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BUSINESS | 21 SPORT | 28

Volume 22 | Number 7106 | 2 RiyalsMonday 20 March 2017 | 21 Jumada II 1438

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Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with President of the State of Palestine, Mahmoud Abbas, at the Emiri Diwan, yesterday.

Saudi announces amnesty for violatorsJEDDAH: Crown Prince, Dep-uty Prime Minister and the Minister of Interior, Prince Mohammed bin Naif of Saudi Arabia, yesterday launched “A Nation Without Violations” campaign that focuses on solving the status of residency and labour law violators, Arab News reported. The pro-gramme will also help individuals who wish to solve their irregularities and be exempted from sanctions.

The Crown Prince urged residents to cooperate in achieving the goals of the campaign and asked violators to take advantage of the opportunity within 90 days, effective Wednesday, March 29.

The crown prince directed authorities to facili-tate the procedures of people who initiate to leave the country within the specified period and relieve them from all sanctions.

Emir & Abbas discuss developments in Palestine

Huda N V The Peninsula

Ensuring highest level of food safety in the country, Qatar is set to implement the GCC Guide on Control of

Imported Food from next month.

The regulations which will classify food items according to their potential to transmit food borne diseases, will be made mandatory by October 2017, the Ministry of Public Health said yesterday.

The new system is based on the common goal GCC nations to have an integrated and harmonised import inspection and certification system which is human health risk-based.

Commodities included in the new guideline include prod-ucts for human consumption as meat and meat products, milk and milk products, seafood, eggs and egg products, proc-essed food, assorted food products and honey and bee products.

Based on the GCC guide, all imported food will be subjected to health control at the point of entry to ensure that food com-plies with the GCC technical regulations and requirements. Exporting countries should pro-vide the assurance as d o c u m e n t a t i o n a n d certification.

“The guide includes the most important technical

principles for imported food control, before releasing them for consumption in the domes-tic market. The guide is scheduled to be implemented uniformly in all the GCC coun-tries,” said Wassan Abdullah Al Baker, Director of Food Safety and Environmental Health Department , at the Ministry of Public Health.

The system is mainly based on application of risk-based food control method. Foods will be classified according to their potential to transmit food borne disease rather than their intended end use. Food will be classified into three general categories: high, medium or low potential risk to human health. Consignments will also need health certificates according to the relevant requirements.

→ Continued on page 4

QNA

EMIR H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed with President of the State of Pales-tine, Mahmoud Abbas, means of enhancing the brotherly close relations and the latest develop-ments in the Palestinian territories.

President Abbas briefed the Emir on the latest developments on Palestinian arena, express-ing his thanks and appreciation for the efforts of Qatar in sup-porting the Palestinian cause. The meeting held at the Emiri Diwan, discussed the national reconciliation to unify Palestin-ian ranks.

The two leaders also exchanged views on a number of regional and international issues of common concern, especially international efforts aimed at reaching a lasting, just and comprehensive solution to the Palestinian cause, the estab-lishment of an independent State of Palestine with East Jerusalem as the capital as well as halting settlements practices and the continued Israeli aggressions against the Palestinian people.

→ Abbas Officially opens Palestinian School - page 2

GCC food guide to take effect next month

The Peninsula

The Meteorology Depart-ment has forecast strong winds today with chances

of scattered rains, thundery at times.

Offshore, the weather would be slightly dusty and partly cloudy with scattered rains, said the daily weather report issued by the Department yesterday.

The Department had ear-lier forecast the turbulent weather that the country has been experiencing over the past few days to settle by Tomorrow.

Today, wind inshore would be southeasterly to northeast-erly at a speed of 10 to 20 knots reaching 25 knots at places, decreasing to 08 to 16 knots late, while offshore it will be

northeasterly to southeasterly at a speed of 15-28 knots reach-ing 32 knots at places with thundery rain. Visibility will be 4 to 8 kilometers and 3 kilom-eters or less in some areas at times. The warm weather is expected to continue with tem-perature in Doha hovering between 22 and 29 degrees Celsius. → Picture on page 20

MONDAY F CUS

Anger at smoking near entrances of shopping centres

→ Page 3

CStrong winds and rain likely today

The Peninsula

Some of the finest Oud musi-cians in the world captivated the audience

with a spellbinding performance at the opening of the inaugural ‘The Fifth String’ Festival at Katara Opera House.

The festival, which will go on until tomorrow, features some of the greatest names in Oud music from Qatar, the Middle East and beyond, including France, Serbia, and Kosovo.

Speaking at the opening cer-emony, Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, General Manager of the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara, said: “The Oud festival comes under the series of initi-atives that Katara adopts to intertwine art and culture. The event bridges the gap between cultures, enforcing music as an essential pillar in building such bridges. The strings of the tradi-tional wooden instrument, the Oud, create music that every person, irrespective of where he is from, can identify with.”

The organisers of the event have made arrangements for a wide range of performances, that are guaranteed to interest both a casual visitor and the keen music

lover. These include concerts at Katara Opera House, perform-ances at Ziryab theatre and an Oud exhibition in building 19, gal-lery 1, and Khaliji sessions in

building 19 Gallery 2. These events feature performances by Arab musicians including famous names such as Khalid Al Shaikh from Bahrain, Dr Ibrahim Tami

from Kuwait, Salem Al Meqarshi from Oman, Ehab Mohammed from Saudi Arabia, and Mohamed Al Sulaiti from Qatar.

At Katara’s Amphitheatre, a Tanzanian band called Al-Salam and the French Speed Caravan Trio Band performed yesterday. Today’s programme will feature performances by the Armed Forces, Khaliji Oud session and other renowned musicians from 4pm to 4.30pm. At Ziryab’s the-atre, Oud Amateurs, supervised by Basir Al Najjar, will present their musical pieces starting at 3pm. Building 19, which houses ancient musical instruments including Oud, is open to visitors daily from 10am to 8pm.

A solo performance by an Omani artist will be held from 3pm until 4pm. A session titled ‘In memory of Pioneers’, will take place from 6pm to 7pm. At 11 am the history of Oud making will be presented by Nazih Ghad-ban and Maurance Farouk. An open-discussion about Ziryab’s music career will take place at building 19 tomorrow.

Oud festival features world's top musicians

Oud musicians performing at the opening of the ‘The Fifth String’ Festival at Katara Opera House.

The regulations which will classify food items according to their potential to transmit food borne diseases, will be made mandatory by October 2017, the Ministry of Public Health said yesterday.

Abbas opensPalestinianSchoolQNA

Palestinian President Mah-moud Abbas inaugurated yesterday the Palestinian

School in Doha in the presence of Minister of Education and Higher Education H E Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi.

The Palestinian President toured the school and got acquainted with its facilities and educational means before meet-ing with the educational staff and students.

At the end of the visit, Pres-ident Abbas presented the two

Ministers with souvenirs and signed the guestbook.

Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani laid

the foundation stone of the school which was established

thanks to an Emiri gesture. The school complex includes three

levels of elementary, middle school and high schools.

02 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017HOME

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with President of the State of Palestine Mahmoud Abbas at the Emiri Diwan yesterday. The leaders discussed the Palestinian national reconciliation to unify all Palestinians.

Emir meets Mahmoud Abbas

The Peninsula

Qatar Charity signed a cooperation agree-ment with the Children's Literature Centre, which aims at

enhancing joint work as part of the campaign "Tobacco-Free Nation 2" that targets primary school students, whereby the centre writes a story supporting the campaign's programme, and QC, then, makes it an animated movie.

Ali Atiq Al Abdullah, QC's executive director of local devel-opment, said, “Qatar Charity cooperates with all public and pri-vate organisations to contribute to local development and promo-tion of values. The signing of the agreement with the Children's Lit-erature Centre is to support "Tobacco-Free Nation" cam-paign." Al Abdullah said he looked forward to implementing further

joint activities with the Children's Literature Centre in the field of education in general, and child-hood programmes in particular, pointing out that this agreement will enhance the success of the campaign that aims at combat-ing smoking.

Asmaa Al Kuwari, Head of the Children's Literature Cen-tre, said: "QC signed a

cooperation agreement with Children's Literature Centre to protect the local community from the harms caused by smoking, mainly the children.”

She pointed out that the cen-tre, which was established five years ago, has ample experience in making presentations and telling stories that attract chil-dren's attention to this important topic. It also participated in many regional and international conferences and seminars.

She stressed that Qatar Char-ity will realise the campaigns' objectives as the Center deals with at least 10,000 children a year through its partnerships with a variety of organisations within the country and abroad. Al Kuwari added that the Centre's vision is to present valuable content to the Qatari and Arab children. She advised parents to support the campaign by avoiding smok-ing in front of their kids.

QC signs agreement with Children's Literature Centre

Fighting tobacco

Both sides plan joint work as part of the campaign "Tobacco-Free Nation 2" that targets primary school students.

Centre will write a story supporting the campaign which QC will make into an animated movie.

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas inaugurating the Palestinian School in Doha.

Sheikha Hind awards scholarships to UCL studentsThe Peninsula

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice-Chairperson and CEO of

Qatar Foundation, yesterday awarded scholarships to three students who attend UCL Qatar in acknowledgement of their academic achievements to date.

The UCL Qatar Academic Excellence Scholarship is awarded to students who have demonstrated outstanding aca-demic achievement prior to commencing their studies at the QF partner university.

Students are selected by the university’s Scholarship Panel, led by UCL Qatar Director Dr. Sam Evans, from those accepted onto UCL Qatar Master’s pro-grams. The awards aim to encourage the brightest aca-demic minds, who demonstrate a strong potential for research and academic excellence, to achieve the highest standards in their chosen disciplines of study.

The students being honored this year include: Eman Al

Shamari (MA Library and Infor-mation Studies), Elena Terranova (MA Museum and Gallery Prac-tice) and Suzanne Mirgani (MA Museum and Gallery Practice).

Dr Sam Evans commented

that, “UCL is one of the world's leading universities, founded in London to open up education to all on equal terms. Today our outstanding research and inno-vative teaching drive

entrepreneurial solutions to the world's major problems. UCL Qatar’s academic scholarships recognise the talent, potential, dedication and commitment among our top students who are

pursuing advanced studies in cultural heritage. In a highly competitive and demanding world in which academic excel-lence can have global impacts, our scholarships seek to encour-age the very best students in the world to consider studying at UCL Qatar, a partner of Qatar Foundation’s Education City.”

Sheikha Hind was given a guided tour of the UCL Qatar facility, within the Georgetown University building, by the Direc-tor accompanied by a number of teaching staff, before attend-ing a buffet lunch with staff and students.

Commenting on the schol-arship award, Eman Al Shamari, Student, said: “It’s a huge hon-our to receive this scholarship and I am extremely grateful to UCL Qatar and to Qatar Foun-dation for this opportunity to study at such a prestigious insti-tution. I am looking forward to getting involved in my studies and to contributing to the pres-ervation of Qatar’s cultural heritage in the future.”

H E Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani and UCL Qatar Director Dr Sam Evans with recipients of the UCL Qatar Academic Excellence Scholarship.

Training course for Quranteachers of KyrgyzstanQNA

A training course for teachers of Holy Quran from the Republic of

Kyrgyzstan began at Sheikh Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mah-moud Islamic Cultural Center yesterday.

The training course is organised by the Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs.

The Ministry held a similar workshop to 14 Russian Quran teachers in August last year.

The programme covers the skill of Quran teaching, using modern ways of teaching the holy Quran referring to the ori-gins of Islamic education and introducing the trainees to some of the concepts and issues of contemporary Islam.

In press statements, Chairman of the organising committee of Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani Holy Quran Contest and Director of Sheikh Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud Islamic Cultural Center Nasser Al Sulaiti said that such courses, which are held for Quran teachers in non Arabic-speak-ing countries, are aimed at strengthening the bonds of cooperation with Muslims, and realising the objectives of Sheikh Jassim bin Mohammed bin Thani contest in serving Holy Quran and Islam.

He noted that the work-shop aims at enhancing the skills of Holy Quran teachers who represent the cornerstone in Quran teaching centres.

The Peninsula

Continuing its ongoing investment in leading international and local

content for its Ooredoo tv customers, Ooredoo and OSN have announced free access to the ‘OSN Play’ service for all Ooredoo tv OSN package subscribers.

With this announcement, all new and existing Ooredoo tv

customers who are enjoying one of OSN’s entertainment packages - OSN Entertainment, OSN Premier, OSN Gold, Asia flavours packages; Pehla Prime, Pehla Variety, TFC and Sports package; or OSN Sports Extra - will now get free access to OSN Play, so customers can enjoy their favourite shows anytime, anywhere and on any device.

OSN Play is OSN’s award-winning online catch-up service

that contains 1,000’s of hours of premium entertainment including on demand movies, series, comedy, talk shows, Arabic series, lifestyle programmes, and 32 live-streaming channels including sports.

The Ooredoo tv OSN packages have been designed to fulfil the entertainment needs of every family member in the home and include a

comprehensive range of channels. Options include the OSN Entertainment bundle, QR 159/month, which offers 45 premium channels including a host of movie, sports, lifestyle and news genres, OSN Premier, QR 275/month, with 67 popular channels and the OSN Gold package, QR 325/month, including 74 of the very best OSN channels such as OSN Movies HD, OSN Home of HBO HD, OSN

Ya Hala Al Oula HD and OSN Ya Hala HD.

Ooredoo tv customers looking to enjoy OSN Play content on-the-go can register their Ooredoo tv account at play.osn.com now to get an OSN ID and password. Ooredoo tv offers features such as 4K resolution, time shift, Android apps, parental control, thousands of hours of on-demand content and much more.

Ooredoo tv OSN subscribers allowed free access to OSN Play

03MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 HOME

Sanaullah AtaullahThe Peninsula

Smoking in public places and inside shopping centres has drastically dropped over the past few years, thanks to the government’s crackdown.

However, many residents have raised concern over the increasing number of smokers puffing away at the entrances of shopping malls and other public locations.

The Peninsula noticed that shopping malls allowed their visitors to smoke cig-arettes and pipes freely at the entrances of their facilities.

“We do not have a designated area for smoking at the facility so you can smoke there – barely a few metres from the entrance and butt out in the dust-bin,” a security man at a shopping complex in the Old Airport area said when he was asked about the smoking policy of the complex.

Some facilities placed ashtrays out-side, near the entrances, an open invitation to the visitors and employees to smoke. However, a number of peo-ple The Peninsula spoke to registered their discontent over the authority’s lax-ity in stopping this tendency.

However, last week, the Central Municipal Council (CMC) discussed a proposal seeking a ban on smoking at the entrances of shopping complexes

across the country . The proposal was submitted by Abdurrahman Abdullah Al Khulaifi, a CMC Member.

“There is a phenomenon of smok-ing cigarettes at the entrances and exits of shopping complexes,” said Al Khu-laifi in his proposal.

“The visitors of such facilities, including children, women and senior citizens, faced the risk of passive smok-ing. They are forced to inhale nicotine-filled air. In addition, the prac-tice leaves a bad impression on visitors to such facilities. The stickers, bill boards and banners, placed on the buildings of service complexes, commercial facili-ties and workplaces of public and private sector, warning against the risks of smoking could not influence the behav-iour of the smoker,” his proposal said.

Therefore, Al Khulaifi demanded an appropriate solution to curb the prac-tice. The CMC discussed the proposal and referred it to its services commit-tee and the legal committee to look into the issue and submit a comprehensive report.

“I have been living in Qatar for more

than 20 years and over the last few years, I have noticed that most of the shopping centres, malls and supermar-kets are free of cigarette smoke, which is a laudable achievement of the con-cerned authorities. However, now a major hurdle is getting inside these places without inhaling a wisp of the tobacco smoke. It is very difficult when you go shopping with children,” said a long-time Qatar resident.

According to experts, breathing in other people's smoke, called second-hand smoke, can cause a number of health hazards. Second-hand smoke is the smoke that fills restaurants, offices or other enclosed spaces when people burn tobacco products which include cigarettes and water-pipes. There are more than 4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least 250 are known to be harmful and more than 50 are known to cause cancer, according to the World Health Organisation.

There is no safe level of exposure to second-hand tobacco smoke. In adults, second-hand smoke causes serious car-diovascular and respiratory diseases, including coronary heart disease and lung cancer.

In infants, it causes sudden death.

Almost half of children regularly breathe air polluted by tobacco smoke in pub-lic places. In 2004, children accounted for 28% of the deaths attributable to sec-ond-hand smoke.

WHO says second-hand smoke causes more than 600,000 premature deaths per year. In pregnant women, it causes low birth weight.

However, every person should be able to breathe tobacco smoke-free air.

“It is very difficult to avoid breath-ing in tobacco-smoke at public places especially at the entrance of big shop-ping malls,” said Anas, a young Arab national.

“Recently I had to wait in front of a mall entrance for some time. A number of people were smoking there and a few women were covering their faces so that they could avoid inhaling most of the smoke. The whole area smelt of ciga-rettes,” he added.

“Usually, families including women and children wait for their vehicles after shopping in front of entrances. They usually have no other option except to wait and inhale the smoke, while wait-ing for their vehicle. And many at times, there are pregnant women and very young children,” said Mohamad

Mustafa, a Pakistan national, express-ing his anger against the practice.

Even non-smokers are forced to inhale the cigarette smoke while wait-ing at these places, since most of these facilities do not have designated smok-ing zones.

“I am not a smoker, but I have all the health issues similar to a smoker. I am a victim of passive smoking,” said Murad.

“I am a regular visitor to a cafeteria operating at a major shopping mall where people smoke sitting right under the ‘no-smoking’ stickers. Once I asked the manager of the cafeteria to tell the visitors that the smoking inside the facil-ity is prohibited and it affected to non-smokers. The manger meekly said that they knew about the law but they would not heed,” he said.

Meanwhile, in June 2016, the State Cabinet had taken steps to issue the much-anticipated anti-tobacco law that stipulates stricter punishment for smok-ing in closed public places. The draft law stipulated strict measures to curb the import and use of tobacco products and its derivatives and a ban on electronic cigarettes, “sweika” and other chewing tobacco.

Anger at smoking near entrances of shopping centres

MONDAY F CUS

There are more than

4,000 chemicals in tobacco smoke, of which at least

250 are known to be harmful and more than

50 are known to cause cancer.

Some shopping malls allow visitors to smoke cigarettes and pipes freely at the entrances of their facilities.

04 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017HOME

The Peninsula

Qatar Museums (QM) yesterday kicked off its second training programme for GCC archaeologists and

museum professionals at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA) titled “Techniques of Making Weapons in the Stone Age”.

Running until March 23, the training programme centers on the history of human settlement in the Gulf, dating back to the prehistoric period, by exploring the different uses of weapons and their importance in tasks including self-defense and food preparation.

In his welcome address, Ali Jassim al-Kubaisi, Chief Archae-ology Officer at QM, said: “Programmes such as these are vital in developing the capabili-ties of GCC archeologists, as it will enhance their knowledge and unify their efforts in preserv-ing the region’s heritage and scientifically document it for

coming generations.“Studies have shown us find-

ings from the Arab Peninsula that date back thousands of years. Through archeological missions, a lot of remains have been found on the Arab Gulf coast and inside the Peninsula itself. Among these findings, were Stone Age tools and weapons, which prove that the Arab region was occupied during the Stone Age. Therefore, exploring these tools reveals

many aspects about our ances-tors’ lifestyles and allows us to carefully document an impor-tant part of history.”

The five-day programme, which includes various lectures and activities, is delivered by Faisal Abdullah Al Nuaimi, QM’s Head of Archaeology. It covers the different weapons and tools used in the Gulf in the prehis-toric period, including their uses, how to identify and cate-gorise them, and how to classify the raw materials used to make them. It also includes training on making different types of weapons and tools, soft and hard forging, trimming through forging or pressing, and how to make the most important tools, including axes, arrowheads and blades. In addition to the dis-cussions, participants will visit and explore archeological sites across Qatar.

“Techniques of Making Weapons in the Stone Age” was launched as part of QM’s com-mitment to implement the

recommendations that were the result of the 16th Meeting of Archaeology & Museums Under-secretaries, held in Doha in 2015. The programme aims to

enhance the mutual corporation between archeology and museum professionals in the GCC, and encourages collabo-ration that will help preserve the

history of the Gulf. This initiative falls in line

with QM’s goals to honour the traditions of the past whilst embracing the future.

QNA

The Ministry of Education and Higher Education signed yesterday a Memorandum

of Understanding (MoU) with the Ministry of Culture and Sports rep-resented in Nomas Center to maintain and strengthen the sense of Qatari identity.

Director of Independent Schools Office Khalifa Saad Al Derham represented the Minis-try of Education in signing the MoU. Signing on behalf of the Ministry of Culture was Director of Activities and Youth Events Abdul Rahman bin Mohammed Al Hajri. The agreement involves holding a number of cultural

events for boys and girls.Al Derham said that the

agreement aims to strengthen the sense of Qatari identity and culture among students to help them grow up with a balance between modernity and their own heritage. Such an initiative also helps the country maintain its values and traditions.

For his part, Al Hajri said the agreement involves the Nomas center holding a number of work-shops to raise the awareness of students on the center's activities. It will also hold different cultural workshops for boys and girls. The targeted age groups according to Al Hajri were from the fifth grade all the way to the ninth grade.

Ministries sign MoU to promote Qatari traditions

Officials of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education and the Ministry of Culture and Sports signing the agreement yesterday.

Lekhwiya tostage exercises

The Directorate of Moral Guidance at the Qatari A r m e d F o r c e s

announced that the Internal Security Force (Lekhwiya) will stage exercises on roping descent and jumping into sea from the height of 10 metres and within a radius of 15 metres at Lekhwiya Zekreet camp on March 28 from 7:00am to 11:00am.

Lekhwiya will also carry out shooting training exercises in Zekreet camp on March 29 from 18:00 to 21:00. The Force will also stage roping descent and shooting exercises from the height of 10 metres and within a radius of 15 meters at Zekreet camp on April 4 from 6:00am to 10:00am.

QM holds workshop for GCC archaeologists5-day programme

Training programme centres on the history of human settlement in the Gulf, dating back to prehistoric period.

Five-day programme is delivered by Faisal Abdullah Al Nuaimi, QM’s Head of Archaeology.

The training programme for GCC archaeologists and museum professionals held at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA).

New regulations based on GCC food safety meeting→ Continued from page 1

The system will also help com-petent authorities of the GCC countries in the identification and risk management of new or emerg-ing hazards in the food supply. The guide also gives details on inspec-tion and clearance of imported foods, which includes details on

detention and temporary release of consignments. As per the guide, port-of-entry inspection under the risk-based food control system includes checks on certification from exporting country and import inspection requirements for all con-signments of foods. Inspections will also include document checks,

physical examination, Product Iden-tity Checks and sampling. It will also verify the quality assurance systems operated by importers when they submit official requirements.

The guide also details regula-tions on foods imported for non-commercial purposes and food prohibited from importation on food safety ground. It also details out prohibition of

importation of foods on sanitary grounds to protect the life and health of humans, animals, plants and the environment. The new reg-ulation is being applied based on the findings of the GCC Food Safety Committee meeting which was held in Riyadh in March. The meeting discussed a number of issues includ-ing the GCC imported food guide and GCC food strategy 2018-2022.

The Peninsula

The Al Rayyan M u n i c i p a l i t y imposed fines worth a total of QR129,300 last

month on outlets for vari-ous types of violations of the law.

The Health Monitoring section at the Ministry destroyed 30 whole slaughtered sheep unfit for human consumption.

Fifty-nine samples were sent to the Central Laboratory and the munic-ipality conducted 780 inspection visits last month and recorded 79

violations. The Doha Municipal-

ity also detected expired food products in shops at Industrial Area during raids conducted by its h e a l t h m o n i t o r i n g section.

Meanwhile, the Public Relations department at the Ministry of Municipal-ity and Environment organised an awareness lecture at Maryam Bint Omran School for Girls on the importance of planting trees.

The lecture was organ-ised as part of the activities the Tree Week 2017 which concluded recently.

Al Rayyan Municipality collects QR129,300in fines for violations

A Municipality official checking the expiry dates of products.

05MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 HOME

Qatar spreading rights awareness: OfficialSidi Mohamed The Peninsula

Qatar is doing its best to spread human rights awareness among workers through sem-inars and campaigns

and direct communication with different expatriate communi-ties, said a senior official at the Ministry of Interior.

“After issuing Law no 21/2015 regulating entry, exit and resi-dency of expatriates, it has bridged all the gaps, and the law is currently being implemented," Lt Col Saad Salim Al Dousari, Asst Director of Human Rights Department at the Ministry told The Peninsula.

He was speaking on the side-lines of a ceremony to mark the Arab Human Rights Day at Offic-ers Club at Civil Defence under the theme “Human rights and peaceful coexistence”.

“Every year the Department marks the Arab Human Rights Day under different themes, where representatives of vari-ous expat communities are honoured," said Al Dousari.

Besides leaders of different communities, officers from the Ministry attended the event.

He said the event has its own significance for several consider-ations beyond the dimensions of the ceremony. First, the dialecti-cal relationship between the idea

of peaceful coexistence, social security and its positive reflections on maintaining public order and ensuring peace of mind.

Second, the ranking of Qatar in the foremost places for the eighth consecutive year in the global peace index (first in MENA region and 34 at global level), confirms the success of Qatar in achieving the peaceful coexist-ence and social security.

Third, accomplishing lead-ing position by the state, it comes in the general context of the movement of the state and soci-ety, in the light of the fact that Qatar has become a model of cultural coexistence and social peace, and respect for others regardless of our differences in the race, religion or language.

“It is right to say that this event precisely comes in the con-text of the contribution of Qatar in the support of joint Arab action in all fields, particularly in the area of human rights, highlight-ing the role of the Ministry of Interior in this regard, particularly through participation in confer-ences of Arab police and security leaders and conferences of the leaders of the Arab interior min-isters who are responsible for the human rights”, he said.

The promotion and protec-tion of human rights has become

a strategic option of the state, and from this point, we can understand the achievement of approach (human rights and peaceful coexistence) in the national scope of the legal and institutional levels and at the level of practice, which includes the provisions of the Article (18) of the Constitution.

There are a variety of expressions to realise the idea of peaceful coexistence within the framework of the Ministry of Interior, through its care for cultural diversity, and response

to the needs of expatriate resi-dents, added Al Dousari.

Majdi Ismael, on behalf of the Arab community appreci-ated the laws issued by Qatar to protect expats’ rights.

“Qatar has witnessed a big development in all fields and we have an important role in this and feel proud of that,” said Binesh Tamang, speaking on behalf of the Asian community. At the end of the event, leaders of the expatriate communities were honoured by Lt Col Saad Salim al Dousari.

Right choice

Qatar has become a model of cultural coexistence and social peace, and respect for others regardless of the differences in race, religion or language.

The promotion and protection of human rights has become a strategic option of the state.

Lt Col Saad Salem Al Dousari (centre), Assistant Director of Human Rights Department at the Ministry of Interior, presenting a certificate of appreciation to members of various communities during celebrations of Arab Human Rights Day, at the Civil Defense Officers Club, yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP/ The Peninsula

50 years of Asean to be marked with seminar & food festivalThe Peninsula

The Asean Committee in Doha (ACD) is planning to mark the 50th anniversary

of the establishment of Asean by organising trade and investment

seminar and food festival in the last quarter of this year.

The Asean community worldwide is celebrating 2017 as the golden anniversary of the founding of the bloc through var-ious events.

The upcoming event will consist of a half-day seminar on trade and investment opportu-nity in Asean countries. A week-long Asean food festival will follow to bring to Qatar the exquisite food cultures of seven

Asean countries with embassies in Qatar namely Brunei Darus-salam, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the Philippines, Thai-land and Vietnam.

The event aims to show the strength of Asean economy and

the limitless business and invest-ment opportunities.

“We hope to encourage the Qatar-based businesses to explore the possibility of expand-ing their businesses to the Southeast Asian nations," said

Thailand Ambassador Soonthorn Chaiyindeepum, who currently heads the ACD.

Chaiyindeepum was speak-ing on the sidelines of the Asean Family Day 2017 held at Barzan Olympic Park on Saturday.

Advisory Council Speaker to attend Rabat AIPU conferenceQNA

Speaker of the Advisory Council, H E Moham-med bin Mubarak Al

Khulaifi and his accompany-ing delegation left Doha yesterday for the Moroccan Capital, Rabat, to take part in the 24th Conference of the Arab Inter-parliamentary Union (AIPU), due to kick off today.

The two-day conference will discuss topics listed on the agenda including the reports of the Parliament Speaker and the Secretary-General respectively, the work of the Executive Com-mittee and the status of the Union and its activities since the 23rd session of confer-ence, in addition to the Executive Committee's reports on the 20th and 21st sessions.

The agenda of the confer-ence also includes the Union's regional and international activity in the current year, and the meetings of its per-manent committees which are concerned with political, parliamentary, financial, eco-nomic, women and childhood affairs.

A display to educate children on traffic safety at the 33rd GCC Traffic week at Darb El Saai.

20 schools take part in GCC Traffic WeekThe Peninsula

Some 20 schools in Qatar from different educational levels participated in the

33rd GCC Traffic week which took place at Darb El Saai under the theme “Your life is a Trust”, said the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in a state-ment yesterday.

The education tent at Darb

El Saai played a significant role in attracting a considerable number of visitors including stu-dents and parents. The schools programmes in the traffic tent included distribution of bro-chures and display materials and campaign in the social media in order to raise aware-ness about traffic and traffic safety.

The 20 schools were chosen

based on their initiatives and achievements in the area of traf-fic safety, said Oman Al Mashhadani, coordinator of traf-fic safety for primary schools. This event has significant impact on the student’s awareness about traffic and principles of safety, he added.

More than 60 government and non-government entities participated in the event.

MDPS participates in GCC Statistical ForumQNA

The Ministry of Development Planning and Statistics (MDPS) will participate in the GCC Statistical Forum, organised by the General

Authority for Statistics and GCC Statistical Center due in Riyadh on March 20th to 22.

MDPS will also host at the forum’s sidelines a Statistical Exhibition — a pavilion showcasing its latest most important publications, such as (Qatar:

Monthly Statistics) bulletin, the Labor Force Report, the Atlas of Qatar, Qatar Economic Out-look 2016-2018, the Annual Statistical Abstract and other important publications.

The forum, held under the theme "Enhanc-ing Statistical Partnerships to Support Economic Policies and Sustainable Development in the GCC Countries", brings together statistical experts and academics to discuss several major themes.

06 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017HOME

Greek Defence Minister Panos Kammenos met Qatar's Ambassador to Greece, Republic Abdulaziz Ali Al Naama, yesterday. They discussed bilateral relations and ways of enhancing them.

Greek Defence Minister meets Qatari envoy

MSS starts retailing POLICE timepiecesThe Peninsula

Leading watch retailers of Qatar, Marzooq Al Sham-lan & Sons (MSS) have

introduced POLICE timepieces and accessories to their inter-esting and varied portfolio of timepieces and accessories.

With the introduction of the brand’s latest collection, which includes timepieces for men and women, jewellery for women and accessories for men along with cufflinks, pens and wallets, the retail giant has expanded its offerings in the lifestyle segment.

Driven with a vision of pro-viding comprehensive lifestyle concepts that caters to a wide range of audience, the Italian brand, POLICE, seems to be a natural choice to be incorpo-rated in the exclusive collection of premium brands retailed at Marzooq Al Shamlan. With a refreshing take of modernity that strives to balance function-ality with style, the collection is primed to accommodate the evolving needs of the consumer.

While the gents’ collection is dominated by timepieces fea-turing statement dials with sturdy and textured leather straps, the ladies collection is fresh and feminine with colour-ful display of sheen and glamour.

The latest collection of

POLICE is available at Marzooq Al Shamlan & Sons (MSS) stores across Qatar.

STEAMPUNKA multifunctional timepiece

that is styled to reflect domi-nance with a sporty edge, the Steampunk is a must-have for fashion conscious men. The timepiece has two time zones set inside an arrow-shaped demarcation in the dial. The contemporary combination of dark blue and stainless steel accents the details of the timepiece.

RATTLESNAKEPragmatic, casual and func-

tional — POLICE plays the coolest of colours in fashioning Rattlesnake. Strutting a fash-ionable dial that clocks three time zones, the timepiece is understated in its appeal. The

bold silhouette and genuine sand colour leather strap are characteristic of the timepiece that asserts style in the refresh-ing display of POLICE timepieces this season.

PYRAMIDRose gold is the colour of

the season — especially for timepieces and jewellery. The ladies collection features time-pieces that redefines elegance with splendour with creative occurrence of rose gold in the timepieces. Pyramid is one of the most loved pieces that has a simple dial with glittering indices adorned by rose gold and stainless steel bracelet.

DAISYWith an innate sense of

glamour, the POLICE Ladies timepieces celebrate feminin-ity with vibrant colours and

elegant designs. Blooming dai-sies inspired this golden timepiece which has indices shaped like petals of the flower. The POLICE motifs and the sparkling stones makes it an elegant timepiece that ponders and reflects on beauty and femininity.

MOONLIGHTExquisitely crafted and lay-

ered with sheens of gold and mother-of-pearl, the jewellery is a mélange of opulent colour and assertive design. The beau-tiful jewellery set draws inspiration from the season’s rich colour and emotion palette.

ICONICLuxury and intelligence

form an alliance to manoeuvre the art of the written word. This pen and cufflink set is crafted for the gentleman who scripts his destiny with his actions.

POLICE cufflinks. RIGHT: The Rattlesnake watch by the Italian brand.

Entries invited for renewableenergy contest

The Peninsula

Qatar General Electric-i ty & Water Corporation (Kah-ramaa) has started receiving entries for

its ‘Best Renewable Energy Ini-tiative Competition’ as part of its National Program for Con-servation and Energy Efficiency — Tarsheed.

The entries can be accepted/ uploaded on Kah-ramaa website until March 20 using the link km.qa/Tarsheed. All invited entries must comply with Qatar’s moral values and its National identity. The entries must be submitted with the form available through the link, highlighting the salient descrip-tion of the initiative explored and its financial viability. All entries must comply with the

terms and conditions as men-tioned on the website. For more details, applicants may call up +974 44846878.

The competition by Kah-ramaa's Conservation and Energy Efficiency Department is open to all sectors existing locally including citizens and residents living in Qatar as well. It aims at supporting the devel-opment of innovative technologies and business models that promote renewa-ble energy, energy efficiency and help in cutting carbon emissions for Qatar’s sustain-able future.

The entries also include already applied/planned projects/initiatives.

It is also aimed at promot-ing environmental awareness and instilling the culture of effi-cient usage of natural resources in order to have a better life and to achieve the slogan of Tar-sheed, “Keep Qatar Pulsing” in line with Qatar National Vision 2030.

Kahramaa is committed to its responsibility of providing sustainable resources for elec-tricity and water for the benefits of the nation and for improv-ing the quality life for the generations to come in line with QNV 2030 which calls for envi-ronmental management and protection aimed at ensuring harmony and consistency with economic and social development.

Kahramaa initiative

The prime target of the programme is to reduce the per capita water and electricity consumption in Qatar.

Winners will be announced and honoured during the 5th Tarsheed Annual Celebration to be held in April.

The Peninsula

The Ministry of Economy and Commerce, in col-laboration with Doha

Marketing Services Company WLL (Domasco), dealer of Volvo vehicles in Qatar, has announced the recall of Volvo XC60 model of 2017 over potential malfunction in the front left and right hand side seat airbag.

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

The Ministry said that it will coordinate with the dealer to follow up on the maintenance and repair works.

HBKU Press & HMC workshop for researchersThe Peninsula

Hamad Bin Khalifa Univer-sity Press (HBKU Press) and Hamad Medical Cor-

poration (HMC) hosted a joint workshop for researchers look-ing to publish their research in the HMC-sponsored Qatar Med-ical Journal (QMJ) found on HBKU Press’s online academic publishing platform, QScience.com.

The workshop, which took place on March 15, marks the second community outreach event hosted by HBKU Press for the academic community in Qatar. The previous one was held earlier this month in con-junction with the International

Review of Law at Qatar University.

HBKU Press is committed to serving the greater community in which it resides by hosting information sessions and aca-demic workshops that help researchers in any field break into the publishing world and participate and exchange in the wider, global knowledge economy.

HBKU Press aims to support and retain local researchers while providing them with the resources and the platform to have their work published by a world-class publishing house founded on international best practices, excellence and innovation.

“Community outreach is an integral part of what we do at HBKU Press,” says Saffiyah Al Nuaimi, Managing Editor of Qatar Medical Journal.

“One of the overall goals of this publishing house is to have a platform where local research-ers from the region have the opportunity to contribute to the local and global academic research landscape. That’s why our academic publishing plat-form, QScience.com, was developed under an open access model which allows for authors to share their work freely, with higher access, download and sharing rates, while ensuring proper citation. The entire pub-lishing process with HBKU Press is in line with international standards meant to keep the author and the author’s interests at the heart of the publishing process.”

A speaker at the workshop.

Qatar University legal clinic weighs laws on climate changeThe Peninsula

A legal clinic from Qatar University College of Law (QU-LAWC) and local institutions is reviewing the

current Qatari laws and policies related to climate change with the aim to find ways to adapt the objectives and terms

of the Paris Agreement within the Qatari context.

The legal clinic comprises LAWC Oil and Gas Law Assistant Professor and IRL Editor-in-Chief Dr Talal Abdulla Al Emadi, LAWC Undergraduate Teaching Assistant Basheer AlAhbabi, Georget-own University in Qatar Fellow Dr Fadi

Makki, and Assistant Undersecretary for Environmental Affairs at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment and Chair of the National Committee and Team for Climate Change, Engineer Ahmad Al Sada. They are studying the trade-related response measures included in the Intended Nationally Determined

Contributions (INDCs) and the Nation-ally Determined Contributions (NDCs) and the way these measures are designed.

They are also assessing the role of free trade agreements in the mitigation of climate change.

The Paris Agreement, which entered

into force last November, under the umbrella of United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) builds upon the Convention and – for the first time – brings all nations into a common cause to under-take ambitious efforts to combat climate change.

Volvo XC60 model recalled

07MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 HOME

Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr Khalid bin Mohamed Al Attiyah met in Kuala Lumpur yesterday with Minister of Defence of Malaysia, Dato' Seri Hishammuddin bin Tun Hussein. They signed a letter of intent between the Ministries of Defence of the two countries.

Qatar and Malaysia sign letter of intent300 take part in Aspire Torch Run 2017

The Peninsula

The sixth edition of the Aspire Torch Stair-case Run 2017 concluded on Satur-day with around 300

community members partici-pating. The challenge, which was held in partnership with the iconic Torch Doha Hotel at Aspire Zone, was organised by Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF).

The runners were divided into four categories: Juniors (16-17 years old), Open category (18-39 years old) and Veterans (40 and older), along with a

category dedicated to hotel waiters and waitresses.

This year’s competition was the ultimate challenge of endurance, as runners climbed more than 1,300 steps to the 51st floor of the 300m tower.

At the finish line, Andi Jones won first place in the open male category (18-39) for the second consecutive year with a time of 7 minutes and 12 seconds. Kat-erina Matousova was awarded first place in the open female category (18-39) with a time of 10 minutes 42 seconds.

Andrew Buckley earned first place in the male veteran category, while Carmel Lord earned first place in the female category. In the male junior cat-egory, Oliver Guest earned first place with an impressive time of 9 minutes 31 seconds. Hallie Harris earned first place in the female junior category with a time of 11 mins 46 seconds.In the Waiter/Waitress Challenge, Khagendra Bharati came in first place with 11 minutes 9 seconds.

QA praises HIA for 6th Best Airport AwardThe Peninsula

Qatar Airways has lauded Hamad International Air-port (HIA) on being ranked

the Sixth Best Airport in the World by the 2017 Skytrax World Airport Awards, moving up four places from last year.

At a ceremony that took place during the Passenger Ter-minal Expo in Amsterdam, HIA was also named “Best Airport in the Middle East” for the third consecutive year and was awarded “Best Staff Service in the Middle East” for the second consecutive year.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker said: “We are delighted to congratu-late our home and hub, HIA, on being ranked the Sixth Best

Airport in the World by Skytrax. HIA opened within the last four years and climbed to the sixth position in the world airports ranking, a move which clearly demonstrates our continued commitment to delivering the highest standard of service to our passengers, who have gra-ciously given us their vote of confidence. It is even more nota-ble to receive these prestigious awards as we significantly grow the number of passengers served at HIA year-on-year, to 37 mil-lion in 2016.”

HIA was classified as a Five Star airport in January this year, after being audited by Skytrax, elevating it into the elite category of top-tier air-ports. It is only the sixth airport worldwide to have earned the

Five Star distinction, and the only airport in the Middle East with the best-in-class designator.

The World Airport Awards are the most prestigious acco-lades for the airport industry,

voted by customers in the larg-est annual global airport customer satisfaction survey. The survey and awards process is totally independent and free of any airport influence or inter-ference in final results.

Towering feat

This year’s competition was the ultimate challenge of endurance, as runners climbed more than 1,300 steps to the 51st floor of the 300m tower.

The winners of the Veteran Male category being awarded.

Minister receives credentials of AmbassadorsQNA

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al

Muraikhi received yesterday a copy of credentials of Pan-agoda Don Prince Solomon Anura Liyanage as Ambas-sador of Sri Lanka to Qatar.

The Minister also received a copy of credentials of Mohamed Bari as Ambassa-dor of Republic of Benin to Qatar.

The Minister wished the Ambassadors success in their new mission and Qatar's rela-tions with the two countries further progress and prosperity.

Officials with the award.

08 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017GULF / MIDDLE EAST

Dubai/Aden

Agencies

A Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen called yesterday for the United Nations to place a strategic port

under its supervision after a hel-icopter attack on a boatload of Somali refugees left 42 dead.

The refugees had departed from the western port city of Hodeidah en route to Sudan when the gunship opened fire on Fri-day, the United Nations refugee agency said.

The Red Sea port near the Bab Al Mandab strait is under the con-trol of Yemen’s armed Houthi movement, which has been fight-ing Saudi Arabia and its allies in a two-year-old conflict.

While the Arab alliance denied responsibility for the attack on Friday, it called for jurisdiction over Hodeidah port to be transferred to the UN.

“This would facilitate the flow of humanitarian supplies to the Yemeni people, while at the same time ending the use of the port for weapons smuggling and peo-ple trafficking,” it said in a statement.

Hodeidah is part of a broad battlefront where forces loyal to Yemeni President Abdrbuh Man-sour Hadi, backed by the Saudi-led coalition, are fighting the Iran-allied Houthi movement which controls most of north and western Yemen.

The Saudi-led coalition was formed in 2015 to fight the Houthis and troops loyal to former president Ali Abdullah Saleh who have fired missiles into neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The Bab Al Mandab is a stra-tegic waterway through which nearly 4 million barrels of oil are shipped daily.

Meanwhile, Somalia has called on the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen to investigate an incident in which dozens of Somali refugees were shot dead on board a boat.

It was not immediately clear who was behind the attack that killed more than 40 Somali ref-ugees in waters off the coast of war-torn Yemen early on Friday.

The bloodshed was quickly condemned by UN and the Inter-national Committee of the Red Cross, and Somalia's Foreign Min-ister Abdusalam Omer urged the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthi rebels in Yemen to investigate.

Somalia is a member of the US-backed coalition fighting against Shia Houthi rebels aligned with Iran.

"We call on our partners in the Saudi-led coalition to inves-tigate the raid," the minister said in a statement released late Saturday.

"It is very sad, targeting a boat carrying Somali migrants near the coast of Hodeida in Yemen."

On Friday, a coalition spokes-man denied responsibility for the attack. The Red Sea attack took place off rebel-held port of Hode-ida, with women and children among the dead.

The International Organiza-tion for Migration (IOM), which has operations in Yemen, said 42 bodies were found, and more than 30 wounded people were reportedly taken to hospital.

The IOM said it believed the boat was heading for Sudan when it was attacked.

Despite a two-year war that has cost more than 7,000 lives and brought the country to the brink of famine, Yemen contin-ues to attract people fleeing the horn of Africa.

The United Nations refugee agency, UNHCR, says Yemen is hosting more than 255,000 Somali refugees.

Four government troops were killed in a landmine explosion and clashes in western Yemen on Saturday, according to military sources.

The landmine exploded as a

Coalition calls on UN to monitor Yemen port

military vehicle was passing in Al Jadid district in the port city of Mocha, a military source said on condition of anonymity due to restrictions on speaking to media.

“Three soldiers were killed and seven others injured in the attack,” the source said.

Another military source said a senior army commander was killed in clashes with Houthi rebels in Jabal Al Huza in the city.

Backed by Saudi-led war-planes, Yemeni government forces captured Mocha city from Houthis in late January.

Yemen fell into civil war in 2014, when Houthi rebels and

allied forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh overran cap-ital Sanaa and other parts of the country.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched an exten-sive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.

Houthi group on Saturday claimed to have fired a ballistic missile on Saudi capital Riyadh, according to a local military source.

The source said the missile was fired on King Salman Air Base in Riyadh, the Houthi-run Saba news agency reported.

According to the agency, the missile struck its target and caused heavy losses in the base.

There was no comment from the Saudi authorities or the Saudi-led coalition fighting Houthis on the claim.

Yemen fell into civil war in 2014, when Houthi rebels and allied forces of former President Ali Abdullah Saleh overran cap-ital Sanaa and other parts of the country.

The conflict escalated in 2015 when Saudi Arabia and its Arab allies launched an exten-sive air campaign aimed at reversing Houthi military gains and shoring up Yemen’s Saudi-backed government.

Mosul

AP

As Iraqi forces pushed into southwestern Mosul, four Islamic State fighters

moved into Omar Khudair's home and took up positions on the roof.

The 17-year-old, his parents and siblings took cover in his aunt's house next door, and for the next half hour they huddled in a back room as the battle raged overhead. Then the air-strikes came, blowing up a cluster of houses, killing not only the fighters, but 18 members of Khudair's extended family. The teen was one of the few to sur-vive, left covered in burns and shrapnel wounds.

The fight for the western half of Mosul could the deadliest yet for civilians. Iraqi forces have increasingly turned to airstrikes and artillery to clear heavily populated, dense urban terrain, and residents running out of food and supplies are fleeing their homes at higher rates than pre-viously seen in the Mosul

operation.More than 750 civilians have

been killed or wounded since the fight for western Mosul began a month ago, front-line medics say,

a number they expect to spike as Iraqi forces push into the old city. They spoke on condition of ano-nymity in line with regulations.By comparison, some 1,600

civilians were killed or wounded during the 100 days of fighting to recapture Mosul's less densely populated east, according to reports from nearby hospitals.

Mosul's east was declared fully liberated in January.

Airwars, a London-based group that tracks civilian deaths from airstrikes targeting IS in Iraq and Syria, estimates the number of casualties to be much higher, claiming more than 300 civilians have been killed in western Mosul over the last month. The Pentagon, which has yet to release casualty figures from the last month, has acknowledged 220 civilian deaths from coalition airstrikes in Iraq and Syria since the US campaign against IS began in 2014.

Of the nearly 300,000 peo-ple who have fled Mosul since the operation to retake Iraq's second largest city began in October, more than 100,000 have left in the past month alone, according to the United Nations.

Many are fleeing because they have no more food, said Azher Adnan, a local pharmacist volunteering as a medic at a clinic just south of the city. "Every one of my patients, the first thing they say when they approach my clinic is 'I'm hungry,'" he said.

Erdogan accuses Merkel of using 'Nazi measures'Istanbul/AFP

TURKISH President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday launched a scathing personal attack against German Chan-cellor Angela Merkel, accusing her of using "Nazi measures" in an intensifying dispute between Ankara and Berlin.

Tensions flared after German authorities refused to allow some Turkish ministers to campaign for a 'yes' vote in the April 16 referendum on expanding Erdogan's pow-ers, and he responded by saying Berlin was behaving like Nazi Germany.

"When we call them Nazis they (Europe) get uncom-fortable. They rally together in solidarity. Especially Merkel," Erdogan said in a televised speech.

"But you are right now employing Nazi measures," Erdogan told Merkel using the informal 'you' in Turkish.

"Against who? My Turkish brother citizens in Ger-many and brother ministers" who went to the country to hold campaign rallies for a 'yes' vote in next month's referendum. Authorities in Germany have blocked some Turkish ministers from holding rallies, infuriating Ankara.

Beirut

Reuters

Demonstrators in central Bei-rut hurled empty water bottles at Lebanese Prime

Minister Saad Al Hariri yesterday when he tried to calm hundreds of people protesting against proposed tax hikes.

Carrying placards and banners, around 2,000 people flooded Riad al-Solh square to protest against tax hikes that parliament is con-sidering in order to fund public sector pay rises.

“The road will be long ... and we will be by your side and will fight corruption,” Hariri vowed. But protesters shouted “thief” and threw plastic bottles at the premier, who left soon after.

On Twitter, Hariri later urged organisers to form a committee “to raise their demands and discuss them positively”.

Scores of policemen barri-caded the entrances to the government headquarters and par-liament during the protest, which followed three days of smaller demonstrations in Beirut.

Lebanese authorities are seek-ing to raise taxes to help agree a deal on increasing wages for pub-lic employees, part of a wider effort led by Hariri to approve the coun-try’s first state budget in 12 years.

Lawmakers approved several tax hikes last week, the most prominent being a one percentage point increase in the sales tax.

In the coming weeks, parlia-ment still has to approve other

increases, and the president must then sign off on all of them, before the new taxes take effect.

Protesters flocked to Beirut on Sunday, waving Lebanese flags and blasting the words “We will not pay” through their megaphones.

Signs and slogans accused par-liament of corruption. “Take your hands out of my pockets,” one placard read. Various civil society groups and some leading political parties have called for people to take to the streets and protest against the taxes in recent days.

The Christian Kataeb party and the Progressive Socialist Party, led by Druze politician Walid Jumblatt, have staunchly opposed the new taxes. The Shi’ite Hezbollah move-ment has also voiced reservations about some of the increases.

Lebanese protest proposed tax raise

West Mosul battle looks to be deadliest

A maritime policeman on a tag-boat guards oil tanker Aris-13, which was released by pirates, as it sails to dock on the shores of the Gulf of Aden in the city of Bosasso, northern Somalia's semi-autonomous region of Puntland, yesterday.

Beirut

Reuters

LEBANON’S main Druze leader, Walid Jumblatt, handed his political author-ity to his son Taymour yesterday, extending the tra-dition of dynastic politics that plays a big part in the c o u n t r y ’ s s e c t a r i a n government.

Jumblatt, the leading pol-itician of the minority Druze community, took off his Pal-estinian koufieh scarf and placed it on the shoulders of his son at a televised rally in the Moukhtara town in the Chouf mountains.

The move was widely reported in Lebanese media as a symbol of transferring his political leadership.

“Walk forward with your head held high, and carry the legacy of your grandfather,” Jumblatt told his son.

Scores of supporters flocked to the event, which marked the 40th anniver-sary of the assassination of Walid Jumblatt’s father, Kamal Jumblatt. Walid Jum-blatt took on his family’s political leadership after the assassination in the early years of the Lebanese civil war. He was one of the main figures in the country’s 1975-90 conflict.

The Druze are an impor-tant minority in Lebanon’s sectarian system of govern-ment. Jumblatt has frequently played kingmaker in Leba-nese politics. He was also a leading figure in the country’s anti-Syrian political coalition. Syria dominated Lebanon’s government and politics for years and had a military presence in Lebanon until 2005, when it withdrew fol-lowing the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Al Hariri and months of anti-Syria protests.

Jumblatt passes down authority to his son

Call for probe

Somalia has called on the Saudi-led coalition fighting in Yemen to investigate an incident in which dozens of Somali refugees were shot dead on board a boat.

Federal police officers carry their weapons as they attempt to break into the Old City during a battle against Islamic State militants, in Mosul, yesterday.

09MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Damascus

AFP

Heavy clashes rocked eastern districts of the Syrian capital yesterday as rebels and jihadists tried

to fight their way into the city centre in a surprise assault on government forces.

The attack on Damascus comes just days before a fresh round of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva aiming to put an end to Syria's six-year war.

Rebels and government troops agreed to a nationwide cessation of hostilities in Decem-ber, but fighting has continued across much of the country, including in the capital.

Steady shelling and sniper fire could be heard across Damascus yesterday as rebel fac-tions allied with former Al Qaeda affiliate Fateh Al Sham Front launched an attack on regime positions in the city's east.

The attack began early yes-terday "with two car bombs and several suicide attackers" on the Jobar district, said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group.

Rebels then advanced into the nearby Abbasid Square area, seizing several buildings and fir-ing a barrage of rockets into multiple Damascus neighbour-hoods, Abdel Rahman said.

G o v e r n m e n t f o r c e s responded with nearly a dozen air strikes on Jobar, he added.

Syrian state television reported that the army was "thwarting an attack by terror-ists" with artillery fire and had ordered residents to stay inside.

It aired footage from Abbasid Square, typically buzzing with activity but now empty except for the sound of shelling.

Correspondents in Damas-cus said army units had sealed off the routes into the square, where a thick column of smoke was rising into the cloudy sky.

Several schools announced they would close through Mon-day, and many civilians cowered inside in fear of stray bullets and shelling. Control of Jobar — which has been a battleground for more than two years — is divided between rebels and allied jihadists and government forces. According to the Observ-atory, the Islamist Faylaq Al Rahman rebel group and the Fateh Al Sham Front — known as Al Nusra Front before it broke ties with Al Qaeda — are present

in Jobar. Government forces have long sought to push the rebels out of the district because of its

proximity to the city centre in Damascus. But with yesterday's attack, Abdel Rahman said,

"rebels have shifted from a defensive position in Jobar into an offensive one".

Johannesburg

AFP

South African politicians traded accusations yester-day over a mysterious

break-in at the Johannesburg offices of the country's top judge a day after his court severely criticised the ANC government.

Burglars targeted Chief Jus-tice Mogoeng Mogoeng's offices early on Saturday, stealing 15 computers containing sensitive information about 250 judges, officials said.

Senior opposition Demo-cratic Alliance (DA) lawmaker John Steenhuisen accused State Security Minister David Mahl-obo of being behind the break-in.

"My money's on Mahlobo... Intimidation of judiciary,"

Steenhuisen wrote on Twitter, vowing to fight against "corrup-tion and abuse of state power."

"It is highly suspicious that the break-in occurred the day after the Constitutional Court handed down a damning judge-ment," a party statement said.

The ruling ANC accused the DA of "wild allegations (and) frivolous conspiracy theories" and called for police to track down the thieves.

The radical leftist EFF party also alleged Mahlobo was involved in the burglary.

Police described the break-in as "an attack on the judicial system" and vowed to catch the criminals.

The burglars reportedly only took computers from the human resources department, leaving other computers and valuables behind.

Maiduguri

Reuters

THREE suicide bombers killed four people and injured eight others in a village near the northeast Nigerian city of Maiduguri, a police spokes-man said on Sunday.

A man and two women blew themselves up when they were challenged by a member of the Civilian JTF, a government-approved mili-tia group, just outside Maiduguri, the city worst hit by jihadist group Boko Har-am’s eight-year insurgency.

The blasts, in the village of Umariri around 7 kilome-tres (4 miles) from the city, occurred on Saturday around 9pm, said Maiduguri police spokesman Victor Isuku.

“Four people which include a Civilian JTF, a woman and her two children died while eight others sus-tained injuries,” he said.

It is the latest in a string of attacks in the last few days to bear the hallmarks of Boko Haram, which has killed around 15,000 people and forced more than 2 million people to flee their homes in Africa’s most populous nation since 2009.

A man claiming to be the group’s leader appeared in a video circulated on Friday in which he claimed responsi-bility for bombings in Maiduguri and a raid on the nearby town of Magumeri last week. He also denied that 5,000 hostages held by the group had been freed.

Benghazi

Reuters

East Libyan forces said they captured the final holdout of Islamist-led rivals in the southwest of Beng-

hazi, ending weeks of resistance by fighters camped in a cluster of apart-ment blocks.

The eastern-based Libyan National Army (LNA) has been waging a campaign in Libya’s second biggest city for nearly three years and still faces pockets of resistance in two northern neighbour-hoods, despite making big gains since early last year.

Milad al-Zwai, spokesman for the

LNA’s special forces, said the siege at the “12 blocks” site ended when rival fighters tried to escape at dawn. He said 23 were killed and six arrested while seven LNA troops were killed and at least six wounded. LNA spokesman Ahmed al-Mis-mari said as many as 40 of the LNA’s opponents had been killed. The figures could not be independently verified.

Dozens of family members had also been in the besieged buildings, where according to humanitarian groups they had run out of food and water.

Efforts to evacuate the families had largely failed. Mismari said six families were detained by the LNA and would be investigated. It was not immediately clear

how many of the LNA’s opponents or their families had escaped.

The LNA also said it had lost a MiG-21 fighter jet over the Benghazi district of Sabri on Saturday, though the pilot had ejected. It still faces armed opposition in the northern neighbourhoods of Sabri and Souq Al Hout.

LNA leader Khalifa Haftar launched his Dignity Operation in Benghazi in May 2014, saying he wanted to rid the city of Islamist militants following a series of bombings and assassinations.

Some of his opponents have openly acknowledged their allegiance to Islamic State or al Qaeda-linked groups but oth-ers say they are fighting to prevent a

return to authoritarian rule in Libya.Haftar has rejected a beleaguered

U.N.-backed government in Tripoli that was meant to reunite the country after it split between eastern- and western-based governments and military factions in 2014.

On Friday, there were demonstrations against militia rule in central Tripoli after unusually violent clashes this week, and some voiced support for Haftar before the protests were broken up amid gunfire.

Haftar, who many suspect of seeking national rule, addressed the capital’s res-idents on local TV after the protests saying, “your armed forces will not abandon you, and we will be by your side until Tripoli is returned to the homeland.”

Army takes rivals’ final Benghazi holdout

Row over mystery break-in at South Africa judge offices

Four dead in Nigeria suicide attacks

Clashes in Damascus after surprise rebel assault

Smoke billows following a reported air strike in the rebel-held parts of the Jobar district, on the eastern outskirts of the Syrian capital Damascus, yesterday.

Jerusalem

AP

Israel's prime minister backed out of an agreement to establish a new broad-

casting authority yesterday, creating a coalition crisis with one of his key partners that could lead to early elections.

Benjamin Netanyahu insisted his coalition partners were required to side with his ruling Likud party regarding all media regulation matters. The conflict centers on the fate of the struggling state-run Israel Broadcasting Authority. Netan-yahu initially ordered it shut

down and replaced with a new corporation, only to reverse course once the emerging per-sonnel of the new body did not seem favorable as hoped to his administration. Finance Minis-ter Moshe Kahlon, head of the centrist Kulanu party, insists the corporation start broadcasting next month as planned.

The crisis has sparked spec-ulation that the coalition could fall apart, and new elections called. Before departing on a weeklong visit to China, Netan-yahu said Kahlon's insistence was "unacceptable" and there was no need for the new corpo-ration to be established when

the current authority could be reformed. Netanyahu has long tried to curb his many detractors in the media, which he considers biased against him. Netanyahu recently confirmed for the first time that he called an early elec-tion in 2015 to block legislation aimed at curtailing the distribu-tion of Israel Hayom, a free daily financed by billionaire backer Sheldon Adelson that largely serves as his mouthpiece.

This time, though, specula-tion is rife that Netanyahu may be trying to use a potential elec-tion to deflect the numerous police investigations into his alleged corruption scandals.

Coalition crisis raises threat of new elections in Israel

New offensive

The attack on Damascus comes just days before a fresh round of UN-brokered peace talks in Geneva aiming to put an end to Syria's six-year war.

Debate is raging again in Britain about Nicola Sturgeon’s call for another Scottish referendum. Sturgeon, Scotland’s First Minister, has vowed to press on with plans to hold a new

secession vote as announced earlier this week, deepening a rift with the UK government. Prime Minister Theresa May had rejected the call, saying ‘now is not the time’ for a new choice on independence as divorce talks on Brexit with the EU partners are under way.

The call for a new Scottish referendum, whether May agrees to it or not, is symptomatic of the crisis Britain is going through. The call is a corollary of the Brexit vote and the huge uncertainties and consequences it would bring in. The UK as a union is strong if its economy and political institutions are strong. There are fears that Britain out of the European Union will be weak and emaciated, and some people in Scotland are unwilling to remain part of such a union and want to chart their own course.

The possibility of a Scottish referendum will pose fresh challenges to May, who has the gargantuan task of negotiating the Brexit. Britain is expected to trigger Article 50 of the EU’s Lisbon Treaty within days and start the complex exit procedure. It’s not clear how long the process would

take, though two years is considered a reasonable time to complete the process. But some experts say it would take longer and this argument makes sense considering the complexity of the negotiations. If Scotland chooses to secede in the next referendum, if it is held, the May-led government would find itself fighting multiple crises.

May’s unwillingness to say yes to the referendum stems from all these considerations, though she cannot stand firm on her current decision without facing the consequences. Under the constitution, Britain’s parliament needs to sign off on any legally binding vote in Scotland. “To stand in defiance of (Scottish parliamentary authorisation) would be for the prime minister to shatter beyond repair any notion of the UK as a respectful partnership of equals,” Sturgeon said. According to reports, Sturgeon expects to get nod from the devolved Scottish parliament on Wednesday to decide the terms for a new referendum and she is looking for a date once the Brexit talks take shape.

The Brexit vote has divided the nation. England and Wales voted to leave while the Scots and Northern Irish wanted to remain in the EU. The world wants a strong and united UK, whether inside or outside the EU. But the cataclysmic forces being unleashed on all fronts should make us worry.

10 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

Scottish referendum

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We will set out a very clear proposition but I think it is right ... that we do very serious work before we come to putting that proposition forward.

Nicola SturgeonScotland’s First Minister

The world wants a strong and united UK, whether it remains inside or outside the EU.

Jerome Jarre’s viral hashtag, #TurkishAir-linesHelpSomalia, was yet another attempt to draw worldwide attention to the famine in the Somali peninsula, but the Somali peo-ple are in need of both an organised,

short-term as well as a long-term response to ensure that this crisis is contained, and does not happen in the future.

In Somalia, the cycle of long droughts fol-lowed by famines has been going on for many decades. Now, more than five million Somalis need immediate assistance in order to pre-vent another famine. “This drought has created the biggest displacement of people in the country,” said Adan Adar, the country director of the American Refugee Committee.

Somalis from all over the world, as well as a large number of local and international NGOs, have been collecting and sending in donations.

In order to save as many people as possi-ble, an immediate and large-scale humanitarian campaign effort followed by a sustainable development strategy that can help build resilient state institutions to control the negative effects of future drought occur-rences are necessary.

The model the Turkish government employed in 2011 and 2012 offers an innova-tive perspective. Therefore, donor countries must consider adopting it for Somalia.

Humanitarian responseHumanitarian agencies and international

organisations have started rescue efforts by raising the awareness of the world community.

In early March, the United Nations Secre-tary-General Antonio Guterres, paid an unannounced yet timely visit to Somalia in order to mobilise the international commu-nity to help rescue the people who were affected by the drought.

In fact, in the past, Guterres has been a consistent supporter of Somali people. For instance, when he was the commissioner for the UNHCR, he pressured both Kenyan and Somali governments to respect the human rights of the refugees.

As recently as 2011, Somali people have experienced one of the worst famines in the Horn of Africa region, which killed more than 250,000 people and displaced at least one million.

In their book Famine in Somalia, Daniel Maxwell and Nisar Majid rightly characterised the responses to this famine as “collective failures”.

In 2011, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the cur-rent president of Turkey, was the first high-profile figure who visited Somalia, with the intention of raising the awareness of the international community.

At the present time, even though millions of Somalis are on the brink of starvation, there has been a lack of attention and support from the world community.

Ending famine in Somalia, the Turkish wayAfyare ElmiAl Jazeera

Therefore, the next few weeks are crucial for controlling the damage of the drought. Perhaps, the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Bahrain) are well positioned to lead the short-term humanitarian efforts in Somalia because of their strong economies, geo-graphic proximity, and cultural and historical relations with the Somali people.

The Turkish modelIn Somalia, because of the lack of a

functioning state, there are few mecha-nisms to control droughts from becoming famines. In order to reverse this and establish functioning state institutions, I believe, we can learn sev-eral lessons from the model that Turkey employed in 2011.

First, the Turkish model combined aid and development. For instance, in 2012-2014, the Turkish Red Crescent managed the Rajo camp for the 29,000 internally displaced people in Mogadishu.

At the same time, only a few kilo-metres from the camp, the Turkish Development Agency and a private cor-poration brought large construction equipment that built major roads in Mogadishu.

Second, Turkey provided direct and often unconditional assistance to the Somali government. Unlike the West-ern donors, Ankara gave direct budgetary assistance to the previous administration in Mogadishu. Hope-fully, it will do the same for the new government.

Third, the Turkish model focused on high-impact infrastructure develop-ment projects. For example, these included hospitals, an airport and major roads.

Fourth, since the capacity of the Somali institutions are low, Ankara has used public-private partnerships to deliver most of the capital projects.

Turkish companies managed the Mogadishu airport and port, and deliv-ered the construction of the tarmac roads. The Turkish Airways regularly flies to Mogadishu. With a new terminal in the airport, hopefully, more airlines will fly into the country.

Even though some of these com-panies were interested in making

profits from their entrepreneurial adventures, Somalis still benefitted from

their presence.Turkish companies forced Somali

businesses to compete. The more com-panies that arrive in Somalia, the more people that will get jobs and choices. Prices will fall and the quality of service will improve.

Finally, being on the ground was perhaps the most important factor that has helped Turkey to receive wide-spread support from the Somalis.

Turkish diplomats and aid work-ers stayed in the country, which helped them understand the Somali people and their needs better. For them, there was no need for map-ping studies. Staying on the ground has significantly reduced the admin-istrative cost as well.

A sustainable strategyDonor countries have provided bil-

lions of dollars of assistance to the needy Somalis for the last couple of decades - which Somalis appreciate.

Recently, the world community helped rescue millions of Somalis from famine in 1991 and 2011. It is a fact that the European Union, the United States and other donors have supported the Somali people in many ways.

Indeed, besides contributing to the recovery and the development of the country, the Somali diaspora in the Western and Gulf countries are now on the frontlines of the rescue efforts in Somalia.

That said, to maximise the impact of the billions of dollars of aid that the West, Gulf countries and others provide to Somalia, the current aid paradigm must be revisited.

To date, few donors invested in the infrastructure and long-term impact projects. As important as relief and capacity building projects are, it is more useful to invest in major, capital projects such as a tarmac roads, ports and hospitals. The Turkish aid model opened new doors for the Somali people. Western and Gulf donors should follow suit and invest in the long-term projects that can help empower the state institutions, prevent another humanitarian catastrophe and contribute to the economic growth of the country.

In short, hundreds of thousands of Somalis are now on the verge of starva-tion. We must do all we can to rescue as many people as possible through large-scale humanitarian efforts.

Hopefully, the GCC countries will lead this campaign. In doing so, we must learn from the 2011 experience and the model that Turkey employed. Simultaneous relief and development efforts are necessary.

The writer is an associate professor at

Qatar University’s Gulf Studies Program.

He is the author of the Understanding the

Somalia Conflagration: Identity, Political

Islam and Peacebuilding.

Being on the ground was perhaps the most important factor that has helped Turkey to receive widespread support from the Somalis.

ED ITOR IAL

11MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 OPINION

Nigel Farage, Wilders turned up at the Republican National Convention last year, cheered Brexit and made visible efforts to align himself with what seemed to be an international trend.

For a brief moment, when he stood high in the polls, it did look as if Wilders’s Party for Freedom might emerge as the largest party in what has long been a fragmented Dutch parliament.

But an exceptionally high turnout in Wednes-day’s elections produced quite a different result. Wilders’ vote went up slightly, and he will now have 20 seats out of 150. But there was no populist surge. Instead, the center-right prime minister’s party remains the largest in the parliament, and the vast majority of voters preferred parties that want to stay inside the European Union.

Because we were looking at the Netherlands with populist-coloured glasses, we missed the bigger story: the implosion of the unified

Why does WikiLeaks keep publishing US state secrets?

When WikiLeaks released more than 8,000 files about the CIA’s global hacking programs this month, it dropped a tantalising clue: The leak came from private contractors.

Federal investigators quickly confirmed this, calling contractors the likeliest sources. As a result of the breach, WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange said, the CIA had “lost control of its entire cyberweapons arsenal.”

Intelligence insiders were dismayed. Agencies “take a chance with contractors” because “they may not have the same loyalty” as officers employed by the government, former CIA director Leon Panetta lamented to NBC.

But this is a liability built into our system that intelligence officials have long known about and done nothing to correct. As I first reported in 2007, some 70 cents of every intelligence dollar is allocated to the private sector. And the relentless pace of mergers and acquisitions in the spies-for-hire busi-ness has left five corporations in control of about 80 percent of the 45,000 contractors employed in US. intelligence. The threat from unreliable employees in this multibillion-dollar industry is only getting worse.

The five market leaders are Booz Allen Hamilton, CSRA, SAIC, CACI International and Leidos. All of them are based in Virginia and are deeply involved in developing cyber and hacking tools. Other players in the cyber realm include Accenture, Raytheon and Northrop Grumman. The CIA, which has historically hired retired agents for its clandestine contractor force, has increasingly turned to corporations for its hacking teams.

Despite the trust placed in them by the government and the public, private contractors — including the big ones — continue to make catastrophic mistakes in over-seeing their employees. The most high-profile contractor leak was from Edward Snowden, who worked for Booz Allen at the National Security Agency. But the problems have persisted well after he absconded in 2013 with tens of thousands of classified documents about the NSA’s global surveillance programmes and the Pentagon’s top-secret operations.

Last month, a federal grand jury indicted Harold T Martin III, a Maryland contractor with Booz Allen, in the theft of a massive cache of classified material from the NSA and other spy agencies over 18 years. Prosecutors called the theft “breathtaking in its lon-gevity and scale.” Martin pleaded not guilty.

Also last month, William Evanina, the nation’s top counterintelligence officer, disclosed that US officials had recently discovered two more private-sector breaches. In one incident, a contractor stole more than 200 gigabytes of classified information from an unspecified agency and sold it to a foreign country, Evanina said in a public talk at the National Press Club. And in December, he added, government investigators learned that a contractor working for a company making engines for stealth fighter planes had stolen unclassified data that could allow “adver-saries” of the United States to “reverse-engineer” the engines to understand US capabilities.

So contractors have been responsible for at least five major security lapses in four years. Even if some of these leaks revealed government wrongdoing (as some of the Snowden and WikiLeaks documents clearly did), shouldn’t the companies be held respon-sible when secrets are disclosed?

I put the question to Evanina, the director of the National Counterintelligence and Security Center in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). “We’re all accountable,” he shot back. Nei-ther the Martin nor the Snowden case, he said, should make Booz Allen or any other contractor sub-ject to special oversight. “This could happen to anyone,” he said. Instead of focusing on contractors, Evanina said, “we need to find common solutions” to ferreting out “inside threats” that are applicable to all players in US intelligence. And it’s true that leaks come from inside as well: Chelsea Manning was a US Army soldier when she provided WikiLeaks with nearly 1 million military documents in 2010. And just this month, a government imagery scientist was sen-tenced to federal prison for exfiltrating classified documents to his home in Maryland.

Evanina was once the CIA’s top counterintelli-gence officer. He described the recent leaks as an inevitable result of a spy culture in which, he pointed out, contractors employ 800,000 of the 4 million US citizens holding security clearances. “When we’re in the shop, we’re all agnostic,” he said. “We look at contractors as co-workers, not green-badgers.” He was referring to the identification cards that distin-

guish contractors from government employees.That rosy view of US intelligence as one big,

happy family is part of the problem. In 2015, a year before Martin was arrested, Evanina shared a podium at a high-level intelligence conference in Washington with Art Davis, Booz Allen’s director of corporate security. In his presentation, which I observed as a reporter, Davis boasted that his com-pany had undergone a “metamorphosis of security” as a result of the Snowden leaks in 2013.

Booz, he said, had doubled its spending on secu-rity and adopted a “full-scale counterintelligence program” focused on 2,500 employees with “access to the kingdom”— a reference to the highly classified documents that Snowden and Martin routinely han-dled. Such employees are subject to “continuous evaluation,” he said. “If they don’t pass, they leave their jobs.” Evanina then took the microphone. He praised Booz’s security plan and noted that he had met with Thomas “a lot” about these issues.

Clearly, that joint plan failed. Yet after Martin’s arrest, Evanina explained that the government had done all it could to prevent leaks. “I don’t believe there’s anything new that we have to incorporate” in government over-sight, he told The Washington Post. With the latest leak at the CIA, that sounds hollow, if not downright risky.

The crux of the problem may be privatised intel-ligence itself. That’s the view of veteran intelligence reporter Edward Epstein in his contentious but informative new book, “How America Lost Its Secrets.” Snowden chose Booz Allen specifically for its vulnerability, Epstein said at a recent talk. “He switched jobs to get access to the list of computers NSA had penetrated” and even took a pay cut to do so. Booz overlooked the fact that Snowden lied about education courses he was supposedly taking when he applied for his position at the NSA’s National Threat Operations Center, Epstein claims.

But Booz Allen didn’t try to verify that claim and didn’t change its mind on Snowden’s job “even after it found out about the subterfuge,” Epstein said. As the holder of an NSA contract, he argued, the com-pany had a financial incentive to “hire people as cheaply as possible,” so its personnel and clearance

When you live in the Eng-lish-speaking world, it’s easy to see the rest of the world through populist-coloured glasses. And no

wonder: We are absorbed by the daily drama of Brexit and the Trump presi-dency, both of which feature (to varying degrees) badly behaved men with bad haircuts; attacks on experts and immi-grants; and disdain for domestic and international institutions that have kept the peace and promoted prosperity for decades. When we look at other countries, we naturally look for those same phenomena.

For that reason, the elections in the Netherlands, not normally a topic of great interest to the English-speaking world, drew an unusual amount of attention this year. For there, right in the centre of the political scene, stood Geert Wilders. A Dutch politician who has actually been around for many years — he was first elected to parliament in 1998, and his party has backed government coalitions before — he recently restyled himself as a badly behaved man with a bad haircut who could pick up the populist torch and carry it to The Hague.

A friend of Stephen K. Bannon and

The real story in the Netherlands? Implosion of centre-left

A file photo of Julian Assange addressing people at the gathering in London, which was inspired by the Occupy Wall Street protest.

centre-left - the Dutch Labor Party — which is a story that really does have pan-European significance, affecting elec-torates in almost every country.

Though temporarily halted in some places by centrists such as Tony Blair, this slow-motion collapse has been going on for two decades, ever since the end of communism removed the dream of the state-run economy and economic change undermined the trade unions, as well as the working-class solidarity they created. Across the continent, disillusioned ex-left-wingers have often drifted into the arms of xenophobes, particularly since many of them — most nota-bly France’s Marine Le Pen, but also the Austrian Freedom Party and the Polish Law and Justice Party — now advocate what one might call Marxism lite or, less politely, national socialism: elements include the re-nationalisation of indus-try, curbs on trade and bigger social-welfare states. But others who have left the Left have taken a different route.

Some support liberals such as Emmanuel Macron in France, or Greens such as Alexander Van der Bellen, the president of Austria. In the Dutch elections, support for social and economic liberals, as well as for the Green party, went up dramatically.

In the end, the demise of the Old Left, and the story of what replaces it, may turn out to matter more than the rise of the “New Far Right.” It’s true that this Populist International understood much earlier that the dramatic changes wrought by the internet, social media and automation, as well as trade and globalisation, meant that the democratic West needs new political parties with new philosophies. Its answer was negative, angry and in some cases undemocratic radical nos-talgia: rejection of the present in favor of a revolutionary return to some idealised, all-white, fully employed past.

There could be other answers, too. Maybe disillusioned voters can also be mobilised around positive projects. Maybe they will be attracted to new parties, or new leaders, who offer a vision of a better future instead of an unattainable past. Lately, that hasn’t worked so well in the English-speak-ing world. But that doesn’t mean it can’t happen at all.

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system broke down. For example, Snowden fraudulently obtained passwords from fellow Booz employees to gain access to 24 sep-arate, highly classified NSA compartments. (Snowden has not denied these specific charges, but on his Twitter feed, he has hotly disputed other material from Epstein’s book. Booz has said little more than an assertion that “Snow-den did not share our values.” Lately it has been silent as it awaits the results of an external review of its security practices by former FBI director Robert Mueller, whom it hired for the probe.)

The case of Martin, a hoarder who allegedly snatched more than 75 percent of the NSA’s software tools to hack foreign computers, may be even worse. According to his 20-count indictment, eight of his thefts took place while he was employed by Booz Allen from 2009 to 2016. Before that, he worked for Tenacity Solutions, a Virginia com-pany founded by former CIA officers that specialises — ironically — in training intelligence agencies and contractors in operational security. While working for Tenac-ity in the ODNI, which oversees the entire intelligence bureaucracy, he committed seven major thefts, the indictment says, including a docu-ment from the secretive National Reconnaissance Office that included details of “an unacknowl-edged ground station” for intelligence collection. He worked for seven companies during the alleged 18-year crime spree, including CSC, an important NSA contractor that is now part of CSRA.

Tim ShorrockThe Washington Post

Booz has said little more than an assertion that “Snowden did not share our values.” Lately it has been silent as it awaits the results of an external review of its security practices by former FBI director Robert Mueller, whom it hired for the probe.

Anne ApplebaumThe Washington Post

Across the continent, disillusioned ex-left-wingers have often drifted into the arms of xenophobes, particularly since many of them — most notably France’s Marine Le Pen, but also the Austrian Freedom Party and the Polish Law and Justice Party — now advocate what one might call Marxism lite or, less politely, national socialism: elements include the re-nationalisation of industry, curbs on trade and bigger social-welfare states.

12 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017ASIA

Pro-democracy lawmaker Long Hair Leung Kwok-hung holding a banner as he is escorted out of the venue for interrupting the Chief Executive Election Forum in Hong Kong, yesterday.

Pro-democracy protest

Kuala Lumpur

AFP

Malaysia is pursuing more potential suspects, including at least one

"important" person, in connec-tion with the murder of Kim Jong-Nam last month in Kuala Lumpur, the police chief said yesterday.

The half-brother of North Korea's leader Kim Jong-Un was poisoned with the lethal nerve agent VX in a brazen Cold War-style assassination on Feb-ruary 13 in Kuala Lumpur International Airport.

Seoul has blamed Pyongyang for his death, but the North has rejected those claims and denounced Malaysia's investigation as an attempt to smear the secretive regime, insisting that Kim most likely died of a heart attack.

"There are more... persons that are involved in the murder of Kim Jong-Nam, we will use the proper legal channels to get them," police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters.

He said that investigators were looking to detain at least one "important" person, but did not elaborate on whether any North Koreans were among the people being pursued.

The killing has triggered a bitter row between Malaysia and North Korea, which have expelled each other's ambassa-dors and barred their citizens

from leaving. Two women — one Vietnamese and one Indonesian — have been arrested and charged with the murder. Airport CCTV footage shows them approaching the 45-year-old victim and appar-ently smearing his face with a piece of cloth.

Investigators are also seek-ing seven North Korean suspects, four of whom left Malaysia on the day of the mur-der. Interpol has issued an international arrest warrant for the four men.

The police chief has previ-ously said he believes they fled to Pyongyang while the other three are hiding in North Korea's embassy in Kuala Lumpur.

His comments yesterday came as North Korean state media reported on Pyongyang testing a powerful new rocket engine, in an event apparently timed to coincide with the visit of US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson to Beijing over the weekend.

North Korea is banned by the international community from pursuing nuclear and mis-sile programmes but has defiantly ploughed ahead.

It staged its two latest nuclear tests last year and recently fired off missiles which it described as practice for an attack on US bases in Japan, in a challenge to US President Donald Trump.

Tokyo

AFP

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe headed yester-day for a four-day trip to Europe, hoping to discuss security issues and make

progress on trade as regional tensions soar over accelerating North Korean threats.

Abe's trip, which will take him to Germany, France, Bel-gium and Italy, comes a few days after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Tokyo for talks on North Korean nuclear and missile threats. The top US dip-lomat also travelled to Seoul and Beijing after Tokyo.

Japan has been on edge over North Korean launches since a mid-range ballistic missile flew without warning over the north-ern part of the country and into the western Pacific in 1998.

The pace of the North's mis-sile development has intensified and its projectiles have since last year been landing ever closer to Japan's coast, with three of the

four missiles launched earlier this month falling in the Sea of Japan (East Sea) off Akita prefecture.

"I want to exchange opinions openly with G7 leaders," Abe told reporters at a Tokyo airport before his departure.

"We hope to closely cooper-ate with the EU on issues the international community is fac-ing such as the problems on North Korea and free trade," he said. Abe's itinerary includes a visit to technology show CeBIT in Hanover followed by a sum-mit with German Chancellor

Angela Merkel and a meeting with French President Francois Hollande in Paris.

Abe will hold talks with European Commission head Jean-Claude Juncker and freshly re-elected European Union Pres-ident Donald Tusk in Brussels as the EU aims to close a free trade deal with Tokyo this year.

The Japanese premier will return to Tokyo on Wednesday after meeting with Italian Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, chair of this year's Group of Seven industrialised countries.

In France, Abe plans to have his final meeting with President Francois Hollande, who has announced that he will not run in the presidential election in April and May. Abe wants to con-firm that the two nations will promote cooperation over nuclear energy and reinforce cooperation on security issues.

In Belgium, Abe will hold talks with European Council President Donald Tusk and Euro-pean Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker, during

which he hopes to build consen-sus for accelerating negotiations for a broad agreement on an EPA between Japan and the EU at an early date. Abe intends to con-vey his support for the

philosophy of European integra-tion, as the EU has been shaken by the Brexit decision.

Abe’s last stop will be Italy, which is serving as the chair of this year’s G-7 summit. Abe will

meet for the first time with Prime Minister Paolo Gentiloni, who assumed his post in Decem-ber, aiming to build a relationship of trust with the new leader.

Seoul

Reuters

North Korea has conducted a test of a new high-thrust engine at its

Tongchang-ri rocket launch sta-tion and leader Kim Jong Un said the successful test was "a new birth" of its rocket industry, the reclusive North's official media said yesterday.

The engine would help North Korea achieve world-class sat-ellite launch capability, KCNA said, indicating the test was of a new type of rocket engine for long-range missiles. The United States and China pledged to work together to get the North to take "a different course" and move away from its weapons pro-grammes after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met his Chi-nese counterpart on Saturday.

North Korea has conducted five nuclear tests and a series of missile launches, in defiance of UN sanctions, and is believed by experts and government officials to be working to develop

nuclear-warhead missiles that could reach the United States.

Kim Jong Un has said North Korea is close to a test-launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile.

KCNA said the test was car-ried out at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground, where North Korea has conducted long-range rocket tests. South Korea's mil-itary declined to comment. The Washington-based think tank 38 North said last week satellite imagery indicated activity at the site's vertical engine stand, pos-sibly in preparation for a rocket engine test.

"The rail-mounted environ-mental shelter has been moved up against the engine test stand since February 5, either for main-tenance or to position a rocket engine for testing," 38 North said in a note. It said North Korea had installed the environmental shel-ter in late 2015 to conceal detection of test preparations. KCNA cited leader Kim as saying the significance of the test would soon be evident.

Hanoi

Reuters

Vietnam called on all companies doing busi-ness in the country to

stop advertising on YouTube, Facebook and other social media until they find a way to halt the publication of "toxic" anti-government information. The communist country is putting increasing pressure on advertisers to try to get YouTube owner Google and other companies to remove content from foreign-based dissidents.

"Today we call on all Viet-namese firms that are advertising not to abet them to take advertising money from firms to use against the Vietnamese government," Information and Communi-cation Minister Truong Minh Tuan told a meeting in Hanoi.

"We also call on all inter-net users to raise their voice to Google and Facebook to prevent toxic, fake content violating Vietnamese law in the online environment."

YouTube reiterated its glo-bal policy of thoroughly reviewing govt requests to block content they believe is illegal and restricting it where appropriate. Facebook gave no immediate response.

Seoul

Reuters

South Korea prepared yes-terday to raise the Sewol ferry that sank nearly three

years ago, killing more than 300 people, most of them children, testing a system to bring the ship to the surface in the hope of finding the last nine bodies.

The Sewol, which was struc-turally unsound, overloaded and travelling too fast on a

turn, capsized and sank during a routine voyage on April 16, 2014. It lies at a depth of 44 metres (144 feet), off the south-western island of Jindo.

Of those killed, 250 were teenagers on a school trip, many of whom obeyed crew instruc-tions to remain in their cabins even as crew members were escaping the sinking vessel.

Mourning families have been calling for the ship to be raised and for a more thorough

investigation into the disaster."The main reason is to find

the nine missing bodies," a min-istry of oceans and fisheries official, who declined to be identified, told Reuters, refer-ring to the salvage that is costing about 85 billion won ($75 million).

A Chinese company has fit-ted 33 beams beneath the hull, which will be raised by 66 hydraulic jacks, he and a sec-ond ministry official said.

Bangkok

Reuters

Thai police said yesterday they had uncovered a plot to assassinate the coun-

try's prime minister after seizing a weapons cache belonging to a fugitive anti-junta activist. It is the latest discovery of a weapons stock-pile belonging to a member of the red shirt movement, a polit-ical group loyal to exiled Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra.

Police on Saturday found dozens of rifles and grenades, and thousands of rounds of ammunition, at a house belong-ing to red shirt leader Wuthipong

Kochathamakun, who has been on the run since the military coup. Police also arrested nine men in connection with the arms seizure, saying they had clear evidence the suspects and their extended network were aiming to cause unrest.

"We found a rifle with a scope. We guarantee that this is not to shoot at birds but was going to be used to assassinate the leader of the country," National Police Chief Jakthip Chaijinda said yesterday, refer-ring to Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha. Prayuth, then the army chief, overthrew the gov-ernment of Thaksin's sister Yingluck in a 2014 coup.

Japan PM embarks on four-day trip to Europe

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaking to reporters before leaving Tokyo's Haneda Airport, yesterday.

North Korea tests high-thrust rocket engine

North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un inspecting the ground jet test of a newly developed high-thrust engine at the Sohae Satellite Launching Ground in North Korea.

Malaysia pursuing other possible suspects in Kim Jong-Nam murder

South Korea prepares to raise sunken Sewol ferry

Vietnam urges firms to stop YouTube and Facebook ads

Thai police uncover plot to assassinate premier

Forging ties

Abe's trip, which will take him to Germany, France, Belgium and Italy, comes a few days after US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson visited Tokyo for talks on North Korean nuclear and missile threats.

13MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 ASIA

Missing Indian clerics are safe in KarachiKarachi

AP

A family member says the two prominent Indian Muslim clerics

who were reported missing during a visit to Pakistan ear-lier this month have returned safely, saying they were trav-elling in a remote area with no cellular service.

Waziruddin Nizami said yesterday that his uncle Asif Ali Nizami, the custodian of a famed Sufi shrine in New Delhi, and another cleric returned to Karachi after vis-iting followers in rural areas of Sindh province.

Nizami said he had filing a missing person report with police after family members lost contact with the pair. The clerics, who came to Pakistan in early March, will return to India today. The case briefly gained widespread attention, with India's external affairs minister saying on Twitter last week that she was look-ing into the matter.

However, reports of their recovery emerged after Indian External Affairs Min-ister Sushma Swaraj spoke to Pakistan Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz.

"I spoke to Sartaj Aziz, Pakistan prime minister's adviser on foreign affairs, regarding the missing Indian nationals Syed Asif Ali Nizami and Nazim Ali Nizami of Hazrat Nizamuddin Aulia Dargah. He assured me of all help in tracing the missing clerics," Swaraj tweeted.

Bangladesh SC upholds death for HannanPreparation for Pakistan Day parade in full swingIslamabad

Internews

Islamabad, the federal capi-tal of Pakistan, has been declared a no-fly zone for

drone cameras, kites and pet pigeons as part of security measures ahead of Pakistan Day parade on March 23.

The Islamabad police under the direction of top security set-up of the country will be ensuring that the ban on kites, pigeons and drones remain intact during the event being held at a time when anti-terror operations are going on across the country. For the parade day, more than 2,500 personnel of Islamabad police will perform security duties for Pakistan Day parade on March 23.

The Capital Territory Police (CTP) have devised an elabo-rate security plan for the big day. The operations head of CTP, SSP SajidKiani held a briefing of SP (City) Zubair Ahmed Sheikh, SP (Rural) Syed Tanveer Mustafa, all SDPOs and SHOs and explained the secu-rity detail.

The SSP directed for effec-tive checking and high alert security at all routes leading towards the parade ground. “Enforce the ban on ban on

flying kites, drone cameras, aerial firing and flying pet pigeons and take strict action against those violating it,” he told his team.

As per plan, SSP Kiani has divided the district in four sec-tors each to be monitored by an officer of SP rank. Similarly, an officer of DSP rank will be deputed in each sub-sector.

Joint pickets have been erected at various points while squads of Eagle, Falcon, Char-lie, Rapid Response Force and mobiles are to keep check on suspicious vehicles and people. Policemen will be deployed at roof tops while Reserve Force will remain alert to tackle any untoward situation.

SSP Kiani said CTP had ensured effective security dur-ing ECO Conference, Parliamentarian Conference and must ensure so on the eve of March 23.

The SSP directed for con-tinuous patrolling and checking at the entry and exit points of the city. Issuing special direc-tions to all SPs, he said that no sluggish attitude will be toler-ated during duty.

Kiani directed all police officials to personally check and brief the staff assigned security duties.

Manila

AP

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte (pictured) said yes-terday that he would not be

intimidated by an impeachment complaint and threats of an inter-national lawsuit for his anti-drug crackdown and added that he'd rather have criminals dead even in the "thousands or billions" if they threaten law enforcers than see his men killed.

Duterte said he would only stop his crackdown, which has left thousands of mostly poor drug suspects dead, if drug traf-fickers halt their trade. He warned anew that he has ordered policemen to shoot

criminals who would threaten the lives of law enforcers.

"Follow the law and we're all right. Drop the shabu (metham-phetamine) and nobody will die

tomorrow but I will not be intim-idated and I shall not be stopped by just ... what? International Criminal Court? Impeachment?" he said at a news conference in southern Davao city before fly-ing to Myanmar.

"If you are a criminal and you are caught in the act, do not fight because if you place the guy's life, place it in jeopardy of losing it, my order is to shoot you," the tough-talking president warned. "I do not want to see military men and dead men on my side killed. I'd rather that the criminals, however (in the) thou-sands or billions they are, they should be the first to go."

A Philippine lawmaker filed an impeachment complaint

against Duterte on Thursday because of the thousands of deaths in his crackdown and alleged corruption, although the bid faces an uphill battle, with the president's allies holding an overwhelming majority in the House of Representatives.

Rep. Gary Alejano's com-plaint alleged that Duterte violated the constitution, com-mitted bribery and corruption and betrayed the public trust with his actions, including the crackdown, which has sparked extrajudicial killings, and his fail-ure to declare huge bank deposits as required by law.

A lawyer has also threatened to file a lawsuit against Duterte before the International

Criminal Court for the alleged extrajudicial killings.

Duterte has said he does not condone unlawful killings, although he has threatened criminals with death in several speeches. He welcomed the impeachment complaint as a democratic option in his coun-try, but said it would not derail his crackdown.

"The drive against corrup-tion, the drive against criminality and drugs will resume and it will continue, and it will be brutal if they do not understand the role of government," he said.

"I will not be, for a moment, be out of focus on that. I rose on what I promised and I will fall on that."

Duterte unfazed by impeachment threat

Australian teen punches croc in miracle escapeSydney

AFP

An Australian teenager is lucky to be alive, para-medics said yesterday,

after he reportedly escaped the jaws of a crocodile by punch-ing it in the head during a late night swim in a river.

The 18-year-old, named in local media as Lee de Paauw,

suffered extensive injuries to his left arm after he was attacked in Johnstone River on Australia's northeastern coast early yesterday morning, the Queensland Ambulance Serv-ice (QAS) said. He had jumped into the river as a dare while "revelling with friends", QAS Cairns senior operations super-visor Neil Noble said.

"He's very fortunate that he

survived this incident and was able to be rescued... (he's) due to undergo surgery for exten-sive injuries to his arm," Noble said. Local newspaper the Cairns Post said De Paauw escaped the croc's grip on his left arm by punching it in the head with his right arm.

De Paauw's friends' efforts to get him out of the water quickly helped him survive,

Noble added. Crocodiles are common in Australia's north where numbers have increased since the introduction of pro-tection laws in 1971. Crocodiles kill an average of two people each year in Australia.

In May 2016 New Zealand-born photographer Cindy Waldron died after she was dragged under water by a 4.3m saltwater crocodile.

US and China vow to strengthen tiesBeijing

AFP

Chinese President Xi Jinping and US Secre-tary of State Rex Tillerson pledged in talks yesterday that

the two powers would work to strengthen a relationship that has been unsettled by disputes over North Korea and trade.

Xi met Tillerson in Beijing just hours after nuclear-armed North Korea tested US-China unity anew with a provocative rocket engine test, and with negotiations under way for a potential Xi summit next month with President Donald Trump in the United States.

Xi told Tillerson that he and Trump had resolved in a phone call last month "to make joint efforts to advance China-US cooperation, and we believe that we can make sure the relation-ship will move ahead in a constructive fashion in the new era."

"I'm confident that as long as we can do this the relationship can surely move in the right direction," Xi said.

En route to Beijing, Tillerson visited US allies Japan and South Korea where he declared Wash-ington would drop the "failed" approach of strategic patience diplomacy with Pyongyang -- a sharp break with China, which favours careful diplomacy over heated rhetoric.

Relations have also been strained by China's fierce oppo-sition to a US anti-missile defence system being deployed in South Korea, and Trump's

Twitter accusation on Friday that China was not doing enough to control its neighbour and historic ally Pyongyang.

Trump also has repeatedly accused China of unfair trade practice.

But Tillerson has made nice while in Beijing.

"We know that through fur-ther dialogue we will achieve a greater understanding that will lead to a ... strengthening of the ties between China and the United States and set the tone for our future relationship of coop-eration," Tillerson told Xi.

Earlier yesterday, North Korean state media said the iso-lated regime had tested a powerful engine hailed by leader Kim Jong-Un as a "new birth" for its rocket industry, which experts view as cover for developing intercontinental ballistic missiles.

The announcement's timing appeared intended to sour the visit to China by Tillerson, who warned on Saturday after talks with his counterpart Wang Yi tensions on the Korean Penin-sula had reached a "dangerous level."

Dhaka

AP

Bangladesh's Supreme Court yesterday dismissed an appeal seeking the

scrapping of a death sentence for the former head of a banned militant group over a 2004 gre-nade attack on Britain's then-envoy to Dhaka.

The dismissal by a three-member panel of judges means there is no more barrier to exe-cuting Mufti Hannan and two of his accomplices for the attack. Hannan was the top leader of Harkatul Jihad, which was banned by the government in 2005. The latest judgment came in response to the appeal for a review of a December verdict that upheld a High Court rule

that confirmed the death sentence.

Hannan and his accomplices are still allowed to seek presi-dential clemency, but it is unlikely that it would be granted.

Hannan and the two accom-plices were found guilty in 2008 of orchestrating the attack against Bangladesh-born Brit-ish High Commissioner Anwar Choudhury while he was visit-ing a popular 700-year-old Islamic shrine in the northeast-ern city of Sylhet in 2004.

Choudhury was unharmed, but the attack killed three police officers and wounded 70 other people.

In 2008, a trial court also sentenced two other associates of Hannan to life in prison in

connection with the attack.Hannan took the helm of

Harkatul Jihad in the late 1990s. The group, formed in 1992 by Bangladeshis returning from fighting Soviet forces in Afghan-istan, has been blamed for many other attacks in the Muslim-majority nation.

Hannan was also sentenced to death for another attack in 2001 that killed 10 people dur-ing a New Year's celebration.

He remains on trial for a 2004 grenade attack that killed 24 people and targeted current Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who was the opposition leader at the time. Hasina narrowly escaped. Hannan and the two other death-row convicts moved the High Court, but failed to get a verdict in their favour.

Chinese President Xi Jinping shakes hands with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson before their meeting at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing, yesterday.

New era

Xi met Tillerson in Beijing just hours after nuclear-armed North Korea tested US-China unity anew with a provocative rocket engine test.

Xi told Tillerson that he and Trump had resolved in a phone call last month "to make joint efforts to advance China-US cooperation.

14 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017ASIA

Jat leaders call off agitation in DelhiNew Delhi

IANS

The Jat agitation that threatened to cripple normal life in Delhi has been postponed, Haryana Chief Minis-

ter Manohar Lal Khattar and Jat leader Yashpal Malik announced here yesterday.

The decision followed sev-eral rounds of parleys in Delhi between the government and prominent Jat leaders spear-heading the community's agitation in neighbouring Har-yana. A relieved Delhi, however, still remained on alert with restrictions on exit in place at four Metro stations.

Special Commissioner of Police Dependra Pathak said security arrangements at the borders, in New Delhi area and other places will remain intact and that the security situation will be monitored closely.

"The police presence will be

there. We are continuously monitoring the situation so that if any situation is precipitated, we are able to handle it," he said.

The Jat community, which have been demanding reserva-tion in government jobs and educational institutions, among other things, resumed their agi-tation on January 29.

Apart from Khattar, Union Ministers Birender Singh and P P Chaudhary — both Jats —threw their weight from the government's side to persuade

the Jat leaders to postpone their agitation in support of their demands and grievances.

Khattar said both sides have reached a consensus on five points, including initiation of the process of reservation for the Jats in central government jobs, reconsideration of cases lodged against Jat agitators since 2010 and permanent jobs to next-of-kin of those killed and those maimed during the 2016 Feb-ruary agitation in Haryana.

Besides, the government will also give monetary compensa-tion to the injured and institute probe against officers accused of high-handedness during the Jat stir, he said.

"All this will be done in a time-bound manner. Our govern-ment is committed to the welfare of the Jats," the Chief Minister said. Union Minister of State for Law and Social Justice P P Cahudhary said that the process for Jat res-revation in central government jobs will start soon.

Adityanath is UP Chief MinisterLucknow

IANS

Firebrand leader Yogi Adi-tyanath yesterday took charge of Uttar Pradesh as

its 21st Chief Minister, heading a 47-member ministry that included known Hindutva faces and political turncoats.

The oath taking at Smriti Upvan, which marked the return

of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to power in the country's most populous state, was watched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP President Amit Shah, BJP Chief Ministers besides thousands of cheering supporters. Governor Ram Naik administered the oath of office and secrecy to Yogi Adityanath, a Gorakhpur MP known for his hardline Hindutva views,

Deputy Chief Ministers Keshav Prasad Maurya and Dinesh Sharma as well as 44 ministers.

Maurya is the state BJP chief and a Lok Sabha member from Phoolpur while Sharma is the Lucknow Mayor. There are 22 members of the cabinet, nine ministers of state with inde-pendent charge and 13 ministers of state.

Indian army chief to visit Nepal

39,000 sit for J&K civil services exam

Kathmandu

IANS

Indian Army chief General Bipin Rawat is slated to visit Nepal at the invitation

of the Himalayan nation's government.

During his visit from March 28 to 31, the Indian Army chief will be conferred the honorary rank of General of the Nepal Army by Nepal President Bidhya Devi Bhandari, defence spokesman Major General Tara Bahadur Karki said here yesterday.

President Bhandari will confer the honorary rank on Gen Rawat on March 29 for his "commendable military prowess and immeasurable contribution to fostering India's long-standing and friendly ties with Nepal", the spokesman said.

It is a custom and tradition between the Indian and Nepali armies to confer this honour on each other's chiefs to sig-nify close and special military-to-military ties. Gen-eral Rawat will also discuss bilateral military ties and other aspects of cooperation.

Jammu

IANS

Around 39,000 candi-dates across Jammu and Kashmir (J&K) yes-

terday appeared for the state Civil Services Examination at 84 centres.

"State Public Service Commission yesterday con-ducted the J&K Combined Competitive (Preliminary) Examination, 2016 for 277 gazetted posts in J&K admin-istrative service, J&K police service and J&K accounts service," an official here said.

A total of 48,000 appli-cations were received and approximately 80 per cent attendance was reported dur-ing the examination held at 84 centres across the State.

"It was for the first time that the examination centres were established in far-flung areas to provide opportunity to aspirants from lower income groups," an official statement said. The examination centres were established at Anantnag, Baramulla, Doda, Leh, Kargil and Rajouri districts apart from those established at Srinagar and Jammu cities.

According to the state-ment, the District Magistrates of the concerned districts where the centres were established for the first time were designated as Custo-dian-cum-Coordinating Supervisors for overall super-vision at the district-level and coordination with the Com-mission Secretariat.

"Elaborate arrangements were put in place by the Divi-sional and District Administrations and Police for ensuring successful con-duct of the Examination", the statement said.

Imphal

IANS

The economic blockade of Manipur imposed by the United Naga Council (UNC)

will be lifted from today, announced a UNC office-bearer here.

The decision was taken fol-lowing an agreement reached during a tripartite talk yesterday

involving two UNC constituents -- All Naga Students' Association Manipur (ANSAM) and Naga Women Union (NWU) -- and representatives of the central and Manipur governments, UNC General Secretary S. Milan said.

The meeting was held at Senapati district headquarters, where the head office of the UNC is located. Holding talks in Sen-apati was one of the conditions

of the Nagas, which was not accepted by the previous state government. The blockade was imposed on November 1 in pro-test against the creation of seven new districts. The Nagas main-tain that the "lands of the Nagas" left by their forefathers cannot be taken away in this manner.

Now that the agreement is reached, UNC President Gaidon Kamei and Publicity Secretary

S. Stephen, now in judicial cus-tody, are likely to be released soon. Besides all cases relating to the blockade will be closed, as per the agreement.

Several trucks were torched, drivers attacked and security personnel ambushed by uniden-tified persons along the highways during the blockade.

"Talks shall continue at the political level," Milan said

quoting from the agreement. The Manipur government was rep-resented by Additional Chief Secretary Suresh Babu and Com-missioner K Radhakumar, central government by S Garg, Secretary in the Ministry of Home Affairs in charge of North-East, while the UNC was represented by former President Paul Leo and leaders of the ANSAM and the NWU.

Nagas to lift Manipur blockade from today

Buddhists protest citizenship for RohingyaSittwe

AP

Hundreds of hard-line Buddhists in a Myanmar state wracked by reli-

gious violence protested yesterday against the govern-ment's plan to give citizenship to some members of the perse-cuted Rohingya Muslim minority community.

Rakhine state's dominant Arakan National Party led the protest in Sittwe, the state cap-ital, where many Rohingya lived before an outbreak of inter-communal violence in 2012 forced them to flee their homes.

"We are protesting to tell the government to rightfully follow the 1982 citizenship law and we cannot allow the government giving citizenship cards to these illegal migrants," said Aung Htay, a protest organizer.

The Rohingya face severe discrimination in Buddhist-majority Myanmar, with many

in Rakhine and elsewhere con-sidering them to be illegal migrants from neighboring Bangladesh, even though Rohingya have been in Myanmar for generations. The 2012 vio-lence killed hundreds and drove about 140,000 people from their homes to camps for the internally displaced, where most remain.

Rakhine, one of the poorest states in Myanmar, is home to more than 1 million stateless Rohingya. Yesterday's protest took place three days after the Rakhine Advisory Commission, led by Kofi Annan, urged Myan-mar's government to reconsider a failed program to verify Rohingya for citizenship.

Chinese defence minister starts Sri Lanka & Nepal visitBeijing

Reuters

Chinese Defence Minis-ter Chang Wanquan left yesterday for official

visits to Sri Lanka and Nepal, the Defence Ministry said, trips that could unnerve neighbouring India.

China is vying to increase its influence in Nepal, which serves as a natural buffer between China and India, challenging India's long-held position as the dominant out-side power in the landlocked nation. China has also invested heavily in Sri Lanka,

funding airports, roads, rail-ways and ports, and including the island nation of 21 million people on its "One Belt, One Road" mission to create a modern-day "Silk Road" across Asia. The ministry, in a short statement, said Dep-uty Naval Chief Su Zhiqian would accompany Chang.

It gave no other details. China's Defence Ministry said in December that China would hold its first military drills with Nepal in 2017. In 2014, Sri Lanka allowed a Chinese submarine and a warship to dock at its port in the capital Colombo.

Monks and ethnic Rakhine protesters taking part in a demonstration against a government push to speed up the citizenship verification process for the stateless Rohingya minority in Sittwe township, Rakhine state, yesterday.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Uttar Pradesh governor Ram Naik and India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader Yogi Adityanath greet a gathering before taking an oath as the new Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh in Lucknow, yesterday.

Parleys held

The decision followed several rounds of parleys in Delhi between the government and prominent Jat leaders spearheading the community's agitation in neighbouring Haryana.

NEWS BYTES

NEW DELHI: The Army has rescued 127 tourists stranded at the Sela Pass near Tawang in Arunachal Pradesh, official sources said yesterday. "Troops of Blazing Sword Division rescued 127 tourists from near Tawang, about 280 km from Tezpur," Defence Spokesperson (Kolkata) Wing Commander S.S. Birdi said. The rescue operation started on Saturday night and continued till the early hours of yesterday. Those rescued included five foreign nationals from Japan, New Zea-land and Bulgaria. The tourists were trapped after a massive snow blizzard struck around 2.45 p.m. on Saturday between Ahirgarh, Sela and Nuranang on the Tezpur-Tawang road in West Kameng district of Arunachal Pradesh, Birdi said.The body of a Bulgarian national, who fell into a gorge, was recovered around midnight. The rescued persons were accommodated at the Army transit camps and provided with medical assistance.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, A Catholic priest from Ker-ala was attacked by an Italian yesterday when the former was leading the yesterday mass in a Melbourne church. "The priest, Tomy Mathew, was stabbed in the neck with a kitchen knife by the Italian during the mass at a Catho-lic church in Melbourne suburbs," said Thiruvallom Bhasi, editor of a Melbourne daily who is currently visiting here. "While the ceremony was on, the accused came forward and shouted that since he (Mathew) is an Indian, he can-not conduct the mass," Bhasi added. Bhasi said the accused was arrested by Melbourne Police. The priest is now said to be out of danger.

NEW DELHI: Delhi Police has booked a man for stealing three mobile phones of former Indian skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni from a hotel here, a senior officer said yester-day. A complaint was filed by Dhoni on Saturday after his mobiles, including an iPhone, went missing during a fire at the WelcomHotel on Friday in Dwarka, Deputy Commis-sioner of Police Surender Kumar said.

The complaint stated that he lost the devices during the evacuation process. Dhoni along with his Jharkhand Cricket Team members had rushed out of the hotel in a hurry as smoke had entered their rooms. He had forgotten to carry some of his belongings, including the phones. Later after the fire was doused and he got back to his room, he found that his mobile phones were missing, Kumar said. The police are investigating the case and the hotel staff are being inter-rogated. A CCTV footage of the lobby is also being examined, Kumar added.

Army rescues 127 in Arunachal

Priest stabbed by Italian out of danger

Man arrested for stealing Dhoni's phones

15MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 EUROPE

Exercise eyeing polls

SPD is slightly behind Merkel’s conservatives in the latest Emnid poll, it showed Schulz should be able to take power with a left-leaning alliance involving the far-left Linke and Greens.

Participants walk with a banner reading ‘against police violence - down with the racism of the state’ as they take part in a demonstration called by the families of victims of alleged police brutality, discrimination and racism, in Paris, yesterday.

Denouncing cops

Berlin

Reuters

Germany’s Social Dem-o c r a t s ( S P D ) yesterday formally endorsed former European Parliament

President Martin Schulz as their leader and challenger to Chan-cellor Angela Merkel in what is set to be a tightly contested national election in September.

The SPD has undergone a revival since nominating Schulz in late January, gaining around 10 points in opinion polls and signing up thousands of new members as the 61-year-old focuses his campaign on social justice.

“The SPD is back! We’re back!” Schulz told around 600 delegates at a party meeting in Berlin shortly before he was cho-sen as SPD leader in a vote in which all 605 of the valid votes gave him a ‘yes’. Delegates sig-nalled with their hands they also wanted him to run for the SPD

in the September 24 election.While the centre-left SPD is

slightly behind Merkel’s conserv-atives in the latest Emnid poll, it showed Schulz should be able to take power with a left-leaning alliance involving the far-left Linke and Greens in what would be the first time Germany has ever had a ‘red-red-green’ coa-lition at the national level.

“We want SPD to be the strongest political force after the federal election so it gets a man-date to make this country better and fairer and to give people of this country the respect they

deserve and I want, dear com-rades, to be the next German chancellor,” Schulz said.

He reiterated his calls for free education, more investment such as in nursing care and schools as well as qualification programmes for unemployed in a speech that earned him a standing ovation.

It is necessary to close the “intolerable pay gap” so men and women in both eastern and western Germany get the same amount of pay for doing the same work, Schulz said.

He also said he wanted to introduce special working hours — financially supported by the government — for those with families, but he did not give fur-ther details.

The former mayor of Wuerse-len, has made much of his humble beginnings and yesterday recounted how he was born in western Germany as the fifth child of a policeman and housewife, who he described as “simple and very decent people”.

He said he was “lazy” at

school and thought only of foot-ball, ultimately dropping out of school and losing his way before

getting a second chance. Schulz later trained as a bookseller and opened a bookshop before

becoming a member of the Euro-pean Parliament in the mid-1990s.

Sofia

AFP

Bulgaria said it was ready to boost patrols and fin-ish a fence along its

southeastern frontier with Tur-key in an effort to hold off any new influx of migrants.

The pledge comes as Tur-key is in separate rows with Bulgaria and the European Union (EU), raising worries Ankara could allow a rush of asylum seekers across the border.

“We are ready to protect the country’s border in the way provided for in our legislation,” Bulgaria’s Defence Minister Ste-fan Yanev said on a visit to the border town of Malko Tarnovo.

Bulgaria is angry at Tur-key’s open support for Dost, a party for the ethnic Turkish minority, which is running in the Bulgarian general elections for the first time.

The government in Sofia summoned Turkey’s ambassa-dor and recalled its own envoy from Turkey for consultations on Thursday.

Sofia slammed Ankara for encouraging Bulgarian citizens living in Turkey—who number some 200,000 — to vote for Dost.

It called Turkey's move “a

direct interference in Bulgar-ian domestic affairs”.

Ankara has also been locked in a wider row with the European Union after several bloc members prevented Turk-ish ministers from holding rallies ahead of the April vote on boosting President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s powers.

As a result, Ankara has threatened to scupper a 2016 deal with the EU to brake the flow of migrants entering the bloc.

This could become a major problem for Bulgaria, which shares a 270km border with Turkey and would be on the frontline of a new migrant wave.

“The aim of our visit is to inspect the new protective bar-riers and assess and update the plans for protecting the border,” Yanev said.

Bulgaria had already built over 200km of razor-wire topped fences to halt an influx of Syrian, Afghan and other migrants last year and Yanev said that another 24km of bar-riers would be ready by May.

Several hundred border police and an additional 200 army officers were also dis-patched to patrol along the frontier even if migrant num-bers registered a sharp drop compared to last year, he said.

Rome

AFP

A CRUSADING anti-Mafia priest yesterday called for the feared organised crime mob to reveal where it has buried the bodies of its numerous victims.

Father Luigi Ciotti, founder of Libera, the main association in Italy involved in recovering goods stolen by Mafia, organised a remem-brance day for victims in the southern town of Locri.

Among the families of victims present was Italian President Sergio Mattarella who lost his brother Piersanti to mob violence.

“Men and women of the Mafia, tell us at least where you have buried the victims of these families who have never had the chance to cry over their graves,” Ciotti said in a speech broadcast on Ital-ian television, denouncing the country’s “Mafia plague”.

Mattarella noted that “Italy has made some progress in the fight against the Mafia, but it must not stop.”

“As Giovanni Falcone said, ‘The fight against the mafia can’t stop in one room, it must include the whole building,” the president added, quoting the famous anti-Mafia judge who was assassinated by the Sicilian mob in 1992.

Brussels

AFP

Belgium this week marks the first anniversary of the Brussels airport and metro

bombings with ceremonies showing the heart of Europe is still beating despite the country’s worst ever attacks.

Applause is set to ring out during a “minute of noise” on Wednesday as trains, trams and buses halt to remember the 32 people killed and more than 320 injured in the attacks claimed by the Islamic State (IS) group.

Belgium remains on high alert with troops patrolling the streets a year after the blasts, carried out by a network.

“Our country is safer now,” Interior Minister Jan Jambon told reporters, while warning that

there was still a threat that bat-tle-hardened jihadists fleeing the IS's last stand in Syria could come home to Belgium.

The ceremonies start at Zaventem Airport where King Philippe and Queen Mathilde will lead victims, family members and rescuers in a service of remem-brance for the 16 people killed there by suicide bombers Ibrahim El Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui at 7:58 am on March 22, 2016.

The royal couple will then travel by subway to Maalbeek metro station in the city’s Euro-pean quarter where Bakraoui’s brother Khalid blew himself up on a crowded train at 9:11 am, killing a further 16 people.

In a break from tradition, metro staff will hold a “minute of noise”, in which commuters will be invited to take part “to

show they do not forget but they will stay standing against hate and terror,” Stib, the Brussels public transport company, said.

Finally the king and queen will inaugurate a new curved, steel memorial at nearby Robert Schuman roundabout, which sits at heart of the European Union institutions based in Brussels.

The shock of attacks was compounded by accusations afterwards that Belgium had become a “failed state” which was unable to track down IS-inspired cell behind Brussels bombings and also Paris attacks in which 130 people died.

International media descended on the capital’s Molenbeek area where many of the attackers hailed from, as questions abounded about whether deep divisions between

Belgium’s French and Flemish speaking communities had allowed growing radicalism to slip under the radar.

Fugitive Paris attacker Salah Abdeslam was shot and arrested in a police raid in Molenbeek on March 18, 2016, raising specula-tion about how he had managed to get back to Belgium and remain undetected for nearly four months.

His arrest apparently pan-icked rest of the cell into changing their plans and, instead of carrying out a new attack on France, they targeted the airport and metro in Brussels just four days later, investigators say.

A third airport attacker whose device failed to go off, Mohammed Abrini, dubbed the “Man in the Hat” because of the headgear he was shown wearing in security

Kiev

AFP

Ukraine yesterday said the International Monetary Fund has postponed a

board discussion on disbursing a new $1bn loan tranche after Kiev cut trade links with Russian-backed rebel eastern regions.

“The IMF board of directors has postponed for a short period review planned of the issue,”

Ukraine’s finance ministry said. Cash-starved Ukraine is

desperately waiting for the next instalment of a $17.5bn rescue programme that has been held up repeatedly since it was agreed in 2015 over delays by Kiev to carry out reforms.

The IMF and authorities in the country reached a preliminary agreement earlier this month to pave the way for the board to dis-cuss handing out the fourth slice

of the mammoth loan.But that deal appears to

have been rocked by Ukraine’s decision to halt trade with pro-Moscow insurgents that it has been battling since 2014.

The pro-Western leadership in Kiev took the drastic step after rebels seized dozens of Ukrainian-owned businesses on their territory in response to a trade blockade by nationalist protesters.

Germany’s SPD elects Schulz as Merkel challenger

German Vice Chancellor and Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel (left) and former European parliament president and candidate for Chancellor of Germany's SPD party Martin Schulz arrive for the party meeting, in Germany, yesterday.

Bulgaria 'ready to protect' border with Turkey

Priest demands mob reveal where victims are buried

Ukraine says IMF suspends discussion on fresh loans

Brussels to mark attacks anniversary this week

footage, was arrested—again in central Brussels—nearly a month after the attacks.

All the suspects were linked to an IS cell led by Paris ring-leader and Syria veteran Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a man of Belgian-Moroccan origin. Airport

bomber Laachraoui was mean-while identified as chief bombmaker for the Paris attacks.

A year on, rifle-toting sol-diers and military vehicles still stand guard outside key land-marks and other sites deemed at risk of attack.

A file photo of policemen standing guard at the entrance of a security perimeter set near Maelbeek metro station, in Brussels, after a blast at the station.

16 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017EUROPE

2019 ideal

A fair compromise would be to set a vote “a bit after” after her own deadline of early 2019, when the UK could leave the bloc, Sturgeon said.

I don’t think it would be fair for Scotland to have a delay so that it meant that Scotland was taken out of the EU, and a long period of time was allowed to elapse making it much harder then for Scotland, the First Minister said.

Outgoing German President Joachim Gauck (right) and his partner Daniela Schadt (left) with incoming President Frank-Walter Steinmeier (second left) and his wife Elke Buedenbender before a symbolic handover at the Presidential Bellevue Palace in Berlin, Germany, yesterday.

Changeover

London

Bloomberg

Scotland First Minister Nicola Sturgeon (pic-tured) accused UK Prime Minister Theresa May of being intransi-

gent on the timing of a referendum on Scottish inde-pendence, and said it would “not be reasonable” to make Scots wait more than three years from now for a potential vote.

“By that point Scotland will have been taken out” of the European Union, Scottish National Party leader Sturgeon said on ITV’s Peston on Sunday television show.

For her, a fair compromise would be to set a vote “a bit after” after her own deadline of early 2019, when the UK could leave the bloc. She was asked by interviewer Robert Peston if a 2021 referendum was reasonable. Sturgeon’s team wants to press on with the legal process after she called for a vote as early as the fall of 2018.

If May is “talking, you know, in the spring of 2019, a bit later perhaps than I was suggesting then there may be some room for discussion

around that,” Sturgeon said.May has pledged to fire the

starting gun on two years of Brexit talks with the EU by the end of March. Sturgeon argues that Scots should have a say before those negotiations end, and Scotland is left out in the cold.

She said on Thursday Britain needs to unite to make a success of its divorce from the EU, and “now is not the time” for a Scot-tish breakaway campaign. Sturgeon will introduce a motion

into the Scottish Parliament this week to apply to the legislature in London for a referendum on independence.

Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish branch of May’s Con-servative Party, accused of Sturgeon of being “hellbent on the separation of this country” during an interview on BBC Tel-evision’s Andrew Marr Show yesterday.

Support for independence is at 44 percent among Scottish voters, one percentage point less than the result for leaving the U.K. in a 2014 referendum, the Sunday Times reported, citing a poll by Panelbase. The survey showed 51 percent of Scots didn’t want another vote in the next few years while 32 percent back a referendum in the next year or two.

There has been a hardening of position from May. She repeated her opposition to a vote in a speech to her Conservative Party’s spring forum in Cardiff on Friday, accusing the SNP of having “tunnel vision” and of using concerns over Brexit as a

pretext for pushing for a vote. “It would be bad for Scot-

land, bad for the United Kingdom, and bad for us all,” May told Tory delegates. “It is essential that we get the right deal, and that all of our efforts and energies as a country are focused on that outcome.”

The SNP is expected to win the vote in the Scottish Parlia-ment with support from the Greens. May will then risk the credibility of the union if she refuses a referendum, Sturgeon said at her own party’s confer-ence in Aberdeen on Saturday, a day after May addressed Tories.

Sturgeon told Sky News’s “Sophy Ridge on Sunday” pro-gram she had tried hard to compromise. “I don’t think it would be fair for Scotland to have a delay so that it meant that Scotland was taken out of the EU, and a long period of time was allowed to elapse making it much harder then for Scotland, even if it wanted to, to negotiate a different relationship with Europe.”

Athens

AFP

OVER 2,000 people demon-strated in the Greek capital in support of migrants and ref-ugees, calling for an end to the EU’s year-old migrant pact with Turkey that cracked down on migrant flows.

“Cancel EU-Turkey deal of shame,” read the banner at the head of the procession marching through the streets of Athens toward the Euro-pean Commission offices, near the Greek parliament building.

The protest, organised by leftist, anti-racist and migrant organisations, was also attended by refugees and migrants, notably from Syria and Afghanistan, many with their children.

On March 18, 2016, Tur-key signed a landmark agreement with the European Union, which helped put the brakes on a massive influx of migrants and refugees, espe-cially from Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan.

Along with a series of bor-der closures in 2016 in Balkans and eastern Europe, the deal essentially blocked Aegean route used by more than a mil-lion people from Turkey to Europe in 2015 and 2016.

The pact substantially reduced migrant flows and cut down on number of migrant drownings in that part of Mediterranean, but it also stranded thousands of exiles on Greek islands.

Now about 9,000 migrants and refugees are awaiting deci-sions on asylum claims, which can sometimes take months, according to the UN High Com-missioner for Refugees. The Greek government puts that number at 14,000, including refugees from Syria.

“Asylum and housing for refugees”, “No to deportations”, chanted demonstrators, marching under banners call-ing for the “Opening of borders”.

Paris

AFP

The Basque separatist group ETA’s pledge to fully lay down its arms

after decades of violence will not “be subject to any negotia-tions”, French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux said.

He spoke after head of the Basque regional government asked Paris and Madrid to help broker talks with the group, which has said previously it would give up its arms for amnesties or improved condi-tions for imprisoned members.

“The only way to disarm within the frame of law is to reveal location of the weapons to authorities,” Le Roux said in a statement. “The terms of their delivery cannot be subject to any negotiation.”

ETA has not yet issued a statement on the pledged disarmament.

Basque government head Inigo Urkullu confirmed the possibility that ETA was ready to give up its weapons by April 8 after decades of conflict in Spain and France, and said he hoped it would be “definitive, unilateral, irrevocable, com-plete and legal”. The central government in Madrid, a fierce opponent of ETA, reacted with scorn, demanding that the group simply “dissolve” and never reappear.

ETA, founded in 1959 and considered a terrorist group by the EU, has been seeking to negotiate its dissolution in exchange for amnesties or improved prison conditions for its roughly 350 members held in Spain and France.

ETA disarmament must be unconditional: France

Grasse, France

AFP

A 16-YEAR-OLD boy who opened fire at his school in southern France, slightly wounding four fellow pupils and a teacher, was charged over the attack along with an alleged accomplice.

The heavily armed teen appears to have been moti-vated to launch assault by “bad relationships” with his class-mates and aimed to kill up to 14 of them, authorities said. .

The shooter, not been named because he is a minor, was charged with attempted homicide, and an accomplice was charged with helping him. Investigators said the boy, a student at the Alexis de Toc-queville high school in town of Grasse, was carrying a small arsenal of weapons as well as a homemade explo-sive device in a bag.

Authorities have not detailed their evidence against the 17-year-old accomplice, and he refused to speak to investigators. However, his parents recently reported him to authorities for writing a let-ter to an American prisoner in Ohio who is serving a sentence for committing three murders at a high school.

French teens charged over school shooting

Sturgeon: 2021 vote timing unacceptable Thousands call for end to EU-Turkey migrant deal

London

AFP

Marine Le Pen’s far-right rhetoric, Francois Fil-lon’s survival tale and

Emmanuel Macron’s novel style: The ups and downs of the French presidential election have cap-tured international attention.

In Brexit Britain, the French electoral campaign is being closely-watched.

Many, from the media to leaders and Londoners still stunned by the result of the ref-erendum on European Union membership, wonder whether Le Pen could actually come out on top.

Ian Bond, director of policy at the Centre for European Reform think tank, said the elec-tion reflects “the battle between mainstream politics and populism”.

It will reveal whether pop-ulism “will take another step forward or if it has reached its peak, and if more reasonable politicians will be able to reas-sert themselves in Europe,” he said.

The UK Independence Par-ty’s former leader Nigel Farage, a leading campaigner for Brexit, said that an election victory for Le Pen and her far-right National

Front (FN) would “bring down” the European Union.

In Germany, the prospect of a Le Pen victory is worrisome and a “real danger” according to Sigmar Gabriel, the minister for foreign affairs.

“The only question that mat-ters, is who can beat Marine Le Pen,” the weekly news magazine Der Spiegel wrote.

In the United States, where many focus on whether the “Trumpism” wave will grow or fizzle out, Marine Le Pen’s name is the only one to really stand out.

However, as the Richmond Times-Dispatch highlighted, there are differences between the US President and the aspir-ing French candidate, most notably, her “constancy and coherence,” which Trump lacks, according to the newspaper.

As the CNN journalist Ander-son Cooper pointed out, Le Pen is a “professional politician”.

In Russia, Le Pen is the clear media favourite and her mani-festo is presented as the best.

Yesterday, the popular Vesti Nedeli television show hailed her anti-immigration policies before delving into allegations about moderate candidate Emmanuel Macron’s assets.

The show labelled Macron as President Francois “Hol-

lande’s creature”.The other candidate to find

favour in Russia is Francois Fillon.

The right-wing presidential hopeful, charged for misusing public funds, is described as the “victim of persecution” by Vesti Nedeli.

But his “Russian friendships” could end up working against him, the state news agency RIA Novosti said.

Elsewhere, the former PM’s continued candidacy is a source of incredulity and ridicule.

“I can’t see that in the UK,” Bond said, adding: “If such a case arose, senior figures in any polit-ical party would give him a bottle of whisky and a revolver”.

In Germany, where politi-cians’ ethics are under strong public scrutiny, Fillon’s persist-ence has caused shock.

Der Spiegel said the Fillon “saga” not only affects the polit-ical elite but also seriously damages “the reputation of the republic and its institutions”.

Macron is often found intriguing and, sometimes, charming.

German media praise “the blue-eyed boy who reads Goethe”—a recent headline from the liberal Frankfurter Allge-meine Zeitung.

The left-wing Tagesszeitung is more critical, describing Macron as “the elites’ candidate” but also as “the last defence against the National Front”.

In London, where he met with Prime Minister Theresa May and held a rally for thousands of supporters, his liberal views are attractive.

The daily Independent news-paper said: “It is Emmanuel Macron, not Marine Le Pen, who will come to be known as

France’s answer to Donald Trump.”

Unsurprisingly, Russia expresses little love for him.

The Kremlin-backed Sput-nik, which aims to gain a foothold in France, denounced what it views as the French media’s “favourable” treatment of Macron.

It also said the “satanic trio” of Nato, the European Central Bank and the European Union want to “impose their Macron”.

French vote seen from abroad: Marine Le Pen steals limelight

Marine Le Pen, French National Front political party leader and candidate for French 2017 presidential election, waves to supporters at the end of a political rally in Metz, France.

17MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 EUROPE

'Son not a terrorist'

Ben Belgacem’s father insisted the assailant—who had spent time in prison for drugs and armed robbery and been investigated for links to radical Islam—was “not a terrorist.”

Armed counter terrorism officers of the London Metropolitan Police, take part in a training exercise to rescue hostages, played by actors, from a cruise boat on the river Thames, in London, yesterday.

Rescue drill

Miss Universe, French Iris Mittenaere (centre) greets the crowd upon her arrival to visit Lille, in northern France, yesterday.

Beauty in the crowd

Paris

AFP

French investigators were yesterday trying to establish whether the man shot dead after holding up a soldier at

Orly airport in Paris had planned the attack or acted on impulse.

Saturday’s assault by 39-year-old Ziyed Ben Belgacem caused a major security scare, leading to the temporary closure of the capital’s second-busiest airport and the cancellation of dozens of flights.

By yesterday morning the sit-uation had nearly returned to normal.

Ben Belgacem, who was born in France to Tunisian parents, said he wanted to “die for Allah” and that others too would die after grabbing a female soldier, putting a gun to her head and seizing her rifle.

The attack comes with

France still on high alert follow-ing a series of jihadist attacks that have claimed more than 230 lives in two years.

Security is one of the key issues in France’s two-round presidential election on April 23 and May 7.

Ben Belgacem’s father insisted the assailant—who had spent time in prison for drugs and armed robbery and been investigated for links to radical Islam—was “not a terrorist” and

was acting under the influence of drugs.

The father was released from custody early yesterday after being questioned.

Investigators were continu-ing to quiz Ben Belgacem’s brother and cousin for clues as to whether the gunman had planned a terror attack or whether the airport attack was the unhinged epilogue to a shooting spree.

“My son was not a terrorist. He never prayed and he drank,” his father, whose first name was not given, told Europe 1 radio, blaming “drink and cannabis” for his son’s actions.

An autopsy was to to be car-ried out on Ben Belgacem’s body to determine if alcohol or drugs were a factor.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said he appeared to have become caught up in a “sort of headlong fight that became more and more destructive”.

The shooting took place on the second day of a visit to Paris by Britain’s Prince William and his wife Kate, which was unaffected.

Ben Belgacem’s standoff with the security forces began at around 0530 GMT in the gritty northern Paris suburb of Garges-les-Gonesse, where he lived.

After spending the night in a restaurant, he was pulled over by police for speeding. Ben Bel-gacem drew a gun and fired at the police, slightly injuring one officer.

His father told Europe 1 his son phoned him shortly after the confrontation “in a state of extreme agitation”.

“He said to me: ‘Daddy, please forgive me. I’ve screwed up with a police officer’.”

Ben Belgacem then drove to the Orly airport, stopping off first at a joint where he had been sitting hours earlier and firing more shots and then

stealing another car.On the departures floor of the

airport, he grabbed a soldier patrolling with two colleagues under the Sentinelle anti-terror operation that has mobilised thousands of troops since Janu-ary 2015.

Paris prosecutor Francois Molins said Ben Belgacem threat-ened the three, ordering them to surrender.

“I’m here to die for Allah. In any case, people are going to die,” Molins quoted him as saying.

He tried to use the soldier as a human shield but her col-leagues managed to shoot him as they scuffled.

Ben Belgacem was carrying a petrol can in a backpack as well as a copy of the Koran, Molins said. He was investigated in 2015 over his suspected links to Islam-ist radicals but his name did not feature on the list of those thought to pose a high risk.

A small amount of cocaine and a machete were found dur-ing a search of his home on Saturday.

A spokesman for the Paris airport authority said yester-day that the backlog of travellers stranded by the chaos had been cleared and that pas-sengers were experiencing only “slight delays”.

Soldiers guarding key sites have been targeted in four attacks in the past two years that have caused only minor injuries.

In mid-February, a machete-wielding Egyptian man attacked a soldier outside Paris’s Louvre museum, injuring him slightly, before being shot and wounded.

French President Francois Hollande said Saturday his gov-ernment was “determined to fight relentlessly against terror-ism, defend the security of our compatriots and ensure the pro-tection of our country”.

Frankfurt

Reuters

GERMANY has raised its alert level against against cyber attacks to “heightened read-iness” ahead of parliamentary elections, saying government websites are already subjected to daily assault, newspaper Welt am Sonntag said.

“We are noticing attacks against government networks on a daily basis,” Arne Sch-oenbohm, president of Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security (BSI), told the paper.

BSI is in close contact with election officials, polit-ical parties and German Federal States to discuss how to guard against cyberattacks and stands ready to react to potential attacks ahead of the elections, Schoenbohm said.

The newspaper did not give details of number and types of alert levels but said the level has been raised since cyberattacks interfered in U.S. Presidential elections.

BSI could not immedi-ately be reached for comment. The president of Germany’s BfV domestic intelligence service, Hans-Georg Maassen, warned in late February that industrial-ised countries were becoming increasingly vulnerable to cyberattacks as industry increases the adoption of dig-ital technologies.

London

Reuters

The deputy director-gen-eral of Britain’s internal security service is to

become the new head of intel-ligence eavesdropping service GCHQ, the Sunday Times news-paper reported without citing the source of its information.

The Sunday Times reported MI5’s Jeremy Fleming, who it said had worked at the intelli-gence agency for at least 20 years, would be named GCHQ head this week.

The previous head of GCHQ, Robert Hannigan, who had been in post since 2014, said in January he was stepping down for family reasons.

Last week, in a rare public statement, GCHQ dismissed claims made on a US television

station that it helped former president Barack Obama eaves-drop on Donald Trump after last year’s US presidential election.

On Friday Trump stood by the unproven claims and shrugged off a dispute with Britain over the notion their spy agency had a hand in it.

“Jeremy will be expected to make a trip to the US very early on to seek reassurances from our partners,” the Sunday Times reported an anonymous source as saying.

“It’ll be important to remind our partners there that more consideration and respect need to be afforded to the intelli-gence communities by the Trump administration.”

GCHQ could not immedi-ately be reached for comment.

Berlin

AFP

European Commission chief Jean-Claude Juncker warned yesterday that any

return of death penalty in Turkey would be a “red line” in country’s stalled EU membership bid.

“If the death penalty is reintroduced in Turkey, that would lead to the end of negoti-ations,” he told yesterday’s edition of Germany’s Bild news-

paper, calling it a “red line”.Turkish President Recep

Tayyip Erdogan said on Satur-day he expected parliament to approve the restoration of cap-ital punishment after next month’s referendum on contro-versial consitutional changes to expand his powers. Juncker said he was opposed to a complete halt to all membership negotia-tions with Turkey.

“It makes no sense to try to calm (Erdogan’s) nerves by

stopping negotiations that are not even taking place.”

German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel went even fur-ther, saying in an interview with Der Spiegel: “We are farther away than ever from Turkey’s accession to the EU.”

Turkey abolished the death penalty in 2004 and the EU has repeatedly made clear that any move to restore it would scup-per Ankara’s membership bid.

But Turkish ministers say

they need to respond to popular demand for the return of capital punishment to deal with the ringleaders of the attempted coup in July.

“What Hans and George say is not important for me,” Erdogan said, using two common European names. “What the peo-ple say, what the law says, that’s what is important for us.”

Turkey and Europe are locked in a diplomatic crisis after Germany and the Netherlands

blocked Turkish ministers from campaigning for a ‘yes’ vote in the April 16 referendum, which opponents fear will create one-man rule.

In response, Turkish Interior Minister Suleyman Soylu threat-ened to “blow the mind” of Europe by sending 15,000 refu-gees a month to EU territory, which would endanger a year-old migrant deal between Ankara and Brussels to reduce the flow of migrants.

Berlin

Reuters

German Defence Minister Ursula von der Leyen (pictured) yesterday

rejected US President Donald Trump’s claim that Germany owes the Nato and the United States “vast sums” of money for defence.

“There is no debt account at Nato,” von der Leyen said in a statement, adding it was wrong to link the alliance’s target for members to spend 2 percent of their economic output on defence by 2024 solely to Nato.

“Defence spending also goes into UN peacekeeping missions, into our European missions and into our contri-bution to the fight against IS

terrorism,” von der Leyen said.She said everyone wanted the

burden to be shared fairly and for that to happen it was necessary to have a “modern security con-cept” that included a modern Nato but also a European defence union and investment in the United Nations.

Trump said on Twitter on

Saturday — a day after meeting German Chancellor Angela Mer-kel in Washington — that Germany “owes vast sums of money to Nato & the United States must be paid more for the powerful, and very expensive, defense it provides to Germany!”

Trump has urged Germany and other Nato members to accelerate efforts to meet Nato’s defence spending target.

German defence spending is set to rise by €1.4bn to €38.5bn in 2018 — a figure that is projected to represent 1.26 percent of economic output, Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble has said.

In 2016, Germany’s defence spending ratio stood at 1.18 percent.

Germany rejects Trump’s claim it owes Nato and US ‘vast sums’

Paris airport attacker's motives being probed

Britain’s MI5 official to head GCHQ spy agency

Germany raises alert level against cyberattacks

Restoring death penalty in Turkey ‘red line’ in EU bid

18 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017AMERICAS

Trespassing

The Secret Service, made up of some 6,500 people, is tasked with protecting the US President.

Last week, a laptop was stolen from an agent in New York and remains missing amid reports that the device contained floor plans of Trump Tower.

Washington

AFP

The US Secret Service has bolstered security at the White House after a man was arrested making

threats at one its checkpoints, a third such security scare in just over a week.

CNN reported that the man made a threat claiming he had a bomb in his car, and that he was immediately arrested and the car in which he was traveling seized. President Donald Trump was away in Florida at the time.

“On March 18, 2017 at approximately 11:05 pm, an individual drove a vehicle up to a Secret Service checkpoint located at 15th Street and E Street NW,” a Secret Service spokesman said in the latest of a series of White House security concerns.

“Upon contact with the indi-vidual, US Secret Service Uniform Division Officers detained the individual and declared his vehi-cle suspicious. In accordance with proper protocols, Secret Service personnel increased their posture of readiness,” he added.

Just hours earlier, a person was arrested after jumping over a bike rack in an apparent bid to reach the fence outside the White House, the Secret Serv-ice said. The individual was detained immediately and crim-inal charges are pending, the agency said in a statement, with-out identifying the suspect.

A Secret Service official said that person was not found to be carrying any weapons. The arrest came about a week after

Lima

AFP

As Peruvians struggled yes-terday to cope with avalanches, mudslides

and extensive flash flooding caused by torrential rainfall as forecasters predicted still more rain ahead, prolonging the country’s woes.

The death toll remained at 72, authorities said, but devas-tating damage reports continued to pour in. Prime Minister Fern-ando Zavala said 72,115 Peruvians had lost everything, while 567,551 had suffered less serious damages. He predicted days of more rain ahead.

On Saturday, flood waters swept into the very center of Trujillo, the country’s third-larg-est city, filling its streets and

forcing residents braving the waters to cling to each other to avoid being swept away.

The “huaycos,” as Peruvians refer to the powerful avalanches of mud and stone that pour down from steep Andean hillsides after heavy rain, continued their dam-aging ways. Mountains of mud wended through city streets, sweeping away everything in their paths: houses, furniture and sometimes people.

Air travel has been affected as well. “I’ve been stranded in Trujillo for five days. My family lives in a part of Lima affected by the huaycos, but I haven’t been able to get through to them,” would-be passenger Ernesto Alvarez told RPP radio. “Some 500 of us are stranded here, una-ble to travel. We just hope there isn’t another (huayco.)”

The rains affected the north-ern area as well. In the city of Piura, streets were again flooded by the effects of El Nino. The periodic warming of Pacific Ocean waters charges clouds with tremendous loads of water, which then falls on coastal areas, sparking avalanches from steep hillsides and causing rivers to overflow.

“There will be heavy rains in northern regions and in cen-tral Lima over the coming days, so the alert situation remains in place,” Zavala said on Saturday. Humanitarian aid, from the gov-ernment and individuals, was being sent by plane or ship to affected areas.

“We must help each other in solidarity with those who are victims,” said President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski.

White House security boosted after arrest

a more serious incident that called into question security outside the White House.

Just before midnight on March 10, a man scaled three barriers outside the White House — a perimeter fence, a vehicle gate and then another fence — and walked around the grounds of the executive man-sion for 16 minutes before being arrested. That time Trump was inside the building.

Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz dubbed the inci-dent “a total and complete embarrassment”. “(Homeland Security chief John) Kelly told me that this person was there on the ground for 17 minutes, went undetected, was able to get up next to the White House, hide behind a pillar, look through a window, rattle the door handle,” the lawmaker told CNN.

According to the Washington Post, that man, who is from northern California, was carry-ing a backpack and two cans of

mace. The White House has seen a string of high-profile trespass-ing incidents in recent years.

In one notable incident in 2014, while Barack Obama was president, an army veteran described as mentally disturbed made it into the White House grounds, sprinted across the lawn and entered the building with a knife in his pocket before being tackled and arrested.

Secret Service personnel were also involved in an embar-rassing scandal in Colombia when a dozen agents were found to have hired prostitutes during a 2012 presidential trip.

And just last week, a laptop was stolen from an agent in New York and remains missing, the agency said, amid reports that the device contained floor plans of Trump Tower. CNN — citing law enforcement sources in New York — said that though the com-puter was highly encrypted, it contained floor plans and other sensitive contents.

The Secret Service did not detail the contents of the laptop, but emphasized that such devices “contain multiple lay-ers of security including full disk encryption and are not permit-ted to contain classified information,” adding that an investigation was ongoing.

Trump resided in the luxury high-rise before moving into the White House. His wife Melania and youngest son Barron still live there. The Secret Servicre, made up of some 6,500 peo-ple, is tasked with protecting the US President, former pres-idents and vice presidents, as well as foreign heads of state on official visits.

A resident bails water from behind a barrier as a flash flood hits the city of Trujillo, 570km north of Lima yesterday, bringing mud and debris.

More rain looms as Peru struggles

19MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017 AMERICAS

Immigrant woes

The President’s efforts to institute a ban on travellers from certain Muslim-majority countries have been met with a strong response from Muslim Americans and their supporters.

But there is also fear that Islamophobia is on the rise, and that the Trump administration may still target Muslims.

Washington

AFP

An Ohio man claimed he was forced into a hasty window escape when his

house caught fire last year. His pacemaker data obtained by police showed otherwise, and he was charged with arson and insurance fraud.

In Pennsylvania, authorities dismissed rape charges after data from a woman’s Fitbit con-tradicted her version of her whereabouts during the 2015 alleged assault.

Vast amounts of data collected from our connected devices — fit-ness bands, smart refrigerators, thermostats and automobiles, among others — are increasingly being used in US legal proceed-ings to prove or disprove claims by people involved.

In a recent case that made headlines, authorities in Arkan-sas sought, and eventually obtained, data from a murder suspect’s Amazon Echo speaker to obtain evidence. The US Fed-eral Trade Commission in February fined television maker Vizio for secretly gathering data

on viewers collected from its smart TVs and selling the infor-mation to marketers. The maker of We-Vibe meanwhile agreed in March to a court settlement of a class-action suit from buyers who claimed “highly intimate and sensitive data” was uploaded to the cloud without permis-sion—and shown to hackers.

Trying to come to grips with data collected, stored and ana-lyzed by all these devices can be daunting. “When one looks at the expectation of privacy today it is radically different than it was a generation ago,” said Erik Laykin,

a digital forensics specialist with the consultancy Duff & Phelps and author of a 2013 book on compu-ter forensics. “Privacy is dead.”

Laykin has consulted or tes-tified in cases of insurance fraud, divorce and other legal proceed-ings where digital evidence can be relevant. He said the “always on” nature of “internet of Things” devices means huge amounts of personal information is circulat-ing among companies, in the internet cloud and elsewhere, with few standards on how the data is protected or used.

A report last year from

Harvard’s Berkman Klein Center for internet studies pointed out the range of new connected devices that can yield evidence for law enforcement, “ranging from tele-visions and toasters to bed sheets, light bulbs, cameras, toothbrushes, door locks, cars, watches and other wearables,” which “are being packed with sensors and wireless connectivity.”

“The audio and video sen-sors on IoT devices will open up numerous avenues for govern-ment actors to demand access to real-time and recorded com-munications,” the report said.

Chicago

AFP

In a sprawling banquet hall, Ahmed Rehab walked to a lectern facing a glittering group of diners and launched into a searing

speech excoriating the Donald Trump administration.

“This fight is not just our fight, it is America’s fight,” Rehab told the packed room of 1,200 attendees - mostly American Muslims at a fundraiser for the Chicago chapter of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), which Rehab heads.

“As you look at those who are trying to ban good people from coming to this country,” Rehab continued, “people who’ve com-mitted no crime whatsoever other than in their minds the crime of being Muslim... we will have none of it.”

The room broke into applause. The president’s efforts to institute a ban on travellers from certain Muslim-majority countries have been met with a strong response from Muslim Americans and their supporters. But there is also fear that Islam-ophobia is on the rise, and that the Trump administration may still target Muslims.

“There’s a real dread of what’s coming next, what’s going to happen, who will be targeted,” said Louise Cainkar, president of the Arab American Studies Asso-ciation, and author of a book that examined how Arab and Muslim Americans were affected by pol-icies following the September 11 attacks.

People exit the Darul Quran Mosque after attending an open house in Chicago, Illinois. The open house was scheduled for neighbours to get acquainted with the Muslim culture and religion.

Travel ban: Fear and optimism among US Muslims

“There’s a sense that they’re going to once again go after civic organizations, possibly surveil mosques, things that have been done in the past,” she said.

What is different now, she said, is that Muslim and Arab groups have established ties with other communities—and demon-strations against Trump’s rhetoric now draw a mix of people from various faiths and backgrounds. “This is new, and this is really energizing people,” she said.

At the banquet hall, those lis-tening to Rehab’s speech had mixed reactions—some con-cerned, others optimistic because of the sense of cooperation with outside groups. “My kids are all American citizens,” explained Fraheen Hashmi, a 36-year-old pharmacist with four children.

“It’s just scary to raise them in this environment,” she said, worried that they might grow up

embarrassed of their heritage or afraid to identify as Muslim.

Zayna Saadeh was worried, too. The 59-year-old Palestin-ian immigrant has lived in the United States for 40 years. But now, she keeps the front door of her clothing store locked for fear of xenophobic attacks. She unlocks only when someone rings the doorbell. “We’re not stranger(s),” in the United States she said, but”that’s how we feel a lot of times right now.”

Advocacy groups have reported a sharp rise in hate crimes. Anti-Muslim groups nearly tripled last year, according to an annual census by the Southern Poverty Law Center. And in 2015, hate crimes against Muslims increased 67 percent, according to the FBI. Those numbers may be going up, amid increasing reports of new incidents.

Last month, an arson fire damaged a Florida mosque, and a Kansas man was accused of shooting two Indian immigrants who he perceived as Middle Easterners, killing one. This week, the Islamic Center of Tuc-son reported that a vandal had scattered ripped up copies of the Quran, Islam’s holy text, around the mosque. But there has also been a rallying response from Muslim groups and supporters, as Muslim-Americans have felt more scrutiny and threats.

During his speech at the ban-quet hall, Rehab pointed to new allies in the room—non-Muslim lawyers who helped travelers during Trump’s ill-fated first attempt at a ban that triggered chaos at American airports until

it was halted by US courts.“My friends, you are the best

of America,” he said. Other attendees echoed that optimism. “The negative could be turned into a positive, and I think that’s what we’re seeing now,” said Akif Ali, a 36-year-old born in Houston. “The best part is that the American public themselves have become very generous to us,” added Saqib Khan, a US-born lawyer of Pakistani descent.

One evidence of the growing support was a gathering at Chi-cago’s Grace Place Episcopal Church, where about 30 people

— many community activists for various other causes — attended a presentation billed as a teach-in about Islamophobia.

Sofia Sami, dressed in the traditional Muslim head cover-ing known as the hijab, stepped in front of a projection screen to help lead the group. They watched samples of news cov-erage, discussed their own perceptions, and considered ways rhetoric shapes policies.

Two hours later as people cleared out, Sami reflected on how American politics are changing. “A lot of people who aren’t Muslims

are watching the news and seek-ing ways to support,” said the 24-year-old first generation American of Indian descent.

CAIR, Rehab’s group, has expanded its capacity in Chi-cago to take on hundreds of new volunteers, grown its net-work of schools, mosques and community centers and held know-your-rights training ses-sions. “These are definitely times that are rapidly mobiliz-ing the Muslim community, or co-strugglers of color and allies,” said CAIR spokeswoman Hoda Katebi.

Cary

AP

A woman was strangled by her teenage son in a case that has puzzled an afflu-

ent North Carolina town for more than a year, authorities said. Seventeen-year-old Arnav Uppalapati was arrested Thurs-day night and charged with murder in the 2015 death of his mother, according to a Town of Cary news release .

Emergency personnel were led to Nalini Tellaprolu’s body in the garage of her home on December 17, 2015 after Arnav Uppalapati had called 911 to say he found her there.

The killing was one of only a handful that year in the town of about 160,000 west of the state capital of Raleigh. Cary’s median household income of around $92,000 is double that of North Carolina as a whole.

Authorities say Arnav Uppalapati has been charged as an adult, which is customary for crime suspects age 16 and over in North Carolina. The charge carries a maximum pen-alty of life in prison.

The News & Observer

reports that an autopsy showed that the 51-year-old mother of two was strangled and left in the garage with her body partly in a car. Even after the arrest, the motive of the crime hasn’t been publicly disclosed.

Wake County District Attor-ney Lorrin Freeman said that the son has been a person of interest throughout the inves-tigation, and that there didn’t appear to be signs of forced entry into the family’s home.

Sixteen at the time of the killing, Arnav Uppalapati called 911 and told a dispatcher that he found his mother’s body when he got home from school. He told authorities he had last seen her alive the night before.

Family friends told the news-paper they were stunned by the news of the arrest. “We’re shocked as a community,” Padma Tummala said. “This was not something we expected to hear. She focused all of her energy on her kids.” Tummala said Tellaprolu spoke fondly of her daughter, Avani, and son, Arnav, and how she would stay up late to make sure Arnav had snacks when he would work late on homework.

Washington

IANS

Donald Trump has selected White House adviser Kellyanne

Conway's husband to head the civil division of the Jus-tice Department, placing him in charge of the Presidents travel ban and lawsuits, a media report said.

George T Conway III, 53, would lead the division of about 1,000 lawyers, handling issues like national security and consumer protection and enforcing federal programmes and the actions of the President himself, The New York Times report said on Saturday.

However, the decision was not immediately confirmed either by the White House or the Justice Department

If confirmed, George T Conway III would immediately be in charge of representing Trump in the legal challenges - which are widely expected to reach the Supreme Court - over his executive order barring people from six pre-dominantly Muslim countries from entering the US.

George T Conway III would also oversee Trump's defence in a pending lawsuit charging him with violations of the US Constitution's Emol-uments Clause, which bans federal officeholders from accepting gifts or payments from foreign governments because of the profits his hotels and resorts receive from foreign officials who are customers, the report said.

George T. Conway III had been a contender for the job of solicitor general for the Trump administration, but the President announced this month that the job would go to Noel J Francisco.

17-year-old arrested for his mother’s death

Trump picks Conway's husband for justice post

Secrets from smart devices find path to legal system

20 MONDAY 20 MARCH 2017HOME

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Lightning illuminates Doha sky last evening.The Meteorology Department has forecast strong winds today with chances of scattered rains, thundery at times. Pic: Salim

Matramkot / The

Peninsula

Lightning streak

FAJRSHOROOK

04.22 am

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ZUHRASR

11.42 am

03.08 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

05.47 pm

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PRAYER TIMINGS

The Peninsula

United Development Com-pany - the master developer of The Pearl-Qatar hosted Ghinwa a live kids’ musical per-

formance at 31 La Croisette, Porto Arabia’s Amphitheater, in the city recently.

The performance was staged in two consecutive versions one in Ara-bic and another in English, and started at 4 pm.

Ghinwa is a live performance sing-along show that is based on stories and showcases cartoon characters that are loved by children.

The songs were both educational and fun and were enjoyed by people attending the event.

The event saw a remarkable turn-out of families both residence of the Pearl and visitors from all over the country and their families, along with attendees from neighbouring GCC countries who regularly visit the Pearl - Qatar over weekends.

Ghinwa comes as another initia-tive of UDC to host activities and entertainment events that raise up to expectations of the visitors and appeals to them in line with the other great development of the Pearl - Qatar.

The Pearl-Qatar hosts musical show Ghinwa

Artistes presenting the live musical performance Ghinwa.

The Peninsula

The 10th Arab Open Robotics Championship began yesterday with participation of 12 teams

from various Arab countries and 50 teams from Qatar schools. The event began at Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC) under sponsorship of the Ministry of Education and Higher Education in cooperation with Arab Robotics Association.

The inaugural function of the event hosted by Qatar for the second time, was attended by H E Dr. Mohammed Abdul Wahed Al Hammadi, Minister of Education and Higher Education along with top officials of the minis-try, Arab Robotics Association and directors of independent, private and international schools.

Robotics contributes to enhancing skills of talented students and develops their capacities to innovate and the min-istry encourages use of robotics in all schools, said Fawzia Abdulaziz Al Khater, Assistant Undersecretary for educational affairs at the Ministry. The contest this year has attracted a large number of par-ticipants, Al Khater added.

Qatar is proud to host the Arab

Robotics Championship for the sec-ond time and such competition perfects students personalities and helps them to develop their skills to apply their knowledge on science, engineering, mathematics and pro-gramming to solve problems, said Rima Abu Khadija, Director, Office of Curricula Standards at the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

The Ministry is working to invest on role of students and human resources to build knowledge econ-omy in accordance with Qatar National Vision 2030, she said in her inaugural address. “There are big expectations from your participation in this champi-onship in areas of science and engineering,” Abu Khadija said in her address to the participating Arab teams.

There is a good environment for fair competitiveness and chance to choose excellent teams from you to represent the Arabs in international robotics Olym-piad, she told the participants.

The championship is hosting 50 teams from independent and private schools in Qatar, along with more than 1600 participants from 12 Arab coun-tries, said the chairperson of organising committee Mariam Al Awadi. The three-day event is open in the morning and evening and the organising committee will announce results of the competition on the last day of the championship, she added.

Chairman of Arab Robotics Asso-ciation, Yassin Ismail said this year’s competition has paid more attention to science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM education).

“We are happy to see young sci-entists and future leaders working day and night and taking burden of trav-elling to showcase their innovative products,” he said.

Ismail Shams, Vice-Chairman of Arab Robotics Association said the championship includes a number of competitions such as Jr. FLL, Line Track-ing, Sumo, Ball Collector and FTC.

10th Arab Open Robotics Championship begins

Students at the 10th Arab Open Robotics Championship began yesterday.

HIGH TIDE 08:30 - 23:15 LOW TIDE 04:45 - 15:15

Strong wind and expected thunder

rain. Hazy at first becomes slight dust

to blowing dust at times and partly

cloudy to cloudy with chance of scat-

tered rain maybe thundery at places.

WEATHER TODAY

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