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Volume 22 | Number 7233 | 2 RiyalsTuesday 25 July 2017 | 2 Dhul-Qa’Da 1438 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

3rd Best News Website in the Middle East

Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW), Kenneth Roth, questioned Saudi Arabia’s allegations against Qatar of ‘funding terrorism’ saying that the Saudi-led coalition in Yemen was behind the ‘death and starvation of Yemenis and the war has caused a huge humanitarian crisis’ in the country and led to the spread of cholera.

US magazine: Qatar being punished for independent foreign policy THE GULF CRISIS was never about terrorism, rather, it is about Qatar’s insistence on pursuing an independent foreign policy rather than following Saudi Arabia, according to the US magazine Wash-ington Examiner. The four blockade countries want Doha to agree to leave its foreign policy to them, the magazine said.

Under the title “US should stop coddling the Saudis on Qatar”, the Washington Examiner said that it now seems clear that the block-ade countries were aiming for regime change in Qatar and were prepared to use force to get it, but they couldn’t due to the imme-diate deployment of Turkish forces in the country.

→ See also page 3

Emir, Erdogan discuss Gulf crisisQNA & Agencies

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani discussed with the President of Turkey Recep

Tayyip Erdogan the regional and international develop-ments, especially the Gulf crisis and efforts exerted to resolve it through dialogue and diplomatic means.

The two sides praised the mediation efforts of the sis-terly State of Kuwait to resolve the crisis.

The talks held at the Emiri Diwan at noon yesterday also also discussed Qatar-Turkey joint efforts in the fight against terrorism and extrem-ism and international efforts to combat them in all their forms and sources of funding.

They also reviewed the strategic relations between the two countries and the prospects of enhancing them in various fields, in the inter-ests of the two countries to benefit the two brotherly peo-ples. In this regard, the two sides discussed areas of joint cooperation and ways of developing them in defence, military, economic, trade and investment fields.

→ Continued on page 2Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani receiving President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at Doha International Airport, yesterday.

UN Secretary-General welcomes Emir’s call for dialogue to end unjust blockade

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, at the Emiri Diwan, yesterday. The meeting was attended by the Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani. → See also page 2

Turkey is trying to organise direct talks between Qatar and the siege countries, says Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu. “The most appropriate way is to sit across the table for direct talks. This is the main challenge before us and I hope there will be an opportunity for this soon,” he said.

Turkey trying to organise direct talks

Irfan Bukhari The Peninsula

International human rights and media organisations yesterday unanimously condemned the

demand of shutting down Al Jazeera by the blockading coun-tries terming the call a clear violation of international declara-tions on freedom of expressions.

Dr Ali bin Samikh Al Marri, Chairman of National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) called on the international community to bear its moral and legal responsibility in face of the bla-tant violation that the Qatari people were being subjected to due to blockade imposed on their country. He was addressing the opening session of two-day con-ference titled “Freedom of expression: Facing up to the threat” being organized in Doha.

The conference is being organised in collaboration with the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the International Press Institute (IPI) and with sup-port from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU) and Human Rights Watch (HRW).

Meanwhile, addressing the opening session of the confer-ence, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch (HRW),

Italian foreign minister calls for opening of land border with QatarITALIAN MINISTER of Foreign Affairs Angelino Alfano has expressed hope that the land border between Qatar and Saudi Arabia would be opened as gesture of goodwill. In a statement released yesterday, Alfano called for honest dialogue between the parties of the blockade and Qatar based on respect for interna-tional law and respect for the sovereignty and dignity of each country, in order to ease tensions and to address the origins of the dispute as soon as possible in order to reach a long-term and sustainable solu-tion. The Minister praised the memorandum of understanding (MoU) signed between the United States and Qatar and the new legislation introduced by Qatar against terrorism and its financing. He pointed out that it represents positive steps confirming Qatar’s commitment as a member of the global coalition against ISIS.

UN’S MIDDLE EAST envoy has said a solution is needed by Fri-day to the al-Aqsa Mosque compound crisis in Jerusalem, which threatens to have “potential catastrophic costs well beyond the walls of the Old City”. “It is extremely important that a solution to the current crisis be found by Friday,” Nickolay Mladenov told reporters yesterday after briefing the UN Security Council behind closed doors. → See also page 7

Call to shut Al Jazeera a violation of media freedom

Kenneth Roth questioned Saudi Arabia’s allegations leveled against Qatar of “funding ter-rorism” saying that the

Saudi-led coalition in Yemen was the reason for the “death of and starvation of Yemenis and had caused a huge

humanitarian suffering” in the country and spread of cholera.

→ Continued on page 3

FROM LEFT: Giacomo Mezzone, Head of European Broadcasting Union; Mohammed Ali Alnsour, Chief of Middle East and North Africa office of the OHCHR; Dr Ali bin Samikh Al Marri, President of the NHRC Qatar; Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch; Younes M’Jahed, Senior Vice-President, International Federation of Journalists and John Yearwood, President of the International Press Institute during the International Conference on “Freedom of Expression: Facing up to the Threat”, at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel yesterday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

UN: Aqsa crisis must be resolved by Friday

02 TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017HOME

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu (right) and members of the accompanying delegation of President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.

The Peninsula

Many Qatari Twitter users have wel-comed Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s

visit to his second country Qatar. Twitteratis have praised

Erdogan’s stand with Qatar say-ing they will not forget the love and support of the Turkish people.

Qatar will not forget the Turkish support during the dif-ficult situation and the next generation will appreciate that and anyone who understands the political game will respect Erdogan, they said.

Ali Fakhro said, “Great lead-ers don’t set out to be a leader … they set out to make a difference.”

Noorah Hakami tweeted: “Welcome Turkish President

Recep Tayyip Erdogan to your second country.”

Another Twitterati said that “the blockade has taught us that we don’t need Arab brothers, we need brothers of Islam.”

Many other Qatari Twitter users said Qatar won’t forget Turkey’s support to Qatar spe-cially in the current situation when neighbouring Gulf coun-tries have closed their borders.

“When you see your real brother who stood by your side, when your blood brother turned

against you,” tweeted Sara.Turkey asked the siege coun-

tries to resolve the dispute though dialogue and respect Qatar’s sovereignty. The visit has special importance because it is the first visit of Erdogam after the blockade was imposed.

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani in his recent speech thanked Turkey for its immediate response to meet the needs of the Qatari market.

“I would like to commend the important role that Turkey has played in the rapid adoption and direct implementation of our Strategic Cooperation Agreement that had been previously signed, and to thank it for its immediate response to meet the needs of the Qatari market,” he said.

He also thanked all those who opened their airspace and territorial waters when others closed theirs.

Residents praise Erdogan’s gesture

Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan being seen off at the Hamad International Airport by Minister of State for Defence Affairs, H E Dr Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah; Qatar’s Ambassador to Turkey, Salem bin Mubarak Al Shafi; and Turkey’s Ambassador to Qatar, Fikret Ozer.

→ Continued from page 1Turkey’s Foreign Minister

Mevlut Cavusoglu, who was accompanying Erdogan, said that Turkey was trying to organise direct talks between the disput-ing sides.

“The most appropriate way is to sit together around the table and direct talks. This is the main obstacle in front of us and I hope there will be an opportunity for

such format soon,” Turkey’s For-eign Minister said.

The meeting was attended by the Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani and Ministers. On the Turkish side, it was attended by the members of the official delega-tion accompanying the President.

The Emir hosted a luncheon banquet at the Emiri Diwan in

honour of Erdogan and his accompanying delegation. The banquet was attended by the Deputy Emir and Ministers.

Meanwhile, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres welcomed yesterday the invitation of the Emir for dia-logue to resolve the GCC crisis.

Guterres encouraged all par-ties to enter a dialogue to lift the siege imposed on Qatar and seek

an acceptable solution for all parties regarding the crisis.

United Nations Secretary-General also praised the mediation efforts of Kuwait to lift the siege imposed on Qatar, expressing his hope that these efforts will continue.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Min-ister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani received yesterday a telephone call from

the Foreign Minister of the Rus-sian Federation Sergei Lavrov.

They discussed the latest developments of the GCC crisis and Kuwait’s mediation efforts to resolve the crisis.

The Foreign Minister stressed during the phone call the State of Qatar’s position that calls for dialogue on the principles of respecting international law and respecting the sovereignty.

QNA

Minister of State for Defence Affairs H E Dr Khalid bin

Mohammed Al Attiyah hosted a dinner banquet in honour of Commander of the US Cen-tral Command (Centcom), General Joseph Votel.

The two sides discussed bilateral ties in the military field and the means to e n h a n c e m i l i t a r y cooperation.

They also discussed joint counter-terrorism operations. The banquet was attended on the Qatari side by Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Major General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen Al Ghanem as well as com-manders of the land forces, air forces, navy, and Joint Special Forces.

The banquet was attended on the US side by the charge d’affaires of the embassy in Doha, Deputy Commander of the US Cen-tral Command, Commander United States Air Forces Cen-tral Command, Commander of the US Naval Forces Cen-tral Command, and commander of Naval Forces Central.

Twitteratis have praised Erdogan’s stand with Qatar saying they will not forget the love and support of the Turkish people.

Turkey trying to organise direct talks

Advisory Council Speaker gets message from Mexico QNA

Speaker of the Advisory (Shura) Council H E Mohammed bin Mubarak Al

Khulaifi has received a written message from the President of the Republic of Mexico Senate, Pablo Escudero, and Speaker of House of Representatives M Guadalupe .

The message pertains to the request to support the candida-ture of Gabriela Cuevas Barron, chair of the Mexican Senates Foreign Affairs Committee, to the post of President of the Inter-Parliamentary Union, as the

presidency of the next session will be for Latin America. The elections will take place in St. Petersburg, Russia from Octo-ber 14 to 18.

The message was delivered by the Ambassador of the Repub-lic of Mexico to Qatar Francisco Niembro, during a meeting with the Speaker.

The meeting also reviewed relations between the two coun-tries and ways of boosting and developing them in the legisla-tive aspects. The meeting was attended by the Secretary-Gen-eral of the Shura Council, Fahd bin Mubarak Al Khayarin.

Speaker of the Advisory Council, H E Mohammed bin Mubarak Al Khulaifi, and Secretary-General of the Shura Council, Fahd bin Mubarak Al Khayarin, with Ambassador of the Republic of Mexico to Qatar Francisco Niembro, during a meeting in Doha yesterday.

Al Attiyah meets Commander of Centcom

03TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017 HOME

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani met Chief Executive Officer of Airbus, Fabrice Bregier, at his office in the Emiri Diwan, yesterday. The meeting reviewed a number of topics of mutual interest , especially areas of joint cooperation and means of developing them.

Emir meets Airbus CEO

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani met Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, Kenneth Roth, and the accompanying delegation, yesterday on the occasion of their visit to Qatar to participate in the International Conference on “Freedom of Expression: Towards Confronting Risk,” being held in Doha. They discussed the latest developments in the region, especially the Gulf crisis and the consequent violation of international conventions and human rights.

Prime Minister meets Human Rights Watch official

QNA

Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani approved yesterday the Cabinet Decision No. 30 of 2017 on set-

ting up the Committee for Policies of Financing the State’s Projects. The decision is effec-tive from the date of its issuance and is to published in the Offi-cial Gazette.

The Emir also ratified Cab-inet Decision No. 31 of 2017, amending some provisions of Decision No. 33 of 2010 on forming the national commit-tee for traffic safety.

The Emir ratified Cabinet Decision No. 32 of 2017 on the expropriation of some real estate for public interest.

The Emir also issued instru-ment of ratification approving a memorandum of understand-ing (MoU) for cooperation in the

cultural field between the Gov-ernments of Qatar and Turkey signed in Trabzon city on December 18, 2016.

The Emir issued also an instrument of ratification approving a draft agreement for cooperation in the cultural field between the Governments of Qatar and the Polish Republic signed in Warsaw on May 5, 2017.

The Emir also issued of an instrument of ratification approving a draft agreement for joint cooperation in the field of medical sciences and healthcare between the Governments of Qatar and Poland signed in Warsaw on May 5, 2017.

The Emir issued an instru-ment of ratification approving and ratifying a cooperation agreement in the fields of stand-ardisat ion, metrology, certification and accreditation between the Government of

Qatar and the Government of Turkmenistan signed in Doha on March 15, 2017.

The Emir also issued an instrument of ratification approving the ratifying a mem-orandum of understanding between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar and the Minis-try of Foreign Affairs of Serbia on the establishment of politi-cal consultations on issues of mutual interest, signed in Bel-grade on January 30, 2017.

The Emir issued decree No. 56 of 2017 on ratifying a MoU for cooperation in the protec-tion of endangered species and the preservation of their natu-ral environment between the Government of Qatar and Azerbaijan, signed in Doha on February 27, 2017, the text of which is attached to this decree which shall have the force of law in accordance with Article 68 of the Constitution.

Emir gives nod for Cabinet decisions

Washington

QNA

The Gulf crisis was never about terrorism, rather, it is about Qatar’s insistence

on pursuing an independent for-eign policy rather than following Saudi Arabia, according to the Washington Examiner magazine.

The four blockade countries want Doha to agree to leave its foreign policy to them, the US magazine said.

Under the title “US should stop coddling the Saudis on Qatar”, the Washington Exam-iner said that it now seems clear that the blockade countries were aiming for regime change in the State of Qatar and were pre-pared to use force to get it, but they couldn’t due to the imme-diate deployment of Turkish forces in the country.

If the four blockade coun-tries were hoping that economic sanctions alone would turn Qataris against their govern-ment, they will have been sorely

disappointed because blockade almost always shore up support for the existing regime, the US magazine said.

“The blockade could become semi-permanent. Qatar can easily withstand an eco-nomic siege and, as long as Turkish troops remain, it need not fear a land invasion,” it said.

The magazine pointed out that it is hard to see how the quartet can back down, espe-cially as “governments that look like losers become vulnerable domestically.”

The Washington Examiner stressed that the United States cannot afford a long-term divi-sion among its GCC allies which

are geographically close to Iran, so it needs to de-escalate the sit-uation because no one else, except the US, has the authority to try to solve the division in the Gulf. “More can be done to con-trol money laundering and coordinate anti-terrorism across the region. But any solution must respect media freedom and national sovereignty,” the magazine added.

Meanwhile, the US maga-zine said that seven weeks from the beginning of the crisis, Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain and Egypt did not produce any evidence that Qatar supports terrorist organisations, emphasising the fact that supporting terrorists by some individuals does not mean that the state supports terror-ism. Qatari security agencies work with Western allies to monitor violent groups, the Washington Examiner said, adding that some extremist groups, such as the Taliban, opened representative offices in Doha at the request of US and UK intelligence.

US magazine: Qatar can easily withstand economic blockade

The four blockade countries want Doha to agree to leave its foreign policy to them, says US magazine Washington Examiner.

Siege countries disrupt family reunification→ Continued from page 1“We don’t talk about govern-

ment terrorism such as the Saudi-led coalition that is kill-ing people in Yemen,” Kenneth Roth said, adding: “I am not aware of Qatar financing terror-ist groups, but I am aware of the long-term Saudi promotion of an extreme version of Islam that is often adopted by terrorist groups.”

Dr Al Marri said that it was unacceptable to impose mass sanctions against civilians or journalists on basis of political differences. “Conditioning the lifting of the siege to the closure of media outlets, including Al Jazeera and some TV channels, is aggression on all values and principles and human rights agreements.”

He noted that the participa-tion of more than 200 international rights groups, press syndicates, think-tanks and uni-versities was a clear evidence of the support for Qatar against any demands or calls to restrict free-dom of opinion and expression and the harassment and target-ing of journalists.

Dr Al Marri further noted that the siege countries had manipulated the lives of thou-sands of people, disrupted family reunification, deprived children of their parents, undermined the social fabric of Gulf communi-ties, damaged the income sources of many employees and workers, and destroyed the

future of students by expelling them from universities and dis-rupted their education.

“The siege countries also punished their citizens for expressing their views on the siege in a peaceful manner, or simply by showing sympathy with the Qatari people,” Dr Al Marri said. He said the siege countries had prevented Qatari citizens and residents of Qatar from performing rituals in Mecca.

In his address, Mohammed Ali Alnsour, Chief of Middle East and North Africa at the OHCHR, said that after seven decades after the Universal Declaration of Human Rights several

countries were far from imple-menting those principles.

He said that freedom of expression was one of the com-prehensive rights and consisted of many elements such as the freedom of press and freedom of access to information.

John Yearwood, President of the International Press Institute (IPI), condemned calls to shut down Al Jazeera. “Journalists’ rights are human rights and vice versa. The demand by the Gulf countries to shut down Al Jazeera is an example of the challenges journalists are facing in the region,” he added.

“We must continue to speak truth to power even when it’s

inconvenient. We can all learn from how Al Jazeera stood up to the Saudi-led coalition,” said Yearwood.

Younes M’Jahed, Senior Vice-Presi-dent of International Federation of Jour-nalists, said that IFJ’s participation in the conference was its duty to express soli-d a r i t y w i t h journalists facing harassment. M’Jahed stressed that the Arab world was in dire need of free and democratic media.

Giacomo Maz-zone, Head of European Broadcast-ing Union (EBU) said

that the provision of high-qual-ity, independent news was at the top of EBU priorities. Mazzone added that any call to shut down any media house was unacceptable.

Kenneth Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch, said that freedom of expression was at the core of the crisis being faced by Qatar. “The crisis is an opportunity for Qatar to to lead the region in human rights,” he added.

“The current crisis is all about freedom of expression and freedom of media. Al Jazeera has become a voice for the margin-alized everywhere,” he added.

Dr Ali bin Sumaikh Al Marri, President of the NHRC Qatar, writing his commends during the International Conference on Freedom of Expression Facing Up to the Threat, yesterday.

Qatar affirms support for development goalsQNA

The State of Qatar has affirmed its contribution to supporting the achieve-

ment of the goals of the sustainable development agenda 2030 at the regional and inter-national levels, as well as providing support to poor coun-tries to combat poverty and destitution.

This came during the partic-ipation of a delegation from the Ministry of Development Plan-ning and Statistics in a special session organised in cooperation with the High Commissioner for Planning in Morocco on the Doha Declaration issued during the Arab Forum on building statisti-cal capacity hosted by the State of Qatar last October. The rec-ommendations of the Doha Declaration were translated into a work program that deals with the modernisation of the entire statistical system with a view to supporting the national devel-opment strategy 2017-2022 and the sustainable development agenda 2030 adopted by the State of Qatar.

The special session was held in the context of the 61st session of the International Conference of Statistics held recently in the Moroccan city of Marrakesh and witnessed the presence of nearly two thousand participants and

experts in this field from about 120 countries. During the session participants mentioned the importance of providing secto-rial, national and international indicators to monitor the devel-opment of the State in national a n d i n t e r n a t i o n a l development.

During the Conference, the delegation held an extended meeting with the High Commis-sioner for Planning in Morocco, Ahmed Al Halimi, in which he discussed the development of a practical partnership in planning and statistics between the Min-istry of Development Planning and Statistics and the High Com-missioner for Planning in Morocco.

Participants in this session, representing various statistical agencies, statisticians, universi-ties and research centers, as well as regional and international institutions, the private sector and civil society, discussed sev-eral papers on most aspects of the statistical process.

During the six days of the Conference, participants also dis-cussed sustainable development agenda 2030 and its indicators, and how to plan for such indica-tors before 2030, to monitor the progress that countries will make towards achieving the goals and targets adopted by world lead-ers in September 2015.

04 TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017HOME

The Peninsula

Qatar University (QU) has been ranked #37 in the “QS Top 50 Under 50” 2018 rank-ing among the world’s

leading young universities founded less than 50 years ago. The announcement was recently made on the QS website, nam-ing QU 37th among the top young universities in the world, and the first in the Arab world and the Middle East region.

In the 2018 edition, QU improved by 12 places as it was ranked #49 in the “QS Top 50 Under 50” 2016-2017. This improvement is the highest among all the top 50 universi-ties, making QU the “Fastest Rising Young University”.

For the first time, the “QS Top 50 Under 50” ranking includes the “Top 50 Under 50” and the “Next 100 Under 50” —enumerating, in total, the world’s 150 leading institutions founded after 1967. This year’s ranking includes universities from 25 different countries.

First published in 2012, the “QS Top 50 Under 50” cele-brates the world’s leading young universities. It is published annually, based on the latest edition of the QS World Univer-sity Rankings®, and since 2015 has doubled its range to include the “Next 50 Under 50”. The QS World University Rankings assesses universities’ perform-ance across six indicators: academic reputation (40%), employer reputation (10%), research citations per faculty member (20%), faculty/student ratio (20%), proportion of inter-national students (5%), and proportion of international fac-ulty members (5%).

For inclusion in the “Top 50 Under 50”, universities must be under 50 years old. This is assessed based on each institu-tion’s date of establishment. Institutions formed within the last 50 years through a merger, or which previously existed under a different name and/or status, may also be included. Established in 1977,QU is 40 years old.

Commenting on this achievement, QU President Dr Hassan Al Derham, said: “Since its inception in 1977, Qatar Uni-versity continues to serve as Qatar’s primary institution of higher education and as the fast-est-growing university for research in the region. This sig-nificant success highlights the reputation that Qatar University has built over the years and the University’s ongoing efforts to advance its positioning in the international arena among the top universities in the world. The “QS Top 50 Under 50” 2018 ranking shows an improvement of the University’s last year per-formance as it was ranked #49 in 2016-2017. It is also an indi-cation of the University’s vision to be at the forefront of the lead-ing institutions through the quality of academic programs and faculty expertise, the com-petencies of graduates, and the services it provides to the com-munity, as well as the solid partnerships it has built with l e a d i n g i n t e r n a t i o n a l institutions.”

QU first in Arab world in young varsities ranking

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi, met Ambassador of the Republic of France to the State of Qatar, Eric Chevallier. Talks dealt with bilateral relations and ways of supporting and developing them, in addition to issues of common concern.

Al Muraikhi meets French Ambassador

The Minister of State for Defence, H E Dr Khalid bin Mohammed Al Attiyah, met Defence Minister of Turkey Nurettin Canikli, yesterday. They discussed issues of joint interest between the two brotherly countries and means of enhancing them, especially in the military fields. The meeting was attended by the Chief of Staff of the Qatari Armed Forces Major General (Pilot) Ghanem bin Shaheen Al Ghanem , and Chief of Staff of the Turkish Armed Forces General Hulusi Akar.

Al Attiyah meets Turkish Defence Minister

The Peninsula

Ooredoo has received an award of appre-ciation from Best

Buddies Qatar for its ongo-ing support for the initiative. The award was presented to Ooredoo’s Director of PR and Corpo-rate Communications, Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, by Mohammed Abdulrah-man Al Sayed, Best Buddies Qatar Manager of Rehabil-itation and Integration Department, at Ooredoo’s HQ1.

Ooredoo had signed a three-year agreement ear-lier this year to provide financial support to the organisation, as well as support through a host of

its state-of-the-art serv-ices, including developing an app for Best Buddies Qatar.

Speaking about the award, Al-Muraikhi said: “Supporting the Best Bud-dies initiative is something that I am extremely proud of, as we are helping an amazing organisation offer lifelines to people in need. I am truly humbled to receive this award on behalf of Ooredoo and look forward to seeing the great success Ooredoo and Best Buddies will achieve for people with intellectual and developmental disabil-ities in Qatar.”

Established in 2008 as a special project of H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser

and under umbrella of Qatar Foundation for Social Work, Best Buddies Qatar is a governmental non-profitable organisation, which aims to enhance life of people with and without intellectual and develop-mental disabilities through social integration and one-to-one long lasting meaningful friendships.

In addition to partner-ing with Best Buddies Qatar, Ooredoo has under-taken several other CSR-based initiatives across Qatar, including building and operating the Fahad Bin Jassim Kidney Centre, which supports kidney patients in Qatar, and the new Ooredoo Can-cer Awareness Centre.

Ooredoo gets Best Buddies Qatar award

The Peninsula

Hepatitis is a disease which encompasses inflamma-tion of the liver. There are

five main Hepatitis viruses (A, B, C, D, and E), and they differ in their severity and how they are spread but are all still a variation of the liver disease. Studies pub-lished on HBKU Press’s online, open-access platform, QScience.com, illustrate Hepatitis in rele-vance to Qatar.

Dr Alwaleed Alkhaja, Senior Editor at HBKU Press, says: “QScience.com’s new collection feature provides a compilation of articles on a particular subject matter so any viewer can have easy access to specific informa-tion. In this case, studies relating to Hepatitis’ prevalence in rela-tion to the Arab region have been

gathered. Hepatitis outbreaks occur mostly in developing regions where sanitation is low and whose populations have low socioeconomic statuses, and it is crucial to be aware of its pres-ence to prevent its spread.”

An article titled “Is it the time for Hepatitis E virus (HEV) Test-ing for Blood Donors in Qatar?” published from Qatar Founda-tion Annual Research Conference Proceedings (2016), Gheyath Nasrallah and Laila Hedaya et. al. (from Qatar University) spec-ulate on HEV’s transmission in Qatar via blood transfusion.

The researchers hypothe-sized that HEV’s prevalence in Qatar is elevated, and therefore, there is a risk of HEV transfu-sion transmitted infections in Qatar’s blood bank. The chief aim of this study was to

investigate the prevalence of HEV among healthy blood donors in Qatar, and research-ers examined this by testing a total of 4056 blood samples from blood donors at Hamad Medical Corporation.

The results showed that out of all the samples, almost one quarter of blood donors (20.45%) tested positive for HEV antibod-ies, meaning that the respective individuals have been exposed to HEV, but have not necessar-ily been infected by it. This suggests the possibility of HEV transmission by blood transfu-sion. Moreover, researchers concluded that blood banks in Qatar should consider screen-ing for HEV, especially when transfusion involves pregnant women or patients with weak immune systems.

HBKU Press highlights Hepatitis causes

Director-General of Public Security, H E Major General Saad bin Jassim Al Khulaifi, met separately with Austria’s Ambassador to Qatar, Willy Kempel, and Charge d’Affaires at the United States Embassy in Doha William Grant. The meetings reviewed cooperation aspects on topics of common interests.

Director-General of Public Security meets envoys

Ooredoo’s Director of PR and Corporate Communications, Manar Khalifa Al Muraikhi, receiving the award from Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Sayed, Best Buddies Qatar Manager of Rehabilitation and Integration Department, at Ooredoo’s headquarters, yesterday.

Ahmad Bin Jassim Road intersection to be closedThe Peninsula

The Public Works Authority ‘Ashghal’ announces that it will close part of Ahmad Bin Jassim Road (behind LuLu Hypermar-

ket -Al Khor) at its intersection with Al Qirma Street and divert the traffic. The diversion will start on July 27 for a period of 90 days.

This traffic diversion is required to enable the

works of laying sewer rising mains as part of design, build, operate and maintain of Al Thakhira Sewage Treatment Works, Transfer Pumping Sta-tion and Associated Pipelines. Ashghal requests that all road users abide by the speed limit and follow diversion road signs to ensure their safety. With the camping season now underway, Ash-ghal also reminds road users to exercise special care while driving to their campsites.

05TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017 HOME

QNA

The Qatari Red Crescent has allocated US $400,000 to support the medical sec-

tor in Al Quds Al Sharif, including US $250,000 to pro-vide emergency support to the Palestinian Red Crescent and emergency services for the Makassed Hospital in Jerusalem in order to provide medicines and medical consumables to meet the needs of the emer-gency department and

surgeries.This comes in light of the

escalation of events and the deterioration of the humanitar-ian situation in the holy city and the intensification of confron-tations between the residents of the city and the Israeli occupa-tion forces, in an alarming manner.

The Qatari Red Crescent said in a statement that it is follow-ing with deep concern the repercussions of this crisis and the difficult humanitarian

situation in Jerusalem and the occupied Palestinian territories. It said that since the outbreak of these unfortunate events, it began to communicate with the Palestinian Red Crescent Soci-ety and the Makassed Islamic Charitable Society Hospital in Jerusalem with a view to pre-paring a quick assessment of needs, in order to provide the necessary assistance as soon as possible to support the ability of these institutions to respond to the consequences of the crisis.

Red Crescent supports medical sector in Al Quds

The Peninsula

The Home Healthcare Serv-ice (HHCS) at Hamad Medical Corporation

(HMC) aims to expand the reach of its services to ensure those in need have quick and easy access to high-quality care at home.

“HHCS is a valuable service within HMC’s Continuing Care Group that strives to meet the standards and objectives set out in the National Continuing Care Strategy,” said Mahmoud Al Raisi, HMC’s Chief of the Con-tinuing Care Group.

“Providing home care adult and pediatric services is an important element of fulfilling HMC’s vision of delivering the safest, most effective and most compassionate care to each and every one of our patients,” he said.

HHCS, which is based in Hamad Bin Khalifa Medical City, has satellite locations in Al Khor and Al Wakra, helping to serve the public in both communities and the surrounding areas. Plans are also ongoing to open another satellite office to provide serv-ices to those living in the Muaither and Al Rayyan areas.

“HHCS provides home care to Qatar residents of all ages, Qataris and expatriates, who are temporarily or permanently housebound. We support patients’ timely discharge from HMC hospitals and provide clin-ical care and medical supervision to ultimately reduce the need for visits to the Emer-gency Department or for hospital admission,” said Dr. Essa Al Sulaiti, HHCS Medical Director.

He added that the service has seen tremendous develop-ments since its official launch in 2009, noting that it continues to provide services in accordance with the highest international standards. “The Service achieved Joint Commission International accreditation in 2009 and again in 2012 and 2015, and we continue to embark on new programs to deliver more improvements and clinical interventions to patient care services,” added Dr. Al Sulaiti.

According to Maqsood Ibra-him Adam, Assistant Executive Director for the Continuing Care Group, the satellite offices pro-vide a local base for patients and

families. “This is part of our stra-tegic healthcare practice which aims to bring the service closer to our patients and the commu-nities they live in, especially in densely populated areas,” he said.

HHCS is made up of a multi-disciplinary team, with skilled nursing professionals supported by specially trained physicians and allied health professionals providing care.

Dr. Armaghan Butt, Senior Consultant with the Home Healthcare Service added: “Dur-ing home visits, doctors conduct physician assessments, provid-ing medicine reconciliation and prescriptions, requesting refer-rals for diagnostics and providing intervention for dete-riorating patients.”

HHCS provides daily home care to about 1,400 patients across Qatar in two shifts from Sunday to Thursday, between 7am and 8pm. Weekend cover for intravenous care and wound dressings is also provided by the service, as well as 24 hour on-call cover for patients requiring mechanical ventilator support and support for critical medical equipment breakdowns.

HMC’s Home Healthcare Service to expand

Irfan Bukhari The Peninsula

Mohammed Ali Alnsour, Chief of Middle East and North Africa, Office of the High

Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR) has said that the demand for the closure of Al Jazeera was a clear violation of international declarations on human rights.

“Demanding the closure of any media outlet by three Gulf countries was the clear viola-tion of Article 19 and Article 20 of Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Violating the uni-versal laws mean you are undermining your own commit-ment made with the world nations,” he said while talking to The Peninsula on the sidelines of NHRC conference on freedom of expression.

He said that OHCHR office had issued two statements opposing the demand of shut-ting down Al Jazeera. “We have indicated in our statements that it would establish a precedent where various parties or states, on political background and dis-agreements, will start demanding closing down of media outlets,” he added.

Alnsour said that the demand was clear violation of right of freedom of expression. “ O n e c a n a g r e e

with the message or can have a disagreement with the content of the message but one cannot kill the messenger,” he said, adding that the content of the message could be debated or discussed but the messenger could not be killed.

He said that OHCHR had communicated its concerns over the demand to the Gulf coun-tries also apprising them about its legal implications. To a ques-tion that now the UAE had withdrawn its demand of shut-ting down Al Jazeera and replaced it with restructuring of the media house, he said that he was unaware of its details but he said that one thing was clear that the right of freedom of expression could not be touched in any case.

“If any country will present such demands, it will undermine its own media houses in the long run,” he said. Alnsour said that the matter of media outlets’ objectivity and credibility should be solely left on the audience - citizens. “If people think that the content of any media outlet is not objective, they have the right and power to change the chan-nel on their screens,” he noted.

He said that freedom and democratic space could not be encroached in any condition. When asked about the hardships being faced by journalists due to blockade imposed on Qatar, he said: “The harassment of

journalists is an unfortunate trend in the region. UN forum has discussed this issue and we are taking steps in this regard.”

Alnsour said that the reac-tion from international community was the security shield in cases of violation of human right of freedom of expression. “The participation of all international organizations in this conference is a sign that all are united against curbs on media freedom and defend human rights,” he said, adding that the world community would always stay one voiced to defend right of freedom of expression.

OHCHR chief: Freedom of expression not to be hurt

Mohammed Ali Alnsour, Chief of Middle East and North Africa, Office of the High Commissioner of Human Rights (OHCHR). Pic; Baher Amin / The Peninsula

The Peninsula

The National Breast and Bowel Screening Pro-gram ‘Screen for Life’ has

screened around 16,000 peo-ple since its launch in December 2015. While, the Pri-mary Health Care Corporation (PHCC), in its ongoing efforts to promote the crucial work of the program is reminding peo-ple to take the initiative with their health by undergoing screening for breast or bowel cancer.

It has also highlighted the benefits of the early detection of cancer through screening and reminding people of the tests’ simple and fast process which can be performed in ultimate privacy.

Appointments can be made at the three specialized screen-ing facilities located at Al Wakra Health Center, Lebaib

Health Center and Rawdat Al Khail Health Center, which have been carefully designed and include spa-like features to put patients at ease during a screening appointment, with highly-trained staff on hand to take care of patient needs.

“We have made great strides in our ongoing effort to spread the message about ‘Screen For Life’ and to raise cancer awareness levels across Qatar,” said Dr Shaikha Abu Shaikha, Cancer Program Man-ager, PHCC.

“People can also play their part in helping us spread that message even further. We encourage eligible people where possible to take the ini-tiative and get themselves booked in for a free screening appointment. It’s a quick and easy process and our team is highly skilled and ready to advise and assist as together

we continue to fight cancer.” During Summer period,

Breast cancer screening appointments can be made at Leabaib from 10 am to 6.30pm, with bowel screening at the facility available from 7am to 2pm and from 3pm to 10pm; breast screening appointments at Al Wakra are available from 7am to 3.30pm, bowel cancer screening can be booked between 7am and 2pm and from 3pm to 10pm and the same timings for screening appointments are in place at Rawdat Al Khail.

Members of the public can also book an appointment through the dedicated ‘Screen for Life’ call center, by calling 800 1112, with trained profes-sionals ready to answer any enquires about the screening process and cancer-related questions, informed officials concerned.

16,000 tested over ‘Screen for Life’

A view of the warning boards, placed by the Private Engineering Office, prohibiting parking and maintenance of any type of boats at the Dhow Harbour. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Warning boards

06 TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017HOME

The Peninsula

Continuing its commitment to a better world through design, Lexus Interna-

tional yesterday announced its call for entries for the Lexus Design Award 2018. Launched in 2013, the award is an interna-tional platform to identify and recognise the next generation of global creators and designers.

Every year, thousands of young creative talents from around the world aspire to be selected for the final round. Those twelve finalists and their works will be introduced to the design community and beyond at Milan Design Week 2018; four of the finalists will be mentored by established global designers and given a production budget of JPY 3 million (equivalent to AED 98,000?) to create actual prototypes.

This year’s creative theme for the Lexus Design Award 2018

is ‘CO-,’ a Latin prefix meaning ‘with or together in harmony.’ Lexus believes that great design can ensure the harmonious coexistence of nature and soci-ety. According to Takayuki Yoshitsugu, Chief Representa-tive, Middle East and North Africa Representative Office, Toyota Motor Corporation, “The Lexus Design Award 2018 con-tinues the Lexus brand’s commitment to supporting the next generation of designers to build a better future for all through design. It reflects the passion for design that drives Lexus forward as a brand while extending our values and design ethos to a wider global audience. This year’s theme, ‘CO-,’ sym-bolizes Lexus’ belief in the power of design, and provides appli-cants with an inspiring topic around which to present their creative ideas that help make the world a better place. We greatly appreciate the support we have

received over the years from our customers and design enthusi-asts around the world for the Lexus Design Award.”

The judges and mentors for the Lexus Design Award 2018 will be announced in August 2017. As in previous years, Lexus will be partnering with a select group of renowned profession-als who embody design excellence at the front lines of creativity around the world and who share the brand’s belief that great design can make the world a better place. During Milan Design Week, all the finalists’

works will be displayed at the Lexus experiential space. Judges will then assess the four proto-types to choose the Grand Prix winner for 2018. Previous win-ners have gone on to enjoy success and further develop their ideas into viable products.

Entries to the Lexus Design Award 2018 competition will be accepted from July 24 through October 8, 2017. For more infor-mation on the application process, please visit LexusDes-ignAward.com. The twelve finalists will be announced in early 2018.

Lexus Design Award 2018 open for entries

The Peninsula

Landmark Group, the pio-neering retail and hospitality company

behind some of the region’s most loved brands and commu-nity initiatives, unveiled a first-of-its-kind ‘Happiness Movement’ impacting over 40,000 employees across all GCC countries, aiming to become the region’s happiest workplace.

Capturing the pride, posi-tivity and sense of purpose that Landmark Group’s enthused employees bring to work every day, the Landmark Happiness Movement aims to reinforce the

values such as passion, speed and simplicity, innovation, ownership and entrepreneur-ship, that form the core foundation of the Group’s phi-losophy of creating exceptional value.

The campaign has a mem-orable visual identity and an inspiring anthem, which have been welcomed by employees across the Group’s warehouses, stores and offices. It reflects the Group’s culture of openness, agility and adaptability, which has been integral to its success in the region.

Nisha Jagtiani, Executive Director and Chief Happiness Officer said, “The retail

business is changing very fast, whether it is from online to brick and mortar, or an evolu-tion to the retail shopping experience or expectations of the customers. In this dynamic, fast changing retail environ-ment, we strongly believe that the value system that Landmark Group was built on - of inno-vation, entrepreneurship, ownership and passion, are the values that would help us suc-ceed. Through the Landmark Happiness Movement, we aim to bring a positive change by empowering our people, and instilling the values of owner-ship, pride and belongingness within them.”

Landmark Group to become region’s happiest workplace

The Peninsula

The World Innovation Summit for Education ( W I S E ) h a s announced a new partnership with the

Observer Research Foundation (ORF), which hosts the Raisina Dialogue, India’s premier con-ference on geopolitics and geo-economics.

The partnership will be launched in November at the 2017 WISE Summit with the participation of a high-level Indian delegation. WISE will, in turn, join the annual Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi in Janu-ary 2018.

The new partnership fol-lows the participation of a WISE delegation at the Raisina Dia-logue and the Asian Forum on Global Governance (AFGG) in New Delhi earlier this year. This provided an opportunity for WISE to highlight education

issues and bring forward the key importance of education to the global forum. ORF, which organizes the Raisina Dialogue, is a premier non-partisan Indian policy research think-tank with a mission to influence public policy formulation.

WISE CEO Stavros N. Yian-nouka, said, “The WISE partnership with the Raisina Dialogue presents an exciting new opportunity to strengthen engagement between two lead-ing think-tanks in India and Qatar. Our objective is to lever-age our two dynamic forums to engage a wider participation of stakeholders in the crucial issues of education in the glo-bal agenda for empowerment and economic and social progress. We are delighted to welcome our Indian colleagues to WISE in November, and look forward to joining them again at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi early next year.”

Welcoming the partnership, S u n j o y J o s h i , O R F ’ s Director,said, “ORF is delighted to announce this partnership with WISE. I am confident that this collaboration will catalyse the formation of new actiona-ble ideas, so essential to our quest of creating a world that is both socially and economically more equitable. We look for-ward to hosting our colleagues from WISE in New Delhi in the coming months.”

A senior representative of ORF will moderate a session at WISE 2017, and will have the opportunity to meet and engage with new partners in Qatar.

The 2017 WISE Summit, an initiative of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Development (QF), will take place in Doha between November 14 and November 16 under the theme: Co-exist, Co-create: Learning to Live and Work Together.

WISE announces new partnership with ORF

The Peninsula

To mark the international observance of Mandela Day, leading South African

chemicals and energy company Sasol and Prof. Shirish Soni, Ambassador of South Africa to Qatar visited the Dreama Orphans Care Center and gifted The Health Park board game to the children of Dreama on the occasion of Mandela Day, shar-ing the spirit of Nelson Mandela by giving back to society through simple and meaningful actions.

Based on the desire to achieve social and human development in the country, H H Sheikha Mozah bint Nasser

established the Orphans Care Center during the year 2002. Its objective is to provide essential care to children of deceased and unidentified parents, and chil-dren who have been temporarily or permanently deprived of a normal family environment.

During the visit, the Ambas-sador and Phinda Vilakazi, President of GTL Ventures at Sasol talked about Nelson Man-dela and his legacy and vision. The Executive Director, Mariam Al Misnad, presented a detailed explanation of Dreama Orphans Care Center followed by a tour introducing the facilities and amenities of the center.

Maryam bint Ali bin Naser

Al Misnad, Executive Director of Dreama said, “Educating our kids on the value of giving back and integrating them in to soci-ety is one of the important objectives for Dreama.

We believe that children have the power to create a pos-itive impact in the community, and by learning from the shin-ing example of leaders like Mandela, our leaders of tomor-row will truly shine in their actions.

We thank Sasol’s contribu-tion towards our children, and Prof. Shirish Soni for the visit, and we hope that Mandela’s leg-acy will always be reflected around the world.

Mandela Day observed

The Peninsula

Qatar Foundation for Social Work (QFSW) has invited all citizens and residents

to participate in the largest national solidity event, today at 6:30pm at Al Sadd Sports Club.

QFSW is organising a

national event to form the larg-est ever ‘human mural’, on the initiative of ‘The Qatari Voice’ in collaboration with the Qatar Cultural and Heritage Events Center. The event will be attended by a number of insti-tutions in the country,which includes Qatar Players

Association, Qatar Football Association, Supreme Commit-tee for Delivery & Legacy 2022, Al Kass Sports Channel and Qatar Stars League, in addition to a huge group of youth writ-ers, filmmakers, social media activists, poets, Qatari athletes, artists chief executives.

QFSW holds national event

The representatives of Sasol with the officials from the Embassy of South Africa to Qatar during Mandela Day celebrations.

The Peninsula

The Public Works Author-ity, ‘Ashghal’, will implement a traffic diver-

sion on AL Shefallahiya Interchange on Al Shamal Road to complete the junction upgrade as part of North Road Corridor Enhancement project.

To facilitate the reconstruc-tion, AL Shefallahiya Interchange, located between the southern Umm Garn Inter-change and northern Al Khor Interchange, will be closed for 39 days starting from Wednesday, 26 July 2017 until Saturday, 2 September 2017.

During the d e t o u r planned in

coordination with the General Directorate of Traffic, motor-ists can use the neighbouring Umm Garn and Al Khor inter-changes in place of AL Shefallahiya Interchange. The area residents around may use the temporary approaches as well, as shown on the map, to access and exit Al Shamal Road.

For their safety, Ashghal requests motorists abide by traffic instructions and the newly installed signage.

AL Shefallahiya Interchange on Al Shamal Road closed

QNA

Supreme Committee for Delivery & Legacy (SC) sponsors the summer

camp for the teams organised by Qatar Foundation for the first time for the pre-univer-sity education stage, which started on July 2nd and contin-ues until next Thursday. The camp includes courses designed by the “Generation Amazing Program” of the Higher Committee for Projects, especial ly for camp participants.

The camp was organized in partnership with a number of local organizations, including Al Shaqab Foundation, Mush-eireb Real Estate, Hamad Bin Khalifa University, Translation and Interpreting Institute, Weill Cornell Medicine, Texas A&M

University and the Doha Film Institute. Invitations to attend and participate were also sent to school students from all over the country, including the nine schools of the Qatar Founda-tion, under the banner of pre-university education.

SC’s Corporate Social Responsibility Local & Regional Manager Mead Al Emadi said that they are presenting the program to 120 child, and through this classes they con-tribute in enhancing communication, teamwork and leadership by working with two different groups of students.

Maha Al Salem, one of the camp participants, said that she likes to see girls playing foot-ball. She added that the sport was not limited to boys and it was fun to participate, no mat-ter who wins or loses.

SC sponsors QF summer camp

QNA

Qatar Central Securities Depository (QCSD) announced that it had

amended the foreign owner-ship percentage in the shares of Vodafone Qatar to become 49% of the company’s capi-tal, as of Tuesday, July 25, 2017. Vodafone Qatar is a Qatari shareholding company listed on the Qatar Exchange. It is a member of Vodafone Group, the second licensee of public mobile networks and services and the second license of fixed line networks and services in the State of Qatar. Vodafone Qatar launched its commercial operations on March 1, 2009.

Foreign ownership in Vodafone Qatar amended to 49%

07TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017 MIDDLE EAST

Jerusalem

Agencies

Turkey said yesterday that Israel was violat-ing human rights at Al Aqsa mosque in Jeru-salem and called on

global powers to take a unified stance in response.

Israel said on Sunday it would not remove metal detec-tors whose installation outside Al Aqsa has triggered the blood-iest clashes with the Palestinians in years. However it said it could eventually reduce their use.

“Israel’s attitude over Al Aqsa is wrong, unlawful and unac-ceptable,” Deputy Prime Minister and government spokesman Bekir Bozdag said after a cabi-net meeting.

“Israel’s actions there violate both human rights and the free-dom of religion and faith,” he said. “We call on the interna-tional community to take a unified stance against Israel.”

A top aide to US President Donald Trump visited Israel yes-terday in a bid to ease tensions

over new security measures at a highly sensitive Jerusalem holy site after a weekend of deadly violence.

Jason Greenblatt’s visit comes after more than a week of tensions over the Haram al-Sharif mosque compound,

known to Jews as the Temple Mount and central to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Israel installed metal detec-tors at entrances to the site, which includes Al Aqsa mosque and the Dome of the Rock, fol-lowing an attack on July 14 that killed two policemen.

Palestinians view the move as Israel asserting further con-trol over the site. They have refused to enter the compound in protest and have prayed in the streets outside.

Israeli authorities say the metal detectors are needed because the July 14 attackers smuggled guns into the site and emerged from it to shoot the officers. Clashes have broken out during protests over the meas-ures, leaving five Palestinians dead. Three Israelis were also killed when attackers snuck into a house in a West Bank settle-ment and stabbed them.

An incident on Sunday night in Amman that, according to Israeli officials, saw a Jordanian attack an Israeli security guard with a screwdriver at the Israeli

embassy compound raised fur-ther concerns. The motives for the alleged attack were unclear.

The security guard shot dead the Jordanian, while a second Jordanian there at the time was also killed -- apparently by accident.

A potential diplomatic

standoff was brewing over the incident, with Jordan saying it wanted to question the guard but Israel insisting he had diplomatic immunity. “Jordan has requested to question the Israeli embassy security guard... (and) Israel is still examining the request,” a Jordanian government source

said. Israel’s foreign ministry noted in a statement that the guard “has immunity from inves-tigation and imprisonment”.

Israeli newspaper Haaretz reported yesterday that a senior defence official would travel to Amman to seek to calm the situation.

Turkey: Israel violating rights at Al Aqsa

Israeli forces aim their weapons during clashes with Palestinian protesters near the Jewish settlement of Beit El in West Bank city of Ramallah, yesterday.

Vicious cycle

A top aide to US President Donald Trump visited Israel yesterday in a bid to ease tensions over new security measures at Jerusalem holy site after a weekend of deadly violence.

Jordan has requested to question the Israeli embassy security guard over embassy attack and Israel is still examining the request.

Moscow

AFP

Russia has deployed mili-tary police to monitor two safe zones being estab-

lished in Syria, the defence ministry in Moscow said yesterday.

Senior commander Sergei Rudskoi said Russian forces had

set up checkpoints and observa-tion posts around a zone in the south-west and in another one covering Eastern Ghouta, near Damascus.

The two areas are part of a broader Moscow-backed plan to create four “de-escalation zones” in rebel-held parts of Syria.

The announcement marks the first deployment of foreign

troops to bolster the safe zones as Moscow seeks to pacify Syria after its military intervention swung the six-year conflict in favour of President Bashar Al Assad. Rudskoi said Russian per-sonnel on July 21 and 22 established two checkpoints and 10 observation posts along the boundaries dividing rebel forces and government troops

in the southern zone. Earlier this month Russia, the United States and Jordan struck a deal to fix the boundaries of this zone and impose a ceasefire in the area.

Moscow has also informed Israel of its deployment and that the nearest Russian posi-tion is 13 kilometres from the demarcation line between

Israeli and Syrian troops in the Golan Heights, Rudskoi said. Under a second deal Moscow said it struck with “moderate” rebels over the weekend in Egypt, Russian forces yester-day also set up two checkpoints and four observation posts in the area covering conflict-rav-aged Eastern Ghouta, he added.

The Syrian army on

Saturday announced a halt in fighting for parts of Eastern Ghouta, a rebel-held region on the outskirts of the capital, but a London-based monitor said regime war planes still carried out raids. Assad’s forces have surrounded the Eastern Ghouta region for more than four years, and regime forces have regu-larly targeted the area.

Russia deploys military police to monitor safe zones in Syria

The worst is over for Greece, so says the country’s Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras. A country which has gone through the most excruciating, longest-running economic crisis in modern times has finally bid

goodbye to those miserable days and is looking to the future with hope and optimism. In a sign of better days to come, Athens is making its first return to the debt markets in three years today, testing the waters to see if it can rely less on bailout loans after tough terms. Athens “announces today that it intends to offer new euro-denominated fixed rate notes due 2022,” the finance ministry said in a statement, adding that the BNP Paribas, Citigroup, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs, HSBC and Merrill Lynch have been picked to handle the sale. The return to the bond market comes after a long gap of three years. It had issued bonds in 2014 under the coalition government of Antonis Samaras.

Greece’s emergence from the economic crisis is both an example and model to other countries. It’s a story of hardship, perseverance, political will, political upheaval, intense soul-searching and loud arguments and disputes with other countries and finally it’s a story patience. The country witnessed huge demonstrations and violence as thousands of people took to the streets to protest against the austerity measures imposed by the government under orders from the international

agencies and countries which financed its bailout. Huge sections of people found the standards of their once comfortable life reduced to the level of penury as the country fought bankruptcy.

Credit also goes to the government of Tsipras for successfully leading the country through tough times. In the two and a half years since assuming power, he has done a difficult balancing act of satisfying the demands of

creditors and addressing the concerns of his people and this former communist youth activist is now the longest serving premier in the eight years during which Greece has struggled to keep bankruptcy at bay. At the same time, he hasn’t been popular all the time and his popularity plummeted when he accepted a bailout programme whose terms harsher than the people had expected. It was the threat of being ejected from the European Union that forced Athens to swallow the tough pills of austerity it was prescribed.

The leaders and people of Greece now need to avoid repeating the mistakes of the past to avoid the comeback of another crisis. It’s a story of success so far. Talks with eurozone creditors, once tough and problematic, are finally over following the disbursement of €8.5bn in emergency funding this month. Capital controls imposed after the collapse of the banking system in the heady days of June 2015, have been relaxed. This is the foundation for future growth.

08 TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

Greek success

QUOTE OF THE DAY

I‘m absolutely a supporter of this reform, but a wise reform. Reform in this form will not increase the sense of security and justice ... Change has to be made in a way that doesn‘t separate society and state.

Andrzej DudaPolish President

The worst is over for Greece after going through the worst economic crisis in modern times.

These days in Dakar, Bamako and else-where in Francophone Africa, everyone is talking about French President Emmanuel Macron.

President Macron, born long after French colonies became independent, displays an ostensible modernism, and — at least on the surface - attacks the obsolete political appara-tuses, which, according to him, harm the vitality of the French society. As a result, perhaps too naively, many Africans expected him to change the old “Francafrique” — France’s relations with its former colonies in Africa — for the better.

But the reality is more than disappointing. So far, Macron not only insisted on the continu-ity of France’s economic dominance in the region as a former colonial power, but he also signalled his support for French military pres-ence in the continent. Within the first weeks of his presidency, he has also clearly demonstrated that his assumptions about Africa and Africans are just as racist and colonialist as his predecessors’.

Earlier this month at the G5 summit in Mali, Macron responded to the leaders of several countries of the African franc zone who see this currency as a cause of economic misfortunes.

“If you feel unhappy in the franc zone, you leave it and create your own currency as Mauri-tania and Madagascar did,” the 39-year-old president said. “If you stay in the franc zone, you must stop demagogic statements, making the CFA franc the scapegoat of your political and economic failures and France the source of your problems.”

The CFA franc, the franc of the French colo-nies of Africa, was created on December 26, 1945, in the wake of the Bretton Woods confer-ence, in which allied countries decided on what the international financial order should be like after World War II. According to French author-ities at the time, the main purpose of this new currency system was to cushion the colonies from a strong devaluation of the franc. The CFA franc, however, managed to survive the decla-rations of independence.

After independence, several countries did choose to leave the franc zone: Tunisia in 1958, Morocco in 1960, Guinea in 1959, Algeria in 1964, Madagascar and Mauritania in 1973. But a total of 14 countries, 12 of which are former French colonies, decided to continue using CFA franc as their official currency.

At the moment, the CFA franc is the official currency of the African Financial Community comprising eight countries within the Economic and Monetary Union of West Africa (UEMOA), as well as the Financial Cooperation in Central Africa, with six countries in this region.

The CFA franc is guaranteed by the French Treasury. It had a fixed exchange rate to French franc until 1999, and now — to the euro under agreements that force the countries of the franc zone to deposit 50 percent of their reserves in foreign currency to the French Treasury.

This currency, which is manufactured in France, follows the fluctuations of the euro, thus depriving the countries that use it from mone-tary sovereignty. That the CFA franc is bad for the economies of the 14 countries using it is clear. A country cannot have an independent economic path to development without control over its monetary policies.

The complaints of African leaders are justifi-able and by far not “demagogic”. Macron made this statement knowing full well that the colo-nial set-up of the CFA franc makes it quite difficult for countries to launch a unilateral

Macron sees Africa through the prism of colonialismPape Samba KaneAl Jazeera

withdrawal, given the high costs involved. Macron made his first official visit in Africa to Mali — a country that is considered to be a brilliant symbol of French military’s tri-umphant return to the continent.

France launched an intervention in Mali in 2013 to push out fighters linked to Al Qaeda who had overtaken key northern cities. That mission evolved into the cur-rent Barkhane deployment launched in 2014 with an expanded mandate for “counterterror” operations across the Sahel. Currently, more than 4,000 French soldiers are participating in the operation in five Sahel nations alongside UN and Malian troops.

From Serval to Barkhane, French mili-tary operations in Africa are allegedly aiming “to fight terrorism” and more spe-cifically to “return to Mali its sovereignty over Timbuktu and Kidal”. But, of course, another objective of these military opera-tions - if not the primary one - is to protect French economic and geostrategic inter-ests in the region, such as exploitation of Nigerien uranium and Malian gold. Also, it is well known that France is behind the creation of the G5 Sahel (an institutional framework for regional cooperation in development and security policies, incor-porating Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Niger and Chad). The G5 helps France seal its military’s influence in the region and President Macron seems to be committed to maintaining the current unfair status quo.

During his visit to Mali, the new French president reaffirmed France’s commit-ment in the fight against terrorism in Africa and assigned a quasi-subordinate role to G5 Sahel countries, indicating that they can form indigenous armies, “to com-bat drug and human trafficking” at the border areas.

During the same visit, Macron also managed to offend Algeria, the mediator in the Malian crisis. At a joint press confer-ence with the Malian President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita, Macron said: “I will have a stronger demand from the states of the Sahel and Algeria,” he said, before stress-ing that “we cannot show any weakness whatsoever with regard to terrorist group-ings, regardless of domestic political reasons.”

Africa’s ‘civilisational problems’But the harsh words on the CFA franc

and the subtle accusations against Algeria were nothing compared to his comments

at the G20 summit in Hamburg regarding Afri-ca’s so-called “civilisational problems”.

The young French president managed to

make several stigmatising declarations about Africa in the short time period that he has been in office, reducing Africans to something sub-human. His declarations were akin to the ones that have been used, since slavery, to justify the extractions of African resources.

During a press conference at the G20 summit in Hamburg, as he was responding to a question about the necessity of a “Marshall Plan for Africa”, Macron made his most offensive declaration about Africa to date.

“The problems Africa face today are completely different … and are civilisa-tional,” Macron told a reporter from former French colony Ivory Coast.

“What are the problems? Failed states, complex democratic transitions and extremely difficult demographic transi-tions.” He said that although France accepted to help with infrastructure, edu-cation and healthcare, a “simple money transfer” was not the answer.

“It’s by a more rigorous governance, a fight against corruption, a fight for good governance, a successful demographic transition when countries today have seven or eight children per woman,” Mr Macron added. Macron’s words bordered on deliberate provocation, especially since the memory of the outrage caused by Nicholas Sarkozy’s Dakar speech is still fresh a decade later.

“The tragedy of Africa is that the Afri-can has not fully entered into history ... They have never really launched them-selves into the future,” Sarkozy had said in that speech delivered in July 2007.

“The African peasant only knew the eternal renewal of time, marked by the endless repetition of the same gestures and the same words,” he said. “In this realm of fancy ... there is neither room for human endeavour nor the idea of progress.” Like Sarkozy and the countless other French leaders before him, Macron sees Africa only through the prism of colo-nialism and white supremacy. He carries, like a disease, the profound collective European feeling of civilisational superior-ity and parallel fear of the demographic strength of Africa.

Colonialists have long sought to con-trol African women’s fertility, as colonial masters dreaded being outnumbered and overpowered by the people they were enslaving and oppressing. Perhaps it was Africa’s demographic strength that helped it survive centuries of abuse and colonialism.

What Mr Macron and the rest of France’s political elite need to understand is that our problem is neither demo-graphic, nor “civilisational”. Our problem is colonialism and the entrenched system of corruption and exploitation that Europe has set up and maintained in Africa.

Europe and North America continue to approach the continent with this extrac-tive behaviour and demand to deal with African leaders not as equals. Historically, those who have resisted have either been corrupted or killed.

What Mr Macron et al need to under-stand is that times have changed and as much as the old system is entrenched, Africans are now more than ever aware and ready to resist it. And they would not take any more insults in silence.

The writer is a Senegalese journalist and

political analyst.

The young French president managed to make several stigmatising declarations about Africa in the short time period that he has been in office, reducing Africans to something sub-human. His declarations were akin to the ones that have been used, since slavery, to justify the extractions of African resources.

ED ITOR IAL

09TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017 OPINION

intimidation. The group also reported that the number of anti-Muslim hate groups in the United States went from 34 in 2015 to 101 in 2016, while the Council on American-Islamic Relations reported a 57 percent increase in anti-Muslim incidents over the same year.

Behind these numbers are real people, sacred sites and wounded communities. Hate crime charges have been filed against a man accused of setting the fire that destroyed a mosque in Victoria, Texas, in January. In February, a Jewish cemetery in St. Louis was vandalised (Muslims stepped forward to raise funds for repairs). In May, African-American Richard Collins, a newly com-missioned US Army second lieutenant on the verge of graduating from Bowie State University, was stabbed to death, allegedly by another student who belonged to an “alt-Reich” white-supremacist online group. Has our president paused to wonder why his campaign and election have coincided with such attacks?

In Virginia, where I live, a Muslim teenager was killed last month as she walked with friends near their

Nepotism in Iran’s political system

On 15 July, Iranian judicial officials detained Hassan Faridoon, the brother of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s president, also his special adviser. He is facing allegations of financial irregularities. Later on, he was reportedly

dispatched to a hospital due to a health condition, from where he was released. The whole episode took only 24 hours. It is too early to argue and prove that Faridoon was quickly released because Rowhani threatened the establishment in order to secure the release of his brother. It is also too early to argue that Rowhani entered into a secret deal with the establishment to secure his brother’s release.

However, what can be surmised is that Faridoon was not released due to his health condition, as there are sev-eral political and non-political prisoners with quite serious medical conditions, but the Iranian judiciary denies them the simplest treatment. So the claim that Faridoon was released after his lawyer posted bail on his behalf, because of health reasons, does not make any sense. Iranian bureaucracy is way too cumbersome to allow for the com-pletion of such a procedure in such a short time.

Apart from the authenticity of the allegations against Faridoon, the question is: Who is not corrupt in the Islamic Republic? There is a folk poem in Persian which reads: “If it is ordered that the drunk of the city be arrested then all those in the city should be arrested”. Iran ranks 131st in the global corruption index among 176 countries surveyed by Transparency International. Therefore, corruption cannot be sufficient reason behind Faridoon’s arrest.

Long before any corruption allegations, Faridoon made headlines during Iran’s nuclear negotiation with the international community. Even though he was not officially part of the negotiating team, he was present in almost every session. It was claimed he would serve as a personal messenger between the negotiating team and President Rowhani. Rowhani’s cronies would

justify his duty saying Faridoon was there to update the president and ask for instructions in order to evade any eavesdropping attempt by international spy agencies.

However, Faridoon’s role as a special adviser to the president in recent years has been a good case in point for President Rowhani’s opponents to criticise him for nepotism and also accuse Faridoon of abusing his rela-tionship with the president and interfering in government affairs beyond his mandate. This allegation can serve as a pretext to look into the nepotistic nature of the Iranian political system. In the Iranian political setup, family members of ruling elites always play important roles. It is safe to say that in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a position is outwardly occupied by one person but is in reality run jointly by a few close family members -- this is not a new phenomenon.

One can start with Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic. Ayatollah Khomeini was the leader of the Islamic Republic, but the country was run by his son, Ahmad Khomeini. Ahmad Khomeini was a key person in the removal of Ayatollah Muntazeri from his position as surrogate of Ayatollah Khomeini.

The same is true of Mujtaba Khamenei, the current Supreme Leader’s son. It is widely believed that Mujtaba Khamenei wields enormous influence in state affairs. It is even claimed that he had played a key role in the crackdown of Green Movement activists after the 2009 presidential election. Earlier, during the 2005 presidential election, Ayatollah Karrobi, one of the presidential candidates, complained in an open letter to the Supreme Leader about the alleged involvement of Mujtaba Khamenei in electoral rigging.

Nepotism has been rampant among Iranian presi-dents as well. The late Hashimi Rafsanjani appointed his brother, Muhammad Hashemi, as his vice president for executive affairs. Similarly, Muhammad Khatami appointed his brother, Ali Khatami, as his chief of staff. Mahmood Ahmadinejad appointed his brother, Davood Ahmadinejad, as chief of president’s office of inspection. In addition to these, any middle-ranking positions are always occupied by relatives of the sitting president.The same trend can be observed among middle-ranking officials at the provincial level. For instance, the gover-nor of Balochistan Province has appointed his nephew as the governor of Zahedan, the provincial capital.

One can hardly find a senior official in the Islamic Republic whose close family members are not occupy-ing top positions. One should not forget that at present, Iran’s legislative and judicial branches are run by two brothers, Ali Larijani and Sadeq Larijani.

Their third brother, Javad Larijani, is the chief of Iran’s Human Rights Council. Their fourth brother, Bagher Larijani, used to be the deputy health minister. They are popularly known as the ‘Larijani brothers’.

Interestingly, the Supreme Leader has no objec-tion to nepotism, but rather encourages it. During a meeting with former President Muhammad Khatami and his cabinet members on July 28, 2001, Ayatollah Khamenei read a verse from the Holy Quran about Prophet Musa’s (peace be upon him)

plea to God to appoint his brother Haroon as his dep-uty. Taking this verse into account the Supreme Leader stated: “I articulated this point during the presidency of Ayatollah Rafsanjani, and also told it to President Khatami. I told him to appoint Ali Khatami, his brother, for investigation. He appointed him, and how good it was! One’s closest relatives should be appointed for investigation positions, so that people can see what is going on. It means that in addition to regular reports, an alternative source of information should be available.”

It is necessary to note that Iranians have no problem with nepotism, either. For instance, after the victory of Muhammad Khatami in 1997, his brother, Muhammad Reza Khatami, who had hitherto been unknown, gar-nered the highest vote in Tehran in the 2000 parliamentary election and eventually became deputy parliament speaker. Similarly, late Rafsanjani’s daugh-ter, Fayizeh Rafsanjani, would enjoy a large vote bank in the Iranian parliamentary elections due to her father’s high profile. Hence, nepotism is part and parcel of Ira-nian political culture and will never constitute an issue. That said, Rowhani is about to introduce his cabinet members in the coming weeks. Obviously he is under pressure to share power with other interest groups.

On July 18, Muhammad Reza Arif, a leader of the reformist camp, after holding a meeting with Rowhani, said: “Some people, once they win, forget those who have struggled for them.” A day later, on July 19, Row-hani said at the cabinet meeting that it was now his 24 million voters’ turn to occupy the top governmental positions. It clearly indicates that there is an ongoing tension between Rowhani and other political forces over the distribution of positions, and Faridoon is sim-ply being scapegoated. However, this tension has much to do with the tribal mentality among President Row-hani’s opponents, a subtle factor that is almost always ignored by most analysts.

Over the last four decades, most of the top Iranian authorities, one way or another, have developed family bonds. They are connected through what should be called ‘revolutionary marriages’ (marriage among rev-olutionaries or their family members). That being the case, the Iranian establishment is run by a group of families who are tied through a complicated web of inter-marriage. For instance, former President Muha-mad Khatami’s brother married the granddaughter of Ayatollah Khomeini. Ali Larijani, the current speaker of the Iranian parliament, married the sister of Ali Muta-hiri, his deputy speaker. The Supreme Leader’s son Mujtaba Khamenei is the son-in-law of Haddad Adel, the former speaker of the parliament. Another son of the Supreme Leader, Masud Khamenei, married the niece of Kamal Kharrazi, former Iranian foreign minis-ter. Kamal Kharrazi’s son married Muhammad Khatami’s daughter.

The Supreme Leader’s daughter is married to the son of Ayatollah Golpayegani, the president of the Supreme Leader’s office.

The former commander of the Guardian of the Islamic Revolution, Muhsin Razaei’s son married the

Dozens of events organised under the banner “March Against Sha-riah” were held across the country last month. Organisers said that the effort was not anti-

Muslim, but there can be no question that the campaign to depict Shariah as a threat to the Constitution, and to pass “anti-Shariah” laws at the state level, is about portraying American Muslims as un-American.

Such views have had deadly conse-quences. These anti-Shariah marches — organised by a group called ACT for America,which the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) classifies as an extremist anti-Muslim organisation — did not take place in a vacuum. They came shortly after a horrific incident in Portland, Oregon, in which a white nationalist who was screaming anti-Muslim abuse at two teenage girls brutally stabbed three men who stepped in to defend them. US Army veteran Ricky Best, 53, the father of four children, and recent college graduate Taliesin Myrddin Namkai Meche, 23, were killed.

Our sorrow over these events is com-pounded by knowing that they are part of a broader reality in the United States since President Donald Trump’s election, in which harassment, intimidation and physical vio-lence against Muslims, people wrongly perceived to be Muslims, and other religious and ethnic minorities have been on the rise.

Violence grounded in hatred and igno-rance did not begin with Trump, of course. I remember an incident a few years ago when Prabhjot Singh, a Sikh doctor, was knocked from his bike and beaten by a group of peo-ple calling him a “terrorist.”But there is no question that things have gotten worse since Trump took the national spotlight. In the first 10 days after his victory, the SPLC reported 867 incidents of harassment and

Attacking Muslims is un-Americanmosque. It was a horrific and senseless crime that has deeply shaken the community. Police think the killing grew out of a “road rage” dispute, but how could you blame Muslims for fearing that she was targeted for her faith? And how could you blame Muslims for grieving that the Republican candidate for governor of Virginia has not been able to bring himself to renounce the support he had sought from a local Republican leader who works for ACT for America?

The campaign against Sha-riah reflects, at best, a deep misunderstanding of what Sha-riah is and, at worst, a willingness to blame all Mus-lims for the heinous acts of those few who brutalise others in the name of Islam. Such mis-placed blame can lead to piling tragedy upon tragedy.

ACT for America’s founder, Brigitte Gabriel, had said that a practising Muslim who believes

the words of the Holy Quran “cannot be a loyal citizen of the United States.” Lest you think this view is relegated to the political extremes, virtually identical language — “devout Muslims cannot truthfully swear the oath to become citizens of the United States of America” — has been used by the American Center for Law and Jus-tice, whose founder, Jay Sekulow, is part of Trump’s personal legal team. As a Muslim, a patriotic American and a Gold Star father, these false assertions offend me deeply.

Other conservative Christians who rub shoulders with promi-nent Republican officials have argued that Islam is not a religion but a totalitarian ideology, and that therefore American Muslims are not protected by the First Amendment’s guarantees of religious liberty. Some of those who refrain from saying such things decline to speak out against those who do.

This is a dangerous form of divisiveness that is completely con-trary to the spirit and letter of the Constitution. Intimidating and threatening communities on the basis of their religion goes against the core values of this country.

The writer is a board member of People For the American Way.

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granddaughter of Ayatollah Kho-meini. Mohammad Bagher Qalibaf, the current powerful mayor of Tehran, is the nephew of the Supreme Leader’s wife. This list can just go on and on for pages; as a result of these marriages, a typical tribal mentality has developed among these in-laws. Now, looking at this powerful web of revolutionary mar-riages, one can find that Hassan Rowhani is not connected to this web and is thus an outsider. Due to this disadvantage, right from the begin-ning, Rowhani has been trying to insert his own people into the system. Over the last four years, dozens of his close relatives have been appointed to top governmental positions.

To cite a few examples, Rowha-ni’s nephew, Abdul Hussain Faridoon, has served as secretary of the Ministry of Science, Research and Technology. His another nephew, Ismaeel Samavi, is the head of the committee of young advisers to the president. Another nephew, Ali Monesan, is the director of the Kish Free Zone. Tahereh Qayoomi, daughter of Rowhani’s niece, is the head of the public rela-tions office at the presidential palace.

Therefore, there are currently two interconnected tensions going side by side in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s political horizon. On the one hand, President Rowhani is under pressure to be more generous to the establish-ment elites in the new government. On the other, the establishment elites, due to their tribal mentality, are resisting the emergence of a new family in the power structure of Iran.

The Turkey-based writer is an expert on

Iran’s foreign policy and domestic politics.

Selim CelalAnatolia

In the Iranian political setup, family members of ruling elites always play important roles. It is safe to say that in the Islamic Republic of Iran, a position is outwardly occupied by one person but is in reality run jointly by a few close family members — this is not a new phenomenon.

Khizr KhanThe Washington Post

Opponents of the anti-Sharia take part in a rally on the streets of Seattle.

10 TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017ASIA

Six Congress MPs suspended from Parliament NEWS BYTES

BENGALURU: Renowned Indian space scientist U.R. Rao, the architect of early satellites including Aryabhatta, Bhaskar, Apple, Rohini and multi-purpose Insat series, passed away here early yesterday, said an ISRO official. He was 85. Rao passed away at his residence around 3 a.m. after prolonged illness and due to age-related health issues, an official of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) told IANS. Rao’s wife, who was also a scientist, son and daughter were at the bed side when he breathed his last.

Renowned scientist U R Rao dies

LUCKNOW: The Uttar Pradesh government will soon launch ‘Pink’ air-conditioned buses exclusively for women, an official said yesterday. The union government’s Ministry of Women and Child Development has sanctioned funds for the 50 buses from its ‘Nirbhaya Fund’. The staff, including conductor in these buses will be women, the official added. A presenta-tion for these buses was made before ministry officials on July 21 by the Uttar Pradesh State Road Transport Corpora-tion (UPSRTC) authorities.

UP to launch all-women buses

HYDERABAD: Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the Hyderabad drug racket grilled Telugu actor P Navdeep for over 11 hours yesterday. While leaving Abkari Bhavan, the office of the Telangana Prohibition and Excise Department here yesterday night, he told reporters that he gave a clear reply to all the questions asked by the officials regarding his dealing with an event manager. “Everything is okay,” said the young actor. The SIT officials told him that if necessary, he would be called again for questioning. Navdeep was quizzed about his links with Zeeshan Ali Khan alias Jack, one of the accused arrested in the case.

Actor Navdeep grilled in drug caseNew Delhi IANS

Six Congress Lok Sabha members were yesterday suspended from the house

for five consecutive sittings after they tore up papers and threw them in the air and towards the Speaker’s podium to protest her decision disallowing a discussion on atrocities against Dalits and Muslims by cow vigilantes.

The opposition parties protested against the decision

and have decided to sit on protest today morning near the Mahatma Gandhi statue in the parliament premises while the government described the Congress members’ action as a “black day” in the history of parliamentary democracy.

The six MPs -- Gaurav Gogoi, Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Ranjit Ranjan, Sushmita Dev, M.K. Raghavan and K. Suresh -- would have to remain out of the lower House for the whole of this week. The action by Speaker Sumitra

Mahajan came after her persistent request to the Congress members to allow the house to run went unheeded as they remained adamant that the issue be discussed immediately.

Mahajan also warned the Congress members during Question Hour when they were raising slogans demanding discussion on the issue.

During Zero Hour, as the Congress MPs were protesting, the six MPs tore up papers and threw them in the air and

towards the Speaker’s podium. At the time Mahajan continued with Zero Hour.

“I want to see how much indiscipline was possible,” she remarked. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ananth Kumar demanded action against the members who threw papers.

“This behaviour was not expected from Congress. This is shameful. There must be action against those who threw the papers. The members should be named,” he said.

NEW DELHI: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar yesterday inaugurated an eight-lane flyover on the Delhi-Gurugram Expressway, fulfilling a long-standing demand. The 1.4-km flyover on National Highway 48 was thrown open to public and is expected to tackle traffic jams at the busy Hero Honda Chowk in Gurugram. An underpass under construction as part of the flyover project would be com-pleted by December. Vehicles moving to Sector 10, Kadipur, Basai, Jhajjar and Sultanpur will not have to take the Kherki Daula toll plaza route.

Gurugram flyover opens to public

Sushma assures help to ailing Indian in France

Court refuses bail to Kerala actor Dileep

New Delhi IANS

External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj, known for using Twitter exten-

sively to aid distressed Indians abroad, yesterday assured help to an Indian national hospitalised in France with blood infection. “Maine @Indian_Embassy in France se kaha hai ki wo hos-pital mein apke bete ki poori madad kare (I have asked the Indian Embassy in France to ask the hospital to extend all help to him),” Sushma Swaraj tweeted in response to a plea by Amrinder Singh’s family brought to her notice by Akali Dal leader and Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Com-mittee General Secretary Manjinder S. Sirsa.

Kochi

IANS

The Kerala High Court yesterday refused to give superstar Dileep

bail in the alleged abduction and molestation of a popular Malayalam actress in February.

It was on July 20 that the actor’s bail plea had come up before the high court after the trial court refused him bail.

The court had then reserved the judgement after hearing the bail application and the arguments from both sides. Yesterday, the court refused the bail.

Dileep’s 14-day judicial custody would end today. He would be produced before the magistrate.

The prosecution argued that Dileep being a high profile celebrity with lot of influence could play spoilsport if given bail.

They had presented 19 pieces of evidence, including scientific ones, before the court to nail Dileep.

Last week, the police probe team voiced confidence that it has enough evidence against Dileep.

A V G e o r g e , Superintendent of Police and one of the key officials behind the probe said they would not have arrested the actor without evidence.

CBI court sentences pair to death over serial killingsNew Delhi AFP

A CBI court sentenced a businessman and his serv-ant to death yesterday for

the murder of a woman at a mansion dubbed the “House of Horrors”, where 18 other victims were found butchered.

Moninder Singh Pandher and his groundskeeper Surinder Koli were found guilty at the

weekend of the rape and murder of 20-year-old Pinki Sarkar, whose skeleton was found along with other human remains near Pandher’s house in 2006. Her murder case was described in court as the “rarest of the rare”, a criterion for the passing of the death sentence in India.

“The prosecution presented a watertight case against the accused and the judgement is appropriate,” R K Gaur, a

spokesman for India’s federal Central Bureau of Investigation, said. Pandher and Koli had been sentenced to death in 2009 for the killing of a 14-year-old girl, but the businessman was cleared by a higher court months later.

The grisly killing spree sparked nationwide outrage as police recovered skulls, bones and the decomposing remains of miss-ing persons from a sewer next to Pandher’s home in Noida outside

the capital. Most of Pandher and Koli’s alleged victims were chil-dren and women from nearby slums who disappeared without trace between 2005 and 2006.

Koli has been sentenced to death for six other murders related to the house, and faces similar charges in nine more instances. Pandher is facing four more murder charges. Police ini-tially believed he was not aware of the killings but he was later

ordered to stand trial for rape and murder. Investigators said Koli lured victims as young as three from the slums to Pand-her’s house, where they were raped and murdered before being dumped in nearby drains.

Koli allegedly confessed to raping the corpses of his victims and even eating human remains, believing cannibalism cured impotency, but later retracted his statement.

Firefighters tackling a blaze at Lok Nayak Bhawan in Khan Market area, New Delhi, yesterday. No injuries were reported.

Fire-fighting

Srinagar

IANS

The National Investiga-tion Agency (NIA) arrested seven key Kashmiri separatists on charges of receiv-

ing funds from Pakistan to sponsor terror activities and stone-pelting protests in the Kashmir Valley.

Nayeem Khan, Altaf Ahmad Shah, Aftab Hilali Shah alias Shahid-ul-Islam, Ayaz Akbar Khandey, Peer Saifullah and Raja Mehrajuddin Kalwal were arrested from Srinagar while Farooq Ahmad Dar alias Bitta Karate was arrested from Delhi.

Calling the arrests “revenge-ful and arbitrary”, the Hurriyat leadership called for a shutdown in the Valley today.

Altaf is the son-in-law of hardline Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who advocates Jammu and Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan, while Islam is a close aide of moderate Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Akbar is the spokesperson for the Geelani-led Hurriyat.

The six, who were arrested from Srinagar, were later flown

to Delhi. They will be presented before Special NIA Judge at the Patiala House Courts today, an NIA official said, adding their custody would be sought for fur-ther questioning.

The arrested persons have been booked on charges of criminal conspiracy and abet-ting waging war against the Indian State.

The official refused to divulge details about the new evidences collected by the NIA but confirmed that more peo-ple could be arrested as the agency collects more proof.

He also did not rule out the possibility of issuing summons to other Hurriyat leaders, including Geelani and JKLF leader Muhammad Yasin Malik who gave the call for the ‘Kash-mir Bandh’ to condemn what they called were the “revenge-ful, arbitrary, and illegal arrests”.

While New Delhi has for decades accused Islamabad of funding, arming and training Kashmiri separatists, it is the first time so many senior mem-bers of the Hurriyat Conference have been arrested on charges of receiving money from Pakistan.

The Geelani-led Hurriyat suspended Nayeem Khan after he confessed in a TV sting that Hurriyat leaders had been receiving funds from Pakistan for subversive activities in the Valley.

The NIA had registered a case on May 30 against separa-tist leaders, including members of the Hurriyat, who have been acting in connivance with mil-itants of outlawed terrorist groups Hizbul Mujahideen, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, Lashkar-e-Taiba and others for raising and receiving funds.

Seven Hurriyat leaders held for terror funding

Indian Foreign Minister Sushma Swaraj shakes hands with her Iraqi counterpart Dr Ibrahim Al Eshaiker Al Jafari in New Delhi, yesterday.

Fate of 39 missing in Iraq still unknownNew Delhi

AP

Iraq’s Foreign Minister Ibra-him al-Jaafari yesterday said here that he was not sure

whether the 39 Indians missing in the city of Mosul since 2014 are alive.

“I am not 100 per cent sure if the 39 Indians missing in Mosul are alive,” Al Jaafari told the

media. “We are trying our best (to trace them).”

Most of the 39 Indian con-struction workers who went missing in 2014 are from Punjab. Al Jaafari’s comments came after Indian Minister of State for Exter-nal Affairs V K Singh visited Iraq after Iraqi forces aided by an international coalition liberated Mosul from the Islamic State on July 9.

Al Jaafari also held talks with External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj here yesterday.

Sushma Swaraj had earlier said that with the freeing of Mosul, the process to trace and rescue the missing Indians would be taken forward.

She said they had informa-tion that the Indians were in a jail in Badush, which lies in ruins now.

The arrested persons have been booked on charges of criminal conspiracy and abetting waging war against the Indian State.

Calls for shutdown

Calling the arrests “revengeful and arbitrary”, the Hurriyat leadership called for a shutdown in the Valley yesterday.

11TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017 ASIA

Duterte delivers State of the Nation addressManila

AFP

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte vowed yesterday to press on with his drug war that has claimed

thousands of lives, as he urged lawmakers to endorse “eye-for-an-eye” death penalties.

Duterte devoted large chunks of his annual State of the Nation Address to pushing his law-and-order policies that have made him hugely popular with many Filipinos but have been condemned by human rights groups and other critics.

“No matter how long it takes, the fight against illegal drugs will continue because that is the root cause of so much evil and so much suffering,” Duterte told lawmakers from both houses of Congress.

“The fight will be... unrelent-ing despite international and local pressures. The fight will not stop until those who deal in it understand that they have to cease, they have to stop because the alternatives are either jail or hell.”

Duterte swept to victory in last year’s presidential elections after promising an unprece-dented crackdown on drugs in which tens of thousands of peo-ple would die.

Since he took office on June

30 last year, police have reported killing nearly 3,200 people in the drug war.

More than 2,000 other peo-ple have been killed in drug-related crimes, according to police data.

Rights groups say many of those victims have been killed by vigilante death squads linked to the government, and that Duterte may be overseeing a

crime against humanity.In a speech that lasted more

than two hours, Duterte repeat-edly hit back at his critics, including United Nation officials, former US president Barack Obama and prominent local media organisations.

Duterte yesterday also urged lawmakers to reintroduce the death penalty.

“I ask congress to act on leg-islation to reimpose the death penalty on heinous crimes, espe-cially illegal drug trafficking,” Duterte said.

He said capital punishment was about “retribution” as much as deterrence.

“In the Philippines, it is really an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth. You took a life, you must pay it to die. That is the only way to get even.”

The lower house of Congress this year passed a bill to bring back the death penalty for drug-related crimes, but the Senate has yet to approve it.

The death penalty was abol-ished in the Philippines in 2006 following a campaign by the influential Catholic Church.

Duterte also defended his decision last week to extend martial law across the southern region of Mindanao until the end of the year, to combat what he said was a rebellion by militants backed by the Islamic State group.

The militants have been occupying parts of the southern city of Marawi for more than two months, defying a US-backed military campaign that has claimed more than 600 lives.

“I declared martial law in Mindanao because I believed that was the fastest way to quell the rebellion at the least cost of lives and properties,” Duterte told lawmakers.

On the foreign policy front, Duterte promoted his decision to pursue warmer relations with China despite a long-running row over rival claims to parts of the South China Sea.

Duterte thanked China for offering to fund infrastructure projects, and even build some bridges across the major river in Manila for free.

Critics of Duterte have said

the president is sacrificing Phil-ippine interests in return for short-term Chinese investment or aid.

But Duterte insisted there were many long-term benefits to establishing closer ties with China as he repeated wide-rang-ing grievances against the United States, the Philippines’ former colonial ruler and mutual defence partner.

26 dead in Lahore suicide blastLahore

AFP

An explosion claimed by the Pakistani Taliban killed at least 26 people

and injured dozens in a busy vegetable market in the Paki-stani city of Lahore yesterday, officials said.

The powerful blast hit a bus-tling main road in the south of Lahore and blew out windows in nearby buildings.

“A suicide bomber of

Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) used a motorcycle bomb to kill dozens of policemen,” TTP spokesman Muhammad Khurasani said in a statement emailed to local media.

“Our message to frontline allies of enemies of Islam is to get out of our way or be ready to suffer this fate,” he added yesterday.

Initial police investigations suggested it might be a suicide bomb attack.

“Apparently, according to

our initial findings, he was a sui-cide bomber, who used a motorcycle,” deputy chief of police operations for Lahore, Haider Ashraf, said, adding that at least 10 police officers were among the dead.

Senior local administration official Sumair Ahmad Syed put the new toll at 26 dead with over 50 injured.

District Emergency officer Ahmad Raza confirmed the death toll, though he put the number of injured at 63.

Islamabad

Anatolia

In a good will gesture, Paki-stani authorities have started issuing special cards to

Afghan students that will let them enter the country with-out passport or visa, an official said yesterday.

Around 250 Afghan stu-dents have so far received Radio Frequency Identification Cards (RIFDs) and they have rejoined their schools in Paki-stan over the past week, a senior paramilitary Frontier Corps’ official Col Umar Hayat, said.

Pakistan had closed its bor-der with Afghanistan after the February 16 suicide bombing in the crowded Sufi Shrine of Lal Shahbaz Qalanadar in the southern Sindh Province of Pakistan.

After the attack, which had left at least 90 dead, Pakistan also restricted the travelling of Afghan nationals including stu-dents from entering the country without valid documents.

“Now Afghan students can easily cross the border on daily bases without any visa or pass-port to attend their schools at border areas in Torkham,” Col

Umar added yesterday.He said the RFID would not

only facilitate Afghan students to attend schools in Pakistan but it would also simplify their daily identification process at Tokham border. More than 500 Afghan students are enrolled in Pakistan’s border areas schools and colleges.

“The authorities have established special counters on the border crossing points for these Afghan students and they can easily enter in the morning and exit in the evening,” the paramilitary force official added. The Afghan parents and students welcomed the deci-sion, terming it “a good gesture”.

Sri Lanka’s dengue death toll nears 300Colombo

Reuters

AN outbreak of dengue virus has killed around 300 people so far this year in Sri Lanka and hospitals are stretched to capacity, health officials said yesterday.

They blamed recent mon-soon rains and floods that have left pools of stagnant water and rotting rain-soaked trash -- ideal breeding sites for mosquitoes that carry the virus.

The International Feder-ation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies is scaling up emergency assistance to Sri Lanka with the Sri Lanka Red Cross to help contain the outbreak.

“Dengue patients are streaming into overcrowded hospitals that are stretched beyond capacity and strug-gling to cope, particularly in the country’s hardest hit western province,” Red Cross/Red Crescent said in a statement.

According to the World Health Organization, dengue is one of the world’s fastest growing diseases, endemic in 100 countries,

Rice subsidy case: Ministry freezes Yingluck’s accountsBangkok

Reuters

Thailand’s justice ministry froze some of former Prime Minister Yingluck

Shinawatra’s bank accounts, the ministry and her legal team said yesterday, in relation to a $1bn fine imposed by the rul-ing junta over her administration’s rice-subsidy programme.

She has filed a court peti-tion to revoke the freezing of her bank accounts and to grant an injunction to suspend asset seizures, saying they were unlawful.

Yingluck Shinawatra,

whose government was ousted by the junta in a 2014 coup, will deliver a closing statement in a separate criminal case over the rice subsidies next week.

Finance Ministry perma-nent secretary Somchai Sujjapongse said that govern-ment committees submitted details of 12 bank accounts which belong to Yingluck to the Legal Execution Department, which then took action.

Yingluck received a formal notice about her frozen accounts from the department yesterday, her legal team said.

Yingluck declined to com-ment when contacted by Reuters.

Malaysian children prepare for Haj pilgrimageKuala Lumpur

AFP

Thousands of Malaysian children took part in a practice run for the Mus-

lim haj pilgrimage yesterday, walking round a model of the holy Kaaba shrine under the tropical sun.

About 4,000 six year olds, dressed in white robes of the kind worn by pilgrims and car-rying green bags, participated in the “Little Haj” event in a field outside the capital Kuala Lumpur.

The Kaaba is a square build-ing covered in a veil located in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, and is the holiest shrine in Islam. Part of the hajj involves walking round the Kaaba.

Khairizah Kamaruddin, spokeswoman for the organis-ers, said the event was aimed at getting youngsters ready to

perform the annual haj at a future date.

“The aim of this simulation is to educate young Muslims of

the importance of the haj and remove any fear or anxiety when they perform the actual rites around the crowded Kaaba,” Khairizah said.

“The children were so excited, they are now looking forward to conducting the actual haj pilgrimage.”

The children taking part in the “Little Haj” also threw pebbles at a wall during a practice version of the “stoning of the devil”, another of the haj rituals.

Predominantly Muslim Malaysia sends some 27,000 pil-grims to perform the haj every year.

The haj is one of the five pil-lars of Islam, which capable Muslims must perform at least once, and marks the spiritual peak of their lives.

Afghan students receive ID cards to enter Pakistan

Duterte devoted large chunks of his annual State of the Nation Address to pushing his law-and-order policies that have made him hugely popular with many Filipinos but have been condemned by human rights groups and other critics.

Highlights

Duterte also urged lawmakers to reintroduce the death penalty. He also defended his decision last week to extend martial law across the southern region of Mindanao until the end of the year. Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte delivers his State of the Nation Address at Congress, in

Manila, yesterday.

Rescue workers and policemen gather after a suicide blast in Lahore, yesterday.

An official said that around 250 Afghan students have so far received Radio Frequency Identification Cards (RIFDs) and they have rejoined their schools in Pakistan over the past week.

Malaysian children during an educational simulation of the Haj pilgrimage in Shah Alam, outside Kuala Lumpur, yesterday.

12 TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017EUROPE

Santa Claus World CongressPoroshenko urges Russia to end violence in Ukraine

Sweden grapples with security leakStockholm

AFP

Sweden’s minority gov-ernment was battling to contain the fallout yes-terday after a massive leak that may have

made confidential military infor-mation accessible abroad, as well as the private data of millions of citizens.

The leak made an entire database on Swedish drivers’ licences available to technicians in the Czech Republic and Roma-nia, with media reporting that the identities of intelligence agents may have been jeopardised.

“What has happened is an accident,” Prime Minister Stefan Lofven told a news conference in Stockholm, adding that an

investigation has been launched. “It has happened in violation

of the law and exposed Sweden and Swedish citizens to harm,”

Lofven said yesterday. One of the largest breaches

of government information in Sweden in decades, the scandal may threaten the ruling Social Democrat-led coalition as oppo-sition parties have said they could put the issue to a confi-dence vote in parliament.

The leak stems from the transport agency’s hiring of IBM in 2015 to take over its IT operations.

IBM in turn used subcontrac-tors in the Czech Republic and Romania -- making the sensi-tive information accessible by foreign technicians.

The transport agency’s direc-tor general Maria Agren resigned in January for unknown reasons, but she has since confessed to violating data handling and accepted a fine of around

$8,000, according to the media reports earlier this month.

The Swedish military said in a statement on Saturday that information on its personnel, vehicles and defence and con-tingency planning could have been amongst the leaked data.

But the transport agency has denied having a register on mil-itary vehicles and added that “nothing indicates” the leaked information has been “spread in an improper way”.

An official at the agency told the Dagens Nyheter newspaper that carelessness with Swedes’ data was like “giving away the keys to the kingdom”.

Grilled by reporters yester-day, Lofven said he was told about the leak in January by his state secretary.

Defence Minister Peter

Hultqvist and Interior Minister Anders Ygeman had known about it since 2016, according to several media reports.

And Infrastructure Minister Anna Johansson, who oversees the transport agency, told TT news agency on Sunday that her former state secretary had known about the leak but kept the information hidden from her -- triggering outrage among opposition parties.

“(The fact) that a responsible minister didn’t know what hap-pened within her own field provides no confidence at all,” Jonas Sjostedt, leader of the Left party, told TT.

Annie Loof, leader of the Centre party, said in a statement on Sunday that “a vote of no-confidence would not be excluded”.

Ankara

Anatolia

President Petro Porosh-enko yesterday called on Moscow to “immediately”

cease “aggressive” actions in eastern Ukraine.

“The president called the last days of July some of the bloodiest in 2017 and urged Russia to immediately cease aggressive actions as well as the supply of weapons to the occu-pied territories,” the presidency said in a statement.

Poroshenko’s remarks came after a phone conversa-tion with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, France’s Emmanuel Macron and chancellor of Germany, Angela Merkel.

According to the statement, the four leaders heard the report of the chief monitor of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mis-sion to Ukraine Ertugrul Apakan and his deputy Alexan-der Hug.

They noted the importance of full ceasefire, withdrawal of heavy weaponry and troops, as well as 24/7 monitoring by the mission.

Poroshenko also empha-sized the importance of the deployment of a UN peace-keeping mission in Donbass, in

eastern Ukraine. The leaders agreed to continue working on a roadmap for the Minsk agree-ment’s implementation.

“To that end, foreign policy advisors of the Heads of State of the Normandy format will meet in the second part of August,” it added.

France, Germany and Rus-sia have mediated talks between the Ukrainian govern-ment and Russia-backed rebels who have been fighting since April 2014 in a conflict that has killed more than 10,000 people.

Ukraine has been wracked by conflict in its eastern regions since March 2014 after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

The fighting with separa-tists in the Donbass area has led to more than 10,000 deaths, according to the UN.

Kremlin warns against new US sanctionsMoscow

AFP

The Kremlin yesterday warned that new US sanc-tions on Russia would hit

the interests of both sides as Congress gears up to approved fresh punitive measures.

“We consider such a contin-uation of the rhetoric of sanctions counter-productive

and harmful to the interests of both countries,” Kremlin spokes-man Dmitry Peskov said.

In mid-June, the US Senate overwhelmingly passed tough sanctions, but the text stalled in the House of Representatives, until agreement was reached on Saturday.

The House is now set to vote on a bill that targets Russia -- for its alleged meddling in the 2016

presidential election and its annexation of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 .

Initially, US President Don-ald Trump resisted the legislation, which would prevent him from unilaterally easing penalties against Moscow in the future -- effectively placing him under Congress’s watch.

But he seems to be left with little option but to sign off on the

move as a political firestorm swirls over potential collusion between his campaign and Russia.

Peskov said the Kremlin is still waiting and watching to see if Trump will approve the meas-ures, after White House communications director Anthony Scaramucci said the US leader was weighing his decision.

Activists block access to French migrant shelterToulouse

AFP

PROTESTERS in a town in southwest France have built a nearly-two-metre-high wall around the entrance to a dis-used hotel to try to prevent it being turned into a migrant shelter.

Working under cover of darkness, a few dozen resi-dents of Semeac in Pyrenees mountains erected a wall 18 metres long and 1.8 metres high barring access to the Formule 1 hotel, a spokesman for the group confirmed.

“We not against taking in migrants,” Laurent Teixeira said. “But you have to take account of the citizens.”

Teixeira accused the authorities of failing to con-sult residents about the project to turn the former budget hotel into a shelter for up to 85 migrants.

“Nothing is planned for the migrants’ daily life,” he said, arguing that schools and other public services in the town of 5,000 people would be unable to cope with the newcomers.

Protester Hugo Lacoue, a tobacconist, said he was opposed to migrants being hosted in a suburban neighbourhood.

The hotel in Semeac is one of 62 budget hostelries bought by the state in order to house some of the asylum-seekers currently sleeping rough on the streets of Paris or the northern port of Calais.

With the pace of migrant arrivals expected to acceler-ate this summer, the government has come under pressure to create more shelters.

Drought: Vatican to shut off St Peter SquareVatican City

AP

THE Vatican says it is shutting off all its fountains, includ-ing those in St.Peter’s Square, because of Italy’s drought.

Vatican Radio yesterday said the decision is linked with Pope Francis’ teachings on the environment.

The pope has decried wasteful practices and praised clean drinking water as vital for both people and the environment.

Meteorologists say spring 2017 was Italy’s third-driest in some 60 years.

The drought has put Rome at risk for drastic water rationing, a measure being considered later this week by authorities.

Vatican Radio said all of Vatican City’s fountains will go dry, including those in its gardens, to help save water.

Francis laid out his fears for the future of the world’s environment in a 2015 encyc-lical, a formal teaching document.

Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades (left) and United Nations Special Advisor on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide during a meeting at the Presidential Palace in Nicosia, yesterday.

UK commuters stranded after signalling problemLondon

Reuters

Tens of thousands of Lon-don commuters travelling to Britain’s busiest rail

station were stranded yester-day after a signalling fault brought services to a standstill.

Operator South West Trains advised passengers not to even attempt to travel into Waterloo and also cancelled trains on other parts of its network.

Those that did run suffered severe delays because of the fault in the Earlsfield area of the capital.

“We are now working to introduce a few trains back into circulation around the network however, we continue to strongly advise you not to travel towards London Waterloo until after 09:00,” the operator said in a statement.

It said trains would be dis-rupted for the remainder of the day and the problem could con-tinue into Tuesday.

Rail fares in Britain are among the highest in Europe

but passengers complain that many services are unreliable and overcrowded, with dated infrastructure.

Commuters using Southern Rail, another of the operators that serves the capital, have suf-fered more than a year of disruption because of strike action by drivers and other staff.

Waterloo, the London rail hub for services from southwest England and the south coast, handles some 100 million pas-senger journeys a year.

“It was packed, chaotic and lacking in information,” resource manager Alison Izzo, whose journey was delayed by an hour and a half, said yesterday.

Paul Wadey, 40, who works in public relations, said his commute had taken twice as long as usual.

“Some trains are cancelled and you have to wait for the next one and it’s full, and then you think do I wait for another one to get a seat or squeeze in and suffer the uncomfortable-ness,” he said.

Cyprus talks unlikely to resume soonNicosia

AP

A United Nations envoy said yesterday that he sees lit-tle chance that talks to

reunify ethnically split Cyprus would restart anytime soon after their collapse in Switzerland earlier this month.

United Nations Special

Adviser on Cyprus Espen Barth Eide said after separate meet-ings with the leaders of the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cyp-riot communities that neither side offered hope for a quick return to negotiations.

“I have not heard anything here that suggests that some-thing will happen in the very near future”.

He said both sides are going through a “cooling-off” period following the failure of 10 days of high-level talks in Switzer-land that also involved top diplomats from the island nation’s guarantors.

Eide said the UN remains committed to supporting a proc-ess that would reunify Cyprus as a federation.

The leak made an entire database on Swedish drivers’ licences available to technicians in the Czech Republic and Romania.

Probe underway

Sweden Prime Minister Stefan Lofven claims that what has happened is an accident, adding that an investigation has been launched.

Participants of the Santa Claus World Congress pose for a picture with tourists during a visit in Copenhagen, Denmark, yesterday.

“The president called the last days of July some of the bloodiest in 2017 and urged Russia to immediately cease aggressive actions as well as the supply of weapons to the occupied territories.”

13TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017 EUROPE

Polish president vetoes judicial reformsWarsaw

AFP

Poland’s president yes-t e r d a y v e t o e d controversial judicial reforms that had prompted huge street

protests and threats of unprec-edented EU sanctions.

President Andrzej Duda’s veto was a surprise move as he is a close ally of the ruling right-wing Law and Justice (PiS) party that had pushed the reforms.

Duda said he had made his decision after consulting legal experts at the weekend, when thousands of people took to the streets across Poland urging him to veto proposals which critics say threaten the rule of law.

The reforms now return for amendment to parliament, where they require a three-fifths majority -- which the PiS does

not have -- to go through unchanged.

“I have decided to send back to parliament -- therefore, to veto -- the law on the Supreme Court, as well as the law on the National Council of the Judici-ary,” Duda said in a televised announcement.

“This law would not strengthen the sense of justice” in society, he said.

The opposition welcomed his move.

“It’s without a doubt a step in the right direction,” said Kam-ila Gasiuk-Pihowicz, a lawmaker from the liberal Nowoczesna party.

“It’s proof that pressure from citizens can work.”

Polish freedom icon Lech Walesa, a Nobel Peace laureate and former president, said he “was pleasantly surprised.”

“The people have woken up, young people have woken up... We’ll do what we can so that these people (the conservatives) get off the wrong path or that we manage to replace them,” Walesa said.

The reforms would have increased political control over the judiciary, sparking an outcry amongst critics who said the PiS party was seeking to reduce the independence of the courts.

“It was never part of our tra-dition that the attorney general could interfere in the work of the Supreme Court,” Duda said.

The role of attorney general has been held by the justice min-ister in Poland since 2016, following one of the PiS’s earlier reforms which sparked concern over the rule of law.

“I don’t want this situation to deteriorate, because it’s reinforc-ing divisions in society. There’s only one Poland. Poland needs peace and I feel responsible for it as president,” Duda said.

The president added that “a good reform” of the judicial sys-tem was needed and said that he

hoped to table his own versions of the laws within two months.

Supreme Court chief justice Malgorzata Gersdorf offered Duda her “intellectual collabo-ration” on the new texts, and publicly thanked him for the veto.

The Polish senate had on Sat-urday backed the reforms, but they had still needed the presi-dent’s sign-off.

Huge crowds of protesters held a candlelit protest outside the Supreme Court on Sunday night urging Duda to veto the changes.

Several hundred had gath-ered at the court again yesterday.

The European Commission had threatened to halt Poland’s voting rights over the proposed

reforms -- a so-called “nuclear option” that the EU had never invoked -- while the US had also expressed concern.

The Commission’s spokes-man, Margaritis Schinas, said commissioners would discuss the situation tomorrow.

The government has defended the reforms, calling them indispensable to combat corruption and streamline the judicial system.

The PiS, which began mak-ing changes to the judiciary after coming to power in late 2015, has argued resistance to its reforms is a case of an elite defending its privileges.

Under the current system, Supreme Court candidates are selected by an independent body consisting mainly of judges but

also some politicians.The PiS responded to Duda’s

shock announcement by hold-ing an urgent reunion.

“I’m not a fan of this deci-sion,” PiS lawmaker Stanislaw Pieta said.

“Once emotions have cooled down after the holidays and eve-ryone is well-rested, we’ll have to calmly prepare a new law to follow through with the great reform of Poland’s judicial sys-tem that the PiS and the president himself had promised.”

The president’s spokesman said Duda would sign a third controversial judicial reform into law, one allowing the justice minister to replace the chief jus-tices of all the common courts without explanation.

Man arrested for Syrian refugee smugglingNicosia

AFP

CYPRIOT authorities said a boat carrying over 140 migrants believed to be Syr-ians, more than half of them women and children, was escorted to shore by the coast guard yesterday near the resort of Paphos.

Police said the 143 migrants, including 31 women and 50 children, said they had set off from the Turkish port of Mersin and paid up to $2000 each for the crossing.

One person was arrested as a suspected people smug-gler, while arrangements were being made to take the migrants to a reception cen-tre outside the capital Nicosia.

Cyprus, an EU member state located 160km from Syria’s Mediterranean coast, has not seen the massive inflow of migrants experi-enced by Turkey and Greece.

Since September 2014, however, over a dozen migrant boats have reached the island, bringing in more than 1,100 migrants includ-ing the latest arrivals.

Five injured in Swiss chainsaw attackGeneva

AFP

A man armed with a chain-saw injured at least five people in Switzerland

yesterday and is on the run after a rampage that police said was not “a terrorist act”.

Authorities were first alerted about the attack in the old quar-ter of Schaffhausen at 10:39am, the ATS news agency said yesterday.

Police officers, ambulances and helicopters then rushed to the scene and sealed off the area,

evacuating businesses and pedestrians, according to mul-tiple media outlets.

“For now, there are five peo-ple injured ... two seriously and three lightly,” Schaffhausen police spokeswoman Cindy Beer said in a video clip posted on the Blick news site yesterday, add-ing that all the victims had been hospitalised.

Witnesses, including a local shop manager, said the attacker was wielding a chainsaw.

The attacker has been iden-tified and is believed to be on the run in a vehicle, ATS said,

citing the Schaffhausen police. According to the agency,

police have said the attack was not “a terrorist act.”

Spanish region okays bloodless bullfightMadrid

Reuters

SPAIN’S Balearic Islands yesterday banned matadors from killing bulls in the ring, becoming one of several Span-ish regions to move towards criminalising the blood sport.

The bill adopted in the Balearics parliament prohib-its a bull’s death in the ring and makes it illegal for the animals to endure physical or psychological damage. Bull-fights will be limited to a maximum of 10 minutes, a parliament spokesman said.

Traditionally, every bull-fight in Spain involves six of the specially-bred animals pitted against matadors for 20-30 minutes.

At that point, matadors try to drive a sword between the bulls’ shoulder blades and through the heart.

Under the new rules, the bull will be submitted for a medical checkup after the fight and then returned to the ranch from where it was raised.The bill was introduced by Spain’s centre-left Social-ist party (PSOE), the far-left Podemos party and other, smaller regional parties.

Azerbaijan jails dissident over ‘links’ to GulenBaku

AFP

Azerbaijan yesterday jailed a senior opposition figure for alleged ties with US-

based preacher Fethullah Gulen, whom close ally Turkey accuses of masterminding last year’s failed coup.

Faig Amirov -- an aide to the leader of the Popular Front party -- was found guilty of “having links with Gulen” and sentenced

to three years and three months under a statute that covers incit-ing social hatred, lawyer Agil Layijev said.

Layijev, however, insisted the charges were “politically-motivated” and served as a pretext for Azerbaijan’s author-itarian government to crack down on an opponents.

“We will appeal the verdict,” he said.

Turkic-speaking Azerbaijan, a staunch ally of Ankara,

launched a crackdown on Gulen’s supporters after the July 2016 putsch attempt in Turkey.

Gulen, who lives in rural Pennsylvania, has denied any involvement in the attempted coup that has seen Turkish authorities arrest at least 50,000 people and dismiss more than 100,000.

Amirov was arrested last August after investigators said they found books authored by Gulen in the boot of his car.

The activist, who is also the financial director of the main opposition newspaper, Azadlig, has claimed the books were planted after investigators pulled him in for questioning.

Popular Front leader Ali Ker-imli said the authorities have stepped up a “repressive cam-paign targeting me personally, the party and the Azadlig newspaper,” using the pretext of a “made-up case” claiming links to Gulen.

Reporters Without Borders

has said it was “very worried about Amirov’s health” and called for his immediate release.

Azerbaijan has repeatedly been accused by rights groups of using spurious charges to crack down on dissent against President Ilham Aliyev’s regime.

The tightly-controlled ex-Soviet republic ranked 162 out of 180 countries in the 2017 World Press Freedom Index released by Reporters Without Borders.

British parents halt fight over treatment for sonLondon

AFP

The parents of British baby Charlie Gard yesterday abandoned their legal fight

to take him to the US for exper-imental treatment in a case that has attracted global attention.

A lawyer representing Gard’s parents Connie Yates and Chris Gard told judge Nicholas Fran-cis at London’s High Court that

“time had run out” and that they had made their decision after seeing the 11-month-old’s latest brain scans.

“We have decided it is no longer in Charlie’s best interests to pursue treatment and we will let our son go,” father Chris Gard said. “He had a real genuine chance of life. We are truly devastated.

“We are now going to spend our last precious moments with

our son, who unfortunately won’t make his first birthday in just under two weeks time.”

Judge Francis had been due to rule on whether there was enough new evidence to allow the parents to take the baby, who suffers from a rare genetic dis-order, to the US for a type of treatment that has never been used on a human being.

Charlie suffers from a rare form of mitochondrial disease,

which causes progressive mus-cle weakness in the heart and other key organs.

British doctors believe Gard’s brain damage is “severe and irreversible” and have said the baby “may be suffering”.

Great Ormond Street Hospi-tal argued that Gard’s illness has left him “deprived of his senses” and that he is “without any aware-ness” as far as doctors can tell.

But father Chris Gard

criticised the authorities, saying “there is one simple reason why treatment cannot now go ahead, and that is time.

“Had Charlie been given the treatment sooner, he would have had the potential to be a normal, healthy little boy,” he said.

“We will have to live with the what-ifs, that will haunt us for the rest of our lives. Our son is an absolute warrior and we will miss him terribly.”

Duda said he had made his decision after consulting legal experts at the weekend, when thousands of people took to the streets across Poland urging him to veto proposals.

Surprise move

The opposition welcomed his move.

Poland's President Andrzej Duda during his media announcement about Supreme Court legislation at Presidential Palace in Warsaw, yesterday.

People protest next to the Law and Justice party headquarters, in Warsaw.

Portraits of a man suspected to have injured at least five people in a chainsaw attack in the old town of Schaffhausen, yesterday.

14 TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017AMERICAS

San Antonio

AP

The driver of a broiling tractor-trailer found packed with immi-grants outside a Walmart in San Anto-

nio was charged yesterday in the deaths of 10 of his passengers and could face the death penalty over the hellish journey.

In outlining their immigrant-smuggling case against James Matthew Bradley Jr., 60, federal prosecutors depicted the trailer as pitch-black, crammed with around 90 people or more by some estimates, and so suffocat-ingly hot that one passenger said they took turns breathing through a hole and pounding on the walls to get the driver’s attention.

Bradley appeared in federal court on charges of illegally transporting immigrants for financial gain, resulting in death. The Clearwater, Florida, man was ordered held for another hearing on Thursday.

He did not enter a plea or say anything about what happened.

But in court papers, he told author-ities he didn’t realize anyone was inside his rig until he parked and got out to relieve himself.

Over the weekend, authori-ties discovered eight bodies inside the crowded 18-wheeler parked in the summer heat, and two more victims died at the hos-pital. Nearly 20 others rescued from the rig were hospitalized in dire condition, many suffering from extreme dehydration and heatstroke.

At least some of those aboard

were from Mexico and Guate-mala, authorities said.

Bradley told investigators that the trailer had been sold and he was transporting it for his boss from Iowa to Brownsville, Texas. After hearing banging and shak-ing, he opened the door and was “surprised when he was run over by ‘Spanish’ people and knocked to the ground,” according to the criminal complaint.

Bradley told investigators that he knew the trailer refrig-eration system didn’t work and that the four ventilation holes were probably clogged. He also said he did not call 911, even though he knew at least one pas-senger was dead.

The truck was registered to Pyle Transportation Inc. of Schaller, Iowa. President Brian Pyle said that he had sold the truck to a man in Mexico and that Bradley was an independent contractor who was supposed to deliver it to a pick-up point in Brownsville.

“I’m absolutely sorry it hap-pened. I really am. It’s shocking. I’m sorry my name was on it,”

Pyle said, referring to the truck. He said he had no idea why Bra-dley took the looping route he described to investigators.

Bradley told authorities that

he had stopped in Laredo, Texas — which would have been out of his way if he were traveling directly to Brownsville — to get the truck washed and detailed

before heading back 150 miles north to San Antonio. From there, he would have had to drive 275 miles south again to get to Brownsville.

Washington

Reuters

Jared Kushner, President Don-ald Trump’s son-in-law and a senior White House adviser,

told Senate investigators yester-day he had met with Russian officials four times last year but said he did not collude with Mos-cow to influence the 2016 US election.

A businessman like Trump, Kushner portrayed himself as new to politics when he became a top adviser to Trump’s campaign.

Frantic fielding of phone

calls and emails made his recol-lections of some meetings somewhat hazy, he wrote.

Kushner, who met behind closed doors with Senate Intel-ligence Committee staff, made the remarks in a written state-ment he issued before the meeting giving the fullest account to date of his contacts with Russian officials.

“I did not collude, nor know of anyone else in the campaign who colluded, with any foreign government,” he wrote. “I had no improper contacts. I have not relied on Russian funds to

finance my business activities in the private sector.”

US intelligence agencies have determined that Russia, under President Vladimir Putin, engaged in a campaign of hack-ing and propaganda to tilt the election in Trump’s favor. Rus-sia denies the allegations and Trump has denied his campaign colluded with Moscow.

After meeting the commit-tee for about two hours on Capitol Hill, Kushner, the hus-band of Trump’s daughter Ivanka Trump, returned to the White House. He made a

statement to reporters outside but did not take questions.

“The record and documents I have voluntarily provided will show that all of my actions were proper and occurred in the nor-mal course of events of a very unique campaign,” Kushner said.

Trump, who has called the Russia probes politically moti-vated, lashed out at the investigations in Twitter mes-sages yesterday.

The Senate Intelligence Committee is one of several con-gressional panels investigating the Russia matter, along with a

criminal probe led by special counsel Robert Mueller, a former director of the FBI. Kushner arrived on Capitol Hill with prominent white-collar defense lawyer Abbe Lowell.

Kushner said he first met Russian Ambassador Sergei Kislyak in Washington in April 2016 and shook hands. He said he did not recall phone calls with Kislyak between April and November 2016, as reported by Reuters in May, had found no evidence of the calls in phone records and was skeptical they took place.

Trump son-in-law denies collusion with Russia

Trucker charged in 10 deaths of immigrants90 put to risk

Trailer was pitch-black, crammed with around 90 people or more by some estimates, and suffocatingly hot.

Trucker said he did not call 911, even though he knew at least one passenger was dead.

Montana blaze rages as California fire under controlMontana

Reuters

The biggest US wildfire torched buildings and parched grassland forc-

ing evacuations in eastern Montana while California fire-fighters gained ground on a massive blaze near Yosemite National Park yesterday, authorities said.

The two-blaze Lodgepole Complex in Montana, the big-gest wildfire in the United States currently, was only 5 percent contained yesterday after racing through 226,000 acres (91,500 hectares) of tim-ber, brush and range land near the Missouri River, according to the National Interagency Coordination Center.

The 215 firefighters have had to rely on bulldozers and

harrows to plow fire breaks since water alone cannot put out the flames driven by high temperatures, lack of rain and gusty winds, said Tim Engrav, a spokesman for the firefighter command center.

“Folks who’ve been fight-ing fires in this part of Montana since the early ‘80s said they’ve never seen it so difficult,” he said by telephone from Sand Springs, Montana. Engrav said about 50 people have been evacuated from their homes.

The Lodgepole fire was started by lightning on Wednes-day and has destroyed 22 structures, the coordination center said. Much of the state is under a National Weather Serv-ice “red flag” warning because of dry weather and gusty winds.

In California, the Detwiler Fire that has threatened

historic gold rush towns in the Sierra Nevada mountains was 50 percent contained, up from 45 percent on Sunday, the Cal-ifornia Department of Forestry

and Fire Protection (Cal Fire) said.

The fire has burned 76,500 acres (31,000 hectares), but higher overnight humidity has

helped the 5,100 firefighters despite sunny, dry daytime weather, said Heather Wil-l i a m s , a C a l F i r e spokeswoman.

Five killed as Mexico hunts boss of fuel theft ringPuebla

AFP

Mexican security forces killed five suspected members of a fuel

theft ring yesterday but failed to capture their leader, the target of an escalating man-hunt that has left 10 dead since Friday.

Mexico’s marines are hunting Roberto de los San-tos de Jesus, alias “El Bukanas,” the alleged ring-leader of a group accused of oil pipeline thefts, kidnap-pings and drug trafficking in the central state of Puebla.

The shootout ocurred at dawn when security forces descended on what investi-gators described as a safe house where De los Santos was believed to be hiding in the town of Esperanza.

The marine-led opera-tion ended with five suspected gang members dead, the state prosecutor’s office said on Twitter.

But De los Santos was not among them, a prosecu-tion source said.

De los Santos was also the target of a raid on Fri-day that ended with one marine and four suspected gang members dead in the mountains of Puebla.

Puebla Governor Anto-nio Gali Fayad called the operation to capture De los Santos a national priority.

“We’re involved in an unprecedented pursuit,” he told journalists.

Wildland Firefighters battle the Bridge Coulee Fire east of the Musselshell River, north of Mosby, Montana, US.

Black women in America picking up firearms for self-defenceWashington

AP

Sitting in a classroom above a gun range, a woman hes-itantly says she isn’t sure

she could ever shoot and kill someone, even to protect her-self. Couldn’t she just aim for their leg and try to maim them?

Her instructor says self-defense is not about killing someone, but is instead about eliminating a threat. If the gun gets taken away by a bad guy, the instructor says, “I promise you they’re not going to be having any sympathy or going through the thought process you are.”

Gently she adds that if the student isn’t comfortable with the lethal potential of the gun, buying one might not be for her.

Marchelle Tigner is on a mis-sion: to train at least 1 million women how to shoot a firearm. She had spent no time around guns before joining the National Guard. Now, as a survivor of domestic violence and sexual assault, she wants to give other women of color the training she hadn’t had.

“It’s important, especially for black women, to learn how to shoot,” Tigner said, noting that black women are more likely to be victims of domestic violence.

“We need to learn how to defend ourselves.”

It’s hard to find definitive sta-tistics on gun ownership, but a study by the Pew Research Center released this month indi-cated that just 16 percent of “non-white women” identified themselves as gun owners, com-pared with about 25 percent of white women. Other Pew sur-veys in recent years have shown a growing acceptance of firearms among African-Americans: In 2012, one found that less than a third of black households viewed gun ownership as positive; three years later, that number had jumped. By then, 59 percent of

black families saw owning guns as a necessity.

A recent study by gun-rights advocate and researcher John Lott showed that black women outpaced other races and gen-ders in securing concealed carry permits between 2000 and 2016 in Texas, one of the few states that keep detailed demographic information.

Philip Smith founded the National African American Gun Association in 2012 during Black History Month to spread the word that gun ownership was not something reserved for whites. He figured it would ulti-mately attract about 300

members, a number achieved in its first month. It now boasts 20,000 members in 30 chapters across the country.

“I thought it would be the brothers joining,” Smith said. Instead, he found something sur-prising — more black women joining, most of them expressing concerns about living either alone or as single parents and wanting to protect themselves and their homes. In recent months, he said politics also have emerged as a reason why he finds more blacks interested in becoming gun owners.

“Regardless of what side you’re on, in the fabric of society

right now, there’s an undertone, a tension that you see that groups you saw on the fringes 20 years ago are now in the open,” he said. “It seems to me it’s very cool to be a racist right now, it’s in fashion, it’s a trend.”

On top of that, the shootings of black men and boys around the country have left Smith and others concerned that racism can make a black person a perceived threat, even when carrying a firearm legally.

“The pain that I initially feel for Philando Castile is the same pain I felt for Alton Sterling or Trayvon Martin and the list goes on and on and on,” Smith said.

Police officers work on a crime scene after eight people believed to be illegal immigrants being smuggled into the US were found dead inside a sweltering 18-wheeler trailer parked behind a Walmart store in San Antonio, Texas.

15TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017 BREAK TIME

Yesterday’s answer

SHOWING ATVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

BABY

BLU

ES

ALL IN THE MIND

ARCHERY, ATHLETICS, BADMINTON, BASKETBALL, BEACH VOLLEYBALL, BOXING, CANOEING, CYCLING, DIVING, EQUESTRIAN, FENCING, FOOTBALL, GYMNASTICS,HANDBALL, HOCKEY, JUDO, MODERN PENTATHLON, ROWING, SAILING, SHOOTING, SWIMMING, SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING, TABLE TENNIS, TAEKWONDO, TENNIS, TRAMPOLINE, TRIATHLON, VOLLEYBALL, WATER POLO, WEIGHTLIFTING, WRESTLING.

08:00 News

08:30 Counting the Cost

09:00 Al Jazeera World

10:00 News

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Stream

12:00 News

12:30 AJ Selects

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Prison Lives: Inside

And Out

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 The Stream

18:00 Newsgrid

19:00 News

19:30 My Nigeria

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Stream

23:00 Al Jazeera World

10:55 Deadliest

Catch

11:40 Outback Truckers

12:40 Storage Hunters

13:10 Gold Rush

13:55 Mega Shippers

15:25 Fast N' Loud

16:10 Wheeler Dealers

17:00 How Do They Do

It?

18:20 Storage Hunters

18:50 Mega Shippers

21:00 The Island With

Bear Grylls

21:50 The Wheel: Survival

Games

22:40 Phelps vs Shark:

Great Gold vs Great

White...

23:30 Return To The Isle

Of Jaws (Title Tbc)

00:20 Wheeler Dealers

01:05 The Island With

Bear Grylls

01:50 The Wheel: Survival

Games

11:00 Dogs/Cats/Pets

101

12:50 Animal ER

13:45 Swimming With

Monsters: Steve

Backshall

14:40 Wildest Islands

Of Indonesia

15:35 Tanked

16:30 Swimming With

Monsters: Steve

Backshall

17:25 Dog Rescuers

18:20 Guardians Of

Rescue

19:15 Tanked

20:10 Dogs/Cats/Pets

101

21:05 Dog Rescuers

22:00 Guardians Of

Rescue

22:55 Wildest Islands

Of Indonesia

23:50 Swimming With

Monsters: Steve

Backshall

13:05 Star Darlings

15:15 Whisker Haven

Tales...

15:20 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug...

15:45 Elena Of Avalor

17:05 Stuck In The

Middle

17:30 Bunk'd

18:20 Disney Mickey

Mouse

18:25 Alex & Co.

18:50 Best Friends

Whenever

19:15 Star Wars Forces

Of Destiny

19:20 Liv And Maddie

19:45 Mako Mermaids

20:40 Alex & Co.

21:05 Austin & Ally

21:30 Stuck In The

Middle

21:55 Star Wars Forces

Of Destiny

22:25 Miraculous Tales

Of Ladybug...

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is a number-

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

place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

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

contains the same number only once.

CROSSWORD

CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

Yesterday's answer

MALL

LANDMARK

ROYAL PLAZA

ASIAN TOWN

NOVO — Pearl

ROXY

Huroob Ezterari (2D/Arabic) 10:30am, 12:45, 3:00, 5:15, 7:30, 9:45pm & 12:00midnight War For The Planet of The Apes (2D/Action) 10:00, 11:30am, 12:50, 2:20, 3:40, 5:10, 6:30, 9:15, 11:00 & 12:00midnight Baywatch (2D/Comedy) 10:00, 11:30am, 12:20, 2:40, 4:30, 5:00, 7:20, 9:20, 9:40pm & 12:00midnightAltitude (2D/Action) 10:00am, 2:30, 7:00 & 11:30pm Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 11:50am, 4:20 & 8:50pm Cars 3 (2D/Animation) 11:00am, 1:10, 3:30 & 5:40pmOverdrive (2D/Action) 7:50, 9:50 & 11:50pmDespicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00 & 4:00pm Tisbah Ala Khair (2D/Arabic) 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnightBaby Driver (Thriller) 11:30am, 1:50, 2:00, 4:10, 6:30, 7:00, 8:50, 11:15 & 11:45pm Spider Man: Home Coming (2D IMAX/Action) 11:00am, 4:00 & 9:15pm The Mummy (3D IMAX/Action) 1:40, 6:40 & 11:55pm

Munna Michael (2D/Hindi) 2:00 & 11:30pm Vikram Vedha (2D/Tamil) 2:00 & 11:00pm Cars 3 (2D/Animation) 2:00 & 6:00pm Spiderman: Homecoming (2D/Adventure) 2:30pm Despicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 4:00pm Altitude (Action) 4:30 & 10:00pm Huroob Ezterari (2D/Arabic) 5:00, 8:00 & 9:00pm Baywatch (Comedy) 5:30 & 11:30pm Baby Driver (2D/Action) 7:00 & 9:30pm Tisbah Ala Khair (2D/Arabic) 7:30pm War For The Planet of The Apes (2D/Adventure) 11:30pm

Cars 3 (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 4:00pm Fidaa (Telugu) 2:30pmDespicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 2:30 & 6:00pmSpiderman: Homecoming (2D/Adventure) 2:30 & 11:00pm War For The Planet of The Apes (2D/Adventure) 4:30pm Tisbah Ala Khair (2D/Arabic) 5:00pm Baby Driver (2D/Action) 7:00pm Altitude (Action) 5:00 & 9:45pm Vikram Vedha (2D/Tamil) 7:00 & 11:30pm Huroob Ezterari (2D/Arabic) 7:30, 9:30 & 11:30pm Baywatch (Comedy) 9:00pm

Munna Michael (2D/Hindi) 2:30 & 9:00pm Despicable Me 3 (2D/Animation) 2:15pmCars 3 (2D/Animation) 2:15 & 5:00pm Baby Driver (2D/Action) 3:00 & 8:00pm Baywatch (Comedy) 4:00, 6:00 & 9:00pm Vikram Vedha (2D/Tamil) 4:15 & 11:15pm Spiderman: Homecoming (2D/Adventure) 7:00pm Huroob Ezterari (2D/Arabic) 7:00, 9:15 & 11:00pm Tisbah Ala Khair (2D/Arabic) 10:00pm Altitude (Action) 11:45pm

Vikram Vedha (Tamil) 5:45, 6:30, 8:30, 8:45, 9:15, 11:15pm &12:00midnight

Fidaa (Telugu) 6:00pm Munna Michael (Hindi) 11:30pm Thondi Muthal (2D/Malayalam) 6:30, 9:15pm &12:00midnight

Cars 3 (Animation) 12:00noon, 2:20, 4:40 & 7:00pm Vikram Vedha (Tamil) 12:00noon, 3:00, 6:00, 9:00pm & 12:00midnight

Baby Driver (2D/Thriller) 12:00noon, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30 & 10:00pm Baywatch (2D/Comedy) 12:00noon, 2:30, 5:00, 7:30 & 10:00pm Fidaa (Telugu) 9:20pm & 12:10am Huroob Ezterari 12:30pm

AL KHORCars 3 (Animation) 10:30am & 12:45pm

Baby Driver (Thriller) 11:00am, 4:00 & 9:00pm Munna Michael (Hindi) 12:15, 3:300, 5:45,

8:30 & 11:15pm Vikram Vedha (Tamil) 3:00, 6:00, 9:00pm & 12:00midnight

Baywatch (Comedy) 1:30, 6:30 & 11:30pm

16 TUESDAY 25 JULY 2017MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

03.31 am

04.57 am

ZUHRASR

11.40 am

03.06 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

06.25 pm

07.55 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

HIGH TIDE 05:30 – 18:45 LOW TIDE 01:15 – 11:15

Hazy to misty at places at first be-

comes hot daytime with some

clouds and humid by night.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum32oC 46oC

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

Paris

AFP

A two-drug cocktail injected every month or two may be just as

effective as a daily pill at keeping the AIDS virus under control, said a study yester-day that promised relief for millions.

At present people have no option but to take lifelong, daily doses of anti-retroviral therapy (ART) which keeps the HIV virus under control, but does not kill it.

People who forget to take their medication run the risk of the virus rebounding to make them ill, or developing

resistance to the drugs they were using -- which would require a more expensive replacement.

In an ongoing study, nearly 300 HIV-positive peo-ple were given an initial course of daily pills to bring the virus under control.

Once this was achieved, some continued taking oral treatment as maintenance while the rest were shifted onto the prototype, injectable ARV, administered every four or eight weeks. At 96 weeks, the virus was still subdued in 84 percent of the pill-taking group, 87 percent in the four-weekly injectable group, and 94 percent in the eight-weekly

group. The results were pub-lished in The Lancet medical journal to coincide with an HIV science conference in Paris of the International AIDS Society. In 2016, there were some 36.7 million people liv-ing with HIV of whom 19.5 million had access to ART, according to UNAIS.

The UN recommends ART for all HIV-positive people.

“The introduction of sin-gle-tablet medication represented a leap forward in ART dosing, and long-active anti-retroviral injections may represent the next revolution in HIV therapy by providing an option that circumvents the burden of daily dosing,” said

study oc-author David Margo lis of Vi Iv Healthcare, a phar-maceutical company involved in developing the injectable drug. “Adherence to medica-tion remains an important challenge in HIV treatment.”

Also involved in the study is Janssen Sciences, a com-pany in the Johnson & Johnson group.

Last week, the UN warned that countries must halt the rise of AIDS drug resistance to prevent a swell in new infec-tions and deaths and spiralling treatment costs.

Viruses can become resistant to drugs when peo-ple take incorrect doses of their prescribed medication.

Resistant strains can also be contracted directly from other people.

Some in the trial group experienced mild or moder-ate pain at the injection site, two of whom two to stop get-ting the shots which contain a mix of cabotegravir and rilpivirine.

Other side-effects, includ-ing diarrhoea and headaches, were similar in all the groups.

“Trials are ongoing and are needed to confirm the results,” the researchers said a statement.

The experiments were conducted in the United States, Germany, Canada, Spain, France and Germany.

Injectable AIDS drug may work ‘as well’ as pills: Study

Paris

AFP

The Moon, long thought to be a dry, inhospita-ble orb, hosts

surprisingly large sub-sur-face water reserves, which one day may quench the thirst of lunar explorers from Earth, scientists said yesterday.

“We found the signature of the lunar interior water globally using satellite data,” Shuai Li, co-author of a study by scientists at Brown Uni-versity in the United States, said.

“Such water can be used as in situ resources for future exploration,” said Li, a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Hawaii and Brown Ph.D graduate.

Li noted scientists had believed the Moon to be “bone dry” until about a dec-ade ago, when scientists found evidence of water -- an essential ingredient for life -- in pebble-like beads brought back by Apollo mis-sions. The Brown findings show numerous volcanic deposits distributed across the surface of the Moon con-tain “unusually high amounts of trapped water” compared with surrounding terrain.

They say discovery of

water in the ancient depos-its, which are believed to consist of glass beads formed by the explosive eruption of magma from beneath the Moon’s surface, boosts the idea that the lunar mantle is surprisingly water-rich.

“The key question is whether those Apollo sam-ples represent the bulk conditions of the lunar inte-rior or instead represent unusual or perhaps anoma-lous water-rich regions within an otherwise ‘dry’ mantle,” said Ralph Milliken, lead author of the new research, published in the Nature Geoscience journal yesterday.

“The distribution of these water-rich deposits is the key thing,” Milliken said. “They’re spread across the surface, which tells us that the water found in the Apollo samples isn’t a one-off,” he added.

“By looking at the orbital data, we can examine the large pyroclastic deposits on the Moon that were never sampled by the Apollo or (Soviet) Luna missions,” said the associate professor at Brown’s Department of Earth, Environmental and Planetary Sciences.

“The fact that nearly all of them exhibit signatures of water suggests that the Apollo

samples are not anomalous, so it may be that the bulk interior of the Moon is wet.”

Scientists believe the Moon formed from debris left behind after an object about the size of Mars slammed into the Earth early in solar sys-tem history.

They had assumed it was unlikely that any of the hydrogen needed to form water could have survived the heat of that impact.

“The growing evidence for water inside the Moon suggests that water did some-how survive, or that it was brought in shortly after the impact by asteroids or

comets before the Moon had completely solidified,” said Li. The volcanic beads con-tain only tiny amounts of water but the deposits are large and the water could potentially be extracted.

“Other studies have sug-gested the presence of water ice in shadowed regions at the lunar poles, but the pyro-clastic deposits are at locations that may be easier to access,” said Li.

“Anything that helps save future lunar explorers from having to bring lots of water from home is a big step for-ward, and our results suggest a new alternative.”

Moon could be wetter than thoughtLondon

IANS

Individuals with higher levels of neuroticism — a per-sonality trait associated with negative emotions — are likely to have longer lifespan and lower risk of mortality, regardless of their health con-ditions, a study has claimed.

Persons with high levels of neuroticism are more likely to experience negative emo-tions -- including irritability, frustration, nervousness, worry, and guilt -- compared with those who have lower levels of neuroticism.

“Our findings are impor-tant because they suggest that being high in neuroticism may sometimes have a protective effect, perhaps by making people more vigilant about their health,” said lead researcher Catharine R. Gale from the University of Edinburgh.

The findings showed that higher neuroticism is linked with slightly lower risk of death from all causes and cancer.

However, “we found that this protective effect was only present in people who rated their health as fair or poor”, Gale explained.

Neuroticism may be linked with long life

Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

Qatar Museums (QM) yesterday kicked off the series of exclusive tours of t h e N a t i o n a l

Museum of Qatar for its Cul-ture Pass programme members.

After the announcement last week, QM said hundreds of residents have already signed up for an opportunity to be one of the first visitors to have a peek into the Jean Nouvel designed museum which resembles a desert rose with its unique interlocking disc design.

Yesterday’s tour was the first of the 50 tours QM is organizing in the run-up to the much anticipated opening of the National Museum in December next year. It provided the first batch of visitors the chance to see up close the amazing exterior and interior of the architectural masterpiece by the globally acclaimed French architect.

The National Museum is set to reflect Qatari roots, history and identity in the thousands of objects that will be displayed in its galleries which will combine historic pieces and contemporary influences, opening up a dialogue around the impact of rapid change while honouring its ancestors’ legacy. It is built around Sheikh Abdullah bin Jassim Al Thani’s original palace, which was his family home and seat of the government for 25 years.

Expected to enhance the country’s thriving cultural scene, the National Museum be an important addition to the cultural hubs which pro-mote a spirit of participation and discovery among the public.

Apart from its galleries, the museum features a park, an auditorium, a research centre and laboratories as well as retail outlets and restaurants.

To tours are organised from Sunday to Wednesday

(3pm-4pm, 4pm-5pm) and on Saturdays (10am-11am, 11am-12pm, 3pm- 4pm, 4pm- 5pm) for Culture Pass members.

Since its launch, QM’s

Culture Pass programme already has almost 16,000 members who enjoy access to diverse cultural activi-ties across Qatar such as

workshops, exclusive exhibi-tion openings, private tours of galleries and discounts at QM cafes, gift shops and selected sites.

QM kicks off tours for Culture Pass holders

The Culture Pass members of Qatar Museums during a tour at the national museum yesterday.

A supermoon rising above central London.