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Al Attiyah seals 14th Qatar Rally title

Fitch Ratings

affirms QIIB ratings at 'A'

Deputy Prime Minister visits Boeing plant in Seattle

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr. Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah visited the Boeing plant in the US city of Seattle. H E the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs received a briefing on the production line for Boeing’s (KC-46) air refuelling aircraft. A number of Qatari Armed Forces Officers accompanied the Minister during the visit.

Qatar-Oman trade risesto QR6.8bn in 2018THE PENINSULA DOHA

Bilateral trade between Qatar and Oman rose by 240 percent in two years, reaching QR6.8bn in 2018, a significant increase from QR3.8bn in 2017, and QR2bn in 2016, Qatar Chamber (QC) Chairman Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim Al Thani has said.

In a press statement after his meeting with a high dele-gation of Omani officials on Thursday, Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim said relations between the two countries are wit-nessing a record boom in all fields, especially in the fields of economic and trade.He also said that Qatar Chamber is keen to enhance trade cooperation between the private sector in both countries.

According to Sheikh Khalifa bin Jassim, there are 350 Omani-Qatari companies currently operating in the country in the services, energy, and industry

sectors; while there are 200 Qatari companies operating in Oman in various fields.

Earlier, the Qatar Chamber hosted an Omani delegation which included Mohsin Khamis Al Balushi, Advisor to the Min-istry of Commerce and Industry and Chairman of the Amman Center for Exhibitions and Con-ferences and the Chairman of Oman Chamber of Commerce and Industry Qais bin Mohammed Al Yousef.

The meeting was also attended by Qatar Chamber’s First Vice Chairman Mohamed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari and a number of board members, businessmen, and company representatives from both countries.

The meeting discussed ways of enhancing bilateral cooper-ation in various economic and trade fields, especially in the exhi-bitions sector, which is one of the most promising sectors between the two countries. �P2

51 countries take part in world’s biggest debating championshipFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

The world’s biggest debating championship began in Doha yesterday with the participation of more than 100 teams from 51 countries.

The fifth International Uni-versities Debating Champi-onship organised by QatarDebate, a member of Qatar Foundation (QF) is being held under the patronage of H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, the Vice-Chairman and CEO of QF.

The championship will be held under the slogan ‘Dialogue, Debate, and Diplomacy’ aiming at contributing towards spreading the art of debate and the cultural exchange of participants.

“The championship is an opportunity to learn and practice

the Arabic language, which is fast becoming a language of research, literature and crea-tivity,” said Dr Hayat Maarafi Executive Director, QatarDebate, addressing the opening cer-emony of the championship at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).

She also highlighted the ben-efits of debating such as learning critical thinking and well-rea-soned communication.

Around 600 people including debaters, judges, trainers and others are partici-pating in the five day champi-onship. Among the debating teams, 15 are native Arabic-speakers and 37 are non-Arabic speakers.

“Debating in Arabic is chal-lenging, we love the challenge and we hope to do the best,” Noor Al Dhulaimi, spokesperson

of the team from University of Utah in the US told The Peninsula.

She and her teammates doing a major in Middle East studies were inspired by that to take part in the championship.

“We were preparing for the championship since November. It is important to know the art of convincing others and being excepting others ides, debating in a way that is civil,” said Noor, who is a native of Iraq and f a m i l i a r w i t h A r a b i c language.

This year, six teams are par-ticipating from Qatar, including two from Community College of Qatar, two from the Qatar Uni-versity, one from Carnegies Mellon University in Qatar(CMU-Q) and one representing the Police Academy. �P3

Mosque attack suspect in court as New Zealand plans changes to gun lawsAGENCIES CHRISTCHURCH

The right-wing extremist charged over the horrifying attacks on New Zealand mosques flashed a white power gesture as he appeared in court yesterday, while a shellshocked community began digging graves for the 49 people he stands accused of slaying.

Australia-born 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant stood largely impassive in the dock wearing handcuffs and a white prison smock, as the judge read the first of what are expected to be a host of murder charges he is likely to face.

Flanked by armed police, he gestured an upside-down “okay” — a symbol used by white power groups worldwide. He did not request bail and was remanded in custody until an April 5 court appearance.

Meanwhile, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said she will change gun laws as the country reels from the ter-rorist attack. “While the nation grapples with a form of grief and anger that we have not experi-enced before, we are seeking answers,” Ardern told a news conference in Wellington yes-terday morning. “I can tell you one thing right now, our guns laws will change.”

New Zealand’s cabinet will discuss gun laws at its next meeting tomorrow, Ardern said later yesterday in Christchurch after meeting the families of victims. There are a range of issues not just limited to poten-tially banning certain weapons but also modification of guns which can make them more lethal, she said. Cabinet will also receive reports on issues around the adequacy of security and intelligence service monitoring, Ardern said. �P12

Qatar gains greater say in global gas industrySACHIN KUMAR THE PENINSULA

Qatar Petroleum (QP)’s strategy to expand its footprint globally will position Qatar as major player in international gas industry and will increase its say in the global gas market.

“The (QP’s) expansion plan has encompassed investments in the US, Argentina, Brazil, Mexico and other markets. Much of the investment activity is by way of partnering with firms in the gas industry,” Finbarr Sexton, Partner at EY QATAR, said in an interview with TOGY (The Oil & Gas Year).

“These investment plays includes both conventional and non-conventional oil and gas assets. These investments will position Qatar as a major player in the global gas industry. In the

long-term view, Qatar will probably have a greater say in what is happening in gas markets internationally,” he added.

QP has taken several measures to expand its opera-tions, aiming to become a major international player in the oil and gas industry.

One of the major decisions was to increasing its LNG pro-duction capacity. QP had

announced in September last year that it would increase the capacity of Qatar’s LNG expansion project, which was announced in 2017, by adding a fourth liquefaction train.

After the completion of project, Qatar’s LNG production capacity would reach 110 million tonnes per annum (MTPA), rep-resenting an increase of around 43 percent from its current pro-duction capacity of 77 MTPA.

Sexton said Qatar’s investment in US energy sector will strengthen the relations between the two countries.

“The decision to invest in the US energy sector and the devel-opment of the Golden Pass LNG export facility will give QP an important position in the US LNG export sector. It’s not just an investment for a return; it’s also strategic to get access to decision-making and pricing in the gas market,” said Sexton.

In February this year, QP and ExxonMobil announced that they had taken the final investment decision for developing the Golden Pass LNG export project. The project, located in Sabine Pass, Texas, is owned by Golden Pass Products — a joint venture between affiliates of Qatar Petroleum and ExxonMobil.

“Qatar wants to demonstrate it is investing in other markets and is beginning to get access to them. Whilst these investments will provide a sustainable revenue for future generations, the invest-ments are also important from a geopolitical standpoint – the sig-nificant investment in US oil and gas assets will further strengthen Qatar’s relationship with the US administration,” he added.

He said that the continued preference towards cleaner energy will drive interest in natural gas and LNG. In the longer term, more nations will press for fuel oil generation conversion to natural gas, which will drive LNG development infrastructure.

“Qatar is now leading the race to secure first-mover advantage in tying up new supply contracts,” he added.

Shua wins gold for Qatar in Abu DhabiQatari roller-skater Shua Al Abdullah celebrates after winning a gold medal during the Special Olympics World Games in Abu Dhabi, UAE, yesterday. Her gold was the third medal won by Qatar (one gold and two bronze) on the first day of the event.

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QP has taken several measures to expand its operations, aiming to become a major international player in the oil and gas industry.

The decision to invest in the US energy sector and the development of the Golden Pass LNG export facility will give QP an important position in the US LNG export sector.

02 SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019HOME

Qatar highlights strides it made in gender equalityQNA NEW YORK

The State of Qatar stressed that the country has made significant progress in terms of gender equality, empowering all women and girls as well as working towards gender equality and the realisation and empowerment of women’s human rights through all elements of the sustainable development agenda. This came in the speech given by the Assistant Undersec-retary at the Ministry of Admin-istrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs, Ghanem Mubarak Al Kuwari, during the dialogue held as part of the 63rd session of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.

Al Kuwari said that gender equality is one of the main goals of sustainable development. He added that the State of Qatar adopted a clear policy of empow-ering women in all arenas, some-thing that was referenced as part of Qatar National Vision 2030. He also said that the State of Qatar has made great progress in that regard, highlighting the announcement of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani that Qatar pledges to provide high-quality education to one million girls by 2021, in support of the Charlevoix decla-ration of the G7 summit of June 2017.

He noted that Qatar, and based on constitutional founda-tions of promoting gender equality, provided access to edu-cation for women, as well as access to health services,

employment opportunities, as well as participation in various fields of work in addition to political participation.

He pointed out that these efforts resulted in an improvement in the status of women in labour, health, edu-cation and training market indi-cators. He also pointed out that Qatar is ranked first among Arab countries in the quality of health services and fifth overall.

He highlighted that the State of Qatar had worked to achieve gender equality and the empow-erment of women by giving pri-ority to development programs and initiatives to promote the eco-nomic and social empowerment of women and to promote and empower the family.

He said that the State of Qatar has taken great strides towards achieving these goals, especially in the field of uni-versal education and health care and improving the standard of living of the individual. This was reflected in Qatar’s position on the international human devel-opment report of 2016 issued by the United Nations Development Program. The country was top among Arab countries and 32nd in the world.

The State of Qatar adopted a clear policy of empowering women in all arenas, something that was referenced as part of Qatar National Vision 2030.

Agnès Varda’s guiding principles for filmmaking explained at QumraTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Inspiration, creation, sharing. These are the three words that guide Agnès Varda every time she makes a film.

In a masterclass of the Qumra Master’s body of work presented by Richard Peña, first- and second-time filmmakers learned more about Varda’s hybrid approach to filmmaking at Qumra 2019.

Peña provided an analysis of clips from five of her films: La Pointe Courte (1955), Cleo from 5 to 7 (1962), Vagabond (1985), The Gleaners & I (2000), and The Beaches of Agnès (2008).

Richard Peña, an interna-tionally renowned expert on film, was Professor of Film Studies at Columbia University and Director of the New York Film Festival from 1988 to 2012. He is a familiar face at Qumra, having contributed to previous editions in guiding up-and-coming filmmakers from around the world.

Varda, the ‘grandmother of French New Wave cinema’ is renowned for her unique short films, feature narratives and documentaries, and her unique artistic skill in combining all three formats in each of her projects.

He said of her work: “Agnès Varda is unique among her con-temporaries for the seamless way in which her work flows between documentaries, shorts and feature length films. She pio-neered the convergence of genres and formats into what we now call ‘research cinema’. Agnès was interested in very personal self-expression first and foremost, more than just entertainment.”

In the masterclass, Peña demonstrated how Varda revo-lutionised techniques such as

discontinuity between shots, handheld camera work, low lighting, and later embraced innovative digital camerawork and mixed media shots.

On the topic of Varda’s place within French New Wave cinema, Peña said: “The problem with French New Wave is that it is very difficult to define. Is it a group of directors, a period, or a style of filmmaking? Within the French New Wave movement there was a dif-ference between Right Bank and Left Bank groups of directors, towards which Agnès leaned to the Left, seeing cinema akin to art, literature and music. She was also influenced by the French feminist movement, although she resisted defining herself through political orthodoxies.”

Varda is much celebrated as a cinematic icon and is often a significant influence on some of today’s most acclaimed film-makers. Among the substantial recognition for her work is a Silver Bear Prize at Berlinale for Cleo from 5 to 7 (1965); Golden Lion at the Venice International Film Festival for Vagabond (1985); Léopardo d’Onore at the Locarno Film Festival in 2014;

Palme d’Or d’Honneur at Fes-tival de Cannes in 2015; Grolsch Audience Award for Best Docu-mentary at Toronto Film Festival for Faces Places (2017); and an Academy Honorary Award for her contribution to cinema. In 2003, she launched a third career as a visual artist, with her installations being exhibited at the world’s most prominent gal-leries and museums.

“Through her films and her lifetime curiosity about self-con-sciousness, Agnès is ultimately telling us about herself,” said Peña. “The powerful disarming honesty of her films is what makes us trust her as a filmmaker.”

The fifth edition of Qumra brings together more than 150 acclaimed filmmakers, industry professionals and experts to nurture 36 Qumra Projects by first and second-time film-makers that are in various stages of development. The six-day event takes place 15–20 March at Souq Waqif and the Museum of Islamic Art, and features Qumra Masterclasses, Qumra Talks and screenings in the Qumra Masters and New Voices in Cinema series.

A view of the Qumra Masterclass being presented by Richard Peña.

Qatar Museums launches creative spaces programmeTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Museums has announced a programme whereby a series of creative spaces will be iden-tified and developed into artist studios around Qatar with the aim of enabling artists, designers, photographers and other crea-tives to produce, build commu-nities and inspire others to create.

Each location, in which studios will be made available for rent, will be carefully selected based on the needs of the sur-rounding community, the site’s aesthetic and potential to host an active creative hub. The first of such spaces is Bayt Al Wakra, which opened over the weekend in the historic Souq Al Wakra.

Bayt Al Wakra is a traditional home located in the Souq Al Wakra area, which itself is a coastal market constructed to mimic the traditional archi-tecture of Qatari souqs. As a unique location for an artist’s studio, the new space can be used for a variety of creative pursuits. It features four artist studios and two multipurpose spaces available for rent, both short and long term. Other services available at the house include an art shop, security and

free utilities for renters. Khalifa Al Obaidly, Director

of the Fire Station, said: “Qatar Museums has long sought to create art spaces that provide a place to explore, experience, and create around the country. We’re thrilled to announce the opening of these creative spaces under the management of the Fire Station. Designed to support the development of the art and culture scene in Qatar, the new creative spaces will offer an

opportunity for artists to be inspired by the historical setting of the house, the surrounding souq and the thriving community in the area.”

Studios will be available for rent via an online application process. Artists will be able to rent studios and spaces on a monthly basis, for both short-term and long-term use. Spaces can be rented indoors and out-doors at a day rate, as well.

Fire Station is known for its

initiatives which champion young local talent including its famed nine-month residency programme, where artists are given studio space in one of the five floors of the building. The space also hosts a residency in Paris and New York for Qatari artists, held in partnership with Cité internationale des Arts Paris, France and the International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP) in Brooklyn, NY respectively.

Some of the participants at Bayt Al Wakra, which opened over the weekend in the Souq Al Wakra.

Qatar-Oman trade rises to QR6.8bn in 2018FROM PAGE 1

During the event, Al Thani praised the success of the Made in Qatar expo which was held in Oman last year, and expressed his gratitude to Oman for hosting the exhibition. He also underscored the importance of holding joint exhibitions, indicating that Qatar hosted the Oman Industries and Products Expo “OPEX” in 2017and SMEs Expo last year.

For his part, Al Balushi praised the growing bilateral relations and stressed that Oman is keen to

further strengthen these relations. Al Yousef said the success of the expo, noting that it reflected the interest of the Omani business community in Qatari industries.

Meanwhile, a joint meeting was also held between the Qatar Chamber and the Omani dele-gation which was headed by Al Kuwari for the Qatari side and Al Balushi for the Omani side.

Al Kuwari said the relations have witnessed significant devel-opment over the past two years, and praised Oman’s stance during

the siege and the cooperation of the private sector in both coun-tries. He referred to the visit of the Qatari delegation to Oman during the first months of the siege. He said the participation of 120 Qatari businessmen contributed to strengthening relations between companies in both countries and ended with many agreements and commercial transactions. He also highlighted the Omani exhibitions hosted by Qatar and Qatari expos held in Oman such as the “Made in Qatar” exhibition.

QC Board Member Dr Mohamed Johar Said Al Mohammed reiterated that Qatar won’t forget Oman’s stance during the siege, and expressed his hope that both sides would intensify efforts in the private sector to achieve integration at all sectors.

QC Board Member Mohammed bin Ahmed Al Obaidli also said that Oman hosted a suc-cessful edition of Made in Qatar, and praised Oman’s enormous potential and capability to host international exhibitions.

03SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019 HOME

Tarsheed Program wins two major international awardsQNA DOHA

Qatar General Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa) has won two prominent awards in two different categories of Global Good Governance Awards, constituted by Cambridge IFA.

The awards were given to Kahramaa for its ongoing National Program for Conser-vation and Energy Efficiency (Tarsheed) and its iconic Kah-ramaa Awareness Park (KAP) under two different categories of Global Good Governance Awards 2019. The awards were presented in a ceremony held in Jakarta, Indonesia. More than 28 countries with more than 76 rep-resentations in all categories took part in the process of award declaration.

Kahramaa’s President Eng. Essa Bin Hilal Al Kuwari said: “We are proud of Kahramaa’s success being achieved globally. Such accolades are self- explan-atory of our continued achieve-ments and milestones. He said accolade for Tasheed’s program

was outcome of its achievements gained in the arena of economy, environment and society and this is what our Qatar National Vision 2030 propagates.

“Our International recog-nition reflects that we are going in right direction and our tech-nological advancement embedded with our continued efforts to adopt innovative ideas got recognized and reflected by winning Innovative Environ-mental Education Award 2019 for Kahramaa Awareness Park”, he added.

Under its category of 3G Sus-tainability of Performance Award, Kahramaa’s Tarsheed programme has achieved another milestone being chosen for 3G Best Public Sector Programme (Sustainability) Award 2019. In another category, Kahramaa Awareness Park has added new dimension in its International recognition being awarded for 3G Most Innovative Environmental Education Award 2019.

The award for sustainability category has been given for Kah-ramaa’s economic performance which saved QR5bn under its

Tarsheed Program until April 2018, sustainability- related 265 initiatives and environment pro-tective actions among others which included developing Electric Car infrastructure, reducing carbon emissions (10.5 million tons) and brainstorming for finding environment- friendly solutions.

As part of its social responsi-bility initiatives and to further promote good governance prac-tices world over, Cambridge IFA is spearheading a global initiative to promote best practices in gov-ernance and sustainability.

The Global Good Gov-ernance Awards or 3G Awards celebrate individuals, govern-ments, public and private insti-tutions and NGOs that demon-strate making governance and sustainability a strategic priority of their organisations.

The 3G Awards are premier awards programme that high-lights excellence in good gov-ernance and commitment to social welfare in 3 major streams: Government & Politics, Corporate Sector, and Social Sector & Philanthropy.

QCB Governor attends Digital Transformation Conference

The Governor of Qatar Central Bank (QCB), H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Saoud Al Thani, has participated in the Digital Transformation Conference: Balance Opportunities and Risks in the Implementation of the Bali Financial Technology Recommendations, held in Rabat, Morocco. The QCB Governor participated in the two-day conference, at the invitation of the Governor of Bank Al-Maghrib (Morocco Central Bank). The conference was prepared and hosted by Bank Al-Maghrib in partnership with the International Monetary Fund to discuss the challenges and opportunities for financial technology.

QGBC opens registration for ‘No Paper Day Qatar’ 2019THE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Green Building Council (QGBC), a member of Qatar Foundation (QF), has opened registration for its annual ‘No Paper Day Qatar’ campaign. The initiative, now in its seventh year, is part of QGBC’s ongoing efforts to help schools, companies, and institutions find ways to reduce paper, plastic, and metal consumption, engage the wider community in environmentally friendly practices, and raise sustainability awareness.

Eng Meshal Al Shamari, Director, QGBC, said, “We are delighted with the success of this campaign over the past few years. It has encouraged com-panies and individuals to reduce their recyclable waste and cele-brate Qatar’s efforts to build a more sustainable future. We look forward to the continuing par-ticipation of our existing partners and to bringing new partners on board for this exciting and important work that supports Qatar’s journey to becoming a sustainable and diversified economy.

“We are proud to partner this year with local companies for the collection and recycling of waste. We have on board Elite Paper Recycling for paper and card-board, Global Metals for recycling plastic and metal, and Q e-waste, our newest addition.”

Qatar takes part in Benevolence Awards in TurkeyQNA ANKARA

The State of Qatar participated in the ceremony of the Fifth Edition of the Benevolence Awards, held in the Turkish capital Ankara under the auspices of the Turkish Reli-gious Endowment, in the presence of President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Minister of Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs H E Dr Ghaith bin Mubarak Al Kuwari headed the State of Qatar’s delegation, responding to the invitation of Head of Reli-gious Affairs in the Republic of Turkey, Professor Ali Erbas.

The ceremony was also attended by the Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Turkey, Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi.

HBKU presents graduate opportunities at International Education Fair in TurkeyTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Prospective students in Turkey were given an opportunity to learn more about the multidisciplinary programs offered at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU) during the A2 annual International Education Fair, held in the cities of Ankara, Istanbul, and Izmir from March 9 to 15.

Representatives from HBKU Student Affairs and the Office of Enrollment, as well as faculty at HBKU, were actively present at the University’s booths within dedi-cated venues in all three cities and engaged with visitors to provide information on the university’s programs, campus life, and potential research opportunities.

Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi, the Ambassador of State of Qatar to Turkey, also visited the HBKU stand at International Education Fair held in Ankara.

Maryam Al Mannai, vice pres-ident of student affairs at HBKU said, “We look forward to wel-coming graduate students from Turkey to join the student body at HBKU, which represents more than 66 countries. We offer our students world-class educational opportunities, as well as an enriching environment that nur-tures community engagement.”

She added, “By choosing to study in Qatar, students expand both their academic and career

opportunities. Once they complete their studies, HBKU graduates often go on to join top research institutes or organisations based in Qatar and across the world.”

On the sidelines, a senior del-egation from HBKU met with representatives from a number of Turkey’s leading academic institutions, including Boğaziçi University, Bahçeşehir Uni-versity, İzmir Institute of Tech-nology, and Istanbul University, to discuss future collaborations involving faculty and research

exchange. Commenting on HBKU’s pro-

grams, which aim to address current global trends and chal-lenges, Hanan Al Thani, associate vice president of student affairs, HBKU, said, “Our institution offers students access to a mul-titude of academic and research opportunities in a multicultural, supportive community, in the heart of the Gulf. Students who choose to pursue graduate studies at HBKU will benefit from a fully immersive environment,

assured of the mentorship and support of faculty and staff throughout their academic journey.

“Academically, our curricula and top-tier programs seek to challenge our students through constructive, research-based learning strategies, enabling and encouraging them to become critical thinkers during their studies and in their future careers.”

HBKU is a leading academic institution, currently offering 26 degrees in the fields of science and

engineering, law and public policy, humanities and social sciences, health and life sciences, and Islamic studies.

The annual International Edu-cation Fair in Turkey invites a host of globally minded educational institutions and academic experts through a series of one-on-one sessions, interviews, seminars, presentations, and workshops, to assist prospective students who want to make informed decisions about the next phase of their studies.

The Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Turkey, Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi, at the HBKU booth in Ankara.

51 countries take part in world’s biggest debating championshipFROM PAGE 1

“We are happy to be the first team to participate from a QF partner university. We have paved the path for others to par-ticipate in the debate champi-onship in the future,” said Rafat Abutarbush, team leader of CMU-Q.

A trial round involving all the teams participating in the cham-pionship without recording any scores took place following the opening ceremony yesterday. The CMU-Q team won the trial debate they had with a team from Lebanon.

“The training and practicing

sessions were exhausting but provided us good experience. We are here to give our best,” said Rafat.

Dr Hafsat Abiola, President of Women African Initiative and a Nigerian civil rights activist, who is visiting Qatar for Empower Conference hosted by

Education Above All, visited the championship.

She delivered an inspira-tional speech to students, highlighting the challenges she and her family had to face during their political struggles trying to improve the lives of fellow Nigerians. She stressed

the important role women must play by actively partic-ipating in all walks of life to uplift a country out of poverty.

Preliminary round one and two of the championship were held yesterday, while round three to five will be held today.

Around 600 people including debaters, judges, trainers and others attend the fifth International Universities Debating Championship at Qatar National Convention Center. PIC: ABDUL BASIT / THE PENINSULA


Qatar’s role as an open society highlighted at DICID event SIDI MOHAMED THE PENINSULA

The Doha International Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID) yesterday organised the Second Youth Dialogue Forum for non-Arab university students, studying in Qatar, in order to promote the idea of dialogue and coexistence between cultures and religions.

The event also highlighted Qatar’s cultural role as an open society with a vibrant and pos-itive interaction with all cultures.

Twenty seven students from different nationalities partici-pated in the event which was organised at the Sharq Village & Spa Hotel.

Dr Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of DICID; Yousuf Al Subai, Executive Manager of DICID: and a number

of officials of the centre attended the event.

Addressing at the occasion, Al Nuaimi said that this is an

opportunity to celebrate our diversity and build relationships

of peace, love and mutual understanding through our diversity .

“The DICID is contributing since its inception to build dia-logue among different civilisa-tions and cultures,” he said.

About the importance of dia-logue, Dr Al Nuaimi pointed out that the dialogue is not about trying to defeat others, but about understanding and learning about them, because the world’s beauty lies in its racial and reli-gious’ pluralism, otherwise God would not have created it so.

“Interfaith dialogue is a vehicle to promote under-standing between people of various faiths, who, despite their differences, have many things in common,” he added.

Al Nuaimi emphasized on the importance of the Forum saying, “University students represent elite communities, and they will

be the future ambassadors of Arab and Islamic culture in their countries.” “This is our first mission at the center, which we are constantly striving make a bridge between citizens and res-idents. We continuously direct our activities in this direction through interaction with dif-ferent communities and school students to promote dialogue and coexistence,” he said.

As for second mission of the Center, Dr Al Nuaimi added: “We are working to promote global dialogue between different reli-gions and cultures around the world through our foreign par-ticipation. We have had activ-ities in Ukraine during the problems with Russia. We have also carried out similar activities in Russia. We believe that even in times of war, the link between communities should not be inter-rupted,” Al Nuaimi mentioned.

Dr. Ibrahim bin Saleh Al Nuaimi, Chairman of the Doha Center for Interfaith Dialogue (DICID), speaks at the Second Youth Dialogue Forum organised by the DICID at the Sharq Village & Spa Hotel yesterday. PIC: QASSIM RAHMATULLAH / THE PENINSULA

Aspetar to discuss its ‘Beat the Heat’ research in global conferenceTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Aspetar, the orthopaedic and sports medicine hospital in Qatar, has used the best of its research facilities to advise athletes on how to ‘Beat the Heat’ when competing during the upcoming championships and avoid common heat injuries.

This research will be used in the upcoming 17th IAAF World Championships Doha, Qatar 2019 and the Games of the XXXII Olympiad, Tokyo 2020 will take place under hot and potentially humid environ-mental conditions,

The ‘Beat the Heat’ research will also be one of the main topics that will be discussed in Aspe-tar’s upcoming medicine and athlet ic internat ional conference.

As part of the research, experts tackled essential points for athletes to consider, pro-ducing a detailed pack with information on how to maintain body temperatures, the effect of temperatures on performance, preparation steps prior to the championship, and the influence of hydration on performance.

To compete in 10,000 m or longer events in the heat, athletes must consider the visible changes the body undergoes in different temperatures, including increased sweat rate, a decreased heart rate, retention of electro-lytes, and changes in core tem-perature of the body. The study recommends that training in conditions that are similar to the upcoming competition is the most effective method to increase performance.

The research will prepare athletes ahead of time by informing them to take simple steps that will positively impact their performance during the summer championships. It shows that the maximal body core tem-perature when competing in the heat is between 39-41 °C. Athletes reading the study will also benefit from recommendations from accredited researchers and doctors on what the ideal drinks to consume are before a competition.

After intensive preparations and research studies, Aspetar readies to organise its interna-tional conference on Medicine and Science in Athletics which is scheduled to be held from May 3 to 5 2019 at Aspire Academy. The conference will target medical personnel, such as: Phy-sicians, Nurses, Pharmacists, Physiotherapists, Nutritionists, and Podiatrists. The conference will cover a wide array of topics, such as: the latest evidence rel-evant to athletics’ science and medical teams, training and per-forming in the heat, preventing common injuries, managing in-season tendon pain, hamstring, and bone stress injuries.

Al Ansari, Intex Products host receptionN V Kader, General Manager of Al Ansari International, the sole agent for Intex Products in Qatar; and Ken Yum, Territory Manager for Middle East, Intex Development CO LTD; pose with other officials and retailers of Intex products at a function held at the Westin Hotel in Doha. PIC: SALIM MATRAMKOT / THE PENINSULA

QC becomes member of Advisory Committee of UNHCR’s shelter clusterTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Charity’s (QC) office in Yemen has been selected as a member of the Advisory Committee of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR)’s shelter cluster.

Qatar Charity will also participate in a forum for international donors dedi-cated to donating to shelter needs in Yemen this month in Jordan.

The advisory council consists of six members, including Qatar Charity, the

Norwegian Relief Council and the Danish Relief Council, in addition to three local associations. The role of this council is to provide the cluster with advice and opinions on its activities and work strategy, and to review its reports, in addition to the key role, which is working as implementing partners and supporting the cluster through funding from different donors for its activities.

Qatar Charity’s office in Yemen is a member of UN’s shelter, food security, edu-cation, water and sanitation clusters, which organize and coordinate the activities of UN humanitarian agencies and international

organizations operating in Yemen. Qatar Charity is also a member of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA). This mem-bership means that its office in Yemen has become a candidate to act as an OCHA exec-utive partner. This membership is con-sidered as an important component of the office in order to be eligible to act as an implementing partner of UN agencies oper-ating in Yemen, such as the World Food Program, the World Health Organization, the Office of the United Nations High Com-missioner for Refugees and the United

Nations Development Programme.Also, Qatar Charity will participate in a

forum for international donors organised by the shelter cluster in Jordan. The European Union, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the British Department for International Devel-opment (DFID) and other agencies and international donors will take part in the forum. The forum aims to encourage and motivate international donors to donate for the shelter cluster in Yemen, as those affected by the current crisis of the country require support urgently.

Over 150 donate blood at ICBF blood donation driveTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The Indian Community Benev-olent Forum (ICBF) organised a blood donation drive in coordi-nation with HMC Blood Donor Unit at the unit itself.

The event was supported by the members of ICBF, associated organisations of ICBF, and com-munity leaders and members. The event was inaugurated by the ICBF Coordinating Officer and the Second Secretary at the Indian Embassy, Dr Muhammed Aleem.

The Guest of honour was Ahmed Ramdan, an expatriate who

donated blood more than 100 times, and Saibu George, Assistant Professor of Clinical Medicine at Weil Cornell Medical College.

ICBF Presdent P N Baburajan presided over while ICBF General-Secretary, Avinash Gaikwad, and Vice-President, Mahesh Gowda, spoke during the function. The event was well supported by com-munity members and more than 150 persons reported for donation on the day. Blood Donation is an activity that is actively promoted by ICBF as it is to help the needy people irrespective of cast, creed, religion and nationality, it is an act of humanity to help our brethren who are in need.


QF’s ‘Bridging the Gap’ overcomeslanguage barriers in healthcareFAZEENA SALEEM THE PENINSULA

The ‘Bridging the Gap’, a medical inter-preters training programme by Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar (WCM-Q), a Qatar Foundation (QF) partner university, is helping patients and health professionals in the country to overcome language barriers.

WCM-Q has developed the pio-neering programme in order to seal any gaps in communication that affect interaction between healthcare pro-fessionals and patients in Qatar’s mul-tilingual community.

‘Bridging the Gap’ was launched by WCM-Q’s Center for Cultural Com-petence in Healthcare (CCCHC), part of the university’s Institute for Popu-lation Health in 2012. Since then, it has trained over 288 medical interpreters who collectively speak 22 languages. It is complementing the efforts of healthcare organisations within Qatar which have set up medical interpre-tation programmes to provide lan-guage services to their patients. “The medical interpretation training pro-vided through ‘Bridging the Gap’ is designed to train bilingual and multi-lingual healthcare professionals to understand the linguistic and cultural barriers that exist within healthcare services,” said Maha Elnashar, Director of CCCHC.

“Bridging the Gap’ aims is to build medical interpretation capacity in Qatar that supports effective commu-nication within healthcare services,” she added.

Bridging the Gap’s alumni are pro-fessionals from various backgrounds, both medical and non-medical including physicians, pharmacists, dentists, nurses, technicians, allied health professionals from across healthcare organisations in the country. As the programme continues to enable both healthcare trainees and professionals to discover and learn about medical terminology in different languages, develop their cross-cultural

dialogue skills, and reduce language barriers, minds have turned to how it can be enhanced.

“It’s important for trained inter-preters to put what they have learned into practice, and acquire real-world knowledge in the healthcare field,” said Elnashar. “We hope to receive the support of healthcare organisations in Qatar to provide the interpreters trained through Bridging the Gap with opportunities for practical experience.”

“The establishment of a volun-teering programme within healthcare organisations in Qatar would allow medical interpreters to maintain and further develop their skills. We are looking to work with interested parties to make this happen, as we believe it will help Qatar achieve its vision of a holistic, world-class, and completely accessible healthcare system,” said Elnashar. She believes that the value of Bridging the Gap can be felt in easing medical communication between Qatar’s health professionals and the community. Interpretation in healthcare is not simply a case of explaining the meaning of another lan-guage’s words. Developing and refining cross-cultural language skills in a

healthcare context requires a more nuanced approach and specialised training.

“As a pediatrician, I became aware of the medical terms required in this field, and it showed me the importance of being able to communicate with patients and families about their medical conditions,” said Alaa Suliman, one of the graduates of the programme, physician and a researcher. “However, there is more to effective medical interpretation than simply speaking the language and knowing the necessary terms. You have to, for example, learn the skill of being as neutral as possible of being able to provide impartiality and advocacy,” said Alaa, who is also a member of the Scientific Planning Committee of the Bridging the Gap.

Alaa also believes the programme helps medical professionals to be even better at what they do. “Bridging The Gap exceeded my expectations,” she said, “because it added many elements to my skills as a healthcare practitioner, whether I am acting as an medical interpreter or a pediatrician. It not only showed me the role of a medical inter-preter, but also the responsibilities that come with it.

Healthcare professionals during a session as part of the ‘Bridging the Gap’ programme to overcome language barriers.

Hyundai Santa Fe named most dependable mid-size SUV by J D PowerTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Hyundai’s Santa Fe has received one of the world’s most highly respected awards for long-term owner satisfaction, being named as the most dependable mid-size SUV in the J D Power 2019 Vehicle Dependability Study.

Skyline Automotive WLL, is the official distribution partner of the Hyundai Motor Company in the State of Qatar.

The United States-based study, now in its 30th year, examines problems experienced during the past 12 months by 80,000 original owners of 2016 model-year vehicles. Overall dependability is determined by the number of problems experi-enced per 100 vehicles (PP100), with a lower score reflecting higher quality.

The study covers 177 specific problems, with cars grouped into eight major vehicle categories. The Santa Fe ranked highest in its class, demonstrating real-world dependability based on the expe-rience of real owners.

“Dependability is the foun-dation of Hyundai’s success as a brand, so this is an important award for us as a company,” said

Hyundai’s Middle East and Africa Head of Operations, Mike Song. “We offer customers bold design, powerful performance, versatility, and a host of advanced technol-ogies to keep drivers and pas-sengers comfortable, happy and

safe. Most of all, we promise all of this in a car that people can depend on year after year.”

As a long-term test, the 2019 Vehicle Dependability Study assessed a model-year of the pre-vious third-generation Santa Fe. Hyundai launched an all-new fourth generation during 2018.

Mike Song said he believes the current Santa Fe goes even further to create satisfied customers. For 2019 models, the

Santa Fe features new safety, comfort and convenience tech-nologies, better visibility, increased cabin and storage space, and bolder design language.

J.D. Power is a global market information consultancy, known for its research into customer sat-isfaction and product quality. Its automotive surveys include the Vehicle Dependability Study each year, and also the Initial Quality Study which looks at problems people have with new cars during the first 90 days of ownership.

The officials of Hyundai’s Santa Fe with the award.

QIFF experience extends to over 90 restaurants around QatarTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Over 90 restaurants around Qatar are serving a curated ‘QIFF Menu’ throughout the month of March, as part of the 10th edition festivities of the Qatar Interna-tional Food Festival (QIFF).

QIFF Menu has been a popular feature of the festival in previous editions, adding to the festivities of the annual event outside its main venue, which this year will be Oxygen Park in Education City.

Restaurants and cafes are offering an exclusive 3-course QIFF Menu consisting of a starter, main course and dessert, at dis-counted prices of QR45, QR95 and QR125. Among these, 35 res-taurants are in hotels, 16 inside malls and over 40 are standalone restaurants. While the festival is taking place from March 20-30, people can enjoy QIFF Menus at their favourite restaurants throughout the month of March.

“QIFF Menu is once again part of the country’s longest-running festival, which celebrates the cul-tural diversity of Qatar, high-lighting its unique venues and diverse tourism offerings,” said AlShaima Al Sheikh, of Qatar National Tourism Council (QNTC). Six top restaurants from Aura Hospitality and Food Services and Palma Hospitality Group are offering different QIFF Menus to their customers with discounts totaling up to 30%. These restau-rants include Remman Café, Gah-wetna, Jwala, Baladna, La Casa, and Mokarabia.

This edition of QIFF marks 10 successful years of paving the way for opportunities in Qatar’s F&B sector while welcoming vis-itors and residents to enjoy the diverse flavours of the world at the forefront of Qatar’s pictur-esque venues.

QCS launches new fundraising projectTHE PENINSULA/DOHA

Qatar Cancer Society (QCS) has launched a project to collect funds for the treatment of certain patients in need of a full donation for the treatment, or part of it with a minimum amount of QR500. Funds will be collected through collection points at shopping complexes, hospitals and other places. Suleiman Al Kiswani, Head of Donation Department at QCS , said “The project was launched to ensure that certain patients in need will receive donations. The donor will be made aware of patient information such as age, gender, type of cancer and its stage but the name will be kept anonymous.”

QCS has helped 900 patients for their treatment in 2018 at a total cost of QR9m, and Al Kiswani also said that QCS gives priority for patient treatment.


Leadership training programme for Qatari nurses aims to boost healthcareTHE PENINSULA DOHA

The World Innovation for Health (WISH), an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), organised a training programme designed to help Qatari nurses develop leadership competencies and to empower them with skills that will allow them to play a more dynamic role in Qatar’s expanding healthcare system.

Held within Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City and with the support of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the four-day training pro-gramme was delivered by international and local experts in nursing, and formed part of the three-year global ‘Nursing Now’ pro-gramme, which aim to promote healthcare.

Sultana Afdhal, CEO of WISH, and Dr Nicola Ryley, Chief Nursing Officer at HMC, co-chairs of the Qatar chapter of ‘Nursing Now’, opened the training programme. Other key supporters, senior nursing representatives of the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC); Al-Ahli Hos-pital; University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ), and Sidra Medicine, a member of QF also took part in the event.

Afdhal said, “At our most recent summit last November, nursing was selected as one of the main research topics. The WISH report on nursing noted that there was a massive shortfall in qualified nurses and midwives around the world, that nurses felt undervalued within

healthcare systems, and that nurses had a sig-nificant role to play at the vanguard of efforts to deliver universal health coverage globally.

“Once our summits end, we will work closely with partners both in Qatar and around the world to see where the learning from WISH can be implemented and where policy recom-mendations can be promoted. We are always keen to support Qatar’s efforts to build capacity and demonstrate best practice in healthcare and appreciate the willingness of leaders within Qatar’s healthcare system to work with us.”

Dr Ryley explained how this initiative

underpins national efforts to develop Qatari healthcare professionals and equip them with appropriate skills for leadership advancement.

“Our local nurse leaders are passionate about strengthening the national professional identity of nursing in Qatar, and have shown immense interest in developing their skills to contribute to raising nursing and midwifery standards of care,” she said. “This is a wonderful training program for the senior group of nurses and midwives, and our collective focus is now on being proactive and putting the learning into practice to benefit our patients.”

‘Nursing Now’ programme brings together nurses and healthcare stakeholders across Qatar.

Hyatt Plaza Mall announces photo contest ‘Capture Qatar’THE PENINSULA DOHA

Hyatt Plaza Mall announced that participants for the annual photography contest, ‘Capture Qatar’ — both amateur and professional photographers in the country — may submit their photos in physical form or online until April 15, 2019.

Mohammed Al Hawamdeh, Head of Marketing at Hyatt Plaza Mall, said that the com-petition would encourage pho-tography lovers to get creative and showcase their talent through the contest.

“The submitted photo-graphs will be reviewed by a Panel of Judges from the Hyatt Plaza Mall and ‘Youth Hobbies Center’ which will select the top 100 images that will be exhibited inside the Mall for 10 days from April 25.

The (10) winners will be honoured in a ceremony and will receive cameras and an exclusive Hyatt Plaza VIP Card,” he said.

Al Hawamdeh added that

the response to the opening of submission of the photo c o n t e s t e n t r i e s w a s tremendous.

“We are amazed by the innovation in some of the entries, and we are confident that participants will surprise us in this contest as there is no better way to tell a story than through a lense,” he added.

“This photo contest gives Hyatt Plaza Mall a great oppor-tunity to engage Qatar com-munity in such activity that makes the mall a responsible corporate citizen — Hyatt Plaza Mall always upholds and actively participates in creative projects as well as artistically enhancing programmes.

The photography contest is open to all participants aged twelve years and above. The winners will be announced on May 4, 2019.

Full entry details are available online: www.cap-tureqatarcontest.com or visit Hyatt Plaza Mall customer service desk from 9am until 10pm.


The Majlis – Cultures in Dialogue moves to new European destinationTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Following a two-month unique stay at the Institut du monde arabe (IMA) in Paris, “The Majlis – Cultures in Dialogue”, a travelling cross-cultural exhibition organised at the initiative of the Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al-Thani Museum, hosted a breathtaking closing cultural ceremony on March 10, in the presence of leading dignitaries from France and Qatar, waving off to a new European destination as part of its global inimitable tour.

The exhibition that features a col-lection of a unique assembly of artefacts reflecting the interaction of civilizations in the past while encouraging dialogue in the present, was the ideal spot for interesting open cultural discussions, having them held during the past two months at the heart of the majlis, the main hub of the exhibition.

Grabbing the French audience’s attention to key topics such as “The Power of Language in Shaping Culture” and “Evolving Art to Identities” throughout its cultural discussions at IMA, where attendees discussed the advancement and preservation of culture

through language and art, the organisers had chosen to end its exceptional journey in Paris by discussing “Sports as a Driver of Cultural Change” - one of the most pressing topics in Qatar today and in which all Qataris and expatriates are equally interested, given the spectacular local preparations to host the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

The cultural dialogue was a great feat.

It brought forth the synergies and links between sports and culture and empha-sized on how sports can help in engaging cultural interaction. The agenda was remarkably projected by renowned speakers including Phillipe Vinogradoff, the French Ambassador for Sports; Dr Jean-François Robin, a Specialist in Work Psychology and Sports Didactics; Khalid Jassem, Qatari TV presenter and writer

on Al Kass TV Sports Channels; Xavier Bouyer, internationally-renowned per-former and artist; and Nasser Al Hinzab, legal counsel of Qatar to Unesco.

Khalid Jassem, highlighted the importance of having that day as part of the Qatari calendar while emphasizing on the government’s efforts that are suc-cessfully putting Qatar on the global sports map. “Whether through Aspetar that assists athletes to achieve their maximum performance and full potential or Aspire Zone that aims to enhance sports performance and act as the ref-erence in sports excellence worldwide by 2020, Qatar went far in promoting sports culture and still has big ambitions to achieve”.

The closing cultural discussion saw a magnificent performance by Xavier Bouyer. A choreography that showcased the power of physical balance in deliv-ering the meanings of impartiality and peace.

Commenting on the success the exhi-bition received at Institut du monde arabe, Sheikh Mohamed bin Faisal Al Thani, Member of the board of trustees of Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani Museum, said: “We feel proud of the interaction that our cultural discussions

were able to create at Institut du monde arabe. Being at this important cultural destination complements our role in bringing cultures closer together. The closing ceremony discussing culture and sports was indeed an achievement by itself following the overwhelming response we have received from all speakers and attendees. This success lays a greater responsibility on our shoulders as we are eager to continue with our cul-tural global mission of bringing people from different backgrounds together.”

Post a very enriching and influential voyage into the cultural hubs from Grand Master’s Palace in Valetta - Malta, the Unesco Headquarters in and Institut du monde arabe in Paris, ‘The Majlis – Cul-tures in Dialogues’ has set its course to visit new European countries, including Austria, Germany, Spain, Turkey, and the UK. The tour will also include the United States by 2021.

The exhibition has been organised in collaboration with the Unesco Doha Office and Institut du monde arabe, as well as under the Platinum sponsorship of Qatar Shell, Silver sponsorship of Refalo & Zammit Pace Advocates, and local sponsorships of QNB, Katara Hos-pitality, and Handson.

The officials at the event.

HMC teams safely deliver baby in Trauma Resuscitation Unit after mother involved in accidentTHE PENINSULA DOHA

More than 25,000 babies are born each year under the expert care of Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) labor and delivery teams and the vast majority of these deliveries take place as planned. However, on February 23, things did not go as expected for one mother when she was involved in a road traffic accident while in labor on the way to Women’s Wellness and Research Center (WWRC).

Muna Abdelawel from Eritrea, was 36 weeks pregnant when she experienced labor pains while at home. While on the way to the hospital their car was hit hard

from behind by another vehicle and Abdelawel and her daughter were both violently thrown forward causing them to sustain head lacerations. Abdelawel’s husband Ibrahim was driving the car. Abdelawel immediately called 999 and an ambulance was on the scene within minutes. The para-medics treated Abdelawel and her daughter and transported the entire family to Hamad General Hospital (HGH).

“We have processes in place that alert clinical teams in the Trauma Section about high pri-ority patients who are on their way to HGH. Part of this process enables any pregnant woman with trauma injuries to be immediately admitted to the Trauma Section

without the need for the usual assessments at the Emergency Department. This advanced warning helped the trauma team prepare for Abdelawel’s arrival and meant they could immediately alert the on-call gynecologist from WWRC,” said Asmaa Al Atey, Director of Trauma Nursing.

On arrival at HGH, Abdelawel was admitted to the Trauma Resuscitation Unit where she was received by the trauma team, while her daughter was rushed to the Emergency Department for immediate treatment of her facial injuries. Dr Neven Mustafa, the on-call gynecologist, arrived moments later. “It was clear that Abdelawel was in the advanced stages of labor and that her baby

would be born very soon. Dr Abu Baker, the trauma team leader assessed her facial injuries and a decision was made to prioritise the mother’s delivery needs and carry out the full range of head assess-ments after the birth,” said Dr Abdelawel.

Within minutes, Abdelawel delivered her second daughter,

baby Entesar. The WWRC neona-tologist assessed baby Entesar while Abdelawel underwent a CT Scan and full assessment. Fol-lowing confirmation of no serious complications due to her facial injuries, both mother and baby were transferred via ambulance to the WWRC where baby Entesar was admitted to the Neonatal

Intensive Care Unit for observation.

Baby Entesar was discharged home three days later and the entire family is now fully recovered from their eventful experience and thankful for the way in which HMC’s care teams responded to this unusual set of circumstances.

Muna Abdelawel with her newborn baby and HMC team.

If white supremacist violence and its broader aim of promoting itself through baiting the media in the wake of mass murder is to be retrenched, we must actively resist sharing, retweeting, and perpetuating the images and ideas. Turning our attention to the victims and celebrating their lives in the midst of grief is the first - and most vital - step.

YEMELI ORTEGA AFP

08 SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019VIEWS

Humanise the victims, not the white supremacist who killed them

Following the carnage at two Christchurch mosques in New Zealand on Friday, that debili-tating grip of anger mixed with

fear, anxiety coupled with hate, crept in. I rushed, minutes after learning about the massacre, to uncover the motive, glean through the manifesto, and grapple with the vile white supremacy that drove the terrorist.

Then I stopped. I realised, after sifting through the bleak headlines and darker social media posts, that his broader objective was reeling us in. Seducing us into examining his very word, affixing our eyes to his image and video of the massacre, and most lastingly, memorising his name.

This was the bigger mission that followed the massacre. He wanted us spellbound. Lured into humanising

every dimension of his being, and every vile sliver of his act, in place of the victims. Their lives, their stories, and most notably, their names.

All 49 of them.

Again, I stopped, turned my attention from the terrorist and fully onto the victims.

While the media was fully wed to telling the ter-rorist’s story, highlighting his com-mitment to inciting “civil war” in

America and showcasing his admi-ration of a motley crew of white supremacists such as Dylann Roof and Anders Breivik, I embraced the Muslim victims. And began a thread to share their stories, celebrate their lives, and say their names.

If we don’t tell our stories, the history of mainstream media affirms time and again, nobody will. Muslims are typically newsworthy when vil-lains - not victims. And Islamophobia is perpetuated by portraying Muslims, whether victims or villains, as a faceless, nameless, and monolithic bloc.

By profiling the victims, I simulta-neously challenged that damning ster-eotype, and dodged the booby trap set by the media-hungry terrorist.

I profiled three-year-old Muca Ibrahim, the youngest of the 49 victims, who entered the mosque with his family members only to be shot. The youngest child of Somali refugees who wrongly thought New Zealand offered a safe haven from terrorism.

Not far from young Muca laid Daoud Nabi, the oldest of the victims. The 71-year-old grandfather was the terrorist’s first victim to be named publicly. Witnesses said he leapt in front of a barrage of bullets to save another worshipper’s life. He survived gunshots and war in his native Afghanistan, but was murdered in a democracy where white supremacy and Islamophobia are ferociously rising.

Nabi was not the lone hero on that fateful day. Shortly after his 20-year-old son Talha was killed, Naeem Rashid rushed towards the terrorist barehanded. Naeem marshalled infinite courage while experiencing immense pain, knowing that this act of faith would be his last. He too was shot, but steered the murderer’s gun away from others and saved lives before his final breath.

Another son, Abdullahi Dirie, was

killed shortly after praying alongside his father. The precocious four-year-old insisted on attending the mosque with his family, Somali immigrants that sought a better life for their youngest and his four siblings. He ran into the mosque that Friday, wide-eyed and wide-smiled. A family member held him tightly to his chest, one final time, as they walked out of the mosque - a sacred place of worship turned into a mass murder scene.

These are only a handful of stories of the victims. The names, the faces, and the short vignettes of longer pro-files and aborted lives that too often reduced into statistics. A dehumanised digit, or in this case, two - 49 - that fails to capture the depth of the pain of their loved ones, and more impor-tantly, the depth of the lives that they led.

That depth of attention, a morbid journalistic twist indeed, is usually reserved for the terrorist. And espe-cially, when that terrorist is a white male. We rush to learn about their every word and motive, childhood factoid and ideological inspiration. And the mainstream media makes all of this readily available for us, in turn luring our attention towards the villain and away from the victims.

If white supremacist violence and its broader aim of promoting itself through baiting the media in the wake of mass murder is to be retrenched, we must actively resist sharing, retweeting, and perpetuating the images and ideas. Turning our attention to the victims and cele-brating their lives in the midst of grief is the first - and most vital - step.

KHALED A BEYDOUN AL JAZEERA

QUOTE OF THE DAYCounter-terrorism

operations cannot override

responsibilities to protect civilians. A

ceasefire in Idlib is a necessary step to pave

the way for a nation-wide ceasefire.

Antonio Guterres UN Secretary-General

Venezuela’s hidden damage: Mental stress as desperation grows

Escarli is afraid of the dark. German appears absent. Yuri tips into rage at the smallest upset. Mental malaise in Vene-

zuela is growing, a hidden anguish adding to the litany of ills ravaging the country. A nationwide blackout, unprecedented in scale and length, only worsened the psychological descent for Venezuelans as they watched cash machines and water pipes shut down for lack of electricity, and their homes plunged into darkness.

The outage lasted five days, to Tuesday this week. But the trauma goes on, giving some residents a haunted look -- people tottering on the edge after four years of political and socioeconomic crisis. “There is desperation,” summed up Jorge de Avila, a 38-year-old store employee who lined up at dawn to buy canisters of cooking gas in a dangerous poor district in the southeast of Caracas.

The neighborhood of makeshift houses spent seven days with no power, and two weeks without water. The little food stored in fridges spoiled, and the local clinic ceased operations.

“These have been hard days. We have no access to services, to food. Many families with children are sinking into despair. Many shops are shut. A lot of food has spoiled,” De Avila said.

Stefania Aguzzi, a psychologist heading a free mental health associ-ation that consults by telephone, said many Venezuelans are “suffering with

enormous sadness” that could “become depression very quickly, with anxiety levels that would turn chronic.”

The blackout was a dramatic blow on top of a deteriorating situation for the country of 30 million inhabitants who are reduced to daily protests and struggling to survive against a tsunami of hyperinflation and lack of cash, food and medicine.

For days it paralyzed the country, knocking out bank card terminals in shops used to electronically pay for what goods were available, forcing cit-izens to increasingly turn to the ony currency available: dollars.

Water pumps stopped working. Some hospitals without standalone generators collapsed.

“We’re in a bad way, and on guard because there’s looting going on, some establishments are being robbed. There is tension. Police are firing shots, running after those people. You lock your doors but don’t know if they’re going to turn on you,” said Gabriela Martinez, a 37-year-old administrator.

For Mayaro Ortega, a psychologist and researcher at the National Auton-omous University of Mexico, “this state of chronic emergency is a risk factor for developing post-traumatic stress.”

When someone is incapable of securing basic necessities and per-sonal safety, they can fall victim to panic attacks even while outwardly appearing calm, she explained. “Children are the most vulnerable.” Escarli, a nine-year-old girl with shining dark eyes, fears the darkness the blackout brought.

“When I go to pee I feel afraid because I feel that somebody is going to come and scare me,” said the girl, who has spent a week without going to school because of the power outage.

Ortega said Venezuela was impacted by “collective stress.”

“It’s contagious, and is spread ini-tially because we’re social beings. Evo-lutionarily speaking, we are built to feel empathy for others and what hap-pened in the past still affects us,” she said. Rage is another symptom.

Yuri Martera says she is gripped with fury and “can’t tolerate anyone.”

She lost control of herself when one of her neighbors expressed unconditional support for the gov-ernment of President Nicolas Maduro.

“Out!” she screamed, which sum-moned a crowd that likewise directed their fury at the neighbor.

At the other end of the same dis-trict, German Parra, a 61-year-old car-penter, rooted through fly-covered garbage with a faraway look on his face, mentally removed from what was going on around him.

“Sometimes I find a morsel of something to eat,” he said, his face lined beyond his years and missing teeth. Psychologists said the depression provoked by post-trau-matic stress can lead to suicidal thoughts.

Aguzzi said she knew of people who committed suicide “because they were diagnosed with cancer and knew there was no way of getting chemo-therapy, so they threw themselves off buildings.”

There are “a large number of sui-cides that aren’t spoken of,” she said.

The attack has also stressed the need of paying serious attention to increasing threats posed by racist white nationalists to migrants particularly Muslims in many Western countries, although leaders like US President Donald Trump have always down played such threats.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK [email protected]

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM [email protected]

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI [email protected]

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Defeat terrorism now

Terrorism has no religion or fixed forms or identical geographical location therefore terrorism cannot be dubbed as the product of any specific religion or can

never be linked to particular bodies. It is the product of corrupt, narrow-minded, arrogant

egos and of hardened hearts. Terrorism is a form of sur-render to emotions; absenteeism of mind; and arrogance which ultimately lead to destructive actions like the one occurred in mosques of New Zealand on Friday when a gunman wearing military fatigues and wielding five weapons stormed into two mosques.

The massacre that claimed lives of 49 Muslim worshippers and wounded 40 other worshippers was the worst terror incident in the history of New Zealand. Australia-born 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant exposed his apparent fasci-nation with the religious conflicts in Europe and the Balkans during his visits to a number of countries in the region in 2016-2018, are being investigated.

The right-wing extremist charged over the horrifying attacks on mosques in Christchurch flashed a white power gesture as he appeared in court yesterday, at the time the shocked Muslim community began making arrangements

for the burial of 49 people.For more than decades Islam

has been accused of being source of terrorism for political motives ignoring the fact that Islam is a religion of tolerance and peaceful coexistence with all of humanity both as individuals and communities.

The horrific massacre has put the spotlight on the lethality of the semi-automatic weapons used by the killer in Christchurch and in numerous past attacks in the United States, as an official of New Zealand’ investigation has affirmed that the man legally purchased the arsenal of firearms used in the massacre.

The attack has also stressed the need of paying serious attention to increasing threats posed by racist white nationalists to migrants particularly Muslims in many Western countries, although leaders like US Pres-ident Donald Trump have always down played such threats.

The role of social media and mainstream media should not be ignored or used for justi-fication or encouraging such terror acts under any circum-stances. In this context the Western tabloid newspapers’ cov-erage of the attack on Christchurch mosque and their attempt to “humanise” the killer is rejected.

The British tabloid, Daily Mirror labeled him an “angelic boy who grew into an evil far-right mass killer”, and described him as “a likeable and dedicated personal trainer running free athletic programmes for kids”. Whatever justifications criminals present to justify their act, terrorism is an act of aggression against innocent civilians for political ends; a heinous crime against humanity and religion is not a source of terrorism. Terrorism is disease which must not be under-estimated and the world should stand united against its all forms and manifestations. Love should win over hatred as peaceful co-existence has no alternative.

Muslims, Jews and Christians attending a commemoration ceremony for those who lost their lives during twin terror attacks in New Zealand mosques, in Rotterdam, Netherlands, yesterday.

What started as peaceful protests in 2011 asking for government change turned into one of the cruelest modern wars and left a trail of broken lives among the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Now half are displaced, nearly half a million dead and many live with permanent scars or have joined militias.

09SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019 OPINION

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The US should leadthe Ebola response

For Syrians, 8 years of war leaves stories of loss and hope

RONALD A. KLAIN THE WASHINGTON POST

SARAH EL DEEB AP

Five years ago, the United States was gripped with fear and awash in news coverage as the worst Ebola outbreak in history

spread in West Africa. Today, the world’s second-worst outbreak of the deadly disease is underway in Congo, but most Americans seem unaware or unconcerned. Why such a difference?

In some respects, the difference is understandable. The current outbreak - as bad as it is - has seen only a small fraction of the number of Ebola deaths recorded in 2014. That outbreak hit nations - Liberia, Sierra Leone and Guinea - that have sizable diasporan populations in the United States, which sounded alarms about relatives in danger back home; there are far fewer immigrants from Congo in the United States. The 2014 outbreak also caused a stir in the United States because an Ebola-infected patient brought the disease to Dallas, where two nurses involved in his treatment also fell ill: Ebola in America. Nothing similar has happened with the current outbreak, nor - given how few people travel from the affected area - is it likely.

Thus, it is no surprise that pressure for a massive US response such as the one the Obama administration undertook in 2014 - a $6 billion emer-gency-aid package, more than 10,000

US civilians at work in the region - has not been repeated. Such an effort has also seemed unnecessary to this point. A vaccine for Ebola, developed near the end of the 2014 outbreak, is now available. Through the work of the global vaccine alliance Gavi, nearly 90,000 Congolese have received it. The World Health Organization, which failed miserably during the 2014 out-break, has new leadership that has responded expertly and aggressively to this outbreak.

Yet, even with these favorable developments, evidence of the current response’s success is mixed. Though the WHO recently asserted that the out-break is being contained and will wind down in six more months, the death toll continues to mount (and until the out-break is fully extinguished, anything can happen). With more than 100 armed groups in eastern Congo, where the outbreak is most intense, violence has forced several leading response organizations to withdraw; treatment facilities have been attacked. And each day the outbreak continues, the risk of a catastrophic turn - migration of the disease to massive refugee camps in South Sudan, or to the populous Con-golese capital of Kinshasa - remains.

I am a Trump administration critic, generally, but I acknowledge that much of its Ebola response so far has been responsible. For example, while Donald Trump on Twitter in 2014 viciously crit-icized the Obama administration airlift of Ebola-exposed Americans back to the United States for treatment, as pres-ident, he allowed such a mission to go forward last December. The United States has contributed millions of dollars to the global response effort, and key administration officials - including Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention DirectorRobert Redfield - have visited the region. The adminis-tration announced this last week it is sending 10 more disease-fighting experts to Congo (albeit 200 miles away from the heart of the epidemic). In sum, the Trump administration has taken the standard measures for buttressing a global health response effort. The problem is that the customary approach may not get the job done this time, just as it would not have in 2014.

A major challenge is a lack of White House leadership. After Ebola was defeated in West Africa in 2015 (and after I left the post of Ebola Response coordinator), President Barack Obama created a special National Security Council team to oversee epidemic pre-paredness and response on a per-manent basis. Trump retained the unit during his first year in office, but on the day that John Bolton took over as national security adviser in 2018, he dismantled the unit and ousted its leader, the widely respected Rear Adm. Timothy Ziemer. Perhaps fighting epi-demics didn’t fit Bolton’s “hard power” view of security.

Fighting Ebola in Congo is the sort of global health challenge that requires White House leadership. Adding signifi-cantly more US disease fighters in Congo, and placing them closer to the outbreak, would be dangerous but needs to be considered; the White House has, so far,refused to allow it. Rallying nations in the region to put together a multinational, security-equipped response force needs a White House push. Preparing a vastly expanded response if the epidemic escalates - including potentially a mass vaccination campaign in Congo - requires White House-level resources. That is sadly missing.

War is personal. And in Syria, after eight years of a grinding conflict, there are as many

stories of loss, dispossession and desperate hope as there are people.

What started as peaceful pro-tests in 2011 asking for government change turned into one of the cru-elest modern wars and left a trail of broken lives among the country’s pre-war population of 23 million. Now half are displaced, nearly half a million dead and many live with permanent scars or have joined militias.

The years of war have left their mark on Dia Hassakeh’s 45-year old face. The Arab fighter in the Kurdish-led U.S-backed Syrian Democratic Forces has seen his family suffer on the conflict’s many fronts.

In the early days of the conflict, two of his brothers were wounded fighting in the government military against the armed opposition. In November, another brother was killed by the Islamic State group. Now Dia is battling the militants at IS’ last holdout, a speck of territory along the Euphrates River near the Iraqi border called Baghouz.

“As Syrians, every citizen has paid the price,” he said, speaking just outside Baghouz. He took the name of his hometown Hassakeh as a nom de guerre when he joined the SDF.

While the Islamic State group’s territorial defeat will close one

bloody chapter, Syria is still wracked by conflict on the eighth anniversary of its long-running civil war.

Syrian President Bashar Assad’s government appears to have won the war against the insurgency trying to topple him. But much of the country is out of Assad’s hands. The northeast and east, wrested from IS, is largely held by the US-backed Kurdish-led forces. But their fate as well is uncertain. Though President Donald Trump announced he would withdraw American troops, the US is appar-ently keeping a small force, hoping to encourage the Europeans to strengthen their presence to protect its Kurdish allies from their nemesis Turkey, and counter Iran’s expansion in the region.

Militants are still a potent force. The Islamic State group has planted the seeds to wage an insurgency. The northwestern province of Idlib - an opposition stronghold throughout the war - is home to other jihadists as radical as IS. Nearly 3 million Syrians live in the province, most displaced from other parts of Syria that fell under gov-ernment control. A Turkish-Russian truce that averted a government assault on Idlib and took pressure off Assad is fraying, threatening new bloodshed.

Assad remains hostage to his massive need for cash to rebuild and his reliance on his allies, Russia and Iran, which are pursuing their own interests. Moscow wants to keep access to the Mediterranean and a position to challenge the West; Tehran is keeping an array of militias in Syria to preserve its domain of influence stretching from Iraq to Lebanon.

And public opposition is not extinguished.

Like Groundhog Day, protesters in southern Syria took to the streets of Daraa, the city where the 2011 anti-government rallies first erupted and where the government only finally managed to re-establish control last year. Men and children this month held day and night pro-tests chanting against Assad after authorities planned to erect a statute for his late father.

“The people want a new pres-ident,” protesters chanted, a 2019 version of “the people want to bring down the regime.”

Within this maze of conflicts, players and interests, Syrians try to find their way.

Dia never liked the anti-gov-ernment protests. When they erupted in 2011, he left Hassakeh - in the northeast of Syria - to live in northern Iraq. There, while two of

his brothers fought in the military against the rebels, he ran a home appliances business and sat out the war - until the war caught up with him unexpectedly. The Islamic State group, feeding off Syria’s chaos, swept over much of Syria and northern Iraq. Dia returned to Has-sakeh and found the militants closing in on his home province.

He volunteered to fight against them to “protect our family, land and country,” he said.

He blames outsiders- militants and superpowers - for breaking up his country. Having fought in the SDF and served in his own govern-ment’s army before the revolts, he still believes the country will be put back together and heal.

“Any country that goes through this needs time.”

The irony is he is fighting in a force backed by a foreign power - the US - and led by Kurds deter-mined to stay as separate as possible.

Sefqan, a 29-year old Kurd who commands an SDF unit of more than 200 special forces fighters, has no issues with his country breaking up and the central government losing authority.

“The Baath regime is no good for us Kurds,” he said, referring to Assad’s ruling party. “Our rights were lost in Syria ... Our war is to get out from under of this injustice.” Sefqan fought against IS and prior to that other jihadist groups who threatened his hometown, Amuda, in Hassakeh province.

Kurds, who made of 10 percent of Syria’s pre-war population, have long complained of discrimination and oppression by Damascus. Sefqan belongs to an even more disenfranchised community - he’s one of thousands of Kurds who are stateless, because in the past they either failed to convince authorities they were Syrian residents or didn’t take part in censuses in the 1960s and 1970s. Referred to as the “for-eigners of Hassakeh,” ‘’the muted” or “the concealed,” they were long deprived of basic rights like edu-cation and health services and were barred even from moving from province to province.

“Any group has a state. Why do we the Kurds not have one? To go to schools. To speak our language. To have an airport and travel. I can’t even go to Damascus,” said Sefqan, who spoke on condition he be iden-tified only by his first name in accordance with SDF rules for its commanders.

Now Sefqan and many of his people enjoy new found confidence and clout, with the Kurdish-led

administration controlling north-eastern Syria and bolstered by natural resources and good rela-tions with the U.S-led coalition.

Sefqan and other Kurds dream of emulating the extensive autonomy enjoyed by Iraq’s northern Kurdistan. He said the Kurdish-led administration has made strides in giving real repre-sentation to the community and praised its efforts to introduce democracy.

“If they continue this, it will be good,” he said - though with a note of wariness. Rights groups blame the SDF and the administration for arbitrarily detaining critics, forcing military conscription and con-trolling what are meant to be repre-sentative political bodies.

Through the work of the global vaccine alliance Gavi, nearly 90,000 Congolese have received it. The World Health Organization, which failed miserably during the 2014 outbreak, has new leadership that has responded expertly and aggressively to this outbreak.

10 SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Iraq begins exhuming mass grave in Sinjar region

IN SHORT

Arab fund offers

$300m loan

to SudanKHARTOUM: Sudan said yes-

terday it has received a

$300m loan from the Arab

Monetary Fund to tackle

its foreign currency crisis, a

key factor behind protests

against President Omar Al

Bashir’s rule.

Growing anger over soaring

food prices and Sudan’s eco-

nomic woes have triggered

nationwide protests since

December.

The finance ministry said it

signed agreements with the

pan-Arab AMF for two loans.

“One agreement is for a loan

of $230m and the second is

a $70m facility to buy stra-

tegic items,” it said, without

giving details. The agreement

was signed by Sudan’s acting

Finance Minister Mustafa Hoali

and Abdulrahman al-Hamidy,

head of the Abu Dhabi-based

AMF. Deadly protests erupted

in Sudan on December 19

after a government decision

to triple the price of bread.

The protests turned into

widespread demonstrations

against the government.

ERBIL: The Iraqi govern-

ment has started exhuming

a mass grave left behind by

the Islamic State group in the

northwestern Sinjar region in

the presence of Nobel Peace

Prize laureate Nadia Murad,

whose slain relatives are

believed to have been buried

in the area.

The exhumation, which is

being carried out with UN

support, began on Friday in

the village of Kocho. Murad’s

official website said it marks

the first exhumation of a

mass grave containing the

remains of Yazidis.

IS militants rampaged

across Sinjar in 2014, killing

Yazidi men and abduct-

ing thousands of women

and children. Over 70 mass

graves have been discovered

in Sinjar since it was liberated

from IS in November 2015.

In November, UN investiga-

tors said they have verified

the location of more than

200 mass grave sites.

Cyclone ‘Idai’ leaves 140 dead in 3 African nations AP HARARE

Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi have been hit by a vicious cyclone that has killed more than 140 people, left hundreds more missing and stranded tens of thousands who are cut off from roads and tele-phones in mainly poor, rural areas.

Cyclone Idai has affected more than 1.5 million people in the three southern African coun-tries, according to the UN and government officials.

Hardest hit is Mozambique’s central port city of Beira where the airport is closed, electricity is out and many homes have been destroyed. The storm hit Beira late on Thursday and moved westward into Zimbabwe and Malawi, affecting thousands more, particularly in eastern areas bordering Mozambique.

Homes, schools, businesses, hospitals and police stations have been destroyed by the cyclone. Thousands were marooned by the heavy flooding and, only caring for the lives, abandoned their possessions to seek safety on higher ground.

UN agencies and the Red

Cross are helping with rescue efforts that include delivering food supplies and medicines by helicopter in the impoverished southern African countries.

The number “is constantly changing” World Food Program spokesman Herve Verhoosel was quoted by UN News as saying.

Mozambique’s President Filipe said the damage is “very worrisome” and said that the flooding made it difficult for air-craft to land and carry out rescue operations, according to Mozam-bique’s state radio.

Zimbabwe government spokesman Nick Mangwana said yesterday that 24 people have died from the floods so far in Zimbabwe. The deaths are mainly in Zimbabwe’s Chiman-imani, a mountainous area along

the eastern border with Mozam-bique that is popular with tourists. No tourist deaths were recorded, he said.

The dead included two school students who were among dozens of children trapped in a dormitory after rocks fell from a nearby mountain, said Mangwana.

Roads and bridges were swept away, slowing rescue efforts by the military, gov-ernment agencies and non-gov-ernmental organisations, he said.

Zimbabwe state television station, ZBC, reported that 150 people are missing.

South Africa’s military has sent in aircraft and 10 medical personnel to help in Mozam-bique and Malawi, it said in a statement yesterday.

Cyclone Idai has affected more than 1.5 million people in the three southern African countries, Mozambique, Zimbabwe and Malawi. It left hundreds more missing and stranded tens of thousands who are cut off from roads and telephones in mainly poor, rural areas. Hardest hit is Mozambique’s central port city of Beira where the airport is closed, electricity is out and many homes have been destroyed.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan greets the crowd during the inauguration ceremony of North Marmara Highway in Catalca district of Istanbul, Turkey, yesterday.

Erdogan urges justice for NZ attack victimsANATOLIA TEKIRDAG, TURKEY

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday urged New Zealand to bring the culprits of Friday’s twin mosque attacks to account, describing the incident as a “massacre”.

Addressing a rally in north-western Tekirdag province, Erdogan blasted the gunman who killed worshippers and named Istanbul in an alleged manifesto, spewing anti-Muslim

and anti-immigrant propaganda, posted on social media.

“He came to Istanbul for three days once and 40 days for the second time. What are his connections? We will find out.

“He talked nonsense by saying ‘we will kill you if you cross west of the Strait, we will come to Istanbul and destroy all the mosques and minarets’ in his manifesto that he left. […] Where is New Zealand and where is Turkey?” he asked. “How can a murderer on the other end of

world act with such ill-will against Muslims and Turks,” Erdogan said, referring to the New Zealand attacker.

The president also noted that the terrorist adorned his gun with names of all the known enemies of Turks and Muslims since the second Siege of Vienne (1683), including tyrants of the Crusades. He went on to say that the terrorist who slaughtered Muslims in the mosques was dis-turbed by the unity and values of the Turkish nation.

A fighter of the US-backed Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) loads an ammunition belt at a position in the village of Baghouz, near Syria’s border with Iraq, in the eastern Deir Ezzor province.

Yemen rebels warn they could target Riyadh, Abu DhabiAFP SANA’A

Yemen’s Houthi rebels warned yesterday that they could launch attacks against the capitals of Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, who lead a military coalition against them.

The threat came as the United Nations was trying to salvage a truce deal in Yemen,

seen as crucial to diplomatic efforts to end the country’s four-year war.

“We have aerial photographs and coordinates of dozens of headquarters, facilities and mil-itary bases of the enemy,” rebel military spokesman Yahya Saree said in comments carried by the rebels’ Al Masirah channel.

“The legitimate targets of our forces extend to the capital of

Saudi Arabia and to the emirate of Abu Dhabi,” capital of the UAE, he said.

“We have manufactured advanced generations of attack aircraft, and new systems will soon be functional.” The Iran-linked Houthi rebels have tar-geted Saudi border towns and Riyadh with ballistic missiles and also claimed drone attacks on the airports of Abu Dhabi and Dubai

during the course of the conflict Saudi Arabia has said the mis-siles were all intercepted by its air force, with one civilian reported killed by falling shrapnel, while the UAE has denied the alleged drone attacks.

Saudi Arabia and its military allies joined the Yemeni govern-ment’s war against the Iran-linked Houthis in March 2015, triggering what the UN calls the

world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Some 10 million Yemenis face mass starvation, according to the UN. Both sides to the con-flict stand accused of acts that could amount to war crimes. The World Health Organisation esti-mates nearly 10,000 people have been killed in Yemen since March 2015, when Saudi Arabia and its allies joined the govern-ment’s war against the Houthis.

Syria force locked in battle with IS in holdout villageAFP BAGHOUZ

US-backed forces battled Islamic State group fighters yesterday as the holdout militant clung onto the last dregs of their crumbling “caliphate” in eastern Syria.

For weeks, the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces have battled to crush IS fighters holed up in a small riverside hamlet in the village of Baghouz.

The makeshift encampment of tents and tunnels is all that remains of a once-sprawling “caliphate” declared in 2014 over large swaths of Syria and neigh-bouring Iraq.

The SDF and coalition war-planes have rained fire on the enclave since last Sunday, blitzing more than 4,000 IS fighters and family members into surrender.

US-backed forces have reduced daytime airstrikes and

shelling to allow for more exits from the last militant bastion.

But journalists at an SDF post inside Baghouz heard sporadic rounds of mortar fire yesterday and an SDF spokesman said clashes were ongoing.

“Clashes broke out again last night and have continued since,” SDF spokesman Adnan Afrin said. “There have so far been no surrenders (today) and there’s no sign they are giving up,” the spokesman said.

An SDF statement said the latest fighting broke out after the Kurd-led force attacked IS posi-tions inside Baghouz.

Around 32 militants, including at least four senior IS figures, were killed in battle, it said. On Friday, IS launched three suicide attacks outside Baghouz, killing six people among those fleeing the village near the Iraqi border.

They were the latest

casualties in Syria’s devastating civil war as it entered its ninth year with 370,000 dead.

The US-led coalition said the bombers were dressed in women’s clothing and had mixed with others surrendering.

“Daesh has proven to

demonstrate a reckless disregard for human life and continues to be a global threat,”it said late Friday, using an Arabic acronym for IS.

“We stand by our SDF partners as they fight to liberate that last Daesh-held territory,”

it said on Twitter. Die-hard IS fighters have unleased a wave of suicide bombings over the past week to impede the SDF advance.

It remains unclear how many fighters and civilians remain inside Baghouz.

Identifying Ethiopia crash victims may take 6 monthsREUTERS ADDIS ABABA/PARIS

Ethiopian Airlines said yesterday that DNA testing of the remains of the 157 passengers on-board flight 302 may take up to six months as it offered bereaved families charred earth from the plane crash site to bury.

A team of investigators in Paris also resumed work on the black box recorders recovered from the site where the Boeing 737 MAX 8 plane crashed into a field on Sunday after taking off

from Addis Ababa. Passengers from more than 30 nations were aboard.

As families wait for the results from the investigation into the cause of the crash, Ethi-opian Airlines is planning to hold a service on Sunday in Addis Ababa, at the Kidist Selassie, or Holy Trinity Cathedral, where many of the country’s past rulers are buried beneath its pink stone spires. “We were told by the company that we will be given a kilo (of earth) each for burial at Selassie Church for a funeral

they will organise,” said one family member who asked not to be named.

Papers given to the families at the Skylight Hotel yesterday said death certificates would be issued within two weeks, and an initial payment made to cover immediate expenses. The return of remains — most of which are charred and fragmented — would take up to six months, the papers said, but in the meantime earth from the crash site would be given. Abdulmajid Sheriff, a Kenyan whose Yemeni

brother-in-law died, said the family had already held a service.

“We are Muslims we didn’t care about that (earth). We did yesterday our prayers at the mosque and that is all for us.” Experts say it is too soon to know what caused the crash, but avi-ation authorities worldwide have grounded Boeing’s 737 MAXs, as concerns over the plane caused the company’s share price to tumble. Flight data has already indicated some similarities with a crash by the same model of plane during a Lion Air flight in

October. All 189 people onboard were killed. Both planes crashed within minutes of take off after pilots reported problems.

France’s air accident inves-tigation agency said yesterday it was working on the Ethiopian flight’s black boxes in coordi-nation with teams from Boeing as well as US and EU aviation safety authorities.

Boeing plans to release upgraded software for the 737 MAX in a week to 10 days, sources familiar with the matter said.

11SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019 ASIA

Shopkeepers sell political party flags in the old quarters of New Delhi, yesterday.

No interviews just before polling, EC tells politiciansIANS NEW DELHI

The Election Commission yesterday asked leaders of all political parties to not give any media interviews during the “silence period”, or 48 hours before start of polling when campaigning comes to end.

“During the silence period, star campaigners and other political leaders should refrain from addressing the media by way of press conferences and giving interviews on election matters,” the poll panel said in an advisory.

A controversy had broken out during the Gujarat Assembly elections in 2017 when Congress President Rahul Gandhi gave interviews to some regional TV channels a day ahead of the polling.

The Congress had hit back by pointing out that Prime Min-ister Narendra Modi organised a road show a day before polling.

The EC has also cautioned campaigners to not make any reference to a constituency where the silence period is being observed.

“In a multi-phased election, the silence period of last 48 hours may be on in certain con-stituencies while campaign is ongoing in other constituencies. In such event, there should not be any direct or indirect ref-erence amounting to soliciting support for parties or candi-dates in the constituencies observing the silence period,” it said.

The poll panel underlined that Section 126 of the Repre-sentation of People Act, 1951, “inter-alia prohibits election campaign activities through public meetings, processions etc, and displaying of election matter by means of television and similar apparatus”.

“The purpose sought to be served by this prohibition is to provide a period of tranquil (silence period) for the electors before the voting day,” it said.

The Lok Sabha elections will be held in seven phases from April 11 to May 19. The votes will be counted on May 23 and the Lok Sabha election 2019 results will likely be declared on the same day, May 23, Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora had said.

Raman Singh’s son-in-law charged with Rs50cr fraudIANS RAIPUR

Former Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh’s son-in-law, Puneet Gupta, has been charged with misusing his post and committing financial fraud of Rs50cr during his tenure as the superintendent of a state government hospital in Raipur.

The police said they have been investigating the case but Gupta has not been arrested yet.

According to the police, superintendent of DK Super-Specialty Hospital KK Sahare had filed a complaint at the Golebazar police station alleging irregularities to the tune of Rs50 crore during Gupta’s tenure. Acting on the complaint, police filed a case under Section 420 against Gupta.

Senior Superintendent of Police Devendra Charan Patel yesterday said that Sahare has mentioned in his complaint that large-scale irregularities took place when Gupta was the superintendent of the hospital from December 2015 to October 2018.

He alleged that Gupta misused his influence and bypassed rules to appoint doctors and other staff, and also misused government funds to buy such machines that had nothing to do with treatment of patients.

Gupta was charged under sections 420 (cheating), 467 (forgery of valuable security), 468 (forgery for purpose of cheating) and 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the Indian Penal Code, Patel said, adding that further investigation was on.

There was BJP’s gov-ernment in Chattisgarh from 2003 to 2018 with Raman Singh as the Chief Minister. After the BJP lost in the state assembly to the Congress in 2018, Gupta, Raman Singh’s son-in-law, was transferred from his post in the DKS Hospital.

Modi turns ‘Chowkidar’ jibe into poll sloganIANS NEW DELHI

Gearing up for the coming Lok Sabha polls, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday launched the ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar” campaign, calling everyone who were fighting corruption, social evils and working hard for the progress of India, as watchmen.

“Your Chowkidar is standing firm and serving the nation. But, I am not alone. Everyone who is fighting corruption, dirt, social evils is a Chowkidar. Everyone working hard for the progress of India is a Chowkidar,” Modi said in a series of tweets.

“Today, every Indian is saying. Main Bhi Chowkidar,” he added. With the tweet, the Prime Minister also shared a 3.45-minute video titled “Take The Pledge”, urging people to join Modi on March 31 at 6pm for a video programme titled ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar”.

In the video, Modi called himself a watchman and said that he was not alone, in a counter to Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s “chowkidar chor hai” jibe. Bharatiya Janata Party sources said the campaign was launched as part of its strategy to turn the tables against Gan-dhi’s jibe as it did in 2014 by aggressively countering former Union Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar’s “chaiwalla” jibe.

Following Modi’s tweet, several BJP leaders also used the #MainBhiChowkidar hashtag

and tweeted.“I am proud to join #Main-

BhiChowkidar movement. As a citizen who loves India, I shall do my best to defeat corruption, dirt, poverty and terrorism and help create a New India which is strong, secure and prosperous,” Union Minister Piyush Goyal said.

RK Singh, Minister of State (IC) for Power and Renewable Energy said anyone who took a stand and raised their voice was a Chowkidar. “In our fight against corruption, social injustice of any manner and on any person; anyone who takes a stand and raises their voice is a Chowkidar. I’m proud to play my part for a corruption-free and clean India. Let’s all raise our voices and take the pledge. #MainBhiChowkidar,” he said.

BJP MP Anil Shirole retweeted Modi’s tweet and called himself a watchman.

“Yes I am proud to be a Chowkidar... Yes #MainBhiCh-owkidar, sevak of the nation and it’s people..working hard to protect the citizens from the evils of corruption, poverty, sickness, illiteracy, uncleanliness and ter-rorism,” he said.

Muslims pray in solidarity with the victims of Christchurch attacks, at Siddi Sayed Mosque in Ahmedabad, India, yesterday.

Muslim bodies condemn New Zealand attackIANS NEW DELHI

A number of prominent Muslim bodies in India yesterday condemned the terrorist attack on two mosques in New Zealand’s Christchurch in which at least 49 people were killed.

Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind General Secretary Maulana Mehmood Madni said that the incident was painful and condemnable.

“This is very painful and should be condemned in the strongest word. We, the Muslims, need to think as to why such incidents are hap-pening. Of course, it is Islam-ophobia, but we need to look inwards as to what is wrong with the ‘ummah’ (com-munity),” Madni said.

Expressing shock over the incident, Navaid Hamid, Pres-ident of All India Muslim Majlis-e-Mushawarat, an umbrella body of various Muslim organisations, said: “No words to express shock and grief over the killing of peaceful worshipers at Christchurch mosque in New Zealand terror attack.”

“My heart goes to the bereaved families who are victims of Islamophobia created by western policies in the last 20 years,” he added.

At least 49 people were killed when gunmen, who have been arrested, opened indiscriminate fire at two mosques in Christchurch city on Friday in what a shocked Prime Minister Ardern said was a terror attack.

With ‘Main Bhi Chowkidar’ campaign, the BJP and PM Modi are trying to counter Congress President Rahul Gandhi’s “chowkidar chor hai” jibe.

Two Indians among dead in NZ attacksIANS HYDERABAD/THRISSUR

A software engineer from Hyderabad and a woman post-graduate student from Kerala’s Thrissur were among the 49 people killed in Friday’s terror attacks on two mosques in New Zealand’s Christchurch, while the whereabouts of at least two visitors from Gujarat are not known.

Ancy Ali, a 25-year-old married woman from Kerala’s Thrissur, was among the victims, the Kerala Police said.

Ancy, who had migrated to New Zealand with her husband Abdul Nassar last year, lived near the mosques that were attacked, an officer at the Kodungalloor

police station in Thrissur said. Ancy was doing her post-

graduation in Christchurch where her husband was working, the officer said.

Software engineer Farhaj Ahsan, who was reported missing following the attacks, was confirmed dead, his family in Hyderabad said yesterday.

“We have received infor-mation that my brother was killed in the attack,” his elder brother Kashif Ahsan said.

Authorities in Christchurch informed Ahsan’s wife and her uncle, who rushed from Aus-tralia, about his death. They were at a hospital in Christchurch, waiting for some information since morning.

Ahsan was at Al Noor

mosque for Friday prayers when the terrorist opened indiscrim-inate fire on worshippers. A father of two, he used to regu-larly offer Friday prayers at Al Noor mosque as he lives in a nearby neighbourhood.

Meanwhile, another man from Hyderabad who was injured in the terror attack was recovering. Officials in Gujarat said that there was no word about some people from the state who were understood to be visiting Christchurch and they were awaiting a response from the Ministry of External Affairs.

According to unconfirmed sources, at least four visitors from Gujarat were present at the two mosques in Christchurch when the shootings took place.

One Modi giving away crores to other Modis: RahulIANS DEHRADUN

Kickstarting Congress’ Lok Sabha campaign in Uttarakhand, party President Rahul Gandhi yesterday upped the ante against Prime Minister Narendra Modi questioning why all the “Modis were getting money” from the one Modi at the helm.

“Why is it that all thieves have their last name as Modi only? Why one Modi is giving all the money to other Modis,” said Gandhi amid thunderous applause and loud sloganeering “Chowkidar Chor Hai”.

To buttress his claim, Gandhi

took the names of Nirav Modi, the key accused in the multi-crore Punjab National Bank scam, and Lalit Modi, who was involved in irregularities in the Indian Premiere League.

Gandhi told the crowd at the Parade Ground rally here that “all these Modis” have been absconding taking crores of rupees with them.

He claimed the National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre gave lakhs and crores of rupees to just 15-20 people and did nothing for the welfare of farmers and the unemployed youths.

Gandhi also claimed that

lands were being given to top business houses such as the Adanis in Uttarakhand in an apparent reference to the new MSME policy of the state according to which it has relaxed the tough norms in Land Acts.

Gandhi promised to form a Congress government at the Centre and provide financial security to the poorest of poor.

“This will be a historic step. The money will go directly to your bank accounts,” he said. “We just have to draw a line for the poor people who will be entitled for such doles.”

The Congress President also mimicked Modi twice over the

Pulwama terror attack and the Rafale deal at the election rally.

First, he showed the different poses allegedly made by Modi while he was shooting for a doc-umentary in the Jim Corbett National Park in Uttarakhand when the Pulwama terror attack took place.

“For more than three-and-a-half hours you can see Modi making different poses for the National Geography docu-mentary. Sometimes he was looking like this and sometimes he was looking at the sky,” Gandhi said.

The Congress President also replicated these poses amid a

peal of laughter from the crowd. Ganhdi also said he had can-celled all his programmes immediately after the Pulwama attack on February 14, which killed 40 paramilitary troops.

Later, Gandhi again mim-icked the Prime Minister over posing four questions to Modi on the Rafale deal in the Lok Sabha.

“When the Prime Minister stood up to answer the ques-tions, he did not look at me,” Gandhi said.

Modi could not answer the four questions, Gandhi said as he again replicated the Prime Minister’s mannerisms.

Grand Alliance announcement after Holi: JMMIANS RANCHI/NEW DELHI

Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) Executive President Hemant Soren yesterday met Congress President Rahul Gandhi in the national capital and said an announcement on a Grand Alliance in the state will be made after Holi.

“Today morning I met Con-gress President Rahul Gandhi in

the presence of Ratanjit Pratap Narain Singh and others. We had a fruitful discussion on the con-tours related to finalising the Grand Alliance in Jharkhand, including accommodating Left parties in this fight against BJP,” the Leader of Opposition in Jharkhand tweeted.

“The Grand Alliance announcement will take place after Holi in the presence of party chief Shibu Soren,” the former Chief

Minister told reporters in New Delhi. The opposition parties have in principal agreed to form an alliance to take on the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Jharkhand.

The opposition parties which have joined hands include the JMM, the Congress, Rashtriya Janata Dal, and the Jharkhand Vikas Morcha-Prajatantrik. The Communist Party of India has requested to be made part of the Grand Alliance.

Election economy

12 SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019ASIA

NZ mosque attack suspect charged with murderAFP CHRISTCHURCH

A right-wing extremist flashed a white power gesture as he faced the first of many murder charges in a New Zealand court yesterday, while a shellshocked community dug graves for 49 mosque-goers he stands accused of slaying.

Australia-born, 28-year-old Brenton Tarrant stood largely impassive in the dock wearing handcuffs and a white prison smock, as the judge read the first of what are expected to be a host of murder charges that could mean he dies in jail.

Flanked by armed police, the former personal fitness trainer gestured an upside-down “okay”, a symbol used by white power groups worldwide.

He did not request bail and was taken into custody until his next court appearance which was scheduled for April 5.

Outside the courtroom, Christchurch residents struggled to deal with the aftermath of what is thought to be the worst act of terror against Muslims in the West.

At an old grave site, exca-vators were called in to remove the vast amount of earth needed to bury the dead, although police have not yet been able to release the bodies to anxious families.

At the nearby hospital,

doctors worked round the clock to treat 39 people for gunshot wounds and other injuries sus-tained in the attacks.

The wounded included a two-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, who was in critical condition.

The attack on the Al Noor and Linwood mosques has prompted an outpouring of grief and deep shock in this usually peaceful country, which prides itself on welcoming refugees fleeing violence or persecution.

Throughout the day people laid flowers at a makeshift memorial just beyond the police cordon around the Al Noor mosque, where most of the victims died.

Many were accompanied with handwritten letters laden with sadness and disbelief, from residents of what one local driver called the “city of sorrow”.

“I am so sorry that you were not safe here. Our hearts are breaking for your loss,” read one of the notes.

When the police tape was lifted late yesterday, bystanders

spontaneously joined police in moving the stack of bouquets further toward the mosque.

An imam who was leading prayers at the Linwood mosque at the time of the attack said the Muslim community would not be shaken by the massacre.

“We still love this country,” said Ibrahim Abdul Halim, vowing that extremists would “never ever touch our confidence”.

Across New Zealand, Kiwis responded with interfaith soli-darity - crowd-funding millions

of dollars, donating halal food and even offering to accompany local Muslims now scared to walk the streets.

Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern arrived in the city and, wearing a black headscarf, met with survivors and victims’ fam-ilies. Ardern said the victims came from across the Muslim world, with Turkey, Bangladesh, Indonesia and Malaysia among the countries rendering consular assistance.

At least one Saudi citizen and two Jordanians were among the

dead, while five Pakistani cit-izens were missing.

Sahra Ahmed, a New Zea-lander of Somali origin, said she was touched by the PM’s gesture.

“It means a lot. It is a signal to say - I am with you,” she said.

Police are now trying to piece together answers to the difficult questions of why and how this happened. They also want to know how it was pos-sible for the perpetrator to remain undetected by the intel-ligence services despite his extremist views.

People pay their respects by placing flowers for the victims in Christchurch, yesterday.

Pakistani man hailed for wrestling gunmanANATOLIA ISLAMABAD

A Pakistani man who lost his life while trying to disarm a gunman during Friday’s terror attack in New Zealand has been hailed as a hero.

Naeem Rashid, 49, who hails from Abbottabad, a city in north-western Pakistan, was trying to protect other worshippers in Al Noor Mosque, one of the two mosques in Christchurch which came under attack.

Rashid also lost his son in the mass shooting.

At least 49 people were killed when a gunman opened fire on worshippers during Friday prayers at the Al Noor and Linwood Mosques.

“Naeem Rashid tried over-powering the shooter iden-tified as Brenton Tarrant after he had entered the mosque, however, he was left badly wounded during the attempt aimed at protecting fellow worshipers,” the Ministry of Overseas Pakistanis said in a

statement. Rashid moved to New

Zealand in 2009 along with his family for his PhD, his brother Khurshid Alam said.

“My nephew, Talha Naeem, who recently completed his engineering degree from a college in New Zealand was also

murdered in the Al Noor Mosque t e r r o r i s t a t t a c k , ” h e confirmed.

Rashid is survived by his wife, Ambareen Alam, who teaches at a university in Christchurch, and two sons.

“I spoke to my brother last week and he was planning to

come to Pakistan to arrange his son’s marriage ceremony. But now we lost both of them and will receive their bodies,” Alam said.

In their family home in Abbottabad, relatives and friends are pouring in to offer their condolences.

“Today is sad day for all of

us as we lost a brave nephew, but we are proud that he tried his best to rescue other Muslims from a terrorist,” Saleem Afzal, his maternal uncle said.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry yesterday confirmed that six Pakistani citizens lost their lives in the attack, while three are still missing.

At least 6 Pakistanis among victims; three others missingAP CHRISTCHURCH

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi yesterday said at least six Paki-stanis died in the New Zealand mosque shootings, while three others were still missing.

The Foreign Minister said authorities in Christchurch, where the shootings took place, were trying to determine whether three other Pakistanis

who have been missing since Friday’s attack were among the fatalities.

Qureshi said that the six confirmed dead included 48-year-old Naeem Rashid and his 21-year-old son, Talha Naeem.

Naeem migrated to New Zealand with his family in 2009 and was a teacher.

At least 49 people were killed in the attacks on two mosques.

A relative comforts Nadeem Rasheed (right), brother of Naeem Rashid who along with his son died in the Christchurch mosque attack, in Abbottabad, Pakistan, yesterday.

As many as 39 people, including a two-year-old boy and a four-year-old girl, are admitted to hospitals with gunshot wounds.

New Zealand PM vows gun law reformAFP CHRISTCHURCH

New Zealand’s prime minister yesterday vowed to toughen the country’s gun laws after revealing the alleged shooter behind Christchurch’s mosque attacks had legally bought the five weapons, including two semi-automatic rifles, used in the massacre.

PM Jacinda Ardern said the suspect obtained a “Category A” gun licence in November 2017 which allowed him to pur-chase the weapons used to mow down worshippers in two Christchurch mosques on Friday.

Some of the guns appear to have been modified to make them more deadly, she said. “The mere fact... that this indi-vidual had acquired a gun licence and acquired weapons of that range, then obviously I think people will be seeking change, and I’m committing to that,” she told a press con-ference. “I can tell you one thing right now - our gun laws will change.” Ardern confirmed that the suspected gunman and two associates who were also arrested had not been on the radar of any intelligence agencies for extremism.

Kabul seeks explanation over remarks by Pakistan PMREUTERS KABUL

Afghanistan yesterday summoned a senior Pakistani diplomat to account for remarks by Prime Minister Imran Khan speculating about a new government in Kabul following a possible peace settlement.

The summons by the Afghan Foreign Affairs Ministry marked the second time in just over three weeks that Kabul has demanded an explanation from Pakistan, illustrating the long-standing tensions between the two neighbours.

Khan, at a rally in Bajaur, in northwestern Pakistan on Friday, predicted “mutual peace” in Afghanistan as an outcome of recurring talks between the United States and the Taliban to end the country’s 17-year-old war.

“A good government will come in Afghanistan,” Khan said. “I mean a government will come in which all will be represented. War will end and there will be peace.”

The Afghan ministry

summoned Pakistan’s counsellor to clarify the remarks, spokes-person Sibghatullah Ahmadi tweeted.

“Afghanistan expressed its grave objection to Pakistan’s government and deemed such remarks a flagrant interference in its internal affairs,” he said.

In February, the Ministry summoned Pakistani Ambas-sador Zahid Nasrullah Khan over his remarks that Afghan peace talks could be affected if India resorted to violence against Pakistan.

The summons to Pakistan comes a day after a top official in President Ashraf Ghani’s gov-ernment voiced frustration about what Kabul regards as Afghanistan being sidelined during talks between Taliban and US negotiators, drawing a rebuke from Washington.

Tensions have been building between Kabul and Washington over US efforts to forge a peace pact with the Taliban that includes a US troop withdrawal, something that Kabul fears could weaken its own negoti-ating position.

South Korea’s President Moon Jae-in (left) gestures during his visit to Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia, yesterday

Moon visits Angkor Wat in CambodiaAFP SIEM REAP, CAMBODIA

South Korean President Moon Jae-in yesterday sloughed off the trappings of high office and mingled with thousands of other tourists at Cambodia’s famed Angkor Wat.

The Angkor Archeological Park, a world heritage site, contains the remains of the different capitals of the Khmer Empire, dating from the 9th to the 15th centuries.

Moon lingered for two hours at the site, where he climbed on wooden staircases for better views, examined intricate ancient walls, posed for photos with officials, and paused to enjoy a coconut juice.

He is the first South Korean president to make a state visit to Cambodia in 10 years, according to Yonhap.

Im Sokrithy, from the state agency which manages Angkor, guided Moon along with an entourage and said the leader was curious about the complex’s history.

Militant leader reportedly dead in Philippine clashesREUTERS MANILA

The Philippine military believes it may have “neutralised” the remnants of an alliance of pro-Islamic State extremists, after the suspected death of the group’s de facto leader during clashes last week.

Forensic tests were being carried out to determine if one of four rebels killed on Thursday was Abu Dar, who security forces believed led Dawla Islamiya, an alliance of pro-Islamic State fighters, drawn from armed groups in the volatile Mindanao region.

Four soldiers also died during the fighting in Lanao del Sur province, which Islamic State claimed responsibility for on the mobile messaging service Telegram. Regional army commander, Colonel Romeo Brawner, told the media that the death of Abu Dar would mean Dawla Islamiya had been “neutralised”.

Australian senator egged after racist commentsAFP MELBOURNE

A far-right Australian senator had to be restrained by security officials yesterday after punching a young man protesting his offensive comments about the Christchurch mosque attacks.

Queensland Senator Fraser Anning drew international con-demnation for his efforts to blame the attack that killed 49 Muslim worshippers on immigration.

Amid the controversy, an unnamed young man threw an egg at Anning during a press conference in Melbourne, prompting the senator to hit him in the face repeatedly before being stopped by what appeared to be a security guard.

In a statement on Friday, Anning had said the attack which killed 49 Muslim wor-shippers in New Zealand was the result of Muslim immi-gration into the country.

Prime Minister Scott Mor-rison described Anning’s com-ments as “appalling” and “ugly” with “no place in Australia”, as he announced a bipartisan motion of censure would be launched.

Anning was elected in 2017 by a fluke of Australia’s propor-tional voting system, having received only 19 first preference votes.

Meanwhile, Australia has denied a visa to right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannop-oulos after he responded to the mosque massacre in New Zealand by branding Islam “barbaric” and “alien”, offi-cials said yesterday.

“Milo Yiannopoulos will not be allowed to enter Aus-tralia for his proposed tour this year,” Immigration Min-ister David Coleman said in a statement.

“Mr Yiannopoulos’ com-ments on social media regarding the Christchurch terror attack are appalling and foment hatred and division,” he said.

The move came after Yiannopoulos posted com-ments on Facebook that said attacks like the New Zealand massacre happen because governments “mollycoddle ... barbaric, alien religious cultures.”

13SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019 EUROPE

Russia slams ‘hypocrisy’ of new sanctionsAFP MOSCOW

Russia yesterday slammed the “hypocrisy” of new Western sanctions against its officials over their role in a naval confrontation with Ukraine last year, and vowed to respond to the “unfriendly” move.

The United States, Canada and the European Union on Friday slapped new sanctions on more than a dozen Russian officials and businesses in response to Moscow’s “con-tinued aggression in Ukraine.”

“The pretext for including our countrymen in the illegit-imate sanctions list of the EU astounds with hypocrisy and cynicism,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

It said in a statement that Russia “will not leave the unfriendly act of the EU without a response” and accused Brussels of siding with Kiev on the eve of its presidential election due on March 31.

“It cannot be ignored that the decision came not long before the presidential election in Ukraine,” it said.

It also accused Washington and Ottawa of “Russophobia” and said the sanctions will “not lead to the results the US and Canada want”.

A US Treasury statement said six Russian officials, six defence firms and two energy and construction firms had been targeted, either over the seizure of Ukrainian vessels in the Kerch

Straight last November, or for their activities in Crimea or sep-aratist eastern Ukraine.

The US sanctions freeze all property and interests in property belonging to the des-ignated individuals and entities, and prohibit US persons from transacting with them.

Four of the individuals are border guard or coast guard offi-cials, singled out for their role in a November 25, 2018 naval con-frontation, in which Russian ships fired on and seized three Ukrainian vessels in the narrow Kerch Strait the two countries share.

The four were targeted jointly with the EU and Canada according to the State Department.

Twenty-four Ukrainian crew members were detained in the naval incident.

In the statement yesterday, Russia said its border guards were “bravely fulfilling their duty to defend the state borders of our country” and that the con-frontation was the result of a “provocation” by the Ukrainian side, adding that, Moscow was acting “within the norms of international law” in arresting the Ukrainians.

Senior MP quits Conservative party over BrexitREUTERS LONDON

A senior lawmaker from Britain’s governing Conservatives quit his local party yesterday due to disa-greements over Brexit, as the decision to leave the European Union continues to reshape loyalties in the country’s politics.

Nick Boles (pictured), 53, has been critical of the government’s threat to leave the EU without a deal and has faced calls from his local party to be ousted as its candidate for the next general election.

Boles said he could remain aligned with the Conservatives in parliament if they make him an acceptable offer.

The former minister said in a letter to his local party he was “not willing to do what would be necessary to restore a reasonable working relationship with a group of people whose values and views are so much at odds

with my own.” “I regret that my relationship

with you should end in this way. But a politician without prin-ciples is worthless.”

Britain’s 2016 EU refer-endum has split not only British towns and villages but also par-liament, with both Conservative and Labour leaders struggling to keep their parties united.

Last month, eleven members of parliament from both main parties defected to form the

Independent Group, in large part dismayed by the handling of Brexit.

This week, lawmakers voted down British Prime Minister Theresa May’s divorce deal with the EU for a second time — by

391 to 242.Boles backed May, but has

urged the government to work with opposition parties on an alternative Brexit plan — which would likely lead to a closer rela-tionship with the EU than many

Conservatives are prepared to accept.

May continues to fight to build support for her plan, which is expected to put before law-makers for a third time next week.

‘UK must take part in EU votes if Brexit delayed’REUTERS ZURICH

Britain must take part in European parliamentary elec-tions if its departure from the European Union is pushed back beyond July 1, Austria’s delegate to Brexit negotiations said.

British Prime Minister Theresa May is expected to head to Brussels next week to request a short delay to the exit process after the UK parliament on Thursday voted in favour of extending negotiations beyond

the original March 29 deadline.“We have to wait and see

what the government in London actually proposes. If there is an extension beyond July 1, then in any event, the UK must vote in May for the European elections,” Austrian diplomat Gregor Schusterschitz said in an interview with Der Standard.

“The EU has never been the side in the negotiations that has rejected something for reasons of principle. This also applies to the question of the extension: it shouldn’t fail because of us.”

Several EU leaders have already said Britain must either have left before a new European Parliament is elected in May to take office in July or must hold its own EU election in order to avoid any legal challenge to the legitimacy of the legislature.

Schusterschitz added the EU might have been too soft on Britain and allowed it too long to conduct a largely domestic dis-cussion, which involved less debate with EU than it did i n t e r n a l p o l i t i c a l back-and-forth.

France tightens security at places of worship

A statement from the Foreign Ministry said that Russia “will not leave the unfriendly act of the EU without a response.”

Ukraine leader faces anti-graft rallyBLOOMBERG KIEV

Protesters in Kiev demanded punishment for an ally of Pres-ident Petro Poroshenko and his son in a probe into alleged embezzlement of defence funds, two weeks before Ukraine’s presidential election.

Several thousand people turned out yesterday for the rally on the capital’s main square organised by a nationalist party,

Natsionalnyi Korpus, which includes veterans of Ukraine’s war with Russian-backed sepa-ratists. The protesters then marched to Poroshenko’s office.

Poroshenko, who is seeking re-election in the vote on March 31, dismissed business partner Oleh Hladkovskyi as deputy head of the National Security and Defense Council after investi-gative journalists reported that he was part of a group that embezzled military funds.

Ukraine’s anti-graft bureau is investigating the possible mis-appropriation of government funds.

Poroshenko is trailing comedian Volodymyr Zelenskyi and is competing with former ex-Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko to stay in con-tention. With no candidate expected to win 50 percent of the national vote in the first round, the election is likely to go to a two-way runoff.

ANATOLIA ANKARA

France will tighten security at places of worship in the wake of Friday’s deadly mosque attacks in New Zealand, said the country’s interior minster.

“As a precaution, I immediately called on our governors to take the utmost caution and asked them to improve security in places of worship,” Christophe Castaner said on Twitter.

Castaner also called for solidarity with the people of New Zealand following “the odious terrorist attack in Christchurch” which left at least 49 dead and over 40 injured.

“My first thoughts are with the relatives and families of the victims whose sentiments and sadness we share,” he added.

Separately, Ahmet Ogras, head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith, also condemned the attacks, adding: “This vile tragedy once again demonstrates that Islamophobia must be fought relentlessly.”

Earlier on Friday, gunmen opened fire on worshippers at the Al Noor and Linwood mosques in Christchurch, New Zealand.

Four suspects — three men and one woman — have been detained so far.

Slovakia heads to polls to elect new leaderAFP BRATISLAVA

Slovaks voted yesterday in round one of a presidential election that a vocal government critic appears poised to win after an investigative journalist’s murder dealt a blow to the ruling elite.

Frontrunner Zuzana Caputova, 45, was among tens of thousands of protesters who took to the streets of the eurozone country of 5.4 million last year after the killing raised concerns about media freedom and political corruption.

Opinion polls give the envi-ronmental lawyer and mother of two a double-digit lead over EU Commission vice-president Maros Sefcovic, a 52-year-old career diplomat backed by the ruling Smer-SD party.

Caputova may have also got

a last-minute boost after prose-cutors charged a businessman believed to have ties to Smer-SD with ordering the murder of the journalist.

Yet, voters could interpret

progress in the case as a sign of a functioning government.

“Sefcovic appeals to those with a certain satisfaction with the progress of a country which, by many indicators, has not done

at all badly over the last decade,” said Kevin Deegan-Krause, an expert in central Europe.

“Caputova attracts those who abhor corruption and who are dissatisfied with what they see as an increasingly... self-dealing government,” he said.

Neither candidate is on track for an outright victory and a run-off vote for the largely cer-emonial post is expected on March 30.

Caputova, a deputy head of the non-parliamentary Pro-gressive Slovakia party, said that “people are calling for change”.

Journalist Jan Kuciak and his fiancee were gunned down in February 2018, just as he was to publish a story on alleged ties between Slovak politicians and the Italian mafia plus associated irregularities in EU farm subsidy payments.

Presidential candidate Zuzana Caputova (left) casts her vote during the first round of the presidential election, at a polling station in Pezinok, yesterday.

Ringleader of 2015 London jewel heist jailed for 10 yearsREUETRS LONDON

A 58-year-old man nicknamed “Basil” was jailed for 10 years after being found guilty of being the final member of a gang of ageing criminals who carried out one the most audacious robberies in the annals of British crime.

The gang ransacked 73 deposit boxes at the Hatton Garden Safety Deposit building in London’s jewellery district over the Easter weekend of 2015, stealing gold, silver, dia-monds and jewellery worth $18m.

Disguised as workmen, they abseiled down a lift shaft and used a diamond-tipped drill to cut through the vault wall. It was Britain’s biggest-ever robbery and much of the haul was never recovered.

On Friday, Michael Seed was jailed at Woolwich Crown Court in London after the jury accepted prosecution evidence that he was the man, nick-named Basil by the rest of the gang, who remained at large.

“(We) were able to ... prove he was not only involved but was one of the ringleaders,” said Kate Mulholland of the Crown Prosecution Service. “He was the only member of the group with technical knowledge to defeat complex alarm systems.”

Basil was seen on closed-circuit TV inside the building wearing a ginger wig and a face-covering as a disguise.

Violence flares as French protests enter 4th monthREUTERS PARIS

Rioters set fire to a bank and ransacked stores on Paris’ landmark shopping street in a new flare-up of violence as France’s ‘yellow vest’ protests against President Emmanuel Macron and his pro-business reforms entered a fourth month.

Police fired tear gas and water cannons as the protests turned violent again after weeks of relative calm during marches and declining numbers of participants.

A Banque Tarneaud branch spewed flames before fire-fighters arrived and rescued two people from the building, with eleven suffering minor injuries, the fire department said.

Rioters also set fire to an upmarket handbag store and two news-stands on the Champs Elysees avenue while scattered bonfires burned on the iconic thoroughfare.

Protesters lobbed cobble-stones at riot police through clouds of tear gas in front of Paris’ Arc de Triomphe mon-ument, which was ransacked at the peak of the protests in December.

Police had arrested more than 150 protesters by late afternoon as demonstrators

looted stores around the Champs Elysees and ransacked the high-end Fouquet’s restaurant.

The canvas awning was later set on fire of the swanky brasserie, known in France as the place where conservative Nicolas Sarkozy celebrated his presidential election victory in 2007.

Several hundred meters down the Champs-Elysees, Prime Minister Edouard Philippe said the latest violence was “unacceptable” and all would be

done to bring perpetrators to justice.

“We are dealing with several hundred, several thousand in some cases, highly determined people who are there to create disorder,” he said.

The interior ministry esti-mated 10,000 people had par-ticipated in the protest in Paris, compared with 2,800 the pre-vious Saturday. Elsewhere in France, protesters were esti-mated at 4,500, compared with 4,200 last week.

Interior Minister Christophe Castaner said that although the protest was relatively small, there were more than 1,500 “ultra violent” people out looking for trouble.

“They decided, perhaps as a swansong, to come attack — and I use their words — Paris,” he said, adding more than 1,400 police officers were mobilised.

“I’ve given instructions to the police this morning for great firmness so that nothing slips by.”

Burning “Le Fouquet’s” restaurant is seen during clashes between riot police forces and ‘yellow vest’ protesters on the Champs-Elysees in Paris, yesterday.

14 SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019AMERICAS

Former US official pleads guilty to spyingAFP WASHINGTON

A former US Defence Intelligence Agency official will be jailed for 15 years after pleading guilty to charges of attempting to sell classified information to the Chinese, the Department of Justice said.

Ron Rockwell Hansen, 58, a former DIA operative based in Beijing, was arrested in June while preparing to board a flight to China carrying classified information.

Investigators said Hansen, a fluent Mandarin Chinese and Russian speaker, had fallen into deep financial trouble from 2013 to 2016 and was paid more than

$800,000 by Chinese intelli-gence for US secrets.

During that time they found that he had regular meetings with Chinese intelligence agents that he never reported, used cell-phones provided him by Chinese sources and retained classified information to which he was not supposed to have access.

They discovered his work with the Chinese when in 2016 he tried to recruit a fellow intel-ligence case officer to work with him and the colleague reported it to their superiors.

In a deal with prosecutors Hansen pleaded guilty to one count of attempting to gather or deliver national defence infor-mation to aid a foreign gov-ernment. The deal set his sen-tence at 15 years.

US intelligence has been struggling hard against a Chinese espionage offensive that saw the CIA’s Chinese informant network rolled up by Beijing several years ago, and saw several US officials exposed as Chinese spies.

In January 2018, former CIA agent Jerry Chun Shing Lee was

arrested on charges that he sold information to China. He is reportedly suspected of having provided information that allowed China to bring down the CIA’s network between 2010 and 2012.

Former State Department official Kevin Mallory was arrested in 2017 for spying for China. And another US diplomat, Candace Marie Claiborne, was also arrested for taking money from Chinese intelligence offi-cials, though she was not directly accused of supplying information in exchange.

Trump dismisses white nationalism threat after New Zealand attackAFP WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump dismissed concerns that the massacre by an apparent white supremacist in New Zealand indicates a dangerous trend.

Trump was asked if the killing of at least 49 people in two mosques in Christchurch by a man claiming that white people are being overwhelmed in their historic homelands dem-onstrates a rising problem around the world.

“I don’t really. I think it’s a small group of people that have very, very serious problems, I guess,” Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. “If you look what happened in New Zealand, perhaps that’s the case. I don’t know enough about it yet.”

Although Trump referred to the bloodbath as “horrific” and “terrible,” his comments down-playing the potentially wider threat were likely to face crit-icism. Trump has been repeatedly accused before of making comments that were at best insensitive and at worst racist when it comes to race rela-tions and far-right movements.

The alleged gunman — iden-tified as an Australian white nationalist — apparently lives-treamed the assault on social media and published a mani-festo filled with racist conspiracy theories.

He also referred to Trump

as “a symbol of renewed white identity and common purpose.”

Asked if he’d seen the man-ifesto, Trump said: “I did not.”

Earlier, he tweeted that he’d spoken with New Zealand’s Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to express “solidarity” and to say, “We love you New Zealand!”

In 2017, even many of Trump’s closest supporters were reportedly appalled by his refusal to condemn a march by torch-bearing neo-Nazis in Charlottesville, Virginia.

The march ended in violent clashes with leftist protesters and Trump appeared to spread the blame equally, even though the right-wing demonstrators had been chanting a Nazi-era slogan “blood and soil.”

“You also had some very fine people on both sides,” he said.

In December an American neo-Nazi was sentenced to life in prison for driving his car into a group of counter-protesters during the white supremacist rally, killing a woman.

Trump has also been accused of whipping up xeno-phobia with his long-running campaign to build more walls along the US-Mexican border, which he says is under “invasion” by illegal migrants.

On Friday, he signed the first veto of his presidency to dismiss congressional pushback against his declaration of emer-gency powers to get billions of dollars in wall funding.

Cuba says US visa change impedes family visitsAFP HAVANA

Havana accused Washington yesterday of creating obstacles to US travel by Cubans by reducing the duration of its tourist visas from five years to three months.

The United States, which announced the change on Friday, said it was matching the island’s own visa rules for US visitors.

The so-called B-2 tourist visa

allowed Cubans multiple entries to the United States for periods up to five years.

From tomorrow, they will be eligible only for three-month, single-entry tourist visas.

The Cuban foreign ministry issued a statement objecting to the change, saying “it increases the obstacles for family and other visits.”

“If the United States really wants to apply reciprocity, it should immediately open its

consulate in Havana, and resume the process of issuing visas, which it arbitrarily and unjusti-fiably interrupted more than a year ago, and eliminate the pro-hibition on US citizens travelling freely to Cuba,” the foreign min-istry said.

US relations with Cuba, which were restored under former president Barack Obama, have soured under Donald Trump.

The United States evacuated

diplomatic staff and their fam-ilies in 2017 after at least two dozen people suffered brain injuries that resembled con-cussion, but with no exterior signs of trauma.

The US accused Cuba of car-rying out “health attacks” using some sort of acoustic or microwave device, a charge Havana angrily rejected.

The Cuban government insisted the US move was “polit-ically motivated.”

Investigators said Ron Hansen was paid more than $800,000 by Chinese intelligence for US secrets.

Students holding banner during a demonstration against climate change at Columbus Circle in New York.

16 arrested at NY climate protestAP NEW YORK

Police said yesterday that at least 16 people have been arrested for blocking traffic during a climate protest in front of New York City’s American Museum of Natural History.

The protesters face charges of disorderly conduct stemming from Friday’s die-in at the museum. The protest was one of several around New York City as thousands of high school stu-dents walked out of class.

One student protesting in

front of City Hall carried a sign that said: “I’m not showing up for school because adults aren’t showing up for climate.”

Thousands of New York City students waged climate protests at locations including Columbus Circle, City Hall, the American Museum of Natural History and a football field at the Bronx High School of Science.

A police spokesman said there were arrests but he did not know how many.

Friday’s protests were part of a global mobilisation against climate change by students who

want governments to do more to combat it.

A 13-year-old co-coordi-nator of the New York City climate protest said she is pleased with the number of demonstrators but a big turnout isn’t the point.

Alexandria Villasenor said-students will continue to strike, march and engage in civil diso-bedience but won’t be successful until world leaders take some action. The protest on Friday was part of a global effort mounted by students in more than 100 countries.

Journalist shot dead in MexicoAP MEXICO CITY

Authorities said a Mexican radio journalist has been shot and killed in the northern state of Sonora.

The state attorney’s office said Santiago Barroso, 47, was sprayed with bullets upon answering a knock at the door of his home yesterday. Barroso retreated inside and called for an ambulance. He died less than two hours later at a hospital from two bullet wounds to his stomach and one to his left clavicle.

Award-winning poet of nature, W S Merwin, deadAP NEW YORK

W S Merwin, a prolific and versatile master of modern poetry who evolved through a wide range of styles as he cele-brated nature, condemned war and industrialism and reached for the elusive past, died on Friday. He was 91.

A Pulitzer Prize winner and former US poet laureate, Merwin completed more than 20 books, from early works inspired by myths and legends to angry protests against envi-ronmental destruction and the conflict in Vietnam to late med-itations on age and time.

He wrote rhymes and blank verse, a brief report on the month of January and a book-length story in verse about colonialism and the birth of modern Hawaii. Like his hero, Henry David Thoreau, he was inspired equally by reverence for the planet and anger against injustice.

He died in his sleep at his home on the Hawaiian island of Maui, according to publisher Copper Canyon Press and the Merwin Conservancy, which the poet founded.

“He is an artist with a very clear spiritual profile, and intel-lectual and moral consistency, which encompasses both his work and his life,” fellow poet Edward Hirsch once said of him.

Maduro creates military unit to protect basic installationsAFP CARACAS

Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro created a military unit charged with protecting basic installations and services such as electricity and water just over a week after the country was hit with a massive blackout.

Maduro blamed that on a cyberattack directed by the US but critics said the government was at fault for failing to maintain infrastructure.

Maduro said the “Command for the Defence of Basic Strategic Services” would be tasked with ensuring “security, operability and maintenance.”

Its officers would be respon-sible for guaranteeing both “physical and cybernetic” security of infrastructure and maintenance of equipment.

Maduro repeated his claim that the blackout, which lasted almost a week, was due to “suc-cessive attacks” against the coun-try’s major hydroelectric facility at Guri in Bolivar state, “directed” by US President Donald Trump’s national security advisor John Bolton. The blackout hit on March 7 and paralysed the entire country. The Venezuela gov-ernment announced on Tuesday that power was back on in prac-tically the whole country but western regions still reported cuts.

The socialist leader accused the opposition of concocting a

plan “to accompany the blackout with general violence,” claiming it was neutralized.

Opposition leader Juan Guaido launched a challenge to Maduro’s leadership in January by declaring himself acting president. He said the blackout was caused by burning vegetation that damaged equipment. Maduro accused him of “sabotage.”

AP VALENCIA

Large crowds have gathered in the northern Venezuelan city of Valencia to greet oppo-sition leader Juan Guaido, who plans to tour the country as part of his campaign to oust President Nicolas Maduro.

Guaido yesterday tweeted photos in which he is seen at a cathedral service and a market in the industrial hub.

Protests are also planned in the capital of Caracas and other parts of Venezuela as Guaido seeks to ramp up pressure on Maduro, who said he is the target of a coup plot directed from Washington.

Venezuela’s oppn launches new round of protests

Chicago River dyed greenAn aerial view of the Chicago River as it winds its way through downtown after being dyed green in celebration of St. Patrick’s Day, in Chicago, Illinois, yesterday. Dyeing the river green has been a St. Patrick’s Day tradition in the city since 1962.

New York National Guard & Brazil to hold joint military training missionsAP ALBANY

The New York National Guard will partner with Brazil to conduct joint training missions and military exchanges.

National Guard officials said the state programme agreement was signed in Man-hattan by Maj Gen Raymond Shields, the adjutant general of New York, and Rear Admiral Guilherme da Silva Costa, rep-resenting the Brazilian Armed Forces.

The agreement is the latest programme that pairs the state National Guard with the mili-taries of foreign countries.

US military officials said the nation now has partnerships with 83 countries.


Healthcare career exhibition draws huge response from girl studentsTHE PENINSULA DOHA

As part of ongoing efforts to help school students learn about careers in the healthcare sector and in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior, Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Health Professions Awareness and Volunteering Program recently organised a two-day health exhibition at Ruqaya Independent Preparatory School for Girls.

The exhibition, took place recently, under the slogan ‘our country’s renaissance in safety and health,’ was inaugurated in the presence of Sheikh Dr Mohammed bin Hamad Al Thani, Director of Public Health, Min-istry of Public Health (MoPH), and Balqees Al Khazraji, Director of the Health Professions Awareness and Volunteering Program at HMC.

The event was attended by students, parents, teachers, and school administrators and was designed to encourage students to consider pursuing a career in

the health sector. Exhibitors also promoted the importance of leading a healthy lifestyle as a strategy for disease and injury prevention.

Al Khazraji said a total of 34 exhibitors from HMC, the Min-istry of Public Health, various

public and private healthcare organisations, and a number of health-related associations from across the country participated in the two-day event which focused on introducing female students to careers in healthcare.

She said representatives from HMC’s Health Professions Awareness and Volunteering Program, Ambulance Service, Qatar Organ Donation Center, Immunology and Allergy Awareness Program, Hamad Injury Prevention Program, Tobacco Control Center, Medical Education Department, Patient and Family Education Section, and Hamad International Training Center each had infor-mation booths at the exhibition. Staff from HMC’s Anesthesiology, Dentistry, Urology, Ophthal-mology, Cardiology, Bariatric Surgery, and Pediatric Depart-ments were also in attendance.

Representatives from the MoPH’s Health Promotion and Communicable Diseases Department and the Health Edu-cation Department organised a variety of activities aimed at

raising awareness about the importance of healthy eating for young people.

“Preventative healthcare as a strategy to promoting good health and wellbeing was a key focus of the exhibition this year. In addition to healthcare pro-viders from across Qatar,

exhibitors from the Qatar Armed Forces’ Medical Service, the Min-istry of Interior’s Community Policing, Juvenile Police Department, Drug Enforcement Department, the Qatar National Anti-Doping Commission, Qatar Red Crescent, Qatar Cancer Society, and Qatar University’s

College of Health Sciences were all active participants,” said Al Khazraji.

The Qatar Social and Cultural Center for the Blind, Qatar Guest Center -Women’s Branch, and the Qatar Society for Rehabilitation of Special Needs were also among the exhibitors at the event.

Exhibitors participate in the two-day event at Ruqaya Independent Preparatory School for Girls.

Students of Sherborne Qatar to give music recital on March 23THE PENINSULA DOHA

The finest singers and musicians from both the Preparatory and Senior schools at Sherborne Qatar will give a music recital at open air amphitheatre of Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani Museum on March 23.

The recital will include the Sherborne Qatar Prep School Choir, which recently reached the final of the Qatar Primary School Choir of the year and was awarded the Repertoire Award,

The Prep Percussion Ensemble, The Senior Music Bands and various instrumentalists.

The recital is being organised by Sarwar (Head of Prep Music) and supported by FBQ Museum, Al Rabban Tower, Rayyan Water, PTA Sherborne Qatar, LA Cantine and Lulu.

The museum opens at 10am and the recital will begin at 5.15pm.

Tickets, which include a visit to the museum and the recital, can only be purchased on the day at the museum.

The participants of the event.

Georgetown to provide emergency disaster degree preview at upcoming info sessionTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Emergencies occur without warning, but responses to emer-gencies can be planned and prepared ahead of time to develop organisation resilience. Addressing this need, Georgetown University is presenting an infor-mation session about this unique one-year master’s degree to help working professionals prepare for and respond to a wide variety of natural, technological, and man-made disasters.

The public information session will be held on March 18, at the City Center Rotana. Offered by Georgetown’s School of Con-tinuing Studies, the International Executive Master’s in Emergency & Disaster Management (IEDM) program offers a blend of virtual learning and five on-site inter-national residencies that provide critical hands-on experience and engagement opportunities with leading experts in the field.

“Graduates of our program rep-resent a diverse group of profes-sionals across many sectors, such as global health, human and social services, military, humanitarian aid,

first response, planning, public policy, and all levels of government. And they use the strong critical thinking and problem-solving abil-ities they gain through our program to serve in important leadership roles in their fields,” said Geor-getown faculty director Dr Tim Frazier (pictured).

Farukh Azad, a current IEDM student who also works as manager of Digital Transfor-mation at Ooredoo, recently con-cluded the Paris residency of the program. “We were introduced to critical aspects of preparing for and responding to man-made threats. The training included important field visits in the health sector as well as the Interpol

General Secretariat Headquarters in Lyon,” he explained. “In par-ticular the introduction to French national security, presented by the Executive Director of the French High Committee for Civil Defence, Christian Sommade, was a val-uable experience.” Other modules during the Paris residency included lessons on antiquities and terrorism, and preserving cul-tural heritage threatened by illicit trafficking.

Fellow IEDM student Hamad Eid Al Romaihi, who serves as Manager of Health Protection and Communicable Diseases in the Public Health Department of Qatar’s Ministry of Public Health, enrolled in the program, “to expand and advance [his] knowledge and understanding on a topic as we are preparing to host the FIFA World Cup in 2022.” He noted, “this will enable me to prepare and train my team to be ready to face any even-tuality as Qatar gears up for one of the most important sporting events.” The March 18 information session will be held at 7.30pm and will provide insights about the pro-gram’s on-site residencies around the world, curriculum, require-ments, fees and career outlook.

Alfardan Automobiles introduces 2019 BMW 3 Series SedanTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Alfardan Automobiles has offi-cially welcomed the 2019 BMW 3 Series Sedan to its clients and lovers of sheer driving pleasure throughout Qatar.

The seventh generation of the hugely successful BMW 3 Series range, the new 3 Series Sedan is set to dominate the premium mid-size luxury car market.

The latest edition to Alfardan Automobiles’ range of BMW vehicles, the 2019 edition BMW 3 Series Sedan combines enhanced sporting prowess with a refined interior ambience, eye-catching design and state-of-the-art driver assistance, control, and connec-tivity technologies.

Boasting notably sharper driving dynamics thanks to its upgraded chassis, new damper technology, stiffer body structure, low centre of gravity and even 50-50 weight distribution, the new 3 Series Sedan delivers a smooth, high-performance and comfortable experience for both passengers and driver.

BMW’s new powertrain tech-nology provides higher output, greater pulling power and opti-mised efficiency through its four-cylinder petrol engine. The 3 Series Sedan will be introduced with BMW 330i engine available in M Package and Sport Package.

An expansive range of chassis

options adds to the sporting ability and driving performance of the new 3 Series Sedan. These include; lowered M Sport suspension, M Sport brakes, and up to 19-inch light-alloy wheels.

The striking design language created for the 2019 BMW 3 Series Sedan helps to expand the classic look of this popular mid-size luxury vehicle while also expressing clear and visible ref-erences to the range’s heritage and enduring popularity.

The car’s modern aesthetic, sportiness and exciting on-road presence is visible through clear

yet rigid design lines that incor-porate optimal aerodynamics to help reduce drag along with new features such as an active air flap control, Air Curtains and the com-pletely sealed underbody.

Full LED headlights come as standard throughout the range, along with stylishly darkened rear LED lights, with additional extras including Adaptive LED headlights with BMW’s non-dazzling tech-nology and optional LED front foglamps.

The BMW 3 Series Sedan boasts a superbly refined interior, with extensive emphasis placed

on driver focus through the posi-tioning of clearly structured con-trols that help to convey an ambience of exclusive dynamism.

The latest communication, driver assistance and connectivity technologies are featured throughout the new BMW 3 Series Sedan range.

BMW’s innovative driver assistance systems have been expanded for the 2019 3 Series Sedan to include Parking Space Assistant, Collision and Pedestrian Warning with Braking Function, plus Lane Departure Warning as standard.

The officials at the event.

Al Khazraji said a total of 34 exhibitors from HMC, the Ministry of Public Health, various public and private healthcare organisations, and a number of health-related associations from across the country participated in the two-day event which focused on introducing female students to careers in healthcare.

Sabai Thai at Westin Doha introduces new Asian menu THE PENINSULA DOHA

Sabai Thai, the award-winning restaurant at The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa, has recently announced the launch of its new Asian, showcasing more than 10 dishes, all carefully crafted by Sabai Thai Chef Pawichada Than-aphibun with unique ingredients from different countries of Asia such as Malaysia, Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and Singapore. In addition, the interior design of the restaurant has been revamped and decorative elements have been incorporated to create a truly Asian themed atmosphere at the venue. A new artistic and bold drawing has been added showcasing the storyline of the conveyance and evolvement of a cooking expe-rience between two generations.

Additionally, a refurbished bar has been entrained to the setup, allowing guests to enjoy refreshing beverages. Also live entertainment has been added to create a vibrant touch to the overall ambiance.

A variety of new signature

Asian dishes have been introduced to the authentic Thai menu such as appetizers the Singaporean Crab Dumpling; Wagyu Beef Salad combining Japanese grilled Wagyu beef with Asian dressing and main courses like the Indo-nesian Beef Rendang cooked the traditional way with beef curry, ground spices and coconut milk and Five-Spices Duck, roasted with five spices and served with Bok Choi and pickle ginger.

Commenting on the new launch Rui Eduardo, Director of Food & Beverage of The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa, said: “The new concept and the culinary expe-rience that we will be offering will showcase an exceptional range of authentic flavours of the Asian region.

We are happy to introduce an innovative approach and bring a new breeze to Sabai Thai, not to forget that we have the savoir

faire of our talented chef Paw-ichada who has a wide knowledge on Asian cuisine and brings with her a wealth of experience from some of the top restaurants in five-star hotels.”

He added: “It is not just the menu that will make the dif-ference. The artistic touches and refurbished elements of deco-ration are other essential aspects that gives a new breeze to the ambiance.

For those who are looking to savor real Asian cuisine in a unique atmosphere, we invite them to explore Sabai Thai’s new genuine flavours.”

Sabai Thai restaurant is located in the outside area of The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa, next to the gardens and is open daily from 12pm until 3pm for lunch and for dinner from 6:30pm until 11pm. Every Saturday, Royal Thai Brunch starts at 12pm until 4pm.

16 SUNDAY 17 MARCH 2019MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

04. 26 AM

05. 42 AM

11. 42 AM

03. 08 PM

05. 45 PM

07. 15 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 01:49 – 12:31 LOW TIDE 09:28 –19:24

Partly cloudy to cloudy with a chance of

scattered rain maybe thundery at times and

slight to blowing dust at places by evenning.

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum22oC 30oC

Australian town holds funeral for crocodileAFP CARDWELL, AUSTRALIA

With Elton John’s “Crocodile Rock” playing in the background and a tribute from Steve Irwin’s family, a small seaside town in north Queensland bade farewell to a beloved community member yesterday, a saltwater crocodile.

Affectionately known as Bismarck, Fluffy or Gary, depending on who you

speak to, Cardwell residents held a cer-emony to say goodbye to the town’s 4.5 metre croc. More than 50 people attended the service, held at the Cardwell Jetty and organised by local Thea Ormonde.

Bismarck made international head-lines earlier this month, when fisherman Ryan Moody posted a video to social media about finding the crocodile — rumoured to be as old as 80 — dead in

a creek with what’s believed to be a gunshot wound. The family of late bushman Steve Irwin sent a represent-ative and recorded a thank you to the small town that played at the service, praising their positive attitude towards the reptiles. They said their late husband and father — a zookeeper and conser-vationist — would have been the proudest of Cardwell residents for accepting the croc as a part of their town.

IANS NEW YORK

Increased use of digital media may be partly responsible for the growth in the percentage of young adults experiencing certain types of mental health disorders in the US over the past decade, suggests a new research.

“More US adolescents and young adults in the late 2010s, versus the mid-2000s, experi-enced serious psychological distress, major depression or suicidal thoughts, and more attempted suicide,” said lead study author Jean Twenge, Pro-fessor of Psychology at San Diego State University in the US.

“These trends are weak or non-existent among adults 26 years and over, suggesting a generational shift in mood dis-orders instead of an overall increase across all ages,” Twenge added.

For the study, the researchers analysed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, a nationally representative survey that has tracked drug and alcohol use, mental health and other health-related issues in individuals aged 12 and over in the US since 1971. The rate of individuals reporting symptoms consistent with major depression in the last 12 months increased 52 percent in adolescents from 2005 to 2017 - from 8.7 percent to 13.2 percent — and 63 percent in young adults aged 18 to 25 from 2009 to 2017 - from 8.1 percent to 13.2 percent, showed the findings published in the Journal of Abnormal Psychology.

Digital media linked to depression in young adults

Ooredoo Ride of Champions a huge success THE PENINSULA DOHA

The 2019 Ooredoo Ride of Champions, the annual cycling event organised by Qatar Cyclists with the support of the Ministry of Culture and Sports and the Qatar Cycling Federation, has once again proved a huge success, as 1,500 champions from all ages and national-ities took part in its third edition on Friday.

Cycling enthusiasts from all over Qatar, including public figures and top diplomats, gathered in the ceremonial court and the adjacent green spine at Qatar Foundation to celebrate their favourite sport, breaking the previous record of 1,100 participants, set during the 2017 edition.

The one-day event encourages members of the community to practice sport and lead healthy lifestyles, through taking part in one of six cycling rides that caters to all ages and levels of experience. The first edition of the Ride of Champions, took place in 2016 as a support event for the UCI World Road Championships, hosted by Doha, and since them it became the most awaited annual event for cycling enthu-siasts in Qatar, thanks to the safe envi-ronment it provides for everyone to enjoy this sport.

The official supporter of the event, Rasen Sports, provided free mainte-nance services to all participants at its booth, in addition to rental service for bicycles, which was also available at Qatar Cyclists’ booth, as the organisers aimed to attract the greatest number of participants to try cycling, even if they never owned a bike.

The first ride kicked off at 6:30am, as the mostly-experienced cyclists went on a 137.5km ride. Ten minutes later, it was time for the 78-km ride, which was more convenient to less experienced cyclists. The third ride, with a 48-km route, was the perfect choice for cyclists who want to take their first steps into a more serious approach to road cycling.

From 8am, all eyes were on the green spine which hosted events for kids. The first of them saw the partici-pation of 14 youngsters and their close friends, representing the Best Buddies

Qatar initiative, established in 2008 by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser to con-tribute to the integration of people with moderate or mild intellectual and developmental disabilities in education, workforce and the community in the State of Qatar. Qatar Cyclists provided bicycles for all the kids taking part in this ride.

The second was a 1km ride, open for kids aged between 3-8 years old, and it saw a big turnout as registration was still open during the event, and with Ooredoo, Title Partner of the Ride of Champions, gave away more than 70 bicycles for the kids taking part in the ride to provide them with an unforget-

table experience.Next, it was time for the Family

Ride, the most popular ride of the event, as it gives all family members an oppor-tunity to take a 5.8km tour together inside the premises of Qatar Foundation on bicycles.

This year, many companies sup-ported the event and raised the awareness of both their employees and the members of the community to the great benefits of practicing sports.

Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE), Official Partner of the Ride of Cham-pions, organized a unique challenge for its listed companies, to encourage them to promote sports and healthy life styles

among their employees. Meanwhile, Dolphin Energy, Official Partner of the Ride of Champions, encouraged its employees and their family members to take part in all the rides of the event.

Rayyan Water, provided more than 11 thousands bottles of water at several points in the ceremonial court and along the different routes of the rides.

Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, Director PR and Corporate Communications at Ooredoo, commented: “Once again the Ride of Champions proved to be a great success, and one of which we are very proud. To see so many people from dif-ferent nationalities and cultures, of all ages, coming together to participate in their favourite sport was a wonderful sight. Ooredoo is firmly committed to supporting initiatives that benefit the communities in which we operate, in line with our corporate responsibility strategy, and we are pleased to be helping Qatar in its progress towards Vision 2030.”

Dr. Abulaziz Al Kuwari, President of Qatar Cyclists Center, commented: “I would like to express my sincere grat-itude for each and every one who made the 2019 Ooredoo Ride of Champions a huge success. When we launched Qatar Cyclists initiative in 2014, we were confident that we can promote our beloved sport among all members of our community, but what we have seen today exceeded all our expecta-tions. We were honored today to meet more than 1500 champions. It’s a dream coming true.”

Cycling enthusiasts during the 2019 Ooredoo Ride of Champions.

Dr Abdulaziz Al Kuwari, President Qatar Cyclists Center, and Hassan Al Emadi, General Manager of Dolphin Energy, at the 2019 Ooredoo Ride of Champions.

Films by Qatar-based talents screened at Qumra 2019THE PENINSULA DOHA

Films by Qatar-based film-makers were screened to a packed audience at the Museum of Islamic Art Auditorium on Thursday as part of the New Voices in Cinema programme at this year’s Qumra industry event by Doha Film Institute (DFI).

The short films showcased included Sh’hab by Amal Al Muftah, Just Another Memory by Mariam Al Dhubhani, Amphi-theater by Mahdi Ali Ali, The Wake by Zahed Bata, and Gubgub by Nouf Al Sulaiti.

Gubgub received much acclaim during the last Ajyal Film Festival winning two awards including Best Short Film in the Mohaq category and the inau-gural Abdulaziz Jassim Award for Best Performance at the Made in Qatar Awards for Fatima Al Nahdi’s role as an adventurous girl who goes crab-hunting with her family.

Sh’hab, an endearing tale of a young girl’s curiosity sparked by the myth of falling stars, and Just Another Memory, a powerful documentary on what it feels like to be displaced by war were also winners at Ajyal’s Made in Qatar bagging the Best Narrative and Best Documentary honours, respectively.

The screenings took place

following the showing of 2019 Academy Award-nominated documentary Of Fathers and Sons by Talal Derki.

In its fifth edition, Qumra 2019 is one-of-a-kind film event in the region that brings together more than 150 acclaimed film-makers, industry professionals and experts to nurture 36 films – the Qumra Projects – by first and second-time filmmakers that are in various stages of development, among which are 15 films by Qatar-based filmmakers.

The six-day event which kicked off yesterday features Qumra Masters including Academy Award-winning Mexican production designer Eugenio Caballero, French New Wave cinema legend Agnès Varda, prolific Japanese director and writer Kiyoshi Kurosawa, award-winning Italian writer and director Alice Rohrwacher and Polish filmmaker Pawel Pawlikowski. They will mentor first and second-time film-makers during Qumra, to support the development of emerging filmmakers from Qatar, the Arab region and around the world.

Along with the Qumra Masters, the event welcomes accomplished film directors, producers, film festival directors, programmers, consultants, fund

managers, sales professionals, acquisition heads, script experts, distributors, video on demand (VoD) platforms and broad-casters, and other industry pro-fessionals from more than 15 leading international film fes-tivals, and executives from some of the world’s leading film pro-duction companies, sales and distribution companies, and cul-tural and funding agencies.

International delegates come from countries ranging from

Chile to Italy, Canada to Japan and the UK to the USA among others. Regional delegates come from Jordan, Lebanon, Morocco, Palestine, Tukey, Syria and Tunisia. The Qumra 2019 industry events include the Qumra Masterclasses, led by the Qumra Masters; workshops and meetings for first- and second-time filmmakers with interna-tional film industry experts in bespoke mentorship sessions; Qumra Screenings of feature

films presented by the Qumra Masters and recipients of funding from the Institute, followed by question-and-answer sessions; and the Qumra Talks, which are panel-style discussions that cover a broad range of topics.

The general public has the opportunity to participate in the programme by purchasing a Qumra Pass that will give them access to Qumra Masterclasses, Qumra Screenings and Qumra Talks.

FROM LEFT: Qatar-based filmmakers Nouf Al Sulaiti, Amal Al Muftah, Zahed Bata and Mariam Al Dhubhani at the public screening.

qatar gains greater say in global gas industry€¦ · 17/03/2019 · play like a pro google,...

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