battle rages on...time ruler muammar gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011. • a un spokesman said...

03Credit card hackers ‘on the prowl across GCC nations’

04 Drug lord’s sentence upheld

05 Gaza animals find new home

8

‘Yellow vests’ march again 7WORLD

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Britney devastated over father’s ill healthSinger Britney Spears is “devastated” over her father Jamie Spears’ health battle, which has reported-ly caused her to check into a mental health facility.P14

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18 years old boy dies in Buri accident TDT | ManamaMohammed Zafran

An 18-year-old boy died while a policeman sus-tained injuries in a tragic

accident that occurred in Buri yesterday.

The deceased boy had recent-ly obtained his driver’s licence, according to sources.

The accident occurred after the boy lost control of his vehi-

cle and rammed into a cement barrier.

It also hit a police patrol vehi-cle, injuring a policeman, sourc-es said.

The Ministry of Interior con-firmed the incident on its Twit-ter handle.

“Driver, 18, died and a police-man sustained minor injuries when the car of the deceased hit a cement barrier and then on-duty security patrol that was

parked on the side of Shaikh Khalifa bin Salman highway

near Buri area towards Hamad Town,” the ministry posted.

“Relevant procedures are be-ing taken,” it added.

Separately, an expat was found dead at this workplace yesterday.

The deceased was identified as 32 years old Sitaram Murat, who hailed from the Indian State of Uttar Pradesh.

In a third incident, a building caught fire in Hoora yesterday.

No injuries were reported as the occupants were quickly evacu-ated by a team of Civil Defence personnel, which reached the spot instantly.

“Civil defence extinguished fire at a multi-storey building in Hoora. The tenants were evacuated as a precautionary measure. Initial details indicate short circuit was the reason be-hind the fire,” the Ministry of Interior stated.

T R A G I C D E A T H

The boy lost control of his vehicle and rammed

into a cement barrier after hitting a police

patrol vehicle. INTERIOR MINISTRY

Battle rages on Fighting near Libyan capital Tripoli leaves 21 dead

• Libya has been torn by violence and political instability since long-time ruler Muammar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011.

• A UN spokesman said that they were “still hoping for a positive response”.

Tripoli

Libya’s UN-backed gov-ernment says 21 people have been killed and 27

wounded in fighting near the capital, Tripoli.

Earlier the UN appealed for a two-hour truce so casualties and civilians could be evacuat-ed, but fighting continued.

Rebel forces under Gen Khal-ifa Haftar have advanced from the east with the aim of taking Tripoli.

Prime Minister Fayez Al Ser-raj has accused him of attempt-ing a coup and says rebels will be met with force.

Among the dead was a Red Crescent doctor killed on Sat-urday. Gen Haftar’s forces said

they had lost 14 fighters.International powers have

begun evacuating personnel from Libya amid the worsening security situation.

Libya has been torn by vio-lence and political instability since long-time ruler Muam-mar Gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011.

Gen Haftar’s Libyan National Army (LNA) forces have been carrying out a multi-pronged attack from the south and west of the city since Thursday.

The UN said its call for a hu-manitarian truce had been ig-nored and emergency services said they had not been able to

enter the areas where fighting was taking place.

However, a UN spokesman said that they were “still hoping for a positive response”.

On Sunday, the LNA said it had carried out its first air strike, a day after the UN-backed Gov-ernment of National Accord (GNA) hit them with air strikes

on Saturday.Fight ing has continued

around the disused internation-al airport south of the capital that Gen Haftar earlier said his forces had seized.

Forces loyal to the GNA have slowed the advance and on Sunday a GNA spokesman said that the GNA now intended to “cleanse” the whole of the country.

US Africa Command said that due to the “increased unrest” it had relocated a contingent of US forces temporarily, but gave no further details on numbers.

There were reports of a fast amphibious craft being used in

the operation.India’s External Affairs Min-

ister Sushma Swaraj said its full contingent of 15 Central Reserve Police Force peace-keepers had been evacuated from Tripoli because the “sit-uation in Libya has suddenly worsened”.

The Italian multinational oil and gas company, Eni, decided to evacuate all its Italian per-sonnel from the country.

The UN is also due to pull out non-essential staff. Residents of Tripoli have reportedly begun stocking up on food and fuel.

Some fear a long operation, which Gen Haftar mounted to take the eastern city of Beng-hazi from Islamist fighters.

A field marshal who served under Gaddafi, Haftar was counting on a swift battle to capture Tripoli.

“To date, Haftar’s operation has mostly failed to go accord-ing to plan, and it has now gal-vanised western Libyan forces against him,” said analyst Wolf-ram Lacher.

“He now faces the prospect of a protracted war south of Tripoli, or of a decisive defeat,” said Lacher, a researcher with the German Institute for In-ternational and Security Affairs (SWP).

Forces loyal to Libyan commander Khalifa Haftar seen entering Tripoli.

Haftar now faces the prospect of a protracted war south of Tripoli, or

of a decisive defeat. LACHER

‘Qatar Papers’ reveals Doha’s lavish funding for Muslim Brotherhood

• The documents reveal that a state-run Qatar charity funded several Islamic centres and schools in those regions.

London

A book recently published by two French journal-ists claims to reveal the

details of lavish payments made by Qatar to Muslim Brother-

hood organisations across Eu-rope.

The 295-page book titled “Qatar Papers - How the State Finances Islam in France and Europe” is reportedly based on official documents and testimo-nies that shed light on Doha’s extensive funding to promote the Brotherhood’s ideology on the continent.

Written by French investi-gative reporters Georges Mal-brunot and Christian Chesnot, the book publishes evidence of cheque and money trans-fers from Qatar that have been

used to underwrite Brother-hood-linked projects around Europe.

The book’s introduction says

it unveils 140 documents “for the first time” that detail Qatar’s funding of dozens of mosques and Islamic societies to promote the influence of the Brother-hood in European countries like France and Switzerland — documenting payments of €72 million ($80.8 million) to Broth-erhood groups that are active in seven European countries.

In France, the focus was on the northern city of Lille and the south-west city of Bor-deaux. The documents reveal that a state-run Qatar charity funded several Islamic centres

and schools in those regions.It also shed light on the case

of controversial Islamist think-er Tariq Ramadan, mentioning Qatari funds used for legal fees to fight rape allegations against him.

The well-known Brotherhood figure, who spent eight months in jail over rape allegations, is cited in the book to have re-ceived €35,000 a month from the Qatar Foundation.

Just before his arrest early last year, bank documents show that Ramadan withdrew €590,000 from Qatari bank accounts.

72million euros were given by Doha to

Brotherhood groups that are active in

European countries.

25 years since mass slaughterKigali

Rwanda’s president said the country had be-

come “a family once again”, while marking the 25th an-niversary of the genocide that killed 800,000 people.

Paul Kagame, who led a rebel force that ended the slaughter, lit a remem-brance flame in the capital Kigali.

Rwandans will mourn for 100 days, the time it took in 1994 for about a tenth of the country to be massacred.

Most of those who died were minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus, killed by ethnic Hutu extremists.

The commemoration activities began with the flame-lighting ceremony at the memorial. The flame will burn for 100 days.

The 61-year-old presi-dent, who has led the coun-try since 2000, then deliv-ered a speech at the Kigali Convention Centre.

Long-term visa plan Dubai

The UAE government will provide long-term

visas to the founders and owners of technology start-ups from around the world as it aims to attract top tal-ent to help it become one of the most innovative and dynamic countries of the future.

The five-year visas will be granted to owners or founders of companies, all of their partners and up to three executives.

No sponsor is required as the visa will be in the names of the individuals they are provided to.

The scheme also includes affordable licences and pro-viding for families of found-ers, owners and executives so that they can join them in the UAE.

02MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2019

Bahrain, UN close ties stressedNew York

Bahrain’s Permanent Mis-sion to the United Nations

received a number of officials from the US Army War Col-lege, within the framework of their visit to the United Nations.

The Permanent Represent-ative of the Kingdom to the United Nations, Ambassador Jamal Al Rowaiei welcomed the guests, stressing the close co-operation between the Kingdom and the UN.

He also noted the impor-tance of enhancing the efforts of UN specialised agencies and bodies to build the capacity of Member States to implement legislation against terrorism and illicit arms trafficking.

An interactive discussion was also held between the guests and a number of UN of-ficials, including the Executive Director of the Counter-Ter-rorism Executive Directo-rate, Michèle Coninsx, and the Deputy to the High Rep-resentative for Disarmament Affairs, Thomas Markram.

His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa yesterday received members of the royal family and senior officials at Gudaibiya Palace. He discussed with them issues of common concern, stressing the unity of Bahraini people. He lauded the good sentiments shown by the Bahraini people following the demise of his sister HH Shaikha Aisha bint Salman Al Khalifa, the wife of Shaikh Ibrahim bin Hamad Al Khalifa.

Carrefour, which is operated in the Kingdom by Majid Al Futtaim, has launched a promotional campaign to mark one year since introducing its MyCLUB loyalty programme. Over 160,000 members will have the chance to win prizes including the latest MG models, holiday packages, Carrefour gift cards, jewellery from Malabar Gold and Diamonds, electronic goods, and more via a raffle draw being held until 30 April, 2019. Moving forward, the customers will also be able to redeem their MyCLUB points on a monthly basis instead of quarterly while enjoying five per cent discounts credited as points once a week.

Bahrain Odia Samaj celebrated the Utkal Divas in the Kingdom with pomp and splendour at BKS Auditorium. Eminent Odia industrialist, philanthropist and founder chairman of ASMACS Group, Dr Dev Mohanty was the chief guest. Many dignitaries including Batool Mohammed Dadabhai (BCCI member), Dr Swarup Ranjan Mishra (Kenyan Parliamentarian), Om Prakash (Indian Embassy Second Secretary), Geeta Das (Odia singer) and Madhulita Mahapatra (Odissi dancer) attended the event.


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Credit card hackers ‘on the prowl across GCC nations’

Stolen banking cards put up for sale on underground forums

• The study revealed that stolen banking cards data of some Bahraini customers were put up for sale on underground forums or used in further fraudulent activities.

TDT | ManamaMohammed Zafran

Banking customers in the Kingdom were among the victims as payment

cards of a large number of them were compromised, a study has revealed.

Nearly 140,000 compro -mised banking cards issued by the banks in the GCC were detected by Group-IB, an inter-national company specialising in preventing cyberattacks.

The study revealed that sto-len banking cards data of some Bahraini customers were put up for sale on underground fo-rums or used in further fraud-ulent activities.

The international compa-

ny, Group-IB, along with Bah-rain-based global system inte-grator, NGN International, re-cently analysed cyber-security landscape of Gulf countries in 2018.

According to them, Gulf countries including Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) came under the spotlight of cybercriminals increasingly often.

The Group-IB Threat Intelli-gence team detected a total of 138,978 compromised cards is-sued by Gulf countries’ banks.

The data is the result of ana-lysing not only underground forums and phishing websites, but also cybercriminals’ infra-structure and malware disas-sembling, the company said.

“The Group-IB Threat Intel-ligence team detected a total of 138,978 compromised cards is-sued by Gulf countries’ banks. The data is the result of ana-lysing not only underground forums and phishing websites, but also cybercriminals’ infra-structure and malware disas-sembling,” Group-IB and NGN

international said in a joint statement.

“The stolen banking cards data is often put up for sale on underground forums or used in further fraudulent activities,” explained Head of Group-IB’s Computer Emergency Re-sponse Team, Alexander Ka-linin.

“Our team continuously analyses compromised cards data all over the world. Ac-cording to Group-IB’s annual Hi-Tech Crime Trends 2018 report, on average, from June 2017 to August 2018, the details of 1.8 million payment cards

were uploaded to card shops monthly,” he added.

CEO of NGN International, Yaqoob Al Awadhi stated that, from 2017 to 2018, cybercrimes

aimed at financial thefts in-creased significantly with cy-ber-criminals largely exploit-ing software vulnerabilities through phishing mailings and hacked legal resources.

“A lot as attackers are begin-ning to use artificial intelli-gence and machine learning to bypass the defence, attempting what is known as ‘low-and-slow’ attacks,” explained Mr Al Awadhi.

“What is important is that successful struggle with such cyber-attacks is possible. It is extremely important to react to them in time and correctly, as well as to build a competent comprehensive protection sys-tem in advance,” he added.

With the advent of IoT tech-nologies, big data and machine learning, attack tools become more advanced and encompass several information systems and resources, he said.

“Attacks on state informa-tion systems and resources, and resources of individual enterprises and industries, can lead to negative consequences for the economy of the country,

while affecting the health and lives of people,” he stressed.

Group-IB Threat Intelli-gence team also identified leaked credentials of 7,306 us-ers from the Gulf countries in 2018, among which the company experts discovered 1,227 compromised credentials from government resources in Bahrain, Oman, Kuwait, Qatar, the UAE, and the Saudi Arabia. Upon identification of this information, Group-IB CERT reached out to region’s government CERTs to inform about the threat.

“It is important to high-light that credentials were not leaked from government sys-tems, which are most likely safe and secure, but from the individuals who used them for personal purposes,” said Mr Kalinin.

“However, with the creden-tials from government web-sites, hackers can not only ob-tain classified information, but also infiltrate government net-works and maintain presence while remaining unnoticed for long periods,” he explained.

A lot as attackers are beginning to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to bypass the defence, attempting what is known as ‘low-and-slow’ attacks. MR AL AWADHI


The Indian Club Bahrain has elected its new committee. The new members are Job M J (general secretary), Hari Unnithan (treasurer), Suneesh Kalinkeel (badminton secretary), Vinod Thampi (assistant treasurer), Sabarsih Kodur (tennis secretary), Gopinath Nambiar (entertainment secretary), Vivek Subramanya (cricket secretary), Joshua Mathew (indoor games secretary), Stalin Joseph (president), Marshal Dasan (vice-president), Senthil Kumar (assistant entertainment secretary) and Abdulla Kutty Abbas (assistant general secretary).

Drug lord’s sentence upheld Suspect convicted of consuming and selling drugs

TDT | Manama

The High Court of Appeal has upheld the life in prison sentence issued

against a Bahraini man who was found guilty of peddling drugs.

The man was previously ar-rested with more than two kg of hashish, marijuana, opium and methamphetamine, in addi-tion to an amount of BD56,000 earned by selling drugs.

The court also upheld the

previous verdict of obliging the defendant to pay BD5,000 in fines apart from confiscating the substances and money.

The detai ls of the case showed that the investigations began after the Anti-Narcotics Department within the Interior Ministry received a tip-off.

The source had agreed with the suspect on buying BD200 worth of methamphetamine from the latter after confirm-ing the delivery to be done in

Juffair area. On August 16, 2018, the de-

fendant was arrested red-hand-ed while selling narcotics.

When searched, a delicate scale, pieces of hashish, two bags of methamphetamine, narcotic pills and tools used to consume drugs were found in the suspect’s possession.

More narcotics, including five pieces of hashish, three bottles of narcotic pills and marijuana plants, were found at the sus-pect’s residence, in addition to BD56,000 in cash.

The suspect confessed dur-ing the interrogation that he sold different types of narcotics more than 100 times, adding that he sold each gram of meth-amphetamine for BD1,200.

He also told the interrogators that he received the drugs from a Gulf national, who regularly supplied him.

The confiscated substances included 1054.862 grammes of hashish, 27 grammes of opium, 1783.772 grammes of marijuana,

4.189 grammes of methamphet-amine and various narcotic pills and tablets.

The man was accused by the Public Prosecution last year of consuming and selling differ-ent types of drugs.

He was referred to the crimi-nal court, which sentenced him to life imprisonment and to pay a fine of BD5,000.

He appealed against the ver-dict, but his appeal was reject-ed by the judges yesterday.

I sold different types of narcotics more

than 100 times. I was charging BD1,200 for each gram of

methamphetamine. SUSPECT

Cousin faces trial for sheltering fugitive

TDT | Manama

A Bahraini man, 26, im-plicated his cousin in a case after he hid in his

house, although he was con-victed in four security cases and was sentenced to 26 years in prison.

The pair are said to have been friends, but the 26-year-old man was involved in an-ti-government activities and was an outlaw.

He resorted to his cousin, aged 20, to give him shelter as cops were in the hunt for him. And he did it, offering him food and beverages as well as helping him in his movements.

However, the police re-ceived a tip-off, revealing his wrongdoings and cops imme-

diately headed to the house and arrested both of them.

“He would come to our house to sleep at night. I was unaware of his criminal back-ground,” the 20-year-old told prosecutors.

The fugitive was charged with escaping justice, while his co-defendant was accused on grounds of providing a shelter to a fugitive.

Man transfers property to son’s name ‘to evade legal family responsibilities’ TDT | Manama

An Arab woman who was kicked out of her hus-band’s house, after al-

legedly complaining about her stepson sexually harassing her, has won the lawsuit she filed against her husband, demand-ing him of providing a shelter and alimony to her and their two children.

Despite winning the case as per an urgent verdict issued by the Second Minor Sharia Court-Jaffaria Section, the woman and her children re-main homeless, as the hus-band used twisted legal ways to evade his responsibilities,

sources said. According to the plaintiff ’s

lawyer Balqees Al Manami, the 45-year-old woman married her Bahraini husband, 66, back in 2006, after the demise of his first wife. The couple have two sons, who are 11 and eight years old.

The lawyer said that the woman complained to the po-lice station against her 38-year-old stepson, accusing him of sexually harassing her on mul-tiple occasions.

The stepson’s criminal record showed that he had committed similar offences in the past.

Consequently and during last month, the husband kicked the

woman and the two children out of the house, and stopped supporting them financially.

The woman lived with a

woman friend for some time then moved to a private apart-ment, as shown in the court files. She was later asked to

evict the apartment as she wasn’t able to pay the rent.

Ms Al Manami said the wom-an won the case after she de-manded the court to oblige her husband of paying month ali-mony of BD300 to her and chil-dren, who she also demanded to have custody on.

The woman also asked the court to oblige her husband of allowing her and the children to live in the house and to guar-antee that she is not harassed in any way in the future.

When a court employee ac-companied the woman and her children to ensure the imple-mentation of the verdict, they were surprised to find that all

the door locks of the house were changed.

With the assistance of the po-lice, the employee attempted to forcefully open the doors of the house. At this time, one of the husband’s sons stopped them and claimed ownership of the house after he showed them official documents proving his claims.

Ms Al Manami added that the husband has transferred the ownership of the house to one of his sons from his first wife, in bid to evade from his respon-sibilities towards the second wife and her children, and to not pay a debt of BD80,000 he owed her.

Times ranking honour for UoB

TDT | ManamaHarpreet Kaur

The University of Bah-rain (UoB) has achieved a global ranking of 213

in the 2019 prestigious Times University Impact Rankings.

The Times Higher Educa-tion University Impact Rank-ings are the only global per-formance tables that assess universities against the United Nations’ Sustainable Develop-ment Goals.

The top global 500 ranked universities for impact, which considers universities contri-butions towards the United Nations sustainable develop-ment goals was unveiled at

a gala event in South Korea attended by UoB president Prof Riyad Hamza.

Universities from 76 differ-ent countries submitted to be part of the top 500 with UoB

gaining worldwide plaudits for scoring highly in the cat-egories of quality education, gender equality and economic growth.

The rankings were topped by Auckland University from New Zealand with the rank-ings methodology based on research, evidence and meas-urable impact.

The UoB was ranked first in the Kingdom, 12th in the Middle East and 213 globally as the National University of Bahrain.

Speaking to Tribune, Prof Hamza said: “It is a proud day for the UoB as well as the Kingdom. I thank our staff and students for this success.”

The woman complained to the police station against her 38-year-old stepson, accusing him of sexually harassing her on multiple occasions. MS AL MANAMI

He would come to our house to sleep at night.

I was unaware of his criminal background.

SECOND DEFENDANT

Prof Hamza speaks at the event.

Min stresses need to explore agricultural technologiesManama

Minister of Works, Mu-nicipalities Affairs

and Urban Planning, Es-sam Khalaf, yesterday paid a field visit to Agricultural Incubators Centre in Horrat A’ali accompanied by senior officials of the ministry.

The minister listened to a brief on the main training programmes for a group of agricultural entrepreneurs, who seek turning their promising agricultural pro-jects into reality by the use of the latest technologies.

The minister highlighted HM King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa’s interest in sup-porting farmers to adopt the latest agricultural tech-nologies.

05

world

MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2019

Prince William delves into spy worldLondon, United Kingdom

As one of the most recognis-able public figures in the

world, Britain’s Prince William would not make as effective a 007 as legendary fictional spy James Bond.

But that did not stop the heir to the British throne spending the last three weeks working with the security services, in-cluding in Bond’s own foreign intelligence unit MI6.

The Duke of Cambridge end-ed the top-secret attachment -- which also included a week with domestic intelligence service MI5 and cybersecurity agency GCHQ -- on Saturday,

according to Kensington Palace.William, 36, “got to see first-

hand how SIS helps the UK iden-tify and exploit opportunities as well as navigate risks to its national security, military effec-tiveness and economy,” Kens-ington Palace said.

The father-of-three then switched over to the Security Service -- MI5 -- to observe how counter-terrorism teams con-duct investigations, including surveillance.

The duke finished his foray into spycraft at the commu-nications monitoring agency GCHQ in Cheltenham, in west-ern England.

There he spent time “with

those using cutting-edge tech-nology, technical ingenuity and wide-ranging partnerships to identify, analyse and disrupt threats,” the palace added.

GCHQ’s head of counter-ter-rorism operations, whose name was given only as David, said the prince had worked “excep-tionally hard to embed himself in the team”.

The prince is no stranger to the world of security.

After graduating in 2005 from university in St Andrews in Scotland, he spent seven and a half years in the military, be-fore completing active service as a search and rescue helicop-ter pilot.

Erdogan (file)

Gaza animals find new home

Rafah, Palestinian Territories

More than 40 animals, in-cluding five lions, were

evacuated from squalid condi-tions in a Gaza Strip zoo yes-terday to be taken to Jordan, an animal welfare group said.

Thin and weakened, the 43 an-imals, including a wolf and mon-keys, had been living in “terrible conditions,” said the Four Paws association, which organised the transfer.

The Rafah zoo in the southern Gaza Strip is the oldest in the en-clave, which has been under an

Israeli blockade for more than 10 years.

The animals were not in great shape, but were stable enough to be transported to a reserve in Jordan, some 300 kilometres (190 miles) from the Palestini-an enclave, said Martin Bauer, spokesman for the Vienna-based

welfare group. The animals were sedated to be put in cages for the transfer through Israel.

Two of the l ions would eventually be sent to South Africa.

Four Paws was supposed to move ahead with the transfer in late March, but the organisa-

tion could not enter the enclave since the crossing was closed that week due to a flare-up of violence between Gaza militants and Israel.

Bauer said the mission had the support of the authorities in Gaza, run by Hamas, and of the zoo’s owner, who has said

he could no longer afford the upkeep for the animals.

I s r a e l ’ s p e r m i s s i o n was also received for the mission.

He said it was the biggest such mission carried out by Four Paws and intensive negotiations were required.

A Palestinian worker carries a monkey at a zoo in RafaAn undernourished lioness Amir Khalil, a veterinarian with the international animal welfare charity “Four Paws”

A Palestinian worker carries a Heron (Egretta Intermedia) at a zoo in Rafah

Erdogan’s party to demand total recount Istanbul, Turkey

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party said

yesterday it was demanding a recount of all ballots cast in Is-tanbul, the country’s economic capital, during last week’s may-oral election after an opposition candidate claimed a slender win.

The vice-president of the Justice and Development Par-ty (AKP) Ali Ihsan Yavuz made the demand for a recount going beyond one already under way.

The AKP won most votes na-tionwide in last Sunday’s elec-tion, but results showed the

ruling party lost Ankara and was also narrowly defeated in Istanbul in what would be one of their worst setbacks in a dec-ade and a half in power.

“Today, we are going to take our case to the provincial branch of the YSK (supreme election board) to recount all

the votes from all the (Istanbul) districts,” said AKP vice-presi-dent Ali Ihsan Yavuz.

Electoral authorities are al-ready conducting a recount in scores of districts in Ankara and in Istanbul, where tallies showed the opposition CHP candidate Ekrem Imamoglu just edged out the AKP, repre-sented by political heavyweight and former prime minister Binali Yildirim.

On Saturday, party spokes-man Omer Celik insisted the AKP would accept recount re-sults in Istanbul as well as An-kara, no matter which party is declared the winner.


Made from distinctive red sandstone,

these once grand residenc-

es known as ‘havelis’ were

famed for their vivid facades

engraved with intricate patterns

People commute past the Rampuriya haveli (mansion) in the old quarters of Bikaner,

AFP | Bikaner, India

The resplendent mansions of Bikaner once hosted royalty and wealthy mer-

chants passing through India’s deserts with their caravans, but centuries later these bygone architectural masterpieces are crumbling.

Made from distinctive red sandstone, these once grand residences known as ‘havelis’ were famed for their vivid fa-cades engraved with intricate patterns.

First built in the 15th century by Bikaner’s bygone aristocra-cy, many boasted multiple lev-els, large balconies, and grand rooms built around a central courtyard, enclosed to escape the summer heat. But after dec-ades of neglect, a large number lie in ruins.

“Many havelis have vanished in front of our eyes,” said Gopal Singh, who runs heritage walks in the old quarter of Bikaner, adding that in its heyday, the city had more than 1000 such residences.

“What exists is unique. Not just for its intricate architec-ture but just because of the over-all concentration in one single place,” he explained.

Such decay is not confined to Bikaner, with historic residences falling apart in other major Indi-an cities where the old quarters have been felled by rapid urban development.

In India’s only UNESCO her-itage listed city, Ahmedabad, efforts have been made to pre-serve the clusters of settlements identified as having huge histor-ic value.

But there has been little cash or interest in saving the havelis of Bikaner, a once fabled desert out-post where the sands of Rajast-han skirt the city’s ramparts.

Some 500 kilometres (310 miles) southwest of New Del-hi, today it struggles to attract tourist interest and seems large-ly untouched by India’s recent economic success.

“It has been a long struggle for

us to get the public and govern-ment’s attention to the havelis of Bikaner,” said Singh.

Years of neglectA lack of concern about

proper preservation has been compounded by overcrowding, poor city planning, as well as inadequate drainage and waste disposal.

Some families have taken mat-ters into their own hands, recon-structing the dilapidated manors and reinventing them as hotels and guesthouses.

“We decided to open this so that others too can experience living in a haveli, and it becomes more manageable for us to main-tain this huge property,” said Manisha Maloo, whose family manages a popular homestay in the old city.

A few families still reside in their ancestral estates and invite tourists in so the can learn about the heritage and history of the properites and the area.

“They come here and are so amazed and excited at the unique colours, heritage and de-sign of our home,” said Rachna Mohta, who greets visitors on walking tours in Bikaner to her palatial 150-year-old haveli home. “It makes me feel proud,” she confessed.

But maintaining the huge, creaking homes saps money and energy. Many buildings have col-lapsed from years of neglect; others hang on by a thread.

“We opened our haveli for tourists as a way to better pro-tect our heritage, and to let peo-ple live our ancestors’ experi-ence,” Sunil Rampuria, whose family owns Bhanwar Niwas, one of the region’s grandest and earliest havelisconverted into a hotel, said.

Singh warned that if action is not taken now to preserve and protect the houses, there will be nothing for future generations to see.

He warned: “If things don’t change quickly, we may not have any of these havelis in two dec-ades.”

An Indian man walks past a haveli (mansion) in the old quarters of Bikaner

An Indian woman walks outside a haveli (mansion) in the old quarters of Bikaner


One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the

boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought ‘now I believe I have money’ and took it back to the

bank the next dayNIGERIAN BILLIONAIRE ALIKO DANGOTE

Africa’s richest man withdrew $10 million just to look at itAbidjan, Ivory Coast

Nigerian billionaire Aliko Dangote, known as Africa’s

richest man, told a forum in Ivo-ry Coast on Saturday how he once took $10 million in cash out of the bank just to look at it and get it into his head that this was real money, not just figures on paper.

“When you’re young your first million is important, but after, the numbers don’t mean much,” Dangote, a manufacturing ty-coon with a range of compa-nies spanning cement to flour,

told the Mo Ibrahim forum in Abidjan.

“One day, I cashed 10 million, put them in the boot of my car I put it in my room. I looked at them and thought ‘now I believe I have money’ and took it back to the bank the next day,” he told his audience.

Anecdotes aside, Dangote said that the two most promising sec-tors for Africa’s future were ag-riculture and new technologies. But he advised young African entrepreneurs not to get carried away by the first flush of success.

“Often in Africa we spend our projected incomes. There are ups and downs” in business, he warned.

Dangote said he regretted the customs and administrative problems that hamper business development throughout the continent.

As an example he cited the difficulties his cement group faces in exporting to Benin from Nigerian factories 40 kilometres (25 miles) from the border. Be-nin imported “more expensive” cement from China instead.

‘Yellow vests’ march again AFP | Paris, France

Thousands of “yellow vest” protesters marched Sat-urday for the 21st consec-

utive week to denounce French government policies, as the au-thorities prepare to unveil the results of a nationwide consulta-tive exercise designed to address public grievances.

From Rouen in the north and Lyon in the southeast -- as well as the capital Paris -- protesters took to the streets carrying ban-ners denouncing French Presi-dent Emmanuel Macron. In the west, French and German activ-ists joined forces on the border.

Some masked protesters clashed with police in Rouen, but there was nothing like the scale of violence seen in previ-ous weeks, such as the March 16 riots in Paris that saw luxury stores on the Champs-Elysees ransacked.

Interior ministry figures -- consistently dismissed as un-derestimates by the protesters -- put the turnout across France at 22,300 of whom 3,500 were in Paris. These are the lowest fig-ures officially recorded, and sig-nificantly down on the 282,000 who turned out for the first yel-low vest rally in November last year. But many of the remaining activists insist they will keep marching until they get satisfac-tion from the government.

“What will get me to stop, is the resignation of (Interior

Minister Christophe) Castaner, because of the police violence,” said Catherine, 59, a demonstra-tor in Paris.Castaner has been heavily criticised both by yellow vest activists and opposition pol-iticians for having played down reports of police violence de-

spite growing numbers of seri-ous injuries among protesters.

Results of consultationNext week, the government

will announce the results of the “Great National Debate”, a series of town hall meetings launched

across France in January to take the temperature of the nation -- and get Emmanuel Macron’s troubled presidency back on course.

The idea is to collate griev-ances and decide on solutions. Macron’s office said the presi-

dent would announce the first measures to be taken by the mid-dle of April.

But many yellow vest activists have denounced the exercise as a smoke screen designed to distract attention from their movement.

An opinion poll published Thursday by pollsters Delabre suggested that the public was not convinced either. Of 1,002 surveyed, 68 percent did not think that people’s views would be taken into account; 79 percent did not think it would resolve the current political crisis.

The government received a setback last Thursday when France’s Constitutional Coun-cil struck down a measure that would have let authorities ban certain individuals from pro-testing.

It was a key element of the gov-ernment’s plan to crack down on violence at “yellow vest” demon-strations, but the council, which rules on the validity of laws, said the proposal gave officials “ex-cessive latitude”.

A new law will nevertheless allow the authorities to impose heavy fines on people organising unauthorised demonstrations and for anyone covering their face during a protest.

France has been rocked by months of weekly Saturday pro-tests by the yellow vests, which emerged over fuel taxes before snowballing into a broad revolt against Macron.

While most demonstrators have marched peacefully, the protests have often degenerated into rioting and fierce clashes with police in Paris and other cities, often by far-left and far-right extremists wielding metal bars or slingshots.

“Yellow Vest” (Gilets Jaunes) protesters demonstrate for the 21st consecutive Saturday in Bordeaux

Former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn (2nd L) and his wife Carole (R) leave the office of his lawyer Junichiro Hironaka in Tokyo

Ghosn to name names as wife flees TokyoParis, France

Arrested former Nissan boss Carlos Ghosn is set to name

the people he believes are re-sponsible for his downfall in Japan, his wife said in an in-terview yesterday as she fled Tokyo out of fear she could be detained.

Ghosn was re-arrested last week in the Japanese capital over fresh allegations of finan-cial misconduct which will see him held in custody until at least April 14.

Speaking to the Journal du Dimanche newspaper in France, his wife Carole detailed the lat-est twists in the extraordinary saga, saying that Ghosn had recorded a video interview in English before his detention.

“He names the people respon-sible for what has happened to

him. The lawyers have it. It will be released soon,” she told the newspaper.

Carole added that she had fled Tokyo on a flight to Paris -- with support from the French ambas-sador to Tokyo -- because she

“felt in danger.”Despite her Lebanese pass-

port being confiscated by Japa-nese authorities, Carole said she was able to use her American passport to board a flight and was accompanied by the ambas-

sador to the airport.“He didn’t leave me until the

plane,” she explained. “Up to the last second, I didn’t know if they were going to let me fly. It was surreal.”

The role of the French ambas-sador could lead to fresh friction between the countries over the highly sensitive case, which in-volves Nissan and French car maker Renault, which were both previously run by Ghosn.

Japanese news channel NHK said prosecutors in Tokyo want-ed to question Carole on a vol-untary basis.

Other reports in Japan say that investigators are looking into allegations that company money allegedly misused by Ghosn could have transited through a business that was run by his wife.

No independence for Catalonia, says Spanish PMMadrid, Spain

There will be no independ-ence for Catalonia, nor a

referendum on the question if the socialists are returned to power, Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez told supporters yesterday.

“No is no,” Sanchez told a Socialist Party meeting at Zaragoza, in the northeast re-gion of Aragon, ahead of the April 28 legislative elections.

“If there is a socialist gov-ernment, there will be no inde-pendence in Catalonia, there will be no referendum for in-dependence and the Spanish constitution in Catalonia will not be violated -- that will not happen,” he added.

Sanchez’s speech came after the socialists’ leader in Cata-

lonia, Miquel Iceta, said in a newspaper interview that 65 percent of Catalans wanted in-dependence and that “democ-racy must find a mechanism to enable it”.

Iceta’s remarks, to a Basque newspaper in late March, have been heavily criticised by the rightwing opposition People’s Party and led to allegations that Sanchez is preparing a deal with Catalonia’s separa-tists.

Twelve Catalan leaders are on trial in Madrid over an in-dependence referendum that was held on October 1, 2017 despite a court ban, as well as a short-lived declaration of independence that followed.

Many separatists argue that their leaders were jailed for political reasons.


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: 38444698/17579877 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

SELIM KORU

I am a 30-year-old Turkish man, and for my entire adult life there has been a ritual to elec-

tions: There’s a bitterly fought campaign, the polling day arrives, people vote, ballots are counted and Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins.

He stands on the balcony of his Justice and Development Par-ty’s headquarters in Ankara and gives a victory speech to a cheer-ing crowd. If you are part of that crowd, you feel as if you have be-come a little more important in the world. If you aren’t, you feel as if you have become a little less relevant. This sequence of events has repeated itself for 17 years.

On March 31 Turkey voted to elect the mayors of its 81 prov-inces and their municipalities. Erdogan’s party, known as the AKP, allied itself with the ultra-nationalist National Movement Party; the secularist main oppo-sition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, contested in partnership with Good Party, an outfit that splintered from the nationalists in 2018.

The People’s Democratic Party, or HD, which is home to Kurdish left-nationalists, cooperated with the opposition alliance in several major cities while running against

the AKP in the Kurdish-majority southeastern provinces. It was a brutal contest. Erdogan person-ally campaigned every day and repeatedly accused his opponents of being terrorist collaborators. Most opposition candidates mere-ly presented themselves as the non-Erdogan option.

On the night of March 31, Man-sur Yavas, the CHP candidate for Ankara mayor, was comfortably ahead of his rival from the AKP, which has controlled Ankara for 25 years. Despite the momentous developments in Ankara, all eyes were fixed on Istanbul.

Ekrem Imamoglu, a young, en-ergetic CHP candidate, was briskly tallying up votes and catching up fast with Erdogan’s chosen man for Istanbul, Binali Yildirim, a former prime minister and for-mer speaker of the Turkish Par-liament.

Our phones were exploding with WhatsApp messages. There was a photo of Yildirim writing a short victory speech. There was Imamoglu going on air and in-sisting that he was leading by his campaign’s calculations. People were angry because the author-ities stopped publishing results as Imamoglu caught up with Yildirim in the public figures.

Then a news flash: Erdogan was on the balcony. But something was off. As he stepped up to the crowd, he began singing along to the song booming into the night: “These roses are for you; this soul is ours. Don’t be sad, don’t cry.

Always smile.”Erdogan’s speech was short and

vague. He said that he was hon-oured to carry the popular vote, and that his party had done well in many provinces, none of which

he named. “Those who made false claims are welcome to it,” he said, “let us see how they govern.” This was the closest he got to admitting the calamity: His AKP had lost Ankara and Istanbul, apart from

NOTHING WE DO, HOWEVER VIRTUOUS, CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED ALONE; THEREFORE WE ARE SAVED BY LOVE. REINHOLD NIEBUHR

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Has Erdogan’s populism

reached its limits?

The Turkish President oversaw elections under vastly unequal

conditions and demonised the Opposition as terrorist

collaborators, but he is losing

VIRGINIA LÓPEZ GLASS

On March 30, the capital and at least a dozen of this country’s 23 states were

left without power. It was the fourth major blackout to hit Ven-ezuela this month. The govern-ment has blamed the collapse on an “electromagnetic attack” waged by the United States and terrorist acts from the opposition.

In the past six years, citizens have increasingly been left to fend for themselves as President Nicolás Maduro’s government has proved unable to provide even the most basic services like food, health care, electricity and, soon, water. If the first blackout on March 7 exposed how decades of misrule have destroyed the country’s economy, society and its infrastructure, the last one left no hope that the government has the capacity to find solutions to the country’s many problems.

For years Venezuelans have muddled through overlapping so-cial and economic crises, but the blackouts have made everything worse. It’s not just that life be-came harder overnight. It’s that the prospect of it ever getting better became more distant.

The first blackout left people without phone and internet ser-vices for at least four days. Hospi-tals across the country collapsed,

and countless places had no wa-ter. Given that the state has con-tinuously failed them, people did what they’ve been doing for years: seek out their own solutions to public problems. The collective improvisation highlighted how vulnerable the country has be-come.

Numerous images of people collecting water from polluted rivers were posted on social me-dia, foreshadowing epidemics that an already struggling health care system will be unable to cope with. In Maracaibo, the country’s second-largest city, more than 500 businesses were looted and destroyed. The fear of another ep-isode of violence now looms large.

As the blackout dragged on, it became difficult to buy food because card payments couldn’t be processed without electricity. Within hours people began us-ing United States dollars. In the Maca section of El Llanito, sev-eral open-air markets hung signs announcing that they accepted “lettuces,” the Venezuelan code word for dollars. Overnight the economy had been informally “dollarised.”

But Venezuela’s overlapping crises means that a solution to one problem can bring on an-other. With Venezuela’s soaring crime rate, having dollars can get you killed. Inside one of the food stores, a woman told me, as she defensively clutched her bag, that her cash was a gift from a relative who visited in December. Paula, a homemaker in her late 50s, em-phasised she “only had a couple of

$20s.” She feared neighbourhood thugs would target her. “If hunger doesn’t kill you, crime will,” she said.

If the blackout gave the econ-omy a deadly blow, it has hit the health care system even harder. The country’s crumbling hospi-tals were already experiencing a shortage of medicine and parts needed to repair equipment. Doz-ens of patients died when old gen-erators failed to kick in. Doctors at the Domingo Luciani Hospital

in Caracas described the futile task of trying to keep patients alive with manually pumped res-pirators. Newborn babies died in idle incubators. The day I vis-ited, power had finally been re-stored but they still had no water. Next to patients’ beds lay several five-liter bottles of water that relatives had brought them. Yet another example of people left to fend for themselves.

A young surgeon, who pre-ferred to remain anonymous for

fear of reprisals, told me the lack of water was also worsening the shortage of surgical instruments. “We discard them because, under these conditions, we cannot ster-ilise them.”

As shocking as it is to see hos-pitals operate with no water, in most neighbourhoods it has now become the norm. At 4 in the morning, on the outskirts of Pe-tare in the San Blas slum, women line up at a winding road to fetch water from a stream. The wait is

charged with anger. Leticia Var-gas, who was second in line after a three-hour wait, described a life stripped to the bare minimum. “We went from being poor to liv-ing in misery,” the 50-year-old woman tells me. Her tank top is in tatters and the deep-set eyes in her gaunt face reflect a life so hard, she looks 10 years older.

Vargas’ desperation is coupled with a sense of hopelessness. “They promise, but they never fix anything” she says, referring to

Venezuelans are in the heart of darknessA wave of countrywide blackouts have exposed the extent to which the state has failed, forcing the population to improvise quick fixes to cope with a catastrophe



SELIM KORU

I am a 30-year-old Turkish man, and for my entire adult life there has been a ritual to elec-

tions: There’s a bitterly fought campaign, the polling day arrives, people vote, ballots are counted and Recep Tayyip Erdogan wins.

He stands on the balcony of his Justice and Development Par-ty’s headquarters in Ankara and gives a victory speech to a cheer-ing crowd. If you are part of that crowd, you feel as if you have be-come a little more important in the world. If you aren’t, you feel as if you have become a little less relevant. This sequence of events has repeated itself for 17 years.

On March 31 Turkey voted to elect the mayors of its 81 prov-inces and their municipalities. Erdogan’s party, known as the AKP, allied itself with the ultra-nationalist National Movement Party; the secularist main oppo-sition Republican People’s Party, or CHP, contested in partnership with Good Party, an outfit that splintered from the nationalists in 2018.

The People’s Democratic Party, or HD, which is home to Kurdish left-nationalists, cooperated with the opposition alliance in several major cities while running against

the AKP in the Kurdish-majority southeastern provinces. It was a brutal contest. Erdogan person-ally campaigned every day and repeatedly accused his opponents of being terrorist collaborators. Most opposition candidates mere-ly presented themselves as the non-Erdogan option.

On the night of March 31, Man-sur Yavas, the CHP candidate for Ankara mayor, was comfortably ahead of his rival from the AKP, which has controlled Ankara for 25 years. Despite the momentous developments in Ankara, all eyes were fixed on Istanbul.

Ekrem Imamoglu, a young, en-ergetic CHP candidate, was briskly tallying up votes and catching up fast with Erdogan’s chosen man for Istanbul, Binali Yildirim, a former prime minister and for-mer speaker of the Turkish Par-liament.

Our phones were exploding with WhatsApp messages. There was a photo of Yildirim writing a short victory speech. There was Imamoglu going on air and in-sisting that he was leading by his campaign’s calculations. People were angry because the author-ities stopped publishing results as Imamoglu caught up with Yildirim in the public figures.

Then a news flash: Erdogan was on the balcony. But something was off. As he stepped up to the crowd, he began singing along to the song booming into the night: “These roses are for you; this soul is ours. Don’t be sad, don’t cry.

Always smile.”Erdogan’s speech was short and

vague. He said that he was hon-oured to carry the popular vote, and that his party had done well in many provinces, none of which

he named. “Those who made false claims are welcome to it,” he said, “let us see how they govern.” This was the closest he got to admitting the calamity: His AKP had lost Ankara and Istanbul, apart from

NOTHING WE DO, HOWEVER VIRTUOUS, CAN BE ACCOMPLISHED ALONE; THEREFORE WE ARE SAVED BY LOVE. REINHOLD NIEBUHR

QUOTE OF THE DAY

Has Erdogan’s populism

reached its limits?

The Turkish President oversaw elections under vastly unequal

conditions and demonised the Opposition as terrorist

collaborators, but he is losing

VIRGINIA LÓPEZ GLASS

On March 30, the capital and at least a dozen of this country’s 23 states were

left without power. It was the fourth major blackout to hit Ven-ezuela this month. The govern-ment has blamed the collapse on an “electromagnetic attack” waged by the United States and terrorist acts from the opposition.

In the past six years, citizens have increasingly been left to fend for themselves as President Nicolás Maduro’s government has proved unable to provide even the most basic services like food, health care, electricity and, soon, water. If the first blackout on March 7 exposed how decades of misrule have destroyed the country’s economy, society and its infrastructure, the last one left no hope that the government has the capacity to find solutions to the country’s many problems.

For years Venezuelans have muddled through overlapping so-cial and economic crises, but the blackouts have made everything worse. It’s not just that life be-came harder overnight. It’s that the prospect of it ever getting better became more distant.

The first blackout left people without phone and internet ser-vices for at least four days. Hospi-tals across the country collapsed,

and countless places had no wa-ter. Given that the state has con-tinuously failed them, people did what they’ve been doing for years: seek out their own solutions to public problems. The collective improvisation highlighted how vulnerable the country has be-come.

Numerous images of people collecting water from polluted rivers were posted on social me-dia, foreshadowing epidemics that an already struggling health care system will be unable to cope with. In Maracaibo, the country’s second-largest city, more than 500 businesses were looted and destroyed. The fear of another ep-isode of violence now looms large.

As the blackout dragged on, it became difficult to buy food because card payments couldn’t be processed without electricity. Within hours people began us-ing United States dollars. In the Maca section of El Llanito, sev-eral open-air markets hung signs announcing that they accepted “lettuces,” the Venezuelan code word for dollars. Overnight the economy had been informally “dollarised.”

But Venezuela’s overlapping crises means that a solution to one problem can bring on an-other. With Venezuela’s soaring crime rate, having dollars can get you killed. Inside one of the food stores, a woman told me, as she defensively clutched her bag, that her cash was a gift from a relative who visited in December. Paula, a homemaker in her late 50s, em-phasised she “only had a couple of

$20s.” She feared neighbourhood thugs would target her. “If hunger doesn’t kill you, crime will,” she said.

If the blackout gave the econ-omy a deadly blow, it has hit the health care system even harder. The country’s crumbling hospi-tals were already experiencing a shortage of medicine and parts needed to repair equipment. Doz-ens of patients died when old gen-erators failed to kick in. Doctors at the Domingo Luciani Hospital

in Caracas described the futile task of trying to keep patients alive with manually pumped res-pirators. Newborn babies died in idle incubators. The day I vis-ited, power had finally been re-stored but they still had no water. Next to patients’ beds lay several five-liter bottles of water that relatives had brought them. Yet another example of people left to fend for themselves.

A young surgeon, who pre-ferred to remain anonymous for

fear of reprisals, told me the lack of water was also worsening the shortage of surgical instruments. “We discard them because, under these conditions, we cannot ster-ilise them.”

As shocking as it is to see hos-pitals operate with no water, in most neighbourhoods it has now become the norm. At 4 in the morning, on the outskirts of Pe-tare in the San Blas slum, women line up at a winding road to fetch water from a stream. The wait is

charged with anger. Leticia Var-gas, who was second in line after a three-hour wait, described a life stripped to the bare minimum. “We went from being poor to liv-ing in misery,” the 50-year-old woman tells me. Her tank top is in tatters and the deep-set eyes in her gaunt face reflect a life so hard, she looks 10 years older.

Vargas’ desperation is coupled with a sense of hopelessness. “They promise, but they never fix anything” she says, referring to



TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

So some people from my fraternity have issued a

letter for public to vote out the present constitution-ally elected government in the coming elections. In other words they are officially campaigning for opposition parties. Good!! At least there are no pre-tensions here. Great.

@AnupamPKher

Looks like Bob Mueller’s team of 13 Trump Hat-

ers & Angry Democrats are illegally leaking information to the press while the Fake News Media make up their own stories with or without sources - sources no longer matter to our corrupt & dis-honest Mainstream Media, they are a Joke!

@realDonaldTrump

Ms Sreedhanya Suresh from Wayanad, is the

first tribal girl from Kerala to be selected for the civil service. Sreedhanya’s hard work & dedication have helped make her dream come true. I congratulate Sreedhanya and her fami-ly and wish her great suc-cesss in her chosen career.

@RahulGandhi

On #WorldHealthDay I pray for everyone’s

good health and well-be-ing. Salute to all those remarkable individuals & organisations work-ing towards improving healthcare. I am proud of those working to improve cleanliness and sanitation facilities, which contrib-utes to better health.

@narendramodi

Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need not necessarily reflect our

editorial stances)

other major cities.To understand the significance

of this, it helps to know the dom-inant narrative of Turkish politics today. It goes something like this: Throughout its republican histo-

ry, Turkey has been governed by a secular elite characterised by its impish adherence to Western imperialists.

A group of plucky conservatives kept challenging this system un-

til, in 1994, a young Erdogan and his friend (now dismissed) won the mayoralties of Istanbul and Ankara, respectively. Amid the economic crises, weak coalition governments and civil unrest of the 1990s, Erdogan and his asso-ciates were islands of good gov-ernance. They served these great cities with distinction and earned a reputation of incorruptibility.

In 2002, their movement, now under the banner of the AKP, was elected into national office. Un-der Erdogan’s firm leadership, they grew the economy, fixed the bureaucracy and won up to half of the popular vote. Turkey was booming; the world talked about the “Turkish model” of majori-ty-Muslim democracy. By the mid-2010s, Erdogan had defanged the coup-prone military and disen-franchised the corrupt elites of old.

The jealous opposition parties joined shadowy outside actors in plotting the downfall of Turkey’s great revival. Some of Erdogan’s friends and allies betrayed him, but “the people” did not. When the economy slowed down, or the court system got clogged up, he asked people to sacrifice for the cause of what he called “New Tur-key,” a nation unshackled from Western domination and free to soar to new heights.

But the myth of New Turkey is paradoxical. It was built on doing practical things in the 1990s, like filling potholes. But to maintain the myth, Erdogan sometimes

asked voters to ignore those prac-tical things and simply to have faith in “the cause.”

On March 31, there was a major breach in this wall of faith, espe-cially in Istanbul, where Erdogan’s love of the people first transmuted into government service. This was probably due to a combination of growing economic problems and an increasingly competent opposition.

It is a close count in Istanbul, and the Supreme Electoral Coun-cil has asked for three days to check everything. As things stand, it seems that Imamoglu, the young and stubbornly positive candidate of the CHP, will get the job that started Erdogan’s “great love af-fair” with the people 25 years ago.

If that doesn’t happen, and the AKP holds the city, people will know that Imamoglu went up against vastly unequal odds — the

government’s near-monopoly on TV, its abundant use of state re-sources, its threats of litigation — and probably still won.

This could signal the limits of Erdogan’s political strategy. Al-ready in this election, opposition politicians mocked the president for calling ordinary voters ter-rorists. He strongly denied the claim and sued one of them. In a recently viral video, an old woman asked: “Why should the man gov-erning Turkey make a distinction between the people? Are those [opposition] parties always evil and you [Erdogan] are good?”

When populist rhetoric comes from a fresh face and aims at a calcified elite, it sounds plausi-ble. When it has supplanted that elite, and it has reached its demo-graphic limits, it begins to look ridiculous.

And therein lies the problem of Erdogan’s politics: He isn’t honest with himself. He wants to dominate the political space and transform the country, but he isn’t quite willing to engage in the scale of repression that would require. He demonises his opposi-tion as terrorist collaborators, yet still allows them to participate in elections.

Erdogan’s style of politics de-mands that he either crank up the intensity, or collapse under the weight of its own contradictions.

(Selim Koru is an analyst at the Economic Policy Research Foundation

in Ankara and a writing fellow at the Foreign Policy Research Institute.)

1952U.S. President Harry Truman calls for the seizure of all do-mestic steel mills in an attempt to prevent the 1952 steel strike.

1953Mau Mau leader Jomo Kenyatta is convicted by British Kenya’s rulers.

1954A Royal Canadian Air Force Canadair Har-vard collides with a Trans-Canada Airlines Canadair North Star over Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, killing 37 people.

1954South African Airways Flight 201 A de Havilland DH.106 Comet 1 crashes into the sea during night killing 21 people.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY

To maintain the myth, Erdogan sometimes asked

voters to ignore those prac-tical things and simply to have faith in “the cause.”

the government. Zuri Zambrano, her neighbour in line, interjects: “They’ve only given us lies.” She says it so loud that the man at the front of the line can hear.

That man is Jeison Carvajal, the head of the pro-government com-munity council. His job today is to limit time at the spout. Standing by a wide, galvanised metal cylin-der from where the water pours, Carvajal tells me that the original plan was to add several spouts to shorten the wait. After 20 years in power, and a windfall of nearly a trillion dollars from the oil boom, the best the government can offer the people of San Blas is an im-provised solution. And they even failed to deliver that.

When I ask Vargas and her friends if they ever consider pro-testing, they shrug the suggestion off. “If we do, the army will kill us,” Vargas says. Zambrano adds that despite her anger the “hunt” for food, water and medicines

leaves her no time. “And besides, nothing will change,” she says. Dire living conditions and fear of repression can sometimes demo-bilise a society like in San Blas.

Other times, like in Maracaibo, they propel it.

Contrary to Caracas, Maracaibo experienced daily power outages for most of last year. What was once the heart of a booming oil industry has now become the epi-center of a gasoline smuggling operation into Colombia, and a crossing point for the millions leaving the country. The local economy is so bad, goods are of-ten bartered, not sold.

In the wake of March 7 black-out, three days of riots rocked the city. News reports from the ground seemed taken straight out of “Mad Max,” as armed mobs tore through the streets destroy-ing and stealing everything from shops to whole malls, and even copper wiring. The city was can-nibalised.

Until now, Caracas has been spared the horrors that have shattered Maracaibo. But there is little that a government that is bankrupt, delegitimised and now sanctioned can do for its people. If blackouts become the norm, we might not be so lucky the next time around. I fear that violence and looting will spread like wildfire in the nation’s capi-tal and beyond. That could prove to be another deadly blow for Venezuela.

(Virginia Lopez-Glass has covered Ven-ezuela and Latin America extensively

for international media.)


If the blackout gave the economy a deadly blow, it has hit the health care

system even harder.

NICHOLAS JONES

Blockchain provides a very high level of safety and security when it comes to

exchanging data, information, and money. It also allows users to take advantage of the trans-parent network infrastructure along with low operational costs with the aid of decen-tralization. These characteris-tics make blockchain reliable, promising and in-demand solu-tion for the banking and finance industry.

One of fintech’s main advan-tages, apart from its ability to be far more agile then its bil-lion-dollar counterparts, is its ability to tackle highly regu-lated areas where banks fear to tread due to the possibility of billion-dollar fines. In the future, fintech companies and banks will be able to offer ser-vices with much less friction. Hence, processes such as equity settlements to cross country payments will be made easier being facilitated by new tech-nology such as blockchain. The big challenge will be how regulators respond to this ev-er-changing environment do.

Economic theory predicts that a low-cost competitor en-joys cost advantage only when high-cost competitors are still involved in the market. Sever-al banks have adopted block-chain, the market competition will pressure all banks to pass on the initial profit made back to individuals.

Blockchain technology can be utilised towards much more than just digital currencies such as Bitcoin or developing new financial technologies. This

smart contract can be used for other areas, such as documents provenance, ownership rights, digital or physical assets or to stop fraud. In the diamond in-dustry for instance, the digital ledger for diamond identifica-tion and transaction verification has enabled to bring more trans-parency in a once very opaque diamond market.

Financing became an integral part of trading operations. A better connected, highly auto-mated and far more open infra-structure that will enable more efficient trade finance solutions for customers is the new goal for businesses. However, a smart contract would authenticate all the properties to facilitate a frictionless trade, can reduce processing time, eliminate the use of paper and save money while ensuring transparency, security, and trust.

GCC region has a significant number of migrants who have moved to these countries for a higher pay and they send mon-ey back to their home country frequently. Traditionally, inter-

national money transfers can take days to complete due to the number of required ver-ifications. Blockchain remit-tance companies provide in-stant money transfer services. Though money transfers via swift messaging is quick, the costs are high. UAE accounts for more than $19 billion of re-mittances per year, ranking it fourth in the world, according to World Bank data.

Back office works is a big part of banking activity. Regulation and compliance issues lead to a lot of checks and counter checks. Effective management of account reconciliation activ-ities would enable companies to proactively identify and resolve issues that could result in mis-statements in financial account-ing, reporting records and lead to substantial write-offs. United Arab Emirates has envisioned to become the first government to execute all of its payment on the blockchain by 2020.

A study by IBM’s Institute for Business Value (IBV) found nine out of 10 government organi-sations plan to invest in block-chain for use cases ranging from financial transaction manage-ment, asset management, con-tract management and regulato-ry compliance in 2018. Of these, nine out of 10 Middle East and Africa government executives see contract management as the greatest potential new business model as it would bring com-plete visibility to the failure of any party to meet a deadline or complete a task.

(Nicholas Jones is senior manager for banking and financial services

recruitment at Robert Walters Dubai.)

Blockchain technology and the future of banking

Blockchain technology can be utilised towards much

more than just digital currencies such as Bitcoin

or developing new financial technologies.

BD19mis the revenue generated by Bahrain Airport company

in 2018

10

business


Exceptional year for BACRecords more than BD19 million net profit

• Property and real estate income lifted non-aero revenues

• Passenger service charges contributed largely to aero revenues

TDT | Manama

Bahrain Airport Company (BAC), the operator and managing body of Bahrain

International Airport (BIA), re-ported a net profit of BD19.3 mil-lion in 2018, a significant jump compared to BD12.9m the pre-vious year, thanks to an overall increase in BIA’s activities.

The results come on the back of a 21 per cent increase in reve-nues to BD51m, up from BD42m at the end of 2018.

The year saw a surge in car-go traffic and increased num-ber of airlines operating out of BIA resulting in greater reve-nue from landing fees and

heavy footfall through retail areas.

Growth across both aero and non-aero revenue streams in 2018 was significant, with aero income increasing by 18pc and non-aero income rising by 28pc.

The main contributors to aero revenue growth were passenger service charges, at 56pc of the

total aero revenues, and land-ing fees at 19pct. The increase in non-aero revenues is largely due to property and real estate income, which makes up 33pc of the total non-aero revenues, followed by retail concession income at 31pc.

The figures were revealed by Gulf Air Group Holding Chair-

man and Minister of Transpor-tation and Telecommunications, Kamal Ahmed during a recent GFG Board of Directors meeting.

Commenting on the results, the Minister said: “These im-pressive figures are the result of collaborative efforts between BAC and its partners, as well as ongoing improvements to BIA’s

infrastructure and services as part of the Airport Modernisa-tion Programme.”

“With the company’s solid financial position, increased business activity, and a prom-ising operating environment at BIA, we are confident that we can build on our success in 2019, continuing the aviation sector’s contribution to the lo-cal economy in line with Bah-rain’s Vision 2030,” the minister said.

The minister further said that the launch of the new Passenger Terminal Building later this year will increase BIA’s capacity to 14 million passengers a year and “is expected to generate even further growth across both aero and non-aero revenue streams.”

Gulf Air Group Holding Chairman and Minister of Transportation and Telecommunications, Kamal Ahmed during a GFG Board of Directors meeting

Batelco launches Manama-IX TDT | Manama

Batelco has announced the launch of Manama-IX

(Manama Internet Exchange) in partnership with AMS-IX, the world’s leading Internet Exchange, at an event held at Bahrain’s prestigious Capital Club.

The announcement follows the signing of a partnership in Batelco’s Paddock Club Lounge on the sidelines of this year’s Grand Prix at the Bahrain International Circuit.

Manama-IX (mn-ix), a Batel-co statement said, will serve as a neutral internet traffic ex-change platform interconnect-ing global networks within the region.

“Our goal is to develop Ma-nama-IX into a leading internet hub in the MENA region and this can be achieved through our partnership with a glob-al experienced partner like AMS-IX, who will accelerate

the delivery of our objective by deploying a scalable, managed Internet Exchange operated by them,” said Batelco Chief Global Business Officer Adel Al-Daylami.

CEO Peter van Burgel from AMS-IX commented: “AMS-IX will set-up and technically manage Manama Internet Ex-change in Bahrain on behalf of Batelco to further improve internet connectivity through-out the region.”

Adel Al-Daylami

Aluminium Bahrain (Alba) officials with a high-level delegation from General Electric (GE). Alba’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Murray, Deputy Chief Executive Officer Ali Al Baqali, Chief Power Officer Amin Sultan, Director of Power & Utilities Steve Davison and other Alba officials welcomed GE delegation including CEO – GE Gas Power Scott L. Strazik, President & CEO Power Services, MEA Joseph Anis, CFO, Power Middle East and South Asia Yoshito Murakami along with other GE officials. Speaking on this occasion, Alba’s Chief Executive Officer Tim Murray said: “We are pleased to partner with GE and adopt its HA gas turbine technology at PS 5 (PS 5),which will make it one of the most efficient and combined cycle power plants in the world.”


Minister concludes USA visit on high note TDT | Manama

The Minister of Oil, Shai-kh Mohamed bin Khal-ifa Al-Khalifa conclud-

ed yesterday a three-day USA visit which showcased the vast opportunities available in the Kingdom’s fast-expanding en-ergy sector.

The Minister of Oil comment-ed that the trip has been suc-cessful in showcasing the oil & gas opportunities in Bahrain to the relevant US companies. “We are hopeful to attract some good partners to work in Bahrain,” Shaikh Mohamed added.

The Houston Oil & Gas Road-show was organised by the American Chamber of Com-merce in association with the National Oil & Gas Authority (NOGA) from 3rd till 6th April 2019, as part of NOGA’s strategy aimed to attract US companies to Bahrain, and utilize their ex-pertise in shale oil production to assist the Kingdom in commer-cializing the opportunities that were announced in 2018.

Dr Dawood Nassif, Director, the Bahrain Petroleum Compa-ny – Chairman of BMP Steering Committee, and James Eastlake, CEO, Tatweer Petroleum gave presentations on investment op-

portunities in the energy sector of the Kingdom.

The Bahraini delegation in-cluded Shaikh Abdulla bin Rashid Al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s Ambassador to the US, Sameer Abdullah Nass, Chairman of Bahrain Chamber of Commerce & Industry, Khalid Rashid Al Zayani, Co-Chairman of US Bahrain Business Council, Qays Zu’bi, President, American

Chamber of Commerce in Bah-rain. The US side included Justin Siberell, US Ambassador to Bah-rain, Sylvester Turner, the May-or of Houston, David Philips, Chairman of the Houston Bi-lateral Chamber of Commerce, senior officials of Houston and representatives from over 200 US companies specialized in the oil and gas sector.

The visit included a series of

meetings with senior US govern-ment officials in Washington DC, the US Bahrain Business Council and the American Chamber of Commerce during which dis-cussions were held on topics of mutual interest for both sides.

The accompanying Bahraini delegation also held business meetings designed to encour-age partnerships amongst the private sectors in both countries.

In pictures, highlights of the visit

Gulf Air celebrates first anniversary of its new brand

TDT | Manama

Gulf Air is celebrating one year since launching its new brand at the Formu-

la 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2018.

The launch was planned to coincide with the Kingdom’s

largest motorsport event to max-imise the exposure of its new logo, new cabin crew uniforms and new aircraft livery.

Gulf Air introduced a re-freshed identity including its logo, colour palette, typography and aircraft livery. Other modi-fications included the choice of interior aircraft design, material

selection and cabin crew uni-forms. The year 2018 adopted by the #YearOfChange, kicked-off when the airline took de-livery of its first Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner in April 2018 and continued receiving its incoming fleet of Boeing 787-9 and Airbus 320neos. To date, the airline has received 7 Boeing aircraft and 2

Airbus 320neo. Gulf Air’s Chief Executive

Officer, Kresimir Kucko said: “Changing the face of any com-pany is not an easy task and we have gone through numerous brainstorming sessions and brand workshops to finally cre-ate the great brand we have to-day. We have received consider-

able positive feedback since the launch, which projects a fresh, clean and simple look that can be easily remembered and iden-tified.”

Kucko added: “Our new livery with its white background and large Gulf Air text not only reads easier but also reflects a vision at the cutting edge of innovation,

modernity and progress. We have always wanted to keep the iconic falcon in our logo and re-tain the gold colour, which rep-resents the luxury and warmth of the Kingdom. The falcon, its bill and feathers inspire many aspects of the font design and cabin definition, adding more pride to our iconic logo.”

Modifications included the choice of interior aircraft design, material selection and cabin crew uniforms

Dr Mirza opens 5th solar training programmeTDT | Manama

Electricity and Water Affairs (EWA) Minister Dr Abdul-

hussain Mirza yesterday opened the fifth training programme for the installation of solar systems in homes and commercial estab-lishments.

The training courses aim at creating a new workforce capa-ble of installing, operating and maintaining photovoltaic and wind power plants.

The programme, held at the Electricity and Water Author-ity (EWA) Training Centre, is being conducted with the sup-port of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

UNDP Resident representa-tive and a number of officials, including engineers at the EWA, were present.

The minister said the pro-gramme comes as part of plans that confirm the commitment of the leadership and the gov-

ernment to encourage the use of clean energy for sustainable development.

More than 200 contractors

and consultants were trained so far.

“The objective is to promote sustainable development prac-

tices and to ensure an ambitious vision that contributes to the successful implementation of Goal 7,” said Dr Mirza.

Dr Mirza with participants and officials during a photocall

Egypt on track to end fuel subsidies: IMFCairo, Egypt

Egypt is on track to end subsidies on most fu-

els by June 15 as part of a reform programme led by the International Mone-tary Fund, the Washing-ton-based body said.

Cairo secured a $12 billion, three-year loan package from the IMF in 2016.

Egyptian authorities “re-main committed” to ending subsidies granted to limit prices at the pump, the IMF said in a new report.

The prices of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and fuels used in bakeries and for electricity generation would not be affected, it added.


Closing BellSAUDI 0.6 pct » 9,011 pts

ABU DHABI 0.4 pct » 5,052 pts

DUBAI 0.2 pct » 2,781 pts

QATAR » 10,192 pts

EGYPT 0.7 pct » 15,135 pts

BAHRAIN 1.5 pct » 1,440 pts

OMAN 0.8 pct » 3,970 pts

KUWAIT 1.4 pct » 6,222 pts

Chief Executive Officer of the Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA), Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa, during a visit to two new projects ‘The Park’ and ‘The Wharf’, which are both in the final stages of development and soon be open to the public in Bahrain Bay, Bahrain. During the meeting, the Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain Bay, Gagan Suri welcomed Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa upon his arrival, briefing him on developments of both projects. “The Park” and “The Wharf”, which will feature sea-front promenades and walkways, will include a wide range of popular retail outlets and international brands, as well restaurants and cafes view sea views, public parks and play areas for kids; and also boast a range of business facilities.

ADNOC shines in Abu Dhabi• ADNOC Distribution jumps 8 pct

• Union Properties rises in heavy trade

• Emirates NBD extends gains on Denizbank deal

Reuters | Dubai

ADNOC Distribution lifted the Abu Dhabi stock mar-ket yesterday and Dubai

continued its winning streak, while Saudi Arabia lagged be-hind.

The Abu Dhabi index was up 0.4 per cent, as ADNOC Distribution rose 8pc to a one year high of 2.7 dirhams ($0.7351).

Last week, the company’s shareholders approved an in-crease in the firm’s dividend policy. The company also won shareholder approval to buy back up to 62.5 million shares, equivalent to 5pc of its free float during a 12-month period, should it choose to do so.

Separately, it was reported that the firm was considering a secondary listing overseas.

The Dubai index increased

0.2pc, rising for its seventh straight session. Union Proper-ties was by far the stock with the highest trading volume, gaining 0.8pct.

Emirates NBD Bank - which Dubai-based Arqaam Capital on Sunday called its “top buy” - added 1.3pc after saying last week that it will buy Denizbank.

Heavyweight Emaar Prop-erties was down 0.4pc, while Shuaa Capital was up 4.3pc. The firm is set to merge with Abu Dhabi Financial Group soon in a reverse takeover.

Dana Gas and Eshraq Prop-erties were among the stocks registering the highest trading volumes in Abu Dhabi, and they

went up 0.5pc and 0.7pc, respec-tively.

Saudi Arabia’s Tadawul index was down 0.6pc, ending a pre-vious 9-day gain streak pulled down by Al Rajhi Bank which was down 1.1pc.

“Being a Sunday, foreigners were absent (from the Saudi market) and we suspect local

investors are booking some of the recent profits,” said Vrajesh Bhandari, senior portfolio man-ager at Al Mal Capital in Dubai.

Saudi Almarai was down 0.5pc in thin trading volume, after what Arqaam capital called “uninspiring results” in a report on the company’s first quarter.

Led by Ahli United Bank, which was up 2.5pc, Bahrain’s stock market added 1.5pc. On Wednesday, the bank said due diligence for a merger with Kuwait Finance House was in progress.

Egypt’s stock market was down 0.7pc on Sunday, weighed down mainly by Orascom In-vestment Holding, which lost 7.1pc after reporting last week a drop in standalone net profit.

Traders on the floor of Saudi Stock market (Courtesy of Amazons)

No breakthrough expected in EU-China summitBrussels, Belgium

Top EU leaders meet Chinese Premier Li Ke-

qiang this week at a summit in Brussels, but their hopes of winning solid commit-ments on trade look set for disappointment.

Brussels is trying to beef up its approach to the Asian giant as it shows little will-ingness to listen to long-standing complaints about industrial subsidies and ac-cess to its markets, and as fears grow about growing Chinese involvement in Eu-ropean infrastructure.

But the half-day summit on Tuesday is on course to fizzle out with little to show in terms of agreements, with European sources say-ing it looks highly unlikely a final joint statement will be agreed.

EU officials say China is unwilling to give binding commitments on their key demands, including the in-clusion of industrial subsi-dies as part of World Trade Organization reform, and they are reluctant to agree the kind of anodyne dec-laration of good intentions pushed out after last year’s summit in Beijing.

Shell hit with Dutch climate lawsuitThe Hague, Netherlands

Climate marchers hand-ed in a lawsuit to Shell’s

headquarters in the Nether-lands aimed at forcing the oil giant to meet targets in the Paris accord.

Dozens of chanting activ-ists went to the Anglo-Dutch firm’s base in The Hague, where they delivered a legal summons with a court date set for April 17.

Shell greeted the protest-ers with coffee from an elec-tric drinks van. It said that while it “shares concerns about the climate” it “be-lieves in a solution outside the courtroom.”

The protesters carried banners with slogans such as “We Shell overcome -- eventually” and red posters saying “Shell is as green as this poster.”

They also mounted a giant version of the summmons with the signatures of the thousands of plaintiffs at Shell’s headquarters near the city centre.

Both sides’ must compromise: British PMLondon, United Kingdom

British Prime Minister The-resa May yesterday con-

ceded that concluding a Brexit deal with the main opposition will need “compromise on both sides” as she faced criticism for being inflexible.

The embattled leader opened negotiations this week with the Labour Party in a bid to end months of political crisis over her divorce deal struck with European leaders last year but repeatedly rejected by MPs.

However after several days of talks Labour complained May’s team were rigid over her plan, while the talks sparked fury among some Conservatives who detest involving leftist leader Jeremy Corbyn.

“We need to get a deal over the line and that’s why we’ve been looking for new ways to find an

agreement in parliament -- and that means cross-party talks,” May said in a video recorded at her country retreat Chequers.

“There’s a lot of things on which I disagree with the La-bour Party on policy issues but on Brexit I think there are some things we agree on... so we’re talking.”

On the prospects of reaching a deal, the prime minister added: “It’ll mean compromise on both sides.”

Time is running out for May to end Britain’s 46 years of Eu-ropean Union membership in an orderly manner.

She will head to an EU summit Wednesday seeking to secure another Brexit extension, un-til June 30, to prevent Britain crashing out the bloc at the end of next week with no deal.

The country’s original March 29 departure date was delayed

last month to April 12 amid the paralysis in parliament.

EU members, who must unan-imously back any further de-lay, are growing increasingly impatient at the dysfunction in Westminster and want a clear plan to resolve it.

Depending on what May pro-poses, they could offer just a shorter postponement -- or a longer period of up to a year.

‘Prepared to move’Negotiations between the gov-

ernment and Labour are set to resume next week after a week-end of exchanges “clarifying our position”, according to shad-ow business secretary Rebecca Long Bailey.

One of the Labour team in the talks, she told the BBC the lack of compromise so far was “dis-appointing” but the mood was “quite positive and hopeful”.

“We are currently waiting for the government to come back to us now to state whether they are prepared to move on any of their red lines,” Long Bailey said.

Labour is pushing for a much closer post-Brexit alliance with the EU, including participation in a customs union.

May has previously dismissed the idea because it bars Britain from striking its own trade deals around the world.

Andrea Leadsom, a senior Brexiteer in her divided cabinet, said the government was talk-ing to Labour “through gritted teeth”.

She would not confirm if sen-ior Tory eurosceptics would now accept a customs union, and hinted she would back a no-deal departure over a long delay.

“For me, whatever we deliver, it has to be Brexit,” she told the BBC. Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May

Pet Sematary is a 2019 American supernatural horror film directed by

Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Wid-myer and written by Jeff Bu-hler, from a screen story by Matt Greenberg.

It is the second adaptation of the novel of the same name by Stephen King, after the 1989 film.

The film stars Jason Clarke, Amy Seimetz, and John Lith-gow, and follows a family that discovers a mysterious grave-yard in the woods behind their new home.

The film premiered at South by Southwest festival on March 16, 2019, and was released in the United States on April 5, 2019, by Paramount Pictures.

It received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the dark tone, atmosphere and per-formances but criticized the slow pacing and use of jump scares. Critics and audiences were both divided on the chang-

es between the film and book, though many named it better than the 1989 adaptation.

On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an ap-proval rating of 62% based on 165 reviews, with an average rating of 6.16/10. The website’s

critical consensus reads, “Some-times remade is better”, a refer-ence to the film’s promotional tagline.

On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 58 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating “mixed or average

reviews”. Audiences polled by Cine-

maScore gave the film an aver-age grade of “C+” on an A+ to F scale, while those at PostTrak gave it an overall positive score of 66% and a 47% “definite rec-ommend”.

M O V I E R E V I E W

13 MONDAY, APRIL 8, 2019

OASIS JUFFAIR1-SHAZAM! (PG-15) (ACTION/COMEDY/ADVENTURE) NEW

ZACHARY LEVI, MARK STRONG (II), ASHER ANGELDAILY AT: 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PM DAILY AT (3D): 1.30 + 6.30 + 11.30 PMDAILY AT (VIP): 12.00 + 2.45 + 5.30 + 8.15 + 11.00 PM

2-PET SEMATARY (18+) (HORROR/THRILLER) NEW JASON CLARKE, AMY SEIMETZ, JETE LAURENCE

DAILY AT: 4.00 + 6.15 + 8.30 + 10.45 PM

3-ARGENTINA FANS KAATTOORKADAVU (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW

KALIDAS JAYARAM, AISHWARYA LEKSHMIDAILY AT: 3.45 PM

4-LAKSHMI’S THUNAI (PG-13) (TELGU) NEW P VIJAY KUMAR, YAGNA SHETTY

DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.15 PM

5-MAJILI (PG-15) (TELGU) NEW NAGACHAITHAYA, SAMANTHA AKKINENI, DIVYANSHA

KAUSHIKFROM FRIDAY 5THDAILY AT: 1.00 + 6.30 PM

6-URIYADI II (PG-15) (TAMIL) NEW VIJAY KUMAR, VISMAYA, SUDHAKAR

FROM THURSDAY 7.30 PM ONWARDS DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 9.15 + 11.45 PM

8-DUMBO (PG) (ADVENTURE/DRAMA/FAMILY) COLIN FARRELL, MICHAEL KEATON, DANNY DEVITO

DAILY AT (3D): 11.15 AM + 4.15 + 9.15 PM DAILY AT (KIDS CINEMA): 11.30 AM + 3.45 + 6.00 + 8.15 + 10.30 PM

9- CAPTAIN MARVEL (PG-13) (ACTION/ADVENTURE) BRIE LARSON, GEMMA CHAN, SAMUEL L. JACKSON

DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 3.45 + 9.00 PM

10- WONDER PARK (PG) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) *- BRIANNA DENSKI, JENNIER GARNER, KEN HUDSON CAMPBELL

DAILY AT (KIDS CINEMA): 1.45 PM

11- LUCIFER (PG-15) (MALAYALAM) MOHANLAL, MANJU WARRIER, VIVEK OBEROI,

TOVINO THOMAS DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.45 + 5.00 + 8.15 + 11.30 PM

12- KESARI (15+) (HINDI/ACTION/DRAMA) AKSHAY KUMAR, PARINEETI CHOPRA, BHAGYASHREE

DAILY AT: 1.00 + 6.15 + 11.30 PM

CITYCENTRE1-SHAZAM! (PG-15) (ACTION/COMEDY/ADVENTURE) NEW

ZACHARY LEVI, MARK STRONG (II), ASHER ANGELDAILY AT (IMAX 3D): 11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PM DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 1.30 + 4.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 7.30 + 10.00 + 10.30 PM + (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)DAILY AT (ATMOS): 12.00 + 3.00 + 6.00 + 9.00 PM + 12.00 MN DAILY AT (VIP II): 12.30 + 3.30 + 6.30 + 9.30 PM + (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)DAILY AT (VIP I): 11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00PM


DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 PM + 12.00 MN + (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)

3-MY HERO ACADEMIA: TWO HEROES (PG-13) (JAPA-NESE/ANIMAITON/ACTION/COMEDY) NEW

JUSTIN BRINER, CHRISTOPHER SABAT, RAY CHASEDAILY AT: 12.00 + 4.45 + 9.30 PM


DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.00 + 4.15 + 6.30 + 8.45 + 11.00 PM DAILY AT (3D): 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 PM + 12.00 MN


DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 PM + 12.00 MN

6- US (15+) (HORROR/THRILLER) LUPITA NYONG’O, ELISABETH MOSS, ANNA DIOP

DAILY AT: 10.45 AM +1.15 + 3.45 + 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PM

7- ESCAPE ROOM (PG-15) (THRILLER) TAYLOR RUSSELL, LOGAN MILLER, DEBORAH ANN WOLL

DAILY AT: 12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 PM + 12.00 MN

8- COLD PURSUIT (15+) (ACTION/CRIME/DRAMA) LIAM NEESON, EMMY ROSSUM, LAURA DERN

DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PM

9- WONDER PARK (PG) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY)

BRIANNA DENSKI, JENNIER GARNER, KEN HUDSON CAMPBELL

DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 3.00 + 7.00 + 11.00 PM DAILY AT (ARABIC DUBBED): 1.00 + 5.00 + 9.00 PM

10-THE PROFESSOR AND THE MADMAN (PG-15) (DRAMA/BIOGRAPHY)

MEL GIBSON, SEAN PENN, NATALIE DORMERDAILY AT: 12.00 + 4.30 + 9.00 PM

11- NADI ELREGAL EL SERI (PG-15) (ARABIC/COMEDY) KARIM ABDULAZIZ, GHADA ADEL, MAJDE ALKIDDAWI

DAILY AT: 2.30 + 7.00 + 11.30 PM

12-THE UPSIDE (PG-15) (COMEDY/DRAMA) KEVIN HART, BRYAN CRANSTON, NICOLE KIDMAN

DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 1.45 + 4.15 + 6.45 + 9.15 + 11.45 PM

13- GLASS (PG-15) (THRILLER) JAMES MCAVOY, BRUCE WILLIS, SAMUEL L. JACKSON

DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM

14-JOHNNY ENGLISH STRIKES AGAIN (PG) (COMEDY/ACTION/ADVENTURE)

ROWAN ATKINSON, OLGA KURYLENKO, EMMA THOMPSONDAILY AT: 2.30 + 7.00 + 11.30 PM

15- FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (15+) (DRAMA/COME-DY/BIOGRAPHY)

DWAYNE JOHNSON, FLORENCE PUGH, JACK LOWDENDAILY AT: 12.15 + 4.45 + 9.15 PM

16- AQUAMAN (PG-15) (ACTION/ADVENTURE)

JASON MOMOA, AMBER HEARD, NICOLE KIDMANDAILY AT: 2.00 + 6.45 + 11.30 PM


TOVINO THOMAS DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.45 + 5.00 + 8.15 + 11.30 PM

SEEF (II)1-SHAZAM! (PG-15) (ACTION/COMEDY/ADVENTURE) NEW

ZACHARY LEVI, MARK STRONG (II), ASHER ANGELDAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 PM + 12.00 MN


DAILY AT: 12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PM + (12.45 MN THURS/FRI)

3-THE SMILE (THE ETRUSCAN SMILE) (PG-15) (COME-DY/DRAMA) NEW

BRIAN COX, ROSANNA ARQUETTE, J.J. FEILDDAILY AT: 12.45 + 5.00 + 9.15 PM

4-DAGHT A’ALI (PG-15) (ARABIC/COMEDY) NEW AYTEN AMER, NEDAL EL SHAFEY, LUTFI LABEEB

DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 3.15 + 8.00 PM

5-INKESAR (PG-15) (ARABIC/THRILLER/CRIME) NEW AHMED AL-OLAYAN, KHALID MNQAH, BANDAR AL-HADADI,

NUJOODDAILY AT: 1.30 + 5.15 + 10.00 PM

6-PROJECT GHAZI (PG-15) (URDU/ACTION/THRILLER) NEW

SHEHERYAR MUNAWAR SIDDIQUI, SYRA SHEHROZ, ADNAN JAFFAR

DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 3.00 + 7.15 + 11.30 PM

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15- CAPHARNAUM (18+) (ARABIC/DRAMA) KAWTHAR AL HADDAD, NADINE LABAKY, FADI YOUSEF

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Pet Sematary: An unsettling new take on a Stephen King classic

A scene from ‘Pet Sematary’

SITUATION VACANTC L A S S I F I E D S

TRADE MARKETING EXECUTIVErequired for a major FMCG company in the Kingdom. Ideal candidate will have a minimum of 3 years’ experience in this field.

Reporting to the Marketing Manager, The Trade Marketing Executive is a role that involves improving Brand Equity via promotional activities, POS design and management. The TME will work closely with the sales team in their interaction with hotels & restaurants to increase distribution and achieve sales targets. Individual filling this role must assume a 50/50 split between administrative duties and presence in the trade. Valid Bahraini driver’s license is preferred. Send CV to [email protected].


For Reservations, Call:Umm Al Hassam 17728699 Seef District 17364999

Will Smith’s new meaning to life after India visit

Mumbai

Hollywood star Will Smith says he got a new

perspective towards life and the truths of the world af-ter exploring the culture of India.

Smith has visited In-dia sever-a l t i m e s , o n c e t o promote his Netflix mov-ie “Bright” in M u m b a i a n d once to be part of a summit in New Delhi. The “Men in Black” star always takes out time from his busy schedule to experience different facets of the country.

He has expressed his fond-ness for the country through the social media -- be it about ticking Bollywood off his bucket list or about going on a spiritual sojourn.

Britney devastated over father’s ill health

Los Angeles

Singer Britney Spears is “devastated” over her fa-

ther Jamie Spears’ health battle, which has reportedly caused her to check into a mental health facility.

Sources say seeing her fa-ther “seriously ill” has “shat-tered” the “Toxic” hitmaker, causing her mental health to suffer, which is why she de-cided to head to a treatment centre, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“She’s been devastated over the prospect of losing her dad. He’s always been her rock, and seeing him se-riously ill has shattered her,” an insider told usmagazine.

I’m shockingly available: Charlize Theron

Los Angeles

Charlize Theron has re-vealed that she is “shock-ingly available” but the

actor said she needs a man to “step up” and ask her out.

The 43-year-old Oscar winner opened up about her love life in an interview with Entertainment To-

night while promoting her film “Long Shot”

with co-star Seth Ro-gen.

“I’ve been single for 10 years, it’s not a long shot. Somebody just needs to grow a pair and step up. I’m shockingly available,” Theron said.

Rogen echoed her sentiments, saying, “She’s out there!”, to which Theron said, “I’ve made it very clear.”

Theron previous-ly dated actor Stuart Townsend and they split up in 2010. She was then in a relationship with actor Sean Penn and were engaged in 2014. But they separated in 2015.

GoT stars crash Kit Harington’s SNL monologue

Los Angeles

“Game of Thrones” stars Emilia Clarke and John Bradley crashed Kit Harington’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue and

demanded spoilers about the final season from him.

“Game of Thrones” star Harington hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live” on April 6 and had to field questions during his monologue about “who wins ‘Game of Thrones’”.

Some of those questions came from his own co-stars Clarke and Bradley as well as his real-life wife

Rose Leslie, reports variety.com.Clarke stood up in the audience and asked if he

could at least share “a sense of how it ends”. When Harington pointed out that she already knows be-

cause she is in the show, she replied: “Well yeah but I forgot. It’s been so damn long since the last season, plus a lot of my scenes are talking to a dragon, which is just a

tennis ball on a green pole. I have no idea what’s actually happening.”Bradley then stood up to ask what happened to his charac-

ter, Samwell Tarly, because “they only let me see two pages of the script and all my character says is, ‘Arhhhh’.”

“What did it say in the script before that?” Harington asked. “Dragon opens mouth,” Bradley replied.

When Leslie stood up, Harington said he “couldn’t even tell (her)” how the show ends, but she said she didn’t care about that because “I’m not a nerd”.

Jamie Spears and Britney Spears

Rihanna praises mother for

teaching about forgivenessLos Angeles

Singer Rihanna has praised her mother Monica Braithwaite for

teaching her about forgiveness.Rihanna wrote: “Happy

Birthday to my sweet beau-tiful mother. Thanks for teaching me that strength, love, forgiveness, sac-rifice, hard work, and helping oth-

ers in whatever way you can...

is what true b e a u t y

l o o k s like.

The 31-year-old sing-er says she loves and and appreciates her mother, re-ports femalefirst.co.uk.

“Thank you God for choos-ing this wonderful being to be my mom!”

Meanwhile, Rihanna has filed a lawsuit against her father Ronald Fenty and a company called Fenty Entertainment for reportedly using the sur-

name, which she uses on her range of Fenty Beauty products, to solicit business acting as agents of the sing-er.

Los Angeles

Rappers Offset and Car-di B have splashed out $201,840 for five hous-

es and a plot of land in a row on a leafy street in a suburb of Atlanta.

According to DailyMailTV, the pair also paid $48,080 for a plot of land.

Clayton County Property re-cords show that Offset, 27, is listed as the main buyer under his real name Kiari Cephus, while Cardi B, 26, is listed as an “additional buyer” under her

real name Belcalis Almanzar, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

It was recently revealed that Offset and Cardi B are “getting to know each other” again after getting back together.

Hailey Baldwin

and Justin

Bieber

Justin Bieber moves into his new abode with love

Hailey Baldwin

• At present, Justin is more focused on his mental health. This comes in the wake of him putting in efforts to sustain his marriage with Hailey Baldwin.

Los Angeles

Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin have finally moved into their new abode.

The couple who exchanged rings in September 2018 shifted to their new Beverly Hills house

on Thursday, reported People.It was in March when the

‘Baby’ singer, bought a five-bed-room, seven-bathroom house in Beverly Hills, as reported by People. The 6,132 square-foot property cost him USD 8.5 mil-lion.

Justin on Wednesday shared on his Instagram story that he was attending a therapy ses-sion.”It’s cool to have a healthy mind and emotions,” he cap-tioned.

At present, Justin is more focused on his mental health. This comes in the wake of him putting in efforts to sustain his marriage with Hailey Baldwin.

Rihanna

Rappers Offset and Cardi B

Will Smith


For Reservations, Call:Umm Al Hassam 17728699 Seef District 17364999

Will Smith’s new meaning to life after India visit

Mumbai

Hollywood star Will Smith says he got a new

perspective towards life and the truths of the world af-ter exploring the culture of India.

Smith has visited In-dia sever-a l t i m e s , o n c e t o promote his Netflix mov-ie “Bright” in M u m b a i a n d once to be part of a summit in New Delhi. The “Men in Black” star always takes out time from his busy schedule to experience different facets of the country.

He has expressed his fond-ness for the country through the social media -- be it about ticking Bollywood off his bucket list or about going on a spiritual sojourn.

Britney devastated over father’s ill health

Los Angeles

Singer Britney Spears is “devastated” over her fa-

ther Jamie Spears’ health battle, which has reportedly caused her to check into a mental health facility.

Sources say seeing her fa-ther “seriously ill” has “shat-tered” the “Toxic” hitmaker, causing her mental health to suffer, which is why she de-cided to head to a treatment centre, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

“She’s been devastated over the prospect of losing her dad. He’s always been her rock, and seeing him se-riously ill has shattered her,” an insider told usmagazine.

I’m shockingly available: Charlize Theron

Los Angeles

Charlize Theron has re-vealed that she is “shock-ingly available” but the

actor said she needs a man to “step up” and ask her out.

The 43-year-old Oscar winner opened up about her love life in an interview with Entertainment To-

night while promoting her film “Long Shot”

with co-star Seth Ro-gen.

“I’ve been single for 10 years, it’s not a long shot. Somebody just needs to grow a pair and step up. I’m shockingly available,” Theron said.

Rogen echoed her sentiments, saying, “She’s out there!”, to which Theron said, “I’ve made it very clear.”

Theron previous-ly dated actor Stuart Townsend and they split up in 2010. She was then in a relationship with actor Sean Penn and were engaged in 2014. But they separated in 2015.

GoT stars crash Kit Harington’s SNL monologue

Los Angeles

“Game of Thrones” stars Emilia Clarke and John Bradley crashed Kit Harington’s “Saturday Night Live” monologue and

demanded spoilers about the final season from him.

“Game of Thrones” star Harington hosted an episode of “Saturday Night Live” on April 6 and had to field questions during his monologue about “who wins ‘Game of Thrones’”.

Some of those questions came from his own co-stars Clarke and Bradley as well as his real-life wife

Rose Leslie, reports variety.com.Clarke stood up in the audience and asked if he

could at least share “a sense of how it ends”. When Harington pointed out that she already knows be-

cause she is in the show, she replied: “Well yeah but I forgot. It’s been so damn long since the last season, plus a lot of my scenes are talking to a dragon, which is just a

tennis ball on a green pole. I have no idea what’s actually happening.”Bradley then stood up to ask what happened to his charac-

ter, Samwell Tarly, because “they only let me see two pages of the script and all my character says is, ‘Arhhhh’.”

“What did it say in the script before that?” Harington asked. “Dragon opens mouth,” Bradley replied.

When Leslie stood up, Harington said he “couldn’t even tell (her)” how the show ends, but she said she didn’t care about that because “I’m not a nerd”.

Jamie Spears and Britney Spears

Rihanna praises mother for

teaching about forgivenessLos Angeles

Singer Rihanna has praised her mother Monica Braithwaite for

teaching her about forgiveness.Rihanna wrote: “Happy

Birthday to my sweet beau-tiful mother. Thanks for teaching me that strength, love, forgiveness, sac-rifice, hard work, and helping oth-

ers in whatever way you can...

is what true b e a u t y

l o o k s like.

The 31-year-old sing-er says she loves and and appreciates her mother, re-ports femalefirst.co.uk.

“Thank you God for choos-ing this wonderful being to be my mom!”

Meanwhile, Rihanna has filed a lawsuit against her father Ronald Fenty and a company called Fenty Entertainment for reportedly using the sur-

name, which she uses on her range of Fenty Beauty products, to solicit business acting as agents of the sing-er.

Los Angeles

Rappers Offset and Car-di B have splashed out $201,840 for five hous-

es and a plot of land in a row on a leafy street in a suburb of Atlanta.

According to DailyMailTV, the pair also paid $48,080 for a plot of land.

Clayton County Property re-cords show that Offset, 27, is listed as the main buyer under his real name Kiari Cephus, while Cardi B, 26, is listed as an “additional buyer” under her

real name Belcalis Almanzar, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

It was recently revealed that Offset and Cardi B are “getting to know each other” again after getting back together.

Hailey Baldwin

and Justin

Bieber

Justin Bieber moves into his new abode with love

Hailey Baldwin

• At present, Justin is more focused on his mental health. This comes in the wake of him putting in efforts to sustain his marriage with Hailey Baldwin.

Los Angeles

Justin Bieber and Hailey Baldwin have finally moved into their new abode.

The couple who exchanged rings in September 2018 shifted to their new Beverly Hills house

on Thursday, reported People.It was in March when the

‘Baby’ singer, bought a five-bed-room, seven-bathroom house in Beverly Hills, as reported by People. The 6,132 square-foot property cost him USD 8.5 mil-lion.

Justin on Wednesday shared on his Instagram story that he was attending a therapy ses-sion.”It’s cool to have a healthy mind and emotions,” he cap-tioned.

At present, Justin is more focused on his mental health. This comes in the wake of him putting in efforts to sustain his marriage with Hailey Baldwin.

Rihanna

Rappers Offset and Cardi B

Will Smith

Barca closer to winning titleSuarez, Messi late-show sinks Atletico after Costa sees red

• Diego Costa was sent off in the first half for serious dissent

• Barcelona are now eleven points clear at the top

AFP | Barcelona

Luis Suarez and Lionel Messi scored twice in two minutes as Barcelona

broke the resistance of 10-man Atletico Madrid on Saturday to go 11 points clear of their La Liga title rivals.

Diego Costa was sent off in the 28th minute at Camp Nou after insulting referee Gil Manzano but while Atletico held on for almost another hour, Suarez and Messi struck late to seal a pivotal 2-0 win.

The victory leaves Barca al-most out of sight with seven games left to play and maintains momentum ahead of Wednes-day’s trip to Manchester United in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-finals.

“It is three crucial points,” coach Ernesto Valverde said. “We are a little closer.”

“It gives us a big margin,” said

Suarez. “We’ve taken not just one, but two steps forward.”

United coach Ole Gunnar Sol-skjaer was in the crowd along with his assistant Mike Phelan but this was a familiar story of Barcelona’s deadly duo deliver-ing when it mattered most.

Costa’s early and needless dismissal left Atletico needing snookers just to avoid defeat, let alone pull off the win that their coach Diego Simeone had said last week was the only result to keep their challenge alive.

“I asked the referee and he told me Costa said something

to him,” Simeone said. “Other players have said things and not been sent off but that does not justify what Costa did.”

Suarez intervened with a su-perb long-range strike in the 85th minute, before Messi add-ed a second in the 86th. The pair have now scored 53 league goals between them this season while for Messi, this was a re-cord 335th La Liga victory.

Only a monumental collapse could now bring Atletico back into contention and more likely is Barca have earned themselves the luxury of resting players,

around an even greater focus on success in Europe.

Antoine Griezmann, who de-cided against joining Barcelona last summer, was whistled as his name was read out before kick-off and he struggled for chances in what quickly became, after Costa departed, a contest of attack against defence.

Atletico seemed to be finding their way into the game when Manzano showed a red card to the Spaniard, who had pursued the referee and seemingly in-sulted him after a tangle with Philippe Coutinho.

A fuming Costa was escort-ed away by Gerard Pique and Barca took control. Jordi Alba had already hit the post after defence-splitting pass by Mes-si and Coutinho should have scored after a brilliant backheel by Suarez.

Messi came alive at the start of the second half as one shot was saved by the excellent Jan Oblak and another mesmeric run ended with a feathered pass to Suarez but again Oblak saved, this time with his foot.

Finally, the resistance of At-letico and their goalkeeper was broken as Barca scored twice in two minutes. The first was a peach as Suarez lined up a shot from 25 yards and whipped it past the left hand of Oblak into the bottom corner.

I asked the referee and he

told me Costa said something to him. Other players have said things and not

been sent off but that does not justify

what Costa didDIEGO SIMEONE

15

sports


Lionel Messi of Barcelona is chased by Rodri and Koke of Atletico Madrid

Al Nusuf congratulates Shaikh SalmanTDT | Manama

Bahrain Olympic Com-mittee (BOC) secretary

general Mohammed Al Nu-suf has congratulated Shai-kh Salman bin Ibrahim Al Khalifa on his re-election as a President of Asian Foot-ball Confederation (AFC) for a new four-year term.

Al Nusuf expressed sin-cere congratulations to Shaikh Salman for his hon-ourable achievement that adds to the multiple accom-plishments attained by Bah-rainis at various regional and international gather-ings during the prosperous era of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa.

Al Nusuf asserted that the exploit also reflects the confidence of AFC in Shaikh Salman’s competence and long experience in various youth and sports fields.

He added that the election provides another opportu-nity to Bahrainis to show-case their distinguished competence in holding leadership positions.

The BOC secretary gener-al praised Shaikh Salman’s distinguished contributions to enhancing youth and sports movement through the posts he has held, wish-ing him every success in developing Asian football.

BCC A lift ETS Cup

TDT | Manama

BCC A defeated BCC by 7 wickets in the final of the

ETS Div A T20 league organized by Cricket Bahrain Association. Batting first BCC posted 153 runs for loss of 8 wickets.

Imran Butt top scored with 30 runs. Abdul Majid and Rashid Hussain claimed 3 wick-ets each for BCC A.

In reply BCC A chased target for the loss of 3 wickets. Shah-baz Badar top scored with 75

runs. Fiaz Ahmed was best bats-

man of the tournament, Ali Dawood was best bowler and Imran Javed was best allround-er. Shahbaz Badar was man of match in final.

Finalists of the tournament with guests

BTA junior tennis tournament concludesTDT | Manama

The final rounds of both the 12-and-under and

14-and-under categories were held at the Dilmun Club, Saar on what was the final day’s play of the BTA Junior Tennis Tour-nament, organised by Bahrain Tennis Academy (BTA).

The top eight players from both the 12-and-under and 14-and-under group stages re-turned to battle it out for the medals.

In the 12-and-under play-off for the third place medal, Ahmed Riyaan defeated Hamza Moussa 7-6, 7-0. Then in the final, Rohan Mukherjee defeat-ed Khadija Moussa 7-4, 7-3 to claim the title.

In the 14-and-under play-off for the third place medal, Rushikesh Sonawane defeated Matthias Hopman-Ruh 7-3, 7-4. Then in the final, James Blair defeated Anshuman Sonawane 7-6, 7-5 to claim the title.

12-and-under results

Quarter-finals: Rohan Muk-

herjee d. Zuhair Khan 7-2, 7-1, Ahmed Riyaan d. Joseph Brom-yard 7-4, 7-1, Hamza Moussa d. Fahad Alzamil 7-1, 7-3, Khadija Moussa d. Alex Ceaplan 7-0, 7-1

Semi-finals: Rohan Muk-herjee d. Ahmed Riyaan 7-1, 7-2, Khadija Moussa d. Hamza Moussa 7-4, 7-4

3rd/4th play-off: Ahmed Ri-yaan d. Hamza Moussa 7-6, 7-0

Final: Rohan Mukherjee d. Khadija Moussa 7-4, 7-3

14-and-under results

Quarter-finals: James Blair d.

Isa Al Qattan 7-2, 7-1, Matthias Hopman-Ruh d. Raj Singh 7-2, 1-7, 2-7, Anshuman Sonawane d. Rohan Mukherjee 7-3, 7-5, Rushikesh Sonawane d. Jaber Abdualaal 7-4, 4-7, 7-5

Semi-finals: Anshuman S o n aw a n e d . R u s h i k e s h Sonawane 7-3, 7-5, James Blair d. Matthias Hopman-Ruh 7-6, 7-5

3rd/4th play-off: Rush-ikesh Sonawane d. Matthias Ruh-Hopman 7-3, 7-4

Final: James Blair d. Anshu-man Sonawane 7-6, 7-5

14-and-under finalists with organisers

Wozniacki, Keys advance in CharlestonAFP | Los Angeles

Caroline Wozniacki reached her first final of the season

on Saturday after defeating Pe-tra Martic in straight sets in the semi-finals of Charleston Open.

The Danish fifth seed used a solid serve to overpower her Croatian opponent en route to

a 6-3, 6-4 win in the WTA clay-court tournament.

It marked the third time Wozniacki has made the final of the Charleston event, which she won eight years ago in 2011.

“I think I served well in most of the match and I think I re-turned well, and I just tried to stay aggressive as much as I

could and tried to make her run and move,” Wozniacki said. “I think I did well today.”

The world number 13 had never lost to Martic in five previous meetings and an upset never looked on the cards on Saturday as she completed a win in 1hr 25min.

DC United’s Rooney sees red as Rossi runs riotAFP | Washington

Wayne Roon-ey was sent

off as D.C. Unit-e d ’s u n b e a t e n start to the season

came to an em-phatic end with a 4-0 home de-feat to Los Angeles FC on Saturday.

F o r m e r

England and Manchester Unit-ed star Rooney was shown a red card on 52 minutes after a dangerous, studs-up tackle on LAFC’s Uruguayan striker Diego Rossi, who would go on to complete a clinical hat- trick.

Referee Robert Sibiga in-itially looked to have given Rooney a reprieve, brandish-ing only a yellow card for the tackle.

But after consulting the Vid-eo Assistant Referee, Sibiga

changed the yellow to red, leaving United skipper Rooney to trudge off the field without protest.

“Yeah I think i t was a red card,” Rooney said af-ter the game. “I’ve lunged. I tried to win the ball, and I’ve caught the player. I have no arguments.”

Rooney’s red completed a miserable afternoon for D.C. United, who by that stage were trailing 3-0 against a vastly su-perior LAFC side.

Wayne Rooney

Everton dent Arsenal’s top-four bid

• Everton’s Phil Jagielka strikes early to secure victory against Arsenal

• Jagielka’s goal secured Everton’s third consecutive win

AFP | Liverpool

Arsenal were haunted by their dismal away form yet again as Phil

Jagielka gave Everton a 1-0 vic-tory that dented the Gunners’ Premier League top-four bid yesterday.

Jagielka was only drafted into Everton’s starting line-up at the last minute due to an illness suffered by Michael Keane.

The Everton defender made the most of his call-up with the game’s only goal in the early stages at Goodison Park.

It was another away-day flop for Arsenal, who maintained their wretched record as the only club in the top four divi-sions of English football not to have kept a clean sheet on their travels this season.

Unai Emery’s side remain fourth in the Premier League, but they are ahead of fifth-placed Chelsea only on goal dif-ference as the race to qualify for the Champions League heats up.

Everton had already threat-ened from one of Lucas Digne’s long throw-ins before the full-back delivered the set-piece that led to Jagielka’s opening goal on 10 minutes.

His throw was flicked on by Jagielka himself, for Dominic Calvert-Lewin to attempt a header on goal that led to the

ball taking a kindly bounce, fall-ing to the unmarked defender who swept the ball in with the minimum of fuss from close range.

There were Arsenal appeals for offside, and television foot-age seemed to show that Digne’s foot might have been over the

line in the process of taking his all-important throw.

But it was certainly a dramatic intervention from Jagielka, who had only been called into the team minutes before kick-off.

Jagielka, 36, has suffered a dif-ficult season at Goodison, with a series of knee problems lim-iting him to three starts, but his impact on this occasion could not have been greater, or much quicker.

It was also the former England international’s first goal since April 2017 as he became the old-est player to score in the Premier League this season.

An early attack by Alexandre Lacazette had ended with a low shot skidding just beyond the far post but, as Arsenal’s tendency to reserve their worst perfor-mances for away games looked like continuing, it was Everton who grew in confidence.

Attacking impetus Not that they overly troubled

Bernd Leno in the visitors’ goal.Gylfi Sigurdsson did manage

to produce his side’s second shot on target before the half-time whistle.

That was enough for Emery who, acknowledging his own pre-match selection gamble had failed, sent on Aaron Ramsey and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang at the interval, resulting in an al-most immediate improvement.

A cross from the latter was punched clear weakly by Jordan Pickford, offering the ball up to Ramsey who volleyed over the open goal from 12 yards.

Aubameyang went close as he met Shkodran Mustafi’s chip forward but failed to get enough power behind his header.

Despite the second-half im-provement from the visitors, Everton maintained their own attacking impetus.

A poor header from Ainsley Maitland-Niles let Bernard close in on the Arsenal goal, where Leno was required to block well.

With Richarlison and Sigurds-son becoming increasingly in-fluential, a second Everton goal beckoned, especially when the Brazilian’s cross picked out his Icelandic team-mate, who shot straight at Leno.

And the home side really should have doubled their lead on 73 minutes when a Sigurds-son shot was charged down by Sokratis and Richarlison sliced the rebound well wide from a promising position.

But Everton, who won against top-six opposition for the first time in 26 games on their last home match against Chelsea, still managed to repeat that feat with the minimum of late scares.

A long shot from Henrikh Mkhitaryan that bounced wide after 70 minutes proved to be Arsenal’s last throw of the dice.


English Premiere LeagueEverton 1 - 0 Arsenal

FA CupWatford 3 - 2 Wolverhampton Wanderers

Italian Serie AFiorentina 0 - 1 Frosinone

Cagliari 2 - 1 SPAL

Udinese 3 - 2 Empoli

Inter Milan 0 - 0 Atalanta

Lazio 1 - 1 Sassuolo

German BundesligaFC Augsburg 0 - 4 TSG 1899 Hoffenheim

Monchengladbach 1 - 0 SV Werder Bremen

Spanish La LigaAlaves 1 - 1 Leganes

Getafe 1 - 0 Athletic Club

Real Valladolid 0 - 2 Sevilla

French Ligue 1Reims 1 - 1 Lille

Toulouse 1 - 0 Nantes

Nice 1 - 0 Montpellier

*Scores as of closing

KNOW WHAT

Arsenal remain fourth in the Premier League, but they are ahead of fifth-placed Chelsea

only on goal difference as the race to qualify

for the Champions League heats up

Phil Jagielka of Everton scores the opener

Gerrard fumes after lighter incident mars Rangers winAFP | Glasgow

Rangers manager Steven Gerrard pleaded with fans

to curb the menace of objects being thrown from the stands after James Tavernier was tar-geted during yesterday’s 3-0 win at Motherwell.

Referee Nick Walsh had to briefly stop the first-half action to ask stewards and police to surround a group of Mother-well fans after a lighter was hurled at Rangers captain Tav-ernier.

After a Scottish Premiership campaign that has been dogged by objects raining down from the stands as well as pitch inva-sions and offensive chants, Ger-rard is desperate for supporters to behave themselves.

Tavernier was also the victim of an attack from a pitch-invad-ing Hibernian fan earlier this season.

“It’s a sad thing to see in this league but there’s a lot of it go-ing on and there’s a lot of oth-er sad stuff that’s going on in

world football,” Gerrard said.“It seems like we’re trying to

send messages out every time we speak to the media, which is a shame.

“It’s dangerous for the players when there are objects thrown on to the pitch, whether it be a lighter or whatever it may be. It needs to stop.”

Despite the shameful inci-dent, Rangers midfielder Scott Arfield fired the first hat-trick

of his career to seal the points at Fir Park.

Arfield, formerly of Hudders-field and Burnley, struck twice before the break to move into double figures for the season.

He netted again on 60 min-utes to complete the treble and give Rangers their second three-goal win since last Sunday’s Old Firm derby defeat at Celtic.

Second placed Rangers trail champions Celtic by 11 points,

with Neil Lennon’s men still odds-on to retain the title.

Without suspended top-scor-er Alfredo Morelos, Rangers lacked a focal point.

But out of nowhere they grabbed the opener as Moth-erwell self-destructed on 22 minutes.

Rangers’ James Tavernier hands the referee Nick Walsh the lighter that was thrown at him

It’s a sad thing to see in this league

but there’s a lot of it going on and there’s

a lot of other sad stuff that’s going on

in world football. It seems like we’re

trying to send messages out every

time we speak to the media, which is a

shameSTEVEN GERRARD

Hoffenheim keep European dream alive with Augsburg winAFP | Berlin

Julian Nagelsmann’s hopes of leaving Hoffenheim with

European qualification were given a boost yesterday as his side beat Augsburg 4-0 to stay within a point of the top six.

A second-half hat-trick from Ishak Belfodil left Hoffenheim just one point behind the Eu-ropa League places, hot on the heels of Wolfsburg and Borus-sia Moenchengladbach.

Coaching prodigy Nagels-mann, 31, has repeatedly spoken of his desire to guide the club back into European

competition before he leaves them for RB Leipzig this sum-mer, and Belfodil’s star per-formance moved Hoffenheim a step closer to their goal yes-terday.

Andrej Kramaric scored his 15th goal of the season to give the visitors an early lead, sweeping the ball in on the re-bound after Ishak Belfodil had forced a save from Augsburg goalkeeper Gregor Kobel.

Kobel later denied Kramaric with a stunning reflex save, but he could do nothing to stop Belfodil’s diving header just after the hour mark.

Ishak Belfodil of 1899 Hoffenheim scores his team’s third goal

battle rages on...time ruler muammar gaddafi was deposed and killed in 2011. • a un spokesman said...

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