The Peninsula

DOHA: Doha Metro Project has achieved yet another milestone by completing 100km of tunnelling across the city and 41 percent of the whole project.

With this achievement, 90 percent of tunnelling has been com-pleted, with 11km more required to complete all underground sections, Qatar Rail said yesterday.

The 100th kilometre was crossed by a tunnel boring machine (TBM) on the southern section of the Red Line.

Tunnelling on Doha Metro’s long-est line, the Red Line, is expected to be completed in the near future.

Towards the end of this year, Qatar Rail expects to move from con-struction into systems installation as track, power supply and signalling starts to be installed. At this point it will also start to work on the architec-tural finishes of the stations of Doha Metro, said a statement yesterday.

The first phase of the Doha Metro project is expected to be complete in 2020. By 2030, all

the three networks – Doha Metro, Lusail Tram and the long-distance rail, which will link Qatar with the GCC Rail network – are expected to be complete.

With the completion of the first phase of the Doha Metro and Lusail Tram, Qatar Rail expects to offer 630,000 passenger trips per day by 2021. By then, 37 metro stations are

expected to be complete, with an average journey time of three min-utes between adjacent stations.

→ Continued on page 8

Murray takes long road again; Wawrinka keeps it simple

BUSINESS | 25 SPORT | 40

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani receiving President of the Libyan Presidency Council of the Government of National Accord Fayez Mustafa Al Sarraj, in Al Bahr Palace yesterday. Al Sarraj briefed the Emir on the latest developments in Libya. Emir stressed Qatar’s support for Libya and its people.

Emir receives Libyan leader

THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016 • 19 SHA’BAAN 1437 • Volume 21 • Number 6808 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar

QNA

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of congratulations to H M King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein of Jor-dan on the anniversary of his country’s Independence Day.

Greetings sent to Austrian PresidentDOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of congratulations to Alexander Van der Bellen on the occasion of his victory in the presidential elections in the Republic of Austria.

Emir congratulatesArgentina President

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of con-gratulations to President of Argentina Mauricio Macri on the occasion of his country’s National Day.

DOHA: Al Meera Consumer Goods Company (QSC) is offering 1,437 goods at “cost price” from today until the end of Ramadan.

The offer will be available at Al Meera’s 35 branches across the country, in addition to Géant Hypermarket, the company said yesterday.

The offer is part of a promotion under the slogan “Your trust inspires us to spread the giving in the month of giving - The blessings of Ramadan 1437 Hijri extend to offer you 1437 products at cost price”.

In addition to the 36 selected stores, Al Meera’s Residential complexes 1 and 2 in Thakhira, Beverly Hills 3, Kaaban, and Sealine branches will provide shoppers with ‘cost price’ offers on the maximum number of consumer goods possible, as permissible by the stores’ space constraints, said the company.

By Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

DOHA: The biggest among the existing cinemas in Qatar opens today at the recently launched Gulf Mall.

Qatar Bahrain International Cinema (QBIC), the largest cin-ema operator in Qatar, will today mark the soft opening of Gulf Mall’s Cineco 13 multiplex which has 13 screens with a total seat-ing capacity of more than 2,200.

The multiplex’s Cinema 5 is the biggest movie theatre in Qatar with a total of 525 seats, com-posed of 78 in the balcony and 447 in the orchestra. Among the 13 screens, two are VIP theatres.

“We are excited about the opening of Cineco 13. This is the biggest cinema in Qatar which marks a very important milestone in our expansion strategy in the

country. With the launch, we have solidified our position as the big-gest cinema operator in Qatar and we will continue with our strat-egy opening at more locations soon,” Khalil Amin, QBIC Chief Operating Officer told The Penin-sula yesterday.

Today’s launch brings the total number of screens operated by QBIC to 43, which are located in four malls including City Centre Doha, Villag-gio, Al Khor Mall and now Gulf Mall. Residents now has more choices of cinemas with more than 60 screens spread in eight malls.

“The newly opened Cineco 13 boasts of the latest cinema fea-tures including 4K projectors and state-of-the-art sound system. It will screen all types of films from Hollywood to Arabic to Bolly-wood,” added Amin.

As with other cinemas under the QBIC management, prices are set at QR35 and QR45 for 3D films.

Emir greets King of Jordan

By Mohammad Shoeb

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Fuel (Woqod) yesterday announced plans to deploy more mobile fuel sta-tions across the country, 20 of which will be in place very soon.

The decision is aimed at reduc-ing the serpentine queues at the existing petrol stations.

“We are expanding the mobile petrol stations more aggressively. We have just finalised the contract with the authorities concerned to put in place the mobile fuel tanks with dispenser,” Woqod CEO, Ibra-him Jaham Al Kuwari said on the sidelines of the company’s Extraordinary General Assem-bly Meeting.

“Currently there are about six mobile fuel stations operating in different strategic locations across the country. Very soon we are going to put 20 more such facilities,” he added.

He said that given the sit-uation at petrol stations, the company has placed orders for 30 more similar mobile petrol tanks. They are expected to be delivered in three months and will be on standby, so that they

can be used in future as per requirement.

Al Kuwari also said that the ongoing work on increasing the length of fuel hoses at all Woqod petrol stations in the country will be completed by June 6.

With completion of the work, all Woqod fuel stations will be fully equipped with hoses long enough to refuel cars at any side of the dispensers.

“In most cases, the open-ing of the fuel tank is on the left hand side of the car. So you find long queues at one side, while the other side remains empty. Now we will have hoses that will reach both sides regardless of where the opening of fuel tanks is placed,” he said.

With the new system the time taken in refueling cars at Woqod petrol stations is expected to reduce significantly.

→ Continued on page 8

Doha Metro completes 100km of tunnelling

More mobile petrol tanks to avoid queues

Qatar’s biggest multiplex opens at Gulf Mall today

Al Meera offers 1,437 products at cost price from today

Woqod will start 20 mobile fuel stations very soon and has placed orders for 30 more that will be on standby, says CEO, Ibrahim Jaham Al Kuwari.

Yemen’s warring parties closer to dealKUWAIT CITY: UN Envoy to Yemen Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said that Yemen’s warring parties are closer to reaching an agreement. “We are now working on abolishing the current obstacles and are discussing practical details to an executive mechanism that makes sessions more sensitive and brings us closer to reaching an agreement,” Ould Cheikh Ahmed said.

→ See also page 10

BU

inka Minister calls for bolstering trade

with Belgium

HOME 03 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani chaired the Cabinet’s weekly meeting at the Emiri Diwan yesterday.

Following the session, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs H E Ahmed bin Abdullah bin Zaid Al Mahmoud said the Cabinet considered topics on the

agenda and took decisions. The Cabinet approved a draft

decision, amending some provisions of Decision No. 18 of 2011 on nominat-ing the president and members of the tax exemption committee, organising its work and determining its remuner-ations, Qatar News Agency reports.

The committee is specialised in receiving and studying tax exemp-tion applications and cancellation of previous exemptions for breach-ing legal obligations and preparing recommendations.

The Cabinet took measures to rat-ify a memorandum of understanding (MoU) between Qatar and Greece in the fields of health and medical science. It also approved a draft coop-eration agreement in the legal field between Qatar and Moldova; a draft MoU on cooperation in legal activities between Qatar and Malaysia; a draft MoU on sport cooperation between

Qatar and Albania; and a draft MoU on facilitating flights for Chinese tourists groups to Qatar between Qatar Tourism Authority and Chi-na’s National Tourism Administration.

The Cabinet took decisions after reviewing a letter by the Minister of Education and Higher Education on the results of the study of problems relating to the Certificates Equa-tion Committee’s terms of reference, assessing diplomas equation system, and the formation of the technical committee of the diplomas equa-tion; a memorandum by the Minister of Finance on Qatar’s accession to the Organisation for Economic Cooper-ation and Development; a letter by Doha International Centre for Inter-faith Dialogue concerning a briefing on the results of the 12th Doha Inter-faith Dialogue Conference, held in February and the visions of the Min-istry of Justice in this regard.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday met Tunisian Minister of State Property and Land Affairs Hatem El Euchi and his delegation. Talks dealt with relations between the two countries, means of enhancing them and issues of common concern.

Premier meets Tunisian Minister

Cabinet approves changes on tax exemption panelThe weekly session also approved MoUs on cooperation with Moldova, Malaysia, Albania and China.

HOME 05THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

QNA

DOHA: Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of congrat-ulations to King Abdullah II bin Al Hussein of Jordan on his country’s Independence Day.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani also sent a cable of congratulations to King Abdullah.

Greeting cables sent to

Austria’s President

DOHA: Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of congrat-ulations to Alexander Van der Bellen on his election as the President of Austria.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani also sent a congratulatory cable to President Van der Bellen.

National Day greetings

to Argentina President

DOHA: Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of congratula-tions to Argentina’s President Mauricio Macri on his country’s National Day. Prime Minis-ter and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani sent a sim-ilar cable to President Macri.

Premier meets

Algerian Minister

DOHA: Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani yesterday met Algerian Minister of Industry and Mines Abdesalam Bouchouareb and his delegation. They reviewed cooper-ation between the two countries, means of developing it and issues of mutual interest.

King of Jordan

congratulated

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has provided urgent humanitarian aid to internally displaced people amid the ongo-ing military operations in Fallujah City of Iraq. Aid distribution comprised basic foodstuff and began a couple days ago.

So far, 250 families have received food packets out of 1,500 targeted families. Extra 1,500 food packages are kept as a strategic

emergency stock. Two mobile medical clin-ics were also dispatched to offer healthcare services to the newly displaced families. QRCS is running five mobile clinics in Fallujah. The

initiative is part of the second phase of QRCS’s relief programme in Fallujah at a cost of $1m provided by Qatar Development Fund (QDF). During the first phase, QRCS distributed

6,000 food packets to 36,000 internally dis-placed people (IDPs) in Fallujah and Al Anbar.

Three mobile clinics were also provided to offer primary medical care for more than 80,000 IDPs.

Two tankers were mobilised to provide 20,000 people with drinking water for six months on daily basis.

QRCS’s mission in Iraq is coordinating with international humanitarian organisa-tions, providing them with information about the situation on the ground, thanks to its pre-emptive strategy that enabled it to consider and prepare for this scenario in advance, said a statement.

Some 50,000 Iraqi families have fled their homes due to the unrest in past few days. They are in dire need for help amid severe condi-tions and lack of humanitarian aid. Early in April, QRCS launched a fundraiser for Fal-lujah. Donations could be made by sending SMS to 92966 (QR100), 92770 (QR500), and 92740 (QR1,000);

Donors can approach QRCS’s headquar-ters or donation collection booths at malls and shopping centres. Donation could also be made online at www.qrcs.org.q.

QRCS provides aid to displaced Iraqis

An internally displaced family receiving food packets in Fallujah.

The initiative is part of the second phase of QRCS’s relief programme in Fallujah at a cost of $1m provided by Qatar Development Fund.

By Raynald C Rivera

The Peninsula

DOHA: The first Camel, Eques-trian and Falcon Exhibition (Nawasi) opened its doors at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre (DECC) yes-terday, beckoning enthusiasts with a line-up of local and international exhibitors.

“The exhibition is on three her-itage hobbies — falconry, equestrian and camel rearing and racing,” Moutaz Kamal, General Manager, Siigns Projects, organisers of the exhibition, told The Peninsula.

While 65 percent of some 100 exhibitors are Qatari firms, com-panies from the other GCC states,

the US, the UK, Morocco, Hungary, Germany and Italy, among others, are also taking part.

“We are enthusiastic to see local and international brands coming to promote their products. A lot of Qatari companies liked the idea and wanted to support the expo by showcasing their products, including art and handicrafts,” said Kamal. Many companies from Souq Waqif are exhibiting handmade tools used for equestrian, falconry and camel rearing, dressing and racing while a Qatari exhibitor is showcasing his products being sold in London.

From camping and hunting tools, veterinary supplies and serv-ices and leather goods to art and crafts and antiques, the product line

is sure to attract visitors with the penchant for these heritage sports and activities Arab countries share.

The exhibition includes a cul-tural element with the presence of Nomas Centre and traditional games for children. “We have a cultural objective as well. Nomas Centre, a Qatari centre, educates children on how to keep important aspects of their heritage alive such as serving Arabic coffee in the Maj-lis in the traditional way. We also have Dr Mariam Al Hamaidi who will show traditional games for children to revive these games,” he explained.

Qatar spares no effort so the new generation will keep in touch with this aspect of their culture such as Marmi, an annual hunting and

falconry competition organised by Al Gannas Association in which there is a section for young falcon

hunters. The exhibition is open to the public today from 10am to 10pm and tomorrow from 2pm to 10pm.

Abdullah Al Kuwari (third left), Director, Nomas Centre, and other officials touring the first Camel, Equestrian and Falcon Exhibition (Nawasi) at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre yesterday. Pic: Salim M / The Peninsula

Nawasi exhibition opens

HOME06 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Ministry of Awqaf and Islamic Affairs will open 12 new mosques and five renovated ones in Ramadan to accommodate growing number of worshippers, as part of preparations for the blessed month.

The mosques are in Bin Imran, New Al Ghanam, Freej Nasr, Mushairb and Umghulina.

Working times for employees have been rescheduled and clean-ing companies were alerted three months ago to get ready to provide best services at the mosques all over the country, said a statement.

The contracting cleaning com-panies have also been asked to clean entire facilities annexed to the mosques. Severe actions will be taken against those found vio-lating the instruction, Qatar News Agency (QNA) reports.

Enough cleaning materials have been supplied to mosques, along with three vehicles with equipment to clean the carpets of the mosques on requests. A sep-arate team has been formed to provide copies of the Holy Quran in the mosques, if needed.

Indian mission

revises timingsDOHA: The timings of the Consu-lar Section of the Indian Embassy from June 1 until September 15 have been rescheduled.

Submission of applications will be from 8am to 11.15am and collec-tion of documents after rendering of consular service will be from 3pm to 4.15pm.

Meanwhile, as embassy offi-cials will perform duties related to the official visit of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Qatar, consu-lar services on June 5 will be only for emergency cases. Therefore, the embassy has decided to render additional consular services on May 28. Submission of applica-tions will be from 9am to 12.15pm and collection of documents after rendering of consular service from 4pm to 5.15pm.

Two hotels partially

closed down

DOHA: Two hotels have been partially closed down by Doha Municipality for using food unfit for human consumption. They have been closed for 20 and seven days. The municipality also issued a decision for partial closure for seven days of the food section in a supermarket in Al Wakra for keep-ing expired food.

The Peninsula

DOHA: INJAZ Al Arab, member of JA World-wide, and SOS Children’s Villages, Gulf Area — an NGO caring for children without parent and those at risk of losing them — have signed an MoU to provide under-privileged Arab youth with employment training.

INJAZ Al Arab will begin implementing workforce readiness programming at SOS Chil-dren’s Villages in the Middle East and North Africa region.

“Quality education and vocational training are key to a successful future for youth,” said Nicole Nassar, Managing Director, SOS Chil-dren’s Villages, Gulf Area Office.

“With the region facing grave unemploy-ment rates, we need to ensure that children from all walks of life are given the chance to succeed, including those without parental care.

“By partnering with INJAZ Al Arab, an organisation with a strong heritage of running impactful youth programmes, coupled with our experience of protecting and educating vulner-able children, we believe that we can make a difference in the lives and future of young peo-ple in the Arab world.”

The pilot in Beirut, Lebanon, implemented two INJAZ programmes at the SOS Children’s Villages Youth Programme — JA It’s My Busi-ness and JA Be A Leader.

Based on lessons learnt from the pilot, INJAZ

Al Arab and SOS Children’s Villages will con-tinue working to identify the best programmes and practices to advance their common mis-sion of supporting young people in need, and partner with other organisations working to empower youth.

“One of the most important lessons we impart to students through our programming is the value of collaboration.

“Youth unemployment isn’t an issue any one organisation can tackle, but through our partnership with SOS Children’s Villages, we

hope to support some young people in need of economic empowerment in the region,” said Nickolas Neibauer, Chief Development Officer, INJAZ Al Arab.

“By augmenting job training SOS Children’s Villages provide with INJAZ programmes focus-ing on our core pillars of entrepreneurship, financial literacy and workforce readiness, we will jointly be able to extend our reach and further connect with children from all sectors of society,” added Akef Aqrabawi, CEO, INJAZ Al Arab.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) flagship quality improvement conference for healthcare professionals — the Middle East Forum on Quality and Safety in Healthcare — has received high number of entries for its poster compe-tition.

The increasingly popular competition had nearly 400 submissions of posters outlining quality improvement projects from Qatar and the region. A total of 261 posters were assessed by an international panel of judges who warranted their inclu-sion in the competition and exhibition.

In the Transforming Clinical Systems of Care category, Ambulatory Healthcare Services of the UAE; and King Abdulaziz Hospital; the Ministry of National Guard Health Affairs, Al Ahsa, Saudi Arabia, were announced joint winners.

Women’s Hospital of HMC won in the Leadership for Improvement and Patient Engagement categories and Enaya

Specialised Care Centre in the Transform-ing Clinical Interventions category.

The competition also invited con-ference delegates to submit votes for the poster they rated most highly, with the public choice award eliciting over 5,000 votes in one day. Hamad General Hospital won the Science of Improvement criteria of the competition and the People’s Choice winners were HMC’s Rumailah Hospital, HGH, Women’s Hospital, Al Wakra Hos-pital and Enaya Specialised Care Centre.

“It is wonderful to see over 3,700 peo-ple, mainly doctors, nurses and allied health professionals, coming together at the forum to celebrate best practice, share ideas and learn from each other,” said Dr Abdullatif Al Khal, Deputy Chief Medi-cal Officer and Co-Chair of the forum. Winners and runners-up were awarded certificates in a ceremony on the final day of the conference. Improvement ini-tiatives were peer-reviewed by over 30 judges who were looking for innovative and practical initiatives that demonstrated effective implementation of best-practice quality improvement principles.

HMC poster competition

winners announced

Ministry to open

17 mosques

during Ramadan

INJAZ in deal to provide job training for Arab youth

Officials from INJAZ Al Arab and SOS Children’s Villages, Gulf Area during the signing of the MoU.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Public Works Author-ity (Ashghal) and Bin Omran Trading & Contracting, the con-struction contractor of the Interim Upgrade of E-Ring Road and Najma Street project, achieved two million man-hours without loss time injury (LTI).

Ashghal honoured the con-tractor for his achievements in the field of safety at workplace.

Engineer Jalal Salhi, Director of Infrastructure Affairs, awarded a Certificate of Appreciation to Sassine El Nachef, Chief Operat-ing Officer of the company.

The ceremony was attended by Engineer Mohammed Jamal Al Khazendar, Head of Secondary Projects Section, representa-tives from Ashghal’s Secondary Projects Section and the com-pany. The achievement reflects Ashghal’s and its contractors’ commitment to implement the highest safety standards. Ashghal requires all contractors to protect workers and commuters against workplace hazards.

The upgrade of E-Ring Road and Najma Street project includes works on about 3km of Najma Street, expansion of the road from two to three lanes in each direction and converting two roundabouts to signal-control-led intersections.

The project will also develop

and expand 3.3km of E-Ring Road, convert Al Thumama junction to a signal-controlled intersection and upgrade the junction between Airport Street and E-Ring Road to enable road users to take U-turns, in addition to providing car parking, pedestrian and cycle pathways and landscaping.

By Sanaullah Ataullah

The Peninsula

DOHA: Stenden University Qatar (SUQ) and Qatar Banking Studies and Business Administration Independent Secondary School for Boys (QBS) have signed a memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) for cooperation.

The agreement was signed by Ahmed Al Mahmoud, Principal of the school; and Dr Ivan Ninov, Executive Dean of the university, during a press conference yesterday.

The signing of the MoU was pre-ceded by a meeting between Al Mahmoud and Dr Ninov to discuss

collaboration in implementation of the MoU. “Our students are Qatar’s future leaders and it is our responsibility to guide them to continue education”, Al Mahmoud said. “I am glad to sign the MoU and hope that it yields greater benefits to all students.”

Dr Ninov said, “We feel privileged and excited about entering into this partnership, inspired by our common

objectives of educating the future gen-eration of Qatar and contributing to the development of society and the economy of the country.

“The MoU is an evidence of Stenden’s commitment to work and collaborate with schools and educa-tional institutions in Qatar.”

QBS students will benefit from workshops and lectures to be held by

the university faculty.They will explore university life

under a ‘Student for a day’ programme, which provides potential students with opportunity to experience Stenden University Qatar for a day and spend a typical SUQ student day.

The students will be able to inter-act directly with staff and students; they can also attend classes and Prob-lem-Based Learning sessions. The students will have priority to join the university if they meet the university’s admissions requirements.

SUQ was established in 2000 by Al Faisal Holding. SUQ offers three four-year Bachelor in Business Admin-istration with majors in International

Business and Management Studies; International Tourism Management; and International Hospitality Manage-ment. All programmes are accredited by the Ministry of Education and Higher Education. The main campus of the university is in Leeuwarden in the Netherlands;.

The school offers outstanding vocational education built on practical training whether at school simulation rooms or at banks. It also offers inter-national vocational courses which prepare students to receive an Aus-tralian qualification in addition to the Qatari certificate of secondary schools. The courses and qualifications help students pursue higher education.

SUQ signs deal to train QBS students

Ahmed Al Mahmoud (left), Principal, Qatar Banking Studies and Business Administration Independent Secondary School for Boys; and Dr Ivan Ninov, Executive Dean, Stenden University Qatar, signing the MoU. Pic; Baher A / The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Banking Stud-ies and Business Administration Independent Secondary School for Boys (QBS) has revised its enrol-ment policy for the academic year 2016-17. As per new rules, applicants should obtain at least 75 percent marks in English and maths subjects in class IX. “The new decision aims to enrol excel-lent students who could complete

studies without any problem, Emad Elakkad, Academic Counsellor at the school, said on the sideline of the MoU signing ceremony. The school offers 50 seats for new students, he added. Admissions opened two weeks ago and close by this month-end. The school in Al Gharrafa accommodates 180 students. Forty-six students have graduated this year.

QBS revises admission rulesQBS students will benefit from workshops and lectures to be held by the university and will explore university life under a ‘Student for a day’ programme.

Engineer Jalal Salhi, Director of Infrastructure Affairs, awarding the Certificate of Appreciation to Sassine El Nachef, COO of the company.

Ashghal achieves 2 million man-hours safety milestone

HOME 07THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Young Arabs are more entrepreneurial than before with more than half believing mem-bers of this generation are more likely to start a business, says a survey.

The eighth annual ASDA’A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey revealed that when asked ‘Do you feel people in this gen-eration are more likely to start a business than in previous gener-ations’ 54 percent agreed, with GCC youth most enthusiastic at 62 percent compared to 54 percent in North Africa and 44 percent in the Levant.

For the survey, international polling firm Penn Schoen Berland (PSB) conducted 3,500 face-to-face interviews with Arab men and women aged 18-24 in the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain, Iraq, Egypt, Jor-dan, Lebanon, Libya, Palestine, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria and Yemen.

Some 36 percent of young Arabs said they intend to start their business in the next five years, 37 percent in the GCC, 39 percent in North Africa and 31 percent in the Levant.

Real estate is the preferred

choice for a start-up in the Gulf states, where 24 percent of youth said they would opt to launch a property-related company, whereas technology was the top choice for would-be entrepre-neurs in the Levant (15 percent) and North Africa (18 percent).

Retail is the second most pop-ular choice in Levant and North Africa for 15 percent and 16 per-cent of respondents, respectively; however in the Gulf nine per-cent would opt to start a retail operation.

Across the Middle East, 34 percent said they did not intend to launch their business, while 30 percent didn’t know.

Lack of financial resources to start a business was cited as the main reason overall, by 20 per-cent of young people, however in the GCC eight percent believed they lacked the means to do it alone, while in North Africa, 37 percent saw this as the big-gest hurdle. Young Arabs believe governments can do more to sup-port young entrepreneurs, with 39 percent saying encourag-ing affordable lending should be made a priority; 25 percent call-ing for education and training to be improved and made more available; and 19 percent asking for government regulations and red tape to be cut.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Arab Committee of UN experts on Geographical Information System (GIS) management yesterday concluded its second meeting held for two days at Hilton Doha.

It was organised by the Geo-graphical Information System Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment to seek approval for unified standards

for geo-information and setting up a unified work plan to accomplish rule components for geographical data and unified conditions.

The members of the committee, who represent nine countries, dis-cussed suggestions on renewal and development of geo-information. It discussed suggestions related to land cover, infrastructure, border, alti-tudes, geographical names, transport networks, flat graphics, statistical units and water layers.

The participating countries are seeking to come out, through the UN initiative, to establish a unified global entity for the management of geo-information and unifying such data from different areas.

This, according to the initiative, will help the UN and other countries identify areas in case of crises or natural disasters which require fast relief by making the data accessible

for all and continuously updating it.The committee aims to develop

technical work of geo-information focusing on four areas — studying the rules and regulations related to geo-information; identifying common reference for developing geo-information; considering the basic infrastructure of geo-infor-mation; and means of integrating geo-information and statistical data, said Saad bin Mohammad Al

Hamlan, Director, Surveying Infor-mation System (SIS) at Tourism Authority of Saudi Arabia.

The committee, one of the five UN regional entities started work in 2014 in Riyadh, Al Hamlan added. The other four are the European, African, Asian, and two Americas committees.

The Arab committee which has four sub-committees will be hosted by Qatar next year said Al Emadi.

Global geo-information entity urgedThe committee aims to develop technical work; Qatar to host the panel next year

Officials at the concluding session of the meeting yesterday.

Over 50% Young Arabs more

likely to start business: Survey

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatari Asma Al Khulaifi has been awarded a 2016 Fellowship by Squire Patton Boggs Founda-tion at a luncheon in Washington, DC.

Al Khulaifi will be the foundation’s third Fel-low from Qatar. She completed her undergraduate degree in Georgetown University’s School of For-eign Service in Qatar before commencing a Juris Doctor degree at Hamad Bin Khalifa University. She has been involved in youth advocacy initiatives, including the United Nations Doha Youth Forum on Crime Prevention and Criminal Justice.

The foundation was set up in 2000 and has awarded fellowships to exceptional law students who demonstrate a steadfast commitment to pub-lic service and a developed interest in public policy.

Al Khulaifi will fulfil her fellowship this sum-mer by working with Education Above All (EAA), an initiative founded in 2012 by H H Sheikha Moza

bint Nasser to build a global movement that contrib-utes to human, social and economic development through education. With a focus on those affected by poverty, conflict and disaster, EAA champions the needs of children, youth and women.

“I am honoured to be awarded a Squire Pat-ton Boggs Foundation Fellowship. I look forward

to working to promote the foundation’s commit-ment to social responsibility by promoting children and women’s right to a quality education through my work with EAA,” Al Khulaifi said.

John Oberdorfer, President of the foundation, said, “Our foundation is a unique nonprofit organ-isation that has supported some 190 law students. It is rooted in the belief that future lawyers benefit from public service experience. Asma’s Fellowship at EAA All will do that. In addition to enhancing these students’ university experience, international organisations working on pressing public interest matters value the knowledge and experience they bring. We are delighted to continue to sponsor stu-dents to pursue these important causes.”

Charbel Maakaron, Office Managing Partner of Doha, added, “Qatari students were our first inter-national fellows and we’re delighted to welcome Asma to that exceptional group of law students. The foundation has a long-standing history in Qatar and we are delighted to support these future legal leaders through our programme.”

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Career Fair (QCF) of Qatar Foundation has released the sixth issue of its annual bilingual career magazine, Career Guide.

The release coincides with the launch of the publication’s new interactive smartphone application, which can be downloaded via Apple Store and Google Play.

“The Career Guide aims to pro-vide a wealth of information for Qatari youth, school and university gradu-ates, parents, researchers and experts in the fields of career guidance and human development,” said Abdullah Al Man-soori, Director, QCF.

“The latest issue offers important professional advice to readers and insight into youth success stories in various sectors and industries.

“The guide is part of a wider plan that aims to promote and nurture a career culture among members of Qatar’s soci-ety, helping young people choose an occupation that aligns with their skills and aspirations, while making appropriate educational and professional choices,” he added.

Every year, 20,000 copies of the guide are distributed to provide advice and guidance to Qatar’s youth and pro-mote a culture of career development within the local community.

This year’s 64-page issue offers informa-tion and tips from career development experts to those looking for assist-ance in negotiating the employment market.

The latest issue of the guide also provides an overview of programmes, initiatives and activi-ties organised by QCF to support Qatari youth and help them make informed

decisions that reflect positively on their academic and professional future. The magazine features five interviews with Qatar-based pro-fessionals who discuss their work in the fields of engineering, med-icine, design, science and social networking.

By sharing their experiences, they provide an overview of skills required in each profession, and offer advice to young people look-ing to pursue a career in one of these fields.

The latest issue also includes tips

on how to write an appealing CV and a cover letter that highlights skills and achievements of applicants.

Jobseekers will also learn how to write social media profiles.

Career Guide has been distrib-uted to schools, universities and educational institutions across Qatar.

QCF also dispatched a special-ised team to introduce the magazine to students at more than 10 Inde-pendent schools, and explain the objectives of the publication and its sections.

QNA

DOHA: The Culture Creativity Cen-tre of the Ministry of Culture and Sports is preparing to organise activ-

ities and seminars during the Holy Month of Ramadan.

The centre will hold seminars on themes of life management, progress and life planing, in addition to reli-gious lectures and other activities at Cultural Salon.

Sixth issue of Career Guide released

Asma Al Khulaifi (centre) with officials from the foundation.

Qatari wins 2016 Fellowship by Squire Patton Boggs Foundation

Centre lines up Ramadan activities

HOME08 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Public Works Author-ity (Ashghal) will close part of Al Hazm Street connecting to the south-bound traffic lanes on Al Gharrafa Street for three weeks from today, in cooperation with the Traffic Police Department.

Motorists travelling south on Al Gharrafa Street can access the local area by taking an earlier exit onto Al Anhar Street, as shown in the map.

The closure is required to con-vert the junction between Al Gharrafa Street and Al Hazm Street to a traffic signalised intersection.

Oqba Bin Nafie StreetAshghal will also implement a

temporary closure on Oqba Bin Nafie Street that intersects with Najma Street from today for three weeks.

Motorists travelling on Najma Street can access the local area by taking the next exit onto Ahmad Bin Hanbal Street before D-Ring Road and Najma Street Junction.

The closure is required to enable construction works on part of the new signalised junction.

West Industrial Street Ashghal has announced a traffic

diversion on West Industrial Street from RA No. 15 to RA No. 2.

Two new lanes in each direction

will remain open starting this evening for six months.

Access roads to local and residen-tial areas will remain open.

The diversion is part of con-struction works to upgrade Doha’s Industrial Area to increase the capac-ity of roads, support higher traffic, and provide the Industrial Area with a full integrated infrastructure.

Wholesale Market Street The Public Works Authority will

put in place a temporary closure on part of Wholesale Market Street in both directions, from the Mesaimeer Passport and Immigration Office to near the entrance of Al Jazeera Academy.

Part of Mesaimeer Road between Rawdat Al Khail Street and Al Erbay-yat Road will also be closed.

The closure will be implemented in two phases, in coordination with the Traffic Police Department. The first phase will be tomorrow from 1am to 4pm on Sunday.

The second phase will be from June 2 from 11pm to 4am on June 5.

Motorists travelling to Bu Hamour, Ain Khalid, the Wholesale Market and Al Thumama areas will be able to use Rawdat Al Khail Street or the alterna-tives routes.

The partial closure of Wholesale Market Street and Mesaimeer Road is required to complete utilities ducts and other works on the Rawdat Al

Khail Street Extension project. Ashghal will install signs for

motorists and has urged road users

to abide by speed limits at 80kmph along Al Gharrafa Street and follow signs for their and others’ safety.

Traffic diversions on several streets

The Peninsula

DOHA: Ooredoo yesterday announced the completion of a major Supernet upgrade, adding the new Category 9 LTE-Advanced standard to its mobile network, which brings multiple 4G frequen-cies together to support download speeds of up to 325Mbps for cus-tomers.

The mobile network upgrade, which is part of the ongoing Ooredoo Supernet enhancement programme, will be available for all customers who have compatible devices at no extra cost from today.

A range of leading mobile devices can utilise this advanced speed, including the Samsung Gal-axy S7 and Ooredoo’s Netgear My-Fi device. With the upgrade, custom-ers will be able to enjoy browsing speeds of up to 45% more than the current 4G LTE.

Waleed Al Sayed, Chief Exec-utive Officer, Ooredoo Qatar said: “We are making huge strides to provide the best possible customer experience on our Supernet, with superfast browsing speeds. Since

the launch of the Ooredoo Super-net, we have continued to deploy world-class technologies so that Qatar can be positioned among the leading countries in the world for network performance. We are laying the foundations for a future-proof network, ready to deliver the fastest speeds. In addition, this new stand-ard will reduce pressure on our 4G network, improving performance for a wide range of customers.”

This major mobile network upgrade is set to free significant bandwidth for the company, as more high capacity users enjoy this boosted Supernet standard. Ooredoo is confident that overall 4G perform-ance will improve even further as more compatible mobile devices come onto the market.

Ooredoo continues to enhance and upgrade the Ooredoo Supernet as part of its vision to make Qatar the best-connected country. Its evo-lutionary approach to the Ooredoo Supernet, which sees the company continue to introduce cutting-edge technology and expand capacity, delivers a superior experience, and a bigger network every month.

For more details, visit http://www.ooredoo.qa

The Peninsula

DOHA: Turkey-based international airline company Atlasglobal Airlines and Qatar-based partner Atlaswings Travels have announced a new route with scheduled flights from Istanbul to Doha starting on July 1.

Hamad Saleh Al Qamra, Chair-man of Al Qamra Holding and Partner of Atlaswings Travels, Dr. Sultan Al Dosari, Partner of Atlaswings Trav-els and Ali Murat Ersoy, Atlasglobal President, have signed an agreement appointing Atlaswings as a General Sales Agent (GSA) of Altasglobal Air-lines in Qatar.

The signing ceremony was held on Tuesday in the presence of Ahmad Al Rumaidhi, Partner of Atlaswings Trav-els, Dr Hossam El Din Mustafa, CEO, Al Qamra Holding, Ercan Uzman, Sales &

Marketing Director of Atlasglobal and Kefaya Abu Dayah, General Manager of First Travel & Tourism.

Atlasglobal passengers will now be able to fly from Doha to Istanbul and to connect to a number of other exciting Turkish destinations such as Adana, Antalya, Trabzon, Bod-rum, Dalaman, Gaziantep, İzmir, Kayseri, Konya as well as more than 15 international destinations across Europe, including Paris, Amster-dam, Stockholm, Dusseldorf, Zurich, Copenhagen, London, Mykonos and Nicosia, with convenient transfer times and connecting flights.

“We are rapidly expanding our network and Doha is the important chain of this expansion especially at GCC. Doha is important because the relationship with both countries is also rapidly improving and as an airline we must be the part of this improvement,” said Ersoy, adding

the airline’s quality service and net-work both at Turkey Domestic and Europe will bring a good option for the passengers.

“We hope that this agreement with Atlas Global Airways marks the beginning of tourism diversity in part-nership with Atlaswings ravels and First Travel.

“We are thrilled that with Atlas-global Airlines now expanding its offerings, commuters from Qatar, Tur-key and the region will now be able to benefit from a greater number of flights, convenient transfer times, connecting flights and all at compet-itive prices,” said Al Qamra.

Atlasglobal Airlines will be operating daily between Hamad International Airport and Istanbul Atatürk Airport, departing from Doha at 3.20am and arriving in Istanbul at 8.05am. It will depart from Istanbul at 11.20pm and arrive in Doha at 2.20am.

Continued from page 4

Woqod CEO, Ibrahim Jaham Al Kuwari, said that once opera-tional, the longer fuel hoses will be instrumental in reducing the wait-ing time and overcrowding at the fuel stations.

But at the same time, motorists who have the privilege of having

cars with fuel tanks on their right side will have to wait in queue like other motorists.

The company, at its Second Extraordinary General Assembly meeting yesterday also got approval to add more activities at the Woqod premises, such as introducing more items at its Sidra stores and plac-ing commercial advertisements to

generate additional revenues. “Some more products, which

are currently restricted, being a fuel station, will be introduced at Sidra outlets, which are available at any other supermarkets in the country.

“Under the new amendment, Woqod will also have the right to put up advertisement within its premises,” Al Kuwari added.

Ahmet Demirok (fourth right), Turkish Ambassador to Qatar; Ali Murat Ersoy (seventh left), President, Atlasglobal Airlines; Dr Sultan Al Dosari (sixth left), Partner, Atlaswings Travels; and Dr Hossam El Din Mustafa (fifth left), CEO, Atlaswings Travels, with other officials and guests at the launch of the Istanbul-Doha route by Atlasglobal Airline at the Four Seasons Hotel in Doha. Pic: Salim M / The Peninsula

Continued from page 1

Qatar Rail Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Eng. Saad Al Muhannadi, Project Director for the Gold Line, Samuel Adair McChesney, along with sen-ior management and members of the Qatar Rail team were present at Al Waab Station on the Gold Line to mark the completion of the 100km of tunnelling.

Workers involved in achieving

this milestone also gathered to mark the achievement. “I would also like to take the opportunity to thank all those involved in the completion of tunnelling on the Gold Line which was achieved through nearly 27 mil-lion safe man-hours.

“While we strive to deliver our project on time and to schedule, we always aim to do so with the high-est levels of occupational health and safety, to help safeguard our

employees, partners and the wider public.” Dr. Eng. Saad Al Muhannadi.

Tunnelling for Doha Metro’s Gold Line was completed with the final breakthrough on May 19 at Msheireb station. The milestone was achieved by TBM Lusail which began work on its section of the line on March 31 last year and covered a total of 4.3km in this time.

TBM Lusail started its mission at Ras Bu Abboud Station and crossed

Qatar National Museum Station and Souq Waqif Station before complet-ing its journey at Msheireb Station. Total operational length of the under-ground sections of the Gold Line is 15km. Samuel Adair McChesney said: “I am extremely proud of the out-standing performance achieved by the six tunnel boring machines (TBMs) during the successful completion of all the tunnelling works on the Gold Line project.”

Ooredoo upgrades 4G+

Supernet Network to

provide 325Mbps speed

Qatar Rail celebrates Doha Metro milestoneQatar Rail officials, staff and workers at the ceremony.

Atlasglobal to start Istanbul-Doha flight

FROM LEFT: Engineer Ibrahim Jaham Al Kuwari, CEO, Woqod; Mohammed Nasser Mubarak Al Hajri; Ahmad Saif Al Sulaiti, Vice-Chairman; Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani, Chairman, Board of Directors; Nasser Sultan Nasser Al Hemaidi; and Mohammed Abdulaziz Saad Rashed Al Saad during the meeting at Woqod headquarters yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

The Peninsula

DOHA: A workshop held by Doha Centre for Media Freedom yesterday recommended adoption of a new law that guarantees the right to access information and publication.

A draft law is to be developed and adopted in collaboration with Qatar

Lawyer’s Association and National Human Rights Committee.

The workshop also recommended that Arab League and Arab countries adopt legislation that guarantees the right to information and its publica-tion, respect for the charter of ethics for media profession and dissemina-tion of human rights culture.

Lack of access to available infor-mation is one of the challenges facing

media which was the theme — ‘The right to access of information’ — of the workshop. Having clear right to access information helps media per-sons avoid problems related to the use of information, said Saleh Hamad Al Shawi, Director, Administrative Affairs and Finance, at the centre.

The workshop discussed legal and media aspects related to the right to access information.

Longer hoses to reduce crowding at petrol stations

Workshop seeks law to guarantee right to access information

MIDDLE EAST 09THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Members of Iraqi security forces gesture during their operation near Fallujah, Iraq, yesterday.

Operation Fallujah

AFP

ROME: At least five migrants have drowned off the Libyan coast after the heavily overcrowded boat they were sailing on overturned, the Italian navy said Wednesday, revising downwards an earlier death toll.

The navy said at least 550 peo-ple had been pulled to safety but added that the rescue operation was still underway and that the death toll could rise.

The navy’s Bettica patrol boat spotted “a boat in precarious con-ditions off the coast of Libya with numerous migrants aboard,” it said in a statement.

“Shortly afterwards the boat overturned due to overcrowding. The Bettica, which had arrived nearby, threw life-rafts and jack-ets” to the migrants in the water, while another navy ship in the area sent a helicopter and res-cue boats.

The latest arrivals bring the number of people rescued and transferred to Italy since the start of the year to nearly 40,000

5 migrants dead in shipwreck off Libya

AFP

BEIRUT: US-backed Syrian fighters and Iraqi forces pressed twin assaults against the Islamic State group yesterday, in two of the most important ground offensives yet against the militants.

The operations to the north of IS’s de facto Syrian capital Raqa and near the jihad-ist-held Iraqi city of Fallujah are adding to pressure on the extremist group, which has seen territory under its control shrink in recent months.

The US-led coalition that launched air strikes against IS in Syria and Iraq in mid-2014 is providing air support on both fronts, as efforts intensify to dismantle the group’s self-styled Islamic “caliphate” straddling the Syrian-Iraqi border.

But there is deep concern for thousands of families in both cities, with fears civilians will be caught in the crossfire or used as human shields by the jihadists.

Since the start of the Fallujah offensive was announced on Monday, Iraqi troops backed by pro-government militias have been advancing toward the city from surround-ing areas.

Yesterday, forces from Iraq’s 8th Divi-sion bolstered by tribal fighters pushed forward from areas to its south, said Staff Major General Ismail Al Mahalawi, the head of the Operations Command for Iraq’s Anbar province.

US-led coalition warplanes and Iraqi air-craft were providing support, Mahalawi said.

In northern Syria, a Kurdish-Arab alliance also backed by coalition strikes meanwhile fought the jihadist group in its bastion prov-ince of Raqa.

The Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), formed in October 2015, announced on Tues-day its push for IS territory north of Raqa city, which is around 90km south of the Syrian-Turkish border and home to an estimated 300,000 people.

The SDF is dominated by the Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) -- largely

considered the most effective independent anti-IS force on the ground in Syria -- but it also includes Arab Muslim and Christian fighters.

The SDF already has two footholds north of Raqa city: the border town of Tal Abyad and the smaller town of Ain Issa further south.

Kurdish officials said the offensive in Raqa province would be a three-pronged assault, including from Ain Issa.

SDF fighters captured two fields and a small village southeast of the town on Wednesday morning, clearing out mines left by IS jihadists.

A spokesman for the Kurdish-Arab alli-ance, Talal Sello, told reporters that the fighting was taking place in “rural areas”.

“There are no plans yet to liberate Raqa city, except in a future campaign after this one, depending on the circumstances,” he said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights monitoring group said 10,000 to 15,000 SDF fighters were estimated to be taking part in the offensive.

“There were constant air strikes on Raqa

by the coalition overnight,” Observatory chief Rami Abdel Rahman said.

Baghdad-based US military spokes-man Colonel Steve Warren confirmed the US would provide air support and said that if Raqa falls, “it’s the beginning of the end of their caliphate.”

The anti-IS coalition has set its sights on Raqa, Fallujah and eventually IS’s main Iraqi bastion of Mosul. Tens of thousands of civil-ians remain in all three cities.

SDF spokesman Sello said IS’s “use of civil-ians as human shields” was slowing the drive for rural territory and villages north of Raqa city. Yesterday, the Raqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS) activist group said on Twitter that IS had shut all bus stations in the city to prevent civilians from leaving.

RBSS co-founder Abdel Aziz al-Hamza said IS was taking cover among civilians in Raqa city. “In a civilian building, you’ll find two or three apartments for ISIS fighters,” al-Hamza said in an interview with AFP, using another acronym for IS.

Rights groups have also appealed for safe

exit for the estimated 50,000 civilians still inside Fallujah, which was seized by anti-government fighters in early 2014 and later became an IS bastion.

With IS also facing increasing pressure in Syria from regime offensives backed by Russian air strikes, analysts say the group will struggle to hold on to the swathes of territory it seized in Iraq and Syria two years ago.

The territory “is in the long run too big for (IS) to possibly hold,” analyst Romain Cail-let said.

But the group, which has claimed a wave of deadly bombings and attacks in the West and across the Middle East, has shown it can continue to operate to horrific effect.

On Monday, a spate of IS-claimed bomb-ings in two regime-held cities in coastal Syria left 184 people dead, in what the Britain-based Observatory said were the deadliest bomb attacks in Syria’s five-year civil war.

Pope Francis on Wednesday asked God to “convert the hearts of those who sow death and destruction” following the attacks.

Pressure builds on IS with twin assaults in Syria and Iraq

AFP

JEDDAH: Saudi Arabia said talks yesterday with visiting Iranian del-egates on arrangements for Haj pilgrims from the Islamic republic have been “positive”.

Earlier this month, Tehran said “arrangements have not been put together” for Iranians to make this year’s pilgrimage to Makkah at the end of the summer, accusing its regional rival of “sabotage”.

But Saudi Haj ministry under-secretary Hussein Sharif said the kingdom and its leadership “wel-come pilgrims from all around the world”.

The two sides discussed “arrangements, as well as

organisation and services” for pil-grims, he told reporters after a session of talks with the delegation from Tehran.

He said an agreement had been reached following the arrival of the delegation Tuesday to “use elec-tronic visas which could be printed out” by Iranian pilgrims, as Saudi diplomatic missions remain shut in Iran.

A final agreement would be signed at the end of the ongoing talks, he said.

Riyadh cut ties with Tehran in January after demonstrators burned its embassy and a consu-late in the Iranian capital following the Saudi execution of a prominent Shia cleric.

Tehran had said that Riyadh insists that visas for Iranians be issued in a third country and does not allow pilgrims to be flown in aboard Iranian aircraft, which Iran has rejected.

Sharif did not give a clear answer on the airlines that would be allowed to carry passengers from Iran to Saudi Arabia as air links remain severed.

“Directives concerning the air carrier will come from the Saudi civil aviation authority,” said Sharif.

Iran and Saudi Arabia are at odds over a raft of regional issues, notably the conflicts in Syria and Yemen in which they support oppos-ing sides.

Talks with Iran on Haj positive: Saudi officialAn agreement has been reached to use electronic visas for Iranian pilgrims and the final agreement would be signed at the end of the ongoing talks.

following the rescue of more than 6,000 since Monday, according to figures collated by the UN’s ref-ugee agency (UNHCR) and the Coastguard.

The overwhelming majority of those arriving in Italy so far this year have been from sub-Saharan Africa.

The UNHCR, aid organisations and the Italian government say

there is no sign yet of Middle East-ern refugees switching to the Libyan route to Europe following moves to restrict access from Turkey via the Greek islands.

The shipwreck of an overcrowded boat of migrants off the Libyan coast, yesterday. At least seven migrants have drowned after the heavily overcrowded boat they were sailing on overturned, the Italian navy said.

AFP

JERUSALEM: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu joined forces yesterday with a hardline nationalist who is set to become defence minis-ter, forming a government considered the most right-wing in the nation’s history.

Avigdor Lieberman and his Yis-rael Beitenu party will add five lawmakers to Netanyahu’s previously wafer-thin majority if the coalition deal is given parliamentary approval as expected. Lieberman, who has spoken of harsh measures against Palestinian “terrorists”, will take over the key role of defence minister after being sworn in.

The two men, who have in the past been bitter rivals, announced the deal at a ceremony at parliament, with Lieberman pledging to be “bal-anced” and saying he was committed to “responsible, reasonable policy.”

Netanyahu said that “we are joining hands now to march Israel forward.”

The move to hand the defence ministry to the 57-year-old hard-liner has sparked deep concern among Israeli centrist and left-wing politicians, as well as among some of Netanyahu’s Likud party colleagues.

Religious nationalists from the Jewish Home party already hold key cabinet positions in Netanyahu’s government.

Moshe Yaalon, a Likud member who resigned as defence minister on Friday and who has also served as armed forces chief, warned of a ris-ing tide of extremism in the party and the country as a whole.

Former Labour prime minister

and defence minister Ehud Barak went further, saying Israel’s govern-ment “has been infected by the shoots of fascism.”

The Palestinian leadership con-demned Lieberman’s move into the government.

“The existence of this gov-ernment brings a real threat of instability and extremism in the region,” Palestinian chief negoti-ator Saeb Erekat said, adding that the appointment would “result in apartheid, racism and religious and political extremism.”

Others say that Lieberman is above all a pragmatic politician who aspires to be prime minister one day, noting that he will face opposi-tion from the security establishment if he seeks to carry out some of his most controversial ideas.

An example of his provocative style was recently on display in com-ments directed at Ismail Haniyah, Islamist movement Hamas’s leader in the Gaza Strip.

Lieberman said he would give Haniya 48 hours to hand over two detained Israeli civilians and the bodies of soldiers killed in a 2014 war

“or you’re dead”. In 2001, the former nightclub bouncer advocated bomb-ing the Aswan Dam in Egypt, accusing Israel’s Arab neighbour of supporting a Palestinian uprising.

The deal brings to a stunning con-clusion weeks of speculation over Netanyahu’s efforts to expand his

government, which has held only 61 of the 120 seats in parliament since elections in March 2015.

Netanyahu had earlier engaged in negotiations with Labour party leader Isaac Herzog to join the government before turning to Lieberman instead.

Besides Lieberman becoming defence minister and another mem-ber of his party becoming immigrant absorption minister, the government agreed to allocate approximately 1.4 billion shekels ($363m) to pensions of elderly Israelis.

Lieberman, born in the ex-Soviet republic of Moldova, sought the arrangement to benefit immigrants from the former Soviet Union, his main electoral support base.

He had also pushed for the government to institute the death penalty for Palestinian “terrorists,” but Lieberman backed away from the demand in the talks.

A watered-down version was agreed upon that could make it some-what easier to sentence Palestinians to death in military courts, though significant hurdles would remain. There have been no executions in Israel since 1962.

Netanyahu joins forces with ultra-nationalist

Avigdor Lieberman

AFP

WASHINGTON: The United States said yesterday that the make-up of Israel’s new right-wing coalition raises “legitimate questions” about the government’s commitment to a two-state solution in its conflict

with the Palestinians.In a rare comment on the

internal politics of a US ally, State Department spokesman Mark Toner said Washington had “seen reports from Israel describing it as the most right-wing coalition in Isra-el’s history.”

“And we also know that many of its ministers have said they oppose a

two-state solution. This raises legit-imate questions about the direction it may be headed in and what kind of policies it may adopt.”

The spokesman also restated the United States’ support for a nego-tiated end to the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians based on two states living side by side within agreed borders.

New coalition ‘raises questions’: US

MIDDLE EAST10 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

AFP

KUWAIT CITY: The UN envoy said yesterday that Yemen’s warring parties were closer to agreement at peace talks in Kuwait as he pre-pared to brief the Security Council on progress in negotiations.

“We are moving towards a general understanding that encom-passes the expectations and visions of the parties,” Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said in a statement.

“The discussions have become more sensitive and delicate bringing us closer to a comprehensive agree-ment,” he said.

Ould Cheikh Ahmed is to brief the UN Security Council in a closed session on the progress made in the peace talks which began on April 21 but have been clouded by repeated walkouts by the government dele-gation. He clarified on Twitter that he will make the briefing by video conference from Kuwait.

Face-to-face meetings resumed on Monday for the first time in nearly a week after the latest government boycott. Ould Cheikh Ahmed said discussions on Tuesday centred on

“various military and security issues including withdrawals and troop movements”. “We are now working on overcoming various obstacles and addressing specific details of an implementation mechanism,” he said. The apparent progress comes after Foreign Minister Abdul-malek Al Mikhlafi said on Monday that the government stood ready to make concessions for the sake of peace.

A Western diplomat familiar with the talks said they had made important progress. “We are in a stage where the parties have to make hard choices and compromises,” the diplomat said, adding that he was “very optimistic” that a deal could be reached.

“We have not seen this momen-tum towards peace in the past one and a half years... a roadmap plan has been laid down... and it has to work,” he said.

The main sticking point in the talks has been the form of govern-ment to oversee a transition.

Houthi Shia rebels and their allies have demanded a unity gov-ernment. The government delegation insists that the legitimacy of Presi-dent Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi must be respected.

The government has also demanded that rebels implement an April 2015 Security Council res-olution demanding their withdrawal from the capital and other territory they have seized since 2014.

To overcome this problem, the UN envoy has proposed a “National Salvation Government,” the West-ern diplomat said.

Houthi spokesman Moham-med Abdulsalam warned that if no fair solution was reached, the rebels would form the government in Sana’a.

AP

CAIRO: Egypt deported a French journalist without explanation on Wednesday, the reporter and his newspaper said, the latest move in an ongoing crackdown by President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi’s government on freedom of expression and the media.

The reporter, Remy Pigaglio, who worked for several publications including Catholic daily La Croix since 2014, was returning from vacation in France and prevented from entering Egypt on Tuesday. Pigaglio said he has a residency work permit and a press card, and was detained for 30 hours at the Cairo International Airport before being sent back to Paris.

Authorities twice inspected photos

on Pigaglio’s mobile phone, confis-cated his passport, and barred him from speaking with embassy officials and family until Tuesday evening, his newspaper said. He was held over-night in a cell at the airport.

The French ambassador to Cairo tried to intervene on his behalf but did not manage to prevent the deportation, and is urging Egyptian authorities to reconsider their deci-sion, France’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement.

In Paris, Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault told reporters after a Cabinet meeting that he protested the move, calling his Egyptian coun-terpart and telling him he “couldn’t remain indifferent to a situation that infringes the freedom of the press.”

Pigaglio told his newspaper just before departing on a plane that

nothing was confiscated from him and that he wasn’t treated badly. “I was not interrogated, and I never knew, and still do not know, why this decision was made to ban me from entering the territory,” he said.

French journalists in Egypt demanded an explanation, saying in a note that the deportation was a sign of “authorities’ growing repres-sion of Egyptian and foreign media: surveillance, arrest, expulsion and detention.” Journalists have been regularly detained, jailed, and pros-ecuted under the rule of Al Sisi, who led the 2013 military overthrow of the Islamist Mohammed Mursi, Egypt’s first freely elected president. Foreign-ers working in a variety of fields have been denied entry to Egypt without explanation.

Egypt was ranked 158 out of 180

countries in the 2015 Press Freedom Index, according to Reporters Without Borders, a freedom of expression advo-cacy group. In December, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Egypt was sec-ond only to China as the world’s worst jailer of journalists in 2015.

In an unrelated development, defence lawyers said a Cairo appeals court quashed five-year prison terms handed down on May 14 against 47 anti-government protesters convicted of breaking a law that effectively bans street demonstrations. However, they said the court upheld the lower tribu-nal’s decision to slap a fine of 100,000 pounds (about 10,000 dollars) on each of the 47 protesters. The appeals court verdict was passed late Tuesday.

The 47 were among a total of 152 protesters convicted on May 14 of breaking the demonstrations law

during protests on April 25 against the government’s decision to hand over control of two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia. The 152 were sen-tenced to prison terms ranging from two to five years; many were tried in absentia. Earlier this month, a new draft bill was submitted to Egypt’s parliament on regulating the mdia.

Journalists say it would likely bring the demise of dozens of low-budget, online media outlets serving as refuge for young writers and lib-eral activists escaping government restrictions on freedom of expression. Awaiting approval by a parliament dominated by Al Sisi loyalists, law-makers are also set to approve clauses that would ban all live video trans-missions without permits. Insiders expect such permits will be denied to non-state media.

Egypt deports French scribe amid media crackdown

AP

SANA’A: The death toll of a coalition airstrike that hit a family’s house in southern Yemen has been raised to 11, including four children from one family, security officials and wit-nesses said yesterday.

The officials said that warplanes, thought to be Emirati, fired two mis-siles at the family’s house in the town of Al Mahala, in the southern prov-ince of Lahj. The house was flattened and only one child from the family survived the strike, they said.

The officials said the home is adjacent to a building that is sus-pected of housing Islamic militants.

A witness, Ahmed Hadash, said he heard explosions for 40 minutes while the warplanes were flying.

“The bodies were distorted and

the human remains were every-where,” he said.

The governor of Lahij, Naser Al Khoubeigi, has called on the Yemeni government and the coa-lition to conduct an investigation. He denied any communications between the authorities in Lahij and the coalition.

“We know nothing about the attack. The coalition conducts attacks without informing us. The respon-sibility of this operation is on those who provide the coalition with the wrong coordinates,” he said.

Security officials claim that the Saudi-led coalition regularly con-ducts unreported strikes and has detained many people, claiming that they are members of Al Qaeda or the local Islamic State group affiliate.

“They have their own prisons,” one official said.

Also yesterday, a suspected

coalition airstrike hit a mineral water factory in Lahij, security officials said. No causalities were reported.

All officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to brief the media.

Yemen has been mired in a con-flict pitting Shia rebels against the internationally-recognised govern-ment, which is backed by a Saudi-led coalition.

Extremist factions like Al Qaeda and the Islamic State group have gained ground amid the chaos.

Since the war against Shiite rebels, known as Houthis, began, more than 8,100 people in Yemen have been killed.

The United Nations says more than 80 percent of Yemenis are in dire need of food, water and other aid as a result of the conflict in the Arab world’s poorest country.

Egypt quashes jail terms for 47 protestersCAIRO: An Egyptian appeals court has overturned five-year prison sentences for 47 people for partic-ipating in unauthorised protests, but upheld fines of more than $11,000 each, judicial officials said yesterday.

The defendants were among more than 150 people jailed in mid-May in connection with dem-onstrations on April 25 against Egypt’s decision to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Lawyer Mokhtar Mounir, who represented several of the defend-ants, criticised the fines of 100,000 Egyptian pounds ($11,260) upheld by the Cairo appeals court on Tuesday evening as “exorbitant”.

He said the defendants must pay at least a quarter of the fine before they are released. If they cannot pay they will serve three months in jail.

“It means that the accused must buy their freedom with money,” Mounir said, adding that the defence would lodge another appeal. Rights campaigners accuse President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi of crushing dissent since he deposed his democratically elected Islam-ist predecessor Mohamed Morsi in 2013.

The deal to hand over the islands in the Straits of Tiran had galvanised dissidents who oppose the former army chief.

The government says the islands had always belonged to Saudi Arabia and that Egypt had merely administered them while on lease since the 1950s.

Critics accuse Sisi of “selling” the islands in return for Saudi investments.

Since Mursi’s ouster author-ities have banned all but police-approved rallies in line with a presidential decree and overseen a crackdown that has seen hun-dreds of Islamist protesters killed and thousands imprisoned.

Turkey’s MHP to hold congress on July 10ANKARA: Turkey’s opposition Nationalist Movement Party (MHP) will hold its extraordinary con-gress on July 10 in capital Ankara, weeks after dissident party mem-bers were barred from organizing such an event, the party chairman announced yesterday.

In a written statement, Dev-let Bahceli said: “Our party will hold an extraordinary congress along with an election on July 10, 2016, Sunday, at the Ankara Arena Sports Hall.”

Bahceli also made it clear that he will remain in the race for the top slot. “Whoever declares to run for the MHP chair, he or she will have to compete with me,” he said.

“As I declared before, the real struggle for the MHP starts from now on. When our party will pass this upcoming democratic test, we will be out of this mess and con-tinue to stand strong on its path,” he added.

AFP

ANKARA: President Recep Tayyip Erdogan yesterday personally chaired the first meeting of the new Turkish cabinet, in a symbolic move showing his desire to exercise full control over the government and consolidate his own powers.

The meeting at the president’s huge palace in Ankara came a day after incoming Prime Minister Binali Yildirim, an Erdogan loyalist, disclosed his new cabinet line-up with most key ministers keeping their jobs.

The Turkish constitution allows heads of state to chair the cabinet but this right was exercised extremely rarely by Erdogan’s predecessors

before he was elected president in August 2014. A presidential statement announced the start of the first meet-ing of Turkey’s 65th government, with images showing the ministers sitting at a vast table chaired by Erdogan and overlooked by a portrait of the modern Republic’s founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk.

A technocrat and former trans-port minister, Yildirim is seen as a more pliant figure for Erdogan compared to outgoing premier Ahmet Davutoglu who stepped down after power struggle with the president.

Erdogan wants one of the pri-orities of the government to be implementing constitutional changes to create a presidential system that would enshrine his status as the Turkish number one.

Yildirim, 60, has also made no secret of his enthusiasm for a system change in Turkey that would restrict the powers of the prime minister and bolster the presidency.

Erdogan chaired several cabinet meetings during Davutoglu’s pre-miership. But Turkish media reported that they will now be at the presi-dential palace at least once a month.

Opposition parties have vehe-mently cr it icised Erdogan’s aspirations for greater powers, with the secular Republican People’s Party (CHP) leader repeatedly warning that the move risked bloodshed.

“Erdogan says he will do eve-rything. I said if you want to create such a system, you cannot do it with-out bloodshed,” CHP leader Kemal Kilicdaroglu told the private NTV television.

Yemen peace talks ‘closer’ to deal: UN envoy

Erdogan chairs symbolic first meeting of Turkey cabinet

11 from same family dead in airstrike

A Yemeni woman and a girl walk past cars as they beg for money in a street in the Yemeni capital Sana’a, yesterday. The United Nations says more than 80 percent of the population in Yemen is in dire need of food, medicine and other basic necessities.

Houthi spokesman Mohammed Abdulsalam warned that if no fair solution was reached, the rebels would form the government in Sana’a.

President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan (centre) chairs the meeting of 65th Cabinet of Turkey at Presidential Complex, in Ankara, yesterday.

ASIA 11THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

AFP

ISE-SHIMA, JAPAN: Barack Obama’s historic visit to Hiroshima this week “will honour all those who were lost in World War II” the US president said yesterday, hours after arriving in Japan for a Group of Seven summit.

Obama and his fellow world lead-ers from the club of rich democracies are gathering for a meeting where much energy will be spent discuss-ing the lacklustre state of the global economy.

But it will be Obama’s trip to Hiro-shima as the only sitting president to visit the site of the world’s first nuclear attack that is likely to dominate the headlines this week.

“Our visit to Hiroshima will hon-our all those who were lost in World War II and reaffirm our shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons,” Obama said at a joint press confer-ence with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe.

It will also “highlight the extraor-dinary alliance that we have been able

to forge over these many decades,” he said.

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany, Italy and Canada were also making their way to Ise-Shima, a mountainous and sparsely popu-lated area 300 kilometres (200 miles) southwest of Tokyo, whose mainly elderly residents rely chiefly on tour-ism and cultured pearls.

Security was tight across the region, with thousands of extra police drafted in to patrol train stations and ferry terminals, and to direct traffic on the usually quiet roads during the two-day meeting.

Tokyo said it was taking no chances in the wake of terror attacks that struck Paris and Brussels in recent months.

Dustbins have been removed or sealed and coin-operated lockers blocked at train and subway stations in the capital and areas around the venue site.

Authorities said they will be keeping a close eye on so-called “soft targets” such as theatres and stadiums.

However, unlike in many other rich democracies, protests were unlikely to cause much of a security headache.

One left-wing demonstration organised for yesterday morning—and focused mostly on Japan’s domestic politics—attracted just a handful of largely elderly protesters.

Britain’s David Cameron, whose country’s referendum next month on continued membership of the European Union was likely to figure prominently on the summit agenda, arrived late afternoon at the main international airport near Nagoya.

France’s Francois Hollande and

Germany’s Angela Merkel were expected to arrive on Thursday morn-ing. The meeting will also be joined by Italy’s Matteo Renzi and Canada’s Justin Trudeau.

A small crowd of well-wishers gathered within sight of the helicop-ter landing pad to which leaders were being ferried, hoping for a glimpse of one of the stars of the geopoliti-cal stage.

The leaders will spend Thurs-day morning at Ise Jingu, a huge shrine complex that sits at the spirit-ual heart of Japan’s native Shintoism.

In line with the animistic religion’s traditions, the buildings are regularly replaced, but the shrine is believed to have occupied the same spot for more than 2,000 years.

The sputtering global economy was expected to take centre stage in the formal talks when they begin on Thursday afternoon, although divi-sions were likely to remain over whether the world should spend or save its way out of the current malaise.

“The global economy is going to be the biggest theme for the G7 Ise-Shima summit,” host Abe told reporters.

“President Obama and I share the recognition that the G7 should seek sustainable and powerful growth globally.”

Although China, the world’s sec-ond largest economy, will not be present, it looks set to loom large over discussions. Japan and the US are keen to corral support for a growing pushback against Beijing’s territorial assertiveness in the South China Sea.

The G7 will also discuss the spec-tre of Islamist terrorism, with France’s Hollande keen to address the issue

AFP

KATHMANDU: Nepal’s journalist organisation yesterday condemned the arrest of a reporter whom it said was taking photographs of a protest outside government offices in Kathmandu.

Police arrested Shesh Narayan Jha on Monday together with a protester who splashed red paint on the walls of the Singha Durbar government complex.

“It is a serious violation of press freedom and freedom of expression to arrest a journalist as he takes pictures and charge him with public offence,” Ujir Magar, general secretary of the Federa-tion of Nepali Journalists, said in a statement.

“The federation condemns this incident and demands Jha’s imme-diate release.”

The protester, 21-year-old Ishan who goes by one name, was demanding an investigation into the use of excessive force by security officials during demon-strations in recent months against Nepal’s new constitution that saw more than 50 people killed.

He is also calling for an inde-pendent committee to initiate talks between the government and anti-charter protesters, who say the constitution adopted last September leaves them politically marginalised. Prazit KC of the city police told AFP that Jha was arrested for his alleged involve-ment in the protest and not for taking photographs.

“When Jha was caught he was not taking pictures and did not carry a camera. He did not say he was a journalist, otherwise we would have released him,” he said.

“We are investigating how he is involved.”

The Supreme Court is sched-uled to hear a petition against the arrests on Thursday.

It comes amid fears that free-dom of expression may be under threat in the Himalayan nation.

Last week a British tourist was arrested for allegedly joining a protest against the constitution. He was later released.

Earlier this month Canadian software developer Robert Penner was ordered to leave Nepal over tweets deemed to “incite conflict”.

AFP

BEIJING: Taiwan’s new president Tsai Ing-wen practises “emotional” and “extreme” politics because she is a single woman without children, a member of China’s organisation overseeing relations with the island has said.

The scathing attack on the newly inaugurated leader came from Wang Weixing, a military analyst and a board member of the Association for Relations Across the Taiwan Straits.

“As a single female politician, she is unburdened by love, and lacks the constraint of family or concern for children,” Wang wrote in the Inter-national Herald Leader newspaper, which is under China’s state news agency Xinhua.

“In political style and strategy, often she tends to be emotional, personal, and extreme. In terms of political tricks, she considers strat-egy less, tactical details more, and short-term goals are paramount, while long-term goals are less taken into account.”

The attack came days after Tsai, Taiwan’s first female president, took the oath of office at the presidential palace in Taipei.

China and Taiwan split in 1949 after the Kuomintang national-ist forces lost a civil war to the Communists.

But Beijing has always seen

the island as a renegade province awaiting reunification, by force if necessary. Beijing is highly suspi-cious of Tsai, whose Democratic Progressive Party is tradition-ally pro-independence, and has warned her against any attempt at a breakaway.

It has warned that it would cut off contacts with the island unless she states her support for the con-cept that there is only “one China”.

In her inauguration speech Tsai called for “positive dialogue” with the Chinese mainland, but stopped short of any compromise on Beijing’s “one China” demands.

Wang’s long and blistering op-ed also accused Tsai of intending to pursue “hidden independence” for Taiwan. It disappeared from some portals yesterday and the link to the newspaper’s website failed to load.

But the article continued to be shared on Chinese social media, with thousands of comments on the Twitter-like Weibo service, many criticising the personal nature of the piece’s attacks.

“Why don’t official media dare talk about Putin as a ‘single guy’?” fumed one user.

“It has nothing to do with poli-tics, attacking a woman like this is just incredibly low,” wrote another.

Wang’s piece concluded by call-ing Tsai’s personality “clearly two sided”, with a private character that is “rather deceptive”.

AFP

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka appealed yes-terday for foreign aid to recover from massive floods that caused an esti-mated $2 billion worth of damage and claimed more than 100 lives.

Finance Minister Ravi Karuna-nayake said 35,000 homes were damaged in last week’s floods trig-gered by the heaviest rain for early 25 years, with the capital Colombo the hardest hit.

“We are looking at the maximum possible support,” the minister told reporters, adding, though, that he expected foreign countries would foot about 75 percent of total recon-struction costs.

He blamed rampant construction in low-lying parts of Colombo that had been designated as stormwater collection points, as reasons for the flooding which hit about one third of the city’s residents.

“The main cause is the filling of marshland and putting up of build-ings,” the minister said.

Karunanayake said strict new building codes would be introduced from June 1 to prevent such land being reclaimed for construction in future.

He said he was hoping for for-eign assistance mostly in the form of grants and loans, but also called for overseas expertise in urban plan-ning to prevent such disasters.

Nations sent emergency aid

last week at the height of the disas-ter, including giant neighbour India which dispatched two naval ships and an aircraft loaded with supplies.

Sri Lanka’s parliament has been recalled to meet later yesterday, a week ahead of schedule, to discuss recovery from the floods that hit almost all the country’s districts.

The Disaster Management Centre (DMC) said 101 people were known to have died in various locations last week, while another 100 were still listed as missing in the central dis-trict of Kegalle.

Landslides ripped through two villages in Kegalle, 100 kilometres (60 miles) northeast of Colombo, with soldiers still searching for victims buried under tonnes of mud.

AFP

HONG KONG: The daughter of one of five Hong Kong booksellers who went missing late last year has called on US authorities to help end her father’s “unofficial and illegal” detention in China.

Four booksellers working for a Hong Kong publishing house which specialised in gossipy works about Chinese leaders went missing from various locations in October, with another disappearing at the end of December. They all reappeared eventually in mainland China. The

disappearances fuelled growing unease in Hong Kong over the erosion of freedoms in the semi-autonomous city, which was handed back to China from Britain in 1997.

“It has now been eight months since my father and his colleagues were taken into custody. I still haven’t been told where he is, how he’s been treated, or what his legal status is,” Angela Gui said at a US congressional hearing Tuesday in Washington DC.

Her father Gui Minhai, a Swed-ish national and co-owner of the Mighty Current publishing company, failed to return from a holiday in Thailand in October. His “unofficial

and illegal” detention “is especially shocking in light of the fact that my father held Swedish and only Swedish citizenship”, she told the Congres-sional-Executive Commission on China. Three other booksellers dis-appeared on the mainland and one went missing from Hong Kong itself.

Gui mysteriously re-emerged on state broadcaster CCTV in January, and said he had returned to China to “take legal responsibilities” for kill-ing a college student in a car accident 11 years earlier.

In another televised confession in February, he said he tried to smuggle illegal books into China. Angela Gui

said she wanted “the US to take every opportunity to ask China for informa-tion on my father’s status as well as urge that he be freed immediately”.

Swedish authorities have said they were “quite concerned” about the incident and have called for more openness from Chinese authorities.

Three other booksellers—Cheung Chi-ping, Lui Por and Lam Wing-kee—have blamed the company’s illegal book trade on Gui. All four are under criminal investigation on the mainland.

The fifth bookseller, Lee Bo, has said he travelled to China to assist with the investigation and returned

to Hong Kong in March. The disappearance of Lee Bo, who

went missing from Hong Kong, raised fears that Chinese security authori-ties were operating in Hong Kong in violation of the city’s laws.

Britain and other nations have spoken out about Lee’s case. Britain said it believed he was “involun-tarily removed to the mainland” in what it called a “serious breach” of the handover agreement.

The handover deal allows Hong Kong to keep its special rights and freedoms for 50 years, but there are fears that such freedoms are being eroded.

Hiroshima trip to honour ‘all’ war dead: Obama

US President Barack Obama (left) shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during the Group of Seven summit meetings in Ise-Shima, Japan, yesterday.

It will be Obama’s trip to Hiroshima as the only sitting president to visit the site of the world’s first nuclear attack that is likely to dominate the headlines this week.

after a brutal year that saw France hit twice by jihadists.

The leaders’ arrivals brought a measure of relief to members of the global press, who had spent much of yesterday cooling their heels and interviewing each other.

Japanese television networks swarmed on foreign reporters in the cavernous press centre, demanding to know their impressions of this pic-turesque corner of the country, and desperate to hear what they thought of the lunch spread.

Journalists were treated to lavish displays of local specialities, from exquisite calligraphy performed with a special ink, to photobooths that transformed users into ninjas—the deadly black-clad assassins of Japan’s feudal era.

Daughter of missing HK bookseller calls for US help Nepal press group condemns journalist’s arrest

Uproar over remarks on Taiwan’s new president

Sri Lanka appeals for $2bn aidElectronic items, that were caught in the floods, dry on chairs near a house in Wellampitiya, yesterday.

VIEWS12 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Ukraine has a new darling. After the leader of the revolution that brought freedom to Ukraine was christened Darling of the Orange Revolution, yesterday it was Nadiya Savchenko who became a darling of a country fighting Russian hegemony.

And the Orange Revolution leader, Yulia Tymoshenko, was there to receive Savchenko who landed in Kiev from Russia.

About two years of incarceration in a hostile country didn’t break the spirit of the military pilot. And it was visible in the way she blasted Moscow’s nefarious designs. Savchenko, behind bars or free, embodies the intransigent spirit of a country that has been battered and bruised in a fight with a disproportionately powerful neighbour. In saying that she is ready to once again go to the battlefield for her country, the 35-year-old servicewoman has defied not only fear, but the designs of a marauding enemy out to distort history.

Yesterday’s prisoner swap between Russia and Ukraine is reminiscent of spy exchanges during the Cold War. So, have fears of a new Cold War come true?

The Cold War was a product of two superpowers fighting for supremacy. They had competing strengths which led to the proliferation of powerful weapons including nuclear armaments. It was in this milieu that the Cold War took birth. Ukraine is a relatively weak state grappling with a new political order and low economic indicators. Poverty compounded by war, misery and corruption have made life hard

for the average Ukrainian. It is Western powers standing behind Kiev that has invited suggestions of a West-Russia conflict.

The eastward expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (Nato) has been a point of contention between the trans-Atlantic military alliance and Russia. Tensions between Kiev and Moscow ratcheted up when the Kremlin annexed the Ukrainian peninsula of Crimea. Russian President Vladimir Putin justified the move saying that not only Crimea, but the Ukrainian nation belongs to Russia.

The two prisoners exchanged for Savchenko yesterday were purportedly Russian soldiers participating in the Moscow-backed insurgency in eastern Ukraine. The Kremlin denies the claims. Russia’s allegation that Savchenko was complicit in the war-time killing of two Russian journalists has been rejected by the pilot who claims she was arrested even before the scribes were killed.

Savchenko was freed due to a pardon granted by Putin in a swap mediated by some western powers. The prisoner swap has come as a temporary salve in ties between Kiev and Moscow. But it is unlikely it will lead to better relations in the long run.

New Cold War swap?

The prisoner exchange between Ukraine and Russia is unlikely to improve long-term relations.

Quote of the day

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Like or loathe him Donald Trump has given a new understanding to the old adage, there is nothing

called bad publicity. Over the years Donald Trump has used his much talked about wealth, often by himself; over publicised marriages and divorces; and his extrava-gant lifestyle as the cornerstone of his publicity strategy. Donald Trump has continued with his strat-egy during his entire Republican presidential candidate campaign. He has made a number of contro-versial statements from barring Muslims from entering United States of America (USA) to the size of his hands suggesting that they match his manhood. The media has cov-ered and headlined most of Donald Trump’s utterances irrespectively.

This has raised all kinds of scep-tical questions about the complicity of some media in his Republican presidential nomination strategy? What President Barack Obama said tongue in cheek at this years’ White House Correspondent’s Dinner 2016 in Washington is pertinent. He said, “From the start, he (Trump) has gotten an appropriate amount of coverage befitting his candidacy”. Barack Obama blamed the media for giving overdue attention to Don-ald Trump and stopped short of accusing the media of irresponsi-ble journalism. Obama’s remarks sum up what many people have been saying about the coverage of Trump- the media simply gave him too much coverage.

The public Right to KnowThe sales of newspapers and

television viewership have been experiencing a downward trend since the emergence and the rise of the new media platforms. The advent of Donald Trump onto the political scene in the USA has brought some kind of relief to the media particularly television and print. According Steven Battaglio of the Los Angeles Times “2016 pres-idential nomination continues to

be rating rocket fuel for TV news”. Donald Trump has preferred by and large conservative usage of the media, particularly the tradi-tional, long formatted interviews on television. This strategy has allowed him to use context in his defence whenever he is charged with controversy, something new media platforms lack.

Television specifically has been the greatest benefactor to Trump’s messaging throughout his campaign. The majority of the interviews contained gaffes that have made great television and kept Donald Trump in the limelight. Television as a business has in turn been having filled days since Don-ald Trump decided to run for the US highest office. Donald Trump’s careless and abrupt ways of deal-ing with issues has made him one of the most intriguing and followed presidential candidates in this race. If he gets elected to the presidency that would bring even more excite-ment not only to the presidency but also to the media.

There is one particular basic principle in journalism that has been compromised in the coverage of Donald Trump’s Republican nom-ination. The public’s right to know is the cornerstone of journalism, it is a principle that is embedded in democracy and allows it to thrive. People have the right to know about those who hold the public office, as this promotes political accountability.

The principle of the public’s right to know has been pushed to different unjustifiable limits in the coverage of Donald Trump Republican presidential nomina-tion. The continual, every step of

the way coverage of controversies has turned the news coverage of Trump into a reality television show. The media have overstretched the application of this very important principle in this instance.

The question is- When does the media stop and reflect?- When those who understand its inner workings take advantage? Donald Trumps’ rhetoric has been inflammatory, inappropriate and

his exaggeration of facts without references and justifications con-tinue to make headlines. He has become renowned for ending most of his sentences by “the worst in the world”, especially when attack-ing the administration of Barack Obama”. The media has unfor-tunately failed to challenge these wide claims.

ConclusionDonald Trump’s contro-

versial statements have indeed increased the television viewer-ship and newspaper circulation and this will possibly continue if he is elected to the highest office. The media has correctly contin-ued to meet its responsibilities of informing the public. However, whilst doing that it has wittingly or unwittingly been complicit in a well-planned media strategy by Donald Trump. He has used his understanding of the media to his benefit. The precursor was in fact his popular television show the Apprentice which depicted him as a tough uncompromising boss on television. Understandably in the midst of a big story like the USA presidential elections, the media falls victim of its own creation. Fur-thermore the ‘juniorisation’ of the newsroom makes it difficult for the media to prevent certain pitfalls. The emphasis, therefore, should be on the media to ensure that systems that will safeguard media profes-sionalism at all times are in place. Failure to do that compromises the profession.

The writer is a Researcher, Direc-torate Studies Centre, Aljajzeera Network

Donald Trump, the saviour of television news?

By Thembisa Fakude

Aljajzeera Network

The media respond to Trump’s name-calling and censorship by covering every word he says, usually on live TV.

Television specifically has been the greatest benefactor to Trump’s messaging throughout his campaign. The majority of the interviews contained gaffes that have made great television and kept Donald Trump in the limelight. Television as a business has in turn been having filled days since Donald Trump decided to run for the US highest office.

Our visit to Hiroshima will honour all those who were lost in World War II and reaffirm our shared vision of a world without nuclear weapons. Barack ObamaUS President

By Magdalene Mukami

Anatolia

Unemployment rates in Kenya are at an all-time high, cur-rently at around 40 percent - it

was 12 percent in 2006.Economic experts from the Fed-

eration of Kenya Employers, in the capital Nairobi, have described unem-ployment -which affects mainly the youth, 18-35, who make up about 35 percent of the population - as a tick-ing time bomb.

Kenyan leader Uhuru Kenyatta has in the past vowed that he will pro-vide job opportunities to the young people of his country who make up about 67 percent of Kenya’s unem-ployed workforce.

But some are tired of waiting and have opted to pursue an unexpected path.

In the agricultural town of Nakuru, about 160 kilometers (nearly 100 miles) from the Kenyan capital Nairobi, Anadolu Agency caught up with 25-year-old Samuel Maina who had just graduated from Egerton Uni-versity, in western Kenya, and had been looking for a teaching position. But unable to find a job, he decided to head back to his parents’ to become a farmer. In Kenya, it is common for people to be given land by their par-ents for farming.

And unemployed Samuel became Samuel Maina, one of Kenya’s top dig-ital farmers, earning around 270,000 Kenyan shillings ($2,675) a month.

“What could I do in Nairobi town, just sit around without a job?” Maina tells Anadolu Agency while feeding his cows at his farm.

“Nowadays we as the youth are moving back to the rural areas to farm because there are no jobs in Kenya. Instead of sitting there and hoping that a miracle will happen, we employ ourselves,” Maina explains.

Samuel Maina is among the many

youths in Kenya who have gone into digital farming, which uses technol-ogy such as drones or phones, tablets with apps to monitor the farm, be it identifying weeds, the type of sickness that is plaguing plants and animals (using the camera on the phone), feed-ing patterns, etc.

Maina is involved in hydroponic farming (growing plants in water, not soil). He says his crops – tomatoes, vegetables, spinach, peas and others - use 90 percent less water, compared to those of a traditional farmer.

He is also able to grow four times the amount of crops in the same space as traditional soil farming, he says.

Armed with his Ipad, Maina opens an application made for farmers, which scans the plants to identify potential weeds; he is delighted to find out that, for now, his farm is weed-free.

“The older generations refer to us as dotcom farmers because we use technology,” Maina added.

He closes the application and opens another one which has an electronic map of his farm,” As you can see here I have a complete data-base of all the plants in my farm, from my device I can easily monitor all the activities on my farm,” Maina explained.

A peek at the application and one can see a diary of farm opera-tions that Maina has registered, noting down areas of interest; a notification pops up from a poultry applications saying, “Weekly cleaning recom-mended, chicks in shed 1 to hatch in 2 days, recommend purchasing chick starter [feed] if not available.”

Maina quickly reads the message and says, “I had even forgotten that I needed to buy chicken feed. You see, this is why you can never compare digital farming to traditional farming.”

Through digital farming, he has become his own boss. He is among the 79,000 young farmers who sell their products on the “Mkulima [Swa-hili word for farmer] young” Facebook

page. The application called “Mkulima young”, which connects farmers to buyers, has over 50,000 active users - an indication of the potential number of digital farmers in the East African country.

“There is employment out there, we should not sit back and wait for the government to create jobs for us,” he says. “Those jobs will never come. My advice to the youth is they should join me to feed the nation by becoming digital farmers, it is a job with little to no competition.”

Maina tells Anadolu Agency that, so far, there are 15 young digital farm-ers from the surrounding areas who are as successful as he is. Some of them, he says, were like him, unable to secure employment after complet-ing their university education.

With the growing number of

college graduates in Kenya on the job market, 26-year-old Beatrice Nyam-bura was in a similar bind but a single post on social media changed her life.

“I just saw a friend share pictures of cows on Facebook commenting that he had made more than 120,000 Kenya shillings ($1,190) from selling them. I sent him a private message and he agreed to add me to a group [of digital farmers],” says Nyambura.

“Nowadays, I am always busy, I earn more money that I would have earned if I had landed a teaching job after graduating from a teacher’s college, it is all about perception my dear, it is not that there are no jobs, most of us just don’t want to get our hands dirty,” she says, gesturing with her mouth to her hands, red with a thick layer of soil from weeding in her strawberry farm which bears

thousands of fruits.Like Maina, Nyambura always has

her smartphone which has all her vital mobile applications.

“My phone is my life, this is what differentiates us from traditional farmers, we are the farmers of the future and I can assure you that you will always make profits from agri-culture,” she says.

Nyambura says that with the growing population in Africa, dig-ital farming is the only way that the African continent will be able to feed itself in the near future. She adds that digital farming addresses major prob-lems affecting African countries such as water scarcity, pollution and land degradation.

Kenya’s economy relies heavily on the agricultural sector, which directly contributes 25 percent to the GDP.

OPINION 13THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Poland’s Europe problem has deep roots

On a sunny day in Warsaw, it’s difficult to understand why the city’s well-kept streets simmer with anger and discontent over

the European vision. The economy has been growing at 3.6 percent, roughly twice the overall European rate. And there’s little or no influx of Syrian or Afghan refugees: Warsaw must be whiter than any other major city in Europe, including Budapest. Yet the far-right Law and Justice Party, led by Jaroslaw Kaczynski and known as PiS, bitterly denounces the European Union for invading Polish “sovereignty” - language reminiscent of the advocates of British exit from the EU.

Poland is, or should be, Europe’s great-est success story. Repeatedly invaded and divided by other European powers, the

country didn’t even exist between the late 18th century and the end of the World War I. It was divided again when Hitler and Sta-lin both invaded in September 1939. The country’s post-Cold War independence seems like a miracle of Europe’s peace-ful economic order.

As for its economy, Poland has grown steadily since 1989. Starting at Commu-nist levels, its GDP per capita has marched inexorably in the direction of the Euro-pean average, and now stands at more than two-thirds that level. Unemployment is low by European standards.

And Poland isn’t plagued by refu-gees. Why would you flee into the arms of Poland’s relatively ungenerous social safety network if you could get to Ger-many, much less Sweden? On top of that, Poland has balked at accepting Syrian ref-ugees. For economic migrants and refugees alike, prospects seem better elsewhere in Europe.

So why the anti-European sentiment?The superficial answer is that PiS’s defi-

ance of Europe is a situational response to EU criticism of the party’s counter-dem-ocratic attempt to undermine the Polish constitutional court. On this theory, if the EU would shut up, PiS wouldn’t be anti-European.

There’s something to this: EU officials can sound paternalistic when lecturing newish democracies about safeguarding institutions. But PiS’s anti-European rhet-oric and instincts run deeper. They belong to a strand of nationalism whose adher-ents tell themselves they would be better off going it alone than allowing Brussels to dictate to them.

That nationalist story is tremendously significant - and offers a powerful explana-tion of how you can have anti-Europeanism even with a good economy and no refu-gees. It has roots deep in Polish history, the same history from which the EU appears to have saved the country.

Poles are reared on tales of their repeated betrayals by European great powers, most prominently Russia and Ger-many. Today, an increasingly expansionist Russia again seems like a medium-term threat. As for Germany, it’s the main power in the EU, and perceived as such by Poles across the political spectrum, even those

who love Europe.Germany isn’t in the invasion business

anymore. But economic dominance is still a form of dominance, one that nationalist Poles can be brought to resent.

PiS’s supports are logical targets for such anti-European nationalism. Nearly 6 million Poles, close to one-fifth of all eligible voters, cast ballots for the right-ist party in last October’s elections. They didn’t skew young, but middle-aged and old. And most came from outside the big cities.

It’s plausible to conclude, therefore, that PiS voters feel left out of the Europeaniz-ing process that has made Poland richer. It’s not that these voters weren’t lifted by the rising economic tide - just that they haven’t benefited as much as urban elites.

Nationalism works by appealing to intuitions stemming from received cultural

verities that don’t have to be historically accurate. So by its nature, nationalism activates feelings that resist rational argu-ments like: “Don’t worry, things are getting better gradually.”

You can see that nationalist-irration-alist strand in PiS’s detestation of Vladimir Putin. Kaczynski, the party leader, believes Putin engineered his twin brother’s death in a 2010 plane crash in Smolensk, Russia.

In fact, PiS’s values have a lot in common with Putin’s. Both favour social conserva-tism and state religion. Both hearken back to some aspects of an imagined Commu-nist era where the state provided.

But because PiS is a Polish nationalist party, its script requires it to fear and hate Russia and Russia’s leader. Anything else would betray the understandable senti-ment that flows from the history of Russian imperialism.

PiS’s anti-European (read: anti-Ger-man) feeling is analogous. It doesn’t derive from logic so much as from a powerfully felt victimhood. Unfortunately, that may ham-per or even doom European efforts to press for a return to democratic practices. The outsider criticism may actually strengthen PiS by feeding nationalist sentiment.

Rationalists -- both of the left and the right -- like to believe that economic inter-ests outweigh or at least shape ideology. I count myself among them.

But Poland today is a great reminder that we can’t attribute all nationalist polit-ical sentiment to purely economic causes. There’s more to human belief and action than bread alone. That’s worth remem-bering when trying to calculate the odds of success for PiS - and for right-wing populism elsewhere in the world, not excluding the US

Poland has grown steadily since 1989. Starting at Communist levels, its GDP per capita has marched inexorably in the direction of the European average, and now stands at more than two-thirds that level. Unemployment is low by European standards.

A man takes part in a demonstration organised by Polish Razem Party calling the Polish Prime minister Beata Szydlo to publish Constitutional Tribunal verdict, at the Prime Minister’s Office in Warsaw.

With jobs lacking, Kenyan youth turn to digital farming

Economic experts from the Federation of Kenya Employers, in the capital Nairobi, have described unemployment -which affects mainly the youth, 18-35, who make up about 35 percent of the population - as a ticking time bomb.

All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the Editor-in-Chief.

By Noah Feldman

Bloomberg

A Kenyan man working in his vegetable farm.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES14 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Filipina actress Jaclyn Jose (right) with film director Brillante Mendoza during a press conference in Manila yesterday. The Philippines’ entertainment industry celebrated Jose’s surprise win at the Cannes film festival, hailing her as one of the nation’s hardest working and most versatile actresses who deserves global acclaim.

Cannes award for Filipina actress

Anatolia

ZAMBOANGA CITY: Government troops have cap-tured a camp of a Daesh-linked militant group after a 45-minute firefight in the southern Philippines’ predominantly Muslim province of Sulu.

An army spokesperson said yesterday that a group of militants from the Abu Sayyaf group — who are believed to be holding a number of foreign hostages — were located in Barangay Gulangan in the town of Maimbung at 0100GMT on Tuesday.

Major Filemon Tan Jr. said troops of the 14th Special Ranger Company seized the camp, follow-ing an armed engagement with the group, which is believed to be led by Idang Susukan.

Susukan is a brother of Sulu-based Abu Sayyaf

leader Mujiv Susukan, and has been linked by the military to the beheading of Malaysian hostage Bernard Then after his family failed to pay a ran-som in November 2015. “Said encampment, which can accommodate more or less 200 persons and is equipped with water source, was seized amid a pursuit and clearing operations launched by the operating troops,” Tan told reporters.

Found in the encounter site were gun parts, per-sonal belongings, and a motorcycle, added Tan. “No casualty was reported on the government side, while undetermined [people were injured] on the Abu Sayyaf’s.” It is not known if hostages were with the group during the firefight.

The battle followed Monday’s release of a video that showed hostages Canadian Robert Hall, Nor-wegian Kjartan Sekkingstad and Filipina Marites Flor pleading for their lives.

The Abu Sayyaf has threatened to behead them June 13 unless a 600m peso ($12.9m) ransom is paid by 3pm — as they did with fellow Canadian hos-tage 68-year-old Canadian John Ridsdel April 25 after a 300 million peso ransom failed to be paid.

Army public affairs office chief Col. Noel Deto-yato told reporters Wednesday that the military operations will continue against the group despite its ultimatum.

“We will not stop until… normalcy is restored. We will not stop until they [the victims] are rescued and the kidnappers brought to justice,” the Phil-ippine Daily Inquirer quoted Detoyato as saying.

He added that the military would never nego-tiate with the suspects, or pay the ransom, as it would only embolden the bandits to carry out more kidnappings. “We will endeavor to make this kid-napping business unprofitable,” he said.

AP

MANILA: The Philippine Congress yesterday started the official count of votes cast in the May 9 presidential election, though confirmation of Rod-rigo Duterte’s apparent victory may be slowed by disputes in the more closely fought vice presidential race.

Duterte, the 71-year-old mayor of southern Davao city, exceeded his closest rival by more than 6 million

votes in an unofficial tally. All four rivals have conceded defeat to Duterte, who has said there was no major irregularity in the polls.

The unofficial tally of votes cast in the vice presidential contest showed Rep. Leni Robredo leading by more than 200,000 votes. Rival Sen. Fer-dinand Marcos Jr. has disputed that nearly complete tally based on alleged elections irregularities.

As the counting began at the House of Representatives, the candi-dates’ initial vote totals were reflected on a big screen. In the plenary hall of Congress, lawmakers and candi-dates’ lawyers were seen checking election certificates contained in bal-lot boxes. If there are no objections or questions, the votes are counted from each province.

As the canvassing opened, Mar-cos’s lawyer Didagen Dilangalen asked lawmakers to count the votes cast for president separately from the vice presidential votes so Duterte could immediately and officially be proclaimed the winner.

The lawmakers refused and

proceeded to count them races simultaneously.

“I’m confident that the true result will come out, it’s just a matter of time,” said Robredo after she and her lawyers heard Mass at a church Wednesday. “If there are any uncer-tainties, these are the lies that are being floated.” A few hundred sup-porters each of Robredo and Marcos held separate rallies outside Congress as counting began.

Marcos is the 58-year-old son and namesake of the Philippine dic-tator ousted in a 1986 “people power” revolt due to widespread human rights abuses and economic plunder. He had topped most pre-election sur-veys, though Robredo overtook him in surveys a few days before the vote.

While the dictator’s wife, Imelda, and two children, including Marcos Jr., have long managed to make a politi-cal comeback, a victory by Marcos Jr. would bring a Marcos tantalizingly close to the seat of power the strong-man lost three decades ago.

The congressional count would take a few days normally, but it could

MANILA: The Philippines’ annual population growth rate has slowed as more people in the predominantly Roman Catholic country use contraception.

Results of the 2015 census show the population grew 1.72 percent last year, down from 1.9 percent during the previous census in 2010, the Commission on Population said.

The population of 100.98 million was half a million lower than what was forecast in 2010, the commission’s Executive Director Juan Antonio Perez III said.

The Philippines is the 12th most populous country in the world, according to United Nations data. Its popula-tion will reach 103.48 million by the end this year, under calculations using the same growth formula, Perez said.

Perez said the use of modern contraceptives has increased, with 45 percent of couples using modern con-traceptives as of last year, up from 38 percent recorded by a national survey in 2013.

Perez said the census results, which were officially unveiled last week, also showed family size differed among socio-economic classes. Richer Filipinos have one or two children while the poorest have five or more children, or two children more than what women say they want, he added.

AFP

BEIJING: The disputed rocks and reefs of the South China Sea are more than an ocean away from the landlocked African nation of Niger.

But that has not stopped the strife-ridden, largely desert coun-try of 17 million people adding its voice to a growing diplomatic cho-rus that Beijing says supports its rejection of an international tribu-nal hearing on the waters. Others apparently singing from the same hymn sheet include Togo, Afghan-istan and Burundi.

They are among the latest foot soldiers in “a public relations war” by China aimed at questioning inter-national maritime rules, said Ashley Townshend, a research fellow at the United States Studies Centre at the University of Sydney. The tribu-nal case, brought to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague by the Philippines, is highly technical and hinges on such issues as how international law defines “islands”.

Niger joined the ranks of “over 40 countries that have officially endorsed China’s position” that the issues should be settled through direct negotiations, not international courts, said Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying.

That, she added, was just the start: “There will be more and more countries and organisations support-ing China.” Similar announcements have become an almost daily ritual at China’s foreign ministry media briefings, as it steels itself for what is widely expected to be an unfa-vourable ruling by the tribunal that could come within weeks.

Beijing claims sovereignty over

almost the whole of the South China Sea, on the basis of a segmented line that first appeared on Chinese maps in the 1940s, pitting it against several neighbours. But it is also a party to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea. Manila accuses Beijing of flout-ing the convention and has called for the tribunal, set up in 1899, to rule on the row.

Beijing insists that the court does not have jurisdiction, argu-ing that any claims to the contrary are politically motivated, and has boycotted the proceedings. “By cob-bling together a group of nations that share its views, Beijing’s aim is to show that there is a genuine debate over the legality of the Philippines’ legal challenge,” Townshend said.

“It is trying to build a counter-narrative to push back against the mainstream international consensus on maritime law.” Despite requests the foreign ministry in Beijing did not provide a full list of China’s backers on the issue.

But other than its main diplo-matic partner Russia, few heavy hitters have come out in support, with Beijing’s neighbours — many of them unnerved by its increas-ingly assertive behaviour — notably absent. Many of those disclosed so far are poor African countries, and Bonnie Glaser, a senior Asia advi-sor at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, described the names as “mostly composed of smaller, inconsequential nations”.

In some cases the claimed sup-port has been short-lived. The South Pacific island nation of Fiji and EU member Slovenia both quickly denied Chinese foreign ministry statements that they were backing Beijing, with Ljubljana saying: “We do not take sides on the issue.”

Reuters

DAVAO: On May 14, five days after voters in the Philippines chose Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte as their next president, two masked gunmen cruised this southern city’s suburbs on a motorbike, looking for their kill.

Gil Gabrillo, 47, a drug user, was returning from a cockfight when the gunmen approached. One of them pumped four bullets into Gabrillo’s head and body, killing the small-time trader of goods instantly. Then the motorbike roared off.

The murder made no headlines in Davao, where Duterte’s loud approval for hundreds of execution-style kill-ings of drug users and criminals over nearly two decades helped propel him

to the highest office of a crime-weary land. Human rights groups have docu-mented at least 1,400 killings in Davao that they allege had been carried out by death squads since 1998. Most of those murdered were drug users, petty criminals and street children.

In a 2009 report, Human Rights Watch identified a consistent failure by police to seriously investigate targeted killings. It said acting and retired police officers worked as “handlers” for death-squad gunmen, giving them names and photos of targets - an allegation denied by Davao police.

But a four-year probe into such killings by the National Bureau of Investigation, the Philippines’ equiv-alent of the FBI, hasn’t led to a single prosecution, and one senior NBI agent said it will probably be shelved now that Duterte is set to become

president. The nation’s Justice Secre-tary last week told reporters the probe may not be able to proceed.

Such impunity, and Duterte’s demands in recent weeks for more summary justice, could embolden death squads across the country, say human rights and church groups. Already there has been a spate of unsolved killings in nearby cities, with other mayors echoing Duterte’s sup-port for vigilante justice.

“We’ve seen it happen in Davao and we’ve seen copycat practices,” Chito Gascon, chairman of the Com-mission on Human Rights (CHR), an independent Philippine watchdog, said. “Now can you imagine he is president and the national model for crime-fighting is Davao?”

Ask Clarita Alia, 62, who still lives in the Davao slum where her four

sons were murdered, and she gives a mirthless chuckle. “Blood will flow like a river,” she says.

Duterte, who has been Davao’s mayor or vice-mayor for most of the past 30 years, has denied any involve-ment in the murders. “I never did that,” he said on the campaign trail in April, responding to allegations he had directed the killings. An Office of the Ombudsman investigation also found there was no evidence connect-ing Duterte to the murders.

He has, though, repeatedly condoned them. For example, in comments to reporters in 2009, he warned: “If you are doing an illegal activity in my city, if you are a crim-inal or part of a syndicate that preys on the innocent people of the city, for as long as I am the mayor, you are a legitimate target of assassination.”

And more recently he has vowed to wipe out crime in six months across the country by killing criminals and drug pushers after he takes office on June 30. “Do not destroy my country, because I will kill you,” the 71-year-old former prosecutor told a news conference in Davao on May 15.

He has also promised to restore the death penalty in the Philippines. People here remember pre-Duterte Davao as a lawless battleground for security forces and Communist rebels. The city’s Agdao district was so vio-lent it was nicknamed “Nicaragdao” after the then war-torn Central Amer-ican nation.

Today, thanks to Duterte’s cam-paigns against drugs and crime, Davao today feels much safer, say the locals. But it still ranks first among 15 Philippine cities for murder and

second for rape, according to national police. Reuters interviews with the families of four Davao victims, one of whom was a 15-year-old, showed that murders continued even as Duterte campaigned for the presidency.

All four killings occurred in the past nine months and bore the hall-marks of a loose-knit group that the locals call the Davao Death Squad.

The victims were shot in day-light or at dusk, three of them on the same street in a riverside slum seething with people. The killers rode motorbikes with no license plates, their faces hidden by hel-mets and masks.

Human rights activists say official investigations of death-squad kill-ings have been hampered by a lack of witnesses, bureaucratic apathy and political influence.

Philippine Congress starts counting votes

House of Representatives and Senate tribunal staff open a ballot box during the presidential and vice-presidential canvassing of votes at the session hall of House of Representatives in Manila yesterday.

The new president and vice president are to take their posts on June 30, when the six-year term of President Benigno Aquino III ends.

last longer if Marcos’s camp raises continuous objections as thousands of election returns from across the coun-try of more than 100 million people are checked and counted.

The new president and vice pres-ident are to take their posts on June 30, when the six-year term of Presi-dent Benigno Aquino III ends.

Aquino campaigned for a former member of his Cabinet, Mar Roxas, as president and the 52-year-old Robredo, a lawyer who advocates

for the poor and whose husband was a popular local politician who died in a plane crash in 2012.

Aquino’s father was an anti-Mar-cos politician who was assassinated while in military custody at the Manila international airport as he returned from U.S. exile in 1983. His mother, Corazon Aquino, helped lead the 1986 revolt, which cata-pulted her to the presidency. The Marcoses have a lot at stake in the vice presidential race, which could

allow them to retake the presidency in six years and rewrite history to their favor, according to left-wing activists who campaigned against the young Marcos.

The Marcoses have denied any wrongdoing by the dictator although a US federal jury awarded a $2bn judgment against his estate in 1995 after finding him liable for torture, summary executions and disappear-ances of political opponents during his 20-year rule.

Death squads very much in business as Duterte set for presidency

Beijing lines up diplomatic

battle groups in sea row

Philippine troops seize Abu Sayyaf camp in Sulu

Population growth slows in Philippines

ASIA / AFRICA 15THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

AFP

NAIROBI: Kenyan police said yes-terday that they had arrested two suspected members of an Islamic State affiliate plotting bomb attacks, weeks after arresting other members of the alleged gang.

Police claimed that the two men, Kiguzo Mwangolo Mgutu and Abu-bakar Jillo Mohammed, had been radicalized in a mosque in a slum in the capital Nairobi, where they were recruited into the Islamic State group (IS), which they said “is seek-ing to establish itself in Kenya.”

The two men are alleged to have been plotting revenge attacks after Mohammed Abdi Ali, the alleged leader of the group and a medical student, was arrested earlier this month along with two others for allegedly planning an anthrax attack. They have not yet been charged.

“Following Mohamed Abdi Ali’s arrest, members of his network have been planning retaliatory attacks using home-made explo-sives,” police said. “The arrest of the two has foiled terror attacks with explosives and other weap-ons that were planned for Nairobi and Mombasa.”

Materials seized suggested the pair had been plotting bombings, with kit taken for forensic analysis including “nails, ball bearings, bat-teries, electrical wire, fertiliser, cell phones and other suspected explo-sive substances,” police added.

While the Somali-led and Al-Qaeda linked Shabaab has been active in Kenya since 2011, after the Kenyan army was deployed in southern Somalia, there has been little evidence to date of an IS pres-ence in the country.

AFP

HARARE: Tens of thousands of Zim-babweans marched through Harare yesterday in support of veteran Pres-ident Robert Mugabe after the main opposition party staged a rally last month calling for him to resign.

“It’s glory that you are giving to the president, but the president says in a reciprocal way that it’s our glory together,” Mugabe told cheer-ing crowds, many of whom were transported to the capital by bus. Organisers had dubbed the event a “million-man” march, but AFP report-ers on the ground estimated the turnout at between 30,000 to 60,000.

The marchers sang songs praising Mugabe and wore t-shirts displaying his image as they gathered at a central park to hear his 90-minute speech.

Mugabe, 92, who has ruled

I belong to my people: Mugabe

Zimbabwe’s President Robert Mugabe and his wife Grace greet supporters of his ZANU-PF party during the “One Million Man March”, a show of support of Mugabe’s rule in Harare, yesterday.

ZANU-PF supporters, many of them young and waving small national flags, arrived in Harare from across the country by bus, train and truck.

Zimbabwe since independence in 1980, has vowed to stand again as president in elections due in 2018. His decades in office have been widely criticised for economic decline, repression of dissent, vote-rigging and mass unemployment and emigration.

“We are happy that we are march-ing for our president to prevent the opposition from distracting the coun-try’s leader,” Taremedzwa Chikara, 56, a housewife and loyal supporter of

Mugabe’s ZANU-PF party, said. “Our president has the people at heart, and we support that a lot.”

Learnmore Muzarabani, 28, a farmer, said he was marching to show his allegiance to Mugabe over controversial land reforms to resettle landless blacks and government pol-icies that force foreign firms to cede majority stakes to locals.

“We are here because we love our president. He has done a lot for us. He

gave us land and now we are support-ing his indigenisation programme,” Muzarabani said. ZANU-PF support-ers, many of them young and waving small national flags, arrived in Harare from across the country by bus, train and truck.

“Comrade Mugabe is not sick, people lie,” supporters sang in one song defending the elderly president, who has been the subject of regular stories about his alleged ill health or

even death. “Forward with President Mugabe,” others chanted, as they car-ried placards carrying messages such as “Youths march in solidarity with the visionary and iconic leadership of President Robert Mugabe.”

Police in anti-riot gear sur-rounded the park, searching people while heavy security patrols were on the streets of Harare in vehicles and on horseback. Last month, a few thousand supporters of the main opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) party attended the big-gest public protest in nearly a decade calling on Mugabe to step down.

Similar anti-Mugabe demonstra-tions have been ruthlessly crushed in the past. Despite signs of ageing, Mugabe appears regularly in public walking unaided and yesterday he delivered a trademark fiery speech.

He called for unity in the ZANU-PF party that has been divided by rival factions jostling to succeed him, and he renewed his attacks on the western powers that he blames for Zimbabwe’s troubles. “There should never be little groups to promote so and so. Those little groups are trea-sonous groups, they poison the party,” he said.

“I belong to my people. I don’t like to be American, I am not a Yankee. I am not a Briton... I belong to Zimba-bwe,” he said. “I am at the service of the people. If the people feel I should go, I go,” he said. “But at the moment where do you want me to go? I am not going anywhere.”

Reuters

KATHMANDU: On his way down from the top of Mount Everest, Indian mountaineer Nava Kumar Phukon saw the woman sway from side to side — a classic sign of severe mountain sickness — as snow and fog reduced visibility to less than 10 feet (3 metres).

Phukon’s sherpa guide later told him the woman was 34-year old Aus-tralian Maria Strydom, who died last Saturday on the high slopes of Ever-est after making a failed push for the summit. “The sherpa who was try-ing to help her told me: ‘She is going to die’,” Phukon said after returning to Kathmandu from his own exhausting but successful summit bid.

“I did not have any extra oxy-gen, clothes or food, not even water to offer to her,” Phukon said. “I was so weak myself.” Both the sherpa guides worked for the same agency Seven Summit Treks and knew each other.

Three deaths in as many days on the world’s tallest mountain have renewed safety concerns after eager climbers flocked to the 8,850-metre (29,035-foot) summit for the first time since last year when an ava-lanche triggered by a magnitude-7.8 earthquake struck Base Camp, and all expeditions ground to a halt.

A Dutch national, also with Seven Summit Treks, died last Friday in the notorious ‘death zone’ where the air is so thin that only the fittest can sur-vive without bottled oxygen, while

an Indian perished on Sunday due to exhaustion. Two other Indian climb-ers have been missing since Saturday, and are feared dead.

Officials from Seven Summit Treks said 13 sherpas bringing Stry-dom’s body down the mountain had encountered heavy snowfall at about 7,700 metres on Tuesday. When the weather improves they will resume the rescue, and her body will be flown to Kathmandu later this week, before the spring climbing season shuts with the onset of the monsoon.

Deaths are not uncommon on Ever-est and the number of fatalities this year is close to average. But experts say the lure of reaching the highest point on Earth is increasingly attracting less experienced climbers served by agen-cies hungry for business.

“Climbers are careless and con-fused about their strength and preparedness,” said 30-year old Indian Ratnesh Pandey after sum-miting Everest on Saturday, without naming anyone. He said temperatures plummeted to minus 30 degrees Cel-sius (minus 22 Fahrenheit) near the top, while fierce winds closed many of the “weather windows” in the upper reaches, making this year’s journey particularly tough.

Scaling Everest is far from the world’s most treacherous climb from a technical perspective. Mountain-eering expert Alan Arnette estimates deaths at about 3 percent of attempts, against one in four on Annapurna, a Nepalese massif with its main peak surpassing 8,000 metres.

Paying the ultimate price on Mt Everest

But less skilled climbers keen to conquer the highest points on each of the world’s continents often fail to appreciate how much more difficult Everest is than the other six, people in the climbing community say.

Competition among low-cost local companies chasing a business that has boomed in recent years and is

no longer dominated by international outfits has meanwhile undermined safety standards, they say.

Some companies, charging around $30,000 a climb, or half that of high-end firms, are known to have sent relatively inexperienced climbers up the mountain without medically trained guides. Climbing

is big business in Nepal, earning the government $3.1m from 289 Everest permit fees this year.

Critics accuse Kathmandu of fail-ing to enforce rules requiring past experience of high climbs, but Tour-ism Department official Bishnu Regmi said the government was committed to safety.

Reuters

PROBOLINGGO: Thirteen-year-old Siti Maryam says she suffers head-aches and nausea after harvesting tobacco leaves with her bare hands during four years of working on her family’s farm in Indonesia.

Maryam, who is among the thou-sands of children a rights group says work in hazardous conditions on farms in the world’s fifth-biggest producer of tobacco, spoke to Reu-ters in a field near the east Java city of Probolinggo.

“I feel dizzy, get headaches and feel like vomiting,” said Maryam,

listing symptoms that match a condition experts call acute nicotine poisoning, or “green tobacco sickness”.

Indonesia is one of the world’s fastest-growing markets for tobacco products, with about $16bn of ciga-rettes sold last year in the country of 250 million, an increase of 13 percent from 2014, says market research firm Euromonitor International.

But a lack of information leaves families oblivious to the risks their children face while working on tobacco farms, said Margaret Wurth, a researcher for New York-based Human Rights Watch. Several big companies lack procedures to screen out tobacco that involves the effort of children working in hazardous

conditions, the group said.“As a result, these companies risk

contributing to the use of, and bene-fiting from, hazardous child labour,” it added. The group interviewed 227 people, among them 132 children aged between 8 and 17, who said they worked on tobacco farms in four Indo-nesian provinces. But the report risks generalising the whole of Indonesia and some children do work in non-hazard-ous conditions on tobacco farms, the chairman of the Indonesian tobacco farmers’ association, Soeseno, said.

“The root of the problem is poverty in certain small villages,” he said. Par-ents getting children to help is in line with cultural norms in some areas, Soeseno, who goes by one name, like

many Indonesians, said. Customers do not normally ask whether child labour is involved, said Suradi, a trader who buys tobacco from farmers in Probolinggo for resale. “When I send the tobacco to the storehouse it only depends on the qual-ity,” he said. Human Rights Watch said it contacted some of the biggest com-panies operating in Indonesia, such as Philip Morris International Inc, Djarum Group and PT Gudang Garam Tbk.

In the tobacco field in Probol-inggo, a dozen children helped to sow seeds, earning about 10,000 to 15,000 rupiah ($0.73 to $1.10) for working seven hours a day. “I work here just to help my parents and help to fulfill our needs,” said 15-year-old Wara-datul Yaumi.

Childhood goes up in smoke for Indonesian tobacco farm workers

Kenya arrests

two over ‘IS’

bomb plot

AFP

KINSHASA: A Democratic Repub-lic of Congo opposition group, angered by a court decision to let President Joseph Kabila remain in office beyond his term, yesterday vowed to hold nationwide pro-tests in defiance of bans imposed in some regions.

“To publicly protest with strict adherence to the law is an inal-ienable right granted under our Constitution,” the Citizens’ Front, said in a statement.

Demonstrations have been prohibited by authorities in the central African country’s restive North Kivu province in the east and in the second city of Lubum-bashi in the south.

Nonetheless the Citizens’ Front group said it would hold nation-wide marches on Thursday to protest the Constitutional Court’s ruling this month that Kabila can remain in a caretaker capacity beyond the expiry of his term in December.

The opposition group called the court’s decision an “attempt at a constitutional coup d’etat by which the judiciary, under orders from political powers, has shame-fully violated the law”.

DR Congo oppn

group vows to

defy protest bans

A girl harvesting tobacco on a farm near Sampang, East Java.

PAKISTAN16 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Afghan Taliban appoint Akhundzada as new leader

AFP

KABUL: The Afghan Taliban yes-terday announced Haibatullah Akhundzada (pictured) as their new leader, elevating a low-pro-file religious figure in a swift power transition after officially confirming the death of Mullah Mansour in a US drone strike.

Akhundzada, formerly one of

Mansour’s deputies, faces the enor-mous challenge of unifying an increasingly fragmented militant movement while it remains unclear whether he will emulate Mansour in shunning peace talks with the Afghan government. “Haibatullah Akhund-zada has been appointed as the new leader of the Islamic Emirate (Tali-ban) after a unanimous agreement in the Shura (supreme council), and all the members of Shura pledged alle-giance to him,” the insurgents said in a statement.

It added that Sirajuddin Haqqani, an implacable foe of US forces, and Mullah Yakoub, the son of Taliban founder Mullah Omar, were appointed his deputies. Analysts had previously seen them as the most likely candi-dates for the leadership.

“The leader of Islamic Emir-ate of Afghanistan and commander of faithful, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, was martyred in a US drone strike in... Pakistan’s Balochistan province,” the statement said, in the insurgents’ first confirmation of his death.

Before his killing, Mansour had written a will handpicking Akhun-dzada to be his successor, Taliban sources said, in an apparent bid to lend legitimacy to his appointment.

“The new leader’s appointment is a good opportunity for the Taliban to return to peace talks and rebuild their country,” Afghan presidential spokes-man Dawa Khan Menapal said.

“If they reject peace talks they will face the same fate as Mansour.”

But “the status quo remains unchanged” after Akhundza-da’s appointment, Taliban expert Rahimullah Yousafzai said. “I don’t foresee any shift from Mansour’s pol-icies. He is unlikely to negotiate peace with the Afghan government.”

Other observers say Akhundzada, who is from Kandahar, is seen as more of a spiritual figurehead than a mili-tary commander. “Even if he favours peace talks, he is unlikely to pro-ceed without consensus within the supreme council” where many vehe-mently oppose negotiations, said analyst Amir Rana.

“Akhundzada enjoys some moral supremacy within Taliban ranks but he will be more of a symbolic leader than a functional leader,” he added.

Rana stressed that his deputies will likely play a more active role, with Haqqani overseeing the military side and Yakoub the political side.

The US killing of Mansour showed

that Washington has at least for now abandoned hopes of reviving the direct peace talks between Kabul and the Taliban, which broke down last summer.

It marked a significant shift for Washington, highlighting a new will-ingness to target the group’s leaders in Pakistan and risk retaliatory attacks against struggling Afghan security forces. Saturday’s drone attack, the first known American assault on a top Afghan Taliban leader on Paki-stani soil, sent shockwaves through the insurgent movement which had seen a resurgence under Mansour.

He was killed just nine months after being formally appointed leader following a bitter power struggle upon confirmation of founder Mul-lah Omar’s death.

Omar died in 2013, but his death was kept secret for two years, with Mansour issuing statements in his name — a revelation that helped fuel internal opposition and splintered the group into rival factions.

Akhundzada faces a similar

challenge in unifying Taliban ranks.A breakaway faction led by Mul-

lah Rassoul rejected Akhundzada’s appointment, saying he was selected inside Pakistan without any broad consultation with field commanders in Afghanistan.

The Taliban’s supreme council held emergency meetings that began on Sunday in southwest Pakistan to try to find a unifying figure for the leadership post.

Taliban sources said council members were lying low and con-stantly changing the venue of their meetings to avoid any fresh air strikes.

The Taliban said Wednesday’s sui-cide attack in Paghman district near Kabul, which the UN condemned as “cowardly”, was in revenge for the execution of six Taliban-linked inmates.

The executions earlier this month were approved as part of Afghan Pres-ident Ashraf Ghani’s new hardline policy against the insurgents after a brazen Taliban attack in April killed at least 64 people.

The low-profile religious figure faces the enormous challenge of unifying an increasingly fragmented militant movement.

11 dead in suicide bombing in KabulAP

KABUL: A suicide bomber targeted a minibus carrying court employees in Kabul during morning rush hour yes-terday, killing 11 people, Afghan and UN official said. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.

The bomber, who was on foot, detonated his explosives’ vest as he walked by the vehicle in the western part of the city, said Najib Danish, the Interior Ministry’s deputy spokesman.

The casualties in the bomb-ing included both court workers and civilians and the explosion also wounded four people, Danish said. The minibus belonged to the judiciary department in neighbouring Maidan Wardak province and was taking the workers there when it came under attack, he added.

Within an hour of the assault, the Taliban, who often target government employees in their war against the state, claimed responsibility for the

bombing. The claim came from Zabi-hullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, in an email sent to the media.

“This attack was carried out as revenge for the killing of six innocent prisoners in Kabul,” the statement said. It was a reference to the hang-ing early this month at a Kabul prison of six Taliban members convicted of terrorism.

President Ashraf Ghani’s office at the time said he had “approved execu-tions of six terrorists who perpetrated grave crimes against civilians and security personnel.”

The executions were the first approved by Ghani since he took office in 2014, promising to end the war. After the hanging, a Taliban statement accusing Kabul and the United States of torture, inhumane treatment and “killings under suspi-cious circumstances.”

The suicide attack in Kabul was the second of its kind on the judici-ary this month — a judge was gunned down by unknown attackers in Kabul earlier in May.

The UN mission in Afghanistan condemned the attack.

Since January 1, UNAMA has ver-ified 14 separate attacks targeting judges, prosecutors and judicial staff in Afghanistan, resulting in nine civil-ian deaths and 19 civilians wounded. Also, there have been four incidents

of abduction of judicial staff. The Tal-iban claimed responsibility for seven of these incidents, said UNAMA.

“Attacks against judicial author-ities are cowardly and contrary to international humanitarian law,” said Nicholas Haysom, the chief of UNAMA, adding that the mission

urges “authorities to do everything in their power to ensure adequate pro-tection of judicial officials.”

The last major attack in Kabul was on April 19, when a massive bomb killed 64 people and wounded hun-dreds. The Taliban also claimed that bombing.

Afghan security officials inspect a vehicle that was hit by a suicide bomber in Kabul, yesterday.

US adds two Pakistan-based groups to terror blacklist

AFP

WASHINGTON: The United States yesterday designated two Paki-stan-based groups with links to the Taliban as global terrorist threats.

As “Specially Designated Glo-bal Terrorists”, US citizens are forbidden from associating with the Tariq Gidar Group (TGG) and the Jamaat ul Dawa al-Quran (JDQ). Any assets owned by the groups in places under US juris-diction will be frozen, and US law enforcement will be authorised to investigate their activity.

According to the US State Department, the TGG is linked to the Tehreek-i-Taliban — the Paki-stani Taliban — and is based in Darra Adam Khel, Pakistan.

The faction, US officials believe, was responsible for the December 2014 massacre at an army-run school in Peshawar that left more than 130 children dead.

The TGG is led by Umar Man-soor, who is said to also have ordered the January 2016 attack on a university in Charsadda that left more than 20 dead. The desig-nation also says that the TGG was behind the 2008 kidnapping and beheading of Polish geologist Piotr Stanczak in Attock.

The second group, the JDQ, is said to be based in Peshawar but to have sworn allegiance to the late leader of the Afghan Taliban, Mul-lah Omar. In addition to this link to the Afghan movement, the State Department says JDQ has alli-ances with Al Qaeda and Pakistani Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba.

Washington blames the group for the 2010 kidnapping of Brit-ish aid worker Linda Norgrove in Afghanistan.

US Senate approves reimbursement fund for PakistanInternews

ISLAMABAD: The US Senate Armed Services Committee has approved a proposal to set up a new fund to reim-burse Pakistan for its efforts in the war against terror. The new fund also delinks the country from Afghanistan.

The committee’s chairman, Sen-ator John McCain, introduced the bill, which sets aside up to $800m for reimbursing Pakistan and the

proposal is included in the Senate version of the National DefenceAu-thorisation Act, 2017, passed on May 18. Under the current arrangement, Pakistan is reimbursed from the Coa-lition Support Fund (CSF) and has received a total of $3.1bn since 2013. The CSF expires in the 2016 financial year, which ends in October.

The bill, however, requires Pakistan to keep open ground com-munication lines to Afghanistan for receiving reimbursements from this fund. And $300m is linked to taking

action against the Haqqani network. Another bill, passed by the House

of Representatives last week, linked $450m from a total of $900m pro-posed for Pakistan to take action against the Haqqani network. But the Senate bill is different from the House version. The proposed fund replaces the CSF, which was for reimbursing Pakistan for its support to US and coa-lition activities in Afghanistan. The new provision takes the same reim-bursement model but focuses on Pakistan and on US national security

interests. In doing so, it breaks the link between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Lawmakers noted that the US has withdrawn most of its troops from Afghanistan. The US-led coalition is also winding up its activities. With this change in the nature of US mis-sion in Afghanistan, policymakers in Washington felt that it is no longer rel-evant to link Pakistan to Afghanistan.

Instead, they decided to link the new fund to Pakistan’s own secu-rity and stability, which Washington sees as important for its own national

security interests. While considering the proposal, the committee noted that “Pakistan has been a long-stand-ing strategic partner of the United States” and expressed its desire to continue a “strong and endur-ing” relationship between the two countries. The committee endorsed the proposal to “transition security assistance to Pakistan to a bilateral programme focused on the stability and security of Pakistan, rather than the more narrow previous focus of Coalition Support Funds”.

Top general urges lawmakers to preserve Afghan visa programmeAP

WASHINGTON: Afghan civilians who assisted the American-led coalition as interpreters, firefight-ers and construction workers could be in serious danger if Congress can-cels a programme that allows them to resettle in the United States, accord-ing to the top American commander in Afghanistan.

The warning from Army Gen. John Nicholson comes with the future of the so-called special immigrant visa programme in doubt as the Sen-ate opens up debate on the annual defence policy bill.

The programme’s backers, who include Senator John McCain, the Republican chairman of the Senate

Armed Services Committee, said it’s unconscionable to deny entry to Afghans who are risk of becoming targeted by the Taliban and other extremists for siding with the coali-tion. Nicholson’s remarks, outlined in a May 20 letter to McCain, under-score that concern.

Opposition to the programme centers on the potential $446m price tag of expanding the programme and concerns that issuing visas to the thousands of Afghans who aided the US and its allies will drain Afghani-stan of much needed talent.

Nicholson told McCain that aban-doning the special visa programme would “significantly undermine” US credibility and 15 years of enormous personal costs made since US forces invaded Afghanistan.

“Fa i lure to adequately

demonstrate a shared understand-ing of their sacrifices and honor our commitment to any Afghan who supports the International Secu-rity Assistance Force and Resolute Support missions could have grave consequences for these individuals and bolster the propaganda our ene-mies,” Nicholson wrote.

Congress has added 7,000 visas to the programme over the last two years alone to meet the demand and the Obama administration requested 4,000 more for the fiscal year that begins on October 1.

Since December 2014, the State Department has issued 3,200 spe-cial immigrant visas to Afghans who worked for the coalition. Thou-sands more visas are being processed through a pipeline that can take 270 days from start to finish.

US General John Nicholson, Commander of Resolute Support Mission in Afghanistan, talks with girls as Humayoun Aziz (left), Governor of Kandahar, looks on, in Kandahar, yesterday.

INDIA 17THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

A woman spins cotton thread on a spinning wheel on the outskirts of Agartala yesterday.

Thread of tradition

Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma at a promotional event for her forthcoming Hindi film ‘Sultan’, in Mumbai late on Tuesday. The film is directed by Ali Abbas Zafar.

Promo emotion

New Delhi seeks to allay fears among Africans

IANS

NEW DELHI: With African heads of mission demanding strong action from the government in the wake of a Congolese man’s murder in the national capital last week, India yesterday moved to assuage the grievances of the envoys and assured them of the safety and security of African nationals in the country.

The Africa Day celebrations being organised by the Indian Coun-cil of Cultural Relations (ICCR) today, from which the envoys said they would stay away, will also now be held as scheduled.

According to sources, Minister of State for External Affairs V K Singh who met with Eritrean Ambassador Alem Tsehage Woldemariam, also the dean of the Group of African Heads of Mission, and a few other diplomats, strongly condemned the criminal act and assured them that the strongest legal action would be taken.

Masonda Ketada Olivier, 29, was beaten to death by three youths around 11.30pm on Friday after an altercation over the hiring of an auto-rickshaw near Kishangarh

village in Vasant Kunj area of south Delhi.

Two of the accused have been arrested while the third is on the run.

On Tuesday, Woldemariam in a statement on behalf of all the Afri-can heads of mission, sought strong action by the Indian government against the perpetrators of the mur-derous attack on Olivier.

Woldemariam said the envoys requested that the event be post-poned, and that the African nations also decided not to participate in the celebrations, except for a cul-tural troupe from Lesotho.

“This is because the African community in India, including stu-dents, are in a state of mourning in memory of the slain African stu-dents in the last few years, including Olivier,” the statement said.

The sources said yesterday that Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najib Jung and Delhi Police chief Alok Kumar Verma have been spoken to and were pursuing the matter.

Stating that Singh assured the heads of African missions of the Indian government’s full support, the sources said Singh would also do an outreach event with African students along with embassies concerned to reassure them of their safety.

“It was also decided that the minister of state would meet the African heads of mission every three months,” they said.

“On the issue of the ICCR’s Africa Day event, Singh impressed upon the African heads of mission the need to continue the tradition but also said that we would be guided by the Afri-can heads of mission in the matter.”

AFP

NEW DELHI: Panic buttons will have to be fitted on all India’s public buses to curb sex attacks on women, the transport minis-ter said yesterday, more than three years after the fatal gang-rape of a student on a bus in Delhi.

The Transport Ministry said it would issue a formal order after June 2 making the emergency measures on public buses a must.

“To ensure the safety of women after the unfortunate inci-dent, we have decided to make it mandatory for public transport buses to install emergency panic buttons, CCTV cameras and GPS-enabled vehicle tracking devices,” Nitin Gadkari told reporters in New Delhi.

He was referring to the brutal attack on a woman in December 2012 as she returned home from the cinema.

The assault triggered outrage and mass protests across India, leading to an overhaul of its rape laws but high numbers of assaults persist.

Rajasthan is the first state in India to have such buses, with 20 vehicles fitted with the new safety measures. Panic buttons are placed above the front doors which, once pressed, send an emergency mes-sage to a police control room that can then view live footage of the bus interior. Gadkari said all public buses would have to be modelled the same way, while manufactur-ers must ensure new buses come equipped with the facilities.

The government’s latest anti-sex attack move follows its announcement last month that all mobile phones sold in India would have to have a panic button from the start of 2017.

Challenged girl violated in Delhi IANS

NEW DELHI: A 13-year-old mentally challenged girl is under treatment at the All India Institute of Medical Sci-ences (AIIMS) for the past week for critical injuries she received after a sexual assault by a neighbour, police said yesterday. The accused has been arrested.

Police was informed of the rape on the morning of May 18 and found the girl lying unconscious in south Delhi’s Pul Prahladpur area. She had gone missing from her aunt’s home in Badarpur village in south Delhi the day before.

“The girl was admitted to AIIMS. Her condition after a week is now sta-ble,” Deputy Commissioner of Police, Mandeep Singh Randhawa, said.

On coming to know of the inci-dent, Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chief Swati Maliwal said yes-terday that she will send a notice to Delhi Police as they failed to inform her and the commission even a week after the incident. “It is very shocking that Delhi Police did not inform DCW despite their responsibility to share such information with us. I will send a notice to Delhi Police on why they did not inform the commission about the incident,” Maliwal said.

Another police officer, on condi-tion of anonymity, said that the girl

has received cuts on her back, neck and private parts.

A case under Sections 376 (rape) and 363 (kidnapping) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) has been registered at Pul Prahladpur police station, near Badarpur.

The officer said the accused, who also lives in Badarpur village, was arrested today (yesterday).

“The accused lured the girl on pretext of offering her something and took her to Pul Prahladpur area where he raped her at a secluded place and fled,” the officer said.

The officer said that relatives of the girl, who is an orphan, com-plained to police after she was found in a deserted area.

Congress questions

invite to Amitabh

for govt’s India

Gate programme

IANS

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Tuesday questioned the gov-ernment’s decision to invite Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan to host a show at India Gate here on May 28 to highlight the Narendra Modi government’s achievements in the last two years.

“We don’t have any objec-tion either to Amitabh Bachchan or Prime Minister Narendra Modi because we respect Bachchan as an actor and Modi as the prime minister but what signal will it send to the agencies investigat-ing the Panama Papers leaks,” Congress spokesperson Randeep Surjewala told reporters here.

“Prime Minister Narendra Modi needs to think over it,” he added.

The Congress leader said that although Bachchan had denied his involvement in the Panama Papers controversy and “I sincerely hope that he will be exonerated, but it (invite) sends a wrong signal to the investigating agencies as well as the nation”.

“In the Panama Papers case, one of the names that has come out happens to be of the artiste con-cerned and his family.

“When a person accused of such a thing is seen hosting a pro-gramme to celebrate two years of the Modi government, does it not send a signal to the investigat-ing agency not to proceed against those who are under suspicion for having stashed black money abroad in foreign bank accounts?” Surjewala asked.

The event at India Gate is likely to include talk shows on the government’s achievements, inter-spersed with cultural programmes.

“Would it not defeat and weaken both morally, ethically and also perhaps legally, the drive of the prime minister to punish every individual found to have stashed black money abroad. This is some-thing that he must ponder over.”

BJP president says confident of winning UP electionsIANS

NEW DELHI: BJP president Amit Shah yesterday said the party has not decided if it will project a chief minis-terial candidate for the Uttar Pradesh assembly polls next year and that the ruling Samajwadi Party would be the BJP’s main rival.

Shah said he was confident of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) coming to power in Uttar Pradesh, adding that “maladministration” of the Sama-jwadi Party government will be the main issue in the assembly elections.

“The SP is the main challenge in

Uttar Pradesh as it has strong base and its cadre is also comparatively staunch,” Shah told select group of journalists here at a function to mark two years of the Narendra Modi gov-ernment at the Centre.

Asked if the party has decided to replicate Assam’s model of project-ing a chief ministerial candidate in Uttar Pradesh, Shah said “we have not decided what to do.”

Asked if the option was open, he said “Yes.” Following its deba-cle in Bihar assembly polls last year, the BJP projected a chief ministerial candidate in Assam and won the polls along with its allies. Uttar Pradesh is

expected to go to assembly polls early next year and there has been specu-lation if the BJP will project a chief ministerial candidate.

Asked about the Ram temple issue, Shah said that it figures in the party’s manifesto.

On Punjab, which will also go to polls early next year, Shah said the party will stick to its alliance with the Shiromani Akali Dal. Without nam-ing Aam Aadmi Party, which is seen as a contender for power in the state, he said “there is hype visible.”

“The spread at the grassroots, this also matters. Punjab is not Delhi. It matters whether the party has a

base,” he said. Answering a question on Bihar, he said the party has “done a lot of analysis” over its perform-ance in the state. Asked if there will be change of leadership in Gujarat, he said the issue had not been discussed.

“Whenever elections are held in the state, the BJP will win with a thumping majority,” he stressed.

Shah said he was “most happy” over the party’s performance in the Kerala assembly polls where it entered the assembly for the first time.

He said the party will contest the next polls to form a government in the state. On the party’s vic-tory in Assam, he said it was a “big

ideological achievement.” “We are getting emotional phone calls from party workers,” he said.

Asked if the Congress or a third front will be the main rival of the BJP in the next general elections, Shah said that “the situation was not yet clear.”

“Congress is getting squeezed,” he added. Answering a query, he said that party’s slogan of Congress-free India meant ridding the administra-tion of the ills of the past.

Asked about the major challenge he faces, Shah said that keeping up accomplishments was itself a very big challenge.

New Kerala govt to review all ‘controversial’ decisions

Next launch vehicle test time after studying dataIANS

CHENNAI: India will test its next set of space technologies relating to the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) after studying the data collected from the May 23 flight of RLV-Technol-ogy Demonstrator, a senior official in the Indian space agency said.

“We will have to study the data generated from the May 23 flight. Then we have to decide on the next set of technologies to be tested on the next flight. We have not finalised the time frame for the next RLV flight,” K Sivan, director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC), told reporters here yesterday.

The VSSC located in Thiruvanan-thapuram builds the Indian rockets that put into orbit earth observation and communication satellites.

According to Sivan, the next RLV will be made to land on a run-way like stretch to be built at India’s rocket port at Sriharikota around 80km from here.

“We have identified the land and construction activities are yet to begin,” he added.

On May 23, ISRO successfully took the first step in developing a RLV by successfully testing an

aircraft like winged structure.Called RLV-TD HEX 01 mission,

the winged structure which sat atop a rocket was released into space.

The winged structure came back and landed in the Bay of Bengal, as originally planned.

“As per data the RLV-TD landed softly in Bay of Bengal. As per our calculations it would have disin-tegrated at the speed at which it touched the sea,” Sivan said.

He said the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) plans to put into orbit around 60 satellites over the next five years and the bulk of them will be earth observation satellites.

He said the first developmen-tal flight of India’s heaviest rocket geosynchronous satellite launch vehicle-Mark III (GSLV-MkIII) will take place in December this year carrying the GSAT-19 satellite.

Sivan said the second develop-mental flight of GSLV-MkIII is slated for December 2017.

“The time gap is mainly to study the data generated from the first flight and also to develop the necessary hardware. Once the two developmental flights are success-ful, the rocket will be termed fit for commercial flights,” Sivan said.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The new Pinarayi Vijayan-led LDF government in Kerala yesterday decided to review all “contro-versial” decisions taken by the previous Oommen Chandy gov-ernment since the beginning of this year.

Addressing reporters after the first cabinet meeting, Vijayan said a cabinet sub-committee led by State Minister A K Balan will review all the controversial deci-sions taken from January 1 till the first week of March, when the assembly polls were announced.

“Certain controversial deci-sions were made and all such decisions that the subcommittee deems fit for a review would be done,” said Vijayan.

Another important decision taken was to appoint a special team led by top police official B Sandhya to probe the murder of law student Jisha who was found dead in her home last month at Perumbavoor in Ernakulam district. “There were lots of ques-tions raised right from the way the first information report was pre-pared and the way the body was interred”, said Vijayan.

Federal minister chosen to calm down enraged heads of mission.

Panic buttons

mandatory on

public buses

A woman carries a child on her shoulder in New Delhi yesterday.

No child’s play

INDIA18 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Official denies evicting tribals from reserve

Reuters

BHUBANESWAR: A wildlife official in central India yesterday rejected claims that tribes living in a tiger sanctuary inspired by Rudyard Kipling’s “The Jungle Book” were being forced from their ancestral land to protect the endangered ani-mals.

Indigenous rights group Survival International says the Baiga tribes in the Achanakmar Wildlife Sanctu-ary in Chhattisgarh state are being harassed by forest guards to leave the land where they have lived for generations.

B N Dwivedi, principal chief con-servator of forests and chief wildlife warden in Chhattisgarh, said there were plans to relocate some tribal villages that are inside the sanctu-ary, but that no force was being used.

“When we evacuate some villag-ers from the tiger reserve, it cannot be done without their permission, without their acceptance, without their saying ‘yes’,” Dwivedi told the Thomson Reuters Foundation by phone from Raipur, the capital of Chhattisgarh.

“The allegation that they are being relocated forcefully is not cor-rect and entirely incorrect.”

Achanakmar covers an area of 552 sq km and is home to numerous flora and fauna, including endan-gered animals such as leopards, wild

bison and the Bengal tiger.It forms part of a tiger corridor

to the neighbouring Kanha National Park, which provided the inspira-tion for “The Jungle Book”, Kipling’s novel about an abandoned boy who is raised by wolves in the jungle in India.

London-based Survival Inter-national said the Baiga people were told they will have to move from their villages to a muddy clearing outside the reserve, even though there is no evidence their presence in the reserve is harming tigers.

In fact, it said, the number of tigers in the reserve has report-edly risen to 28 in 2015, from 12 in 2011.

“It’s illegal and immoral to target tribes, who have co-existed with the tiger for centuries, when industrial-isation and mass-scale colonial-era hunting are the real reason the tiger became endangered,” said Survival’s Director Stephen Corry.

“Big conservation organisations should be partnering with tribal peoples, not propping up the forest departments that are guilty of bru-talising them. Targeting tribal people harms conservation,” Corry said in a statement on Monday.

Despite a slew of “pro-poor” pol-icies, activists say India’s economic boom has bypassed many tribal communities, who make up more than 8 percent of its population of 1.3 billion people.

Many live in forest villages, eking out a living by farming, rearing cat-tle, collecting and selling fruit and leaves.

The Forest Rights Act, a law recognising the right of indigenous tribes to inhabit forests where their forefathers had settled centuries ear-lier, came into force in 2008.

President invites

Chinese to

‘Make in India’

IANS

GUANGZHOU: President Pranab Mukherjee yesterday invited Chi-nese entrepreneurs to participate in the ‘Make in India’ initiative and said India was committed to pro-viding “conducive atmosphere” for investment from China.

The president, who is on a four-day visit of China, said India believes that there is “great poten-tial for economic and commercial cooperation among our nations, which face similar opportunities and challenges”.

“To realise the full potential of our economic partnership, it is important to bridge the infor-mation gap between our business communities. India is committed to providing a conducive envi-ronment for more investments from China,” Mukherjee said. “We believe that stepping up our two-way trade and investment flows will be of mutual benefit to both our nations. We welcome Chinese investments and entrepreneurs to participate in ‘Make in India’ and other flagship initiatives.”

President Pranab Mukherjee (centre) and China’s Vice-President Li Yuanchao (rear) attend a reception in China’s capital Beijing yesterday.

J&K governor praises Modi’s outreach to neighboursIANS

SRINAGAR: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s peace initiative with neigh-bouring countries would bear positive dividends for the strife-torn Jammu and Kashmir, Governor N N Vohra said here yesterday.

In his address to the joint session of the state’s bicameral legislature on the first day of its budget session, Vohra said: “The prime minister’s bold initiative of reaching out to Pakistan in a bid to establish lasting peace in the region has been welcomed in the state and revived the hope for peace,

particularly along the borders where the lives of the people have been shattered.”

He said the impact of Modi’s visit to Lahore and the bilateral dialogues at different levels “have generated hope for our state, which has for long borne the brunt of unstable relations between the two countries”.

“The state government is com-mitted to pursuing and strengthening the path of peace and dialogue for achieving reconciliation and devel-opment,” Vohra said.

Vohra also remembered late chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed “whose entire political career was

marked by unwavering commitment to securing inclusive political stabil-ity and advancing the interests of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”.

Mufti died in January and his daughter Mehbooba Mufti is now heading the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP)-Bharatiya Janata Pary (BJP) government in the state.

“Perhaps the best collective trib-ute which this house can pay to Mufti would be to join hands and work, with single minded devotion, for generat-ing an inclusive political environment and securing rapid and equita-ble growth and development of the state.”

He said the government was receptive to any debate as “dissent is an inherent and valued element of the democratic discourse between one and all, between those in gov-ernment and those on the other side.

“There should be no occasion to feel discouraged or offended by voices of dissent.”

The governor said that the state government was committed to safeguarding the “special status ... accorded to Jammu and Kashmir in the constitution of India and has been also spelt out in the agenda of the alliance which forms the basis of the PDP-BJP coalition government”.

Contempt plea against

guru to be heard in AugustIANS

NEW DELHI: The National Green Tribunal will take up on August 2 the arguments on plea for contempt proceedings against spiritual guru Sri Sri Ravi Shankar for his alleged statement terming the environment compensation imposed by the green tribunal as politically motivated.

The Art of Living (AoL), founded by Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, has main-tained that the foundation has not flouted any environment norms while organising the World Culture Festival (WCF) or caused any dam-age to the Yamuna floodplains where the three-day event was held.

The National Green Tribunal (NGT) yesterday asserted that it has powers to move contempt proceed-ings against anybody disobeying its orders.

“The Tribunal has power to pun-ish the people disobeying its orders.

Section 19(4) of the NGT Act vests the power of Civil Courts in us. We can issue contempt notices,” Justice Swatanter Kumar, the chairperson of the NGT and former Supreme Court judge, said while respond-ing to queries of Art of Living (AoL) counsel.

The National Green Tribunal had asked the AoL to pay Rs50m as environment compensation for the damage the World Culture Fes-tival (WCF) had caused to the fragile Yamuna floodplains’ eco-system in March this year.

Even two months after the event ended, the foundation is yet to pay the entire amount, although it had paid a part of it (Rs2.5m) before the commencement of the event.

The court has also directed the principal committee it had appointed in March to “assess the damage incurred by the WCF to the floodplains” and submit a report by June 8.

Challenges galore but Assam win gives BJP a fillipIANS

NEW DELHI: It has been a see-saw ride for the BJP since it formed an alliance government at the cen-tre two years ago but victory in the Assam polls has helped it wrest back the political momentum it lost after defeats in Delhi and Bihar. The vic-tory has also helped the BJP emerge as a party with a noticeable pan-India presence while also brightening its prospects for the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

The BJP victories in several state elections after the 2014 Lok Sabha polls have helped build the perception that the Narendra Modi government continues to enjoy the support of the people in various regions. In the last two years, the party has been able to

install its chief ministers in Haryana, Maharashtra, Jharkhand and Assam. It also emerged as the second biggest party in Jammu and Kashmir, where it is part of the ruling coalition.

The BJP victories have also dealt a severe blow to the Congress, which now has governments only in six states — with Karnataka being the only big state in its kitty. The party had won only 44 seats in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections — to the BJP’s 282 in a 545-member house.

BJP leaders say that the vic-tory in Assam will have an impact on national politics and help build its campaign for the crucial Uttar Pradesh assembly polls early next year.

“The Assam victory will have an immense impact on national politics. It has sparked debate about surgery in

Congress and has energised the BJP cadres for the Uttar Pradesh elec-tions,” BJP MP Jagdambika Pal said.

Uttar Pradesh sends 80 MPs to Lok Sabha and will be among five states where assembly polls will be held early next year.

Party leader Tapir Gao said the BJP would also be looking for victory in Manipur next year.

The party’s coming to power in Assam, its entry in Kerala assembly and being part of the ruling coali-tion in Jammu and Kashmir has made BJP a truly pan-India party. BJP has appears to have replaced Congress as the primary pillar of national polity.

BJP leaders say the party’s per-formance in the future polls is directly linked to the people’s per-ception about the Modi government’s performance.

“As a ruling party and a govern-ment, we may be doing far better job. But we need to do a lot in terms of the perception battle,” BJP leader Kailash Vijayvargiya said.

Neiphiu Rio, who is a Nagaland Peoples Front MP from Nagaland, said it was time to implement schemes as mere slogans will not help.

“I know about the intention of the Modi government. I know about the schemes for the northeast and poor people in general. But now it is time to implement, mere slogans won’t help,” Rio said. The NPF sup-ports the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government. Former Lok Sabha secretary general Sub-ash C Kashyap said that Modi has to deliver for his party. “Prime Minis-ter Modi does not have an excuse for failure. He will have to deliver both

for himself and his party. The Modi government had come as a breath of fresh air,” Kashyap said.

On the flip side, the BJP has had to tick off some of its own MPs for remarks that created controversies and sought to take away focus from governance. There have also been controversies created by fringe ele-ments. Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh chief Mohan Bhagwat’s remarks about quotas, which the organisation subse-quently clarified, are believed to have cost BJP dear in the Bihar assembly polls. The party also suffered as its campaign was seen to be aggressive and it had no local leader as chief ministerial candidate.

In Delhi, the party choos-ing a chief ministerial candidate days before the assembly polls was counterproductive.

Harassament alleged in ‘Jungle Book’ tiger sanctuary.

Modi government

has met with

failures on most

fronts: JD-U IANS

NEW DELHI: Even as the Naren-dra Modi government completes two years at the Centre, the oppo-sition parties are mincing no words in criticising its performance. Yesterday, the Janata Dal-United (JD-U) targeted the Modi dis-pensation, saying the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) gov-ernment has failed on most fronts.

“The Narendra Modi govern-ment, which came to power by fuelling high expectations of devel-opment, has failed on almost all fronts,” JD-U spokesman K C Tyagi said.

“Seven core industrial sec-tors are showing negative growth and the government has failed to push critical reforms like the GST (goods and services tax). The flagship programmes of Narendra Modi government have been high on promises but low on delivery,” he said.

Tyagi said that the “achche din” promised in terms of creat-ing employment opportunities for the youth are yet to materialise.

“The recent developments reaffirm the government’s scant regard for the interests of the working class as well as the sal-aried sections of the society,” he said.

The JD-U leader added that the fringe elements are vitiating the atmosphere, and the minority and marginalised communities are liv-ing under constant threat.

“Severe repression of students in central universities is seen all over the country. Black money stashed away abroad has not been brought back.

“Farming sector is reel-ing under severe stress, and the government refused to hike the minimum support price to the farmers,” Tyagi said.

EUROPE / UK 19THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

People protest during a rally organised by trade unions in the day of the strike of public workers of Rome city and Lazio region, in the centre of Rome, yesterday.

Landmark protest

Nadiya Savchenko was released as part of prisoner swap between Moscow and Kiev where two Russians in Ukraine were returned to Moscow.

AFP

KIEV: Ukrainian pilot Nadiya Savchenko returned home to a hero’s welcome yesterday after nearly two years in a Russian jail following a pris-oner swap with Moscow that drew a line under a major diplomatic spat.

The 35-year-old army helicopter pilot flew home as part of a carefully choreographed exchange with Mos-cow, with two alleged Russian soldiers leaving Ukraine earlier in the day.

“I’m ready to once again give my life for Ukraine on the battlefield,” a defiant Savchenko declared after she touched down on home soil.

Soon after the presidential plane brought Savchenko home, a

presidential motorcade whisked her from Kiev’s main Boryspil airport to Poroshenko’s office where he awarded her the Hero of Ukraine order, the country’s highest honour.

In Ukraine, she has become a symbol of resistance against what Kiev sees as Moscow’s aggression in the east and has even been elected to parliament in absentia. The president vowed that Ukraine would take back Crimea, which was annexed by Russia in 2014, and the rebel-held territory in the east of the ex-Soviet country.

“Just as we brought back Nadiya, we will bring back Donbass and Crimea under Ukraine’s control,” Poroshenko said, adding that she had spent 709 days as a “Russian hostage.”

Speaking at presidential adminis-tration building, Savchenko—who was officially pardoned by Russian Presi-dent Vladimir Putin—urged Russians to fight injustice at home.

“You have to rise up from your knees,” she said. “Ukraine has every right to exist despite someone’s rotten soul and sick mind,” she added in an apparent reference to Putin.

While in prison, the pilot launched several hunger strikes to protest her detention, refusing food and water during her trial in southern Russia.

She constantly defied the Russian authorities and even raised her middle finger at the court in March.

Kiev and its Western allies

view Savchenko as a pawn in Mos-cow’s broader aggression against Ukraine that has seen Russia seize the Crimean peninsula and fuel the separatist uprising in 2014.

The French presidency said Savchenko’s release was agreed by the leaders of France, Germany, Rus-sia and Ukraine during phone talks earlier this week.

Savchenko’s return will be seen in Ukraine as a rare political vic-tory for Poroshenko, who has been struggling with mounting economic troubles, squabbles among his allies and festering violence in the east of the ex-Soviet country.

Savchenko was convicted in March over killing of two Russian journalists in eastern Ukraine and sentenced to 22 years behind bars. She was in captivity in Russia since June 2014. She denies any involvement in the deaths of the two state televi-sion journalists. Savchenko—who was fighting in a pro-Kiev militia group against rebels in east Ukraine—insists she was kidnapped by separatist fighters before the journalists were killed in June 2014 and then illegally smuggled to Russia. “It’s been a long and complicated road,” lawyer Nikolai Polozov said on Twitter.

“But we have been able to prove that there are no insurmountable tasks and we’ve managed to free the hostage from the jaws of Mordor,” he

AFP

PARIS: A French court ordered the chief suspect in a deadly attack on a Paris synagogue in 1980 to be sent back to jail, ten days after he was released on bail. Hassan Diab, a Lebanese-Canadian sociology pro-fessor who had been detained for 18 months, is accused of being part of the Special Operations branch of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP).

The PFLP was blamed for bomb-ing on October 3, 1980 that left four dead and around 40 injured.

Targeting the synagogue in rue Copernic, western Paris, it was the first major attack on a Jewish site in France since World War II.

Diab, 62, was extradited from Canada in November 2014 and charged with the attack. He main-tains his innocence and denies he was a member of the PFLP.

On May 12, a judge authorised his release on bail after ruling there was doubt over the “fundamental

question” of whether he was in France on the day of the attack.

His ex-wife had told investigators that he was in Beirut on September 28, 1980, despite stamps in his pass-port indicating that he was already in Europe. Federal prosecutors appealed the May 12 decision, leading an appeals court to order him sent back to jail.

“It’s a very unfair decision,” Diab’s lawyer William Bourdon said.

Bernard Cahen, lawyer for one of the civil parties to the case, said that “on the merits of the case, we are absolutely convinced of his guilt”.

Reuters

LONDON: A campaign video urging young Britons to vote to stay in the European Union in a June 23 refer-endum backfired yesterday, with young people taking to Twitter in droves to denounce it as patron-ising.

To a soundtrack of thumping dance music, the video shows images of young people while a series of verbs appear one after the other in capital letters: WORKIN, LEARNIN, EARNIN, SHOPPIN, RAVIN, CHATTIN, ROAMIN, MAKIN, MEETIN, SHARIN, GOIN, LIVIN.

The images show young peo-ple engaging in purportedly typical activities such as spraying graffiti,

parachuting and clubbing.A message then flashes up: “Life’s

better in the EU, but it’s at risk. 23rd June, make sure you’re #VOTIN”

The decision to drop the letter “G” from the end of all the verbs, in an apparent attempt to mimic the way some young people talk, set off a tidal wave of scorn on social media.

“Interested to read about the #votin campaign - it’s just like ‘vot-ing’ apparently, but for young people,” wrote Twitter user Carys Davis.

Many others used the hashtag #cringin to express their views.

“#votin - not to be confused with #patronisin & cringin innit. Remainin in da European massive,” wrote Julian Shea, in his own take on faux youth language.

The official “In” campaign ploughed on, repeatedly tweeting links

to the video, but its opponents on the “Out” side were quick to react with a tweet of a poster from the campaign, with the slogan “PATRONISIN CRINGIN EMBARRASSIN #VOTIN”.

Beyond the mockery, galvanis-ing the youth vote is a serious issue for the “In” camp, as surveys show young people are far more likely to be in favour of remaining in the EU, but far less likely to vote.

A survey of 2,000 students pub-lished last week found that 63 percent of them did not know the exact date of the referendum, while 54 percent were not aware it was being held in June.

Sam Gyimah, a junior minister and member of parliament from the ruling Conservative Party who is leading the #VOTIN campaign, wrote in the Huffin-gton Post that young people had most to lose from a British exit from the EU.

AFP

GENEVA: Religious belief is no excuse for refusing to shake a teach-er’s hand, Swiss regional authorities ruled yesterday, reversing one school’s controversial decision to grant exemptions for Muslim pupils wary of touching the opposite sex.

Parents or guardians of pupils who refuse to shake a teacher’s hand in the northern Swiss canton of Basel-Country could now face fines of up to 5,000 Swiss francs ($5,000, €4,500), regional educa-tion authorities ruled.

“A teacher has the right to demand a handshake,” they said in a statement.

The decision comes after a national uproar over revelations last month that a middle school allowed two brothers, aged 14 and 15 with Syrian nationality, not to shake their teachers’ hands after they complained that doing so was counter to their religious beliefs if the teacher was a woman. They argued that Islam does not permit physical contact with a person of the oppo-site sex, with the exception of certain immediate family members.

To avoid effectively permitting discrimination against female teach-ers, the school decided to exempt the boys from shaking hands with any of their teachers, regardless of sex.

That decision—made inde-pendently by the school in the northwest Therwil municipality without involvement of canton’s authorities or local officials—trig-gered an outcry across Switzerland, where tradition of students shak-ing their teachers’ hands as a sign of respect is deeply entrenched.

Justice Minister Simonetta

Sommaruga, who was among many senior officials and public fig-ures who weighed in on the matter, insisted on Swiss public television last month that “shaking hands is part of our culture”.

Explaining yesterday’s ruling, authorities said “the public interest concerning gender equality as well as integration of foreigners far out-weighs that concerning the freedom of belief of students.”

The school, which amid the uproar had turned to cantonal authorities for guidance, said it was “relieved” at ruling. “Now there is clarity on how to proceed,” it said, adding it would lift temporary exemption in place since school began last autumn. “This decision has recently been communicated to the family,” it said.

The cantonal authorities pointed out that if the two students at heart of the controversy once again refuse to shake hands, “the sanctions called for by law will be applied,” it said.

The public focus on the case has already landed the family in diffi-culty, after media revealed they were seeking to become Swiss.

Cantonal authorities last month announced that naturalisation pro-ceedings had been put on hold.

The father of two boys, based in Basel and a Syrian national, moved to Switzerland in 2001 and was granted asylum. Basel’s migration office was seeking more informa-tion about the circumstances under which the father’s asylum request was approved.

Authorities yesterday said one member of the family, whose iden-tity was not revealed, had received a warning over “incitement to violence”, which could have con-sequences for the naturalisation process.

Ukrainian pilot gets hero’s welcome after prisoner swap

added, referring to a savage land in the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy.

Iryna Gerashchenko, a senior law-maker in Ukrainian parliament who flew to Russia to bring Savchenko

home, said her return had been in the works for several weeks and that the presidency had not wanted to make any premature announcements.

“Earlier, two alleged Russian

soldiers, Aleksandr Aleksandrov and Yevgeny Yerofeyev, sentenced by Ukraine to 14 years in prison for fighting in the rebel-held east, arrived in Moscow.

Ukrainian servicewoman Nadiya Savchenko talks to the media at Boryspil International Airport outside Kiev, Ukraine, yesterday.

Muslim pupils face fine for refusing handshake with teacher in Switzerland

British youth unimpressed with pro-EU campaign video

Suspect in 1980 Paris synagogue attack ordered back to jail

Neighbours hang rival EU referendum banners from their balconies in north London, yesterday.

Swedish court

upholds Assange

arrest warrant

Reuters

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish lower court yesterday upheld the arrest warrant for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, saying the stay at Ecuador’s London embassy did not equal detention.

Assange, 44, is wanted by Swed-ish authorities for questioning over allegations, which he denies, that he committed rape in 2010.

A computer hacker who enraged US authorities by pub-lishing hundreds of thousands of secret US diplomatic cables, he has been holed up in the embassy since June 2012 to avoid the rape inves-tigation in Sweden.

He says he fears further extra-dition to the United States, where there has been a criminal inves-tigation into the activities of Wikileaks.

“The district court finds that there is still probable cause for the suspicion against JA (Julian Assange) for rape, less serious inci-dent, and that there is still a risk that he will depart or in some other way evade prosecution or penalty,” the court said in a statement.

Last year, Sweden’s Supreme Court rejected a previous appeal by Assange to revoke a detention order.

Following a statement by a UN panel that his stay in the embassy amounts to arbitrary detention, Assange’s lawyers again in Feb-ruary asked the Stockholm District Court to overturn the warrant for his arrest. “Unlike the UN Work-ing Group on Arbitrary Detention the district court does not consider JA’s stay at the Embassy of Ecuador in London a form of detention,” the court said. One of Assange’s Swed-ish lawyers, Thomas Olsson, said the decision will in all likelihood be appealed.

Late president of Yugoslavia Josip Broz Tito’s admiral ship ‘Vis’ (centre) being towed to a position to be sunk outside of Pula, Croatia. The ship was in operation as a commanding ship of the Yugoslav Navy, until the early 90s. It is the first to be ship sunk in Croatia for purpose of tourism and scuba diving.

End of glory

EUROPE20 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

French Ministers went on radio shows saying the government would stand firm, while CGT union chief Philippe Martinez said the union would press on with its strikes.

Reuters

PARIS: Police broke up a fuel depot blockade in France yesterday and France’s hardline CGT union prepared for a strike at a nuclear plant, esca-lating a standoff over proposed new labour laws. France has also mobi-lised its emergency motor fuel stocks for the first time since 2010, a spokes-woman for oil lobby group UFIP said.

Ministers went on radio morning shows to say the government would stand firm, while CGT chief Philippe Martinez told RTL radio that his union,

one of the most powerful in France, would press on with its strikes.

At stake is a labour reform that the government says is crucial to fight rampant unemployment stuck at over 10 percent of the workforce and which aim to make hiring and fir-ing easier. The CGT says the reforms will unravel protective labour regula-tion, even though other unions back it.

So far the strikes have affected oil depot and refineries, triggering short-ages, and train and metro strikes have been announced too.

The nuclear plant strike is a fur-ther escalation of a conflict that also threatens to affect the Euro 2016 foot-ball championship, which starts on June 10 in France. The government has accused the CGT of taking the country hostage.

“A minority is trying to radicalise things,” Junior minister Jean-Marie Le Guen told RTL radio. “We will unblock the situation,” he said, adding that a union “cannot govern the country.”

Police used water cannons in the early hours yesterday to dis-lodge some 80 unionists who were blocking a fuel depot at Douchy-les-Mines, in northern France, union and police officials said. Other depots were unblocked by police on Tuesday.

CGT chief Philippe said: “We will

Swedish PM

reshuffles

cabinet; Lovin

is new deputy

Reuters

STOCKHOLM: Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven named Green Party’s co-leader Isabella Lovin as his deputy in a mid-term cabinet reshuffle aimed at giving the minority coalition fresh energy after a series of scandals and fall-ing poll numbers.

Two years into a four-year term, voters have little faith in the coalition as a result of its hesitant response to the asylum crisis and a series of gaffes by Green Party pol-iticians, with polls showing Lofven himself deeply unpopular.

“This means that we will be able to deal with the central questions such as schools, jobs, the environ-ment, house building ... and the EU’s future with renewed power,” Lofven, a Social Democrat, said.

“We will develop the Swedish model, not dismantle it.”

The reshuffle comes after former Deputy Prime Minis-ter Asa Romson was replaced as the Greens co-leader and former housing minister, also from Green Party, was forced to quit in April.

Lovin will need to show dis-gruntled party supporters that the party can set agenda after a number of high profile policy defeats includ-ing over tighter asylum rules. A test will be whether the Greens can stop sale of state-owned utility Vatten-fall’s lignite mines in Germany, which the company has agreed to sell to Czech firm EPH.

The Greens kept the environ-ment ministry and Lofven also appointed former party leader Peter Eriksson as housing minister.

Sweden has build few houses for decades and with a growing population, swelled by around 160,000 asylum seekers who arrived last year, there is an acute shortage of homes.

Ultra-low interest rate and tax breaks for ownership have helped fuel a surge in house prices leading many to warn of a housing bubble.

Recent polls show Green Party just clearing the four percent hur-dle for seats in parliament with Social Democrats—at around 25 percent.

AP

IDOMENI: Refugees and migrants boarded buses yesterday on the sec-ond day of an operation to evacuate the sprawling, makeshift Idomeni refugee camp.

More than 700 police were deployed but no violence was reported in the push that began at dawn Tuesday in the camp of more than 8,000 people. Journalists have been banned from the site.

Authorities said about 2,000 people moved out on the first day, leaving just over 6,000 in Idomeni early yesterday, and by early after-noon at least 430 more had left. The camp’s evacuation is expected to last several days, with residents being transported to newly built shelters

set up in northern Greece by local authorities and the army.

“It was a calm night,” said Vicky Markolefa, spokeswoman for the medical aid group Doctors Without Borders. “What we are seeing is that people are leaving voluntarily. There has been no problem.”

But many former Idomeni res-idents chose to leave on foot for another, smaller informal camp, expressing dismay at conditions in the shelters, and their prospects for eventual relocation elsewhere in the European Union. UN refugee agency spokeswoman Stella Nanou said there is room for improvement in some of the new official camps.

“We, as the UNHCR, are willing to help improve the facilities and conditions there,” she said. “But at some of the facilities things are not improving.”

AFP

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday brushed off concerns about a landmark EU-Turkey deal designed to stem flow of migrants to Europe after critical com-ments by her Turkish counterpart.

“I am not worried,” Merkel told reporters. “Maybe some issues will require more time, but in princi-ple we, for our part, will stick to the agreement.”

Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Tuesday warned the European Union that the Turkish

parliament would block laws related to the deal if Ankara was not granted its key demand of visa-free travel.

The stark warning came amid spiralling tensions between the Turk-ish leader and the EU over a string of issues ranging from existing accords to human rights.

There have been growing indica-tions Turks will not be given visa-free travel by the target of end of June, and Merkel warned after talks with Erdogan that the target was unlikely to be met.

EU leaders are insisting that Tur-key abide by 72 conditions before the visa exemption takes place, with a demand to change counter-terrorism laws proving particularly contentious.

Th EU wants Ankara to narrow its definition of terror to stop prose-cuting academics and journalists for publishing “terror propaganda”.

Austria’s Defence Minister Hans Peter Doskozil said yesterday that the country was ready, should the deal between the EU and Turkey collapse and the flow of migrants resume.

“We are preparing ourselves... We want to signal that we are capa-ble of controlling our own borders,” Doskozil told reporters in the south-ern Austrian city of Klagenfurt.

Austria last year became a key transit country for hundreds of thousands of migrants travel-ling up from Greece through the

western Balkans, mostly towards Germany and Scandinavia.

The inflow has slowed to a trickle however since countries along this “Balkan route” closed their borders and the EU-Turkey accord came into force in March.

Austria has nevertheless been preparing border controls in case the influx starts again, including at the Alpine Brenner Pass on the border with Italy, to the annoyance of Rome.

Austria saw 90,000 people claim asylum last year, helping boost the far-right Freedom Party (FPOe) which narrowly failed on Sunday to win elections for the largely ceremonial but coveted presidency.

Greek port

workers to stage

walkout today

ATHENS: Greek port workers will walk off the job todoay for 48 hours to protest against sale of the country’s two biggest ports, which Athens has promised to interna-tional lenders in exchange for much-needed bailout loans.

Privatisations, a key term of Greek bailouts since 2010, have generated only a fraction of an ini-tial €50bn ($56bn) target and have met strong union resistance. Port workers, who fear job cuts, have staged repeated strikes.

Port workers unions will decide on a new 48-hour walkout after the end of the strike, George Gogos, gen-eral secretary of the Piraeus Port dock workers’ union said.

Reuters

PRAGUE: Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka berated members of ruling coalition partner ANO for blocking a government-proposed anti-smoking bill in parliament, calling their vote against a national ban a “disgrace”.

The proposed ban on smoking in restaurants would have brought Czech anti-smoking legislation up to speed with the majority of its fel-low European Union members. Of the 28-member bloc, 17 have comprehen-sive smoke-free laws in place.

But critics, including the main

opposition party conservative Civic Democrats, see a ban on smoking as an attack on personal freedom. In the last decade, several attempts to introduce sweeping anti-smoking legislation have failed.

Opponents of the bill also argued that a ban would result in outlets being forced out of business, especially in villages where they are still a main gathering place for the community.

Sobotka said ANO lawmakers who voted against the ban, even after the party’s ministers had supported the initiative, had gone against ruling coalition’s programme. On Twitter, he called the result a “disgrace”.

Of the centrist ANO party’s

members who were present, 15 voted against the ban, 13 in favour and 16 abstained. The ruling coalition com-prises Sobotka’s Social Democrats, ANO and the Christian Democrats.

Blocking the ban “assisted the tobacco lobby and harmed the inter-ests of citizens,” Sobotka said in a later statement, and called for a coa-lition meeting for ANO to explain its action.

ANO leader, billionaire Finance Minister Andrej Babis, defended members who voted against the ban, denying on Twitter that they had vio-lated any coalition agreements in doing so. Babis was absent in Brus-sels at the time of the vote.

Reuters

BRATISLAVA: The Slovak govern-ment yesterday nominated Foreign Minister Miroslav Lajcak as a can-didate for secretary-general of the United Nations.

Lajcak, 53, is a third-time for-eign minister in the government led by Prime Minister Robert Fico and served as both the High Represent-ative and EU Special Representative for Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The current UN Secretary-Gen-eral Ban Ki-moon steps down at the end of the year after two five-year terms. Some predict there could up to 15 candidates by the time the Security Council holds its first infor-mal straw poll in July.

Under an informal tradition

of rotating the top post between regions, it is Eastern Europe’s turn.

When the United Nations kicked off the race for the job in December, the world body’s 193 members were encouraged to put forward a woman candidate. A man has held the posi-tion since its inception 70 years ago.

Moscow-educated Lajcak, who oversaw the 2006 Montenegrin independence referendum, has on occasion tempered Fico’s anti-immi-grant stance in Europe’s migration crisis, but also objected to a quota system for distributing asylum seek-ers among EU member states.

Speaking privately in April, some diplomats said former Portugal Prime Minister Antonio Guterres and former New Zealand Prime Minis-ter Helen Clark were favourites after each nominee was quizzed for two hours by the General Assembly.

French cops break fuel depot blockade

Riot police prepare to intervene to disperse refinery worker holding a blockade of the oil depot of Douchy-Les-Mines to protest against the government’s proposed labour reforms, yesterday.

carry on.” CGT workers have voted for a 24-hour strike starting late in the night at the Nogent-sur-Seine nuclear plant southeast of Paris and workers

at other nuclear plants will meet today to decide on possible further strikes, Laurent Langlard, a spokesman for the CGT’s energy federation said.

The union which he said represents close to half of workers in the sector, voted for a complete halt of production at the Nogent-sur-Seine plant, he said.

Slovakia nominates FM for top UN post

Merkel says ‘not worried’ about migrant deal Refugees keep moving

out of Idomeni camp

Czech PM furious after coalition partners block anti-smoking bill

A bulldozer removes tents placed next to train tracks during a police operation at a refugee camp at Idomeni, yesterday.

Demonstrators release smoke during protest of state workers to demand better wages and a halt in dissmisals in the public sector, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, yesterday.

Wage protest

The protesters denounced shortages of food and medicines that citizens are suffering in the country.

AMERICAS 21THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

AFP

CARACAS: Protesters seeking to drive Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro from office launched fresh street ral-lies yesterday, a test of their strength in a tense political crisis.

Hundreds of his opponents gath-ered near a court in eastern Caracas to protest a recent ruling that cracks down on protests near the offices of the electoral authorities.

They waved a red, yellow and blue Venezuelan flag and banners denouncing shortages of food and medicines that citizens are suffering in the economic crisis.

It was a small rally but similar ones were called around the country,

a week after protesters braved tear gas in a march against Maduro and the state of emergency he has imposed.

Last week’s disturbances raised fears of wider unrest in the South American country, where anti-gov-ernment rallies in 2014 led to riots that killed 43 people.

The centre-right opposition Dem-ocratic Unity Roundtable (MUD) is pushing for a referendum on remov-ing the socialist leader from office, blaming him for the economic crisis.

It accuses electoral authorities of dragging their feet in processing their petition for a referendum.

“We want a solution based on the votes of the people, not an outcome that spills the blood of the people,” the MUD’s Secretary General Jesus Torrealba said at the rally in Caracas.

“Trying to silence protests through court rulings is foolishness.”

Senior MUD leader Henrique Capriles also called for similar ral-lies at courts in 20 other towns.

Despite court’s ban, the coali-tion said on its website that a further protest was planned for today near headquarters of National Electoral Board (CNE).

The opposition has handed the CNE the first of two petitions it must file to call a referendum and is waiting

for the signatures to be counted.Time is on Maduro’s side because

if the process is delayed until next year, under constitutional rules he could hand power to his allies instead of new elections being held.

Capriles has said a referendum “will be possible if citizens keep up the pressure.”

There is a risk that “along the way there is a social explosion and, as we have repeated, a coup d’etat,” he said in a recent interview with the Span-ish newspaper El Pais.

Maduro still appears to have the support of the armed forces, whose top brass has publicly backed him.

The MUD says he also con-trols the key organs of state such as the Supreme Court and electoral authorities.

“The only option the opposition now has to press for a referendum is peaceful demonstrations, along with international pressure,” said Hector Briceno, a political scientist at Cen-tral University in Caracas.

In a gesture of defiance to his opponents and the United States, Maduro flexed his muscles last week-end with a series of military exercises.

“This referendum aims to gen-erate conditions to stir up the streets and justify a coup d’etat or

Reuters

BRASILIA: Brazil’s interim gov-ernment won congressional approval yesterday for the big-gest fiscal deficit goal on record, in a victory for the new adminis-tration rattled by the resignation of a key minister initially charged with drawing up the goal.

In a raucous session that ran past midnight, the legislature accepted interim President Michel Temer’s 2016 primary deficit goal of 170.5bn reais ($47.4 bn), or 2.75 percent of gross domestic product.

It was the biggest-ever defi-cit goal of its kind, reflecting the anticipated difference between revenues and expenditures before interest payments. The primary deficit is a measure of creditwor-thiness closely watched by ratings agencies that recently stripped Brazil of its investment-grade rating.

The approval of the deficit goal averted budgetary deadlock which threatened a government shutdown in June, clearing a hurdle faced by Temer who took office in mid-May after President Dilma Rousseff was suspended to face trial on charges of breaking fiscal rules.

Finance Minister Henrique Meirelles said in a statement that the approval of the target signals the commitment of lawmakers to restoring the equilibrium of public finances.

The new deficit target, nearly double what Rousseff had pro-jected, could open the way for more spending ahead of the Octo-ber mayoral elections, a move that

some analysts see bolstering Tem-er’s support in Congress.

“The administration is taking a very pragmatic approach ahead of the October elections ... there will be a lot of political horse trading to approve other measures,” said Sacha Tihanyi, senior emerging market strategist with TD Securities.

The measure passed despite the sudden resignation of Planning Min-ister Romero Juca, a leading member of Temer’s economic team, over leaked recordings of him allegedly discussing plans to obstruct a huge graft probe.

The loss of Juca, the main politi-cal negotiator of the administration, was the first major blow to Temer after less than two weeks in power. He had been due to present the pri-mary deficit target hours before he stepped down on Monday.

Investors fear Juca’s exit could hamper efforts to pass key eco-nomic reforms in Congress and keep up political instability in a coun-try mired in its worst recession in decades.

“The big picture is that it shows that this government is exposed to this corruption investigation that could ham-per its governability and ability to pass measures in Congress,” said Joao Pedro Ribeiro, analyst with Nomura in New York.

Temer, who was Rousseff’s vice president, yesterday announced a raft of measures, including a con-stitutional amendment imposing a ceiling for public expenditures. Ana-lysts believe more needs to be done to close a budget gap that could top more than 10 percent of GDP, includ-ing interest payments, for the second year in a row.

Guatemala & Belize

agree on joint

training of troops

AFP

GUATEMALA CITY: Guatemala said it will start training troops with neighbouring Belize and improve cooperation to alleviate a blistering border dispute that saw a fatal shooting incident last month.

The accord was reached between the Central American countries’ respective foreign min-isters meeting on the sidelines of a humanitarian summit in Turkey, Guatemala’s foreign ministry said in a statement.

They agreed to try to “avoid incidents” along the disputed bor-der, boost economic development in the zone and seek international funding for an Organisation of American States office located there.

They also backed the long-standing position that the International Court of Justice should rule on the border issue.

AFP

NEW YORK: A Russian banker was sentenced to two-and-a-half years in prison on Wednesday after pleading guilty to conspiracy in what US pros-ecutors called a Cold War-style spy ring in New York.

Evgeny Buryakov, 41, stood motionless in navy jail in a Manhat-tan federal court as Judge Richard Berman sentenced him to 30 months in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The father of two, who used to earn $204,000 a year, waived his right to address the court. Arrested in January 2015, he has already served around half his sentence and is to be deported following his release.

His was the first such espionage case since 10 deep-cover agents, including Anna Chapman, were arrested in the New York area in 2010. They pleaded guilty and were part of a prisoner swap with Moscow.

The murky case, which included the FBI planting covert recording devices hidden in binders, was akin to

“a plotline for a Cold War-era movie,” chief US prosecutor for Manhattan, Preet Bharara, has said.

The US government says Burya-kov worked for Russia’s SVR foreign intelligence agency while posing as an employee for Russian bank Vnesheconombank in Manhattan, and previously in South Africa.

He pled guilty in March to one count of conspiring to act as an unregistered foreign agent working on behalf of the Russian Federation.

Prosecutors insist he was an SVR agent but that more serious charge

was dropped in his plea deal. He has expressed no remorse, they said.

The defence told the court yes-terday that there were “no factual disputes that need to be resolved.”

Prosecutors said the FBI eaves-dropped on SVR agents for months with help of tiny recorders planted in binders of trade secrets handed over by an undercover agent posing as an energy analyst. The bugs allowed the FBI to listen as Russian spies received tasks from Moscow and fed informa-tion back to the SVR from January to May 2013, US prosecutors say.

AFP

WASHINGTON: In an international battle stretching from Native American lands in the American West to the auc-tion houses of Paris, two tribes renewed a year-long campaign to prevent sale of sacred objects.

The Acoma Pueblo Nation located in New Mexico and The Hoopa Val-ley Tribal Nation of California have announced their opposition to a scheduled sale next week of close to 500 artifacts at Paris’ EVE auction house. They want the sale stopped and the artifacts returned.

“This is not a work of art,” Gover-nor Kurt Riley of the Acoma Pueblo Nation said, explaining how the Acoma view the objects up for sale. “This is a religious item that is dear to

us. And when it’s gone, it’s like a piece of ourselves goes missing.”

The tribes have the support of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of the American Indian and the US departments of Interior and State. The EVE auction house did not respond to a request for an interview.

“In the absence of clear doc-umentation and clear consent of tribes themselves, these objects should not be sold,” Mark Taplin of the US Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural affairs told press conference in Washington.

Taplin said US authorities have been talking with their French counter-parts since the auctions began in 2013, “But I must say we are still awaiting a response from the French side.”

The battle is both cultural and legal. Selling Native American arti-facts in the United States is either

highly restricted or illegal, depend-ing on the objects and where they were recovered. And tribes have said that such sales are offensive insofar as they expose treasured and sacred objects to public commerce.

“These items are part of our daily lives and on certain occasions these are used in ceremony,” Riley said. Tracking artifacts has become eas-ier thanks to the Internet, he said, and the Acoma have stepped up efforts to recover them.

“We’ve been successful in the United States to recoup some of those items,” he said. “It’s in France that they’ve not been receptive to our position.”

There have been numerous Paris auctions of Native American artifacts.

In June 2014, nine masks from the Hopi tribe sold for a total of €137,313 ($187,000), with one 19th century

mask alone fetching €37,500.French judges have supported the

auctioneers’ view that selling the arti-facts is legal—since no French law expressly prohibits them—and have refused to stop auctions when tribes have sued. But American tribes see the sales as an affront to their reli-gion and culture, rooted in wrongs that date back hundreds of years when settlers pillaged artifacts.

Many of the sacred items are believed to contain spirits, such as the masks sold in 2014, considered living beings by the Hopi people and worn by dancers during religious cer-emonies. “It’s amazing what’s left our communities,” D. Bambi Kraus of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers said.

Kraus said members of her organ-isation have been reviewing auction listings, and have been astonished.

AFP

WASHINGTON: The Solar Impulse 2, a solar-powered airplane piloted by Swiss national Bertrand Piccard, successfully flew out of Dayton, Ohio in the dark early yesterday en route to Pennsylvania.

The single-seat plane with the wingspan of a Boeing 747 is cov-ered in solar cells that power its propellers and charge its batteries. The panels provide the plane’s sole source of energy for the flight.

The gangly plane, which trav-els at an average speeds of only 48 km per hour, flew out of the Dayton

International Airport on time at 0800 GMT. “I’m a bit sad to leave Dayton, the city of the Wright Brothers, but also excited to continue our adven-ture,” Piccard wrote in a brief message posted on the organiser’s blog.

Piccard said he dedicated this flight to engineers “who worked all night to make sure #Si2 could fly to Lehigh Valley today. A fantastic team!”

The Solar Impulse 2 flight had been originally scheduled for early Tuesday, but problems arose with the fan needed to keep the plane’s giant mobile hanger inflated. While rebooting the system the deflating hangar fabric touched parts of the airplane, which has 17,000 solar panels.

Maduro’s opponents launch fresh rallies for his ouster

Opposition supporters carry a giant Venezuelan flag during a rally to demand a referendum to remove President Nicolas Maduro in Caracas, yesterday.

a foreign intervention,” Maduro told supporters last week.

He claimed the referendum drive had “very little support.”

For the first stage of the process to request a referendum, the opposition said it had collected 1.8 million signa-tures in favour of such a vote.

A survey last month by pollster Venebarometro showed 68 percent of Venezuelans wanted Maduro’s depar-ture and new elections.

Venezuela has the biggest oil reserves in the world but the fall in crude prices has slashed its foreign revenues.

Citizens must queue for hours at shops for rations of basic foods and goods such as flour and toilet paper.

The government is also impos-ing daily electricity blackouts to save energy. Looting and lynchings of sus-pected robbers have been reported over recent weeks.

Brazil Congress okays deficit budget

Russian jailed in US ‘Cold War-style conspiracy’

Tribes step up fight against sacred object auctions Solar Impulse 2 leaves

Ohio on fuel-free flight

AFP

LOS ANGELES: Protesters opposed to Donald Trump hurled rocks and bottles outside a rally he spoke at in New Mexico early yesterday, the same day the bombastic billionaire won the Republican presidential pri-mary in Washington state.

The victory brings Trump, the last Republican standing in the 2016 US presidential race, one major step closer toward clinching his party’s nomination. But the suc-cess was overshadowed by violent anti-Trump demonstrations in Albu-querque, in the southwestern state of New Mexico.

Chaos erupted outside a Trump rally when protesters burst through metal barriers and tried to storm the

city convention centre, where the pro-vocative Republican was speaking.

The crowd threw burning T-shirts, bottles and rocks at police, while police on horseback and offic-ers wielding clubs used pepper spray and smoke grenades to try to dis-perse the crowd.

“Several #APB officers are being treated for injuries as a result of being hit by rocks. At least one subject arrested from the riot,” Albu-querque police said early yesterday.

The protesters, several of whom waved Mexican flags, chanted exple-tives about Trump. Some also waved signs with expletive-laden anti-Trump slogans in Spanish.

Most of the protesters left before midnight, the police said.

Trump has proposed building a wall on the Mexican border, sug-gested that Mexican immigrants were rapists and drug dealers, and urged the deportation of the 11 mil-lion undocumented immigrants in the United States.

New Mexico has the highest percentage of Hispanic residents—nearly 50 percent—of any US state, and polls show that Hispanics overwhelmingly oppose Trump’s immigration proposals.

New Mexico Governor Susana Martinez, the nation’s only Hispanic governor and head of the Republican Governors Association, has criticised

Colombian journalists hold balloons and tape their mouth shut during a rally to protest against the disappearance of their colleagues Salud Hernandez, Diego de Pablos and Carlos Melo, in Cucuta, Colombia, yesterday.

Mute protest

AMERICAS22 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

The victory in Washington brings the New York billionaire, the last Republican standing in the 2016 US presidential race.

Reuters

WASHINGTON: Democrat Hillary Clinton, seeking to dampen Repub-lican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s growing appeal with work-ing-class voters, accused him of having cheered on the 2008 housing market crash.

Clinton’s campaign released an ad with audio that the presumptive Republican nominee recorded in 2006 for his now-defunct Trump Uni-versity venture. Trump, in remarks on a “bubble burst,” said: “I sort of hope that happens because then people like me would go in and buy” property and “make a lot of money.”

Clinton’s campaign and her sur-rogates used the recording to argue that she would take better care of the US economy. Clinton is seeking to blunt the inroads that Trump has been making with voters in crucial states such as Florida and Ohio.

Trump defended his comments at a rally in Albuquerque, New Mex-ico, saying buying when the housing market was down showed smart deal-making skills that he would bring to the White House.

“I’m a businessman, that’s what I’m supposed to do,” Trump said. “I feel badly for everybody. What am I going to do? I’m in business.”

The New Yorker also imperson-ated Clinton on the campaign trail, who he said “screams,” and said other big names in business did sim-ilar deals as he did before the housing crisis.

The Washington Post

ALEXANDRIA: The Romanian hacker whose cyber-mischief first revealed that Hillary Clinton used a private email address while she was secre-tary of state pleaded guilty yesterday to aggravated identity theft and unau-thorised access to a protected computer, admitting that he was responsible for a

series of high-profile intrusions. Marcel Lehel Lazar, 44, as a part

of his plea, said that he victimised nearly 100 Americans from his home overseas, often by correctly guess-ing their passwords or the answers to their security questions.

His targets included former sec-retary of state Colin Powell, family members of former president George W Bush and a host of celebrities, and his aim seemed to be to cause

embarrassment. Lazar admitted in his plea that he often turned over his victims’ private correspondence to media outlets, affixing the mate-rials with moniker Guccifer to mark his handiwork. In one instance, that correspondence included paintings by Bush, including apparent self-por-traits in the shower and bath.

In US District Court in Alexandria, Lazar said little, offering only short confirmations that he was pleading

guilty voluntarily and that he knew the rights he was giving up.

“They’re all accurate,” he said, after federal prosecutor Ryan Dickey read a summary of the facts to which he admitted.

According to his plea agreement, Lazar faces at least two years in prison for aggravated identity theft charge and up to five years more for unauthorised access to a protected computer.

Federal investigators have no

evidence to suggest Lazar accessed Clinton’s email address—despite his claim in a recent Fox News inter-view that he had done so—though he admitted as a part of his plea that he successfully broke into the account of Sidney Blumenthal, one of President Bill Clinton’s former aides. It was after Lazar released notes from Blumenthal to Hillary Clinton that Gawker noticed the correspondence was directed to a private, nongovernmental email

account. The New York Times later reported that Clinton exclusively used a personal account to conduct govern-ment business.

Lazar was charged in the United States in 2014 and extradited to Alex-andria earlier this year. He had been serving a sentence in Romania for hacking the personal accounts of various Romanians, including the then-director of the Romanian Intel-ligence Service.

Trump’s remarks on immigration and was absent from yesterday’s event.

Trump addressed a rally of about 4,000 people but was frequently inter-rupted by protesters, the Albuquerque Journal reported. Police managed to stop a group of about 100 protesters who had tried to storm the conven-tion centre when Trump was speaking, the newspaper said. Riot police were deployed soon after.

Several Trump rallies have drawn protests, including one in Chicago in March when his supporters clashed with protesters. Trump has been criti-cised as inciting violence at his rallies.

With more than two-thirds of bal-lots counted, Trump earned 76 percent

of the vote. “Thank you Washington! #Trump2016 #MakeAmericaGreatA-gain,” the candidate wrote on Twitter.

Trump is the Republican Party’s presumptive nominee, and while he is not officially the flag bearer yet he is on the cusp.

He headed into the race in the northwestern state with 1,189 dele-gates, according to a CNN tally, just 48 delegates short of the 1,237 needed for the nomination.

Washington state had 44 del-egates up for grabs. Trump will therefore cross the threshold and clinch the nomination on June 7, when California and four other states vote on the final day of the

Republican primary contest.The real estate mogul’s former

rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, as well as Ohio Governor John Kasich and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, were still on the Washington ballot even though they already dropped out of the race.

Trump, a political neophyte whose provocative campaign has turned American politics on its head, will be officially installed as the Republican presidential nominee at the party’s national nominating convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July.

He pivoted to the general election weeks ago, relentlessly criticising his likely Democratic rival Hillary Clinton.

AFP

TETELCINGO, MEXICO: Anguished relatives are standing by as experts dig up a mass grave with more than 100 bodies buried by authorities in Mexico, where morgues are full due to surging violence.

Relatives with missing ones have gathered since Monday in the central town of Tetelcingo, waiting behind a security cordon for the operation to empty the two pits, 33 feet deep.

Guillermina Sotelo, whose son has been missing for nearly four years, is one of those hoping for clo-sure from the week-long operation.

“It’s an injustice. They should not have been thrown (into a pit) as if they were animals,” she said.

The pit dug by authorities in Tetelcingo, a town in Morelos state about 100 km south of Mexico City, was discovered in March 2014.

As many as 28,000 people are thought to have gone missing in Mex-ico in the past decade, according to estimates by rights groups and the United Nations.

The families of missing vic-tims were outraged to learn about the mass grave. They demanded an inquiry that led to the exhumation.

The work has been slow to start. Relatives objected to the use of an excavator, arguing that it could dam-age corpses and prevent the bodies from being identified.

Morelos state prosecutor Javier Perez said the bodies were buried in a mass grave for “public health reasons.”

In November, he had warned

that public morgues were running short of space. Mexican authorities are permitted to use mass graves, but they must meet legal requirements including forensic analysis. The inves-tigation into the burial pit in Tetelcingo will determine whether authorities followed protocol in this case.

Maria Concepcion Hernandez, whose son Oliver Wenceslao Navar-rete was kidnapped and murdered in May 2013, has slammed authori-ties’ handling of the grave.

She brought existence of the mass grave to public attention after an official told her that her son was buried there after procedural irregu-larities involving “falsified” signatures in the paperwork. Her son’s body was exhumed in December 2014.

Video shot by the family showed that the young man’s corpse was buried under dozens of other bodies.

According to the protocol, “in mass graves bodies must be sepa-rated from each other to allow them to be claimed” by relatives, said Vil-laneuva, director of a programme for victims at the Morelos State Auton-omous University.

Hernandez said there were 150 corpses in the grave wrapped in plastic, but state officials say there are only 116. They have DNA records for 88 bodies, but 28 others remain unidentified.

Criminal gangs “can make people disappear in one state and abandon their bodies or bury them in graves in other states,” said Javier Sicilia, father of a young man who was murdered in Morelos. “So nat-urally the families believe that their relative could buried anywhere.”

Ex-Canadian PM

Harper to leave

politics: Reports

Reuters

OTTAWA: Former Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper will leave politics later this year, possibly to join US private equity firm KKR, according to media reports.

The Canadian Broadcasting Corp reported that Harper, who was Canada’s prime minister for nearly 10 years, has had offers of work from several US companies, including KKR. Harper stepped down as leader of the Conserva-tives last October after the party was defeated by the Liberals, led by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Harper was re-elected as a member of parliament for a rid-ing in Calgary, but will resign his seat before parliament comes back from its summer break in the fall, according to media reports.

AFP

MONTREAL: More than 200 Canadian scientists are asking the government to reconsider a hydroelectric dam project in the western province of Brit-ish Columbia, citing in part the rights of indigenous communities.

Although the Site C project on the Peace River has received federal cabinet approval and some required

permits, “that does not mean that the Canadian and British Columbian gov-ernments cannot step back from the project,” Royal Society of Canada president Maryse Lassonde said in an open letter addressed to Prime Min-ister Justin Trudeau. The letter was only made public yesterday.

Lassonde said she was voicing con-cerns of a group of scholars, including several members of Royal Society of Canada. The society said “over 200 leading scientists” were involved.

“The Royal Society of Canada is deeply concerned about how that approval was achieved. Indeed, project approval goes against the Canadian government emphasis on evidence-based decision-making,” Lassonde said in the letter.

The concerns included the fast-tracked approval process for Site C, as well as outstanding concerns regarding “First Nations treaty and Aboriginal rights,” the letter said.

Aboriginal concerns were

apparently not considered by the gov-ernment approval panel, while two First Nations court cases related to the dam are pending but construction is already underway, the letter said.

“Work on the Site C project should be discontinued for this reason alone.”

Last year, subsidiaries of Spain’s Acciona and South Korea’s Samsung were part of a partnership that won main civil works contract for Site C dam, which is projected to have an overall cost of Can$8.3bn ($6.3bn).

A protester disrupts a rally with Republican US presidential candidate Donald Trump and his supporters in Albuquerque, New Mexico, US yesterday.

Protesters hurl rocks as Trump wins primary

Hillary knocks

Trump for

cheering housing

bubble burst

Romanian hacker who exposed Hillary’s email server pleads guilty

Mexico families wait for

news as grave exhumed

Canada scientists ask govt to reconsider dam project

MORNING BREAK 23THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

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AFP

OSLO: What exactly do we agree to when we download a smartphone app? To prove the “absurdity” of lengthy terms and con-ditions, some Norwegians are reading those of 33 apps, from Tinder to iTunes, in a live two-day readathon.

The user terms and conditions of the 33 applications typically found on a Norwegian smartphone amount to 260,000 words, or 900 pages, according to Norway’s consumer protection agency, making them a lengthier read than the New Testament.

In order to demonstrate the texts’ com-plexity, the agency has asked consumers to read out the terms and conditions live on its site: http://www.forbrukerradet.no/vilkar-og-personvern-minutt-for-minutt/.

“The aim is to demonstrate that the user terms for internet services, apps or other, are very bad,” head of the agency’s digital services section, Finn Myrstad, said.

“They’re too long and unintelligi-ble.” Users were reading the conditions for Twitter, Netflix, YouTube, Facebook, Gmail, Skype, Instagram and Angry Birds among others.

By midday yesterday, they had been reading for 27 hours, and were expected to continue for a few more hours. “Imagine if all the users in the world who have a smart-phone were to spend more than 30 hours (reading). That’s more than four days of work just to read the user terms and conditions on a smartphone,” Myrstad said.

Among the conditions posing the greatest concern were those granting “perpetual” or “irrevocable” licenses to the other party, he said.

“This means, in practice, that the con-tent of your app, whether it’s your photos or your chats, will forever belong to the company. That’s totally unacceptable and violates European and Norwegian law,” Myrstad said. The Norwegian consumer protection agency is a world leader in con-fidentiality issues.

AFP

LOS ANGELES: It launched with a mission of just five years “to boldly go where no man has gone before” but half a century later “Star Trek” is a multi-billion-dollar cultural phenom-enon adored by fans the world over.

When the show debuted in 1966 the concept was a three-season tel-evision show following the crew of the starship Enterprise as they ven-tured into the galaxy to seek out new civilizations.

Little did NBC know it would snowball into a touchstone in enter-tainment spawning six shows with a combined 725 episodes and 13 movies, and turning its stars into household names. “To be talking about the 50th anniversary is insane. I was born the same year that Star Trek was,” veteran filmmaker J.J. Abrams, the creative force behind the new “rebooted” trilogy, told a convention in Hollywood last week.

“I know how old I feel, so the idea that this thing endures is incredible.”

The original series starred Wil-liam Shatner, now 85, as the suave Captain James T Kirk and Leon-ard Nimoy, who died last year at the age of 83, as his stilted sidekick—a

half-human, half-Vulcan science officer named Mr Spock.

Gene Roddenberry wrote the pilot in 1965, the same year as the first US spacewalk, and pitched the show as “a wagon train to the stars,” figuring that westerns were popular in Hollywood at the time.

Fans say Roddenberry exam-ined earthly social issues with an unparalleled sensitivity, presenting television’s first truly multiracial cast, and the first televised interracial kiss.

Korean-American actor John Cho, who plays Starfleet Officer Hikaru Sulu in the rebooted trilogy—includ-ing the upcoming 50th anniversary film “Star Trek Beyond”—describes multiculturalism as one of its “defin-ing features.”

“I really believe theoretically in ‘Star Trek’ movies. It’s a good cultural product, in my opinion. I wanted to be a part of something I felt was an important, positive cultural contribu-tion,” the 43-year-old told AFP.

The franchise has attracted a devoted global cult unified by their affection for the Roddenberry vision, and today “Trekkies” are the only fan group listed by name in the Oxford English Dictionary. Karl Urban, who plays ship’s doctor Leonard “Bones” McCoy—the role originally made famous by the late DeForest

Kelley—said “Beyond” was more complex and yet more fun than pre-vious episodes.

This is in part thanks to Simon Pegg—engineer Scotty in the reboot series—who was behind numerous British comedy hits including 2004’s “Shaun of the Dead” and took on scriptwriting duties for “Beyond.”

“We wanted to make sure we got the balance right between paying respect and homage to what had been before—little inside jokes and refer-ences for longterm fans—and making it fresh and delivering new material that new audiences can appreciate,” Urban, 43, said.

Part of the enduring appeal of “Star Trek,” says Urban, is its com-mitment to a hopeful depiction of a humanity united in the future despite differences in race and creed.

“That, and getting it on with green girls,” he adds immediately. The latest film hits US theaters on July 22 but, whatever its fortunes, the “Star Trek” phenomenon will boldly go on, with a new television series due out from January 2017 on CBS.

“It’s been around for 50 years and hopefully we can build something that can continue it for another 50 years,” said “Beyond” director Justin Lin, an action aficionado who made four of the “Fast and Furious” films.

AFP

JAKARTA: Thirteen species of Indo-nesian birds, including the country’s symbolic Javan Hawk-eagle, are at serious risk of extinction mainly due to the pet trade, a wildlife watchdog warned yesterday.

The vast Indonesian archipel-ago is home to a dizzying array of birds and keeping them as pets has long been part of the national cul-ture, with birdcages a common sight outside homes and shops across the country.

However increasing demand for

some species as pets has led to dra-matic population declines, wildlife trade monitoring network TRAFFIC warned in a new study.

“This is a multi-million-dol-lar industry, there’s a huge criminal element and many people are prof-iting illegally from this business,” Chris Shepherd, TRAFFIC’s director for Southeast Asia and a co-author of the study, told AFP.

Huge demand for songbirds in Indonesia has also put bird species in other countries such as Malaysia and Thailand in danger, Shepherd said.

The Javan Hawk-eagle is Indone-sia’s national bird and the inspiration for the Garuda, the mythical winged

creature that adorns the country’s coat of arms.

Other species at risk of extinc-tion include the Silvery Woodpigeon, Yellow-crested Cockatoo, Scar-let-breasted Lorikeet, Javan Green Magpie, Black-winged Myna, Bali Myna, Straw-headed Bulbul, Javan White-eye, Rufous-fronted Laugh-ingthrush, Sumatran Laughingthrush and Java Sparrow.

The Helmeted Hornbill is also at risk but unlike the others, is not kept as a pet. Thousands are being illegally killed and traded for their unique “casques”—a solid lump of fibrous protein that runs along the top of the bill and onto the skull.

AFP

LAGOS: Rose Edet never thought buying tomatoes for her busy Lagos restaurant would be an issue. But the rising cost is causing her a headache and affecting her customers’ favourite Nigerian dishes.

“We are facing tomato Armageddon,” she said in the Ikoyi district of the city. “I have never seen this situation before in my 36 years in existence.”

Tomato prices in Nigeria have been steadily climbing for months, caused by unrest in northern and central states where the crop is grown and this has affected farmers’ ability to plant and harvest.

Fuel price increases and a fall in imports due to a foreign exchange shortage have contributed to the scarcity and now a major crop infestation has worsened the already bleak tomato outlook.

The Tuta absoluta moth, dubbed “tomato Ebola” by local farmers, has destroyed more than 80 percent of tomato farms in the northern state of Kaduna, its agriculture commissioner Manzo Daniel said. More than 200 tomato farmers have

incurred losses of more than 1bn naira, with fears the moth could wreak havoc across the wider north.

A wholesale basket containing hundreds of tomatoes now sells for 42,000 naira ($212), up from 300 to 1,500 naira before the outbreak, he added.

In Kano, a new tomato processing plant set up by Africa’s richest man Aliko Dangote to reduce Nigeria’s reliance on imports and boost domestic production has been forced to shut. The factory, which only opened in March, requires 1,200 tonnes of the fruit every day but is not getting enough, said managing director Abdulkareem Kaita.

Tomatoes are an essential ingredient for many Nigerian dishes, from fiery pepper soups and stews, and even to garnish suya, the popular spicy grilled meat sold at roadside stalls across Nigeria.

The effect of price rises and shortages are add-ing further hardship to Nigerians already struggling with a lack of fuel for cars and generators, power outages, and spiralling inflation. Edet and others say they have been forced to switch to imported tinned tomato paste but prices of puree have also shot up.

“A pack of tomato puree that sold at 40 naira has now risen to 55 naira,” said Kano housewife

Zainab Abdullahi. Many Nigerians have taken to Twitter to complain, with some re-posting pho-tographs of the Tomatina festival in Spain, which every year hosts what is dubbed the world’s big-gest food fight.

One user wrote of the pictures of revellers hurl-ing tomatoes at one another and splashing in the fruit’s juice and pulp: “If only these guys know the price of tomatoes in Nigeria today.”

Another commented that tomatoes were “like gold now in Nigeria” while a third said three toma-toes she bought for 200 naira were more than expensive than a litre of fuel at 145 naira. “Toma-toes is the new oil in Nigeria,” wrote a fourth.

Kaduna’s government has sent a team to Kenya to find a remedy against the moth, which lays eggs on tomato plants and develops into a hungry cater-pillar that feeds on leaves, stems and fruit.

Meanwhile rumblings of discontent are getting louder, particularly over the effect on the beloved national dish, jollof rice. Lagos trader Fatimo Olubunmi said it was her three children’s favour-ite food but the tomato scarcity has forced her to switch to using tinned tomatoes and dry pepper.A vendor holds a tray of tomatoes for sale in Obalende district of Lagos.

Nigeria facing ‘tomato Armageddon’ over crop infestation

‘Star Trek’ at 50: Boldly going on... and on

App-surdity? Norway

readathon takes aim

at wordy app terms

Indonesian birds face extinction

Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani witnessed last evening the arrival of Fath Al Kheir 2 at Katara Cultural village beach. The event was also attended by H H Sheikh Jassem bin Hamad Al Thani, Representative of the Emir. Pic: Qassim/The Peninsula → See also page 26

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A little boy plays with a flock of pigeons on the north side of Souq Waqif yesterday. The expansive area, which was formerly a parking lot, has become a popular destination for families with its vast open space where children can play and benches where they can rest while watching pigeons who come in large kits. Pic: Kummutty /The Peninsula

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Sabic CEO assumes role as GPCA

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www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016 • 19 SHA’BAAN 1437 @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatarthepeninsulaqatar

The Peninsula

DOHA: Minister of Economy and Commerce, H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani has called for fur-ther bolstering of trade, investment and cooperation between Qatar and Belgium.

Speaking at the second round of Qatar Belgium Economic Forum in Brussels yesterday Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim underlined the important role being played by Belgium compa-nies in various development projects in Qatar. There are 31 companies in Qatar which are either totally control-led by Belgium or have joint venture with Qatari companies.

He called for partnership in investment to insulate the economy of two countries from oil price volatil-ity. The Minister hoped that the forum will lead to an increase of trade rela-tions between Belgium and Qatar and new investments between the busi-ness communities.

The trade volume between Qatar and Belgium reached $1.6bn in 2015, showing a rise of one percent com-pared to previous year. Exports from Qatar to Belgium in 2015 stood at

around $1.3bn while Qatari imports from Belgium increased by 7.3 per-cent to $264m in 2015 compared to previous year.

The Minister said relations between Qatar and Belgium have strengthened by the official visits and bilateral agreements in different areas, especially in economy, trade and investment. These development has had a positive impact on the bilat-eral trade between two countries.

He stressed on the need to exert more efforts to expand and develop economic, trade and invest-ment cooperation between the two countries.

The accompanying delegation with the Minister included Chairman of Qatari Businessmen Association, Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al Thani, representatives of Ashghal, Qatar Rail, Supreme Committee for Delivery &

Legacy (SC), Ministry of Energy and Industry, Qatar Foundation, Qafar Financial Centre, Katara Hospitality, Manateq, Qatar Airways and Nebras Power.

Sheikh Faisal bin Qassim Al Thani said the forum has brought together large number of businessmen, com-panies, institutions to exchange ideas and opinions regarding mutual invest-ment and to arrange future visits of the businessmen of the two countries. He invited Belgium businesswomen to Qatar to meet their counterparts.

Pieter De Crem, Secretary of State for Foreign Trade, Belgium welcomed the Qatari minister and the accom-panying delegation. He praised the growing trade relations between the two countries. He hoped that the forum will further develop and strengthen cooperation and trade between Qatar and Belgium.

Minister calls for bolstering Qatar-Belgium trade H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim underlines the important role being played by Belgium companies in various development projects in Qatar.

Minister of Economy and Commerce H E Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim Al Thani speaking at the second round of Qatar-Belgium Economic Forum in Brussels.

The Peninsula

DOHA: QNB has announced the sign-ing of a contract with international star soccer player Xavi Hernandez, by which Xavi will be brand ambas-sador for the Group.

The contract will give QNB exclusive rights to use Xavi’s image in its promotional materials and campaigns to promote the Group’s products and services, as well as in its events and sponsorships and any other marketing materials and promotional campaigns in the Mid-dle East and Africa, as well as India, China, Southeast Asia, and the bank’s branches and representative offices in these areas.

In a special event to celebrate the occasion, Yousef Darwish, QNB’s GM – Group Communications, signed the contract with the former Barcelona player and current Qatar’s Al-Sadd Sports Club midfielder Xavi Hern�ndez Creus.

“Spanish soccer star Xavi is con-sidered one of the best playmakers in the international soccer, just as our Group excels in the international banking sector as the leading finan-cial institution in the Middle East and Africa as well as the most valu-able brand in the region. That is why our Group chose Xavi as its brand

ambassador,” said Yousef Darwish. He added that the agreement

included Xavi’s appearance as a QNB brand ambassador in many promo-tional and marketing campaigns, as well as QNB events and sponsorship events in Qatar and abroad. He stated that the materials will be appearing soon in chosen Middle East and Asian markets.

Xavi commented on his signing of the contract with the Group, saying: “I am pleased with this partnership with QNB Group, which has become an icon for excellence in the banking sector for its unique services, as well as its great and much appreciated

efforts to support CSR projects and initiatives in all the societies in which it operates.”

Xavi deservedly won the Player of the Year award during the Euro 2008 and 2009 UEFA Cup Finals. Xavi also played on the Spanish national squad that won the 2010 World Cup, earning many nicknames from his admirers and soccer fans worldwide, including “the maestro” and “the king”.

The Group’s presence through its subsidiaries and associate companies extends to more than 27 countries across three continents providing a comprehensive range of advanced products and services.

QNB signs contract with soccer star Xavi as brand ambassador

Woqod’s nod to scrap minimum shares requirementThe Peninsula

DOHA: The shareholders of Qatar Fuel (Woqod) yesterday approved all the agenda on the Extra Ordinary General Assembly meeting, including changes in the Articles of Association related to

abolish the minimum shares require-ment (previously prescribed at 100 shares for each single shareholder). The AGM, presided over by Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahaman Al Thani, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Woqod, was held at WOQOD Tower (West Bay).

The meeting had been post-poned due to the lack of Quorum in

the previous two meetings. Among the other agenda of the

meeting, which shareholders approved were ‘Amendment of Article 3’ by add-ing activities and procedures to the existing practices undertaken by the company in furtherance of its objects, which include enabling the utilisation of Sidra Brand Name for establishment

and operation of Sidra C- Stores; related to the vehicle related services and activities to be exercised by the service stations; allowing commercial advertisement inside the service station premises; and allowing the Board of Directors to pass decisions by “Circula-tion “procedure in cases of emergency or necessity.

Norway may use $850bn fund as tool against tax havens Reuters

OSLO: Norway will take a first step this week towards using its $850bn sovereign wealth fund, the world’s biggest, as a tool to combat the use of tax havens, two key members of parliament’s finance commit-tee said yesterday.

The country’s right-wing minority government will be asked to take a two-pronged approach to regulation, examining both the fund’s own use of ownership struc-tures designed to cut its liability for tax on its foreign investments as well as that of companies it invests in, the politicians said.

The move follows the Pan-ama Papers leaks in April, which revealed details of corporate and individual tax evasion and trig-gered a global backlash against tax havens. “We need to clarify the extent of the fund’s exposure to tax havens,” said finance committee chairman Hans Olav Syversen of the centrist opposition Christian Democrats, on which the govern-ment frequently relies for support.

The Government Pension Fund Global, commonly known as the oil fund, invests cash from Norway’s crude and natural gas production in foreign stocks, bonds and real estate to share the windfall reve-nues with future generations.

Oil prices surge on easing US suppliesAFP

LONDON: Oil advanced yesterday, with New York prices reaching 2016 highs, as data revealed falls to US crude inventories owing to wildfires slashing production across the Cana-dian border.

Around 1600 GMT, US bench-mark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) for delivery in July was 19 cents higher at $48.81 a barrel.

Brent North Sea crude for July won 49 cents to $49.10 a barrel com-pared with Tuesday’s close.

Prices had earlier yesterday risen close to $50, with WTI reach-ing a 7.5-month high point at $49.45 a barrel after the American Petro-leum Institute (API) reported that US crude inventories last week dropped by 5.14m barrels.

That data was backed up by the US Department of Energy, which Wednesday said that stockpiles of the country’s commercial crude had slid by 4.2m barrels in the week to May 20.

“The price of oil gained ground for a second day, with Brent pushing on $50 per barrel after the Depart-ment of Energy confirmed a big draw in weekly inventories suggested overnight by the API,” said Jasper Lawler, analyst at trading group CMC Markets.

The Bank of Canada meanwhile said that the destruction by fire of homes and businesses and the halt to oil production would shave about 1.25 percentage points off the coun-try’s gross domestic product in the second quarter.

The central bank, which yester-day kept its key interest rate at 0.5 percent, added that Canada’s econ-omy is still adjusting to a slump in crude oil prices between mid-2014 and February of this year.

The global oil market nosedived from above $100 two years ago to

13-year lows of around $27 in early 2016, plagued by a stubborn sup-ply glut.

They have since rebounded, aided by the Canada wildfires and unrest in oil producer Nigeria.

Commerzbank analyst Carsten Fritsch said the recent rebound was making the cost of North Ameri-can shale oil attractive once more, “which could dampen the fall in pro-duction in the coming months”.

He added: “What is more, oil production is gradually resuming in those regions of Canada plagued by wildfires, which means the sup-ply situation is likely to ease again in the coming weeks.

“We therefore do not expect to see prices remain above $50 per bar-rel for any length of time,” he added in a research note.

Meanwhile, Opec is focusing on market share rather than on supporting oil prices, Iraq’s Opec governor said in comments that will dampen expectations that Opec might agree steps to support prices at a meeting next week.

“After two years, the market is starting to balance but it nearly destroyed many countries,” Falah Alamri, Iraq’s Opec governor and head of the State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO), said at an Iraq oil conference in London.

The “two years” is a reference to OPEC’s meeting in November 2014, when the producers group refused to cut output to support prices. “Now Opec focuses on market share, which means they do not want to interfere with the price,” Alamri said.

Reports say Iran is close to regaining normal oil export volumes, adding extra barrels to the market in an unexpectedly smooth way and helped by supply disruptions from Canada to Nigeria.

But the development will do lit-tle to repair dialogue, let alone help clinch a production deal, when Opec meets next week.

Yousef Darwish, QNB’s GM – Group Communications, with international star soccer player Xavi Hernandez.

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BUSINESS26 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Zanzibar Tourism Com-mission in conjunction with Regency Travel & Tours and HTT Global Holi-days & Incentives Ltd are showcasing the beautiful destinations of exotic Zanzibar and wildlife rich Tanzania to travel agents in Doha, Qatar and Dubai, the UAE.

With direct flight connections providingfor easy access to both destinations, guests from this part of the world can now enjoy some of the world’s best wildlife safari expe-riences in Tanzania, along with the picturesque beaches on the island of Zanzibar as well as it’scultural heritage and historicalsites, a press statement said.

Both Regency and HTT are estab-lished brands in the GCC market, with extensive experience in pro-moting the East African safari and beach products. Working alongside with Zanzibar Tourism Commission, they have brought together four of the top hotels from Zanzibar to enlighten agents about the amazing experiences available for their guests.

Partner hotels include Park Hyatt

Zanzibar, The Residence, Kilindi Zan-zibar and The Melia hotel, all of who presentedtheir properties and special-ties to an audience in Doha.

The presentation was an engag-ing evening of exciting information, a chance to learn more about the spe-cial destination, sampling of local ethnic cuisine, themed giveaways and prizes to experience Zanzibar first hand!

Speaking on the occasion, Regency Travel & Tours CEO, Mr. Tareq Abdullatif Taha said, “We are proud to be associated with Zanzibar Tourism Board and HTT Global Hol-idays & Incentives, to represent the beautiful and varied land of Tanzania. Zanzibar, from being an ancient trade route and gateway to mainland East Africa is also home to finest beaches in the world.

Travellers from Qatar will truly enjoy the diversity Zanzibar has to offer and Regency, in association with HTT, will offer wide ranging and exciting packages for people to fully experience this hidden gem.”

Qatar airways now operates direct flights to Zanzibar and Tan-zania; andwith flying duration of 4 hours 30 minutes, these are the next beach plus bush holiday to be

experienced at an attractive fares comparable to many other Indian ocean islands.

Zanzibar is an ideal destination

for Arab nationals, offering great cul-tural experiences and a chance to do the most sought after “once in a life-time” safari, making the experience

even better by combining a beautiful exotic island and an amazing wildlife safari in Tanzania.Visa is upon arrival for most nationalities.

Zanzibar Tourism Commission and Regency Travel & Tours officials.

Zanzibar Tourism woos visitors from Gulf region

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Qatar Financial Cen-tre (QFC) Authority has supported an independent study on marketing and sales strategies for financial investment products and serv-ices in Qatar, demonstrating both its commitment to strengthen the

nation’s financial sector and to sup-port students’ learning.

The study was conducted by Northwestern University in Qatar (NU-Q) students. Mentored by fac-ulty professors, and with the goal of better understanding of the Qatari market, undergraduate students interviewed management of QFC licensed banks and financial insti-tutions. The research focused on promotional marketing activities and strategies used by financial services firms for both conventional and Islamic investment products and services.

The study examined two dis-tinct types of financial institutions: asset management firms and com-mercial banks.

It concluded that Qatar, like its GCC counterparts, adopts a ‘rentier state’ economic model, meaning it derives a majority of national revenues from “renting” indigenous resources to external clients.

QFCA facilitates NU-Q study on investments

Qatar Financial Centre Authority officials with NU-Q students who conducted the study.

It also revealed that commer-cial banks in Qatar focus on three strategies when marketing financial services and products, segmentation of clients; relationship marketing; and branding, to differentiate offerings from competitors.

Raed Al Emadi, Chief Commer-cial Officer at the QFC Authority, said: “The QFC has a high number of reputable financial firms operating within Qatar and serving the local market. We take a keen interest in

the development and future of the financial sector, which includes our support of students in Qatar, so we were happy to facilitate the research and encouraged our firms to share their expertise and insights with the students.”

Everette E Dennis, CEO and Dean of NU-Q, said: “Northwestern Uni-versity in Qatar encourages and supports numerous research projects for our students, as well as experi-ence working with local institutions.

Our students have benefited tre-mendously from this partnership and NU-Q appreciates the support provided by the QFC Authority and looks forward to working on similar projects in the future.”

Following their presentations, a judging panel, including QFC repre-sentatives, discussed the research methods and findings with the stu-dents, and provided them with additional guidance and insight for their studies.

The research focused on promotional marketing activities and strategies used by financial services firms for both conventional and Islamic investment products.

Ezdan Holding launches training coursesThe Peninsula

DOHA: Human Resources and Administration Department in Ezdan Holding Group has launched a series training courses for its personnel in various departments, on different areas related to the development of professional and interpersonal skills.

The group is holding such courses as part of its keenness to boost capa-bilities of its employees and raise productivity efficiency, which will eventually reflect positive results on available operational possibilities.

The Group Senior management represented by Dr Moussa Al Awwad, Chief Operating Officer, honoured all the participants in the training courses to motivate them and make them feel their efforts and contribu-tions are valued and appreciated. The total courses organised in 2016 reached 26 trainings, in which 161 employees were involved.

These courses were held at the group’s headquarters tackling mul-tiple areas, including managerial skills development, customer serv-ice, leadership abilities development, and other training programs aimed at raising the operational capacity.

During the courses, interactive multi-media tools were used in order

to facilitate the learning process and allow the participants to acquire fur-ther information as much as possible. The training sessions also dedicated time for asking various questions and perform effective exercises that help enhance the participants’ understanding of the objectives of the session.

Dr Al Awwad stressed that Ezdan Holding Group is keen on developing the skills of its employ-ees continuously, through intensive training courses which provide cus-tomised learning and development solutions that would guide them to excel in their roles, acquiring new skills, increasing their contribution to the business and building their self-esteem.

The courses, during the current year, included 15 training sessions within the group and 11 outside it, in which 138 employees and 23 manag-ers benefited.

The Group also seeks to improve productivity and adherence to quality standards, as employees will be able to develop skill sets that allow them undertake a greater variety of work, which will improve the business effi-ciency to unprecedented levels.

“One of the most important stra-tegic principles for 2016 is based on the allocation of various resources in order to support our capabilities and

qualify them to effectively respond to the various challenges required by the job market,” said Dr Al Awwad regarding Group’s strategies for the year 2016. “We decided to develop this approach by organising train-ing courses within our headquarters for the sake to provide training

opportunities to our employees and means to hone their skills as per our business needs. In addition, holding training courses at the headquarters of the group positively contributed to save time and efforts for participants and motivated them actively to attend the courses,” he added.

Dr Moussa Al Awwad, (left) Chief Operating Officer honouring one of the participants of training courses.

Tata Steel yet to shortlist bids for itsUK assetsAFP

MUMBAI: India’s Tata Steel said yesterday it had yet to shortlist any bidders for the sale of its loss-mak-ing British assets but that it hoped to close a deal soon.

The Indian firm, Britain’s big-gest steel employer, announced earlier this year that it planned to sell its Port Talbot plant in Wales and other assets, putting 15,000 jobs at risk.

Tata Steel held a board meeting in India’s financial capital Mum-bai on Wednesday, two days after a deadline passed for interested parties to submit bids to acquire its struggling British steelworks.

“We are evaluating offers. We would like to figure out how many bidders we would take along to the next stage based on the bids they gave,” group executive director Koushik Chatterjee told reporters.

Chatterjee refused to identify the bidders, or how many there are, stressing that Tata Steel was in the “confidential phase” of the sale process. Earlier this month the company said it had selected seven bidders to proceed to the next stage, without naming them.

Metal processing company Liberty House has previously expressed interest and a manage-ment buyout team under the name Excalibur is also believed to be in the running.

“We hope to close the deal shortly and have made good progress with constructive meet-ings with board members,” Chatterjee added, as he announced Tata Steel’s Q4 quarterly earnings.

Tata Steel posted a net loss of Rs32.1bn rupees ($477m) in the three months to March 31, from a loss of Rs56.7bn a year earlier.

“The UK steel operations con-tinued to be exposed to volatile currency and low priced imports into the country,” Tata Steel said in a statement.

“The Tata Steel Europe Board under the advise of the Tata Steel Board is actively reviewing all options for the Tata Steel UK Busi-ness including a potential sale of the business,” it added.

Tata Steel said in March it was selling its loss-making British assets due to a global oversupply of steel, cheap imports into Europe from countries including China, high costs and currency volatility. The move heaped pressure on British Prime Minister David Cameron’s government, which has been rac-ing to find a buyer to safeguard the iconic British steel industry.

EU states fail to reach deal to tackle tax avoidanceReuters

BRUSSELS: European Union finance ministers failed yester-day to agree new rules to counter tax avoidance and deferred until June a possible deal on clamping down on schemes by multinational companies to disproportionately reduce tax bills.

In the wake of Luxleaks and Panama Papers revelations, ministers were under pressure to approve new rules proposed by the European Commission in January to tackle corporations’ tax practices that are estimated to cost EU states up to €70bn ($76.10bn) a year in lost revenues, according to an EU Parliament report.

But several ministers raised concerns about some of the measures proposed, particularly on rules aimed at deterring com-panies from shifting profits to low-tax countries and aimed at forcing them to pay taxes on div-idends and other profits made in tax-free countries.

Smaller countries, such as Lux-embourg, Ireland and Belgium, were among the most critical. Unanimous support from the 28 EU states is required to pass leg-islation on tax matters.

“We will continue work-ing on this in the coming weeks. Hopefully we can come to a final agreement on this proposal in June,” said Dutch Finance Minister Jeroen Dijsselbloem, who chaired the meeting.

Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said: “There are reasons to believe we will reach an ambitious agreement.”

But opposition to proposals to tax dividends and profits made by European companies outside the bloc was so widespread the Dutch EU presidency conceded the meas-ure may be dropped.

The so-called switch over clause would allow taxing these incomes when they are moved to Europe from tax-free or low-rate tax countries in a bid to avoid cases of “double non-taxation”.

Many ministers feared neg-ative consequences for the competitiveness of European com-panies if the clause was applied.

Britain urged beefing up pro-posed rules to counter excessive tax deductions that multinational companies can obtain exploit-ing diverging rules in different countries.

Ministers agreed to request that the EU Commission put for-ward a more comprehensive proposal on the so-called “hybrid mismatches” by October.

Ministers did agree to draw up a common list of tax havens next year, confirming a Reuters report last week on the issue.

BUSINESS 27THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar National Bank’s (QNB) planned acquisition of Turkish lender Finansbank AS offers con-siderable advantages for the group, but the large acquisition in a rela-tively volatile emerging market will expose the bank’s asset quality to downside risks and add to the head-winds in its domestic operations owing to low oil prices, Moody’s Investors Service has said in a report published yesterday.

However, the rating agency expects that these risks will remain manageable given QNB’s high capital buffers, which will be restored fol-lowing a planned capital injection and contributions from its strong earnings, offsetting the impact of higher credit costs post acquisition.

Moody’s report, titled “Qatar National Bank: Downside Risks From Turkish Expansion are Balanced By Strong Capital and Liquidity Buffers” noted “Finansbank is a good strategic fit for Qatar National Bank. Its bal-anced portfolio among various sectors and a well-established presence in the Turkish market offers high long-term growth potential.

However, the acquisition comes with downside asset quality risks due to the geopolitical tensions, currency volatility and a slowdown in economic growth all which may weigh on Turk-ish borrowers’ repayment capacity, said Elena Panayiotou, an Assistant Vice President -- Analyst and author of the report.

Following the conclusion of this transaction, due by end-June 2016, around 30 percent of QNB’s opera-tions will be in Middle Eastern and North African markets that Moody’s generally views as posing greater risks than Qatar, QNB’s domes-tic market. This will continue to test the bank’s risk management capa-bilities, and will require prudent risk control and oversight. Nevertheless, Moody’s expects that QNB’s strong capital buffers can offset the height-ened risks and that the challenges posed by the Turkish acquisition and the bank’s other international oper-ations will remain manageable over the next 12-18 months.

“We believe that any potential asset quality pressures internationally and domestically, owing to protracted low oil prices which could impact confidence and asset prices in Qatar, can be offset by QNB’s strong capital buffers which we expect to be restored by a capital increase by the end of June 2016’’ said Elena Panayiotou.

The deal will increase the geographi-cal diversification of QNB’s assets and revenues. Moody’s expects Finans-bank will contribute to QNB’s earnings growth given the higher net interest rate margins in Turkey. While credit costs for the group will increase post-acquisition given the higher risks in Turkey’s volatile market, Moody’s expects they will remain at low lev-els and continue to underpin QNB’s profitability and internal capital generation.

The transaction will further enhance the geographic diversi-fication of QNB’s assets, deposits and revenues and help to reduce, to some extent, its reliance on concen-trated exposures in Qatar’s oil-driven economy. Finansbank will contrib-ute around 16 percnet to the group’s post-consolidation assets, 16 percent to loans and 12 percent to deposits.

The entry into Turkey will also increase business opportunities for the group, owing to the growth poten-tial in Turkey’s large and densely

populated market (GDP of $760bn as of end-2015, compared to $183bn for Qatar). Trade links between Turkey and Qatar are already well estab-lished, with many Turkish companies participating in Qatar’s infrastructure

development. QNB’s increased bal-ance sheet will raise the cap on loans to single borrowers and allow the bank to continue to participate in large infrastructure projects in the Gulf region.

Individual investors focus on long-term growth: Natixis

The Peninsula

DOHA: Yousef Abdullah Al-Ben-yan (pictured), the Chief Executive Officer and Vice-Chairman of Sabic, has been elected as the Chairman of the Gulf Petrochemicals and Chem-icals Association (GPCA). He was previously the Vice-Chairman of (GPCA) and will assume his role effec-tive immediately, taking over from Rashed Saud Al Shamsi, former Pet-rochemicals Director at ADNOC.

“With unique experience span-ning the Middle East, the Americas and the Far East, Yousef Al-Ben-yan possesses inimitable skills that have served him well in his position as CEO of one of the world’s larg-est petrochemical companies,” said

Dr Abdulwahab Al-Sadoun, Secre-tary General, GPCA. “His knowledge, cross- functional expertise and deep understanding of the industry will help the GPCA steer the industry into the next stage of its evolution.”

With nearly 30 years’ experience, Al-Benyan has been in his current role at SABIC since February of last year. He took over this post from Mohamed Al-Mady, who appointed as the Chairman of the General Organization for Military Industries in Saudi Arabia. Al-Mady also served as the Chairman of the GPCA from 2006-2015.

“With regional governments—like Saudi Arabia with its 2030 National Development Plan-- identifying pet-rochemicals as a key component of their diversification, steady hands like Al- Benyan’s will be crucial in

realizing the sector’s potential,” con-tinued Dr. Al-Sadoun.

Abdulaziz Al Hajri, ADNOC’s newly appointed Director of Refin-ing & Petrochemicals assumes the role of Vice- Chairman of the GPCA, with Qatar Vinyl Company’s (QVC) CEO Hamad Al Nuaimi assuming the role of Treasurer.

The GPCA, now in its 11th year of existence, represents the downstream industry in the Arabian Gulf region. Since its inception, membership has grown to include 250 companies from the chemical sector and its support-ing industries. The association’s full members accounts for over 95% of the petrochemical output in the GCC by volume. The association runs six world-class events each year, and advocates for the common interests of GCC’s petrochemicals industry.

TRL supports Qatar’s green buildings initiativeThe Peninsula

DOHA: Transport Research Labora-tory (TRL), a transport consultancy and research firm, has expressed its support for the initiatives imple-mented by the Qatari government towards green buildings and their achievements in sustainable devel-opment.

The announcement follows the recent release of the book, ‘Recy-cled Aggregate in Construction – Qatar Experience,’ which is being positioned as a key example of a research-driven Qatari success story. TRL is looking to increase awareness of the book and its key findings in order to help construction compa-nies in Qatar to comply with newly released and implemented construc-tion standards and guidelines.

TRL and Qatar Standards will also continue their support to the recycling industry through the cer-tification of recycled materials to verify compliance of recycled aggre-gate with the approved standards.

The new guide is a collabora-tive project between TRL, Qatar Standards, Public Works Author-ity (Ashghal), Qatar University, and key stakeholders in the construction industry, with funding coming from the Qatar National Research Fund at Qatar Foundation.

The 225-page book includes comprehensive data on the con-struction industry in Qatar and the potential of recycling initiatives--supported by a set of statistical tables and charts, photographs and case studies.

It also showcases a range of studies that have been conducted in Doha and the UK between 2010 and 2015, focusing on the devel-opment of codes of practice and supporting mechanisms to convert the vast quantities of construction wastes into high-value construction products.

In line with the findings of the research, Qatar Standards has already updated the Qatar

Construction Specification to per-mit the use of recycled aggregates in a range of applications, including structural concrete, non-structural concrete, concrete blocks, asphalt pavements, road sub-base materi-als and fill applications. However, it does not force clients and con-tractors to use recycled aggregates, so the uptake will be determined largely by the cost.

“The findings mentioned in this book show that recycled aggre-gates are significantly cheaper than imported ones - and raising aware-ness about this and promoting the wider use of recycled aggregates is very critical,” said Dr Khaled Hassan, Country Director, TRL. “TRL is com-mitted to both increasing awareness of this new development and helping local companies in their move to the production of recycled aggregates that comply with new standards and guidelines. To help those companies looking to make the move, we will be offering independent audits to check the quality of the materials before Qatar Standards certifica-tion,” he added.

The main outcome of the project is to make a change in the construc-tion industry by maximising the use of local resources, including recycled aggregate, and reducing reliance on imported materials. This was achieved through working in part-nership during this project on the use of applied research to provide local evidence and solve current problems.

To help drive more success and awareness, Qatar’s Ministry of Municipality and Environment published the findings and out-comes of the project in a book titled, ‘Recycling in Construction - Qatar Experience.’

The project has already received positive response and awards, including two national and regional awards--the most innovative project of the year category of the Qatar Contractors Award (2013) and the Best Green innovation project in MENA category of the Green Mind Awards (2014).

Sabic CEO assumes role as GPCA Chairman

By Satish Kanady

The Peninsula

DOHA: In an indication of evolving investment behaviour in the Mid-dle East, more than three-quarters of investors in the GCC (78 per-cent) believe that long-term growth is more important than short-term gains, according to new research published yesterday by Natixis Glo-bal Asset Management. The study also suggests that market volatil-ity undermines investors’ ability to reach long-term savings and retire-ment goals.

Natixis commissioned an inde-pendent survey of over 7,000 individual investors globally,

including 300 in the GCC, from the affluent to the high net worth. It found that an average of real annual return (above inflation) of 10.8 percent is the reported need of investors in the region, based on their understanding of their investment goals.

Seventy percent of investors in the region believe this is realistic over the long-term and nearly two-third of surveyed investors agree that index funds offer better diversification than other investments.

“One of the key aspects to have come out of this year’s survey of indi-vidual investors in the GCC is that investors are slowly moving towards a more goal-orientated focus com-pared to previous years,”said Jean Michel Bourgoin, Executive Man-aging Director Natixis Global Asset

Management in the Middle East and North Africa.

“This trend is encouraging – even if investors stillneed toimprove the analysis of their long term require-ments–being goal-focused and ensuring robust financial planning are key if you want to build a more intelligent and reliable portfolio”.

On average, investors in the GCC reported a return of 5.3 percent in 2015, compared to 5.8 percent glo-bally. Over half of the surveyed investors also revealed that they did not make any changes to their port-folio in the midst of global market volatility in January this year, a trend that is in line with individual inves-tors globally.

However, 44 percent of GCC investors say they did not know their

annual return for 2015 compared to 29 per cent globally.

“Working with estimates may leave individual investors short on their long-term goals and priorities. While market volatility and lack of appropriate tools to closely moni-tor risk in their portfolios has caused individualinvestors in several regions to be uncertain with regards to their global return, the growing importance of retirement planning as a financial goal for regional investors makes it an important challenge going for-ward,” said Bourgoin. Seventy-nine per cent of surveyed investors felt that the responsibility of funding retire-ment is falling on their shoulders. However, investors are conflicted about this trend with nearly 20 per cent feeling optimistic, 18 per cent

feeling resigned and 16 per cent feel-ing unprepared.

On average, investors think they will around 56 percent of their pre-retirement income to live in retirement. This is short of the 70-80 per cent usually recommended.

“Retirement is still an ill-defined and elusive goal in many markets, including here in the Middle East. But with more investors recognising the retirement responsibility shift-ing from governments to individuals, there is a greater degree of focus on adaptability of investment strategies to personal liabilities over the long-term,”Bourgoin said. “A diversified portfolio that balances active and pas-sively managed strategies will help investors’ weather volatility, manage risks and reach their goals.”

Overall, 70 percent of investors agree that investors who have a pro-fessional financial advisor are more likely to reach their financial goals than those who don’t, and a further 74 per cent say professional advice is necessary to manage their invest-ments and meet their retirement goals. However, the majority of inves-tors (56 per cent) say making their own investment decisions is more important to them than outsourcing all investment decisions.

“The relationship between advi-sors and investors must center on more communication and capacity building. Investors in the region want a relationship that will make them smarter and better informed instead of simply leaving it up to the experts,” Bourgoin said.

QNB’s Finansbank acquisition a strategic move: Moody’sRating agency expects risks to remain manageable given QNB’s high capital buffers.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Malabar Gold & Diamonds, the prominent jewellery retailer, unfolded the details of its much awaited campaign to celebrate the onset of summer. The campaign will run at all Malabar Gold & Dia-monds outlets located in the GCC until August 6, 2016.

The campaign launched this season gives customers an exclu-sive chance to win up to 10 kilos of gold with purchase of gold and dia-mond jewellery. With every purchase of gold jewellery worth QAR500, cus-tomers get a chance to enter raffle draws to win 1/4 kg of gold each in a week. Those who buy diamond jewellery worth QAR500will get two raffle coupons, doubling their chances to win.

Adding to the above, the cus-tomers can update any of their old ornaments purchased from GCC

with the brand new enticing collec-tion of Malabar Gold & Diamonds without any loss. Any 22K old gold ornaments purchased from GCC can

be exchanged with Malabar Gold & Diamonds designs by paying only making charges ensuring they don’t lose any value on the rate of gold.

Malabar Gold launches ‘win up to 10 kilos of gold’ promotion

Gulf Air inflight magazine launches mobile app The Peninsula

MANAMA: Gulf Life, the inflight magazine of the Kingdom of Bah-rain’s national carrier Gulf Air, has launched its mobile app “Gulf Life” and official website www.gulflife.onlinein addition to its social media presence, with active Facebook (Facebook/GulfLife) and Twitter (@GulfLifeMag) pages. With these launches, Gulf Life becomes digitally empowered, making its presence felt across all platforms.

In addition to providing detailed updates to relevant Gulf Air information, readers can now browse both the app and website for articles on various destinations, festivals, events around the world and much more. The Gulf Life app also allows readers to download specific content for future ref-erence. Gulf Life is a bilingual (English and Arabic) monthly mag-azine catering to each and every passenger travelling by Gulf Air.

BUSINESS28 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Reuters

BRUSSELS: The European Commis-sion will check on whether it should do more to curb possible unfair prac-tices in the terms of use set by web platforms such as Google, Amazon and Apple Inc’s App Store.

The Commission also published proposals yesterday to make online shopping across borders easier.

Presenting the conclusions of a year-long inquiry into online plat-forms such as Facebook, Google and eBay, the European Union executive ruled out a single law for them but said it would target specific prob-lems in areas such as copyright and telecoms.

The Commission proposed changes to the bloc’s broadcasting

rules which will oblige providers of online video streaming services such as Netflix and Amazon to devote at least a fifth of their catalogue to Euro-pean works.

European films already account for 21 percent of Netflix’s catalogue.

EU member states will also have the option of requiring streaming services not based in that country but targeting their audience to con-tribute financially to the production of European works.

“I want online platforms and the audiovisual and creative sectors to be power houses in the digital econ-omy, not weigh them down with unnecessary rules,” said Andrus Ansip, EU Commission Vice-Pres-ident who is in charge of Brussels’ strategy to create a single market in the digital world.

The Society of Audiovisual Authors welcomed the review of Euro-pean broadcasting rules, although it said the 20 percent quota is not enough.

Netflix said it had committed hun-dreds of millions of euros to European productions so far. Its first original European series, Marseille, premiered in May.

“We appreciate the Commis-sion’s objective to have European

production flourish. However the proposed measures won’t actually achieve that,” said Joris Evers, a Net-flix spokesman.

Online platforms - largely US tech companies - have come under increased scrutiny in the 28-nation bloc for their business practices as well as handling of swathes of data.

The Commission said its inquiry highlighted problems in online shop-ping in relations between businesses and platforms, including the imposi-tion of unfair conditions, refusal of access to markets and important busi-ness data and the promotion of the platform’s own service to the disad-vantage of competitors.

The EU executive will examine the allegations and decide if action is needed next year. Separately, the Commission has charged Google with abusing its dominance to promote its shopping service over rival services.

The Commission said it will look at deregulating telecoms companies where they face competition from similar services, such as Microsoft’s Skype or Facebook’s WhatsApp.

Telecoms firms have long com-plained about tech firms who can provide messaging or calling serv-ices without being subject to the same rules. A reform of the bloc’s copyright

rules expected after the summer will address concerns in the music indus-try that platforms such as YouTube

do not pay artists enough when their content is uploaded.

The new broadcasting rules will

become law when approved by the European Parliament and national governments.

EU to pursue checks on web deals with businessesEuropean Commission publishes proposals to make online shopping across borders easier.

FROM LEFT: The European Commissioner for Digital Single Market Andrus Ansip; EU Commissioner for Internal Market and Industry, Elzbieta Bienkowska; EU Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society Guenther Oettinger; and EU Commissioner in Charge of Justice, Consumers and Gender equality, Vera Jourova during sit on a podium before a press conference in Brussels, Belgium, yesterday.

AFP

HELSINKI: Microsoft Corp announced more big cuts to its smart-phone business yesterday, just two years after it bought handset maker Nokia in an ill-fated attempt to take on market leaders Apple and Sam-sung.

The US company said it would shed up to 1,850 jobs, most of them in Finland, and write down $950m from the business. It did not say how many employees currently work on smartphones in the group as a whole.

A Finnish union representative said the cuts would essentially put

an end to Microsoft’s development of new phones.

“My understanding is that Win-dows 10 will go on as an operating system, but there will be no more phones made by Microsoft,” said Kalle Kiili, a shop steward.

Microsoft said in a statement it would continue to develop the Windows 10 platform and support its Lumia smartphones, but gave no comment on whether it would develop new Windows phones.

Microsoft bought Nokia’s once-dominant handset business for about $7.2bn in 2014, but failed to turn the business around and last year announced $7.5bn of writedowns and 7,800 job cuts.

Global market share of Windows

smartphones fell below 1 percent in the first quarter of 2016, according to research firm Gartner.

Earlier this month, Microsoft sold its entry-level feature phones busi-ness for $350m.

The company said on Wednes-day it expected to cut all 1,350 jobs at its Finnish mobile phone unit and close down a research and develop-ment site in the country. A further 500 jobs will go in other countries, it said, without giving details.

“We are focusing our phone efforts where we have differenti-ation,” said chief executive Satya Nadella in a statement.

“We will continue to innovate across devices and on our cloud serv-ices across all mobile platforms.”

Sanofi threatens to sack board of US rival MedivationAFP

PARIS: French drugs giant Sanofi threatened yesterday to sack the entire board of US rival Medivation, dramatically turning up the heat in an acrimonious, multibillion-dollar takeover battle.

Sanofi launched the attempt to replace all board members of Medivation after being repeatedly spurned in its attempts to purchase the group, which makes a high-priced,

blockbuster prostate cancer medica-tion called Xtandi. As a shareholder in Medivation, the French company has the right to seek written support from fellow shareholders to overturn the board of its US rival.

The proposal by Sanofi, which offered a new slate of eight directors, needs the support of more than 50 percent of Medivation shareholders in a process that can last up to 60 days.

“We are seeking your support for the removal of the company board,” said a copy of the request to share-holders, which was filed with the US

market regulator, the New York-based Securities and Exchange Commission. Sanofi accused Medivation directors of failing to act in the best interests of its shareholders.

“The company board has refused even to engage with us regarding our proposed offer,” it said.

Sanofi said it was open to sign-ing a confidentiality agreement so as obtain more information about Medivation, stressing that in such conditions it was in a position to increase its offer. In a separate letter to the Medivation board, Sanofi chief

executive Olivier Brandicourt urged the US firm to engage in talks.

Brandicourt said he believed Medivation shareholders “over-whelmingly support” the sale of the company, and his firm would drop its effort to replace the board if Mediva-tion engages “in good faith” as part of a sales process.

The Sanofi boss said in a state-ment he had been left with no choice but to propose a new board of directors “who are more open to supporting the best interests of Medivation shareholders regarding

a potential transaction”.Medivation said last month its

board had unanimously rejected Sanofi’s unsolicited, non-binding cash offer of $52.50 a share, declar-ing that it “substantially” undervalued the company and was not in the inter-ests of shareholders.

The offer valued San Francisco-based Medivation at $9.3bn.

That would make it Gentilly, France-based Sanofi’s biggest acqui-sition since it bought the US biotech group Genzyme in 2011 for more than $20bn.

Microsoft’s Finnish headquarters in Espoo.

Microsoft retreats from smartphonebusiness; plans to shed 1,850 jobs

German business confidence rises AFP

FRANKFURT: German businesses are feeling increasingly optimistic as the outlook brightens for Europe’s biggest economy, a closely-watched barometer showed yesterday.

The Ifo institute’s business cli-mate index rose by a full point to 107.7 points in May, comfortably outpac-ing analysts’ expectations, Ifo said in a statement.

“The German economy is growing at a robust pace,” said Ifo president Clemens Fuest.

“Companies are significantly more satisfied with their current business situation. In addition, they are noticeably more optimistic with regard to the coming months.”

Ifo calculates its headline index on the basis of companies’

assessments of the current business environment and the outlook for the next six months.

The sub-index measuring cur-rent business increased by one point to 114.2 points and the outlook sub-index climbed by 1.1 point to 101.6 points, the institute said.

The better-than-expected data reinforce the resilient picture of the German economy, which more than doubled its growth pace to 0.7 percent in the first three months, according to final data released ear-lier this week.

The federal statistics office Des-tatis said that growth is being driven primarily by domestic demand, with record low employment, low inflation and rising wages boosting purchas-ing power and consumer spending.

- Consumer morale also strong -According to the GfK market

research group, consumer morale is

also strong, with its household con-fidence index set to rise to 9.8 points in June from 9.7 points in May and consumers’ willingness to spend ris-ing from already high levels.

“Private consumption will remain an important pillar of the economy in the coming months,” GfK wrote and said it was maintaining its fore-cast for private consumer spending to increae by around two percent in 2016, after 1.9 percent last year.

Nevertheless, economists said the strong first-quarter growth look unlikely to be repeated in subsequent quarters this year. “After a strong first quarter, the German economy should slow down somewhat in the current quarter,” said ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski.

However, “today’s Ifo index sug-gests that any technical slowdown could be very limited,” said ING DiBa economist Carsten Brzeski.

US agency to probe Alibaba on accountingAFP

WASHINGTON: The US stock market regulator has opened an investigation into the accounting practices of Chinese online giant Alibaba, a company document showed.

Alibaba said in a regula-tory filing that the Securities and Exchange Commission had opened the probe “into whether there have been any violations of the federal securities laws.”

Among other things, the SEC sought information into Alibaba’s accounting for its Cainiao logistics network and its reporting practices for Singles Day, a huge sales event in China.

“We are voluntarily disclosing this SEC request for information and cooperating with the SEC and, through our legal counsel, have been providing the SEC with requested documents and infor-mation,” the Alibaba statement said.

It noted that the request for information “should not be con-strued as an indication by the SEC or its staff that any violation of the federal securities laws has occurred.”

Alibaba last year disclosed that it had received a request from both US and Chinese regu-lators on whether it allowed sales of counterfeit merchandise on its platforms.

Alibaba went public in 2014 with a record stock flotation of $25bn in New York and is now con-sidered the world’s biggest online retailer and is planning more expansions.

AFP

SINGAPORE: More than 60 percent of all computer software installed in the Asia-Pacific in 2015 was unli-censed, the worst of any region, despite growing economies and anti-piracy efforts, an industry watchdog said yeserday.

The Software Alliance -- which includes giants like Microsoft, Apple, Intel, Oracle and Adobe -- said in a report that the unlicensed software in Asia had a value of $19.1bn last year. Piracy rates were most rampant in Bangladesh, Pakistan and Indonesia at more than 80 percent. The global piracy average was 39 percent.

While the worldwide piracy rate decreased by four percentage points from 2013, Asia saw only a one per-centage point decline to 61 percent

over the two-year period, said the report, which did not cover mobile devices. The report resulted from a survey of 22,000 computer users and 2,000 information technology decision-makers and includes busi-ness, operating system, gaming and security software.

The group’s Asia-Pacific senior director Tarun Sawney called for more action to address the problem of unlicensed software, particularly for key sectors like banking.

“Whilst there’s still been improvement from two years ago on the use of unlicensed software, the rate is still too high and certainly in emerging economies, a lot of which are in Asia-Pacific, the problem still persists,” he told a press conference.

The report cited a “disconnect” between businesses’ concern about cyber-security and their attitude to unlicensed software.

Asia ‘hotbed of IT piracy’despite economic growth

BUSINESS 29THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Reuters

BRUSSELS: Twelve global steel associations urged the Group of Seven advanced economies, which meet in Japan this week, to prevent cheap Chinese steel distorting world markets and inflicting further pain on producers.

Steelmakers have been hit by a plunge in steel prices, which Europe and the United States have blamed on a surge in cheap exports from China that has exacerbated the impact of a collapse in demand fol-lowing economic crisis.

Among the casualties are Tata Steel, which in March announced it was selling its British operations as it could no longer sustain deep losses, prompting a political scramble to save the thousands of jobs at stake.

The White House has already said discussion of actions to reduce global industrial overcapacity, with an emphasis on the steel glut, would be on the agenda for Japan talks starting on Thursday.

Open letters made public on Wednesday to world leaders from 12

steel industry bodies and other man-ufacturers said that discussion must include action against countries that do not respect market economy conditions, especially China, and oversupply had to be tackled.

“If global overcapacity borne of state-supported enterprises’ uneco-nomic operations continues it will threaten the survival of efficient companies operating in environ-ments with little or no government support,” Axel Eggert, director gen-eral of the European steel body EUROFER, said in an emailed statement.

Earlier this month, EU lawmak-ers overwhelmingly rejected any loosening of trade defences against China, whose eligibility for market economy status is being debated by the European Union.

Beijing says the status is its right, 15 years after it joined the World Trade Organization, and says it is blamed unfairly for a steel crisis by nations it accuses of protectionism.

Granting market economy sta-tus would make it hard for the EU to impose trade restrictions to pro-tect its own industry.

EUROFER says it is clear China is the root cause and that the nation had built up a 50 percent share of total global steel capacity by 2015, compared with 15 percent in 2000.

In addition to the steel industry letter, AEGIS Europe, the alliance of manufacturing industries in Europe, wrote to the political leaders of Brit-ain, France, Germany and Italy, as well as EU leaders Donald Tusk and Jean-Claude Juncker, urging them to resist “unjustified demands for treat-ing China as a market economy”.

Steel industry seeks protection from ChinaSteelmakers have been hit by a plunge in prices, which Europe and US have blamed on a surge in cheap exports from China.

AFP

LONDON: Energy giant Royal Dutch Shell yesterday said it was cutting at least another 2,200 jobs owing to low oil prices and following its takeover of smaller rival BG Group.

“Shell staff have today been informed about the progress being made on integrating BG into the com-pany, and on further measures that are necessary to ensure Shell is com-petitive in a ‘lower for longer’ oil price environment,” the Anglo-Dutch group said in a statement.

Shell said the latest losses bring to at least 12,500 the number of staff and direct contractor roles being cut from the company between the start of last year and end of 2016.

Jobs are being axed at its

operations in the North Sea off the coast of Scotland, as well as in Ire-land and elsewhere.

“These are tough times for our industry and we have to take fur-ther difficult decisions to ensure Shell remains competitive through the cur-rent, prolonged downturn,” said Paul Goodfellow, Shell’s vice president for UK & Ireland.

“In 2016, the number of job reductions in response to low prices and as a result of the BG integration is expected to total at least 5,000 globally.”

Goodfellow added that Shell was seeking to “create a competi-tive and sustainable business in the North Sea”.

Shell had earlier this month announced an 89-percent drop in net profit for the first quarter of 2016, blamed the slump on low oil prices.

It also said that investment would be lower than expected.

The global oil market had nose-dived from above $100 in mid-2014 to 13-year lows of around $27 in Feb-ruary, plagued by a stubborn supply glut.

But prices have since rebounded to trade at nearly $50 a barrel.

The slump in prices has caused energy groups worldwide to cut spending, slash jobs and sell assets during the past year.

However Shell still pressed ahead with its £47bn ($69bn) takeover of British company BG Group, in a deal aimed at strengthening Shell’s posi-tion in the liquefied natural gas (LNG) market.

At the end of 2015, Shell employed around 90,000 people globally, while BG had some 4,600 staff.

Royal Dutch Shell to axe further 2,200 jobs on low oil prices

A Shell logo above the forecourt of a Royal Dutch Shell petrol station in Hook, near Basingstoke, in England.

Kuwait to sign $1bn contract for city projectReuters

DUBAI: Kuwait is expected to sign within two weeks a $1bn contract with Italy’s Salini Impregilo and Turkey’s Limak Construction for its planned South Al Mutlaa City project, an official said yesterday.

It is the first phase of the planned 100,000 square kilome-tre urban development, which is situated in central Kuwait and is expected to house around 400,000 residents when completed.

Despite being one of the world’s richest countries per capita and providing citizens with a lav-ish cradle-to-grave welfare state, Kuwait suffers a significant short-age of government-funded housing which particularly impacts young people, who can find themselves on a waiting list for years.

The South Al Mutlaa City con-tract will cover construction of a road and other infrastructure and be funded by the Kuwaiti govern-ment from its own reserves, Naser Khraibut, director of planning at the country’s Public Authority for Housing Welfare, told reporters on the sidelines of a conference in Dubai.

Costs for building infrastructure and public buildings in the city has been estimated at around $20bn. “Other packages we’re now in the process of prequalification for con-tractors to tender,” said Khraibut.

The Gulf state will also sign a contract this month worth between $80m and $90m with Hill International to manage the build-ing of the entire city, Khraibut said.

Meanwhile, Kuwait is also designing and completing an economic study for the planned South Saad Abdullah City, which will cover 60 square kilometres.

The $10bn to $15bn cost of the project will be financed through a special purpose vehicle jointly established by the Kuwaiti and South Korean governments,

Russia talks up foreign interest in EurobondReuters

MOSCOW/LONDON: Russia yes-terday hailed its Eurobond issue as a triumph over Western obstruction, but there was no sign that big for-eign investors had bought the bond and, unusually for a large issue, there was scant trading in the paper once it was placed.

Russia had sold $1.75bn in 10-year Eurobonds on Tuesday, smaller than its previous placements, after Western officials warned inter-national banks and investors against taking part. The yield of 4.75 percent was some 50-70 basis points above equivalent secondary market yields.

Russia nevertheless put a posi-tive spin on the issue, the first since Western sanctions were imposed on Russia in 2014 in retaliation for its actions in Ukraine. The bond accounts for just over half of Rus-sia’s $3bn foreign borrowing target for the year.

Finance Minister Anton Silu-anov (pictured) said yesterday that foreign investors had been given pri-ority and had bought $1.2bn of the bonds, with the remainder acquired by Russian non-state banks. State-owned banks were excluded.

Andrey Solovyov, global head of debt capital markets at placement organiser VTB Capital, told Reuters the foreign buyers were “high-qual-ity investors, who very often buy Russian sovereigns”.

He said they consisted mainly of investment funds and private banks. British investors had bought a third of the issue, he said, with the next largest geographical shares from continental Europe and Asia. However, mar-ket participants said there had been hardly any trading on the secondary market, where it is more usual for up to 25 percent of a large issue to change hands on the first day.

If demand has been strong, buy-ers who missed out try to get hold of the paper immediately after the placement, and some who did buy

sell it on for a quick profit.“Secondary trading has been

minimal ... I have yet to trade,” said a trader at a Western bank.

Some analysts and investors were sceptical that genuine foreign participation was as large as the Russian figures indicate, as some of the foreign investors may in fact have been Russians investing from abroad. “I doubt there were signifi-cant - beyond a few hundred million dollars - pure Western investors,” said Timothy Ash, head of emerg-ing market strategy at Nomura.

“Even Asian participation seems to have been muted, again perhaps reflecting the complicated technical-ities and compliance issues related to this deal.”

Solovyov acknowledged that investors had needed time to get used to the technicalities of the issue, which unusually was not being handled by either of the two largest international settlement banks, adding: “There were some geopolitical issues as well, so probably it would not have been a good idea to offer all $3bn at this yield.” Solovyov said the issue might be topped up later, on better terms for the issuer, but Siluanov said there were no plans for a top-up.

Many potential investors con-tacted by Reuters said they had been deterred by liquidity concerns, given doubts about whether brokers, clear-ing houses and custodians would handle the bonds.

South African central bank urges caution after heist Reuters

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s central bank told lenders to be vig-ilant yesterday after criminals in Japan stole millions of dollars from automatic teller machines using fake credit cards from South Afri-ca’s Standard Bank.

The criminal gang made 14,000 withdrawals in just three hours from bank machines at 7-Eleven conven-ience stores across Japan on May 15, withdrawing $13m, according to a source familiar with the matter.

Central bank deputy governor Kuben Naidoo confirmed that Stand-ard Bank would shoulder the losses.

“We will work with the law enforcement agencies to try and pre-vent and tackle those crimes,” Naidoo told reporters. Rene van Wyk, the central bank’s registrar of banks, said lenders who rely on outside vendors should be careful as the cyber attacks were taking place abroad rather than in South Africa.

“So that vulnerability will always remain because you’re dependant on other parties, so that relationship between vendors and banks, that is one thing that we focus on,” he said.

Standard Bank said on Monday it had suffered the losses, not its cus-tomers, and that it had alerted the

auhorities. It estimated its total loss at 300m rand ($19m).

The bank has declined to com-ment further.

The criminals are still at large. Japan’s Mainichi newspaper, citing sources, said police suspect more than 100 people were involved in the theft which took place on the morning

of May 15, a Sunday, in Tokyo and across 16 Japanese prefectures.

Most ATMs in 7-Eleven stores belong to Seven Bank, a Japanese lender part-owned by Seven & I Hold-ings which operates the convenience store chain in Japan. It is one of only two Japanese banks that allow with-drawals on foreign cards.

Experts said both banks should shoulder some blame for failing to monitor the flood of transactions, saying they should have had systems in place to detect unusual activity.

Deputy governor Naidoo said the central bank was pleased that Stand-ard Bank had gone public over the theft.

Customers draw money from an ATM outside a branch of South Africa’s Standard Bank in Cape Town.

Singapore Exchange in talks to buy Baltic ExchangeReuters

SINGAPORE/LONDON: The Singa-pore Exchange (SGX) is in exclusive talks to buy London’s Baltic Exchange, which has been at the heart of the global shipping industry for centuries, the two companies said yesterday.

Founded in 1744, the Baltic Exchange is no longer a forum for chartering vessels but owns bench-mark indexes for global shipping rates

and provides a trading platform for the multi-billion dollar freight deriv-atives market.

The takeover talks come as the global shipping industry grapples with the worst market conditions for decades after a slump in commodity markets coincided with an increase in the number of vessels, sending freight costs to record lows.

Earlier yesterday, sources told Reuters the Baltic and SGX had entered into advanced talks, with one putting the value of a potential

deal at about $100m.The Baltic and SGX said in a state-

ment later they had entered a period of exclusivity which would expire on June 30. “The board considers this proposal is an exciting development for the Baltic and all the stakeholders in the markets it serves,” Baltic Chairman Guy Camp-bell said in a statement.

“SGX has indicated that in the event its bid is successful, it would maintain the current model for the Baltic business and our presence and building in London, as the platform

for the Baltic’s future growth,” he said.The Baltic is owned by about 380

shareholders, many from the shipping industry. It produces daily bench-mark rates and indexes used around the world to trade and settle freight contracts.

The Baltic said it would hold joint meetings with the SGX, sharehold-ers and wider members in the coming weeks to explain the terms of the pro-posal before presenting an agreement which could form the basis of a rec-ommendation to shareholders.

AFP

LONDON: European equities jumped to a four-week high yes-terday with banks buoyed by progress on talks towards secur-ing a debt relief deal for Greece, and energy shares rose on the back of a rally in oil.

The FTSEurofirst 300 and the STOXX Europe 600 index both touched their highest levels since late April, climbing 1.3 percent to add to the previous session’s jump of more than 2 percent.

Banks rose after euro zone finance ministers agreed with Greece and the International

Monetary Fund on a deal that will address Athens’ requests for debt relief.

“This deal is welcome, and it allows the current arrangement

to progress. In a way it puts a lid back on the can of worms, but the worms are still in there,” Jasper Lawler, market analyst at CMC Markets, said.

The euro zone banking index was up 3.6 percent, led by lend-ers in the periphery. Shares in Caixabank, Banco Popular and Santander surged between 5.8 percent and 7.3 percent.

Deutsche Bank gained 3.4 percent, with some traders citing positive broker comments from JP Morgan.

The top Greek index rallied in early deals as sovereign yields fell on the deal. It had been set to post its highest close since December 2015, until a late pullback saw it

end flat. Energy shares were in demand after oil prices pushed closer to $50 a barrel, with US crude hitting its highest in more than seven months after industry data suggested a larger-than-expected drawdown in U.S. crude inventories last week.

The STOXX Europe 600 Oil and Gas index rose 2.5 percent, helped by gains of 2.3 percent for BP and Royal Dutch Shell respectively.

Among fallers, British retailer Marks & Spencer slumped after it said its turnaround plan would cut into profits in the short term.

M&S was down 10.2 percent, the top decliner in the FTSEu-rofirst 300 index, after the

company told investors to expect a short-term hit to profit as it pushes through a plan to turn around its underperforming clothing and homeware business.

“Clothing and general mer-chandise performance remains unsatisfactory as difficult trad-ing conditions persist, which leaves everything on the shoul-ders of a stronger performing but much lower-margin food seg-ment,” Accendo Markets head of research, Mike van Dulken, said.

“A troubled retail division has become a major issue as the core customer base ages and it likely struggles to entice a younger demographic more likely to buy online.”

BUSINESS30 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

QE Index 9,705.74 0.42 %

QE Total Return Index 15,703.25 0.42 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,812.32 0.34 %

QE All Share Index 2,714.8 0.35 %

QE All Share Banks & Financial Services 2,611.24 0.51 %

QE All Share Industrials 3,048.38 0.45 %

QE All Share Transportation 2,481.54 0.40 %

QE All Share Real Estate 2,383.87 0.27 %

QE All Share Insurance 4,110.75 0.37 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,090.58 1.23 %

QE All Share Consumer Goods & Services 6,456.01 0.11 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON

GOLD AND SILVER

WORLD STOCK INDICES

25-05-2016 Today 24-05-2016 Previous dayIndex 9,705.74 9,664.85

Change 40.89 16.69

% 0.42 0.17

YTD% 6.94 7.33

Volume 4,159,167 4,023,910

Value (QAR) 142,579,541.90 151,757,504.43

Trades 3,118 3,140

Up 24 | Down 12 | Unchanged 05

GOLD QR143.6703 per grammeSILVER QR1.9089 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year LowAll Ordinaries 5436.782 74.879 1.4 5483.7 4762.1

Cac 40 Index/D 4478.22 46.7 1.05 4607.69 3892.46

Dj Indu Average 17706.05 213.12 1.22 18229.8 15370.3

Hang Seng Inde/D 20368.05 537.62 2.71 21794.84 18278.8

Iseq Overall/D 6474.17 86.09 1.35 6791.68 5611.89

Karachi 100 In/D 36499.43 -82.92 -0.23 36848.02 29785

Nikkei 225 Index 16757.35 258.59 1.57 18951.12 14865.77

S&P 500 Index/D 0 0 0 2132.82 1810.1

EXCHANGE RATECurrency Buying Selling

US$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 5.3174 QR 5.3923

Euro QR 4.0352 QR 4.0924

CA$ QR 2.7538 QR 2.8083

Swiss Fr QR 3.6510 QR 3.7048

Yen QR 0.0328 QR 0.0334

Aus$ QR 2.6010 QR 2.6518

Ind Re QR 0.0536 QR 0.0546

Pak Re QR 0.0344 QR 0.0351

Peso QR 0.0771 QR 0.0787

SL Re QR 0.0244 QR 0.0251

Taka QR 0.0459 QR 0.0468

Nep Re QR 0.0335 QR 0.0342

SA Rand QR 0.2300 QR 0.2345

Reuters

DUBAI: Gains for global equity and oil markets boosted Gulf bourses yesterday with Saudi petrochemical shares and Dubai real estate stocks leading the gains.

Riyadh’s index rose 0.6 percent in modest volume as Saudi Basic Industries, the largest petrochemical pro-ducer, climbed 1.2 percent.

Saudi Cement added 2.0 percent after the com-pany said it had sold its 40 percent stake in Kuwaiti cement company Group International Cement for $6.59 million; the deal will be reflected in its books in the second quarter.

Dubai’s stock index rose 1.9 percent in the heav-iest trade for a month as Emaar Properties jumped 4.0 percent.

Another real estate developer, Deyaar, gained 3.0 percent after saying it had formed a partnership with Turkey’s Ascioglu to build a residential tower in Dubai.

Real estate firms were also the most active in Abu Dhabi’s bourse with Aldar Properties adding 3.5 per-cent. The Abu Dhabi index was up 1.6 percent.

Blue chips helped support Qatar’s index, which was0.4 percent higher. Oil drilling rig provider Gulf International Services

rose 2.2 percent while telecommunications operator Ooredoo gained 1.3 percent.

In Egypt, the stock index climbed 0.6 percent.Investment bank EFG Hermes climbed 0.8 percent

to 10.95 Egyptian pounds, approaching techncial resist-ance on its March peak of 11.45 pounds.

Dubai Group plans to sell its stake in EFG Hermes this year under the terms of the Dubai firm’s debt restructur-ing, the chief executive of Dubai Group’s parent Dubai Holding said yesterday.

Dubai Group holds 11.8 percent of EFG Hermes, according to data.

Saudi Arabia: The index gained 0.6 percent to 6,516 points.

Dubai: The index rose 1.9 percent to 3,309 points.Abu Dhabi: The index climbed 1.6 percent to 4,289

points.Qatar: The index rose 0.4 percent to 9,706 points.Egypt: The index climbed 0.6 percent to 7,543 points.Kuwait: The index gained 0.9 percent to 5,368 points.

Gulf rises on back of oil; global cue

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS - A LIST OF SHARES FROM THE WORLD

A C C-A/D 1475.35 29.15 33211

Aban Offs-A/D 193.65 3.95 246910

Aegis Logis-B/D 109 1.05 33975

Alembic-B/D 35.3 0.35 33459

Alkyl Amines-B/D 315 -2.55 1150

Alok Indus-A/D 3.82 0.03 814736

Apollo Tyre-A/D 151.7 4 157530

Asahi I Glass-/D 157 7.95 18942

Ashok Leyland-/D 97.25 -4.45 5349979

Bajaj Hold-A/D 1483.1 -8.1 1375

Ballarpur In-B/D 17.85 0.45 455336

Bata India-A/D 558.2 1.7 26027

Beml Ltd-A/D 818.2 0.9 40130

Bh Electronic-/D 1108 1.95 19316

Bhansali Eng-T/D 19.95 0.15 26177

Bharat Bijle-B/D 846.45 26.3 4732

Bharatgears-B/D 77.45 -1.65 1246

Bhartiya Int-B/D 509 3.4 5954

Bhel-A/D 122.65 5.1 733248

Bom.Burmah-B/D 367.7 11.4 6376

Bombay Dyeing-/D 44.5 0.55 98972

Camph.& All-B/D 590 8.5 2684

Canfin Homes-B/D 1145 8.3 1710

Caprihans-Xc/D 81 -2.05 12679

Castrol India-/D 372.4 6.65 203128

Century Enka-B/D 202.65 1.3 10461

Century Text-A/D 598.15 11.75 76027

Chambal Fert-B/D 65.6 1.2 43854

Chola Invest-A/D 893 1.15 1405

Chowgule St-T/D 17.8 0.35 1200

Cimmco-B/D 69.15 0.5 1918

Cipla-A/D 470.3 -24.6 1228532

City Union Bk-/D 103.7 -0.6 39019

Colgate-A/D 834.9 -0.4 39729

Container Cor-/D 1390.2 7.5 187257

Dai-Tichi Kar-/D 367 -6.05 1104

Dcm Shram Ind-/D 130.25 2.2 5121

Dhampur Sugar-/D 85.25 1.4 92481

Dr. Reddy-A/D 3052.95 27.7 26754

E I H-B/D 108.65 -1.1 5510

E.I.D Parry-A/D 235.45 3.9 31236

Eicher Motor-A/D 18525.4 349.75 4178

Electrosteel-B/D 17.8 0.15 24872

Emco-B/D 24.85 0.5 5972

Escorts Fin-B/D 4.44 0.01 29095

Escorts-A/D 173.8 2.7 491713

F D C-B/D 182.35 0.7 2726

Federal Bank-A/D 50.55 1.1 309227

Ferro Alloys-B/D 4.57 -0.06 26529

Finolex-A/D 385.2 -6.6 15679

Gail-A/D 381.3 10.25 92072

Gammon India-T/D 10.84 0.05 72250

Godfrey Phil-B/D 883.25 26.15 43897

Goodricke-B/D 164.5 -0.2 9313

Goodyear I -B/D 505 -12.95 7851

Hcl Infosys-B/D 40.5 0.75 395274

Him.Fut.Comm-T/D 16.05 0.15 310443

Himat Seide-B/D 215.6 -1.85 20428

Hind Motors-T/D 4.82 -0.08 32226

Hind Org Chem-/D 15.05 0.15 11788

Hind Unilever-/D 836.5 13.45 52273

Hind.Petrol-A/D 840.7 33.7 75503

Hindalco-A/D 88.65 2.4 918950

Hous Dev Fin-A/D 1206.95 33.65 178644

I F C I-A/D 23.4 0.55 283510

Idbi-A/D 65.45 1.35 344536

Ifb Agro-B/D 392.6 14.75 2597

Ifb Ind.Ltd.-B/D 345.45 3.35 4641

India Cement-A/D 88.95 4.75 678261

India Glycol-B/D 83.75 1.4 7298

Indian Card-B/D 237.2 0.2 1197

Indian Hotel-A/D 115.65 1.35 99609

Indo-Tcount-T/D 910.7 13.45 14380

Indusind-A/D 1094.8 51.2 206793

J.B.Chemical-B/D 244.05 -1.7 7509

Jagatjit Ind-X/D 71.25 0.15 1000

Jagson Phar-B/D 34.7 1.35 3915

Jamnaauto-B/D 147 -0.45 42697

Jbf Indu-B/D 205.2 2.3 8350

Jct Ltd-B/D 4.41 -0.15 455808

Jenson&Nich.-B/D 7.9 0.18 13019

Jindal Drill-B/D 171.95 10.3 46356

Jktyre&Ind-A/D 81.5 1.35 71103

Kabra Extr-B/D 93.5 2 1952

Kajaria Cer-A/D 1077 18.4 1532

Kakatiya Cem-B/D 523.2 20.55 164193

Kalpat Power-B/D 230.8 7.2 26439

Kalyani Stel-T/D 160.6 -3.25 45757

Kg Denim-B/D 98.4 3.45 40696

Kopran-B/D 51 -1.05 61219

Lakshmi Elec-B/D 377 6.9 1467

Lloyd Metal-B/D 25.95 1.5 37849

Lok.Hous&Con-T/D 4.9 -0.03 10781

Lumax Ind-B/D 501.35 9.3 2695

Lupin-A/D 1473.25 7.5 93554

Lyka Labs-T/D 71.6 2.7 24496

Mafatlal Ind-B/D 330.5 4.4 2108

Mah.Seamless-B/D 222.65 3.55 8464

Mangalam Cem-B/D 245 10.55 3390

Maral Overs-B/D 27.75 -0.2 17455

Mastek-B/D 138.5 1.65 12400

Max Financial-/D 383.95 3.55 2601

Mrpl-A/D 65 0.45 110313

Nagreeka Ex-B/D 26.4 -0.1 1530

Nagreeka Ex-B/D 26.4 -0.1 1530

Nahar Spg.-B/D 118.1 -1.65 17630

Nation Alum -A/D 43.05 0.7 175195

Navneet Edu-B/D 90 0.9 7083

Nepc India-T/D 1.34 -0.07 9602

Neuland Lab-B/D 791.45 38.9 7152

Nrb Bearings-B/D 114.6 1.6 4645

O N G C-A/D 210.2 3.55 206733

Oil Country-B/D 29.25 -0.1 5979

Onward Tech-B/D 71.85 1.6 3353

Orchid Pharm-B/D 37.85 0.5 54391

Orient Hotel-T/D 23.6 0.25 5119

Orient.Carb.-T/D 455 6.35 1615

Orient.Carb.-T/D 455 6.35 1615

Oudh Sugar-B/D 80.35 1.75 66493

Pacific Indu-B/D 116.6 1.6 4410

Patspin India-/D 9.3 0.48 6815

Punjab Chem.-B/D 165 1.35 2012

Radico Khait-B/D 84.5 0.1 9029

Rallis India-A/D 208.65 4.7 35364

Rallis India-A/D 208.65 4.7 35364

Reliance Indus/D 396.05 7.55 51683

Ruchi Soya-B/D 22.6 0.55 799374

Saur.Cem-B/D 65.85 1.75 29718

Tanfac Indust-/D 32 0 2771

Tinplate-B/D 72.65 3.05 156304

Unitech P -A/D 3.85 0.08 5396626

Univcable-B/D 81.5 -0.35 11020

Uppergsugar-T/D 175.2 4.2 17692

3I Group/D 532.5 6.5 726217

Assoc.Br.Foods/D 2970 25 326404

Barclays/D 183.95 2.55 20663375

Bp/D 362.35 4.55 11020498

Brit Am Tobacc/D 4194 23.5 530845

Bt Group/D 448.15 -0.35 6869891

Centrica/D 205 1.9 5548796

Gkn/D 275.3 1.1 1823261

Hsbc Holdings/D 448.15 13.9 14761654

Kingfisher/D 372.3 -0.7 2071334

Land Secs Grou/D 1185 -17 1144613

Legal & Genera/D 240.6 4.1 5090942

Lloyds Bnk Grp/D 73.07 0.65 87754797

Marks & Sp./D 407.1 -37.6 18978728

Next/D 5459.4 -55 478152

Pearson/D 820.6341 6 968758

Prudential/D 1403.5 17.5 1461483

Rank Group/D 249 0.5 176178

Rentokil Initi/D 178.8507 1.6 489438

Rolls Royce Pl/D 631.5 -7 1776888

Rsa Insrance G/D 488.6 1.6 711276

Sainsbury(J)/D 262.2636 -1.9 1511010

Schroders/D 2708 29 103563

Severn Trent/D 2265 0 248380

Smith&Nephew/D 1181 8 410284

Smiths Group/D 1106.6818 7 198458

Standrd Chart /D 549.7 13.7 2997018

Tate & Lyle/D 611.07 1.5 231440

Tesco/D 165.25 -5.75 13929538

Unilever/D 3134.5 21 685894

United Util Gr/D 971.5 2 442001

Vodafone Group/D 228.5 1.8 14511097

Whitbread/D 4388 60 237243

COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME

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LONDON

Banks rose after euro zone finance ministers agreed with Greece and the International Monetary Fund on a deal that will address Athens’ requests for debt relief.

European shares hit 4-week high, boosted by banks and oil

BUSINESS VIEWS 31THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Property loans — the glass chin of China banksBy Sumeet Chatterjee and Patturaja

Murugaboopathy

Reuters

China’s top banks are lending more to homebuyers and developers than at any time since at least the global

financial crisis, making them vulnerable to a property market downturn as prices over-heat and real-estate firms struggle with a growing debt burden.

China’s top five banks had mortgages and loans to the sector of 12.4 trillion yuan ($1.9 trillion) at end-2015, up 11 percent over the year, and representing 28 percent of total loans, a Reuters analysis of their balance sheets shows.

That is the biggest exposure on their books, more than to manufacturing or trans-portation, and it exceeds 40 percent, up from about 26 percent seven years ago, if all loans secured on property are included.

And as banks including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China increase their exposure, property prices in China’s big cities have soared, forming what

some fear is a bubble waiting to burst.“There are two concerns - the reliance

on property collateral to secure loans has increased, and property prices have also increased to a level that some may argue is over-heated,” said Jack Yuan, associate direc-tor for financial institutions at Fitch Ratings.

“If there is a very sharp fall in prices, then the consequences could be quite serious,” he said, adding that the authorities do have tools to try and avoid such a tumble.

Many developers are already saddled with debt from China’s most recent real-estate bubble - an eight-year frenzy that left many with unsold and uncompleted projects when prices turned lower in late 2013.

As China’s economy stutters to its weak-est growth in a quarter of a century, and the property market remains subdued out-side the larger cities, the build-up in debt is continuing.

Developer Yang Guang Co Ltd is among those taking on more. It said last week it would borrow an extra 300 million yuan on top of its existing 6.1 billion yuan liabilities, though its revenues halved in 2015. On cur-rent cashflow it would take 17 years to clear its debts.

The company did not respond to a request for comment.

Standard and Poor’s in March flagged the risks to Chinese developers’ credit ratings, as many were ploughing more capital into land and construction, increasing leverage despite falling profitability.

Those buying expensive land in tier-1 and tier-2 cities could be particularly at risk if prices dropped, it said.

There are also growing risks to banks from homebuyers.

A study by Natixis showed buyers took out 1 trillion yuan in new mortgages in the first quarter this year on home sales of 1.6 trillion yuan, implying a loan-to-value (LTV) ratio of 62 percent.

That remains a comfortable cushion for lenders, but the direction of travel is remark-able, jumping from 28 percent the previous quarter.

In April average home prices in tier-1 Chi-nese cities rose at their fastest in four years, fuelled by six interest rate cuts since 2014 and easier downpayments. Shenzhen and Shang-hai were the hottest spots, with prices up 62.4 percent and 28 percent over the year, accord-ing to government data.

“It’s a parabolic surge before the burst. It doesn’t reflect the real economy,” said Roshan Padamadan, an equities fund manager with Singapore-based Luminance Global Fund.

“The property market may cause a serious destabilisation of the Chinese banking sector,” he said, adding his fund had recently build up some short positions in Chinese banks.

The situation still appears much less threatening than it was in the United States leading up to the global financial crisis, when banks’ real estate-related loans increased from 42.6 percent to 56.5 percent in the five years to March 2007. But there are question marks over the quality of Chinese commer-cial banks’ balance sheets.

Defaults in the property sector were once unthinkable, but that changed when developer Zhejiang Xingrun failed to pay its bank loans in March 2014, and Kaisa Group defaulted on its dollar bonds 10 months later.

Banks’ non-performing loans are already at an 11-year-high, or nearly 2 percent of the total, according to China’s banking regula-tor, and many analysts believe the situation is much worse, as some banks are slow to recognise problem loans or park them off balance sheet.

By Harry Suhartono, Fathiya

Dahrul and Yudith Ho

Bloomberg

Indonesia’s efforts to revive economic growth by bring-ing down lending rates are at risk of backfiring as they

make banks the worst perform-ers in the Jakarta Composite Index.

The Jakarta Stock Exchange Finance Index fell 5.1 percent, the most among nine industry groups, since Feb. 29 when the Financial Services Authority said it would cap deposit rates and force banks to make similar reductions to their loan rates. The regulator, known as the OJK, said the move would save banks money and encourage them to disburse more credit to spur lending growth that’s slowed to less than half the average over the last five years.

The risk is that a lack of deposits in the banking system, increasing bad loans and the prospect of narrower net-inter-est margins will make banks more conservative in giving out credit. This could in turn damp economic growth, which trailed estimates to slump to 4.92 percent last quarter from a year earlier. OJK Chairman Muliaman Hadad said Friday that while interest rates have come down, demand for loans remains sluggish.

“With non-performing loans rising and weak economic condi-tions, there is no way the banks can aggressively lend,” said John Teja, a director at PT Ciptadana Securities in Jakarta. “So the selling pressure on banking stocks will remain and the conditions of the banking industry will remain weak.”

The drop in the finance gauge since Feb. 29 compares with a decline of just 0.04 percent in the JCI. PT Bank Central Asia, Indo-nesia’s largest lender by market value, is down 3.5 percent over the period. PT Bank Rakyat Indonesia and PT Bank Mandiri, the next-two biggest, have fallen 10 percent and 5 percent, respectively. The finance index closed up 1 percent on Wednesday, compared with a 1.3 percent gain in the JCI.

The OJK capped deposit rates at 75 to 100 basis points above Bank Indonesia’s bench-mark rate, depending on the size of the lender. It asked banks to lower lending rates in line with deposit rates and said it would summon those that didn’t narrow their net-interest margins. The monetary authority’s policy rate is 6.75 percent, and it will adopt the seven-day reverse repo rate, currently at 5.5 percent, as its new benchmark in August. It isn’t yet clear if the deposit rates will be tied to the new benchmark.

Mandiri’s gross non-perform-ing loans rose to 2.89 percent in the first quarter from 1.81 percent a year earlier. The lender has set

up a special unit to anticipate worsening bad credit, the Antara news agency reported last week. BCA’s NPL rose to 1.1 percent last quarter from 0.7 percent.

There’s also not a lot of spare capacity in Indonesian banking system. The loan-to-deposit ratio was 89.6 percent in March, com-pared with 75.2 percent at the end of 2010, OJK data show. Lending growth was 8.4 percent in March from a year earlier, from an aver-age of 20 percent in the five years through 2015.

“The challenge is that banks aren’t willing to lend is because there aren’t enough deposits,” said Bharat Joshi, who helps manage $3.5 billion as head of Indonesia investments for Aberdeen Asset Management in Jakarta. “Margins will come down and banks will have to be more competitive going forward” he said, adding that he’s underweight Indonesian lenders.

The banking sector’s net-interest margin of 5.4 percent is the highest in Southeast Asia, according to a Fitch Ratings report released in March. Any measures that undermine these margins could be negative from a bank ratings perspective and, while lower lending rates will improve the competitiveness of Indonesian businesses, below-equilibrium rates could lead to inefficient investment, Fitch said.

The central bank has seen an average 57 basis-point drop in deposit rates and 22 basis-point decline in lending rates in April, Deputy Governor Perry Warjiyo told reporters in Jakarta last week. Bank Indonesia is considering loosening mortgage rules to help stoke credit growth, Senior Dep-uty Governor Mirza Adityaswara said in an interview on Tuesday.

The OJK is forecasting 13 percent loan growth this year, although that may be revised in June, Chairman Hadad said in an interview in Jakarta. “Things were a bit slow in the first quarter, but that’s the normal cycle,” he said.

“If we can push economic growth, loan expansion will follow.”

Bank Indonesia lowered its full-year growth forecast last week to 5 to 5.4 percent from 5.2 to 5.6 percent. Expansion has only exceeded 5 percent in one of the last five quarters and was 4.79 per-cent for 2015, the least since 2009.

Rising bad loans and the sluggish economy will limit loan growth this year, although banks will get a boost if the government manages to pass its tax amnesty bill, said Jeffrosenberg Tan, an associate director at PT Sinar-mas Securities in Jakarta.

“Banks are more concerned about preserving their capital and keeping their loan books tidy rather than aggressively lending,” he said. Without the tax amnesty,

“credit growth will remain weak as companies are still reluctant to invest and expand,” he said.

Indonesia push to boost lending risks backfiring as banks suffer

Saudi should keep options open on currency peg

By Andrew Torchia

Reuters

Saudi Arabia may need to change its currency’s peg to the US dol-lar if economic conditions shift, researchers at the Saudi central bank suggested in a paper that

could shape debate among policymakers as the kingdom grapples with low oil prices.

The riyal’s peg at 3.75 to the dollar has been a cornerstone of Saudi policy since 1986. But the collapse of oil prices since 2014, which created a $100 billion state budget deficit, has fuelled speculation in financial markets over whether it can be sustained for many more years.

In the paper, Ryadh Alkhareif and John Qualls analysed the advantages and disadvantages of 10 possible currency arrangements.

“What is sure is that in a changing environment, a forward looking monitor-

ing framework will be essential for pursuing the appropriate exchange regime,” they wrote.

“The decision for one or the other exchange rate regime depends ulti-mately on the structure of the economy as well as the policy objectives.”

Arrangements stud-ied in the paper, entitled

“Saudi Arabia’s Exchange Rate Policy: Its Impact on Historical Economic Per-formance”, range from the use of US dollars in place of a local currency to a float which allow-ing the exchange rate to fluctuate freely.

The central bank said the paper, which

it published late last month on the same day that Deputy Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman announced reforms to cut the country’s reliance on oil, did not necessar-ily reflect its views.

The authors stressed that for now, keep-ing the peg was probably the best course for Saudi Arabia. “Going forward, there are good arguments in favour of retaining the current fixed exchange rate regime especially in the near future...,” they wrote.

But the paper’s examination of a range of options suggests that in the long term, Saudi authorities may not remain wedded to current policy, even though it has been orthodoxy for three decades.

Foreign bankers briefed by Saudi offi-cials earlier this year said authorities had explored the idea of changing the peg in a broad review of economic policy. They concluded that a change would be coun-ter-productive now but conceivable in the far future, the bankers said.

After a surge of bets against the Saudi riyal early this year, the currency has rebounded in the forwards market , show-ing speculation about a change to the peg has decreased.

But that is partly because the central bank warned banks not to conduct deriv-atives trades that would pressure the riyal. Saudi interest rate swaps, also used to hedge against the risk of devaluation, remain near this year’s peaks.

The paper was published when Ahmed al-Kholifey was the central bank’s deputy governor for research and international affairs. Since then, Kholifey has been appointed head of the central bank in a reshuffle of top policymakers.

The study found the riyal peg had helped to ensure healthy and stable eco-nomic growth with moderate inflation. It rejected the idea, often discussed by cur-rency speculators, that a devaluation would ease pressure on state finances by inflat-ing the riyal value of dollar-denominated oil revenues.

After a surge of bets against the Saudi riyal early this year, the currency has rebounded in the forwards market , showing speculation about a change to the peg has decreased.

“Such a move would be far from pain-less, as it would raise import costs to both the general public and the government,” the paper said, adding that it would be much better to handle the budget deficit with spending restraint and borrowing.

“The bottom line is that the dollar peg has served Saudi Arabia well, and is likely to do so until Saudi Arabia becomes a meaningfully diversified economy, with exports denominated in a mix of curren-cies,” the paper concluded.

Nevertheless, it listed conditions under which the argument for keeping the peg would weaken: expected depreciation of the dollar, an unacceptably high US infla-tion rate, or a divergence of the US and Saudi economic cycles.

They are already diverging to some extent; the Saudi economy is expected to slow sharply this year because of state spending cuts, according to the Interna-tional Monetary Fund, while U.S. interest rates have begun to rise in line with an economic recovery there.

The IMF has also shown signs of rec-ognising that the riyal may need to fall at some point. After annual consulta-tions with Riyadh last week, it said: “The exchange rate peg to the US dollar con-tinues to serve Saudi Arabia well given the structure of the economy.”

But in a paper presented to a meeting of Arab finance ministers last month, the IMF said efforts by oil-exporting countries to diversify their economies could fail if their currencies became overvalued, hurt-ing non-oil export industries.

Such considerations may keep spec-ulation about an eventual devaluation of the riyal alive.

“I just think unpegging the currency is a necessity for the reform plan to succeed. We actually plan to invest heavily in Saudi Arabia after the event occurs,” said a New York-based hedge fund manager, declin-ing to be named because of commercial sensitivities.

A Saudi jeweller counts Saudi Riyals after selling gold to a customer at a jewellery shop in Makkah.

As banks including Industrial and Commercial Bank of China and Bank of China increase their exposure, property prices in China’s big cities have soared, forming what some fear is a bubble waiting to burst.

BUSINESS32 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

After six years’ austerity, Greeks feel no joy from new debt dealBy Renee Maltezou and Lefteris Papadimas

Reuters

While Greece’s govern-ment trumpeted a debt relief deal with

other euro zone countries on Wednesday as the beginning of the end of its bruising six-year financial crisis, many Greeks remained unconvinced.

After years of austerity measures demanded by Greece’s international creditors — the latest passed in parliament last Sunday — Greeks wonder whether the sacrifices they have made to stay in the euro were worth the pain.

“We are done, we can’t even leave our homes anymore to have a coffee,” said Panagiotis Zabetakis, 50, a carpenter who, like one in every four Greeks, is unemployed.

Playing with worry beads at a cheap cafe in an Athens suburb, Zabetakis paid 1 euro ($1.10) for his morning coffee. That will rise on June 1 when the measures passed to secure Wednesday’s deal start coming into force.

By next year Greeks will pay an extra 20-30 cents for their coffee and the price of just about everything else will rise too as added tax will (VAT) goes up to 24 percent from 23 percent. Greeks’ spending power, mean-while, is in sharp decline.

“We are running after the Europeans, hoping they throw us a bone which would suf-fice for a few months. I’m very disappointed,” Zabetakis said, criticising the deal which opens

the way for debt relief from 2018, but does not include any firm promise to reduce the pay-ments Greece has to make.

Greece have been hit with waves of pension cuts and tax increases since it was forced to seek its first bailout in 2010.

Leaving the meeting in Brussels where he secured 10.3 billion euros ($11.5 billion) in new funds from his euro zone colleagues, Finance Minister Euclid Tsakalotos said he hoped the deal marked “the beginning of turning Greece’s vicious circle of recession-measures-reces-sion into one where investors have a clear runway to invest in Greece.”

The deal won a provisional commitment from the IMF to return to the bailout process, but with Germany opposed to cutting the debt pile, euro zone ministers made any relief measures such as extending maturities on loans contingent on Athens respecting strict cri-teria, something Greeks fear means more austerity.

“This cannot continue ... they (the Europeans) are telling us we will be in debt for 100 years. How can we be pleased?” asked pen-sioner Eleni Palaiologou, 85.

Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras, elected in early 2015 on a promise to end austerity only to row back and accept a new bailout to avoid being forced out of the euro, struggled to get his coalition to accept the lat-est reforms.

Scraping through with a narrow majority of 153 members in the 300 seat parliament, there is some stirring dissent. One of Tsipras’ lawmakers quit after Sunday’s vote.

By Alex Nussbaum and Naureen S. Malik

Bloomberg

A century after transforming global mar-kets, the Panama Canal is about to redraw world trade once again. Nine years of con-struction work, at a cost of more than $5

billion, have equipped the canal with a third set of locks and deeper navigation channels, cru-cial improvements that will double the isthmus’s capacity for carrying cargo between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

When the new locks slide open to receive traffic for the first time in late June, the reverberations will be felt from Asian gas terminals to Great Plains farms and ports from Miami to Long Beach to Santiago.

The debut coincides, fortuitously, with a surge in US natural-gas production that has shale out-fits suddenly seeking out new export markets. The deeper channels will be able to accommodate the kind of massive tankers that transport liquefied natural gas, shaving eleven days and a third of the cost off the typical round trip to the Far East. Mar-kets from Chile to China will also become more accessible for oil drillers across the Americas while millions of tons of container shipments originat-ing from Asia could start bypassing western US ports and opt to dock instead along the Gulf Coast or Eastern seaboard.

The anticipated growth has triggered a multi-billion-dollar dredging and building binge at ports in the US, Caribbean and South America, all seek-ing to win a share of the traffic boom. Panama is also bidding to become a distribution hub for global manufacturers, with plans to add space for more than 5 million additional cargo containers.

“There are going to be a lot of feeder services that develop around it,” Moses Kopmar, a Moody’s Investors Service analyst in New York, said.

The expansion won’t solve all the canal’s chal-lenges. While tripling the size of cargo vessels it can receive, Panama still won’t be able to take the biggest container ships or crude tankers. What’s more, its traffic will depend on the health of the global economy more than its dimensions, accord-ing to Kopmar.

But expansion was critical, industry experts say, for a country that risked seeing its shipping route lose relevance if it didn’t grow to handle the

increasingly large vessels favored nowadays. The canal, which carried some 340 million tonnes of cargo in the fiscal year that ended last September, accounts for about 6 percent of total world trade.

When it opened for business, the canal was an engineering marvel. In the 34-year span that began with France’s failed attempt and ended with the US completion in 1914, some 75,000 work-ers toiled to carve out the 80km channel. In the process, they created an artificial body of water, Gatun Lake, and an earthen dam that at the time were the world’s largest. They also opened up the mammoth Culebra Cut, a ditch through the Conti-nental Divide that required the removal of about 100 million cubic yards of rock and shale. By the time work was complete, some 25,000 people were dead, many succumbing to yellow fever, malaria and other tropical diseases, according to the Pan-ama Canal Authority.

The latest construction has come with less tragedy but its own share of cost overruns and engineering snafus. Leaky locks were one major problem, helping delay the project by two years.

Those locks — a set of chambers sealed by 3,200-tonne doors that raise and lower water levels — pro-vide access to a wider lane for vessels: 180 feet across, compared with 109 feet in the original locks. In the middle of the isthmus, the canal authority has also dredged deeper, wider lanes through Gatun Lake, where ships spend much of the inter-oceanic voyage.

For gas and crude oil companies reeling from the recent collapse in prices, the drop in time and ship-ping costs will provide a much-needed lift. Corn, soybean and wheat grow-ers in the US also stand to benefit, along with import-ers like Dole Food Co Inc and Chiquita Brands Inter-national Inc.

While the current locks are too small for most nat-ural-gas carriers, almost

90 percent of the world fleet will be able to use the canal after expansion, the authority says. That’ll cut the round trip from the US Gulf to Asia to about 20 days, compared with 31 days through the Suez Canal or 34 around Africa’s Cape of Good Hope. Sailing from Louisiana to Tokyo via Panama would be about 35 percent cheaper than taking the Suez, according to Jason Feer, head of business intel-ligence at Houston-based ship broker Poten & Partners.

The impact on oil markets is likely to be more muted. While the canal will open to bigger “Post-Panamax” tankers, it still won’t fit Very Large Crude Carriers, the 2-million barrel behemoths that trans-port most of the world’s petroleum.

The bigger canal may also trigger a shift for container ships that carry everything from clothes to chemicals into the US, the world’s larg-est importer. With the latest generation of ships too large for the original locks, most of that traf-fic now unloads in Los Angeles, Seattle and other West Coast destinations.

Panama Canal fever sweeps globe again as new era in trade nears

BACK TO BUSINESSsight

Construction continues on the expanded section of the Panama Canal as seen from the control tower at the new lock in Cocoli, Panama.

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International banks have reduced liquidity to local banks on concerns over Saudi Arabia’s fiscal position. The onshore market also reflects a greater confidence on the sustainability of the riyal’s peg to the dollar.

Monica Malik, Chief Economist at Abu Dhabi Commercial Bank

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#MENA #markets had a mixed first quarter, after enduring one of the worst starts to the year in recent memory...

$501.5bn: 3rd highest YTD volume on record for #global cross-bor-der M&A #markets

#Solar energy should be top priority, says #Saudi minister

#USA: high-yield bonds up 5% since Janu-ary, thanks to rising #oil price. Risk premi-ums for other sectors remain high.

Pressure from sellers is convincing

eager Chinese buyers to pony up

big reverse breakup fees in their

acquisitions. This is a recent trend,

and some buyers are pushing back,

say bankers and lawyers who have

advised on several recent Chinese

deals.

Sony took a hit when its image

sensor production was knocked

out by a recent earthquake. The

profit damage may not be as

bad as it seems.

Thunder a win away from finals after Game 4

PAGE | 36 PAGE | 39

France blow as Varane ruled out of

Euro 2016

THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016 • 19 SHA’BAAN 1437

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Lekhwiya pip El Jaish to reach ACL quarters

Agencies

DOHA: Former Qatar Stars League winners Lekhwiya bounce from their first leg defeat to registering a stun-ning 4-2 win in the second leg over El Jaish in the AFC Champions league (ACL) and thus qualify for the quar-ter-finals on an aggregate score of 6-4.

Yesterday, Lekhwiya, who won the Emir Cup last week, did every-thing right to emerge clear winners and shatter El Jaish dream.

Lekhwiya had lost the first leg 4-0.

Elsewhere, FC Seoul came back from the brink to win a dramatic

penalty shoot-out yesterday as Hao Junmin’s last-minute thunderbolt also put Shandong Luneng into the AFC Champions League quarter-finals.

In a breathless night of action, Go Yo-Han struck in the dying sec-onds of extra time against Urawa Red Diamonds -- the fourth goal of the extra periods -- to force the shoot-out, which Seoul won 7-6.

Urawa’s Yoshiaki Komai was the fall guy when his stuttering run-up and shot was easily saved by Yu Sang-Hun, before Seoul’s Kim Dong-Woo stroked the decisive spot-kick.

The 2013 runners-up were sec-onds from elimination after Tadanari Lee scored twice in three minutes deep into extra time, before Go’s fierce shot in the 122nd minute for 3-2 on the night and 3-3 on aggregate.

It wasn’t the only action-packed last-16 second leg as Hao’s rocket with seconds left against Sydney FC locked up the scores at 3-3 on aggregate but put China’s Shandong through on away goals.

Goalkeeper Vedran Janjetovic’s late penalty save -- after he also stopped a spot-kick in the first leg -- seemed to have earned 10-man Sydney their first appearance in

Asia’s last eight. But with the scores at 2-1 on the night, and 3-2 on aggregate after last week’s 1-1 draw, Hao’s long-range shot swerved past Janjetovic and into the top corner, stunning the Sydney crowd.

“There’s a lot of disappointments in football and there’s a lot of happy times -- this is an extremely disap-pointing time for the players,” an emotional Sydney FC coach Graham Arnold said afterwards.

“It took a great goal to beat us... all I can say is, these things happen in football,” he added.

Sydney got off to a dream start when Brandon O’Neill’s low free kick crept in the second minute, before Walter Montillo equalised 10 min-utes later.

Sydney made a sensational start to the second period when, with less than a minute gone, Rhyan Grant blasted them 2-1 ahead from the right side of the box after being teed up by Milos Ninkovic.

Janjetovic’s penalty stop from Diego Tardelli, after Zac Anderson saw red for a foul, appeared to have put Sydney through, but their joy faded when Hao’s last-minute siz-zler swerved into the top corner.

Former Qatar Stars League champions bounce back to win the return match 4-2 and qualify on aggregate score

Lekhwiya Ali Afif (left) attempts a volley while being challenged by El Jaish’s Murad Naji (second left) during their AFC Champions League (ACL) match at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium in Doha, yesterday.

V

AFP

CASSANO D’ADDA, ITALY: Ger-man IAM rider Roger Kluge got ahead of the pack in the final kilo-metre to bamboozle the sprint teams and steal a stage win on a flat run in the 17th stage of the Giro d’Italia yesterday.

There was no change in the over-all standings with Dutchman Steven Kruijswijk still leading Esteban Chaves by 3min 03sec and veteran Spaniard Alejandro Valverde by 3min 23sec in third.

The 196km run between Molveno and Cassano d’Adda was raced in

glorious sunshine and was an oppor-tunity for the overall contenders to relax in the pack as a breakaway formed and was eventually reeled in with few kilometres left to seem-ingly set up a bunch sprint.

Just as the escape ended, how-ever, Filippo Pozzato made a powerful counter-attack and was only followed by Kluge as the sprint teams, stripped of many of the top contenders such as Marcel Kittel and Andre Greipel who have pulled out, failed to galvanise a concerted effort to close them down.

Kluge, an omnium silver medal-list in the last world championships, won with relative ease ahead of Ita-ly’s Giacomo Nizzolo, who has come second in nine Giro stages without ever having won, while another Ger-man Nikias Arndt was third.

Thursday’s stage is a giant 240km slog back into the Alps between Muggio and Pinerolo and ends with a 5km climb at an aver-age 10.5 percent gradient before a spectacular daredevil descent to the finish line. The race for the pink jer-sey resumes in earnest with two big days in the mountains on Friday and Saturday.

SPORT34 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

The teams taking part in the QCA Cup Cricket Tournament 2016, a Twenty20 tournament, pose for a group picture.

Cricket: Al Feroz Youngsters post three

victories in QCA Super Cup 2016The Peninsula

DOHA: Al Feroz Youngsters posted three victories to lay a strong claim for a place in the final of the QCA Cup Cricket Tournament 2016.

The Twenty20 event is being organised by Qatar Cricket Association.

Nouman (14 runs, two wickets and two catches) played a crucial part in his team’s seven-wicket triumph over HBK, Imran Ashraf hit 29 runs and scalped two players to fashion a six-wicket triumph over Ooredoo and Nadeem returned a haul of three wickets and grabbed a catch to set up a 24-run victory against Galfar Al Misnad.

One player who impressed dur-ing the four-team QCA Super Cup was Galfar Al Misnad’s Imraz, who excelled and won two Man-of-the-Match awards.

Against Ooredoo DCC, he smashed 77 runs and collected a brace of wickets and still his team failed to beat the rivals, losing by two wickets.

Imraz followed it with an unbeaten 38 and a wicket in the sec-ond match, which inspired Galfar Al Misnad to a six-wicket romp against HBK. The QCA Super Cup features the top finishers of the Qatar Airways QCA League and the participat-ing outfits are: Al Feroz Youngsters, Galfar Al Misnad, Ooredoo and HBK. Two top teams after the round-robin league will clash for the title.

Brief scores - Batting first Galfar Al Misnad

made 136/7 wkts in 20 OversGalfar Batting: Imran 77, Umar

29, Nuwan 3, Rizlan 6, Dawood 7 (20 Over’s)

Ooredoo Bowling: Awais 2 wkts, Tabraiz 1 wkt, Naeem 2 wkts, Kam-ran 2 wkts

Ooredoo Batting: Kamran 37, Shahid 18, Tamoor 36, Tabreez 18 (19 Over’s) 141/7

Galfar Bowling: Suneeth 1 wkt, Sumon 2wkts, Umar 2 wkts, Imraz 2 wkts

Result: Ooredoo won by 2 wkts Man-of-the-match:: Imraz of

Galfar Al Misnad (77 runs + 2 wkts).Batting first HBK made 84/8 in

20 over’s

HBK Batting: Nimantha 33, Amjad 14, Joseph 10, Dilshari 9 (20 Over’s)

Al Feroz Bowling: Mujeeb 1 wkt, Nouman 2 wkts, Inam 1 wkt, Harris 1 wkt, Nadeem 3 wkts

Al Feroz Batting: Faisal 25, Inam 15, Tanveer 10, Nouman 14, Imran 13 (15.2 Over’s)

HBK Bowling: Suneeth 1 wkt, Sumon 2wkts, Umar 2 wkts, Imraz 2 wkts

Result: Al Feroz won by 7 wktsMan-of-the-match:: Nouman of

Al Feroz Youngsters (14 runs + 2 wkts + 2 catches).

Batting first HBK made 95/7 in 20 Over’s

HBK Batting: Namantha 13, Mughees 21, Amjad 11, Joseph 24 (20 Over’s)

Galfar Bowling: Suneeth 1 wkt, Saman 3 wkts, Umar 1 wkt, Gayan 1 wkt, Imraz 1 wkt

Galfar Batting: Zaheer 20, Imraz 38, Ishtiaq 16, Rizlan 9 (16.3 Over’s)

HBK Bowling: Gayan 2 wkts, Lehiro 1 wkt, Ajantha 1 wkt

Result: Galfar won by 6 wktsMan-of-the-match: Imraz of Gal-

far Al Misnad (38 runs not out + 1 wkt)

Batting first Ooredoo made 126/4 in 20 Over’s

Ooredoo Batting: Shahid 20, Tamoor 62, Tabraiz 10, Khurram 8 (20 Over’s)

Al Feroz Bowling: Imran 2 wkts, Nouman 2 wkts

Al Feroz Batting: Inam 45, Tan-veer 24, Imran 29 (19.3 Over’s)

Ooredoo Bowling: Awais 2 wkts, Naeem 1 wkt

Result: Al Feroz won by 6 wktsMan-of-the-match:: Imran

Ashraf of Al Feroz (29 runs + 2 wkts)Batting first Al Feroz made 120/8

in 20 Over’sAl Feroz Batting: Faisal 44, Nou-

man 19, Bilal 21 (20 Over’s)Galfar Bowling: Suneeth 2 wkts,

Umar 2 wkts, Gayan 2 wkts, Imraz 2 wkts

Galfar Batting: Imraz 14, Zaheer 20, Rizlan 17, Viyshal 10, Suneeth 10 (20 Over’s)

Al Feroz Bowling: Mujeeb 1 wkt, Inam 1 wkt, Nadeem 3 wkts, Harris 1 wkt, Tanveer 1 wkt

Result: Al Feroz won by 24 runs Man-of-the-match: Nadeem of

Al Feroz (3 wkts + 1 catch)

Kluge steals in for surprise stage winGerman Kluge finishes ahead of Italy’s Nizzolo on the 196km stage from Molveno toCassano d’Adda

Thousands greet

victorious Fiji,

Olympics up next

AFP

SUVA, FIJI: Fiji’s victorious Sevens World Series team arrived home to a rapturous reception yesterday but captain Osea Kolinisau said there was little time to savour the win as they prepare to chase Olympic gold.

Thousands of supporters lined Suva’s waterfront to congratu-late the Flying Fijians after they defended their world series title earlier this month in London.

The Pacific islanders are now favourites to claim a gold medal in Rio, where rugby will return to the Olympics schedule after a gap of 92 years.

The pressure on Kolinisau’s squad is immense -- Fiji has com-peted at 13 Olympics since 1956 but never won a medal of any type, let alone gold.

The skipper said his charges had learned a lot from their title defence, and were relishing the prospect of playing in Rio.

“We are fully aware of the challenges that lie ahead and will do our best,” he told the cheering crowds at Suva’s Sukuna Park.

Sevens rugby is a national obsession in Fiji and Acting Prime Minister Aiyaz Sayed-Khaiyum said the 900,000-strong popula-tion was willing them to victory in Brazil.

“The prayers of the nation are with the team and this strong sup-port will be their key to success in the Olympics,” he said.

Fiji will name a 24-man Games squad before going into their train-ing camp on June 14.

Meanwhile, Wallaby fullback Israel Folau’s move to Japanese club NTT Docomo Red Hurricanes may not happen after they were rele-gated from the Top League, a report said Wednesday.

Folau signed a one-year con-tract with a one-year option in 2015 with the Osaka-based side but did not play last season due to an ankle injury.

Verizon Indycar driver Takuma Sato gets ready for his qualifying attempt during qualifying for the Indianapolis 500 at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in this May 22 file picture.

Sato craves Indy 500 win to help heal JapanReuters

TORONTO: Takuma Sato has been passionate about helping those impacted by the earthquake and tsu-nami that ravaged Japan in 2011 and now, days away from the Indianapo-lis 500, he has another idea on how to help those affected.

Sato, who famously came close to winning the Indy 500 in 2012, feels that winning what he considers the pinnacle of racing on Sunday would give some measure of cheer to the tens of thousands left homeless from the disaster.

“I was very passionate to help but how can I help? Not just financially but also to bring some energy to this cause,” the A.J. Foyt Racing driver said on Tuesday.

“So if I can win the 500 it would be massive and of course it’s a great personal goal so I’d love to take it.”

The 39-year-old driver, who founded the “With you Japan” pro-gramme in 2011 to help children affected by the disaster move for-ward with their lives, qualified 12th for Sunday’s race in Indiana and will start in the fourth row.

The Japanese sensation got off to a fast start after joining A.J. Foyt Rac-ing in 2013, needing only three races

under his new boss to become the first Japanese driver to claim an Indy-Car win, but he has not been unable to replicate the feat as opportunities passed him by.

However, his most notable near-miss came during the final lap of the 2012 Indianapolis 500 when he spun out while attempting an inside pass on race leader Dario Franchitti going into Turn 1.

Sato, who recounts with great detail the closing laps of that race as if it happened yesterday, challenged Franchitti low in the turn but lost control as the cars touched and was swiftly sent into the wall.

He has great respect for Fran-chitti and said that at the time his first priority was to avoid a crash, an approach he has since changed.

“I have to secure myself to be in my best position,” said Sato. “If peo-ple come down for the defence, well, end of the day by all means.”

The Japanese will start 12th on Sunday after recording a four-lap average of 228.029 miles per hour (366 kph) at the 2.5 mile (4 km) Indi-anapolis Motor Speedway oval.

“I’m very happy to in 12th place and fourth row. From there we can work on it bit by bit, and what’s most important is lap 200 on Sun-day evening,” said Sato. “I’m ready for the challenge.”

Knox aiming to crown

rise with Ryder Cup spotAFP

WENTWORTH, United Kingdom: Scotland’s Russell Knox is aiming to crown his rise up golf’s world rank-ings by cementing a place in Europe’s Ryder Cup team at Hazeltine in Sep-tember.

The 30-year-old, who is based in the United States, won the WGC Champions tournament in China last November and has followed that up with a string of impressive finishes including second places at the Her-itage and the recent Irish Open.

He was ranked 85th in the world six months ago but is now up to a career high of 23rd making him the second-highest ranked player at the European PGA Championship which starts at Wentworth on Thursday.

After winning his WGC Knox switched to the European Tour from the PGA Tour to try and force his way into the Darren Clarke’s European team and insists his bid is on track.

“It’s a huge goal now. After I won in China, it was realistic to make the team, but at the same time, there’s still a lot to be done.

“I’ve finished second three times

since that. I played good enough to be right up there at The Players’ Championship for 71 holes.

“So really, I’ve had four really good tournaments since then, and to be honest, I expect to make the team now. If I keep playing the way I’m going, I think I can do it and I sure hope I do.”

Knox was still a member of the PGA Tour when he won the WGC so it does not count towards his Ryder Cup.

He is currently 33rd on the European list and 17th on the World points list with a combination of the two used to pick nine of the team with Clarke selecting three wild cards.

Knox needs more good results to force his way into an automatic spot but thinks his big WGC win could tilt Clarke to offering him a wild card even though it does officially add to his chances.

Knox was a one of a group of players who had dinner with Clarke at The Players’ Championship to dis-cuss the match against the United States.

He added: “Arguably, I’m higher up because my win didn’t count. But obviously Darren knows that.

Giro d’Italia ResultsCassano d’Adda, Italy: Results from

the 17th stage of the 2016 Giro

d’Italia yesterday, a 196km run from

Molveno to Cassano d’Adda:

Stage1. Roger Kluge (GER/IAM) 196km

in 4hrs 31mins 29sec, 2. Giacomo

Nizzolo (ITA/TRE) same time, 3.

Nikias Arndt (GER/GIA) s.t., 4. Sacha

Modolo (ITA/LAM) s.t., 5. Matteo

Trentin (ITA/ETI) s.t., 6. Alexander

Porsev (RUS/KAT) s.t., 7. Pim

Ligthart (NED/LOT) s.t., 8. Ramunas

Navardauskas (LTU/CAN) s.t., 9.

Manuel Belletti (ITA/SOU) s.t., 10.

Paolo Simion (ITA/BAR) s.t.

Overall1. Steven Kruijswijk (NED/LNL)

63hr 40min 10sec, 2. Esteban

Chaves (COL/ORI) at 3min 03sec,

3. Alejandro Valverde (ESP/MOV)

3:23, 4. Vincenzo Nibali (ITA/AST)

4:43, 5. Ilnur Zakarin (RUS/KAT)

4:50, 6. Rafal Majka (POL/TIN) 5:34,

7. Bob Jungels (LUX/ETI) 7:57, 8.

Andrey Amador (CRC/MOV) 6:53,

9. Domenico Pozzovivo (ITA/A2R)

10:05, 10. Kanstantsin Siutsou

(BLR/DDA) 11:03

Germany’s Roger Kluge (IAM) celebrates as he crosses the finish line to win the 17th stage of the 99th Giro d’Italia, Tour of Italy, from Molveno to Cassano d’Adda, yesterday.

SPORT 35THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Kohli declares AB as best in world

Agencies

BANGALORE: Virat Kohli has declared AB de Villiers the best bats-man in the world after the South African single-handedly steered his Indian Premier League side into this season’s cricket final.

Captain Kohli, whose rare batting failure on Tuesday put Royal Chal-lengers Bangalore (RCB) in a tight spot in their 159-run chase, saw De Villiers turn things around with his unbeaten 79-run blitz in Qualifier 1.

RCB were in a precarious position at 68 for six before De Villiers stitched an unbeaten 91-run seventh wicket stand with Iqbal Abdulla to stun table-toppers Gujarat Lions.

“Unbelievable, can’t believe I’m the winning captain,” Kohli, who leads the run chart with a record 919

in 15 games this season, said after the match. “That should end a lot of debates as to who is the best going around. No question about it,” added Kohli, who has been dubbed the new king of cricket by Indian media.

RCB faced a hostile spell of bowl-ing from Gujarat medium-pacer Dhawal Kulkarni (4-14) to lose their openers early in Kohli and Chris Gayle (9) in front of a raucous home crowd.

De Villiers, who has been involved in an all-time record breaking 229-run stand with Kohli in this edition, then rose to the occasion to smash five fours and as many sixes in 47 balls to snatch victory.

“Come the big game, the big man stands up. I just bow down to him, that was probably one of the best knocks under pressure I’ve seen,” said Kohli after the game.

Chasing 159 for victory at Banga-lore’s M Chinnaswamy Stadium, the Royal Challengers were reduced to 68 for six before De Villiers’ blitz fired the team home in 18.2 overs.

Coming in at number three De Vil-liers stayed calm to stitch an unbeaten 91-run partnership with Iqbal Abdul-lah (33) to stun the opposition in front of a raucous home crowd.

Man of the match De Villiers smashed five fours and five sixes dur-ing his 47-ball stay as the top-order batsman snatched victory out of the jaws of defeat. Earlier put into bat Gujarat rode on West Indies batsman

Dwayne Smith’s 41-ball 73 to post a respectable 158 all out in 20 overs.

Smith lifted Gujarat from a pre-carious nine for three to stitch a 85-run fourth wicket partnership with former Indian wicket-keeper batsman Dinesh Karthik as the duo counter attacked with great effect.

The Windies allrounder took charge to teach the Bangalore spin-ners a bitter lesson as he smashed five boundaries and 6 sixes during his entertaining knock.

Leg-spinner Yuzvendra Cha-hal got the dangerous Smith back in the dug out as Australian allrounder

Shane Watson (4-29) wiped out the Gujarat tail.

After left-arm spinner Abdullah’s double strike to get openers Brendon McCullum and Aaron Finch out early it was Watson who hurt Gujarat’s bid to score big.

The Suresh Raina-led Gujarat

though will have another shot at securing a final berth when they meet the winner of the Eliminator in the second Qualifier in New Delhi tomorrow.

Bangalore will now face the win-ner of Qualifier 2 in the title clash on Sunday at the same venue.

Royal Challengers Bangalore’s (RCB) AB de Villers celebrates with team-mates after their victory over Gujarat Lions at the M Chinnaswamy Stadium in Bangalore on Tuesday. Royal Challengers are chasing a target of 159 runs set by Gujarat Lions. RIGHT: RCB captain Virat Kohli during the same clash on Tuesday.

After watching De Villiers plunder 79 runs off 47 balls, Indian batting star applauds the South African for his brave performance

Stokes has surgery as Topley is also ruled out

Compton promises no let-up from England

AFP

CHESTER-LE-STREET, UK: Nick Compton (pictured) said yester-day that England are determined to carry on from where they left off when they face Sri Lanka in the second Test in Durham start-ing tomorrow.

England won the first of a three-match series by the huge margin of an innings and 88 runs inside three days at Headingley last week.

“We’ve got to build on the first Test. It was great to be part of that win -- to win a Test in three days is fantastic,” Compton told Sky Sports yesterday.

Top-order batsman Compton was dismissed for a duck in Eng-land’s lone innings at Headingley.

“It would have been nice to score some runs in the first Test but there’s been some quality prepa-ration and that’s where my focus is, so when I get my chance I’m really on it.”

Meanwhile, Compton insisted complacency would not set in despite the crushing nature of their first Test win.

“I think we’re a team that feels confident but realise we’ve got another Test on our hands -- and every Test is tough,” he said.

Compton also had some words of consolation for a Sri Lanka side routed by James Anderson and Stuart Broad in typically overcast English conditions in Leeds.

“I think the English batsmen, facing Stuart Broad and Jimmy Anderson in these conditions, would find them pretty tough,” said Compton, the grandson of England great Denis Compton.

“We’ve got home advantage, they are going to want to adjust and look at some of the replays of the conditions at Headingley and build on it. They’re a young team.”

AFP

LONDON: England all-rounder Ben Stokes (pictured) had knee surgery on Tuesday, while fellow international Reece Topley learnt he will be side-lined for three months with a partial stress fracture.

Stokes suffered a cartilage tear in his left knee during England’s crush-ing Test victory against Sri Lanka last week at Headingley.

He had already said that he expects to miss the remainder of Sri Lanka’s tour, but the England and Wales Cricket Board have not offered any prognosis following his operation.

Stokes is unlikely to be seen again until the start of the Pakistan series in July, though England are not yet com-mitting to a timescale.

The 24-year-old admitted it was a huge blow to be sidelined while England are in action, although he planned to watch his team-mates in the second Test against Sri Lanka in Durham this week.

“Devastated to be missing the rest of the series, this has been a ongoing

issue for 2/3 years which I’ve managed to play through until now,” Stokes tweeted. “All the best to the lads in the rest of the series, see you down at Durham in the crowd.”

In Stokes’ absence, Warwick-shire’s Chris Woakes, who took nine wickets on Monday to celebrate his call-up for the second Test against Sri Lanka, and the uncapped Jake

Ball will have the chance to impress. “Ben Stokes has undergone surgery this afternoon to address a cartilage tear in his left knee. Full details on the length of his rehabilitation will be confirmed in due course,” an ECB statement read.

Topley’s situation is clearer, with “a partial stress fracture of the lum-bar spine” likely to keep him sidelined for most of the season. Hampshire seamer Topley, who was in England’s World Twenty20 squad, has been out since April 16 with a fractured thumb but now has much bigger problems to contend with.

“Reece Topley has been diag-nosed with a partial stress fracture of the lumbar spine and will require a significant period of rehabilitation,” the statement added. He will miss the next three months and will aim for a return for Hampshire before the end of the season.”

There was better news for David Willey, who has a small abdominal tear and is aiming to make his return to action in Yorkshire’s Twenty20 Blast match at Worcestershire on June 2.

Selectors still waiting on fitness report of Hafeez AP

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan is still waiting on the fitness of injured opening batsman Mohammad Hafeez for the Test series against England as selectors named 21 probables for a special skill camp.

Hafeez missed the two-week fitness training camp at an army academy in Abbottabad and chief selector Inzamam-ul-Haq says Hafeez’s place will be decided once he gets results of a fresh scan of Hafeez’s injured knee.

Sami Aslam, Shan Masood and Khurram Manzoor are the three opening batsmen named for the training camp. Leg-spinner Yasir Shah and left-arm spinner Zulfiqar Babar are the two spinners vying for a place on the team.

Pakistan is scheduled to play four Test matches, five one-day internationals and a Twenty20 against England with the first Test at Lord’s from July 14.

Australia are close to Gillespie swoop, says a news report

AFP

SYDNEY: Australia is close to poaching Jason Gillespie from English cricket to be the national team’s new full-time fast bowling coach, a report said yesterday.

Head coach Darren Lehmann has been on the look-out for a replace-ment since Craig McDermott stepped down at the end of the World Twenty20 in India this year.

He said last month that the highly-regarded Gillespie, who has been head coach at Yorkshire for four years and was last year touted as a candi-date for the England coaching job, was high on his list.

At the time, the former Australian fast bowler said he was committed to the reigning English county champions.

But the Sydney Morning Herald reported yesterday that discussions about bringing him home were now at an advanced level and his services could be secured next month.

“We’re speaking with a number of candidates but by no means is any-thing confirmed,” a Cricket Australia spokesperson said in response.

The Herald said the pending appointment would propel Gillespie into the frame to eventually replace Lehmann, alongside frontrunner from Test batsman Justin Langer.

Ex-Tasmania quick Adam Griffith is temporarily filling the bowling coach-ing role for Australia’s upcoming one-day tri-series in the West Indies, which also includes South Africa.

Former South African pace spearhead Allan Donald then takes over for their Test tour of Sri Lanka.

Donald has said he is interested in the job full-time with reports also mentioning former Australian pacemen Ryan Harris and Andy Bichel, along with New Zealand’s Shane Bond, as possible contenders.

England’s Jonny Bairstow

during a net session in Durham yesterday.

England’s batsman and captain

Alastair Cook is seen during a nets session in Durham

yesterday.

SPORT36 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Euro Super League still on agenda, says sports exec

AFP

LONDON: A breakaway Euro-pean Super League is still being discussed in football’s corridors of power, according to the sports executive involved when talks took place earlier this year.

Charlie Stillitano of the Inter-national Champions Cup (ICC) held discussions with Arsenal, Manchester United, Manchester City, Chelsea and Liverpool amid reports Europe’s leading clubs wanted a potential competition in which they would be guaranteed to feature regardless of on-pitch results.

The ICC oversees lucrative friendly fixtures involving many of those teams and, while Stillitano recognises his company are in no position to create a Super League, he says it is “fact” others are debat-ing one.

“We cannot in any way, shape or form make a Super League,” Stillitano said.

“We are not the architects of this discussion. We know for a fact that everyone’s talking about it - there’s the ECA (European Club Association), there’s UEFA - and looking for a way to improve things.

“If they look at our (ICC) tour-nament and see it as a model of a way for them to go forward, it’s not us suggesting that. To me it’s in the hands of the clubs and UEFA. They have to figure it out.

“We meet the teams all the time. There was nothing nefari-ous about it, nothing secretive. The meeting was on the notice board at The Dorchester (Hotel).

“The majority of the discussion was how we are going to build the ICC after this year. Everyone’s talk-ing about tournaments: Asia Cup, whatever. But we talked about everything.”

Ticketless fans expected to swarm France: British police

AFP

LONDON: Around 250,000 British fans will travel to France for Euro 2016 without tickets for matches, British police warned yesterday.

Security at the European Championships was already being ramped up after the recent ter-rorist attacks in France and the prospect of supporters of Eng-land, Wales and Northern Ireland swarming into the country without access to the games creates more potential for trouble.

In total around 250,000 UK supporters have tickets, but it is expected that double that number of fans will be in France through-out the tournament, which runs from June 10 to July 10.

Possible flashpoints include the England against Wales clash in Lens and England’s fixture against Russia in Marseille, the city which saw ugly clashes between England hooligans, locals and riot police during the 1998 World Cup.

French authorities have already told English and Welsh fans without tickets not to travel to Lens, and there will be an alcohol ban in the city centre for 24 hours from 0500 GMT on match day.

England and Wales were each allocated 9,000 tickets for the game, but there were more than 20,000 applications.

Currently 1,841 England fans and 86 Wales supporters are under banning orders that apply from May 31 to July 11 and mean they must hand in their passports to police.

Assistant Chief Constable Mark Roberts, the national lead for football policing, warned that the banning orders are no guar-antee against trouble.

“Some of the people who have drunk to excess and behaved in an anti-social manner are not known to the police,” Roberts said.

Swedes hope Ibrahimovic keeps on scoring in France

Reuters

STOCKHOLM: Having secured their spot at Euro 2016 by beating Scandi-navian rivals Denmark in a thrilling two-legged play-off, Swedish fans hope Zlatan Ibrahimovic and com-pany will hit the ground running in France.

In a sorry performance, the Swedes crashed out at the opening stage of Euro 2012 and, with Italy and Belgium in their group this time round, a victory in their opening Group E game against Ireland on June 13 would go a long way towards help-ing them to make the knockout stages.

“The team that wins that game has a good chance of advancing. A victory there might be enough to go through,” Sweden coach Erik Ham-ren told reporters.

The Swedes struggle against higher-ranked teams and managed just two points from a possible 12 in qualification against group winners Austria and runners-up Russia to fin-ish in third spot.

To make an impact at Euro 2016 they will need captain and record international goalscorer Ibrahi-movic to continue to find the net on French soil.

Virtually unstoppable in four

seasons in France’s Ligue 1, the 34-year-old Paris Saint Germain striker netted 11 of Sweden’s 19 strikes in qualifying, including three of the four goals that downed Denmark 4-3 on aggregate.

However, Ibrahimovic’s heroics in front of goal have been frequently wiped out by a soft-centred defence that struggles against pace and

counter-attacks. Known for his loy-alty, Hamren still includes ageing stalwarts such as Sebastian Lars-son and Kim Kallstrom in his squad but he is gradually introducing new players.

These include six of the side who were victorious at last year’s U21 European Championships in the Czech Republic, and a number

of players with Champions League experience with Malmo FF.

Celta Vigo forward John Guidetti has won plenty of praise in Spain and Emir Kujovic topped the scor-ing charts in Sweden’s Allsvenskan in 2015, netting 21 goals as his unfan-cied IFK Norrkiping side won the title.

They also have plenty of cover on the wings and at full back but it

is choosing the best pairings at the centre of defence and in central mid-field that will give Hamren his biggest headaches.

With the manager due to step down after the tournament and rumours that Ibra’s international retirement is looming, the Swedes will want to mark what seems like the end of an era with qualification.

The PSG star netted 11 out of Sweden’s 19 goals during his team’s qualifying campaign for 2016 Euro Championship

Sweden’s national football team players attend a training session at

Stockholm Stadion yesterday.

France blow as Varane ruled out of Euro 2016 AFP

PARIS: France’s Euro 2016 preparations took a knock on Tuesday with key defender Raphael Varane (pictured) ruled out injured of next month’s tour-nament on home soil with his place taken by Adil Rami.

Coach Didier Deschamps had feared the worst after Real Madrid announced Sunday that the 23-year-old Varane, capped 29 time for France, had suffered a serious left thigh injury.

And scans confirmed his fears and the diagnosis of Real Madrid team doctors that the player would be out of action for up to three weeks.

“The clinical examination and MRI Tuesday morning at Rambouillet hospital confirmed the initial diagnosis of the medical staff of Real Madrid, namely a torn left biceps femoris grade 2,” the French Football Federation (FFF) said in a statement.

“Given the unavailability time considered too long against national team deadlines, Didier Deschamps decided not to retain Raphael Varane for Euro 2016,” the FFF said.

“As a result, the coach made the decision to integrate Adil Rami in the list of 23.”

The absence of 23-year-old Varane is a fresh blow for Deschamps who is already without a key defender as Liverpool’s Mamadou Sakho was left out of his 23-man squad due to a provisional doping ban, with Real Madrid striker Karim Benzema, not selected over his alleged involvement in a sex tape blackmail case.

Varane will also miss Real’s Champions League final against Atletico Madrid on Saturday in Milan.

“I expect he will be out for two or three weeks. I hope for him it isn’t as severe as anticipated,” Real coach Zinedine Zidane had said earlier Tuesday.

“For sure it is a big blow, but above all for him. I am very disappointed for him.”

Varane’s absence means the Blues will begin their campaign without a key defender who has played every game since the 2014 World Cup.

Deschamps must now find an alternative in defence and a player to work in tandem with Arsenal’s Laurent Koscielny, with the Blues’ first friendly

against Cameroon on May 30 likely to serve as a test.

Sevilla defender Rami had been called up by Deschamps on Mon-day as cover in case Varane was ruled out.

The 30-year-old Rami has 26 caps for France and was a regular team member under the tenure of former national boss Laurent Blanc from 2010 to 2012 but had not been called up by Deschamps since June 2013.

He had a good season with Sevilla, winners of the Europa League and Spanish Cup finalists, and had been severe in his criticism of Deschamps after failing to make the initial squad.

France, winners in 1984 and 2000, open their Euro campaign against Romania on June 10.

Old hand Cech holds key to Czech progressReuters

PRAGUE: The hopes of the Czech Republic lie in the usually safe hands of goalkeeper Petr Cech as they seek to emerge from a Euro 2016 group that includes champions Spain and has no obvious weak link.

Cech, set to become the coun-try’s most-capped player, will anchor a largely untested lineup that will look to build on their qualifying suc-cesses and avoid an early exit by at least eclipsing Turkey and Croatia in Group D.

Coach Pavel Vrba believes his squad have the right mix of youth and experience, with Cech and Arsenal team mate Tomas Rosicky providing

the latter as they make their fourth and fifth European Championship finals appearances respectively.

The expected return of Rosicky from a calf injury should provide a welcome boost in attack but injuries have limited the gifted playmaker’s appearances in recent seasons and his fitness will be closely monitored.

Cech, though, has remained a steady presence on the Czech back-line, helping to guide them to seven wins in qualifying.

The 33-year-old goalkeeper moved to Arsenal this season after spending 11 years across London at Chelsea, where he won four titles and the Champions League trophy in 2012. Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger calls Cech’s presence

between the goalposts “calming” and last December the keeper broke a Premier League record by reaching his 170th clean sheet.

The Czechs fell to Portugal in the quarter-finals at the last European Championship -- missing an injured Rosicky -- and in 2008 Turkey ended their hopes at the group stage after Cech conceded two late goals.

Cech is tied with Karel Pobor-sky, a hero of the 1996 Czech team who finished Euro runners-up, on 118 national team appearances. Rosicky is third on the list with 100 caps.

If Hazard is on song, and working well in tandem with De Bruyne, then Belgium will have two much-feared players, capable of dictating the out-come of most matches.

Germany’s Bastian Schweinsteiger arrives for a news conference in Ascona,

Switzerland.

SPORT 37THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Schweinsteiger expects to be fit

Agencies

ASCONA, SWITZERLAND: Bas-tian Schweinsteiger said yesterday he would recover from a knee injury in time to captain Germany at the Euro-pean Championship, even though it remained unclear when he would return to the pitch.

“I’m doing well, I am very con-fident,” he told journalists at a press conference in the Swiss town of Ascona, where the German national squad has set up its training camp ahead of the tournament in France.

“I am trying to do a bit more day by day,” said Schweinsteiger, who has 114 caps, adding that his recovery was well within schedule.

The World Cup winning mid-fielder has not played since tearing his knee ligament while training with Germany in March.

But coach Joachim Loew has named him in a preliminary Euro 2016 squad of 27, which has to be trimmed to 23 by next Tuesday.

Loew said he was giving Schwein-steiger until Friday or Saturday before deciding.

“He has achieved a lot physically in the last few weeks, and that’s a good basis. I am optimistic about the coming weeks,” said Loew, add-ing that the midfield general would need “a few days” before returning to

the pitch. Die Mannschaft is plagued with injury worries, with defender Mats Hummels also sitting out train-ing after he picked up a hamstring tear at the end of the league season.

But Loew voiced confidence that Hummels, also a member of Germa-ny’s World Cup winning squad, will recover in time.

Defensive midfielder Sami Khedira, who had been suffering from a calf injury, is expected to return to training today.

Germany will play a friendly against Slovakia on May 29 in Augs-burg and another against Hungary in Gelsenkirchen on June 4.

They will head to their Euro 2016 base in Evian on June 7, before open-ing their Group C campaign against Ukraine in Lille on June 12.

However, the German side set-ting their sights on Euro 2016, 20 years after their last continental tro-phy, may be completely different from the one that won the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

Although coach Loew has kept a core of the players who won the coun-try’s fourth World Cup, he will need to mould them back into a tournament team if they are to knock holders Spain off the champions’ pedestal after eight years.

The manager will also need to quickly integrate a group of younger players, including the talented but uncapped Joshua Kimmich and Julian Weigl among others, to deliver a com-petitive unit.

“We are confident but not arro-gant. We are strong but not invincible,” Loew said.

The manager’s biggest headache is his back line where the qualifiers exposed an alarming lack of consist-ency. Germany conceded five goals in their last four games and left it unex-pectedly late to top their group.

Central defender Jerome Boateng has only just come back for Bayern Munich after more than three months

out injured. Fellow defender Benedikt Hoewedes also missed much of 2016 through injury, returning to action only weeks ago for Schalke.

Loew has another headache in front of the defence, with captain Schweinsteiger racing to overcome an injury and fellow holding midfielder Ilkay Guendogan already ruled out with a knee cap injury.

“These injuries are a bit of a con-cern for me,” Loew said. “You have such problems before every tourna-ment but I really hope that we now can all remain healthy and those injured at the moment can come back.”

Germany’s midfield, overflowing with talent, remains awe-inspiring, with players such as Mesut Ozil, Marco

Reus, Karim Bellarabi, Lukas Podol-ski and Andre Schuerrle jostling for position alongside definite starters Khedira and Toni Kroos.

Thomas Mueller, who has enjoyed his most prolific scoring season at Bayern having produced 20 league goals, will lead their attack along with in-form Mario Gomez and World Cup final scorer Mario Goetze, desperate

for games after spending most of the season on the Bayern bench.

Few expect the star Germans to have any problems against Ukraine, Northern Ireland and Poland, who beat them once in qualifying, in Group C where they are overwhelm-ing favourites. Beyond that, much will depend on what sort of team Loew can field.

The reigning World Cup champions are struggling with many injuries to key players ahead of their 2016 Euro campaign in France next month

Belgium are an outside bet at Euro 2016Reuters

BRUSSELS: Brimming with talent and buoyed up by a quarter-final place at the 2014 World Cup, Belgium will be a popular choice as an outside bet at the European Championship but need key players to be on form after they lost captain Vincent Kompany to injury.

The Red Devils return to the tournament for the first time since co-hosting the event with the Neth-erlands in 2000 but an exciting generation of talent will be no demure debutants, having already had a taste of the big time in Brazil two years ago.

Their performance in reaching the quarter-finals -- they exited after a 1-0 loss to Argentina -- plus a con-vincing qualifying campaign for Euro 2016 led to a five-month stint at the head of the FIFA world rankings.

Belgium would be the first to scoff at the idea that they are the world’s best team but they are strong in all departments. Coach Marc Wilmots has an abundance of talent, led by Kevin De Bruyne, Axel Witsel, Thibault Courtois and the mercurial Eden Hazard, who is set to become

the new captain after a groin injury sidelined Kompany.

Belgium will need Hazard to emerge from the funk that has char-acterised his club season with Chelsea and show more than just the occa-sional moment of magic if they are to emerge from the opening-round group they share with Italy, Ireland and Sweden.

If Hazard is on song, and working well in tandem with De Bruyne, then Belgium will have two much-feared players, capable of dictating the out-come of most matches.

There is a large contingent of English-based players in the Belgian squad who will need to be fresh after a long and taxing club season which has seen many of their players bat-tle injury.

Wilmots has sought to keep his side under the radar and away from the spotlight the traditional favour-ites will attract.

Only days ago he proclaimed his side were nowhere near favourites.

“We hope to do as well as we did at the World Cup and maybe a little better. A place in the last four would be fantastic,” he told Belgian media

yesterday. “France, Germany and Spain are the favourites for me,” he added.

There will be many who disa-gree and see Belgium as a top team at the tournament. The country has

once reached the tournament final, losing to a late West Germany goal in 1980 in Italy.

Versatile Arda is Turkey’s driving forceReuters

ISTANBUL: Turkey’s ambitions of reaching the Euro 2016 knockout stages will largely depend on the form of their inspirational captain Arda Turan (pictured), who has had a patchy season with his new club Barcelona.

The 29-year-old midfielder joined Barca from Atletico Madrid in July 2015 but was sidelined for six months by the club’s trans-fer ban which meant he made his debut only in January.

He has, though, failed to estab-lish himself as a regular starter in the wake of stiff competition and been used mainly as a substitute.

For Turkey he remains the main man and his array of skills, which made him one of Atletico’s key players during his four-year spell with the club, will be their best hope of avoiding an early exit in France.

Pace and dazzling footwork combined with an eye for goal ensure he is a driving force, boss-ing a midfield that includes the talented Hakan Caljanoglu, Selcuk Inan and Nuri Sahin.

For inspiration, Arda will have his memories of Euro 2008 when he scored in comeback wins over Switzerland and the Czech Republic as Turkey reached the semi-finals.

More recently, Arda was also on target in a stunning 3-0 win over Netherlands which kept Turkey’s Euro 2016 qualifying campaign alive before they com-pleted their recovery from a poor start with wins over the Czech Republic and Iceland

Past, present players field questions on MourinhoAgencies

ASCONA, ITALY: Manchester should brace itself for some fascinating local derbies if Jose Mourinho (pictured) joins United, midfielder Bastian Sch-weinsteiger said yesterday.

The Germany international declined to comment on reports that the former Chelsea and Real Madrid manager had agreed terms with United to succeed the sacked Louis van Gaal.

However, he said every player would want to work under the Portuguese coach who will go head-to-head with Pep Guardiola who has already agreed to join rivals Manches-ter City.

The two had their share of run-ins in 2011-12 when Guardiola coached Barcelona and Mourinho was in charge at Real Madrid.

“It looks like there will be an interesting city duel if Mourinho joins United,” Schweinsteiger told reporters at Germany’s training camp in Italy.

“There is already a lot of enthusi-asm in Manchester. Each player would like to train under Mourinho. It will be something special (for the city).”

Van Gaal was fired on Monday a year before his contract was due to end and just two days after United beat Crystal Palace to win the FA Cup, their first trophy in three years.

Schweinsteiger heaped praise on the Dutchman, saying he admired Van Gaal, having developed a special

relationship with him over the years.The midfielder played for two sea-

sons under both Van Gaal and later Guardiola at the Bayern Munich club.

“Louis van Gaal and me have had a special relationship,” the Germany captain said. “My transfer to United (in 2015) also had to do with him. I cannot speak badly about someone I have to thank for so much.

“I admire him as coach and per-sonality. Despite a difficult period with injury (and) bad luck we still managed to lift a trophy not won by United in 12 years. It is a fitting end for him.”

That success, however, could not gloss over a season in which United finished fifth in the Premier League, missing out on Champions League

qualification, and where dull per-formances had the fans booing their own team even after victories.

Meanwhile, former United mid-fielder Paul Scholes said Mourinho will bring attacking flair back to Man-chester United, having learnt from the mistakes of Louis van Gaal.

“The fans at Man United demand entertaining football, and I’m sure Mourinho will come and try and give it,” Scholes told British media.

The former midfielder, who won 11 league titles with United, was an outspoken critic of Van Gaal’s time at the helm. United finished fifth in the Premier League this season under the Dutchman, scoring 49 goals, their lowest tally since the 1989-90 campaign.

Belgium’s national

football team midfielder Marouane

Fellaini (left) vies for the ball with midfielder

Kevin De Bruyne during a training session

in Lausanne yesterday.

Germany’s coach Joachim Loew arrives for a news conference in Ascona, Switzerland,

yesterday.

SPORT38 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Players to watch at Euro 2016 in France ...The continent’s top 24 sides will appear at Euro 2016 and here are some of the best players leading their team’s cause in France

Manchester United hold day two of Mourinho talksAFP

LONDON: Manchester United were locked in a second day of talks with Jose Mourinho’s (pictured) agents yesterday, hammering out a deal to sweep the controversial Portuguese boss into Old Trafford.

The former Chelsea and Real Madrid manager has agreed personal terms on a three-year deal with a likely annual sal-ary of at least £10m ($15m, €13m) but issues remain over image rights, Sky News televi-sion reported.

The 53-year-old is mulling a bid for Zla-tan Ibrahimovic as one of his first moves in the job, according to media reports, after the

star Sweden striker played his final game for French champions Paris Saint-Germain last week.

United finally sacked Louis van Gaal on Monday, two days after the club won the FA Cup with a 2-1 win over Crystal Palace.

Despite the victory, the Old Trafford club’s failure to qualify for the lucrative Champions League proved fatal to the Dutchman’s hopes of staying on as manager.

After a first day of talks between Mour-inho’s agent Jorge Mendes and the club’s executive vice-chairman Ed Woodward, United goalkeeping great Peter Schmeichel said they likely involved both sides setting out the direction they want the club to go in.

“I always expected Jose Mourinho to

have Manches-ter United at the very top of his list -- his dream job. I think he can be an absolute suc-cess but has a lot to prove,” the Dane told Sky Sports television.

“I’m looking forward to this next period and hopefully he will give all fans belief that all is well and they are going in the right direction.”

Meanwhile former United midfielder Paul

Scholes said a lack of improvement from the previous season eventually cost Van Gaal his job, as he backed Mourinho to bring a brighter style of football to Old Trafford.

“You always feel sorry for someone who loses his job but it didn’t quite work. He got them back into the Champions League in his first year but I don’t think there was any improvement from that,” he said.

“United fans expect a certain style of play, attacking. It didn’t come, which hopefully the new manager will bring them.”

Meanwhile uncertainty lingered about the future of Van Gaal’s deputy Ryan Giggs, who had been seen as a potential successor to the Dutchman but has been passed over.

Giggs, 42, knows the club inside out, has

spent nearly three decades at the club as a player and then on the coaching staff.

Mourinho is expected to bring long-time assistant Rui Faria and goalkeeping coach Silvino Louro with him, meaning Van Gaal’s assistant coaches Albert Stuivenberg and Frans Hoek are likely to be dismissed.

Scholes said it would be a loss to the Red Devils if Giggs was edged out or felt he had to go.

“If Ryan wants to go away and manage I’m sure he’d be very good at it but I’d be sad if he left the club after more than 20 years.

“He knows how the club works,” he said yesterday.

“It depends what Mourinho wants him to do -- it’s all down to personal preference.”

Belgium’s national football player Dries Mertens

(left) kicks the ball next to forward

Divock Origi during a training session

in Lausanne yesterday.

Belgian national soccer coach Marc Wilmots

(left) signs autographs, during a training session

in Lausanne yesterday.

Reuters

PARIS: Players to watch at the Euro-pean Championship in France, which kicks off on June 10:

Group AAlbania - Elseid Hysaj

Elseid Hysaj has played in Italy since the age of 14 after his father, a migrant bricklayer, introduced him to a soccer scout. Hard work and talent ensured he rose to become a solid full back, comfortable on both sides, for Serie A side Napoli and for Albania.

France - Kingsley Coman

The 19-year-old Kingsley Coman, who joined Bayern Munich on loan from Juventus this season, is devel-oping into an impressive all-round forward, with excellent dribbling skills and jaw-dropping speed. He impressed when he scored as a sec-ond-half substitute in a 4-2 win against Russia in March.

Romania - Nicolae Stanciu

A stunning long-range goal by Nicolae Stanciu on his senior inter-national debut against Lithuania in March suggested a promising future and Steaua Bucharest’s 23-year-old attacking midfielder, who boasts exceptional passing and dribbling skills, already looks the standout player in Anghel Iordanescu’s squad.

Switzerland - Breel Embolo

Breel Embolo, 19, is a powerful and technically-gifted centre-forward who plays for FC Basel. Born in Cam-eroon, he had to take time off from school to play against Liverpool in the Champions League when they met two seasons ago.

Group BRussia - Alexander Golovin

Alexander Golovin won his first cap at 19 after a handful of games for CSKA Moscow and responded to former manager Fabio Capello’s faith by becoming the first Russian ever to score in his first two internation-als. One year on, the midfielder is a regular at CSKA and could shine in France.

England - Dele Alli

The Tottenham Hotspur youngster, who was 20 in April, took the Pre-mier League by storm in his first season, scoring 10 goals and reg-istering nine assists. Aggressive in the tackle, skilful and hard-work-ing, Alli has all the attributes of the complete modern-day central mid-fielder. Scored some eye-catching goals this season, including a pile-driver for England against France

at Wembley Stadium.

Slovakia - Robert Mak

Mak is the leading scorer for PAOK in Greece, with 19 goals in 42 matches. The 25-year-old midfielder, a former Manchester City academy player, will be counted on to reinforce Slovakia’s attack next month and could shine as a strong complement to Adam Nemec and Marek Hamsik in front of the net.Attacking midfielder Ondrej Duda could also garner more attention if he wins a spot on the squad. The speedy 21-year-old Legia Warsaw player has reportedly been courted by a number of English clubs, including Arsenal.

Wales - Sam Vokes

The experienced striker, 26, was a key figure in Burnley’s promotion back to the Premier League this sea-son, scoring 15 goals as they won the Championship title. While Gareth Bale is Wales’s talisman, Vokes is the perfect foil for the Real Madrid man and will be hungry to shine on the international stage after his first sea-son in the Premier League in 2014-15 was ruined by injury.

Group CPoland - Grzegorz Krychowiak

Grzegorz Krychowiak is known as “Mr Perfect” for his impeccable attire and white-toothed smile. As a 16-year-old he left Poland for Giron-dins Bordeaux, where he acquired a French accent. He also has a French girlfriend, the model Celia Jaunat.

The 26-year-old defensive mid-fielder makes sure the donkey work gets done but still managed to score in Sevilla’s Europa League triumph over Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk last year.

Germany - Joshua Kimmich

Joshua Kimmich has enjoyed a mete-oric rise in his first season at Bayern Munich, earning repeated praise from coach Pep Guardiola, who predicted a bright future for the 21-year-old midfielder.

A surprise addition along with two other uncapped youngsters -- Julian Brandt and Julian Weigl -- to Joachim Loew’s squad, the versatile Kimmich has gathered considerable

experience this season with his first Bundesliga title and a run to the Champions League semi-finals.

Ukraine - Yevhen Konoplyanka

Sevilla winger Yevhen Konoplyanka has already proved his talent at the top level after eight years with Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk and, on his day, his pace and dribbling can get the bet-ter of any defence. The 26-year-old’s polished technique and long-range shooting make him one to watch in France.

Northern Ireland - Paddy McNair

Paddy McNair broke into the Man-chester United line-up in Louis van Gaal’s first season at Old Trafford as a defender but, while the 21-year-old has slipped down the pecking order over the last 12 months for his club he has established himself as a reli-able option for Michael O’Neill as a defensive midfielder.

Tall and commanding, McNair reads the game well and will push for a place in the starting line-up for Northern Ireland in their first-ever appearance at the European Championship.

Group DSpain - Aritz Aduriz

Aritz Aduriz has defied age by pro-ducing the best form of his career at 35. The powerful Athletic Bilbao striker has scored 36 goals in all competitions this season and jus-tified his recall to the squad after a six-year absence in March by netting in a 1-1 draw with Italy.

Croatia - Marcelo Brozovic

Marcelo Brozovic has impressed for Inter Milan this season, add-ing a potency in front of goal to his traditional midfield energy. The 23-year-old is now a regular starter for both club and country and will

never be far from the action in France.

Turkey - Hakan Calhanoglu

The 22-year old attacking midfielder has gone from strength to strength since bursting on to the big stage in 2013. A single season at Hamburg, in which he bagged 11 goals and five assists in 28 league games, secured a quick move to Bayer Leverkusen where he instantly became a key player.

Czech Republic - Borek Dockal

The Czech league’s player of the year will be under pressure to main-tain his scoring touch after netting a team-leading four goals in the country’s surprise rise to the top of their qualifying group. With the fitness of midfield veteran Tomas Rosicky always a question, Dockal could again emerge as the key to the Czech attack. The 27-year-old Sparta Prague midfielder will be making his first Euro appearance after debuting with the national team just after the last championship.

Group ESweden - Emil Forsberg

At 24, Emil Forsberg is an old-fash-ioned winger full of pace and trickery whose two Swedish titles with Malmo and subsequent performances in the UEFA Champions League got him a move to Red Bull Leipzig in Germa-ny’s second tier.

Italy - Lorenzo Insigne

Nicknamed the “Italian Messi” by team mates, the diminutive, skil-ful and pacy winger has had a fine season for Napoli, scoring 13 goals. The 24-year-old netted his second strike in eight games for Italy in the 1-1 draw with Spain in a friendly in March, suggesting a promising tour-nament in France.

Ireland - Robbie Brady

Schooled as a winger at Manchester United, Norwich City’s Brady can also

play left back, but the 24-year-old’s real strengths are his ability to get forward coupled with his pinpoint deliveries, especially from dead balls.

Belgium - Michy Batshauyi

Eligible to play for the Democratic Republic of Congo through his par-ents, Batshauyi opted for his native Belgium and scored on his inter-national debut in March 2015. The 22-year-old Olympique de Mar-seille striker has scored 17 goals in Ligue 1 this season and could have an important impact role at the Euro-pean Championship.

Group FIceland - Arnor Ingvi Traustason

IFK Norrkoping’s energetic midfielder could prove to be Iceland’s surprise package at Euro 2016. The skilful 23-year-old has already won the Swedish title and scored three goals in his six international appearances.

Hungary - Daniel Bode

Ferencvaros’s strapping central striker Daniel Bode is probably the most popular player in Hungary at the moment. The 29-year-old is strong, industrious and has an eye for the goal; his unsophisticated approach may surprise unwary opponents.

Austria - Valentino Lazaro

Valentino Lazaro, the son of an Ango-lan father and Greek mother, is an attacking midfielder who became the youngest player to appear in the Austrian Bundesliga when he made his debut at the age of 16 years and 224 days.

Portugal - Renato Sanches

A strong, skilful midfielder, Renato Sanches, 18, made his professional debut for Benfica only in October and has quickly become recognised as one of the top players in the country, earning a move to Bayern Munich.

SPORT 39THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Thunder a win away from finals after game 4

AFP

LOS ANGELES: Russell Westbrook tallied a triple double and Kevin Durant finished with 26 points and 11 rebounds as Oklahoma City routed Golden State 118-94 to put the War-riors on the brink of elimination on Tuesday.

Westbrook had 36 points, 11 rebounds and 11 assists for the Thun-der who can advance to the NBA finals with a victory in Thursday’s game five on the road.

“I am proud of the way the guys hung in there,” said Oklahoma City coach Billy Donovan. “We kept bat-tling and fighting. We defended as hard as we could for 48 minutes.”

Westbrook, who led the league with 18 triple doubles during the regular season, posted his first triple double of the playoffs for the Thun-der who have a 3-1 series lead.

“I try to use my size and ability to create some havoc,” Westbrook said. “We did a great job of defend-ing home court.”

The Warriors lost back-to-back games for the first time this season after winning a league record 73 games in the regular season.

Thunder forward Durant scored his points on eight-of-24 shooting from the field while Serge Ibaka and Andre Roberson each scored 17 points and Steven Adams tallied 11 points and seven rebounds.

“I try to play with passion each chance I get,” Durant said.

League MVP Stephen Curry was held to 19 points while Klay

Thompson led the defending cham-pion Warriors with 26 points.

Curry shot a disappointing six-of-20 from the field, and he and Thompson combined to make just six-of-21 shots from beyond the arc.

Harrison Barnes posted 11 points

in the loss for the Warriors, who attempted just 17 free throws in the first half. Golden State has lost by a combined 52 points over the two games in Chesapeake Energy Arena.

“We had 21 turnovers many of them unforced,” said Warrior coach Steve Kerr. “They are getting just way too many possessions compared to us.

“They are taking care of busi-ness on the boards. We are forcing stops but we are not going and get-ting the ball. We have to chase down loose balls.”

Durant and Westbrook were a combined 12-for-12 from the free throw line in the first half.

Thompson broke loose for 19

points in the third quarter and helped cut Oklahoma City’s lead down to seven.

But the Thunder weren’t done. Oklahoma City ended the quar-ter strong to take 12-point lead and that would be as close as the Warri-ors would come. For the second game in a row, the Thunder didn’t let up in the fourth. The Warriors surrendered early and pulled their starters with just over three minutes left.

Kerr said the Thunder’s strong defense is a problem for them.

“This is the longest team in the league. We continue to try to put passes over their outstretched arms and that is not a good idea,” Kerr said.

Stephen Curry (left) of the Golden State Warriors goes up against Kevin Durant of the Oklahoma City Thunder in the second half in game four of the Western Conference finals during the 2016 NBA Play-offs at Chesapeake Energy Arena in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma on Tuesday

Warriors need to find quick

fix for play-off problems

Reuters

NEW YORK: The Golden State Warriors are fast becoming a pale shadow of the 73-win team that stormed through the regular season and there is no shortage of theories as to why the league’s most domi-nant team are now on the verge of play-off elimination.

After Oklahoma City pum-meled the Warriors 118-94 to take a commanding 3-1 lead in their best-of-seven Western Conference Finals series on Tuesday, questions poured in like Thunder fast-break points.

Is the team’s talismanic MVP Stephen Curry healthy? Did Dray-mond Green buckle under the pressure of his near suspension? Is Golden State finally being crushed by the burden of fulfilling a record campaign?

Following their latest setback, the first consecutive losses of the season for the Warriors, the defend-ing NBA champions did their best to deflect questions demanding an explanation for their demise.

“We had a tremendous season and did something no one has done before. We’re proud of that. But in the playoffs, everyone starts 0-0, so there’s no extra pressure,” Golden State coach Steve Kerr told reporters.

On the court, however, the fun-loving Warriors of the regular season appear to have been transformed into a struggling unit, devoid of form or fluidity against a highly motivated opponent.

Curry buried half-court shots on command as he claimed a sec-ond consecutive MVP award but he

has been outplayed by Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook in the con-ference finals, prompting inquiries about the right knee he sprained last month.

“I’m fine,” said Curry, who has made just 13-of-37 shots in his last two games.

“In our locker room it’s frustra-tion and trying to figure out how we can get back to being ourselves.”

The Game Four spotlight was also shining on Green after he avoided a suspension despite kick-ing Thunder center Steven Adams in the groin during Sunday’s 133-105 blowout loss.

The team’s emotional leader, Green was subdued during a six-point, six-turnover night.

“That’s the first time in my life I haven’t responded to critics,” Green said of his disappointing display. “That’s been my story. I haven’t (responded) so I need to do that.”

When the Warriors pushed past the historic 72 wins of the 1995-96 Chicago Bulls it felt inevitable that they would cap that feat with a sec-ond straight title.

Now the odds are stacked against them and the reason for the turnaround in fortunes appears much simpler than the combined battle against pressure and health.

The Thunder are bigger, faster and at this moment, better than Golden State and it does not require a deep investigation to uncover that.

“(OKC) is outplaying us right now and we have to come up with answers,” Kerr admitted.

Those answers need to be found quickly with Game Five coming up in Oakland on Thursday.

Oklahoma City rout Golden State 118-94 to put the Warriors on the brink of elimination

Penguins force game seven against LightningAFP

TAMPA: The Pittsburgh Penguins rebounded by shaking off a game five home loss to beat the Tampa Bay Lightning 5-2 on Tuesday and force a game seven in their Eastern Con-ference playoff series.

The Penguins, who were facing elimination for the first time in the 2016 postseason after back-to-back losses, got goals from five different players in game six and 30 saves from rookie goalie Matt Murray.

“It wasn’t pretty, but it is good that we got win,” said Murray. “We domi-nated through the first two periods. They came back in the third.

“But we battled through it. We weathered the storm and got it done.”

Superstar forward Sidney Crosby led the offense with two points, including the eventual winning goal late in the second period.

Phil Kessel, with his ninth of the playoffs, defenseman Kris Letang,

Bryan Rust and Nick Bonino, into an empty net, also scored for the Pen-guins, who went back to goaltender Murray on Tuesday.

The Penguins will be back on their home ice Thursday -- where Tampa Bay has won two of three games in this series -- with the win-ner advancing to the Stanley Cup finals. Rust got a breakaway goal with 2:08 left and Bonino added an empty-netter with 53 seconds left to pull away.

Crosby made it 3-0, scoring with just 25 seconds left in the second as he weaved past two Lightning players and then shot the puck through the legs of goalie

Andrei Vasilevskiy for his sixth goal of the postseason.

Murray started the first four games of the series before being replaced by veteran Marc-Andre Fleury in the third period of game four. Fleury started game five which the Lightning won 4-3 in overtime.

“I just tried to play my heart out and stay in the moment,” Murray said. “They had a lot of traffic in front of the net. A couple of them I was just able to pick out at the very last sec-ond.” Brian Boyle scored both goals for the Lightning, who are seeking to reach their second straight Stanley Cup final. Tampa is trying to become the first team to make consecutive trips to the National Hockey League championship round since the Pen-guins and Detroit Red Wings did it in 2008 and 2009.

Tampa Bay looked to have taken the lead at one point early in the con-test on a goal from Jonathan Drouin, but an official review showed that Drouin was offside so the goal was waived off.

Nick Bonino (13) of the Pittsburgh Penguins celebrates with his team-mates after scoring an open net goal against the Tampa Bay Lightning during the third period in Game Six of the Eastern Conference final during the 2016 NHL Stanley Cup Play-offs at Amalie Arena in Tampa, Florida on Tuesday.

NFL to play 2021

Super Bowl in

new Los Angeles

stadium

Reuters

LOS ANGELES: The NFL will stage the 2021 Super Bowl in Los Angeles, raising its profile in the country’s second-largest media market after making a celebrated return to the city with the reloca-tion of the Rams franchise to the West Coast starting next season.

The National Football League also announced the 2019 and 2020 Super Bowls would be played in Atlanta and South Florida, respec-tively, returning to those areas for its championship game, one of the most-watched television events of the year.

Atlanta hosted the game in 1994 and 2000, while Miami has had it 10 times.

The Super Bowl’s move back to Los Angeles will also give the ‘City of Angels’ a welcome boost as it bids to host the 2024 Sum-mer Olympics.

“We are honored that the NFL is bringing the Super Bowl to Los Angeles in 2021,” Casey Wasser-man, who is chair of both the Los Angeles Super Bowl bid and LA24, said in a statement.

“The league’s selection of Los Angeles is a testament to its commitment to innovation and diversity, and I couldn’t be prouder of our winning bid.

“Stan Kroenke’s vision for the Rams stadium and the surround-ing campus makes Inglewood an ideal venue for staging the Super Bowl of the future and we look for-ward to inviting the nation and the world to LA for an historic fan experience.”

The Los Angeles area has hosted the Super Bowl seven times, including the first game at the Memorial Coliseum in 1967. The 2021 edition, which will be the 55th Super Bowl, will be held in the $2.6bn stadium being built by Rams owner Kroenke.

Strasburg stays unbeaten as Nats pound Harvey againAgencies

WASHINGTON: The Washington Nationals beat the New York Mets, 7-4 on Tuesday, as Stephen Strasburg beat still-struggling Matt Harvey, striking out 11 in 6 2/3 innings, a typical Stras-burg outing these days.

The Nationals have now won 14 straight Strasburg starts, dating back to last season.

Strasburg improved to 8-0 in 2016, which is the best start in fran-chise history since Pedro Martinez did the same as a Montreal Expo in 1997.

Strasburg and the Chicago Cubs’ Jake Arrieta are the only two qualified starters who have not yet been beaten. All of that speaks well of Strasburg, of course.

But wins are not always the prod-uct of good pitching alone.

Luck, quality of opponent and run support can all factor in. So what does 8-0 say about Strasburg’s season, and what does 14 straight wins in games started by him say about his efforts?

Strasburg looked as good early on Tuesday as he has all season, his fastball reaching 97 mph, his curve-ball dipping to the low 80s.

He had six strikeouts through three innings - at least one finished by all of his pitches, the fastball, the cutter, change-up and curveball.

The first 10 Mets headed back to the dugout, unable to reach.

Then Strasburg left a 2-1 fastball over the plate to former team-mate Asdrubal Cabrera, who hit it out to right to give the Mets a lead. Stras-burg allowed one more run in the

seventh, when Yoenis Cespedes led off with a double and scored on a for-ceout at second. Strasburg struck out at least 10 batters for the fifth time in 10 starts.

Only Arrieta and Los Angeles Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw have better ERAs since Strasburg returned from the disabled list last season.

One thing Strasburg cannot con-trol is run support, though he had been the beneficiary of the fourth-most runs per nine innings (7.82) of any pitcher in baseball entering Tues-day’s start.

That number went down, because when Strasburg left the Nationals had only scored five runs against Harvey, though that was plenty.

Harvey has been struggling so much the Mets considered skipping his turn through the rotation. He

lasted five innings, his effectiveness dwindling as the game went on. After the Nationals hit three homers, Har-vey’s ERA reached 6.08. The Nationals got to him in the fourth.

Ryan Zimmerman, scuffling early on, showed signs of improvement over the weekend in Miami and had two hits in Monday night’s loss, both to the opposite field - the kind of hits that don’t come easily to hitters out of rhythm at the plate.

After he singled in the second inning on Tuesday, Zimmerman hit a 2-2 change-up over the left field fence to give the Nationals their first run.

Then came Anthony Rendon, who also homered. Rendon is hitting .407 since being moved down in the order before the series with the Mets in New York last week.

CONFERENCE FINALS PLAY-OFF RESULT

Montreal: Result on Tuesday from

the NBA Western Conference finals

(series best-of-seven)

At Oklahoma City

Oklahoma City 118 Golden State 94

(Oklahoma City leads series 3-1)

NHL PLAYOFF RESULT

Washington: Result on Tuesday

in NHL Eastern Conference final

playoff game (series best of seven):

Pittsburgh 5 Tampa Bay 2

(Series tied 3-3)

Baseball ResultsTampa Bay 4 Miami 3

Pittsburgh 12 Arizona 1

Washington 7 NY Mets 4

NY Yankees 6 Toronto 0

Detroit 3 Philadelphia 1

Chicago Cubs 12 St. Louis 3

Boston 8 Colorado 3

Milwaukee 2 Atlanta 1

Texas 4 LA Angels 1

Houston 3 Baltimore 2

Cleveland 6 Chicago W Sox 2

Kansas City 7 Minnesota 4

La Dodgers 8 Cincinnati 2

Seattle 6 Oakland 5

San Francisco 8 San Diego 2

40 THURSDAY 26 MAY 2016

Murray takes long road again, Wawrinka keeps it simple

Reuters

PARIS: Andy Murray survived a sec-ond close shave at the French Open yesterday, but his path towards what he hopes will be a maiden title in Paris is becoming so circuitous he may soon find himself hacking through trees in the nearby Bois de Boulogne.

While defending champion Sta-nislas Wawrinka, fifth seed Kei Nishikori, Simona Halep and Gar-bine Muguruza, eased into the third round yesterday, second seed Murray took the long road again.

The Scot spent Monday and Tues-day figuring a way past unorthodox 37-year-old Czech Radek Stepanek, extricating himself from two sets down to scrape through in five.

This time it was little known 22-year-old French wildcard Math-ias Borgue, playing only his second grand slam match, who led the former US Open and Wimbledon champion astray. Initially overwhelmed, Borgue recovered from a 6-2, 2-0 deficit to take control in astonishing fashion, reeling off eight games in a row and forging into a two-sets-to-one lead.

When he pummelled a backhand winner down the line to take the third set Murray was stunned and the par-tisan Court Philippe Chatrier crowd were in full cry.Murray was rock-ing, but saved three break points at the start of the fourth set and grad-ually seized back control to prevail 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 in three hours 34 minutes.

“I led 6-2, 2-0 then he started playing unbelievably and I was finding it hard to win points, let alone games,” Murray, a three-times semi-finalist here, said on court after sportingly joining in the applause for Borgue, France’s 16th best player.

“You can’t play too many matches like this if you want to go far in this tournament. I hope to win the next one a little bit faster.”

Murray’s opponent in the third round, Ivo Karlovic, was involved in the day’s other compelling drama.

The big-serving Croatian, also 37, beat Australian wildcard Jordan Thompson 6-7(2), 6-3, 7-6(3), 6-7(4), 12-10 in the longest match of the tour-nament so far to become the oldest man to reach the third round of a slam since Jimmy Connors in 1991.

“It’s the only time when being old is okay,” 27th seed Karlovic, who has boomed down 72 aces in two rounds, said of his milestone victory.

Quite what he and Murray will cook up on Friday is anyone’s guess, but expect the unexpected.

Like Murray, third seed Wawrinka suffered a first-round fright in a five-setter against Lukas Rosol.

He was still not at his best on Wednesday against Japan’s Taro Dan-iel, but having saved two set points in the opening tiebreak he won 7-6(7) ,6-3, 6-4.

“If you look at the first two matches, for sure I’m not playing my best tennis, but I know I have my best tennis in me,” the 31-year-old, who faces Frenchman Jeremy Chardy next, said. Nishikori’s progress has been impressive so far and he was too good for Russian Andrey Kuznet-sov, winning 6-3, 6-3, 6-3.

After a flurry of falling seeds in the women’s first round, the top names flourished as the sun finally appeared in Paris. Romania’s Halep, runner-up to Maria Sharapova in 2014, took a while to tame Kaza-khstan’s Zarina Diyas to win 7-6(5), 6-2.

Fourth seed Muguruza, bidding to become the first Spanish woman to win the title since Arantxa Sanchez-Vicario in 1998, thrashed France’s Myrtille Georges 6-2, 6-0. Czech Lucie Safarova, finalist last year, beat Swiss Viktorija Golubic 6-2, 6-2, and

2009 champion Svetlana Kuznetsova showed she is still a force by beating Britain’s Heather Watson.

Karlovic, 37, becomes oldest man in 25 years to reach third round of French Open

Russian Olympic high jumper calls positive test ‘complete shock’AFP

MOSCOW: Russian high jump Olym-pic champion Anna Chicherova yesterday vowed to clear her name after testing positive for doping at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, casting doubt on her participation in Rio.

Russia’s Olympic Committee (ROC) said Tuesday that 14 of its ath-letes at the 2008 Beijing Olympics -- including Chicherova and nine other medallists -- tested positive in new tests on samples given during the Games, as Moscow faces allegations of state-organised doping.

“For me it’s the most complete shock. I can’t explain how it could have happened,” said Chicherova, who hopes to compete in August’s Rio Games if Russia’s team is allowed to enter.

Chicherova is the reigning Olym-pic high jump champion after winning gold in London in 2012. She won bronze in Beijing.

“I was always sure what supple-ments and medicines I was using,” she said.

“I hope I can defend my name as clean.”

The announcement came after the International Olympic Commit-tee (IOC) said that 31 athletes from 12 countries had failed doping tests of their samples from the Beijing Games.

While Russia has not officially named its athletes, a list was aired

on Match TV channel and Chicherova confirmed she had indeed received notification that her sample showed evidence of banned substances.

She described her present situ-ation of waiting for the final results after a second sample is tested on May 31 or June 1 in Switzerland as “very painful and unpleasant.”

The Russian athletics federation said Tuesday that if allowed to com-pete at Rio, it would bar any athlete found to have used doping in previ-ous years.

The world athletics governing

body IAAF next month is set to rule whether to lift Russia’s provisional suspension from Rio over evidence of state-sponsoring doping.

A delegation from the IAAF was set to visit Russia for the final time on Wednesday before decid-ing whether it can take part in the Olympics, the Russian athletics fed-eration president Dmitry Shlyakhtin said.

The latest doping revelations came as Russia is reeling from damn-ing accusations by the former head of Russia’s anti-doping laboratory

at the Sochi Winter Games, Grigory Rodchenkov.

He told the New York Times of a systematic state-organised scheme to get round anti-doping rules, including at least 15 medal-lists at the 2014 Sochi Olympics as well as the sports ministry and the FSB security service.

The Russian athletics doping scandal was earlier brought to light by whistleblowers, including runner Yulia Stepanova and her husband Vit-aly Stepanov, a former employee of Russian anti-doping agency RUSADA.

Russia’s Anna Chicherova competing in the qualifying round of the women’s high jump athletics event at the 2015 IAAF World Championships at the Bird’s Nest National Stadium in Beijing in this August 27, 2015 file picture.

Pro boxers at Rio Games is ridiculous, says TysonReuters

BEIJING: Mike Tyson has branded the Amateur International Boxing Association’s (AIBA) decision to let professional fighters take part in the 2016 Rio Olympics as “ridiculous” and “foolish”.

Professional boxers would fea-ture at the Olympic games as long as a constitutional change went through in June, AIBA said earlier this year.

Former world heavyweight champion Tyson, who as an amateur won gold at the 1981 and 1982 Junior Olympic Games, said on Wednesday

that professional boxers would be stunned by the fast-paced fighting style of the amateur fighters.

“It’s ridiculous, it’s foolish, and some of the pro fighters are going to get beat by the amateurs. It’s just going to happen, I really believe that,” the 49-year-old told Reuters TV in China, where he is attending the 33rd IBF convention.

“If they are like the amateur fighters that I was fighting in the 80s... they are going to beat some of the champions. It’s just going to hap-pen. These guys will be fast for three or four rounds, and these guys are not going to be accustomed to that.”

Tyson, also revealed he was a fan of his namesake, Tyson Fury.

Former boxer Mike Tyson reacts as he speaks to the media, before the weigh-in of International Boxing Federation (IBF) World Championship bout at the Mutianyu section of the Great Wall of China, on the outskirts of Beijing, China, yesterday.

Great Britain’s Andy Murray reacts after beating France’s Mathias Bourgue during their men’s second round match of the French Tennis Open in Paris yesterday.

Sunrisers Hyderabad Yuvraj Singh plays a shot during the IPL Twenty20 eliminator match against Kolkata Knight Riders at the Feroz Shah Kotla Cricket Stadium in New Delhi, yesterday.

IPL: Clinical Sunrisers prove too good for KKRAgencies

NEW DELHI: Sunrisers Hyderabad produced a clinical performance to seal their place in the Qualifier 2 as they crushed the hopes of two-time champions Kolkata Knight Riders with a comfortable 22 runs win in the Indian Premier League

Eliminator. After putting on 162 for eight, , Sunrisers came up with a fine bowling performance and accurate catching to restrict KKR to 140 for eight to progress to the Qualifier 2 stage for the first time since mak-ing their debut in 2013. Sunrisers will now take on the losers of the Qual-ifier 1, Gujarat Lions on Friday for their maiden entry into the summit clash of the tournament.

Kateryna Bondarenko of Ukraine in action against Annika Beck of Germany during their second round match at the French Open yesterday.

Ivo Karlovic of Croatia in action against Jordan Thompson of Australia.

French Open order of play

Court Philippe Chatrier

(0900GMT/1100 local)

Eugenie Bouchard (CAN) vs Timea

Bacsinszky (SUI x8)

Rafael Nadal (ESP x4) vs Facundo

Bagnis (ARG)

Marcos Baghdatis (CYP) vs

Jo-Wilfried Tsonga (FRA x6)

Timea Babos (HUN) vs Kristina

Mladenovic (FRA x26)

Court Suzanne Lenglen

(0900GMT/1100 local)

Malek Jaziri (TUN) vs

Tomas Berdych (CZE x7)

Novak Djokovic (SRB x1) vs Steve

Darcis (BEL)

Serena Williams (USA x1) vs Teliana

Pereira (BRA)

Venus Williams (USA x9) vs Louisa

Chirico (USA)

Court 1 (0900GMT/1100 local)

Kurumi Nara (JPN) vs

Ana Ivanovic (SRB x14)

Paul-Henri Mathieu (FRA) vs

Roberto Bautista Agut (ESP x14)

Virginie Razzano (FRA) vs Daria

Kasatkina (RUS x29)

David Ferrer (ESP x11) vs Juan

Monaco (ARG)

SUNRISERS HYDERABADD A Warner b K Yadav 28

S Dhawan b Morkel 10

M C Henriques c&b K Yadav 31

Yuvraj Singh b Holder 44

D J Hooda (run out) 21

B C J Cutting st Uthappa b K Yadav 0

N V Ojha c Uthappa b Holder 7

B Kumar c Pandey b Morkel 1

Bipul Sharma (not out) 14

B B Sran (not out) 0

Extras (B-1, LB-1, W-4) 6

Total (for 8 wkts in 20 overs) 162Did not bat: Mustafizur Rahman.

Fall of wickets: 1-12, 2-71, 3-71, 4-120,

5-124, 6-145, 7-147, 8-161.

Bowling: Y K Pathan 3-0-17-0; M Morkel

4-0-31-2; S P Narine 4-0-35-0 (2w); J O

Holder 4-0-33-2 (2w); Kuldeep Yadav 4-0-35-

3; R Sathish 1-0-9-0.

KOLKATA KNIGHT RIDERSR V Uthappa c Henriques b Sran 11

G Gambhir c (sub) b Cutting 28

C Munro (run out) 16

M K Pandey c Hooda b Kumar 36

Y K Pathan c Kumar b Henriques 2

S A Yadav c Dhawan b Henriques 23

R Sathish b Kumar 8

J O Holder c Cutting b Kumar 6

S P Narine (not out) 1

M Morkel (not out) 0

Extras (LB-9) 9

Total (for 8 wkts in 20 overs) 140Did not bat: Kuldeep Yadav.

Fall of wickets: 1-15, 2-53, 3-63, 4-69, 5-115,

6-125, 7-139, 8-140.

Bowling: B Kumar 4-0-19-3; B B Sran 3-0-

29-1; D J Hooda 1-0-8-0; Mustafizur Rahman

4-0-28-0; M C Henriques 3-0-17-2; B C J Cut-

ting 3-0-14-1; Bipul Sharma 2-0-16-0.

SCOREBOARD