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Sheikh Dr Khalid bin Thani Al Thani (fifth left), Second Deputy to Qatar Businessmen Association (QBA) Chairman; Hussein Al Fardan (sixth right), First Deputy to the QBA Chairman; Issa Abu Issa (third right), Secretary-General of QBA; along with other QBA board members and officials posing for a group photo with senior French government officials in Paris, yesterday. → Full report on page 21

Volume 22 | Number 7347 | 2 RiyalsThursday 16 November 2017 | 27 Safar 1439 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Xavi set to return as Al Sadd prepare for Umm Salal clash

Kahramaa demonstrates impressive performance

in third quarter

BUSINESS | 21 SPORT | 29

3rd Best News Website in the Middle East

QATAR

165UNDER SIEGE

DAY

TH

The Peninsula

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President of Turkey H E Recep Tayyip Erdogan held the third session of Qatar-Turkey Supreme Strate-

gic Committee between the State of Qatar and the Republic of Turkey at the Emiri Diwan, yesterday. The meeting was attended by the Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani. The meet-ing was also attended by a number of ministers from both sides and members of the official delegation accompanying the President.

The Emir welcomed the Turkish Pres-ident and expressed his happiness at the meeting. The Emir pointed out that the previous meetings were important and achieved their objectives, but the ambi-tion is still great, hoping that this meeting will contribute to enhancing bilateral stra-tegic cooperation and achieving aspirations and hopes of the two broth-erly peoples.

The Emir stressed that Qatar will not forget the position of the Turkish President, the Government and the brotherly Turkish people with us during the siege.The Emir pointed out that the agreements signed between the two sides aim to achieve more cooperation in the strong relations between the two countries in various fields.

For his part, the Turkish President thanked Emir for his warm hospitality to the accompanying delegation.

The Turkish President expressed his full confidence that this session, like its prede-cessors, will enhance bilateral cooperation and achieve the aspirations of the two brotherly peoples. The Turkish President also said that the meeting with Emir dealt with economic and trade relations, stress-ing to continue the Turkish support to the State of Qatar in various fields, especially in the industrial and military fields.

With regard to Qatar’s hosting projects for the 2022 FIFA World Cup and Qatar 2030, the Turkish President expressed the readiness of the private sector in Tur-key and the Turkish businessmen to cooperate and participate in the imple-mentation of these projects.

In conclusion, the Emir called for the organisation of the fourth session of the Supreme Strategic Committee in Turkey next year. During the meeting, Emir reviewed ways to strengthen close coop-eration between two countries, and the prospects for upgrading the strategic rela-tionship in all fields, in addition to discussing regional and international developments.

→ See also page 2 & 4

Emir: Qatar won’t forget Turkey’s stanceEmir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President of Turkey H E Recep Tayyip Erdogan presided over Third Session of Qatar-Turkey Supreme Strategic Committee.

Powerful speech looking forward to the future

OPINION

Dr. Khalid Al-ShafiEditor-in-Chief

The Peninsula

The Cabinet which met yesterday chaired by the Prime Minister and

Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Kha-lifa Al Thani, praised the speech of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani at the opening of the 46th ordinary session of the Advisory Council yesterday, for the vision it had for devel-opment in all fields and the solid plans it laid for contin-uing the economic and developmental renaissance.

In addition to the clear positions the Emir set regard-ing different regional and international issues, the Min-ister of Justice and Acting Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Hassan bin Lah-dan Al Mohannadi said the following after the meeting.

The Cabinet stressed that the speech of the Emir will be the cornerstone of the com-ing year’s work in bid for more achievements and self-reliance.

The Cabinet stressed that the government, as men-tioned in the speech of His Highness, is committed to the required legislative tools for preparing elections for the Advisory Council which guar-antee fairness.

The Prime Minister directed their excellencies the ministers to carry out the directives of the Emir given in the speech yesterday, and asked them to place the plans and mechanisms that guar-antee the accuracy and speed of implementation.

The Cabinet then reviewed topics on the agenda. The Cabinet approved forming a techni-cal consultant committee to handle mission related to building free media zone. The cabinet also approved the draft decree on allocating some land for the Qatar Gen-eral Electricity and Water Corporation (Kahramaa), to establish a solar power plant.

→ Continued on page 6

Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chair-person of Qatar Foundation (QF), at the opening session of the eighth

World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) yesterday, stressed the importance to address various education challenges in a post-truth world.

Sheikha Moza inaugurated the 2017 WISE Summit, in the presence of Emine Erdogan, the First Lady of Turkey; H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice -Chairperson and CEO of QF and more than 2,000 politicians, academics, policymak-ers, businesspersons and students.

The biennial global summit is being held under the theme ‘Co-Exist, Co-Cre-ate: Learning to Live and Work Together,’ at the Qatar National Convention Cen-tre (QNCC) and debate around education challenges in times of global disruption

Sheikha Moza calls for addressing challenges to education

As usual Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani, addressed the local

and international community in a clear,

transparent and objective manner, as HH

does in all of his speeches in particular since

the siege has been imposed on Qatar.

The speech, which came at the opening

of the 46th session of the Advisory Council,

was comprehensive and powerful to reaf-

firm the Qatari position on the siege, and the

nation’s determination to move on towards

the intended aims of the future.

The speech indicated some offenses

committed by the siege countries against

Qatar undermining all established values,

traditions, kinship and interests of the pub-

lic and individuals. Not only that but they

attempted to harm Qatari economy on wrong

estimation, but all attempts ended in fiasco.

The Emir firmly stated that we are not

afraid of the blockade because we are “thou-

sand times better off without them”, but

have to be cautious as their ill intentions

against Qatar to affect its national unity are

continued.

Measures are under way to enhance

development and execute projects were also

addressed in the speech, including establish-

ment of logistic areas, many food security

projects, water security and desalination

plants projects which are under development.

The Emir disclosed that the government

is preparing for election of Advisory Coun-

cil and necessary legislation and decisions

will be finalised in 2018. HH also emphasised

the importance of developing the judicial

system, its independence and fast dispen-

sation of justice.

Qatar has adopted a policy of restraint

and modernity in its response to the siege

countries placing itself above altercation and

low level discourse these countries have used

against Qatar.

The Emir reiterated Qatar’s

readiness for dialogue on the basis

of mutual respect and obligations

expressing his gratitude to HH the

Emir of Kuwait and his keenness to

the future of the Gulf Cooperation

Council.

In his speech the Emir did not

forget regional and global issues on

top of them, the first Muslim’s issue

—Palestine, as he always does.

The message of HH to the local

society is that the State of Qatar is

moving towards a brighter future and

will not be hindered by this siege

as it has set up for itself long term

strategy of self reliance. He also

emphasised that everything is well

and every day the country is achiev-

ing major progress and the future

looks better.

The speech highlighted the strength and unity of people and leadership, as unity is the basis for success, development and victory in all fields of global plat-forms. The solid unity of Tamim Al Majd and his loyal people is the fact that confused the siege countries and foiled their ill plans against Qatar and Sheikh Tamim.

QBA delegation in France to boost economic ties

Emir’s speech a cornerstone for self-reliance: Cabinet

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani receiving the President of Turkey H E Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the Emiri Diwan, yesterday.

Education essential tool for integrating people into society: Emine Erdogan

Ghana-based activist wins $500,000 WISE Prize →PAGE:5

and economic uncertainty.Sheikha Moza presented the prestigious

WISE Prize for Education to Patrick Awuah, founder and president of Ashesi University College, a private, not-for-profit institution that has become one of Ghana’s premier universities in little over a decade.

In her opening speech, Sheikha Moza said that as everyone agrees education is the key to solutions, and expressed her fear that it will be unable to find that solution if several global challenges are not fixed urgently.

→ Continued on page 6

02 THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017HOME

QNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and his brother, the President of the Republic of Turkey,

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, wit-nessed the signing of a number of cooperation agreements and memorandums of understand-ing between the two brotherly countries following the meeting of the third session of the Supreme Strategic Committee between Qatar and the Turkish Republic.

New agreements were signed between the two coun-tries including a mutual Legal Assistance in Criminal matters, a cooperation agreement between Qatar University and the Scientific and Technologi-cal Research Council of Turkey (TUBITAK) for research

cooperation, a memorandum of understanding for cooperation in the field of central banks between the Central Bank of Qatar and Turkey, a memoran-dum of understanding in the field of legal and judicial train-ing, and a memorandum of intent for cooperation in meteorology.

The Emir and the President also witnessed the signing of a

memorandum of understand-ing between the port administrations of the State of Qatar and the Turkish Repub-lic, a memorandum of understanding on food safety, a memorandum of understand-ing in the field of humanitarian assistance and a memorandum of cooperation between Qatar Media Corporation and the Turkish Radio and Television Corporation. Both sides also wit-nessed the signing of the joint statement of the third session of the Turkish-Qatari Supreme Strategic Committee. The sign-ing ceremony was attended by Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdul-lah bin Hamad Al Thani and a number of ministers.

The signing ceremony was attended by the Ministers, mem-bers of the official delegation accompanying the Turkish President.

Emir, Erdogan witness signing of agreements

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the signing of cooperation agreement, yesterday.

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, witnessed the signing of a number of cooperation agreements and MoUs.

03ThursDAY 16 November 2017 home

Congratulations! Student Award Winners of the

Academic Year 2016 - 2017

College of the North Atlantic - Qatar Highest Achiever Scholarship

Saba AfreenSchool of Engineering Technology

Highest Achiever for School of Business Studies

Amanda MendesBusiness Administration -Human Resource Management

Highest Achiever for School of Engineering Technology and Industrial Trades

Wissam Bilal ChahineElectrical Engineering Technology

Highest Achiever for School of Health Sciences

Sameen JavlikarEnvironmental Health

Highest Achiever for School of Information Technology

Namreen Rabia JavlikarInformation Systems - Web Developer

Member of Honour Society 2017 Per School:

School of Business Studies

Ahmed Abdulhameed HejiBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Aisha Mohammad AfzalBusiness Management Accounting

Alanood SaifAl-NaimiBusiness Management Accounting

Alia Mohd Al-AdbaBusiness Administration Human Resource Management

Amaal Mohamed BadawyBusiness Management Marketing

Amal Abdul WahabOffice Administration (Executive)

Amal Anwar ChougleBusiness Administration Accounting

Amanda MendesBusiness Administration Human Resource Management

Ambrin RiazBusiness Management Accounting

Ameera Fatima AnazBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Amina Mohamed Al-KubaisiOffice Administration (Executive)

Amna Hamad Al-HajriBusiness Management Accounting

Amna Naeem ChohanBusiness Management Marketing

Anees MallickBusiness Management Marketing

Ayesha Shakil FaqihBusiness Management Marketing

Azmina Syed IbrahimBusiness Management Accounting

Dana Mohammed Al SulaitiOffice Administration (Executive)

Dania ShakeelOffice Administration (Executive)

Duha Mohamed HigaziBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Eisa Ahmad GhaderiBusiness Management Accounting

Eman Samir Abu YousefBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Fathima NizliyaBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Fida Fathima RasheedBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Gilles Halim EidBusiness Management Marketing

Hessa Ali AL-KhalafOffice Administration (Executive)

Hina Azhar NadeemBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Hisham Mohammed OmarBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Iman El AhmadBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Jana ShehabBusiness Management -Human Resource Management

Kaniz Mohammed HossainBusiness Management Accounting

Saud Bin Thani Al ThaniBusiness Management Marketing

Kholoud Hassan AlmarridiBusiness Management Marketing

Lama Mahmoud Al-KafarnehBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Lamina Mohamed SageerBusiness Management Accounting

Layana Mohamed SageerBusiness Management Accounting

Mariam Ahmed BarryBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Mariya Abdulrasheed AbdulrahmanOffice Administration

Maryam Abdulmalik M HamedBusiness Management Accounting

Meera Ahmad Al-MuhannadiBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Minji KangBusiness Management Accounting

Mirsab ThoopilBusiness Management Accounting

Mohamed Ghazi Al RashidBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Mona Maher AlzaeemBusiness Management Accounting

Nada Ali BahzadBusiness Administration Human Resource Management

Neda Hassan AbdollahiBusiness Management Accounting

Nourah Thahseen ZakirBusiness Administration Accounting

Rafsana Nazar MeethalBusiness Management Accounting

Ruqaia Mohammed ZareaBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Salma Emad MukhtarBusiness Management Accounting

Sanjana SanathBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Sara HadjaziBusiness Management Marketing

Savira RosadinaBusiness Management Accounting

Seemal ZamanBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Shahd Adel ElfeghihBusiness Management Marketing

Shaima Imam BukshBusiness Management Accounting

Stephanie Nicole EnriquezBusiness Management Accounting

Syeda AktarBusiness Management Accounting

Tabinda Mumtaz AhmadBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Yasmeen Mohammed AbdallaBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

School of Engineering Technologyand Industrial Trades

Abdul Ghani Ali Al Hajaj Chemical Processing Technology

Abdulla Abdulhameed Al AbdullaMechanical Technician (Industrial Maintenance)

Abdulla Gasmelbari OsmanProcess Automation Technician

Abdulnaseer Khan Khan Mechanical Technician (Industrial Maintenance)

Abdulrahman Sharaf SharafTelecommunications and Network Technology

Abdulrahman Walid AbdullatifElectrical Engineering Technology

Abdulrahman Zeyad HamadTelecommunications and Network Technician

Ahmad Amir KhanElectrical Engineering Technology

Ahmad Hussain AlabuhaddoudChemical Processing Technology

Ahmad Ibrahim Al-HeidousChemical Processing Technology

Ahmad Rafiq SalamahMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Ahmed Haytham AlomariMechanical Technician (Industrial Maintenance)

Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed Mohamed Mechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Alaa Ahmed Elsakka Telecommunications and Network Technician

Ali Salim Al MarriChemical Processing Technology

Amr Sameh HassaneMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Aya Yousef AbuAzabChemical Processing Technology

Connor Gerald MacLeodElectrical Engineering Technology

Dana Wahib ShalloufTelecommunications and Network Technology

Elsamani BabikerMechanical Technician(Industrial Maintenance)

Fahad Nasser AL-Mannai Telecommunications and Network Technician

Fathima NishaatElectrical Engineering Technology

Hamad Ali Al-MarriChemical Processing Technician

Hanna Nasser AlbeitjaliMechanical Technician (Industrial Maintenance)

Haseeb AhmedProcess Automation Engineering Technology

Ibne Kamal BhuiyanMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Ibrahim El KilaniChemical Processing Technician

Kenneth Atienza Ella Mechanical Technician(Industrial Maintenance)

Lina Ahmed ElsakkaTelecommunications Engineering Technology

Lulwah Al-AjmiChemical Processing Technician

Maheen TariqChemical Processing Technician

Majid LatifChemical Processing Technology

Malavika MathathElectrical Engineering Technology

Malik Amir HamzaMechanical Engineering Technology(Industrial Maintenance)

Maryam Mohammed KhanChemical Processing Technology

MD Ertahaz HossainMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Mohamed DaloulElectrical Power Systems Technician

Mohamed Moustafa KassemChemical Processing Technology

Mohammad JassimElectrical Engineering Technology

Mohammad ZahidMechanical Engineering Technology(Industrial Maintenance)

Mohammed Abdulla Al YafeiChemical Processing Technician

Mohammed Atif Amin KhanMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Mohammed Jassim Al EmadiMechanical Engineering Technology(Industrial Maintenance)

Mohammed Jassim AbdullaChemical Processing Technology

Mohammed Kamrul AlamMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Mohammed Riazul IslamElectrical Power Systems Technician

Mohsen Abdorraza KohansalMechanical Technician(Industrial Maintenance)

Mohssen Mohammad ZadehChemical Processing Technology

Mubarak Aman NassrallaTelecommunications and Network Technology

Muhammad AhsanMechanical Technician(Industrial Maintenance)

Munavar Harris ThottoliTelecommunications Engineering Technology

Nawaf Mohd Al KorbiChemical Processing Technology

Nayef Mohammed Al HajriMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Nayf Khalid Al MeadadiMechanical Technician (Industrial Maintenance)

Omar Hussein OmarMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Qasem Raed Al-AssadiMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Roaa Jaodat ZagmoutTelecommunications Engineering Technology

Saad Nasser Al-MarriMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Saba AfreenElectrical Power Systems Technician

Saif IrshadProcess Automation Engineering Technology

Sayma Akhter SalauddinChemical Processing Technology

Suaad Hamed HamedChemical Processing Technician

Tameem Saleh AL AbbadiMechanical Technician (Industrial Maintenance)

Touqueer AatifMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Wissam Bilal ChahineElectrical Engineering Technology

School of Health Sciences

Abdulla Iqbal ParkarAdvanced Care Paramedicine

Ahmed Abdelrahman MahmaudMedical Radiography

Alanood Mohammad ShafqatMedical Radiography

Alea KhatoonAdvanced Care Paramedicine

Aljoline Faye FranciscoEnvironmental Health

Amna Muhammad ShahzadiRespiratory Therapy

Chris Remy FernandesMedical Radiography

Dahika Abdul HameedPharmacy Technician

Dorothy Mitzi PacateEnvironmental Health

Emerald Louisse TagoMedical Radiography

Ethar Mohamed IbrahimEnvironmental Health

Fahina Kunhammad PokkerDental Hygiene

Fariha Abdul AzizAdvanced Care Paramedicine

Fathima ShirinRespiratory Therapy

Fatima Ahmed AlabadiEnvironmental Health

Foziya SolankiRespiratory Therapy

Hawa Bint HamzaEnvironmental Health

Hosne Ara HimiMedical Radiography

Huda Nazir HussainRespiratory Therapy

Khadeeja Abdul JabbarEnvironmental Health

Ma.Tricia Anne GomezEnvironmental Health

Mahira AbdulKareemDental Hygiene

Meriem AddadMedical Radiography

Nashwa Waseem FareediMedical Radiography

Noora Abdul JaleelEnvironmental Health

Norhan Mohamed KushkushEnvironmental Health

Rida AmbareenPharmacy Technician

Safa Kazim MullaPharmacy Technician

Sameen JavlikarEnvironmental Health

Sara Ahmed AlabadiEnvironmental Health

Suhana Banu HanifMedical Radiography

Syeda HafsaDental Hygiene

Tania TajMedical Radiography

Tasneem MoideenEnvironmental Health

School of Information Technology

Burhan Farook AbdullaInformation Systems - Network and Systems Administration

Mahmud BennbaiaInformation Systems - Web Developer

Mohamed IhthishamInformation Systems - Web Developer

Mohammad Ahmad SaboorzadehInformation Systems - Network and Systems Administration

Mohammad Basel AlnasanInformation Systems - Web Developer

Mohd. Istahaq HussainInformation Systems - Software

Namreen Rabia JavlikarInformation Systems - Web Developer

Nazha NayimInformation Systems - Web Developer

Paul Antoine SamsonInformation Systems - Web Developer

Rameesha ShehzadInformation Systems - Hardware

Salman Toufique ChougleInformation Systems - Network and Systems Administration

Wajiha RehmanInformation Systems - Web Developer

Wasim Ibrahim KarimInformation Systems - Software

Merit Award

Anees MallickBusiness Management Marketing

Ameera Fatima AnazBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Muhammad AhsanMechanical Technician (Industrial Maintenance)

Suaad Hamed HamedChemical Processing Technician

Chris Remy FernandesMedical Radiography

Hawa Bint HamzaEnvironmental Health

Wajiha RehmanInformation Systems - Web Developer

Mohammad Basel AlnasanInformation Systems - Web Developer

Khalifa Almass M R Al-SuwaidiOffice Administration (Executive)

Dania ShakeelOffice Administration (Executive)

Achievement Award

Amani Saif Al-KalbaniBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Amina Mohamed Al-KubaisiOffice Administration (Executive)

Amna Hassan AL-SulaitiOffice Administration (Executive)

Dana Khalid Al JassimOffice Administration (Executive)

Fahad Hamad Al ThaniBusiness Management Marketing

Fatima Kharalla Al KuwariBusiness Management Marketing

Khalifa Almass Al-SuwaidiOffice Administration (Executive)

Mashal Sulaiman Al SowaidiOffice Administration (Executive)

Noor Jarrah Al-MohannadiOffice Administration (Executive)

Abdul Ghani Ali Al HajajChemical Processing Technology

Abdulaziz Mohammad Al KatheeriChemical Processing Technology

Abdulla Abdulhameed AbdullaMechanical Technician (Industrial Maintenance)

Abdulrahman Al YafeiChemical Processing Technology

Ali Abdulla Al MuhanadiChemical Processing Technology

Ali Hassan AbuhelaiqaChemical Processing Technology

Hamad Ali Al-MarriChemical Processing Technician

Mohammed Jassim AbdullaChemical Processing Technology

Mouhsin Hassan RoodbariProcess Automation Engineering Technology

Nawaf Mohd Al KorbiChemical Processing Technology

Noora Ibrahim JemaishiEnvironmental Health and Safety - Occupational Health & Safety

Rawan Mohamad Al-MohamadMedical Radiography

Salem Muftah AlshahwaniInformation Systems - Hardware

College of the North Atlantic EFL Award

Mohamed Ahmed AlhetmiMechanical Technician(Industrial Maintenance)

Meteb Mohammed Al-Marri Technician Certificate Program - Process Operations

Library and Learning Commons Award

Maryam Mohamed Helmy AhmedProcess Automation Technology

ORYX GTL Academic Excellence Award in:

Entrepreneurship

Dona Devina LokubalasuriyaBusiness Management Accounting

Maryam Al BaderBusiness Management - Human Resource Management

Health and Wellness

Abdulla Iqbal ParkarAdvanced Care Paramedicine

Leadership

Mohammed Atif Amin KhanMechanical Engineering Technology (Industrial Maintenance)

Sports

Razan Khalid Saleh Environmental Health


Emir, Erdogan meet to cement historic ties

President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, left Doha yesterday after an official visit to the country. Erdogan and his delegation were seen off upon departure at Hamad International Airport by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Turkey H E Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi and Turkish Ambassador to Qatar Fikret Ozer.

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, witnessed the signing of a number of cooperation agreements and MoUs between the two countries. The meeting was attended by Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and other dignitaries.

05THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017 HOME

Ghana-based activist wins $500,000 WISE PrizeFazeena Saleem The Peninsula

A Ghana-based activist has walked away with the coveted sixth $500,000 WISE Prize — a ‘Nobel’ for Educa-

tion — for his outstanding dedication in supporting education and developing a new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs across Africa.

The prestigious WISE Prize for Education was presented yester-day to Patrick Awuah, founder and president of Ashesi University Col-

lege, a private, not-for-profit institution that has become one of Ghana’s premier universities in lit-tle over a decade. H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, presented the Prize to Awuah at the opening ple-nary session of the eighth World Innovation Summit for Education

being held in Doha. It was pre-sented in the presence of Emine Erdogan, the First Lady of Turkey. “I am honoured to receive the WISE Prize for Education. This is a crucial moment for Africa today, one out of six people on earth live in Africa, and this is set to rise to one in four by 2050. We urgently need to boost the education sys-tem in Africa to ensure we can tap into this shift to strengthen the con-tinent. Winning the WISE Prize will support the work we are already doing at Ashesi University College to inspire and educate and build a community of people who can

navigate the complexities of Afri-ca’s growth and set an example for the rest of the world,” said Awuah upon receiving the Prize.

The WISE Prize for Education is the first distinction of its kind to recognisze an individual or a team of up to six people for an outstand-ing, world-class contribution to

education. The Laureate receives the WISE Prize for Education gold medal, and $500,000.

Awuah is known for his dedi-cation to supporting education in Ghana and across Africa. Every Ashesi University College gradu-ate has found quality employment, and almost all have remained in Africa, where many have started much-needed businesses.

Awuah’s innovation in higher education is not only empowering students; it also has the potential to transform Ghana and other Afri-can nations by developing a new generation of leaders and entrepreneurs.

Stavros N Yiannouka, the CEO of WISE said: “I am pleased to wel-come Patrick Awuah as the sixth WISE Prize for Education Laure-ate. He joins a distinguished group of individuals who share a passion for empowerment through educa-tion. The WISE Prize Laureates have recognized needs that chal-lenged them to action. Each has blazed a path in engaging and enrolling others in a vision.”

“Patrick Awuah’s story is unique in his awakening to the role of renewed ethical leadership in social transformation, particu-larly in Africa. Ashesi University College, under his guidance, builds varied contemporary curricula on the pillars of liberal arts. He rec-ognized that the tools for acquiring and interpreting knowledge are at least as important as the knowl-edge itself. In placing leadership at the core of his commitment, Patrick Awuah stands as a model for all of us who are dedicated to empowerment through education.”

Ashesi University College has a world class campus of 100 acres, overlooking Accra, with nearly 900 students.

Education essential tool for integrating people into society: Emine ErdoganThe Peninsula

The world witnessing rapid changes, which will put humanity to a tough test,

said Emine Erdogan, the First Lady of Turkey while address-ing the opening plenary session of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE ) yesterday.

Emine graced the event as the guest of honour and also said that the world is facing a number of challenges that need to be addressed such as the refugee crisis. She said that Turkey set an example in dealing with the Syr-ian refugee crisis when it integrated them in the educa-tional system, essentially treating them as guests rather than refu-gees. She highlighted that Turkey is hosting 3.5 million Syrian ref-ugees, more than a million of

which are children. She stressed that education is an essential tool of integrating people into a new society.

“There are different opinions on the future of our world. In such an atmosphere, we need to ask the right questions and pur-sue sincere answers to them. We must be the spokesperson of truth in a world ruled by post-truth or post-reality and fictionalise and propagandise approaches. In this world where false news are spread through technological channels, we can only survive to the strength of truth. Our lives will become more valuable and meaningful if we advocate a stance based on rea-son and conscience,” said Emine.

“The world is full of suffer-ing but what matters is to have the ears to hear the voice of those who suffer. Take the

refugees for example, it is one of the biggest challenges human kind is facing. Turkey has dis-played a great example of co-existence as a country receiving with open arms 3.5 million refugees. Women and children fleeing the war are hosted in our country as guests regardless of their religion, lan-guage or ethnicity,” said Emine.

“And 1 million out of those 3.5 million are children in school age. We do not wish to see those children become a lost genera-tion. Our state mobilises with all its power its education resources. Inclusive education bridges Syrians and Turkish stu-dents from pre-school education to university. It is obvious that co-living and co-existence are only possible through education in this era of disintegration,” she added.

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice Chairperson and CEO of QF, Emine Erdogan, the First Lady of Turkey, H E Dr. Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, Cultural Adviser at the Emiri Diwan, along with other dignitaries yesterday at the event. PIC: A R Al-Baker

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of Qatar Foundation, presented the Prize to Patrick Awuah, yesterday at the event.


H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser with Filippo Grandi, UN High Commissioner for Refugees, at the 2017 WISE Summit. During the meeting, they discussed education in conflict and post-conflict areas and existing collaborations with the Education Above All Foundation. PIC: A R Al-Baker

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser with Christos Stylianides, European Commissioner for Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Management, at WISE 2017, where they discussed refugee education and Education Above All projects.

CRA serves notice of violation to 98 shopsThe Peninsula

The Communications Regulatory Author-ity (CRA) has conducted its second round of inspections of shops selling

telecommunications devices & equipment, this year from October 1 to 26.

The inspection included a total of 330 shops and resulted in 98 written violation notices issued to shops for operating with-out having the required licenses.

CRA issued notices for a range of viola-tions, the most common being to shops selling mobile phones without a license. The notice requires non-compliant shops to regularise their licence within a specified period of time to avoid CRA taking the appropriate legal action. CRA noticed considerable improve-ment in the awareness of shops owners’ about the importance of obtaining the necessary prior approvals to sell telecommunications equipment. In this round of inspections CRA

issued notices to 30 percent of the inspected shops compared to 74 percent of the shops inspected in April 2017.

To ensure consumers get certified tele-coms devices from licensed shops; as they may lose their rights if they buy telecoms devices and equipment from unlicensed shops.

Commercially registered companies in

Qatar who want to import radio and tele-communications devices and equipment are required to obtain the necessary prior licenses and approvals from CRA including an import authorisation license, type approval certifi-cate and customs clearance certificate.

Approvals are mandatory to ensure the equipment meets certain safety and techni-cal standards. Radio and telecommunications equipment includes, but is not limited to, mobile phones, wireless local area networks (WLAN), and short range devices (SRD).

Inspections are conducted on a regular basis by CRA’s technical inspectors to ensure that shops are not selling or using radio and telecommunications devices & equipment illegally and to take appropriate action if they are found to in violation of the regulations. The recent inspection targeted popular loca-tions that sell devices including malls, souks, commercial areas, as well as neighbourhood grocery stores.

Ooredoo named official sponsor of Farmers MarketThe Peninsula

Ooredoo yesterday announced that it is the Official Tel-ecommunications Sponsor of the 2017/2018 Farmers Market in Qatar (Torba), as the company continues

to support healthy living choices for the community.The Qatar’s Farmers Market is held every Thursday and

Friday from November 16, 2017 – February 2018, and includes a host of locally grown fresh products such as fruits, meats, eggs, and artisan foods.

The market is located at the Ceremonial Court in Qatar Foundation and Ooredoo has supported the event as part of its push to enable healthy living choices for Qatar and sup-port local produce.

Talking about the sponsorship, Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, Ooredoo Director of PR and Corporate Communications, said: “We’re proud to once again support healthy options and life choices for Qatar’s communities, and help provide an organised space for local farmers and producers to sell their goods. We encourage everyone to come along and see the market, which offers amazing value and great quality foods.”

Emir’s speech a cornerstone for self-reliance, says Cabinet → Continued from page 1

The cabinet also approved the cabinet of min-isters’ draft decision to amend the regulation of administra-tion units which the Ministry of Education and Higher Edu-cation is composed d e s i g n a t i n g i t s specializations.

The cabinet approved the draft decision of the Minister of Transport and Communi-cation on the rules on attaining an infrastructure safety certificate for railways and certificate of operational safety of railways and licenses to practice its services.

The cabinet also approved the draft memoran-dum of understanding on establishing a joint ministe-rial trade committee between the governments of the State of Qatar and the Kingdom of Morocco.

The cabinet reviewed and took needed measures on the report of the Minister of Municipality and Environ-ment on results of the study of introducing some amend-ments to the draft decision of the Minister of Municipality and Environment on the rules of the procedure of substitut-ing and transferring the precondition of the govern-ment lands disposition by the state to the beneficiaries and the lands or housing owned by them.

The cabinet reviewed and took needed measures on the memorandum of understanding of the Minis-ter of Administrative Development, Labor and Social Affairs on the results of the 87th session of the Arab Labor Organization (Cairo, October 2017).

Sheikha Moza: Address education challenges→ Continued from page 1

She also said that sooner or later education, which creates development, will face obstacles at different levels as politically, culturally, technologi-cally and as media. Also greatest challenges came when the political dis-course, in its eloquence, linguistic sophistication and what the media broadcasts, made a vision of the events on our behalf.

Sheikha Moza added that as result of the internet revolution of creating a virtual world deals with reality selec-tively and maintains its notion, putting reality in question.

She further said that hypocritical illusions being marketed in some media outlets in the form of real sto-ries and being pictured as some what the truth, is not true and resulted in toppling the standards of media discourse.

Sheikha Moza also said that activ-ities are flooding the social media to

promote propaganda, rumors and lies intended to divert people’s attention from previewing reality or getting to know the truth. These false realities that have been fabricated as alterna-tive facts to be accepted in the so-called ‘post-fact world,’ she added.

Sheikha Moza also cited as an example how fabricated information about Iraq lead to an invasion and destroyed the country, especially its strong educational system as well as in Yemen. She stressed same tools were used against Qatar which is under siege since June 5. “A blockade is imposed on Qatar since June 5. Some wanted to make matters difficult for us, yet it was only difficult for them. They wanted us to change, yet we remain unchanged,” she said at the opening ceremony.

“World full of false news does not prevent us, the defenders of education, from lining up to where the truth stands,” she added.

The Opening Plenary session also

featured a panel discussion on Educa-tion in the ‘Post-Truth World.’ Professor Kishor Mahbubani, Dean of the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Pol-icy at the National University of Singapore and Fareed Zakaria, writer and journalist of CNN discussed, how today’s post-fact and fake news envi-ronment has caught people in a struggle around ideology, emotion and objective research. They also discussed how education should respond to the challenges of the post truth world.

While, Sheikha Moza also honored project representatives of the six WISE Awards winning projects during a spe-cial ceremony held on sidelines of the summit.

WISE 2017 includes around 50 ses-sions focused on education in a post-truth world, with sessions focus-ing on media literacy, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, social entrepreneurship, design thinking and direction for best education choices, among others.

MEC recalls Honda CBR 300R models of 2015The Peninsula

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce, in collaboration with Doha Marketing Services Company (Domasco), dealer

of Honda in Qatar, has announced the recall of Honda CBR 300R models of 2015 because the starter magnetic switch is faulty.

The Ministry said the recall campaign comes within the framework of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers and ensure that dealers follow up on product defects and repair them.

The Ministry said that it will coordinate with the dealer to follow up on the mainte-nance and repair works and will communicate with customers to ensure that the necessary repairs are carried out.

The Ministry urges all customers to report any violations to its Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department through its different channels such as Call center: 16001; Email: [email protected] and through social media accounts: Twitter: @MEC_Qatar and Instagram: MEC_Qatar.

A routine inspection at a telecom shop.

Sheikha Moza meets UN High Commissioner for Refugees Sheikha Moza meets Christos Stylianides


Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani with UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grande, who is attending the eighth edition of the World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE 2017) that is taking place in Doha. They reviewed current cooperation between the State of Qatar and the UN in the humanitarian field and the means to enhance it, as well as the condition of the refugees and those displaced by crises.

Prime Minister meets UN Commissioner for Refugees

Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

Fashion, art, music and food — the most famous elements of Italian cul-ture — will take centre-stage at the Ital-

ian Week which runs from November 20 to 27 in various locations in Doha. This was announced at a press conference held yesterday at Katara to launch the event.

This celebration of Italian cul-ture builds on the Italian Cuisine Week promoted for the second year worldwide by the Italy’s Min-istry of Foreign Affairs which will take place from November 20 to 26. All Italian restaurants in Doha will dedicate a special menu at discounted prices making it very convenient to eat Italian food throughout the Italian Cuisine Week, Italian Ambassador Pas-quale Salzano told The Peninsula.

The Italian Embassy, how-ever, in cooperation with the Italian Trade Agency, The Italian Chamber of Commerce in Qatar and the Cultural Village Founda-tion-Katara has expanded the Italian Cuisine Week to include other elements of Italian culture renowned all over the world. “It is an entire week dedicated to Italian culture in a broader sense because it is not just about food but also about fashion, art and opera,” said Ambassador Salzano.

On November 21, Supreme Italian Dining Experience will be held at Marsa Malaz Kempinski in which Italian restaurants with Italian chefs, one of whom is coming directly from Italy, will be serving only the best Italian food, he said.

“The following day, we will have a seminar in Katara on Med-iterranean Diet, sport and nutrition. We are having this sem-inar because we think that what is important is not only eating well but also wellbeing, keeping fit and having a healthy lifestyle. We would like to promote the Italian lifestyle which means a good Mediterranean diet, good food of good quality which can be found here in Qatar together with healthy lifestyle,” he explained.

On November 23, a fashion show and art exhibition called “50 Years of Italian Fashion” will be held at Four Seasons Doha Hotel.

“This is a very interesting event because we will not only have a fashion show but also an exhibition of Italian products in the last 50 years. There will also be workshops which will teach how the Italian tailors make suits for men and women,” explained the ambassador. Another high-light of the week is gelato and coffee tasting in an Italian piazza atmosphere to be held At Al Hazm Mall on November 24 and 25.

Pizzaioli, who are profes-sional pizza makers who make

pizzas in the traditional Neapol-itan style, will be in Katara on November 26.

“They will make Neapolitan pizza because it will be awarded by Unesco the recognition of world heritage treasure. We would like to invite everyone visit Katara to enjoy an extraordinary experience of true Neapolitan pizza,” he said.

The celebrations will mark a grand finale with a concert fea-turing music of the iconic Rossini, Verdi and Puccini performed by world famous soprano Silvana Froli conducted by Jacopo Sipari di Pescasseroli, he ended.

Katara General Manager Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti said the celebrations aims to comple-ment Katara’s unceasing efforts to open new dialogues with human civilizations and to build communication bridges between Doha and Rome.

“This significant cultural week is sought to celebrate the Italian heritage and culture of an ancient, vibrant country that is also hosted to enlighten harmony and rapprochement between our peoples,” said Al Sulaiti.

Italian celebrations set to enthral Qatar

Single window approval for 63 factories with QR2.5bn investmentsThe Peninsula

The coordinating committee for the “Single Window Sys-tem Management”

announced approval of applica-tions of 63 factories with a total value of investments worth about QR2.5bn in the eight sectors cov-ered by the “Own Your Factory in Qatar in 72 Hours” project. The coordinating committee for the Single Window System Manage-ment announced the results of the first phase of the “ “Own Your Factory in Qatar in 72 Hours” project.

The “Own Your Factory in Qatar in 72 Hours” project is the second phase of the government

initiative “Single Window System Management” which aims at fast-tracking the establishment of more manufacturing companies and factories in Qatar, in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.

Speaking at a press confer-ence, Chairman of the coordinating committee for the Single Window System Manage-ment Salman Mohammed Kaldari said that food industries sector comes first with 22 factories val-ued at QR419m. The area allocated to these factories is about 110 sq km, followed by the medical industries sector with 9 factories with investments worth QR678m with an area of 149 sq km. He added that 9 factories

were allocated for the chemical industries sector with an invest-ment value of QR172m on an area of 82.6sq km. Eight other facto-ries were approved in the paper sector with a value of QR126m and an area of 55sq km. The rub-ber industries has 6 factories at QR105m with an area of 42 sq km.

Five factories were allocated for the electrical industries with investments worth QR93m and an area of 40 sq km. Four other factories were allocated for the metal industry with investments worth about QR670m on an area of 57 sq km. One factory was allo-cated for the machinery industry with an investment of QR11m and an area of about 3 sq km.

Pasquale Salzano, Italian Ambassador to Qatar and Dr. Khalid Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara during the press conference on the Italian Week which took place at Katara yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi met yesterday with United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi, who is currently visiting the country. During the meeting, they discussed enhancing the prospects of cooperation between the State of Qatar and UNHCR as well as a number of issues of mutual interest in the field of refugees.

Al Muraikhi meets UN official


The Peninsula

Qatar University College of Law (QU-LAWC) students, Maryam Ahmed A A Al

Maraghi, Amna Saif M S Alnaimi, Aisha Ali Al-Hammadi, and Sara Ibrahim M A Al-Obaidli, partic-ipated in the 2017 International Negotiation Competition (INC) which was recently held in Oslo, Norway.

The competition brought together 32 teams from 26 coun-tries to negotiate four different transactions related to petro-leum exploration. QU was the first and only university in the Middle East to participate in the INC competition. This year, two teams from LAWC participated in the competition.

Students Maryam Ahmed A A Al-Maraghi and Amna Saif M S Alnaimi achieved 10th place in the competition for their overall performance in the negotiations.

The students negotiated dif-ferent petroleum exploration transactions with Croatia, Den-mark, Indonesia, Norway, Russia, and Slovakia.

Congratulating the students, LAWC Clinical Assistant Profes-sor of Law and team coach Dr Aaron Richard Harmon said: “Judges and coaches from other countries were impressed with our students. Most of the other t e a m s c a m e f r o m

long-established negotiation programs and had already won one or two tournaments in their home country before coming to Oslo. LAWC students definitely made QU and Qatar proud. I look forward to seeing how they will perform next year.”

Student Sara Ibrahim M A Al Obaidli said: “It was one of the most useful experiences I have had in my university life.

Meeting new students from all around the world helped me to overcome my fear of public speaking in English. I also learned that you must try your best to balance interests of both parties, and to try your best to achieve your clients’ goals and to do that in a friendly way. Working with other students from all around the world was quite fun and fabulous.”

QU-LAWC students participate in International Negotiation Contest

Students of QU-LAWC at the 2017 International Negotiation Competition (INC) in Oslo.

The Peninsula

To mark World Radiogra-phy Day, which is celebrated on November

8 each year, Aspetar – the Orthopaedic and Sports Medi-cine Hospital, organised a symposium that explored top-ics related to radiography, its development, and it’s evolving uses in the medical field given radiography’s pivotal role in the development of the global medical industry.

Held for the seventh con-secutive year, the symposium consisted of four participant-led sessions and workshops running from 8am until 5pm, during which attendees, com-prising radiology specialists and researchers from a number of local institutions, engaged directly with speakers through interactive Q&A panel discussions.

The sessions focused on the latest developments in the field of radiography in athlete screening. It highlighted the important role of imaging in the patient pathway including in instances such as Anterior Cru-ciate Ligament (ACL) surgical reconstruction for athletes and post-surgical aftercare, and recognising the influence of

Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) in cardiac screening of athletes. Participants also dis-cussed the importance of radiation protection in Com-puted Tomography (CT) scans – a diagnostic imaging test used to create detailed images of internal organs, bones, soft tis-sue and blood vessels, r e c r e a t e d i n 3 D reconstruction.

Commenting on the sym-posium, Salwa Allenjawi, Director of Medical Imaging at Aspetar, said: “The rapid devel-opment that radiography is witnessing requires a continu-ous evaluation by specialists to keep up with the progress. Asp-etar has reached advanced stages in its capabilities in radi-ography, in both diagnosis and treatment, and this enables those who work in the field to benefit from our knowledge and experiences.”

Medical screenings are vital to the health of the athlete and can identify pre-existing car-diovascular abnormalities and thereby reduce the potential for adverse events and loss of life due to Sudden Cardiac Death (SCD). MRI-Based Screening helps detect pre-existing heart defects and minimise the risk of SCD among athletes.

Aspetar sheds light on latest developments in Radiography The Peninsula

Aster DM Healthcare, one of the largest pri-vate healthcare

providers which operate in multiple GCC states, will con-duct free HbA1c tests to raise awareness about diabetes and related diseases amongst res-idents of Qatar to mark the World Diabetes Day 2017. The free HbA1c testing facility will be available tomorrow from 8am to 11am.

This offer will be availa-ble at all Aster Medical Centres in Al Hilal (near Woqod Petrol Station), C Ring Road (near Ministry of Labour), Industrial Area (near foot over bridge and street no1), Al Rayyan (near Shafi Masjid), Al Khor (near LuLu Al Khor Mall) and Old Al Ghanim (behind Al Watan Centre).

The HbA1C test is cur-rently one of the best ways to check diabetes is under con-trol; it is very important for diabetic and prediabetes peo-ple. World Diabetes Day is part of an international cam-paign by World Diabetes Federation to spread aware-ness. Aster DM Healthcare is organising this event this year as a part of their 30th anni-versary activities under the banner of Aster@30.

Aster offers free HbA1c tests tomorrow

The Peninsula

More than 2,000 stu-dents from 37 private and gov-

ernmental educational institutes have visited the ongoing seventh Katara Traditional Dhow Festival which opened on Tuesday at Katara Beach, organisers said yesterday.

The school trips are part of the festival programme which included visits to the Sheikh Faisal Museum and the different pavilions that are organised by the partic-ipating countries including Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Iraq, Turkey, India, Greece, and Zanzibar.

The children also visited the handicrafts market that offer fishing and pearl div-ing items. In addition, they were enthralled to sea voy-ages at Katara’s Bandar, as they acknowledged the

names of the traditional Dhows and sailing vessels, making the visits educa-tional and entertaining trip for students.

Other sideline activities are workshops on dhow scene on a wooden board, clay, puzzle, printmaking, coloring, dhow sculpting

and acrylic painting in addi-tion to workshops offered by the Olympic and Sports Museum.

The participating coun-tries also presented kiosks displaying the most famous seafood dish found in their countries. A theatrical play, titled ‘Abshero bl Ezz’ has

also attracted many Katara’s visitors nightly at 7.30pm. Directed by the art-ist, Nasser Abdulla Abdulrida, the plays is com-posed of an elite cast of Qatari artists, including Rashid Al Shaib, Hamad Al Hashemi, Abdullah Al Bakri and Mohammed Adel.

2,000 students visit Katara Dhow Fest

Prime Minister of Ethiopia, Hailemariam Desalegn, left Doha after an official visit to the State of Qatar. The Prime Minister and the accompanying delegation were seen off upon departure from Hamad International Airport by Minister of Economy and Commerce, H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani, Qatar’s Ambassador to Ethiopia, Abdulaziz bin Sultan Al Rumaihi and Ethiopia’s Ambassador to Qatar, Mesganu Arga Moach.

PM of Ethiopia leaves Doha

The Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea, Peter O’Neill, left Doha yesterday afternoon after a visit to the country. The Prime Minister was seen off upon departure at Doha International Airport by Assistant Director of the Protocol Department at the Foreign Ministry, Saeed Ali Al Hajri.

PM of Papua New Guinea leaves

Students observing the tradition Dhow making tradition at the ongoing seventh Katara Traditional Dhow Festival at Katara Beach, yesterday.


The Peninsula

Careem, a ride-hailing serv-ice in the Middle East and North Africa, recently pro-

vided its captains in Qatar with the opportunity to receive free medical check-ups. The consul-tations were provided in cooperation with Aster Medical Center.

Focusing on major health issues and using early detection techniques, the medical check-ups included a free doctor’s consultation, along with tests that provided the Captains with their BMIs, blood pressure read-ings, lipid profiles, and blood sugar levels. In cases where additional testing or investiga-tion was required, the Captains

received a discount on their future visits.

Husain Alshehabi, Business Development Manager of Emerging Markets at Careem,

said, “In order to provide flexi-ble, safe, and convenient services to our clients, it is important for us to ensure a fleet of happy, healthy Captains.”

Careem provides medical check-ups for its captains

The Peninsula

The University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ) will host its annual Open House event

for prospective students and valued sponsorship partners, Hamad Medical Corporation and Sidra Medicine. UCQ’s Open House takes place on Saturday.

It will be held at the UCQ campus premises on Al Forousiya Road (opposite the horse race track) between 10am and 1pm..

“Our Open House presents a unique opportunity for pro-spective students to directly engage with faculty, staff, and our sponsorship partners at the same event,” said Craig Wood, Director of Student Services at UCQ. “The presence of

potential sponsors at our event is crucial in helping prospective students explore the diverse, important career paths that are available to our nursing graduates.”

The University of Calgary in Qatar is celebrating ten years of educating nursing leaders. UCQ, which is the only Canadian uni-versity in Qatar, is the exclusive provider of Bachelor and Mas-ter nursing programs in the country. The University’s cur-riculum is tailored to meet the unique needs of Qatar’s fami-lies and healthcare system.

UCQ’s Open House gives prospective students, their fam-ilies, and members of the community a chance to visit the campus, explore its advanced facilities, and personally meet with faculty to learn about

UCQ’s Canadian-accredited nursing programs. Organized tours of UCQ’s state-of-the-art Clinical Simulation Centre will be provided.

Applications are now being accepted for UCQ’s four-year Bachelor of Nursing (BN) pro-gram and two-year Master of Nursing (MN) program. The BN program educates students to become Qatar’s future nursing leaders, preparing them for careers in healthcare and academia, as well as develop-ing their problem solving and organizational skills to help care for their families and communities.

Applications to University of Calgary in Qatar’s programs are open to Qatari nationals and residents of Qatar through March 1, 2018.

UCQ to host open house event

One of the captains of Careem is examined by a health care practitioner as part of the medical check-ups.

The Peninsula

United Development Com-pany (UDC), the master developer of The Pearl-

Qatar, announced that nearly one million vehicles entered the island during October 2017, a 37 percent increase when com-pared to the same period last year.

Based on the current traffic flow, the number of vehicles entering The Pearl-Qatar is pro-jected to grow annually from 10 million vehicles in 2016 to more than 11 million vehicles in 2017.

The number of vehicles entering the Island is tracked through technologically-advanced monitoring devices installed at the entrance of The Pearl-Qatar. These devices reg-istered a daily average of 33,500 vehicles during October of 2017. These counts include visitors, tourists, owners, residents and employees.

This increase in vehicles has coincided with the opening of two new tunnels at The Pearl Interchange on Lusail Express-way in September, which has greatly eased traffic congestion coming in and out of The Pearl-Qatar.

The timely construction of these tunnels was a directive of Prime Minister and Interior Min-ister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, who urged the completion of con-struction works and delivery of the project ahead of schedule. Since their inauguration, travel time to and from The Pearl Qatar

has been reduced significantly.This development has also

added value to UDC and The Pearl-Qatar that would not have been possible without the sup-port of the Public Works Authority (Ashghal) in Qatar, which envisages the develop-ment of the country’s infrastructure through urban planning which has positively affected the flow of traffic to and from The Pearl and contributed to the real estate dynamics and community life on the Island. For this, UDC extends its gratitude to all Ashghal staff and associ-ates for this fruitful achievement.

The increase in vehicles enter-ing the island has also contributed to a revival in retail activity at The Pearl-Qatar. The demand for the leasing of shops, restaurants and other businesses is on the rise, making The Pearl-Qatar a preferred place to live, shop and dine and to experience a unique lifestyle experience at one location.

According to the displayed data showing the influx of vehi-cles, weekends and holidays are the busiest days at The Pearl-Qatar with up to 35,000 vehicles entering The Pearl-Qatar on a typical Thursday. Traffic usually peaks at 4 pm daily before grad-ually declining throughout the remainder of the day.

The data base has also shown a decrease in the rate of buses and heavy vehicles enter-ing the island, by an average 7 percent, thanks in part to the speedy completion of develop-ment projects on the island.

37% rise in vehicles entering The Pearl-QatarDeputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkmenistan, Rashid Meredov, met yesterday with H E Secretary General of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dr Ahmed bin Hassan Al Hammadi, on the sidelines of his participation in the seventh Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan in the Turkmen capital Ashgabat. The meeting discussed the bilateral relations, ways of supporting and developing them, as well as matters of mutual interest.

Turkmenistan Minister meets Envoy

The Director General of Public Security, Staff Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi, met yesterday with Ambassador of Nepal to Qatar, Prof Ramesh Prasad Koirala. The meeting discussed a number of topics of common interest.

The Peninsula

The Ministry of Interior (MoI) and Qatar University (QU) yesterday signed a mem-

orandum of understanding (MoU) on strengthening cooper-ation in the fields of higher education, scientific research and exchanging educational and training expertise.

The MoU was signed by Advisor to the Minister of Inte-rior, Major General Dr. Abdullah Yousuf Al Mal, Vice-President of Supreme Council of Police Col-lege and QU President Dr. Hassan Al Derham.

Al Mal said that the, MoU is a reflection of the strong rela-tion between the ministry and the university in the different scientific fields.

HE the advisor referred to QU’s cooperation and contribu-tion to establishing the Police College saying, the cooperation is ongoing especially in the sci-entific fields and the students’

researches for the different min-istry’s units. He added that the MoU signed between both par-ties aims to organize and develop the scientific research and s t rengthen th is

cooperation. On his part, Al Derham said

that the MoU aims to strengthen the joint cooperation in the fields of higher education and scien-tific research, in addition to exchanging expertise in all sci-entific, research, culture, training, technology and other fields which contributes to achieve the desires of the Qatar National Vision 2030.

Ministry inks MoU with Qatar University

Adviser to the Minister of Interior, Major General Dr. Abdullah Yousuf Al Mal and Vice-President of Supreme Council of Police College and QU President Dr. Hassan Al Derham, sign the MoU.

MoU is a reflection of the strong relation between the Ministry and the University in the different scientific fields.

This increase in vehicles has coincided with the opening of two new tunnels at The Pearl Interchange on Lusail Expressway in September, which has greatly eased traffic congestion coming in and out of The Pearl Qatar.

The Peninsula

AAB launched its spectac-ular campaign on Toyota used cars. In this

offer you can buy a Camry 2013 model starting from QR32,000, Corolla 2013 starting from QR25,000 and Prado 2013 starting from QR59,000. For Commercial vehicles, the Hi Lux starts from QR39,000 and the Coaster bus from QR82,000. For the in house finance, customers will enjoy buying without down payment and with 5% interest rate. Cus-tomers will also enjoy free Third Party insurance, free registration and free Petrol Voucher worth QR500. Terms and conditions apply

Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. Co launched the Pre-Owned Vehicle Section in 1995 to provide high quality vehi-cles. Over twenty years, the Pre-owned Vehicle Section, offered excellent services for customers by providing excel-lent ranges and models of cars with the competitive prices.

Since the foundation of Pre-owned Vehicle Section, Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros.Co set up prime targets which reflected the basic Direction of the company, namely the value of “customer first” from these goals:

First: work to build up and

maintain consumer confidence as well as keeping constant efforts to stimulate it by pro-viding a variety of different brands of excellent cars that meet the needs of the cus-tomer, knowing that the company is interested to do a comprehensive check ups for the vehicles before purchasing any vehicle, only cars with excellent condition and proved to be free from any major flaw that may affect the condition or the value of the car will be bought.

Second: The Pre-owned Vehicle Section provides the opportunity for customers to replace their used cars with new or used one. The Pre-owned Vehicle Section’s technicians will examine the car within 30 minutes allow-ing the customer to replace his car in a record time enjoying the advantage of the unique location of the Pre-owned Vehicle Section which is just behind Abdullah Abdulghani Tower. Out of Company’s con-cern to provide the best for its customers, AAB provides dis-tinctive prices, ensuring the best value for the car com-pared to its competitors in the pre-owned automobile mar-ket. Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros. has always been keen to provide additional privileges to the customer and ensure the

highest degree of peace of mind.

Third: Abdullah Abdulghani & Bros is concerned with pro-viding the largest selection of cars from various brands of excellent conditions and at competitive prices. Before sell-ing the vehicles, one of the specialized maintenance cent-ers of Abdullah Abdughani & Bros will check up the vehicle. With no doubt the access to vehicle information or vehicle history of before and after the maintenance reflects the com-pany’s commitment to provide an atmosphere of confidence to our valued customers.

During the sales process, sales officer will provide a detailed explanation to the customer about the status of the car as well as a detailed information about the per-formed maintenance services. The client on the other hand is granted the right to examine the car at any specialized center. As well as the right to test –drive the car by himself. In order to ensure good qual-ity of the selling process, AAB has increased the number of sales advisors as well as recruiting highly experienced staff maintaining in this sense the Pre-owned Vehicle Section value of “Customer First” as well as to satisfy the customer and gain his confidence.

AAB offers unique chance to own Toyota used vehicles

Qatari official meets Nepal Envoy

WISE, an initiative of Qatar Foundation (QF), has become a global platform for finding solutions for the challenges posed to the education sector. The world now looks up to the WISE as it has

become a platform for the development of new ideas and solutions. The world is in need of more such innovative initiatives as humanity is faced with multiple challenges.

H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson of QF, yesterday opened the session of the eighth World Innovation Summit for Education (WISE) in Doha, where she stressed on the importance to address various education challenges in a post-truth world.

This high profile event is seeing attendance of more than 2,000 politicians, academics, policymakers, businesspersons and students from around the globe. The biennial global summit is being held under the theme ‘Co-Exist, Co-Create: Learning to Live and Work Together,’. The theme is very timely and appropriate given the situation around the world.

The audiences got opportunity to listen to enlightening discussions as experts discussed how today’s post-fact and fake news environment has caught people in a struggle around ideology, emotion and objective research. The audience also got to know that how education should respond to the challenges of the post truth world. WISE 2017 includes around 50 sessions focused on education in

a post-truth world, with sessions focusing on media literacy, artificial intelligence and virtual reality, social entrepreneurship, design thinking and direction for best education choices, among others.

One of the highlights of the summit was the announcement of the 2017 WISE Prize for Education Laureate. The WISE Prize for Education is the first distinction of its kind to recognise an individual or a team of up to six people for an outstanding, world-class contribution to education.

The summit has become a much attractive global event

as it provides an opportunity to meet the people behind pioneering international projects championed by WISE initiatives all year round.

WISE is now being imitated around the world as it has positively influenced the global education sector over the years by giving innovative solutions.

QF, under the leadership of Chairperson, H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, established WISE, an international, multi-sectoral platform for creative thinking, debate and purposeful action in 2009. It has established itself as a global reference in new approaches to education.

WISE is a response to the necessity of revitalising education and providing a global platform for the development of new ideas and solutions.

One of the most significant achievements of WISE initiative is that it has succeeded in putting education on the global agenda.

10 THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

[email protected]

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

[email protected]

Innovating education

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The UN Secretary-General appeals for calm, non-violence and restraint in Zimbabwe. Preservation of fundamental rights, including freedom of speech and assembly, is of vital importance.

Farhan Haq UN Spokesman

The summit has become a much attractive global event as it provides an opportunity to meet the people behind pioneering international projects championed by WISE initiatives all year round.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan have met for the eighth time since the downing of the Rus-sian jet on November 24, 2015. The

Sochi summit, their fourth meeting so far this year, was important in many respects.

It seems that the two leaders dealt prima-rily with energy issues. They agreed on the removal of the obstacles in the way of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and the Turkish Stream. Following the energy talks, the most important issue that the two leaders discussed was Syria. With the physical conflict now over, they reached an agreement on transitioning to a political solution.

They also discussed the PYD-Russia rela-tions in connection with Syria, the statements Putin and US President Donald Trump had made in Vietnam, and the continuation of the Astana process. Also on the table of discussion were the complete lifting of the restrictions on agricultural products between the two coun-tries, readjusting the visa regime in line with the period before November 24, a strong coop-eration in the field of tourism, and the decisions made during Putin’s visit to Tehran. It is also noted that, although undisclosed, there was an exchange of ideas on a prospec-tive Russian initiative for the resolution of the Nagorno-Karabakh crisis.

As the two leaders pointed out, it can be argued that bilateral relations have overall returned to pre-crisis levels. The depth of the mutual involvement on a number of issues has, however, exceeded even pre-November 24 levels. For example, the completion of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant and the Turkish Stream project have the potential to take the current level of relations to a new strategic height.

While Turkey wishes that the first reactor be activated by 2023, there are Russian theses that this would not be possible. But since the two leaders have agreed on holding the groundbreaking ceremony soon, it seems that the overall process will be picking up speed. At the summit, all the necessary permissions to proceed with the Akkuyu project were granted by Turkey and also the list of the Turkish com-panies to take part in the project was finalized, thereby clearing all of the obstacles in the way of the Akkuyu project.

As for the defence industry, there is an advanced cooperation on the co-production of the S-400s and other weapons. Nevertheless, we cannot yet say that we have returned to pre-crisis levels when it comes to the problems that Turkish businessmen operating in Russia still run into, the obstacles they face with regard to the sale of agricultural products, and the visa problems. In particular, Russia, claim-ing that a considerable amount of investment was made in greenhouse cultivation during the crisis, has imposed a 50,000-ton quota on Turkey’s tomato import to Russia.

On the other hand, we would be mistaken if we were to say that the relations between the two countries are progressing in their natural course since they upgraded their cooperation to a new high in a very short time because of the need they feel for each other in the face of the pressures coming from the West and the United States.

Turkey was left in the lurch by its Nato allies during the course of the Syrian crisis. It, for one, could not get help from his allies regarding a much-needed air defense system.

Historic high in Turkish-Russian relationsThe US, its Nato ally, did not even shy away from establishing a strategic alli-ance with the PYD, the Syrian branch of the PKK, despite being one of the coun-tries that recognise the latter as a terrorist organisation. And to cap it all, the attitude taken by the US after the July 15 coup attempt was a complete disappointment for Turkish society.

Russia sees Turkish Stream as stra-tegic investment

And as for Russia, the embargoes imposed on it by the EU and the US in the aftermath of the Ukraine crisis dealt a serious blow to its economy. The West succeeded in passing Russia off as a bogeyman. A fear of Russia has been established all over the world, and espe-cially in the Baltic countries. The Western strategy to militarily contain Russia over the Black Sea has materialised to a signif-icant degree. The corridor through Ukraine by which Russia pumped gas to Europe has been rendered defunct.

A number of Russian projects, among which North Stream-2 stands out, by which Russia was planning to reach the West, now stand very little chance of realisation. With the embargo imposed on Russian politicians and businessmen, foreign capital has been forced to leave Russia. Thus, the Western project of blockading Russia, both economically and politically, has succeeded. We can say that Russia needs Turkey to be able to overcome this blockade. And here lies the prominence of the Turkish Stream because Russian plans to pump gas to the West through Bulgaria had previously been hindered by the EU. Turkey has now arguably opened Russia a pocket of air by facilitating its gas delivery.

Turkish Stream and US threat of sanctions

The Turkish Stream project is proba-bly one of the most important issues to Russia in its relations with Turkey. There are, however, a number of major obsta-cles to this project as well: the new US sanctions against Russia may negatively affect a series of Russian projects, one of which is the Turkish Stream. The US sanctions target both the Turkish Stream and the North Stream-2 project, which will extend from the Baltic to Germany. Although the nature of the sanctions announced by the US is not yet clear, all foreign investors cooperating with Gazprom may face sanctions. And as a matter of fact, foreign investors who saw this coming have started waiting in the stand-by mode, as it were.

One of the first things Trump did after he took office, in order to prove his viril-

ity, was to endorse a law that contained sanctions on Russia. The US presi-dent was given mandate with this law to impose sanctions on all

companies investing in the construction and maintenance of Russian pipelines, supplying technology to this end, or ren-dering any services for Russian companies. The most fundamental rea-son for Russia to make a very quick move with regard to the Turkish Stream is the desire to complete the project before being affected by any sanctions. Under the given circumstances, the US and the EU, having figured out that Turkey now fully appreciates the Russian need for the Turkish Stream, is now giving Turkey the same kind of hassle that it has given Rus-sia for quite a while.

Might Syria regress to Geneva process?

Syria constitutes one of the most important issues in the Turkish-Russian cooperation. The two leaders announced at the meeting that they had agreed for a settlement of the Syrian crisis based on territorial integrity. But here is another important point: Putin’s emphasis on UN Resolution 2254 during his meeting with Trump in Vietnam led Turkey to ask for an explanation from Russia.

Through this decision, it can be seen that the US is seeking to assume control over the developments in Syria by carry-ing them onto an international platform in line with the Geneva process. The fact that both Russia and the US have veto powers in the UN Security Council might be interpreted as the desire to eliminate countries such as Turkey and Iran, two players still sitting at the discussion table set up for Syria. But it is too early to make a definitive judgment in this regard.

The real problem lies in the US vigor-ously promoting its opinion that all foreign powers must leave Syria once everything has been settled politically, and it is basing this opinion on Resolution 2254. What we can infer from this is that Hezbollah, which is considered a threat to Israeli security, and Iran, by extension, are not wanted in Syria. But the ongoing Russian collaboration with Iran in Syria suggests that this will not be the case.

We see that the US, by creating a safe zone in the north through the PYD up to the Jordan-Israel border, is trying to pre-vent Iran from forming its “Shia Crescent”. Thus, it wants to foil Iranian efforts to be effective in Lebanon through the land border and become neighbors with Israel. Netanyahu’s words during his speech at the 72nd General Assembly of the UN [last September], “We will act to prevent Iran from establishing perma-nent military bases in Syria for its air, sea and ground forces.

We will act to prevent Iran from pro-ducing deadly weapons in Syria or in Lebanon for use against us,” may indeed be a clue for us to make out the implica-tions of the agreement that Trump reached with Russia in Vietnam. It seems that both Russia and the United States are taking Israel’s sensitivities into account here. But such agreements and disclo-sures pose risks for Russia.

Only time will show how long Russia will be able to keep the scales balanced between Iran and Israel. Another possibil-ity is, in cleansing the region, extending from Iraq to Israel, of Iranian influence, the US might as well be planning to use the energy lines there in the future. The PYD, deprived of its chance to open a corridor to the Mediterranean by Turkey’s Opera-tion Euphrates Shield, might realise this project over Israel with the help of the US.

Syria constitutes one of the most important issues in the Turkish-Russian cooperation. The two leaders announced at the meeting that they had agreed for a settlement of the Syrian crisis based on territorial integrity.

ED ITOR IAL

Salih Yılmaz Anatolia

11THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017 OPINION

exchange for propping up President Laurent-Desire Kabila.

Mnangagwa’s political ambitions grew, and in 2005, Mugabe slapped him down, taking away his senior post in the ruling Zanu-PF party following a play for the vice president’s post. But he survived the demotion and ended up rising to the vice presi-dency anyway in 2014. It was clear that, despite his lack of political prowess — he’s lost elections twice in his home constituency —Mugabe saw him as a potential successor.

As Mnangagwa demonstrated his staying power, built ties and accumulated favors in various parts of the Zimbabwean establishment, Mugabe was growing more dependent on the military. Charles Mangongera, a Zimbabwean researcher, wrote in a 2014 paper:

“As the president’s authoritarian grip on the state has been gradually slipping in the face of growing opposition, the military has grown more and more involved in politics. Military elites have gained institutional vetoes and blocked the coun-try’s transition to democracy through the militarization of key state institutions and the use of state-sanctioned violence against Mugabe’s challengers. In return, those military elites have been rewarded with lucrative government con-tracts, access to prime land, mining concessions,

and other perquisites from the pred-

As leader of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe has survived longer than Stalin in the Soviet Union and Mao in China. If it’s com-ing to an end — which seems

likely, given his apparent inability to emerge from house arrest after the mili-tary took charge — it’s worth reflecting on the mistakes he made to end such a remarkable run.

Daniel Treisman, a UCLA political sci-entist, argued in a recent paper that most dictators fall for reasons proving that they are all too human: hubris, a propensity for needless risk, liberalization impulses that lead to a slippery slope, picking the wrong successor, counterproductive violence. Mugabe, 93, is no exception; he groomed the wrong person to succeed him and relied too much on his military. When he tried to change his pick, the generals decided they’d had enough.

Almost throughout Mugabe’s 37-year rule, Emmerson Mnangagwa -- like Mugabe, a veteran of the war for Zimba-bwe’s independence from the U.K. -- was the dictator’s closest ally and aide. The country’s first security minister, he ran the special units that suppressed tribal resistance to the rule of Mugabe’s party. These units forced villagers to dance on the freshly filled graves of their relatives, chanting pro-Mugabe slogans, Heidi Holland wrote in “Dinner with Mugabe,” an account of his transforma-tion from a national liberation icon to an autocrat.

Later on, in the late 1990s, when Zim-babwe intervened on the government’s side in the Second Congo War, Mnan-gagwa built strong ties with the military, helping it gain mining concessions in

Zimbabwe’s coup is nothing to celebrateatory state presided over by the Mugabe regime.”

The Zimbabwe Defense Forces are not the kind of mili-tary that, at critical moments, steps in to guarantee normality and adherence to governance traditions, as the Turkish military did more than once in the 20th century. The ZDF are inextricably linked with Zanu-PF, but not nec-essarily with Mugabe. As the aging dictator became more and more frail, often falling asleep in public, Constantine Chiwenga, the ZDF commander, became known as a Mnangagwa ally.

So, when Mugabe fired Mnangagwa earlier this month, accusing him of disloyalty, and when it became clear the dictator would like his wife Grace to serve as vice president and take over from him, Chiwenga made his move, prom-ising to stop “those bent on hijacking the revolution.” The military takeover in Harare took place the following day, on Tuesday.

There’s little to celebrate about it. Grace Mugabe, with her violent temper and love of luxury, probably wouldn’t be a great president. Mnangagwa, 75, is hardly an improve-ment. Observers have described him as a cruel, spiteful man.

“The opposition candidate who defeated him in Kew Kwe Central after a bitter campaign in 2000 narrowly escaped death when Zanu-PF youths who had abducted him and doused him with petrol were unable to light a match,” Holland wrote.

Zimbabwe, which has gone through traumatizing vio-lence and economic upheaval under Mugabe, doesn’t have much to expect from the military intervention. This kind of change, born of palace intrigue rather than popular resist-ance, means things stay the same or get worse for them. The new dictator will seek to make sure he’s more coup-proof than his predecessor, and that may mean more violent suppression.

For autocrats elsewhere, however, what happened in Zimbabwe can be a useful lesson. A longtime associate with succession ambitions cannot wait forever for a dicta-tor to die. If he’s allowed to build up power, and especially befriend the most powerful generals, a dictator’s days in power are numbered. He won’t be allowed to change his mind on the succession, either. Constantly shaking up the security apparatus and the political leadership allowed Stalin and Mao to die in office. An early decision to estab-lish a dynasty worked well for Kim Il Sung. Mugabe won’t be joining the ranks of these undefeated dictators because he’s been negligent. It’s only human, especially after almost four decades in power.

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The controversial duality: Science and politics

The catastrophic speculations of climate change adverse effects in so many places in the world including Asia, the Caribbean and the United States highlights the urgency of taking a serious action to miti-

gate the deterministic consequences of climate change. Ensuring the full implementation of Paris Agreement and Sustainable development goals, COP23 has kicked last week in Bonn, whereas world leaders and decision makers from 196 countries are meeting to follow the spent efforts to implement the previous pledges.

It worth mentioning that the current conference organised by Bonn-base UN climate change (UNFCCC) is governed by the small developing pacific island state of Fiji and organisationally and logistically supported by G7 member Germany, with further commendable support from Germany state of North-Rhine-Westphalia and the City of Bonn. The vision for the current presidency of COP23 is mainly to forge agenda condition to accelerate cli-mate action before 2020 and beyond between civil society, the scientific community and all levels of government and regions.

In his opening plenary statement, the newly elected President of 23rd session of the UNFCCC, Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama of Fiji, declared that, “the need for urgency is obvious. Our world is in distress from the extreme weather events caused by climate change – destructive hurricanes, fires, floods, droughts, melting ice, and changes to agricul-ture that threaten our food security”.In the shade of such unprecedented events, he said, “Our job as leaders is to respond to that suffering with all means available to us. This includes our capacity to work together to identify opportunities in the transition we

must take. We must not fail our peo-ple. That means using the next two weeks and the year ahead to do eve-rything we can to make the Paris Agreement work to advance ambition

and support for climate action before 2020”.This conference does not only demonstrate the

rising consciousness of countries, governments, projects and civil society, but also to progress further and faster the previous plans. It aims also to cooper-ate and coordinate all parties to make a notable united impact. This agreed global development agenda suggests all countries should frankly start to cut greenhouse emissions, which aggravates the problem much faster than what the collective con-scious can imagine. It also demands to review together the way we use energy in terms of produc-tion and consumption, as well as rethink around the way we manufacture and build.

This comes along with Qatar participation in COP23, and in this regard, the Assistant Undersecre-tary in the Environmental Affairs at Ministry of Municipality and Environment Mr Ahmad Al-Sada mentioned that, “Qatar intends to take part in order to face the challenge of Climate Change conse-quences by committing the Paris Agreement and promoting objectives of the current presidency”. While the Director of Climate Change Department in the same ministry Mr Abdualhadi Al-Marri said that, “We always put Paris Agreement into consideration as well as our commitment and priority to imple-ment the Environmental aspect of Qatar Vision 2030 which agrees with the sustainable development”.

The Qatar negotiating team begin its agenda of the (COP 23) which is expected to close by the end of this week. The negotiating team consists of different official bodies including; Ministry of Municipality and Environment, Ministry of Economy and Commerce,

Ministry of Transportation and Communication, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Civil Aviation Authority, Qatar General Electricity & Water Cooperation (Kah-ramaa) and Qatar University.

Has the sustainsim era already started?Post the previous climate change conference, it

seems that great advances continued to be made. After (COP 22) alone, these are just a few of many examples.

• China announces five pilot zones for “green finance” where financial institutions will provide incentive to fast track environmentally-friendly industries and new financing mechanisms such as emissions trading will be deployed.

• The Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) issues disclosure requirements for the issuing and listing of green debt securities.

• Several countries including France and United Kingdom announce dates when fossil fuels cars will be gone in favour of new electric vehicles.

• Over 100 multinational companies pledge to source 100 per cent for their renewable energy for their operations under an initiative called RE100 by The Climate Group

• Over 250 US mayors commit to procure 100 per cent renewable energy for their cities by 2035.

• Moody’s reports green bond issuance world-wide could cross US$200 billion in 2017, doubling the 2016 record.

• The Johannesburg Stock Exchange (JSE) devel-ops green bond listing requirements in line with international best practice.

To conclude, although some great achievements have been seen this year, the climate change issue

Qatari delegation participating in COP23 in Bonn.

remains controversial whereas the climate justice need to be applied evenly. It is unfortunate to see poor and under-developing countries pay bills of the huge manufacturing that took place centuries ago by developed countries. For me, the solution in this regard may take longer what have been proposed in Paris, nevertheless, that does not mean Paris Agreement has failed, but the collective consciousness needs to realise that the spent long time to negotiate this problem and the accompanied danger of not responding to the issue may lead to further consequences.

The writer is a graduate from Univer-

sity of Nottingham and Bachelor of

Environmental Science.

Mohammed R Al-Sulaiti

This conference does not only demonstrate the rising consciousness of countries, governments, projects and civil society, but also to progress further and faster the previous plans. It aims also to cooperate and coordinate with all parties to make a notable united impact.

Although some great achievements have been seen this year, the climate change issue remains controversial whereas the climate justice need to be applied evenly. It is unfortunate to see poor and under-developing countries pay bills of the huge manufacturing that took place centuries ago by developed countries.

Constantly shaking up the security apparatus and the political leadership allowed Stalin and Mao to die in office. An early decision to establish a dynasty worked well for Kim Il Sung. Mugabe won’t be joining the ranks of these undefeated dictators because he’s been negligent. It’s only human, especially after almost four decades in power.

Leonid Bershidsky Bloomberg

12 THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

France’s Macron invites Hariri and family to FrancePARIS: Lebanon’s Prime Minister Saad Al Hariri and his fam-ily will travel to France in coming days, a French presidential source said yesterday, after Emmanuel Macron invited him as part of efforts to defuse tensions in the Middle East. Speaking in the German city of Bonn after a climate conference, Macron said his invitation was not an offer of exile for Hariri, who announced his abrupt resignation as premier 11 days ago from the Saudi capital Riyadh. Lebanese President Michel Aoun, who has refused to accept his prime minister’s resignation, earlier yesterday accused the Saudis of holding Hariri hostage - and called this an act of aggression. Asked if he was offering Har-iri exile, Macron said: “No, not at all. I hope that Lebanon will be stable, and that political choices should be in accordance with institutional rule.

Palestinians say opening of Gaza border crossing delayedRAMALLA: A senior Palestinian official says the long-antici-pated opening of Gaza’s border crossing with Egypt has been postponed, and talks are underway with Cairo to set a new date. Azzam Al Ahmad, an adviser to President Mahmoud Abbas, said yesterday that Egypt cited “special circumstances” for delay-ing the Rafah crossing’s opening. Egypt has kept the crossing, vital to Gaza’s nearly 2 million residents, mostly shuttered since Hamas seized the territory from Abbas’ Palestinian Authority in 2007. Israel and Egypt have maintained a blockade on Gaza to isolate Hamas. Hamas ceded control of Gaza’s crossings to the Palestinian Authority under an Egypt-brokered deal last month.

Turkish jets kill 3 terrorists in IraqANKARA: Turkish jets killed three PKK terrorists in airstrikes in northern Iraq, the military said yesterday. The airstrikes were launched in the Avasin-Basyan region near the moun-tainous border with Turkey, and killed three terrorists who were planning to attack border gendarmerie outposts and bases, the statement said. Turkish armed forces continue to take con-trol of terrorists positions in northern Iraq, it added. Airstrikes on PKK targets in southeast Turkey and northern Iraq, where the terror group has its main base in the Qandil region near the Iranian border, have been carried out regularly since July 2015, when the PKK resumed its armed campaign. The PKK — listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and US — has killed more than 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civil-ians since taking up arms again.

11 dead in Tanzania plane crashNAIROBI: Eleven people have died after a plane belonging to a safari company crashed in northern Tanzania, according to the aircraft’s owners, Coastal Aviation. “We are deeply sad-dened to report that eleven people have died after a single-plane accident this morning in Northern Tanzania,” the company said in a statement published on its website.

Harare

Reuters

Zimbabwe’s military seized power yester-day saying it was holding President Robert Mugabe and his

family safe while targeting “criminals” in the entourage of the man who has ruled the nation since independence 37 years ago.

Soldiers seized the state broadcaster and a general appeared on television to announce the takeover. Armoured vehicles blocked roads to the main government offices, parliament and the courts in central Harare, while taxis ferried commuters to work nearby. The atmosphere in the capital remained calm.

In his first contact with the outside world since the takeo-ver, Mugabe spoke by telephone to the president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, and told him he was confined to his home but fine, the South African presidency said in a statement.

It was not clear whether the apparent military coup would bring a formal end to the 93-year-old Mugabe’s rule; the main goal of the generals appeared to be preventing Mugabe’s wife Grace, 41 years his junior, from succeeding him.

But whether or not he goes, it may mark the end of the coun-try’s dominance by Mugabe, the last of Africa’s state founders still in power from the era of the struggle against colonialism, and one of the continent’s most

polarising figures.Mugabe, still seen by many

Africans as a liberation hero, is reviled in the West as a despot whose disastrous handling of the economy and willingness to resort to violence to maintain power destroyed one of Africa’s most promising states.

He plunged Zimbabwe into a fresh political crisis last week by firing his vice president and presumed successor. The gen-erals believed that move was aimed at clearing a path for Grace Mugabe to take over and announced on Monday they were prepared to “step in” if purges of their allies did not end.

“We are only targeting crim-inals around him (Mugabe) who are committing crimes that are causing social and economic suf-fering in the country in order to bring them to justice,” Major General SB Moyo, Chief of Staff Logistics, said on television.

“As soon as we have accom-plished our mission, we expect that the situation will return to normalcy.” United Nations Sec-retary-General Antonio Guterres,

the African Union and Western countries and called for calm.

“We cannot tell how devel-opments in Zimbabwe will play out in the days ahead and we do not know whether this marks the downfall of Mugabe or not,” Brit-ish Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson told parliament. “We will do all we can, with our inter-national partners, to ensure this provides a genuine opportunity for all Zimbabweans to decide their future.”

Finance Minister Ignatius Chombo, a leading member of

the ruling party’s ‘G40’ faction, led by Grace Mugabe, had been detained by the military, a gov-ernment source said.

By Wednesday afternoon it was business as usual in Harare’s suburbs while there was less traffic than normal in the city centre. Soldiers continued to man armoured cars but had relaxed searches on vehicles on some checkpoints. Residents spoke in awe of events that had previously seemed unthinkable. “I don’t support the army but I am happy to see Mugabe gone,

maybe this country can start to develop again,” said Rumbi Katepfu, preparing to shut her mobile phone shop early in downtown Harare. “I did not think this would ever happen... We used to think Mugabe and Grace were invincible.”

As evening fell there were fewer people on the streets than usual, including vendors who usually trade their wares after dusk. On the road leading to par-liament, opposite a Catholic cathedral, soldiers sat on a bench puffing cigarettes.

Army seizes power in Zimbabwe

NEWS BYTES

Amman

Reuters

The Syrian army backed by Russian jets yesterday stepped up shelling and air

strikes on a besieged rebel-held enclave in Damascus a day after rebels stormed an army base in the area, rebels, a war monitor and residents said.

The bombardment follows a surprise ground offensive by jihadist rebels on Tuesday on an army complex in the heart of the city’s Eastern Ghouta region that has defied opposition assaults since the start of the conflict.

The fortress-like Military Vehicles Administration in the government-held part of Har-asta town has long been used to strike at the densely populated Eastern Ghouta, where over 300,000 people live under siege. Rebels have failed in

repeated offensives to seize the sprawling compound, from where surface-to-surface rock-ets are launched against the rebel enclave. Douma, the main city in opposition-held Eastern Ghouta, is only three km away.

“The fighting is continuing and the shelling and air strikes are heavy near the base and most of the towns of the Ghouta,” said Abu Kutaiba, a military commander for Ahrar al Sham, an Islamist rebel group that has spearheaded the attack.

A Syrian military source said on state media the army had repelled “terrorists who sought to infiltrate in large numbers,” killing tens and destroying their weaponry. It did not mention the heavy aerial strikes on opposition areas.

Backed by Russian strikes, government forces have esca-lated military operations against

Eastern Ghouta in recent weeks, seeking to tighten a siege on the area, residents and rebels say. The rebel assault aims partly to relieve that pressure.

The Eastern Ghouta is part of several de-escalation zones which Russia has brokered with rebels across Syria that has freed the army to redeploy in areas they can regain ground.

The rebel offensive which began on Tuesday is the first since last March when main-stream Free Syrian Army (FSA) rebels staged an attack against government-held areas in northeastern Damascus. The rebels were forced to retreat after initial gains.

In retaliatory attacks, aerial strikes and shelling hit Harasta, Irbin, Misraba, Hamouriya, and Saqba towns in Eastern Ghouta with at least eight civilians killed and about 94 wounded.

Russian and Syrian armies step up attacks on Damascus enclave

A group of soldiers seal off a main road to the parliament building in Harare, Zimbabwe, yesterday.

United Nations

AFP

The United Nations warned yesterday that fuel supplies needed to

run Yemen’s hospital gener-ators and pump clean water will run out in less than three weeks unless the Saudi-led coalition lifts its blockade.

The dire forecast came as Yemen battles one of the world’s worst outbreaks of cholera, with nearly one mil-lion people infected. Some 2,200 people have died.

Adding to the woes of aid workers on the ground, stocks of diphtheria vaccines will be emptied in two weeks unless aid deliveries are once again allowed in the country, UN spokesman Farhan Haq said.

The Saudi-led military coalition shut down Yemen’s sea and air ports as well as borders on November 6 in response to a missile attack by the Iran-backed Huthi rebels near Riyadh.

UN aid chief Mark Low-cock warned last week that unless the blockade was lifted, Yemen will face “the largest famine the world has seen for many decades, with millions of victims.” A week after hearing that dire warn-ing, the UN Security Council appeared powerless on Wednesday to push the Saudi-led coalition to lift its blockade of humanitarian aid.

Jerusalem

AFP

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has offered aid to victims of the deadly earthquake in Iran, insisting enmity between the two govern-

ments does not prevent humanitarian sympathy. The offer was made in a video conference with the Jew-ish Federations of North America.

It comes as many of the tens of thousands left homeless by the quake have vented anger at the Islamic regime for what they say has been the slow response of the charitable foundations set up after the revolution of 1979.

“I saw these heartbreaking images of men and women and children buried under the rubble,” Netanyahu told the meeting in Los Angeles. “A few hours ago, I directed that we offer the Red Cross medical assistance for the Iraqi and Iranian vic-tims of this disaster. “I’ve said many times that we have no quarrel with the people of Iran. Our quar-rel is only with the regime.” “The offer was not rejected,” ICRC spokeswoman in Jerusalem Aly-ona Synenko said, after Israeli media said Iran had turned down the offer through the Red Cross.

Earthquake survivors are seen near tents in Sarpol-e Zahab province of Kermanshah, Iran, yesterday.

Netanyahu offers quake aid to Iran

UN warns of fuel shortage for Yemen hospitals

Court hears petitions against Kenyatta’s re-electionNAIROBI: Kenya’s Supreme Court justices listened to arguments yesterday from two petitions seeking to over-turn President Uhuru Kenyatta’s re-election in last month’s repeat poll.

The court made history when it nullified Kenyatta’s re-election in August, citing irregularities and illegalities, and ordered a new vote. Opposition leader Raila Odinga boycotted the repeat election, saying electoral reforms had not been made.

Lawyer Benjamin Musy-oki, representing politician and petitioner Harun Mwau, argued that the electoral commission went against the constitution in failing to ensure that fresh nominations for can-didates were held before the October 26 repeat election. Donald Deya, representing human rights activists and petitioners Njonjo Mue and Khelef Khalifa, said the new vote had irregularities and ille-galities similar to those that led to the annulment of the origi-nal election.

In his first contact with the outside world since the takeover, Mugabe spoke by telephone to the president of South Africa, Jacob Zuma, and told him he was confined to his home but fine, the South African presidency said in a statement.

13THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017 ASIA

An activist of the Karnataka wing of Rashtriya Rajput Karni Sena caste organisation holds a placard demanding the ban on screening of ‘Padmavathi’, in Bengaluru yesterday. The activists alleged that the movie distorts the historical facts.

Ire against ‘Padmavathi’

Delhi blames Centre for not using green taxNew Delhi

IANS

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) yesterday blamed the Centre for blocking projects as an RTI query revealed

that the Kejriwal government did not spend even a paisa out of the Rs 787 crore it collected as envi-ronment cess since January 1 this year.

As the capital city grappled with dangerously high pollution levels, the Right to Information (RTI) query yesterday found the Delhi government was unable to specify its utilisation of the Rs787 crore green cess collected dur-ing 2017.

The government said it spent Rs93 lakh of the cess in 2016, but there was “no mention of any expenditure” in 2017.

The AAP government came under attack from the opposi-tion parties following the revelation.

Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken slammed the city govern-ment and said they could have bought new buses with this money and also augmented total parking capacity of the bus depots.

Lashing out at Kejriwal, Maken said: “Instead of using the money which is lying idle, he is busy aiming at other state gov-ernments and the Centre instead of doing his bit.”

Maken said Kejriwal could have purchased road vacuum cleaners, as the dust “is the sin-gle-biggest contributory factor for air pollution” in Delhi.

”When we were in power, the strength of the DTC (Delhi Transport Corporation) was 5,445 buses, which has now gone down to 3,951 buses. There has been a shortfall of 1,500 buses in three years,” he said.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) instead blamed the central gov-ernment for its failure to spend Rs 787 crore of environmental cess and accused it of blocking the projects to control pollution.

AAP’s chief spokesperson Saurabh Bharadwaj said they never said that the Delhi govern-ment had shortage of funds.

“Though government wanted

to purchase buses, but the central government did not allot land for bus depots,” he said.

He also said that the govern-ment had approached the central government for permission for aerial sprinkling of water to con-trol pollution and was even ready to spend the money.

Bharadwaj said that the gov-ernment had been taking other measures like spraying of water on roads to control dust, but environment cess was not being utilised for it and was being done using other funds.

When asked about other pol-lution control measures like installation of air purifiers and vacuum cleaning of roads, the leader said that both options were looked into, but they were not found feasible.

Meanwhile, the Delhi gov-ernment said it had prepared a

one-year short-term plan to tackle air pollution.

A Delhi government official said Chief Minister Arvind Kejri-wal held a meeting with senior officials on Tuesday evening and directed that the environmental cess and environmental ambi-ent air fund be used for procurement of buses.

On the government’s plans, he said: “The Delhi government has prepared a one-year short-term plan, under which it proposes to procure 500 elec-tric buses within one year.”

He said the government was planning to procure buses of two different sizes—Standard and Medium. According to him, a standard size bus costs Rs 2.6 crore while the medium size bus comes for Rs 1.6 crore.

Later, Saurabh Bhardwaj tweeted that the Lt Governor was

not allotting land for depots for the Delhi Transport Corporation (DTC) fleet.

“Government has plan to buy 500 electrical buses, but no depots to park them. LG (Lt Gov-ernor) controls land,” he tweeted.

Yesterday, Delhi Chief Min-ister Arvind Kejriwal met his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar in Chandigarh here and the two agreed to take steps to prevent a repeat of smog in the National Capital Region (NCR) next year.

“We ... are happy to have had a very fruitful meeting at Chan-digarh. We recognise our deep and shared concern over the recent episode of heavy smog in NCR. We agreed upon the need for action on many measures aimed at preventing its re-occur-rence in the winter of 2018,” a joint statement said.

A man with his face covered with a scarf rides his scooter through a dusty neighbourhood on a smoggy day in Delhi, yesterday.

Transport minister in Kerala quits

Thiruvananthapuram

IANS

Battling land grab charges, Kerala Trans-port Minister Thomas

Chandy yesterday quit, becoming the third minister to quit the government of Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan in controversial circumstances.

After submitting his res-ignation to his party leader T P Peethambaran, who for-warded it to Vijayan, Chandy drove away in his official car to his home in Alappuzha.

En route, at a few places, angry Youth Congress work-ers waved black flags and threw eggs at his car. But at his home in Alappuzha, activ-ists of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) greeted him with full-throated slogans.

On Tuesday, the Vijayan government suffered a set-back when the Kerala High Court dismissed a petition filed by Chandy for quashing the Alappuzha Collector’s report which alleged land grab by Chandy’s resort.

Chandy told the media at his house yesterday that the Collector’s report had factual errors.

“In the High Court verdict, one judge was not pleased because I filed the petition as Minister Chandy. I did it as per the advice of my counsel. Once I get the judgement, tomorrow itself I will file an appeal in the Supreme court,” said Chandy.

Overhaul of GST rates becomes effectiveNew Delhi

IANS

The most comprehensive overhaul of GST rates decided at a GST Council

meeting, wherein tax on all res-taurants was reducted to 5 per cent and tax on 178 items slashed, became effective from yesterday as the government issued notifications to this effect.

Eating out is expected to become cheaper as all restau-rants outside high-end hotels charging up to Rs7,500 per room have uniformly come under the 5 percent GST bracket from Wednesday, according to the gazette notification.

The facility of input tax credit for restaurants has, how-ever, been withdrawn as they had not passed on this benefit to

consumers. Restaurants in hotels with rooms above Rs7,500 per day would continue to pay 18 per cent GST with the benefit of input credit.

According to the notifica-tions, the GST has been cut on a host of consumer items such as chocolates, chewing gums, shampoos, deodorants, shoe-polish, detergents, nutritional drinks, marble, and cosmetics.

Only 50 products, including luxury and sin items, white goods, cement and paints, auto-mobiles, washing machines, air conditioners, aeroplane and yacht parts have been retained in the top 28 per cent slab.

Scientific and technical equipment supplied to public-funded research institutions will now attract a concessional GST rate of 5 percent.

Tanks should operate on west, north fronts: ArmyNew Delhi

IANS

Future armoured vehicles should have the capabil-ity to operate on both

northern and western borders, Army Chief General Bipin Rawat said yesterday.

The Army Chief’s remark came days after the Indian Army issued a Request For Information (RFI) for develop-ment and manufacturing of Future Ready Combat Vehicle (FRCV) under the Strategic Partnership model.

Director General Mecha-nised Forces Lieutenant General A B Shivane, mean-while, called the project a “game changer”.

Addressing a seminar “Future Armoured Vehicles India 2017”, General Rawat said the Indian Army was looking at modernising its mechanised forces, adding that there can be no mistake in deciding what capabilities are required in these Future Ready Combat Vehicles.

“Whatever be the future armoured vehicle we are look-ing at, we must have the capability to operate on the western border and the north-ern border. Whatever equipment we are going to

introduce must be capable of inter-operability on both fronts.”

The Army Chief said that with development of canal sys-tems on the western front, the desert areas have become greener and population close to the border has also grown, leaving lesser space for oper-ating the tanks and also bringing in a requirement for building bridges.

“With the canal system developing, we will have to address the requirement of bridges in the manner in which these armoured fighting vehi-cles are going to negotiate with all this... Therefore, I will say the battlefield will become complex and the terrain will add to the complexities.”

General Rawat also said that there is a need to reduce the weight of the machines and to ensure it can operate in a complex terrain as well as be integrated with other systems.

”We will have to look at technology to reduce the weight of our war fighting machines. We will have to overcome terrain with manoeuvring space reducing... Even down south in desert, in that sector hardening of desert has started,” he added.

J&K interlocutor Sharma briefs Rajnath New Delhi

IANS

The Centre’s special rep-resentative for a sustainable dialogue in

Jammu and Kashmir Dineshwar Sharma, who undertook a five-day visit to the state, briefed Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh yester-day on the first round of talks he had with various sections of the society there last week.

Sharma made his presen-tation at a core group meeting, chaired by Rajnath Singh for a security review of Jammu and Kashmir. It was attended by Defence Minis-ter Nirmala Sitharaman, National Security Advisor Ajit Doval, Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba, Defence Secretary Sanjay Mitra and top brass of Intelligence Bureau, Research and Analysis Wing, National Investigation Agency and para-military forces.

Sharma informed the Home Minister about the response that he got during his meetings with different sections of society, including political parties, student organisations, and social and religious groups in Jammu and Kashmir.

Tamil Nadu governor stokes row by holding review meetingCoimbatore

IANS

Tamil Nadu’s new Governor Banwarilal Purohit has stoked a major controversy

by convening a meeting of offi-cials here to review development works, an action that has come

under all round attack from opposition parties. Unfazed, Purohit said he will carry out similar inspections in all districts of the state in the coming days.

Purohit, who took over as Governor last month, made his maiden visit outside Chennai to first participate in the

convocation ceremony of Bharati-yar University on Tuesday.

Later, he undertook a review meeting in which the Coimbatore Collector, Police Commissioner and Corporation Commissioner and other top officials participated.

The Governor’s action

touched a raw nerve in the oppo-sition parties, which accused him of stepping on the toes of the elected government, harming state autonomy.

DMK leader M K Stalin said the Governor’s action would erode the autonomy of the state. Instead, he should attend to his

duties by ordering a floor test in the state Assembly for the AIADMK government, Stalin said.

Puducherry Chief Minister V Narayanaswamy, who is fight-ing a turf war with Lt Governor Kiran Bedi, said the “disease” has spread to Tamil Nadu from the Union Territory.

As the capital city grappled with dangerously high pollution levels, the Right to Information query yesterday found the Delhi government was unable to specify its utilisation of the Rs787 crore green cess collected during 2017.

14 THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017ASIA

Pakistani cleric Mufti Abdul Qavi (centre) chats on his mobile phone after his release from the central jail in Multan on late Tuesday. A court has granted bail to Qavi who was arrested over his alleged role in the murder of a social media star Qandeel Baloch last year, a defence lawyer said.

Khattak goes against Imran poll demandIslamabad

Internews

In the meeting of Council of Common Interests held on Monday, the Chief Min-is ter of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province,

Pervez Khattak, did not even mention PTI chief Imran Khan’s public demand for holding early general elections.

Instead, what the CCI agreed to when implemented will kill any chance of early elections in the country. Sources said that the prime minister as well as all the chief ministers, including Khattak, were unanimous on the issue of holding elections on time next year.

Imran Khan demands early elections. The ruling PML-N, as well as most of the opposition parties, have not only sounded their dismissal of what the PTI chief seeks but insisted that the government should complete its term and election should be held on time in mid next year.

It is, however, interesting to note that the KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who belongs to the PTI, did not even discuss the issue of early elections in the CCI meeting.

The CCI instead agreed to go for a constitutional amend-ment ensuring that, (a) the 2018 polls are held on the basis of 2017 census, (b) delimitation of the electoral constituencies is completed by the Election Commission of Pakistan on the basis of 2017 census for the next general elections.

The process of delimitation will take five to six months. As per the CCI’s agreement, the provisional result of the 2017

census will be notified early to ensure that the next general election is held on the basis of 2017 census.

Following the implementa-tion of what the CCI has decided, the option of early election will be out of question.

Initially, the PPP was not ready for the constitutional amendment because of its res-ervation about the 2017 census.

But on Monday the chief minister Sindh conditionally agreed to support the govern-ment’s Delimitation Bill, 2017 paving the way for the delimi-tation of constituencies based on provisional results of the population census 2017.

The CCI supported the CM Sindh’s condition of conduct-ing the third party verification of one per cent area in all the provinces for checking the authenticity of census 2017.

Under the Delimitation Bill 2017, though the number of general seats will be retained at 272, there would be a change in allocation for the provinces and on the basis of provisional results of the population census.

Judge exempts Sharif from attending trialIslamabad

AP

A Pakistani judge has exempted former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

from attending his corruption trial so that he could visit his wife as she undergoes cancer treatment in London.

The temporary exemption granted by the anti-graft court in Islamabad also applies to Sharif’s daughter, co-defendant in the case. Sharif’s lawyer Amjad Pervez said the exemption for Sharif is for one week only but a month for his daughter.

Sharif, his daughter and her husband appeared in court for Wednesday’s hear-ing in the trial on corruption charges stemming from doc-uments leaked from a Panamanian law firm.

However, the judge declared Sharif’s two sons — also charged in the same case — as “offenders” for failing to appear in court.

Supporters of former Pakistani prime minister Nawaz Sharif surround his car as he arrives to appear before an accountability court to face corruption charges in Islamabad yesterday.

Seat disparity in Pakistan delimitation highlightedIslamabad

Internews

The Free and Fair Election Network (Fafen), an alli-ance of over 50 civil

society organisations, has pointed out a serious disparity in the constitutional amendment bill seeking re-allocation of the seats of legislatures. The net-work claims that the proposed law violates the basic principles of the Constitution.

According to Fafen, the seats among the federating units as suggested in the draft law had not been distributed among the federal territories in accordance with the basic constitutional framework that required allocation of seats

among all federating units on the basis of population in accordance with the last pre-ceding census.

In a statement issued a day after the Council of Common Interests (CII) agreed upon car-rying out delimitation of the constituencies and re-alloca-tion of the seats of the national and provincial assemblies on the basis of the provisional census data, Fafen said that the constitutional amendment bill did not address the number of reserved seats to be re-allo-cated to religious minorities in line with their share of the population.

Urging the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) to make the population f igures of

non-Muslim minorities’ public, Fafen asked parliamentary par-ties to proceed with the bill only after this omission was deliber-ated upon and the representation of religious minorities was sat-isfactorily considered.

The proposed amendment, Fafen said, also sought a one-off exemption from the requirement of carrying out fresh delimita-tion of constituencies on the basis of officially published cen-sus results.

The one-time provision is being sought to allow delimita-tion for the General Elections 2018 on the basis of the provi-sional results of the sixth population and housing census, which has been questioned by national and regional political

parties for their accuracy.According to the Constitu-

tional (Amendment) Bill, 2017 introduced in the National Assembly earlier this month, the government is seeking to amend clauses 3 and 5 of Arti-cle 51.

“The amendment being sought for Article 51(5) will change the basic framework of the Constitution if it is passed,” said Fafen in the statement, add-ing that the existing Article 51(5) required the seats in the National Assembly to be allocated to each province, the Federally Admin-istered Tribal Areas (Fata) and the federal capital on the basis of population in accordance with the last preceding census offi-cially published.

Pakistani students win big at world competitionPeshawar

Internews

A group of Pakistani stu-dents has won a silver medal at an interna-

tional competition arranged in the United States.

The iGEM (International genetically engineered machines) competition is a flagship student competition that started in MIT and has been happening for the last 15 years with over 300 teams from across the globe.

The students, making Paki-stan’s first team, gathered at CECOS University Peshawar this summer to use the cutting-edge discipline of synthetic biology to solve one of the most pressing environmental chal-lenges the country is facing.

This was done as a part of project by CECOS University in collaboration with the Directorate of Science and Technology (DoST), KP.

Like last year, the team was hosted by Dr Faisal Khan’s research lab at the Institute of Integrative Bio-sciences, CECOS University.

The team consisted of two girls and 10 boys from cities including Peshawar, Now-shera, Charsadda, Swabi, Mardan, Lahore, Attock, Islamabad, Multan, Faisal-abad, and Khyber Agency. It was a diverse group of young scientists from across the country.

Myanmar sanctions won’t solve Rohingya crisis: TillersonNaypyidaw

AFP

Washington’s top diplo-mat yesterday said he would not yet push for

sanctions against Myanmar over the Rohingya refugee crisis, but he called for an independent investigation into “credible” reports that soldiers committed atrocities against the Muslim minority.

Secretary of State Rex Till-erson was speaking after a one-day stop in Naypyidaw, as global outrage builds over

impunity for a military accused of waging an ethnic cleansing campaign against the Rohingya.

Speaking by his side, Myan-mar’s de facto civilian leader Aung San Suu Kyi hit back at glo-bal criticism that she has been silent over the refugee crisis, say-ing she has instead focused on speech that avoids inflaming sectarian tensions.

More than 600,000 Rohingya have fled the mainly Buddhist country since the military launched a counter-insurgency operation in northern Rakhine state in late August.

While the army insists it has only targeted Rohingya rebels, refugees massing in grim Bang-ladeshi camps have described chilling and consistent accounts of widespread murder, rape and arson at the hands of security forces and Buddhist mobs.

Speaking after meetings with the army chief and Suu Kyi, Till-erson said that broad economic sanctions are “not something that I’d think would be advisa-ble at this time”.

“We want to see Myanmar succeed,” he told reporters. “You can’t just impose sanctions and

say therefore the crisis is over.”But he said Washington was

“deeply concerned by credible reports of widespread atrocities committed by Myanmar’s secu-rity forces and vigilantes” and urged Myanmar to accept an inde-pendent investigation into those allegations, after which individ-ual sanctions could be appropriate. “The scenes of what occurred out there are just horrific,” he added.

Both the army and Suu Kyi’s administration have dismissed reports of atrocities and refused to grant entry to UN investiga-tors charged with probing

allegations of ethnic cleansing.But Washington has been

careful to focus blame on the military rather than Suu Kyi, whose fledgling civilian admin-istration is in a delicate power-sharing arrangement with the army.

Though she lacks any say in security policy, the Nobel laure-ate has become a punching bag for rights groups disappointed by her failure to publicly criticise the military or defend Rohingya against rising Islamophobia, partly because she was so outspoken during the junta years.

Briton’s arrest was wrong, says Sri Lanka courtColombo

AFP

Sri Lanka’s top court yes-t e r d a y a w a r d e d compensation to a British

woman arrested for sporting a Buddha tattoo, saying the nurse was subjected to “horrifying and scandalous treatment” by local authorities.

Naomi Michelle Coleman was detained in prison in 2014 after touching down in Colombo, where police in the Buddhist-majority country took offence to the tattoo on her arm.

Coleman, a devout Bud-dhist, was deported three days later by a local magistrate in a scandal that embarrassed Sri

Lanka’s tourism board.She later sued the island’s

police, prison and immigration authorities for $66,000 over the ordeal, claiming she was harassed and extorted in prison.

In a 16-page judgement the Supreme Court yesterday upheld her case, declaring Coleman’s arrest illegal and charges of offence as baseless.

The three-judge bench said Coleman was subjected to “hor-rifying and scandalous treatment” and ordered the state pay her Rs700,000 ($4,666). The two police offic-ers found to have acted inappropriately were also instructed to pay Coleman Rs100,000 ($650).

KP Chief Minister Pervez Khattak, who belongs to the PTI, did not discuss the issue of early elections demanded by party chief Imran Khan in the CCI meeting.

Out on bail

15THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017 ASIA

S Korea puts off exams as quake strikesSeoul

AFP

South Korean authorities took the unprecedented step of postponing nationwide college entrance exams after a

rare 5.4-magnitude earthquake hit the southeast yesterday, sparking alarm in a country that seldom experiences significant tremors.

The quake, the second most powerful recorded in South Korea, struck at a depth of nine kilometres near the industrial city of Pohang at around 2.30pm (0530 GMT), the Korea Meteor-ological Administration said.

Seven people were injured, Seoul’s public administration ministry said, but they warned that number could rise because the quake was shallow.

The Korean peninsula is rarely troubled by significant quakes but seismic activity is closely monitored because a spike in activity is often the first indication that North Korea has carried out a nuclear test.

Yesterday’s quake was felt across the country, including in the capital Seoul.

It came a day ahead of the all-important college entrance exam during which the whole nation falls silent to help teen-agers focus on the annual event, whose result could define their future in the hyper-competitive society.

The Ministry of Education announced late yesterday that the exam would be postponed by a week because damage had been caused to five schools in Pohang where students were set to take the test, Yonhap news agency reported.

“The fact that students’ safety is the most important, and the need to ensure fairness in car-rying out the test, has led us to the decision,” Yonhap quoted Education Minister Kim Sang-gon as saying at a press conference.

“After they did full inspec-tions in all 14 schools in Pohang that have been designated to hold the exam, five of them were found to have developed cracks,” he added.

This is the first time a natu-ral disaster had forced such a reschedule of the crucial exams, said the news agency.

South Koreans take signifi-cant steps to ensure their young students are not distracted dur-ing the annual exams.

Seoul’s financial markets and many businesses open late in the day to clear traffic for test-tak-ers, while airport landings and takeoffs are suspended for 30 minutes during the main lan-guage listening test.

Photos and video footage sent to local TV stations showed crumbled street walls, furniture violently shaking inside people’s homes and people rushing out of buildings in panic.

Shattered storefronts and

goods tumbling off store shelves were seen in images posted on social media, as well as cars smashed by fallen bricks and cracks in the ground.

Emergency centres nation-wide were flooded with thousands of calls seeking information, while Kakao Talk — the South’s top mobile mes-senger application — reported service disruption due to heavy traffic.

Pohang is home to the head-quarters of Posco, the world’s fourth largest steelmaker. No immediate damage was reported in the firm’s steel mills.

A damaged vehicle and debris caused by recent earthquake in Pohang, South Korea, yesterday.

Senior Chinese diplomat to visit N Korea as XI envoyBeijing

Reuters

A senior Chinese diplo-mat will visit North Korea from tomorrow

as a special envoy of Chinese President Xi Jinping, Beijing said, although it did not say he was planning to discuss North Korea’s nuclear and ballistic programmes.

China has repeatedly pushed for a diplomatic solu-tion to the crisis, but in recent months has had only limited high-level exchanges with North Korea. The last time China’s special envoy for North Korea visited the coun-try was in February last year.

In a brief dispatch, the official Xinhua news agency said Song Tao, who heads the ruling Communist Party’s external affairs department, would leave for North Korea on Friday.

He will “inform the DPRK of the 19th CPC National Con-gress and visit the DPRK”, Xinhua said yesterday, using the North’s official name and referring to China’s recently concluded Communist Party Congress at which Xi further cemented his power.

North Korea’s KCNA news agency confirmed the visit, but said only that it would take place “soon”.

The trip will come just a week after US President Don-ald Trump visited Beijing as part of a lengthy Asia tour, where he pressed for greater action to rein in North Korea, especially from China, with which North Korea does 90 percent of its trade.

It is not clear how long Song could stay, but he has already visited Vietnam and Laos to inform them of the results of the congress, a typical courtesy China extends other communist countries after such important meetings.

Kim and Xi exchanged messages of congratulations and thanks over the Chinese party congress, but neither leader has visited the other’s country since assuming power.

Duterte lauds China’s help at ‘crucial moment’ in Marawi battleManila

Reuters

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday heaped praise on visiting Chinese

Premier Li Keqiang for what he said was China’s “critical” role in expediting the end of a five-month war with insurgents in a Philippine town.

Duterte credited China with supplying what he said was the rifle that on October 16 killed Islamic State’s regional point man, Isnilon Hapilon, and said he would present that weapon to China as a mark of

appreciation for its help in the war in Marawi City.

“I am going to return to you the rifle so that the Chinese peo-ple would know, it was critical, it is a symbol of the critical help,” Duterte told Li, the first Chinese premier to visit the Philippines in a decade.

There are doubts, however, about if it really was a Chinese sniper rifle that killed Hapilon, and uncertainty about whether the military has used any of the 6,100 guns Beijing has donated since June. The Philippine defence min-ister recently said all those weapons were given to the police.

Hapilon was killed by mem-bers of the 8th Scout Ranger Company. “Scout Ranger Books”, a Facebook page of one of the ranger officers, gave a blow-by-blow account of the operation and said the shot that killed Hapilon came from a gun mounted on an armoured vehicle.

Members of the unit also told media the shot came from a fixed weapon controlled remotely. Such weapons are typically 50-calibre machine guns. “The arms you gave us, helped abbre-viate, shorten the military fight there,” Duterte said.

On Friday, he said something

similar to Russian President Vladimir Putin. He told him Rus-sia had “helped us turn the tide and to shorten the war” by sup-plying weapons that Philippine soldiers used to kill militant snip-ers in Marawi. The Russian arms were actually delivered two days after military operations were declared over.

The conflict was the biggest and longest battle in the Philip-pines since World War Two. More than 1,000 people, most of them rebel gunmen, were killed and 353,000 were displaced.

Duterte told Li China’s help came at “the crucial moment when

we needed most and there was nobody to help us at that time”.

His remarks may not sit well with the United States and Aus-tralia, which from the early stages of the conflict were pro-viding technical support to Philippine forces, including sur-veillance aircraft to pinpoint locations of militants.

Li said China would provide 150m yuan ($22.7m) to help with reconstruction in Marawi. He praised Duterte for last year putting aside festering disputes with China and visiting Beijing, a trip he said was an “ice-breaker”.

Indonesian cop shot dead near Freeport mineJakarta/Timika

Reuters

An Indonesian police officer was killed and a second wounded

yesterday, after both were shot in the back in an area near Freeport-McMoRan Inc’s giant Grasberg copper mine in the eastern province of Papua, police said.

The officers were patrol-ling an area close to where a Freeport vehicle was targeted in a shooting on Tuesday, Papua police spokesman Sury-adi Diaz said in a statement. A helicopter flew the men to a hospital in the nearby lowland city of Timika.

The main access road to Grasberg remained closed, Freeport Indonesia spokes-man Riza Pratama said, referring to a 79-mile stretch from Timika to the mining town of Tembagapura that runs near a river rich with gold tailings from the mine upstream.

A string of at least 15 sep-arate shooting incidents in the area since mid-August that wounded at least 12 people and killed two police officers has been blamed by police on an “armed criminal group”, but linked to separatist rebels by others.

Singapore train mishap hurts 28Singapore

Reuters

A Singapore mass transit train bumped into another at a station yesterday

injuring 28 people, authorities said, the latest mishap on the transit system in a city-state that has long prided itself on its effi-cient public services.

Transit operator SMRT said 26 passengers and two staff suf-fered light to moderate injuries and had been taken to hospital.

“It’s an awful day,” Trans-port Minister Khaw Boon Wan said. “Commuters were incon-venienced, and some even injured. We are deeply sorry for that,” Khaw was quoted by the Straits Times newspaper as tell-

ing a news conference. Densely populated Singapore

is highly dependent on public transport. It is one of the world’s most expensive places to own a vehicle and it recently announced that it would not allow any net growth in its car numbers from February next year.

The accident happened at 8.20am (0020 GMT), SMRT said in a statement.

A faulty west-bound train had stalled at Joo Koon station on the system’s East-West line two minutes earlier, it said.

A second train stopped behind the faulty train but moved forward unexpectedly a minute later, coming into con-tact with the stationary train.

North Korean defector ‘stabilised’ after surgerySeoul

Reuters

A North Korean soldier who suffered critical gunshot wounds during a defection

dash over the border to South Korea this week stabilised yester-day after a second round of surgery, a doctor treating him said.

The soldier, whose rank and identity have not been disclosed, was flown by helicopter to hos-pital on Monday after his escape to South Korea in a hail of bul-lets fired by North Korean soldiers.

Yesterday’s surgery was “successful” in terms of staunch-ing bleeding and the soldier had

“stabilised much”, said Lee Cook-jong, the surgeon in charge of his treatment.

However, he remained unconscious and was not out of the woods, as complications from a severe hip fracture and possible infection remained major concerns, Lee said.

“We will be able to tell you

after about 10 days,” Lee told reporters at a briefing, when asked about the soldier’s chances of surviving.

On Tuesday, government and military officials said the sol-dier was in critical condition but doctors expected him to live.

The soldier made his escape in a border “peace village” on

the heavily guarded demilita-rised zone between the two Koreas.

At first, he sped towards the border in a four-wheel drive vehicle but was forced to aban-don it and flee on foot when one of its wheels came loose, South Korean officials said earlier.

Members of the civil defence force stand at the scene following a train collision in Singapore yesterday.

The quake, the second most powerful recorded in South Korea, struck at a depth of 9km near Pohang in which seven people were injured.

16 THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017EUROPE

Rome

AFP

Italy yesterday defended its policy on blocking migrants in Libya, saying the deal,

denounced as “inhuman” by the UN, was essential to stop boat departures towards Europe.

“The alternative cannot be to resign ourselves to the impos-sibility of managing migratory flows and hand human traffick-ers the keys to European democracies,” Italian Interior Minister Marco Minniti said.

On Tuesday, the United Nations lambasted the EU’s pol-icy — led by Italy — of helping the Libyan authorities intercept migrants trying to cross the Med-iterranean and return them to “horrific” prisons in Libya.

The human rights issue “is,

was and will be a question we will not relinquish, but we know that condemning (abuses) is not enough, we must act,” Minniti said, without entering into details.

Chaos-ridden Libya has long been a major transit hub for migrants trying to reach Europe, and many of them have fallen prey to serious abuse in the country at the hands of traffick-ers and others. “The suffering of migrants detained in Libya is an outrage to the conscience of humanity,” the UN said.

But Italy’s foreign ministry said Tuesday that Rome had been calling “for months” for those involved “to multiply actions and efforts in Libya to ensure accept-able and dignified conditions” in detention centres.

The UN had criticised the international community for

turning a blind eye to the hor-rors endured by migrants in Libya and said it should not pre-tend the situation could be remedied by improving deten-tion conditions alone.

But Minniti said Italy was doing its part by supporting a project to relocate 1,000 of the most vulnerable migrants from Libya to third countries.

His comments to parliament followed heavy media coverage in Italy of a CNN undercover report on migrants being sold as slaves in Libya. “These auctions are just a variation of the horror we know,” former foreign min-ister Emma Bonino said.

“Men, women and children enslaved, raped, beaten, piled on top of one another (in the cen-tres). All this has been known for a long time,” she said.

Bonn

AFP

France’s president prom-ised funding yesterday for the UN’s IPCC climate

science panel, which faces a budget shortfall as it prepares to bring out a major report next year on the planetary perils of global warming.

Europe must cover Amer-ica’s share of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s budget, Emmanuel Macron said at UN climate talks in Bonn, adding that France would “meet that challenge”. “I can guarantee that starting in 2018 the IPCC will not be short a single euro,” he said to loud applause.

A collaboration of thou-sands of experts worldwide, the IPCC issues reports every few years to synthesise and update the prevailing science about global warming caused by atmosphere-fouling emis-sions from burning fossil fuels.

President Donald Trump, who has vowed to pull the United States out of the cli-m a t e - r e s c u e P a r i s Agreement, has also cut fund-ing to the IPCC, the UNFCCC climate secretariat, the Green Climate Fund and other mul-tinational bodies.

Sharing a stage with Ger-man Chancellor Angela Merkel and UN chief Antonio Guterres, Macron described climate change as “the most significant struggle of our time”.

Envoys are gathered in Germany to negotiate a nuts-and-bolts “rule book” for executing the Paris Agree-ment. The hard-fought pact commits countries to limiting average global warming to under two degrees Celsius over Industrial Revolution levels, and to 1.5 C if possible, to avert calamitous climate change-induced storms, drought and sea-level rises.

Brussels

AFP

EU states have pledged to take 34,000 refu-gees directly from Africa and the Middle East, officials said yes-

terday, a day after the UN criticised the bloc’s “inhuman” cooperation with Libya to stop migrant boats.

Sixteen countries have so far offered places to meet the Euro-pean Commission’s goal announced in September of tak-ing at least 50,000 refugees over the next two years under the bloc’s resettlement programme. “I welcome the strong commit-ment shown by member states to reduce irregular and danger-ous routes and enhance safe and legal pathways,” EU migration commissioner Dimitr is Avramopoulos said. “I urge the others to follow soon.”

The scheme is aimed at dis-couraging migrant boats from making the risky Mediterranean crossing, which is still causing deaths more than two years after the migration crisis first hit the continent in 2015.

“We are exiting crisis mode gradually and we are now man-aging migration in a spirit of partnership and shared respon-sibility, inside and outside the EU,” Avramopoulos said.

The EU also warned of fur-ther legal action against three of the bloc’s eastern countries if they continue to refuse to accept refugees from Greece and Italy under the quota system.

“I hope that Poland, Hungary and the Czech Republic will take this opportunity to, let’s say, revise their position and start r e l o c a t i n g r e f u g e e s , ” Avramopoulos said. “If nothing should change, as you know the commission has the power to take things one step further.”

The quota scheme, under which member states were required to share the burden of f r o n t l i n e E U s t a t e s ,

was wrapping up with just 750 people left in Greece and 3,100 in Italy left to relocate, he added. The scheme relocated 31,000 out of an originally planned total of 160,000.

The EU has launched a string of plans to tackle the biggest influx of refugees and migrants since World War II, caused ini-tially by people fleeing the conflict in Syria, but now con-sisting mainly of economic migrants from Africa. Its policy of helping the Libyan coast guard intercept migrants trying to cross the Mediterranean was con-demned on Tuesday by the United Nations, which said they were being sent back to “hor-rific” prisons in Libya.

“The suffering of migrants detained in Libya is an outrage to the conscience of humanity,” UN human rights chief Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein said in a state-ment, adding that the policy was “inhuman”.

Avramopoulos said he “took note” of the rights chief’s com-ments but added that it “would have been good if he had been in touch with his colleague”, the UN refugee chief Filippo Grandi, with whom the com-missioner met this week. “We are working on all fronts to address the dire, really dire sit-uation on the ground in Libya and to protect these people,” he said.

Brussels

AFP

Rioters clashed with police in Brussels yesterday after a rapper tried to illegally

shoot a video, officials said, days after football fans went on the rampage in the Belgian capital.

Hundreds of youths dam-aged a vehicle and shut down a major metro station, while sev-eral arrests were made at the incident outside the city’s main opera house, police said.

It was the city’s second eruption of violence in four days following clashes that injured 22 police officers and destroyed shops and vehicles after the qualification of the Moroccan

national football team for the next World Cup. In the latest incident, several hundred fans of a rapper — called Vargasss 92, according to Belgian broad-caster RTBF — who is popular on social media turned on police when they stopped him trying to film a video, said police spokesman Olivier Slosse.

“I don’t know the tenor of the conversation between our officers and the artist, but this type of event must have author-isation and there was none in this case,” Slosse said. Images on social media showed young men throwing objects at the newly renovated Theatre de la Monnaie opera house, as well as a damaged utility vehicle.

Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel said there could be “no impunity for violence against the police”, according to Belga news agency.

“Again, unacceptable and incomprehensible violence in the centre of Brussels. Our serv-ices are doing what is necessary to bring order. Federal police have been sent as reinforce-ments,” Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon said on Twitter.

On Saturday, riot police were sent out to control a crowd of about 300 people, at one point firing water canon to hold back small groups of stone-throwing revellers. In that incident, cars were torched, shops looted and street furniture damaged.

Moscow

AFP

Russian President Vladimir Putin yester-day said he would hold

talks with the leaders of east-ern Ukraine’s self-proclaimed pro-Russian republics, in a rare public move to get involved in a prisoner exchange deal with Kiev.

His apparent willingness and ability to intervene will add fuel to western govern-ment statements that Putin has been heavily involved in orchestrating events in east-ern Ukraine.

In the early stages of the conflict, Russia repeatedly denied sending soldiers or weapons across the border but Putin has since admitted some Russian military per-sonnel travelled to fight.

Asked to help speed up the prisoner exchange proc-ess between Kiev and separatist republics, Putin said: “I will do everything that is in my power.”

His remarks followed a meeting with Ukrainian pol-itician Viktor Medvedchuk, who has close personal ties to Putin and is one of Kiev’s representatives in negotia-tions with rebels in eastern Ukraine.

“I will speak with the leaders of the Donetsk Republic and the Lugansk Republic. I hope that what you suggest will be carried out as soon as possible,” Putin said during a visit to a mon-astery near Moscow.

London

AFP

Lawmakers from British Prime Minister Theresa May’s Conservative party

reacted angrily yesterday after a newspaper labelled them “mutineers” for challenging the government’s Brexit legislation, saying they would only fight harder.

After a heated start to the House of Commons debate Tuesday of a landmark bill end-ing Britain’s membership of the European Union, the Conserv-ative-backing Daily Telegraph ran a provocative front page with large photos of 15 rebels.

“The Brexit mutineers—Remain-supporting Conservatives rebel against May’s move to enshrine in law the date Britain leaves EU,” yesterday’s headline read, referring to those who voted to stay in the EU in last year’s referendum.

The targets of the piece accused the paper of “bullying”, while a government minister dis-tanced himself from what he said was an attempt to “divide” the party. “If fighting for the best pos-sible future for our country and our government is considered mutiny — then bring it on,” tweeted one MP, Heidi Allen.

Another, Anna Soubry, said it was a “blatant piece of bully-ing” and insisted none of those named wanted to delay or thwart Brexit. “We just want a good Brexit that works for eve-rybody in our country,” she said. However, she added that she took being named as a “badge of honour”, adding on

Twitter that “a number of Tory MPs (are) outraged they’ve been left off!”

“The role of MPs is not to be lobby fodder but to scrutinise legislation,” tweeted Antoinette Sandbach, referring to the lobby areas in which lawmakers vote.

Brexit minister Steve Baker, who spoke for the government in Tuesday’s debate, tweeted: “I regret any media attempts to divide our party. “My parliamen-tary colleagues have sincere suggestions to improve the bill which we are working through and I respect them for that.” The government won the first five votes late Tuesday on the EU (Withdrawal) Bill, which seeks to formally end Britain’s member-ship and transfer European law onto the UK statute books.

Debate resumes on the next batch of almost 200 pages of amendments tabled from MPs of all parties. Conservative rebellions are likely later on in the process, with a further six days of discussion set aside over the coming weeks.

Criticism of the bill was ini-tially focused on its provisions to give powers to ministers to amend the EU law as it is moved across. But a last-minute government move to use the law to legislate for Brexit day has sparked widespread anger among those who argue that there should be some flexibil-ity if EU negotiations are delayed. Britain trigged the two-year Article 50 process of leaving the EU on March 29 this year, but this can be extended if all 28 EU member states including Britain agree.

EU states pledge to take 34,000 refugeesSixteen countries have so far offered places to meet the European Commission’s goal announced in September of taking at least 50,000 refugees over the next two years under the bloc’s resettlement programme.

Italy defends Libya migrant deal dubbed ‘inhuman’ by UN

France, Europe come to aid of UN climate panel

Brexit bill: ‘Mutineers’ hit back as tensions rise

Rapper video shoot sparks fresh riots in Brussels

Putin to intervene in Ukraine prisoner swap

Policemen and a person at ground during a face-off between police and protesters in the city centre of Brussels yesterday.

French farmer and member ot the migrants rights association “Roya citoyenne”, Cedric Herrou, leaves the courthouse in Aix-en-Provence, yesterday, where he came in support to four members of the association who face charges for transporting illegal migrants near the French-Italian border.

17THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017 EUROPE

Athens

AFP

At least 14 people died yesterday after a freak overnight downpour

with the force of a “waterfall” flooded three towns in Greece, officials said.

The flooding, described as the worst in 20 years, struck the towns of Mandra, Nea Peramos and Megara, a semi-rural area west of Athens where many fac-tories and warehouses are based. “The water came down the mountain, millions of tonnes,” Nea Peramos deputy mayor Stavros Fotiou told state TV ERT as locals braced for another night of heavy rainfall.

“Our roads are completely destroyed... 1,000 homes have been flooded, that’s a third of the town,” he added.

The greater Athens gover-nor’s office said the “force and danger posed by the (weather front) is unprecedented.”

“We had another incident in 1999 but it was nothing like this,” said Megara mayor Grig-oris Stamoulis. Television images showed tanker trucks, buses and lorries nearly com-pletely submerged in the reddish mud torrent snaking through entire neighbourhoods.

Three people were hospital-ised, the fire department said. One person was missing. The fire service reported 12 dead and the coastguard two more.

The dead, men and women aged 35 to over 90, included a handful of people who perished inside or near their homes, a truck driver, a hunter, and two men who were carried by the raging water miles (kilometres) away to the sea.

More than a dozen people were rescued from an intercity bus, while others fled a Johnson & Johnson factory whose outer wall collapsed. The prime min-ister’s office said 87 people had been rescued overall. Greece’s

civil protection authority said three highways had been sev-ered with traffic rerouted.

“The situation is very diffi-cult, the Niagara Falls came down and could not be stopped,” deputy regional governor Yian-nis Vassileiou told state-run TV network ERT. “The weather forecast is poor, so we are on alert,” he said. “A river of debris went through Mandra... This is unprecedented,” Vassileiou said. “Everything is lost, the disaster is biblical,” Mandra mayor Ioanna Kriekouki said.

“We have people who are trapped... we need machinery to get them out of their homes,” said Kriekouki, who was also immobilised in her home.

Parts of the area were without electricity, and author-ities said many people would need shelter for the night. The town of Nea Peramos is also without water and repairs may take up to five days, the dep-uty mayor said.

London

AFP

Russia has launched cyber attacks on the UK media, telecoms and energy sectors in the past year, Britain’s

cyber security chief said yester-day amid reports of Russian interference in the Brexit referendum.

“Russia is seeking to under-mine the international system. That much is clear,” Ciaran Mar-tin, head of Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said at a London tech conference, according to his office.

“Russian interference, seen by the NCSC over the past year, has included attacks on the UK media, telecommunications and energy sectors,” Martin said. The centre has coordinated the gov-ernment’s response to 590 significant incidents since its

launch in 2016, although the gov-ernment agency has not detailed which were linked to Russia.

Prime Minister Theresa May on Monday accused Moscow of “seeking to weaponise informa-tion” and “sow discord in the West and undermine our insti-tutions”. Russia’s cyber activities include “deploying its state-run media organisations to plant fake stories and photo-shopped

images”, she said in a speech.The scathing criticism was

rejected by Russia’s foreign min-istry, which accused May of trying to distract the British pub-lic from problems at home.

Moscow’s alleged attempts to influence last year’s referen-dum on Britain’s membership of the European Union are part of investigations under way in Lon-don. May told lawmakers yesterday that parliament’s intel-ligence and security committee would be looking into Russian interference.

Meanwhile, parliament’s dig-ital, culture, media and sport committee has requested data from Twitter and Facebook on Russia-linked accounts and aims to interview social media exec-utives at the British embassy in Washington early next year.

Damian Collins, the commit-tee chairman, said it was “beyond doubt” that Russia has

interfered in UK politics. He said there was a pattern of behaviour of Russian organisations seek-ing out opportunities to create division, unrest and instability in the West.

“Foreign organisations have the ability to manipulate social media platforms to target voters abroad,” he said. “This is seri-ously-organised buildings of hundreds of people engaged in propagating every day fake news through social media.”

He said it was “terrifying” how cheap and easy it was for them to reach millions of peo-ple. “It is one of the biggest threats our democracies face and we have to be serious about combatting it,” Collins added.

May’s spokesman insisted: “There has been no evidence of successful interference in our electoral processes.”

Researchers at the Univer-sity of Edinburgh, who examined

2,752 accounts suspended by Twitter in the United States, found 419 were operating from the Russian Internet Research Agency and attempting to influ-ence British politics, The Guardian reported. Professor Laura Cram, the university’s neu-ropolitics research director, told the newspaper they tweeted about Brexit 3,468 times—mostly after the June 23 referendum.

The content overall was “quite chaotic and it seems to be aimed at wider disruption. There’s not an absolutely clear thrust. We pick up a lot on refu-gees and immigration”, she said.

Meanwhile researchers at Swansea University in Wales and the University of California, Ber-keley, have found more than 150,000 Russian-based Twitter accounts which may have influ-enced the Brexit referendum.

The social media accounts switched their attention to EU

membership in the run-up to the referendum, 2016, according to research outlined in The Times newspaper. Many of the accounts were fully-automated “bot” pro-files which posted hundreds of tweets daily, or “cyborg” accounts which were partially run by peo-ple, the newspaper said. The majority of the posts were pro-Brexit, while some supported remaining in the European Union.

Meanwhile it was revealed that a tweet which caused a furore after the Westminster ter-ror attack in March originally came from a trolling agency account which, according to evi-dence before the US Congress, is backed by the Russian govern-ment. The tweet showing a picture of a woman in a headscarf walking next to a victim, with the words: “Muslim woman pays no mind to the terror attack, casu-ally walks by a dying man while checking phone”.

Moscow

AFP

Russian MPs yesterday backed new legislation that could force foreign

media outlets to register as “foreign agents” in a reciprocal response to US pressure on Kremlin-backed TV channel RT.

Lawmakers approved amendments to broaden a 2012 law aimed at non-governmen-tal organisations to include foreign media. Rights groups fear it could have a chilling effect on the ability of outlets to carry out independent reporting.

The existing regulations force NGOs that have interna-tional funding and whose activities are deemed “politi-cal” to undergo scrutiny of their finances and staffing, and label themselves as “foreign agents” on paperwork and statements

The Kremlin praised par-liament’s vote as allowing it to offer a “very harsh” response to attacks on Russian media abroad. “Any attempts to encroach on the freedom of Russian media abroad... will not remain without response from Moscow—without a very harsh response,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

Russia will be able to use the law “to give a timely retal-iatory response,” he said.

The law could be used against US media such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which receive funding from the US Congress. Members of parlia-ment have given contradictory statements on whether the law could apply to commercial TV network CNN. Lawmakers unanimously voted to back the amendments in rushed second and third readings within a few hours yesterday.

“A hybrid war has been declared against us and we are obliged to respond,” Commu-nist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov said in parliament.

The lower house of parlia-ment’s deputy speaker Pyotr Tolstoy told the chamber recip-rocal measures were “forced” by the actions of the United States, which he earlier said was spitting in Russia’s face.

He warned, however, that “the spiral of conflict will not end at this,” predicting “further demonisation not only of Rus-sian media but of Russia” in the West, naming Britain. “Look at the statements the British Prime Minister Theresa May is making,” he said, after May on Monday accused Russia of seeking to weaponise information.

“These people are trying to teach us lessons, they are try-ing to make us out to be some kind of aggressors,” he said, while Russia “is not allowed to defend (its interests).”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov also referred to criticism from Britain and Spain as well as the US, com-plaining that “a whole number of our partners in Europe and across the ocean have noth-ing better to do than to accuse our media and declare them as foreign agents.”

The amendments now need to be passed by the Senate and then be signed into law by Pres-ident Vladimir Putin, after which they will enter force immediately.

The wording of the law is very broad, potentially allow-ing its use against any foreign media organisation operating in Russia. Tolstoy told parlia-ment the amendments would not be automatically enforced, but would be selectively applied by the justice ministry.

Strasbourg

AFP

Poland’s prime minister reacted furiously yesterday after the European Parlia-

ment voted to start an EU sanctions procedure over War-saw’s controversial judicial reforms.

MEPs overwhelmingly backed a resolution that warns the reforms by Poland’s right-wing government present a “clear risk of a serious breach” of European values, including the rule of law. The vote, which passed by 438 votes to 152 with 71 abstentions, also means the

parliament will formally request the EU to trigger a procedure that could eventually suspend War-saw’s voting rights in the bloc.

Poland’s rightwing govern-ment has been at loggerheads with the EU for months over pro-posed changes to the Polish court system that Brussels views as a threat to the union’s underpin-ning democratic values.

Rightwing Polish lawmak-ers walked out of the vote in Strasbourg, France, and Polish Prime Minister Beata Szydlo launched a furious attack on the move. “At the European summit on Friday I will give my views on the scandalous events in the

European Parliament,” Szydlo said on Twitter, referring to a meeting of EU leaders in Swe-den this week.

She condemned opposition Polish MEPs for “defaming” the country by staying in parliament for the vote. The proposals to overhaul Poland’s judicial sys-tem have led to mass street protests and prompted Polish freedom icon Lech Walesa to express concern about his coun-try’s fate in Europe.

The changes would reinforce political control over Poland’s Supreme Court and allow par-liament to choose members of a body designed to protect the

independence of the courts.Szydlo’s government says the

reforms are needed to root out corruption and purge a judici-ary it believes is stacked in favour of supporters of former prime minister Donald Tusk, who is now president of the European Council.

The EU has said the Polish reforms pose a “systemic threat” to the rule of law, with Brussels having warned it could trigger Article Seven of the EU’s trea-ties—the so-called “nuclear option” that freezes voting rights. “If the risk persists and the Polish authorities refuse to comply with the EU recommendations, the

procedure might lead to the sus-pension of Poland’s voting rights,” the European Parliament said in statement.

MEPs also called on the gov-ernment to condemn the “xenophobic and fascist march” organised by far-right groups which drew around 60,000 peo-ple in Warsaw on Saturday, where some demonstrators chanted “Pure Poland, white Poland”.

European Commission Vice President Frans Timmermans, who has been leading the EU’s response on the judicial reforms, told MEPs there had been little progress with Warsaw despite months of talks.

Russia engaging in cyber attacks on UK: OfficialMoscow’s alleged attempts to influence last year’s referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union are part of investigations under way in London.

Poland blasts ‘scandalous’ EU parliament vote for sanctions

Russian MPs back law targeting foreign media

A car is stuck in mud at the flood-damaged area after torrential rains struck the west Athenian suburb of Mandra, Greece, yesterday.

14 dead in Greece floods

Brussels

AFP

Bulgaria and Romania need to step up their efforts to tackle crime,

rampant corruption and judi-cial reform to come up to EU standards, the bloc’s execu-tive arm warned yesterday.

The two former commu-nist states joined the bloc in 2007 promising to meet EU requirements on those mat-ters, but progress has been slow and neither country has managed to fulfil any of the benchmarks set by the bloc.

The European Commis-sion warned in a report that Romania in particular was in danger of going backwards, with judicial independence highlighted as a “persistent source of concern”.

Thousands of Romanians demonstrated Sunday for the second week in a row against proposed judicial reforms they say will weaken the fight against graft.

Earlier this year huge street protests forced the pre-vious government to abandon plans to water down anti-cor-ruption laws.

In its report on Romania, the commission warned that “the reform momentum in the course of 2017 was lost over-all... with the risk of re-opening issues which the January 2017 report had con-sidered as fulfilled.”

Commission Vice Presi-dent Frans Timmermans said there had been progress in some areas, but not enough on others.

“I count on the Romanian Government to pursue the necessary reforms, and to avoid backtracking,” he said.

It was a starkly different tone from January’s more optimistic report, which hailed “major progress” and said 2017 could prove a deci-sive turning point for Romania.

But it follows a commis-sion warning in August that the effort to overhaul the jus-tice system could undermine the anti-corruption fight.

Romania’s centre-right President Klaus Iohannis, who is often at odds with the left-wing government, said the report was a “serious alarm bell that the govern-ment must take into account”.

The verdict on Bulgaria—which takes over the EU’s rotating presidency in Janu-ary—was more positive, with the report noting “significant progress” and saying reforms had picked up momentum since May.

Bulgaria, Romania need to do more to fight graft: EU

18 THURSDAY 16 NOVEMBER 2017AMERICAS

Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro speaks during an event with workers in Caracas, Venezuela. Venezuela signed a debt restructuring deal with major creditor Russia yesterday.

Venezuela crisis

Washington

AFP

US senators probed the limits of a pres-ident’s unilateral power to launch a nuclear attack, an

increasingly weighty debate as tensions rise between an unpre-dictable Donald Trump and North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Un.

The closely watched debate, organized and chaired by a prominent Republican Trump critic, addressed a hypothetical presidential decision to launch a nuclear first strike against an adversary.

“Let’s just recognize the exceptional nature of this moment,” Senate Democrat Chris Murphy said during the hearing of the chamber’s For-eign Relations Committee.

“We are concerned that the president of the United States is so unstable, is so volatile, has a decision-making process that is so quixotic, that he might order a nuclear weapon strike that is wildly out of step with US national security interests,” he added.

In the event of an ongoing or imminent nuclear attack, sen-ators and expert witnesses agreed that the president had full authority to defend the nation in accordance with the US Constitution. Only the pres-ident can give the order to pull the nuclear trigger.

“Once that order is given and verified, there is no way to revoke it,” said the committee’s

chairman, Senator Bob Corker, who described the hearing as the first since 1976 to focus on presidential authority over nuclear weapons.

Corker has broken publicly with Trump, warning last month that the president was setting the nation “on the path to World War III” with his statements about North Korea and verbal jousting with Kim.

In August, Trump issued an apocalyptic threat to unleash “fire and fury” on North Korea and he took to calling Kim “Rocket Man” after a series of provocative missile tests. Kim, no stranger to verbal jousting, branded Trump a “dotard.”

During Trump’s 12-day trip to Asia, where Pyongyang’s nuclear program was frequently discussed, Trump mocked the 33-year-old leader as “short and fat” and warned that misjudg-ing American resolve as weakness would be “a fatal miscalculation.”

The escalating war of words

has alarmed US lawmakers.But while some senators,

including Democrat Edward Markey, expressed fear that in the age of Trump, an impulsive commander in chief has the power to unilaterally unleash a nuclear fusillade, the experts cautioned against legislative alterations that would broaden nuclear command authority to lower echelons.

“I think if we were to change the decision-making process in some way to -- because of a dis-trust of this president, I think that would be an unfortunate precedent,” testified Brian McK-eon, a former undersecretary of defense under Barack Obama.

One issue under debate was the concept of imminent threat, when the president believes a country poses a sufficient imme-diate danger for the US to order a pre-emptive nuclear strike.

The three experts agreed there was no strict definition of “imminent,” suggesting that a missile on a North Korean launchpad might qualify but that other scenarios might be less clear.

Robert Kehler, who headed US Strategic Command from 2011 to 2013, referred to a basic military precept: “The military is obligated to follow legal orders, but is not obligated to follow illegal orders.”

So, what constitutes a legal order? Kehler, a retired US Air Force general, said the military principles of “necessity” and “proportionality” also apply to decisions about nuclear weapons.

US Senate panel debates President’s nuclear power

Rising tensions

Issue assumes significance as tensions rise between an unpredictable Trump and North Korean dictator Kim.

According to the current laws, only the president can give the order to pull the nuclear trigger.

Washington

Reuters

Congressional Republicans pushed ahead on a US tax code overhaul as a Senate

panel considered the issue, but risks lay ahead with major intra-party disputes unsettled and President Donald Trump return-ing soon from Asia as the debate heats up.

While overseas at a leaders conference, Trump tweeted some tax bill suggestions early on Monday that were starkly dif-ferent from the two Republican plans being considered in the US Senate and House of Representatives.

He called on lawmakers to add a highly risky provision to their tax effort: repealing the

individual mandate included in the 2010 Obamacare health insurance law that requires Americans to have health cov-erage or pay a tax to Washington.

Neither of the two Republi-can plans includes such a politically divisive measure. Efforts by Republicans to dis-mantle Obamacare, formally known as the Affordable Care Act, collapsed dramatically months ago.

Trump has pushed hard for adding the mandate repeal to the tax-cut package.

He tweeted the same sug-gestion on Nov. 3 just before he departed for his multi-nation Asian tour.

In his latest tweet, he also urged slashing the top tax rate

for high earners to 35 percent from 39.6 percent, despite crit-icism from Democrats that the Republican tax bills are deficit-expanding giveaways to the rich and corporations.

The House retains the exist-ing top tax rate in its bill, while the Senate proposes cutting it slightly to 38.5 percent.

Trump is set to return to Washington on Tuesday. A White House aide confirmed that the president would speak to House Republicans on Thurs-day ahead of their expected tax bill vote.

“I am proud of the Rep. House & Senate for working so hard on cutting taxes {& reform.} We’re getting close!” Trump wrote in his Monday Twitter post.

Senate Finance Committee chairman Orrin Hatch (centre) is greeted by ranking member Sen. Ron Wyden before the start of a markup by the committee of the Republican tax reform proposal in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Risks ahead for tax push as disputes linger

Canadians a bit less happy, but satisfied with jobsOttawa

AFP

Canadians are less likely to find a good balance between work and

family, but are mostly satis-fied with their jobs, according to a survey.

In the eight years to 2016, the number of Canadians who reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their work-life balance fell by 10 percentage points to 68 per-cent, according to the Statistics Canada study.

This downward trend, said the government statisti-cal agency, “may have implications for the well-being of Canadians.”

Women were slightly less likely than men to be satis-fied with their work-life balance -- 66 percent versus 70 percent, respectively.

Just over one in five Canadians said they “always or often had difficulties ful-filling family responsibilities because of the amount of time they spent on their job.”

Happy or not with their work-life balance, however, Canadians are overwhelm-ingly satisfied (84 percent) with their jobs.

For others, a bad “work environment” or “too low” pay were the two top reasons cited for having soured their work experience.

Another part of the sur-vey that looked at new technologies found that most Canadians viewed being vir-tually connected as positive and that technology improved life. The survey results are a testament to the high quality of life in Canada which has l a r g e n u m b e r s o f immigrants.

Florida

Reuters

Ten-year-old Anthony Valencia says that after Hurricane Maria destroyed

his home in Puerto Rico he played video games for a month until he was sick of them. Now his smile stretches wide when he talks about going back to school — on the US mainland.

“I really wanted school back, because without it, it’s just ... bored,” Anthony said.

More than 140,000 Puerto Ricans have left since the Cate-gory 4 Hurricane slammed into the island Sept. 20 and some experts estimate more than 300,000 more could leave in the coming two years. Many have gone to Florida, followed by Pennsylvania, Texas, New York and New Jersey, according to

estimates. Some estimate 14,000 public school students are among the exodus.

Last month, Anthony left the island with his family for cen-tral Florida, where he is living with relatives and has been wel-comed into Orlando’s Riverdale Elementary School.

On Tuesday, he clung to his mother during a school assem-bly, where students received free school supplies from a foundation for children in need. Like most schools in the Orange County district, Riverdale Ele-mentary has opened its doors to the students, taking 27 of them while the district has absorbed 1,888 overall.

“Our No. 1 priority from Day 1 was to welcome our fellow American citizens into our com-munity and into our schools, to bring normalcy back into their

life,” said Orange County Pub-lic School District Deputy Superintendent Jesus Jara.

The exodus from Maria has added to what already has been in influx of Puerto Ricans in the Orlando area of central Florida in recent years.

And more are expected from the ravaged island, where wide-spread power outages are continuing and many still lack running water.

Riverdale principal Bill Charlton has watched his school of 630 students grow quickly, and he is expecting a few more students by the end of the week. Charlton said class sizes have expanded some, but most of the classes were under state maxi-mums prior to the influx.

“It’s been such that we just want to make sure the kids get what they need,” Charlton said.

Ohio delays another execution after struggling to find veinWashington

Reuters

The Ohio government delayed the planned exe-cution of a 69-year-old

convicted murderer yesterday after officials were unable to find a suitable vein in the inmate, who is sick with can-cer and other diseases, the Columbus Dispatch newspaper reported.

Alva Campbell Jr, who also suffers from lung disease, asthma and heart problems and uses a walker and colostomy bag, had argued through his lawyer that he was too sick for a lethal injection, but lost a bid to be killed by a firing squad instead.

It was the fifth “botched” execution in Ohio in recent years and the second time an attempted execution was aban-doned, according to the American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio. The advocacy group called for an immediate mora-torium on executions in the state.

“This is not justice, and this is not humane,” Mike Brickner, the group’s policy director, said in a statement.

“Campbell was poked and prodded for nearly two hours as prison officials and medical personnel attempted to find a useable vein.”

On Tuesday, the US Supreme Court had rejected a final appeal by Campbell to stop the execution at the Southern Ohio Correctional Facility in Lucasville. David Stebbins, Campbell’s lawyer, had argued that Campbell’s medical con-ditions could make it hard to find suitable veins to inject.

“The execution was halted,” Stebbins wrote in an email on Wednesday. “I have no further information.” The state’s Department of Rehabilitation and Correction did not imme-diately respond to questions.

Republican Ohio Governor John Kasich had earlier rejected clemency for Campbell, who has said he was beaten and abused as a child.

Gary Mohr, director of the Ohio Department of Rehabili-tation and Correction, told reporters that Kasich would have to decide when to reschedule the execution, the Dispatch reported. There was no immediate response from Kasich’s office.

Campbell served 20 years of a life sentence for killing a man in Cleveland before being released by a parole board in 1992. Five years after his release, he was arrested and jailed for robbery in Columbus, Ohio, and was awaiting a court date when he faked paralysis, a c c o r d i n g t o c o u r t documents.

As a deputy was transport-ing Campbell in a wheelchair to the courthouse, he suddenly beat the deputy, stole her pis-tol and fled, according to court records. He then car-jacked and fatally shot 18-year-old Charles Dials. Campbell was convicted in 1997 on robbery and murder charges.

Campbell had been the lat-est inmate to challenge Ohio’s lethal injection methods. In September, Ohio put to death a double murderer, Gary Otte, in its second execution after a three-year hiatus because of legal challenges and difficulties obtaining lethal injection drugs.

US schools get influx of Puerto Rican students after hurricane Maria


FAJRSHOROOK

04.32am

05.51 am

ZUHRASR

11.19 am

02.24 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

04.48 pm

06.18 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 04:15 – 15:00 LOW TIDE 09:45 – 21:45

Hazy at places becomes mild day-

time with scattered clouds.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

22oC 30oC

The Peninsula

The Cultural Village Foundation-Katara in cooperation with the South Korean Embassy recently

hosted ‘The Rhythm of Korea’ show fea-turing renowned Jinjo Crew and Kukkiwon Taekwondo Demonstration Team.

Globally acclaimed b-boy group, Jinjo Crew, who has won five major world b-boy contests and achieved the first b-boy grand slam in 40 years of b-boy history, enthralled the audience with their vibrant dance moves at Katara Drama Theatre Monday night.

The crew provided their own take to b-boying through a creative break danc-ing concept and moves, as they performed a show with traditional Korean flavour putting emphasis on storytelling that showcased humor and satire as they wore traditional Korean masks.

The group aims at inspiring a new movement through their unique dance performances and crating impact on the

development of Korea’s cultural scene. The Kukkiwon Taekwondo Demon-

stration Team equally impressed the audience with a variety of Taekwondo moves with emphasis on head-height kicks, jumping and spinning kicks, fast kicking and breaking techniques using wooden boards.

The team has been conducting dem-onstration tours around 10 countries every year, with an aim to introduce and spread Taekwondo and the Korean cul-ture worldwide. Such performances enhance Taekwondo’s global appeal and the value of Korean culture.

Katara Deputy General Manager and Head of Operations Ahmad Al-Sayed, South Korean Ambassador Heung Kyeong Park, and representatives of diplomatic missions were among those in the audi-ence. Ambassador Heung expressed his utmost gratitude and appreciation to Katara for their unceasing efforts in pro-viding platform for talented artists from around the world to showcase their cul-ture in their own innovative style.

‘The Rhythm of Korea’ delights audience at Katara

The Peninsula

The US Air Force Central Command Band, also known as AFCENT

Band, staged a spectacular performance Tuesday night at Mall of Qatar as part of the US Embassy’s Discover Amer-ica Festival.

Welcoming the audience at the Oasis stage at Mall of Qatar, William Grant, Chargé d’Affaires lauded the band for sharing their talent and pro-viding their service around the world.

“The work they do around the world to spread goodwill and foster strong partnerships with Qatar and other nations through music is most com-mendable. Congratulations to you, and thank you for your service,” said Grant.

He was upbeat of the growing number of American brands in the country partic-ularly in Mall of Qatar whose support of U.S.-Qatari rela-tions in the realm of trade and business and culture he appreciated.

“We are always excited to see the network of American businesses here expand and work together to bring the best the U.S. has to offer to you,” he said

Running until Saturday, Discover America Festival features various activities held across the country.

AFCENT Band shares talent at Oasis stage

The Peninsula

Students from the Department of Com-puter Science and Engineering (CSE) at Qatar University Col-

lege of Engineering (QU-CENG) achieved first place in DELL-EMC Envision the Future Competition 2017, an annual graduation project competition for Turkey, Mid-dle East and Africa regions.

Students Maroua Salem Filali, Ealaf Sayed Hussein, and Salma Tarek Shalaby pre-sented their project titled “Automated Aneurysm Seg-mentation on Reconfigurable SoC”. They were supervised by QU-CENG Associate Dean for Research and Graduate Studies Prof Abbes Amira.

The competition drew the participation of over 883 sen-ior undergraduate students and 214 project submissions. Students were required to cre-ate projects with advanced

technologies, instrumental to d r i v i n g d i g i t a l transformation.

Prof Abbes Amira said: “Participating in DELL-EMC Envision the Future Competi-tion 2017 has been a great opportunity and we are hon-ored to win the first place. Through the journey, the team faced tough tasks and chal-lenges but patience and motivation were the key of success.”

CSE Head and IEEE Qatar Section Chair Dr Sumaya Ali S A Al-Maadeed said: “The creative innovations that have resulted from Dell EMC’s annual Graduate Project Com-petition represent a generation of innovators who can solve the challenges of tomorrow when given access to new technologies and expert guid-ance. We are proud to collaborate with a pioneering IT enabler like Dell EMC to equip our students with indus-try knowledge and a glimpse

into their future careers in a digital economy.” “We are delighted to receive this award. This is a fruitful col-laboration with Hamad Medical Corporation and Uni-versity College London research teams whose efforts enhanced our research

experience in a very advanced final year project,” said Mar-oua Salem Filali.

Ealaf Sayed Hussein said: “Through this competition, I have got an advanced experi-ence through direct communication with experts and professionals in the field

of technology, computer sci-ence and engineering.” “I would like to express my grat-itude to my supervisors who have helped us during the preparation period and did not save any effort to guarantee completion and distinguished results.”

QU-CENG students achieve 1st place in project contest

Students and staff of Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) at Qatar University College of Engineering (QU-CENG) with the mementos after coming first in DELL-EMC Envision the Future Competition 2017.

Kukkiwon Taekwondo Demonstration team performs at ‘The Rhythm of Korea’ show at Katara Drama Theatre.

The Peninsula

The headquarters of the Ministry of Interior yes-terday hosted the 7th meeting of the Supreme Council for the Police College with Adviser of HE

the Minister of Interior and Vice President of the Supreme Council Dr Abdullah Yusuf Al Mal attending, along with members of the council.

They reviewed the issues on schedule and took the appropriate decisions regarding them. They also reviewed the quality assurance programmes and activities.

The meeting also focused on the result of a sum-mer course for teaching officer candidates the English language at the Manchester Metropolitan University, a programme that was conducted in cooperation with the British Council according to a Memorandum of Understanding signed between the two sides.

Supreme Council for Police College reviews activities

Officials during the meeting.

The Peninsula

Qatar Fund for Develop-ment (QFFD) and the Rand Corporation have

agreed to conduct a study on opportunities for refugees and host countries in middle-eastern labour markets.

The study will provide a socio-economic assessment of labour markets, and the supply of jobs in host coun-tries. It will identify specific sectors that would benefit from additional workers; document the skills of refu-gees to understand where and how they might be gain-fully employed in ways that may also help their host countries; and identify criti-cal steps that could be taken

to facilitate long-term eco-nomic opportunities as well as social cohesion.

That the study builds upon existing collaborative work of Rand researchers with United Nations agencies, as well as the broader exist-ing knowledge base on the refugee crisis.

Ali Al Dabbagh, Executive Director of Corporate Strat-egy at QFFD, said: “Qatar has been persistently delivering on its pledges towards the humanitarian crisis in the region, including Syria, Yemen and Iraq. We intend to highlight through this study the mutual economic opportunities that exist, but remain untapped, for both the refugees from these

countries and the host communities.”

Charlie Ries, Vice Presi-dent of Rand Corporation commented on the agree-ment: “We look forward to undertaking this research on

this very important issue, and helping refugees and their host communities to find mutually beneficial economic opportunities pending their return to their countries of origin.”

QFFD, Rand to conduct study on refugees

Officials during the signing ceremony.

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