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Volume 22 | Number 7206 | 2 RiyalsWednesday 28 June 2017 | 4 Shawwal 1438 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

3rd Best News Website in the Middle East

QNA

Visitors from Kuwait and Oman have praised the various entertainment

activities in Qatar during Eid Al Fitr holiday, commending Katara's Eid festival and its attention to Arab heritage and presenting it in an amusing fashion.

Nasser Al Ajamai, a Kuwaiti national, said that Katara, which he was visiting for the second time, is a cultural, touristic and social project that "reflects Qatar's civilisational vision and its keenness on the welfare of its citizens and visitors", adding that the project "has become widely famous across the Gulf region

because it provides visitors with all kinds of entertainment and fun in an intimate family atmosphere."

Abdullah Karam, also from Kuwait, described Katara as a comprehensive cultural and touristic city in the region that speaks to the cultural and urban renaissance in Qatar. "What I saw during my first visit to Katara is more than wonderful. It deserves this leading status as an ideal destination for Gulf cit-izens on holidays," Karam said, expressing delight about Katara's offerings of entertaining per-formances and interesting cultural segments.

→ Continued on page 3

Visitors from Kuwait and Oman praise Katara Eid Festival

Astana

QNA

THE PAVILION of the State of Qatar in Expo Astana 2017 in the Republic of Kaza-khstan celebrated Qatar's National Day, where a number of different events were organised in addition to a range of cultural and heritage activities.

Minister of State for For-eign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi attended the function along with Kaza-khstan's Vice-Minister of National Economy, Bakenov Ernar Bakytzhanovich.

Al Muraikhi said that marking the National Day at Qatar's pavilion in Astana Expo 2017 reflects the pio-neering achievements and comprehensive renaissance of Qatar under the wise and established leadership of the Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The Minister of State for Foreign Affairs added that Qatar has provided an attrac-tive investment environment for various projects and launched projects that reflect the values of partnership between the public and private sectors in addition to promis-ing investment opportunities in various sectors such as educa-tion, health, tourism and sports.

→ See also page 2

QNA

Hotel occupancy in Qatar during Eid Al Fitr holiday was over 95 percent

despite the siege imposed on the country, a number of officials and directors in Qatar's hospi-tality sector said, dismissing reports in some media outlets that claimed occupancy rates were low.

Speaking to QNA, the offi-cials highlighted the growth in tourist numbers from Kuwait and Oman as well as the

increasing demand from local tourism, noting that demand for bookings during the Eid holiday was high, with Kuwaiti and Omani tourists making up the biggest share of reservations besides the local residents' growing interest to benefit from promotions offered by hotels.

Hospitality sector leaders aim to diversify the markets by attracting visitors from new countries as the occupancy rates during the weekend shows the substantial capacities of the hos-pitality sector and the increasing

demand for travel to Qatar from new markets in and out of the Gulf region.

The growing demand encouraged a drive in promo-tions that some hotels offered during the Eid holiday. Residents of many luxury hotels enjoyed a free extra night when they booked two consecutive nights during Eid. Wael Maatouk, Gen-eral Manager of Sharq Village and Spa, said the property enjoyed a good occupancy rate during Ramadan, adding that Eid reservations reached 100%.

Qatari riyal strengthens THE Qatari riyal has strengthened against the US dollar in the forward market after two days of sharp falls caused by the continued diplomatic rift between Qatar and neigh-bouring Arab powers.

One-month riyal for-wards showed the currency marked as firm as 3.751 per dollar, accord-ing to Reuters data, after hitting a low of 3.793 on Monday.

Three-month for-wards also saw the riyal strengthening to 3.755 compared to the previous day's low of 3.796.

Qatari assets have come under pressure since Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a boycott on the Arab Gulf country three weeks ago.

FIFA: No improper activity by Qatar

THE World Cup bidding report published for the first time yesterday high-lights the unease of investigators looking into Qatar's methods to win the vote, concluded there was no "evidence of any improper activity by the bid team."

Hotel occupancy during Eid at 95%

Traditional dance during Eid celebrations at Doha Festival City, yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Agencies

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani said yesterday that demands by Arab

states that his country stop aid-ing terrorism were baseless and unacceptable, Al Jazeera televi-sion reported.

“What has been presented by the countries of the blockade are merely claims that are not proved by evidence and are not demands,” Sheikh Mohammed was quoted as saying.

“The demands must be real-istic and enforceable and otherwise are unacceptable.”

The Foreign Minister met US Secretary of State Rex Tillersoni in Washington, yesterday. Tiller-son is also meeting with Kuwait’s Foreign Minister Sheikh Sabah Al Ahmed Al Sabah and Kuwait’s Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs. He will then hold joint meeting with United Nations Sec-retary-General António Guterres and the Kuwaiti Minister to dis-cuss the current GCC crisis, reported Al Jazeera.

State Department Spokes-woman Heather Nauert said talks would continue through the week, but added the Saudi demands remained "challeng-ing" for Qatar.

"Some of them will be diffi-cult for Qatar to incorporate and to try to adhere to," she said.

"We continue to call on those countries to work together and work this out."

Saudi Foreign Minister Adel Al Jubeir, who was also in Wash-ington, was unbudging amid attempts by US and Kuwaiti dip-lomats to mediate the row.

Riyadh has laid down a list of 13 demands for Qatar, included the closure of Al Jazeera, a downgrade of diplo-matic ties with Iran and the shutdown of a Turkish military base in the emirate.

Meanwhile, German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel yester-day appealed to all sides in the Qatar crisis to hold direct talks to avoid a further escalation, and warned that continued tensions between Qatar and its neighbors would further deepen fault lines in the region. "The longer the crisis around Qatar continues, the deeper and stronger the lines of conflict will become," said Babriel, adding that "We hope that there soon can be direct discussion among all those involved because a further

escalation will serve no one."Gabriel told reporters at a

joint news conference in Berlin following a meeting with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif, that he viewed the Arab list as the "starting point of negotiations, not the end" when asked about a 13-point list issued by Arab states.

Gabriel argued that this could be discussed at the nego-tiation table. "My interpretation...

this is the starting point of nego-tiations, that is not the end. And so…necessary is to come to the table and then negotiate. Then we will see what kind of result is reachable,"

For his part Zarif supported Gabriel's appeal for direct talks between Qatar and the Arab states calling for a political solu-tion to the crisis."Our region cannot tolerate any further esca-lation," he said criticising the

blockade imposed on Qatar by the Saudi Arabia-led bloc.

Iranian Foreign Minister pointed out that "Problems, issues, differences cannot be resolved through imposition of pressure and sanctions and blockades". Zarif said Iran was interested in working towards a political solution to the conflict with Qatar arguing that "pres-sure and sanctions and blockades" were not the answer.

FM: Demands unacceptable

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani with US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson at the US State Department in Washington DC, yesterday.

Qatar's pavilion at Astana Expo marks National Day

US Democratic Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland expressed his support to the announcement of Republican Senator and Chairman of the United States Senate Committee on

Foreign Relations Bob Corker, who said he will withhold approval of US weapons sales to members of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), until there is a path for settling the crisis in the region resulting from the siege laid by Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Bahrain on Qatar.

In a quote reported by the New York Times, Cardin said that he shares "Senator Corkers concern that the current GCC dispute distracts from our shared, most pressing security challenges defeat-ing ISIS." In a letter sent to US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson and circulating in different media outlets, Corker said that the GCC coun-tries must put in more effort to stand up to terrorism. He noted that the recent conflicts can only harm efforts to fight ISIS.

US Democratic Senator supports withholding arms sales to GCC

What has been presented by the countries of the blockade are merely claims that are not proved by evidence and are not demands: Foreign Minister.

do

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02 WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017HOME

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi visited Qatar's pavilion at Astana Expo 2017, yesterday. Al Muraikhi attended the function along with Kazakhstan's Vice-Minister of National Economy, Bakenov Ernar Bakytzhanovich; Qatar's Ambassador to Kazakhstan, Ahmed bin Ali Al Tamimi; Astana Expo President Akhmetzhan Yessimov; staff of the Ministry of Economy and Commerce's committee on preparation for participation in the exhibition; official delegations from participating countries; and media personalities. Al Muraikhi also met Foreign Minister of the Republic of Kazakhstan, Kairat Abdrakhmanov, and Minister of National Economy in the Republic of Kazakhstan, Suleimenov Timur Muratovich. The meetings dealt with bilateral relations and means to promote them in addition to topics of mutual interest.

Al Muraikhi visits Expo Astana 2017

Major international award for Al Jazeera’s programme on womenThe Peninsula

Aela Callan has been named the 2017 winner of the Jane Cunning-ham Croly Award for Excellence

in Journalism Covering Issues of Con-cern to Women for her film broadcast on Al Jazeera’s 101 East programme.

Callan won the award for “Good Morning Pakistan”, a film about female reporters risking their lives to deliver the news in one of the most dangerous coun-tries for journalists. The documentary aired on 101 East, Al Jazeera’s weekly Asian current affairs programme.

The Jane Cunningham Croly Award recognises journalists who best capture the courage, vision and spirit of Jane Cunningham Croly, a pioneering jour-nalist who devoted her life to helping women improve their lives and expand their rights.

The award organisers said Callan’s film “demonstrated a concern for the rights and the advancement of women in society and made a bold statement about the challenges women journalists face”.

Callan is the first international award winner. “It’s an honour to win this award,” said Callan. “It’s a chance to again highlight the brave young women who risk their lives reporting on Paki-stan’s tribal areas. In a society shaped by conservative attitudes and where threats by armed groups have shut down most media outlets, these reporters take incredible risks to tell stories that only women can tell.”

Callan’s film focuses on the women working for Tribal News Network, a radio station that broad-c a s t s a c r o s s Pakistan’s troubled border region with Afghanistan. She meets the team making women’s voices heard in a part of the world where they are not often seen in pub-lic life.

“Good Morning Pakistan” also recently won a Gold Medal at the New York Festival Film and Television Awards.

Callan was pre-sented with the Croly Award at a gala ceremony on June 26 in Palm S p r i n g s , California.

Callan reports international sto-ries, from Nepal and Myanmar to Cambodia and France, Callan has been producing films for 101 East since 2011. She was a Knight Fellow for

Journalism Innovation at Stanford Uni-versity in 2013-2014.

Aela Callan receiving the Jane Cunningham Croly Award for Excellence in Journalism.

Emergency cases treated at HGH down during EidFazeena Saleem The Peninsula

The number of cases treated at Hamad Gen-eral Hospitals ’ Emergency Depart-ment has seen a

decrease this year during the Eid Al Fitr holidays compared to pre-vious years, says a an official.

At least 590 cases were treated at the Emergency Depart-ment on the third day of Eid Al Fitr, yesterday. Among them two were related to cardiac problems, one road traffic accident and 16 with minor stomach ailments. No hospital admissions were reported and the cases were received between 6am and 6pm.

However, no critical cases as well as deaths were reported unlike in the previous years, said Dr Ahmed Al Shaikly, Consultant at the Emergency department.

“It’s a very good sign that there were no serious cases or mortality was reported during this

Eid holidays. In previous years we get around 1,500 cases and it has even been 2,000 cases in some days. This year it is very less com-pared to the previous years and its mainly due awareness,” Dr Al Shaikly told The Peninsula.

But he said that people with conditions like diabetes and hypertension have a tendency of missing medicines and consum-ing food which make them fall sick. “Some people fall sick because of their habit. They

should not miss medications and must avoid rich, salty, sugary food items during the festive season. Also should try to avoid restau-rant food,” Dr Al Shaikly.

During the three days of the Eid holidays, the Emergency Department has treated total of 1,512 cases due to road accidents, trauma, cardiac problems and other reasons.

Among them ten were seen due to road traffic accidents and no serious cases were reported. Some 36 cases were treated for cardiac problems, more than 50 for stomach ailments and around 60 for trauma due to different reasons. During Ramadan and Eid holidays, the Emergency units of Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) receive increased number of cases commonly due to stom-ach ailments and road traffic accidents. In a bid to reduce such cases, the HMC taken steps to cre-ate awareness among people during Ramadan and Eid holidays.

At least 590 cases were treated at the Emergency Department on the third day of Eid Al Fitr. However, no critical cases as well as deaths were reported unlike in the previous years.

Traffic violations go up with rise in populationIrfan Bukhari The Peninsula

A sharp increase of 82 percent has been registered in traffic violations of all nature in May

2017 in Qatar when compared to April this year on month on month basis.

The traffic violations are of dif-ferent nature including speeding, passing red light signal, violating traf-fic signs or instructions, non-renewal of registration or driving licences, etc.

The 41th edition of Qatar’s Monthly Statistics recently released by the Ministry of Development Plan-ning and Statistics for May 2017 indicates that the total number of traffic violations registered in April 2017 was 155,963 while it jumped to 283,832 in May 2017, registering an increase of 82 percent (MoM basis).

According to newly-released sta-tistics, if the number of traffic violations is compared with the number of traffic violations regis-tered in the same month of the last year (May 2016), there is an increase of 99.6 percent in traffic violations.

The increase in incidents of traf-fic violations is directly linked with the increase in population and increase in number of vehicles on the roads. Improved mechanism of the Traffic Department to catch all vio-lations like installing mobile radars at various roads of the country is another important factor behind this increase.

In May, the population of Qatar also touched an all-time high cross-ing 2.7 million. It was 2,700,539 in May 2017, while it was counted 2,675,522 in April this year. Alone in April and May this year as many as 17,106 new driving licences were issued in Qatar. As many as 5,835 driving licences were issued in May 2017, and 6,874 licences in April this year to non-Qatari males, the monthly statistics bulletin reveals. The driving licences issued to Qatari males, Qatari females and non-Qatari males in these two months are 4397.

With the increase in population and more driving licences, the number of vehicles is also increas-ing every month. Only in May, April 2017, as many as 14,250 new vehi-cles were cleared.

As many as 7,651 new vehicles were cleared in May 2017 and 6,599 new vehicles were cleared in April 2017, according to the bulletin. The document further reveals an increase of 15.9 percent in registration of new vehicles of all kinds in the given period on MoM basis.

Like increase in traffic violations, traffic accidents also increased from 509 in April 2017 to 558 in May this year registering a 9.6 percent increase. According to monthly statistics report of the ministry, Madinat Khalifa wit-nessed a 23.6 percent increase in May 2017 when compared to April 2017 (MoM basis) while Dukhan has wit-nessed a 17.4 percent decrease in the same period on MoM basis.

Ministry conducts major cleaning drive during Eid holidaysThe Peninsula

The Ministry of Municipal-ity and Environment established special teams

to supervise and conduct clean-ing work in different parts of the country for the Eid holidays, said a senior official from the Ministry.

The Ministry, represented by the General Cleanness Department, has formed teams before the Eid to supervise and conduct the cleaning activities which covers all parts of the country, said Safar Mubarak Al Shafi, Director of the General Cleanness Department of the Ministry.

The cleaning drive was focused on the coastal areas such as Sealine and Al Gharri-yah beaches which witnessed a

major turnout of visitors during the Eid days, said Al Shafi, high-lighting that the cleaning drive

was carried out in two shifts morning from 4am to 6pm.

Al Shafi noted that his

department is giving priority to areas of pubic gathering dur-ing the Eid celebrations like

Corniche, public parks and beaches where teams of clean-ers and supervisors have been

deployed as part of pre-planned work plans for such events.

Personnel from the General Cleanness Department of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment conduct cleaning drive at various part of the country.

03WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017 HOME

People take part in a drawing event at Gulf Mall, yesterday. RIGHT: Summer Festival 2017 and Eid celebrations going on at Doha Festival City. Pics: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Huge crowd throng malls & outdoor venues for festivitiesThe Peninsula

Malls and outdoor venues hosting Eid activities yesterday saw hordes of peo-p l e t a k i n g

advantage of the final day of Eid Al Fitr holiday.

Souq Waqif was teeming with families who flocked to the gigan-tic tent especially set up for the celebrations where children enjoyed the various offerings such as redemption games, bouncy castles and bump cars.

Restaurants as well as food carts scattered around Souq Waqif which sell street food and snacks witnessed brisk business till late at night. One of the more popular food carts is the one sell-ing Turkish ice cream not only for the deliciously flavoured ice

cream but for the playful ice cream vendor who never failed to put a smile on the customers’ faces.

Although malls which are participating in Eid Celebrations organised by Qatar Tourism Authority (QTA) are hosting Eid activities until Thursday, many people especially families visited them to enjoy free family-friendly entertainment.

Hundreds of visitors flocked to the recently opened Doha Fes-tival City (DFC) to watch a fun parade throughout the mall fea-turing various artistes including stilt walkers garbed in their col-ourful costumes. They also enjoyed having their photos taken with living bronze statues, one of the features of the celebrations. Ardha dancers and African Drum-mers as well as the Ice Age Show

also attracted crowds. Qatari singer Saoud Jassim enthralled audience in attendance in a con-cert which concluded yesterday’s DFC events. People at Gulf Mall watched in awe as Tanoura danc-ers swirled around their breathtaking routines, while the roaming circus, mime and human statues also attracted attention from many a visitor.

Families who chose to spend their time in The Mall did not only enjoy the roaming mascots and parades, they also liked activities that hone children’s skills such as painting and educational games.

The Entertainment City at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre, as well other participat-ing malls including Al Khor Mall, Mall of Qatar, Lagoona Mall and Landmark Mall also drew huge number of people.

Eid celebrations continue with wide-ranging eventsQNA

Despite the siege laid by some GCC countries on Qatar, citizens and res-

idents as well as visitors from around the world continue to enjoy Eid which is being cel-ebrated by Muslims all over the world.

The State of Qatar remains a preferred destination to many people from the GCC and around the world despite the siege. This is mainly due to the good hospitality of the Qatari society and their wel-coming manner. It is also due to the strong efforts made by state institutions and private ones to ensure this Eid remains a special occasion. They held a wide variety of events with the goal of main-taining a joyful atmosphere during those blessed days.

Many streets, parks, and malls were especially deco-rated in the spirit of Eid. In Souq Waqif for instance, you'll find many festivals and events. Those events could range from being art-related to any other form of entertainment events. There is a family tent filled with games for children from all ages that receive vis-itors on all Eid days throughout the day. There are also special plays performed for children.

Souq Al Wakrah for its part has a large tent enough to fit 700 people. The tent hosts a musical entitled Sea Mermaid. The show adopts many of the latest technology of sound and lighting, dedi-cated to children and all family members. The show is one hour long, performed twice a day on all Eid days. There are a wide variety of games available for children.

In Katara Cultural Village, Eid Al Fitr festival continues with a focus on celebrating Arab heritage. Aspire, mean-while, is holding a sports

festival that has a wide vari-ety of events. Qatar Tourism Authority for its part is keen on organising a number of events every year during Eid to attract the public in Qatar and tourists as well.

Other institutions, sports clubs, and youth centres of the Ministry of Culture and Sports are hosting wide-ranging events to celebrate Eid. In Qatar Sports Club, there is the 30th Eid festival that is taking place at the sports venue in cooperation with Qatar Vol-untary Center.

This year's event is under the theme of "Tamim Al Majd" (Tamim is Glory.) The festival organisers are holding a number of games and will hand out trophies and gifts to the winners.

Science activities organ-ised by the Qatar Science Club started yesterday at Mall of Qatar including a full pro-gramme of science shows, 3D dome, learning station, 3D printing and robot making and will continue throughout the Eid holidays.

Al Kaaban Youth Center held a two-day Eid Al Fitr fes-tival including entertainment activities, children games and gifts offered to the families and visitors of Al Kaaban area. In addition, Al Jumayliyah Youth Center held a children's festival with a diverse pro-gramme with gifts for winners and visitors.

Different malls around Doha such as Mall of Qatar, Hyatt Plaza, Doha City Cen-tre, Ezdan Mall, Lagoona Mall and Dar Al Salam Mall are organising various attractive entertainment shows for chil-dren and families. Each shopping centre offers a vari-ety of entertainment and educational activities as well as fun activities offered in the Pearl.

The Doha Exhibition and Convention Center is organ-ising an entertainment city

filled with events, live shows, games, and entertainment, the programme will continue to run till the end of the summer season.

The Aqua Park is also cel-ebrating Eid with fun and entertaining activities for those interested in water games. Eid activities continue

with parasailing tours from Sealine to Mesaied, museum tours and other activities offered and provided to all families in Qatar and abroad.

Children enjoy Eid activities at the Souq Waqif, yesterday. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

Katara enthralls visitors

→ Continued from page 1Omani visitors echoed the same

impression about Katara. Naji Haidar Al Balushi said he was visiting Katara for the first time with his family after hearing about it from friends and media and "I was surprised about the various cultural and entertainment programs that it offers, which entertain families" in a warm atmos-phere. "It really deserves to visited several times and I'll put it on top of my destina-tions during my future visits to Qatar."

Although Ali Al Hamadani, another Omani visitor, was in Katara for the sixth time, he said that every time he finds dif-ferent entertainment activities, adding that Katara is "the most beautiful place to spend Eid and holidays" as it features "culture, entertainment and knowledge and has the necessary facilities for any tourist in terms of restaurants and cafes that offer the best in world cuisine."

Adnan Al Buraiki, also from Oman, highlighted Katara's attention to heritage, noting that it brings together all forms of heritage in the same place as the different activities "take you on an entertaining jour-ney through our Arab heritage treasures and delve into the depths of the past."

The second day of Katara festival drew wide public attendance as visitors enjoyed artistic and drama performances as well as dazzling fireworks that added an atmosphere of joy excitement, in addition to a theater play featuring stories from Arab heritage that attracted huge numbers of visitors.

Khaled Abdulraheem Al Sayyed, the head of the festival's organizing commit-tee, said they were keen on presenting new and innovative concepts that "combine our original Arab heritage with its interesting tales and sophisticated modern technol-ogy," noting that the performances are drawing wide audience from several nationalities, especially Gulf visitors who chose Qatar as their Eid holiday destination.

Al Sayyed added that Katara has pro-vided all services and facilities for the visitors such as transportation from and to parking areas, drinking water, special cars for people with disabilities, an infor-mation centre, restaurants and cafes, and ATMs.

Children enjoy activities at Gulf Mall. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

04 WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Kenya's President Uhuru Kenyatta acknowledges supporters during the unveiling of the Jubilee Party's manifesto in Nairobi, yesterday.

Jubilee manifesto unveiled

Mosul

Reuters

Iraqi forces yesterday pushed towards the river side of Mosul’s Old City, their key target in the eight-month campaign to

capture Islamic State’s (IS) de-facto capital, and Iraq’s prime minister predicted victory very soon.

Iraqi forces, battling up to 350 militants dug in among civilians in the Old City, said federal police had dislodged IS insurgents from the Ziwani mosque and were only a few days away from ousting mili-tants completely from the Old City.

“The victory announcement will come in a very short time,” Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said on his website on Monday evening.

“The operation is continu-ing to free the remaining parts of the Old City,” Lieutenant Gen-eral Abdul-Wahab al-Saadi of the Counter Terrorism Service (CTS) told a Reuters correspond-ent near the frontline in the heart of the Old City.

Iraqi forces had about 600 meters (2,000 ft) left to cover before reaching Mosul’s Cor-niche road along the western bank of the Tigris, federal police commander Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat told Iraqi State TV. “In a few days our

forces will reach Corniche and bring the battle to its conclu-sion,” said Jawdat, adding that police had forced militants out of Ziwani mosque in the Old City’s southwestern corner.

The fall of the northern Iraqi city would mark the end of the Iraqi half of the “caliphate” pro-claimed by Islamic State, though the militant group remains in control of large areas of both Iraq and Syria.

In Syria, the Islamic State-held capital of Raqqa, is virtually encircled by a US-backed, Kurdish-led coalition.

Federal police and elite CTS units in Mosul were battling with IS fighters in the Old City’s maze of narrow alleyways, along with the army and inte-rior ministry units. Iraqi forces seized more ground, the army’s 16th infantry division capturing

the al-Mashahda quarter in the northwestern corner of the Old City, a military statement said.

Up to 350 militants are esti-mated by the Iraqi military to be dug in in the Old City among civilians in wrecked houses and crumbling infrastructure. They are trying to slow the advance of Iraqi forces by laying booby

traps and using suicide bomb-ers and snipers.

Those residents who have escaped say many of the civil-ians trapped behind Islamic State lines—put at 50,000 by the Iraqi military - are in a desper-ate situation with little food, water or medicines.

A US-led international

coalition is providing air and ground support in the eight-month-old offensive.

The Iraqi government once hoped to take Mosul by the end of 2016, but fighting has dragged on as militants have reinforced positions in civilian areas, effec-tively using residents as human shields.

Landmine kills eight in Kenya MOMBASA: Four police offic-ers and four civilians were killed yesterday after their truck hit a landmine on a road near Kenya’s border with Somalia, police officials said, in the second such attack this month.

Another four police offic-ers and one civilian died in a blast in northeast Kenya on June 16, while at least eight police officers were killed in two roadside bombings a month earlier. Somalia’s mil-itant Islamist al Shabaab group claimed responsibility for the May attacks.

“Four police officers and four children have been killed in an IED explosion in Lamu (county),” police spokesman Charles Owino said of Tues-day’s blast, without giving further details.

Ex- Syrian defence minister dies in ParisPARIS: Syria's former defence minister Mustafa Tlass, a close friend of Pres-ident Bashar Al Assad's father and predecessor Hafez, died in Paris yesterday, his son Firas said. He was 85. Tlass, whose other son Manaf was among the most high-profile regime officials to defect dur-ing the early days of Syria's uprising, died in a hospital on the outskirts of the French capital. Tlass "died this morn-ing at the Avicenne hospital and will be buried in Paris in the hope he can one day be buried in Damascus," Firas Tlass said.

Washington/Moscow

Reuters

The United States warned Syria’s leadership against staging a chemical weap-

ons attack after Washington detected what appeared to be active preparations at a Syrian airfield used for such an attack in April, US officials said.

Russia, Syrian President Bashar Al Assad’s main interna-tional backer, denounced the warning and dismissed White House assertions that a strike was being prepared as “unac-ceptable,” raising the tension between Washington and Mos-cow over the Syrian civil war.

Pentagon spokesman Cap-tain Jeff Davis said the United States had recently seen activ-ity at Shayrat airfield, the same base targeted by a US cruise missile strike on April 6.

Davis said the activity was from “the past day or two.” He did not say how the United

States collected its intelligence. “This involved specific aircraft in a specific hangar, both of which we know to be associated with chemical weapons use,” Davis said.

The White House said on Monday it appeared the Syrian government was preparing for another chemical weapons attack and it warned Assad that he and his military would “pay a heavy price” if it went ahead.

The U.S. strike on the Shay-rat airfield followed the deaths of 87 people in what Washing-ton said was a poison gas attack in rebel-held territory two days earlier. Syria denied it carried out the attack.

The White House said the recent preparations in Syria were similar to actions before the April attack. But Russia chal-lenged the US intelligence.

“I am not aware of any information about a threat that chemical weapons can be used,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry

Peskov told a conference call with reporters yesterday.

“Certainly, we consider such threats to the legitimate leader-ship of the Syrian Arab Republic unacceptable.”

Russian officials have pri-vately described the war in Syria as the biggest source of tension between Moscow and Washing-ton, and the April cruise missile strike ordered by US President Donald Trump raised the risk of confrontation between them.

Assad visited a Russian air base at Hmeymim in western Syria on Tuesday, his first visit to the base from which Russian jets have supported his war effort. Photos circulated showed the Syrian leader in the cockpit of a Russian Sukhoi SU-35 war-plane, and inspecting weapons, personnel and armored vehicles at the base near Latakia.

On Sunday, he performed Moslem prayers in Hama, the first time he has visited the city since the start of the conflict.

Niamey

Reuters

Over 50 African migrants are feared dead in the Sahara desert of north-ern Niger yesterday after being

abandoned by their drivers, aid workers and local officials said.

A convoy of three pick-up trucks were transporting over 70 migrants north through the Sahara Desert towards Libya—a typical route for West Africans seeking to reach Europe— when the driv-ers abandoned them.

Twenty-three of the migrants sur-vived after walking to a nearby town for help, the International Organization for Migration said in a press release on Tues-day, which said the survivors came from Nigeria, Gambia, Ivory Coast and Senegal.

A local official told Reuters that of the remaining 52, at least 15 were known to have died from thirst while attempts on Monday to find the rest were unsuccess-ful. There was no immediate word on

their nationalities. “The migrants were abandoned about 50 miles from Siguid-ine,” Fatoumi Goudou, a prefect in the Bilma department of Niger, told Reuters.

It is not clear why the drivers aban-doned their passengers, but rival militias and militants seeking money often stop migrant convoys and are a constant haz-ard for smugglers.

Hundreds of thousands of impover-ished West Africans risk their lives crossing the Sahara each year to try to reach Europe, crammed on the back of pick-up trucks and with few provisions to survive if something goes wrong.

It is one of the most dangerous parts of the journey, though the number of deaths in the vast and unpopulated region is hard to track. Some estimate that thou-sands die each year—more than in the Mediterranean sea between Africa and Europe.

Over 40 West African migrants died of thirst last month in northern Niger after their truck broke down.

Over 50 African migrants feared dead in Niger’s Sahara desert

Preparations for another Syrian chemical attack, says Pentagon

AFP

JERUSALEM: Israel's Mossad spy agency is starting a fund to invest in technology firms creating products that could assist its work, including those involving robotics and encryp-tion, the prime minister's office said yesterday.

The fund, to be called Libertad, will invest in research and develop-ment programmes at "cutting-edge technology startup companies," a statement said.

It said it was calling on firms to submit proposals, particularly in areas including robotics, encryption and personality profiling. The state-ment said Mossad would not publicise the names of the firms in which it invests.

It said Libertad would be open to anyone and provided an email address to submit proposals (apply@libertad.gov.il), adding that it would offer up to two million shekels ($570,000, 500,000 euros) for projects.

Iraq forces seize more ground in Mosul

United Nations

AFP

The UN envoy for Syria said yesterday he hoped that talks set to begin next week in Astana would help create favorable conditions for the next round of talks scheduled in Geneva,

despite rising tensions. Staffan de Mistura's remarks came a day after the United States announced the regime of Bashar Al Assad was preparing a fresh chemical attack, warning that Damascus would pay a "heavy price" for such an assault.

"The ideal trajectory over the coming two weeks could be... progress in Astana on 4-5 July, then a further set of joint techni-cal aspects meetings with the opposition group in the same week, and then a continued discussion and dialogue hopefully among main international stakeholders including at the G20 summit in Hamburg on 7-8 July," said De Mistura.

"I hope the combination of these elements would help shape an environment conducive for the next round of Inter-Syrian talks in Geneva" in July, he added. Fresh talks for peace in Syria spon-sored by Russia, Iran and Turkey are set to be held in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, on July 4 and July 5 before a seventh round of UN-sponsored negotiations on July 10 in Geneva.

During the last talks in Astana in May, Russia and Iran — allies of Assad — and Turkey, a supporter of the rebels, adopted a plan that envisaged the creation of secured zones in order to establish a lasting truce in several regions.

The plan had allowed many towns to have return to some degree of normalcy, said De Mistura, even though "in some areas the fight and violence has been continuing and in fact intensified."

UN envoy optimistic over Syria talks in July

Mossad creates fund to invest in tech firms

Moroccan police arrest 50 after protest clashes RABAT: Around 50 protest-ers were arrested following violent clashes with Moroc-can police in the northern city of Al Hoceima on Monday during the Eid Al Fitr holiday, a local rights activist said.

Since police in the North African country arrested Nasser Zefzafi, who organ-ised protests against corruption and unemploy-ment, on May 29, demonstrations have taken place on an almost daily basis and more than 100 activists have been detained by police. Dozens of others have been sentenced to varying prison terms. According to MAP state news agency, 39 police were admitted to hospital after being injured by “a group of individuals” who threw stones at the officials on Mon-day night.

A member of the Iraqi Federal Police (right), throws a hand grenade against Islamic State militants at the frontline in the Old City of Mosul, Iraq, yesterday.

Iraqi forces had about 600 meters left to cover before reaching Mosul’s Corniche road along the western bank of the Tigris, federal police commander Lieutenant General Raed Shaker Jawdat told Iraqi State TV.

05WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017 ASIA

New Delhi

IANS

In a strong message to Islamabad, the US and India have told Pakistan to ensure its territory is not used for terror attacks on

other countries and asked it to bring to justice terrorists blamed for attacks in Mumbai and other places in India.

A joint statement issued after US President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Narendra Modi met here late on Monday stressed that terrorism was a global scourge that must be fought and terrorist safe havens rooted out in every part of the world.

The statement said India and the US will fight together "this grave challenge to humanity".

The statement specifically referred to the terror attacks in Mumbai (2008) and Pathankot (2016) that it said were perpe-trated by Pakistan-based groups and said the terrorists must be expeditiously brought to justice.

The two countries expressed their commitment to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups including Al Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM), Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), D-Company and their affiliates.

The LeT was blamed for the Mumbai mayhem of November 2008 that killed 166 Indians and foreigners including Americans. The Jaish was accused of attack-ing the Indian Air Force base at Pathankot in Punjab, leaving seven security personnel dead.

India appreciated the US decision to designate the Paki-stan-based Hizbul Mujahideen

leader Syed Salahuddin as a Spe-cially Designated Global Terrorist - just ahead of the Trump-Modi meet of Monday -- "as evidence of the commitment of the US to end terror in all its forms".

In their remarks to the media after delegation level talks, both Modi and Trump spoke of their commitment to combat terror-ism. Modi said battling terror and destroying terrorist hideouts would be an important part of mutual cooperation.

"We will enhance the intel-ligence exchange to boost coordination to address our common concerns over terror-ism and will deepen our policy coordination accordingly."

Modi said the two countries had agreed to increase

cooperation to tackle increasing radicalisation, extremism and terrorism.

He said India and US were concerned over growing insta-bility in Afghanistan due to terrorism. He said the two coun-tries will maintain close consultation, communication and coordination to ensure peace there. Trump said both India and the US had been struck by ter-rorism, "and we are both determined to destroy terrorist organisations and the radical ideology that drives them.

"We will destroy radical Islamist terrorism," he said.

"Our militaries are working every day to enhance coopera-tion between our military forces. And next month, they will join together with the Japanese navy to take place in the largest mar-itime exercise ever conducted in the vast Indian Ocean."

Answering questions later, Indian Foreign Secretary S Jais-hankar said the US move to declare Syed Salahuddin as a global terrorist had sent a clear signal. "You should take the step for what it is. It is in a sense fix-ing responsibility, highlighting a problem. "There is a context to it... It is focusing on a particular group and a particular individ-ual... I think none of us can really miss that message."

The Foreign Secretary said there was a broad discussion on Pakistan. It was also extensive and very detailed on certain issues. "We had very much con-verging viewpoint of what is the problem, let us diagnose the problem. And it is not just the Indian situation... A lot of discus-sion related to what was happening in Afghanistan."

India & US urge Pakistan to fight terrorism

Netherlands

AP

Indian Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi has met his Dutch counterpart during a brief

stop in the Netherlands on his way home from meeting Presi-dent Donald Trump in Washington.

India and the Netherlands

signed three agreements, includ-ing a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on water cooperation, following a meet-ing between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Dutch Pre-mier Mark Rutte here.

Modi says that in the year that the Netherlands and India mark the 70th anniversary of establishing diplomatic relations,

"it is absolutely natural that we focus even more on our bilateral relations." After his talks with Rutte and other government ministers, Modi was meeting Dutch King Willem-Alexander and Queen Maxima at their home outside The Hague and later was heading to a gathering of mem-bers of the Indian community in The Hague.

Dutch King Willem Alexander (right) and Queen Maxima with Prime Minister Narendra Modi at Villa Eikenhorst in Wassenaar, near The Hague, yesterday.

Modi meets Dutch counterpart

Thiruvananthapuram

IANS

The Congress party yester-day alleged that the Malayalam actress kidnap

case has been bungled by Ker-ala Police. Former Home Minister and present Leader of Opposition Ramesh Chennith-ala blamed Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for the lack of

outcome of the case. "Soon after the kidnap episode, Vijayan at a public meeting passed the judg-ment that there is no conspiracy," Chennithala said, adding that it led to the case remaining unsolved for so long.

He said Vijayan's public statement was why even after so long so many versions exist about what happened, "with the truth still not coming out".

Chennithala was responding to Malayalam superstar Dileep.

The actor on Monday alleged that certain sections of the media were trying to malign his repu-tation by linking him to the abduction case. He said he was prepared to undergo narco anal-ysis and brain mapping to prove his innocence.

The Congress leader hoped that the Association of

Malayalam Movie Artistes (AMMA) would break its silence on the issue. As AMMA will hold a two-day meeting in Kochi from today, Chennithala hoped the issue would be raised in it. "I feel they will certainly take up this issue at their meeting," he said.

AMMA maintained silence on the issue. In the past few days, the case has taken twists and turns. On Sunday the police

arrested two persons for black-mailing Dileep and his friend actor-director Nadir Shah. One of the two, Vishnu, was alleged to have threatened Dileep and Shah to cough up Rs 1.50 crore or else he would reveal their role in the kidnap conspiracy. Vishnu also alleged that Dileep and Shah offered Rs 2 crore by some oth-ers in the Malayalam film industry in the kidnap case.

Police bungled Malayalam actress kidnap case: Congress

Darjeeling

IANS

In a bid to cut all ties with the West Bengal government and to protest the development

board of the North Bengal hills, the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) yesterday burnt docu-ments of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) agreement.

The GTA activists gathered at Chowk Bazar and publicly set fire to the documents.

They announced more ral-lies would be held and warned all other parties against taking part in any fresh elections to the GTA in the hills. The scheduled demonstration drew a huge crowd from all across the North Bengal hill town. The demon-strators carried the Tricolor along with the GJM party flag and raised pro-Gorkhaland slo-gans, demanding statehood.

The GJM leadership present at the Chowk Bazar said similar demonstrations would be held at 45 other places in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and the Dooars region. They said the burning of the GTA documents officially marked the end of the develop-mental board in the hills.

"Yesterday we are burning the GTA memorandum agree-ment and the GTA Act that was signed in August 2011. From

today, GTA would be a non-entity in the hills. We do not want the GTA anymore. The only thing we want now is Gorkha-land," Binay Tamang, GJM's Assistant General Secretary, said. "None of the political par-ties in the hills would participate in any form of GTA election. But if the state government tries to impose the election here and anyone tries to fight the election even as an independent candi-date, they would have to do that at their own risk," Tamang warned. Similar demonstrations were observed in the plains of North Bengal as the GJM

supporters gathered in large numbers at various places in Siliguri.

The local Morcha leadership blamed Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee of trying to polarise the people in the hills and pledged to continue their fight till their demand for a separate Gorkha-land is fulfilled.

"Mamata Banerjee has repeatedly come to the hills and tried to polarise us. We are pro-testing against that by burning these documents. Our fight for Gorkhaland would continue till it is achieved," GJM leader Vishal Chettri said.

GJM activists burn GTA papers

New Delhi

IANS

Opposition presidential candidate Meira Kumar yesterday said

she will start her election campaign from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad on June 30.

"I feel I should start my election campaign from Sabarmati Ashram in Ahmedabad," she said, a day ahead of filing her nomina-tion papers. "Everybody knows the significance of Sabarmati in our country. The 'sant' of Sabarmati (Mahatma Gandhi) played an important role in the freedom move-ment of our country. That's why I am going there."

New Delhi

IANS

Five persons, including a six-year-old girl, have died and four others

injured in a fire that broke out in a slum here, the city police said yesterday.

The fire broke out in a slum cluster in the Okhla Industrial Area around 10pm on Monday.

Nine people were trapped in the blaze, of whom five are dead. When th victims were rushed to the Safdarjung and ESI hospitals, four of them were declared brought dead, and the fifth died during treatment.

The others have been admitted to the Intensive Care Units (ICU) of the hospitals. The fire broke out when a gas cylinder leaked in the slum cluster.

Fighting terror

The statement, issued after the meeting, specifically referred to the terror attacks in Mumbai (2008) and Pathankot (2016) that it said were perpetrated by Pakistan-based groups and said the terrorists must be expeditiously brought to justice.

The statement also stressed that terrorism was a global scourge that must be fought and terrorist safe havens rooted out in every part of the world.

Supporters of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) chant slogans before burning copies of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) agreement during a protest in Dagapur village on the outskirts of Siliguri, yesterday.

Mumbai

IANS

A CBI Special Court yester-day ordered the Byculla Jail authorities to pro-

duce inmate Indrani Mukerjea before the court today follow-ing a complaint of assault inside the prison, her lawyer said yesterday.

"We moved an application before Special Judge J.C. Jagdale citing injuries and bruise marks on Indrani's body and head during the jail riots of June 24," lawyer Gunjan Mangla said.

Mumbai NGO Jai Ho Foun-dation yesterday appealed to the Bombay High Court to order a probe by a specialised agency or the Central Bureau of Inves-tigation (CBI) into the jail violence. In her application, Mukerjea has also claimed that she had been threatened with sexual assault in the jail and how she sustained injuries dur-ing the prison violence on Saturday which left a woman inmate dead.

Mangla said that in the application, she had pointed out how Mukerjea was under treat-ment for certain brain-related issues and wanted to know who would be held responsible if

anything happened to her in jail. The victim in the prison violence was a jail warden, Manjula Shetye -- a 40-year-old prisoner serving the last few months of her 14-year jail term for murdering her sister-in-law in 1996 -- who complained about some missing ration from the jail stock on Friday. She was allegedly summoned by a woman jailor and beaten up brutally, according to witness statements recorded by police. Shetye was rushed to the Sir J.J. Hospital nearby but was pro-nounced dead on arrival.

Upon learning of her death, the other prisoners resorted to violence in the jail on Saturday morning, attacking jailor and polic personnel and damaging the prison properties.

Transferred from Pune's Yerawada Central Jail, Shetye was due to be released in a few months. She was made a jail warden for her good conduct and made in-charge of one of the barracks in the Byculla Jail.

Additional Director-Gen-eral of Prisons B.K. Upadhyay immediately ordered a probe into the incident and suspended six jail staffers against whom there were allegations of misbehaviour.

Meira Kumar to begin campaign from Sabarmati

Five persons dead in Delhi fire

Mumbai jail authorities asked to produce Indrani

06 WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017ASIA

Islamabad

AFP

Pakistan yesterday strongly criticised the US decision to impose sanctions on

Syed Salahuddin, senior leader of the Kashmiri militant group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.

"The designation of individ-uals supporting the Kashmiri right to self-determination as terrorists is completely unjusti-fied," the foreign office said in a statement. Kashmir has since 1947 been divided between India and Pakistan but is claimed in full by both.

Hizb-ul-Mujahideen is one of several homegrown militant groups that have for decades been fighting troops and police deployed in the Indian sector,

calling for independence or a merger with Pakistan.

The Pakistani statement complained of "gross and sys-tematic violations of human rights" in Indian Kashmir.

"Over the past one year the world has witnessed an inten-sification of the brutal policies of repression being pursued by the Indian occupation forces."

The sanctions move means the United States now consid-ers Salahuddin, also known as Mohammad Yusuf Shah, a "Spe-cially Designated Global Terrorist", the State Department said in a statement.

US officials said Salahuddin last September vowed to block any peaceful resolution to the Kashmir conflict, and threat-ened to train more suicide

bombers and to turn the dis-puted valley "into a graveyard for Indian forces".

The new sanctions mean American citizens are generally barred from doing business with Salahuddin, and all his assets subject to US jurisdiction are blocked. The State Department said that under Salahuddin, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen has claimed responsibility for sev-eral attacks.

The designation was announced just before Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was due at the White House for his first face-to-face meeting with President Donald Trump.

He first crossed into Paki-stan-administered Kashmir in 1990 and went back to Indian Kashmir several times.

Duterte reappears after a week out of public eyeManila

Reuters

Philippine leader Rod-r i g o D u t e r t e reappeared in public yesterday after an absence of a week, his

longest disappearance from the spotlight as president, amid con-cerns about his health that the government insists are baseless.

Duterte gave a speech at the presidential palace of about 25 minutes late yesterday, during which he railed at militants for their bloody occupation of a southern town, but made no mention of why he had been absent from the public eye.

Known for a busy schedule and lengthy speeches often sev-eral times a day, the 72-year-old Duterte’s low profile this month has fuelled rumours he is in declining health and that the government is trying to keep that under wraps.

What has created most

intrigue is Duterte being largely missing during what is the big-gest crisis of his year-old presidency, as the military bat-tles for a sixth week to defeat Islamic State-linked rebels cur-rently occupying Marawi City on his home island of Mindanao.

Answering queries from reporters about Duterte’s long absences, his spokesman, Ernesto Abella, said he was well and running the country as

normal. “He is very well, he’s just busy doing what he needs to do,” he said.

“As you’ve seen he’s been very much in the public eye but being out of the public eye, that is when he is able to do office work, he signs papers, he reads, he consults, he’s actually very busy.

“The thing that is very impor-tant to note is that he is on top of every situation, he is aware of what’s happening, he’s updated regularly, he reads, he listens and he’s quite aware. This is just his working style.”

Duterte was last seen on June 20 in two cities close to the vio-lence-torn Marawi, visiting soldiers and evacuees.

That followed a three-day absence after a speech in which he said his health was “immate-rial”, amid raised eyebrows about his failure to appear in public for Independence Day on June 12.

Duterte’s known ailments include back problems,

migraines due to nerve damage after a motorcycle accident and Barrett’s oesophagus, which impacts his throat. He also suf-fers from Buerger’s disease, caused by his heavy smoking in

younger days, which can cause blockages in the blood vessels.

His office has recently said he has been experiencing fatigue. His closest aide, Christopher “Bong” Go, on June 15 posted

images on social media of Duterte signing documents and standing in front of a television showing a news bulletin, adding further fuel to rumours that something was wrong.

Pakistan slams US sanctions against militant group leaderSri Lanka seeks assistance for elephant conservationColombo

IANS

Sri Lanka has sought assistance from the World Bank to conserve

its wild elephant population, an official said yesterday.

Sri Lanka boasts of 6,000 wild elephants, a major tour-ist attraction in the island nation. The Director General of the Wildlife Conservation Department, W S K Pathi-ratne, told Xinhua news agency that another nation-wide census would be conducted at the end of the year to estimate the total number of jumbos in the wild. The last was done in 2011.

"We found 5,789 ele-phants in the wild. It is a high number. It might have increased by now," he said.

Wild elephants are scat-tered throughout the country. But they are found mostly in the dry zone.

"With the increase of the number, the country also faces the increased incidence of human-elephant conflict. We have worked out a plan for the conservation of ele-phants while protecting human habitats as well," he added.

A taming programme to address the shortage in ele-phants perahera commenced at the Pinnawela elephant orphanage.

Karachi

Anatolia

Investigators probing the Pan-ama Papers scandal on the orders of the country's

Supreme Court, have summoned Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s daughter and his potentıal political heir on July 5, according to a summons from the investigation team yesterday.

Maryam is currently in Lon-don to attend her son's graduation ceremony, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) leader Talal Chaudhry told Dawn News shortly after the summons were issued yesterday.

On June 15, Nawaz Sharif appeared before the JIT and became the first sitting Pakistani Prime Minister to appear before a probe team.

The JIT has also asked the Prime Minister's sons -- Hassan and Hussain Nawaz -- to appear before it for further questioning on July 3 and 4, respectively.

Hussain, the premier's elder son, has already appeared before the probe team for five times.

The Prime Minister's cousin, Tariq Shafi, has also been asked to appear before the JIT on July 2 for the second time.

The six-member JIT is due to present its report to the apex court on July 10.

In its judgment of April 20 in the Panama Papers case, the Supreme Court had constituted the JIT and empowered it to summon the Prime Minister, his sons and any other person to investigate allegations of money laundering.

Sharif family is alleged to have purchased four apartments in London's Park Lane area through money laundering. Pre-mier maintains innocenceThe premier maintains his innocence and has rejected all accusations of financial irregularities against him.

He has repeatedly said that all transactions made by his family members were fair and

in accordance with the country’s laws.

In April 2016, Sharif's eldest son, Hussain Nawaz, admitted in an interview with a local Paki-stani channel that his family owned the offshore companies and the apartments in London.

He had insisted the transac-tions were all legal and refused to make his assets public, claim-ing that such a move could harm his business interests.

On April 20, a five-member bench of the Supreme Court decided not to disqualify Sharif from office but ordered further probe into the alleged Panama Papers scandal involving the premier’s children.

Protesters demonstrating against the lack of security provided to residents of Parachinar in Islamabad, yesterday.

Two alpinists go missing on mountain

US Navy holds Japan memorial for sailors

Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte addressing Filipino-Muslim leaders during an Eid Al Fitr celebrations at the Malacanang Presidential Palace in Metro Manila, yesterday.

Health concerns

Duterte gave a speech at the Presidential Palace of about 25 minutes late yesterday, during which he railed at militants for their bloody occupation of a southern town, but made no mention of why he had been absent from thepublic eye.

Islamabad

AFP

Two alpinists, a Spaniard and an Argentinian, have gone missing while

attempting to summit a peak in northern Pakistan nicknamed "Killer Mountain", mountaineer-ing experts said yesterday.

"Alberto Zerain, a Spanish alpinist, and Mariano Galvan, an Argentinian national, went miss-ing while trying to climb Nanga Parbat," the world's ninth high-est mountain, Alpine Club of Pakistan spokesman Karrar Haidri said.

Muhammad Iqbal, owner of

Summit Karakorum, the tour operating company that had arranged the climb, said the duo had left base camp on June 19 but were holed up in their tent for three days at an altitude of 6,100 metres (20,000 feet) due to bad weather.

"They pushed for the sum-mit again as the weather got better but lost contact with our staff at base camp on Friday," he said.

"Our sherpas on the moun-tain estimate them to be somewhere above 7,000 metres which makes it impossible for them to climb and search so we have requested a search and

rescue helicopter, which will start either today or tomorrow depending on weather condi-tions," he added.

At 8,125 metres, Nanga Par-bat earned its grisly nickname after more than 30 climbers died trying to conquer it before the first successful summit in 1953.

In 2013 gunmen shot dead 10 foreign climbers and their Pakistani guide at the Nanga Parbat base camp - one Amer-ican with dual Chinese citizenship, two other Chinese, three Ukrainians, two Slovaki-ans, one Lithuanian and one Nepalese.

Tokyo

AFP

Thousands of flag-waving mourners lined the streets of a US naval base in Japan

yesterday where a memorial service was held for seven sail-ors killed in a collision with a cargo ship this month.

The facility in Yokosuka, south of Tokyo, is the home port of destroyer USS Fitzgerald, which crashed with a cargo ship in a busy shipping channel off Japan's coast. The sailors' relatives, some 300 shipmates on the guided-missile destroyer and US military officials attended the service, as a probe into the cause of the deadly accident continues.

The solemn gathering was closed to media. Pictures and video supplied by the navy showed sailors folding US flags with photographs of the seven

dead hanging above them. Wreaths with red, white and blue flowers, representing the colour of the US flag.

Before the ceremony, more than 2,000 people including members of the US Navy and Japan's Maritime Self-Defense Force lined the streets inside the base waving flags and saluting the crew and their relatives, the navy said in a statement.

"It's stunning, absolutely stunning, while we mourn the loss of the seven sailors, that more were not lost, and it was the heroism of the entire crew that ensured that was the case," US Pacific Fleet Commander Admiral Scott Swift said, according to the statement.

"There was no understand-ing of what had happened at the moment of impact. But there was complete understanding of what needed to be done.

Panama Papers probe targets Sharif's daughter

Sailors ceremonially folding seven American flags during a memorial ceremony in Yokosuka, yesterday.

07WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017 ASIA

Former United States President Barack Obama and his wife Michelle walking during a holiday with his family in Gianyar, Bali, Indonesia, yesterday.

Holidaying

Seoul

AFP

North Korea compared US President Donald Trump to Adolf Hitler yesterday

in its latest diatribe, amid high tensions over Pyongyang's mil-itary ambitions and ahead of a visit to Washington by South Korea's new leader.

The latest attack came a week after nuclear-armed Pyongyang called Trump a "lunatic" as tensions rose fol-lowing the death of US student Otto Warmbier, who was detained for 18 months in the North and then sent home in a coma.

An editorial on the official Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) dialled the hostile rhet-oric up higher, slamming Trump's key policies as being akin to "Nazism in the 21st cen-tury". Trump declared at his inauguration in January that "From this moment on, it's going to be America first".

KCNA said: "The 'American-first principle'... advocates the world domination by recourse to military means just as was the case with Hitler's concept of world occupation."

Trump was "following Hit-ler's dictatorial politics" to divide others into two catego-ries, "friends and foes" to justify "suppression", it added.

The North habitually denounces its enemies in col-ourful terms in its propaganda, but comparisons to the instiga-tor of World War II and

architect of the Holocaust are unusual even by its own standards.

A notable exception was the hawkish former president George W Bush, who included the North in his "axis of evil" along with Iran and Iraq and called then-leader Kim Jong-Il a "tyrant."

Pyongyang responded by calling Bush a "tyrant that puts Hitler in the shade" and a "polit-ical imbecile bereft of even elementary morality".

The Trump administration is pushing for stronger sanc-tions against the North over its nuclear and missi le programmes.

KCNA accused it of block-ing medical supplies in what it said was "an unethical and inhumane act, far exceeding the degree of Hitler's blockade of Leningrad".

The nearly 900-day siege of the Russian city during World War II left millions dead.

Tackling threats from the isolated North is expected to be at the top of the agenda during this week's Washington sum-mit between Trump and newly elected South Korean President Moon Jae-In.

A string of atomic and mis-sile tests by Pyongyang -- and threats of military action by Washington -- have heightened tensions on the peninsula.

Warmbier's death added further strain, with Trump slamming the "brutal regime" of the North's young leader Kim Jong-Un.

Beijing

AP

China has pre-emp-tively hit back at the United States for speaking "irresponsi-bly" ahead of an

expected Trump administration move to name China among the world's worst human trafficking offenders.

Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said yesterday that China strongly opposes the US using its domestic laws to attack another country's record, and maintained that the results of China's anti-human trafficking efforts are "obvious for every-one to see."

The US State Department was expected to unveil later yes-terday a 2017 human trafficking report that downgrades China to the lowest "Tier 3" category, which includes North Korea, Zimbabwe and Syria. The report is the first major US reprimand of China's human rights record under the Trump administration,

which has generally played down the promotion of rights in its foreign policy, including with China. Tier 3 countries can be penalized with sanctions or barred from participating in US cultural exchange programs, although the US president has the authority to waive sanctions.

It wasn't immediately clear what led the administration to downgrade China, but previous

editions of the annual human trafficking report have cited China as a "source, destination and transit country" for forced labor and sex trafficking.

"As we have said repeatedly, no country has the right to speak irresponsibly on China's domes-tic affairs," Lu said at a daily briefing in Beijing.

"China's government's com-mitment to fighting human trafficking has been resolute and our results have been obvious for everyone to see," he said, adding that China is willing to work with other countries "on the basis of mutual respect" to combat global human trafficking.

Separately yesterday, Lu warned foreign countries against "interfering with China's inter-nal affairs" after the US Embassy in Beijing called for the release of Liu Xiaobo, a democracy activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who was diagnosed with terminal liver cancer after eight years in prison.

Since his inauguration,

President Donald Trump has generally taken a conciliatory tone toward Beijing on a range of issues including trade and

currency while courting Presi-dent Xi Jinping's cooperation in exerting pressure against North Korea's nuclear program. But the

president tweeted this week that Xi and China's efforts to help with North Korea have "not worked out."

Hong Kong

AFP

A towering shark fin sculp-ture is the latest addition to Hong Kong's har-

bourfront as part of an artistic push against the infamous trade.

Hong Kong is one of the world's biggest markets for shark fin, which is viewed by many Asians as a delicacy and is often served as a soup at expensive Chinese banquets.

The eight-metre-high (26 ft) stainless steel fin was created by Chinese artist Zheng Lu as part of an exhibition to highlight the threat to shark populations from human hunting. Hosted at the Maritime Museum in central Hong Kong, it is a stone's throw from the neighbourhood of She-ung Wan, where dried seafood stores sell the fins.

Conservationists are becom-ing increasingly vocal about the trade, with some dressing in bloody shark costumes and lying down in front of one of the city's best-known restaurants earlier

this month. The new exhibition, entitled "On Sharks and Human-ity", features paintings and sculptures as well as multimedia and interactive art.

Scarred and bloodstained

ceramic sharks printed with Chi-nese-style motifs stand next to a shimmering electric blue instal-lation in the shape of the fish.

Hong Kong-based Ho Siu Kee is one of 36 artists taking part in the show.

"People in my generation -- their impression of sharks mainly comes from 'Jaws'," said Ho, who noted that humans kill sharks at vastly higher rates than the other way around.

Ho created a metal cage in the shape of a fin for the exhibi-tion, inspired by an attack scene in the classic Steven Spielberg film, and photographed himself standing inside it in the sea dur-ing low tide.

George Wong, real estate developer and founder of Parkview Arts Action, commis-sioned the artworks and said that finning "breaks my heart".

Seoul

Anatolia

South Korea is set to start delivering aid to North Korea for the first time

since President Moon Jae-in took office in Seoul last month. The South’s Unifica-tion Ministry has approved the Eugene Bell Foundation Korea’s application to send tuberculosis medicine worth $1.7m and construction mate-rials valued at around $310,000 for developing hos-pital wards in the reclusive state, according to an official cited by Yonhap News Agency yesterday.

While this marks a break-through for the Moon administration, Seoul’s liberal leader has made it clear he wants to offer aid and dia-logue in order to boost neighborly relations — the Koreas never agreed a peace treaty after their 1950-53 war.

A series of provocations led to a total breakdown in bilateral ties last year under Moon’s conservative prede-cessor Park Geun-hye — although the Eugene Bell Foundation Korea was per-mitted to continue giving medical support to the North, it was barred from providing any construction assistance.

Beijing

Reuters

China’s legislature passed a new national intelli-gence law yesterday after

an unusually brief round of dis-cussions, granting authorities new powers to monitor sus-pects, raid premises, seize vehicles and devices and oper-ate overseas.

President Xi Jinping has overseen a raft of legislation to bolster national security against perceived threats from both within and outside China.

The government gained new

powers with a national security law passed in 2014, followed by measures on counter-terrorism, the management of foreign non-government bodies and cyber security, among other subjects. Yesterday, the standing commit-tee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) passed the law, the largely rubber stamp body said in a short statement on its website. The law will go into effect today, it said.

A draft was released for one round of public consultation that lasted three weeks. Laws are often subject to at least two rounds of consultation, or more

if controversial.The legislation was also

passed after only two rounds of discussion by parliament’s standing committee. Laws often go through three or more rounds. State news agency Xin-hua said last week the law was “needed to ensure the nation’s security interests are met”.

Intelligence work needs to be performed both within and outside China, and foreign groups and individuals who damage national security must be investigated, according to the law, which was also carried on parliament’s website.

Ryugasaki

AFP

Salvaged from the Papua New Guinean jungle, a restored World War II Jap-

anese Zero fighter has taken to the skies over the land that gave birth to the once-feared war-plane. The aircraf t -- emblazoned with tell-tale ris-ing sun symbols — is one of just a few airworthy Zero fighters left in the world, nearly eight decades after they struck fear into the hearts of Allied pilots.

The plane flew near Tokyo this month, watched by busi-nessman and aviation buff Masahide Ishizuka who bought

the plane for $3.1m in 2008.The badly damaged aircraft

was originally found in the 1970s in dense jungle where it had crashed decades earlier. It later ended up in the United States — Japan's chief World War II adversary.

Developed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, Zero planes took part in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, while "kami-kaze" suicide pilots crashed them into US ships in the later stages of the war.

"Since it was born in Japan 75 years ago, this baby has been travelling around the world," Ishizuka said after the recent flight.

China hits back at US on human trafficking downgrade

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson speaking during an event about the 2017 Human Trafficking Report at the US State Department in Washington, DC, yesterday.

Hong Kong shark art protests at fin trade

George Wong, Parkview Arts Action founder, with Chinese artist Xia Hang's artwork 'To Poseidon' at the 'On Sharks & Humanity' exhibition in Hong Kong, yesterday.

North Korea likens Trump to Hitler

China passes tough intelligence lawSouth Korea okays first aid shipment to North Korea

Dreaded WWII Zero fighter takes to the skies over Japan

Strongly opposes

Foreign ministry spokesman Lu Kang said yesterday that China strongly opposes the US using its domestic laws to attack another country's record, and maintained that the results of China's anti-human trafficking efforts are "obvious for everyone to see."

Pentagon’s statement that it has detected preparations for another chemical attack at a Syrian regime airbase allegedly involved in a sarin attack in April marks a new escalation in the war-torn country.

The White House has warned the Bashar Al Assad regime that it would ‘pay a heavy price’ if it went ahead, provoking angry reactions from Assad, Russia and Iran who said that Washington’s assertions were unacceptable and would only heighten the tension and widen the conflict.

America’s warning cannot be dismissed as a provocation because Assad has used chemical weapons before and he doesn’t have to worry about a US retaliation if he is not planning another chemical attack in the first place. The White House was emphatic about what it had found out when it said: “The United States has identified potential preparations for another chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime that would likely result in the mass murder of civilians, including innocent children.”

The April gas attack on Khan Sheikhoun had killed at least 80 people, causing international condemnation, and the incident prompted a US missile strike on the base although the attack did not seriously damage its capabilities. The world is genuinely worried about a repetition of the crime

because Assad is in a hurry to consolidate his gains and bring the war to an end on his terms. By issuing an unusually blunt warning, Washington is also sending a clear message to Assad’s backers that they would not be allowed to cross the redlines. The US ambassador to the UN, Nikki Haley, tweeted: “Any further attacks done to the people of Syria will be blamed on Assad, but

also on Russia and Iran who support him killing his own people.” Unlike Barack Obama, President Donald Trump has shown a willingness to act if the Assad regime went too far.

The onus is on Assad to avoid another confrontation and he must stop killing his people to pave the way for a negotiated settlement. Also, all sides must refrain from measures that will lead to a dangerous escalation as there is a risk of confrontation between the US and Russia in Syria. Moscow has accused Washington of making “preparations for a new cynical and unprecedented provocation” and US forces in Syria have been empowered to defend themselves against any attack. The tension has led to a string of clashes with pro-regime forces competing for the same territory.

Unfortunately, Syria has become a battleground for competing powers. The Syrian people are being sidelined and used as pawns in a conflict which they started for freedom and democracy.

08 WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017VIEWS

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

CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

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

editorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMED

msalim@pen.com.qa

War of words in Syria

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The charge is a fiction. I will not allow myself to be accused of crimes that I did not commit. My intention is to work for Brazil. I will not shirk the battles.

Michel TemerBrazil’s President

Unfortunately, Syria has become a battleground for competing powers.

The Supreme Court’s decision to allow portions of President Donald Trump’s travel ban to take effect is a win for the administration - but the impact will be far less severe

than Trump’s first iteration of the measure.That is because the high court effectively

allowed Trump to ban from coming to the US only citizens of six mostly Muslim countries “who lack any bona fide relationship with a person or entity in the United States.”

It also nudged the president to complete his promised review of vetting procedures, which might mean the issue is resolved by the time the court is set to fully consider the ban in its October term.

For now, if you have a relative here, have been hired by a US employer or admitted to a US university, you can still probably get a visa. But if you’re applying cold as a visitor or through the diversity visa program, you probably can’t.

“The facts of these cases illustrate the sort of relationship that qualifies,” the justices wrote. “For individuals, a close familial rela-tionship is required. A foreign national who wishes to enter the United States to live with or visit a family member . . . clearly has such a relationship. As for entities, the relationship must be formal, documented, and formed in the ordinary course, rather than for the pur-pose of evading [the executive order].”

The justices wrote that an immigration nonprofit could not simply add a foreign national to a client list just so that person could travel to the US They said the same standard would apply to refugees wanting to come to the US.

There could, of course, be disputes. In a dissenting opinion that said the travel ban should have been allowed to take effect in full, Justice Clarence Thomas, joined by Jus-tices Samuel Alito and Neil M. Gorsuch, wrote that the decision would “prove unworkable.”

“Today’s compromise will burden execu-tive officials with the task of deciding - on peril of contempt - whether individuals from the six affected nations who wish to enter the United States have a sufficient connection to a person or entity in this country,” Thomas wrote.

When Trump issued his first travel ban, chaos ensued. The State Department provi-sionally revoked tens of thousands of visas, and some travelers were detained and sent away from US airports, prompting a flurry of legal challenges. That will not be the case after the Supreme Court’s decision.

Trump had revised and rewritten his executive order, and it now affects only the issuance of new visas to people from six Muslim majority countries: Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Libya, Yemen and Syria. That means no one should be blocked at a US air-port, but rather they will simply be denied a visa.

Leon Fresco, deputy assistant attorney

What the Supreme Court’s travel ban ruling meansMatt ZapotoskyThe Washington Post

general for the Office of Immigration Litigation in President Barack Obama’s Justice Department, said that in some ways, the court’s ruling restores long precedent.

“It has never been the case for 100 years that someone can simply sue us for not getting a visa,” he said.

But Fresco said the decision also puts pressure on the administration to review its vetting procedures - and pos-sibly end the ban.

That is because the administration has posited the ban as a temporary measure, designed to alleviate officials’

“investigative burdens” while they assessed what information they need about travelers coming to the US.

The visa ban was

supposed to last 90 days, the refugee ban 120. In the interim, the Homeland Security secretary was to have asked the affected countries to provide infor-mation about their citizens’ wanting US visas, review the data and report to the president those which could not ade-quately comply.

But the administration said it felt blocked by a US district judge from even conducting such a review, and Trump earlier this month signed a memoran-dum indicating that the order would take effect within 72 hours of when the injunctions on his ban were lifted or stayed.

The Supreme Court wrote that the government now should be able to do its work. “We fully expect that the relief we grant today will permit the Execu-tive to conclude its internal work and provide adequate notice to foreign gov-ernments within the 90-day life of [the order],” the justices wrote.

The court said it would take up the travel ban fully in its October term - their ruling Monday only partially lifted lower courts’ stays on the measure. By that time, the 90-day period will have run, and Fresco said the administration will be pressed to come up with good reasons for imposing a ban.

“If there is not an answer to the question on the first day of oral argu-ments about why this ban is still in place, that is going to make the court much more skeptical about the govern-ment’s reasons for having this ban,” Fresco said.

When Trump issued his first travel ban, chaos ensued. The State Department provisionally revoked tens of thousands of visas, and some travellers were detained and sent away from US airports, prompting a flurry of legal challenges. That will not be the case after the Supreme Court’s decision.

ED ITOR IAL

Activists holding placards as they march in protest against the US Supreme Court’s decision to revive parts of a travel ban on people from six Muslim-majority countries, in Manhattan, New York, yesterday.

09WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017 OPINION

What is Qatar-GCC showdown really about?

UUS President Donald Trump’s recent statements and tweets on the Middle East have puzzled US friends and foes alike by threatening further escalation of regional conflicts.

Last year, he said that he would “seek harmony” in the Middle East as US commander-in-chief. But after his first visit to the region, tensions began to rise, especially in the Gulf. Now Trump’s flip-flopping is threatening the stability of the area, which holds some 50 percent of the world’s energy reserves.

On one hand, after long claiming that Saudi Ara-bia hated America and was behind 9/11, he now sees the kingdom as the bedrock of regional security and moderation, America’s best friend and foremost ally in the “war on terror”.

On the other hand, less than two weeks after call-ing Qatar a “crucial strategic partner” in his Riyadh speech, and boasting of selling it “beautiful” Ameri-can weapons, he suddenly began to jeer against Qatar, accusing Doha of supporting terrorism.

To add to the confusion, Trump then offered to mediate between Saudi Arabia and Qatar and asked his secretary of state to calm the situation and urge restraint, which he did rather tactfully in a carefully worded public statement. But less than an hour later, Trump accused Qatar of historic, high-level support of terrorism and undermined his foreign policy establishment in the process. All of which begs the question: Why? Why the dramatic u-turn on Saudi Arabia, the confusion on Qatar? And what are the implications for the region?

Some blamed the administration’s most recent flip-flop on the persistent foreign policy confusion in the Trump White House. Others detected complicity between the president and his secretary of state, sug-gesting that they have been playing “good cop-bad cop” with Qatar.

For his part, Trump claimed that he took the posi-tion against Qatar after his meetings in the region, where his counterparts told him of Qatar’s support for terrorism. But what could the Saudis, Emiratis, Egyp-tians and Bahrainis say that the CIA, Department of State or the Pentagon didn’t know or couldn’t share with the president before his upbeat meeting with the emir of Qatar, Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani?

After all, Qatar has $30bn worth of investments in the United States and stands out as the host of the largest American military base in the Middle East, from which much of the “war on terror” is being fought in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan. Also, most of the trumped up charges against Qatar are either demonstrably thin, false or totally fake.

For example, the Band of Four accuses Qatar of supporting the Taliban because it opened an office for the Afghan insurgency, when in fact it did so at the behest of the US administration to facilitate peace talks.

Qatar has also been accused of supporting some of the anti-regime groups in Syria, but a number of its Gulf partners also did so. Moreover, General Joseph Vogel, chief of the US military’s Central Com-mand, wrote that Qatar is a “key and critical” ally that could be of much help in facilitating a sustaina-ble deal in Syria.

Hamas’ political presence in Doha was another item of complaint. But by allowing Hamas a political presence in their capital, the Qataris have had a moderating effect on the Palestinian resistance group. It’s perhaps worth remembering that Hamas won the last legislative elections in Palestine, which the Bush administration helped facilitate a decade ago.

US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has rightly claimed Qatar has “a history of supporting groups that span the spectrum of political expression from activism to violence”. But who doesn’t do that in the Middle East? Washington also has such a record, and it is a very long and extensive one. Besides, it’s no vice to support those who seek freedom from occu-pation and oppression.

The same goes for accusations against Qatar “punching above its weight”, especially when it does so in the realm of soft power, like media, philan-thropy and sport. Don’t tiny UAE and Israel, just like Saudi Arabia, punch above their weights in most controversial ways?

And then there’s my favourite accusation of Qatar “having it both ways” by presumably financing Al Jazeera and providing platforms for persons and groups hostile to US and Israel, and at the same time hosting the biggest US military base in the region. Assuming that’s a real issue, for that I say, “He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone.”

It seems to me that’s traditionally what countries do, for ill or good. Some call it statecraft or a balanc-ing act. Others refer to it as pragmatism or opportunism. But it’s certainly nothing abnormal in international relations, especially when it comes to smaller countries trying to stay afloat in stormy waters.

Also, which country involved in this whole mess doesn’t try to “have it both ways”? Could it be the Egyptians, who condemned Hamas and opened an indirect channel to the Palestinian group in Gaza? The Emiratis, who accuse Qatar of interfering in other countries’ affairs, while intervening militarily in Libya, Yemen and other countries? Could it be the

Saudis, who speak of regional stability while waging a reckless war in Yemen? Or be it the US, which sup-ports its Nato ally, Turkey, while simultaneously arming its nemesis within, the PYD/PKK?

How do any of these even begin to compare with what Qatar does?

To be sure, Qatar has made a few mistakes of its own in the early days of the Arab Spring, but it also seems to have learned from past mistakes, notably the idea that diplomacy trumps war, and mediation, openness and reform is the safest and best long-term bet in an evermore complicated region.

And Qatar is back at doing what it does best. Like a Geneva in the Gulf, it hosted mediation efforts among various conflicting parties, be they Palestinians, Leba-nese, Sudanese, Afghans, Libyans or others; certainly more than any other state in the region. And whatever leverage it has over so-called extremist groups, it has used effectively to resolve, not inflame conflict.

Alas, some of Qatar’s more hostile neighbours seem to have concluded the opposite after their adventures in Yemen as well as Libya and Syria. After decades of destructive wars, they’re now advocating open confrontation with Tehran.

To be sure, Qatar has long sided with Saudi Ara-bia in opposing Iran’s sectarian policies in the region, especially in Iraq and Syria. But like most other Arab and Western nations, it opposes an open showdown with Iran in the Gulf, and rejects the idea of regime change there - especially as the Iranians continue to show support for moderate governments that are frequently at odds with Iranian extremists and are

more concerned with building up their

country than with regional hegemony.And yet, the US president has allowed Riyadh to

take draconian measures against Qatar even after it became clear that their pretexts are false and their consequences, intended or otherwise, are leading to serious escalation and instability in the region.

So if it’s not about Qatari behaviour, what is the crisis about and why has Trump inflamed it?

One grudge Trump might have against Qatar lies in the fact that, unlike the Emiratis and the Saudis, who invested in his properties and gave him gener-ous concessions, it didn’t give Trump business incentives that would allow him to expand his brand in the country.

But such banality couldn’t really be the reason why the US president was so prone to ride the anti-Qatar bandwagon, could it? Alas, and for the record, during his campaign, Trump did boast about liking the Saudis for buying $40 million apartments in his towers.

Considering his tendency to value money above principle, and everything else, the US president was clearly “bribed” by his Saudi hosts during his visit to the country. They offered the Trump administration hundreds of billions of dollars of lucrative arms pur-chases and promises of investment before asking their guest to support them against their nemesis, Qatar.

Indeed, the Saudis exploited Trump’s short-sighted consent to outsource his campaign against “Islamic terrorism” in order to frame Qatar. They also used this opportunity to deflect any and all US accusations directed at the kingdom in the US Con-gress and media.

But Trump might’ve also had an agenda of his own that correlated with that of the Saudis and Emir-atis. Trump made a strategic decision to reverse

Obama’s policy towards the Middle East and has committed his administration to support Saudi Ara-bia, Israel, Egypt and the UAE against Sunni extremism and Iranian clerics.

This meant creating the right conditions for rap-prochement between Israel, the UAE, Egypt and Saudi Arabia; the so-called “outside-in” approach to resolving - or rather dissolving - the Palestinian issue. The fact that this effort is headed by Trump’s inexperienced, radically Zionist son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who maintains close relations with both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, speaks volumes. We are witnessing an “unholy trinity” that’s bound to destroy any hope for regional stability.

Worse, instead of leading an already quite disas-trous regional coalition against Iran, Trump lazily entrusted this new strategy to his reckless junior allies. This is exactly what his predecessor, President Barack Obama, rejected. Obama refused to be dragged into petty squabbles and regional confrontations. He may have been weak on Syria, but he was smart to decou-ple US strategy from that of its regional clients, Saudi Arabia and Israel. In short, Obama refrained from lev-eraging US power to these unsavoury or inexperienced regional players, which would have been utterly dangerous, if not totally suicidal.

This might explain the reason why the experi-enced men and women at the US State Department and the Pentagon didn’t go along with President Trump’s unconditional embrace of Riyadh, and warned against drinking Abu Dhabi’s Kool-Aid.

Indeed, Secretary Tillerson was “mystified” by the sudden escalation and took the initiative from the White House to lash out at Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their procrastination and lack of seriousness in articulating their grievances and presenting their demands to Qatar. He also questioned the motivations behind the crisis, arguing that they manufactured the crisis with Qatar to settle old grievances that have nothing to do with terrorism or security.

Tillerson, the former CEO of ExxonMobil, who has ample experience in the Gulf region, insisted that the demands from Qatar must be “reasonable and actionable” in order to bring a swift end to the crisis and avoid compromising wider US interests.

Interestingly, since Tillerson publicly repri-manded Saudi Arabia and the UAE for their procrastination, President Trump has (thus far) kept quiet and allowed his more qualified foreign policy chiefs to handle the crisis with caution and maturity.

Indeed, the White House seemingly made another u-turn last week, saying that the Gulf crisis was a “family issue” rather than an international cri-sis about supporting terrorism.

Wait! What! A family feud? Really?! So what about accusing Qatar of “historic high-level support of terrorism” and giving the green light to the Emirati and Saudi leaders to behave recklessly? Is it really possible to classify this crisis as a “family issue” after the Band of Four exploited Trump’s folly to besiege Qatar, split the GCC, and plunge the region into a downward spiral?

When a list of demands that the Band of Four say Qatar must comply with in order to end the crisis was finally released, it turned out to be neither rea-sonable nor actionable. Indeed, there’s a general consensus that the demands in the 13-point list are anything but “measured and realistic”, to quote UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson.

If anything, the wording, tone and sweeping nature of the document signal total ignorance of international law and the UN charter. The text under-lines Saudi Arabia and the UAE’s unmasked intention to take control of Qatar’s sovereignty and independ-ent foreign policy.

The assumptions in the list, such as Qatar’s sup-port for the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL, known as ISIS) or al-Qaeda, are clearly baseless. And contrary to US insistence on evidence to support their accusations, there was absolutely nothing in the document to support these outrageous claims.

The Band of Four demands that Qatar downgrade diplomatic relations with Iran, even though the UAE

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohamed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson during a meeting at the US State Department in Washington, DC, yesterday.

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is Iran’s leading trading partner in the GCC, and the other GCC mem-bers, Oman and Kuwait, nurture stronger diplomatic relations with Tehran than Qatar.

And they demanded that Qatar round up all opposition figures from their countries in contravention to international humanitarian law, and demanded that Qatar treat the Mus-lims Brotherhood as a terrorist organisation, not a mere opposition group, as seen by most countries of the world. Qatar, like most or all Western nations, has long warned of the dangers and implications of sweeping generalisations and the labelling of popular political opposi-tion groups as “terrorist”.

The Band of Four regimes also require Qatar to shut down a mod-est Turkish military base it has been hosting for over two years, while continuing to host a US base. How is this a logical demand given that the UAE is hosting a French military base and Bahrain an American naval base?

But the demand that smacks of total hypocrisy and, frankly, stu-pidity, is the one that calls for an immediate shutdown of Al Jazeera, its affiliates and all other media outlets that are presumably sup-ported directly or indirectly by Qatar.

These demands reflect Saudi, Emirati, Egyptian and Bahraini intolerance for difference of opin-ion and press freedom. These countries are attempting to silence respectable media outlets when they themselves finance and sup-port propaganda outlets that are infamous for their hate and sectar-ian speech.

Marwan BisharaAl Jazeera

Unless the US and European foreign policy establishments restrain the Trump presidency from taking more reckless steps, we may be heading towards more regional chaos and conflict.

10 WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017EUROPE

New cyberattack spreads across EuropeKiev

Reuters

A ransomware attack hit computers across the world yesterday, taking out servers at Russia's biggest oil

company, disrupting operations at Ukrainian banks, and shutting down computers at multinational shipping and advertising firms.

Cyber security experts said those behind the attack appeared to have exploited the same type of hacking tool used in the Wan-naCry ransomware attack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers in May before a British researcher created a kill-switch.

"It's like WannaCry all over again," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer with Hel-sinki-based cyber security firm F-Secure.

He said he expected the out-break to spread in the Americas as workers turned on vulnera-ble machines, allowing the virus to attack. "This could hit the USA pretty bad," he said.

The US Department of Homeland Security said it was

monitoring reports of cyber attacks around the world and coordinating with other countries.

The first reports of organisa-tions being hit emerged from Russia and Ukraine, but the impact quickly spread west-wards to computers in Romania, the Netherlands, Norway, and Britain.

Within hours, the attack had gone global.

Danish shipping giant A P Moller-Maersk, which handles one out of seven containers shipped globally, said the attack had caused outages at its com-puter systems across the world yesterday, including at its termi-nal in Los Angeles.

Pharmaceutical company Merck & Co said its computer network had been affected by the global hack.

A Swiss government agency also reported computer systems were affected in India, though the country's cyber security agency said it had yet to receive any reports of attacks.

After the Wannacry attack, organisations around the globe were advised to beef up IT security.

"Unfortunately, businesses are still not ready and currently more than 80 companies are affected," said Nikolay Greben-nikov, vice president for R&D at data protection firm Acronis.

One of the victims of yester-day's cyber attack, a Ukrainian media company, said its com-puters were blocked and it had a demand for $300 worth of the Bitcoin crypto-currency to restore access to its files.

"If you see this text, then your files are no longer accessible,

because they have been encrypted. Perhaps you are busy looking for a way to recover your files, but don't waste your time. Nobody can recover your files without our decryption service," the message said, according to a screenshot posted by Ukraine's Channel 24.

The same message appeared on computers at Maersk offices in Rotterdam and at businesses affected in Norway.

Other companies that said they had been hit by a cyber attack included Russian oil pro-ducer Rosneft, French construction materials firm Saint Gobain and the world's biggest advertising agency, WPP - though it was not clear if their problems were caused by the same virus.

"The building has come to a standstill. It's fine, we've just had

to switch everything off," said one WPP employee who asked not to be named.

Cyber security firms scram-bled to understand the scope and impact of the attacks, seeking to confirm suspicions hackers had leveraged the same type of hack-ing tool exploited by WannaCry, and to identify ways to stop the onslaught.

Experts said the latest ran-somware attacks unfolding worldwide, dubbed GoldenEye, were a variant of an existing ran-somware family called Petya.

It uses two layers of encryp-tion which have frustrated efforts by researchers to break the code, according to Romanian security firm Bitdefender.

"There is no workaround to help victims retrieve the decryp-tion keys from the computer," the company said.

Romania police find 91 asylum seekers in truckBucharest

AFP

ROMANIAN police yester-day said they discovered 91 migrants from Iraq and Syria, including 29 children, crammed in a truck headed for western Europe.

Hiding in a Turkish lorry loaded with car parts destined for Norway, the migrants were trying to reach a coun-try within the European Union's passport-free Schen-gen zone, border police said yesterday.

The truck was stopped by police for a check at Roma-nia's border with Hungary.

Most of the migrants who were questioned had filed for asylum in Romania.

The asylum seekers com-prised 44 men and 18 women aged between 18 and 60, and 29 minors aged between two and 17.

After the border was closed between Serbia and Hungary in the year 2015, Romania became a key tran-sit point towards western Europe.

Hungary government has erected anti-migrant fences along its southern border with Croatia and Serbia, but not along the frontier with Romania.

In April this year, 111 migrants from Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan were also discov-ered hidden in a truck at Nadlac, on the Romanian-Hungarian border.

Cyprus conflict 'possible to solve': Mediator

Greek garbage collectors reject compromiseAthens

AP

GREECE'S municipal garbage collectors yesterday rejected a government compromise offer and decided to continue an 11-day protest that has left mounds of festering refuse piled up across Athens amid high temperatures during the key summer tourism season.

Municipal workers union head Nikos Trikas said that the protest will go on as planned until tomorrow at least, after an inconclusive meeting with Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras.

The union is pressing the left-led government to honor a pledge to provide permanent jobs for long-term contract workers, and rejected Tsipras' proposals as a "slight" but unsatisfactory improvement on past offers.

Greek authorities have warned that the uncollected trash poses a public health risk ahead of a heat wave forecast for later this week.

Tourism Minister Elena Kountoura urged the union to reconsider, arguing that the protest "endangers public health, and is bad for tourism as well as the country's inter-national image."

The Athens Trade Associ-ation has also called on the two sides to reach a compromise, warning that piles of garbage would discourage tourists from traveling to the Greek capital. Tourism is a vital source of rev-enue for Greece's battered economy.

Geneva

AFP

Talks in Switzerland this week on Cyprus's decades-long partition represent

the "best chance" to resolve the conflict, the UN mediator said yesterday.

"It's a unique opportunity, because after all of these dec-ades of division it is possible, it is possible to solve, and I really hope that this is the spirit by which everybody goes into this meeting," Espen Barth Eide said.

His comments came as rival

Cypriot leaders were headed to Switzerland for a make-or-break summit aiming to seal a long-elusive peace deal for their divided island.

President Nicos Anastasia-des, the Greek Cypriot leader, and his Turkish Cypriot coun-terpart Mustafa Akinci are to resume the UN-led reunification talks yesterday in the Alpine ski resort of Crans-Montana.

They will be joined initially at least by the foreign ministers from the so-called guarantor powers of Cyprus -- Greece, Turkey and Britain -- along with

EU foreign policy chief Federica Mogherini.

UN chief Antonio Guterres, who opened the previous round of talks in Switzerland in Janu-ary, has yet to confirm he will take part this time.

"The opportunity for the reunification of Cyprus is now finally before us," he said on Tuesday, calling "on all con-cerned players to seize this opportunity, for Cyprus first and foremost, but also for the wider Eastern Mediterranean region".

British Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, who was due to

attend the conference, also described it as "an exceptional opportunity", saying a lasting solution for Cyprus would "bring huge benefits to the whole island and the region". But a positive outcome is far from certain.

The UN-backed peace talks in January failed to make any headway, and Eide himself warned that "it is not going to be easy and there is no guarantee of success".

"This is work in progress, and it is hard work. There will be long days and hard work ahead," he said.

Sturgeon delays new independence voteEdinburgh

Reuters

Scotland's devolved govern-ment has shelved its immediate plans to hold a

second independence referen-dum until after the terms of Britain's exit from the United Kingdom are clear, First Minis-ter Nicola Sturgeon said yesterday.

The Scottish parliament in March backed Sturgeon's bid to hold a new referendum in 2018 or early 2019, but British Prime Minister Theresa May had refused to enter into discussions on the proposal.

"We will not seek to intro-duce the legislation for an independence referendum immediately," she said, adding that she would still aim to offer

a new vote on secession after it was clear what Britain's decision to leave the European Union meant.

Scots voted against inde-pendence by 55 to 45 percent in 2014 but Sturgeon has argued the Brexit vote changed circum-stances because Scots voted overwhelmingly against leaving the EU and they should not be dragged out against their will.

However, she had been under pressure to put off a new referendum because of her par-ty's weak performance in a national election earlier this month.

She told the Scottish assem-bly she had listened carefully to those who were concerned about Brexit but had not wanted another independence vote immediately. She said a choice

still needed to be offered, but the timing needed to be more cautious.

Brexit has strained relations between Britain's four nations because Scotland and Northern

Ireland voted to keep EU mem-bership while England and Wales voted to leave.

Scotland’s First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, addressing the Scottish Parliament in Edinburgh, yesterday.

Cyber security experts said those behind the attack appeared to have exploited the same type of hacking tool used in the WannaCry ransomware attack that infected hundreds of thousands of computers in May.

Computer virus

French lawmakers open first parliament sessionParis

Reuters

France's new parliament sit for the first time as rivals of President Emmanuel

Macron questioned a lack of political experience among dep-uties of his majority-holding Republic on the Move (LREM) party.

LREM's landslide win in par-liamentary elections earlier this month consolidated Macron's presidential win in May. Like Macron, most LREM lawmakers never previously held elected public office.

Some items on Macron's agenda of far reaching pro-busi-ness reforms are already facing resistance.

Some trade unions were due to hold protests near parliament to coincide with the start of the session to voice their opposition

to Macron's plan to relax France's stringent labour code.

"Baptism of Fire" ran the headline of conservative daily Le Figaro, in reference to the large number of political novices among the LREM. Of its 308 dep-uties, only 27 served in the previous parliament.

"Will they be docile or rebel-lious," the newspaper asked in its editorial.

"It's legitimate to ask how they will react when the political climate becomes less favourable for Emmanuel Macron.This moment will inevitably come, perhaps as early as July with the contentious labour law."

Other items on Macron's reform agenda include a new bill designed to clean up French pol-itics and an anti-terror law has also drawn criticism from both the right and the left, as well as from human rights groups.

Newly-elected members of parliament applaud during the opening session of the French National Assembly in Paris, yesterday.

11WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017 EUROPE

Queen Elizabeth II to get 8% pay increaseLondon

Reuters

British royal aides said yesterday that Queen Elizabeth and her family provide excel-lent value for money

as accounts showed the amount of taxpayer funds they will get this year will almost double to cover essential repairs to Buck-ingham Palace.

Official figures show that the royals received $54.5m in 2016-17 from the "Sovereign Grant", the government handout that covers the running costs of the queen's household and travel expenses.

That figure is set to rise to 76.1 million pounds after the government agreed an increase to pay for a 369-million-pound, 10-year refurbishment of Buck-ingham Palace, whose ageing electrical wiring, water pipes and heating system are in urgent need of repair.

Alan Reid, the queen's treas-urer known as Keeper of the Privy Purse, said the cost of the monarchy to every Briton last year amounted to 65 pence - the cost of a first-class postage stamp.

"When you consider that against what the queen does and represents for this country, I believe it represents excellent value for money," Reid said.

The royal family carried out more than 3,000 official

engagements last year, with the 91-year-old queen attending 162 and her husband Prince Philip performing 196, Reid said.

Philip, 96, who needed hos-pital treatment for an infection last week, announced in May he would retire from public life later this year.

Opinion polls show the 91-year-old queen remains hugely popular with Britons and at least two-thirds indicate they want the monarchy, which traces its royal line back to a Norman invasion in 1066, to continue.

Anti-monarchy republicans

in Britain say the true annual cost of the royals to taxpayers is hundreds of millions of pounds because security expenditure is not included, while newspapers have often been critical of the amount spent on minor royals and travel expenses.

The Sovereign Grant is cal-culated based on 15 percent of surplus revenue from the Crown Estate - a property portfolio belonging to the monarchy - two years previously and has grown rapidly since the system was introduced five years ago, with the royals receiving 31 million pounds in 2013.

The money covers staffing costs and upkeep of royal pal-aces like 1.2 million pounds spent on replacing the Orang-ery Doors at Windsor Castle that had become inoperable due to rot and decay.

Last November, the govern-ment agreed to raise the grant to 25 percent of Crown Estate surplus to pay for the overhaul of Buckingham Palace while allowing it to remain occupied.

The bill for travel in 2016-17 amounted to 4.5 million pounds, with heir-to-the-throne Prince Charles's visit to Italy, Romania and Austria at the end of March the most expensive at 154,000 pounds.

Meanwhile the royal train, which was used about 14 times last year, cost some 900,000 pounds.

Dutch govt liable for 1995 massacreThe Hague

AFP

A Dutch appeals court ruled yesterday the state was partly to blame for the

deaths of some 350 Muslim men in the 1995 Srebrenica genocide, and in a landmark move ordered it to pay limited damages.

"The court finds that the Dutch state acted unlawfully," judge Gepke Dulek said in a rul-ing, which largely upheld a 2014 decision by a lower court.

"The conclusion is that the Dutchbat (Dutch peacekeepers) knew that during the evacua-tions by the Bosnian Serbs to

separate the Muslim men and boys there was a real risk they could face inhumane treatment or execution," she said.

The Dutch soldiers had also "facilitated the separation of the men and the boys" among the refugees, she said, adding they should have been "warned of the risks and given the choice whether to stay in the enclave while their families were evacuated".

Letting the men leave the base, meant they "were deprived of a chance of survival."

Almost 8,000 Muslim men and boys were killed in the year 1995 genocide, Europe's

worst atrocity since World War II.

It occurred on July 13, 1995 when lightly armed Dutch UN peacekeepers were overrun by Bosnian Serb forces.

The peacekeepers sought to protect tens of thousands of ref-ugees who had sought safe haven at their base, which had been encircled by the Bosnian Serb forces.

Both the Dutch state and the relatives of victims had appealed a 2014 Dutch lower court ruling that the state was liable for the deaths of some 350 men who were sent off the base along with other refugees.

Sinn Fein criticises May-DUP power sharing dealSyrian migrant traffickers on trial in GermanyBerlin

AFP

THREE Syrians went on trial in German yesterday, accused of human trafficking after a boat that they allegedly used to smuggle people to Europe capsized and killed 13 people.

The case was heard by a court in the southern German state of Bavaria, the residence of one of the three accused.

The defendant and another man, 34, also from Aleppo, are accused of smug-gling people from the Turkish city Izmir to Greece on six separate trips.

They recruited the third defendant, to steer the boat on one of these trips, prom-ising him free passage on the vessel, prosecutors said yesterday.

Spain forest fire 'under control'Madrid

AFP

A wildfire that threatened a nature reserve in southern Spain designated as a World Heritage site has been brought under control, officials said yesterday after evacuating over 2,000 people.

The blaze near Huelva in the Andalusia region has affected a vast area but not yet the Donana National Park, a Unesco World Heritage site well known for the extensive biodiversity of its dunes, wet-lands and woods.

The fire, which started Sat-urday but caused no victims or injuries, "is considered under control," Andalusia's INFOCA fire control authorities said on their Twitter account, which means it is still burning but has been contained.

Belfast

Reuters

Irish nationalists Sinn Fein said the money coming in to Northern Ireland from a pact

by their pro-British rivals to prop up British Prime Minister Theresa May would not in itself help restore the province's regional administration.

But Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams said that it might help if it gave the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) confidence to do what his side deems necessary to restore power-sharing.

May struck the deal with the DUP to support her

Conservative government in major votes, pledging at least $1.3bn in extra funds to the prov-ince, a windfall DUP leader Arlene Foster said would bring the prospect of a political solu-tion in the British province closer.

However Sinn Fein, who pulled out of power-sharing with the DUP in January, prompting an election and a series of missed deadlines to restore the regional assembly, said the issues that led to the collapse remain.

"I think not, no," Adams said when asked if Foster's deal boosting infrastructure, educa-tion and health spending in the

UK's smallest region would influ-ence talks ahead of deadline in Belfast tomorrow.

"The Assembly (broke) down on issues which are mostly rights-based issues. As we stand here today, we are still in that position. If it (the deal with May) empowers the DUP, if it embold-ens the DUP then to do what they should be doing then, yes that would be something very, very positive."

Adams criticised some parts of the agreement - saying it pro-vided a "blank cheque" for a Brexit that threatens peace in Northern Ireland. But he also acknowledged that the funds

could help to ease "the enormous pressure" on public services.

Many analysts believe a deal that boosts funding while not damaging Irish nationalist inter-ests could motivate Sinn Fein to agree to return to government.

Ireland's foreign minister Simon Coveney said there were still significant gaps between Sinn Fein and the DUP. North-ern Ireland risks reverting to direct rule from London for the first time in a decade if power-sharing is not restored.

May's relying on the DUP to stay in power has been criticised for potentially putting the Brit-ish government on one side of

the power-sharing agreement.But the agreement stated

that the DUP will have no involvement in the British gov-ernment's role in political talks in Northern Ireland and that both parties would adhere fully to a 1998 peace deal that ended three decades of sectarian violence.

May's wish that the prov-ince's executive decide how to spend the funds put pressure on the two sides ahead of tomor-row's deadline, but a spokesman for May's Conservative Party said that if it proved impossible to re-establish power-sharing, then the responsibility would fall to it and the DUP.

Ukraine serviceman dead in car blast

Russia begins cleaning up Soviet-era nuke base

Kiev

AFP

A suspected car bombing in Kiev yesterday killed a Ukrainian military intel-

ligence officer in an incident classified as a "terrorist act" by police, officials said.

Police said the explosion tore through a Mercedes car several kilometres from the heart of Ukrainian capital, killing the

driver and leaving charred remains of the vehicle.

The blast is the latest deadly incident to rock the city, as cri-sis-hit Ukraine battles a bloody Russian-backed insurgency in its eastern regions.

Ukraine's defence ministry named the victim as Colonel Maksym Shapoval and said he was an employee of the mili-tary's "main intelligence directorate."

Interior ministry spokesman Artem Shevchenko said that judging by initial indications it appeared "obvious" that the blast was caused by an explo-sive device, adding that investigators were probing it as terrorism.

"At the present time the pic-ture gathered of the crime suggests it was a planned ter-rorist act," Shevchenko said yesterday.

Moscow

Reuters

Russia yesterday sent a first shipment of spent fuel from Soviet-era nuclear-

powered submarines to a reprocessing plant as part of an international effort to clean-up a dangerous legacy of the Cold War.

The radioactive fuel from more than 100 reactors of over 50 submarines has been stored at Andreyeva Bay in north-western Russia, closed as a naval base in 1992, for the past 35 years.

It presented a serious envi-ronmental risk, the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), which helps manage financing for the project, said.

From Andreyeva Bay, the spent fuel will be shipped on board a specially-equipped vessel to Russia's Arctic port of Murmansk, then on to its final destination, the Mayak nuclear reprocessing plant in Chelyab-insk, near the Ural Mountains.

The project aims to remove

all of the 22,000 nuclear fuel assemblies stored at Andreyeva Bay. It is likely to take several years, the EBRD said.

The project, established in 2003, supplements Russian, multilateral and bilateral projects and is funded by the European Union and Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Ger-many, Norway and the United Kingdom.

"It is particularly pleasing to see that nations put aside their differences to resolve such crucial issues as the legacy of the nuclear-powered fleet in the north of Russia," Pierre Heilbronn, EBRD vice president for policy and partnerships, said in a statement.

To date, the fund has r e c e i v e d $ 1 8 6 m i n contributions.

Official figures show that the royals received $54.5m in 2016-17 from the "Sovereign Grant", the government handout that covers the running costs of the queen's household and travel expenses. That figure is set to rise to 76.1 million pounds after the government agreed an increase to pay for a 369-million-pound, 10-year refurbishment of Buckingham Palace.

Sovereign grant

FROM LEFT: Judges Boele, Dulek-Schermers and Dousma-Valk attend the verdict of the Court of Justice in the case of the "Mothers of Srebrenica" against the Dutch State, in The Hague, yesterday.

Police officers and secret services experts examine a car after a blast, in Kiev, yesterday.

"The project aims to remove all of the 22,000 nuclear fuel assemblies stored at Andreyeva Bay."

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A man chants slogans as media workers protest against the attacks on journalists, in Caracas, yesterday.

Protests in Venezuela

Berlin

Reuters

The image of the United States has deterio-rated sharply across the globe under Pres-ident Donald Trump

and an overwhelming majority of people in other countries have no confidence in his abil-ity to lead, a survey from the Pew Research Center showed.

Five months into Trump's presidency, the survey spanning 37 nations showed US favoura-bility ratings in the rest of the world slumping to 49 percent from 64 percent at the end of Barack Obama's eight years in the White House.

But the falls were far steeper in some of America's closest allies, including US neighbours Mexico and Canada, and European part-ners like Germany and Spain.

Trump took office in Janu-ary pledging to put "America First". Since then he has pressed ahead with plans to build a wall along the US border with

Mexico, announced he will pull out of the Paris climate accord, and accused countries includ-ing Canada, Germany and China of unfair trade practices.

On his first foreign trip as president in early June, Trump received warm welcomes in Saudi Arabia and Israel, but a cool reception from European part-ners, with whom he clashed over Nato spending, climate and trade.

Just 30 percent of Mexicans now say they have a favourable

view of the United States, down from 66 percent at the end of the Obama era. In Canada and Germany, favourability ratings slid by 22 points, to 43 percent and 35 percent, respectively.

In many European coun-tries, the ratings were comparable to those seen at the end of the presidency of George W. Bush, whose 2003 invasion of Iraq was deeply unpopular.

"The drop in favourability rat-ings for the United States is widespread," the Pew report said. "The share of the public with a positive view of the US has plum-meted in a diverse set of countries from Latin America, North Amer-ica, Europe, Asia and Africa".

The survey, based on the responses of 40,447 people and conducted between Feb. 16 and May 8 this year, showed even deeper mistrust of Trump him-self, with only 22 percent of those surveyed saying they had confidence he would do the right thing in world affairs, com-pared to 64 percent who trusted Obama.

Image of US has plunged under Trump: Survey

Steep fall

An overwhelming majority of people in other countries have no confidence in Donald Trump's ability to lead.

The falls far steeper in some of America's closest allies, like Mexico, Canada, and European partners.

Mestas

AP

Colombia reached a major milestone on its road to peace yesterday as leftist

rebels relinquished some of their last weapons and declared an end to their half-century insurgency.

The historic step was taken as President Juan Manuel San-tos traveled to this demobilization camp in Colom-bia's eastern jungles to join guerrilla leaders as they begin their transition to civilian life.

In a short, symbol-filled cer-emony, United Nations observers shut and padlocked the last con-tainers storing some of the 7,132 weapons that members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia have turned over the past few weeks at 26 camps across the country. Yellow but-terflies were released and an AK-47 converted into an electric guitar rang out plaintive chords in honor of the long conflict's victims.

"By depositing the weapons in the UN containers, the Colombians and the entire world know that our peace is real and irreversible," Santos, winner of last year's Nobel Peace Prize, told an audience

of former rebel fighters dressed in white shirts with cuffed hands shaped in a heart and a Spanish hashtag reading "Our only weapon are words."

Though hundreds of FARC caches filled with larger weap-ons and explosives are still being cleared out, the UN on Monday certified that all individual fire-arms and weapons, except for a small number needed to safe-guard the soon-to-disband camps, have been collected.

"In a world convulsed by old and new forms of violence, by conflicts whose protagonists appear irreconcilable ... a suc-cessful process constructing peace in Colombia is also rea-son for hope and a powerful example for the international community," said Jean Arnault, head of the UN peace mission in Colombia.

The day put Colombia one step closer to turning a page on Latin America's longest-run-ning conflict, which caused at least 250,000 deaths, left 60,000 people missing and dis-placed more than 7 million.

After years of thorny nego-tiations, the rebels reached an agreement with the govern-ment last year to give up their weapons and transition into a political party.

Colombia takes big step to peace as rebels lay down guns

Temer calls graft charges against him 'fiction'Brasília

AFP

Brazil's President Michel Temer def iant ly rejected a bribery

charge against him as fabri-cated on Tuesday, saying there is no proof and vowing to fight on. "The charge is a fiction," Temer said in his first public reaction since the country's top prosecutor, Rodrigo Janot, filed the cor-ruption charge with the Supreme Court late Monday.

"Where are the concrete proofs of my receiving this money?" Temer asked dur-ing a nationally televised statement at the presidential palace in Brasilia.

Temer attacked Janot, say-ing he had mounted a baseless case that was an assault on his "dignity" and sought to "para-lyze" Latin America's biggest country as it tries to exit a pain-ful recession.

"I will not allow myself to be accused of crimes that I did not commit. My intention is to work for Brazil. I will not shirk the battles," he said.

Temer, the first sitting president of Brazil to face criminal charges, is accused of accepting bribes from a g i a n t m e a t p a c k i n g company.

14 WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017AMERICAS

Brussels

AFP

President Donald Trump's decision to pull out of the Paris climate accord has

triggered a bipartisan push from US mayors to stick to the emis-sions cuts Washington had pledged to hit, the mayor of Atlanta said yesterday.

Mayor Kasim Reed said he was sending a signal of "opti-mism, passion and action" on fighting climate change to may-ors worldwide despite the pullout Trump announced this month.

"President Trump's disap-pointing decision to withdraw from the agreement will actu-ally have the opposite effect in terms of execution," Reed told a meeting of mayors from Asia, Africa, Europe, South America and North America in Brussels.

"What we did not have really was the level of cooperation, pas-sion and intensity until we saw our president's decision to with-draw," Reed said.

Trump caused outrage when he decided to withdraw the United States -- the world's second-largest emitter of greenhouse gases -- from the 2015 accord which is meant to curb rising temperatures driven by human activity.

Trump said the pact, signed by nearly 200 countries, hit the United States with "draconian financial and economic bur-dens" while competitors got off lightly.

Reed said he had attended a meeting in Miami on Satur-day where more than 300 US mayors from both the Demo-cratic and Republican parties pledged to honour the commit-ments Trump's predecessor Barack Obama agreed to in Paris. The meeting showed this

"is not a partisan issue," the Democratic mayor said.

"I won't go as far as to say we can reach the exact same goals as we could have with national leadership," Reed told AFP later.

But he said cities could do enough to keep the ball rolling until the arrival of a new US president committed to the Paris agreement.

He cited experts who argue that cities can achieve 35 per-cent to 45 percent of the targeted emission cuts without the involvement of national governments.

The Paris agreement calls for keeping average global warming below two degrees Celsius (3.6 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, and at 1.5 Celsius if possible.

Mayor Gregor Robertson of Vancouver suggested that Trump look north to see how voters in Canadian cities had changed the political map by having Justin Trudeau, a cham-pion of the Paris pact, replace his opponent Stephen Harper for the premiership in 2015.

"The Trump administration had better watch out for US cit-ies," Robertson said.

"They're on the rise and I think will prevail in the end at turning the tide and making sure the US is a climate leader," he told the gathering.

Maros Sefcovic, the Euro-pean Commission vice president for energy who co-chaired yesterday's meeting of mayors, said momentum from cities and other players was "stronger than ever before" despite Trump's decision.

Former New York mayor and billionaire philanthropist Michael Bloomberg announced a $200m plan on Monday aim-ing to back innovative policies in American cities.

Washington

Reuters

The US Supreme Court yes-terday threw out a lower court's ruling prohibiting the

use of public funds to pay for chil-dren to attend private religious schools, a day after it issued a major ruling narrowing the sepa-ration of church and state.

The justices ordered Colora-do's top court to reconsider the legality of school "voucher" pro-grams in light of Monday's ruling that churches and other religious entities cannot be categorically denied public money even in states whose constitutions explicitly ban such funding.

In that ruling, which could bol-ster the case for vouchers and

other subsidies to religious schools, the justices sided with a Missouri church that objected to being denied access to public grant money for a playground improve-ment project because the state's constitution bans public funding of religious entities.

The justices also threw out a lower court ruling in a similar case in New Mexico over a state

program that lends textbooks to schools, both public and private including religious ones, asking that court also to reconsider fol-lowing Monday's church ruling.

There is a fierce debate in the United States over school vouch-ers, which many religious conservatives advocate and peo-ple against government funding for religious purposes oppose.

Republican President Donald Trump's education secretary, Betsy DeVos, is a prominent sup-porter of such "school choice" plans. The Colorado case arose after the Douglas County School District, outside Denver, enacted a voucher program in 2011 to help pay the tuition costs of attending certain private schools, most of which were religiously affiliated.

The district argued that introduc-ing competition into education would improve public schools.

Individual taxpayers and a group called Taxpayers For Pub-lic Education challenged the voucher program, arguing it vio-lated a provision of the state constitution dating to the 19th century barring public funding for religious entities.

Washington

Reuters

Republican leaders were in a fierce push yesterday to shore up support for a health-care bill in the US

Senate after the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said 22 million Americans would lose insurance over the next decade under the measure.

Vice President Mike Pence is expected to travel to Capitol Hill to join Senate Republicans for a policy lunch before hosting a key conservative senator for dinner.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell will continue meet-ing on-the-fence senators who face questions from their gover-nors and state Medicaid officials about potential cuts to the gov-ernment insurance programme for the poor and disabled, law-makers said.

The CBO analysis on Monday prompted Senator Susan Collins, a key moderate vote, to say she could not support moving forward on the bill as it was written.

At least four conservative Republican senators - Ted Cruz,

Rand Paul, Ron Johnson and Mike Lee - said their opposition remained unchanged after the CBO analysis.

Pence will host Lee and other conservative Republican sena-tors at a dinner later on Tuesday, Politico reported, with James Lankford, Tom Cotton and Ben Sasse also invited.

Further, Collins, Paul and Johnson, along with Senator Dean Heller, have all said they will oppose a procedural motion to allow McConnell to move for-ward and bring the bill up for a vote.

Heller, a moderate Republi-can up for re-election next year in Nevada, is already facing political fallout after a group started by former campaign aides to Presi-dent Donald Trump and Pence promised to run ads against him.

The overlapping concerns and competing interests of the law-makers highlight the balancing act facing McConnell as he tries to unify his party and deliver a leg-islative win to the president.

Trump and most Republicans in Congress were elected on campaign pledges to repeal and replace Obamacare, Democratic President Barack Obama's sig-nature 2010 law that extended insurance coverage to some 20 million Americans. The pressure is on for them to deliver, now that they control the White House, House of Representatives and Senate.

Senator Angus King, an inde-pendent, lamented the lack of presidential leadership to guide the legislation that he said runs counter to Trump's promises to insure everyone, cut costs and protect those with pre-existing conditions.

"He sort of stood on the

sidelines and let these bills develop. He celebrated the House bill then said it was mean. I don't think he's getting into the details about what these bills actually do," King told MSNBC.

McConnell's goal was to vote

on the measure before the July 4 recess that starts at the end of the week. He can afford to lose just two Republican senators from the party's 52-seat major-ity in the 100-seat Senate to pass healthcare. Pence would cast a

tie-breaking vote.Moderate senators are con-

cerned about millions of people losing insurance. Conservative senators say the Senate bill does not do enough to repeal Obamacare.

Republican leaders in fierce push for healthcare voteHuge loss

22 million Americans would lose insurance over the next decade under the new measure, according to Budget Office.

At least four conservative Republican senators said their opposition remained unchanged.

Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) speaks while flanked by Senate Democrats holding photos of people who would lose their health coverage under the Senate Republicans healthcare bill during a press conference at the US Capitol in Washington, DC, yesterday.

CNN journalists resign after Trump-Russia article New YorkAFP

Three CNN journalists have resigned following the retraction of an article that

claimed the US Congress was investigating links between members of Donald Trump's administration and a Russian investment fund.

The US president seized on the incident to renew his repeated attacks on the cable network as a purveyor of "fake news."

Thomas Frank, the author of the article, editor Eric Lichtblau and Lex Haris, who headed the newly-created investigative unit

that produced the story have all quit. The article was posted on CNN's website on Thursday before being pulled on Friday. It was not picked up or mentioned on air by the network.

Trump, who has singled out the channel for criticism since the 2016 election campaign, was quick to react. "Fake News CNN is looking at big management changes now that they got caught falsely pushing their phony Rus-sian stories. Ratings way down!" he tweeted yesterday morning.

"So they caught Fake News CNN cold, but what about NBC, CBS & ABC? What about the fail-ing @nytimes & @

washingtonpost? They are all Fake News!" he wrote.

The CNN report had claimed the Senate Intelligence Commit-tee was investigating ties between the Trump administra-tion and an investment fund controlled by Russian bank VEB, which has been subject to sanc-tions by the United States and Europe since the 2014 annexa-tion of Crimea by Russia.

Citing an anonymous source, the report said the US Treasury Department was believed to be investigating Anthony Scara-mucci, a businessman and member of the Trump transition team, said to have met the

director general of the fund on January 16.

Trump's young administra-tion has been consumed by allegations -- under investigation both by Congress and the FBI, and furiously denied by the Republi-can president -- that members of his campaign team colluded with a Russian effort to tip the electoral scales in his favour. According to CNN's media correspondent Brian Stelter investigative unit members were told in a meeting Monday that the retraction did not mean the facts of the story were neces-sarily wrong. Rather, it meant that "the story wasn't solid enough to publish as-is."

Mayors bypass Trump to back Paris climate goals

Court halts deportations of Iraqis Chicago

AFP

A US judge has halted deportations of all Iraqi nationals -- some slated

for removal as early as yester-day -- on the grounds they could be tortured or killed if returned to the Middle Eastern country.

US District Judge Mark Gold-smith on Monday expanded nationwide an earlier order affecting mostly Chaldean Chris-tians who were arrested in immigration raids in the state of Michigan, alarming local Iraqi communities.

The judge said his latest order temporarily halts removal pro-ceedings against as many as 1,444 people, including in Tennessee and New Mexico, of whom 85 faced removal yesterday.

The order comes as the fed-eral government prepares to block certain citizens from six predominantly Muslim countries

from traveling to the US, after the Supreme Court Monday par-tially reinstated President Donald Trump's controversial travel ban ahead of a hearing on the case.

In a March deal between the US and Iraq, the Trump

administration agreed to remove the Middle Eastern country from the initial version of its proposed ban, in exchange for Iraq agree-ing to take in deported immigrants.

More than 100 Iraqi immi-grants with criminal records

were arrested in the Detroit area in an immigration raid earlier this month -- prompting a lawsuit.

They were slated for depor-tation back to the war-torn Middle Eastern country with a history of religious animus.

A protester scuffles with a police officer outside Trump Tower after an announcment by the Supreme Court it will take Trump's travel ban case later in the year, in New York City.

US Supreme Court tosses ruling against religious school subsidies

15WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017 BREAK TIME

Yesterday’s answer

SHOWING ATVILLAGGIO & CITY CENTER

HAGA

R TH

E HO

RRIB

LE

ALL IN THE MIND

ARCHIMEDES, BELL,

BENDIX, BENZ, BUNSEN,

BURROUGHS,

CARTWRIGHT, COLT,

CROMPTON, DAIMLER, DE

SEVERSKY, DIESEL,

DUNLOP, EDISON, FORD,

FRANKLIN, FULTON,

JEFFERSON, LEONARDO DA

VINCI, MARCONI, MORSE,

NOBEL, PULLMAN, SINGER,

STEPHENSON, TULL, WATT,

WESTINGHOUSE.

8:00 News

8:30 The Listening Post

9:00 Once Upon a Time in

Punchbowl

10:00 News

10:30 Inside Story

11:00 News

11:30 The Stream

12:00 News

12:30 Soapbox Mexico

13:00 NEWSHOUR

14:00 News

14:30 Inside Story

15:00 Al Jazeera World

16:00 NEWSHOUR

17:00 News

17:30 The Stream

18:00 newsgrid

19:00 News

19:30 Witness

20:00 News

20:30 Inside Story

21:00 NEWSHOUR

22:00 News

22:30 The Stream

23:00 Witness

08:30 Pawn Stars

09:20 Storage Wars

09:45 Storage Wars

11:50 Duck Dynasty

12:15 Duck Dynasty

12:40 Swamp

People

13:30 Ax Men

14:20 Mountain Men

16:00 Storage Wars

16:25 Storage Wars

16:50 Pawn Stars

17:40 Britain's Bloodiest

Dynasty

18:55 Big Easy

Motors

19:20 Mountain Men

20:10 American

Pickers

21:00 Billion Dollar

Wreck

21:50 Gold Hunters:

Legend Of The

Superstition...

22:40 Time Team

23:30 American Pickers

07:25 Dr. Jeff: Rocky

Mountain Vet

08:15 Wild Animal

Repo

09:10 Into The Pride

11:55 Cats 101

12:50 Wild Animal

Repo

13:45 River

Monsters

14:40 Into The Pride

15:35 Tanked

17:25 Dr. Jeff: Rocky

Mountain Vet

18:20 Insane Pools: Off

The Deep End

19:15 Tanked

20:10 Dr. Jeff: Rocky

Mountain Vet

21:05 Dr. Jeff: Rocky

Mountain Vet

22:00 Insane Pools: Off

The Deep End

22:55 Into The Pride

23:50 River

Monsters

13:05 Star Darlings

13:10 Good Luck

Charlie

13:35 Austin & Ally

14:00 Jessie

14:55 The Zhuzhus

15:45 Elena Of

Avalor

17:05 Stuck In The

Middle

17:30 Bunk'd

18:25 Alex & Co.

19:15 Star Darlings

19:45 Mako

Mermaids

20:10 Jessie

20:35 Cracke

20:40 Bizaardvark

21:05 Evermoor

Chronicles

21:30 Stuck In The

Middle

21:55 Tsum Tsum

Shorts

22:00 Bunk'd

22:25 Miraculous Tales

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is a number-

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

place the numbers 1 to 9 in the empty squares so

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

contains the same number only once.

CROSSWORD

CONCEPTIS SUDOKU

Yesterday's answer

MALL

LANDMARK

ROYAL PLAZA

ASIAN TOWN

NOVO — Pearl

AL KHOR

ROXY

Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (Action) 2D 10:00, 11:00am, 12:45, 1:30, 3:00, 3:10, 4:00, 5:45, 6:30, 8:15, 8:20, 9:00, 10:45 & 11:30pm 3D 10:15am & 3:15pm Transformers: The Last Knight (2D/Action) 10:15am, 12:00noon, 12:30, 1:00, 2:00, 3:45, 5:40, 6:00, 6:30, 9:15, 11:00pm & 12:00midnight Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 10:15am, 1:30, 4:15, 7:00, 9:45pm & 12:30am The Mummy (2D/Action) 11:00am, 1:30, 4:00, 6:00, 9:00 & 11:30pm Fantastic Journey To Oz (2D) 10:30am, 12:30, 2:30 & 4:30pm Overdrive (2D/Action) 10:00am, 12:00noon, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 6:30, 8:00, 8:30, 10:00, 10:30pm, 12:00midnight & 12:30am Transformers: The Last Knight(3D IMAX/Action) 10:00am, 12:45, 3:30, 6:15, 9:00 & 11:45pm

Transformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 6:45, 8:45 & 11:30pmAntar Ibn Shaddad (2D/Arabic) 10:00am, 3:00 & 11:00pm Railroad Tigers (2D/Action) 10:30am & 01:00amLakshyam (2D/Malayalam) 10:00am & 2:30pm Vanamagan (2D/Tamil) 9:30am & 12:00midnight DJ (Duvvada Jagannadham (2D/Telugu) 12:45pm Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 3:00, 5:15; 9:30 & 10:15pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 7:30, 8:30pm & 11:45pm Overdrive (2D/Action) 12:30pm ; Deep (2D/Action) 2:15 & 5:00pmAnbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan (2D/Tamil) 12:30 & 6:00pm

Deep (2D/Action) 10:00am; Transformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 2:30, 7:30pm, 8:30pm & 12:00 midnight; Railroad Tigers (2D/Action) 10:00am & 01:00am; Antar Ibn Shaddad (2D/Arabic) 10:15am, 3:00 & 11:00pm Lakshyam (2D/Malayalam) 12:00noon & 9:45pm Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan (2D/Tamil) 12:45 & 6:00pm DJ (Duvvada Jagannadham (2D/Telugu) 12:15pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 5:00pm & 12:30am Overdrive (2D/Action) 5:45pmPirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 3:30, 10:15pm & 1:00am

Deep(2D/Animation) 10:00am Lakshyam (2D/Malayalam) 12:00noon & 12:45am; Antar Ibn Shaddad (2D/Arabic) 10:00am Overdrive (2D/Action) 2:30pmRailroad Tigers (2D/Action) 12:00noon & 7:15pm, 12:00noon & 7:15pmTransformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 2:00, 4:30, 7:30 & 10:15pm Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 12:30, 5:30pm & 12:15am Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 3:00 & 8:00pm & 12:00midnight Vanamagan (2D/Tamil) 10:00am, 5:00pm & 9:30pm

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

12:30, 01:00, 3:30 & 04:00am CIA: Comrade In America (Malayalam) 9:30pm Lakshyam (Malayalam) 12:30, 3:00, 5:30, 8:00, 10:30pm, 01:00 & 03:30am

Anbanavan Asaradhavan Adangadhavan 12:30, 6:00 & 11:30pm Vanamagan (Tamil) 3:15, 8:45pm & 02:15am

Tubelight (2D/Hindi) 11:30am, 2:15, 5:00, 7:45, 10:30pm & 01:15am

Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 11:15am, 2:00, 4:45,

7:30, 10:15pm & 01:00am Transformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 10:45am, 1:45, 4:45, 7:45, 10:45pm & 01:45am

Pirates of The Caribbean: Salazar’s Revenge (2D/Action) 7:40, 10:20pm & 12:50am Tubelight (Hindi) 2:00, 5:15, 8:30 & 11:45pm Transformers: The Last King (2D/Action) 2:00, 5:00, 8:00 & 11:00pm Overdrive (Action) 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00 & 10:00pm Vanamagan (Tamil) 2:00 & 4:50pm DJ (Telugu) 12:00midnight

16 WEDNESDAY 28 JUNE 2017MORNING BREAK

FAJRSHOROOK

03.16 am04.46 am

ZUHRASR

11.37 am03.00 pm

MAGHRIBISHA

06.30 pm08.00 pm

PRAYER TIMINGS

Los Angeles AP

Michael Bay's "Trans-formers: The Last Knight" topped the

box office charts, but it was a dubious success. The fifth instalment in the series took in a franchise low of $68.5m in its first five days in thea-tres, $44.7m of which came from weekend sales.

In second place, "Won-der Woman" took in an additional $24.9m in its fourth weekend in theatres, pushing the superhero pic over the $300m mark. It beat out Disney and Pixar's "Cars 3," which fell to $24.1m in its second week-end, bringing its domestic totally to $98.8m.

Rounding out the top

five were the Mandy Moore shark thriller "47 Meters Down" in fourth place with $7.1m, and "The Mummy," in fifth place, with $6.1m. The top 13 movies at US and Canadian theaters Friday through Sunday, followed by distribution studio, gross, number of theater locations, average receipts per loca-tion, total gross and number of weeks in release, as com-pi led Monday by comScore:

1. "Transformers: The Last Knight," Paramount, $44,680,073, 4,069 loca-tions, $10,981 average, $68,475,562, 1 Week.

2. "Wonder Woman," Warner Bros., $24,906,310, 3,933 locations, $6,333 average, $318,111,468, 4 Weeks.

3. "Cars 3," Disney, $24,074,497, 4,256 loca-tions, $5,657 average, $98,782,390, 2 Weeks.

4. "47 Meters Down," Entertainment Studios Motion Pictures, $7,088,262, 2,471 locations, $2,869 aver-age, $23,914,194, 2 Weeks.

5. "The Mummy," Uni-versal, $6,060,495, 2,980 locations, $2,034 average, $68,744,165, 3 Weeks.

6. "All Eyez On Me," Lionsgate, $5,806,975, 2,471 locations, $2,350 average, $38,599,294, 2 Weeks.

7. "Pirates Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales," Disney, $5,396,243, 2,453 locations, $2,200 average, $160,161,569, 5 Weeks.

8. "Rough Night," Sony, $4,703,261, 3,162 locations, $ 1 , 4 8 7 a v e r a g e ,

$16,638,208, 2 Weeks.9. "Captain Underpants:

The First Epic Movie," 20th Century Fox, $4,284,115, 2,328 locations, $1,840 average, $65,747,291, 4 Weeks.

10. "Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2," Disney, $3,023,042, 1,468 locations, $ 2 , 0 5 9 a v e r a g e , $380,236,369, 8 Weeks.

11. "Beatriz At Dinner," Roadside Attractions, $1,759,977, 491 locations, $3,584 average, $2,953,757, 3 Weeks.

12. "The Book Of Henry," Focus Features, $948,369, 646 locations, $1,468 aver-age, $3,105,724, 2 Weeks.

13. "Tubelight," Yash Raj Films, $930,058, 338 loca-tions, $2,752 average, $930,058, 1 Week.

London

IANS

Water comes in two different forms -- low density and

high density, new research has found.

Researchers have known for a long time that ice can exist in two forms -- an ordered, crystalline phase and an amorphous, or disor-dered phase -- and that there are two forms of amorphous ice with low and high density.

In this study, the researchers investigated whether liquid water can also have low- and high-density forms.

"The new results give very strong support to a pic-ture where water at room temperature can't decide in which of the two forms it should be, high or low den-sity, which results in local fluctuations between the two," said Lars G.M. Petters-son, Professor in Theoretical Chemical Physics at Stock-holm University, Sweden.

"In a nutshell: Water is not a complicated liquid, but two simple liquids with a complicated relationship," Pettersson added. The results are based on experimental studies using X-rays, which were published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Science.

These new results not only create an overall under-standing of water at different temperatures and pressures, but also how water is affected by salts and biomolecules important for life. The researchers believe that the increased understanding of water can lead to new insights on how to purify and desali-nate water in the future.

Water exists in two forms

'Transformers: The Last Knight' tops box office

The Peninsula

Kalyan Jewellers, one of the region’s most trusted and leading

jewellery brands has announced the 30 winners of the “Shop & Win 30 Audi A3” global campaign.

Each of the 30 lucky win-ners will be getting an Audi A3 Car from Kalyan Jewellers. The winners were chosen through raffle draws held in India, UAE, Qatar and Kuwait. As mentioned during the ini-tial campaign announcement in April, of the 30 selected winners, 4 were from Qatar, 15 were from India, 8 from UAE, and 3 from Kuwait. The cars keys will be handed over in the coming weeks after the formalities are completed.

The winners were over-joyed when the company informed them about their win. Huda Elkahlout said she was ecstatic about it and com-mented, “I am elated by this amazing news. I still cannot believe I have won the draw and I will own the Audi A3. This is truly incredible and I would to extend my gratitude to the whole team at Kalyan Jewellers for making my shopping experience an unforgettable one with this awesome win. I will for sure be going back to the showrooms.”

Sheshadri P S, our lucky winner from Qatar expressed his happiness and remarked,

“This is truly amazing an experience for me. I truly feel one can’t get luckier than this. I mean who doesn’t love cars and that too winning a car as desirable as an Audi A3 is truly a dream come true. I can’t wait to drive the car and would like to thank Kalyan Jewellers for this amazing experience of a lifetime.”

Ramesh Kalyanaraman, Executive Director, Kalyan Jewellers said, ‘’I would like to congratulate the all the lucky winners. At Kalyan our endeavor has been to enable our customers to extract value from their purchase while providing a great shopping experience. I am delighted that we could play a small part in helping our customers real-izing their dreams.’’

The Kalyan Jewellers glo-bal campaign was launched on April 10, 2017 and culmi-nated on June 9, 2017 in India, UAE, Kuwait and Qatar.

The campaign marks the single largest offer of free Audi A3s in a raffle draw in India and GCC. Customers partici-pated in the promotion by making a minimum purchase across Kalyan Jewellers show-rooms in their respective countries.

The 15 winners from UAE, Qatar and Kuwait were selected earlier this month on June 13th, 14th and 15th. The list of winners along with their country and coupon number is as follows.

Kalyan Jewellers announces raffle draw winners

Representatives of Kalyan Jewellers during the raffle draw.

The Peninsula

According to accurate astronomical calcula-tions by Qatar

Calendar House (QCH), Qatar resident and all Arabic area countries will be seeing and observing five planets of our solar system close to the Moon in July 2017.

During these astronomi-cal phenomena we can seeing and observing planets with moon together, moreo-ver guide for amateur astronomers to know map of sky during all month. Astro-nomical expert Dr. Beshir Marzouk said.

The giant planet "Jupiter" will coming close to moon

two times during this month, Firstly: On Saturday it will be at two degrees southern Moon's centre, secondly: ON July 28; where it will be at three degrees southern Moon's centre, Qatar resident can seeing Jupiter and Moon together by naked eye over western southern horizon of Doha sky after sunset time until time set of Jupiter on Doha sky during two days remind before. Added by Dr. Marzouk

On July 7, the beautiful planet with rings "Saturn" will coming close to moon; where it will be at three degrees southern moon's center, Qatar resident can be seeing Saturn with Moon over eastern Horizon on Doha sky after sunset time until Saturn

set time on Doha sky at 3:17 Am next day.

Third brightest luminary "Venus" will coming close to Moon on July 20; where it will be near to Moon by two degrees northern moon's center, Qatar resident can be seeing Venus and Moon together by naked eye over eastern horizon of Doha sky after time rise of Venus at 2:00am until sunrise time. Dr. Beshir Marzouk added.

Finally, planet Mercury will be at one degree from southern moon's center on Tuesday July 25, Qatar resi-dent can be seeing Mercury with Moon over western Horizon over Doha sky after sunset time until Mercury set time on Doha sky at 7:50pm next day.

5 planets to be visible in Qatar in July

HIGH TIDE 07:30 – 20:30 LOW TIDE 03:15 – 13:00

Hot daytime with slight dust and

relatively humid to hazy at places

by night.

WEATHER TODAY

Minimum Maximum36oC 45oC

Courtesy: Qatar Meteorology Department

1 Alex Kuruvilla Dubai 630301

2 Ahmed Sulthan Dubai 546120

3 Joshua Samuel Dubai 580949

4 Bernard Aguila Dubai 701570

5 Sheshadri PS Qatar 139330

6 Jeevitha Saravanan Qatar 312317

7 Ashraf T Qatar 132837

8 Huda Elkahlout Qatar 215156

9 Mohaned Ameen Sharjah 757101

10 Leah Shanley Sharjah 779021

11 Ajitha VC Abu Dhabi 330280

12 Suresh Kumar Abu Dhabi 112379

13 Abdul Bare Abdul Kuwait 79929

14 Shaik Khadar Basita Kuwait 15808

15 Azhagarasan R Kuwait 45469

16 Rajeev S Kudale Belgaum 2213807

17 S Nandini Delhi 102948

18 Vijay Kumar Kolkata 1235748

19 Suguna V Visakhapatnam 1958241

20 Sindhu Sharan Hyderabad 1351096

21 Shyam B P Kannur 3453878

22 Dhanya Kodungallur 4064542

23 Rajesh Bikundia Jodhpur 1123834

24 Gurjeet Kaur Chhabra

Jalandhar 1015223

25 Bhavika Dipak Rajput Surat 466963

26 Naval Kishore Navi Mumbai 652275

27 G Narayanappa Bangalore 2380120

28 Drisavy Bandita Bisoyi

Bhubaneswar 839072

29 Subimol Ranni 4179845

30 Deepak Chatterjee Kolkata 1299685