In brief

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51.60+0.54

+1.06%

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QATAR

since 1978SATURDAY Vol. XXXVII No. 10291

December 3, 2016Rabia I 4, 1438 AH www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals

BUSINESS | Page 1

Oil may not top $60for next fi ve years: IIF

SPORT | Page 1

Rosberg stuns Formula 1 world with retirement

REGION | Heritage

International push toprotect ancient artefactsRepresentatives from dozens of countries gathered in Abu Dhabi yesterday to focus on setting up a $100-mn fund to protect and restore heritage sites threatened by extremism and conflict. The two-day conference reflects growing international alarm over the destruction of ancient artefacts by Islamic State group militants using sledgehammers, bulldozers and explosives. Another key aim is to establish “refuge zones” around the globe for endangered works of art, according to organisers.

EUROPE | Crime

Hostages safe inParis armed robberySeveral people taken hostage yesterday evening in a Paris travel agency were released safe and sound, police said, but the armed robber who seized them was on the run. “Armed robbery on Massena Boulevard in Paris: operation over,” police tweeted. “Six people have left. The thief is not on the premises.” Sources said seven hostages had been “found safe and sound” after the hold-up at the southern Paris travel agency.

QATAR

REGION

ARAB WORLD

INTERNATIONAL

COMMENT

BUSINESS

CLASSIFIED

SPORT

2, 16

3

3

4-13

14, 15

1-6, 8-12

7,8

1-8

INDEX

Ajyal to screen trans-adapted version of The IdolThe trans-adapted version

of The Idol (Palestine, Qa-tar, UK, The Netherlands),

Palestine’s entry for the up-coming Oscars for ‘Best Foreign Language’ fi lm, will be screened today at the fourth Ajyal Youth Film Festival at Katara – the Cul-tural Village.

Doha Film Institute (DFI) said yesterday that this version is the result of the collaboration with the Translation and Interpreting In-stitute of the College of Humani-ties and Social Sciences at Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU).

Students attending HBKU’s masters programme in audio-visual translation have created the audio description and en-riched subtitles. The screening is

at 4pm at Katara Drama Theatre.Directed by Academy Award-

nominated Palestinian director Hany Abu-Assad, the fi lm brings to the screen the inspiring life story of Arab Idol champion Mo-hamed Assaf.

DFI said celebration of cinema for the entire community con-tinues at the festival today with the ‘Big and Tiny Cine-Concert’ to mark the screenings of short fi lms for children.

Presented with Forum des Images, the Big and Tiny Cine-Concert is at noon at the Katara Drama Theatre. It features fi ve short fi lms for tiny tots, accom-panied live by musicians Antho-ny Boulc’h and Fanch Minous.

The ‘Big and Tiny’ selec-

tion includes 5m80 (France) by Nicolas Deveaux about a group of giraff es having fun diving and swimming at the pool; Girafa (Russia) by Anastasiya Sokolova, where a donkey sets his eyes on a giraff e and falls head over heels; Hedgehug (US) by Dan Pinto that shows that love is not only pa-tient and kind but also prickly for Hedgehug; Le Petit Herisson partageur (France) by Marjo-rie Caup, about a little hedgehog that fi nds a magnifi cent apple in the woods; and The Tie (Belgium) by An Vrombaut about a young giraff e that meets an older one and despite the age diff erence become friends.

In the midnight screenings, au-diences will be thrilled with Un-

der the Shadow (Iran, UK, Jordan, Qatar), directed by Babak Anvari, screening at 11pm at Katara Drama Theatre. It is the UK’s entry for the Oscar Best Foreign Language Film.

DFI noted that it also has a delectable line-up of fi lms that will delight children in the Bariq Shorts screening.

Tickets are priced QR25 for gen-eral screening and are available for purchase 24 hours a day at ajyal-fi lm.com or from the Ajyal Katara Main Box Offi ce at Katara Building 12 or Ajyal FNAC Ticket Outlet, FNAC Qatar (at Lagoona Mall).

Katara is the cultural partner and Oxy Qatar is the principal partner for the 2016 edition of Ajy-al while Qatar Tourism Authority is the signature partner this year.

Qatar-based filmmakers Khalifa al-Marri, Hend Fakhroo, Aisha al-Muhannadi, AJ al-Thani, Nora al-Subai, Fatma al-Ghanim, Suzannah Mirghani and Jassim al-Remaihi are seen with DFI CEO and festival director Fatma al-Remaihi. PICTURE: Tim P Whitby/Getty Images.

Qatar’s Prime Minister and Minister of interior HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani arrived in New Delhi yesterday evening on a two-day off icial visit to India. He was accorded an off icial welcoming ceremony. Page 2

PM stresses onboosting tradeties with IndiaThe Prime Minister announces the establishment of a Qatari-Indian council for the private sector

QNANew Delhi

HE the Prime Minister and In-terior Minister Sheikh Ab-dullah bin Nasser bin Kha-

lifa al-Thani stressed that the joint commonalities between Qatar and India represent a solid platform for the development and promotion of economic ties and trade between the two countries, and boosting them to wider horizons, especially in light of the rapid developmental process they witness, which is reinforced by their economic openness.

Speaking during a working din-ner with Indian businessmen in New Delhi yesterday, the premier stressed the historic and outstanding ties be-tween Qatar and India that date back to hundreds of years.

He announced the establishment of a Qatari-Indian council for the pri-vate sector.

The premier pointed to Qatar’s achievement of decent growth rates despite a fall in oil and gas prices over the past two years thanks to its eff orts to diversify economic activity and boosting public spending. He noted that India is one of the biggest fi ve

trade partners for Qatar, with a trade exchange of more than $10bn.

HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser said that the bulk of trade exchange in Qatar’s exports to India deals with liquefi ed natural gas as Qatar is one of the biggest exporters of natural gas to India.

In this regard, the premier said Qatar aims to increase LNG exports to India to meet its growing needs of energy.

He added that economic issues come at the forefront of state priori-ties and, for that reason, countries of all political systems strive to enhance the role of the private sector and un-leash its innovations without any re-strictions, and work to invite foreign investment to contribute its fi nancial and technical capacities in national economy.

HE the Prime Minister added that Qatar, under the wise leadership of HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Ha-mad al-Thani, took that approach and path and boosted it recently with a big number of initiatives to develop the business environment by developing co-operation between the public and private sectors and providing sup-port for the private sector to carry out its role across the diff erent economic sectors.

Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser noted that Qatar will continue its eff orts to enhance the business environment,

open the sphere for domestic and foreign investments, and increase the private sector’s participation in huge development projects.

Among these initiatives is the re-cent announcement on facilitating work visas and granting tourist visas to people of some countries, includ-ing India.

The Prime Minister reaffi rmed that Qatar enjoys advanced rankings on business environment indices as it ranked 14th out of 140 states on the Global Competitiveness Report ac-cording to the World Economic Fo-rum.

Qatar is currently working to ex-ecute projects at a total cost of more than $100bn and contracts are ex-pected to be signed for new projects worth up to $12bn in 2017, the premier said.

In light of the policy of Qatar’s government in increasing the pri-vate sector’s role in the execution of these projects, Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser said there are several oppor-tunities that “we invite you to ex-ploit in order to enhance economic co-operation and investments be-tween Qatar and India in the coming phase.”

He noted that the Indian expat community in Qatar is the biggest in the country and is well taken care of as it plays a role and contributes to the economic development. Pages 2, 14

Syria oppositionputs up fi erceresistance inAleppo districtAFPAleppo, Syria

Syrian government forces have recaptured half the former rebel stronghold of east Aleppo, a

monitor said yesterday, in an off en-sive that has left bodies in streets and sparked global outrage.

Rebels put up fi erce resistance in the southeastern outskirts of the battered city, but government forces closed in on opposition territory from the east.

President Bashar al-Assad’s forces have made swift gains since their of-fensive against Aleppo - once Syria’s commercial powerhouse - began on November 15.

Tens of thousands of civilians have streamed out of the city’s east, and Russia has renewed calls for humani-tarian corridors so aid can enter and desperate residents can leave.

Yesterday, regime forces “consoli-dated their control” over two eastern districts and were pushing further to squeeze the shrinking rebel enclave, said Syrian Observatory for Human Rights head Rami Abdel Rahman.

“After the recent advances, the re-gime is comfortably in control of half of former rebel territory in the city’s east,” he said.

Earlier yesterday, anti-government fi ghters had successfully rolled back regime gains in Sheikh Saeed on Alep-po’s southeastern outskirts.

Sheikh Saeed borders the last re-maining parts of Aleppo still in rebel hands - a collection of densely popu-lated residential neighbourhoods where thousands have sought refuge from advancing regime forces.

In preparation for street-by-street fi ghting in these districts, hundreds of fi ghters from Syria’s elite Republi-can Guard and Fourth Division arrived in Aleppo yesterday, the Observatory said.

It said four civilians were killed in rebel rocket fi re on government-held

areas, bringing to 59 the civilian toll in the city’s west.

More than 300 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed in east Aleppo since the off ensive began, according to the Observatory.

Intermittent clashes yesterday rocked residential buildings on Alep-po’s eastern edges, as advancing regime forces seek to secure the road towards the airport.

AFP’s correspondent in east Aleppo said ferocious clashes could be heard in the Tariq al-Bab district, where regime forces advanced on Thursday.

Civilians had already totally emp-tied the adjacent neighbourhood of Al-Shaar, where a few rebels manned positions in front of shuttered shops and bakeries.

Vegetable stalls - empty for months because of a devastating government siege - now lay shattered by heavy ar-tillery fi re.

The escalating violence has been met with international outrage, including a UN warning that east Aleppo could be-come “a giant graveyard”.

Moscow has proposed setting up four humanitarian corridors into east Aleppo.

“We have informed the UN in New York and Geneva that there is no longer a problem with the delivery of humani-tarian cargo to eastern Aleppo,” Rus-sia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Rome, according to a RIA Novosti news agency transcript.

He said the UN was still coming up with a possible plan, and that approval from Syrian authorities remained es-sential.

Moscow has announced several hu-manitarian pauses in Aleppo to allow civilians to fl ee, but until the recent es-calation, only a handful did so.

East Aleppo’s residents have been wary of previous such off ers because of Russian support for Assad, includ-ing its bombing campaign in support of his forces launched in September 2015. Page 3

Transit traveller jailed for bid to smuggle cocaineA Doha Criminal Court has sentenced a Nigerian transit traveller to seven years in jail and a fine of QR200,000 for an attempt to smuggle 66 capsules of the illicit drug cocaine.Local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday that the court also ordered his deportation upon serving the sentence. When he was arrested, the defendant was travelling from Brazil to Nigeria with a stop in Doha. The customs off icers at Hamad International Airport doubted the

conduct of the man who seemed abnormal. Accordingly, police detained him and while in detention some capsules that contained cocaine were found with him. He admitted that he had more in his stomach, which was confirmed later at the hospital, where doctors were able to extract a total of 29 capsules in addition to the other capsules. At the interrogation, he said that a man in Brazil agreed with him to transport such drugs in his stomach in exchange for a sum of $3,500.

QATAR | Diplomacy

Foreign Ministermeets Kerry in RomeHE the Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman al-Thani yesterday met US Secretary of State John Kerry on the sidelines of the second edition of the Mediterranean Dialogues Conference, currently under way in Rome. The meeting reviewed bilateral relations, means of boosting and developing them and enhancing aspects of co-operation, in addition to a set of regional and international issues of mutual interest. The two sides exchanged points of view on the latest developments on the Syrian front, particularly the situation in Aleppo. They also touched on ways to protect civilians and finding a political solution for the crisis. The foreign minister reiterated Qatar’s commitment to supporting the Syrian people in the struggle to achieve their ambitions and aspirations.

QATAR

Gulf Times Saturday, December 3, 20162

PM meets Qatari students

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Inte-rior Sheikh Abdullah bin

Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yes-terday met with a number of Qa-tari students in the Indian capital New Delhi.

The Prime Minister welcomed the students and wished them success in their studies in order to contribute eff ectively to the nation’s progress and prosperity of the service.

For their part, the students ex-pressed their pleasure and grati-tude to the Prime Minister for the meeting, stressing their de-termination to seriously do their utmost to serve the homeland.

QNANew Delhi

HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani is being greeted upon arrival at the air base airport in New Delhi yesterday by India’s Minister of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises Shri Haribhai Parthibhai Chaudhary. Also present were Commander of the Air Forces of the Republic of India C K Kumar, Qatar’s Ambassador to India Mohamed bin Khater al-Khater, HE India’s Ambassador to Qatar P Kumaran as well as a number of Arab ambassadors accredited to India, and the members of the Qatari embassy.

HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani speaking during a working dinner with Indian businessmen in New Delhi yesterday.

Qatar-South Korea joint committee meets in SeoulThe Higher Joint Com-

mittee for strategic co-operation between the

State of Qatar and the Republic of South Korea held its fourth meeting in the Korean capital, Seoul. The meeting was chaired by HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada, and S Korean Minister of Trade, Industry and Energy Joo Hyung Hwan.

The meeting was attend-ed by Qatar’s ambassador to South Korea Mohammed Abdullah al-Dehaimi, and a number of representatives of ministries and Qatari institu-tions including the Ministry of Energy and Industry, Min-istry of Education, Minis-try of Interior, and Ministry of Health, Qatar Investment Authority, the Civil Aviation Authority, Qatar Foundation, the Public Works Author-

ity, Kahramaa, Qatar Airways, RasGas, and QP.

The Ministry of Energy and Industry said in a statement that the meeting aimed to dis-cuss co-operation between the two countries in various fi elds, within the framework of the implementation of what was agreed upon during summit meetings between HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and President Park Geun-hye of South Korea, in Novem-ber 2014 and March 2015.

During yesterday’s meet-ing, the committee discussed ways of enhancing joint co-operation and development taking place in the agreements that had been reached during the previous three meetings. The committee also discussed various areas of co-operation between the two countries which include economic,

commercial and investment co-operation, as well as agri-culture, science and technolo-gy, defence and national secu-rity, information technology and communication technol-ogy, education, health and medical services.

The committee also reviewed the draft resolutions raised by the preparatory committee meeting which was held last Wednesday where it was agreed during the preparatory meeting to review the results and follow-up every six months.

The preparatory meeting agreed on the Korean side sup-port for the plan of Qatar to set up health insurance system by taking advantage of the Korean experience in this fi eld.

The meeting praised the suc-cessful co-operation for treat-ment of Qatari patients in South Korean hospitals as well as the

launching of the joint medical forum to be held in Doha on De-cember 30.

The Higher Committee de-cided to hold its fi fth session

in the second half of 2017. The two sides signed the minutes of the fourth session of the Higher Joint Committee for strate-gic co-operation between the

State of Qatar and the Repub-lic of South Korea, by Minister HE Dr Mohammed al-Sada and the Korean Minister Joo Hyung Hwan.

HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohammed bin Saleh al-Sada presiding over a Higher Joint Committee meeting in Seoul.

UAE President congratulatedHH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HH the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday sent a cable of congratulations to HH the President of the United Arab Emirates Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nayhan on the occasion of his country’s National Day. HE Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani also sent a cable of congratulations to Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nayhan on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

Al Rayyan Municipality issues 168 violation reports

Al Rayyan Municipality conducted 701 inspection tours at food establish-

ments within its jurisdiction last month.

These resulted in the issuance of 168 violation reports for non-compliance with Law No 3 for 1975 on commercial and indus-trial houses and public utilities, and 19 reports for fl outing Law No 8 of 1990 on the regulation of human food control.

Of these, 177 cases were re-solved through reconciliation.

Besides, various amounts of foodstuff were destroyed for be-ing unfi t for human consump-tion, which included 37 whole carcasses of Arab lambs and 340kg of meat. The fi nes collect-ed for these violations amounted to QR433,000.

Meanwhile, the Ministry of Municipality and Environment has adopted a new marketing programme for locally-produced premium-quality vegetables in co-operation with the Minis-try of Economy and Commerce, Consumer Protection Sector, and Al Meera Consumer Goods Company.

The programme is based, in the fi rst stage, on marketing at Al Meera outlets the products of farms whose vegetables are on a par - in terms of quality - with those of European origin. A total of 16 major producing farms are taking part in the project and the marketing process will run until May 31, 2017.

Experts discuss challenges in tackling dementiaThe need for greater

awareness of demen-tia, a brain condition

that causes problems with thinking and memory, has been highlighted at a meet-ing hosted in Doha by the World Innovation Summit for Health (WISH).

A select group of del-egates, who participated in WISH 2016, discussed strat-egies to improve the care and monitoring of those suff er-ing from dementia. Offi -cials from the World Health Organisation (WHO) pro-vided secretariat support to the meeting held in Hamad Medical City.

The gathering was an op-portunity for regional demen-tia leads to share their success-es and challenges in tackling a growing public health concern for the Middle East.

The delegates at a meeting on dementia.

A total of 70 delegates attend-ed the meeting, representing 10 states from the Eastern Medi-terranean Region of the WHO, as well as experts from 15 other countries. Qatar’s National De-mentia Stakeholder Forum was represented, as were the Ministry of Public Health, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) and Primary Health Care Corporation.

The meeting focused on how the development of co-ordinated

regional and country-level action can improve the care and moni-toring of dementia. There was a particular emphasis on the need for greater awareness, the need to address stigma, and the impor-tance of research and innovation in strengthening policies.

Egbert Schillings, chief execu-tive offi cer of WISH, pointed out that Qatar has taken a leadership role regionally on the issue of de-mentia by choosing to be a pilot

country in the WHO’s Global Dementia Observatory.

“With a steady increase in our ageing population, we expect to see the numbers of individu-als with dementia increase in the coming years. I am encour-aged by the attention this topic has received, not just by the senior leaders of Qatar but also by international bodies such as the WHO,” said Dr Hanadi al-Hamad, chairperson, Geriatrics and Long Term Care Depart-ment, HMC.

Dr Shekhar Saxena, WHO di-rector, Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse, said that dementia is a truly glo-bal issue; the vast majority of persons living with dementia are in low and middle income coun-tries and these are the countries that will show the most rapid rise of prevalence in the coming years.

QCDC takes part in educational meet

Qatar Career Develop-ment Centre (QCDC) presented a ‘working

paper’ and poster outlining its programmes and initiatives at an international conference in Madrid recently.

The paper, titled ‘Develop-ing Career Guidance in the State of Qatar: A Stakeholder Engagement Approach’, is based on the fi ndings of three research papers completed by QCDC in 2015.

In a statement, QCDC said the paper aims to document current career guidance prac-tices in Qatar, identify oppor-tunities and challenges, and off er recommendations for future improvement.

Based on empirical data, the paper indicates that career guidance in Qatar is in an early stage of development off ered in a fragmented manner, and is yet to be integrated into exist-ing education and labour mar-ket systems.

To alleviate the situation and eff ectively contribute to Qatar’s human capital devel-opment, QCDC stressed that a wide range of structural, in-

stitutional, socio-cultural and capacity building challenges need to be adequately recog-nised and strategically dealt with.

Apart from the presenta-tion, QCDC offi cials also par-ticipated in a symposium on enhancing the co-operation between counselling and ca-reer guidance institutions.

QCDC noted that the con-ference, organised by the In-ternational Association of Educational and Vocational Guidance, aims to promote equity through guidance.

The event also aims to con-tribute to the ongoing dis-cussions on the impact of educational and vocational guidance, and the importance of the support given by insti-tutions, governments and the private sector to promote per-sonal, professional and aca-demic development.

“QCDC is keen on attending and participating in important international events that re-late to professional develop-ment and career guidance,” QCDC director Abdullah al-Mansoori said.

(From left: QCDC’s Abdulla al-Mansoori and Abdul Rahman al-Kaabi at the conference.

QSTP hosts Technovate event with Metis Labs founders

Qatar Science and Tech-nology Park (QSTP) host-ed a fi reside chat with the

founders of Metis Labs, a startup that has benefi ted from its vari-ous support programmes and is now on its way to Silicon Valley, during the second edition of the recently held QSTP Technovate series.

Dr Maher Hakim, managing director of QSTP, moderated the informal discussion titled ‘Metis - The road from Qatar to Silicon Valley: QSTP taking a dream team from local to global’, with Metis members Sabih bin Wasi, CEO and design lead; Rukhsar

Neyaz, frontend lead; and Jiyda Moussa, backend lead.

Introducing the Metis team to the audience, Dr Hakim said: “Our panellists are young en-trepreneurs who graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Qatar and were able to establish

a fully-fl edged enterprise after participating in the QSTP Accel-erator programme, later benefi t-ing from funding and incubation through more advanced support mechanisms extended by QSTP.

After months of research, hard work and development, the

Founders of Metis Labs recounting their success story.

student trio unveiled Metis - a software designed for elective-based university curricula where students can pick courses for up-coming semesters that can fulfi l their degree requirements.

In order to advance their busi-ness idea and gain additional mentorship guidance, the team applied to the QSTP Accelera-tor programme. As part of this course, the young entrepreneurs underwent 12 months of entre-preneurial training and mentor-ship in collaboration with the Al Faisal-Carnegie Mellon Innova-tion Entrepreneurship Center. They were off ered the support

needed to turn their idea into a commercially viable product, with QSTP’s incubation and funding vehicles helping them support themselves over 18 months.

Addressing the audience, Bin Wasi said: “Young entrepre-neurs are presented with numer-ous challenges during the early stages of their business. For us, one of these was not having suf-fi cient funding to continue our research and development suc-cessfully. QSTP was integral to our success in that aspect, which has helped us grow our

business idea.”

REGION/ARAB WORLD3Gulf Times

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Iran has threatened to retali-ate against a US Senate vote to extend the Iran Sanctions

Act (ISA) for 10 years, say-ing that it violated last year’s deal with six major powers that curbed its nuclear programme.

The ISA was fi rst adopted in 1996 to punish investments in Iran’s energy industry and de-ter its alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons.

The extension was passed unanimously on Thursday.

US offi cials said the ISA’s re-newal would not infringe on the nuclear agreement, under which Iran agreed to limit its sensitive

atomic activity in return for the lifting of international fi nancial sanctions.

But senior Iranian offi cials took odds with that view.

Iran’s nuclear energy chief, Ali Akbar Salehi, who played a key role in reaching the nuclear deal, described the extension as a “clear violation” if imple-mented.

“We are closely monitoring developments,” state TV quoted Salehi as saying. “If they imple-ment the ISA, Iran will take ac-tion accordingly.”

The diplomatic thaw in swing between Washington and Tehran over the past two years looks in jeopardy with US president-elect Donald Trump taking offi ce next month.

He said during his election campaign that he would scrap the nuclear agreement.

Iran’s most powerful authori-ty, Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, had already warned in November that an extension of US sanction would be viewed in Tehran as a violation of the nuclear accord.

“Iran has shown its commit-ment to its international agree-ments, but we are also prepared for any possible scenario. We are ready to fi rmly protect the nation’s rights under any cir-cumstances,” foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said in comments reported by state news agency IRNA.

The US Senate vote was a blow to pragmatist Iranian President

Hassan Rouhani, who engi-neered the diplomatic opening to the West that led to the nucle-ar deal, and may embolden his hardline rivals ahead of presi-dential election next year.

Khamenei and his hardline loyalists, drawn from among Shia Muslim clerics and Revo-lutionary Guards, have criticised the deal and blamed Rouhani for its failure to deliver swift im-provements in living standards since the lifting of international sanctions in January.

It was not immediately clear what form any eventual re-taliation for the US Senate vote might take.

Lawmaker Akbar Ranjbarza-deh said Iran’s parliament would convene tomorrow to discuss

a bill obliging the government to “immediately halt imple-mentation of the nuclear deal” if Obama approves the ISA, the Students News Agency (ISNA) reported.

Another lawmaker quoted by the semi-offi cial Tasnim news agency said that Iran’s parlia-ment planned to discuss a bill that would prevent the govern-ment purchasing “American products”.

Such a bill could endanger deals such as US plane maker Boeing’s tentative accord to sell passenger jets to Iran, upgrading a fl eet long deteriorating due to sanctions.

The White House had not pushed for an extension of the sanctions act, but had not raised

serious objections either.Some congressional aides said

they expected President Barack Obama to sign the extension.

The ISA had been due to ex-pire on December 31.

Lawmakers said that the ex-tension would make it easier for sanctions to be reimposed if Iran violated the nuclear settlement.

Infl uential Friday prayer lead-ers, appointed by Khamenei, strongly denounced the ISA ex-tension and called on the gov-ernment to take action, accord-ing to IRNA.

In campaign speeches Trump described Iran as the world’s biggest state sponsor of terror-ism and dismissed the nuclear accord as “one of the worst deals I’ve ever seen negotiated”.

US Senate sanctions move violates nuclear deal: IranReutersAnkara

Nearly 20,000 children have fl ed their homes in battered east Aleppo in

recent days, the UN said yester-day, warning that time is run-ning out to provide them with the help they desperately need.

The UN said some 31,500 people had fl ed their homes in opposition-held east Aleppo since November 24, when the Syrian government intensifi ed its brutal off ensive to retake the entire city.

The UN children’s agency Unicef estimates that around 60% of those displaced – around 19,000 – are children.

The number of displaced children could be far higher: the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights puts the overall number of people on the run from the violence in east Aleppo at more than 50,000 since last Saturday.

“What is critical now is that we provide the immediate and sustained assistance that these children and their families des-perately need,” Unief spokes-

man Christophe Boulierac told reporters in Geneva.

“It’s a race against time, as winter is here and conditions are basic,” he added.

He said that the Unicef had “winter clothing and blankets ... ready for distribution (to) at least help to provide some pro-tection from the freezing tem-peratures”.

The UN refugee agency meanwhile warned yesterday that the main focus now in pro-viding aid to those fl ooding out of east Aleppo is “the rapidly growing shelter needs”.

“Many of those who have fl ed eastern districts are now in unfi nished or partly destroyed buildings,” UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards said.

“Unsanitary conditions and overcrowding are already challenges in a congested city with few open spaces,” he said, pointing out that even before the latest exodus from east Aleppo there were already some 400,000 displaced people in the government-held west of the city.

In addition to trying to pro-vide shelter, food, healthcare

and other physical assistance to the displaced, the UN is also providing much needed psy-chological support, he said.

That is vital, according to Boulierac, who said Unicef staff meeting with children who have fl ed east Aleppo in recent days said “you could see the loss and horror in their eyes”.

He said that the Unicef was also rushing to provide vacci-nations for the newly displaced children, pointing out that “many children in east Aleppo have missed out on critical routine vaccinations to protect them from preventable child-hood illnesses”.

The UN is meanwhile desper-ately trying to gain access to the people who remain inside east Aleppo where more than 300 civilians, including dozens of children, have been killed since the government launched its off ensive on November 15, ac-cording to the Observatory.

The escalation of violence in Aleppo has been met with in-ternational outrage, including a warning by the UN that the city’s east could become “a gi-ant graveyard”.

UN: Nearly 20,000 children fl ee AleppoAFPGeneva

A stroller is seen yesterday near destroyed vehicles that are used as barricades in Aleppo’s Hanano housing district after government forces took control of the area.

UAE marks National DayQNAAbu Dhabi

The United Arab Emirates celebrated its National Day yesterday, marking

45 years of achievements since the federation was established in 1971.

First announced by the founding UAE president, the late Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, and his fellow founding fathers of the UAE federation, the celebration is now led by current president Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nahyan.

A report issued by the Emir-ates News Agency (WAM) said that infrastructure was one of the main pillars of the UAE’s achievements, helping to pro-mote the country’s stature worldwide.

Infrastructure development in the UAE is geared toward en-suring accelerated growth and spearheadinging the UAE Vision 2021.

Far-reaching urban planning initiatives such as Abu Dhabi’s Emirate-wide Vision 2030, and the Dubai Urban Development Master Plan 2020 were instru-mental in achieving the UAE’s goal, the report added.

The agency noted that Abu Dhabi continued to develop the infrastructure required for a so-phisticated capital city and many new projects in Dubai are driven by its hosting of the World Expo in 2020.

AED30bn will be spent on in-frastructure at the Expo site and in the city, ultimately benefi ting generations to come.

From roads to airports to tel-ecommunications, the UAE is home to world-class facilities that have supported economic growth and enabled the devel-opment of business, it said.

A Turkish prosecutor has called for charges re-lated to a deadly Israeli

raid on a Gaza-bound ship to be dropped following diplomatic reconciliation between Turkey and Israel, state media reported.

Nine Turkish activists died when Israeli marines stormed the Mavi Marmara as it headed to the Gaza Strip in 2010, and a 10th died in hospital in 2014.

The raid triggered a crisis in relations, with both countries withdrawing their respective ambassadors from the country capitals, though diplomatic ties were never fully severed.

The bitter rift came to an end in June this year after they held long-running secret talks in

third countries with Israel of-fering an apology over the raid and $20mn in compensation.

Israel also agreed to allow Turkish aid to reach Gaza as part of the agreement.

Under the terms of the deal, both sides also agreed that in-dividual Israeli citizens or those acting on behalf of the Israeli government would not be held liable – either criminally or fi -nancially – for the raid.

Yesterday the prosecutor told an Istanbul court that the case against the Israeli individuals should be dropped because of the agreement, state-run news agency Anadolu said.

Prosecutors had been seek-ing life sentences for the alleged involvement of former military chief of staff Gabi Ashkena-zi, former navy chief Eliezer Marom, former military intel-

ligence head Amos Yadlin and former air force intelligence chief Avishai Levy, who went on trial in absentia in 2012.

The demand is likely to anger families and lawyers, who told AFP in October that they had no intention of dropping the law-suits despite the deal.

One of the fi nal key elements of returning to normal relations was the exchange of ambassa-dors, which will formally take place this month.

Israel’s envoy Eitan Naeh ar-rived in Ankara on Thursday, and he is due to present his cre-dentials to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

Meanwhile, Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim’s policy adviser Kemal Okem will start work as Turkey’s ambassador to Israel on December 12, Anadolu news agency said yesterday.

Turkish call to drop Gaza ship case against IsraelisAFPIstanbul

Iran urges Kenya to release two terrorism suspectsIran has urged Kenya to immediately release two Iranians charged with collecting information for a terrorist act after filming the Israeli embassy in Nairobi, the semi-off icial Tasnim news agency reported.The two Iranian nationals and their Kenyan driver were arrested in a car belonging to the Iranian embassy on Tuesday.The diplomatic status of the two Iranians was unclear.Tasnim said the Kenyan ambassador to Tehran was summoned on Thursday by the Iranian foreign ministry over the arrest and that the “necessity for the immediate release of the two Iranians was underlined”.A foreign ministry spokesman denied any wrongdoing by the arrested men, saying that they were teachers in Tehran.“The two Iranians are lawyers who had gone to Kenya to provide their jailed Iranian clients in Kenya with legal counseling,” spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said.

Mohamed Hagras stands bare-chested as dozens of honeybees congre-

gate around his face, eventually forming what he calls the “beard of bees”.

The 31-year-old engineer-turned-beekeeper has been doing this for years both com-petitively – he fondly recalls a Canadian model’s “bikini of bees” at a beekeeping event – and as an eff ort to educate Egyp-tians on the usefulness of bees.

“The goal is to show that bees are not aggressive,” he told Reu-ters at his farm in Shibin el Kom, the capital of the Nile Delta province of Menoufi a. “One the contrary, they are helpful and produce things that help humans and agriculture.”

Hagras extracts hormones from queen bees after they die and uses them to attract bees from the same hive.

He uses the “beard of bees” at contests and exhibitions where like-minded people try to break world records.

The current holder is a Chi-nese beekeeper who in 2015 cov-ered his entire body with over a million bees, a combined weight of almost 110kg (242.5lb).

Egyptian grows ‘beard of bees’By Amr Abdallah Dalsh, ReutersShibin el Kom, Egypt

Mohamed Hagras preparing for his performance at his farm at Shebin el Kom city.

South Sudanese soldiers brutally raped an elderly woman and a pregnant

woman lost her baby after being gang-raped by seven soldiers, according to United Nations in-vestigators.

The UN human rights inves-tigators presented the testi-monies yesterday, saying that increasingly brutal attacks on

women are an integral part of the spreading ethnic cleansing.

They said the violence could spill into genocide.

“The scale of gang rape of civilian women as well as the horrendous nature of the rapes by armed men belonging to all groups is utterly repugnant,” said the chairwoman of the UN independent commission on human rights, Yasmin Sooka. “Women are bearing the brunt of this war along with their chil-dren ... rape is one of the tools

being used for ethnic cleansing.”South Sudan became inde-

pendent from Sudan in 2011 and had a brief period of celebration before ethnic tensions erupted amid allegations of widespread corruption.

In December 2013, fi ghting broke out months after Presi-dent Salva Kiir, from the Dinka ethnic group, sacked vice-pres-ident Riek Machar, a Nuer.

The sporadic fi ghting has in-creasingly taken on ethnic di-mensions.

Many of the smaller tribes accuse the Dinka of targeting them.

Rebels have also targeted Din-ka.

Women across the country were being subjected to sexual slavery, tied to trees and gang-raped or passed from house to house by soldiers, said Sooka, who said rebels were also com-mitting atrocities.

Government offi cials and commanders on all sides had a legal duty to prevent their sol-

diers from preying on civilians, said Sooka’s colleague Kenneth Scott, a former prosecutor.

“Commanders, offi cers will be held accountable for failing to exercise command and con-trol,” he said, warning failure to prevent atrocities could result in prosecution.

The shaky 2015 peace agree-ment that was supposed to end the latest round of fi ghting pro-vided for a hybrid court to be set up with responsibilities divided between the African Union and

South Sudan, but progress on setting it up was “very slow”, Scott said.

South Sudanese offi cials were not available to comment on the investigators’ fi ndings, but on Thursday, Kiir told Reuters that no ethnic cleansing was taking place in South Sudan.

The military has repeatedly denied targeting civilians.

Scott said that the govern-ment had had almost “no reac-tion” to the commission’s fi nd-ings.

South Sudan confl ict spawns horrifi c sexual violence: investigatorsReutersNairobi

South Sudan’s parliament passed a 38bn South Sudan pound ($540mn) budget

yesterday but 40% of that is un-funded and the government will

ask foreign donors for the mon-ey, the fi nance minister said.

Three years of confl ict and tumbling crude production and prices have hammered oil-pro-ducing South Sudan’s economy.

Infl ation has shot to 835% in the year to October, while the offi cial value of the pound has

plummeted to 70 to the dollar.“We will be approaching our

friends, partners and the donors to fi ll the gaps, this is what I am expecting because we are talk-ing to the IMF,” Finance Minister Stephen Dhieu Dau told report-ers after a parliamentary session in Juba.

The draft budget fi gures for 2016/17 had forecast spending of 29.6bn pounds.

The budget approved by par-liament saw that rise to 38bn pounds, with nearly $220mn unfunded.

Parliament directed the gov-ernment to hike the wages of

civil servants to keep pace with price increases.

But the warm relations South Sudan enjoyed with Western donors after it gained independ-ence from Sudan in 2011 have cooled.

The world’s newest country has been ravaged by war since

December 2013 when soldiers loyal to President Salva Kiir clashed with troops loyal to his former deputy Riek Machar.

A shaky peace deal was agreed a year ago, but it is frequently violated and on Thursday the UN said ethnic cleansing in the confl ict could lead to genocide.

Parliament passes budget, seeks foreign donor help to plug 40% holeReutersJuba

AFRICA

Gulf Times Saturday, December 3, 20164

Gambian leader Yahya Jam-meh, who vowed to rule the tiny West African

nation for “a billion years”, was handed a shock election defeat

yesterday, 22 years after seizing power in a coup.

Voting against Jammeh on Thursday was a rare show of defi -ance against a leader who has ef-fectively ruled by decree and who human rights groups say rou-tinely crushes dissent by impris-oning and torturing opponents.

Celebrations erupted in the streets of the capital Banjul, a normally sleepy seaside city whose white beaches lined with palm trees are a draw for Euro-pean tourists.

Gambians shouted: “We are free. We won’t be slaves of any-one.”

Some waved the Gambian fl ag and opposition party signs.

However, around two hours af-ter the electoral commission head declared businessman Adama Barrow president-elect on state television, with 45.5% of the vote against Jammeh’s 36.7%, there was no offi cial word from Jam-meh or his team about stepping down or accepting the result.

“Having received 263,515 votes out of the total votes cast in the election, I hereby declare Adama Barrow duly elected to serve as president of the republic of the Gambia,” Alieu Momarr Njai said.

A peaceful change of power in Gambia would be a welcome surprise for African democracy at a time when many of the con-tinent’s leaders have been rigging polls, fi ddling with constitutions to extend their terms in offi ce and cracking down on peaceful pro-test.

Barrow, a real estate developer who once worked as security guard at retailer Argos in Lon-don, earlier told Reuters that he was expecting a phone call from Jammeh conceding defeat.

Njai from the electoral com-mission also told reporters in Banjul that Jammeh would con-cede, which, if it happens, would be momentous for Gambia, a country huddled along the banks of West Africa’s Gambia river.

Earlier this week Jammeh said that his “presidency and power are in the hands of Allah and only Allah can take it from me”, and on one occasion even said he would remain in offi ce for “a billion years”.

“I never in my dreams believed

he would concede. It almost feels too good to be true,” said Ram-zia Diab, an opposition coalition member who fl ed to neighbour-ing Senegal after receiving death threats.

Jammeh’s eccentricities often made headlines.

He once said he had invented a herbal cure for Aids that only works on Thursdays.

Once every year he also in-vited a few hundred women to the grounds of the State House, where he personally adminis-tered another herbal cure he had concocted for infertility.

He arrested hundreds of peo-ple on suspicion of being witches or wizards and threatened to slit the throats of and decapitate ho-mosexuals.

Jammeh’s supporters deny abuses and he has often criticised Western powers for meddling in African aff airs.

Gambians had voted on Thurs-day amid a total blackout of the Internet and all international calls, and with land borders sealed.

European Union observers were barred and only a small team of African Union observers came.

But Barrow somehow managed to unite and galvanise Gambia’s opposition for the fi rst time since Jammeh took power in the coun-try of 1.8mn people.

Barrow has promised to revive the economy, one of the region’s poorest performers that pushes thousands of Gambians to fl ee to Europe in search of a better life.

He has also pledged to end hu-man rights abuses and to step

down after three years as a boost to democracy.

It is unclear whether Jammeh, if he steps down, will insist on some kind of immunity for al-leged abuses under his rule.

Gambia withdrew from the In-ternational Criminal Court last month, branding it the “Infa-mous Caucasian Court”, but that does not take eff ect until next year.

Karamba Touray, a spokesman for Barrow’s UPD, said he would “stop plans to leave the ICC and ask to rejoin the Commonwealth immediately”.

He also said he would annul Jammeh’s declaration of Gambia as an Islamic republic in Decem-ber last year.

“He wants Gambia to remain a secular state and respect the rights of all the people,” Touray said of a country that is predomi-nantly Muslim but has a small Christian minority.

Small protests in Banjul in April calling for electoral reform led to dozens of arrests, includ-ing that of the leader of the main UDP opposition party, Ousainu Darboe.

Two UDP members later died in custody.

“I want him to face justice, they have to make sure he faces the full wrath of the law,” the opposition’s Diab said, adding: “People died, many of us don’t know where our family members are.”

Gambia’s Jammeh suff ers poll defeatReutersBanjul

A man waves the Gambian flag in Serekunda yesterday while celebrating the victory of opposition candidate Adama Barrow in Thursday’s presidential elections.

Jammeh: has not responded to the announcement of his election loss.

South Africa’s economy evaded a potentially damaging blow yesterday when the Standard &

Poor’s rating agency maintained the country’s foreign currency debt status one notch above junk status.

S&P however kept its negative out-look for South Africa, which has strug-gled with political friction under Pres-ident Jacob Zuma, high unemployment and slow growth.

“Political events have distracted from growth-enhancing reforms, while low GDP growth continues to af-fect South Africa’s economic and fi scal performance,” S&P warned. “The neg-ative outlook refl ects the potentially adverse consequences of persistently low GDP growth.”

However, the agency lowered South Africa’s local currency rating to two notches above junk in a further sign of concern over the country’s economic prospects.

The Fitch ratings fi rm last week kept South Africa one notch above junk, but dropped its outlook from stable to negative. Also last week, Moody’s kept South Africa unchanged two notches above junk status.

“The South African economy is showing resilience, supported by strong and independent institutions,” the treasury said, welcoming the ear-lier assessments.

But this week has seen further polit-ical drama when Zuma’s loyalists beat back an attempt by at least four minis-ters to oust him from power.

The rebellion was the most serious threat to the president since 2009.

Zuma has been engulfed by graft scandals, while South Africa’s eco-nomic growth has fallen to 0.5% and unemployment hit a 13-year high.

Eff orts to avoid junk status have been at the centre of political wran-gling for months, with Zuma at log-gerheads with Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan, a reformist widely respected among international investors.

Gordhan had been due to appear in court last month on graft charges that many experts saw as an attempt by Zuma associates to oust him.

Gordhan was appointed only last year to calm panicked investors when Zuma sacked two fi nance ministers within four days.

“We could lower the ratings if we believed that institutions had become weaker due to political interference af-fecting the government’s policy frame-work,” S&P added in its announce-ment.

The ruling ANC party is due to elect a new leader at the end of next year, ahead of the 2019 general election when Zuma must stand down after serving two terms.

South Africa last month unveiled the proposed fi gure for its fi rst minimum wage – 3,500 rand ($242) a month – in a move that could improve labour rela-tions.

Fitch, which said South Africa’s banking sector “remains a rating strength”, forecast GDP growth of 1.3% in 2017 and 2.1% in 2018.

South Africa dodges junk credit rating despite negative outlookAFPJohannesburg

The United Nations has doubled its humanitarian funding appeal for northeast Nigeria to $1bn in

2017 in a bid to reach nearly 7mn people hit by the Islamist militant Boko Haram insurgency who need life-saving help, it said yesterday.

The Islamist militant group has killed 15,000 people and displaced more than 2mn from their homes during a seven-year insurgency in Africa’s most popu-lous nation.

Nigerian military forces backed by troops from neighbouring states have, in the past few months, pushed Boko Haram out of areas that they previously controlled, revealing many thousands of people living in famine-like condi-tions.

The United Nations has said some 75,000 children are at risk of starving to death in the region over the next few months if they do not receive humani-tarian assistance.

“We will target 6.9mn people,” said Peter Lundberg, UN Offi ce for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Aff airs (OCHA) deputy humanitarian co-ordi-nator, outlining the agency’s 2017 plan, adding that this would require $1bn.

“That is a fi ve-fold increase com-pared to the initial appeal of 2016.

It is a more than doubling compared to the outcome appeal for 2016,” said Lundberg.

He said that the OCHA planned to address nutrition, food, health and sanitation needs of people in Borno, Yobe and Adamawa – the three states worst hit by the insurgency.

The OCHA sought $484mn in 2016, having initially appealed for $248mn.

UN doubles humanitarian appeal for Nigeria to $1bnReutersAbuja

Zuma: has been engulfed by graft scandals.

Petrol tanker blast kills at least 14

A petrol tanker skidded off the road and exploded in central Nigeria, killing at least 14 people yesterday, witnesses told AFP.They said eight houses were razed following the accident which happened around 8am (0700GMT) in the transit town of Tegina in Niger state.“We buried 14 people including a six-month-old baby who died in the tanker explosion this morning,” said Muhammad Sani who took part in the rescue operation.Eight more victims were taken to hospital with burns, two of them in “very critical condition” while eight homes were burnt in the inferno, said another resident Abdullahi Egiworo.A spokesman for Federal Road Safety Corps (FRSC) in the state confirmed the accident, but refused to give casualty figures.He said emergency off icials were heading to the scene to assist in the evacuation of victims.

5Gulf TimesSaturday, December 3, 2016

AMERICAS

FormerNFL playerkilled inshootingReutersNew Orleans

Former National Football League player Joe McK-night was shot and killed in

his native Louisiana in what of-fi cials are investigating as a road rage incident.

The shooting occurred around 3pm local time (2100GMT) at a traffi c intersection in Terry-town, just outside New Orleans, Jeff erson Parish sheriff ’s offi ce spokesman Colonel John Fortu-nato said.

The shooting suspect, 54-year-old Ronald Gasser, was taken into custody and was be-ing questioned by investigators, Fortunato said.

The 28-year-old McKnight played for the New York Jets and Kansas City Chiefs dur-ing his five-year career in the NFL.

His last season in the league was in 2014, and he has since played as a running back for the Canadian Football League’s Sas-katchewan Roughriders.

Tributes poured in on social media from McKnight’s former NFL colleagues in response to the deadly shooting.

Reggie Bush, a running back for the Buff alo Bills who played college football for McKnight’s alma mater the University of Southern California, tweeted, “RIP my brother Joe McKnight this one hurts bad.”

Another former NFL player, Will Smith, was shot dead in New Orleans near the city’s famed French Quarter earlier this year.

Smith, one of the NFL’s top defensive ends before his 2014 retirement, was returning from a dinner with his wife on April 9 when police say a Hummer driven by Cardell Hayes struck the rear of Smith’s Mercedes SUV and caused it to crash into another vehicle.

The two men exited their cars and exchanged words before Hayes drew a weapon and fi red multiple shots, police said.

Smith, 34, was hit by gun-fi re eight times and pronounced dead on the scene.

Woman, two sonsfound shot deadReutersDenver

A Colorado mother bought a handgun hours before she and her two young sons

were found fatally shot inside the family’s minivan, authorities said, adding that her wounds ap-peared to be self-infl icted.

While stopping short of calling the deaths of 38-year-old Jen-nifer Marie Laber, and her sons Adam, three, and Ethan, fi ve, a murder-suicide, police said the recently-purchased 9mm Glock handgun was found inside the vehicle, and all three died from single gunshot wounds.

“We can’t make that determi-nation until the coroner com-pletes toxicology testing, but you can read between the lines of what was released,” City of Lone Tree police department sergeant Tim Beals said by phone.

A statement by the Douglas County Coroner’s Offi ce said preliminary evidence suggested Jennifer Laber’s wound was self-infl icted.

Laber was reported missing by Ryan Laber, her husband and the

boys’ father, on Tuesday night af-ter she failed to return to the fam-ily’s home in Highlands Ranch, a suburb south of Denver, after picking up their sons at school.

Authorities issued a missing person alert along with photo-graphs of the trio and a descrip-tion of the 2011 Chrysler mini-van she was driving. Police also released a still photograph cap-tured from a school surveillance camera that showed the mother leaving with the two boys.

Around 7.45am local time on Wednesday, a passerby called police to report seeing a minivan parked at a loading dock outside a shuttered sports equipment store in the neighbouring city of Lone Tree that matched the de-scription of the missing vehicle.

A responding offi cer found all three dead inside the van. After the bodies were located, authorities said Ryan Laber was not a suspect in the deaths of his family and that there was no threat to the com-munity. Police said Laber passed a requisite background check when she legally purchased a new hand-gun from an undisclosed fi rearms dealer about an hour before pick-ing up her sons at school.

Trudeau govt ‘renegingon electoral reform vow’ReutersOttawa

Canadian opposition par-ties accused the govern-ment of reneging on a

promise to make the country’s voting system fairer after a key Liberal minister dismissed an offi cial report that recom-mended having a referendum before changes are made.

The denunciation of the report that the Liberals had asked for could kill the mo-mentum for an overhaul that was expected to benefi t smaller parties like the left-leaning Greens, who have just one seat in parliament.

Prime Minister Justin Tru-deau promised during the 2015 election campaign that Canada would have a new voting sys-tem in place by the next elec-tion in 2019 — suggesting that proportional or preferential voting could come to Canadian politics.

Critics say Trudeau is less enthusiastic about reform now

that he has won a majority un-der the current fi rst-past-the-post system.

An all-party committee rec-ommended that Canada should hold a referendum before mak-ing changes, something the Lib-erals have said is not necessary.

The referendum would al-low Canadians to choose be-tween the current system and a type of proportional voting, although the report left it up to the government to choose which type.

Minister of Democratic In-stitutions, Maryam Monsef, who has been tasked with elec-toral reform, criticised the re-port and the work of the com-mittee for a lack of consensus and not recommending a spe-cifi c alternative.

The opposition accused the Liberals of self-sabotage. “Minister Monsef and Justin Trudeau are trying to fi nd a way out of this because they don’t like the answer they got,” said interim Conservative leader Rona Ambrose.

The existing system, inher-

ited from Britain, allows a party to win a majority government with less than 40% of the pop-ular vote.

The Liberals received 39.5% of the vote in 2015 but 184 of the 338 seats in the House of Commons.

Proportional representa-tion, used in countries like New Zealand, would likely boost the performance of small par-ties by allotting seats based on the popular vote rather than by a candidate’s performance in each electoral district, as in the fi rst-past-the-post system.

Trudeau already appeared to be backing away from his promise to reform the system, telling Le Devoir newspaper in October that the timetable was likely to slip.

He also said major changes would need the substantial backing of Canadians. “The Liberals have been doing a re-markable job of hedging and backpedaling,” said David Moscrop, electoral reform re-searcher. “They might just let it die on the vine.”

Trump picksgeneral Mattisas secretaryof defenceAFPCincinnati

US President-elect Don-ald Trump has picked the tough-talking retired

general James Mattis to be his defence secretary as he soaked up adulation at a buoyant Ohio rally that recalled this year’s rough-and-tumble campaign.

The splash of hard news came during a sea of soaring — and then blunt — rhetoric from the 70-year-old Republican bil-lionaire, who was speaking at his fi rst post-election event fol-lowing days of meetings about forming his cabinet.

“We are going to appoint ‘Mad Dog’ Mattis as our secretary of defence,” Trump told cheering supporters in Cincinnati, refer-ring by nickname to the retired four-star Marine general who headed the US Central Com-mand, with authority over US troops in Iraq and Afghanistan.

“He’s our best. They say he’s the closest thing to (World War II) general George Patton that we have,” Trump said, divulging his pick ahead of schedule after his transition team said there would be no more cabinet announce-ments this week.

Mattis will require both Sen-ate confi rmation and a special waiver of a law that bans uni-formed military offi cers from serving as secretary of defence for seven years after leaving ac-tive duty.

At least one Democrat, sena-tor Kirsten Gillibrand, already signalled she will oppose the waiver.

“Civilian control of our mili-

tary is a fundamental principle of American democracy,” the senator tweeted from New York.

Trump’s surrounding himself with military fi gures — he has picked retired lieutenant general Michael Flynn to be his national security advisor and is consider-ing retired general David Petrae-us for secretary of state — has unnerved some observers who point to America’s long tradition of civilian government.

Adam Schiff , the ranking Democrat on the House Intelli-gence Committee, praised Mat-tis’ “knowledge, experience and leadership” but also expressed concerns about the precedent being set.

“That concern would be fur-ther heightened should the pres-ident-elect nominate any fur-ther military personnel to high positions of civilian leadership in his administration,” he said.

At the start of his address, Trump launched lofty appeals to unite what he called a “very divided nation” and reject “big-otry and prejudice in all of its forms.”

Americans will “come togeth-er — we have no choice, we have to,” he added.

On the economy, “Americans will be the captains of their own destiny once again,” he prom-ised. He even vowed to try to work with Democrats to end gridlock in Congress.

But the Manhattan property mogul, who defeated Hillary Clinton last month to win the White House, dramatically re-turned to the abrasive tone that marked his controversial and ultimately victorious campaign.

He savaged the nation’s “extremely dishonest” press, slammed illegal immigration and the country’s refugee pro-gramme, mocked his critics and vowed to “drain the swamp” in establishment-heavy Washing-ton.

It became a loose, swerving speech that kicked off what his team has branded a “thank you tour” — a victory lap of sorts that will take him to several political battlegrounds including Ohio, perhaps the nation’s ultimate swing state.

US President Barack Obama welcomes UN secretary general-designate Antonio Guterres of Portugal in the Oval Off ice at the White House in Washington yesterday. President Obama said he was confident that Guterres would be an eff ective manager of the international organisation.

Obama meets Guterres

Venezuela yesterday angrily rejected its suspension from the South American economic bloc Mercosur, saying it did not recognise the action taken by the group’s four other member states. Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay had informed the leftist government in Caracas that it was being suspended for failing to meet democratic and trade standards, a Brazilian government source said. “Venezuela does not recognise this null and void action sustained by the law of the jungle of some off icials who are destroying Mercosur,” Venezuelan Foreign Minister Delcy Rodriguez said on her Twitter account.

Thousands of Nicaraguans marched through the capital to protest President Daniel Ortega’s re-election last month, calling it an “electoral farce.” Wearing the blue and white colours of the national flag, the demonstrators headed to the hotel where the visiting secretary general of the Organisation of American States (OAS), Luis Almagro, was staying, close to the Supreme Electoral Council’s (CSE) headquarters. “Democracy yes, dictatorship no!” the protesters yelled, watched by a large number of riot police. No violent incidents were seen. Protest leaders said the government had prevented buses carrying more demonstrators from making it to the capital.

Outgoing United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has apologised to the people of Haiti for the world body’s role in a deadly cholera outbreak blamed on Nepali UN peacekeepers that has killed more than 9,300 people. Haiti was free of cholera until 2010, when the peacekeepers dumped infected sewage into a river. The United Nations does not accept legal responsibility for the outbreak of the disease that causes uncontrollable diarrhoea and has sickened 800,000 people. But for the first time, Ban said sorry. “The United Nations deeply regrets the loss of life and suff ering caused by the cholera outbreak,” Ban told the 193-member UN General Assembly.

Six bodies, showing signs of torture and some with their limbs cut off , were found in a pit in a rural area east of Panama’s capital, a security off icial said adding that the killings were suspected of being linked to drug-traff ickers. The victims were likely to have died between three and five days before their discovery by construction workers, according to the off icial, who requested anonymity as he was not authorised to speak about the ongoing investigation. The pit was found in an area known as Pedregal, about 20km east of Panama City. Panama is considered as one of the safest countries in its region, with a homicide rate of 18 deaths per 100,000 population.

One woman was killed and some forty people were arrested in a Peruvian shantytown after an angry mob tried to lynch two poll workers who residents believed were butchering local children to take their organs, a police off icial said yesterday. Police general Hugo Begazo said false rumours on social media claiming dead children had been found with their organs missing fanned mass hysteria in the shantytown Huaycan on the outskirts of Lima, prompting residents to target two employees of a polling company who had been conducting door-to-door marketing surveys. Police are investigating the death of a Huaycan woman who died from a bullet wound following the unrest, Begazo said.

Caracas lashes out atMercosur suspension

Ortega’s ‘farce’ re-electionin Nicaragua sparks protest

UN chief Ban apologisesfor Haiti cholera outbreak

Torture marks on six bodies discovered in Panama pit

One dead in Peru as mobtries to lynch poll workers

ANGER CRITICISMCOMMENT CRIME VIOLENCE

Canada’s Democratic Institutions Minister Maryam Monsef leaves after speaking to journalists about the report from the Special Committee on Electoral Reform on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

US fi rms to face penalties for sending jobs abroad

President-elect Donald Trump vowed that US companies will not be able to take their operations outside the country “without consequences.” Speaking at a plant in Indiana after negotiating with executives to keep the factory in the US, Trump said he meant to send a signal to other companies. “I want all the other companies to know we’re going to do great things for business, there’s

no reason to leave anymore,” Trump said at a Carrier furnace factory in Indianapolis.He pointed to plans to lower the top corporate income tax rate from 35% to 15% and reduce regulations, and threatened higher tariff s at the US border on goods manufactured by US companies outside the country. “Leaving the country is going to be very, very diff icult,” Trump said.

ASEAN

Gulf TimesSaturday, December 3, 20166

Holed-up Cambodian opposition leader pardoned by kingAFPPhnom Penh

A Cambodian opposition leader who has spent months holed up in his

party headquarters in a bid to avoid arrest was pardoned by the king yesterday, breaking a lengthy political stalemate.

Kem Sokha, the acting head of Cambodia’s biggest opposition group, has refused to leave the headquarters of the Cambodia

National Rescue Party since late May over a prosecution he says is politically motivated.

He was sentenced to fi ve months in jail in September for refusing to appear in court over an investigation into an alleged mistress of his.

Cambodia has been ruled for more than three decades by strongman premier Hun Sen, who critics and rights groups say has used the courts to jail oppo-nents or tie them up in debilitat-ing legal cases.

But yesterday the palace pub-lished a pardon from King Noro-dom Sihamoni.

A government spokesman said

Hun Sen had requested a royal pardon for his political opponent after Kem Sokha wrote a letter admitting guilt.

“It’s originally because Mr Sokha acknowledged his wrong doing. He confessed,” said Sok Eysan, a spokesman for Hun Sen’s ruling Cambodian Peo-ple’s Party. The CNRP said Kem Sokha had written a letter for “national reconciliation” but did not say whether he had made an admission of guilt.

Spokesman Yem Ponhearith

said no deal had been made for the pardon.

Hun Sen has loomed over Cambodian politics for three decades, steering the impover-ished nation out of the ashes of civil war.But opposition groups have gained ground amid grow-ing disillusionment over endem-ic corruption, rights abuses and political repression.

The CNRP accuses Hun Sen of denying it a majority by rigging the 2013 election in his favour, a charge the premier denies.

The party’s top leader Sam Rainsy has spent nearly one year in self-imposed exile to avoid ar-rest warrants he claims are polit-ically-motivated while a number of senior opposition senators have been jailed.

The CNRP say Hun Sen has been trying to hamstring them ahead of 2018 elections.

But recent weeks have sug-gested a thaw in relations.

Last month opposition politi-cians ended a six-month boycott of parliament with one law-

maker describing the move as “a gesture to show that we want a resolution”.

Independent political analyst Virak Ou said it was “quite com-mon” for Cambodian political crises to be resolved with behind the scene deals, adding the move will be “a relief for the general public as well as the investors”.

Government spokesman Sok Eysan said he had “no clue” about whether a similar pardon would be given to self-exiled op-position leader Rainsy.

Kem Sokha: relief

Indonesia says foiled plot to exploit protestReutersJakarta

Indonesian police yester-day said they had detained eight people before dawn,

thwarting a plot hatched to take advantage of a demonstration by tens of thousands and lead an uprising against President Joko Widodo’s government.

The detentions followed weeks of tension, during which Widodo said “political actors” had fanned violence at a Nov 4 protest and the country’s po-lice chief warned that “certain groups” might try to occupy parliament during yesterday’s rally.

The group had been under surveillance for at least three weeks, and the move against it came hours before the start of a rally in central Jakarta to pro-test against the city’s governor, a Christian accused of insulting

a holy book.Police spokesman Boy Rafl i Amar described the plan as attempted subversion of Widodo’s government, which has strong support from the military.

“The suspicion is that among other things there was a link to plans to attempt subversion, and to take advantage of condi-tions today,” Amar said.

“They had another agenda aside from prayers.”

A sea of white-clad protesters surged around Jakarta’s National Monument yesterday morning.

Police estimated their number at about 150,000, many having come from towns and cities across the island of Java.

They chanted and carried banners demanding that the city’s governor, Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, be jailed.

Purnama is being investi-gated over comments about his opponents’ use of a holy book during political campaigning.

He denies wrongdoing, but has apologised for the remarks.

Police on Thursday handed a dossier on their investigation of his comments to prosecu-tors, who are expected to take the case of alleged blasphemy to court in coming weeks.

Purnama, a long-time ally of Widodo, is running for re-election in February against two Muslim candidates.

The contest for the gover-norship has sent political ten-sion soaring, with rumours of plots to undermine Widodo and scupper his chances of winning a second term in 2019.

Police spokesman Rikwanto said altogether 10 people were detained between 3am and 6am.

Eight were being investigated under the conspiracy and trea-son provisions of the criminal code, and the other two for hate speech.

“They are being accused of subversion,” said Yusril Ihza

Mahendra, a lawyer for two of the eight.

He said the group included Rachmawati Sukarnoputri, a politician and sister of former president Megawati Sukarnop-utri.

Their father was independent Indonesia’s fi rst president.

The group also included rock musician Ahmad Dhani and re-tired army general Kivlan Zen, who had both supported one of Widodo’s rivals for the presi-dency in 2014, the lawyer said.

Dhani faced public criti-cism in 2014, when he appeared wearing a German Nazi-like uniform in a music video while campaigning for his candidate.

Rachmawati and Dhani had called on Thursday for protest-ers to march towards parlia-ment, media reported.

“These are people who are known to have grudges against anyone in government,” said Jakarta-based political ana-

lyst Wimar Witoelar.”These are small, insignifi cant people, but it’s a big crowd and a small spark could start up a large fi re.”

Widodo addressed the rally after prayers yesterday and praised what had been a peace-ful protest.

Then, under rainy skies, the crowd started to disperse, with some chanting directed against Purnama.

Purnama is popular with many for pushing through tough reforms to modernise a capital congested with traffi c.

But opinion polls have shown him slipping into second place in the race for re-election as governor, a position Widodo himself used as a stepping-stone to the presidency.

Leading the fi eld now is Agus Yudhoyono, the 38-year-old Harvard-educated son of Widodo’s immediate predeces-sor, Susilo Bambang Yudhoyo-no.

Singapore minister

warns IS will target Southeast AsiaAFPSingapore

Southeast Asia faces a growing risk of extrem-ist violence from Islamic

State (IS) group supporters as the militant group seeks new pastures after setbacks in the Middle East, Singapore’s home minister said yesterday.

While IS is rapidly losing ter-ritory in Iraq and Syria, this may increase the risk of revenge at-tacks in Southeast Asia — and certain pockets of the region are receptive to radical Islamic ide-ology.

“The threat, if anything, I think has increased compared to last year and earlier this year,” K Shanmugam told reporters.

Parts of Southeast Asia have long struggled with militancy and hundreds of radicals from the region have fl ocked to join IS.

Southeast Asians fi ghting for the militants have formed their own unit in the Middle East, called Katibah Nusantara, and are believed to be in regular con-tact with militants back home.

In the strife-torn southern Philippines, which has long battled an insurgency, a hand-ful of extremist groups have

sworn allegiance to IS. There has been an upsurge of violence and attempted attacks in Indo-nesia, over the past year due to the growing influence of IS.

Even wealthy Singapore has detained several radicalised members of its local minority.

“There is an increased likeli-hood that the Islamic State will declare an official wilaya, or province, in Southeast Asia in 2017,” Otso Iho of defence ana-lysts IHS Janes said Wednes-day.

This would “most likely” happen in the southern Philip-pines, he added.

The region suffered its first IS attack in January this year when extremists launched a deadly suicide bombing and gun assault in Jakarta.

Minister Shanmugam said one key challenge for Singa-pore, an immigrant society of 5.5mn people, would be main-taining social cohesion in the aftermath of an attack.

Pointing to successful attacks in neighbouring Malaysia and Indonesia, Shanmugam said it was a matter of when — not if — an attack would hit Singapore.

“We will guard our borders but the risk is quite signifi cant,” he said.

Indonesian protesters march down the capital city’s main street after a demonstration at Jakarta’s National Monument Park yesterday.

Bodyguard kills three in shooting rampageAFPKuala Lumpur

Three people were killed and four others injured in Malaysia when the

bodyguard of one of the victims went on a shooting rampage, the country’s police chief said yes-terday.

Gun violence is rare in Ma-laysia, which has strict fi rearms laws, and the incident on the northern resort island of Penang late Thursday brought traffi c to a standstill for about six hours.

“Three people were killed

and four others injured in the shooting. The weapon has been seized,” national police chief Khalid Abu Bakar told reporters.

The bodyguard, a former mili-tary reservist who police did not want to identify, was detained and is being held in police cus-tody.

“From the initial investiga-tions...the shooter has a mental problem,” Khalid added.

The bodyguard, who police said was in his 40s, initially shot his 32-year-old employer Ong Teik Kwong in his car, Mior Faridalathrash Wahid, Penang district police chief, said.

Activists reject new Rakhine body as Annan visitsAFPYangon

A new body set up by My-anmar’s government to investigate allegations of

rights abuses against Rohingya in Rakhine lacks credibility, ac-tivists said yesterday, as former UN chief Kofi Annan began a visit to the troubled state.

Myanmar’s de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi has faced a growing international back-lash for failing to probe claims the army is carrying out ethnic cleansing of the Muslim minor-ity.

But rights groups rejected the new 13-member commis-sion as toothless, noting it in-cludes no Muslims and is led by Vice President Myint Swe, a retired army general formerly blacklisted by the United States.

A close ally of former junta

leader Than Shwe, Myint Swe was head of special operations in Yangon when the military government ordered a bloody crackdown on the monk-led protests of the Saff ron Revolu-tion in 2007.

“We’ve got little faith in an-

other homegrown commission, particularly if it’s headed by a military man,” said Matthew Smith, chief executive of For-tify Rights.

“This new commission won’t be capable of conducting a credible human rights inves-

tigation, and it certainly lacks independence. The time for an independent international in-vestigation is now.”

Phil Robertson, deputy di-rector of Human Rights Watch in Asia, said the new commis-sion “doesn’t look like it’s inde-pendent or impartial”.

Suu Kyi’s offi ce said the new commission would investigate the raids on police border posts on October 9 that sparked the deadly military lockdown as well as “international accusa-tions” of army abuses.

It is the second body created by Suu Kyi to try to heal the re-ligious divide that has split Ra-khine state since deadly sectar-ian unrest killed more than 100 people in 2012. In August she appointed fellow Nobel laureate Annan to head a separate body, which Buddhist nationalists have bitterly denounced as for-eign meddling.

Suu Kyi says global attention fuelling divisions

Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi accused the international community yesterday of stoking resentment between Buddhists and Muslims in the country’s northwest, where an army crackdown has killed at least 86 people and sent 10,000 fleeing to Bangladesh. Suu Kyi appealed for understanding of her nation’s ethnic complexities, and said the world should not forget the mili-tary operation was launched in response to attacks on security

forces that the government has blamed on insurgents.“I would appreciate it so much if the international commu-nity would help us to maintain peace and stability, and to make progress in building better relations between the two communities, instead of always drumming up cause for bigger fires of resentment,” Suu Kyi told Singapore state-owned broadcaster Channel News Asia during a visit to the city-state.

Thailand’s new king makes fi rst public appearanceReutersBangkok

Thailand’s new king yesterday made his fi rst public appearance since ascending the throne the previous day, ending a period of

uncertainty since the death of his father, King Bhu-mibol Adulyadej, on Oct 3.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavar-angkun, 64, took part in a merit-making ceremony at Bangkok’s Grand Palace to mark 50 days since his father’s death plunged the country into grief.

Civil servants dressed in black and white, the of-fi cial colours of mourning, lined the streets to the palace as the new king’s convoy passed.

King Maha Vajiralongkorn, who was then the crown prince, surprised some when he asked to de-lay his succession following the death of his father, leaving the throne unoccupied for seven weeks.

His offi cial taking of the throne, in a brief cere-mony televised late on Thursday, ends that unprec-edented interregnum while raising new questions about the palace’s relationship with the generals who have been in power since a 2014 coup.

The military government has made it clear it wants to oversee economic and political develop-ments for years to come, even after a general elec-tion it has promised to hold in 2017.

Critics say a military-backed constitution, which will need the new king’s stamp of approval, will consolidate the army’s power, but fi nancial analysts were upbeat about the outlook.

“Forget about Game-of-Thrones intrigue.With a new constitution in place and the royal succession behind, the conditions for institutional stability are in place,” Tim Condon, chief economist for Asia at ING in Singapore, said in a note.

“We blame its absence since 2013 for the dismal economic performance and we consider its return an important turning point.”

Thailand’s new King Maha Vajiralongkorn Bodindradebayavarangkun is seen on his way out from the Grand Palace in Bangkok yesterday.

AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA7Gulf Times

Saturday, December 3, 2016

The Great Barrier Reef is “not dying”, Australia in-sisted yesterday as it up-

dated Unesco on eff orts to pro-tect the natural wonder while scientists blasted a lack of ur-gency in dealing with climate change.

Canberra last year narrowly avoided the UN body putting the site on its endangered list and was ordered to report to the World Heritage committee by December 1 on its “Reef 2050” rescue plan.

The giant ecosystem – a ma-jor tourist attraction – is under pressure from farming run-off , development, the crown-of-thorns starfi sh and climate change, which led to its worst-ever bleaching event this year that devastated swathes of coral.

In the report, the government said 32 of the plan’s 151 actions to improve the reef had been achieved.

Another 103 were under way, four were delayed, and 12 were not yet due.

“When we came to govern-ment we inherited a reef on Unesco’s endangered watch list,” Environment Minister Josh

Frydenberg told Sky News.“We’ve done everything possi-

ble since that time to put in place a plan, to invest huge amounts of resources to improve water quality, to work with the farming community to tackle the crown-of-thorns starfi sh and to pre-serve this natural wonder of the world.

“We have to put the facts on the table,” he added. “The reef is not dead, it’s not dying, it’s resil-ient, it’s healthy and we’ve made great strides forward in the last few years.”

The government has com-mitted more than Aus$2.0bn ($1.5bn) to protect the reef over

the next decade with the update highlighting progress on land management practices to prevent sediment run off , which helps spawn the coral-eating starfi sh.

It also pointed to a ban on sea-based disposal of dredge mate-rial in the area and restrictions on new port developments.

But the rescue plan included no new funding or commitments to tackle climate change despite acknowledging this was the reef’s biggest threat.

This year’s bleaching, due to warming sea temperatures, killed two-thirds of shallow-water cor-als in the north of the 2,300km (1,400-mile) long reef, although

central and southern areas es-caped with less damage.

The update said Canberra was acting on global warming through the United Nations talks that led to the recent Paris cli-mate deal, but scientists said it was not enough to rein in Aus-tralia’s carbon pollution.

“Funding water quality eff orts on the reef while failing to do an-ything about climate change is a bit like fi xing a window while the house is on fi re,” said Tim Flan-nery from the independent Cli-mate Council. “I’m not even sure you can call a plan that includes no new funding and no new ac-tions on climate change a plan –

it’s simply a re-announcement of old commitments.”

Greenpeace Australia was equally scathing, saying that it was unacceptable that while recognising the impact of global warming on the reef the govern-ment “then completely fails to do anything about it”.

“This plan does not even con-sider a signifi cant reduction in carbon emissions so is simply not credible,” said reef campaigner Shani Tager. “If the government was serious about protecting the Great Barrier Reef, a ban on new coal mines would have been the fi rst point in its report to Unesco.”

Minister Frydenberg said the

government was committed to tackling global warming and re-cently ratifi ed the Paris agree-ment, the world’s fi rst universal climate pact, which came into force in early November.

“We’ve adopted targets that are 26-28% reduction of our emissions by 2030 on our 2005 levels. On a per capita basis, that’s more than 50%,” he said. “We are doing a lot of things in a lot of areas and the reef is strong.”

With heavy use of coal-fi red power and a relatively small population of 24mn, Australia is considered one of the world’s worst per capita greenhouse gas polluters.

Australia insists the Great Barrier Reef ‘not dying’AFPSydney

Hong Kong’s leaders have widened their legal fi ght against the city’s pro-

democratic camp, targeting four more lawmakers over oaths tak-en at a legislative council swear-ing-in ceremony in October.

Chief Executive Leung Chun-ying and Justice Secretary Rim-sky Yuen began the action two days after a pair of barred pro-independence lawmakers, Bag-gio Leung and Yau Wai-ching,

lost a legal appeal against their disqualifi cation, government ra-dio station RTHK reported.

Beijing’s Communist Party leaders are alarmed about the spread of independence and self-determination ideas in the former British colony, which re-turned to Chinese rule in 1997 under a “one country, two sys-tems” formula.

The formula allows wide-ranging freedoms in Hong Kong, a separate legal system and specifi es universal suff rage as an eventual goal.

The latest move came after

Beijing staged a rare interpreta-tion of Hong Kong’s mini-con-stitution in early November to eff ectively bar democratically-elected Leung and Yau from tak-ing offi ce there.

Yau and Leung pledged al-legiance to the “Hong Kong na-tion” and displayed a banner declaring “Hong Kong is not China” during a swearing-in ceremony for the Legislative Council in October.

While the pair were disquali-fi ed before they could take of-fi ce, the latest action targets lawmakers whose oaths were

accepted and have taken up their legislative seats.

Among them is veteran law-maker Leung Kwok-hung, a prominent advocate of democ-racy, known across the city as “Long-hair”.

The others are lawmakers Lau Siu-lai, Edward Yiu and Nathan Law, RTHK reported.

Lau and Law have called for far more autonomy for Hong Kong to protect it against greater controls by China.

The government is challeng-ing the actions of the legisla-ture’s president, Andrew Leung,

to earlier accept, or allow them to re-take, their oaths.

Law, one of the young activ-ists who helped lead street pro-tests that rocked Hong Kong for 79 days in 2014, said that the government’s Department of Justice informed him of the ac-tion last night.

“The controversies surround-ing the oath-taking are a sup-pression of the pro-democratic forces by the authorities,” Law, 23, said in a statement.

“This is a very grave challenge for the pro-democracy political camp,” he added, describing the

measure as “total war” waged by Chief Executive Leung against all democrats.

Senior democratic fi gures are warning of a popular backlash against Leung, whom they ac-cuse of using the independence issue to wage a legal “coup” against long-standing demo-cratic forces, on behalf of Bei-jing.

Leung’s term ends next year but he has yet to confi rm he will stand for re-election in March by a panel of 1,200 largely pro-establishment community fi g-ures.

HK offi cials widen legal ‘attack’ on democratsReutersHong Kong

Protests outside Taiwan’s parliament descended into chaos yesterday as

workers angry over a proposed cut to public holidays attacked a lawmaker and threw smoke bombs.

The controversial amend-ment to the labour law has al-ready sparked a number of ral-lies and a hunger strike, with protesters accusing new Presi-dent Tsai Ing-wen of betraying her campaign promises to pro-tect labour rights.

Tsai has seen her popular-ity plummet since taking offi ce in May as her Democratic Pro-gressive Party (DPP) govern-ment attempts to tackle a raft of domestic issues from gay mar-riage to pension reform.

Workers would be guaranteed one mandatory day off a week under the revised law, in keep-ing with existing rules.

They would also be given an

additional “rest day” and would be paid a higher rate if they are asked to work on that day.

But seven annual holidays would be scrapped.

Expected parliament voting on the bill prompted more than 100 protesters to clash with police outside the parliament building in Taipei.

They held up banners with “Oppose the cut of seven holi-days” scrawled on them and some threw coloured smoke bombs.

Senior DPP offi cial Ker Chien-ming was pushed over, punched and had water splashed on him as he left the legislative complex, local media footage showed.

After Ker was escorted away by police, protesters spat in a shoe they claim was one lost by the legislator in the scuffl e, ac-cording to local media.

Ker is the DPP caucus whip, who protesters blame for trying to force the bill through parlia-ment.

The DPP condemned yester-

day’s violence and called on the police to open investigations.

“Labour groups have the right to express their demands, but violent behaviour like throwing water and beating is not something a democratic society can accept,” it said in a statement.

Tsai and her party rose to power after a landslide victory over the Kuomintang (KMT) in January, campaigning on a plat-form of progressive policies and improving prospects for young people in Taiwan.

But recent polling by the Tai-wanese Public Opinion Foun-dation showed her popular-ity had fallen to a record low of 41.1%, compared to nearly 70% when she fi rst took offi ce.

Protests are common in Tai-wan, but in recent months they have become more regular and heated over a range of domes-tic social issues, taking place mostly on the landmark boul-evard outside the presidential offi ce and the parliament build-ing.

Chaos over Taiwan holiday cutsAFPTaipei

This photograph from Taiwan agency CNA Photo, taken yesterday, shows senior Democratic Progressive Party off icial Ker Chien-ming being splashed with water as he left the legislative complex in Taipei.

South Korean opposition parties said yesterday that they will hold a par-

liamentary impeachment vote on scandal-tainted President Park Geun-hye next week, while her own party remains undecided on whether to force her out of offi ce.

Park has off ered to resign and asked parliament on Tues-day to decide how and when she should step down over the infl uence peddling scandal but the opposition has rejected it as a delaying tactic to avoid im-peachment.

If Park is forced out of offi ce or resigns, she will be the fi rst democratically-elected South Korean president not to serve a full term.

A large rally is expected to-day, the sixth weekend protest in succession, calling on her to resign immediately.

The three opposition parties, with a combined 165 seats in the 300-member parliament, can bring the impeachment but will need some members from

Park’s Saenuri Party to bring the vote to the two-thirds ma-jority required to pass the bill.

“The three opposition par-ties will pursue the impeach-ment through close co-oper-ation and without wavering,” a spokesman for the main op-position Democratic Party, Ki Dong-min, said. “The motion will be proposed today. It will be reported to the plenary ses-

sion on December 8 and we will bring the impeachment mo-tion to a vote on December 9,” he said.

Park is accused of colluding with a friend, Choi Soon-sil, who has been accused of abuse of power, to put undue pres-sure on conglomerates to con-tribute money to foundations that were set up to promote her policy initiatives.

Park has denied wrongdoing but has apologised to the na-tion.

Some Saenuri members had earlier said they would join the opposition parties to impeach Park but changed their posi-tion after Park off ered to quit, saying she should be given the chance to step down of her own accord by April.

“The president has off ered to step down, so I don’t get what the motive is for insisting on impeaching her when we know there’s going to be uncertain-ties and confusion and side-eff ects,” Saenuri leader Chung Jin-suk said at a meeting.

It was not clear whether there would be the needed 28 Saenuri members to support the vote.

There are seven non-party affi liated members who are ex-pected to give their backing.

Some opposition members have said a failed impeachment could vindicate Park’s claim to have done nothing to benefi t personally and help her survive politically.

“If the motion is voted down, it is eff ectively a remis-sion of her sins,” People’s Party chief Park Jie-won told a party meeting on Thursday.

If it passes, the Constitu-tional Court has 180 days to approve or reject it.

If approved, a new election must be called in 60 days to elect a new leader for a full fi ve-year term.

Park has come under intense pressure to step down, with hundreds of thousands of peo-ple streaming into the streets demanding her resignation at successive weekend rallies, which have remained peaceful.

Her approval rating re-mained at a record low of 4%, according to a Gallup Korea opinion poll released yesterday.

Gallup Korea, based in Seoul, is not affi liated with US-based Gallup Incorporated.

Park to face impeachment vote next weekReutersSeoul

Protesters carry an eff igy of President Park during a rally in central Seoul on Wednesday, demanding her resignation.

Man executed in 1995 found innocentAFPBeijing

China’s top court has cleared a man executed 21 years ago for murder –

more than a decade after another man confessed to the killing – in the latest miscarriage of justice in the Communist-ruled coun-try.

Nie Shu-bin was 20 years old when he faced a fi ring squad in 1995, two days after being con-victed of rape and murder.

“The Supreme People’s Court believes that the facts used in the original trial were unclear and the evidence insuffi cient, and so changes the original sentence to one of innocence,” it said in a statement on a verifi ed social media account.

Chinese courts have a convic-tion rate of 99.92%, and con-cerns over wrongful verdicts are fuelled by police reliance on forced confessions and the lack of eff ective defence in trials.

Overseas rights groups say China executes more people than any other country, but Bei-jing does not give fi gures on the death penalty, regarding the sta-tistics as state secrets.

Nie was convicted of raping and murdering a woman whose body was discovered by her fa-ther in a corn fi eld on the out-skirts of Shijiazhuang city, in the northern province of Hebei.

But the time, method and mo-tive for the murder could not be confi rmed, and key documents related to witnesses and the de-fendant’s testimony were miss-ing, the supreme court said.

The “primary evidence was that Nie Shubin’s confession of guilt corroborated the other evidence”, but “there are doubts over the truth and legality of his confession of guilt”, the state-ment added.

Nie’s family had been cam-paigning for justice since a serial murderer arrested in 2005 con-fessed to the killing.

But the case was only formally reopened in 2014.

“Thanks to all those who helped on Nie Shubin’s case!” his mother, Zhang Huan-zhi, 72, said on social media.

The Hebei high court, which convicted and executed Nie, “expressed deep, deep regrets” to his relatives, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

But Liu Fujin, one of the de-fence lawyers involved, said that the court had been unwilling to reconsider the case for years be-cause no one would take respon-sibility for a mistaken verdict.

He had applied to see docu-ments related to the case 54 times to no avail, he told AFP.

“So many examination state-ments and documents have been tampered with or lost; how could they let lawyers look at docu-ments messed with to such an extent?” he said.

Though the verdict was a “landmark” and China’s judicial system had improved since the 1990s, he said, many injustices remain unaddressed.

“Every province and every re-gion has old cases just like Nie’s and new ones coming up that are all still being suppressed,” he said. “Trial dossiers and evi-dence in favour of defendants are still being concealed, and in-quisition by torture is happening every day.”

A former senior manager at Taiwan’s technology giant Foxconn has been

indicted for stealing and selling 5,700 iPhones in China to pock-et around $1.56mn, Taiwanese prosecutors said yesterday.

Foxconn is the world’s largest contract electronics maker and assembles products for interna-tional brands such as Apple and Sony.

The Taiwanese manager, iden-tifi ed by his family name Tsai, worked in the testing depart-ment and instructed eight em-ployees at Foxconn’s factory in the southern mainland Chinese city of Shenzhen to smuggle out about thousands of iPhone5 and iPhone5s, prosecutors said.

Tsai and his accomplices sold the testing phones, which were supposed to be scrapped, to stores in Shenzhen and made

nearly T$50mn ($1.56mn) from 2013 to 2014, said the New Taipei district prosecutor’s offi ce.

Foxconn reported the case to Taiwanese authorities following an internal audit and Tsai was questioned after he returned to the island earlier this year and was released on bail.

Tsai was charged with breach of trust and faces a maximum 10-year jail term according to prosecutors.

Foxconn has been hit with a number of scandals in recent years from employee misconduct to labour disputes.

In 2014, fi ve former Foxconn employees were charged with breach of trust in Taiwan for allegedly soliciting T$160mn in kickbacks from suppliers in exchange for clearing quality checks and buying their equip-ment.

They were sentenced to up to 10 years and six months in prison by a district court in Taipei last month.

Foxconn manager indicted for stealing thousands of iPhonesAFPTaipei

BRITAIN

Gulf Times Saturday, December 3, 20168

Andrew Sachs, the British actor best known as the loveable Spanish waiter Manuel on the 1970s BBC sitcom Fawlty Towers, has died aged 86. Sachs, who played a waiter from Barcelona on the series co-created by Monty Python star John Cleese, died on November 23, his wife Melody told the Daily Mail. Sachs, who was diagnosed with dementia four years ago, was buried in North London on Thursday. Cleese, 77, tweeted that he was very sad to learn of the death and called Sachs “a very sweet, gentle, and kind man and a truly great farceur”. Sachs’ performance on Fawlty Towers was one of the most widely imitated comedy charac-ters from that era, the BBC said.

The British 1980s pop band “Duran Duran” will not be able to reclaim the US copyrights to some of their most famous hits, a court ruled yesterday. Songs including Rio, Girls on Film and A View to a Kill, a James Bond theme tune, were among the copyrighted tracks that the court ruled should remain with Gloucester Place Music, owned by Sony/ATV, and not with the band. “We are shocked that English contract law is being used to overturn artistes’ rights in another territory,” founder Nick Rhodes told the BBC. “We signed a publishing agreement as unsuspecting teenagers, over three decades ago, when just starting out and when we knew no better.”

Airbnb will impose a 90-day limit on the sharing of private homes in London, the home rentals website has revealed amid fears over the capital’s housing market. The online lettings firm announced the move after studying its impact in London and elsewhere. In addition, the company pledged to remove “unwelcome” commercial operators in London under plans that will be in place by spring 2017. “We are announcing a change to our platform that will introduce new and automated limits to help ensure entire home listings in London are not shared for more than 90 days, unless hosts confirm they have the required permission to share their space more frequently,” Airbnb said

Lorries, cars and taxis are set to be banned from one of London’s most notorious junctions during the day. The City of London Corporation yesterday confirmed that it planned to press ahead with an 18-month trial of a 7am to 7pm ban at Bank junction from April in an attempt to improve safety for pedestrians and cyclists. The move follows the death in June last year of Oxford and Cambridge graduate Ying Tao, 26, who was hit by a turning HGV as she cycled to work. A total of 34 cyclists and 31 pedestrians were injured in the 7am-7pm period between 2011 and last year and City experts predict the move could cut casualties by 50% to 60%.

Global pop star Lady Gaga gave an intimate performance at a shopping mall in London on Thursday night, where she promoted her new album Joanne and discussed the pitfalls of fame and celebrity. Around 60 fans gathered on the roof of the Westfield Mall to watch Gaga on a dome-covered stage perform acoustic versions of new and old songs, including classic hits like Bad Romance. Joanne, Gaga’s fourth chart-topping album, has been described by many critics as the 30-year-old’s most personal and authentic release to date. “You know, during the holidays I love to be with family and that’s really why I chose to cre-ate Joanne,” Gaga told Reuters Television.

Fawlty Towers actor Andrew Sachs dies at 86

Duran Duran lose battleto reclaim US rights

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Liberal Democrat winner of the Richmond Park by-election, Sarah Olney, celebrates her victory with party leader Tim Farron on Richmond Green in London yesterday.

Johnson deniescontradicting govt policy onimmigrationAgenciesLondon

Foreign Minister Boris Johnson, a leading Brexit campaigner, yesterday de-

nied contradicting government policy on immigration during private conversations with EU ambassadors, saying “we have to have control”.

Answering questions after his fi rst keynote speech on foreign aff airs, Johnson defended his support for free movement of people from the European Union — which Prime Minister Theresa May has promised to end as Brit-ain leaves the bloc.

“I’m a liberal internationalist. I believe that immigration can do great things and when I was mayor of this great city I saw the strength and dynamism that im-migration helped to give to the economy,” the former London mayor said. “But what I also said at that breakfast (with ambassa-dors), is we have to have control.”

Asked by a French journalist about the suggestion that he was saying one thing in private and another in public, Johnson re-plied in French “not at all”.

Sky News on Wednesday quoted four ambassadors as saying Johnson privately told them he supports freedom of movement, despite leading a campaign that made end-ing mass migration a key issue ahead of the June referendum on EU membership.

“Johnson has been openly telling us that he is personally in favour of free movement,” one diplomat was quoted as saying on condition of anonymity.

Nick Clegg, former leader of the pro-EU Liberal Democrats, accused Johnson of “treating voters like fools”.

Speaking about Brexit in his speech at the Chatham House think tank, Johnson said ob-servers had been “too quick to draw comparisons with populist movements across the world”.

“There are many people who voted to leave the EU not because they dislike or fear foreigners, but because they believe in de-mocracy... Brexit emphatically does not mean a Britain that turns in on herself,” he said.

Johnson also pledged that Britain will not seek to obstruct greater European defence and foreign policy co-operation as it prepares to leave the EU.

The UK was not bent on the destruction of the EU, and would not adopt a “dog in the manger” stance to disrupt member state co-operation if they continued to meet the goal of spending at least 2% of their GDP on defence.

Other UK ministers have op-posed greater EU defence inte-gration, warning that it could represent a threat to the primacy of Nato. But Johnson said: “It is not part of our agenda to seek to undermine or to be dog in the mangerish about the EU.

“There is a conversation going on now about the EU’s desire to build a strong common security defence policy. If they want to do that, fi ne. Obviously it would be important to get 2% spending on defence. But we are not there to block or impede further steps towards further EU integration if that is what they so desire.”

Some Tory Eurosceptics have openly called for the EU to break up under the pressure of popu-list revolts in a succession of countries, but the Foreign Offi ce is aware that such an aggressive stance could hamper Brexit ne-gotiations with Brussels.

Johnson gave a strong hint that he remained committed to leaving the EU customs union, saying the UK needed the capacity to strike its own trade deals and act as a “protagonist” for free trade.

He said May’s previous re-marks on the EU had “given a very clear picture of how we are going to proceed if you under-stand the working of the EU”.

“We have already said we are going to cease to apply European law in this country – the judg-ments of the European court – and we will use this moment to do free trade deals, and be an agitator for global free trade,” Johnson said. “From those two points you can draw all the nec-essary conclusions about how we see the future.”

It is widely accepted that if the UK stays inside the EU customs union, it cannot legally strike its own free trade deals with third parties.

By-poll victory a sign votersoppose hard Brexit: FarronAgenciesLondon

The Liberal Democrats secured a stunning by-election victory to unseat

Zac Goldsmith by convincing up to a third of Leave-support-ing Tory voters to switch to the party, Tim Farron has claimed, adding that the outcome could change the direction of British politics.

The LibDems overturned a 23,000 majority on Thursday to remove the former Conservative MP in a vote that became a de facto plebiscite on the govern-ment’s Brexit plans.

Sarah Olney, the winning

candidate, took just under 50% of the entire vote to record a ma-jority of 1,872. Large numbers of local Labour voters backed her, with the Labour candidate, Christian Wolmar, losing his de-posit.

Speaking alongside Olney in the south-west London constit-uency yesterday morning, Far-ron was cautiously optimistic about the LibDems’ chances in a general election but said: “This result might change the direc-tion of British politics. It’s about momentum.”

The party leader added: “If I tell you that nearly a third of Tory voters from the last elec-tion who voted Leave in June voted Liberal Democrat on

Thursday, you will see that this is not just about a Remain versus Leave rerun, it’s about people trying to say to Theresa May: we do not like the extreme ver-sion of Brexit outside the single market you are taking us down.”

Olney, a local accountant who only became involved in politics a year ago, took to the stage at the announcement of her victo-ry in the early hours of yesterday to say voters had “sent a shock-wave through this Conservative Brexit government”.

She added: “And our message is clear: we do not want a hard Brexit. We do not want to pull out of the single market. We will not let intolerance, division and fear win.”

Olney won 20,510 votes, up 30.4% on the party’s 2015 result, against 18,638 for Goldsmith. She is the LibDems’ ninth MP in this parliament, and the only female LibDem MP.

Goldsmith, who had held the seat since taking it from the LibDems in 2010, had resigned in protest against the govern-ment’s decision to back a third runway at Heathrow, instead standing as an independent candidate in a byelection he ar-gued should be seen as a gauge of local opinion on airport ex-pansion.

But the LibDems based the debate around Brexit, arguing that one of the most strongly pro-Remain constituencies in

the country should have a say on being represented by an MP who supported leave, albeit quietly.

Olney insisted the impetus for this had come from voters. She told the Guardian: “It wasn’t a conscious choice in that re-spect; it was us responding to what constituents were talking about. And we’ve always been a pro-European party. We were the united Remain party.”

Farron said: “This was a re-markable, come-from-nowhere upset that will terrify the Con-servatives … If this was a general election, this swing would mean the Conservatives would lose dozens of seats to the Liberal Democrats – and their majority with it.”

Payout for worker hit by concrete slab

Competition watchdog to investigate care homes

London Evening StandardLondon

A man who was work-ing on Crossrail when a 30-tonne concrete slab

shattered his leg has been award-ed a six-fi gure sum to help him rebuild his life.

Liam Jennings was helping a crane driver on a construction site at Canning Town when he was hit by the concrete block be-ing swung by the vehicle.

An on-site ambulance took him to the Royal London Hospi-tal in Whitechapel where metal pins were inserted to piece to-gether his shattered hip.

He also suff ered nerve damage below the knee, which caused him to lose feeling and move-ment in his foot, and surgery to attempt to give him some feeling back was unsuccessful.

Jennings, 47, from Brixton,

said: “I was devastated to learn that the injury to the nerves in my foot is now permanent. This jeopardises my career as I now can only walk very short distanc-es. My job is physically demand-ing and now, due to my injuries, I am going to have to consider my future options.

“I have been told that I am at an increased risk of develop-ing arthritis in my hip and was devastated to be told I may need a full hip replacement and prob-ably surgery on my left foot and ankle.

“The injuries have had a huge impact on my life as I was left homeless as I was unable to work. Thankfully, I’ve now moved into a fl at, but I still struggle with my mobility and suff er constant pain as a result of my injuries. I have been unable to return to work since the accident and I’ve been told the pain I’m suff ering will be permanent.”

Guardian News and MediaLondon

Care homes that hit resi-dents with shock rises in bills or have contracts

riddled with hidden charges are to be investigated by regula-tors looking to see if the sector is treating people fairly and provid-ing value for money.

The Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) inquiry will cover the 430,000 older people in care and nursing homes across the UK.

It comes weeks after a bleak Care Quality Commission as-sessment warned that the quality and safety of social care received by elderly and disabled people in England are at risk, with care homes closing and providers pulling out because they can no longer make enough money.

The CMA said its inquiry would examine reports of “po-tentially unfair practices and contract terms being used by some care homes” and whether they breach consumer law.

It said it would “particularly like to hear from care home resi-dents and their relatives who have encountered issues such as unexplained or ‘hidden’ charg-es, unexpected fee increases, confusing requests for ‘top-up’ payments, or occasions when they feel that complaints have not been handled fairly”. There are approximately 17,000 care homes in England, with the mar-ket worth about £16bn a year. About 15% of over-85s live in care homes, with the number ex-pected to rise substantially as the population ages.

Research by Citizens Advice this year found one in 10 care homes give only a week’s notice

that fees are going to rise; a third of bill payers put down deposits without any protection scheme; and people often have to make de-cisions about moving a loved one into a home at very short notice, and are unable to properly plan.

In one case highlighted by the Guardian in October, a nurs-ing home in Colwyn Bay, north Wales, closed abruptly, leaving families desperately searching for alternative accommodation for their relatives. It is a story repeated across the country as cash-strapped care providers abandon struggling businesses.

Costs for an average single room in a UK residential care home went through the £30,000 per annum barrier this year, ris-ing by 5.2% to £30,926, more than double the average pen-sioner’s income of £14,456, ac-cording to the Prestige Nursing and Care nursing agency.

Prime Minister Theresa May visits a local butchers shop in her constituency of Maidenhead ahead of Small Business Saturday, in Maidenhead yesterday.

Hard choice

EUROPE9Gulf Times

Saturday, December 3, 2016

Islamic State (IS) will attack Europe again, security chiefs warned yesterday, and may

add car bombs, cyber and chemi-cal warfare to its local arsenal as European militants drift home after reverses in Syria and Iraq.

Gilles de Kerchove, the Euro-pean Union’s Counter-Terrorism Co-ordinator, said it was impos-sible to know for sure how many militants were already in Europe plotting.

A report yesterday by the EU’s Europol policy agency referred to dozens.

Some 2,500 Europeans may still be fi ghting in the Middle

East, de Kerchove estimated in an interview with Reuters.

But as they face setbacks in Mosul, Aleppo and elsewhere, Europe must track them if it is to contain a diaspora of trained militants like that which followed the 1989 Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“We have to be prepared be-cause some of them will come to Europe,” said de Kerchove, a veteran EU offi cial whose Brus-sels offi ce is packed with books and souvenirs from nine years of intensive travel and talking with Europe’s troubled neighbours.

“They may try to come back home and we don’t want to re-peat the mistake we made in the late 80s when the Russians left Afghanistan and we left these mujahideen ... in the wild.”

Many of those fought in Alge-ria’s bloody 1990s and went on to operate in confl icts from Chech-nya and Kosovo to Yemen.

Some Europeans, among them also wives and children of fi ght-ers, may choose to stay in the Middle East even if IS loses its territorial grip.

Others may go further afi eld, with lawless Libya already look-ing like a new base for European militants and the movement likely to go on recruiting over the Internet.

“The physical caliphate ... is collapsing but we still have the virtual caliphate and this allows the organisation to direct at-tacks,” de Kerchove said.

In his post since 2007, the Belgian lawyer said the past two years have seen an “impressive”

leap forward in intelligence co-operation among EU states and a tightening of law and practice on Europe’s borders in response to the variety of IS attacks that have included mass killings in Paris, Brussels and Nice.

“We have nearly fi xed most of the loopholes,” he said of what Europe could do internally to combat the Islamist militants who pose by far the bulk of vio-lent threats.

The tougher part is now, de Kerchove said, to address root grievances for militants, whether among alienated people at home or angry Sunnis in Iraq and Syria.

“The way the fi ght is develop-ing in Aleppo will have an im-pact,” he said. “The way we will try to address the grievances of the Sunni population both in Iraq

and in Syria will have an impact.”Inside Europe, he said, “we are

doing a lot better”.Europol identifi ed immediate

threats as similar to recent at-tacks: groups using automatic ri-fl es and suicide vests packed with home-made TATP explosive, or loners with knives or trucks.

IS was also infi ltrating Syrian refugee communities in Europe in a bid to infl ame hostility to im-migrants in places like Germany.

De Kerchove stressed also a new risk of IS bringing car bomb tactics, common in Syria and Iraq, into Europe.

Agencies were, he said, also preparing to counter more com-plex tactics in years to come, such as cyber-attacks and bio-logical weapons.

For now, he said, the Internet

was a weapon mainly of recruit-ment and radicalisation of indi-viduals – something the EU was working on countering in alliance with network companies.

“So far the terrorist organisa-tions have not used the Internet as a weapon, to mount an attack through the Internet,” he said, citing the risk of disrupting nu-clear power stations, dams, pow-er grids or even air traffi c control systems.

“It has not happened so far ... but I don’t exclude that before fi ve years we will be confronted by this,” de Kerchove said, noting that IS had the funds to hire sea-soned criminal hackers.

The EU was, he said, “actively working” to counter chemical, biological, radiological and nu-clear threats but did not see an

“acute risk”, despite evidence of militants dabbling with germs or using poison gas in Syria.

International co-operation is a priority and de Kerchove spends much of his time building rela-tionships with Arab countries, Turkey and other neighbours.

Ties with the United States had become very close under Presi-dent Barack Obama and de Ker-chove voiced a hope they would remain so under Donald Trump.

Working with Britain, a leader in counter-terrorism in Europe, should not be greatly aff ected by its decision to leave the EU.

Noting Britain’s decision to opt in to closer ties with Europol, he said: “Intelligence sharing is developing outside the EU framework so ... Brexit will not have any impact.”

‘Europe must brace for new, varied IS attacks’By Alastair Macdonald, ReutersBrussels

French Socialists were seek-ing a new standard-bearer yesterday after Presi-

dent Francois Hollande decided against running for a second term, paving the way for Prime Minister Manuel Valls to enter a race already rich in upsets.

Facing up to record low ap-proval ratings, Hollande an-nounced on Thursday night that he would step down next year, making history as the fi rst sit-ting French president not to seek re-election.

The ambitious Valls, who had been a loyal prime minister to Hollande until recent months when he began distancing him-self from his boss, is now ex-pected to throw his hat in the ring.

Yesterday Valls hinted as much, saying: “We must defend our record. We must defend our actions, and I will do it.”

Polls suggest however that no left-wing candidate will reach the second round of France’s presidential election in May.

Surveys currently tip right-wing Republicans party candi-date Francois Fillon to become president, beating far-right Na-tional Front (FN) candidate Ma-rine Le Pen in the run-off .

But with French voters show-

ing signs of the deep disillusion-ment that swept Donald Trump to the White House and led Brit-ons to vote to leave the European Union, no one is dismissing Le Pen’s chances of victory.

The full fi eld of candidates remains unknown and the lure of independents such as Hol-lande’s 38-year-old former economy minister Emmanuel Macron is diffi cult to gauge.

Hollande’s abdication seals the downfall of yet another po-litical heavyweight, after Fillon crushed former president Nico-las Sarkozy and former premier Alain Juppe – the long-time fa-vourite to be France’s next leader – in a right-wing primary.

Valls hailed Hollande’s de-cision as “the choice of a true statesman”.

Looking grave, Hollande said his decision not to run again was taken in the “country’s best in-terest” and to try to improve the fortunes of the ailing Socialists.

Defending his record, he pointed to the legalisation of gay marriage and his leadership in the face of terror attacks among his achievements.

“In the months to come, my only duty will be to continue to lead my country,” he said.

The press mainly praised his decision, calling it “courageous” and “dignifi ed”.

“It is a rare politician who sees clearly enough to remove

himself from power in the in-terest of the greater good,” the left-leaning Liberation said in an editorial.

Some 80% of the French pub-lic said they approved of Hol-lande’s choice, according to a poll by Harris Interactive pub-lished yesterday.

Le Pen was less indulgent, saying it showed the “huge fail-ure of his term in offi ce”.

Fillon said the Hollande era “was ending with a political mess”.

Hollande, 62, had endured some of the lowest ratings of any post-war French president.

A new poll released just be-fore his announcement showed him winning just 7% of votes in the fi rst round of the election in April.

His term has been marked by policy dithering, a sickly econ-omy and embarrassing revela-tions about his private life.

The Spanish-born Valls faces an uphill task to win back leftist voters unhappy with what they see as the government’s pro-business leanings.

The Socialist party began ac-cepting candidates on Thursday for its primaries, due to take place on January 22 and 29.

Arnaud Montebourg, a former economy minister who advo-cates more protectionist poli-cies, has already submitted his name.

Hollande took offi ce in 2012 promising to be “Mr Normal” after the fl amboyant and mer-curial Nicolas Sarkozy, but his tenure has been anything but ordinary.

On his watch, France has faced three major Islamist ter-ror attacks – fi rst against Charlie Hebdo magazine in January 2015, then in Paris the following No-vember and in Nice in July.

His complicated personal life made front-page news in 2014 when he was photographed ar-riving on a scooter at an apart-ment near the presidential pal-ace for a tryst with actress Julie Gayet.

The revelations led to the

break-up of Hollande’s relation-ship with his partner Valerie Tri-erweiler who went on to write an eviscerating book which claimed the president mocked poor peo-ple as “the toothless”.

But more damaging revela-tions were to come, in a book of

interviews with two journalists from Le Monde newspaper titled A President Shouldn’t Say That that alienated some of the So-cialist top brass.

In it Hollande criticised Islam, the French football team, and “cowardly” judges.

Socialists seek champion after Hollande bows outAFPParis

A man reads the French regional daily newspaper La Montagne, which had on its front page a portrait of Hollande and a headline reading ‘He renounces’, yesterday in front of the train station in Tulle. Hollande served as mayor of Tulle and was member of parliament for nearly 15 years for the constituency of the Correze department, which includes the town of Tulle.

Valls: We must defend our record. We must defend our actions, and I will do it.

Italian Prime Minister Mat-teo Renzi headed into a con-stitutional referendum this

weekend insisting he could still win his fi ght for political sur-vival.

But in a frantic fi nal round of campaigning, his domestic ri-vals vowed to knock down pro-posals to streamline parliament and force the centre-left leader out of offi ce.

“If Renzi wants to preserve the minimum of credibility he has left, he should not only leave the government but quit politics altogether,” former premier Sil-vio Berlusconi said in a rallying cry ahead of tomorrow’s vote.

Berlusconi initially gave his blessing to the proposed reform but he switched sides as a rising tide of opposition put Renzi’s job on the line.

Thousands of supporters of a “No” vote were joined by TV crews from all over the world in Turin to hear Beppe Grillo, the comic who founded the popu-list Five-Star Movement (M5S, MoVimento 5 Stelle), give his fi nal rallying call.

Renzi meanwhile was clinging to hope of a last-minute turna-round in voter sentiment.

“Never have there been so

many people undecided. The referendum match will be de-cided in the last 48 hours,” he said, despite polls pointing to a victory for the “No” camp.

Such an outcome is expected to trigger the reformist pre-mier’s resignation after just under three years in offi ce and plunge the country into a phase of political uncertainty.

After Britain’s vote to leave the EU and Donald Trump’s presidential triumph in the United States, Renzi is being portrayed as next in line to suff er a populist backlash from fed-up and forgotten voters.

His pledge to quit if he loses the vote has focused the cam-paign on his record and exacer-bated fears of political instabil-ity and economic turbulence if he loses.

At stake tomorrow is whether to slash the size and powers of the second-chamber Senate and transfer other powers from the regions to the national govern-ment.

Renzi says this will mean more eff ective leadership of a country that has had 60 diff er-ent governments since the con-stitution was approved in 1948.

As a result, it seems certain some disgruntled voters will vote “No” as a form of protest either against Renzi or over years of economic stagnation.

But the proposals have also come under fi re from opponents who see them as ill-considered and potentially opening the door to the kind of authoritarian rule the constitution is designed to prevent.

Politically and economically, the stakes are high.

Renzi sees the emasculation of the second chamber as key to ensuring diffi cult but necessary legislation does not get blocked or delayed in parliament while saving nearly €500mn ($532mn) a year in operating costs.

“If you want to abolish the privileges of the most expensive political caste in the world, you have to vote yes,” the youthful premier said yesterday.

Opponents insist the savings will be much smaller and that the legislative gridlock prob-lem is exaggerated: Renzi did not have any trouble getting his controversial Jobs Act through parliament last year.

A “No” vote is seen as bol-stering Grillo, potentially giving M5S a platform for an assault on power nationally, as well as Matteo Salvini, leader of the an-ti-immigrant, anti-EU North-ern League.

Economically, the biggest concern is that post-referen-dum political instability could scupper Italy’s eff orts to resolve a bad loans crisis in the banking

sector and spark turmoil across the eurozone.

A lot of variables need to come together for that to happen.

But the fear of defaults and contagion looms in the back-ground: Italian banking stocks have halved in value this year, government borrowing costs have edged higher and markets were jittery yesterday in the fi -nal trading sessions before the vote.

Renzi’s allies say the most likely “No” scenario would in-volve Renzi handing over the premier’s role to Finance Min-ister Pier Carlo Padoan, but re-maining head of his Democratic Party with an eye on a come-back at the next election, due by spring 2018.

The last permitted polls, pub-lished on November 18, gave the “No” camp at least a fi ve to eight point lead, with more than a quarter of voters undecided.

The “Yes” camp received a boost yesterday when it was re-ported that around 40% of the four million Italians overseas who are entitled to vote had cast ballots through embassies and consulates.

Media see the high turnout, compared with previous votes, as helpful for the “Yes” camp.

The “No” side meanwhile are worried a low turnout in south-ern Italy could hit their chances.

Final pitches as referendum battle heads to wire in ItalyAFPRome

Renzi: Never have there been so many people undecided. The referendum match will be decided in the last 48 hours.

Cypriots agree to resume talksAFPNicosia

Rival Cypriot leaders have agreed to resume UN-backed reunifi cation talks

after negotiations broke down in Switzerland last month.

The decision to return to the negotiating table was taken dur-ing a UN-hosted dinner for the two leaders in Nicosia’s UN-controlled buff er zone late on Thursday.

It was the fi rst time that Greek Cypriot leader Nicos Anasta-siades and his Turkish Cypriot counterpart Mustafa Akinci had met face-to-face since the dis-appointment in Switzerland last month.

There had been mounting international pressure for the leaders to pick up where they left off in a bid to reach a deal this year.

“The leaders have decided to immediately re-engage in their negotiations and have instructed their negotiators to continue meeting in order to achieve fur-ther progress on all outstanding issues interdependently,” a UN statement said.

“In line with their joint resolve to reach a comprehensive settle-ment as soon as possible, they further decided that they will meet in Geneva on 9 January, 2017,” it added.

On January 11, they will present maps of their respec-tive proposals for the internal boundaries of a future federa-tion.

“From 12 January, a confer-ence on Cyprus will be convened with the added participation of the guarantor powers [Greece, Turkey and Britain]. Other rel-evant parties shall be invited as needed,” the UN said.

Talks between the two leaders on ending the island’s decades-old division collapsed last month with the two sides still far apart on the issue of territory and no date set for a new round.

Cyprus has been divided since 1974, when Turkish troops in-vaded the island in response to an Athens-inspired coup seek-ing union with Greece.

It has always been agreed that some of the territory currently controlled by the Turkish Cypri-ots will be ceded to Greek Cyp-riot control in any peace deal.

Turkish Cypriots made up just 18% of the island’s population in 1974, but they currently control more than a third of its territory.

Just how much and which land they should give up has bedevil-led four decades of peace talks.

The two sides remain far apart on how many Greek Cyp-riots should be able to return to homes they fl ed in 1974, with Akinci determined to minimise the number of Turkish Cypriots who would be displaced for a second time.

There are also diff erences over post-solution security arrange-ments with Anastasiades want-ing Turkish troops on the island to leave but Akinci determined to keep a Turkish presence.

UN envoy Espen Barth Eide was in Athens yesterday for talks with Greek leaders that were ex-pected to be dominated by the issue of security and guarantees.

He will travel on to Ankara for talks with Turkish leaders on Monday.

British physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has been hos-

pitalised in Rome for checks after not feeling well but his condition is not believed to be serious, a spokesman said.

Hawking, 74, who was in Rome to attend a conference at the Pontifi cal Academy of Sci-ences and met Pope Francis on Monday, was taken to Rome’s Gemelli hospital on Thursday night.

Both the spokesman and a Vatican source said Hawking, who suff ers from motor neu-rone disease, was not believed

to be in serious condition.The Vatican source said

plans for Hawking and his en-tourage to leave today had not been changed.

A hospital source said Hawking would spend a sec-ond night in the Gemelli “as a precaution” but that “the situ-ation was under control”.

Hawking, author of A Brief History of Time, speaks through a computer and trav-els with a staff that includes two nurses.

He gave a talk at the Vatican on November 25 on the origin of the universe.

The Gemelli is considered one of Rome’s best hospitals and it is where popes are treat-ed.

Hawking in hospitalReutersRome

INDIA

Gulf Times Saturday, December 3, 201610

Two die in queues ascurrency chaos continuesIANSNew Delhi/Kolkata

Two elderly persons died while standing in a bank queue in West Bengal

yesterday as people, scrambling for money across the country, battled long lines outside banks and ATMs on the second day of a new month.

In Delhi and adjoining satel-lite towns, there were no queues outside many ATMs with the machines running dry and banks disbursing limited money as the government struggled to keep pace with the demand for cash.

The rush for cash has in-creased and the situation wors-ened since Thursday - the fi rst payday after 86% of the curren-cy - Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes - in circulation was declared ille-gal on November 8.

The wait in queues proved deadly for Rabin Mukherjee, 72, and Viswadeb Naskar, 80, who collapsed and died in North 24 Parganas district waiting for long hours to withdraw money.

Dozens of deaths, includ-ing cardiac arrests, suicides and hospital casualties, in the past over three weeks have been linked to Prime Minis-ter Narendra Modi’s surprise move to ban high denomination currency notes in a bid to curb black money and corruption.

There was still no respite for

the salaried people and pen-sioners across the country even as they have got their remu-neration but were unable to lay hands on their own money.

Banks ran out of cash within hours of opening in most of the areas of the national capital.

In south Delhi areas includ-ing C R Park, Green Park, South Ex, Malviya Nagar, Lajpat Na-gar, East of Kailash and Safdar-jung Enclave, most of the ATMs were not functional.

“In search of a working ATM, I travelled from Green Park to C R Park but failed (to get cash). There was no ATM with cash anywhere and I went to Malviya Nagar where one of the ATMs was being refi lled. I waited there and got some,” Sunita Banerjee, an engineer said.

“I have to make payments to many people. I will have to wait in the queue to withdraw more cash daily so that I clear my dues,” she said.

People were agitated as banks rationed withdrawals - despite the government’s upper limit of Rs24,000 a week.

In Kerala, Finance Minister Thomas Isaac said many treas-uries were running dry and couldn’t disburse salaries and pensions to most of nearly a million people.

There are 157 banking treas-uries in the state where almost half a million people and state government staff get their sala-ries and pensions through the treasuries, while the remaining half a million are linked to banks for these disbursals.

Happy at support fordemonetisation: PMIANSNew Delhi

Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday said he was happy that people in India

were “bearing temporary diffi -culties for long-term gain” after demonetisation.

“I am happy to see that the peo-ple of India are bearing temporary diffi culties for the long-term gain of the nation,” Modi wrote in an article posted on Linkedin.com.

“In the 21st century India, there is no place for corruption. Corruption slows down growth and takes a toll on the dreams of the poor, neo-middle class and middle class,” he said.

The prime minister urged peo-ple to switch over to mobile bank-ing and mobile wallets to root out corruption.

“I urge all of you, particularly my young friends, to lead the change and inspire others to turn towards cashless transactions. This will set the strong founda-tions for an India where there is no place for corruption and black money,” he said.

“Large volumes of liquid cash

are a big source of corruption and black money,” Modi added.

Terming the government’s November 8 demonetisation a “unique opportunity”, he said the trading community had got a historic chance to upgrade them-selves and embrace more tech-nology which, he claimed, will bring greater prosperity.

“When I made the demoneti-sation announcement on Novem-ber 8, I was aware that the people of India will face inconvenience. But I requested the people to bear this short-term pain for long-term gain,” the prime minister wrote.

“Today, we live in an era of mobile banking and mobile wal-lets. Ordering food, buying and selling furniture, ordering a taxi... all of this, and lot more, is possible through your mobiles. Technology has brought speed and convenience in our lives,” Modi said.

Meanwhile, giving a stern warning to those who were con-verting black money into white, the fi nance ministry said that the trails were being watched by the income tax offi cials and a co-or-dinated action was underway.

Goa Art and Culture minister Dayanand Mandrekar’s statement that women today are so immersed in TV serials that they forget to make tea or enquire about their husbands, who return weary from work, has triggered controversy. The Congress has claimed that Mandrekar’s comments reflect the “khap mentality” of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders, especially vis-a-vis women. “Demeaning women is not new to the BJP. While the party claims it has a modern outlook, the comments made by Mandrekar against women, reflects the sad reality of their mindset,” Congress spokesperson Sunil Kawtha said.

An aggressive campaign based on scientific studies will be launched to counter a smear campaign that has taken the sheen away from coconut oil, a Kerala minister said yesterday. State Agriculture Minister V S Sunil Kumar said there was a systematic and organised campaign - involving a section of medical professionals also - against edible coconut oil. “We are going to immediately organise a sustained campaign with the help of solid scientific studies proving that coconut oil is the best oil for cooking. In the past, a smear campaign against our own coconut oil aff ected it so much and many thought it was not healthy and stopped using it,” Sunil Kumar said.

The Central Bureau of Investigation additional director Rakesh Asthana has been appointed as the agency’s interim director, as incumbent Anil Sinha’s tenure ended yesterday, an off icial statement said. Asthana is a 1984 Gujarat cadre Indian Police Service (IPS) off icer. “The competent authority has approved assignment of additional charge of the post of director, Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), to Rakesh Asthana, IPS, additional director, CBI with eff ect from the date of relinquishment of charge by Anil Kumar Sinha, IPS on completion of his tenure with immediate eff ect and until further orders,” said an order issued by the department of personnel and training.

Hemanth Joseph, a Kerala-based security researcher, has identified a bug running in iOS 10.1 version of Apple’s operating system that allowed him to bypass the activation lock on an iPad. The activation lock in Apple’s iPhone or iPad is hard for anyone other than the owner of the device to hack and set it up as a new device. Joseph bypassed the activation lock in a locked iPad by discovering a weakness in the device setup process running iOS 10.1, Forbes reported yesterday. The bug discovered by Joseph was reportedly fixed in an iOS update last month. According to Joseph’s website, he is currently working as information security researcher at the firm Slash Secure.

A man fell from his house balcony and died while trying to rescue his three-year-old daughter, who locked herself in a room while playing, Bhopal police said yesterday. According to police, Mishra, a doctor who had his own clinic, had a three-storey house. On Thursday night, his daughter locked herself in a room on the top floor while playing but could not open it. To rescue her, the father fashioned a makeshift rope to try to reach the balcony of the room. However, the rope broke and the doctor plunged to the ground. He was immediately taken to the hospital where doctors declared him dead.

Ruckus over Goa minister’scomments on women

Kerala campaign to counter‘smear’ against coconut oil

Rakesh Asthana namedinterim CBI director

Researcher cracks Apple’siPad lock activation system

Dad dies trying to rescueaccidentally-locked toddler

CONTROVERSY OFFBEATAPPOINTMENT ACHIEVEMENT TRAGEDY

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday inaugurated two clinics for homeless people at Dandi Park and Sarai Kale Khan ISBT in New Delhi yesterday. “It is the first time that a government is trying to give a respectful life to the poor. Earlier governments thought of poor only when they needed votes,” Kejriwal said. A government statement said that the clinics will provide free medicines and free medical check-ups.

Free clinics for homelessNation suff ering

due to Modi’s

incompetence,

claims RahulIANSNew Delhi

Launching a scathing attack on Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Congress Vice-Presi-

dent Rahul Gandhi yesterday said the country has suff ered tremen-dous damage due to his “vanity and incompetence”.

The Congress leader also de-scribed Modi as “a prisoner of his own image” and accused him of practising TRP politics.

“The prime minister often asks what the Congress did in the last 60 years? The people of India know exactly what the Congress achieved for this country. But I would like to tell the prime min-ister what the Congress didn’t do in 67 years,” Rahul said while ad-dressing a Congress Parliamentary Party meeting here.

Generally, Congress President Sonia Gandhi addresses the CPP meeting, but she was not present this time due to health concerns.

Training his guns at Modi, Ra-hul said: “The Congress never gave India a prime minister who was a prisoner of his own image. We never gave India a prime min-ister who was ready to infl ict such tremendous suff ering on the peo-ple of India to protect his own per-sona.” Continuing his tirade, the Congress leader said: “We never gave India a prime minister who based his entire policy-making strategy on TRPs (television rat-ing points). We never gave India a prime minister who bypassed the experience of those sitting in vari-ous institutions. “The country has suff ered tremendous damage as a result of the vanity and incompe-tence of our prime minister.”

Rahul accused Modi of not hearing the voices of the opposi-tion. “The Congress and the entire opposition are disturbed that the prime minister does not feel it is worth his time to sit in the house and listen to the views of its demo-cratically elected members. Do-

ing so could potentially prevent him from making the catastrophic policy mistakes he is currently making.”

“Listening to the voices of the people of this country is the only thing that can free him from the clutches of his own image and make him an eff ective prime min-ister. Yet he consistently refuses to do so,” he said. Rahul said Modi’s decision to demonetise Rs 500 and Rs 1,000 notes “had attacked the very foundations of our economy rather than black money.”

“As per the Centre of Monitor-ing Indian Economy, the prime minister’s impromptu experiment has already cost India 1.28 lakh crore in lost wages, cost of printing and logistics,” he said.

Rahul claimed the results of this “catastrophic experiment” will soon be revealed to the world.

“Every economist of any repute has already condemned it and questioned its capacity to realise the intended goals. Modi has cre-ated a massive new corrupt black market that is working overtime to convert the black money into white,” he said.

“It is clear that our gross do-mestic product growth will be devastated. India’s poor have been landed a body blow. Millions of migrant labourers and farmers have been crushed. Entire indus-tries have been destroyed. The poor stand in line while the cor-rupt are been given a free bypass through the new income tax law,” he added.

Criticising the government’s policy towards Pakistan, the Con-gress leader accused Modi of sit-ting silently while Kashmir was burning. “Modi will be judged by history as the man who gifted massive political space to anti-India forces by creating an oppor-tunistic political alliance between the Bharatiya Janata Party and the People’s Democratic Party. He has created the political vacuum that gives the terrorists space to oper-ate,” he said.

Mamata leaves offi ce after36 hours amid army rowIANSKolkata

West Bengal Chief Min-ister Mamata Banerjee left the state secretar-

iat yesterday evening after stay-ing put for 36 hours to protest the alleged army deployment in the state and threatened to ex-plore “legal options” if the army was not withdrawn.

Addressing the media before leaving the seat of power “Na-banna” in neighbouring How-rah district, Banerjee said the army was deployed at toll plazas, keeping her government “in the dark” about the move.

“We have never seen such ar-

rogance (by the Centre). If army is not withdrawn, we will ex-plore legal options,” she said.

Mamata said she had great respect for the army, but was “sad” in the manner in which they were being used for “politi-cal vendetta”.

Banerjee, who is also the Tri-namool Congress supremo, claimed the army informed the police about their exercise only for one spot – the toll plaza of Vidyasagar Setu (Bridge) near Nabanna.

“The police did not permit them to conduct such exercise. They did not give any intimation for other places where they un-dertook their exercise,” she said.

The chief minister said such

exercises were not conducted in states like Gujarat, Maharash-tra, Bihar, Odisha, Jharkhand, Punjab, Kerala and Uttar Pradesh.

“Why was it conducted in Bengal?” she asked and an-swered her own question: “It was done in Bengal because we have been raising our voice for the people of India.”

The drama unfolded on Thursday evening when Ban-erjee alleged the army has been deployed at the Dankuni and Palsit toll plazas on National Highway 2 (connecting Delhi and Kolkata) without informing the state government.

Demanding to know whether a military coup has taken place,

she said: “The motive is politi-cal, vindictive, unconstitution-al, unethical and undemocratic.”

Later, Banerjee said the army was present at the toll plazas of most of the districts.

She spent the night at the sec-retariat, demanding the with-drawal of the army from the sec-ond Hooghly Bridge toll plaza, about 500 metres from Naban-na. “I’ll keep vigil to protect the democracy, to protect my demo-cratically elected government,” she said.

Shortly after midnight, the Eastern Command said the army has been asked to withdraw from the toll plaza near Nabanna as it had already collected the data it required.

Past 2am, Banerjee – holding her third round of media con-ference since Thursday evening – stuck to her decision to spend the night at Nabanna, arguing the army may be back.

Denying Banerjee’s charges, Defence Minister Manohar Pa-rikkar and the Eastern Com-mand of the army claimed it was a routine annual data collection exercise carried out to assess the availability of load carriers at all the major entry points in various states.

General Offi cer Command-ing Bengal area (offi ciating) Maj. Gen. Sunil Yadav said the ex-ercise was conducted with full knowledge and co-ordination with the local police.

People queue outside a bank to withdraw cash and deposit their old high denomination banknotes in Mumbai yesterday.

“I have to make payments to many people. I will have to wait in the queue to withdraw more cash daily so that I clear my dues”

PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN11

Gulf Times Saturday, December 3, 2016

PM retakes powers to sack heads of public entitiesAfter three decades of

devolution, the Paki-stan Muslim League-

Nawaz government has silently restored powers of the prime minister to sack heads of pub-lic sector entities (PSE) without assigning reasons.

The government or the prime minister did not have the pow-ers to remove a chief executive offi cer or managing director of a PSE under the Companies Or-dinance of 1984 which had en-sured that heads of such entities took independent commercial decisions in the best interest of the companies.

In fact, the powers to remove a chief executive were well de-fi ned in the 1984 law so that

heads of public sector compa-nies could not play in the hands of the government or any other interest group. The chief execu-tives also had security of tenure under the law.

The chief executives of com-panies will now tend to follow written or verbal directives of the ministries concerned to save their jobs and, at the same time, try to balance rights and powers with boards of directors.

Informed sources said that amendments to the law were made following resistance in recent years by some chief ex-ecutives who approached high courts against removal orders issued by respective ministries with the approval of the prime minister. The high courts had set aside the removal orders.

In one such example last year, the government had removed

Arif Hameed, chief executive of Sui Northern Gas Pipelines Limited, when he refused to sign agreements relating to import of liquefi ed natural gas (LNG) and its sale to consum-ers on terms unacceptable to his company and the board of directors.

The Lahore High Court had

set aside his removal order and the board of directors also turned down a government re-quest to remove him through a majority vote until he tendered resignation to avoid inquiries.

Under the 1984 law, only “the directors of a company by resolution passed by not less than three-fourths of the total number of directors” could re-move a chief executive before the expiration of his term of of-fi ce notwithstanding anything contained in the articles or in any agreement between the company and the chief execu-tive.

The government has changed this protection available to chief executives by adding a sub-clause to Section 191 of the Companies Ordinance 2016 promulgated on Nov 11, which says that the protections and

conditions provided in the sec-tions 186 and 187 shall not apply to a person nominated by the government.

Another new clause empow-ering the government to remove a chief executive or managing director of a state-owned com-pany said the chief executive would “hold the offi ce during the pleasure of the government”.

The change in the law will now enable the government to directly remove chief execu-tives of about 100 public sector companies without requesting or manipulating the boards of directors in case heads of these companies decide to take inde-pendent decisions against the wishes of federal ministers and the Prime Minister Offi ce.

The new law also empowered the government to nominate and appoint the chief executive

of a company where majority of directors are nominated by it and such a nominee will “hold offi ce during the pleasure of the government”.

Under the new law, the terms and conditions of appointment of a chief executive will be de-termined by the board or the company at a general meeting or by the government in case of a PSE.

It says, “The chief executive shall if he is not already a direc-tor of the company, be deemed to be its director and be entitled to all the rights and privileges, and subject to all the liabilities, of that offi ce. No person who is ineligible to become a director of a company under section 153 or disqualifi ed under sections 171 or 172 shall be appointed or continue as the chief executive of any company.”

InternewsIslamabad

Nawaz Sharif ... empowerment

EU off ers funds for electoral reformsEuropean Union (EU) ambassador Jean Francois Cautain said that European Union (EU) will be off ering 15mn Euros to Pakistan for conducting the next general elections in more eff icient and transparent manner.He held a meeting with Finance Minister Ishaq Dar yesterday.The envoy said that the EU is preparing to off er an electoral reform package of 15mn Euros to train and assist the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) to manage the next elections in the most eff icient and transparent manner. Minister Dar said the electoral reforms committee has also done extensive work with participation from all political parties and wide consultation with the members of the civil society and it is expected that there will be a positive development in the introduction of a comprehensive law regarding the electoral process in Pakistan soon.

Speaker hints at blocking salaries of absent MPs

Pakistan’s National As-sembly (the lower house) Speaker Sardar

Ayaz Sadiq said yesterday they will get a resolution passed through parliament seeking blockage of salaries of oppo-sition PTI members of par-liament for absenting them-selves from proceedings.

He said maintaining the quorum in parliament is the responsibility of the govern-ment and political parties and he was not in favour of ending the condition of quorum.

“Pakistan’s democracy has not reached the level where the condition of maintaining quorum could be removed,” he told newsmen at a workshop yesterday.

Sadiq said being the custo-dian of the NA, he gave more time to the opposition and all the members of the House ir-respective of their political affi liations and province. “If any member from Balochistan did not want to speak in the House, then I could not force him,” he said.

He said one of the members of the House always wanted to speak prior to the prime min-ister, the opposition leader and parliamentary leaders.

He said there is no rule in the Rules of the National As-sembly to turn the House into a House Committee to hear public petitions. “If we turn the House into a House Com-mittee, then it will hamper the working of standing commit-tees,” he added.

In reply to another ques-tion regarding the absence of PTI lawmakers in the House, the NA Speaker said he will take up the issue of continued absence of the PTI legislators without leave application and will inform the House as per rules and procedure.

Sadiq said if anyone did not accept him as Speaker then he did not take care of this attitude as he was constitu-tionally elected speaker. To a question about sending of ref-erences to the Election Com-mission of Pakistan, he said he sent these references after reviewing documents.

He said the issue of not paying allowances to absent MNAs would be decided in the House Business Advisory Committee.

To a question regarding Sheikh Rasheed Ahmed’s criticism on him, he said Shiekh Rasheed always hugs him whenever he comes to his chamber but when he was on TV screens he always played opposition.

Earlier addressing the seminar, Minister of State for Information Mariyam Au-rangzeb said the population census is a big issue of the country as without it the real data of health and education could not achieved.

She said the parliament and media had an important role in achieving the goals of strategic development. She said the po-lio cases are in rise in the Fata and South Punjab which were confl ict zones and polio could be removed from the areas when confl ict zones also be ended.

InternewsIslamabad

An Afghan woman carries containers of milk over her shoulder to sell in Mazar-i-Sharif yesterday.

Headed to market

Taliban kill 23 Afghancivilians

Taliban insurgents have killed 23 civilians after they lost 29 of their fi ght-

ers in an abortive attack on police in southern Afghanistan, police sources said yesterday.

“The Taliban insurgents have launched coordinated attacks on police checkpoints in Nesh district of Kandahar yesterday (Thursday), and they faced re-sistance from Afghan forces,” Kandahar police said in a state-ment.

“Following the Taliban attack, 29 Taliban fi ghters were killed and a number of others sustained injuries, and large numbers of weapons and ammunition were confi scated from them,” the statement added.

“The brutal enemy after suf-fering defeat against Afghan forces, took their revenge by killing 23 civilians including fi ve children and two women,” it said.

The police statement said the Taliban had sought refuge in the homes of civilians and killed them after they opposed the in-surgents.

According to Nesh district police commander Niaz Mo-hammed the attacks occurred Wednesday and Thursday.

“After their defeat, the Taliban wanted to hide in the houses and when the civilians showed their opposition, the Taliban killed them,” he said.

“Six members of a policeman’s family were among the victims. In total 23 people (civilians) were killed.”

Contacted by AFP, Taliban spokesman Qari Yousuf Ahmadi rejected the claims as false.

While Nesh district borders Uruzgan province, which is a major opium producer and has a high Taliban presence, its popu-lation is considered pro-govern-ment and Islamists insurgents rarely intervene there.

During the last Taliban off en-sive in October on Kunduz, the economic capital of northeast Afghanistan, civilians who had fl ed the fi ghting accused the in-surgents of hiding in their houses or seeking to establish their posi-tions there.

As in Nesh, they said that those who resisted were killed.

AFPKandahar

380,000 Afghans return from Pakistan: UNHCR

More than 380,000 reg-istered Afghan refu-gees have returned

from Pakistan this year, the highest number since 2007, the United Nations said yesterday, adding it handed out $135mn in cash assistance in the last three months alone.

Fears of a crackdown on refu-gees in Pakistan along with a doubling of the UN’s cash grant for voluntary returnees to $400 saw a surge over the border af-ter July this year, the UN has said.

“These are unprecedented numbers we did not anticipate. In October alone some 148,000 returned, which is the high-est number of returns in one month (sic) since August 2005,” Duniya Aslam Khan, a spokes-man for UNHCR, said.

At one point UNHCR was processing an average of 5,500 refugees per day, she added. Es-timates suggest that a further half a million unregistered refu-gees may also have returned this year, though the fi gure could not be verifi ed by offi cials.

The returnees face an uncer-tain future in an Afghanistan still torn apart by decades of war, where a record half a mil-

lion people were internally dis-placed by the fi ghting in 2016, according to UN fi gures.

The mass migrations are draining local resources, espe-cially in safer urban areas, offi -cials have said.

UNHCR said yesterday the voluntary repatriations will be halted from December 1 for a routine winter break, resuming in March. The break will also allow the agency time to mobi-lise additional resources, Khan said.

UNHCR had estimated just 50,000 refugees would return in 2016, based on trends from previous years.

Khan said some 1.34mn reg-

istered refugees still reside in Pakistan. A further half a mil-lion undocumented refugees are also estimated to still be in the country, making Pakistan one of the largest refugee-host-ing nations in the world.

Pakistan has extended a deadline for the refugees to leave its territory from March 2017 to December next year.

Some Afghan refugees have been sheltering in Pakistan for decades, fi rst fl eeing over the border after the Soviet invasion of 1979.

Some 4.2mn Afghan refugees have returned to Afghanistan voluntarily under the UNHCR-funded Voluntary Repatriation programme since 2002.

AFPIslamabad

Early drought warning helps farmers prepare for dry season

Like his farming neigh-bours, Bilal Khan plants wheat in late October or

early November each year, and harvests and sells his winter crop a few months later.

But this year, there are no wheat stalks are to be seen on his 3 hectares (5 acres) of land in Rawat, a town some 12 miles (20km) from Islamabad.

Instead, Khan is growing onions, potatoes, caulifl ower, cabbage and carrots.

In late October, the Pakistan Meteorological Department in-formed Khan and other farmers that no rain was forecast for the

crucial wheat-growing months of November and December in parts of northern Pakistan that rely on rain-fed agriculture.

The warning was one of the fi rst of its kind from Pakistan’s weather service, aimed at help-ing farmers look ahead months, and plan for crops more likely to survive drought.

“As advised by the weather-man on the radio, I exercised caution and opted for vegetable cultivation, it being less water-intensive,” Khan said.

Winter rains are usually reli-able in this region - but already those who did not heed the weather forecast are regretting their decision, as they watch the wheat they planted fail.

Muhammad Khan spent

$2,000 on wheat seed which he fi nished sowing on November 7 on his family’s 4-acre farm in Ghool, a village about 90km southeast of Islamabad.

His nights have been sleep-less since he noticed the seeds growing abnormally slowly.

“Even if rains come in January and February, the wheat output would be less than 50%” of normal, because the grain heads will be un-derdeveloped, Khan predicted.

Slow growth makes the crop vulnerable in other ways too. Karaim Nawab, a wheat farmer in Gujar Khan, said if wheat doesn’t grow strongly enough to properly grip the soil, the plants are at risk of being fl attened if there are heavy winds later in the season.

Wheat is grown on around 9mn hectares (22mn acres) of land in Pakistan. Around 25mn tonnes of the crop are produced annually across the country. The Potohar plateau produces 3mn tonnes.

This year, things are diff erent. Ghulam Rasul, director-general of the Meteorological Department, said the winter drought appears to be the result of an unusual high pressure zone over Central Asia that has driven rain clouds over northern Pakistan and beyond without letting rain fall.

Rasul says the drought is a consequence of the El Niño phe-nomenon, but that the eff ects are much harsher now than the last time the weather phenom-enon aff ected Pakistan, in 2009.

The most recent El Niño has also caused severe droughts in Africa and devastating fl oods in Asia-Pacifi c countries.

The winter drought comes on the heels of a monsoon that re-ceded in early September.

Apart from holding back the on-set of winter rains across Pakistan, El Niño is also causing large fl uctu-ations between day and night-time temperatures, Rasul added.

Wheat requires temperatures of 21 to 25 degrees Celsius for ef-fective germination. This winter, during the peak wheat-sowing months, the temperature re-mained around 30 degrees.

The unusually high tempera-tures have forced farmers to delay wheat sowing in Islama-bad and its suburban areas such

Thomson Reuters FoundationRawat, Pakistan

A Pakistani vendor waits for customers at a main fruit and vegetable market in Lahore yesterday.

as Rawat, Gujar Khan, Taxila, Attock and Rawalpindi.

Although drought-tolerant wheat varieties have been intro-duced in the rain-fed areas, these varieties also need water.

In Rawat, Bilal Khan is confi -dent his vegetables will sell quick-ly when he takes them to market in February and March. He predicts he will make as much money as he would have from a wheat crop.

PHILIPPINES

Gulf TimesSaturday, December 3, 201612

China rescues Filipinos near disputed shoalReutersManila

China’s coastguard res-cued two Filipino fi sher-men from a capsized boat

near a disputed South China Sea shoal yesterday, underlining the fast thawing of ties between two countries long at odds over sov-ereignty.

A Philippine coastguard ves-sel navigated choppy waters to collect the two fi shermen from the Chinese ship, in what would

be the fi rst time in four years both countries’ coastguards were in close proximity in the Scarborough Shoal, a rocky outcrop at the heart of years of diplomatic tension.

“As we speak, the Chinese vessel is linking up with our own ship to turn over the two Filipi-no fi shermen,” said Philippine coastguard spokesman Com-mander Armand Balilo.

“It is taking some time be-cause the waters in the area are very rough.”

In Beijing, Chinese Foreign

Ministry spokesman Geng Sh-uang said the fi shermen were in good health and that eff orts were continuing to get them on to the Philippine ship.

China “will continue to pa-trol and keep watch in waters around Huangyan Island and faithfully carry out its respon-sibilities and mission to safe-guard the peace, tranquillity and order in relevant waters”, he said, using the Chinese name for Scarborough Shoal.

The rescue illustrates the rapid changes in the relation-

ship between the two countries under Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who in only a few months has sought to turn a historic foe into a friend.He visited Beijing in October and has met twice with Chinese leader Xi Jinping, to whom he has expressed admiration.

The last time coastguards of the two countries were both at the shoal was in June 2012, during a protracted face-off sparked by Philippine at-tempts to arrest Chinese fish-ermen. That led to the Philip-

pines lodging a case with the Permanent Court of Arbitra-tion in The Hague, which infu-riated China and put its claims to most of the South China Sea in the international spotlight.

The Philippines won that case in July, with the arbitral award voiding China’s U-shaped line of sovereignty on its maps.

The ruling made clear the Scarborough Shoal was under the jurisdiction of no coun-try and claimants China, the Philippines and Vietnam were

entitled to exploit its plenti-ful fish stocks. China was until recently overseeing a blockade of the shoal some 124 miles off the Philippines coast, chasing away Filipino fishermen and sometimes blasting them with water cannon.

Duterte has told Xi he will unilaterally turn the shoal into a marine sanctuary, banning fishing within the lagoon and restricting it to the peripher-als. It is unclear whether Xi will agree to that and how it would be enforced.

Butig cleared of Maute terrorists: armyBy Fernan Marasigan & Catherine S ValenteManila Times

The Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) has de-clared the municipality of

Butig in Lanao del Sur as “100% cleared” of Maute Group terror-ists as it prepared for the town’s turnover to the local government to facilitate the return of dis-placed residents.

“The main areas, the built-

up areas of Butig municipality are now clear, paving the way for its turnover to the local government so that they can now allow some of the resi-dents who still stay there to go back to their homes,” said Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla Jr, AFP spokesman.

The terrorist Maute Group occupied the town yesterday. The military claimed to have killed 61 militants and wound-ed 12 others during the six-day military offensive. Thirty-five

soldiers were wounded on the government side.

Padilla however said the mili-tary was not taking any chances and would continue to pursue the terrorists. Operations will focus on the outskirts of Butig, he said.

“The military off ensive opera-tions will continue in areas we need to clear, to prevent the re-maining elements of this group from coming back,” he said.

Military and police personnel will be deployed to secure the

town, and there are suggestions to put up a military base or camp there, the AFP spokesman said.

Padilla rejected claims by mil-itant groups that the bombing of the convoy of the advance party of President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday, which resulted in the wounding of seven members of the Presidential Security Group and two other soldiers, was “stage-managed.”

He insisted that the roadside bombing was the handiwork of the Maute Group in an attempt

to prevent the entry of reinforce-ments and relief goods intended for Butig residents.

In Davao City, Duterte scored “people from Manila” for claim-ing that the government was laying the groundwork to declare martial law.

Duterte said the Maute Group’s terror activities must end as its cause was illegitimate.

“There are only 50 of you and you will fi ght the armed forces. That’s foolish,” the president said.

Military troops retake and occupy the old Butig town hall in Butig, Lanao del Sur in Mindanao island yesterday.

Duterte pines for motorcycle and doubts will get chance to ride againReuters Manila

Philippine leader Rodrigo Duterte spoke of his sad-ness yesterday at having

to forfeit his beloved motorcy-cles in becoming president, and off ered tips on handling two wheels and why a Honda was better than a Harley.

The 71-year-old reminisced about touring the Philippines by motorbike and how as a city mayor he used to ride every week on a motorcycle that his secu-rity team made him mothball a day after winning a presidential election in May.

“I really do not know if I will be able to ride again with the constricted environment I have now...That is the drawback of being the president,” Duterte told graduates of a police high-way patrol training course.

“I lost the desire because

when I go out, my security fol-low me. Just forget it.”

Duterte’s image as an easy rider adds to the down-to-earth

approach that has endeared him to millions of Filipinos.

When he was Davao City mayor he shunned protocol by

making visiting President Glo-ria Macapagal Arroyo ride pillion on his bike, and he once forced a policeman to fi ne him for riding without his helmet.

Duterte gave a few lessons in motorcycle safety and recalled a few accidents, including one that damaged a nerve in his neck, which he is frequently seen massaging to prevent headaches.

He boasted of having reached speeds of 180kph and owning a Yamaha and Honda as well as a Harley Davidson, although he said he was not too happy with that model as it over-heated.

“Throw it in the ditch. It is useless and hot,” he said.

Duterte has overseen a tough anti-drugs campaign in which more than 2,500 people have been killed since he took offi ce on June 30, about three-quarters in police operations, and the rest apparently victims of vigilantes or druglords eliminating rivals.

Duterte: missing bike rides

Presidential aide ‘played role in reinstating tainted offi cial’By Jeff erson Antiporda & Catherine S ValenteManila Times

Senator Leila de Lima has claimed it was Chris-topher “Bong” Go, the

special assistant to President Rodrigo Duterte, who ordered Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Ronald “Bato” de la Rosa to reinstate Supt. Marvin Marcos despite accu-sations of involvement in il-legal drugs against the police offi cial.

Go immediately denied the accusation, calling de Lima’s statements “pure hearsay and unsubstantiated.”

“I did not ask General Bato to reinstate him (Marcos). I also do not interfere with the aff airs and functions of the PNP,” he said in a statement released to Palace reporters.

De Lima told reporters she received the information from a reliable source inside the PNP.

“I have my own sources, I’m just quoting a source. But I will not reveal my source because he might get in trouble. It was Bong Go,” de Lima said.

On Tuesday, de la Rosa said he had relieved Marcos as head of the PNP Criminal Investi-gation and Protection Group in Eastern Visayas after Mar-cos was named by self-con-fessed drug kingpin Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr, as one of his protectors.

However, he said a “higher offi cial” called him to reinstate Marcos. The PNP chief did not disclose the name of the of-fi cial.

Marcos was with the CIDG

team that carried out the raid that led to the death of Al-buera, Leyte Mayor Rolando Espinosa Sr, Kerwin’s father, inside the Baybay City sub-provincial jail last November 5.

In a hearing of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs, Ker-win alleged that Marcos asked P3mn for the campaign of his wife who was running for vice mayor. Marcos denied the al-legation.

De Lima claimed Go’s in-tervention to reinstate Marcos was an “open secret” among PNP offi cials and many were not happy with the move.

Go however said he does not know Marcos.

Justice dept starts probe against De Lima

The Department of Justice

(DOJ) will start its probe into

Sen. Leila de Lima’s links to the

illegal drug trade.

The DOJ panel of prosecutors

will meet for its first preliminary

investigation after serving a

subpoena to de Lima and two

of her staff members.

Aside from the senator, asked

to appear before the DOJ

and rebut the charges were

de Lima’s staff members Lyn

Sagum and Jose Adrian Dera.

As a practice in preliminary

investigations, however,

respondents can ask for more

time to submit their respective

counter-aff idavits. They are

also entitled to examine all

evidence submitted by com-

plainants and submit contrary

evidence.

Shellfi sh ban in coastal towns after red tide in Eastern VisayasAgenciesTacloban City

Red tide toxins remain in seven bays in Eastern Visayas, prompting au-

thorities to raise the shellfi sh ban in some coastal towns in the region to prevent poison-ing, the Bureau of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources (BFAR) reported.

For several months, the con-tamination has been thriving in Irong Irong and Cambatutay bays in Samar; Carigara Bay in Leyte; coastal waters of Leyte; Matarinao Bay in Eastern Sa-mar and coastal waters of Na-val, Biliran.

The phenomenon expanded to Calubian, Leyte last week.

BFAR Regional Director Juan Albaladejo warned that all types of shellfi sh taken from aff ected bays in the region are positive for red tide toxins. He said red tide toxins found in

these seven bays are beyond the regulatory limit of 10 cells per litre in seawater and 49 saxitoxin per gram in shellfi sh meat.

In aff ected areas, the density is as high as 600 cells per litre in water and 129 saxitoxin per gram in meat.

“All types of shellfi sh and Acetes sp. or alamang gathered from these areas are not safe for human consumption,” Alba-ladejo said.

“Thus, the public is ad-vised to refrain from eating, harvesting, marketing and buying shellfishes and Acetes sp. from Irong Irong Bay and Cambatutay Bay until such time that the shellfish toxic-ity level has gone down be-

low the regulatory level,” he added.

Fish, squid, shrimp and crab are safe to eat “provided that they are fresh and washed thoroughly and internal organs such as gills and intestines are removed before cooking,” ac-cording to BFAR.

With the recent spate of red tide bloom, the fi sheries bureau asked local government units to enforce a shellfi sh ban to en-sure public safety.

“We have been issuing local bulletins to inform local offi -cials, but I have to admit that some are not really seriously enforcing the ban,” the BFAR regional chief said.

Earlier, the fi sheries bu-reau lifted the shellfi sh ban in Maqueda and Villareal bays in Samar and Cancabato Bay in Leyte. During the peak of red tide bloom this year, local au-thorities buried at least four tonnes of shellfi sh gathered in Samar province.

“All types of shellfi sh and Acetes sp. or alamang gathered from these areas are not safe for human consumption”

The Department of Health (DOH) in Western Visayas yesterday gathered stakeholders from this region to kick off its “Iwas Paputok Awareness Campaign” this holiday season, Manila Times reported.DOH 6 regional co-ordinator for the Violence and Injury Prevention Programme (VIPP), May Ann Sta. Lucia, said the awareness campaign is specifically directed at children aged 10 to 14 years of age, who are mostly the victims of firecracker related injuries.It also aimed to educate parents, teachers and local chief executives. “The good news is that the number of cases has been decreasing from 2014 and 2015. The people are now aware about the hazards, the dangers and this year we are really advocating for the prohibition of the individual and residential use of these firecrackers,” she said. Region 6 is second to the National Capital Region (NCR) in terms of injuries because of the presence of two firecracker factories in the region.

Campaign focuses on precaution against firecrackers

AWARENESS

SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL13

Gulf Times Saturday, December 3, 2016

Bangladesh demands missing $66mn from Philippine bankBangladesh has asked

Rizal Commercial Bank-ing Corp (RCBC) of the

Philippines to pay back $66mn of the $81mn stolen from its central bank in a cyber heist in February.

The demand was made by Law Minister Anisul Huq who returned home after heading a high-level delegation to the Philippines earlier this week to seek help from the Philippine government in fi ling criminal and civil charges against the Yuchengco-owned bank.

“It is clearly established that RCBC was very much involved in the scam, and they have ad-mitted their liability,” Anisul Huq said in a briefi ng. “There remains $66mn and we went there to recover that.”

An inquiry by the Senate and an investigation by Bangko Sentralng Pilipinas (BSP) both found RCBC had committed se-rious lapses, allowing hackers to hide away their loot in fi ctitious bank accounts in the bank’s Ju-piter branch in Makati City, the minister added.

RCBC also allowed the money to be withdrawn, even though it had already received stop orders from the Bangladesh Bank.

Huq said RCBC had eff ec-tively admitted to these lapses by agreeing to pay the BSP’s record 1bn peso penalty.

More tellingly, he said, then RCBC president Lorenzo Tan proposed in a Senate hearing that the bank could pay back the money if it was found guilty of money laundering.

“If we are found liable, yes, I will recommend to the board that we set aside a certain sum of money to give back,” Tan said in April.

Huq said, “On that premise, RCBC should pay the money back to Bangladesh.”

The $81mn scandal — the largest money laundering case

in the Philippines’ history — has stretched on for months, but the money trail has long gone cold.

After the money was with-drawn from RCBC, it was con-verted to pesos through remit-tance fi rm PhilRem Service Corp. and then gambled away at several casinos.

Only $15mn has been found and returned to Bangladesh so far. Casino junket operator Kim Wong returned $4.63mn and 488mn peso, claiming he didn’t know it was dirty money.

About $2.7mn is frozen in Solaire Resorts and Casino by a court order, while another $17mn was allegedly kept by

PhilRem operators Salud and Michael Bautista.

Huq said, however, that those details were irrelevant. Bang-ladesh is setting its sights on RCBC and RCBC alone.

“I expect RCBC to take the entire liability. The money came in through RCBC. We do not need to know what happened to the money later on,” he claimed.

In a statement, the lender categorically denied it was li-able to make any payments.

“RCBC is not the proximate cause of the theft. They have no case against us,” RCBC external counsel Thea Daep said.

Daep even turned the tables on the Bangladesh Bank, saying

initial fi ndings showed central bank insiders had a hand in the hacking.

She challenged Bangladesh Bank to bare the results of its own probe and “show... who really stole from them.”

Huq shook off these claims and said RCBC was in no posi-tion to make demands on the Bangladeshi government.

He declined to comment on the Bangladesh Bank’s ongo-ing investigation into the cyber heist.

Meanwhile, Bangaldesh am-bassador John Gomes said the Philippine government has been supportive of recovery eff orts.

By Mizan RahmanDhaka

Khaleda ordered to appear in court on January 9

A court in Dhaka has or-dered former prime min-ister Khaleda Zia to ap-

pear before it on January 9.In line with the order issued

by Judge Kamrul Hossain Mollah of Metropolitan Sessions Judges Court, Zia’s bail will be cancelled if she fails to appear before the court on that day, Xinhua re-ported.

Zainul Abedin Meshbah, a counsel for Zia, told reporters that December 1 was fi xed for framing charges against Zia, also chairperson of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), in nine cases fi led under explosives control act and special powers act and one for treason.

“Madam (Khaleda Zia) could not attend the court in these cas-es as she had to appear before an-other court today,” said Mesbah.

Against this backdrop, Judge Hossain ordered Zia to appear before the court on January 9.

Zia appeared before Judge Abu Ahmed Jomader of the Special Judge Court-3 on Thursday and placed her self-defence state-ment in two trust graft cases.

Zia and fi ve others, including her elder son Tarique Rahman, were accused of embezzling over 20 million taka ($253,164) from an orphanage trust during her 2001-2006 tenure.

In 2011, the anti-graft body sued Zia and three others for pocketing 31.5mn taka ($397,435) of the Zia Charitable Trust in the name of her late husband, former president Ziaur Rahman.

IANSDhaka

BNP chief Khaleda Zia

Lanka bus drivers strike over fi nes

Sri Lanka’s private bus operators and taxi drivers stopped work

yesterday to protest govern-ment plans of a 50-fold in-crease in traffi c fi nes to curb the rising number of road accidents.

About 6,000 privately-owned buses have gone on strike at the government’s pro-posal to raise the average traffi c fi ne of 500 rupees to 25,000 ru-pees ($166) from January.

Many taxi drivers and rick-shaw drivers are also on strike over the hike.

The strike has forced the state-run transport company to deploy an additional 1,000 vehicles, an offi cial said, while the railways are also operating extra trains.

“The fi nes are unfair,” said Sarath Kumara, a spokesman for a private bus company, threatening to keep up the strike unless the government relents.

Last week private opera-tors accused the government of letting politicians and other

dignitaries get away with traffi c violations.

President Maithripala Sirisena promised to person-ally intervene and initiate le-gal action against VIP traffi c off enders.

About 3,000 people are killed on Sri Lankan roads an-nually while another 100,000 people are critically wounded in motor accidents.

Meanwhile, a group of rep-resentatives, including presi-dent of the Lanka Private Bus Owners’ Association also held a discussion with the president yesterday.

It was agreed that before the implementation of the new fi ne system, the Motor Traf-fi c Act should be amended and the amended Act should be submitted to the attorney gen-eral and later it should be pre-sented to the parliament for its approval.

It was also mentioned that traffi c rule violations related to excessive speed and over-taking from the left, could be further discussed in the future.

Minister of Transport Nimal Siripala De Silva also joined the discussion.

AFPColombo

Sri Lankan private buses are parked at a bus terminal in the suburb of Nugegoda in Colombo yesterday. Sri Lanka’s private bus operators and taxi drivers stopped work yesterday, to protest government plans of a 50-fold increase in traff ic fines to curb the rising number of road accidents.

HRW urges MPs to stand against law on child marriage

The Human Rights Watch (HRW) has called upon the members of parliament

(MPs) in Bangladesh to stand against a new bill which ‘puts girls at high risk of child marriage.’

Senior researcher of HRW’s women rights division Heath-er Barr said Bangladesh steps backward as its cabinet ap-proved a draft bill that poses high risks to girls.

She said Bangladesh’s par-liamentarians have a crucial responsibility ahead of them: kill a proposed law putting girls at greater risk of child marriage, or buckle under political pressure.

On November 24, the cabi-net approved draft legislation that poses grave risks to girls by creating vague exceptions to the country’s ban on child marriage, and even punishing the victims, she said.

Bangladesh has one of the highest rates of child marriage in the world, and the highest rate in Asia. Fifty-two percent of girls in Bangladesh marry before age 18, and 18% are married before they turn 15, she said.

The current law permits

marriage after the age of 18 for women and 21 for men, with no exceptions. However, the new draft law reportedly says child marriage below age 18 will be permitted in “special circumstances, such as acci-dental or unlawful pregnancy.”

The draft does not set any minimum age for such “ex-ceptional” marriages.

This is a major step backward. Although Bangladesh’s law on child marriage was widely ig-nored, the existence of a strict law meant the focus was on en-forcement. Weakening the law is a setback for the fi ght against child marriage, and sends a message to parents across the country that the government thinks child marriage is accept-able in at least some situations, Heather Barr said.

It is also diffi cult to know just what is meant by “un-lawful pregnancy.” It sug-gests the law could lead to a situation where girls who have been raped are forced to marry their rapist, said Heather Barr.

The next step is for the draft law to go to the parliament, expected in the coming weeks. Outcry against the draft law in the Bangladesh press and civil society has been fi erce.

By Mizan RahmanDhaka

Nepal House disrupted over charter amendment proposal

The opposition parties in the Nepal parliament have been disrupting

proceedings in protest against the proposed amendments in the constitution tabled earlier this week.

The protests by the opposi-tion Communist Party of Nepal (Unifi ed Marxists-Leninists), Communist Party of Nepal (Marxist-Leninist), Rash-triya Janamorcha Party Nepal and Nepal Workers Peasants’ Party follow the tabling by the government of the constitu-tion amendment proposal on Tuesday, Xinhua news agency reported.

The tabling of the consti-

tution amendment proposal seeks to meet the demands of agitating Madhesis and other ethnic groups whose protests last year left more than 50 people dead.

CPN (UML) vice chairman Bamdev Gautam has described the amendment as anti-national and said his party will not allow the House business to proceed.

“The government has brought in the constitution amendment proposal to split the hill region from the Terai which is not acceptable to us,” Gautam said.

Anti-government protests have spread in various parts of the Himalayan nation against the proposal.

Meanwhile, Madhes-based parties, agitating under the banner of the United Demo-

cratic Madhesi Front (UDMF), have refused to back the pro-posal saying it was not accept-able in its current form, in a blow to the ongoing eff orts of Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal to achieve reconciliation with groups agitating over the national charter.

The government’s amend-ment proposal seeks to carve out a new state in the western region of Nepal to meet the de-mands of the ethnic Madhesi community. The government requires a two-thirds majority in parliament to secure passage of the proposal.

Nepal introduced the new constitution on September 20 last year after it became secu-lar republic in 2008 with the overthrow of the 240-year-old Shah monarchy.

IANSKathmandu

UN seeks more Bangladeshi troops for South SudanThe United Nations has sought an infantry battalion composed of 850 military personnel from Bangladesh for its peacekeeping mission.The battalion will be deployed to meet the immediate requirement in Wau area of South Sudan.In this regard, a recent request has been sent from the United Nations Department of Peacekeeping Operations (DPKO) to the Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations, foreign ministry sources said in Dhaka yesterday.The government of Bangladesh

has promptly accepted the off er of contributing the infantry battalion and necessary preparations are underway for the speedy and smooth deployment.Bangladesh also received off er of contributing an Engineering Company of 260 personnel last month.Both the compliments are expected to be deployed shortly under “United Nations Mission in South Sudan” (UNMISS). These off ers have been received on the basis of pledges that were made by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina during “Leaders’ Summit

on Peacekeeping” on September 28, 2015 in New York. Permanent Mission of Bangladesh to the United Nations is closely co-ordinating with the UN Secretariat to materialise the pledges. Presently, a total of 6,850, including 198 females, Bangladeshi peacekeepers are deployed in 13 diff erent peacekeeping missions. So far a total of 146,143 personnel of Bangladesh Armed Forces and Police have participated in 54 peacekeeping missions in 40 diff erent countries.

Mammoth battles at Nepal elephant polo championship

The elephants lumber across the fi eld on the edge of a Nepalese jungle in pursuit of a small white ball. It might

be slightly slower-paced than its horseback equivalent, but there’s nothing sedate about these polo pachyderms.

Nepal has hosted the annual international elephant polo championships since 1982, attracting players, celebrities, adventure-seekers – and the occasional fi rst timer – for a chance to take part in one of the most unusual sports around.

The game is based on horse polo, but with two people on the back of each elephant – a mahout that does the driving and the player who is concentrating on scoring.

The players wield 2.5m (96 inches) long mallets to reach the ground from the back of their mammoth steeds.

“It might look slow and easy, but it quite hard,” said Bhim Bahadur Tamang, 62, cap-tain of the Nepal-based Tiger Tops Tuskers team – who won this year’s championship yesterday.

“You have to know how your elephants move and be strategic to win,” he said.

This year, eight four-member teams took part in the championship, with players fl ying in from over ten countries includ-ing Britain, the United States, Australia, Iceland, Holland and Sri Lanka.

The idea was fi rst conceived in a Swiss re-sort – reportedly over a drink, or two – more than three decades ago by Brit A V Jim Ed-wards, who was among the fi rst to run safa-ris in Nepal, and his friend James Manclark, an avid polo player.

It has since grown into a series of tourna-

AFPNawalparasi

Elephant polo players from Tiger Tops Vikings (in yellow) and Tiger Tops Tuskers (in green) vie for the ball during the final of the 35th International Elephant Polo Competition at Ka-wasuti Gondhat, some 235km from Kathmandu, yesterday.

ments held in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Nepal.The annual event, hosted by the Tiger Tops

travel company, has over the years had an il-lustrious guest list of celebrities, including former Beatle Ringo Starr and the comedian Billy Connolly.

But the organisers said this year may be the last for the jumbo tournament in Nepal.

“The games have raised awareness for ele-phant conservation and welfare... but we don’t plan to do this next year,” said Edwards’s son Kristjan, who now heads Tiger Tops.

“We’ve always been ahead of the game in the way we treat our elephants. We prefer our elephants to remain as el-ephants, and the elephant polo is hardly that.”

Canadian Katie McGowan, 32, who was taking part in the championship for the fi rst time this year, said playing the game exceeded her expectations.

“It is sad to know I cannot come back next year. But I’m excited for all the good work they are doing for the elephants.”

By Philipp TherVienna

While most of the European Union seems panic-stricken by the prospect of a victory

for French far-right leader Marine Le Pen in France’s presidential election in May, the EU’s next test will come much sooner.

Tomorrow, Italians will vote in a referendum on constitutional reforms, and Austrians will choose their next president.

Both countries’ votes could have major ramifi cations beyond their borders.

In Italy, the upcoming plebiscite has become a popular confi dence vote in Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, who has said he will resign if the reforms are rejected.

According to the latest polls, Renzi could be forced to make good on his pledge, which might spell the end of reformist social democracy in Italy – and beyond.

In Austria, voters will choose between a pro- and an anti-EU candidate in the nationalist mould of Le Pen, Norbert Hofer of the Austrian Freedom Party (FPO). A victory for Hofer could add wind to Le Pen’s sails.

The constitutional changes that Renzi’s Yes campaign is asking voters to approve would undo some of his predecessor Silvio Berlusconi’s legacy – a legacy that serves as a prime example of the damage right-wing populism can do to a country.

Among other things, Berlusconi altered Italy’s political system in such a way as to prevent the left from ever gaining full power again, and to block any criminal charges that could be levelled against him.

Renzi’s proposed reforms would,

among other things, modernise the political system by disempowering the Senate (the upper house of Parliament). Such an amendment is sorely needed to eliminate political gridlock, and Renzi has already succeeded in getting it through both chambers of Parliament.

Indeed, the plebiscite was only supposed to provide fi nal confi rmation.

But Renzi failed to improve Italy’s dismal economic performance.

Eight years after the 2008 fi nancial crisis, industrial production is still down by 25% from pre-crisis levels, and youth unemployment is hovering at more than 40%. According to these economic indicators, “la crisi,” as the Italians call it, is as bad as that experienced a quarter-century ago in Poland and other Eastern European countries, in the aftermath of communism’s collapse.

But those countries endured their post-communist hardships, because their leaders and enough of their people believed in the promise of free-market capitalism.

By contrast, since the 2008 global fi nancial crisis, that belief has been badly shaken in Italy and other EU-countries.

The boyish Renzi did try to improve the existing system and close some of Italy’s generational gaps, by implementing labour-market reforms.

But, unlike former British prime minister Tony Blair in the 1990s or former German chancellor Gerhard Schröder in the early 2000s, Renzi is operating under far worse global economic conditions.

Italy cannot build on an export-driven growth model, and it is staggering under the massive debt burden inherited from Berlusconi.

Renzi’s foes include left-wing populists such as the Five Star

Movement (Movimiento Cinque Stelle) and right-wing populists such as the Northern League, or Lega Nord, which fi ercely attack him while blaming the EU for many of Italy’s economic and political problems.

The EU, meanwhile, has left Italy to manage on its own the 160,000 North African refugees who have arrived so far just in the course of this year.

If Renzi’s referendum fails, Five Star Movement leader Beppe Grillo has indicated that he will demand another plebiscite on Italy’s eurozone membership, which might just succeed.

While Italy was once a staunchly pro-EU country, many Italians may now support less integration, especially after the high-profi le example set by the United Kingdom’s Brexit referendum in June.

On the other hand, a eurozone-membership referendum may not even be necessary.

If Renzi steps down, Italy could become almost ungovernable, which will frighten fi nancial markets.

This, in turn, will make it diffi cult for Italy to remain in the eurozone, given the already high interest rates on its public debt, which amounts to 132% of its GDP.

Meanwhile, in Austria, the upcoming presidential election – pitting Hofer against independent left-wing candidate Alexander Van der Bellen – will be more about the country’s politics than about its economy.

For the past 10 years, Austria has been governed by a grand coalition of Social Democrats and Conservatives; but these two mainstream parties constantly block each other, and are united only in their opposition to right-wing populists such as Hofer.

This sclerotic arrangement, however, has enabled those same right-wing populists to present themselves as the only alternative to “the system.”

Austria is one of the EU’s richest countries, and it is doing well compared to Italy.

But Austrians are afraid of losing their current wealth, and they do still have economic grievances that politicians can tap.

For example, low- and middle-class Austrians’ incomes have been slowly shrinking for ten years; overall economic growth is lower than the EU average; and unemployment is rising.

As in Italy, Austria’s right-wing populists have railed against the EU, and have mused about taking the country out of the eurozone.

But such a move would be even more suicidal than in Italy’s case, and the FPO has actually moderated its anti-European stance since the Brexit vote.

Instead, the FPO has announced its intention to turn Austria’s political system into a more presidential-plebiscitary democracy.

This, too, would be a blow against Europe, because it would mean that any EU legislation – such as policies to disperse refugees now in Italy to other member countries – could be blocked by a plebiscite.

When the Berlin Wall came down – and state socialism along with it – the European Economic Community’s founding member states responded by establishing the European Union, and committing to deeper European integration.

That project worked well until the 2008 crisis, suggesting that the EU might be best suited for good times, not for hard times.

Its double test in Italy and Austria on December 4 will provide powerful evidence one way or the other. – Project Syndicate

Philipp Ther is a professor of Central European History at the University of Vienna.

With contracts across Africa running into billions of dollars, Morocco is placing business at the heart of its strategy to win support for its re-entry into the African Union.

From Senegal to Madagascar, King Mohamed VI is leading a drive to invest in banking, insurance, telecoms, manufacturing and construction projects.

And while it has long nurtured warm ties with its francophone neighbours in West Africa, Morocco is now using mega-projects to mend ties with East African countries long at odds with Rabat over the Western Sahara issue.

Rabat offi cially requested in September to rejoin the African Union, 32 years after quitting the bloc in protest at its decision to accept Western Sahara as a member.

“The Moroccan vision consists of making its national companies real ambassadors in Africa,” said Amine Dafi r, professor at Hassan II University in Mohammedia near Rabat, who labels the strategy “economic diplomacy”.

It is a drive that has seen the monarch lead a cohort of ministers and business leaders on offi cial visits across the continent.

In recent months they have been hosted by Rwanda, Tanzania, Gabon, Senegal, Ethiopia and Madagascar, where they fi nished a 10-day visit on Thursday.

Nigeria and Zambia are next on the list.Each trip has resulted in a fl urry of business deals.The king’s trip to Madagascar in November produced

22 agreements including a vast project to “upgrade” the Pangalanes canal, a series of waterways that extends around 700km along the country’s east coast.

Also in November, Morocco signed an agreement to build a giant factory aimed at making Ethiopia self-reliant in fertiliser by 2025.

The announcement came during as King Mohamed visited Addis Ababa - seat of the African Union.

Morocco quit what was then called

the Organisation of African Unity in 1984 to protest at the admission of the Sahrawi Arab Democratic Republic declared by the Polisario independence movement.

Morocco maintains that Western Sahara, a former Spanish colony under its control, is an integral part of the kingdom.

Isolated in Africa for decades, Morocco launched an “African Strategy” in the early 2000s in partnership with its “national champions” - Moroccan fi rms that have developed branches across the continent.

Since then, the kingdom has inked around 500 deals in sub-Saharan Africa, according to the Moroccan think tank OCP Policy Center.

The region is now the target of more than 60% of its foreign investments.

Until 2016, those investments mainly targeted Rabat’s francophone West African neighbours, which largely support its position on Western Sahara.

For example, Morocco is the biggest foreign investor in the Ivory Coast, where Moroccan companies are working on a vast $160mn project to revamp the Cocody bay in the economic capital Abidjan.

But its desire to rejoin the African Union prompted Rabat to change tack, with King Mohamed paying unprecedented visits to other parts of the continent.

He has played up “south-south co-operation” to promote Moroccan outreach.

Driss Grini, professor at the University of Marrakesh, said attempts by world powers to invest in the continent are often “badly perceived by Africans”.

“On the other hand, Morocco’s relations with sub-Saharan African countries are seen in a positive light,” he said. “They are governed by a vision of common interests and a win-win logic.”

Morocco’s ‘economicdiplomacy’ to winfriends in Africa

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By Sanjiv AroraNew Delhi

HE Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser

bin Khalifa al-Thani, Prime Minister and Minister of Interior of Qatar,

is visiting India at the invitation of Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The level and frequency of exchange of visits between two countries are an important parameter of the level of engagement and co-operation between them. By this standard, there has been a rapid stride in India-Qatar ties in the last two years.

HE Sheikh Abdullah was the fi rst leader of an Arab or an Islamic country to make a congratulatory phone call to Modi on the same day when election results were announced in India on Friday, March 16, 2014. This was a most gracious gesture on his part, especially on a holiday and day of prayers. In his tweet thanking Sheikh Abdullah, Prime Minister Modi had affi rmed: “We will take India-Qatar ties to newer heights”.

The visits of the Emir of Qatar, HH Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani, to New Delhi in March 2015 and of Prime Minister Modi to Doha in June 2016, and now of Qatar’s Prime Minister, are a testimony not only to the historic friendship but also to

the emerging partnership between the two countries. These exchanges are building on the co-operation developed in earlier years, with signifi cant contribution made by the three State visits of HH Sheikh Tamim’s father HH Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani (the then Emir and now the Father Emir) to India in 1999, 2005 and 2012, and of former Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh in 2008.

HH Sheikh Tamim’s visit last year at the invitation of President Shri Pranab Mukherjee was his fi rst visit to India and also the fi rst Head of State level visit from an Arab country (and perhaps the only one so far) after Prime Minister Modi’s Government assumed offi ce. For Sheikh Abdullah also, this would be his maiden voyage to India.

I had the privilege of being closely associated with the further strengthening of India’s relations with Qatar during my tenure in Doha until recently. Having been fortunate to have access to Qatari leadership and received their guidance and support in overwhelming measure, and having made a large number of Qatari friends engaged in different spheres, I admire the warmth of the Qatari people; their fondness for India; and their enthusiasm to expand linkages and partnership between Qatar and India.

As India welcomes Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah, I warmly and gratefully recall his most graciously receiving me in his offi ce and Majlis

on several occasions. He is truly an inspirational personality – a man of great depth but few words, a most attentive listener, a stickler for punctuality, and above all, a very kind human being.

Qatar is a small country with large hearted people. It is a country not only endowed with big resources but with a lofty aspiration and vision for its people. The progress achieved by a country with a population of only 2.4mn (the nearly 650,000 Indians comprise the largest community) in the last two decades is remarkable. Qatar’s astute utilisation of its huge resources of natural gas; highly resourced Sovereign Wealth Fund; the massive infrastructural projects coming up as Qatar prepares to host FIFA World Cup in 2022 (among them Msherib Downtown Doha project, which was visited by Prime Minister Modi, in a touching gesture, to meet Indian workers at a medical camp immediately after his arrival in Doha); and globally acclaimed institutions such as Qatar Foundation and its Education City headed by the Emir’s mother HH Sheikha Moza, Qatar Museums led by the Emir’s sister, HE Sheikha al-Mayassa, and Qatar Airways headed by its hands-on CEO Akbar al-Baker (who is proud of his college education in India), are a few examples of the opportunities in which India can partner to the mutual benefit of both sides. The landmark new agreement for supply

of LNG signed between RasGas and Petronet in New Delhi on December 31, 2015 is an excellent example of a win-win situation. Prime Minister Modi highlighted this deal in his Independence Day Address from the ramparts of Red Fort on August 15, 2016.

There is also an enormous potential to increase Qatari investments in India, with Qatar’s leadership and investors deeply appreciating ‘Make in India’ and other initiatives for developing India as a preferred business partner - this was well refl ected in the friendly and frank discussions at Prime Minister Modi’s meeting with 20 top investors during his visit to Doha.

The two countries have also been taking steps to promote co-operation in the areas of defence and security, and counter terrorism. The visit of Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah, who has a distinguished career in defence and internal security, and has been Qatar’s Interior Minister for many years, presents an excellent opportunity to take bilateral co-operation in these areas to a new level.

The writer is Additional Secretary in Ministry of External Aff airs, Government of India. He was India’s longest serving ambassador to Qatar from August, 2012 – October, 2016, and was awarded the ‘Sash of Merit’ by Qatar’s Emir for his contribution to enhancing bilateral ties. The views expressed in this article are personal.

India-Qatar: Friendshipand emerging partnership

HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani holding talks with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi during the latter’s visit to Doha in June 2016.

Gulf Times Saturday, December 3, 2016 15

COMMENT

Protecting education in confl ict zones

In confl ict zones, it is children who often bear the brunt of the violence.

Last month, repeated air strikes on a school compound in Idlib,

Syria, killed at least 22 children; and children in the besieged Syrian city of Aleppo have, for months, had no way to escape near-constant bombardments.

As the New York Times reported in September, “They cannot play, sleep or attend school.

Increasingly, they cannot eat.”Just a few weeks before that report, a

bomb was detonated outside a school in Southern Thailand, just as parents were dropping off their children.

The blast instantly killed a father and his four-year-old daughter, and injured 10 others.

Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch described the bombing as an act of “incomprehensible brutality”: “Calling this a war crime does not fully convey the harm done to the victims, or the far-reaching impact such attacks have on children in the region.”

And just weeks before the Thailand bombing, on August 13, air strikes on a school in Yemen’s northwestern Saada region killed ten children and injured about 30 more.

Given these recent examples, there is clearly a need to prevent attacks – by state and armed non-state actors alike – on educational institutions and facilities.

That is why Education Above All (EAA) has established its advocacy programme, Protect Education in Insecurity and Confl ict (PEIC).

The rationale underpinning PEIC is straightforward: education provides critical opportunities for children and young people, and this is especially true for those living in confl ict zones.

Schools and universities give students a vital link to normality, while encouraging them to maintain hope and pursue their aspirations.

They not only train the next generation of doctors, journalists, lawyers, and community leaders; they also furnish children with mentors, food, water, and knowledge about

basic health and sanitation.And yet, as the attacks on schools

in countries such as Syria, Yemen, and Sudan show, what are supposed to be safe havens often are under direct threat.

If children can still attend school during confl icts, they will be the green shoots that emerge to re-rebuild their war-torn societies when the fi ghting is over.

To protect students’ basic human right to education, universities and schools in confl ict zones should be shielded in the same way that

healthcare facilities are.Indeed, like hospitals, schools

concentrate one of the most vulnerable populations in any society.

Attacks on children and schools often draw international condemnation, but words alone are clearly not an eff ective deterrent.

Thus, PEIC’s mission is to use the enforcement mechanisms available under international law to strengthen our collective political will to prevent attacks on educational facilities.

EAA wants to ensure that education

is recognised as being fundamental to human development – and thus is accorded the fullest protection.

We should be creating a world where everyone who wishes to learn, teach, or conduct academic research can do so in peace and with dignity.

But this shared ambition requires shared action, because it will take collaboration, cooperation, and mutual trust to develop the new international arrangements needed to protect educational institutions in confl icts.

Toward that end, and in partnership

with the Global Coalition to Protect Education from Attack, PEIC has taken a leading role in promoting the Safe Schools Declaration, which includes a promise to protect “schools and universities from military use during armed confl ict.” This clause is essential for safeguarding schoolchildren, teachers, and facilities during times of war.

We hope that, in time, the Declaration in its entirety will become a universally recognized international standard.

In September, Albania became the 56th country to sign the Declaration, and the Albanian government has now publicly committed to protecting education during periods of armed confl ict.

In making this pledge, Albania has joined countries such as Iraq, where there is a pressing need to safeguard children’s futures, as well as Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Italy, Kenya, Nigeria, New Zealand, Norway, Qatar, and South Sudan.

EAA is committed to preventing schools from becoming battlegrounds, and it is calling on all countries that have not yet signed the Declaration to do so.

Signing the Declaration amounts to a political commitment to protect education, even during the most savage confl icts – which is to say that it is a commitment to protect the world’s children.

It is in every country’s interest to guarantee that today’s students will have the opportunity to serve as tomorrow’s leaders.

As the world watches schools being destroyed in Syria, Yemen, and other confl ict zones the Safe Schools Declaration is more important than ever. – Project Syndicate

Peter Klanduch is Senior Program Manager, Protect Education in Insecurity and Confl ict, Doha.

Maleiha Malik is Executive Director of Protect Education in Insecurity and Confl ict, Doha.

By Peter Klanduch and Maleiha MaliDoha/London

Education provides critical opportunities for children and young people, and this is especially true for those living in confl ict zones

A damaged classroom at a school after it was hit in an air strike in the village of Hass, in the south of Syria’s rebel-held Idlib province.

LEGAL HELPLINE

Deducting salary for machinery damage

LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR

According to Article 249, the non-director partner in a company that does not have a Supervisory Council may give advice to the directors, demand to review the activities of company and inspect books and documents at its place of business. Any other condition contrary shall be void. The company shall have a General Assembly comprising all the partners and shall convene meeting upon an invitation by directors at least once a year within the four months following the end of the fi nancial year, at a time and place determined by the Articles of Association.The directors shall invite for General Assembly meeting upon the request of the Supervisory Council, the auditor or a number of partners holding not less than 20% of the capital. The invitation for the meeting shall be made by registered letter addressed to every partner at least 21 days before meeting. The invitation should specify the place and date of the meeting, and shall be accompanied with the agenda and copy of the balance sheet.As per Article 251, the director shall prepare the balance sheet, profi t and loss account, a report on the company activities and its fi nancial positions and proposals for distribution of profi ts within two months after the end of every fi nancial year. The directors shall send a copy of this report, a

copy of the Supervisory Council report, and a copy of the auditor’s report to the Ministry and to every partner, within one month from the date of preparing such reports. In companies without a supervisory council, every partner may request the directors to invite the partners for a meeting to discuss on such reports.Every partner has right to attend the general assembly regardless of the number of shares owned by him, and he may authorise another partner other than the directors to represent him at the meeting. Every partner shall have a number of votes equal to the number of shares he owns or represents.The agenda of the annual General Assembly meeting shall include the following matters:

(1) discussion of the director’s report on the company’s activities and fi nancial position during the year and the auditor report; (2) Discussion and approval of the balance sheet and the profi t and loss account; (3) Determination of the percentage of profi t to be distributed among the partners; (4) Appointing the directors, the Boards of Directors, the members of the Supervisory Council, if available, and determination of their remuneration; (5) Appointment of auditor and determination of remuneration; and (6) Other matters within their jurisdiction in accordance with the provisions of the law or the Articles of Association. According to Article 254, the General Assembly shall not deliberate on issues not included in its agenda unless serious facts are revealed during the meeting that require discussion. If a partner requested the inclusion of a specifi c item on the agenda, the managers shall comply therewith, otherwise the partner shall be entitled to refer to the General Meeting. Every partner has the right to discuss the matters listed in the agenda and the directors are obliged to answer the partners’ questions. If a partner considered the reply to his query is insuffi cient, he may refer to the General Meeting whose resolution shall be enforceable.

By Nizar Kochery Doha

QUESTION: In our company plant, a machinery got damaged. The management conducted an enquiry and stated in its report that the plant employees are responsible for damage or loss. We received a notice stating that half of the salary will be deducted as compensation for the damage. We feel we are not responsible for the damage. Is it legal to deduct the salary? Please advise.

YI, Doha

ANSWER: According to Article 71, an employee shall be obliged to compensate the employer for the loss of or damage or destruction to machinery, products or equipment of the establishment as a result of his fault provided that the obligation of the employee for the compensation shall be preceded by an enquiry. The employer may deduct the value of the compensation from the wage due to the employee provided that the value of the compensation does not exceed the employee’s wages for seven days in one month. The employee may appeal against the employer’s decision on the valuation of the compensation to the Department of Labour within seven days from the date of notifi cation. If the department cancels the employer’s decision or evaluates a lesser compensation due from the employee, the employer shall return the amount which he has deducted in excess without a right thereto within not more than seven days.

Extra cost forcontract work

Q: We are engaged in construction contracts and we subcontracted a work to a company in Doha for execution of a part of the work. I am the project manager. They have completed the work without any delay. But the rate estimated as per the contract exceeded 20% of the total value upon completion. They have not notifi ed us on the change in estimated cost in advance. Now they have issued an additional invoice covering the additional cost. Are we liable to pay the additional cost? Please advise.

UJ, Doha

A: According to Article 708 of the relevant Laws, where the contract is made on an estimated measurement basis and during the progress of the work it is deemed necessary to exceed

the assessed measurements to execute the agreed design, the contractor shall notify the employer thereof, stating the extent of the increase in costs. Failure to do so shall result in the contractor losing the right to reimbursement for the extra costs incurred. Where such extra costs required for the execution of the design are substantial, the employer may withdraw from the contract and stop such execution without delay, provided that the contractor is paid for the works completed by him, assessed in accordance with the conditions of the contract, without any indemnity against the contingent profi t of the contractor in the event of completion of the work.

Grant of NOC isnot a legal right

Q: My employer is asking employees to sign a new contract based on the new law. I refused to sign and, as a result, they have

terminated me. Can I claim an NOC as I am locally transferred? I have brought my family under my visa and rented an apartment last July the lease contract for which is for two years. Now the rent has become unaff ordable. I requested for termination of lease contract and return of the cheques, but the landlord does not agree for the same. Moreover, he is asking three months’ rent as compensation for the termination. Can I approach court for getting the cheques back and to terminate the rental contract as it is an unforeseen situation? Please advise.

RT, Doha

A: As per the prevailing laws and regulations, sponsorship transfer or grant of NOC is issued at the sole discretion of the employer and it is not a legal right. Accordingly, transfer of sponsorship can be made only through

a written agreement between the ex-employer and the new employer after being approved by the concerned authority. The sponsorship law does not categorise expatriate employees into local and/or overseas recruits. Regarding the rental issue, Article 632 of the civil laws stipulates that when a lease is made for a fi xed period, either of the contracting parties may, if serious and unforeseen circumstances arise of such nature as to render, from the commencement of or during the lease, the performance too burdensome, demand the termination of the lease before its expiry, provided he gives notice in accordance with the time limits and pays equitable compensation to the other party. Filing a case and obtaining decision will be time consuming and hence, amicable settlement will be ideal; may be by paying landlord a mutually agreed compensation for the termination of contract.

E-mail: leges@qatar.net.qa

Three-day forecast

TODAY

MONDAY

High: 31 C

Low : 23 C

High: 28 C

Low: 21 C

Weather report

Around the region

Abu DhabiBaghdadDubaiKuwait CityManamaMuscatRiyadhTehran

Weather todaySunnySunnySunnyP CloudySunnySunnySunnyP Cloudy

Around the world

Athens BeirutBangkok BerlinCairoCape Town ColomboDhakaHong KongIstanbulJakartaKarachiLondonManilaMoscowNew DelhiNew York ParisSao PauloSeoulSingaporeSydney Tokyo Clear

Max/min16/1117/1332/2402/-322/1227/1630/2430/1925/2109/0131/2432/1608/0232/25-4/-1027/1108/0205/-228/2110/0132/2523/1714/07

Weather todayM CloudyP CloudyCloudySunnySunnySunnyM SunnySunnyP CloudyP CloudyS T StormsSunnyP CloudyP CloudyS ShowersSunnyP CloudyP CloudyT StormsM SunnyP CloudyP Cloudy

Fishermen’s forecast

OFFSHORE DOHAWind: SE-NE 03-12 KTWaves: 1-3 Feet

INSHORE DOHAWind: NW-NE 05-15 KTWaves: 1-2/3 Feet

High: 29 C

Low: 22 C

SUNDAY

Expected strong wind and high sea by evening

Sunny

Sunny

Max/min32/2220/0731/2221/1427/2131/2226/1415/03

Weather tomorrowP CloudyM SunnySunnyP CloudyCloudySunnyP CloudySunny

Max/min32/2219/0931/2121/1226/2131/2123/12

Max/min14/0719/1333/2601/-323/1223/1630/2530/1827/2109/0230/2432/1507/032/24-7/-1227/1208/0407/022/1611/0632/2527/1915/06

Weather tomorrowCloudyM SunnyP CloudyM CloudyP CloudyCloudyM SunnySunnyP CloudyP CloudyT StormsSunnyM SunnyP CloudyCloudy SunnyM SunnySunnyRainCloudyS T StormsP CloudyClear

16/04

QATAR

Gulf TimesSaturday, December 3, 201616

The Pearl-Qatar yesterday launched its ‘Winter Musical Roaming 2016’ featuring parades with jugglers and mascots roaming around Porto Arabia’s restaurants, retail arcades and boardwalk. The programme will continue on December 9, 23 and 30, from 7pm to 10pm. PICTURE: Jayan Orma

‘Winter Musical Roaming’ at Pearl-QatarEmirates Group’s A380 collage raises funds for communities

The Emirates Group has unveiled a unique wall collage of mini-A380

aircraft, now on permanent display at the group’s head-quarters, in celebration of the UAE’s 45th National Day.

Autographed by colleagues across the group to raise funds for the Emirates Airline Foun-dation, the aim of the wall was

for each staff member to play a part in giving back to the com-munities that the airline serves.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum, chairman and chief executive of Emirates Airline & Group personally signed the fi rst aircraft model that would make up the wall collage. Dur-ing the Group’s UAE National Day celebrations, he unveiled

the wall, made up of 1,400 Emirates A380 aircraft.

More than AED70,000 was donated to the Emirates Airline Foundation from the proceeds of the A380 aircraft.

The initiative was led by Rehlaty, the Emirates Group’s Emiratisation strategy and aims to give back to the com-munities.

Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed al-Maktoum and other off icials of Emirates view the wall collage of mini-A380 aircraft.

Latest proposals discussed at surgical research symposiumMore than 50 research

proposals were show-cased at the ‘4th Sur-

gical Research and Innovation Ideas Al Zahrawi Symposium’ recently hosted by Hamad Med-ical Corporation’s (HMC) Sur-gical Services and Medical Re-search Centre.

Over 400 HMC staff , includ-ing clinicians and researchers from across surgical and peri-operative sections at Hamad General, The Cuban, Rumailah, Al Wakra and Al Khor hospitals, along with staff from the private healthcare sector, attended the three-day symposium.

“The research ideas are ev-idence-based and compas-sionate and have the potential

to contribute to the health and well-being of Qatar’s popula-tion,” said Dr Abdulla al-Ansari, HMC’s deputy chief medical of-fi cer for surgical services and chairman of the event’s organis-ing committee.

The symposium was dedi-cated to the achievements of the renowned Arab physician and surgeon, Abu al-Qasim Khalaf ibn al- Abbas

Az-Zahrawi (936 –1013). Known as al-Zahrawi, he is con-sidered the greatest medieval surgeon from the Islamic world and is frequently described as the father of surgery.

His greatest contribution is the Kitab Al-Tasrif, a thirty-volume encyclopedia of medi-

cal practices. His pioneering contributions to surgical pro-cedures and instruments had an enormous impact in the East and West; some of his discover-ies are still applied in medicine today.

Professor Hossam Hamdy, associate dean of Academic Af-fairs, College of Medicine at Qatar University, said he was impressed with the initiative taken by HMC’s Department of Surgery.

The participants presented their research proposals and debated their ideas with an in-vited panel of international, local research and innovation experts from HMC, Qatar Uni-versity’s College of Medicine,

Weill Cornell Medicine-Qatar, Sidra Medical and Research Center, McMaster University (Canada) and Mansoura Univer-sity (Egypt).

Dr Jason Howard, division chief of Pediatric Orthopedic Surgery at Sidra Medical and Research Center, described the symposium as one of a kind, mixing hard research proposals with pitches for innovative ideas for medical devices and other in-ventions.

Dr Mohit Bhandari, profes-sor and Canada Research chair, McMaster University, said: “The quality and quantity of propos-als at the symposium signifi ed an impressive shift towards evi-dence-based surgery.”

Training programme off ers new insights on risk management

The Institute of Internal Auditors Qatar recently conducted a full-day

training programme titled, ‘Everything you wanted to know about Risk Management.’

It was followed by an evening seminar on ‘Innovate and be great or stagnate and termi-nate.’

The trainer, Adil Buhariwal-la, managing partner of MASC International, UAE, started off with a funny video on risk management.

He informed the audience that there are various models for risk management, including many homegrown ones.

“However, the most com-mon models used by internal

auditors are the COSO and ISO 31000 models,” he said, while pointing out that while gov-ernance is the overall system implemented by the board/senior management to direct and oversee the activities of the organisation, Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) is a vital component of governance and internal control is its integral part.

Buhariwala provided in-sights into innovation and said how internal auditors could help enhance and pro-tect organisational value by conducting innovation gov-ernance audits.

“Although risk management is not a new subject, internal

auditors worldwide are still facing challenges in under-standing various concepts and models and often implemen-tation part is creating unique challenges,” observed Sunda-resan Rajeswar, the IIA board member, who organised the event.

“The objective is to intro-duce clarity in concepts and implementation aspects from real life experience and in-depth knowledge,” he added.

Hassan al-Mulla, president of the IIA, opened the meet-ing. Board members Fahad al-Marri, Murali Krishna, Ku-rien Kuriakose, Murtaza, Felix and Christian Adonis were present. Participants in the ‘4th Surgical Research and Innovation Ideas Al Zahrawi Symposium,’ pose for a picture.

The participants in the seminar with Buhariwalla and Rajeswar.

Sports, recreation activities draw crowds at Aspire ParkBy Joey AguilarStaff Reporter

Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF) has or-ganised sports and recreational ac-tivities for Aspire Park visitors as part

of the two-day ‘community activities’ which began yesterday.

Many children were seen enjoying the mini football matches, tug-of-war, and You.fo performances, among others, from 3pm to 7pm at the Park’s car parking area opposite Outdoor Pitch 10.

You.fo players use a specially-designed stick to throw an aerodynamic ring over cer-tain distances from each player.

“This new game seems very interesting and I want to practice and play more with my friends,” said nine-year old Dave, who was playing with two You.fo instructors. He also played football with other children at the park.

Aspire Park visitors will again have the op-portunity to play You.fo from 3pm to 4pm today at the fan zone while sports activities for children will take place from 5pm to 7pm.

A number of stalls at the venue will also continue to off er snacks, healthy drinks and souvenir items from 2.30pm to 9pm today.

According to AZF, the community activi-ties aim to entice residents to participate in various sports and physical activities they organise as part of their eff ort to promote healthy living. A young visitor playing You.fo with an instructor. PICTURES: Joey Aguilar AZF organises a number of recreational activities, including tug-of-war, for children at Aspire Park.