Volume 24 | Number 8110 | 2 RiyalsThursday 19 December 2019 | 22 Rabia II 1441 www.thepeninsula.qa

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Amir, Father Amir witness grand parade

Qatar celebrates National DayTo my brothers and sisters in our beloved homeland... every year, you and everyone who lives in this country be good on the occasion of the National Day. Each year, Qatar be more powerful and prosperous. May Allah bless you with security, prosperity and stability.

The Qatar National Day celebrations were held across the country with full fervour in different venues like Katara Cultural Village, Aspire Zone, MIA Park, Lusail and Asian Town through an array of diverse cultural, heritage and recreational activities.

SIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani attended the Qatar National Day 2019 parade on the Doha Corniche, yesterday. Thousands of citizens and residents lined up on the Corniche to witness the parade as part of the Qatar National Day 2019 celebrations in a pleasant and cloudy weather,

The parade was also attended by Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani; H E Sheikh Abdulaziz bin Khalifa Al Thani; H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani, Personal Represent-ative of H H the Amir; H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Khalifa Al Thani; H H Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al Thani; H E Sheikh Jassim bin Khalifa Al Thani; and a number of Their Excellencies Sheikhs and Ministers, QNA reported.

The National Day Parade was also attended by Speaker of the Shura Council, H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud, and a number of members of the Shura Council, in addition to a number of Their Excellencies guests, including President of the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA), Gianni Infantino, and Commander of US Air Forces Central Command, Lieutenant General Joseph Guastella, it added.

The Qatar National Day celebrations were held across the country with full fervour in

different venues like Katara Cultural Village, Aspire Zone, MIA Park, Lusail, Asian Town through an array of diverse cultural, heritage and recreational activities. At night, the Doha Corniche witnessed fireworks celebrations. Also, festivities at Darb Al Saai continued last evening with the participation of large number of visitors and will continue until tomorrow.

All branches of the Qatari Armed Forces participated in the parade including the Amiri Air Force, the Amiri Naval Forces, the Military Police, Coast Guards, Border Guards and Traffic Police with more focus this year on the human element and their skills. �P3

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani greeting citizens after attending the National Day parade on the Corniche. �P2 & 3

Fireworks seen as part of Qatar National Day celebrations on the Doha Corniche. PIC: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

02 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019HOME

Amir, Father Amir attend National Day parade

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani and Their Excellencies Sheikhs and Ministers attending the National Day parade on the Corniche.

LEFT: Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani greeting citizens after attending the National Day parade on the Corniche. RIGHT: H H the Amir hears children singing patriotic songs.

03THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

Amir, Father Amir attend National Day parade

FROM PAGE 1The celebration of the

Qatar National Day 2019, was organised under the theme ‘Al Maali Kaydah’, meaning that the path of excellence is difficult.

Following the National Anthem and the firing of 18-shot gun salute to cele-brate Qatar National Day, the parade started with the entry of horsemen and camel cavalry and aerial displays of various types of warplanes, combat heli-copters, air transports, cargo aircraft, performing aircraft. Several aircraft types including “Rafale” multi-purpose jet fighter; “Apache” attack heli-copters; “F-15” warplanes; and “Typhoon” multirole fighters participated in the shows.

Afterwards, came the parade of the Armed Forces infantry followed by the air forces; armoured vehicles, tanks, various defence systems, police equipment, anti-terrorism equipment a n d m i l i t a r y communications.

The show concluded with a parade of children dressed in Amiri Guard uniform. The parachute jumping was cancelled due to the weather conditions.

At the end of the parade, H H the Amir greeted kids, who were singing the song “Allah ya omri Qatar”, and also greeted the cheering

crowd who were seen taking photographs of H H the Amir and waving Qatar national flag.

Thousands of citizens and residents throng Doha Corniche from early morning to get a nice spot to watch the parade. Being the first QND parade after opening of Doha Metro, reaching the venue was much easier for public due to proximity of Red Line stations to the parade venue.

People were also able to watch the Parade through jumbo digital displays installed along Corniche road. A number of mobile food carts and beverage outlets were also available at various spots for people.

Speaking to The Peninsula, Ahmed Al Mohannadi, a Qatari citizen said: “On the occasion of Qatar National Day 2019, we con-gratulate H H the Amir and the Qatari people.”

“We came today early to watch the parade

with minimum distance and all shows were good. December 18 is an opportunity to renew loyalty to the homeland and strengthen the values of citizenship and unity,” he added.

For her part, Fatma, another Qatari citizen said: “It is a day that all people living in Qatar should celebrate; we were excited to watch the parade. I always attend the National Day parade and today we were lucky to have such a nice weather.”

“We came today to share the joys with the Qatari people on this precious occasion. We congratulate all citizen on this occasion,” said Haytham Ahmed, a resident.

The Qatar National Day 2019 slogan was inspired by a poem by the founder describing his son Sheikh Ali bin Jassim (Joaan) and gives a clear picture of a whole generation of Qatari youth in the founding period.

We congratulate H H the Amir, Qatari people, and everyone who resides on the soil of Qatar on the occasion of Qatar National Day, which entrenches the values of loyalty

to the homeland, asking Allah The Almighty to bless our beloved homeland with security and safety, and the aspirations of our people be fulfilled for more strength, pride and prosperity under our wise leadership.

Amir arrives in Kuala Lumpur to attend Summit

PAF’s JF-17 Thunder aircraft presentspectacular fly past on National Day

04 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019HOME

Qatar, UN sign four agreementsQNA/DOHA

The State of Qatar has signed four agreements with the United Nations, in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on the sidelines of the 19th Doha Forum, which concluded recently in Doha.

Director of International Organization’s Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yousef Larm and Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict Vir-ginia Gamba signed a to establish in Doha a center for analysis and communication affiliated to Special Representative of the Secretary-General for Children and Armed Conflict office.

The tasks of the center will be related to research and writing, and the organization of technical workshops on training needs to enhance knowledge and skills related to the pro-tection of children affected by conflict. The State of Qatar and the United Nations Development Program (UNDP) signed a letter of intent to establish an office for the UNDP in Doha.

Director of International Organization’s Department at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs Yousef Larm and Administrator of the UNDP Achim Steiner signed the letter of intent.

Also, Qatar signed an agreement with the UNDP to support the junior professional officer program of the UNDP. Director of International Organ-ization’s Department at the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs Yousef Larm and Administrator of the UNDP Achim Steiner signed the agreement. The State of Qatar and United Nations Office for the

Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) signed a letter of intent to establish an OCHA office in Doha to coordinate effective and principled human-itarian work in partnership with national and international actors, defending the rights of those in need, strengthening regionalism and prevention, and facil i tating sustainable solutions.

Moreover, Qatar and the United Nations Alliance of Civ-ilizations (UNAOC) signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to open an office for the Alliance in Doha, to enhance cooperation between the State of Qatar and the UNAOC. HE Director of International Organ-ization’s Department at the Min-istry of Foreign Affairs Yousef Larm and HE High-Represent-ative for the UNAOC Miguel Angel Moratinos signed the MoU.

The agreements aim to enhance partnership and coop-eration between the State of Qatar and the UN. It also demonstrates the important and effective role that the State of Qatar plays in the UN to achieve the goals of the UN Charter and the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals as well as to maintain international peace and security.

Georgian envoy stresses keenness to develop ties with QatarQNA/DOHA

Ambassador of Georgia to the State of Qatar H E Nikoloz Revazishvili stated that the bilateral relations and cooperation between his country and the State of Qatar has been steadily developed in the fields of economy, culture, trade, security cooperation, education, tourism and other fields that benefit both countries.

His Excellency added, in an exclusive statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA), that the geographical proximity of the two coun-tries naturally contributes to the devel-opment and deepening of many aspects of the bilateral relationship.

He pointed out that the historically close relations between Georgia and the Arab world and the cultural ties and friendship between peoples are favorable precondi-tions for further deepening of mutually ben-eficial relations.

The Ambassador said that during recent years several high level visits took place from

both sides, adding that more than ten agree-ments and MOUs have already been signed in different areas and more are under con-sideration or ready to be signed in the nearest future.

He pointed out that Georgia has become one of the favorite tourist destinations in

Qatar with three daily flights between Doha and Tbilisi bring hundreds of visitors from Qatar to Georgia every day.

He also stated that Georgia and Qatar are discovering each other more and more as economic partners, adding that a couple of big Qatari investment projects are being started in Georgia, and Georgian companies are also entering Qatari market.

The Ambassador stressed that there is a huge untapped potential for further improvement of the relations, and he was confident that with the determination and efforts of the governments of both states mutually beneficial cooperation will be further enhanced and developed. He hailed the remarkable achievements made by the State of Qatar and its fast development and overall success in many realms of local and international arena.

He congratulated the wise leadership and the people of Qatar on the occasion of the National Day, wishing Qatar peace, well-being and prosperity.

Azerbaijan envoy hails growing ties with QatarQNA/DOHA

Ambassador of the Republic of Azerbaijan to Qatar, H E Rashad Ismayilov, praised the growing relations between Qatar and Azerbaijan, which witnesses great and continuous leaps in terms of strengthening, documenting and developing them in the interest of the two countries and their peoples.

In a statement to Qatar News Agency (QNA) on the occasion of National Day, H E the Ambassador said that Azerbaijan-Qatar relations have grown significantly and wit-nessed an exchange of visits at the leadership level of the two countries in 2016-2017, as well as the signing of a number of agree-ments that would expand bilateral cooperation.

The Ambassador pointed out that the two countries seek to activate the mechanisms of trade exchange further, noting that the second meeting of the Qatar-Azerbaijan joint intergovernmental trade-economic and tech-nical committee was held on Feb. 20, 2019.

He added that a joint working group was established between the two countries, with the aim of encouraging investment cooper-ation and preparing investment projects, which held its first meeting on October 16-17

in Baku, in addition to a Qatari delegation, including representatives of leading Qatari companies in the field of agriculture, which visited Azerbaijan in July.

The Ambassador said that the priority now is to expand cooperation in the fields of economy, trade and investment, which is proceeding successfully with steps. The Ambassador said the homeland historical days that remain engraved in the memory of history, is remembered by generations with pride because they represent the history

and glory of the nation, therefore they share the National Day celebrations alongside the friendly and brotherly people of Qatar on December 18th. His Excellency also stressed his country’s pride in its relations with Qatar, which was one of the first countries that rec-ognized the sovereignty of modern Azerbaijan and established diplomatic rela-tions with it.

His Excellency extended his sincere con-gratulations to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister and Interior Min-ister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani on this precious occasion and continued success in their noble tasks and to the brotherly Qatari people.

The Ambassador pointed out that the Qatari leadership’s sound approach enabled it to overcome all local and regional chal-lenges, praising the wise policy of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the security, safety and ability of the State of Qatar to maintain its economy and the con-tinuation of the process of comprehensive development and the qualitative leap in all areas of work.

H E Rashad Ismayilov

H E Nikoloz Revazishvili

Three Pakistan Air Force (PAF) JF-17 Thunder aircraft presented spectacular fly past on Doha skies on the eve of Qatar National Day. The spectators fervently cheered to see the pride of Pakistan JF 17 aircraft appearing on the horizon, said a statement issued by the Embassy of Pakistan. PAF contingent comprising pilots and ground crew of Pakistan Air Force had arrived in Doha to participate in the Qatar National Day celebrations.

American Council of Young Political Leaders delegation visits Shura CouncilQNA/DOHA

A delegation of the American Council of Young Political Leaders (ACYPL) visited the Shura Council, where it was welcomed by HE Yousif bin Rashid Al Khater, a member of the Shura Council and several officials in the Council.

During the visit, the delegation was briefed on the legislative and oversight role of the Shura Council. The delegation praised the efforts of the State of Qatar in supporting the Qatari-American relations for peace and sta-bility in the region and the world, as well as the development renaissance witnessed by the State of Qatar in various fields.

UNRWA: Qatari support contributed to reducing financial deficit QNA/GAZA

The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) said that the financial deficit for the year 2019 decreased from $167m to only $90m.

UNRWA Media Advisor Adnan Abu Hasana said that over the past three weeks, intensive efforts were made and resulted in the agency receiving $ 77m from more

than 20 countries and partners. It includes funds transferred from countries that have frozen their remaining contributions for this year in light of the inves-tigation supervised by the United Nations Internal Oversight Office, which con-cluded that there is no cor-ruption or financial abuse.

He added, in a statement to the Qatar News Agency (QNA), that the Qatari support for UNRWA contributed

greatly to reducing the financial deficit of the UN agency this year, praising the development of the rela-tionship with the State of Qatar in order to provide better service to millions of Pales-tinian refugees in the UNRWA’s five fields of opera-tions. UNRWA had announced that it needs at least $167m to be able to con-tinue its services and pay the salaries of its employees until the end of this year.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani arrived yesterday in the Malaysian capital to participate in the Kuala Lumpur Summit 2019 at the invitation of the Prime Minister of Malaysia, H E Dr. Mahathir Mohamad. Upon his arrival at Kuala Lumpur International Airport, H H the Amir was received by the Minister of Education H E Maszlee bin Malik, Kuala Lumpur Summit Secretary-General H E Samsudin Osman, a number of ranking Malaysian officials, the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Malaysia, H E Fahad bin Mohammed Kafoud, and members of the Qatari embassy. H H the Amir will deliver today a speech at the opening session of the Summit, which will be held under the title “The Role of Development in Achieving National Sovereignty”. Besides Qatar and the hosts Malaysia, Turkey, Indonesia, Pakistan and Iran will also be attending the summit.

National Day celebrated in Msheireb Downtown DohaTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

The lights went up and everyone rose to their feet to chant for Qatar as the National Anthem reverberated loud and proud in Barahat Msheireb in celebration of Qatar National Day.

This is the first ever public event to take place in Barahat Msheireb, the world’s largest open-air covered square in the Middle East, and the hub of entertainment and social gath-erings in Msheireb Downtown Doha.

In collaboration with the Ministry of Transportation and Communication and Qatar Airways, Msheireb Properties organised the event for all res-idents in Qatar to celebrate Qatar National Day in the

historic Downtown Doha that holds a very special place in the hearts of Qataris.

Folkloric tunes, family games and delicious food and entertainment attracted flocks of people to Msheireb as the fun went on for two days.

Msheireb Downtown Doha, by Msheireb Properties, is the latest destination for leisure, living and business. It is also the world’s smartest and most sus-tainable fully built city district and the first fully sustainable regeneration project worldwide. Recently, the district welcomed its first batch of residents and commercial tenants with many shops opening up their doors to the public, and residents moving in Wadi 1, Al Kahraba, and Al Khail neighbourhoods.

The agreements were signed in the presence of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, on the sidelines of the 19th Doha Forum, which concluded recently in Doha.

05THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

17 schools present spectacular Qatar National Day show in LusailRAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

The Lusail Sports Arena burst in festive celebration yesterday as 7,500 students from 17 schools staged spectacular parades and thematic cultural shows as part of the Qatar National Day Asso-ciated Activities organised by the Ministry of Interior (MoI).

Dressed in elaborate cos-tumes, the students shone in their performances inspired by Qatari traditions and focused on developments achieved by Qatar in various fields.

“The Associated Activities for the Qatar National Day celebra-tions for schools have become a major event on the occasion of National Day. I’m very happy to be here today seeing the joy among the participating students who are very keen to be with us in huge number every year,” Brigadier Abdullah Khalifa Al Muftah, Director of the Public Relations Department at the MoI, said while speaking to reporters.

Brigadier Al Muftah noted that the number of students taking part in the event every year has been in an upswing.

“The keenness of the schools to participate in this programme with a huge number of students

is clearly evident of their hap-piness in joining their Qatari brothers the in the joy of the National Day and its values,” he stressed.

It was a big celebration of Qatar in a brilliant showcase of creativity and skill of the stu-dents in their performance as they competed in different cat-egories including parade, the-matic song and thematic show on Qatar.

Donning colourful costumes and carrying Qatari flags, the competing schools paraded with sculptures of famous landmarks and symbols associated with the country such as the National Museum of Qatar, a Qatar Airways plane, camel, cannon and World Cup trophy, among others.

Thousands in the audience cheered for the different students representing the different

competing schools during the cultural show and song contests.

The big crowd also applaud performing troupes from the Indonesian community as they presented cultural numbers including Plate Dance, Kipas Dance and a performance of the famous Angklung, a native Indo-nesian musical instrument made from bamboo. The participating

schools included Bangladesh MHM School and College, Bhavans Public School, Birla Public School, Doha Modern Indian School, DPS Modern Indian School, Ideal Indian School, MES Indian School, Noble International School, Olive Inter-national School, Pak Shama School, Pakistan International School, Philippine International School Qatar, Philippine School

Doha, Rajagiri Public School, Scholars’ International School, Shantiniketan Indian School, and Stafford Sri Lankan School.

The programme for schools has been one of the much antic-ipated events which forms an important element of the Asso-ciated Activities for the Qatar National Day celebrations which has gone from strength to strength every year.

Schoolchildren perform during the Associated Activities of Qatar National Day organised by the Ministry of Interior at Lusail Sports Arena. Students from one of the participating schools in the Associated Activities of Qatar National Day,

organised by the Ministry of Interior at Lusail Sports Arena, yesterday. PICS: BAHER AMIN/THE PENINSULA

Expat communities celebrate National Day with colourful paradesSANAULLAH ATAULLAH THE PENINSULA

A large number of people from expatriate communities from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and other countries participated in Associated Activities of Qatar National Day celebrations yesterday.

A parade by expatriates was held to celebrate Qatar National

Day yesterday at Asian Town. Participants held Qatar National Flag and placards demonstrating love and loyalty to their host country, Qatar.

Participants said they were very proud of participating in the parade describing it as a golden opportunity to demonstrate their love for Qatar. “I participated with my four friends in the parade. I feel proud to be part of

the parade and any other activ-ities on the occasion of Qatar National Day,” Mohamad Abdul Jabar, a Bangladeshi national told The Peninsula.

“I have been participating in these activities for the last three years to celebrate Qatar National Day, and I am very happy to do so,” said Ahmad Abdussalam, an Indian national. Abdussalam said that he will keep participating in

the activities of Qatar National Day as long as he will be in Qatar.

The Cricket Stadium at Asian Town hosted yesterday a Twenty20 cricket match between Qatar local players and international players. The match attracted a large number of spectators.

A wide range of cultural events and musical perform-ances were presented across the

country including Wakra Sports Club, Barwa Al Baraha, Doha Stadium, Sri Lankan School in Doha, Barwa Village - Mukainis, Al Shahaniya, Lusail Sports Complex and Al Khor Barwa Workers Recreation Complex.

The Wakra Sports Club hosted cultural shows and special events by Indian-Malayali communities in Qatar. Kerala Muslim Cultural Centre

showcased a variety of popular shows and demonstrations

The Wakra Football stadium hosted a wide variety of cultural fiesta and musical concerts in Punjabi, Pushto and Balochi lan-guages by famous Pakistani artistes and singers. The Sri Lankan School also hosted cul-tural performances and shows by artists under Sri Lankan Coor-dination Committee.

Indian and Bangladeshi communities taking part in parades to mark Qatar National Day in Asian Town. PIC: ABDUL BASIT/THE PENINSULA

06 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019HOME 07THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

Prosperity, Pride and Glo ry — A Nation Celebrates

A reinvigorated UNRWA must root its humanitarian advocacy in the experiences of the refugees. To achieve this, the agency must initiate a broad-based inclusive conversation with refugee communities.

JAPAN NEWS-YOMIURI

08 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019VIEWS

Repurposing the UNRWA in a post-truth world

In the post-truth, post-shame world of Donald Trump and Boris Johnson in which policies are flipped with a tweet, history is

rewritten in a soundbite and “reality” made-over by a headline, the UNRWA’s steadfast support for over five million Palestinian refugees, their rights and dignity has never been more important.

But the agency now marking its 70th year must lay to rest its recent mismanagement scandal, restore donor confidence and reconnect with the refugee communities. Under its new leadership it can achieve this and emerge stronger.

The stakes have never been so high. In August 2018, the Trump White House cut the US annual contribution to the UNRWA - $365m, a quarter of the agency’s budget - jeopardising services to the world’s largest and oldest refugee population.

A pattern of destructive unilater-alism soon emerged. In December 2017, the US announced the decision to move its embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, recognising Israel’s illegal annexation and occupation of the city, shattering decades of international consensus.

In March this year, Washington’s ambassador to Israel endorsed its unlawful annexation of the Golan Heights and in November the US declared that Jewish settle-ments were not incon-sistent with international law, thus condoning multiple “grave breaches” of the Geneva Conventions - potentially

amounting to war crimes - by Israel, the occupying power, against a UN-protected people.

Heartened by the toothless inter-national response, Israel’s Prime Min-ister Benjamin Netanyahu demanded more. He urged US support for his annexation plans for the Jordan Valley, where over 65,000 Palestinians live alongside some 11,000 Jewish settlers on land also seized in contravention of international law. The legal frame-works on which the world order has been predicated since World War II are under unilateral attack.

Moreover, the White House is attempting to redefine three issues central to the search for peace in the Middle East - Jerusalem, refugees and settlements - all of it cost-free for Israel, with nothing demanded in return.

Make no mistake who is driving this. As early as December 2016, Netanyahu called for the UNRWA to be “dismantled”. His acolytes in Wash-ington, such as Netanyahu family friend and Trump son-in-law turned Middle East adviser, Jared Kushner, offered support for Israel’s long-cher-ished goal: the elimination of the status of over five million Palestinian refugees registered with the UNRWA, along with their right of return.

The Trump White House argued that descendants of the 1948 refugees were not themselves refugees, a notion flagrantly at odds with interna-tional norms and refugee best practice espoused by many, including the UN’s other refugee agency, UNHCR, to which the US is the largest donor.

But there was pushback against this attempt to airbrush the rights, the identity, the very existence of millions of refugees from history.

In December, the UN General Assembly voted overwhelmingly to approve UNRWA’s mandate for three years, including the legitimate defi-nition of refugees. No less than 169 members supported, just two voted against: the US and Israel. They were isolated, defeated.

For the UNRWA this diplomatic victory had added significance.

In the run up to the UNGA debate, the agency was consumed by a man-agement scandal limited to a small group of officials around the executive head, the commissioner general, who was forced to resign.

An interim leader, Christian Saunders - a seasoned UN-reformer and close confidant of the UN Sec-retary-General - was sent in to sort out the mismanagement. The over-whelming UNGA vote was an early sign that the UNRWA was turning the corner. Recently, donors who had sus-pended aid until the agency resolved its internal problems are returning.

The UNRWA still has a huge financial deficit to bridge by the end of the year. But it has a plan in place to

fill the void left by Washington’s per-fidious defund. Crucially, and no doubt temporarily, it has seen off the Israel-inspired political attack, which included an attempt to shut down UNRWA operations in Jerusalem.

So how does the agency move forward after the triple whammy of the financial crisis, the management scandal and the political attack on its mandate? To begin with, it must shore up the confidence of its main donors by driving through the management reforms initiated by Christian Saunders, aimed at steadying the agency in the wake of the departure of the previous commissioner general and his inner circle.

Donors must fully honour their much-vaunted “grand bargain” and respond with multi-year agreements across the board, facilitating longer-term planning and financial security, recognising UNRWA’s long-standing contribution to human capital and the ongoing necessity of its life-saving programmes.

Guaranteeing and improving services will assist the UNRWA in restoring credibility with the Pales-tinians it serves, which has been damaged by the recent misman-agement allegations. But the agency must go further.

With increased Arab funding and greater diversity in its donor base in the wake of America’s departure, there is an opportunity for more robust, evi-dence-driven, international-law based advocacy and media work, which has been glaringly absent this year.

A reinvigorated UNRWA must root its humanitarian advocacy in the experiences of the refugees. To achieve this, the agency must initiate a broad-based inclusive conversation with refugee communities. Freed from the constraints of American-Israeli financial leverage, now is the time to consult the refugees about their aspi-rations and advocate meaningfully for their rights, including their right to self-determination and the full range of their civil and political rights.

The UNRWA must make the argument forcefully to the donor community that aid is not a dis-placement activity. It can never replace rights and dignity. Palestinian rights are not for sale.

CHRISTOPHER GUNNESS AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAY

A commitment to the state of Israel ... does not mean 100% agreement with all of Israel’s

political actions.

Angela Merkel German Chancellor

Regulations necessary to ensure IT firms protect data

Huge information technology (IT) corporations have gathered massive amounts of customer information. There

are strong concerns about the situation. The government needs to swiftly create and improve rules in a manner suited to the actual circumstances.

The government’s Conference for Digital Market Competition has put together a plan to urge both domestic and foreign IT companies to reinforce the protection of personal data and promote the transparency of their business trans-actions. The government will pursue such objectives as establishing a new law at next year’s ordinary Diet session and revising relevant legislation.

At a session of the conference, Chief Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide Suga said, “[The latest move] has shown how new rules should be laid down regarding the digital market.” Presumed targets are “platform” corporations, such as US firms Google, Apple Inc. and Amazon.com Inc.

Rakuten Inc. and Yahoo Japan Corp. are also included.

There is good reason to tighten regu-lations on them, given their increasing influence on society through the pro-vision of internet services and social media. There are two main pillars for such regulations. One concerns how an environment for fair competition will be realized.

The envisaged law would oblige platform corporations operating large-scale online malls and app stores to dis-close their contract terms while also regu-larly reporting their operational situations to the national government. If a platform company does not disclose such infor-mation, it would be issued an advisory with the name of the company revealed or be ordered to improve its methods. The idea of expanding the list of regulatory targets to include other types of services will also be considered in the future.

Platform companies stand at an advantage in online malls, as they are the operators of such sites. Other businesses selling goods online find it difficult to say

no when they suffer such disadvantages as unilateral changes to agreements and burdens incurred through coercive cost-sharing. The aim of rectifying such a situ-ation is understandable.

The Fair Trade Commission intends to keep a closer watch for “abuse of a dominant bargaining position,” which is prohibited by the Antimonopoly Law. However, it takes time to grasp the real-ities involved. Establishing a new law to complement the Antimonopoly Law can be expected to restrain platform corpo-rations in this respect.

The second pillar is protecting users.The Personal Information Protection

Law would be revised to ban not only platform firms, but all other companies, from inappropriately using personal information.

The appropriate handling of personal information and fair competition will support the sound development of a data-based society. It is hoped that an effective system will be facilitated while taking care not to hinder technological innovation.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

National Day pride

A sense of utmost pride and patriotism filled the air for every citizen and expatriate residing in Qatar. This year even more so because Qatar, under the wise lead-

ership of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, has weathered the unjust siege in a very professional manner. Qatar National Day is an occasion for its citizens to remember the achievements of their predecessors. National Day com-memorates the anniversary of the establishment of Qatar by the late Founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani.

To promote national cohesion in society, Qatar National Day which falls on December 18 each year, is being held this year under the theme of “Ten years embraced glory and arts, obtained all excellence and manliness ... The path of excellence is difficult”. The celebrations highlighted peo-ple’s patriotism and solidarity for its leadership.

Qatar went on the paths of glory, achieving accomplish-ments, caring for rights, helping the needy, championing the oppressed, observing the right of neighbourliness, adhering to values and morals, offering the world a bright example of a safe and stable country capable of achieving the highest levels of development, and providing the finest quality of

life for its people and residents.Qatar’s celebration of its

National Day comes as the country is proud of the glories of the past and proud of the present accomplishments that is filled with hope, optimism and confi-dence in a bright tomorrow and a future full of giving, building, renaissance and progress under the wise government.

The most prominent progress of the country’s accomplish-ments this year is the political, economic, military and defence successes achieved by its foreign relations and strategic alliances open to various countries and peoples with active and calm diplomacy based on mutual respect and common interests.

Qatar has been able to achieve tangible achievements in record time as a result of good planning and following a tight strategy in which all the influential sectors in the country are integrated. The State succeeded in overcoming the effects of the unfair blockade imposed for the third year in a row and after it became more powerful, preventive and coherent, and more self-reliant.

Qatar achieved the highest rates of economic growth. Major projects related to the 2022 World Cup are being com-pleted. Infrastructure development in the free, economic, industrial and logistical areas has taken place, and the national economy has witnessed a great recovery with the opening of more than 800 Qatari companies in the field of manufacturing food, service and manufacturing industries, as well as the expansion of several industrial cities to provide land for more investment projects and promising opportu-nities in various sectors. Qatar has, over the years, preserved its historical heritage and cultural identity, despite rapid advancements on many fronts. Qatar National Day is an occasion of renewed loyalty and is celebrated by all citizens and residents alike to promote loyalty, unity, and pride in Qatar’s national identity.

Qatar National Day is an occasion of renewed loyalty and is celebrated by all citizens and residents alike to promote loyalty, unity, and pride in Qatar’s national identity.

A file picture of Palestinian demonstrator holding a UN flag during a rally against a US decision to cut funding to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA).

09THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

Diplomatic missions in US, LatAm mark National Day

QNA DOHA

Qatar’s embassies and diplo-matic missions in the United States, Canada and other Latin American countries marked the National Day, which is cele-brated on December 18 every year, in commemoration of the state’s founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani, under the theme ‘The Path of Excellence is Difficult’.

Their Excellencies, Heads of Diplomatic, Consular and Rep-resentative Missions of the State of Qatar abroad, extended greetings and congratulations to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and the Qatari people

on this precious occasion, wishing the State of Qatar further progress and prosperity.

The Qatari diplomatic cele-brations in the capitals and cities of the world have been attended by a high-level official and public representation, reflecting Qatar’s distinguished relations with the countries of the world.

In Washington, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United States H E Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani hosted the reception at the US Library of Congress. More than a thousand people attended the function.

Attending were a number of ranking officials at the US administration, members of the Arabic and foreign diplomatic corps in Washington, in addition to Qatari citizens who live in the United States and students studying there.

The beginning of the event saw Qatari student Ahmed Al Hajri welcome the guests and say that today is a commemoration of the state’s founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani who founded the country in 1878. He added that they are also cel-ebrating 47 years of partnership between the State of Qatar and the United States.

For his part, H E the Ambas-sador praised members of US administration and Congress, particularly Secretary of Treasury, H E Steven Mnuchin and Secretary of Health and Human Services, H E Alex Azar saying their attendance reflects the strength of bilateral ties. He also thanked members of the diplomatic corps who represent friends of Qatar from around the world.

H E the Ambassador wel-comed Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, saying her attendance reflect the clear com-mitment to enhancing the ties

between the American and Qatari peoples.

H E Pelosi expressed her delight at participating in the national day celebrations, saying that she has just returned from Spain where she was attending a conference on climate change, and got to know the State of Qatar’s commitment to pro-tecting the planet.

She stressed on the impor-tance of the partnership the two sides have, and added that she had the honour of meeting Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani several times, as well as Chairperson of Qatar Foun-dation H H Sheikha Moza bin Nasser to discuss initiatives related to children’s education.

Pelosi said that it was for these reasons and more that she

appreciates and celebrates all the efforts made by the State of Qatar all over the world. She said that she had a chance to pay a short visit to the State of Qatar and went to Al Udeid airbase, and thanked the State of Qatar for hosting US soldiers there.

Pelosi concluded by saying that it was an honour to celebrate the State of Qatar’s National Day and thanked everyone working on

enhancing ties between the State of Qatar and the United States.

In the Canadian capital Ottawa, Acting Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the State of Qatar to Canada Hamoud Saleh Al Saadi hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar’s National Day.

The ceremony was attended by a number of ranking officials, members of the Senate, members of the House of Commons,

military leaders, heads and members of the diplomatic corps accredited to Canada, and a number of academics, jour-nalists, embassy friends and members of the Arab community in Canada. In his speech, Al Saadi welcomed the attendees and stressed the strong relations between Qatar and Canada.

In Lima, Qatar’s Ambassador to the Republic of Peru H E Ali

bin Hamad Al Sulaiti hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

The event was attended by Foreign Minister H E Gustavo Meza-Cuadra, Mayor of Lima H E Jorge Munoz, Mayor of Mira-flores H E Luis Molina and a number of heads of diplomatic missions accredited to Peru, businessmen and dignitaries.

H E the Foreign Minister of Peru extended congratulations

and greetings to H H the Amir of Qatar, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and to the Qatari people, stressing the depth of the bilateral relations which com-pleted 30 years of cooperation.

He said that Qatar and Peru are linked by friendship and cooperation ties, expressing the keenness of the Government of Peru on strengthening and enhancing the bilateral relations

with the State of Qatar.For his part, H E the Qatari

Ambassador welcomed the guests and praised the strong and developing relations between Qatar and Peru, which are based on the principles of cooperation and mutual respect. He said that the National Day of the State of Qatar is a dear national occasion, noting Qatar’s prominent position on the regional and international scene.

In Mexico City, Qatar’s Ambassador to the United Mexican States H E Mohammed bin Jassim Al Kuwari hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

The event was attended by Secretary of Tourism H E Carlos Mackinlay, deputies and foreign diplomats accredited to Mexico.

In a speech during the cer-emony, HE the Qatari Ambas-

sador noted the distinguished relations between Qatar and Mexico, and said that Qatar wel-comes everyone and its doors are open to Mexican tourists and investors.

H E the Ambassador noted that Qatar Vision 2030 con-tributed to promoting human development in education, culture and in many other fields, including investments, eco-nomics and sports, adding that

Qatar is looking to be a pioneer in education, in the region and the world.

The reception included an exhibition of traditional tools and models for the 2022 World Cup stadiums, in addition to pictures representing the most prominent cultural, sports and historical landmarks of the State of Qatar.

In Quito, Qatar’s Ambassador to the Republic of Ecuador, H E Mohammed Ali Al Malki hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar’s National Day.

The reception was attended by Minister of Defence H E Oswaldo Jarrin, Minister of Tourism H E Rosi Prado de Holguin, Assistant Foreign Min-ister H E Cristial Espinosa, rep-resenting the Department of Foreign Affairs, Speaker of the National Assembly H E Cesar Litardo and a large number of the Arab and Islamic community in Quito.

In Montevideo, Acting Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the State of Qatar to the Ori-ental Republic of Uruguay, Taleb bin Mohammed Al Menkhas hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar’s National Day.

The reception was attended by intendant of Durazno Department H E Carmelo Vidalin, H E intendant of Maldonado Department, Chief of Protocol at the Foreign Ministry H E Ambas-sador Eduardo Pozo, as well as a number of officials and repre-sentatives of government insti-tutions, senior military leaders and Uruguayan officials and heads of Arab and foreign mis-sions accredited to Uruguay, in addition to a number of prom-inent social and religious person-alities, civil society leaders, busi-nessmen and media. The cer-emony included an exhibition for traditional products and popular Qatari cuisine.

The Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United States, H E Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, hosted a reception at the US Library of Congress in Washington. The event also celebrated 47 years of partnership between the State of Qatar and the United States.

Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United States, H E Sheikh Meshal bin Hamad Al Thani, with US Secretary of Treasury, H E Steven Mnuchin (top left) and Speaker of the US House of Representatives, H E Nancy Pelosi, at a reception to mark Qatar National Day in Washington, DC.

Qatar’s Ambassador to the Republic of Peru, H E Ali bin Hamad Al Sulaiti, with Peru’s Foreign Minister, H E Gustavo Meza-Cuadra (first right), and other officials during a ceremony to mark Qatar National Day in Lima.

Qatar’s Ambassador to the United Mexican States, H E Mohammed bin Jassim Al Kuwari (left), and other officials during an event to celebrate Qatar National Day, in Mexico City.

Acting Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the State of Qatar to the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Taleb bin Mohammed Al Menkhas, with other dignitaries and officials during an event to celebrate Qatar National Day in Montevideo, Uruguay.

10 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019HOME

Qatar National Day celebrated in major European capitalsQNA DOHA

Qatar’s embassies and diplo-matic missions in European countries have celebrated the National Day, which is cele-brated on December 18 of every year, in commemoration of the state’s founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani, under the theme ‘The Path of Excel-lence is Difficult’.

Their Excellencies, Heads of Diplomatic, Consular and Representative Missions of the State of Qatar abroad, extended greetings and congratulations to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and the Qatari people on this precious occasion, wishing the State of Qatar fur ther progress and prosperity.

In London, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United Kingdom, H E Youssef bin Ali Al Khater held a reception on the occasion of the State of Qatar’s National Day. The function was attended by Director of Protocol and Vice-Marshal of the Diplomatic

Corps at the Foreign and Com-monwealth Office Neild Holland and Her Majesty’s Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps Alistair Harrison, along with a number of ranking offi-cials from different ministries, the house of lords, and Arab, foreign and former UK ambas-sadors accredited by the UK and the State of Qatar.

The Ambassador said that 2019 coincides with the 10th anniversary of opening the South Hook Gas Company that distributes gas across the UK. The Ambassador stressed that the State of Qatar intends to become a partner to the UK in the field of energy security.

As for the World Cup 2022, H E the Ambassador discussed the State of Qatar and the UK’s joint interest in sports. The Ambassador also discussed the success of the World Athletics Championships in Doha and the FIFA Club World Cup hosted by the State of Qatar from December 11 to December 22.

In Munich, Consul General of the State of Qatar in Munich H E Rashid bin Saeed Al Khayarin held a reception on the occasion of the National Day of the State.

The event was attended by German political, economic, cultural, intellectual and scien-tific figures, in addition to the members of the Arab and foreign diplomatic corps accredited to the city of Munich and a large number of Qatari citizens and members of the Arab and Islamic communities. HE the Consul praised the dis-tinguished relations between the State of Qatar and Germany and the mutual visits relations that aimed at consolidating cooperation in all fields.

The event included a special

part for the promotion of the 2022 World Cup and the show-cased “Qatar the Future” film, which attracted great interest from the audience.

In Bern, Acting Charge d’Affaires of the Embassy of the State of Qatar to the Swiss Con-federation and the Principality of Liechtenstein Khaled Ali Al Maliki Al Juhani, held a reception on the occasion of Qatar’s National Day. The event was attended by a number of officials and members of the diplomatic missions accredited to the Swiss Confederation.

In Budapest, Qatar’s Ambassador to Hungary H E Mohammed bin Hamad Al Khalifa hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The reception was attended by H E Deputy Min-ister of State at the Cabinet Roland Juhasz, H E Advisor to the Hungarian President Gabriella Kereszty and senior

officials and directors of departments of various minis-tries as well as several members of the Arab and foreign diplo-matic corps accredited to Hungary.

In Vienna, Qatar’s Ambas-sador to the Republic of Austria H E Sultan bin Salmeen Al Man-souri hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

The reception was attended

by former Austrian President, H E Heinz Fischer and a number of directors of departments and protocols at the Austrian Foreign Ministry, as well as ranking offi-cials at the UN headquarters in Vienna, Arab and foreign ambassadors accredited to Austria and representatives of various official political, parlia-mentary, diplomatic and eco-nomic institutions.

In a speech during the cer-emony, H E Ambassador Al Mansouri praised the relations between Qatar and Austria and their remarkable development in recent years. The Ambas-sador stressed his determi-nation to continue work to promote the bilateral relations to broader horizons and enhance the friendship bonds between the two people.

H E the Ambassador stressed the importance of culture in bringing peoples together, noting the signifi-cance of Austria’s cultural her-itage, especially in the field of arts, museums and opera, and the interest of the State of Qatar and its people in the arts.

He noted the joint artistic activities between the State of

Qatar and the Republic of Austria, including the Qatari exhibition “The Majlis” at Welt-museum in the capital Vienna, which witnessed a large turnout by the Austrian people.

In Rome, Qatar’s Ambas-sador to the Italian Republic H E Abdulaziz bin Ahmed Al Malki hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

In a speech during the reception, HE the Ambassador said that the pillars and foun-dations inherited generation after generation, and the respect for the sovereignty and civilizations of peoples, have brought the State of Qatar to become a role model in the welfare and development in various fields, most notably the remarkable achievements

made in its policies, external relations and strategic alli-ances, and the reliance on the national capacity and competence.

H E the Ambassador noted that the close high-level

friendship relations between the State of Qatar and the Italian Republic developed to strategic levels, and benefited form the mutual trust between the two countries to reflect pos-itively on all aspects of the joint cooperation.

Meanwhile, H E the Ambas-

sador noted a growing Italian presence in the sectors of industry, engineering, finance and investment, infrastructure especially the 2022 World Cup projects, the metro projects and others.

In Stockholm, Qatar’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden H E Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al Thani hosted a reception on the occasion of

Qatar National Day. The reception was attended by State Secretary to the Minister for Business, Industry and Inno-vation H E Emil Hogberg (the guest of honour), H E the Second Deputy Speaker of the

Swedish Parliament, H E head of the diplomatic security service, members of Stockholm municipality, heads of the Arab and foreign diplomatic missions accredited to Sweden, as well as representatives of gov-ernment institutions, local and foreign media, the Swedish community and Arab commu-nities in Stockholm.

H E the State Secretary to the Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation under-lined the depth of the Qatari-Swedish relations and said that the Kingdom of Sweden looks forwards further partnership with the State of Qatar at all levels.

H E the Qatari Ambassador welcomed the attendees and stressed the developing bilateral relations between the two countries. The reception included a film on the Qatari heritage and the economic and cultural renaissance in the State of Qatar.

In Athens, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Greece H E Abdulaziz Ali Al Naama held a reception on the occasion of the National Day of the State. The ceremony was attended by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs for Economic Diplomacy and Openness H E Kostas Fra-gogiannis, Greek Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports H E Lefteris Avgenakis, Deputy Minister of Development and Investments H E Ioannis Tsakiris, Secretary General for International Eco-nomic Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs H E Gregory Dim-itriadis and a large number of directors of departments of the Greek Foreign Ministry, person-alities from the business and civil society community and the

diplomatic corps accredited to Greece.

In his speech, the Ambas-sador welcomed the attendees and said that this year’s cele-bration of the national day comes under the theme of “The Path of

Excellence is Difficult.” He stressed that the only way to succeed will be through morals and science. His Excellency added that the State of Qatar will be the first Arab country ever to host the World Cup, saying that the event is a platform for peoples of the world to get to know one another.

In Zagreb, Qatar’s Ambas-sador to the Republic of Croatia H E Nasser bin Hamad Al Khalifa hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The event was attended by H E Assistant Foreign Minister for Economic Affairs Ivana Zivkovic, a number of political officials, military leaders and represent-atives of civil society organizations.

In Sarajevo, Qatar’s Ambas-sador to the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina H E Sultan bin Ali Al Khater held a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The reception was attended by H E Prime Minister Denis Zvizdic, HE Minister of Human Rights and Refugees Semiha Borovac, Grand Mufti Dr. Husein Kavazovic and a large number of ranking officials.

In Nicosia, H E Qatar’s Ambassador to the Republic of Cyprus hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The reception was attended by HE Acting President of the Republic of Cyprus and President of the Cypriot Parliament Dem-etris Syllouris, H E Minister of Health Constantinos Ioannou, representing the government of Cyprus and H E Minister of Interior Nicos Nouris, in addition to a number of officials and ambassadors of a number of Arab and foreign countries accredited to Cyprus.

Ranking officials from the host nations and ambassadors from several Arab and foreign countries attended celebrations in London, Munich, Rome, Bern, Budapest, Stockholm, Vienna, Athens, Zagreb, Sarajevo, Nicosia and other cities.

Qatar’s Ambassador to the Kingdom of Sweden, H E Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al Thani (second left); State Secretary to the Minister for Business, Industry and Innovation, H E Emil Hogberg (second right), and other officials cutting a cake to celebrate Qatar National Day during an event in Stockholm.

Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the United Kingdom, H E Youssef bin Ali Al Khater, speaks at a reception held to celebrate Qatar National Day, in London. Director of Protocol and Vice-Marshal of the Diplomatic Corps at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, Neild Holland (left) also attended the event.

Dignitaries and officials during the Qatar National Day event in Germany.

Dignitaries and officials during a ceremony to mark Qatar National Day in Rome.

11THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

Qatar National Day celebrated in Turkey, Kuwait and Asian capitals

QNA DOHA

Qatar’s embassies and diplomatic missions in various Asian coun-tries celebrated the National Day, which is celebrated on December 18 of every year, in commemo-ration of the state’s founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin Thani, under the theme ‘The Path of Excellence is Difficult’.

Their Excellencies, Heads of Diplomatic, Consular and Repre-sentative Missions of the State of Qatar abroad, extended greetings and congratulations to Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, Father Amir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, and the Qatari people on this precious occasion, wishing the State of Qatar further progress and prosperity.

In Kuwait, Qatar’s Ambas-sador to the State of Kuwait H E Bandar bin Mohammed Al Attiyah hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

The reception was attended by H H former Prime Minister Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah, H E Deputy Foreign Minister Khaled Suleiman Al Jarallah, H E repre-sentative of the Foreign Minister Sheikh Dr. Basel Hamoud Al Hamad Al Sabah, H E represent-ative of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Anas Khaled Nasser Al Saleh, H E Assistant Foreign Minister for Protocol Affairs Ambassador Dari Ajran Al Ajran, in addition to a large number of Sheikhs of the ruling family, deputies of the National Assembly and ambas-sadors accredited to Kuwait.

In Ankara, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Turkey H E Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi held a reception on the National Day of the State. The event saw large participation with around 2,000 people attending.

The ceremony was attended by Speaker of the Grand National Assembly H E Mustafa Sentop, Minister of the Interior H E Suleyman Soylu, Minister of National Defence H E Hulusi Akar,

as well as a number of senior offi-cials, heads of diplomatic mis-sions and international organisa-tions accredited by the Republic of Turkey. There were also a host of media personalities and academics

H E the Ambassador said in a speech that thanks to the wise and pioneering leadership of the founder of the State of Qatar, Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Thani that the country was united and took serious steps towards modernity.

He stressed that the relations between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Turkey during the past few years have become an international model to be fol-lowed at various levels. He also noted that the relations between the two countries are based on a solid foundation of noble values and principles and the eternal triumph of humanity, Vis-a-vis regional and international political issues.

H E the Ambassador expressed hope that relations can be developed even further under the wise leadership of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President of the Republic of Turkey H E Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

For his part, H E Sentop said that the strength of bilateral ties has already been tested on several occasions and passed those tests every time with flying colors. He stressed that the strong ties were a result of the commitment of the two countries leadership.

In Canberra, Qatar’s Ambas-sador to Australia H E Saad bin Abdullah Al Mahmoud hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

The reception was attended by H E Speaker of the Legislative Assembly of Queensland Curtis Pitt, Chief of Protocol at the Aus-tralian Department of Foreign Affairs Kate Logan and a number of senior representatives of official political, parliamentary, diplomatic, economic and mil-itary institutions in Australia, as well as the Grand Mufti of Aus-t r a l i a , l e a d e r s o f

Arab communities and Islamic societies and the Qatari students in Australia. The Qatari Ambas-sador commended the strong friendship relations and the fruitful joint cooperation between Qatar and Australia.

In Tokyo, Qatar’s Ambassador to Japan H E Hassan bin Mohammed Rafea Al Emadi hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

The reception was attended by H E Leader of Komeito Party Natsuo Yamaguchi, HE Special Advisor to the Prime Minister for National Security Minoru Kihara, HE Secretary-General for Public Affairs of the Liberal Democratic Party and Secretary-General of Japan-Qatar Parliamentary Friendship Association Tadahiko Ito, H E Special Adviser to the President of the Liberal Demo-cratic Party on Diplomatic Affairs

and Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Kentaro Sonoura, H E head of the media network of the Liberal Demo-cratic Party and Minister of State at the Foreign Ministry Yasuhide Nakayama, among many other dignitaries.

The Leader of Komeito Party

and the Special Advisor to the Prime Minister addressed the cer-emony and praised the level the strong friendship and cooperation relations between the two coun-tries. The reception included a pavilion highlighted the Qatari culture and heritage, and another pavilion showcased Japanese exhibits and arts. Qatari Arda (tra-ditional dance) was also per-formed during the ceremony.

In Kuala Lumpur, Ambas-sador of Qatar to Malaysia, H E Fahad bin Mohammed Kafoud held a reception in the Kingdom of Malaysia on the occasion of the National Day of the State.

The ceremony was attended by H E Minister of Economic Affairs Mohamed Azmin Ali, H E Minister of Defense of Malaysia is Mohamad Sabu, H E Speaker of the Malaysian Parliament Mohamad Ariff Md Yusof, HE

Deputy President of the Senate Abdul Halim bin Abdul Samad, HE Advisor of the Malaysian Prime Minister for Economic Affairs Dr. Mohammed Abdulkhalid, Secretary-General of the Ministry of Women, Family and Community Development of Malaysia Janida bint Qamar Al

Deen. The celebration included a

visual presentation of the biggest achievements of the state, in addition to the country’s latest preparations for the World Cup 2022.

In Nur-Sultan, Qatar’s Ambassador to the Republic of Kazakhstan H E Abdulaziz bin Sultan Al Rumaihi hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The cer-emony was attended by H E Deputy Minister of National Economy Madiyev Zhaslan, rep-resenting the Kazakh gov-ernment, and a number of digni-taries, government officials and heads of Arab and foreign diplo-matic missions accredited to Kazakhstan.

In Bandar Seri Begawan, H E Qatar’s Ambassador to the Sul-tanate of Brunei Jassim bin Ali Al Obaidli hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar’s National Day. The ceremony was attended by representative of H M Sultan Has-sanal Bolkiah of Brunei Darus-salam, H E Minister of Health Dato Paduka Dr. Haji Mohammad Isham bin Haji Jaafar, as the guest of honor, along with a number of senior officials, dignitaries, heads of the diplomatic missions accredited to Brunei, busi-nessmen, press and media in Brunei.

In Manila, Qatar’s Ambas-sador to the Republic of the Phil-ippines H E Ali bin Ibrahim Al Malki hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The reception was attended by HE Assistant Secretary of Foreign Affairs Department for Middle East and African Affairs Leslie Baja as the guest of honor, H E Undersecretary of Presidential Communications Marvin Gat-payat representing the Secretary of Presidential Communications, in addition to a large number of ranking officials, members of the Senate of the Philippines, a number of Philippine diplomats, ambassadors, and heads and members of diplomatic missions and international organizations accredited to the Philippines.

In Beijing, Qatar’s Ambas-sador to the People’s Republic of China H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Dehaimi hosted a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day. The reception was attended by H E Assistant Foreign Minister Chen Xiaodong as the guest of honour, and a number of representatives of the Chinese government and repre-sentatives of the Arab, Islamic and foreign diplomatic missions, as well as ranking officials and figures from the political, diplo-matic, economic, commercial, cultural, media, educational and social circles.

In a speech during the cer-emony, HE the Qatari Ambas-sador underlined the keenness of the State of Qatar on its relations with the friends in China, and on promoting the strategic part-nership between the two countries.

In Bishkek, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Kyrgyz Republic H E Abdullah bin Ahmed Al Sulaiti held a reception on the occasion of Qatar National Day in Bishkek. The ceremony was attended by the Deputy Foreign Affairs Minister of the Kyrgyz Republic Azizbek Madmarov, H E Minister of Health Kosmosbek Cholponbayev, and a number of government officials and heads of diplomatic missions and con-sulates accredited to Kyrgyzstan.

In Guangzhou, H E General Consul of the State of Qatar to Guangzhou of the People’s Republic of China Ali bin Ghanem Al Hajri held a ceremony on the occasion of Qatar National Day.

In Hong Kong, Consul General of the State of Qatar in Hong Kong H E Mohammed bin Sultan Al Kuwari held a reception on the occasion of the National Day of the State. The ceremony was attended by HE Chief Sec-retary for Administration Matthew Cheung, and a number of officials from the government of Hong Kong, in addition to heads of diplomatic missions accredited by Hong Kong and heads of commerce chambers.

Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Turkey, H E Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi, with Turkey’s Minister of National Defence Hulusi Akar (right) during a reception to celebrate Qatar National Day in Ankara, Turkey.

Qatar’s Ambassador to the State of Kuwait, H E Bandar bin Mohammed Al Attiyah (foreground, right), with former Prime Minister, H H Sheikh Nasser Al Mohammed Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah (foreground, left), during an event to celebrate Qatar National Day in Kuwait.

Qatar’s Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China, H E Mohammed bin Abdullah Al Dehaimi, with China’s Assistant Foreign Minister H E Chen Xiaodong during an event to mark National Day in Beijing.

RIGHT: Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Turkey, H E Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi, with Turkish Minister of Interior, H E Suleyman Soylu (left), during a reception to mark Qatar National Day in Ankara. LEFT: Ambassador of the State of Qatar to the Republic of Turkey, H E Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi, with other dignitaries and officials at the event to mark Qatar National Day in Turkish capital.

Heavy rains damage desert camps

12 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

A tent that was flooded following heavy rains in Al Rawdatayn, about 115km north of Kuwait City, yesterday. Heavy rains that hit Kuwait in recent days have damaged camps across the country’s desert where camping is popular during the winter and spring season.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Geneva to attend the First Global Refugee Forum in Switzerland.

Erdogan says Turkey to boost cooperation with LibyaREUTERS/ANKARA

Turkey will improve cooperation with Libya by offering military support to its internationally recognised government and backing joint steps in the eastern Mediterranean, broadcaster NTV cited President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as saying yesterday.

Last month, Turkey and Libya’s Tripoli-based gov-ernment signed a deal on mar-itime boundaries and another pact on military cooperation. Ankara says it may send troops to Libya if the Tripoli gov-ernment requests it, but that no such request has been made yet.

Speaking to reporters in

Geneva after a forum on migration, Erdogan said he had met the premier of the Tripoli-based government, Fayez Al Serraj, to discuss potential joint initiatives, adding Ankara was ready to help.

“We will speed up the process between Turkey and Libya. We told them that we are always ready to help if they need it. From military and security cooperation, to steps taken regarding our maritime rights - we are ready,” he was cited as saying by NTV.

Libya has been torn by fac-tional conflict since the 2011 uprising that deposed dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Turkey has

been providing military equipment to Serraj’s government. Rival forces under Khalifa Haftar controlling the east of the North African state have received support from Russia, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates.

Erdogan also said he and Russian President Vladimir Putin have appointed delegations to discuss developments in Libya and that the officials would meet “soon”. For its part, the Kremlin said Erdogan and Putin would address Ankara’s offer of mil-itary support to Serraj’s gov-ernment during talks in Turkey next month. Erdogan and Putin then held a phone call to discuss Libya.

Iraqi protesters shut main ports company in BasraANATOLIA/BAGHDAD

Iraqi protesters blocked access to the main ports company in the southern Basra province yesterday, according to a local security source.

“Demonstrators shut the gates of the General Company for Ports of Iraq in central Basra,” the source said on con-dition of anonymity.

On Tuesday, angry pro-testers blocked main roads to oilfields in Basra and pre-vented employees from going to work.

Iraq has been roiled by mass protests since early October over poor living conditions and cor-ruption, forcing Prime Minister Adel Abdul-Mahdi to resign.

Two protesters have suc-cumbed to their wounds in southern Iraq, according to local medical sources yesterday.

One demonstrator was injured in clashes with security forces near the Umm Qasr port in Basra last month and died of his injuries yesterday, a medical source said.

Another protester died of his wounds in the city of Nassiriya late on Tuesday, another source said.

According to Iraq’s High Commission for Human Rights, at least 496 Iraqis have been killed and 17,000 have been injured since the protests began October 1.

Iraq’s highest judicial authority has ordered the release of 2,700 people held in anti-gov-ernment demonstrations.

In a statement, the Supreme Judicial Authority said 107 pro-testers are still held pending investigation.

The government has pledged to release all protesters in custody if they were involved in any crimes.

Meanwhile, Turkish foreign minister discussed voluntary return of Syrians with his coun-terparts from Iraq, Lebanon, and Jordan.

Mevlut Cavusoglu met with Iraq’s Mohamed Ali Alhakim, Jordan’s Ayman Safadi and Leb-anon’s Gebran Bassil in Geneva, Switzerland where he attended the three-day Global Refugee Forum.

“Discussed voluntary and safe returns of Syrians w/Mohamed Ali Alhakim FM of #Iraq, @AymanHSafadi FM of #Jordan and @Gebran_Bassil FM of #Lebanon. Our quadripartite cooperation will continue,” Cavusoglu posted on Twitter along with a photo of four diplomats.

Tunisia promises to honour demands of revolutionAFP/SIDI BOUZID, TUNISIA

Tunisia’s president commemo-rated the start of the uprising that toppled autocrat Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, vowing to honour the demands of the revolution.

President Kais Saied, an independent academic elected in a landslide victory in October, has made few statements since he took office in November.

He made an unscheduled visit to Sidi Bouzid, where the first pro-tests of Tunisia’s revolt erupted, sparking the Arab Spring move-ments in the region.

He promised to realise the key demands of the revolution — freedom, work and dignity — within the “framework of the constitution and with legitimacy”.

“I will work despite manip-ulations... and plots... to honour your demands,” he told a dense

crowd in the centre of Sidi Bouzid.

Saied also announced that December 17 will henceforth be a national holiday. Tunisia already marks January 14, the date Ben Ali was deposed.

The former autocrat passed away in Saudi Arabia in Sep-tember. On December 17, 2010, protests broke out after a young street vendor, Mohamed Bouazizi, set himself alight to protest against police harassment.

Since then, the Sidi Bouzid region has experienced further bouts of unrest fuelled by unem-ployment and poverty.

In early December, protests broke out in the region after the death of a 25-year-old who set himself on fire in the centre of the impoverished town of Jelma in desperation over his economic situation.

US envoy to South Sudan warns of further sanctionsAFP/JUBA

The US ambassador to South Sudan yesterday warned that Washington would not hesitate to slap additional sanctions on “spoilers” holding back peace in the war-torn African nation.

Ambassador Thomas Hushek was recalled in November when South Sudan’s rival leaders failed to meet a promised deadline to form a unity government, straining ties with Washington.

The United States this week slapped sanctions on two South Sudan ministers, accusing them of obstructing a peace accord signed in 2018 that has paused, but not resolved, five years of conflict. Hushek stood by the decision —which was criticised by the office of South Sudan President Salva Kiir — and warned of further measures if peace talks failed to advance.

“We are looking at all spoilers of the peace process,” Hushek told reporters in Juba during his first press briefing since returning from Wash-ington. “Sanctions... is one of the tools we will continue to have in our tool box, and we will use them.” Kiir and his former deputy, Riek Machar, agreed Tuesday to form a power-sharing government before a February deadline. The pledge to join forces is the linchpin of the truce signed by Kiir and Machar, whose falling out in 2013 kicked off fighting that left nearly 400,000 South Sudanese dead.

But they have missed two deadlines to do so, most recently in November, when the pair were given another 100 days to come together in a coalition. The US, frustrated at repeat delays, and having warned of consequences if the men stalled again, recalled Hushek in protest, and announced it was reevaluating its relationship with South Sudan.

Lebanese mob attacks Sunni cleric’s officeAP/BEIRUT

A mob in Lebanon attacked the office of a Sunni Muslim reli-gious leader in the northern city of Tripoli, smashing in windows early yesterday, Lebanon’s official news agency and the military said.

The violence indicated that tensions that recently gripped the Lebanese capital, Beirut, fuelled by an online video deemed offensive to the country’s Shias are spreading to Tripoli, the coun-try’s second-largest city. The city is predominantly Sunni.

The military said a mob of men on motorcycles gathered outside the home of Sunni Mufti Sheik Malek Al Shaar and rioted, “used profanity” and smashed property. The military said it arrested four men and confis-cated their motorcycles.

On Tuesday, anger boiled over in Beirut after the offensive

video was widely circulated online. It showed a Sunni res-ident of Tripoli railing against the leaders of the country’s two main Shia groups, Hezbollah and Amal, and religious Shia figures and using expletives. Their supporters descended on a protest camp in Beirut as security forces inter-vened to push them back, setting off hours of pitched street battles.

Angry assailants also attacked protest camps in the northern district Hermel and in the southern Sidon and Nabatiyeh. The violence threatened to plunge Lebanon further into chaos and ignite sectarian strife amid two months of anti-government pro-tests and a spiraling financial crisis. The daily An-Nahar said the assailants in Tripoli were angered because the Sunni mufti, al-Shaar, had called the powerful Shiite parliament speaker and head of Amal, Nabih Berri, to apologize for the video.

Palestinian Authority, Fatah evade election: HamasANATOLIA/GAZA CITY

Palestinian group Hamas has accused rival Fatah movement and the Palestinian Authority (PA) of evading elections.

In a statement, Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum described the position of PA President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas on the polls as “negative” and “disappointing”.

“PA used the vote issue as a maneuver to evade require-ments for healing the [Pales-tinian] rift and cut off the road to the positive atmosphere and opportunities for reforming the Palestinian political system in order to gain more time in hopes of getting out of its current pre-dicament,” he said.

He said Hamas has agreed to hold legislative election before the presidential polls.

Hamas and Fatah have remained at odds since the former seized the Gaza Strip from the latter in mid-2007 after several days of street fighting. In 2017, the two factions signed a reconciliation agreement in Cairo in hopes of ending years of ani-mosity and division. Terms of the agreement, however, have never been implemented amid deep-seated differences between the two movements.

Meanwhile, an Israeli air-craft on Tuesday hit what the military said was an armed Pal-estinian seen approaching the Israeli border fence in Gaza.

“A short while ago, troops spotted an armed terrorist approaching the security fence in the southern Gaza Strip,” an army statement said.

The President of Tunisia, Kais Saied, speaking to people in the central Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid, yesterday.

Iraq’s highest judicial authority has ordered the release of 2,700 people held in anti-government demonstrations. In a statement, the Supreme Judicial Authority said 107 protesters are still held pending investigation.

13THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 ASIA

Fresh protests across India against citizenship law

AFP NEW DELHI

Fresh protests broke out across India yesterday as authorities banned large gatherings in parts of the capital in an effort to contain nationwide rallies and riots against a citizenship law seen as discriminating against Muslims.

The demonstrations over the past few days have turned violent, with six people dead in the northeastern state of Assam and with police firing tear gas and arresting hundreds of people.

In the financial capital Mumbai, hundreds of people under tight security carried placards with the words “India is ours” and chanted “we are all one”.

“We just cannot go along with this bill. I can’t believe we now have to prove our citi-zenship after living in India for so many years,” Tabeer Rizvi said as the Mumbai crowd burst into a Hindi version of the US civil rights movement anthem “We shall overcome”.

“I am not surprised to see people of all religions come out to protest this bill.” The

law allowing New Delhi to grant citizenship to non-Muslim nationals from three neighbouring countries comes in the wake of other policies from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that critics said were designed to margin-alise Muslims in the Hindu-majority nation.

Demonstrators, mostly young people, again gathered outside Delhi’s Jamia Millia Islamia university as the ban on gatherings of more than four people was imposed in some Muslim-dominated dis-tricts of the city.

“We are really very angry with the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) government... They have taken racism to the extreme point,” Taiba Hadis, 18, said.

“They are questioning our existence and it is high time for us to speak up.” Rallies were also held in other states, including West Bengal, Tamil

Nadu, and Telangana.There were sporadic

clashes between police and demonstrators in some cities a s w e l l a s s m a l l counter-protests.

The latest round of protests came as the Supreme Court rejected pleas for an immediate stay on the legislation, but deferred the case to January for extensive hearings.

Petitioners have said the legislation is unconstitutional and goes against India’s cher-ished secular traditions.

Demonstrations tipped to attract huge crowds were planned for Thursday in major cities across the vast nation.

At least 21 people, including 12 policemen, were injured in the Delhi clashes in Seelampur district on Tuesday, with police firing tear gas after thousands of protesters threw stones and set fire to buses and a police outpost.

Eight people were arrested for rioting and arson, police said yesterday.

Another six people were arrested in West Bengal state for hurling a bomb at policemen on on Tuesday that injured seven officers.

In Uttar Pradesh, more than 110 people were arrested over the protests, or for posting on social media, police said.

Hostels at the state’s Aligarh Muslim University, where police brutality was alleged by students on Sunday, were emptied after residents were told by the administration to start winter vacations early.

In Gujarat state, five people were arrested for drawing a Nazi symbol beside the Modi’s ruling BJP party’s lotus logo on the wall of the police head-quarters in Vadodara city.

Modi has remained defiant in the face of the protests and said the law would not affect Indian nationals but protect persecuted Hindu, Sikh and other minorities from Muslim-majority neighbours.

Opposition parties, led by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, met with President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday to ask him to advise Modi’s gov-ernment to withdraw the law.

The UN secretary-general’s spokesman Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday the global body was “concerned about the vio-lence and alleged use of excessive force by security forces that we’ve seen that have been taking place”.

“We very much call for restraint and urge full respect for the rights of freedom of opinion and expression and peaceful assembly,” he added.

Authorities have imposed internet blackouts and used force to shut down rallies and sit-ins, but protesters have vowed to keep up their fight until the law is revoked.

Young demonstrators shouting slogans during a protest against a new citizenship law, outside the Jamia Millia Islamia university, in New Delhi yesterday.

Supreme Court refuses to stay implementation of new lawREUTERS NEW DELHI

India’s Supreme Court turned down a plea yesterday to stop the implementation of a new citizenship law based on religion that has set off violent protests in the country, but said it would hold hearings next month on the sweeping measure.

“We want a stay order in the CAA case,” said Kapil Sibal, a lawyer for petitioners who challenged the law in court, adding it was in conflict with parts of the Indian constitution guaranteeing equality to all.

Supreme Court Chief Justice SA Bobde refused requests to hold off the implementation of the law, which came into effect last week. The court will however hear petitions challenging the con-stitutional validity of the law on January 22.

The demonstrations over the past few days have turned violent, with six people dead in the northeastern state of Assam and with police firing tear gas and arresting hundreds of people.

Govt approves Rs660bn Kerala high speed rail project: CMIANS THIRUVANANTHAPURAM

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan yesterday claimed through a Facebook post that the Centre had given in prin-ciple approval to the Rs660bn T h i r u v a n a n t h a p u r a m -Kasaragod semi-high speed rail (SHSR) corridor project.

The order was issued by the Ministry of Railways and con-veyed to Kerala Chief Secretary Tom Jose, Vijayan wrote.

It’s joint venture of the Kerala government and the Ministry of Railways. SHSR, named Silver Line, is envisaged to cut travel time between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod from 12 hours to 4 hours.

Kerala Rail Development Corporation (KRDCL), imple-menting agency for the 540km double-line project, had sub-mitted the proposal to the Ministry of Railways for building third and fourth lines between Thiruvananthapuram and Kasaragod.

Proposed rules for Everest will not curb deaths, say climbersREUTERS KATHMANDU

Veteran climbers of Mount Everest are sceptical that proposed new regulations by the Nepalese government to tighten the permit process for adven-turers will address the root causes of this year’s heavy death toll on the world’s tallest peak.

American mountaineers Ed Viesturs and Alan Arnette said planned new laws - if they are introduced at all - are unlikely to tackle the growing trend of inexperienced climbers rushing in packs to scale the 29,035-foot (8,850-metre) Himalayan peak.

“I’ve seen this movie so many times it’s totally predictable,” Arnette told Reuters in a tele-phone interview on Tuesday.

“Every year since 2013, some-thing goes wrong and they (the Nepal government) announce all these new rules and never implement them.” Eleven climbers died on Mount Everest this year - nine on the Nepali side and two on the Tibetan side. Many perished when a rush to climb the mountain during a short window of suitable weather in late May led to a “traffic jam” near the summit.

“Most teams opt to go for the summit when the first weather window is predicted,” Viesturs told Reuters in one of a series of interviews by phone and email.

“Everyone is afraid of missing what might be the one and only perfect day. There are typically several good summit days, but there’s pressure to go

when everyone else goes.” Nepal has traditionally issued climbing permits to anyone prepared to pay the $11,000 fee, handing out a record 381 passes this year. With essential Sherpas and guides added, more than 800 people were trying to reach the summit during the short weather window.

The overcrowding - which caught worldwide attention when a photograph of a queue of climbers stepping over bodies to reach the summit went viral - caused fatal delays in the thin air in what is known as the “death zone” above 8,000 metres. That raised concerns that inexperi-enced mountaineers were being encouraged to attempt the climb by unscrupulous guide companies.

Among the changes pro-posed by the Nepalese gov-ernment is a requirement for climbers to submit a medical report by a certified doctor dis-closing their history and state of health. Another suggested requirement was the climbers submit proof they had scaled another 6,500-metre peak in Nepal.

Arnette said the first change was unlikely to be enough, given the potential to forge medical documents, while the second made little sense as many climbers have scaled higher peaks elsewhere.

The recommendations have been submitted to the cabinet for approval, Mira Acharya, who oversees climbing activities for the Nepal government’s

Department of Tourism, told Reuters last week. The gov-ernment has not given a time frame for the introduction of new laws.

Viesturs, who has an extensive history on Everest, said the proposed changes did not do enough to tackle the “group think” pack mentality that led to the traffic jam in late May, a problem he said also needed to be addressed by climb leaders at base camp.

“I know several climbers who waited until later and had the mountain almost to them-selves,” Viesturs said of this year’s climbing season. “We really need to answer why so many people are on the summit ridge on the same day? How can you control it?”

Nirbhaya case: Top court rejects Akshay’s death penalty reviewIANS NEW DELHI

The Supreme Court yesterday ruled that Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder convict Akshay Kumar Singh’s age, socio-economic background, unblem-ished antecedents and chances to reform fade into insignifi-cance as the offence committed by him falls under “rarest of rare” cases, and therefore the death penalty is confirmed.

Singh had moved the apex court seeking a review on the capital punishment handed down to him and other three accused in the Nirbhaya gang-rape and murder case. The top court upheld the death penalty in 2017 and dismissed the review by other accused in 2018.

A bench, headed by Justice R Banumathi comprising Jus-tices Ashok Bhushan and AS Bopanna, said: “In light of the aggravating circumstances and considering that the case falls within the category of ‘rarest of rare cases’, the death pen-alty is confirmed.” The top court noted Singh’s review petition was a mirror image of petitions of

the other convicts. “The grounds raised in the present review peti-tion are almost a repetition of the arguments raised in the ear-lier review petitions which were rejected and in our view, can-not be raised repeatedly,” it said.

The court told Singh’s law-yer that the review petition is not for re-hearing of the appeal on re-appreciation of the evidence over and over again, and a party is not entitled to seek review of the judgment merely for the pur-pose of rehearing of the appeal and a fresh decision.

“It observed that it did not find any error apparent on the face of the record in the appreci-ation of evidence or the findings of the judgment of May 5, 2017. Therefore, none of the grounds raised in the review petition call for review of this judgment and thus, the review petition is dis-missed,” it said.

As Singh’s lawyer AP Singh argued that the death penalty has been abolished in many coun-tries, the court observed that “... the same contentions were raised by AP Singh in the earlier review petitions and the same were dismissed”. Sikh devotees visit the Golden Temple amid dense fog in Amritsar, yesterday.

Foggy day in Amritsar

Gujarat CM opens first Janta Clinic in Jaipur

IANS JAIPUR

Gujarat Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot inaugurated yesterday the first Janta Clinic “to provide good medical facilities to poor near their homes” at Valmiki Nagar.

“Patients at these clinics will get free medicines along with free facility of necessary diag-nostics,” the Chief Minister said.

Gehlot said most poor didn’t avail medical facilities due to its high cost that they could not afford. “Our government’s top priority is to make available quality health services to each person and make a healthy Rajasthan.”

14 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019ASIA

A-G: Pakistan govt to defend Musharraf during appealINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Terming the high treason trial against former military ruler Pervez Musharraf “unfair”, the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government has decided to defend the self-exiled, ailing former president during the hearing of an appeal to be filed on his behalf.

“I will defend the law in the case but not any individual,” said Attorney-General (AG) Anwar Mansoor in the late-night joint press conference that he addressed along with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information, Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan.

He said former president Musharraf had not been given the right to fair trial during the case tried in a special court and the judgement was announced in absentia without recording statement of the accused.

The attorney-general said the verdict raised questions about “urgency in pronouncing the judgement when Musharraf was in critical condition in ICU” in Dubai.

“Musharraf was not given a chance to record his statement under Article 342 (of the Consti-tution), to present his testimony and witnesses and his request to record his statement through video link or before a com-mission was turned down by the judge,” he added.

“There is no question that a

person who had committed treason must be punished but in this case the right of fair trial guaranteed under the Consti-tution was not ensured. A trial should not just be fair but also seen to be fair,” he insisted.

The AG argued before the media that one of the major flaws in the case was that those who might have assisted General retired Musharraf in enforcing emergency in the country “had not been made party” in the case.

He said if Musharraf had been given a chance to record his statement and present his witnesses, he might have come up with “logical” reasons in support of the emergency he proclaimed in 2007.

Mansoor further argued that the complaint against the former president had been filed by a former interior secretary, whereas under the 18th Amendment to the Constitution, only a prime minister and members of his cabinet have powers to authorise any person for filing such petitions or complaints.

Asked if he committed a con-tempt of court by declaring the trial “unfair” during his media talk, the attorney-general said:

“Once the verdict is announced it becomes a public document and everyone can comment on it.” At the same time, he added, he had tried his best to get a copy of the judgement but he was asked by the court that it would be issued after 48 hours.

The PM’s aide on infor-mation, however, criticised the opposition for what she said “maligning the army” and “harming the interest of the state” by commenting on the decision.

In a TV talk show, spokesman for Prime Minister Imran Khan, Nadeem Afzal Chan said that institutions should not get themselves involved in any controversy on the judgement, as it was a verdict against an individual. He also urged the nation and institutions to move forward and not to get them-selves involved in any controversy.

“Here [in the country] we have faced hanging of prime minister Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, assassination of former prime minister Benazir Bhutto and hor-rible tragedy of Army Public School, but [we] moved forward,” he added.

The PM spokesman was of the opinion that all stakeholders should exercise patience on the judgement. Chan demanded that action be taken against the accomplices of Musharraf who had assisted him or endorsed his act of enforcing emergency in the country in 2007.

Supporters of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML), the party of former military ruler Pervez Musharraf, carry placards during a rally in support of Musharraf, in Islamabad , yesterday.

PM convenes emergency meeting of partyINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Prime Minister Imran Khan yesterday summoned an emer-gency meeting of his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party’s core committee to discuss the conviction of former military dictator Pervez Musharraf in a high treason case.

The prime minister was in Geneva on Tuesday to attend the “Global Refugee Forum” when the special court formed to try the former president announced

its verdict awarding him the death penalty for imposing a state of emergency in 2007 and suspending the Constitution.

The verdict, announced by a three-member bench of a special tribunal, was received with ‘lot of pain and anguish’ by Pakistani military.

The government, too, had expressed its reservations to the verdict, saying that the require-ments for a fair trial under Article 10-A were not fulfilled in the case.

In the meeting, the ruling

party will also discuss matters related to legislation regarding the extension of services of the army chief and the appointment of a chief election commissioner and other members of the elec-toral body.

The PTI’s legal team will brief the members about the extension issue after the detailed verdict of the Supreme Court in this regard.

The prime minister will also take senior leaders of his party into confidence over the cancel-lation of his visit to Malaysia.

Attorney-General says the former military ruler was not given the right to fair trial in the high treason case.

Myanmar’s Suu Kyi thanks supporters during genocide hearingREUTERS YANGON/DHAKA

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday thanked supporters who staged large rallies on her behalf as she defended the country against genocide charges at The Hague, speaking to the nation for the first time since she returned on Sunday.

Gambia accused Myanmar of violating the 1948 Genocide Convention over a military cam-paign that drove more than 730,000 Rohingya Muslims from Myanmar to Bangladesh. It has asked the International Court of Justice to order “provisional measures” to prevent more harm.

“The support of our people,

given generously and unques-tioningly... was a great source of strength to us when we pre-sented our case at the ICJ,” Nobel laureate Suu Kyi said in a tele-vised address screened by the state broadcaster.

Suu Kyi led a team to the Netherlands for three days of hearings last week, during which she denied genocide and argued the UN court should not have jurisdiction.

“Every country passes through difficult times and Myanmar is no exception. Such trials provide us with an oppor-tunity to assess our strengths and weaknesses, to reinforce one and rectify the other,” she said.

“The challenge we faced at the court actually emerged due not only to the crisis that

happened in recent years, but also missed opportunities to handle fairly and constructively social issues, politics, and the economy, over many decades.”

Suu Kyi was long feted in the West as a champion of human rights and democracy and was a high-profile political prisoner during 15 years of house arrest for her opposition to Myanmar’s then ruling military junta.

She came to power after a landslide election victory in 2015 that ended half a century of army rule. But her stance on the Rohingya issue has seen her stripped of many awards, calls for the Nobel committee to revoke her peace prize and strong criticism from former celebrity supporters and other organisations. At home however,

Suu Kyi, the daughter of Myan-mar’s founding father Aung San, is still revered by many.

The proceedings in The Hague galvanised supporters, who staged rallies across the country chanting “Stand with Suu Kyi” and waving flags.

A delegation of Myanmar off-icals visited the sprawling Bang-ladeshi refugee camps yesterday, where they spoke to several dozen Rohingya in an effort to kickstart a process to repatriate them. Myanmar says it has been ready to accept back the refugees since January last year and has built camps near the border to receive them.

Rohingya leaders say they want Myanmar to recognise them as an ethnic group with the right to Myanmar citizenship

before they return.Hundreds of thousands of

Rohingya who remain inside Myanmar are mostly denied cit-izenship and live in conditions Amnesty International has likened to apartheid, confined to camps and villages and unable to travel freely.

Myanmar does not consider the Rohingya a native ethnic group. Many in the Buddhist-majority country call the Rohingya “Bengalis”, suggesting they belong in Bangladesh.

Rohingya leader Abdur Rahim, who joined the talks yes-terday, said no progress had been made. “We are very upset. It’s going to be another failed negotiation. They are saying the same old thing. There is nothing new,” he said.

Afghan balloon sellerA balloon seller sets fire to his final balloons at a cemetery before going home in Kabul on December 17, 2019.

US special envoy in Kabul amid renewed push for peace dealAFP KABUL

The US special envoy leading negotiations with the Taliban met with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani in Kabul yesterday, an official said, amid a renewed push to reach an accord with the insurgents.

US Special Representative for

Afghanistan Reconciliation Zalmay Khalilzad and Ghani dis-cussed several topics including the need for a ceasefire, Ghani’s spokesman Sediq Seddiqi said.

“The president also expressed his concerns about the continued violence by the Taliban,” Sediqqi said.

“The president reiterated that the government and people

of Afghanistan want a sus-tainable peace.”

Khalilzad has spent more than a year leading a push for a deal with the Taliban that would see the US reduce its military footprint in Afghanistan in return for security guarantees from the insurgents.

While the US has kept Ghani apprised of developments, the

Afghan president has been cut out of negotiations because the Taliban refuse to recognise his authority.

A US-Taliban deal had been all but signed in early September, but President Donald Trump scuttled the agreement at the last minute, citing concerns about ongoing Taliban violence including a Kabul bombing that

killed an American soldier.Talks resumed December 7

amid a reduction in violence in Kabul but were paused following another Taliban attack, this time at Bagram air base north of Kabul.

The US embassy in Kabul declined to comment immedi-ately, but talks appear to have resumed again this week.

PM Imran vows to facilitate small farmersINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

Prime Minister Imran Khan has reiterated his commitment to facilitating small farmers in increasing their yields, getting fair prices for their crops and improving market access.

In a tweet on ‘Kisan Day’ yesterday, he said we are also ensuring small farmers’ access to Sehat Insaf Cards and to edu-cational scholarships through Ehsaas programme.

Chief Minister Punjab Usman Buzdar said farmers are being given full price of their agriculture products under PTI government.

Two policemen dead in attack on polio team in PakistanINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

At least two policemen were martyred yesterday after unidentified assailants attacked a polio vaccination team in Paki-stani province of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa’s Lower Dir district, Geo News reported.

According to the police, the incident took place at the Rehnai pull area. The martyred policemen were deployed for the security in the ongoing polio vaccination campaign.

Polio, or poliomyelitis, is a crippling childhood disease caused by the polio virus and preventable through immuni-sation. Affecting mostly children

under the age of five, polio — which has no cure and can only be prevented by giving a child multiple vaccine doses — can lead to irreversible paralysis.

In the hope of making Pakistan a polio-free country, a countrywide door-to-door vac-cination campaign is underway in all districts of the country from December 16 to December 20 during which 39.6 million children will be targeted.

The campaign has been syn-chronised with Afghanistan to ensure vaccination of all children on the move as well, as 75 of the 104 cases were reported in KP province that shares a long border with the landlocked country.

Kazakh Presidentreshufflessenior officials

REUTERS ALMATY

Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev yesterday named Kanat Bozumbayev, previously energy minister, a presidential aide, and reshuffled a number of other senior officials.

Tokayev did not immedi-ately name a new energy min-ister, a key position in the oil-and-gas exporting Central Asian nation.

Tokayev appointed Madina Abylkasymova, until now a deputy central bank governor, the head of a newly established financial supervision agency.

He also removed political heavyweight Imangali Tasmag-ambetov from the position of Kazakhstan’s ambassador to Russia, saying he was reaching retirement age.

The Kazakh president also sacked his deputy chief of staff, Darkhan Kaletayev, without providing any reason, and replaced him with Maulen Ash-imbayev, previously an aide.

Nursultan Nazarbayev, 79, handed over the presidency to Tokayev in March after nearly three decades in power.

“The Chinese people and the central government are proud of the achievements and progress Macau has made in the past 20 years since its return to the motherland,” Xi said on arrival at the city’s airport, a troupe of schoolchildren waving Chinese and Macau flags behind him.

15THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 ASIA

Xi lands in Macau for China handover anniversary partyAFP MACAU

Chinese President Xi Jinping landed in Macau yesterday as the city prepares to mark 20 years since the former Portuguese colony was returned.

Security has been ramped up ahead of Xi’s three-day visit which culminates on Friday’s anniversary. China’s leadership is keen to showcase Macau as a successful example of its “one country, two systems” model, with party leaders heaping praise on a pliant city of 700,000.

“The Chinese people and the central government are proud of the achievements and progress Macau has made in the past 20 years since its return to the motherland,” Xi said on arrival at the city’s airport, a troupe of schoolchildren waving Chinese and Macau flags behind him.

Since the 1999 handover by Lisbon, Macau has witnessed little of the dissent that has exploded in Hong Kong during six months of often violent pro-democracy protests as large chunks of the population seethes

under Beijing’s rule.Like Hong Kong it maintains

its own currency, judiciary and free market. Limited details have been released by authorities on Xi’s schedule. He will meet local leaders and attend a dinner and a cultural performance today. The following day Xi will preside over the inauguration of the city’s new leader Ho Iat-seng.

A former member of China’s top lawmaking body, Ho won a one-horse race this summer to

become Chief Executive — a position that is chosen by a 400-member committee stacked with Beijing loyalists. Bunting and banners hailing the anniversary were erected across the city, including on some of the clubs that serve as the territory’s lifeblood.

Security has been dramat-ically tightened ahead of Xi’s visit. Police set up checkpoints and extra screenings for pas-senger arrivals while author-ities said some major roads would see closures.

The city’s first light rail line announced it would shut down for the duration, just a week after it was first opened to the public while the airport said some flights would be rescheduled.

Security checks were also ramped up in Hong Kong’s ferry terminals and on a huge bridge and tunnel system linking the two cities. Since last week police from mainland China have been manning a newly created check-point on an artificial island that links the bridge and tunnel system between Hong Kong,

China’s President Xi Jinping shakes hands with a girl as she and other children welcome Xi upon his arrival at Macau’s international airport yesterday, ahead of celebrations for the 20th anniversary of the handover from Portugal to China.

Macau and Zhuhai, the first time they have done so.

Multiple journalists with Hong Kong passports working for local and international media have been denied entry to Macau in the run up to the anniversary while a group of pro-democracy law-makers were denied permission to board a ferry yesterday.

Earlier this month the pres-ident and chairman of Hong Kong’s American Chamber of Commerce were also denied entry to Macau without expla-nation. “It’s totally one country, one system,” a 34-year-old local

who regularly travels to Hong Kong said, adding that protesting in Macau was “pointless and dangerous”.

“The reason it looks like it’s working well is because Macau people don’t protest.” But he said there was local anger about the wealth of the city’s elites, the limited transport infrastructure and severe overcrowding, even though the population have become wealthier.

Macau’s skyline and economy have changed beyond recognition since four centuries of Portuguese rule ended in 1999, with glittering

clubs the backbone of the city’s dramatic rise. Macau’s GDP has soared from $6.4bn in 1999 to more than $55bn.

Per capita GDP is the third highest in the world behind Lux-embourg and Switzerland, according to the International Monetary Fund, while its casinos now rake in each week the same as Las Vegas makes in a month. “The difference in the economy is like the sky and the earth,” Chang Sio Kun, a 60-year-old local who recently retired, said. “It’s easy to find a job with a high salary,” he added.

Australia has its hottest day on recordAFP SYDNEY

Australia this week experienced its hottest day on record and the heatwave is expected to worsen, exacerbating an already unprec-edented bushfire season, author-ities said yesterday.

The average nationwide temperatures of 40.9 degrees Celsius (105.6 degrees Fahr-enheit) on Tuesday beat the pre-vious record of 40.3 degrees Celsius in January 2013, the Bureau of Meteorology said.

“This heat will only intensify further today,” mete-orologist Diana Eadie Said. The heatwave is another alarm bell about global warming in Aus-tralia, where this year’s early and intense start to regular summer bushfires has heaped pressure on the Australian gov-ernment to do more to tackle climate change.

Hundreds of bushfires have been raging across Australia for months, including a “mega-blaze” burning north of Sydney,

the country’s biggest city. Smoke from the fires has engulfed Sydney, raising air pollution to levels so hazardous that leading doctors have labelled the event a “public health emergency”.

At least three million hec-tares of land has been torched across Australia, with six people killed and about 700 homes destroyed. Scientists say the blazes have come earlier and with more intensity than usual due to global warming and a pro-longed drought that has left the land tinder dry and many towns running out of water.

The fires have sparked climate protests targeting the conservative government, which has resisted pressure to address the root causes of global warming in order to protect the country’s lucrative coal export industry.

Record spot temperatures were recorded this week in Western Australia, where fire-fighters have also been battling blazes raging across thousands of hectares of land.

The hot weather then began

drifting across the country’s arid centre toward the hevaily pop-ulated eastern states, where the most of the bushfires have raged.

Parts of the eastern state of

New South Wales, of which Sydney is the capital, were forecast to reach the mid-40s celsius today. On Saturday, parts of Sydney are forecast to tip over

46 degrees celsius. Turbulent winds of up to 100km an hour are forecast to also hit the east coast at the same time and worsen the blazes.

Journalist in Japan wins high-profile #MeToo caseAFP TOKYO

A Tokyo court yesterday awarded 3.3m yen ($30,000) in damages to journalist Shiori Ito, who accused a former TV reporter of rape in one of the most high-profile cases of the #MeToo movement in Japan.

The civil case made head-lines in Japan and abroad, as it is rare for rape victims to report the crime to the police — according to a 2017 government survey, only four percent of women come forward.

Ito, 30, has become an out-spoken symbol for #MeToo in Japan, where the movement against sexual harassment and abuse has struggled to take hold.

She had sought 11 million yen ($100,000) in compensation from Noriyuki Yamaguchi, a former TV reporter with close links to Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, alleging he raped her after inviting her to dinner to discuss

a job opportunity in 2015.Yamaguchi continues to deny

any wrongdoing and had filed a counter-suit against Ito, seeking 130 million yen in compensation. “We won. The counter-suit was turned down,” said Ito outside the court, holding up a banner that read “victory” as supporters cheered and clapped. “Honestly I still don’t know how I feel,” she told reporters, struggling to hold back the tears.

“However, winning this case doesn’t mean this (sexual assault) didn’t happen... This is not the end,” she added. She said she hoped the case would change what she called the “under-developed” legal and social envi-ronment surrounding rape in Japan. Japan hiked minimum jail terms for rapists from three to five years and widened the def-inition of sexual assault victims to include men for the first time in 2017.

Lawmakers decided unani-mously to update the 1907

statute to impose tougher pen-alties on sex attackers and make prosecutions easier, as they look to boost Japan’s low number of convictions. The latest World Economic Forum report on the gender gap published on the eve of the case ranked Japan 121st out of 153 countries, slipping even further down the list from 110th the previous year.

Yamaguchi announced he would appeal “immediately” against the ruling, saying: “I have not done anything that goes against the law.” He claimed the court had failed to acknowledge inconsistencies and “falsehoods” in Ito’s argument while ignoring his own arguments.

He said the significant inter-national media attention around the case might have clouded the judgement of the court and vowed to be more vocal in future. Ito spoke out in 2017, shortly before the #MeToo movement, and this was “viewed as odd, especially in Japan”, she said.

Report: Tourists trampling on New Zealand’s tranquilityAFP WELLINGTON

Ever-increasing numbers of tourists are harming New Zea-land’s environment and destroying the very qualities that make the country an attractive destination, a parliamentary report warned yesterday.

The South Pacific nation has long marketed itself as “100 percent Pure” and “clean and green”, but has seen a huge growth in visitors in recent years, from millenials snapping selfies at “Lord of the Rings” filming locations, to climbers, hikers and wildlife enthusiasts.

The report from parlia-mentary commissioner for the environment Simon Upton comes as New Zealand’s adventure tourism industry is already under intense scrutiny over last week’s White Island volcanic eruption, which killed 16 international trav-ellers and two tour guides.

Upton said New Zealand — with a population of 4.9 million — attracted almost four million

international visitors annually and the number could treble by 2050. He said infrastructure was already strained, the environment was under pressure and many of the qualities associated with New Zealand were disappearing.

“The sheer numbers of people are eroding the sense of isolation, tranquility and access to nature that many overseas tourists seek when visiting New Zealand,” he said. “We need to ask: ‘Are we in danger of killing the goose that laid the golden egg’?” Upton said New Zealanders were also part of the problem, pointing out that Kiwis on domestic holidays out-numbered overseas tourists at major holiday spots.

He said New Zealanders had become accustomed to the sight of renowned attractions such as the Tongariro Crossing being “besieged with visitors” and the problem would only intensify.

Upton said for too long the tourism industry had escaped the environmental scrutiny imposed on other sectors such agriculture and mining.

Indonesian volcano debris litters seabed after tsunami, says researchAFP JAKARTA

Huge chunks of an Indonesian volcano litter the seabed after its eruption and subsequent collapse last year sparked a deadly tsunami, according to new research.

The marine survey imagery shows parts of the strait between Java and Sumatra islands covered with triangular-shaped boulders from the Anak Krakatau volcano, some as high as 90 metres (295 feet).

The crater partly collapsed after its December 22 eruption with parts of it sliding into the ocean and triggering deadly waves that killed more than 400 people and injured thousands. The Anak Krakatau volcano emerged at the site of the legendary Krakatoa volcano, which was destroyed after a massive 1883 eruption that killed at least 36,000 people.

The 2018 disaster struck without warning, washing over popular beaches and inundating tourist hotels and coastal commu-nities, leaving a trail of death and destruction in its wake. Debris from the volcano is spread as far as 2,000 metres from where it col-lapsed, according to new research presented at the American Geo-physical Union’s meeting in San Francisco last week.

Using what’s known as multibeam echosounder bathymetry, an international team including members of the British Geological Survey, National Oceanography Centre and several US and British uni-versities mapped the seabed with sonar technology.

“Tsunamis generated by very small volume landslides from active volcanoes such as Anak Krakatau have the potential to devastate local coastlines and their communities”, David Tappin from the British Geological Survey said.

In the team’s earlier study, which included work by Stephan Grilli at the University of Rhode Island, it said the disaster offered a rare look at tsunamis sparked by volcanic eruptions, rather than more common undersea earthquakes.

A view of the landscape with burnt trees after a bushfire in Mount Weison in Blue Mountains, some 120km northwest of Sydney, yesterday.

16 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019EUROPE

Russia dismisses report of French Alpine spy baseAFP MOSCOW

Russia dismissed a French news-paper report claiming its spies had operated from a base in the French Alps, saying it was a conspiracy theory aimed at smearing Moscow.

Le Monde reported this month that 15 Russian spies had passed through Haute-Savoie region, close to the Swiss and Italian borders.

The paper said they were members of the 29155 unit of

Russia’s GRU military spy agency — the unit accused of carrying out operations including the attempted poisoning of defector

Sergei Skripal in Britain.“We are compelled with

regret to note that the total lack of any proof did not serve as an obstacle for publishing openly Russo-phobic material,” the Russian foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We consider the article as disinformation aimed at sup-porting the myth of the Russian threat in the minds of the European public.”

Le Monde had published a list of 15 Russian members of the unit, which it said added five

more names to those already published by online investigative outlets such as Bellingcat and The Insider.

It said Western intelligence services began an investigation retrospectively after the attempted poisoning of Skripal in the English town of Salisbury in March 2018.

Britain and its allies accuse the Kremlin of seeking to assas-sinate Skripal, a charge vehe-mently denied by Russia.

Those who stayed in the Haute-Savoie included

Alexander Petrov and Ruslan Boshirov — the cover names of the two GRU agents accused of carrying out the attack on Skripal, Le Monde reported.

Western intelligence services have not so far found any material left behind by the agents during their stays in France, Le Monde said.

But their presence has been confirmed by where they ate, stayed and also shopped in Haute-Savoie, it said.

But the Russian foreign min-istry said the timing of the report

— coming on the eve of a December 9 summit in Paris between President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskiy — was “not accidental”.

“It had the clear aim of dam-aging the reputation of Russia and discrediting the policy taken by French President Emmanuel Macron to normalise relations with Moscow,” it added.

The ministry said: “Russia does not have, and never had, any intention of carrying out desta-bilising operations in Europe.”

Macron’s government renews talks to end pension reform gridlockBLOOMBERG PARIS

The French government began a new round of talks with unions to try and end the gridlock over its planned pension reform ahead of the holidays.

About two weeks of strikes and three nationwide marches have gummed up the country’s public transportation system, leaving millions to work out alternative ways of getting around. Prime Minister Edouard Philippe has reiterated that his government has no intention of backing down.

“The objective is very simple: to guarantee that accounts will be balanced in 2027,” Philippe said. “If our social partners come up with a better proposition that guarantees equilibrium by then, we’ll take it.”

While President Emmanuel Macron’s government has bar-reled through reforms of tax and labor laws, the current stalemate shows how deeply the French are wedded to their pension system. Reforming it is the crown jewel of Macron’s effort to modernise the country by merging 42 separate pension regimes into one universal points-based system and offering incentives to push back the age when workers retire to 64 from 62 in 2027.

The prime minister has invited unions and employer organizations for talks yesterday, followed by a joint meeting today. They will be joined by the new pension reform chief, Laurent Pietraszewski, a former lawmaker from Macron’s party. Pietraszewski was appointed on Tuesday night, replacing

Jean-Paul Delevoye, who resigned on Monday for failing to declare multiple paid and unpaid positions he held in organizations including think-tanks and trade groups.

France’s third round of dem-onstrations and protest marches on Tuesday drew 615,000 people across the country, according to Interior Ministry figures, while the far-left CGT union which has led the anti-reform movement counted 1.8 million, a report sid.

“This doesn’t call into question the government’s determination to do this reform, which is a reform for all of the French,” Jean-Baptiste Djebbari, junior minister for transpor-tation, said in an interview. “There were fewer people in the streets yesterday than on December 5.”

French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe (second left); French Health and Solidarity Minister Agnes Buzyn (left), and CGT union general-secretary Philippe Martinez (right) attending a meeting over a pensions overhaul at the French Prime Minister’s residence, Hotel de Matignon in Paris, yesterday.

O’Reilly re-elected as EU ombudsman

“We consider the article as disinformation aimed at supporting the myth of the Russian threat in the minds of the European public,” the foreign ministry said in a statement.

AFP STRASBOURG

The European Union’s ombudsman was re-elected yesterday after six years in which she has tangled with some of Brussels’ most senior officials in the name of transparency.

Emily O’Reilly, an Irish former journalist turned gov-ernment watchdog, received 320 out of 600 votes cast in the European Parliament, giving her a new five-year mandate.

She has issued reports on several complaints, most famously when she said the European Commission had broken its own rules in pro-moting senior official Martin Selmayr.

Selmayr, who was chief of staff to then commission

president Jean-Claude Juncker, was slipped into the powerful post of secretary-general in Feb-ruary 2018.

O’Reilly found that proper procedures had not been followed in the snap appointment, and that Juncker’s commission had been guilty of maladministration.

Following her report, the European Parliament demanded Selmayr’s resignation.

Juncker stood by his close colleague, who remained in post, but this year Selmayr stepped aside and he has been appointed to be EU representative in Vienna.

O’Reilly, who was the Irish government’s ombudsman and information commissioner before coming to Brussels, thanked parliament for its support.

“For the next five years, I will

help ensure the EU maintains the highest standards in adminis-tration, transparency and ethics,” she said.

“One priority will remain tackling the lack of the trans-parency of EU law making by national governments in Brussels,” she said.

EU laws are proposed by the European Commission, but before a text is approved it must be passed by both parliament and the member states.

Member state ministers and ambassadors meet in closed door councils, as well as with MEPs and commissioners, to finalise the drafts.

“We need to stop the ‘blame Brussels’ culture, when often it is citizens’ own national min-isters taking the key decisions in the EU,” O’Reilly said.

Garbage truck delay saves newborn boyAFP ATHENS

A newborn boy left in a waste chute in the western Greek city of Kalamata was saved by chance yesterday when the garbage truck was late in making its daily rounds, the local mayor said.

“The baby was fortunate in its misfortune...there was a delay in the day’s collection,” Kalamata mayor Thanassis Vassilopoulos told Alpha TV. “The garbage trucks do not just load waste, they compress it”.

The days-old newborn had been left in a garbage chute several metres deep in the centre of town, the television station said.

Found by a woman feeding strays, the baby was taken to a local hospital with breathing difficulty, and is expected to make a full recovery, the station said.

Holiday eventThe daughter of Princess Stephanie of Monaco Camille Gottlieb (third left), Prince Albert II of Monaco; Princess Charlene of Monaco and the son of Princess Stephanie of Monaco Louis Ducruet attending the children’s holiday event at the Monaco Palace, yesterday.

Albanian media protest rules for online sitesAP TIRANA

Dozens of journalists protested outside the Albanian Parliament yesterday as lawmakers debated an “anti-defamation package” that would authorise heavy fines on online media and give extra powers to government media regulators.

Fifteen journalists’ and civil society organisations have urged the legislature to reject the government-backed legis-lation, saying it would “threaten freedom of expression and freedom of the media in the country, and fall contrary to the international principles.”

The protesting journalists said they would challenge the measures at the Constitutional Court if they pass.

The proposed package also drew criticism from organisations outside Albania that said it did not meet inter-national standards for media rights.

Slovakia court suspends bill for Europe’s pre-election poll blackoutREUTERS PRAGUE

Slovakia’s Constitutional Court on suspended a law putting in place one of the world’s longest bans on publishing opinion polls before elections, preventing the bill from taking effect before a parlia-mentary vote in February.

Opposition and critics have viewed the ruling party-backed bill, approved last month, as an attempt to sideline political new-comers before European Union country’s February 29 election.

The change would have extended the blackout on pub-lishing polls on voting intentions to 50 days, from the already lengthy 14 days, which would have been the third-longest ban of its kind in the world, according to the Slovak Academy of Sciences.

President Zuzana Caputova had filed the motion against the law in which she argued it violated the right to information and that it

limited political competition.Opposition critics said the

measure was aimed at disadvan-taging challengers from new parties that could benefit from late shifts in support. It did not ban procuring polls but barred publi-cation of any results.

The court ruling returns the black-out period to 14 days, pending further court delibera-tions that will take place at an unspecified future date.

The law had won backing from the ruling leftist Smer party, junior coalition partner Slovak National Party (SNS) and the opposition far-right People’s Party-Our Slovakia.

Its authors said the bill aimed to protect voters from disinfor-mation so they could base their decisions on the parties’ pro-grammes and actions.

Caputova, an activist lawyer and political newcomer herself, defeated Smer’s candidate in a presidential run-off in March after a late surge in support.

Finland offers crash course in artificial intelligence to EUAP HELSINKI

Finland is offering a techy gift to all European Union citizens — a free-of-charge online course in artificial intelligence in their own language, officials said.

The tech-savvy Nordic nation, led by the 34-year-old Prime Minister Sanna Marin, is marking the end of its rotating presidency of the EU at the end of the year with a highly ambi-tious goal.

Instead of handing out the usual ties and scarves to EU offi-cials and journalists, the Finnish government has opted to give practical understanding of AI to 1% of EU citizens, or about 5 million people, through a basic online course by the end of 2021.

It is teaming up with the University of Helsinki, Finland’s largest and oldest academic institution, and the Finland-based tech consultancy Reaktor.

Teemu Roos, a University of Helsinki associate professor in the department of computer

science, described the nearly $2m project as “a civics course in AI” to help EU citizens cope with society’s ever-increasing digitalisation and the possibil-ities AI offers in the jobs market.

The course covers ele-mentary AI concepts in a prac-tical way and doesn’t go into deeper concepts like coding, he said.

“We have enormous potential in Europe but what we lack is investments into AI,” Roos said, adding that the con-tinent faces fierce AI compe-tition from digital giants like China and the United States.

The initiative is paid for by the Finnish ministry for economic affairs and employment, and offi-cials said the course is meant for all EU citizens whatever their age, education or profession.

Consisting of several modules, the online course is meant to be completed in about six weeks full time — or up to six months on a lighter schedule - and is currently available in Finnish, English, Swedish and Estonian.

17THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 EUROPE / AMERICAS

Italy faces lawsuit over Libya asylum returneeAFP GENEVA

Campaigners filed a complaint with the UN yesterday against Italy over a teenage migrant who was sent back to Libya in 2018 along with other migrants, where he was shot, beaten and subjected to forced labour.

The Global Legal Action Network (GLAN) lodged the case with the UN Human Rights Com-mittee aiming to challenge the practice of EU coastal states like Italy engaging commercial ships to return vulnerable people to unsafe locations.

The NGO says it is the first case of its kind to target so-called privatised push-backs.

The complaint maintains that Italy and other states have turned private merchant vessels into instruments of so-called refoulement — returning asylum seekers to places where they risk persecution and torture — which is illegal under international law.

“What we are witnessing is a worrying trend where the rescue of desperate people at sea is being out-sourced to ill-equipped and untrained mer-chant ships,” GLAN chief Gearoid O Cuinn said in a statement, warning that “this is a recipe for certain abuse.”

The case was filed on behalf of a South-Sudanese migrant who now lives in Malta.

He was rescued in the Med-iterranean with dozens of other migrants on November 7, 2018, but was returned to Libya, where he was subjected to horrific treatment.

The Italian Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre oversaw the rescue, carried out by Panama-flagged merchant vessel Nivin, but then asked the ship to coor-dinate with the Libyan Coast Guard (LYCG).

The LYCG told the Nivin to bring the migrants back to Libya, where the roughly 80 passengers were violently removed from the vessel by Libya security forces, who used tear gas, rubber bullets and live ammunition after a 10-day standoff.

The claimant, who was 19 years old at the time, was shot in the leg, arbitrarily detained, interrogated, beaten, subjected to forced labour and denied medical treatment for months, according to the complaint.

The accusation relied on

evidence in a report published by Forensic Oceanography, a research team based at the Uni-versity of London.

That report found that pri-vatised push-backs have risen sharply since June 2018, and that seafarers are increasingly being “used by states seeking to cir-cumvent their obligations towards refugees”, according to the statement.

“Our legal complaint is tar-geting Italy’s attempt to abdicate its responsibilities by privatising the push-back of migrants to a nightmare environment in Libya,” O Cuinn said.

Italy renewed a widely crit-icised 2017 agreement in October with the Libyan coast-guard to block migrants trying to leave for Europe.

Rights groups say Libya rou-tinely picks up migrants in the Mediterranean and brings them back to overcrowded detention centres, where many have been victims of abuse and forced labour.

Libya, wracked by conflict since the 2011 uprising against Moamer Kadhafi, has become a major transit route for migrants from sub-Saharan Africa and else-where hoping to reach Europe.

Some 40,000 refugees and asylum seekers also live outside detention centres in urban areas in Libya, according to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR).

Exoplanet hunter reaches orbit around EarthAFP PARIS

Europe’s CHEOPS planet-hunting space telescope left Earth yesterday and moved into orbit, a day after its lift-off was delayed by a technical rocket glitch during the final countdown.

The telescope will measure the density, composition and size of planets beyond our Solar System — known as exoplanets.

According to the European Space Agency (ESA), CHEOPS will observe bright stars that are already known to be orbited by planets.

“Cheops is 710km away, exactly where we wanted it to be, it’s absolutely perfect,” Didier Queloz, 2019 Nobel Physics Prize winner, said in French Guiana, where the launch took place. “This is really an exceptional moment in European space history and in the history of the exoplanets.”

Roughly 4,000 such exo-planets have been discovered since Queloz and his colleague Michel Mayor identified the first one, called “51 Pegasi b”, 24 years ago.

The satellite took off at 0854 GMT, according to the live footage broadcast by launch

company Arianespace.It was the third launch this

year for the Russian-built Soyuz rocket.

On Tuesday, the launcher’s automated sequence was inter-rupted during the final countdown at 1 hour 25 minutes, because of what was described as “an anomaly” in the launch set-up.

Scientists today estimate that there are at least as many gal-axies as there are stars -- approximately 100 billion.

“We want to go beyond sta-tistics and study them in detail,” mission chief David Ehrenreich said ahead of yesterday’s launch.

A Soyuz rocket lifts off Europe’s CHEOPS planet-hunting satellite on board, from launchpad in Kourou, French Guiana, yesterday.

Gangs battle in Panama prison, 14 deadAFP PANAMA CITY

Rival gang members opened fire in a crowded Panamanian prison killing 14 inmates and wounding around a dozen others, the government announced yesterday.

The gunbattle, involving AK-47 automatic rifles and other firearms, erupted late Tuesday in La Joyita penitentiary, one of the country’s largest prisons, east of Panama City.

“After the fight yesterday in Hall 14 of the La Joyita peniten-tiary we can report that 14

prisoners have died,” the interior ministry said on Twitter, updating an earlier toll of 12 dead.

The country’s prisons director Walter Hernandez said 14 prisoners were wounded, one seriously.

The shooting broke out among young inmates in a section of the prison known as Hall 14, which houses around 500 prisoners, authorities said.

Deputy Director of National Police Alexis Munoz said the shooting arose from “disputes” between inmates — mostly members of criminal gangs.

Police seized eight firearms, including three AK-47 rifles, after the incident, according to Hernandez.

Panama’s President Lau-rentino Cortizo said that a search of the same prison weeks ago had discovered several weapons.

“That means weapons are being allowed into the prison,” the president said.

The government said the ring-leaders will be relocated and iso-lated to avoid further violence.

Panama has a prison popu-lation of some 17,000, held in 20 prisons, according to official figures released in June.

An injured inmate is carried on a stretcher into a hospital by police paramedics after a shootout among inmates at La Joyita prison, in Panama City, yesterday.

The complaint maintains that Italy and other states have turned private merchant vessels into instruments of refoulement which is illegal under international law.

Former aide to Malta PM denies leaking details of murder probeREUTERS VALLETTA

The former chief-of-staff to Malta’s prime minister denied leaking information about an investigation into the killing of an anti-corruption reporter to the man accused of master-minding her murder.

The ex-aide, Keith Schembri, also denied writing a letter to the suspected mastermind, Yorgen Fenech, which instructed him what to tell police following Fenech’s arrest over Daphne Caruana Galizia’s death in a car

bombing in October 2017.Fenech, a multi-millionaire

entrepreneur, was arrested last month as he tried to leave Malta on his yacht. He has been accused of complicity in the killing, which shone a spotlight on corruption in the country.

Fenech denies the charge. He has also implicated Schembri in the murder and asked for lead investigator Keith Arnaud to be taken off the case, saying Arnaud and Schembri are close.

Appearing as a witness at a court hearing into Fenech’s com-plaint against Arnaud, Schembri

said he had attended briefings which the police and security service gave Prime Minister Joseph Muscat about the murder.

He said he and Fenech were friends, but denied leaking infor-mation about the briefings to busi-nessman and said he had not told him his phone calls were being monitored by security service.

“We only discussed what was reported in the media,” Schembri, who denies Fenech’s accusations that he has links to corruption and the self-con-fessed middleman in the murder, told the judge.

He said he had spoken to Fenech by phone for 20 minutes shortly before the businessman tried to leave Malta, but denied he had tried to help him escape.

Schembri had been held under arrest by police for ques-tioning but was released late last month. He quit as Muscat’s chief of staff after Fenech’s accusa-tions against him.

Schembri said he had twice met self-confessed middleman Melvin Theuma in the gov-ernment headquarters but that the meetings were not related to the Caruana Galizia murder.

Suspect found liable for 1982 IRA nail bombingAFP LONDON

Britain’s High Court found a suspect liable for an IRA nail bombing in 1982 that killed four UK soldiers in London’s High Park.

The ruling clears the way for John Downey to face a damages claim, five years after his criminal trial collapsed.

“This was a deliberate, carefully planned attack on members of the military,” Justice Amanda Yip ruled at the end of the first phase of the new civil case.

Damages will be awarded during the second phase, but no date has yet been set.

“I have found that the defendant was an active par-ticipant in the concerted plan to detonate the bomb, with the intent to kill or at least to cause serious harm to members of the Household Cavalry,” the judge added.

The cavalry troops were killed along with seven horses when a nail bomb exploded in a car as they made their way from barracks to the iconic changing of the guard cer-emony at Buckingham Palace.

The amnesty appeared in one of 228 “comfort letters” sent out to militants as part of negotiations to preserve the peace brokered in Northern Ireland’s 1998 Good Friday Agreement.

Canada police probe alleged child abuse by video gaming momAFP OTTAWA

Police in Canada said yesterday they’re investigating a Calgary mother for allegedly hitting an infant seen in a video distracting her from playing the massively popular online video game Fortnite.

A spokeswoman for the Calgary police confirmed the child abuse probe.

The official said authorities were tipped off about footage of the woman on video live

streaming service Twitch, which is a subsidiary of Amazon and popular with gamers.

Now circulating on social media, the 90-second clip depicts the young mother sitting on a bed, hitting and pushing away her infant child as it grabs at her game controller.

“No” and “let go,” she yells at the child, who is heard crying while she plays the video game.

Global News said the woman’s Twitch account has been suspended.

Danish PM rules out link between Greenland independence, TrumpBLOOMBERG COPENHAGEN

Denmark and the US have not discussed the issue of Greenland independence in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s offer to buy the world’s largest island, Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen said.

“The question of Green-landic independence has not been discussed,” Frederiksen told parliament.

She was responding to ques-tions from members of the nationalist Danish People’s Party who had suggested that Green-land’s vibrant independence movement may have stoked Trump’s interest.

Greenland, which is part of the Kingdom of Denmark, has returned to the local political limelight ever since Trump’s

offer to buy the island was rebuffed in Copenhagen. The ensuring row eventually prompted the US president to cancel a planned visit to the Danish capital.

Frederiksen and Trump held their first sit-down meeting since the spat at this month’s Nato summit in London. The Danish premier used that occasion to tell allies it is redi-recting a sizable portion of its defence budget to the Arctic.

Greenland is home to a strong independence movement and plays a strategic role in geopolitics.

“The US is increasingly pre-occupied with the behaviour of Russia and China in the region,” Frederiksen said. “I want to make it clear: The US is our primary ally when it comes to defence and security policies.”

Denmark approves new US consulate in Greenland: FMREUTERS/COPENHAGEN

Denmark has approved the establishment of a US consulate in Greenland, an autonomous part of Denmark, four months after rebuffing US President Donald Trump’s idea of buying the island which stunned Copenhagen and caused a diplo-matic spat.

A new consulate is part of a broader move by Washington to expand its diplomatic and commercial presence in

Greenland and the Arctic.“We continue, together with

Greenland, the dialogue with the United States about devel-opment in the Arctic and the close cooperation on US engagement in Greenland,” Foreign Minister Jeppe Kofod said in a statement.

The row in August caused Trump to cancel a planned state visit to Denmark.

The United States last had a consulate in Greenland between 1940 and 1953.

18 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019AMERICAS

Impeachment: Pelosi calls Trump threat to USREUTERS WASHINGTON

US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi called Donald Trump an ongoing threat to American democracy as the bitterly divided chamber engaged in an impeachment debate before historic votes on two charges accusing the Repub-lican president of abusing his power and obstructing Congress.

The Democratic-controlled House launched a planned six hours of debate on the two articles of impeachment — formal charges — arising from the president’s actions toward Ukraine, with time equally divided between the parties and no amendments.

Trump would become only the third US president to be impeached.

“Today we are here to defend democracy for the people,” Pelosi, the top Democrat in Con-gress, said in a speech on the House floor, drawing applause from lawmakers in her party.

In a series of speeches on the House floor, Republicans defended the president and accused Democrats of seeking to topple him from power using an unfair and rigged process.

Separate votes on the two charges are expected. The votes are expected to fall almost entirely along party lines, with Democrats in favor and Repub-

licans opposed.“If we do not act now, we

would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary,” Pelosi added.

“He gave us no choice. What we are discussing today is the established fact that the pres-ident violated the Constitution. It is a matter of fact that the pres-ident is an ongoing threat to our national security and the integrity of our elections — the basis of our democracy,” Pelosi said.

Following Pelosi, Represent-ative Doug Collins, top Repub-lican on the House Judiciary Committee, said, “This an impeachment based on pre-sumption. This is basically also a poll-tested impeachment on what actually sells to the American people. Today’s going to be a lot of things. What it is not, is fair. What it is not, is about the truth.”

The debate underscored the deep divide in Congress over

Trump’s conduct during his tumultuous presidency and the larger political schism within the United States.

Impeachment is an extraor-dinary check on presidential power spelled out in the US Con-stitution enabling Congress to remove presidents who commit “ h i g h c r i m e s a n d misdemeanors.”

“The founders’ great fear of a rogue or corrupt president is the very reason why they enshrined impeachment in the Constitution,” Pelosi added.

The vote would set the stage for a trial expected next month in the US Senate on whether to convict Trump and remove him from office. While the House twice previously has voted to impeach presidents — Bill Clinton in 1998 and Andrew Johnson in 1868 — no president has ever been removed from office via impeachment.

The Senate is controlled by Trump’s fellow Republicans, who have shown little interest in ousting him. During the trial, House members would act as prosecutors as the senators as jurors.

House Democrats accuse

Trump of abusing his power by asking Ukraine to investigate Joe Biden, a former US vice-pres-ident and a leading contender for the Democratic nomination to face Trump in the November 2020 election.

Trump is also accused of obstructing the House investi-gation by directing adminis-tration officials and agencies not to comply with subpoenas for testimony and documents related to impeachment.

“This is a democracy-defining moment. History will judge us by whether we keep intact that fragile republic handed down to us by

our forebears over 200 years ago — or whether we allow it to be changed forever,” Democratic Representative Jim McGovern, chairman of the House Rules Committee, said on the House floor.

Representative Tom Cole, that committee’s top Republican, countered, “Today after a trun-cated investigation that denied the president due process, cherry-picked evidence and witness testimony to fit their nar-rative, and trampled on Repub-licans’ minority rights, Demo-crats in the House are pressing forward with a partisan impeachment vote.”

Paul Manafort’s fraud case in NY dismissedREUTERS NEW YORK

Paul Manafort, US President Donald Trump’s former campaign chairman, yesterday won the dismissal of New York state fraud charges, in a defeat for the Manhattan district attorney’s efforts to hold him accountable even if pardoned by Trump.

Justice Maxwell Wiley of the state Supreme Court in Man-hattan said at a hearing that letting the district attorney, Cyrus Vance, prosecute Man-afort would violate Manafort’s protection against double jeopardy, or being prosecuted twice for the same conduct.

“We will appeal today’s decision and will continue working to ensure that Mr Man-afort is held accountable for the criminal conduct against the People of New York that is

alleged in the indictment,” Vance’s spokesman Danny Frost said in a statement.

Vance, a Democrat, announced the indictment of Manafort on 16 felony counts including residential mortgage fraud on March 13, less than an hour after Manafort was ordered to spend 7-1/2 years in prison on various federal charges.

Those charges stemmed from former US Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s probe into Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, and resulted in Manafort’s August 2018 conviction on tax evasion and bank fraud. Trump has denied colluding with Moscow.

Manafort, 70, has been serving his sentence at a federal prison in Pennsylvania, but was hospitalised last week for what his lawyer called a cardiac incident.

Watchdog pledges ‘deep dive’ into FBI’s possible wiretap abusesBLOOMBERG WASHINGTON

The Justice Department’s internal watchdog pledged the first-ever “deep dive” to determine the extent of abuses of the secret court that approves wiretaps of suspected terrorists and national security threats.

“We don’t know what we don’t know,” Michael Horowitz, the Justice Department’s inspector general told the Senate Homeland Security and Govern-mental Affairs Committee during a hearing yesterday.

Horowitz, who said he’ll start with a sampling of cases, opened an inquiry into wiretap orders issued under the Foreign Intel-ligence Surveillance Act after he found multiple failures in the FBI’s applications to wiretap former Trump’s campaign official Carter Page.

“What we’re going to do in the first instance is have our auditors do some selections of counterintelligence and coun-terterrorism” applications, Horowitz said. “We have limited resources, and we want to make sure we’re targeting them in the

right places.”President Donald Trump and

Republicans seized on Horow-itz’s findings as vindication for their claims that anti-Trump forces in the FBI and Justice Department wiretapped Page in order to spy on Trump’s cam-paign and early presidency.

Horowitz said he found no political bias in the FBI’s deci-sions but that his office was given unsatisfactory answers by FBI officials on the failures in the Page warrant applications.

Lawmakers from both parties now are talking about

revamping the FISA process, especially when it comes to sur-veillance that affects a political campaign.

Senator Rand Paul, a Ken-tucky Republican, suggested during yesterday’s hearing that the secretive FISA process shouldn’t be used when the target of an operation is a political candidate or campaign.

“We should not subject our political campaigns to secret courts and to secret warrants and secret surveillance,” Paul said.

The court that approves and

oversees wiretaps ordered the FBI on Tuesday to explain what it’s doing to ensure applications are legally sound and accurate, setting a January 10 deadline.

“The frequency with which representations made by FBI personnel turned out to be unsupported or contradicted by information in their possession, and with which they withheld information detrimental to their case, calls into question whether information contained in other FBI applications is reliable,” US District Judge Rosemary Collyer wrote in the order.

24 tornadoeshit southeastUS in two daysAP BIRMINGHAM

At least two dozen tornadoes hit the Southeast this week in a deadly outbreak of severe weather, assessments by the National Weather Service show.

Survey teams from regional weather service offices found evidence that twisters struck from western Louisiana to southern Georgia on Monday and Tuesday, with 10 tornadoes in Mississippi alone, according to reports issued online. Another nine touched down in Alabama, survey teams found.

Louisiana was hit by three twisters, and two struck Georgia.

The strongest storm was an EF-3 tornado with winds of as much as 258 kph . It left a path 100km long and as wide as 400 yards (366) in Louisiana between the cities of DeRidder and Alexandria.

Storm surveys were con-tinuing, the weather service said.

A husband and wife died when a tornado struck their home in north Alabama, and a woman was killed in a twister in Louisiana. Another person died in flash flooding in Kentucky.

On Tuesday, Col Bryan Olier, chief-of-staff at the Mis-sissippi Emergency Man-agement Agency, told a news conference that at least 25 counties were affected, 150 homes were reported damaged or destroyed and about a dozen were injured. The numbers are likely to grow.

4.7 million people have left Venezuela: UN rights chiefANATOLIA GENEVA

The UN estimates that 4.7 million Venezuelans have abandoned the country, with the total projected to reach 6.5. million by the end of 2020, the UN high commissioner for human rights announced yesterday.

Giving an “oral update on the

human rights situation” in Ven-ezuela prior to a Human Rights Council session in Geneva, Michelle Bachelet (pictured) said her office welcomed an agreement with the Venezuelan authorities to allow the collection of information from the justice, security and the prison bodies on people detained without trial.

“In the last three months, my

office has carried out nine visits to detention centres managed by the Ministry for Penitentiary Services and the Ministry of Defense,” said Bachelet, with the high commissioner’s office obtaining information on torture investigations, extrajudicial killings and preventive detention.

She added that her team managed to confidentially

interview more than 70 people deprived of their liberty in detention centers run by civilian and military intelligence services.

“I would like to mention the release in September and October of 28 persons deprived of their liberty for political reasons. I encourage the author-ities to free unconditionally all persons detained for political

reasons, including military staff,” Bachelet added.

Venezuela has been embroiled in political unrest as President Nicolas Maduro and opposition leader Juan Guaido have engaged in a power battle, while the country’s economy has been in precipitous decline fol-lowing a global downturn in the price of crude oil.

Istanbul Photo Awards 2019 exhibition opens at UNThe Permanent Representative of Turkey to the United Nations, Feridun Sinirlioglu viewing photos at the opening of the Istanbul Photo Awards 2019 exhibition at the United Nations Headquarters, in New York, yesterday.

People rally in support of the impeachment of US President Donald Trump in front of the US Capitol, in Washington, DC, yesterday.

If we do not act now, we would be derelict in our duty. It is tragic that the president’s reckless actions make impeachment necessary: Nancy Pelosi

Trump asks supporters to ‘say a prayer’ANATOLIA/WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump asked supporters to pray for him as the House of Represent-atives is set to vote on two articles of impeachment against the president for his dealings with Ukraine.

“Can you believe that I will be impeached today by the Radical Left, Do Nothing Dem-ocrats, AND I DID NOTHING WRONG! A terrible Thing. Read the Transcripts,” said Trump on Twitter. “This should never happen to another President again. Say a PRAYER!”

19THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 HOME

HIA hosts terminal-wide activities in celebration of Qatar National Day 2019DOHA THE PENINSULA

Hamad International Airport (HIA) celebrated Qatar National Day 2019 by marking a wide range of remarkable festivities across the terminal for passengers and employees.

The airport collaborated with Qatar Duty Free (QDF) to design and decorate the airport with Qatari flags and manifestations of Qatar National Day. HIA and QDF also introduced authentic traditional cuisines across various food and beverage outlets in the airport for pas-sengers to get a taste of Qatari cuisine. This includes a special menu of Qatari inspired dishes at the recently opened Harrods Tea Room in celebration of the much-anticipated Qatar National Day across the month of December.

HIA has partnered with Al-Reyada Girls Center, to provide travellers a feel of the country and its geography by installing an interactive model showcasing the iconic sites around Qatar. Al-Reyada Girls Center is an entity under the umbrella of the Ministry of Culture and Sports, which aims to empower girls and enhance their skills in sports, culture and social fields.

Through this partnership, HIA has provided Al-Reyada Girls Center an opportunity to showcase their work to millions of passengers passing through Qatar’s terminal. Travellers have been given the opportunity to engage with the model present at the activity node in

concourse C throughout the month of December, which sheds light on the beauty of Qatar, its heritage and hospitable people.

HIA also partnered with Qatar Olympic Committee (QOC) to bring the third edition of ‘Qatar’s Flag Relay’ to the airport on 13

December 2019. The 5,000 participant event wit-nessed participation from HIA subsidiaries and partners. The flag relay which took place around prominent locations in Qatar culminated at the airport, where the flag was finally handed to a Qatar Airways pilot who flew it to Japan where the Qatari team will be represented for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

Bolstering employee engagement and culture, HIA has also partnered with Qatar Aviation Services (QAS) to organise

a Qatar National Day 2019 staff engagement event on 17 December 2019. HIA and QAS man-agement and staff engaged in live traditional Qatari performances and activities, while enjoying traditional and local cuisine stations and food trucks.

The airport also featured a series of cele-brations reflecting Qatari culture and tradition to share Qatari pride and joy to nationals, res-idents, and all passengers. The five-star airport provided traditional activities and entertainment across the terminal including calligraphy writing, henna tattoos and a photo corner where travellers captured their memorable experi-ences before boarding their flights.

Commenting on the festive spirits, Engr. Badr Mohammed Al Meer, Chief Operating Officer at HIA stated, “This is a significant day for the people of Qatar, and we are proud to celebrate it with our passengers. As the gateway to the State of Qatar, its art and culture, it is our responsibility to share our deeply rooted traditions with those travelling through HIA to get a taste of what Qatar has to offer. We are happy to share the joyous celebrations and wish our residents and global passengers wonderful celebrations.”

CROSSWORD

Thambi ( transl. Younger Brother) is an upcoming Indian Tamil-language action thriller film directed by Jeethu Joseph, starring Karthi, Jyothika and Sathyaraj.

THAMBI

MALL ROYAL PLAZA

Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 2:00, 5:00 & 8:00pmMamangam (2D/Malayalam) 2:00 & 11:15pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:45pm The Body (2D/Hindi) 4:00pmBonnie Bears: Blast Into The Past (2D/Animation) 4:15pm;Jumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 6:00pmStar Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 6:30 & 11:30pm; Hero (2D/Tamil) 8:15 & 11:00pmThambi (2D/Tamil) 11:30pm

Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 10:30am, 1:45, 5:00, 8:15 & 11:30pmHero (2D/Tamil) 11:45am, 5:45 & 11:45pmJumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 11:45am, 11:30pm; Thambi (2D/Tamil) 3:00 & 9:00pm; Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 2:30pm; Mamangam (2D/Malayalam) 5:30pm

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 12:30, 3:30, 6:30, 9:30, 2:30am & 12:15am

Thambi (2D/Tamil) 12:30, 3:15, 6:15pm & 12:00 midnight

Hero (2D/Tamil) 3:15, 9:00pm & 2:45am

Mamangam (2D/Malayalam) 5:45 & 11:15pm

Kettyolanu Ente Maalakha (2D/Malayalam) 8:45pm

Prati Roju Pandaage (2D/Telugu) 12:30pm

ASIAN TOWN

ROXY

FLIK Mirqab Mall

Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 5:40, 7:25, 8:50, 10:35pm & 12:00 midnight

Frozen II (2D/Animation) 10:30am, 12:40 & 2:50pm

Go Fish (2D/Animation) 10:35pm

Jumanji: The Next Level (3D/Action) 10:10, 12:40, 3:10, 5:00pm &

0:4am

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 10:30, 11:00am,

11:50, 12:10, 1:20, 1:50, 2:40, 3:00, 4:40, 5:30, 5:50, 7:00, 7:30, 8:20,

8:40, 9:30, 9:50, 10:50, 11:10, 11:30pm

Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (3D/Action) 10:00am, 11:30am,

12:50, 2:20, 3:40, 5:10, 6:30, 8:00, 9:20, 10:50pm & 0:10am,

Bonnie Bears: Blast Into The Past 10:30 & 3:45pm; Dabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 10:30, 1:00, 2:50, 4:00, 4:50, 7:00, 8:00, 10:00, 11:10pmFrozen II (3D/Animation) 12:30, 2:45, 5:00 & 5:45pmHero (2D/Tamil) 12:30, 6:40 & 10:10pmJumanji: The Next Level (3D/Action) 11:00, 12:30, 1:20, 2:40, 3:30, 4:20, 5:10, 7:40, 8:00 & 9:00pmRuler (2D/Telugu) 10:30pmStand Up (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 12:30, 1:20, 4:00, 6:00, 7;00, 8:10, 10:00 & 11:30amThambi (2D/Tamil) 3:40, 7:30, 10:00 & 10;30pm

Frozen II (2D/Animation) 2:15 & 4:15pmDabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 2:15, 5:15 & 8:15pmMamangam (2D/Malayalam) 2:30pmLegend Of The Christmas Witch (2D/Comedy) 5:30pm Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 6:00 & 8:30pmBombshell (2D/Biography) 7:15pmJumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 9:15pmThambi (2D/Tamil) 11:00pmI See You (2D/Horror) 11:30pmHero (2D/Tamil) 11:15pm

Go Fish (2D/Animation) 2:00pmDabangg 3 (2D/Hindi) 2:00, 6:00, 8:30 & 11;15pmFrozen II (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:15pmMamangam (2D/Malayalam) 3:15pmJumanji: The Next Level (2D/Action) 5:00 & 7:15pm; The Body (2D/Hindi) 5:00pmStar Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker (2D/Action) 6:00 & 9:00pm; Into The Ashes (Crime) 9:30pmThambi (2D/Tamil) 11:30pmHero (2D/Tamil) 11:15pm

20 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019MORNING BREAK

QND: Cultural events light up KataraThe rain did not dampen Katara Cultural Village’s grand National Day celebration yesterday as thousands of people thronged the different outdoor shows presented in partnership with various public and private entities.

Bedecked in maroon and white, cars carrying families and children were seen waving Qatari flags as they entered Katara in large numbers, arousing patriotic fervor and festive atmosphere in the place.

Various colourful activities kept Qataris and all other nationalities engaged in the celebrations displaying their loyalty to the nation while enjoying with a great sense of pride and unity.

The country’s rich culture and tra-ditions were majestically resplendent and reflected in a big way through the diverse activities.

Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara extended his greetings on the country’s National Day and welcomed everyone in Qatar to join in the celebrations.

“Qatar National Day is when Qataris renew their love and loyalty to their beloved country Qatar, and a day for renewing the spirit of loyalty to the wise leadership; their belief in the joy of giving; and tireless work to elevate their homeland,” said Al Sulaiti.

“It is also an opportunity for us to express with happiness and in various civilized manifestations the love for the country and the joy in its accom-plishments year after year. This feeling touches the heart of everyone who lives on the land of Qatar, a feeling that reflects the renewal of the intention towards building this great nation,” he added.

Katara and its surroundings were radiant amid the gloomy weather with the beautiful lights, traditional music and the vibrant beat of the drums as Qatari performers danced the ‘Arda’ to the delight of the crowd.

The drones show was a sight to behold as small drones came in spec-tacular formations like lanterns from

over the sea to the beachfront.The spirit of nationalism was pal-

pable all over the venue as children in military outfits holding flags brought cheer to visitors.

Since December 11, the Katara esplanade and Amphitheatre are among the major areas in the Cultural Village which have been witnessing various events including performances, workshops and fine arts exhibitions, and other cultural and recreational

shows but yesterday proved the most exciting celebration.

People watched the proceedings on large screens around the venue as television channels broadcast the live from Katara.

The National Day shows and events continue at Katara Amphitheatre today, one of which is ‘This is Qatar’ — an operetta which celebrates Qatari heritage and treasures.

Featuring famous performers

including Fahad Al Kubaisi, Aseem al Hamami and Ibrahim Al Dashti, the show comprises traditional and con-temporary songs and dances which delve into themes and symbols which bear great significance to Qatari her-itage such as the pearl, the dhow and the desert rose.

‘This is Qatar’ will be staged twice tonight. The first performance will be at 7pm and the final performance at 9pm.

RAYNALD C RIVERA THE PENINSULA

CLOCKWISE: The cultural shows attracted a large number of visitors to Katara’s National Day celebrations yesterday. The rain failed to dampen the National Day events at Katara as thousands of visitors flocked to the venue to watch the shows and take part in different activities. Patriotic fervour was palpable all over Katara yesterday as cars bedecked with National Day symbols and colours carrying children donning white and maroon costumes waving flags as they entered Katara’s premises to join in the celebrations.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum17oC 22oC

HIGH TIDE 09:45 – 00:00 LOW TIDE 03:32 – 17:52

Scattered clouds and relatively cold by

night.

FAJRSHOROOK

04. 52 AM06. 14 AM

11. 31 AM02.28 PM

04. 50 PM06. 20 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

Growth in global demand for oil continues to be dominated by emerging and developing economies, with China accounting for half of the incremental increase and India one-fourth, Institute of International Finance (IIF) noted yesterday.

BUSINESS

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Thursday 19 December 2019

PAGE | 02 PAGE | 03

US housing market regaining steam;

manufacturing stabilising

Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot agree $47bn merger

Google-supported Startup Grind Dohato showcase local successful firmsLANI ROSE R DIZON THE PENINSULA

Startup Grind Doha which offi-cially launched its Qatar chapter recently, is set to be a platform for showcasing the success stories of local startups in the country, with an aim to mentor the younger generation of startup entrepreneurs in Qatar, said Dr Tejinder Singh, Chapter Director of Startup Grind Doha, who is also the Founder and Chairman of venture and growth capital platform 360 Nautica.

Known to be the world’s largest independent startup community, Startup Grind nur-tures startup ecosystems in over 125 countries. The global platform, which is sponsored by Google for Startups, educates, inspires, and connects more than 2 million entrepreneurs in over 600 chapters.

In Qatar, Startup Grind is partnered with 360 Nautica, which owns a number of popular

startup brands including Q Tickets and BPO Plus, and is sponsored by Qatar Sports Tech.

“We’re planning to do 12 events a year and bring local startup success stories to let people know how the success stories have converted them-selves from ideation to being commercial, negotiating with investors, manoeuvering in the ecosystem, and validating the product among other topics,” said Singh in an interview with The Peninsula on the sidelines of the Startup Grind’s ‘Journey to Series A’ talk which was held at the Alfardan Centre on Sunday.

Singh said his team at 360 Nautica will also work on men-toring and coaching the new startups, and will support the young entrepreneurs in every way, such as providing them with the investment funds needed, extending co-working spaces and the back office support system for the startups to grow.

He added: “This will be the first of its kind where we would be looking at the startups as a private sector incubator in Qatar. We’ll incubate, accelerate them, and expose them to Startup Grind’s global platforms where it has a huge community of venture capitals and fundings.”

Singh added that the group also plans to create a fund in the future. “First, we’re trying to create an ecosystem, and 360 Nautica will also create a fund which will actually invite investors not just across Qatar but from other parts of the world. We will adopt various ways of angel funding, crowd funding, and we will even scale it to VC in times to come,” he added.

Describing Qatar’s startup ecosystem, Singh added: “When I first came to Qatar in 2006, there were virtually no startups here. It was just the entrepre-neurs bootstrapping their own initiatives predominantly. There was no airwaves of startups. The

whole stuff has changed in the last 12 years, particularly when the Qatar Business Incubation Centre, Digital Incubation Centre, and Qatar Science and Technology Park initiatives started. They started supporting the young generation to do the startups. It was overwhelm-ingly supported. We’re just extending that. We’re just adding our contribution to the whole initiative that the Qatar government has done”.

Haris Aghadi, Founder of Meddy, shared his experiences in building the largest doctor booking platform in Qatar, which now has over 150,000 monthly users. Meddy, which is a 500 Startups portfolio company, also plans to expand to the rest of the GCC in the near future.

The company, which ranked 10th in the Forbes Middle East’s 2017 ’50 Startups to Watch in the Arab World’, recently raised a $2.5 Series A round to expand further into GCC.

Dr Tejinder Singh (third right), Chapter Director of Startup Grind Doha and Founder and Chairman of 360 Nautica; Haris Aghadi (fourth left), Founder of Meddy; and Agata Braja (fourth right), Innovation Consultant, and other participants during Startup Grind’s session in Doha recently.

Opec+ cuts not enough to lift pricesTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Global oil demand growth is expected to decelerate from 1.4m b/d in 2018 to 1.0m b/d in 2019 and 2020. Growth in global demand for oil continues to be dominated by emerging and developing economies, with China accounting for half of the incremental increase and India one-fourth, Institute of Inter-national Finance (IIF) noted yesterday.

Slower global growth, even with an agreement on de-esca-lation of the trade war between the US and China, could mean slower oil demand in 2020.

The recent increase in inven-tories in the US and other major OECD countries raises concerns that the weakening of growth in the OECD and China will dampen the demand for oil, the IIF noted in its updated Oil Market report.

IIF analysts believe that December 6 decision by Opec+ on additional production cuts of 0.5m b/d is still not enough to balance the market in 2020.

They see global liquid fuels inventories rising by about 1m b/d in 2020 after our estimated rise of 0.2m b/d in 2019. Conse-quently, IIF expect a decline in average Brent oil prices to $60/bbl in 2020, compared with $64/bbl in 2019.

Oil futures contracts point to a decline of prices to an average of $62/bbl in 2020, while Bloomberg consensus forecasts suggest a further decline in oil prices to $61/bbl in 2020. The recent modest increase in Brent oil prices, driven largely by dimin-ishing uncertainty around

US-China trade and Brexit, is likely to be short-lived.

According to IIF, the oil market will continue to see robust crude oil production from the USA, Canada, and Brazil, which could lead to a supply glut in 2020. At the same time, growth in oil demand is likely to remain subdued given the continued slowdown in the global economy.

The EIA expects US crude oil production to average 13.2m b/d in 2020, an increase of 0.9m b/d from the 2019 level. The rate at which new rigs are brought into production continues to slow because of lower investment by major oil companies.

Downside risks to oil prices include one or more of the factors like significant increase in Opec supply beyond the current Opec+ agreement; gradual recovery in crude oil pro-duction in Venezuela; and accel-eration of growth in US oil pro-duction beyond our baseline due to further technological improve-ments and efficiency gains.

Qatar Islamic Bank celebrates National DayTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB) cele-brated Qatar National Day (QND) by hosting an internal event on Tuesday . To mark the occasion, QIB invited all employees to come together and celebrate at QIB’s headquarters in Grand Hamad Street. The event was attended by the executive man-agement of the bank.

In the run up to this year’s QND event, QIB held a bank-wide photography to celebrate the occasion. Employees were encouraged to explore the country and take a photo of one of Qatar’s national monuments. The winners were announced and rewarded during the event.

Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber AI Thani, the

QIB employees during the event.

Chairman, said: “Qatar’s National Day is a special occasion for us all and therefore we are proud to see QIB employees take part in cele-brations. We are committed to

Qatar and have built our strategy to best complement Qatar’s National Vision 2030 and the gov-ernment’s commitments, as this an integral part of our mission as

the nation’s leading Islamic Bank.“As we celebrate Qatar

National Day, on behalf of QIB, I would like to extend our heartfelt congratulations and

well wishes to the Amir His Highness, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and His Highness Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the Father

Amir, and the Deputy Amir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani. We wish Qatar continued success and progress in the future,” he added.

02 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019BUSINESS

Qatargas celebrates Qatar National DayTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatargas Operating Company Limited (Qatargas) celebrated Qatar National Day with employees at multiple locations throughout Qatar, and at the Company’s liaison offices in South Korea, Japan, Thailand and China. In support of Qatar National Day (QND), a giant glass wrap was mounted on the Qatargas’ head-quarters building in Doha.

The glass sticker features an image of the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the QND emblem and one of the most prominent architectural monuments in Doha — the arches of Interchange 5/6.

The iconic arches symbolise the country’s resilience and ability to overcome challenges. Inscribed with the National Day slogan in Arabic, the sticker also includes a quotation from the country’s founder Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani.

Qatargas liaison offices around the world celebrated Qatar National Day with cere-monies, held in cooperation with embassies of the State of Qatar in the respective countries, and media advertisements wishing the government and people of Qatar continued peace and prosperity.

A unique global energy operator in terms of size, service and reliability, Qatargas operates 14 LNG trains with a production capacity of 77 million tonnes per annum (Mtpa), two helium plants that make Qatar the world’s largest exporter of helium and the second largest producer, two of the world’s largest condensate refineries, and the world’s largest chartered fleet of LNG vessels.

Qatargas is currently exe-cuting the North Field Expansion (NFE) project on behalf of Qatar Petroleum that will take the State of Qatar’s current LNG production capacity to 110 Mtpa by 2024

Bedaya takes part in QND celebrations at Darb Al Saai through the ‘Young Entrepreneur’ ProgramTHE PENINSULA DOHA

As a part of Qatar National Day celebrations, Bedaya Center for Entrepreneurship and Career Development, a joint initiative by Qatar Development Bank (QDB) and Silatech, for the second consecutive year is par-ticipating through four entrepre-neurial projects that are part of the “Young Entrepreneur – Al Tajer Al Saghir” program at the specially designed Souq Waqif area in Darb Al Saai.

“Young Entrepreneur – Al Tajer Al Saghir” program has been curated by the Center for entrepreneurs in the age group of 10 to16 years old.

The Center worked relent-lessly to provide this platform to all young entrepreneurs who were willing to be part of this initiative by promoting this excellent oppor-tunity on all of its social media channels and its website. All the applicants were interviewed and screened and subsequently, four “Young Entrepreneurs” whose projects met all the requirements were selected. The selected can-didates were chosen on the basis of owning their own business or managing family businesses owned by their parents.

The four selected projects that have been chosen this year are divided between food and products sectors. Through this participation, the “Young Entre-preneurs” will have a promising

opportunity to promote their products, interact with the public closely, and gain many skills that will help them to develop and progress as well as facilitate in growth and continuity of their businesses.

Reema Al Khater, Marketing Manager at Bedaya Center, said: “We ae delighted to take part in the Qatar National Day celebra-tions at Darb Al Saai for the second consecutive year. This year we are participating with “Young Entrepreneur – Al Tajer Al Saghir” program that will be

located in the Souq Waqif area. Our aim is to promote those entrepreneurial projects that are either owned or managed by indi-viduals who are in the age group of 10 to 16 years and provide them with the right platform to practice their commercial activities and work to enhance their strengths and search for weaknesses to improve it.

“By participating at the National Day celebrations, the entrepreneurs will undoubtedly benefit from direct interaction with the public which will give

them skills and experience and help them to continue their business and motivate to innovate.

“The main objective of our “Young Entrepreneur – Al Tajer Al Saghir” program is to support these children, introduce them the proper way to deal with cus-tomers, and teach them how to track their inventory and cal-culate daily incomes, which enhances the skill of self-reliance and love of entrepre-neurship, under the supervision of a specialized team from the Bedaya Center.”

Participants at the program.

US housing market regaining steam; manufacturing stabilisingREUTERS WASHINGTON

US homebuilding increased more than expected in November and permits for future home con-struction surged to a 12-1/2-year high as lower mortgage rates continue to boost the housing market and support the broader economy.

The economy’s near-term prospects were also bolstered by other data on Tuesday showing a strong rebound in manufac-turing production in November as the return of formerly striking General Motors’ workers boosted automobile output. The data sug-gested the economy remained

on a moderate growth path in the fourth quarter despite slowing consumer spending.

But the economy’s improving fortunes could prove temporary. Boeing said on Monday it would suspend production of its best-selling 737 MAX jetliner in January as fallout from two fatal crashes of the now-grounded aircraft drags into 2020.

Boeing’s biggest assembly-line halt in more than 20 years could wreak havoc on supply chains, and offset some of the lift to business confidence from easing trade tensions.

The production stoppage is expected to undercut manufac-turing and exports, and

ultimately crimp economic growth. “The economy never seems to be fully out of the woods,” said Chris Rupkey (pictured), chief economist at MUFG in New York.

Housing starts rose 3.2% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.365 million units last month, with single-family construction racing to a 10-month high and activity in the volatile multi-family sector increasing for a second straight month.

Data for October was revised higher to show homebuilding rising to a pace of 1.323 million units, instead of advancing to a rate of 1.314 million units as pre-viously reported.

Economists polled by Reuters had forecast housing starts increasing to a pace of 1.345 million units in November.

Starts in the South, which

accounts for the bulk of home-building activity, surged to the highest level since March 2007. But homebuilding in the Midwest tumbled, likely pulled down by unseasonably cold temperatures and snowstorms.

Overall housing starts jumped 13.6 percent on a year-on-year basis in November. Building permits increased 1.4 percent to a rate of 1.482 million units in November, the highest level since May 2007.

The housing market is regaining momentum after the Federal Reserve cut interest rates three times this year, pushing down mortgage rates from last year’s multi-year highs.

Portugal BudgetPortuguese Finance Minister Mario Centeno arrives for a press conference to present the 2020 Portugal State Budget at the Finance Ministry in Lisbon.

Oil slips from three-month highBLOOMBERG LONDON

Oil retreated from a three-month high after an industry report showed a large build in US crude and gasoline stockpiles, reviving concerns over renewed oversupply.

Futures in New York fell as much as 1%, yet held above $60 a barrel after rising 3.7% over

the past four trading days as the US and China struck a prelim-inary trade pact.

The American Petroleum Institute reported crude inven-tories swelled by 4.7 million barrels last week and perol stockpiles by 5.6 million barrels.

West Texas Intermediate crude for January delivery, which expires today, fell 48 cents, or 0.8%, to $60.46 a barrel

on the New York Mercantile Exchange as of 10:56am in London. The contract finished up 1.2% on Tuesday at $60.94.

Brent for February set-tlement declined 31 cents to $65.79 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe Exchange after climbing 1.2% Tuesday. The global benchmark crude traded at a $5.40 premium to WTI for the same month.

Britain poised to tackle Google, Facebook online ads dominanceREUTERS LONDON

Britain’s competition regulator said there was a strong argument for tougher regulation of Google and Facebook to curb any negative consequences stemming from their domination of online advertising.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Google accounted for more than 90 percent of all revenue earned for search advertising in the UK in 2018, with revenue of about £6bn, and Facebook accounted for almost half of all display advertising in the same year.

It said ‘big’ was not neces-sarily ‘bad’ and the platforms had brought innovative and val-uable products and services to the market, but it was concerned their position may have negative consequences for the people and

businesses who used their services every day.

It was also concerned that people did not feel in control of their data when they were on the platforms. “Most of us visit social media sites and search on the internet every day, but how these firms work can be a mystery,” CMA Chief Executive Andrea Coscelli (pictured) said.

“Digital advertising fuels big businesses like Google and Facebook and we have been building a picture of how this complex new market works.” The CMA launched its investigation into digital advertising, including the ownership of data, in July.

It said yesterday it had looked at how the firms collected and used people’s data, how they monetised it and what this meant for rival companies, as well as the people and businesses using these services every day.

It said it was now inviting comments on what it had found, and would most likely make recommendations to Britain’s new government about how it regulates the sector. The CMA added that it stood ready to act directly through its own powers if, ulti-mately, these issues were not addressed in other ways, whether domestically or internationally.

Nigeria’s Buhari signs off on record budget

AFP ABUJA

Nigerian President Muhammadu Buhari on Tuesday signed off on a record budget, ratcheting up ambitious spending goals as the country struggles to bolster its stuttering economy.

The budget for 2020 was well up from last year at 10.6 trillion naira — $34.6bn at the central bank’s official exchange rate. It was based on a pro-jected price for crude oil of $57 per barrel and output of 2.18 million barrels a day in Africa’s leading producer.

The government predicted growth would reach 2.93 percent as Nigeria tries to shake off the hangover after emerging from its deepest recession in decades in 2017.

Buhari was elected for a final four-year term in Feb-ruary on pledges to boost the economy and create jobs for Nigeria’s young and rapidly expanding population.

But the government has consistently failed to fulfil its ambitious spending targets in previous years. “With today’s global oil market outlook and our strategic approach to revenue growth, we are optimistic that we will be able to finance the 2020 budget,” Buhari said as he signed it into law.

The authorities are trying to increase revenues as they look to wean Nigeria, one of Africa’s largest economies, off oil. They plan to increase value-added tax from 5 to 7.5 percent.

Parliament increased the budget from the 10.33 trillion naira spending plan that Buhari presented to it in October.

Lawmakers said the increase was aimed at increasing funds for national security, road infrastructure, mines and steel development, health and other social needs.

For the first time in years, the budget was passed and approved on schedule as Buhari’s ruling party now holds sway in parliament.

Debt servicing is expected to gobble up some 2.3 trillion naira of expenditures in 2020, while the deficit will be 1.52 percent of GDP.

10,340.37 +118.19PTS1.16%

QSE FTSE100 DOW CRUDE

7,540.75 +15.47PTS0.21%

28,279.84 +12.68 PTS0.045% Dow & Brent before going to press

$61.15 +0.21

MARKETWATCH

03THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 BUSINESS

The new company, with global sales of 8.7 million vehicles, will be run by PSA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares with Fiat Chairman John Elkann holding the same role.

Fiat Chrysler, Peugeot agree $47bn mergerBLOOMBERG MILAN / PARIS

PSA Group and Fiat Chrysler Automobiles NV agreed to combine to create the world’s fourth-biggest carmaker, as the manufacturers prepare to shoulder the costly investments in new technologies trans-forming the industry.

In the biggest automotive deal since Daimler acquired Chrysler two decades ago, the French and Italo-American car-makers will each own half of the enlarged business.

The new company, with global sales of 8.7 million vehicles, will be run by PSA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares with Fiat Chairman John Elkann holding the same role.

The combination would forge a regional powerhouse to rival Germany’s Volkswagen AG and have a stock-market value of about $47bn, surpassing Ford Motor Co. The tie-up also brings together two carmaking dynasties — the billionaire Agnelli clan of Italy, led by Elkann, and the Peugeots of France. The deal will take as long as 15 months to complete, pending approvals by share-holders of both companies and by regulators, the carmakers estimated.

In an era when size is becoming ever more important, the deal will turn the two mid-sized carmakers into a global

heavyweight, with a stable of popular brands and annual vehicle sales surpassing General Motors Co. The combination will give Peugeot-maker PSA a long-sought presence in North America and should help Fiat gain ground in developing low-emission technology, where it’s lagged rivals.

Yet the new company will still be heavily reliant on Europe’s sluggish and saturated auto market, and poorly posi-tioned in China, the world’s largest country for car sales.

Like executives across the industry, Tavares and Elkann are responding to growing pressure to pool resources for product development, manufacturing and purchasing in the face of trade wars and an expensive shift toward electric and self-driving technology.

“The challenges of our industry are really, really signif-icant,” Tavares told reporters on a call yesterday. “The green deal, autonomous vehicles, connec-tivity and all those topics need

significant resources, strengths, skills and expertise.”

The companies are aiming to extract €3.7bn in annual syn-ergies from the deal, without closing any plants, unchanged from the target they announced when they disclosed their merger discussions.

The challenges will be man-ifold, from improving Fiat’s struggling European operations to meeting tough rules on emis-sions that kick in next year in the region as well as an unprece-dented policy known as the green deal demanding an even tougher clamp down on carbon.

Tavares, known as a hard-nosed cost-cutter, will also have to navigate the political cross-currents in France, Italy and the

US, where the carmakers have deep national roots. The com-bination with Fiat Chrysler marks a reversal of fortune for the 61-year-old executive, who was forced into a bystander role earlier this year when Elkann approached Renault SA, PSA’s French rival. That deal fell apart in early June after Renault’s Jap-anese partner, Nissan Motor Co., declined to back it.

China’s Dongfeng Motor Corp, which owns 12 percent of PSA, will see its stake in the com-bined company decline to 4.5 percent as a result of the deal and the sale of a portion of its holding to the French carmaker.

Dongfeng’s stake in PSA has attracted attention because of the possibility it could interfere with

US regulatory approval. US economic adviser Larry

Kudlow said last month the Trump administration would review the proposed merger because the deal would give the Chinese carmaker a stake in the combined company.

Tavares, on the call, said the companies don’t expect any sig-nificant issues from the antitrust regulators. Fiat CEO Mike Manley dismissed concerns over legal and tax issues that arose in recent weeks. GM in November accused Fiat Chrysler of bribing a union in the US for more favo-rable terms. Manley called the allegation meritless.

Separately, Italian tax authorities have claimed that Fiat owes the government a hefty

sum after underestimating Chrysler’s value following its purchase several years ago. Manley reiterated that the case would have no material impact, and said both issues were reviewed during due diligence with PSA.

Before the closing, Fiat will distribute to its shareholders a special dividend of €5.5bn while PSA will distribute its 46 percent stake in car-parts maker Fau-recia SE to its own investors.

The spinoff or sale of Fiat’s robotics arm Comau slated for the benefit of the Italian company’s shareholders has been modified since October. Now, the planned separation will occur after the closing, and shareholders of the combined company will benefit.

Goldman Sachs acted as lead financial adviser to Fiat Chrysler, while Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, d’Angelin & Co, JPMorgan and UBS also provided financial advice to the company. Sullivan & Cromwell LLP, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek and Darrois Villey Maillot Bro-chier acted as legal counsel to the Italo-American carmaker.

Mediobanca’s Messier Maris & Associés acted as lead financial adviser to PSA, while Morgan Stanley also provided financial advice. Bredin Prat served as legal counsel to the French manufacturer. Exor, the Agnelli family holding company which controls Fiat, was advised by Lazard.

PSA Chief Executive Officer Carlos Tavares (left) and Fiat Chairman John Elkann

Dutch farmers’ woesFarmers gather in front of the Provincial Government Office of Gelderland in Arnhem, The Netherlands, yesterday, as they protest a clampdown on nitrogen emissions that they claim could wreak havoc on their businesses.

Australia’s biggest banks reel from string of scandalsREUTERS SYDNEY

Australia’s banking industry is reeling from a series of regu-latory scandals. Australian banks are still feeling the fallout from a year long government-led inquiry into the sector, which wrapped up in February. That revealed rampant wrongdoing across the industry, including fees charged to the accounts of dead people and bribes paid to win mortgage business.

The inquiry also found reg-ulators had been too lenient in their oversight of banks, with reported misconduct often met with light penalties or left com-pletely unpunished. The gov-ernment recommended over-hauling how the nation’s banks are regulated and executives are paid, and referred two dozen cases for possible legal action.

The nation’s four largest banks — Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Westpac Banking Corp, Australia and New Zealand

Banking Group and National Australia Bank — have set aside over A$8bn ($5.4bn) to refund customers for overcharged fees, miss-sold products and non-compliant financial advice stemming from the probe.

In October, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) announced it was considering a probe into competition issues in the retail banking sector, which is domi-nated by those four banks.

In November, Westpac was

sued by Australian regulators over 23 million breaches of anti-money laundering laws, the country’s biggest ever such scandal. Westpac accepted most of the regulator’s assertions, which included the facilitation of payments to child exploiters. Its CEO and compliance head have quit, while the chairman brought forward his retirement to early 2020.

At CBA, bank executives have agreed to pay 41,000 current and former employees nearly A$25m ($16.97m) after a review found

they had been underpaid.The bank’s life insurance arm

also was convicted in November of 87 counts of breaking a law banning unsolicited sales calls.

The bank also agreed to pay A$700m ($529.27m) in 2018 - Australia’s biggest-ever cor-porate fine - to settle charges of money laundering control lapses.

Meanwhile, ANZ plans to refund owners of 3.4 million customer accounts after the inquiry revealed it wrongly charged fees.

German business confidence brightensAFP FRANKFURT

Confidence among German business leaders rose in December, a closely-watched survey showed yesterday, in line with other recent positive eco-nomic indicators, as the geopo-litical risks to Europe’s biggest economy appear to ease.

The Ifo institute’s monthly business climate index climbed 1.2 points to 96.3 this month, its strongest reading since June and higher than forecasts from

analysts surveyed by Factset. “The mood ahead of Christmas has got noticeably better among German executives,” Ifo chief Clemens Fuest said. “German business is heading into the new year with more confidence.”

Looking to different ele-ments of the survey, companies’ assessment of both their present economic situation and the outlook for the coming months brightened.

In individual sectors, man-ufacturers were gloomier about their present performance, but

more optimistic for the future.Germany’s powerful indus-

trial sector has suffered from uncertainty over trade con-flicts, notably between the US and China, and Brexit. But such uncertainty has receded in recent days.

Elsewhere in the economy, services firms showed more optimism, while retailers were concerned about the future.

LBBW bank economist Uwe Burkert saw the improved Ifo reading as a “conciliatory closure to a messed-up year”.

Boeing’s 737 production halt could dent US first-quarter GDPREUTERS WASHINGTON

Boeing Co’s decision to stop pro-duction of its best-selling 737 MAX aircraft involved in two fatal crashes will impact US eco-nomic growth and employment, but the pain may be brief and concentrated in areas where suppliers are located, analysts and executives say.

The biggest assembly-line halt in more than two decades at Boeing could cut first quarter 2020 gross domestic product growth by at least half a per-centage point, economists esti-mated on Tuesday. The hit to GDP growth would come from a smaller inventory build.

Boeing holds unique sway in the US economy as the largest US goods exporter and also as the largest weight in the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the blue chip stock index tracked worldwide as a bellwether of wealth creation.

The suspension of production comes as the manufacturing sector is starting to regain its footing after being pressured by a 17-month trade war between the United States and China, which has eroded business sen-timent and helped to undercut capital expenditure.

Since a global grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX in March that froze deliveries, the aircraft manufacturer continued pro-duction of the aircraft. The resulting surge in aircraft

inventory offset the drag on GDP growth from reduced exports and business spending on equipment.

“With deliveries of the plane already halted, exports and investment in aircraft are unlikely to fall much further,” said Michael Pearce (pictured), a senior US economist at Capital Economics in New York.

“But the decision to stop producing means that the surge in inventories will end, resulting in a big drag on economic growth in the first quarter.”

Economists do not anticipate an impact on growth for the full year as production of the plane is likely to resume sometime in 2020. They expected the Federal Reserve, which last week sig-naled interest rates could remain unchanged at least through 2020, would view any weakness in first-quarter growth as tem-porary, provided the production pause did not extend beyond the first half of next year.

Fed’s Brainard: Facebook’s Libra faces ‘core set’ of regulatory hurdlesREUTERS NEW YORK

US Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard launched a broadside against Facebook’s Libra digital currency project yesterday, saying it faces a “core set of legal and regulatory chal-lenges” including clarity about how it would be tied to some basket of underlying assets.

Facebook’s concept of Libra as a “stablecoin” - a digital cur-rency linked to government-backed money or other sound assets to avoid the wild fluctu-ations of pure cryptocurrencies like bitcoin - remains unproven, Brainard said, with an unclear set of rights for consumers.

“What would set Face-book’s Libra apart, if it were to proceed, is the combination of an active-user network repre-senting more than a third of the global population with the issuance of a private digital cur-rency opaquely tied to a basket of sovereign currencies,” Brainard said in remarks pre-pared for delivery at a con-ference in Frankfurt.

“Without requisite safe-guards, stablecoin networks at global scale may put consumers at risk.” Her remarks suggest that Facebook’s Libra project has yet to gain traction among key reg-ulators. Intended as a consortium of companies that would back the digital currency with hard assets, Libra has suffered other setbacks with the withdrawal of major payments companies like Paypal, Mastercard and Visa.

Central banks globally are debating how to manage the advance of digital finance tech-nology, particularly the dis-tributed ledger systems used by bitcoin. Some analysts feel it is inevitable that central banks will ultimately issue digital cur-rencies of their own.

With the potential to lower the cost and up the speed of transmitting money, Brainard said the technology does have advantages. But she said there are also “advantages associated with current arrangements” based on the issuance of physical cash.

04 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019BUSINESS

AFP VISAKHAPATNAM,

Opener Rohit Sharma smashed 159 in a power packed batting show to set up India’s 107-run series-levelling win over West Indies in the second one-day international yesterday.

Sharma put on 227 runs with opening partner KL Rahul, who made 102, as India amassed 387 for five while batting first and went on to make the three-match series 1-1 in Visakhapatnam.

Spinner Kuldeep Yadav claimed a hat-trick as the hosts bowled out the West Indies for 280 in 43.3 overs. Wicket-keeper-batsman Shai Hope top-scored with 78 while Nicholas Pooran made 75.

Yadav returned figures of 3-52 with his left-arm wrist spin after becoming India’s first bowler to claim two hat-tricks in international matches. Paceman Mohammed Shami also took three wickets.

Sharma though remained the hero with his seventh century of the year, taking him past skipper Virat Kohli as the top run-getter in 2019 with 1427 runs off 27 matches.

Kohli, who had a rare flop as he fell for a first-ball duck, has scored 1292 runs in 25 ODI matches.

Shreyas Iyer also tore into the West Indies attack with a 32-ball 53 as he hit Roston

Chase for 31 runs -- including four sixes and one four -- in the 47th over.

His partnerships including a 73-run fourth-wicket stand with wicketkeeper-batsman Rishabh Pant, who hit 39 off 16 deliveries.

Sharma, who was dropped

on 70 when Shimron Hetmyer spilled a Chase shot, was slow out of the blocks but got into his stride after reaching 50 off 67 deliveries.

The attacking batsman soon overtook his partner, who had raised his fifty in 46 balls, and went on to complete

his 28th ODI hundred amid loud cheers from a capacity crowd.

Rahul recorded his third ODI hundred with a boundary off Alzarri Joseph, but lost his wicket to the paceman four balls later when mistiming a shot to third man.

SPORT 05THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019

I understand that our tennis era is changing in a way, the top-three are getting older

obviously, we are the ones who come from behind. So for me, I do have as a goal to win a Grand Slam title next year, that’s for sure, but it’s not a matter of life or death for me.

Stefanos Tsitsipas is eyeing a top-three finish next season as he hopes to break the rankings stranglehold of Nadal, Djokovic and Federer. T

ODA

Y’S

ACT

ION

Pakistan vs Sri Lanka2nd Test in Karachi

Day 1

EPGAAustralian PGA ChampionshipGold Coast

CRICKET GOLF

Pakistan’s Azhar seeks memorable home victory after 10-year droughtAFP KARACHI

Pakistan skipper Azhar Ali said Wednesday he wants the return of Test cricket to the country to be a memorable one as his team seeks victory over Sri Lanka in Karachi starting today.

Their series is the first in Pakistan since a militant attack on the Sri Lankan team bus killed eight people in March 2009, leading to the suspension of inter-national cricket in the country as foreign sides refused to visit over security fears. The return of Test cricket to Pakistan last week was something of a washout, with their first encounter badly hit by the weather in Rawalpindi before stuttering to a tame draw.

After 10 years playing away, Azhar said Pakistan desperately wanted to make the most of playing at home.

“We are playing a home series and need to capitalise on that home advantage,” he told reporters.

“We want to win this series and make the occasion memorable.”

Despite the Rawalpindi washout, Pakistan gained a psy-chological edge against the Sri Lankans with Abid Ali and Babar Azam notching hundreds to steer their team to 252-2 in reply

to Sri Lanka’s 308-6 declared.It was extra special for Abid,

who became the first batsman to follow a one-day debut century -- against Australia in Dubai in March this year -- with a hundred in his first Test.

Pakistan will likely make one change from the first Test, with

leg-spinner Yasir Shah replacing fast bowler Usman Shinwari, who has been ruled out with typhoid.

Azhar will also hope to regain his own batting form, having managed just 36 at Rawalpindi following his miserable 62 in four innings in Aus-tralia and 59 in six innings in South Africa earlier this year.

Sri Lanka are aiming to spoil Pakistan’s homecoming following a string of strong performances.

Earlier this year, they became the first Asian team to win a Test series in South Africa (2-0) before drawing 1-1 at home against New Zealand.

Skipper Dimuth Karunaratne

said the team is looking to con-tinue their winning ways as part of the World Test championship.

“We look forward to giving good competition to Pakistan, but know that it will be tough to beat them,” he said.The visitors will be without their pace spearhead Kasun Rajitha, who pulled a ham-string during the Rawalpindi Test and is likely to be replaced by uncapped fast bowler Asitha Fernando.

The Sri Lankans are in third place on the Test championship table with 80 points.

World number one India sit atop the nine-team table with 360 points while Australia are second with 216.

Pakistan -- currently sixth -- lost 2-0 to Australia recently, but got 20 points from last week’s draw in Rawalpindi.

Launched in August, the championship involves the top nine Test teams in the world.

The top two will contest the final at Lord’s in June 2021.

Sri Lanka captain Dimuth Karunaratne speaks to the media at the National Cricket Stadium in Karachi yesterday. RIGHT: Pakistan captain Azhar Ali meets with the media at the National Cricket Stadium in Karachi yesterday.

Sharma’s 159 helps India draw level with Windies

Ireland Test plans suffer blow as Sri Lanka match postponedAFP DUBLIN

Ireland’s Test plans suffered a fresh blow yesterday with the announcement that Sri Lanka have postponed their one-off Test scheduled to take place in February 2020.

It comes just days after Ireland announced major changes to its schedule for next year, with Cricket Ireland chief

executive Warren Deutrom referring to challenging “financial headwinds”.

Sri Lanka Cricket said in a statement that the Ireland tour of Sri Lanka was not part of its original broadcast agreement and it would be rescheduled.

Cricket Ireland said it had agreed to SLC’s request to reschedule the tour to ensure the Test would come under the next broadcast agreement.

“We understand that ICC (International Cricket Council) regulations require all Tests to be broadcast, and it became clear only recently that this one-off match was no exception,” said Deutrom.

“We were far progressed in our planning for this short tour, so we and the travelling squad are obviously disappointed.”

Cricket Ireland on Monday announced a number of changes

to its 2020 schedule, scrapping a Twenty20 series against Afghanistan and converting a home Test against Bangladesh into a T20 match.

Deutrom said Ireland, awarded Test status in 2017, had been confronted with “significant financial challenges”.

“We have additionally been very open about the financial and resource constraints that we operate within, and especially a

number of financial headwinds that we have faced as we tran-sition from an Associate Member to the operations required of a Full Member,” he said.

He said costs had not been matched by expected revenues and there had been a number of unforeseen financial blows, including the postponement of the Euro T20 Slam.

Deutrom said white-ball cricket had been prioritised over

the red-ball game in 2020 because of the upcoming T20 World Cup and the start of the Cricket World Cup Super League, which is the qualification process for the 50-over World Cup.

Since gaining Test status, Ireland have played just three Tests. In May 2018 in their inau-gural Test in Malahide, they were beaten by Pakistan. This year they lost one-off Tests away to Afghanistan and England.

India’s Rohit Sharma celebrates his century during the second one day international (ODI) match against West Indies in Visakhapatnam, yesterday.

INDIAR. Sharma c Hope b Cottrell ......................... 159

KL Rahul c Chase b Joseph ........................... 102

V. Kohli c Chase b Pollard .................................. 0

S. Iyer c Hope b Cottrell ....................................53

R. Pant c Pooran b Paul .................................. 39

K. Jadhav not out ..............................................16

R. Jadeja not out ................................................ 0

Extras (b1, lb3, nb1, w13) ...............................18

Total (5 wickets, 50 overs) ................. 387Did not bat: D. Chahar, M. Shami, S. Thakur, K. Yadav

Fall of wickets: 1-227, 2-232, 3-292, 4-365, 5-373

Bowling: Cottrell 9-0-83-2 (w2), Holder 9-0-45-0

(w1), Pierre 9-0-62-0 (w2), Paul 7-0-57-1 (w1),

Joseph 9-1-68-1 (w3), Chase 5-0-48-0 (w3, nb1),

Pollard 2-0-20-1 (w1)

WEST INDIESE. Lewis c Iyer b Thakur ..................................30

S. Hope c Kohli b Yadav ................................... 78

S. Hetmyer run out (Iyer/Jadeja) ..................... 4

R. Chase b Jadeja ............................................... 4

N. Pooran c Yadav b Shami .............................75

K. Pollard c Pant b Shami ................................. 0

J. Holder st Pant b Yadav ................................. 11

K. Paul b Shami ................................................46

A. Joseph c Jadhav b Yadav ............................. 0

K. Pierre c Kohli b Jadeja .................................21

S. Cottrell not out ............................................... 0

Extras (b1, lb2, w8) ......................................... 11

Total (all out, 43.3 overs) ....................280Fall of wickets: 1-61, 2-73, 3-86, 4-192, 5-192,

6-210, 7-210, 8-210, 9-260, 10-280

Bowling: Chahar 7-1-44-0 (w2), Thakur 8-0-55-1

(w2), Shami 7.3-0-39-3 (w1), Jadeja 10-0-74-2 (w1),

Yadav 10-0-52-3, Iyer 1-0-13-0 (w2)

SCOREBOARD

Qatar Cricket Association (QCA) President Yousef Jeham Al Kuwari (left) presenting the winners’ trophy to Qatar skipper Iqbal Chaudhary following the Twenty20 clash which took place at the Asian Town Cricket Stadium. The annual blockbuster encounter was organised by the QCA was played between an International XI and Qatar’s national side as part of the Qatar National Day celebrations with the support of Ministry of Interior. QCA Operations Manager, Manzoor Ahmad and PR Director Issa Al Yacoub are also seen. BOTTOM: The victorious Qatari team players posing for a photograph. PICTURES: ABDUL BASIT / THE PENINSULA

Qatar win National Day T20 blockbuster

06 THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019SPORT

It was a bit of a weird game, probably the weirdest one I’ve been involved in for a quarter-final of a major competition: Dean Smith

Arteta has great future but no top job experience, says WengerREUTERS DOHA

Spaniard Mikel Arteta, in talks to be the next Arsenal coach, has “no experience” as a manager and will need help, former Gunners boss Arsene Wenger said yesterday.

Former Arsenal captain Arteta, assistant to Pep Guar-diola at Manchester City, is the leading candidate to succeed Unai Emery at the London club after their chief executive Vinai Venkatesham was pictured outside the 37-year-old’s house early on Monday.

Another of Wenger’s former players, Swede Freddie Ljungberg, is currently interim head coach, but looks set to be overlooked for the top job.

“I am an Arsenal supporter and at the moment I support the manager in charge and the manager in charge is Ljungberg. When Arteta will be in charge I will support Arteta,” said Wenger.

But the Frenchman, who won three Premier League titles and seven FA Cups during nearly 22 years in charge of the club, said he saw many posi-tives in both men.

“He (Arteta) is intelligent, he has passion, he has knowledge, but Ljungberg (does) as well,” Wenger added.

“I believe that Arteta has certainly a great future, he has certainly learned a lot in his first position as an assistant coach and after that as well he will have to deal with the fact that he has no experience at that level and he will have to get surrounded well.”

However, Wenger, 70, who left Arsenal in 2018, said the club needed to be smarter in their recruitment and that it was not necessarily the case that they needed a lengthy period to get back to their best.

“When I left the club was in a very strong financial position and they bought many players in-between, they have not all worked out,” he said.

“I believe that it’s not a question of time. The change can be very efficient very quickly, it’s just about the right decision-making and that’s all that it’s about in football, it’s about good players.

“We speak about the success of Liverpool, of course they have a great manager, but you have to say as well that in the last three-four years, they bought the right players.” Last month, Wenger was appointed FIFA’s new chief of global football development and is in Doha observing the Club World Cup.

Liverpool field side with 16 first-team appearances and average age of 19.4!REUTERS LONDON

Aston Villa manager Dean Smith said his side’s 5-0 League Cup victory over Liverpool’s youngest ever side had been one of the weirdest matches he had ever been involved in.

With Premier League leaders Liverpool playing in FIFA’s Club World Cup 24 in Doha, Villa faced an unrecognisable line-up featuring no senior players.

Liverpool’s starting side had only 16 first-team appearances between them and had an average age of 19.4, a club record.

Villa themselves made 10 changes from the side that lost to Sheffield United in the Premier League on Saturday, but were still put in a “no-win” situation against the Anfield kids on a strange night at rainy Villa Park.

“We had to be very profes-sional,” Smith, who has taken Villa to their first League Cup semi-final since 2012-13, said.

“It was a bit of a weird game, probably the weirdest one I’ve been involved in for a quarter-final of a major competition.

“They had technically gifted

players, were tactically switched on and they made it very difficult for us at times.”

Villa’s Conor Hourihane, whose cross opened the scoring in the 14th minute after a nervy

start by the hosts, said it had been a tricky test against players with nothing to lose.

“We weathered the storm at the start but quality came through in the end,” he said.

“It was lose-lose but we did a professional job and we are delighted to get over the line. Nice to get through to the semi-finals. That is what we had to do tonight.”

Liverpool’s under-23 manager Neil Critchley, who stood in for Juergen Klopp, who phoned him at halftime from the team’s Doha hotel, said he was proud of his players.

“It was an incredible night and no-one wanted it to end. The support we had was unbe-lievable,” he said.

“The conduct of the Villa players was first class. For Dean Smith and (assistant manager) John Terry to come in to our dressing room after the game and say the things they said... They said ‘keep going, good luck’ and wished us the best.

“A moment I will remember and the players will remember for the rest of their lives.”

Aston Villa manager Dean Smith during the League Cup quarter-final match agianst Liverpool at the Villa Park, in

Birmingham, Britain on Tuesday.

Spurs have the momentum heading into Chelsea clash, says KaneREUTERS LONDON

Tottenham Hotspur have built up a head of steam since Jose Mourinho took over but they face a massive challenge on Sunday as they take on Chelsea with a place in the top four at stake, says striker Harry Kane.

Mourinho took over from Mauricio Pochettino last month with Tottenham struggling in 14th place, but four wins in five league matches under the Por-tuguese have lifted them to fifth, three points behind Chelsea.

“We have the momentum at the moment. But next weekend is the big one,” Kane told British media.

“If we can win and push into the top four, we have fix-tures over the Christmas period we feel we can defi-nitely win.”

After Chelsea, Spurs host 13th-placed Brighton & Hove Albion on Boxing Day before a December 28 trip to Norwich City (19th) and a New Year’s Day meeting with Southampton (18th).

Kane hailed Mourinho’s impact but said the team cannot take their foot off the pedal having just edged past Wolver-hampton Wanderers 2-1 on Sunday with a winner in added time.

“We’ve been feeling good... we’ve scored goals in every game we’ve played with the new manager in charge so if we can get it right, grind out results like at Wolves throughout the season we’ll be OK,” the England captain added.

Having worked only with Pochettino for the majority of his senior club career, Kane said he was eager to learn from former Porto, Chelsea, Inter Milan, Real Madrid and Manchester United boss Mourinho.

“He’s got his own style, own way of doing things. For me, it’s about learning that way... it’s good to experience new things, see how different managers work,” he added.

Guardiola expects quick decision on Arteta over Arsenal moveREUTERS LONDON

Manchester City boss Pep Guar-diola said he expected a “quick decision” on assistant Mikel Arteta’s future, confirming his fellow Spaniard was in talks to take the vacant Arsenal job.

Guardiola said Arteta will be at Oxford United on Wednesday for City’s League Cup quarter-final but appears resigned to the prospect of losing his right-hand man.

“I think it (the decision) is going to happen quick,” Guar-diola was quoted as saying by the BBC. “Why not? It’s a good argument.”

Former Arsenal captain Arteta is the leading candidate to succeed Unai Emery as Arsenal manager after the London club’s chief executive Vinai Venkatesham was pictured outside the 37-year-old’s house in the early hours of Monday morning.

“Mikel is travelling to Oxford with us tomorrow,” Guardiola earlier told reporters. We were so smart to pick him up and the other clubs missed it. He’s an

incredible person, good manager. Work ethic. That’s why he is what he is.

“He’s talking with Arsenal so I don’t know. Now he is part of our group and staff and he is here. When we have new news, I will know and you will know. Now he is here, tomorrow trav-elling. He trained today and that’s all.”

Spaniard Arteta made 149 appearances for Arsenal before joining City’s coaching staff in 2016 where he has enjoyed a successful spell as assistant to Guardiola, helping the club to consecutive Premier League titles over the last two seasons.

Guardiola said he had spoken to Arteta about the Arsenal

opportunity and would not stand in his way.

“I am a guy who lets people live with freedom and do what they want because that is what they want in the moment, for their lives, family, professionally and individually,” he said.

“Mikel knows exactly what we think about him. After that, we cannot do more.”

Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola (left)and assistant coach Mikel Arteta before the Champions League match against Shakhtar Donetsk at the Etihad Stadium, in Manchester, Britain in this November 26, 2019 file picture.

Chinese U-14 boys kick off Qatar Foundation tourTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar’s footballing stars of tomorrow have tested their skills against China’s hottest prospects, with Dalian Professional FC’s Under 14 side visiting Doha as part of a week long football tour.

The Under 14’s from the Wanda Group owned football club in the South of China, kicked off their Qatar Foundation tour with a match against Aspire Academy.

The game, which took place at Qatar Foundation (QF), saw the two teams go head to head at Education City in what is the first of three games against local opposition for the young Chinese stars.

The Chinese team will train daily at the facilities in QF in preparation for their remaining games, which are set to take place on December 19 and 20 at

Awsaj Recreation in Education City. The games are open to the public to watch.

The Academy Technical Director, Pere Garcia, from Dalian Professional FC who accompanied the squad of 22 in Qatar, said: “The team are having a fantastic time here in Doha. The Qatar Foundation have provided an action-packed schedule, combining

training and matches with the opportunity to visit iconic land-marks and learn all about Qatari culture and heritage.Our young players will go b ck to China with new cultural learnings, which are important for their future development. We’re very grateful to be able to benefit from the great rela-tionship between Wanda Group and Qatar Foundation.”

Amy Johnson, Director, Community Engagement, Qatar Foundation, added: “We are delighted to welcome the Dalian FC U14 team to Qatar for the first time, as part of an ongoing partnership between the Wanda Group and Qatar Foundation.

“This tour serves as a unique opportunity for cul-tural exchange between the

various players during the matches, as we know sport truly has an innate ability to cross borders and bring people together.

“It also serves as a unique opportunity to showcase Edu-cation City as an education and sporting destination to the youth and wider Chinese community, as QF’s and its Chinese engagement grows.”

Dalian Professional FC’s Under 14 side training in Doha as part of a week long football tour of Qatar. RIGHT: Dalian Professional FC pose for a group picture.

FIFA DOHA

The dictionary defines ‘resilience’ as “the capacity to recover from or adjust easily to misfortune or change”, and this sums up perfectly what it means to support Flamengo at this moment in time. Because while it is true that the Brazilian side are enjoying a historic season, their matches have certainly put their fans through the mill.

Indeed, they had barely even had time to digest the thrilling comeback victory in the final of the Copa Libertadores when their heroes put them through another emotional rollercoaster in the semi-finals of the FIFA Club World Cup Qatar 2019.

“We showed that we’re a mentally strong team in the way that we went looking for the win,” said Giorgian de Arrascaeta, one of the key men involved in the Rio de Janeiro club’s fightback versus Saudi outfit Al Hilal. A few minutes prior to speaking to FIFA.com, the Uruguay international had been celebrating his team’s win in raucous fashion with the large number of Flamengo fans congregated in Khalifa Interna-tional Stadium.

“People said we were favourites, but we knew we were going to face a really tough team,” he said. “Keeping our focus for the entire 90 minutes was very important in terms of scoring the goals we required.”

Al Hilal’s goal came just 18 minutes after kick-off, and Fla-mengo’s inability to find their feet and get into their usual rhythm in the first half was plain for all to see.

De Arrascaeta continued with a wry smile: “We all felt a bit frus-trated at half-time – we hadn’t got what we wanted. The coach made some solid tactical changes so that we could put in a better showing in the second half.”

In the 49th minute, De Arras-caeta equalised for O Rubro-Negro when he received a pass from the influential Bruno Hen-rique and, finding himself com-pletely unmarked, tapped the ball into the empty net.

But it was still not an easy task – Flamengo’s fans and players

would have to suffer for a little longer. Despite having conceded a leveller, Al Hilal remained res-olute in defence and the South Americans had trouble finding a way through. Just when their fans were beginning to contemplate the possibility of extra time, Bruno Henrique made it 2-1 in the 78th minute. Four minutes later, the forward capped off an inspired performance by sending in a tempting cross that led to an unfortunate own goal.

“Bruno Henrique showed

what a quality player he is and the great season he’s had with us,” said the Rio Negro-born play-maker. “We’re all very happy for him, because he’s really contrib-uting to the team’s results.”

A glance at De Arrascaeta’s own statistics makes it clear that he has also been one of Fla-mengo’s top performers over the past year:

Following this exciting semi-final, the Brazilians are now where they want to be and await with interest to find out who they

will take on in Saturday’s high-profile final. “We’ve achieved our objective,” said De Arrascaeta. “We don’t know which team we’re going to play yet, but whoever it ends up being, we’re going to face very difficult, physical, and tactically sound opponents, and we’re going to have to fight to win,” he said on Tuesday.

There will, of course, likely be some more suffering along the way, but the team’s resilience may just see them through in the end.

FAWAD HUSSAIN THE PENINSULA

Five months ago, Xavi Hernandez started his coaching career with Qatar’s Al Sadd supervising their preseason training camp in Girona, 100km away from Barcelona – a city of his birth and a place which made him the legendary footballer.

In his illustrious career as a player with the Spanish giants, Xavi - also a World Cup winner - won eight La Liga titles and four UEFA Champions League trophies for Barcelona before coming to Qatar.

The Spaniard’s 31 trophies for Barcelona and Spain combined, makes him one of the most dec-orated Spanish player in history.

But, the beginning of a coaching career for Xavi is nothing short of a roller coaster ride.

After giving up the captain’s arm band last July to replace veteran Jesualdo Ferreira as Al Sadd head coach, the Barcelona legend’s first and only trophy in

the new role so far was the Sheikh Jassim Cup, which the ‘Wolves’ won after edging Al Duhail 1-0 in August.

The Doha giants reached the semi-final of the AFC Champions League, which they lost to eventual winners Al Hilal. In the ongoing QSL season, Al Sadd are currently fourth behind leaders Al Duhail, Al Rayyan and Al Gharafa – though they have played two games less than the top three sides in the points standings.

Perhaps, Xavi’s biggest disap-pointment as a coach came on Tuesday night when his team suffered 2-6 drubbing by African champions E s p e r a n c e Sportive in a play-off for fifth position at the FIFA Club World Cup in Doha.

The heavy defeat was followed by questions over his possible res-ignation as Al Sadd coach.

“No, absolutely I am not thinking about resigning. I am happy about my project in Al Sadd,” he said.

“We must be realistic and our real game was first two matches of this tournament. We have a QSL match after six days against Al Gharafa and we must go back and compete strongly,” he said.

“I feel confident despite what happened and we have to work positively. We have a good team

and good players, this is part of football and I must work

and raise the confidence of the players to help them make a strong return.”

“Off course, I have to improve, I have to gain more experience but I am happy with my commitment,” said Xavi.

The Spaniard, earlier, reiterated his aim

of returning Barcelona as the coach.“One of my dreams is to coach

Barcelona, off course. I said that many times, in many interviews,” said Xavi.

“I don’t think I will be joining Barcelona anytime soon. I am focusing on the present and I am very happy to coach Al Sadd, which have very good players. This is present and you cannot control the future,” he said.

With the year coming to a close, Xavi’s aim in 2020 will be to help Al Sadd sweep all four tro-phies in Qatar besides guiding the side to AFC Champions League title and a possible participation at the FIFA Club World Cup.

“We have young players, who are very good. I am very happy with their performance and I see there is not much gap between top clubs and Al Sadd,” said Xavi.

Meanwhile, Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp was impressed with Xavi’s Al Sadd.

“What I saw from Al Sadd was really good. They are playing for Xavi, one of the best football players in the world with a big career and now as a coach,” Klopp said on Tuesday.

“You could see that in the game as well, it was really good football. I think they were ready and it was a tight game and it was really close and Al Sadd could have gone through,” he said while speaking on Al Sadd’s quarter-final loss to Monterrey.

We showed that we’re a mentally strong team in the way that we went looking for the win. People said we were favourites, but we knew we were going to face a really tough team. Keeping our focus for the entire 90 minutes was very important in terms of scoring the goals we required: Flamengo midfielder Giorgian de Arrascaeta

We must be realistic and our real game was first two matches of this tournament. We have a QSL match after six days against Al Gharafa and we must go back and compete strongly: Xavi

I feel confident despite what happened and we have to work positively. We have a good team and good players, this is part of football and I must work and raise the confidence of the players to help them make a strong return. Off course, I have to improve, I have to gain more experience but I am happy with my commitment: Xavi

07THURSDAY 19 DECEMBER 2019 SPORT

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Five months on, Xavi happywith Al Sadd coaching role

Fans gather in a 2019 FIFA Club World Cup Fan Zone ahead of the semi-final match between Mexico’s Monterrey and England’s Liverpool in Doha, yesterday.

Flamengo show their ‘resilience’ at Club World Cup

Flamengo’s midfielder Giorgian de Arrascaeta (left) celebrates after scoring a goal against Al Hilal during the 2019 FIFA Club World Cup semi-final match played at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha on Tuesday.

Flamengo’s players in action during a practice session in Doha yesterday as they gear up for the final.

FAWAD HUSSAIN THE PENINSULA

Roberto Firmino came off the bench late to score a stoppage time winner for Liverpool who sealed a 2-1 victory over gutsy Monterrey in the thrilling second semi-final of FIFA Club World Cup yesterday.

The runaway Premier League leaders were expected to win the clash – watched by 45,416 spec-tators at the Khalifa International Stadium - comfortably but the CONCACAF Champions League winners gave them a run for money before going down fighting.

Liverpool, seeking their maiden FIFA Club World Cup title, will take on Copa Liberta-dores winners Flamengo in the final on Saturday at the same venue.

Naby Keita fired first goal for Liverpool in 11th minute, with Rogelio Funes Mori pulling the goal back for Monterrey just three minutes later, before Firmino’s winner of a fine assist by another substitute Trent Alexander-Arnold, sealed the victory for Liv-erpool in first minute of stoppage time.

“Wonderful goal, great game, super atmosphere,” Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp said after the match.

“We have brought in a few kids and see what we can do line-up wise. We want to play the final and see what we can do.”

Klopp made five changes from the Reds side that defeated Watford 2-0 in Saturday’s Premier League clash, with centre-back Virgil van Dijk missing the game due to illness.

The Reds took early grip of the match against Monterrey, who showed a fearless approach against the European champions.

Five minutes after the start, striker Xherdan Shaqiri led the first attack for Liverpool by clearing Monterrey defenders but his attempt went wide. It just took six more minutes for the European giants to score first goal through Keita, who finished the ball clinically after a fine assist by feared striker Mohamed Salah.

The goal charged up the Mexican side as Liverpool’s lead did not last for over more than three minutes, with Funes Mori - who also scored one goal in win against Al Sadd – levelled the score in a free-kick drama from

35-plus yards. Reds goalkeeper Alisson Becker saved the overhead-kick well but the ball found Mori who slotted home their first goal.

In another brilliance, Egyptian superstar Salah set mid-fielder James Milner whose push was blocked by goalkeeper Marcelo Barovero.

By the end of well-disciplined first 30 minutes, Liverpool was clearly on top with 75 percent of ball possession over the Mexican side.

While Liverpool continued to test Monterrey defenders, the Mexicans attacked their goal in

the 37th minute, but a brilliant attempt from a tight angle by captain Dorlan Pabon was punched away by Alisson.

Liverpool pushed for a lead with repeated attacks but both the teams went in the halftime, with score locked at 1-1.

Monterrey emerged as the better side at the start of second session as Alisson had to make double saves in as many minutes after their defender Leonel Van-gioni was handed a yellow card – the first of the night – by Chilean referee Roberto Tobar in 47th minute.

Liverpool defender Joseph

Gomez became the second player to get the caution after 11 minutes. Monterrey’s Jesus Gallardo was the other player to be booked, yesterday.

Meanwhile, Liverpool could have regained the lead but Keita’s hit after beating two defenders was well blocked by keeper Barovera as stalemate remained after an hour.

The European champions, backed by their cheering fans, became more aggressive in search of their second goal, and Divock Origi cleared the target but the linesman had his flag up immediately for offside.

With not more than 22 minutes left in the match, Klopp decided to send forward Sadio Mane in place of Shaqiri, who looked off colour last night. Monterrey, on the other hand, continued to check Liverpool defence with Funes Mori taking another shot, saved by Alisson.

The Reds also created an opportunity in 73rd minute with Milner’s cross finding Origi, who just missed the target before Klopp brought in Alexander-Arnold in place of Milner.

With both teams desperate for a goal, referee booked both Klopp and Monterrey manager Antonio Mohamed following an argument between them over a second yellow card for Joe Gomez.

Monterrey made their first change with Miguel Layun replacing Cesar Montes before Firmino coming in with just five minutes left to replace Origi as Liverpool continued to look for a late winner, which the Brazilian eventually found.

It was Salah again, who set up the goal with a pass to Alex-ander-Arnold whose cross was brilliant, with Firmino making no mistake to score the all-important goal.

Liverpool’s final with Fla-mengo will kick off at 8:30pm while Al Hilal and Monterrey are scheduled to play the third-place play-off at 5:30pm the same day.

SPORTPAGE | 05 PAGE | 07

Pakistan’s Azhar seeks memorable

home victory after 10-year drought

Five months on,Xavi happywith Al Sadd coaching role

Thursday 19 December 2019

The President of Qatar Olympic Committee, H E Sheikh Joaan bin Hamad Al Thani watching the action during yesterday’s FIFA Club World Cup semi-final match between Mexico’s Monterrey and England’s Liverpool at the Khalifa International Stadium in Doha with Paris Saint Germain and Qatar Tennis Federation (QTF) President, Nasser bin Ghanim Al Khelaifi; retired English football star David Beckham; Liverpool CEO Peter Moore; FA Chairman Greg Clarke and FIFA President Gianni Infantino.

Liverpool’s Roberto Firmino (left) scores their second goal against Monterrey yesterday.

Firmino strikes late as Liverpoolpip Monterrey to reach CWC final

Liverpool, seeking their maiden FIFA Club World Cup title, will take on Copa Libertadores winners Flamengo in the final on Saturday.