www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Volume 21 | Number 7017 | 2 RiyalsWednesday 21 December 2016 | 22 Rabia I 1438

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani honouring Sarah Masoud, who won the silver medal in the Women's Shotput F33 event in Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, during the 41st General Assembly of the Arab Police Sport Federation, at Sharq Hotel Doha, yesterday. → See also page 2

PM honours Qatari athlete

Qatar 2022 will be memorable: Afridi

BUSINESS | 21 SPORT | 28

Praxair agreesto buy Linde

for $35bn

Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

Philippine President Rod-rigo R Duterte (pictured), is likely to visit Qatar in the

first half of next year, which is set to further bolster relations between the two countries, Ambassador Wilfredo C Santos has said.

Ambassador Santos said the Embassy is preparing for the visit of Foreign Affairs Secre-tary Perfecto Yasay Jr. which will lay the groundwork for the President’s visit likely to occur between first to second quar-ter next year.

“There are plans for the President to visit Qatar. In fact, we received instructions last month to prepare for the visit of Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay this month to lay the groundwork for the visit of the President either in the first or second quarter of next year,” said the envoy.

He was speaking at Mon-day night’s episode of UFOQ Teleradyo, an online public service programme recently launched by the United Filipino Organisations in Qatar in coop-eration with the Alliance of Filipino Journalists in Qatar.

The last Philippine presi-dent who visited Qatar was then president Gloria Macapa-gal Arroyo in 2008 while the Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani visited the Philippines in April 2012.

“It has been four years since that last high level visit between our two countries. It’s time for our President to visit Qatar,” he said, adding it is the “best time” for newly elected President to come to Qatar.

“First, he won here. Second our economy has the highest growth rate in the Asia-Pacific region at 7.1 percent and our President gives importance to Filipino communities overseas. As you know, the first engage-ment of our President in his international trips is to with the Filipino community; that’s how important the Filipino commu-nity for him,” he explained.

→ Continued on page 2

Agencies

Qatar and Liechten-stein put forward a draft resolution to the UN General Assembly to punish

all parties that have committed war crimes in Syria.

News agencies reported that the General Assembly will vote on the draft resolution today. The draft includes the establishment of a neutral and independent international mech-anism to hold war criminals accountable in Syria. They have specifically urged the Assad regime to co-operate with the body in its investigation.

Qatar and Liechtenstein have also called on UN Secre-tary-General Ban Ki-moon to develop neutral terminology regarding various fighting fac-tions in Syria, to sustain neutrality in documenting war crimes. This comes after the Arab League condemned the brutal practices of the military opera-tions carried out by the Syrian regime and its allies against the civilian population of Aleppo.

The Arab League called on the international community to put pressure on the Syrian regime to work to open safe corridors for humanitarian

relief for civilians trapped in Aleppo. It also called on the Assad regime to follow inter-national humanitarian law and stop committing war crimes in its military operations.

Meanwhile, The foreign ministers of Russia, Turkey and Iran said in Moscow yesterday that they’d agreed a joint approach on Syria that included pressing for peace talks and a cease-fire.

The Syrian government and other parties on the ground have agreed to allow 20 observers to be sent to east Aleppo to monitor evacuations, the UN spokesman said.

The United Nations is how-ever waiting for all sides to grant access for deliveries of humanitarian aid to Aleppo, where civilians have been liv-ing under siege since July.

→ See also pages 8 & 10

QNA

EMIR H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of condolences to President of the Federal Republic of Ger-many, Joachim Gauck, and Chancellor Angela Merkel on the victims of the plowing attack, which took place at a Berlin market and left a number of people killed and injured. The Emir wished the injured a speedy recovery.

Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Prime Minister and Inte-rior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Kha-lifa Al Thani have also sent similar cables of condolences to Germany.

→ See also page 17

Qatar Airways wins three awards IN A MAGNIFICENT recep-tion held by Global Traveller magazine, Qatar Airways was awarded three honours: Best Airline for International First Class, Best First-Class Seat Design and, for the third time, Best Airline in the Middle East.

The event, held in The Peninsula Beverly Hills hotel, was attended by over 25 other industry represent-atives and also marked the start of the Global Traveller’s charitable initiative for The Leukaemia & Lymphoma Society.

→ See also page 22

The Peninsula

A majority of the parents are happy with the performance of the government and private kindergartens in the coun-

try, shows a survey conducted by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education.

The Ministry for the first time has issued performance indicators for 145 government and private kindergartens in based on the survey conducted during the last academic year. The survey shows that 91 percent of the parents are satisfied with the perform-ance of the KGs; 81 percent are happy about the outdoor activities while 86 percent are

satisfied with their communication with the parents. The survey was conducted by the school assessment section at the Evaluation Institute at the ministry. The Ministry, however, said that response to the survey from the parents was not satisfactory. Only 32 percent of the total Qatari parents and 26 percent of the non-Qatari par-ents responded to the survey.

The average number of students in the 154 KGs has been estimated at 108 and the average number of teachers at 12. The aver-age work experience of a teacher is 12 years.

The report includes comparison between the performance of select KGs during the 2014- 2015 academic year and the 2015-2016

academic year and other performance indi-cators. The survey was intended to give a picture about the difference and diversity of the KGs to help parents make appropriate decision while selecting KGs for their kids.

The school assessment section urged parents to participate in the new edition of the annual Comprehensive Educational Poll (CEP) launched in November.

The first phase of the CEP will cover all government and private schools, kindergar-tens and directors of schools/KGs . The second phase starting from mid February next year will cover students, parents and teachers.

Duterte likely to visit Qatar next year

Punish Syria war criminals, Qatar tells UN

Most parents happy with KGs: Survey

Today is the shortest dayHuda N V The Peninsula

Qatar will have the shortest day and the longest night of the year today with the winter solstice, along with other coun-

tries in the northern hemisphere. The mercury will fall below 10 degrees Celsius in some parts of the country today with strong winds due to an increased atmospheric pressure over the Qatar which has no direct link with winter solstice.

“The sun's elevation in the sky is at its low-est today, at 41 degree from the horizon, due to this it will shorten the length of the day, to

10 hours and 33 minutes in Qatar,” said Sheikh Salman bin Jabor Al Thani, a noted Qatari astronomer. Winter Solstice occurs when the North Pole is tilted furthest away from the Sun. For people in the Northern Hemisphere as with Qatar, the winter/ December solstice marks, the day of the year with fewest hours of daylight

“The seasonal significance of the this sol-stice is in the reversal of the gradual shortening of days and lengthening of nights, we have been seeing so far. However since this is a gradual process we won’t be able to feel the difference until the end of March,” he told The Peninsula. → Continued on page 4

Pic

: Saja

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The P

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Emir condoles with German President and Chancellor

Qatar in UN

The UN General Assembly will vote on the draft resolution put forward by Qatar and Liechtenstein today.

Road tunnel under Bosphorus openedPRESIDENT Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday opened the first ever road tunnel under-neath the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, the latest project completed in his plan of trans-f o r m i n g T u r k e y ' s infrastructure.

Turkey in October 2013 opened the Marmaray rail tunnel underneath the iconic waterway, the first link beneath the waters that divide Europe and Asia.

→ See also page 8

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani addressing the 41st general assembly of the Arab Police Sport Federation at Sharq Hotel, yesterday.

A newly installed digital signboard in Thumama area, on Najma Street between D Ring Road and E Ring Road, to raise public awareness about traffic safety. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Traffic tips

QNA

Prime Minister and Min-ister of Interior H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani opened the 41st

general assembly of the Arab Police Sport Federation at Sharq Hotel yesterday.

The Prime Minister honoured the national champions who took part in the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. They were: Sarah Masoud, who won the sil-ver medal in the Women's Shotput F33 event, Abdulqadir Abdulrahman, who won the sil-ver medal in the Men's Shotput F34, and Mohammed Al Kubaisi, who finished in the eighth place in the men's 100m T34.

The Prime Minister also hon-oured Lt General Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al Ahmad Al Sabah, Gov-ernor of Hawalli Governorate in Kuwait, and President of the

International Police Sports Union (USIP), Saleh bin Isa Hindi Al Mannai, adviser to the King of Bahrain, Lt Gen Faisal bin Mubarak Al Sinaine, former chairman of the Kuwait Police Sports Federation, Advisor Abdullah Salem bin Nusra Al-Amiri, vice president of Arab Police Sport Federation, Brig. Belarabi Saleh Hamdan, mem-ber of the Executive Bureau of the Arab Police Sport Federation, Maj. Gen. Mohammed Abdullah Al-Marool, member of the Exec-utive Bureau of the Arab Police Sport Federation, Col. Waleed Ghanem Al-Ghanem, member of the Executive Bureau of the Arab Police Sport Federation, Col. Mohammed Rajab Dair Al-Lail, member of the Executive

Bureau of the Arab Police Sport Federation, and Sarah Abdullah Al-Mutawa, CEO of Old is Gold Company.

Meanwhile, President of Qatar Police Sport Federation Khaled bin Hamad Al Attiyah was elected as President of the Arab Police Sport Federation (APSF) for a third term which ends in 2020.

The election took place dur-ing the APSF General Assembly held at Sharq Hotel which was attended by 18 members.

The General Assembly also elected police observer Bou Ahamd Boubacar (Algeria) as Vice-President by acclamation, and Major General Ahmed Rajai (Egypt) was appointed as APSF Secretary General since the Fed-eration is headquartered in Egypt.

Six new members of the APSF Executive Bureau were also elected. They were: Colonel Sul-tan bin Saeed Al Wad'ani (Saudi Arabia), Brigadier Saud Abdul-lah Al Khodor (Kuwait), Brigadier General Hussein Mohammed Ali Khashfeh (Lebanon), Brigadier General Samir Sabir Bakir ( Jor-dan), Colonel Mohammed Hamid bin Dalmouj Al Dhaheri (UAE), the general observer Bozfor Mohamed (Morocco).

HE Brigadier-General Kha-lid bin Hamad Al Attiyah, president of the Qatar Police Sports Federation and APSF President, exchanged memen-tos with the heads and representatives of the APSF member states on the sidelines of the General Assembly.

Lt-General Sheikh Ahmad Nawaf Al-Ahmad Al-Sabah, President of the International Police Sports Union (USIP), expressed his delight at the hon-our he received from the Prime Minister.

In a press statement, he said that the General Assembly was held in a distinctive atmosphere, expressing his happiness at par-ticipating in the meeting.

He thanked the president and members of the Qatar Police Sports Federation for the warm reception and hospital-ity, while congratulating Brigadier-General Khalid bin Hamad Al Attiyah on his elec-tion by acclamation as APSF President, and congratulating APSF new members.

PM opens Arab Police Sport Federation meetingChampions

Prime Minister honours the national champions who took part in the Paralympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

Khaled bin Hamad Al Attiyah elected as President of APSF for a third term which ends in 2020.

The Peninsula

Ooredoo was yesterday named the Official Tele-communication Partner

of the Qatar Stars League. The official signing cere-

mony, which was held at the Qatar Stars League headquarters at Al Bidda Tower, was attended by Ooredoo’s Chief Legal & Reg-ulatory Officer Sheikh Ali bin Jabor Al Thani and Qatar Stars League Chief Executive Officer Hani Ballan, along with other senior representatives from both companies.

The new partnership has been designed to encourage more of the country’s diverse community to attend and cheer on their local teams, and with the new strategic agreement, Ooredoo will promote upcom-ing games via their popular social media pages, as well as encourage young people to take up the sport.

Sheikh Ali bin Jabor Al Thani, CLRO, Ooredoo Qatar, com-mented: “Ooredoo believes

deeply in supporting and encour-aging sports across Qatar, and we hope this partnership will help fill our stadiums for an exciting season. We look forward to working further with the Qatar Stars League, and encourage all of Qatar to try something new and go cheer on your team.”

Hani Ballan, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Stars League, said: “Working with Ooredoo will help us to not only promote our matches, but to plant the seed to support football across Qatar. By 2022, we want to have every match seen by a full crowd in every stadium, so that we can show the world how much we care about the beautiful game and support our players.”

The Qatar Stars League includes 182 matches, which are played by 14 teams representing areas across Qatar. The QSL gives residents the chance to see foot-balling superstars up close, with famous players such as Khalfan Ibrahim Khalfan Al Khalfan, and Brazilian defender and Al Sailiya team member Marcelo Tavares.

Qatar and Philippines negotiating several key agreements: Envoy

Continued from page 1Ambassador Santos under-

scored that “Qatar is an economic powerhouse, an ideal destination for Presidential visit.” Asked about the impact of the visit, the Ambassador said: “The president’s visit here will definitely reinvigorate bilateral relations. In fact, our two gov-ernments are already negotiating several key agree-ments in areas such as education, culture, investment, health and tourism.

“The Middle East is very important for the Philippines and we look to the Middle East as a new frontier in foreign pol-icy. At the same time, the GCC countries including Qatar look East for opportunities, includ-ing the Philippines. The visit of

the president will create oppor-tunities for the mutual benefit of our two countries."

Meanwhile, the ambassador revealed plans to relocate the embassy to a bigger place to accommodate the growing pop-ulation of Filipinos here.

“We have plans to transfer to a bigger area with one or two buildings to house all the agen-cies represented in the Philippine Embassy, which is the ideal set-up,” he said, explain-ing the plan for a one-stop shop where all embassy services as well as those of Philippine Over-seas Labour Office and Overseas Workers’ Welfare Administra-tion (POLO-OWWA) will be available.

The embassy has already found a land and negotiations

are going on with the owner to build two buildings with suffi-cient parking space near a place where our Filipinos can eat and wait while waiting for the release of their documents, he said.

With the planned transfer to a bigger building and the swell-ing population of overseas Filipinos here, the embassy has also asked for additional staff which will hopefully be pro-vided next year, he added.

Hosted by UFOQ Chairman Ressie S Fos and GMA 7 corre-spondent Manny Flores, the interview with the ambassador, which was already viewed more than 5,000 times, was the third episode of the public service programme for Overseas Filipi-nos in Qatar.

Qatar slams shooting at Islamic Centre in SwitzerlandQNA

Qatar expressed strong condemnation and denunciation of the

shooting at Islamic Centre on Zurich in Switzerland and the run over accident in a market in the German city of Berlin which left dozens of people dead and wounded.

In a statement yesterday, the Foreign Ministry said that these criminal acts that tar-get innocent civilians are contrary to all ethical and humanitarian principles and values.

The statement also reit-erated Qatar's firm position rejecting violence and terror-ism regardless of their motives and causes.

The Ministry stressed in its statement Qatar's solidarity with Switzerland and Germany.

The statement renewed the State of Qatar's firm position rejecting violence and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations.

It also expressed Qatar's sincere condolences to the victims' families and the peo-ple and government of Switzerland and Germany, wishing the injured speedy recovery.

Meanwhile, Arab League Secretary-General Ahmed Aboul Gheit condemned the attack that took place in Berlin on Monday.

In a statement issued yes-terday, Aboul Gheit said that combating such terrorist attacks is one of the biggest challenges of the current age as these attacks blindly kill innocent people indiscriminately around the world, stressing the need to cooperate to fight this inter-laced-dimensional threat.

Sheikh Ali bin Jabor Al Thani, CLRO, Ooredoo Qatar, and Hani Ballan, Chief Executive Officer, Qatar Stars League, exchanging documents after signing the agreement.

Ooredoo named official telecom partner of QSL

02 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016HOME

03WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with Ethiopian President Mulatu Teshome in Addis Ababa yesterday. The foreign minister conveyed greetings of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani to the Ethiopian President and his wishes of progress and prosperity to the Ethiopian people.

FM meets Ethiopian President

Huda N VThe Peninsula

Qatar's vibrant culture and tradition are drawing much atten-tion from expatriates who are keen to learn

more about the country. The eagerness to know about Qatari heritage is increasing with more expats and visitors coming for-ward to immerse in a local context, according to an expert.

“People are curious to know about various aspects of our society. There are various ‘why’ aspects of traditions they want answered,” said Amal Al Shamarri, Chairman and Founder of Embrace Doha, a Qatari organisation working to spread awareness on the

traditions, culture and heritage of the country

“Our main focus groups are expatriates in the country. We are trying to build a bridge between Qatari and the expat

community and also the visitors. We try to raise awareness about the society and help them under-stand the Qatari culture and lifestyle. Many are coming for-ward and adopting different aspects of the culture,” she told The Peninsula.

Embrace Doha is the Qatar’s first ever cultural consultancy firm, with its services masterfully combining cultural tourism, edu-cation and entertainment. Participants of various sessions and tours are given a rare glimpse into the richness and vibrancy of the Qatari culture.

For many, Qatari culture is the same as Islamic traditions, though there is much difference, according to her.

“For example, Abayah is something very new to the

culture. In old photographs, rarely do you see women wear-ing abayahs, they just wore modest clothing,” Al Shamarri said.

Living in the desert, ladies found it difficult to wear bright and new dresses for various occasions. So to keep them clean and dust-free women used a kind of cover when they went out.

“Abayas are the latest ver-sion of these overcoats and it is now a cultural thing . We do have more colours and designs in aba-yas now,” she said.

“As for the traditional thoub, when Japan entered into pearl-ing industry, Arabs went bankrupt to the extent that they had to take down the sails of the dhows and use it to stitch gar-ments, which was an earlier

version of thoub. Many went a step further and dyed them in coffee so that they did not have to worry about the dresses get-ting soiled,” she said.

Different groups from various communities are turning up for the tours, including families, compa-nies and also social media groups. Various sessions organised by the firm include traditional food tour, a time travel tour to see Qatari his-tory and culture, Dhow tour, Qatari culture sessions and busi-ness etiquette workshops, among others.

“There is an increasing demand for our sessions. For each audience, the reasons are different. There are expats who want to learn about socialising or to get a glimpse of the Qatari life. Then there are businessmen

who are keen to learn about the Arab business etiquette to deal with the Qataris. Also, we have tourists who have very few hours to know about the culture. All are given specialised tours to help them understand the country at its best,” Al Shamarri said.

Though much marketing on the initiative has not been done, the fruitfulness of the pro-grammes offered has brought in more participants.

“The word of mouth has helped much for the popularity of the initiative. We do not cir-culate pamphlets or books on the traditions, instead, we give the real experience of Qatari house-hold and society. This is the main attraction for our visitors and having more people is encour-aging,” she said.

More expats keen to learn about Qatari culture: ExpertEmbrace Doha

There are various ‘why’ aspects of Qatari traditions which expats and tourists want answered.

Embrace Doha is the Qatar’s first ever cultural consultancy firm.

Qatar reiterates support for dialogue between cultures and religionsQNA

The State of Qatar has stressed its commitment to support all efforts aimed at

strengthening dialogue and coop-eration between cultures and religions, and encouraging a cul-ture of peace in order to ensure a better future for coming genera-tions in the community and all peoples of the entire world.

Qatar stressed at the same time that the consolidation of peace within societies and between peoples needs a favora-ble environment and conditions, noting to the important and piv-otal role played by the UN Alliance of Civilizations in promoting a culture of peace, dialogue and understanding between cultures and religions.

This came in a statement of the State of Qatar in the UN Gen-eral Assembly plenary meeting in New York on "Culture of Peace", delivered by Al Anoud Al Tamimi, third secretary at the Permanent Mission of the State of Qatar to the United Nations.

She pointed to the role played by the UN and Member States to provide an environ-ment that fosters and ensure respect for the legitimate rights of peoples and their dignity, and to provide the requirements of sustainable development to the communities, as outlined in the Sustainable Development Plan "There can be no sustainable

development without peace and no peace without sustainable development."

She further emphasised on the important and pivotal role played by the UN Alliance of Civ-ilizations in promoting a culture of peace, dialogue and under-standing between cultures and religions, stressing the importance of the continued support of the Member States for the activities and programs of the Alliance, which directly contribute to the promotion of a culture of peace and the promotion of a construc-tive positive relationships between peoples and nations of different races and religions, not-ing that the State of Qatar was one of the first countries that sup-ported the alliance.

Al Anoud Al Tamimi indicated that the inclusion of the concept of a culture of peace within the sustainable development goals for 2030, specifically goal No. (16), is an important step to achieve peace and justice for all the peo-ples of the world, adding that the State of Qatar attaches great importance to this goal.

She also said that Qatar believes in the importance of strengthening communities with peace and justice and attaches importance to strengthening the participation of all segments of society in the process of national development, especially the younger generation.

In the same context, she

pointed out that Qatar, in col-laboration with a group of countries, is working through "goal 16" to support the Mem-ber States in their efforts to achieve this goal by strengthen-ing the reporting of the achievements and challenges faced by states during the imple-mentation process, in order to encourage them to continue.

Moreover, Al Anoud Al Tamimi said that Qatar shares the UN to focus on conflict preven-tion and mediation, through the adoption of a policy aimed at pre-venting armed conflicts and solving them by peaceful means, as Qatar made significant efforts to resolve disputes through medi-ation at the request of involved parties, based on the UN Charter.

On international efforts to combat extremism and terror-ism, which threaten peace and security, Al Anoud said that Qatar adopts an approach based on cooperation and addressing root causes that lead to violent extremism, especially among youth, through paying attention to education, building capacity, empowering local communities, providing employment and training opportunities as well as enhancing the economy in addi-tion to encouraging dialogue, embracing tolerance values, fighting against extremism and rejecting sectarian or ethnic discrimination.

Doha Festival City & Teyseer Security in dealThe Peninsula

Doha Festival City, one of the largest leisure and retail

developments in the Gulf, has announced that Tey-seer Security has been awarded the contract for security services. Qatar-based Teyseer Security is preparing to take control of the 670,000 sqm build-ing as Doha Festival City prepares to open its doors to the public in February next year.

Prior to the opening, the security company will allocate 70 dedicated security professionalsto Doha Festival City, for the protection of all visitors and employees, with the guard force increasing to over 100 upon the mall opening.

The security officers will be trained to cover every security aspect within the mall, and will familiarize themselves with the overall offering.

Half of national workforce are women, says studyThe Peninsula

Qatari women represent about half of the national workforce in

the country with approxi-mately 91,000 working-age female nationals, according to a recent study.

While the government excels in promoting women through Qatarisation pro-grammes, most organisations are yet to improve in this crit-ical area, according to the new survey report, Strategic Qatarisation: Focusing on Meaningful Employment, conducted by Oxford Strate-gic Consulting (OSC).

The study showed that government and semi-gov-ernment organisations were significantly more likely than private sector organisations to always actively promote female nationals (79% vs. 25%). Meanwhile, more than a third of organisations in Qatar (36%) either never or sometimes “actively promote female nationals” as part of their Qatarisation strategy.

When surveyed about their Qatarisation strategies, 11% of senior business lead-ers in Qatar stated that they never promoted female nationals in their organisa-tions. A further 25% of organisations stated that they

only sometimes promote female nationals. Smaller organisations (250-499 employees) were significantly less likely than larger organ-isations (500+ employees) to actively promote female nationals.

The study also showed that employing more Qatari women requires effective talent pipe-lines. The least used Qatarisation strategies by sur-veyed organisations included links with schools, colleges and universities. Some 47% of com-panies rarely undertook activities to identify potential talent early, while 50% rarely offered careers advice to nationals at schools and colleges.

Similarly, OSC’s Qatar Employment Report 2016 found that 44% of Qatari women listed “not hearing about jobs” as a significant difficulty when sourcing employment. Effective female talent pipelines require stronger links with educa-tional institutions as well as more pragmatic techniques, such as talent spotting, ambassador programmes and internal referrals.

All the while, develop-ment opportunities for female nationals are also lacking. Once female jobseekers join an organisation, they often

face obstacles in their profes-sional development paths. Only 33% of companies sur-veyed stated that they always maximise development and involvement of national tal-ent. Similarly, just 33% of companies always identify key talent managers. Provid-ing the right environment for female leadership is critical, be it through mentorship, graduate training schemes or investing in emotional intel-ligence. As these talent pipelines are developed, organisations then need to ensure that Qatari women can achieve levels of seniority by reaching C-Suite roles and Board memberships; a major goal for career-minded women.

The focus on female tal-ent should not only target top level talent but also “second” and “third level” Qataris, those who should be trained to become leaders of the future. The most practically-minded companies should build effective talent pipe-lines by reaching out to female nationals often and early in addition to ensuring ample development oppor-tunities for new entrants to the workforce or those who re-join after maternity leave or as a second wave in their careers.

04 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016HOME

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi with Malta's Foreign Minister George Vella on the sidelines of the fourth European Union-Arab League foreign ministers' meeting held in Cairo yesterday.

Al Muraikhi meets Malta FM

The Peninsula

To build a bridge between the Arab world and Americans, Karara yesterday inked a cooperation

agreement with the Arab Cultural Institute in Washington DC.

The agreement was signed in the presence of the General Manager of the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara, Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, and the CEO of Arab Cultural Institute in Washington DC, Dr John Duke Anthony.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr Al Sulaiti, said, “The agreement is a new addition to a series of agreements Katara has signed with a number of highly-reputed Arab and International organi-zations and institutions this year, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cul-tural Organization (UNESCO), the Arab World Institute in Paris, and the Arab League Educational,

Cultural and Scientific Organi-zation (ALECSO)”.

Katara’s General Manager, added: “This global partnership with the Arab Cultural Institute in Washington is aimed at build-ing a bridge of cultural communication between the Arab world and the American people and the US cultural insti-tutions operating in Washington DC, the powerful capital of the

world. The agreement is also seeking to lay the foundations for a better mutual cultural under-standing, boosting shared human values, adopting educational, cultural and art programs lead-ing to a deeper understanding of the Arab and Islamic civilization, and establishing constant coop-eration through dialogue, special programs and activities includ-ing educational lectures, scientific symposiums, work-shops, language support programs for bilinguals and i n t e r n a t i o n a l c u l t u r a l conferences”.

“The importance of such cooperation springs from the opportunity it presents in creat-ing solid and sustainable relations that would enhance Katara’s role and efforts in enriching the cultural and knowledge fields in the Arab world and globally. The agree-ment is totally in line with Katara’s strategic goals includ-ing building partnerships with

Gulf, Arab and international cul-tural institutions to contribute to the advancement of the cultural scene”, Katara’s Chief noted.

Dr Al Sulaiti clarified: “This

agreement and others of the same nature inked with grand cultural institutions will also seek better cooperation in the knowl-edge and media sectors,

exchanging expertise, launching initiatives, hosting activities and events focused on activating the cultural field, adopting the approach of knowledge and fur-ther opening up to the world”.

For his part, the President of the Arab Cultural Institute in Washington, DC, Dr. John Duke Anthony, said: “The agreement signed with Katara is aimed at giving a shot in the arm to the cultural ties between Qatar and the Gulf states, and the U.S. cul-tural and knowledge-based institutions. The Cultural Vil-lage Foundation today has become one of the most impor-tant, most active and powerful cultural platforms in the Arab world, and we hope, through this agreement, Katara will sup-port our institution’s efforts in introducing the Arab culture and its significant contributions to the human civilization eve-rywhere, in a bid to change the Arab stereotype images in the West.

Continued from page 1During this time of the year,

the North of the Arctic Circle towards the North Pole will have no direct sunlight, while people in the areas south of the Antarc-tic Circle towards the South Pole will see the Midnight Sun, i.e. have 24 hours of daylight, dur-ing this time of the year.

“The winter solstice is con-sidered by some as the start of winter. Seasons happen because Earth's axis is tilted at an angle of about 23.4 degrees and dif-ferent parts of Earth receive more solar energy than others,” Al Thani said.

“Added to this, since the day is shorter, the temperature will

be cooler, during this time of the year. The sun will rise at 06:15 and set at 16:49,” he said.

According to the Meteorology Department, today the minimum temperature in various parts of the country outside Doha will fall to 12 degree Celsius, a few notches down from that recorded yester-day. The temperature within Doha will vary between 23 to 16 degree Celsius, while Abo Samra is expected to have the highest temperature variation with a maximum of 20 degree Celsius and minimum of 9 degree Celsius.

Meanwhile, the MET depart-ment has also issued a warning for strong winds and high sea

until Thursday. “A ridge of high pressure

expected to affect the country starting from Wednesday dawn until early Thursday accompa-nied with fresh to strong Northwesterly winds,” the department announced on their social media accounts.

The weather is expected to be windy, and slightly dusty today with scattered clouds and cold at night. Strong northwest-erly wind at speeds ranging from 10 to 22 knots , at times going up to 28 kts would turn the seas choppy and air dusty. The visibility forecast is low, between four and eight km at places to two km at times.

Katara signs agreement with Arab Cultural Institute

Met forecasts windy & dusty weather

Cultural bridge

Partnership aimed at building a bridge of cultural communication between the Arab world and Americans.

Katara will support our institution’s efforts in introducing the Arab culture.

General Manager of the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara, Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, and the CEO of Arab Cultural Institute in Washington DC, Dr John Duke Anthony, at the agreement signing ceremony.

Students at an event on smoking cessation.

The Peninsula

More than 90 stu-d e n t s f r o m different universi-

ties at a recent event learnt about the role of healthcare professionals in smoking cessation to ensure a healthier society. Students from Qatar University Col-lege of Pharmacy (CPH) and College of Health Sciences (CHS), University of Calgary in Qatar (UCQ), and College of the North Atlantic-Qatar (CNA-Q) participated in the third activity on Smoking Cessation which was recently organised by Qatar University (QU) College of Pharmacy (CPH)’s Interpro-fessional Education Committee (IPEC).

CPH Assistant Dean for Student Affairs Alla El Awaisi and a presentation by CPH Associate Professor of Clinical Pharmacy and Practice Dr Ahmed Awaisu on the role of health care professionals in smoking cessation to ensure a healthier society. It also included a patient-case sce-nario in which students interacted with a 65-year-old heavy smoker suffering from multiple diseases including Chronic Obstruc-tive Pulmonary Disease (COPD). The students dis-cussed the case from their professional perspective and made a collaborative plan to help the patient stop smoking.

El Awaisi said, “This event aligns with CPH goals to provide students with opportunities in which they can develop and heighten their skills such as commu-nication, teamwork and problem-solving."

Students discuss smoking cessation

05WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 HOME

Lexus RX350 car model recalledThe Peninsula

THE Ministry of Economy and Commerce, in collab-oration with Abdulla Abdulghani & Bros Co WLL, dealer of Lexus vehi-cles in Qatar, has announced the recall of Lexus RX350 model year 2016 over a potential defect in the power back door ECU.

The Ministry said the recall campaign comes within the framework of its ongoing efforts to pro-tect consumers and ensure that car dealers follow up on vehicle defects and repairs.

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

Vodafone Passport Pack for better roamingThe Peninsula

The enhanced Vodafone Passport Pack and the new Vodafone Passport Card

are meant to make roaming a worry-free experience.

From Monday, December 12, the Vodafone Passport Pack includes 100 roaming minutes allowing customers the freedom to use the minutes any way they want. Customers can use the 100 minutes to make calls in the country they are in, calls to any other country, calls back to any

operator in Qatar and to receive incoming calls. Once the cus-tomer exhausts the 100 minutes a low rate of 1QR per minute will apply until the expiry of the Pack.

The Vodafone Passport Pack, which works on all oper-ators across 78 countries, also allows customers to enjoy up to 2GB of data at only QR100 per week with the widest 4G coverage while roaming. This comes at no extra cost to the current Vodafone roaming rates; all customers have to do

is enable 4G and data roaming on their smartphone. Custom-ers can activate Vodafone Passport Pack by dialling *110*110# or through the My Vodafone App.

Moreover, the new Voda-fone Passport Card has launched with the same amazing benefits as the Vodafone Passport Pack, with the added benefit of giving prepaid and enterprise custom-ers the option of topping up as much as they need and activat-ing multiple cards at the same time.

QA rolls out redesigned dining service in First Class on intra-Gulf routesThe Peninsula

Qatar Airways is celebrating the roll out of a refreshed and refined pre-mium in-flight dining service for

First Class passengers on the airline’s intra-Gulf services.

The new First Class dining service will be served on a modern and con-temporary platter made of fine-bone china, showcasing curated and designed menus by Qatar Airways’ celebrated

chefs specifically for intra-Gulf flights, which average one hour 30 minutes of flight time.

First Class passengers will enjoy hot and savoury snacks, a light salad, des-sert and bread and butter, all served immediately after take-off as part of the ‘one-stop’ service. Tailored specifically for short intra-Gulf flights, the service allows Qatar Airways’ passengers the First Class experience. Qatar Airways’ Group Chief Executive, Akbar Al Baker,

said: “I’m thrilled to announce the intro-duction of a refreshed in-flight dining experience for our most valued and most frequent travellers. Intra-Gulf First Class passengers will continue to enjoy our award-winning service on board the leading airline in the Middle East, now with a more streamlined and contem-porary in-flight dining service that is beautifully and elegantly presented. We’re committed to being the leading airline and the first choice for

passengers in the region, and our refreshed First Class service is designed specifically for our passengers based on what they truly appreciate – fresh, deli-cious meals presented in a beautiful and thoughtful service.”

The refreshed service is available on Qatar Airways intra-Gulf flights between Doha and Abu Dhabi, Bahrain, Dammam, Dubai, Dubai World Centre, Gassim, Hofuf, Kuwait City, Muscat, Ras Al-Khaimah, Riyadh and Sharjah.

Qatar Airways Senior Vice President Customer Experience, Rossen Dimitrov, said: “Qatar Airways prides itself on delivering seamless service for our pas-sengers. Our frequent flyers travelling with us on intra-Gulf flights will appre-ciate the fresh approach we have taken to redesigning and refining the First Class on-board dining service so that they can enjoy meals from world-class chefs, elegantly served, even when fly-ing with us on the shortest routes.”

CMC urges more facilities at parks

The Peninsula

The Central Municipal Council (CMC) has recommended that the Minis-try of Municipality and Environment study the possibility of building more entertainment

facilities and water-theme-areas at Al Khor public park. The recommendation also said that festivals and entertainment programmes be organised in the bigger parks such as Al Khor Park.

Plans of public parks need to include diversified games and entertainment tools in the play area in order to include children under five years. The Council has also asked the Ministry to assess the need of Al Wakra spur and resolve the problems being faced by fishermen. There is a need for assessing the needs of all fishing harbours in Qatar,

especially in Al Khor, Al Shamal, Adakhera, and Al Wakra and setting up plans and mak-ing designs to develop them, said the Council in its recommendation to the Ministry.

CMC yesterday discussed two reports prepared by its Services and Facility Com-mittee on building more facilities and play-areas in public parks for children of dif-ferent ages in all parks in general, and in Al Khor Park in particular.

The second report was about the devel-opment of Al Wakra fishing port.

The recommendation passed by the Council upon proposals by Nasser bin Ibra-him Al Muhannadi, member of the Council and representative of the constituency No. 25, pertaining to establishment of more facil-ities and games in the play areas of Al Khor park was made due to the big turnout at the park following its opening.

The second recommendation was also based on a suggestion made by the same member and was forwarded to the Services and Facility Committee to study the sugges-tions and report to the Council. The recommendations were made upon the com-mittee’s report and after discussing the issue with the authority concerned in the Minis-try of Municipality and Environment.

Focus on fishing harbours

Council recommends assessing needs of all fishing harbours in the country.

Al Shamal Stadium and park openedThe Peninsula

AL SHAMAL Municipality Director opened Al Shamal Stadium and park yesterday.

The opening comes as the number of public parks for visitors are being incresased. It is also meant to support environment protection efforts to meet the urban progress Qatar is witnessing.

Several officials from the munic-ipality attended the opening ceremony, in addition to Al Shamal Central Municipal Council (CMC) members. The total space the fami-lies-only park occupies is 11,930 square metres.

The park at Al Shamal is spread over 11,930 square metres.

Ashghal extends temporary road closure The Peninsula

The Public Works Authority, Ashghal, has announced the extension of the temporary

closure on the intersection of Raw-dat Rashed Road and Salwa Road (Exit 29) to the end of January, 2017. The closure is to complete the implementation of Phase 4 of

Rawdat Rashed Road Development Project.

The closure includes part of the exit from Rawdat Rashed Road to Salwa Road. Traffic can use a par-allel alternative road during the closure.

In addition, entrance from Salwa Road to Roundabout (2) will still be closed to heavy vehicles.

Heavy vehicles can drive towards Roundabout (1) then take a U-turn to the main road.

The road from Roundabout (2) towards Roundabout (3) south-bound will remain closed.

Drivers coming from Bu Samra have to drive towards Exit 24, then go back to Salwa Road and enter Rawdat Rashed Road.

06 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016HOME

Ministry of Municipality and Environment

Announcement for the qualification for companies interested to participate in the strategic partnership to

run aquaculture research center in Ras Al-Mutbakh

The Ministry of Municipal and Environmental invite companies interested to participate in the qualification step for the management , the operation and the maintenance for all units and facilities related fish farming section in aquaculture research center in Ras-mudbakh in aim to achieve the research and aquaculture production goals of the center using the latest technology in the field of aquaculture and fish hatchery in accordance with the international standards for quality of aquaculture products.

Who is qualified to participate?• A highly experienced companies in the field of marine Aquaculture ,or companies that are committed by agreement with specialized international company with a worldwide reputation in the field of breeding and Aquaculture.

• Companies with previous experience in project management and maintenance work.

Prospective applicants must consider the following points• Applicants who do not achieve criteria above will not be selected to participate in the qualification step.• Qualification applications must be submitted within the deadline defined above, no application will be accepted after that.

• All correspondence relating to this participation in the qualification step will be in two version Arabic and English .

Procedures for obtaining qualification questionnaire. • Applicants must register to participate in the qualification step by sending a letter expressing their intention for the participation .

• Applicants to this tender must provide the following documents:• Copy of a valid commercial register.• Proposal in three pages, at least explaining how to deal with task.• Providing their dependence documents that show Previous Experiences to prove their suitability of the task.• Curriculum vitae of main technical team to be employed.

Please Submit applications to the following address: 6th Floor,Bldg 2, St Saad Bin Malek 941,Zone24, Rawdat AlkhailTender documents may be collected against the non-refundable amount (300 )QR

General Requirements • Any qualification questionnaire requests will not be accepted after the deadline.• The final decision to send the qualification questionnaire or not going to Ministry of Municipality and Environment.

• Please send all inquiries regarding this tender to the following address: Fish Wealth Department• Ministry of Municipality and Environment• P.B: 8703 Doha- Qatar• Tel: (00974)44263483• Fax: (00974)44263650

The Ministry of Municipality and Environment invite the companies interested to participate in the qualification step for the strategic partnership to run aquaculture

research center in Ras Al-Mutbakh to submit a letter.

Subject of qualified step Closing date

Running the fish farming section in the research center in Ras AL-Mutbakh

To Provide a letter of expressing their intention to participate in the qualification step

30/01/2017 12:00 pm

To Provide the qualification questionnaire. After (45 ) Days

Gene study vital for treatment: ExpertFazeena Saleem The Peninsula

Genetic research is the main foundation for mapping the population and treating common and rare diseases, says

a geneticist at Sidra’s Research Branch.

Mapping the population will help to find the population genetics as well as disease genetics, said Dr Khalid Fakhro (pictured), an Investigator in

Genomic research

Population genetics, an important part of genetic research, answers questions on ancestral migration history and the challenges our predecessors faced that enriched specific gene sets.

Human Genetics at Sidra Medi-cal and Research Center, and an Assistant Professor in Genetic Medicine at Weill Cornell Med-icine Qatar.

“Sidra’s Research Branch continues to lay significant groundwork that will lead to improved health care outcomes in Qatar. But we are not alone in this, and we have been work-ing collaboratively with other institutions in Qatar to foster a nationwide genomics commu-nity. However, our role in this pursuit of precision medicine is slightly different from other health care stakeholders, since we have additional leeway in the research community to experiment with cutting edge technologies,” he said, speak-ing on the sidelines of Sidra’s annual functional genomics symposium: Nature versus Nature, organised in collabora-tion with the journal Nature Genetics.

Dr Fakhro’s expertise has seen him play key roles in mul-tiple projects in Qatar, where he has actively focused on ‘bridges of collaborations’ with educational and research insti-tutions locally and globally.

“We have access to some of the world’s best technolo-gies,” he said, “allowing us to really push genetic research to the next level. We are compet-itive at an international level now, creating comprehensive Qatari genomic databases which will form the building blocks for Precision Medicine, not only in Qatar, but in the wider Middle East.”

Dr Fakhro, who is from Bahrain, believes the entire GCC should unify under a sin-gle genome sequencing umbrella. His coming to Qatar was due to the significant investment in genomics that

the country has made recently, including the launch of the national genome programme and the establishment of lead-ing faculties and institutes that specialise in biomedical research.

“In my lab, we focus on two main streams — population genetics and disease genetics. When it comes to the popula-tion level, there are big questions we are trying to answer, such as, where did this population come from, what was our ancestral migration history and what challenges did our forefathers face, which enriched specific gene sets nec-essary to survive and thrive. This not only provides us with interesting academic insight into population history, but has major implications on what diseases we are most suscep-tible to,” he said.

“In the second stream, the focus is on diseases, and spe-cifically genetic diseases. These are usually sub-divided into two big pools — rare and common disorders. Rare dis-eases include cystic fibrosis, muscular dystrophies and Mendelian disorders, which are diseases that affect a few people. However, because they are rare, they are usually much more severe, usually appearing in childhood and, without medical intervention,

causing loss of life,” he added. Dr Fakhro explained that

in populations with high con-sanguinity (blood relations), there is a higher rate of rare diseases clustering in families, and that there is a need to track these diseases in Arab coun-tries. “There is very limited epidemiological data available, unfortunately, so we some-times struggle to understand the true impact of disease on society. While rare disorders on an individual scale might seem uncommon, collectively over time they are becoming quite common. Especially in closed, tightly knit societies like in the GCC, we see the same kind of disorders occurring again and again,” he said.

The other big factor with rare diseases is that they usu-ally require very expensive interventions. A newborn with a hole in the heart requires highly complex surgeries, including follow up care over a long period of their life. The financial burden is huge.

“Our research into this stream is not only to discover genes that cause such diseases, but through functional genom-ics we hope to discover treatment methodologies,” said Dr Fakhro. “However to fur-ther medical science and research in this field it is essen-tial to sequence every single family with rare diseases to discover their specific muta-tions,” he said.

Gene sequencing is the procedure of reading every gene’s DNA in the genome — something which Sidra will be offering to patients with rare diseases and their families.

Besides rare diseases, generic research will help find treatment for common diseases such as obesity and diabetes.

QRCS sends aid and mobile clinics for Aleppo victims The Peninsula

IN an instant response to the deteriorating humanitarian situation in Aleppo, Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) dis-tributed relief aid and dispatched mobile clinics for Syrian internally displaced people (IDPs). In cooperation with Kuwait Red Crescent Society (KRCS), QRCS person-nel in Lebanon began installing thermal insulators inside the tents of Syrian refugees.

The first mobile clinic was sent by Anjara Health Center to Atarib Twon to visit the IDP-hosting households. A 24/7 makeshift clinic was set up at the most frontline IDP destination, with daytime doctors and a night paramedic.

A second mobile clinic headed for Maarrat Al-Ikhwan in northern Idlib countryside. Comprising an internist, a dermatologist, a midwife, nurses, and commu-nity health workers, the mobile clinic screened and helped IDPs medically.

At the same time, four health teams went to Armanaz, Darat Izza, Qah, and Atarib, where they exam-ined more than 240 children under the age of five and referred serious cases to hospitals.

The evacuations from Aleppo will be closely moni-tored over the coming days, and if necessary, more mobile clinics will be sent in coordi-nation with partners and concerned authorities, QRCS said.

07WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 HOME / MIDDLE EAST

Four Jordan cops die in new shootout

Amman

AFP

Gunmen killed four Jordanian police-men in a new shootout yesterday in Karak, where a

weekend attack claimed by the Islamic State group left 10 peo-ple dead, a security source said.

Security forces came under fire after launching a raid to track down suspects following Sunday's assault, whose victims included a Canadian tourist, the source said, adding that the operation was still ongoing.

But another senior security source quoted by the official Petra news agency said that the suspects were not linked to the "terrorist group" behind Sun-day's attack.

The general security department said in a statement that police surrounded a house where the gunmen were holed up and that the suspects opened fire on them.

A Jordanian member of par-liament from Karak, Haitham Ziadeen, confirmed that an

operation was under way to arrest wanted gunmen.

"A shootout erupted after security forces arrived to raid a house in the Qarifla region of Karak province, where the gun-men have sought shelter," he said.

Sunday's shooting spree in Karak, home to one of the region's biggest Crusader cas-tles, killed seven policemen and two Jordanian civilians as well as the Canadian tourist.

A total of 34 other people were wounded, including the son of the Canadian holiday-maker and another foreigner, according to authorities.

Four assailants were killed by the Jordanian security forces after an hours-long siege of the Crusader castle, where the sus-pects had fled after opening fire on police patrols and a police station in the city.

The Islamic State group yesterday claimed responsibil-ity for the attack, saying it was carried out by four "soldiers of the caliphate" who used machine-guns and hand grenades.

A statement said the jihad-ist assault targeted Jordanian "apostate" security forces and citizens of the US-led coalition battling the jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

IS identified the four dead militants and said the attack was revenge for the US-led coa-lition's air campaign targeting jihadists in Syria and Iraq.

Awards recognise HMC Ambulance Service Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Ambulance Service employees with vehicles and equipment.

The Peninsula

More than 700 staff from Hamad Medical Corpo-r a t i o n ’ s ( H M C )

Ambulance Service attended the Annual Awards Ceremony on December 14 at Katara Hall. The event recognised the hard work and efforts of the Ambulance Service staff in delivering safe, effective and compassionate care throughout 2016.

“This year has once again been one of significant growth and progress for our Ambulance Service,” said Dr Robert Owen, Chief Executive Officer of the Ambulance Service, in his open-ing remarks. “We have helped

more people than ever before in their time of need and expanded many areas of our service. I am proud of our teams’ commitment over the last 12 months and delighted to be part of a service that consist-ently performs to the highest international standards,” he said.

During the ceremony, awards were handed out to indi-viduals and teams, recognising staff from the full spectrum of services delivered by the Ambu-lance Service. This includes emergency response services, patient transport, and business and support services, as well as the teams from the Mobile

Healthcare Service and Patient Contact Center and those pro-viding care in HMC’s Patient Recovery Center.

In recent years, the Ambu-lance Service has introduced a range of advances designed to ensure patients receive the high-est standard of emergency response care possible. Recent advances include the launch of a new state-of-the-art ambu-lance fleet, an expanded LifeFlight air ambulance serv-ice, dispatch points located across the country and special-ist medical equipment located on-board vehicles.

This progress has continued throughout 2016, as Ahmed Al

Bakri, Operations Manager for the Ambulance Service and co-host of the ceremony said: “We have launched new patient transport vehicles as part of our non-emergency fleet - improv-ing patient experience, introduced the Computer Aided Dispatch technology to improve the way we manage our fleet and implemented the electronic patient clinical record - advanc-ing the way in which patient information is communicated. We have strengthened our abil-ity to respond to major incidents and also expanded our Mobile Healthcare Service - providing vital care outside the hospital setting.”

Another assault

Policemen raiding house in Karak, where shootings took place on Sunday, come under fire.

UN says three abducted refugee agency workers freed in SudanGeneva

AFP

Three United Nations refu-gee agency workers who were abducted from

Sudan's strife-torn Darfur region last month have been freed, the UN said yesterday.

The three, Sarun Pradhan and Ramesh Karki of Nepal and Sudanese national Musa Omer Musa Mohamed, had been snatched by armed men on November 27 in El Geneina, the capital of West Darfur state.

The UN refugee chief Filippo

Grandi hailed the men's release in a statement, with the agency voic-ing particular gratitude to the Sudanese government and its per-sonnel "who worked to ensure this outcome". The UN did not provide any further details on the circum-stances of the men's release.

"At this time our immediate focus is on the health and well-being of our colleagues, as well as that of their loved ones fol-lowing this ordeal," UNHCR spokesman Adrian Edwards told reporters.

"We are doing everything possible to ensure they are being

well taken care of." "UNHCR staff work in some

of the most difficult circum-stances in the world, helping people in great need, often fac-ing being far away from their families for lengthy periods at a time," he said. "Like other humanitarian workers, they should not have to endure the peril of abductions, violence and threats to their lives," he said.

At least 300,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in Darfur since the conflict first erupted in 2003, the UN says.

The Peninsula

Hamad Bin Khalifa University (HBKU)’s Public Policy in Islam programme will host its 3rd Annual Student Conference

on March 23, under the theme “Water-Energy-Food Nexus (WEF-N): Interdisciplinary Approaches for Sustainable Development”.

Students interested in participating have been invited to submit abstracts or presentation ideas on the relationship between the WEF-N and sustainable development before January 1.

The conference will explore how govern-ments can begin to develop policies overcoming ethical, moral, and technical challenges sur-rounding the subject.

HBKU calls for presentation abstracts for conference

Tunisians protest murder of engineerTunis

AFP

Hundreds protested in Tunis yesterday over the murder of a Tunisian

engineer last week that Pales-tinian Islamist movement Hamas has blamed on Israel.

Mohamed Zaouari, 49, was murdered at the wheel of his car outside his house in Tunisia's sec-ond city Sfax on Thursday. He was hit by 20 bullets.

Waving Tunisian and Pales-tinian flags, more than 200 protesters walked up a main

thoroughfare in the Tunisian capital, an AFP correspondent said. "With our soul, with our blood, we will avenge you Pal-estine," they chanted.

Protester Mohammad Ammar said Zaouari was "a martyr with a capital M" and his murder was "a loss not only for Tunisia but also for Palestine and the Arab nation".

Al-Qassam Martyrs Brigade, the armed wing of Hamas that controls the Gaza Strip, told AFP on Saturday that Zaouari was a drone expert and was killed by "Zionist treachery", referring to

Israel. It said Zaouari had worked for the "resistance" for 10 years.

Tunisia's prosecution has said 10 suspects, all Tunisians, have been detained for ques-tioning, including a female journalist. The interior ministry has said police are looking for at least two foreigners in con-nection with the killing.

Interior Minister Hedi Maj-doub said on Monday the murder had been planned as far back as June in the Austrian cap-ital Vienna and in the Hungarian capital Budapest.

08 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016MIDDLE EAST

Kurdish militant group claims Turkey attackISTANBUL: A radical Kurd-ish militant group yesterday claimed a suicide attack that killed 14 Turkish sol-diers and wounded dozens in the central city of Kay-seri at the weekend, a news agency affiliated with the group reported.

A "revenge squad" from the Kurdistan Freedom Fal-cons (TAK) seen as a radical offshoot of the outlawed PKK targeted the off-duty con-scripts and "successfully carried out the attack", the group said in a statement published by the pro-PKK Firat news agency.

Egypt policeman, militant killed in Cairo raidCAIRO: A suspected leader of a newly-emerged mili-tant group, the Hassam Movement, and a police-man were killed during a police raid in the Egyptian capital, the interior minis-try said.

Security forces raided a group hideout, where mem-bers "held organisational meetings and made explosive devices to be used in a series of hostile operations", in the October 6 district of western Cairo.

Hassam claimed respon-sibility for a December 9 bomb attack that killed six policemen in Cairo's western Al Haram street.

The ministry said its forces responded to gunfire from inside the apartment, while a police official said on condition of anonymity that the incident took place on Saturday.

Istanbul

AFP

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday opened the first ever road tunnel

underneath the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul from Europe to Asia, the latest project in his plan of t ransforming Turkey 's infrastructure.

The opening ceremony —which brought together Turkey's entire ruling elite —went ahead as planned despite the shock assassination of the Russian ambassador to Ankara by a Turkish policeman a day earlier.

Turkey in October 2013 opened the Marmaray rail tun-nel underneath the iconic waterway, the first link beneath the waters that divide Europe and Asia.

But the new Avrasya (Eura-sia) Tunnel is the first tunnel for

cars underneath the Bosphorus and aims to relieve congestion

in the traffic-clogged Turkish megacity. Erdogan, after cutting

the ceremonial ribbon, joined a vast cortege of vehicles making

the first undersea car journey between the two continents.

The assassination of Russian ambassador Andrei Karlov Mon-day was just the latest in a string of shocking acts of violence in Tur-key this year. But Erdogan vowed that his ambitions will not be derailed by the failed July 15 coup and the swathe of terror attacks Turkey has suffered in 2016.

"Subject us to as much ter-ror as you want, bring in as many villains but you will never be able to divide this nation," he told thousands at the opening cere-mony. The tunnel required an investment of $1.2bn (¤1.15bn), including loans of $960m, and will reduce driving time for the route from up to 2 hours to just 15 minutes.

It was built by a consortium consisting of private Turkish construction company Yapi Merkezi and South Korea's SK Group.

Moscow

Bloomberg

Russia and Turkey said they’d renew a push to resolve the Syrian war and fight terror-ism, as they insisted

their improved relationship won’t be derailed by the murder of the Russian ambassador in Ankara.

The foreign ministers of Rus-sia, Turkey and Iran said in Moscow yesterday that they’d agreed a joint approach on Syria that included pressing for peace talks and a cease-fire. Their cooperation has proved effec-tive on the ground, while “unfortunately the American side couldn’t confirm its participation in actions agreed” under a failed peace deal in September, Rus-sian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said.

The agreement was announced after Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin and Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan said they’d strengthen ties strained over Syria and intensify the struggle against terrorism following Monday’s assassina-tion of envoy Andrey Karlov. “We will never allow our relationship with Russia to be ruined,” Erdogan said in Istanbul on Tues-day, adding that he and Putin agreed “that our expanding fields of cooperation with Russia led by Syria will not be affected by this attack.”

The gunman who shot Kar-lov in the back at an art exhibit in the Turkish capital shouted “don’t forget Aleppo” — a refer-ence to the Syrian city where mostly Islamist rebels were

defeated this month by govern-ment troops backed by Russia and Iran. The taking of the city, once Syria’s largest, represents one of Russia’s biggest victories since it joined the Syrian war last year in support of President Bashar Al Assad.

Turkey, which supported the insurgents there and elsewhere in Syria, has played a key role along with Russia in negotiating the continuing evacuation of opposition fighters and civilians from Aleppo. The three-way talks with Iran, Assad’s other main supporter, were intended to help forge a settlement as Assad increasingly gains the upper hand, leaving the US on the sidelines.

All three countries agreed that “the number one priority shouldn’t be regime change but the task of suppressing the ter-rorist threat,” Lavrov said. “We have a common position on this” and are ready to invite the Syr-ian government and opposition for peace talks in Kazakhstan’s capital, Astana, he said. There’s no alternative to a political solu-tion in Syria and “we need to work together in order to put an end to terrorists,” Iranian

Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said. Turkey wants to expand a truce to cover all of Syria excluding terrorist groups, Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavu-soglu said.

While they said in a state-ment that they’d “fight jointly” in Syria against Islamic State and al-Nusra as terrorist groups, there were evident tensions at the foreign ministers’ news con-ference. “There’s Hezbollah and others,” Cavusoglu said. “Aid to

all these groups must be halted.”There’s no agreement about

other groups, while Islamic State and al-Nusra are recognized internationally as terrorist groups, Zarif said. Iran backs Hezbollah, which has fighters in Syria in support of the Assad regime.

The fall of Aleppo marked a defeat for Turkey, which sup-ported the Sunni Muslim groups fighting against Assad. Russia says the Syrian rebels are

overwhelmingly made up of Islamic extremists, while Turkey has argued that they’re resisting a violent dictatorship.

While that’s still the Turkish line, in practice the country has switched its focus since the rap-prochement between Erdogan and Putin. Turkish troops have pushed deep into Syria since August, but they’re mostly tar-geting Kurdish groups and Islamic State fighters and have steered clear of the battle for

Aleppo. The US, Turkey’s Nato ally, shares its allegiance to rebel groups in Syria, even though many of them have ties to al-Qaeda and other Islamist factions. The U.S. has repeatedly denounced Russia for killing civilians during the campaign to recapture Aleppo, while also seeking an understanding between the two most powerful outside actors in the Syrian war that could help to end the conflict.

Russia and Turkey agree on Syria pact

Washington/Anatolia

The US said yesterday it has ended military operations aimed at driving Daesh out of its sole Libyan stronghold.

Africa Command said in a statement that "the operation succeeded in its core objective of enabling" Libyan forces to oust Daesh from Sirte. It said it carried out 495 airstrikes against Dae-sh's "Vehicle Borne Improvised Explosive Devices, heavy guns, tanks, command and control centers and fighting positions."

The U.S. commenced operations against Daesh in August.Africa Command further said that the U.S. "remains commit-

ted to working with" Libya's Government of National Accord (GNA) in the fight against Daesh and other terror groups.

Libya has been wracked by turmoil since 2011, when a bloody uprising ended with the ouster and death of longtime strongman Muammar Gaddafi. Following Gaddafi’s death, the country’s stark political divisions yielded two rival seats of government -- one in Tobruk and another in Tripoli.

Last year, the two rival governments signed a UN-sponsored agreement in Skhirat, which subsequently led to the formation of a unity government. The unity government, however, has so far failed to assume its ruling mandate across the troubled North Afri-can country, while armed conflict remains rife between Libya’s warring political factions.

Jerusalem

Anatolia

Israel plans to step up con-struction of Jewish-only settlements in the occupied

West Bank once US President-elect Donald Trump takes Barack Obama’s place in the White House, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said according to Israeli media.

According to Israeli daily The Jerusalem Post, Netanyahu says his government will step up its policy of extensive settle-ment building following Trump’s inauguration next month.

"There is not, nor will there be, a government that gives more support to settlements and

cares more about settlements than this government…," he was quoted as saying.

In a related development, Israel's right-wing Jewish Home party said it views the election of a U.S. president unopposed to settlement construction -- along with Trump’s planned appointment of a pro-settlement figure as Washington’s ambas-sador to Israel -- as a "game changer", the same paper reported.

According to the Jerusalem Post, the party has prepared a list of demands that it plans to submit to Netanyahu after Trump is sworn in on Jan. 20.

The list includes the gradual imposition of Israeli sovereignty

over "Area C" of the occupied West Bank, the newspaper quoted Jewish Home leader Naf-tali Bennett as saying.

"There is a unique window of opportunity now, thanks to changes in America, the weak-ening of Europe, and the disintegration of the Muslim world," Bennett reportedly said.

Roughly 500,000 Israeli settlers currently live on more than 100 Jewish-only settle-ments built in the West Bank since Israel occupied the terri-tory— along with East Jerusalem — in 1967.

The Palestinians want these areas, along with the Gaza Strip, for the establishment of a future Palestinian state.

Ankara

Reuters

The 22-year-old Turkish policeman who gunned down the Russian ambas-sador in Ankara called in sick on the

day of the attack and promised to bring a doctor’s note for his supervisors, a senior security official told Reuters.

The government has identified Mevlut Mert Altintas as the gunman who shouted “Don’t forget Aleppo!” and “Allahu Akbar” as he opened fire repeatedly on envoy Andrey Karlov while he was giving a speech at an art gallery in the Turkish capital.

The attack, caught on video and widely circulated on social media, was a grisly reminder of the spillover faced by both Tur-key and Russia from the Syrian civil war, where they are on opposing sides and where Russian-backed Syrian forces last week ended rebel resistance in the northern city of Aleppo.

On Monday morning, Altintas called the division of the Ankara riot police where he had worked for 2-1/2 years and said he was unwell and would bring a doctor’s note upon his return, the official said.

Altintas, who lived in a shared flat in the Demetevler neighbourhood on the out-skirts of Ankara, spent the night before the attack at a hotel in central Ankara close to the gallery, the official said. “He walked

from the hotel ... to the gallery. He showed his police ID at the entrance,” the official said.

This allowed him to bypass a security check and bring his gun into the venue.

Erdogan opens first road tunnel under Bosphorus

Killer of envoy took sick leave on day of attack

Russian investigators inspect the scene of Karlov murder at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cankaya in Ankara, yesterday.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (centre), his wife Emine Erdogan (third left) and Turkish Prime Minister Binali Yildirim (right) cut the ribbon to open the Avrasya (Eurasia) Tunnel, the first ever road tunnel underneath the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul from Europe to Asia, yesterday.

Israel plans major Trump-era settlement drive: Reports

US on the sidelines

The three-way talks with Iran, Assad’s other main supporter, were intended to help forge a settlement as Assad increasingly gains the upper hand, leaving the US on the sidelines.

US ends Libya operations after IS cleared from Sirte

KENYA'S government has termi-nated operations of a US-funded project to educate voters, just months before this East African country holds its next presiden-tial election.

Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta last week claimed that money coming into the country in the guise of civic education is being used to influence Ken-yans' electoral decisions.

Fazul Mohamed, executive director of the agency that regu-lates non-governmental groups, said in a letter to the US gov-ernment's aid agency that it has ended the $20m International Foundation for Electoral Systems program for Kenya's upcoming general election.

The letter said IFES is not a registered NGO and all foreign-ers working there were doing so illegally.

NEWS BYTES

Kenya govt bars US-funded project

09WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 ASIA / AFRICA

Protesters call for Kabila to step downKinshasa

Reuters

Security forces fired teargas and arrested youths gath-ered in the streets of

Kinshasa yesterday to demand that Democratic Republic of Congo President Joseph Kabila step down after his mandate expired overnight.

At least two civilians were killed overnight when soldiers opened fire during clashes in the neighbourhood of Kingabwa, two witnesses said. The govern-ment spokesman could not be reached for comment and a police spokesman could not con-firm the information.

Limited protests started yes-terday after opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called on the Congolese people to peacefully

resist Kabila, who has remained in power beyond his constitu-tional mandate and with no election to pick a successor.

Sporadic gunfire crackled in several districts of the capital Kinshasa, a city of 12 million, as measures to thwart dissent fanned fears of more violence.

But with a ban on demon-strations in force, and a heavy military presence, Kinshasa's normally busy main boulevards were for the most part deserted as pockets of youths gathered in sidestreets only to be dispersed with the volleys of teargas.

UN peacekeepers in armoured personnel carriers patrolled the streets, at one point cheered on by a crowd shouting: "Kabila, know that your mandate is finished!"

"I think there will be trouble. The people are saying Kabila has

to leave," said student Joe Dou-blier. "It's been 16 years and nothing has changed".

In Lubumbashi, police and Kabila's elite military Republi-can Guard unit fired live bullets to prevent demonstrations, Gre-goire Mulamba, a local human rights activist, said.

But the mayor of Lubum-bashi, Jean Oscar Sanguza, said security forces had intervened to stop looters.

"I launch a solemn appeal to the Congolese people to not rec-ognise the ... illegal and illegitimate authority of Joseph Kabila and to peacefully resist (his) coup d'etat," Tshisekedi said.

Authorities have blocked most social media.

Such restrictive measures

have raised fears of more vio-lence in a nation that has never had a peaceful transfer of power and has suffered near-constant war and instability in the two decades since the fall of klepto-crat Mobutu Sese Seko.

The US and European Union have called for Kabila to respect the constitution.

Congo's former colonial master Belgium said it would "re-examine" relations with Kabila after he failed to step down. France urged the Euro-pean Union re-examine its links with Congo because of the "seri-ousness of the situation".

Scores of protesters have been arrested in the past 24 hours, mostly in the eastern city of Goma, according to human rights groups.

UN voices concern over arrests

JAPAN'S space agency said yesterday it had successfully launched a solid fuel rocket named Epsilon-2, the latest in Tokyo's effort to stay competitive in an industry that has robust growth potential and strong security implications.

The 26-metre-long rocket, launched at about 8pm from the Uchinoura Space Centre in southern Japan, released a satellite for studying radiation belts around the earth soon after the lift-off, Japan Aero-space Exploration Agency (JAXA) said yesterday.

"The Epsilon-2 three-stage rocket is part of a new genera-tion of solid propellant rockets and makes it possible for launch costs to be reduced up to one third," the agency added.

Japan launches solid fuel rocket

United Nations Reuters

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said he feared genocide

was about to start in South Sudan unless immediate action is taken, renewing his plea for the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on the world's newest country.

"If we fail to act, South Sudan will be on a trajectory towards mass atrocities," Ban told the 15-member Security Council.

"The Security Council must take steps to stem the flow of arms to South Sudan."

Noting that his special adviser on the prevention of

genocide, Adama Dieng, has described genocide as a proc-ess, Ban said: "I am afraid that process is about to begin unless immediate action is taken."

Political rivalry between South Sudan President Salva Kiir, an ethnic Dinka, and his former deputy Riek Machar, a Nuer, led to civil war in 2013 that has often followed ethnic lines.

The pair signed a shaky peace deal last year, but fight-ing has continued.

Machar fled in July and is now in South Africa.

Ban said reports suggested Kiir and his loyalists "are con-templating a new military offensive in the coming days" against Machar-al l ied

opposition troops, while "there are clear indications that Riek Machar and other opposition groups are pursuing a military escalation."

Dieng said last month that he had seen "all the signs that ethnic hatred and targeting of civilians could evolve into gen-ocide," and the head of a UN human rights commission said the country was on the brink of an all-out ethnic civil war.

"How many more clues do you, do we all need to move from our anxious words to real preventative action?" UN aid chief Stephen O'Brien asked the council on Monday.

South Sudan's UN ambas-sador, Akuei Bona Malwal, on Monday said the descriptions

were exaggerated and did not "reflect the reality on the ground."

"There have been no attempts, that we are aware of, on the part of the South Suda-nese masses to turn against each other," he told the Secu-rity Council.

Following an outbreak of deadly violence in Juba, the capital, in July, the Security Council in August authorized a 4,000-strong protection force as part of a UN peacekeeping force already on the ground and threatened an arms embargo if Kiir's government did not cooperate. None of the new troops have yet deployed.

"Obstruction and defiance," the US ambassador to the UN,

Samantha Power, said of Kiir's government.

UN peacekeepers have been in South Sudan since it gained independence from Sudan in 2011. There are cur-rently some 13,700 UNtroops and police on the ground.

The United States has been struggling to secure the mini-mum number of votes needed for the Security Council to impose an arms embargo on South Sudan.

To be adopted, a resolution needs nine votes in favor and no vetoes.

Diplomats have said that so far only seven members were in favor, with the remaining eight planning to abstain or vote no.

Jakarta

Reuters

An Indonesian court will decide next week whether to push forward

with a controversial blasphemy trial of Jakarta's Christian gov-ernor, who is accused of insulting the Holy Quran, a judge said yesterday.

Several hundred Muslim protesters stood outside the Jakarta court, calling for the jail-ing of Governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama, an ethnic Chinese pol-itician, known by his nickname Ahok.

A rival group of his support-ers unveiled a banner with a map of Indonesia calling for unity and saying "Ahok is a blessing".

A prosecution lawyer said the charges against the gover-nor were legal and the trial should continue, dismissing a claim by the defence that nam-ing Purnama a suspect had violated his human rights and

breached procedures."The defendant under the

prosecutors' charges has vio-lated articles 156 and 156a ... but there was no violation of pro-cedures," said Ali Murkatono recently, referring to the codes of the blasphemy law, which can carry a jail term of up to five years.

In an emotional court

appearance a week ago, a tear-ful Purnama denied he had intended to insult the Holy Quran, when he was campaign-ing ahead of elections for Jakarta governor in February.

At the time, he criticized rival politicians for citing the Holy Quran to argue that Mus-lims should not vote for non-Muslims.

Kinshasa

AFP

THE United Nations voiced alarm yesterday over a wave of arrests in the Democratic Republic of Congo, where ten-sions were running high after President Joseph Kabila's term in office expired.

Maman Sambo Sidikou, the head of the United Nations mission in DR Congo, said it had documented 113 arrests of opposition leaders and civil society activists, human rights campaigners and journalists by state police or intelligence offi-

cials since December 16."I am gravely concerned by

the arrests of those who seek to express their political views," said Sidikou, who is also the UN secretary gener-al's special representative to the country.

"I urge the national author-ities to strictly adhere to their international human rights obligations, to create a climate of political tolerance and respect at this important junc-ture in the DRC's history, and to grant full access to United Nations personnel to all deten-tion centres."

UN urges action to prevent South Sudan genocide

No mandate

Limited protests started yesterday after opposition leader Etienne Tshisekedi called on the Congolese people to peacefully resist Kabila.

Scores of protesters have been arrested in the past 24 hours, mostly in the eastern city of Goma, according to human rights groups.

Peacekeepers serving in the United Nations Organization Stabilization Mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo (MONUSCO) patrol during demonstrations against Congolese President Joseph Kabila in Kinshasa, yesterday. BELOW: Residents chant slogans against Kabila.

Court backs Tokyo in bid to relocate Okinawa baseTokyo

AFP

Japan's Supreme Court ruled yesterday in favour of the central

government in its bid to relocate a US airbase on Okinawa, dealing a signif-icant blow to the plan's opponents led by the island's governor.

The Japanese and US governments want the base in the middle of a crowded city moved to a sparsely populated area for safety reasons. But many Okinawans want it relocated off the island altogether.

Okinawa is strategi-cally situated in the East China Sea from where US troops and aircraft can react to potential conflicts throughout Asia. Okinawa

governor Takeshi Onaga had tried to block efforts to reclaim land for the new offshore facility and he and Prime Minister Shinzo Abe filed rival law-suits in a bid to settle the issue.

In September, a high court ruled that the cen-tral government's position should be respected because it has "fundamen-tal responsibility" for Japan's defence and diplomacy.

The Okinawan gov-ernment appealed that decision but was dis-missed by the Supreme Court yesterday.

"I am deeply disap-pointed and concerned," Onaga said. "Building the new base, which cannot gain support from local res-idents, is unacceptable."

Jakarta governor appears in court

Jakarta's governor Basuki Tjahaja Purnama is escorted by anti-terror police as he leaves the North Jakarta court, yesterday.

A As Aleppo was pulverised by Russian and Syrian jets, and tens of thousands of its hapless residents, including women and children, were subjected to the worst kind of

repression, torture and genocide, the leadership of Qatar was quick to draw the attention of the world to the tragic situation prevailing there. Qatar has always stood with the people of Syria in their struggle for justice and freedom, but this time, the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani took an unprecedented step: he issued a decree cancelling all celebrations of the Qatar National Day to draw the attention of the people of Qatar and the world to the crimes against humanity committed by the regime forces in Aleppo. The Emiri decree was widely welcomed at home and abroad, though the preparations for the National Day celebrations were in an advanced stage, and the residents, both citizens and expatriates, were getting into a festive mood. The regional media praised Qatar’s decision, while local organisations, groups and individuals followed in the government’s footsteps and cancelled the celebrations they had planned. As much

mental and physical energy, and even more, we would have spent on celebrating the National Day was spent on remembering the suffering of people in Aleppo, which had another benign, wonderful result: an outpouring of donations to help the people of Aleppo. The fundraising event held on Sunday at Darb El Saai, the venue of National Day celebrations, would be

remembered as one of the most emotional and remarkable fundraisers in Qatar, remarkable for popular participation and the amount raised. A whopping QR243m was raised in a few hours as the people of Qatar, mainly citizens, donated in every way they could. People donated millions, thousands and hundreds of riyals, and in-kind too, like vehicles, jewellery, watches etc. Thousands spent hours glued to television screens on Sunday watching the flow of donations as the event was broadcast live on Qatar TV as well as Al Rayyan. The fundraiser was also another example of the rare coordination among charity organisations in Qatar. Qatar Charity, Eid Charity, Qatar Red Crescent Society, Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Services (RAF) and Afif Charity participated in the campaign.

No amount of cash can compensate for the suffering of people of Aleppo, but QR243m would go a long way in rebuilding their lives and alleviating their suffering by paying for food, medical treatment and education, and other essential amenities which have been snatched away from them. Under the leadership of the Emir, Qatar is doing everything to help the people of Aleppo.

10 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

DEPUTY MANAGING EDITORHUSSAIN AHMAD

hussain@pen.com.qa

Qatar’s contribution

QUOTE OF THE DAY

We have a high level of threat and we also have a particularly high level of mobilisation and vigilance. France knows how important it is to be united in the face of terror attacks.

Francois HollandeFrench President

Under the leadership of His Highness the Emir, Qatar is doing everything to help the people of Aleppo.

Whether by habit, or tradition, the US presidential transition is the ideal time to deal with unfinished business. The handover from one adminis-

tration to its successor offers tempting opportunities to create new facts on the ground in the Middle East.

Israel used the transition between George Bush and Barack Obama to launch Operation Cast Lead on Gaza which stopped two days before Obama’s inauguration on 20 January 2009. Russia is now using the transition from Obama to Trump to do the same in Aleppo.

Both sides in the Syrian civil war under-stand the significance of timing. The rebels foolishly depended on Hillary Clinton’s assur-ances to hang on until she came into power. They had no plan B for a Clinton defeat.

Conversely, the Russians understand that they have to finish off east Aleppo by the time Donald Trump is inaugurated. With the Old City fallen, the task is almost complete.

Vladimir Putin does not simply think he has just won back Aleppo. He also thinks he has won the argument with America. This much was clear from the tenor of Sergei Lavrov’sspeech last week in Rome. He thinks the incoming administration has finally got the message that “terrorists” — however Rus-sia happens to define them — pose a greater threat to US national security than Assad does. His argument is one that few would now disagree: from Afghanistan to Libya, America used Salafi jihadis as levers for regime change only to find these weapons turned on them. Russia, Lavrov continued, was not married to Assad. But it was wedded to the Syrian state.

A fear of victoryRussia’s actions, as opposed to Lavrov’s

words, tell a different story. According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, just over 10,000 people in Syria were killed by Russian airstrikes between 30 September 2015 and 30 October this year, of whom 2,861 were members of the Islamic State (IS) group, 3,079 fighters from rebel and Islamic factions, 2,565 males over the age of 18,1,013 children under the age of eighteen and 584 women.

From these figures alone, and there are others, it is clear that Russia has waged total war on an unprotected population in rebel-held areas. War on its people, its hospitals, and its markets, just like it did in Grozny 16 years ago. Its actions differ little from those of the Syrian army. Like all colonial powers, the Russian Federation has arrogated on itself the choice of deciding which Syrians live and which die. And if they are in rebel-held areas, they all die together.

But that is not what worries Lavrov. Pri-vately, Lavrov, like Pyrrhus before him, fears what victory looks like. What does “inhabited Syria”, the phrase I used earlier, actually mean, when victory has been declared? A pile of rubble, one ruined city after another, whose citizens will be totally dependent on aid for years to come?

What will happen when Aleppo fallsDavid Hearst

To support the areas their bombers have destroyed, Russia will have to start putting hospitals and doctors on the ground, which they have already started doing in east Aleppo. These, in turn, will require protection, Russian boots on the ground who will then become targets for rebel attacks. Air power is no use in a guerilla urban war.

Think of how long the Taliban have survived the might of US and allied air power. For, with the fall of Aleppo, the tables will turn once again, as they did when Russia entered the war. Rebel forces will no longer be protecting areas from the assault of pro-Assad militias. They will instead mount classic guerilla hit-and-run attacks on areas under gov-ernment control. Assad does not have the capacity to provide the physical pro-tection conquered areas need.

The fictional Syrian stateMore shattered than the physical

infrastructure of Syria is its political one. After five years of murderous civil war, the Syrian state is a fiction, in which sec-tarian and foreign militias are free to roam. The main function of the Central Bank, to take just one example, is to manage Rami Makhlouf’s portfolio. A state which commands the loyalty and trust of each Syrian denomination does not exist. In the Stalingrad analogy that right-wing nationalist Russian commen-tators are so fond of using, the ruins of Aleppo are unlikely to be the symbol of resurgence of a new Syrian state. More likely, these ruins will become the bat-tleground of resistance to militarily superior foreign invaders, of whom Rus-sia is one, Iran is another, Hezbollah is a third. Russians are not the liberators of Aleppo, they are Friedrich Paulus’s 6th Army, and if they stay around, they will meet the same fate.

There are two scenarios after the fall of Aleppo. The first is that the Syrian opposition in all its forms, both FSA and Islamist, will disintegrate and vanish. Assad will be left in power while talks about a transition will continue indefi-nitely. No elections will take place that include the refugees outside Syria for the same reason that no Palestinian elec-tions include the Palestinian diaspora in

the camps. Regime preservation will be key to all the calculations of Assad’s for-eign backers, who have paid a heavy price in maintaining him in power. For this reason, when Aleppo falls, Putin and Lavrov will work overtime to declare mission accomplished as Bush did in Iraq and end the war officially. This is wishful thinking. Federica Mogherini, the EU’s foreign policy chief, was right to warn Lavrov in Rome last week that the fall of Aleppo will not be the end of the war. The degree of destruction and human displacement in this civil war will only fuel more resistance. This is not a repeat of Hama, the scene of a Muslim Brotherhood insurrection in 1982, which was contained when the city was destroyed by Assad’s father, Hafez.

Will rebels learn?The fall of Aleppo will only increase

the crisis of Sunni leadership. A reaction will surely come. The big strategic ques-tion is whether it will be irrational, jihadi-led and destructive, or whether the rebels can fashion a rational response.

And this is the second scenario. Will the rebels learn the lessons of their huge strategic and military failure? These are many. The lesson from this is that the Syrian opposition can rely on no one. But in order to be self-sufficient, they need unity. The political wing of the Syrian opposition which consisted of defected diplomats and academics in the diaspora simply could not cope with the task in hand. They were riven with schisms. They were weak, deluded about the help they would get from America, outma-noeuvred and outgunned.

The Syrian rebels have to recover their multi-confessional face. The war started as a unarmed civilian uprising against a family-run dictatorship. They are forgotten now, but the faces of this revolution were George Sabra, a Greek Orthodox Christian and the first president of the Syrian National Council, Burhan Ghalioun, a Sunni chairman of the Tran-sitional National Council, and Fadwa Soliman, an actress of Alawite descent.

The writer is Editor-in-Chief of Middle East Eye. He

was chief foreign leader writer of The Guardian,

former Associate Foreign Editor & European Editor.

ED ITOR IAL

People walk as they flee deeper into the remaining rebel-held areas of Aleppo.

elected successor, another col-league predicted, that, “Trump will not do anything different.” Why? “Because there are two countries that decide everything: Israel and the United States.” For some, the horror in Aleppo is only the latest act in a plan to destroy the Middle East.

But while other Arabs are frustrated and angry, many of the Syrians I know seem stunned, understandably depressed and traumatised by what they have been witnessing. I spoke with a Syrian professor here in Dubai, and she said her Aleppo relatives had fled to Germany. They’re all safe. But is she following the news? “To be honest, I stopped reading about it,” she confided. “I just can’t,” she said, her voice trailing off. I tell my students we’re supposed to learn from our past mistakes to avoid repeating them. We spoke, for example, of Dresden, Germany, a city that was reduced to rubble in a matter of days in 1945, killing tens of thousands of civilians. But after Dresden, we saw destruction and murder in the former Yugoslavia. In Rwanda. In South Sudan. And now Aleppo.

I have students from Aleppo. They said that when they visited their families last summer, they found their neighborhoods to be safe; there are parts of the city that have not been targeted. Still, they’re obviously shocked, and each has sought a way to deal with the anguish.

One young man — a television production stu-dent — said he can no longer watch TV reports on the war: They’re “too graphic.” He still reads about the war, but he had to stop watching the TV footage when the airstrikes began.

Another journalism student had a more dispas-sionate reaction. She asked why Syrians expect anyone to sympathize with them when they did nothing for other people in crisis.

“We didn’t react when there was suffering in Somalia or when the floods hit the Philippines,”

Expect Trump’s appointees to have a big impact

It’s natural to evaluate Donald Trump’s appoint-ments by whether we agree with the stances of the appointees. But it’s also worth asking how effective an administration those picks will produce.

The most striking feature of many of the selec-tions is their relative lack of experience in traditional politics. There are a lot of ex-generals and a high number with corporate backgrounds, including from the energy sector. Wall Street is well represented, with three people who have worked at Goldman Sachs, among others. President Barack Obama’s picks had stronger educational credentials.

But are those bugs or features for Trump? I think they’re features — signs we will be in for an active four years.

In addition to expertise, an appointee may be picked for some of these reasons:

• Ability to command the interest of the public in policy change

• Ability to influence Congress• Ability to think outside the usual Washington

“boxes”• Ability to reach and motivate the president

when necessaryThe unusual backgrounds of many Trump

appointees make more sense by these standards. For instance, Trump does not seem to be detail-focused or policy-oriented, as Obama has been. It’s therefore more important that he can rely on advisers to direct his attention. That means nominating candidates who have credibility with him and who can speak his lan-guage, rather than eggheads. Those same individuals might be relatively effective taking their cases to the broader public, even if they don’t have experience working the levers of Washington.

It’s not hard to imagine a Trump presidency where the agencies and departments are run more as autonomous fiefs than is usually the case, with the heads making their own appointments and driving their own agendas. That could be a recipe for a small number of major reform breakthroughs from Trump subordinates, and a larger number of stymied fail-ures. Public opinion doesn’t usually defeat the process-oriented constraints of the Washington establishment, but occasionally it does, as for instance when anti-AIDS drugs were rushed through the regulatory process, or when politicians in the 1970s took the case for airline deregulation to the

American public and brought about the rare abolition of a Washington bureaucracy, the Civil Aeronautics Board.

If the political default is not much change in the first place, introducing more variance into the policy process may shake up at least some parts of the status quo. There will be plenty of gaffes, dead ends and policy embarrassments along the way, but don’t con-fuse those with a lack of results. An incoming administration that does not mind embarrassment is a bit like a sports opponent who has little to lose. It is easy enough to say that neurosurgeon Ben Carson is unqualified to lead the Department of Housing and Urban Development, but it would be a mistake to dis-miss his potential influence.

Or consider some of the names that have been floated as future Trump selections. Lawrence Kudlow (disclosure: a former colleague of mine), a contender to chair the Council of Economic Advisers, has been criticized for lacking the academic background of his recent predecessors. But he is good at straight talk and has extensive television experience. Given that a lot of the economic truths relevant for policy are pretty simple, his background might make him more

effective than a better-credentialed academic.One rumour is that Sylvester Stallone has been

discussed in conjunction with chairing the National Endowment for the Arts. That suggestion might meet with mockery in some quarters, but Stallone’s ability to draw attention to the agency and its mission might prove more important than whatever shortcomings he would bring to the job. (Stallone has experience as a screenwriter, director and painter in addition to being an actor, so he also has some real qualifications.)

Under one model of the federal government, nar-rowly defined administrative competence is most required at the all-important departments of Treas-ury, State, and Defence, and arguably the Trump picks for those areas are consistent with that view. (They are Steven Mnuchin, a financier, Rex Tillerson, a corporate executive and James Mattis, a military man, respectively.) For many of the other picks, there’s a case for taking more chances.

I’m not suggesting you should agree with the Trump agenda (whatever that might turn out to be), and I am especially worried about his selec-tion of Michael Flynn as national security advisor.

11WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 OPINION

“Responsibility for this brutality lies in one place alone, with the Assad regime and its allies, Russia and Iran,” Presi-

dent Obama said last week of the barbarity in Aleppo, Syria, “and this blood and these atrocities are on their hands.”

My journalism students and I here in Dubai follow the news together closely to talk about stories and how they’re reported. We followed this one with some disappointment, however, because the president would not acknowledge the consequences of his own lack of action in Syria. And when his UN envoy, Samantha Power, talked about shame, my class could only wonder whether she had looked in the mirror recently.

For them, it’s no longer any wonder that neither the US president nor any other American representative will be attending the next conference on Syria. Reportedly there’s a meeting in Moscow later this month to determine Syria’s fate: It involves only the Russians, the Turks and the Irani-ans. No Syrians. One student recalled a report that at an international conference on Syria held in Vienna last year, the only Syrian present was a waiter who was serv-ing the diplomats.

The images of the destruction in Aleppo have haunted us all for days, and we all feel helpless. My colleagues include men and women from throughout the Middle East, and they have raised an angry chorus of blame. “Iran wants what it wants in the Middle East.”

A couple of colleagues angrily accused Obama of backing Bashar Assad. “It’s obvi-ous,” said a Jordanian. “If he made a nuclear deal with Iran, it means he’s on the same side as Russia and Assad.” As for his

Aleppo: Perspective from a classroom

US President-elect Donald Trump (left) and Vice President-elet Mike Pence (right) greets retired Marine Gen. James Mattis at the main clubhouse at Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey.

she said. “Why do we expect them to care about us when we didn’t care about them?” She said she and her parents watch the news on television and continue to read about it. “We got used to it,” she said, sadly adding that it’s not the first time Aleppo has been ruined. “It’s been destroyed three or four times in history.”

One Syrian man told me how sad he is to lose the homeland he warmly recalled. I expected him to speak of Syria’s rich cul-ture or the kindness of its people or even the damage to so much of its irreplaceable heritage. But I was moved when instead he focused on a tiny detail of his remembered life there, because it suggested how utterly the Syria of his memory was being erased.

Many big things of memory — a city, stability, comity — were gone, and he was cherishing ever smaller, personal things. “The water was so good,” he said wistfully. “You could drink it straight from the tap, and it was cold and delicious.”

The writer is a professor of journalism at American University in

Dubai.

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All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the editorinchief@pen.com.qa

But I interpret Trump’s nomina-tions as a sign of an intelligent and strategic process, and his choices may prove surprisingly effective in getting things done. Whether you like it or not.

The writer is a Bloomberg View col-

umnist. He is a professor of economics

at George Mason University and writes

for the blog Marginal Revolution.

Yasmine BahraniThe Washington Post

Tyler CowenBloomberg

Buildings in east Aleppo on verge of collapse after months of heavy bombardment.

12 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016ASIA / PHILIPPINES

S Korean court to hold first impeachment trialSeoul

Reuters

South Korea's Constitu-tional Court will hold its first hearing in the impeachment case of President Park Geun-

hye (pictured) tomorrow with initial opinions from both sides, an official said yesterday.

The court is reviewing the impeachment vote passed by parliament on December 9.

Park is accused of colluding with a friend to pressure big businesses into making finan-cial contributions to non-profit foundations and violating her constitutional duty.

The court's nine judges are entrusted with ruling on the vote to impeach Park, whose pow-ers have been suspended.

A majority opinion of six judges will uphold parliament's

motion and oust Park or over-turn it and reinstate her.

The court has up to 180 days from the day of the impeach-ment vote to decide if Park becomes South Korea's firstde-mocratically elected leader to be ousted from office.

If she is removed, a new election has to be held in 60 days to pick a new president who will serve a full five-year term.

Park's lawyers submitted legal opinion last week saying the impeachment had no legal basis and was also procedurally flawed and therefore should be thrown out.

President Park has described her friend, Choi Soon-sil, as someone she had turned to at difficult times and apolo-gised for carelessness in her ties, but denied any legal wrongdoing.

Hong Kong Reuters

Hong Kong authorities have confirmed the first human bird flu

infection for this season after an elderly man who had recently travelled to mainland China was diagnosed with the deadly H7N9 virus strain.

The 75-year-old male patient, who had visited the southern Chinese town of Changping in Dongguan city this month before returning to Hong Kong, is in serious con-dition, the government said in a statement released late on Monday.

The case came to light as South Korea and Japan ordered further culls on Monday to con-tain outbreaks of a different strain of bird flu, having already killed tens of millions of birds in the past month. Hong Kong has been battling sporadic cases of avian influenza in humans since the first outbreak killed

six people in the Asian finan-cial hub in 1997. Macau, a former Portuguese colony an hour away from Hong Kong by ferry, culled about 10,000 chickens last week after a

wholesale poultry market worker fell ill with the H7N9 strain. The city temporarily sus-pended importing poultry from, mainland China but resumed trade on Sunday.

Beijing offers Manila $14m arms package Manila

AFP

China has offered the Phil-ippines guns and equipment worth $14m to

wage its war on drugs and com-bat terrorism, Manila's defence minister said yesterday, as ties improve under President Rod-rigo Duterte.

Beijing has publicly backed the controversial campaign, which has left 5,300 people dead in less than six months and drawn criticism from the United Nations and the United States, Manila's ally.

Defence Secretary Delfin Lorenzana said the latest offer came from Chinese ambassa-dor Zhao Jianhua who met him and Duterte on Monday.

"(The ambassador) told the president: 'I know your prob-lems in terrorism and in drugs so we would like to help you."

The Chinese embassy did

not immediately reply to requests for comment.

Lorenzana said the Philip-pines might use the $14m grant to acquire small arms, fast boats or night-vision goggles, adding the deal would be finalised before year-end.

China also offered long-term soft loans worth $500m which the Philippines would get next year to fight illegal drugs and terrorism, he added.

Duterte, 71, launched an unprecedented anti-crime crackdown after winning May elections on a pledge to eradi-cate drugs by killing tens of thousands of criminals.

Despite their conflicting territorial claims in the South China Sea, Duterte has mean-while sought warmer relations with Beijing.

He has repeatedly credited China for offering to supply the Philippines with arms and aid under generous terms.

MISSING Malaysia flight MH370 is almost certainly not in the cur-rent search zone in the remote Indian Ocean but could be further north, officials said yesterday.

No trace has been found in the massive underwater search off Australia for the jet lost en route from Kuala Lumpur to Bei-jing on March 8, 2014.

With scouring of the wild 120,000sq km area of sea com-ing to an end, Australian and international experts met in Canberra last month to review their evidence and modelling.

They concluded the plane was not where they have been looking, the Australian Trans-port Safety Bureau (ATSB), which has been leading the mission.

NEWS BYTES

MH370 'unlikely' in search area

TWO Australian tourists accused of stealing a bicycle have been forced to take a "walk of shame" through an Indonesian island with signs round their necks, an official said yesterday.

"I am thieve (sic). Don't do what I did," the signs read.

The tourists, whose identi-ties were not revealed, allegedly stole the bicycle about 10 days ago on Gili Trawangan, a pop-ular tourist destination.

CCTV recordings showed the two Australians taking a bike from the hotel, said village chief Muhamad Taufik.

"The hotel manager reported the case to the authorities who caught the pair the following day".

"We interrogated them, made an agreement, paraded them around the island and forced them to leave Gili."

Tourists paraded in Indonesia's'walk of shame'

UN rights chief: Probe Duterte's murder claim

Bangkok

AFP

Thailand's junta chief yes-t e r d a y d e f e n d e d amendments to a cyber

security law that boosts censor-ship powers, slamming social media as a hotbed of immoral-ity that needs policing.

Changes agreed to last week broaden the scope of the Com-puter Crime Act, which hands up to five years in prison for anyone found guilty of sharing "distorted" information online.

The toughened law has drawn a strong backlash in social-media obsessed Thailand, with particular alarm provoked by the creation of a new com-mittee to flag websites that breach "public morals".

Yesterday, Thai Prime

Minister Prayut Chan-O-Cha hit back the critics, saying that the dangers of access to an unfet-tered internet merited new regulation.

"The government will not watch all the time for someone to make a mistake...(it) will only consider content that could make society unstable," the 62-year-old former general said.

"I would like to ask you back, you who spend much more time on social media than me, do you see the dangers from it? Illegal drugs sales, pornog-raphy, inappropriate words, defamation, distorted informa-tion," he said.

Prayut's government, the most authoritarian Thailand has seen in more than a decade, has harshly cracked down on online

dissent since its 2014 power grab.

Amendments to the bill, which still need formal approval from the king, have prompted a slew of cyber attacks against government websites, with activists temporarily crashing some web pages.

The junta had already leaned heavily on the existing Computer Crime Act.

According to watchdog For-tify Rights, there have been at least 399 prosecutions under the computer law in 2016 compared to 46 in 2013, the year before the junta grabbed power.

The junta has also ramped up its use of a draconian royal defamation law that punishes criticism of the monarchy with up to 15 years in prison per offence.

Junta chief slams Internet law critics

Geneva

AFP

The UN rights chief urged the Philippines yesterday to investigate President

Rodrigo Duterte (pictured) for murder, after he boasted that he in the past had personally killed suspected criminals.

Duterte said in a speech last week that when he was mayor of the southern city of Davao, where he served three terms between 1988 and 2016, he personally killed people to set an example for police.

"The Philippines judicial authorities must demonstrate their commitment to uphold-ing the rule of law and their

independence from the exec-utive by launching a murder investigation," UN rights chief Zeid Ra'ad Al Hussein said in a statement.

"The killings committed by Mr Duterte, by his own admis-sion, at a time when he was a

mayor, clearly constitute mur-der," he said.

"It should be unthinkable for any functioning judicial system not to launch investi-gative and judicial proceedings when someone has openly admitted being a killer," he insisted.

Duterte has said that as newly-elected mayor of Davao, he and several local policemen ambushed a group of sus-pected kidnappers shortly after the gang collected ransom from the parents of the released hostage, a local teen-age girl.

"Maybe my bullets killed them, maybe not, but after the (firefight) they were all dead".

He meanwhile said on Fri-day that he had personally killed "about three people" during his term as mayor.

Philippines Justice Secre-tary Vitaliano Aguirre insisted that the president had not vio-lated any law.

"If the suspect fought back, he must have been forced to kill him," Aguirre said last week.

But Zeid was adamant, warning that the acts clearly violated the constitution of the Philippines.

"The killings described by President Duterte also violate international law, including the right to life ... and innocence until proven guilty," he said.

China returns seized naval drone to USWashington

AFP

China has returned a US underwater probe it seized in the South

China Sea, the Pentagon con-firmed after Beijing's capture of the craft sparked a dispute between the two powers.

The Chinese navy handed over the drone near where it was seized, the Pentagon said, repeating US condemnation of Beijing's actions in what it says are international waters.

"This incident was incon-sistent with both international law and standards of profes-sionalism for conduct between navies at sea," Pen-tagon press secretary Peter Cook said.

"The US has addressed those facts with the Chinese through the appropriate dip-lomatic and military channels, and have called on Chinese authorities to com-ply with their obligations under international law and to refrain from further efforts to impede lawful US activities."

A Chinese naval vessel seized the probe last week, a move which heightened tense relations between the world's two largest economies.

Misconduct

The court has up to 180 days from the day of the impeachment vote to decide if Park becomes South Korea's first democratically elected leader to be ousted from office.

Thailand's Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha arrives at a weekly cabinet meeting at Government House in Bangkok, yesterday.

Tokyo

AFP

Japan began killing about 122,000 farm birds yester-day to contain another

outbreak of a highly conta-gious strain of avian flu, officials said.

It is the sixth mass cull this winter, with nearly a million birds slaughtered in total as the virus has been detected at several farms across the country.

The highly virulent H5 strain was found in chickens at a farm in the town of

Kawaminami in southwest-ern Japan's Miyazaki prefecture, according to a statement released by the local government.

"We began killing farm birds today at 3:00am with 380 people" involved includ-ing the military".

The mass cull is expected to be completed in 24 hours, the official said.

Authorities have also banned the transport of poultry and poultry products in areas close to the affected farms, while sterilising main roads leading to them.

Japan culls 122,000 more birds

Manila

AP

THE Philippine military said Abu Sayyaf militants are suspected of kidnapping four Filipino fishermen in the latest such attack by the ransom-seeking gunmen despite increased security in the southern region.

Other fishermen found the F/B Ramona 2 fishing boat

yesterday in the Celebes Sea but its skipper, mechanic and two crewmen and the boat's radio and GPS equipment were missing, regional mili-tary spokesman Major Filemon Tan said.

"Troops were alerted to look for the missing fisher-men who may have been taken to nearby Sulu prov-ince, where militants are holding other hostages."

4 Filipinos feared kidnapped

HK confirms first bird flu case

NEWS BYTES

13WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 PAKISTAN / AFGHANISTAN

Afghan and international runners taking part in a marathon on a course that took participants past the destroyed Buddha statues in Bamiyan province, Afghanistan.

Marathon runners

Kabul

AFP

An American-Cana-dian couple held hostage by the Tal-iban have appeared on a video for the

first time with their two chil-dren born in captivity, pleading with President Barack Obama and President-elect Donald Trump to secure their release.

Canadian Joshua Boyle and his American wife Caitlan Cole-man had two sons after being kidnapped in Afghanistan in 2012 during a backpacking trip.

In the four-minute video shared by the SITE Intelligence group, the couple were shown with their two young sons sit-ting on their laps. "We have

waited since 2012 for somebody to understand our problems,"

Coleman was shown saying in the video as she appealed to both Obama and Trump to res-cue her family. It was not clear if Coleman, who indicated the video was recorded on

December 3, was reading from a script.

The couple last appeared in a video in August, without their children, urging their govern-ments to pressure Kabul to

change its policy on executions of captured insurgents.

In early May, Kabul hanged six Taliban-linked inmates, in the first set of executions car-ried out as part of President Ashraf Ghani's new hardline policy against the militants who are stepping up their nation-wide offensive.

Taliban spokesman Zabi-hullah Mujahid said he could not immediately comment on the latest video when contacted by AFP. There was also no immediate reaction from the US State Department or the Afghan government.

Earlier this year, Caitlan's parents James and Lyn Cole-man, who live in Pennsylvania, appealed to the Taliban to release the couple and their two young children. The Colemans

last saw their daughter in July 2012, when she set off for Rus-sia on a hiking trip with Boyle that took them through Central Asia and ultimately into war-torn Afghanistan. The couple told Circa News that they got a letter from Caitlan last Novem-ber proving that she and Boyle were still alive, and announc-ing that she had given birth to a second son.

The couple were also seen in a video emailed to her par-ents in 2013 in which they asked the US government and their families to secure their release.

The Colemans made the video public after Bowe Berg-dahl, a US Army sergeant held captive for five years in Afghan-istan, was freed in a prisoner swap.

Kidnapped couple appears on Taliban videoPleading help

In the four-minute video shared by the SITE Intelligence group, the couple was shown with their two young sons sitting on their laps.

The couple last appeared in a video in August, without their children, urging their governments to pressure Kabul to change its policy on executions of captured insurgents.

Toronto

AP

Canada called for the unconditional release of a Canadian man and his

American wife after a new video appeared to show them begging their governments to intervene on their behalf with their Afghan captors.

Canadian Global Affairs

s p o k e s m a n M i c h a e l O'Shaughnessy said his gov-ernment was aware of the latest video. "We are deeply concerned for the safety and well-being of Joshua Boyle, Caitlan Coleman and their young children and call for their unconditional release," O'Shaughnessy added. The State Department said it was reviewing the footage.

Canada calls for release

Islamabad

Internews

Pakistan and Australia signed yesterday an aid partnership programme

in an effort to promote pros-perity, reduce poverty and enhance stability in Pakistan.

Australian High Commis-sioner to Pakistan Margaret Adamson and Economic Affairs Division Secretary Tariq Bajwa signed the Aid Partnership Arrangement 2016-25.

The arrangement under-pins the continuation of Australia’s long-term Official Development Assistance (ODA), reflecting its commitment to supporting Pakistan in build-ing its economic prosperity and promoting sustainable and equitable development.

The Australian government is providing an estimated A$47m in total development assistance to Pakistan in 2016-17.

“Through this arrangement, Australia and Pakistan have jointly acknowledged financial aid through government plat-forms and support through international organisations and registered NGOs,” said a state-ment issued by the Australian High Commission in Islamabad. Australia is also providing scholarships for higher educa-tion and fostering institutional linkages.

“Australia’s aid partnership aligns with and supports Paki-stan’s development policy, Vision 2025 as well as Austral-ia’s own development policy of promoting prosperity, reduc-ing poverty and enhancing stability and is aligned with our

mutual international commit-ments, including to gender equality and human rights,” Adamson said.

“The Australia-Pakistan development partnership invests in Pakistan’s human capital as well as building agri-cultural productivity and the sustainable management of water.” She pointed out that Australian engagement in the mango value chain had resulted in better fruit produc-tion, marketing and distribution as well as strengthening exports of the iconic Pakistan product.

The high commissioner said Australia and Pakistan would continue to partner in development projects that aligned with Pakistan’s prior-ity needs, including in agriculture, water resource management, clean energy, health and nutrition. The Aus-tralian aid also supports Pakistan in times of humani-tarian crisis.

The Australian government is also assisting Pakistan in dealing with water, food and energy security issues.

In August 2016, Adamson announced that Australia would invest AUD11 million in phase-II of the Sustainable Development Investment Port-folio (SDIP), which was focused on improving energy and water management in the Indus Basin. “Phase-II will build on the phase-I - an AUD4 million investment, which helped strengthen the capacity of Pakistan officials in taking an integrated approach to water resource management,” she said.

Islamabad

Internews

Chinese embassy officials are finally pushing back at the critics of the China-

Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) in Pakistan as a senior diplomat yesterday, in a rare rebuttal, denied any wrongdo-ing in the project and sought public support against ‘disinformation’.

The Chinese embassy, known for quiet diplomacy, had all along been uneasily watch-ing allegations of unequal distribution of projects among provinces, lack of transparency, corruption in CPEC projects, and environmental concerns, but it

was not the same at a seminar organised by Strategic Vision Institute (SVI) a local think tank where acting Chinese ambassa-dor Zhao Lijian strongly dismissed the criticism.

“CPEC is working well. But there are some people who are maligning the project, which enjoys the support of most of the people of Pakistan,” he said while responding to a question about the embassy’s handling of the objections being voiced by different quarters.

The main criticism of the project has been that Punjab was the main beneficiary at the cost of smaller provinces.

Zhao said some called it ‘China-Punjab Economic

Corridor’, but the reality is that Balochistan had a larger share in the project. “Then why not call it China-Balochis¬tan Eco-nomic Corridor,” he said addressing the detractors.

He further dismissed alle-gations of corruption. “This is all taxpayer’s money. These are investment projects. How can we tolerate corruption or bribe,” the diplomat said adding a transparent bidding process was in place for award of the projects.

About the alleged secrecy, Zhao said all information was readily available. Citing the presentations at the seminar, he said where did all these people get their figures?

Afghan security forces escort Taliban militants to be presented to the media in Jalalabad, yesterday. Security forces arrested three senior Taliban militants during an operation in Jalalabad, officials said.

Islamabad

Internews

With the possible return of former Pakistani president Asif Ali

Zardari to the country on December 23, ending his self-exile in what appears to be changing political environment in post-November 30 scenario, the political activities are likely to shift to Sindh from the Pun-jab, as PPP worked out duo-strategy to increase pres-sure on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. PPP Chairman Bilawal Bhutto, while announcing the return of the party’s co-chair-man, dispelled the impression that his return has to do, with any changes made last month or an understanding with the government. “He has been

declared fit to travel by doctors and his presence means a lot at a time when the PPP is going to launch movement for its four demands,” he said.

With Zardari’s return, not only politics would shift to Sindh but within Sindh also he would also like to fire the shot

Sindh government, with many changes on the card. Sacking Sindh IG AD Khawaja appears to be the first action, and more will follow. Zardari, who went into self-exile in 2015, after his hard hitting speech against the establish-ment and without naming the former army chief, retired Gen-eral Raheel Sharif, his outburst came following the arrest and action against some of his close friends and government officials.

Red Cross employee kidnapped AN EMPLOYEE of the International Committee of the Red Cross is miss-ing after being pulled from a vehicle in northern Afghanistan yesterday, the aid organisation said.

The man was among several ICRC staff mem-bers travelling between Mazar-i-Sharif and Kunduz when gunmen stopped the vehicles. The other staff were released, the ICRC said.

Sayed Mahmoud Dan-ish, a spokesman for the Kunduz governor, said the group included two Afghan staff, one for-eigner, and a driver, but the ICRC did not give any details about the kid-napped employee.

“We’re extremely concerned for the safety of our colleague,” the ICRC’s head of dele-gation in Afghanistan, Monica Zanarelli, said in a statement.

“We’re doing our best to discover what precisely happened, and to secure his safe and uncondi-tional release as quickly as possible.”

US confirms death of two Qaeda leaders A US strike against a senior Al Qaeda leader in Afghanistan in Octo-ber also killed two other senior operatives, the Pen-tagon said. The Defence Department had already announced the death of Farouq AlQahtani, Al Qaeda's emir for north-eastern Afghanistan, who was killed in the October 23 drone strike in Kunar province.

Pentagon Press Secre-tary Peter Cook confirmed the strike also killed Bilal Al Utabi, Qahtani's deputy, as well as Abd Al Wahid Al Junabi, described as "a senior Al Qaeda explo-sives expert."

"All three were actively involved in carry-ing out and plotting terror attacks inside and outside Afghanistan," Cook said.

A f g h a n i s t a n ' s National Directorate of Security had already con-firmed Utabi's death.

The Pentagon had been actively hunting Qahtani for four years.

Aid partnership withAustralia signed

Politics shifts to Sindh as Zardari ends self-exile

China denies anti-CPEC propaganda

Three Taliban militants held

14 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016INDIA

Akhilesh Yadav inaugurates 910 projects in a dayLucknow

IANS

With assembly polls likely to be announced any time now, Uttar

Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav went on a ribbon cutting spree yesterday and set a record of sorts.

In a packed schedule, the 43-year-old inaugurated 910 projects, laid foundation stones of 13 more, distributed free lap-top to 26,000 students and gave away cheques under the Sama-jwadi Pension Scheme to a whopping 91,125 beneficiaries.

While Akhilesh Yadav went to each Lucknow project to inau-gurate them, other were done remotely.

An official said that the projects inaugurated yesterday were spread in 59 of the 75 dis-tricts of the state and cost more than Rs 51,000 crore.

They included the newly built wing at the Lohia Medical Institute here, community health centres in Faizabad, a 200-bed hospital for pregnant women and newly-born in Lucknow and 80 new hospitals in various districts.

Akhilesh Yadav also

inaugurated the international cricket stadium and CG City at Shaheed Path in the state capi-tal, built on 846.49 acres of land.

It comprises an IT City, an Indian Information Technology Institute, a modern dairy plant, a super-speciality hospital, an administrative academy and a modern medi-city and a cancer institute.

The other projects the Chief Minister took up included a state university building in Allahabad, agriculture marketing hubs, rural infrastructure centres, multi-purpose buildings, link roads and guest houses, garlic, vegetable,

potato hubs in Kannauj, a solar plant in Mainpuri and a five-sto-rey new OPD at the Sanjay Gandhi post-graduate Institute of Medical Sciences.

There was also the riverfront projects on the Gomti in Luc-know, a fancy, hi-tech and sprawling Chief Minister's Sec-retariat, the trial run of a small stretch of the Lucknow Metro Rail and the 302-km long Agra-Lucknow Expressway.

Many projects are also lined up for Jhansi. A modern facilities equipped Rs 11 crore model bus station was inaugurated at Qais-erbagh in Lucknow.

Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief Mayawati has accused Akhilesh Yadav of "rushing through half complete projects" since he has nothing to show in five years of his regime.

She has even threatened action against officials in charge of such projects if she was voted to power in the 2017 assembly polls. Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) General Secretary Vijay Bahadur Pathak accused the government of rolling out incomplete projects like the Agra-Lucknow expressway and imperilling the lives of the people.

India and Kyrgyzstan to

fight terrorism togetherNew Delhi

IANS

India and Kyrgyzstan yes-terday pledged to work together to prevent youths from falling prey to the common challenges of ter-

rorism, extremism and radicalism as the two sides reaf-firmed their commitment to strengthening all-round coop-eration In a joint address to the media with Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev after del-egation-level talks here, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said the two sides "focused on our com-mon priority of diversifying and d e e p e n i n g b i l a t e r a l engagement".

"We also discussed how we could work together to secure our youth and society against the common challenges of terrorism, extremism, and radicalism," he said.

"We agreed on the need to coordinate and work closely in addressing and overcoming these challenges for our common benefit."

The Prime Minister said that

India regarded the Kyrgyz Republic as a valuable partner in the common pursuit of mak-ing Central Asia a region of sustainable peace, stability and prosperity.

Stating that the two sides also discussed cooperation in the defence sector, he said: "The Kyrgyz-India Mountain Bio-Medical Research Centre is an excellent example of successful collaboration. It has proved to be a rewarding research initia-tive, which we need to build on."

Modi also said that the two sides have started work on a Kyrgyz-India Joint Military Training Centre in the Kyrgyz Republic.

He also stressed on bilateral economic cooperation saying that he and President Atambaev have agreed on the need to con-nect our economies more deeply.

"To this end, we will work to strengthen bilateral trade and economic linkages, and facilitate

greater people-to-people exchanges," the Prime Minister said. "We will encourage indus-try and business on both sides to play a leading role in exploiting opportunities in healthcare, tour-ism, information technology, agriculture, mining and energy."

Stating that people have been at the centre of such initiatives,

Modi said: "We shall give special emphasis to youth exchanges in our technical and economic cooperation programme with Kyrgyz Republic. The under-standings concluded today will support our thrust in these directions."

On his part, President Atam-bayev thanked Modi for taking

up the initiative to set up a Kyr-gyz-India fund to encourage businessmen on both sides.

He stressed on expansion of trade between the two sides stat-ing that "we are not happy with what we have today". Atambayev also called for cooperation in high technology sector with inputs from Indian experts.

Beijing

Reuters

In an apparent reference to Pakistan, India has renewed its demand for international

action against Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and the Jaish-e-Moham-med (JeM) terror groups and their safe havens "outside Afghanistan".

Denouncing the terror organisations, whose leadership is based in Pakistan, as affiliates of Al Qaeda, India's Permanent Representative Syed Akbarud-din (pictured) told the UN Security Council on Monday that it was imperative to take action against the support they get from outside.

In an implied criticism of China, he blamed the "split" in

the UN bodies that mete out sanctions on terrorist organisa-tions for the world body's inability to deal with the terror-ism. China has blocked India's efforts to have international sanctions imposed on Pakistan-based JeM chief Masood Azhar by a committee that takes action

against Al Qaeda and its affili-ates. Azhar was allegedly behind the attack early this year on the Pathankot air force base that left seven Indian soldiers dead.

As a member of the Security Council, China has also provided cover for Pakistan releasing on bail Zaki-ur-Rehman Lakhvi, the LeT commander who allegedly masterminded the 2008 attack on Mumbai that killed over 160 people. He was already on the UN list of those facing sanctions as terrorists.

"We need to address, as an imperative, the support that ter-rorist organizations like the Taliban, Haqqani Network, Daesh, Al Qaeda and its desig-nated affiliates such as Lashkar-e-Taiba and the Jaish-e-Mohammed which operate

entirely outside the fabric of international law draw from their shadowy supporters outside Afghanistan," Akbaruddin said.

"While the Taliban sanctions regime remains split for more than five years, the designated terrorist group makes concerted effort to capture and hold terri-tory," he said.

"Therefore, for numerous Afghan women, men and chil-dren there is no respite from the plague of terrorism."

He said the international community has to make "it clear that we will neither roll over in the face of terror, nor will we allow the roll-back of the achievements of the resolute people and government of Afghanistan in the last decade-and-half".

United Naga Council demands President's rule in ManipurNew Delhi IANS

The United Naga Coun-cil, which represents the Nagas living in Manipur,

met Home Minister Rajnath Singh here yesterday and demanded that President's Rule be imposed in the state in the wake of ongoing vio-lence in the Imphal Valley.

The delegation will also meet President Pranab Mukherjee today. It termed the creation of seven new dis-tricts as illegitimate as the Hill Area Committee was not con-sulted — mandatory under the Indian constitution.

"The state government, without consulting the Naga people, created the districts mostly by bifurcating the Naga districts.

This is against the prom-ise under four various memorandums and a written assurance by the Ministry of Home Affairs in 2011 that

without consulting the stake-holders no administrative setup decisions will be taken," said K S Paul, former UNC president.

He said: "We have met the Home Minister and sought his immediate intervention. The Nagas won't tolerate the divi-sion of land and creation of new districts. We demand President's Rule in the state of Manipur."

Manipur's Imphal valley has been simmering under violence after the Congress-led state government declared the creation of seven new districts — Jiribam, Kangpokpi, Tengoupal, Phar-zol, Kakching,

Noney and Kamjongin. A blockade has been called by the Nagas to oppose the state government's decision to cre-ate Sadar Hills and Jiribam as full-fledged districts, which the UNC claims will bifurcate the ancestral lands of the Nagas living in Manipur.

Mother charged for punching toddlerNew Delhi

IANS

Delhi Police yesterday filed a criminal case against a mother seen

in a video punching and slap-ping her her 18-month-old son.

The case was registered against the woman after the Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) forwarded its complaint to police along with the video captured by a CCTV camera installed by the mother-in-law of the accused.

DCW Chief Swati Maliwal assured justice in "an abso-lutely shocking" incident. "The mother-in-law of the woman

seen beating her son (in the video) approached us and showed us the evidence. The manner in which the woman is beating her son is obnox-ious," Maliwal told reporters. The mother, a resident of Geeta Colony, is absconding.

"We have filed an FIR. The accused has fled and an inves-tigation has been initiated," Deputy Commissioner of Police, East, Omvir Singh said.

The boy's aunt, Shahana alleged that the woman "used to beat her husband" and other children too.

The victim's grandmother told the police: "My son has been married to this woman for three years and they have

three children. She has been beating all her children and husband. We did not have any evidence. We recorded her actions on the camera and approached the DCW."

Maliwal said the woman could be suffering from a psy-chic disorder.

"Cannot beat animal in manner she beat her own son. Her mental condition needs to be investigated."

"We are trying to investi-gate. If that is the matter, then the DCW will try and ensure that this woman gets treated."

The boy was also brought before the Child Welfare Com-mittee and his custody handed over to his aunt.

Mutual cooperation

Two sides focused on common priority of diversifying and deepening bilateral engagement.

The Prime Minister said that India regarded the Kyrgyz Republic as a valuable partner in the common pursuit of making Central Asia a region of sustainable peace, stability and prosperity.

From left: President Pranab Mukherjee, Kyrgyzstan President Almazbek Atambayev, his wife Raisa Atambayeva and Prime Minister Narendra Modi attending a ceremonial reception at the President's House in New Delhi, yesterday.

BJP sweeps Chandigarh civic body pollsChandigarh

IANS

THE Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) yesterday swept the Chandigarh Municipal Corpo-ration elections by winning 20 of the 26 seats, thus retaining its control over the civic body.

The Corporation went to the polls on Sunday and the counting of ballots was held yesterday.

The Congress, which had won nine seats in the 2011 polls, was reduced to four seats, with all its former may-ors — Subhash Chawla, Harphool Kalyan, Poonam Sharma and Kamlesh— fac-ing defeat.

However, the BJP man-aged to win only one of the four seats it contested jointly with its ally Shiromani Akali Dal. BJP rebel Dalip Sharma won as an independent.

BJP's sitting Mayor Arun Sood defeated his nearest rival Rajesh Sharma of the Congress by 2,077 votes.

Among the other promi-nent losers were local Congress President Pardeep Chhabra's wife Ritu Chhabra, local SAD President Jagjit Singh Kang's wife Inderjit Kaur, BSP's City President Jagir Singh and sitting Coun-cillor Saurabh Joshi of the BJP.

The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) failed to open its account. It lost on all the 17 seats it contested.

Pedestrians walking past temporary roadblocks on the outskirts of Imphal, yesterday.

Call for action against terror groups

15WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 INDIA

Demonetisation

RBI makes new rules on deposit, Finance Minister contradicts. Who should citizen believe? Neither has credibility," Chidambaram tweeted.

The government was making the life of common people, especially farmers, "miserable by the latest restrictions" CPM said.

Participants performing 'Gatka' the Sikh martial art during a competition in Amritsar, yesterday.

Sikh martial art

An artist plays a flute on the street in the Kathputli Colony in New Delhi, yesterday. The Delhi Development Authority plans to relocate the residents of the colony for a couple of years while multi-storey buildings are constructed in the area.

Renovation plan

New Delhi AFP

The government yes-terday drew flak from the opposition amid confusion over RBI's new curbs on depos-

iting more than Rs5,000 in scrapped notes even after Finance Minister Arun Jaitley said any amount of old currency can be deposited in banks in one go and without questions being asked.

But despite Jaitley's clarifi-cation on Monday night, the central bank didn't amend its notification that said amounts exceeding Rs5,000 in 500 and 1,000 rupee notes can be depos-ited till December 30 after explaining to bank officials the reasons for not having done it earlier. The Finance Minister at an event yesterday didn't give a direct reply when reporters asked him about the govern-ment's flip-flop on allowing the deposit of old notes after the November 8 decision to recall the high-value currency bills.

"Whoever has old currency must go and deposit it in one go. If somebody goes every day, it raises suspicion. Since exemp-tions have been lifted, whoever has old currency must deposit it in one go," Jaitley said. He didn't elaborate.

Pawan Kumar, Manager of the Punjab National Bank in Noida Sector 16, said that the RBI directive was aimed at stop-ping people from depositing money for others and coming to banks over and again.

But he said questions would be asked and customers needed to satisfy their banks "why you were not able to deposit the old

currency till now"."We only need a reason

from you. This move is to thwart those candidates who are depositing money on behalf of others and have been frequent-ing banks for this purpose," the manager said.

The issue reached the Supreme Court yesterday with Punjab Congress chief Ama-rinder Singh urging it to put on hold the latest RBI order.

Amarinder Singh urged the apex court to treat his petition as a public interest litigation as the government was causing havoc with changing rules daily. People were facing immense hardship due to the currency ban, he said.

Former Finance Minister P Chidambaram lashed out at a "desperate government resort-ing to desperate measures" and said the new cap on deposits left the "poor and middle class high and dry".

"RBI makes new rules on deposit, FM (Finance Minister)

contradicts. Who should citizen believe? Neither has credibil-ity," Chidambaram tweeted.

Congress Vice President Rahul Gandhi took a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi, saying the "Reserve Bank of India was changing rules like the PM changes his clothes".

The Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) dubbed the curbs "whimsical and anti-people" and demanded its immediate retraction and also other restrictions on using and depositing the old tender until alternative arrangements were made.

"In fact, the latest order is because almost all the notes taken out of circulation have come back into the banking sys-tem exposing the fraudulent claims that black money will be eliminated," the CPI-M said.

It said the government was making the life of common peo-ple, especially farmers, "miserable by the latest restrictions".

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said the nation had got "a weak" Prime Minister who changes his decision every other day.

AAP leader Ashutosh said since the demonetisation was announced, the government had issued a total of 59 notifications, changing the rules to exchange or deposit old notes.

"I feel that under no other Prime Minister the government has changed its decisions so many times so quickly," Ashutosh said.

"The nation needed a strong Prime Minister. But what we have got instead is a weak Prime Minister who is so confused that he changes his decisions every day."

Berlin

AFP

Former Finance Minister P. Chidambaram yesterday termed the demonetiza-

tion of Rs500 and Rs1,000 notes "a monumental tragedy" which has brought misery to millions in the country.

"It is an anti-poor measure and has plunged millions of farmers, small businessmen and workers into misery and hard-ships. It has created a myth that all cash is black money, when it it not," Chidambaram said with-out mincing words.

"We are now in the league of economies of Libya, Zimba-bwe, Venezuela and North

Korea," Chidambaram added, referring to the demonetization of the currencies of these coun-tries in the past.

The Congress leader reiter-ated that black money cannot be extinguished since it is not a stock but a flow of cash and as long there was a demand for black money, there will be supply.

"People are getting caught with bribes in new currency notes now - so how is there a difference made with demone-tization? Those who support demonetization do not know elementary economics."

He was interacting after delivering the first D.T. Lakda-wala Memorial Lecture on 25

years of economic reforms in India, organised by the Mumbai University's Department of Eco-nomics in the presence of Vice Chancellor Sanjay Deshmukh.

Chidambaram said there have been 11 seminal reforms since 1991 and urged the stu-dents to get the 12th reform.

He listed some of the 11 important reforms that changed the face of the Indian economy as abolition of industrial licences, moving away from fixed exchange rates, reduction in tax rates, adoption of PPP models, abolition of state monopoly in telecommunica-tions and bringing private companies into the telecom revolution.

Mumbai

IANS

Union Minister of State for Minority Affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi yesterday

launched a new trilingual web-site that would provide all information related to Haj and also accept online application forms for the pilgrimage.

The information in the web-site — www.haj.gov.in — can be accessed in Urdu, Hindi and English languages.

The website will facilitate online application for Haj apart from giving information about the Ministry of Minority Affairs, Haj Department, rules and reg-ulations of Haj, the Haj

Committee of India and private tour operators, the minister said.

The website also lists the Dos and Don'ts during the Haj and features a short film inform-ing about various aspects of the pilgrimage, he added.

Referring to the prepara-tions for the next Haj, Naqvi said that Haj 2017 has already been announced and the Haj Com-mittee of India will start accepting applications from Jan-uary 2 next year.

"This website is a one-stop facility for all the necessary information relating to Haj man-agement. It includes information on various agencies involved in Haj management, useful con-tacts of the central and state Haj

authorities, location maps of state Haj houses, location maps of accommodation sites in Makkah and Medina etc," Naqvi said. Besides, there are links to the websites of Haj Committee of India and Consulate General of India in Jeddah.

The Haj matters have been transferred from the Ministry of External Affairs to the Ministry of Minority Affairs with effect from October 1 this year.

"Ever since, efforts are being made to bring about further improvements in the Haj man-agement process, so as to make the pilgrimage more convenient, affordable and a memorable experience for the pilgrims," Naqvi said.

New Delhi IANS

The Central Board of Sec-ondary Education (CBSE) yesterday approved a pro-

posal to reintroduce compulsory Class X board examination from the 2017-18 academic year. The decision was taken during a meeting of the CBSE governing body here, sources said, adding that the first exam will be con-ducted in 2018.

The decision of the govern-ing body will be conveyed to the government for its approval.

The Class X board exami-nation for CBSE schools was made optional from 2011 under the Continuous and Compre-hensive Evaluation (CCE)

system mandated by the Right to Education Act.

Earlier, Union Human Resource Development Minis-ter Prakash Javadekar had announced making the CBSE board exams compulsory from the academic session 2017-18.

In another key decision, the CBSE has decided to recom-mend to the HRD ministry that the three language formula, under which Hindi, English and modern Indian language are taught, should be extended to class IX and X as well from the current VI to VIII, a source said.

Officials added that the Board also favoured sending a recommendation to the Centre that those languages which are listed in schedule VIII.

Chennai

Reuters

Karnataka Police have res-cued a schoolgirl who called them for help after

learning she was to be married to a much older man, campaign-ers said yesterday, in a case highlighting the risk of child trafficking in the region.

In a rare occurrence, the 15-year-old called the police a day after pre-wedding ceremo-nies began in her village in Karnataka's Kalaburagi district. Police officials said eight peo-ple, including the 26-year-old prospective groom from the western Indian state of Gujarat, have been arrested in connec-

tion with the case.The legal age for marriage

is 18 for girls and 21 for boys. But considered a financial burden on their families, many girls are married off by their parents before their 18th birthday. Chil-dren's charities say there has been a growing trend of suitors from Gujarat seeking brides from Karnataka, paying a dowry of up to Rs100,000 and cover-ing the costs of the wedding.

"Since Gujarat has a skewed sex ratio, many older men come here to marry because they don't find girls back home," said Anand Raj of non-profit Mar-gadarshi Society, which runs a helpline for children to report abuse.

New Delhi IANS

THE Delhi government yester-day demanded a special body to clean the Yamuna river.

Delhi Urban Develop-ment Minister Satyendar Jain said the Centre should set up a platform represented by all agencies for this task.

The recommendation was made at the NCR Planning Board meeting yesterday.

He said that various agen-cies of the central and Delhi governments like the Delhi Development Authority and Delhi Jal Board have a role to play in cleaning the Yamuna river.

The work gets obstructed whenever there is lack of coordination between these agencies.

Jain said the Delhi Metro Rail Corp (DMRC) was created so that every agency could work in tune with the other.

"All the stakeholders will have to unite and work together to make Yamuna pollution free. I suggested in the meeting that a common platform should be created for Yamuna cleaning and a river front development," Jain said.

The NCR Planning Board meeting was headed by Union Urban Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu.

Jain said Naidu promised to "consider" the suggestion.

Jain said that there are multiple agencies which are currently involved in the cleaning up of Yamuna river due to which we have not able to clean it for the last 15 years.

Confusion over deposit curbs draws oppn flak

Demonetisation a monumental tragedy: Chidambaram

Government floats trilingual Haj website to streamline process

Delhi govt wants body to clean Yamuna

CBSE approves compulsory Class X board exams

Would-be child bride calls police to stop wedding

16 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016EUROPE

Norway replaces oil and justice ministers NORWEGIAN Prime Minister Erna Solberg replaced the ministers for energy, EU affairs and justice in her right-wing government yesterday in a reshuffle nine months before the next general election. Oil Minister Tord Lien of the right-wing Progress party will stand down in favour of Terje Soeviknes, a popular small-town mayor. Justice Minister Anders Anund-sen of the Progress Party was replaced by Per-Willy Amundsen, until now a junior minister. EU Affairs Minister Elisabeth Aspa-ker of the Conservative Party will be replaced by Frank Bakke-Jensen of the same party.

Trine Skei Grande, head of the centrist Lib-eral Party, said that the Progress Party appoint-ments would add a dose of scepticism about man-made climate change to the government.

France urges DR Congo to 'respect human rights'FRANCE CALLED on the Democratic Repub-lic of Congo government to "respect human rights" after clashes erupted as the president's mandate ended with no sign he was preparing to leave.

"France calls on the Congolese authorities and security forces to respect human rights," said a spokesman for France's foreign min-istry, adding that those responsible for human rights violations would he held accountable.

Gunfire was heard in DR Congo's two larg-est cities overnight and tensions remain high. Tension had been mounting for months as the December deadline approached for the end of President Joseph Kabila's second and constitution-ally final term in office.

As the deadline approached the consti-tutional court this year ruled he could stay in office until elections were held. But no polls have been organised and the authorities instead did a deal in October.

NEWS BYTES

London

AP

Scottish leader Nicola Sturgeon offered pro-posals yesterday to protect Scotland's place in Europe after Britain

leaves the European Union, say-ing it's possible to keep Scotland in Europe's single market even after Brexit.

But Prime Minister Theresa May played down the prospect of Scotland getting a separate Brexit deal, saying that her gov-ernment will be negotiating a "United Kingdom approach" with Brussels.

Britain voted to leave the EU in June but 62 percent of voters in Scotland backed remaining in the 28-nation bloc. Sturgeon, who backs Scottish independ-ence, said Britain's departure should be "flexible" to address the needs of the U.K.'s different constituents — England, Scot-land, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Launching a document titled "Scotland's Place in Europe," Sturgeon said it was best for Scotland — and the rest of Brit-ain — to remain in the European single market and customs union. Leaving the EU single

market, she argues, would be a blow to many Scottish — and British — businesses that would face new tariffs on trade. Stay-ing in the single market though would require signing up to EU rules on the freedom of move-ment — regaining control of borders was one of the main rea-sons behind the vote to leave the EU.

Sturgeon argued that the EU referendum did not give a man-date to take any part of Britain out of the European single mar-ket. Nonetheless, she conceded

it was unlikely that Britain will choose to stay in the free trade bloc. In that event, Sturgeon pro-posed that Scotland could stay in the European Economic Area by means of special arrange-ments like those that apply to the

Channel Islands and the Faroe Islands. She also proposed a sub-stantial transfer of new powers to the Scottish Parliament — including over immigration and import and export control — in order for Scotland to pursue its

own relationship with the EU. May's office at Downing

Street said the British govern-ment would look closely at Sturgeon's proposals, which are expected to be discussed in detail in January.

A skier makes a turn during sunset on Rosshutte mountain in the western Austrian ski resort of Seefeld, yesterday.

Gloaming skis

Moscow

AFP

Russian media yesterday reacted with outrage to the killing of the coun-

try's ambassador to Turkey but said it was unlikely to derail warming ties between Moscow and Ankara.

Ambassador Andrei Karlov, 62, was gunned down Monday at the opening of a Russian pho-tography exhibition in Ankara by a Turkish policeman crying "Aleppo" and "Allahu Akbar" (God is greatest), in what Mos-cow called a "terrorist act".

"The murderer was afraid to look him in the eye," ran the banner frontpage headline on pro-Kremlin paper Izvestiya above a dramatic picture of Karlov with his killer looming behind.

"They did not shoot at Kar-lov. They shot at Russia," Senator Konstantin Kosachev said in comments published alongside.

Both Russian leader Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan called the attack a "provocation" aimed at sabo-taging ties that have been

patched up since a furious dis-pute over Ankara's downing of a Russian jet in Syria in Novem-ber 2015.

Putin also said that the kill-ing in Ankara was designed to undermine efforts to find a set-tlement on the conflict in Syria that are currently being spear-headed by Russia and Turkey.

Moscow and Ankara are on different sides of the conflict in Syria but the two countries have worked closely together to evacuate citizens from the bat-tered city of Aleppo.

The foreign and defence ministers from Russia, Turkey and Iran are set to meet Tues-day in Moscow for key talks on Syria

"I don't think that Moscow will provoke conflict" over the incident, Leonid Isayev of Mos-cow's Higher School of Economics told RBK business daily. "Today dialogue between Russia and Turkey is develop-ing quite actively."

In an interview with Izvestiya, the head of Russia's parliamentary committee on foreign affairs, Leonid Slutsky, warned those who try to drive a wedge between Russia and Turkey would fail.

Warsaw

Reuters

Poland’s lower house of parliament lifted a temporary ban on media access yesterday in a gesture to

defuse protests over the alleged under-mining of democracy by the right-wing government, but opposition leaders said more needed to be done.

The clampdown on media access was among a raft of measures by the ruling Law and Justice (PiS) party that critics say has eroded the independence of the media and the judiciary. Fears of an authoritarian drift in Poland have brought many thousands of protesters onto the streets over the past year and alarmed European Union partners.

Despite the removal of the media ban, opposition lawmakers extended their occupation of parliament’s debat-ing chamber into a fifth day. They vowed to stay put until a debate and vote on the 2017 budget they say was held ille-gally in a side room on Friday to avoid protests and reporters is re-run with all

MPs. Planned curbs on media access to the Sejm announced last week by PiS Speaker Marek Kuchcinski triggered demonstrations outside parliament and an occupation of the Sejm’s podium and the speaker’s chair by opposition MPs.

In response, Kuchcinski temporar-ily barred all reporters and moved the vote to a side room.

The Sejm’s press office said on Tues-day the ban had been scrapped but rules on media access were still likely to change. That was an allusion to an ear-lier proposal to reserve all recording of parliamentary sessions for five selected TV stations and limiting the number of journalists allowed in parliament would be limited to two per media outlet.

“We want, however, to assure that these changes will not be introduced without broad consultations and agree-ments with reporters,” the Sejm press office said in a statement.

The opposition welcomed the move but demanded the lower chamber also re-run the disputed budget vote. PiS offi-cials replied that the vote was legal and

would not be repeated. “PiS is retreat-ing,” the leader of the liberal Nowoczesna party, Ryszard Petru, said on his Twitter account “Another debate on the budget is a key issue.”

It is the most serious political stand-off for years in Poland and the sharpest escalation in tension between opposi-tion parties and the PiS since it won election in October 2015.

The eurosceptic PiS came to power promising more generous welfare ben-efits, stronger Roman Catholic and national values in public life and a tougher stance towards EU headquar-ters in Brussels and historical adversary Russia. The PiS government has since placed state media and prosecutors under its direct control, passed legisla-tion making it more difficult for the constitutional court to issue verdicts and approved a bill critics say will limit free-dom of assembly. European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker put the question of Poland’s media restrictions on the agenda of Wednesday’s meeting of the EU’s executive.

Scotland seeks own future in EUBrexit concerns

Sturgeon said it was best for Scotland — and the rest of Britain — to remain in the European single market and customs union.

Theresa May played down the prospect of Scotland getting a separate Brexit deal, saying that her government will be negotiating a "United Kingdom approach" with Brussels.

Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon delivers a statement on Brexit during a session of Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh, yesterday.

London

AFP

Queen Elizabeth II will stand down as patron of 25 bod-ies including the

Wimbledon tennis champion-ships and the Rugby Football Union, handing them to other royals after turning 90, her office said yesterday.

"At the end of The Queen's

90th birthday year, Her Majesty will step down as patron from a number of national organisa-tions," Buckingham Palace said in a statement. Other bodies on the list include the children's charity Barnardo's, the British Cycling Federation and the Royal Geographical Society.

At the All England Lawn Tennis and Croquet Club Wim-bledon, where the queen has

been patron since 1952 despite only attending a few matches, she will be replaced by Prince William's wife Kate.

Prince Harry will take the queen's place at the Rugby Foot-ball Union, where she has also been the official patron since inheriting the throne in 1952.The queen has already slightly reduced her engagements in the past year.

Murder won't shatter Turkey ties: Russian media

Britain's Queen reduces royal duties

Polish parliament lifts media ban; opposition demands more

A man waves a Polish flag during an anti-government demonstration of opposition parties suporters and Committee for the Defence of Democracy movement (KOD) in Warsaw, yesterday.

17WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 EUROPE

A view of the car accident, involving around fifty vehicles, which killed 5 people and injured 20, on the departmental road D12 between La Roche-sur-Yon and Les Sables d'Olonne, in western France, yesterday.

Five dead in an accident involving 50 vehicles

Paris

AFP

Security was beefed up at Christmas markets across Europe after a lorry ploughed through a market in Berlin kill-

ing 12 people and heightening security fears at the onset of the holiday season.

The carnage in the German capital had particular resonance in France, which has borne the brunt of terror attacks in Europe for the past two years.

German police said yester-day they were treating as "a probable terrorist attack" the killing of 12 people when a lorry ploughed through a packed Ber-lin Christmas market. Dozens more were wounded Monday when the truck tore through the crowd, smashing through wooden stalls and crushing vic-tims, in scenes reminiscent of July's deadly attack in the French Riviera city of Nice.

Police detained the man believed to have deliberately crashed the heavy vehicle loaded with steel beams into the festive market in a area popular with

tourists near the capital's iconic Kaiser Wilhelm Memorial Church.

The man behind the wheel was an asylum seeker believed to be from Afghanistan or Paki-stan who arrived in Germany in February, according to security sources cited by DPA news agency. A Polish man, thought to have been the truck's registered driver, was found dead on the passenger seat, and police said he had not steered the vehicle.

Twelve people were killed

and 48 others injured as the lorry tore through the market for as far as 80 metres (yards) in the incident which came less than a week before Christmas.

"I don't want to use the word 'attack' yet, although there are many things pointing to one," said Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere hours later.

Berlin police said they pre-sumed the lorry was "intentionally steered" into the crowd and called the bloody car-nage a "probable terrorist attack". One of the survivors, Australian Trisha O'Neill, said she was only metres from "this huge black truck speeding through the markets crushing so many

people". "I could hear screaming and then we all froze. Then sud-denly people started to move and lift all the wreckage off people, trying to help whoever was there," she told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

O'Neill said there was "blood and bodies everywhere".

The witness accounts of a truck barrelling through a crowd of revellers immediately brought to mind the scenes in the Riviera city of Nice in July, where an Islamist used a truck to mow down 86 people during Bastille Day celebrations.

President Francois Hollande said France was under a "high level of threat" following the

events in Berlin but pointed out that the country already has a large-scale security operation in place.

"We have a high level of threat and we also have a par-ticularly high level of mobilisation and vigilance," Hol-lande said. In Strasbourg, police have set up barricades at the var-ious entry points to the main

island of the city, where the mar-ket is located. While the officers check bags, private security guards mingle with the crowd to keep watch. A spokesman for the National Police Chiefs' Council said that despite the Berlin attack, the threat to Britain remained unchanged at severe, meaning an attack was "highly likely".

A lorry that crashed into a crowded Christmas market in Berlin, Germany, on Monday night. RIGHT: People gather to lay down flowers for the deceased outside the Gedaechniskirche.

Europe beefs up security; Berlin toll at 12Deadly attack

Berlin police said they presumed the lorry was "intentionally steered" into the crowd and called the bloody carnage a "probable terrorist attack".

48 people were injured as the lorry tore through the market for as far as 80 metres in the incident area.

Refugees plead with Germans not to tar them with suspicionBerlin

Reuters

Refugees in Berlin pleaded with their host nation to avoid placing migrants under a blanket of suspicion after police commandos raided their shelter, which had been home

to a man arrested over a truck attack on a crowded Christmas market.

“We are of course worried,” said Ibrahim Sufi, a 26-year-old Syrian living in Hangar 7 at the former Tempelhof airport, an imposing structure built by Hitler to showcase Nazi might and now being used to house migrants.

“We are worried about how the German public will view us after this terrorist attack,” added Sufi, tucking his hands into his red jacket to keep warm on a freezing morning. “My message to the Germans is: ‘Don’t suspect everybody, don’t generalise.’”

Berlin

Reuters

A Pakistani man arrested in connection with a deadly Christmas mar-

ket attack in Berlin may not be the perpetrator, Germany’s chief prosecutor Peter Frank

said, adding that no group had yet claimed responsibility for the attack.

“We must get used to the idea that he was possibly not the perpetrator or that he didn’t belong to the group of perpetrators,” Frank told a news conference.

Suspect possibly not perpetrator

Brussels

Reuters

The European Union agreed stricter gun rules yester-day but balked at a

proposal for a complete ban on the most lethal semi-automatic weapons such as the Kalashnikov.

The measure is part of an overall tightening of EU rules that govern the purchase and sale of such weapons since two

Islamist gunmen shot dead 12 people in the offices of the French satirical magazine Char-lie Hebdo in January 2015. Militants killed 130 people in attacks in Paris in November last year.

Proposed in 2015 but dis-puted by the bloc’s 28 nations, the rules restrict access to some high-caliber weapons and make it easier to track guns to avoid them being sold on the black market.

But amid opposition from

Europe’s gun lobby, the Euro-pean Commission’s plan to prohibit private citizens from owning weapons like the Rus-sian-made AK-47 failed to obtain enough support from member states.

“We have fought hard for an ambitious deal that reduces the risk of shootings in schools, summer camps or terrorist attacks with legally held fire-arms,” European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker said in statement.

Brussels

Reuters

The European Commission has charged Facebook Inc with providing mislead-

ing information during its takeover of the online messag-ing service WhatsApp, opening the company to a possible fine of 1 percent of its turnover.

The statement of objections sent to Facebook will not have an impact on the approval of the $22bn merger in 2014, the Commission said in a statement yesterday. Facebook becomes the latest Silicon Valley target of EU antitrust chief Margrethe Vestager, who has demanded Apple pay back $14bn in taxes to Ireland and hit Google with t w o m a r k e t a b u s e investigations.

The issue regards a What-sApp privacy policy change in August when it said it would share some users’ phone num-bers with parent company Facebook, triggering investiga-tions by a number of EU data protection authorities.

The Commission said Face-book had indicated in its notification of the planned acquisition that it would be unable reliably to match the two companies’ user accounts.”

“In today’s Statement of Objections, the Commission takes the preliminary view that, contrary to Facebook’s

statements and reply during the merger review, the technical possibility of automatically matching Facebook users’ IDs with WhatsApp users’ IDs already existed in 2014,” it said.

“The Commission’s prelim-inary view is that Facebook gave us incorrect or mislead-ing information during the investigation into its acquisition of WhatsApp,” said Vestager, the EU’s competition commissioner.

Facebook has until Jan. 31 to respond. If the Commission’s concerns are confirmed it can impose a fine on the US com-pany of up to 1 percent of turnover. Companies fined can appeal to the European Court of Justice, which has overturned some penalties in the past.

“We respect the Commis-sion’s process and are confident that a full review of the facts will confirm Facebook has acted in good faith, a Facebook spokeswoman said.

“We’ve consistently pro-vided accurate information about our technical capabilities and plans, including in submis-sions about the WhatsApp acquisition and in voluntary briefings before WhatsApp’s privacy policy update this year,” she added. The company will continue to cooperate and give the information officials need to resolve their questions, she said.

Vienna

Reuters

Austria has arrested a 25-year-old asylum seeker from Morocco

on suspicion of planning an attack during the holiday sea-son in the city of Salzburg, prosecutors said yesterday.

A search on Monday of an accommodation centre for asylum seekers in the town of Fuschl am See, where the man was living, found “no materials clearly required for the execution of an attack”, the Salzburg prosecutors’ office said in a statement.

It could not, however, be ruled out that he was plan-ning an attack, a spokesman added. The formal accusation against the suspect is that he belongs to an unspecified “terrorist organisation”.

Austria is deploying more police at busy public places and tightening other security measures in response to Mon-day’s attack on a Christmas market in Berlin in which 12 people were killed. “The police were informed in recent months that unidenti-fied men had discussed an alleged terrorist attack in Salzburg in the period around Christmas/New Year,” the prosecutors’ office said, describing the Moroccan as the main suspect.

EU accuses FB of giving misleading information

Refugee held on suspicion of planning attack

EU agrees to tighten gun laws

18 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016AMERICAS

An actor dressed in a devil's costume participates in a traditional Mexican Christmas presentation, also known as the Pastorelas, in Tepotzotlan near Mexico City, yesterday.

Devil's costume

New York Reuters

The United States lost some literal and figurative pio-neers in 2016 with the

deaths of famed sons and daugh-ters from John Glenn, the first American to orbit Earth, to Gwen Ifill, the first black woman to co-anchor a major US television newscast.

The year also saw the deaths of stars of sports, the arts and politics, including former heav-yweight boxing champion Muhammad Ali and golfing great Arnold Palmer, rock star Prince and US Supreme Court Associ-ate Justice Antonin Scalia.

Glenn, a Democrat who served four terms as one of

Ohio’s US Senators after his astronaut career, died at the age of 95 earlier this month.

Like former first lady Nancy Reagan and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of “To Kill a Mockingbird,” Harper Lee, who also died this year, Glenn was part of the generation that lived through the deprivations of the Great Depression and the hard-ships of World War Two.

“We will remember them for a long time,” said writer Nick Taylor, who collaborated with Glenn on his memoir.

“That generation was tested in a way that subsequent gener-ations have not (been),” Taylor said in an interview. “They had this attitude to put one foot in front of the other to make things

better.” British rock star David Bowie died of liver cancer in his adoptive New York City home in January just days after releas-ing his final album.

He was one of the first in a long list of musical greats to play their last in 2016.

Tearful fans gathered in sub-urban Minneapolis after the April death of Prince at the age of 57 of an accidental, self-adminis-tered overdose of the painkiller fentanyl.

The music world also bid farewell to rock and roll Hall of Famer Glenn Frey, of the 1970s group the Eagles, guitarist Paul Kantner, co-founder of the psychedelic rock band Jefferson Airplane, and singer, songwriter and poet Leonard Cohen.

Country music fans were saddened by the death of Merle Haggard, the voice of the Amer-ican working man whose songs included “Hungry Eyes” and “Okie from Muskogee.”

“It is a heavy loss,” said Dan-iel Levitin, a professor at Canada’s McGill University and an expert in music history. “These were real icons and giants and they became that way because they didn’t sound like anyone else.”

The film and theater worlds also lost some stars this year.

Comedians Gene Wilder and Garry Shandling took their final bows, as did Academy Award winning-actress Patty Duke, Florence Henderson, America’s favorite TV mom from “The

Brady Bunch,” and Zsa Zsa Gabor, who paved the way for future celebrities like Kim Kardashian.

American theater lost one of its greatest dramatists with the death of Edward Albee, the tri-ple Pulitzer Prize winning playwright.

“He redefined what our theater could talk about and how,” actor Harvey Fierstein tweeted about the man who penned “Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf” and “A Delicate Balance.” The year also saw the passing of many activists, politicians and journalists.

Among them were veteran CBS broadcast journalist Morley Safer, a longtime correspondent of the “60 Minutes” news show,

and Ifill, a co-host of PBS “NewsHour.”

Anti-war activist and former California state legislator Tom Hayden, died in October, and Janet Reno, the first woman to serve as US attorney general, died in November.

Elie Wiesel, a survivor of the Nazi death camps who chroni-cled the horrors of the Holocaust in this writing, died in July at the age of 87.m Wiesel, who fought to preserve the memory of mil-lions of Holocaust victims, won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986 for his work.

The Nobel committee praised him at the time, saying, “His message is one of peace, atonement and human dignity.”

Washington

AFP

President Barack Obama intends to transfer up to 18 more prisoners from Guantanamo Bay before leaving the

White House, the New York Times reported, further whittling detainee numbers but leaving a central campaign promise unfulfilled.

The White House has noti-fied Congress that Obama intends to make a final transfer of 17 or 18 of the 59 remaining inmates before he steps down on Janu-ary 20, the Times reported on Monday.

Obama came to office vow-ing to close the facility, which opened in 2002 and which he has described as "contrary to our

values." But he has run up against legal hurdles, Pentagon foot dragging and stubborn Congres-sional opposition.

President-elect Donald

Trump has vowed to "load (Guantanamo) up with some bad dudes." This latest action would likely spell the end of prison crit-ics' hopes Obama will close the controversial facility by execu-tive order.

The White House is not sure such a move would work -- or be legally sound. "While wel-come, these transfers are not nearly sufficient. We are demanding and expecting bold moves from President Obama to finally shutter the detention camp at Guantanamo in his final days," said Naureen Shah, Amnesty International USA's director of Security with Human Rights. "He must not leave it to Trump." The Pentagon and White House declined to comment, and typically don't do so until after transfers are completed. Of the 59 men still at Guantanamo, 22

have been cleared for transfer. Another 27 remain in legal limbo -- the so-called "forever prison-ers" have not been charged with anything, but have been deemed too dangerous to release.

The other 10, including the alleged plotters of the Septem-ber 11, 2001 attacks, have been charged and are going through a glacially slow military prosecu-tion at Guantanamo. The White House has struggled to find a solution to the vexed question as to what to do with the forever detainees, and it is uncertain they could be convicted in a civilian court.

Obama had tried to transfer many detainees abroad and bring the most high value detainees to the United States. But funding was blocked by Republicans. A House Republican aide told AFP the reported rush of transfers

would likely lead to higher recid-ivism rates.

"This most recent round of those released will be more likely to return to the battlefield given that their being held for this long is evidence that they were deemed greater security risks," he said, speaking only on condi-tion of anonymity. Since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks, about 780 inmates have been housed in the US military-run facility.

In recent months, Obama has authorized a flurry of transfers of prisoners to other countries including Yemen and Saudi Ara-bia -- prompting howls of outrage from Republicans each time. Because the Guantanamo Bay naval base is on Cuban and not US soil, it is not subject to the same federal laws and legal proc-esses as the United States.

Obama eyes more Guantanamo transfers59 inmates

The White House has notified Congress that Obama intends to make a final transfer of 17 or 18 of the 59 remaining inmates before he steps down.

Of the 59 men still at Guantanamo, 22 have been cleared for transfer. Another 27 remain in legal limbo.

Caracas

Reuters

Venezuela began reopen-ing its border with Colombia yesterday ear-

lier than expected after shutting it last week amid a crackdown on smugglers and criminal gangs. President Nicolas Maduro had said crossings along the 2,200km frontier between the South American neighbors would remain closed until Jan-uary 2.

That, combined with the elimination of Venezuela’s larg-est currency note, had interrupted long-rampant con-traband of goods and cash by gangs on both sides. But it also dismayed many Colombians

resident in Venezuela hoping to return for Christmas holidays.

And Venezuelans living in border states, who rely on trips to Colombia to buy food and medicines scarce at home dur-ing an economic crisis, had been protesting at the measure.

Some had defied the ban to jump fences and cross anyway. Maduro and Colombia’s Presi-dent Juan Manuel Santos spoke by telephone and decided to gradually reopen border posts “with strict vigilance and secu-rity”, Information Minister Ernesto Villegas said via Twit-ter. People were crossing normally again from the morning.

Elsewhere, Venezuela was c a l m e r o n T u e s d a y

after widespread protests and lootings over the weekend sparked by a cash shortage fol-lowing Maduro’s currency measure which he later post-poned in response to the chaos.

At least three people were killed, 405 people arrested, and hundreds of shops ransacked, especially in the states of Boli-var and Tachira.

Maduro, a 54-year-old former bus driver and foreign minister who replaced Hugo Chavez in 2013, has seen his popularity plunge during a three-year recession in the OPEC nation. Demanding his resignation, a handful of hard-line opposition leaders stood outside the Miraflores presiden-tial palace in Caracas.

Venezuela reopens Colombia border after crackdown on miscreants

America mourns heroes, rock icons & sporting legends in 2016

Tourists observe Monarch butterflies at the oyamel firs forest, in Ocampo municipality, Michoacan State in Mexico, yesterday.

In nature's lap

Lima

Reuters

At least 12 police offic-ers were killed and a dozen were wounded

in a remote Andean region in Peru when their bus skidded off an unpaved road and tum-bled down a cliff, the government said yesterday.

The officers were headed to the highland province of Antabamba to provide secu-rity for talks between government officials and res-idents who have staged protests to demand a paved highway in the region. Two helicopters retrieved the wounded from the bottom of the cliff, the ministry said.

A dozen police dead in Peru after bus falls

New York Reuters

More than 60 million tourists visited New York in 2016, the

most ever, attracted by the Statue of Liberty, the 9/11 Memorial, Broadway shows and four-star restaurants.

The number of tourists from across the United States and around the world exceeded forecasts, city tour-ism officials said on Monday, and topped last year’s record by 1.8 million.

“The iconic attractions are always a big draw,” said Fred Dixon, president and chief executive of NYC & Company, the city’s official destination marketing organ-ization. “These are the hallmarks of a New York City visit, especially for the first-time visitor.” The city’s signature landmarks, includ-ing the Empire State Building and Central Park, remain high on the list of must-sees, but lower Manhattan has become a big draw for tourists as well.

Tourists are eager to pay their respects at the 9/11 Memorial and Museum in the Financial District, peruse the exhibits at the new Whitney Museum of American Art and take a stroll on the High Line on the west side of Manhat-tan. Many visitors are also venturing out of Manhattan to the so-called outer bor-oughs, Brooklyn, Queens, Staten Island and the Bronx, in search off-beat attractions and restaurants - trips that would have been inconceiv-able 40 years ago, when the city fell to a financial and crime-ridden nadir.

Haiti

AP

A Haitian electoral court yesterday ordered authorities to test the

reliability of last month's dis-puted presidential election results by conducting a random sample of vote count sheets.

The early yesterday ruling by the National Electoral Liti-gation Office ordered an immediate audit of 12 percent of vote tallies nationwide, watched by Haitian and inter-national monitors.

The panel's binding decision said the partial review was nec-essary to "shine a light" on the tabulation process at a ware-house computer centre guarded by armed UN peacekeepers in Port-au-Prince. It declined a full recount or other measures sought by lawyers for three los-ing candidates alleging electoral fraud and errors in the tabula-tion process. The lawyers have asserted that some tally sheets were unfairly authorised even though voters didn't sign their ballots or mark them with fingerprints.

Haiti panel orders partial audit of presidential vote

Record number of tourists flocked to NY

19WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016 AMERICAS

A man covers himself with a blanket as low temperatures arrived yesterday, in New York. Canada and the northern United States have been suffering their first brutal cold spell of the season .

Brutal cold spell

Seattle

Reuters

Republican Donald Trump prevailed in US Electoral College voting to officially win election as the

next president, easily dashing a long-shot push by a small move-ment of detractors to try to block him from gaining the White House.

Trump, who is set to take office on January 20, garnered more than the 270 electoral votes required to win, even as at least half a dozen US electors broke with tradition to vote against their own state’s directives, the largest number of “faithless elec-tors” seen in more than a century.

The Electoral College vote is normally a formality but took on extra prominence this year after a group of Democratic activists sought to persuade Republicans

to cross lines and vote for Dem-ocratic nominee Hillary Clinton. She won the nationwide popu-lar vote even as she failed to win enough state-by-state votes in the acrimonious Nov. 8 election.

Protesters briefly disrupted Wisconsin’s Electoral College balloting. In Austin, Texas, about 100 people chanting: “Dump Trump” and waving signs read-ing: “The Eyes of Texas are Upon

You” gathered at the state capi-tol trying to sway electors.

In the end, however, more Democrats than Republicans went rogue, underscoring deep divisions within their party. At least four Democratic electors voted for someone other than Clinton, while two Republicans turned their backs on Trump.

With nearly all votes counted, Trump had clinched 304 electoral votes to Clinton’s 227, according to an Associated Press tally of the voting by 538 electors across the country.

“I will work hard to unite our country and be the President of all Americans,” Trump said in a statement responding to the results. The Electoral College assigns each state electors equal to its number of representatives and senators in Congress. The District of Columbia also has three electoral votes. The votes will be officially counted during a joint session of Congress on Jan. 6. When voters go to the polls to

cast a ballot for president, they are actually choosing a presiden-tial candidate’s preferred slate of electors for their state.

The “faithless electors” as they are known represent a rare

break from the tradition of cast-ing an Electoral College ballot as directed by the outcome of that state’s popular election.

The most recent instance of a “faithless elector” was in 2004,

according to the Congressional Research Service. The practice has been very rare in modern times, with only eight such elec-tors since 1900, each in a different election.

Trump wins US Electoral College amid protests Official victory

Trump, who is set to take office on January 20, garnered more than the 270 electoral votes required to win.

More Democrats than Republicans went rogue, underscoring deep divisions within their party.

Supporters of President-elect Donald Trump hold signs in the Senate gallery in Lansing, Michigan.

Washington

AFP

A US vehicle safety agency has opened an investiga-tion into a million Dodge

SUVs and Ram pick-up trucks that reportedly continued to move even when in park, caus-ing nine injuries. There have been 25 crashes reported of the 34 incidents of the cars moving

when drivers shifted into park, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) confirmed yesterday.

The investigation into the Fiat Chrysler Automobile mod-els is another hit to the company after "Star Trek" actor Anton Yelchin was killed in June when his 2015 Grand Cherokee rolled down his driveway, slamming him into a wall. Fiat Chrysler

had recalled that model in April after reports of 117 crashes and 28 injuries, involving drivers who said the car moved even after they thought it was locked in park. The latest NHTSA investigation covers 2013-2016 Ram 1500 trucks and 2014-2016 Dodge Durango's SUVs, and covers incidents where vehicles were turned off as well as with the engine running.

New York AFP

New Yorkers who ride one of the world's busiest subway systems have

been waiting for this moment for close to a century: three new stations will open in eastern Manhattan on January 1.

The Second Avenue subway is the largest expansion of the city's metro in 50 years and will link the tony Upper East Side neighborhood with Brooklyn's beachfront Coney Island.

"That claustrophobia that descended upon on you when you walked into a subway sta-tion is gone," New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said.

"It is worth seeing just for the art," he added, alluding to works by four contemporary artists that will decorate the stations.

One of them, painter and photographer Chuck Close, has created for the 86th St station 12 giant mosaic portraits of peo-ple such as the composer Philip Glass and the late rock legend Lou Reed.

Like President-elect Don-ald Trump, Cuomo is big on upgrading infrastructure and he has worked frantically in recent months to ensure the deadline for the new stations'

opening is met.New Yorkers have been

waiting since 1929 for a subway running underneath Second Avenue, a north-south artery along the eastern side of Man-hattan. The new segment will extend the existing Q line with stations on 72nd, 86th and 96th Streets, at a cost of $4.4 billion. After the idea was first floated, it was delayed by the Great Depression in the 1930s, then emerged again after World War II.

It even gets mentioned in the hit TV series "Mad Men." A real estate agent tells one of the characters in the show that her apartment on the Upper East Side will quadruple in value after the new subway line opens.New Yorkers have been worn down by decades of wait-ing, so some doubt the stations will open on time.

"I give it a 50/50 chance," said Jane Gaillard, an interior decorator who lives in the Upper East Side. "I have been living in the neighborhood since 1967 and we have been talking about it since. I won't be on the first trains. I don't feel it's going to work very well in the begin-ning," Gaillard added.

The largest American city and its 8.5 million people badly need a subway extension.

Caracas

Reuters

As a harrowing economic crisis makes food scarce for millions of Venezue-

lans, many families cannot buy their children Christmas presents, decorate their home, or even host a holiday dinner.

The oil-rich country is suf-fering the third year of a recession that has sparked prod-uct shortages and galloping inflation. With a recent currency depreciation pumping up prices even higher, some parents are simply canceling Christmas.

“Last year I bought every-thing for my daughter,” said Dileida Palacios, a 40-year-old hairdresser dressed in black to mourn her son killed in crime-rife Venezuela a few weeks ago.

“This year I had to tell her everything is tough and Santa Claus isn’t coming.”

Like Palacios, about 38.5 percent of Venezuelans think this Christmas will be worse than last year’s, and 35 percent think it

will be the worst ever, accord-ing to a poll by consultancy Ecoanalitica and Catholic Uni-versity Andres Bello.

Several days of unrest over a national cash shortage have added to the grim national mood.

Once merrily decorated dur-ing the holidays, Caracas looks shabby. Many stores are empty, closed or selling cruelly expen-sive toys, Christmas trees, and holiday treats like “hallacas,” a cornmeal dish wrapped in plan-tain leaves. Eight-year old Helen Ramirez, who lives in Caracas’ sprawling Petare slum, asked Santa for food for her family and pink roller skates from the Dis-ney show “I’m Luna.”

But those skates are far out of reach for Ramirez’s family at about 400,000 bolivars, roughly $100 at the black market rate and about 14 times the monthly minimum wage.

“This year we didn’t deco-rate the house or anything,” said Ramirez’s grandmother, Nelys Benavides, during a charity-organized present giveaway in

Petare. “We have nothing.” Pres-ident Nicolas Maduro’s leftist government accuses business-men and rival politicians of seeking to stoke anger and ruin Christmas.

State media has feted the arrival of 200 containers of toys

and food in Venezuela’s other-wise largely deserted ports, and Maduro lit a cross on Caracas’ Avila mountain in November to usher in early holidays.

His government confiscated 3.8 million toys from importer Kreisel, accusing the company

of hoarding and price gouging.Two Kreisel executives have

been jailed, and Socialist Party committees have been distrib-uting the toys to children.

“That’s what you call a rein-forcement for Father Christmas, right?” the president laughed.

‘Santa Claus isn’t coming,’ recession-hit Venezuelans tell kids

A Venezuelan soldier controls the crowd as people queue to buy goods from a food wholesaler in Ciudad Bolivar, yesterday.

New Yorkers get new subway stations

Probe into Dodge & Ram truck roll aways opens

Washington

AFP

The Obama administra-tion reaffirmed its commitment to main-

taining sanctions on Russia over Crimea with new finan-cial restrictions announced yesterday on Russian busi-nessmen and companies.

While the sanctions are not unusual, the timing is, as Donald Trump's US election victory has created doubts about the future of US policy towards Russia and for a united approach to sanctions given his apparently softer line on President Vladimir Putin.

The US Treasury Depart-ment announced financial sanctions on seven Russian bankers and businessmen, and eight businesses with operations in Ukraine.

The actions show the US "remains steadfast in our commitment to maintain sanctions until Russia fully implements its commitments under the Minsk agree-ments," Treasury said in a statement, referring to the 2014 pact to end the war in Crimea.

"This action underscores the US government's oppo-sition to Russia's occupation of Crimea and our firm refusal to recognize its attempted annexation of the peninsula."

The European Union on Monday extended sanctions against Russia for six months.

The latest sanctions by Treasury's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) blocks any property of investment by the designated individu-als and companies in the United States, and prohibits any transactions with them by Americans individuals or companies.

"These targeted sanctions aim to maintain pressure on Russia by sustaining the costs of its occupation of Crimea and disrupting the activities of those who support the vio-lence and instability in Ukraine," acting OFAC Direc-tor John E. Smith said in the statement.

The sanctions target Rus-sian construction and shipping companies and the Crimean port operator, as well as two ships. It also impacts six executives of Bank Rossiya and Sobinbank, and one with business ties to Russia's Defense Ministry.

US reaffirms Russian sanctions

20 WEDNESDAY 21 DECEMBER 2016MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

04.53 am

06.15 am

ZUHRASR

11.32 am

02.29 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

04.51 pm

06.21 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 10:00 LOW TIDE 02:15 - 18:15

Expected strong wind at most areas

daytime. Slight dust to blowing dust

at times at places and mild daytime

with scattered clouds, cold by.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

16oC 23oC

QIB holds annual blood donation campaignThe Peninsula

As part of its commitment to being an active participant in the local community, Qatar Islamic Bank (QIB), Qatar’s leading Islamic

Bank, organised its annual blood dona-tion campaign in association with Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) on December 19 at the QIB Main Office on Bank Street between 8:30am and 12noon.

The annual campaign was organ-ised in order to restock the hospital's blood bank and enhance the ability of local hospitals to save lives. QIB is continuously strengthening its involvement in key matters that affect the people in Qatar, and par-ticipating in the development of the Qatari society through providing solutions and options to address social, educational, health and

financial needs. The campaign received a strong response from employees who work in various QIB departments as well as customers who turned up to donate blood and give back to the community.

“For over ten years, QIB’s employ-ees and customers have shown consistent interest in backing the annual blood donation campaign”, said Bassel Gamal, QIB’s Group CEO.

“Being a leading Islamic Bank, corporate social responsibility does not exist as a separate idea, it is a con-cept that is engraved in the core of everything that we do. We pride our-selves in working hard everyday to improve the quality of life of every individual living and working in Qatar... We believe that events like the blood donation we have organ-ised today are contributing to making Qatar a healthier and more connected nation.”

Temperatures likely to be lower in 2017Oslo

Reuters

World temperatures are likely to dip next year from a siz-zling record high in 2016,

when man-made global warming was slightly boosted by a natural El Nino event in the Pacific Ocean, scientists said yesterday.

It is still likely to be the third warmest since records began.

The year-on-year decline will coincide with the first year of Donald Trump’s presidency. He has sometimes dismissed as a hoax the idea that glo-bal warming is caused by human activity.

“Next year is not likely to be a record but it will still be a very warm year,” Professor Adam Scaife of the British Met Office told Reuters of a report yesterday based on new com-puter data.

He said it would be wrong for any-one who doubts that climate change is caused by humans to interpret the expected 2017 dip, prompted by the end of El Nino, which released heat from the Pacific Ocean, as a sign of an end to the long-term trend of global

warming.The Met Office projected that 2017

was likely to be the third warmest year since records began in the mid-19th century, behind 2016 and 2015.

Among signs of warming, sea ice

in both the Arctic Ocean and around Antarctica is at record lows, accord-ing to mid-December data by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Global average temperatures for 2017 would be about 0.75 degree

Celsius (1.35 Fahrenheit) above the long-term 1961-1990 average of 14.0 C (57.2 F), the Met Office said.

This year is so far 0.86 C (1.55 F) above average, matching a forecast made in 2016, Scaife said. El Nino accounted for about 0.2 C (0.36 F) of the warming in 2016, far less than the extra heat from human-generated greenhouse gases.

Separately, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization (WMO) said 2016 was on track to be the warmest on record, ahead of 2015, with data from November confirming projections issued a month ago.

“2016 has been remarkable for all the wrong reasons,” WMO spokes-woman Clare Nullis said of the heat.

The WMO says the build-up of human-created greenhouse gases in the atmosphere is causing ever more harmful heatwaves, droughts, floods and a rise in global sea levels of about 20cm (7.87 inches) in the past century.

El Ninos happen every few years and can disrupt weather worldwide. After a powerful El Nino in 1998, it took until 2005 for a year to match that year’s record heat.

A Qatar Islamic Bank employee donating blood.

Among signs of warming, sea ice around Antarctica is at record lows, according to mid-December data by the US National Snow and Ice Data Center.

Oscar hopeful Nicole Kidman relates to story of adopted childSydney

AFP

Australian star Nicole Kidman (pictured) says her experience as the mother of adopted children meant she closely related to her character in the

movie "Lion", tipped as an Oscar favourite.Garth Davis's film about a young man from India

adopted by an Australian family who searches for his long-lost blood relatives using Google Earth, has already received a Golden Globe nod for best drama motion picture.

It also won nominations in the supporting actor cat-egories for Kidman and Dev Patel, with the pair repeating the feat for the 23rd Screen Actors Guild awards.

Kidman adopted two children with ex-husband Tom Cruise — Isabella and Connor — and said she immedi-ately felt a connection with the woman she portrayed, Sue Brierley who adopted Saroo, played by Patel.

"She came up to Sydney and we just sat in my apart-ment ... and just started talking," Kidman told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation ahead of the film's Australian premiere on Monday evening.

"I told her a lot about myself, and it was almost like she already knew a lot, and not stuff I had talked about publicly, but just sensations and feelings."

Brierley told the broadcaster the two women imme-diately bonded.

"With your children being adopted, it was impor-tant to me that someone be on my page," she said in explaining why she wanted Kidman in the role after discovering her story was going to be made into a film.

"We'd both had a tough patch. Because I lost my mother, and your (Kidman's) father passed away, really within one month, so we were rather raw emotionally

at that time." Kidman said that being an adoptive par-ent helped her understand Brierley's experiences.

"We have similar ways in which we wanted to adopt," Kidman said.

"I just felt ever since I was young that I was going to adopt a child. Mine wasn't the vision Sue had exactly, but pretty similar, and we both made it happen and that is weird to have the same thing."

Kidman, who also has two daughters with country music star husband Keith Urban, added that getting the role "was just meant to be, it was mapped out in the stars, so to speak".

The 89th Academy Awards are in Los Angeles on February 26.

'Surreal' is 2016 Word of the YearWashington

AFP

DONALD Trump's upset win in the US presidential election astonished people so much that they rushed to the dictionary to look up the word everyone was using to describe the event: surreal.

Indeed, Merriam-Webster's dictionary on Monday named surreal its Word of the Year 2016, the honour given to the word or term with the sharpest spike in look-ups over the previous year.

Surreal, definition: "marked by the intense irrational reality of a dream."

It actually triggered not one but a series of sudden jumps in people looking it up.

The first came after terrorist bombings in Brussels in March. Thirty-two people died, as did three attackers.

It happened again in July after the coup attempt in Turkey and the terrorist attack in Nice, France in which a man driving a truck swerved back and forth through a crowd watching Bastille Day fireworks, crushing 86 people to death.

But the biggest spike came after Trump — the tweeting, shoot-from-the-hip polit-ical neophyte and property tycoon who insulted women, minorities and Muslims during the campaign — defeated Hillary Clinton during the November 8 race for the White House. "When we don't believe or don't want to believe what is real, we need a word for what seems 'above' or 'beyond' reality. Surreal is such a word," the diction-ary company said in a statement.