qatar defies trump - dt news · in afghanistan has degenerated, some two months before...

75 dead as rain pours misery in Kerala Thiruvananthapuram

The death toll in India’s Kerala has climbed to 75 as the state is reeling under one of the worst floods in history.

Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan confirmed that the rain fury claimed 25 lives yesterday.

More than 1.5 lakh people have been lodged in relief across the state, Vijayan said, adding that the heavy rains would continue for some more days, which will further worsen the situation.

For the first time in history, the state has opened 35 of its 39 dams.

Meanwhile, operations at the Cochin Inter-

national Airport have been suspended due to flooding in and around the airport. A red alert has been issued in all the 14 districts of the state.

Spelling more trouble for Kerala, the Tamil Nadu government opened the sluice gates of the Mullaperiyar dam at 2.30 am yesterday to release excess water from the reservoir.

A government release said Vijayan spoke to Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minis-ter Rajnath Singh on the grave situation the state was facing following the rains.

Train services have been disrupted and road transport services are in disarray with stretches of roads coming under water.

03Alert call as terrifying Momo sweeps social media networks

04India Independence Day celebrated

05Demons walk free after ‘forcing woman to commit burglary’!

10

UK parliament attacker faces murder charges12WORLD

OP-EDC E L E B S

Peck’s grandson to play SpokeActor Ethan Peck – whose grandfather was Hollywood legend Gregory Peck – has been cast as iconic half-Vulcan science officer Spock in CBS’s “Star Trek: Discovery.” P16

THURSDAYAUGUST 2018

200 FILS

ISSUE NO. 7840

V S Naipaul, my wonderful, cruel friend

Federer cruises 20 SPORTS

16WHATSAPP38444680

TWITTER@newsofbahrain

[email protected]

WEBSITEnewsofbahrain.com

FACEBOOK/nobmedia

LINKEDINnewsofbahrain

INSTAGRAM/nobmedia

F L O O D E D T E A R S

DON’T MISS IT

Erdogan with Shaikh Tamim in Ankara.

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister yesterday received Mohammed bin Abdulla Al Jadaan, Minister of Finance of Saudi Arabia, Obaid bin Humaid Al Tayer, Minister of State for Financial Affairs of the United Arab Emirates, Dr Nayef bin Falah Al Hajraf, Minister of Finance of Kuwait and Dr Abdulrahman Al Humaidi, Chairman and Director General of the Arab Monetary Fund, at Riffa Palace. During the meeting, His Royal Highness noted the longstanding ties between the Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Kuwait. The Crown Prince highlighted the strength of cooperation and unity between Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait, adding that the countries’ shared objectives and values underpin extensive collaboration. His Royal Highness welcomed the support expressed by Saudi Arabia, the UAE and Kuwait towards strengthening Bahrain’s fiscal stability, which is a reflection of the strength of relations between the countries. Finance Minister Shaikh Ahmed bin Mohamed Al Khalifa also attended the meeting. Separately, the ministers met yesterday to review a technical report, which includes a comprehensive fiscal balance programme, prepared by the four countries’ joint working team in coordination with the Arab Monetary Fund. In light of their previous announcement to consider all options to support Bahrain and to finalise an integrated programme to enhance Bahrain’s fiscal stability and economic growth, the ministers reaffirmed their countries’ commitment to supporting the financing needs of a fiscal balance programme with targeted indicators.

Boosting fiscal stability At least 48 killed in Kabul blast Kabul

A suicide blast in a main-ly Shi’ite area of Kabul killed at least 48 people

yesterday, the latest in a wave of attacks that have killed hun-dreds of civilians, soldiers and policemen over recent days.

The explosion, targeting an educational center in the west of the Afghan capital, tore through a large tent set up as a classroom in the courtyard, killing dozens of teenagers studying for a uni-versity entrance examination.

The blast, which shattered weeks of relative calm in Ka-bul, also wounded at least 67, including both male and fe-male students.

“Most of the boys at the edu-cational center have been killed,” said Sayed Ali, who witnessed the blast. “It was horrific and many of the students were torn to pieces.”

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the

Kabul blast but the attack bore the hallmark of Islamic State, which has conducted many pre-vious attacks on Shi’ite targets. The Taliban issued a statement denying it was involved.

The explosion, which came as the central city of Ghazni strug-gles to recover from five days of intense fighting between the Taliban and government forces, underlined how badly security in Afghanistan has degenerated, some two months before parlia-mentary elections scheduled for October.

67people including men, women and children were injured in the

blast.

20billion American dollars is the total investment

Doha has in Turkey.

Rescuers evacuate people from a flood-hit locality, in Thiruvananthapuram yesterday.

Woman found dead TDT|Manama

A woman was found dead in an apartment room

behind Awal Cinema in Gudaibiya. Police have be-gun probe into the incident. Further details were not available before press time.

Mackerel fishing ban Manama

The two-month ban on hauling and selling

mackerel fish took effect yesterday in the Kingdom.

The Ministry of Works, Municipalities Affairs and Urban Planning Ministry announced the ban which will run until October 15. “The ban aims at consol-idating the reserves of mackerel and maintaining the marine bio life,” said the Directorate of Agriculture and Marine Resources.

Qatar defies Trump Doha vows $15bn to Turkey to save its financial markets from collapse

• Although Qatar has now pledged $15 billion it has not actually paid anything, and it may not be enough to solve Turkey’s economic problems.

• Last week the US doubled tariffs on aluminium and steel imports from Turkey, during a dispute over Turkey’s detention of an American pastor on security charges that the US views as baseless.

Ankara

Qatar defied US President Donald Trump yesterday and promised to plough $15 billion into Turk-

ish financial markets and banks, amid a collapse in the value of the lira and a looming trade war between Turkey and the United States.

The bail-out followed talks in Anka-ra between the emir of Qatar, Shaikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and Tur-key’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The lira has lost nearly 40 per cent of its value against the dollar this year, driv-en by worries over Erdogan’s growing in-fluence on the economy and his refusal to

raise interest rates despite high inflation.The collapse, which intensified this

month and triggered contagion that spread across emerging markets, is mak-ing it much more costly for businesses to refinance at least $16 billion in bonds denominated in foreign currencies that are due by year-end, according to calcu-

lations by Bloomberg.It total, companies have $217 billion

in net foreign-exchange debt, equal to about a quarter of gross domestic product, according to central bank data. While officially the bad debt ratio at Tur-key’s banks is just 3 percent, lenders are in the process of renegotiating upwards of $20 billion of loans to try to prevent them from going into default.

Last week the US doubled tariffs on al-uminium and steel imports from Turkey, during a dispute over Turkey’s detention of an American pastor on security charg-es that the US views as baseless.

THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2018

03

big story


Alert call as terrifying Momo sweeps social media networks Authorities in other GCC countries have already issued warning about the challenge

This is an international phenomenon; they are targeting the youngsters and seeking money. MR MASHAL

Games or challenges like Momo Challenge can give games in general a bad reputation. MR ALTAJER

Games are not something that would turn a normal person into a psychotic killer. MR RASHED

• The Momo Challenge is said to be even more dangerous as the perpetuators use threats with violent images and calls.

• It is similar to the Blue Whale game, which consisted of a series of tasks assigned to players by the game controllers over a 50-day period.

TDT|ManamaMohammed Zafran

Parents are urged to keep a vigilant eye on their chil-dren’s online activity as

‘Momo Challenge’; a dangerous game, which the perpetrators spread on the social media net-works, has begun to target gul-

lible victims. The dangerous social media

phenomenon described as a challenge and a game, has been spreading around the world tar-geting children and teenagers swaying them to self-harm and to commit suicide.

The game, which originated on Facebook, starts with the victims being encouraged to communicate with a ‘game con-troller’ after adding the person as a contact, later the controller assigns the player a series of ‘challenges’ to go up levels of the game.

An avatar of a doll with mon-strous figure is used as the dis-tinguishing avatar for the game. Reportedly the perpetuators target mainly teenagers with self-esteem issues.

The Momo Challenge is sim-ilar to the Blue Whale game, which consisted of a series of tasks assigned to players by the game controllers over a 50-day period. The Momo Challenge is said to be even more dan-

gerous as the perpetuators use threats with violent images and calls.

Police in the United States

and several other countries have warned parents about the dangerous game. Police in Ar-gentina has associated the death of a 12-year-old to the game.

Authorities in neighboring GCC countries including Oman have already issued a warning about the Momo Challenge. Now experts in Bahrain have cautioned that parents need to be vigilant as the game could target youngsters in Bahrain as well.

Speaking to Tribune, Social Media Club Founding Member and Computer Trouble Shoot-ers Managing Director Sari Mashal said that the perpetu-ators might incite self-harm as well as violence against others.

He said that there has been a report from a neighboring country where a child threat-ened his parents. “There have been unconfirmed reports from a neighboring country about a child who ended up threatening his parents with violence after being instructed by the game administrators. It may or may not be true but it is in the realm of possibilities, so we need to be careful.”

He said that the motive is not just violence but it is also de-signed as a scam for money and personal information. “This is an international phenomenon;

they are targeting the young-sters and seeking money. Once they get someone in their traps they will start abusing them and asking them for funds. They would threaten and blackmail them.”

“The best way to prevent this issue from affecting our chil-dren is first by educating them and secondly by monitoring. Monitoring is not an easy job but it is a must.

“These type of games and challenges are dangerous be-cause they are designed to rouse curiosity and become addic-tive to the youngsters by giving them new and more extreme challenges every time they com-plete a task,” he said.

Gaming Expert and Manag-ing Director of INFINITEWARE Ameen Altajer said that it is the parent’s responsibility to ensure that the children do not become victims to such danger-ous games.

“Games or challenges like this can give games in general a bad reputation. When people who are not really well-informed hear about things like this they associate all games under one umbrella. So when they hear about the Blue Whale game or the Momo Challenge they gen-eralise and say that games in general are very dangerous.”

“Games are a medium just like the Internet. You would not tell your kids not to use the Internet. They are both me-diums that have data that are exposed to people. You cannot deny anyone the medium en-tirely; rather you have to con-trol what the medium is being used for.”

“They say that the games are making their kids do this or that, when in reality, the re-sponsibility of filtering the con-tent is solely on the parent.

“In this case, people who have created this (Momo Chal-lenge), they do not have mor-als and so they are abusing the medium. They’re giving the medium a bad reputation. This is something we as game devel-opers oppose.

Popular Gaming blogger Rashed Mokdad, said that Momo Challenge is just a scam to prey on vulnerable victims.

“When people are self-harm-ing or causing violence they are doing it outside the realm of the game, they are doing it based on someone’s instruction. This can be compared to those messages where they claim that if you do not donate $200 you will be cursed.

“Only people who are suscep-tible to these fall for these. In a sense these people already have something wrong with them before even playing any game.

“Violence has not been prov-en scientifically to be a conse-quence of gaming. There’s no real correlation, they’ve done so many studies on it and gaming has not been proven to cause violence. Games are not some-thing that would turn a normal person into a psychotic killer,” he said.

“The only people who are actually or who might commit crimes must be already vulner-able and predisposed to this. If people committed suicide they probably have had depression or some issues. The same ap-plies to violence,” he added.

Momo Challenge’s avatar is a piece of artwork created by Japanese artist Midori Hayshi, however, the artist has dis-tanced herself from having any relation to the game. A message sent to a victimAnother message sent to a victim

The Avatar described as Momo

Momo Challenge’s avatar is a piece

of artwork created by

Japanese artist Midori Hayshi, however, the

artist has distanced herself from having any relation to the

game.

KNOW

DID

04THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2018

Embassy celebrates India Independence Day in style

TDT|Manama

The 72nd Independence Day of India was celebrated by the In-dian Embassy and many other

expatriate organisations in the King-dom with a wave of patriotic zeal and enthusiasm.

The major celebration was held by the Indian Embassy at the new embas-sy premises in Seef. Indian Ambassador Alok K Sinha hoisted the tricolour flag in the presence of Second Secretary Anand Prakash, other embassy officials and Indian community leaders.

The Ambassador read the address delivered by the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the ramparts of the Red Fort, yesterday.

Members of the Indian community and friends of India in the Kingdom also attended a reception hosted by the embassy last evening at the Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel.

The reception was attended by As-sistant Foreign Minister Abdulla bin Faisal Al Doseri, Foreign Ministry Un-dersecretary Dr Shaikha Rana bint Isa Al Khalifa, top diplomats and senior government officials.

Speaking on the occasion, Mr Sinha said, “New developments that have taken place in the eco-nomic sphere in both countries will take the bilateral ties between India and Bahrain to greater heights.”

“The Indian community in the Kingdom is a significant anchor to our enhancing relationship.”

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa sent a cable of congratulations to India Republic’s President Ram Nath Kovind on his country’s independ-ence anniversary, wishing the friendly Indian people further progress and prosperity.

His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, Crown Prince, Deputy Supreme Commander and First

Deputy Prime Minister also sent a cable of congratulations to Ram Nath Kovind.

HRH the Crown Prince also sent a similar cable to Prime Minister Nar-endra Modi.

Among other events, Bahrain Ker-aleeya Samajam (BKS), Kerala Catho-lic Association (KCA) and the Indian Club also celebrated the Independ-ence Day.

The Indian community in the Kingdom is a significant anchor to our enhancing

relationship.INDIAN AMBASSADOR

Mr Sinha hoists the flag at the Indian Embassy premises.

Mr Sinha addresses the Indian community.

Mr Sinha, Mr Al Doseri, Dr Shaikha Rana along with diplomats and senior government officials at the cake-cutting ceremony.

Mr Sinha addresses diplomats and senior government officials at the event.

Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam (BKS) celebrated the day in the presence of Acting President Dileesh Kumar V S and General Secretary M P Raghu at its premises in Segaya.

Kerala Catholic Association celebrated the day with a flag hoisting ceremony at KCA premises which was followed by an Independence Day message and oath by KCA president Sevi Mathunny. KCA General Secretary Varghese Joseph also spoke at the function.


Demons walk free after ‘forcing woman to commit burglary’!

My client didn’t remember the incident

because she claims she was possessed by

demons. MS AL HAWAJ

• Lawyer Fatima Al Hawaj urged clemency for her client before the judges “as it was the mental abnormalities that forced her into committing the crime”.

• The defendant broke into the house of a Bahraini couple and stole golden ornaments worth over BD700 and sold them in the black market for BD520.

TDT|Manama Ali Tarif

Since demons don’t fall under the jurisdiction of courts, there are no ways to make them legally accountable!

The Lower Criminal Court yesterday sen-tenced a Bahraini woman, who said she was possessed by demons that forced her into com-mitting burglary, to six months in jail.

The defendant broke into the house of a Bah-raini couple and stole golden ornaments worth over BD700 and sold them in the black market for BD520.

Following investigations, cops traced the bur-glary convict and put the woman on trial.

Lawyer Fatima Al Hawaj urged clemency for her client before the judges “as it was the mental abnormalities that forced her into committing the crime”.

“My client didn’t remember the incident be-cause she claims she was possessed by demons. She wasn’t aware of what she was doing,” Ms Al Hawaj argued, stating that her client is already under spiritual treatment to remove the demons possessing her.

“My client didn’t commit any crime before, and she is a wife and has children. She deserves clemency from this honourable court,” the law-yer added.

Traditional café reopens at new location

TDT|Manama Thamer Tayfour

One of Bahrain’s iconic café reopened at its new location near Bab Al Bahrain.

Industry, Commerce and Tourism Min-ister Zayed Al Zayani inaugurated the new-look Abdul Qadir Café, after its relocation from its decades-old premises in Manama Suq.

The minister congratulated the owners on the fast reopening of the popular café at its new location near Bab Al Bahrain.

He commended all those who contributed to the quick reopening of the Abdul Qadir Café, cit-ing particularly, the Bahrain Tourism and Exhi-bitions Authority (BTEA) and the Kanoo Family.

Mr Al Zayani praised the role of Mahmoud Al Namliti, Chairman of the National Committee for the Development of Old Manama Market, for his follow-up and keenness on helping the owners of the café and exerting efforts to con-serve such heritage and trade facilities in the old Manama Suq.

He reiterated the keenness of the Government,

ministry and BTEA on support all trade, tourism and heritage facilities which contribute to bol-stering Bahrain’s business standing

He said that the reopening of the traditional café is part of the ministry and BTEA-led drive to carry out the old Manama Suq as part of efforts to preserve the identity of the iconic market.

Speaking to Tribune, café owner Abdullah said, “We are thankful to the minister and min-istry for helping us reopen the coffee shop. This reflects the interest shown by the government in the affairs of common citizens.”

The new location in the Kanoo Building is just 300 metres from the old location and right in the centre of old market.

Hailing the ministry and BTEA, Mr Al Namliti said that the reopening of café has been a great success. “If you see, there are only nine traditional cafés in the market that offer tradition-al Bahraini cuisine. We need to protect them at any cost.”

He added that there should be at least 20 cafés in the market that can serve Bahraini, Arab and foreign

customers. “In Bahrain, cafés have great significance as

they are places of social gathering. In earlier days, in the pre-gadget world, people from dif-ferent walks of life including those who have studied in Iraq, India, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Oman, Egypt and other countries would come to these cafés and share their thoughts. Well before that, cafés were the places where pearls were bought and sold.

“Foreign merchants used to come to cafés where Bahraini traders would come from places like Muharraq and Sitra. Thus cafés served as

cultural and commercial gateway in connecting the Kingdom to the larger world.”

Earlier in the absence of print, broadcast or social media, cafés in Manama used to have a bul-letin board carrying news on political and social developments, weddings and local celebrations.

Ahmed Al Badawi, who was a frequent custom-er at Abdul Qadir Café, thanked the initiatives of the ministry and other authorities concerned to reopen the café.

“Many of us have been coming here for the past 30 years and now we can continue that habit,” he told Tribune.

Tender Invitation

NOTE: Tender documents can be purchased online using e-Tendering system starting on 16th August 2018

• Tenderers who are eligible to supply/provide the goods/ services/ works specified above are kindly requested to purchase the tender document online through the e-Tendering portal http://www.tenderboard.gov.bh (for assistance please contact the Tender Board help desk on Tel: +973 17566617).

• An Initial Bond should be enclosed for the amount specified above or at a rate of 1% of the quotation value whichever of the amount is lesser, provided that no initial bond’s value shall be less than BD 100/-. Ensure that the Initial bond is in a form of Certified Cheque, Cash, Bank Guarantee or Insurance Policy, valid for the duration specified in the tender documents.

• Quotation should be deposited in the tender box provided at the Tender Submission Office, Tender Board Arcapita Building 551, Ground Floor Road 4612, Block 346 Bahrain Bay Manama, Bahrain, before 1:30 After Noon on the tender closing date.

• All tenders/Auction are in compliance with the government tendering & purchasing regulations issued in Decrees Nos. 36 & 37 of 2002 and its executive regulations.

• The following conditions should be complied with:

1. Enclose a copy of the Commercial Registration Certificate valid for the current year, and related to the subject tender.2. Submit the quotations on Form No. TB 02 - tender submission.3. Enclose a copy of Certificate of Compliance with the Employment Percentage for Bahraini Manpower issued by Ministry

of Labour. 4. Ensure to stamp with the official seal on all the original documents and copies there-of, which form part of the offer.

• This announcement is to be read as part of the Tender Documents.

• All public tenders related to Gulf Air Company are published on the Tender Board website: http://www.tenderboard.gov.bh

• For any enquiry on the Tender Documents, please contact procurement and logistics department on Telephone.: +973 17338283/+973 17338790/+973 17338545, Fax : +973 17327999

Important Note: All participants are invited to attend the opening of the tender at at the Tender Submission Office, Ground Floor, Tender Board Office at Al Arcapita Building on the next day of the closing date.

Seq. Tender Title Tender No. Initial Bond (Refundable)

Tender Document Fee

Last date of accepting bidsDay Date Time

1 Supply of Freshly Baked Products for Gulf Air

18-08-1874-BTB BD 2500 BD 100 Wednesday 19/9/2018 13:30

Mr Al Zayani reopens the café. Abdul Qadir Café owner Abdullah

Religious figure accused in defaming case granted bailTDT|Manama Ali Tarif

A Bahraini religious figure accused of insulting the symbol of a Muslim sect online was granted bail by the Lower

Criminal Court. The defendant was detained after he

tweeted a comment which was deemed defamatory against the symbol of a Muslim sect but his lawyer Fatima Al Hawaj told the court that he was only sharing the opinions of scholars.

“My client was only passing some scholars’ point of view on the symbol, which wasn’t his. He simply didn’t mean to insult anybody,” Ms Al Hawaj said in her arguments yesterday.

“My client has decided to take part in the next parliamentary elections, and there are many trouble-makers trying to set up traps on his way to obstruct him. I don’t believe there is any harm on sharing other scholars’ opinions on anything because there is no article in our penal law criminalising such an act,” she added.

“The court papers didn’t include anything

against my client. He only admitted to con-trolling the account which published the tweets. He was clear that the tweets didn’t represent his opinion as they were pub-lished by other scholars and he wanted to share them with his followers.”

The defendant was arrested after police received a complaint from the anti-cyber crimes directorate over a tweet he pub-lished.

Prosecutors say that the defendant had admitted to owning the account which tweeted the comment in question.

He was earlier ordered to be detained for seven days, pending the outcome of his trial.

He will appear before the Lower Criminal Court again on August 26 to hear his verdict.

My client was only passing some scholars’ point of view on the

symbol, which wasn’t his. MS AL HAWAJ


His Majesty lauds Bahrainis’ sacrifices to the homeland

Citizens from Diraz commend the royal interest in serving the citizens of the Kingdom Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yesterday received scores of Al Diraz citizens as

part of the royal keenness to meet cit-izens of various governorates at the Safriya Palace.

HM the King welcomed Al Diraz cit-izens and listened to their needs. He gave directions to meet their needs.

The Diraz citizens expressed delight in meeting HM the King, highlighting appreciation of the royal directives to meet their needs.

HM the King hailed their contributions to serving the homeland and promoting the development seen in various fields.

His Majesty paid tribute to the Bah-raini people’s sacrifices to their country, welcoming their national stances that assisted the country in overcoming bad times and challenges thanks to the solid values of solidarity, coexistence and tolerance.

HM the King stressed that the nation-al successes achieved are the result of the concerted efforts of the Bahraini people.

HM the King attached great impor-tance to communication among all, recalling the people’s solidarity as they unanimously voted on the National Action Charter, which reflects their awareness and solid stances.

“Together, we have made multi-ple achievements and prevailed over challenges, together will continue the development march and economic

growth,” HM the King said. HM the King affirmed the Kingdom

of Bahrain would push ahead with the process of development and construc-

tion to secure a prosperous future. The audience commended the roy-

al interest in meeting the people of Bahrain and listening to their needs,

wishing HM the King good health and happiness and the Kingdom of Bahrain further security and stability.

His Majesty with citizens from Diraz.

Ex-staff ‘exposed factory producing expired items’ • Three employees were put on trial in connection with this case, and they pleaded not guilty before the Lower Criminal Court.

TDT|Manama Ali Tarif

An ex-employee played a key role in exposing a chocolate factory which was manufacturing products using

expired components, the court learnt. “He was aware of everything the man-

agement was doing inside the factory,” the sources revealed.

Three employees were put on trial in

connection with this case, and they pleaded not guilty before the Lower Criminal Court.

Tribune reported last month that the

defendants were detained after the facto-ry was shut down for making products using expired contents.

“Following a complaint about the fac-tory from police, the Public Prosecution notified the Public Health Department to go and inspect it in order to seize the expired contents. The inspection revealed the fraud practice and thus the factory was shut down,” Public Attorney Mamdooh Al Ma’awdah said in the statement last month.

“Those in charge of the factory have been detained and they were ordered to remain in police custody for seven days after they were charged with forgery and selling expired food.

“The Public Health Department was assigned to examine all the products of the factory and to seize all the items violat-ing the regulations.”

Passengers urged to arrive early at airport TDT|Manama

In light of an anticipated increase in passenger traf-fic during the upcoming

Eid Al Adha holidays, Bahrain Airport Company (BAC), the operator and managing body of Bahrain International Airport (BIA), has urged all passengers travelling during the holidays, to arrive at the airport three hours prior to their departure time to avoid any potential de-lays.

In addition to the existing Car Park “D”, which is locat-ed behind Movenpick Hotel, the Overflow Car Park is also available, located north of the runway within the airport’s premises on Galali Road, the BAC said in a statement issued yesterday.

“Passengers can reach the Over Flow Car Park either through the Dry Dock High-way or Arad Highway. It con-sists of 4,000 parking stalls dedicated for passengers in order to accommodate the expected surge in passenger flow during upcoming peak periods.

“It includes a complemen-tary shuttle service to trans-fer passengers to and from the terminal building every 30 minutes. The car park also has air-conditioned passenger waiting areas, in addition to other support facilities,” the statement added.

Passengers were requested to park their vehicles in the allocated BIA car parks and avoid leaving their cars on the side of the roads.

The Public Health Department was

assigned to examine all the products

of the factory and to seize all the

items violating the regulations.

AL MA’AWDAH

Bahrain International Airport records 41pc surge in Hajj passengers• The first group of pilgrims departed from BIA on 7 August, the second left on 11 August, and the final group left on 15 August.

TDT|Manama

Bahrain International Airport (BIA) witnessed a 41 per cent spike in the number passengers of trave-

ling to Saudi Arabia for Hajj this year, BIA’s operator and managing body, Bahrain Airport Company (BAC) said

yesterday. In total, 5,625 pilgrims will have

passed through BIA on their way to the holy city of Mecca by August 15, which marks a significant increase from the 4,000 recorded in 2017. This figure in-cludes 430 Bahrainis who are under 58 licensed local tour operators, and 280 employees from the 231 tourism companies that provided Hajj packages, it added. The first group of pilgrims de-parted from BIA on 7 August, the second left on 11 August, and the final group left on 15 August.

“To ensure a safe and efficient travel experience for pilgrims at BIA, prepa-rations for the season began in July, in-

cluding checking visas for transit pas-sengers from other countries. Bahrain Airport Services Company (BAS) is play-ing a key role by liaising with tour oper-ators and organisers to arrange travel procedures, including pre-check-up of passports and bags as well as issuing boarding passes to streamline the travel process.

“To accommodate the surge in pas-sengers and ease the flow of operations, additional baggage handlers and airport police have been deployed at BIA and tour operators have set up hospitality tables especially for pilgrims.”

In a statement issued, BAC Chief Air-port Operations Officer, Michael Ho-

henberger, said: “The Hajj pilgrimage is an important milestone for Muslims. We aim to ensure the small part of their journey to Mecca that takes place at BIA is pleasant and memorable. I extend my sincere thanks to all airport employees for maintaining the highest levels of service during one the busiest times of the year, and our partners in the public and private sector for their hard work, support, and professionalism.”

“When the new Passenger Terminal building opens and the airport’s capacity grows to 14 million travellers annually, we expect to see an even greater number of Hajj pilgrims passing through BIA,” he added.

When the new Passenger Terminal building opens and

the airport’s capacity grows to 14 million

travellers annually, we expect to see an even

greater number of Hajj pilgrims passing

through BIA. MR HOHENBERGER

07

business


Adopt solar power: Minister Electricity Minister assures all necessary help from the authority for installing Solar energy systems TDT | Manama

The Electricity and Water Authority will provide all necessary help for those

who are willing to install solar energy systems in their homes and facilities, said Dr Mirza yes-terday.

“For those wishing to install solar energy systems, the re-quired procedures can be found by visiting the Electricity and Water Authority website www.ewa.bh or the Sustainable En-ergy Unit website www.seu.gov.bh,” the minister pointed out.

Dr Mirza was detailing the procedures required for install-ing sustainable energy units to a resident Fuad Al Khayyat, who has applied for the installation of solar energy systems in his building.

“Installing a sustainable en-ergy system also contributes

to reducing the monthly utility bills and enables users to sell electricity to the national grid through the net metering sys-tem,” Dr Mirza told Al Khayyat.

Sustainable Energy Unit, the minister said, is encouraging in-stitutions and individuals to use renewable energy in homes and facilities as well as commercial

and industrial establishments.The move aims to achieve ma-

jor goals, including the rational-ization of consumption, which is a national and environmental

demand. Al Khayyat expressed his

thanks and appreciation to the minister and the officials of the Sustainable Energy Unit.

Electricity and Water Affairs Minister Dr Abdulhussain Mirza during a discussion on solar energy

Indonesia hikes ratesJakarta, Indonesia

Indonesia’s central bank hiked interest rates yes-

terday in a bid to shield the slumping rupiah from a sel-loff in emerging market cur-rencies as Turkey’s financial crisis roils global markets.

Bank Indonesia raised its benchmark rate to 5.50 per cent from 5.25pc, its fourth hike since May, after the ru-piah this week dropped to its lowest level against the dollar since 2015.

Indonesia’s central bank said its latest rate hike was partly driven by the Tur-key crisis. “We are closely watching what’s happening in Turkey,” bank governor Perry Warjiyo said after the rate announcement.

“Global economic uncer-tainty has been rising due to the ...turmoil in Turkey.”

The rupiah slumped to its lowest point since 2015 on Monday after Indonesia reported its biggest current account deficit in nearly four years. The current ac-count is a broad measure of a country’s trade with the rest of the world.

The rupiah was trading at 14,576 against the dol-lar Wednesday, down more than seven percent since the start of the year.

China blasts US solar tariffs, takes WTO actionBeijing, China

China has blasted US tariffs on solar panel

imports, filing a complaint at the World Trade Organ-ization in the latest salvo of the trade battle between the world’s two economic giants.

US President Donald Trump approved steep tar-iffs on solar panel imports in January to protect US pro-ducers, triggering an outcry from China, South Korea and even protests from the US solar industry.

China’s commerce min-istry accused Washington of erecting trade barriers while subsidising its domes-tic industry.

“While taking protection-ist measures against import-ed photovoltaic products, the US provided subsidies to domestically produced pho-tovoltaics and other renew-able energy products,” the ministry said in a statement.

China lodged its chal-lenge at the WTO on Tues-day, the statement said.

The US subsidies have given an unfair advantage to domestic companies and “damaged the legitimate rights and interests of Chi-na’s renewable energy com-panies,” it said.

Beijing said the US meas-ures are suspected of vio-lating trade rules and that it would turn to the WTO’s dispute resolution mecha-nism to protect its interests.

BisB in financing deal for Janayin Al Hamala projectTDT | Manama

Bahrain Islamic Bank (BisB) has signed an agreement

with Kingdom Properties Real Estate S.P.C. to provide proper-ty financing for potential resi-dents of the Janayin Al Hamala Project.

The move enables Bahraini nationals working in the King-dom to pay down payment, starting with only 5 per cent,

for the units that will be select-ed within Janayin Al Hamala Project, and the Mazaya pro-gramme as per the Ministry of Housing’s regulation.

“We are pleased to sign this agreement with Kingdom Prop-erties Real Estate S.P.C, which aims to facilitate the purchase of Janayin Al Hamala’s units for

potential residents,” said Dalal Al Qais, General Manager of Retail Banking of BisB.

“Mazaya” is considered one of the Ministry of Housing’s leading initiatives, which was developed in cooperation with the private sector in order to provide suitable housing for citizens.

Officials during the deal signing

We are pleased to sign this agreement

with Kingdom Properties Real

Estate S.P.C, which aims to facilitate the purchase of Janayin Al Hamala’s units for potential residents

DALAL AL QAIS

GENERAL MANAGER OF BISB

Ebrahim Nonoo (CEO & MD – BFC Group) opening the 50th Branch of Bahrain Financing Company in Oasis Mall, Juffair yesterday, in the presence of Mohamed Salman Haji (CFO –BFC Group), Pancily Varkey (GM – BFC Bahrain) and other senior officials from BFC. The first 200 customers who made a transaction received a gold coin and other were gifted with BFC Branded T-Shirts & Caps. The branch will be open from 10am to 10pm every day.

Subah Abdullatif Al Zayani, Deputy Head of Retail Banking Group at KFH-Bahrain with the winner of USD 10,000, Isa AlKaabi, of ‘Libshara’ July draw held at its headquarters in the Bahrain World Trade Centre. The July winners included Abdulla Ebrahim Ahmed who received the grand prize of USD 50,000; Salwa Khalifa Jasim and Isa Juma AlKaabi who each won USD 10,000 in cash; while Samir Abdulhoq Ismail and Fatema Ali Jaaffar both won USD 5,000 each. In addition, 80 winners received various other cash prizes for other categories and segments

Royal University for Women successfully completed the ISO 9001:2015 second surveillance audit with a remarkable outcome of no non-conformances raised for the fourth consecutive year. The audit was conducted by AJA Europe where a team of four auditors visited the university premises. The visit started with the opening meeting which was attended by the Acting President, Dr Mona Suri, the Management Representative, Mona A. Jawad, in addition to all administrative Directors and Managers.


Erdogan ups the ante Turkey slaps retaliatory tariff hikes on key US products

• Doubled tariffs on 22 products imported from the US

• Lira continues to gain ground

• Court rejected appeal to release American pastor

Istanbul, Turkey

Turkey hiked yesterday tariffs on imports of sev-eral key US products in

retaliation for American sanc-tions against Ankara, as a bitter dispute between the two allies that has battered the Turkish lira showed no sign of ending.

The lira -- which lost just under a quarter of its value in trading on Friday and Monday -- however continued to claw back some ground on financial markets, rallying around five percent against the dollar.

But a court rejected an appeal for the release of American pas-tor Andrew Brunson -- whose detention for almost two years sparked the crisis -- leaving no immediate solution to the Tur-key-US row in sight.

The lira’s fall had raised fears Turkey was on the verge of a fully-fledged economic crisis, especially in its banking system, that could spill over into Europe and other markets.

Turkish Vice President Fuat Oktay said that the tar-iff hikes were ordered “within

the framework of reciprocity in retaliation for the conscious attacks on our economy by the

US administration”.President Donald Trump had

previously announced that the United States was doubling steel and aluminium tariffs on Turkey.

The hikes were published in Turkey’s Official Gazette in a decree signed by President Re-cep Tayyip Erdogan, who has repeatedly described the crisis as an “economic war” that Tur-key will win.

The tariff increases amount to a doubling of the existing rate, the state-run Anadolu news agency said, in an apparent par-allel response to Trump’s move.

The decree said the move

brought tariffs to 50 per cent on imports of US rice, 140pc on hard alcoholic drinks like spir-its, 60pc on leaf tobacco and 60pc on cosmetics.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan

The tariff hikes were ordered “within the framework

of reciprocity in retaliation for the

conscious attacks on our economy by the US administration”.

FUAT OKTAY TURKISH VICE PRESIDENT

Ticking Point

THEY ARE AGENDA DRIVEN

CEOs oversee a large num-ber of organizational units

and work streams and count-less types of decisions. Our research finds that they should have an explicit personal agen-da and that most do. A clear and effective agenda optimizes the CEO’s limited time; without one, demands from the loudest constituencies will take over, and the most important work won’t get done.

A good agenda sets priorities for the CEO’s personal involve-ment over the coming period. But it is not unidimensional; rather, it is a matrix includ-ing both broader areas for im-provement and specific mat-ters that need to be addressed, and it combines time-bound goals with more open-ended priorities.

In our study we asked each CEO to describe the agenda he or she was pursuing dur-ing the quarter being tracked and to highlight the hours de-voted primarily to advancing it. Every executive provided an agenda. We found that the CEOs invested significant time — 43%, on average — in activi-ties that furthered their agen-das. Some were far more disci-plined about this than others: Time devoted to the core agen-da varied widely, ranging from 14% to 80% of leaders’ work hours. Most CEOs we talked with agreed that the more time they spent on their agendas, the better they felt about their use of time. Overall, we found that an explicit agenda is one of the CEO’s most important tools for making progress on multiple work streams simul-taneously, addressing differ-ences in the rate of progress across priorities and using time effectively despite the need to respond personally to unforeseen events.

ADVANCING THE AGEN-DA. Keeping time allocation aligned with CEOs’ top prior-ities is so crucial that we sug-gest that every quarter CEOs make a point of looking back at whether their schedule for the previous period adequately matched up with their person-al agenda. They should also update the agenda to reflect current circumstances.

CEOs can benefit from mak-ing their personal agenda ex-plicit to others. Their EAs and leadership teams both need to know and understand it so that they can stay aligned with it. This understanding will help team members assume own-ership of the goals and priori-ties of the work the CEO needs them to drive. DEALING WITH UNFOLDING DEVELOPMENTS. A good portion of our CEOs’ time (about 36%, on average) was spent in a reactive mode, handling unfolding issues, both internal and external. For many chief executives, it is not immediately clear when and how to address such issues or how much time to devote to them. Say that a member of the CEO’s senior leadership team leaves a meeting looking upset. Should the CEO follow up with that person right away to make sure everything is OK? Should the CEO just wait and let the team member cool off?

Sometimes emerging problems seem small at first but balloon into larger distractions if the CEO doesn’t attend to them. In other instances a CEO’s inter-vention makes an issue bigger than it might have been. It’s essential for CEOs to figure out appropriate responses to these unfolding situations.

Every now and then, CEOs find themselves dealing with a sudden, full-blown crisis — a product or safety failure, a hostile activist’s bid, a se-rious cyberattack or even an external catastrophe such as a tsunami or a terrorist attack. Most of our CEOs (89%) spent some time on crises. Though on average it was small (1% of work time during the quarter we tracked), the total amount spent varied a great deal among the leaders in our study. Crises can create make-or-break mo-ments in a CEO’s leadership. In dealing with them, CEOs need to be highly visible and person-ally involved; the response to such events can’t be delegated. Showing genuine concern for the people affected, avoiding defensiveness, holding every-one together and creating confidence that the organi-zation will not only survive but emerge stronger are some of the things CEOs need to do during these times.

LIMITING ROUTINE RESPON-SIBILITIES. A surprisingly sig-nificant fraction (11%, on av-erage) of our CEOs’ work time was consumed by routine du-ties. Such activities varied con-siderably across CEOs, running the gamut from review meet-ings to board meetings, earn-ings calls and investor days.

Operating reviews are a major component of a CEO’s routine tasks. Their number, frequency and length ranged widely across the leaders we studied, and our discussions suggested that some CEOs — especially those who had been chief operating officers — overinvested in reviews that could be delegated to direct reports. The ability of CEOs to control what we term “have-to-dos” was also quite variable. Have-to-dos include rituals such as giving welcome talks to new employees. These can play an important symbolic role and help reinforce the company’s values and cul-ture. By thoughtfully choos-ing which of these events to attend, CEOs can set the tone of their relationship with the organization. Yet a CEO must be disciplined about ensuring that feel-good activities don’t collectively take up more time than he or she can afford.

Our discussions suggest that CEOs need to take a hard look at every activity that falls into the routine and have-to-do categories. They must ask whether it serves an important purpose or is simply a com-pany habit, something insti-tuted by the predecessor or a carry-over from the CEO’s previous role.

Michael E. Porter is a uni-versity professor at Harvard, based at Harvard Business School in Boston. Nitin Nohria is dean of Harvard Business School

NITIN NOHRIA/ MICHAEL E. PORTER

‘Dangerous game’

Trade Minister Ruhsar Pekcan said Turkey had

doubled tariffs on 22 prod-ucts imported from the Unit-ed States, saying the tariffs were together worth an ad-ditional $533 million.

Erdogan’s spokesman Ibra-him Kalin added: “Turkey is not in favour of an economic war with anyone but when attacked ... will take all nec-essary steps.”

Erdogan on Tuesday said Turkey would boycott US electronic goods like iP-hones, even though he has himself been photographed repeatedly using the product himself.

He also made his now fa-mous speech on the night of the July 2016 failed coup calling citizens out into the street through FaceTime, an iPhone app.

Moves by the central bank to ensure Turkish banks have liquidity and a planned conference call by Turkish Finance Minister Berat Al-bayrak, who is Erdogan’s son-in-law, on Thursday have gone some way to giving re-assurance to investors.

The lira was trading on Wednesday at 6.1 to the dol-lar, a gain in value on the day of 4.5pc.

Global stock markets falterAFP London, United Kingdom

Stock markets fell yesterday, with commodities-linked

assets hit by dollar strength, while the Turkish lira recov-ered further.

The lira is in recovery mode after tumbling Monday to fresh record lows versus the dollar and euro as Washington and Ankara trade barbs Turkey’s de-tention of an American pastor.

In Europe, London, Frankfurt and Paris were all off around 1.0 per cent in afternoon trading.

Wall Street opened lower despite retail sales rising for the sixth straight month in July, with the Dow retreating 0.5pc in the first minute of trading.

“Prospects of a smooth and sustained recovery for emerg-ing market currencies had looked too dicey to Asia-Pacif-

ic investors, so markets there mostly fell as well,” Odeluga said.

Meanwhile with the dollar still strong against the lira and other currencies oil prices, met-als futures and shares in mining groups were all suffering.

Dollar-denominated “com-modity prices have been slid-ing lower once more, with the rise in the dollar and continued fears over the US-China trade war denting confidence”, said Joshua Mahony, market analyst at IG trading group.

Key figures at 1330 GMT New York - Dow Jones 0.5pc at 25,170.65 points

London - FTSE 100 1.1pc at 7,530.48

Frankfurt - DAX 30 1.2pc at 12,215.67

Paris - CAC 40 1.1pc at 5,343.87

EURO STOXX 50 1.0pc at 3,374.96

Tokyo - Nikkei 225 0.7pc at 22,204.22 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng 1.6pc at 27,323.59 (close)

Dollar/Turkish lira: 6.09 lira from 6.53 lira early Wednesday

Euro/Turkish lira: 6.90 lira from 7.43 lira early Wednesday

Euro/dollar: $1.1313 from $1.1322

Pound/dollar: $1.2684 from $1.2698

Dollar/yen: 110.90 from 111.24 yen

Researchers find new security flaw in Intel chipsWashington, United States

Researchers have discovered a new security flaw that

could let hackers pry informa-tion from supposedly secure virtual vaults in Intel chips, the company warned on Tuesday.

Intel said software updates are already available and it did not appear anyone had taken advantage of the “Foreshadow”

vulnerability, which has been likened to troubling “Melt-down” and “Spectre” flaws ex-posed in computer chips early this year.

“If used for malicious pur-poses, this class of vulnerability has the potential to improperly infer data values from multiple types of computing devices,” Intel said on its website.

“Intel has worked with op-

erating system vendors, equip-ment manufacturers, and other ecosystem partners to develop platform firmware and software updates that can help protect systems from these methods,” it said. The “Meltdown” and “Spectre” flaws roiled the Sili-con Valley chip maker, prompt-ing a series of lawsuits and a congressional inquiry about Intel’s handling of the matter. Representative picture

US retail spending continue to rise

Washington, United States

American consumers dipped deeper into their

pockets in July, increasing spending for the sixth month in a row and getting the third quarter off to a healthy start, the government reported yesterday.

Sales rose sharply at cloth-ing stores, restaurants, bars and even long-suffering de-partment stores, the Com-merce Department said in a monthly report.

Motorists also bought more gasoline at the height of the summer driving sea-son. The increases should support continued robust economic growth in the third quarter, which econo-mists say is still likely to be much slower than it was in the second.


$71.45a barrel was the price of

Brent crude by 1351 GMT

Closing BellSAUDI 0.4% » 7,866

DUBAI 0.8% » 2,818

ABU DHABI 1.1% » 4,886

QATAR 0.5% » 9,592

KUWAIT 0.1% » 5,372

BAHRAIN 0.2% » 1,343

OMAN 0.4% » 4,389

EGYPT 15,357

New CEO named for Air France-KLM

Paris, France

Air France-KLM may name its new chief

executive during a board meeting, French newspaper Liberation reported, tipping Air Canada’s chief operating officer Benjamin Smith as the winning candidate.

The Franco-Dutch air-line has been searching for a new boss since Jean-Marc Janaillac resigned in May, having gambled his job on getting Air France staff to accept a new pay deal. The nomination of a Canadian would be unprecedented since the two operators merged in 2004 to create what was then Europe’s big-gest airline.

Italian PM declares 12-month ‘state of emergency’ AFP | Genoa, Italy

Italian prime minister Gi-useppe Conte declared

Wednesday a 12-month state of emergency in Genoa following the collapse of a motorway bridge that killed at least 39 people.

“A cabinet meeting took place in which we have de-creed a 12-month state of emergency and made avail-able a first allocation worth five million euros ($5.7 mil-lion) for the national emer-gencies fund,” Conte said in a press conference in the northwestern port city after the meeting, which lasted around an hour.

Conte also confirmed in-tention to revoke the con-tract from Autostrade per l’Italia, which was in charge of operating and maintain-ing the bridge and the A10 motorway it was part of.

US blacklists Russian, Chinese companies for breaking North Korea embargoWashington, United States

T he US Treasury an-nounced sanctions on

Russian and Chinese com-panies Wednesday for vi-olating the economic em-bargo on North Korea as Washington seeks to keep pressure on Pyongyang over its nuclear program.

The Treasury accused China-based Dalian Sun Moon Star International Logistics Trading Co and its Singapore-based affili-ate, SINSMS Pte., of falsify-ing documents to facilitate shipments of alcohol and cigarettes to North Korea.

Those shipments helped fuel what the Treasury al-leged was a huge “illicit” cigarette trade earning the Pyongyang regime $1 billion a year.

It also blacklisted Rus-sia-based Profinet Pte. for violating UN sanctions by providing port services like loading and refueling to sanctioned North Kore-an-flagged ships at three eastern Russia ports.

Saudi may only play minor part in $72bn Tesla plan• The Saudi PIF already holds about a 5 percent stake in Tesla

• Saudi government officials, have so far declined any comment

Reuters | Riyadh

Elon Musk told investors this week that “obviously, the

Saudi sovereign fund has more than enough capital needed” to finance taking Tesla private.

The fund is estimated to have over $250 billion in assets. But it is not that simple.

The Public Investment Fund (PIF) has many claims on its resources, both financial and political.

More than half of its assets are tied up in large Saudi companies whose stocks could be difficult

to sell en masse.The PIF has made substantial

commitments to other technol-ogy companies or investments, including a $45 billion agree-ment to invest in a giant tech

fund led by Japan’s Softbank.Then there’s $3.5 billion in-

vested in U.S. ride-sharing firm Uber, the $1 billion pumped into Virgin Group’s space ven-tures, and another $20 billion

tentatively committed to an in-frastructure investment fund planned with Blackstone.

There is also pressure to spend money at home, where a slumping economy has driven unemployment among Saudi citizens to record highs.

“They could handle part of taking Tesla private, but not necessarily a large part of it and certainly not all of it,” a banker at a major Gulf firm operating in Saudi Arabia said.

The Tesla CEO has said he does not believe he would need to raise the full $72 bil-lion value placed on Tesla by his $420-a-share bid because he ex-pects many existing sharehold-ers – including himself with 20 percent of the company – to roll their shares into a private Tesla.

The Saudi PIF already holds about a 5 percent stake in Tesla.

Saudi Crown Prince Moham-med bin Salman, who heads the PIF, is driving to diversify the

Saudi economy beyond oil ex-ports by developing new indus-tries. Participation in a Tesla deal could bring Saudi Arabia closer to developing a domestic car industry or playing a role in Musk’s electric battery manu-facturing or space activities.

What Prince Salman, PIF managing director Yasir al-Ru-mayyan and other officials of the fund decide will be crucial to Musk’s take-private effort.

Musk said on Monday that al-Rumayyan had voiced sup-port for Tesla going private and that talks with the PIF, along with other investors, were con-tinuing.

Spokesmen for the fund, as well as Saudi government offi-cials, have so far declined any comment on Musk’s statements. But bankers familiar with the secretive PIF said on Tuesday they had seen no sign yet of it preparing to commit to a Tesla deal.

Elon Musk, founder, CEO and lead designer at SpaceX and co-founder of Tesla,

Abu Dhabi bucks trend • Market heavyweights FAB, Etisalat boost Abu Dhabi

• Dubai hurt by weakness in property shares

• Emirates NBD drops 2.3 pct on Turkish exposure

• Banking shares weigh on Saudi market

Reuters | Dubai

Abu Dhabi shares ended 1.1 per cent higher yesterday,

bucking weakness in other ma-jor Gulf markets which were dragged down by concerns about the Turkish economy as market activity slowed ahead of festival next week.

Abu Dhabi index was boost-ed by gains in market-heavy-weight First Abu Dhabi Bank (FAB), which ended 2.5pc higher, and telecom firm Etisalat, which

rose 1.2pc. FAB, UAE’s biggest lender, has benefited from its lack of major exposure to Tur-key and continued interest after its strong quarterly earnings..

The stock is up 38pc so far this year.

Dana Gas was down 2.6pc af-ter it reported a 14pc decrease in second-quarter net profit on Tuesday, citing one-off sukuk

restructuring costs.Saudi Arabia, the region’s big-

gest market, fell 0.4pc in thin trade in the build up to the Mus-lim festival of Eid al-Adha. Gulf markets will be mostly closed next week.

Financials were weak with Al Rajhi Bank falling 1.2pc and Samba Financial down 0.83pc.

A Morgan Stanley note said

despite limited upside, it con-tinues to like Saudi banks within the emerging EMEA region with its top pick being Samba Finan-cial Group.

“Saudi banks are highly capi-talised, highly profitable, highly cost efficient, tightly monitored and regulated,” the note said.

Dubai shares fell 0.8pc, hit by weakness in property firms.

DAMAC Properties fell 1.4pc, extending losses from a day earlier when it reported a 46pc drop in profit from continuing operations. Market heavyweight Emaar Properties dropped 1.6pc.

Dubai-based lender Emirates NBD fell 2.3pc, as investors re-mained concerned about its deal in May to buy Turkey’s Deniz-bank in a $3.2 billion deal.

In Kuwait, Burgan Bank fell 1.1pc due to concerns about its exposure to Turkey. Burgan Bank said it had not seen any major impact on its profitability as a result of the recent fall in the Turkish lira. The Qatar index fell 0.5pc due to weakness in lender Masraf Al Rayan, which fell 2pc and a 2pc drop in Voda-fone Qatar.

ss

Floods close airport in KeralaAFP | Kochi, India

Flights in and out of the Indian tourist hotspot

of Kerala were cancelled for three days yesterday as severe monsoon flooding ravaged the region.

At least 67 people have been killed in the past three weeks and more than 50,000 dis-placed in an area famed for its palm-lined beaches and tea plantations. Authorities have opened the gates of 34 reservoirs as water reached dangerous levels. Hundreds of villages have been flooded and the military has been called in to help with rescues.

More than 10,000 kilometres (6,000 miles) of roads and hundreds of homes have been destroyed or damaged across the state, officials said.

Kerala Chief Minister Pi-

narayi Vijayan’s office an-nounced on Twitter that Kochi International Airport -- the main gateway to the region -- would be closed until Sat-urday “due to heavy rains and resultant flooding.”

A Kerala State Disaster Man-agement Authority (KSDMA) official told AFP that the death toll was expected to rise.

A heavy rainfall “red-alert” has been issued across much of the state, which is home to around 33 million people, the official added.

“Our state is in the midst of an unprecedented flood havoc,” Vijayan said earlier this week. “The calamity has caused immeasurable misery and devastation.”

The US embassy last week advised Americans to avoid Kerala, which drew more than 1m tourists last year.

Oil falls on weaker outlookReuters | New York

Oil futures fell more than $1 a barrel yesterday, pressured

by a weaker global economic growth outlook and a report of rising U.S. crude inventories even as Washington’s sanctions on Iran looked likely to curb that country’s crude supplies.

Benchmark Brent crude oil LCOc1 was down $1.01 a barrel at $71.45 by 9:51 a.m. EDT (1351 GMT). U.S. light crude CLc1 fell $1.15 a barrel to a low of $65.89.

“Oil bears are taking their turn in the driving seat,” said Stephen Brennock, analyst at London broker PVM Oil Asso-ciates.

“Adding to the weakening price backdrop are signs that a deepening trade spat between the United States and China is undermining oil demand.”

U.S. crude stocks rose by 3.7 million barrels in the week to Aug. 10, to 410.8 million bar-rels, private industry group the American Petroleum Institute (API) said on Tuesday. Crude stocks at the Cushing, Okla-homa, delivery hub rose by 1.6 million barrels, the API said. [API/S]

Analysts polled by Reu-

ters had expected a weekly decline in U.S. crude stocks. Official U.S. oil inventory data was due to be published at 10:30 EDT on Wednesday by the Energy Information Administration.

Investors are concerned about the world economy as trade disputes between escalate between the United States and its major trading partners.

The OECD’s composite lead-ing indicator, which covers the western advanced economies plus China, India, Russia, Bra-zil, Indonesia and South Africa, slipped below trend in May and June.

World trade volume growth peaked in January, and since then has nearly halved to less than 3 percent by May, accord-ing to the Netherlands Bureau for Economic Policy Analysis.

BUT MAN IS NOT MADE FOR DEFEAT. A MAN CAN BE DESTROYED BUT NOT DEFEATED.ERNEST HEMINGWAY

QUOTE OF THE DAY


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

AATISH TASEER

V S Naipaul, who towered over the landscape of post-colonial literature,

died on August 11. He was my friend, my mentor, my teacher. I learned about his death from a one-line email from his widow, Nadira: “Vidia has gone gently into the night.”

Vidia, as Naipaul was known to his friends, was born in 1932 in Trinidad to a family of Indian or-igin who had come as indentured labor after the abolition of slav-ery. Over a 50-year career, he gave young writers like myself — in In-dia, in Africa, in the Islamic world and in South America — a searing glimpse of our own societies.

At a time when the West was full of apology, and the non-West a sense of grievance, his great theme was the harm countries like mine would do themselves if they did not take responsibility for their histories. Through a quality of vi-sion that was tantamount to cruel-ty, he showed the West how many of its assumptions were a cele-

bration of its safety, while forcing us in the East to look hard at our places. There were many, includ-ing his contemporary and fellow Nobel laureate, Derek Walcott, who believed his concern was a form of contempt; Edward Said described him as an “intellectual catastrophe.” I adored him. His honesty set me free.

I first met Naipaul when I was 18, and on my way to college in America. He told me not to go. “Indians,” he said, “they go to these places, they get dazzled by the institution and they come away having learned nothing but the babble.” “What should he do in-stead?” said my mother, who is a friend of Nadira’s. “He should go boldly into the world,” he replied.

Over the next 20 years, he ran like a thread through the key mo-ments of my life: the publication of my first book, the assassination of my father in Pakistan, my marriage to a man in America. I traveled with him and stayed with him. Our relationship was marked, as I be-lieve all his relationships were, by a mixture of cruelty and tenderness. It was as if he saw a kind of free-dom in reconciling people to the most severe version of the truth.

In Wiltshire, England, where he lived since the 1980s, his tender-ness and generosity were at the

fore. He was safe, at home. And, in this mode, he was a wonderful teacher. He taught me about Jap-anese painting and Indian minia-tures, about plants and trees in the countryside, which he immortal-ized in “The Enigma of Arrival.”

The strain of brutality that ran through his thought came from a

desire to be unassailable, to never, as he would say, “fall into lies.” When the truth came out, it could be crushing. He read and disliked my first novel. Even before pub-lication, he was on the phone to me. I could tell from the thickness in his voice that he was in a brutal mood.

“You haven’t understood the fictional form,” he said, “You have this ambition to write a nov-el, but you’ve really just loaded it with your own experiences.” For 90 minutes, he savaged me. Then he said, “I think you’ll make the transition to fiction very well. I wouldn’t be saying all this if I

didn’t think that.” I was shattered. I remember feeling that my exist-ence as a writer depended on my ability to survive the violence of this dressing down. “The trouble with Vidia,” Nadira wrote after-ward, “is that he doesn’t give any-thing of himself, but when he does, then it is 100 per cent, and it can be unnerving.”

What was true of the man was true of the work, too. In an epiph-anic moment in “India: A Wounded Civilization,” in which a woman at a dinner party begins to tell Naipaul about how the poor are beautiful, “more beautiful than the people in this room,” his judgment arrives swift and bludgeoning: “The poor of Bombay are not beautiful,” he wrote, “they are like a race apart, a dwarf race, stunted and slow-wit-ted and made ugly by generations of undernourishment; it will take generations to rehabilitate them.”

I returned again and again to his work because I felt his version of my places — India and Paki-stan — harsh as it was, restored a kind of autonomy. At a time when post-colonial studies was feeding us a great deal of comforting bab-ble, Naipaul’s writing helped us take ownership of our past.

He never looked away. I was with him in Wiltshire soon after my father, the governor of Pun-

V S Naipaul, my wonderful, cruel friend

My relationship with him was full of its joys and hurts. It was never going to be otherwise

GEORGE GELLES

On a Thursday in May, 101 musicians gathered on the stage of the Philharmonie

in Berlin to rehearse the First Symphony by Johannes Brahms and then perform the work under the direction of Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic’s conductor. For Rattle, or Sir Simon, or his preferred Simon, this would be one of his final concerts at his home for the past 16 years before taking over at the London Sym-phony Orchestra.

Despite the imposing venue, those 101 musicians were am-ateurs all. They came from 30 countries, their ages ranging from 10 to 75. I was the elder bookend, one of six French hornists se-lected, and lending the event a special sweetness was the fact that I, like many others who play for sheer pleasure, chose not to pursue a professional career. In fact, I played virtually not at all for 37 years, and returned to my first love only 15 years ago.

This was our route to Berlin: Having seen the event announced online by the Berlin Philharmonic at the start of the year, we audi-tioned by video for members of

the orchestra. The ad hoc ensem-ble, known, cunningly, as the Be Phil Orchestra, offered a remark-able opportunity — to be a week-long guest of one of the world’s great ensembles, attending its rehearsals, being coached by its musicians and performing under its music director.

Of the 1,900 avocational instru-mentalists who expressed inter-est in participating, 1,000 were auditioned online, and the Berlin Philharmonic musicians then se-lected the 101. The occasion was a reprise of similar events that the Philharmonic hosted twice before, though not in recent years. Whether the tradition will con-tinue after Rattle relinquishes his post of music director and relo-cates to London — his successor is the Russian Kirill Petrenko — is at present unknown.

Among other reasons, the event was notable for advancing a no-tion put forward by the British social scientist and journalist Charles Leadbeater in “The Pro-Am Revolution.” Leadbeater’s book, published in 2004, suggests that there is an overlap, slight but significant, between the realms of professionals and amateurs, that “Pro-Ams — people pursuing amateur activities to professional standards — are an increasingly important part of our society and economy.” It should be stressed, however, that as adept as an am-ateur instrumentalist might be,

the skills and stamina of the pro-fessional musician are of an alto-gether different order.

Leadbeater cites the best-known of these manifestations, the Pro-Am sports tournaments, but he mentions, too, the various streams of expertise and interests that create open-source comput-er programs, that make astro-nomical discoveries, that lead to political engagement and change. He argues convincingly that just as professionals have much to teach amateurs, so too do ama-teurs have insights worth sharing with those more skilled. Should you search the open-source universe, you will find myriad programs ranging through the sciences and humanities, to math-ematics and finance, to games and genealogy and hobbies. Firefox

and Linux are among the most familiar names; CyberBrau per-haps less so.

For those of us in the Be Phil Orchestra, proximity to the Ber-lin Philharmonic was thrilling. As was the opportunity to meet colleagues whose nationalities and professions were literally

and figuratively all over the map. There was Alexander, a cellist from London, an attorney; Yor-am, a tympanist from Israel, an engineer; and among the other hornists, Emma from the Nether-lands, active in law enforcement; Tony from Canada, a luthier with guitars his specialty; Kjartan from

Iceland, a lecturer at the Univer-sity of Akureyri; and Cody, an administrator at the University of South Carolina’s law school.

Stanley Dodds led our rehears-als for the first two days. A vio-linist in the Philharmonic and a conductor of formidable gifts, clarity was his keynote: clarity

Brahms, the Berlin Philharmonic … and meHow a group of talented amateur musicians got to perform a symphony under the direction of Simon Rattle

Of the 1,900 avocational instrumentalists who expressed interest in

participating, 1,000 were auditioned online, and

the Berlin Philharmonic musicians then selected the 101

1918The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army.

1920Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die

1989A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading.

2012South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

“People who enter the United States

without our permission are illegal aliens and il-legal aliens should not be treated the same as peo-ple who entered the U.S. legally.” Chuck Schumer in 2009, before he went left and haywire! @fox-andfriends

@realDonaldTrump

Imagine a woman nur-turing a baby in the

womb for 9 months and going through the ag-ony of childbirth to be rewarded with people walking past them tell-ing them breastfeeding in public is inappropriate

@_Neurotrophic_

It’s a miracle and a great example to the world to

have a thriving democra-cy that includes so many languages, faiths, and cul-tures, especially after cen-turies of colonial divide-and-rule. To non-demo-cratic countries around the world: If #India can do it, what’s your excuse?

@DavidBCohen1

Sarah Sanders issued a rare correction af-

ter falsely declaring that President Trump has created three times as many jobs for Afri-can-Americans as Pres-ident Obama did during his two terms. (She said Obama added 195,000. It was actually 3 million.)

@kaitlancollins

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

editorial stances)





jab in Pakistan, was assassinat-ed. I had been estranged from my father and was not sure how to mourn him. Naipaul, with an hon-esty that released me from guilt, said: “But your father was also your great enemy. So, his death must come with a feeling of re-lief.” It was something I would not have dared to think, let alone say. That honesty came alongside an immense and dangerous sense of humor. I’d been asked a num-ber of times whether I thought my father had died for Pakistan. I was not sure how to reply. When I asked Naipaul what he thought, he paused for a moment then said, with a roll of that terrifying unsen-

timental laughter, “Better to say he died in Pakistan. Yes, yes, yes. Better to say that.”

Naipaul paid a heavy price for his honesty. In India, many in the intelligentsia denounced him be-cause they believed his politics were reactionary, that he gave cov-er to the Hindu right. But the truth is that the nuances of his positions were often lost. He was vilified by the left and co-opted by the right.

But his work retains its complex-ity, and no one can come away from reading Naipaul with anything as simple as a political slogan. Yes-terday, Salman Rushdie wrote, “We disagreed all our lives, about poli-tics, about literature, and I feel as sad as if I just lost a beloved older brother.”

As he slipped away, Nadira read to him from his work. Then she had a friend read him Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar.” “I did this,” she told me, “because his body had gone, but the mind would not let go.” It was devastating to hear. My relationship with Naipaul was full of its joys and hurts. It was never going to be otherwise; but, as he once said to me in relation to his brother’s death, “We do not control who we grieve for.”

(Aatish Taseer is a novelist and a con-tributing opinion writer.)

Wide Angle

A look back at the Radcliffe Line

The British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe had never been to India.

In fact, he had not been anywhere else in Asia, and he was not familiar with the demographics of India.

Yet, he was entrusted with the formidable task of drawing the line of partition dividing the British Raj - or the British India - into two parts, India and Pakistan.

Following the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by UK’s Parliament, and following the royal assent to the Act, on 18 July 1947, he was given ‘barely a month’ to work with his committees, to draw the Rad-cliffe Line that decided the destiny of two dominions.

Now, as Pakistan and India celebrate independence days on 14 August and 15 August respectively, it might be pertinent to look back a little, at the history of the Radcliffe Line, and at the new political lines being drawn within the two countries.

While the Act of 1947 was a welcome answer to freedom fighters’ sacrifices for an Inde-pendent India - as this Act had formally announced the date 15 August as Inde-pendence day - It was also the same Act that announced the ‘partition’. Something that one dreaded or welcomed, depending on one’s view and/or on one’s personal religious affiliation.

While Pakistan chose to call itself an Islamic Republic, India chose to remain a secular one.

India’s rationale was that its populace comprised, apart from the majority Hin-dus, large communities of Muslims, Chris-tians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and even a few Jews, and wished to stick to a more inclusive policy.

On the west side of the now Radcliffe Line, the Muslim League fearing the ag-gression on them, by the majority, had then led a campaign for the formation of a Muslim nation. And on the east side, the Indian National Congress led a campaign, firstly, for an undivided India, and then, finally, conceded to a separate India with secular values.

In a way, the British government’s choice of Sir Cyril Radcliffe was then considered a positive aspect; as it implied he would be impartial in his overseeing the division.

As the chairman of the two boundary committees his task was to pencil the line in such a way that it would leave as many Hindus and Sikhs in India and Muslims in Pakistan as possible.

So, along with information on villages, their popula-tion statistics, based on religion, and along with large maps with even information on rivers, dams and fertility of lands, the ‘Radcliffe Line’ was drawn.

565 Princely States, which were not fully and formally a part of British India because these states had not been conquered or annexed by the British (but were under indirect rule, subject to subsidiary alliances) had to also make a choice of which dominion they wished to join.

Sadly, the immediate reality, after the partition, was mayhem. Riots, rapes, mass murder, the exodus of Hin-dus, Muslims and Sikhs from India and Pakistan to the land of their religious affiliation followed. Later it was also the war over Kashmir in 1947 that paved way for a seemingly unending hatred and mistrust between two neighbours.

Today, in 2018, the ruling BJP government is criti-cized by the opposition as being a party that plans to change the Constitution, and make it deviate it from In-dia’s secular principles, with dreams of a Hindu Rash-tra. RSS ideologue Govindacharya has declared that he is already at work on a new Hindutva Constitution for India, and that has been angering the minorities.

While Indian opposition leaders got into contro-versies by stating that India will become a ‘Hindu Pakistan’ if BJP gets reelected it 2019, the reality may not really be so.

In this day and age, when people of several religions are living together in India, it is unlikely that Indians would choose to become a mono-religious nation.


JOEL INDRUPATI

V S Naipaul, my wonderful, cruel friendOur relationship was

marked, as I believe all his relationships were, by a mixture of cruelty and

tenderness. It was as if he saw a kind of freedom in reconciling people to the

most severe version of the truth.

of musical thought, clarity of ex-pression, clarity of technique.

Rattle rehearsed us for the next two days, and the Brahms First was much on his mind. Within a week of our performance, he would conduct the same piece with his Berlin Philharmonic. Yet to our rehearsals, he brought

the same energy and insights he would bring to any orchestra.

Most notably, he kept urging, exhorting with words and ges-tures, that solo lines sing with vocal intensity, and moreover, that they be animated and infused with an operatic urgency. Brahms never composed an opera, but had he written one, its melodies might have soared like these. The performance was a kaleidoscope of pleasures: Rattle on the podi-um, Brahms on the music stand, 100 fellow musicians, many now friends, sharing the stage at the Philharmonie.

Performing on that stage re-veals a secret in the design of architect Hans Scharoun. Flank-ing the ensemble on either side are walls of a sort that gently taper down from the rear of the orchestra toward the front of the stage, from about 16 feet in height to 8. These structural features look like nothing ar-chitecturally and do everything acoustically. They enclose and embrace the orchestra, creating uncommon community among the musicians. You know there are 2,200 people in the audience before you, but your energies are contained in this privileged space onstage.

When I discussed this singular configuration with Sarah Willis, one of the Berlin Philharmonic’s eight brilliant hornists, she sug-gested, correctly, that it is “a good

Berlin Wall.”The Be Phil performance was

the capstone of a daylong open house to which the Philharmonic invited any and all. Thousands attended and sampled a fascinat-ing smorgasbord. On the plaza in front of the hall, guests could whack away al fresco on a jum-ble of percussion — xylophone, gongs, chimes, and drums large and small. Inside, there were in-formal performances by members of the Berlin Philharmonic and friends: chamber music, ethnic music, jazz and soul.

And then there was the perfor-mance, our performance, of the Brahms, the cumulative, collec-tive effort of 101 amateur musi-cians in thrall to their art. After a long and difficult gestation, the First Symphony was premiered in 1876 in Karlsruhe, Germany, with Otto Dessoff, Brahms’ colleague and confidant, conducting. Now a bedrock of the symphonic canon, it has been performed countless times by master conductors and storied ensembles. I’ve no doubt, however, that our Be Phil perfor-mance was the most stirring and impassioned ever played, and I know 100 other musicians who would agree.

(George Gelles has written on music and dance, served at the National

Endowment for the Arts and at the Ford Foundation, and for 15 years was

executive director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.)


1918The Battle of Lake Baikal was fought between the Czechoslovak Legion and the Red Army.

1920Ray Chapman of the Cleveland Indians is hit on the head by a fastball thrown by Carl Mays of the New York Yankees, and dies early the next day. Chapman was the second player to die

1989A solar particle event affects computers at the Toronto Stock Exchange, forcing a halt to trading.

2012South African police fatally shoot 34 miners and wound 78 more during an industrial dispute at Marikana near Rustenburg.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY


TOP

4TWEETS

04

02

03

01

“People who enter the United States

without our permission are illegal aliens and il-legal aliens should not be treated the same as peo-ple who entered the U.S. legally.” Chuck Schumer in 2009, before he went left and haywire! @fox-andfriends

@realDonaldTrump

Imagine a woman nur-turing a baby in the

womb for 9 months and going through the ag-ony of childbirth to be rewarded with people walking past them tell-ing them breastfeeding in public is inappropriate

@_Neurotrophic_

It’s a miracle and a great example to the world to

have a thriving democra-cy that includes so many languages, faiths, and cul-tures, especially after cen-turies of colonial divide-and-rule. To non-demo-cratic countries around the world: If #India can do it, what’s your excuse?

@DavidBCohen1

Sarah Sanders issued a rare correction af-

ter falsely declaring that President Trump has created three times as many jobs for Afri-can-Americans as Pres-ident Obama did during his two terms. (She said Obama added 195,000. It was actually 3 million.)

@kaitlancollins

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

editorial stances)





jab in Pakistan, was assassinat-ed. I had been estranged from my father and was not sure how to mourn him. Naipaul, with an hon-esty that released me from guilt, said: “But your father was also your great enemy. So, his death must come with a feeling of re-lief.” It was something I would not have dared to think, let alone say. That honesty came alongside an immense and dangerous sense of humor. I’d been asked a num-ber of times whether I thought my father had died for Pakistan. I was not sure how to reply. When I asked Naipaul what he thought, he paused for a moment then said, with a roll of that terrifying unsen-

timental laughter, “Better to say he died in Pakistan. Yes, yes, yes. Better to say that.”

Naipaul paid a heavy price for his honesty. In India, many in the intelligentsia denounced him be-cause they believed his politics were reactionary, that he gave cov-er to the Hindu right. But the truth is that the nuances of his positions were often lost. He was vilified by the left and co-opted by the right.

But his work retains its complex-ity, and no one can come away from reading Naipaul with anything as simple as a political slogan. Yes-terday, Salman Rushdie wrote, “We disagreed all our lives, about poli-tics, about literature, and I feel as sad as if I just lost a beloved older brother.”

As he slipped away, Nadira read to him from his work. Then she had a friend read him Tennyson’s “Crossing the Bar.” “I did this,” she told me, “because his body had gone, but the mind would not let go.” It was devastating to hear. My relationship with Naipaul was full of its joys and hurts. It was never going to be otherwise; but, as he once said to me in relation to his brother’s death, “We do not control who we grieve for.”

(Aatish Taseer is a novelist and a con-tributing opinion writer.)

Wide Angle

A look back at the Radcliffe Line

The British lawyer Sir Cyril Radcliffe had never been to India.

In fact, he had not been anywhere else in Asia, and he was not familiar with the demographics of India.

Yet, he was entrusted with the formidable task of drawing the line of partition dividing the British Raj - or the British India - into two parts, India and Pakistan.

Following the passing of the Indian Independence Act 1947 by UK’s Parliament, and following the royal assent to the Act, on 18 July 1947, he was given ‘barely a month’ to work with his committees, to draw the Rad-cliffe Line that decided the destiny of two dominions.

Now, as Pakistan and India celebrate independence days on 14 August and 15 August respectively, it might be pertinent to look back a little, at the history of the Radcliffe Line, and at the new political lines being drawn within the two countries.

While the Act of 1947 was a welcome answer to freedom fighters’ sacrifices for an Inde-pendent India - as this Act had formally announced the date 15 August as Inde-pendence day - It was also the same Act that announced the ‘partition’. Something that one dreaded or welcomed, depending on one’s view and/or on one’s personal religious affiliation.

While Pakistan chose to call itself an Islamic Republic, India chose to remain a secular one.

India’s rationale was that its populace comprised, apart from the majority Hin-dus, large communities of Muslims, Chris-tians, Sikhs, Jains, Buddhists, Parsis, and even a few Jews, and wished to stick to a more inclusive policy.

On the west side of the now Radcliffe Line, the Muslim League fearing the ag-gression on them, by the majority, had then led a campaign for the formation of a Muslim nation. And on the east side, the Indian National Congress led a campaign, firstly, for an undivided India, and then, finally, conceded to a separate India with secular values.


As the chairman of the two boundary committees his task was to pencil the line in such a way that it would leave as many Hindus and Sikhs in India and Muslims in Pakistan as possible.

So, along with information on villages, their popula-tion statistics, based on religion, and along with large maps with even information on rivers, dams and fertility of lands, the ‘Radcliffe Line’ was drawn.

565 Princely States, which were not fully and formally a part of British India because these states had not been conquered or annexed by the British (but were under indirect rule, subject to subsidiary alliances) had to also make a choice of which dominion they wished to join.

Sadly, the immediate reality, after the partition, was mayhem. Riots, rapes, mass murder, the exodus of Hin-dus, Muslims and Sikhs from India and Pakistan to the land of their religious affiliation followed. Later it was also the war over Kashmir in 1947 that paved way for a seemingly unending hatred and mistrust between two neighbours.

Today, in 2018, the ruling BJP government is criti-cized by the opposition as being a party that plans to change the Constitution, and make it deviate it from In-dia’s secular principles, with dreams of a Hindu Rash-tra. RSS ideologue Govindacharya has declared that he is already at work on a new Hindutva Constitution for India, and that has been angering the minorities.

While Indian opposition leaders got into contro-versies by stating that India will become a ‘Hindu Pakistan’ if BJP gets reelected it 2019, the reality may not really be so.

In this day and age, when people of several religions are living together in India, it is unlikely that Indians would choose to become a mono-religious nation.


JOEL INDRUPATI

V S Naipaul, my wonderful, cruel friendOur relationship was

marked, as I believe all his relationships were, by a mixture of cruelty and

tenderness. It was as if he saw a kind of freedom in reconciling people to the

most severe version of the truth.

of musical thought, clarity of ex-pression, clarity of technique.

Rattle rehearsed us for the next two days, and the Brahms First was much on his mind. Within a week of our performance, he would conduct the same piece with his Berlin Philharmonic. Yet to our rehearsals, he brought

the same energy and insights he would bring to any orchestra.

Most notably, he kept urging, exhorting with words and ges-tures, that solo lines sing with vocal intensity, and moreover, that they be animated and infused with an operatic urgency. Brahms never composed an opera, but had he written one, its melodies might have soared like these. The performance was a kaleidoscope of pleasures: Rattle on the podi-um, Brahms on the music stand, 100 fellow musicians, many now friends, sharing the stage at the Philharmonie.

Performing on that stage re-veals a secret in the design of architect Hans Scharoun. Flank-ing the ensemble on either side are walls of a sort that gently taper down from the rear of the orchestra toward the front of the stage, from about 16 feet in height to 8. These structural features look like nothing ar-chitecturally and do everything acoustically. They enclose and embrace the orchestra, creating uncommon community among the musicians. You know there are 2,200 people in the audience before you, but your energies are contained in this privileged space onstage.

When I discussed this singular configuration with Sarah Willis, one of the Berlin Philharmonic’s eight brilliant hornists, she sug-gested, correctly, that it is “a good

Berlin Wall.”The Be Phil performance was

the capstone of a daylong open house to which the Philharmonic invited any and all. Thousands attended and sampled a fascinat-ing smorgasbord. On the plaza in front of the hall, guests could whack away al fresco on a jum-ble of percussion — xylophone, gongs, chimes, and drums large and small. Inside, there were in-formal performances by members of the Berlin Philharmonic and friends: chamber music, ethnic music, jazz and soul.

And then there was the perfor-mance, our performance, of the Brahms, the cumulative, collec-tive effort of 101 amateur musi-cians in thrall to their art. After a long and difficult gestation, the First Symphony was premiered in 1876 in Karlsruhe, Germany, with Otto Dessoff, Brahms’ colleague and confidant, conducting. Now a bedrock of the symphonic canon, it has been performed countless times by master conductors and storied ensembles. I’ve no doubt, however, that our Be Phil perfor-mance was the most stirring and impassioned ever played, and I know 100 other musicians who would agree.

(George Gelles has written on music and dance, served at the National

Endowment for the Arts and at the Ford Foundation, and for 15 years was

executive director of Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra.)


12

world


Britain’s RAF intercepts six Russian bombers Bucharest, Romania

Britain’s Royal Air Force said Wednesday it had

intercepted six Russian bomber planes flying close to NATO air space over the Black Sea. The Eurofighter Typhoons launched early Monday from their base in Romania after the Russian Su-24 Fencer planes were spotted, the RAF said in a statement.

New species of orchid discovered

Lima, Peru

Botanists have discovered a new species of orchid

in Peru’s central Amazonian rainforest.

The orchid is classified as belonging to the Andinia genus and was discovered in area of the Bella Durmiente (Spanish for Sleeping Beau-ty) mountain, which is a prominent feature of the Tingo Maria National Park, it said in a statement.

Fragrant and delicately beautiful, there are around 30,000 different species of orchid around the world, around 10 percent of them in Peru.

22 children dead in Nile boat accident

Khartoum, Sudan

At least 22 Sudanese children drowned on

Wednesday when their boat sank in the Nile while they were on their way to school, official media said.

A woman also died when the vessel went down around 750 kilometres (470 miles) north of the capital Khartoum with more than 40 children on board, the SUNA news agency reported.

“The accident was caused by engine failure halfway across because of a strong current,” it said.

Jordan court charges 5 with ‘terrorism’Amman, Jordan

Five suspected jihadists arrested during a deadly

raid in a town northwest of Amman were charged with terrorism offences in Jor-dan’s state security court. Three alleged jihadists were killed and five others de-tained on Saturday when security forces raided a building in the town of Salt.

The operation was linked to a bomb blast Friday that killed a policeman and wounded six others at a music festival in a nearby town.

Germany paves way for ‘third gender’ option at birthThe law also bans surgical procedures to allow themselves to choose their gender later in life

Berlin, Germany

The German government yes-terday approved a draft law

allowing a third gender option on birth certificates for babies who are not distinctly male or female.

In a move described by the justice minister as “long overdue”, Chancellor Angela Merkel’s left-right coalition passed a bill permitting children born intersex to be registered as “various”.

The measure follows a ruling by Germany’s top tribunal last November that current regula-

tions on civil status are discrim-inatory against intersex people, noting that the sexual identity of an individual is protected as a basic right.

Germany has since 2013 al-lowed babies born with charac-teristics of both sexes to leave the gender options of male and female blank.

The Federal Constitutional Court gave parliament until the end of 2018 to amend the cur-rent legislation.

The decision was in favour of an appeal brought by an inter-sex adult and said that courts and state authorities should no

longer compel intersex people to choose between identifying as male or female.

Intersex is a broad term en-compassing people who have sex traits, such as genitals or chromosomes, that do not en-tirely fit with a typical binary notion of male and female.

Justice Minister Katarina Barley, whose office drafted the bill, said the legislation marked a big step forward by requiring a new gender option from birth.

“No one should be discrim-inated against on the basis of their sexual identity,” she said,

adding that the new category would give intersex people a greater sense of “dignity and positive identity”.

Family Affairs Minister Fran-ziska Giffey said the next step in Germany would be updating the legal standing of transsexual people, including barring any required medical examinations to determine a person’s biolog-ical sex.

Portugal last month joined Denmark, Ireland, Malta, Nor-way and Sweden to become the sixth European country to grant the right to self-determination of transgender identity.

According to the United Nations,

between 0.05 and 1.7 per cent of the

global population is intersex -- about the

same percentage that have red hair

KNOW WHAT

UK parliament attacker faces murder charges

• Three people were injured in the attack

• Attacker was identified as 29-year-old Salih Khater

• The alleged attack took place around 7:30am

London, United Kingdom

A British man accused of a terror attack after driv-ing into a barrier protect-

ing the Houses of Parliament faces investigation for attempt-ed murder, police said yesterday.

Three people were injured when the 29-year-old, named by media as Salih Khater, drove over a pavement and into cy-clists before crashing into the barrier on Tuesday morning.

Police said the man, a British national originally from Sudan, was initially arrested on suspi-cion of terrorism offences but revealed he had been “further arrested for attempted murder”.

Two of the victims -- a man and a woman -- were taken to hospital but have now been dis-charged. The third was treated at the scene. The incident had disturbing parallels with an at-tack last year, when a man drove his car into pedestrians on West-minster Bridge before crashing outside parliament.

Police believe the car involved in the attack, a silver Ford Fiesta, travelled from Birmingham to London on Monday night, arriv-ing just after midnight. It drove

around the Tottenham Court Road area -- near Oxford Street -- from around 1:25am (0025

GMT) before heading to the area around parliament around 6:00am (0500 GMT).

Son of Sudanese farmersTop police counter-ter-

rorism officer Neil Basu said that the suspect was not believed to be known to in-telligence agencies, but The Times reported he was known to police.

The paper reported that Khater is a shop manager in Birmingham and had studied at Sudan University of Science and Technology, citing his Facebook page.

Abubakr Ibrahim, a child-hood friend, told the paper: “He is not a terrorist. I have known him since childhood. He is a good man.”

He said Khater was the son of sorghum farmers, and had moved to Britain about five years ago in order to earn mon-ey to help his family.

A spokesman for Coventry University in central Eng-land confirmed Khater began studying accountancy there in

September, but dropped out in May.

The Daily Mail tabloid re-ported friends of Khater saying that his father and brother had recently died within months of each other.

It added that he had shared music with his friends on Face-book, including Celine Dion, Eminem and Rihanna, but had not posted much for several years.

One of the places police have visited is an internet cafe in Birmingham, where Khater regularly visited.

The cafe owner said Khater lived in a flat above the parade of shops where it was located, but moved out a few months ago.

Local resident Ahmed Abdi, who is originally from So-malia, told reporters he was “shocked” to see Khater’s pic-ture in the news.

A handout picture released by the British Metropolitan Police Service in London, shows the silver Ford Fiesta that was driven into cyclists and a barrier outside the British the Houses of Parliament

Salih Khater, a former electrical engineering student who liked pop stars Celine Dion and Rihanna, is believed to have moved to the UK five years ago

Stolen 12th century Indian Buddha found in LondonLondon, United Kingdom

A 12th century bronze Bud-dha statue stolen from an

Indian museum 57 years ago has surfaced in London and is now being returned to the country, police said.

The statue with silver inlay was one of 14 stolen from the Archaeological Survey of India site museum in Nalanda in the east of the country in 1961.

It was spotted at a trade fair in Britain in March this year, prompting an investigation by the Art and Antique Unit of London’s Metropolitan Police.

The statue was handed over to the Indian High Commis-sion in London yesterday.

A 12th century Buddha statue stolen from India 57 years ago

Philippine Prez slams ChinaManila, Philippines

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte has urged China

to “temper” its behaviour in the South China Sea in a rare criticism of the Asian super-power over its programme of island-building in disputed waters.

China has alarmed and an-gered its neighbours by claim-ing dominion over most of the South China Sea and building a string of artificial islands and military airbases.

But Duterte -- keen to court trade and investment from

Beijing -- has mostly withheld criticism. In a change of tone, Duterte said in a speech late Tuesday to business entrepre-neurs that China had no right to claim airspace above man-made islands. Philippine of-ficials have claimed military pilots are repeatedly warned off by Beijing as their planes ap-proach Philippine-held Thitu island, which lies beside a Chi-nese air base built on top of Subi Reef. “You cannot create an is-land. It’s man-made and you say that the air above this artificial island is yours,” Duterte said, according to a transcript.

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (C, in white) aboard a vehicle reviews policemen along with national police chief Oscar Albayalde (L) in a sudden downpour during the 117th police anniversary celebration


Putin ready to meet Kim at ‘early date’Seoul, South Korea

Ru s s i a n P r e s i d e n t Vladimir Putin is ready

to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un “at an early date”, the North’s state media reported Wednes-day, amid a rapid diplomatic thaw on the peninsula.

Putin invited Kim and the South’s President Moon Jae-in in June to an economic forum in Vladivostok next month although it is not known whether the North Korean leader responded to the invitation.

In a message to Kim on the North’s National Lib-eration Day -- marking the end of Japanese rule over Korea at the end of the Sec-ond World War -- Putin reiterated his intention for a summit. “I affirm that I am ready to meet you at an early date to discuss urgent issues of bilateral relations and important matters of the region,” Putin said.

US transgender woman wins nod for governor Washington, United States

Christine Hallquist won the Democratic guber-

natorial nomination in the US state of Vermont, moving a step closer to becoming the nation’s first transgen-der governor. But she still faces an uphill battle in the election, when she is pro-jected to face Republican in-cumbent Phil Scott, who has been in office since 2016. “HISTORY MADE! @chris-tineforvt just became the first trans/non-binary gu-bernatorial candidate from a major political party in American history!” tweeted the Victory Fund, an organi-zation that supports LGBTQ candidates.

US believes missing jouro Tice still alive

Washington, United States

Pr e s i d e n t D o n a l d Trump’s administration

believes missing US journal-ist Austin Tice is still alive, six years after he is thought to have been taken captive in Syria.

“We believe him to be alive,” State Department spokeswoman Heather Nauert said on the sixth anniversary of his disap-pearance.

“We remain deeply con-cerned about his well-being, and we are actively working to bring Austin Tice home.”

Tice was a 31-year-old freelance photojournalist working for AFP, McClatchy News, The Washington Post, CBS, and other news organizations when he was detained at a checkpoint near Damascus on August 14, 2012.

A former marine, he ap-peared blindfolded in the custody of an unidentified group of armed men in a video a month later.

Since then, there has been no official information on whether he is alive or dead.

Japan toddler missing for three days found aliveThe toddler disappeared after his grandfather let him walk back alone to house -- around 100mtrs awayTokyo, Japan

A two-year-old boy who went missing in woods in western Japan has been

found unharmed after three days alone, apparently surviv-ing on river water as volunteers hunted desperately for him.

Yoshiki Fujimoto disappeared on Sunday morning in the Yama-guchi region while out walking with his brother and grandfa-ther, and the search for him made headlines nationwide.

Police and locals combed the woods looking for him, but it was a 78-year-old volunteer from a neighbouring region who stumbled upon the toddler on Wednesday morning.

“I shouted ‘Yo-chan’,” Haruo Obata told local television, a red towel wrapped around his head against the summer heat.

“He replied ‘yes, here’ and there he was,” added Obata, a retiree who said he regularly volunteers in disaster relief ef-forts.

The toddler was sitting on a rock, with his bare feet in a small puddle of water in front of him, Obata said.

“At first, I didn’t think it was a human.” he told reporters. “But there he was. I thought my heart

was going to stop.”The toddler’s miraculous

survival is all the more aston-ishing given the hot weather in Japan in recent weeks, with local media saying the temper-ature where he went missing hit 34 degrees Celsius (93 degrees Fahrenheit) during his three-day ordeal.

The woodland area has

creeks and rivers, and some media speculated the resource-ful tot, who turned two on Monday while he was miss-ing, survived by drinking from them.

“He doesn’t have any major injuries, just a few scratches and slight dehydration,” said Hiroyuki Nishihara, an official at the local hospital treating Fu-jimoto.

“But his life isn’t in danger and he will be able to leave the hospital very soon.”

The toddler disappeared on

Sunday after his grandfather let him walk back alone to the house -- around 100 metres away -- where the child’s mother was waiting.

But Fujimoto never made it to the house, and appears to have wandered off en route, prompt-ing a massive manhunt that gripped Japan during its quiet summer season.

Drones with optical and ther-mal cameras, search dogs and helicopters were drafted in for the search, along with around 160 police and more volunteers.

But in the end, he was found just a few hundred metres from where he disappeared, to his family’s relief.

“I couldn’t help but squeeze him tight,” his tearful mother Mio Fujimoto told local tele-vision. “I’m so grateful my son returned safely... He is sleeping tight now, he seemed relieved but tired.”

“That this volunteer would come all the way here, all we can do is offer thanks from the bottom of our hearts,” the boy’s grandfather added.

Yoshiki Fujimoto, who went missing. (Courtesy of Yamaguchi prefectural police)

Police officers standing near a cordon, near where the boy went missing

When found, the toddler was

sitting on a rock, with his bare feet in a small puddle of water in front

of him

SMILE

India to put a man in space by 2022: Modi

• To introduce health insurance for half a billion of citizens starting next month

• Annual cover of about $7,000 to benefit 500 million Indians

• Chandrayaan-2 orbiter will put a craft with a rover on the moon

• Plans to send into space, a man or a woman, by 2022, before that if possible

• Launched an orbiter to Mars in 2013 which is still operational

AFP | New Delhi, India

India will send a manned mission to space by 2022 and introduce health insurance

for half a billion of its citizens, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged yesterday in a keynote speech ahead of an expected election campaign.

Modi, speaking from the ram-parts of the historic Red Fort in New Delhi, told a crowd of supporters that “sleeping ele-phant” India had awakened and was ready to take its place in the global economy.

In a marathon speech, the nationalist leader promised In-dia would soon become only the fourth country -- after the United States, Russia and China

-- to get someone beyond Earth’s atmosphere. “India will send into space -- a man or a woman -- by 2022, before that if pos-sible,” Modi said adding that the chosen astronaut would be “carrying the national flag.”

The prime minister also an-nounced a huge health insur-ance scheme -- providing an-nual cover of about $7,000 for 500 million Indians -- would be

rolled out next month. “It is high time we ensured

that the poor of India get access to good quality and affordable healthcare,” he said, adding that the scheme would cover the equivalent of the population of the European Union.

“It is essential to ensure that we free the poor of India from the clutches of poverty in which they cannot afford healthcare.”

The scheme -- dubbed ‘Modi-care’ -- has been described as the world’s biggest government health insurance initiative.

Modi was speaking in the final Independence Day address of his five-year term, touting his economic credentials ahead of an election he is expected to call early next year.

“India is now the land of re-form, perform and transform.

We are poised for record eco-nomic growth,” the prime min-ister said. “Today the world says that the sleeping elephant has woken up, is walking and has joined the race,” Modi added.

India has seen annual eco-nomic growth of around seven percent since he took over -- though the rupee is now under attack in the fallout from the Turkish lira crisis.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi greets schoolchildren after his speech as part of India’s 72nd Independence Day celebrations, which marks the 71st anniversary of the end of British colonial rule, at the Red Fort in New Delhi

Thika, Kenya | AFP

It may be loved and derided as the go-to millennial brunch, but avocado toast is proving a boon for Kenyan farmers as they cash in on the seemingly ever-grow-

ing enthusiasm.Across Kenya’s ochre fields, farmers

are switching coffee and tea for avoca-dos in a bid to profit from increasing European demand for that most insta-grammable of dishes.

Among them is Simon Kimani, 73, who tends five acres (two hectares) of avocado trees.

“Recently when the avocado trade started growing up we thought that it is better to plant avocados, that’s how I started,” he says, pointing to his first trees, planted less than a decade ago.

Avocado toast is becoming a staple of European menus, says Laura Hannoun, a blogger who has listed the top-10 plac-es to order the simple, hip dish which can set one back 14 euros ($16).

“The fair price is between 10 and 11 euros,” says the 25-year-old.

In Kenya, smallholder farmers grow

avocados and sell them on to exporters. Kimani’s buyer is Bernard Kimutai of Fair Trade Company Limited.

Kimutai has seen a sharp increase in exports of the popular Hass avocado in recent years.

“In 2016 we exported 20 tonnes, in 2017 we did about 40 tonnes,” he says, hoping to double the figure again this year.

Harvesting is a low-tech affair: a broken wooden ladder and an old ma-chete are all it takes for Kimani and his two employees to chop down the hard, green avocados, collected young so they reach Europe ripe.

In this way, Kimani produces around 28,000 avocados per year, and is paid the equivalent of a little over 10 euro cents each.

In European supermarkets, where they are sold alongside others from Chile, Israel and Mexico, they easily fetch 10 times that amount, if not more.

“One hundred percent of (our) avo-cados are for export. We try to improve the quality to make sure that what we get from the farmer is 90 percent ex-portable,” says Kimutai, adding that any that do not make the grade are sold on to oil-processing companies.

Health and wealthKenya’s temperate climate is well-suit-ed to avocado cultivation, especially around the high altitude town of Thika, north of Nairobi, where Kimani has his farm.

In its terraced orchard, avocado trees grow alongside banana and coffee trees as part of a well-planned multi-culture that keeps the soil fertile.

But for Kimani, avocado is the crop of choice. “With the coffee there is a lot of work to manage the coffee but with avocados it is easier, to have more

money, less labour,” he says.Less than three years since planting

his first avocado trees, he now takes in two harvests a year. The Kenyan government is also onside, even provid-ing courses to help farmers learn new skills, says Kimutai.

“The Kenyan government has en-couraged farmers to grow more avoca-dos because of the market.”

Kenya is the world’s sixth largest ex-porter of avocados -- with three percent of the world’s total -- and Africa’s big-gest, producing 63,000 tonnes last year.

The strong demand from European countries allows companies like Kutai-

si’s to export throughout the year.“Demand is going high, especially

in the rich countries where they care more about health, considering that avocados in Kenya are produced or-ganically.”

Renowned as a healthy food, full of vitamins, fibre and trace elements, avo-cado is an increasing staple of European diets.

Hannoun eats avocado at least once a week, usually on toast, maybe with a poached egg or some pomegranate.

“It fulfils my desire for something tasty, while being healthier than pan-cakes or burgers,” she says.

14

features


One hundred percent of (our) avocados are for export. We try to

improve the quality to make sure that what we get from the farmer is 90

percent exportableBERNARD KIMUTAI OF FAIR TRADE

COMPANY LIMITED

Trendy Toast Kenyan farmers

switching coffee and tea

for avocados in a bid to profit

from increasing European

demand

Kenyan avocado farmer Simon Kimani tending to his crop in Kandara, central Kenya

73 year-old Kenyan avocado farmer Simon Kimani tending to his crop in Kandara, central Kenya.

Avocado farmer Simon Kimani posing with some of his crop in Kandara

15

entertainment


C R O S S W O R D

S U D O K U

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

YESTERDAY’S SOLUTION

How to playPlace a number in the empty boxes in such a way that each row across, each column down and each 9-box square contains all of the numbers from one to nine.

Y O U R S T A R T O D A Y

B E E T L E B A I L E Y

AriesDare to be different. It’s easy to fall into routines - sleep and eat at the same time, wear the same style, and do your work the same way every day. Before you know it, you’re in a rut. The only way to pull out of it is to decide to break free. Try a new hairstyle. Wear colours that are new for you.

TaurusIf your lifestyle is very different from others, resist feeling self-conscious about it today. Remember that you chose your life for specific reasons. Even if you’re considering a change, there’s no need to feel ashamed or embarrassed about where you are now. Everyone has to make his or her own way.

GeminiEnhanced determination could motivate you today, giving you the zip to plough through your work. Finish projects that have been pending and think about what you want to tackle next. Don’t hesitate to do something that feels complicated or big. You’ll be able to handle anything, and it will feel great when you’re done.

CancerAre you feeling the effects of today’s low-key planetary aspects? Take heart - it’s only temporary. Do your best to take things one step at a time, and make some plans for a little fun this evening. Get together with friends or see a movie. Help yourself feel better by staying busy and focused, followed by recreation.

LeoMake some plans for recreation. Having something fun to look forward to can make even the toughest times far easier to handle. You’ll be amazed at how much you can manage when there’s an end in sight. Your whole attitude lightens, so take the bull by the horns and create your own incentives.

VirgoDon’t judge someone just because his or her lifestyle differs from what you consider normal. You may be traditional, but not everyone shares your view of relationships, work, or lifestyle. While this may seem hard to understand and even frightening to you, try not to be too hard on others.

LibraFriends seeking advice or a shoulder to cry on may be plentiful today. And you’re one of best people to provide the support and caring they need. Just don’t give so much to others that you have nothing left for yourself. True friendship is about sharing problems.

ScorpioGetting through any work you have to do shouldn’t be a problem for you today. Even if you flag for a bit, you’re likely to get a second wind, and this will give you the drive and determination to see your projects to com-pletion. Make plans for some fun after you’re done.

SagittariusWorking within boundaries and restrictions could get to you today. Yours is an independent spirit, and your best achievements are often born of doing things your own way. Like it or not, we all have to follow rules. Finish what needs to be done. Afterward, you may find more freedom to act independently without con-sequences. Exercise patience and diligence as needed.

CapricornChances are that you’ll feel upbeat and positive to-day. Share this energy with others who feel less than content. Your attitude can have a profound effect on friends, partners, spouse, and children. Neighbours and extended family can pick up on your spirit without you even realizing it.

AquariusDon’t discount your excellent resourcefulness. If you haven’t got everything you need or all of the informa-tion required, take some time to think. Who do you know? What resources can you access? Rather than panic because the pieces aren’t all there yet, make a list of contacts and go for it. Trust in yourself.

PiscesTry not to let the blues get you down. While it’s true some days can seem to drag, the busier you stay, the faster time will pass. Get down to finishing any work still pending and make plans for an evening out. If there’s a light at the end of the tunnel, not only will things seem to speed up but you’ll also feel better knowing you’re almost done.

W O R D O F T H E D A Y

NonchalantDefinition:1 : having an air of easy unconcern or in-differenceDid You Know?Since nonchalant ultimately comes from

words meaning “not” and “be warm,” it’s no surprise that the word is all about keeping one’s cool. The French word nonchalant, which strolled into English in the 1700s, has essentially held the same meaning in English as in French. It was derived from the Old French verb nonchaloir (“to dis-

regard”) and can be traced back to Latin non (“not”) and calere,” meaning “to be warm.” Unconcerned is one synonym of nonchalant, along with casual, complacent, and insouciant.

Across

1- Carol start; 6- Flat sound; 10- Petty quarrel, ejected saliva; 14- Sovereign; 15- In a bad way; 16- Sheltered, at sea; 17- ___ there yet?; 18- Large cat; 19- Nothing more than; 20- Baton Rouge sch.; 21- City treasurer; 24- Natives of the Middle East; 26- ___ Pieces; 27- D.C. advisory grp.; 28- Emo anxiety; 30- Venetian blind part; 33- Night flight; 35- Feedbag morsel; 38- Columbus’s birthplace; 40- “Evil Woman” band; 41- Autocrats; 43- Leaves in a bag; 44- Boldness; 47- Actor Estrada; 48- Pulsate; 49- Conductor ___-Pekka Salonen; 51- Shooting star; 54- Blast of a trumpet;

58- Magical incantation; 61- Male child; 62- Fragrant neck-wear; 63- Verne captain; 64- Point in question; 66- Sea eagle; 67- Profit; 68- Tibet’s capital; 69- Fr. holy women; 70- Waiting for the Robert ___; 71- Ancient Mideast region;

Down1- Ph.D. hurdles; 2- Swearword; 3- Fuming sulphuric acid; 4- Cry of a cat; 5- Puts up; 6- Eliot’s Marner; 7- Meager; 8- Oscar Madison, for one; 9- Combined action; 10- Young salmon; 11- Entreaties; 12- Eagle’s nest; 13- Mall frequenters; 22- Get wind of; 23- Do-over button; 25- Hooked on; 28- Go off-script; 29- Vegas gas; 30- Cpl.’s superior; 31- Levi’s rival; 32- Santa ___ winds; 34- Eliel Saarinen’s son; 35- Implement used when rowing a boat; 36- Jackie’s second; 37- Sound of disapproval; 39- Committee type; 42- Show to a table; 45- Place in order; 46- Equipment; 48- Tantalizes; 50- Slowpokes; 51- Men; 52- Movie critic Roger; 53- Triple; 54- Steak order; 55- Indian state; 56- Shake awake; 57- Lend ___ (listen); 59- Distribute cards; 60- French friend; 65- Moo ___ pork;

16 THURSDAY, AUGUST 16, 2018

I, PURAVANGARA UNNIKRISHNAN father of TEJASWINI KRISHNAN holder of Indian passport no P5997529, issued at BAHRAIN on 11/05/2017, permanent residence of ANAND VIHAR PARAL, KUTHUPARAMBA P.O., KANNUR DT., KERALA – 670643, INDIA and presently residing at VILLA 39, ENTRANCE 230, ROAD 328, BLOCK 356, ALSAHLIYA do hereby change my daughter’s name as (Given name) TEJASWINI (surname) KRISHNAN objection (s), if and may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O. Box 26106, Al Seef, Kingdom of Bahrain.

I, SHAILAVE s/o VUJHAVAN , holding Indian Passport No. H3285682, dated 23.01.2009 issued at LUCKNOW, having permanent residence at (full address in India) VILLAGE & POST CHAPRA PURABI, SANT KABIR NAGAR, U.P, INDIA. Presently residing at (full address in Bahrain) BUILDING 914, ROAD 31, BLOCK 623, KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given name) SHAILAVE (Surname) VUJHAVAN. Objection(s) if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O Box 26106, Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain.

I, SIKANDAR s/o PRABHUNATH, holding Indian Passport No. L8874443, dated 21.04.2014 issued at LUCKNOW, having permanent residence at (full address in India) VILLAGE & POST CHAPRA PURVI, SANT KABIR NAGAR, PIN 272162, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA. Presently residing at (full address in Bahrain) BUILDING 914, ROAD 31, BLOCK 623, KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given name) SIKANDAR (Surname) PRABHUNATH. Objection(s) if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O Box 26106, Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain.

I, JUGNU s/o BHIKHAM, holding Indian Passport No. M9725961, dated 20.05.2015 issued at LUCKNOW, having permanent residence at (full address in India) HOUSE NO. 271, VILLAGE & POST – SARWAN, MAU. PIN 275101, UTTAR PRADESH. Presently residing at (full address in Bahrain) BUILDING 914, ROAD 31, BLOCK 623, KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given name) JUGNU (Surname) BHIKHAM. Objection(s) if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O Box 26106, Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain.

I, ZUKURULLAH s/o AMANULLAH, holding Indian Passport No. J6464609, dated 11.09.2011 issued at BAHRAIN, having permanent residence at (full address in India) THARI BHAR (SHEIKH PATTI), DUDAHI, DEORIA. Presently residing at (full address in Bahrain) BUILDING 914, ROAD 31, EKER 623, KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given name) ZUKURULLAH (Surname) AMANULLAH. Objection(s) if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O Box 26106, Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain.

I, PATALU s/o CHANIKA, holding Indian Passport No. K2465610, dated 21.02.2012 issued at LUCKNOW, having permanent residence at (full address in India) TATEPUR, KAMOULI, CHOUBEPUR, VARANASI, UTTAR PRADESH, INDIA. Presently residing at (full address in Bahrain) BUILDING 914, ROAD 31, BLOCK 623, KINGDOM OF BAHRAIN will henceforth be known as (Given name) PATALU (Surname) CHANIKA. Objection(s) if any, may be forwarded to Embassy of India, P.O Box 26106, Adliya, Kingdom of Bahrain.

CHANGE OF NAME

THE EQUALIZER- 2(15+) (ACTION/CRIME/THRILLER) NEW

DENZEL WASHINGTON, PEDRO PASCA

CINECO (20) DAILY AT (IMAX 2D): 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PMCINECO (20) DAILY AT (VIP I): 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PMCINECO (20) DAILY AT (ATMOS): 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 PM + 12.00 MNCINECO (20) DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.00 + 4.30 + 7.00 + 9.30 PM + 12.00 MN + (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)SEEF (II) DAILY AT: (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)SEEF (I) DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 1.45 + 4.15 + 6.45 + 9.15 + 11.45 PMSAAR DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 1.15 + 3.45 + 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PM

GOLD (PG-13) (HINDI/DRAMA/SPORT/HISTORY) NEW

AKSHAY KUMAR, FARHAN AKHTAR, MOUNI ROY

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8.30 + 11.30 PM + (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)SEEF (I) DAILY AT: 12.00 + 3.00 + 6.00 + 9.00 PM + 12.00 MNSAAR DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 2.00 + 5.00 + 8.00 + 11.00 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.45 + 5.45 + 8.45 + 11.45 PM

CRAZY RICH ASIANS (15+) (ROMANTIC/COMEDY) NEW

CONSTANCE WU, HENRY GOLDING, GEMMA CHAN

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 1.00 + 3.30 + 6.00 + 8.30 + 11.00 PMSAAR DAILY AT: 8.45 + 11.15 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 9.30 PM + 12.00 MN

CHRISTOPHER ROBIN (PG) (FAMILY/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) NEW

EWAN MCGREFOR, HAYLEY ATWELL, BRONTE

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 1.45 + 4.00 + 6.15 + 8.30 + 10.45 PM SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 1.45 + 4.00 + 6.15 + 8.30 + 10.45 PM SAAR DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.00 + 4.15 + 6.30 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 12.30 + 2.45 + 5.00 + 7.15 PM

DOWN A DARK HALL (15+) (THRILLER/HORROR) NEW

ANNASOPHIA ROBB, ISABELLE FUHRMAN, KRISTY MITCHELL

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 2.45 + 7.15 + 11.45 PM SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 12.00 + 2.15 + 4.30 + 6.45 + 9.00 + 11.15 PM

NAWARET MASR (PG-13) (ARABIC/COMEDY) NEW

BAYOUNI FOUAD, MOHAMMED THARWAT, HESHAM ISMAIL

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 1.30 + 3.30 + 5.30 + 7.30 + 9.30 + 11.30 PMSEEF (II) DAILY AT: 12.00 + 2.00 + 4.00 + 6.00 + 8.00 + 10.00 PM + 12.00 MN

BLACKKKIANS MAN (15+) (CRIME/COMEDY/BIOGRAPHY) NEW

JOHN DAVID WASHINGTON, ADAM DRIVER,

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 8.15 + 11.00 PM SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 12.30 + 3.15 + 6.00 + 8.45 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 7.15 + 9.15 + 11.15 PM

MONKEY KING RELOADED (PG) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) NEW

NEIL BUCKSFIELD, TRISTAN KELZAI, JOHN AAVA

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 12.15 + 2.00 + 3.45 PM SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 12.45 + 2.45 PM

PLOEY: YOU NEVER FLY ALONE (18+) (ANIMATION/ADVENTURE/COMEDY) NEW

JAMIE ORAM, HARRIET PERRING, IAIN STUART

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 12.15 + 2.15 + 4.15 + 6.15 PMSEEF (I) DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 1.30 + 3.30 + 5.30 PM

THE MEG (PG-15) (ACTION/THRILLER)

JASON STATHAM, RUBY ROSE, BINGBING LI

CINECO (20) DAILY AT (IMAX 3D): 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 PM CINECO (20) DAILY AT (VIP I): 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 12.00 + 12.30 + 2.30 + 3.00 + 5.00 + 5.30 + 7.30 + 8.00 + 10.00 PM + 10.30 PM + (12.30 MN + 1.00 AM THURS/FRI)SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 12.30 + 1.45 + 3.00 + 4.15 + 5.30 + 6.45 + 8.00 + 9.15 + 10.30 + 11.45 PM + (1.00 AM THURS/FRI)SAAR DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 1.15 + 3.45 + 6.15 + 8.45 + 11.15 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 11.00 AM + 1.30 + 4.00 + 6.30 + 9.00 + 11.30 PM

MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE FALLOUT (PG-15) (ACTION/THRILLER/CRIME)

TOM CRUISE, HENRY CAVILL, VING RHAMES

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 12.00 + 3.00 + 6.00 + 9.00 PM + 12.00 MNSEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 2.30 + 5.30 + 8. 30 + 11.30 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 11.45 AM + 2.45 + 5.45 + 8.45 + 11.45 PM

SKYSCRAPER (PG-13) (ACTION/THRILLERA/DRAMA)

DWAYNE JOHNSON, NEVE CAMPBELL

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 3.00 + 5.15 + 7.30 + 9.45 PM + 12.00 MNSEEF (II) DAILY AT: 4.45 + 7.00 + 9.15 + 11.30 PM

HOTELTRANSYLVANIA 3: SUMMER (PG) (ANIMATION/COMEDY/ DRAMA)

ADAM SANDLER, ANDY SAMBERG

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 12.45 + 5.00 + 9.15 PMSEEF (I) DAILY AT: 10.45 AM + 12.45 + 2.45 + 4.45 + 6.45 PM

THE SPY WHO DUMPED ME (15+) (ACTION/COMEDY)

MILA KUNIS, SAM HEUGHAN, KATE MCKINNON

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 10.30 AM + 2.45 + 7.00 + 11.15 PM

OCEAN’S EIGHT (PG-15) (COMEDY/CRIME) *- SANDRA BULLOCK, CATE BLANCHETT

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 12.30 + 5.00 + 9.30 PM

THE INCREDIBLES 2 (PG) (ANIMATION/ACTION/ADVENTURE)

CRAIG T. NELSON, SAMUEL L. JACKSON

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 11.30 AM + 4.00 + 8.30 PM

AL ABLA TAMTAM (PG-13) (ARABIC/COMEDY)

YASMIN ABDULAZIZ, HAMDI ALMIRGHANI

CINECO (20) DAILY AT: 2.00 + 6.30 + 11.00 PM

DUCK DUCK GOOSE (PG) (ANIMATION/COMEDY/ADVENTURE)

JIM GAFFIGAN, ZENDAYA, GREG PROOPS

SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 1.15 + 3.15 + 5.15 PMWADI AL SAIL DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 1.15 + 3.15 + 5.15 PM

HARB KARMOZ (PG-15) (ACTION/CRIME/THRILLER/DRAMA)

AMIR KAKAR, GHADA ABDEL RAZEK, MOSTAFA

SEEF (II) DAILY AT: 7.15 + 9.30 + 11.45 PM

SATYAMEVA JAYATE (PG-15) (HINDI/ACTION/THRILLER) NEW

JOHN ABRAHAM, MANOJ BAJPAYEE, AISHA

SEEF (I) DAILY AT: 11.15 AM + 2.15 + 5.15 + 8.15 + 11.15 PM

COCO (TAMIL) NEW

NAYANTARA, SARNYA PONVANNAN, YOGI BABU

SEEF (I) DAILY AT: 8.45 + 11.45 PM

ORU PAZHAYA BOMB KADHA (MALAYALAM) NEW*- BIBIN GEORGE, PRAYAGA MARTIN, HAREESH

SEEF (I) DAILY AT: 12.15 + 3.00 + 5.45 + 8.30 + 11.15 PM AL HAMRA DAILY AT: 3.00 + 6.00 + 9.00 PM + (12.00 MN THURS/FRI)

KARWAAN (PG-13) (HINDI/DRAMA/COMEDY)

IRRFAN KHAN, DULQUER SALMAAN, MITHILA

SEEF (I) DAILY AT: 7.30 + 9.45 PM + 12.00 MN

GEETHA GOVINDAM (TELGU) NEW

VIJAY DEVERAKONDA, RISHMIKA MANDANNA

AL HAMRA DAILY AT: 12.00 NOON

Peck’s grandson to play SpokeAFP | Los Angeles

Actor Ethan Peck -- whose grandfather was Holly-wood legend Gregory

Peck -- has been cast as icon-ic half-Vulcan science officer Spock in CBS’s “Star Trek: Dis-covery.”

The hiring sees the relatively obscure 32-year-old boldly go where stars Zachary Quinto and -- most famously -- Leon-ard Nimoy have gone before.

“Through 52 years of tele-vision and film, a parallel uni-verse and a mirror universe, Mr. Spock remains the only member of the original bridge crew to span every era of ‘Star Trek,’” executive producer Alex Kurtzman said in a statement.

“The great Leonard Nimoy, then the brilliant Zachary Quinto, brought incomparable humanity to a character for-ever torn between logic and emotion.”

The show launched in 1966 with a five-year mission “to

boldly go where no man has gone before,” and became a multi-billion-dollar cultural phenomenon, adored by fans the world over.

Nimoy was introduced as Spock in the original series, as the first officer to Captain James T. Kirk (William Shat-ner), and both Nimoy and Quin-to took on the role in the 2009-16 rebooted trilogy.

Ethan Peck

‘The Lord of the Rings’ cast reunitesIANS | Los Angeles

Stars of one of the popular Hollywood franchises ‘The

Lord of the Rings’ reunited, and made it memorable for the fans by filling social media platforms with their reunion pictures.

Actor Orlando Bloom, who played Legolas in the film, took to his Instagram and upload-ed a photo of himself with co-stars Ian McKellen and Adam Brown. Along with the picture, he wrote: “A dwarf, a wizard and an elf walk into a bar.”

McKellen portrayed beloved Gandalf across Peter Jackson’s JRR Tolkien franchise, while Brown showed up as Ori in The Hobbit as part of the dwarf collective. It has been 17 years since release of one of the big-gest movie trilogies in history.

Through 52 years of TV and film, Spock remains the only

member of original bridge crew to span

every era of Star TrekALEX KURTZMAN

Stevie Wonder, Jesse Jackson visits Aretha FranklinReuters | Los Angeles

Aretha Franklin, the leg-endary soul singer who

has fallen gravely ill, was visited at her Detroit-area home on Tuesday by fellow recording artist Stevie Won-der, U.S. civil rights leader Jesse Jackson and ex-hus-band Glynn Turman, her publicist said.

17

sports


at Seef District too

Um al Hassan +973 17728699

Seef District +973 17364999

KNOW WHAT

Kyrgios forgets shoesReuters | Cincinnati

Nick Kyrgios has a knack for being the centre of atten-

tion and the Australian was at it again on Tuesday as he ar-rived on court for his first-round match at the Cincinnati Masters on Tuesday without his tennis shoes.

The world number 18 took his courtside chair and kicked off his high-top basketball shoes only to realise after rummaging through his bag that his tennis shoes were in the locker room.

“Wait, what?” Kyrgios could be heard saying on camera as he went through the various com-partments of his tennis bag be-fore swearing when he clocked on to what had happened.

After walking around the side of the court in his dark grey socks to find someone who could retrieve his shoes, the em-barrassed Australian then told his bemused American oppo-nent Denis Kudla: “I left my tennis shoes in the locker room, sorry man.”

With his white tennis shoes fi-

nally on his feet, Kyrgios went out and dropped the first set before rallying back for a 6-7(2) 7-5 7-6(9) victory.

The talented-yet-tempera-mental Australian burst onto the scene in 2014 when he beat Rafael Nadal at Wimbledon but has earned a reputation as the sport’s ‘bad boy’ given his com-bustible temperament.

Next up for Kyrgios in the US Open tune-up will be Croatian Borna Coric, a 6-2 6-3 winner over Russian qualifier Daniil Medvedev.Nick Kyrgios

Wawrinka, Azarenka given US Open wildcardsReuters | Washington

Former Grand Slam cham-pions Victoria Azarenka, Svetlana Kuznetsova and

Stan Wawrinka headlined the list of players given wildcards into this year’s US Open, the US Tennis Association said on Tuesday.

Former world number one Azarenka, the winner of two Australian Open titles and twice a US Open runner-up, withdrew from last year’s tournament at Flushing Meadows because of a child custody battle.

Although she has risen to 87th in the world this week, the Bela-russian needed the wildcard as she was not ranked high enough when the cutoff for the entry list was made.

It was the same reason Kuznetsova, who won the first of her two Grand Slam titles at

the 2004 US Open aged 19, did not gain automatic entry.

The Russian has risen to 88th in the world after collecting her 18th WTA title nine days ago in Washington.

Swiss Wawrinka, a three-time Grand Slam champion, did not defend his 2016 Flushing Mead-

ows title last year because of a knee injury that required sur-gery last August and kept him sidelined until January.

Since exiting in the second round at Wimbledon, Wawrin-ka has won only three matches during the American hardcourt campaign.

Stan Wawrinka

Stan Wawrinka was described by ‘The Econ-omist’ as the ‘tennis’s

great latecomer,’ due to finding success late in

his career

BRAVE CF hosts Open WorkoutsTDT | Manama

Brave Combat Federation has announced to host

open workouts at the Tanja Marina Bay, Tangier in Mo-rocco at 7 PM on 17th August, 2018.

Brave 14 hosted in Tangier, Morocco on 18th August is the first mixed martial arts hosted in the Kingdom of Morocco.

The event is hosted under the patronage of His Majesty King Mohammed VI, King of Morocco.

Athletes from 13 nations will be competing in the first global mixed martial arts event hosted in the continent of Africa.

The athletes will be facing

off for the first time prior to the fight night during the ven-ue of public weigh-ins. Ath-letes will interact with their fans and audience after the public weigh-ins.

In the main event, Ottman Azaitar will face Danijel Koko-ra. The co-main event will fea-ture Jeremy Kennedy facing Daniyel Pilo.

The weigh-ins are open for the public and the athletes will interact with their fans. The fight night will take place at the Omni Sports Indoor Club in Tangier, Morocco at 6 PM on 18th August.

The event will be broadcast-ed live on Abu Dhabi Sports, Star Sat, VodaCom, Fite TV, FloCombat and Combate.

Gary Stead named New Zealand cricket coachAFP | Wellington, New Zealand

New Zealand Cricket appointed former Test batsman Gary Stead

as the new Black Caps coach Wednes-day, with pundits describing him as a steady pair of hands to replace prede-cessor Mike Hesson.

Stead, 46, was a journeyman open-ing bat, playing just five Tests in 1999 before being dropped.

But he has excelled as a coach, guid-ing Canterbury to domestic titles in 2014, 2015 and 2017.

He also took the national women’s team, the White Ferns, to the 209

World Cup final.Stead was given a two-year con-

tract and said he wanted to continue the improvement the Black Caps had shown under Hesson.

“This is a well-established and

high-performing Black Caps side with an excellent captain in Kane William-son and a real desire to win series and titles,” he said.

“It’s an honour and a privilege to be part of that. I can’t wait to get started.”

Former batsman Peter Fulton said Stead would build on Hesson’s legacy.

“He’ll be very well organised, a lot of detail and a really good think-er about the game,” he told Radio Sport.

“New Zealand Cricket have made it pretty obvious they were keen for someone who’s going to come in and not rock the boat too much.”

Gary Stead

Stokes should make instant return: HussainReuters | London

England all-rounder Ben Stokes has shown great

mental toughness during his 11-month trial and he should be welcomed back into the test team after being cleared of affray, former national team captain Nasser Hussain has said.

New Zealand-born Stokes missed England’s 2017-18 Ash-es tour of Australia while he was investigated for his role in a street brawl outside a Bristol nightclub in September last year.

The 27-year-old was found not guilty on Tuesday before the England and Wales Crick-et Board (ECB) recalled him for the third test against India which starts in Nottingham on Saturday.

“I am amazed how well he has coped mentally over the last few months with this hanging over him and as long as they feel he is mentally fit for selection then they should pick him,” Hussain told Sky Sports News.

The ECB confirmed it would now hold its own disciplinary process for Stokes and team mate Alex Hales, who was also involved in the incident.

Hussain wants Stokes to work on taking his “unassum-ing” character beyond the cricket field as the player looks

to rebuild his reputation.“The Ben I know and who I

see around the cricket team is a popular, unassuming, down-to-earth, very pleasant individ-ual that will stay after a game and do autographs with kids for an hour and give his time,” Hussain added.

“But I only see Stokes at cricket, so Ben has to make a decision - the image we see of him at cricket is probably not the image that has been por-trayed over the last six months in the newspapers.”

Hussain, however, urged ECB’s Cricket Discipline Com-mision to set an example dur-ing the internal hearing and not take “the easy option”.

“They need to make a de-tailed and informed decision on whether those images are right for English cricket,” he said.

Ben Stokes

KNOW WHAT

Kyrgios is the second player after Lleyton

Hewitt who beat Roger Federer, Nadal and

Novak Djokovic in their first meeting

Indonesia’s richest man going for gold at Asian GamesAFP | Jakarta

Billionaire tobacco tycoon Michael Bambang Hartono

may not be the oldest competi-tor at the Asian Games, but he is the richest.

The 78-year-old head of ciga-rette giant Djarum Group is set to represent host Indonesia on its bridge team at the world’s second-biggest multi-sport event, which kicks off Satur-day in Jakarta and co-host city Palembang.

Hartono was narrowly beaten in the age category by 81-year-old Malaysian bridge player Lee Hung Fong -- who is seven dec-ades older than the youngest athlete, nine-year-old Indone-sian skateboarder Aliqqa Nov-very Kayyisa.

But unlike his octogenarian bridge rival, Hartono, along with brother Robert, has been named Indonesia’s richest man by Forbes magazine which also ranked him the 75th wealthiest in the world.

Hartono is estimated to have

a net worth of some $16.7 billion from his interests in tobacco, banking and communications.

Talk about business -- es-pecially his tobacco fortune -- wasn’t on the table when Har-tono gave a rare media interview this week, however.

“I play bridge to keep my

memory sharp. My other hobby is tai chi, which helps me stay focused,” he told domestic news agency Antara.

Hartono -- who reportedly started playing bridge at age six -- was instrumental in convinc-ing a sceptical Olympic Council of Asia to give the card game its

first spot at the Asian Games.“At first, the OCA declined to

include bridge, as it appears to resemble gambling,” he told An-tara.

Hartono, who has compet-ed several times in the World Bridge Championships, said he is shooting for gold at the Asian Games.

But he’ll forego a 1.5 billion rupiah ($102,000) cash prize that the Indonesia’s government gives top medallists.

“If I managed to win gold, I would donate the government’s cash prize to the athletes train-ing program,” he said.


I play bridge to keep my memory sharp. My other hobby is tai chi, which helps me stay

focusedMICHAEL BAMBANG HARTONO

Koreans smash hosts in hoopsJoint Korean women’s basketball team defeated Indonesia by 68 points in Asian Games

AFP | Jakarta

A joint Korean women’s bas-ketball team marked their

Asian Games debut yesterday by pulverising hosts Indonesia 108-40, roared on by giddy fans waving unified Korean flags.

North Korean Ro Suk Yong, one of three Pyongyang-based players in the away team, top-scored with 22 points for the sharp-shooting visitors and fel-low northerner Kim Hye Yon added 14 in a lop-sided Group X opener in Jakarta.

Around 100 Korean fans in white T-shirts bearing a blue unified Korean flag with the slo-gan “One dream, one Corea”, ser-enaded the players and banged drums as they tried to drown out a wall of noise produced by cymbal-crashing locals.

“We haven’t had a lot of time to work on our team chemistry but we speak the same language and we are all on the same page,” Korean coach Lee Moon-kyu told AFP.

“North or South Korean, we all have the same desire to win.”

There was a stark contrast be-tween the South Korean players with their dyed hair and trendy bobs and the sensible haircuts of

their northern cousins.But the harmony demonstrat-

ed on the court suggested they will be medal challengers.

North and South Korea are

also fielding united teams in ca-noeing and rowing at the Asian Games in the latest sign of thaw-ing relations on the troubled peninsula.

The two countries are also set to march together at the opening and closing ceremonies after forming their first-ever unified Olympic team -- a joint women’s

ice hockey side -- for February’s Winter Games in Pyeongchang.

The Asian Games formally open on Saturday and run until September 2.

Olympic backlash The joint Korean hockey team’s participation in Pyeongchang provoked a backlash in the South, with critics complain-ing that Seoul was depriving its own athletes of the chance to compete.

But ultimately the romance of the occasion, sound-tracked by North Korea’s famed “army of beauties” cheerleaders, melted

hearts and became one of the symbols of the Winter Olympics, despite the team failing to win a single game.

Ties between the neighbours have improved since the Winter Olympics, with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in subsequently meeting at an historic summit -- just months after a nervous period of missile launches and threats of nuclear war from Pyongyang.

After Wednesday’s game the Korean players went over to bow to fans, some unfurling a banner with a photo of Kim and Moon holding hands at that April sum-mit.

“We’re not concerned with politics,” insisted coach Lee. “It’s about hunger and passion -- and we all have that.”

Outside the venue, Korean fans gave the unified team the thumbs-up.

“Now days have become peaceful so maybe this event will help both Koreas to be-come one,” Kang Hyun-lee said, proudly sporting his United Ko-rea T-shirt.

“Maybe from here, in terms of politics, in terms of the economy, it will be bigger and bigger.”

Unified Korea’s Kim Hanbyul (top R) watches as the ball hits the hoop in their women’s basketball preliminary game between Unified Korea and Indonesia during the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta

KNOW

BETTER

North and South Ko-rea are set to march

together at the opening and closing ceremonies of the

Asian Games

2018 Asian Games torch reaches Jakarta

AFP | Jakarta

The torch for the 18th Asian Games reached Indone-

sia’s capital Jakarta Wednes-day, ending a month-long jour-ney across the Southeast Asian archipelago nation.

It was welcomed in style by marching bands, traditional dances and concerts, after starting its journey in the host country’s cultural centre Yogy-akarta on July 17.

The flame was lit in India’s capital New Delhi, which host-ed the first Asian Games in 1951.

Organisers hope the torch relay will attract at least one million spectators across the sprawling Indonesian capital.

Some 10,000 torch bearers, including Indonesian badmin-ton legends Rudy Hartono, Icuk Sugiarto and Ricky Sub-agja, will be taking part in the relay.

The torch is set to arrive

Saturday at the Gelora Bung Karno stadium for the Games’ opening ceremonies, ending its 18,000-kilometre (11,200-mile) journey across 54 cities.

Indonesia is hosting some 11,000 athletes and 5,000 offi-cials from 45 Asian countries for the August 18 to September 2 event.

The torch for the 18th Asian Games arrived in Jakarta

KNOW

BETTER

Jakarta, Palembang and other host cities

will organize 462 sports events, which is the second largest number of events in the history of Asian

Games

Korea march past Bahrain 6-0AFP | Bandung, Indonesia

Son Heung-min watched from the bench as South

Korea tore apart Bahrain 6-0 at the Asian Games yesterday to boost the Tottenham Hotspur striker’s chances of avoiding military service by winning gold.

Son, who only joined the squad this week, cheered on the defending champions as Hwang Ui-jo netted a first-half hat-trick

and Kim Jin-ya, Na Sang-ho and Hwang Hee-chan also scored in their opening Group E game.

Spurs gave Son, 26, special permission to play the Asian Games, where the gold medal represents his last chance of winning a reprieve from his 21 months’ compulsory military service.

As he warmed the bench wearing a black tracksuit top, Hwang quickly took the game away from outclassed

Bahrain with his triple strike within 26 minutes in the first half.

The prolific Gamba Osaka forward hammered the open-ing goal from close range on 17 minutes, before Kim Jin-ya grabbed the Koreans’ second on the rebound six minutes later.

Hwang’s turn and shot on made it 3-0 on 36 minutes, and he could have had another if he had arrived a split-second earli-er as Na Sang-ho’s effort trickled

over the line.But Hwang soon brought up

his hat-trick with a finish from a tight angle, two minutes be-fore half-time, as South Korea turned 5-0 ahead and in total control.

Bahrain saw more of the ball as South Korea eased off in the second half, but they were un-able to find a way past World Cup goalkeeper Jo Hyeon-woo -- who is also hoping to avoid military service.

Michael Bambang Hartono

Man United lack quality to challenge for title: ScholesReuters | London

Manchester United’s lack of new signings com-

bined with the uncertainty surrounding the team’s strat-egies and form gives the club a very small chance of chal-lenging for the Premier League title, former midfielder Paul Scholes has said.

United manager Jose Mour-inho has expressed his frustra-tion over the club’s transfer activity on multiple occasions, with goalkeeper Lee Grant, midfielder Fred and defend-er Diogo Dalot the only new arrivals ahead of this season.

United finished 19 points behind champions and cross-town rivals Manchester City in the league last term and Scholes, who played more than 700 matches for United, said the club are lagging behind City and a strengthened Liver-

pool this season and does not see Mourinho’s side eclipsing their rivals.

“When you look at Manches-ter City, possibly Liverpool, I don’t think they (United) have the quality of those two teams at the minute,” Scholes, who retired in 2013, told the Daily Mirror. “Liverpool have made some really good signings. United finished above them last season.

“I just don’t see United get-ting closer to City. City are a re-ally good side, great manager, great players, a way of playing that they all know about.

“United seem to be not too sure what’s going on. You don’t really know the team, you don’t really know the players, you don’t know how they’re going to perform.


718Scholes, who played

his entire professional career for Manchester

United, ranks third among the club’s players by total number of 718

appearances

UCL title not vital for City success: De BruyneAFP | London

Manchester City don’t n e e d t o w i n t h e Champions League to

be judged a success, claims Bel-gian star Kevin de Bruyne in an interview with the BBC.

European club football’s most prestigious trophy has proved elusive to City despite the hun-dreds of millions invested in players since Abu Dhabi United Group bought the club in 2008 with a semi-final appearance in the 2015/16 season under Manuel Pellegrini their best showing.

However, De Bruyne -- whose Champions League hopes were dashed by Premier League rivals Liverpool last season -- tells the BBC winning the league crown last season probably ranks as a greater achievement than if one were to win the Champions League.

“I don’t agree that we have to win the Champions League to be a success,” said De Bruyne, who has been with City since 2015.

“It is a big title to win but in the Champions League you don’t need to have the consist-ency that you need in the league.

“We were great for the whole year, maybe a bit less against Liverpool, and so we were out.”

De Bruyne speaks with even more recent painful experience of disappointment at a ma-jor tournament with Belgium beaten by eventual champi-ons France in the World Cup semi-finals.

“It is a tournament, you need to be good at the right time,” he said.

“In the league if you have a bad spell then you are running

behind.“It is a different prospect, cup

games are different to a league.”De Bruyne, who scored a

stunning goal in Belgium’s 2-1 World Cup quarter-final win over Brazil, says he enjoys a pro-fessional relationship with City manager Pep Guardiola.

Guardiola is filmed in the eight part documentary series ‘All or Nothing’ made by Am-azon covering City last season -- which is to be aired on the streaming service Amazon Prime on Friday -- telling the players if they felt they would play better by hating him then they should do so.

“Pep has different relation-ships with everyone,” De Bruyne told the BBC.

File photo dated 12-04-2016 of Manchester City’s Kevin De Bruyne celebrates scoring his side’s first goal of the game

City sweat on De Bruyne after knee injuryAFP | London

Manchester City midfield-er Kevin de Bruyne could

face a spell on the sidelines after injuring his right knee in training, the Premier League champions said Wednesday.

The 27-year-old, who en-joyed a superb World Cup as Belgium reached the semi-fi-nals, is undergoing tests to assess the seriousness of the injury.

“Kevin De Bruyne is under-

going tests on his right knee after sustaining an injury at training on Wednesday,” read a club statement on its website.

“The extent of the problem is not yet known and we will bring you further updates on Kevin’s condition in due course.”

De Bruyne, who has been at City since 2015, scored eight goals and provided 16 assists last season in a series of dy-namic performances for the champions.

Messi to skip Argentina friendlies

AFP | Buenos Aires

Captain Lionel Messi will miss Argentina’s next four friendly matches,

according to local press re-ports on Tuesday.

The five-time Ballon d’Or winner previously retired from the national side after their 2016 Copa America final de-feat by Chile before returning to help them qualify for this year’s World Cup.

The two-time world cham-pions will face Guatemala in Los Angeles on September 7 and Colombia in New York four days later, before two friendlies later in the year against as-yet unnamed op-ponents.

“Messi will not return this year and there are doubts about his future,” proclaimed Argentinian daily Clarin.

Infobae website said: “He will take a rest period, but that doesn’t mean he’s quitting.”

“It is the coach who will say, when the time comes, what the situation is concerning Messi,” a team spokesman told AFP.

Lionel Scaloni has been in temporary charge of Argentina since Jorge Sampaoli left after their disastrous World Cup tournament in Russia, where they were beaten 4-3 in the last 16 by France after an embar-rassing 3-0 group-stage loss to Croatia.

Lionel Messi

KNOW WHAT

Messi was the first Argentine ever

to be named Fifa World Player of

the Year

Paul Scholes

Subasic, Mandzukic call time on International careerReuters | Paris

Croatia goalkeeper Danijel Subasic and striker Mario

Mandzukic have announced their retirement from interna-tional football almost a month after helping the Balkan nation reach the World Cup final for the first time.

The 33-year-old goalkeeper Subasic said he made the de-cision to end his journey with Croatia before the World Cup, and reaching the final in Mos-cow was a dream come true.

“The time has come for me to say farewell to our favourite jer-sey, after 10 years in the national team,” Subasic, who earned 44 caps, said in a statement.

“I have made this decision long before the 2018 FIFA World Cup, since I wanted to close this international chapter appearing at the world stage.

“We have been dreaming awake during the welcome in Zagreb, my Zadar, and the entire Croatia. These have been the best, most emotional moments of my career, that have defined my international career.”

Mandzukic, scored 33 goals for Croatia, two less than top

scorer Davor Suker, in 89 ap-pearances since his 2007 debut.

The 32-year-old netted three goals in his team’s run to the World Cup final in July, where they fell to a 4-2 defeat by France.

“There is no ideal moment to retire. If possible, we would all play for Croatia until we die,

since there is no prouder feel-ing, but I feel this moment has come for me -- now,” the Juven-tus forward said in a statement on the national team’s website.

“I’ve given my best for Cro-atia, I have contributed to the biggest success of Croatian foot-ball... As of today, my place is alongside you — among the most

loyal Croatia fans.”Apart from two World Cups,

Mandzukic also represented Croatia in two European Cham-pionships and was named the nation’s Footballer of the Year in 2012 and 2013.

Defender Vedran Corluka also announced his retirement from Croatian team last week.

Mario Mandzukic

AFP | Cincinnati

Roger Federer began his US Open preparation with a quick 6-4, 6-4 defeat of

Peter Gojowczyk in his first ATP Cincinnati Masters appearance since 2015.

The 20-time Grand Slam champion, who turned 37 last week, is pacing his tennis year, playing a limited schedule and skipping events when he feels the need to rest.

He has missed the last two edi-tions of this tournament because of injury.

Eighth seeded Petra Kvitova used her precision serve to over-power Serena Williams 6-3, 2-6, 6-3 in their second round match on Tuesday night.

Federer’s defeat of the 47th-ranked German in 72 minutes marked his first step towards a possible eighth title at the tour-nament.

“I felt good in that first match, to be honest, walking out, hardly any nerves. I think I knew what I had to do,” Federer said.

“It’s fast-court tennis. I knew my opponent was going to go for it and take big cuts at the ball. So there is only so much you can really do.

“It’s nice to have played a match so that my last match was not the Anderson match... you’ve kind of turned the page. It’s a good thing.

“The goal is now to recover from this match, take the posi-tives with me. Of course the big goal is the US Open.”

The contest was the first for the Swiss since losing to Kevin Anderson in five sets in the Wimbledon quarter-finals on July 11.

Eighth seed Dominic Thiem was forced to withdraw with-out hitting a ball. He was from a virus.

The Austrian played just one losing match last week in Toron-to on the hardcourts since mak-

ing a late switch from post-Wim-bledon clay.

Nick Kyrgios served 39 aces, including one to save match point, to power into the second round with a dramatic 6-7 (2/7), 7-5, 7-6 (11/9) win over Denis Kudla.

Last year’s losing finalist final-ly saw off the American on his sixth match point.

The Australian will next face Croatian Borna Coric, who beat Daniil Medvedev 6-2, 6-3.

Weekend Toronto finalist Ste-fanos Tsitsipas tired late in a 7-5, 6-3 loss to Belgian 11th seed David Goffin.

South Korea’s Chung Hyeon rallied past a struggling Jack Sock for a 2-6, 6-1, 6-2 victory.

Chung handed the slumping American an eighth straight de-feat, with Sock’s last win coming in the opening round at Rome three months ago.

Unseeded Milos Raonic ad-vanced past Serb Dusan Lajovic 6-3, 6-3 at the combined ATP and WTA event, the last major tune-up prior to the US Open on August 27.

In the women’s draw, the sec-

ond set of the Kvitova-Williams contest was significant for Wil-liams because it was her first set win this season against a top 10 opponent.

Out of gas The 23-time Grand Slam cham-pion won her first round match over Daria Gavrilova in straight sets, 6-1, 6-2, on Monday, but appeared to run out of gas in the third set against Kvitova.

Just two weeks ago, Williams suffered the worst defeat of her career in San Jose when she was crushed 6-1, 6-0 in 51 minutes by world No. 39 Johanna Konta.

“I’m still at the very beginning. You know, this is a long come-back. I just began. Definitely at the very, very beginning,” Wil-liams said. “I’m getting there,

and I’m going to just continue to work hard, and hopefully I’ll start winning more matches.”

Czech ninth seed Karolina Pliskova made a personal break-through as she beat Agnieszka Radwanska for the first time after seven previous straight-sets losses to the Pole, winning 6-3, 6-3.

“It was a tough round for me because I’ve never beaten her, never even taken a set,” said Pliskova. “I was so happy when I won the first set because I thought, ‘Finally, one set for me.’”

Australian 16th seed Ashleigh Barty defeated Czech teenager Marketa Vondrousova 6-3, 7-5, while 14th-ranked Elise Mertens topped Magdalena Rybarikova 6-4, 6-2.


I felt good in that first match, to be honest, walking out, hardly any nerves. I think

I knew what I had to do.

It’s fast-court tennis. I knew

my opponent was going to go for it and take big

cuts at the ball. So there is only

so much you can really doROGER FEDERER

Federer opens with win over Gojowczyk, Kvitova ousts WilliamsStefanos Tsitsipas falls at first hurdle in Cincinnati

Petra Kvitova and Serena Williams after their match

Stefanos Tsitsipas

Roger Federer

Federer cruises