QNA WASHINGTON

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met with the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, at the US Congress head-quarters in Washington, DC.

The meeting reviewed the strategic bilateral relations and ways of enhancing them in dif-ferent fields. The meeting also dealt with the latest regional and international developments.

H H the Amir also met with Director of the Central Intelli-gence Agency (CIA), Gina Haspel, and her accompanying dele-gation, at H H the Amir’s resi-dence in Washington DC, on Wednesday.

The meeting reviewed the strategic bilateral cooperation in security fields and the scope for expanding them. She expressed

her thanks to H H the Amir for the role the State of Qatar plays in the field of counter-terrorism, and for its cooperation with the US in that regard.

The meeting also dealt with the latest regional and interna-tional developments, particularly developments of peace talks in

Afghanistan. She praised the State of Qatar’s patronage of the Intra- Afghan dialogue.

H H the Amir met with

Chairman of the US House Com-mittee on Foreign Affairs Eliot Engel, Vice-Chair of the Com-mittee Joe Wilson, Chairman of

the Middle East, North Africa, and International Terrorism Sub-committee Ted Deutch, Vice Chair of the subcommittee

Michael McCaul, Steve Shabot, Brad Sherman, at the head-quarters of the US Congress in Washington, DC. �P2

Volume 24 | Number 7950 | 2 RiyalsFriday 12 July 2019 | 9 Dhul-Qa'da 1440 www.thepeninsula.qa

BUSINESS | 15 SPORT | 20

England thump Australia to reach World Cup final

US trade issues are ‘definitely’

resolvable, says Chinese official

World Cup 2022, #GCC crisis and critical regional issues including Sudan, Libya, and Afghanistan were top topics discussed during HH @TamimbinHamad meeting with a number of government officials. We will continue our close cooperation to maintain peace and stability #QatarUSA

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, at the US Congress headquarters in Washington, DC.

Amir, US officials discuss enhancing ties

Qatar Executive makes history, breaks world speed record in polar circumnavigationTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Executive (QE), together with the One More Orbit team, has made history by beating the world circumnav-igation speed record for any aircraft flying over the North and South poles, in cele-bration of the 50th anni-versary of the Apollo 11 moon landing.

The QE Gulfstream G650ER departed Cape Canaveral, the home of NASA, on July 9 at 9.32am to begin its pole to pole mission. The One More Orbit team were on board, consisting of NASA astronaut Terry Virts and

Action Aviation Chairman Hamish Harding, while the

Qatar Executive crew consists of three pilots Jacob Obe

Bech, Jeremy Ascough and Yevgen Vasylenko, engineer Benjamin Reuger and flight at tendant Magdalena Starowicz.

The mission was split into the four sectors; NASA shuttle landing facility in Florida to Astana, Astana to Mauritius, Mauritius to Chile and Chile back to NASA, Florida, with refueling pit stops in each location. The aircraft landed at Kennedy Space Centre, successfully setting a new world record of flying pole to pole in 46 hours and 40 minutes. Present at the landing was Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker. �P2

Officials of Qatar Executive with the One More Orbit team.

PM visits Hamad Port and strategic food security facilitiesQNA/DOHA

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani paid yesterday morning an inspection visit to Hamad Port and the strategic food security facilities in Umm Al Houl.

During the visit, the Prime Minister received a brief on the operating process, loading and unloading, insurance of import and re-exporting of goods in the port. The Prime Minister listened to explanations on operation techniques and the various mar-itime facilities of the port including the customs inspection area; vessel inspection facilities; transport mechanism; food security facilities; silos and facilities for storing, refining and packing rice, sugar and oils.

The Prime Minister also took a tour in the port during which he listened to an expla-nation on how the of loading stations, general cargo station, grain station and car station work and the mechanism of facilitating and

developing the required support services for containers. The Prime Minister and Interior Minister was accompanied during the visit by Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti; Minister of Municipality and Environment, H E Abdullah bin Abdulaziz bin Turki Al Subaie, and Pres-ident of the Public Works Authority (Ashghal), Dr Saad bin Ahmed bin Ibrahim Al Mohannadi.

Qatar Airways announces $1bn order for 18 Gulfstream aircraftTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Airways announced a significant order for 18 Gulf-stream aircraft during a ceremony at the White House on July 9, that was witnessed by Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, and US Pres-ident Donald Trump. Qatar Airways has also finalised a significant order with Boeing for five Boeing 777 freighters.

The order worth over $1bn is for 14 Gulfstream G650ER and four Gulfstream G500 and will add to Qatar Executive’s growing fleet that currently includes six G650ER and four G500 aircraft.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker said: “Qatar Airways is very pleased to confirm this landmark deal with Gulfstream. Our corporate jet division, Qatar Executive, goes from strength to strength and this commitment to new orders will allow us to offer our bespoke luxury service to even more passengers.”

Qatar Executive has been a Gulfstream customer since October 2014, when the charter service was announced as the international launch customer for the all-new G500 as part of a large fleet agreement that included the G650ER. Since that time, Qatar Executive has pro-gressively increased their Gulf-stream orders.

This latest one, for a mixed fleet of large-cabin aircraft valued at over $1bn, further builds on the airline’s efforts to expand the Gulfstream cabin experience around the world. �P2

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani during an inspection visit to Hamad Port and the strategic food security facilities in Umm Al Houl, yesterday.

We visited Hamad Port today where we were briefed about the work mechanism of port's various maritime facilities, silos and storage facilities that fall within the food security strategy, and the modern techniques in operation, which have the highest security and safety standards. We assure that Qatar is going ahead in achieving its projects firmly

US plans Gulf naval escort for tankersAFP/WASHINGTON

The Pentagon said yesterday it was discussing military escorts for vessels in the Gulf one day after armed Iranian boats threatened a British oil tanker.

The White House’s nominee to become chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Mark Milley, said Washington was attempting to put together a coalition “in terms of pro-viding military escort, naval escort to commercial shipping,” he said.

His statement came after London accused Tehran of deploying three military vessels to “impede the passage” of a 274-meter (899-foot) BP tanker, the British Heritage.

“We are concerned by this action and continue to urge the Iranian authorities to de-escalate the situation in the region,” a Downing Street spokesman said.

� �P4

Amir's meeting with the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi, reviewed the strategic bilateral relations and ways of enhancing them in different fields. The meeting also dealt with the latest regional and international developments.

02 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019HOME

WEATHER TODAY

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Minimum Maximum33oC 46oC

HIGH TIDE 14:57 LOW TIDE 07:28 – 20:50

Hot daytime with slight dust to blowing

dust at some places.

Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held meetings with the Chairman and members of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Speaker of the US House of Representatives, the Senate Armed Services Committee, members of the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee, and Director of the Central Intelligence Agency.

FAJRSHOROOK

03. 23 AM04. 51 AM

11. 39 AM03.03 PM

06. 29 PM07. 59 PM

ZUHRASR

MAGHRIBISHA

PRAYER TIMINGS

Amir, US officials review ties

FROM PAGE 1The meeting dealt with the

strategic bilateral relations and cooperation, and the scope for expanding them in different field in light of the agreements signed by the two countries.

The two sides also exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues.

H H the Amir also met with Chair of the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations Senator James Risch and Vice Chair Senator Bob Menendez. Members of the committee Senator Mitt Romney, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Lindsey Graham, Senator Rob Portman, Senator Marco Rubio, Senator Ben Cardin, Senator Jeanne Shaheen, Senator Tom Udall, Senator John Isakson, Senator Ron Johnson, Senator Tim Kaine, Senator John Barrasso, Senator Jeff Merkley, Senator Todd Young, Senator Edward Markey all attended the meeting at the headquarters of the US Con-

gress in Washington DC. The meeting dealt with stra-

tegic bilateral relations and ways of enhancing them in different fields.

The members of the com-mittee praised the strength of cooperation between the two countries, especially on the political and military fronts. They also praised the State of Qatar’s expansion of Al Udeid Air Base and hosting of more American forces, expressing their thanks to H H the Amir for Qatar’s efforts in that regard.

H H the Amir also met with Chairman of the Armed Services Committee of the US Senate Senator Jim Inhofe, and members of the committee Senator Jack Reed, Senator Mike Rounds, Senator Angus King, Senator Rick Scott, Senator David Perdue, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator Richard Blumenthal..

The meeting dealt with the strategic bilateral relations in the

military, defense, and security fields.

The meeting also addressed the joint efforts of counter-ter-rorism and its financing. Members of the committee praised the role played by the State of Qatar in that regard, expressing their thanks to H H the Amir for Qatar’s expansion of Al Udeid air base, as well as the country’s hosting of more American forces.

The meeting also covered the latest regional and international developments.

H H the Amir met with Chairman of the US House Per-manent Select Committee on Intelligence Adam Schiff and a number of its members.

The meeting reviewed the strategic bilateral ties, particularly in the security fields, in addition to the scope for enhancing them.

The meeting was attended by a number of Their Excellencies members of the official delegation accompanying H H the Amir.

Qatar Airways announces $1bn order for 18 Gulfstream aircraftFROM PAGE 1

To date, Gulfstream has delivered six G650ER and four G500 aircraft to Qatar Exec-utive, including the first two international deliveries of the G500 in December 2018.

As the world’s largest owner-operator of the G650ER, Qatar Executive offers passengers a luxurious fitted bed for those wishing to s l e e p c o m f o r t a b l y

whilst travelling on board the aircraft, with Bluetooth head-phones and a private monitor, in addition to a cabin divider that can be closed offering passengers ultimate privacy.

Qatar Executive currently operates a fleet of 18 state-of-the-art private jets, including six Gulfstream G650ERs, four Gulfstream G500s, three Bom-bardier Challenger 605s, four Global 5000s and one Global

XRS. In a related development, Qatar Airways and Boeing finalised a significant order for five Boeing 777 freighters during a ceremony at the White House on July 9.

The order, worth $1.8bn at current list prices was previ-ously announced with the signing of a Memorandum of Undertsanding at the Paris Air Show in June. Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar

Al Baker, said: “It is an honour to sign this landmark order for five Boeing 777 freighters in the presence of Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and US President Donald Trump. “We are very pleased to extend our long-term relationship with Boeing Commercial Airplanes. This order will enable Qatar Airways Cargo to grow to become the number one global

cargo carrier this year in both fleet and network and is a demonstration of our ongoing commitment to US manufacturing.”

Boeing Commercial Air-planes President and CEO, Kevin McAllister, said: “It is an honour to be signing this agreement today with Qatar Airways, who has been our long-haul partner for more than 20 years.”

QE breaks world speed record in polar circumnavigationFROM PAGE 1

Akbar Al Baker said: “Qatar Executive, together with the One More Orbit team, has made history. A mission like this takes a huge amount of planning as we need to factor in the flight paths, fuel stops, potential weather conditions and make plans for all possibilities. Many people behind the scenes worked tirelessly to ensure this mission was a success and I am very proud that we broke the world record a first for Qatar Executive which will be certified by the Federation Aeronautique Internationale (FAI) and Guinness World Records.

Action Aviation Chairman Hamish Harding, said: “Our mission, titled One More Orbit, pays homage to the Apollo 11 moon landing achievement, by high-lighting how humans push the boundaries of aero-nautics. We did this during the 50th anniversary cel-ebrations of the Apollo 11 moon landing; it is our way of paying tribute to the past, the present, and the future of space exploration. The mission has utilized the skills of hundreds of talented technicians across the planet and is testament to what can be achieved when we all pull together.” Qatar Executive is the world’s largest owner-operator of the G650ER aircraft, the fastest ultra-long rang business jet in the industry.

03FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019 HOME

Prime Minister visits Hamad Port &strategic food security facilities

Minister meets Iranian, German envoys

Minister of Transport and Communications, H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti held separate meetings yesterday with Their Excellencies the Ambassadors Mohammed Ali Subhani of Iran, and Hans-Udo Muzel (not pictured) of Germany. The two meetings discussed cooperation and relations between Qatar and the two friendly countries in the fields of transportation and means of further enhancing them.

Police College celebrates 300 graduates of youth programQNA DOHA

Police College celebrated yesterday the graduation of 300 students from the youth program in the presence of Adviser to the Minister of the Interior and Vice-President of the Supreme Council of the Police College H E Major General Dr. Abdullah Yousuf Al Mal, a number of department directors at the Ministry of Interior and parents of the graduates.

H E Major General Dr. Abdullah Yousuf Al Mal expressed great admiration for the outstanding skills of the par-ticipating students, reflecting the great success achieved by the program. He also values the efforts made by the officers and trainers of the college staff in preparing students to be at this level. He highlighted the good skill and military discipline the

students showed during the parade of self-defense skills and arresting the wanted, which indicates that they learned an important aspect of security work and the role played by the police in maintaining the security and safety of the country and all members of society.

He added that the program came as part of the directives of Prime Minister and Interior Min-ister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al-Thani to the Police College to set a plan to give interest to the youth at an early age, train and rehabil-itate them scientifically, intel-lectually, religiously and sports wise during the summer vacation.

The college started designing and implementing the youth program last year’s summer and the experience was successful as the college received 2000 stu-dents from the primary stage.

He added that due to the program’s success and the parents’ satisfaction, the College continued to work this year to increase the number of students to 2600. His Excellency also thanked the faculty of police officers and trainers for their efforts that led to the success of this program.

Head of training at the college Major Fahad Saeed Al Subaie said the program is gaining great interest from the college as it is implemented by highly qualified officers with long experience in dealing with young people.

He added that this year the college ensured that sports activ-ities carried many social values such as ethics, honouring parents, giving, honesty, loyalty to work, serving the country, and appreciating the State’s spon-sorship of education, health, and the value of security and safety.

Prime Minister and Minister of Interior, H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani paid an inspection visit to Hamad Port and the strategic food security facilities in Umm Al Houl, yesterday.

Fath Al Khair begins historic voyage to Greece, Croatia, Albania and Italy

THE PENINSULA DOHA

Traditional Qatari dhow Fath Al Khair began its historic voyage to Europe and North Africa on Wednesday morning with a ceremony held at Babik Port in Istanbul’s Bosporus Strait.

For this fourth edition of Fath Al Khair’s voyage to foreign shores, the dhow marks its longest voyage which is divided into three phases, the first of which takes it to five countries including Turkey, Greece, Albania, Croatia and Italy.

The ceremony was led by Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of Katara and other officials and dignitaries and attended by Qataris, Turkish and visitors from other nationalities.

Dr. Al Sulaiti said he was pleased to have launched the historic Fath Al Khair 4 voyage in Turkey which reflects the close brotherly relations and the remarkable development wit-nessed in all fields and all fields in light of the growing cooper-ation between the two countries.

Fath Al Khair 4 will play a prominent role in promoting Qatar as an important sports and cultural destination by intro-ducing football fans in Europe and North Africa the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar, he stressed.

He pointed out that the his-toric journey enhances the cul-tural communication between the peoples and countries of the world as well as opens the horizons of knowledge and experience.

The dhow’s captain Yousef Mohammed Al Sada along with 15 sailors started their journey

towards Canakkale Port where they are expected to arrive in 10 days, then they will continue to sail towards Greece’s second largest city Thessaloniki.

While expressing happiness with the launch of Fath Al Khair 4, Al Sada looked back on the preparations of the crew which took nine months which he said confirmed the determination of the sailors to embark on the exciting voyage which would take of 4,400 nautical miles and approximately four months. Fath al-Khair 4’s mar-itime route will include the

Greek island of Mykonos, Saranda city in the southern part of Albania and its capital Tirana, Croatia’s the second largest city of Split-Dalmatia on the eastern shore of Croatia, Italy’s Sicily, the largest island in the Mediterranean and con-clude at the port of Genoa in northern Italy. The second phase of Fath Al Khair 4 is scheduled to begin in June next year and will include ports in France and Spain while the third and final phase will start in 2021 and include Morocco, Algeria and Tunisia.

Dr. Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti (centre, front), General Manager of Katara, with Qatari sailors on board Fath Al Khair at Babik Port in Istanbul, Turkey, on Wednesday.

Travel advisory to citizens seeking medical treatment in India QNA DOHA

An official source in the Department of Consular Affairs has called on Qatari citizens seeking medical treatment in the Republic of India to observe instructions issued by the competent authorities in India.

The source said that for medical treatment in India certain con-ditions should be observed including obtaining a visa for the patient (treatment visa) from the Indian Embassy in Doha and obtaining a visa (companion visa) for the co-patient, if required. It is also nec-essary to obtain a letter signed and stamped from the hospital showing the consent to receive the patient and the initial identifi-cation of the schedule of treatment, including the expected duration and estimated costs. The source stated that following the mentioned instructions allow patients and their companions to extend the visa duration when it is necessary.

The source also stated that Qatari citizens are welcomed to visit the website of the Republic of India’s embassy in Qatar to get more information with regard to treatments in the Republic of India.

Ministry of Interior and RACA sign letter of intentQNA DOHA

The Ministry of Interior, represented by the National Counter Terrorism Committee and Qatar’s Regulatory Authority for Charitable Activities (RACA), signed a letter of intent in the field of combating terrorism and its financing.

The letter of intent was signed by Chairman of the Committee, General Major Abdul Aziz Abdullah Al Ansari and Director General of RACA, Ibrahim Abdullah Al Dhaimi.

The letter of intent aims to strengthen cooperation

between the National Counter Terrorism Committee and RACA in matters relating to the fight against terrorism and its financing and to protect the charitable sector and maintain its integrity to prevent the misuse of that sector in the financing of terrorism.

This cooperation focuses on supporting national capacities and expertise and developing the necessary mechanisms to implement United Nations resolutions on the implementation of the targeted financial sanctions regime, thus enhancing the role of the State of Qatar in the international efforts to combat terrorism and its financing.

Doha Islamic Youth Forum concludesQNA DOHA

The Doha Islamic Youth Forum concluded yesterday, which was held as part of Doha the Islamic Youth Forum events. Youth dele-gations from 56 countries in the Muslim world participated, including 20 from the State of Qatar.

The closing ceremony was attended by the Minister of Culture and Sports, H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali and Islamic Con-ference Youth Forum’s new President Taha Ayhan, as well as a number of officials from the Ministry of Culture and Sports.

At the conclusion of the forum, participants made a number of recommendations related to the Forum’s themes. They called for strengthening the fight against corruption within civil society institutions by con-ducting media campaigns in social media and establishing youth oversight bodies to promote a culture of integrity, transparency and combating corruption. They also called for establishing national and local youth-led observatories to promote transparency and integrity in the management of

public affairs, as well as stressing the importance of supporting youth initiatives in the areas of good governance and trans-parency within youth institu-tions. The participants also called for the establishment of training centres for the devel-opment of youth skills in the field of community-based youth ini-tiatives, the establishment of a women’s association for the rehabilitation and training of women to participate in the management of public affairs, the launch of national consulta-tions on the legislative framework for newly graduated youth and the entry into the labour market, as well as the establishment of follow-up com-mittees to evaluate plans and

strategies for youth initiatives.Another recommendation

made by the participants was to establish a social communication technology that integrates the digital platforms under the super-vision of the United Nations, and is used to raise funds and support charitable and voluntary cam-paigns across the Islamic world and to develop awareness pro-grams to rationalize the use of social media with the partici-pation of specialists and media professionals; and develop training programs to educate on the values of citizenship and belonging and support social responsibility through Social net-working platforms, support for gender equality and work to empower women in various fields on social networking networks.

Director of Youth Affairs Department at the Ministry of Culture and Sports Hussein Rashid Al Kubaisi praised the participants for the active role they played in enriching the forum. He noted that the event represented an oppor-tunity for youth to get to share their views on different issues. It also helped promote a culture of good governance and trans-parency, he added.

Minister of Culture and Sports, H E Salah bin Ghanem Al Ali; Islamic Conference Youth Forum’s new President Taha Ayhan; and other Ministry officials attended the closing ceremony of the forum.

The second phase of Fath Al Khair 4 is scheduled to begin in June next year and will include ports in France and Spain while the third and final phase will start in 2021.

04 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Syrian Kurdish security forces inspect the wreckage of a rigged car which detonated outside the Syrian Orthodox Church in the predominantly Christian neighbourhood of Al Wasti in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeast Syria, yesterday.

Police fire tear gas at a protesting Shia group, in Abuja, Nigeria, yesterday.

Over 80 fighters dead in northwest Syria clashesAFP BEIRUT

More than 80 fighters were killed in clashes yesterday between regime and rebel-led forces in northwest Syria, as violence raged on the edge of an opposition bastion despite a September truce deal.

In nearby Afrin, a car bombing killed 13 people in the latest violence to hit the city that Turkey-backed rebels seized last year from Kurdish fighters.

A car bomb detonated near a church in the Kurdish-majority city of Qamishli in northeast Syria wounding almost a dozen people. There was no immediate claim for the attack, which Syrian state tel-evision said wounded 11 people and damaged several cars.

Syria’s civil war has killed a total of more than 370,000

people and spiralled into a complex conflict since starting in 2011 with the repression of anti-government protests.

Russian and regime aircraft have since late April ramped up deadly bombardment of the Idlib region of some three million people in northwest Syria, despite a deal to avert a massive government assault.

Regime forces have also been locked in battle with jihadists and allied rebels on the edges of the bastion held by Syria’s former Al Qaeda affiliate Hayat Tahrir Al Sham (HTS), including the north of Hama province. Clashes raged in northern Hama after a small advance by rebel-led forces overnight, the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Fighting and bombardment

since the launch of the attack late on Wednesday killed at least 46 regime forces and 36 rebels, the Britain-based war monitor said. “The fighting is ongoing as regime planes and artillery pound the area,” Observatory head Rami Abdel Rahman said.

HTS spokesman Abu Khaled Al Shami said the jihadist and rebel fighters attacked after dark, taking control of the village of Hamameyat and a hilltop.

In air raids yesterday, civilian was killed in a Russian strike on the Idlib town of Latamneh, the Observatory said, while rebel shelling cost the life of a woman in regime-held outside the jihadist stronghold.

Elsewhere in Syria, eight civilians were among the 13 people killed in a car bomb near a checkpoint outside Afrin, the Observatory said.

Iran denies blocking British vessel near GulfAGENCIES TEHRAN/LONDON

Britain said yesterday that armed Iranian boats tried to “impede” a UK supertanker before being warned off by a British warship in a dramatic escalation in the Gulf that jeopardises attempts to salvage a landmark nuclear accord.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and the Revolutionary Guard’s navy both denied any incident had taken place involving the British Her-itage. “During the last 24 hours, there were no encounters with foreign vessels, including the British Tides,” said a statement by Revolutionary Guard naval forces cited by the Fars news agency.

Zarif rejected the claims that Iran had sought to seize the ship. “They make such claims to create tension, yet these claims are worthless and they have made many such claims,” he told reporters, according to the semi-official Isna news agency. “They say such things to cover up their own weaknesses.”

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards cautioned both the United States and Britain that they would “strongly regret” the UK Royal Marines’ detention of one of the Islamic republic’s own tankers off Gibraltar last week.

The Gibraltar police brushed aside the warning and announced the arrest yesterday of both the Indian captain and officer of the seized Iranian tanker. And President Donald Trump raised the US pressure by tweeting on Wednesday that sanctions against Iran over its stepped-up nuclear activities would be “increased substan-tially” soon.

The rapid chain of events

further complicates Britain and other European allies’ efforts to salvage a 2015 nuclear agreement with Iran from which Washington pulled out more than a year ago.

The UK defence ministry said three Iranian boats tried to “impede the passage” a com-mercial vessel called British Her-itage. The 274-metre (899-foot) tanker is owned by the British energy giant BP and can carry a million barrels of oil. “We are concerned by this action and continue to urge the Iranian authorities to de-escalate the sit-uation in the region,” a Downing Street spokesman said.

The Times newspaper reported that Britain is now con-sidering whether to send other naval resources to the Gulf.

Sky News said the transport ministry had issued new guidance to all British-flagged commercial ships in recent days to go to a heightened state of security in the area. The UK defence ministry said that “three Iranian vessels attempted to impede the passage of a com-mercial vessel, British Heritage, through the Strait of Hormuz”.

“HMS Montrose was forced to position herself between the Iranian vessels and British Her-itage and issue verbal warnings to the Iranian vessels, which

then turned away,” the ministry statement said.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards -- a vast and powerful security organisation that the United States blames for staging several tanker attacks since May -- denied trying to seize or impede the UK tanker.

“There has been no confron-tation in the last 24 hours with any foreign vessels,” the Revo-lutionary Guards said in a statement. UK defence sources told British media that the Rev-olutionary Guards boats attempt to first stop and then divert the supertanker towards the Iranian shore.

The UK warship then trained its guns on the Iranian boats and delivered a “cease and desist” message by radio.

CNN reported that a US sur-veillance aircraft captured video footage of the episode from above. The incident adds further fuel to a volatile mix of brink-manship and sabre rattling in a region already unsettled by the Trump administration’s nuclear standoff with Tehran.

Revolutionary Guards deputy commander Ali Fadavi called Britain’s seizure of Iran’s tanker “stupidity... a trait the American president has in spades, and the British to some extent”.

Israeli troops admit ‘mistakenly’ shooting dead Hamas activistREUTERS GAZA

Israeli soldiers mistakenly shot a Hamas operative yesterday who had been trying to prevent Palestinians from approaching the Israel-Gaza border, the Israeli military said.

Hamas, the Islamist group that runs the Gaza Strip, said the man had been killed. The health ministry in Gaza said the dead

Palestinian man was aged 28 and had been shot near Beit Hanoun in the northern part of the territory.

“An initial inquiry suggests that a Hamas restraint operative arrived in the area of the security fence because of two Pales-tinians who were wandering in the area,” the Israeli military said in a statement.

“In retrospect, it appears that the IDF (Israel Defence

Force) troops who arrived at the location misidentified the Hamas restraint operative to be an armed terrorist and fired as a result of this misunderstanding. The incident will be reviewed,” it said.

The last round of violence in the Gaza Strip and neighbouring southern Israel was in May, with hundreds of Palestinian rocket attacks and Israeli air strikes over three days before a ceasefire was brokered.

With an eye to avoiding broader confrontation, Hamas has occasionally deployed its men at the border to keep Pal-estinians away from the fence, where often violent anti-Israeli demonstrations that began in March 2018 have drawn lethal Israeli fire.

In its statement, Hamas’s armed wing said Israeli forces had deliberately targeted a fighter on duty near the border.

“The occupation bears responsibility for the conse-quences of such a criminal act,” it said, referring to Israel.

After the fighting in May, a ceasefire was brokered by Qatar, Egypt and the United Nations.

But tensions have remained high, with Hamas accusing Israel of failing to abide by the terms - never publicly confirmed by Israeli leaders - of a truce deal to ease a blockade of Gaza.

Zimbabwe oppn leader to spend more time in detentionREUTERS/HARARE

A Zimbabwean opposition lawmaker appeared in court yesterday facing subversion charges that carry a 20-year jail term upon conviction, his lawyer said, adding that the politician would remain detained while he sought bail at the High Court.

Job Sikhala is accused of advocating the overthrow of President Emmerson Mnan-gagwa and was not asked to plead when he appeared before a magistrate in rural Bikita, hundreds of kilometres south of the capital.

Four dead as two car bombs target Haftar allies in BenghaziAP BENGHAZI, LIBYA

At least two bomb-laden vehicles exploded yesterday near a group of Libyan National Army (LNA) leaders in their eastern stronghold of Benghazi, killing four people and wounding 33 others and casting doubt on the LNA’s 3-month-old offensive on Tripoli, the UN-backed govern-ment’s capital.

The spokesman for the Benghazi-based rival govern-ment’s Interior Ministry, Tarek El Kharraz, said several senior LNA figures, including the com-mander of LNA special forces, had gathered in western Benghazi to attend the funeral service of a high-ranking mil-itary general.

El Kharraz said the dead in the attack included two civilians and two soldiers, and the wounded included civilians, army personnel and police. He said none of the military leaders was killed or wounded.

LNA spokesman Ahmed Al Mesmari said later there were three explosions and accused the UN-supported government

of financing the attackers, but provided no evidence.

Since Muammar Gaddafi’s ouster in 2011, Libya has been split between rival governments in the east and the west and an array of militias fighting over power and oil fields.

The LNA, loyal to the rival government in the east, launched an offensive on Tripoli in April, setting off fierce fighting that has threatened to plunge the country into another bout of vio-lence on the scale of the 2011 conflict that ousted longtime dictator Gadhafi and led to his death.

The LNA offensive on Tripoli led by Field Marshall Khalifa Haftar has been widely criticized by the UN and aid agencies. Over 1,000 people have been killed in the violence, most of them combatants but also civilians, and thousands have been dis-placed. Shortly after the explo-sions, Haftar ordered an inves-tigation into the attack.

According to El-Kharraz, the east-based government recently arrested a group of collaborators inside Benghazi who were in touch with Tripoli-based militias.

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif rejected the claims that Iran had sought to seize the ship. “They make such claims to create tension, yet these claims are worthless and they have made many such claims,” he told reporters, according to the semi-official Isna news agency.

Fresh protests by Nigerian Shias after clashesAFP/ABUJA

Hundreds of Shias demonstrated in the Nigerian capital to demand the release of their jailed leader, a day after clashes with police left several protesters dead.

Members of the Islamic Movement of Nigeria (IMN), a radical pro-Iranian group, chanted slogans and danced with yellow bandanas on their heads in front of the national human rights commission in Abuja. On the wall, a message

written in red paint read, “Nigerian police shooted shia members @ national assembly on 9/7/2019.”

IMN leader Ibrahim Zakzaky has been in custody since December 2015, when hundreds of his supporters, including women and children, were killed by the security forces, according to a toll established by rights watchdogs.

His detention has led to repeated protests in Abuja and several northern cities.

Police opened fire in clashes

outside the parliament building on Tuesday, leaving at least two demonstrators dead, including a 14-year-old boy, while 11 others were injured, according to the protestors.

Police said two officers had been shot in the legs after a rifle was allegedly snatched from a police officer manning the main entrance to the parliament.

This version was contested by the IMN.

“They (the police) just opened fire,” said the organisa-tion’s spokesman, Ibrahim Musa.

New sanctions widen US assault on Lebanon: HezbollahREUTERS/BEIRUT

Lebanon’s Hezbollah said yesterday that new US sanc-tions against three of its offi-cials, including two MPs, have widened Washington’s assault on Lebanon.

The move marks the first time the United States has tar-geted lawmakers of the heavily armed, Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, which is part of Lebanon’s coalition gov-ernment. “It has widened the assault on Lebanon and its people. It is rejected and denounced,” Hezbollah’s par-liamentary bloc said in TV com-ments. “It will not change any-thing in our convictions.”

The sanctions widen a U.S. campaign that has designated 50 Hezbollah-linked indi-viduals and entities since 2017. Washington classifies Hez-bollah as a terrorist group.

The three new officials are MPs Amin Sherri and Muhammad Raad, as well as Wafiq Safa, whose role includes coordinating with Lebanon’s security agencies.

05FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019 ISLAM

The Quran and the Prophet on wealthA

llah will deprive usury of all blessing, but will give increase for deeds of charity” (Quran 2: 276).

Narrated Jabir ibn Abdullah: Allah’s Messenger (peace be upon him) cursed the accepter of interest and its payer, and one who records it, and the two wit-nesses; and he said: They are all equal (Muslim).

Abu Huraira related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: On the night of the Miraj I came upon a group of people whose bellies were like houses. They were full of snakes which could be seen from outside their bellies. I asked Angel Gabriel who they were, and he told me that they were the people who had prac-ticed Riba (Interest). (Ahmad, Ibn Maja)

Abdullah ibn Hanjalah related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: A dirham of Riba (interest) knowingly taken by a man is a sin worse than committing Zina (forni-cation) 36 times (Ahmad, Daraqutni).

Zakah-what you owe from your money

“And they were not commanded except to worship Allah, (being) sincere to Him in religion, inclining to truth, and to establish prayer and to give Zakah. And that is the correct religion.” (Quran 98:5)

Abbas related that a man asked the Prophet (PBUH), Tell me what should I do to be admitted to Paradise and the Prophet (PBUH) answered: Worship Allah associating nothing with Him, observe Salat, pay Zakah and strengthen the ties of kinship. (Bukhari, Muslim)

Inheritance and wills“And for all, We have made heirs to

what is left by parents and relatives. And to those whom your oaths have bound [to you] - give them their share. Indeed Allah is ever, over all things, a Witness.” (Quran 4:33). Ibn Umar related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: It is the duty of a Muslim man who has something which is to be given as a bequest not to have it for two nights without having his will written regarding it. (Bukhari, Muslim)

Anas related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: If anyone deprives an heir of his inheritance, Allah will deprive him of his inheritance in Paradise on the Day of Resurrection. (Ibn Maja)

How do you earn your money?Abu Huraira narrated that the Prophet

(PBUH) said: A time will come upon the people when one will not care how one gains one’s money, legally or illegally. (Bukhari)

It is reported by Jabir that the Prophet (PBUH) said: The flesh and body that is raised on unlawful sustenance shall not enter Paradise. Hell is more deserving to the flesh that grows on one’s body out of unlawful sustenance. (Ahmad).

Abu Said related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: The truthful and trust-worthy businessman will be in the company of Prophets (peace be upon them), saints and martyrs on the Day of Judgment. (Darimi, Tirmidhi)

DebtsIt is narrated by Abu Musa Ashari that

the Prophet (PBUH) said: After the major sins which must be avoided, the greatest sin is that someone dies in a state of debt and leaves behind no asset to pay it off. (Darimi)

LoansAbu Qatadah related that the Prophet

(PBUH) said: If anyone would like Allah to save him from the hardships of the Day of Resurrection, he should give more time to his debtor who is short of money, or remit his debt altogether. (Muslim)

Strive with your wealth“The believers are only those who,

when Allah is mentioned, their hearts become fearful, and when His verses are recited to them, it increases them in faith; and upon their Lord they rely - The ones who establish prayer, and from what We have provided them, they spend. Those are the believers, truly. For them are degrees [of high position] with their Lord and forgiveness and noble provision.” (Quran 8:2-4).

Asmah related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: Spend, and do not count, lest Allah counts against you. Do not withhold

your money, lest Allah withholds from you. Spend what you can. (Bukhari, Muslim) Abu Huraira related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: The Lord’s com-mandment for every one of His slaves is, ‘Spend on others, and I will spend on you’. (Bukhari, Muslim)

The poor and your wealth“Have you seen the one who denies

the Recompense? For that is the one who drives away the orphan. And does not encourage the feeding of the poor.” (Quran 107: 1-3). Safwan ibn Salim related that the Prophet (PBUH) (PBUH) said: Anyone who looks after and works for a widow and a poor person is like a warrior fighting for Allah’s cause, or like a person who fasts during the day and prays all night. (Bukhari)

Hoarding“O you who have believed, indeed

many of the scholars and the monks devour the wealth of people unjustly and avert them from the way of Allah. And those who hoard gold and silver and spend it not in the way of Allah — give them tidings of a painful punishment.” (Quran 9:34).

Charity and punishmentIt is narrated by Anas bin Malik that

the Prophet (PBUH) said: Verily charity appeases the wrath of Allah and eases the sufferings of death. (Tirmidhi)

Extravagance“And give the relative his right, and

also the poor and the traveller, and do not spend wastefully. Indeed, the wasteful are brothers of the devils, and ever has Satan been to his Lord ungrateful” (Quran 17:26-27).

Amr ibn Shuaib, on his father’s authority said that his grandfather related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: When you eat, drink, give charity and wear clothes, let no extravagance or pride be mixed up with what you do. (Ibn Maja, Nasai).

Being a miserAbu Huraira narrated that the

Prophet (PBUH) said: Every day two angels come down from Heaven and one of them says, ‘O Allah! Compensate every person who spends in Your Cause,’ and the other (angel) says, ‘O Allah! Destroy every miser’.(Bukhari).

Abu Said Khudri related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: There are two habits which are never present together in a believer: miserliness and bad manners (Tirmidhi).

Jabir reported that the Prophet (PBUH) said: Avoid doing injustice to others, for on the Day of Judgment, it will turn into manifold darkness, and safeguard yourself against miserliness, for it ruined those who were before you. It incited them to murder and treating the unlawful as lawful. (Muslim)

Moderation in giving“And do not make your hand as

chained to your neck or extend it com-pletely and thereby become blamed and insolvent.” (Quran 17:29). “And they are those who, when they spend, do so not excessively or sparingly but are ever, between that, justly moderate” (Quran 25:67).

Bribery“And do not consume one another’s

wealth unjustly or send it in bribery to the rulers in order that they might aid

you to consume a portion of the wealth of the people in sin, while you know [it is unlawful].” (Quran 2:188).

ContentmentAbu Huraira narrated that the

Prophet (PBUH) said: Wealth is not in having vast riches, it is in contentment. (Bukhari, Muslim).

Envy in wealthIbn Masud said I heard the Prophet

(PBUH) saying: There is no envy except in two: A person whom Allah has given wealth and he spends it in the right way, and a person whom Allah has given wisdom (i.e. religious knowledge) and he gives his decisions accordingly and teaches it to the others. (Bukhari).

Women and charityIbn Abbas narrated that the Prophet

(PBUH) went out for the Eid prayer and offered a two Rakat prayer; and he neither offered a prayer before it or after it. Then he went towards the women along with Bilal. He preached to them and ordered them to give in charity. And some (amongst the women) started giving their forearm bangles and ear-rings. (Bukhari)

The best charityAbu Huraira narrated that the

Prophet (PBUH) said: The best charity is that which is practiced by a wealthy person. And start giving first to your dependents. (Bukhari)

On beggingNarrated Hakim bin Hizam that the

Prophet (PBUH) said: The upper hand is better than the lower hand (i.e. he who gives in charity is better than him who takes it). One should start giving first to his dependents. And the best object of charity is that which is given by a wealthy person (from the money which is left after his expenses). And whoever abstains from asking others for some financial help, Allah will give him and save him from asking others, Allah will make him self-sufficient. (Bukhari)

Abu Huraira related that the Prophet (PBUH) said: He who makes a habit of asking from others reaches out for a brand of Fire, so let him refrain or con-tinue, as he desires. (Muslim)

Business conductJabir related that the Prophet (PBUH)

said: May Allah show mercy to a man who is kind when he sells, when he buys, and when he makes a claim. (Bukhari)

Ihsan (excellence in faith)...just thinking the word in my head has a special ring to it, brings a certain unique, inspiring

feeling to my heart. This word, this topic moves me. I hope it has that effect on you as well. Our religion, our way of life is composed of three parts: To discuss ihsan, we must briefly go through the first two, Iman and Islam.

ImanIman or faith must be mentioned

as the first part of our deen because it serves as our roots. For many years of the Prophethood of Muhammad (peace be upon him), Allah (God) revealed nothing except the concept of taqwa (God consciousness), ikhlas (sincerity) and Iman (faith). It was not until the hearts of the first Muslims became sat-urated and strong with true Iman did Allah (swt) begin introducing the next concept - Islam, to the Muslims.

IslamAfter our roots are firmly in place

and take hold within the rich soil of Iman and that is watered and nourished continually, we can begin under-standing and encouraging the practice of Islam or submission to the will of Allah. This Islam, or submission, is like the trunk of the tree, sturdy, reaching up to heights. Muslim children are not required to pray until they are 7. Why? Because these first seven years are to be used by parents to plant the seed of Iman and help this seed to grow strong roots by teaching their children about Allah (swt), about jannah, about the miracles and the angels and preparing them to have a strong, bal-anced character. The “rules” of Islam come more easily to those who have pre-pared their hearts with Iman.

IhsanIhsan, which means excellence in

belief is the neglected 1/3 of our deen. It is to believe in God Almighty without the slightest speck of doubt. It is similar in idea to the bodhisattva concept the Buddhists hold. And, when attained, it is like the “icing on the cake,” for the believer and his or her faith. “Ihsan is the fruit that blossoms from our planted trees and shows up when the roots are strong and nourished, free from disease and harmful insects. If we fail to nourish our Iman by submitting to Allah, we will bear no fruit and our soul will die. But look into the Islamic legacy. It is rich with ihsan. All the achievements in art, science, architecture, literature, geog-raphy, politics, economics, social movement, philosophy, medicine and more came from the Muslims’ desire to attain ihsan. Ihsan is our lost treasure that we must unearth and revive.

Ihsan...what does it mean? Like so many other Arabic words that I have mentioned, it has a vast array of meanings. It cannot be summed up prettily in one English word or phrase. Ihsan is excellence. It is perfection. It is beauty. It is balance, harmony, disci-pline, good character, softness, gen-tleness, improvement, drive, will power. Ihsan is a human reflection, a human attempt to achieve a high level in the areas covered by the reveled 99 beau-tiful names of Allah (swt).

In Surat Ar-Rahman, (Quranic chapter “The Merciful”), Allah (swt) uses one of the most powerful and difficult to use literary devices — the rhetorical question. If you have studied literature to any extent, you will know that the rhetorical question can only be used in very special, particularized situations and it can only be used when the author has much confidence and much lev-erage in the answer and the motivation for asking the question. The rhetorical device is amazing because, as it gives

the answer to the question away, it leaves the reader to contemplate deeply on the meaning of the question, and the profound reasons behind the obvious. Allah (swt), in Surat Ar-Rahman, con-quers this literary device and uses it in truly miraculous ways. “When a man says I cannot, he has made a suggestion to himself. He has weakened his power of accomplishing that which otherwise would have been accomplished.”

In Surat Ar-Rahman, the most fre-quent rhetorical question asked is, “then which of the favors of your Lord will you deny?” and is asked 31 times out of a total of 78 verses in this chapter of the Quran. However, stuck in between 2 of these 31 rhetorical questions is another, more subtle, yet incredibly powerful ayah. It reads, “Is there any reward for ihsan except ihsan?”

This rhetorical question is amazing on a myriad of levels. I would like to share three levels of meaning for this rhetorical question:

(1) Those who sincerely strive in Allah’s Cause and attain ihsan in both their worship and their everyday activ-ities will be rewarded for this level of excellence by being blessed by Allah with the sweetness of faith. They will be some of the few people who have walked the face of the earth and tasted this level of faith. God-consciousness will be con-tinuous, and everything these few do will be geared for a higher purpose. They will have attained ihsan and in return, they will feel ihsan in their hearts.

(2) Those who sincerely strive in Allah’s Cause and attain ihsan in both their worship and their everyday activ-ities will be rewarded for this excellence by being blessed by Allah with success in this dunya (life of the world). This can be seen in our history, in our Golden Age. The Muslims of that time attained ihsan in their rituals and in their other

activities. Allah rewarded this ihsan with ihsan - the excellence in this dunya that we read about - the amazing art, architecture, philosophy, medical advances, etc.

(3) Those who sincerely strive in Allah’s Cause and attain ihsan in both their worship and their everyday activ-ities will be rewarded for this excellence by being blessed by Allah (swt) with the ultimate success, the ultimate ihsan - that of jannah (heaven) in al-akhira ( hear-after). So in summary, that one little rhetorical device in 55:60 is hidden, but it packs a huge punch. Those who realize the value of ihsan, who reach and strive and work for ihsan, who nourish their roots and groom their trunk in order to bear plen-tiful, amazing fruit will be rewarded with Allah’s form of ihsan - the sweetness of faith, success in the dunya, and the ultimate success in al-akhira.

So how does this relate to us right here, right now? Whether your in high school, college, or grad students. We’re young people in the workforce. We’re newly married, engaged, or waiting our turn. We’re brothers and sisters and aunts, uncles, cousins, and children. We’re youth group leaders or mentors or committee heads in MSA/MSU. What does ihsan mean in our lives?

It means that every day, when you’re in a boring class and get handed an assignment for a 15 page paper or you learn about a comprehensive final exam, or you get a huge project from your boss, or your mom asks you to make dinner or clean your room or your brother or sister asks for help with homework or to play with you outside - that you stop...that you stop the imme-diate negative reaction that we’ve been trained to play over and over again when it comes to these sorts of things and do the right thing, which is to

remain positive. We stop, and we realise that this is our opportunity for ihsan. That this is another opportunity for us to make our intentions for Allah (swt), to please Him. That this is a chance for us to add something to our Life’s Book that Allah will open on the Day of Judgment and look upon us with joy and be proud of us. For, as eminent scholar Shaikh Yusuf Al Qaradawi has mentioned, Allah LOVES when one of you is given a task, that he or she does it in the most excellent manner. Al Qaradawi didn’t say that Allah “likes” when you do things with ihsan. He didn’t say that Allah thinks it’s “ok” or “cool” or “alright.” One of the greatest scholars of Islam says that Allah “LOVES” when we do things with ihsan. Allah LOVES. Think about that for just a second and let it sink in. Think about the last time someone you respected/admired told you that they loved something you did. How did that make you feel? You were beaming for days, most likely. You remembered what they said and how they reacted and you kept replaying it in your head again and again. Imagine then, how amazing it would feel to do some-thing that Allah LOVES.

Imagine standing in front of Allah on the Day of Judgment and having Him tell you all the things that you did that He LOVED. Imagine how you would feel. So when you have a test or a paper or you have to mow the law or you are going to the gym or playing football or doing an MSA event, do it with ihsan! Don’t just “be,” don’t just get by, don’t just pass. Be excellent, strive for perfection, be the Best in your class, show the world how Islam inspires you to attain ihsan! We are given just a few moments in this dunya. Each breath is a priceless jewel and when it passes it never returns...make this moment, this breath, this heart beat one that resounds with ihsan (Excellence)! Source: UCLA Sisters Halaqa

Ihsan, the pursuit of excellence

06 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019ASIA

Karnataka Speaker meets rebel MLAs; Assembly session today IANS BENGALURU

The political crisis in Karnataka entered a new phase yesterday, with Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar showing no mood to take an early decision on the resignation of 16 MLAs of the ruling Congress and JD-S on the eve of the Assembly session where a showdown could be expected.

Kumar, who met 13 rebel Congress MLAs yesterday evening after the Supreme Court asked him to do so in the morning, made it clear that he was not rushing into accepting the resignations as he wanted to be “satisfied” which would require a detailed scrutiny.

The Supreme Court order came after 10 Congress MLAs approached it against the Speaker’s refusal to accept their resignations from the Assembly submitted on July 6.

“The legislators wrote their resignation in my office in the prescribed format and submitted to me personally. I will go through them and decide after I hear them personally,” Kumar told reporters here after meeting the MLAs. The Speaker asked the legislators to give in writing to him reasons for resigning from their respective assembly

segments and that they were doing so voluntarily.

“I am answerable to the Con-stitution of India and people of Karnataka. As per the Consti-tution, if I am satisfied, then the resignations will be accepted,” he said, making it clear that oth-erwise he will not accept those.

“I will communicate to the Supreme Court on Friday that I have acted upon the matter as per the law and in compliance with its order issued earlier in the day,” said Kumar.

His clear intent to delay accepting the resignations assumes significance as the Assembly will be convening today for a 10-day session.

Till their resignations are accepted, the 16 legislators — 13 of the Congress and 3 of the

Janata Dal-Secular — would be bound by the whip issued by their respective parties regarding their attendance of the Assembly and any voting therein.

And if they violate the whip, they can face disciplinary action, including disqualification, which will bar them from re-election for the remaining period of the Assembly.

Both the Congress and the JD-S have issued whips to all their legislators to be present in the Assembly for passing the state Budget (finance bill) and participate in the discussions on other subjects till the session ends on February 24.

“The whip has been issued even to the rebels, as their res-ignations have not been accepted by the Speaker so far,” Congress spokesman Ravi Gowda said. Congress Legis-lature Party (CLP) leader Siddar-amaiah has already petitioned the Speaker to disqualify the party lawmakers who defy the whip, irrespective of their status, or skip the session.

The rebels, however, claimed that disqualification would not apply to them as they have already resigned from the Assembly and submitted the letters to the Speaker as well as the Governor on July 6.

Congress Parliamentary Party (CPP) leader Sonia Gandhi and Congress leader Rahul Gandhi along with other party MPs stage a protest against the BJP-led government on Karnataka and Goa issue at Parliament House in New Delhi, yesterday.

Rahul laments ‘terrible plight’ of farmers IANS NEW DELHI

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi yesterday blamed the Centre for the “terrible plight” of farmers and accused it of favouring the rich, forcing Defence Minister Rajnath Singh to attack successive Congress govern-ments for the present situation.

Raising the issue of farmer

suicides during Zero Hour in the Lok Sabha, Rahul said farmers were suffering throughout the country.

He expressed unhappiness over the Union Budget 2019-20 for not taking “concrete” steps to provide relief to the farmers and requested the Central gov-ernment to fulfil the commit-ments made by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Rahul accused the Centre of neglecting the farmers by giving them only Rs4.3 lakh crore in tax concessions compared to “rich businessmen” who he alleged had got a loan waiver of Rs5.5 lakh crore.

Countering Rahul, the Defence Minister said people who ran governments for decades were responsible for the present plight of farmers.

SC to begin hearing Ayodhya case if mediation failsIANS NEW DELHI

If mediation fails, then the Supreme Court may begin day-to-day hearing in the Ayodhya dispute, the apex court said yesterday while hearing an application filed by one of the parties representing the Hindu community.

The application was moved on Tuesday by Gopal Singh Visharad to list the dispute for adjudication saying there had been no progress in the medi-ation process.

His counsel and senior advocate PS Narasimha men-tioned the matter before a bench

headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justices Deepak Gupta and Aniruddha Bose.

The counsels representing the Hindu parties contended that the dispute had been pending for 69 years and the nature of medi-ation deployed to resolve the row did not appear to be heading in a positive direction.

“Eleven joint sessions have been held, but it seems incon-clusive... Difficult to sort out through mediation,” contended the counsel.

Senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan, representing one of the Muslim litigants, said the appli-cation was an attempt to scrap the mediation process and the

counsels of Hindu parties were not fair in criticising the meth-odology of the committee set up to resolve the Ayodhya row.

A Constitution bench headed by Gogoi called for a report from the committee regarding the progress on mediation. If it is observed that there is no progress, then day-to-day hearing can begin from July 25.

Narasimha contended that not much progress had been made in the first round of medi-ation process, which was ini-tiated by the top court.

The court allowed him to file the application and said it will see to his plea for listing.

On May 10, the Supreme

Court extended the term of the mediation committee till August 15.

The court said the members of the committee were not expe-riencing any difficulty in the mediation process.

It observed that the Chairman of the committee, former Supreme Court judge FMI Kalifulla, had indicated progress in mediation and sought extension of time to complete the task.

The court refused to divulge the details on the mediation efforts.

The court observed that the mediation process can be extended if required.

The court’s observation came after a report was submitted on the mediation efforts.

Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for one of the Muslim litigants, told the court that they have no objection to the mediation process taking time.

Iqbal Ansari, the son of Muslim litigant Hashim Ansari in the Ayodhya case, said: “This matter is very old and the issue cannot be resolved in two months.” The Kalifulla panel has Art of Living founder Sri Sri Ravi Shankar and senior advocate Shriram Panchu as its other members.

The mediation is taking place at Faizabad, close to Ayodhya.

3 dead, more than 400,000stranded in Assam floods AFP GUWAHATI, INDIA

Floods from monsoon rains in the north-eastern Indian state of Assam have killed three people and marooned more than 400,000, officials said yesterday.

“A total of three people including two in flood related incidents and one in landslide have been killed in Assam so far,” an Assam State Disaster Man-agement Authority (ASDMA) official said.

More than 250 villages have been inundated in the last 24 hours, with 16,370 hectares of

paddy fields submerged, the senior official said.

The government has pressed into service the National Disaster Response force (NDRF) and the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) to help rescue those cut off. The annual monsoon, which barrels up the subcontinent at this time of year, last week caused traffic misery in Mumbai as roads, railways and the airport runway were flooded. In Bangladesh aid groups were providing rations to Rohingya refugees with a “severe” weather warning in place for the coming days, the UN World Food Programme said.

India says UN report onJammu & Kashmir as biasedIANS NEW DELHI

India yesterday reiterated its strong criticism of a UN human rights report on Jammu and Kashmir, saying that it accorded “legitimacy to terrorism by ignoring the issue of cross-border terrorism.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar termed the Update of the Report by the Office of the High Com-mission for Human Rights (OHCHR) issued on Monday as “a false and motivated narrative on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir and in violation of India’s sovereignty and

territorial integrity”. He said the report “ignores” the whole issue of cross-border terrorism. “There was no mention of cross border terrorism”.

He said the Update “seems to have accorded legitimacy to terrorism, which is completely in variance with the UNSC position”.

The spokesperson said that by publishing and coming out with this report and update “they have undermined their own credibility”.

“They have failed to rec-ognise an independent judiciary, human rights institutions and other mechanisms in the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir that

safeguard, protect and promote constitutionally guaranteed fun-damental rights to all citizens of India.” The Update also “belittles constitutional provisions, stat-utory procedures and estab-lished practices in an established functioning democracy”.

The spokesperson said the Update “has a prejudiced mindset” and “wilfully ignores the determined socio-economic development efforts which have been undertaken by the gov-ernment in Jammu and Kashmir”.

“The Update is an unac-ceptable advocacy of the dis-memberment of a UN member state,” he added.

A worker fills a tanker train with water, which will be transported and supplied to drought-hit city of Chennai, at Jolarpettai railway station in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, India, yesterday.

Villagers travel by boat through floodwaters near a partially-submerged house in Balimukh village of Morigoan district in India’s northeastern state of Assam, yesterday.

Ex-Gujarat BJP MP gets life sentence in murder caseIANS AHMEDABAD

A Special CBI Court yesterday sentenced former BJP MP Dinu Bogha Solanki from Gujarat’s Saurashtra and six others to life imprisonment for the murder of RTI activist Amit Jethwa in July 2010.

The court had pronounced them guilty on July 6 and reserved the order on the quantum of punishment.

The other convicts are the MP’s nephew Shiva Solanki, Sanjay Chauhan, Shailesh Pandya, Pachan Desai, Udaji Thakore and police constable Bahadursinh Vader.

They were charged with murder, causing disappearance of evidence of offence, criminal conspiracy and for illegal pos-session of arms or ammunition.

In a stinging verdict, the court also ordered legal pro-ceedings to be initiated against 105 of the 195 witnesses, who had turned hostile.

Special CBI Court Judge KM Dave imposed a total penalty sum of Rs59,25,000 on all convicts.

Mob lynching victim died of haemorrhageIANS RANCHI

Tabrez Ansari, who was brutally thrashed on suspicion of having stolen a bike, died due to brain haemorrhage, according to the post-mortem report.

According to police sources, the post-mortem report sub-mitted by the doctors say that Ansari had sustained bone fracture in his head which caused brain haemorrhage leading to his death.

Ansari was mercilessly beaten by a group of people last month and was allegedly forced to shout “Jai Sri Ram”, after being suspected of involvement in a bike theft.

His two associates managed to escape from the spot and have not been traced so far by the police. Ansari died in judicial custody a week after the thrashing incident.

The State legislature will meet in the 10-day session from today. Until MLAs’ resignations are accepted, they would be bound by the whip issued by their respective parties for attendance and any voting.

Transporting water to Chennai

07FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019 ASIA

16 dead and 67injured in Pakistantrain collision INTERNEWS LAHORE

At least 16 people were killed and 67 injured when a passenger train collided with a freight train near Sadiqabad in Pakistan’s Punjab province yesterday.

The Akbar Bugti Express travelling from Lahore to Quetta collided with a stationary freight train at the Walhar Railway Station in Sadiqabad tehsil of Punjab, official sources said.

The freight train was standing on the loop line when the passenger train instead of running on the mainline went on the wrong track. Three to four bogies of the passenger train derailed while the engine of the passenger train was completely destroyed.

District Police Officer Rahim Yar Khan, Umar Salamat, said the deceased included a woman and eight men, while the injured include nine women and 11 children.

The injured have been shifted to Jinnah and Shaikh Zayed Hospital for treatment. An emergency has been declared at the hospitals.

Officials said in the evening that they fear more casualties in

the accident. Eyewitness said the accident occurred at 4am when most of the passengers were sleeping. They added that they rescued the passengers on a self-help basis from the bogies and that the rescue teams arrived at the scene of the accident later.

Speaking to Geo News TV, Railways Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad expressed deep grief and sorrow over the loss of lives in the accident.

The minister said the train accident occurred due to human error and said he has ordered an investigation into the incident.

Ahmad further said all assistance will be provided to the families of the deceased and the injured. He added Rs1.5m each will be given as compensation to the families of those killed in the accident, while Rs500,000 each will be given to those critically

injured. Rs200,000 each will be given to those with minor injuries.

Last month, at least three people were killed when a pas-senger train collided with a freight train at Makli Shah, near Hyderabad.

Jinnah Express passenger train travelling from Karachi to Lahore had collided with the sta-tionary freight train near Lati-fabad area of Hyderabad, killing a driver, an assistant driver and a guard. The opposition parties

called for the resignation and arrest of Railway Minister Sheikh Rasheed Ahmad after the two trains collided near Sadiqabad.

Pakistan People’s Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto while expressing grief over the accident said, “Imran Khan has given many examples of resig-nation over accidents. Why is he not asking for resignation from his own minister?” He added, “Don’t know how many more lives will be lost because of Sheikh Rasheed’s romance with

the ministry.” Senior Pakistan Muslim League-N leader Ahsan Iqbal said, “Imran Khan cannot ask for resignation, but he can give the ministry to a person who has the time to run it.”

Former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi said it was worrying that there was an increase in the number of train accidents. “The reason and motive behind the accident should be brought forward to determine the perpetrators,” the PML-N leader added.

Residents and rescue workers gather near the site after a passenger train collided with a cargo train in Sadiqabad, Pakistan, yesterday.

Oppn nominates Baloch stalwartBizenjo for Senate chief’s postINTERNEWS LAHORE

The Rahbar (leadership) Committee of nine major opposition parties of Pakistan yesterday nominated Senator Hasil Bizenjo, a political stalwart from Balochistan province, as their joint candidate for the post of chairman of the Senate.

The Senate is the upper house of Pakistan’s bicameral parliament.

A spokesman for the Rahbar Committee said that the nomination came from

former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, the leader of Pakistan Muslim League-N, which was accepted by Bilawal Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party and all other seven member parties unanimously.

The sources said that Sharif, who is currently in jail in a case still being heard by the judicial system, suggested Bizenjo’s name in order to procure favour for Balo-chistan, Pakistan’s largest but politically volatile province.

Bizenjo, the chairman of his own Quetta-based National Party, formerly

served as federal minister for ports and shipping in the gov-ernment of Sharif between 2013-18.

The nomination of Bizenjo came a day after the oppo-sition submitted a resolution of no-confidence against current Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani to the Senate Secretariat.

The 11-member opposi-t ion ’s ant i-government Rahbar Committee had announced its consensus to remove the Senate chairman.

The no-trust motion was signed by 44 senators. School boys are seen inside a mobile library bus in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Sri Lankan govt defeats no-confidence motionAP COLOMBO, SRI LANKA

Sri Lanka’s government yesterday defeated a no-confidence motion in Parliament that accused it of failing to prevent Easter Sunday bomb attacks that killed more than 250 people.

The motion against Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government was defeated by a vote of 119 lawmakers against to 92 in favour. The motion, sub-mitted by the opposition Peoples’ Liberation Party, said the gov-ernment should not remain in office because it failed to respond to intelligence reports ahead of

the attacks by extremists on three churches and three luxury hotels.

Wickremesinghe’s defeat of the motion is expected to strengthen his hand in his rivalry with the country’s President, Maithripala Sirisena, ahead of elections slated for this year — including a presidential election which both Sirisena and Wick-remesinghe are expected to contest.

The motion was debated on Wednesday and yesterday.

During the debate, opposition lawmakers blamed Wickremes-inghe and the government for failing to prevent the April 21 attack, despite the fact that

“proper information” was available regarding the attackers. Government supporters argued it was unfair to blame the gov-ernment and prime minister when the security establishment, including police, was under the control of Sirisena, who is also the country’s defence minister.

The attack by seven suicide bombers from a local Muslim group, National Thowheed Jammath, was the worst violence by Islamic State group-linked militants in South Asia.

Sri Lankan leaders and the security establishment came under fire for not acting on near-specific intelligence information

on possible attacks on churches. The government has acknowl-edged that some intelligence units were aware of possible attacks weeks before the bombings.

Sirisena’s enmity with Wick-remesinghe and his Cabinet and a lack of communication between the two leaders is also considered a key factor in the breakdown of intelligence sharing ahead of the attacks.

Sirisena, who was health minister under former strongman President Mahinda Rajapaksa, quit that government and teamed up with Wickremesinghe to defeat Rajapaksa in the 2015 presidential election.

Sri Lankan schoolchildren visit the Galle Dutch Fort in the bay of Galle on the southwest coast of Sri Lanka, yesterday.

Govt working for welfare of non-resident Pakistanis: FMINTERNEWS LONDON

Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has expressed the confidence that non-resident Pakistanis in Britain will continue to play their role for protection of Paki-stan’s interests.

He was addressing a cer-emony of United Pashtun Society in London, official sources said yesterday.

Shah said non-resident Pakistanis are greatly contrib-uting to national economy by sending their remittances. He said the government will take every possible step for their welfare.

Qureshi said the gov-ernment is taking concrete steps to build a better and pros-perous Pakistan.

Bus accident near Attock claims 13 livesINTERNEWS ATTOCK

At least 13 passengers were killed and several others injured when a passenger bus over-turned at Brahma Bahtar Inter-change near Attock in northwest Pakistan yesterday.

Police sources said that the accident occurred near Attock when the driver lost control of the speedy coach due to the slippery road. The bus was trav-elling from Swat to Lahore.

Rescue sources said 59 pas-sengers were on board the bus when it crashed. The deceased and injured have been shifted to a hospital in Taxila.

Former Bangladeshi top judge charged with graftAFP DHAKA

Bangladesh’s anti-graft office has charged the former chief justice with corruption nearly two years after he fled the country saying he was forced to resign, an official said yesterday.

Surendra Kumar Sinha, who had led the South Asian nation’s Supreme Court to a landmark verdict on judicial independence that went against the gov-ernment, left Bangladesh in late 2017 amid widespread allega-tions he had been pressured to step aside.

Opposition groups raised fears that his departure was a blow to the credibility of the judiciary in the country, ruled

by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League party since 2009.

On Wednesday, the Anti Corruption Commission (ACC) filed a lawsuit against Sinha and 10 others including a former bank chief executive on charges of graft, money laundering and abuse of power.

They were charged with using fake credit papers to launder 40 million taka ($475,000) and transfer it to the account of Sinha, ACC secretary Dilwar Bakht said. “The case was filed at the district office of the ACC yesterday (Wednesday),” he said. This is the first time in Bangladesh’s history that a former chief justice has been charged with any offence.

Over 8,800 Bangladeshis languishing in jails abroadANATOLIA DHAKA

India is keeping the highest numbers of Bangladeshi nationals in its detention centres, Bangladeshi Foreign Minister said yesterday.

According to AK Abdul Momen, the Foreign Minister, a total of 8,848 Bangladeshi nationals have been languishing in prisons or detention centres in 44 countries, while India alone detained 2,049 Bangladeshis.

Momen disclosed the infor-mation at a question-answer session in the parliament.

The Bangladeshi nationals have been detained due to several reasons — including lack of valid travel documents. The minister, however, informed the parliament the country’s Foreign Ministry was working through its embassies in different countries for the return of the detainees fol-lowing legal proceedings.

The efforts included appointing lawyers to respective countries, providing travel documents and other necessary papers, he said, adding some Bangladeshis have recently been repatriated from Indonesia, Tunisia and Libya.

A total of 1,156 Bangladeshi nationals are in jails of UAE, 768 in Saudi Arabia, 693 in Bahrain, and 572 in Malaysia, the Foreign Minister said.

Pakistan rupee likely to shed more valueINTERNEWS ISLAMABAD

The International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) underline assump-tions suggest that the average exchange rate at the end of this fiscal year could be Rs172.53 to a dollar — a depreciation of over 27 percent, due to weak macr-oeconomic fundamentals, reveals a latest report of the global lender. In its staff level report, the IMF has not explicitly stated the exchange rate of Rs172.53 to a dollar. But a backward working on the basis of current account deficit projections show that rupee would keep losing its value under the IMF programme and beyond it. The average exchange rate of Rs172.53 to a dollar by June 2020 means that the year-end rupee-dollar parity would be over Rs188 to a dollar.

Officials said the Quetta-bound passenger train hit the stationary freight train at Sadiqabad in Punjab. They said death toll was likely to further increase.

Mobile library for Afghan children

Sri Lanka’s Galle Dutch Fort

The summit meeting held at the White House between the Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin

Hamad Al Thani and the President of the United States of America Donald Trump drew great attention by US media and newspapers, as the two sides affirmed the deep bilateral rela-tions between the two countries.

The Washington Post, the most widely-circulated news-paper in the US, focused on President Trump’s remarks in which he said that meeting H H the Amir was “a great honor” and underlined that H H the Amir is a real leader who is highly respected in an important part of the world.

The newspaper also referred to Trump’s comments on the relations between the two countries, especially the economic ones, including Qatar’s investments in the United States which affirm the confidence of the Qatari lead-ership in the US economy.

The paper also noted that H H the Amir and US President witnessed the signing of several commercial contracts by the Qatari government with five of the largest US companies, namely, Boeing, General Electric, Raytheon, Gulfstream and Chevron Phillips, adding that Qatar is also strengthening its land and air forces through the purchase of many US mil-itary equipment, which con-tributes to the consolidation of military relations between the two countries.

The Washington Post also underlined that H H the Amir’s visit to the United States comes at difficult time in the region, as tensions between the US and Iran are increased, and the blockade imposed by some neighboring countries on Qatar since 2017 is continued. It added that the continuation of the quadripartite blockade against Qatar placed the United States, which has close military and diplo-matic relations with all the countries involved in this crisis, in a difficult situation.

For its part, the Associated Press (AP) said that President Trump gave a warm White House welcome Tuesday to H H the Amir amid a bitter rift between the State of Qatar and its fellow American allies in the Gulf and rising tensions between US and Iran. It also added that President Trump emphasised the unique military part-nership between Qatar and the United States, noting Qatar’s significant invest-ments in the US.

The AP focused on the commercial deals signed by the Qatari government with several American companies, which Trump said “They’re creating lots of jobs,” and thus generate a large amount of revenue for US companies and economy.

H H the Amir’s visit comes at a time when Trump is facing critical decisions in the Mideast, the AP said.

Qatar, which has one of the world’s highest per capita incomes, has worked to open up other avenues of income to offset the impact of the blockade, it noted.

In turn, The New York Times high-lighted the warm welcome received by H H the Amir in Washington, especially during the dinner held on Monday at the Treasury Department in honor of H H.

President Trump’s welcome to H H the Amir in the presence of a crowd that con-tained over 40 business leaders in the Treasury’s Cash Room, indicates his eagerness to work with the one of the world’s wealthiest nations and strengthen US relations with the State of Qatar.

This “is a fitting tribute to the economic and security partnership between our two nations,” the paper quoted Trump as saying of the room.

The New York Times said that Pres-ident Trump lavished praise on HH the Amir, whom he said was another friend who knew him before he entered politics. Trump said the two would work together to “eradicate terrorism and its financing.

The newspaper also noted the trade deals signed between Doha and Wash-ington, pointing out that Qatar’s invest-ments in the United States are very much appreciated.

Fox Business Network, for its part, reviewed the signing of the commercial

transactions witnessed by H H the Amir and President Trump. It said that President Trump doubled as chief dealmaker on Tuesday when he disclosed an incoming order for Boeing.

Lobelog Website also touched upon the meeting between H H the Amir and HE the President of the United States at the White House. Kristian Coates Ulrichsen, a fellow for Middle East at the Baker Institute for Public Policy at Rice University, focused on the political dimensions of H H the Amir’s visit to the United States, especially at this time when there are several conflicts in the region and other parts of the world.

Ulrichsen said that recent develop-ments in Afghanistan and vis-a-vis Iran have illustrated the opportunities the Qatar-US partnership provide to President Trump. He added that the Amir’s visit can focus Washington’s attention on the many issues of common interest that continue to underpin US interests in the Gulf and across the wider region.

He also pointed out that H H the Amir’s visit also has an inevitable geopolitical dimension since it comes more than two years into the blockade of Qatar by Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt since June 2017, adding that Trump and other US officials have made no secret of their desire to end the crisis that undermined regional partnerships.

Ulrichsen ended his article by stressing that H H the Amir’s visit to Washington comes as the pace of Afghan peace talks hosted by Qatar has quickened significantly and generated real hopes of a breakthrough

in attempts to end one of the “forever wars” that President Trump inherited when he took office in January 2017.

For its part, The Wall Street Journal high-lighted how US President Donald Trump praised Amir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and the deals signed, adding that the US President described H H the Amir as “a highly respected man, a real leader in a large part on the world and a very important part of the world.” The newspaper examined the deals signed during H H the Amir’s visit to the White House, pointing out that this visit marked the latest turn in US-Qatar rela-tions, which witnessed significant changes since Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates cut diplomatic rela-tions with Qatar.

The Wall Street Journal stated that despite the disputes with its neighbors, Qatar has maintained a close relationship with the US. It also pointed out how US officials view Qatar as too strategically and economically important to isolate, adding that the Trump administration has worked to mend ties among its Arab allies, while Qatar has accelerated its military buildup and shored up its ties to the US.

The newspaper also highlighted Qatar’s mediation efforts when it hosted the Afghan Peace Negotiations involving representatives of the Taliban and the US.

Similarly, Bloomberg examined the deals signed by H H the Amir and President Donald Trump, which included aircraft purchase agreements and the devel-opment of a petrochemical complex.

It highlighted the most important deals signed by the Qatari government, including Qatar’s Ministry of Defense’s commitment to acquire Raytheon’s NASM and Patriot Systems, in addition to the agreement between Chevron Corp. and Phillips and Qatar Petroleum to develop and construct a petrochemicals complex in Qatar.

Bloomberg stressed on the desire of Qatar to improve relations in the US, with H H the Amir saying the country was com-mitted to doubling the economic part-nership with the US. It highlighted the statements of Mansoor bin Ebrahim Al Mahmoud, Chief Executive Officer of Qatar Investment Authority, who said earlier this year that the country’s sovereign wealth fund will look to increase its US investment portfolio from around $30 billion to about $45 billion over the next two years.

Bloomberg also wrote about the mil-itary cooperation between Qatar and the US, pointing out that the US has announced plans to expand and renovate Al Udeid Air Base near Doha, which houses the forward headquarters of the US military’s Central Command and some 10,000 American troops.

08 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019VIEWS

Global spotlight on H H the Amir’s successful visit to the United StatesQNA WASHINGTON

QUOTE OF THE DAY

You can rest assured that I’m, for one,

well aware of the responsibilities of

my office and that I will act on questions regarding my health.

Angela Merkel German Chancellor

The Ministry of Transport and Communications’ plan to start trial of Automatic Rapid Transit – an innovative, modern and environment-friendly public transport system – from next week in Al Khor is an ideal example of modern approach to public transport issues.

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

m.salim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED OSMAN ALI

osman@pen.com.qa

ESTABLISHED IN 1996

EDITORIAL

Modern public transportation

In the new age, to progress, a society needs to adapt to new technologies and processes, which will advance the quality of life for everyone without com-

promising the environment or taxing the economy. Any development in the current times must factor in sustain-ability of that project, effect on the nature and the value it brings to the society.

The Ministry of Transport and Communications’ plan to start trial of Automatic Rapid Transit – an innovative, modern and environment-friendly public transport system – from next week in Al Khor is an ideal example of modern approach to public transport issues.

With intelligent controls, Automatic Rapid Transit is a rail-less system for urban transport, which is essen-tially a crossover between buses and trams. This kind of innovations provide more options for end-users and service providers and adds another dimension to Qatar’s plan to offer multimodal integrated public transport system.

Qatar has given a massive boost to public transport facilities recently by partially opening one of the Doha

Metro lines. It is heartening to see hundreds of people using the metro services daily and thus proving the skeptics, who thought people will shy away from using public transport, wrong. By providing a better and easier mode of transport to resi-dents, the authorities not only managed to ease the traffic on busy roads by removing some cars from the road but also took a giant step in bettering the environment.

Doha Metro has become a big hit among residents as more than 86,000 people used the trains in the first two days after launch of its preview service. Once the other lines are also open, it will help people reach all parts of Qatar with ease, especially during the 2022 World Cup as the metro con-nects all the stadiums. By

providing feeder buses at all stations, the ministry has taken care of last mile connectivity issue usually faced by metros around the world.

Like the metro, the trams being introduced in Lusail, Qatar Foundation and Msheireb Downtown Doha are also game changers when it comes to transport needs of Qatar. These trams will also play its role in easing the last mile connectivity and also help boost the sustainable development goals of these townships.

The tough part is selecting the right product which will perform seamlessly irrespective of weather condi-tions, is eco-friendly and economically viable. Doha Metro has delivered on all these parameters, let us hope the new Automatic Rapid Transit will add more value to the transport netwrok after the trails.

The Washington Post, the most widely-circulated newspaper in the US, focused on President Trump’s remarks in which he said that meeting H H the Amir was “a great honor” and underlined that H H the Amir is a real leader who is highly respected in an important part of the world. The newspaper also referred to Trump’s comments on the relations between two countries, especially the economic ones, including Qatar’s investments in the United States which affirm the confidence of the Qatari leadership in the US economy.

Although the two countries signed a repatriation agreement in October 2018, according to the UN and other international observers, the favorable conditions for the returning Rohingya are non-existent. Of the 800 expected villages promised as a part of the repatriation efforts, only two villages with favourable conditions are believed to be existed.

09FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019 OPINION

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

MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4462 7505

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORTEL: 4455 7769

LOCAL NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7743

BUSINESS NEWS SECTION TEL: 4462 7535

SPORT NEWS SECTION TEL: 4455 7745

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be sent to editor-in-chiefoffice or mailed to the editorinchief@pen.com.qa

Change is coming to Russia, but very slowly

Bangladesh can make Myanmar pay for crimes against Rohingya

LEONID RAGOZIN AL JAZEERA

MAUNG ZARNI ANATOLIA

In 2014-2015, the occupation of Crimea sent Russian President Vladimir Putin’s approval ratings soaring to as much as 86 percent

and kept them high for a few years. Over the past few months, however, his popularity has steadily declined and reached 66 percent - roughly as much as it was back in 2012-2013, when he was facing mass protests.

This trend is related to the decline in people’s real incomes after Russia’s recent economic crisis. One event, in particular, contributed greatly to Putin’s rising unpopularity: the 2018 decision to raise the retirement age.

The optics get worse when cit-izens are polled on major political institutions; roughly two-thirds of Russians disapprove of Prime Min-ister Dmitry Medvedev and his gov-ernment, while a solid majority hold negative views on the State Duma and local governors.

In Moscow, traditionally a hotbed of discontent, the ruling United Russia party, formally headed by Medvedev, has become so unpopular that its candidates have been forced to run as inde-pendents in the city council elec-tions, due in September.

The low popularity of those in power, however, has not really translated yet to major gains for the Russian opposition, which has struggled to mobilise its own support base for a variety of reasons.

First, various legal and bureau-cratic barriers the Kremlin has put in place over the past few years to prevent popular mobilisation and

free electoral competition are working. Opposition candidates are disqualified from running for office on a regular basis either on flimsy “technical” grounds or simply for failing to fulfil a variety of impossible requirements.

The upcoming Moscow council elections are a case in point. Oppo-sition politicians are forced to run as independents because they have not been allowed to register a party. The main opposition leader Alexei Navalny has made nine attempts since 2012, but each time his party’s application has been rejected.

By law, independent candidates have to collect three percent of the number of voters in their districts in order to register for the race.

But as Leonid Volkov, Navalny’s strategist, has argued, this is an almost impossible task. When you do the math — ie from the available voters, you subtract those who have left on their summer holiday and cross out those who would not even open the door to a campaigner, then take off all those suspicious of signing official documents, then again remove those reluctant to hand over their ID details and finally elim-inate those who are not even regis-tered to vote in the district they live in — you might indeed get close to three percent.

In practice, it would be a miracle to get this number for a few other reasons, including thugs who intim-idate and attack signature collectors and mistakes that might have been made when personal data was copied or that might be imagined by electoral commission officials eager to disqualify the opposition and please their superiors.

That is unless you are a pro-Kremlin candidate, in which case, the needed signatures just emerge miraculously from the ether.

Thus, while opposition candi-dates, like Ilya Yashin, are quite popular among their constituents and have good chances of winning in

a fair election, many might not even make on the ballot.

But all these legal and technical barriers are by far not the greatest challenge the opposition is facing. Rather, it is the political apathy of the Russian population and its general aversion to political change.

Unlike the late 1980s, when there was a huge and self-evident gulf in the standard of living in the USSR and Western countries, which politi-cised the general population, today most Russian citizens enjoy much better economic prospects, even with the recent recession.

More importantly, Russia is in much better shape economically than many of the former Soviet states currently supported by the West through subsidies and the promise of integration into Nato and the EU.

Economically speaking, the Putin years have been by far the best in living memory for all current genera-tions of Russians. Economic growth has improved mobility — both socio-economic and geographic — for most citizens.

Today, many have economic opportunities that allow them to achieve a better standard of living, are able to move and live wherever they want within the country or abroad, which was not allowed in Soviet times, and have the means to travel, which most Soviet citizens could only dream of.

Indeed, the economic prosperity has come at a political price, but Russia, compared with some of its neighbours, is mildly authoritarian and repression cannot be compared with what it was at the height of totalitarianism.

In other words, neither the economy, nor the political vio-lence is bad enough to cause mass politicisation and mobilisation to match those of the late 1980s. But perhaps the greatest deterrent for anti-government activity in Russia is Ukraine.

Last week, UN International Independent Fact-Finding Mission’s Chris Sidoti, Bangla-desh’s high commissioner to

the UK and prominent experts from Bangladesh, gathered in London to tackle an overlooked, but pressing issue: the challenges of repatriating 1.2 million Rohingya refugees to their homes in Myanmar.

This comes in the back drop of Bangladesh’s Foreign Minister AK Abdul Momen reportedly accusing Myanmar of “lying” about the status of the repatriation of Rohingya refugees to their places of origin.

Although the two countries signed a repatriation agreement in October 2018, according to the UN and other international observers, the favourable conditions for the returning Rohingya are non-existent.

Of the 800 expected villages promised as a part of the repatriation efforts, only two villages with favo-rable conditions are believed to be existed. Herein lies the problem: the long-term, large-scale presence of the Rohingya people in Bangladesh is unsustainable.

The government of Bangladesh has been struggling to address the existential need of the world’s second largest refugee population. Abul Kalam, refugee relief and repatriation commissioner stated: “22% of the fund appeal (out of a total of $920 million annual appeal for the Joint Response Plan (JRP) for the Rohingya humani-

tarian crisis) has been met.”Bangladesh simply lacks the

resources to cope with the burden of having to shelter and feed 1.2 million Rohingya genocide survivors. It is also unfair to Dhaka to be left to handle a huge refugee burden alone without adequate financial support from the international community.

Moreover, allowing the Rohingya to permanently settle in Bangladesh would validate the genocidal regime in Myanmar. Since February 1978, fol-lowing military dictator Gen. Ne Win’s premeditated campaign to erase western Myanmar of any Rohingya presence, Myanmar has engaged in an atrocious campaign of terror against the residential population of northern Rakhine state.

In doing so, Myanmar’s successive regimes, civilian and military alike, have resorted to all the violent, insti-tutional and legal means at their dis-posal. Over the last four decades, Myanmar has relentlessly shifted the official justifications for its state-directed persecution of Rohingya.

In the national imagination of the Burmese public, their government’s genocidal project is about restoring Rakhine to its original, purely “Bud-dhist”, state and ridding the region of “Bengali” interlopers.

The question that the Bangladeshi leadership, and those meeting in London last week, ought to confront is the following: Why would the neighbor that systematically

destroyed nearly 400 villages in a matter of weeks, thereby seizing the vast and important western Myanmar region of northern Rakhine, cooperate with Dhaka on the repatriation of almost three quarters of the entire Rohingya population?

With this cultural, political and societal backdrop in mind, recog-nizing the long-held fears of the Rohingya people for rights and safety will be crucial to understanding why this voluntary scheme has not been successful so far.

As long as Myanmar has done nothing to assuage Rohingya’s well-founded fear of renewed state-directed mass-violence and depor-tation, any plans for repatriation will remain implausible. No Rohingya in their right mind will voluntarily return to Myanmar. Not without interna-tional protection, restored citizenship and basic human rights.

So, what are Dhaka’s strategic options? The first is one of three major proposals from Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina — the creation of the “safe zone” inside northern Rakhine state in Myanmar.

I for one, think the establishment of a safe zone where Rohingya can return, live under the protection of a coalition of international actors, armed or unarmed, is a potentially viable plan to address the needs of returning Rohingya as well as Dhaka’s need to repatriate the vast number of Rohingya refugees.

Needless to say, Myanmar will violently oppose the idea. Some Burmese officials have already pub-licly dismissed the safe zone proposal on grounds of sovereignty.

Secondly, Dhaka should pursue one interim possibility: Force Myanmar to pay reparations to Bang-ladesh for hosting the victims of the genocide.

This demand should be part of the set of “immediate measures” that Dhaka, a state party to the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide, can ask from the International Court of Justice (ICJ). Dhaka can make this legal demand unilaterally via the ICJ, or jointly with other state parties such as Malaysia, which also shoulders the burden of hosting an estimated 200,000 Rohingya on its soil.

Alternatively, Dhaka can join the Gambia-led initiative by the Organi-zation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to mount a legal challenge to demand

Economically speaking, the Putin years have been by far the best in living memory for all current generations of Russians. Economic growth has improved mobility — both socioeconomic and geographic — for most citizens.

justice and accountability for the genocide.

The UN already recommended in 2018 that military leaders should face genocide charges and this month, Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda has asked judges on the Interna-tional Criminal Court to open a full investigation into these allegations.

Ultimately, why not find a way for Bangladesh, which has shoul-dered the financial burden of sup-porting over 1 million Rohingya ref-ugees, to obtain compensation from Myanmar? Dhaka should include an annual payment of $1 billion from Myanmar in the OIC’s move to challenge Myanmar at the ICJ.

Introducing an economic deterrent may yet discourage other states from engaging in ethnic cleansing and forced deportation of minority ethnic groups.

The other 150 states — which are party to the Genocide Con-vention, still unprepared to partic-ipate meaningfully to end Myan-mar’s ongoing genocide — should do their part in backing a legal challenge at the ICJ.

On July 1, the Dutch parliament passed with 2/3 majority votes a motion requesting the government to explore possible legal pro-ceedings against Myanmar before the ICJ for violating its obligations under the Genocide Convention. Bangladeshi parliamentarians should follow the suit.

Myanmar, as the perpetrating state, must be made to pay for its crimes. Literally.

The author is a Burmese coordi-nator of the Free Rohingya Coa-lition, an umbrella network of Rohingya refugees and human rights activists, and co-author, with Natalie Brinham, of “Essays on Myanmar Genocide” (2019).

Chris Sidoti, Marzuki Darusman and Radhika Coomaraswamy, members of the UN International Independent Fact-Finding Mission on Myanmar, at a news conference at the United Nations in Geneva.

In addition to calling for a report by Bachelet, the UN Human Rights Council resolution raises concerns over other alleged abuses under Duterte, including “killings, enforced disappearances, arbitrary arrest and detention”.

10 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019ASIA

UN orders ‘report’ on Philippine drug war deathsAFP GENEVA

The UN Human Rights Council yesterday narrowly approved a resolution mandating a “com-prehensive” international review of the drug war in the Philippines, which watchdogs say has claimed more than 20,000 lives.

The resolution had faced strong pushback from President Rodrigo Duterte’s government, which counters that the toll has been exaggerated — its esti-mates say 5,300 have died — and that the crackdown enjoys widespread popular support.

Duterte’s three-year so-called drug war has unleashed a surge of bloodshed in the Asian island nation, with reports of nightly slayings of suspects by police and masked gunmen.

Activists said they had ini-tially hoped the UN would demand a formal “inquiry”, but compromised on calling for a “report” to win a majority.

The text, proposed by Iceland, was backed by 18 states in the 47-member council, with 14 nations voting against and 15 abstentions. It gives UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet a year to prepare a “comprehensive written report on the situation of human rights in the Philippines”.

Bachelet’s spokeswoman, Ravina Shamdasani, said the report would offer an oppor-tunity to “get clarity around the contested facts, figures and cir-cumstances” of the drug war.

Manila dismissed the vote. “The Philippines rejects this res-olution,” foreign secretary Teodoro Locsin said. “We will not accept a politically partisan and one-sided resolution, so detached from the truth on the ground,” he added, warning

“there will be consequences”. Speaking shortly before the

resolution was approved, Duterte called the text “crazy” but said he would consider allowing UN rights staff into the country. “Let them state their purpose and I will review it,” he said.

- The deputy Geneva director for Human Rights Watch, Leila Matar, described the resolution as “a modest but vital” step that “signals the start of accountability for thousands of ‘drug war’-related killings”.

Amnesty International hailed the vote as “crucial.” It “provides hope for thousands of bereaved families in the Philip-pines, and countless more Fili-pinos bravely challenging the Duterte administration’s mur-derous ‘war on drugs’,” Amnesty’s regional director for East and Southeast Asia, Nicholas Bequelin, said in a statement.

In addition to calling for a report by Bachelet, the reso-lution raises concerns over other alleged abuses under Duterte, including “killings, enforced dis-appearances, arbitrary arrest and detention”.

The drug war, launched in 2016, is Duterte’s signature ini-tiative, and he has often reacted with fury when outsiders have raised concerns about it.

Japan space probe lands on asteroidAFP TOKYO

Japan’s Hayabusa2 probe made a “perfect” touchdown yesterday on a distant asteroid, collecting samples from beneath the surface in an unprecedented mission that could shed light on the origins of the solar system.

“We’ve collected a part of the solar system’s history,” project manager Yuichi Tsuda said at a jubilant press conference hours after the successful landing was confirmed. “We have never gathered sub-surface material from a celestial body further away than the Moon,” he added.

“We did it and we succeeded in a world first.” The fridge-sized probe made its second landing on the asteroid around 10:30am (0130GMT), with officials from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) breaking into applause and cheers as initial data suggested the touchdown had been a success.

Confirmation of the landing came only after Hayabusa2 lifted back up from the asteroid and resumed communications with the control room.

Research director Takashi Kubota told reporters that the touchdown operation was “more than perfect.” And Tsuda, with a grin, said he rated it “1000 points out of 100.” “The probe moved

perfectly and the team’s prepa-ration work was perfect,” he said.

The brief landing yesterday is the second time Hayabusa2 has touched down on the des-olate asteroid Ryugu, some 300 million kilometres from Earth.

Ryugu, which means “Dragon Palace” in Japanese, refers to a castle at the bottom

of the ocean in an ancient Jap-anese tale. The complex multi-year Hayabusa2 mission has also involved sending rovers and robots down to the surface.

Yesterday’s touchdown was intended to collect pristine mate-rials from beneath the surface of the asteroid that could provide insights into what the solar system was like at its birth, some 4.6 billion years ago.

To get at those crucial mate-rials, in April an “impactor” was fired from Hayabusa2 towards Ryugu in a risky process that created a crater on the asteroid’s surface and stirred up material that had not previously been exposed to the atmosphere.

Hayabusa2’s first touchdown was in February, when it landed briefly on Ryugu and fired a bullet into the surface to puff up dust for collection, before blasting back to its holding position.

The second touchdown required special preparations because any problems could mean the probe would lose the

precious materials already gathered during its first landing.

A photo of the crater taken by Hayabusa2’s camera after the April blast showed that parts of the asteroid’s surface are covered with materials that are “obviously dif-ferent” from the rest of the surface, mission manager Makoto Yoshikawa told reporters before the latest touchdown.

Scientists are hoping the probe will have collected uni-dentified materials believed to be “ejecta” from the blast after landing briefly in an area some 20 metres away from the centre of the crater.

“It would be safe to say that extremely attractive materials are near the crater,” Tsuda said before the landing. The touchdown is the last major part of Hayabusa2’s mission, and when the probe returns to Earth next year to drop off its samples, scientists hope to learn more about the history of the solar system and even the origin of life on Earth.

This photograph taken and released by the Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS) of Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) yesterday shows researchers and employees celebrating after receiving confirmation of Hayabusa2’s touchdown on the asteroid Ryugu, at the mission control room in Sagamihara city, Kanagawa prefecture.

A man walks past a screen displaying a computer-generated image of the Hayabusa2 probe, during a news broadcast at Akihabara district in Tokyo.

Follow our model of ‘happy’ Xinjiang, China tells WestREUTERS GENEVA

China said yesterday that its treatment of ethnic Muslims in “happy” and “secure” Xinjiang region was a model for other nations to follow despite a bom-bardment of Western criticism.

Nearly two dozen nations at the UN Human Rights Council this week urged China to halt persecution of ethnic Uighurs in Xinjiang, where UN experts and activists say at least 1 million are held in detention centres.

Chinese diplomat Jiang Duan

told the council yesterday that a few hypocritical Western nations were distorting facts to smear Beijing over what it describes as vocational training centres in Xin-jiang intended to combat extremism and provide new skills.

“Actually the experience in Xinjiang in this field can be intro-duced to other countries,” Jiang added, saying the centres help reintegrate people indoctrinated by radicalism.

“Now the situation in Xin-jiang is stable, and the people are united, and their rights are fully respected... During the past three

years, there has not been a single incident of a terrorist attack, and people in Xinjiang feel much better and much more happy and secure.” Xinjiang, three times the size of France, is a largely desert region in China’s northwest.

Hundreds of people have been killed there in the past few years in violence between Uighurs, a mostly Muslim people who speak a Turkic language, and ethnic majority Han Chinese, especially in the heavily Uighur south of Xinjiang.

China has blamed the vio-lence on Islamist extremists and

separatists, while Uighur exiles and activists point to frustration at Chinese controls on their culture and religion.

The letter criticising China was signed by the ambassadors of 22 countries, including Aus-tralia, Canada, Japan, Britain, France, Germany and Swit-zerland, but not the United States which quit the UN body a year ago. They urged China to allow international independent experts, including U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, proper access to Xinjiang.

Bachelet has pushed China to grant the United Nations access to investigate reports of disappearances and arbitrary detentions, particularly of Muslims in Xinjiang.

China’s representative said international organisations and media who visited Xinjiang had found the situation was different from its portrayal in the West.

He accused Western nations of failing to show concern when Xinjiang suffered terrorist attacks, then making irrespon-sible assessments after the pop-ulation’s lives had improved.

K-pop star who avoided draft may be allowed to return homeAFP SEOUL

A K-pop singer who was deported and barred from South Korea for avoiding military service by changing nationality came a step closer to being allowed to return in a surprise ruling yesterday.

South Korea’s highest court said it was unlawful to deny a visa to Steve Yoo (pictured), who had huge success in the 1990s, more than 15 years after he was kicked out of the country.

Every able-bodied South Korean man is required to serve nearly two years of military service, often in remote areas along the heavily militarised border with North Korea.

Just as he was about to be called up in 2002, Yoo, better known in South Korea as Yoo Seung-jun, gave up his South Korean citizenship to became a naturalised US citizen and so did not have to serve, sparking public outrage.

The former star, now aged 42, filed a lawsuit four years ago challenging the decision of a South Korean consulate in the US to deny him a visa. The case had already been dismissed twice by lower courts, which said his return would demoralise troops and provoke teenagers to evade conscription.

But in a ruling yesterday, the Supreme Court sent the case back to Seoul High Court for review, saying in a statement that “the law has no restrictions that prevent (him) from visiting South Korea”.

A recent survey showed that

almost 70 percent of South Koreans thought his ban should be upheld. Decades after the end of the 1950-53 Korean War, for many young Korean men military service is an unwanted and deeply resented intrusion that interferes with their studies and career.

Some have taken extreme measures to avoid conscription, including a dozen music students who were caught last year having deliberately put on weight before their medical exam, hoping to be declared too heavy for service.

Others have undergone unnecessary surgery, including extracting their own teeth, and given themselves broken bones. And like Yoo, some — including adult children of the country’s powerful lawmakers — have avoided the duty by obtaining foreign passports and giving up their South Korean citizenship.

Refusing to serve the duty is a crime in the South, which is still technically at war with nuclear-armed Pyongyang.

N Korea warns of military ‘reaction’ against F-35A jets in the South

AFP SEOUL

North Korea yesterday said South Korea’s planned deployment of new US stealth fighter jets was an “extremely dangerous action” that would compel it to use “special arma-ments” to shoot them down.

South Korea, a major US ally, received its first two F-35A jets — one of the world’s most advanced military aircraft — in March under a $7bn contract signed in 2014.

The country plans to deploy 40 of the American jets by the end of 2021, with around a quarter of those expected to be operational this year.

South Korean authorities “know well that the bringing-in of the Fighters would prove to be an extremely dangerous action which will trigger our reaction,” an unnamed researcher at the Institute for American Studies of North Korea’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement carried by state news agency KCNA.

“We... have no other choice but to develop and test the special armaments to com-pletely destroy the lethal weapons reinforced in South Korea,” it said.

The statement said that two more F-35As were due to be delivered to South Korea from the US in mid-July. The two neighbours are technically still at war after the 1950-53 Korean War ended with a ceasefire.

Tensions were raised in May when North Korea fired short-range missiles for the first time since November 2017, during a standstill in its talks with Washington over denuclearisation.

Activists lay flowers at memorial for HK protesterREUTERS HONG KONG

Thousands of people in Hong Kong laid sunflowers and white lilies at a memorial site yesterday for a man who fell to his death during protests against an extra-dition bill that has plunged the former British colony into turmoil.

Marco Leung, 35, fell from construction scaffolding in June after unfurling banners against now suspended legislation that would have let people be sent to mainland China for trial.

Hong Kong leader Carrie Lam has made rare public apol-ogies over upheaval from the bill, which triggered Hong Kong’s biggest crisis in decades, saying this week it was “dead” and work on it had been a “total failure.” Those comments have not appeased protesters, who say nothing less than the bill’s full withdrawal will do.

More protests are planned for the weekend. People of all ages attended the outdoor service for Leung at a public

playground, where volunteers offered tissues to mourners and Red Cross workers stood by to provide advice.

Hundreds lined up in inter-mittent rain to pay respects, with the crowd swelling in the evening as people came from work. “Life is indeed precious... But for freedom, life can be sac-rificed,” Methodist minister Yuen Tin-Yau, one of the event’s organisers, said in a speech.

“The reason why human beings on earth are human is to sacrifice themselves for the sake of benevolence, justice, friendship and freedom.” Rowina Ngan, a 45-year-old textbook editor, said she was saddened and unsettled by the political standoff.

“The youngsters are very sad. I can’t find any solution for our kids. Society can’t accept ‘the bill is dead’, actually it’s more ‘our hearts are dead’.” Stress and trauma over the turmoil have created an unprecedented mental health problem that the city is not equipped to deal with, medical professionals say.

Asked by journalists if she had seen a doctor over the shaking incidents and about the results of any medical checks, Merkel said: “As a person, I have a strong personal interest in being in good health and that I take care of my health.”

11FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019 EUROPE

Merkel sits during national anthems after shaking spellsAFP BERLIN

German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday insisted she took care of her health after remaining seated during national anthems at an official ceremony, in a rare change of protocol apparently to prevent a repeat of uncontrollable shaking.

With questions swirling about Merkel’s health after she suffered three episodes of shaking in public in less than a month, the veteran leader opted to play safe.

After greeting Denmark’s new Prime Minister Mette Fred-eriksen at the portico of the chancellery, a smiling Merkel walked her over to a podium where both leaders took their seats before the anthems played.

Asked by journalists if she had seen a doctor over the shaking incidents and about the results of any medical checks, Merkel declined to give specifics.

“You can assume that firstly,

I know the responsibilities of my office and that I therefore act accordingly with regard to my health,” Merkel said at the joint news conference with Freder-iksen. “And secondly, you can also assume that as a person, I have a strong personal interest in being in good health and that I take care of my health,” she said.

Standing next to her at the press conference, Frederiksen said she found the chancellor “as strong and competent as before

I came to Berlin today.” The unusual decision to use

seats came a day after a similar ceremony when the German chancellor was seen shaking involuntarily for the third time.

On Wednesday, Merkel began trembling as national anthems were being played at the reception of Finnish Prime Minister Antti Rinne. Just over an hour later, she attended a press conference as planned and told journalists that her health was no cause for concern.

She explained that she was simply still in a phase of “processing” a previous shaking spell, but that “there has been progress”. “I will have to live with it for a while,” added Merkel, who turns 65 next week. “Just like how it has come, one day it will go away too,” she said.

The shaking on Wednesday was visible although less severe than during the first episode in June. On that occasion she appeared unsteady and shook as she stood in the midday sun next

German Chancellor Angela Merkel (right) and Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen sit as they listen to the national anthems during a welcoming ceremony with military honours yesterday in the courtyard of the Chancellery, in Berlin.

to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom she was wel-coming with military honours.

That first bout of shaking was blamed on dehydration. But a second episode struck a week later at the end of June, just hours before she was due to board a plane for a G20 summit in Japan. Officials have sought to play down the repeated shaking, insisting that Merkel is well while refusing to address detailed questions about her medical condition.

But several media outlets said Merkel would need to provide more transparency if she wanted the speculation to go away. The daily Sueddeutsche Zeitung said Merkel’s explanation belies “her fear that the public could doubt her strength and ability, especially if she admitted that she has allowed herself to be examined. Meaning: she herself has doubts”.

It said she should state clearly whether she has

undergone medical tests to get to the bottom of the mysterious trembling spells.

“It’s about sending a signal that she is taking her own health seriously.” Merkel has been leader of Europe’s biggest economy for almost 14 years.

Frequently called the European Union’s most influ-ential leader and the most pow-erful woman in the world, Merkel has said she will leave politics at the end of her term, in 2021.

Missing teen mystery deepens as Vatican dig reveals empty gravesAFP VATICAN CITY

The mystery surrounding the disappearance of an Italian teenager 36 years ago deepened yesterday after two graves at the Vatican thought to possibly hold her remains were discovered to be empty.

Not only was Emanuela Orlandi’s body not found, the tombs did not even hold the skel-etons of the two princesses sup-posed to be buried there.

“The last thing I expected was to find empty tombs,” said her brother Pietro Orlandi, 60, who has never stopped hoping to find his sister alive. The dig followed an anonymous tip-off

that the Teutonic Cemetery in the tiny city state may be the last resting place of Orlandi, the daughter of a Vatican employee.

She was last seen leaving a music class aged 15. Theories have circulated for decades about who took her and where her body may lie. “We’re frankly astonished,” said Laura Sgro, the Orlandi family lawyer.

“The family has a right to know what happened. Thirty-six years have passed, there have been three different popes at the Vatican,” she said.

“Someone knows, and is keeping quiet out of ‘omerta’ or fear. Emanuela must be found. Please contact us,” Sgro added.

The family had been sent a

picture of an angel-topped grave in the cemetery, and a message which simply read: “Look where the angel is pointing”.

A second, similar grave alongside the first was also opened to rule out any misunderstandings over which grave was meant. The tombs belonged to two princesses, buried in 1836 and 1840.

The small, leafy cemetery, located on the original site of the Emperor Nero circus, is usually the last resting place for German-speaking members of Catholic institutions. Beyond St Peter’s Basilica, in an area off-limits to tourists, neat rows of tombstones lie behind a wrought-iron gate, some shaded by palm trees, others bordered by pink roses.

But yesterday white gazebos had been set up over the tombs. White-suited and masked forensic scientists strapped on headlamps to climb down and search the underground chamber. Clinical tools set aside to measure recovered bones lay unused on a nearby table.

The Vatican said it had informed the princesses’ descendants that their remains were missing. It said it would look into work done on the tombs in the 19th century, and again in the 1960s and 1970s, in a bid to find out what happened to them.

Dozens of journalists and crowds of curious tourists had gathered at the entrance to the Vatican nearest the cemetery.

Supporters of the Orlandi family waited outside, in T-shirts reading “The Truth Sets Us Free” and “Where Is Her Body?” “This mystery is part of this country’s dark history,” Sgro said, in ref-erence to a series of decades-old cases in Italy dogged by unan-swered questions and beloved by conspiracy theorists.

According to some theories widely circulated in Italian media, Orlandi was snatched by a mobster gang to put pressure on the Vatican to recover a loan.

Another claim often repeated in the press was that she was taken to force the release from prison of Mehmet Ali Agca, the Turk who attempted to assas-sinate Pope John Paul II in 1981.

A caravan overturned by strong winds lies on a beach where a storm killed a Czech couple in Nea Plagia, in Chalkidiki, Northern Greece, yesterday.

Fierce storms in Greek tourist peninsula leave 7 deadAFP THESSALONIKI

Seven people died and at least 23 were injured as a fierce storm ripped through beachfronts in one of Greece’s top tourist areas, terrifying thousands of holiday-makers caught in the open, authorities said yesterday.

Six tourists including two children were killed — two each from the Czech Republic, Russia and Romania — in the northern peninsula of Halkidiki, near Greece’s second city Thessaloniki, in the storms late on Wednesday.

The body of a local fish-erman missing since Wednesday

was later found in the sea, the coastguard said.

“There was panic, people were howling and running to hide inside,” said Haris Lazaridis, owner of a tavern where a 54-year-old woman from Romania and her son were killed when the roof caved in.

“For five minutes it was hellish,” Lazaridis said. He added that more than 100 people had been sheltering under the roof when it collapsed.

In an emergency briefing, government spokesman Stelios Petsas on Thursday said the area had been hit by winds of more than 100km an hour.

Twenty-three people were still receiving treatment in nearby hospitals, including a 72-year-old woman in critical condition, he said. Most of them are tourists, Petsas said.

Prime Minister Kyriakos Mit-sotakis, who took office on Sunday following a general elections, can-celled his meetings to address the disaster, his office said. “We are making every effort to resolve problems and repair the damage,” Mitsotakis said in a tweet.

The Halkikidi peninsula is particularly popular among Balkan and Russian travellers. Overall, some 120 people received attention at local hospitals.

UK far-right activist jailedAFP / LONDON

British far-right figurehead Tommy Robinson was jailed for contempt of court yesterday, having live-streamed a confrontation with defendants in a criminal trial that was subject to reporting restrictions. Robinson, whose real name is Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was sentenced to nine months in jail, minus the time he has already spent in prison, reducing his term to 19 weeks, of which he will serve half before being released. “Nothing less than a custodial penalty would properly reflect the gravity of the conduct we have iden-tified,” judge Victoria Sharp said at the Old Bailey in London.

Spanish ‘stolen baby’ finds biological family through DNA databaseAFP MADRID

The first woman recognised by Spanish courts as one of the “stolen babies” of the Franco dictatorship said yesterday that she had found her biological family thanks to a DNA database.

Scores of babies were taken from their mothers — who were told their children had died — and given to others to adopt during General Francisco Franco’s 1939-1975 dictatorial rule, often with the help of the Catholic Church.

Initially, babies were taken from left-wing opponents of the regime, with the practice later expanded to supposedly illegit-imate children and those from poor families.

The newborns were meant to be raised by affluent, conserv-ative and devout Roman Catholic families. Estimates range from hundreds to tens of

thousands of victims.Ines Madrigal, 50, who found

out in 2010, that she was a “stolen baby”, told a news conference that, thanks to a DNA database in the United States, she had been able to find a cousin.

The cousin then informed her that her biological siblings were also searching for her.

“For the first time, I have completed the puzzle that is my life,” she said. “I know who I am and where I am from,” she added. Madrigal said she dis-covered her biological mother, a woman named Pilar, died in 2013 at the age of 73.

“Piler never knew if I was a boy or a girl, but I know that she never forgot me,” she said.

“I have four brothers who I have met, who are wonderful people and who have opened their arms and heart to me.” Madrigal did not want to reveal the identity of her biological family to protect their privacy.

Huge fire erupts at power station outside MoscowAFP MOSCOW

A huge blaze broke out yes-terday at a gas-fired power station just outside Moscow sending a plume of smoke and flames 50 metres into the sky, Russian television showed.

The fire at Power Station No. 27 broke out around 11am around 20km from Moscow.

The emergencies ministry said that 11 people received medical treatment including five people with minor burns but no one was hospitalised. There was no risk of the fire spreading to nearby residential areas, it said.

The energy ministry said a high-pressure gas pipe sup-plying fuel was burning outside the power station itself.

Russian television reported that the cause of the fire “could have been an explosion”.

The smoke and flames were visible from the capital and the emergencies ministry said that the fire blazed over an area of 800 square metres.

Russia detains dozens of Crimean TatarsAFP MOSCOW

Russian police yesterday detained dozens of Crimean Tatars protesting outside the Supreme Court in support of jailed members of the Muslim community who opposed Mos-cow’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula, activists said.

The indigenous ethnic group has faced a crackdown from the new Russian author-ities, which took control in 2014 and shut down local media and the national assembly.

Protesters gathered at the court as it heard an appeal in the case of four men who were sen-tenced in December to up to 17 years for being members of Islamist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which is banned in Russia, and plotting a violent uprising.

Alexandra Krylenkova, an activist supporting Crimean Tatars, said that police detained 55 people who were standing outside the court building with posters, after shouting through loud-speakers that they were car-rying out an illegal protest.

As president, Biden would pull most US troops out of Afghanistan, end US support for Saudi Arabia’s military intervention in Yemen and reaffirm the nation’s commitment to Nato, he said. Domestically, he would terminate Trump’s travel ban against people from Muslim-majority countries and end the practice of separating migrant families at the US border with Mexico.

12 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019EUROPE / AMERICAS

Trump’s foreign policies have damaged America’s standing, says BidenREUTERS WASHINGTON/NEW YORK

Looking to steady his presi-dential campaign after a debate performance against other Dem-ocratic contenders that hurt him in public opinion polls, Joe Biden yesterday blasted US President Donald Trump’s foreign policy as erratic and extreme.

In his most extensive remarks to date on foreign affairs, the former vice president said Trump had damaged America’s “repu-tation and our place in the world and I quite frankly believe our ability to lead the world.”

The Republican Trump has unsettled Washington’s allies by withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate accord, a nuclear deal with Iran and a trans-Pacific trade agreement, and has also threatened to leave the North Atlantic Treaty Organ-ization (Nato).

For Biden, who served in the US Senate for 35 years, it was a much-needed return to firmer ground after weeks of having to defend his civil rights record, while allowing him to train his attention on Trump rather than other Democrats.

Kamala Harris, a black US senator from California, assailed the 76-year-old Biden in last month’s debate over his past opposition to forced busing as a means to integrate schools and for remarks about his will-ingness to work with segrega-tionists while in the Senate more than 40 years ago.

Biden apologized for those remarks, but he has seen some erosion in support from Demo-cratic voters, with Harris largely

reaping the benefit and the field tightening in general among those vying to win the party’s nomi-nation to run against Trump.

In his address at the Graduate Center at the City Uni-versity of New York, Biden crit-icised Trump for abdicating the United States’ leadership role in the world and argued that col-lective action is necessary to con-front threats posed by climate change, nuclear proliferation, ter-rorism and cyberwarfare.

As president, Biden would pull most US troops out of Afghanistan, end US support for Saudi Arabia’s military inter-vention in Yemen and reaffirm the nation’s commitment to Nato, he said. Domestically, he would terminate Trump’s travel ban against people from Muslim-majority countries and end the practice of separating migrant families at the US border with Mexico.

Biden has sharply criticised Trump for walking away from the 2015 international nuclear deal with Iran, which Biden would reinstate should Tehran comply with its provisions. As president, Biden would also have the US rejoin the Paris Climate Accord and would convene a global summit on climate change.

Biden would also push for

more ironclad commitments from North Korea to abandon its nuclear program than Trump has so far demanded.

For his part, Trump has not held back from criticism of the Obama administration’s foreign policy record. Trump has con-tended, among other things, that the Iran deal was too lenient and that Obama and Biden did not do enough to contain China’s economic aggression.

Ahead of Biden’s speech, the Republican National Committee and a pro-Trump Super PAC released lengthy critiques of Biden’s judgment on foreign affairs, pointing out that, among other things, Biden advised Obama to not go forward with the 2012 raid that killed Osama bin Laden.

Biden’s record has not yet been a front-burner issue among his rivals for the Democratic nomination, but his vote in favor of the invasion of Iraq while in the Senate has been denounced by US Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont and others.

At a campaign rally in Penn-sylvania in May, Trump defended his “America First” policies, telling his supporters that Biden “said that he’s running to quote ‘save the world’... Well, he wants to save every country but ours”.

Boosting tiesRussian President Vladimir Putin (right) and his Bolivian counterpart Evo Morales shaking hands during a signing ceremony following their meeting at the Kremlin, in Moscow yesterday.

Germany extradites convicted top former spy to CroatiaAFP ZAGREB

A former top Yugoslavian spy, sentenced in Germany for the 1983 murder of a dissident, was extradited yesterday to Croatia to serve his 30-year jail term, the interior ministry said.

Josip Perkovic, a former Yugoslav secret service agent and ex-head of Croatia’s military intelligence, was “handed over to a Zagreb prison”, the ministry said. The handover of the 74-year-old took place without incident, it said.

Perkovic arrived at the Zagreb airport aboard a regular flight from Munich, state-run

HRT television reported. A Munich court sentenced Perkovic and former Yugoslav spy chief Zdravko Mustac to life imprisonment in 2016.

The two men were found guilty of complicity in the murder of dissident Stjepan Dju-rekovic, who was opposed to Yugoslavia’s communist regime.

A Zagreb court last year com-muted Perkovic’s sentence to a 30-year jail term, as Croatia has no life sentence. The Supreme Court upheld the ruling in May. Legal proceedings over Mustac’s extradition to Croatia are still under way. Zagreb extradited the two men to Germany in 2014, after their case had strained its

ties with the European Union.Just days before joining the

bloc in July 2013, Croatia changed a key law, making it impossible to extradite persons wanted for crimes committed before August 2002. The move left the country sharply at odds with its EU partners, notably Germany, which was seeking Perkovic’s arrest.

Local media speculated then that Croatia was reluctant to extradite Perkovic out of fear that he possessed compromising information on influential people in the Balkan country. But the government said its aim was to protect veterans of the 1990s independence war from being investigated by the EU.

Storm clouds moving towards New Orleans, Louisiana from Plaquemines Parish, Louisiana, yesterday.

Consumption of sugary drinks linked with cancer risk: StudyAFP PARIS

Consumption of sugary drinks such as soda and fruit juice is linked to a higher risk of devel-oping certain kinds of cancer, researchers reported.

The consumption of sugary drinks has exploded worldwide in recent decades and the high-calorie beverages have already been associated with a elevated risk of obesity — itself recognised as a leading cancer risk factor.

A team of researchers in France wanted to assess the associations between heightened consumption of sugar drinks and the risks of overall cancer, as well as several cancer types, including breast, prostate and bowel cancers. They surveyed more than 100,000 adults, with an average of age of 42, 79 percent of whom were women.

The participants, who were followed for a maximum of nine years, completed at least two 24-hour online validated dietary questionnaires, calcu-lating their daily consumption of sugar and artificially sweetened beverages as well as 100 percent fruit juices.

Researchers measured the daily intakes of sugary drinks against those of diet beverages and compared them to cancer cases in participants’ medical records during the follow-up period.

They found that just a 100 ml increase per day of sugary drinks was associated with an 18 percent increased risk of cancer, and with a 22 percent increase in breast cancer. During a follow-up, researchers found 2,193 cases of cancer were diagnosed, the average age at diagnosis being 59 years.

Frenchman at heart of legal dispute dies after life support endsAFP REIMS, FRANCE

A Frenchman at the centre of a bitter right-to-die legal feud that has raged for a decade passed away in hospital yesterday after doctors removed his life support, his family said.

The legal battle over whether Vincent Lambert, 42, should die has divided the country as well as his own family, with his parents using every legal avenue to keep him alive but his wife and nephew insisting he must be allowed to die.

Doctors removed his hydration and nutrition tubes last week, following a final ruling by France’s top appeals court. “Vincent died at 8:24am (0624 GMT) this morning,” his nephew Francois Lambert said, expressing his “relief after years of suffering for everyone”.

“We were ready to let him

go,” he added, saying he had been notified about his uncle’s death by the doctor treating him.

“It is not sad. It is rationality gaining the upper hand. This was a human being who was suf-fering and the various theatrical gestures did not mean much,” he added.

Lambert was involved in a near-fatal car crash in 2008 that left him a quadriplegic with severe brain damage which doctors had long said was irreversible.

Left in a vegetative state, the question of whether to continue keeping him alive artificially triggered a years-long legal battle that raged in the highest courts in France and Europe.

On July 2, Dr Vincent Sanchez, head of palliative care at the University Hospital in the northern French city of Reims, had begun removing the life support mechanisms in a process which was completed by

Wednesday evening. Although his feeding and hydration tubes were removed, he was kept under “deep and continuous sedation”.

Multiple medical assess-ments ordered by the courts over the years found that the former psychiatric nurse, who was poised to become a father shortly before his accident, had no chance of recovering.

Jean Paillot, a lawyer for Lambert’s parents, said it was “now time for a moment of remembrance”.

He said that the parents, who had waged a high-profile campaign to keep their son alive, would respond when they felt ready.

The case rekindled a charged debate over France’s right-to-die laws, which allow so-called “passive” euthanasia for severely ill or injured patients who are being kept alive artificially with no chance of recovery.

US planning to launch raids on undocumented migrantsAFP WASHINGTON

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are planning to launch sweeping deportation raids this weekend as the Trump administration expands its crackdown on undoc-umented immigrants, the New York Times reported yesterday.

A senior administration immigration officials says that ICE has about one million names on a list of targets in the raids, which have been postponed for two weeks, partly due to resistance from inside ICE, according to the report.

The report says the move planned for Sunday will initially target some 2,000 members of undocumented migrant families in at least 10 cities. ICE has already obtained removal orders from courts, allowing them to move quickly to expel the migrants, some of whom may

have been in the United States for over a decade, building lives for their families.

Ken Cuccinelli, acting director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services, said that ICE has court-issued removal orders for around one million people, but acknowledged that it has nowhere near the man-power and facilities capacity to pursue that many.

ICE has stayed quiet about the raids, but they would come as President Donald Trump seeks to show toughness on immigration amid a still-strong flow into the country of migrants across the border with Mexico.

On Wednesday, the Department of Homeland Security said 104,344 migrants were detained after crossing the border in June, down 28 percent from May’s 13-year record high but still an extremely high figure, some 60,000 more than the same month a year ago.

New Orleans braces for flooding as Storm Barry bears downREUTERS NEW ORLEANS

Some residents and visitors pre-pared to flee New Orleans yes-terday as Tropical Storm Barry closed in and city officials warned of severe flooding if it makes landfall by early tomorrow as the first Atlantic hurricane of the 2019 season.

The storm had maximum sus-tained winds of 40 miles per hour as of 1500 GMT yesterday, the National Weather Service said.

Forecasters issued a storm-surge warning for a stretch of Louisiana coastline south of already-sodden New Orleans stretching from the mouth of the Atchafalaya River to Shell Beach. Rain was an equal danger, given that the lower Mississippi River, which runs through New Orleans,

has been above flood stage for six months. The lower Mississippi is forecast to peak at 19 feet tomorrow , the highest it has been since 1950 when it almost reached 20 feet, according to the National Weather Service.

The slow-moving storm was located about 150km south-southeast of the mouth of the Mis-sissippi River at 10am, the National Hurricane Center said.

Meteorologists predicted between 10 and 20 inches of rain would fall on the Gulf Coast today and tomorrow from East Texas through New Orleans and the Louisiana coast.

New Orleans Mayor LaToya Cantrell warned that 48 hours of heavy rainfall could overwhelm the pumps the city uses to fight floodwater, leading to flooding as early as today morning.

13FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019 AMERICAS / CLASSIFIEDS

SERVICES

WATER TANK CLEANING

AL MUTWASSIT CLEANING & PEST CONTROLKharaba st, Behind white Mosque. Fax: 443679 99 - GSM. 55875920/55860432

CAPITAL CLEANING COMPANYCleaning Water Tanks & Pest Control. GSM: 55565328/ 33189899 Tel: 44582257 E-mail: capitalcleaningwll@gmail.com

WOKEER INDUSTRIAL AREAAvailable Sizes: 358/415/510/830/1340 Sqm.Mobile: 660 02 704 (Steve)E-mail: portacabins@iescoqatar.com

WAREHOUSE FOR RENT

ARMSTRONGNew & Used Containers - Sales/Rental (Certified & Uncertified) Mobile: 557 80 396 (Steve)E-mail: portacabins2@iescoqatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

USED CONTAINERS (Sales & Rentals)

ANNOUNCEMENT

CHANGE OF NAME

I, Shalini Pandey, holder of India Passport

No. H5283751(Qatar ID No. 28335663160) hereby change my name to

SHALINI AJAY TRIPATHI

Any objection, please contact the ������������� ����������������������days from the publication of this notice.

I, Humera Shahid Hasan Sayyed, holder of India Passport

No. S1208551(Qatar ID No. 28735658419) hereby change my name to

HUMERA CHAHATALI SAYED

Any objection, please contact the ������������� ����������������������days from the publication of this notice.

ANSARI INTERNATIONAL W.L.L. We announce our intention to start the closure of the company permanently Commercial Register No. (64306) and have any claims with the company please send a message by registered mail within a period not exceeding one week from the date of announcement and the company is not responsible for any claims received after the date.

Rajiba Ansari (Partner),QID No. 28235633970, Post Box No.: 22911

I, Munazza Ibrahim Muhammad Ishaq, holder of Pakistan Passport

No. BP1024912(Qatar ID No. 27258601647) hereby change my name to

MUNAZZA IBRAHIM MUHAMMAD IBRAHIM.

Any objection, please contact the Immigration and Passport Office within 15 days from the publication of this notice.

Pen.MagEvery

SundayTo

Thursday

Trump drops executive action on US CensusREUTERS / WASHINGTON

US President Donald Trump was expected to back down to add a contentious citizenship question to the 2020 census, but order the government do the survey by other means, a government official said.

White House officials declined to comment. A gov-ernment official confirmed that Trump is expected to announce he will drop the legal battle to include the question on the census survey and instead direct the Commerce Department to obtain answers on citizenship

through other means, but it was not clear how that would occur or how it would be funded.

The US Census Bureau is part of the Commerce Department. The US Constitution specifically assigns the job of overseeing the census to Congress, limiting the authority of the President over

it, which complicates adding the question to the decennial survey via presidential missive.

Trump’s decision not to proceed with an executive order on adding the citizenship question to the census was first reported by ABC News.

Commerce Secretary Wilbur

Ross canceled a meeting with a German official. The administra-tion’s attempts to add the question had been blocked in the courts because of challenges from some US states and civil rights groups.

The US Supreme Court on June 27 blocked Trump’s first

effort to add the question, faulting the administration’s rationale as “contrived”. Critics say that asking about citi-zenship in the census discrim-inates against racial minorities and is aimed at giving Repub-licans an unfair advantage in elections.

California couple sues clinic over one of the worst IVF mix-upsAFP LOS ANGELES

A California couple have filed a lawsuit over what has been described as one of the worst IVF mix-ups, that led to another woman giving birth to their baby boy.

Anni and Ashot Manukyan, of the Los Angeles suburb of Glendale, said their life was upended after their embryos as well as those of two other couples were mishandled by CHA Fertility Center.

As a result, they said a com-plete stranger in New York gave birth to their child in March after two embryos — theirs and one belonging to another uniden-tified couple — were mistakenly implanted into the woman’s uterus. The New York woman, who is of Korean-American descent, was expecting to give birth to twin girls but wound up with two boys.

The Manukyans told reporters that they were unaware they had a son until the clinic, located in the Los Angeles area, contacted them out of the

blue to obtain their DNA so that it could determine whether the child born to the New York couple was theirs.

Adding insult to injury, Anni later learned that she had been implanted with an embryo — which failed to result in a preg-nancy — belonging to another couple who were also clients of the fertility clinic.

The Manukyans said that fol-lowing a protracted legal battle they finally gained custody of their son in May, when he was six weeks old.

“CHA put three families through a living hell, and our lives will never be the same,” Ashot Manukyan told reporters. “We fought to get our boy back, and now we will fight to make sure this never happens again.” His wife appeared emotional at the press conference, saying the ordeal has been traumatic.

“Who wants to meet their child in the lobby of a hotel?” Anni Manukyan said. “It was just heartbreaking. It was terrible.”

Adam Wolf, an attorney representing the couple, said that the mix-up was “one of the

worst fertility center tragedies I have ever seen”. “My firm rep-resents hundreds of people who have been the victims of fertility center misconduct and yet I have never seen anything like this,” he said.

“Anni and Ashot have been devastated that they didn’t get to bring their child into the world, hold their son in the first moments of his life.

“This is a fertility clinic that cannot be trusted.” A woman who answered the phone at the clinic on Wednesday afternoon said the facility had shut down early for the day and no repre-sentatives were available for comment.

The New York couple involved in the mix-up have also filed suit in federal court in Brooklyn, seeking compensation after suffering what they say are “significant and permanent emotional injuries from which they will not recover.”

The pair, who are only iden-tified by their initials in the court documents, began in-vitro fer-tilization treatment at the CHA Fertility Center in January 2018.

Maduro ally rules out early presidential pollsAFP CARACAS

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s right-hand man Diosdado Cabello has ruled out early elections despite talks between representatives of the government and the opposition in Barbados.

Maduro’s removal from office has been a key demand of the opposition, which is led by Juan Guaido, the National Assembly head who declared himself acting president in January. But Cabello, who heads the pro-regime Con-stituent Assembly and is con-sidered the country’s second most powerful politician, insisted there would be no

early elections to replace Maduro.

“They say: the government’s going to Barbados because there are going to be presidential elec-tions in I don’t know how long and the candidates are X and Y,” he told state television channel VTV. “Here there are no presidential elections, here the president’s name is Nicolas Maduro,” Cabello said.

Before the talks began on Monday, Guaido had said the opposition would attend “to establish a negotiation on the end of the dictatorship”.

After they began, Maduro said he was “optimistic... we can find a path to peace.” An initial round of talks had been held in Norway but they made no apparent progress.

US House panel authorises subpoenas for Kushner and other Trump aidesREUTERS WASHINGTON

The Democratic-led US House Judiciary Committee yesterday voted to authorize subpoenas for a dozen witnesses including President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and adviser, Jared Kushner.

The vote gives panel Chairman Jerrold Nadler dis-cretion on whether to subpoena current and former Trump advisers such as former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former White House Chief of Staff John Kelly, as part of a broad cor-ruption and obstruction of justice probe of the Trump presidency.

“These include government officials who worked, or con-tinue to work, in close proximity to the president,” Nadler said at a meeting to consider the sub-poenas. “We will not rest until we obtain their testimony and documents.” The committee also authorized subpoenas for doc-uments and testimony con-nected with Trump’s immi-gration policies, including family separation and detention and

“zero tolerance” for migrants.The move comes as Demo-

crats who control the House of Representatives prepare to escalate their scrutiny of the Trump presidency, with public testimony from former U.S. Special Counsel Robert Mueller on July 17 and a vote next week to hold Attorney General William Barr and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross in con-tempt of Congress for failing to comply with subpoenas.

Republicans dismissed the committee’s action as a partisan fishing expedition against Trump and a bid to heal political rifts within House Democratic ranks. “That’s all today’s episode is about. It sure isn’t about over-sight. It’s simply about politics,” said Representative Doug Collins, the Judiciary Commit-tee’s top Republican.

Nadler’s committee, which could launch an impeachment inquiry if it uncovered evidence of presidential misconduct, is pursuing actions and events described in Mueller’s 448-page report on Russian meddling in the 2016 presidential election.

US wants‘El Chapo’ in prison for lifeREUTERS NEW YORK

US prosecutors said they want the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to spend the rest of his life — plus 30 years — in prison, after he hears from a victim who survived one of his murder plots.

Guzman, 62, faces a man-datory minimum of life in prison at his scheduled sentencing hearing next Wednesday, fol-lowing his February conviction on a variety of drug charges.

In a Wednesday night letter, prosecutors asked US District Judge Brian Cogan in Brooklyn to add another 30 years because jurors convicted Guzman of ille-gally using a firearm, including a machine gun, in connection with drug trafficking.

Prosecutors also said Guzman conspired to murder “numerous” people as a leader of the Sinaloa Cartel over a quarter century, and at least one target intends to make a “victim-impact statement” at the sentencing hearing.

“The overwhelming evi-dence at trial showed that the defendant was a ruthless and bloodthirsty leader of the Sinaloa Cartel,” prosecutors said. “A life sentence is just pun-ishment for this defendant.” Jeffrey Lichtman, a lawyer for Guzman, was not available for comment.

Prosecutors said Guzman amassed power in Mexico through murders and wars with rival cartels while trafficking tons of cocaine, heroin, mari-juana and methamphetamine into the United States.

Guzman spent much of his career on the run, twice escaping from maximum-security Mexican prisons, before being caught in January 2016 and extradited to the United States a year later.

His trial lasted 11 weeks, and included testimony from more than 50 prosecution wit-nesses. On July 3, Cogan rejected Guzman’s bid for a new trial.

14 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019CLASSIFIEDS

SERVICES

ARTECHSage Accounting, Peachtree, QuickBooks, Dynacom,

Tel: +974 44375654 E-mail: artech@ar-technology.net

ACCOUNTING SOFTWARES

GEM ADVERTISING & PUBLICATIONS(Overseas Newspaper Advertisements)

44442001 - GSM: 55783303

ADVERTISING OVERSEAS NEWSPAPER

ATTESTATION

ASIA TRANSLATION & SERVICES CENTRE

ARMSTRONG

555 54 274 (Kumar)E-mail: @armstrongmachinery.com www.armstrongmachinery.com

A/C MAINTENANCE & SERVICES

ALWASEEM TRANSLATION & SERVICES CENTER

-

LEADER MIDDLE EAST W.L.L.

+974 55745147

BUSINESS SET-UP

UNIVERSAL SUPPLIES

: 66266133

BUS FOR RENT

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE

COMPUTER TRAINING CENTRE

FAMILY COMPUTER CENTRE

44435361/44370779 - 44449130

CLEANING AND MAINTENANCE

AL MUTWASSIT CLEANING & PEST CONTROL

44367555 30029977/55875920 E-mail: info@amcqatar.co

CAPITAL CLEANING COMPANY W.L.L.

44582257 33189899/ 55565328E-mail: capitalcleaningwll@gmail.com

CALIBRATION SERVICES

COMPUTER & IT

ARMSTRONG

660 41 449 E-mail: portacabins6@iescoqatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

EVENT RENTALS/ ABLUTIONTOILETS

PARTY KINGDOM

44353501/ 44366431 E-mail: partykingdom10doha@yahoo.com

PARTY ITEMS & BALLOON DECORATION

ARMSTRONG

: 557 80 396 E-mail: portacabins2@iescoqatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

PORTA CABINS (Sales & Rentals)

ARMSTRONG

555 54 274 (Kumar)E-mail: secretary@armstrongmachinery.com www.armstrongmachinery.com

GENERATORS SERVICING

MANPOWER SERVICES

MASSAGE

KOTTAKKAL AYURVEDIC MASSAGE CENTRE

44360061 GSM: 33453697

KERALA AYURVEDIC MASSAGE CENTER - FOR LADIES.

44147741, 50007714

AUTHENTIC THAI MASSAGE CENTERS

JEWELLERY

CANARA JEWELLERY

44422071, 44357283

WOKEER INDUSTRIAL AREA

660 02 704 E-mail: portacabins@iescoqatar.com

LABOUR CAMP FOR RENT

IMMIGRATION SERVICES

QUEENS LAND SERVICESBusiness Set-up and Sponsorship.

77776917 info@qlsqatar.com

INVEST IN QATAR

ARMSTRONG

: 557 80 396 E-mail: portacabins2@iescoqatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

PORTABLE & CHEMICAL TOILETS (Sales & Rentals)

RACKPLUS STORAGE

: 336 99 846 E-mail: @rackplusstorage.com www.rackplusstorage.com.

RACKING & SHELVING SYSTEM

RENT A CAR

AL DAR CAR RENTAL

44877789 44866637

AL MUFTAH RENT A CAR

OASIS RENT A CAR

6641 7354 4413 0011 -

REGENCY FLEETS

44433822/44554046/44554048 44554047 Airport Branch (24hrs): 70482655

NATIONAL - ALAMO RENT A CAR

5547 8150, 5040 0624

REGENCY FLEETS

44433822/44554046/44554048 44554047 Airport Branch (24hrs): 70482655

NATIONAL - ALAMO RENT A CAR

5547 8150, 5040 0624

ARMSTRONG

: 660 41 449 E-mail: portacabins6@iescoqatar.com www.iescoqatar.com.

SEWAGE & WASTE REMOVAL

SCAFFOLDING

APOLLO ENTERPRISES SCAFFOLDING DIVISION44693334

44416274 GSM: 55521089/55560246/55536285

QATAR AL ATTIYAH INTERNATIONAL GROUP (QAIG)

REAL ESTATE

AL MUFTAH SERVICES 44634444/44010700 55542067/55823100

UNIFORM SERVICES

INVESTMENTS

INVEST IN BAKU

MEDIA SERVICES

HELPLINE GROUP

HELPLINE GROUP

Tel: (+974)-44271100MOB: 77711129 Email: cf@qatarhelplinegroup.com

HELPLINE GROUP

Tel: (+974)-44271100Mob: 77711129 Web: helplinehrconsulting.com

HR CONSULTATION

TRANSLATION

HELPLINE GROUP

Tel: (974)-44271100 Mob: 70114857Email: info@helplinetranslation.com

AL HAYIKI TRANSLATION & SERVICES EST.

BUSINESS

MAIN BRANCHPH: 44441448

LULU HYPER MARKETPH: 44650768

SANAYYA (STREET 17)PH: 44510088

AL KHORPH: 44213444

MATAR QADEEMPH: 44655559

MANSOURA - AL MEERAPH: 44357552

ABU HAMOURPH: 44621271

BIN OMRAN - ALMEERAPH: 44162002

Your Global Remittance Partner

a l z a m a n e x c h a n g e w w w . a l z a m a n e x c h a n g e . c o m 4 4 4 4 1 4 4 8

QAR/INR : 18.64 QAR/PHP : 13.96 QAR/LKR : 48.02 QAR/BDT : 23.12

EUR/QAR : 4.25 GBP/QAR : 4.71 CAD/QAR : 2.93 AUD/QAR : 2.68

CHF/QAR : 3.83 SGD/QAR : 2.78 KWD/QAR : 12.20 OMR/QAR : 9.55

Currency TT Rate Currency TT Rate Currency TT Rate Currency TT Rate

PAGE | 16 PAGE | 16ECB governors weigh options

for boosting eurozone growth

Fiat Chryslerbets on investment inelectric ‘500’

15FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019

Oil prices hits 6-week highREUTERS LONDON

Oil prices hit a six-week high yesterday as oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico were evacuated ahead of a storm, while an incident with a British tanker in the Middle East highlighted tensions in the region.

However, prices gave up most gains as Opec forecast that world demand for its crude would decline next year as rivals pumped more, pointing to the return of a surplus despite an Opec-led pact to restrain supplies.

Brent crude futures were up 2 cents at $67.03 a barrel by 1330 GMT. Earlier in the session, they hit their highest since May 30 at $67.65, after ending Wednesday up 4.4 percent. US West Texas Intermediate crude futures were

up 9 cents at $60.52 a barrel, having touched their highest since May 23 at $60.94. They gained 4.5 percent in the pre-vious session.

A day after Iran warned Britain would face ‘conse-quences’ over the seizure of an Iranian oil tanker, three Iranian vessels tried to block the passage

of a British ship run by BP through the Strait of Hormuz, the British government said. They withdrew after warnings from a British warship.

“What happened was par-tially expected. We pointed out last week that Iran was likely to do something of the sort,” Petro-matrix oil analyst Olivier Jakob (pictured) said.

Oil prices were also sup-ported by a fall in the dollar after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell bolstered expec-tations for US interest rate cuts.

A decline in US inventories also boosted oil prices. US crude stocks fell by 9.5 million barrels in the week to July 5, the Energy Information Admin-istration (EIA) said, more than the 3.1-million-barrel draw analysts had expected.

Mexico replaces Finance MinisterMexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador (left) presents new Finance Minister Arturo Herrera in Mexico City, Mexico. Previous Finance Minister Carlos Urzúa resigned on July 9 and his surprise departure has deepened doubts among investors over economic policy under President Obrador, including fears he may eventually undermine Mexico’s financial stability.

QSE index gained 46.80 points last weekTHE PENINSULA DOHA

Qatar Stock Exchange’s (QSE) benchmark index gained 46.80 points, or 0.44 percent, last week when the bourse closed yesterday at 10,613.32 points.

Trading value during last week increased by 0.49 percent to reach QR880.22m compared to QR875.89m.

Trading volume increased by 10.31 percent to reach 300.85 million shares, as against 272.72 million shares, while the number of transactions rose by 1.59 percent to reach 27,103 trans-actions as compared to 26,680 transactions.

Market cap rose by 0.16 percent to reach QR582.90bn as compared to QR581.98bn at the end of previous week, reports QNA.

Banking and financial services sector led traded value last week with 39.8 percent of the total traded value. Industries sector accounted for 17.76 percent. Consumer goods and services sector accounted for 17.48 percent and Real Estate sector accounted 8.29 percent.

Banking and Financial Services sector led traded volume last week with 28.93 percent of the total traded

volume. Real Estate sector accounted 22.84 percent. Indus-tries sector accounted 18.64 percent and Consumer Goods and Services sector accounted 10.36 percent.

Industries sector led traded number of transactions last week with 30.69 percent of the total number of transactions. Banking and financial services sector accounted 26.61 percent. Consumer goods and services sector accounted 15.32 percent and Real Estate sector accounted 9.79 percent.

From the 46 listed com-panies 22 ended last week higher, while 20 fell and four remained unchanged.

QNB led trading value during last week accounted for 19.33 percent of the total trading value. Medicare Group accounted for 8.65 percent and Industries Qatar accounted 6.62 percent.

When compared on daily basis, the QSE index gained 62.11 points, or 0.59 percent, yes-terday compared to Wednes-day’s closing.

The volume of shares traded increased to 73.36 million from 63.50 million on Wednesday and the value of shares increased to QR241.68m from QR177.22m on Wednesday.

British banks ready for no-deal Brexit, trade war: BoE

REUTERS LONDON

British banks hold enough capital to cope with a no-deal Brexit and a global trade war simultaneously, the Bank of England said yesterday, although a disruptive Brexit would still cause major turbu-lence for financial markets and the economy. Bank of England Governor Mark Carney also flagged ongoing concerns about illiquid investment funds, liquidity shocks, crypto-cur-rencies and environmental dangers at a half-yearly update on the risks facing Britain’s banking system.

Carney said while banks were well prepared for Brexit, this did not mean the economy would be unscathed if Britain left the European Union on Oct. 31 without a transition deal, something both contenders to be the next prime minister say is possible. “Financial stability is not the same as market sta-bility,” Carney told a news conference.

“In a disorderly Brexit, a range of UK asset prices would be expected to adjust sharply, tightening financial conditions for UK households and busi-nesses.” The BoE noted a sharp fall in foreign investors buying British commercial property and some company loans. “There has been a deterioration in the quality of inflows, that are financing the current account deficit,” Carney said, adding that it was crucial Britain remained an attractive investment destination after Brexit.

The BoE said trade tensions between the United States and China had increased global financial risks and there was a rising number of heavily indebted companies in the United States, continental Europe and elsewhere. British banks were better prepared for a downturn than they were before the 2008 financial crisis when they held much less capital and required multi-billion-pound bailouts.

US trade issues are ‘definitely’resolvable: Chinese officialAFP BEIJING

China said yesterday that the thorny trade issues plaguing relations with the United States are resolvable after fractious talks between the economic giants were kickstarted by the Trump-Xi meeting in Japan.

Washington and Beijing have hit each other with punitive tariffs covering more than $360bn in two-way trade, dam-aging manufacturers on both sides of the Pacific.

US President Donald Trump and Chinese leader Xi Jinping agreed to revive negotiations when they met on the sidelines of the G20 summit in Osaka on June 29.

“China’s core concerns must be properly resolved, we believe that the two sides can take care of each other’s legitimate con-cerns through dialogue as equals,” said commerce ministry spokesman Gao Feng (pictured).

“We will definitely be able to find solutions to the problems,” he told reporters at a regular news briefing.

Top US and Chinese negoti-ators held phone talks on Tuesday but it remains unclear if the wide rupture that has formed since talks broke down in May can be patched over.

Since the breakdown, China’s state media has taken a increasingly nationalistic tone, putting out articles and com-mentaries blasting the United States and its tariffs.

Beijing has also outlined three core concerns it says must be met in order to reach a deal: cancelling all punitive tariffs imposed during the trade war, reaching a more reasonable figure for Chinese purchases of US goods, and ensuring a more “balanced” text of the trade agreement.

Yesterday, Beijing also called for the US to immediately drop sanctions against Chinese tech giant Huawei, which was black-listed in May over national security concerns.

“We have noted Huawei and other Chinese entities are still on the US export control list, we urge the US to really fulfill its promises and immediately stop using state power to beat down Chinese companies,” Gao said.

Trump has previously said he could “imagine Huawei being included in some form or some part of a trade deal”, and in Osaka agreed to soften some restrictions on sales of crucial US components to the firm.

France passes law taxing digital giants in defiance of US anger

AFP/PARIS

France yesterday became the first major economy to impose a tax on digital giants, with parliament passing the legislation in defiance of a probe ordered by President Donald Trump that could trigger reprisal tariffs.

The new law aims at plugging a taxation gap that has seen some Internet heavyweights paying next to nothing in countries where they make huge profits.

The legislation, dubbed the GAFA tax, an acronym for Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon, was passed by a simple show of hands in the Senate upper house after previously being passed by the National Assembly lower chamber. But the French move drew an angry response from Trump even before the legislation was passed, with the pres-ident ordering an investigation that the French economy minister said was unprecedented in the history of French-US relations. The law will levy a 3 percent tax on total annual revenues of the largest tech firms providing services to French consumers.

“The US is very concerned that the digital services tax which is expected to pass the French Senate tomorrow unfairly targets American companies,” US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer said.

Dow surges past 27,000 pointsAFP LONDON

The Dow powered above 27,000 points for the first time while the dollar slumped yesterday as investors welcomed the head of the Federal Reserve effectively flagging a cut in US interest rates later this month.

In a first day of closely watched congressional testimony on Wednesday, Jerome Powell said the case for lower borrowing costs “had strengthened” owing to headwinds caused by global trade uncertainty.

“It’s safe to say that investors were pleased with Jerome Pow-ell’s first day of testimony on Wednesday, with equity markets jumping on his dovish assessment,” said Oanda analyst Craig Erlam.

US equities, which had

surged on Wednesday with the Nasdaq ending at a record high, pushed even higher. The Dow shot above 27,000 points to set a new intraday record, while the S&P 500 briefly broke the 3,000 point level. “Dow just hit 27,000 for first time EVER!” tweeted US President Donald Trump, who has been outspoken about his desire for the Fed to cut rates to support the economy.

“The Fed Chairman doesn’t typically provide strong and direct messages on policy direction, which makes predicting future rate movements all the more dif-ficult. But Wednesday’s message was clear, the data is softening — particularly on the inflation side — and downside risks are signif-icant,” Erlam said.

Most Asian markets had fol-lowed Wall Street’s lead, with Hong Kong jumping 0.8 percent

and Tokyo ending the day 0.5 percent higher. But European markets turned lower.

“With these dovish tones from the Fed driving the dollar lower, we are seeing European stocks stutter in the wake of a strength-ening euro and pound,” said Joshua Mahony, senior market analyst at online trading firm IG.

FXTM analyst, Hussein Sayed, said the markets had already clearly priced in a quarter-point reduction in US interest rates. But now, “bets for a (half-point) rate cut have increased significantly after Powell’s testimony,” he said.

Investors were also keeping an eye on Powell’s second day of testimony on Capitol Hill. Higher-than-expected June inflation data didn’t seem to dent expectations that the Fed would go ahead with a rate cut.

16 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019BUSINESS

ECB governors weigh options for boosting eurozone growthAFP FRANKFURT

There was ‘broad agreement’ among European Central Bank governors at their June meeting that further stimulus might be needed to keep growth and inflation on track, a record showed yesterday, a position made explicit soon afterwards by President Mario Draghi (pictured).

“There was broad agreement that, in the light of the heightened uncertainty, the governing council needed to be ready and prepared to ease the monetary policy stance further,” read the minutes of the meeting, published four weeks after it was held in Lithuanian capital Vilnius.

Policymakers have been faced with slowing growth, gloomy con-fidence and activity surveys and weaker inflation in recent months.

The indicators have been hit by uncertainty over global trade conflicts, a string of one-off effects, and the fizzling out of the upswing that followed the region’s financial crisis.

ECB staff trimmed their quar-terly forecasts for growth and inflation in June, prompting the governors to extend their so-called ‘forward guidance’ on how long rates would remain at his-toric lows to mid-2020.

Draghi went further at a con-ference in Sintra later that month, saying that “further cuts in policy interest rates, remain part of our tools”.

In the highly codified language that central bankers use and which financial markets watch closely for every tiny shift in tone, Draghi said the ECB was prepared to act “in the absence of improvement” rather than if eco-nomic conditions worsen.

For ECB watchers that sig-nified a lowering of the threshold for action.

Some observers are con-cerned that the central bank has no more ammunition left in its battle against weak growth and inflation.

Beyond the extension of low interest rates and the possibility of cutting still further into negative territory, a third option would be

to relaunch the €2.6 trillion ($2.9 trillion) bond-buying scheme the ECB tied up in December.

“Resuming net asset pur-chases” was definitely on the table at the June meeting, the minutes of the meeting showed.

But doing so could require central bankers to find ways around technical constraints on the programme.

In the past, there have been a number of legal and political objections to the bond-buying programme, known as quanti-tative easing or QE.

But policymakers have been able to deflect such criticism by limiting the proportion of the bonds of a particular country that the ECB can hold.

According to the minutes of the meeting, the governing council remained confident that “the fun-damental economic forces remained in place for inflation to pick up over time” towards their goal of just below 2.0 percent.

“Domestic demand had so far been rather resilient, underpinned by strong employment and wage growth” while “the risk of

recession was low,” policymakers judged.

However, slowdowns in man-ufacturing-oriented economies such as Germany “might yet spread further” to the rest of the single currency area, some members cautioned.

ING analyst Carsten Brzeski said the combination of disap-pointing data, the faltering resil-ience of the eurozone economy, a possible rate cut by the US Federal Reserve and a series of comments by ECB officials had “all pushed the ECB closer to action at the July meeting.” The only question was “whether words alone, will be enough at the July meeting,” the expert said.

Draghi is stepping down as ECB President and IMF Chief Christine Lagarde has been nom-inated to succeed him.

Fiat Chrysler bets on electric ‘500’REUTERS TURIN

Fiat Chrysler (FCA) plans to invest €700m ($788m) in an electric makeover of its iconic Fiat 500, a top executive said.

FCA Chief Operating Officer for Europe, Middle East and Africa, Pietro Gorlier (pictured), announced the investment, the Italian-American company’s biggest single bet on an electric vehicle, at its Mirafiori plant in Turin, northern Italy.

“The plan is confirmed,” Gorlier said, when asked if FCA’s

investment in electric vehicle technology would remain unchanged after its $35bn plan to merge with Renault, an electric car pioneer, collapsed last month. He said FCA would invest the

€700m to build a new production line at Mirafiori to turn out 80,000 of the new 500 BEV, its first battery electric vehicle to be marketed in Europe. An initial version of the electric 500 has been produced in the United States.

Production of the newly-engineered 500 BEV will start in the second quarter of 2020, with a potential to expand capacity later, Gorlier said. The 500 compact car is one of the group’s most famous models, launched by then Fiat in the late 1950s and quickly becoming a symbol of Italian urban design.

CROSSWORD

A young woman, while attempting to save her father during a Category 5 hurricane, finds herself trapped in a flooding house and must fight for her life against alligators.

CRAWL 30

Note: Programme is subject to change without prior notice.

Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 2:00, 8:45 & 11:30pm; Rustum (2D) 2:30pm; Coconut: The Little Dragon (2D/Animation) 2:15pm; Aladdin (2D) 5:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 3:45pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 4:45, 7:00 & 9:15pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 4:45 & 11:30pm; Escape Plan: The Extractors 7:00 & 9:45pm; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 7:45pm;Crawl (2D/Horror) 11:30pm

Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 2:00, 8:30 & 11:15pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 2:15, 6:15 & 11:30pm;Coconut: The Little Dragon (2D/Animation) 2:15 & 4:45pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 3:45 & 6:15pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 4:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 6:00pm; Escape Plan: The Extractors 7:00pm; El Mamar (2D/Arabic) 8:30pm; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 11:15pm

Spider-Man: Far From Home 12:45, 3:30, 6:15, 9:00 & 11:45pm; Shubha Rathri 10:30am, 4:00 & 9:30pm;And The Oscar Goes To 8:45 & 11:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:45am; Gorilla 1:00 & 6:15pm; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 1:00, 6:30pm & 12:00midnight; Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 3:30 & 11:00pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 8:45pm

MALL

LANDMARK

AL KHOR

Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30pm, 01:00am; Gorilla (2D/Tamil) 12:30 & 8:15pm & 01:15am; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 12:15, 3:00, 5:45, 8:45, 11:45pm & 02:30am And The Oscar Goes To (2D/Malayalam) 2:45pm; Rustom (2D/Kannada) 12:30pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 5:45pm; Kakshi: Amminipilla (2D/Malayalam) 5:30 & 10:30pmThamasha (2D/Malayalam) 8:00pm;Venilla Kabaddi Kuzhu 2(Tamil) 10:45pm

ASIAN TOWN

FLIK Mirqab Mall

ROXY

Aladdin (2D/Comedy) 10:00am, 12:35, 3:10pm;Anna (2D/Action) 11:00am, 1:20, 3:05, 5:20, 8:20 & 10;35pm; Annabelle Comes Home (2D/Comedy) 7:10, 9:20 & 11:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 10:50, 11:15am, 12:45, 1:05, 2:55, 4:35, 6:30, 8:25, 10:20pm & 12:20am; Hamlet Faroun 5:50 & 7:50pm;Men In Black International 11:05am, 1:20 & 3:35pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:20am, 11:00, 12:25, 1:00, 2:30, 3:00 & 5:00pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 4:45, 7:25pm & 12:10am; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 5:40, 8:00, 9:00, 10:05 & 11:20pm; Spider-Man: Far From Home 10:15, 11:15am, 12:50, 2:40, 3:25, 5:15, 6:00, 7:00, 8:35, 10:10, 11:10pm & 12:15am 3D 1:50, 4:25 & 9:35pm

Spider-Man: Far From Home 11:00, 1:00, 5:10, 7:50, 8:00, 7:20, 10:00 & 10:30pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 11:00am, 12:30, 1:00, 2:30, 3:40, 4:00, 6:20 8:20 & 10:30pm; Gurkha (2D/Tamil) 3:10, 8:40, 9:10pm & 12:10am; Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 1:40, 6:00, 5:40, 7:10, 9:30, 10:40 & 11:30pm; The Extractors 8:20 & 11:50pm; Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 10:30am, 1:10, 3:10, 6:00, 6:30, 11:40pm & 12:30am;Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 10:30am, 12:30, 1:50, 3:00, 3:50, 4:30, 10:00 & 10:30pm; Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 12:40, 2:20, 2:50, 3:20, 4:50, 5:00 & 7:00pm

Shubha Rathri (2D/Malayalam) 2:15 & 9:00pm;Toy Story 4 (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:30pm; Super 30 (2D/Hindi) 2:15, 6:15 & 11:15pm; Coconut: The Little Dragon (2D/Animation) 4:30pm Spider-Man: Far From Home 5:00 & 9:15pm; Step-Up: Year of The Dance (2D/Drama) 6:15pm Hamlet Faroun (2D/Arabic) 7:15pm; Crawl (2D/Horror) 9:45pmEscape Plan: The Extractors 8:00 & 11:30pm; We Have Always Live In The Castle (2D/Horror) 11:30pm

ROYAL PLAZA

Vodafone Qatar to announce Q2 financials on July 29THE PENINSULA DOHA

Vodafone Qatar has announced that its Board of Directors will meet on July 29 to approve the company’s financial statements for the second quarter ending June 30, 2019. The Board will also consider other items included on the agenda for the meeting.

The Company’s financial results will be made publicly available on Vodafone Qatar and Qatar Stock Exchange websites.

SPORTWimbledon, first

semi-final: N. Djokovic vs

Bautista Agut

Wimbledon, second

semi-final: Rafael Nadal

vs Roger Federer

TENNIS TENNIS

17FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019

It’s not fair all the time to expect MS Dhoni to come and finish the

game. He has done it time and again.

Batting legend Sachin Tendulkar defends MS Dhoni after India lost to New Zealand in the first World Cup semi-final.

TO

DA

Y’S

AC

TIO

N

Federer, Nadal renew Wimbledon rivalryREUTERS LONDON

It has been a long wait but the most captivating modern rivalry in men’s tennis returns to the scene of its most dramatic episode today when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal meet for a place in the Wimbledon final.

Much has changed since t h a t e p i c Sunday night in 2008 when, as the last strands of daylight ebbed away, Nadal dethroned the king of Centre Court in a rain-hit final that will forever be part

of Wimbledon folklore. Centre Court now has a retractable roof as does Court One, for a start, and Federer has two sets of twins.

Nadal’s knees are creakier, his hair thinner and the sleeveless tops and pirate pants he wore as a 22-year-old tyro

have been replaced by regular tennis attire.

They have both had dips

and come-backs and both have b e e n written off

at times. But form is tem-

porary. Class endures.

Federer is approaching h i s 3 8 t h

birthday and Nadal is 33, yet

they remain the two central pillars of

men’s tennis with 20 and 18 Grand Slam titles respectively.

They have met 22 times since that epic five-setter when Nadal became

the first Spaniard since Manolo Santana in 1966 to win the men’s title, proving he was not just a claycourt bully but had evolved his topspin game after losing consecutive Wimbledon finals to Federer in 2006 and 2007.

There have been memorable clashes since -- the 2009 Aus-tralian Open final after which a beaten Federer shed tears and the 2017 Australian final when the Swiss ended a five-year wait for his 18th Grand Slam title.

They played last month in the French Open semis when Nadal blew Federer away in a gale on his way to claiming a record-extending 12th Roland Garros title.

Today’s showdown will be the 40th meeting between the duo with Nadal leading 24-15 and 10-3 in Grand Slams.

Federer is seeking a ninth Wimbledon singles title which would move him level on the all-time list with Martina Navra-tilova while Nadal is eyeing his

third, and first since beating Tomas Berdych in 2010.

Since then Wimbledon has often resembled a house of horrors for Nadal with shock losses to journeymen like Steve Darcis, Lukas Rosol and Dustin Brown.

Irritated by being relegated to third seed behind Federer, despite being ranked two, he looks fired-up to reclaim the title and has dropped just one set so far, against Nick Kyrgios in a riv-eting second-round grudge match.

“Playing against Roger always is a unique situation,” Nadal said after beating Sam Querrey in the quarter-finals.

“Excited to be back on this court against him after 11 years.

“Means a lot for me and probably for him, too. Always I say the same: of course, the opportunities to play against each other every time are less, but we are still here,” he said.

It is easy to forget there is no

silverware at stake today, with the winner likely to play defending champion Novak Djokovic, the Serb who could eventually surpass both of them in the all-time Grand Slam title haul, in the final.

But it has the feel of a final.

Federer, bidding to reach his 12th Wim-bledon final, has dropped two sets so far, and has looked in fine fettle.

While much water has passed under the bridge since 2008,

somewhere in the darker recesses of Fed-erer’s mind will be the bitter imprint of one of his most crushing defeats.

With the clock ticking on their careers, today’s clash could be his last chance to set the record straight, although he says Nadal is a far superior player to the 2008 version.

“Haven’t played each other in a long, long time on this

surface,” Federer said.

episode today when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal meet for a place in the Wimbledon final.

Much has changed since t h a t e p i cSunday night in 2008 when, as the laststrands of daylight ebbed away, Nadal dethroned theking of Centre Court in a rain-hit final that will forever be part

he wore as a 22 yearhave been rep

regular tennThey

both hand

bacbotbwr

at timform

poraendu

Feapproh i s

birthdaNadal is

they remtwo central

men’s tennis with18 Grand Slamrespectively.

They have times since that epsetter when Nadal

ting

has e of

hock teve

ustin

ated erer, , he title

et so riv-

udge

oger on,” Sam ls. this

ears.and

ays I the

ainst less, d.

is no

in the all-time Grand Slam title haul, in the final.

But it has the feel of a final.

Federer, bidding to reach his 12th Wim-bledon final, has dropped two sets sofar, and has looked in finefettle.

While much water has passed under the bridge since 2008,

somewhere in the darkerrecesses of Fed-erer’s mind will bethe bitter imprint of one of his mostcrushing defeats.

the 2008 version.“Haven’t played each other

in a long, long time on this surface,” Federer

said.

Roger Federer

Rafael Nadal

Men’s tennis returns to the scene of its most dramatic episode today when Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal meet for a place in the final.

Hamilton aims to bounce back with record sixth home victoryAFP SILVERSTONE

Lewis Hamilton is aiming to bounce back from a rare weekend of disappointment by winning his home British Grand Prix for a record sixth time this weekend -- and in front of the biggest crowd at the historic Silverstone circuit in nearly three decades.

After suffering in the heat and rarefied atmosphere of Aus-tria’s Styrian Alps, where he fin-ished a hot-and-bothered fifth two weeks ago, the defending world champion and his Mer-cedes team are expected to revel in the gentler undulations and wider mix of corners in cooler conditions in central England.

A sixth victory overall and fifth in six years at a track he loves would also be his seventh in 10 races this year and extend his 31-point lead ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas in the drivers’ championship.

“This is the race that has become the most anticipated event of the season for me and it is the weekend I always enjoy the most,” said Hamilton, who was quick to celebrate Wednes-day’s confirmation of a new five-year contract that will keep the British Grand Prix on the Formula One calendar until 2024.

“Having the support of your country concentrated into one weekend really makes for the

most incredible few days. It is difficult to count what you gain from all that positivity -- every-one’s energy is priceless.”

If he wins, Hamilton will move clear of fellow Briton Jim Clark and Frenchman Alain Prost, with whom he shares the current record of five wins.

After suffering their first defeat after an unprecedented run of eight victories, Mercedes are keen to restore their supremacy in the team’s home event -- both the car and engine factories are based close to Silverstone.

“The high temperatures in Austria exposed our vulnerability and meant we could not chal-lenge to win,” said team boss Toto Wolff.

“But, fortunately, the English summer is known for more mod-erate temperatures so cooling should not be such a major issue.

“We’ve had some of our best performances this year on tracks with a wide range of corner speeds so, on paper, we should be in relatively good form.”

His Ferrari counterpart Mattia Binotto played down their chances of a repeat of Sebastian Vettel’s triumph last year, despite their stronger showing in Austria where Charles Leclerc finished second from pole behind the tri-umphant Max Verstappen of Red Bull.

Four-time world champion Vettel has gone 17 races since last August without a win and lies 76

points adrift of Hamilton in the title race.

Victory in Austria lifted Ver-stappen ahead of the German and he and Red Bull, based at nearby Milton Keynes, with big local home support, may also be a major threat to Hamilton’s home-coming dream after flying in from Los Angeles.

“Max has been the best in the world, arguably, over the last 12 months,” said his team boss Christian Horner.

“He is the coming man. This sport is crying out for more drivers like Max.” Beyond the top three teams, McLaren will seek to make an impression notably after confirming an unchanged driver line-up, including British rookie Lando Norris, 19, for next year.

Silverstone officials believe the allure of the drivers and an encouraging weather forecast will result in the biggest attendance since the days of ‘Mansell-mania’ in the early 1990s. Last year’s race-day crowd of 140,500 was the biggest of the season and Silverstone boss Stuart Pringle said he expects that to be beaten.

“This is going to be the largest since Mansell brought people here in their droves in 1992,” he said.

The Silverstone circuit, once a wartime airfield, hosted the first World Championship Grand Prix in 1950 and, along with Italy, has been an ever-present since.

Drivers’ Standings1. Lewis Hamilton (GBR) 197 pts, 2. Valtteri Bot-

tas (FIN) 166, 3. Max Verstappen (NED) 126, 4.

Sebastian Vettel (GER) 123, 5. Charles Leclerc

(MON) 105, 6. Pierre Gasly (FRA) 43, 7. Carlos

Sainz Jr (ESP) 30, 8. Lando Norris (GBR) 22, 9.

Kimi Raikkonen (FIN) 21, 10. Daniel Ricciardo

(AUS) 16, 11. Nico Huelkenberg (GER) 16, 12.

Kevin Magnussen (DEN) 14, 13. Sergio Perez

(MEX) 13, 14. Daniil Kvyat (RUS) 10, 15. Alexan-

der Albon (THA) 7, 16. Lance Stroll (CAN) 6, 17.

Romain Grosjean (FRA) 2, 18. Antonio Giovinazzi

(ITA) 1

Constructors’ Standings 1. Mercedes 363 pts, 2. Ferrari 228, 3. Red Bull

169, 4. McLaren 52, 5. Renault 32, 6. Alfa Romeo

Racing 22, 7. Racing Point 19, 8. Toro Rosso 17, 9.

Haas 16

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS

Mercedes’ British driver

Lewis Hamilton smiles

during the drivers’ press conference

at Silverstone Motor Racing

Circuit in Silverstone,

central England, yesterday.

Kubica hopes updates can kick-start Williams’ poor seasonAFP SILVERSTONE

Robert Kubica is hoping that an upgrade package intro-duced for the British Grand Prix can kick-start Williams’ season and herald this week-end’s celebrations of Frank Williams’ 50 years in charge.

The Pole, who has returned to Formula One this year after recovering from career-threatening injuries following a rally accident, said it is important the upgrades work to help determine the team’s progress.

“I hope, and this is the plan, that this is a first step,” he said. “We hope they will work well and give us a step forward. Although it will not be big, it’s still important.”

Williams has struggled this year. The team is without a point and has failed to progress from Q1, but despite languishing in pursuit of their rivals they remain defiantly optimistic 50 years on from their founder’s debut as team principal.

“We need to know they deliver what we’re expecting so, in the future, we can build up confidence and hopefully start to move in the right direction. Hopefully, also, this package can add some down-force which is so helpful in F1.”

Williams’ updates are concentrated on airflow around the ‘barge-boards’ to aid aerodynamic per-formance. The team is using its home race weekend to cel-ebrate Frank Williams’ five decades in F1, which began when he bought a Brabham chassis to enter the 1969 championship after creating Frank Williams Racing Cars.

Thomas silences doubters as Teuns wins Stage 6 at TourAFP LA PLANCHE DES BELLES FILLES

Defending Tour de France champion Geraint Thomas defied his doubters yesterday as Belgian Dylan Teuns won Stage 6 and his breakaway partner Giulio Ciccone snatched the yellow jersey by just a few seconds on an iconic mountain stage.

Teuns won the ultra-tough mountain stage to Planche des Belles Filles when he and Ciccone crossed the summit finish line as the sole survivors of a mass breakaway.

“It was so steep, but I love these kind of finishes,” said Teuns.

“It was a good big breakaway group,” said Teuns.

“That helped keep us out ahead, five of us were Belgians too.”

“When it came down to the two of us, we stayed calm, we talked about it,” said the winner, hinting the pair did a deal for a win-win instead of risking it all by not collaborating.

Ciccone was less calm about his feat.

“It’s just unbelievable,” said the Italian after taking the overall lead from Frenchman Julian Alaphilippe by just six

seconds. Alaphilippe put in a heroic defence of his lead, but missed out due to the bonus seconds over the final two summits saw the young Italian edge ahead of him.

The stage ended up as a battle not only for the stage and the overall lead but for the psy-chological control of the race.

This was the 2019 Tour’s first foray into the mountains a stage that the defending champion, Welshman Geraint Thomas, had described as ‘the big day’.

Chris Froome won the first ever finish here in 2012 to confirm his potential before he went on to win the 2013 Tour, and Thomas must have sensed something special.

Just behind the breakaway pair, Thomas gave food for thought to those who had called him a one-hit wonder after his 2018 win, who raised eyebrows when he lost a few seconds on a climb at Epernay earlier in the week and who had tipped Ineos team-mate Egan Bernal.

“I don’t listen to tips,” said Thomas.

“I felt pretty good. I thought it would be more of a solid day.” “I was feeling good but I was unsure. I thought the steep climbs weren’t my cup of tea.”

Thomas and Bernal, who dropped nine seconds to the Welshman, were part of an impressive Ineos team effort that controlled the pace over the most of the course as the peloton crossed seven mountains.

Thomas waited until first Mikel Landa, then Thibaut Pinot and, finally, the overnight leader Alaphilippe himself had attacked before showing his form was back after a nasty fall in the Tour de Suisse in June.

Other good performances on the day came from Briton Adam Yates, Irishman Dan Martin and Frenchman Thibaut Pinot, who grew up in the region.

Three of the overall con-tenders lost significant time as 2014 champion Vincenzo Nibali, Jumbo Visma captain Steven Kruijswijk and, to a greater extent, Frenchman Romain Bardet suffered on the slopes.

Dylan Teuns reacts after winning Stage 6 yesterday.

18 FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019SPORT

Group defeat no bother for Kiwis ahead of final

AFP MANCHESTER

New Zealand captain Kane Williamson insisted the fact his side lost to World Cup final opponents England earlier in the tournament would have no bearing on Sunday’s showpiece match at Lord’s.

The Black Caps, who only reached the last four on net run-rate, upset the odds to beat group table-toppers India by 18 runs in a dramatic semi-final at Old Trafford on Wednesday.

And after what New Zealand media quickly dubbed ‘The Man-chester Miracle’, the understated Williamson insisted the 2015 runners-up had every chance of going one better and winning their first World Cup title.

Williamson is confident despite a 119-run loss to England in the initial 10-team group stage.

“Every game throughout the round-robin was worth a couple of points so they were all important,” Williamson said.

“Obviously a semi-final is worth a few more than two points. But, you know, we’ll go into another match and try to implement similar things that are important to our side, that gives us the best chance of success.

Asked what this win would mean for cricket in New Zealand, where rugby union’s world champion All Blacks dominate the sporting scene, Williamson said: “I don’t think it will change the number one sport.

“I’m sure people back home

are pretty excited and, you know, another great opportunity to play in a World Cup final.

“Only every four years do you get the opportunity to play in a World Cup, let alone make a final,” added Williamson, as wives and girlfriends of the New Zealand squad, many clad in replica shirts, together with some of the players’ children, mingled on the outfield at Old Trafford.

“But at the same time, we just want to reflect on the good things we did in this match and the things we want to improve on.”

New Zealand made 239 for eight on a tricky pitch, Ross

Taylor top-scoring with 74 and Williamson contributing 67 as the two senior batsmen showed their class again.

But the crucial phase of the match came when Matt Henry and Trent Boult ripped through a much vaunted top order to reduce India to 24 for four in 10 overs. Not even a defiant rear-guard seventh-wicket stand of 116 between veteran former captain MS Dhoni (50) and all-rounder Ravindra Jadeja (77) could deny New Zealand victory.

The game was still just about in the balance when Dhoni was run out by a brilliant

direct hit from Martin Guptill.This has been a woeful tour-

nament with the bat for the opener, with Guptill -- the leading run-scorer at the 2015 World Cup -- out for just one, his fifth single score in this edition, when the rain-interrupted game began on Tuesday.

But Williamson said: “He’s probably the only man on the pitch that could perhaps create that run-out.

“Contributions can come in so many different ways. For him to pull off what was a significant turning point in the match was special.”

New Zealand’s captain Kane Williamson (centre) and team-mates wait for a review decision during the World Cup semi-final against India in Manchester on Wednesday.

New Zealanders relish ‘Miracle in Manchester’REUTERS WELLINGTON

New Zealand’s victory over heavy favourites India in the World Cup semi-finals was as surprising to fans at home as it was to the thousands of Indian supporters at Old Trafford and millions more watching on tele-vision.

Kane Williamson’s side produced an 18-run victory over India to advance to Sun-day’s final at Lord’s against either Australia or hosts England.

“Miracle in Manchester”, several media outlets used as the headlines for their online reports yesterday, with special praise reserved for a one-handed catch by James Neesham and a run out by Martin Guptill that swung the game in their favour.

The New Zealand Herald said Guptill’s run out of Dhoni, arguably the world’s best fin-isher in ODI cricket, was redemption for a poor run of form with the bat, while Stuff Media said he had gone “From zero to hero”.

Just a few hours earlier, few had given the team much hope after they stumbled into the semi-finals on the back of three successive losses.

Superb swing bowling by Matt Henry and Trent Boult, however, reduced India to 5-3 before arguably the catch of the tournament by Neesham left the 2011 champions in trouble at 24-4.

A 116-run partnership between Ravindra Jadeja (77) and MS Dhoni brought India back into the game and the pair looked well set to launch in the final three overs.

Jadeja’s dismissal in the 48th over, then Dhoni’s run out from a direct hit by Guptill four balls later effectively ended India’s chances of reaching the 240 needed.

Fans in New Zealand stayed up into the early hours watching the India innings unfold, with the country’s Sports Minister Grant Robertson providing a running com-mentary on his Twitter feed.

“One for the true believers,”

Robertson, who is also the country’s finance minister, wrote at the conclusion of the match.

“What a game from Kane Williamson with bat and with captaincy. How proud? PROUD.”

Robertson’s fellow politi-cians in Britain for their own Parliamentary Cricket World Cup told Radio New Zealand they had descended on a local pub to watch the game and erupted into cross-party hugs and high fives after the result.

Grant Elliott, who hit a six off the penultimate ball in the 2015 semi-final against South Africa that propelled them to the final against Australia, had a message for the team.

“Finals time!” the all-rounder wrote on Twitter.

“Let’s go one better than 2015.”

Media in New Zealand shower praise on the team particularly for a one-handed catch by

James Neesham and a run out by Martin Guptill that swung the game in their favour.

Srikkanth wants India to find middle-order balance

Fans shower praise on Jadeja for his gutsy knock

AFP MANCHESTER

Krishnamachari Srikkanth says India should hunt for a young option to settle their middle-order woes after the pre-tour-nament favourites suffered a shock World Cup semi-final exit on Wednesday.

Virat Kohli’s side crashed to an 18-run loss against New Zealand at Old Trafford after their batting fell apart against some quality new-ball bowling.

Needing just 240 to reach Sunday’s final, two-time cham-pions India slipped to 24 for four with star batsmen Rohit Sharma and Kohli back in the pavilion.

Ravindra Jadeja made a valiant 77 and put on 116 with MS Dhoni for the seventh wicket, but the New Zealand bowlers kept up the pressure to bowl India out for a total of 221.

“We’re still struggling to get the right middle order combi-nation,” former India captain Srikkanth wrote in his Interna-tional Cricket Council (ICC) Media column.

“Rishabh Pant is good but at number five we need to find someone as we’ve tried too many people there.

“We’ve tried Dinesh Karthik, we’ve also tried Jadeja, we’ve tried Vijay Shankar, three guys have been tried and they’ve not proved useful so maybe we can find a good youngster for No.5,” he added.

Pant fought back with a gritty 32 only to fall to left-arm spinner Mitchell Santner, who also accounted for the wicket of Hardik Pandya.

Srikkanth, a former chairman of the India selection committee, praised New Zea-land’s pace attack but said India’s batsmen should have handled Santner better.

“I also thought Mitchell Santner bowled brilliantly, but India gave him too much respect,” said Srikkanth.

“They should have played more positively against Santner. When I say positively, that doesn’t mean hitting out, it’s showing some sort of positivity against Santner, putting him under pressure,” the former Indian batsman added.

AFP NEW DELHI

Fans heaped praise yesterday on Ravindra Jadeja (pictured, below) after the “bits and pieces” cricketer emerged as the unlikely hero of a losing cause, silencing critics who had questioned his place in the star-packed Indian team.

The all-rounder top-scored with 77 to take India tantalis-ingly close to a win in their World Cup semi-final against New Zealand on Wednesday as they chased a modest 240.

Although India fell 18 runs short, Jadeja earned the respect of fans for his lion-hearted effort in the high-stakes clash.

“Jadeja showed his worth,” tweeted one user while another said his innings would be “remembered for a long time to come” for its sheer grit and tenacity.

Jadeja, 30, thanked fans for their support, promising to con-tinue giving his best “till my last breath”.

“Sports has taught me to keep on rising after every fall & never to give up,” he tweeted.

Jadeja seemed all fired up when he walked out to bat Wednesday after being written off as a “bits and pieces” player by Sanjay Manjrekar, a com-mentator and former India batsman.

When he reached his half-century, the 11th of his career, Jadeja twirled his bat like a sword -- his trademark cele-bration -- and appeared to gesture towards the media box where Manjrekar is usually seated.

Jadeja also impressed with his bowling, giving away just 34 runs while taking one wicket from 10 overs.

“@sanjaymanjrekar got Jadeja’s juices flowing! I am certain it had a positive effect on his game. Sometimes a kick on one’s ego can have a pos-itive impact,” tweeted India’s Olympic shooting medallist Abhinav Bindra.

We’re still struggling to get the right middle order combination: Srikkanth

Woakes hails ‘incredible’ England after big win AFP BIRMINGHAM

Chris Woakes saluted England’s “incredible” eight-wicket demo-lition of Australia as the hosts swaggered into their first World Cup final since 1992.

Woakes won the man-of-the-match award at Edgbaston after taking 3-20 in a lethal eight-over spell that included the key wicket of opener David Warner.

Thanks to Woakes and fellow pacemen Jofra Archer, Australia collapsed to 14-3 and never really recovered as they were dismissed for 223.

England took just 32.1 overs to reach their victory target and book their final date with New Zealand at Lord’s on Sunday.

Woakes admitted it was a perfect day for England, who have never won the 50-over World Cup.

“I’m pretty speechless. It was an incredible performance from the whole team, started well with

the bowling and then the batting was outstanding,” Woakes told Sky Sports.

“The way we have produced the goods shows how good we are and we’re really pleased.

“I don’t think it was a bad wicket, we just found the right length and they had to rebuild and we kept the pressure on.

“We got off to a flyer and when chasing a relatively small total, that’s the difference,” he added.

Woakes admitted England’s

stars had been nervous ahead of their country’s first World Cup semi-final since 1992, but they quickly banished the butterflies with a blistering start.

“There were some nerves around this morning, a few anxious people in the dressing room but that’s natural,” Woakes said.

“I just got my length wrong for the first ball. A world-class player in David Warner is going to put that away. But I got my length right after that and felt good.”

England have lost all three of their previous World Cup finals, against Pakistan in 1992, Aus-tralia in 1987 and the West Indies in 1979.

Asked how it felt to help take England to within touching dis-tance of their first World Cup crown, Woakes said his team had tried their best to block out the potentially historic nature of their campaign.

“We have tried not to think about getting to the final, it hasn’t

sunk in yet,” the fast bowler replied.

He added: “We were tipped

as favourites so it was important to get to the semi-final in the first place and then to win this in this

fashion against this Australia side on the best ground in the world is amazing.”

England’s Chris Woakes (left) celebrates with team-mates after dismissing Australia’s Peter Handscomb during their World Cup semi-final in Birmingham, yesterday.

I’m pretty speechless.

It was an incredible

performance from the

whole team, started

well with the bowling

and then the batting

was outstanding:

Chris Woakes

19FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019 SPORT

AS Roma unveil new away kit sporting Qatar Airways logo

An AS Roma player wearing the new away kit of the Italian football giants, sporting Qatar Airways logo. AS Roma and Qatar Airways last year announced a multi-year partnership that sees Qatar Airways become the club's official shirt sponsor. The sponsorship, the largest ever signed by the club and one of the biggest ever agreed by an Italian football club, will see the airline’s logo adorn the front of the first team’s shirts until the end of the 2020-21 season.

Al Attiyah extends lead withfifth successive stage win

Overdrive Racing’s Qatari driver Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah on his way to win the fifth stage of the Silk Way Rally in Mandalgovi, Mongolia, yesterday.

Samba set for Monaco Diamond League

Qatari athlete Abderrahman Samba trains with his coach ahead of the Monaco Diamond League meet, yesterday in Monaco. The 400m hurdles specialist will be attempting to beat his personal best in the men’s 400m event, set earlier this year (44.60) when he gets off the blocks at the newly constructed Stade Louis II. He will count on some sterling opposition from Steven Gardiner, reigning world number two (personal best of 43.87 in 2018) and Davide RE, Italian record holder in a time of 44.77.

THE PENINSULA MANDALGOVI, MONGOLIA

Overdrive Racing’s Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah and French navigator Matthieu Baumel extended their outright lead in the 2019 Silk Way Rally to 37min 25sec after claiming a fifth successive stage win on the 364.59km timed section between Ulaanbaatar and Mandalgovi yesterday.

Mandalgovi is the capital of the Dundgovi Province of Mongolia and lies around 300km south of the capital on the border of the Gobi Desert.

Al Attiyah has been in a class of his own this week, as he closes in on a first ever victory for himself and Toyota at the gruelling Silk Way Rally. The Qatari beat closest rival Matthieu Serradori by 3min 07sec to claim the stage win and extend his outright lead over the chasing pack headed by China’s Kun Lui and Frenchman Jérôme Pelichet.

Dutchman Erik van Loon and Frenchman Sebastien Delaunay are crewing the second of the Overdrive Toyotas and are fighting back well from time delays on stage two. Van Loon was third fastest on the fifth stage as he continues to push his way back towards the top 15 with five stages to run in Mongolia and China. He was classified in an unofficial 21st overall after SS5.

Al Attiyah won his third suc-cessive section with a stage win on the 243km stint into the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday. The Qatari finished the special 6min 13sec in front of Russia’s Denis Krotov,

despite a flat tyre, and extended his outright lead over Kun Lui to 21min 10sec.

The Qatari said: “Whenever we find ourselves in good conditions we try to push. We were trying to make a gap at the front. It is never easy to open the track but I trust my co-driver Matthieu.”

Van Loon suffered serious trans-mission issues on the second stage and lost his chance of winning the event. The Dutchman bounced back with the fifth quickest time on the third stage into the Mongolian capital but he was still in the lower reaches of the leader board.

The fourth special comprised a loop around the vast terrain to the east of Ulaanbaatar. In a day’s route of 476.96km, 470.19km were timed against the clock in the longest timed section of the entire event.

Overdrive Racing completed a 1-2 finish on SS4 with Al Attiyah again the class of the field and completing the high-speed section 4min 13sec ahead of Van Loon. The stage win also enabled the Qatari to extend his overall lead over Lui Kun to 26min 41sec. Van Loon moved up to 32nd overall in the car category.

Saudi Arabia’s Yazeed Al Rajhi and German navigator Dirk von Zitzewitz were forced out of the rally in the third Overdrive Racing car after terminal mechanical problems thwarted their progress on the second stage between Baikalsk and Ulan-Ude in Eastern Siberia.

Today, teams tackle a special stage of 408.15km in a day’s route of 411.75km between Mandalgovi and Dalanzadgad in Mongolia.

2019 SILK WAY RALLY – POSITIONS AFTER SS51. Nasser Saleh Al Attiyah (QAT)/Matthieu Baumel (FRA) Toyota Hilux Overdrive 11hrs 46min 41sec

2. Kun Lui (CHN)/Pan Hingyu (CHN) Hanwei SMG Buggy 12hrs 24min 06sec

3. Jérôme Pelichet (FRA)/Pascal Larroque (FRA) Optimus 12hrs 29min 55sec

4. Denis Krotov (RUS)/Dmytro Tsyro (RUS) MINI John Cooper Works Rally 12hrs 32min 43sec

5. Han Wei (CHN)/Liao Min (CHN) Geely SMG Buggy 12hrs 34min 06sec

6. Zi Yungang Zi (CHN)/Wang Zengrong (CHN) Hanwei SMG Buggy 12hrs 39min 34sec

Nigeria grab late winner to reach Africa Cup of Nations semi-finalsREUTERS CAIRO

Nigeria sneaked into the Africa Cup of Nations semi-finals when defender William Troost Ekong scored with one minute remaining to give them a 2-1 win over a gallant South Africa as the tournament served up more drama on Wednesday.

Troost Ekong, left unmarked, turned the ball in with his knee from a corner to leave the South Africans heart-broken after they had fought their way back into the match which seemed to be out of their reach.

Samuel Chukwueze put the Super Eagles in front when he scored at the second attempt in the 27th minute.

Nigeria stayed in control, missed chances and paid the price when

Bongani Zungu headed an equaliser in the 71st minute with South Africa’s first shot on target. The goal was initially ruled offside but then awarded after a VAR check - the first major intervention by technology since it was introduced for the quarter-finals.

Nigeria, who will meet Ivory Coast or Algeria in the last four, went ahead with the first really dangerous attack of the match. Alex Iwobi burst down the left and pulled the ball back into the area to Chukwueze whose first effort was blocked by a defender but scored after it rebounded back to him.

Chukwueze, overlooked for the 3-2 last 16 win over Cameroon, was a con-stant menace down the right and created another chance after skipping past his marker but Dean Furman made a timely interception to deny him. Nigeria looked

too strong all-round for their rivals and nearly extended their lead early in the second half with a 25-metre free kick from Oghenekaro Etebo but Ronwen Williams turned it on the bar.

South Africa, who sensationally knocked out hosts Egypt in the previous round, struggled to get a look-in but the Super Eagles repeatedly failed to turn the mazy runs of Ahmed Musa and Chukwueze into goals.

Then, from out of the blue, South Africa equalised as Percy Tau lofted a free kick into the area, it was flicked on and superbly headed in by Zungu. It was initially disallowed but then given by a VAR check that took nearly three minutes. Extra-time was looming until Nigeria won a corner on the left, Wil-liams missed the ball and Troost Ekong prodded it home.

FIFA reveals harsher punishment for racist behaviour

AFP PARIS

FIFA wants teams to auto-matically forfeit matches if their supporters are found to be guilty of racist and other discriminatory behaviour, world football’s governing body has announced.

“Unless there are exceptional circumstances, if a match is abandoned by the referee because of racist and/or discriminatory conduct, the match shall be declared forfeited,” FIFA say in their new Disci-plinary Code launched yesterday.

The measure can be applied after the referee has applied the “three-step pro-cedure” for such incidents, which includes requesting a public announcement to call for any such behaviour to cease, suspending the match until it stops, and finally, abandoning the match altogether.

The updated Disci-plinary Code expands the scope of what is considered discriminatory behaviour to anything related to “race, skin colour, ethnic, national or social origin, gender, dis-ability, language, religion, political opinion, wealth, birth or any other status or any other reason”.

The Disciplinary Code only applies to official FIFA competitions, including the qualifiers for the 2022 World Cup.

Earlier this year, Mon-tenegro were ordered by European governing body UEFA to play a home game behind closed doors as pun-ishment for racist chants by supporters during a Euro 2020 qualifier against England.

Nigeria’s William Troost-Ekong (left) scores their second goal against South Africa during the Africa Cup of Nations quarter-final match on

Wednesday.

S Africa need to put plans into action: Coach BaxterREUTERS CAIRO

South Africa have impressive plans for the development of soccer in the country but need to be better at putting them into practice, according to national team coach Stuart Baxter.

After seeing his side knocked out of the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon) in a 2-1 defeat by Nigeria on Wednesday, the Eng-lishman began addressing the “big question” of the team’s future.

“It’s not only talking about Bafana Bafana as a team, you are taking about individual players, their experiences playing abroad, you are talking about the

youth development of the country, you are talking about talent identification, coach education,” he said.

“So we have some very good plans in South Africa but the word implementation needs to be stronger.”

Baxter added: “I think if we can con-tinue the development programme, the Bafana Bafana will gain from that -- but it needs supporting. Any strategies we have to develop football needs to be sup-ported by everybody.”

Although Baxter did not mention the South Africa Football Association (SAFA) directly, his remarks appeared aimed at them.

He has never been afraid to hide his

irritation with the governing body, telling them last year to “get their house in order” after they dallied over setting up friendly internationals.

South Africa, who won Afcon at the first attempt in 1996 but have not been able to replicate that success, made it out of the group phase for only the second time since the 2002 finals.

They sneaked into the last 16 as the fourth best of the six third-placed teams in the group stage with performances which earned some fierce criticism back home but then stunned hosts Egypt 1-0 before losing to a late Nigeria goal.

Baxter said it had been a “long and difficult” journey since he began a second

stint in charge of the side in May 2017.He began with a shock away win to

Nigeria in their opening Afcon qualifier but that was followed by a disastrous World Cup qualifying campaign where home-and-away defeats by Cape Verde scuppered their chances of going to Russia.

However, they then went on a 15-match unbeaten run which ended with defeat to Ivory Coast in their opening Afcon match.

“Since we played that game in Nigeria, there has been a massive change in the face of the squad,” said Baxter. “I think we have had 30 debutants during the last two years.”

AFP BIRMINGHAM

England booked their place in the World Cup final against New Zealand with a dominant eight-wicket win over reigning cham-pions Australia at Edgbaston yesterday.

Jason Roy hit a blistering 85 as England reached a victory target of 224 with a mammoth 107 balls to spare after restricting Australia.

Openers Roy and Jonny Bairstow (34) put on 124 for the first wicket, their fourth consec-utive century stand.

England, losing finalists in 1979, 1987 and 1992, will now face New Zealand, who have also yet to win the World Cup after fin-ishing runners-up to Australia four years ago, in Sunday’s final at Lord’s following the Black Caps’ surprise semi-final win over India.

“I’m pretty speechless,” said man-of-the-match Chris Woakes. “It was an incredible performance from the whole team. It started with the bowling performance and then the way they knocked that off was outstanding.

“There were some nerves around this morning but that’s natural going into a semi-final. The way we produced the goods just showed how good we are and where we are at as a team.”

Roy, who missed three matches earlier in the tournament with a torn hamstring, was in particularly good form, hitting left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc and Nathan Lyon for sixes.

Australia were in desperate need of early wickets after suf-fering a top-order collapse on the way to being dismissed for 223, with the record five-time cham-pions thankful for Steve Smith’s battling 85.

All three of England’s defeats this tournament -- including a 64-run group- stage loss to Aus-tralia -- have come batting second but Roy and Bairstow showed few signs of nerves in Birmingham.

Australia captain Aaron Finch turned to Steve Smith’s occasional leg-spin in a desperate bid to break the partnership.

Smith was booed by a large crowd, a reflection of the former Australia captain’s role in a ball-tampering scandal in South Africa that saw him banned for 12 months.

But the jeers turned to cheers

as Roy hit three huge straight sixes in as many balls.

Bairstow fell lbw to Starc, who in the process set a new record for most wickets at a single World Cup of 27.

Roy was in sight of a hundred when he was given out caught behind down the legside by wicketkeeper Alex Carey off fast bowler Pat Cummins. The batsman was visibly angry and had to be ushered away from the crease by square leg umpire Marais Erasmus. England had earlier squandered their lone review.

Test skipper Joe Root (49 not out) and England captain Eoin Morgan (45 not out) finished the job as the crowd chanted “cricket’s coming home”.

Defeat meant Australia suffered their first loss in eight World Cup semi-finals.

Earlier, Woakes and Adil Rashid each took three wickets apiece.

Woakes struck twice early on at his Warwickshire home ground as Aus-tralia slumped to 14-3 after winning the toss. Australia’s prolific opening pair of David Warner and Finch, as well as Peter Handscomb, were all back in the pavilion by the seventh over.

Warner, who like Smith walked out to boos because of his role in the ball-tampering scandal, returned to even louder cat-calls after being dismissed for nine. Smith and Alex Carey steadied the innings with a fourth-wicket stand of 103 but wickets tumbled at regular intervals and Australia were unable to set England a testing target.

It feels good to be in

the final again after

the year I have had.

I have just needed

matches to feel

good and do what I

do best and that is

play tennis. I love

what I do. I have a

great job and I am

still pretty good at

it. I get a remarkable

experience every

time: Williams

AUSTRALIAD. Warner c Bairstow b Woakes ........................... 9A. Finch lbw b Archer .............................................0S. Smith run out (Buttler) ....................................85P. Handscomb b Woakes ....................................... 4A. Carey c sub (Vince) b Rashid ...........................46M. Stoinis lbw b Rashid ..........................................0G. Maxwell c Morgan b Archer .............................22P. Cummins c Root b Rashid .................................. 6M. Starc c Buttler b Woakes ................................ 29J. Behrendorff b Wood ...........................................1N. Lyon not out ........................................................ 5Extras (lb6, w10) ................................................... 16Total (all out, 49 overs) ........................................ 223Fall of wickets: 1-4, 2-10, 3-14, 4-117, 5-118, 6-157, 7-166, 8-217, 9-217, 10-223

Bowling: Woakes 8-0-20-3, Archer 10-0-32-2 (w2), Stokes 4-0-22-0, Wood 9-0-45-1 (w4), Plunkett 8-0-44-0 (w3), Rashid 10-0-54-3 (w1)ENGLAND (Target 224)J. Roy c Carey b Cummins ....................................85J. Bairstow lbw b Starc .........................................34J. Root not out .......................................................49E. Morgan not out .................................................45Extras (lb1, w12) ....................................................13Total (two wickets, 32.1 overs) ............................ 226Fall of wickets: 1-124, 2-147 Did not bat: B. Stokes, J. Buttler, L. Plunkett, C. Woakes, A. Rashid, J. Archer, M. WoodBowling: Behrendorff 8.1-2-38-0 (w1), Starc 9-0-70-1 (w3), Cummins 7-0-34-1 (w2), Lyon 5-0-49-0, Smith 1-0-21-0 (w1), Stoinis 2-0-13-0 (w1)

SCOREBOARD

PAGE | 17 PAGE | 19Hamilton aims to bounce back

with record sixth home win

Al Attiyah storms ahead withfifth successive stage win

20FRIDAY 12 JULY 2019

England thump Australia to reach finalNew World Cup champions guaranteed as hosts book title clash with Kiwis

Serena sets up Halep showdownwith record Slam haul in sightsAFP LONDON

Simona Halep is the last woman standing between Serena Williams and achieving her long held ambition of equalling Margaret Court’s Grand Slam title record after both recorded easy victories in their Wimbledon semi-finals yesterday.

Seven-time champion Wil-liams made short work of plucky unseeded Czech Barbora Strycova, whose experience of her first ever Grand Slams singles semi-final in her 53rd campaign lasted just under an hour as she lost 6-1, 6-2.

Former world number one Halep’s clash with Ukrainian Elina Svitolina lasted a bit longer but the 27-year-old ran out a 6-1, 6-3 victor to become the first Romanian woman to reach the Wimbledon final.

Williams has missed the chance to equal Australian Court’s record on two occasions since returning from giving birth -- losing last year’s Wimbledon final and then a bad-tempered defeat in the US Open final.

“It feels good to be in the final again after the year I have had,” said 37-year-old Williams.

“I have just needed matches to feel good and do what I do best and that is play tennis

“I love what I do. I have a great job and I am still pretty good at it. I get a remarkable experience every time.”

Williams produced a dom-inant performance on Thursday

which has not always been the case during the Championships and she said she would not be taking seventh-seeded Halep lightly.

“She’s a tough opponent,” said Williams. “We always have great matches. I look forward to it.”

Strycova, who never managed to impose her delightful stroke-filled game on her opponent, at least has the conso-lation of perhaps winning the women’s doubles.

Halep, who was French Open champion in 2018, will be playing in her fifth Grand Slam final.

“It’s an amazing feeling but I

am also excited and nervous. It is one of the best moments of my life,” said Halep.

“The match was not easy, the games were long and went deep.

“I fought hard to win this match and I was strong mentally and physically and had the right tactics.”

Halep, who had knocked out new star, 15-year-old Coco Gauff in the last 16, lost in her previous semi-final appearance at Wim-bledon to Eugenie Bouchard in 2014.

However, she said she was a different player now and had taken to grass.

“I have more experience, I

don’t give up anymore,” se said.“I plan to be the best version

of myself and fight to the end.”The easy manner in which

former world number one Halep wrapped up the match had not looked on the cards at the outset.

Svitolina, the first Ukrainian woman to reach a Grand Slam semi-final, and Halep traded shots aplenty and break points in the opening two games which took over 20 minutes to complete but Halep emerged on top with a 2-0 lead.

Svitolina, being watched from the players box by her English coach Andy Bettles and French boyfriend and ATP star Gael Monfils, briefly raised her game to break back.

However, Halep broke again immediately and 24-year-old Svitolina gave an indication of her increasing frustration when

she netted a simple volley and lashed out, kicking the ball into the net.

Worse was to come for Svi-tolina on her next service game wheh Halep produced a stunning shot to go 5-1.

The 27-year-old Romanian dashed across court to get to Svi-tolina’s drop shot and flashed it cross court.

Halep, who had not faced a seeded player until Svitolina, faced some resistance as she served for the set eventually taking it on her sixth set point.

Although Svitolina stayed with Halep for the first part of the second set, the self-belief and fight had gone and when the Romanian broke for 4-3 it was game over.

All that was left was for Halep to blow a kiss skywards in cele-bration on sealing the match.

Serena Williams in action during her Wimbledon women’s singles semi-final match against

Barbora Strycova.

WIMBLEDON: WOMEN’S SEMI-FINALS

Serena Williams (USA x11) bt Barbora Strycova (CZE) 6-1, 6-2

Simona Halep (ROM x7) bt Elina Svitolina (UKR x8) 6-1, 6-3

uusstts rraaalliaaa’’’s off DDDaaavvviddd dddl aass PPPeettteeer r rcckk iinnn ththheee hhh

veer.SSmmmmiittthh

ee oooof f hhiff ss speerierriiperiieripperieriperiperier nngngggngnggngnngggngng gng gggouderudederudeisseded sede

CarrararCarCaCarareyeey eey yytthh ah a a h

3 bbbb3 ut uttuuutgugulululaarar r wwwewerrreewestts inginginggg i g

Australia suffer their

first loss in eight World

Cup semi-finals.

Jason Roy hits a blistering

85 as England reach a

victory target of 224 with

107 balls to spare.

England, losing finalists in

1979, 1987 and 1992, will

now face New Zealand,

who have also yet to

win the World Cup after

finishing runners-up to

Australia four years ago,

in Sunday’s final at Lord’s.

England’s Eoin Morgan and Joe

Root celebrate after winning

their ICC Cricket World Cup semi-

final against Australia in Edgbaston, Birmingham,

Britain, yesterday.

Romania’s Simona Halep in action against Ukraine’s Elina Svitolina during their semi-final match, yesterday.