www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Volume 21 | Number 7042 | 2 RiyalsSunday 15 January 2017 | 17 Rabia II 1438

Qatar aim to bounce back against Bahrain

BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 24

Opec honours Dr Al Sada & recognises his achievements

Qatar calls for more UNSC transparency The Peninsula

Reforms in the UN Security Council (UNSC) can be real-ised only by bringing greater transparency

to the work of the Council and increasing its members accord-ing to standards and regulations, Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said yesterday.

“This would create a fair balance in representation and efficiency in performance,” the Foreign Minister said, address-ing the opening session of the meeting on United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reforms which began here yesterday.

Thirty UN member states are participating in the two-day meeting, along with the Presi-dent of the 71st UN General Assembly Peter Thomson and the Co-Chairmen of the Inter-Governmental Negotiation on Security Council Reform Ambas-sador Mohamed Khaled Khiari of Tunisia and Ambassador Ion

Jinga of Romania. The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Sol-tan bin Saad Al Muraikhi was also present at the opening session.

The Foreign Minister stressed that the most impor-tant challenges to the world order are the stability of inter-national community and safety of its peoples.

He pointed that the UNSC’s failure in carrying out its responsibilities underscores the importance of fast reform of the Council, which was formed before decades under various international circumstances.

“The UNSC now is not able to keep up with the develop-ments that have occurred in the structure and interactions of the international system over the past decades,” said the Foreign Minister.

He added that Qatar hosting this meeting stems from its role as an active member in the inter-national community and the broad agreement among the members of the international community that the Security Council reform is the collective interest of the member states and the United Nations system.

He stressed that Qatar sees peace more comprehensively than just the absence of vio-lence, adding that peace is to address all aspects of develop-ment, strengthening institutions, education and opening oppor-tunities for economic recovery and political and economic inte-gration of young people, and addressing issues of inequality, human rights violations, injus-tice and exclusion.

→ Continued on page 2

The Peninsula

HH Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation (QF),

yesterday attended a sympo-sium on Is let Cel l Transplantation (ICT) – a ground-breaking and life sav-ing procedure used to treat severe Type 1 diabetes.

H E Dr Hanan Mohamed Al Kuwari, Minister of Public Health, was also present at the symposium hosted under the sponsorship of Qatar Metabolic Institute, and organised by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), at Qatar National Con-vention Centre (QNCC).

A distinguished group of ICT experts from across the globe at the Islet Cell Transplantation symposium shared their knowl-edge and experiences in

establishing and using the pio-neering technique.

ICT is a cell replacement therapy that involves isolating islet cells (tiny clusters of differ-ent types of cells) from a donor pancreas and transferring them into the liver of an insulin-dependent recipient.

Professor Abdul-Badi Abou-Samra, HMC’s Chair of Internal Medicine and Director of the Qatar Metabolic Institute, high-lighted the potential benefits of Islet Cell Transplantation to Type 1 diabetes sufferers.

"For a Type 1 diabetic who may not know when their blood sugar reaches dangerously low levels, ICT treatment could make a significant difference to the quality of life,” he said.

"The pancreas contains islets that produce hormones. Alpha cells raise the glucose level in

the blood while beta cells make the hormone insulin which low-ers the glucose level. With Type 1 diabetes, the body's immune system mistakenly destroys the beta cells which cause the pan-creas to lose the ability to make insulin,” he added.

Professor Abou-Samra added: "During Islet Cell Transplantation, the job of the donor islet cells is to produce insulin to help the transplant recipient regain con-trol of their blood sugar levels, enabling them to monitor them more effectively. This can elimi-nate or greatly reduce the need for insulin injections and in some cases can prevent brain damage or premature death.

"Today, we are fortunate to have the opportunity to wel-come some of the world’s leading experts in the field of Islet Cell Transplantation."

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser attending a symposium hosted by Hamad Medical Corporation on Islet Cell Transplantation (ICT) — a ground-breaking and life saving procedure used to treat patients with severe type 1 diabetes. Pic: AR Al-Baker

Sheikha Moza attends symposium on Islet Cell Transplantation

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani speaking at the meeting on United Nations Security Council (UNSC) reforms in the presence of Peter Thomson (left), President of the 71st session of the United Nations General Assembly, in Doha yesterday.

Turkish Hospital to open on Jan 17Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

The first Turkish Hospital in Qatar will have a soft opening on January 17 and

start seeing patients the same day, according to a senior official.

The hospital aims at serving more than 1,000 patients at its outpatient clinics every day in addition to inpatients.

Located on C-Ring Road in Doha, the hospital has 100 beds for inpatients and more than 20 outpatient clinics with different specialties.

The hospital offers treatment and services in all types of spe-cialties including a centre for hair transplant, for which Tur-key is well known.

The hospital is a joint ven-ture of the Taleb group in Qatar and Ruzgar group in Turkey.

The two storey hospital building includes an Emergency Department, Medical Depart-ment, diagnosis and treatment units. Currently, it has 40

doctors all of whom are Turks. The number of doctors is expected to increase to between 65 and 70 soon, said Dr Volkan Uygunucarlar, chairman of Ruz-gar group and co-chairman of the Turkish Hospital.

“We look forward to deliv-ering safe and effective care to our patients not only from Qatar, but also from other GCC states,” Uygunucarlar told The

Peninsula on the sidelines of a media tour of the hospital on Thursday.

“The Turkish hospital will have a soft opening on January 17 and we would like to invite President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan for the official opening hopefully next month,” he added.

Mohamed Taleb Al Khauri, Managing Director of Taleb Group, and several other

officials were present during the media tour.

The Turkish Hospital has five operating theatres, 14 beds in the Intensive Care Unit, two deliv-ery rooms, angiography and radiology units, laboratories and a pharmacy. “We have more than 20 polyclinics for surgi-cal and internal departments. Approximately, we will be able to see more than 1,000 patients daily. All our doctors are com-ing from Turkey and the medical staff is from different countries including the Philip-pines, India, Egypt and Albania. All of them are well experi-enced in their specialised fields,” said Dr Uygunucarlar.

The hospital’s surgical department includes orthopae-dics & traumatology, neurosurgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, ENT, general sur-gery, cardiovascular surgery, urology, plastic, reconstructive and aesthetic surgery, ophthal-mology, anaesthesiology and reanimation.

→ Continued on page 4

Three Ezdan properties ready for leaseThe Peninsula

Ezdan Real Estate Company said it has completed the renovation of three resi-

dential buildings in Ras Abu Aboud area. These buildings have been offered for lease at competitive prices.

This comes within the framework of developing the Company’s residential facilities plan launched during the last quarter of 2015 with the aim to enhance and promote its serv-ices in Doha, Al Wakrah and Al Wukair.

The three residential build-ings comprise 56 apartments, each with two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a fully-equipped kitchen, living room, dining area, and a balcony or two. These buildings enjoy a privi-leged location overlooking the Corniche and are in close prox-imity to vibrant areas of Doha downtown, such as the Museum

of Islamic Art, restaurants, shops and hotels. In addition, they offer an array of facilities and services including 24/7 security, maintenance and parking space.

The company was keen to implement an ongoing facelift process in its facilities in order to raise quality standards and offer high-end services to its tenants.

Moreover, Ezdan Real Estate Company has launched a series of developmental pro-cedures in 2016 for its contracting and leasing proc-esses through “Sakin” centre, which facilitates the leasing procedures for customers wish-ing to take advantage of Ezdan Real Estate residential units. The centre provides all leasing, maintenance, utility, customer care, and payment services through two unified venues (Sakin Doha - Sakin Al Wakrah).

Turkish Hospital on C-Ring Road. Pic: Abdul Basit/ The Peninsula

Need for reform

The Foreign Minister said the UN Security Council’s failure in carrying out its responsibilities underscores the importance of fast reform of the Council.

02 SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017HOME

Raynald C RiveraThe Peninsula

A total of QR810,000 cash prize was given away to lucky shop-pers at the first raffle draw marking the

conclusion of the initial week of the inaugural Shop Qatar festi-val organised by Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).

The initial six days of the month-long festival witnessed QR4.3m in sales as revealed by the vouchers issued by partici-pating outlets in the ten festival retail partners. The number of vouchers entered in the raffle draw exceeded 21,000.

Visitors and residents have three more chances to win by shopping or dining at participat-ing restaurants and outlets in any of the ten retail partners including Mall of Qatar, Ezdan Mall, Hyatt Plaza, Al Khor Mall, Lagoona Mall, Gulf Mall, Land-mark, Dar Al Salam Mall, The Gate Mal and The Pearl-Qatar.

The three-day weekend fes-tivities organised on the Corniche had been a big success with hundreds of visitors throng-ing the venue on its conclusion yesterday. “We are delighted that a large number of families, both residents and visitors, came out to the Doha Corniche to enjoy Shop Qatar’s outdoor activities this weekend. Our partnerships with local organi-sations, including Qatar Foundation for Education, Sci-ence and Community Development (QF) and the Bedaya Centre for Entrepreneur-ship, which have made this weekend’s offering so rich and diverse, are a source of pride for us at QTA," said Mashal Shah-bik, Director of Festivals and Tourism Events at QTA.

The outdoor festivities

included entertainment such as the screening of the animated series Siraj, one of QF's latest edutainment projects for children.

“We are delighted to see Siraj being screened to such a wide audience on the Doha Cor-niche this weekend. Siraj is designed to promote and pre-serve the Arabic language, while stimulating creativity and inno-vation through imagination, and

we are very grateful to QTA for the opportunity to introduce Siraj to children and parents attending the Shop Qatar Festi-val," said Khalifa AlKubaisi, Head of Press office at QF.

Seventeen food trucks, carts and kiosks offered visitors street food and snacks popular in var-ious countries. Among the food outlets were five stalls repre-senting local entrepreneurs engaged in food business sup-ported by Bedaya Center.

"When planning Shop Qatar, we focused on creating oppor-tunities to make local products and innovations available for residents and visitors, and we hope they will continue to enjoy them throughout the month-long festival," said Shahbik.

Reem Al-Sowaidi, General Manager of Bedaya Center, added, “The Bedaya Center’s pri-mary objective is to enable entrepreneurs to take their first steps to success. We provide guidance and a range of services that hone their skills as well as

the best programs, means and platforms. As such, we see Shop Qatar – and other festivals organised by QTA– to be sup-porting youth with a platform to showcase their products and projects. This delivers on the needs of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in a contin-uous and sustainable fashion that is aligned with Qatar National Vision 2030.”

The Corniche area near the Orry statue bustled with much activity as visitors watched street performers and a spectacular fireworks display while enjoy-ing sumptuous food in the company of family and friends.

More entertainment options such as concerts and comedy shows and chances to win prizes are in store for residents and vis-itors in the coming days as the festival continues. To run until February 7, the festival is aimed mainly to support Qatar's vibrant retail sector and promote the country as a shopping destina-tion of choice in the region.

Shop Qatar nets QR4.3m in salesFirst raffle draw

A total of QR810,000 cash prize given away to lucky shoppers at the first raffle draw.

The number of vouchers entered in the raffle draw exceeded 21,000.

The first weekly raffle draw of Shop Qatar festival held at Mall of Qatar on Thursday night.

EMIR H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday sent a cable of condolences to Cus-todian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia on the death of Prince Mohammed bin Faisal bin Abdulaziz Al Saud. Deputy

Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Min-ister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani have also sent condolences to King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud on the death of the prince.

Emir condoles with Saudi King

Continued from page 1The UNSC needs to play its

role through taking initiatives, mediation and preventive diplomacy which should be enhanced in the international community. There are many conflicts in the world which cannot be solved without mul-tiple concerted efforts. The role of UNSC should be strength-ened to deal with the challenges to maintain peace and security worldwide, said the Foreign Minister

Concluding his speech, the Foreign Minister stressed the importance of understanding

and flexibility in opinions on the reform of the Security Council. He expressed hope that the meeting discussions would bring new ideas about the inter-governmental process.

The changes the world have witnessed since the establish-ment of UN have posed a big challenge to the UN, said Peter Thomson.

"The world is facing the worst refugee crisis since the Second World War and the UN’s failure to deal with such crisis will lead to the public losing confidence in the UN and its role,” said Thomson.

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser with Peter Thomson, President of the 71st session of the UN General Assembly.

UNSC must be strengthened to deal with crises: Minister

03SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017 HOME

Director-General of the United Nations Office at Geneva Michael Moller receiving the credentials of Ambassador Ali Khalfan Al Mansouri as Qatar's Permanent Representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva and other International Organizations in Switzerland.

Qatar envoy presents credentials

Qatar's call for emergency meeting onSyria hailedQNA

Chairman of the Arab Permanent Committee on Human Rights Dr

Amjad Shammout has praised the State of Qatar's call to hold emergency meetings of international and regional human rights bodies, includ-ing the United Nations Human Rights Council, the Arab Permanent Committee on Human Rights at the Arab League, and the Council of Europe's Parliamentary Assembly, in order to make critical decisions in the field of the protection of civilians and rapid intervention to cope with human tragedies in Syria.

Dr Shammout said that the call by Chairman of Qatar's National Human Rights Committee, Dr Ali bin Smaikh Al Marri, came at the right time to alleviate the suf-fering of the Syrian people.

He noted that consultative and coordinating meetings can be held to develop proposals and build on it, in addition to developing an Arab, regional and international working plan to support and protect the Syr-ian civilians.

He said that the massa-cres committed by the Syrian regime and its allies are seri-ous violations of the international human rights system, adding that the inter-national community is not serious nor resolute in deal-ing with this crisis.

He stressed the need to have a real role and mecha-nisms to provide regional and international protection of Syrian civilians.

Sheikha Hind meets officials from QF partnersThe Peninsula

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation (QF)

and Chairperson of the Board of Trustees of Hamad bin Khalifa University (HBKU), met senior officials from QF’s partner uni-versities during a recent five-day visit to the United States.

The visit served as an oppor-tunity to strengthen international ties in the field of education to help continue building a diversified and sustainable economy in Qatar. The tour included meetings with Cor-nell University, Texas A&M University, Virginia Common-wealth University, Northwestern University, Carnegie Mellon Uni-versity, Georgetown University, HEC Paris, and University College London (UCL).

Sheikha Hind said, “At Qatar Foundation everything starts with education, it’s how we began. We’re committed to the concept of lifelong learning, and to providing an ecosystem where education can impact the life of every person.”

In 2008, QF celebrated its first convocation, and in 2016, its cohort of graduates included 650 students, with a large number of alumni now pursuing rewarding careers and contrib-uting to Qatar’s sustainable development.

Highlighting the importance of QF’s multidisciplinary learning environment – Education City – in producing graduates who serve the needs of Qatar, Sheikha Hind said, “Through our partnership model with international univer-sities, we have brought top-ranking programs and spe-cializations to Education City in the areas of priority to Qatar. We’re currently witnessing impressive

outcomes as a result of the efforts exerted by our students and grad-uates, which are helping to transform Qatar into an interna-tional center for innovation excellence.”

Sheikha Hind also visited a number of innovative educa-tional, philanthropic and research organizations and

centers, including Google Jigsaw, Spark!Lab, and the Institute of Play, where she connected with likeminded entities to QF in a bid to encourage knowledge shar-ing and promote intercultural exchange.

“At QF, we believe innovation in education is vital for success in an ever-evolving world. We there-fore continuously strive to reimagine the academic landscape in Qatar in order to build creative educational strategies that will equip today’s young men and women with the skills, knowledge, and tools to help them face the challenges of tomorrow,” said Sheikha Hind. Sheikha Hind also visited Qatar Foundation Interna-tional’s (QFI) flagship Arabic language program at Washington Latin Public Charter School. QFI, a US based member of QF, is ded-icated to Arabic language and culture education for students and teachers across the world.

Visit to US

The visit served as an opportunity to strengthen international ties in the field of education.

Sheikha Hind visited a number of innovative educational, philanthropic and research institutes.

QC to send winter aid for Syrian refugee families The Peninsula

Qatar Charity (QC) is all set to dispatch fresh humani-tarian aid of winter

materials at a cost of QR365,000 to Syrian refugee families fight-ing for survival due to severe cold in Jordan. The project "Winter Aids" is being implemented by QC in collaboration with the Jor-danian Hashemite Charity Organisation (JHCO).

"The project aims to supply basic winter needs like heaters to 1,200 beneficiary families. The necessary winter gears will be distributed to them as harsh winter approaches, and it becomes harder for those Syr-ians to live outside the country’s

refugee camps," said Faisal Al Fahida, QC's Executive Direc-tor of Operations. The children, women and the elderly living in the various regions of Jordon are experiencing low temper-atures and lack of heating requirements due to the dete-riorating living conditions.

"The winter kits will be dis-tributed according to a plan that has already been developed for the benefit of Syrian families to ensure safe access to this vul-nerable group. This project costs QR 365,0000, where ref-ugee families will be provided with gas heaters, winter kits (gloves, scarves , kids' blankets) and a family sized blanket," said Al Fahida.

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani at the Smithsonian National Museum of American History and (RIGHT) learning about Apple’s desktop icon design methodology used in the late 1970s.

H E Sheikha Hind greeted by students from Washington Latin Public Charter School, part of Qatar Foundation International’s (QFI) flagship Arabic Language and Arab Culture (ALAC) programme.

04 SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017HOME

Temperature to rise after strong windsHuda NV

The Peninsula

Strong winds swirling dust and rough sea hit the coun-try yesterday, lowering

visibility at times at places. The strong winds have also bought cooler weather, with mercury dipping relatively. From today evening , the wind direction will change, raising the mercury by a few degrees over the coming days. The northerly blowing at speed reaching up to 25 knots at places reduced visibility to less than 3km at places. Various roads outside the city were

shrouded by the swirling dust.The strong winds are caused

by Shamal north-western winds, that are funnelled into the Ara-bian Gulf from Turkey and Iraq. These winds usually last for two to three days, and are often repeated again after a few more days. Today, the weather will be mild during day with slight blowing dust at places at times, along with scattered clouds. Night will be cooler. The tem-peratures in Doha will be between 22 and 14 degree Cel-sius. The maximum temperature will vary between 19 and 21 while minimum temperature will be between 17 to 10 degree Celsius in the country.

The northerly will blow at 4 to 14 knots inshore while off shore it will blow at 15 to 25 knots at first decreasing to 5 to 15 knots. The winds will shift to

southerly by evening, according to the weather chart. The cur-rent sea warnings will continue until mid day today.

Along with the shift in wind direction, relative humidity is also expected to increase, the weather chart shows. This can cause misty to foggy weather leading to poor visibility in early hours by tomorrow.

By tomorrow, temperatures are expected to increase by few degrees with warmer southern winds. The weather is expected to be hazy to misty/foggy at places, tomorrow, becoming mild by daytime and some clouds. The temperature in Doha is expected to vary between 20 and 16 degree Celsius, tomorrow.

The Color Run to be held on January 28The Peninsula

This year’s ‘The Color Run,’ presented by Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First, promises to be the biggest and

most colourful yet with the event taking place on January 28, at the Qatar National Con-vention Centre (QNCC).

The Color Run is a race that celebrates health, happiness and individuality, by both encour-aging and empowering participants of all ages and abil-ities to focus on their health and well-being in a relaxed and most importantly, fun fitness environ-ment. The Color Run is once again supported by Weill Cor-nell Medicine – Qatar (WCM-Q), whose health campaign, Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First' will present the event.

Back for a third year in Doha, the event will also feature a unique theme; the Tropicolor World Tour. This year, both sea-soned Color Runners and first timers can look forward to a fun-packed experience with the all new Tropicolor Zone as part of the Tropicolor World Tour, a lively island-style experience complete with more fun and col-our, as participants run, walk, jog or skip through the 5km course with their family and friends. The distinct course is complete with palm trees and arches while Color Runners will be covered from head to toe in a tropical array of colours at every kilometre mark.

Nesreen Al Rifai, Chief Com-munications Officer for WCM-Q, said, “The Color Run in Qatar is a unique opportunity to bring together everyone in the local community as they strive to be healthy and active, yet in a relaxed manner. Thanks to The Color Run, thousands of people have been inspired to exercise, and this is directly in line with our Sahtak Awalan: Your Health First campaign, which really emphasises taking the time to focus on you and your family’s health, and we are delighted to once again be bringing this event to Doha.”

Greg Sproule, Managing Director for IMG Middle East, the organiser, said, “We have had a fantastic response from Color Runners so far, as thousands are keen to take part in the most colourful event that Qatar has ever seen."

Hundreds take part in Al Dana Green RunThe Peninsula

Hundreds of people par-ticipated in the annual Al Dana Green Run organ-

ised by Doha Bank, yesterday at Aspire Zone.

Families, running enthusi-asts and go green supporters across Qatar put their best foot forward for a cleaner, greener tomorrow at the annual run, that covered a 3-km circuit around Khalifa Stadium.

The Al Dana Green Run is hosted every year by Doha Bank to build participation and aware-ness on environmental protection among people in Qatar. A widely attended com-munity event, the annual run attracts participation from peo-ple of all age groups, with more than 5,000 people taking part in the event last year.

To celebrate 12 years of the

green run, Doha Bank put together an enhanced agenda this year that included as many as 8 race categories catering to

different age groups and social segments. Al Dana Green Run is the biggest Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) event

undertaken by Doha Bank, and derives its name from Al Dana Savings Scheme, the bank’s flag-ship savings account scheme.

Race for health

The Color Run is a race that celebrates health, happiness and individuality, by both encouraging and empowering participants of all ages and abilities to focus on their health and well-being in a relaxed and most importantly, fun fitness environment.

The Doha Bank Al Dana Green Run held 0at the Aspire Zone in Doha yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula

Turkish Hospital’s units equipped with latest technology: Official

Continued from page 1“All our teams at the surgi-

cal department are well experienced. In Turkey we work as a central hospital, where we get patients from other hospi-tals. So our experience in areas of cardiology, neurosurgery, gynaecology and orthopaedic is very exceptional, said Dr Uygunucarlar.

The Turkish Hospital’s diag-nosis and treatment units are equipped with latest technology and it includes services such as MRI, CT, digital X ray, mobile digital X ray, mammography, bone densitometry, angiogra-phy, 4d ul trasound, echocardiography EEG (electro-encephalography) cardiac stress test, microbiology laboratory, pathology laboratory as well as

neonatal ICU. “Only a five-star facility is

not enough for a hospital. But we need to have efficient doc-tors and the latest technology. We have brought the most advanced technology available in the medical industry,” said Dr Uygunucarlar.

The Emergency Department includes two polyclinics, obser-vation and isolation rooms, as well as separate rooms for CPR and trauma care.

“The emergency department is very important. Because there will be time to listen and exam-ine outpatients, but it’s not the case with emergency cases. We need to do correct diagnosis and make correct decisions within minutes , so we have chosen a very experienced team. The

team includes doctors who are experienced treating large number of patients in Istanbul,” said Dr Uygunucarlar.

The internal departments include pediatrics, neurology, psychiatry, gastroenterology cardiology, radiology, pathol-ogy, dermatology and hair transplant center, internal med-icine physiotherapy and rehabilitation.

“Many people come to Istan-bul for hair plant and we have brought it here bringing an experienced team and advance technology in the industry,” said Uygunucarlar.

Speaking about insurance services, he said that the hospi-tal is currently negotiating with some insurance companies and it will be finalised within a week.

Strong winds lashed across various parts of Qatar yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula

People tour Turkish Hospital’s diagnosis and treatment units. Pic: Abdul Basit /The Peninsula

05SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017 HOME

The Peninsula

The Organizing Committee of Green Expo Qatar-2017 is participating in the Solar

Expo in Abu Dhabi this month. The participation is aimed at

marketing and promoting Green Expo Qatar 2017 and introduce all activities and events that will be held as part of this important inter-national event.

Dr. Yousef Al Horr, Chairman of the Organizing Committee of Expo and Exhibition and also the Chairman of the Gulf Organization for Research and Development, said Green Expo Qatar-2017 is a unique platform for featuring prod-ucts and environment-friendly sustainable solutions for urban development sector, transport, energy and industry.

Eizeldin Abdulrahman, Execu-tive Manager of the Exhibition and Al Sharq Media Management, the organiser of the exhibition and conference in partnership with the Gulf Organisation for Research and Development, said that Green Expo Qatar-2017 will be held on Novem-ber 14 – 16 of this year at Doha Exhibition and Convention Center, spread over a minimum of 10,000 square meter area. The conference will be held on November 15-16 at the Sheraton Doha Hotel.

Eizeldin said that the exhibi-tion is one of the most vital projects in line with Qatar National Vision 2030. Green Expo Qatar 2017 is the region’s specialised exhibition and conference for sustainable solu-tions. It will showcase

industry-leading product portfo-lios, technologies and solutions for sustainable design, construction and the built environment.

More than 850 companies and factories from all over the world working in the field of green build-ing, transportation, construction and renewable energy were addressed to showcase their latest products and technologies.

In addition, experts will pro-vide information, comparative analyses, and demonstrations of these products in a tailor-made networking setting. Thousands of big buyers, decision-makers and front-runners will gather at Green Expo 2017 to network, share exper-tise, meet new suppliers, identify potential partners and grab their share of the fast-growing

construction projects, sustainable building environment, ports and railways projects, airports, infra-structure projects, alternative renewable energy, and eco-friendly electrical and hydrological vehicles.

Green Expo 2017 is supported by the Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy and Qatari Diar Real Estate Company in their enthusiasm to secure a sustaina-ble environment and for guiding the private sector to invest in projects and in building environ-ment-friendly and economical projects in line with Qatar Vision 2030 which have been applied in stadiums, government buildings, schools and modern cities like Lusail City, Msheireb Properties and others.

Green Expo organisers to participate in Abu Dhabi Solar Expo this month

Dr. Yousef Al Horr (left), Chairman of the Organising Committee of Expo, and Eizeldin Abdulrahman, Executive Manager of the Exhibition.

The Peninsula

In what could be termed as a greatest achieve-ment, The Torch Doha

has won two prestigious awards at “2016-17 Hotel of the Year Awards”

The 2016/17 Hotel of the Year Awards recognises and rewards hotels that deliver exceptional levels of service and world class facilities to its guests.

To be presented with an award from Hotel of the Year Awards signifies some-thing truly special about a hotel.

Ian Whitty, Director & Chief Judging Officer 2016/17 Hotel of the Year Awards, said, “The Torch Doha is a very unique luxury hotel, that anyone visiting Qatar should consider staying in, as it gives VIP treatment to its guests. It always makes for a truly wonderful hotel experience."

The Torch Doha makes for a perfect hotel experi-ence with a relaxing modern room style, amasing design and all the facilities you would expect in such a great hotel. We were proud to honour The Torch Doha with these global hotel awards as it is a testament to the hard work and atten-tion to detail that both management and staff put in every day for their guests”

“The multi-award win-ning afternoon tea in the Torch Tea Garden is an afternoon tea like no other! It offers guests the opportu-nity to savour something truly amazing, while sitting in a tree-house style restau-rant perched high in the sky. A must for anyone visiting Qatar”

“We look forward to working with The Torch Doha again in 2017 to make some more award winning history”

The Torch Doha General Manager, Sherif Sabry com-mented: “We are greatly honoured from achieving such significant recognition for a second consecutive year."

He also added that, there is no greater satisfaction for their property than to be highly recognised in the Best Luxury Sports Hotel and Best Hotel Afternoon Tea category as Worldwide Winner.

"We are proudly repre-senting Qatar in the world hospitality scene as the pre-mier venue for those who are searching for state-of-the-art accommodation with latest in-room technol-ogy, sporting and fitness facilities. This prestigious award adds up to the hotel’s record and reinforces our commitment to innovation and service excellence.”

The Torch Doha wins two awards

Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

Stunning masterpieces bear-i n g c e n t u r i e s o f carpet-making tradition are

on display at the Hereke Carpet Exhibition on show at The Gate Mall’s Maysaloun Hall.

The dozens of handmade carpets are among over 25,000 exquisite designs of Han Hali-the leading production house of Tur-key’s Hereke carpets.

Hailing from an ancient town in Turkey and laying claim to a unique artistic heritage of its own, Hereke carpets are historic masterpieces.

“The history behind creating this particular type of carpet goes as far back as the mid-15th cen-tury. A glance around the display, will confirm that most of these modern pieces on display have taken artists over 6 years or more to create because they have followed a timeless tradition and revived a glorious artistic herit-age that is genuinely breathtaking,” said Salam

International’s Chairman and CEO IssaAbdulSalam Abu Issa.

The Gate Mall and Salam International Investment Ltd, joined hands with Turkey’s Han Hali to unveil The Hereke Car-pet Exhibition as a treat for Qatar’s art lovers and collectors.

“Salam International is truly proud to support The Gate Mall in its efforts to enrich and ele-vate the art and culture environment in Qatar through initiatives like this. The Hereke Carpet exhibition gives people a reason to revisit a rich historical legacy of the region and truly appreciate stunning craftsman-ship,” added Abu Issa.

From Buckingham Palace, to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, the White House to Château de Versailles, the car-pets are known to adorn iconic locations celebrating an artistic discipline that is admired by the world.

The 100% handmade Hereke silk carpets customarily carry 64 knots and over loops per centi-metre, making it a tribute to the unending patience of its weaver. A Hereke weaver is said to tie at least one million knots in a fin-ished carpet, while crafting extremely intricate, fine designs.

Classical Hereke with fabu-lous Ottoman motifs and Turkish-Islamic designs

that celebrate the illustrious transition to Islam are among the those showcased at the exhibition.

As a leading player in Qatar’s

luxury and retail sector The Gate Mall has built a reputation of supporting multiple artistic ini-tiatives by launching an Art Season at the beginning of

October 2016 set to culminate at the end of this month. The exhi-bition is open to the public until the end of this month at The Gate Mall's Maysaloun Hall..

Unique Hereke carpets lure many at expo Treat for art lovers

Hailing from an ancient town in Turkey and laying claim to a unique artistic heritage of its own, Hereke carpets are historic masterpieces.

The Gate Mall and Salam International Investment Ltd, joined hands with Turkey’s Han Hali to unveil The Hereke Carpet exhibition as a treat for Qatar’s art lovers and collectors. FROM RIGHT: AbdulSalam Abu-Issa, Deputy COO of Salam International; Erhan Or, Han Hali

owner; Abdul Aziz Sabe, Algerian Ambassador; Munir Ghannam, Palestinian Ambassador; Ajay Sharma, British Ambassador; and other guests at the opening of Hereke Carpet Exhibition. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

The Peninsula

The Ministry of Edu-cation and Higher Education has set

up eleven specialised committees to prepare for the upcoming edu-cation conference slated for March.

As part of its efforts to prepare for the edu-cation conference and National Week for Sci-entific Research, the organizing committee has formed some eleven sub-committees including committee for science, which will be responsible of train-i n g , o r g a n i z i n g workshops, and educa-tional practices and receive contributions from inside and outside Qatar.

Arbitration com-mittee is responsible of receiving researches from students and teachers, check credi-bility of the researches in cooperation with Qatar Research Fund, and follow up judge’s final decisions.

There is also com-mittee of volunteers composed of students and the employees along registration com-mittee. Furthermore, the organizing commit-tee has set up committees for open-ing and honoring process, technical sup-port, media, public relations, and commit-tee for signing contracts and purchasing.

The conference under the theme “Pio-neering and Creativity” will take place in Qatar National Convention Center – QNCC between 14-16 of March with the aims of bring together educational experts, academics and researchers to discuss latest educational developments, research outcomes.

It also aims to improve quality of edu-cational practices in the country, enhance the role of teachers, and exchange local and i n t e r n a t i o n a l experiences.

Ministry sets up 11 committees for education conference

The Peninsula

Qatar University Foundation Program (QU-FP) will organise the 2nd annual

International Conference and Exhibition on English Language Teaching on January 18-19 in col-laboration with Qatar Ministry of Education and Higher Education (MEHE) and Teachers of English as a Foreign Language-Qatar (TEFL-Qatar) Association.

Themed “Promoting Innova-tion in English Language Teaching and Learning: The Future Landscape”. The 2-day conference aims to bring together language practitioners and experts to network and share their research and teaching expe-riences on a wide range of topics related to English language teaching and learning. Speakers

and presenters at the conference will include researchers, practi-tioners and scholars from Qatar, Bahrain, Iran, Kuwait, Oman, Saudi Arabia, UAE, and the UK.

Keynote speakers include Mr Peter Grundy who will give a ple-nary session, and a featured speaker, Dr Sufian Abu-Rmaileh. They will address issues related to “Meaningful face-to-face com-munication” and “Critical thinking c l a s s r o o m e x p e r i e n c e ”

respectively. The programme agenda will include sessions to address topics such as “Five web-sites to engage your students”, “Producing tasks for the class-room”, “Test items: Learning objectives and specifications”, “Promoting learner confidence in the language classroom”, “Inno-vative language learning via effective preparatory courses”, “The project-based classroom: Tapping towards empowerment”, “Helping students with vocabu-lary acquisition”, “Paving the way to successful writing”, “Effective strategies for motivating Qatari students”, “Promoting English language for early childhood classrooms”, and many more.

Commenting on the confer-ence, QU Foundation Program and Core Curriculum Director Dr Maha Al-Hendawi said: “After its

remarkable success in its first edi-tion, Qatar University Foundation Program is hosting its 2nd inter-national conference on English Language Teaching. International and regional keynote speakers will address a wide range of topics.

The conference provides an invaluable opportunity for prac-titioners and experts in the region to interact and share their ideas on the current trends in English language teaching and learning. It also shows QU’s role as key driver of progress and innovation in higher education in Qatar and the region. We look forward to the recommendations that will emerge from the conference’s dis-cussions and sessions and that will serve to provide efficient solutions to the main challenges in English language teaching.”

QU-FP to hold international conference next week

QU Foundation Program and Core Curriculum Director Dr Maha Al-Hendawi

Art of learning

The two-day conference aims to bring together language practitioners and experts to network and share their research and teaching experiences on a wide range of topics related to English language teaching and learning.

06 SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Ibrahim Boubacar Keita speaks during the 27th Africa-France summit in Bamako yesterday. Some 30 African leaders and French President Francois Hollande gathered for an Africa-France summit to discuss the jihadist threat, challenges to governance and the migrant crisis.

Africa-France summit

Iraq troops pound IS in Mosul varsity campusMosul

Reuters

Iraqi special forces drove back Islamic State mili-tants at the strategic Mosul University campus yester-day while elite police units

took over large areas along the Tigris River, military officials said.

The head of Iraq’s Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) said security forces were close to recapturing the entire east bank of the Tigris, which bisects Mosul from north to south, a gain that will bring at least half of Islamic State’s last major stronghold in Iraq under their control.

Iraqi forces made rapid advances the day before in a nearly 3-month US-backed offensive to recapture Mosul, loss of which would probably spell the end of the Iraqi side of the ultra-hardline group’s self-styled caliphate, declared in 2014.

Capture of the eastern bank of the river will allow the mili-tary to begin attacks on western Mosul, which Islamic State still fully holds. The militants have fought back fiercely with car bombs and snipers, and have used civilians as cover.

An air raid during the week

targeting a senior IS militant killed up to 30 people, residents said late on Friday.

CTS forces battled IS fight-ers at the university yesterday in a second day of clashes there.

“There are still clashes. We entered the university and cleared the technical institute, dentistry and antiquities depart-ments,” Lieutenant General Abdelwahab Al Saadi of the CTS said in the complex.

“In the coming hours it will be liberated completely,” he said.

CTS troops had gathered in the university canteen. As they unfurled a map of the area, a suspected Islamic State drone flew overhead and they shot at it. The Iraqi forces also found chemical substances IS had used to try to make weapons, CTS commander Sami Al Aridhi said.

The United Nations says the militants seized nuclear mate-rials used for scientific research from the university when they

overran Mosul and vast areas of northern Iraq and eastern Syria in 2014.

Islamic State fighters have used chemical agents including mustard gas in a number of attacks in Iraq and Syria, US officials, rights groups and res-idents say.

Seizing the university would be a crucial strategic gain and allow Iraqi forces to advance more quickly towards the Tigris in the city’s northeast, military officials have said.

Parallel advances in the southeast of the city yesterday, led by elite rapid response units, put Iraq’s federal police in con-trol of large areas along the river bank, a spokesman said.

“The Yarimja area ... has been liberated, a large number of Daesh (Islamic State) ele-ments were killed, and the rest fled to the right-hand side (western bank),” Lieutenant Colonel Abdel Amir Al Moham-medawi said. Forces had stopped suicide car bomb attacks by firing at them during their advance, and the federal police also captured a field hos-pital the militants had been using, he said. The federal police forces were backed by the Iraqi army’s 9th armoured division and by US coalition air support, Mohammedawi said.

A member of Iraqi Special Operations Forces (ISOF) rests at the University of Mosul during a battle with Islamic State militants, in Mosul, Iraq, yesterday.

Battle for Mosul

Security forces were close to recapturing the entire east bank of the Tigris, which bisects Mosul from north to south.

Sudan says US eased sanctions after 'secret' talks Khartoum

AFP

Sudan's Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour yester-day said "secret" talks

between American and Sudanese officials led to the easing of US sanctions on his country.

US President Barack Obama on Friday announced the lifting of some economic sanctions, try-ing to improve ties with a country whose leader is accused of war crimes and links to terror.

"We held 23 meetings in Khartoum away from the eyes of the media from June 2016 that lasted six months. The meetings

were concluded on December 31," Ghandour told reporters.

The head of Sudan's power-ful National Intelligence and Security Service (NISS), Moham-med Atta Al Mawla, told reporters he had met the CIA chief "twice since October 2015".

Sudan, he said, "has been cooperating and coordinating with the US since before 2000 in the struggle against terrorism," he said.

Mawla did not elaborate but said he had received "technical assistance" from the US.

The US decision to ease sanctions will allow Sudan to boost trade and "opens the way for us to use all sorts of currency,

specially the US dollar", for trade transactions, according to Finance Minister Badreddin Mahmud.

Sudan has been subject to a US trade embargo since 1997 for its alleged support for Islamist groups. Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was based in Khar-toum from 1992 to 1996.

The United States has also blacklisted Sudan as an alleged state sponsor of terrorism since 1993.

The Khartoum government's scorched earth tactics against ethnic minority rebels in the Darfur region have also been cited as a reason not to lift the sanctions

According to the United Nations, 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million were displaced since that conflict began in 2003.

President Omar Hassan Al Bashir (pictured) is wanted by the International Criminal Court for war crimes in Darfur.

Human Rights Watch has expressed concern over Obama's decision.

"The Obama administration's decision to 'ease' sanctions is inexplicable," said Leslie Lefkow of New York-based Human Rights Watch.

"Sudan's government has failed to make progress on core benchmarks, from its ongoing war crimes and crimes against humanity in Darfur and other conflict zones, to its extensive repression of independent voices."

26 Yemeni militants die in clashes with govt troopsAden

AFP

AT least 26 Yemeni fighters died in fresh clashes and an air strike as government forces advanced against Shia Houthi rebels near a key ship-ping strait, medics and officials said yesterday.

A week-long assault by government forces and their allies aims to expel the Iran-backed Houthis from Dhubab region, close to the Bab Al Mandab strait link-ing the Red Sea and Indian Ocean.

Twelve bodies of Houthi insurgents were taken early yesterday to a hospital in rebel-held Hodeida, a medi-cal official said, adding that the facility received 23 oth-ers wounded.

He said the casualties were from clashes on Friday night in Dhubab.

An overnight air strike by a pro-government Arab coa-lition on a rebel assembly in Zaydiya, in Hodeida province, left another nine Houthis dead, a security official said.

The Red Sea port city of Hodeida lies some 200 kilo-metres north of Dhubab.

A medical official at a hospital in Aden said five pro-government fighters were killed in overnight clashes around Dhubab and 14 oth-ers wounded.

Forces loyal to President Abdrabuh Mansour Hadi and allied fighters from the Pop-ular Resistance have entered the town of Dhubab and seized its local government headquarters.

Popular Resistance com-mander Abdelrahman Al Muharami said the loyalists had also recaptured large parts of Al-Omeri military base in mountains overlook-ing the coast.

"There are still some rebel pockets" in the base, he said.

Vatican City AFP

PALESTINIAN President Mahmuod Abbas warned yesterday that moving the US embassy in Israel to Jerusalem would deal a huge blow to hopes for Middle East peace.

Commenting as he opened a Palestinian embassy at the Vatican, Abbas added that anything which legitimised the "ille-gal Israeli annexation" of Jerusalem would "bury the hopes for a two-state solu-tion, and fuel extremism in our region".

The Palestinian leader held a private meeting with Pope Francis before inaugurating the diplo-matic mission, located in a building facing the Vati-can that also houses the embassies of Peru and Burkina Faso.

Speaking briefly to reporters, Abbas reiter-ated his opposition to the possible transfer of the US embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem as President-elect Donald Trump had indicated he might do.

Abbas warns over Trump plan to shift Israel embassy

Two Uighurs held over Turkey attackIstanbul

AFP

Turkey has arrested two Chinese nationals of Uighur origin in connec-

tion with a mass shooting in a nightclub in Istanbul on New Year's Eve claimed by the Islamic State group, media reports said.

The suspects, named as Omar Asim and Abuliezi Abuduhamiti, were arrested on charges of "being members of a terrorist organisation", of "purchasing unlicensed fire-arms" and "being accomplices to the murder of 39 people", state-run Anadolu Agency cited a prosecutor as saying.

A witness in the central

Anatolian city of Konya had reportedly seen Asim with the Reina nightclub attacker, the agency said late Friday.

The gunman remains at large despite a massive man-hunt. Officials said last week the attacker was likely a Turkic Uighur, with authorities report-edly looking into the possible existence of a cell, including other jihadists from Central Asia. Uighurs are Turkic-speak-ing Muslims from the restive Xinjiang region of far-western China. The killer, reportedly known by the code name Ebu Muhammed Horasani, slipped into the night after mowing down 39 revellers at the Reina nightclub just 75 minutes into 2017.

Uganda tribal leader re-arrested hours after being freedKampala

Reuters

Police in Uganda have re-arrested a traditional leader who is facing trea-

son and other charges hours

after he was granted bail by a court, a judicial official said yesterday.

Charles Wesley Mumbere was first detained in November after what he calls his royal guards refused an order by

security forces to disarm and surrender, leading to a stand-off and a raid on his residence by police.

More than 60 people were killed in clashes.

He was freed on bail on

Friday but just hours later he was detained again, judiciary spokes-man Solomon Muyita said. “He was re-arrested by police because he has other charges,” he said.

Mumbere is a tribal leader of

the Bakonzo people found in the Rwenzori region near Uganda’s border with the Democratic Republic of Congo. The area overwhelmingly backed the main rival to President Yoweri Museveni in the 2015 election.

07SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017 ASIA

Japan and Australia boost defence tiesSydney

Reuters

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe met his Austral-ian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull in Sydney yester-day where the pair agreed

to deepen defence ties through joint military training and exer-cises.AAAAA

Abe's visit to Australia is the first since Turnbull became prime minister in late 2015, and comes amid heightened regional tension as China asserts its claims over disputed territory in the South China Sea.

"We have confirmed our commitment to the rule of law, free trade and open markets in our region," Turnbull said yesterday.

Abe said the increasingly uncertain geopolitical landscape made the relationship between Japan and Australia more impor-

tant than ever."It is important to guard and

increase the robustness of the free, open and rules-based inter-

national order," he added.The two leaders announced

the signing of an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA), which will increase cooperation in combined exer-cises, training and peace-keeping operations.

The agreement is expected to be finalised by the end of 2017.

The announcement comes nearly nine months after Aus-tralia chose a French bid over a Japanese design for a new fleet of submarines.

The loss of the $40bn con-tract was a major blow for Abe's ambitions to develop Japan's defence export capabilities as part of a more muscular security agenda.

Japan, as well as Australia, is looking to protect its strategic and trade interests in Asia-Pacific, especially as China becomes increasingly assertive in the South China Sea.

Both leaders also reaffirmed the importance of their respec-tive security alliances with the United States yesterday.

China's recent naval exer-cises in the South China Sea and the building of islands there, with

military assets, has unnerved its neighbours and risks a fallout with the United States.

US president-elect Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, has said China should be denied access

to islands it has built in the South China Sea.

China claims most of the resource-rich South China Sea through which about $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

Bangkok

AFP

A Thai military air show for children was marred by tragedy yesterday when

a fighter jet plunged from the sky and burst into flames, kill-ing the pilot.

Families were gathered at the airport in the southern city of Hat Yai to watch the show put on for Thailand's annual Children's Day.

Footage of the accident captured shrieks from a star-tled crowd as the jet took a nosedive and crashed near the airport's runway, releasing fiery plumes of smoke.

"One pilot was killed in the accident this morning," defence ministry spokesman Major

General Kongcheep Tantravan-ich said.

The cause of the crash was under investigation, he added.

No one else was harmed in the incident, according to an air-port official, as the audience was gathered a considerable dis-tance away from the crash site.

A junta spokesman said the 35-year-old pilot was flying a Swedish-made JAS 39 Gripen jet.

"The Prime Minister has expressed his condolences to (the) pilot, his family and the Royal Thai Air Force," said Major General Werachon Sukondhapatipak.

Thailand's national Chil-dren's Day is celebrated yearly on the second Saturday of January.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and his Australian counterpart Malcolm Turnbull applaud as Japan's Ambassador to Australia Sumio Kusaka (left) and Australia's Ambassador to Japan Bruce Miller (right) shake hands during a joint signing ceremony at the completion of bilateral talks at Kirribilli House in Sydney, yesterday.

5.6 magnitude quake hits off Maluku IslandsTuban

Anatolia

AN earthquake with a prelim-inary magnitude of 5.6 struck off Indonesia’s Maluku Islands yesterday.

The United State Geolog-ical Survey reported the temblor as hitting at a shal-low depth of 22.8 km around 121 km northwest of Ternate, the largest town in North Maluku province.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center did not issue a tsunami alert, and there were no reports of damage.

On December 7, a magni-tude 6.5 rocked the north of Sumatra island, leaving 104 people dead.

Tokyo

AFP

High levels of toxic chem-icals were found in groundwater tests at a

new facility scheduled to replace Tokyo's Tsukiji fish market -- the world's largest -- clouding the costly relocation plan, news reports said yesterday.

The controversial project has been delayed over fears about toxic contamination, which also

impacted the 2020 Olympics to be hosted by the Japanese capital.

The megacity's new gover-nor, Yuriko Koike, has said she would postpone the move orig-inally set for November last year, as she awaits final groundwater testing results at the new site, a former gas plant.

The relocation plan has been marred by problems, including the discovery that contractors had inexplicably failed to fill in

a basement at the new site with clean soil as a buffer against underground pollution.

Results of the final testing showed that levels of toxic mate-rials, including benzene, detected in underground water at the new site were above nationally set limits, the Yomi-uri Shimbun and Jiji Press said.

It came after the previous test also showed high levels of mercury were found inside the facility's basement.

Plans to uproot the more than 80-year-old market, a pop-ular tourist attraction, have been in the works for years, with advocates citing the need for upgraded technology.

The local government paid a whopping $750m in cleanup costs.

But Koike, a former TV anchorwoman elected last year as Tokyo's first female governor, has pledged to reconsider the plan.

Pilot dead as Thai jet crashes at air show

New commitment

The two leaders announced the signing of an Acquisition and Cross-Servicing Agreement (ACSA), which will increase cooperation in combined exercises, training and peace-keeping operations.

Both leaders also reaffirmed the importance of their respective security alliances with the United States.

Toxins found at Tokyo's new fish market siteSydney

AFP

A Japanese man has been rescued after spending a night drifting on his surfboard miles off the east coast of Aus-tralia, a report said yesterday.

The 37-year-old told police a current pulled him out to sea off Bulli Beach, 80km south of Sydney early Thursday evening.

"He spent the night clinging to his surfboard and it is esti-mated he spent about 16 hours in the water," the Australian Broadcasting Corporation said.

Surfer rescued after 16 hrs lost at sea off Australia

A customer buys a packet of dried river shells from Mak Sobin in Phnom Penh, yesterday.

Selling shells

Tension between China and President-elect Donald Trump is witnessing an uptick with Trump and his officials making provocative statements and Beijing choosing to react with fury and warnings of retaliation. The latest

salvo was fired by Trump’s Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, who on Wednesday called for China to be denied access to artificial islands it is

building in South China Sea. That was a bold and highly explosive statement coming from a high-ranking US official considering the current tensions between the two coutries. If the Trump administration carries out this threat, it would lead to an armed confrontation with China. Would Trump take his fight to such depths? It’s difficult to predict because Trump defies all predictions. A Trump transition official said yesterday that Tillerson didn’t mean to impose a naval blockade, but another official contradicted him, saying Tillerson “did

not misspeak” when he said China should be barred from its man-made islands. There is no doubt that Washington-Beijing relations are headed for turbulent times, more turbulent than the sea around which the dispute revolves.

In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Trump stuck to his views. ‘’Everything is under negotiation including One-China (policy),’’ he said. He threw to the wind the policy of successive US administrations, including both Republicans and Democrats, which have

been committed to a ‘‘One-China’ policy ever since Washington stopped recognising Taiwan’s government in 1979, following its engagement with Beijing that has improved gradually despite periodic rows and differences of opinions. It was a policy which was considered beneficial and respectful. It’s not clear what Trump is hoping to gain with his hostility to Beijing. And it’s not a hostility which is

restricted to one-China policy. The Trump team is setting the stage for showdowns on everything from security to trade and cyberspace.

Reacting to Tillerson’s statement, Beijing warned that it’s prepared to go to any extent to protect its turf. China’s foreign ministry said yesterday that its “One China” principle was the

non-negotiable political basis for China-US relations. A Chinese state-run tabloid had previously warned that blocking Chinese access to South China Sea islands would require the US to “wage war.”

While Trump has been tough with China, his proximity to Moscow too is shocking. Trump suggested he might even do away with the sanctions against Moscow imposed by the Obama administration if the country is helpful in battling terrorists and reaching other goals important to Washington.

The US foreign policy is set to witness a roller-coaster ride under Trump. All that is considered sacrosanct is being torn to shreds and all that has been considered profane and dangerous is becoming acceptable.

08 SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017VIEWS

E S T A B L I S H E D I N 1 9 9 6

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

Upping the ante

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The Palestinians may consider reversing recognition of Israel if Trump moves the US embassy to Jerusalem.

Mahmoud AbbasPalestinian President

The incoming Trump administration seems set for a confrontation with China.

Achieving a general ceasefire in Syria has been central to every diplomatic initiative to end the conflict since the United Nations Security Council issued a presi-

dential statement endorsing what was known as the “Kofi Annan plan” in March 2012. But getting the combatants to comply was never going to be easy, not least because their exter-nal backers were not prepared to go far enough to make them do so.

The ceasefire brokered by Russia and Tur-key on December 29, 2016, is no different. But this time the stakes may be high enough to force Russia’s hand, opening an avenue towards more effective diplomacy, albeit geared to more modest objectives than reach-ing a full peace deal. Russia has arguably sought a political settlement from the outset of its military intervention in Syria as a means both of securing a return on its investment in the Assad regime and of consolidating its claim to global power status. With Turkey now on board and bringing most of Syria’s political and armed opposition with it, the main obstacle to Russian aims is the Assad regime and, behind it, Iran.

Visibly buoyed by its success in taking full control of Aleppo, the regime appears deter-mined to subdue remaining opposition enclaves around Damascus. This prompted the armed opposition groups that had signed on to the latest ceasefire to announce it at an end on January 9, 2017. For its part, Iran refrained from sponsoring the ceasefire, although it had joined Russia and Turkey just nine days earlier in the “Moscow Declaration” calling for a truce and peace talks.

Does Russia have the influence to sway either of its allies? If not, can it afford to sim-ply stay its current course in Syria, providing combat support indefinitely to a regime that has no real prospect of resolving severe chal-lenges of political stability and economic regeneration even if it attains its much-vaunted “total victory” through military means? In sharp contrast to past ceasefire agreements, Russia and Turkey have given their version some teeth by endorsing the principle of “imposing sanctions on violating parties”.

Their precise form remains under discus-sion between the two guarantors, as Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Cavusoglu confirmed on January 5, and may prove too difficult to finalise. Russia is unlikely to accept Turkish and opposition demands to make the Syrian army equally liable to sanctions, and even less to approve Cavusoglu’s suggestion of seeking a further Security Council resolution formal-ising them.

But Russia has signalled a potentially important shift simply by endorsing the idea of enforcement, as well as agreeing to joint monitoring on the ground by Turkish and Russian observers. Its air strikes supporting the Turkish-backed Euphrates Shield force battling the Islamic State in

How far is Russia willing to go in Syria?Yezid SayighAl Jazeera

al-Bab on December 30, 2016, were also significant: although clearly intended as a positive gesture towards Turkey, they are the only instance in the entire Syrian conflict of direct air support by any power for the armed opposition.

And by announcing the withdrawal of its aircraft carrier group from Syrian waters on January 6, 2017, on the grounds that it had completed its mis-sion, Russia signalled its readiness to scale down combat operations to the regime.

Russia has other, non-lethal options for ratcheting up its political pressure on Bashar al-Assad. It has already enhanced the status of seven of the most important armed formations by treating them as an opposition leadership, and withdrawn its previous rejection of several of them as “terrorist” organisations.

Russia has also entertained Turkish and opposition proposals to engage with

local administrative councils in opposition-held areas; these mesh with draft Russian

proposals for decentralisation of power in Syria floated since last March, and if implemented would open the way for future provision of humanitarian assist-ance and economic aid for rebuilding.

Of course, little of this will be put to the test so long as Assad continues to reject these proposals outright. He may, moreover, expect to be let off the hook once US President-elect Donald Trump is sworn in, leaving him little reason to submit to Russian pressure.

Iran probably expects to be targeted by the incoming US administration, and consequently will be even less willing to relinquish its position in Syria. For these two allies, Russia has already run out of time to bring about its preferred out-come there.

Russia faces a moment of truth in 2017: It must be ready to go to consider-ably greater lengths to compel the Assad regime to engage politically, or to go home. It is likely to do neither, but can-not afford to remain stuck instead with an ongoing military commitment and no political strategy, having surrendered the latter to Assad and Iran.

A more sensible alternative would be to focus on reinforcing the ceasefire and elaborating effective monitoring mecha-nisms, increasing contacts with the armed and political wings of the Syrian opposition, and helping Turkey, United Nations agencies, and other interna-tional partners to assist basic public services and infrastructure in opposition areas.

This could improve chances for eventual peace-making, but at worst it cannot harm them.

Russia faces a moment of truth in 2017: It must be ready to go to considerably greater lengths to compel the Assad regime to engage politically, or to go home.

ED ITOR IAL

A girl walking near a riddled building in Al Rai town, Aleppo, yesterday.

09SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017 OPINION

China Sea, which would seem at odds with Washing-ton’s own longstanding commitment to freedom of navigation for all.

Asked about the remarks at his confirmation hear-ing on Thursday, Mattis said China’s actions in the South China Sea were part of a broader attack on the world order, but said the State, Defense and Treasury Departments needed to put together an integrated pol-icy “so we are not dealing with an incomplete or an incoherent strategy.”

The conflicting messages underscore the incoming administration’s struggle in crafting an approach to one of the biggest foreign policy challenges facing Trump, who during his election campaign repeatedly bashed China, saying it was “killing” and “raping” America on trade. A former US official who has informally advised Trump’s transition team said it may not have fully thought through the risks of any new US military or trade pressure on China.

“We should not underestimate China’s willingness to retaliate in kind,” the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told Reuters.

As part of a drive to protect American jobs, Trump has threatened to declare China a currency manipula-tor - even though economists say Beijing has been seeking to prop up, not weaken, its currency. He has also threatened to slap punitive tariffs on Chinese goods, risking a trade war that could hurt both coun-tries and the global economy.

Trump has yet to name to his national security team high-level members with deep experience of the region, leading some analysts to question whether the new administration will have enough expertise to translate rhetoric on a more robust Asia policy into

Opposition to a Jewish state is a legitimate position

UUntil May of last year, I was known, or in truth barely known, as a lifelong anti-rac-ism activist, trainer, teacher, writer, and lecturer. As a young woman, I was active in the boycott movement against the apart-

heid of South Africa.It was a logical progression to become a supporter

of Palestinian rights, a critic of Israeli policy towards Palestinians, and a supporter of the movement to boy-cott Israeli products - the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, as well as a member of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Jews for Justice for Pal-estinians and Free Speech on Israel - a mostly Jewish group. My nastier critics suggest my claim to Jewish identity is some kind of a defence against being accused of being an anti-Semite. It is not, it simply puts recent events into a context.

If you criticise Israel, it doesn’t matter who you are, you will be accused of anti-Semitism. So, do I hate Jews? Of course not. What I hate is the far right and the pernicious effect that Israel, led by a Netan-yahu government, is having on Middle Eastern and global politics.

So, how did this witch-hunt against me start?In February last year, a group called the Israel

Advocacy Movement went fishing into my private Facebook account.

I remain unclear as to when or how I became identified as a threat to Israel, though I presume I was selected as a prominent supporter of Jeremy Corbyn when it was decided his leadership was a threat to Israeli interests.

It was not a public posting, but part of a private discussion with a Zionist Israeli friend and others about the African Holocaust and the fact that Jews

- notably my own Portuguese Jewish ancestors whose history I had researched - had been involved in the sugar and slave trade.

This Facebook contribution was reduced to a sensationalist and inaccurate article in the Jewish Chronicle which claimed that I had said that “Jews caused the African Holocaust”. This is where it gets unclear. Either the Israel Advocacy Movement, or the Jewish Chronicle, reported me to the Labour Party, which then suspended me for being an alleged racist - to be specific, an anti-Semite.

I was investigated in detail by the Labour Party. My Facebook posts, my public statements were examined in detail. I attended a full hearing, but the Compliance Unit of the Labour Party could find no case to answer. Never mind, verdicts apparently make no difference. Harassment continued. The right-wing of the Labour Party, the Jewish Chronicle and the Jewish Board of Deputies appeared enraged.

The mainstream media, including all the national newspapers, even those traditionally identified as more liberal, such as The Guardian, chimed in. No one interviewed me or asked for my version of events. They simply repeated the inaccurate, sub-standard and biased reporting of the Jewish Chronicle.

The British media appear to have become lazy and scared. As Shai Masot, the Israeli official filmed undercover by Al Jazeera Investigations points out, I became someone whose every movement was to be followed and reported on.

Individuals and groups, such as

Palestine solidarity groups, who wanted to hear me speak had their email and Facebook accounts hacked. Some had to close Facebook pages to com-ments because of the level of racist abuse against me. Individuals have been smeared for being photo-graphed with me, for daring to support me.

Jeremy Corbyn has opposed racism, war, has protested against injustice and oppression all his life, but this has been no safeguard against charges of anti-Semitism against him. The Labour leadership, the Corbyn revolution, whatever you want to call it, is the greatest challenge to the established political order the UK has seen for some time.

Attempts to smear Corbyn started as soon as he became a leadership candidate. Newspapers that had published anti-Semitic articles on Ed Miliband, the previous (and Jewish) leader of the Labour Party, suddenly became champions against anti-Semitism.

The mainstream media strained the limits of every story, twisting every statement, misquoting what they could, to paint Corbyn as an anti-Semite or soft on anti-Semitism. And the right of the Labour Party did what they could to assist them.

These accusations not only weaponised anti-Semitism, they also became a weapon of political mass destruction and, like all nuclear options, entailed collateral damage, not just to Labour, or the Labour movement but to pro-Palestinian and anti-war groups, to individuals, their families and friends and the political communities they were part of.

Being a racist is not about missing off a word in a Facebook post, it’s not about getting a date wrong or calling some dubious politician a “friend” in an attempt at finding agreement.

No longer are racists people who demand migrants to be deported, who want to exclude refu-gees. Racists are not even the people who complain of a TV reporter wearing a headscarf. No, it’s the left we are told, who are the culprits in this new racism, this new anti-Semitism.

The Israeli government has allocated millions to

The incoming US administration’s tough talk against China has set the stage for showdowns on everything from security to trade and cyber-space, but contradictory signals are

sowing uncertainty over how far President-elect Donald Trump is prepared to go in confronting Beijing.

Highlighting the contested South China Sea as a potential flashpoint, Trump’s Secre-tary of State nominee Rex Tillerson threw out an explosive challenge to Beijing on Wednes-day by calling for it be denied access to artificial islands it is building in the strategic waterway.

A Trump transition adviser said that Till-erson, Trump’s pick to be America’s top diplomat, did not mean to suggest the new administration would impose a naval block-ade, which would risk armed confrontation with China, something the new administra-tion was not seeking.

But another official authorized to speak on behalf of the transition team pushed back on that view, saying Tillerson “did not mis-speak” when he said China should be barred from its man-made islands.

Amid the conflicting signals on policy, the team appears to be making progress on plans for a major naval build-up in East Asia to counter China’s rise.

The transition adviser told Reuters about specifics under consideration, such as basing a second aircraft carrier in the region, deploy-ing more destroyers, attack submarines and missile defense batteries and expanding or adding new bases in Japan and Australia.

They are also looking at installing “air force long-range strike assets” in South Korea, bordering China’s nuclear-armed neighbor North Korea, said the adviser who spoke on the condition of anonymity.

Trump, who succeeds President Barack Obama on Jan. 20, has vowed to greatly expand the US Navy to 350 ships, but his tran-sition team has not made clear how he will fund this, amid other massive spending plans.

China’s Foreign Ministry said it could not guess what Tillerson meant by his remarks, which came after Trump questioned Wash-ington’s longstanding and highly sensitive “one-China” policy over Taiwan. But an influ-ential Chinese state-run tabloid warned on Friday that blocking Chinese access to South China Sea islands would require the United States to “wage war.”

Trump’s pick for defence secretary, retired Marine General James Mattis, did not endorse Tillerson’s message on the South

Trump team struggles for cohesion on tougher China policy

action.But Trump has appointed two harsh China critics to his trade

team - Peter Navarro, an academic who authored a book entitled “Death by China,” and Robert Lighthizer, a former Reagan adminis-tration official. Trump advisers dismiss concerns their approach could prove risky or counterproductive, arguing that a “peace through strength” stance will put real muscle behind US policy in the region after decades of under-resourcing due to US distractions else-where in the world.

“Once we start correcting the military imbalance, I actually think you will get more cooperation rather than less,” the Trump adviser said.

Trump and his cabinet nominees have also vowed to step up pressure on China to rein in North Korea’s nuclear and missile pro-grams, including by holding out the possibility of “secondary sanctions” on Chinese entities found to be violating sanctions on Pyongyang. But analysts say China may be in no mood to cooperate if Washington is leaning on it on other issues. Those include US pres-sure on Beijing to curb cyber hacking of US entities. China’s official responses to recent broadsides have been measured so far as they wait to see how Trump will act once he takes office.

“We have seen many conflicting messages from people within his prospective administration,” said Tu Xinquan, a trade expert at Bei-jing’s University of International Business and Economics.

But analysts say confronting Beijing over hot-button nationalist issues like Taiwan and the South China Sea could trigger strong reac-tions, especially in a year when President Xi Jinping is seeking to further consolidate power at a congress of the ruling Communist Party held every five years.

Zha Daojiong, a professor at Peking University, said the theme of clash of civilizations was becoming increasingly popular in Chinese circles and this was ominous.

“This does not bode well at all ... And it means that the continued war drums from America on the South China Sea would not help matters at all.”

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF OFFICETEL: 4455 7741 / 767FAX: +974 4455 7758

MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4462 7505

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4455 7769

LOCAL NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7743

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION TEL: 4462 7535

SPORT NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7745

ONLINE SECTION TEL: 4462 7501info@pen.com.qa

PUBLIC RELATIONSTEL: 4455 7613pr@pen.com.qa

ADVERTISING DEPARTMENTTEL: 4455 7837 / 780FAX: 4455 7870 adv@pen.com.qa

CLASSIFIED DEPARTMENTTEL: 4455 7857adv@pen.com.qa

SUBSCRIPTION & DISTRIBUTIONTEL: 4455 7809 / 839FAX: 44557819info@tawseelqatar.com

D-RING ROADPOST BOX: 3488DOHA - QATAReditor@pen.com.qa

All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.

All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the editorinchief@pen.com.qa

fund undisclosed activities to undermine the BDS. The fight against BDS is being led by Israel’s minister of strategic affairs. Israel has hired workers whose names are classified. There is an intelli-gence section run by a former security services operatives that receives assistance from “a special unit” within Israeli military intelli-gence, as well as the secret police.

Individuals and groups are tar-geted and they have had some success. For example, in France BDS has been ruled as an activity that “discriminates”, therefore making it functionally illegal.

I suggest attempts are being made to do the same in Britain. For example, in November last year, Tom Watson, deputy leader of the Labour Party, at a Labour Friends of Israel dinner, called out support-ers of the boycott movement as “immoral”.

First, principles: I oppose all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism, but I will not be silenced on criticism of the Israeli govern-ment. I agree, Zionism should not be used as abuse or a cover for attacking Jewish people. However, Zionism is part of the political lexi-con, essential to challenging the concept of a Jewish state.

And let me reiterate, opposition to a Jewish state is, and remains a legitimate, honourable political position, and one that many, including many Jews, have stood by for decades.

Jackie Walker Al Jazeera

Opposition to a Jewish state is, and remains, a legitimate, honourable political position and one that many, including many Jews, have stood by for decades.

David Brunnstrom & Matt Spetalnick Reuters

FROM LEFT: Secretary of State nominee Rex Tillerson, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director nominee Mike Pompeo and Defence Secretary nominee James Mattis arriving for a meeting at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building at the White House, yesterday.

10 SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017ASIA

6.1 magnitude earthquake rattles FijiSuva

AFP

A SHALLOW 6.1-magnitude earthquake struck off the coast of Fiji yesterday, the US Geo-logical Survey said, but there were no immediate reports of damage.

The quake, recorded at 6:11pm was centred 152 km southwest of Nadi and 238 km from the capital Suva at a depth of 10 km.

A 7.2-magnitude earth-quake was recorded in the same region a week ago.

That tremor was felt in Nadi but did not cause any damage.

The area lies on the Pacific "Ring of Fire", a highly active tectonic zone that fre-quent ly experiences earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

Earthquakes in Fiji are infrequent and are sometimes accompanied by tsunami. The group of islands lie at the Aus-tral ian–Pacif ic plate margin.

The strong 1997 Fiji-Tonga earthquake occurred south of the Fiji Islands in October 14 and it had a mag-nitude of 7.8.

Up in arms

Abu Sayyaf releases two hostagesManila

Reuters

Islamist militants in the Phil-ippines allied with Islamic State freed yesterday a South Korean cargo ship captain and a Filipino

member of his crew held cap-tive for more than three months on a southern island, an army spokesman said.

"Park Chulhong, skipper of the South Korea-registered car-rier DongBang Giant 2, and Filipino Glenn Alindajao, were brought to the house of the island's governor after they were released by the militants of the Abu Sayyaf group," Major Filemon Tan said.

"Members of a rebel faction cooperating with the govern-ment in the south of the predominantly Christian coun-try had helped arrange the release, "Tan told reporters.

"They were freed this morn-ing with the help of rebels belonging to the Moro National Liberation Front," Tan said, add-ing the two were flown out of the island by a presidential adviser on peace efforts.

The cargo vessel was sailing to Australia from South Korea when 10 Abu Sayyaf militants boarded it in October and

abducted Park and Alindajao.Presidential peace adviser

Jesus Dureza said the govern-ment had not paid a ransom, though some media reported that some sort of payment was believed to have been made.

"You know the policy of the government, we don't pay ran-som. But, if there was some form of payment made, the govern-ment did not play any role in it," the adviser, Jesus Dureza said.

The Moro National Libera-tion Front signed a peace deal with the government in 1996 and promised to help President

Rodrigo Duterte free hostages and defeat the small but violent Abu Sayyaf, known for kidnap-pings, beheadings, bombings and extortion.

The Abu Sayyaf group is still holding two dozen captives on

Jolo island, its stronghold where more than 10,000 troops have been deployed to fight the militants.

The captives include people from the Netherlands, Japan, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia

and Vietnam.The waters between the Phil-

ippines and Malaysia has become dangerous for merchant ship-ping due to rising threat of kidnappings, the International Maritime Bureau said this week.

Watchdog urges Pakistan to probe death of journalistIslamabad

AP

THE New York-based Com-mittee to Protect Journalists has asked Pakistan to inves-tigate the fatal shooting of a local journalist n the coun-try's southwest.

In a statement, the media watchdog yesterday demanded action against those responsible for the kill-ing of 37-year-old Muhammad Jan, who was returning home late Thurs-day night when targeted by unidentified assailants.

The journalist had worked for the Urdu-lan-guage daily Qudrat and was teaching at a school.

No group has claimed responsibility for the killing.

Baluchistan is the scene of a low intensity insurgency by Baluch separatist groups. Islamic militants also oper-ate in the province.

Pakistan is considered one of the deadliest countries for journalists.

According to the Commit-tee to Protect Journalists, 59 journalists have been killed in Pakistan from 1992 to 2016.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is an Amer-ican independent non-profit, non-governmental organiza-tion, that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists.

Call to conduct intra-party elections in PakistanIslamabad

Internews

Citing the Political Parties Order 2002 and relevant rules, the Election Com-

mission of Pakistan (ECP) called on all those political parties whose status was dormant to conduct intra-party polls and submit annual party accounts.

Through a public notice, the Election Commission has called on political parties to conduct intra-party elections at central,

provincial and local levels and submit their annual party accounts immediately in order to be eligible as enlisted politi-cal party for allotment of election symbols and contesting any upcoming elections.

In case of failure of a politi-cal party to comply with the provisions of the Political Par-ties Order 2002, the Election Commission may remove name of the party from the list of polit-ical parties duly enlisted with the ECP and may withdraw

the election symbol(s) already allotted and make it available for allotment to any other eligible party or independent candidate(s).

“The Election Commission desires that all political parties may also update their mailing/email addresses, telephone num-bers and fax numbers for convenience and as a prepara-tory measure for general elections 2018,” it said.

In another development, in order to increase the capacity of

the Election Commission officials a comprehensive training pro-gramme was launched on Thursday.

This training programme is continuation of the provincial trainings which started in November 2016.

So far, more than 150 offi-cials of grade 8-16 have been trained.

The number of trained staff will cross 400 in the next two months.

Babar Yaqoob Fateh

Muhammad, Secretary ECP, inaugurated the training pro-gramme for 100 officials of the ECP at Islamabad Secretariat.

This training programme is aimed at improving capacity of the staff in the daily official work.

The secretary, while addressing officials in the inau-guration ceremony, said that he believed that trained human resource, well equipped with the latest technology, would help the ECP hold free and fair elections.

Captain Chul Hong Park (left), a South Korean national, and 2nd officer Glenn Alindajao (second left) arrive in Davao City with Philippine Peace Adviser Secretary Jesus Dureza, yesterday.

No ransom paid

Presidential peace adviser Jesus Dureza confirmed that the government had not paid a ransom for the release of the hostages.

Members of a rebel faction cooperating with the government in the south of the predominantly Christian country had helped arrange the release: Official.

Meteorological office warns of untimely rain in future

US offers incentives to Pakistan over cooperation: OfficialIslamabad

Internews

US defence secretary-des-ignate James Mattis has said that the Trump

administration would offer incentives to Pakistan to coop-erate with the United States on critical issues.

At his confirmation hearing at the Senate Armed Forces Committee on Thursday after-noon, Mattis underlined the need to stay engaged with

Pakistan while asking it to do more to eradicate terrorism from the region.

“If confirmed, I will work with the State Department and the Congress to incentivise Paki-stan’s cooperation on issues critical to our national interests and the region’s security, with focus on Pakistan’s need to expel or neutralise externally-focused militant groups that operate within its borders,” Mat-tis told the committee while responding to a question.

Mattis, a general who retired from the US Marine Corps in 2013, has long experience of dealing with both Afghanistan and Pakistan, first as a combat officer and then as commander of the US Central Command.

He was known in the armed forces as “Mad Dog Mattis” for his aggressive style but was widely respected as a coura-geous officer.

The general’s comments on Pakistan indicate that the incoming Trump administration

will continue with the existing US policy towards the country.

Mattis complimented Paki-stan for its action against terror groups in the country, but said that he would push for more effective targeting of groups that were aimed at neighbouring countries.

As often expressed by the Obama administration officials, the incoming defence secretary also complained that some Afghan Taliban groups were still allegedly using Pakistan’s tribal

areas for stirring troubles in Afghanistan.

“Sanctuaries and freedom of movement for the Afghan Taliban and associated militant networks inside Pakistani ter-ritory is a key operational issue faced by the Afghan security forces,” he pointed out.

Mattis said that if confirmed, he would “examine efforts to deny sanctuary to the extrem-ist forces” undermining the stability and security of Afghanistan.

He noted that the US and Pakistani militaries had a long relationship, which needed to be rebuilt.

“Our relationship with Paki-s t a n , i n c l u d i n g o u r military-to-military relation-ship, has had highs and lows. We have long faced a lack of trust within the Pakistani military and government about our goals in the region," he said.

"If confirmed, I will work to build the trust that we need for an effective partnership".

Islamabad

Internews

The Pakistan Meteorolog-ical Department (PMD) has warned of ill-timed

rains in the country in future due to climate change, saying they will threaten crops.

“The future projections indi-cate that there will be no significant change in rainfall amount due to climate change but its temporal and spatial dis-tribution will be highly influenced due to climate change.It means that untimely rains may threaten the crop production in future increasing losses at matu-rity stage,” a PMD official said referring to a recent research.

The weatherman said the temperatures were likely to

increase at the rate 0.4c per dec-ade in agricultural plains of Punjab and Sindh and thus ulti-mately increasing water requirement of crops.

He added that the hot weather conditions could retard the crops’ growth and development.

The official added that the research showed that high tem-peratures coupled with abnormally wet summer climatic conditions in cotton zone could help pathogens grow to hamper good crop yields.

The weatherman said the PMD research indicated that temperatures in agricultural plains had risen over the last 60 years and the increase in the recent two decades was higher than the previous.

Afghans shout slogans and hold banners during a protest against Pakistan, in front of the Pakistani Embassy in Herat, yesterday.

11SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017 ASIA

NEWS BYTES

CHANDIGARH: Former Punjab Chief Minister, Union Min-ister and Governor of Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand and Andhra Pradesh Surjit Singh Barnala died here yesterday following a brief spell of illness. He was 91. Barnala, who ruled Pun-jab from 1985 to 1987, was admitted to the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research recently where he breathed his last. Governor of Tamil Nadu (1990-91 and 2004-2011) and Andhra Pradesh (2003-2004), he was the first governor of the then newly-created state of Uttaranchal.

Former Punjab CM passes away

Chandigarh

IANS

Sparking a new contro-versy over the Father of the Nation, Haryana Minister Anil Vij said yesterday that Prime

Minister Narendra Modi was a "bigger brand" than Mahatma Gandhi but later retracted his statement as it attracted flak.

Vij, who is known for his controversial comments on any-thing, including his own Bharatiya Janata Party and its leadership, told media persons in Ambala that after Mahatma's photographs were replaced with Modi's in the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) calendar 2017, Gandhi's picture would also be removed from currency notes.

While the Congress lam-basted the mindset of the BJP minister, the BJP distanced itself from the comments saying that his "views could be personal".

Vij, the state Health and Sports Minister later yesterday tweeted: "The comments on Mahatma Gandhi are personal. I am withdrawing this so that it does not hurt anyone's senti-ments." Interacting with media persons in Ambala, Vij said that from the time that Mahatma Gandhi's name was associated

with Khadi (movement), Khadi had failed. "Gandhi's name is not patented with Khadi.

The minister did not stop here. "Mahatma Gandhi's name is such that from the day his pic-ture is pasted on the (currency) note, the note got devalued. It is good that they (KVIC) removed Gandhi's photo and put Modi's. Modi is a much better brand. Khadi sales have increased by 14 per cent after putting Modi's photo," he said. Asked why Mahatma's photographs were still printed on new currency notes issued under the Modi government, Vij said: "They will be removed slowly)."

Minister: Modi 'bigger brand' than Gandhi

Dhaka

AFP

Bangladesh police yester-day said they have arrested an Islamist

extremist accused of being one of the "masterminds" of last year's deadly siege at a Dhaka cafe where 22 hostages were killed. A police spokesman said Jahangir Alam was detained Fri-day night by counter-terrorism forces in Elenga, a town some 120km (63 miles) north of the capital. "He is one of the main masterminds of the Holey Arti-san Bakery (cafe) attack," Yusuf Ali, an additional deputy com-missioner of the Dhaka police force, said.

"He was a member of a new faction of Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) and was directly involved in the murder of at least 22 religious minori-ties including Hindu priests and

a Christian and foreigners (at the cafe)," he said.

Japanese and Italian diners were among the 18 foreigners shot and hacked to death in the attack on July 1 last year.

The siege lasted for 10 hours until army commandos, using armoured vehicles, stormed the compound.Sanwar Hossain, an additional deputy commissioner of the police's counter-terror-ism and transnational crime unit, said Alam was a close associate of Tamim Chowdhury, a Bang-ladeshi Canadian who was named as the primary architect of the cafe siege.

"(Alam) was notorious. He led around two dozen attacks on religious minorities outside the capital," he told AFP. Alam, 32, was present with Chowdhury at a Dhaka hideout where they planned and organised the cafe attack, Hossain added.

The arrest comes a week

after police killed two Islamist extremists including another plotter of the cafe siege in a shootout in Dhaka. Chowdhury was killed during a raid outside

the capital in August last year.The country's security forces

launched a deadly crackdown against Islamist extremists fol-lowing the attack.

Dhaka cafe siege: Another militant held

Myanmar

Anatolia

A powerful ethnic party in Myanmar has again rejected a request for a

meeting from a top United Nations official who is visiting troubled Rakhine State to probe reports of rights violations against Rohingya Muslims.

Northern Rahkine has been under strict military lockdown since October 9 when a gang killed nine border police officials near the border with Bangla-desh, leading to a clampdown that has left anywhere between

84 and 400 Rohingya dead. An Arakan National Party

(ANP) official confirmed that they refused a request from Yanghee Lee, the UN’s special rapporteur on human rights in Myanmar, to meet with party leaders on Friday evening, hours after she arrived in the state cap-ital Sittwe. “We are not meeting her because we don’t believe she and her organization [the UN] have a will to resolve the issues fairly,” ANP joint secretary Ba Swe said.

“The issues will never be solved as long as they accept these Bengalis as members of

this country’s ethnic groups,” Ba Swe said, using a term that sug-gests Rohingya are illegal immigrants from neighbouring Bangladesh.

As part of her 12-day visit to Myanmar, Lee will spend three days in Rakhine -- home to around 1.2 million stateless Rohingya, a minority that has suffered decades of poverty and repression and been denied basic rights such as citizenship and freedom of movement.

On Friday, she met Muslim community leaders during her visit to a Rohingya neighbour-hood in Sittwe.

Myanmar ethnic party snubs UN envoy

China roast duck vendor dies of bird fluBEIJING: A roast duck vendor has died of bird flu in cen-tral China, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday, the latest human casualty of the disease this winter. The 36-year-old man, surnamed Zhang, passed away on January 11 in Yongcheng city of the central province of Henan, Xinhua cited the provincial health and family planning commission as saying. He sold roast duck in the coastal province of Zhejiang before falling ill with fever and coughing just after Christ-mas, eventually returning to his hometown in early January.

Father of Chinese Romanisation dies

Four kids burnt alive in Indian state

BRICS cooperation to be strengthened

Beijing sets pollution goal for 2017

SHANGHAI: Indian banker and New Development Bank chief (NDB) K V Kamath has said that cooperation between the five BRICS countries will be strengthened during Chinese presidency over the bloc in 2017. Kamath made the comment in an interview with Xinhua news agency at the NDB head-quarters in Shanghai on Friday.

This year opens the second decade of the emerging-mar-ket bloc which groups Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa. China will host the ninth BRICS leaders' summit in the coastal city of Xiamen in September.

GURUGRAM: Four children of a family were burnt to death and their parents injured when a house caught fire here yes-terday morning, police said. Kusum, 14, Kanchan, 10, Rohit, 6, and Mohit, 5, were burnt alive and Kirpal Singh and Surajwati were injured when a fire broke out in their house in the fields of Mohammadpur village, near the Delhi-Gurugram express-way. Singh, hailing from Badaun district in Uttar Pradesh, does farming on nearly 4 acres of land on a contract basis.

He has been referred to Safdarjung hospital in Delhi as his condition is said to be critical, a relative of the victims said.

BEIJING: Beijing’s air quality target for 2017 is more than double the acceptable standard set by the World Health Organ-isation (WHO), the mayor announced yesterday in the wake of weeks of hazardous air pollution in the Chinese capital.

“We will work hard to keep PM2.5 at an annual average of around 60 micrograms per cubic metre,” Beijing mayor Cai Qi said during his delivery of the city’s annual work report at the opening of the Beijing People’s Congress yesterday.

PM2.5 refers to damaging air particles so small they can pass through humans’ lungs to affect other organs.

BEIJING: Zhou Youguang, a linguist considered the father of modern China's Pinyin Romanization system, died yes-terday at the age of 111.

Born in 1906 during China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing, Zhou died at his home in Beijing, one day after cele-brating his birthday, according to state broadcaster Chinese Central Television and other official media outlets.

After receiving a Western-style education at Shanghai's St. John's University, Zhou moved to the United States and for a time worked as a banker on Wall Street. Returning to China along with other idealistic youths after the commu-nist victory in 1949, he was placed in charge of a committee working on a new system to allow Chinese characters to be converted into Roman script.

Adopted by the People's Republic in 1958, Pinyin has vir-tually become the global standard due to its simplicity and consistency, although some Chinese communities, especially in Taiwan and Hong Kong, continue to use alternatives.

Bangladesh police escort alleged Islamist militant, Jahangir Alam (centre), in Dhaka, yesterday.

Beijing

AP

China's sole aircraft car-rier has returned home following a far-ranging

three-week training mission during which its combat capabilities were closely scrutinised and speculation soared over what future role the flat-top will play amid China's growing military ambitions.

The Defence Ministry said the 60,000-ton Liaoning sailed in to the eastern port of Qingdao on Friday along with its battle group that includes destroyers, frigates, a supply ship and anti-sub-marine craft.

The ministry quoted the group's commander, Rear Adm. Chen Yueqi, as saying the drill simulated real com-bat as closely as possible and "achieved all targets set for it." China commissioned the carrier in 2012 and declared it combat ready in November, shortly after which it launched its first live-fire exercises. The cruise that began on Christmas Day took it through the Miyako Strait.

UN special rapporteur on Myanmar Yanghee Lee (centre) departs from Sittwe to visit areas of northern Rakhine State, yesterday

China's sole aircraft carrier returns home

Growing ire

While the Congress lambasted the mindset of the BJP minister, the BJP distanced itself from the comments saying that his "views could be personal".

Vij later tweeted: "The comments on Mahatma Gandhi are personal. I am withdrawing this so that it does not hurt anyone's sentiments."

Shanghai

Reuters

China and Vietnam pledged yesterday to manage their differences and safeguard

peace in the South China Sea, in a joint communique issued dur-ing a visit to China by Vietnamese Communist Party chief Nguyen Phu Trong.

After “candid” discussions, the two countries agreed to “manage well their maritime

difference, avoid actions that complicate the situation and escalate tensions, and safeguard the peace and stability of the South China Sea”, said the com-munique published in full by China’s state news agency Xinhua.

China claims almost all of the South China Sea, where about $5 trillion worth of sea-borne trade passes every year. Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines and Taiwan, in addition to

Vietnam, also have claims in the sea, believed to have rich depos-its of oil and gas.

Chinese and Vietnamese leaders regularly talk up their common interests as “tradi-tional” friends and neighbours, but conflicting claims of sover-eignty in the South China Sea have become a major source of tension in recent years.

The two sides agreed to con-tinue to “fully and effectively” implement the Declaration on

the Conduct (DOC) of Parties in the South China Sea and strive for the early conclusion of a Code of Conduct (COC) on the basis of consensus in the frame-work of the DOC.

In September, Chinese Pres-ident Xi Jinping told Vietnam’s visiting prime minister their common interests far out-weighed their differences, and called for their dispute in the South China Sea to be resolved through talks.

China & Vietnam to safeguard peace at sea

Thiruvananthapuram

IANS

Former Chief Minister Oom-men Chandy yesterday failed to turn up for a cru-

cial political affairs committee (PAC) meeting of the Congress party here, and senior Congress leaders were hard put to explain his absence.

State Congress president V.M. Sudheeran played down the absence, stating that Chandy was busy. "There are no issues in our party, and Chandy expressed his inability to take

part in today's meeting citing other engagements. He has been called up by party vice presi-dent Rahul Gandhi and they will meet on Monday in Delhi," Sud-heeran said. The political affairs committee of the party is the highest state level party body. In the meeting those close to Chandy defended his absence, while those not in his faction, including Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson P.J. Kurian and sen-ior leader P.C. Chacko, pointed out that it was not fair for him to keep away from the meeting.

Chandy skips party meet

12 SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017EUROPE

G20 cooperation

Underlining importance of the Group of 20 industrial powers, the German Chancellor said the international response to financial crisis was not a response based on isolation, but a response based on cooperation.

A train conductor speaks with local station workers at the main railway station in Belgrade, yesterday. A train from Russia decorated with the Serbian flag and artwork plans to begin trips travelling from Belgrade to Kosovska Mitrovica, for the first time since the 1998-99 war.

History on wheels

People walk along the Trocadero Plaza as the sunrises behind the Eiffel Tower, on a cold Paris morning, yesterday.

Sun gleams through Eiffel

Berlin

AP

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (pic-tured) is stressing as she awaits Donald Trump’s inaugura-

tion that the world’s problems need solving in cooperation, rather than by each country individually.

Asked at a news conference yesterday about protectionist tendencies in the US, Merkel said she will seek a dialogue with the new president.

“I don’t want to get ahead of that, but I am very much con-vinced that we as partners benefit more if we act together than if everyone solves problems for themselves, and that is a con-stant fundamental attitude on my part,” she said.

Underlining importance of the Group of 20 industrial powers, which Germany chairs this year, she said the international response to financial crisis “was not a response based on isolation, but a response based on cooperation,

on common rules for regulating financial markets, and I think that is the promising path.”

Merkel has made clear that she’s unhappy about possible demise of the Trans-Pacific Part-nership trade agreement as a result of Trump’s desire to with-draw the US. Trump has criticised Merkel’s decision to allow large numbers of migrants into Germany.

Merkel said there are con-tacts “at adviser level” with Trump’s team, though there was no immediate word on any plans for a meeting beyond summits of the Group of Seven and G-20 in May and July respectively. Merkel will host the latter sum-mit in Hamburg.

“We’ll wait for inauguration and then we will talk about this,” she said at a news conference.

Merkel is seeking a fourth term. Leaders of her conserva-tive Christian Democratic Union met Friday and yesterday in Perl, in western Saarland state, to kick off election year — which also features three state elections, the first in Saarland in March.

Merkel has said she expects her most difficult election yet, though she was confident yester-day that a simmering dispute with her allies the Christian Social

Union, won’t get in the way of a joint conservative campaign.

The CSU has demanded for the past year an annual cap of 200,000 on number of refugees Germany accepts, an idea Mer-kel rejects. Germany saw 890,000 asylum-seekers arrive in 2015 and 280,000 last year.

Merkel said leaders of her party agreed “that we can live with such a disagreement.”

She renewed her pledge of improved security following last month’s deadly attack on a Ber-lin Christmas market. “We are making clear that every person has a right to security, and only those who are secure can live in freedom,” she said. Germany’s 16 states must have same security standards, Merkel said, arguing it’s not sensible for regions to have different rules on matters such as video surveillance.

Berlin

Reuters

DIVISIONS appeared in the anti-immigrant Alternative for Germany (AfD) party over a planned meeting of Euro-pean right-wing populist parties next week, from which several leading Ger-man media have been barred.

AfD co-leader Joerg Meu-then distanced himself from the January 21 meeting being planned by the Europe of Nations and Freedom (ENF) group in European Parlia-ment. The AfD’s other leader, Frauke Petry, still plans to attend the event in the west-ern German city of Koblenz.

Marine Le Pen from France’s Front National, Geert Wilders from the Nether-lands’ Freedom Party and Matteo Salvini from Italy’s Northern League also plan to participate, according to organisers, raising the profile of the event in a year when their parties are hoping for electoral breakthroughs.

But the ENF, the smallest group in the European Par-liament with members from 10 parties from nine coun-tries, is facing criticism over its decision to ban some Ger-man public broadcasters, Der Spiegel magazine, Han-delsblatt business daily and the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung.

“The event in Koblenz is a sole thing of the ENF, the AfD has nothing to do with it,” Meuthen said. “This is not changed by the fact that one or other AfD politician will show up there.”

Among the AfD members planning to attend are Petry and her husband Marcus Pretzell, a member of the European Parliament who belongs to the ENF group.

Paris

AFP

A French judge charged the alleged mastermind of spectacular Paris heist in

which five masked men robbed US reality TV television star Kim Kardashian of jewellery worth millions, prosecutors said.

Sixty-year-old Aomar A. was among six suspects charged over the October 3 rob-bery during which the celebrity was bound and gagged at gun-point, then locked in a bathroom at the luxury resi-dence where she was staying during Paris Fashion Week.

A total of 10 people have now been charged, including five accused of playing a direct role in robbing the 36-year-old Kardashian of jewellery worth some €9m ($9.5m).

Sources said the BRB spe-cial police unit in charge of armed robberies began watch-ing Aomar A—who was sentenced to seven years in prison for armed robbery in 1985 — after finding his DNA at the scene on materials used to tie up Kardashian.

One of the alleged robbers was named as Didier D, aged 61 and nicknamed “Blue Eyes,” the prosecutors said. He was sentenced in 2003 to eight and half years in jail for interna-tional cocaine trafficking after being busted with two tonnes of the drug at a Paris airport.

The surveillance soon led police to other suspects, and the BRB launched a series of coor-dinated raids in Paris and in southern France during which they rounded up 17 people.

A Paris prosecutor praised the BRB’s “remarkable work”.

Parndorf, Austria

AFP

The gruesome discovery of 71 dead migrants in the summer of 2015 in an

abandoned truck on a motorway near Austrian town of Parndorf still haunts locals.

But a new play about the tragedy—71 or the Curse of the Prime Number—attempts to help people deal with the trauma a year and a half later.

“The intention was to per-ceive this drama through art and to raise some aspects that nei-ther journalists nor politicians

have raised so far,” the play’s director Peter Wagner said.

“I think we must mourn the things that weighed on us, and this play has potential... to make us experience again something that shocked us,” Wagner said.

“It allows us in some way to detach ourselves from the prob-lem, to observe it from a different point of view.”

The discovery of the truck in August 2015 on the A4 motor-way coming in from Hungary, at the height of a massive influx of migrants into Europe, was indeed horrific.

When police opened up

poultry refrigerator lorry left on hard shoulder of busy road, they were confronted with an atro-cious sight and an awful smell.

The stench of human decay emanated from cargo container where bodies of migrants lay piled on top of each other, crammed into a small rectangu-lar space. Among them was a baby girl, not even a year old. Investigations would later reveal that the victims—all from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan—had been dead for two days.

The men, women and chil-dren had suffocated shortly after smugglers had picked them up

in Hungary, a key transit coun-try on the so-called Balkan migrant trail during 2015.

The driver had long since fled. An Afghan and seven Bul-garians were later arrested and are due to go on trial in Hungary later this year. They face life imprisonment.

Wagner’s play features a truck-size screen playing black-and-white interviews from 15 people who experienced the tragedy including police, a young volunteer and the local mayor.

In the two-hour perform-ance, this is interwoven with actors performing from 21 texts

written by local authors as well as dancing and music composed by Ferry Janoska.

“We know the documenta-ries from TV... But here it is a living documentary! I found that awesome,” actress Tania Golden told reporters.

“I have a great admiration for Peter Wagner, because he does theatre for the region, for people here, not for people who go to the theatre and who are used to intellectualising issues.”

The play premiered in a school in Parndorf on January 5 and then moved to the state cap-ital Eisenstadt.

Bucharest

AFP

THE deputy chief of Roma-nia’s intelligence service Florian Coldea was sus-pended from his job over alleged links with a fugitive media boss who is embroiled in several criminal cases.

“Following information published in the media con-cerning Coldea, a special commission of inquiry has been set up to identify possi-ble violations of the law or professional ethical code,” SRI intelligence service said.

Coldea was drawn into the scandal several days ago over Sebastian Ghita, the head of a private television station and a former Social Democrat lawmaker, who is being criminally investigated for corruption, fraud and tax evasion and has been on the run since December 19.

In videos, , Ghita accuses Coldea and head of Roma-nia’s high-profile DNA anti-corruption agency, Laura Codruta Kovesi, of “making up cases” against several officials and media executives.

In the most recent video broadcast, Ghita also said he had spent holidays with Col-dea abroad—notably in the Seychelles—and that he had “found the bills” for these trips bearing their two names.

The Hague

AFP

Families of the MH17 plane disaster victims may push for a renewed search of

the crash site in eastern Ukraine after recent discovery of a bone fragment belonging to one of the dead.

“We are considering speak-ing to authorities about another search for human remains,” Evert van Zijtveld, chairman of the MH17 victims’ foundation, said yesterday.

“As relatives, we simply don’t want any human remains to be left behind,” Van Zijtveld, who lost a son, daughter and his par-ents-in-law, told reporters.

The Malaysia Airlines Boe-ing 777 passenger jet was shot down over eastern Ukraine on July 17, 2014 en route from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur killing all 298 on board, most of them Dutch citizens.

Last Sunday, when free-lance journalist Michel Spekkers returned to Amster-dam from Ukraine, Dutch police confiscated the items he had collected including the human bone fragment.

DNA tests this week showed that the bone belonged to one of the victims, whose other remains were identified in 2014, Dutch prosecutors said in a statement. The victim’s fam-ily was informed.

Need to solve world problems jointly: Merkel German AfD leader distances himself from European meet

Kardashian heist mastermind charged

Play seeks to exorcise Austrian truck tragedy horrorsRomania’s number 2 spy suspended over scandal

MH17 relatives mull new search in Ukraine

Welcoming Spring

13SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017 EUROPE

Clarity urged

The cross-party Brexit committee called for a policy document clarifying the government’s “broad aims”, including whether Britain should stay in the single market and customs union, to allow proper scrutiny before exit talks start.

Bulgarian dancers dressed as animals perform a ritual dance with flaming torches during the Kukeri Carnival in the village of Batanovtsi, western Bulgaria, yesterday. The Kukeri Carnival is a festival of brightly coloured masks and costumes which marks the beginning of the Spring.

Alphorn players blow their instruments as snow falls on the Fellhorn mountain near Oberstdorf, southern Germany, during a ceremony to inaugurate a new chairlift, yesterday.

Music in the snow

London

AFP

An influential group of MPs called on Prime Minister Theresa May (pictured) yesterday to publish by mid-

February her plans for leaving the EU, and urged her to prepare for a transitional deal to limit uncertainty for business.

The cross-party Brexit com-mittee called for a policy document clarifying the govern-ment’s “broad aims”, including whether Britain should stay in the single market and customs union, to allow proper scrutiny before exit talks start.

May has promised to trigger

Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty, which sets out a two-year timeframe for exit negotiations, by the end of March.

“We’re not asking the gov-ernment to give away its red lines or negotiating fallback posi-tions, but we do want clarity on its broad aims given the

significance and complexity of the negotiating task,” said com-mittee chairman Hilary Benn.

Ministers have said they want to agree both the terms of Britain’s departure and a new trade relationship with the EU within the two-year timeframe, but European leaders have warned this will be tough.

Echoing calls by many busi-ness leaders, the committee said it would be wise to prepare a tran-sition deal in event that a new trade agreement was not ready.

“The government should seek appropriate transitional arrange-ments in the interests of business,” both in Britain and the EU, said Benn, an opposition Labour MP.

T h e c o m m i t t e e

said the government should seek continued access to EU markets in financial services, for the ben-efit of both sides, and warned against a return to tariffs in other sectors.

It also called for a commit-ment that British lawmakers — most of whom opposed leav-ing the EU in the June referendum—will have a vote on the final deal.

May has said that giving a “running commentary” on her plans could harm Britain’s nego-tiating position, but has promised more details in a major speech on Tuesday.

“I will set out more on our objectives for those negotia-tions—how we will work to get

the right deal for Britain and embark on a new constructive partnership with the European Union that makes sense for us all,” she told a press conference on Friday.

May has said she wants to end uncontrolled migration from within the EU and to remove Britain from the jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice—two key elements of membership of the single market.

A government spokesman said: “We’ve said we will set out our plans, subject to not under-mining the UK negotiating position, by the end of March and that parliament will be appro-priately engaged throughout the process of exit.”

Madrid

AFP

Five people with suspected links to Islamic State (IS) jihadists were arrested

yesterday in separate incidents in Spain and Hungary, with sev-eral weapons also being seized, authorities said.

Spain’s interior ministry said police detained a Moroccan man with Dutch identity documents in the northwestern city of Figueras suspected of belong-ing to IS who recently returned to Spain from Turkey.

The authorities are investi-gating whether his return “was motivated by a desire to carry out some sort of action in Europe,” the ministry said. .

The ministry said Spanish police were able to locate the man thanks to help of Dutch authori-ties and of intelligence services of several unnamed countries.

“Investigators are currently trying to determine degree of radicalisation of the detainee, his possible links in Europe, activities he has been carrying out for IS and what his purpose was since his arrival in Spain,” the statement said.

In a separate operation, police detained two Spanish men who were part of a group “that had reached a very high level of determination to carry out terrorist activities”.

The group was “fully aligned with strategy of terrorist organ-isation Daesh,” the ministry said

in a separate statement.Police seized a long gun and

three knives during searches of six houses carried out as part of the operation in Ceuta, the tiny Spanish territory bordered by Morocco on one side and the Mediterranean Sea.

Meanwhile, Hungarian authorities said they arrested two young women from France and Belgium allegedly seeking to join IS in Syria.

The Belgian, 18, and the French national, 19, were trying to cross into Serbia, a police spokesperson told Hungarian news agency MTI. The women, who were not named, were trav-elling on a bus from Vienna to Sofia from where they planned to reach Syria and join IS.

Zagan, Poland

AFP

Polish authorities and ordi-nary Poles welcomed yesterday US troops which

arrived this week as part of an unprecedented deployment to Nato’s eastern flank aimed at deterring Russia.

“Welcome to Poland,” Prime Minister Beata Szydlo told US troops in Zagan, the Polish town on German border where the brigade will be headquartered, adding “we hope you feel at home.”

“The presence of American soldiers in Poland is another step in our strategy to ensure safety and security for Poland and the region,” she added.

Hailing from Fort Carson, Colorado, the so-called “Iron

Brigade” comprising some 3,500 soldiers and heavy equipment will also be deployed in Nato partners Estonia, Latvia, Lithua-nia, Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary on a rotational basis.

It is part of the Pentagon’s “Atlantic Resolve” operation aimed at countering security concerns triggered on Nato’s eastern flank by Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine.

“This is America’s most capa-ble fighting force: a combat-ready, highly trained US armoured brigade, with our most advanced equipment and weap-onry,” US ambassador to Poland Paul James said at the ceremo-nies, also attended by hundreds of Zagan residents.

“This force embodies Amer-ica’s iron-clad committment to

honour our Nato treaty obliga-tion to defend our Nato allies.”

The US troops and tanks began streaming into Poland on Thursday as part of one of the largest deployments of US forces in Europe since the Cold War, an operation that Russia angrily branded a security “threat”.

The brigade’s deployment, ordered by the outgoing Obama administration, comes a week ahead of the inauguration of US President-elect Donald Trump, who has suggested his Republi-can administration will seek to ease tensions with the Kremlin.

Poland on Friday told Trump that any improvement in Wash-ington’s ties with Moscow cannot come at the cost of harming Warsaw.

According to Poland’s

Defence Minister Antoni Macierewicz, a total of 7,000 US and Nato troops will be stationed in his country in the coming years.

The defence ministry held “Safe Poland” picnics yesterday in cities across the country, allowing average Poles to meet with Polish and newly deployed US troops, view military hard-ware and chow down typical Polish army grub including pea soup with ham.

Hundreds of residents attended the official welcome ceremonies in Zagan.

“The deployment is neces-sary and it’s great that they’re here. We can feel the support of our allies,” a Zagan resident who identified himself only as Pawel told reporters.

Fellow Zagan resident Jan

said he was not convinced the US deployment was absolutely necessary, but chuckled that “it would be good if they scare the Russians a little, because they’re out of control”.

Freshly-arrived US military policeman Peter Gomez told reporters he felt “very welcome” as he posed for selfies with Zagan residents. “I’m surprised actually, people are very excited to see us.”

Tensions between Russia and the West have escalated over the past two years, triggered by Russia’s actions in Ukraine and its military campaign in Syria since late 2015. Last summer, Nato leaders endorsed plans to rotate troops into Poland and three Baltic states to reassure they would not be left in the lurch if Russia was tempted to repeat its Ukraine intervention.

Rome

Agencies

AROUND 750 migrants mak-ing the perilous crossing to Europe were rescued from the Mediterranean, with two bodies also recovered, the Italian coastguard said.

The migrants were picked up from four inflatable din-ghies by coastguard vessels as well as an Italian naval ship, an NGO boat and a mer-chant vessel. “Around 750 migrants have been rescued so far from the central Med-iterranean in four rescue operations,” the coastguard said in a statement.

It was an SOS Mediterra-nee boat which recovered the two bodies on one of the din-ghies, while rescuing 193 other people, the NGO said in a tweet.

The Italian coastguard said that rescue efforts were ongoing “despite difficult w e a t h e r a n d s e a conditions.”

In recent years Italy has been on the front line of migrants arriving across the Mediterranean and has been pushing for agreements with governments in North Africa to facilitate returns.

People-smugglers have exploited the chaos in Libya since the 2011 uprising that overthrew dictator Muammar Gaddafi to traffic migrants in boats to Italy 300km away.

According to the Italian interior ministry, over 180,000 migrants landed in Italy last year, an annual record.

MPs demand Brexit plan by mid-February

Spain and Hungary arrest five with alleged IS links

Poles welcome US troops as Nato eyes Russia

Paris

Reuters

French conservative pres-idential candidate Francois Fillon tried to

win over party critics at a meet-ing yesterday at a time when polls show him losing some momentum due to what some say is too radical an economic reform programme.

Surveys suggest Fillon will win the election by a comforta-ble margin, but recent polls have shown his share of vote in the first round falling. Some senior members of his Republicans party, most often allies of former

president Nicolas Sarkozy, have accused him of being too tough and have asked him to soften his programme to avoid scaring off low-income voters.

“You will be the spearhead of my campaign, I will need each and every one of you,” Fil-lon told 2,500 party members. “I am calling for unity and total commitment to victory.”

Fil lon’s programme includes cutting business taxes, relaxing labour laws and scrap-ping 35-hour working week in an attempt to boost growth, while also cutting half a million public sector jobs as part of a drive to shrink the state sector.

France’s Fillon tries to win over critics

750 migrants rescued in Mediterranean: Italy coastguard

14 SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017AMERICAS

Cops on patrol

In Kansas, the state’s National Guard was mobilising roughly 200 guardsmen to patrol key roads and help motorists stranded by icy conditions.

Taiwan's President Tsai Ing-wen (left) walks with El Salvador's President Salvador Sanchez Ceren before a decoration ceremony at the presidential house in San Salvador, El Salvador, yesterday.

Diplomacy

German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier (left) walking next to Colombian High Commissioner for Peace, Sergio Jaramillo (centre) and a UN representative during a visit at one of the 26 UN-monitored camps that will receive FARC guerrillas who will demobilise over a period of six months as agreed in the peace accord signed with the Colombian government in November- in Mesetas, Meta department, Colombia, yesterday.

Monitoring peace deal

St. Louis

AP

States across the nation’s midsection are bracing for another round of winter storms expected to add to thick ice that

already has glazed roads, grounded flights and prompted class cancellations amid warn-ings that people stay home.

Winter storms are typically associated with heavy snowfall, but the one that began hammer-ing the southern Plains and Midwest yesterday dumped freezing rain — a condition even harder for road crews to treat. A slick roadway was suspected in a fatal wreck yesterday in Missouri, where long stretches of Interstate 44 and Interstate 55 were ice-covered.

More freezing precipitation was expected in parts of nation’s central corridor throughout most of the holiday weekend.

While many motorists heeded warnings to avoid road travel, Butch Shadrick said his towing service in Missouri’s St. Clair, about 50 miles southwest of St. Louis, said his fleet of five trucks

handled at least eight calls for travellers who found themselves in ditches or other wrecks. That was after storms left about a quarter of an inch of sleet on that region, with accumulation expected to double today.

“There’s not a lot of people out there, but the ones who are are the ones paying the conse-quences,” Shadrick said from his Hoffman’s Towing & Service business.

In Kansas, the state’s National Guard was mobilising in advance of today's storm, des-ignating roughly 200 guardsmen to patrol key roads and help motorists stranded by icy con-ditions. The teams of soldiers also were to provide emergency

transportation for law enforc-ers and other emergency responders, while staying ready to make warming stations avail-able at local armories as needed.

Hundreds of schools were closed, including several college campuses. St. Louis closed all city operations as it braced for what could be its worst ice storm in at least a decade. Several Missouri prisons halted visiting hours.

The weather atmosphere was so turbulent that thunder rumbled as freezing rain fell in Joplin, Missouri.

Several utility companies brought in all available crew who were working extended shifts in anticipation of heavy ice snapping trees and power lines. Scattered outages were reported, including about 2,500 in Springfield, Missouri.

Forecasters issued ice storm warnings from the Oklahoma and Texas panhandles into southern Illinois, with up to 1 inch of ice expected in some locations. Precipitation is fore-cast to fall in waves today.

Residents were taking the warnings seriously. Grocery stores were selling out of bread,

milk and other necessities, and hardware stores were running out of flashlights, batteries and alternative energy sources.

“They’re grabbing generators, and I’m sold out,” said Raymond Bopp, assistant manager of the Woodward Ace Hardware store in Woodward, Oklahoma.

Several states activated emergency management proce-dures. In Oklahoma, Governor Mary Fallin declared a disaster emergency. The state set up gen-erators and supplies at temporary

shelters in northern part of the state. Missouri Governor Eric Gre-itens and top Cabinet officials manned an emergency opera-tions centre.

Missouri Department of Trans-portation crew were working 12-hour shifts to treat roads and highways, said Linda Wilson Horn, a MoDOT spokeswoman. She said some of the freezing rain washed chemicals away as it melted.

“It’ll be a long, constant bat-tle for our crews,” Horn said.

The Missouri State Highway

Patrol said Tiffany Jackson, 33, died yesterday when her Chevy Trailblazer slid on an icy over-pass on Interstate 55 near Festus, south of St. Louis, and struck sev-eral trees. The patrol said at least two other people were hurt in weather-related wrecks.

Lambert Airport spokesman Jeff Lea said that 60 arriving flights and 48 departing flights at Missou-ri’s largest airport had been cancelled due to the ice. Some flights were cancelled at Oklahoma City’s Will Rogers World Airport.

Chicago

AP

CHICAGO officials are pledg-ing to revamp the city Police Department following a scathing federal report, but a change in administrations could spell uncertainty for the critical next step in process: negotiating a court-enforce-able improvement plan with the Justice Department.

A report on Friday found police violated constitutional rights of residents for years, including frequent use of excessive force, shooting at people who did not pose imminent threats and using stun guns on others only because they refused to fol-low commands.

Mayor Rahm Emanuel said the results of probe were “sobering” and pledged to make changes beyond those city already has adopted, including de-escalation train-ing and stricter use-of-force policies. Federal authorities and city officials have signed an agreement that offers a broad outline for reform, including commitments to improved transparency, train-ing and accountability for bad officers. The Justice Depart-ment and the city will negotiate a final settlement to be enforced by the courts.

Panama City

AFP

Cuban migrants without papers must leave Pan-ama now that the United

States has stopped allowing them automatic entry if they set foot on US soil, a top Panama-nian official said yesterday.

“They have to get out of Panama” or risk being deported, Javier Carrillo, head of Panama’s migration service, told reporters.

President Barack Obama on Friday announced he was scrapping a 1995 policy known as “wet foot, dry foot” that allowed Cubans without visas automatic entry into the United

States if they set foot on US soil.Those intercepted at sea

were sent back to Cuba under the policy, which made passage by land through Central Amer-ica and Mexico the preferred route for Cuban migrants. Car-rillo said his service counted fewer than 100 Cubans who were in Panama without visas.

But their numbers could be much higher because many undocumented migrants move clandestinely, attempting to cir-cumvent a ban put in place by Panama last year.

The Panamanians acted after Nicaragua shut its border to undocumented migrants, which created a backlog of migrants in countries to its south.

Walterboro, South Carolina

AP

Neighbours knew them for years as mother and her polite teenage daughter

before police swarmed Gloria Williams’ home in this small, quiet South Carolina city.

Williams, 51, was arrested on kidnapping charges. Then came the real shocker: Police identified the victim as the 18-year-old woman Williams had raised as her daughter. Investigators said DNA

analysis proved she had been sto-len as an infant from a hospital in Jacksonville, Florida.

“She wasn’t an abused child or a child who got in trouble,” a stunned Joseph Jenkins said who lived across the street. “But she grew up with a lie for 18 years.”

She grew up as Alexis Man-igo, but has now learned she was born as Kamiyah Mobley. Jack-sonville Sheriff Mike Williams described her yesterday as being in good health but emotionally overwhelmed.

Tesha Stephens, a cousin of Willams’, said the young woman had much to think about. “She’s probably going to have to take this day-by-day,” Stephens told reporters outside Williams’ home.

Mobley got to spend a few emotional moments with Wil-liams, who is also charged with interference with custody, after her arrest. She cried “Momma” through the caged window of a security door after Williams waived extradition to Florida.

Meanwhile, the young

woman’s birth family cried “tears of joy” after a detective told them their baby had been found. Within hours, they were able to reconnect over FaceTime.

“She looks just like her daddy,” her paternal grand-mother, Velma Aiken of Jacksonville, told reporters after they were able to see each other for the first time. “She act like she been talking to us all the time. She told us she’d be here soon to see us.”

Mobley was only eight hours

old when she was taken from her young mother by a woman pos-ing as a nurse at University Medical Center. A massive search ensued, with helicopters circling the hospital and city on high alert.

Some months ago, the young woman “had an inclination” that she may have been kidnapped, the sheriff said. The case broke thanks to a tip received by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, said Robert Lowery, a center vice president. He would not say from whom the tip came.

New York

Reuters

Hundreds of domestic cats have been quarantined in New York City after con-

tracting a strain of highly contagious avian flu at shelters operated by a major animal res-cue organisation, and the virus also infected at least one veter-inarian, officials said.

It is the first time the H7N2 strain of virus, commonly found in birds, has infected domestic cats, according to the New York City Health Department.

Symptoms are generally mild,

and include sneezing, coughing and runny eyes and noses.

The virus was first detected last month in 45 cats housed at a Manhattan shelter run by Animal Care Center of NYC, and later turned up in cats at shelters in boroughs of Queens and Brook-lyn. It was not immediately clear how the cats contracted the virus or how it spread, the city’s health department said.

“We continue to urge New Yorkers who have adopted cats from ACC shelters to be on alert for symptoms in their pets and take proper precautions,” Health Commissioner Mary

Bassett said in a statement.She said the risk to human

health from H7N2 is low. H7N2 is a type of avian influenza virus, also known as bird flu, that can mutate and transfer onto mam-mals such as cats. It could infect other mammals as well, includ-ing humans, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) website.

More than 450 cats will remain at a temporary shelter for up to 90 days until a Univer-sity of Wisconsin lab confirms they are no longer contagious, the city’s health department said. ACC, the New York Health

Department and the American Society for Prevention of Cru-elty to Animals are monitoring the animals together.

In December, city’s health department and the CDC con-firmed that a veterinarian had been infected at ACC’s Manhattan shelter. It was first case of cat-to-human-transmission of the flu, the health department said. The illness was mild and short-lived.

The health department screened more than 160 ACC employees for virus and contacted more than 80 percent of pet adop-ters from Manhattan shelter, but no other cases have been found.

Another winter storm to hit US midsection

A home sits on the edge of a cliff yesterday after it's concrete portion was washed away in a mudslide caused by heavy rains in Hollywood, California.

Cuban migrants asked to leave Panama

Chicago copspledge revampafter scathing report

Woman charged with stealing teenage daughter at birth

Hundreds of cats quarantined in NYC bird flu outbreak

15SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017 AMERICAS

U-turn

After initially denying that Michael Flynn and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak spoke on December 29, a Trump official said yesterday that the transition team was aware of one call on the day President Barack Obama imposed sanctions.

Washington

AP

President-elect Donald Trump’s national security adviser and Russia’s ambassador to the US have been

in frequent contact in recent weeks, including on the day the Obama administration hit Mos-cow with sanctions in retaliation for election-related hacking, a senior U.S. official says.

After initially denying that Michael Flynn and Ambassador Sergey Kislyak spoke on Decem-ber 29, a Trump official said yesterday that the transition team was aware of one call on the day President Barack Obama imposed sanctions.

It’s not unusual for incom-ing administrations to have discussions with foreign govern-ments before taking office. But repeated contacts just as Obama imposed sanctions would raise questions about whether Trump’s team discussed — or even helped shape — Russia’s response.

Russian President Vladimir Putin unexpectedly did not retaliate against the US for the move, a decision Trump quickly praised.

More broadly, Flynn’s con-tact with Russian ambassador suggests the incoming admin-istration has already begun to

lay the groundwork for its promised closer relationship with Moscow. That effort appears to be moving ahead, even as many in Washington, including Republicans, have expressed outrage over intelli-gence officials’ assessment that Putin launched a hacking oper-ation aimed at meddling in the U.S. election to benefit Trump.

In an interview published by The Wall Street Journal, Trump said he might do away with Obama’s sanctions if Russia works with the US on battling terrorists and achieving other goals.

“If Russia is really helping us, why would anybody have sanctions?” he asked.

During a news conference

Wednesday, Trump highlighted his warmer rapport with the Russian leader.

“If Putin likes Donald Trump, I consider that an asset, not a liability, because we have a horrible relationship with Rus-sia,” he said.

The sanctions targeted the GRU and FSB, leading Russian intelligence agencies that the US said were involved in hacking of the Democratic National Commit-tee and other groups. The US also kicked out 35 Russian diplomats who it said were actually intelli-gence operatives.

Trump accepted a call from Taiwan’s president, ignoring the longstanding “One China” pol-icy that does not recognise the island’s sovereignty. Asked about that yesterday by the Jour-nal, he responded, “Everything is under negotiation.”

He also publicly urged the US to veto a United Nations Security Council resolution con-demning Israeli settlements, then slammed Obama admin-istration for abstaining and allowing the measure to pass.

Questions about Trump’s friendly posture toward Russia have deepened since the elec-tion, as he has dismissed US intelligence agencies’ assertions about Russia’s role in hacking of Democratic groups. In brief-ing Trump on their findings, intelligence officials also

presented the president-elect with unsubstantiated claims that Russia had amassed compromis-ing personal and financial allegations about him, according to a separate US official who spoke on condition of anonym-ity because the official was not allowed to discuss the matter.

The Senate Intelligence Com-mittee announced yesterday it would investigate possible contacts between Russia and people asso-ciated with US political campaigns as part of a broader investigation into Moscow’s meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

Trump acknowledged for the first time this week that he accepts that Russia was behind the hacking. But he questioned whether officials were leaking information about their meetings with him, warning that would be a “tremendous blot” on their record.

Flynn’s own ties with Russia have worried some Republicans who are more sceptical of the Kremlin than Trump appears to be. After leaving his position as director of the Defence Intelli-gence Agency in 2014, Flynn made appearances on

RT, a state-run Russian television network. In 2015, he was paid to attend an RT gala in Moscow, where he sat next to Putin.

As national security adviser, Flynn will work in the West Wing close to the Oval Office and will have frequent access to Trump. Unlike Trump’s nominees to lead the Pentagon, State Department and other national security agen-cies, Flynn’s post does not require Senate confirmation.

Flynn’s contacts with the Rus-sian ambassador were first reported by Washington Post col-umnist David Ignatius.

Washington

Reuters

A week of protests ahead of Donald Trump’s inaugu-ration as US president is

set to kick off today with a civil rights march in Washington by activists angry over Republican’s comments on minority groups including Muslims and Mexicans.

Civil rights leader Reverend Al Sharpton plans to lead a march along National Mall end-ing at Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, about 3km from the steps of the US Capitol, where Trump will be sworn in as pres-ident on January 20.

Trump won his first-ever campaign for elected office with an angry, populist platform that

included promises to build a wall along the Mexican border and restrict immigration from

Muslim countries, as well as promises to crack down on com-panies moving jobs out of the United States.

His supporters admire Trump’s experience in business, including as a real estate devel-oper and reality television star.

Trump’s controversial com-ments about immigrants and women, and his vow to repeal the sweeping healthcare reform law that was President Barack Obama’s signature domestic pol-icy achievement, has drawn the anger of many on the left, who plan a series of protests.

“The 2017 march will bring all people together to insist on change and accountability,” Sharpton said.

“Donald Trump and his adminis-tration need to hear our voice and our concerns.”

Civil rights groups including Sharpton’s National Action Net-work, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the National Coun-cil of La Raza, as well as Democratic lawmakers includ-ing US Senator Kirsten Gillibrand of New York plan to join the Sat-urday march.

Organisers estimate today's march will draw some 25,000 protesters.

About 30 groups, almost all of them anti-Trump, have gotten permits to protest before, during and after the inauguration.

By far the biggest event will be the Women’s March on Wash-ington the day after the inauguration, which organizers say could draw 200,000 people.

Thousands of demonstrators also have vowed to shut down the inauguration, including by closing off security checkpoints along the inaugural parade route.

Washington police and the US Secret Service plan to have some 3,000 officers and an addi-tional 5,000 National Guard troops on hand through the events, numbers they say will be sufficient to allow the inaugura-tion and protests to go ahead peacefully.

Washington

AFP

The US House of Repre-sentatives yesterday joined the Senate in pass-

ing a critical measure that marks first major step toward repealing outgoing President Barack Obama’s landmark but controversial health care reforms.

The House’s party-line vote of 227 to 198 approved a budget blueprint which provides Republicans, who control both chambers of Congress, with a framework for dismantling the Affordable Care Act.

But just a week before Pres-ident-elect Donald Trump is sworn into office, a sense of urgency has swept over Wash-ington about what his party will put forward as a replacement for the health care law, with Democrats warning of disas-trous consequences should Republicans act too hastily.

“This resolution essentially fires the starting pistol... for repealing Obamacare,” said Representative Bill Johnson, an Ohio Republican, shortly

before the vote.“This is a critical first step

to deliver relief to Americans struggling under this law,” House Speaker Paul Ryan told fellow members, describing as a “rescue mission” the latest effort to unwind Obamacare.

“This experiment has failed,” and “we have to step in before things get worse.”

The Senate passed the budget resolution on Thursday. The measure received no Dem-ocratic support in either the Senate or the House, highlight-ing the intensely partisan fight that lies ahead.

The budget resolution pro-vides Republicans with a powerful tool, called reconcil-iation, which allows repeal legislation to proceed through the 100-member Senate pro-tected from filibuster blocking tactics and requiring just a sim-ple majority for passage, instead of a higher 60-vote threshold.

Trump made repeal of the law, a key achievement of Obama’s Democratic adminis-tration, a central plank of his insurgent campaign.

Los Angeles

AP

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket blasted off from Califor-nia yesterday, marking

company’s first launch since a fireball engulfed a similar rocket on a Florida launch pad more than four months ago.

The two-stage rocket lifted off from Vandenberg Air Force Base at 9:54 am local time car-rying a payload of 10 satellites for Iridium Communications Inc., which is replacing its entire global network with 70 next-generation satellites.

The satellites were expected to be deployed about an hour after launch.

About nine minutes after the rocket blasted off, to cheers from the control room, its jettisoned first stage landed upright on a so-called droneship in the Pacific Ocean south of Vanden-berg — part of Spacex’s effort to make boosters reusable.

The company has succeeded six times previously with land-ings on a barge or ashore.

A camera aboard the first stage gave viewers a you-are-there experience as it returned to Earth, flared landing rockets and made a perfect vertical

touchdown on the floating pad.The return to flight is an

important step for SpaceX, bil-l ionaire Elon Musk’s California-based company that has about 70 launches in line, worth more than $10 billion. In addition to commercial launches, SpaceX ferries supplies to the International Space Sta-tion and is developing a Falcon capable of carrying astronauts to the station.

SpaceX officials say they identified all possible causes of the Sept. 1 accident during pre-launch testing at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, Florida, and took corrective action.

The accident destroyed the rocket and its payload — a sat-ellite that Facebook wanted to use to spread internet access in Africa — and grounded the Fal-con 9 programme as an investigation took place.

SpaceX announced this month that investigators con-cluded the accident involved a failure of one of three helium tanks inside the rocket’s second-stage liquid oxygen tank.

The investigation involved the Air Force, Nasa, the National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration, which issued

a license for the launch.The September accident was

second time a Falcon 9 was destroyed. In June 2015, a Fal-con loaded with space station supplies disintegrated shortly after liftoff. SpaceX determined that a support strut broke.

The 10 satellites launched yes-terday are part of McLean, Virginia-based Iridium’s project to replace its existing network of satellites that provide global voice and data communications.

The programme, called

Iridium NEXT, was not only delayed by the SpaceX accident but again most recently as a powerful storm headed into Cal-ifornia last weekend.

Iridium plans six more Fal-con 9 launches, each carrying 10 satellites, as part of a technol-ogy upgrade expected to be completed in 2018.

SpaceX’s effort to recover Falcon first stages is intended to reduce costs by recycling a major piece of the launch system.

Trump aide & Russian official 'in contact'

US President-elect Donald Trump speaks to members of media with television personality Steve Harvey (right) and businessman Greg Calhoun after their meeting at Trump Tower in New York, yesterday.

Anti-Trump protests to kick off with civil rights march

Street posters calling for protests are seen in the Dupont Circle area of Washington, DC, yesterday.

Congress okays first step to repeal Obamacare

Launch of SpaceX rocket successful

An image obtained from SpaceX video shows a Falcon 9 rocket lifting off from Vandenberg Air Force Base, California, yesterday.

16 SUNDAY 15 JANUARY 2017MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

05.01 am

06.21 am

ZUHRASR

11.43 am

02.45 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.07 pm

06.37 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

The Peninsula

Qatar Airways’ world-travellers still have time, until tomor-row midnight, to take advantage of

the exceptional offers across the airline’s global network, with the Qatar Airways Travel Festival. The festival offers travellers booking Qatar Air-ways flights an opportunity to enjoy up to 40% off and redeem discounts on people travelling together, special companion fares and kids fly free to more than 150 destinations.

New for the 2017 Qatar Airways Travel Festival are exclusive partnerships with AccorHotels, and Visa. Trav-ellers who book with AccorHotels via the Qatar

Airways website will receive exclusive offers on accommo-dation. Visa card holders avail a further 15% off flight dis-counts at the time of booking.

With over 500 prizes available throughout the fes-tival there are still a number of exciting prizes to be won for those travellers booking online, including free upgrades to the Business Class, Silver and Gold Privi-lege Club memberships and up to 100,000 Qmiles. Dou-ble Qmiles can also be earned on flights booked by Privilege Club members. Prizes to be availed within Hamad Inter-national Airport, Qatar Airways’ hub include access to the Al Maha Lounge, Qatar Duty Free retail vouchers and spa vouchers to be used in The

Airport Hotel. Qatar Airways Holidays is also providing fan-tastic deals on hotels and accommodation across a number of the airline’s 150 destinations.

“The Qatar Airways

Travel Festival is still run-ning and travellers should hurry to take advantage of extraordinary deals across our global network. The Travel Festival is designed to inspire our travellers to go

places together with their nearest and dearest, and we’ve packaged the festival to cater for everyone. Treat your loved one with a com-panion fare on Premium and Economy class or take the family on a holiday with our kids fly free offer. Whoever you choose to take with you in 2017, we look forward to welcoming you on board as we make memories when we go places together,” said Dr Hugh Dunleavy, Qatar Air-ways Chief Commercial Officer. Passengers taking advantage of the Qatar Air-ways Travel Festival can turn two holidays into one by planning a stopover in Doha, with a new transit visa scheme offering visitors a free transit visa for up to 96 hours on while on transit.

Turkey

Reuters

As n i g h t - t i m e approaches in San-liurfa, southeastern

Turkey, most of the alley-ways of the city’s old bazaar are emptying out, except for one.

The bustle of daytime trading has died down, but on this little street, a stream of men carry cardboard boxes filled with pigeons to a cluster of three teahouses.

Here, they sell the birds at Sanliurfa’s famed auc-tions to a dedicated band of pigeon keepers and breed-ers, a pastime that has been

thriving for hundreds of years across the region and over the nearby border into war-torn Syria.In a country where the minimum wage is about 1,400 Liras ($367) a month, enthusiasts regu-larly easily spend hundreds of dollars for one bird.

“I once sold a pair of pigeons for 35,000 Turkish Lira,” says auctioneer �mam Dildas. “This is a passion, a hobby you cannot quit. I’ve been known to sell the fridge and my wife’s gold bracelets to pay for pigeons.”Sanliurfa sits just 50km (30 miles) from Syria, in a southeastern region rocked by its own clashes between government troops

and Kurdish insurgents. But the trade has taken the tur-moil in its stride and carried on.

In the early days of the conflict next door, there was a glut of birds on the mar-ket as enthusiasts from northern Syria fled into Tur-key with their pigeons.

“Prices fell due to over-supply but as the conflict escalated and there were no more pigeons coming from Syria, prices rose again,” says 23-year-old breeder smail Ozbek.

He keeps about 200 pigeons - together worth about 50,000 lira - in lofts fitted with alarms and closed circuit TV cameras.

Pigeons fetch high pricesAuctioneer, Kadir Sakizci (left), at a pigeon auction in Sanliurfa, Turkey.

Seattle

AP

The federal government is considering whether it should set up an area

off Washington's San Juan Island where endangered killer whales would be pro-tected from motorboats and other disturbances.

Most motorised vessels would be banned under a pro-posed whale protection zone sought by three conservation groups.

Puget Sound orcas face multiple threats, including pollution, lack of prey and impacts from boats. The zone is a common-sense approach that can be implemented immediately, Orca Relief

Citizens' Alliance, Center for Biological Diversity and Project Seawolf said in a peti-tion filed with NOAA Fisheries. The agency announced Thurs-day it is seeking input from industry, tribes, government agencies and others on the

November petition before deciding whether to proceed.

NOAA Fisheries said stud-ies indicate that the whales forage less in the presence of boat traffic. The orcas rely heavily on underwater sounds

to find food and communicate, and boat noise may disrupt that process.

Killer whales can be found in many oceans, but this small distinct population can typically be found in Puget Sound from spring to fall. They use unique calls to communicate with one another and eat salmon rather than marine mammals. The orcas were listed as endangered in 2005. NOAA Fisheries says they're among the species most at risk for extinction in the near future. With the loss of seven animals in 2016, the population is down to 78.

"We're looking at every option and every opportunity to address the threats to these

whales," Barry Thom, admin-istrator of NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region, said in a statement Thursday. NOAA Fisheries considered a similar no-go zone in 2011 but declined to move forward, cit-ing strong opposition at the time. "The petition presents an opportunity to revisit that idea and get input from the public on this type of protec-tion for the whale," Lynne Barre, NOAA Fisheries recov-ery coordinator for the southern resident killer whales, said in a statement.

Jeff Friedman, U.S. presi-dent of the Pacific Whale Watch Association, told KING-TV in Seattle that the primary challenge the whales face is lack of salmon.

Killer whales could have quiet space off coast

Qatar Airways' travel offers end tomorrow

Los Angeles

AP

The makers of "Star Wars" have put a quick end to rumours that while Car-

rie Fisher has died, her Princess Leia may live on.

Making a rare foray into the sprawling world of "Star Wars" speculation, Lucasfilm said Fri-day night that there are no plans to digitally recreate Fisher to appear in future episodes of the movie saga.

"There is a rumor circulat-ing that we would like to address," a company statement said. "We want to assure our fans that Lucasfilm has no plans to digitally recreate Carrie Fish-er's performance as Princess or General Leia Organa."

Fisher, who reprised her role as Leia in 2015's "Star Wars: Episode VII — The Force Awak-ens," had finished shooting "Star Wars: Episode VIII," due out next December, when she died Dec. 27 of cardiac arrest at age 60. Her mother Debbie Reynolds died the next day.

But Fisher had also been slated to appear in "Episode IX," scheduled for release in 2019. That film is still being scripted, and the writers are deciding how to handle her death.

Adding to the speculation

was the brief appearance of a digitized 1977-era Fisher in "Rogue One: A Star Wars Story," which was released last month.

That film also had a much larger role for a digitized ver-sion of the late Peter Cushing as Grand Moff Tarkin.

The renderings of Fisher and Cushing, who died in 1994, were embraced by many fans but hated by just as many, who thought the characters looked cartoonish, distracting, or even spooky.

John Knoll, the effects guru who came up with the idea of the revitalized characters, told Yahoo Movies on Friday that Fisher "loved" her appearance in "Rogue One," which consists of one short-but-significant shot, and a single word of dia-logue. "She was very much in favor of it," Knoll said.

But Lucasfilm insists "Epi-sode VIII" will be Fisher's last.

"Carrie Fisher was, is, and always will be a part of the Lucasfilm family," the compa-ny's statement said.

"She was our princess, our general, and more importantly, our friend. We are still hurting from her loss. We cherish her memory and legacy as Princess Leia, and will always strive to honor everything she gave to "Star Wars.'"

No plans to digitise Fisher in future 'Star Wars' films

ONLINE CHART BUST

MOST READ

TWEET OF THE DAY

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Age, gender, profession con-ditions for job change for expatriates cancelled

Syria: Islamic State attacks Deir al-Zor city, dozens dead

Qatar residents meet Venus at MIA

1

23

HIGH TIDE 07:00 - 18:45 LOW TIDE 14:15

Mild daytime with slight dust at

places at times and scattered

clouds, cold by night.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

14oC 22oC