016 while trying to cross the Mediterranean from Africa and the Middle East to flee war and poverty, according to UN agency, IOM.

A file photo of US State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert during the release of the 2017 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom at the US Department of State in Washington, DC.

Trump attacks Russian probe, taps new A-GAFP WASHINGTON

President Donald Trump unleashed a blistering new attack yesterday on Robert Mueller, as he tapped a veteran conservative lawyer to head the US Justice Department — and assume over-sight of the special counsel’s Russia investigation as it inches ever closer to the White House.

The latest of Trump’s increasingly frequent outbursts against the probe came ahead of crucial court filings that could reinforce suspicions the presi-dent’s campaign colluded with a Russian effort to get him elected in 2016, or that Trump himself sought to obstruct justice — two of Mueller’s lines of inquiry.

Trump fired off a feverish volley of early morning tweets rejecting the probe as a “total witch hunt,” accusing Mueller of “big time conflicts of interest” and alleging the prosecutor

coerced false testimony from witnesses.

With speculation swirling that Trump’s chief of staff John Kelly may be on his way out, the president also lashed out at a gallery of figures from the cam-paign of his former rival Hillary Clinton, to former FBI director James Comey, to his own deputy attorney general who he said was “totally conflicted.”

The president also vowed his lawyers would produce a “major Counter Report” to rebut Muel-ler’s findings, as and when he

delivers them.“Already 87 pages done, but

obviously cannot complete until we see the final Witch Hunt Report,” he fumed. “This should never again be allowed to happen to a future President of the United States!”

Shortly afterwards, speaking to reporters on the South Lawn of the White House, Trump announced his intention to nom-inate William Barr as his new attorney general — succeeding Jeff Sessions, who he sacked last month.

Sessions had angered the president by recusing himself from overseeing the Mueller probe because of his own con-tacts with Russian officials.

His recusal had effectively created insulation between Mueller and the White House — a barrier that would no longer exist if Barr is approved by the Senate, probably next month.

Barr — who previously

served as attorney general under late George H W Bush — was seen in Washington as something of a consensus candidate for the highly sensitive post.

He does however have a record of endorsing strong exec-utive powers, which could come into play if Mueller sought to compel the president to testify.

And while Barr initially endorsed Mueller’s naming to lead the Russia investigation, he subsequently voiced concerns that his team appeared too heavily Democratic, citing the fact that a number of its members had donated to the party.

The president’s attack on Mueller came as Washington was braced for potentially explosive new developments in the probe, related to two pivotal figures: Trump’s former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his ex-lawyer Michael Cohen.

Accusing him of lying to

investigators, Mueller last month cancelled a cooperation deal with Manafort, who has already been convicted on multiple charges of money laundering, financial and tax fraud and witness tampering.

A filing in the Manafort case is to lay out the newest charges against the veteran Republican consultant, which could shed new light on how other members of Trump’s inner circle may have been involved in his activities.

Meanwhile in New York, federal prosecutors are to file a sentencing recommendation for Cohen that might offer details of what he has told them about the financial activities and Russian contacts of the Trump family.

In recent weeks, filings in the Mueller probe have suggested the White House knew Cohen planned to lie to Congress about his contacts with Russians.

They also suggest Trump and his family were in the loop on

discussions with the Russians on a Moscow project, even after the real estate tycoon had secured the Republican presidential nomination in mid-2016.

A sentencing memorandum last Friday for former Trump national security advisor Michael Flynn revealed that Mueller’s prosecutors are investigating top members of Trump’s presidential transition team, and that the Justice Department might have two other separate probes ongoing into Trump campaign members.

Separately yesteday, another key figure in the investigation — Trump nemesis Comey — was testifying behind closed doors in the House Judic iary Committee.

Trump fired Comey last year, angry over his refusal to reel back the Russia investigation — an event that led Mueller to probe Trump over possible obstruction of justice.

US President Donald

Trump vowed that

his lawyers would

produce a “major

Counter Report”

to rebut Mueller’s

findings, as and when

he delivers them.

REUTERS PARIS

French government yesterday defended the tactics of riot police who forced several dozen detained high-school students to kneel in rows with their hands held behind their heads or in handcuffs after violent protests west of Paris.

Students this week have been blocking access to scores of high schools across France in protest at President Emmanuel Macron’s education reforms, just as the 40-year-old leader grapples with some-times-violent demonstrations over living costs.

Videos and photos of the students from two high schools in Val Fourre, a deprived neigh-bourhood outside Mantes-La-Jolie, 60km west of Paris, went viral on social media late on

Thursday, prompting public outrage.

“Over the past few days, the students have been joined by about 100 hooded youths armed with clubs and incen-diary devices and determined to pick a fight with police,” Interior Minister Christophe Castaner told a news conference.

Castaner said roadblocks had been set alight, projectiles hurled at motorists and houses robbed in the area around the two schools. “It is in this context that the security forces stepped in.”

No students were injured while detained in the Val Fourre incident, French media reported.

But some social media users said the scene, with some of the teenagers lined up facing a wall, r e s e m b l e d a m o c k mass-execution.

12 SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018AMERICAS / CLASSIFIEDS

12 dead in Brazil bank

robbery shootout AFP RIO DE JANEIRO

Twelve people — including six hostages — were killed in northeast Brazil yesterday after police foiled a gang of armed robbers staging a simultaneous predawn assault on two banks in the town of Milagres, officials said.

Five of the dead hostages were members of the same family and included two children, the local mayor, Lielson Landim, told the Folha de Sao Paulo newspaper. They had been returning from a nearby airport when some of the robbers seized them.

The secretary for security in the state of Ceara, Andre Costa, said in a statement that an investigation was being carried out to identify all those killed and the circumstances of their deaths.

Costa did not say whose bullets killed the hostages. Landim had earlier said that, based on initial information, he understood that “the criminals killed the hostages and the police killed the criminals.”

“A heavily armed group

arrived in the town in the early hours and went to the center where they tried to commit the crime. There was an exchange of fire between the suspects and police,” according to Costa’s state security secretariat.

It said six gang members were killed and “another six people died from gunshots.”

Various weapons and explo-sives as well as three vehicles used in the bank assaults were recovered.

The gang had launched a simultaneous assault on two banks on the same street in Milagres, population 28,000, shortly after 2:00am (0400 GMT).

According to the G1 news website, the robbers had blocked the street with a truck and stopped the car carrying the family, which included relatives

who had just arrived on a flight from Sao Paulo to celebrate holiday with them.

G1 reported that the robbers “executed” the hostages when police turned up to prevent their operation. It said some of the gang managed to escape.

“I’ve never seen anything like it. I stayed inside my home, cowering and afraid,” a local resident, Mendonca de Santa Helena, told media. “I heard people yelling and crying. It was horrible.”

Shaken by the violence, the municipality of Milagres sus-pended most of its activities on Friday and asked residents to stay at home “until order is restored.”

Brazil is one of the most violent countries in the world, suffering nearly 64,000 murders last year — a homicide rate of 30.8 per 100,000 inhabitants that is three times higher than the level the United Nations con-siders to be endemic violence.

On January 1, a far-right pol-itician promising a relentless crackdown on crime, Jair Bol-sonaro, will become Brazil’s new president following his election in October.

Policemen stand in front of the Banco do Brasil branch after a shootout between police and bank robbers, in Milagres, Brazil, yesterday.

The local mayor,

Lielson Landim,

confirmed that five

of the dead hostages

were members of

the same family and

included two children.

Secret Service detail for George H W Bush endsAP COLLEGE STATION

The US Secret Service has ended its detail for George H W Bush after nearly 40 years of protecting the former president, who was known by the code name “Timberwolf.”

The agency said its security detail officially ended at 6am yesterday “with no incidents to report” following Bush’s burial on Thursday at his presidential library at Texas A&M University.

In its final notification, the Bush Protective Division said: “You will be missed by all of us.”

Agents served as hon-orary pallbearers during some of this week’s events honoring the 41st president. On Twitter, the agency shared photos of when Bush shaved his head to support an agent’s 2-year-old son who had leukemia.

Bush was buried next to his wife, Barbara, and their daughter Robin, who died of leukemia at age 3. Bush spokesman Jim McGrath tweeted photos from the private service.

The former US president died on November 30 at the age of 94.

Storm brings record rainfall and snow to Southern CaliforniaAP LOS ANGELES

Crew were busy yesterday assessing damage and cleaning up after a storm that brought record rainfall to Los Angeles, snowfall to northern elevations, snarled traffic and forced evac-uations as debris flows hit areas burned by wildfires.

Evacuation orders were either lifted or downgraded Thursday night and Friday morning as the storm moved out of the area.

That includes the area of Orange County’s Trabuco Creek, which overflowed with debris that took down a guardrail and overcame a narrow bridge. Workers need to clear out the debris from the bridge and install a new guardrail.

Other crew were focused on Malibu, where a mudslide shut down the Pacific Coast Highway and surrounding roads in and around neighborhoods charred by wildfire last month that destroyed more than 1,000 homes and killed three people.

There were no reported injuries associated with the mudslide or debris flows and no homes were seriously

damaged, though multiple people had to be rescued in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside and San Diego counties as water overcame roadways and at times submerged cars. More than 300 people living in a San Diego shelter had to be evac-uated to a stadium.

The storm also caused several roof collapses and sent an airliner skidding off a runway in Burbank, though no asso-ciated injuries were reported.

“It did cause a lot of head-aches,” said Eric Boldt, a mete-orologist with the National Weather Service.

He said the storm was more typical of January or Feb-ruary for the region and called it a win for drought-weary Los Angeles.

“It does put us ahead for Los Angeles,” he said. “It’s kind of a good start for December.”

The downtown area set a rainfall record for the day with 4.8cm of rain, nearly double the previous record set in 1997, the National Weather Service reported. Normal monthly rainfall for December is only a bit more — 5.8cm.

Rainfall also broke a record in the high-desert city of Lan-caster, northeast of Los Angeles.

13SATURDAY 8 DECEMBER 2018 CLASSIFIEDS

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New Apple Watch tracks ECG, heart beatIANS SAN FRANCISCO

Apple Watch Series 4 will now help users in the US take an electrocardi-ogram (ECG) right from their wrist, capturing heart rhythm in a moment when they experience symptoms like a rapid or skipped heart beat and helping to provide critical data to physicians.

“New electrodes in Apple Watch Series 4 now enable customers to take an ECG directly from the wrist,” Apple said in a statement.

“Starting today, the ECG app on Apple Watch Series 4 marks the first direct-to-consumer product that enables customers to take an electro-cardiogram right from their wrist,” added the Cupertino-based tech giant.

The irregular rhythm notification feature on Apple Watch can now occa-sionally check heart rhythms in the background and send a notification if an irregular heart rhythm that appears to be atrial fibrillation (AFib) is identified.

When left untreated, AFib is one of

the leading conditions that can result in stroke, the second most common cause of death around the world.

“Apple Watch has helped so many people around the world and we are humbled that it has become such an important part of our customers’ lives,” said Jeff Williams, Apple’s Chief Oper-ating Officer.

“With the release of these heart features, Apple Watch takes the next step in empowering people with more information about their health,” he added.

Apple worked with the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for several years to receive “De Novo” clas-sification for the ECG app and the irregular heart rhythm notification.

Both the features are now available as part of a free update to watchOS 5.1.2.

To take an ECG recording at any time or following an irregular rhythm notification, open the new ECG app and hold your finger on the Digital Crown.

As you touch the Digital Crown, the circuit is completed and electrical signals across their heart are measured.

“After 30 seconds, the heart rhythm is classified as either AFib, sinus rhythm or inconclusive. All recordings, their associated classifications and any noted symptoms are stored securely in the Health app on iPhone. Users can share a PDF of the results with physicians,” Apple informed.

All recordings, their associated classifications and any noted symptoms are stored securely in the Health app on iPhone, said Apple.

Using the optical heart sensor in

Apple Watch Series 1 or later, the irregular rhythm notification feature will occasionally check the user’s heart rhythm in the background for signs of an irregular heart rhythm that appears to be Fib and alerts the user with a notification if an irregular rhythm is detected on five rhythm checks over a minimum of 65 minutes.

“The role that technology plays in allowing patients to capture mean-ingful data about what’s happening with their heart, right when it’s hap-pening, like the functionality of an on-demand ECG, could be significant in new clinical care models and shared decision making between people and their healthcare providers,” said Nancy Brown, CEO of the American Heart Association.

The ECG app’s ability to accurately classify an ECG recording into AFib and sinus rhythm was validated in a clinical trial of around 600 participants.

The irregular rhythm notification feature was studied in the Apple Heart Study with over 400,000 participants, said Apple.

Apple said in a statement:

Starting today, the ECG

app on Apple Watch Series

4 marks the first direct-

to-consumer product that

enables customers to take

an electrocardiogram right

from their wrist.

Hummingbirds thrive at Mexico gardensAFP MEXICO CITY

In a dimly lit corner of a bustling market in Mexico City, vendors of mystical objects sell tiny, taxi-dermied hummingbirds as charms to bring luck in love.

Sold for 2,000 pesos (about $100) each, the lifeless corpses are a symbol of the threats faced by hummingbirds, which are known for their speedy wings, delicate beauty and key role in pollination.

Those threats, which also include climate change, have led Mexico’s largest university, UNAM, to launch an ambitious project to monitor and protect hummingbirds with urban gardens.

“Hummingbird gardens are, biologically speaking, the best strategy in big cities to conserve the species,” says researcher Maria del Coro Arizmendi, who heads the project.

She got her inspiration from former US first lady Michelle Obama, who included a variety of flowers in her famous White House garden to attract bees —another threatened pollinator.

The university’s hum-mingbird gardens feature spe-cialised feeders as well as

brightly coloured, tubular flowers that attract the birds, which are known for hovering in the air as they drink their nectar, flapping their wings up to 200 times per second.

The gardens also have nets so scientists can capture the birds, tag and release them, ena-bling researchers in Mexico, the United States and Canada to track their migration patterns and monitor the impact of climate change.

Delicately holding the minute

birds in their hands, Arizmendi and her fellow researchers fit them with tiny aluminum anklets, inscribed with ID numbers so small they can only be read with a magnifying glass.

Launched in 2014, the project now has five gardens around the Mexico City metro-politan area, and has inspired private citizens to create dozens of others — all of which help feed hummingbirds on their long migratory route, which stretches from Alaska to South America.

“You don’t have to live in the White House. It doesn’t matter if you have a big yard or just a flower pot. If people attract and feed these birds, using whatever space they have, it contributes enormously to conserving the species,” says Arizmendi.

Mexico City has 17 of the world’s 330 hummingbird species. Of those, one is threatened, one is endangered and one is critically endangered: the short-crested coquette (Lophornis brachylophus).

Hummingbirds (Amazilia Beryllina) are trapped in a net set by biologists in a pollination garden set by the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) in Mexico City.

Google launches audio news feedAFP SAN FRANCISCO

Google said it was launching a radio-style, on-demand audio news feed available on smart speakers, personalised with the help of artificial intelligence.

The technology giant said it had partnerships with more than a dozen news organisations to deliver an audio feed in the same manner as its smartphone news feed.

“This new experience will bring you an audio news playlist assembled in that moment, for you,” Google product manager Liz Gannes said in a blog post.

“It starts with a briefing of top stories and updates on topics you care about, and extends into longer-form content that dives deeper into more stories.”

Google Assistant, the AI programme developed by the company, will manage the feed, allowing users to skip a story, go back or stop.

The project aims to transform audio news into a Netflix-like experience, available on demand with personalized recommendations.

“For the past century, radio has been a one-size-fits-all medium,” Gannes wrote.

“Turn on the radio and you’re dropped into a show at a moment in time — regardless of what you already know, where you are, or what you’re interested in.

“Imagine instead if you could have your own radio, one that’s available on-demand, accessible throughout your day, and brings you news about the world and your interests.”

The new project builds on Google’s existing efforts to deliver news over its speakers and smartphones, and comes amid a broad effort by news organisations and tech firms to develop more voice services.

The audio news feature will roll out first to a limited number of people using the Google Assistant in the United States in English, the company said.

QOC organises health awareness programme

DOHA: Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) organised a “Fitness and Health 2018” awareness programme in collab-oration with Qatar Diabetes Association (QDA) at Aspire Park on Wednesday.

The awareness programme attracted more than 200 people to check their weight, height, blood pressure, Diabetes test and dietician to give healthy and balanced meals guidance for weight loss and diabetic people.

Talking to The Peninsula, Maryam Abdullah Al Hamaq, Head of care pro-grammes at QDA said: “ This is one of the various programs that we organise at QDA, this event is collaborated with QOC to raise awareness about diabetes. This is an annual programme which we host every year in collaboration with QOC.”

Al Hamaq added that, “We checked blood pressure, glucose tests, weight and height as well the waist circum-ference and based on that we get a result on which we can recommend how they can prevent from diabetes or control their diabetes.”

Qatar Diabetes Association recently held several events during the month of November which was “World Dia-betes Awareness Month”, “We visited several schools and universities to raise awareness among people at young age. We expect more than 200 people to come and get their checkups done free of cost as the weather is pleasant we

like to host such events at outdoor loca-tions,” she added.

The programme included two die-ticians, health diabetic educators and professional from QDA to do some health checkups.

Visitors at the programme belong to different age groups.

“We find such events very useful for the community who seek help from dieticians and health professionals. As part of my routine I came for a jog to

Aspire Park and got my check-up done. Such awareness programmes moti-vates us to lead a healthy lifestyle and keep us all fit,” Andres Matthew, a visitor at the programme told The Peninsula.

Residents undergoing health check-ups during the ‘Fitness and Health 2018’ event organised by QOC in collaboration with Qatar Diabetes Association, at the Aspire Park. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT / THE PENINSULA

AMNA PERVAIZ RAO THE PENINSULA

FAJRSHOROOK

04. 46 AM

06. 08 AM

11. 26 AM

02. 25 PM

04. 46 PM

06. 16 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 6:00 – 16:30 LOW TIDE 13:00 – 22:45

Mild daytime with some clouds, relatively

cold by night.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum22oC 28oC