Qatar Museums Chairperson H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad Al Thani, at the opening of pop-up exhibition at the Doha Fire Station. Contemporary Qatari artist Ahmed bin Majed Al Maadheed signed postcards and stickers of his famous portrait of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. → See also page 2

The Empire State Building in New York City is lit in b u r g u n d y and white in honour of Qatar Airways and its 10th Anniversary of flying to the United States. → Report on page 3

Sheikha Mayassa opens exhibition

Empire State Building lit in Qatar Airways' colours

History against Mexico but Germany remain on guard

Cyberattack disrupts businesses

across the world

BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 24

Volume 22 | Number 7207 | 2 RiyalsThursday 29 June 2017 | 5 Shawwal 1438 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

3rd Best News Website in the Middle East

QNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani held a telephone conversa-

tion with Prime Minister of Japan, Shinzo Abe, in which the Japanes Premier expressed concern about the repercussions of the Gulf cri-sis, noting that the demands of the four countries are harsh. The Japanes Premier also stressed his country's support for Kuwaiti media-tion and diplomatic efforts to resolve the crisis.

Shinzo Abe greeted the Emir and the Qatari people on the occasion of Eid Al Fitr.

The Japanese Prime Min-ister thanked the Emir for continuing the energy supply to Japan despite the current circumstances, stressing that Japan is determined to con-tinue to promote the full partnership with Qatar not only in the field of energy but also in the political, economic and security arenas. The Emir and Japanese Premier reaf-firmed the importance of continuing to support the deep ties so as to enhance the mutual interests of both countries.

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdul-rahman Al Thani has affirmed

that the demands of the siege countries are mere claims and should be supported by evi-dence, adding that the demands should be realistic and feasible, and all that oth-erwise is unacceptable.

The Foreign Minister told reporters after his meeting with his US counterpart Rex Tillerson that the meeting was very excel lent and constructive.

"We talked about the cri-sis and the siege imposed on the State of Qatar by the three countries in coordination with Egypt as well as the list of col-lective demands submitted by the siege countries," he said.

Demands harsh: Japanese Premier

Report vindicates integrity of 2022 World Cup bid: SC

It is not possible to accept the dictates of the countries which imposed the block-ade against Qatar because what they have

made are allegations, not demands, which will remain ink on paper unless they provide the evidence. And in that case, both sides can sit together and discuss the issues in the Gulf tradition and in accordance with international laws.

Other than these procedures, Qatar can-not deal with any complaints or demands, as they call it. Qatar, since the beginning of this crisis, has called for dialogue to solve the problems and the causes leading to it, in the GCC framework and in the framework of international organisations’ decisions. The differences in the allegations of these coun-tries make it clear to all people in the world, especially in the Gulf region, that these accu-sations are fabricated and there is no hard evidence.

Anyone who has observed the develop-ments during the period of the blockade can understand the hidden intentions and that plans were prepared in advance. These fab-rications started with the hacking of Qatar News Agency and allegations against the Emir, which Qatar has denied. But, unfortu-nately, the channels, which have a special agenda, didn’t pay attention to Qatar’s denial and continued the abuse against a broth-erly country. Despite this abuse by a number of hired journalists in several newspapers and channels in these countries, Qatar remained firm and its position is stronger than these media debates. Qatar has stressed more than once that it welcomes any efforts to solve the crisis and is ready to bring the situation to the pre-crisis level. It also highly appreciates the efforts of the Emir of Kuwait H H Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmad Al Jaber Al Sabah to find a solution and restore Gulf solidarity.

Qatar has also stressed it is ready to dis-cuss these allegations except those which are related to its sovereignty because it is a redline that can’t be crossed. The statements of Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani during his meet-ing with the US Secretary of State attracted my attention and also their discussions about reconciliation. The Minister said that what was presented by the siege countries were merely claims without any concrete evidence, and he stressed that Qatar and the US agreed the demands should be reasonable, and the siege countries should also have a desire for negotiations. The picture presented by the Foreign Minister is a gist of the situa-tion faced by Qatar with the siege countries and how to deal with this crisis created by these countries.

We do not want to exaggerate the stand of anyone but Qatar’s stand will remain high, and it has nothing to hide. However, others are in deep sleep and are trying to bring about alternatives and new fabrications as the current justifications could not fool even the simple citizens of the GCC countries.

We are not against the GCC integration and stand for equal justice and responsibil-ities. Every country has the right to deal with its issues freely, without any foreign inter-ference. We are waiting what the coming days will bring but the position of Qatar is like the sun in the sky and it does not pay attention to any foreign concerns except the interests of its people who have respect, loyalty and obedience to the leaders.

Dr. Khalid Al-ShafiEditor-in-Chief

OPINION

Allegations, not demands

Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

There is no shortage of medical supplies or medicines because of

the blockade imposed on Qatar by some of its neigh-bouring countries, said pharmacies across the country.

They claim that medicine supply and distribution has not been effected due to the blockade. Although some of

the supply routes are affected, it has no impact and there are several alterna-tives, according to industry sources.

Several pharmaceutical experts The Peninsula spoke to also said that, medicines are brought into the country in large stocks and import-ers have long term contracts signed which cannot be breached.

They rejected the notion that the blockade will have

an impact on the availabil-ity of medicines and medical supplies in the country.

“There is no question about shortage of medicine in the country, there are large stock of drugs availa-ble. By the time the stocks are getting over new sup-ply will reach here. If medicines cannot be trans-ported through usual routes, alternative ways will be found,” said medical representative working

with a large medicine supplier.

“The country has contracts signed with medicines manu-factures and suppliers. It’s impossible for them to breach such agreements. More than three weeks have passed after the blockade was imposed and we haven’t noticed any impact in medicine supply. Like eve-rything else medicines will also be available in the country as usual,” he added. → Continued on page 3

No shortage of medicines in Qatar

Swiss union sees big progress on 2022 sites » Page 2

By Mohammed Osman The Peninsula

A delegation from the National Human Rights C o m m i t t e e (NHRC) led by

Chairman Dr Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri will begin from today a European tour to visit Germany, Switzer-land, Sweden, the Netherlands and France to explain to international human rights organisations the consequences of the siege imposed by three Gulf countries on Qatar. The total number of complaints on violations of human rights has reached 2,451, he added.

Speaking at a press confer-ence, Dr Al Marri said the commit-tee will hire an international Swiss law firm in Geneva on Sat-u r d a y t o coordinate with a number of Qatari law firms, national courts in Europe and the NHRC to follow up on the cases of Qataris as well as

citizens of the three countries who were affected by the siege and the consequent col-lective punishments and rights violations in line with the principle of force majeure. He added that the law firm will have choices to act and carry out its task.→ Continued on page 3

NHRC team's Europe tour from today

Demand to close Aljazeera a blow to media pluralism: UN expertTHE reported demand by a number of govern-ments that Qatar close the AlJazeera media network in exchange for the lifting of sanc-tions would strike a major blow against media pluralism, said the UN Special Rappor-teur on freedom of opinion and expression, David Kaye.

→ See also page 16

Complaints on human rights violations reach 2,451

NHRC to hire Swiss Law firm to follow up on siege-affected cases

National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Chairman Dr Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri during a press conference in Doha, yesterday.

The Peninsula

THE SUPREME Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC), the organizing committee of the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, has welcomed the publication of the Garcia Report on the awarding of the 2018 and 2022 World Cups to Russia and Qatar but "questioned the timing of the leak."

"We believe that the extent of our cooperation with this investigation and the conclusions drawn represent a vindication of the integrity of our bid," SC said.

"We will continue to ded-icate ourselves toward delivering on the promises we made during our bid and hosting an historic first FIFA World Cup in the Middle East," the statement added.

02 THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017HOME

Qatar Museums Chairperson H E Sheikha Al Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani, at the opening of pop-up exhibition at the Doha Fire Station. Contemporary Qatari artist Ahmed bin Majed Al Maadheed signed postcards and stickers of his famous portrait of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. The portrait, widely recognised by its title ‘Tamim Al Majd’, which translates to ‘Tamim the glorious’, recently went viral on social media and has been plastered on cars and buildings across the nation. Presented by Qatar Museums, the exhibition is running for three days till Friday from 4pm to 8pm at Workshop number 3. It showcases a selection of the artist's most popular works, which have gained nationwide and international recognition. Ahmed’s work covers a range of mediums including animation, advertisements, and others.

Sheikha Al Mayassa visits exhibition

The Peninsula

The Supreme Commit-tee for Delivery & Legacy (SC), Secre-tary-General, Hassan Al Thawadi, at a

meeting in Berlin, has outlined the continued progress taking place on workers’ welfare ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Highlighting successful joint labour inspections between the SC and BWI, Al Thawadi addressed a wide-ranging audi-ence as the keynote speaker at the BWI Global Sports Campaign for Decent Work: Sports-Migration Nexus and Labour Inspections event. A number of leading labour organisations present at the con-ference lauded Qatar’s engaging and transparent approach on workers’ welfare, with Swiss union UNIA pointing to ‘big progress’ on sites for 2022. “It is an example of how dialogue, transparency and shared values can lead to real progress in spite of perceived obstacles,” Al Tha-wadi said.

With a wide variety of organ-isations including Human Rights Watch, ILO, IG Bau (Germany), UNITE (UK), UNIA (Switzerland), NDLON (USA), Bayern Munich, and others present at the confer-ence, Al Thawadi spoke of the importance role which the first World Cup in the Arab world has to bring about sustainable change.

“The World Cup has created an environment for enabling a working agreement between the Supreme Committee and BWI. This speaks volumes for our vision. It is a platform for progress and for bringing people together from all sectors of global society.

And this is what the State of Qatar stands for. Bringing people together from diverse back-grounds, views, and cultures and seeking to implement a progres-sive vision and legacy.”

Introducing Al Thawadi as the keynote speaker, Ambet Yuson, General-Secretary of BWI, said: “We have already conducted three joint inspections with the Supreme Committee in Qatar, and our initial assessment is that our inspection has improved the health and safety conditions. We are able to recommend some problems, and the companies responded, and I think this is very good. The joint inspections are really important, and the SC is serious about them, they make quick resolutions to any issues, and this is the way forward.”

For Rita Schiavi, who repre-sented Switzerland’s UNIA trade union at the conference, said ‘big progress’ has taken place in Qatar: “I think it was very important that Hassan was here, because it really shows that there is common work in Qatar, and that he and the SC is very open to this work.

“We go to Qatar, and he also comes to us, which is very sym-bolic, I think. On the stadium sites,

there has been big progress since the works began. I was there for the signing of the agreement, and a colleague of mine who is an inspector was in Doha in April on site and he was really amazed. He said the health and safety is as good as in Switzerland.

“Of course we all know that this is for workers on the stadium sites, it is not for all workers in Qatar. But I think it is important that we as a union also want to show at home in Switzerland that if we work internationally, that if we make pressure, then things can happen and can change, and I think Qatar is a very good exam-ple. I myself was not in Russia, for instance, but I heard that things in Qatar on the stadium sites have very much improved and is prob-ably better than in Russia.”

Schiavi added that the tour-nament in Qatar could be a catalyst for global improvements on construction sites, even in Switzerland: “I hope that this World Cup in Qatar can be a cat-alyst for change, the World Cup is symbolic because everyone is interested in sports, so we use it to show you can do better.”

Al Thawadi added that a strong relationship with BWI had been formed, which would bring about sustainable change: “I believe that we have a strong basis for a long-term partnership that will serve to make a signifi-cant contribution toward sustainable change and progress for workers in Qatar and beyond.”

“I call upon you to assist us on that journey, through your criti-cism — when deserved and through your recognition – when deserved. We look forward to working with you.”

Swiss union sees big progress on 2022 sites

SC Secretary-General Hassan Al Thawadi, at a meeting in Berlin, has outlined the continued progress taking place on workers’ welfare ahead of the 2022 FIFA World Cup Qatar.

HGH treats at least 750 cases The Peninsula

The Emergency Department of Hamad General Hospi-tal (HGH) treated at least

750 cases on the fourth day of Eid Al Fitr yesterday due to sev-eral reasons including stomach ailments and trauma.

Other cases the department received were related to cardiac problems and road traffic accidents.

The number of cases seen on the fourth day of Eid Al Fitr showed an increase of 328 from the second day of Eid.

But the total number of cases seen during Eid holidays were less compared to previous years.

On the fourth day of Eid, the Emergency Department treated 21 patients with cardiac prob-lems, six due to road traffic accidents, 12 due to stomach

ailments and 47 cases for trauma due to different reasons.

In total 2,262 cases were seen at the Emergency Depart-ment during this Eid holidays. However, there were no critical cases or deaths, especially due to road traffic accidents were reported during the holidays, which is seen as a major improvement due to awareness.

03THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017 HOME

Qatar Airways and HIA report high trafficThe Peninsula

Qatar Airways and Hamad International Airport reported an exceptionally high vol-ume of traffic during

the busy Eid Al Fitr holiday period despite the current regional travel restrictions imposed by its neigh-bouring countries.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said, “In spite of recent restrictions imposed on the airline, our operations to and from Doha remain resilient and are running smoothly. In the past seven days, 510,949 passen-gers have flown from Hamad International Airport on board more than 2,900 flights. During the peak Eid Al Fitr holiday period, 22-24 June, 49,794 of those pas-sengers were joining flights directly from Doha.”

Eng. Badr Al Meer, Hamad International Airport Chief Oper-ating Officer, added, “The airport has had a very busy Eid period with the total number of passen-gers travelling on all airlines,

including the national carrier Qatar Airways, from June 19-25 reaching 580,000, and added that there were 3,300 move-ments during this time. Hamad International Airport continues to urge passengers to arrive early for check in during this busy hol-iday period.”

Hamad International Airport recently reported that it served 19 million passengers from Jan-uary to June 2017, 8 percent more than those served in the

same period in 2016. Qatar Airways continues to

operate to the majority of its net-work of more than 150 destinations around the world, with 90% of those flights depart-ing within 15 minutes of their scheduled departure time.

The airline shows no sign of slowing down its rapid network growth having launched its new service to Dublin, Republic of Ireland, on June 12, which will be followed by new route launches on July 4 to Nice, France, and July 17 to Skopje, Macedonia. Other new destina-tions planned for the remainder of this year and 2018 include Las Vegas (USA), Canberra (Aus-tralia), Douala (Cameroon), Libreville (Gabon), Medan (Indo-nesia), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil), Santiago (Chile) and Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina), as well as many others.

Earlier this month the airline released its annual report for the fiscal year 2017, revealing a net profit of $541m, a 21.7 percent year-on-year increase. The

results also show an annual rev-enue increase of 10.4 percent.

Reflecting the ongoing suc-cess of Qatar Airways, the airline was awarded the Skytrax Airline of the Year award for the fourth

time at the 2017 Paris Air Show. In addition to this prestigious award it was also named Best Airline in the Middle East, World’s Best Business Class and World’s Best First Class Airline

Lounge. Qatar Airways’ home and hub, Hamad International Airport, was this year also rated five-star by Skytrax, one of only five in the world to be given this recognition.

Qatar Airways and Hamad International Airport reported an exceptionally high volume of traffic during the busy Eid Al Fitr holiday period.

Peak season

Qatar Airways reported that more than 500,000 passengers travelled on board during the busy Eid Al Fitr week.

Hamad International Airport welcomed 580,000 passengers over the peak holiday period.

Chairman of National Human Rights Committee, Dr Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri, met with Ambassadors of Germany Hans-Udo Muzel, Netherlands Bahia Tahzib-Lie and Sweden Ewa Polano. The meeting comes within the context of arrangements for the European tour, which will start today, by a delegation of the NHRC, in order to explain the repercussions of the siege on Qatar by some Gulf countries and its impact on the human rights situation, especially as many citizens of Qatar and citizens of the GCC countries have been affected by it.

NHRC to hold international meet on July 24 and 25 in Doha

→ Continued from page 1NHRC will hold an interna-

tional conference on July 24 and 25 in Doha to discuss the man-agement of risks facing freedom of speech, protection of journal-ists and the right to access information, Dr Al Marri said, adding that a number of partners of the committees will cooperate with it to organize the conference, including the International Fed-eration of Journalists (IFJ).

He said that 200 media and rights organisations will partici-pate in the conference in addition to the United Nations Commis-sion on Human Rights, and UN special rapporteurs including, UN special rapporteur on the promo-tion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expres-sion, and other international human rights arms. The confer-ence will discuss and study suggestions and topics related to protecting journalists and the obstacles they face.

Dr Al Marri said

that the conference comes as the continuous violations of the free-dom of speech and assaults on journalists, in addition to calls for shutting down satellite channels.

The NHRC Chairman said the claims made by the siege coun-tries alleging that the siege and its consequences are not aimed at the Qatari people were untrue. He refuted them saying that families, students and businessmen are part of the population, hence all these sanctions are aimed at the Qatari population, residents of Qatar, and some citizens from siege countries. He added that the escalation threats made by the UAE ambassador to Moscow con-stitute explicit acknowledgment that such collective sanctions affect the people.

Asked about the GCC secre-tary general's silence on the matter, Dr. Al Marri said if he is absent from the political scene, he should not be absent from the humanitarian side of the issue.

Dr. Al Marri criticized the silence of the Arab League's Arab Charter on Human Rights, which includes independent experts, and the OIC's Independent Per-manent Human Rights Commission, saying that they did not carry out their duties in this regard.

He added there are tens of expatriate domestic workers who were with their employees in Saudi Arabia working in farms, homes, looking after livestock have been banned from traveling to Qatar with their deported employers.

Majority of these domestic workers are from four Asian countries including Nepal, India, Bangladesh and , and they have been left without food or shelter or salary. Money transfer to these countries is not allowed so far he added. The NHRC has contacted their embassies here in Qatar to intervene to ease the living con-dition of these domestic helps in Saudi Arab, Bahrain and UAE.

Qatar Airways celebrates 10 years of service to USThe Peninsula

Qatar Airways has cele-brated 10 years of unparalleled service to the

United States by illuminating the Empire State Building in its sig-nature burgundy and white colours. The airline will continue its celebrations with a series of activities including, special offers from the US to more than 100 destinations worldwide, as well as bonus Qmiles for Privi-lege Club frequent flyer members.

Qatar Airways Group Chief Executive Akbar Al Baker said: “We were honoured to display our colours on one of the most iconic skyscrapers in the world, and the headquarters of our USA and Americas Regional offices, the Empire State Building. We believe this is a true testament to our positive presence and fantastic support in the US.

“Qatar Airways is proud to have provided a decade of qual-ity international service for our valued travellers in the United States, and we are looking for-ward to serving the Americas for many more years to come.

“Qatar Airways con-tinues to expand and grow; with upcoming planned services to both Las Vegas and San Francisco. Never has Qatar Airways’ com-mitment to the American market been stronger, and providing a vital interna-tional link between the USA to Qatar and beyond remains our goal.”

Qatar Airways’ first flight to the US, on June 28, 2007, was to New York City, this was closely fol-lowed by service to Washington, DC, the fol-lowing month. 2016 was a

particularly busy year in the US for Qatar Airways as it launched flights to Los Angeles, Boston and Atlanta taking the total number of gateways into North America to 10, including Chicago, Dallas-Fort Worth, Houston, Miami and Philadelphia.

As part of its continuing expansion efforts within the country, Qatar Airways is plan-ning to launch services to San Francisco and Las Vegas in 2018. The American expansion is just part of the overall airline growth plans, which include new routes to Canberra (Australia), Chiang Mai (Thailand), Douala (Cam-eroon), Libreville (Gabon), Rio de Janeiro, (Brazil), Santiago (Chile), as well as many other exciting destinations.

To further strengthen its position as an industry leader, Qatar Airways has just launched the groundbreaking Qsuite to London and will bring the pat-ented product to New York City in September. The Qsuite fea-tures the industry’s first-ever double bed available in Business Class, with privacy panels that stow away, allowing passengers

in adjoining seats to create their own private room. Adjustable panels and movable TV moni-tors on the center four seats allow colleagues, friends or fam-ilies travelling together to transform their space into a pri-vate suite, allowing them to work, dine and socialise together. These new features provide the ultimate customis-able travel experience that enables passengers to create an environment that suits their own unique needs.

Qatar Airways is one of the fastest growing airlines operat-ing one of the youngest fleets in the world. The airline is also cel-ebrating its twentieth year of global operations this year. Qatar Airways has a modern fleet of 200 aircraft flying to more than 150 key business and leisure des-tinations across six continents.

As the 2017 Skytrax winner of Airline of the Year, World’s Best Business Class, Best Airline in the Middle East, and Best First Class Airline Lounge, Qatar Air-ways continues to deliver award-winning service across all cabins to the USA and beyond.

Medicine stock available for many months→ Continued from page 1

However, some medicines are not available in the market due to different reasons and has no connection to the block-ade, say industrial sources.

“We have enough medi-cines in our pharmacies. There is no shortage. Some medi-cines have a shortage and not available in the market for a while due to different reasons and it has no connection to the

crisis,” said a pharmacist attached to the Wellcare Group.

Another pharmacist work-ing with a pharmacy inside a leading hypermarket said, “We dispense many prescrip-tions every day. There is no medicine shortage, there is stock for many months and it’s essential like food and other commodities. In some cases medicines are important than

anything else. So in a country like Qatar, there is no possibil-ity to have a medicine shortage, even if there any draw backs due to the blockade, alterna-tive ways will be found.”

Earlier the Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), the prime healthcare provider in the country had assured that there would be no shortage of med-ical supplies or medicines because of the blockade. It said

that HMC had stocks of medi-cines and other important medical supplies for many months and stressed there was no risk on the public health services.

Also the Primary Health Care Corporation (PHCC) had confirmed that there was no shortage of drugs as well as delivery and access to medical supplies and medicine contin-ues as usual.

04 THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017HOME

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Juices from Oman hit shelvesSanaullah Ataullah The Peninsula

After fresh dairy prod-ucts, fruits and vegetables from Tur-key and Iran, bottled juices have started to

hit shelves in Qatar from Oman.Fresh fruit juices of different

varieties including apple, orange, pineapple and lemon and those of mixed fruits have arrived in large stock from A'Safwah Dairy & Beverage Company, which is the largest vertically integrated dairy company in Oman.

A'Safwah juice products are available in packs of 200ml, 500ml and 1.7litre at various shopping complexes and super-markets across the country.

“We received large stock of fresh fruit juices from Oman a few days ago,” Mohamad Sed-dique, a salesman at a shopping complex operating at Ain Kha-lid, told The Peninsula.

“The products have received overwhelming response from consumers as it is very tasty and prices are also

reasonable," said Seddique.“We are offering a 200ml

bottle juice of apple, pineapple, lemon, guava and tamarind at QR2. However, a bottle of same size of orange juice is available at QR2.25.”

“There are two more packs in sizes of 500m and 1.7 litre at QR4.75 and QR14, respectively,” said Siddique.

“I grabbed two big bottles of lemon and mango flavour and some small bottles with differ-ent flavours after tasting the juice,” Mohamad Amin, a Paki-stani national who came for

shopping with his family at a shopping mall, said.

“Taste of A'Safwah juices are very similar to those being imported from neigbhouring countries that have imposed a siege and there is not much dif-ference in the prices," said Amin.

“The products coming from new markets like dairy products, fruits and vegetables and now fresh fruit juices are gradually replacing those that were com-ing from neigbhouring countries. We appreciate the quick move of government and the local businessmen for going to new markets to maintain the stocks of food and non-food items in the country.”

Speaking on the availability of food and non-food items in the local markets, Amin said: “I strongly believe that there will never be shortage of goods in Qatar because the country is capable to meet the require-ments of local markets. Therefore, I did not buy extra stocks like my some relatives and friends did after getting the news of blockade.”

“With my experience during about past three weeks, I can say that only brand names of the products showcased in shelves of commercial outlets are chang-ing," he added.

Varieties of juices from Oman displayed at a commercial outlet in Ain Kahlid.

Fresh fruit juices of different varieties have arrived in large stock from A'Safwah Dairy & Beverage Company, which is the largest vertically integrated dairy company in Oman.

Local farms meet 15% of demandSidi Mohamed The Peninsula

Agricultural production from local farms meet over 15 percent of the

country's demand currently, up from 12 percent in 2014, helped by the support from the Ministry of Municipality and Environment. The Ministry provides a lot of support to local farms to increase production and to achieve self-sufficiency of agricultural resources. It provides seeds, pes-ticides, agricultural tools and many other services at subsidised prices. It also buys dates from local market at QR6.5 for 1kg as a support.

"From the last year, agricul-tural production contributes 15 percent, while in 2014 it was only 12 percent and our vision in 2030 is to achieve self-sufficiency and export agricultural products," said Khalifa Al Ansari, head of local farms at agricultural affairs

of the Ministry.The total area of agricultural

land in Qatar is 65,000 hectare, and the number of local farms is 1,290, according to 2015 statis-tics. The number of green house farms has reached 3,700 in 230 local farms. “In the first quarter of this year, the total sales of the winter vegetable markets were 5,113 tonnes,” said Al Ansari.

The Ministry had organised five annual activities as a support to local farms, and produced 300,000 cartons for farmers. “Three new farms are to be opened soon in Umm Ghu-wailina on Salwa Road to produce fodder”, he said, adding that, “in 2014 the local farms pro-duced 546,000 tonnes of fodder, and the production increased in 2016 to reach to 561,000 tonnes.

The idea was to diversify the sources of income for farmers, and to make it easy for them to sell their products to customers without any mediator.

Outstanding Filipinos in Qatar honouredRaynald C Rivera The Peninsula

Nearly 19,000 people have attended the grand Phil-ippine Independence Day

Celebrations (PIDC) capped by the first-ever awards ceremony honouring outstanding overseas Filipinos in Qatar.

The three-day celebrations, considered the biggest annual gathering of Filipinos here, saw a successful conclusion on Tues-day night with the AFJQ Gawad Parangal para sa Natatanging Overseas Pinoy awards.

Launched by the Alliance of Filipino Journalists in Qatar, the award recognises Filipino work-ers in Qatar for being a source of pride, honour, inspiration and encouragement to their compa-triots and other nationals in Qatar and around the world.

The recipients of this year’s award comprise seven individu-als and one organisation involved in various fields and categories. They include Dr Alexander Acosta (Education), Ameera Fabella (Health and Medical Services), Jeanette Gotangogan (Commu-nity and Social Services), Raynald Rivera (Journalism and Mass Communication), Eng. Mario S o l a n g ( E n g i n e e r i n g

and Construction) and Annie Bar-celona-Esmer (Business and Entrepreneurship.

The award for Outstanding Filipino Organization for Com-munity and Social Services went to Pinoy WISE Qatar, a member of global movement Pinoy Wise (Worldwide Initiative for Invest-m e n t S a v i n g s a n d Entrepreneurship) International which promotes financial liter-acy among Filipinos.

Philippine Ambassador Alan Timbayan and Labour Attaché David Des Dicang along with UFOQ Chairman Ressie Fos handed the awards to the honourees.

“To the recipients of the Gawad Parangal award, congrat-ulations for your excellent performance and achievements in your respective expertise. You are certainly a model to the Fil-ipino workers here in Qatar. We

look forward to your success in the future,” said Timbayan.

The last day of PIDC also saw the crowning of Lakan at Lakam-bini ng Kalayaan 2017, a search for the ambassadors of goodwill for the Filipino community.

Karle Haven Reyes and Mar-tina Estrada of Balitang Q were crowned Lakan at Lakambini ng Kalayaan 2017 in a spectacular show marked by a vibrant show-case of Filipino culture and

tourism through elegant cos-tumes created by renowned Qatar-based Filipino designers and inspired by Philippine festivals.

Gawad Parangal and Lakan at Lakambini ng Kalayaan were two of the new features launched at this year’s PIDC, organised by United Filipino Organisations in Qatar and Kulinarya Qatar.

“To the members of UFOQ and Kulinarya Qatar, congratu-lations for a job well done. The 119th Independence Day cele-brations have certainly outstripped the past independ-ence day celebrations which you have organized,” said Timbayan, who lauded the organisations for being “very cohesive and cooperative.”

Dicang shared the same view praising the leadership and cooperation of UFOQ, AFJQ and other organisations. “The Phil-ippine government is truly blest because we have hardworking men and women who support our programmes,” he said.

“Let us work together for a strong Filipino community,” Timbayan urged community leaders and members while assuring them of embassy’s sup-port for their future endeavours.

The Peninsula

Texas A&M at Qatar was recently awarded 19 grants from the Qatar

National Research Fund (QNRF) for research which will have an impact and meet the needs of Qatar. A solar-powered desal-ination process , a polymer-enhanced foam to improve oil recovery in Qatari reservoirs and a wearable device to detect low blood sugar are just a few of the Texas A&M University at Qatar research projects selected to receive funding from the QNRF.

Texas A&M at Qatar was awarded 19 projects from QNRF in Cycle 10 of the National Pri-orities Research Program. QNRF selected only 85 of the 376 proposals submitted for funding. The campus research office was also named Best Research Office of the Year for the third year in a row — and the fifth time in the past six years. The office is responsible

for vetting research proposals that are submitted to QNRF for funding and managing the awarded research projects.

“We are very pleased with the outcome of Cycle 10,” said Dr César O. Malavé, dean of Texas A&M at Qatar. “Our researchers are working to address relevant, real-world challenges of relevance to the State of Qatar. Through this work, Texas A&M at Qatar

directly contributes to Qatar’s goal of becoming a knowledge-based society. This latest round of awards from the Qatar National Research Fund dem-onstrates the high quality of the research being conducted at Texas A&M at Qatar, and we are grateful to QNRF for support-ing our mission to be a valued resource to the State of Qatar as we work to support Qatar in achieving its goals.”

QNRF awards 19 grants for Tamuq research activities

Philippine Ambassador Alan Timbayan (centre), Labour Attaché David Des Dicang (extreme right )and UFOQ Chairman Ressie Fos (extreme left) with the awardees of the first annual AFJQ Gawad Parangal para sa Natatanging Overseas Pinoy awards at City Centre Rotana Doha.

Education Above All to take part in Unesco meetingThe Peninsula

Education Above All (EAA) Foundation has been invited to be a

member and join the influen-tial Unesco 2030 Education Steering Committee to rep-resent the efforts of foundations around the world in working to achieve Sus-tainable Development Goals (SDGs) on education. They have also been invited by the President on the UN General Assembly to participate in the high-level meeting on education.

EAA will join representa-tives from member states, civil society and convening agencies, including Unicef, UNHCR, UNDP, and UNFPA among others. The Unesco committee will make recom-mendations on how to achieve quality education for all. The meetings are being held ahead of the G20 Sum-mit where world leaders are being urged to re-affirm their commitment to the SDGs.

To date, EAA, has pro-vided opportunities in education by enrolling 7.1 million of the most margin-alised out of school children to enable them to access quality education. EAA is the only global foundation solely focused on supporting those out of school and is targeted to reach 10 million. The Foun-dation focuses on partnering with UN Agencies and local and global organisations that break down the barriers chil-dren face in accessing quality education such as poverty, conflict and gender discrimination.

Educate A Child, a pro-gramme of the EAA, Executive Director Dr Mary Joy Pigozzi, said: “We are proud to be part of the General Assembly high-level talks and take up a position on the SDG Educa-tion 2030 Steering Committee to represent the voice of phil-anthropic efforts worldwide. At a time when the impact of development is under increasing scrutiny, our local implementation model, which works with local and international partners, driven by a global vision, is proven to work."

The SDG Education 2030 Steering Committee meeting is taking place till June 30.

A Texas A&M at Qatar researcher at work.

05THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017 MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Rafah

AP

Hamas has begun work on a buffer zone along Gaza's border with Egypt, the Islamic group said yester-day, as part of an effort to

assure Cairo that it's serious about pre-venting the cross-border flow of weapons and militants.

Hamas officials hope the creation of the buffer will lead to an easing of the crippling decade-long blockade of the coastal territory. Earlier this month, Egypt invited a high-ranking Hamas del-egation for rare negotiations in Cairo. The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said the creation of the 12km, 100-meter-wide corridor was a result of these talks. It said construction will take about a month. There are no homes in the sandy area.

Egypt has long accused Hamas of fueling unrest in North Sinai, where its army has been battling increasing insur-gency since the toppling of former Egyptian President Mohammed Mursi after a year in office in 2013. Morsi was a Hamas patron.

Both Egypt and Israel imposed a blockade on Gaza after Hamas ousted forces loyal to the Western-backed Pal-estinian President Mahmoud Abbas in 2007 in bloody street battles. Palestin-ians have been split between the rival

groups since then with Hamas ruling Gaza and Abbas governing parts of the West Bank.

After repeated failed reconciliation attempts, Abbas has tried to squeeze Hamas financially in recent months, hoping to force it to cede control.

Yesterday, bulldozers worked on the land, leveling and clearing it from bushes — flattening the ground and makeshift structures that had protected entry points for underground smuggling tunnels. Hamas relied on the tunnels to circumvent the blockade before Egypt created its own buffer zone in 2014.

"This measure is being taken in accordance with our brothers in Egypt to clear the border," said Tawfiq Abu Naim, Gaza's security chief.

He said Hamas is asking Egypt for materials to complete the project includ-ing "barbed wire, cameras, lighting, and heavy equipment to demolish the tunnels."

Hamas deployed troops to the area and built watchtowers there in recent

months. Egypt wants to make sure Islamic State militants won't be able to escape into Gaza or get weapons from there as its military intensifies the fight against them in the Sinai.

Members of IS as well as Salafists and other groups have become a

common foe for both Hamas and Egypt. In Gaza, they fire rockets into Israel in an attempt to try and drag Israel into retaliation by striking Hamas sites. Egypt ostensibly has offered Hamas an easing of the blockade. In the first signs of that change, Egyptian diesel tankers bound

for Gaza's only power plant were allowed into the Gaza Strip last week.

The diesel shipments come as Abbas has stepped up pressure on Hamas. Abbas has asked Israel to reduce elec-tricity supplies to Gaza and reinstated heavy taxes on fuel for the power plant.

Mosul

Reuters

Iraq’s military pushed deeper into Mosul’s Old City yester-day, taking two more districts

from Islamic State and bringing it closer to total control of the city.

The army’s 16th infantry division captured Hadarat Al Saada and Al Ahmadiyya, the military said in a statement. The areas are northwest of the his-toric Grand Al Nuri Mosque which the militants destroyed last week.

Islamic State still controls the mosque’s grounds and about half of the territory in the Old City, its last redoubt in Mosul.

“Fifty percent of this area has been liberated, Al Mashada and Al Ahmadiyya and Al Saada,” Major General Jabbar Al Darraji told Iraqi state television.

“Our troops are now moving towards Farouq Street,” he said, referring to the Old City’s main north-south thoroughfare.

Federal police and elite units

of the Counter-Terrorism Serv-ice have also been fighting inside the district’s maze of narrow alleyways since the battle began 10 days ago.

A US-led international coa-lition is providing air and ground support in the eight-month-old offensive.

Authorities expect the battle to end in the coming days, though the advance remains arduous.

Federal policemen walked through piles of rubble amid wrecked houses on Wednesday to reach the frontline, southwest of Al Nuri mosque. A corre-spondent said they exchanged mortars and sniper fire with militants.

The Old City’s stone build-ings date mostly from the medieval period. They include market stalls, a few mosques and churches, and small houses built and rebuilt on top of each other over the ages.

The minaret of the Ziwani mosque, which is cleared of mil-itants, has been partially

destroyed, and the cross had been removed from the bell tower of Shamoon al-Safa church, a Reuters correspond-ent said.

The military estimates up to 350 militants are dug in among civilians in wrecked houses and crumbling infrastructure. They are trying to slow the advance of Iraqi forces by laying booby

traps and using suicide bombers and snipers.

Five IS fighters tried to flee across the Tigris River to the eastern side of Mosul but were killed by security forces, the mil-itary said yesterday.

Those residents who have escaped the Old City say many of the civilians trapped behind Islamic State lines — put at

50,000 by the Iraqi military - are in a desperate situation with lit-tle food, water or medicines.

Darraji, the army general, said one of his soldiers had been killed when he seized a militant wearing a suicide vest amid a crowd of fleeing civilians.

“The heroic fighter was mar-tyred, protecting the lives of many citizens,” he said.

Senior anti-graft investigator shot in NigeriaABUJA: A top anti-corruption investigator probing the judi-ciary has been shot in southern Nigeria, the coun-try's Economic and Financial Crimes Commission said yesterday.

Austin Okwor, an opera-tive in the property fraud section of the EFCC, was leav-ing his Port Harcourt office late on Saturday when gun-men shot him, said s p o k e s m a n W i l s o n Uwujaren.

Okwor "escaped death by the whiskers" and sustained bullet wounds, said Uwu-jaren, adding he had received "threat messages" in recent months.

"This incident underlines the hazards which operatives of the commission are daily exposed to in the discharge of their duties," Uwujaren said in a statement.

Hamas to create buffer zone with Egypt

Palestinian trucks and bulldozers clear an area as Hamas begins creating a large buffer zone on the border with Egypt in the southern Gaza strip town of Rafah, yesterday.

Iraqi military pushes deeper into Mosul’s Old City

Hamas officials hope the creation of the buffer zone will lead to an easing of the crippling decade-long blockade of the coastal territory.

Rabat

AFP

NEARLY 80 police officers were injured in two days of clashes with protesters in Morocco's restive Rif region, an official said yes-terday, although the number of demonstrators hurt was unknown.

Around 50 members of the security forces were hurt on Mon-day in the northern city of Al Hoceima, most of them struck by stones, a high-ranking interior ministry official said.

On Tuesday, 29 police officers were injured during new clashes in the neighbouring town of Imzouren, the same source said, add-ing that they were all later released from hospital.

The Rif region has been rocked by unrest since a fishmonger was crushed to death in a rubbish truck in October as he tried to retrieve swordfish confiscated for being caught out of season.

In the eight months since then, demands for justice and anger over the region's perceived marginalisation snowballed into a grassroots movement centred on Al-Hoceima.

Clashes broke out in Al-Hoceima again on Monday, with activ-ists saying police had blocked access to the city and violently dispersed any attempts to demonstrate.

Videos shared on social media showed the police dispersing the protesters using truncheons, leaving some of them bloodied and apparently unconscious on the ground.

Authorities later denounced "groups of individuals, including some in hooded sweaters, who provoked and stoned the police."

Khadija Ryadi of the Moroccan Association for Human Rights (AMDH) said about 150 people were arrested during the violence, based on her group's sources.

"Forty were still detained this morning, many of them from neighbouring communities who were arrested when they came to demonstrate," said Ryadi.

"Residents no longer gather in a single neighbourhood to dem-onstrate," she said.

Nearly 80 police officers injuredin latest Morocco unrest

Turkey remembers airport attack ISTANBUL: Turkey yester-day marked one year since the triple suicide bombing and gun attack on its main international airport in Istan-bul that left dozens dead and was blamed on Islamic State (IS) militants.

Late in the evening on June 28, 2016 three attackers shot randomly at passengers and staff at Istanbul's Ataturk International Airport before blowing themselves up.

Forty-five people were killed, the deadliest attack on an airport in Turkey's history.

At a ceremony just out-side the arrivals hall of the airport, weeping relatives of those killed laid flowers by a black memorial where all the victims' names are inscribed.

Some wept as they touched the inscriptions bear-ing the names of those they lost, a photographer said. "We remember with respect, we will never forget," read a rib-bon on a memorial wreath.

The government blamed the Islamic State (IS) group -- who at the time were holding swathes of neighbouring Iraq and Syria -- although the jihadists never issued a claim for the attack.

06 THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017ASIA

No deferring GST launch: Jaitley

The United Progressive Alliance (UPA) candidate for the forthcoming presidential election Meira Kuma (centre), Congress Party President Sonia Gandhi (second left) and former prime minister Manmohan Singh (second right) arrive as Kuma prepares to file her nomination papers at Parliament House in New Delhi, yesterday.

Meira Kumar files nomination

Police arrest three separatist leaders

1993 blasts convict dead

New Delhi IANS

Yet again ruling out defer-ring the implementation of the Goods and Serv-

ices Tax (GST), Finance Minister Arun Jaitley yesterday appealed to the opposition parties, their MPs and states where these parties run the governments to attend the midnight launch of the new tax law in Parliament on June 30.

”It is neither partisan nor dictated by any pressure. I appeal to all the parties, states and MPs to attend the function in the spirit of consensus that guided the making of the law,” he told a press conference.

Jaitley was replying to a question on the proposed plans of the opposition parties and their MPs to keep away from the midnight launch and demands for deferring the launch by 6 months.

”There is a constitutional mandate that on September 15 you will lose the right to collect taxes. So alternate system has to come into place. Hopefully by that the system will smoothen out.

Those who are talking about deferring by 6 months, it is constitutionally impermis-sible. I hope Jammu and Kashmir is able to do it soon. I have emphasised that by the time they don’t join, the trad-ers will be paying tax on inputs and final product. It will be more as compared to rest of the states. It is in the interest of the state and consumers and traders,” he said.

Jaitley said that all decisions related to GST were taken by consensus at all stages passing of the law in parliament, assem-blies and on the legislative changes.

Asked about apprehensions among various sections about the provisions of the new law, he said, “All GST-related deci-sions, I don’t see much of a problem. Small issues will always be there. The system is fully geared up. System will eventually smoothen itself out. The date of implementation has always been decided by con-sensus by GST Council, not by centre.”

To a question about the non-passage of the new law in Jammu and Kashmir, the Finance Minister said that it would only adversely affect the consumers and the businesses in the state because they would not get input credit and would be paying for the final product. The prices in Jammu and Kash-mir would be higher than the prices in other states.

Also, he said, the state would not be able to collect taxes because the existing laws would cease to operate from September 15.

He said that the centre was always working with an open mind. “The GST Council has set up its own processes. The coun-cil examines through fitment committee.

They decide on merit. It is collectively decided. I can assure that every decision has been merit-based. It is neither partisan nor dictated by any pressure."

New Delhi

IANS

Accompanied by Congress president Sonia Gandhi, former Prime Minister

Manmohan Singh and other leaders, opposition candidate Meira Kumar yesterday filed her nomination for the July 17 Pres-idential election, which she termed “a fight of ideology for democratic principles”.

“From today our fight has begun. This is the fight of ideol-ogy. Our ideology is for democratic principles, press freedom, inclusiveness and free-dom of expression,” Meira Kumar told reporters after fil-ing her nomination at

Parliament House. “We believe in implementing this ideology,” she said.

The former Lok Sabha Speaker said the “country today stands at the cross roads from where one way leads to the place where there is no one to raise the voice for Dalits and backwards.

“While another way leads to the place where there is equal representation for all,” Meira Kumar added.

Earlier, opposition leaders, including from the Congress and Left, accompanied Meira Kumar for the nomination. They first assembled at Parliament’s Gate Number 1 and later left for the Lok Sabha Secretary General’s

chamber to fi le the nomination.

Besides Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi, the other leaders present were NCP chief Sharad Pawar, BSP leader Satish Chandra Mishra, CPI-M General Secretary Sitaram Yechury, CPI leader D. Raja and TMC leader Derek O’Brien among others. RJD Chief Lalu Yadav was not present.

Before reaching Parliament House, Meira Kumar visited Raj Ghat and Samta Sthal, the memorial of Mahatma Gandhi and her father Babu Jagjivan Ram respectively.

Meira Kumar is pitted against NDA candidate Ram Nath Kovind.

Srinagar

IANS

Three separatist leaders were arrested yester-day, a day before they

were to be questioned by the NIA in Delhi. They include hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Geelani’s son-in-law Altaf Ahmad Shah.

The other two were iden-tified as Ayaz Akbar and Mehrajudin Kalwal. All of them were taken to the Rajbagh police station. The Jammu and Kashmir Police said the arrests were a pre-caution to maintain law and order.

Mumbai

IANS

One of the convicts in the 1993 Mumbai serial blasts case, Mus-

tafa Dossa, died yesterday afternoon following a heart attack. “He was admitted early today for hypertension, heart and diabetes issues. He passed away under treatment around 2.35pm yesterday,” T P Lahane, Dean, Sir J. J. Hos-pital, said.

New Delhi

Reuters

Protests were held in cit-ies across India yesterday against a wave of attacks on Muslims by mobs that

accuse them of killing cows or eating beef.

The protests follow the stab-bing to death last week of a 16-year-old boy accused of pos-sessing beef on a train. Several people have been arrested. On Tuesday, a man was beaten and his house set on fire by a mob that accused him of slaughter-ing a cow in eastern Jharkhand state. Waving “Not in My Name” banners and “Stop Cow Terror-ism” placards, actors, writers and young mothers cradling babies braved monsoon rains in Mum-bai, Kolkata and other cities, while in Delhi a cast of intellec-tuals and activists were joined by relatives of recent lynching victims.

“I feel afraid. I don’t even

know if I will be able to reach home safely,” Bashruddin Khandawali, a 24-year-old cousin of Junaid Khan, who was killed last week on the train, said next to a huge “Lynch Map of India” banner. Critics accuse

right-wing Hindu groups, some linked to Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi’s party, of fomenting or not doing enough to stop vio-lence against Muslims and lower-caste Hindus who eat beef or work in the meat and leather industries.

Modi denies the accusation and has publicly criticised so-called cow vigilantes.

Many Hindus worship the cow as sacred to their religion.

Almost all of the 63 attacks since 2010 involving cow-related violence were recorded after Modi and his Hindu nationalist government came to power in 2014, IndiaSpend, a data jour-nalism website, said in a report.

Twenty-eight Indians - 24 of them Muslims - have been killed and 124 injured since 2010 in cow-related violence, Indi-aSpend said.

Modi’s information minister, Venkaiah Naidu, called the kill-ing of Khan “atrocious” and said local authorities must take action. Pratap Bhanu Mehta, a

leading commentator, this week described the lynchings as “a protracted riot in slow motion”.

“What makes this violence chilling ... is that it is acquiring an atmosphere of a religious communion about it,” he wrote in the Indian Express.

Anjali Arondekar, a profes-sor visiting from California, said

she had attended the Mumbai protest because “nobody seems to care any more that a young Muslim man is being killed.”

India’s history is pockmarked by Hindu-Muslim communal clashes, although the vast major-ity of people live peacefully together. Community leaders called on Modi to do more to

protect the 14 percent of India’s 1.3 billion people who are Muslim.

“I fear that if this goes on, there will be a counter-reaction that would be dangerous for peace and tranquillity,” said Navaid Hamid, president of the A l l I n d i a M u s l i m Majlis–e-Mushawarat.

Nationwide protests over 'mob lynching'

Protesters hold placards as they gather during a 'Not in my name' silent protest at Jantar Mantar in New Delhi, yesterday.

Attack on Muslims

Waving “Not in My Name” banners and “Stop Cow Terrorism” placards, actors, writers and young mothers cradling babies braved monsoon rains in Mumbai, Kolkata and other cities.

Twenty-eight Indians - 24 of them Muslims - have been killed and 124 injured since 2010 in cow-related violence, IndiaSpend said.

New Delhi

IANS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be visiting Israel from July 4 to 6,

the External Affairs Ministry announced yesterday, as the Middle Eastern country's embassy here welcomed the first ever prime ministerial visit from India.

"During the visit, the Prime Minister will have detailed discussions with Prime Minister (Benjamin) Netanyahu on all matters of mutual interest and will also call on President (Reuven) Rivlin," the External Affairs Ministry statement said.

Modi to visit Israel next month

New Delhi

IANS

Over 34 lakh central gov-ernment employees and 14 lakh defence person-

nel will get enhanced house rent and other allowances, including special allowances in hardship postings like Siachen, that will cost the exchequer ̀ 30,748 crore a year.

This was decided by the Union Cabinet yesterday which approved the recommendations of the Seventh Central Pay

Commission (CPC) related to a l lowances , wi th 34 modifications.

Briefing reporters after the cabinet meeting, Finance Min-ister Arun Jaitley said that House Rent Allowance will be paid at 24 percent, 16 percent and eight per cent for X,Y, Z cities respec-tively. He said HRA will not less than `5,400, `3,600 and `1,800 for X,Y, Z cities calculated at 30, 20 and 10 per cent of minimum pay of ` 18,000. "The CPC rec-ommended revision of HRA when DA reaches 50 percent and

100 percent. The government decided to revise rates when DA crosses 25 percent and 50 per-cent respectively," he said.

HRA is admissible to central government employees depend-ing upon classification of the city/town where they are posted. Cities and towns are classifie‘ 'X', 'Y' and 'Z' based on their pop-ulation. Jaitley said that fixed medical allowance for pension-ers has been increased from `500 to `1,000 per month. The constant attendance allowance on 100 per cent disablement has

been increased from `4,500 per month to `6,750 per month.

The Minister said the govern-ment has increased rate of nursing allowance from `4,800 to ` 7,200 per month.

Operation Theatre allowance has increased from `360 per month and `540 per month. The hospital patient care allowance has been increased from `2,070-`2,100 to ` 4,100-`5,300 per month. The Cabinet had decided to set up the Committee on Allowances (CoA) while approv-ing the recommendations of the

7th CPC in June, 2016. The mod-ifications were based on suggestions made by the CoA in its Report submitted to Finance Minister on April 27, 2017 and the Empowered Committee of Sec-retaries set up to screen the recommendations of 7th CPC.

The CPC recommended that 53 allowances be abolished and 37 be subsumed in an existing or a newly proposed allowance. The release said that fully DA-indexed allowances such as Transport Allowance were not given any raise.

7th pay commission: Cabinet approves allowance hike

07THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017 ASIA

Pro-democracy activists chanting slogans on Golden Bauhinia, a gift from China at the 1997 handover, during a protest to demand full democracy ahead of 20th anniversary of the handover from Britain to China, in Hong Kong, yesterday.

Pro-democracy protest

China donates snipers for Marawi City fightManila

AFP

China yesterday donated thousands of guns to Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte to help Manila

in its battle against gunmen who are holed up in a southern city. The small shipment of assault and sniper rifles and ammuni-tion is the first example of Chinese military aid since Duterte threatened to move away from Manila's traditional ally America and seek Beijing's support.

The weapons shipment, worth some 50 million yuan ($7.35 million) "highlights the dawn of a new era in Philippine-Chinese relations", Duterte said.

Hours earlier, the military said they had found the bodies of 17 civilians killed by the Islam-ists, self-styled followers of the Islamic State movement (IS) who have besieged the city of Marawi since May 23.

Philippine troops, backed by

airstrikes and artillery, have bat-tled for over a month to drive the extremists out of Marawi but the militants have fought back.

Nearly 400 people have been killed, including 290 militants and 70 troops, according to offi-cial figures. Most of Marawi's

200,000 residents have fled and much of the city is in ruins.

"We are almost on bended knees sometimes because of lack of equipment. It is a good thing we have a good friend like China who is very understanding," Duterte said.

Duterte has been reluctant to acknowledge American help, saying recently that he had no knowledge about US technical assistance to the troops fighting in Marawi. The Philippines, which has a mutual defence treaty with the United States, has long relied on US-supplied arms.

But in a swipe at America — which has criticised his flagship war on drugs — Duterte has said he will seek more weapons from China and Russia.

Chinese ambassador Zhao Jianhua, who formally handed over the weapons, said a "second batch" of weapons would soon be delivered.

"The donation is not big but it is big in the sense that it marks a new era in relations between our two militaries," the

ambassador said. "The Chinese side would like to explore the possibility of joint training, intel-ligence sharing and joint military exercises in the area of fighting terrorism," he added.

Duterte, who had declared martial law in the southern Phil-ippines due to the Marawi siege, said he would not lift it until the military and police said condi-tions were safe.

The military has been reluc-tant to discuss the possibility that the real impact of the fighting on civilians could be far more severe than has been reported.

It has played down the impact of daily air strikes and mortar assaults aimed at rebel sniper positions, which have reduced areas of the lakeside town to rubble and alarmed peo-ple stuck there, some of whom

have said the shelling was a big-ger threat than the militants.

Among those atrocities, the army says, have been the forc-ing of residents to loot homes, take up arms, or become sex slaves.

Disaster officials are keen to start dangerous missions to recover what they believe are large numbers of bodies in the streets near the conflict zone.

Government soldiers unloading boxes of ammunition from a People's Republic of China cargo plane during the turnover ceremony of China's urgent military assistance, given gratis to the Philippines, at Clark Air Base, Philippines, yesterday.

New era in ties

The weapons shipment, worth some 50m yuan ($7.35m) "highlights the dawn of a new era in Philippine-Chinese relations", Duterte said.

The military said they had found the bodies of 17 civilians killed by the militants, self-styled followers of the Islamic State movement who have besieged the city of Marawi since May 23.

Three Myanmarjournalists held for covering ethnic group Yangon

AFP

Myanmar yesterday charged three jour-nalists for reporting

on an armed ethnic group in a case that has fuelled alarm at the erosion of press freedom.

Five men, including the trio, have now been trans-ferred to Hsipaw prison in Shan State to await their first day in court, a police officer in the station said.

They were charged under section one of the draconian Unlawful Associations Act, which carries a sentence of up to three years in prison.

The legislation was widely used against journalists and activists by the former mili-tary junta, which stepped down in 2011, paving the way for the party of pro-democ-racy activist Aung San Suu Kyi to assume power last year.

"Five men — three jour-nalists and two drivers — were charged under 17/1 of the Unlawful Association Act this afternoon," said the police officer, who asked not to be named. "They arrived here at 12:30pm and were later transferred to Hsipaw prison department."

They were among seven people detained by the mili-tary on Monday as they left a drugs-burning ceremony organised by the Ta'ang National Liberation Army (TNLA), one of several rebel groups fighting the state.

Nepal holds crucial elections in troubled southNepalgunj

AFP

Millions of Nepalis voted yesterday in the coun-try's first local elections

for two decades, a key step in its post-war transformation from a feudal monarchy to a federal democracy.

The elections began last month in other parts of the nation but were repeatedly delayed in the southern plains, which were shaken two years ago by deadly ethnic protests.

The government had deployed troops and sealed the border with India, fearing

violence in yesterday's second phase of voting, which covered around half the country of 26 million people, including large swathes of the south.

As preliminary data trickled in, the Election Commission esti-mated 70.5 percent of eligible voters had turned out to cast their ballot.

"The second phase of the local election... has concluded peacefully and with overwhelm-ing participation of voters," chief election commissioner Ayodhee Prasad Yadav told reporters.

Police said a small bomb exploded in the west of the coun-try, but there were no casualties

and the polls passed off broadly peacefully.

The local elections are sup-posed to be the final step in the peace deal that ended a 10-year civil war in 2006.

Since then the country has suffered persistent instability, cycling through nine govern-ments in a decade.

The government had repeat-edly postponed the polls in the south due to objections from the local Madhesi ethnic minority, who say federal boundaries laid out in a new national constitu-tion will leave them u n d e r - r e p r e s e n t e d i n parliament.

Indonesia imposes travel ban on Trump's business partnerJakarta

Reuters

Indonesian authorities have imposed a travel ban on tycoon and politician Hary

Tanoesoedibjo, who is building resorts to be managed by Trump hotels, over an investi-gation into allegations he threatened a prosecutor via a text message.

Tanoesoedibjo has been given a 20-day overseas travel ban starting on June 22 based on a request by Indonesian police’s criminal investigation unit Agung Sampurno, a spokesman at the immigration directorate said yesterday.

The Indonesian billionaire “is under investigation related to a violation of the informa-tion and electronic transactions law,” Sampurno said.

Tanoesoedibjo, whose MNC Group controls businesses rang-ing from media to property, has been named a suspect for alleg-edly sending a threatening message to a prosecutor inves-tigating a case involving Mobile 8, a telecommunications com-pany previously owned by MNC Group.

Tanoesoedibjo’s lawyer could not be reached yesterday but in an earlier statement dis-missed the allegations. “The content of Hary Tanoesoedib-jo’s SMS is general and idealistic

and does not threaten anyone,” his lawyer Hotman Paris Huta-pea said.

Part of Tanoesoedibjo’s text message read: “If I am the leader of this country, then that’s where Indonesia will be changed and cleared of things that are not as they should be,” according to the statement from the lawyer.

Tanoesoedijo has also denied the allegations in media reports. Breaching the law can carry a maximum jail term of four years and a maximum fine of $56,000

The tycoon, who in the 2014 election ran as a candidate for vice president, founded his own a political party in 2015 and said in January he would decide before the end of next year whether to run in the 2019 presidential election.

He described US President Donald Trump’s victory as inspiring for candidates with little political experience and attended Trump’s innaugura-tion in Washington in January. His company is currently build-ing two luxury resorts in the island of Bali and in West Java, which would be managed by Trump Hotel Collection.

Tanoesoedibjo earlier dis-missed concerns by ethics officials that Trump’s overseas business deals might be vulner-able to conflicts of interest.

Pakistan issues landmark transgender passportIslamabad

Reuters

Pakistan’s marginalised transgender community yesterday welcomed the

government’s decision to issue its first passport with a transgen-der category as an important milestone in the struggle against discrimination.

The conservative South Asian nation, last week issued a passport to prominent trans-gender activist Farzana Jan with an X to symbolise the third sex

printed under the gender cate-gory of travel document.

Jan, who is president of the charity Trans Action Pakistan, said the introduction of the X classification — along with M for Male and F for Female — was a significant step in the commu-nity’s fight for legal recognition in Pakistan.

“Men and women both have been given their identity, but we were deprived of this right. We are happy there is a growing realisation that we should be given our identity,” Jan said by

phone from the northwest city of Peshawar.

“We also want to see how the outside world is. But we have been facing many problems with regard to complications in our travel documents. But, thank God, this issue has now been resolved,” she said.

There is no official data on the population of transgender people in Pakistan, but Trans Action Pakistan estimates they number at least half a million in a country of 190 million.

Trans people technically

enjoy better rights in Pakistan than in many other nations across the world, but in prac-tice they are marginalised and face discrimination when it comes to health, education and jobs. They often face violence and stigma.

The country’s Supreme Court has in recent years taken steps towards recognising their basic rights. In 2009, the court ruled that “hijras” — which include transvestites, transsexuals and eunuchs — could get national identity cards as a “third sex.”

Nepali police loading sealed ballot boxes after polling stations close in Nepalgunj, Kathmandu, yesterday.

Nato Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg’s statement yesterday that Europe and Canada will raise defence spending at the fastest pace for three years in 2017 shines light on

the deplorable and dangerous state of affairs the world has got into after the election of Donald Trump as US president. Old and time-tested alliances, which were once considered bulwarks of security, are crumbling; trust between world leaders, who shared a collective responsibility to lead the world into prosperity, is eroding; crises and conflicts are multiplying where they already exist and new ones are erupting in places hitherto considered safe; arms sales and purchases are soaring and most importantly, leaders who were elected on an agenda of hate and who actively propagated hate during their campaign are now joining hands to make the world less livable. And the result: a continent like Europe where peace prevailed and where stability and security were taken for granted, is forced to ratchet up its defence spending. And if a stable and peaceful continent is forced to revisit its defence policies, think about the plight of less stable and less secure countries and continents, where neighbours look at each other with suspicion and fear, where a misstep can lead to a conflagration and conflicts.

The reason for the rise in defence spending of Europe and Canada is Trump’s request to Nato members to take a bigger share of the defence costs as he thinks that the US is carrying a huge burden on its shoulders. President Trump used his first alliance meeting in May to warn European leaders about spending, which is at historical lows and does not meet Nato’s target of 2 percent of GDP. While Washington has the

right to make such a demand, which can be an attempt to correct an imbalance, it must weigh the pros and cons of such a move. A higher defence spending by Nato risks triggering a global arms race as other blocs too will boost their defences. The US will be the biggest beneficiary of this undesirable phenomenon because it’s the biggest arms manufacturer in the world, and Trump has undertaken the dangerous mission of boosting US arms sales across the world.

This is not to say that Europe is not facing any external threats. A resurgent Russia is a problem, especially Moscow’s intervention in Ukraine, which has upset Nato’s thinking. But a bigger arms spending is not a solution, as it will only activate a cycle in which there will be no winners.

08 THURSDAY 29 JUNE 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

Boosting defence

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I hope that the rest of Europe will do so well that the British realise at some point that they made a mistake.

Wolfgang SchaeubleGermany’s Finance Minister

A higher defence spending by Nato members will only add to the insecurity of the world.

On September 25, the people of Iraqi Kurdistan will decide in a binding referendum if they want independ-ence or to remain part of Iraq. The vote will resolve a conflict as old as

the Iraqi state itself between the aspirations of the Kurdish people and a government in Bagh-dad that has long treated Kurds as less than full citizens of the country.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s exercise of its right to self-determination threatens no one and may make a volatile region more stable. It will not alter the borders of any neighbouring state and, if done right, will make for a much stronger relation-ship between Iraq’s Arabs and Kurds. We are determined to do everything possible to accom-modate Iraqi concerns in the likely event that the vote is for independence.

Kurdistan’s case for independence is com-pelling. One hundred years ago, in the peace negotiations that followed World War I, the Kurds were promised their own state. Instead we were divided against our will, our lands carved up among Turkey, Iran, Syria and Iraq. The newly established state of Iraq was sup-posed to be an equal partnership between Arabs and Kurds. That hopeful dream soon gave way to a grim reality.

All Iraqi governments suppressed the Kurds. The resulting atrocities culminated in the 1980s, when Saddam Hussein used poison gas exten-sively on Kurdish towns and villages, leveled more than 5,000 Kurdish villages and deported Kurds to the south, where they were murdered and buried in mass graves. One hundred eighty-two thousand Iraqi Kurds (nearly 5 percent of our population), including members of my own family, perished in this period.

With the overthrow of Saddam’s Baath regime, the Kurds worked hard to build a new Iraq, including drafting a constitution that guar-anteed Kurdistan’s autonomy and protected the rights of all Iraqis. Fourteen years later, Bagh-dad has failed to implement key provisions of that constitution, and we have good reason to believe that it never will. This failure of the polit-ical system is also responsible for the drastic deterioration of relations between Sunnis and Shiites that led to the rise of the Islamic State, with disastrous consequences for all Iraqis, including the Kurds.

The principal argument for Iraqi unity is that a single Iraq is better able to protect its citizens. But this claim is not supported by experience. When the Islamic State attacked Kurdistan in 2014 —using advanced US weapons abandoned by the Iraqi army in Mosul — the Iraqi govern-ment refused to give Kurdistan its constitutionally mandated share of the federal budget or to provide our soldiers (known as the peshmerga) with weapons. As an independent country, we could have financed and equipped our own troops and brought this fight to a swifter conclusion.

The war on the Islamic State since then pro-vides a model for how Kurds and Arabs might cooperate in the future. In the battle to drive the Islamic State from Iraq, the peshmerga and the Iraqi army have been in an alliance of equals.

Iraqi Kurdistan must make its choice on independenceMasoud BarzaniThe Washington Post

Each army has its own chain of command. The peshmerga’s joint operations with the Iraqi military support each other in ways that never occurred in an Iraq where Bagh-dad sought to dominate and control Kurdistan. Regardless of the referendum, we will continue our close cooperation with Iraqi and Western forces until the final victory over the Islamic State.

An independent Kurdistan could have a much stronger relationship with Bagh-dad. Kurdistan will be a great neighbor, cooperating against terrorism and shar-ing resources — including water and petroleum infrastructure — in ways that benefit both countries. Without the sanc-tions that Iraq has applied to our imports and exports, we could jointly develop our human and natural resources in a com-mon market to the benefit of both Kurdistan and Iraq.

While the results of the referendum will bind future Kurdistan governments, the timing and modalities of our independ-ence will be subject to negotiation with Baghdad and consultation with our neigh-bors and the wider international community. In our negotiations with Bagh-

dad, we will be practical. The issue of what terri-tory joins Kurdistan will be the most contentious issue in the separation.

Despite a December 31, 2007, deadline, the Iraqi government refused to implement a key constitutional provision, Article 140, that would have the people of the disputed areas decide their future democratically.

Nearly ten years later, we propose to give them that opportunity. We wish to incorporate into Kurdistan only those territories where the people overwhelm-ingly want to be part of Kurdistan as expressed in a free vote. The last thing we want is a long-lasting territorial dis-pute with Iraq that could poison our future relations.

Since Kurdistan became self-govern-ing in 1991, we have worked hard to develop good relations with our neigh-bors. Turkey is the largest foreign investor in our economy and has built oil and gas pipelines that benefit both countries. We understand the anxieties that the Kurdis-tan referendum may cause with our neighbors and will do what we can to assure them that a democratic and sta-ble Kurdistan is the best possible partner.

Kurdistan values its diversity. We are home to Christians, Yazidis, Turkmen and Shabaks whose separate identities are rec-ognized in our laws. Since 2003, many Iraqi Christians have moved to Kurdistan to escape violence and persecution elsewhere in the country. And since the Islamic State seized large parts of Iraq in 2014, we have provided for more than 1.5 million Iraqi refugees, with only minimal help from Baghdad or the international community.

After a century of trying, it is time to recognise that the forced inclusion of the Kurds in Iraq has not worked for us or for the Iraqis.

We ask that the United States and the international community respect the dem-ocratic decision of Kurdistan’s people. In the long run, both Iraq and Kurdistan will be better off.

Masoud Barzani is the president of the Kurdis-tan region of Iraq.

Iraqi Kurdistan’s exercise of its right to self-determination threatens no one and may make a volatile region more stable. It will not alter the borders of any neighbouring state and, if done right, will make for a much stronger relationship between Iraq’s Arabs and Kurds.

ED ITOR IAL

Kurdish flags flutter near a monument to the Iraqi Kurd victims of gas attack.

09THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017 OPINION

management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Russian stories. Ratings way down!”

In fact, CNN isn’t looking at “big management changes,” according to senior executives at the net-work. But Trump - long resistant to admitting his own falsehoods - is unlikely to correct his tweet any-time soon. He has also been silent about errors committed by other news organizations, such as Fox News, that he deems to be friendly.

Nevertheless, the Scaramucci story was another ill-timed setback for CNN, which like other news organizations is under intense scrutiny from Trump and his supporters. The highly charged environment has led CNN Chairman Jeff Zucker to stress inter-nally the need to “play error-free ball” in reporting on Trump.

But the zeal to break news can create haste that leads to flawed reporting. Like all major news organ-izations, CNN is under pressure to produce scoops that draw ratings and Web traffic, and to stay com-petitive with the likes of the New York Times and The Washington Post, which have been leaders on the Trump-Russia story.

Among its other high-profile debacles over the past month, CNN fired comedian Kathy Griffin, who co-hosted its New Year’s Eve program, after she took part in a photo shoot in which she posed with a bloody facsimile of Trump’s severed head. It corrected a story that wrongly predicted what former FBI Director James Comey would say about Trump in his congres-sional testimony. And it subsequently canceled a new series, “Believer,” and fired host Reza Aslan after he described Trump in vulgar terms on Twitter.

The heightened environment may also explain why CNN went to such extraordinary lengths to address its Scaramucci story. News organizations typically issue corrections for errors, but CNN did far more: It apologized for it, removed it from its web-site, and accepted the resignations of those involved in producing it. Resignations are usually reserved for plagiarism or worse journalistic offenses.

The Scaramucci story marked the first time CNN

We will continue: Al Jazeera official

Giles Trendle, Acting Managing Director of Doha-based Al Jazeera’s English-language news channel, spoke to Anadolu Agency about mounting pressure on Qatar — which remains embroiled in a weeks-long politi-

cal dispute with several fellow Arab states — to close the prominent news network. The following is the text of the interview:

Anadolu Agency: Where does Al Jazeera stand in this crisis pitting Qatar against a handful of fellow Arab states?

Giles Trendle: We understand from the list that has been reported that the closure of Al Jazeera is one of the demands. But as Al Jazeera, we are committed to continuing our bold and compelling journalism. We are committed to reporting frankly and fairly around the world; we are committed to our editorial mission.

AA: Since 2011, Al Jazeera has been subjected to all sorts of campaigns: Your journalists have been imprisoned, your offices shut, your websites blocked. At the same time, other media organizations — such as Al-Arabiya and Sky news Arabiya — have contin-ued their work unmolested. Why is there all this pressure on Al-Jazeera specifically?

GT: Al Jazeera has had tough experiences even before 2011. We have had our offices closed and jour-nalists imprisoned and killed even before that.

Since 2011, Al Jazeera has reported on the so-called Arab Spring and the hopes and dreams of a new gen-eration. It has become a platform for the voices of the man and woman on the street.

I think there are some regimes and governments in the region who feel threatened by this change and the hopes and idealism — and the optimism — of this new generation. I think that’s one of the reasons why Al Jazeera is in the spotlight and its closure on the list of demands.

AA: There have been accusations that Al Jazeera incited people to rebel against their rulers and take

to the streets in 2011. What’s your response to such accusations?

GT: Al Jazeera reported what was happening; it didn’t incite what was happening — that’s a very crit-ical difference. The events, or revolutions, or uprising were spontaneous. We followed and covered these pro-tests. We didn’t lead them or incite them.

AA: There are also accusations that Al Jazeera supports Daesh and Al Qaeda. How would you refute such allegations?

GT: Firstly, our policy is to report accurately, com-prehensively and fairly — this is our editorial policy.

We have had many accusations of being pro-Daesh, pro-Al Qaeda, pro-Hezbollah, pro-Hamas, pro-Mus-lim Brotherhood, pro-Israel, pro-America. I would have to be a magician if I was pro all these things at the same time.

All I will say is that all our content is online and any-one can go to our website — or watch our television — and judge for themselves. I challenge anyone to find any report or program that is “pro” anyone.

These accusations are a red herring; they are not the real issue.

AA: In most of the countries now arrayed against Qatar, Al Jazeera’s offices have either been closed or its reporters and staff asked to leave. Is this simply a reaction to Qatar’s regional policies, or an attempt to silence Al Jazeera?

GT: There have been times in the past where we have had offices closed in other countries in the Arab Arab world; we have had such experience before. But we are in a new situation now.

We had an office closed in Saudi Arabia and an office closed in Jordan; we have had our [broadcasting] sig-

nal and websites blocked…This is draconian; a very tough measure, as George

Orwell said. They are tough and autocratic. AA: The demand for Al Jazeera’s closure is seen

by some observers as an attempt to prevent the masses from accessing information. How do you ensure that peoples’ right to information is respected?

GT: We see calls to close Al Jazeera as an attempt to muzzle the media and freedom of expression. We condemn measures like closing offices, blocking web-sites and jamming TVs. We think they are unjustified.

We call on all governments to respect the role of the journalist and allow them to do their jobs without intimidation. We are committed to continuing our edi-torial mission at Al Jazeera.

AA: Three weeks into this crisis, you as a jour-nalist, and as director of such an important media organisation, how do you see this all ending?

GT: I will leave the crisis for the politicians… As for Al Jazeera, we will continue; we are committed to continuing.

We don’t believe anyone has the right to prevent freedom of expression and freedom of speech. We don’t recognize that any country has the right to tell another country to stop [broadcasting]. For example, it is a bit like Germany telling Britain to stop the BBC.

We don’t recognize this right as we can’t imagine the European Union telling Turkey to close Anadolu Agency.

AA: Through all this, Turkey has largely stood by Qatar by sending needed commodities and in other ways. How do you, as a journalist, assess Turkey’s role in the crisis?

GT: I am enjoying Turkish milk and Turkish

Lex Haris, CNN’s investigations editor, travelled to a journalism conference in Phoenix last week. In hindsight, his

timing was terrible. While Haris was away, his group published a story on CNN.com that reported - citing a single anonymous source - that Senate investigators were looking into a meeting between a member of President Donald Trump’s transition team, Wall Street financier Anthony Scar-amucci, and an executive of a Russian investment fund before Trump took office. The story seemed to advance the narrative of ties between Trump campaign officials and people close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

One problem: When challenged on the particulars of the story, CNN acknowledged that it couldn’t stand by it. It retracted it and apologized to Scaramucci on Saturday. On Monday, Haris and the editor and reporter of the piece, Eric Lichtblau and Thomas Frank, resigned from CNN.

The sequence of events led Trump to take a kind of victory lap on Tuesday. He turned to Twitter to bash CNN and other media outlets (including The Washington Post) that have aggressively reported on his associates’ connections to Russian officials during the 2016 campaign and pre-inau-gural period.

“Wow, CNN had to retract big story on “Russia,” with 3 employees forced to resign. What about all the other phony stories they do? FAKE NEWS!” Trump tweeted. He added later, “Fake News CNN is looking at big

After CNN retraction, president cries foulhas retracted a story since Zucker took over as chairman in late 2011. Zucker has a long and sometimes fraught relation-ship with Trump, having greenlighted his reality shows, “The Apprentice” and “Celebrity Apprentice,” while he ran NBC, but occasionally drawing criticism from Trump while run-ning CNN.

CNN hasn’t said specifically that its Russia story was wrong — only that it didn’t meet its “editorial standards” (a spokes-man declined on Tuesday to say specifically how it fell short). However, news organizations typically submit important sto-ries to multiple layers of editing, which doesn’t appear to be the case here.

Indeed, Haris — the top editor in the unit that produced the story — apparently wasn’t directly involved in its prepa-ration, given that he was away at the Investigative Reporters and Editors conference late last week as the story moved toward publication, according to a person familiar with the process.

Haris nevertheless took responsibility for it in a state-ment. “On Friday, CNN retracted a story published by my team. As executive editor of that team, I have resigned,” Haris said. “I’ve been with CNN since 2001, and am sure about one thing: This is a news organization that prizes accuracy and fairness above all else. I am leaving, but will carry those prin-ciples wherever I go.”

In addition to Haris, CNN said it accepted the resignations of Lichtblau, a veteran reporter and editor hired from the New York Times earlier this year, and Frank, formerly of USA Today. Frank was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 2012 for a series of stories about state and local pension funds.

Under Zucker, CNN began beefing up its reporting staff in anticipation of the 2016 election cycle, which produced record ratings and profits for the company. It started the inves-tigative unit that Haris ran earlier this year; it now employs about 30 journalists, making it one of the largest in the coun-try. Much of the investigative unit’s work (including the Scaramucci story) appears not on TV, but on CNN.com, which is among the most heavily trafficked news sites in the world.

Its investment in journalism has paid off with a series of solid stories, such as its report last month that Russian gov-ernment officials had discussed potentially “derogatory” information about Trump in conversations intercepted by US intelligence sources during the presidential campaign.

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products… I think the Turkish foreign minister has visited the countries [involved in the crisis] and has adopted a very understanding and balanced position…

Turkey’s position is balanced if you compare it to some other coun-tries. For example, in America, there is confusion, when Mr [US President Donald] Trump says something and Mr [US Secretary of State Rex] Tiller-son says another thing.

It is a very sensitive region; a very sensitive situation. It needs under-standing and calm and I think Turkey has been showing that.

AA: There have been demands for the closure of other media out-lets along with Al Jazeera. What is the common denominator between them?

GT: It was not just Al Jazeera. There were other websites — like Arabi Al-Jadeed and Arabi 21, Rassd, the Middle East Eye — but Al Jazeera topped the list of demands.

Any attempt to shut down media without a good justification threat-ens freedom of expression. Open media is a pillar of pluralistic, dem-ocratic society; it is a pillar of a healthy society.

AA: Will Al Jazeera dilute its position or editorial line as a result of this crisis? Is it prepared to make any concessions?

GT: We will continue to perform our role as journalists, which is to report truthfully and fairly and to put tough questions to the centers of power. We cannot dilute this role just because certain governments want us to do so.

Ahmed Yusuf & Ali Abo RezegAnatolia

Paul FarhiThe Washington Post

As for Al Jazeera, we will continue; we are committed to continuing. We don’t believe anyone has the right to prevent freedom of expression and freedom of speech. We don’t recognise that any country has the right to tell another country to stop broadcasting. For example, it is a bit like Germany telling Britain to stop the BBC.

10 THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017ASIA

Guests at a ceremony looking on as a projection entitled "Badu Gili", which means 'water light' in the language of the Gadigal aboriginal people, are seen projected onto the sails of the Sydney Opera House, yesterday.

Water light

North Korea threatens to execute Park Geun-hyeSeoul

AFP

North Korea threat-ened yesterday to impose the death penalty on the South's former pres-

ident Park Geun-Hye over an alleged plot to assassinate its leader Kim Jong-Un.

Park had "pushed forward" a supposed plan by Seoul's intel-ligence services to eliminate the North's leadership, Pyongyang's security ministries and prosecu-tors said in a joint statement carried by its official Korean Central News Agency.

"We declare at home and abroad that we will impose death penalty on traitor Park Geun Hye," it said. The former director of South Korea's National Intel-ligence Service (NIS) Lee Byung-Ho would meet a similar fate, it added, along with "their groups". They "can never make any appeal even though they meet miserable dog's death any time, at any place and by what-ever methods from this moment".

The declaration comes after the killing of Kim's estranged

half-brother Kim Jong-Nam by two women using the banned nerve agent VX at Kuala Lumpur international airport in February.

Both Malaysia and South Korea have blamed the North for the assassination, which retorts that the accusations are an attempt to smear it.

Last month Pyongyang's powerful ministry of state secu-rity said it had foiled a plot by the US and South Korean spy agen-cies to kill Kim using a biochemical weapon.

The lurid accusations came amid continuing high tensions over the North's nuclear and missile programmes and with Washington considering whether to re-designate Pyongyang as a state sponsor of terrorism.

Park is currently in custody and on trial in Seoul on charges of bribery and abuse of power related to the sprawling corrup-tion scandal that saw her impeached.

Yesterday's statement from Pyongyang demanded that Seoul hand her over along with the other accused "without delay" as "organisers of the hideous inter-national terrorist crimes".

The demand came with Park's successor, new South Korean President Moon Jae-In - who backs engagement with the North — on his way to Washing-ton for a summit meeting with Donald Trump.

In a statement, the South's National Intelligence Service

said: "As we have repeatedly clarified, the North's allegations are groundless." It added: "It is intolerable that the North openly threatens the lives of our people."

When Pyongyang announced in May it had uncovered the alleged plot it said the CIA and NIS had suborned, bribed and blackmailed a North Korean cit-izen which it identified only as Kim to carry out the attack.

Possible locations included the mausoleum where Kim Jong-Un's father and grandfather — the North's founder— lie in state, or a military parade.

"The villains even thought about disguising the operation as car or train accident," it added yesterday. Any such operation would be extremely difficult to prepare and carry out success-fully. The North's leader is surrounded by tight security at

all times, and Pyongyang main-tains a gigantic surveillance system over its own population that is ingrained at every level of society, where open dissent is unknown.

In May, analysts said the accusations could be a pre-emp-tive attempt to try to dissuade Washington from any attempt at a surgical strike on its leadership, as suggested by some commentators.

North Korea conducts rocket engine testSeoul

AFP

North Korea recently tested a small rocket engine, a monitoring

group said yesterday, after a US official had reportedly suggested the test could be a step to develop an intercon-tinental ballistic missile.

The respected 38 North analysis group however said it was not clear whether the test, conducted at the North's Sohae satellite launch site, involved an ICBM engine. Based on sat-ellite imagery analysis, the Washington-based group said the nuclear-armed state appeared to have conducted a "small rocket engine test" on or around June 22.

Previous satellite imagery of the site taken on June 10 showed no signs of test prep-arations, which showed North "possesses the technical and logistical capabilities to con-duct such tests with little or no advance warning", it added. An unnamed Wash-ington official told Reuters last week that the North had tested an engine that "could be for the smallest stage of an ICBM rocket".

But 38 North, which is part of Johns Hopkins Univer-sity, remained cautious, saying it was "not possible" to confirm whether the latest test was for an ICBM engine using satellite imagery alone.

Kyrgyz court convicts three over China embassy attack

Kalasin

AFP

It wasn't until he got to med-ical school that Narong Khuntikeo finally discovered

what caused the liver cancer that took both of his parents' lives: their lunch. Like millions of Thais across the rural northeast, his family regularly ate koi pla — a local dish made of raw fish ground with spices and lime.

The pungent meal is quick,

cheap and tasty, but the fish is also a favourite feast for parasites that can cause a lethal liver can-cer killing up to 20,000 Thais annually. Most hail from north-east, a large, poor region known as Isaan that has dined on koi pla for generations and now has the highest reported instance of the Cholangiocarcinoma (CCA) — bile duct cancer — in the world.

One of the major causes of CCA is a parasitic flatworm -- or fluke — which is native to the

Mekong region and found in many freshwater fish. Once eaten, the worms can embed undetected in the bile ducts for years causing inflammation that can, over time, trigger the aggres-sive cancer, according to the World Health Organisation.

"It's a very big health burden around here... it affects families, education and socioeconomic development," said Narong, who went on to become a liver sur-geon to battle the scourge.

"But nobody knows about this because they die quietly, like leaves falling from a tree."

After seeing hundreds of hopeless late-stage cases on the operating table, Narong is now marshalling scientists, doctors and anthropologists to attack the "silent killer" at source. They are fanning out across Isaan prov-inces to screen villagers for the liver fluke and warn them of the perils of koi pla and other risky fermented fish dishes.

Flight delayed after woman tosses coins into engineShanghai

AFP

An elderly passenger who threw coins at the engine of a plane at a

Shanghai airport for good luck will not face police action, Chinese state media said yesterday.

The superst i t ious 80-year-old woman delayed the China Southern Airlines flight on Tuesday for nearly six hours after she tossed nine coins at the engine from the tarmac while boarding, with one nestling inside.

Police at Shanghai Pudong International Airport said the woman surnamed Qiu was a devoted Buddhist and believed the coin offer-ing would ensure her safety on the flight to the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou.

However the People's Daily newspaper, citing police, said that while she had broken the law and would normally serve five days behind bars, she is exempted because she is aged over 70.

Bishkek

AFP

A court in Kyrgyzstan has jailed three people con-victed of orchestrating a

bomb attack on China's embassy last year, a court spokesman said yesterday.

At least three people were wounded when a vehicle driven by a suicide bomber exploded after ramming through a gate at the embassy in the capital of the Central Asian country in August 2016.

Khasamidin Ismailov was sentenced to 18 years in prison by the court in Bishkek on Tuesday, while Hikmatillo Abdulazhanov and Kunazim Mansirova were both given 10-year sentences, the spokes-man said.

All three defendants pleaded not guilty to charges of helping organise and finance the attack which was carried out by a man whom security services in Kyrgyzstan claimed was a member of an anti-Bei-jing Uighur separatist group.

Their lawyers have said they will appeal.

Kyrgyz authorities have also claimed, without offering proof, that the plot was hatched by Syria-based militants with ties to the ex-Soviet Muslim-majority country.

Chinese state media reported Tuesday that Kyrgyz border troops had taken part in a joint anti-terror exercise with their Chinese colleagues in the restive Uighur-populated region of Xinjiang, which bor-ders ex-Soviet Central Asia.

China launches new class of naval destroyerBeijing

Reuters

China’s military yesterday launched a new type of d o m e s t i c a l l y - b u i l t

destroyer, state media said, the latest addition to the country’s rapidly expanding navy.

The 10,000-tonne warship was launched at the Jiangnan Shipyard in Shanghai, the offi-cial Xinhua news agency said, making it the first of the People’s Liberation Army Navy’s “new generation” destroyers.

“It is equipped with new air

defence, anti-missile, anti-ship and anti-submarine weapons,” Xinhua said, without giving fur-ther details.

The state-run Global Times newspaper said the ship was believed to be the first Type 055 destroyer, which is considered to be a successor class to the smaller Type 052D guided mis-sile destroyers.

China is still producing the latter and commissioned one, the Xining, in January. Chinese media showed photos of the new ship covered in streamers and flags and flanked by rows of

sailors. The vessel will have to undergo planned testing before it is commissioned into use.

China is producing warships at a rapid clip as it modernises its navy, which has been taking an increasingly prominent role among the country’s armed forces. State media has said that the navy commissioned 18 ships, including destroyers, corvettes and guided-missile frigates in 2016.

In April, China launched its first domestically built aircraft carrier, a conventionally pow-ered ship that likely won’t enter service until 2020.

Alleged plot

Park had "pushed forward" a supposed plan by Seoul's intelligence services to eliminate the North's leadership, Pyongyang's security ministries and prosecutors said in a joint statement.

The former director of South Korea's National Intelligence Service (NIS) Lee Byung-Ho would meet a similar fate, it added, along with "their groups".

Former South Korean President Park Geun-hye arriving at a court in Seoul, recently.

Thai doctors battle cancer-causing fish dish

China's new type of domestically-built destroyer during its launching ceremony at the Jiangnan Shipyard, yesterday.

11THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017 EUROPE

Cyprus unity talks open in SwitzerlandCrans-Montana

Reuters

Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot lead-ers began talks yesterday aimed at reuniting the island

after more than 40 years of divi-sion, in what some activists said could be the last chance of a settlement.

Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cyp-riot leader Mustafa Akinci met in the Swiss Alpine resort of Crans-Montana, joined by sen-ior UN and European Union officials and the foreign minis-ters of Greece and Turkey.

UN mediator Espen Barth Eide said the best outcome in talks tentatively scheduled to last until July 7 would be a compre-hensive agreement, which would be hard but not impossible to attain.

“If we take our time and we focus on the essentials, it’s not beyond reach, it could happen,” Eide said.

The second-best outcome would be a breakthrough on key issues, confirming a shared intent to reunify the island but requiring more talks in Cyprus to wrap up a final agreement.

“If we don’t have either of those I don’t think we can talk of a success in Crans-Montana, so

this is what we are working towards.”

Any deal would be put to a referendum in both Cypriot com-munities simultaneously some time later this year.

Cyprus was split in a Turk-ish invasion in 1974, triggered by a brief Greek-inspired coup. Tur-key supports a breakaway Turkish Cypriot state in north-ern Cyprus.

"At the end of the day, of course, it is the responsibility of

the conference participants to go that final mile, to think outside of the box, to try out some new ideas so we can go down from this beautiful Swiss mountain with a plan," Eide said.

Jeffrey Feltman, UN Under-Secretary for Political Affairs, said he had been pleasantly sur-prised by the positive start to the talks, which began on the com-plex and divisive issue of security.

"What we heard this morn-ing gave us the hope and the conviction that the leaders and the three guarantors have come to this conference with the deter-mination to overcome challenges and resolve the issues," Feltman said.

The talks involve three

guarantor states, Greece, Turkey and Britain. British Foreign Sec-retary Boris Johnson and Europe Minister Alan Duncan left by hel-icopter before the talks had officially opened to head home for a parliamentary session.

"UK support for a settlement of the Cyprus issue remains steadfast and the UK will con-tinue to be represented during the Conference on Cyprus in Switzerland," a British Foreign Office spokeswoman said.

Greek Foreign Minister Nikos Kotzias and Turkey's Mevlut Cavusoglu stayed on.

The United Nations is seek-ing a peace deal which would unite Cyprus under a federal umbrella and which could also define the future of Europe's

relations with Turkey, a key player in the conflict.

Two issues are especially vexing: Turkish Cypriot demands for a rotating presidency, and Greek Cypriot demands that Tur-key withdraws all of its 30,000 troops from the island and renounces its intervention rights.

In a statement, the group "Unite Cyprus Now" welcomed the summit "in what we fear could be the last chance to reu-nite our island".

It called on Anastasiades and Akinci "who have made unprec-edented progress in the negotiations to find a compre-hensive solution to the Cyprus problem, to show the necessary leadership and courage to end the longstanding division".

New computer virus capable of larger attackThe Hague

AFP

The wave of cyberattacks hitting Europe and North America is similar to last

month's WannaCry ran-somware havoc, but appears potentially "more sophisti-cated," the European police agency said yesterday.

Describing it as "another serious ransomware attack," Europol said "critical infrastruc-ture and business systems" were being targeted "with a new wave of ransomware, which is an updated version of Petya."

"The attack has caused infections worldwide and has

not yet been stopped," the agency warned yesterday.

Although director Rob Wainwright said the number of victims was not yet known, Europol has already set up a

coordination cell and is "actively monitoring" the spread of the attacks.

"There are clear similarities with the WannaCry attack, but also indications of a more sophisticated attack capability, intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities," Wainwright said in a statement.

Petya has been around since 2016, but it does not just encrypt files on infected devices it also overwrites the master boot record.

This has the effect of ren-dering the computer useless and prevents users from recov-ering any information, Europol said.

It warned that unlike

WannaCry "this attack does not include any type of 'kill switch'."

"It is a demonstration of how cybercrime evolves at scale and, once again, a reminder to business of the importance of taking responsi-ble cyber security measures," added Wainwright.

The malware, which first surfaced on Tuesday in Ukraine, locks away a computer's data and tells users they must pay to get is all back.

The European police agency urged anyone falling victim to the latest attacks not to pay up, but to report the incident to the police and to isolate and dis-connect infected computers from the Internet.

Bosnians slam Dutch ruling on SrebrenicaSarajevo

AFP

A Dutch ruling that the Nether-lands was only partially liable for the deaths of hundreds of Muslims in Srebrenica sparked outrage from friends and rel-atives of the victims in Bosnia.

"A shameful verdict!", wrote Bosnia's Dnevni Avaz newspaper on its front page, calling the decision a "new injustice and a new humilia-tion for the victims".

A court ruled the Dutch state had acted unlawfully, ordering the country to pay partial damages to the fami-lies of 350 victims, around 30 percent of the damages. But relatives of the victims wanted the court to declare the country responsible for the massacre of almost 8,000 Muslims, saying the Dutch UN contingent charged with pro-tecting the region had failed.

Belgrade

Reuters

Serbia's first female prime minister pledged yesterday to reform education and

push for the digitalisation of state administration to take the country closer to European Union membership.

Ana Brnabic (pictured), the prime minister-designate who in a one-hour speech presented her programme and cabinet to parliament, is expected to get the approval of more than 150 deputies of the ruling coalition in the 250-seat parliament.

Brnabic, the country's first openly gay head of government, was picked by powerful presi-dent Aleksandar Vucic, who stepped down as prime minis-ter to take the more ceremonial role after he won the April elec-tion in a landslide.

"EU membership remains our main direction," Brnabic said, adding that her govern-ment would work on strengthening relations with

Moscow, continuing a delicate balancing act between the West and Russia.

Brnabic, who had been min-ister in charge of state administration in Vucic's cabi-net, named Nenad Popovic, a well known businessman with strong links to Russia, as one of her deputies. Dusan Vujovic will remain finance minister.

She said education reform and digitalisation, which would streamline the state's

administrative services and reduce waiting times, will be priorities.

"We need to look into the future," said Brnabic.

She added that her govern-ment would focus on achieving average economic growth of 3.5 percent a year and would tackle environmental issues, including power production from renew-ables and waste control -- both key elements in the Balkan state's plans to join the EU.

"I count on the support of the president Vucic," Brnabic, who is not affiliated with any party, said.

Analysts see Brnabic's elec-tion as a move to please the West which for years has insisted on the improvement of gay rights in conservative soci-eties across the Balkans, but say real power will remain in the hands of Vucic.

"By nominating a compe-tent, but politically weak PM, Vucic expectedly seeks to solid-ify his influence over Serbian politics," Teneo Intelligence said.

Brnabic vows education reform

Supporters of the peace process hold placards during a gathering ahead of a round of talks.

UN mediator Espen Barth Eide said the best outcome in talks tentatively scheduled to last until July 7 would be a comprehensive agreement, which would be hard but not impossible to attain.

Mediation

Two issues are especially vexing: Turkish Cypriot demands for a rotating presidency, and Greek Cypriot demands that Turkey withdraws all of its 30,000 troops from the island and renounces its intervention rights.

Six charged over UK stadium tragedy

UN mediator Espen Barth Eide (centre) welcomes members of a delegation upon their arrival at the opening of Cyprus peace talks in the Swiss resort of Crans-Montana, yesterday.

"There are clear similarities with the WannaCry attack, but also indications of a more sophisticated attack capability, intended to exploit a range of vulnerabilities."

London

Reuters

Prosecutors yesterday announced criminal charges against six peo-

ple including ex-police chiefs over the 1989 Hillsborough soccer stadium crush in which 96 fans died, Britain's worst sporting disaster.

The charges related to the deaths and also to an alleged subsequent cover-up by police of their own cata-strophic mistakes.

The victims, all Liverpool supporters, died in an over-crowded, fenced-in enclosure at the Hillsborough stadium in Sheffield, northern Eng-land, during an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest.

Police at first blamed the tragedy on drunken fans, an explanation that was always rejected by survivors, rela-tives of the victims and the wider Liverpool community. Families spent decades cam-paigning for justice for the 96.

"It's about all of these families, 28 years we've had of torture really. It's been hell on earth," said Margaret Aspi-nall, a leader of the families' campaign group, whose 18-year-old son James was among the dead.

"This is definitely the start of the end," she said.

"We all need peace from Hillsborough, but we can never have peace until we've got t ruth , just ice , accountability."

Sue Hemming, head of the special crime and coun-ter-terrorism division at the Crown Prosecution Service, said there was sufficient evi-dence to charge six men with criminal offences.

The most high-profile among them is former police chief superintendent David Duckenfield, who was in charge of police operations at Hillsborough on the fate-ful day. He was charged with manslaughter by gross neg-ligence of 95 men, women and children.

Family members of victims of the 1989 Hillsborough Stadium disaster speak to the press outside Parr Hall, in Warrington, Britain, yesterday.

12 THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017EUROPE

Slovak President plays chess Germany urges ceasefire in eastern UkraineKrasnodar

Reuters

GERMAN Foreign Minis-ter Sigmar Gabriel yesterday called for Ukraine and Rus-sian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine to extend a harvest-related ceasefire, say-ing it could help pave the way for a political solution.

Gabriel, speaking at a news conference with Rus-sian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, called for a new effort to rein in arms spending worldwide and counteract a new arms race between Rus-sia and the West. But he said the stationing of some 4,500 Nato troops in Baltic region posed no threat to Russia.

Gabriel also said Germany would welcome a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Pres-ident Donald Trump on the sidelines of an upcoming G20 summit in Hamburg.

Refugee influx: Italy threatens to close portsRome

Reuters

Italy yesterday appealed to the European Union for help in taking in African migrants, even raising the possibility of closing its

ports to humanitarian rescue ships to pressure EU partners, sources familiar with the mat-ter said.

Rome's EU ambassador, Maurizio Massari, met EU Migration Commissioner Dim-itris Avramopoulos and told him that "the situation we are facing is serious and Europe cannot turn its back", an Italian government source said yesterday.

"The idea of blocking humanitarian ships flying for-eign flags from returning to Italian ports has been dis-cussed," another Italian government source said.

That may force EU partners to take them instead because many of the charities that oper-ate rescue ships are based in other EU countries, including Malta and Germany, the source said.

"Italy has reached satura-tion point," he said, adding that the Rome had planned for 200,000 beds for asylum-seek-ers and those were almost all taken.

Italy has brought in over half a million boat migrants since 2014, and a record 181,000 came last year. This year arrivals are up about 14 percent on the same period last year to 75,000.

Meanwhile, Italy's neigh-bours have closed their borders to try to keep migrants from moving north as they did in the

past, and some European Union partners such as Poland and Hungary have refused to host some asylum-seekers to ease the burden on Italy and Greece, another frontline country.

At the weekend, voters punished Italy's ruling Demo-cratic Party in local elections, opting instead for centre-right rivals led by the anti-immigrant Northern League and four-time former Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who want Italy to take a tougher stance on migration.

While EU members have been at loggerheads for two years now about moving asy-lum-seekers from Italy and Greece, the bloc's 28 leaders agreed last week the two south-ern states should get more help to manage arrivals.

The bloc's executive Euro-pean Commission will give more emergency funding to Italy and wants EU states to put up more money to assist Afri-can countries, an EU official said, hoping that better condi-tions at home will keep people from leaving.

Blame game in Portugal over forest fireLisbon

AP

Portugal's prime minister lost his patience with jour-nalists' questions yesterday

as accusations flew about who or which agency might be to blame for the deaths of 64 peo-ple in a raging forest fire.

Prime Minister Antonio Costa pledged to clarify the "contradictory information" as soon as possible amid finger-pointing between different authorities involved in fighting the deadly blaze. He walked away from reporters before returning and saying "nobody is more eager than I am to find out" what happened.

The catastrophe has

provided political ammunition to opposition parties, with some calling for the resignation of Interior Minister Constanca Urb-ano de Sousa.

Testifying before a parlia-mentary committee yesterday, Urbano de Sousa almost broke down in tears as she described the fire as "the most difficult moment of my life."

She refused to quit, saying her duty is to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Criticism of how the fire was handled has focused mainly on the country's emergency tele-communications network, known by its acronym SIRESP.

Firefighters say the system didn't work properly during the five days they fought the

wildfire that started in central Portugal on June 17, when the deaths occurred.

The Civil Protection Agency, which operates the firefighting service, said in a report that flaws in the radio system pre-vented the smooth flow of information between the com-mand post and firefighters in the field.

The company that runs SIRESP insisted in a separate report that the system "met the challenge," handling 1.1 million calls over the five days. However, it acknowledged the network was occasionally overloaded, saying that 8.3 percent of the emergency calls got a busy signal on the night that the blaze swept across a road and killed so many people flee-

ing in their cars.An Interior Ministry report,

meanwhile, blamed the Civil Protection Agency for not deploying extra mobile satellite receivers to handle the excep-tional load of calls. There were more than 1,000 firefighters, plus police and medical staff at the fire site, all of them using SIRESP.

Costa himself has come under scrutiny for his actions in 2006, when he was the interior minister in charge of police and firefighters. The Jornal de Noti-cias reported that Portugal's Audit Court expressed misgiv-ings at the time that the contract awarded to the company run-ning SIRESP hadn't gone to a public tender.

Russia scraps plans to ban Telegram appMoscow

AP

RUSSIA has ditched plans to ban the Telegram messaging app after its owner agreed to register the company in the country, authorities said yes-terday.

Telegram has prided itself on privacy and has protested the government's demands to get it to keep and share users' chat histories and encryption keys.

Alexander Zharov, head of the Russian communica-tions regulator, said that Telegram would be free to operate in Russia, despite previous threats to close it down, after its owner agreed to registration.

A set of counter-terror-ism amendments initiated by lawmaker Irina Yarovaya and adopted last year, among other things, obliges telecom-munications companies to store call logs and data for months.

Telegram founder Pavel Durov said yesterday that he would be willing to register it in Russia, but insisted that he wouldn't share privacy data as new Russian law requires.

"We will not comply with the Yarovaya law, which is anti-constitutional and tech-nically impossible to implement, as well as other laws which violate the right to privacy and Telegram's confidentiality policy," Durov said on his social media page.

Czech MPs amend gun control rulesPrague

AFP

The Czech parliament yes-terday passed a constitutional amend-

ment that challenges EU gun control rules by allowing legal firearms holders to use them when national security is threatened, including during terrorist attacks.

The amendment, which passed by a large majority, is expected easily to gain approval from the senate and President Milos Zeman, still needed for it to take effect.

The Czech government also said earlier this month it would ask the European Court of Jus-tice to strike down new EU gun control rules that have its hunt-ers and gun collectors up in arms.

Both moves come as par-ties jockey for support ahead of the October general election, when the centrist ANO junior coalition partner is tipped to oust the Social Democrats as government leader.

Yesterday's Czech amend-ment was submitted by government and opposition parties and approved by 139 out of the 168 deputies present in the lower house of parliament. Nine voted against.

"We don't want to disarm our citizens at a time when the security situation in Europe is getting worse," Interior Minis-ter Milan Chovanec, a senior Social Democrat, said.

"Show me a single terrorist

attack in Europe perpetrated using a legally-owned weapon".

Passed in mid-March by the European Parliament, the new EU gun control directive bans civilians from possessing cer-tain semi-automatic weapons as part of counter-terrorism measures.

EU members are supposed to incorporate the new rules, which passed in June, within 15 months.

The Czech interior ministry said the directive would affect nearly all 300,000 legal firearm licence holders in the country of 10.6 million people.

The Czech Republic, where there is no recent history of ter-rorism, has been pushing for softer rules on gun control, unlike other countries like Lux-embourg and France which asked for strict legislation.

Besides banning short semi-automatic firearms with loading devices over 20 rounds and long semi-automatic fire-arms with loading devices over 10 rounds, the EU directive pro-hibits long firearms that can be folded or concealed in other ways.

The bloc's executive European Commission will give more emergency funding to Italy and wants EU states to put up more money to assist African countries, hoping that better conditions at home will keep people from leaving: EU official

Situation grave

Corbyn wants public sector pay capLondon

Reuters

Britain's opposition Labour Party will try to force Theresa May to increase

public sector pay yesterday, increasing pressure on the prime minister to drop auster-ity measures after a botched election gamble.

May, whose governing Con-servative Party lost its parliamentary majority in the June 8 election, has signalled she will listen more closely to Brit-ons who are weary of the kind of cuts that some blame for a fire in west London that killed at least 80 people.

But in an amendment to her government's programme, which requires parliamentary approval, Labour lawmakers will challenge a cap on public sector pay rises, limited to a below-inflation 1 percent a year for several years as the government seeks to reduce its budget deficit.

Its leftist leader, Jeremy Cor-byn, said the fire at Grenfell Tower and attacks by militants made it clear that emergency service workers "deserve the pay rise they have been denied for seven years".

"You can't have safety and security on the cheap. It is plain to see that seven years of cuts to our emergency services has

made us less safe; it's time to make a change".

May's spokesman said the government was "listening" to voters' voices on austerity and would consider recommenda-tions from pay review bodies before spelling out its policy on pay in a budget statement later this year - a signal it may be reconsidering its position that Labour welcomed.

The vote on the amendment, due to take place yesterday, will be the first of many expected tests of the prime minister's abil-ity to govern after she sealed a deal with a small Northern Irish party to pass legislation in parliament.

Britain's opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn takes a selfie with Labour MPs in Westminster Hall , in the Houses of Parliament in London, yesterday.

Slovak President Andrej Kiska plays chess with 10-year old Lucia Kapicakova, a winner of EU Youth Championship 2016 in U10 category. President Kiska gave up the match after some 30 minutes in a "no chance to win" situation.

We don't want to disarm our citizens at a time when the security situation in Europe is getting worse: Milan Chovanec

13THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017 AMERICAS

A woman gives away hot dogs from vendor Sabrett during the opening of an exhibit at Ellis Island highlighting the immigrant history behind the "Hot Dog" in New York City, US, yesterday.

Immigrant history

Washington

Reuters

Senate Republican lead-ers faced calls from critics within the party yesterday for major changes, rather than

mere tinkering, to a major healthcare bill if they are to sal-vage their effort to repeal major parts of the Obamacare law.

In a big setback to the seven-year Republican quest to undo Democratic former President Barack Obama's signature leg-islative achievement, US Senate Majority Leader Mitch McCon-nell on Tuesday abandoned plans to get the bill passed this week.

McConnell, with his reputa-tion as a master strategist on the line, put off a vote until after next week's Independence Day recess, when it became appar-ent he would not muster the 50 votes needed for passage.

Acknowledging demands

from fellow Republicans for more input into retooling the leg-islation, McConnell said on the Senate floor, "Senators will have more opportunities to offer their thoughts as we work toward an agreement."

With Democrats unified against it and Republicans con-trolling the Senate by a slim 52-48 margin, McConnell can

afford to lose only two Republi-can senators to secure passage, with Vice President Mike Pence able to cast a tie-breaking vote.

But at least nine Republican senators - including moderates, hard-line conservatives and oth-ers - have expressed opposition to the bill in its current form.

Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer challenged Trump to call all 100 senators to the Blair House, across the street from the White House, to craft a bipartisan healthcare bill that would fix, not gut, Obamacare.

"With the demise of this bill yesterday," Schumer said, "we have an opportunity to go back to the drawing board."

The bill drew criticism from Republican moderates worried about millions of people losing their medical insurance and sharp cuts to the Medicaid gov-ernment healthcare program for the poor, and from conservatives unhappy it did not do enough to

erase the 2010 Affordable Care Act, dubbed Obamacare.

"Tinkering will not do it," Republican Senator Bill Cassidy said of efforts to craft a bill that would pass.

"If we do what President Trump suggested, if we put more money back in to try and improve the coverage for those Trump voters who were told on the campaign trail they'd have

coverage, their pre-existing (medical) conditions addressed, if we take care of those Trump voters ... then we'll do the right thing," Cassidy told CNN.

The nonpartisan Congres-sional Budget Office forecast on Monday that the Senate legisla-tion would lead to some 22 million people losing their healthcare insurance over a dec-ade while cutting the federal

deficit by $321bn over that period.

Trump pledged on the cam-paign trail last year to overturn Obamacare but also promised nobody would lose coverage.

"I think we're going to get it over the line," Trump told report-ers a day after meeting with most of the Republican senators at the White House to urge them to break the impasse.

Call for major changes as healthcare bill in disarray

Washington

Reuters

Flush with cash, political groups outside the White House are aggressively

coming to President Donald Trump's aid as he battles low public approval numbers, ques-tions about his election campaign's ties to Russia and a stalled legislative agenda.

Through television attack ads and online campaigns normally seen only during the tumult of an election, the groups are help-ing Trump to strike back against his perceived enemies and boost his agenda, adding to the

firepower of his Twitter account and the bully pulpit of the White House.

On Tuesday, one of the groups, America First Policies, launched an attack ad against a senator from Trump's own Republican Party who had balked at a Senate plan to over-haul healthcare that would leave millions more Americans uninsured.

The attack angered Senate leader Mitch McConnell, who is struggling to rustle up the votes for the plan.

It is the first time that a US president has had Super PACs - political action committees that

can raise unlimited amounts of money and typically operate during elections - or political non-profits, which do not have to disclose their donors or where they spend their money, actively working to support him after the dust of campaigning has cleared.

The pro-Trump groups are prohibited from coordinating with the White House, which declined to comment for this story. The New York Times reported that McConnell had complained to White House chief of staff Reince Priebus about America First Policies' ad. The group later pulled the ad.

America First Policies and

the other pro-Trump groups were set up to promote Trump and his legislative agenda - healthcare reform, building a wall along the Mexican border, and pushing for lower taxation and deregulation. They are not allied to the Republican Party, which can pose a problem for Republican leaders as Tuesday's attack ad showed.

With Trump's approval rat-ings sagging and his agenda now overshadowed by a federal investigation into his 2016 cam-paign's ties to Russia, the groups are pouring resources into pro-tecting Trump’s image, demonizing his opponents and

amplifying his message that he is the victim of a witch-hunt.

"The establishment is shaken, angry, losing control," begins another new ad by Amer-ica First Policies, which says on its website that it is a non-profit organization "supporting key policy initiatives." Images of the US Capitol, Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and liberal MSNBC host Rachel Maddow flash in the background.

"Desperately waging an all-out war to protect their interest," the narrator continues. "They lie, they leak, they leech onto power."

Protesters against the US Senate Republicans' healthcare bill hold a rally outside the US Capitol in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Pro-Trump groups rush to help embattled president

Bill postponed

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell abandons plans to get the bill passed this week in a major setback.

At least nine Republican senators have expressed opposition to the bill in its current form.

Martin Shkreli's notoriety slows New York jury selectionNew York

Reuters

Jury selection in the New York trial of former drug company executive Martin Shkreli

entered its third day after some potential jurors said they could not be fair to a man who gained notoriety by raising the price of a life-saving drug more than 5,000 percent.

US prosecutors have accused Shkreli, dubbed the "pharma bro," of running a Ponzi-like scheme at his former hedge fund and a drug company he once ran. Shkreli has pleaded not guilty to charges of securities and wire fraud.

The difficulty of finding a jury became apparent on Monday, with potential jurors variously describing Shkreli as "evil" and a "snake." More jurors cited the length of the trial, expected to last up to six weeks, as a hardship.

The ensuing headlines prompted Shkreli's lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, to ask US District Judge Kiyo Mat-sumoto in Brooklyn on Tuesday morning to declare a mistrial. She refused.

Shkreli, 34, rose to fame in 2015 by raising the price of anti-parisitic drug Daraprim to $750 a pill, from $13.50, when he was chief executive of Tur-ing Pharmaceuticals. The move sparked outrage among patients and US lawmakers.

Shkreli's upcoming trial is not about Turing but about Shkreli's management at his previous drug company.

New York

AP

The reporter who accused White House spokes-woman Sarah Huckabee

Sanders of inflaming the public against the media at a press briefing says he did it because he's tired of being bullied by the administration.

Brian Karem, an editor at the Washington-area Sentinel news-papers, became an instant symbol in the tense relationship between the president and journalists when he interrupted Sanders on Tues-day. Given the nation's wide political divide, it took little

searching to find depictions of him as either a hero or crying baby on social media.

"There's a time and a place for everything and the time has come to stand up and be counted," Karem told The Asso-ciated Press yesterday. "I'm tired of taking it. I want friendly rela-tionships, but those who want respect, show respect. We have shown that man and shown the administration respect for six months, and all we're getting in return is a lack of respect, deri-sion and bullying."

Karem, 56, is not a repre-sentative of the large national media organizations repeatedly

described as "fake news" by the president. Besides his editing, he writes for Playboy, where his first-person account of the con-frontation was posted late Tuesday. He was jailed as a Texas television reporter in 1990 for refusing to identify sources in a crime story.

The administration's own anger with the media is close to the surface, with the president tweeting Tuesday about a CNN story on Russian connections that was retracted last week, and on Wednesday about The New York Times' coverage of the stalled health bill. Sanders opened Tuesday's briefing by

calling on a reporter from the conservative Breitbart News, who asked about the CNN story, and she expressed frustration with media coverage.

"If we make the slightest mistake, the slightest word is off, it is just an absolute tirade from a lot of people in this room," Sanders said. "But news outlets get to go on, day after day, and cite unnamed sources, use sto-ries without sources."

That's where Karem broke in. "Come on!" he said. "You're inflaming everybody right here, right now with those words." He said that Sanders is there to answer questions "and what you

did is inflammatory to people all over the country who look at it and say, 'See, once again, the president's right and everybody else out here is fake media.' And everybody in this room is only trying to do their job."

Sanders said that "if anything has been inflamed, it's the dis-honesty that often takes place by the news media and I think it is outrageous for you to accuse me of inflaming a story when I was simply trying to respond to his question."

The White House has been holding fewer on-camera brief-ings lately, and the press has been pushing for more. With that

backdrop, it felt like the chief purpose of Tuesday's on-cam-era session was to browbeat the press, Karem said.

Karem said he hasn't heard from the administration about the exchange and doesn't know if there will be repercussions. Sanders did not immediately respond to a request for com-ment. While Karem said he'd received expressions of support from some fellow reporters, not all sympathetic observers like to see frustration boil over.

Liberal former talk show host Phil Donahue, on MSNBC Wednesday, said reporters should stay above the fray.

White House reporter says he's tired of being bullied

Nikki Haley says 'not moving to Trump Tower'Washington

Reuters

US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley closed the door yesterday to the

possibility of moving the ambassador's residence to Trump Tower, telling Congress she'll stay at another New York hotel "until it's time for me to leave."

The US decided in 2015 to move its longtime ambassador's residence in New York out of the famed Waldorf Astoria hotel. Haley confirmed that the decision was made due to US concerns about spying and security when the hotel was being purchased by a Chinese-owned company.

The ambassador's residence

was moved to another hotel near UN headquarters, but there's been speculation since President Donald Trump took office that he might move it again to mid-town Manhattan building that bears his family's name.

Not so, Haley told Congress. She said she hadn't picked her current location, but planned to stay there nonetheless. "I'm not moving to Trump Tower," she said. Haley's comments came during two days of testimony before a pair of committees in the House. On Tuesday, Haley took some lawmakers by surprise when she seemed to assert that the Trump's policy was to pre-vent any Palestinians from serving in UN positions unless and until the US recognises an independent Palestinian state.

14 THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017AMERICAS

Washington

Reuters

US Homeland Secu-rity Secretary John Kelly yesterday unveiled enhanced security measures

for foreign flights arriving in the United States in what officials said was a move to prevent an expansion in-cabin ban on lap-tops and other large electronic devices.

"Inaction is not an option," Kelly said, saying he believes air-lines will comply with the new screening. But he said the meas-ures are not the last step to tighten security.

US officials are requiring enhanced screening of personal

electronic devices, passengers and explosive detection for the roughly 2,000 commercial flights arriving daily in the US from 280 airports in 105

countries. The decision not to impose new restrictions on lap-tops is a boost to US airlines, which have worried that an expansion of the ban to Europe or other locations could cause significant logistical problems and deter some travel. Airlines that failed to satisfy new secu-rity requirements could still face future in-cabin electronics restrictions, Kelly said.

European and US officials said that airlines have 21 days to put in place increased explosive screening and have 120 days to comply with other security measures, including enhanced screening of airline passengers. Reuters reported earlier that US officials had suggested enhance-ments, including explosive trace

detection screening, increased vetting of airport staff and addi-tional detection dogs.

Since laptops are widely used in flight by business class pas-sengers - who pay double or more than the average ticket price - the airline industry had feared expanding the ban could cut into revenue.

Airline officials told Reuters they are concerned about add-ing new enhanced security measures to all airports world-wide that have direct flights to the United States rather than focus them on airports where threats are highest.

European airline groups said in a document reviewed by Reu-ters that if the threats are confirmed, the restrictions

should be deployed to cover all EU departing flights, not just US-bound flights.

The United States imposed restrictions on laptops in March on flights originating at 10 airports in eight countries, including Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and Turkey. They came amid fears that a concealed bomb could be installed in electronic devices taken aboard aircraft. Britain quickly followed suit with a sim-ilar set of restrictions.

Homeland security officials said yesterday that those 10 air-ports can get off the list if they meet the new security requirements.

US airline stocks were higher on Wednesday, with United Con-tinental Holdings up 0.9 percent,

Delta Air Lines Inc up 1.9 percent and American Airlines Group up 1.5 percent. None of the airlines immediately commented.

Starting in April, Kelly repeat-edly said it was "likely" the laptop ban would expand to other air-ports - and even said in May the government could potentially expand the ban worldwide.

Kelly said he planned a "step by step" security enhance-ment plan that included short, medium-term and longer-term improvements that would take at least a year to implement fully.

Kelly met with senior airline executives in May and Homeland Security officials have had repeated meetings with US air-line executives.

US to toughen airline security; no laptop ban expansionTough screening

Enhanced screening of personal electronic devices, passengers and better explosive detection planned.

Airlines have been given 21 days to put in place increased explosive screening.

Ottawa

AFP

Security has been beefed up to unprecedented levels in Ottawa following jihadist

attacks in Europe as Canada pre-pares to welcome a record 500,000 revelers for the coun-try's 150th anniversary celebrations.

"I want to make sure that people are at ease that they will be able to celebrate with their families, with their neighbors, with perfect strangers this extraordinary country... on July 1st," Prime Minister Justin Tru-deau said.

He added that "extraordi-nary police services and intelligence agencies are doing everything necessary to keep people safe."

Officials described a massive endeavor involving six police forces, including the Royal Cana-dian Mounted Police and Canada's spy and electronic eavesdropping agencies.

Heavily-armed police with carbines and long guns will help secure the Saturday festivities, which will include live music and stage performances.

"Every officer will be work-ing," Ottawa police spokesman

Constable Chuck Benoit said.Outside the parliament

building workers were busy set-ting up barricades and security cameras ahead of the event.

Dump trucks will also be used to block vehicle access to the parliamentary precinct where the events will be held.

The RCMP warned

participants to expect security checks and other restrictions over the course of the festivities, and asked the public in a statement to help ensure a safe Canada Day "by being vigilant."

"Security has been at the forefront of planning for events related to Canada's 150th anni-versary," said Scott Bardsley, a

spokesman for the public safety minister.

Security will also be stepped up at 150th anniversary events across the country, he said.

Broadcaster CTV said authorities are concerned that the Islamic State group has urged Muslims to avoid markets and other public places.

Canada boosts security for 150th anniversary

Barriers are set up near Parliament Hill in Ottawa as Canada prepares to celebrate the 150th anniversary of the confederation.

Arizona wildfire forces thousands from homesPhoenix

AP

A wildfire burning yester-day through a dense Arizona forest has forced

thousands of people from their homes, closed a major road and created a huge plume of smoke over the same area devastated by a blaze that killed 19 fire-fighters four years ago.

The fire is burning in com-munities around Prescott, a mountain city about 100 miles north of Phoenix that draws a mix of desert dwellers escap-ing the heat, retirees and visitors to its famed Old West-themed Whiskey Row.

The fire has charred more than 28 square miles while being fanned by winds ranging to 35 mph winds.

More than 500 firefighters were battling the blaze. A fire-fighter suffered a minor injury.

The fire forced the evacua-tion of Mayer and Dewey-Humboldt along with several other communities, and one of the main roads into Pres-c o t t w a s c l o s e d . Dewey-Humboldt has about

4,000 residents; Mayer has about 1,400. Many residents have pain-ful memories of the 2013 wildfire that killed 19 members of an elite firefighting crew.

"It's scary because we're coming up on the four-year anniversary of the Yarnell Hill fire — there's still a lot of fresh memories," said Arizona state Sen. Karen Fann, who lives in Prescott and represents the area where the fire is burning.

Elsewhere across the west-ern US, Utah firefighters braced for more high winds as they tried to slow a stubborn wildfire that has burned 13 homes and forced the evacuation of 1,500 people from a ski resort town.

In California, a wildfire destroyed the home of "Big Bang Theory" star Johnny Galecki on a ranch in the San Luis Obispo area.

Firefighters in Washington state were battling three fires near Wenatchee that had grown to about 37 square miles.

And in Idaho, fire officials say quick responses by ranch-ers and others have kept the small fires from becoming major blazes.

Caracas

Reuters

The Venezuelan government hunted yesterday for rogue policemen who attacked

key installations by helicopter, but critics of President Nicolas Maduro suspected the raid may have been staged to justify repression.

In extraordinary scenes over Caracas around sunset on Tues-day, the stolen helicopter fired shots at the Interior Ministry and dropped grenades on the Supreme Court, both viewed by Venezuela's opposition as bas-tions of support for a dictator.

Nobody was injured.Officials said special forces

were seeking Oscar Perez, 36, a police pilot named as the mas-termind of the raid by the

helicopter that carried a banner saying "Freedom!"

In 2015, Perez co-produced and starred in "Death Sus-pended," an action film in which he played the lead role as a gov-ernment agent rescuing a kidnapped businessman.

There was no sign yesterday of Perez, whom officials con-demned as a "psychopath", but the helicopter was found on Ven-ezuela's northern Caribbean coastline.

"We ask for maximum sup-port to find this fanatic, extremist terrorist," vice president Tareck El Aissami said.

The attack exacerbated an already full-blown political cri-sis in Venezuela after three months of opposition protests demanding general elections and fixes for the sinking economy.

At least 76 people have died in the unrest since April, the lat-est a 25-year-old man shot in the head near a protest in the Petare slum of Caracas, authorities said yesterday.

Hundreds more people have been injured and arrested in what Maduro terms an ongoing coup attempt with US encour-agement. The attack fed a conspiracy theory by opposition

supporters that it may have been a government setup and over-shadowed other drama on Tuesday, including the besieging of opposition legislators by gangs in the National Assembly.

Venezuela hunts rogue helicopter attackers

Budget crunch: Brazil suspends issuance ofpassports Sao Paulo

Reuters

Brazilian authorities have suspended the issuance of passports indefinitely

due to a lack of funding, as the federal government grap-ples with a budget crunch and political infighting over con-trol of the coffers.

Brazil's Federal Police, which is responsible for processing passports, announced in a statement late on Tuesday that the funds from Brasilia to pay for the service had run out.

No date for a resumption of passport processing was provided.

"The decision stems from a dearth of funds earmarked to the activities of migratory control and issuance of travel documents," said the Federal Police, which is angry over its lack of autonomy and gov-ernment efforts to downsize its ranks.

The cost of applying for a passport in Latin America's largest country ranges from 260 reais ($79) for a 10-year passport to 350 reais, or $106, for one that is delivered more quickly. Proceeds go to a fund that partially pays for the cost o f p r o d u c i n g t h e documents.

Mexican journalists protest as another colleague murderedMorelia

AFP

Mexican journalists pro-tested yesterday after a colleague's charred body

was found -- the sixth murder of a reporter this year in one of the world's most dangerous

countries for the media.Colleagues of slain journalist

Salvador Adame painted the words "SOS Press" in giant letters on the ground in Michoacan -- the western state where he was abducted and killed -- as well as the capital Mexico City and six other states around the country.

"The idea is to raise awareness about the vulnerable situation we all find ourselves in -- photogra-phers, camera operators, editors, writers -- all journalists," said Enrique Castro, who organized the protest in the Michoacan state capital, Morelia.

"In Mexico, you never know

when someone will come and kill you for whatever reason -- whether because of your work, as in our case, or because of ran-dom crime or a personal vendetta." Some 50 journalists protested in front of the seat of government in Morelia. Dozens turned out in Mexico City's cen-

tral square, the Zocalo.They silently held up photos

of Adame, 44, who was the head of regional TV station Canal 6. "The problem is there are never arrests, there are never convic-tions. They just keep killing us and attacking us," freelance pho-tographer Victor Galindo said.

Opposition demonstrators block a road during an anti-government protest in Caracas, yesterday.

15THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017 BREAK TIME

Yesterday’s answer

SHOWING ATVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

HAGA

R TH

E HO

RRIB

LE

ALL IN THE MIND

AGES, ATTOSECOND, CALENDAR, CENTURY, CLOCK, DATE, DAYS, DECADE, EONS, EPHEMERA, ERAS, ETERNITY, FEMTOSECOND, FOREVER, FORTNIGHT, FUTURE, HOUR, HOURGLASS, INFINITY, INSTANT, LEAP YEAR, MICROSECOND, MILLENNIUM, MILLISECOND, MINUTE, MOMENT, MONTH,NANOSECOND, OLYMPIAD, PAST, PERIOD, PICOSECOND,PRESENT, SECOND, SUNDIAL, TIME, WATCH, WEEK, YEAR, YORE.

08:00 News

08:30 Witness

09:00 The War in October

10:00 News

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Stream

12:00 News

12:30 People & Power

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Witness

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 The Stream

18:00 newsgrid

19:00 News

19:30 Earthrise

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Stream

23:00 Syria: Witnesses For

The Prosecution

12:14 Mythbusters

13:02 How The Universe

Works

14:38 Da Vinci's

Machines

15:26 Invent It Rich

16:14 How The Universe

Works

17:02 51 Degrees

North

17:50 How Do They Do It?

18:15 Food Factory

18:40 Mythbusters

19:30 Home Factory

20:20 How The Universe

Works

21:10 Mission Asteroid

22:25 Home Factory

22:50 Da Vinci's

Machines

23:40 Mythbusters

00:30 How Do They Do It?

01:45 Home Factory

02:10 How The Universe

Works

10:05 Tanked

11:00 Dr. Jeff: Rocky

Mountain Vet

11:55 Cats 101

12:50 Dr. Jeff: Rocky

Mountain Vet

13:45 River

Monsters

14:40 Into The Pride

15:35 Tanked

16:30 River

Monsters

17:25 The Lion

Queen

18:20 After The

Attack

19:15 Tanked

20:10 Dr. Dee: Alaska

Vet

21:05 The Lion

Queen

22:00 After The

Attack

22:55 Into The Pride

23:50 River Monsters

13:05 Star Darlings

15:20 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug And

Cat Noir

15:45 Elena Of Avalor

16:10 Liv And Maddie

16:35 Descendants

Wicked World

16:40 Girl Meets World

17:05 Stuck In The

Middle

19:15 Star Darlings

19:20 Liv And

Maddie

19:45 Mako

Mermaids

20:10 Jessie

20:35 Cracke

21:30 Stuck In The

Middle

21:55 Tsum Tsum

Shorts

22:00 Bunk'd

22:25 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug And

Cat Noir

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is a number-

placing puzzle based on a 9×9 grid. The object is to

place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

that each row, each column and each 3×3 box

contains the same number only once.

CROSSWORD

CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

Yesterday's answer

MALL

LANDMARK

ROYAL PLAZA

ASIAN TOWN

NOVO — Pearl

AL KHOR

ROXY

Transformers: The Last Knight (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:50, 3:40, 6:00, 6:30, 9:00, 9:20pm, 12:00midnight & 12:10am Despicable Me 3 (Animation) 2D 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00 & 4:00pm 3D 12:00noon 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Overdrive(2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 11:00am, 1:30; 4:00, 6:30, 9:15 & 11:45pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 10:00am, 3:00 & 8:00pm All Eyez On Me (2D/Drama) 10:00am, 12:50, 3:40, 6:30, 9:20pm & 12:00midnightTigers (2D/Comedy) 10:30am, 12:45, 3:00, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45pm & 12:00midnightThe Osiris Child (2D) 1:00, 6:00 & 11:00pmThe Mummy (2D/Action) 10:00am & 12:15pm Antar Ibn Shaddad (2D/Arabic) 2:30, 4:45, 7:00, 9:15 & 11:30pm Transformers: The Last Knight (3D IMAX/Action) 11:00am, 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm

Despicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 11:00am, 1:00, 1:30, 3:00, 5:00 & 7:00pmPirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 11:00am, 5:00 & 9:00pm Vanamagan (2D/Tamil) 12:00noon & 11:45pmThe Mummy (2D/Action) 3:00 & 7:30pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 3:30 & 11:30pm Transformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 6:00, 9:00 & 11:30pm Antar Ibn Shaddad (2D/Arabic) 9:30pm

DJ (Duvvada Jagannadham (2D/Telugu) 11:30am Transformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 11:00am, 6:30, 9:00 & 11:30pm Despicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 11:30am, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00 & 7:45pmThe Mummy (2D/Action) 2:00 & 9:30pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 2:00, 4:30 & 11:30pm Antar Ibn Shaddad (2D/Arabic) 7:00pm Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 4:00, 9:15 & 11:45pm

Despicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 11:30am, 1:30, 3:30, 5:30 & 7:30pm The Mummy (2D/Action) 11:30, 11:45am & 4:30pm Transformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 11:00am, 3:30, 8:45 & 11:30pm Antar Ibn Shaddad (2D/Arabic) 1:30 & 6:30pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 2:00 & 9:00pm Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 6:30, 9:30 & 11:30pm

DJ (Telugu) 12:30 & 6:30pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 1:00, 4:00, 7:00, 10:00pm,

01:00am Lakshyam (Malayalam) 12:30, 5:30 & 10:30pm

Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan 12:30 & 6:00pm Vanamagan (Tamil) 3:15, 8:45 & 11:30pm

CIA: Comrade In America (Malayalam) 3:30, 9:30pm & 12:30am Puthan Panam (Malayalam) 3:00, 8:00pm & 1:00am

Despicable Me (Animation) 10:30am, 12:30, 2:30, 4:30 & 6:30pm

CIA: Comrade In America (Malayalam) 11:15am, 5:15 & 11:15pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 8:30 & 11:30pm The Mummy 11:15, 4:15 & 915pmPirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 1:30, 6:30 & 11:30pm

Vanamagan (Tamil) 2:15 & 8:15pm

Despicable Me (Animation) 12:00noon, 2:10, 4:20, 6:30 & 8:40pm Vanamagan (Tamil) 12:00noon Tubelight (Hindi) 12:00noon, 2:45 & 5:30pm Transformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 12:30, 8:30 & 11:30pm DJ (Telugu) 2:50pm Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 5:40, 8:20 & 11:00pm Antar Ibn Shaddad (2D/Arabic) 10:50pm

16 THURSDAY 29 JUNE 2017HOME

FAJRSHOROOK

03.17 am

04.46 am

ZUHRASR

11.37 am

03.00 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

06.30 pm

08.00 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

The Peninsula

Katara’s Eid Al Fitr Festival con-cluded yesterday with a spectacular fireworks display-

a fitting culmination to four festive days of activities and entertainment.

The annual festival offered a blend of spirituality, family ties, physical activities and entertainment.

This year’s festivities saw crowds arrive early in the evenings, as most visitors, especially those with children, were keen to have enough time to enjoy the activities and events that had been set up across Katara’s premises.

A captivating music and dance extravaganza titled, Fantasia, held the audience spellbound. The show, based on the ‘1001 Arabian Nights’ was a vis-ual treat, with performers dressed in vivid costumes, performing to lively

Arab-inspired music with 3D light and sound effects.

The ‘Alien Show’ was a huge draw, especially among the younger visitors, with some of the guests visiting Katara only to watch the show. Stalls featur-ing gifts and giveaways (Eideyaa), delighted visitors, especially those with children.

In addition, the lively and interac-tive storytelling sessions on Arab heritage were a hit amongst the fam-ilies, especially those keen to learn more about the region’s culture and heritage. The sessions featured tales from the 1001 Nights, Aladdin and Sinbad.

The beach front was packed with people who were keen to make the most of their holidays by engaging in water sports.

The festivities served as a grand

finale to the Katara Ramadan Festival which comprised exhibitions, story-telling events, treasure hunts, compet i t ions and sports tournaments.

This year’s organizing committee ensured that the Eid festivities catered to everyone’s tastes through a variety of offerings including food stalls,

exhibitions, dance performances, story-telling sessions, giveaways and fireworks.

Aside from the activities and events, a large number of food stalls offering multi-cultural cuisines attracted many visitors eager to sam-ple them. Cafes and ice cream vendors saw brisk trade during the festival.

Katara’s Eid Al Fitr festival concludes

A violin duo street performance during the Eid celebration at The Mall yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

Children shaking hands with a cartoon character during the Eid Al Fitr celebration at Gulf Mall yesterday. RIGHT: Children with cartoon characters during the Eid celebration at Souq Waqif Al Wakrah. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

The Peninsula

Prominent Qatari social media influ-encers welcomed visitors to Qatar at Hamad International Airport during

the Eid break, particularly those from Kuwait and Oman.

Ghanim Al Muftah and Khalifa Saleh Al Haroon were among the Qatari social media influencers who received visitors at HIA during the Eid Al Fitr holiday.

“Eid is all about sharing greetings and gifts with your visitors and neighbours, and we are delighted to uphold the tradition once again this year by welcoming all our visitors at Hamad International Airport with traditional Eidiya gifts,” said Mashal Shah-bik, Director of Festivals and Tourism Events at Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA).

“This year we are excited to share a par-ticularly special occasion with our guests, as Eid marks the beginning of the annual Qatar Summer Festival, which offers them numerous enticing hospitality, shopping and entertainment options. Whether they are here for a Eid break or as stopover visitors benefiting from the unique +Qatar package,

we extend a warm welcome to all those making Qatar their destination this Eid.”

Eid activities and events organized by QTA at various venues across the country witnessed many visitors including those from Kuwait and Oman."

Thousands of people flocked to malls and outdoor venues during the Eid break to enjoy the free entertainments.

Social media influencers welcome visitors to Qatar

A social media influencer Ghanim Al Muftah (left) welcomes a visitor at HIA yesterday.

The Peninsula

The reported demand, by a number of govern-ments, to close the Al

Jazeera Media Network in exchange for the lifting of sanc-tions would strike a major blow against media pluralism in a region already suffering from severe restrictions on report-ing and media of all kinds, said the UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expres-sion, David Kaye.

“This demand represents a serious threat to media freedom if States, under the pretext of a diplomatic crisis, take measures to force the dismantling of Al Jazeera." Kaye said.

The closure of Al Jazeera is reportedly included in a list of 13 demands issued to Qatar by the governments of Saudi Ara-bia, Bahrain, Egypt and the United Arab Emirates, which are currently enforcing an eco-nomic blockade of Qatar. The list has not been publicly announced by the four States, but a number of international media organisations have obtained it and Qatari sources have conf i rmed i t s authenticity.

The demand to close Al Jazeera also affects its affiliated channels, including Arab 21, the New Arab, Sharq and the Mid-dle East Eye. Qatar has been given 10 days to comply.

Kaye said everyone’s right to access information was deeply affected when the safety and the freedom of the media was not secured.

“I call on the international community to urge these gov-ernments not to pursue this demand against Qatar, to resist taking steps to censor media in their own territory and region-ally, and to encourage support for independent media in the Middle East,” he said.

David Kaye (USA) was appointed as Special Rappor-teur on the promotion and protection of the right to free-dom of opinion and expression in August 2014 by the UN Human Rights Council. As Spe-cial Rapporteur, Kaye is part of what is known as the Special Procedures of the Human Rights Council.

Special Procedures, the largest body of independent experts in the UN Human Rights system, is the general name of the Council’s independent fact-finding and monitoring mechanisms that address either specific country situations or thematic issues in all parts of the world. Special Procedures’ experts work on a voluntary basis; they are not UN staff and do not receive a salary for their work. They are independent from any government or organ-ization and serve in their individual capacity.

QNA

Special Envoy of the Foreign Minister for Combating Terrorism

and Mediation in Conflict Resolution, Dr Mutlaq bin Majid Al Qahtani, met with Jane Marriott, the Director of the UK Joint Interna-tional Counter-Terrorism Unit (JICTU), responsible

for the overall design of the UKs international counter-terrorism strategies, working with cross-White-hall and international stakeholders.

The United Kingdom praises the Qatari promi-nent role in support of international efforts to com-bat violent extremism and radical ideologies through

its active participation in the Global Fund to Support the Participation and Stability of Communities, which aims to address the root causes of violent extremism and terrorism. Qatar is the only Gulf Arab state to contrib-ute to this fund along with the US, the European Union, Switzerland, Japan and the United Kingdom.

Demand to close Al Jazeera affects media pluralism: UN expert

UK hails Qatar's role in combating extremism

HIGH TIDE 08:45 – 21:15 LOW TIDE 04:00 – 13:45

Hazy to misty at places at first be-

comes hot daytime and relatively

humid to hazy by night.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum33oC 43oC

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department