baghdadi is dead: is - dt news

03 Bahrain’s showstoppers

02 Balanced budget by 2020

08Boeing says up to 50 planes grounded globally over cracks

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Al-Selwady returns to action in BahrainFormer BRAVE CF champion Abul-Kareem Al-Selwady returns to action full of hope |P12

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Lebanese artists set up exhibition on scam emails

Taylor Swift to receive honour at AMA 10 CELEBS

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It could be someone we know, who perhaps has just

assumed this new nameAYMENN AL-TAMIMI, A RESEARCHER AT SWANSEA

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Bahrain will continue to embrace fintech development: CP TDT | Manama

Bahrain will continue to embrace fintech and nur-ture an environment con-

ducive to boost creativity and innovation within the banking and financial sector, said the Crown Prince.

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Su-preme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister was re-ceiving the Chief Executive of Citigroup, Michael Corbat, at Gudaiybia Palace.

During the meeting, HRH stressed that Bahrain is commit-ted to diversifying its economy

by investing in various sectors in line with the comprehensive

development efforts led by His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al

Khalifa.HRH highlighted the progress

made in advancing Bahrain’s information technology ecosys-tem, saying, “these efforts make Bahrain a favourable destination for investment, especially in the banking and financial sector, creating quality opportunities for the citizens.”

For his part, the Chief Execu-tive of Citigroup expressed his thanks and appreciation to HRH for his support in developing the banking and financial services sector in Bahrain.

Shaikh Mohamed bin Khal-ifa Al Khalifa, the Minister of Oil and Rasheed Al Ma-raj, the Governor of the Cen-tral Bank of Bahrain, were in attendance.

HRH the Crown Prince receives the CEO of Citigroup

Baghdadi is dead: ISNames Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi as successor

Reuters | Cairo

The Islamic State militant group confirmed yesterday its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi has been killed,

the group’s news agency Amaq said in an audio tape following a US weekend raid.

Baghdadi, an Iraqi jihadist who rose from obscurity to declare himself “caliph” of Is-lamic State, was killed by US special forces in northwestern Syria, President Donald Trump said on Sunday.

The group had been silent until now. As successor it appointed someone Amaq only identified as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashemi al-Quraishi.

Aymenn al-Tamimi, a researcher at Swan-sea University focused on Islamic State, said the name was unknown but could be a top figure called Hajj Abdullah whom the US State Department had identified as

a possible successor to Baghdadi“It could be someone we know, who

perhaps has just assumed this new name,” said Tamimi.

The group, which controlled swathes of

Iraq and Syria between 2014 and 2017 and carried out atrocities that horrified most, also confirmed the death of its spokesman Abu al-Hassan al-Muhajir.

Baghdadi was killed in Idlib in north-western Syria.

US special forces carried out the Syrian operation in which Baghdadi killed himself and three of his children by detonating a suicide vest when he was cornered in a tunnel, according to US officials. (See page 5)

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi

Trump impeachment effort passes first testReuters | Washington

The US House of Repre-sentatives took a major

step in the impeachment effort against US President Donald Trump yesterday when lawmakers approved rules for the next stage of the Democratic-led inquiry into the president’s attempt to have Ukraine investigate a domestic political rival.

The Democratic-con-trolled House voted by 232 to 196 to establish how to hold public hearings in Congress, which could be damaging for Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

Saudi 2020 budget sees 833bn riyals in revenue: MinisterAl Arabiya

Sa u d i A ra b i a ’s 2 0 2 0 budget is expected to

generate up to 833 billion riyals ($222bn) in revenue compared to SAR 917bn pro-jected in 2019, the finance minister said yesterday, adding that the general budget for 2020 is projected at 1,020bn.

The country’s public debt is expected to be 26pc of gross domestic product, or SAR 754bn in 2020 versus SAR 678bn in 2019, Minister of Finance Mohammed al-Jadaan said in Riyadh.

There was a 0.9pc growth of real GDP in 2019 with 2.3pc expected in 2020, he added, while the 2020 budget deficit is expected at SAR 187bn.

Iraq president vows early polls as protesters demand more

Baghdad

Iraq’s president vowed yesterday to hold early

elections in response to a month of deadly protests, but demonstrators said the move fell far short of their demands for a political overhaul.

In his first televised ad-dress in weeks, President Barham Saleh said the country’s embattled Prime Minister Adel Abdel Mahdi was ready to step down, but there was so far no one to take his place.

“The prime minister expressed his willingness to submit his resignation, asking the political parties to reach an agreement on an acceptable alternative,” said Saleh.

More wildfires ignited near Los Angeles yesterday destroying homes and forcing evacuations, as the region faced a second day of gusting desert winds that have fanned flames and displaced thousands of people. The fast-moving Hillside Fire grew to 200 acres (80 hectares) and was starting to consume homes near scrub-covered slopes in San Bernadino, east of Los Angeles, according to the San Bernadino County Fire Department.

Los Angeles wildfiresSisi suggests floating Egypt military firms on stock exchangeCairo

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi suggest-

ed yesterday listing mili-tary-owned companies on the stock exchange, along with other state-run firms and as-sets.

“There must be an opportu-nity for the armed forces’ com-panies. They must enter the stock market and there should be a chance for Egyptians to buy their shares,” Sisi said in televised remarks.

The president was attend-ing the inauguration of two army-owned and operated chemical plants outside Cai-ro, flanked by the defence minister and the central bank governor.

He noted that his govern-ment has been working on

floating state companies and assets for the last three years.

“It is important for Egyp-tians to know that the armed forces have taken on this (eco-nomic) role, not to the detri-ment of the private sector,” he said.

He emphasised that the “pri-vate sector is welcome to par-ticipate” in army-run projects.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi

02FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2019

BDF Commander-in-Chief Field Marshal Shaikh Khalifa bin Ahmed Al Khalifa during an inspection visit to a BDF unit, where he was briefed about the unit’s combat readiness and training programmes. BDF, the commander-in-chief said, will continue enhancing its military progress and spare no efforts to achieve the highest levels of combat readiness.His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister,

with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic, Tomas Petricek, at Gudaibiya Palace. HRH CP mulled with him ways to further enhance coordination and cooperation to better serve the common interests of both nations. The Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa was present.

Court sends seven to jail in terror caseTDT | Manama

The fourth High Criminal Court yesterday awarded

varying jail terms to seven terror suspects found guilty of running and joining a terrorist organisa-tion linked to a terrorist organi-sation “Al-Ashtar Brigades”.

Chief of the Terror Crime Prosecution, Advocate General Chancellor Dr Ahmed Al-Ham-madi said the court sentenced the first five suspects to life in jail and handed down the sixth and seventh suspects seven-year jail terms.

The court also ordered the confiscation of the seized items.

The suspects were also charged with possessing and manufacturing explosives, pos-sessing firearms and ammuni-tion without a license, receiving training on weapons and ex-plosive materials and funding terrorism.

Court files say the first sus-pect, a member of the “Al-Ash-tar Brigades”, recruited the fourth suspect and send him to Iraq to receive training at one of the camps of Iraqi “Kata’ib Hezbollah” on firearms and ex-plosives.

The seventh suspect received training on monitoring security patrols.

Investigators found that the fourth suspect received military training in 2017, with the assis-tance of the sixth and second suspects. The fourth suspect also recruited the fifth.

The files say Iraqi “Kata’ib

Hezbollah” also trained the fifth suspect in 2016 on making ex-plosive materials and devices.

The fourth suspect was in-structed by the first to receive the explosive device and moni-tor the security patrols accom-panying oil tankers to target them.

Then, the fourth and fifth defendants received the explo-sives and inspected the security patrols.

The third suspect instructed the fifth to receive and trans-port firearms and materials for terrorist purposes, Al-Hammadi said.

The court sentenced the first five suspects to life in jail and handed down

the sixth and seventh suspects seven-year jail

terms

Bahrain, Kuwait for greater ties

TDT | Manama

Bahrain’s Minister of Finance and National

Economy yesterday called for expanding bilateral co-operation with Kuwait on the sidelines of his visit to the Future Investment Initiative (FII).

This came as Shaikh Sal-man bin Khalifa Al Khalifa held discussions with the

Minister of Finance of the State of Kuwait, Dr Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf.

The meeting discussed ways to improve ties, which continue to receive the support of His Maj-esty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and the Emir of Kuwait Shaikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sa-bah.

Shaikh Salman rec-ognised the importance

of expanding economic cooperation to acceler-ate regional economic growth and commend-ed the support extended by the State of Kuwait to Bahrain.

The Ministers reviewed ways to strengthen eco-nomic cooperation and exchanged views on re-gional and international developments of mutual interest.

Minister of Finance and National Economy, Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, during a meeting with Minister of Finance of Kuwait, Dr Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf

Balanced budget by 2020 Deficit down 38pc, non-oil revenues jump 47pc: Shaikh Salman tells GCC FinMins

TDT | Manama

Bahrain is on track to achieving all the objectives outlined

in the Kingdom Fiscal Bal-ance programme includ-ing delivering a balanced budget by 2022, said Minis-ter of Finance and National Economy.

Citing preliminary data during the first half of 2019, Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa revealed that the Kingdom’s deficit fell by “38 per cent, non-oil rev-enues increased by 47pc, and oil revenues increased by 10pc, compared with the same period in 2018.”

He said the Kingdom will strengthen its financial planning to align its non-oil revenues with economic growth.

Shaikh Salman was par-ticipating in a panel discus-sion at the Future Invest-ment Initiative (FII) along-side Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia Mohammed bin Abdullah Al-Jadaan and Kuwait’s Minister of Finance Dr Nayef Falah Al-Hajraf.

The topic was “MENA is open for business: How the Middle East became an international investment powerhouse”.

On private sector’s role in the economic slowdown, the Minister said Bahrain is currently undertaking a long-term economic strategy to drive non-oil growth as well as create and sustain a fertile busi-ness environment which is conducive to sustainable growth.

“The government will continue to provide the conditions necessary for the private sector to flour-ish, noting that private in-vestments have a greater multiplier effect on the economy.

Explaining, Shaikh Sal-man said, “When the gov-ernment leads a project, it’s putting a dollar or a riyal or a dinar into the economy.”

“When the government changes or creates a new legislative environment, it’s allowing the private sector to embark on many projects, many riyals, many dinars, and therefore the multiplier effect is much larger when you do a re-form of a sector.”

The Minister underlined that these diversification efforts continue to yield

tangible results across all sectors especially in the form of over 7pc annual growth in the non-oil sec-tor in the past 10 years with oil now representing 20pc of the GDP.

Two out of three Bah-rainis are employed in the private sector, with them receiving a 4pc increase in wages compared to the same period last year.

Bahrain also recorded a fourfold increase in the non-oil sector in the last 15 years.

The Minister stated that the biggest validation of this positive econom-ic transformation can be seen in the 2019 World Bank ‘Doing Business’ Re-port, which recognises four MENA states among top 10 improvers globally.

Minister of Finance and National Economy participates in a panel alongside Finance Ministers at the Future Investment Initiative (FII)

Minister of Foreign Affairs Shaikh Khalid bin Ahmed bin Mohammed Al Khalifa with Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Czech Republic Tomas Petricek who is on an official visit to Bahrain in his office at the ministry’s General Court. During the meeting, several issues of common concern were reviewed.

03 FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2019

TDT | Manama

With over 180 exhibit-ing companies, Bah-rain International

Defence Exhibition and Con-ference or BIDEC 2019 in its second edition turned out as a unique platform for exhibitors to showcase the latest technol-ogy, equipment and hardware across land, sea and air.

The event held for the first time in 2017 was so successful that 62 per cent of the exhibitors signed up for the second edition before the end of the first one.

As in the previous edition, this year’s edition also saw Bahrain’s home-grown products rubbing shoulders with its regional and international military peers.

‘Faisal’ is Bahrain’s Defence Force’s latest offering when it comes to localisation and the star of this year’s edition. Show-stopper of BDF in the first edition was a ‘Special Forces Vehicle’.

Faisal, the locally-made 4x4 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) is fully designed and de-veloped in Bahrain for the Bah-rain Defence Force (BDF).

According to retired Brigadier General Isa Yousif Al Mahmeed, the project began its develop-

ment in 2016 under the guidance of BDF commander-in-chief.

“His vision for Bahrain to have locally-made equipment and armoured vehicles were the driving force behind the birth of Faisal,” Al Mahmeed told army recognition.

Made-in-BahrainBased on specific needs and

requirements, BDF engineers designed, developed and man-ufactured the vehicle here in Bahrain.

Faisal, powered by a 300 horsepower Cummins Diesel engine and mated to an Alli-son 6-speed transmission, has enough energy to tackle any ter-rain of choice.

Monocoque design, B6 protection

Monocoque design offers top-notch protection to the crew against ballistic and mine threats. Including a gunner, the vehicle is capable of carrying eight personnel.

According to the designer of the vehicle, the hull provides ballistic protection Level B6 against the firing of small arms 7.62mm calibre and can with-stand an explosion of 6 kg of TNT under the wheels and the floor.

Conventional design approach places Faisal’s crew in the mid-dle and troops at the rear with the engine at the front.

90 Km/hour, convertible Maximum speed is 90km/

hour, with a cruising range of 900km. The vehicle has a gross weight of 9,000 kg with a maxi-mum payload of 2,000 kg.

One of the specialities of the Faisal is its flexibility. The body

of the APC, designed like a boat, can be removed completely from the chassis in 15 minutes.

For an APC, Faisal’s thus offers enough possibilities and can be easily converted to an ambu-lance, a cargo or a reconnais-sance vehicle as required.

20 mm cannonThe vehicle can carry up to

20 mm cannon as well as other smaller weapons along with two machine guns in the back.

Faisal large troop-compart-ment with anti-mine blast seats for each soldier provides enough room for six infantrymen. There is also enough room inside to carry a piece of additional mil-itary equipment or a stretcher.

Faisal allows troops to exit and enter the vehicle swiftly through one door on each side of the hull. Rear-end has two manual doors. The compartment also houses three small bulletproof windows and firing ports.

An open turret on the roof can handle one machine gun or can-non of up to 20 mm calibre.

The design suits the needs of Bahrain Defence Force which has a prominent role in assisting the international community in peacekeeping operations and combating terrorism within the framework of international le-gitimacy.

Bahrain’s competition in this regard was the APCs produced by Streit Group. At the show, the group presented four types of wheeled APCs as well as other vehicles.

URAL 4x4 Armoured Person-nel Carrier and ARMA 6x6 Ar-moured Personnel Carrier by Otokar, Turkey’s leading land defence systems company, was another in this category. Bahrain currently operates Otokar’s mul-ti-wheeled modular armoured vehicle ARMA 6x6.

I n t e r n a t i o n a l A r m o r e d Group’s (IAG) Guardian Xtreme was yet another competitor, which is currently being em-ployed by UN peacekeeping mis-sion in Lebanon.

Defence Industry of Saudi Arabia MIC’s 4x4 HMTV (High

Mobility Tactical Vehicle) was one another in this class.

Locally made Anti-tank cannon carrier

Next product on display by BDF was a modified Toyota Land Cruiser (TLC71) to house a 106 mm anti-tank cannon M40A1 that has an effective range of 1,200m. Recovery winch, run-flat tyres are some of the added features.

The vehicle’s rear cabin is re-moved to make space for the gunner and the cannon to move freely up and down and 360 de-grees. Ammunition box, below the platform, is capable for car-rying six missiles.

The vehicle, capable of car-rying two persons, is equipped with a telecommunication sys-

tem used by Bahrain Defence force.

Speaking to army recognition, Lt. Col. Died Khalifa Alkwari, Mechanical Engineer BDF, said the force is aiming to modify the cannon and, at present, the focus was on the vehicle.

First Response Vehicle Royal Bahraini Air Force’s

‘First Response Vehicle’ was another home-grown product displayed at BIDEC, which is capable of approaching an ac-cident scene at very high speed with all necessary fire fighting equipment.

Based again on a Toyota, Hilux 4x4, the vehicle equipped with five different types of fire ex-tinguishers and a generator can pump up to 150-litres of water and 20 litres of foam sufficient for 5 minutes of operation. The vehicle also can make use of ex-ternal sources.

Other players had also come up with vehicles based on Toy-ota models. Turkish Compa-ny Aselsan displayed a Toyota Land Cruiser fitted with remote weapon station Aselsan SARP-L. The Aselsan SARL-L is a fully stabilised weapon platform that can be armed with a 7.62mm or 5.56 mm calibre machine gun. The system is operated using a joystick from inside the vehicle.

Growth opportunityBahrain Defence Force is con-

tinuing to diversify its product development strategy as it en-hances its scope of operations.

National Security Advisor and Commander of the Royal Guard Major General HH Shaikh Nas-ser bin Hamad Al Khalifa speak-ing on Bahrain’s Armour Per-sonnel Carrier (APC) production said: “We will encourage this industry; we will encourage our investors from the private sec-tor and we are putting the right structure for this industry and God willing as per the directives of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa we will go forward and see a local role in defense production.”

As Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the head of the Middle East Military Tech-nology Conference (MEMTEC), said: “BIDEC acted as an ide-al platform for BDF as well as other global players to launch their latest innovative products and solutions while providing a boost to localisation drive.”

Faisal’ is Bahrain’s

Defence Force’s latest

offering through its

localisation drive and

the star of this year’s

BIDEC. The 4x4 Armoured

Personnel Carrier

(APC) is fully designed and developed in Bahrain for the Bahrain

Defence Force (BDF).

Faisal, the locally-made 4x4 Armoured Personnel Carrier (APC) on display at BIDEC 2019. (BNA, armyrecognition)

Bahrain’s Toyota Land Cruiser 71 based anti-tank cannon carrier (Courtesy of armyrecognition)

Screen grab from a video posted by army response showing Bahrain’s Faisal during a testing

The showstoppers of Bahrain

big story

Saudi MIC’s (Military Industries Corporation) 4x4 HMTV (High Mobility Tactical Vehicle)

Royal Bahraini Air Force’s locally made ‘First Response Vehicle’

Streit Group’s Python APC


The exhibition offered us ample

opportunities to interact with several parties

YOONHWAN IN OF SOUTH KOREA’S SPECIAL PURPOSE VEHICLE

All women BDF band gain viral fame on the floor of BIDEC TDT | Manama

Cl a d i m p e c c a b l e r e d uniforms, when those young women presented

tunes from Arabic and West-ern repertoires one by one all eyes on the floor widened with excitement.

The sight, amid those awe-in-spiring defence hardware and battle-hardened generals, rep-resented a powerfully symbolic contradiction for the curious onlookers.

But when the harmonious music started filling the BIDEC floor, more and more eyes gath-ered around to make them a viral sensation.

Mobile cameras popped up in all hands as the performance

continued to display an impres-sive mastery over their instru-ments.

All these were happening on the floor of the second edition of the Bahrain International

Defence Exhibition and Con-ference (BIDEC) 2019 which con-cluded Wednesday.

In action were the members of Bahrain Defence Force band.

The band formed in 2014 after

rigorous training to meet high standards made their first pub-lic appearance during Bahrain’s Women’s Day celebrations in 2018.

The members are well versed in most music genres and in-struments like saxophone, trumpet, Tuba and clarinet. The team also have experts in “jerba”, a Gulf folklore instrument.

Although the first batch grad-uated in 2017, it is only in 2018 that the band made its first pub-lic appearance.

The 42-member band won numerous accolades in the few public appearances it had made.

Officers said that they are looking forward to more promi-nent participation.

Members of Bahrain Defence Force band during a group photo opportunity

Excitement grows for BIDEC 2021

TDT | Manama

Participants have already started beelining for the next edition of the just

concluded Bahrain’s tri-ser-vice defence exhibition, which is continuing to drew tremen-dous responses from end-users, investors and decision-makers alike.

Many participants have shared their enthusiasm with organisers saying that they are looking forward to returning to Bahrain International Defence Exhibition and Conference in its next edition in 2021.

The biennial event, the only tri-service defence exhibition in Bahrain, is seen as a unique plat-form to remain abreast of the latest development in the local and regional defence industry and to showcase the latest tech-nological innovations.

“The exhibition offered us ample opportunities to interact with several parties,” Yoonhwan In of South Korea’s Special Pur-pose Vehicle told BNA.

South Korea is among the new nations that joined a growing list of countries participating in BIDEC.

“We now look forward to par-ticipating in the next BIDEC and

capitalize on the opportunities that we have built during this year’s participation,” added Yoonhwan.

Kenneth Longmuir, head of Global Marketing and Sales at Robus System, is also looking forward to the next BIDEC.

He described his experience in BIDEC 2019 as “successful”.

Robus System, which spe-cialises in mobile re-deploy-able shelters, has showcased its ability to deploy a massive all-purpose tent with a mini-mum man-power at the expo.

“The system ensures protec-tion to all occupants in all types of condition, sun, rain, snow, wind or inclement weather.”

Longmuir explained that their system is capable of pro-tecting its occupants in all types of inclement weather condition. “The outdoor system is so ver-

satile and flexible that it can be operational in 5 to 10 minutes,” Longmuir added.

BIDEC, held under the patron-age of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, concluded on Wednesday.

Special tributes were paid to

the Chairman of the High Or-ganising Committee, Nation-al Security Advisor and Royal Guard Commander Major-Gen-eral HH Shaikh Nasser bin Ham-ad Al Khalifa for the impeccable organization and resounding achievements.

Top Indian defence firms at BIDEC

TDT | Manama

India’s advanced and cutting-edge military technologies and products were exhibited at the second edition of the Bahrain

International Defence Exhibition and Conference (BIDEC). The Indian Pavilion at BIDEC which has the participation

of Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), Ordnance Factory Board (OFB), Bharat Dynamics Limited (BDL) and MIDHANI was inaugurated by the Chairman and Managing Director of the BDL Cmde Siddharth Mishra (Retd) in the pres-ence of senior officers of the participating companies under Ministry of Defence.

Dhanush 155 mm Gun System, Akash Missile System, Vara-nastra-

heavyweight torpedo, Pinaka multi-barrel rocket launching system, Nag anti-tank guided missile were some of the exhibits. DRDO showcased 11 world-class export-ready products encom-passing missile systems, naval systems, radars, sonars, portable diver detection sonar, armaments system and fire-fighting sys-tems at BIDEC-2019.

Indian pavilion also extended an invitation to all delegates to showcase their products as well as visit Def Expo 2020 to be held at Lucknow from 5th -8th February 2020.

Established in 1989, Jino Corporation is specialized in trading military and police supplies.

Stop cutting-edge technology falling into wrong handsMEMTEC calls for collective actionTDT | Manama

Middle East Mil i tary Technology Conference

(MEMTEC) has called for col-lective action to prevent mod-ern technologies falling into the hands of terrorist groups and supporters.

The conference held on the sidelines of BIDEC 2019 also called for building interna-tional partnerships to boost national defence industries and localisation of military technology.

“The Kingdom of Bahrain has made huge strides in this area and is now a leader,” said Dr Shaikh Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, the chair of MEMTEC.

The conference featured five lectures on global mili-tary technology outlook, cyber defence strategies, the impact of advances in artificial intelli-gence on armed forces, devel-oping simulation models for future warfare and the future of Middle East defence pro-curement - acquisition strate-gies and localised production.

Dr Shaikh Abdullah, also Chairman of the Board of Trustees at the Bahrain Centre for Strategic, International and Energy Studies (DERASAT) was one of the speakers.

He said the conference dis-cussed the role of technology in human progress and creat-ing an environment suitable for regional security.

“Such a role gains tremen-dous significance in the Mid-dle East because of the crises and conflicts that prevail,” said

Dr Shaikh Abdullah. He stressed the importance

of standing by Saudi Arabia against anyone who tries to compromise its security or threaten its stability. “There is also the need to secure water-ways in the Middle East and ensure safe passage and free-dom of navigation to achieve stability of energy security and international trade.”

Participants, Dr Shaikh Ab-dullah said, commended the Royal Directive of HM the King to boost digital economy and adopt and use of artificial in-telligence in the productive and service sectors.

“Such moves will turn Bah-rain into a centre for digital technology that reflects an advanced vision of the impor-tance of investing technology in the region to consolidate prosperity,” he said.

Dr Shaikh Abdulla bin Ahmed Al Khalifa, Chairman of MEMTEC and Chairman of DERASAT

The students of New Millennium School-DPS donated BD 300 to the Batelco ‘Child Care Home’ raised through NMMUN (New Millennium Model United Nations Conference, 2019). The New Millennium School is the first CBSE School in the island, to host an International Model United Nations for two days, in which over 250 delegates from various schools across Bahrain participate every year.

The students of New Millennium School-DPS donated BD300 to THINK PINK group to support breast cancer awareness, education and care. The fund was raised through NMMUN (New Millennium Model United Nations Conference, 2019).

05

world

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1 , 2019

The idea of destroying the compound was at least in part

to ensure that it would not be a

shrine or otherwise memorable in

any way. It’s just another piece of

ground

GENERAL KENNETH MCKENZIE, THE COMMANDER OF US CENTRAL

COMMAND

This is how Baghdadi was killed US releases Baghdadi raid video, warns of likely retribution attack

• The most dramatic video showed a massive, black plume of smoke rising from the ground after US military bombs levelled Baghdadi’s compound

Reuters | Washington

The Pentagon on Wednes-day released its first im-ages from last weekend’s

commando raid in Syria that led to the death of Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and warned the militant group may attempt to stage a “retribu-tion attack.”

The declassified, grainy, black-and-white aerial videos from Saturday’s raid showed US spe-cial operations forces closing in on the compound and US aircraft firing on militants nearby.

The most dramatic video showed a massive, black plume of smoke rising from the ground after US military bombs levelled

Baghdadi’s compound.“It looks pretty much like a

parking lot, with large potholes,” said Marine General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of US Central Command, which oversees American forces in the Middle East.

McKenzie, briefing Pentagon reporters, said the idea of de-

stroying the compound was at least in part “to ensure that it would not be a shrine or other-wise memorable in any way.

“It’s just another piece of ground,” he said.

Baghdadi an Iraqi jihadist who rose from obscurity to declare himself “caliph” of Islamic State, died by detonating a suicide vest

as he fled into a dead-end tunnel as elite US special forces closed in.

McKenzie said he brought two young children into the tunnel with him - not three, as had been the US government estimate. Both children were believed to be under the age of 12 and both were killed, he said.

He portrayed Baghdadi as iso-lated at his Syrian compound, just four miles from the Turkish border, saying fighters from oth-er militant groups nearby prob-ably did not even know he was there. McKenzie suggested it was unlikely that Baghdadi used the Internet or had digital con-nections to the outside world.

“I think you’d find (he was using) probably a messenger system that allows you to put something on a floppy or on a bit of electronics and have someone physically move it somewhere,” he said.

McKenzie said Islamic State would likely try to stage some kind of retaliatory attack.

“We suspect they will try some form of retribution attack. And

we are postured and prepared for that,” he said.

Whimpering and crying?McKenzie did not back up or

knock down Trump’s dramat-ic account of Baghdadi’s final moments, which the president delivered during a televised ad-dress to the nation on Sunday. Trump said Baghdadi “died a coward — crying, whimpering, screaming.”

Asked about Trump’s account, McKenzie said: “About Baghda-di’s last moments, I can tell you this: He crawled into a hole with two small children and blew himself up as his people stayed on the ground.”

“So you can deduce what kind of person he is based on that activity... I’m not able to con-firm anything else about his last seconds. I just can’t confirm that one way or another.”

On Monday, Army Gener-al Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also declined to confirm Trump’s account, saying he presumed Trump got that information

from his direct conversations with members of the elite unit that conducted the operation. Milley had not yet spoken with them, he said.

McKenzie suggested the US military had secured a large amount of intelligence about Islamic State’s activities during the raid.

“While the assault force was securing the remains, they also secured whatever documenta-tion and electronics we could find, which was substantial,” McKenzie said, declining to pro-vide further details.

McKenzie said Turkey’s in-cursion into Syria this month, and the US pullback from the border, was not a factor in de-ciding the timing of the raid. Instead, McKenzie pointed to a host of other factors, including the amount of moonlight.

“We struck because the time is about right to do it then, given the totality of the intelligence and the other factors that would affect the raid force going into and coming out,” McKenzie said.

Screengrab obtained from a video released by Pentagon of Saturday’s raid showing US special operation forces closing on the compound as US aircrafts fires on militants

Fire engulfs Pakistani train, killing 73, injuring 40Reuters | Islamabad

A fire swept through a Paki-stani train yesterday, kill-

ing 73 people and injuring near-ly 40 after a gas canister that passengers were using to cook breakfast exploded, government officials said.

The fire destroyed three of the train’s carriages near the town of Rahim Yar Khan in the south of Punjab province. It was on its way from the southern city of Karachi to Rawalpindi, near the capital, with many people going to a religious conference.

It was the worst disaster on Pakistan’s accident-plagued rail-way system in nearly 15 years.

“Two stoves blew up when people were cooking breakfast, the presence of kerosene with the passengers in the moving train further spread the fire,” Minister for Railways Sheikh

Rashid Ahmed told Geo tele-vision.

Many of the dead were killed when they leapt from the mov-ing train to escape the flames,

he said.People sneaking stoves onto

trains to prepare meals on long journeys is a common problem, the minister said.

But several survivors ques-tioned whether the fire was sparked by a cooking accident, telling media they believed the cause was a short-circuit in the train’s electrical system.

Television pictures showed fire and black smoke pouring from the train’s windows after it came to a stop on a stretch of line flanked by fields.

“People were jumping off, some of them were on fire,” a witness told Geo.

The death toll had risen to 73, with some victims burned be-yond recognition, said the dep-uty commissioner of the district, Jameel Ahmad.

“We’ll have to carry out DNA tests,” Ahmad told Reuters.

Nearly 40 people were in-

jured, many with serious burns, he said.

Many of the passengers were heading to a conference or-ganised by the Tablighi Jamaat Sunni Muslim missionary move-ment, officials said.

P r i m e M i n i s t e r I m r a n Khan said he was deeply saddened.

“I have ordered an immediate inquiry to be completed on an urgent basis,” Khan said in a post on Twitter.

Pakistan’s colonial-era railway network has fallen into disrepair in recent decades due to chron-ic under-investment and poor maintenance, and accidents are common.

About 130 people were killed in 2005 when a train rammed into another at a station in Sindh province, and a third train hit the wreckage.

People and rescue workers gather near the site after a fire broke out in a passenger train and destroyed three carriages near the town of Rahim Yar Khan, Pakistan

Fire burns a train carriage after a gas canister passengers were using to cook breakfast exploded

Arab News | Dubai

French-Egyptian artist Hoda Tawakol’s first Dubai exhibit, which

is ran at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde earlier this year, is a timely contribution to the ever-evolving feminism dis-course.

Tawakol, whose work has been featured at the gallery since November, was inspired by her experiences growing up in France, Germany and Egypt.

Tawakol has made a name for herself through the use of hand-dyed and sewn textile pieces, sculptures, fabric col-lages and works on paper.

Her work, which mimics female cycles of life in an at-tempt to deconstruct stereo-types, is inspired by the fem-inist movement of the 1970s.

In fact, interwoven with-in her artwork are feminist ideals and blatant critiques of patriarchy.

Like many, Tawakol wish-es to quell the expectations placed on women.

Her collection, entitled “Dolls,” is an expression of anger at women being objec-tified.

In “Lures,” she uses a fal-

conry hood, a tool normally used to calm the birds of prey, to symbolize the way in which men oppress powerful women they wish to subdue.

Her artwork is masterfully done. It is symbolic and almost interactive in a way that sim-ple paintings cannot be.

The pieces are so eye-catch-ing, indeed, mesmerizing, not least through her use of cap-tivating colour schemes, that they almost beckon a response.

The exhibition is named after the main piece on dis-play, a tapestry of black and red-coloured fabric from her

series “Palm Trees.”The piece features hand-

dyed textiles in Tawakol’s sig-nature style. The series, which she began in 2015, is inspired by her multi-cultural child-hood.

“Palm trees make me nostal-gic,” the artist said. “They sym-bolize the Egypt of the 1940s and 1950s, the era of glamor, the golden age that I didn’t experience. At the same age, my playground in Europe had another kind of palm grove I found in the Palmengarten, a botanical garden in Frankfurt in Germany.”

Arab News | Dubai

For an exhibition that only opened in June, “On Scams” has been a long time coming. Twenty years,

in fact.As Joana Hadjithomas tells it, she

and her partner, Khalil Joreige, first started the collection of scam emails that inspired their solo exhibition — held at The Powerplant in Toronto until September — back in 1999.

“At that time, we were new to the In-ternet, and we didn’t know what (this email) was. We were really surprised to receive it. I don’t remember who it was, but it was the son of someone famous, you know? A president, or a dictator. We thought, like, ‘Why is he writing to us and proposing money?’ So we kept that mail.”

It was the start of an extensive col-lection, as the two (like most Internet users) began to receive more and more emails promising astonishing wealth in return for a small outlay to help trans-fer riches from a war-torn country, or disaster area.

“These days, we’re used to the idea of receiving mail from people we don’t know and will never see — but at the time, this virtual correspondence was so interesting,” says Hadjithomas. “Without really understanding why, we kept them.”

That’s a measure of the natural curi-osity that has long fuelled the two art-ists’ work. Whether they’re producing fictional or documentary films, instal-lations, or “whatever,” Hadjithomas explains, “it is usually based on very long, in-depth research.”

Their interest in scam emails was particularly piqued, she says, by the

carefully structured narratives they typically contained.

“They were built like a story: the set-up, these identities — the wife of Yasser Arafat, or someone… there was always a story, a kind of melodrama — people are killed, or they’re dying of cancer… all these stories. And then, suddenly, they ask you for money! They ask you to help them, but you are the chosen one. It’s a very specific relationship — you’re the one they chose after long research. So we were really fascinated by them.”

Joreige and Hadjithomas ended up with a collection of over 4,000 scam emails, she says. And their research revealed that they were based on a long tradition of such schemes, which

the Internet helped to expand into the global phenomenon we know today.

“One of the works we’re showing in Toronto now is called “The Jerusalem Letter.” At the end of the 18th century in France, a kind of hoax appeared. It’s structured exactly like the scams of today — it was at the time of the French revolution, so you’d have peo-ple saying, ‘We had to escape from the revolutionaries, and we left a lot of money that we hid. If you can help us, we’ll give you 10 percent of this money.’ It’s all based on the same tradition. And these scams seem to appear at specific times, when, politically, there is a mo-ment of confusion.

“They surf on revolutions, political problems, economic crises, ecological

disasters… For example, when there’s a problem in Haiti, you’ll suddenly see a lot of scams coming from Haiti — or from Russia, or from Africa, or Iraq,” she continues. “We had, like, 12 years of scamming, and you can see they’re almost writing a parallel history of the world.”

It was this idea of a parallel history that inspired the duo to create many of the works in “On Scams.”

“All of those things have interested me and Khalil for many years — the presentation and writing of history,” Hadjithomas says, adding that they were also interested in “how to give a physicality to something totally vir-tual,” and in “what we could do with something people usually just trash.”

One of the things they did was ask 36 amateur actors from Beirut, many of whom were immigrants, to recite some of the scams on film for a piece called “The Rumour of the World.”

“We chose nationalities that were close to the emails. It was really fas-cinating, because there’s a connec-tion that you build with them through those scams,” says Hadjithomas. “They would try to really sell it — looking at you through the camera. And we wanted to see at what moment you would believe them — or stop believing them. As filmmakers, we’re obviously very interested in the notion of be-lief. How do you imagine corruption? Why would you believe in some scams rather than others? Why is corruption more plausible, to you, in some coun-tries rather than others? In a way, it’s a kind of colonial way of seeing the world: Corruption is more possible in Africa or the Middle East than it is in Europe or North America. Why? Those

notions were interesting to us.”“The Rumor of the World” is an au-

dio-visual installation with 18 screens, on each of which are two actors read-ing their scam scripts. “You feel this mix of people talking, (and it’s con-

fusing). But if you choose one person and really try to listen to what they say, you’ll be able to hear them very distinctly. It’s all about how we’re bom-barded with (information) and we don’t really know what’s going on, but if you take the time to stop and listen to one person, there will be a kind of encounter. Of course, this person is trying to scam you — but it’s saying a lot about the state of the world as well,” Hadjithomas explains.

The idea she mentioned earlier — that certain countries are perceived as more likely bases for corruption than others — is backed up by “The Geometry of Space” — a series of large-scale, oxidized steel structures that trace the “geographical trajectories” of hundreds of scams collected by the artists over the years. “It’s a beautiful sculpture, but it’s a strange one,” Had-jithomas says. “It becomes very clear, as you see the sculptures, which coun-tries people are easily able to imagine corruption is possible — not just the

people who are scammed, but also the scammers.”

In another installation, “It’s All Real,” many of the same actors from “The Rumor of the World” tell their real-life stories on film. “We tried to understand this notion of extraterri-toriality that is essential in the scams but is also so present in many people now living in many countries. It’s an interesting example of these multiple identities and the way people are torn by them.”

Throughout the show, fiction and reality are blurred. “The exhibition is kind of a film that unfolds, and it’s not really clear who the victim is, who’s playing a role, who’s telling the truth, you know? Because nothing is really clear anymore,” Hadjithomas says. “How come, now, we have this doubt all the time? How come it’s so difficult to believe? We take all these precau-tions, and we still have this doubt. Nothing is really clear anymore. This is how we live.”

YOU DON’T CHANGE THE COURSE OF HISTORY BY TURNING THE FACES OF PORTRAITS TO THE WALL.JAWAHARLAL NEHRU

1755 19161894 2012TODAY IN HISTORYQUOTE

OF THE DAYFRIDAY

Palm trees make

me nostalgic. They symbolize the Egypt of

the 1940s and 1950s, the era of glamor,

the golden age that I didn’t experience.

At the same age, my playground in Europe

had another kind of palm grove I found in the Palmengarten, a botanical garden in

Frankfurt in GermanyHODA TAWAKOL

NOVEMBER 1, 2019

Joana Hadjithomas and her partner, Khalil Joreige, conducted an

exhibition inspired by scam emails

Artist Hoda Tawakol’s first exhibit in Dubai is about the ever-evolving feminism discourse

Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected] & circulation: Tel: 36458394 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

Lisbon earthquake kills more than 50,000 in Portugal

Paul Miliukov delivers in the Russian State Duma the famous “stupidity or treason” speech, precipitating the downfall of the Boris Stürmer government.

Vaccine for diph-theria announced by Dr Roux of Paris

Scientists detect evidence of light from the universe’s first stars, predicted to have formed 500 million years after the big bang

T H E C O N A R T I S T SF A B R I C

Lebanese artists set up exhibition on scam emails

Joreige and Hadjithomas ended up with a collection of over 4,000 scam emails. And their research

revealed that they were based on a long tradition of such schemes, which the Internet helped to ex-

pand into the global phenomenon we know today

Hoda Tawakol’s work, which mimics female cycles of life

in an attempt to deconstruct stereotypes, is inspired by the feminist movement of

the 1970s

Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas

Artist interweaves feminist ideals with textiles

Artefacts at the exhibition

A work by the couple

Hoda Tawakol

‘Jungle #1’ by artist Hoda Tawakol, from her collection ‘Palm Trees,’ on display at Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde in Dubai

A work by Khalil Joreige and Joana Hadjithomas

Artefacts at the exhibition

Work by Hoda Tawakol at an exhibition

KNOW WHAT

08

business

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2019

Bahrain Polytechnic University, Infonas join hands

TDT | Manama

Bahrain Polytechnic and In-fonas announced joining

hands for a “Student Gradua-tion Projects” programme.

Welcoming Infonas, Sheikh Khalid bin Khalifa Al Khali-fa, Head of Industrial Liaison

at Bahrain Polytechnic, said the partnership will support undergraduates from various fields in developing their grad-uation projects.

Dr Christos Gatsolis, Head School of IT, and Ahmed Al-Sayegh, Head of Business Strategy were present.

Officials during a photocall

Batelco, GBI strengthen partnership

TDT | Manama

Batelco, a leading digital solutions provider and

Gulf Bridge International (GBI), a global cloud, connec-tivity and content enabler, have reaffirmed their part-nership during a meeting at Capacity Europe 2019.

Europe’s largest event unit-ing the Global Connectivity industry, Capacity Europe took place at InterContinental Lon-don - The O2, from 28 to 31 October.

Commenting on the expect-ed to produce competitive prices for customers, Batelco CEO Mikkel Vinter said the move will enable Batelco to deliver enhanced connectivity between the Middle East and

Europe and deliver high-per-formance services for our cus-tomers.”

“The capacity and diversi-ty of routes available through the partnership supports our objectives and vision for the growth of Global Zone, the neutral transit zone, and Ma-nama IX, the carrier-neutral internet traffic exchange plat-form, both located in the King-dom of Bahrain,” added

Batelco Chief Global Busi-ness Officer Adel Al-Daylami.

Both the GBI and BGN Net-works are supported by Batel-co’s 24/7 Network Operations Centre (NOC).

GBI CEO Cengiz Oztelcan said he looks forward to con-tinuing with the close working relationship to deliver value for customers.

Batelco Chief Global Business Officer Adel Al-Daylami and GBI CEO Cengiz Oztelcan during their meeting at Capacity Europe 2019

Boeing says up to 50 planes grounded globally over cracks• Australian national carrier Qantas became the latest airline to take one of the planes out of the air

• Boeing had previously reported a problem with the model’s “pickle fork”

• Boeing spokesperson yesterday said in Sydney that less than five percent of 1,000 planes had crack

Sydney

Boeing announced yester-day up to 50 of its popular 737NG planes had been

grounded after cracks in them were detected, in another blow to the US aircraft maker follow-ing two deadly crashes.

Australian national carrier Qantas became the latest airline to take one of the planes out of the air, as it said it would urgent-ly inspect 32 others but insisted passengers had nothing to fear.

The announcement by Qan-tas came after authorities in Seoul said nine of the planes were grounded in South Korea in early October, including five operated by Korean Air.

Boeing had previously report-ed a problem with the model’s “pickle fork” -- a part which helps bind the wing to the fu-selage.

This prompted US regulators to early this month order imme-diate inspections of aircraft that had seen heavy use.

Following the Qantas an-nouncement, a Boeing spokes-person yesterday said in Sydney that less than five percent of 1,000 planes had cracks de-tected and were grounded for repair.

The spokesperson did not give an exact figure, though five

percent equates to 50 planes of 1,000 inspected.

Boeing and Qantas stressed travellers should not be con-cerned.

“We would never operate an aircraft unless it was completely safe to do so,” Qantas head of engineering Chris Snook said.

But the discovery has height-ened fears that the scale of the 737NGs’ problem may have been underestimated.

The US Federal Aviation Ad-ministration had initially or-dered immediate checks of Boe-ing 737NG planes that had flown more than 30,000 times.

But Qantas said it had found the fault in a more lightly used aircraft than those singled out for early checks; one that had recorded fewer than 27,000 flights.

“This aircraft has been re-moved from service for repair,” Qantas said in a statement, add-ing it had hastened its inspec-tions of 32 other 737NG planes to be completed by Friday.

The airline said it generally used the aircraft on domestic routes, flying primarily between major cities as well as short-er-haul trips to New Zealand.

Safety problemA spokesman for Australia’s

aviation regulator said the in-dustry response was about “nip-ping a potential safety problem in the bud by taking proactive action now”.

Australia’s Virgin Airways also conducted checks on its 17 Boeing 737NG planes and did not find any issues, the regulator spokesman added.

But there were calls for Qan-tas to ground its entire 737 fleet until checks were complete.

“These aircraft should be kept safe on the ground until urgent

inspections are completed”, an engineers’ union representa-tive, Steve Purvinas, said in a statement.

Qantas described the call to ground its 737 fleet as “com-pletely irresponsible”.

“Even when a crack is pres-ent, it does not immediately compromise the safety of the aircraft,” said Snook.

A Boeing spokesperson said the company “regrets the im-pact” the issue was having on its customers and was “work-ing around the clock” to fix the problem.

“Boeing is actively working with customers that have air-planes in their fleets with in-spection findings to develop a repair plan, and to provide parts and technical support as neces-sary,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

Boeing is still trying to restore its safety reputation after two 737 MAX crashes last year that killed 346 people and highlight-ed problems with the planes’ flight handling software.

Boeing chief executive Den-nis Muilenburg faced another round of tough questions on Wednesday from US lawmak-ers who accused the company of a “lack of candour” over the crashes.

A Boeing 737NG aircraft (Courtesy of RT)

The NG is a precur-sor plane to the Boeing 737 MAX, which has been

grounded since mid-March following the two deadly crashes

in Indonesia and Ethiopia.

China to launch 5G services todayReuters | Beijing

China’s three state telecoms yesterday announced the

roll-out 5G mobile phone ser-vices, marking a key step in Beijing’s ambitions to become a technology superpower at a time when it remains locked in trade tensions with Wash-ington.

China Mobile’s, China Uni-com and China Telecom’s said on their websites and online

stores that 5G plans, which start from as low as 128 yuan a month, will be available from Friday, allowing Chinese con-sumers nationwide to use the ultra-fast mobile internet service. Authorities have said that they plan to install over 50,000 5G base stations across 50 Chinese cities by the end of this year including Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, and Hangzhou, which are already covered by the 5G network.

As part of the activities of the US Embassy’s Discover America Week 2019 in Bahrain, American Ambassador Justin Siberell toured a number of US brand hotels and department Store at the City Center Mall on Tuesday. Sammy Gani General Manager of Saks Fifth Avenue, and Senior Division Manager Mark Asfahani both welcomed Ambassador Siberell. The Ambassador also met with staff at the Westin Hotel, The Le Meriden Hotel and Saks Fifth Avenue Store, and highlighted the long history of America’s commercial relationship with Bahrain. He underscored the enduring presence of some American companies in Bahrain, as well as the incredible variety of new entrants into the market.

I MUNIRATHNAMMA D/O MUNIYAPPA, holding INDIAN PASSPORT NO. T6502567 dated 19/06/2019 issued at BENGALURU having permanent address at NO. 76 HADONAHALLI POST, THOGARIGHATTA, DODDABALLAPURA TALUK, BENGALURU RURAL, PIN 561205, KARNATAKA, INDIA presently residing at HOUSE 63, BLOCK 939, FLAT 11, EAST RIFFA will henceforth be known as : MUNI (surname)RATHNAMMA .Objection(s) if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O Box 26106, Bldg 1090, Road 2819, Block 428, Al Seef, Kingdom of Bahrain.

TERMINATOR: DARK FATE (PG-15)اااااا OASIS JUFFAIR :12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (VIP): 11.30 AM + 5.15 + 11.00 PMCITY CENTRE: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 + 12.00 MN+ (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)CITY CENTRE (ATMOS): 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 + 12.00 MN CITY CENTRE (IMAX 2D) :12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PMCITY CENTRE VIP (I): 12.00 + 2.45 + 5.30 + 8.15 + 11.00 PMSEEF (I) : 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PMSEEF (II) : (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)WADI AL SAIL: 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PMSAAR: 11.45 AM + 2.30 + 5.15 + 8.00 + (10.45 PM THURS/FRI)

LINDA HAMILTON, ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER, MACKENZIE DAVIS

THE ADDAMS FAMILY (PG)(ANIMATIONOASIS JUFFAIR (KIDS CINEMA): 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 5.30 + 10.00 PMCITY CENTRE:11.30 AM + 1.30 + 3.30 + 5.30 + 7.30 + 9.30 + 11.30 PMCITY CENTRE:(3D)11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00 PMSEEF (II):11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00 PMWADI AL SAIL:11.15 AM + 1.15 + 3.15 + 5.15 + 7.15 + 9.15 + 11.15 PMSAAR: 11.15 AM + 1.15 + 3.15 + 5.15 + 7.15 + 9.15 + (11.15 PM THURS/FRI)

OSCAR ISAAC, CHARLIZE THERON, CHLOË GRACE MORETZ

MOTHERLESS BROOKLYN (PG-15)OASIS JUFFAIR : 12.45 + 6.15 + 11.45 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (VIP): 2.15 + 8.00 PMCITY CENTRE:11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PM + (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)SEEF (II):11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 PM + (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)WADI AL SAIL:11.15 AM + 2.15 + 5.15 + 8.15 + 11.15 PMSAAR: 12.30 + 5.30 + (10.30 PM THURS/FRI)

BRUCE WILLIS, EDWARD NORTON, GUGU MBATHA-RAW

POMS (PG-15)(COMEDY/DRAMA)CITY CENTRE:12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 + 12.00 MNSEEF (II):2.30 + 7.00 + 11.30 PMSAAR: 10.30 AM + 3.30 + 8.30 PM

DIANE KEATON, JACKI WEAVER, PAM GRIER

ISA PA WITH FEELINGS (PG-13)OASIS JUFFAIR :1.00 + 5.15 + 9.30 PMSEEF (I):12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 + 12.00 MN

MAINE MENDOZA, CARLO AQUINO, CRIS VILLANUEVA

UNFORGETTABLE (PG) (FILIPINO/DRAMA)SEEF (I):11.30 AM+ 1.15 + 3.00 + 4.45 + 6.30 + 8.15 + 10.00 + 11.45 PM

SARAH GERONIMO, GINA PAREÑO, ARA MINA

UJDA CHAMAN (PG-13) (HINDI/COMEDY/DRAMA) SEEF (II):12.00 + 4.30 + 9.00 PM

GAGAN ARORA, ABHILASH CHAUDHARY, MAANVI GAGROO

MALEFICENT 2: MISTRESS OF EVIL (PG)OASIS JUFFAIR :10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PMOASIS JUFFAIR (KIDS CINEMA):3.00 + 7.30 PMCITY CENTRE: 10.30 AM + 11.30 AM + 1.00 + 2.00 + 3.30 + 4.30 + 6.00 + 7.00 + 8.30 + 9.30 + 11.00 PM 12.00 MNCITY CENTRE VIP (II):1.15 + 6.30 + 11.45 PMSEEF (II): 11.00 AM + 12.00 + 1.30 + 2.30 + 4.00 + 5.00 + 6.30 + 7.30 + 9.00 + 10.00 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PMSAAR:10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 PM + (11.00 PM THURS/FRI)

ANGELINA JOLIE, TERESA MAHONEY, MICHELLE PFEIFFER

JOKER (15+)(THRILLER/CRIME/DRAMA) اااااا OASIS JUFFAIR:3.45 + 9.15 PM CITY CENTRE: 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PM + (12.30 MN THURS./FRI.)CITY CENTRE VIP (II):10.30 AM + 3.45 + 9.00 PMSEEF (II):11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 + 12.00 MNWADI AL SAIL:10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PM

JOAQUIN PHOENIX, ZAZIE BEETZ, ROBERT DE NIRO

HOUSEFULL 4 (PG-15)(HINDI/COMEDYOASIS JUFFAIR:11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 PMCITY CENTRE:10.30 AM + 3.45 + 9.00 PMSEEF (I):11.45 AM + 2.45 + 5.45 + 8.45 + 11.45 PM

AKSHAY KUMAR, POOJA HEGDE, RITEISH DESHMUKH

COUNTDOWN (15+)(HORROR/THRILLER) اااااااا اااا CITY CENTRE: 12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 + 12.00 MN SEEF (II):1.45 + 6.30 + 11.15 PMWADI AL SAIL: 11.30 AM + 1.30 + 3.30 + 5.30 + 7.30 + 9.30 + 11.30 PM

CHARLIE MCDERMOTT, ANNE WINTERS, ELIZABETH LAIL

GEMINI MAN (PG-15)(ACTION/THRILLER/DRAMA) ااااااCITY CENTRE: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PMSEEF (II):11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM

WILL SMITH, MARY ELIZABETH WINSTEAD, CLIVE OWEN

ABOMINABLE (PG)(ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) CITY CENTRE: 11.30 AM+ 1.45 + 4.00 + 6.15 + 8.30 + 10.45 PMSEEF (II): 11.00 AM + 1.15 + 3.30 + 5.45 PM

CHLOE BENNET, TENZING NORGAY TRAINOR, ALBERT TSAI

ZOMBIELAND: DOUBLE TAP (15+) CITY CENTRE: 1.30 + 6.45 + 12.00 MN

WOODY HARRELSON, JESSE EISENBERG, EMMA STONE

BORN A KING (PG)(DRAMA/HISTORY/BIOGRAPHY) ااا CITY CENTRE: 1.15 + 5.45 + 10.15 PMSEEF (II): 8.00 + 10.15 PM

ABDULLAH ALI, RAWKAN BINBELLA, ED SKREIN

ANGEL HAS FALLEN (PG-15)(ACTION/THRILLER/DRAMA) CITY CENTRE :1.45 + 6.45 + 11.45 PM

GERARD BUTLER, MORGAN FREEMAN, JADA PINKETT SMITH

DORA AND THE LOST CITY OF GOLD (PG)CITY CENTRE:11.00 AM + 3.30 + 8.00 PM

ISABELA MONER, Q’ORIANKA KILCHER, BENICIO DEL TORO

KHAYAL MAATA (PG)(COMEDY/DRAMA) اااا اااا CITY CENTRE :11.15 AM + 4.15 + 9.15 PM

AHMAD HELMY, MINNA SHALABI, HASSAN HOSNEY

BIGIL (PG-13)(TAMIL) OASIS JUFFAIR : 10.45 + 2.00 + 5.15 + 8.30 + 11.45 PMSEEF (I):10.30 AM + 1.45 + 5.00 + 8.15 + 11.30 PMAL HAMRA:12.00 + 6.00 PM

VIJAY, NAYANTHARA, JACKIE SHROFF

DAAKA (PG-13)(PUNJABI/ACTION) SEEF (II):11.00 AM + 3.45 + 8.30 PM

GIPPY GREWAL, ZAREEN KHAN

KAITHI (PG-15)(TAMIL) OASIS JUFFAIR: 12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + 11.15 PMSEEF (I):10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 + 12.00 MNAL HAMRA: 3.15 + 9.15 + (12.00 MN THURS./FRI)

KARTHI, NARAIN, GEORGE MARYAN

EDAKKAD BATTALION 06 (PG-15)OASIS JUFFAIR : 10.45 AM + 3.00 + 7.15 + 11.30 PM

TOVINO THOMAS, SAMYUKTHA MENON, SHALU RAHIM


CHANGE OF NAME

C L A S S I F I E D SM O V I E R E V I E W

Motherless Brooklyn: Edward Norton’s weighty labour of loveEdward Norton directs and stars (along with Gugu Mbatha-Raw and Alec Baldwin) in a big, ambitious adaptation of Jonathan Lethem’s prizewinning novel

Someday, not now, but soon, you should make a point of seeing “Motherless Brook-

lyn.” No, not the whole thing — no one deserves that kind of punishment. But do try to see 10 or 15 minutes of it, because this film is amazing, and not in a good way.

It’s far from the worst movie ever produced, but it’s a one-of-a-kind disaster, and therefore interesting. At the same time, it illustrates a couple of general principles: that sometimes the lunatics really shouldn’t be run-ning the asylum (that is, actors aren’t always the best at choos-ing their own projects), and that there are levels of awfulness that can only be achieved through sincere effort.

Based on the novel by Jon-athan Lethem, “Motherless Brooklyn” has been a dream project of Edward Norton’s for the better part of two decades. He wrote the film, directed it and stars in it. And so in the first scene we find him, sitting in a car. It’s 1950s New York, and he and another guy are waiting

for somebody. Then it happens: Norton bugs his eyes, opens his mouth wide and strains and twists his neck. He is Li-onel, a low-level detective with Tourette’s syndrome.

In this early scene, Lionel and an associate are there to lend protection, if needed, to their boss, who’s played by Bruce Wil-lis. The boss is heading into a meeting, and their job is to listen in, just in case things go bad. As they listen — and as they race to intercede, and as they engage in a fairly well-executed chase

scene — Lionel keeps blurting out crazy nonsense, uncontrol-lably. It’s as though there were something inside him, heckling him and, in effect, the movie.

Perhaps, like all good actors, Norton wanted to give himself a challenge, and playing a char-acter with Tourette’s sounded like a good one. But, for reasons that become obvious within a minute, at most, there’s a big difference between presenting this kind of protagonist in a book and presenting him onscreen.

In a book, for example, the

reader can assume that, in every dramatic scene, the hero is probably twitching and blurt-ing away, as usual, but that the writer is not telling us about it, because it’s not essential in-formation at that moment. In a movie, however, we’re looking right at the guy, so if he goes more than a minute or two without a spasm, we wonder why. Even if we’re happy that he stopped, we’re dreading and expecting him to do it again, and in “Motherless Brooklyn,” he always does it again. And again.

There are times when Nor-ton is meant to appear tough, but still he’s blurting, and oth-er scenes when he’s blurting away, even as he is supposed-ly impressing a woman (Gugu Mbatha-Raw). He has a meeting with a corrupt, megalomania-cal city planner, “Moses Ran-dolph” (a not so subtle stand-in for the polarizing developer Robert Moses), and he’s meant to be seen, by the audience, as formidable, but the tics work against that. One scene after the

other borders on the ridiculous, but enough not to laugh, just to frustrate.

Yet even this spectacle, of Norton trying to guide himself to a disease-driven Academy Award, might have been toler-able, if only the story had some drive. Essentially, the movie is about a murder investigation, undertaken by Lionel, who pos-es as a newspaper reporter. The investigation takes him into a Harlem jazz club and to the se-cret lairs of the most powerful people in the city.

Norton’s goal here is clear and not unworthy, to use the story as an entry point for showing the variety of New York life as it existed on the eve of the modern era. But the story can’t be used in this way, because it can’t sustain interest. Lionel has no reason for doing the investigation. There’s no personal motive and nothing at stake for him either way. I suppose one might justify his curiosity in terms of his disor-der, that it impels him to find the answers to every mystery. But just to say that is to acknowledge

that, absent a neurological dis-order, he and the audience have no reason to care about anything that’s discovered and anything that happens in the movie.

“I don’t even know what I’m after anymore,” Lionel says of his investigation. He says it two-thirds in, but long before then, we feel the same way. Still, he keeps at it for a full 144 minutes of screen time, because, if you’re going to torture an audience, half measures won’t cut it.

Edward Norton in ‘Motherless Brooklyn’

Katy Perry sued for USD 150,000 over old Halloween pictureANI | Los Angeles

Singer Katy Perry has b e e n s u e d f o r US D

150,000 by a photo agency for copyright infringement.

The pop- star has been sued over a paparazzi pic-ture that she shared on her Instagram page in 2016.

In the picture, the singer is seen completely trans-formed into Hillary Clinton for a Halloween costume party. It also showed one of her friend dressed as Bill Clinton. (Perry’s now-fi-ance, Orlando Bloom, was a cartoonish version of Pres-ident Trump.)

“BILL & HILL 4EVA,” the ‘Dark

Horse’ singer captioned the picture, which remained on her Instagram profile as of Wednesday afternoon and had over 558,000 likes.

Backgrid, the photo agen-cy that owns the rights to the image, claimed that they contacted the singer mul-tiple times from 2017 to as recently as early this month about her use of the snap. Still, representatives of the

singer have failed to pay the agency to license the photo, according to E! News.

This is not the first time that the 35-year-old singer has been slammed with any

l i t igat ion. Just last month, the 13-time Gram-my- n o m i n e e and her col-l a b o r a t o r s w e r e o r -d e r e d t o fork over US D 2.7 8 million af-ter a fed-eral jury f o u n d

that she’d copied one of her hit songs, reported Fox News.

558,000 likes were earned

by the image posted on Katy Perry’s

Instagram profile as of Wednesday afternoon


celebs

Taylor Swift to receive honour at AMA

ANI | Los Angeles

Taylor Swift is set to take home a major honour next month.

The ‘Love Story’ singer will be hailed as the Artist of the Decade at the 2019 American Music Awards, which will be aired on November 24 on ABC. During the show, the singer will take the centre stage to perform some of the biggest hits from her career.

With five nominations this year, the 29-year-old singer holds the record for the most AMA wins of any female artist ever, and she has claimed more wins this decade than any other performer.

“Taylor’s impact on music this decade is undeniable and her performances on the American Music Awards have been truly spectacular,” Mark Bracco, executive vice president of programming and develop-

ment at Dick Clark Productions, said in a statement, reported People Magazine.

“We’re thrilled to honour her as our Artist of the Decade and can’t wait for her to blow everyone away with an epic, career-spanning performance unlike any other!”

Swift is gearing up to the mark created

by late pop-icon Michael Jackson who has one recorded 24 AMA wins, and she already holds the record in the Artist of the Year category with four previous wins.

This year’s AMAs, which will be hosted by the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, will honour the decade that’s coming to a close, with performances that celebrate music moments from the 2010s across various genres.

KNOW WHAT

Taylor Swift has already picked up 23 American Music Awards

during her career, with this award equalling Michael Jack-

son’s tally of 24

Grande’s Halloween look is inspired by ‘The Twilight Zone’ANI | Los Angeles

After sharing glimpses of her spooky Halloween

attire, Ariana Grande finally unveiled her complete look in a recent post.

Inspired by a 1960 ‘The Twilight Zone’ episode called ‘Eye of the Beholder,’ the 26-year-old singer dressed as a woman in the episode who undergoes a series of surgeries to look “normal,” reported E-News.

But when her fa-cial bandages are removed and it ’s revealed that she’s been beautiful all along, the sur-geons--whose body parts are disfigured and pig-like--deem the surgery a fail. Much to the woman’s horror, she’s then exiled

to a village where such pretty features aren’t so out of the ordinary.

Ariana added her own unique spin to the look

by rocking her sig-nature ponytail and sexily posing for the camera.

“final procedure was a success,”

the singer cap-tioned the ee-rie picture on

Instagram.T h e

‘ ’ O n e L a s t T i m e ’

singer was not the only

one to go out of the box for the Halloween eve, e v e n K a r l i e Kloss went just as above and beyond as a doll

which will send chills down your spine.

Emilia Clarke reacts to fans naming their kids after ‘GoT’ charactersANI | Los Angeles

‘Game of Thrones’ might have con-

cluded but the fren-zied fans are unable to get over the hit HBO series.

Emilia Clarke who played the role of

Daenerys Targaryen in the series opened up about what happens when she meets crazy fans across the globe.

At the New York City premiere of her upcom-

ing film ‘Last Christmas,’ also starring ac-tor Henry Golding, Clarke caught up with E! News to talk about her new romantic flick, Halloween, her brief stint in the Star Wars universe and of course, ‘GoT.’

Clarke, who looked beautiful in a gor-geous dazzling purple strappy Valentino dress, couldn’t seem to avoid talking about the popular series.

She shared with E! News that whenever she meets fans, she always gets bombard-ed with theories on what fans “would have liked to have happened in season eight as opposed to what happened so there’s a lot of that.”

Some theories, she said, are “fascinat-ing, , truly... mind-blowingly brilliant.”

The 33-year-old star also shared her thoughts on fans naming their children after GoT character, Daenerys or Khalessi.

According to the Washington Post, at least 3,500 girls have been given one of those two names. Vulture also reports that in 2018 alone, the name Khaleesi ranked among the 1,000 most popular girl names, reported E! News.

“A lot of people did Khaleesi and Daen-erys... by the time someone’s called their child Khaleesi or Daenerys, they’re like four when season eight happened and so they no longer become the character but rather the child that they are... so that’s good,” Clarke told E! News. “They create their own identity.

Kylie Jenner files restraining order against trespasserANI | Los Angeles

Kylie Jenner filed a restraining order on Tuesday against a man who trespassed

on her property and tried to enter her house.According to the documents which were

obtained by E! News, the man made it through the 22-year-old star’s gated com-munity and got onto her driveway. When he reached her front door, he allegedly knocked on it and claimed that he was there to see

Jenner.However, before the situation

could get worse, Jenner’s secu-rity guard escorted the man off of her estate, and he was later arrested.

The trespasser has been or-dered to stay 100 yards away from the star, her property, workplace, and car reported E-News.

“I have suffered, and continue to suffer emotional distress,” Ky-

lie stated.Kylie’s one-year-old daugh-

ter, Stormi Webster, was present when the incident

happened.“I have a young child and

also fear for her safety,” Kylie said.

A court hearing is sched-uled for November 20.

Gomez denies reconciliation rumours after being spotted with ex

ANI | Los Angeles

Singer Selena Gomez recently shut down all

speculations of reconcil-iation after she was cap-tured with ex-boyfriend Samuel Krost.

The ‘Lose You to Love Me’ singer took to Insta-gram on Wednesday to shut down any theories

pertaining to her re-lationship status and confirmed that she is waiting for the perfect timing.

“I’m not dating an-yone,” she wrote.

“I’ve been single for two years. I’m on God’s timing, not mine.”

The 27-year-old singer has been open about her relationship status as of late, and she recently revealed that she’s in a great place and ready for love when love is ready for her, reported E! News.

“It’s also more beautiful for me be-cause I know exactly where I was when I wrote it and how I felt,” Selena shared with Ryan Seacrest about her new mu-sic. “Absolutely not. That wouldn’t have happened. It took me a long time to get through it. But, now it’s fun! I’m smiling! It’s so great,” she added.

Currently, the singer is busy promot-ing her new music in New York but stopped her busy schedule to grab a bit to eat with her ex Krost.

Stamos to lead upcoming series on Disney+ANI | Los Angeles

‘Fuller House’ actor John Stamos has landed the lead role in an upcoming

untitled Disney+ original series.T h e u p c o m i n g s h ow i s w r i t-

ten by David E. Kelly, who will also serve as the executive producer on the show with Dean Lorey, reported Deadline.

In the 10-episode series, Stamos will

star as a volatile Basketball coach who is sacked from his job following which he is to take teaching as well as coach-ing job at an elite all-girls private high school.

Disney+’s Agnes Chu termed the ac-tor as the “perfect” choice for this role saying, “John is absolutely perfect for this role, and we are thrilled that he’ll bring his incredible talent and heart to this project.”

Ariana Grande

Katy Perry

Kylie Jenner

Selena Gomez

Emilia Clarke

Taylor Swift

Katy Perry sued for USD 150,000 over old Halloween pictureANI | Los Angeles

Singer Katy Perry has b e e n s u e d f o r US D

150,000 by a photo agency for copyright infringement.

The pop- star has been sued over a paparazzi pic-ture that she shared on her Instagram page in 2016.

In the picture, the singer is seen completely trans-formed into Hillary Clinton for a Halloween costume party. It also showed one of her friend dressed as Bill Clinton. (Perry’s now-fi-ance, Orlando Bloom, was a cartoonish version of Pres-ident Trump.)

“BILL & HILL 4EVA,” the ‘Dark

Horse’ singer captioned the picture, which remained on her Instagram profile as of Wednesday afternoon and had over 558,000 likes.

Backgrid, the photo agen-cy that owns the rights to the image, claimed that they contacted the singer mul-tiple times from 2017 to as recently as early this month about her use of the snap. Still, representatives of the

singer have failed to pay the agency to license the photo, according to E! News.

This is not the first time that the 35-year-old singer has been slammed with any

l i t igat ion. Just last month, the 13-time Gram-my- n o m i n e e and her col-l a b o r a t o r s w e r e o r -d e r e d t o fork over US D 2.7 8 million af-ter a fed-eral jury f o u n d

that she’d copied one of her hit songs, reported Fox News.

558,000 likes were earned

by the image posted on Katy Perry’s

Instagram profile as of Wednesday afternoon


celebs

Taylor Swift to receive honour at AMA

ANI | Los Angeles

Taylor Swift is set to take home a major honour next month.

The ‘Love Story’ singer will be hailed as the Artist of the Decade at the 2019 American Music Awards, which will be aired on November 24 on ABC. During the show, the singer will take the centre stage to perform some of the biggest hits from her career.

With five nominations this year, the 29-year-old singer holds the record for the most AMA wins of any female artist ever, and she has claimed more wins this decade than any other performer.

“Taylor’s impact on music this decade is undeniable and her performances on the American Music Awards have been truly spectacular,” Mark Bracco, executive vice president of programming and develop-

ment at Dick Clark Productions, said in a statement, reported People Magazine.

“We’re thrilled to honour her as our Artist of the Decade and can’t wait for her to blow everyone away with an epic, career-spanning performance unlike any other!”

Swift is gearing up to the mark created

by late pop-icon Michael Jackson who has one recorded 24 AMA wins, and she already holds the record in the Artist of the Year category with four previous wins.

This year’s AMAs, which will be hosted by the Microsoft Theatre in Los Angeles, will honour the decade that’s coming to a close, with performances that celebrate music moments from the 2010s across various genres.

KNOW WHAT

Taylor Swift has already picked up 23 American Music Awards

during her career, with this award equalling Michael Jack-

son’s tally of 24

Grande’s Halloween look is inspired by ‘The Twilight Zone’ANI | Los Angeles

After sharing glimpses of her spooky Halloween

attire, Ariana Grande finally unveiled her complete look in a recent post.

Inspired by a 1960 ‘The Twilight Zone’ episode called ‘Eye of the Beholder,’ the 26-year-old singer dressed as a woman in the episode who undergoes a series of surgeries to look “normal,” reported E-News.

But when her fa-cial bandages are removed and it ’s revealed that she’s been beautiful all along, the sur-geons--whose body parts are disfigured and pig-like--deem the surgery a fail. Much to the woman’s horror, she’s then exiled

to a village where such pretty features aren’t so out of the ordinary.

Ariana added her own unique spin to the look

by rocking her sig-nature ponytail and sexily posing for the camera.

“final procedure was a success,”

the singer cap-tioned the ee-rie picture on

Instagram.T h e

‘ ’ O n e L a s t T i m e ’

singer was not the only

one to go out of the box for the Halloween eve, e v e n K a r l i e Kloss went just as above and beyond as a doll

which will send chills down your spine.

Emilia Clarke reacts to fans naming their kids after ‘GoT’ charactersANI | Los Angeles

‘Game of Thrones’ might have con-

cluded but the fren-zied fans are unable to get over the hit HBO series.

Emilia Clarke who played the role of

Daenerys Targaryen in the series opened up about what happens when she meets crazy fans across the globe.

At the New York City premiere of her upcom-

ing film ‘Last Christmas,’ also starring ac-tor Henry Golding, Clarke caught up with E! News to talk about her new romantic flick, Halloween, her brief stint in the Star Wars universe and of course, ‘GoT.’

Clarke, who looked beautiful in a gor-geous dazzling purple strappy Valentino dress, couldn’t seem to avoid talking about the popular series.

She shared with E! News that whenever she meets fans, she always gets bombard-ed with theories on what fans “would have liked to have happened in season eight as opposed to what happened so there’s a lot of that.”

Some theories, she said, are “fascinat-ing, , truly... mind-blowingly brilliant.”

The 33-year-old star also shared her thoughts on fans naming their children after GoT character, Daenerys or Khalessi.

According to the Washington Post, at least 3,500 girls have been given one of those two names. Vulture also reports that in 2018 alone, the name Khaleesi ranked among the 1,000 most popular girl names, reported E! News.

“A lot of people did Khaleesi and Daen-erys... by the time someone’s called their child Khaleesi or Daenerys, they’re like four when season eight happened and so they no longer become the character but rather the child that they are... so that’s good,” Clarke told E! News. “They create their own identity.

Kylie Jenner files restraining order against trespasserANI | Los Angeles

Kylie Jenner filed a restraining order on Tuesday against a man who trespassed

on her property and tried to enter her house.According to the documents which were

obtained by E! News, the man made it through the 22-year-old star’s gated com-munity and got onto her driveway. When he reached her front door, he allegedly knocked on it and claimed that he was there to see

Jenner.However, before the situation

could get worse, Jenner’s secu-rity guard escorted the man off of her estate, and he was later arrested.

The trespasser has been or-dered to stay 100 yards away from the star, her property, workplace, and car reported E-News.

“I have suffered, and continue to suffer emotional distress,” Ky-

lie stated.Kylie’s one-year-old daugh-

ter, Stormi Webster, was present when the incident

happened.“I have a young child and

also fear for her safety,” Kylie said.

A court hearing is sched-uled for November 20.

Gomez denies reconciliation rumours after being spotted with ex

ANI | Los Angeles

Singer Selena Gomez recently shut down all

speculations of reconcil-iation after she was cap-tured with ex-boyfriend Samuel Krost.

The ‘Lose You to Love Me’ singer took to Insta-gram on Wednesday to shut down any theories

pertaining to her re-lationship status and confirmed that she is waiting for the perfect timing.

“I’m not dating an-yone,” she wrote.

“I’ve been single for two years. I’m on God’s timing, not mine.”

The 27-year-old singer has been open about her relationship status as of late, and she recently revealed that she’s in a great place and ready for love when love is ready for her, reported E! News.

“It’s also more beautiful for me be-cause I know exactly where I was when I wrote it and how I felt,” Selena shared with Ryan Seacrest about her new mu-sic. “Absolutely not. That wouldn’t have happened. It took me a long time to get through it. But, now it’s fun! I’m smiling! It’s so great,” she added.

Currently, the singer is busy promot-ing her new music in New York but stopped her busy schedule to grab a bit to eat with her ex Krost.

Stamos to lead upcoming series on Disney+ANI | Los Angeles

‘Fuller House’ actor John Stamos has landed the lead role in an upcoming

untitled Disney+ original series.T h e u p c o m i n g s h ow i s w r i t-

ten by David E. Kelly, who will also serve as the executive producer on the show with Dean Lorey, reported Deadline.

In the 10-episode series, Stamos will

star as a volatile Basketball coach who is sacked from his job following which he is to take teaching as well as coach-ing job at an elite all-girls private high school.

Disney+’s Agnes Chu termed the ac-tor as the “perfect” choice for this role saying, “John is absolutely perfect for this role, and we are thrilled that he’ll bring his incredible talent and heart to this project.”

Ariana Grande

Katy Perry

Kylie Jenner

Selena Gomez

Emilia Clarke

Taylor Swift

11

sports

FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 1, 2019

Endler-Trochu, Bartlett-Rook advance to doubles finalsMark Owen Endler-Pablo Trochu and Aryana Bartlett-Olivia Rook cruise to the doubles finals of Shine Bahrain Super Series ITF Junior Championship

TDT | Manama

The pairings of Mark Owen Endler and Pablo Trochu, and Aryana Bartlett and

Olivia Rook have a chance to claim their second doubles titles in as many weeks after booking their tickets to their respective finals in the second Shine Bah-rain Super Series ITF Junior Championship, being played at the Bahrain Tennis Federation in Isa Town.

Endler and Trochu defeated Andrej Jovanovic of Serbia and Felipe Mikkelsen 6-2, 6-4 to ad-vance to the Boys’ Doubles final, while Bartlett and Rook cruised past Yara Alhogbani of Saudi Arabia and Alexandra Maksi-moa of Russia to make it to the Girls’ Doubles final.

In their title-decider, second seeds Endler and Trochu will face off with the fourth-seeded British duo of Alexander Knox Jones and Archie Graham. It will be a rematch of the dou-bles final in the other ITF tour-

nament played in Bahrain last week.

Knox Jones and Graham earned their spots after beating top seeds Garv Bahl of India and Nicolas Moser of Austria 6-4, 7-5.

In the Girls’ Doubles, Bartlett and Rook will face the Egyp-tian pair of Jermine Sherif and Maria Atia, who upset second seeds Ananya Kothakota of the USA and Hrudaya Shah of India 6-4, 7-5.

The Girls’ Doubles final will be held today not earlier than 2pm, while the Boys’ Doubles final will start not before 3pm.

Meanwhile, Trochu, Graham, Bartlett, Rook and Sherif will all have twice the work today as they all also advanced to their respective Singles’ semi-final round.

There, fifth-seeded Trochu will take on Briton Matteo Fus-chillo, while Graham will face Moser.

In the Girls’ Singles semis, Bartlett and Sherif will be lock-

ing horns while Rook will look to upset number one seed Hagar Ramadan of Egypt.

All four singles semi-final matches will begin this morn-ing at 9am.

Great Britain’s Rook in action at the BTF (Image- Bahrain Tennis Federation)

Al Ettihad rally past Al Ahli in BBA Cup

TDT | Manama

Al Ettihad came away with a stunning 78-74 victory

over Al Ahli last night in the Bahrain Basketball Associa-tion (BBA) Cup, played at Zain Basketball Arena in Um Al Hassam.

Ettihad dominated the first and third quarters and then did enough in the end to stave off an Ahli fightback.

The victors took a 30-7 lead at the end of the opening pe-riod but Ahli were able to get to within 38-46 heading into the half. In the third, Ettihad held their opponents to seven points for the second time in the game, and then in the final canto managed to hold off Ahli, who outscored them by 13.

Three of Ettihad’s players had fine double-doubles to lead their ssquad. Ali Hilal fin-ished with a team-high with 25 points while also grabbing 10 rebounds and registering three steals. Hasan Fahad scored 16 and took down 14 boards, while skipper Ali Ghadeer had a near triple-double with 13 points, 15 rebounds and six assists. Ammar Shaaban con-tributed 14 in the win.

Ahli were playing without their star players Hesham Sar-han, Maytham Jameel and Mo-hammed Qurban. Jassim Abul tried valiantly to make up for their absence with 20 points off the bench. Sayed Hashim Habib added 12 and Nawaf Na-beel 10 points and 12 rebounds in the loss.

In yesterday’s other game, Nuwaidrat posted a resound-ing 101-91 victory over Al na-jma.

Mohammed Batti and Ebra-him Albasri combined for 46 points as they led five Nu-waidrat players in double-fig-ures. Bati had game-high 25 points to go with 10 rebounds, while Albasri finished with 21 including four three-point-ers. Ahmed Hassan chipped in with 16 points and 10 boards, while Jawad Abdulla orches-trated the offence with 10 as-sists to go with seven points and five steals.

Najma captain Fadalallah Abbas had 23 to pace his team, while Ali Jaber had an all-around effort of 18 points, 14 rebounds and seven assists.

Action continues tonight with just one game, as Manama take on Samaheej at 5.30pm.

Liverpool reach League Cup quarters

AFP | London

Liverpool reached the League Cup quarter-fi-

nals in thrilling style as their incredible 5-5 draw against Arsenal was followed by a 5-4 penalty shoot-out tri-umph, while Manchester United won 2-1 at Chelsea

on Wednesday.Both Liverpool manager Ju-

rgen Klopp and Arsenal boss Unai Emery made 11 changes for the fourth round tie, but the understudies served up one of the most entertaining games of the season at Anfield as the Gunners squandered multiple leads.

Liverpool’s Belgium striker Divock Origi (C) scores his team’s fifth goal

Bahrain to host U-18 girls’ football eventTDT | Manama

Bahrain is set to host the second edition of the West

Asian Football Federation (WAFF) Under-18 Girls’ Cham-pionship later this year, the Bahrain Football Association (BFA) announced yesterday.

This was confirmed upon the signing of the agreement be-tween the BFA and the WAFF.

The tournament will be held from December 29 to January 6 of next year. Matches will take place at Shaikh Ali bin Moham-med bin Isa Al Khalifa Stadium at Muharraq Club.

Seven teams will be compet-ing, including defending cham-pions Jordan, UAE, Lebanon, Iraq, Palestine, Kuwait and hosts Bahrain. The teams will be divided into two groups for the preliminary stage, at the end of which the top two will move

on to the knockout semi-finals. The draw to determine the

two groups will be held on No-vember 29 at the WAFF head-quarters in Amman.

The agreement was signed yesterday by BFA secretary gen-eral Ebrahim Al Buainain and WAFF secretary general Khalil

Al Salem, in the presence of other BFA and WAFF officials.

As part of their visit to Bah-rain, the WAFF delegation also inspected the host stadium, various training grounds and the hotels where the partici-pating teams and officials will be staying.

Ebrahim Al Buainain, third from right, and Khalil Al Salem, third from left, with other officials at the signing ceremony

Riffa edge Al AhliTDT | Manama

Riffa defeated Al Ahli 2-0 in the first leg of their

opening round match-up in this year’s King’s Cup in football.

Mohammed Jassim put Riffa ahead in the match and then Adnan Fawaz sealed the win.

Meanwhile, East Riffa beat Isa Town 3-1 in their match-up, Al Shabab beat Si-tra 2-0, and Hidd and Malki-ya played to a 2-2- deadlock.

In other f irst round match-ups in the King’s Cup, Muharraq and Bahrain Club are tied 0-0, Manama and Budaiya are deadlocked with the same score line, Al Hala hold a 2-1 advntage over Galali, and Buaiteen and Al najma are tied 2-2. The tour-nament’s second leg match-es will be held next week.

Ronaldo hits late Juventus winner as Napoli rage at ‘potato-peeling’ refereesAFP | Milan

Cristiano Ronaldo converted a 96th-minute penalty as Ju-

ventus defeated Thiago Motta’s Genoa 2-1 to reclaim top spot in Serie A on Wednesday, while Napoli were left seething after conceding a disputed late equal-iser against Atalanta.

Ronaldo sat out the 1-1 draw at Lecce over the weekend but Juve looked set to drop more points on his return in Turin as Christian Kouame’s fluke equal-iser cancelled out a header from

Leonardo Bonucci.The Portuguese forward saw

a stoppage-time strike ruled out by VAR for offside before he won a last-gasp penalty after he was fouled by Toni Sanabria.

Ronaldo drilled the spot-kick low beyond Ionut Radu for his fifth league goal of the season to send Maurizio Sarri’s Juve back above Inter Milan at the summit.

“It was a difficult game against a well organised team but Juve must keep going until the end,” Ronaldo told Sky Sport.

“We suffered a lot tonight but we created a lot and deserved this win.”

Genoa, in their second game under Motta, played most of the second half with 10 men after Francesco Cassata was sent off, while Juve substitute Adrien Rabiot was dismissed late on for two bookable offences.

Atalanta twice fought back from a goal behind to hold Napo-li to a 2-2 draw at the San Paolo, where a fiery ending resulted in red cards for Carlo Ancelotti and his assistant.

Josip Ilicic struck a conten-tious 86th-minute equaliser that was upheld following a lengthy VAR review, as Napoli appealed for a penalty.

Napoli forward Fernando Llorente tumbled to the ground after jostling with Simon Kjaer in the Atalanta area before the visitors countered and scored through Ilicic.

A five-minute interruption fol-lowed before the referee award-ed the goal without reviewing the incident on the touchline monitor.Juventus’ Portuguese forward Cristiano Ronaldo kicks a penalty and scores

Al-Selwady returns to action in Bahrain Former BRAVE CF champion Abul-Kareem Al-Selwady returns to action full of hope

TDT | Manama

Former BRAVE CF world champion Abul-Kareem Al-Selwady had the big-

gest moment of his career last year as he headlined BRAVE CF 18 and won the Lightweight belt from veteran Lucas “Mineiro” in a one-sided affair. One year on, he will be back in the King-dom of Bahrain for BRAVE CF 29, which takes place on November 15th, as he starts the road to a new title.

During this last year, Al-Sel-wady had to deal with a lot, including the loss of his world title at the hands of Luan “Miau” Santiago. As he healed from the injuries sustained in the fight, he decided to drop down to Featherweight and will meet Dumar Roa, from Colombia, in his first fight in the new division.

The challenges of dropping down in weight haven’t tak-en away the confidence of the former champ, who is “100% focused” and ready to put on a show for the people of Bahrain.

“This is the comeback season! I’m 100% focused, locked in! I’m excited to represent my people and put on a show on November 15th, in Bahrain! I’m fighting a star in Dumar Roa, but I’m ex-

cited to get going!”Al-Selwady is one of two for-

mer world champions to be on the stage for BRAVE CF 29, along-side Luan “Miau” Santiago, his former foe. The organization’s return to its home in Bahrain has 15 bouts lined-up, with 18 nations represented, including the KHK World Championship, a one-night, four-men, open weight tournament which will hand the winner a US$100,000 check, plus the right to be called the provisional owner of the his-torical KHK belt, adorned with 6.2 kg of gold.

Fakhreddine ready to represent the Middle East at KHK WorldsTDT | Manama

Mohammad Fakhreddine went from frustration to

elation in the space of two days. After being initially selected to be in the final five of the KHK World Championships, he was sad to only be selected as an alternate in the historical tour-nament. However, his fortunes changed when Malik Merad got injured and he officially stepped in for the one-night, four-men, open weight compe-tition which will take place dur-ing BRAVE CF 29, on November 15th, in Bahrain.

Now, “The Latest” is set to take on Moise Rimbon in the first semifinal of the tourna-ment and has promised to sur-prise everyone that counted him out during the selection of the fighters, which was made from hundreds of applications.

Born in Lebanon, and widely recognized as one of the pillars of Middle East mixed martial arts since its infancy, Fakhred-

dine will represent the region in the biggest night for MENA MMA.

Through his social media profiles, he has expressed his desire to succeed and has gone above and beyond to respond to all fans wishing him good luck. He has recently come back into title contention at BRAVE Com-bat Federation, with a 40-sec-ond destruction of Christofer Silva at BRAVE CF 27, in Abu

Dhabi.A little more than a month

afterwards, he will embark on the greatest adventure of his professional career, as he will have the chance to win the first-ever KHK World Cham-pionships, which will hand the victor a US$ 100,000 check, plus the right to be the provisional holder of the KHK belt, a his-torical trophy, adorned with 6.2 kg of gold.


This is the comeback season! I’m 100%

focused, locked in! I’m excited to represent

my people and put on a show on November 15th, in Bahrain! I’m

fighting a star in Dumar Roa, but I’m excited to get going

ABUL-KAREEM AL-SELWADY

Abul-Kareem Al-Selwady celebrates victory in Bahrain (file photo)

BRAVE CF champion helps Team Bahrain prepare for top spot defence

TDT | Manama

Jarrah Al-Selawe regained his world title at BRAVE

Combat Federation with a stunning performance over previously undefeated Abdoul Abdouraguimov, in Abu Dhabi. Now “The Jordanian Lion” has stepped up to help Team Bahrain in the closing stages of preparation for the upcoming IMMAF World Championships, which takes place between November 10th and November 16th, at the Khalifa Sports City Arena, in Isa Town, Bahrain.

Invited by Team Bahrain’s

head coach and fellow BRAVE CF champion Eldar Eldarov, Jarrah Al-Selawe has been showing new moves to the amateur athletes and helping with sparring sessions, espe-cially with the heavier ath-letes, such as Abdulrahman Alhasan, who represents Bah-rain in the Middleweight di-vision, and Murtaza Talha Ali, from the Light Heavyweight division.

However, Al-Selawe has also assisted Coach Eldar with other fighters, and has also mixed up with the profession-al team, which will have two big challenges during BRAVE

CF 29, as former IMMAF medal-ist Hussain Ayyad looks to continue his winning streak against Maris Zaharovs, and “The Pride of Bahrain” Hamza Kooheji will be one of the big-gest attractions, with his bout against Nahuel Gandolfi cho-sen as the co-main event.

Jarrah Al-Selawe is tenta-tively scheduled to defend his world title against Khamzat Chimaev after the Swede chal-lenged him on the spot after both men won their respective fights at BRAVE CF 27, though no date or official announce-ment has been given by BRAVE Combat Federation.

Jarrah Al-Selawe with Team Bahrain after a training session

John Brewin eyes second-round KO in main event of Brave 28TDT | Manama

New Zealand representative John Brewin bounced back

in great style from his first pro-fessional defeat, as he beat Cian Cowley in March, at BRAVE CF 22, held in the Philippines. After that, however, he had to wait for his next bout, and it comes in against another man that de-feated Cowley. Brewin takes on Maciej Gierszewski in the main event of BRAVE CF 28, which takes place on November 4th, in Bucharest, Romania, under a partnership between Bahrain’s biggest brand and leading Ro-manian promotion RXF.

For Brewin, the bout against Gierszewski gives him a chance to be closer to a title shot. He has been working hard in these months without a fight and is looking forward to showcas-ing the improvements he made, predicting a second-round knockout of his foe.

“I think I’m better than him in all areas, but it is an intrigu-ing fight. He’s experienced, he’s

fought in some big shows be-fore, and he has a lot of hype surround him now. I’m looking for a first or second-round KO and that should put me right there, near the top’, says the Kiwi fighter.

Brewin is one of the top pros-pects currently at BRAVE Com-

bat Federation and has proved he’s ready to hang with the best in the Lightweight division, as he has amassed a 3-1 record for the organization, includ-ing two stoppage victories. His opponent is 1-0 for BRAVE CF, with one violent KO win to his name.

John Brewin (L) with Mohammed Shahid (C) and Hardeep Rai (R) during a promotion event (file photo)

Mohammad Fakhreddine reacts after a match

Ashleigh Barty and Belinda Bencic advance to semis of WTA FinalsAFP | Shenzhen, China

World number one Ashleigh Barty and Belinda Bencic

both advanced to the semi-fi-nals after contrasting victories at the WTA Finals in China yesterday.

Barty progressed from the round-robin stage with a crush-ing 6-4, 6-2 win over Petra Kvito-va in one hour and 28 minutes at the Shenzhen Bay Sports Centre. Bencic prevailed 7-5, 1-0 in 61

minutes after late replacement Kiki Bertens retired ill.

Bertens received medical at-tention after the opening game of the second set, where her blood pressure and pulse were checked, before becoming the second player in the tournament to retire mid-match after Bian-ca Andreescu withdrew against Karolina Pliskova on Wednes-day.

The Dutchwoman had started well with her meaty ground-

strokes overpowering Bencic but she was unable to close out the set on serve in the 10th game.

Bencic made her pay and broke again in the 12th game to snatch the first set and shortly after registered her first victory over Bertens in an abbreviated fourth matchup between the pair.

Bencic will play defending champion Elina Svitolina in the semi-final on Saturday.

“I’m really sorry for her,”

Bencic said after the match. “It’s the end of the season, so every-one is exhausted.”

Barty, who had already sealed the year-end No.1 ranking, re-bounded after a three-set loss to Bertens on Tuesday. She will play the winner of tomorrow’s Purple Group match between Wimbledon champion Simona Halep and world number two Pliskova

“I’m particularly happy with the way I was able to return

tonight,” Barty said. “I think she was trying to take a little bit more of a risk. That kind of worked in my favour a bit.”

Kvitova had a scare in the third game of the first set but saved two break points to hold her serve, which was be-ing targeted by an aggressive Barty.

But the Australian’s consisten-cy wore down an error-strewn Kvitova and she grabbed a deci-sive break in the fifth game.Ashleigh Barty returns the ball

baghdadi is dead: is - dt news

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