prominent activists and ex-mps call for general amnesty...

ISSUE NO: 17846

28 Pages 150 Fils

www.kuwaittimes.net

Established 1961 The First Daily in the Arabian Gulf

RAMADAN 25, 1440 AHTHURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019

Passenger traffic up by 8 percent this summer2 9

Max 47ºMin 28º

Modi healthcare scheme won hearts - and votes

Nadal powers on in Paris; Tsitsipas battles through28

Government urged to free jailed activists, lawmakers

Prominent activists and ex-MPs call for General Amnesty Law

Ramadan Kareem

By Teresa Lesher

IMSAK 03:06Fajr 03:16Dhur 11:45Asr 15:20Magrib 18:42Isha 20:12

By B Izzak

KUWAIT: A group of senior activists,including former opposition MPs, yesterdaycalled on authorities to cooperate to issue aGeneral Amnesty Law for dozens ofactivists and ex-MPs who were handed jailterms for storming the National Assemblybuilding in 2011. The group said in a state-ment that pardoning those activists, whohave been staying abroad for the past sever-

al months, is essential to solidify the domes-tic front in the wake of soaring regional ten-sions and threats of war.

The statement said that the group ofopposition activists who received jail termshad been convicted on criminal charges thatthey had never committed and they neverhad any intention to violate the law. The con-victs, who include former prominent MPsWaleed Al-Tabtabai, Jamaan Al-Harbash,Mussallam Al-Barrak and Faisal Al-Muslim

were among hundreds of protesters whoentered the National Assembly building fol-lowing a protest against corruption thatcalled for the resignation of the former primeminister.

The statement recalled that the protesttook place in the wake of uncovering a majorcorruption case in which MPs in parliamentwere involved amid official reports aboutfinancial wrongdoings at the office of thethen prime minister, with all the events con-

nected to a media campaign to fuel sectarian,factional and racist divisions in the societyrun by corrupt media.

It said that thousands of Kuwaitis reactedpositively with such developments by stagingmassive protests and by electing a NationalAssembly dominated by the opposition thatwas scrapped by the court four months later.The statement said that a majority ofreformists found themselves either in jail orwere forced to leave the country or were

punished by revoking their citizenship whichwas used as a weapon by authorities.

The statement called for issuing a GeneralAmnesty Law to pardon all those jailed in thestorming of the Assembly case or those con-victed in opinion cases to strengthen thecountry. Opposition MP Mohammad Al-Mutair said the statement represents theoverwhelming majority of the Kuwaiti peopleand hoped that this message reached mem-bers of the National Assembly.

SHARJAH: The Al-Rabat Sweets and Bakery, founded by Iraqi immigrants in the UAE, is pictured during the Muslimholy month of Ramadan. — AFP

DUBAI: Nida Mohammed drove for more than an hourfrom Fujairah to Sharjah in the UAE just to buy specialIraqi sweets and juices for the Muslim fasting month ofRamadan. “Over there (in Fujairah) you can’t find Iraqistuff,” Mohammed says, as she picks up her order ofsharbet zbeeb, or raisin juice, a special Iraqi drink takento break the day-long fast. The oil-rich United ArabEmirates is home to more than nine million expatriateswho hail from well over 100 countries and form 90 per-cent of the population.

During Ramadan, immigrants in the Gulf state recon-nect with traditions from their homeland, especially therituals of breaking the fast and taking lots of traditionaldesserts and juices. Shops like this help “me remember thecountry we came from,” says Mohammed, who made thejourney with family members and stocked large quantitiesof Iraqi sweets. Muslims around the world refrain fromeating and drinking, as well as from sex, between sunriseand sunset during Ramadan. — AFP (See 9)

UAE expatriates get a taste of Ramadan

We often offer silent or audible prayers,asking for help from our Creator, forsuccor from our problems, for blessings

on our loved ones, and for forgiveness for our mis-takes. We also - unfortunately less often - thankHim for our sustenance and surroundings, our fam-ilies and abilities.

We communicate with God, and we may per-ceive the conversation as one-sided since wereceive no spoken or written response. But whatif the Almighty Creator of the heavens and earthdid answer you - did send you a spoken or writ-ten response? What would He say? Would it beone word? A 20-minute speech? A letter? Or anentire book?

In the month of Ramadan, 1450 years ago, Godsent us a message. It is the Quran, the Speech ofGod, revealed through the angel Gabriel toProphet Muhammad (PBUH), who dictated it so itcould be transcribed for all of humanity. It is adirect message for you and me, and all humankind.In fact, many verses of the Quran are addressed to“O People!” or “O Mankind!” These are generalverses for every living soul.

While some verses are addressed particularly tobelievers, in fact, the whole Quran is a message foreach of us. The Quran is the only divinely revealedscripture that has remained intact in its originallanguage throughout the centuries, being widelyavailable until today. It has also been translated invirtually every language across the globe.

So what did God say in this book to us from Him?Following are a few key verses: “O mankind, worshipyour Lord, who created you and those before you,that you may become righteous. [He] who made foryou the earth a bed [spread out] and the sky a ceilingand sent down from the sky rain, and brought forththereby fruits as provision for you. So do not attrib-ute to Allah equals while you know [that there isnothing similar to Him].” (2:21-22)

“O People! Remember the favor of Allah uponyou. Is there any creator other than Allah who pro-vides for you from the Heaven and the Earth?There is no deity except Him, so how are theyturned away? If they deny you (O Muhammad) sowere messengers denied before you. To God allaffairs are returned (for decision).” (35:3-4) “OPeople! God’s promise is true, so do not let theworldly life turn you away and do not let the devildeceive you. Indeed, Satan is an enemy to you; sotake him as an enemy. He only invites his party tobe among the companions of the Blaze.” (35:5-6).

“This (Message) is a declaration to (all) peopleas well as a guidance and instruction for God-fear-ing people” (3:138). Say, [O Muhammad], “If ye dolove Allah, Follow me: Allah will love you and

Continued on Page 24

KUWAIT: The Civil Service Commission (CSC)announced yesterday that Eid Al-Fitr holidayswill begin on Tuesday June 4, ending ThursdayJune 6. Official working hours shall resume onSunday June 9, whether Eid fell on Tuesday ornot, CSC said in a press statement. State authori-ties with special working hours should arrangetheir work timing in a manner that would servethe public interest. — KUNA

Eid holidays begin June 4

When God spoke

WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump saidyesterday that Robert Mueller’s first public statementon his high-stakes probe into Russian election med-dling contained nothing new-declaring the case“closed.” “Nothing changes from the Mueller Report.There was insufficient evidence and therefore, in our

Country, a person is innocent,” Trump tweeted,moments after the special counsel’s appearance. “Thecase is closed! Thank you.”

Mueller stressed that his report did not exonerateTrump of the crime of obstruction of justice, butexplained that charging him was not an option because ofJustice Department policy not to indict a sitting president.“Under longstanding department policy, a president can-not be charged with a federal crime while he is in office,”Mueller said in his first public comments in two years.

“That is unconstitutional. “ A Special Counsel’s Officeis part of the Department of Justice, and by regulation, itwas bound by that department policy,” Mueller said.


‘Case is closed,’ says Trump on Mueller probe

US President Donald Trump

BYBLOS: A Lebanese woman smokes waterpipe at a restaurant in the coastal cityof Byblos north of Beirut. — AFP

BEIRUT: Flipping the hot coals on hisgreen hookah in a crowded Beirut cafe,Abbas Nasreddine says Lebanon’s newausterity budget has spoilt his daily treat ofsmoking a water pipe. “It’s how we deflatestress,” says the 26-year-old university stu-dent, a long drag of mint-scented smokerising overhead. “But now our tool for cop-ing with our worries has become a worryitself,” he said, fiddling with the hookah’slong hose.

Nasreddine is among many regular

smokers who are displeased with a govern-ment decision to impose a new tax onwater pipes as part of a larger austeritypackage. They will soon have to pay anadditional 1,000 Lebanese pounds ($0.66)for every water pipe they order in a cafe orrestaurant, at a time when job opportunitiesare scarce and the economy is in decline.

“For politicians, 1,000 LBP may be of novalue,” Nasreddine says. “But, for me,1,000 LBP has a value — I get to


Lebanese bubble withanger over hookah tax

ABU DHABI: US National SecurityAdvisor John Bolton said yesterdaythat Iran was almost certainly behindoil tanker attacks that sent Gulf ten-sions soaring - an accusation Tehrandismissed as “laughable”. The new warof words came on the eve of emer-gency Arab and Gulf summits calledby Iran’s regional rival Saudi Arabia todiscuss the standoff and ways to iso-late Tehran.

It follows a US military buildup thatincludes the deployment of an aircraftcarrier, B-52 bombers and 1,500 moretroops to the region. Speaking duringa visit to the UAE capital Abu Dhabi,Bolton said that additional US forceswere sent to the Middle East as a“deterrent” and that Washington’sresponse will be prudent. The fourships, including two Saudi tankers,sabotaged off the Emirati coast onMay 12 were attacked using “navalmines almost certainly from Iran”,Bolton told a press conference.

“There’s no doubt in anybody’smind in Washington who’s responsiblefor this,” he said in a clear reference toIran. Bolton however declined to pro-vide specific evidence for Iran’s handin the attacks. “Not going to get intothe specifics. That’s something the ship

owners and the countries involved willrelease at their discretion. But I thinkit’s important for the leadership in Iranto know that we know,” he said.

Iran strongly rejected the accusa-tion. “Making such laughable claims...is not strange” coming from the US,foreign ministry spokesman AbbasMousavi said. “Mr Bolton and otherwarmongers and chaos seekers shouldknow that the strategic patience, highvigilance and complete defensivereadiness of the Islamic Republic ofIran... will prevent the fulfillment oftheir evil desires for chaos in theregion,” Mousavi added.

US experts are part of a five-nationteam that is investigating the attacksoff the UAE emirate of Fujairah. Twodays after they took place Yemen’sHouthi rebels - accused by Abu Dhabiand Riyadh of being proxies of Tehran- hit a strategic diversionary pipelinein Saudi Arabia with two drones.

The east-west pipeline, which hasthe capacity to carry some five millionbarrels per day from the oilfields of


Iranian mines ‘likely caused’ tanker blasts

US National Security Advisor Bolton

L o c a l Thursday, May 30, 2019

2

Several civil aviation-related developments have recent-ly taken place. It is worth to take them into considera-tion, especially when we are about to start the high

travel season and the Eid Al-Fitr vacation, followed by thelong summer vacation that most Kuwaitis spend abroad. Thedevelopments include a US warning to all commercial flightsflying over the Gulf to be highly cautious, the repeated crisesresulting from Boeing crashes and other problems in less thansix months, with the result that many carriers stopped usingthat type of aircraft, including some GCC carriers.

The aforementioned developments call for more caution,not only by the authorities and bodies concerned with civiland commercial aviation in Kuwait, but also passengers andtravel agents due to the following threats:

1- The first threat lies in a warning made by the USFederal Aviation Administration (FAA) on May 17 to all com-mercial flights over Gulf waters and the Gulf of Oman to beaware of accelerating military activities and political tension.It even included frank warnings of possible military mishaps,misjudgment or confusion in identifying flights.

2- The second threat lies in the repeated Boeing 737 Maxcrashes within a few months starting with an Indonesian flightin October killing all 189 onboard, then an Ethiopian plane inMarch killing all 157 onboard, and finally the deviation of aMiami flight in the beginning of May.

Many countries worldwide, including Kuwait and otherGCC states, immediately stopped all flights of this type of air-craft. Boeing is working on studying and handling the fatalfaults in this model of aircraft. It is not yet known whetherthousands of these planes still in use worldwide will wait forBoeing’s final decision - whether they would be repaired oradjusted or the owners will eventually sell them to recouppart of their losses.

Onboard, airport alertness Having made this review, one should consider the following:

1- Many airlines have not yet declared suspending flightson Boeing 737 Max planes.

2- Suspending Boeing planes does not mean that otherplanes are risk-free. Contrarily, the growing demand for otheraircraft (such as Airbus) might increase the possibility ofmishaps in those planes.

3- Recent studies on airline spending on safety proce-dures, which was published two weeks ago in the HarvardBusiness Review, shows that leading companies can some-times be less safe than others and more capable to toleratecrises and public anger. The study shows a direct connectionbetween airline profits and their safety factor. They also showthat regardless of the number of planes put out of service,what staff members do on board or on the ground is moreimportant.

4- In view of the above, aviation safety measures shouldbe prioritized by all parties involved in travelling, even at theexpense of delaying some flights to achieve more safety, justlike what Kuwait’s Directorate General of Civil Aviation(DGCA) did when it banned Boeing 737 Max flights from fly-ing over Kuwait.

For some people, these guidelines might spoil the summerseason, but they will surely make it less dangerous, especially forfamilies who might prefer to postpone a trip, change airlines oreven change destinations to get more safety.

Aviation safety, Eidvacation and summer

By Nabila Al-Anjari

In My View

Ranked officers suspended pending probein possible border security breach

Wanted citizen left and reentered Kuwait repeatedlyBy Meshaal Al-Enezi and A Saleh

KUWAIT: Deputy Prime Minister and InteriorMinister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah ordered thesuspension of several officers of various ranks, thehighest of which is a major general, as a precautionarymeasure to investigate a tender for the border sector.Cameras were installed, but when they were operated,it was discovered they do not meet the required securi-ty and technical specifications.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior announced thatsecurity authorities arrested a citizen after leaving andentering the country illegally despite issuance of sever-al orders to arrest him. The ministry’s Public Relationsand Security Information Department said in a pressrelease that the citizen has been transferred to thecompetent authorities. The ministry called on citizensand residents to abide by the laws of the country anduse its official ports during travel and entry. Sheikh

Khaled Al-Jarrah on Tuesday called for forming a com-mittee of inquiry into the incident.

Municipality CampaignFarwaniya governorate municipality carried out field

tours of makeshift markets and stores in Jleeb Al-Shuyoukh, Hasawi, Farwaniya, Ishbelia, Abdullah Al-Mubarak and Sabah Al-Nasser to remove all eyesoreand raise the level of cleanliness in the governorate.Director of the public cleanliness and road occupancydepartment Saad Al-Khrainej said the campaign result-ed in confiscating 57 cu m of fruits and vegetables, inaddition to used furniture. He said 25 citations wereissued, the sites were cleaned of leftovers and 115 cu mof rubbish was removed.

Rain damage compensationsCompensations for the damage caused during the

rains last year will be paid by mid-July, well-informed

sources said. The sources added that state departmentsonly need 15 days to complete the procedures once theparliament approves the state budget for the new fiscalyear 2019-2020, which is due to be done by the end ofJune. Notably, the ministerial team assigned by theCabinet had studied 3,931 claims including 2,251 forvehicles, 780 for real estate and 900 for personalbelongings.

Trucks’ laneResponding to recommendations made by some

lawmakers concerning Sabah Al-Ahmad City’s prob-lems, acting director of the Public Authority for Roadsand Transport (PART) Soha Ashkanani said PART iscurrently coordinating with relevant bodies to diverttrucks and other traffic from Wafra to Mina AbdullahRoad. Ashkanani added that an additional lane has beenallocated for trucks along the Wafra-Mina Abdullahroad as part of the road’s development project.

Kabd clinicHealth Minister Sheikh Dr Basel Al-Sabah stressed

the need to develop health services in Kabd by buildinga special clinic and emergency center, pointing out thatthe area is very vital and is visited by endless numbersof Kuwaitis during winter and spring. He added that theHealth Ministry’s engineering affairs sector is currentlypreparing a study for the project.

KUWAIT: A vehicle engulfed in flames on Airport Road. Firemen seen inside Sabah Hospital where a fire was reported.

Firemen put out Sabah Hospital blaze

By Hanan Al-Saadoun

KUWAIT: Firemen put out a minor fire in the Sabah

Hospital elevators’ control room. Kuwait Fire ServiceDirectorate’s Public Relations Department said therewas no need for evacuation, and work was not inter-

rupted. Meanwhile, Farwaniya firemen put out a fire in avehicle on Airport Road. No injuries were reported. Theefforts were led by Lt Col Abdelrahman Al-Busairi.

KUWAIT: Al-Ahli Bank of Kuwait (ABK) was recentlyhonored by the Kuwait Blind Association for its support ofthe Ramadan sport activities that were organized by theAssociation for the visually impaired. The honorary cere-mony was held on the premises of the Blind Associationon May 23, 2019, where the success of the initiative wascelebrated and winners of the sporting championshipwere rewarded for their great achievements.

The two-week sporting championship featured avariety of sport activities that included swimming andtable tennis for both male and female categories, andgoal ball for the male category. The participants dis-played their talents in a fun, challenging atmosphere ofhealthy competition.

Sahar Al-Therban - Senior Manager CorporateCommunications at ABK attended the ceremonyalongside Fayez Al Azmi - Chairman of the Kuwait

Blind Association whereby cash prizes, medals andtrophies were handed out to the winners. ABK contin-uously seeks to make a solid presence in the commu-

nities in which it operates by joining hands with activeorganizations that aim to create a more prosperousfuture for Kuwait.

ABK honored forsupporting BlindAssociation’sRamadan activities

KUWAIT: Ahli United Bank (AUB) honored the win-ners in the Annual Quran Competition organized by thebank during the Holy month of Ramadan at its HeadOffice. This year, the competition comprised six cate-gories; two for male and female employees who weretested in Surat As-Saff, one for the employees’ childrenaged 5-14 years who were tested in Surat Al-Fajr, onefor the employees’ children aged 14-18 years who theywere tested in Surat Noah. The competition also com-prised a general category for the children aged 5-12years who were tested in Juz’ 29, and another generalcategory for youth aged 13-18 years who were testedin Juz’ 27 of the Holy Quran.

In the employees’ male category, Ali Yousef took thefirst place, Ahmad Rashwan took the second place, andAbdulaziz Al-Alaian took the third place. While, in theemployees’ female category, Sahar Abddul FatahSubaih won the first prize, Eman Mahmoud Omranitook the second place and the third place went to SaraAl-Makinzy.

As for the employees’ male children (5-14 years)category, Ali Adel Abbas took the first place, andJadul-Karim Noaman Mohammad took the secondplace while the third prize went to KhadherMuhammad Bahlu. As for the employees’ female chil-dren (5-14 years) category, Remas Mohammad Saadtook the first place, and Remas Ibrahim Al Saeed wonthe second place.

In the employees’ male children (14-18 years) cate-gory, Omar Ismail Ahmad took the first place, and

Ahmad Noaman won the second place. In the employ-ees’ female children (14-18 years) category, MariamAdel Abbass took the first place, and Farida AhmadRashwan took the second place, while the third placewent to Habiba Ahmad Rashwan.

In the male children category from outside the bankaged (5-12 years), Kamal Tamer Al-Sharkawy won thefirst prize, and Faisal Anwar Al-Yaqoot took the secondplace, meanwhile the third prize went to AhmadAbdelreda Ashknany. In the female children categoryfrom outside the bank aged (5-12 years), Samaa AshrafMuhammad Al-kasaby took the first place, and MonaTamer Al-Sharkawy took the second place, meanwhilethe third place went to Lajeen Hashem Mohammad.

In the male youth category from outside the bankaged (13-18 years) Moamen Ashraf Al-Kasaby took thefirst place, and Ali Nader Ismail Dashti took the secondplace, meanwhile the third place went to AbdulrahmanMohammad Al-Merry. In the female youth categoryfrom outside the bank aged (13-18 years) Aliaa MakramAli Al-Mahey took the first place, and WadhaMohammad Al-Merry won the second place, mean-while the third place went to Kholoud Alaa Ali.

In the deaf category, Abdullah Anwar Sultan won thefirst place, Mahmoud Al-Hussein Mahmoud won thesecond place, Shabib Mohammad Al-Azmy won thethird place, Abdullah Musabah Al-Karny won the fourthplace, Yousef Mohammad Al-Kandari won the fifthplace and Ahmad Samer Gomaa won the sixth place. Inthe blind category, Yosef Nahar Al-Salily won the firstprize, Abdulaziz Ahmad Hassab Allah won the secondplace, Faris Sahan Al-Mutairy won the third place,Ibrahim Fahad Mubarrad won the fourth place,Abdulrahman Khalifa Al- Suwailem won the fifth placeand Othman Gaber Al-Enzy won the sixth place.

The winners were honored at the Head Office of thebank in the presence of Abdullah Al-Shuaib; Head ofShariah Internal Audit Department at AUB. On thisoccasion, Abdullah Al-Shuaib; said in a press release

‘’The bank continues its Ramadan activities every yearto spread the spirit of enthusiasm and competitivenessamong contestants, pointing out that their high turnoutto the competition was highly appreciated and valuedby the bank management and the competition organiz-ing committee which congratulated the winners andthanked everyone participated and contributed to thesuccess of the competition.’’

Shuaib expressed the hope that this competitionwould encourage all segments of the society to memo-rize and understand the noble meanings of the HolyQuran, apply its principles in their practical life and dis-seminate its right religious values stressing the bank’sstanding commitment to these purposeful activitieswhich come in line with the bank’s social mission.

AUB honors winners ofannual Holy Quranrecitation competition

Passenger traffic upby 8% this summerKUWAIT: The Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGCA)announced yesterday its readiness to serve passengers at thenational airports and furnish them with various facilities.Yousuf Al-Fozan, the DGCA General Director, said in a state-ment that passengers’ movement is expected to reach somesix million people, between June and September, higher byeight percent compared to last year, when it reached approxi-mately 5.5 million passengers. Up to 43,000 flights will beorganized during this period, nine percent higher than lastyear, when they amounted to 39,000 flights. Fozan indicatedat a plan to “distribute” the passengers to the four terminalsafter shifting the KAC passengers to Terminal 4 and those ofAl-Jazeera to Terminal 5. Special teams have been formed tooversee operations at the air facilities and ensure that the pas-sengers get the required services. — KUNA

One of the children participating in the competition.


3

Amir chairs Kuwaiti delegationat Makkah summits in Saudi today

Emergency summits to discuss aftermath of attacks on ships, oil pumps

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah and his accompanying dele-gation are set to leave Kuwait today, heading to SaudiArabia, where His Highness will chair the delegation ofthe State of Kuwait at the emergency summit of theGulf Cooperation Council, the Arab League’s emer-gency summit and the fourteenth summit of theOrganization of Islamic Cooperation scheduled to beheld in the city of Makkah.

The Saudi holy city of Makkah will host today twourgent GCC and Arab League summits called by KingSalman bin Abdulaziz after attacks on commercial shipsoff the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Houthi militias’assault on two Saudi oil pumps. The two summits, to be

attended by heads of state and government or theirrepresentatives, would touch upon consequences ofthese attacks on regional and international peace andsecurity, and how they might affect oil supplies and sta-bility of international oil markets. The summiteers willalso discuss boosting security and stability in theMiddle East, and importance of consultations and coor-dination among Gulf and Arab countries vis-a-vis theUS-Iranian tension.

Meanwhile, the OIC leaders, holding the 14th regu-lar summit on Friday themed ‘Hand in Hand towardsthe Future,’ are expected to approve the MakkahDeclaration which would address issues of interest tothe Islamic world. They wil l also discuss the

Palestinian cause, developments in the Arab, Africanand Asian regions, Islamophobia, confronting terror-ism and violent extremism, as well as a variety of cul-tural, economic, scientific, social and political mattersof mutual interest.

ReceptionsIn other news, His Highness the Amir received yes-

terday at Bayan Palace His Highness the Crown PrinceSheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah. HisHighness also received His Highness the Prime MinisterSheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.Meanwhile, His Highness the Crown Prince received HisHighness Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak, Deputy Premier

and Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah and Deputy Premier and InteriorMinister Sheikh Khaled Al-Jarrah Al-Sabah.

Separately, His Highness the Amir sent a cable ofcondolences to King of Thailand Maha Vajiralongkorn.In the cable, His Highness the Amir expressed deepestcondolences over victims of a bomb attack that target-ed a Ramadan market in Bo Thong town, Nong Chik,Pattani, reaffirming at the same time Kuwait’s strongcondemnation of the heinous criminal act that resultedin the loss of innocent lives, as well as causing instabili-ty to the friendly country. His Highness the CrownPrince and His Highness the Prime Minister also sentsimilar cables to King Vajiralongkorn. — KUNA

KUWAIT: His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets with His Highness theCrown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah.— Amiri Diwan and KUNA photos

His Highness the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets with His Highness the PrimeMinister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets with His Highness the Prime Minister Sheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets with Deputy Premier and Foreign Minister Sheikh SabahAl-Khaled Al-Hamad Al-Sabah.

His Highness the Crown Prince Sheikh Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah meets with Deputy Premier and Interior Minister Sheikh KhaledAl-Jarrah Al-Sabah.

KUWAIT: Embassy of Mexico to theState of Kuwait released the followingstatement yesterday: “Ambassador ofMexico Miguel Angel Isidro has thehonor to extend his sincere felicitationand best wishes to His Highness theAmir of the State of Kuwait SheikhSabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah,His Highness the Crown Prince SheikhNawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah,His Highness the Prime MinisterSheikh Jaber Al-Mubarak Al-HamadAl-Sabah, the government and thepeople of the State of Kuwait, on theoccasion of the advent of Eid Al-Fitr,wishing the friendly people of Kuwaitfurther prosperity and stability andlooking forward to further consolidat-ing the bilateral relations betweenboth nations that reflect the strongwill to reach strategic partnership that

will lead to further development andpromote peace and prosperity forboth friendly peoples.”

Mexican Ambassadorsends Eid greetings

Mexican Ambassador Miguel Angel Isidro

KUWAIT: First Deputy Prime Minister andDefense Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah received yesterday the USAmbassador to Kuwait Lawrence Silverman.During the reception, bilateral relations and mat-ters of mutual, regional and international interestswere discussed, according to a defense ministrystatement. Sheikh Nasser praised the deep-root-ed relations between the two countries. TheAmbassador was accompanied by head chief ofthe Military Cooperation Office in the USEmbassy of Kuwait Brig Gen RandolphStaudenraus and US military attache to Kuwait LtCol Jason Belknap.

In other news, Kuwaiti Deputy Prime Ministerand Minister of Interior Sheikh Khaled Al-JarrahAl-Sabah met Tuesday with the UK’s new CyberSecurity Ambassador Henry Pearson, escortedwith UK Ambassador to Kuwait MichaelDavenport. During the meeting, they discussedseveral topics related to cybersecurity, according

to Interior Ministry statement. The InteriorMinister affirmed the deep-rooted security rela-tions between the both countries, it added.Meanwhile, Pearson praised the role of Kuwait inbringing peace to the region, stressing the depthof relations and cooperation between the twofriendly countries in all fields, especially security.

Later, Interior Minister Sheikh Khaled Al-

Jarrah met Kuwait’s Ambassador to CubaMohammad Khalaf. The interior minister under-lined the important role of Kuwaiti embassies inconsolidating relations internationally andregionally, appreciating the permanent and con-tinuous cooperation between the security estab-lishment and the foreign ministry in all fields ofcommon interest. —KUNA

First DeputyPremier receivesUS ambassador

KUWAIT: First Deputy Prime Minister and Defense Minister Sheikh Nasser Sabah Al-AhmadAl-Sabah meets with the US Ambassador to Kuwait Lawrence Silverman, head chief of theMilitary Cooperation Office in the US Embassy of Kuwait Brig Gen Randolph Staudenrausand US military attache to Kuwait Lt Col Jason Belknap. — KUNA

KUWAIT: The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) continued tocelebrate culture occasions of Kuwait’s heritage by distribut-ing girgian to passengers at the Kuwait Airways Terminal 4(T4) at Kuwait International Airport in cooperation withIncheon International Airport Corporation (IIAC) the opera-tor of the terminal.

The celebration comes as part of the Bank’s ongoingcommitment to remaining close to its customers and hasreceived great response during its most recent girgian cele-bration targeting travelers and customers equally at T4.

Aishah Abdulwahab Al-Marzouq from Consumer Banking

Group, National Bank of Kuwait said: “At NBK, we ensurewe are always close to our customers in every occasion. Thistime, we’ve distributed girgian favors to travelers from thenew T4 to share the joy of celebrating our rich cultural her-itage.” Marzouq added: “We invest our efforts to reviveKuwaiti cultural events that are close to the hearts of everyage group. Celebrating girgian and marking it with the distri-bution of the traditional favors is part of the Bank’s objectiveto organize meaningful social events during the holy monthof Ramadan.”

She concluded by reaffirming that NBK is even more

committed to providing excellent banking services in its newbranch at T4 and enabling customers and travelers to com-plete their transactions easily and conveniently through anenriching banking experience. The new branch at T4 is locat-ed directly at the departure hall and provides its services tocustomers 24/7, except during the holy month of Ramadan.The branch has a reception hall where customers can relaxuntil their transactions are completed.

The new branch also offers a variety of services suitablefor those travelling an ITM, the second NBK machine of itskind available in Kuwait with the first placed in The Avenues

mall. The branch also offers multiple currency exchangeservices. In addition, the NBK branch at T4 provides a cashwithdrawal service in six different currencies: Kuwaiti Dinar,US Dollar, Euro, British Pound, UAE Dirham and Saudi Riyal.

NBK maintains its leadership position in the bankingindustry in Kuwait with its wide network of branches, ATMsand POS terminals. NBK also enables customers to easilymanage their accounts and transactions 24/7 through NBKMobile Banking and NBK Online Banking App, or by calling1801801, which caters to customer inquiries and needsaround the clock.

NBK celebrates girgian at Terminal 4

Aishah Abdulwahab Al-Marzouq

Thursday, May 30, 2019

4L o c a l

Established 1961

Gulf Bank celebrates annual ghabqa

KUWAIT: In keeping with a much anticipated annu-al tradition, Gulf Bank brought its employees andexecutive management together for i ts yearlyRamadan ghabqa. This year’s ghabqa, which wel-comed over 700 total attendees, took place at theJumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel and offered employ-ees across all departments an entertainment-filled

evening outside of the workplace.The annual ghabqa is a wonderful opportunity for

employees from different administrative divisions andbranches to enjoy an evening of delicious food andgreat conversation, deepening the sense of familialspirit that makes the Gulf Bank family so unique.

Gulf Bank’s General Manager of Human

Resources, Salma Al-Hajjaj, said: “The annual ghabqais one of our most anticipated events throughout theyear, and never fails to deliver a spectacular eveningfor all Gulf Bank employees. We are so proud tobring together employees from all over the Bank,especially during the holy month of Ramadan, a timeof strengthening bonds and creating new ties of

friendship.”The evening included awarding the best volunteer

of the year, as well as the winner of the internalRamadan football tournament of Gulf Bank’s employ-ees. Gulf Bank is keen to enhance a spirit of opencommunication among its employees through variousactivities and events throughout the year.

Food Bank distributes iftar meals

KUWAIT: Meshaal Al-Nasari, Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan, Ayman Al-Mutairi, Salem Al-Hamar and other volunteers pose for a group photo after the event. — Photos by Yasser Al-Zayyat

Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan takes part in distributing iftar meals. Meshaal Al-Ansari, donor Nasser Al-Mesri and his daughter.

Distributing ifatr meals Meshaal Al-Ansari supervising Warba Bank meals’ distribution. Volunteers distributing dates.

Long queues of people waiting to receive their iftar meals.

Salem Al-Hamar, Abd Al-Rahman, Meshaal Al-Ansari, Asaad Al-Kurdi andother volunteers.

KUWAIT: Kuwait Food and Relief Bankheld daily iftar meals distributions in vari-ous areas around Kuwait as part of theirIftar Campaign in collaboration with theAwqaf General Secretariat, Warba Bankand several other companies. The campaignhas been feeding several hundreds ofunprivileged people throughout the holymonth of Ramadan.

While visiting one of the IftarCampaign’s sites in Mubarakiya Market,Food Bank’s vice chairman Meshaal Al-Ansari thanked the Kuwait Times and othersponsors for their support of the campaign.“I would like to also thank Kuwait TimesEditor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyanand Warba Bank’s Public Relations ManagerAyman Al-Mutairi for their personal partici-pation today and for increasing the aware-ness. Our initiative encourages everyone to

donate or give a hand - and the more par-ticipation we get the more people we canhelp feed,” said Al-Ansari.

Kuwait Times Editor-in-Chief Abd Al-Rahman Al-Alyan attended the MubarakiyaMarket Iftar Campaign event and expressedhis gratitude. “I would like to thank theKuwait Food and Relief Bank spearheadedby their Chairman Bader Nasser Al-Kharafifor their initiatives and continued support ofhumanitarian work around the world. TheIftar Campaign is only the latest of manycampaigns the Food Bank has in store. Iwould also like to thank Mishaal Al-Ansarithe Vice Chairman of the Food Bank andSalem Al-Hamar Food Bank’s Director fortheir kind hospitality and their hard worktoday”. For more information, please visit thewebsitehttps://www.kuwaitfoodbank.org/6xuASO


5Established 1961

Gulf Air hosts its annual Ramadan ghabqa in Kuwait

KUWAIT: Gulf Air, the national carrier of theKingdom of Bahrain, and Sabre, the leading tech-nology provider to the global travel industry,recently hosted a ghabqa event in Kuwait City;wh ich was a t tended by t rade par tne r s , VIP

clients, media representatives, and a number ofprofess ionals f rom the aviat ion industry. Theevening included a number of entertaining activi-ties and interactive segments with the guests.Held at the Four Seasons Hotel, the ghabqa event

was organized jointly by Gulf Air and Sabre high-lighting the strong business relationship betweenthe two companies.

Earlier at the beginning of Ramadan, Gulf Air andSabre launched their Ramadan initiative that saw

the two trade partners collaborate to collect tangi-ble and monetary donations by placing donationboxes at Gulf Air Headquarters in Bahrain and at theBahrain Financial Harbor to encourage the spirit ofgiving - a fundamental value of the holy month.

Trump envoys seek support for peace plan

InternationalFloating sweatshops: Is the fish you eat caught by ‘slaves’?

Page 8

Modi healthcare scheme won hearts, and votesPage 9

THURSDAY, MAY 30, 2019

Pak man murders HIV positive wife in epidemic-hit south KARACHI: A Pakistani man killed his HIV positive wifeyesterday in southern Pakistan, where hundreds of peoplehave tested positive for the virus in recent weeks, stirringpanic and casting a light on the country’s dismal publichealth standards. Police said the murder took place in a vil-lage near the epicentre of the outbreak on the outskirts ofLarkana city in Pakistan’s Sindh province, where thousandshave been screened in the last month. The victim - a 32-year-old mother of four - tested positive in recent days,according to a local police officer, with her husband accus-ing her of having an extramarital affair.

“This morning the husband strangled (the victim) with arope and then hung her from a tree outside his home,”Roshan Ali - a police officer in Shikarpur - told AFP,adding that the suspect was now in custody. Shikarpur dis-trict police chief Sajid Sadozai confirmed the incident, say-ing an investigation into the killing was ongoing and thesuspect had been booked on murder charges. Anger andfear continue to swell in the desperately poor villages andsuburbs near Larkana affected by the epidemic, whichauthorities say could be linked to either gross negligenceor malicious intent by a local doctor using tainted syringes.

In rural Sindh - long bridled by harsh poverty and illit-eracy - access to information about HIV and other dis-eases has kept the large swathes of the population in thedark about how the virus is transmitted. Health officialssay nearly 700 people, many of them children, have testedpositive in recent weeks as experts warn of a surge ininfection rates across Pakistan due to the use of unsani-tary equipment and rampant malpractice - often at thehands of quack doctors.

Pakistan was long considered a low prevalencecountry for HIV, but the disease is expanding at analarming rate - particularly among intravenous drugusers and sex workers. With about 20,000 new HIVinfections reported in 2017 alone, Pakistan currently hasthe second fastest growing HIV rates across Asia,according to the UN. —AFP

RABAT: A handout picture provided by the Moroccan Royal Palace late Tuesday shows Moroccan King Mohammed VI (center) and his son Crown Prince Moulay Hassan (right) sharing an iftar meal with Senior Advisor to the President of theUS Jared Kushner (left) at the Royal Residence. —AFP

RABAT: US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law JaredKushner met Morocco’s King Mohammed VI on Tuesdayin Rabat as part of a fresh push on a long-promised butyet-to-be-delivered peace plan for the region. The trip -which will also include stops in Amman and Jerusalem -comes amid a flurry of other administration moves to shoreup alliances with Arab allies against Iran and the deploy-ment of warships and bombers to the region.

Kushner is accompanied by Jason Greenblatt, Trump’sspecial representative for international negotiations, andBrian Hook, the special US representative for Iran. Themeeting in Rabat focused on developments in the MiddleEast and North Africa as well as strengthening the part-nership between Morocco and the US, a palacespokesman told AFP. Greenblatt tweeted that he andKushner shared an iftar dinner - the traditional meal tobreak the daily fast during the Muslim holy month ofRamadan - with Morocco’s king, Crown Prince MoulayHassan and Foreign Minister Nasser Bourita.

“Thank you to His Majesty for a special evening and forsharing your wisdom,” Greenblatt wrote. “Morocco is animportant friend & ally of the United States.” The Trumpadministration is expected to unveil the peace plan - afternumerous failures by its predecessors - possibly as earlyas next month, but the Palestinians have already rejected it

as heavily biased in favor of Israel. Washington has yet tocommit to an exact timetable with respect to the politicalaspects of the plan.

Kushner also will attend the Bilderberg conference inMontreux, Switzerland, where he is expected to be aspeaker, at the end of the week and then will meet Trumpin London when the latter makes a state visit there nextweek. The trip is similar to one that Kushner andGreenblatt took in February to Gulf states to drum up sup-port for the economic portion of a Middle East peace planthey have been developing on behalf of Trump.

Kushner is the chief architect of the proposal andGreenblatt, a longtime Trump lawyer, has served as hisright-hand man on the Middle East initiative. Upon hisarrival in the White House more than two years ago, Trumpproclaimed his ambition to secure a final accord endingthe Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the odds of his suc-ceeding where every previous US president - Republicansas well as Democrats - have failed appear particularly low.Palestinians have boycotted the process since Trump rec-ognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel in Dec 2017.

Bahrain conference The US is expected to roll out the economic aspects of

the peace plan at a conference in Bahrain on June 25-26.

Co-hosts US and Bahrain have billed it as “a pivotalopportunity... to share ideas, discuss strategies and galva-nize support for potential economic investments and initia-tives that could be made possible by a peace agreement.”But Palestinian political leaders say they will boycott it andPalestinian business leaders said they won’t go either, rais-ing further questions about the plan’s viability. “Any eco-nomic project without a political solution is selling an illu-sion,” said Arafat Asfour, chairman of the Palestine TradeCenter.

“We didn’t mandate anyone to negotiate on our behalf,and if anyone wants to trade the interests of thePalestinians for their own benefit, let them do it out of theirown pockets,” chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekattold Reuters. “We urge all Arabs who have accepted to goto Bahrain to reconsider out of respect for thePalestinians,” he said. Saudi Arabia and the United ArabEmirates have said they will participate, and a senior USofficial said officials from Qatar have said privately theircountry was expected to attend as well.

The Russian foreign ministry took a dim view of theconference in a statement on Tuesday, saying the UnitedStates was attempting to “impose an ‘alternative vision’ ofthe Palestinian-Israeli settlement”. “The Palestinian leader-ship has already categorically refused to take part, saying

that the PLO will not surrender to anyone its exclusiverights to make crucial decisions regarding the realizationof Palestinians’ national aspirations,” it said.

Among those declining an invitation was Bashar Al-Masri, a high-profile Palestinian businessman who workedwith international partners and in cooperation with theIsraelis to invest $1.4 billion in the new Palestinian town ofRawabi. Kushner, who will join up with Trump in Londonafter his Middle East trip, has been evasive about the USplan, which has been shrouded in secrecy. While promisingnew ideas to revive a moribund peace process, he hasrefused to talk about a two-state solution, the formula thathas long been at the heart of international efforts toachieve peace and also the official US position.

Instead, he has looked to an alliance with the Saudisagainst Iran as a way to gain Arab support for his plan.Three days before Kushner’s trip, Trump authorized $8.1billion in arms sales to Saudi Arabia and other Arab allies,bypassing Congress. Arms sales to the kingdom werefrozen after the assassination of Saudi dissident JamalKhashoggi in October and in response to mounting con-cerns over the human toll of a Saudi-led armed campaignin Yemen. But the administration defended the sales asnecessary “to deter Iranian aggression and build partnerself-defense capacity.” —Agencies

Kushner, Greenblatt meet Morocco king l Palestinian leaders sharply critical of effort

India’s ailing finance minister quits govtNEW DELHI: India’s influential but ailing finance minis-ter Arun Jaitley announced yesterday that he would notserve in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s new Hindunationalist government because of poor health. Modi isset to be sworn in today after winning a second land-slide election and should name his new cabinet shortlyafter. Jaitley, 66, a key member of the last government,said in a letter to Modi he released on Twitter that hewould “like to keep away from any responsibility” so hecould concentrate on his health and treatment.

Jaitley underwent a kidney transplant in May last

year and in February travelled to the United States forsurgery after being diagnosed with cancer. “I am writingto you to formally request you that I should be allowed areasonable time for myself, my treatment and my healthand therefore not be a part of any responsibility, for thepresent, in the new government,” he added in the letter.

Jaitley also hailed the “spectacular win” of Modi’sright Bharatiya Janata Party in the six-week election thatended last week. The BJP swept 303 of the 542 contest-ed parliamentary seats to win a second five-year term.A lawyer-turned-politician, Jaitley guided the govern-ment’s rollout of a complex nationwide tax and oftenacted as a spokesman on contentious issues. Railwaysminister Piyush Goyal, who stepped in for Jaitley topresent an interim budget in February, and BJP presi-dent Amit Shah are in contention for Jaitley’s job, mediareports said.

India is the world’s sixthlargest economy andalthough it has been grow-ing at about seven percent ayear, it is showing signs of aslowdown. Modi, 68, hasinvited the heads of coun-tries who are in the Bay ofBengal Initiative forMaritime and Economic Co-operation (BIMSTEC) to theswearing-in. India’s archrivalneighbour Pakistan is not apart of the alliance and soModi avoided invitingPakistan Prime MinisterImran Khan. —AFP

Where’s Joe? Biden taking it slow in early campaign days WASHINGTON: While Democratic presidentialhopefuls barnstorm through early voting states, theparty’s frontrunner for the nomination, Joe Biden, isworking at a different pace altogether, rolling out his2020 campaign in limited stages and to moderatenumbers of voters. Despite Biden’s sluggish start,President Donald Trump is already fixating on the for-mer vice president as his main rival in next year’s elec-tion, going so far as to invoke North Korea’s dictatorin tweets criticizing Biden.

Biden didn’t refer to the debacle during a teachers’union town hall that lasted more than an hour Tuesdayin Houston, Texas, his first public campaign event in 10days. But in a possible response to the growing criti-cism of his spotty public appearances, he announcedseveral more campaign events to take place this weekand published his first detailed policy proposals - oneducation.

When Biden does hit the trail, he routinely promis-es that “no one is going to work longer and campaignharder” to win voter trust and support in the run-up

to 2020. But since officially launching his White Housebid in April, the veteran Democrat has made fewerthan a dozen campaign stops, and his team has rou-tinely offered a daily update to reporters: “Joe Bidenhas no public events scheduled.”

During that period, Senator Cory Booker has criss-crossed Iowa in an RV camper; Bernie Sanders, num-ber two in the Democratic polls, has campaigned infour states; and Senator Elizabeth Warren has held noless than eight public events, including four onSunday. After his campaign kickoff rally on May 18 inPhiladelphia, the 76-year-old Biden has largely kepthis head down, attending fundraisers in Florida andTennessee. Fundraisers are also set for this week inTexas.

‘Just wait and see’ While Biden has eased into the race, Trump has not

hesitated to attack him, including sending eyebrow-raising tweets during his visit to Japan amid tensionswith North Korea and its leader Kim Jong Un. Trumptweeted Saturday that he “smiled when (Kim) calledSwampman Joe Biden a low IQ individual, & worse.”On Tuesday, the Biden camp pushed back firmly, call-ing the president’s comments “beneath the dignity ofthe office” and part of a pattern of Trump “embracingautocrats.”

“To be on foreign soil, on Memorial Day, and toside repeatedly with a murderous dictator against a

fellow American and former Vice President speaks foritself,” deputy campaign manager Kate Bedingfieldsaid in a statement. A senior campaign official said theBiden team waited until after Memorial Day out ofrespect for the “sacred purpose” of the holiday thathonors veterans.” Trump hit back on Twitter, saying he“was actually sticking up for Sleepy Joe Biden whileon foreign soil”, and that “Kim Jong Un called him a‘low IQ idiot,’ and many other things.”

Advisors have argued that because of his near-uni-versal name recognition, and popularity withinDemocratic circles, Biden does not need to relentless-ly introduce himself to voters, as several other candi-dates are doing. His commanding lead in early pollingalso signals that media attention will follow him wher-ever and whenever he hits the campaign trail. Bidensenior advisor Symone Sanders said at thePhiladelphia rally that the candidate will soon ramp uphis campaigning. “He knows that folks have questionsabout his stamina, his ability to go long days, longnights,” she said. “What he’ll tell you is ‘just watch, justwait and see.’”

Several instances when Biden was deemed to havebeen too “tactile” with women threaten his bid, withsome women denouncing his gestures as too affec-tionate. But despite the criticism, Biden held a 10-year-old girl by the shoulders at the teachers’ townhall after she asked him a question and he told her: “Ibet you’re as bright as you’re good looking.” —AFP

Arun Jaitley

I n t e r n a t i o n a l Thursday, May 30, 2019

7Established 1961

News in brief

Sudan central bankers lead strike as pressure mounts on generals

Egyptian militant transferred from Libya

CAIRO: One of the most-wanted Egyptian militantswho was captured in neighboring Libya last year hasbeen transferred to Egypt, state media reported yes-terday. Libyan strongman Khalifa Hafter handed overHisham El-Ashmawy after meeting with Egypt’s intelli-gence services chief in Benghazi, his office said in astatement late Tuesday. Egyptian pro-governmentmedia broadcast footage of Ashmawy arriving inEgypt on a military aircraft early yesterday morning. Aformer officer with Egypt’s special forces, Ashmawyleft the army in 2012 and later joined Ansar Beit al-Maqdis which is based in the Sinai Peninsula. Ashmawyis believed to have gone to Libya in 2013, beforeMaqdis pledged allegiance to the Islamic State groupin Nov 2014, becoming one of Egypt’s most wantedterrorists. — AFP

Algeria activist dies in prison

ALGIERS: An Algerian human rights campaignerand Mozabite Berber activist died Tuesday in pre-trial detention, his lawyer said, accusing judicialauthorities of causing his death. Released in July2017 after serving two years in prison for publicorder offences, Kamel Eddine Fekhar was re-arrested in late March for “attacks on institutions”.He was placed in detention in Ghardaia, some 480km south of the capital Algiers. His lawyer SalahDabouz said Fekhar died at the Blida hospital afterbeing transferred there “in a comatose state”. Theactivist had been on hunger strike since he wasdetained, he told AFP. In a video posted on hisFacebook page, Dabouz denounced “this relent-lessness and this planned death by the judicialauthorities of Ghardaia” who detained Fekharwithout reason. — AFP

Iraq repatriates 200 children

BAGHDAD: Iraq repatriated to Turkey yesterday188 children of Turks accused of belonging to theIslamic State group, a capital offence in Iraq, thejudiciary said. The move follows the repatriation toTajikistan late last month of 84 children of nationalsconvicted by Iraqi courts of membership of IS orother jihadist groups. That came after dozens ofchildren were flown to Russia and after France andGermany repatriated the children of women nation-als detained in Iraq. Iraqi courts have dealt with asteady flow of militants - with 500 foreign men andwomen already found guilty of having joined IS. Thecaseload has swelled in recent months after thou-sands of militants were transferred from Syria afterthe battle to stamp out the last IS enclave. — AFP

Buhari sworn in for second term

ABUJA: Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari wassworn in for a second term in office yesterday, vowingonce more to tackle crippling security threats and rootout corruption in Africa’s key economy. The 76-yearold leader, in power since 2015 and re-elected inFebruary, took the oath of office for a second four-yearterm in the capital Abuja. “I do solemnly swear that Iwill be faithful and bear true allegiance to the FederalRepublic of Nigeria,” Buhari said, dressed in simplewhite robes and traditional embroidered cap. “I willpreserve, protect and defend the constitution.” Buharitook the oath of office at what officials called a “low-key” ceremony. It included a red-carpet arrival flankedby bagpipers with a military guard of honor and seat-ing packed with dignitaries. Vice President YemiOsinbajo was also sworn into office.—AFP

KHARTOUM: Hundreds of workers at Sudan’s banksand government offices, including the key oil ministry,went on strike for a second day yesterday to demandthe country’s ruling generals step down. The two-daystrike aims to pressure the military council that tookpower after ousting longtime president Omar Al-Bashirin April to hand over to civilian rule. The Alliance forFreedom and Change protest movement called thestrike after the suspension of talks over the shape of atransitional authority.

Thousands of employees of government offices,banks, private sector firms and the docks of Port Sudanobserved the strike on Tuesday, saying only civilian rulecan lift Sudan out of its political crisis. Yesterday, thecapital’s airport began to return to normal after scoresof staff stopped work on Tuesday, although the flightsof Sudanese airlines Badr, Tarco and Nova remainedsuspended.

But outside central bank headquarters in downtownKhartoum, hundreds of employees along with workersfrom other banks, the oil ministry and telecommunica-tions sector held a demonstration against the militarycouncil, an AFP correspondent said. Carrying Sudaneseflags, banners and placards reading “civilian rule”, theychanted slogans against the generals.

‘We reject the military’ The demonstrators said they were striking and

protesting after a group of soldiers reportedly attackedbank employees on Tuesday. “We are here to say thatwe reject the military government and what happened

to central bank employees,” said protester SomayaOsman, an employee of telecoms company Zain. “It’sunacceptable... that’s why we want a civilian govern-ment,” she said. Around her, fellow protesters chanted“freedom, peace, justice!” - the catch cry of theprotests that began in December over a hike in breadprices and escalated into a nationwide movementagainst Bashir.

Late on Tuesday, the Sudanese ProfessionalsAssociation, the group that launched the protests, saidtroops had tried to force central bank staff to work.Hundreds of people also gathered outside theUniversity of El-Fasher in the state of North Darfur insupport of the strike yesterday, witnesses said. AtKhartoum’s main bus terminal, stranded passengerswere looking for private transport as bus company staffremained on strike.

“This is the second day I came to the bus terminalwith my family and I’m still unable to travel,” saidMohamed Al-Amin, who was trying to reach the east-ern state of Kassala. “Now I’m trying to hire a car withsome other passengers.” Several newspapers wereunable to publish because their printers had shut forthe day. “My newspaper is not on strike but we wereunable to print the edition because the technicianswere on strike,” the owner of Al-Mjher newspaper, Al-Hindi Ezzeddine, wrote on Twitter.

Ahead of the strike, protest leaders said the strikewould be observed by medics, lawyers and employeesof utility and transportation firms, among others. Thearmy ousted Bashir in April after months of protests

against his autocratic rule, including a sit-in by tens ofthousands outside military headquarters. Thousands ofprotesters have remained camped outside the sprawl-ing Khartoum compound for weeks.

But the generals, backed by key Arab powers, haveresisted calls from African and Western governments to

step down. Before suspending talks last week, the twosides had agreed on many aspects of the political tran-sition, including its duration and the bodies to overseeit. But negotiations broke down over the question ofwhether a planned transitional body would be headedby a civilian or military figure. — AFP

KHARTOUM: Sudanese protesters gather during a demonstration outside the Central Bank yesterday. — AFP

Travellers stranded as shutdown enters second day

BAGHDAD: A Baghdad court sentenceda Frenchman to death yesterday for join-ing the Islamic State group, bringing toseven the number of French jihadists ondeath row in Iraq. Yassin Sakkam wasamong 12 French citizens transferred toIraqi authorities in January by a US-backed force fighting the group in Syria.“I admit to having sworn allegiance” toIS, he told the court, saying he was paid$70 (62 euros) a month. He added thathe regretted his decision to join thegroup, and asked to be pardoned.

Sakkam, now 29, left France in late2014 to fight for IS, posting online pic-tures of himself carrying arms andspeaking to multiple media outlets aboutIS. He became one of the most notoriousmilitants in France, which has been seek-ing his arrest since 2016. Kurdish author-ities detained him in Syria in 2017. Hisbrother Karim carried out a suicideattack at the Iraqi-Jordanian border in2015, according to the French TerrorismAnalysis Centre (CAT).

Sakkam’s sentence came despiteFrance reiterating its opposition to capi-tal punishment this week amid a series ofsimilar judgments against French citizenshanded to Baghdad. Iraq has taken cus-

tody of thousandsof jihadists in recentmonths after theywere captured inneighboring Syriaby the US-backedSyrian DemocraticForces (SDF) duringthe battle to destroythe IS “caliphate”.They include hun-dreds of foreignerssuspected of ISmembership, raising the question ofwhether suspected IS jihadists should betried in the region or repatriated.

France has long insisted that its adultcitizens captured in Iraq or Syria mustface trial locally, while reiterating itsopposition to capital punishment. Iraqilaw provides for the death penalty foranyone joining a “terrorist group” - eventhose who did not take up arms. Alsoyesterday, an Iraqi court sentencedTunisian Mohammed Berriri to death forjoining IS, after a hearing lasting lessthan an hour. Berriri, 24, admitted to join-ing the group, saying he thought it was“defending the weak”, but said he nowregretted doing so.—AFP

Iraq condemns 7th Frenchmanto death for IS membership

Yassin Sakkam

BEIRUT: The latest strikes in an unprece-dented wave of regime bombardment on ajihadist enclave in northwestern Syria killedat least 13 civilians yesterday, a war monitorsaid. Air strikes, some using deadly barrelbombs, and shelling by both governmentand Russian warplanes have claimed amounting civilian death toll over the pastfew weeks. The violence, which has rattled afragile truce deal brokered by Moscow andAnkara in September, is causing mass dis-placement and bringing Syria to the brink ofthe worst humanitarian catastrophe yet inits eight-year-old conflict.

The United States and the UnitedNations demanded an end to airstrikes onTuesday, as bombardment by Damascuskilled 27 people - the single highest civil-ian death toll in the region since theregime increased attacks in late April. Butyesterday, aerial bombardment did notrelent. According to the Britain-basedSyrian Observatory for Human Rightsmonitoring organization, seven of yester-day’s victims were killed in an air raid onthe village of Sarja.

It lies in Idlib province, most of which iscontrolled by Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, agroup dominated by former members ofAl-Qaeda’s Syria affiliate. The four othervictims were a father and his three childrenin the village of Bara, said Observatorychief Rami Abdel Rahman. Two others werekilled in strikes on the Idlib town of Hbeit,he said. “The bombardment by the regime

and Russia continues to be intense onseveral areas. The Russian strikes arefocused on Khan Sheikhun but have notcaused any casualties for now,” he said.Syrian state news agency SANA reportedone woman was killed by jihadist shellingon northern Hama.

‘Spare no effort’The regime has not announced an all-out

offensive to retake the entire enclave, alarge area which is home to almost threemillion people. Analysts predict that thegovernment of President Bashar Al-Assadand its allies will continue to chip away atthe area but not unleash a major assault thatwould create chaos on Turkey’s doorstep.The regime is likely to continue applyingsustained military pressure whilst attempt-ing to preserve a fragile truce agreementreached in Russia last year to spare theregion a large-scale humanitarian disaster.

On Tuesday, Syria’s UN envoy BasharJaafari said Damascus “will spare noeffort” to free the residents of Idlib fromjihadist control, according to commentscarried by SANA. UN deputy aid chiefUrsula Mueller, however, told the SecurityCouncil that a further escalation wouldthreaten humanitarian assistance for theregion’s residents. She said some 270,000people had been displaced by the fightingin Idlib since late April.

Aid agencies have been forced to sus-pend their work in some areas, she said,adding that 22 hospitals and clinics hadbeen hit by air strikes or shelling since April28. The United States has said that “indis-criminate attacks on civilians and publicinfrastructure such as schools, markets andhospitals is a reckless escalation”.—AFP

Fresh strikes on Idlib kill 13


8I n t e r n a t i o n a l

JAKARTA: Enslaved, beaten, malnourished,and so desperate for water he had to collectcondensation to drink: Rahmatullah leftIndonesia seeking better prospects at sea -instead he endured a living hell. The globalfishing industry is riddled with forced labor,anti-trafficking experts say, warning that con-sumers are unaware of the “true cost” of theseafood they buy in stores and restaurants.Exploited workers face non-payment, over-work, violence, injury, and even death.Indonesia and Southeast Asia are majorsources of such labor and unscrupulous bro-kers target the poor and uneducated withpromises of good wages at sea.

Rahmatullah was told he was heading toPeruvian waters where he would receive $400a month salary, plus a per ton bonus, but hewas allegedly duped by an Indonesian recruit-ing agency and trafficked to Somalia, wherehe spent nine brutal months aboard a Chinesefishing vessel, working 18-hour days. “I feltlike a slave,” the 24-year-old told AFP, adding:“The Chinese crew drank clean water whilewe had to collect water from the air condi-tioning.” “We were often beaten when we did-n’t catch enough, even if we were sick.”

‘Couldn’t fight back’ Rahmatullah is one of 40 Indonesians push-

ing for compensation after allegedly beingtricked with false promises by recruiter PTMaritim Samudera. Some were sent to vesselsin the seas off Japan, and others to boats sail-ing the Somali coast. In interviews with AFPand accounts provided to police and govern-ment officials, the men recounted beatings andpsychological abuse, hunger, and dehydration.Two crewmates died from thirst and exhaus-tion, according to Rahmatullah’s testimony.Most of the men subsisted on white rice scat-tered with cabbage or boiled fish, while somegrew so desperate for water they collectedcondensation from the air conditioning unit.

“The food was terrible,” said 21-year-oldArianus Ziliwu, who was on a boat in Japanesewaters. “And the sleeping conditions didn’tseem fit for humans,” he explained. Cellphonevideo footage and images provided to AFPshowed some men slept without mattresses ina grimy cargo hold. “We couldn’t fight back -I’m from a village and didn’t know any better,”added Rahmatullah, who had never worked ona fishing boat before. Both groups were res-cued after sending SOS messages in briefwindows of access to mobile Internet.

Targeting the vulnerable The young men spent between six and nine

months manning nets and packing fish beforebeing saved, and all are owed thousands ofdollars in unpaid wages, according to swornstatements to police. Faced with plummetingglobal fish stocks due to overfishing, seafoodcompanies have increasingly turned to vulner-able migrant workers in a bid to remain prof-itable, anti-trafficking advocates said. “If youwant cheap tuna or squid, the way to do it iswith cheap labor,” said Arifsyah M Nasution,oceans campaigner at Greenpeace Indonesia.“And cheap labor comes from SoutheastAsia,” he added.

The Global Slavery Index says laborexploitation and modern slavery in somefisheries are well documented. But few shop-pers know about these high-seas horrors.“There is still very little awareness amongconsumers about the true costs and hiddenfacts of the seafood products that they buyat stores and supermarkets,” he said. Criticssay the Indonesian government is not doingenough to combat widespread abuse of itsmigrant sailors, despite efforts to clampdown on human rights violations in its ownterritorial waters.

Although there are no reliable estimates onthe number of Indonesian migrant fishermenthat fall victim to trafficking, authorities esti-

mated in 2016 that some 250,000 Indonesianswere working as “unprotected” crew on for-eign fishing vessels. — AFP

Floating sweatshops: Is the fish you eat caught by ‘slaves’?

Seafood companies turn to vulnerable migrant workers to remain profitable

News in brief

1,000 murder suspects held in Brazil

SAO PAULO: Brazilian police carried out a giant anti-murder operation in nearly every state of the countryTuesday, arresting 968 suspects in one day, accordingto the National Council of Civilian Police Chiefs. Thearrests included 56 people suspected of killing someonein an act of domestic violence or of gender-based dis-crimination. The efforts were phase two of the unusuallylarge so-called Operation Cronos. In each state, policeshared real-time updates of their work on social media,including photos and videos. “By imprisoning murder-ers, we hope to prevent future crimes,” Civil Policetweeted in the northern state of Para. During OperationCronos’s first phase in August, police arrested nearly3,000 people accused of murder, gender-based killingsand domestic violence, among other crimes. — AFP

Belgian king meets far-right leader

BRUSSELS: King Philippe of Belgium met with theFlemish far-right party leader yesterday, the first timesince 1936 that an extreme right-wing party has beenreceived by the monarch. The royal palace announcedthe meeting with the 32-year-old Tom Van Grieken ofthe Vlaams Belang party, which scored a surprise sec-ond place in Dutch-speaking Flanders in federal andregional elections on Sunday. While extremely limited,the role of the Belgian monarch is to serve as a facilita-tor to build a ruling coalition, a complicated task in acountry deeply split between French and Dutch speak-ing communities. Before the announcement Van Griekentold Flemish media that he would definitely accept theinvitation, should he get one. “If you want to get respectyou have to show respect, and that comes from bothsides,” he told Radio 1. — AFP

Rights court condemns Azerbaijan

STRASBOURG: Europe’s top rights court ruled yester-day that Azerbaijan had violated its human rights obli-gations by ignoring a judicial order to free a jailedopposition leader critical of strongman President IlhamAliyev. The Strasbourg-based European Court ofHuman Rights (ECHR) found the country had flouted its2014 ruling to release Ilgar Mammadov, who was jailedin 2013 and ultimately freed only in August 2018. TheECHR is part of the Council of Europe (CoE), the pan-European rights body which Azerbaijan joined in 2001.It ruled five years ago that criminal proceedings againstMammadov had no legal basis and were politicallymotivated. Pro-democracy campaigner Mammadov waswidely expected to run in presidential elections againstAliyev when he was arrested in Feb 2013 on charges ofcausing unrest in the town of Ismayilli. — AFP

Mozambique militants step up attacks MAPUTO, Mozambique: Islamist insurgents haveresumed attacks in northern Mozambique after acyclone last month, killing nearly two dozen villagersand torching homes in a mounting political threat inthe run-up to a general election. A shadowy jihadistgroup that has targeted Cabo Delgado province sinceOctober 2017 briefly halted attacks after CycloneKenneth made landfall on April 25, leaving 45 deadand 250,000 affected. Relief teams and UN agencieswere still searching for survivors and distributing aidwhen the Islamists returned to action.

In less than a month, the insurgents have killed atleast 22 people, wounded dozens more and burnedhundreds of homes, according to a record kept byAFP. The attacks have increased despite fresh policeand military deployments as authorities struggle toprevent the insurgency disrupting voter registrationahead of presidential and legislative elections inOctober. Islamist fighters have been attacking remotecommunities in the gas-rich, Muslim-majority north-ern region since Oct 2017.

But the group’s identity and motives remainunclear. “The country is falling victim and we all needto understand the real reasons,” President FilipeNyusi said last week in a rare interview with the pri-vately-owned Canal de Mocambique newspaper.“The defense and security forces are putting theirwhole resources into this, so we can learn (the insur-gents’) motivation and who these people are.” Thegovernment refuses to confirm details of attacks, butAFP tracked the violence via local sources.

On May 3, as communities were still reeling fromthe cyclone, gunmen stormed the village of Nacate, inMacomia district, killing six and setting fire to a dozenhomes. The following day, the nearby villages ofNtapuala and Banga-Vieja were attacked, with fourpeople killed, including a teacher driving a motorcy-cle and three others who died in burned houses.Hours later, the villages of Ida and Ipho, in the districtof Meluco, were torched after local people fled tosurrounding forests.

The pattern has been repeated through themonth. Attacks have often forced the temporary clo-sure of voting registration stations, according to theCenter for Public Integrity, a Maputo-based civilaction group. On May 10, insurgents targeted theroad from the provincial capital Pemba to the coastaldistrict of Palma, where a major gas extraction proj-ect is being built. — AFP

JAKARTA: This picture taken on May 5, 2019 shows Indonesian fishermen unloading theircatch at a port. — AFP

Merkel govt vows climate action as voters turn up heat BERLIN: Chancellor Angela Merkel’s government yester-day pledged a new climate strategy by September as itscrambles to tackle what has become Germany’s hottestpolitical issue. Merkel’s coalition took heavy losses inSunday’s European Parliament elections at the hands of theascendant Greens in what was seen as an indictment ofBerlin’s plodding progress on tackling global warming.Young voters in particular - energized by the Fridays forFuture school strikes, anti-coal protests and a passionatecampaign from leading YouTube stars - abandoned themainstream CDU/CSU and SPD parties in droves.

Environmental groups demand that Germany fast-for-ward its phasing out of dirty coal, currently targeted for2038, and better promote zero-emission cars that remain arare sight on German roads. Merkel, who acknowledgedon CNN that “we have to give better answers” to the plan-etary challenge, met ministers of her “climate cabinet”Wednesday to discuss how Germany should meet its car-bon reduction targets.

Afterwards, Merkel’s office reaffirmed Germany’s intention“to meet the 2030 climate targets to which it has committeditself internationally” - a 55- percent cut in emissions from1990 levels. “This means significant additional CO2 reduc-tions year after year,” said her spokesman Steffen Seibert,stressing that Merkel’s government “sees this as a key focusof its work”. “The government will in September make thefundamental decisions on the laws and measures and thecabinet will adopt them by the end of the year,” he added.

‘Climate chancellor’ Germany long earned plaudits as a clean energy pio-

neer, and Merkel was dubbed the “climate chancellor”, forpushing renewables while committing to phase out nuclearpower by 2022 and now coal by 2038. However, greenactivists now feel that progress has stalled and demand afar earlier end to coal and the combustion engine, as wellas dramatic shifts in transport, agriculture and other fields.Germany is now set to miss its 2020 target of cutting CO2emissions by 40 percent from 1990 levels. It is currentlyon course for only a 32-percent reduction.

Since the European election, criticism has been rainingdown from all sides, not just environmental groups.Friedrich Merz, a conservative former investment fundboss with designs on Merkel’s job, charged that “the CDUmust ask itself why, after 14 years of having a ‘climatechancellor’, we are missing our climate targets, burdeninghouseholds and companies with the highest electricityprices in Europe and at the same time losing strategic andcultural control over the issue.”

The poor poll result has also heightened tensionsbetween the two uneasy coalition allies. A day after theballot box drubbing, the SPD Environment Minister SvenjaSchulze voiced her frustration about the CDU’s foot-drag-ging on her climate bill, saying that she could not “takeresponsibility for further delays.”

‘Sabotage’ The Greens’ politician Cem Ozdemir held out special

criticism for Transport Minister Andreas Scheuer ofBavaria’s conservative CSU party, saying that so far he had“sabotaged any serious climate policy”. Scheuer said in astatement that his philosophical approach was to “allow,facilitate and enable - not to prohibit, demonize and raisecosts”. Greenpeace Germany chief Martin Kaiser said that“the last new diesel and petrol engines would have to rollout of car dealerships in 2025 in order to reduce traffic

emissions to zero by 2035”. The pressure group alsobelieves Germany must shutter seven coal plants by 2022and completely phase out the polluting energy source by2030. And Kaiser demanded a shift away from “industrialagriculture with bee poison and mass livestock farmingthat ruins the climate and groundwater”, and towardorganic farming. Germany’s new climate law will look atthe energy sector, housing, transport, industry, agricultureand forestry, and waste management, governmentspokesman Seibert said.

It will also address “CO2 pricing” to factor in the eco-nomic cost of emissions, which can take the form of a car-bon tax or trading of emissions certificates. In one freshproposal, Housing Minister Horst Seehofer yesterday sug-gested tax deductions for green building renovations, suchas insulating walls and roofs and replacing old heatingsystems. — AFP

Why a deadly shadow hangsover Everestsummit KATHMANDU: As the return of cloudand frozen hurricane-force winds sealoff Mount Everest for another year,questions are being asked about howto police the world’s highest peakafter the deadliest climbing season inyears. On average five climbers dieeach year on the icy, narrow, oxygen-starved paths to the 8,848-m peak.This season, 11 people died on thetreacherous slopes where moun-taineers queued sometimes for hoursfor their turn at the top.

Some veterans say too many of thenew wave of mountaineer tourists areill-prepared for what remains a majortest of body and soul. Others havecalled for a cut in the number ofclimbing permits, or tougher stan-dards for guides. As the blame gameis played out, here are some of theproblems facing the lucrative Everestindustry - and potential solutions:

Summit DaysAlthough final numbers have yet to

be released, the number of people tomake it up Everest this year couldovertake the record of 807 set lastyear. Nepal issued 381 permits costing$11,000 each for the spring seasonand at least another 140 were grantedfor the northern flank in Tibet. As mostEverest hopefuls are escorted by atleast one Nepali guide, the crowdscaused bottlenecks on the path to thetop - especially after bad weather cutthe number of climbing days.

The 2018 climbers were helped byfavorable weather that opened thesummit for 11 days, but this yearvicious winds cut the number of daysto fewer than six. Five people died in2018. This year nine climbers died onthe Nepal side of Everest and two onthe Tibet side. Nirmal Purja, whoclimbed six 8,000-m mountains in

just 31 days this season, said the routeto the summit should be fixed earlierto ease the traffic. “We did that onAnnapurna to stay on track. It givesteams more days to reach the sum-mit,” he said. But Ang Dorji Sherpa ofthe Sagarmatha Pollution ControlCommittee - which oversees theopening of the lower part of the route- said the focus should be on limitingthe number of climbers as weatherdictates when ropes can be set.

Crowd management Just as a beach is crowded on the

first day of summer, the ridge to theEverest summit was clogged by morethan 200 climbers on May 22 when itreopened after bad weather. Teamswaited for hours in freezing tempera-tures to reach the top and thendescend. The wait increased the riskof frostbite, deadly altitude sicknessand simple exhaustion from depletedoxygen levels. The traffic jam in theEverest “death zone” has been blamedfor at least four deaths this year.

Indian climber Aditi Vaidya saidwaiting for one hour was a potentialkiller. “That’s where maximum peoplegot frostbite. Because you don’t walk,you don’t move, your body’s not warm,you are cold and no matter if you buythe best mountaineering equipment, Idon’t think anything - any man-madething -can fight nature.” GyanendraShrestha, a government liaison officerat the Everest base camp, saidclimbers are in too much of a rushwhen the window opens. “If there was

coordination among teams, and theycould have spread out the climbersover time we would not have seensuch overcrowding,” Shrestha said.

Raw recruits Several climbers said there were

too many inexperienced newcomers,moving too slowly and risking theirlives and those of others. “I sawclimbers who needed their guides’help to even put on their shoes andcrampons,” one climber said. Therehave been calls for the government tolimit the number of Everest permits orset criteria to be allowed on themountain. But Damian Benegas, whohas guided teams on Everest for near-ly two decades, said “limiting permitswill not change the quality ofclimbers”. “The operators know bet-ter and need to set a standard of whothey will take up the mountain.”

The Everest boom has made moun-taineering a lucrative business sinceSir Edmund Hillary and Sherpa TenzingNorgay made the first ascent in 1953.Then it was a major expedition, butEverest today can be conquered for aslittle as $30,000, and few pay morethan $65,000. Cost-cutting leads toless qualified guides, shoddy equip-ment and poor safety measures.“Finally, in the ‘wrong’ column are theoperators who (use) staff with lessthan qualified individuals, who lack theproper medical, mountaineering andclient experience to respond properlyin a crisis,” said Alan Arnette, a moun-taineering blogger. — AFP

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel leads the weeklycabinet meeting at the Chancellery yesterday. — AFP

Dutch ban Hells Angels biker gang over ‘violence’ THE HAGUE, Netherlands: Dutch judges yesterdaybanned biker club Hells Angels and ordered all its chaptersto close in the Netherlands as authorities pursue a clamp-down on so-called outlaw motorcycle gangs. The country-wide ban is a first for the club that operates some 470chapters in more than 50 nations around the world, theDutch public broadcaster NOS said. “The Hells Angels is adanger to the public order,” the court in the central Dutchcity of Utrecht ruled.

“The Hells Angels sees itself as a one-percenter club, aclub of outlaws,” said the court, citing a slogan used bybiker gangs rejecting the authority of national laws orsocietal norms. “It’s a club where there’s a culture of law-lessness and the authorities are kept outside their doors,”the court added in a statement. It referred to a number ofpatches or so-called “colours” on the cut-off vests of theHells Angels, called “cuts”, saying “they are handed out tomembers who commit (serious) violence”. “The HellsAngels’ profile is that of the largest and most powerfulmotorbike club. They believe other clubs should listen tothem and that leads to long-running conflicts.”

Dutch prosecutors, who have been trying for more thana decade to have the club banned, referred to an incidentin the southern town of Kerkrade where a cafe frequentedby rival gang Bandidos was set on fire in 2015. — AFP

MANAUS, Brazil: Brazilian riot police prepare to invade the PuraquequaraPrison facility at the Bela Vista community in the Puraquequara neigh-borhood on Monday. — AFP

I n t e r n a t i o n a l Thursday, May 30, 2019

9

News in brief

18 killed in Taleban strike

HERAT: Taleban fighters have stormed several securi-ty posts providing protection to Afghanistan’s historicminaret of Jam, cutting access to the UNESCO WorldHeritage Site and killing 18 security forces, officialssaid yesterday. The attack comes less than a weekafter the revered 12th-century minaret, located in aremote part of the western province of Ghor, wasthreatened by surging floodwaters. “The Taleban havecaptured some checkpoints around the minaret. Wehad to retreat because more fighting would causedamage to the minaret,” Sayed Zia Hussaini, thedeputy police chief of Ghor, told AFP. Abdul HaiKhatebi, the provincial governor spokesman, said 15pro-government militias and three policemen had beenkilled in the attacks, which started Monday. — AFP

‘Eggboy’ donates to NZ victims

SYDNEY: An Australian teen who egged a far-rightsenator over his offensive comments about theChristchurch mosque attacks says he has donatedalmost Aus$100,000 (US$69,000) raised for his legaldefense to the victims of the shootings. WilliamConnolly, nicknamed “Eggboy”, made internationalheadlines when he cracked an egg over controversialthen-senator Fraser Anning’s head at a press confer-ence after the massacre of 51 Muslim worshippers.Anning, who has since lost his seat in Australia’s par-liament, triggered outrage by claiming the attack inneighboring New Zealand was the result of Muslimimmigration to the country. Connolly wrote onInstagram late Tuesday that he had “decided todonate all monies to help provide some relief to thevictims of the massacre... it wasn’t mine to keep”.“Finally!!! After a huge amount of red tape,$99,922.36 has today been transferred to theChristchurch Foundation and Victims Support,” hesaid, adding that he didn’t need the money as a lawfirm acted pro bono for him. — AFP

B’desh to charge 16 after girl killed

DHAKA: Bangladesh police were set to file chargesyesterday against 16 people, including the headmasterof an Islamic seminary, over the shocking murder of a19-year-old girl burned to death. The killing of NusratJahan Rafi last month sparked protests across theSouth Asian nation, with the prime minister promisingto prosecute all those involved. Bangladesh’s PoliceBureau of Investigation said they would file thecharge sheet in a court in the country’s south againstthe 16 people, who include two girls who were class-mates of Rafi. “They are charged under the womenand children repression law and we’ll recommenddeath penalty for all 16 accused,” PBI lead investiga-tor Mohammad Iqbal told AFP. Iqbal said the principalof the Sonagazi Islamia Senior Fazil Madrasa Siraj UdDoula where Rafi was a student ordered the murderfrom jail. — AFP

Japan police search attacker’s home

TOKYO: Japanese police yesterday searched thehome of the man behind a stabbing rampage in thetown of Kawasaki a day earlier that killed two people,including a child. The 51-year-old attacker, identifiedby police as Ryuichi Iwasaki, died after stabbing him-self after the rampage, and his motives for the horrify-ing assault remain unclear. Yesterday, police searchedhis home, not far from the scene of the morning attack,seizing unspecified material, public broadcaster NHKreported. Local media said Iwasaki was living with rel-atives in their 80s, but gave no further details. Hisoccupation was unknown. The rampage in the townsouth of Tokyo on Tuesday morning killed two people- 11-year-old schoolgirl Hanako Kuribayashi and a 39-year-old parent identified as government officialSatoshi Oyama, a Myanmar specialist. Seventeen morepeople, mainly young children, were injured, accordingto authorities. — AFP

Modi healthcare scheme won hearts, and votes

SITAPUR, India: While Prime Minister Narendra Modi’snationalist tub-thumping has been widely credited with hisrecent election win, another factor was one he kept rela-tively quiet about: Modicare. Despite some teething prob-lems and a dire need for further reforms and more spend-ing, this huge initiative launched last year - one of theworld’s largest publicly funded healthcare programs - hasmade a difference.

“This scheme has infused a sense of belief in the poorthat if they fall sick they will get treatment without spend-ing a rupee,” said Anil Agarwal, chief medical superintend-ent at a hospital in Sitapur, a city with some of India’s worsthealth indicators. Indeed, voting data from the mammothelection that ended last week with a landslide for Modishowed particularly strong support for his right-wing partyin poorer areas where people would have benefited most.

“It has certainly been welcomed as a welfare measure bythe poor and probably contributed to (Modi’s) electoral vic-tory,” said K Srinath Reddy, president of the non-profitPublic Health Foundation of India. The flagship program,dubbed Modicare, covers hospital costs up to $7,200 forthe poorest 40 percent of Indians, or some 500 million peo-ple, in a country where the average annual income is about$1,670. Even before Modicare, or the National HealthProtection Scheme (NHPS), was introduced in September,treatment was largely free at government hospitals.

But patients still had to shell out for diagnostics andmedicines, which make up a big chunk of the costs of hos-pital care, as well as for implants like stents. Private clinicswere out of reach for many, with a consultation alone cost-ing some 1,000 rupees ($15) - a large amount for millionsliving on less than $2 a day. But now poorer Indians canvisit these clinics, providing they sign up to the scheme.

New belief Sabir Ali, an impoverished weaver who got a Modicare

card for himself and his family to use at any of the 15,000-odd participating hospitals, had a cyst removed from hisforehead. “It was unbelievable to hold the card in myhands,” Ali told AFP, his head bandaged at the Sitapur dis-trict hospital in northern India. “I used the card and I didn’thave to spend a single rupee on my treatment.” Untilrecently only a quarter of India’s population had any healthinsurance, forcing hundreds of millions to pay out of theirown pockets, go to quack doctors or just skip treatment.

An estimated 60 million Indians are pushed below thepoverty threshold every year paying for medical care, whilea report last year by The Lancet medical journal found sub-standard healthcare was responsible for some 1.6 milliondeaths a year. Almost two million people have benefitedfrom the scheme so far, with the government allocatingsome $1.2 billion since the launch. The costs are sharedbetween federal and state governments 60:40. “Schemessuch as Modicare played a larger role (in the election out-come) than anyone had anticipated,” said political analystParsa Venkateshwar Rao. “The overall message that hasgone out is that Modi is willing to help the poor.”

Teething troubles In his second term, however, Modi will have to iron out

some of the scheme’s teething problems, with some hos-pitals complaining they cannot recoup what they spend.“We can’t cope with (receiving) 9,000 rupees ($128) fora caesarean section which would include stay of thepatient, fees of the anesthetist, pediatrician, medicinesand so on,” said Doctor V K Monga from the IndianMedical Association. “But corrective steps are being tak-en... The health sector is overall satisfied now with thescheme,” he told AFP.

Reddy of the Public Health Foundation of India alsosaid the scheme needed more financial resources. “If thestate governments too can be stimulated to increase their

health budgets, the scheme will become sustainable.”More broadly, Modi needs to build more facilities, trainmore staff and implement more reforms in what remains adysfunctional healthcare system, experts say. The newlyre-elected prime minister has promised to hike healthspending to 2.5 percent of GDP by 2025, from 1.15 percentnow - one of the lowest in the world - but it is unclear ifthis will suffice.

Critics also say that Modicare helps unscrupulous pri-vate providers - already accused of over-diagnosing and

carrying out unnecessary surgeries - boost profits. Ali toohas his complaints. “I live nearby the hospital so I cancome, but if someone lives outside the city, they will strug-gle with the number of times they are expected to visit thehospital,” he said. “They make us run around a lot.” But thefamily of Vindeshwari Devi, who has had her uterusremoved at the same Sitapur hospital, is satisfied. “I thinkthis scheme is good and it will only get better,” said SunilKumar, a daily-wage laborer and Devi’s son-in-law. “Forthose who have nothing, it means a lot.” — AFP

Need to build more facilities, train more staff and implement more reforms

SITAPUR, India: In this photograph taken on April 16, 2019, chief medical officer Dr Anil Agarwal gestures duringhis inspection round in a hospital. — AFP

50 injured as Kashmiris help rebels escape SRINAGAR: At least 50 people were injured in clashes inIndian Kashmir yesterday as protestors helped rebelsescape a siege by government forces, police and hospitalauthorities said. While protests in support of the sur-rounded rebels have increased on the Indian side of thedivided territory in recent years, it is rare for insurgents toescape. Militant groups fighting the 500,000 Indian sol-diers deployed there demand independence or a mergerwith Pakistan.

Thousands of villagers poured onto roads yesterday astwo suspected rebels fought a gun battle with soldiersfrom inside a house in the Kulgam area in southern

Kashmir. Protesters pelted government forces with stonesto give the fighters cover to escape, they said. Fifty peoplewere taken to a local hospital after government forcesfired shotgun pellets and live bullets to push the protestorsback, witnesses and hospital officials told AFP.

“The house was blown up but the militants escaped inthe confusion. No dead bodies were found in the debris,” atop police officer told AFP on condition of anonymity. Theofficer said however that only three people were injured,one with a bullet and two with pellets in their eyes.“Scratches cannot be considered injuries,” he said, toexplain the discrepancy in numbers. Clashes betweenrebels fighting Indian rule in Kashmir and governmentforces occur almost daily. More than 90 militants havebeen killed so far this year.

Residents from nearby villages often throng the streets tohelp rebels by hurling stones at Indian soldiers. Kashmir wasdivided between India and Pakistan after their independencein 1947. Tens of thousands have died in an uprising launchedthree decades ago, most of them civilians. — AFP

PNG PM resigns, throwing gas deal into doubt PORT MORESBY: Papua New Guinea’s embattled primeminister stepped down yesterday, capping a months-longpolitical crisis and calling a multi-billion-dollar French andUS-backed gas deal into question. Facing a string of cabi-net resignations and a vote of no confidence he lookedsure to lose, veteran leader Peter O’Neill told parliamenthe had handed his letter of resignation to the country’sgovernor general. “I hereby tender my resignation asPrime Minister of the independent state of Papua NewGuinea, effective immediately” read the letter that wasobtained by AFP.

O’Neill said he had decided to step down “in the inter-ests of ongoing political stability in our country” citing theneed for “economic confidence and social unity”. For eightyears O’Neill had led the rugged and ethnically diversenation, which is home to over 800 languages. But he hadbeen heavily criticized for endemic corruption and chronicunderdevelopment, in a country that has increasinglybecome a venue for US-China rivalry.

The government’s purchase last year of 40 Maseratis toferry foreign dignitaries around Port Moresby’s few fullypaved roads during an APEC summit became emblematicof his tenure. But the breaking point appeared to havebeen a recent $13 billion deal with Total and ExxonMobilto extract, pipe and ship liquefied natural gas (LNG) over-seas. The deal angered powerful regional and tribal lead-ers, who suggested they were not getting a fair share.

Finance minister James Marape - from the Helaprovince in the highlands - was the first to resign inprotest, saying the money would not go to ordinary PapuaNew Guineans, local firms or the regions. A similar deal inthe last decade has failed to bring wealth to a countrywhere only 13 percent of citizens have regular access toelectricity. O’Neill had earlier promised to resign, but sub-sequently took court action in a bid to cling to power,prompting physical confrontations in parliament.

But on Wednesday O’Neill finally resigned. In a valedic-tory speech, he touted his achievements in office, includinghosting the 2018 APEC summit, a vast undertaking for adeveloping country with limited central governmentcapacity. “We have always been known for the wrong rea-sons,” O’Neill said. — AFP

Wanted Myanmar monk summoned by Buddhist council YANGON: An ultra-nationalist monk dubbed the“Buddhist Bin Laden” for his anti-Muslim vitriol has beensummoned for reprimand by Myanmar’s top religiouscouncil, as police pursue him on charges of stirring upunrest. Wirathu has long been the face of the country’shardline Buddhist movement, notorious for espousing hateagainst Islam and particularly the long-persecutedRohingya minority. A court issued an arrest warrant for theabbot late Tuesday under article 124(a) which targets any-one who “excites or attempts to excite disaffectiontowards the Government”.

After the warrant was issued, Wirathu posted on hissocial media page a summons dated May 22 from thecountry’s highest Buddhist authority, the State SanghaMaha Nayaka. This is a state-appointed body of high-ranking monks overseeing the clergy across Buddhist-majority Myanmar. The letter ordered him to report to itsYangon headquarters today for a reprimand over his“involvement with social affairs during a rally”. Wirathutold local media by phone Wednesday he was in Yangonahead of the meeting, but said the police had not yet comefor him. “If they want to arrest me, they can do it,” theIrrawaddy newspaper quoted him as saying.

The exact reasons behind the warrant have not beengiven but the rabble-rousing monk has given severalprovocative speeches at nationalist rallies recently. InApril, he took aim at the country’s civilian leader Aung SanSuu Kyi. “She just dresses up like a fashionista, wearsmakeup and walks around in stylish, high-heeled shoes,shaking her ass at foreigners,” he told a cheering crowd. At

another rally in Yangon he caused widespread offence bysaying “soldiers protecting the country should be wor-shipped like Buddha”.

‘Face of Buddhist Terror’ Wirathu is no stranger to jail. He was sentenced in 2003

to 25 years behind bars under the former military junta oncharges including preaching extremism and distributingbanned books. As the country opened up, he was released in

2012 alongside several thou-sand political prisoners. Heimmediately returned to hishardline preachings, callingfor boycotts of Muslim-owned businesses andrestrictions on interfaith mar-riages. The abbot appearedon the cover of “Time” maga-zine as “The Face of BuddhistTerror” in 2013. In 2015 hecalled UN special envoyYanghee Lee a “whore”.

The Buddhist authorityhad previously prohibited

him from speaking in public for a year after he delivered“hate speech against religions” - but the ban expired inMarch last year. Facebook blacklisted him in January 2018after a string of incendiary posts targeting the Rohingya.Rights groups say these helped whip up animosity towardsthe community, laying foundations for a military crackdownin 2017 that forced some 740,000 to flee to Bangladesh.Like many in Myanmar, Wirathu pejoratively refers to theminority as “Bengali”, implying they are illegal immigrants.Refugees’ testimonies of mass killings, rapes and arsonspurred UN investigators to call for the prosecution of topgenerals for “genocide” and the International CriminalCourt (ICC) is conducting a preliminary probe. “The day theICC comes here... is the day Wirathu holds a gun,” he told arally last October. — AFP

Pak MP accuses officials of lying about clash PESHAWAR: A Pakistani parliamentarian and civil rightsleader yesterday accused authorities of lying about a vio-lent clash between Pashtun activists and security forcesover the weekend as tensions soar between the militaryand rights group. Moshin Dawar - an MP and leadingmember of the Pashtun Protection Movement (PTM) - dis-puted claims by the military that activists assaulted themilitary during a protest near a checkpoint along theAfghan border Sunday, saying security forces fired intothe unarmed crowd.

“We did not attack any army checkpoint rather wewere attacked,” Dawar told AFP by phone from an undis-closed location where he is believed to be hiding. “Thestate and the state institutions are using force against usand I will raise voice against these excesses from whateverforum possible,” he added. Dawar went on to claim that atleast 13 people were killed by the firing, dismissing earlierreports from the military that just three activists werekilled during the melee. Amnesty International called for an

independent investigation into the incident earlier thisweek, saying “if the reports are correct that the army killedprotestors by unlawfully using live ammunition, this wouldbe a very serious violation of international law”. The inci-dent follows months of rising tensions between the twosides, with the military publicly and repeatedly warningPTM leaders to end their criticism of the country’s armedforces - largely seen as a red line in Pakistan.

Since bursting onto the scene last year, the PTM hasrattled Pakistan’s military with its calls to end allegedabuses by security forces against ethnic Pashtuns. Darwar’sclaims also come as the Committee to Protect Journalistscalled for the release of Pakistani journalist Gohar Wazirwho was arrested in nearby Bannu earlier this week afterinterviewing the PTM leader. “Gohar Wazir should not haveto face arrest merely for doing the job of reporting thenews, even reporting on controversial events such asprotests by the Pashtun Tahafuz Movement,” said StevenButler, the CPJ Asia program coordinator. A local officialconfirmed the arrest of the journalist along with 22 others,saying Wazir had violated a public order ordinance for tak-ing part in PTM protests. The PTM has unleashed festeringanger over abuses allegedly committed against Pashtuns,including enforced disappearances and targeted killings,during the military’s fight against insurgents. Pashtunsaccount for roughly 15 percent of Pakistan’s population,with a majority based in the northwest and a significantpresence in the southern port city of Karachi. — AFP

SRINAGAR: Kashmiri volunteers and medical workers trans-port an injured youth on a stretcher after he was wounded bypellet shots during clashes with government forces at a hos-pital yesterday. — AFP

Peter O’Neill

Wirathu


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A prayer for trees: For Kenyan tribes, saving forests is a sacred duty

As Tume Racha made tea for her grandchildren inthe family’s small wood-frame house wovenfrom rags and camel hides, she talked about

what her community holds most sacred: its trees.Racha, 50, belongs to the Gabra tribe, which lives onboth sides of the border between northern Kenya andsouthern Ethiopia. Its members believe the nearbyForole mountain is a holy sanctuary.

The community of herders pray to the mountainwhenever they need rain, and cutting down its trees isforbidden. If anyone from Racha’s village at the foot ofthe mountain is caught breaking that rule, they are castout. “Even children are taught from a young age that thetrees within the village are not to be cut,” said Racha.Across Kenya, nature-worshipping tribes have taken onthe responsibility of protecting their local forests.

And their grassroots actions are making a small butsignificant difference as the rest of the country worksto combat deforestation and restore its depletedforests. Climate scientists say preserving forests is akey way to keep climate change in check, as trees suckplanet-warming carbon dioxide from the atmosphereand store the carbon until they are burned or rot, whenit is released back into the air.

Racha took pride in the lengths the people in hervillage will go to in order to keep their forestuntouched. If anyone needs firewood or building mate-rials, she explained, they must travel 10 km to the com-munity’s grazing fields. And if a family decides to move,they can only take the wood from their dismantledhome if it comes from outside the village.

Call to communitiesWith less than 8% of its land now covered with

forests, according to World Bank data, Kenya is strug-gling to reach the minimum level of 10% recommendedby the United Nations. During the launch of a newgreening initiative in April, environment ministerKeriako Tobiko stressed that communities should helpwith restoring the country’s forests.

The effort “requires collaboration and huge invest-ments that are beyond (the) government’s capacity”, headded. Of the 2.5 million hectares (6 million acres) offorest recorded by the environment ministry, around140,000 hectares are “heavily degraded”, he said, andthe forestry service alone can only restore up to 5,000hectares each year.

“You can see how much time it will take to regener-ate all 140,000 hectares,” said Mugo Mware, head ofenvironmental studies at Karatina University in centralKenya. Mware applauded the strict rules in Forole asan example of how communities can take charge ofconservation. “This is good practice, and it is sustain-able” - as long as villagers properly manage how theyuse the wood they get from their grazing lands, he said.

“These are people with needs, so there should besome balance,” he told the Thomson ReutersFoundation. According to Forole resident Wato Ramata,young herders are tasked with planting new trees ongrazing land to replace any that are cut down, as well asguarding them from outsiders. “This is because peoplehere have recognized the importance of trees and theyknow the value of protecting them,” he said.

Tips for touristsAbout 1,000 km south of Forole, the people of the

Mijikenda tribe in Kinondo also consider it their dutyto keep the trees around them safe. The Kaya Kinondoforest, home to several rare species of plants and ani-mals, including the colobus monkey, is the largest of 11sacred forests - once home to fortified villages, orkayas - spread over 200 km along Kenya’s coast. Likethe Gabra, the Mijikenda pray to the forests for rainand their tribal elders have also long forbidden thefelling of trees in the kayas.

Abdala Munyenze, chairman of the Mijikenda KayaElders Council, said parents teach their children torespect the trees, and that reverence is passed on toanyone who marries into the community, to hand downto future generations. “This way, they will grow upvaluing what we have,” he said. More recently, protect-ing the forests has become a joint effort between theMijikenda and the local government, said SimonWahome, head of coastal region conservation for theKenya Forest Service (KFS).

When community elders approached KFS staff witha request to build fences around the forests to help stopillegal logging, the authorities quickly agreed and theareas were closed off last year, Wahome said in a phoneinterview. The fact that the community was leading theconservation effort made it an easy decision, he added.“This was a good thing for us ... when (the project) isbottom-up, one can be sure that it is worthwhile andhence value for our money,” he said. — Reuters

MEXICO CITY: Mexican authorities have raided the homeof a close aide of former President Enrique Pena Nieto andsecured the arrest of one of the country’s best-knownbusinessmen in a drive to get justice for scandals thattainted the last government. A former Pena Nieto cam-paign chief who went on to run state oil firm Pemex, thecountry’s largest company, Emilio Lozoya was not homeduring the raid late on Tuesday night in the upscale Lomasneighborhood, his lawyer Javier Coello said in an interviewwith Milenio Television.

The swoop for Lozoya, who ran Pemex from 2012 to2016, and the arrest in Mallorca on Tuesday of steel-mag-nate Alonso Ancira, who the government accuses of payingLozoya bribes, were the boldest steps yet in a new driveby current president Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador afterhe took office on Dec 1 pledging to root out corruption.

The attorney general’s office said it had issued warrantsfor several people in relation to the case, which the coun-try’s anti-laundering tsar said centered on bribes paid inconnection with the $475 million purchase by Pemex of afertilizer plant from Ancira’s company Altos Hornos deMexico. The tsar said the case had links also to Brazilianbuilder Odebrecht, whose executives have testified aboutbribes to politicians across Latin America.

The play came after days of intensifying speculationabout Lozoya’s future sparked by the government’s deci-sion last week to ban him from public service for 10 years

as part of a probe into the 2014 purchase of the fertilizerplant, which was out of service. Government auditors esti-mate the plant’s real value was closer to $50 million.

Gonzalo Monroy, an energy analyst often critical ofLopez Obrador’s policies, especially in the energy indus-try, said the move was “a step in the right direction,” butwarned that success on clamping down on corruptionwould only come if the case against Lozoya was fair. “Wewill see if the rule of law truly exists here, or is there goingto be a perverse application of justice,” Monroy said.

Lozoya, who was not immediately available for com-ment, has always denied wrongdoing and defended thefertilizer factory purchase as a wise investment, but hadbeen under pressure for his role at Pemex even during thePena Nieto administration. In 2017, Lozoya denied havingfunneled cash to Pena Nieto’s election campaign afterBrazilian newspaper O Globo alleged that Lozoya had tak-en $10 million in bribes in 2012 from a former executive oftroubled construction firm Odebrecht.

He was one of the rising young stars of the Pena Nietoadministration but by the end, some senior officials in thethen-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) wereprivately forecasting he would eventually face prosecution.The decision to go after him comes just days ahead ofstate elections on Sunday that will provide the first majortest of Lopez Obrador’s popularity since he took office inDecember. Though he has failed to curb surging violence

and the economy shrank in the first quarter, LopezObrador is expected to win easily the governorships upfor election in the border state of Baja California and thecentral region of Puebla. Speculation has swirled formonths about whether Lopez Obrador would go after highprofile targets to underline his commitment to end corrup-tion, a chronic malaise blamed for hurting growth andstoking violence and inequality in Mexico.

Opposition politician Jesus Ortega, a former campaignmanager for Lopez Obrador who is now a senior memberof center-left opposition party the Party of DemocraticRevolution, said the strides against corruption six monthsinto the election were at least in part motivated by thepresident’s need to satisfy his base. “The pressure withinhis own party and the pressure within his cabinet hadbecome enormous. This, I think, was a determining factorin the rush by the attorney’s general’s office to investigate,”Ortega said.

Ortega said the decision to move on Lozoya and Ancirawas “audacious” but cautioned that the case beingbrought by prosecutors needed to be solid enough to winconvictions. Lopez Obrador’s predecessor, Pena Nieto,signaled his own intent to clean up politics by having for-mer teachers union boss Elba Esther Gordillo arrested inthe third month of his government. Gordillo later ended upunder house arrest and was released shortly after LopezObrador won office in July. — Reuters

With raids, warrants and arrest, Mexico leader sends first big message on graft

Alonso Ancira (center), head of Altos Hornos de Mexico, arrives to court in Palma de Mallorca yesterday after being arrested on the Spanish island. The Mexican executive accusedof orchestrating the sale of a defunct business to state oil company Pemex for nearly half a billion dollars was arrested on the Spanish island of Mallorca. — AFP

Is the Syrian regime about to retake Idlib?

Syria’s regime has increased its deadlybombardment of Idlib in recentweeks, but analysts say that is unlike-

ly to signal an all-out offensive on thejihadist bastion.

Why the alarm?Eight years into Syria’s civil war, the

government has notched up a series of vic-tories against rebels and jihadists, and con-trols around 60 percent of the country. Tworegions largely remain beyond its control: aKurdish-held swathe of the northeast and anorthwestern region controlled by Syria’sformer Al-Qaeda affiliate, Hayat Tahrir Al-Sham. The jihadist bastion is supposed tobe protected from any massive onslaughtby a buffer zone deal signed in Septemberby regime ally Russia and rebel backerTurkey, which shares a border with Idlib.

But deadly bombardment by the regimeand its Russian ally has spiked in recentweeks, and pro-government fighters haveseized several towns on its southern flank.The increased air strikes and rocket firesince late April have killed more than 270civilians, the Syrian Observatory forHuman Rights says. At least 13 were killedon Wednesday alone, the Britain-basedmonitor said. The spike in violence has alsodisplaced some 270,000 people from theirhomes, knocked 19 hospitals out of serviceand damaged several more, the UnitedNations says.

Is this a full-blown offensive?But analysts are sceptical that the

regime’s bombing is the start of an all-outbattle for the enclave. “I strongly doubt thisoffensive will aim to retake the entire Idlibregion,” said Aron Lund, from US thinktank The Century Foundation. “Retakingthe whole area would be a massive under-taking that Turkey would be sure to resist,not least because it would send hundredsof thousands of refugees streaming towardthe Turkish border.” Under the buffer zonedeal signed in September, jihadists were

supposed to withdraw from the planneddemilitarized zone. Turkish troops were todeploy to observation points around it, andtraffic would be restored to two commer-cial arteries running through the province.Turkish forces have since deployed asmonitors, but the jihadists never pulledback from the planned buffer and the roadswere not re-opened. Yet analysts say thedeal, born of the so-called Astana negotia-tions track between Russia, fellow regimeally Iran, and Turkey, is not dead yet.“Russia doesn’t want to cut the last threadof the Astana process or its relationshipwith the Turks,” said Nawar Oliver, an ana-lyst from the Turkey-based Omran Centrefor Strategic Studies. “There’s still hope.”The Observatory said Turkish troops wererotated at one of the monitoring pointsnear Idlib as recently as Tuesday.

So what does the regime want?Fellow analyst Sam Heller said the

regime was instead seeking gains againstHTS and allied rebels on the region’speripheries. “Rather than a total offensive,Damascus and Moscow instead seem to beaiming for a few specific areas along theedge of the larger Idlib area,” theInternational Crisis Group analyst said.

Capturing areas like the western flankof the bastion “will put more distancebetween rebels and government-held areasthey’ve shelled”, including the key Russianairbase of Hmeimim, he said. Damascus andMoscow have repeatedly accused “terror-ist groups” - a catch-all term for jihadistsand more moderate rebels — of using Idlibto launch attacks against Hmeimim.

But the regime might also be also pilingpressure on Turkey to further implementthe terms of the September deal, includingthe opening of the two key highways,Heller said. They include a section of theM5, a road that before the war crossed theentire country, connecting the Turkishfrontier in the north with the Jordanianborder in the south.

In recent years, the regime has retakencontrol of the majority of that artery, to thesouth of Idlib. President Bashar Al-Assad’sregime has repeatedly said that eventuallyall of Idlib will return to regime control.Syria’s UN envoy Bashar Jaafari onTuesday said Damascus “will spare noeffort” to free the residents of Idlib fromjihadist control. — AFP

Deal or no deal? UK rivals at oddsover Brexit plan

The race to replace Theresa May asBritish prime minister in a contest dueto end in July has 11 declared con-

tenders so far. Here is a look at the hopefulsin the Conservative Party leadership battleand their stances on Brexit, with Britain cur-rently due to leave the EU on October 31:

In favor of no-deal ESTHER McVey

The 51-year-old Brexit supporter andformer television presenter, McVeyresigned as work and pensions secretarylast year over Brexit compromises. A blue-collar Conservative, she wants a cleanbreak with Brussels.

Open to no-deal in October Boris Johnson

A former mayor of London, Johnsonsays he would get Britain out of theEuropean Union, “deal or no deal”. A keyfigure in the 2016 Brexit campaign, heserved as foreign minister afterwards butresigned after falling out with May over thegovernment’s Brexit strategy. Charismaticand popular with grassroots Conservatives,the 54-year-old has maintained his publicprofile by writing a weekly column in TheDaily Telegraph newspaper.

Dominic RaabAn ardent eurosceptic with a black belt in

karate, the 45-year-old former Brexit ministerresigned in protest at the Brexit deal struckwith the EU by May. He says Britain shouldbe ready to walk away from the EU withoutan agreement while still trying to negotiate abetter deal than the one May signed.

Andrea LeadsomLeadsom stole a march on her rivals by

quitting her position as leader of the House ofCommons last week, hastening the prime min-ister’s demise and staking out her pro-Brexitcredentials. The 56-year-old got down to thefinal two in the 2016 leadership race, butpulled out before the decision was handedover to party members, with whom she was

popular, after coming under fire for sayingthat being a mother would give her an advan-tage as prime minister over the childless May.

James CleverlyThe Conservative Party’s former deputy

chairman, 49, is an army lieutenant colonelwho entered parliament in 2015. A juniorfigure in the Brexit ministry, he says itwould be best to leave with a deal, urgingthe EU to be flexible, but is prepared tolead Britain out without a deal if necessary.

No to no-deal in OctoberJEREMY HUNT

The foreign secretary supported remain-ing in the European Union in the 2016 refer-endum but has switched since then. A formerbusinessman who speaks fluent Japanese, heis a resilient politician, having headed up theNational Health Service for six years duringa funding crisis. The 52-year-old has said hewill push hard for a new deal with Brusselswithout taking the possibility of a no-dealoutcome off the table.

Against no-deal Matt Hancock

The 40-year-old health secretary is onethe party’s rising stars, a moderate who iswidely seen as competent at his job and skill-ful at handling the media. He is one of severalministers who opposed Brexit during the2016 referendum before switching sides anddefending the withdrawal agreement Maystruck with the EU. He entered governmentin 2013 and has moved up the ladder quickly.

Rory StewartThe international development secretary,

46, is a former Foreign Office official whoserved in the coalition administration in Iraqfollowing the US-led invasion in 2003. Saysno-deal policy would be “damaging”.

Yet to say -Michael Gove

Brexit campaigner Gove initially support-ed Johnson’s leadership bid in 2016. His last-minute decision to enter the race himselfcaused both men to lose out to May. After ayear in the political wilderness, he wasappointed environment minister in 2017. Thecerebral 51-year-old is among the mostardent eurosceptics left in May’s govern-ment but is seen as a possible unifying figurebetween the two wings of the party. — AFP

Egyptian pound strengthens againstdollar, trading at its highest in 2 years 1412 13

BusinessEstablished 1961


US Treasury again says China is not manipulating currency

Huawei calls on US to adjust its approach to tackle cybersecurity

BAOTOU, Mongolia: A cyclist wearing a protective face mask while riding along a dusty road, where dozens of factories process rare earths, iron and coal operate, on the outskirts of Baotou city in Inner Monglia, north-west China. —AFP

BEIJING: Chinese state media yesterday dangled thethreat of cutting exports of rare earths to the UnitedStates as a counter-strike in the trade war, potentiallydepriving Washington of a key resource used to makeeverything from smartphones to military hardware.

The warning is the latest salvo in a dispute that hasintensified since President Donald Trump ramped uptariffs against China and moved to blacklist telecomgiant Huawei earlier this month, while trade talks haveapparently stalled.

Huawei stepped up its legal battle yesterday,announcing it had filed a motion in US court for summa-ry judgment to speed up its bid to overturn US legisla-tion that bars federal agencies from using its equipmentover security concerns. Beijing had already dropped abig hint that rare earths could be in the firing line byshowing images last week of President Xi Jinping visit-ing a rare earths factory in Ganzhou, central China.State media made it clearer yesterday.

“Will rare earths become China’s counter-weaponagainst the unprovoked suppression of the US? Theanswer is not mysterious,” warned The People’s Daily,the Communist Party mouthpiece. “We advise that USnot to underestimate China’s ability to safeguard itsown development rights and interests, and not to say we

didn’t warn you,” it said.The state-owned Global Times warned in an edito-

rial that the “US will rue forcing China’s hand on rareearths”. “It is believed that if the US increasingly sup-presses the development of China, sooner or later,China will use rare earths as a weapon,” the nationalisttabloid said.

Shares in rare earth companies surged in theShanghai and Shenzhen stock markets yesterday. Anunnamed official from the National Development andReform Commission, China’s state planner, had issued acryptic warning late Tuesday. “What I can tell you isthat if anyone wants to use products made from ourrare-earth exports to curb and suppress China’s devel-opment, I’m sure the people of Ganzhou and acrossChina will not be happy with that,” the official said inanswers to questions published by state media.

The official said rare-earth resources should “servedomestic needs first” but China is also willing to meetthe “legitimate needs of countries around the world”.

Huawei fights back China produces more than 95 percent of the world’s

rare earths, and the United States relies on China forupwards of 80 percent of its imports. Rare earths are 17

elements critical to manufacturing everything from tele-visions to cameras and lightbulbs.

Huawei, meanwhile, is fighting back in what is shap-ing up as a battle for who will dominate the future ofhigh-tech. Huawei has sued the US over the federal ban.But it also faces a recent Trump administration orderthat cuts it off from critical American-made componentsfor its products.

“The US government has provided no evidence toshow that Huawei is a security threat,” Huawei’s chieflegal officer Song Liuping told reporters, rejecting USwarnings that the company’s equipment could be usedby China to spy on other countries.

Risky business China has been accused of using its rare earth lever-

age for political reasons before. Japanese industrysources said it temporarily cut off exports in 2010 as aterritorial row flared between the Asian rivals, chargesthat Beijing denied. But experts say the Japan experienceshowed that China’s leverage has some limits. “Ultimately,concentrated rare earths supply in China had limitedeconomic and political effects,” according to a 2014report by the Council on Foreign Relations think tankwritten by University of Texas professor Eugene Gholz.

The report said China’s rare earth advantageswere already slipping away in 2010 due to normalmarket behavior, including increases in non-Chineseproduction and processing capacity, and innova-tions that have contributed to reducing demand forsome rare earth elements.

Analysts have said China appears apprehensiveof targeting the minerals just yet, possibly fearful ofhastening a global search for alternative supplies ofthe commodities. “I think China’s current objectiveis to put pressure on the US for more Americanconcessions in the trade talks and compel the US tobe less harsh on Huawei and other Chinese techcompanies ,” sa id Li Mingj iang, China programcoord ina tor a t the S . Ra ja ra tnam Schoo l o fInternational Studies (RSIS) in Singapore.

But China is likely to use a rare earths ban as apolicy tool if the US continues to be tough on tradeand Huawei, he said. The Global Times acknowl-edged that banning rare earth exports to the UScould “produce complex effects, including incurringcertain losses on China itself.”

However, it added, “China also clearly knowsthat the US would suffer greater losses in thatsituation.” —AFP

China threatens to deprive US of rare earthsUS relies on China for 80% of its rare earths imports

Venezuela claims130,000% inflation CARACAS: Venezuela ended 2018 with inflation above130,000 percent while its crisis-hit economy shrank bynearly half in the last five years, the central bankclaimed Tuesday-a figure far below international esti-mates. Millions of people have fled the country asastronomical rises in the cost of consumer goods andbroader economic woes have made food and basicsupplies unobtainable for average people.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predictsinflation of 10 million percent by the end of the year, anearly eight-fold spike from the 1.37 million percent itestimated for 2018.

Mismanagement of the country’s economy and“highly distortionary policies” such as the use of pricecontrols and directed lending was responsible for thecountry’s dire fiscal straits, the World Bank said in anApril report that forecast a further 25 percent GDP cutthis year. The central bank also reported that oilexports-which account for 96 percent of the country’srevenue-plummeted to $29.8 billion in 2018, down from$71.7 billion in 2014, when oil prices collapsed and thecountry’s political and economic crisis began.

Oil prices have since rebounded, but a drop in pro-duction has hampered a return to previous revenue lev-els. Venezuela was producing 1.03 million barrels of oilper day in April, compared to 3.2 million barrels a

decade ago.The central bank stopped providing official figures

three years ago without giving an official reason,though it had already been holding back the amount ofeconomic information it reported.

Top IMF official Alejandro Werner told AFP in Aprilthat Venezuela’s economic implosion had been “evenbigger than we anticipated”. “Based on experienceswith countries that have suffered similar collapses... formost of them to recover living standards similar to whatthey had before the collapse it has been a question of adecade or decades,” he said. — AFP

Italy’s Ferrero to buy biscuit businesses of KelloggMILAN: Ital ian chocolate giant Ferrero saidMonday it was buying the biscuit and snack busi-nesses of the American Kellogg Company for $1.3billion (1.16 billion euros). “The Ferrero Group... willacquire the cookie, fruit and fruit-flavored snack,ice cream cone and pie crust businesses fromKellogg Company,” which generated sales ofapproximately $900 million in 2018, it said.

The brands Ferrero will acquire include popularKeebler cookies as well as Famous Amos andMurray Sugar Free cookies and fruit snacks such asStretch Island. Ferrero, founded as a family busi-ness in 1946 and now the third-largest company inthe global chocolate confectionery market, hasacquired several US brands and businesses since2017. The company behind Ferrero Rocher and thehazelnut spread Nutella said it would also be buy-ing from Kellogg six food manufacturing facilitiesacross the US, from Washington to Kentucky, aswell as two plants in Chicago.

The Kellogg biscuit businesses “are an excellentstrategic fit for Ferrero as we continue to increaseour overall footprint and product offerings in theNorth American market,” said Giovanni Ferrero,Executive Chairman of the Ferrero Group. “Wehave great respect for Kellogg, its legacy and val-ues, and are proud that Kellogg has chosen Ferreroas a good home for these businesses,” he said in astatement.

The deal is expected to close in the second halfof the year.—AFP

CARACAS: View of a tree decorated with banknotes which areworthless - as a result of inflation - as people queue at a gasstation (left) in Caracas during a power outage. —AFP ALBA: This picture taken yesterday in Alba, shows the logo at

the entrance of the Italian manufacturer of branded chocolateFerrero. —AFP


12B u s i n e s s

Established 1961

EXCHANGE RATES

Al-Muzaini Exchange Co.

EUROPEAN & AMERICAN COUNTRIESAl-Muzaini Exchange Co.US Dollar Transfer 304.750Euro 341.930Sterling Pound 387.790Canadian dollar 226.920Turkish lira 50.960Swiss Franc 304.900US Dollar Buying 296.550

ASIAN COUNTRIESJapanese Yen 2.791Indian Rupees 4.379Pakistani Rupees 2.051Srilankan Rupees 1.725Nepali Rupees 2.730Singapore Dollar 221.480Hongkong Dollar 38.827Bangladesh Taka 3.592Philippine Peso 5.848Thai Baht 9.623Malaysian ringgit 77.941

GCC COUNTRIESSaudi Riyal 81.321Qatari Riyal 83.757Omani Riyal 792.073Bahraini Dinar 809.750UAE Dirham 83.027

ARAB COUNTRIESEgyptian Pound - Cash 20.750Egyptian Pound - Transfer 18.210

Dollarco Exchange Co. Ltd

BAHRAIN EXCHANGE COMPANY WLL

Yemen Riyal/for 1000 1.224Tunisian Dinar 105.090Jordanian Dinar 430.500Lebanese Lira/for 1000 0.203Syrian Lira 0.000Morocco Dirham 32.181

Rate for Transfer Selling RateUS Dollar 304.290Canadian Dollar 227.140Sterling Pound 388.330Euro 342.520Swiss Frank 306.445Bahrain Dinar 809.220UAE Dirhams 83.250Qatari Riyals 84.490Saudi Riyals 82.040Jordanian Dinar 430.470Egyptian Pound 18.055Sri Lankan Rupees 1.724Indian Rupees 4.383Pakistani Rupees 2.016Bangladesh Taka 3.604Philippines Pesso 5.807Cyprus pound 18.105Japanese Yen 3.780Syrian Pound 1.590Nepalese Rupees 2.741Malaysian Ringgit 73.530Chinese Yuan Renminbi 44.545Thai Bhat 10.545

CURRENCY BUY SELLEurope

British Pound 0.378336 0.392236Czech Korune 0.005125 0.014425Danish Krone 0.041450 0.046450Euro 0. 332411 0.346111Georgian Lari 0.108357 0.108357Hungarian 0.000946 0.001136Norwegian Krone 0.030830 0.036030Romanian Leu 0.054416 0.071266Russian ruble 0.004682 0.004682Slovakia 0.009116 0.019116Swedish Krona 0.027688 0.032688Swiss Franc 0.296146 0.307146

AustralasiaAustralian Dollar 0.202463 0.214463New Zealand Dollar 0.192712 0.202212

AmericaCanadian Dollar 0.220222 0.229222US Dollars 0.300650 0.305950US Dollars Mint 0.301150 0.305950

AsiaBangladesh Taka 0.003011 0.003812

Chinese Yuan 0.042661 0.046161Hong Kong Dollar 0.036735 0.039485Indian Rupee 0.003710 0.004482Indonesian Rupiah 0.000017 0.000023Japanese Yen 0.002704 0.002884Korean Won 0.000244 0.000259Malaysian Ringgit 0.069089 0.075089Nepalese Rupee 0.002681 0.003021Pakistan Rupee 0.001456 0.002226Philippine Peso 0.005714 0.006014Singapore Dollar 0.215952 0.224952Sri Lankan Rupee 0.001377 0.001957Taiwan 0.009515 0.009695Thai Baht 0.009254 0.009804Vietnamese Dong 0.00013 0.00013

ArabBahraini Dinar 0.793785 0.810285Egyptian Pound 0.017595 0.020195Iranian Riyal 0.000084 0.000086Iraqi Dinar 0.000210 0.000270Jordanian Dinar 0.424927 0.433927Kuwaiti Dinar 1.000000 1.000000Lebanese Pound 0.000151 0.000251Moroccan Dirhams 0.020519 0.044519Omani Riyal 0.785240 0.790920Qatar Riyal 0.079440 0.084380Saudi Riyal 0.080180 0.081480Syrian Pound 0.001292 0.001512Tunisian Dinar 0.097720 0.105720Turkish Lira 0.044101 0.053946UAE Dirhams 0.081547 0.083247Yemeni Riyal 0.000991 0.001071

Turkish Lira 50.585Singapore dollars 220.210

Renault tries to reassure partner Nissan on Fiat plansTOKYO: Renault officials yesterday sought to reas-sure the firm’s alliance partner Nissan over a possi-ble tie-up between the French automaker and FiatChrysler, which could up-end the auto industry.

Renault and Nissan representatives weremeeting outside Tokyo yesterday along with offi-cials from the third partner in their alliance,Mitsubishi Motors. The alliance has been rockedby the arrest of its former head, Carlos Ghosn, theNissan chief who faces four charges of financialmisconduct and has been pushed out of all hisexecutive roles.

And the partnership was shaken further thisweek by news that Renault is studying “with inter-est” a 50-50 merger proposal with Fiat Chrysler(FCA), a prospect that took Nissan by surprise.

In a brief statement, the alliance said theiroperating board meeting yesterday included“open and transparent discussion on FCA’s recentproposal to Groupe Renault.” “The meeting alsodiscussed and positively concluded several cur-rent operational alliance matters,” the statementadded, after the meeting at Nissan’s headquartersin Yokohama.

Arriving in Japan on Tuesday, Renault chairmanJean-Dominique Senard offered an optimisticassessment. “I think that all the recent events arevery good for the alliance, and I will make sure thatNissan and Mitsubishi will take great advantage ofthe news,” he said. But Nissan CEO Hiroto Saikawahas received news of the proposed tie-up morecautiously. —AFP

KUWAIT: Following the adoption of a comprehensivereform program that was supported by the InternationalMonetary Fund (IMF) loan of $12 billion loan over threeyears, the Egyptian pound (EGP) plunged around 50 per-cent following its flotation in November 2016.

It was a critical step in resolving the shortage of foreignexchange and improving the economy’s competitiveness.This decision ended several months of tensions in the cur-rency markets, which had fostered numerous restrictionson trade and financial transactions, and encouraged thedevelopment of a parallel exchange market.

Moreover, it helped to narrow the current accountdeficit, with exports slightly increasing and imports mod-erating. There have also been improvements in foreigncapital flows, as well as a sharp increase in remittancesand in the number of tourists. However, the floating of theexchange rate combined with subsidy cuts and tax reformpushed inflation to as high as 33 percent in July 2017,before easing to 13 percent in April 2019.

After only a few months of fluctuations, the pound’svalue against the dollar remained steady at around EGP17.6-18.0 for almost two years, even at the height of thecrisis that gripped some emerging markets (Turkey andArgentina) in the second half of 2018. In fact, the EGPexchange rate remained stable despite a shift in investors’sentiment that led to a sharp decline in capital flows evenin the presence of IMF support and the improvement ofcredit rating.

However, since the beginning of 2019, the EGP startedto regain strength. On May 26, the Egyptian currency wastrading at 16.81 to the dollar for buying and 16.96 to thedollar for selling, recording less than 17 pounds for the firsttime in two years.

While most of the traders and analysts projected adepreciation of the EGP to the range of 18 to 20 poundsper US dollar in 2019, there were many factors that led toits appreciation.

Terminating the repatriation mechanism. The CentralBank of Egypt (CBE) decided to terminate on December 4the use of the “Repatriation Mechanism”, which allowed

foreign investors to repatriate their investment in dollarswhen they choose as guaranteed by the central bank(CBE). This mechanism provided some kind of stability forthe EGP, limiting its movements in response to capital out-flows that took place in the second half of the year.

Once the repatriation mechanism was ended, capitalflows (incoming and outgoing) are to be accommodatedby commercial banks and the exchange rate started torespond more to market forces, with the exchange regimebecoming more of a flexible exchange rate. However, giventhat some of the largest banks in Egypt are publicly-owned, they could intervene to moderate movements inthe rate.

Egyptian economy on the right path. While the appre-ciation of the currency was supported to some extent bythe change in the repatriation mechanism, such apprecia-tion reflects more Egypt’s strong economic performance.Egypt’s ambitious and bold economic reform program overthe past two and half years has addressed macroeconomicimbalances and restored international investors’ confi-dence. Egypt’s macroeconomic situation and risk profilehave improved considerably under its IMF-supported pro-gram. According to the latest data, real GDP acceleratedto 5.6 percent in 1Q19 from +5.5 percent in the previousquarter, while the budget deficit for the first nine months ofFY18/19 shrank to 5.3 percent of GDP, compared to 6.2percent in the same period a year earlier. The significantprogress made so far won the praise of all and ushers in anew era for Egypt.

Growing investor confidence. The recent appreciationof the EGP could be also attributed to portfolio investmentinflows. In fact, in a context of economic recovery, politicalstability and improvement in Egypt’s sovereign rating,investors are flocking back to Egypt. In addition, with eco-nomic reform continuing economic fundamentals are notexpected to have any adverse impact on the exchangerate, there is a lot of carry trade as investors take advan-tage of the current high interest rates compared to rates inother countries. Foreign investment in treasury billsincreased to $16.9 billion in April 2019 returning to their

levels that prevailed in July 2018 before some large capitaloutflows took place in the second half of the year.

A solid level of foreign currency reserves in CBE.Egypt’s foreign currency reserves increased from around$42 billion in December 2018 to $44.2 billion in April 2019,covering about eight months of Egypt’s commodityimports, higher than what is typically considered anacceptable level of three months.

Increasing foreign cash in the commercial banks. Theending of the repatriation mechanism redirected part ofportfolio investment outflows from the CBE to commercialbanks, which caused a sharp deterioration in banks’ netexternal position in late 2018. But thanks to the narrowingof the external current account deficit in the FY18/19 andcapital inflows in early 2019, the dollar liquidity hasincreased in the banking system. This has allowed somebanks, especially state-owned, to sell its foreign currencyassets to other banks in the interbank market, making dol-lars more available and supporting the pound’s strength.

Currency outlookContinued good economic performance and forging

ahead with the remaining reform measures will most likelyfoster foreign portfolio and direct investment into Egypt.Barring any major exogenous shocks, the EGP is expectedto remain relatively stable and to move in response to eco-nomic fundamentals within a moderate range. However,given Egypt’s strong dependence on foreign capital, anyshift in investors’ behavior and sentiment could lead tolarge swings in the rate. In such circumstances, it is likely

that the authorities will step in to smooth out these fluctu-ations especially those that are not warranted by economicfundamentals.

With the inflation rate steadily coming down from thehighs of 2017, the CBE will likely cut interest rates in tan-dem, reducing bond and T-bill yields and therefore easethe inflow of portfolio capital and that related to the carrytrade, thus moderating the pressure on the exchange rateto appreciate.

The initial floatation of the pound in the context of theeconomic reform program has served the economy verywell. The depreciation of the pound boosted exports,tourism and remittances and at the same time reducedimports leading to a noticeable improvement in the exter-nal current account. We believe that the authorities arecognizant of the fact that the appreciation of the poundbeyond a certain level may undermine some of theseachievements and will therefore stand ready to intervenewhen needed especially when large swings in theexchange rate result more from speculative and temporaryfactors and less from changes in economic fundamentals.

Egyptian pound strengthens againstdollar, trading at its highest in 2 years

Currency outlook stable after adoption of reform program

From European dream to global giant: Airbus marks half century PARIS: Fifty years ago at the Paris airshow, France’s transport minister andGermany’s economy minister signed anagreement that would change aviationhistory. The year was 1969 and Europeneeded a smaller, lighter and morecost-effective passenger aircraft thanAmerican rivals. Five years later, theA300B2 was born, a short-to-mediumrange plane with two engines, despitesafety concerns in an era when threeengines was the standard minimum.

Fast-forward to 2019, Airbus is cele-brated as a success of European coop-eration, one of two kings of global civilaviation along with Boeing. Around theworld, an Airbus takes off or landsevery two seconds. It now producespassenger planes ranging in size up tothe A380 jumbo jet, helicopters, fighterjets and is even involved in spaceexploration. Its story has been markedby setbacks, political turbulence andproduction problems but Airbus man-agement believes it can confidentlylook forward to the next half century.

“Airbus produces half of the world’slarge commercial aircraft and hasthriving helicopter, defense and spacebusinesses,” said CEO Guillaume Faury,who in April replaced Tom Enders who

served five years at the helm. “Weemploy 130,000 highly-skilled peopleglobally and are a powerful engine ofproductivity, exports and innovationfor Europe.”

The firm delivered its last thousandplanes in just 30 months. But in theearly days, it took nearly twenty yearsto produce a thousand aircraft. It facedcriticism for developments like fly-by-wire controls, which improve handling,and flight envelope protection, whichstop the plane performing manoeuvresoutside its performance limits.

Apart from technological advances,cracking America was a key ingredientin creating the global giant. The A300made a strong impression on FrankBorman, the former Apollo astronautwho headed Eastern Air Lines andchampioned the idea of buying moreeconomical planes.

Airbus’s backbone, the A320 In 1984, Airbus launched the A320, a

single-aisle, medium-haul aircraft tochallenge Boeing, which until then haddominated the largest segment in thecivil aviation market. The aircraft pavedthe way for the more fuel efficientA320neo which has become the back-bone of the company, strengthening itshold on the key market segment afterBoeing’s 737 MAX planes weregrounded after two deadly crashes inMarch and October.

Despite a failed deal with Britishdefense firm BAE Systems in 2012,Airbus’ partnership with CanadianBombadier’s C Series program in 2018enhanced its position as a global force.

France and Germany still hold 11percent stakes in Airbus through hold-ing companies with a smaller 4 percent

stake held by the Spanish government.The rest of the shares are traded on thestock exchange. But production hasn’talways run smoothly. The firmannounced in January it would scrapproduction of its A380 passenger giantby 2021 due to lack of orders.

The double decker jet earned plau-dits from passengers but failed to winover enough airlines to justify its mas-sive costs. Key clients have also hittrouble as some airlines hit financialdifficulty with Europe’s third biggestlow-cost airline Norwegian saying itwas further delaying deliveries ofAirbus and Boeing 737 MAX planes ithad ordered.

The company in April reported aslump in first quarter net profits whichfell 86 percent from the same period in2018 at 40 million euros ($45 million).

Airbus is also under investigation in

France, Britain and the United Statesafter disclosing transaction irregulari-ties in 2016, while US President DonaldTrump has threatened the EuropeanUnion with new tariffs if it does not endsubsidies to Airbus. But analysts seeAirbus as having an opportunity toprofit from the booming airline market,particularly in Asia, and from the globalgrounding of Boeing’s 737 MAX seriesplane after two recent deadly crashesinvolving the popular new airliner.

Airbus’s boss Guillaume Faury saidthe firm aims to continue being a leaderin aviation innovation.

“The aerospace industry stands onthe cusp of a technological revolutionto match anything in its history”, hesaid. “European aerospace shouldaspire to lead this coming revolution ininnovation and the transition to a moresustainable aviation sector.” —AFP

The Airbus 320neo

NBK Economic Report

B u s i n e s s Thursday, May 30, 2019

13

Trade war biggest risk to financial stability: ECBFRANKFURT: A growth slump thatcould be caused by rising trade tensionsis the biggest risk to financial stability inthe eurozone, the European CentralBank said yesterday.

“A potential trade war is perhaps themain risk, the main threat to the eco-nomic environment globally and simulta-neously for financial stability,” ECB vice-president Luis de Guindos said in aFrankfurt press conference. Among otherfactors such as Brexit and weakness inemerging markets, trade tensionsbetween Brussels, Washington andBeijing were behind a slowdown in theeuro area in the second half of 2018.

Growth rebounded in the first threemonths of this year, to 0.4 percent quar-ter-on-quarter, but with the United Statesand China still locked in a tariff battleknock-on effects continue to roil the sin-gle currency bloc. And the White Housepersists in dangling the prospect of tradetaxes on imports from the EU like cars. Agrowth blow could impact all four main

financial stability risks identified by theECB in its twice-annual review. Thoseinclude a “disorderly” increase in the pre-mium lenders charge on risky debt, andgrowing concerns about debt sustainabil-ity for some companies and highly-indebted countries like Italy.

“Whenever tensions between theItalian government and the EuropeanCommission come down, the spreadsnarrow” between yield on Rome’s bondsand those of reference countries likeGermany, de Guindos said. “The lesson Ithink that is quite evident is it’s veryimportant to meet and to respect the fis-cal rules” that apply to eurozone mem-bers, he added.

He also noted that Italy had a “goodtrack record” of managing its debt pile.Other risks identified by the ECB includeeurozone banks’ low profitability, whichcould suffer further if growth slows. Andnon-bank financial players like assetmanagers are taking bigger risks, with acash pile that has more than doubledsince 2008, to 13.8 trillion euros ($15.4trillion) — making for potentially massivelosses if risk premiums change suddenly.

De Guindos highlighted that the ECBalso included a chapter on climatechange risks to financial stability, daysafter voters handed environmentalist

parties increased representation in theEuropean parliament. “We believe this issomething that is going to become sys-tematic and structural” for financial sta-bility, the central banker said.

The financial system could suffer fromboth “physical risks” like natural disas-ters, and “transition risks” as the econo-

my undergoes the costly switch toreduced carbon emissions.

“We are trying to weigh and combinethe exposure of the financial system withthe carbon footprint of different pol-luters in order to have a clear picture ofwhere the risks are allocated,” deGuindos said. —AFP

FRANKFURT AM: The headquarters of the European Central Bank (ECB) inFrankfurt am Main, western Germany. —AFP

Stocks, oil sink as China ‘warns on metal exports’LONDON: World stock markets and oilprices tumbled yesterday as Chinareportedly warned it would limit exportsof rare metals, used in cameras, comput-ers, smartphones and televisions, in thelatest eruption in its trade war with theUnited States. Investor sentiment alsotook a knock as Chinese technology giantHuawei stepped up its legal battle tooverturn US legislation barring Americanfederal agencies from buying its products,as Beijing toughened its trade war stance.“Again we see how the market is movingaround on US-China news flow that ishard to lock down,” commented NielWilson at Markets.com. “China’s threatsto stop rare earth exports is clearly a bar-gaining chip, if not exactly a trump card,but one the market is starting to reallytake seriously,” he noted.

Asian equities slid as investors grewanxious about a possible economic slow-down in the absence of progress in

resolving the US-China trade spat. In asign of intensifying concern over eco-nomic growth, the yield, or rate of returnfor investors, on the 10-year US govern-ment bonds hit 2.22 percent, the lowestlevel since September 2017.

“With investors flocking to US 10-yearTreasury bonds on Tuesday night-yieldsare at a 20-month low-the Europeanmarkets resumed their fearful perform-ance on Wednesday,” said Spreadex ana-lyst Connor Campbell. “The catalyst forthe latest round of losses was a thinly-veiled threat from China over its willing-ness to throw around its rare earth weightin its battle with the US.” A Chinese statemedia report suggested Beijing wouldrestrict exports of rare earths, using theminerals as leverage in the trade dispute.

China’s ‘secret weapon’?-Rare earths are a key component in

electrical devices and any move to restricttheir supply would have a devastatingimpact on manufacturers, with China pro-ducing more than 95 percent of the met-als. “Given that the materials are used ineverything from iPhones to missile guid-ance systems to electric cars... the countrymay have found its not-so-secret weaponin the trade war,” Campbell added.

Economists agree that the trade disputebetween the world’s top two economicsuperpowers will have grim implicationsfor consumers, who will have to bear thecosts of punitive tit-for-tat tariffs. Back inEurope, investors digested the implica-tions of a possible new row between theEuropean Commission and Italian authori-

ties over budget plans that would pushRome’s public deficit above the EU limit.The Commission said it had asked for“clarifications” on Italy’s 2019 budget, butItaly’s far right Deputy Prime MinisterMatteo Salvini brushed off the threat. Theyield on 10-year Italian government bondsstood at 2.66 percent.—AFP

TOKYO: Pedestrians walk past a stock indicator showing share prices ofthe Tokyo Stock Exchange in Tokyo. —AFP

Slow global growth weighing on US manufacturers: Fed reportWASHINGTON: US manufacturers increasingly worrytrade spats and other factors will dampen their growthprospects, while widespread worker shortages are alsohampering industries nationwide, the Federal Reservesaid yesterday.

Even though manufacturers have reported solidgrowth in recent weeks, and the US economy has con-tinued to turn in respectable albeit slower performance,the Fed’s “beige book” survey added more evidencethat concerns are building. President Donald Trump’saggressive trade policies, Brexit and other issues areshowing signs of hitting global growth. Trump slappedpunishing tariffs on steel and aluminum imports, as wellas $250 billion in goods from China, which drew retali-ation against US products. Meanwhile, wage increasesare becoming more widespread as companies competeto fill open positions, although prices “continued toincrease at a modest-to-moderate pace” as firms see-ing higher input costs still cannot consistently passthem along to consumers, the report said.

The anecdotal reports in the beige book are consis-tent with the outlooks offered by the InternationalMonetary Fund and Organization for EconomicCooperation and Development, which have downgrad-ed forecasts for US and global growth this year amidmajor trade frictions, Brexit and other factors. And NewYork Federal Reserve Bank President John Williamssaid in a speech yesterday that the US economy would“slow considerably” this year to around two percent asthe boost from last year’s economic stimulus fades.Many of the Fed’s 12 regional banks said manufacturingactivity remained solid or rose and the San FranciscoFed cited a steel manufacturer in Oregon that “notedstrong activity in the industry due to lower competitionfrom abroad arising from trade policy actions.”

However, “numerous manufacturing contacts con-veyed concerns about weakening global demand, high-er costs due to tariffs and ongoing trade policy uncer-tainty,” the Fed said in the report, prepared in advanceof the monetary policy meeting of March 19-20. And inspite of Trump’s goal to reduce the US trade imbalance,the US merchandise trade deficit soared last year to itshighest level ever, while goods deficits with China,Mexico and the European Union likewise hit records.

Jobs not college? Concerns in American industry were becoming more

widespread than in previous reports which for monthshave expressed worries about the uncertainty causedby the trade friction. The Cleveland Fed laid out factorsweighing on demand and the growth outlook, including“slower global growth-particularly in Europe andChina,” as well as “continued uncertainty about thefuture of tariffs on steel and aluminum and ongoing US-China trade negotiations,” and “decreased consumerconfidence.”

Meanwhile, tight labor markets continue to serve asa brake on expansion throughout the United Statesand that is obliging companies in many areas to raisewages and other benefits for low-skilled and high-skilled workers. “Labor markets remained tight for allskill levels, including notable worker shortages forpositions relating to information technology, manufac-turing, trucking, restaurants and construction,” thereport said. —AFP

WASHINGTON: The US Treasury expanded the num-ber of countries subject to scrutiny in a semi-annualreport released on Tuesday, but again found that nei-ther China nor any other trading partners was manipu-lating its currency.

Treasury urged the Asian giant to avoid allowing therenminbi (RMB) to weaken persistently-which wouldgive its products more competitive advantage.Germany remained on the US “monitoring list” due toits large trade surplus, as did Japan and South Korea,indicating they “merit close attention to their currencypractices.”

Despite a bitter trade war with China focused onbringing down the US trade deficit, Treasury held backfrom escalating the fight further. Tensions between thetwo economic superpowers have risen in recent weeksafter President Donald Trump accused Beijing ofreneging on its commitments, and with a US crackdownon Chinese telecom giant Huawei.

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said his agency“takes seriously any potentially unfair currency prac-tices,” and “is working vigorously to achieve strongergrowth and to ensure that trade expands in a way thathelps US workers and firms and protects them fromunfair foreign trade practices.”

Treasury said the report concluded that “directintervention by the People’s Bank of China in the lastyear has been limited.”

However, the US “continues to urge China to takethe necessary steps to avoid a persistently weakcurrency.”

Expanding scrutiny The closely watched report broadened the field of

its scrutiny for potential exchange rate manipulation,since a weak currency makes US products less com-petitive and could undermine Washington’s efforts tocut a soaring global trade imbalance. Mnuchin saidTreasury “is expanding the number of US trading part-ners it reviews to make currency practices fairer and

more transparent.”With the newly expanded list, Treasury put nine

trading partners on the monitoring list, includingIreland, Italy, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam.

Beginning with this report, the Treasury is assessingall US trading partners with annual trade surpluses ingoods of more than $40 billion. Based on trade in 2018,that standard covered 21 countries with nearly $3.5 tril-lion in goods trade with the United States, according tothe report.

China’s currency dropped 3.8 percent against theUS dollar in the second half of last year, making it eightpercent weaker over the last year.

However, China only triggered one of the criteriaused to determine whether a country merits close mon-itoring. A senior Treasury official told reporters thatChina still merited inclusion “given the importance ofChina and their large, increasing surplus.”

Punitive duties Treasury’s analysis could become even more critical

after the Commerce Department last week announcedit intends to change its rules in order to impose dutieson countries that “act to undervalue their currency rel-ative to the dollar, resulting in a subsidy to theirexports.”

In the details of the proposed change, Commercesaid it will “defer to Treasury’s evaluation as to under-valuation” of a currency. However, a senior Treasuryofficial said that would be “a distinct, different process”from the currency report.

The text is largely symbolic since it only calls forconsultations with countries deemed to be currencymanipulators, but would gain more teeth if Commercecan impose duties to retaliate.

Germany remains on the monitoring list for a thirdyear, and Treasury noted it has “the world’s largest cur-rent account surplus,” and a $68 billion trade surpluswith the United States in 2018.

While Germany has repeatedly been listed, like

Italy and Ireland it is part of the eurozone and nolonger has independent control over its currency ormonetary policy, which is handled by the EuropeanCentral Bank. Singapore disputed its inclusion on thisyear’s list, with the country’s central bank sayingWednesday that it “does not manipulate its currencyfor export advantage”.

The Asian city-state’s import-reliant economy

benchmarks its dollar against a basket of currenciesused by its major trading partners. The latest reportremoved India and Switzerland because for two con-secutive reports they had both met only one of threecriteria necessary for inclusion on the monitoring list.

While India had a significant bilateral surplus,Switzerland had a material current account surplus,according to the report. —AFP

Germany remains on US ‘monitoring list’

US Treasury again says China is not manipulating currency

BEIJING: A Chinese cashier counts renminbi banknotes at a currency exchange in Beijing. Treasuryurges China to avoid allowing the renminbi (RMB) to weaken persistently-which would give its productsmore competitive advantage. —AFP

China warns US not to politicizeexchange ratesBEIJING: China warned the UnitedStates yesterday not to “politicize” the

exchange rate of its currency amid afestering trade war between the twoeconomic giants.

The US Treasury declined to labelChina a currency manipulator in its lat-est semi-annual report but also calledon Beijing to prevent the yuan fromweakening. “We have always said herethat we hope the US side will respectobjective facts, market rules and notpoliticize the exchange rate issue,” saidforeign ministry spokesman Lu Kang.

While the Treasury report said “directintervention by the People’s Bank ofChina in the last year has been limited,”the department also released a state-ment urging “China to take the neces-sary steps to avoid a persistently weakcurrency.”

The report’s conclusion “is in linewith basic common sense”, Lu toldreporters during a regular news brief-ing. “We have repeatedly advised theUS side to act in accordance with the

relevant multilateral international rulesand not to unilaterally assess othercountries’ exchange rates,” he said.

Despite ratcheting trade tensionsand punit ive tariffs on half of i tsexports to the US, Chinese officialshave repeatedly said they wil l notresort to competitive devaluation of theyuan to help Chinese exporters. Theonshore yuan yesterday traded at 6.91to the dollar while it stood at 6.93 tothe dollar offshore. —AFP


14B u s i n e s s

Huawei calls on US to adjust its approach to tackle cybersecurity

China firm files motion for summary judgment in its court case

Ooredoo launches newly-revamped passport packagesKUWAIT: Ooredoo Kuwait announced yesterday thelaunch of the newly-revamped and much improvedOoredoo Passport packages. The products have beenbuilt on consumer feedback. These products are designedto help in improving their journey while they travel.Especially with the upcoming Eid holiday, customers canbenefit and experience the enhanced roaming packageswhile they are travelling abroad. The Ooredoo Passportpackage has a host of added features above its existingones, in which customers now can easily activate thenewly revamped Passport Packages through theMyOoredoo App and use it for over 70+ countries.Moreover, Ooredoo is the first operator in Kuwait to haveincorporated Inflight Roaming services across all airlinesas a part of the Ooredoo Passport coverage list.

Customers now have 3 validity options; daily, weeklyand monthly with the option of auto renewal. The Dailyoption only offers Data usage for customers who wouldlike to have quick access for the internet on their smart-phones. The Weekly and Monthly packages offer bothVoice and Data usage built-in, making them ideal forsummer travelers who would like to use their smartphonesabroad without having to change their SIM card.

The new Ooredoo Passport Packs will be availabletoday and can be conveniently activated and auto-renewedthrough the ‘Roaming Bundles’ section of the company’sMy Ooredoo smartphone App. The existing OoredooPassport packs will be replaced by these 3 packages auto-matically, with the exception of customers that have beengiven a free roaming package on their contracts.

Commenting on the launch of the revamped service,Ooredoo Kuwait issued a statement saying that the newservice is aimed to enrich the experience of the telecomservice provider’s customers and meet their expectations,taking in mind the lifestyle of the company’s global-ori-ented customer base. The packages also reiterateOoredoo’s commitment to helping customers enjoy theinternet, especially since mobile internet is an essentialpart of everyday use to many customers. Ooredoo notedthat the newly revamped Ooredoo Passport service canbe conveniently activated and auto-renewed through thecompany’s MyOoredoo smartphone App.

Burgan Bank offerscustomers a discountfrom Ghaseel AppKUWAIT: Accommodating its loyal customers with mod-ern age privileges, Burgan Bank announced its partnershipwith the first mobile app for vehicle wash services inKuwait, Ghaseel. The new offer presents numerous optionsfor customers to choose from, for different vehicles andmodels, ranging from cars, motorcycles, and boats.

Ghaseel is a platform that links clients to licensed carwash providers, and professional washers and detailers.With Ghaseel you can order a car wash at home, work orany preferred location from one of certified serviceproviders available on Ghaseel platform.

Providing optimal convenience and affordability,Burgan Bank customers can avail the offer by applyingpromo code before finalizing the order in the last step.

Keeping in line with the latest trends and demands,through a 10 percent discount presented by Burgan Bank,customers can enjoy the benefit of having their vehicleswashed anytime and anywhere. Burgan Bank customerscan avail the discounted offer by using any of BurganBank cards along with a spcial code. To know more aboutBurgan Bank’s latest offers, or any of its products andservices, customers can visit any of the bank’s branches orBurgan Banks Instagram page on @BurganBankKuwait orto contact the call center.

BEIJING: Huawei yesterday filed a motion for summaryjudgment as part of the process to challenge the consti-tutionality of Section 889 of the 2019 National DefenseAuthorization Act (2019 NDAA). It also called on theUS government to halt its state-sanctioned campaignagainst Huawei because it will not deliver cybersecurity.

Banning Huawei using cybersecurity as an excuse“will do nothing to make networks more secure. Theyprovide a false sense of security, and distract attentionfrom the real challenges we face,” said Song Liuping,Huawei’s chief legal officer. “Politicians in the US areusing the strength of an entire nation to come after aprivate company,” Song noted. “This is not normal.Almost never seen in history.”

“The US government has provided no evidence toshow that Huawei is a security threat. There is no gun,

no smoke. Only speculation,” Song added.In the complaint, Huawei argues that Section 889

of the 2019 NDAA singles out Huawei by name andnot only bars US government agencies from buyingHuawei equipment and services, but also bars themfrom contracting with or awarding grants or loans tothird parties who buy Huawei equipment or services-even if there is no impact or connection to the USgovernment.

Song also addressed the addition of Huawei to the“Entity List” by the US Commerce Department twoweeks ago. “This sets a dangerous precedent. Todayit’s telecoms and Huawei. Tomorrow it could be yourindustry, your company, your consumers,” he said.

“The judicial system is the last line of defense forjustice. Huawei has confidence in the independence and

integrity of the US judicial system. We hope that mis-takes in the NDAA can be corrected by the court,”Song added. Glen Nager, Huawei’s lead counsel for thecase, said Section 889 of the 2019 NDAA violates theBill of Attainder, Due Process, and Vesting Clauses ofthe United States Constitution. Thus the case is purely“a matter of law” as there are no facts at issue, therebyjustifying the motion for a summary judgment to speedup the process.

Huawei believes that US suppression of Huawei willnot help make networks more secure. Huawei expectsthe US to take the right approach and adopt honest andeffective measures to enhance cybersecurity for every-one, if the US government’s real goal is security. In linewith a court scheduling order, a hearing on the motionis set for Sept 19. Dr Song Liuping, Chief Legal Officer of Huawei

Gulf Bank announces winners of Al-Danah weekly draw KUWAIT: Gulf Bank held its weekly draw on 26th May2019 announcing the names of the winners for the week of19th May until 23rd May 2019. The weekly draw consistsof five winners who receive KD 1,000 each, every week.

The winners this week are: Ali Ahmad Jassim Alkout MinorAbdulaziz Awadh Khalaf AleneziRimas Fahad Sayyah Al-Azmi - MinorMohammed Ali Hussain Al-AteyahMousa Akbar Jaber AkbarGulf Bank’s second Al-Danah quarterly draw for the

prize of KD 250,000 will be held on 26 June 2019, and thethird quarterly draw for the prize of KD 500,000 will be

held on 25 September 2019. The final Al-Danah draw forKD 1,000,000, will be held on 16 January 2020, where theAl-Danah millionaire will be announced at a live event.

Gulf Bank encourages customers to increase theirchances of winning with Al-Danah by depositing more intotheir Gulf Bank accounts using the new ePay (Self-Pay)service, which is available on Gulf Bank’s online and mobilebanking services.

Al-Danah offers a number of unique services to cus-

tomers, including the Al-Danah Deposit Only ATM card,which allows account holders to deposit money into theiraccounts at their convenience. Account holders can alsocalculate their chances of winning the draws through the‘Al-Danah Chances’ calculator available on the Gulf Bankwebsite and app.

Gulf Bank’s Al-Danah account is open to Kuwaiti andnon-Kuwaiti residents of Kuwait. Customers require aminimum of KD 200 to open an account and the sameamount should be maintained for customers to be eligiblefor the upcoming Al-Danah draws. If the customer’saccount balance falls below KD 200 at any given time, aKD2 fee will be charged to their account monthly until theminimum balance is met. Customers who open an accountand/or deposit more will enter the weekly draw within twodays. To take part in the Al-Danah 2019 upcoming quar-terly and yearly draws, customers must meet the requiredhold period for each draw. Furthermore, loyal Al-Danahcustomers are rewarded with loyalty chances. Loyaltychances are the total chances accumulated from the previ-ous year which are added to the customer’s chances thefollowing year. Terms and conditions apply.

Lulu Hypermarket launches Whatsapp marketing campaign

Lulu Hypermarket, the leading retail chain in the region,launched an exciting Whatsapp Marketing Campaign toprovide shoppers with news of their latest offers.

Register on Lulu Hypermarket’s official Whatsapp number95500366 to keep ahead of the best offers from the retailgiant. All you have to do is just type ‘LULU’ along with yourname and send it to 95500366 to receive all the latest pro-motions, news and updates right at your fingertips.

Be the first to know about any special discounts, new pro-motions, special event celebrations or when the latest fashionbrands are available at any of Lulu Hypermarket’s variousoutlets in the country. The Whatsapp campaign is yet anotherinitiative by Lulu Hypermarket to keep connected and regu-larly interact with their customers.

Trade spat shifts business from ‘Factory of the World’ HANOI: From socks and sneakers to washing machinesand watches, Asian countries are hoping the US-Chinatrade war will permanently boost manufacturing as brandsdodge the row by choosing cheaper locations to maketheir goods.

Business has fanned out from China, often referred toas the ‘Factory of the World’, into Vietnam, Cambodia,India and Indonesia for years. But the shift has acceleratedas the world’s two biggest economies slap tit-for-tat tariffson each other.

In the latest round of the bruising spat, US PresidentDonald Trump this month raised tariffs to 25 percent on$200 billion of Chinese goods, prompting Beijing to retali-ate with higher duties on $60 billion worth of Americanproducts. That “really became a kicker to force people tomove”, said Trent Davies, manager of international busi-ness at the advisory and tax firm Dezan Shira & Associatesin Vietnam.

A surge in relocations from China or plans to scale upproduction has strengthened the manufacturing hubs ofSoutheast Asia and beyond. Casio said it was moving someof its watch production to Thailand and Japan to avoid theUS penalties, while Japanese printer-maker Ricoh said itwas also shifting some of its work to Thailand.

American shoe giant Steve Madden plans to boost pro-duction in Cambodia, and Brooks Running Company, Haierwashing machines and sock maker Jasan-which sells toAdidas, Puma, New Balance and Fila-are all eyeingVietnam. The country is a logical move for manufacturers,wooed by low-cost labour, attractive tax incentives andclose proximity to China’s unparalleled supply chains.

“It’s not just a result of the trade war, a lot of it isopportunity in Vietnam,” Davies said.

Boom times Some Vietnamese suppliers say the trade dispute has

fast-tracked the trend as companies scramble to dodgefresh tariffs that could affect some 4,000 categories ofexports to the US. On a busy stretch of road in Hanoi, thebustling Garco 10 factory is churning out men’s shirts forAmerican brands like Hollister, Bonobos and Express.

The company says exports to the US were up sevenpercent last year, with an expected 10 percent jump thisyear. “Thanks to the trade war... several sectors of theVietnam economy have gained, especially our garmentsector,” Garco 10 director Than Duc Viet told AFP.

“We want to open more factories, we want toexpand our capacity,” he said at one of his facilitieswhere an army of workers made shirts destined for

American shopping malls and department stores. USimports from China during the first three months of thisyear reached nearly $16 billion, up 40 percent from thesame period last year, according to US trade data. Andthat number could rise.

Labor woes More than 40 percent of US companies in China are

now considering moving or have already done so, mainlyto Southeast Asia or Mexico, according to a poll thismonth from the American Chamber of Commerce in China.But the shift is not expected to be seamless.

While Southeast Asia offers low-cost labor-monthlyfactory salaries are about $290 in Vietnam and $180 inCambodia and Indonesia, compared to around $540 inChina-workers are less experienced.

“Labor costs are three times higher in China, but theefficiency is also three times higher,” said Frank Weiand,co-chair of the manufacturing committee at the AmericanChamber of Commerce in Vietnam.

There is also a smaller labor pool to draw on. Vietnamemploys around 10 million people in the manufacturingsector compared to 166 million in China, according to datafrom the International Labour Organization.

Indonesia employs 17.5 million, and Cambodia 1.4 mil-lion. Experts warn companies may also face supply chainwoes, infrastructure challenges and land shortages in lessdeveloped markets without the capacity to absorb over-spill from China.

Global shift This could be a problem for Indonesia, whose clunky

bureaucracy has left it trailing some of its neighbors. Butnow the country is hoping to soak up foreign investmentfrom the trade war.

“We’re trying to make it easier for investors by speed-ing up the process for getting business permits,” saidYuliot, a senior official at the Indonesian Investment Boardwho goes by one name.

The country is also beefing up infrastructure and skillstraining while offering corporate tax breaks, he added.With no end to the trade war in sight, analysts say themanufacturing shift out of China is likely to continue-andcould redefine long-entrenched global trade patterns.

“Certainly it will end China’s dominance as the ‘Factoryfor the US’,” Gary Hufbauer, senior fellow at the PetersonInstitute for International Economics, told AFP.

US companies and consumers may also get the shortend of the stick: higher tariffs on goods out of Chinameans the average American will likely have to pay morefor a pair of Nike sneakers or Levi’s jeans. And if Trumpwas hoping to drive US manufacturers back home byimposing those tariffs as part of his ‘Make America GreatAgain’ clarion call, he’s not likely to get his wish.

American industries-and wages-are not set up for low-cost manufacturing on the scale of China. Instead, coun-tries like Vietnam are likely to continue scooping up thosejobs. Le Thi Huong, who sews hems at Hanoi’s Garco 10factory, said: “I hope there will be more orders... so wehave more jobs and more income.” — AFP

HANOI: Countries across Asia are hoping the US-China trade war will boost manufacturing as brandsdodge the row by choosing cheaper locations to make their goods. — AFP

Global economic slowdown hits diesel consumptionLONDON: Global manufacturing and trade volumes havebeen decelerating since the third quarter of 2018 and theslowdown is starting to show up in sluggish consumptionof middle distillates such as gasoil and diesel.

Global manufacturers have reported falling exportorders for eight months since September, according to thenew export orders component of the JP Morgan globalpurchasing managersí index.

World trade volumes peaked in October and have sincebeen contracting at the fastest rate since 2009, accordingto the Netherlands Bureau of Economic Policy Analysis.Every real-time measure of manufacturing and trade flowspoints to a very sharp slowdown over the last nine months(https://tmsnrt.rs/2Wf88Tp).

Container shipments are falling. Air cargo is down. Railfreight is shrinking. And shipping lines are cancelling voy-ages owing to lack of demand. Distillates are the mostheavily exposed to the business cycle since most gasoiland diesel is used in freight transportation, manufacturing,mining, oil and gas extraction and farming.

OECD stocks of gasoil and diesel were down by lessthan 2 percent in March compared with the same month ayear earlier, and by less than 4 percent in the first quartercompared with the same period in 2018.

Year-on-year stock draws have slowed from more than12 percent for single-month and three-month periods inthe second quarter of 2018, according to statistics fromthe Joint Organisations Data Initiative. — AFP

W h a t ’ s O n

15Established 1961


Kuwait Finance House (KFH)concluded its Girgian eventsfor children, as part of its

eventful Ramadan program, “IncreaseGood Deeds in Ramadan 5”, and incontinuation of the Bank’s socialresponsibility. The participation ofKFH was characterized by the diversi-ty of locations where the distributionoccurred, to all age groups of childrenthat contributed to the joy and delightof children who enjoyed the distinc-tive program that was rich in culturalcompetitions, popular games, inter-esting performances, coloring facesand many different social events.

KFH organized the event atDiscovery Mall, which was widelyattended by children. The bank’sbooth was designed as a large-scaleGirgian box that incarnates “Baity”account for children. KFH participat-ed in the Girgian ceremony of theKuwaiti Society of Engineers, whichwitnessed a variety of recreationalactivities for children, and theDasman Diabetes Institute forChildren with Diabetes and their rel-atives in Kuwait. The aim of the cele-bration was to put a smile on thefaces of children with diabetes andeducate them in an entertaining waywhile urging them to practice physi-cal activity, choose healthy food, con-sidering moderation and awarenessof health values.

KFH also participated in Girgiancelebrations at the Kuwait Associationfor the care of children in hospitals,supporting the bank’s role in socialinitiatives and activities that promotethe spirit of participation, giving andcommunicating with all segments of

society, especially sick children. KFH’svolunteer team distributed Girgiangifts at Naif Palace within the frame-work of the daily presence of distrib-uting Iftar meals. The ceremony atNaif Palace was attended by a largeaudience daily prior to the launch ofthe Iftar cannon as one of theRamadan traditions in Kuwait. Thecanon program is broadcasted livedaily on Kuwait TV channel.

KFH participated in the Girgianceremony of the Kuwait Center forDown Syndrome, where the partici-pation of KFH contributed to the joyand delight in children, giving them asense of community interest towardsthem. The participation received agreat praise from children’s parentswho praised KFH social initiativesthat reflect the extent of the bank’scommitment to the burdens of socialresponsibility and community partici-pation in various community eventsand activities.

The ceremony is organized withinthe framework of KFH’s program inRamadan “Increase Good Deeds inRamadan 5” and based on socialresponsibility and preserving theauthentic popular heritage that con-firms the bank’s adherence to itscommunity identity, and its pride inKuwaiti customs and traditions. KFHhas a variety of Ramadan activitiesthat emphasize its leadership in socialresponsibility, within the program“Increase Good Deeds in Ramadan5”, which includes Iftar the Fastingcampaign, activities and varioussocial contributions, awareness initia-tives and daily communication withthe public. This responsibility con-

firms the bank’s keenness on commit-ment towards its social and humani-tarian mission, which reinforces the

concept of social responsibility, andaims to support all initiatives of vol-untary work.

KFH concludes Girgian events

Mother givesRamadan mealsin late son’s nameBy Faten Omar

During the holy month of Ramadan many peoplein Kuwait give charity, including Iftar meals tofasters. Ninon Al-Gharabally has taken on this

burden, distributing iftar meals in the name of her lateson, Ahmed Al-Gharabally as a way to mark the twoyear anniversary since his passing and to keep her son’slegacy alive.

“My adored son Ahmed passed away on 30 May2017. There are no words to describe my suffering andpain about this tremendous loss. After almost two yearsof crying and suffering, I’ve managed to translate mytears to strength by devoting the rest of my life to helppeople in the loving memory of my adored son. This isprecisely what I will do until my last days,” Ahmed’s

mother told Kuwait Times.Ninon added that sheprepares food to distrib-ute the Iftar meals at dif-ferent locations in Al-Rai,Sulaibikhat, the airportareas, Mishref, at bus sta-tions, mosques and evennear her home.

“Ahmed was a truehumanitarian. He playedan active role contributingto the Kuwait communityand drove to make a dif-ference in this world. He was a role model as an exam-ple of tolerance. He launched initiatives to raise aware-ness and supported the laborers, waste collectors, aswell as volunteered with some organizations.” Al-Gharabally was a well-known local entrepreneur,activist and humanitarian. “I am starting a charityorganization ‘Jamaia Kheiria’ in the loving memory ofmy adored son, an organization that will be foundedupon the initiative of Ahmed who was a visionary andwanted to make the world a better place,” she said.

Ahmed Al-Gharabally

Ninon Al-Gharabally distributing food to workers during Ramadan.

Gather your lovedones for an Eidbrunch at JumeirahMessilah

Share the gift of togetherness this Eid-Al Fitrwith Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa.Marking the end of Ramadan Jumeirah

Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa brings an exception-al festive offer for family and friends as it unveilsits three-day brunch celebrations for the onset ofEid Al Fitr.

Begin your gastronomic day at the Layali AlMessilah tent with a sumptuous Eid buffet featuringculinary attractions that includes a wide variety oftraditional and international dishes with live cookingstations, and a special buffet for kids. Savor a lavishfeast with your family and friends with musicalentertainment from a live band and classic spreadsof brunch favorites, along with freshly made bakeryitems, braised meats, seafood dishes, traditionalArabic dishes and mezzes and more. Specialties arereplete with fresh options of Middle Eastern, Asianand International dishes and heavenly desserts thatare exclusively made for the occasion.

Georges Akar, Director of Sales & Marketing,Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spa, said, “Everyexperience at Jumeirah Messilah Beach Hotel & Spais a unique one, and we are keen to reflect this inevery element within this year’s Eid offerings. Welook forward to the three days of Eid Al-Fitr, achance for our guests to celebrate with each other,as well as with our warm and friendly team here atthe resort.”

“We have prepared three marvelous days ofextravagant Eid Brunch featuring traditionalArabic dishes and an array of international cuisinecoupled with a splendid dessert selection and funactivities for the children. Our exceptional brunchmenu caters to those with discerning tastes andenables guests to experience an unforgettableculinary journey created around the finest Arabictradition,” he concluded. After brunch, rejuvenateand re-energize at the renowned Talise Spa withthe ultimate Top to Toe or the Arabian Delight Spaexperience moment to conjure with the Eid week-end. Begin your spa journey with some warm teawhile a therapist guides you through the treatmentto reveal your smoothest and most natural skinglow while soothing your mind, body and soul.

H e a l t h & Te c h n o l o g y Thursday, May 30, 2019

16

WASHINGTON: It looked like a scene from a sci-fiblockbuster: an astronomer in the Netherlands cap-tured footage of a train of brightly-lit SpaceX satel-lites ascending through the night sky this weekend,stunning space enthusiasts across the globe. But thesight has also provoked an outcry amongastronomers who say the constellation, which so farconsists of 60 broadband-beaming satellites butcould one day grow to as many as 12,000, maythreaten our view of the cosmos and deal a blow toscientific discovery. The launch was tracked aroundthe world and it soon became clear that the satel-lites were visible to the naked eye: a new headachefor researchers who already have to findworkarounds to deal with objects cluttering theirimages of deep space.

“People were making extrapolations that if manyof the satellites in these new mega-constellationshad that kind of steady brightness, then in 20 yearsor less, for a good part the night anywhere in theworld, the human eye would see more satellites thanstars,” Bill Keel, an astronomer at the University ofAlabama said. The satellites’ brightness has sincediminished as their orientation has stabilized and

they have continued their ascent to their final orbitat an altitude of 550 kilometers. But that has notentirely allayed the concerns of scientists, who areworried about what happens next. Elon Musk’sSpaceX is just one of a several companies lookingto enter the fledgling space internet sector.

To put that into context, there are currently2,100 active satellites orbiting our planet, accordingto the Satellite Industry Association. If another12,000 are added by SpaceX alone, “it will be hun-dreds above the horizon at any given time,”Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard SmithsonianCenter for Astrophysics told AFP, adding that theproblem would be exacerbated at certain times ofthe year and certain points in the night. “So, it’ll cer-tainly be dramatic in the night sky if you’re far awayfrom the city and you have a nice, dark area; and it’lldefinitely cause problems for some kinds of profes-sional astronomical observation.”

Musk’s puzzling responseThe mercurial Musk responded to the debate on

Twitter with contradictory messages, pledging tolook into ways to reduce the satellites’ reflectivity

but also saying they would have “0% impact onadvancements in astronomy” and that telescopesshould be moved into space anyway. He also arguedthe work of giving “billions of economically disad-vantaged people” high-speed internet accessthrough his network “is the greater good.” Keelsaid he was happy that Musk had offered to look atways to reduce the reflectivity of future satellites,but questioned why the issue had not beenaddressed before.

If optical astronomers are concerned, then theirradio astronomy colleagues, who rely on the elec-tromagnetic waves emitted by celestial objects toexamine phenomena such as the first image of theblack hole discovered last month, are “in neardespair,” he added. Satellite operators are notoriousfor not doing enough to shield their “side emis-sions,” which can interfere with the observationbands that radio astronomers are looking out for.“There’s every reason to join our radio astronomycolleagues in calling for a ‘before’ response,” saidKeel. “It’s not just safeguarding our professionalinterests but, as far as possible, protecting the nightsky for humanity.” — AFP

SpaceX satellites pose new headache for astronomers

May threaten views of the cosmos; deal a blow to scientific discovery

CAPE CANAVERAL: This video grab taken from the Space X webcasttransmission on May 23, 2019, shows a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket with 60Starlink satellites ready for launch from Space Launch Complex 40(SLC-40) at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida. — AFP


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CROSSWORD 2221

ACROSS1. An instance or single occasion for some

event.5. A blank leaf in the front of back of a

book.12. Sandwich filled with slices of bacon and

tomato with lettuce.15. (Old Testament) In Judeo-Christian

mythology.16. French physicist who invented the alco-

hol thermometer (1683-1757).17. A river in north central Switzerland that

runs northeast into the Rhine.18. Grown for its thickened edible aromatic

root.20. (Jungian psychology) The inner self

(not the external persona) that is intouch with the unconscious.

22. One of two pieces of armor plate hang-ing from the fauld to protect the upperthighs.

23. Being one more than one hundred.25. (prefix) Within.28. An early French settler in the

Maritimes.31. A flat tortilla with various fillings piled

on it.35. Natural qualities or talents.37. Winning all or all but one of the tricks

in bridge.38. Two-year-old sheep.39. A sweetened beverage of diluted fruit

juice.41. Extremely small in scale or scope or

capability.42. Fill with high spirits.45. Filled or abounding with fog or mist.46. A lyric poem with complex stanza

forms.47. A nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug

(trade name Clinoril).50. A soft silvery metallic element of the

rare earth group.51. A yellow trivalent metallic element of

the rare earth group.52. Left-hand page.54. An inactive volcano in Sicily.55. Footwear usually with wooden soles.56. Predatory black-and-white toothed

whale with large dorsal fin.57. Brought from wildness into a domesti-

cated state.62. A fraudulent business scheme.66. Any of a number of fishes of the family

Carangidae.68. The basic unit of money in Bangladesh.69. Black tropical American cuckoo.73. The federal agency that insures resi-

dential mortgages.74. Having any of numerous bright or

strong colors reminiscent of the colorof blood or cherries or tomatoes orrubies.

75. An early Christian church designed likea Roman basilica.

76. The sense organ for hearing and equi-librium.

DOWN1. Consideration in dealing with others and

avoiding giving offence.2. The content of cognition.3. A master's degree in library science.4. An anticonvulsant drug (trade names

Emeside and Zarontin) used to treatpetit mal epilepsy.

5. Italian omelet with diced vegetables andmeats.

6. A unit of length of thread or yarn.7. West Indian evergreen with medium to

long leaves.8. A trivalent metallic element of the rare

earth group.9. The rate at which energy is drawn from

a source that produces a flow of elec-tricity in a circuit.

10. A soft yellow malleable ductile (triva-lent and univalent) metallic element.

11. Noisy quarrel.12. The Tibeto-Burman language spoken in

the Dali region of Yunnan.13. A Tibetan or Mongolian priest of

Lamaism.14. A device in which something (usually an

animal) can be caught and penned.19. A proteolytic enzyme secreted by the

kidneys.21. A Uralic language spoken by a

Samoyed people of northern Siberia.24. A visual representation of an object or

scene or person produced on a sur-face.

26. A radioactive gaseous element formedby the disintegration of radium.

27. Inability to coordinate voluntary mus-cle movements.

29. A constellation in the southern hemi-sphere near Columba and Eridanus.

30. Of or relating to alga.32. American novelist noted for children's

books (1832-1888).33. A native of ancient Troy.34. Naked freshwater or marine or para-

sitic protozoa that form temporarypseudopods for feeding and locomo-tion.

36. The state prevailing during the absenceof war.

40. An Indian tree of the familyCombretaceae that is a source of tim-ber and gum.

43. Being colored slightly.44. Having come or been brought to a

conclusion.48. Of or related to the sacred texts of

Islam.49. A ceremonial dinner party for many

people.53. Large South American evergreen tree

trifoliate leaves and drupes with nut-like seeds used as food and a sourceof cooking oil.

58. An inflammatory disease involving thesebaceous glands of the skin.

59. A female domestic.60. An antidepressant drug that acts by

blocking the reuptake of serotonin sothat more serotonin is available to acton receptors in the brain.

61. The bottom of a shoe or boot.63. A small restaurant where drinks and

snacks are sold.64. A Loloish language.65. A flat-bottomed volcanic crater that

was formed by an explosion.67. An associate degree in applied science.70. A metallic element having four

allotropic forms.71. An informal term for a father.72. A soft silvery metallic element of the

alkali earth group.

Yesterday’s SolutionDaily Sudoku

Wordsearch Puzzle Yesterday’s Solution


18S t a r s

Established 1961

Yesterday’s Solution

Others say you’re charismatic. On the other hand, they find you powerfultoo. You say what you think and with that comes some power. You may owe some ofyour good results to helping others. That too brings authoritative feelings. When youhelp others, it puts you into their debt. That’s something you don’t mind at all. It’s partof your spiritual outlook. You may be facing a loss of some kind but from that you’llgrow emotionally as well. Suspicions of someone for which you care keep playing atthe edge of your mind. You can’t seem to let it go. Things will get better.

Aries (March 21-April 19)

STAR TRACK

You have a natural sense of history which may be brought out by a jobhaving you write for or speak to a crowd. This is something you love. It won’t feel likework. You may even decide on a business venture that takes care of people in the foodindustry or in real estate. You’ve got a need to feel respected now. Some, whom forwhom you care, understand your feelings and are quick to show support for yourideas. They may even tell you about times you’ve helped them before. Don’t go shop-ping now because you’ll use it to soothe your feelings. Be with friends if possible, later.

Taurus (April 20-May 20)

A cycle of mental development is here. This time emphasizes your past,what makes you who you are and makes want to learn about your roots and familyoverall. Anyone for DNA matches? Curiosity is piqued. You’ve been bitten. Now isthe time to get into it full force and study but unless that has something to do withyour new job, it may have to wait until tonight. This is a good time to get down to thenitty gritty at your work place. Someone in authority may need to meet with you now.Seems like you’re in the process of working all the time lately with no time for muchpleasure. Finding past relatives may be what brings fun for you.

Cancer (June 21-July 22)

Leo (July 23-August 22)

You’re driven in unusual directions at work and at home. This will turnout wonderfully for you in time. Someone you least expected will back you in theseendeavors which make you look good for some time to come. Perhaps you have a newinvention or manner in which to do things for work, born of originality. It’s so excitingbecause it lives on its own merits with a very long shelf life. This means your creativethoughts are right on in a prosperous manner. Emotions, which were unexpected, getthe best of you now. Showing and communicating your feelings take over. It’s best toget them out and learn from them.

Virgo (August 23-September 22)

You have a need for change now. You desire the new and different in workand life at the moment. Anything that isn’t commonplace takes your fancy. Friends andfamily make you feel needed and offer the security you need at this time. Take advan-tage of the good feelings and think about what you want in your life. Those peopleclose to you request advice about some very personal issues. You’re just the right per-son to help them out. You can cut through any red tape to get to the crux of the prob-lem and justify the reasoning for them coming to you in the first place.

Libra (September 23-October 22)

This isn’t the best time to shop or try to redecorate your home or office.Letting things be, is your best advice for the moment. You may understand othersissues now but that doesn’t mean you want to help them in any manner. You haveproblems appreciating anyone but family and maybe your lover. Your communicationskills are very good now. The point you’re trying to make is communicated with a tal-ent akin to a great swordsman. Try to dial back that cleverness a little. Others need youto care and you do but you’re not going out of your way to soothe anyone now.

Scorpio (October 23-November 21)

You’re like a child now, exploring, smelling, touching and learning whiledoing so. This is one of the best times in your life. You’re more outgoing

and investigational than you’ve been in some time. Even with your lover, you’re willingto be creative in ways you would’ve shied away from before. Eager to take chancespushes you to the limits at work and at home. Others look at you in amazement. Aphase of long periods of good conversation is part of everything in your life. If youcan’t talk about it, why do it, is your saying now. You’re clear about your motives for allyou do. Reaching out and touching someone is important.

Sagittarius (November 22-December 21)

Capricorn (December 22-January 19)

This is a time in which you bring imagination and new ideals into your lifeand life’s direction. This may be okay but it could also cause some issues when youdon’t allow practicality to blend with this creativity you seek. Religious, philosophicaland psychic understanding all take a high place in your mind now. Studying and learn-ing what makes others look at particular spiritual concepts hits your hot button. Aneed to know drives you on. Nervous energy has you working like a house a fire.Watch that you take time for you to sit down and enjoy a beverage to get a little rest.

Pisces (February 19-March 20)

Today isn’t the best time to be working with others. Maybe you shouldtake the day off to be with loved ones. They are the only ones who feel you’re doingsomething right at this time. Go home to your spouse or significant other and entertainyourselves. Make a trip to the park to watch the ducks and eat a burrito for lunch.Take the ducks lettuce. All of you will have some fun then. When you get home, rest awhile. Think about good things and enjoy your family and pets.

Aquarius (January 20- February 18)Today you may decide to take a much-needed day off to be with yourlife’s partner. He or she may need some attention too. You’re a hard role to follow espe-cially with the way life has been for you lately. Your lover may feel left out and youunderstand this problem for what it is, insecurity. You’re willing to take the time toshore up your family foundation and to enjoy the time you’re spending with the personyou’ve chosen to walk with through your life and theirs. Do something you both like.Try to use that gift you’ve had for a little while now to see what he or she would like aswell. You’re a good partner.

This is a time when your energy level is at a high. Be proud of this and useit to help you at work. Taking care of business is a calling for you now. Don’t leave outhome and love either. All of those items take precedence in your life now. Problem solv-ing makes your day. It’s like a crossword puzzle is to a puzzle addict. This isn’t going tobe your best day for a while in other regards but it is in this way now. You may havesomeone disagree with you on the job. They don’t take your bad look and cower awayas is generally done. Items like this should be forgotten. Think of the better qualities ofthe day.

You appear commanding at work now possibly because you’re so full ofenergy. Others want to do what you want to do especially at work which bringsnotice to you and is good for you. Someone you respect who is older and who workswith you in an authority position takes notice and seeks you out now. Maybe it’s yourspecial day for two reasons. This isn’t the time to challenge authority without goodreasons and you’d better be able to show those reasons too. All in all, this is a verygood day. Make it jam-packed with the party you’ll attend later.

Gemini (May 21-June 20)


Established 1961

Lifestyle

The Al-Rabat Sweets and Bakery, founded by Iraqi immigrants in the UAE, is pictured during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, in Sharjah. — AFP photos

Nida Mohammed drove for more than an hourfrom Fujairah to Sharjah in the UAE just to buyspecial Iraqi sweets and juices for the Muslimfasting month of Ramadan. “Over there (in

Fujairah) you can’t find Iraqi stuff,” Mohammed says, asshe picks up her order of sharbet zbeeb, or raisin juice, aspecial Iraqi drink taken to break the day-long fast. Theoil-rich United Arab Emirates is home to more than ninemillion expatriates who hail from well over 100 countriesand form 90 percent of the population.

During Ramadan, immigrants in the Gulf state recon-nect with traditions from their homeland, especially the rit-uals of breaking the fast and taking lots of traditionaldesserts and juices. Shops like this help “me remember thecountry we came from,” says Mohammed, who made thejourney with family members and stocked large quantitiesof Iraqi sweets. Muslims around the world refrain fromeating and drinking, as well as from sex, between sunriseand sunset during Ramadan. Far away from their homes,many of which are in conflict zones, immigrants still get ataste of their culture from their traditional foods anddesserts.

“Every country has its own culture when it comes totheir desserts,” especially for Ramadan, says Samer Al-Kasir, the Syrian general manager of Al-Sultan sweets inDubai. “These sweets here are based on Syrian traditions,”he says, pointing to a mosaic of sweets packaged neatly ina box. Men, women and children are seen gazing at thearray of items on display in glass door fridges-each takingtheir time before placing their orders.

Decades-old tradition The owner of the Al-Rabat sweets store where

Mohammed was shopping says he opened the business in2006 to serve the Iraqi community in the UAE. “Iraqis didnot have a special place catering for them, so I opened thisplace... because some of the baking is different to other(Arab) traditions,” says Wesam Abdulwahab. “Most of ourcustomers are Iraqis. They consider this place one thatbrings them together. We get our goods from Iraq, stuffthat may be difficult to get here.”

For Saad Hussein, the items offered in Al-Rabat cou-pled with the spirit of Ramadan bring back memories ofhis childhood, particularly a popular Iraqi game calledMheibes. In the game, men divided into two groups-tradi-tionally from different neighborhoods-have to guess whichmember of the opposing team is hiding a ring, or mahbasin Arabic, in their hand.

“Of course, during the games, Ramadan foods andsweets are distributed,” adds Hussein. Seemingly out ofplace, yellow boxes of Jordanian Tutu biscuits are stackednear the register and on the shelves of Al-Rabat.Abdelwahab says that Tutu, although not Iraqi, representsomething significant for his countrymen. During the Iraqiwar in the early 1990s, he explains, the people had littleaccess to sweets from abroad-except for Tutu. “Tutu wasan exceptional treat that brings back memories of enjoy-ment for Iraqis,” he says.

‘Tempting’ In Al-Satwa district of Dubai, Ahmed Naveed from

Pakistan is standing in front of his family’s shop takingorders for different kinds of samosa-popular in manyAsian countries. Residents from all walks of life, includingEmiratis, stood in line on the busy street to get their friedand baked pastries for iftar. Qudsia Osman, who hails fromIndia, was driving past with her mother when they decidedto stop at the shop after being drawn in by the sight andscent of the food. “It’s very tempting. When we passed byand saw it, we got carried away with this food,” Osmansays, adding she is pleased the UAE included an array ofcommunities to cater to the different cultures.

“I was born and brought up in Dubai... it is my home,”she says. Mohammed Shiraz, a Pakistani who has been liv-ing in the UAE for nearly 20 years, also considers the emi-rate his home. “The UAE caters to the population,” he says,explaining he enjoys the holy month in the Gulf state for allthe Ramadan offers and promotions. But for many, althoughthe UAE has become their new home where they havestarted new traditions, the taste of home resonates withthem. “In the old days, it wasn’t like now. Food preparationswere done at home, including desserts,” Abdelwahab says.“My mom, of course, used to do it,” he says. “Her food isstill better than anything I’ve ever had.”— AFP

The Al-Sultan sweets shop, founded by Syrian immigrantsin the UAE, is pictured.

,

A Pakistani immigrant in the UAE sits at his shop sellingtraditional sweets in Dubai’s Al-Satwa district. The Al-Rabat Sweets and Bakery, founded by Iraqi immigrants in the UAE, is pictured during the Muslim holy month of

Ramadan, in Sharjah.

A street cart selling Pakistani food pictured in Dubai’s Al-Satwa district.

L i f e s t y l e Thursday, May 30, 2019

20 Established 1961

G o s s i p

arwan Kenzari has joined the cast of ‘The OldGuard’. The 36-year-old actor - who can cur-rently be seen as the villainous Jafar in GuyRitchie’s live-action remake of Disney’s

‘Aladdin’ - is set to star in the film adaptation of a five-issue comic book series of the same name about immor-tal warriors. The movie will also star Charlize Theron as5,000-year-old Andronika the Scythian, who is known asAndy, the leader of the warriors, an Amazon from theHerodotus age of ancient Greece and has no idea whyshe’s still alive. Starring alongside Charlize as another

immortal warrior will be ‘If Beale Street Could Talk’actress KiKi Layne, who will portray newest recruit Nile,a US Marine. A third role will be that of a FrenchRenaissance thief, but their casting has not been revealedyet. According to The Hollywood Reporter, ‘The Mummy’star Marwan will play part of the “long-lived squad”, aman who was once a “moor warrior”. ‘The Old Guard’comics were produced by writer Greg Rucka and illus-trator Leandro Fernandez and the authors have describedtheir work as a “fairytale of blood and bullets”. ‘TheSecret Life of Bees’ filmmaker Gina Prince-Bythewood

will direct the movie, which is due to shoot this year in anumber of locations, including Morocco and London.Kenzari can currently be seen in re-imagining of thebeloved 1992 Disney animation ‘Aladdin’ alongside WillSmith as The Genie, Naomi Scott as Princess Jasmine andMena Massoud as the titular street urchin. Former‘Saturday Night Live’ star Nasim Pedrad has also beenadded to play new character Mara, a handmaiden andfriend to Jasmine.

M

lla Purnell is to star in Zack Snyder’s ‘Army ofthe Dead’ for Netflix. The 22-year-old actress- who is best known for her roles as EmmaBloom Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar

Children’ and Tess in ‘Sweetbitter’ - has joined theupcoming thriller alongside ‘Goliath’ star Ana De LaReguera, ‘Sons of Anarchy’ actor Theo Rossi and HumaQureshi, according to The Wrap. The plot will follow ayoung woman (Purnell) headed into a dangerous andquarantined Las Vegas where a zombie outbreak hashappened in order to find what is causing the undead torise up. When she becomes trapped her father (DaveBautista) assembles a group of mercenaries to help res-cue her, with the group “tempted by the chance to robthe casinos while they’re there”. Zack will also producethe project with his wife Deborah Snyder and lookingforward to the challenge, the director previously said:“There are no handcuffs on me at all with this one.” Themovie is based on a script by Joby Harold, who previous-ly penned the script for ‘King Arthur: Legend of theSword’. Netflix is renowned for giving filmmakers com-plete creative control, and Zack is excited to be workingwith the streaming service. He previously shared: “I loveto honor canon and the works of art, but this is theopportunity to find a purely joyful way to express myselfthough a genre.” Zack is keen to take some risks with theupcoming project, promising fans that ‘Army of the Dead’will be a “kick-ass, self-aware” film. He said: “It will bethe most kick-ass, self-aware - but not in a wink-to-the-camera way - balls-to-the-wall zombie freak show thatanyone has ever seen. No one’s ever let me completelyloose [like this].” The movie is scheduled to begin shoot-ing this summer and will have a budget that could hit the$90 million mark.

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C

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ennifer Lopez wants her upcoming tour to bea celebration. The ‘On The Floor’ hitmakerturns 50 in July, and she wants her ‘It’s MyParty’ live shows - which kick off with a date

in Los Angeles on June 7 - to be an “intimate” way forher to mark the milestone birthday with her fans. She told‘Entertainment Tonight’: “There might be a cake. Theremight be several cakes. It’s going to be a concert tour,but my aim is to make it feel like an intimate party as well.“We’re all celebrating together. We’re dancing, we’resinging, we’re having a good time. I want to create a dif-ferent atmosphere than normal just watch me do mything. I want it to be interactive. J-Lo is also in a celebra-tory mood after her man Alex Rodriguez proposed inMarch, and she is excited to bring everything togetherfor the tour. Describing the show as a “perfect storm”,she added: “This year’s a really big year for me. I was like,‘We could all be together. We can have like, a specialmoment, and I can share that with my fans.’ “I’ve justbeen on this journey-my life has been about my work andmy family, and to have all of that kind of converge on thisbig birthday of mine, I think was perfect. And I just feellike it’s gonna be a really, really special time.” Meanwhile,J-Lo previously explained she wanted to just do a rela-tively short run to mark her 50th. She said: “This summerI decided I wanted to do something big for my birthday,since it’s a big birthday. “I’m going on a US tour, it’scalled ‘It’s My Party’... “We’re only doing 25, 28 shows,something like that. It’s just a small amount of shows, butwe’ll be out all through June and July.”

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Thursday, May 30, 2019L i f e s t y l e Fe a t u r e s

Established 1961 21

This file photo taken on December 9, 2017 shows LaeticiaHallyday, (left), wife of late French singer Johnny Hallyday,son of Johnny Hallyday David Hallyday (right) and daughterLaura Smet (center) standing during the funeral ceremony forJohnny Hallyday at the Eglise de la Madeleine (La MadeleineChurch) in Paris.

In this file photo taken on May 8, 2009 French singer JohnnyHallyday performs on stage at the Zenith in Saint-Etienne,eastern France, during what he announced to be his lastcareer tour, “Tour 66”. — AFP photos

Sameer Tangirala of San Jose, California, celebrates after hecorrectly spelled his word during round three of the ScrippsNational Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort &Convention Center. — AFP photos

Hundreds of children participate in the second round of theScripps National Spelling Bee at the Gaylord National Resort& Convention Center.

In this file photo taken on December 9, 2017 son of late French singer Johnny Hallyday David Hallyday (first right), daughterLaura Smet (second right), Johnny’s wife Laeticia (fourth right), their daughters Jade (fifth right) and Joy (third right) applaudby the coffin outside the Eglise de la Madeleine (La Madeleine Church) in Paris.

For decades, “Sports Illustrated” has played a uniquerole in chronicling major competitions like theOlympics and the highs and lows of athletic icons

from Muhammad Ali to Serena Williams. But the fortunesof the 65-year-old magazine-known also for its annualswimsuit issue-will now be tied to a sale of the SportsIllustrated name that envisions re-fashioning the enter-prise into a “leader in lifestyle and entertainment,” as itsnew owner put it. Under a transaction unveiled Monday, SIowner Meredith Corporation sold the brand’s intellectualproperty to Authentic Brands Group for $110 million.

The deal grants ABG access to more than two millionimages owned by the magazine and website, as well as the“Sports Illustrated” brand for purposes such as events andconferences, video production and sports gambling, thecompanies said in news releases. Editorial control for themagazine and website will rest with Meredith for “at leasttwo years,” with Merdith paying ABG an undisclosedlicensing fee, according to a Meredith news release.

“As one of the most iconic brands in sports media, SI isa cultural centerpiece with massive opportunities forgrowth across its burgeoning digital, TV and social plat-forms and industry-leading print magazine,” said JamieSalter, founder and chief executive of ABG. “SI’s trustedname and fiercely devoted following set the stage for thebrand to become a leader in lifestyle and entertainment.”

Tough business The deal comes as magazines, as with newspapers,

contend with diminishing readerships and advertisingfunds as more marketers commit dollars to online plat-forms. Such challenges have buffeted weekly publicationssuch as Time, Fortune and Sports Illustrated, which wereall sold to Meredith by Time in 2018. Sports Illustrated haslong enjoyed unique cache in providing thoroughlyreported and sharply-written accounts of just-completedgames, as well as legacy-defining profiles of MichaelJordan, Tiger Woods and other stars. SI is also known forits sweeping narratives surrounding infamous figures suchas Pete Rose, Mike Tyson and Tonya Harding.

With the ABG deal, Sports Illustrated sees a parallel tothe strategy taken by publications such as the New YorkTimes and Wall Street Journal, which have turned to con-ferences, travel seminars and podcasts as a means to raisefunds for journalism. “We are now perfectly positioned,with the support and resources of ABG, to thrive in manyother spaces: events and conferences, licensing, gamblingand gaming, IP development, especially in video and TV,to name a few, all while continuing to benefit fromMeredith’s industry-leading track record in operatingmedia companies,” said SI Editor-in-Chief Chris Stone.Stone said the development of “independent, award-win-ning journalism and storytelling” remains the “heart of SI.”

Gambling on gambling? However, some in sports journalism expressed concern

about the future of the publication. “Really hope my col-leagues get to keep doing the in-depth, high-end workthat they do so well. So much talent and tradition at SI,”said New York Times tennis writer Christopher Clarey onTwitter. The announcement’s mention of gambling alsoraised concerns for Kelly O’Keefe, a professor of brandmanagement at Virginia Commonwealth University.

O’Keefe said monetizing the SI brand through qualitysports programming was a logical extension for the com-pany and could find a market with a company like Netflixthat might want sports programming but has little directexpertise. But O’Keefe said SI’s interest in sports gamblingwas “worrisome” and potentially detrimental to the brand’slong-time value.

Seven US states have legalized sports gaming since amonumental US Supreme Court decision a year ago, butthe venture remains controversial in many circles.Companies such as Disney have kept their distance. “Thebrand is reasonably untarnished,” O’Keefe said. “There aremany ways to put meat onto this brand without steppinginto something so problematic.”— AFP

Having trouble waking up in the morning? Not gettingenough sleep? The company that brought youPokemon Go may have a solution: a game “played” by

sleeping. Pokemon Company said yesterday it would release anew smartphone game called “Pokemon Sleep” in 2020, turn-ing sleep into entertainment. The firm created the wildly pop-ular Pokemon Go app, a game that let players walking the realworld hunt virtual Pokemon, in 2016. “Now we set our sightson sleeping,” president Tsunekazu Ishihara told reporters. “It’sa game with which you look forward to waking up,” he said.

“Turning sleeping... into entertainment is our next goal.”Ishihara offered little detail on the game, but Nintendo-whichhelped develop Pokemon Go-said during the press confer-ence in Tokyo that they are rolling out a new device that cantrack players’ sleep and send data to their smartphone. Theannouncement sparked a social media frenzy, and plenty ofquips. “I can’t wait to be an esports player now that sleeping ispart of gaming,” wrote one Twitter user. “Pokemon Sleep. Atlast, a valid excuse for that extra six hours in bed,” wroteanother. At the very least, the game seems unlikely to sparkthe sort of trouble caused by Pokemon Go, which saw playersblamed for traffic accidents and other violations as theyroamed the streets-buried in their phones-hunting “mon-sters”. The free game uses satellite locations, graphics andcamera capabilities to overlay cartoon characters on real-world settings, challenging players to capture and train thecreatures. Pokemon, short for “pocket monsters”, has been aconstant in Japan since it was launched as software in 1996 forNintendo’s iconic Game Boy console. Its “Gotta Catch ‘EmAll” slogan has been turned into a song. The game hasexpanded into other media, most notably a hugely popular TVanimation show and a recent film. — AFP

AFrench court agreed Tuesday to hear a lawsuit overthe inheritance of France’s biggest rock star JohnnyHallyday, amid a bitter feud between the singer’s

widow and children. Hallyday’s two biological children,Laura Smet and David Hallyday, are fighting his widowLaeticia for a stake in the singer’s millions after they werewritten out of his will. Hallyday’s death from lung cancer in2017 triggered an outpouring of grief over France’s answerto Elvis Presley, a star since the 1960s.

His estate, worth several tens of millions of dollars,includes multiple properties as well as luxury cars andthe rights to his 1,160 songs. The court in Nanterre, asuburb west of Paris, ruled that the singer, whose realname was Jean-Philippe Smet, lived primarily in France, adecision hailed as a victory for his children, who havebeen fighting for more than a year after he left his for-tune to Laeticia and their two adopted daughters. InFrance, the right of children to their parents’ estate isprotected, but Hallyday and his wife had been living inthe US for years before his death, and his will had beenrewritten under Californian law.

However the court determined that “up to the end helived a bohemian and nomadic life, but above all a veryFrench life that led him to live... usually in France.” Laeticia

Hallyday is planning to appeal the decision, her lawyer said.“I will not try to hide my amazement and dismay at thisdecision,” said the lawyer, Ardavan Amir-Aslani.“Indisputable factual elements have been ignored in favorof misleading arguments presented by the other party.”

Hallyday’s daughter Laura Smet was “extremely moved”by the decision, her lawyer Emmanuel Ravanas toldreporters. “She’s been fighting... for more than a year invery difficult circumstances,” he said. “An American courtwould be completely unfit to rule on this case, which doesnot involve a single American. “The attempt by LaeticiaHallyday and her counsel to evade French jurisdiction overthe settlement of this succession has clearly failed. It was astalling tactic.” Laeticia Hallyday had argued in March thatshe and her husband had lived in Los Angeles since 2007.

But the court said the rock star had left a will that yearclaiming he lived in Switzerland and that his in heritageshould be “settled exclusively in accordance with Swisslaw”. The court also said he lived in France “for eightmonths before his death”. The star’s son also located hisfather through Instagram posts, claiming he spent 151 daysin France in 2015, and 168 days in 2016. — AFP

Nearly 500 word wizards were still in contentionyesterday as the Scripps National Spelling Beeentered its second day, as the best young spellers

strive for the top cash prize of $50,000. Some 562 young-sters aged seven to 15 faced off at the start of the tourna-ment in Maryland on Tuesday to tease out vocabulary indictionary perfection for the three-day challenge.

D-U-O-M-OThe word means an Italian cathedral. Jackie Meador, 13,

of Marbelton, Wyoming, got it right and advanced to thesecond day of competition. “It’s kind of nerve-wracking,”said Meador, who won his first spelling bee in third grade.“When I won the school bee and beat the fifth graders, Irealized I might be good at it.” “I just want to make it to thefinals. That’s my goal,” he added. Spellers still competinghad to ace common words, such as “intolerable” and “detri-mental”, along with more obscure words, such as “annusmirabilis” and “hibernaculum”.

Brody Krause, 10, of Thornton, Colorado, did not fare aswell on Tuesday, departing the stage after misspelling“parochialism”. “I’m extremely disappointed,” said Krause,

competing for the first time at the tournament, which beganin 1925. Krause spent his own money on a dictionary toprepare for the bee, which this year drew spelling acesfrom all 50 US states, US territories and six other countries- the Bahamas, Canada, Ghana, Jamaica, Japan and SouthKorea.

Standing at a mere 4 feet 4 inches tall, Akash Vukoti, 9,sparked smiles from fans on Tuesday afternoon when hecommented on the microphone stand as it automaticallylowered to match his height. “I like this mic!” he exclaimed,before successfully spelling ranunculus - a type of plants -with seconds to spare. Vukoti, a native of San Angelo,Texas, tied for 323rd place in last year’s bee. He is compet-ing this year alongside his sister, Amrita Vukoti, 11. “Evenbefore kids come to this bee, they are already winnersbecause they have acquired a lot of knowledge,” said theirfather, Krishna Vukoti, who enrolled his son in his firstspelling bee at age 2. “It’s a lot of dedication from our side,combined with his talents,” he said. The event, which con-cludes today, takes place at the Gaylord National Resortand Convention Center in Oxon Hill, Maryland. — Reuters


Fe a t u r e

Established 1961 22L i f e s t y l e

Nearly 700 people in period costume paradedthrough the sumptuous apartments of France’sLouis XIV at his palace in Versailles just outside

Paris late Monday for the fifth edition of the “FetesGalantes”. The annual fancy dress ball aims to re-createthe baroque splendor of the Sun King’s dazzling courtfeasts held to show off the wealth and power of France’slongest-reigning monarch, who was born in 1638,ascended to the throne at the age of four and remainedking until his death in 1715.

“The Duke and Duchess of La Malmaison... welcometo Versailles!” two masters of ceremony call out at thefoot of the grand staircase as guests arrive in lavish cos-tumes, rented for the night at a price of several hundredeuros (dollars) or meticulously sewn by hand. The themeof this year’s ball is “Marie-Antoinette and fashion”.Daniel, in his 50s, said he spent more than 500 hoursmaking his cardinal’s outfit from red silk with a scarlettrain several meters in length.

He and his husband, Bruno, who is dressed as aprince, are regulars of the event and also attend theannual carnival in Venice every year. For tickets costingseveral hundred euros, depending on category, guestscan wander through the private apartments of thechateau, which is a World Heritage site and one ofFrance’s biggest tourist attractions-from the HerculesSalon, where a specialist dance company gives a demon-stration of baroque era dance, to the world-famous Hallof Mirrors. “It’s the only occasion in the year where youcan come to Versailles in costume,” says LaurentBrunner, head of the palace’s Royal Opera house, wheremore than 600 of the costumed guests were pho-tographed for the first time this year In 2020, the Palaceof Versailles will celebrate the 250th anniversary of boththe Royal Opera, and the wedding of Marie-Antoinetteand the future King Louis XVI.—AFP

People dressed in period costumes take part

in the ‘Fetes Galantes’ fancydress evening in the Chateau

de Versailles. — AFP photos

Directorate General of Civil Aviation Home Page (www.kuwait-airport.com.kw)

DIAL161 FOR AIRPORT INFORMATION

Arrival Flights on Thursday 30/5/2019Airlines Flt Route TimeIGO 1757 Kochi 00:10THY 772 Istanbul 00:20DLH 625 Dammam 00:50KAC 102 London 00:50JZR 722 Alexandria 01:00JZR 734 Cairo 01:00KAC 504 Beirut 01:00RJA 642 Amman 01:20UAE 853 Dubai 01:40KLM 446 Bahrain 01:45PGT 858 Istanbul 01:50KKK 1268 Istanbul 01:55PGT 828 Istanbul 02:00ETH 620 Addis Ababa 02:15GFA 211 Bahrain 02:15QTR 1086 Doha 02:30KAC 156 Istanbul 02:35OMA 643 Muscat 03:05ETD 305 Abu Dhabi 03:05JZR 406 Kochi 03:05MSR 612 Cairo 03:15KAC 418 Manila 03:20QTR 1076 Doha 03:30LMU 510 Cairo 04:00KAC 382 Delhi 04:05IGO 1751 Chennai 04:10KAC 784 Jeddah 04:25MSR 0516 Cairo 04:25DHX 170 Bahrain 04:30JZR 404 Hyderabad 04:30THY 770 Istanbul 05:20JZR 402 Mumbai 05:25KAC 344 Chennai 05:30KAC 552 Cairo 05:50JZR 112 Doha 05:50KAC 362 Colombo 06:05BAW 157 London 06:10KAC 284 Dhaka 06:15JZR 714 Sohag 06:20KAC 678 Dubai 06:40KAC 206 Islamabad 06:50KAC 302 Mumbai 07:00QTR 8511 Doha 07:05JZR 408 Ahmedabad 07:05IGO 1755 CNN 07:10KAC 354 Bengaluru 08:00KAC 332 Trivandrum 08:05KAC 352 Kochi 08:05IRA 601 Tehran 08:10JZR 702 Asyut 08:25ETD 301 Abu Dhabi 08:50ABY 125 Sharjah 09:00QTR 1070 Doha 09:30IGO 1753 Ahmedabad 09:40KAC 384 Delhi 09:45SVA 512 Riyadh 10:00IAW 157A Al Najaf 10:00GFA 213 Bahrain 10:40MEA 404 Beirut 10:55JZR 1220 Jeddah 10:55QTR 1074 Doha 11:00SYR 341 Damascus 11:00JZR 410 Delhi 11:50IAW 157 Al Najaf 12:00SAW 701 Damascus 12:30THY 766 Istanbul 12:30KAC 614 Bahrain 12:30UAE 871 Dubai 12:45MSR 610 Cairo 12:45IRA 667 Esfahan 13:00AXB 393 Kozhikode 13:10KAC 774 Riyadh 13:35

JZR 212 Jeddah 13:45KAC 672 Dubai 14:00KNE 231 Riyadh 14:10QTR 1078 Doha 14:10FDB 5059 Dubai 14:15GFA 221 Bahrain 14:15SVA 500 Jeddah 14:15KAC 792 Madinah 14:40KAC 304 Mumbai 14:45KAC 618 Doha 14:50KAC 562 Amman 14:50KAC 788 Jeddah 14:55KAC 118 New York 15:00KNE 529 Jeddah 15:05KAC 412 Bangkok 15:10ETD 303 Abu Dhabi 15:15OMA 645 Muscat 15:20ABY 127 Sharjah 15:35UAE 857 Dubai 15:45KAC 546 Cairo 15:50JZR 222 Riyadh 16:05KNE 531 Jeddah 16:05FDB 051 Dubai 16:10JZR 732 Cairo 16:10QTR 1072 Doha 16:15KAC 502 Beirut 16:15FEG 241 Alexandria 16:45SAW 705 Damascus 17:00JZR 116 Doha 17:05JZR 124 Dubai 17:15SVA 510 Riyadh 17:15GFA 215 Bahrain 17:30JZR 214 Jeddah 17:35JZR 104 Bahrain 18:10QTR 1080 Doha 18:10MSR 620 Cairo 18:30JZR 302 Istanbul 18:40RJA 640 Amman 19:05GFA 217 Bahrain 19:05ABY 123 Sharjah 19:20KAC 744 Dammam 19:25NIA 161 Cairo 19:30KAC 616 Bahrain 19:40KAC 776 Riyadh 19:45KAC 674 Dubai 19:45KNE 381 Taif 20:00FDB 057 Dubai 20:05OMA 647 Muscat 20:05DLH 624 Frankfurt 20:10MEA 402 Beirut 20:15RBG 213 Sohag 20:30KAC 620 Doha 20:30KAC 174 Munich 20:30QTR 1088 Doha 20:40KLM 445 Amsterdam 21:00ETD 307 Abu Dhabi 21:10UAE 859 Dubai 21:15ALK 229 Colombo 21:15JZR 1234 Taif 21:15KAC 168 Paris 21:20THY 764 Istanbul 21:30KAC 164 MXP 21:40GFA 219 Bahrain 21:50KAC 564 Amman 21:55QTR 1082 Doha 22:05ETD 309 Abu Dhabi 22:15KAC 786 Jeddah 22:20AIC 981 Chennai/Ahmedabad 22:25RBG 555 Alexandria 22:30GEC 8456 Frankfurt 22:55BBC 043 Dhaka 23:00MSC 501 Alexandria 23:10JZR 254 Amman 23:10MSC 415 Sohag 23:15MSR 614 Cairo 23:30

Departure Flights on Thursday 30/5/2019Airlines Flt Route TimeAIC 976 Goa/Chennai 00:05JZR 713 Sohag 00:10MSC 406 Sohag 00:15MSR 615 Cairo 00:30FDB 072 Dubai 00:30JZR 409 Delhi 01:10IGO 1758 Kochi 01:10KAC 677 Dubai 01:50THY 773 Istanbul 01:50DLH 625 Frankfurt 01:50JZR 701 Asyut 02:00KAC 417 Manila 02:00JZR 111 Doha 02:10THY 765 Istanbul 02:50PGT 859 Istanbul 02:50KKK 1269 Istanbul 02:55PGT 829 Istanbul 02:59ETH 621 Addis Ababa 03:05KLM 446 Amsterdam 03:10UAE 854 Dubai 03:30ETD 306 Abu Dhabi 04:00OMA 644 Muscat 04:05QTR 1087 Doha 04:15MSR 613 Cairo 04:15LMU 511 Cairo 05:00IGO 1752 Chennai 05:10KAC 303 Mumbai 05:15QTR 1077 Doha 05:15JZR 1219 Jeddah 05:25MSR 0517 Mumbai 05:25THY 771 Istanbul 06:30GFA 212 Bahrain 06:50RJA 643 Amman 07:00KAC 167 Paris 07:15BAW 156 London 07:40KAC 173 Munich 07:45KAC 413 Bangkok 07:45JZR 211 Jeddah 08:00IGO 1756 CNN 08:10KAC 163 MXP 08:35KAC 501 Beirut 08:50KAC 545 Cairo 08:50KAC 561 Amman 08:55KAC 613 Bahrain 09:00KAC 117 New York 09:05QTR 8512 Doha 09:05KAC 791 Madinah 09:10IRA 666 Esfahan 09:10KAC 671 Dubai 09:15KAC 787 Jeddah 09:15KAC 773 Riyadh 09:40ABY 126 Sharjah 09:40JZR 731 Cairo 09:45ETD 302 Abu Dhabi 09:55KAC 101 London 10:05JZR 301 Istanbul 10:20KAC 617 Doha 10:40QTR 1071 Doha 10:40IGO 1754 Ahmedabad 10:40SVA 513 Riyadh 10:55IAW 158A Al Najaf 11:00GFA 214 Bahrain 11:35MEA 405 Beirut 11:55SYR 342 Damascus 12:00JZR 213 Jeddah 12:05QTR 1075 Doha 12:10JZR 221 Riyadh 12:40JZR 123 Dubai 12:45IAW 158 Al Najaf 13:00JZR 115 Doha 13:25SAW 702 Damascus 13:30

MSR 611 Cairo 13:45THY 767 Istanbul 14:00IRA 600 Tehran 14:00AXB 394 Kozhikode 14:10UAE 872 Dubai 14:15KAC 673 Dubai 15:00KNE 382 Taif 15:00GFA 222 Bahrain 15:00FDB 5060 Dubai 15:05JZR 103 Bahrain 15:15QTR 1079 Doha 15:15SVA 501 Jeddah 15:45KNE 530 Jeddah 15:55KAC 563 Amman 16:00KAC 743 Dammam 16:05KAC 775 Riyadh 16:05KAC 615 Bahrain 16:10ABY 128 Sharjah 16:15KAC 785 Jeddah 16:20ETD 304 Abu Dhabi 16:20OMA 646 Muscat 16:20JZR 1233 Taif 16:25KAC 619 Doha 16:25KNE 532 Jeddah 16:55FDB 052 Dubai 17:10QTR 1073 Doha 17:25KAC 151 Istanbul 17:35KAC 503 Beirut 17:40KAC 283 Dhaka 17:40UAE 858 Dubai 17:40FEG 242 Alexandria 17:45KAC 343 Chennai 17:50KAC 381 Delhi 17:55JZR 253 Amman 18:00SAW 706 Damascus 18:00SVA 511 Riyadh 18:15GFA 216 Bahrain 18:20JZR 403 Hyderabad 18:25JZR 733 Cairo 18:35JZR 721 Alexandria 18:40QTR 1081 Doha 19:20MSR 621 Cairo 19:30KAC 691 Muscat 19:35GFA 218 Bahrain 19:50ABY 124 Sharjah 20:00RJA 641 Amman 20:05KAC 357 Kochi 20:05JZR 401 Mumbai 20:30NIA 162 Cairo 20:30KAC 353 Bengaluru 20:50KNE 232 Riyadh 20:50FDB 058 Dubai 20:50DLH 624 Dammam 20:55KAC 333 Trivandrum 21:05OMA 648 Muscat 21:05RBG 214 Sohag 21:10MEA 403 Beirut 21:15KAC 301 Mumbai 21:25QTR 1089 Doha 21:50DHX 171 Bahrain 21:50KAC 203 Lahore 22:00KLM 445 Bahrain 22:10ETD 308 Abu Dhabi 22:15ALK 230 Colombo 22:20KAC 383 Delhi 22:35UAE 860 Dubai 22:35GFA 220 Bahrain 22:50KAC 783 Jeddah 22:55KAC 551 Cairo 23:00ETD 310 Abu Dhabi 23:05RBG 556 Alexandria 23:10QTR 1083 Doha 23:20

ClassifiedsThursday, May 30, 2019

Sabah Hospital 24812000

Amiri Hospital 22450005

Maternity Hospital 24843100

Mubarak Al-Kabir Hospital 25312700

Chest Hospital 24849400

Farwaniya Hospital 24892010

Adan Hospital 23940620

Ibn Sina Hospital 24840300

Al-Razi Hospital 24846000

Physiotherapy Hospital 24874330/9

Kaizen center 25716707

Rawda 22517733

Adaliya 22517144

Khaldiya 24848075

Kaifan 24849807

Shamiya 24848913

Shuwaikh 24814507

Abdullah Salem 22549134

Nuzha 22526804

Industrial Shuwaikh 24814764

Qadsiya 22515088

Dasmah 22532265

Bneid Al-Gar 22531908

Shaab 22518752

Qibla 22459381

Ayoun Al-Qibla 22451082

Mirqab 22456536

Sharq 22465401

Salmiya 25746401

MATRIMONIAL

CHANGE OF NAME

LOST

I, George Vishnu, holder ofIndian Passport No. S5764774issued at Kuwait on 28-5-2019permanent resident of GeorgeVishnu Stanmore Estate OC.Valparai, Coimbatore Dist. Pin642127, Tamil Nadu, India, andpresently residing Salmiyablock 10, my change namefrom George Vishnu to VijuGeorge with immediate effect.(C 5542)

I, Vaseem Mohammed Khan,holder of Indian Passport No.R5459717, issued at Kuwait on07/05/2017, permanent resi-dent of Borli Panchatan RaigadMs. Given name: WasimMohammed, surname: Khan.(C 5543) 29-5-2019

I, Mr. Omprakash RamchandraSasane changed my old sur-name Omprakas & given nameRamchandra Sasane to newSurname Sansane & givenname Omprakash Ramchandraadhar No. 960505763436(C 5540)

I, Bishar Mohammed Kutty S/o

It is notified for the informationthat my original (qualifying cer-tificate/mark statement andmigration certificate) seniorsecondary examination of year2015 and Rollno. 9103562issued by CBSE had been actu-ally lost. Name of the candidate- Jawaheer Junaid. Tel:67799330. (C 5535)23-5-2019

Proposals are invited for aKeralite boy, RCSC, 32/172, B.Scvery fair, working in Kuwait,upper middle class, from par-ents of suitable girls, preferablyworking in Kuwait. Interestedplease contact email:[email protected](C 5539) 27-5-2019

AirlinesKuwait Airways 171Jazeera Airways 177Wataniya Airways 22 066 536Turkish Airlines 1884918American Airlines 22087425 22087426Jet Airways 22924455FlyDubai 22414400Qatar Airways 22423888KLM 22425747Royal Jordanian 22418064/5/6British Airways 22425635Air France 22430224Emirates 22921555Air India 22456700Air India EXPRESS 22438185/4 Sri Lanka Airlines 22424444Egypt Air 22421578

Andipatil Eusoof MohammedKutty, holder of Indian PassportNo. Z3830803 hereby changemy name to Bisher MohammedKutty for all official purposes. (C 5541)28-5-2019

Thursday, May 30, 2019N e w s

Established 1961 24

Continued from Page 1

forgive you your sins: For Allah is Oft-Forgiving,Most Merciful.” (3:31) “There has certainly been for youin the Messenger of Allah an excellent pattern for any-one whose hope is in Allah and the Last Day and [who]remembers Allah often.” (33:21)

It is really miraculous that our Creator has answeredour prayers with an entire book dedicated to us, andsent us a messenger to guide our way in applying itsteachings. After such a grand gesture, it is only polite to

take the time to read it! If we truly want God to answerhear our prayers and answer our call, we must alsoheed His words and answer His call. If you would like atranslation of the Quran, contact any branch of IPC orthe TIES Center.

Courtesy of the TIES Center, whose mission is toempower Kuwait’s expats through social and educa-tional services that promote a positive and productiverole in society, and to facilitate opportunities for intra-and interfaith interactions that promote social solidari-ty. For more information, please call 25231015/6 or e-mail: [email protected].

When God spoke...


“Charging the president with a crime was therefore notan option we could consider,” the former FBI director said.“The Constitution requires a process other than the crimi-nal justice system to formally accuse a sitting President ofwrongdoing,” Mueller added, in what appeared to be asuggestion that any further action would lie withCongress.

At the same time, Mueller reiterated that his report intoRussian interference in the 2016 election and potentialobstruction of justice did not exonerate the president. “Itwould be unfair to potentially accuse somebody of a crimewhen there can be no court resolution of the actualcharge,” he said. “Those were the principles under which

we operated, and from them we concluded that we wouldnot reach a determination one way or the other aboutwhether the president committed a crime.

“If we had had confidence that the president clearly didnot commit a crime, we would have said so,” Mueller said.“We did not, however, make a determination as to whetherthe president did commit a crime.” Mueller also said that ifhe was called to testify before Congress - as someDemocrats are demanding - he would say no more thanwhat is already in report.

“I hope and expect this to be the only time that I willspeak about this matter,” he said. “I am making thatdecision myself - no one has told me whether I can orshould testify or speak further about this matter.”Mueller ended by reiterating what he called “the centralallegation of our indictments - that there were multiple,systematic efforts to interfere in our election.” “Thatallegation deserves the attention of every American.”Mueller said that with the completion of the investiga-tion he was resigning from the Justice Department toreturn to private life. — Agencies

‘Case is closed,’ says Trump on...


university for 1,000 LBP,” he adds. After decades ofcivil war, corruption and political crises made Lebanonone of the world’s most indebted countries, the gov-ernment adopted a new austerity budget on Monday tocombat a ballooning budget deficit.

It reduced benefits and pensions in the public sectorand introduced a series of tax hikes, including on per-sonal firearm licences and permits for tinted windows.For some, the new levy on water pipes has provokedparticular ire. Taxes should not be raised “on somethingmost people use to just relax”, Nasreddine says. “Wesmoke to calm our minds because we are sick of thesituation in this country.”

The World Health Organisation has warned that afull hookah is equivalent to smoking 20 to 30 cigarettesat once, and has linked the practice to lung damage andcancer. But in much of the Middle East, sharing a waterpipe - also called shisha or nargileh - is often conceivedas a social occasion during which smokers spend hoursin cafes chatting and passing the hose around.

‘They’re ruining us’ This is especially the case in Lebanon. Lebanon has

the highest rate of shisha smokers in the region amongteenagers, according to a 2016 study in the medical

journal Ethnicity & Disease, which found that roughly athird of 13 to 15-year-olds it surveyed had smoked atleast once in the past month.

Hussam Shuman, 28, sits outside a bustling cafe inthe southern suburbs of Beirut, a hookah complete withapple-flavored tobacco burning at his side. The youngaccountant says he smokes more than once a day, “outof boredom” and “mainly after work”. But now, leisureis set to become more costly. “Let them get money fromsomewhere else. Why are they targeting us water pipesmokers?” he says, trying to calculate how much morehe will now be spending on shisha every month.“They’re ruining us.”

Shuman and many Lebanese are disillusioned withthe ruling class, whom they accuse of nepotism andgraft, and the latest austerity measures have com-pounded this situation. The government has been criti-cized for raising prices and limiting benefits and pen-sions rather than fighting corruption, tax evasion andsmuggling to reduce the deficit. On a nearby table,Fayyad Mustafa shuffles a deck of playing cards, awater pipe gurgling beneath him.

The 24-year-old technician says the shisha tax is notthe only problem. “We are living in a state that wants tomake everything more expensive,” he says. “They start-ed with water pipes but we don’t know what otherthings will become more costly later on.” He believesthat not reacting to the hookah tax would encouragethe government to raise other goods. “If we are silentwhen they raise the price of a water pipe, we will haveto be silent when they raise the price of a loaf ofbread... or a sack of potatoes.” — AFP

Lebanese bubble with anger over...


the kingdom’s Gulf coast to the Red Sea, was shutfor two days as a result of the attack. Bolton said thatthere has also been “an unsuccessful attack on theSaudi port of Yanbu a couple of days before the attackon tankers.” Yanbu is Saudi Arabia’s largest oil terminalon the Red Sea and is home to oil refineries and exportfacilities.

‘Trying to be prudent’ Bolton said he would meet Abu Dhabi Crown Prince

Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al-Nahyan as well as hisUAE counterpart, Sheikh Tahnoun Bin Zayed Al-Nahyan, to discuss relations and regional tensions. “Weare responding and consulting more closely with ourallies in the region to discuss what to do next,” he said.

“We are trying to be prudent and responsible. Wegathered evidence about the nature of attacks on the

tankers and the east-west pipeline, and sent additionalforces to act as a deterrent.” Bolton was due to leavethe UAE later for London as part of preparations for avisit there by US President Donald Trump.

Fujairah, where the attacks took place, is a key oilexport terminal on the Sea of Oman that spares tankersthe need to enter the Gulf through the strategic Straitof Hormuz, which Iran has repeatedly threatened toclose. Regional tensions have spiked since Trump’sadministration reimposed sanctions against Iran afterWashington unilaterally pulled out of a multilateral 2015nuclear accord signed with the Islamic republic. TheTrump administration has ordered non-essential diplo-matic staff out of Iraq, citing threats from Iranian-backed Iraqi armed groups.

But Trump appeared to soften his hawkish tonetowards Tehran, saying during a visit to Japan onMonday that his government does not seek “regimechange”. Bolton said Washington wants to prevent theIslamic republic from producing nuclear weapons,downplaying differences in the US administration onthe issue. “There’s no mistake here. That we all have thesame objective of keeping Iran from getting deliverablenuclear weapons.” — AFP

Iranian mines ‘likely caused’...

BAGHDAD: Iraqi children learn to read from the Quran at the shrine of the Sunni Sheikh Abdul Qadir Al-Jilani in Baghdad during the holy Muslim month of Ramadan. — AFP

LONDON: Boris Johnson, the frontrunner to becomeBritain’s next prime minister, must attend court overallegations that he knowingly lied during the Brexit ref-erendum campaign, a judge announced yesterday.Johnson, the former foreign secretary, will be sum-moned to appear before a court over allegations ofmisconduct in public office, judge Margot Coleman saidin a written decision, without specifying the date.

The case is over the claim that Britain sends £350million ($440 million, 400 million euros) a week to the

European Union. The exact amount of Britain’s net andgross EU contributions was one of the biggest issuesduring the 2016 referendum campaign. BusinessmenMarcus Ball has crowd-funded the private prosecution.

Coleman’s decision follows a hearing last week atWestminster Magistrates Court in London. “The allega-tions which have been made are unproven accusationsand I do not make any findings of fact,” the judge said.“Having considered all the relevant factors I am satis-fied that this is a proper case to issue the summons asrequested,” she wrote. Referring to Johnson as the“proposed defendant”, Coleman said he would berequired to attend a preliminary hearing that could thenresult in a trial.

Johnson ‘repeatedly lied’ Johnson is considered the favourite among the 11

candidates vying to replace the outgoing Theresa May

as leader of the governing Conservative Party, andtherefore prime minister, by the end of July. The sum-mons application made by Ball’s lawyers alleges thatJohnson “repeatedly lied and misled the British publicas to the cost of EU membership” and “knew that suchcomments were false or misleading”. “Lying on anational and international platform undermines publicconfidence in politics.” The maximum penalty for mis-conduct in public office is life imprisonment.

The elements of the offence are that a public officer,acting as such, wilfully neglects to perform their duty orwilfully commits misconduct to such a degree as toamount to an abuse of the public’s trust in the office-holder, and does so without reasonable excuse or justi-fication. Johnson was not present at last week’s hearing,but his lawyer Adrian Darbishire said the pro-Brexitfigurehead staunchly denied acting in an improper ordishonest manner.

Coleman considered whether the case had beenbrought purely to annoy Johnson. The former Londonmayor’s position is that the application is a politically-motivated stunt as part of a campaign to undermine thereferendum result, and/or to prevent its consequences.Britain is due to leave the EU on October 31. “I acceptthe defense submission that when the applicant com-menced his consideration of whether to bring a privateprosecution against the proposed defendant, somethree years ago, there may have been a political pur-pose to these proceedings,” Coleman said.

“However, the information for the summons was laidon February 28, 2019 and that argument in my view isno longer pertinent. “I do not accept the application isvexatious.” In her 14-page decision, the judge said:“This is an unusual and exceptional application with aconsiderable public interest and it is right that full rea-sons are provided.” — AFP

Johnson faces court hearing for Brexit ‘lies’

GENEVA: A global treaty aimed at protecting workersfrom violence and harassment is expected to be agreednext month, though some “tricky” issues remain, theInternational Labour Organization (ILO) said yesterday.The unresolved issues are focused on the extent to whichemployers should be held responsible for such behaviorand on whether to include specific reference to protect-ing LGBTi people, ILO director-general Guy Ryder said.

African states in particular are opposed to includingLGBTi (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex)people among groups deemed vulnerable to violence or

harassment in the workplace, sources close to the talkstold Reuters. The UN labor agency, which will hold itscentenary annual conference on June 10-21, began nego-tiations on the treaty a year ago as the #MeToo globalmovement against sexual harassment shone a spotlight onthe issue.

“In the light of the progress previously made, in lightof the importance of the subject matter, I am very confi-dent that the conference will adopt a convention and rec-ommendation,” Ryder told a news briefing hosted byACANU, the UN correspondents’ association in Geneva.

“And this will form the basis, I hope, of intensifiedactivity in the ILO but also at member-state level to com-bat what remains a very, very prevalent problem at work,the issues of violence and of harassment,” he said.Member states, employer groups and workers’ represen-tatives take part in negotiations for ILO Conventions,which are legally binding on ratification, and recommen-dations that give guidance on good practices. — Reuters

Global pact to fight workplace violence and harassment

Wilder announces Ortiz rematchLOS ANGELES: World Boxing Council heavyweightchampion Deontay Wilder announced a rematch withCuba’s Luis Ortiz on Tuesday, dealing a fresh blow tohopes of a unification bout with rival Anthony Joshua.

In an announcement on Twitter, Wilder said hehad signed a deal to face Ortiz once more following abruising first battle in March 2018. Wilder won hisfirst encounter with the Cuban nicknamed “KingKong” with a 10th round stoppage, but not beforethe 40-year-old had badly shaken the undefeatedchampion.

“To all my fans, I want to announce that Luis Ortizand I have signed for a rematch, with the date and siteto be announced shortly,” Wilder wrote on Twitter.“All my controversial fights Must get dealt withASAP,” he added.

While no date or venue was announced, US mediareports said the two men would face off in Las Vegason September 28. Wilder, 33, defended his title for theninth time on May 18 after demolishing DominicBreazeale with a first round knockout.

The WBC champion is unbeaten in 41 fights, includ-ing 40 inside the difference, with the lone blemish onan otherwise perfect record a draw with Britain’sTyson Fury last December. Wilder’s decision to fightOrtiz makes it unlikely he will meet rival Joshua in amuch-anticipated unification fight this year.

Wilder has not fought more than two fights in acalendar year since 2015, and would realistically facea short two-month turnaround to squeeze in a boutwith Joshua before the end of the year after his boutagainst Ortiz.

Speaking after his recent win against Breazeale,

Wilder said he was ready to face Joshua but called forpatience from fans. “This fight will happen,” Wildersaid. “The big fight will happen, I promise you that. Ijust want you guys to have patience and give us a lit-tle time to make this thing happen so we all benefitfrom it, not only just you fans.” — AFP

CICINNATI: Derek Dietrich had a career-high threehome runs and drove in six to lead the Cincinnati Redsto an 11-6 win against the visiting Pittsburgh Pirates onTuesday night. Dietrich blasted two-run homers in thefourth, fifth and seventh innings. The run support wasmore than enough for Cincinnati starter Lucas Sims inhis season debut. Sims, who was recalled from Triple-ALouisville earlier in the day, was working on a shutoutbefore giving up a grand slam to Kevin Newman in theeighth. Sims went 7 1/3 innings, the longest outing ofthe season by a Cincinnati starter, allowing four runsand six hits, striking out nine and walking one. TuckerBarnhart drove in three runs, Jose Iglesias had two hitsand scored twice, and Jose Peraza homered for theReds. Elias Diaz had two hits for the Pirates, including atwo-run double in the ninth inning, and Starling Martealso had two hits.

ANGELS 6, A’S 4Shohei Ohtani lined a two-out, two-run single to

break a ninth-inning tie, allowing visiting Los Angelesto snap Oakland’s 10-game winning streak. A two-outsingle by Tommy La Stella, a walk to Mike Trout and awild pitch put two Angels in scoring position in theninth. Ohtani then smacked his difference-making hit toright field, sending Los Angeles to its third win in fourgames. The loss was the Athletics’ first since May 14and came despite home runs by Marcus Semien, RamonLaureano and Matt Olson.

TWINS 5, BREWERS 3Eddie Rosario hit a two-run homer and Max Kepler

had a two-run double to highlight a five-run seventhinning and lead Minnesota past Milwaukee inMinneapolis. Matt Magill (1-0) picked up the win inrelief of Devin Smeltzer, who pitched six shutoutinnings in his major league debut. Ryne Harper gotHernan Perez to pop out to end the game and earn hisfirst major league save as Minnesota improved to 14-3following a loss this season. Smeltzer, obtained from theDodgers at the trade deadline last season as part of thedeal that sent Brian Dozier to Los Angeles, allowedthree hits and didn’t walk a batter while striking outseven, including Lorenzo Cain three times.

INDIANS 7, RED SOX 5Jordan Luplow hit a two-run double to complete a

five-run, ninth-inning rally as Cleveland stunned hostBoston. The Indians trailed 5-2 entering the frame andappeared headed to their eighth loss in their last ninegames before Roberto Perez greeted Red Sox relieverRyan Brasier with a solo home run. After Jake Bauerswalked, Greg Allen roped a two-run homer to right toknot the score. Travis Lakins (0-1) took over for theRed Sox and hit the first man he faced before walkingtwo more to load the bases for Luplow, who crushed aball that just eluded Mookie Betts in right for the game-winning hit.

RAYS 3, BLUE JAYS 1Avisail Garcia hit an inside-the-park homer, Austin

Meadows also homered, five Tampa Bay pitchers com-bined on a six-hitter, and the Rays defeated Toronto inSt. Petersburg, Fla. Ryne Stanek, employed as an open-er for the 15th time this season, allowed only a hit and awalk in his two scoreless innings. He struck out one.Ryan Yarbrough (4-1) took over in the third inning andheld Toronto to two hits and a walk while striking outone in 3 2/3 shutout innings. Diego Castillo allowed asingle, a double and Brandon Drury’s sacrifice fly in theninth while picking up his sixth save of the season.

ASTROS 9, CUBS 6Alex Bregman recorded his fourth career multi-

homer game, and Houston used a balanced attack totop visiting Chicago. Astros manager A.J. Hinch record-ed his 500th career victory as Houston overcame a pairof three-run innings from the Cubs, who slugged fivehome runs. Houston did so despite fielding a lineuploaded with replacements, including a trio of starterswho were in the minor leagues just last week. Bregmanset a club record with 12 homers this month, bypassingthe mark of 11 set by Jimmy Wynn in May 1969.

WHITE SOX 2, ROYALS 1 (COMPLETION OF SUSPENDED GAME)

Yolmer Sanchez ripped a walk-off RBI single withone out in the ninth inning as host Chicago beat KansasCity in the completion of a game that was suspendedMonday in the fifth inning due to rain. James McCannhighlighted his fifth three-hit performance of the seasonwith a double in the ninth. Sanchez, who had an RBIsingle in the fifth inning before the game was suspend-ed on Monday, deposited a pitch from Kevin McCarthy

past a five-man infield to plate McCann to endChicago’s three-game skid. White Sox relievers AaronBummer, Evan Marshall and Alex Colome (2-0) com-bined to allow one hit over four scoreless innings uponthe resumption of the game. Colome required just ninepitches to retire the side in the ninth.

WHITE SOX 4, ROYALS 3Lucas Giolito pitched eight strong innings, and

Charlie Tilson drove in the go-ahead run with afourth-inning single to boost host Chicago overKansas City in the teams’ regularly scheduled game.Bidding for his third successive complete game,Giolito came within one inning of that feat whileallowing three runs on three hits and one walk with10 strikeouts. Colome struck out two in a perfectninth in the nightcap to earn his 10th save in as manyopportunities. The White Sox had 12 hits, all singles.Leury Garcia went 3-for-4 with an RBI while JamesMcCann also had three hits. Tilson and Jose Rondonboth added two hits for Chicago.

PADRES 5, YANKEES 4Eric Hosmer capped a four-run first inning by hitting

a three-run homer, and San Diego held on for a victoryat New York. The Padres took a four-run lead four bat-ters in after New York third baseman DJ LeMahieumisplayed a grounder by leadoff man Greg Garcia foran error. Franmil Reyes singled, and Manny Machadohit a bloop RBI single. Hosmer then hit his ninth homerun. Gary Sanchez homered for the Yankees, who lostfor only the third time in their past 15 games.

TIGERS 3, ORIOLES 0Niko Goodrum homered, and Matthew Boyd threw

six-plus solid innings as Detroit won at Baltimore. TheTigers scored runs in the first and second innings, and thatgave Boyd all the support that he needed. Detroit won forjust the second time in the past 14 games. Boyd (5-4) scat-tered six hits and fanned eight while walking just one andthrowing 66 strikes on 96 pitches. Detroit eventually usedfour relief pitchers over the final three innings, and ShaneGreene closed it in the ninth for his 17th save. — Reuters

S p o r t s Thursday, May 30, 2019

25Established 1961

Lee eyes top spot, end to Aussiedrought at USWomen’s OpenMIAMI: Minjee Lee will bid to end Australia’s13-year wait for a major at the US Women’sOpen today as she targets a maiden victory thatcould vault her to the top of the world rankings.The 23-year-old from Perth heads into thisweek’s second major of 2019 fresh from her fifthLPGA Tour victory, a dazzling four-shot win atthe Los Angeles Open last month.

That triumph saw Lee move up to second inthe world rankings, and within striking distanceof South Korea’s world number one Ko Jin-young. A victory at the Country Club ofCharleston in South Carolina this week wouldsee Lee supplant Ko at the top of the rankings.

It would also earn Lee the largest winner’scheque in the history of women’s golf after theUnited States Golf Association confirmed thisweek that the champion will pocket a prize of $1million. Lee heads into the tournament after aremarkably consistent start to the season whichhas yielded five top 10 finishes including her winin Los Angeles in April.

She will tee off today in arguably the stargroup of the opening rounds, alongside worldnumber one Ko and South Korea’s seven-timemajor winner Park In-bee. Park, a two-time win-ner of the US Women’s Open who is chasing afirst major since 2015, has spent this yearattempting to iron out problems with her puttinggame.

“I haven’t been really putting well this year atall,” she said. “I have been striking the ball really,really good this year, probably better than anyother years on Tour. “Just the putter wasn’t real-ly there. That’s really been the disappointingpart of my game this year. Other than that, it hasbeen really, really good.”

The strength of the women’s game is reflect-ed in the fact that no single player has been ableto establish dominance this year. The first 12tournaments of the year have produced 11 dif-ferent winners, with only world number one Kowinning more than title in 2019.

The last eight women’s majors meanwhilehave had eight different winners, while the USWomen’s Open has not had a back-to-backchampion since Australia’s Karrie Webb won in2000 and 2001.

That fact would suggest the odds are stackedagainst Thailand’s defending champion AriyaJutanugarn. The 23-year-old from Bangkok wonher second career major at the US Women’sOpen 12 months ago, and is likely to be at homein temperatures this week which are expected tohover above 90 degrees Fahrenheit (32 degreesCelsius) for most of the tournament. — AFP

Cincinnati Reds’ Dietrich hits 3 homers, Smeltzer dazzles as Twins top Brewers

Ohtani helps Angels snap Athletics’ 10-game win streak

CINCINNATI: Gregory Polanco #25 of the Pittsburgh Pirates hits a single in the eighth inning against theCincinnati Reds at Great American Ball Park in Cincinnati, Ohio.— AFP

Warriors seek moreNBA history as Raptors hunt first titleTORONTO: While the Golden State Warriors try tocement their legacy as the NBA’s greatest dynasty inhalf a century, the upstart Toronto Raptors made histo-ry just reaching the NBA Finals. Today’s opener in thebest-of-seven championship showdown will be thefirst NBA Finals game played outside the UnitedStates, the Canadian contest coming in the same citywhere the first league game was played in 1946.

Three-point sharpshooter Stephen Curry attemptsto lead the injury-hit Warriors to their third consecu-tive NBA title, a feat last achieved by the Los AngelesLakers in 2002, and Golden State could become thefirst team to win four crowns in five seasons since the1969 Boston Celtics.

“Four more wins defines your season and bringsyou a championship,” Curry said. “We have to staylocked in.” Blocking their path is a Raptors team pow-ered by Kawhi Leonard, obtained in a trade with SanAntonio last July. He has sparked a squad that wasousted by Cleveland in the playoffs each of the pastthree years, creating a breakthrough campaign.

“They are the champions. We’ve got to go in with

mental focus and accept the challenge,” Leonard said.“We’re in the finals and we’re not done yet.” GoldenState’s five consecutive NBA Finals appearances is thesecond-best run in history trailing only Boston’s epicrun from 1957-66.

“It hasn’t been done for a reason. It’s really diffi-cult,” Warriors coach Steve Kerr said. “I can’t sayenough about the competitive drive of these playersand the culture they have built. This group has a fiberabout them. When guys go down, they find a way toplay harder and win. The experience of having wontitles helps you come through.”

The Warriors have proven that during the NBAplayoffs since forward Kevin Durant went down with aright calf injury three weeks ago. Center DeMarcusCousins is also sidelined with a torn right quadricepsmuscle suffered in the first round of the playoffs.

WARRIORS OK WITHOUT KD Golden State has risen to the challenge of losing

two stars with a return to the style that made them aforce before Durant arrived in 2016 — scrappy defen-sive work and pinpoint 3-point shooting courtesy ofCurry and Klay Thompson plus expanded roles forDraymond Green and Andre Iguodala as well as otherreserves.

“We set that culture from the beginning and it mani-fested itself during the season,” Curry said. “You’vegot to have guys step up. Everybody with a jersey onis going to help out.” Green says Golden State’s wellprepared reserve role players are a major reason theWarriors went 5-0 in the playoffs without Durant.

“We have a bunch of guys committed to winning,”he said. “No matter what bump in the road we hit, we

know what the goal is. When you have that kind ofcommitment, great things happen.” Kerr calls Green “awrecking ball out there, destroying everything in hispath” and has praised the efforts of 23-year-old back-up center Kevon Looney as a “foundational piece” and“cornerstone” for the Warriors in the playoffs sinceDurant absent.

Looney has averaged 7.5 points and 4.9 reboundsand provided solid minutes inside, where he will testSpanish stars Marc Gasol and Serge Ibaka for Torontoin the finals. “We’re going to rely on him in the finals,”Kerr said. “He’s a hell of a player.”

KAWHI IGNITES RAPTORS The Raptors picked up Leonard after he sat out

most of last season with a sore right quad and watchedthe 2014 NBA Finals Most Valuable Player revive theexcitement for himself and the passionate Raptors fanswho pack their arena and thousands who stand outsidewatching on giant televisions in “Jurassic Park.”

“He’s just so good,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said.“I’m seeing a level of competitive greatness out of him.It’s just competitive desire... it’s just his willing us towin.” Iguodala figures to lead a team-based defensiveeffort against Leonard.

“He can create a shot out of nothing,” Gasol warned.“He’s a mismatch all around.” The Raptors will counteragainst Curry with Kyle Lowry and two-time NBADefensive Player of the Year Leonard unless Durantreturns to change the dynamics for Golden State.

No matter how the series concludes, it could be theend of an era for both clubs with Durant and Leonardlikely to be the top prizes on the free agent market bythe end of June. — AFP

Deontay Wilder

LONDON: Batting great Sunil Gavaskar says EoinMorgan’s England will be the team to beat at theWorld Cup, with home advantage giving them av i ta l edge over h is nat ive Ind ia . Top-rankedEngland recently outplayed Pakistan 4-0 in a one-day series to underline their supremacy in the 50-over format.

The home side, who have never won one-daycricket’s biggest prize despite making three finals, in1979, 1987 and 1992, open their campaign againstSouth Africa today at the Oval in London. “England,not India, are the favourites for this World Cup,”Gavaskar told AFP.

“They have been playing outstanding cricket overthe last few years and in familiar home conditions willbe hard to beat,” said the former India captain. Homeadvantage has been a big factor in recent editions ofthe showpiece event, with hosts India winning the2011 trophy and Australia emerging victorious inMelbourne in 2015.

Since the start of 2018 England, who switched to amore aggressive brand of cricket after their humiliat-ing first-round exit four years ago, have come out ontop in ODI series against Australia, New Zealand, SriLanka and India.

Second-ranked India’s chances depend to a largeextent on captain Virat Kohli. Kohli, the number onebatsman in Test and ODIs, last year defied critics whoquestioned his poor performance on the 2014 tour ofEngland by hitting 593 runs in the 2018 Test serieseven though India lost 4-1.

KOHLI CRITICISM But he has often received criticism over his captain-

cy, with pundits saying the 30-year-old leader oftenneeds the experience of Mahendra Singh Dhoni behindthe stumps.

Kohli recently scored 464 runs in the Indian PremierLeague Twenty20 tournament but his side RoyalChallengers Bangalore ended bottom of the eight-teamtable. “On an individual level he certainly can be as suc-cessful (in England) as he was last year for sure,” saidGavaskar, who scored more than 10,000 Test runs.

“But a captain is only as good as his team andDhoni’s presence takes a big load off Kohli, especiallyafter the first power play,” said Gavaskar, who waspart of India’s World Cup-winning team in 1983 underKapil Dev.

Gavaskar, 69, also weighed in on the Indian team’smuch-debated number four slot, saying Lokesh Rahulshould fill the position. He was unwilling to be drawninto the debate of whether India should boycott theirround-robin match against Pakistan amid political ten-sions between the two hostile nations.

Doubts were cast over the much-anticipated matchin Manchester on June 16 after calls from many formerIndia players and officials to forfeit their match to theirarch-rivals. Relations between the two nuclear-armedSouth Asian countries nose-dived after a suicidebombing in Indian-administered Kashmir in Februarykilled 40 Indian security personnel and was laterclaimed by the Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad.

India has long accused Islamabad of harbouring mil-

itants who launch attacks on its soil but Pakistan hasdenied any role in the Pulwama attack, and PrimeMinister Imran Khan offered cooperation in investiga-

tions if credible evidence were provided by India. “In aWorld Cup there is no option but to play all teams,”said a guarded Gavaskar. — AFP

England launch World Cup bid against S AfricaLONDON: England will put four years of planning tothe test when they face South Africa in the openingmatch of the 2019 World Cup at the Oval today. Soembarrassing was England’s first-round exit at the 2015edition in Australia and New Zealand it prompted amajor rethink of their attitude to the white-ball game.

The transformation has been remarkable, with EoinMorgan’s men climbing to the top of the one-day inter-national rankings and twice setting a new record forthe highest one-day international total, which nowstands at 481 for six.

Batting has been the basis of England’s ODI rejuve-nation, with Jason Roy, Jonny Bairstow, Joe Root,Morgan and the dynamic Jos Buttler among a top sevenwho can all change the course of an innings in the blinkof an eye. “It’s an exciting feeling being in this team asyou have world-class players all around you and theopposition might get 370, but there’s a belief in thedressing room we can chase it down,” said Englandleg-spinner Adil Rashid.

“There is no hesitation or someone going ‘I don’tknow about this’. We all have that belief and confidencewe can do it,” added Rashid, whose ability to takewickets at key stages has also been an important partof England’s white-ball revival.

“We will hopefully stick to what we’ve been doingthe past four years and hopefully the World Cup willwork out well for us.”

SOUTH AFRICA PAIN South Africa have suffered plenty of World Cup

heartache but having been losing semi-finalists four

years there is a sense the Proteas are going under theradar this time around. South Africa coach Ottis Gibsonis convinced the pressure is all on the tournament hostsand cited comments by England quicks Stuart Broadand James Anderson-both of whom no longer play ODIcricket-as an example.

“I heard somewhere that my two very good friendsBroad and Anderson have said that England will haveto do something really bad not to win this World Cup,”recalled Gibson, who knows the pair well from his timeas England bowling coach.

“As far as they are concerned England have won italready.” Former West Indies fast bowler Gibsonadded: “To play the hosts, the number one team, is the

best way to start, because it gives us a real sense ofwhere we are and what we need to do going forward.

“But you don’t have to be number one to win thetournament and sometimes you can win the tournamentand you don’t even go to number one.” South Africa,captained by Faf du Plessis, are without retired starbatsman AB de Villiers but their top order includes thetalented Quinton de Kock. They will be without DaleSteyn today as the outstanding fast bowler nurses ashoulder injury but South Africa have become used tohis absence in recent times. Of arguably greater impor-tance for Thursday’s match is that Kagiso Rabada,arguably the leading paceman in world cricket today,has been passed fit following a back injury. — AFP


26 Established 1961

India’s batting great Gavaskar tips England for World Cup glory

LONDON: England’s Joe Root (L) and England’s captain Eoin Morgan (R) take part in a nets practice session on the eveof their opening match of the ICC Cricket World Cup against South Africa, at The Oval in London yesterday. — AFP

Second-ranked India’s chances depend to a large extent on captain Kohli

Morgan says W Cupwin for hosts couldhave huge impact onEnglish cricketLONDON: England captain Eoin Morgan sayswinning a home World Cup could do wonders forcricket in the sport’s birthplace as he prepares tolead his team in their tournament opener againstSouth Africa.

England are top of the one-day internationalrankings and favourites to lift a trophy they havenever yet won in its 44-year-history-a far cry fromtheir woeful first-round exit at the 2015 World Cupin Australia and New Zealand. Television coverageof cricket in Britain has been largely hidden behinda paywall since England won the 2005 Ashes butMorgan believes a World Cup win would breakthrough to a new audience.

“It would mean a huge amount. The World Cupalone raises the profile of the game and is a plat-form for every young kid in this country to have ahero or have the inspiration to pick up a ball or abat,” Morgan told reporters at the Oval yesterday.“To go on and win it, I couldn’t imagine what thatwould do,” the former Ireland batsman added.

‘BRILLIANT’ SOUTHGATE The England cricket squad and backroom staff

have spent time with England football managerGareth Southgate, whose side revitalised interestand affection in the national team on their way to thesemi-finals of last year’s soccer World Cup in Russia.

“We did do a session with Gareth, it was bril-liant,” recalled Morgan. “He got up and talkedabout his journey with the team in and around theWorld Cup, but in the build-up, as well, and howthey built bigger expectations and came togethermore as a group.

“I think everybody within the room listeningwho has been involved with our team over the lastfour years recognised that-we started exactlywhere they did. Recognised what had happened inthe past, drawn a line under it, tried to do thingsdifferently and move forward and enjoyed the chal-lenge of that.” But the expectations surroundingEngland’s men’s football and cricket teams arewide apart, with Morgan saying his side hadreceived a very different reaction when they werebeaten by Pakistan in the 2017 semi-finals of theone-day Champions Trophy in Cardiff.

“It’s amazing. He (Southgate) did brilliantly. Gotto the semi-final and everybody says it’s great. Wegot knocked out of the Champions Trophy semi-final, and we’re crap,” added Morgan to laughterfrom the assembled media. — AFP

LONDON: South Africa’s Lungi Ngidi (C) and teammates take part in a training session on the eve of their open-ing match of the ICC Cricket World Cup against England, at The Oval in London yesterday. —AFP

Cricket World Cup: A potted historyLONDON: The Cricket World Cup starts in Englandtoday with 10 teams vying to be crowned champions inthe 12th edition of the tournament. AFP Sports takes alook back at the history of one-day showpiece.

1975: Windies wondersA West Indies side including several players who had

experience of limited-overs competitions in countycricket swept all before them in England before beatingAustralia in the final at a sun-drenched Lord’s. CliveLloyd, the West Indies captain, led from the front with abrilliant 102 and despite a rearguard action fromAustralia, the Caribbean side completed a 17-run victory.

1979: West Indies dominanceWest Indies were arguably even more formidable than

four years previously, with the Caribbean side fielding afast-bowling attack of Andy Roberts, Michael Holding,Joel Garner and Colin Croft. Viv Richards made a com-manding 138 in the final against hosts England, although itwas Collis King who initially upped the tempo with a blis-tering 86. England, set 287 for victory, lost by 92 runs.

1983: India shock the worldFew were betting against Lloyd’s men making it three

in a row ahead of the 1983 World Cup and even fewerwould have backed India to be the side to dethronethem. India had beaten the West Indies in a group gamebut their chance of victory in a Lord’s final seemed tohave disappeared when they were dismissed for just 183.But captain Kapil Dev made the decisive contributionwhen he held a brilliant catch to dismiss Richards andsend the West Indies spiralling to a 43-run defeat.

1987: Australia star in AsiaThe first World Cup in the subcontinent looked like it

could produce an India-Pakistan final but instead this

edition saw Australia vanquishing arch-rivals England byseven runs in the final at Kolkata’s Eden Gardens.England appeared to be on course to reach a target of254 until captain Mike Gatting tried to reverse sweepAustralia captain Allan Border, an occasional spinner,only to give wicket-keeper Greg Dyer a simple catch.

1992: Pakistan roarA World Cup in Australia and New Zealand marked

the first appearance in the competition of South Africaafter decades of apartheid-enforced isolation. Pakistan,who had been on the brink of elimination, rode their luckbefore finding their form late on under the inspirationalcaptaincy of Imran Khan, who had urged his players to“fight like cornered tigers”. All-rounder Imran topscoredfor Pakistan in the final with 72 in a total of 249 for sixagainst England, who were dismissed for 227.

1996: Sri Lanka come of ageSri Lanka changed the face of the of the game even

before they won this World Cup as openers SanathJayasuriya and Romesh Kaluwitharana capitalised onfielding restrictions with their aggressive strokeplay. Butthe tournament was also notable for boycotts and riots, SriLanka winning two matches without bowling a ball whenboth Australia and West Indies refused to play on theisland because of security concerns. In the final, Sri Lankaheld Australia to a total of 241 and Aravinda de Silva hit asuperb century as his side won by seven wickets.

1999: Australia hold their nerveAustralia came through several tense matches to win

a second World Cup as hosts England exited early.Australia met South Africa in a semi-final that ended in aremarkable tie when South Africa’s Allan Donald was runout with two balls remaining. The result meant Australiawent through to the final because of their better net run-rate in the Super Six. The final was a let-down as a con-test, with Australia thrashing Pakistan by eight wickets atLord’s as leg-spin great Shane Warne took four wickets.

2003: Australia triumph despite Warne drama Australia suffered a setback on the eve of the tour-

nament when it was announced that Warne had faileda drugs test but they were so strong that his absencemade little difference. Main hosts South Africa sufferedyet more heartache when they bowed out in bizarrefashion during a rain-hit match against Sri Lanka. Theythought they had won but in fact they needed onemore run by the time the match was stopped. The finalat Johannesburg’s Wanderers ground was dominatedby Ponting’s majestic unbeaten 140 as Australia beatIndia by 125 runs.

2007: Woolmer death overshadows World CupThe tournament was overshadowed by the death of

Pakistan coach Bob Woolmer. India made an early exitduring a tournament at which Australia were rarely chal-lenged. Nothing summed up their dominance quite likeAdam Gilchrist’s dashing hundred during the final againstSri Lanka in Barbados.

2011: Tendulkar triumphs at lastAs the tournament returned to the subcontinent,

the question on the minds of many India fans was:Could Sachin Tendulkar win the World Cup at thesixth time of asking? India beat Australia in the quar-ter-finals and Pakistan in the semi-finals. The final wasplayed at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai,Tendulkar’s home ground. Sri Lanka’s MahelaJayawardene scored a majestic hundred in a total of274 and there were gasps when Tendulkar, the WorldCup’s all-time leading run-scorer, was out for just 18.But Gautam Gambhir’s composed 97 and a captain’sinnings of 91 not out from MS Dhoni, that ended witha straight six, saw India to a six-wicket win.

2015: Australia back on topA tournament staged in Australia and New Zealand

saw both co-hosts make it into the final. Australia hadmade their intentions clear from the start with a 111-runthrashing of England. New Zealand’s bold play won themmany admirers but a total of 183 in the final never lookedlike winning a final and their near-neighbours canteredto victory by seven wickets. — AFP

Eoin Morgan

LONDON: Liverpool’s long wait for a major trophycould come to an end on Saturday with a sixthEuropean Cup, but the foundations for a return to thepinnacle of Europe were laid last January in trustingJurgen Klopp’s judgement to make Virgil van Dijk theworld’s most expensive defender.

The towering Dutchman arrived for £75 million ($95million), six months after Liverpool publicly stated theyhad “ended any interest in the player” as Southamptonthreatened to report the Reds for an illegal approach.

Klopp, though, would not settle for second best andinsisted the club make the deal happen. A season-and-a-half later the talismanic centre-back has ledLiverpool to two Champions League finals and becomethe first defender in 14 years to be crowned the PFAPlayer of the Year as the Reds narrowly missed out on afirst Premier League title since 1990 despite posting aclub record 97 points.

“Nobody thinks about it (the price) anymore. That’sgood because in this market at the moment he is worthit, or is too cheap,” said Klopp. During the German’sfirst two years at Anfield, Liverpool were capable of thespectacular, but always undermined by defensive disor-ganisation.

QUALITY COMES AT A PRICE Van Dijk has restored order thanks to his power,

pace and poise, but also with his leadership that hashelped foster rapid improvement in the emerging tal-ents of Andy Robertson, Trent Alexander-Arnold andJoe Gomez.

“That’s what you hope for when a new player is

coming in-that he makes the whole team better,” addedKlopp. “Of course he’s a very good player, he makesplayers around him better. “He is so important to us.Not only as a player but as a person as well, he’s a bril-liant boy. I could not say a bad word about him.”

Liverpool are still capable of blowing opponentsaway, as a 4-0 win over Barcelona to reach theChampions League final demonstrated. But there is alsonow a controlled approach, exemplified by the 21 cleansheets Klopp’s men kept in the Premier League to runchampions Manchester City so close.

“Liverpool have grown hugely as a team recentlyand a lot of that is thanks to Van Dijk,” legendary Italiancentre-back Franco Baresi recently told AFP. Tottenhamnow stand in the way of Liverpool rounding off the vastimprovement made since Van Dijk’s arrival with theirfirst trophy in seven years. And it was a meeting withSpurs in late March that best encapsulated his abilitiesas the all-round defender. With Liverpool needing towin to remain on City’s coattails, the score was level at1-1 with five minutes to go at Anfield as MoussaSissoko led a two-on-one counter-attack.

Most mortal defenders would be attracted to theball, but Van Dijk stood his ground, marking SonHeung-min to prevent an easy pass to the on-formSouth Korean and forcing Sissoko, who has not scoredthis season, to take a shot with his weaker left foot.

The Frenchman’s strike flew well over and Liverpoolmade full use of their lifeline moments later when TobyAlderweireld’s own goal sent Anfield wild. “That showswhy Liverpool paid more than £70m for Van Dijk,” saidSpurs boss Mauricio Pochettino.

“Quality costs a specific price. Cars are like that, alot of things are like that and players as well. That’s whywe paid it,” Klopp said. Should he lift the Champions

League on Saturday, Liverpool’s Rolls Royce centre-back will forever be remembered for what he hasachieved rather than what he cost. — AFP

Mane has eyes on Champions Leaguenot Real Madrid linksLIVERPOOL: Sadio Mane admits he is flattered bysuggested interest from Real Madrid but insists he ishappy at Liverpool and fully focused on trying to helpthem win the Champions League.

Reports from Spain in recent weeks have suggest-ed that Real want to bring the Senegal forward andManchester United’s French midfielder Paul Pogba tothe Bernabeu. Mane will be in action across the cityon Saturday, at Atletico Madrid’s WandaMetropolitano home, which will host the ChampionsLeague final between Liverpool and Tottenham.

The 27-year-old has scored 17 goals in 24 matchesfor his club since the turn of the year, and is expectedto lead his country’s attack in Egypt at the Africa Cupof Nations, which starts in late June.

As he prepared for Saturday’s European final,Mane was asked about interest from Real Madrid, anddid not dismiss it altogether. He did, though, insist thatLiverpool’s progress to the Champions League final-which has seen them knock out Napoli, BayernMunich, Porto and Barcelona-is a sign of their stand-ing in the European game.

“This is part of football, so we have to deal withit,” said Mane. “But for me, the more important thingis that I am with Liverpool and I am very happyhere, and I am preparing for one of the club’sbiggest games.

“Let’s focus on this first, and on winning it. “It’salways a pleasure for this kind of team to want you,but Liverpool, don’t forget, we beat big teams.” Manescored for Liverpool in last season’s ChampionsLeague final, which ended in the disappointment of a3-1 defeat by Real Madrid in Kiev.

This time, they go to the final attempting tobounce back from the disappointment of a firstEnglish league title since 1990, having finished onepoint adrift of Manchester City despite droppingonly 17 points all season.

Liverpool’s total of 97 points is the highest ever

accrued by an English top-flight team without winningthe league, but Mane says that near-miss has notdampened their spirits.

“We’re so positive in our way. We have our targets,of course. We wanted to win the league, and theChampions League. “We didn’t win the league but westill have one trophy to go so we are going to try togive everything to win it.”

Mane remembers well the mood of dejectionamong the players as they waited at the airport inKiev to fly home after last season’s ChampionsLeague final defeat, and suggested that drove them onto reach this year’s final.

“Yeah, of course,” he said. “We were a little bit dis-appointed last year because we wanted to win it. Butit wasn’t the case. That’s part of football. But at thesame time, it’s important to be positive. “Many people,

even you (the media), didn’t expect us to play in thisfinal, and we did it.

“So now I think we have learned a lot from this, andI hope we’re going to use our experience this seasonto get to where we want to be.” Liverpool face aTottenham side who finished 26 points behind them inthe Premier League, but Mane is wary of opponentswho knocked domestic champions Manchester Cityout of Europe at the quarter-final stage in April.

He is looking for Liverpool to use their previousexperience of playing in the Champions League finalto give them an advantage. “Every time it makes iteasier,” he said. “But we expect a very difficult gamebecause Tottenham are a very good team.

“We are also very good, so let’s see an excitinggame, and let’s see what’s going to happen. I’m surewe will give everything to get what we want.” — AFP


27Established 1961

Van Dijk lays the foundations for Liverpool’s return to the top

Liverpool are still capable of blowing opponents away

LIVERPOOL: Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp speaks during a press conference at the Melwood Training ground inLiverpool, northwest England. —AFP

Six appeal: Euroglory would easePremier pain forLiverpoolLONDON: Fuelled by the pain of their failedPremier League title bid, Liverpool’s stars admitthey are desperate to win the club’s sixthEuropean Cup when they face Tottenham inSaturday’s Champions League final.

Jurgen Klopp’s side will be motivated by aburning sense of injustice in the all-PremierLeague clash at the Wanda Metropolitano.

A win against Tottenham in Madrid would giveLiverpool their first Champions League crownsince Rafael Benitez’s underdogs stunned ACMilan in 2005 with one of the all-time greatcomebacks.

From their first European Cup coronationagainst Borussia Monchengladbach in 1977 tohard-fought wins over Bruges, Real Madrid andRoma in 1978, 1981 and 1984, all of Liverpool’scontinental final victories have a special place inthe hearts of their fans.

But the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ will forever beetched in Liverpool history as arguably the club’smost memorable moment in the competition.

Nothing will surpass that incredible night atthe Ataturk Stadium when Steven Gerrardinspired Liverpool’s recovery from three goalsdown at half-time.

Yet, just three weeks after the conclusion oftheir painful near-miss in the Premier League titlerace, beating Tottenham in the club’s ninthEuropean Cup final would be the most euphoricconsolation prize for Liverpool fans across theworld. When Klopp’s team held a seven-pointlead at the top of the table in mid-January, theKop faithful dreamt that Liverpool’s 29-year waitto win the English title was about to reach a glo-rious end.

That three-decade barren period has been asource of constant frustration at Anfield.

But Liverpool’s hearts were broken again asManchester City reeled off a remarkable 14-game winning run that brought them a secondsuccessive title and left Klopp still looking for thefirst trophy of his four-year reign.

GREAT PROMISE It was even more galling than their narrow fail-

ure in 2014 when Gerrard’s untimely slip againstChelsea gifted the title to City in the final weeksof the season.

This time, Liverpool were beaten just once inthe league all season, amassed 97 points-thethird highest total in the Premier League era-andsprinted to the finish line with nine consecutivesvictories.

Even that wasn’t enough to finish above anhistorically great City side, leaving theChampions League final as Liverpool’s last hopeto turn a season of great promise into tangiblereward.

It would be cruel for such a dynamic side tofinish empty-handed, especially after theyauthored an escape act for the ages with a 4-0semi-final win over Barcelona that overturned a3-0 first leg deficit.

After watching helplessly as City took the titleon the last day of the season, Reds midfielderGeorginio Wijnaldum says Liverpool are takingheart from having their destiny in their own handsin Madrid. — AFP

Sadio Mane

Milan great Maldini lined up for new role after Leonardo, Gattuso exitMILAN: AC Milan legend Paolo Maldini could be set for a new role in theclub after chief executive Ivan Gazidis said yesterday he wanted to con-vince the former Italy defender to become technical director.

Brazilian Leonardo stepped down as sporting director on Tuesday,along with head coach Gennaro Gattuso, amid reports of financial cutbacksat the seven-time European champions.

The former European heavyweights finished one point behind InterMilan in Serie A in the battle for the fourth and final qualifying spot.

Gazidis said in an interview with Gazzetta Dello Sport, that with the helpof Maldini, they could “bring Milan back to the top”.

Maldini retired in 2009 after a glittering 24-year career during which hewon seven Serie A titles and five Champions League crowns. The defenderwas also Milan’s record appearance holder with 902 matches.

The 50-year-old returned to the club last August as their sporting strat-egy and development director. “I want Maldini as the technical director. Iadmire him very much,” former Arsenal chief executive Gazidis toldGazzetta.

“He represents the values and the culture of the club. “I would really likePaolo to stay with us and help me in this great challenge with an increas-ingly central and important role. He is ideal for managing the technical area.

“Paolo asked for time to reflect and understand if he has the right ener-gy to start over with this difficult and arduous project, which requires hisutmost commitment and which he must totally buy into. He must feel 100percent.”Maldini would also have a role in the choice of a replacement forGattuso, another emblematic former player who took over in November2017 and was under contract for another two years. —AFP

Kenya embarkson French bootcamp ahead ofAfrica CupNAIROBI: Kenya’s national footballersdepart Friday for a boot camp in France,where coach Sebastien Migne plans for adistraction-free training blitz before theirfirst Africa Cup of Nations appearance in15 years.

Migne, a Frenchman, has designed thethree-week programme to prepare theKenyans-ranked 108th in the FIFA worldrankings-for their grueling group phase withAlgeria, Senegal and Tanzania.

Migne said the squad he handpicked forthe tournament, starting June 21 in Egypt,would benefit from the change in scenery andintensity of the regimen in Marcoussis,France’s national rugby training facility justoutside Paris.

His selection early May of the 30-manpreliminary squad for the Cup-an Africa-wide tournament held every two years-attracted considerable attention from Kenyanfootball pundits and fans, not all of it positive.

The head coach said it was “difficult tostay in the country” and focus with these dis-

tractions weighing on his players. “Therewere a lot of comments at that time, and weneed some peace and quiet to prepare forthis competition,” Migne told AFP after atraining session in Nairobi ahead of theirdeparture for France.

“And the weather was very important tome. During this preparation, we will havemany sessions, sometimes three times a dayand you can’t do that in a hot country. The46-year-old Migne added he was “reallyproud” to bring the team to his home turf forpreparation.

Football is hugely popular in Kenya but theHarambee Stars, the national team, have oftenbeen found wanting. They enter the Cup asunderdogs, having only qualified six timessince its inception in 1957. They have onlyever won one game and never reached theknock-out stages.

Their passage to Egypt for this editionwas capped with a surprise victory on homesoil over Ghana, one of the continent’s topperformers. But Migne has urged his men notto dwell on the past, and focus instead onemerging from the group phase for the firsttime ever.

Last year is the past. What is importantnow is to confirm (our performance)... we’renot going to go to Egypt as tourists,” he said.He is banking in part on star Victor Wanyama,the Tottenham midfielder and Kenyan captain,who could play in the Champions Leaguefinal against Liverpool just days before train-ing for the Cup is to begin. — AFP

SportWilder announces Ortiz rematch

Morgan says World Cup win for hosts could have huge impact on English cricket

Mane has eyes on Champions League not Real Madrid links2725 26

Established 1961


Nadal powers on, Tsitsipas battles through

PARIS: Rafael Nadal continued the strong start tohis bid for a record-extending 12th French Open titleyesterday with a comfortable victory over Germanqualifier Yannick Maden, while Stefanos Tsitsipashad to dig deep to reach round three.

The 32-year-old Nadal was in near total controlagainst world number 114 Maden bar some nervymoments in the third set, winning 6-1, 6-2, 6-4. The17-time Grand Slam champion will play Belgian 27thseed David Goffin in the last 32.

“He (Maden) is a good player. He had alreadywon four matches so was full of confidence,” saidNadal, whose Roland Garros win-loss record nowreads an incredible 88-2. “For me it was an impor-tant victory.”

The Spaniard wasted little time in wrapping upthe first two sets on Court Suzanne Lenglen. Madenmay have briefly allowed himself to dream of an out-

rageous upset when he twice broke to level at 3-3and then 4-4 in the third set, but Nadal put him backin his place with two quick games to seal victory.

Nadal appears to be hitting form at just the righttime, after following three consecutive semi-finaldefeats on clay with the Italian Open title beforearriving in Paris. He finished the match with 43 win-ners against just 23 unforced errors.

Greek star Tsitsipas did not have things all hisown way against Bolivia’s Hugo Dellien on CourtSimonne Mathieu, but managed to grind out a 4-6,6-0, 6-3, 7-5 victory. The sixth seed, who beatRoger Federer en route to the Australian Open semi-finals earlier this year, will take on either SpaniardRoberto Carballes Baena or Serbia’s Filip Krajinovicin his maiden appearance in the third round.

The 20-year-old started strongly with an earlybreak, but appeared unsettled following a medical

t imeout for Dell ien after the world number 86appeared to twist his ankle. Dellien quickly sealedthe opening set, but Tsitsipas raced through the nexttwo sets and seemingly towards victory.

Despite letting a 4-2 lead in the fourth set slip,the 25-year-old Dellien just would not go away, sav-ing three match points from 0-40 down in the 10thgame to level at 5-5. But Tsitsipas did secure thewin in his opponent’s next service game, curling aforehand up the line on his fourth match point.

Later yesterday, 20-time Grand Slam title winnerFederer continues his Roland Garros return after afour-year absence against German lucky loserOscar Otte.

SVITOLINA TO FACE MUGURUZA Ukrainian Elina Svitolina will face 2016 champion

Garbine Muguruza in the women’s third round after

the ninth seed’s compatriot Kateryna Kozlova pulledout of the tournament before their match with a viralinfection.

Spain’s Muguruza, seeded 19th this year, eased toa 6-4, 6-1 victory over Swede Johanna Larsson toadvance. Svitolina, a two-time French Open quarter-finalist, had beaten seven-time Grand Slam champi-on Venus Williams in her opening tie.

Last year’s runner-up Sloane Stephens also easedthrough with a 6-1, 7-6 (7/3) win over Sara SorribesTormo on Court Philippe Chatrier. The former USOpen champion, who lost to Simona Halep in the2018 French Open final, will play Slovenia’s PolonaHercog next after she edged out American JenniferBrady 6-3, 6-7 (8/10), 6-4.

Seventh seed Stephens has now reached at leastthe third round at Roland Garros on each of her lastseven visits to the French capital. —AFP

PARIS: Spain’s Garbine Muguruza returns the ball to Sweden’s Johanna Larsson during their women’s singles second round match on day four of The Roland Garros 2019 French Open tennis tournament in Paris yesterday. —AFP

Svitolina to face 2016 champion Muguruza in the women’s third round

‘Bye Niki’: Austria says farewell to F1 icon LaudaVIENNA: Thousands thronged Vienna’s landmarkcathedral yesterday to mourn Formula One legend andAustrian national hero Niki Lauda at a ceremony to beattended by a host of F1 stars including world champi-on Lewis Hamilton.

The casket arrived at St. Stephen’s Cathedral in thecity’s historic centre with a police motorcade.Pallbearers, followed by Lauda’s family, carried thecoffin inside as bells rang out and thousands gatheredin pouring rain outside.

The three-time F1 world champion, who came backfrom a horrific crash and founded several airlines, died onMay 20 at the age of 70. “The whole world says today:Bye, Niki!” tabloid Oesterreich said on its front page.

Lauda’s widow Birgit along with two of his sonsput his helmet on top of the brown casket, which

stood next to flower wreaths and a portrait of theAustrian sporting his signature cap hiding scars fromthe 1976 crash.

Mourners then slowly filed past to bid a finalfarewell, taking photos and laying flowers, with thequeue stretching well out of the cathedral into near-by streets.

A public mass will take place later. The funeral itselfis private and details for it have been kept underwraps. Some 500 VIP guests are expected to attendthe mass, including Hamilton and other Formula Oneheavyweights such as German driver Sebastian Vetteland Mercedes chief Toto Wolff.

There will also be hundreds more seats and 3,000standing places open to the general public. It is thefirst time a sports star has received such an honour atthe Gothic Roman Catholic cathedral, a distinctionpreviously accorded only to prominent personalitieslike the archbishop of Vienna, Cardinal Franz Koenig,and the former crown prince of the Austrian-Hungarianempire, Otto von Habsburg.

Among the thousands of mourners, some sportingFerrari caps, was Roland, a 41-year-old technician fromVienna. Waiting in line outside the cathedral, he toldAFP that Lauda was “an example for Austria”.

“Even though he faced very difficult circumstances,he never complained,” he said. Many had travelledfrom across the country and even further afieldabroad to attend the funeral. Johann, a 70-year-oldretiree from Burgenland state who used to work as aLauda Air technician, described Lauda as a “strict butfair” employer.

Imre Varga, 63, came all the way from Hungary forthe ceremony. She said she would watch Lauda onAustrian television, which people in the western partof her country had been “lucky” to receive inCommunist times.

“During the Iron Curtain he was always a role mod-el for us... He was unreachable, like a God, to us,” shetold AFP. Lauda won the drivers’ world championshipin 1975 and 1977 with Ferrari and in 1984 withMcLaren.

Even after retiring as a race driver, Lauda remaineda fixture on the circuit. Most recently, as non-executivechairman at Mercedes F1 since 2012, he was instru-mental in bringing in Hamilton, sparking a run of suc-cess for the team. The Briton won the Monaco GrandPrix Sunday, which he described as the “hardest race Ithink I’ve ever had”.

Former F1 drivers Gerhard Berger of Austria and

France’s Alain Prost are expected to speak, as isAustrian President Alexander Van der Bellen and for-mer California governor and Austrian-born actorArnold Schwarzenegger.

During the mass, songs, reportedly Lauda’sfavourites, including “Amazing Grace”, “Fast Car” byTracy Chapman and John Lennon’s “Imagine” will beplayed. Lauda died at the University Hospital Zurich inSwitzerland, nine months after he underwent a lungtransplant.

He had struggled with health issues since miracu-lously surviving the 1976 crash that saw his carengulfed in flames at the Nuerburgring in Germany.Lauda also underwent kidney transplants.

One of the kidneys was donated by his last wife.Lauda married the former flight attendant in 2008 andthey had twins, a boy and a girl, in 2009. Lauda alsohas three other sons from previous relationships.

Besides racing, Lauda’s second passion was avia-tion. He founded and then sold several airlines with hislatest, Laudamotion, going to Ryanair in 2018. It is notclear where Lauda will be laid to rest. The familyreportedly has turned down an offer by the city ofVienna to receive a “grave of honour” in the city’s vastCentral Cemetery. — AFP

prominent activists and ex-mps call for general amnesty...

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