Volume 23 | Number 7748 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 22 December 2018 | 15 Rabia II 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

20192019

BUSINESS | 14 SPORT | 16

Eto’o brace helps Qatar SC rout Al Kharaitiyat 4-0

US economy shows signs of slowing amid

trade wars

lps

BU

Qatar's Fares wins gold

Souq Waqif Spring Festival beginsRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

Just three days after the whole country burst into a massive National Day celebration, visitors to Qatar’s most popular Souq continues to immerse into a festive mood with the kick off of Souq Waqif Spring Festival yesterday.

Like its previous editions, this year’s festival blends games and rides with concerts and shows making it a much-anticipated event in Souq Waqif’s calendar for its high entertainment value.

Dressed in their national costumes, groups of cultural performers from several countries in the region such as Oman and Jordan left visitors in high spirits yesterday as they danced and sang to the accompaniment of native musical instruments.

Passers-by and customers in restaurants captured in their mobile phones the unique and lively perform-ances of the bands as they roamed around the main alleys of the Souq.

Several stages have been erected in Al Ahmed Square and the Western parking area where shows were played. More than 20 local and regional singers are set to perform in the coming days at the concerts being pre-sented by Sout Al Rayyan.

Throughout the 15-day festival, a circus show is expected to wow the visitors with acrobats, jugglers,

magicians and other artistes coming from other countries showcasing their skills in their performances, in addition to entertaining animal acts. Tickets to the shows which are staged twice in the evening are QR30, QR50 and QR70.

Children as well as adults can play carnival skill games to win memorabilia and gifts at the 15 colourful stalls lined up at Al Ahmed Square, in addition to several rides for children. Both games and rides are priced QR10.

The soon-to-open Kid-Zania, which is located in

Aspire Zone, has also a presence in the festival pro-viding children a taste of what to expect when it opens in the first quarter of next year. Real-life fun activities are being provided free of charge to children at the KidZania tent throughout the festival.

The festival runs parallel with the ongoing third edition of Shop Qatar which features big promotions and raffle draw prizes alongside fashion forward events and concerts featuring international artistes. As in recent years, a Spring Festival is also being organised at Souq Waqif Al

Wakrah, another must-visit tourist destination in the country.

Meanwhile, food carts at the festival venue witnessed many customers who chose from a wide array of scrump-tious snacks such as Turkish ice cream, burgers, crepes, waffles and corn as well as beverages including juice, karak and coffee, among others.

The long line of restaurants at the Souq also saw brisk business yesterday with huge crowds who preferred to dine at the outside sitting areas to enjoy the cool weather.

Artistes perform at Souq Waqif yesterday. PIC: BAHER AMIN /THE PENINSULA

Decline in ATV accidents seenthis winter camping season FAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

A project recently launched to enhance the winter camping season has started making a positive impact on number of accidents in the Sealine and Inland sea areas.

Al Enna Project launched by National Tourism Council (NTC) and its partners including the Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Ambulance service has contributed to the decline of all terrain vehicle (ATV) accidents

in the dunes, said Brendon Morris, Executive Director, HMC, Ambulance Service.

“It is encouraging to see that we have started seeing a decline in traumatic injuries due to acci-dents in the Sealine area,” he told The Peninsula. “Since we are at the beginning of the camping season it is difficult to say about the numbers. But proportionately we are able to see some impact,” he added.

Al Enna is a tourism devel-opment project that aims to enhance the winter camping

experience in Qatar, protect the environment, and ensure public safety.

As part of it Sealine beach area is staffed with security per-sonnel, lifeguards, technicians, and other support staff. Beyond the beach, visitors can rent quad-bikes and ATVs in a 300,000 square meter space designed to provide safe and integrated experiences for biking fans. The area features eight biking tracks catering to riders of different abilities and require-ments. �P2

37 licences for livestock production projects issued this yearSIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment has accomplished many achievements in the field of self-sufficiency this year and about 37 licences for livestock production projects were issued to contribute to ensure food security.

“The percentage of self-suf-ficiency of milk and dairy products is about 100 percent, while it was only 28percent before the imposition of

blockade when the major dependence was on imports from the siege countries,” said Farhoud Hadi Al Hajri, Director of Animal Resources Department Ministry of Municipality and Environment.

Farhoud Hadi Al Hajri, was speaking to a local channel about the Ministry’s achievement this year. He added that the average daily consumption of milk and dairy products is about 600 tonnes in Qatar and country is producing 616 tonnes. “All these projects and initiatives

succeeded due to cooperation between government and private sector. To increase the production was a challenge for us but we suc-ceeded finally and in less than one year we started to achieve 100 percent self-sufficiency in some products,” he noted.

Regarding the number of live-stock in the country, he said the number stood about 1.6 million heads of livestock and the number of breeders is 17,000.

On frozen chicken, he said that the percentage of self-suf-ficiency reached was about 98

percent, whereas in the past it was only 50 percent and the daily consumption of frozen chicken is about 60 tonnes, of which the state was currently producing 59 percent.

As for eggs and others, Al Hajri said before the siege, Qatar was producing only 14 percent of self-sufficiency and now the country is producing 23 percent.

Al Hajri also noted that the animals’ medical treatment was a challenge for the department due to big number which were repatriated from the siege

countries but “we succeeded to treat them finally and this year we have treated about 240,000 animals from different diseases”. Also, he said, that the department had provided prevention and immunization to about 534,000 this year and seek to develop therapeutic services for animals.

He also said that an agreement was signed two days before the National Day between Qatar and Hong Kong in the field of transportation horses and serve horse breeders, especially with regard to sports activities.

Fresh protests break out in SudanAFP/KHARTOUM

Protests over the rising cost of bread broke out in Khartoum and its twin city Omdurman yesterday, as Sudanese troops deployed after two days of deadly clashes between riot police and demonstrators left eight protesters dead. �P4

Exit of Mattis stirs worries from Brussels to BeijingBLOOMBERG/WASHINGTON

The abrupt resignation of US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis has governments from Seoul to Brussels on edge, as the reliability of American alli-ances and the direction of policy under an erratic leader come under question. The former Marine general was widely seen as a moderating force against President Donald Trump’s hostility toward traditional American alliances and overseas troop commitments, Besides the immediate moves to pull forces from Afghanistan and Syria, Mattis’s departure could have ramifications for US standing around the world, from North Korea to Europe. �P11

Boost in cruise tourism

as many ships dock at

Doha Port since OctoberIRFAN BUKHARI THE PENINSULA

With Qatar’s push to cement a position as a preferred tourist desti-nation, the cruise tourism sector is witnessing a strong growth with thousands of tourists visited the country aboard 14 cruise ships which docked at Doha Port since the start of the season on October 2.

This season, which will continue until May 2019, is set to be the busiest one since the development of the cruise tourism sector in Qatar as more than 140,000 visitors in 43 cruise ships are expected to dock at Doha Port during this season, according to Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).

On Thursday cruise ship MSC Lirica docked at Doha Port on its third visit during the ongoing 2018-19 cruise season with 1,853 passengers and 734 crew aboard.

QTA and the Mowasalat recently signed an MoU to develop tourism transport and enhance transport and communication services to cope with the rapid growth in the cruise tourism sector and to support QTA’s efforts to develop the tourism sector in general.

On December 19, cruise ship AIDAPrima arrived at Doha Port on its second voyage, carrying 3,358 passengers and 955 crew members. Qatar welcomed the cruise ship MSC Splendida on its first trip on

December 13, carrying a total of 3,442 passengers and 1,307 crew members.

The German mega ship AID-APrima called on December 12 at Doha Port, on its maiden voyage to Qatar, with 3,286 passengers and 956 crew aboard. Qatar welcomed for the second time two mega cruise ships simultaneously on December 5. The two ships MSC Lirica and Mein Schiff 4 brought more than 6,000 visitors.

On December 4, Celebrity Con-stellation sailed into Doha Port on its second visit, carrying a total of 1,754 passengers and 957 crew members.

The cruise ship ‘Seabourn Ovation’ with 562 tourists and 424 crew onboard called into Doha Port on its maiden call to Qatar on December 3. �P2

This season, which will continue until May 2019, is set to be the busiest one since the development of the cruise tourism sector in Qatar as more than 140,000 visitors in 43 cruise ships are expected to dock at Doha Port during this season.

Qatari weightlifter Fares Ibrahim Hassouna celebrates after winning the gold medal in the men’s 96kg, at the 5th edition of Qatar International Cup 2018 at the InterContinental Doha yesterday. PIC: SYED OMAR

02 SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018HOME

Diplomatic Institute’s magazine highlights Qatar’s Asian tiesQNA DOHA

The Diplomatic Institute of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs released issue No. 40 of its quar-terly AL- Diplomacy Magazine.

The magazine outlined steps taken by the State of Qatar to strengthen its relations with several capitals of Asian coun-tries, an indication of Doha’s entry into the “heart of Asia” and within a firm national vision on relations with international actors, especially as Asian markets are very important to Qatar’s gas exports and work-force recruitment, and as Doha is also the chair of the 2019 Asian Cooperation Dialogue (ACD).

The issue reviewed Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani’s speech at the ACD Ministerial Meeting on the

sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York, which declared Doha’s commitment to work towards Asian integration through expanding cooperation in all fields and forging partner-ships with regional and interna-tional organizations.

The AL Diplomacy Magazine

included an interview with Director of the Department of Asian Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Khalid bin Ibrahim bin Abdulrahman Al Hamar on the visit of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the People’s Republic of China and its importance in transferring relations between the two countries to the level of comprehensive strategic part-nership, and paving the way to join the Belt and Road initiative and the Asian Infrastructure Investment Bank to promote investments and trade exchanges between the two countries, to strengthen cooperation within the framework of energy and to sign an agreement on mutual visa exemption for nationals of both countries.

The issue included another interview with Director of American Affairs Department Issa bin Mohammed Al Mannai, who

was Qatar’s Ambassador to Malaysia until the middle of this year, on Qatar’s relations with South Asia and its role in the sta-bility and economic development of its countries along Qatar’s rela-tions with these countries. The third interview, which was with HE Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the People’s Republic of China Dr Sultan bin Salmeen Al Mansouri, focused on the Qatari-Chinese relations, and reviewed a number of figures and statistics reflecting the magnitude of coop-eration and trade and investment exchange between the two friendly countries.

The magazine dealt with numerous files. The first of which was the Asian Cooperation Dia-logue, which represents a bridge between East and West Asia, and its development, values, objec-tives, and member states, the challenges it faces and its impor-tance for the State of Qatar; the

second dealt with the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) and its economic, security, social and cultural sig-nificance and the relations of the State of Qatar with it; the third focused on Shanghai Five group and its development and trans-formation into an international security, economic and political organization as well as its objec-tives and challenges and Qatar’s quest to join it.

The fourth file reviewed the experience of Singapore and its transformation from Third World to First despite its small size, nature and diversity through investing in people, focusing on science and integrating societal values and economic performance.

The fifth file dealt with the relationship between the State of Qatar and the ASEAN and its role in breaking the siege and the growth of trade and economic

ties, while the sixth addressed the Belt and Road initiative and its importance and the role of the State of Qatar in it.

In the magazine’s personality section, it chose Anwar Ibrahim, who was appointed by Malaysian Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad as his deputy, and highlighted how he shifted from prison to power.

The AL-Diplomacy Magazine selected “Asean Miracle: A Cat-alyst for Peace” book by Kishore Mahbubani and Jeffery Sng, in which they talked about the great diversity of Southeast Asia and the role of ASEAN in shaping the world order.

All topics in the magazine are translated into English, especially as they are distributed to the embassies of the Qatar abroad. The magazine is also published on their websites and distributed to embassies of foreign countries accredited to Doha.

The magazine outlined steps taken by the State of Qatar to strengthen its relations with several capitals of Asian countries, an indication of Doha’s entry into the “heart of Asia” and within a firm national vision on relations with international actors.

Artists turn dhows into canvasses of ancient Qatari life THE PENINSULA DOHA

The journey of Red Bull Curates: Dhow Art has come to an end with the unveiling of the 6 dhows on December 14.

The dhows were casted into the spotlight at an exhibition at the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum in celebration of creativity and heritage. This ini-tiative came to life in partnership with Vodafone Qatar, Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum and Doha Fire station.

The project welcomed a selection of Qatar’s promising as well as established talents to

express art on an untraditional canvas, the dhow. Led by curator Khalifa Al Obaidly, Director of Doha Fire Station, these artists were chosen to turn their inspi-rational designs into a reality.

Art and creativity enthusiasts gathered to witness the 6 real life-sized dhows as they were finally revealed, portraying the artists’ inspiring imagery. In cel-ebration of culture and arts, the presentation also featured several local and international performances throughout the evening.

The exhibition was attended by Sheikha Alanood bint Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani, Austrian

Ambassador to Qatar, Dr. Willy Kempel, director of the Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, Kees Wieringa, and Qatar’s leading media and opinion leaders.

Sheikha Alanood welcomed everyone and congratulated the artists who worked hard to bring these dhows into life. “We are very excited about such an ini-tiative by Red Bull that falls in line with the Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani Museum’s vision of creating a community for artists,” Sheikha Stated.

Ambassador Willy Kempel expressed his support for the ini-tiative and the art scene in Qatar, saying: “Red Bull Curates Dhow Art is a wonderful project.” He also announced the wall art project at Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani Museum and taking part in it as a curator.

Commenting on his appre-ciation of the project, Director of the museum, Kees Wieringa stated, “When the idea initially came through from Red Bull, I heard of art, culture and heritage separately. But looking at the dhows now, I see contemporary art that speaks of heritage dis-played at the museum. It all fits

together perfectly”. Through the six dhows, Mubarak Al Malik depicted the dramatic farewell of a sailor and his family, while Muna Al Bader’s captured the joyful scenery of traditional Qatari weddings. Fatima Al Naimi told the tale of a dhow’s suspenseful journey as Fahad Al Maadheed brought together the symbolic horse and camel. Noor Abuissa illustrated Qatar’s old traditions of pearl diving through her contemporary brush strokes,

meanwhile Jamila Al Ansari cast a colourful take on Qatar’s past and its present.

“I knew we we’re going to surprise the entire scene. There’s a lot in store for everybody, not just art enthusiasts. This has been a new experience, taking the application of art to new heights. Turning the dhow into a canvas, that’s something nobody could have imagined!”, explained Dhow Art’s curator, Khalifa Al Obaidly.

TOP: Curator Khalifa Al Obaidly, Director of Doha Fire Station, hands over a token of appreciation to artist Jamila Al Ansari at the expo. LEFT: Art lovers enjoy a work at the expo.

Safari Hypermarket Group launches Cake Festival THE PENINSULA DOHA

Safari Hypermarket Group has launched Cake Festival at all its outlets in Qatar. It was inaugu-rated by Zainul Abidheen, Director & General Manager, Safari Group of Companies, in the presence of its management personals at Safari Mall, Abu Hamour. There are more than 40 varieties of cakes available for X-mas & New Year event.

They include decorated X-Mas cakes, Butter Cream Cake, Icing Cake, Fresh Cream Cake, Millennium Cake, Choco Oreo Cake, Cappuccino Cake, Caramel Cake, Butter Scotch Cake, Red Velvet Cake, Tiramisu Cake, Rich Plum Cake, Premium Plum Cake, Surprise Plum Cake, Marble Cake, Tea Cake, Almond Cake, X-mas Log Cakes, Green Cake, Ginger House, X-Mas Tree Cake, Yule Log, X-Mas sweets etc.

Zainul Abidheen, Director & General Manager, Safari Group of Companies, with staff during the launch of the Cake Festival at Safari Mall, Abu Hamour.

Winter period challenging for asthma patients: Expert THE PENINSULA DOHA

Winter can be a challenging time for those with chronic allergies and asthma.

The winter months bring the annual flu season and cooler and drier weather, both of which can exacerbate asthma symptoms, said Dr Salma Ahmed Taha (pic-tured), Associate Consultant, Pulmonary, Allergy, and Immu-nology Department, Hamad Medical Corporation.

“Many people do not think of the autumn and winter as being a season for allergies and asthma, but depending on an individual’s allergy and asthma triggers, the winter months can be one of the most challenging times of the year. Dry air can be a respiratory irritant and this can contribute to the worsening of allergy and asthma symptoms,” said Dr. Taha.

Dr Taha explained that the

flu and asthma can be a deadly mix, placing an individual with asthma at an increased risk for complications and exposing their lungs to severe and even permanent damage.

“While having asthma does not increase a person’s risk of getting the flu, the consequences of it are far greater. The seasonal flu causes respiratory inflam-mation that not only triggers the symptoms of asthma but can also make them worse. Getting the flu vaccination is recom-mended for asthma patients,” said Dr Taha.

PPBS now in Qatar to train badminton enthusiasts THE PENINSULA DOHA

The Ambassador of India to Qatar, P Kumaran, recently inaugurated the first foreign branch of India’s prestigious Prakash Padukone Badminton Schools (PPBS) at the Absolute Sports Academy (ASA) facility in Abu Hamour.

The PPBS is the brainchild of Indian badminton legend and former world number one Prakash Padukone, who began his first academy in Bengaluru in 1994. After gaining fame in its home country, the PPBS curriculum will now be taught in Qatar as well in a joint venture between Absolute Sports Academy and India on Track.

Ambassador Kumaran con-veyed his best wishes for the PPBS, describing it as a great opportunity for youngsters in

Qatar to learn and perfect the game. The Ambassador then cut a ceremonial ribbon and played the first game to for-mally inaugurate the PPBS branch.

The ceremony was also graced by Indian Sports Cen-tre’s General-Secretary, Habib Nabi; Qatar Indian Association President, E P Abdulrahman; City Exchange CEO, Sharaf P Hameed and Qatar Indian Association General-Secretary Safeer Rahman.

ASA has brought two Indian coaches to Qatar for the proper implementation of the PPBS curriculum. Sudheer Kumar is a Badminton World Feder-ation-certified coach with several years of playing and coaching experience in India.

ASA is now looking forward to welcoming ambitious young kids to learn the game in the Prakash Padukone way.

Decline in ATV accidents seenthis wintercamping season

FROM PAGE 1

HMC’s Ambulance Service, providing campers with round the clock access to a team of paramedics and well-equipped ambulance vehicles.

“We have 12 vehicles cov-ering the camping season. It increases during the weekend as more people come for camping. We go far inside Inland sea and around Sealine area. We have four helipads for the life flight dis-tributed in the area,” said Ali Darwish, Assistant Executive Director of the Ambulance Service. “The challenge we have in the camping areas is how to reach the patients, once we reach them the service is the same as at any place. That’s why we have special arrangements during the season. The new project and its approach in the area is helping the patients,” he added.

HMC also runs a Sealine Medical Clinic. This is the ninth consecutive year HMC has operated. The clinic operates during the weekends and will remain open until mid-April.

According to reports, At least half of the cases seen at the annual Sealine Medical Center operated are due to trauma. It ranges from minor to major. Some come with severe injures due to SUV and ATV accidents in the dunes.

Boost in cruise tourism as many ships dock at Doha Port since OctoberFROM PAGE 1

Earlier in the last month, MSC Lirica arrived at Doha Port, marking its maiden call to Qatar with more than 3,500 visitors aboard on November 28.

On the same day Doha Port

received cruise ship Celebrity Constellation on its first trip to Qatar bringing more than 2,800 visitors. And by welcoming two ships, the 2018-’19 cruise season saw first time Doha Port receiving two mega cruise ships simultaneously.

The docking of two mega-ships simultaneously will happen five times during the season, proving the Port’s ability to accommodate the cruise tourism sector’s rapid growth.

On November 21, Doha Port received the cruise ship Mein

Schiff 4 on its 2nd visit during the 2018-19 season, carrying 2471 passengers and 988 crew.

Qatar welcomed cruise ship Seabourn Encore with 559 pas-sengers and 424 crew onboard on November 10. On November 8, cruise ship Mein Schiff 4

docked at Doha Port. Doha Port received on November 5 cruise ship Azamara Quest on its maiden call to Qatar. On October 2, cruise ship MS Boudicca arrived and it marked the com-mencement of the 2018-19 cruise season with 491 passengers.

03SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018 HOME

Qatar’s achievements highlighted at embassies abroadTHE PENINSULA DOHA

As part of Qatar’s National Day celebrations, the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Federative Republic of Brazil, Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al Abdullah, held a reception in Brasilia on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

The event was attended by Minister of Justice of Brazil, Torquato Jardim; Chairman of the Senate Committee of Foreign Affairs and National Defence and former Brazil pres-ident Senator Fernando Collor; Senator Helio Jose; Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee; and Director of the Middle East Department of Bra-zilian Foreign Ministry, Ligia Scherer; in addition to heads and a number of members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Brazil.

In his speech, the Ambas-sador outlined the achieve-ments of the State of Qatar at various levels, especially eco-nomic and sports, and high-lighted the unjust siege imposed on Qatar by neighbouring

countries and their unilateral and coercive measures that fla-grantly violate international treaties and conventions.

He stressed that the position of the State of Qatar vis-a-vis this crisis is the unconditional dialogue in order to end it and its resulting procedures.

He reviewed bilateral rela-tions between the two friendly countries, saying that Qatar looks forward to celebrating the 45th anniversary of the estab-lishment of diplomatic relations between the State of Qatar and Brazil next year and what

happened during these years of high-level visits and the signing of several agreements covering all areas of bilateral cooperation.

For her part, Director of the Middle East Department of Bra-zilian Foreign Ministry praised the bilateral relations between the two countries and the achievements of the Qatari people and the progress achieved by them in prosperity, dynamism and openness to the world. She pointed to the strength of the Qatari economy, which has shown remarkable resilience in the face of chal-lenges arising from interna-tional and regional contexts, stressing Qatar’s ability to defend its national interests in international forums and its effective role in these forums.

In Panama, the Embassy of the State of Qatar held a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The cer-emony was attended by a large number of government officials, senior state officials, members of the Arab community, and community figures.

In Houston, Consul General

of the State of Qatar, Dr Khamis bin Rashid Al Kaabi, held a reception on the occasion of the National Day. The reception was attended by senior officials, a number of diplomatic corps accredited to Houston, Qatari nationals in Houston, a number of members of the Arab com-munity, and community figures.

In Tunis, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Tunisia, Saad bin Nasser Al Humaidi, held a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The ceremony was attended by the Minister of Vocational Training and Employment, Saida Lounisi, and Hatem Ferjani, Secretary of State for Economic Diplomacy to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Tunisia, in addition to a number of community figures.

In Buenos Aires, Ambas-sador of the State of Qatar to the Argentine Republic, Fahad bin Ibrahim Al Hamad Al Mana, held a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The event was attended by senior government officials, senators and deputies, heads of Arab and

foreign diplomatic missions accredited to Argentina, and community figures.

In his speech, the Ambas-sador appreciated the efforts of the wise leadership of the State of Qatar in consolidating rela-tions between the State of Qatar and the Argentine Republic.

In Colombo, Qatar’s ambas-sador to the Socialist Demo-cratic Republic of Sri Lanka, Dr Rashid bin Shafea Al Marri, held a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

The ceremony was attended by Rauff Hakeem, represent-ative of the Government of Sri Lanka, Speaker of the Par-liament Karu Jayasuriya, a number of ministers and gov-ernment officials, members of parliament, heads of Arab and foreign diplomatic missions accredited to Sri Lanka and community figures.

In Havana, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Cuba, Rashid Mirza Al Mulla, held a reception on the occasion of the National Day of the State.

The ceremony was attended by Minister of Public Health,

Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, senior government offi-cials and community figures.

The Ambassador said in a speech that the celebration reflects the cohesion of the people and the wise political leadership, and recalls the epic tournaments led by the founder of the late Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani and the Qatari people.

He reviewed the role of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, in developing the State of Qatar in all aspects of urban, economic, scientific, social and sports.

He said that the State of Qatar had been subjected to a conspiracy, with the unjust siege imposed by the block-ading countries to pressure it to renounce its sovereignty and national decision. He added: “The crisis caused by these uni-lateral policies against the State of Qatar constitutes a flagrant violation of human rights, although this policy was con-trary to what was expected by the blockading countries.”

LEFT: The Ambassador of Qatar to the Federative Republic of Brazil, Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al Abdullah, with other officials during the reception in Brasilia as part of Qatar National Day celebrations. CENTRE: Officials during the Qatar National Day celebrations organised by the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Tunisia, Saad bin Nasser Al Humaidi, in Tunisia. RIGHT: Qatar’s Ambassador to the Socialist Democratic Republic of Sri Lanka, Dr Rashid bin Shafea Al Marri, with others during the QND reception in Colombo.

National Day festivities atDarb Al Saai a huge successTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Qatar National Day (QND) festivities at Darb Al Saai concluded on Thursday night in which around 50 government and non-government entities participated and a new Guinness World Record was also made.

This year, national day cel-ebrations were marked under the motto ‘As long as it was proven by our deeds... Qatar remains free’. The motto blends a verse taken from one of the poems by the Founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani with a phrase taken from the national anthem.

In the presence of crowd of citizens and residents on Wednesday, the wooden pieces of mosaic titled ‘See You in 2022’ that symbolises the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar installed at the Police College pavilion in Darb Al Saai. The final number of participants in this work reached 10,371 participants in the colouring and installation of 33,600 wooden pieces of mosaic to enter the Guinness Book of Records in the name of the State of Qatar.

The celebrations achieve the National Day vision by strength-ening loyalty, unity, and pride in Qatar’s national identity. They are also meant to commemorate the anniversary of the estab-lishment of the State of Qatar by the Founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani. Darb Al Saai means the ‘Route of the Messenger’ used by the dele-gates whom the country’s founder would entrust to deliver his instructions and directives. These men were known for their outstanding characteristic traits such as loyalty, obedience,

courage and insight on account of which they were chosen to play such a sensitive role in those difficult times.

Darb Al Saai welcomed the visitors in the morning on December 13 to December 20. About 50 entities from gov-ernment and non-government sector participated in Darb Al Saai festivities and getting larger space this year, such as the Min-istry of Interior, the Police College, and Kahramaa. Also the space of The Doha Pavilion tent was increased, in addition to Mawater’s Classic cars.

Among the important entities participating in Darb Al Saai festivities were the Ministry of Interior which has eight departments participating in the event, the Ministry of Justice, the Ministry of Defense, Police College, Ministry of Education and Higher Education, Ministry of Municipality and Envi-ronment, which its pavilion offered safe shopping, activities of the agricultural sector, effec-tiveness of hygiene, activities of the environmental sector etc.

The Organising Committee

for the National Day celebra-tions allocated this year many parking spaces for visitors, including those with special needs. Nine gates have been allocated for the entry to Darb Al Saai. The signs were also pro-vided to guide the public. Twelve signs were distributed at various locations in Darb Al Saai to provide all the comforts to visitors.

The Doha pavilion provided an opportunity for all institu-tions representing all sectors to participate and show their cul-tural activities to visitors. There was also a participation from Regulatory Authority for Char-itable Activities, a non-govern-mental humanitarian and devel-opment organization, where the priority was to assist children who were victims of crises and disasters. Also there was Al Liwan Women’s Tent, and this activity derives from Liwan, a name of the old Qatari dialect, still used, meaning ‘the central area between the rooms in the house’. Hundreds of people rep-resenting 40 countries partici-pated in the event.

A parade during the event at Darb Al Saai.

Ambassador of Qatar to Brazil, Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al Abdullah, outlined the achievements of Qatar at various levels, especially economic and sports, and highlighted the unjust siege imposed on Qatar by neighbouring countries.

Oil pipeline explosion

04 SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Eight dead in Sudan amidprotests over rising pricesBLOOMBERG KHARTOUM

At least eight people have been killed across Sudan, officials said, as demonstrations against soaring prices and shortages rock the capital and other cities, with protesters burning tires and demanding President Omar Hassan Al Bashir step down.

State of emergency was declared in Gadaref state, which borders Ethiopia, after about six people died and many others were injured, local commis-sioner Altybe Alamin said.

In Nile River state in central Sudan, two protesters were killed and others wounded, according to regional spokesman Ibrahim Mukhtar. Neither gave details on the cir-cumstances. Sudania 24, a tele-vision station, said Khartoum state schools will be suspended from Sunday, when the working week starts.

In Khartoum, residents have blocked some streets and are burning tires, chanting against the government and calling for Al Bashir’s exit, said Husameldin, a local resident who asked that his surname not be used because of concerns about government reprisals. The demonstrations come after increases in bread prices, with people already queuing for hours for bread and motor fuel.

Sudan has been roiled by sporadic protests in 2018 as cur-rency devaluations and cuts in subsidies have sent living costs rocketing. The US last year lifted

most sanctions it imposed on the country in the late 1990s.

Dissent has been “brewing for a while, but it was possible for President Bashir to blame it on external forces, especially the US sanctions for the difficult domestic economic situation,” said Abdullahi Boru Halakhe, a US-based specialist on the Horn of Africa. “Now that the sanc-tions have been lifted, there is no place to hide.”

Authorities this week also declared a state of emergency in the central city of Atbara after protesters set fire to the ruling party’s main office and the city government’s head-quarters. Al Bashir has led the country since ousting former Prime Minister Sadiq Al Mahdi in a coup in 1989.

The government said in a statement yesterday that it allows the freedom to demon-strate, but alleged “the protests have deviated from their track and some saboteurs have tar-geted public property including government buildings and police stations.” It didn’t comment on any casualties. An

internet outage since Thursday has curbed social-media use in the country.

“These killings must stop,” Amnesty International said in a statement. The government “must address the root cause of the rapidly deteriorating eco-nomic conditions in the country instead of trying to prevent people from fully exercising their right to protest.”

Protests by tens of thou-sands of people have taken place in at least 13 towns with nine people shot dead over the past two days by security forces, Amnesty said.

The Umma Party, Sudan’s largest official opposition group, in a statement urged its members to take to the streets to help bring down the gov-ernment. Al Mahdi, its leader, returned to the country this week after months abroad.

“How the administration handles this will be critical,” said Halakhe. “If instead of listening and changing, they begin clamping down, that could exac-erbate the already precarious situation.”

A press member shows his broken camera after Israeli forces’ intervention during a protest within the “Great March of Return” demonstrations near Israel-Gaza border, in east of Shuja’iyya neighbourhood of Gaza City, yesterday.

Yemen says rebels breached truce in port cityAP SANA’A

Yemen’s internationally rec-ognised government says Shia rebels have violated a UN-bro-kered cease-fire in the Red Sea port city of Hodeida with a barrage of artillery and rockets.

The pro-government Sabaa news agency quoted a military official as saying four members of an elite force were killed and 16 others were wounded in Saturday’s shelling by the rebels, known as Houthis. The shelling is the latest in a number of cease-fire breaches in Hodeida since the truce came into force on Tuesday.

The truce was negotiated in UN-sponsored peace talks held in Sweden last week.

It’s the latest attempt to end Yemen’s four-year-old war civil war in which the Iran-aligned rebels are fighting government-allied troops along with a Saudi-led coalition. The rebels control Sanaa, the capital, and much of northern Yemen.

Israeli army shoots dead Palestinian teen in GazaAFP GAZA CITY

A 16-year-old Palestinian was killed yesterday by Israeli fire during border protests and clashes east of Gaza City, the health ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said.

Mohammed Al Jahjuh was “hit in the neck by a bullet (fired) by Israeli soldiers”, ministry spokesman Ashraf Al Qodra said.

The Israeli army said around 8,000 Palestinians had gathered along the border, burning tyres

and launching towards soldiers an incendiary device, which did not reach the troops. Israel’s military said it had opened fire “according to operational pro-cedures” in place, without elaborating.

Forty six Palestinians — including two journalists and four first aid responders — were wounded, Al Qodra said.

Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have held protests backed by its Islamist rulers Hamas since March 30.

At least 236 Palestinians

have been killed since the pro-tests began, mostly by Israeli fire during border clashes but also by air and tank strikes.

Two Israeli soldiers have been killed over the same period, one by a Palestinian sniper and another during an aborted special forces operation inside Gaza.

Protesters are calling for Palestinian refugees to be allowed to return to their former homes now inside Israel.

Israel has fought three wars with Hamas since 2008.

Turkey to take over fight against IS after US pullout: ErdoganREUTERS ISTANBUL/BEIRUT

Turkey will take over the fight against Islamic State (IS) mili-tants in Syria as the United States withdraws its troops, President Tayyip Erdogan said yesterday, in the latest upheaval wrought by Washington’s abrupt policy shift.

The surprise announcement by US President Donald Trump this week that he would withdraw roughly 2,000 troops has felled a pillar of American policy in the Middle East. Critics say Trump’s decision will make it harder to find a diplomatic solution to Syria’s seven-year-old conflict.

For Turkey, the step removes a source of friction with the United States. Erdogan has long castigated his Nato ally over its support for Syrian Kurdish YPG fighters against Islamic State. Turkey considers the YPG a ter-rorist group and an offshoot of the armed Kurdistan Workers’

Party (PKK), fighting for Kurdish autonomy across the border on Turkish soil.

In a speech in Istanbul, Erdogan said Turkey would mobilise to fight remaining Islamic State forces in Syria and temporarily delay plans to attack Kurdish fighters in the northeast of the country - shifts both pre-cipitated by the American decision to withdraw.

The news was less welcome for other US allies. Both France and Germany warned that the US change of course risked dam-aging the campaign against Islamic State, the jihadists who seized big swathes of Iraq and Syria in 2014-15 but have now been beaten back to a sliver of Syrian territory.

Likewise, the US-backed militia spearheaded by the YPG said a Turkish attack would force it to divert fighters from the battle against Islamic State to protect its territory.

Islamic State launched an attack in Syria’s southeast

against the US-backed SDF militia, employing car bombs and dozens of militants.

“We will be working on our operational plans to eliminate ISIS elements, which are said to remain intact in Syria, in line with our conversation with Pres-ident Trump,” Erdogan said, referring to Islamic State.

The Turkish president had announced plans last week to start an operation east of the Euphrates River in northern Syria to oust the YPG from the area that it largely controls. This week, he said the campaign could come at any moment. But on Friday, he cited the talk with Trump as a reason to wait.

“Our phone call with Pres-ident Trump, along with contacts between our diplomats and security officials and statements by the United States, have led us to wait a little longer,” he said.

“We have postponed our military operation against the east of the Euphrates river until we see on the ground the result

of America’s decision to withdraw from Syria.”

The Turkish president said, however, that this was not an “open-ended waiting period”.

Turkey has repeatedly voiced frustration over what it says is the slow implementation of a deal with Washington to pull YPG fighters out of Manbij, a town in mainly Arab territory west of the Euphrates in northern Syria.

The United States will probably end its air campaign against IS in Syria when it pulls out troops, US officials have said, as Trump has been forced to defend the planned withdrawal against criticism from allies abroad and at home.

Trump maintained that IS had been wiped out, a view not shared by key allies, that Wash-ington had been doing the work of other countries and it was “time for others to finally fight”.

His defence secretary, Jim Mattis, opposed the decision and abruptly announced on Thursday

he was resigning after meeting with the president.

In a candid letter to Trump, the retired Marine general emphasised the importance of “showing respect” to allies that have voiced surprise and concern about the president’s decision.

Russia said yesterday it did not understand what the United States’ next steps in Syria would be, adding that chaotic and unpredictable decision-making in Washington was creating discomfort in international affairs.

Several of Trump’s fellow Republicans in Congress, joined by opposition Democrats, urged the president to reverse course, saying the withdrawal would strengthen the hand of Russia and Iran in Syria and enable a resurgence of Islamic State.

Trump has given no sign of changing his mind. He promised to remove forces from Syria during his 2016 election campaign.

Rajoelina leads in Madagascar pollsAFP ANTANANARIVO

Former president Andry Rajoelina yesterday took a clear lead in Madagascar’s election, according to partial official results, as his rival Marc Ravalomanana claimed to be the victim of “massive fraud”.

With more than two million of about five million ballots counted, Rajoelina had 54.68 percent of the vote and Raval-omanana was on 45.32 percent after Wednesday’s head-to-head election.

As the count progressed, turnout was put at 48 percent -- lower than the 54 percent in the first-round ballot.

Both camps have claimed victory and alleged fraud, raising fears of a disputed result and the risk of a new political crisis in the Indian Ocean island which has a history of coups and unrest.

But EU election observers said yesterday they had not s e e n e v i d e n c e o f malpractice.

“The Madagascans voted in a peaceful atmosphere in a transparent and well-organised poll,” mission head Cristian Preda told reporters.

“Even before the first round, the candidates talked about massive fraud. We did not see it in the field... I hope that calm will come once the results are very clear.”

Charred vehicles are seen following a fire caused by an oil pipeline explosion in Lagos, Nigeria, yesterday. Dozens of houses,shops and vehicles were burnt and several families rendered homeless after an explosion from a pipeline vandalised by thieves trying to siphon oil from the broken oil pipeline in Lagos.

Gunmen slay 25 in Nigeria villageAFP KANO

At least 25 people were killed when armed men raided two villages in a northern Nigerian state wracked by cattle rustling and kidnapping for ransom, witnesses and the police said yesterday.

Gunmen on motorcycles on Wednesday invaded the villages of Gidan Halilu and Gidan Kaka in Birnin Magaji district of Zamfara state, they said. “We lost 25 people in the attacks, which were carried out by cattle thieves who have been terrorising us for years,” Usman Wadatau, a community leader in Gidan Halilu, said.

A state of emergency was declared in Gadaref state, which borders Ethiopia, after about six people died and many others injured. In Nile River state in central Sudan, two protesters were killed. The demonstrations started after increases in bread prices, with people already queuing for hours for bread and motor fuel.

05SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018 ASIA

India, China identify 10 areas of cooperationIANS NEW DELHI

In keeping with the Wuhan spirit in the wake of the informal summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping in April this year, India and China yesterday identified 10 areas for boosting people-to-people cooperation.

Addressing the inaugural session of the third edition of the India-China High-Level Media Forum here after co-chairing the first-ever meeting of the India-China High-Level Mechanism on People-to-People Exchanges with Chinese State Councillor and Foreign Minister Wang Yi, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said that Modi and Xi set the tone at the Wuhan informal summit for deepening cultural exchanges and people-to-people cooperation.

Xi hosted the Wuhan summit to improve bilateral ties after the armies of the two countries were in a face-to-face situation for 73 days at Doklam in the India-Bhutan-China international tri-junction last year.

“Both our leaders believe

that improving people-to-people ties will help in boosting bilateral relations,” Sushma Swaraj said.

Stating that yesterday’s two-hour-long meeting was unique and different from all the earlier meetings she had with Wang in the last four years, she said that it focussed solely on bilateral cul-tural exchanges and people-to-people cooperation.

“Today, we identified 10 areas of people-to-people coop-eration: cultural exchanges, films and television co-production, media, sports, youth affairs, tourism, exchanges between states and cities, traditional med-icine, yoga and academics,” Sushma Swaraj said.

“Both countries had very fruitful discussions and I am very satisfied,” she said, adding that she was inspired by the positive approach from the Chinese side.

Stating that joint forums across different fields are designed to build trust among the two countries, the External Affairs Minister said that the media has a significant role to play in this.

“In the last 40 years, China developed fast through reforms

and opening up the economy,” she said. “India will become a $5-trillion economy by 2025 and we will both benefit by cooper-ating with each other.” Expressing gratitude to the

Chinese side for taking a number of positive steps after the Wuhan summit, Sushma Swaraj said that both Indian and Chinese armies are cooperating with each other now. “Today, we are working

together on a number of regional as well as international issues,” she said. “We are ending the year with a great sense of satis-faction.” On his part, Wang said that he fully agreed with Sushma

Swaraj’s positive comments about the meeting.

“Today’s meeting was a full success,” he said. “Our leaders have great expectations from cultural exchanges and people-to-people ties.” Wang said that mutual visits between the people of the two countries will be increased in the times to come as the current number is too small.

“Better people-to-people ties will be beneficial not only for China and India but also for the world,” he said “We will leverage our respective strengths in various sectors.” Stating that the first High-Level Mechanism meeting has been a good beginning, Wang said that it will benefit the 2.7 billion people of the two countries.

“China has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of reforms and opening up,” he said.

“India, our most important neighbour, is also opening up and is developing fast.” Earlier, Modi in a message ahead of the meeting, said that as ancient civ-ilisations and neighbours, India and China have been having deep cultural ties for ages.

China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi (left) and Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj after the inaugural session of the India-China media forum, in New Delhi yesterday.

Sohrabuddin case: All 22 accused acquittedIANS MUMBAI

Twelve years after the sensa-tional killing of Sohrabuddin Shaikh, his associate Tulsiram Prajapati and abuse-cum-murder of Kausar Bi, a Special CBI Court here yesterday acquitted all 22 accused in the politically sensitive case, saying “witnesses and proofs were not satisfactory”.

“Witnesses and proofs the prosecution put forward were not satisfactory to suggest or establish the alleged conspiracy and murder in the 2005 encounter killing,” said Special CBI Judge S J Sharma, who also observed that “the documentary and circumstantial evidence was not substantial”.

The much-awaited verdict in the case came more than 12 years after the alleged ‘fake

encounters’ of Sohrabuddin and his associate Prajapati, besides the abuse-and-murder of Sohrabuddin’s wife, Kausar Bi.

The 22 accused, including 21 lower police officials of Gujarat-Rajasthan police, who have been acquitted are: M L Parmar, Raman Singh, Narayansing Dhabi, Shyam Singh, Abdur Rehman, Himanshu Singh Rajawat, Balkrishna Choubey, Rajubhai Jeerawala, Ajay Parmar, Shantram Sharma, Yud-hveer Singh, Kartar Singh, Narayan Singh Jat, Vijaykumar Rathod, C.P. Srinivasa Rao, Jethu Solanki, Kiran Singh Chauhan, Vinod Limbachia, Kanjibhai Kutchi, Karan Singh Sishodia, Ashish Pandya, and Naresh Chauhan.

According to the prosecution, the Gujarat Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) had gunned down Sohrabuddin on November 26,

2005, in an alleged staged killing.Prajapati was also killed in a

similar fashion on December 28, 2006, while Kausar Bi, who had witnessed the abduction of her husband (Sohrabuddin) was later raped and murdered.

These killings kicked off a major political controversy in the Bharatiya Janata Party-ruled Gujarat then, with allegations of

the purported involvement of several top political bigwigs, IPS officers and other officials.

The prosecution contended that Sohrabuddin had connec-tions with the Lashkar-e-Taiba and other terror groups and was conspiring to assassinate “an important political leader” pre-sumably the then Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who is now the Prime Minister.

A total of 37 accused were named in the case of whom 16 — mostly politicians and IPS officers — were subsequently discharged by the Special CBI Court in Mumbai and another by the Bombay High Court.

Among those discharged ini-tially were BJP President Amit Shah, who was the Gujarat Home Minister at the relevant time, the then Rajasthan Home Minister G.C. Kataria, high-profile ATS chief and DIG D.G. Vanzara,

Superintendents of Police M.N. Dinesh and R.K. Pandian, among many others.

Interestingly, after appeals from various quarters, the polit-ically-sensitive trial was shifted from Gujarat to Mumbai by the Supreme Court in September 2012. When the Special CBI Court recorded the statements of the remaining 22 accused during the trial, all claimed “innocence” and said they were nabbed owing to rivalry among the Gujarat top police brass and related factors stemming from the then political situation prevalent in that state.

Of the 210 witnesses examined during the trial, 92 turned hostile, seriously under-mining the CBI case, prompting the CBI counsel B P Raju to admit to ‘lacunae’ in the probe as the encounter took place in 2005, Prajapati in 2006, but CBI came into the picture only in 2010.

The much-awaited verdict in the case came more than 12 years after the alleged ‘fake encounters’ of Sohrabuddin and his associate Prajapati, besides the abuse-and-murder of Sohrabuddin’s wife, Kausar Bi.

Falling boulders leave 7 road workers deadAP LUCKNOW

Boulders crashed down on Indian workers who were widening a mountainous road leading to a Hindu temple in the Himalayas, killing seven of them, a government official said.

Dsitrict Magistrate Mangesh Gildiyal said another three workers were injured yesterday and 12 rescued from the site near Rudrap-rayag in Uttarakhand state. The area is nearly 380km (235 miles) northeast of New Delhi.

Gildiyal said the road clearing operation was con-tinuing as one worker was feared to be buried in the debris.

Badrinath temple is a revered Hindu religious site where tens of thousands of devotees visit each year. Badrinath also is a gateway to several mountaineering expeditions in the area.

Uttarakhand state is a popular summer holiday des-tination for tourists seeking to escape the torrid heat of the plains. It is also a religious pilgrimage site, with four temple towns.

Police bust fake call centre duping AmericansAFP NEW DELHI

Indian police arrested yesterday 126 people working for a allegedly fake call centre making up to $50,000 a day by duping US citizens, officials said.

India became the global call centre capital in the early 2000s as foreign firms, drawn by an educated and cheaper English-speaking workforce, farmed out jobs answering customer phone enquiries.

The suspects arrested in Noida outside Delhi would tell Americans there were problems with their social security numbers and solicit money to fix it, police said. Another scam was telling people they had com-mitted tax offences and that they had to pay to settle, Noida police official Ajay Pal Sharma said.

“Your warrant is on my desk and if this issue is not resolved we will have to freeze your account and put you behind the bars,” one caller is heard to say

in a recording made. In Indian-accented English, he says that the man can either fight the US Inland Revenue Service (IRS) in court and face a $75,000 fine as a “tax defrauder” or pay imme-diately an “out-of-court set-tlement”. “Many responded to

the call and fell for their trap,” Sharma said. The local author-ities have also contacted the US Federal Bureau of Investigation and shared the details of the case.

The call centre had been in operation for three years.

Around 300 computers were seized.

Mumbai police in October 2016 detained more than 770 people suspected of defrauding Americans by impersonating IRS agents and demanding payments.

HC division bench quashes order permitting BJP’s Rath Yatra rallies IANS KOLKATA

The BJP’s plans to take out Rath yatra rallies christened ‘Save democracy rallies’ in West Bengal again hit a roadblock, with a Calcutta High Court division bench yesterday quashing the order of a single bench that gave conditional go-ahead to the programme.

The division bench com-prising Chief Justice Debasish Kargupta and Justice Shampa Sarkar sent the case back to the single bench with a directive that the latter consider the intelligence inputs provided by the state agencies.

The Mamata Banerjee gov-ernment had moved an appeal at the division bench against Thursday’s single bench order and sought urgent hearing.

While setting aside the single bench’s order, the division bench directed it to study afresh the 36 intelligence inputs from 31 police stations and five police commission-erates submitted by the state government before it.

The ruling came after state advocate general Kishore Dutta argued that the single bench had not considered the intelli-gence inputs and returned to the government without

opening the sealed cover in which the inputs were given.

Dutta said the intelligence inputs had apprehended com-munal disturbances if the BJP’s proposed programme was given the green light.

In an interesting devel-opment, senior Congress leader Abhishek Manu Singhvi pleaded as a counsel of the Director General of Police and the addi-tional director general (law and order) and argued that the rally and the reception part of the programme would lead to huge traffic bottlenecks, inconven-iencing commuters.

Sanghvi said with the BJP submitting that 1,500 people would take part in each of the three Rath Yatra rallies in the state, there would be a kilo-metre long bus convoy in each case, jeopardising vehicular movement. He said the police have no objection to the holding of meetings, and pointed out that nearly 2,100 such political meetings called by the saffron outfit in the last two years have got the nod in the state. On Thursday, acting on a petition filed by the BJP against the gov-ernment refusing permission for the rallies, the bench of Justice Tapobrata Chakraborty had given conditional per-mission to the programme.

Indian police personnel wait outside the office of a fake call centre, some 25km east from New Delhi, yesterday.

LJP to contest six Lok Sabha seats in BiharIANS NEW DELHI

After some hard bargaining by the Lok Janshakti Party, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar is understood to have sealed a seat-sharing deal

for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls with the BJP and the Janata Dal-United contesting an equal number of 17 seats each leaving the rest of the six seats to the party headed by Ram Vilas Paswan. In a bid to retain the LJP in its fold, the BJP is also

believed to have agreed to give a Rajya Sabha seat from its quota to the party. The arrangement is likely to be made public today in the presence of BJP chief Amit Shah, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and LJP supremo Ram Vilas Paswan.

06 SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018ASIA

US to pull out about 7,000troops from AfghanistanAFP KABUL

US President Donald Trump has decided to pull about 7,000 troops from Afghanistan, a US official said yesterday, but the Afghan presidency brushed off concerns the drawdown would affect security.

Speaking on condition of anonymity, the US official said that “roughly half” of the 14,000 US forces in Afghanistan would leave “within the next several months.” The move stunned and dismayed diplomats and officials in Kabul who are intensifying a push to end the 17-year conflict with the Taliban, which already controls vast amounts of territory and is causing “unsustainable” Afghan troop casualties.

“If you’re the Taliban, Christmas has come early,” a senior foreign official in the Afghan capital said on condition of anonymity. “Would you be thinking of a ceasefire if your main opponent has just

withdrawn half their troops?” Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid would not comment about the troop withdrawal. But a senior Taliban commander welcomed the decision.

“Frankly speaking we weren’t expecting that imme-diate US response,” the official said from an unknown location in northwest Pakistan.

“We are more than happy,

they realised the truth. We are expecting more good news.”

It is not clear if US peace envoy Zalmay Khalilzad or the Afghan government had been warned of Trump’s plans in advance. A spokesman for Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, Haroon Chakhansuri, down-played the news, saying: It “will not have a security impact because in the last four and half years the Afghans have been in full control.” But Afghans across the country expressed fears that a US troop withdrawal could derail peace efforts, return the Taliban to power, and dissolve the country into civil war.

“We are terrified that history will be repeated,” Fazli Ahmad, a car washer in the southern city of Kandahar, said.

Shaima Dabeer, a 50-year-old housewife in the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif, said she feared for the future of her children. “Afghanistan will go back to the Taliban era,” she said. Trump’s decision apparently

came on Tuesday as Khalilsad met with the Taliban in Abu Dhabi, part of efforts to bring the militants to the negotiating table with Kabul. They discussed issues ranging from the group’s longstanding demand for a pullout of foreign troops, the release of prisoners and a ceasefire, Khalilzad told Afghan

media in Kabul on Thursday.A Nato spokesman would not

comment on Trump’s decision, referring reporters to US author-ities, but stressed the alliance’s continued commitment to its support mission in Afghanistan. Tuesday was also the day Trump told the Pentagon he wanted to pull all US forces out of Syria.

Defence Secretary Jim Mattis resigned on Thursday, saying his views were no longer recon-cilable with Trump’s.

Critics suggest the president’s twin foreign policy decisions on Syria and Afghanistan could unspool a series of cascading and unpredictable events across the Middle East and in Afghanistan.

US troops keep watch during an official visit in Farah province, Afghanistan.

The move stunned and dismayed diplomats and officials in Kabul who are intensifying a push to end the 17-year conflict with the Taliban, which already controls vast amounts of territory and is causing “unsustainable” Afghan troop casualties.

US Congressional Pakistan Caucus Foundation launched INTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

More than 35 members of the US Congress have expressed their intention to join the newly launched Congressional Pakistan Caucus Foundation that will help foster friendship, understanding and cooperation between the United States and Pakistan.

The Pakistan embassy facil-itated the formal introduction of Congressional Pakistan Caucus Foundation (CPCF) linking the Pakistan Caucus already working in the House.

The co-chair of the Pakistan Caucus, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson, present at the event maintained that she was disap-pointed by the remarks and actions against Pakistan made by the Trump administration, which she said, do not charac-terize the totality of the rela-tionship between the two countries.

“I would like to see con-t inued dia logue and engagement,” Congresswoman said introducing the CPCF aims. She said that the Foundation will advance the global Pakistani

community by developing leaders, informing policy, and educating the public.

Commenting on the current state of relations between the two countries, Congresswoman Lee said that “even though funds (to Pakistan) were cut in the Appropriations, amendments that came to the floor to try to make it worse did not pass. People listen to us when we make individual calls to cabinet officers.” She believes that as long as the door was open, citing that the new prime minister in Pakistan was a new door; it

should not be closed on US-Pakistan relations.

The newly introduced CPCF would be a non-partisan organ-isation that would conduct research to promote pro-Pakistan/United States policies and to increase the pool of Paki-stani leaders in public service careers and public policy posi-tions through providing fellow-ships, internships, and scholarships.

The mission statement shared with the media highlights that the CPCF would facilitate the exchange of ideas and

information to address critical issues affecting Pakistani com-munities in the United States and abroad; as well as developing strategic research and historical resources for the public, aca-demics, educators and students.

Congressman Henry Cuellar termed the US Pakistan ties as significant. He said, “Sometimes among friends we might have some disagreements but what’s important is that we understand why we might disagree and where we develop our bonds stronger.”

Islamabad to get $3bn loan from UAEREUTERS ISLAMABAD

The United Arab Emirates plans to deposit $3bn in Paki-stan’s central bank “in the next few days”, a report said yesterday, while a Pakistani official said Islamabad also hopes it will allow deferred payments for oil supplies.

Pakistan is battling to bring under control a gaping current account deficit that’s wobbled its economy and lowered growth. Islamabad is engaged in bailout talks with the International Mon-etary Fund (IMF) but has also sought financial help from allies China and Saudi Arabia.

The UAE deposit is aimed at supporting Pakistan’s mon-etary policy, WAM said, citing the state-run Abu Dhabi Fund for Development.

Hours after the announcement, Pakistani Information Minister Fawad Chaudhry said that Islamabad was “also hoping to get deferment for oil payments” from UAE. Chaudhry declined to disclose the sum of assistance sought.

Sri Lanka averts $1.5bn foreign debt defaultAFP COLOMBO

The Sri Lankan government yesterday secured parlia-mentary approval to avert a debt default of $1.5bn after the annual budget was blocked by a seven-week political crisis.

During the last day of the legislature for 2018, MPs voted 102 to six to approve an interim budget to pay for urgent gov-ernment expenditure in the first four months of 2019. Finance

Minister Mangala Samaraweera said he was finalising an appro-priation bill for next year when President Maithripala Sirisena sacked the government on October 26, plunging the country into a constitutional crisis.

“We don’t have time to present a new budget, but we need to meet our (debt and salary) obligations,” Sama-raweera told parliament to introduce the vote on the interim budget. Legislators

approved four months of gov-ernment spending pending a full-fledged budget around Feb-ruary. Sirisena sacked Ranil Wickremesinghe as prime min-ister but he refused to quit and parliament and Sri Lanka’s courts blocked Sirisena’s can-didate Mahinda Rajapakse, a fervent nationalist former pres-ident. During the power struggle, three international credit rating agencies downgraded Sri Lanka making foreign borrowings more expensive.

Britain says Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar are innocentREUTERS LONDON

British Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said yesterday that two Reuters journalists jailed in Myanmar on charges of breaking the country’s Official Secrets Act were innocent and that Britain had serious concerns about due process in the case.

Wa Lone and Kyaw Soe Oo were found guilty in September after a trial at a Yangon district court in a case that has raised questions about Myanmar’s progress towards democracy and triggered an outcry from diplomats and human rights advocates. Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi said in Sep-tember that the jailing of the reporters had nothing to do with freedom of expression. She said they were not jailed because they were journalists.

In a sign of the level of concern among world powers about the case, Britain’s foreign policy chief took the unusual step of recording a short video to show his support for the jailed Reuters journalists.

“We want the world to remember these two jour-nalists, not just because we

believe they are innocent, but also because this is a year when we have seen a big increase in the number of journalists who have been locked up and indeed far worse - murdered,” Hunt said.

There were 251 journalists jailed for doing their jobs as of Dec. 1, the Committee to Protect Journalists said in an annual study earlier this month.

At least 53 journalists were killed around the world between January 1 and December 14, 2018, according to the CPJ, a US-based nonprofit that promotes press freedom.

Britain’s Hunt said that at a time when people were looking forward to spending time with their families, it was time to reflect on the fate of the two Reuters journalists.

They “are both in prison this Christmas because they wanted to report of the Rakhine crisis where there has been some alleged genocide against the Rohingya people in Burma,” Hunt said. The Reuters reporters, who pleaded not guilty, said they were handed papers by police shortly before they were detained, and a police witness testified that they had been set up.

EU imposes additional sanctions on Myanmar officialsANATOLIA

BRUSSELS: The European Council yesterday added seven more Myanmar officials to its sanctions list for alleged human rights violations.

The EU body released a

statement that it intends to adopt additional restrictive measures against senior military and border guard police officers in Myanmar for human rights abuse.

Those sanctions include an asset freeze and a travel ban, the

statement said. “The individuals subject to sanctions are part of the Myanmar army and the border guard police. They are listed for serious human rights violations committed against the Rohingya population, ethnic minority villagers or civilians.

“These sanctions follow the findings of the independent international fact-finding mission of the UN Human Rights Council and of other reports which concluded that gross human rights violations were committed in Rakhine, Kachin,

and Shan States. “This brings the total number of persons subject to sanctions for serious human rights violations in Myanmar to 14,” the statement read.

The Council extended and strengthened the EU embargo on Myanmar on arms and

equipment that can be used for internal repression on April 26.

The Rohingya, described by the UN as the world’s most per-secuted people, have faced heightened fears of attack since dozens were killed in communal violence in 2012.

Pakistani labourers harvest marigold flowers in a field on the outskirts of Peshawar.

Golden harvest

INTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday said that the Prime Minister House will be converted into Islamabad National University

Addressing a ceremony at the launch of National University in Islamabad, Imran said that the reason behind making the coun-try’s most expensive estate into a university is to send a message to the nation that

this government gives pri-ority to education.

“When I made Shaukat Khanum, people asked me how would the poor be treated for free. I had faith that there will be a Centre of Excellence,” the premier said. He added that the money retrieved from dacoits will be spent on education in the country. Imran attends the first aca-demic activity at Islamabad National University (INU) formerly called PM House Islamabad.

PM House to be converted into Islamabad National University

Protest against Australian decision

07SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018 ASIA

Malaysians stage a protest against Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison who announced his government’s recognition of West Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, in front of Australian High Commission, in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.

Indonesian Muslims during a solidarity demonstration for Uyghurs at the Gladak Roundabout in Surakarta, Central Java, yesterday.

US special representative on North Korea Stephen Biegun (left speaks to reporters as his South Korean counterpart Lee Do-hoon (centre) looks on after their “working group” meeting handling North Korean issues, in Seoul yesterday.

China calls US ‘arrogant’ after hacking indictmentAP BEIJING

China called the US arrogant and selfish yesterday after two Chinese citizens were charged with stealing American trade secrets and other sensitive infor-mation on behalf of Beijing’s main intelligence agency.

Foreign Ministry spokes-woman Hua Chunying said “the Chinese government has never participated in or supported anyone in stealing trade secrets in any way.”

She accused the US of undermining the development of other countries in order to defend its own hegemony.

“The US is a world super-power, and it’s quite arrogant and selfish,” she said during a regular press briefing.

The US Justice Department had announced on Thursday the indictment of Chinese nationals Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong for allegedly carrying out an extensive cyberespionage cam-paign against government agencies and major corporations.

Besides the alleged US infil-tration, Zhu and Hua are also accused of breaching computers linked to companies in at least 11 other countries, including Japan, the United Kingdom and India.

More than 90 percent of Justice Department economic espionage cases over the past seven years involve China, said Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, and more than

two-thirds of trade secrets cases are connected to the country.

“China’s state-sponsored actors are the most active per-petrators of economic espi-onage,” FBI Director Chris Wray said in announcing the case. “While we welcome fair com-petition, we cannot and will not tolerate illegal hacking, stealing or cheating.”

Hua, the Foreign Ministry spokeswoman, said: “They believe that a lie repeated a thousand times will become the truth, but I want to tell them that a lie is still a lie even after it has been repeated ten thousand times.”

In a written statement issued earlier Friday, she said the U.S. was “fabricating facts.”

The whereabouts of Zhu and Zhang are unclear. China does not have an extradition treaty with the U.S.

“There is some cooperation under the framework of Interpol, but if the Chinese gov-ernment doesn’t agree with the U.S. charges, there is no way to extradite the accused,” said Li Fangping, a Beijing-based criminal lawyer.

Li said that if Zhu and Zhang travel to other countries that have signed treaties with the

U.S., they could be detained for possible extradition, as was the case with Chinese tech executive Meng Wanzhou’s recent arrest in Canada.

The indictment says the pair worked for the Huaying Haitai Science and Technology Devel-opment Company in Tianjin and acted in association with the Chinese Ministry of State Secu-rity’s bureau in the northeastern port city.

A public company registry says that Huaying Haitai’s work includes the development of computer software, consulting and business related to a variety of technical equipment.

Among the cyberespionage maneuvers detailed in the indictment is the alleged use of a phishing technique which sent emails that appeared to be coming from legitimate email addresses but were in fact from members of “Advanced Per-sistent Threat 10,” the China-based hacking group to which Zhu and Zhang purportedly belong. James Gong, a cyberse-curity senior associate at the Herbert Smith Freehills law firm in Beijing, said the mere announcement of charges is likely to affect public perception of China.

Japan accuses S Korea of extremely dangerous radar lock on planeREUTERS TOKYO/SEOUL

Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya “strongly protested” to South Korea yesterday after a South Korean destroyer allegedly locked its targeting radar on a Japanese surveillance plane. Iwaya, speaking to reporters at his ministry, described the action as “extremely dangerous that could cause an unexpected situation”.

The incident came at a time

when greater coordination is called for between the two Asian neighbours to tackle issues including North Korea’s nuclear and missile programmes, mar-itime security and natural dis-asters, he said. “It’s extremely regrettable that the incident of this time happened,” Iwaya said. “We will urge South Korea to prevent a recurrence.”

South Korea’s defence min-istry said its destroyer was per-forming routine operations.

“We were operating a radar

as part of the operation but it was not intended to trace any Japanese patrol aircraft,” the ministry said in a statement.

“We’ve spoken with the Jap-anese side on this issue but will provide further explanations so that there is no misunder-standing going forward.”

Fire control radar is used to pinpoint the location of a target for missiles or shells. Directing the radar at a target can be con-sidered a step away from actual firing.

N Korea insists US act first before it gives up nukesAP SEOUL

North Korea said it will never unilaterally give up its nuclear weapons unless the United States first removes what Pyongyang called a nuclear threat. The surprisingly blunt statement jars with Seoul’s rosier presentation of the North Korean position and could rattle the fragile trilateral diplomacy to defuse a nuclear crisis that last year had many fearing war.

The statement carried by the North’s official Korean Central News Agency comes as the United States and North Korea struggle over the sequencing of the denuclearization that Washington wants and the removal of international sanc-tions desired by Pyongyang. It

also raises credibility problems for the liberal South Korean government, which has claimed that North Korean

leader Kim Jong Un is genu-inely interested in negotiating away his nuclear weapons as Seoul tries to sustain a positive

atmosphere for dialogue.The comments may also be

seen as proof of what outside skeptics have long said: that Kim will never voluntarily relinquish an arsenal he sees as a stronger guarantee of sur-vival than whatever security assurances the United States might provide. The statement suggests North Korea will even-tually demand the United States withdraw or significantly reduce the 28,500 American troops stationed in South Korea, a major sticking point in any disarmament deal.

Kim and President Donald Trump met June 12 in Singapore where they agreed on a vague goal for the “complete denu-clearization” of the Korean Peninsula without describing when and how it would occur. The leaders are trying to arrange

another meeting for early next year.

But North Korea for decades has been pushing a concept of denuclearization that bears no resemblance to the American definition, with Pyongyang vowing to pursue nuclear devel-opment until the United States removes its troops and the nuclear umbrella defending South Korea and Japan. In Thurs-day’s statement, the North made clear it’s sticking to its traditional stance on denuclearization. It accused Washington of twisting what had been agreed on in Sin-gapore and driving post-summit talks into an impasse.

“The United States must now recognize the accurate meaning of the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula, and espe-cially, must study geography,” the statement said.

Indonesians protest against China’s treatment of UighursREUTERS JAKARTA

Hundreds of Muslims held a rally outside the Chinese embassy in the Indonesian capital, Jakarta, yesterday to protest against the treatment of members of the mostly Muslim ethnic Uighur minority in China’s far western Xinjiang region.

A United Nations panel of human rights experts said in August it had received many credible reports that 1 million ethnic Uighurs in China were being held in what resembled a “massive internment camp that is shrouded in secrecy”. The United Nations called for the immediate release of those detained on the “pretext of countering terrorism”.

Opposition groups in Indonesia, has the world’s largest Muslim population, have crit-icised President Joko Widodo for not pro-viding enough support for China’s Uighur community. “The United Nations must speak out, the OIC (Organisation of Islamic Coop-eration) must speak out, Muslims must take a stand against the Chinese government,” said protester Ridwan Abdul Ridho said.

China says Xinjiang faces a threat from Islamist militants and separatists. It rejects all accusations of mistreatment and denies mass internment, although Chinese officials

have said some citizens guilty of minor offences were being sent to vocational centres to work. China worries that Uighurs, who speak a Turkic language, have gone to places like Afghanistan, Pakistan, Syria and Iraq to fight for militants. The Indonesian

foreign ministry said it had summoned the Chinese envoy in Jakarta to “convey concern from various parties in Indonesia on the con-dition of people of Uighur in China” and called on China to respect freedom of religion.

Malaysia seeks $7.5bn in reparations from Goldman SachsREUTERS KUALA LUMPUR

Malaysia is seeking $7.5bn in reparations from Goldman Sachs Group Inc over its dealings with scandal-linked state fund 1MDB, the Financial Times reported yesterday, citing the country’s finance minister.

Separately, Bloomberg reported that Singapore has expanded its criminal inves-tigation of 1MDB to include Goldman Sachs, in a sign of increasing scrutiny of the bank’s role in the suspected multi-billion-dollar money laundering scheme.

Malaysian prosecutors this week filed charges against Goldman Sachs in connection with its role as underwriter and arranger of three bond sales that raised $6.5bn for 1Malaysia Devel-opment Berhad (1MDB), the first criminal action against the US bank over the scandal.

Goldman Sachs has con-sistently denied wrongdoing and said certain members of the former Malaysian gov-ernment and 1MDB lied to the bank about the proceeds of the bond sales.

In addition to the bonds’ total value, Goldman Sachs should also return $1bn to cover $600m in fees paid to the bank and bond coupons that were “higher than the market rate”, the FT quoted Malaysian Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng as saying.

Lim also told the FT that reparations should at least be more than $1.8bn, the sum Goldman Sachs has told investors it had set aside to cover potential losses related to 1MDB legal proceedings.

“Their figure is $1.8bn. Ours is $7.5bn,” Lim said.

Top judge says China’s death penalty in ‘decline’AFP BEIJING

The use of capital punishment is “declining” in China but abolition is still far away because of popular support for the death penalty, said a judge from the China’s highest court. Beijing carries out more execu-tions each year than any other country, according to human rights groups — but the exact number is a state secret.

While China’s legal system has tightened regu-lation of capital punishment in recent years, “the condi-tions for abolishing the death penalty in China are not yet met,” said Li Xiao, a judge at the Supreme People’s Court. In 2007 the Supreme People’s Court recovered the power to approve and refuse death sentences, a right previously held by provincial courts.

The US Justice Department had announced on Thursday the indictment of Chinese nationals Zhu Hua and Zhang Shilong for allegedly carrying out an extensive cyberespionage campaign against government agencies and major corporations.

The early consequences of the new era were already apparent at year’s end, with Trump on the verge of a government shutdown over the advice of GOP leaders and ordering the withdrawal of US troops from Syria over Mattis’ objections.

THE WASHINGTON POST

08 SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018VIEWS

As advisers leave, Trump’s guardrails come off

Last year, during one particu-larly frenetic stretch in Donald Trump’s presidency, a top Republican senator said there

were three men guarding the country from chaos: Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, White House chief of staff John Kelly and then-Secretary of State Rex Tillerson. Within weeks, not one will be left in the administration.

Mattis will be the last to go, and his abrupt resignation on Thursday marks the end of the “contain and control” phase of Trump’s administration - one where generals, business leaders and establishment Republicans struggled to guide the president and curb his most disruptive impulses. They were branded in Washington as the “troika of sanity,” the “axis of adults” and the “committee to save America.”

But as Trump careens toward his third year in office, their efforts are in tatters and most are out of a job.

The early consequences of the new era were already apparent at year’s end, with Trump on the verge of a government shutdown over the advice of GOP leaders and ordering the with-drawal of US troops from Syria over Mattis’ objections. A similar pull-back in Afghanistan appeared to be in the works. The financial markets, spooked

by uncer-tainty from a nearly yearlong trade war, tanked.

“We are headed toward a series of grave policy errors which will endanger our nation, damage our alliances & empower our adversaries,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., tweeted after Mattis’ resignation.

The shrinking circle around Trump is now

increasingly dominated by a small cadre of longtime Trump loyalists and family members, ex-Fox News talent and former GOP lawmakers who were backbenchers on Capitol Hill before being elevated by the president. Attracting top flight talent will only get more difficult as more investigations envelop the White House once Demo-crats take over the House in January.

To some of Trump’s most ardent

supporters, the exodus leaves the president with a team that is more in line with his hardline campaign promises. They viewed some of his early advisers as obstacles to enacting the unabashed nationalist agenda they believe Trump had been elected to implement.

Mattis wrote in his resignation letter that Trump deserved a Pentagon chief “whose views are better aligned with yours.” It was not readily apparent who that might be, as Trump’s decision in Syria drew wide-spread bipartisan condemnation this week.

Soon after Trump entered the White House, aides seeking to restrain the brash and inexperienced presi-dent’s foreign policy decisions recog-nized that those best adept at advising him were or had recently been in uniform. Trump, who never served himself but attended a military academy as a youth, granted them out-sized respect. Mattis was one of three generals who filled the top ranks of Trump’s staff, along with Kelly and H R McMaster, who spent a year as national security adviser. Mattis’ appointment required a congressional waiver to laws meant to preserve the civilian nature of the Department of Defense.

Mattis and outgoing Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Joseph Dunford became almost weekly dinner guests of the president early in his adminis-tration, particularly before first lady Melania Trump moved to Washington late last spring. The seemingly informal briefings for the president were in fact carefully orchestrated persuasion sessions designed to ease the president into abandoning some of his disruptive campaign rhetoric and accepting the advice of his senior national security advisers.

But Mattis’ departure highlights how those early efforts delayed Trump’s disruption, rather than averted it.

On issues from trade to defense, Trump aides have tried eye-popping

tactics to wait out the president - Gary Cohn, the former chair of the National Economic Council, went so far as to remove documents related to a tariff action from the Resolute Desk in hopes of convincing the president to adjust course - but their exertions proved fleeting.

Mattis’ decision to resign followed a clash with the president over with-drawing troops from Syria, where a small military force has been fighting Islamic State extremists. The president is also said to be seeking to draw down American forces in Afghanistan, another move with which the Pen-tagon disagrees. Trump’s split with Mattis followed a pattern of public breakdowns with advisers who served as guardrails in the administration.

Trump initially hailed Tillerson, the ExxonMobil chief executive, as out of “central casting” when he was tapped as secretary of state, before being unceremoniously discarded by the president earlier this year. Earlier this month, Tillerson described Trump as “pretty undisciplined, doesn’t like to read doesn’t like to read, doesn’t read briefing reports, doesn’t like to get into the details of a lot of things, but rather just kind of says, ‘This is what I believe.’”

Kelly suffered a similar fate. Hired to bring order to the Oval Office, the retired Marine ultimately found he, too, could not control Trump, who subjected Kelly to a series of public humiliations. Kelly is slated to leave in two weeks.

Trump treated Mattis with respect in announcing his departure via tweet, though he cast the move as a retirement rather than a resignation.

It was Mattis who made clear in his letter that he was leaving over a dispute with the president. Still, he said he would remain on through Feb-ruary to allow Trump time to nom-inate and confirm a successor, expressing concern about high-level turnover at the Pentagon at a critical juncture.

JULIE PACE & ZEKE MILLER AP

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We will be working on our operational

plans to eliminate ISIS elements, which are said to remain intact in Syria, in line with

our conversation with President Trump.

Recep Tayyip Erdogan Turkish President

On climate, trolling - and progress

Without the United States, does the decades-long effort to unite the globe in fighting climate

change fall apart? That was the big question heading into a major interna-tional climate conference in Poland that wrapped uplast weekend. It was the first such gathering since President Donald Trump signaled the United States’ intention to pull out of the landmark Paris climate agreement. The result was better than pessimists expected - but also underscored how much will be lost if the United States steps further away from the global agreement.

The 2015 Paris accord set a goal of keeping warming below two degrees Celsius. To get there, it asked countries to volunteer commitments to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions. The commitments offered were not suffi-cient to meet the two-degree target, but they were a big improvement over

inaction. Moreover, the Paris system is supposed to encourage continual ratcheting up of ambition.

If the vision was articulated in Paris, the nuts and bolts were sup-posed to be worked out in Katowice, Poland. As negotiators labored over arcane questions of international carbon credits and emissions-reporting mechanisms, the United States at first appeared intent on playing spoiler. The US delegation held a side event promoting fossil fuels. With Russia and Saudi Arabia, it pre-vented the conference from accepting the conclusions of a major scientific report warning of dire consequences if governments do not boost their ambi-tions soon. The State Department’s final dispatch on the conference stressed the Trump administration’s balanced - that is, negligent - approach to emissions and expressed none of the urgency the issue requires.

Yet, the parties did agree on common and universally applied rules for reporting emissions reductions.

This was a major success, as various nations resisted real transparency, the absence of which would encourage cheating. The negotiators punted on another major issue - how to connect countries’ carbon-reduction pro-grams, which could make the global effort much cheaper and easier - as Brazil insisted on trying to double-count some of its carbon credits. Countries also did not agree on revising their emissions plans to be more stringent; that will happen next year, if the system works as intended. But the conference largely did what it set out to do, and the global effort still has momentum.

Does this mean that the United States has gone from crucial to irrel-evant? Actually, no. Even as some US delegates trolled the conference attendees with presentations on fossil fuels, professional negotiators teamed up with Chinese delegates to push hard for the transparency measures that the conference eventually accepted.

Owing to such focused efforts by the concerned authorities, Qatar today is leading the Gulf region in traffic safety. The road accident mortality rate has fallen from 14 deaths per 100,000 people in 2013 to 5.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFI

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI

osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Safety for everyone

For making roads safer for travelers by cutting traffic accident deaths to zero, Qatar has taken a number of initiatives in recent years from enacting of new laws to

strict imposition of road-safety rules and regulations.Owing to such focused efforts by the concerned author-

ities, Qatar today is leading the Gulf region in traffic safety. The road accident mortality rate has fallen from 14 deaths per 100,000 people in 2013 to 5.4 deaths per 100,000 people in 2017. Under this vision of achieving the goal of zero road-accident deaths, the General Directorate of Traffic, repre-sented by the Traffic Awareness Department, has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Hamad Trauma Center on scientific partnership and cooperation and the prevention of road traffic injuries.

The MoU was signed by Director of Traffic Awareness Department at the General Directorate of Traffic Lt Col. Mohammad Radhi Al Hajri and Head of Hamad Trauma Center, Dr Sheikh Hassan Al Thani. The MoU aims to promote communication and cooperation between both sides on awareness about traffic safety in the community and the most vulnerable groups in the country. In addition, the MoU

aims to extend information on risks to those involved in awareness programs, the pre-vention of injuries caused by traffic accidents and to spread up-to-date and accurate traffic safety information in cooperation with the media.

The MoU also aims to exchange best practices on traffic safety in Qatar in the fields of monitoring, databases, prevention, and han-dling injuries caused by traffic acci-dents with various State entities. The cooperation also covers con-ducting research and issuing joint publications to improve existing practices with respect to traffic safety in the State, according to the requirements of the research ethics rules issued by the Institutional Review Board, medical research centers and HMC. Recently in the last week of November, Qatar also hosted the International Traffic Safety Conference in which repre-

sentatives from several countries around the world and a number of traffic safety experts from governmental entities participated.

Addressing the conference, Major General Mohamed Saad al Kharji, Vice-Chairman of the National Traffic Safety Com-mittee had said that the second phase of the implementation plan for the National Traffic Safety Strategy (2018-2022), which was launched in 2018, was underway. “This requires exceptional efforts, cooperation from all sides, and adoption of an unprecedented mechanism of implementation to address traffic problems, and the achievement of 2022 goals with high efficiency and on time.”

The conference tackled a number of different topics such as traffic safety engineering, driving behaviour, road users at risk, legal enforcement, post-accident investigations, internal vehicle technology, transport safety and security, intelligent transportation systems, traffic flow, road design, public transport, among other topics.

Xi appears to have been surprised by the growing Western unease with China. For decades, the Communist Party adhered to the catchphrase of the father of its reform program, Deng Xiaoping, for China to keep its head down, bide its time and build its national strength. Xi has junked this formula, and this bumptiousness has engendered blowback.

China’s reforms were ultimately resuscitated by Deng Xiaoping himself. But Deng is is dead and Xi has sidelined all challengers. No wonder Hu was not optimistic that China’s situation would improve.

09SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018 OPINION

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London tries to treat knife crime surge aspublic health epidemic

How the world’s resistance to China caught Xi Jinping off guard

JAMES PHEBY AFP

JOHN POMFRET THE WASHINGTON POST

Faced with spiralling youth vio-lence and knife crime, author-ities in London have decided to treat the issues as a public

health problem, deploying similar tactics from the fight against disease epidemics.

The strategy follows pioneering projects credited with bringing down

murder rates in Chicago and Glasgow, two cities blighted by violent crime.

In 2018 so far, the British capital has recorded 133 murders, around two-thirds of them stabbings.

“Violence meets the definition of an epidemic health problem,” Charlie Ransford, of Cure Violence -- an American NGO founded by former World Health Organisation (WHO) worker Gary Slutkin which has pio-neered the strategy said. “We can address it using the same techniques that we use to address other epidemics.”

Modelled on WHO strategies for combatting the spread of diseases like Ebola or HIV/AIDS, it treats violence like a similarly contagious phe-nomenon, trying to turn the tide in three stages.

The immediate priority is limiting

transmission, followed by tackling behaviour that fuels the spread, before focusing on changing com-munity norms that allowed the epi-demic to begin.

This final part can include better job training and employment placement, as well as so-called “second chance” schemes for offenders. Authorities in Scotland adopted the approach in 2005, after it was branded the most dangerous nation in the developed world in a United Nations report that noted 2,000 Scots were assaulted each week.

They set up the Scottish Violence Reduction Unit (SVRU) to implement this novel approach, its director Niven Rennie said. “It started 10 years ago and we reduced the homicide rate by over 50 percent in that period,” she said. The unit followed its own three-step strategy. It first strengthened the penalties for carrying a weapon or for perpetrators of aggression, aiming to isolate them and limit the spread of violence.

The SVRU then identified those most at risk, to give them “options to move away from being involved in gangs, to get a stabilised life,” according to Rennie.

“We found that people that were involved in knife crime and involved in violence didn’t actually want to be involved in it, wanted a way out,” she said. Finally, from 2012 the unit developed prevention strategies in schools and hospitals to consolidate progress.

While domestic and sexual vio-lence remains a concern, Scotland has become a model for successfully tackling the problem -- with London’s

leaders now hurrying to Glasgow to learn from its experiences.

London Mayor Sadiq Khan has launched his own “violence reduction unit”, while the London borough of Lambeth -- one of the areas most impacted by youth violence -- is in the early stages of developing its own public health approach.

Its plan will be guided by “key principles” which include a multi-agency approach targeting “young people already involved in violence, or at risk of being involved in vio-lence”, according to its draft strategy.

Over 70 percent of Londoners aged eight to 24 are exposed to “serious violence” at least once a month, according to a survey con-ducted by the Youth Violence Commission.

“We do have to understand the fear young people have in the streets,” said Duncan Bew of King’s College Hospital’s Trauma Centre.

“Young people in particular have started carrying weapons because they don’t feel safe.”

He admitted frustration at seeing the same youngsters showing up at his hospital, “particularly those patients who are vulnerable, coming to harm when it could have been prevented”.

Despite London authorities’ will-ingness to adopt the Scotland model, criminologist Simon Harding, of the University of West London, warned it would not be easy to apply across the capital. “To make it work, they have to involve the communities,” he said, adding previous attempts had “tended to tell the community what we are going to do to them”.

Xi Jinping, heralded in the West as the most powerful Chinese leader since Chairman Mao Zedong, is

heading toward failure. That’s the conclusion one could draw from Xi’s Dec. 18 speech commemorating the 40th anniversary of China’s far-reaching economic reforms.

Faced with a weakening economy, a trade war with the United States and an emerging united front against China in the West, Xi could have been expected to offer a bold new commitment to economic reform. Instead, he doubled down on his neo-Stalinist view that the Com-munist Party must exert control “over all tasks.” What’s worse, he failed to show any recognition of the hard choices China faces - supporting state-owned firms vs. the private sector, clamping down or opening up. In his 90-minute address, Xi promised all things to all people, in effect promising nothing to no one.

What a difference a year or two makes.

In January 2017, Xi took to the podium at the World Economic Forum at Davos to position China as ready to accept from an inward-looking US the mantle of defender of the global trading order. Later that year, during the Communist Party’s 19th Party Congress, XI purged the top ranks of the party of all compet-itors. Then in March 2018, he rammed through changes to China’s

constitution guaranteeing himself the opportunity of serving as China’s president until he dies. Xi had been called the Chairman of Everything. Now he was being called the Chairman of Everything for Life.

Propagandists began touting China’s mixture of merciless authori-tarianism and mercantilist economic polices as a road map - called the China Solution - for the developing world. Xi’s signature foreign policy program - the Belt and Road Initiative - looked set to wrap the globe with Chinese-built railroads, ports and airports.

Xi held two seemingly successful summits with President Trump, in Florida and in Beijing. Chinese dip-lomats were confident that they could play the White House, sidestepping the National Security Council as they curried favour with American offi-cials who appeared to be China’s friends.

Xi parried the Trump administra-tion’s attempts to sideline China when it came to North Korea’s nuclear weapons, hosting Kim Jung Un twice. And he seemed to have minimized the blowback from the United States after he broke his promises to President Barack Obama not to militarize the seven Chinese-made islands in the South China Sea or engage in cyber-espionage.

Xi’s slip-ups started with the United States. He and his minions didn’t realize that Trump was serious

about slapping tariffs on Chinese goods. As Trump expanded tariffs to include $250 billion in Chinese exports, a chill went through the rest of China’s economy, which had already begun to slow.

Today, foreign investment and retail sales are falling; property sales are flat. Taiwanese firms, which play a key role in China’s export sector, are moving some operations to Southeast Asia. And China’s private sector, the engine of China’s economy, could actually be shrinking. China’s government has begun to block the release of economic sta-tistics to quash the spread of negative sentiment.

Xi appears to have been surprised by the growing Western unease with China. For decades, the Communist Party adhered to the catchphrase of the father of its reform program, Deng Xiaoping, for China to keep its head down, bide its time and build its national strength. Xi has junked this formula, and this bumptiousness has engendered blowback.

Spy agencies are now united in their belief that Huawei, China’s biggest telecommunications manu-facturer, presents an intelligence threat to Western countries. The recent arrest in Canada of Huawei’s chief financial officer (and daughter of the firm’s chief executive officer) Meng Wanzhou on an extradition request by the United States is clearly part of a broader Western campaign to reign in Huawei’s heft.

China’s response to this critical matter has to be coming directly from Xi’s office, and it has been ham-handed at best. Since Meng was taken into custody, China has arrested three Canadians in an effort to cow Ottawa.

Xi’s Belt and Road Initiative is also coming under increasing scrutiny. Marketed initially as a Chinese version of the Marshall Plan, it is now being criticized from Papua New Guinea to Pakistan for creating a debt trap for developing countries des-perate for infrastructure improvements.

In the emerging systemic compe-tition with the United States, Xi has overplayed China’s hand. Under his watch, security forces have turned Xinjiang province into a police state, with hundreds of thousands of Uighurs locked away in reeducation camps designed to replace their Islamic faith with loyalty to the Com-munist Party. The regime is also implementing a vast system of societal control employing all the wonders of artificial intelligence. This is George Orwell’s “1984” on steroids.

Just a few years ago, Xi’s face was emblazoned on plates and posters

“Violence meets the definition of an epidemic health problem,” Charlie Ransford, of Cure Violence -- an American NGO founded by former World Health Organisation (WHO) worker Gary Slutkin which has pioneered the strategy said.

around China and songs were released exhorting women to find a spouse like “Xi Dada.” Today, at least among China’s elite, the gloss is off.

Criticism of XI is becoming more pointed. Xi’s attempts to air-brush the contributions of Deng Xiaoping to China’s economic reforms were noted by none other than Deng’s son, Deng Pufang, who was crippled during the Cultural Revolution. He is not alone.

Fred Hu, a former Goldan Sachs executive and protege of China’s famed ex-premier Zhu Rongji, recently compared the current Chinese administration to the revanchist regime that took power after the Tiananmen Square crackdown of 1989.

China’s reforms were ulti-mately resuscitated by Deng Xiaoping himself. But Deng is is dead and Xi has sidelined all chal-lengers. No wonder Hu was not optimistic that China’s situation would improve.

Students waving flags at Huaibei Normal University in Huaibei in China’s eastern Anhui province as they watch live coverage of a speech in Beijing by China’s President Xi Jinping to mark the 40th anniversary of China’s reform and opening policy.

10 SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018EUROPE

UK, Ukraine stress defence partnershipANATOLIA LONDON

The UK and Ukraine will continue to strengthen their defense partnership “in the face of intensifying threats and aggression,” British Defense Secretary Gavin Williamson said yesterday.

Williamson’s comments came after a meeting in London with his Ukrainian counterpart Stepan Poltorak and a day after a British navy ship was deployed in the Black Sea.

During the meeting, Wil-liamson “announced a range of forthcoming deployments and exercises that will see the two countries’ Armed Forces con-tinue to work together in

defense of the international rules-based order,” said a statement from the Ministry of Defense.

“As long as Ukraine faces Russian hostilities, it will find a steadfast partner in the United Kingdom,” Williamson said. “By continuing to work together, whether through training pro-grams or military exercises, we help Ukraine to stand up for our shared values.”

HMS Echo — a Royal Navy ship armed with cutting-edge intelligence technology — has reportedly docked in Odessa two days ago.

Williamson said: “Those values of freedom and democracy cannot be traded.

“I have witnessed on the

frontline the effects of the con-flict in the East and this has completely reinforced my support for Ukraine’s sover-eignty, independence and ter-ritorial integrity.”

Poltorak said the UK is a valued partner that has sup-ported Ukraine’s Armed Forces for the last four years in the face of Russian aggression.

“As we fight to defend our territory, the offer of extended support from the UK Armed Forces is vitally important and gratefully received,” he added.

Williamson announced at the meeting that HMS Echo would deploy to the Black Sea in 2019 “to demonstrate the UK’s support to ensuring freedom of navigation in the region.”

Russia probes BBC as dispute with UK escalatesREUTERS MOSCOW

Russia’s media regulator said yesterday that it had launched an investigation into the activ-ities of British public broadcaster the BBC, a move it described as a response to pressure being put on a Russian TV channel in Britain.

Roskomnadzor, the regu-lator, said in a statement it was looking into the activities of the BBC World News channel and BBC Internet sites to see if they complied with Russian law.

It added that its checks were in response to a decision by

British media regulator Ofcom, which on Thursday said that Russian broadcaster RT had broken impartiality rules in some of its news and current affairs programmes.

The Kremlin said Russian

government agencies had repeatedly raised concerns about the BBC’s coverage of Russia and of Moscow’s actions in Syria.

“Many questions about the BBC in terms of its tendentious coverage of events, its coverage not in the style of a media actor but in a pre-planned and politi-cally motivated way, have accu-mulated over a long period,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

Only the country’s media regulator had the authority to examine such allegations, he said.

An unnamed source familiar with the investigation was

quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying that the BBC’s activities in Russia could be restricted if it was found to be in breach of Russian law.

The BBC said it was in full compliance.

“As everywhere else in the world, the BBC works in Russia in full compliance with the coun-try’s laws and regulations to deliver independent news and information to its audiences,” said a spokeswoman.

Ofcom declined to comment.On Thursday, Ofcom said it

was considering imposing some kind of sanction on RT, which is financed by the Russian state. It

took issue in particular with its coverage of the poisoning in Britain of former Russian spy Sergei Skripal and his daughter.

Britain has accused agents working for Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, of committing the crime, an alle-gation Moscow denies.

British Media Secretary Jeremy Wright also weighed in on Thursday, saying what he called RT’s mask as an impartial news provider was slipping.

RT rejected Ofcom’s findings, saying Ofcom had ignored its explanations and not paid “due regard” to its rights.

Commenting on the launch

of the Russian investigation yes-terday, Margarita Simonyan, RT’s editor-in-chief, said on Twitter that Ofcom had hinted that it planned to strip her channel of its broadcasting licence in Britain.

“(Welcome to the) brave new world,” she wrote. “I assume they (the Russian regulator) will now look to see if the BBC expresses alternative points of view. With a microscope.”

Russian officials have previ-ously said that Moscow would “mirror” any action Britain takes against RT when it came to retal-iating against British media oper-ating in Russia.

British Defence Minister Gavin Williamson (second right) with his Ukrainian counterpart Stepan Poltorak (third rigth) on board a Ukrainian Navy frigate, Getman Sagaidachny, in Odessa, Ukraine, yesterday.

Roskomnadzor, the media regulator, said in a statement that it was looking into the activities of the BBC World News channel and BBC Internet sites to see if they complied with Russian law.

Protests erupt as Spanish Cabinet meets in CataloniaAP BARCELONA

Thousands of pro-independence protesters angry about Spain’s Cabinet holding a meeting in Catalonia blocked roads across the region yesterday and clashed with anti-riot police in its capital.

At least 11 protesters were arrested, and scores were injured during the clashes, the regional Mossos d’Esquadra police said by the time the meeting in Bar-celona finished.

The Spanish government announced a series of gestures, including steps to reverse a sen-tence that led to the execution of a former Catalan president, and infrastructure works for the northeastern region, along with the highest increase in the national minimum wage in four decades.

But the most radical pro-testers seemed unimpressed, confronting police in anti-riot gear in the streets of Barcelona, angry at Prime Minister Pedro

Sanchez’s presence in the city.The Catalan regional gov-

ernment, formed by a coalition of pro-secession parties, had called on people to protest peacefully despite an agreement with central authorities to find a way out of the political crisis that has festered since Catalonia’s failed secession attempt last year.

After their encounter on Thursday, the second since both took power earlier this year, Sanchez and Catalan President Quim Torra issued a joint statement calling for dialogue to settle the conflict over the future of Catalonia.

That outcome was beyond the low expectations before the talks, when disagreement over their scope and format kept offi-cials negotiating until the very last minute.

Sanchez, who inherited the Catalan crisis when he toppled his conservative predecessor in June, made mending relations with the prosperous region one

of his priorities. But his minority government faces fierce oppo-sition by more conservative groups urging a stronger hand on Catalonia or early elections.

Despite Thursday’s apparent progress, distrust prevailed yes-terday. Security in the pros-perous northeastern region, nor-mally in the hands of the Catalan police, was reinforced with hun-dreds of anti-riot officers sent by Spain’s national police forces.

The Mossos police force said that 43 people, including 28 agents, were injured and that one

of the eleven protesters arrested for public order offenses carried inflammable material. A TV jour-nalist was also punched to the floor by some protesters, the Intereconomia channel showed in online video.

Sanchez had presented the meeting in Barcelona as “a way of showing affection to Catalonia.”

Yesterday, his cabinet took the first step to nullify a court-martial that led to the execution in 1940 of Lluis Companys, the Catalan regional president

arrested by the German Nazi secret police in France and handed over to the regime of dic-tator General Francisco Franco.

The Socialist administration also proposed renaming Bar-celona airport in honour of Josep Tarradellas, who headed the Catalan government in exile during the dictatorship.

The government also announced that the monthly minimum wage will be raised from 736 to 900 euros ($1,019) and civil servants’ salaries will increase 2.5% starting on January 1.

Protesters block the roads near the Llotja de Mar, where the Cabinet meeting held, in Barcelona, yesterday.

Gatwick Airport resumes flight after drone chaosREUTERS LONDON

Britain’s Gatwick Airport reopened yesterday after a rogue drone saboteur wrought travel chaos for hundreds of thousands of holiday travellers by playing cat-and-mouse with police snipers and the army.

After the biggest disruption at Gatwick, Britain’s second busiest, since a volcanic ash cloud in 2010, Gatwick said “its runway was open and that a limited number of aircraft were

scheduled for departure and arrival.”

“Gatwick continues to advise passengers to check the status of their flight with their airline before travelling to the airport as departures and arrivals will be subject to delays and cancellations,” it added.

Britain called in the military and police snipers to hunt down the drone and its operator who flew what is thought to be an industrial style drone near the airport every time it tried to reopen.

EU extends naval mission against migrant smugglersAFP BRUSSELS

European Union countries have agreed to extend for three months a Mediterranean naval mission to fight migrant smug-gling amid fears it could still collapse.

The deal announced yes-terday amounts to a reprieve as EU governments still disagree how to share the burden of processing migrants rescued by Operation Sophia.

The governments, grouped in the European Council, said they have “extended the mandate of the EUNAVFOR MED Operation Sophia until 31 March 2019.” The statement did not give further details.

Italy’s populist government

wants more EU countries to open their ports to migrants rescued at sea and to process their asylum requests upon disembarkation.

Last month, EU Diplomatic Chief Federica Mogherini warned that time was running out when defence ministers failed to resolve the disembar-kation issue.

“I clearly said to the min-isters that either they find an interim solution on the issue of disembarkation within the next couple of weeks or we will need to dismantle the operation and the operation will come to an end,” Mogherini said.

“This would mean no presence at sea from the European Union, no training of the Libyan coast guard, no

dismantling of the networks of smugglers, no arrest from the EU side of the smugglers, no authorisation of vessels, no arms embargo implementation and so on and so forth.”

Rome said it should not have to carry the burden of dealing with migrants rescued at sea on its own and it is time other EU states took in more.

A diplomat said on condition of anonymity that “there is a tech-nical extension of three months. The problem raised by the Italians has not been resolved.”

Efforts to adjust Operation Sophia have beached on the broader question of how to reform the EU’s so-called Dublin asylum rules, which stipulate the country of first arrival must process asylum seekers.

Belgian PM urged to lead caretaker govt until electionsREUTERS BRUSSELS

Belgian King Philippe accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Charles Michel (pictured) yesterday and requested his government stay on in a caretaker capacity for the coming months after his coalition split following an argument over migration.

After three days of consul-tations with party leaders, the palace said in a statement that the king had established a will-ingness to guarantee the country was managed until the next election, due on May 26.

“The king asks political leaders and the institutions, in which he repeats his trust, to provide an appropriate response to the economic, budgetary and international challenges so as to meet the expectations of the popu-lation, such as on social and environmental issues,” the Palace said.

This is far from Belgium’s first caretaker government. After the June 2010 elections, one was in place for 18 months until a ruling coalition was finally formed.

In its caretaker capacity, Michel’s administration can only handle matters con-sidered urgent. That could leave it unble to pass a planned reform of unemployment benefit and a 2019 budget.

11SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Mattis resigns after clash with TrumpREUTERS WASHINGTON

US Defence Secretary Jim Mattis (pictured) abruptly said he was quitting after falling out with President Donald Trump over his foreign policies, including surprise decisions to yank troops from Syria and start planning a drawdown in Afghanistan.

Mattis announced plans to depart in a candid resignation letter to Trump that laid bare the growing divide between them, and implicitly criticized Trump for failing to value America’s closest allies, who fought alongside the United States in both conflicts.

He released the letter after a face-to-face meeting with Trump in which the two men also aired their differences, a senior White House official said.

“Because you have a right to a Secretary of Defense whose views are better aligned with yours on these and other sub-jects, I believe it is right for me to step down from my position,” Mattis said in the letter. US offi-cials said the resignation had not been forced by Trump.

Trump announced on Wednesday that US troops in Syria would be withdrawn, a decision that upended American

policy in the region. On Thursday, an official said the president was planning to withdraw at least 5,000 of the 14,000 US troops in Afghanistan — another blow to Mattis, who advocated for a strong US mil-itary presence to bolster diplo-matic peace efforts.

Mattis, a retired Marine general whose embrace of Nato and America’s traditional alli-ances often put him at odds with Trump had advised against the Syria withdrawal. One official said it was a contributing factor to his resignation.

The news is certain to shock US military allies, already bewil-dered by what they see as Trump’s unpredictable, go-it-alone approach to global security, and raises questions about whether Mattis’ successor will be as steadfast about tradi-tional treaty commitments.

When Mattis interviewed with Trump for the job in 2016, he split with the president-elect on a host of issues, including on Nato and the use of torture. Trump ultimately deferred to Mattis, who opposed the latter, signaling that he could be per-suaded by his advisers.

US President threatens a ‘very long’ government shutdownREUTERS WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump yesterday threatened a “very long” government shutdown just hours ahead of a midnight deadline, calling on the Senate to pass spending legislation with his $5bn demand for border wall funding and seeking to shift blame for a holiday showdown to Democrats.

Republican senators were to meet with Trump at the White House to discuss the dilemma.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell confirmed he would attend the meeting, as did Senator Richard Shelby, although he said he doubted the issue would be resolved.

The Republican-led Senate already had approved funds for the government through Feb-ruary 8 without money for the wall. But on Thursday, Trump pushed fellow Republicans in the House of Representatives to use the short-term funding bill as leverage to force through the border wall money despite Democratic objections.

In a series of early-morning tweets yesterday, Trump urged McConnell to take up the amended bill from the House. Trump, who last week said he

would be “proud” to preside over a shutdown, sought to blame Senate Democrats, whose support is needed to reach the 60 votes needed for passage.

“If the Dems vote no, there will be a shutdown that will last for a very long time,” he wrote on Twitter.

“Senator Mitch McConnell should fight for the Wall and Border Security as hard as he fought for anything,” Trump tweeted. “He will need Dem-ocrat votes, but as shown in the House, good things happen.”

He also urged McConnell to use the “nuclear option” to force a Senate vote on legislation with a simple majority, rather than the standard “supermajority” of 60 votes. McConnell has resisted doing that, and Republican Sen-ators Jeff Flake and Orrin Hatch indicated yesterday they would not support it.

Three-quarters of gov-ernment programs are fully funded through the end of the federal fiscal year next Sep-tember 30, including those in the Defense Department, Labor Department and Health and Human Services.

But funding for other agencies, including the Department of Homeland Security, the Justice Department

and the Agriculture Department, was set to expire yesterday mid-night. A shutdown would leave a number of federal workers without a paycheck at holiday.

A partial government shutdown could begin, with affected agencies limiting staff to those deemed “essential” to public safety. Such critical workers, including US border agents, and nonessential employees would not get paid until the dispute ends. National parks also would close unless the government declares them essential.

Alternatively, lawmakers could seek a solution that Trump finds acceptable, although it was unclear what that would be.

White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders said Trump was “not going to back down on this fight” and would stay in Wash-ington rather than go to his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida for the holidays as planned.

Asked how long any potential shutdown would last, Sanders said: “Let’s hope that doesn’t have to happen.”

Trump’s border wall was a key campaign promise in the 2016 election, when he said it would be paid for by Mexico, and sees it as a winning issue for his 2020 re-election campaign.

Jim Mattis announced plans to depart in a resignation letter to Trump that laid bare the growing divide between them, and criticized Trump for failing to value America’s closest allies, who fought alongside the US in both conflicts.

One dead in Vienna shootingAFP VIENNA

One person has died and another has been seriously injured after shots were fired in the historic centre of the Austrian capital Vienna, an ambulance service spokesman said.

Police said a man fired several shots in the vicinity of a street called Lugeck in the city’s

first district at 1:30pm (1230 GMT).

It said that early indications pointed to a “targeted crime”.

“Following the shooting in the city centre, there are intensive search operations going on throughout the city,” police said in a tweet. “There is no danger to bystanders at this time!.”

A police helicopter hovered over the city centre near where the two casualties were found.

Local media reported that several streets had been cor-doned off and that police in bul-letproof vests and helmets had been deployed.

One witness told the Kurier newspaper that the victims had been shot at in a passageway.

“There were two people lying on the ground, and the third guy was saying: ‘Brother, brother!’ in a Slavic language,” the witness said.

Police officers secure the area at the site of a shooting in downtown Vienna, Austria, yesterday.

Germany rules out terror attack plot at airportREUTERS BERLIN

German police raided several apartments as part of an investigation into what they say may have been a recon-naissance operation at Stuttgart airport, but said they had found no evidence of a terror attack plot.

Two men without luggage were seen observing security checks at the airport on December 12. A day later, a similar incident was reported at Charles de Gaulle airport in Paris, prosecutors said, which had prompted police to step up security at Stuttgart and other nearby airports.

The suspects had also taken a woman to the airport and were watching her make her way through the security checks, prosecutors said.

“The searches turned up no evidence of preparations for a terrorist attack,” prose-cutors and police said in a joint statement.

Der Spiegel apologises over fake news scandalAFP BERLIN

German news weekly Der Spiegel published a 23-page special report on how one of its award-winning reporters faked stories for years, dealing a blow to media credibility.

Claas Relotius, 33, resigned after admitting to making up stories and inventing protago-nists in more than a dozen articles in the magazine’s print and online editions.

Other mainstream German outlets like Die Welt and Die Zeit which once used Relotius as a freelancer, have also begun poring through articles that he wrote for them.

“Tell it like it is,” wrote Spiegel on its latest magazine cover page, in an allusion to the publication’s motto by its founder Rudolf Augstein that also hangs at the entrance of its headquarters in Hamburg.

In its editorial, the magazine said the scam, involving subjects including Syrian orphans and a Holocaust survivor, is the “worst thing that can happen to an edi-torial team.”

It also apologised for the mistake and promised to “do everything to boost our credi-

bility again.”Relotius had written for the

magazine for seven years and won numerous awards for his investigative journalism, including CNN Journalist of the Year in 2014.

The cheating came to light after a colleague who worked with him on a story along the US-Mexican border raised sus-picions about some of the details in Relotius’s reporting.

The colleague eventually tracked down two alleged sources quoted extensively by Relotius in the article, which was published in November. Both said they had never met Relotius.

Spiegel said it was “lucky that one of our employees managed to uncover this case.”

But for others, the damage was already done, particularly at a time when disinformation campaigns are posing a con-stant challenge to the credibility of mainstream media.

“The losers are all the jour-nalists in the country who carry out their research in difficult or dangerous circumstances, as well as members of the editorial teams, who check through texts for quality and accuracy,” said Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an editorial.

Man jailed for smuggling gunparts to SyriaAP SANTA ANA

A California business exec-utive has been sentenced to nearly four years in prison for helping smuggle rifle parts and other military equipment to rebels in his native Syria.

Prosecutors said Rasheed Al Jijakli was sentenced to 46 months in federal prison after a judge said he delivered “instruments of death” to Syria.

Jijakli pleaded guilty to conspiring to export tactical gear that included dozens of laser-sighting devices and day- and night-vision rifle scopes.

Prosecutors said Jijakli violated the International Emergency Economic Powers Act and sanctions imposed on Syria by the United States.

The Palmyra Corp. CEO admitted directing co-con-spirators to withdraw $17,000 from the check cashing business to buy tactical gear for Syrian rebels.

US President Donald Trump announcing he will not answer questions from reporters about an impending government shutdown during a bill signing ceremony for the “First Step Act” and the “Juvenile Justice Reform Act” in the Oval Office of the White House, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

No signed deal with US on asylum seekers: MexicoAFP MEXICO CITY

There is no signed agreement allowing third-country migrants to stay in Mexico while their asylum applications are processed in the United States, Mexico’s new foreign minister said yesterday.

Marcelo Ebrard spoke one day after US Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen said the Donald Trump adminis-tration will send migrants who cross the southern US border back to Mexico while their cases are being heard.

“We have signed no treaty, nor will we do it,” Ebrard said during the daily press con-ference of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who took office on December 1.

Mexico’s Washington

charge d’affairs Jose Antonio Zabalgoitia said on Thursday his country would “guarantee that foreign people who have received their appointment (in the United States) fully enjoy the rights and freedoms recog-nized by the constitution.”

But he also urged Wash-ington “not to turn migrants into ping-pong balls.”

“The measure applies only to people seeking asylum” in the United States, Zabalgoitia said. “We will not accept people deported from the US.”

In Mexico, some critics thought that meant their new government had signed an agreement with Washington formalizing the procedure.

Not so, said Ebrard.“Mexico would not accept

such a treaty, we have told them many times,” he said.

12 SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018AMERICAS / CLASSIFIEDS

Cuba praises doctors who returned from BrazilREUTERS HAVANA

Cuba’s President Miguel Diaz-Canel said more than 90 percent of the Cuban doctors who had been providing medical care in Brazil have returned home after his government ended a coop-eration deal following a diplo-matic row.

Cuba’s communist gov-ernment pulled out of the program last month after far-right President-elect Jair Bol-sonaro questioned the Cuban doctors’ qualifications and said they were being used as “slave labor” because their country took 75 percent of their salaries.

Cuba has a respected health service which is the country’s most important hard currency earner. The service sends more than 50,000 health workers to more than 60 countries. The doctors made good money by Cuban standards, even though they only got to keep 25 percent.

Of the 8,471 doctors who had been working mainly in poor and remote areas of Brazil where Brazilian doctors do not want to work, 7,635 had returned home, Diaz-Canel said.

Cuba has welcomed the doctors home as heroes at a time when it is bracing for greater regional hostility from a resur-gence of the right and turmoil in some of its allies.

“You are a symbol of the country that formed you and are examples of the kind of men and women we aspire to be in Cuban society, based on justice and humanism,” Diaz-Canel was

cited as saying by Communist Party newspaper Granma.

Bolsonaro, who takes office on January 1, has positioned himself as a fervent anti-com-munist and plans to align Brazil more closely with the United States. On Tuesday, he said that he would take all action “within the rule of law and democracy” to oppose the governments of Venezuela and Cuba.

Brazil has failed to replace nearly one third of the thousands of Cuban doctors who exited the country after the diplomatic spat, as many new recruits failed to turn up for work, its Health Min-istry said on Wednesday.

“Not everyone is willing to take on this noble office in the worst conditions,” Cuba’s pres-ident said.

Diaz-Canel, 58, who took office from Raul Castro in April, also noted that Cuba had edu-cated 35,613 doctors from 138 countries in its free education system out of a mission of inter-nationalist solidarity.

Former Argentina leader faces graft trialAFP BUENOS AIRES

Former Argentina president Cristina Kirchner (pictured), who has been accused of receiving tens of millions of dollars in bribes during her term in office, will go on trial for corruption, a federal court confirmed.

Kirchner is accused of running a criminal network related to the infamous “cor-ruption notebooks” scandal — revealed through the meticulous records of millions of dollars in bribes paid by businessmen to government officials kept by a ministerial chauffeur.

The court accepted a request by judge Claudio Bonadio that Kirchner, now a senator, be held in pre-trial detention, but her partial par-liamentary immunity prevents that from happening.

She is protected by law-makers’ immunity from impris-onment, but not from

prosecution. In August, the Senate voted to partially lift her immunity so that investigators could search her three luxury homes — but unless it is entirely lifted, she cannot be jailed even if found guilty.

Soon after learning the decision, Kirchner hit out against President Mauricio Macri’s government. “I say: where will the verdicts be written? All at the request of and custom-made by Macri,” she said, also pointing a finger at the center-right Cambiemos and Clarin newspaper.

FROM LEFT: Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel; Cuban First Vice-President Salvador Valdes Mesa; and Cuban Vice-President Ramiro Valdez during the second regular session of the IX Legislature of the Cuban National Assembly of the Popular Power at the Convention Palace in Havana, yesterday.

Cuba has welcomed the doctors home as heroes at a time when it is bracing for greater regional hostility from a resurgence of the right and turmoil in some of its allies.

Police raid offices of Bolsonaro attacker’s lawyerAP RIO DE JANEIRO

Brazil’s federal police are raiding the offices of a lawyer representing a man who allegedly stabbed President-elect Jair Bolsonaro.

Authorities told Brazilian newspaper O Globo yesterday that two warrants are being served at offices tied to lawyer Zanone Manuel de Oliveira Jr in the Belo Horizonte area in Minas Gerais state.

They also said they are looking at security camera footage and electronics for details about who is financing the defense of Adelio Bispo.

Bispo has been held in police custody since Sep-tember 6 when he was accused of stabbing Bol-sonaro in the torso, piercing his intestine.

Police said that Bispo’s motivation at the time of the incident appeared to be political.

Colorado arrests fiance of missing womanAP WOODLAND PARK

Authorities said they have arrested the fiance of a Colorado woman who was last seen on Thanksgiving.

Teller County Sheriff’s Greg Couch said Patrick Frazee was arrested yesterday morning at

his home in the community of Florissant, Colorado,

Couch said he could not provide any information about charges.

Kelsey Berreth was last seen in near her home Woodland Park, about 24km from Florissant.

The investigation opened on December 2 after Berreth’s

mother requested a police check on her daughter.

Surveillance video showed the 29-year-old entering the store with what appears to be her 1-year-old daughter in a baby carrier. Frazee told police he last saw her later that afternoon when he picked up the couple’s daughter.

13SATURDAY 22 DECEMBER 2018 CLASSIFIEDS

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Library weaves ‘Harry Potter’-style tourist magicAFP RIO DE JANEIRO

From the outside, it looks like another historic edifice in Rio’s rundown city centre. Inside, however, is a multi- tiered library so spectacular, so ornate, that stunned visitors feel like they’ve walked into a movie fantasy set.

“In ‘Harry Potter’ we’ve seen libraries like this!” exclaimed Didier Margouet, a 57-year-old French tourist, looking around at the shelves of leather bound books climbing the walls under an octagonal skylight of red, white and blue stained glass.

“Yes, like in the movies,” agreed his partner, Laeticia Rau, 50.

The Royal Portuguese Reading Room — the Real Gabinete Portugues de Leitura in Portuguese — was built in the late 19th century under the stew-ardship of an association of Portuguese migrants that still cares for the institution.

Its Gothic-Renaissance architecture and plethora of carvings, tiles and sculptures celebrate the glory of the Portuguese discoveries era in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Holding some 350,000 books, some of them very rare, the library today is more a tourist attraction and selfie backdrop than a reading room, though for a few it remains an indispensable haven for the largest collection of Por-tuguese-language books outside of Portugal.

One such loyal reader is Carlos Francisco Moura, an 86-year-old who writes about the history of Portugal.

He arrived in Brazil from Portugal

aged four with his parents, and from childhood became a regular visitor. Now retired from his profession as architect, Moura spends his time leafing through the tomes, copying information for his own books.

“This is the alma mater of the Portuguese in Brazil — the reading room is that, and a lot more,” Moura said, sitting at one of the dark wooden desks.

The library is a valuable resource, he explained, because since the 1930s it has become a repository of every book published in Portugal.

Brazil’s historic con-nection with its former colonial ruler runs deep. In 1808, Portugal’s king and his government made Rio de Janeiro the capital of the Portuguese Empire.

Later, the king’s son declared independence and made himself the emperor of Brazil. Portuguese remained the coun-try’s principal language, and with it a two-way literary culture between the two countries. Today, the Portuguese and Brazilian flags both fly on the library’s exterior.

Orlando Inacio, 67, manages the place. He too came from Portugal as a boy — and has never returned.

“It’s a real point of pride to know that this library created by Portuguese is one of the most beautiful in the

world,” he said.Giving a bit of its history, he traced

the library’s roots back to an association of Portuguese immigrants started in 1837.

“The aim was to help the immi-grants, who in general were little edu-cated, to improve their knowledge, their education,” he said.

The association continues to fund the library, its members paying a monthly amount that helps cover part of its overheads. The rest of the income comes from other buildings

owned by the association that are rented out.

Inacio acknowledged that the internet has brought changes, reducing the need for researchers and book-worms to frequent the place except for consulting rare books that are oth-erwise unavailable.

But his delight in his everyday office is evident. He is, after all, custodian of a temple of literature steeped in history, connecting Portugal and Brazil in a bond of language.

A view of the Royal Portuguese Cabinet of Reading in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

Siamese fighting fish set for Thai national honourAP BANGKOK

The Siamese fighting fish, a popular beauty in home aquariums and a popular bet for gamblers for their violent territoriality, is set to become Thailand’s national aquatic animal.

The often brightly-hued fish is also called a betta, but gov-ernment minister Suwapan Tanyuvardhana noted the species is clearly identifiable as Thai by its name: Siam is the old name for Thailand.

Scientific and historical accounts also call it the Siamese fighting fish and its native waters are Southeast Asia, including Bangkok’s Chao Phraya River.

The National Identity Com-mittee, which promotes Thai cultural pride, decided Thursday

to forward its recommendation to the Cabinet for final approval, said Suwapan, who is attached to the Prime Minister’s Office and vice president of the committee.

Being designated Thailand’s national aquatic animal could boost conservation and breed-ing efforts for the fish, as well as bring commercial benefits.

Private sector breeding efforts of the fish are flourish-ing, and promoting the fish could push its popularity higher and bring it higher prices, he said.

The fish is especially pop-ular in small office and home aquariums because of its bright colours and relative ease of care. But they are territorial, espe-cially the males, who will attack other males in the same tank.

Their aggressive behav-iour makes them appealing to gamblers, even though most gambling is illegal in Thailand.

Serbia’s cafe culture percolates underground AFP BOR

Four hundred metres below the small city of Bor, the depth of Serbia’s love for coffee is on display as men in hard-hats huddle inside a cafe carved into the walls of their copper mine.

Known as “The Pit”, the cave-like room has rough earthen walls and long wooden tables where miners and visitors sip hot drinks and smoke cigarettes in the centre of RTB Bor, the biggest copper mine in Serbia.

The cafe was first opened in 2012 to give relatives and tourists a chance to connect with the miners and better under-

stand their work.“We wanted to make it possible for eve-

ryone interested, who has never been down in the mine, to see and feel what it is like,” said Gorica Toncev Vasilic, a spokeswoman for the mine.

“Above and below this cafe, miners are working. The production is always the pri-ority,” she added.

Although residents of Bor have long relied on the mine for cranking their economy, most had never seen it firsthand.

Since it opened, more than 5,000 people have plunged its depths for a free cup of joe, including foreign visitors and a slew of local celebrities.

While the miners have welcomed the outreach, they say the cafe is a world apart from the humidity, dust and darkness they grapple with inside the mine shafts.

“Down below is totally different,” Nemanja Radoicic, who has been working there for five years, said from the cafe.

“It is very dark there, and you are always dreading some kind of injury because there is constantly a danger of rocks collapsing due to explosions,” he added.

A sign reading “Good Luck” hangs across the elevator that brings miners to their work sites.

Those words are also the most common greeting between workers, who are always aware of the risks of their job.

Apart from the daily dangers below ground, the copper mine and smelting complex has hit hard financial times in recent years.

It was a pillar of Serbia’s industrial sector before the collapse of communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s.

But production has since plummeted as the company has become saddled with debt.

After years of trying to privatise the troubled mine, Serbia this year sealed a deal handing control over to the Chinese firm, Zijin.

Miners are not sure if, or how this will change their daily grind.

“We call working down there ‘earning the bread of seven crusts’, because of how difficult it is to make a buck,” said Radoicic, using the Serbian equivalent of “hard-earned bread”.

Miners taking a coffee break at “The Pit” (Jama in Serbian) cafe, some 420 metres below the surface in Bor, eastern Serbia.

Fake Beyonce albums appear on streaming sitesAP NEW YORK

There’s no more juice in Beyonce’s lemonade jar: The singer did not release new music though two albums featuring old Beyonce songs hit streaming services.

Under the name Queen Carter, the albums “Have Your Way” and “Back Up, Rewind” appeared on Spotify and Apple Music, featuring demos, previ-ously released songs and unre-leased tracks by Beyonce. Hours later, they were removed.

The 10-track “Have Your Way” included songs like “After All Is Said and Done,” Beyonce’s duet with Marc Nelson from the “Best Man” soundtrack, released in 1999; “Hollywood,” a song with Jay-Z from his 2006 album, “Kingdom Come”; and “Hey Goldmember” from the soundtrack for 2002’s “Austin Powers in Goldmember,” which starred Beyonce. It also fea-tured “Crazy Feelings,” the singer’s collaboration with Missy Elliott from the rapper’s sophomore album, 1999’s “Da Real World”; and “Fever,” a cover of the ‘50’s hit used in an

ad for Beyonce’s perfume and for the soundtrack for “The Fighting Temptations,” another film Beyonce appeared in.

“Back Up, Rewind,” fea-tured 11 tracks including “Keep Giving Your Love to Me,” from the “Bad Boys II” soundtrack, released in 2003, and “What It’s Gonna Be,” a Beyonce bonus track from 2003.

The stand-alone song, “Control,” also appeared on streaming services.

Representatives for Beyonce, Apple Music and Spotify didn’t immediately return emails seeking comment.

Beyonce’s last three albums were released in surprise form: her self-titled album came out in 2013; “Lemonade” followed in 2016; and “Everything is Love,” her collaborative album with Jay-Z where the couple is billed as The Carters, was released earlier this year.

R&B singer SZA addressed an album of her older demos that recently hit streaming services under the name Sister Solana (her real name is Solana Rowe). SZA called the project “random scratches from 2015” and explained that the songs are “def not new new!”

Art on helmetAn artwork helmet is being displayed during exhibition, owned by Mehmet Ali Ak and Sezer Ak, at CerModern in Ankara, Turkey.