celebs 8 @newsofbahrain op-ed...2019/05/03 · rashid bin abdullah al khal-ifa to set plans to...

02Progress of projects reviewed

03‘Serial killer’ not mentally ill, reveals mental health report

04Ministers sign Arab agreement against trafficking in humans

8

Dutch recall envoy from Iran in murder plot row: Minister5WORLD

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Luke Perry, actor and Beverly Hills 90210 star, dies aged 52Actor Luke Perry, best known for his roles on TV shows Beverly Hills, 90210 and Riverdale, died on Monday at the age of 52 after suffering a massive stroke last week. P14

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Proposed amendment aims to provide legal coverage to Islamic financial services

• The Cabinet, marking the International Women’s Day 2019, lauded the giant leaps and successes made by the Kingdom regarding its women empowerment programmes.

• The Prime Minister instructed the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry to find urgent solutions to the needs of the Saar villages.

Manama

The Cabinet session yester-day chaired by His Royal Highness Prime Minis-

ter Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa in the presence of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Com-mander and First Deputy Pre-mier, discussed amending the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) and Financial Institutions Law, with the aim of keeping pace with international financial regu-lations and providing better pro-tection for financial institutions.

The amendment also aims to provide legal coverage to Islamic financial services, consolidate control texts related to insti-tutions that are subjects to the CBB’s supervision, and deepen the requirements of fiscal sta-bility.

The session decided to refer a draft-law on amending some provisions of the Central Bank of Bahrain and Financial Institu-tions Law, promulgated by Law 64/2006, to the Ministerial Com-mittee for Legal and Legislative Affairs.

Among other things, HRH the Prime Minister directed five ministries to study 16 service projects that would improve the quality of government servic-es across the Kingdom, as part of his positive response to the remarks made by a number of lawmakers, whom he received recently.

In this regard, HRH Premier gave directives to Health Min-istry, Justice, Islamic Affairs and Endowments Ministry, Education Ministry, Housing Ministry and the Works, Mu-

nicipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry to study the needs of the citizens in Hamad Town, Qalali, Muharraq, Zal-laq, Al Lawzi and Manama in the fields of health, education, housing, municipal work, urban development, infrastructure and environment.

In a related context, the Prime Minister instructed the Works, Municipalities Affairs and Ur-ban Planning Ministry to find urgent solutions to the needs of the Saar villages regarding ser-vices, a post-session statement by the Cabinet Secretary-Gen-eral, Dr Yasser Al Nasser, said.

The Cabinet, marking the In-ternational Women’s Day 2019, lauded the giant leaps and suc-cesses made by the Kingdom regarding its women empow-erment programmes, which re-flected positively on the status of Bahraini women at the political, legislative, legislative and gov-ernmental fields, among others.

The session lauded the Bah-

raini women’s creativity and contributions to achieving sus-tainable development in the Kingdom.

The session endorsed a rec-ommendation by the Civil Ser-vice Council, chaired by HRH the Crown Prince, to modify the organisational structure of the secretariat-general of the Supreme Council for Youth and Sports, through creating a direc-tor-general post, with the rank of undersecretary. Two existing directorates will report to the director-general.

Another recommendation by the Civil Service Council to modify the organisational struc-ture of the Labour Market Reg-ulatory Authority (LMRA) was also approved. Under the move, the deputies of LMRA’s Chief Ex-ecutive Officer will be reduced to three instead of four, and the number of directorate will re-main unchanged, but some of them will be renamed or trans-ferred to other sectors.

Boosting Islamic financeHRH the Premier chairs the Cabinet in the presence of HRH the Crown Prince.

16projects will be

implemented on a priority basis to improve the

quality of government services to the citizens.

US closes Jerusalem consulate, demoting Palestinian mission

• The downgrade is just the latest in a string of divisive decisions by the Trump administration that have backed Israel and alienated the Palestinians.

Jerusalem

The United States has officially shuttered its consulate in Jerusalem,

downgrading the status of its main diplomatic mission to the Palestinians by folding it into the US Embassy to Israel.

For decades, the consulate functioned as a de facto embas-sy to the Palestinians. Now, that outreach will be handled by a Palestinian affairs unit, under the command of the embassy.

The symbolic shift hands authority over US diplomatic channels with the West Bank and Gaza to ambassador David Friedman, a longtime support-

er and fundraiser for the West Bank settler movement and fierce critic of the Palestinian leadership.

The announcement from the State Department came early Monday in Jerusalem, the merg-er effective that day.

“This decision was driven by our global efforts to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of our diplomatic engagements and operations,” State Depart-ment spokesman Robert Pallad-ino said in a statement. “It does not signal a change of US policy on Jerusalem, the West Bank, or the Gaza Strip.”

When first announced by US Secretary Mike Pompeo in October, the move infuriated Palestinians, fuelling their sus-picions that the US was recog-nising Israeli control over east Jerusalem and the West Bank, territories that Palestinians seek for a future state.

The US Consulate in Jerusalem.

This decision was driven by our global efforts to increase the efficiency

and effectiveness of our diplomatic engagements

and operations. ROBERT PALLADINO

T O U G H A C T I O N

NRIs deserting wives lose passports

• The Integrated Nodal Agency (INA) made to look into the matter has been issuing Look-Out Circulars to absconding husbands.

New York

The government has can-celled passports of 40 non-resident Indians

or NRIs for abandoning their wives, the Women and Child Development Ministry has said.

The Integrated Nodal Agen-cy (INA) made to look into the matter has been issuing Look-Out Circulars to absconding husbands in cases of NRI mar-riages and till now, 8 LoCs have been issued and 40 pass-ports have been impounded by the External Affairs Ministry, a senior official said.

The agency is chaired by secretary in the Women and Child Development Ministry, Rakesh Srivastava.

The WCD Ministry has also said that a detailed proposal,

including points like man-datory registration of NRI marriages within one week with penal consequences for non-registration, would be placed before the Cabinet for its approval.

Another clause includes amendments in passport rules to facilitate its cancellation for absconders, the official said.

“The WCD Ministry and NCW(National Commission for Women) are taking every possible step to protect wom-en in NRI marriages. We serve as a nodal point of contact for grievances received from women on the dedicated email address [email protected] and coordinate the redressal system,” the WCD said in a tweet.

The Ministry and National Commission for Women are taking every possible step to protect women in NRI

marriages. MR SRIVASTAVA

Fatal traffic accidents down by 50pc

• The deaths caused by accidents came down from 7.36 for 100,000 people in 2013 to 3.66 in 2018, the official said, quoting WHO statistics.

Manama

The number of fatal traffic accidents in the King-

dom has reduced by 50 per cent in the past five years, said the Director-General of Traffic, Brigadier Abdul-rahman bin Abdulwahab Al Khalifa.

The deaths caused by ac-cidents came down from 7.36 for 100,000 people in 2013 to 3.66 in 2018, the official said, quoting WHO statistics.

The rate is the lowest in the Gulf region and the Mid-dle East and reflects the con-tinuation of the reduction of serious traffic accidents as results of steps of monitoring wrong practices and aware-ness activities.

The achievements were as result of the directives of Interior Minister and Chair-man of the Supreme Council for Traffic, General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khal-ifa to set plans to limit wrong traffic accidents.

He said that despite the increase in the number of vehicles by 36 per cent in the last five years, the acci-dents in general reduced by 21.55pc and the fatal acci-dents by 30pc, while the fa-talities dropped by 38pc and injuries-related accidents among drivers by 41pc and passengers by 52pc.

02TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

His Royal Highness Prime Minister Prince Khalifa bin Salman Al Khalifa received at Gudaibiya Palace yesterday His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Premier. They discussed local issues and progress in implementing citizen-oriented projects. HRH the Premier and HRH the Crown Prince affirmed that the Kingdom has brought about numerous achievements in the prosperous era of His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa, underlining development at all political, economic and social levels. They stressed fast-paced progress in Bahrain despite challenges, pointing out the government’s ongoing efforts to press ahead with growth, secure present requirements and the needs of the future and promote the pioneering status of the nation.

On behalf of His Majesty King Hamad, His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, yesterday received a letter from the President of the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, Mohamed Ould Abdel Aziz. The letter was delivered to HRH the Crown Prince by the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation and the President of Mauritania’s Special Envoy, Ismael Ould Cheikh Ahmed. During the meeting, which took place at the Al Gudaibiya Palace, HRH the Crown Prince and Mauritania’s Minister of Foreign Affairs discussed Bahrain-Mauritania bilateral relations, and highlighted the importance of exploring new avenues for increasing collaboration across different areas and sectors.

Her Royal Highness Princess Sabeeka bint Ibrahim Al Khalifa, Wife of His Majesty the King and President of the Supreme Council for Women (SCW), patronised yesterday the opening of a heritage exhibition organised by Bahrain Society for Women Development under the theme “Vision and History at the Palace of late Shaikh Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa. HRH Princess Sabeeka stressed the importance of holding such specialised exhibitions which cast light on national heritage and preserve it as an inherent part of Bahrain’s identity. She pointed out the need to inform the youth about their rich folkloric heritage and boost their sense of belonging.

Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan yesterday received MPs Dr Hisham Ahmed Al Ashiri, Fadhil Abbas Al Sawad and Ammar Hussain Abbas, and discussed co-operation to enhance Bahraini youth employment in the labour market. The minister said the National Employment Programme has attracted many unlisted jobseekers, who have benefited from the training programmes offered by the ministry in collaboration with the Labour Fund (Tamkeen), in addition to gaining access to benefits of the unemployment insurance before getting them engaged in the private sector institutions.

Staff at the American Mission Hospital conducted free health check-ups for the elderly at the UCO Elderly Care in Hidd. Many elderly people took part in the health check-up drive.

Yathra Samithi, a grouping of expatriates from the Indian state of Kerala, has made a request to Dr Sashi Tharoor, Member of the Indian Parliament, to resume the services of Air India flights between the Kingdom and Trivandrum. Dr Tharoor, who was a senior ranking UN official and former Indian Minister of State for External Affairs, is on a visit to the Kingdom.


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‘Serial killer’ not mentally ill, reveals mental health report

25-year-old Bahraini now faces death penalty for committing murders

• The man was put on trial over murder and robbery charges.

• The body of the first victim, Indian national Sajat Ali, was discovered on March 29 in Tubli.

TDT | Manama

A suspected Bahraini serial killer is now facing death penalty after a report on

his mental state confirmed that he was responsible for his actions.

The defendant was ordered earlier to be mentally evaluated

to determine whether he was responsible for his action.

The man is accused of attack-ing four Asian men, leaving two of them dead.

The 25-year-old man told in-vestigators that his crimes were driven by hatred that stemmed after being sacked from his job.

“In my latest job I was drawing a salary of BD300 monthly, but I was fired three months after joining,” he said, in his statement before prosecutors.

“This caused me to hate ex-patriates because they were still working, while I was fired.

“I, then decided to kill as many of them I could.”

The suspect began his crime saga by mugging an Asian man in Karbabad before he drove his car

into an Asian man in Manama – pinning him between two ve-hicles, according to court details.

The body of the first victim, Indian national Sajat Ali, was dis-covered on March 29 in Tubli.

In his statement, the defendant described sneaking up on Mr Ali from behind before repeatedly smashing his head with the ham-mer.

The suspect murdered his

second victim, another Indian national Mohammed Khan, on April 13 and the method was the same.

“On April 13, I saw an Asian man riding his cycle. I decided immediately to kill him. I brought the hammer from my car and I drove my car in front of him.

“I waited for him to pass by me and I pounced on him with the hammer.

“I knew he was dying. I moved his body to take out his wallet from his trousers and it was emp-ty,” he said.

The suspect was arrested after the police launched a manhunt following the discovery of dead bodies of his victims.

The man was put on trial over murder and robbery charges.

I knew he was dying. I moved his body to take out his wallet from his

trousers and it was empty. DEFENDANT

Airline staff held with 10 kg hashish

• The defendant was put on trial before the High Criminal Court on charges of possessing drugs with an intent to use and sell.

• He was ordered to remain in the police detention for 15 days.

TDT | Manama

A 51-year-old employee serving an airline com-pany was arrested for

possessing more than 10 kilo-grams of hashish as well as 100 gram of another narcotic substance at his house, it was revealed.

According to police inves-tigations, that defendant was promoting the sale of banned

drugs across the country along with two others, one of whom is hiding in Turkey.

Their illegal activities came to light after the police received a tip-off, which revealed that the 51-year-old man was ped-dling the drugs which were brought to him by his accom-plices.

He is said to have been ar-rested in the village of Jurdab after what was described as “heavy resistance” before po-lice officers.

During the questioning, the 51-year-old employee denied he was selling drugs, although he admitted to consuming them, saying that he was buying them from a fugitive.

The defendant was put on trial before the High Criminal Court on charges of possessing drugs with an intent to use and sell.

He was ordered to remain in the police detention for 15 days.

Court revises charge slapped on murder accused TDT | Manama

The High Criminal Court has revised the charge slapped on a GCC man ac-

cused in a murder case. The defendant was initially

charged with beating another man to death, but his accusation has been now changed to man-

slaughter due to lack of evidence. The defendant is said to have

killed the victim after the latter broke into his house while in an inebriated state.

“While I was, at night, sitting with my wife and children, my cook came to me and told me that a drunk man was attempting to forcefully enter our house.

I went outside and asked him what he wanted,” the accused man told prosecutors.

However, the victim alleged-ly attacked the defendant, who in turn responded, causing his death.

“He tried to pounce on me. But I held him and threw him to the ground. Suddenly, he

was motionless as his head hit the ground hard. He was an-nounced dead at the hospital after a few days,” the GCC na-tional added.

The defendant’s lawyer Islam Ghunaim argued that his client had only acted in self-defence and didn’t intend to harm an-ybody.

“My client is absolutely inno-cent because he didn’t do any-thing that caused the death of the defendant. He was only trying to defend himself because he was attacked by the drunk victim. It’s only normal that a man would react in this manner to protect himself,” Ghunaim told judges at the High Criminal Court.

“The doctor who examined the accused man told us that the head knock didn’t have anything to do with his death which was attributed to pneumonia.

“He affirmed that the victim’s head injury had completely healed,” Ghunaim concluded, insisting his client shouldn’t be charged in this case.


Ministers sign Arab agreement against trafficking in humans

Arab ministers vow solidarity to tackle challenges faced by the region Tunis

Tunisian President Beji Caid Essebsi received Arab Interior and Justice

Ministers yesterday at the joint meeting of the Arab Interior and Justice Councils, held as part of the efforts to reinforce regional security and judicial work.

Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa and Justice, Islamic Af-fairs and Endowments Minister Shaikh Khalid bin Ali Al Khalifa took part in the meeting which was inaugurated by the Tunisian Head of Government Youssef Chahed.

In his speech, the Tunisian Pre-mier stressed that cross-border challenges needed closer coor-dination, necessary mechanisms, unified efforts and human and financial resources to ensure the security and safety of all nations.

He also stressed on coordi-nation between law-enforcing agencies and independence of the judiciary. He hoped for further strengthening of ties between Arab security and judicial organ-isations to improve the quality of work being done.

The Arab Interior and Justice Ministers discussed the agenda related to the activation of Arab security and judicial agreements, counter-terrorism strategies and decisions of the Arab organisa-

tions working jointly. These included the Riyadh

Agreement on Arab Judicial Cooperation, the Arab Coun-ter-terrorism Agreement, the Arab Strategy against Extremism and the Arab Agreement against Money Laundering and Terror-ism Financing.

The meeting decided to take a number of decisions that would be referred for implementation

to the Arab organisations work-ing jointly.

Meanwhile, the Interior Min-ister, Justice Minister and their Arab counterparts signed the Arab Protocol Against Traffick-ing of Persons, Especially Women and Children.

This supplements the Arab Convention against Transna-tional Organised Crime, the Arab Protocol for the Prevention and

Combating of Maritime Piracy and Armed Robbery as part of the Arab Convention against Transnational Organised Crime, the Arab Agreement to Regulate Organ Transplants, and the Arab Agreement to Prevent and Fight Human Cloning.

The Interior Minister affirmed that the activation of the Arab se-curity and judicial agreement was a practical step to reinforce Arab

co-operation to tackle increasing challenges.

He highlighted the importance of further Arab cooperation and coordination, especially in the field of counter-terrorism.

He also highlighted the impor-tance of stronger joint efforts to exchange information and dry up terrorists’ resources, including the prevention of Iranian inter-ference in the internal affairs of Arab countries.

He said that the Iran’s expan-sionist ambitions and its support for terrorist crimes required seri-ous Arab work through taking an Arab stand and clear-cut steps in view of the Arab countries’ com-mon destiny.

In the same context, the Justice Minister said that Bahrain’s par-ticipation in the meeting showed its faith in the importance of joint Arab efforts, especially in the cur-rent climate of regional challeng-es that called for Arab solidarity and an increasing capability to overcome the obstacles facing the Arab action.

He also said the meeting sig-nified the integration of secu-rity and judiciary in order to take united stands and improve their performance. The meeting was attended by Bahraini Am-bassador to Tunisia Ebrahim Mahmood Ahmed Abdullah and the delegations accompanying both the ministers.

General Shaikh Rashid, Shaikh Khalid sign the agreement.

Customs Affairs, iGA sign agreement

• Both sides agreed to promote partnership in systems development to enhance the quality of customs services and automating procedures related to customs clearance.

Manama

Customs Affairs Presi-dent, Shaikh Ahmed bin

Hamad Al Khalifa and the Information and eGovern-ment Authority (iGA) Chief Executive, Mohamed Ali Al Qaed have signed an agree-ment for the level of servic-es between the two sides.

Al Qaed asserted the importance of supporting all government initiatives to enhance performance and the experience of the beneficiaries through the government organisations’ adoption of the latest tech-nologies.

He hailed the remarka-ble development of the cus-toms services thanks to the ongoing supervision of the President of Customs that led to the introduction of comprehensive e-services.

Both sides agreed to pro-mote partnership in systems development to enhance the quality of customs services and automating procedures related to customs clear-ance.

Beehive Bahrain launch announced

TDT | Manama

The Economic Develop-ment Board of Bahrain (EDB) and Beehive yes-

terday announced the launch of Beehive, a debt-based crowd-funding platform, in Bahrain which will open up new fund-ing avenues for SMEs and help drive innovation across the Kingdom and region.

Beehive, launched in Dubai in 2014, is MENA’s first regulat-ed peer to peer lending plat-form and one of the region’s leading fintech pioneers.

It uses innovative crowd-funding technology to elimi-nate the cost and complexity of conventional finance by connecting businesses directly with investors.

The result is a more effi-cient, streamlined process that gives businesses faster access to lower cost loans and inves-tors better returns on their money and diversified risk.

Khalid Hamad, Executive Director of Banking Supervi-sion at the CBB, commented: “We welcome Beehive’s de-cision for selecting Bahrain to establish the first financ-ing-based crowdfunding plat-form operator, which is a step forward in promoting the SMEs and start-ups via facilitating the link to the investors for se-curing the required financing.

The license, which is the first of its kind in the Kingdom, is a reflection of the CBB’s con-tinuous efforts in providing an optimal mix of policies and products to improve the qual-ity and competitiveness of ser-vices in the financial sector.”

Dalal Buhejji Business De-velopment, Financial Services, Bahrain Economic Develop-ment Board, further added: “We are delighted to welcome Beehive to Bahrain, which has long recognised the im-portance of entrepreneurship as a high-potential driver of economic diversification and growth. Access to finance is an essential element of any start-up ecosystem and crowd-

sourcing has a significant role to play an additional source of funding for businesses that have previously been depend-ent on bank finance.

“Beehive will also create a new route for investors to gain exposure to the growth in the Kingdom’s SMEs, complement-ing existing platforms such as the Bahrain Investment Market, which is tailored to fast-growing businesses.”

Craig Moore, Beehive CEO, added: “We’re delighted to col-laborate with EDB to bring the Beehive platform to Bahrain, offering pioneering business-es fast, affordable alternative finance. Our mission aligns with the Kingdom’s vision and strategy to assist the growth of SMEs, supporting them through improved access to fi-nance, which is crucial to their development and success.”

Beehive’s launch in Bahrain follows new regulation issued by the Central Bank of Bah-rain (CBB) in 2017 to enable both conventional and Shari’a compliant financing-based crowdfunding for small and medium-sized businesses. Un-der the CBB regulation, Bah-rain-based Peer-to-Businesses crowdfunding platforms are able to fund startups and SMEs in Bahrain as well as regionally and internationally.

Workshop on climate change begins at AGU

TDT | Manama

Arabian Gulf Universi-ty (AGU) President Dr Khalid Al Ohaly yester-

day opened a training workshop on climate change, organised by the university in co-operation with the United Nations En-vironment’s West Asia Office.

The workshop aims to dis-cuss the climate change and the obligations of developing coun-tries to fulfil the United Nations Framework Convention on Cli-mate Change (UNFCCC) and the Paris Agreement.

In the opening ceremony, Dr Al Ohaly expressed and conveyed AGU’s delight to constantly host such training workshops, which add to the knowledge and expertise of the participating delegations from different GCC States, including Kuwait, Oman, the UAE and the Kingdom of Bahrain.

Dr Al Ohaly also reiterated on the university’s rich history in

the area of training experts and specialists in many academic and scientific fields, including the preparation and issuance of climate change reports.

He welcomed the participat-ing delegations saying: “The university’s doors are open to cooperate with governmental institutions, ministries and spe-cialised bodies in all GCC coun-tries, enabling them of address-ing all issues of concern across the GCC region. The university is proud to contribute to the preparation of environmental and climatic reporting special-ists.”

On her part, Head of the Geoinformatics Department in AGU’s College of Graduate Studies Dr Sabah Al Jenaid, who is also the coordinator of the workshop, affirmed that hosting the workshop by AGU reflects the continuous coop-eration between the Kingdom and the United Nations Envi-ronment Programme to sup-

port all environmental causes in West Asia, especially climate change, which is considered to have the greatest impact on the countries of the region.

Dr Al Jenaid said the work-shop will be focused on the commitment of developing countries to the UNFCCC and Paris Agreement, as it discusses the updated periodic reports to be delivered by the signatories of the Convention and the ob-ligatory national contributions mentioned in it.

She added that the workshop includes intensive training ses-sions that assist the participat-ing countries to prepare the required studies and main re-quirements of the convention.

The workshop will be pre-sented and supervised by UN-FCCC and Kyoto Protocol Com-pliance Committee Member Mohammed Al Aalim and the World Programme for Devel-opment Management Co-ordi-nator Vincent Yu.

Beehive will also create a new route

for investors to gain exposure to the growth in the Kingdom’s SMEs, complementing

existing platforms such as the Bahrain

Investment Market.

MS BUHEJJI

One of the sessions in progress at the workshop.

05

world

TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

Egypt rescues 2,000-year old catacombs from rising water

Alexandria, Egypt

Egypt on Sunday announced the completion of a project

to save famed 2,000-year old catacombs in the costal city of Alexandria from rising waters.

The Kom al-Shoqafa location, considered by archaeologists to be the largest Greco-Roman burial site in Egypt, has been threatened by water since its discovery in 1900.

T h e c a t a c o m b s, w h i c h were in use from the first to the fourth century AD, are re-nowned for funerary architec-ture blending ancient Egyptian, Greek and Roman art.

The rising water prompt-ed Egypt to launch a massive drainage project supported by the United States Agency for International (USAID) in 2017.

Antiquities Minister Khaled al-Anani told reporters at the site that the programme had

helped “end a problem threat-ening the area for more than 100 years”.

Thomas Nichols, an engineer involved in the project, called it “a unique programme where we blended archaeology and civil engineering together”.

Egypt has in recent years sought to promote archaeologi-cal discoveries across the coun-try in a bid to revive tourism hit by the turmoil that followed its 2011 uprising.

A view of a statue inside the catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa (Mound of Shards)

Visitors tour through the catacombs of Kom El-Shoqafa (Mound of Shards), dating to the Roman period (1st-4th centuries AD) in the centre of the Egyptian Mediterranean coastal city of Alexandria

Huawei’s Meng lodges complaint against Canada

Montreal, Canada

Chinese telecoms giant Huawei’s chief financial

officer, Meng Wanzhou, has filed suit against Canadi-an authorities for violating her constitutional rights when she was arrested in Vancouver, her lawyers said Sunday.

As she suffered “serious breaches of her constitu-tional rights,” she is “seek-ing damages for misfea-sance in public office and false imprisonment” when detained at Vancouver In-ternational Airport on De-cember 1, attorneys Howard Mickelson and Allan Doolit-tle said in a statement.

The 47-year-old business-woman was changing planes in Vancouver when she was detained at Washington’s request on suspicion of vio-lating US sanctions on Iran -- sparking arrests of Ca-nadians in China that were seen as retaliatory.

Her lawyers charge im-propriety in the conditions under which Meng was in-terrogated for three hours by the customs officers, officially as part of a rou-tine inspection, before be-ing served with her official arrest.

The complaint was lodged Friday, the same day that Canadian justice officially launched Meng Wanzhou’s extradition process to the United States.

Up to 100 still feared trapped in gold mine

Jakarta, Indonesia

Indo nesi a n a uth o ri t i es warned yesterday that up

to 100 people could still be trapped and feared dead inside a collapsed illegal gold mine despite a painstaking rescue effort that has so far plucked 19 people alive from the rubble, but also seen nine deaths.

Search teams at the unli-censed mine on Sulawesi is-land have been hampered by steep terrain, unstable soil and dangerously narrow mining shafts since a landslide caused the accident last Tuesday.

While authorities said the search and rescue effort would continue for another week,

they made no mention of con-tinuing efforts to get food and water to any possible survi-vors.

National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said the number of miners inside the shafts at the time of the accident was still not known as survivors had given varying tallies.

“Some say 30 people, 50, 60 people -- even 100 people, be-cause at the time there were many in the main pit (and) ... an unknown number in the smaller ones,” he said in a statement.

Because of the precarious conditions, rescue workers initially had to dig by hand to try to reach any survivors, but relatives of those trapped last week gave permission for heavy-duty machinery to be deployed.

Although mechanised dig-gers cleared debris from the entrance of one hole on Sun-day, they found no more sur-vivors.

The accident happened in the Bolaang Mongondow re-gion of North Sulawesi, where five miners were killed in De-cember after a similar illegal gold mine accident.

Rescuers continuing operationt in an attempt to reach trapped miners after the February 26 landslide at an illegal gold mine in the Bolaang Mongondow region of North Sulawesi.

KNOW WHAT

Mineral-rich Indonesia has scores of unlicensed

mines -- many with complete disregard for

even the most basic safety procedures.

Pakistan airspace fully reopenedIslamabad, Pakistan

Pakistan fully reopened its airspace yesterday, author-

ities said, days after it closed its skies to all air travel, leav-ing thousands stranded world-wide as tensions with nuclear arch-rival India soared.

The decision to close the airspace came last Wednes-day after a rare aerial dogfight between India and Pakistan.

“All airports across Pakistan are operational and airspace reopened,” a spokeswoman for the Civil Aviation Authority told AFP Monday, adding the process had been completed by 1:00 pm (0800 GMT).

The closure disrupted major routes between Europe and South Asia, with mounting frustration from passengers stranded at international air-ports.

It also delayed attempts to search for a British and an Italian climber who went missing on Nanga Parbat, Pa-kistan’s “killer mountain” and the ninth highest peak in the

world, as rescue teams were forced to wait for permission to send up a helicopter.

The climbers, Daniele Nar-di and Tom Ballard, were last heard from on February 24. Fresh rescue attempts had to be called off over the weekend due to bad weather amid grow-ing fears for their survival.

Tom Ballard and Daniele Nardi before their last contact with their team (Courtesy of BBC)

The government has decided to recall the Netherlands’

ambassador to Tehran for consultations

STEF BLOK

FOREIGN MINISTER

Dutch recall envoy from Iran in murder plot row: minister• Recall follows dispute over an alleged plot to assassinate regime opponents

• Dutch authorities accused Iran in January of involvement in the murder of two dissidents on Dutch soil

The Hague, Netherlands

The Netherlands said yes-terday it had recalled its ambassador from Tehran

after Iran expelled two Dutch diplomats in an dispute over an alleged plot to assassinate

regime opponents.Dutch authorities accused

Iran in January of involvement in the murder of two dissidents on Dutch soil in 2015 and 2017, and the EU slapped sanctions on Tehran over the killings.

Foreign Minister Stef Blok said in a letter to parliament that the government “has de-cided to recall the Netherlands’ ambassador to Tehran for con-sultations” over the row.

Iran’s decision to expel the Dutch officials -- which was not previously announced in public -- was “not acceptable and is negative for the development of the bilateral relationship,” Blok said.

He said Iran’s move was it-self a tit-for-tat response to the Netherlands’ expulsion of two

Iranian embassy workers in June 2018 “due to strong indica-tions from (Dutch intelligence) that Iran has been involved in the liquidations on Dutch ter-ritory of two Dutch people of Iranian origin.”

Iran had informed Dutch au-thorities of the decision to expel the two diplomats on February 20 and they were deported back to the Netherlands on Sunday, Blok said.

The Dutch had also sum-moned the Iranian ambassador over the issue, Blok said.

Dutch police have previously named the two murder victims as Ali Motamed, 56, who was killed in the central city of Alm-ere in 2015, and Ahmad Mol-la Nissi, 52, murdered in The Hague in 2017.


Philippines seizes 1,500 rare turtles in luggageManila, Philippines

Some 1,500 live exotic turtles -- some restrained with duct-

tape -- have been found inside an airline passenger’s luggage, Phil-ippines authorities said Monday, as they vowed a crackdown on the lucrative wildlife trade.

The turtles and tortoises were found at Manila airport on Sun-day in the luggage of a Filipi-no passenger, who had arrived from Hong Kong, hidden among clothes and shoes.

The person fled before au-thorities could confront him, customs officials said. “We saw the images from the x-ray (ma-chine),” Manila airport customs chief Carmelita Talusan said.

“We never expected it would reach as many as 1,530,” Talusan said. “Our staff were taking care

not to hurt them because duct tape was used to immobilise the turtles.”

Talusan said the matter was under investigation and authori-ties had identified the passenger,

who could face charges of violat-ing the nation’s illegal wildlife trading law, which carry a max-imum two years in prison.

The turtles seized were esti-mated to be worth 4.5 million

pesos ($87,000), the customs bureau said.

Among the animals found were the Indian Star Tortoise, classified as “vulnerable” by the International Union for Conser-

vation of Nature. The turtles confiscated on

Sunday were likely destined to be sold in the Philippines or smuggled to other countries us-ing false documents, environ-ment officials said.

“It’s for business purposes. Those turtles are expensive. It’s such a lucrative business. There are buyers and collectors who treat them as pets,” environment undersecretary Benny Antipor-da told.

“We are stepping up our all-out drive against the black mar-ket of endangered species.”

Antiporda added the Philip-pines would ask Chinese author-ities whether they wanted to take back the confiscated turtles which were being quarantined and treated in Manila.

Bureau of Customs public relations office shows turtles found inside a suitcase, covered with duct tape

Participants parade with heaps of durians, hailed as the “king of fruits” by fans, during the ‘Kenduren’ festival in Jombang, East Java. The annual festival, held as thanksgiving for the good harvest of the fruit, attracts many tourists from the region. Grown across tropical Southeast Asia, the durian is hailed as the “king of fruits” by fans who liken its creamy texture and intense aroma to blue cheese, but many detractors liken their intense aroma to sewage or sweaty socks.

Malaysian CEO’s widow, stepsons charged with his murderPetaling Jaya, Malaysia

The widow and teenage stepsons of a Malaysian

CEO who died last year were charged with his murder yesterday, in a shocking twist to a case that has cap-tivated the country.

Nazrin Hassan was the chief executive of Cradle Fund, a Malaysian firm that is an agency of the finance ministry and invests in start-ups.

He died at his home out-side Kuala Lumpur in June last year. It was initially thought he was killed after his mobile phone exploded and started a fire.

But the fire and rescue de-partment later found traces of petrol at the scene, and his death was reclassified as murder.

His wife, 43-year-old Samirah Muzaffar, and her two sons from a previous marriage, aged 13 and 16, were arrested in the early hours yesterday.

They were later brought to a magistrates court out-side the capital.

A fourth person, an In-donesian woman reported to be the family’s maid, was also charged in absentia with murder.

A murder conviction carries a mandatory death penalty in Malaysia. The government that took pow-er last year has pledged to abolish capital punishment for all crimes, but parlia-ment still has to vote on amending the law.

Cradle Fund was set up in 2003 and has invested in hundreds of tech start-ups, including the forerunner of Southeast Asia’s dominant ride-hailing app, Grab.

Putin suspends INF arms treaty with US• The deal banned missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres

AFP | Moscow, Russia

President Vladimir Putin yesterday officially sus-pended Russia’s partic-

ipation in a key Cold War-era arms treaty, after the US first moved to ditch the INF deal.

Putin “signed a decree regard-ing the suspension of Russia’s participation in the agreement between the USSR and the US,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

The move was taken follow-ing “a violation of the United States of its obligations under

the treaty,” it said. Moscow and Washington have

accused one another of breach-ing the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces agreement con-cluded between the US and the former Soviet Union in 1987.

US President Donald Trump said in February that Wash-ington would start a process to withdraw from the deal within six months.

Putin responded soon after.He said Russia would seek to develop medium-range missiles in response to what he said were similar projects in the US.

In his state of the nation ad-dress last month, Putin threat-ened to deploy new missiles against Western capitals.

The longtime Russian lead-er warned Washington against deploying any new missiles in

Europe following the collapse of the treaty, saying Moscow would consider it a “serious threat”.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo dismissed the threats as “bluster” designed to divide Washington and its allies.

Brokered by US president Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, the INF treaty ended a superpower buildup of warheads that had frightened Europe.

It banned ground-launched missiles with a range of 500 to 5,500 kilometres (300 to 3,400 miles). NATO has said that US allies “fully support” its with-drawal from the pact, insisting that Russia’s 9M729 ground-launched cruise missile systems violate the treaty.

Vatican to open archives of WWII pope Pius XII in 2020Vatican City, Holy See

Pope Francis announced yesterday that the Vatican

will open the secret archives of Pius XII in March next year, which could shed light on his actions during World War II.

Researchers have long sought to examine the archives to discover why Pius XII (1939-1958) did not intervene more against the Holocaust perpe-trated by the German Nazis, an attitude denounced by Jewish groups as a form of passive complicity.

“I have decided that the opening of the Vatican Ar-chives for the Pontificate of Pius XII will take place on 2 March 2020,” the pope said. The date is the 81st anniver-sary of the election of Eugenio Pacelli to the papacy.

“The Church is not afraid of history,” added Francis, recall-ing that Pius XII found himself as head of the Roman Catholic Church “at one of the saddest and darkest moments of the 20th century”.

Francis said he made the de-cision confident that serious historical research would eval-

uate “in the proper light and with appropriate criticism, the praiseworthy moments of the Pontiff and, without any doubt, also moments of seri-ous difficulties, of tormented decisions...”.

For many historians, pope Pius XII could have con-demned more forcefully the massacre of Jews by the Nazis, but failed to do so out of dip-lomatic caution and to avoid putting Catholics in danger in occupied Europe.

Pope Francis (file)

Japan okays research using human cells in animalsTokyo, Japan

Japan has given the green light to a controversial re-

search process involving im-planting animals with human stem cells that could eventual-ly help grow human organs for transplant inside animal hosts.

The decision by the edu-cation and science ministry Friday to revise its guidelines means Japanese researchers can now apply for permits to carry out studies employing the technique, a ministry of-ficial said.

The process involves im-planting embryonic animals, likely first pigs, with human “induced pluripotent stem” (iPS) cells, which can trans-form into the building blocks of any part of the body.

The idea is for the iPS cells to grow into transplantable human organs inside the ani-mal embryos.

Japan had previously re-quired researchers to termi-nate animal embryos implant-ed with human cells after 14

days “due to ethical concerns over the vague line between human beings and animals,” the official said.

The old regulations also prevented researchers from placing the embryos into an-imal wombs to allow them to develop.

Researchers will now, for instance, be allowed to create animal embryos with a human pancreas and transplant it into the womb of a pig, which could in theory result in the birth of a baby pig with a human pancreas.

Representative picture (Courtesy of Al Arabia)

‘ K e n d u r e n ’ f e s t i v a l


Balinese people gather at the beach during a Melasti ceremony prayer at Petitenget near Denpasar on Indonesia’s resort island of Bali. Melasti is a purification festival which is held several days before “Nyepi”, the day of silence, when Hindus on the island of Bali are not allowed to work, travel or take part in any indulgence. The Indonesian holiday island of Bali shuts down for the day of silence to mark the Hindu new year on March 7.

F o r t h e d a y o f s i l e n c e

Syria force evacuates ‘human shields’AFP | Baghouz, Syria

Kurdish-led forces sup-ported by air strikes from an international coali-

tion evacuated civilians held as “human shields” yesterday after smashing their way into the ji-hadists’ last scrap of territory in eastern Syria.

The Syrian Democratic Forces and its allies from the US-led co-alition unleashed a deluge of fire on the village of Baghouz at the weekend to break the defences of Islamic State group fighters in the final sliver of their “ca-liphate”.

But the Kurdish-led force said their offensive had been slowed down Monday due to remaining civilians inside the pocket, and an SDF spokeswoman said hun-dreds had been evacuated out of the crumbling bastion in the past 48 hours.

“More than 800 people exited Baghouz from yesterday until today -- IS family members and fighters who surrendered,” she said.

Through binoculars from an SDF position outside the jihadist holdout, a correspondent saw men kneeling on the ground be-fore boarding trucks, as well as women clad in black and chil-dren.

The push on IS’s last pocket of territory had resumed Friday

after days of mass evacuations, but SDF spokesman Mustefa Bali said yesterday the operation was being hampered by the presence of more civilians in the besieged enclave.

“We’re slowing down the offensive in Baghouz due to a small number of civilians held as human shields,” he said.

Two SDF flags floated in the wind on a hill seized from the

jihadists.Three air strikes hit the village

of Baghouz earlier in the day, causing a huge cloud of grey and black smoke to billow up into the sky.

Air strikesA reporter at the Omar oil

field, one of the main staging ar-eas for the assault, earlier in the day saw empty trucks heading

towards the front line likely to ferry out more rescued civilians.

Despite being hugely out-numbered, jihadists making a desperate last stand in the riv-erside hamlet -- most of them foreigners according to the SDF -- are putting up stiff resistance.

They are using snipers, a net-work of tunnels, and suicide bombers to fight back.

On Sunday, eight suicide at-

tackers blew themselves up be-fore reaching SDF positions and three car bombs detonated at a distance, the Kurdish-led forces said.

SDF officers perched on roof-tops have been receiving in-formation on IS positions from elite units, and passing them on to the coalition to call in air strikes.

IS has lost several of its posi-tions in such strikes since Friday in Baghouz, a village nestled in a palm-lined bend of the Euphra-tes River.

Seven SDF members and 18 jihadists have been killed in the fighting since the final push started, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights says.

The capture of Baghouz would mark the end of IS territorial control in the region and deal a death blow to the “caliphate” proclaimed in 2014, which once covered huge swathes of Syria and Iraq.

At its peak more than four years ago, the proto-state creat-ed by IS was the size of the Unit-ed Kingdom and administered millions of people.

It minted its own currency, levied taxes, and designed its own school curricula.

The “caliphate” effectively collapsed in 2017 when IS lost most of its major cities in both countries.

People gather by freight cars of a train displaying military vehicles captured from Syrian rebels and jihadists at a railway station in Sevastopol, Crimea

US deploys THAAD missile in IsraelJerusalem, Undefined

The United States has deployed its advanced

THAAD missile defence system temporarily to Israel for a joint military exercise, the first of its kind, officials said yesterday.

The two countries con-firmed the deployment, with Israel’s military stressing it was “not related to any specific current event”.

It is the first such exercise in Israel, although the two allies hold regular joint war games. No dates have been announced for the manoeuvres.

Israel has its own missile de-fence system, but the exercise aims in part to examine how to incorporate THAAD so that “we are ready for any challenges in the future”, military spokes-man Jonathan Conricus said.

THAAD launch (DefPost)

Teen who defied parents to get vaccinated heads to US CongressChicago, United States

A US high school student who had himself vaccinated de-

spite his parents’ objections is set to testify Tuesday before the US Congress about a surge in outbreaks of preventable dis-eases.

Ethan Lindenberger says he grew up in an “anti-vax house-hold,” but decided to go against his parents’ wishes to get vacci-nated once he turned 18 and was able to legally make the decision for himself.

The teen’s decision generated international headlines at a time

when health experts are warn-ing of a global surge in measles cases -- preventable by vaccine -- brought on by conflict, com-placency and the anti-vaccine movement.

Lindenberger, who lives in Norwalk, Ohio, announced over the weekend that he was invited to testify at a Tuesday hearing in the US Senate over preventable disease outbreaks.

He is scheduled to address the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions, along with several health ex-perts.

Parents in 17 states are al-lowed to opt out of vaccinations for their children because of their personal beliefs. Medical and religious reasons also can be cited to forego vaccinations.

“My mom didn’t believe that vaccines were beneficial to the health and safety of society, and believes that they cause autism, brain damage and other compli-cations,” Lindenberger said in a YouTube video posted over the weekend.

Ninety-eight countries re-ported more cases of measles in 2018 compared with 2017. Ethan Lindenberger

Ghosn family calls on UN to help release him

Paris, France

The family of former in-dustrial tycoon Carlos

Ghosn, currently held in Ja-pan on tax evasion charges, is to appeal to the United Nations in a bid to have him released, one of his lawyers said yesterday.

Ghosn, 64, formerly in charge of the Nissan and Renault carmakers, has been in detention since his shock November 19 arrest, and has tried repeatedly without success to secure bail.

“We have decided to ap-peal to those UN bodies dealing with fundamental rights compliance,” Fran-cois Zimeray said, reading a statement issued by Ghosn’s family.

The appeal will be made to the Working Group on Arbitrary Detention, which is overseen by the UN Hu-man Rights Council, he added.

Tornado kills 23 in AlabamaWashington, United States

A tornado tore through the southern US state of Al-

abama on Sunday, killing 23 people, uprooting trees and causing “catastrophic” damage to buildings and roads, a local sheriff said.

“Unfortunately our toll, as far as fatalities, does stand at 23 at the current time” Lee County Sheriff Jay Jones told the local CBS affiliate, acknowledging that children were among the dead.

Other people have been hos-pitalized, some with “very seri-ous injuries,” he had earlier told reporters.

Search operations for those still missing were halted on Sunday night due to hazardous conditions, but Jones added they would resume on Monday morning.

“The devastation is incredi-ble,” he said.

“I cannot recall at least in the last 50 years... a situation where we have had this loss of life that we experienced today.”

Wrecked houses, downed trees

The swath of destruction left by the storm was a quarter mile (0.4 kilometers) wide and stretched for the “several miles that it traveled on the ground,” according to Jones.

Still and video images showed trees that had been snapped in two, debris-strewn roads and wrecked houses in the wake of the storm.

More than 6,000 homes were left without power in Alabama, according to PowerOutage.US,

while 16,000 suffered outages in neighboring Georgia.

Authorities warned the death toll could rise further as rescuers search through the debris in Beauregard, about 60 miles (95 kilome-ters) east of the state capital Montgomery.

Television images showed the heavy rain had relented by dusk but many roads in the worst-hit areas were left littered with debris and unpassable.

Damage is seen at a home from a tornado which killed at least 23 people in Beauregard, Alabama


Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Deputy Editor-in-Chief Ahdeya Ahmed | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected] & circulation: Tel: 38444698/17579877 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

ROGER COHEN

Mr and Mrs Average are said to live in this south-western English town

better known as a political bell-wether than for any charm. Its 54.7 per cent vote for Brexit in 2016 was one of the first results announced, an early indicator of upheaval.

Now, with less than a month until the March 29 deadline for Britain to leave the European Un-ion, it’s again aligned with most of the country, this time in its cluelessness as to what is about to happen.

To paraphrase Churchill, much invoked by Brexiteers as a symbol of the rule-Britannia greatness they believe will return once Britain is freed from its Europe-an shackles: Never was so little known by so many about so much.

Britain is in a funk. “Just get this over with,” is a plea I heard often from Brexit-battered Brits, as if they were waiting to have a limb amputated. After nearly three years, they’re done. All the oxygen has been sucked from the room by the Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May’s flounder-ing attempt to end the country’s 46-year membership in the Euro-pean Union.

It’s not easy to make an egg from an omelet, as Pascal Lamy, the former head of the World Trade Organisation, has ob-served. I grew up in a Britain where “the Continent,” a faintly distasteful geographical mass as-sociated with rabies and garlic, was far away. The EU changed that. Now, through finance, trade, law and culture, Britain is mixed

into a borderless market of 28 na-tions and more than a half-billion people that has brought peace, stability and an unprecedented, if uneven, prosperity to Europe. Britain’s decision to break from that is a curious act of self-harm, linked, like the election of Donald Trump, to the desperation of our times.

The country’s main political parties, the Conservatives and Labour, buffeted by the Brexit maelstrom, are in crisis — beset by desertions, insurrections and division. As elsewhere in West-ern democracies shaken by the failings of liberalism, hard-line factions to the left and right have gained sway. They offer rekin-dled socialism or make-Britain-great-again nationalism as the answer to inequality and ennui. The center looks weak, even if defectors from Labour and the Conservative Parties last month formed an Independent Group to try to resurrect it. Parliamentary democracy, which is what Britain is, and democracy-by-plebiscite, which is what the 2016 vote was, are in a standoff: A sovereign Par-liament has rejected May’s pro-posal, while advocates of Brexit, on time and at any cost, bay about the sacred irreversible “will of the people.” Britain today poses the question of what 21st-century democracy is.

May and Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, have both made desperate concessions in the past week. They did so from weakness. May’s acknowledg-ment that Brexit could be delayed (the union would have to agree to that and would want to know why) and Corbyn’s support for a second referendum (a grudging move from a lifelong Euroskeptic heading a pro-EU party) added to the mayhem.

Anything is possible. That’s now official. Britain could ap-prove an amended May deal

(essentially a fudge preserving British participation in the sin-gle market and customs union for now); crash out of the union like a lemming over a cliff; defer a decision; hold a second vote; or some weird combination.

I met with David Renard, the Tory leader of Swindon’s borough council. He’s getting impatient. He says he wants British sover-eignty back, rescued from a web of European Union regulations. He thinks Britain should get out, even without a deal. “The British people voted to leave. It would be an affront to democracy if we do not on March 29,” he told me.

“Let’s get on with it! A lot of peo-ple would see a delay as the lib-eral elite establishment trying to find a way to stay in the EU.”

As a paid-up member of that establishment, I would see a delay and a second vote (one does not necessarily follow from the other) as an act of very British common sense.

By focusing the zeitgeist’s every frustration on Brussels, the “Take Back Control” campaign in 2016 was a brilliant exercise in emo-tional transference. “Remain” equaled the status quo. To many people, for reasons that had little or nothing to do with the union,

WE SHOULD NOT GIVE UP AND WE SHOULD NOT ALLOW THE PROBLEM TO DEFEAT US. A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The official British policy?

MayhemTrump is not forever. Brexit

is. Britain’s youth oppose it. A decision of this import should

be grounded in reality

E TAMMY KIM

Outside the North Korean Em-bassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, a glass case displaying an array

of patriotic photographs was report-edly reorganised just before Kim Jong Un’s arrival. The chairman’s portrait remained untouched at the top of the vitrine, but the images of fruit orchards and fishing boats had been swapped out for those of facto-ries and a satellite antenna. A South Korean reporter, standing outside the embassy, observed that the new pictures seemed “tailored to fit a theme of Vietnamese-style reform and opening.”

Instead, President Donald Trump and Kim cut short their parley, end-ing the summit Thursday with no agreement in hand. Much of the US foreign policy establishment, includ-ing Democratic legislators, reacted with smug surprise. Trump had been played, they said, but he was right to

walk away rather than to promise too much. According to the president, North Korea had demanded a lifting of all sanctions, to which Washington could not agree. A North Korean official said Pyongyang asked for only “partial” sanctions relief. Wash-ington’s North Korea watchers and foreign policy experts — what Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, has called the Blob — concluded that the summit was a failure and that Trump never should have met with Kim in the first place. The Blob was content.

Many South Koreans, however, felt dismayed. Trump is no model states-man, and his record as president has largely been reckless and cruel. Yet in the Korean context, his bucking of foreign policy tradition (born, un-doubtedly, of a quest for personal glory) has at least drawn the North into the global arena.

Seoul has never had the luxury of selective dealings with Pyongyang. North Korea’s nuclear stockpiles are a less immediate threat than the mass of conventional arms lining the Demilitarised Zone, just across the border. For South Korea, sanctions against the North are not simply a virtue-signalling device, but a policy

with immediate, real-world conse-quences: They can spur the flow of refugees out of the North, undermine efforts by the South to send food and other humanitarian assistance, and make it difficult to host inter-Kore-an family reunions. The pursuit of a peace treaty — to replace the 1953 armistice, to which the United States but not South Korea was a signatory — would, beyond its symbolic value, help dismantle the culture of milita-rism and anti-Communist paranoia that has, at times, justified repressive crackdowns in the South.

Contrast that with Washington’s view, which has hardly changed in the almost seven decades since the end of the Korean War. The consen-sus has favoured peninsular division, mutual deterrence through a heavy US military presence in the South and, for the most part, neglect of the North. That changed only when North Korea began its nuclear pro-gramme. Denuclearisation is the only real priority for the United States, the end point for all discussions with Kim. But for South Korea’s president, denuclearisation is “a starting point for resolution of the Cold War on the peninsula.”

The unceremonious end to the

summit — without an agreement on nuclear policy, liaison offices, easing sanctions or a peace declaration — was thus received as a blow by South Korea and the global diaspora. Like many of my relatives and colleagues in Asia, I was willing to look past the strongman theatrics, toward a deal that might meaningfully open up North Korea. A friend in Seoul who works as an academic said she

was worried that the lack of a deal would provoke right-wing attacks on President Moon Jae-in, a liberal who has faced outlandish accusations of propping up communism. Another friend, who is active in the South Korean labor movement, cried in disappointment as he watched from New York.

Other Korean observers, though, approached the summit with caution.

Park Sun-song, a professor of North Korean studies at Dongguk Univer-sity in Seoul, had expected small, practical gains from the summit, and not even this much was achieved. He emphasised that phrases such as “complete denuclearisation” and “reduced sanctions” are shorthand for the dozens of painstaking de-cisions that lie ahead, about which facilities must be dismantled versus

The ‘failed’ summit isn’t so funny in SeoulPresident Donald Trump and Kim cut short their parley, ending the summit with no agreement in hand



ROGER COHEN

Mr and Mrs Average are said to live in this south-western English town

better known as a political bell-wether than for any charm. Its 54.7 per cent vote for Brexit in 2016 was one of the first results announced, an early indicator of upheaval.

Now, with less than a month until the March 29 deadline for Britain to leave the European Un-ion, it’s again aligned with most of the country, this time in its cluelessness as to what is about to happen.

To paraphrase Churchill, much invoked by Brexiteers as a symbol of the rule-Britannia greatness they believe will return once Britain is freed from its Europe-an shackles: Never was so little known by so many about so much.

Britain is in a funk. “Just get this over with,” is a plea I heard often from Brexit-battered Brits, as if they were waiting to have a limb amputated. After nearly three years, they’re done. All the oxygen has been sucked from the room by the Conservative Prime Minister Theresa May’s flounder-ing attempt to end the country’s 46-year membership in the Euro-pean Union.

It’s not easy to make an egg from an omelet, as Pascal Lamy, the former head of the World Trade Organisation, has ob-served. I grew up in a Britain where “the Continent,” a faintly distasteful geographical mass as-sociated with rabies and garlic, was far away. The EU changed that. Now, through finance, trade, law and culture, Britain is mixed

into a borderless market of 28 na-tions and more than a half-billion people that has brought peace, stability and an unprecedented, if uneven, prosperity to Europe. Britain’s decision to break from that is a curious act of self-harm, linked, like the election of Donald Trump, to the desperation of our times.

The country’s main political parties, the Conservatives and Labour, buffeted by the Brexit maelstrom, are in crisis — beset by desertions, insurrections and division. As elsewhere in West-ern democracies shaken by the failings of liberalism, hard-line factions to the left and right have gained sway. They offer rekin-dled socialism or make-Britain-great-again nationalism as the answer to inequality and ennui. The center looks weak, even if defectors from Labour and the Conservative Parties last month formed an Independent Group to try to resurrect it. Parliamentary democracy, which is what Britain is, and democracy-by-plebiscite, which is what the 2016 vote was, are in a standoff: A sovereign Par-liament has rejected May’s pro-posal, while advocates of Brexit, on time and at any cost, bay about the sacred irreversible “will of the people.” Britain today poses the question of what 21st-century democracy is.

May and Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader, have both made desperate concessions in the past week. They did so from weakness. May’s acknowledg-ment that Brexit could be delayed (the union would have to agree to that and would want to know why) and Corbyn’s support for a second referendum (a grudging move from a lifelong Euroskeptic heading a pro-EU party) added to the mayhem.

Anything is possible. That’s now official. Britain could ap-prove an amended May deal

(essentially a fudge preserving British participation in the sin-gle market and customs union for now); crash out of the union like a lemming over a cliff; defer a decision; hold a second vote; or some weird combination.

I met with David Renard, the Tory leader of Swindon’s borough council. He’s getting impatient. He says he wants British sover-eignty back, rescued from a web of European Union regulations. He thinks Britain should get out, even without a deal. “The British people voted to leave. It would be an affront to democracy if we do not on March 29,” he told me.

“Let’s get on with it! A lot of peo-ple would see a delay as the lib-eral elite establishment trying to find a way to stay in the EU.”

As a paid-up member of that establishment, I would see a delay and a second vote (one does not necessarily follow from the other) as an act of very British common sense.

By focusing the zeitgeist’s every frustration on Brussels, the “Take Back Control” campaign in 2016 was a brilliant exercise in emo-tional transference. “Remain” equaled the status quo. To many people, for reasons that had little or nothing to do with the union,

WE SHOULD NOT GIVE UP AND WE SHOULD NOT ALLOW THE PROBLEM TO DEFEAT US. A. P. J. ABDUL KALAM

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The official British policy?

MayhemTrump is not forever. Brexit

is. Britain’s youth oppose it. A decision of this import should

be grounded in reality

E TAMMY KIM

Outside the North Korean Em-bassy in Hanoi, Vietnam, a glass case displaying an array

of patriotic photographs was report-edly reorganised just before Kim Jong Un’s arrival. The chairman’s portrait remained untouched at the top of the vitrine, but the images of fruit orchards and fishing boats had been swapped out for those of facto-ries and a satellite antenna. A South Korean reporter, standing outside the embassy, observed that the new pictures seemed “tailored to fit a theme of Vietnamese-style reform and opening.”

Instead, President Donald Trump and Kim cut short their parley, end-ing the summit Thursday with no agreement in hand. Much of the US foreign policy establishment, includ-ing Democratic legislators, reacted with smug surprise. Trump had been played, they said, but he was right to

walk away rather than to promise too much. According to the president, North Korea had demanded a lifting of all sanctions, to which Washington could not agree. A North Korean official said Pyongyang asked for only “partial” sanctions relief. Wash-ington’s North Korea watchers and foreign policy experts — what Ben Rhodes, President Barack Obama’s deputy national security adviser, has called the Blob — concluded that the summit was a failure and that Trump never should have met with Kim in the first place. The Blob was content.

Many South Koreans, however, felt dismayed. Trump is no model states-man, and his record as president has largely been reckless and cruel. Yet in the Korean context, his bucking of foreign policy tradition (born, un-doubtedly, of a quest for personal glory) has at least drawn the North into the global arena.

Seoul has never had the luxury of selective dealings with Pyongyang. North Korea’s nuclear stockpiles are a less immediate threat than the mass of conventional arms lining the Demilitarised Zone, just across the border. For South Korea, sanctions against the North are not simply a virtue-signalling device, but a policy

with immediate, real-world conse-quences: They can spur the flow of refugees out of the North, undermine efforts by the South to send food and other humanitarian assistance, and make it difficult to host inter-Kore-an family reunions. The pursuit of a peace treaty — to replace the 1953 armistice, to which the United States but not South Korea was a signatory — would, beyond its symbolic value, help dismantle the culture of milita-rism and anti-Communist paranoia that has, at times, justified repressive crackdowns in the South.

Contrast that with Washington’s view, which has hardly changed in the almost seven decades since the end of the Korean War. The consen-sus has favoured peninsular division, mutual deterrence through a heavy US military presence in the South and, for the most part, neglect of the North. That changed only when North Korea began its nuclear pro-gramme. Denuclearisation is the only real priority for the United States, the end point for all discussions with Kim. But for South Korea’s president, denuclearisation is “a starting point for resolution of the Cold War on the peninsula.”

The unceremonious end to the

summit — without an agreement on nuclear policy, liaison offices, easing sanctions or a peace declaration — was thus received as a blow by South Korea and the global diaspora. Like many of my relatives and colleagues in Asia, I was willing to look past the strongman theatrics, toward a deal that might meaningfully open up North Korea. A friend in Seoul who works as an academic said she

was worried that the lack of a deal would provoke right-wing attacks on President Moon Jae-in, a liberal who has faced outlandish accusations of propping up communism. Another friend, who is active in the South Korean labor movement, cried in disappointment as he watched from New York.

Other Korean observers, though, approached the summit with caution.



C I V I L I A N ’ S T R I B U N E


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

You will not remember how much money you

made throughout your ca-reer. However, you will re-member every single per-son that graciously opened a career door for you. Opening doors for others is important and meaningful work. Be a door opener. Be remembered.

@ValaAfshar

Our democracy is built on debate, Congress-

woman! I should not be expected to have alle-giance/pledge support to a foreign country in or-der to serve my country in Congress or serve on committee. The people of the 5th elected me to serve their interest. I am sure we agree on that!

@IlhanMN

FEMA has been told di-rectly by me to give the

A Plus treatment to the Great State of Alabama and the wonderful people who have been so devastated by the Tornadoes. @GovIvey, one of the best in our Coun-try, has been so informed. She is working closely with FEMA (and me!).

@realDonaldTrump

President Kovind pre-sents Colours to Air

Force Station Hakimpet and 5 Base Repair Depot at Air Force Station Sulur; says the resilience and te-nacity displayed by our valiant air warriors is a great source of pride for the nation

@rashtrapatibhvn

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

editorial stances)

that was an unattractive propo-sition.

As a practical matter, however, the decision to leave has been a disaster. “Fantasy Brexit,” was based on lies, like the imminent invasion of 80 million Turks. Now Britain has had a three-year crash course in “Reality Brexit.” This has involved slower growth, low-er investment and the collapse of the illusory idyll. Some 40 free trade deals were promised to re-place free trade arrangements Britain benefits from as a union member. The government has concluded a handful, one of them with the Faroe Islands.

Trump is not forever. Brexit is. Britain’s youth oppose it. A decision of this import should be grounded in reality.

I sat for a while outside the Debenhams department store in downtown Swindon. The scene was not a happy one: stores for rent, people struggling to get by. Swindon is an hour by train from central London, the purring hub of pro-EU sentiment. It might as well be on another planet — and it’s still far better off than many towns in Britain. No wonder, I thought, that a majority here did not want to “remain.”

Last month Honda, Swindon’s

second-largest employer, an-nounced the closure of its plant, with the loss of 3,500 jobs. There were various factors, including a free trade agreement Japan has concluded with the European Union (making manufacture in Japan more attractive). Honda did not cite the elephant on its production line: Brexit.

Imagine you’re in a board meet-ing in Tokyo looking at fathom-less uncertainty in Britain for the foreseeable future: What would you decide? One angry Honda worker, with 24 years at the Swin-don factory, had no doubt about the real culprit for his job loss: “The government’s complete-ly incompetent handling of the whole thing doesn’t help either, does it?” he said in a Channel 4 interview that went viral. “They can’t even decide for themselves what Brexit means. This is idiocy of epic proportions.”

Idiocy aside, it’s not easy to exe-cute a decision based on mass de-lusion. As Robert Smith, a Swin-don-based marketing director for a law firm, told me: “The gig economy is not Europe’s fault.” Nor is the migrant crisis, billion-aire-favouring taxes and stagnant wages.

“The European Union is our national scapegoat,” Sam Gy-imah, a Tory MP who quit May’s government last November, told me. As minister for Universities, Science, Research and Innova-tion, Gyimah laboured hard to make Brexit work. The more he laboured, the less it seemed to make sense. “We get 1.5 pounds from the EU for every pound we put in,” he told me. “The Univer-sity of Cambridge gets more than all of Romania.” Britain had in-vested heavily in Galileo, a global navigation satellite system creat-ed by the European Union. Now it has been shut out.

When May produced her “deal” — in fact a proposal to defer for at

least two years all the difficult de-cisions — Gyimah quit. “There’s no majority for any option in Par-liament,” he told me. “This has to go back to the people.”

The people are restive. Renard told me the Swindon council is “making plans for civil unrest as a precaution,” should Brexit be delayed.

Liberalism worked well for a while. It was good at freeing people from bigotry, sexism, rac-ism, nationalism and prejudice. It was less good at providing people with meaning to their lives, be-yond hedonism and materialism. In 2008, with the financial cri-sis, the wheels came off. Those responsible walked away. A lot of people felt empty, and were drowning in debt. What had the elite ever done for them? Bigotry and nationalism made a storm-ing comeback. That’s Brexit in a nutshell.

The reality, however, is that Brexit only compounds the prob-lems. Will Dry, a student, was 18 when he voted for Brexit. All his family told him Europe meant unemployment and refugees. Now Dry has taken time off from Oxford University to fight Brex-it in London. He came, he told me, to “the realisation we did not have a plan.” His new view is that

“it’s far better to cooperate with neighbours and allies than ditch them.”

With Lara Spirit, another stu-dent on leave from college, Dry is a co-president of OFOC (Our Future Our Choice — don’t try to pronounce the acronym), a youth movement that has sent a blue bus around Britain emblazoned with the words “Please stand up for our futures. Signed, young people.” The bus is a rebuke to the Brexiteers’ notorious red bus that, in 2016, spread the lie that more than $462 million a week going to the EU would be spent post-Brexit on the National Health Service. “I’m confident there will be a second vote,” Spirit said.

Polls suggest Britain would now vote to stay in the European Union, perhaps by a 54-46 per-cent margin. Hugo Dixon, the deputy chairman of a grass-roots movement for a second referen-dum, suggested this slogan: “Fix it. Not Brexit.”

That’s good. Liberal democracy has failed too many of its citizens. Brexit and Trump prove that. Elites have to acknowledge their arrogant inattention. The answer is to fix problems — in educa-tion, the health service, taxation and uncontrolled immigration, to name a few.

To return to Churchill, he de-clared in 1936 at another moment of British wavering: “So they go in strange paradox, decided only to be undecided, resolved to be irresolute, adamant for drift, sol-id for fluidity, all powerful to be impotent.” Three years into its ag-onising Brexit odyssey, Britain is finally realising that scapegoating Brussels has gotten it nowhere. It’s going to have to fix its national problems — and the European Union could help.

(Roger Cohen is a columnist with The New York Times.)

(In collaboration with New York Times)

1046Nasir Khusraw begins the seven-year Middle Eastern journey which he will later describe in his book Safarnama.

1279The Livonian Order is defeated in the Battle of Aizkraukle by the Grand Duchy of Lithuania

1496King Henry VII of England issues letters patent to John Cabot and his sons, authorising them to explore unknown lands.

1616Nicolaus Copernicus’s book On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres is added to the Index of Forbidden Books 73 years after it was first published.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY

Summit failed; now

what? The second Trump-Kim summit has ended in

failure without bringing any positive results. President Donald Trump emerged from

his historic summit last June with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un and proclaimed on Twitter that “there is no longer a Nuclear Threat...Sleep well tonight!”

Nearly seven months later, the nuclear threat remains. Even worse, Kim made plain in his annual New Year’s Day address that he hasn’t budged on a crucial pre-summit demand: no disarmament until US-led sanctions are removed. Without a lifting of sanctions, Kim warned, he would take a “new path” in nuclear talks.

It’s true that Americans might be sleeping better because the harsh, warlike (rocket man versus do-tard, fire and fury, my button is bigger than your button, etc.) rhetoric the leaders exchanged in 2017 ceased after their Singapore meeting.

And North Korea hasn’t tested any more nuclear bombs or launched any more missiles, though Kim asserted two months before the summit that his arsenal is complete and that he doesn’t need to test anymore.

Jack Cheffman

May and Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour Party leader,

have both made desperate concessions in the past

week.


inspected, or which prohibitions on trade and investment should be lifted first. The Koreas are eager to restart their joint flagship projects in the North: tourism at Mount Kumgang and manufacturing in the Kaesong industrial complex. North Korea wants minimum security guarantees above all else, and the signing of a peace declaration could help provide such reassurance.

The anticlimax in Hanoi arrived at a poignant time. Friday was the 100th anniversary of the March 1 Move-ment, a key uprising in Korea’s strug-gle against imperial Japan and the first exercise of a uniquely Korean identity, according to historian Suzy Kim. On March 1, 1919, a cheering crowd of some 5,000 intellectuals, activists, students, families and work-ers gathered in Seoul’s Pagoda Park cheering, “Mansei!” (“Long Live Ko-rea!”) The leaders read a statement asserting Korea’s independence from Japan, inspired by President Woodrow Wilson’s Fourteen Points: “We hereby declare that Korea is an independent state and that Koreans are a self-governing people.” Mass demonstrations were held across the Korean Peninsula and in Manchuria and the United States, and a provi-

sional government was established in Shanghai, a centre of the resistance. Yet Korea would have to wait until the end of World War II to gain its independence, only to be promptly divided into North and South.

In the Korean imagination, March 1 conjures images of flag-waving martyrs in traditional white hanbok and nostalgia for an ethnically pure, politically uncomplicated past. This is myth, of course, but it’s convenient when it comes to dealing with North Korea. Moon has tried to use the holiday as yet another occasion for

cross-border collaboration, like last year’s Pyeongchang Olympics. He in-vited the North Korean leader and his entourage to come to Seoul straight from Hanoi, to celebrate March 1. But the North Koreans remained in Vietnam, invited to attend a state banquet hosted by President Nguyen Phu Trong and to lay wreaths at the mausoleum of Vietnam’s founding president, Ho Chi Minh.

The speech Moon had prepared for March 1 had to take Hanoi into account. There was no peace decla-ration to praise, so he spoke instead of a lesser form of reunification, a cross-border solidarity that “need not be far away.” He promised to keep working for a “new Korean Penin-sula regime,” but there were few details, other than plans for an in-ter-Korean committee on economic development. In Vietnam, Kim Jong Un’s ministers had visited the tour-ist hot spot of Halong Bay and a car factory in Haiphong, which provid-ed glimmers of the future that South Korea wants so badly for the North. What it takes to get there, though, is not entirely in Korean hands.

(E Tammy Kim is a contributing opinion writer.)


Denuclearisation is the only real priority for the United States, the end point for all discussions with Kim, but for South Korea it is the

beginning.

10

business


Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) in cooperation with Bahrain Economic Development Board (EDB) organised yesterday a preparatory meeting on “FinTech” at Bahrain FinTech Bay. The meeting, attended by BCCI board member Khalid Al Zayani alongside members of the business community, gave a presentation about Bahrain FinTech Bay, the services and programmes it offers, and its future aspirations. Chief Executive Officer of Bahrain FinTech Bay Khalid Saad encouraged business owners to invest in innovation and embrace technological advancement.

Eighty Russian tour operators and travel agency representatives took part in a series of workshops held in Bahrain by Bahrain Tourism and Exhibitions Authority (BTEA) in collaboration with international travel and tourism company, Coral Travel. The event, attended by approximately 150 participants including representatives of 27 hotels in Bahrain, aimed at developing comprehensive travel packages tailored to the needs of Russian tourists. During the trip, which took place between the 23rd of February and the 1st of March 2019, participants were able to meet with hotel representatives and visit several locations in Bahrain

CrediMax, Gulf Air in dealTDT | Manama

CrediMax and Gulf Air an-nounced the renewal of

its joint promotion allowing CrediMax cardholders to en-joy discounted airline tickets to over 20 destinations across the globe.

The signing ceremony was held at CrediMax headquar-ters in the presence of Cred-iMax Chief Executive, Yousif Ali Mirza and Gulf Air Country Manager Essam A.Hameed Al-Hammadi, Yasser Mohamed Ali, Gulf Air Senior Sales Ex-ecutive and Shams AlDoseri, Gulf Air Sales Manager and Mandana Banahi, CrediMax Marketing Communication Officer.

“CrediMax is delighted to partner up once again with Gulf Air offering CrediMax customers 12pc discount on fare tickets,” said Chief Ex-ecutive of CrediMax, Yousif Ali Mirza.

CrediMax cardholders can now enjoy a 12pc discount on all Gulf Air tickets, Economy and Falcon Gold class using their CrediMax cards. Card-holders must book through

Gulf Air’s website www.gulfair.com and enter a special code, which could be found on the website www.credimax.com.bh or through the call centre on 17117117.

CrediMax and Gulf Air officials following the renewal of their join promotion deal

SICO reports BD3.7m profit, 8pc dividendTDT | Manama

SICO, a leading regional asset manager, broker and in-vestment bank announced

yesterday a 12 per cent increase in its full-year consolidated net profit, thanks to higher reve-nues and improved operational performance across all of SICO’s business lines.

SICO’s board of directors rec-ommended a cash dividend of 8pc of the share capital, equiv-alent to 8 Bahraini fils per share subject to the approval of the Central bank of Bahrain and the General Assembly.

Full-year consolidated net profit was BD 3.7 million in 2018, up 12pc compared to the BD 3.3m recorded in 2017. To-tal comprehensive income re-mained unchanged in 2018 at BD 3.8m.

SICO’s earnings per share (EPS) was 10.01 Bahraini fils compared to 8.01 Bahraini fils in the previous year.

Net operating income was up 16pc to BD 10.7m in 2018 com-pared to the BD 9.3m recorded in 2017.

Total operating expenses were recorded at BD 6.7m in 2018, up 14pc over 2017 figure of BD 5.8m.

For the fourth quarter, con-solidated net profit stood at BD 441 thousand in the fourth quarter of 2018, 8pc higher than the BD 409 thousand reported in the same quarter last year.

Net profit growth was attrib-uted to a 25pc increase in net operating income to BD 2.4m in 4Q18 versus the BD 1.9m re-corded in 4Q17.

EPS was 1.19 Bahraini fils compared to 0.99 Bahraini fils in 4Q17

Total comprehensive income in 4Q18 was BD 369 thousand, down 28pc versus the BD 512

thousand in 4Q17. Operating expenses, includ-

ing staff overheads, general administration and other ex-penses, posted BD 1.9m in 4Q18, up 22pc over the BD 1.5m in the corresponding period in 2017.

Consolidated capital ade-quacy ratio stood at 63.97pc at the close of 2018 compared to 59.1pc at year-end 2017. It is worth noting that the lower capital base as at 31 Decem-ber 2018 compared to year-end 2017 follows SICO’s acquisition of 10pc of its shares as treasury

stock (BD 5.9m) during the year. Total assets under manage-

ment (AUM) grew by 50pc y-o-y to around BD 700m (US$ 1.9 billion) up from BD 465m (US$ 1.2bn) at year-end 2017, with all of SICO’s funds topping the league tables and distributing dividends during 2018. Assets under custody with the Bank’s wholly-owned subsidiary, SICO Funds Services Company (SFS) grew by 8.4pc from BD 2.2bn (US$ 5.7bn) in 2017 to BD 2.3 bil-lion (US$ 6.2bn) as at December 2018.

SICO continued to deliver a strong

performance despite the region-wide

fiscal and monetary challenges that we experienced

throughout 2018. At the core of our success

is a forward-looking strategy that allows us to grow our core

business and capture new opportunities

across all our business lines

SHAIKH ABDULLA BIN KHALIFA AL KHALIFA

CHAIRMAN OF THE BOARD

As we head into 2019, we expect continued market volatility and economic challenges

with key regional themes to include flows

ahead of MSCI & FTSE inclusion, increased

government spending driven by expansionary budgets, and oil prices movements and their correlation to fiscal

deficits

NAJLA AL SHIRAWI

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER

AirAsia launches venture capital fund to back startups in SE AsiaReuters

Malaysia’s budget carrier AirAsia Group Bhd said

yesterday it is launching a ven-ture capital fund in the Unit-ed States to invest in startups seeking to enter or expand in Southeast Asia.

The fund, called RedBeat Capital, will focus on post-seed stage startups engaged in travel and lifestyle, financial technol-ogy, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity.

AirAsia is also partnering with San Francisco-based 500 Startups, which in-vests in young fast-growing companies and offers an ac-celerator programme for entrepreneurs.

500 Startups has supported more than 2,000 firms includ-ing Twilio, SendGrid and Grab,

a southeast Asian ride-hailing firm.

RedBeat Capital will have a base in San Francisco and have access to 500 Startups deal flow, AirAsia said.

The airline last week posted a net loss in the fourth quarter, its first quarterly loss in more than three years, as higher fuel prices and operating lease costs dented income.

AirAsia planes are seen on the tarmac at Kuala Lumpur International Airport 2 (KLIA2) in Sepang, Malaysia. - Reuters


Web an ‘out-of-control monster’?

Meyrin, Switzerland

Thirty years ago this month, a young British software engineer work-

ing at a lab near Geneva invented a system for scientists to share information that would ulti-mately change humanity.

But three decades after he in-vented the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee has warned that his creation has been “hi-jacked by crooks” that may spell its destruction.

Berner-Lee’s old office at Eu-rope’s physics lab CERN now looks no different than the oth-ers lining the long, nondescript corridor within the expansive compound.

The only indication that histo-ry was made here is a small com-memorative plaque and a page from an old CERN directory hung on the door, with “MOMENTAR-ILY OUT OF OFFICE!” written in jest next to Berners-Lee’s name.

“Tim worked a lot,” said tech-nician Francois Fluckiger, who took charge of the web team af-ter Berners-Lee left for the Mas-sachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy (MIT) in 1994.

“The lights were always on in his office,” Fluckiger said.

History in the makingBerners-Lee was responsible

for CERN’s internal directory but was interested in ways to allow the thousands of scientists around the world who cooper-ated with the lab to more easily share their work.

His vision for “a decentralised information management sys-tem” soon gave birth to the web.

Primitive forms of the internet -- a network linking computers -- had previously ex-isted, but it was the World Wide Web that allowed web pages to be

collected and accessed with a browser.

“Very early on, we had the

feeling that his-tory was in the mak-

ing,” Fluckiger said.In 1990, Belgian scientist

Robert Cailliau came onboard to help promote the invention, which used Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, as a stand-ard to create webpages.

They created the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, which allows users to access resources by clicking on hy-perlinks, and also Uniform Re-source Locators, or URLs, as a website address system.

At the end of 1990, Bern-ers-Lee set CERN’s first web nav-igator server into action.

The browser was released out-side of CERN in early 1991, first to other research institutions and later to the public.

Fluckiger, now retired, hailed the web as one of three major inventions in the 20th century that enabled the digital society, alongside the Internet Protocol (IP) and Google’s search algo-rithms.

But he lamented the “online bullying, fake news, and mass hysteria” that flourish online as well as threats to privacy.

“One has to ask oneself if we did not, in the end, create a com-pletely out-of-control monster.”

‘Crooks and trolls’Berners-Lee has launched his

own campaign to “save the web”.At the Web Summit in Lisbon

last November, he called for a new “Contract for the Web”, based on access for all and the

fundamental right to priva-cy, among other things.

“The web has been hi-jacked by crooks and trolls who have used it to manipu-late people all over the world,” Berners-Lee warned in a New York Times op-ed in December, citing threats ranging from the dark web, to cyber crime, fake news and personal data theft.

In January, the man dubbed the “father of the web” urged the global elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos to join the fight against the “polar-isation” of online debates.

He called for discussion plat-forms that connect people with different opinions and back-grounds, contrary to today’s common practice of creating online ghettos, filter bubbles and feedback loops where peo-ple rarely encounter opinions different from their own.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres also voiced concerns at Davos over the direction the web was taking.

He warned of the impact “of the dark web and the deep web and all the problems of cyber security”, and called for the creation of “soft mechanisms” to help rein in countries using this technology to violate human rights.

Open sourceBack in 1989, no one could

have foreseen the im-portance of

t h e

emerging web.CERN has held onto only a

few souvenirs from the ear-ly days: the first memo that Berners-Lee drafted about his invention, his black NeXT computer station and his key-board.

But while CERN may not have preserved many keep-sakes to memorialise the his-toric invention, it has strived to prevent the web from fall-ing into the wrong hands.

In 1993, the organisation announced it was putting the web software into the public domain, which could have al-lowed any individual or busi-ness to claim it as their own and control its development.

But destiny, with a little help from Fluckiger, helped avert potential disaster.

After discussions with CERN’s legal service, Fluck-iger decided in 1994 to launch a new open source version of the web.

That proved a crucial move that allowed CERN to retain the intellectual proper-ty rights to the invention

while giving access to an-yone to use and modi-

fy the web freely and without cost.

In 1995, the in-tellectual property rights were trans-ferred to a con-sortium set up by Berners-Lee based out of MIT, called W3C.

“ W e w e r e lucky that during

those 18 months, no one seized the web,” Fluckiger

said.“O t h e r w i s e ,

there might not have been a web today.”

Three decades after he invented the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee has warned that his creation has been “hijacked by crooks” that may spell its destruction.

A plaque is displayed next to the former office of the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee (on the right) at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin, near Geneva

A copy of the Next Computer that was used as the first server of the World Wide Web is displayed at an exhibition at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web

One has to ask oneself if we did not, in the end, create a completely out-of-

control monster

FRANCOIS FLUCKIGER

CERN COMPUTER SCIENTIST


Web an ‘out-of-control monster’?

Meyrin, Switzerland

Thirty years ago this month, a young British software engineer work-

ing at a lab near Geneva invented a system for scientists to share information that would ulti-mately change humanity.

But three decades after he in-vented the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee has warned that his creation has been “hi-jacked by crooks” that may spell its destruction.

Berner-Lee’s old office at Eu-rope’s physics lab CERN now looks no different than the oth-ers lining the long, nondescript corridor within the expansive compound.

The only indication that histo-ry was made here is a small com-memorative plaque and a page from an old CERN directory hung on the door, with “MOMENTAR-ILY OUT OF OFFICE!” written in jest next to Berners-Lee’s name.

“Tim worked a lot,” said tech-nician Francois Fluckiger, who took charge of the web team af-ter Berners-Lee left for the Mas-sachusetts Institute of Technol-ogy (MIT) in 1994.

“The lights were always on in his office,” Fluckiger said.

History in the makingBerners-Lee was responsible

for CERN’s internal directory but was interested in ways to allow the thousands of scientists around the world who cooper-ated with the lab to more easily share their work.

His vision for “a decentralised information management sys-tem” soon gave birth to the web.

Primitive forms of the internet -- a network linking computers -- had previously ex-isted, but it was the World Wide Web that allowed web pages to be

collected and accessed with a browser.

“Very early on, we had the

feeling that his-tory was in the mak-

ing,” Fluckiger said.In 1990, Belgian scientist

Robert Cailliau came onboard to help promote the invention, which used Hypertext Markup Language, or HTML, as a stand-ard to create webpages.

They created the Hypertext Transfer Protocol, or HTTP, which allows users to access resources by clicking on hy-perlinks, and also Uniform Re-source Locators, or URLs, as a website address system.

At the end of 1990, Bern-ers-Lee set CERN’s first web nav-igator server into action.

The browser was released out-side of CERN in early 1991, first to other research institutions and later to the public.

Fluckiger, now retired, hailed the web as one of three major inventions in the 20th century that enabled the digital society, alongside the Internet Protocol (IP) and Google’s search algo-rithms.

But he lamented the “online bullying, fake news, and mass hysteria” that flourish online as well as threats to privacy.

“One has to ask oneself if we did not, in the end, create a com-pletely out-of-control monster.”

‘Crooks and trolls’Berners-Lee has launched his

own campaign to “save the web”.At the Web Summit in Lisbon

last November, he called for a new “Contract for the Web”, based on access for all and the

fundamental right to priva-cy, among other things.

“The web has been hi-jacked by crooks and trolls who have used it to manipu-late people all over the world,” Berners-Lee warned in a New York Times op-ed in December, citing threats ranging from the dark web, to cyber crime, fake news and personal data theft.

In January, the man dubbed the “father of the web” urged the global elites at the World Economic Forum in Davos to join the fight against the “polar-isation” of online debates.

He called for discussion plat-forms that connect people with different opinions and back-grounds, contrary to today’s common practice of creating online ghettos, filter bubbles and feedback loops where peo-ple rarely encounter opinions different from their own.

United Nations chief Antonio Guterres also voiced concerns at Davos over the direction the web was taking.

He warned of the impact “of the dark web and the deep web and all the problems of cyber security”, and called for the creation of “soft mechanisms” to help rein in countries using this technology to violate human rights.

Open sourceBack in 1989, no one could

have foreseen the im-portance of

t h e

emerging web.CERN has held onto only a

few souvenirs from the ear-ly days: the first memo that Berners-Lee drafted about his invention, his black NeXT computer station and his key-board.

But while CERN may not have preserved many keep-sakes to memorialise the his-toric invention, it has strived to prevent the web from fall-ing into the wrong hands.

In 1993, the organisation announced it was putting the web software into the public domain, which could have al-lowed any individual or busi-ness to claim it as their own and control its development.

But destiny, with a little help from Fluckiger, helped avert potential disaster.

After discussions with CERN’s legal service, Fluck-iger decided in 1994 to launch a new open source version of the web.

That proved a crucial move that allowed CERN to retain the intellectual proper-ty rights to the invention

while giving access to an-yone to use and modi-

fy the web freely and without cost.

In 1995, the in-tellectual property rights were trans-ferred to a con-sortium set up by Berners-Lee based out of MIT, called W3C.

“ W e w e r e lucky that during

those 18 months, no one seized the web,” Fluckiger

said.“O t h e r w i s e ,

there might not have been a web today.”

Three decades after he invented the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee has warned that his creation has been “hijacked by crooks” that may spell its destruction.

A plaque is displayed next to the former office of the inventor of the World Wide Web Tim Berners-Lee (on the right) at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin, near Geneva

A copy of the Next Computer that was used as the first server of the World Wide Web is displayed at an exhibition at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN)

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, best known as the inventor of the World Wide Web

One has to ask oneself if we did not, in the end, create a completely out-of-

control monster

FRANCOIS FLUCKIGER

CERN COMPUTER SCIENTIST

1.285.7was price of spot gold as of

1250 GMT


Our aim is to guarantee a

pleasant and satisfying Contact Centre experience to customers and

therefore ensure that customers are dealt with in an efficient

and professional manner

RAHUL BHALLA, CE, INVITA

Closing BellSAUDI 0.4pc to 8,565pts

DUBAI at 2,644pts

QATAR 0.1pc to 10,118pts

ABU DHABI 0.4pc to 5,102pts

EGYPT at 14,815pts

KUWAIT 0.4pc to 5,550pts

OMAN 0.4pc to 4,153pts

BAHRAIN 0.4pc to 1,413pts

The Department of State will again

recognise the European Union’s representation

in Washington as equivalent to that of a bilateral mission in the Diplomatic Corps Order

of Precedence

GORDON SONDLAND

THE US AMBASSADOR TO THE EU

US restores ‘valuable partner’ status of EUBrussels, Belgium

The United States said yesterday it has re-stored the EU’s mission

in Washington to its former status, calling the bloc one of “its most valuable partners” as their troubled trade talks are set to resume.

The US State Department lowered the European Union mission’s diplomatic status from member state to inter-national organisation late last year, in what was seen as a fur-ther blow to transatlantic ties.

“The Department of State will again recognise the Euro-pean Union’s representation in Washington as equivalent to that of a bilateral mission in the Diplomatic Corps Order of Precedence,” a statement from Gordon Sondland, the US am-bassador to the EU, said.

“The European Union is a uniquely important organisa-tion, and one of America’s most valuable partners in ensuring global security and prosperity,” Sondland said.

“Europe’s security and suc-cess are inextricably linked to

that of the United States, and this level of engagement and co-operation should be recognized appropriately in all settings.”

Maja Kocijancic, spokes-

woman for EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini, wel-comed the announcement.

“We are therefore pleased that the United States took the decision to revert to the usu-al practice,” Kocijancic told a briefing in Brussels.

The EU said in January it was in talks with US officials about the mission’s status after German broadcaster Deutsche Welle reported the downgrade.

Deutsche Welle said it only came to light when the EU am-bassador in Washington did not receive an invitation to the funeral of former US president George H.W. Bush in December.

Under US President Donald Trump, Europe’s once solid ties with the US have deteriorat-ed and last year Washington imposed tariffs on steel and aluminium from the EU and other partners.

EU trade commissioner Ce-cilia Malmstrom is to meet her US counterpart Robert Ligh-thizer on Wednesday in Wash-ington as the two sides seek a trade deal limited to industrial goods and avert threatened US auto tariffs.

Saudi market extends gains • Saudi’s Sipchem gains on completion of maintenance

• Alujain rises after update on fire in affiliate’s plant

• Takaful Emarat gains after FY cash dividend

• Egypt’s Talaat Mostafa up on higher real estate sales

Reuters

Saudi Arabian stocks regis-tered a fifth straight session of gains yesterday, ahead of

the market’s entry to the FTSE Russell’s emerging market index in a little more than two weeks, rising along with most major Middle Eastern markets.

The Saudi stock exchange ex-pects passive fund inflows of between $15 billion and $20bn this year as it gears up for inclu-sion in emerging market bench-marks, its chief executive said.

Saudi stocks will become the largest Middle East market in

the FTSE Emerging Index with an overall weighting of 2.7 per cent, according to index com-piler FTSE Russell.

The Saudi index rose 0.4pc yesterday, helped by petrochem-icals stocks, with Sipchem up 3.3pc in active trade after say-ing it completed maintenance activities for its polybutylene terephthalate plant.

Petrochemicals investor Alu-jain added 0.4pc after providing an update on a fire in its affili-ate’s plant.

The firm said it expects the plant to start operating in the first half from October 2019.

The Dubai index was flat, with Ajman Bank rising 1.9pc. UAE’s central bank approved cash divi-dends of 3.5pc of its capital.

Insurer Takaful Emarat rose 1.3pc, with the company propos-ing a full-year cash dividend of 7pc of its paid-up capital.

Dubai’s index is up 4.5pc this year, lifted by strong fourth-quarter results at real estate companies, though an expected weakness in property prices is capping gains.

Although Dubai was one of

the worst-performing markets globally last year, fund managers expressed optimism in the UAE.

Abu Dhabi’s index slid 0.4pc, weighed down by financial stocks.

Ras Al Khaimah Poultry and Feeding plunged 7.9pc while Sharjah Islamic Bank lost 5.8pc.

The Qatar index edged up by 0.1pc as Mesaieed Petrochem-ical rose 2.8pc and Qatar Gas Transport gained 2.3pc.

Egypt’s blue-chip index was flat, with Oriental Weavers slumping 5.1pc after a drop in its fourth-quarter net profit and sales.But Talaat Mostafa Group climbed 2.5pc after reporting real estate sales of 3.2bn Egyp-tian pounds ($183.07 million) in the first two months of the year, against 1.5bn pounds a year ago.

Saudi stock market (Courtesy of Emerging Market views)

Oil prices rise on deal hopes Reuters | London

Oil prices rose yesterday, buoyed by OPEC output

cuts and reports that the Unit-ed States and China are inching closer to a deal on a tariff row that has slowed global econom-ic growth. Brent crude futures were up 63 cents at $65.70 per barrel by 1313 GMT. U.S. West

Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures were up 55 cents at $56.35 per barrel.

The United States and Chi-na appear close to a deal that would roll back US tariffs on at least $200 billion worth of Chi-nese goods, as Beijing makes pledges on structural econom-ic changes and eliminates re-

taliatory tariffs on US goods, a source briefed on negotiations said on Sunday in Washington.

Supply from the OPEC fell to a four-year low in February, a sur-vey found, as top exporter Saudi and its allies over-delivered on the group’s supply pact while Venezuelan output registered a further involuntary decline.

Gold slips to five-week lowReuters

Gold fell to the lowest in more than five weeks

yesterday as the dollar held firm and investors opted for riskier assets on hopes of a thaw in a trade dispute.

Spot gold slid 0.6 per cent to $1,285.74 per ounce as of

1250 GMT, having earlier touched $1,284.50, its low-est since Jan. 25.

US gold futures were down almost 1pc at $1,286.70 an ounce. Gold tumbled 2.6pc last week, its biggest weekly fall in over 1-1/2 years.

“Increasing risk appetite is clearly a little negative for gold,” Julius Baer an-alyst Carsten Menke said. “We saw quite a bit of sell-ing on Friday as the dollar strengthened and that’s continuing today, putting some pressure on gold. The break below $1,300 (on Fri-day) also triggered some more selling from technical traders.”

Batelco, Interxion in deal for POP TDT | Manama

Batelco yesterday announced it has signed an agreement

with Interxion Holding NV, a leading European provider of carrier and cloud-neutral colo-cation data centre services, to deploy a new point of presence (POP) in Marseille, France.

The agreement was signed at Capacity Middle East 2019, which is taking place from March 4-7 at the Grand Hyatt, Dubai.

The signing of this agreement will enable the facilitation of route diversity via terrestrial and submarine cables as well as position Batelco as a regional provider for IP Transit service.

Commenting Batelco Chief Global Business Officer Adel Daylami said, “With the in-creased use of the internet, it is imperative that customers

are provided with reliable solu-tions allowing them to run their operations smoothly. Batelco is working to establish an exten-sive national and international infrastructure.”

Interxion Director of Market Development & Strategy Mike

Hollands said: “The growing number of content, gaming and cloud platforms present in our Marseille data centres will now enjoy enhanced access to Batel-co’s residential and enterprise customers in Bahrain and the Middle East.

Batelco signs deal for Marseille POP with Interxion at Capacity Middle East

Invita partners with Solidarity BahrainTDT | Manama

Bahrain-based Invita, an ISO 9001:2008 and PCI DSS v3.2

certified regional provider of Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) services, has signed a contract with Solidarity Bah-rain to manage the services of-fered by its contact center.

The move will produce a ded-icated team of agents who will be responsible for providing timely assistance to customers via telephone and being the first contact point to address their many needs.

Rahul Bhalla, CE, Invita stat-ed: “Our aim is to guarantee a pleasant and satisfying Contact Centre experience to customers and therefore ensure that cus-tomers are dealt with in an effi-cient and professional manner. We are indeed happy to extend

our services to the Insurance sector and grow our business within a variety of sectors

Jalal Aqelah, Digital Trans-formation Manager, Solidarity Bahrain commented: “As part of our continuous efforts to

enhance and uplift our com-munication channels towards elevating our customer’s expe-rience with Solidarity, we have launched our state-of-the-art call centre in collaboration with Invita.”

M o v i e R e v i e w

13 TUESDAY, MARCH 5, 2019

I, LINY SHEBA PHILIPOSE D/O. JOHN PHILIPOSE, holding Indian Passport No. H2332072 dated 05-04-2009 issued at BAHRAIN having permanent residence at JOHNSON S BUNGLOW, PALLICKAL EAST, PALLICKAL P.O, KOLLAM, KERALA, PIN. 691506. presently residing at FLAT NO.102, BLDG. NO. 2348, ROAD NO. 6375 , BLOCK NO. 363, BILAD AL QADEEM, BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given Name) LINY SHEBA (Surname) PHILIPOSE Objection(s), if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O. Box No. 26106, Bldg. 1090, Road 2819, Block 428, Al-Seef, Bahrain.

I, JYOTHISH EDAYATH THAZHA KUNIYIL S/O. ARAVINDAKSHAN , holding Indian Passport No. H5860603 dated 25-05-2009 issued at BAHRAIN having permanent residence at EDAYATH HOUSE , KURINHALIYODE P.O. KOZHIKODE DT, KERALA , PIN. 673542. presently residing at FLAT NO.16, BLDG. NO. 1305, ROAD NO. 2834 , BLOCK NO. 328, AL SUQAYYAH, BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given Name) JYOTHISH (Surname) EDAYATH THAZHA KUNIYIL Objection(s), if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O. Box No. 26106, Bldg. 1090, Road 2819, Block 428, Al-Seef, Bahrain.

I, SONU S/O. NARSINGH , holding Indian Passport No. M2072756 dated 09-09-2014 issued at LUCKNOW having permanent residence at VILL - MAHLA , POST. GHECHUA, SANT KABIR NAGAR , PIN. 272199, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA. presently residing at FLAT NO.13, BLDG. NO. 1729, ROAD NO. 750 , BLOCK NO. 707, TUBLI, BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given Name) SONU KUMAR (Surname) PRAJAPATI Objection(s), if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O. Box No. 26106, Bldg. 1090, Road 2819, Block 428, Al-Seef, Bahrain.

I, SURESH KURUVILA S/O. PLAKUZHYIL THARIYAN KURUVILA, holding Indian Passport No. M4526948 dated 25-02-2015 issued at BAHRAIN having permanent residence at PLAKUZHYIL PANDALAM, MUDIYURKONAM P.O, PATHANAMTHITTA DT, KERALA. presently residing at FLAT NO.102, BLDG. NO. 2348, ROAD NO. 6375 , BLOCK NO. 363, BILAD AL QADEEM, BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given Name) SURESH (Surname) KURUVILA Objection(s), if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O. Box No. 26106, Bldg. 1090, Road 2819, Block 428, Al-Seef, Bahrain.

CHANGE OF NAME

OASIS JUFFAIR1-FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (15+) (DRAMA/COME-DY/BIOGRAPHY) NEW

DWAYNE JOHNSON, FLORENCE PUGH, JACK LOWDENDAILY AT: 12.30 + 5.00 + 9.30 PM DAILY AT (VIP): 10.45 AM + 3.30 + 8.15 PM

2-TOTAL DHAMAAL (PG-13) (HINDI/COMEDY/ADVEN-TURE) NEW

AJAY DEVGN, MADHURI DIXIT, ANIL KAPOORFROM THURSDAY 21ST 7.00 PM ONWARDSDAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 PM + 12.00 MN

3-THE KNIGHT OF SHADOWS: BETWEEN YIN AND YANG (PG-13) (ACTION/COMEDY/FANTASY) NEW

JACKIE CHAN, ELANE ZHONG, ETHAN JUANDAILY AT: 2.45 + 7.15 + 11.45 PM

4-KIKORIKI. DEJAVU (G) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) NEW

DENIS CHERNOV, JEFFREY HYLTONDAILY AT(KIDS CINEMA): 10.45 AM + 2.45 PM

5-JUNE (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW JOJU GEORGE, RAJISHA VIJAYAN, SARJANO KHALID, ARJUN

ASOKANDAILY AT: 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PM

6-KODATHI SMAKSHAM BALAN VAKEEL (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW

DILEEP, MAMTA MOHANDAS, PRIYA ANANDDAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 2.15 + 5.15 + 8.15 + 11.15 PM

7-ALITA: BATTLE ANGEL (PG-15) (ACTION/ADVEN-TURE/ROMANTIC)

ROSA SALAZAR, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, JENNIFER CONNELLYDAILY AT: 1.15 + 6.30 + 11.45 PM DAILY AT (VIP): 1.00 + 5.45 + 10.30 PM

8-GULLY BOY (PG-15) (HINDI/DRAMA/MUSICAL) ALIA BHAT, RANVEER SINGH, SIDDHANT CHATURVEDI

DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PM

9-THE LEGO MOVIE 2 (G) (ANIMATION/ACTION/AD-VENTURE/COMEDY)

CHRIS PRATT, ELIZABETH BANKS, WILL ARNETTDAILY AT (KIDS CINEMA): 12.30 + 4.30 + 9.00 PM

10-SPIDER MAN INTO THE SPIDER VERSE (PG) (ANI-MATION/ACTION/ADVENTURE)

HAILEE STEINFELD, NICOLAS CAGE, MAHERSHALA ALIDAILY AT (KIDS CINEMA): 6.45 + 11.15 PM

11-URI: THE SURGICAL STRIKE (15+) (HINDI/ACTION/DRAMA)

VICKY KAUSHAL, KIRTI KULHARI, PARESH RAWALDAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 3.45 + 9.00 PM

12- KUMBALANGI NIGHT (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) FAHADH FAASIL, SHANE NIGAM, SOUBIN SHAHIR

DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.45 + 5.45 + 8.45 + 11.45 PM

13-9 (PG-15) (MALAYALAM) PRITHVIRAJ SUKUMARAN, PRAKASH RAJ, MAMTA

MOHANDASDAILY AT: 2.00 + 8.00 PM

14-PERANBU (PG-15) (TAMIL) MAMMOOTTY, SADHANA, ANJALI

DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 5.00 + 11.00 PM

CITYCENTRE1- FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (15+) (DRAMA/COME-DY/BIOGRAPHY) NEW

DWAYNE JOHNSON, FLORENCE PUGH, JACK LOWDENDAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 PM + 12.00 MN + (12.45 MN THURS/FRI)DAILY AT (VIP II): 11.45 AM + 2.00 + 4.15 + 6.30 + 8.45 + 11.00 PM

2- TOTAL DHAMAAL (PG-13) (HINDI/COMEDY/ADVEN-TURE) NEW

AJAY DEVGN, MADHURI DIXIT, ANIL KAPOORFROM THURSDAY 21ST 7.00 PM ONWARDSDAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.45 + 6.30 + 9.15 PM + 12.00 MN

3- DUMPLIN (15+) (COMEDY/DRAMA) NEW DANIELLE MACDONALD, JENNIFER ANISTON,

LUKE BENWARDDAILY AT: 12.00 + 2.15 + 4.30 + 6.45 + 9.00 + 11.15 PM

4- UPGRADE (15+) (ACTION/THRILLER) NEW LOGAN MARSHALL-GREEN, RICHARD ANASTASIOS, ROSCO

CAMPBELLDAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.00 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 7.00 + 9.00 + 11.00 PM

5- THE KNIGHT OF SHADOWS: BETWEEN YIN AND YANG (PG-13) (ACTION/COMEDY/FANTASY) NEW *- JACKIE CHAN, ELANE ZHONG, ETHAN JUAN

DAILY AT: 12.15 + 2.30 + 4.45 + 7.00 + 9.15 + 11.30 PM + (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)


ROSA SALAZAR, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, JENNIFER CONNELLYDAILY AT (IMAX 3D): 2.15 + 7.00 + 11.45 PMDAILY AT: 12.15 + 2.45 + 5.15 + 7.45 + 10.15 PM + (12.45 MN THURS/FRI)


DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PM

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

DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 PM + 12.00 MN + (12.45 MN THURS/FRI)DAILY AT (VIP I): 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PM

9-HAPPY DEATH DAY 2U (PG-15) (THRILLER/COMEDY/CRIME)

JESSICA ROTHE, RUBY MODINE, PHI VUDAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 12.45 + 2.45 + 4.45 + 6.45 + 8.45 + 10.45 PM

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

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

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

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


CHRIS PRATT, ELIZABETH BANKS, WILL ARNETTDAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 PMDAILY AT (IMAX 2D): 12.00 + 4.45 + 9.30 PM

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

DAILY AT: 12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PM

14-AQUAMAN (PG-15) (ACTION/ADVENTURE) JASON MOMOA, AMBER HEARD, NICOLE KIDMAN

DAILY AT: 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PM

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

ROWAN ATKINSON, OLGA KURYLENKO, EMMA THOMPSONDAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 3.00 + 7.15 + 11.30 PM

16-HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (PG) (ANIMATION/ACTION/ADVENTURE)

CATE BLANCHETT, JONAH HILL, GERARD BUTLERDAILY AT: 2.15 + 6.30 + 10.45 PM

17-RALPH BREAKS THE INTERNET (PG) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY)

JOHN C. REILLY, SARAH SILVARMAN, GAL GADOT DAILY AT: 12.45 + 5.00 + 9.15 PM

18-THE PRODIGY (18+) (THRILLER/HORROR)

TAYLOR SCHILLING, JACKSON ROBERT SCOTT, PETER MOONEY

DAILY AT: 9.45 + 11.45 PM

19-SPIDER MAN INTO THE SPIDER VERSE (PG) (ANI-MATION/ACTION/ADVENTURE)

HAILEE STEINFELD, NICOLAS CAGE, MAHERSHALA ALIDAILY AT: 12.00 + 4.15 + 8.30 PM

SEEF (II)1 FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (15+) (DRAMA/COME-DY/BIOGRAPHY) NEW

DWAYNE JOHNSON, FLORENCE PUGH, JACK LOWDENDAILY AT: 12.15 + 2.30 + 4.45 + 7.00 + 9.15 + 11.30 PM

2- TOTAL DHAMAAL (PG-13) (HINDI/COMEDY/ADVEN-TURE) NEW

AJAY DEVGN, MADHURI DIXIT, ANIL KAPOORFROM THURSDAY 21ST 7.00 PM ONWARDSDAILY AT: (12.30 MN THURS/FRI)

3-DUMPLIN (15+) (COMEDY/DRAMA) NEW DANIELLE MACDONALD, JENNIFER ANISTON, LUKE

BENWARDDAILY AT: 1.00 + 5.15 + 9.30 PM

4- UPGRADE (15+) (ACTION/THRILLER) NEW LOGAN MARSHALL-GREEN, RICHARD ANASTASIOS,

ROSCO CAMPBELLDAILY AT: 12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 PM + 12.00 MN

5- THE KNIGHT OF SHADOWS: BETWEEN YIN AND YANG (PG-13) (ACTION/COMEDY/FANTASY) NEW

JACKIE CHAN, ELANE ZHONG, ETHAN JUANDAILY AT: (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)

6-WHAT THEY HAD (PG-15) (DRAMA) NEW HILARY SWANK, MICHAEL SHANNEN, ROBERT FORSTER

DAILY AT: 1.00 + 5.00 + 9.00 PM

7-THEN CAME YOU (PG-15) (COMEDY/ROMANTIC/DRAMA) NEW

NINA DOBREV, MAISIE WILLIAMS, ASA BUTTERFIELDDAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 3.15 + 7.30 + 11.45 PM

8- KIKORIKI. DEJAVU (G) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) NEW

DENIS CHERNOV, JEFFREY HYLTONDAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 1.00 + 2.45 + 4.30 PM

9-TIME OUT (PG-15) (ARABIC/COMEDY/ROMANTIC) NEW

MAGUY BOU GHOSN, YORGO CHALHOUB, WISSAM SABBAGHDAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 3.00 + 7.00 + 11.00 PM

10-ALONE / TOGETHER (PG-15) (FILIPINO/ROMANTIC/DRAMA) NEW

LIZA SOBERANO, ENRIQUE GIL, JASMINE CURTISDAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM


ROSA SALAZAR, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, JENNIFER CONNELLYDAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 PM + 12.00 MN


DAILY AT: 12.00 + 3.00 + 6.00 + 9.00 PM + 12.00 MN


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

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

DAILY AT: 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PM


CHRIS PRATT, ELIZABETH BANKS, WILL ARNETTDAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 4.00 + 8.15 PM

16-HOW TO TRAIN YOUR DRAGON: THE HIDDEN WORLD (PG) (ANIMATION/ACTION/ADVENTURE)

CATE BLANCHETT, JONAH HILL, GERARD BUTLERDAILY AT: 2.00 + 6.15 + 10.30 PM

SEEF (I) 1- TOTAL DHAMAAL (PG-13) (HINDI/COMEDY/ADVEN-TURE) NEW

AJAY DEVGN, MADHURI DIXIT, ANIL KAPOORFROM THURSDAY 21ST 7.00 PM ONWARDSDAILY AT: 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PM


JACKIE CHAN, ELANE ZHONG, ETHAN JUANDAILY AT: 12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PM

3- KODATHI SMAKSHAM BALAN VAKEEL (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW

DILEEP, MAMTA MOHANDAS, PRIYA ANANDDAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.45 + 5.45 + 8.45 + 11.45 PM

4-JUNE (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW JOJU GEORGE, RAJISHA VIJAYAN, SARJANO KHALID,

ARJUN ASOKANDAILY AT: 12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + 11.15 PM

5- KANNE KALAIMAANE (PG-13) (TAMIL) NEW UDHAYANIDHI STALIN, TAMANNAH

FROM FRIDAY 22ND DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 4.00 + 9.00 PM

6-L.K.G (PG-13) (TAMIL) NEW RJ BALAJI, PRIYA ANAND

FROM FRIDAY 22ND DAILY AT: 1.30 + 6.30 + 11.30 PM

7- KUMBALANGI NIGHT (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) FAHADH FAASIL, SHANE NIGAM, SOUBIN SHAHIR

DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 PM

SAAR1-FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (15+) (DRAMA/COME-DY/BIOGRAPHY) NEW

DWAYNE JOHNSON, FLORENCE PUGH, JACK LOWDENDAILY AT: 12.00 + 2.15 + 4.30 + 6.45 + 9.00 + (11.15 PM THURS/FRI)


AJAY DEVGN, MADHURI DIXIT, ANIL KAPOORFROM THURSDAY 21ST 7.00 PM ONWARDS

DAILY AT: 12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + (11.15 PM THURS/FRI)


JACKIE CHAN, ELANE ZHONG, ETHAN JUANDAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 1.00 + 6.15 + (11.30 PM THURS/FRI)


ROSA SALAZAR, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, JENNIFER CONNELLYDAILY AT: 6.00 + 8.30 + (11.00 PM THURS/FRI)


DAILY AT: 3.15 + 8.30 PM


CHRIS PRATT, ELIZABETH BANKS, WILL ARNETTDAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 1.30 + 3.45 PM

AL HAMRA1- KODATHI SMAKSHAM BALAN VAKEEL (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW

DILEEP, MAMTA MOHANDAS, PRIYA ANANDDAILY AT: 3.00 + 9.00 PM + (12.00 MN THURS/FRI)

2-JUNE (PG-13) (MALAYALAM) NEW JOJU GEORGE, RAJISHA VIJAYAN, SARJANO KHALID,

ARJUN ASOKANDAILY AT: 12.00 + 6.00 PM

WADI AL SAIL1-FIGHTING WITH MY FAMILY (15+) (DRAMA/COME-DY/BIOGRAPHY) NEW

DWAYNE JOHNSON, FLORENCE PUGH, JACK LOWDENDAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.00 + 4.15 + 6.30 + 8.45 + 11.00 PM


AJAY DEVGN, MADHURI DIXIT, ANIL KAPOORFROM THURSDAY 21ST 7.00 PM ONWARDSDAILY AT: 12.45 + 3.30 + 6.15 + 9.00 + 11.45 PM

3-UPGRADE (15+) (ACTION/THRILLER) NEW LOGAN MARSHALL-GREEN, RICHARD ANASTASIOS, ROSCO

CAMPBELLDAILY AT: 7.45 + 9.45 + 11.45 PM


JACKIE CHAN, ELANE ZHONG, ETHAN JUANDAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.00 + 4.15 + 6.30 + 8.45 + 11.00 PM

5- KIKORIKI. DEJAVU (G) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) NEW

DENIS CHERNOV, JEFFREY HYLTONDAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 1.15 PM


ROSA SALAZAR, CHRISTOPH WALTZ, JENNIFER CONNELLYDAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 1.15 + 3.45 + 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PM

7-GULLY BOY (PG-15) (HINDI/DRAMA/MUSICAL) NEW ALIA BHAT, RANVEER SINGH, SIDDHANT CHATURVEDI

DAILY AT: 3.00 + 8.30 PM


DAILY AT: 6.00 + 11.30 PM


CHRIS PRATT, ELIZABETH BANKS, WILL ARNETTDAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 1.00 + 3.15 + 5.30 PM

Sonchiriya: A stark, stirring tale of rebels

Sonchiriya (transl. Great In-dian bustard) is a 2019 In-dian action film directed by

Abhishek Chaubey and starring Sushant Singh Rajput, Bhumi Pednekar, Manoj Bajpayee, Ran-vir Shorey and Ashutosh Rana. The film presents a rooted tale set in Chambal.

The film was released on 1

March 2019 to 720 screens in In-dia and 220 screens in overseas circuit, making it 940 screens worldwide.

The critic giving positive review find the film gripping, tense and unpredictable.As per Rotten Tomatoes, the film has scored 67% based on 6 reviews with average rating of 6.33/10.

Raja Sen reviewing the film in Hindustan Times rated the film with three stars out of five. He liked the lead cast in role of ban-dits but feels that the slow pace kept the film from becoming a great film.

Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV gave it three and half stars out of five and praising the acting

of the whole cast he says “Cast Live And Breathe Their Roles”.Renuka Vyavahare writing for The Times of India gave three and half stars out of five and writes “Gripping, tense and unpredictable, despite being a slow-burn western, Chaubey’s period thriller makes for a riv-eting watch.”

Taran Adarsh giving three and half stars out of five feels that it is a very well-made film but caters to a niche audience.Anu-pama Chopra of Film Compan-ion gives three stars out of five and summarise the review as “A Stunningly Shot, Masterfully Staged Fusion Of Caste, Violence And Jungle Law.”

The music of the film has been composed by Vishal Bhardwaj, while the lyrics have been writ-ten by Varun Grover except two songs “Naina Na Maar” (lyrics By Traditional and recreate by Ashok Mizaj Badr) and “The Daaku Anthem” (lyrics By Ab-hishek Nailwal and music by Ketan Sodha).

A scene from ‘Sonchiriya’

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Tommy Hilfiger in awe of Zendaya

Los Angeles

Designer Tommy Hilfiger says actress Zendaya is passionate about causes that are close to

her heart, and he is happy that she uses her platform to inspire millions of fans around the world.

“Zendaya is passionate about caus-es that are close to her heart. She uses her platform to inspire mil-lions of fans around the world,” Hilfiger said in a statement.

The designer got a chance to work with the actress on the Tommy x Zendaya capsule collection.

“Her strong set of val-ues and incredible style truly speak to the spirit of the brand and comes out across the TommyXZendaya collaborative collection,” Hilfiger added.

Hilfiger travelled to Paris with Zendaya to celebrate their collab-

oration inspired by 1970s icons and the 1973 Bat-tle of Versailles fash-ion show. The Tom-myNow runway show took place last week, showcasing the Spring 2 0 1 9 TommyXZendaya collaborative collection at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees.

The event built on the success of Tommy

Hilfiger’s signature “See Now, Buy Now ” format, and runway looks were immediately

available across an eco-system of shoppable chan-

nels in more than 70 countries.Opening up about her

mantra as a designer, Ze-ndaya said: “I’ve learned about what it really takes to make a gar-ment. Even something as simple as a plain white tee takes so much more time...every job is crucial.”

Jessica Simpson returns home after hospitalisation for fourth timeLos Angeles

Singer Jessica Simpson says after hospitalisa-tion -- her fourth time

in two months -- she is now back at home.

The 38-year-old revealed on Instagram that she was back home after a week in the hospital, eonline.com reported on Sunday.

She shared a p h o -to of her-s e l f

wear-i n g a breathing mask over her mouth and a fuzzy leopard-print jacket.

“After a week in the hospital for bronchitis (my fourth time in two months), I’m finally

home,” she wrote.“Coughing with Birdie

has been a crazy painful journey. I am slowly get-ting healthier every day.”

The Prodigy singer Keith Flint dead at 49Los Angeles

Keith Flint, the singer and iconic frontman

of British rave scene band The Prodigy, has died at the age of 49, the electron-ic pop group said.

Police said they were not treating the death as suspi-cious after finding his body on Monday in Essex, northeast of London.

“We attended and, sad-ly, a 49-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene. His next of kin have been informed,” Es-sex Police told AFP.

Ben Affleck admits he ‘still loves’ Jennifer Garner Los Angeles

Be n A f -

fleck is o p e n i n g up about his alcohol ad-diction — and how fortunate he feels to have ex-wife Jen-nifer Garner as the mother of his three children.

In a candid interview alongside his Triple Fron-tier costar Charlie Hun-nam on Monday’s Today, Affleck told Hoda Kotb that it “doesn’t really bother” him to talk about his sobri-ety journey.

Kendall, Kylie Jenner

excited to have handbag line in India

Los Angeles

Reality TV stars and models Kendall and Kylie Jenner are happy to have introduced their handbag line in India.

They have recently introduced KENDALL + KYLIE handbags at selective outlets of multi-brand retail store Shoppers Stop in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Kolkata, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur and Ahmedabad.

“The handbag designs exude opulence and a classic aesthetic, with a variety of waist pouches, wristlets, slings, totes, fanny packs and backpacks that are per-fect for any occasion,” Kendall and Kylie said in a joint statement.

“One style that is sure to catch your eye is the bum bag -- also known as the fanny pack -- which

happens to be our favourite! The nostalgic 1980s look has been modernised over the years and

is a luxe option for hands-free styling, per-fect for wrapping around your waist or

slinging over your shoulder. It’s the perfect accessory to any outfit,”

they added.

Paris Hilton has no time for loveLos Angeles

Socialite Paris Hilton says she does not have time for love right now as she

is too busy to find a man and settle down.

The 38-year-old broke of f her engagement to actor Chris Zylka in

November last year, 11 months after he popped the question.

“I don’t have time for

love right now. I hardly have time for myself. I am constantly travelling over 250 days a year, never home hardly, just focusing on myself, my business and my friends,” Hilton told mirror.co.uk.

“There is always a lot of guys every-where, always. When I am ready, the most important thing is loyalty, someone who is your best friend and who you can trust and who loves you for you. When you know you know. But I don’t know yet.”

Katy Perry reveals how she met Orlando BloomLos Angeles

Katy Perry recounted the details of how she met her fiancee during the

premiere of ‘American Idol’ on Sunday.

Perry jumped with enthusi-asm when one of the contestants

said that she works at a fast food joint called In-N-Out burgers in Las Vegas and asked the people present if she could tell every-one about an incident “that’s so sweet” reported People.

Perry went on to tell everyone how she met her now fiancee, Orlando Bloom the first time.

Luke Perry, actor and Beverly Hills 90210 star, dies aged 52Los Angeles

Actor

L u k e P e r -ry, best k n o w n for his roles on TV shows Beverly Hills, 90210 and Riverdale, died on Mon-day at the age of 52 after suffering a massive stroke last week.

A representative for the actor released a statement on Monday afternoon.

“Actor Luke Perry, 52, passed away today after suffering a mas-sive stroke,” the state-ment reads. “He was surrounded by his chil-dren Jack and Sophie, fi-ancé Wendy Madison Bau-er, ex-wife Minnie Sharp, m o t h e r A n n B e n n e t t , step-father Steve Bennett, brother Tom Perry, sister Amy Coder, and other close family and friends.”

The star was taken to hospital in Burbank, Cal-ifornia, on Wednesday last week after suffering a stroke at home in Sherman Oaks, on the outskirts of Los Angeles.

Timberlake calls wife ‘most wonderful human’

Los Angeles

Singer-actor Justin Tim-berlake honoured his wife Jessica Biel on her

birthday by calling her the “most wonderful human”.

Biel turned 37 on Sunday and the singer posted a mix of throwback and current photo-graphs from their relationship on Instagram, reports eonline.com.

They include pictures of them smiling in a car, posing together like teens at prom and driving in a convertible.

There’s even one of Tim-berlake dressed up in an outfit making him look like a Roman emperor.

“My partner in this thang called life... you are the most wonderful human I have ever met,” he wrote.

“You make me smile, laugh, and love life more than I knew I could. I cherish every mo-ment with you and can’t wait to spend so many more years doing the same... but, new.”

He concluded: “Happy Birthday, you God of all smoke shows! Love, your Huz.”

Tommy Hilfiger Jessica Simpson

Keith Flint

Luke Perry

Katy Perry and Orlando Bloom

Paris Hilton

Kendall and Kylie

Jenner

Ben Affleck

Zendaya

Jessica Bieland Justin Timberlake

15

sports


Juve inch closer to title Juventus extend Serie A lead to 16 points with hard-fought win over Napoli

AFP | Rome

Juventus closed all talk of a challenge to their Serie A dominance after coming

through a second-half onslaught at Napoli to win 2-1 in an en-grossing match that saw each side have a man sent off and stretch their lead at the top to a huge 16 points.

Massimiliano Allegri’s un-beaten leaders have now as good as sealed their eighth straight Serie A title after a match that looked dead at half-time with Juve two goals and a man up, but sparked back into life when goalscorer Miralem Pjanic was sent off for handling a Napoli pass and picking up a second yellow card just after the break.

“I fell asleep, I should have replaced Pjanic when he had the first card. He was at risk, but I didn’t expect him to han-dle,” said Allegri, whose future at Juve is uncertain after what will be five seasons in Turin.

“I already said we’ll sit down to talk about this season and the next. I am very happy to be at Juventus.”

Midfielder Pjanic swept home his free-kick opener in the 28th minute, which came immedi-ately after Napoli were reduced to 10 men thanks to goalkeeper Alex Meret slicing down Cris-tiano Ronaldo after the Portu-guese nipped in to intercept a terrible Kevin Malcuit backpass.

Emre Can added the second from a corner 11 minutes later after substitute David Ospina tipped away Pjanic’s stinging shot, but the Bosnian’s red card

gave Napoli a glimmer of hope.They were back in the game

in the 61st minute when Jose Callejon tapped home a pinpoint Lorenzo Insigne cross, and then piled the pressure on a suddenly creaking Juve, with Piotr Zielin-ski twice forcing fine saves from countryman Wojciech Szczesny.

It looked as though the hosts were set to launch a final assault when they were given a penalty six minutes before the end for a controversial handball decision against Alex Sandro given by VAR, only for Insigne to crash his spot-kick against the post and

let the champions off the hook.

Italy remembers Astori As elsewhere across Serie A

this weekend, play at the Stadio San Paolo stopped in the 13th minute to honour the memory of deceased former Italy inter-national Davide Astori, with fans of both sides applauding the ex-Fiorentina captain, who died in his sleep aged just 31 on March 4 last year.

Astori’s name was chanted by fans of AC Milan, where he came through as a youth player, during a 1-0 win over Sassuolo

on Saturday that took Genn-aro Gattuso’s side third and a point above Inter, who lost 2-1 at Cagliari amid a public contract dispute with absent star striker Mauro Icardi.

But the most emotional scenes came during Fiorentina’s 3-1 de-feat at Atalanta, who kept their hopes of Champions League football alive thanks to goals from Josip Ilicic, Alejandro Gomez and Robin Gosens.

Atalanta playmaker Ilicic, who played alongside Astori at Fiorentina, broke down in tears when played stopped, while

away fans held up “Astori” signs and the home fans showed ap-preciation for a player born and raised in the province of Berga-mo, where the hosts are based.

“This situation has taken over a huge part of us this week. To-morrow we will close to his family as we have been for the last year,” said Fiorentina coach Stefano Pioli.

Gian Piero Gasperini’s flam-boyant Atalanta are six points behind fourth-placed Inter Mi-lan after winning the second spectacular clash with Fioren-tina in a matter of days after their thrilling 3-3 Coppa Italia semi-final draw midweek.

They are level on 41 points with Lazio, 3-0 winners over Roma in Saturday’s Rome derby, and Torino, who beat rock-bot-tom Chievo by the same score on Sunday. Two points further back are Sampdoria, thanks to 36-year-old Fabio Quagliarella joining Ronaldo at the top of the scoring charts with 19 goals following a brace in his side’s 2-1 win at struggling SPAL.

Cristiano Ronaldo of Juventus in action during the Serie A match between Napoli and Juventus

KNOW

BETTER

Juventus all-but-sealed their eighth

straight Serie A title after winning 2-1 at

Napoli to go 16 points clear at the top

BOC conducts management course

TDT | Manama

A post-graduate sports management diploma

course, organized by the Bahrain Olympic Acad-emy in cooperation with the International Olym-pic Committee’s Olympic Solidariy Programme, got underway at K Hotel in Juffair.

Bahrain Olympic Com-mittee sports affairs execu-tive director Abduljalil Asad inaugurated the course, which was also attended by academy director Dr Nabeel Taha, Olympic Solidarity manager Maryam Marda-na and participants from national sports clu9s and federations.

Asad welcomed the at-tendees and thanked them for taking part in this course, which is in line with the programmes offered by the committee in an attempt to develop and qualify na-tional competencies in the field of sport.

Balotelli posts goal celebration video on social media mid-matchAFP | Paris

Mario Balotelli showed off a new goal celebration on

Sunday as he took a selfie video with his Marseille teammates and posted it on social media during their 2-0 win over Saint-Etienne.

The Italian scored his fourth goal in six Ligue 1 games since joining Marseille from Nice in January by hooking home Florian Thauvin’s 12th-minute corner with an excellent acro-batic volley.

“Balotelli takes the pressure, he takes the limelight. He re-minds me of (Zlatan) Ibrahi-movic and he scored an Ibrahi-movic goal,” said Saint-Etienne coach Jean-Louis Gasset.

“He has brought back the public, the confidence, and many of his teammates will raise their level of play.”

As he celebrated his volley, Balotelli took a phone from the cameraman behind the goal be-fore filming the video with his laughing teammates and post-ing it on his Instagram story.

The 28-year-old then carried on playing.

He was not the first player to produce a selfie-based celebra-tion, after Roma great Frances-co Totti took a picture of him-self after scoring against Lazio in the capital-city derby in 2015.

Marseille doubled their ad-vantage nine minutes later through a Thauvin penalty and closed out the win with ease.

Rudi Garcia’s men have now taken 13 points from their last five league matches to leap-frog Saint-Etienne into fourth, just five points adrift of Lyon in

the race for the third and final Champions League spot.

Earlier on Sunday, Mous-sa Dembele scored twice as Lyon thrashed Toulouse 5-1 to strengthen their grip on a top-three spot.

Bruno Genesio’s Lyon, who are also through to the French Cup semi-finals and claimed a 0-0 first-leg draw in the Cham-pions League last 16 against Barcelona, continued their strong season by moving six points clear of fourth-placed Saint-Etienne.

Mario Balotelli films himself with teammates after scoring for Marseille in the win against Saint-Etienne

Formula 2 and Porsche GT3 Cup to support F1 at Bahrain GP

TDT | Manama

Motorsport fans can enjoy plenty of top-class rac-

ing at the Formula 1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix 2019.

The sporting and entertain-ment spectacle takes place March 28 to 31 at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) in Sakhir as the second round of the 2019 FIA Formula 1 World Championship.

Formula 1 action will be complemented on track by a pair of support series in the FIA Formula 2 Championship and the Porsche GT3 Cup Chal-lenge Middle East, ensuring “Limitless” on-track action.

Formula 2 is widely accept-ed to be the chief feeder series to Formula 1, with many of its graduates moving on to the top flight after honing their skills

at this level.Formula 2 will be staging

the opening round of its 2019 season in Bahrain.

The new campaign is set to feature 12 meetings in all, with each weekend running in conjunction with a Formula 1 Grand Prix.

There are 20 cars represent-ing 10 teams on the grid.

Meanwhile, the Porsche GT3 Cup Challenge Middle East is the biggest and most popular one-make motor racing cham-pionship in the entire region.

It has been the number one choice of the Arab world’s most promising circuit racing drivers to broaden their racing experience in a professional-ly run series. Drivers race in identical Porsche GT3 Cup Car 911s, supplied by the founders from Lechner Racing.

Matrix edge Santy TDT | Manama

Matrix beat Santy by 115 runs in a CBA Division

D 25 overs League match.Matrix won the toss and

elected to bat first. Opener Danushke’s brilliant cen-tury helped matrix to put a huge total of 266 at the end of 25 overs. He scored 141 runs in 72 balls includ-ing ten 4’s and nine 6’s and was well supported by Pri-yesh (66) who scored a half century. Both of them put a 177 runs partnership for the second wicket.

Chasing the target, Santy Excavation wound up for 151 runs. Noman (45) was the top scorer for their side. Shyju and Vijeesh took two wickets each for Matrix as they won the match by 115 runsBrief Score: Matrix 266/5 in 25 overs (Danushke 141, Priyesh 66) beat Santy Ex-cavation 151/10 (Noman 45, Valeed 40, Shuju 2/9) by 115 runs Other Matches Score:

Karnataka Strikers 206/9 in 25 overs (Sohaib 40, Rajesh 31, Shubam 4/48, Raghav 3/34) beat Bahrain Hawks 122/9 (Satinder 35, Sharma 3/19) by 84 runs

NDC Bahrain 123/4 in 16 overs (Siva 27, Rahul 27, Sumith 2/28) beat COLTS CA 122/7 (Vidhya 36) by 6 wickets

Spartans 115/2 in 14.3 overs (Shahin 41, Shoaib 27) beat Shafiq Glass 114/10 (Maher 30, Jahangir 4/24) by 8 wickets

Friends XI 120/6 in 17.5 overs (Umer 33, Grant 2/3) beat Black Feather 119/10 (Sam 56, Abdullah 3/14) by 4 wickets

Tornado A 72/9 in 15.2 overs (Nidhin 12, Waqas 3/6, Sameer 3/13) beat GT Abdu-laal 71/10 (Samer 30, Sham 3/9) by 1 wicket

Action from a previous Porsche GT3 Cup race at BIC

Rooney’s DC United blank defending MLS champs AtlantaAFP | Washington

Paul Arriola and Luciano Acosta scored while for-

mer England star Wayne Rooney picked up an assist Sunday as DC United defeat-ed reigning Major League Soccer champion Atlanta United 2-0.

A steady rain drenched the players in the American capital in the 2019 season opener for both clubs.

US striker Paul Arriola scored seconds into first-half stoppage time after a Rooney cross and Acosta’s left-footed shot that squirt-ed through defenders.

The ball landed in front of Arriola, who blasted home his ninth career MLS goal for a 1-0 DC United half-time lead.

City ‘much better’ than last year: GuardiolaAFP | London

Pep Guardiola says Man-chester City are playing

“much better” than during last year’s record-breaking campaign and his players should not be regarded as losers even if Liverpool pip them to the Premier League title.

City are favourites to re-tain their crown after Sat-urday’s 1-0 win at Bourne-mouth and Sunday’s goal-less Merseyside derby left them a point ahead of Jur-gen Klopp’s Reds with nine matches remaining.

“In the way we play, we play much, much better (than last season),” Guardi-ola said. “Everybody knows exactly what we have to do, everybody helps each other. And when this happens, we can compete and if we lose, we lose, but no regrets.

“I know in our society just the first one has the credit and the second one is an absolute loser. But it is im-possible to feel that about my players, it’s impossible.”


Kane: Spurs must step up when pressure is on

AFP | London

Harry Kane says Tottenham Hot-spur need to start

delivering when the pres-sure is at its most intense

if they are to take the final step and become trophy winners.

Mauricio Pochettino has led Spurs towards the top of the English game, chal-lenging for league titles and

domestic cups during his spell of nearly five years at the helm,

but they have so far failed to land silverware.

The club have a tendency to

fall short when it really matters and Kane knows that has been holding them back.

There was more evidence of that last week as they lost back-to-back Premier League games against Burn-ley and Chelsea before drawing at home to Arsenal -- when they had been in a position to put themselves firmly back in the title picture.

“The thing for us now, kind of like this week, when the pressure is on and we need to step up, we need to find a way to get it done,” the Eng-land captain said.

“We haven’t done that in recent years, we haven’t done that this week and that will be the difference. That is the turning point that we need to try and achieve.”

Pochettino said last week that Spurs’ shortcomings meant it could be another five years before they

were putting serious silverware in their trophy cabinet.

Kane hopes it will not take that long, but also accepts his side have some catching up to do.

“I don’t think it’s far away but I think what the gaffer was saying was it’s not a guarantee that if you

improve you are still going to win things,” Kane said.

“Every team is improving, every team is strengthening, every team is getting better year-by-year so it’s important for us that we don’t fall behind that.”

Spurs have a chance to make progress in the Champions League when they head to Borussia Dort-mund for Tuesday’s last-16 second leg with a 3-0 advantage.

“It’s not going to be easy, but it’s down to us to put a performance in and we will never have a better chance to get to a quarter-final,” he said.

“I wouldn’t say we are one of the favourites to go and win it. I think we have shown in certain games, like this year and last year against Real Madrid and Barcelona, that we can beat big teams.”

The thing for us now, kind of like this week,

when the pressure is on and we need to step up, we need to find a way to

get it doneHARRY KANE

Ryan Giggs backs Solskjaer to stay on at UnitedAFP | Johannesburg, South Africa

Former Manchester United star Ryan Giggs backed

acting boss Ole Gunnar Solsk-jaer yesterday to permanently take the Old Trafford top job but called their upcoming Champions League fixture against PSG a “big ask”.“I can’t see anyone past Ole at the

moment. The record they’ve had in the league has been phenomenal,” Giggs said at a Champions League trophy tour event in Johannesburg.

“It’s a tough league and to put together the run that he’s done, it’s impressive. The Liverpool game, OK it wasn’t one of the best performances but they dug out a result.”

United will face an uphill struggle on Wednesday when they confront an in-vigorated Paris side who lead them 2-0.

“With the injuries we’ve got, the po-sition we’re in, going to Paris is a tough place to go,” Giggs told AFP.

“Away from home has been -- and

they’ve been fine at Old Trafford -- but the really impressive performances have been away from home.

“The players they’ve got are suited to playing away from home.

“It’s a tough ask, but not impossible.”Giggs, who along with Phil and Gary

Neville, David Beckham and Paul Scholes was part of United’s celebrated ‘92 vin-tage, now coaches Wales.

Winger Giggs stepped straight from the pitch into United’s backroom staff as a player-coach assistant to David Moyes in 2013.

When Moyes was sacked, Giggs took over as caretaker boss until the end of the season, before moving fully into coaching at the club under Louis van Gaal.

‘Football has a big responsibility’ Giggs described the Champions

League title race “as the openest season I’ve seen for a long time”.

“There’s still four English clubs left. You’ve got the usual Barcelona, Real Ma-drid hanging about (and) Juventus, who I think a lot of people strongly fancied at the beginning,” he said.

“If PSG go on to beat United I fancy PSG

to do well. Atletico (Madrid) look strong and were in a good position against Ju-ventus.

“I think it’s really open -- it’s tough to

pick out one team.” Giggs, whose paternal grandfather is

from Sierra Leone and identifies as bi-ra-cial, said a recent run of racist incidents in top-flight European football was “not just a football issue”.

Several prominent fixtures have been marred by the throwing of banana skins and anti-Semitic chanting in recent months.

“Until you address it socially, you’re not going to get it out of football. But football does a lot of great work... I think football has a big responsibility,” he said.

Giggs said he was “all for VAR” follow-ing the introduction of video assistant referee technology for the first time in the Champions League.

“There’s gonna be some teething prob-lems, I think what they’ve got to address is the speed. When you’re a fan, not knowing what’s going on at the stadium, you need to address that,” he said.

“But you’re not going to get every one right, a lot of it is (subjective).”

The Champions League had its first contentious VAR use on February 20 when Atletico Madrid took on Juventus, winning 2-0.

Former Manchester United teammates, Ryan Giggs (L) and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer chat ahead of a charity football match (file photo)

After completing century, Federer rises in rankingsAFP | Paris

Roger Federer’s 100th title lifted him three places to

fourth in the ATP rankings yes-terday.

Stefanos Tsitsipas, the beaten finalist as Federer made history in Dubai also inched up. The Greek climbed one place into the top 10.

Gael Monfils, a beaten semi-fi-nalist, jumped four places and

back into the top 20 at 19.The biggest mover in the

men’s rankings was mercurial Australian Nick Kyrgios who beat two top three players, No. 2 Rafael Nadal and No. 3 Alexan-der Zverev as well as No. 9 John

Isner on his way to winning in Acapulco. Kyrgios leaped 39 places to 33rd.

Novak Djokovic took the week off but remains a long way clear at the top, though both Nadal and Zverev gained a handful of

points in Mexico. Guido Pella, who won his first

ATP title in Sao Paulo on Sunday also moved up. The Argentine has the same number of points as Kyrgios but is ranked one spot lower at 34.

ATP top 10:

1. Novak Djokovic (SRB) 10,955 pts

2. Rafael Nadal (ESP) 8,365

3. Alexander Zverev (GER) 6,595

4. Roger Federer (SUI) 4,600 (+3)

5. Juan Martin Del Potro (ARG) 4,585 (-1)

6. Kevin Anderson (RSA) 4,295 (-1)

7. Kei Nishikori (JPN) 4,190 (-1)

8. Dominic Thiem (AUT) 3,800

9. John Isner (USA) 3,405

10. Stefanos Tsitsipas (GRE) 3,175 (+1)

Madrid strikers have failed to fill Ronaldo void, says ModricReuters | Madrid

Real Madrid’s forwards have failed to fill the gap

left by Cristiano Ronaldo, Luka Modric said yesterday.

The Croatian, speaking ahead of Real’s Champions League last-16, second-leg clash with Ajax on Tuesday, said his team lacked consisten-cy and goals this season.

Madrid failed to score in two Clasicos against Barcelo-na last week, being eliminated from the Copa del Rey and falling 12 points behind the Catalan league leaders, leav-ing retaining the Champi-ons League as their only hope of glory.

Ronaldo, the Eu-ropean cham-pions’ all-time top scorer, left in July to join Ju v e n t u s a n d Madrid s igned young attackers V i n i c i u s Ju n -ior and Mariano Diaz but no big-

name forward to replace the Portuguese.

“The absence of Cristiano is something every team would feel; to find a replacement for Cristiano is almost impossi-ble,” Modric told reporters.

“Given what he did for us and this club, we miss Cris-tiano. The club wanted the other players to make up for what he did, divided between the strikers and that is not easy.

“Cristiano scored 50 goals and you can’t find

someone today who scores that many.

Some of us have to take a step for-

ward and, while not scoring 50, what we need is two or three

players who score 1 5, 20, or 10 g o a l s

and we d o n ’ t h a v e

that.

Roger Federer celebrates with the trophy after winning the final match at the ATP Dubai Tennis Championship

Luka Modric

Harry Kane

celebs 8 @newsofbahrain op-ed...2019/05/03 · rashid bin abdullah al khal-ifa to set plans to...

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