US Soccer slaps goalie Solo with six-month ban

BUSINESS | 17 SPORT | 24

Russian gas pipeline ‘bad deal’ for Europe: Biden

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Colourful pony mascots take children on a magical and musical adventure during ‘My Little Pony Show’ at Qatar Summer Festival’s Entertainment City at Doha Exhibition and Convention Centre yesterday. The fun-filled month-long festival organised by Qatar Tourism Authority concludes on Wednesday. Pic: Baher Amin / The Peninsula

Pony Show

FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016 • 23 DHUL QA’DA 1437 • Volume 21 • Number 6900 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar 2 Riyals

Emir congratulates

Uruguay President

on National Day

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani yesterday sent a cable of congratulations to Uruguay President Tabare Vazquez on his country’s National Day.

Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani also sent a congratulatory cable to President Vazquez.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani sent a similar cable to President Vazquez, reports QNA.

Shelter for unfit workers to open soon

The Peninsula

DOHA: A new facility to rehabilitate expatriate workers becoming unfit for work following work site acci-dents is expected to be opened soon.

Bayt Al Aman (Safety House) is a pioneering project in Qatar and the region and will be run by Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) in a building in Old Airport area, Al Sharq reports.

Quoting a source, the daily said the facility will serve as a tempo-rary home for expatriate workers who become unfit for work follow-ing work site accidents.

Beneficiaries include workers discharged from hospitals after treatment but their physical or men-tal condition does not allow them

to return to work. They would need a suitable place to stay until pro-cedures for their repatriation are completed.

Bayt Al Aman will provide tem-porary shelter to allow them to live in a healthy and safe environment until they return home.

The house, with a capacity to accommodate 14 workers at a time, will provide a safe environment away from hospital, said the daily.

It will provide entertainment facilities besides other necessary amenities. HMC, in collaboration with the Ministry of Interior and the Foreign Ministry, is also work-ing to ease procedures for departure of such workers.

The project is part of a series of major initiatives being carried out by the state to ensure the welfare of expatriate workers.

The Ministry of Public Health, in collaboration with other concerned government entities, is develop-ing an action plan to prevent work site injuries, especially those from exposure of workers to extreme heat during summer.

The ministry recently said companies violating summer working hours will be “named and shamed”.

→ Continued on page 2

Reuters

ROME: Italy will rebuild commu-nities devastated by this week’s earthquake and relaunch efforts to protect the country’s buildings and infrastructure from natural disasters, Prime Minister Matteo Renzi said yesterday.

At least 250 people have died after an earthquake struck the mountainous heart of Italy in the early hours of Wednesday, devas-tating a string of towns, villages and hamlets.

“We cannot forget that we have a moral commitment towards the men and women of these places,” Renzi told report-ers at the end of a cabinet meeting called to discuss the government’s response to the emergency.

“Reconstruction is the prior-ity of our government and of our country,” he said.

Renzi said it was also vital to boost anti-seismic measures in one of the most earthquake-prone nations in the world.

“We are the best in the world when it comes to managing emer-gencies, but that is not enough,” he said. “We need to change our mentality. We need a new model of development, but also of pre-vention,” he added.

The government declared a state of emergency and the cabi-net decided to pledge an initial 50 million euros ($56m) to go towards reconstruction and aid efforts, dpa reports.

By Raynald C Rivera The Peninsula

DOHA: The first Filipino hospital overseas is likely to open in Qatar in 2018, says an official of Philippine Business Council-Qatar (PBC-Q).

While the council and its part-ners are eyeing to open the hospital in 2018, a polyclinic over a 750sqm area will be opened soon.

PBC-Q, along with Medical Mis-sion Group Hospitals and Health Services Cooperative Philippines (MMGHHSCP), is working on legal documentation to set up the pio-neering cooperative hospital.

The new facility is expected to benefit more than 200,000 Filipi-nos and the wider community in the country.

“We are looking at being able to register the corporation this year,”

PBC-Q Chairman Greg Loayon told the media yesterday.

“The next few months will be busy with an information campaign and in parallel we are working on legal documentation.

“While we sign memorandums of understandings, we want to be able to move to signing contracts later to have the structure in place,” Loayon said.

“The way the project is moving is more of a two-pronged way. We are starting with the polyclinic for which a site has been identified,” said Loayon.

The healthcare facility will be based on a groundbreaking coop-erative model in which overseas Filipinos will be investors.

“The cooperative concept is unique and was tested and launched in the Philippines 30 years ago.

→ Continued on page 2

By Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

DOHA: Sri Lankan Ambassador to Qatar, Prof (Dr) W M Karunadasa, yesterday clarified that the Stafford Sri Lankan School Doha will not be closed, as suspicion has been created in the community following a letter

issued by the embassy on conducting board meetings of the school.

He also expressed desire for expansion of the school on a new premises.

“There are rumours going on about the school and that has created fear among the community whether the Sri Lankan Embassy is going to close down the school. That fear was

generated after a letter issued by me with regard to conducting board meetings,” said Prof Karunadasa, who is also Patron of the school.

The school has 20 members on its board of governors and at least half are required to attend meetings, according to the school constitution.

“When the school sent minutes of board meetings without a quorum,

I sent a letter requesting it to abide by the school constitution,” said Prof Karunadasa.

The letter reads, “As the patron, I’m compelled to advise you that the constitution’s provisions should be followed in strict term if school wishes to remain under the embas-sy’s patronage.”

Prof Karunadasa said the school

management misinterpreted the let-ter. “I have no intention to close down the school but to expand it on the new premises which has been handed over to us by Qatar’s government,” he said, adding the school manage-ment has to be transparent and work in coordination with the embassy.

→ Continued on page 2

AFP

JEDDAH: US Secretary of State John Kerry yesterday announced a fresh international peace initiative for Yemen aimed at forming a unity government to resolve the 17-month-old conflict.

“This war needs to end as quickly as possible,” Kerry told reporters after a meeting with Gulf counter-parts, British Minister of State for the Middle East and North Africa, Tobias Ellwood, and United Nations Secre-tary-General’s envoy to Yemen Ismail

Ould Cheikh Ahmed, in Jeddah. Foreign Minister H E Sheikh

Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani attended the meeting.

Kerry lashed out at Iran and said its arms shipments to the Shia Houthi rebels in Yemen posed a threat to the US. “The threat potentially posed by the shipments of missiles and other sophisticated weapons into Yemen from Iran extends well beyond Yemen and is not a threat just to Saudi Arabia and... the region. It is a threat to the US and it cannot continue.”

The new peace approach will have “a security and political track simultaneously working to provide a

comprehensive settlement,” he said, adding Gulf states had “agreed unan-imously on the initiative” after three months of talks in Kuwait ended earlier this month without making headway..

He said details would be final-ised by the “parties themselves” but the final deal would initially include a swift formation of a national unity government with power shared among the parties; withdrawal of forces from Sana’a and other key areas; and transfer of heavy weapons, includ-ing ballistic missiles and launchers, from the Houthis and forces allied with them to a third party.

Envoy rejects rumours over Sri Lankan school closure

US Secretary of State John Kerry (fifth left), GCC foreign ministers and other officials pose for a photo during their meeting on Yemen, in Jeddah yesterday.

Kerry pushes Yemen peace plan

First Filipino hospital and

polyclinic to open in Qatar

Bayt Al Aman will take care of expatriates injured on duty and become unfit to work, until their repatriation.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Search and Fol-low Up Department will receive expatriates seeking amnesty at its premises from 2pm to 8pm from Monday to Thursday every week, beginning September 1, the Minis-try of Interior said yesterday.

The ministry on Wednes-day announced a three-month amnesty for illegal residents to leave the country without facing legal consequences or the punish-ment stipulated in the law (No. 4 of 2009) regulating entry, exit and residency of expatriates.

The amnesty will be in force from September 1 to December 1.

The ministry has asked all illegal residents to approach the department during the above schedule to complete procedures for their repatriation.

Amnesty procedure

timings announced

Italy declaresemergency; quake toll 250

h

Minister of State for Foreign Affairs H E Sultan bin Saad Al Muraikhi yesterday received a copy of credentials of Dutch Ambassador Bahia Tahzib. He wished the new ambassador success in her duties.

Dutch envoy presents credentials

HOME 02 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Airways (QA) is embracing the spirit of Haj by providing pilgrims with exclusive kits designed and assembled with items to assist them during their spiritual journey.

The Haj kits will be offered to all passengers travel-ling for pilgrimage on the airline’s flights to Jeddah and Medinah during the Haj season that started yesterday.

The kits were launched by QA in 2015 and each includes items beneficial to pilgrims as they make their journey through the holy sites. The kit contains a prayer counter, prayer beads, prayer mat, stone bag, socks and wet wipes, conveniently packaged in a bag that can also be used to carry shoes.

Rossen Dimitrov, Senior Vice- President, Customer Experience, QA, said: “QA’s flights to Jeddah and Mad-inah offer convenient travel for passengers who wish to make pilgrimage. “QA introduced the kits as a way to provide pilgrims with items that would be of value to them during their religious journey and in recogni-tion of the importance of this spiritual time.

“Providing our passengers with an exceptional journey is a priority for QA, and we are delighted to be

able to offer them a gift tailored to their specific needs while experiencing Haj.” QA will operate four flights a day to Jeddah and three to Medinah from September 1, from Hamad International Airport (HIA). Through its home base at the state-of-the-art HIA, QA connects passengers to more than 150 places around the world, providing pilgrims from across the globe with easy, convenient access to Saudi Arabia’s holy sites.

Passengers can fly with QA to and from eight des-tinations in Saudi Arabia — Jeddah, Medinah, Riyadh, Abha, Dammam, Gassim, Hofuf and Taif.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Over 44,000 new donors signed up to Organ Donor Regis-try during Ramadan – more than double last year’s total for the same period.

With this, the number of peo-ple on the register, which is unique in the region, has crossed 148,000.

During Ramadan, over 450 Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) staff worked to educate and inform the community about organ dona-tion at booths across 14 shopping centres. They also shared infor-mation about the importance of the programme and provided new donors with donor card.

An organ transplant is a life-sav-ing procedure and can significantly

improve the quality of life for some-one with chronic organ failure.

Deceased donors are those who have pledged during their life to give organs to someone in need.

They include cases in which the family agrees on organ dona-tion after the person’s death. Living donors donate a kidney or part of the liver while they are alive.

“The campaign aimed at inform-ing people about organ donation, answer their questions and let them know that living donation is safe,” said Dr. Riadh Fadhil, Direc-tor, Qatar Organ Donation Centre.

“The educators were able to speak to the community about deceased donations and the impor-tance of informing your family about your wishes. Those who wanted to join the registry were able to do so and we are very proud

to have had a further 44,000 peo-ple take the pledge.” The growth of the registry is unprecedented. Qatar is one of the few countries in the region offering integrated organ transplant services on the basis of a single, unified national waiting list.

“We are proud of Doha model of organ donation and the successful strategies to address our challenges in Qatar. This model has become internationally recognised as safe and ethical,” Dr. Fadhil said.

“We encourage all residents in Qatar to register and if they have a patient related to them, to look for a living organ donor within the family. Organ donation is a social respon-sibility that needs collaboration to achieve self-sufficiency and treat all our patients.” For details or to register, visit www.organdonation.hamad.qa

The Haj kit.

QA offers Haj kits on flights to SaudiOver 44,000 organ donors register during Ramadan

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Health Monitoring Sec-tion at Doha Municipality has found a supermarket using a neighbouring labour accommodation in Al Saad as a store.

Health inspectors of the munic-ipality raided the accommodation following a complaint about the vio-lation. They found a large number of different type of foodstuff stored in unhealthy condition in the labour accommodation located near

the supermarket. The inspectors recorded the violation of Law No. 8/1990 regulating monitoring of food for human consumption.

According to a statement issued by the section, the labour accommo-dation being used as a store lacks minimum requirement of hygiene and suitable ventilation, making it a conducive environment for rodents and insects.

An official post on the website of the Ministry of Municipality and Environment said inspectors also detected expired foodstuff among the stocks.

Qatari investors to back hospitalContinued from page 1

The project will follow this model and involve partnership between MMGHHSCP, Qatari investors and overseas Filipinos with government support,” said PBC-Q Adviser Robert Lepon. He said Qatari investors will provide the land and building while they are targeting 10 percent of the population of Overseas Filipinos in Qatar as investors.

Since the start of the information campaign, it has generated massive interest within the community and around 800 Filipinos have already confirmed their support for the project, said Loayon.

A five-member delegation from the Philippines headed by MMGHH-SCP Chief Executive Officer Dr Jose Tiongco is in Qatar to hold talks with Qatari investors as well as meet Fili-pinos at the first training and general assembly of cooperative chapters today at Copthorne Hotel.

The cooperative hospital will benefit Filipino investors in Qatar by availing the best and affordable healthcare for them here and their relatives back in the Philippines as well as earning money.

“Their relatives back in the Phil-ippines can access the same level of healthcare service through the MMGHHSCP network of 19 hospitals, ,” said Lepon.

Their investment, he said, will act as a ‘safety net’ for overseas Filipino investors in case they lose their jobs

here since it will generate income for them through the wide MMGHHSCP network.

“Healthcare service is a competi-tive edge that the Philippines has over other countries. Around 80 percent of nurses in Qatar are Filipinos. We have to capitalize on that and this is

the first step through which we will not just be workers but also investors,” he said. The proposed Filipino hospital will not just be serving Filipinos. Other nationalities can also avail of health-care services Filipinos are known for.

“This is one way of giving back to a country that has been kind to

Filipinos by providing us opportu-nities. Aside from providing services to our compatriots, it extends to the wider population itself. This our way of supporting Qatar National Vision 2030 which includes providing qual-ity healthcare to the whole nation,” said Loayon.

Continued from page 1

“We expect transparency. The school is not willing to come to terms with the embassy and we are kept in dark,” said Prof. Karunadasa.

He said action will be taken to dissolve the board if the school management continues to violate its consti-tution and fails to work with the embassy.

The school was inaugurated in October 2001 and since 2011 it has been affiliated to the Lankan and runs as a non-profit organisation. It is being run on a rented premises and has around 1,000 students. The school fol-lows Edexcel Curriculum.

Qatari government allotted a 10,000sqm plot in 2014 for the school under the sponsorship of the embassy. However, steps are yet to be taken to construct a building.

“Many parents are sending their children to Sri Lanka as the school has no vacancies and they prefer

their kids follow the local educational system,” said Prof. Karunadasa.

However, Kumudu Foneseka, Founder and Chair-man of the school, said the school is run according to its constitution, a proper audit has been submitted to the embassy and steps have been taken to construct the school building on the new premises.

Philippine Ambassador Wilfredo C Santos (sixth left), MMGHHSCP CEO Dr Jose Tiongco (fifth left), PBC-Q Chairman Greg Loayon (third left) and PBC-Q Adviser Robert Lepon (fourth left) along with other officials during a courtesy call at the embassy yesterday. Pic: Abdul Basit / The Peninsula

Sri Lankan Ambassador to Qatar, Prof (Dr) W M Karunadasa, speaking about the school yesterday. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

QNA

DOHA: The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy’s (SC) flag-ship corporate social responsibility programme — Generation Amaz-ing — will be launched in October to upgrade construction workers’

social, communication and leader-ship skills and confidence. It evoked a great response in the opening week in May, with many wanting to enrol and it is expected to be hugely popu-lar among workers as the findings of a recent pilot have revealed.

Over 180 feedback forms were completed by 356 participants of the pilot which ended in June, with

nearly 90 percent saying they will return for the roll-out of the project.

“During our opening week at Labour City, we had a substan-tial audience with many wanting their names to be added to the pro-gramme,” Michael Richardson, Football for Development Coach, said SC’s website.

In parallel, Generation Amazing

held a pilot for over 400 schoolchil-dren. It drew similar response with nearly 70 percent wanting to con-tinue involvement in the roll-out of the project. The children’s pilot, staged at Newton International School, aimed at instilling the spirit of inclusivity and multi-culturalism in the target group and fostering a healthy lifestyle.

Continued from page 1

Workplace injuries are declining gradually due to the government’s efforts to ensure safety regulations are followed at work places, according to the ministry.

The ministry has also launched projects to provide quality care to expatriate workers, in a way that is easily accessible.

Three hospitals exclusively catering to expatriate single work-ers are being built in Industrial Area, Mesaieed and Ras Laffan. They are expected to open by next year.

They compliment the three health centres dedicated for this segment of the expatriate work-force. The centres, attached with Medical Commission units, are run by Qatar Red Crescent Society.

Sri Lanka envoy tells school to be transparent

Supermarket caught storing food in labour accommodation

Inspectors checking foodstuff at the labour accommodation in Al Saad.

Workplace injuries

on the decline

SC to start ‘Generation Amazing’ for workers in October

Foreign Minister H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani yesterday met UN Secretary-General’s Special Representative and Head of UN Support Mission in Libya, Martin Kobler, and stressed Qatar’s support for international efforts towards a comprehensive national reconciliation to achieve Libya’s stability and preserve its national unity, sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity.

FM meets Head of UN Libya Mission

ISLAM 03 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

By Sheikh Muhammed Salih Al Munajjid

Praise be to Allah Who has created time and has made some times bet-ter than others, some months and days and nights better than others,

when rewards are multiplied many times, as a mercy towards His slaves. This encour-ages them to do more righteous deeds and makes them more eager to worship Him, so that the Muslim renews his efforts to gain a greater share of reward, prepare himself for death and supply himself in readiness for the Day of Judgment.

This season of worship brings many ben-efits, such as the opportunity to correct one’s faults and make up for any shortcomings or anything that one might have missed. Every one of these special occasions involves some kind of worship through which the slaves may draw closer to Allah, and some kind of bless-ing though, which Allah bestows His favour and mercy upon whomsoever He will. The happy person is the one who makes the most of these special months, days and hours and draws nearer to his Lord during these times through acts of worship; he will most likely be touched by the blessing of Allah and will feel the joy of knowing that he is safe from the flames of Hell. (Ibn Rajab)

Among the special seasons of worship are the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, which Allah has preferred over all the other days of the year. Ibn Abbas (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (peace and blessings of Allah be upon him) said: “There are no days in which righteous deeds are more beloved to Allah than these 10 days.”

(Al Bukhari).This Hadith and others indicate that these

10 days are better than all the other days of the year, with no exceptions, not even the last 10 days of Ramadan. But the last 10 nights of Ramadan are better, because they include Laylat Al Qadr (the Night of Power), which is better than a 1,000 months. Thus the various reports may be reconciled.

(See Tafseer Ibn Kathir)The virtue of these 10 days is based on

many things: Allah swears an oath by them, and swearing an oath by something is indica-tive of its importance and great benefit. Allah says: “By the dawn; by the 10 nights.” (Quran, 89:1-2) Ibn Abbaas, Ibn Al Zubayr, Mujahid and others of the earlier and later genera-tions said that this refers to the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah. The Prophet (PBUH) testified that these are the best days of this world, as we have already quoted above from Sahih Hadith. The Prophet (PBUH) commanded us to recite a lot of Tasbeeh (Subhanallah), Tah-meed (Alhamdu Lillah) and Takbeer (Allahu akbar) during this time. Abdullah ibn Omar (may Allah be pleased with him) reported that the Prophet (peace be upon him) said: “There are no days greater in the sight of Allah and in which righteous deeds are more beloved to Him than these 10 days, so during this time recite a great deal of Tahleel (La ilaha ill-Allah), Takbeer and Tahmeed.” (Ahmad).

These 10 days include Yawm Arafah (the Day of Arafah), on which Allah perfected His religion. Fasting on this day will expiate for the sins of two years.; and the Day of Sacrifice, the greatest day of the entire year and the greatest day of Haj, which combines acts of worship in a way unlike any other day. These 10 days include the days of sacrifice and of Haj.

Things to avoidOne who wants to offer a sacrifice must

stop cutting his hair and nails and removing anything from his skin, from the beginning of the 10 days until after he has offered his sacrifice, because the Prophet (PBUH) said: “When you see the new moon of Dhul Hijjah, if any one of you wants to offer a sacrifice, then he should stop cutting his hair and nails until he has offered his sacrifice.” Accord-ing to another report he said: “He should not remove (literally, touch) anything from his hair or skin.” (Muslim)

The Prophet’s (PBUH) instruction here makes one thing obligatory and his prohi-bition makes another haram, according to the soundest opinion, because these com-mands and prohibitions are unconditional and unavoidable. However, if a person does any of these things deliberately, he must seek Allah’s forgiveness but is not required to offer (an extra) sacrifice in expiation; his sacrifice will be acceptable. Whoever needs to remove some hair, nails, etc. because it is harming

him, such as having a broken nail or a wound in a site where there is hair, should do so, and there is nothing wrong with that. The state of ihram is so important that it is permitted to cut one’s hair if leaving it will cause harm. There is nothing wrong with men or women washing their heads during the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, because the Prophet (PBUH) only forbade cutting the hair, not washing it.

Some women delegate their brothers or sons to make the sacrifice on their behalf, then cut their hair during these 10 days. This is not correct, because the ruling applies to the one who is offering the sacrifice, whether or not he (or she) delegates someone else to carry out the actual deed. The prohibition does not apply to the person delegated, only to the person who is making the sacrifice, as is indicated in the Hadith. The person who is sacrificing on behalf of someone else, for whatever reason, does not have to adhere to this prohibition.

Concerning the types of worship to be performed during these 10 days: One must understand that these days are a great blessing from Allah to His slave, which is appreciated properly by the actively right-eous. It is the Muslim’s duty to appreciate this blessing and make the most of the opportu-nity, by devoting these 10 days to paying more attention to striving hard in worship. Among His blessings to His slaves, Allah has given us many ways in which to do good and worship Him, so that the Muslim may be constantly

active and consistent in his worship of his Lord.

Among the good deeds which the Muslim should strive to do during the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah are:

Fasting: It is sunnah to fast on the ninth day of the month, because the Prophet (PBUH) urged us to do good deeds during this time, and fasting is one of the best of deeds. Allah has chosen fasting for Himself, as is stated in the Hadith Qudsi: “Allah says: ‘All the deeds of the son of Adam are for him, except for fasting, which is for Me and I am the One Who will reward him for it’.” (Bukhari) The Prophet (PBUH) used to fast on the first nine days of Dhul Hijjah.

Takbeer: It is Sunnah to say Takbeer (‘Allahu Akbar’), Tahmeed (‘Alhamdu Lillah’), Tahleel (‘Lailaha illallah’) and Tasbih (Subhan Allah’) during the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, and to say it loudly in the mosque, the home, the street and every place where it is permit-ted to remember Allah and mention His name out loud, as an act of worship and as a proc-lamation of the greatness of Allah, may He be exalted. Men should recite these phrases out loud, and women should recite them quietly.

Performing Haj, Umrah: One of the best deeds that one can do during these 10 days is to perform Haj to the Sacred House

of Allah. The one whom Allah helps to go on Haj to His House and to perform all the rit-uals properly is included in the words of the Prophet (PBUH): “An accepted Haj brings no less a reward than Paradise.” Doing more good deeds in general, because good deeds are beloved by Allah and will bring a great reward from Him. Whoever is not able to go to Haj should occupy himself at this blessed time by worshipping Allah, praying (salaat), reading Quran, remembering Allah, making supplication, giving charity, honouring his parents, upholding the ties of kinship, enjoin-ing what is good and forbidding what is evil, and other good deeds and acts of worship.

Sacrifice: One of the good deeds that will bring a person closer to Allah during these 10 days is offering a sacrifice, by choosing a high-quality animal and fattening it, spend-ing money for the sake of Allah.

Sincere repentance: One of the most important things to do during these 10 days is to repent sincerely to Allah and to give up all kinds of disobedience and sin. Repentance means coming back to Allah and foregoing all the deeds, open and secret, that He dislikes, out of regret for what has passed, giving it up immediately and being determined never to return to it, but to adhere firmly to the Truth by doing what Allah loves.

www. islamqa.info

The first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah

By Sheikh Salman Al Oadah

Allah says: “Truly, we did call unto Him from of old: truly it is He, the Benevolent, the Merciful.”

(Sūrah Al Tūr: 28]

This name Al Barr “The Benevolent” is closely related to the Arabic word for piety, birr (with an i),

which refers to every form of char-ity, generosity, and kindness that we as people can carry out.

The name Al Barr (with an a instead of i), however, is a name of Allah, and it conveys the meaning that everything in existence ben-efits from Allah’s generosity and goodness. Indeed, Allah is both Merciful and Generous, rewarding the least of our good deeds with a

tenfold reward. He never punishes a misdeed with anything more than its merit, and He often simply par-dons it. Allah is the Giver of Good.

Since Allah is the Benevolent, and benevolence is one of His attributes, it follows that He loves us to be benevolent to one another.

The relationship between the Arabic words for benevolence and piety, we find that this indeed indicates a genuine and close rela-tionship between the attributes of benevolence and piety. This can be seen in the fact that a great deal of what constitutes our obedience to Allah takes the form of acts of kindness to others, like our duty to be kind to our parents, relatives, and everyone we have dealings with.

Righteous deeds of all kinds bring us closer to Allah, but this is especially true of our acts of

kindness to others. This not only applies to human beings, but to all creatures other creatures. This kindness might come in the form of our personal behaviour, our sharing of our wealth, giving assistance with our abilities and our influence, or praying to Allah on their behalf. We need to espe-cially consider the disenfranchised, the widows and orphans, and the poor.

The Prophet (peace be upon him) said:

There was a merchant who used to extend credit to people. If he found one of his customers to be in straightened means, he would say to his assistants: “Forgive them their debt, perhaps Allah will forgive us.” Allah did forgive him. (Sahīh Al Bukhārī 2078/Sahīh Muslim 1562)

Moreover, Allah has made hon-esty the hallmark of piety, and

piety the path to Paradise. He has made the hearts of those who are honest sensitive to what is kind and to what is generous, so that the heart becomes itself a guide to what Allah wants from us. This is why the Prophet (PBUH) said:

“Piety is what the heart feels comfortable with, while sin is what disquiets the heart and makes it hesitate, even if people say that it is alright.”(Musnad Ahmad 18035/Sunan Al Dārimī 2523)

A pure, honest heart is like a mirror, except that what it reflects is truth through the light of knowledge and understanding. A corrupted heart, by contrast, gets nothing from good advice or instruction, because it is unrecep-tive. Allah loves the benevolent heart, and likewise He loves the pious actions that such a heart inspires its possessor to perform.

Allah is the Benevolent

Among the special seasons of worship are the first 10 days of Dhul Hijjah, which Allah has preferred over all the other days of the year.

Peace be upon him

US Secretary of State John Kerry (left) with the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud of Saudi Arabia in Jeddah, yesterday. Kerry is in Saudi to push for peace in Yemen after UN-brokered talks collapsed despite global concern over mounting civilian casualties.

Kerry with Saudi King

MIDDLE EAST04 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Egypt to free lawyer in solitary confinementCAIRO: An Egyptian court has ordered the release of a promi-nent rights lawyer held in solitary confinement for the past three months after he challenged in court a decision by the country’s president to hand over two Red Sea islands to Saudi Arabia.

Yesterday’s decision to free Malek Adly — who hasn’t been formally charged but remains incarcerated since his May arrest on a rolling series of administra-tive detention orders — could still be appealed by prosecutors.

Adly has been jailed with almost no communication with the outside world, sleeping on a bare floor in conditions that his lawyers say amount to torture.

Supporters say that he was a victim of a personal vendetta after he essentially insulted Egyptian President Abdel-Fattah Al Sissi in a televised interview.

AP

JERUSALEM: The Israeli military cleared its forces of wrongdoing in three deadly inci-dents that took place during the 2014 Gaza war — including an airstrike that killed 15 members of a single family. Israel’s investi-gative process is at the heart of a Palestinian case to press for war crimes charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.

The Palestinians say that Israel has a poor record of prosecuting wrongdoing in its ranks. Wednesday’s announcement was likely to add to those claims.

In a statement, the military said it had closed a total of seven investigations without filing charges after a special team collected

testimony from Gaza residents and Israeli officers.

The deadliest incident involved an air-strike in the southern Gaza town of Rafah on Aug. 1, 2014, that killed 15 members of the Zoroub family. The army said the build-ing was used by Hamas as a command and control center. While its statement sug-gested that the civilian casualties were higher than expected, it said the airstrike was in line with international law, which can allow attacks on homes used for mili-tary purposes. It said that among the dead was Nazmi Zoroub, whom it identified as a senior Hamas commander.

“The attack complied with the principle of proportionality, as at the time the decision to attack was taken it was considered that the collateral damage expected to arise as a result of the attack would not be excessive

in relation to the military advantage antici-pated from it,” it said. “This assessment was not unreasonable under the circumstances, despite the discovery, in the wake of the strike, of discrepancies between the reality prevailing on the ground and the informa-tion available at the time,” it added.

Adel Zoroub, whose sister’s home was destroyed, rejected the army’s findings. He said Nazmi Zoroub was wounded in a differ-ent Israeli attack and was not in the building.

“The Zionists justify their massacres by saying they target militants,” he said. “This is nonsense because all of Rafah knows that Nazmi was killed in a home far away.”

The army also said it would not file charges in a July 21, 2014, incident that left 12 members of the Siyam family in Rafah dead. It said it could not find evidence to back claims that they were killed by an Israeli airstrike

and that they had in fact been killed by mor-tar shells misfired by Palestinian militants. The army also found no wrongdoing in an air-strike a day earlier that killed seven members of the Ziyadeh family in the Bureij refugee camp. It said the building had been used as a command and control center by Hamas and that several militants, including three mem-bers of the family and a top Hamas military leader, were among the dead.

The Ziyadeh family declined comment, and Siyam family members could not imme-diately be reached.

Israel launched the war in response to weeks of heavy rocket fire by Palestinian mil-itants in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip. During 50 days of fighting, over 2,200 Palestinians were killed, and 73 people on the Israeli side were killed. More than 1,400 Palestinian civil-ians were among the dead, according to U.N.

figures. Israel says Hamas is responsible for the high civilian death toll, saying the group used the local population as human shields while firing rockets from residential areas.

A 2015 UN investigation found evidence of war crimes by both sides, saying Israel appeared to have used disproportionate force and endangered civilians.

The International Criminal Court has opened a preliminary examination of Israeli conduct in the war, but issued no conclusions. The court can intervene in cases where a country is deemed incapable of conducting a proper investigation. The military says it looked into some 360 complaints connected to the war. It has found enough evidence to launch some 31 criminal investigations. At least 13 of those probes have been closed, with indictments in just three cases of alleged loot-ing by soldiers.

AFP

QAYYARAH, IRAQ: Iraqi forces yes-terday pushed the Islamic State (IS)group from Qayyarah, a northern town considered strategic for any future offensive against the jihad-ists’ last stronghold of Mosul.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi hailed the victory as a key step in the fight against IS but hours later suffered yet another political set-back when lawmakers impeached his defence minister.

Special forces, backed by US-led coalition air strikes, wrapped up a three-day operation to retake Qay-yarah, a town located on the banks of the Tigris river.

“We control all parts of the town and managed, in very limited time, to root out Daesh,” Lieutenant General Riyadh Jalal Tawfik, who commands Iraq’s ground forces, said a reporter in Qayyarah, using an acronym for IS.

The commander said engineer-ing units were now clearing the town, which lies about 60km south of Mosul, of unexploded ordnance and booby traps.

Residents greeted the security forces under skies blackened by huge fires IS fighters set to nearby oil wells in recent days.

The bodies of suspected IS fight-ers were strewn across some of the town’s streets, especially around its southern entrance, which saw the worst fighting and significant destruction.

Abadi issued a statement hailing

what he said was a key step towards reclaiming Mosul, IS’s de facto Iraq capital and the country’s second city.

“Our heroic forces achieved a big victory, an important step towards the liberation of Mosul,” Abadi said.

The prime minister’s mood was unlikely to have remained upbeat very long however, with one of his key allies losing a no confidence vote by parliament moments later.

The house impeached Defence Minister Khaled al-Obeidi by 142 votes to 102 — and 18 abstentions — over corruption allegations.

Obeidi’s downfall is the latest development in a bitter feud that erupted this month with rival Sunni politician Salim Al Juburi, who is the parliament speaker.

At a hearing in parliament, Obeidi answered graft accusa-tions against him by saying they were trumped up because he had refused to be part of corrupt deals.

He fought back with his own allegations against Juburi and other lawmakers but the speaker escaped unscathed after an integrity com-mittee dropped the case.

“I tried to fight corruption in every way but it appears that its lords are stronger and their voices louder,” Obeidi said in a statement after the vote. Unity in Iraq’s Sunni camp is seen as key to preparing an offensive against Mosul.

The operation against Qayya-rah was launched on Tuesday and led by Iraq’s elite counter-terrorism service (CTS).

Iraqi forces had already recaptured a nearby air field and Qayyarah is expected to become one of the main launchpads for an assault on Mosul in the coming weeks or months.

Officers have said the push into Qayyarah was coordinated with small groups of armed residents opposed to IS inside the town.

“The people were very cooper-ative, that is why none of them fled, they did not attack our forces and our forces did not hurt them,” Gen-eral Tawfik said.

Israel clears forces in deadly 2014 Gaza war cases

Hamas to leave name off ballots in municipal pollsAFP & Anatolia

GAZA CITY: Hamas said yesterday it will not submit candidates in its own name for upcoming Palestinian municipal elections, while its rival Fatah registered candidates in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.

“Hamas will not participate in the elections under the name of Hamas or with candidates known to be Hamas,” party spokesman Fawzy Barhoum said. Instead the movement “will present academic lists, professionals, experts, peo-ple recognised for their role in the administration or for international relations.”

The Islamist movement is to decide which candidates to back after the electoral commission announces the full list next month.

Earlier yeThursday, Fatah’s Gaza spokesman Fayez Abu Eita told a news conference the party had

“submitted lists of candidates for all municipalities in the Gaza Strip to the electoral commission” on the last day of registration. The elections are due to take place in October.

Fatah and Hamas have not con-tested an election since the 2006 parliamentary polls, which Hamas won — sparking a conflict that led to a near-civil war in Gaza the fol-lowing year.

The two movements now each control part of the occupied Pal-estinian territories, with Hamas in charge in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank. The last Palestinian municipal elections took place in 2012, though Hamas boycotted them.

In both camps, experts agree, the forthcoming vote is seen as a test which could then lead to parliamen-tary and presidential elections.

Relations, however, have been strained by the arrest of a number of Hamas figures in the West Bank.

“This is the beginning,” Faisal Abu Shahla, a member of the Fatah

leadership in Gaza, said at the news conference. He said if successful the elections “should be followed by leg-islative elections, the election of a national committee and presidential elections.” Registration closes at midnight Thursday with the final lists published on September 24.

Meanwhile, a new survey revealed that Hamas will defeat its rival Fatah in this year’s municipal elections in the Gaza Strip.

The survey conducted by the Ramallah-based Arab World for Research and Development Center (AWRAD) showed that Hamas will grab 37% of municipal seats in Gaza against 32% for Fatah movement.

Leftist groups will get 9% of municipal seats in the Palestinian territory, while other Islamic move-ments will win between 6% and 16% of Gaza seats, it added. The polls also unveiled that Fatah will snatch 34% of municipal seats in the West Bank against 33% for Hamas in the Octo-ber 8 elections.

Iraq retakes key town south of Mosul from ISPrime Minister Haider Al Abadi hailed the victory at Qayyarah as a key step in the fight against the terrorists group.

Smoke rising as the Turkish fighter jets bomb Daesh targets in Jarabulus near Syrian border, yesterday. Turkish army forces use intense artillery fire against Daesh elements in Jarabulus.

AFP

DAMASCUS: Thousands of rebel fighters and civilians are to evacu-ate the besieged town of Daraya near the Syrian capital under an accord struck yesterday, state news agency Sana said.

“Seven hundred armed men with their personal weapons will leave Daraya to head to the (rebel-control-led) city of Idlib, while thousands of men and women with their families will be taken to reception centres,” it said.

The rebels would have to surren-der other armaments to the army.

A military source said that the army would enter Daraya, which has been under a regime siege for the past four years, after the evacua-tion from the rebel-held town.

A rebel official in the town said the evacuation would begin on Fri-day, while a Syrian source on the ground said it would last four days.

“The civilians will go to regions under regime control around Damascus, rebels will go to Idlib “or sort out their situation with the regime”, the rebel official said.

An opposition activist inside

Daraya and a Syrian regime source said that the town had been calm for the past 24 hours.

The rebels who control the town belong to two Islamist groups: Ajnad Al Sham and the Martyrs of Islam.

According pro-regime web-site almasdarnews, the army had advanced in recent days inside the town. A convoy of trucks carrying food reached Daraya in June, deliv-ering supplies to civilians for the first time since government forces laid siege to the town in late 2012.

Daraya was one of the first towns in Syria to erupt in anti-government protests.

Deal struck for rebels andcivilians to quit Syria’s Daraya

Agencies

GENEVA: The UN human rights chief yesterday called for an inter-national investigation of rights abuses and violence in Yemen’s civil war which has killed thou-sands of people, insisting that a domestic panel set up to look into violations has not been up to the task.

The call from Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein came as his Geneva office released a 22-page report chronicling abuses on both sides in the conflict, which pits the internationally recognised Yemeni government, backed by a coalition, against Shia rebels, known as Houthis, and their allies.

In a statement, Zeid’s office said he “called on the interna-tional community to establish an international, independent body to carry out comprehensive inves-tigations in Yemen,” noting in particular “challenges” faced by the national panel set up under President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi — notably, security concerns.

UN rights chief seeks probe of Yemen violence

ASIA / AFRICA 05FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Reuters

HONG KONG: Activists who have advocated independence for Hong Kong say they have been harassed or followed by pro-China local newspa-pers in recent months, while Beijing has stepped up its rhetoric against what it calls the “dangerous absurd-ity” of independence.

Beijing’s refusal to grant full democracy to Hong Kong, which mostly runs its own affairs under a one-country, two-systems arrange-ment since the former British colony returned to China in 1997, prompted three months of street protests in 2014 and growing calls for independ-ence for the city.

In a July poll by the Chinese Uni-versity of Hong Kong, 17 percent of the roughly 1,000 respondents said they supported independence, but Chinese state media call such views “poisonous”.

Six candidates in next month’s legislative elections have been excluded from the ballot by Hong Kong’s Electoral Affairs Commis-sion for pro-independence opinions, which it says are incompatible with the city’s governance laws.

One of the six, Edward Leung, spokesman for Hong Kong Indige-nous, a localist party set up in 2015, and his colleague Ray Wong say they were tailed for a month this summer by men claiming to be from a news-paper with Beijing links.

And this month Leung was filmed in a scuffle with a reporter from a

local pro-China paper, Ta Kung Pao, which published front-page pictures of the tussle along with a story claiming to have exposed his hidden wealth.

Leung, who suffered grazes on his face and neck from the incident, said the reporter and another man approached him earlier that evening with details on his private life while trying to film his reaction.

The scuffle occurred later when Leung confronted the reporter, who also turned up at the underground station nearest to the apartment the article said was his home.

TKP’s article said Leung had started the fight, and its reporter, surnamed Lo, had sustained simi-lar injuries.

Leung said recently the man accompanying Lo that evening had also been one of two men who had followed him and Wong in a black car for a month.

In a video filmed on August 7 by Leung and posted online by him, Wong confronts the men in the car and asks where they are from.

The driver is heard to say: “You know where I’m from. It’s ‘grandpa’,” using a popular term to describe Chi-na’s government.

The driver added that he was from a newspaper, but didn’t iden-tify the title.

“The Chinese Communist Party is making use of Hong Kong’s Ta Kung Pao, their minion, to gather intelli-gence on us,” Wong said.

Ta Kung Pao did not respond to requests for comment.

China’s State Council Information Office and the mainland’s repre-sentative in Hong Kong, the Liaison Office, did not return requests for comment.

Three employees at Ta Kung Pao, which they said had an editorial staff of about 100 said they didn’t recog-nise Lo or the other two men.

“We think it’s very strange. They’re not our reporters,” said one, who declined to be named.

Wong said his family had also been approached earlier this year by three men claiming to work for a Chinese government entity that he declined to name.

“They told my family, ‘Be careful, your son may end up like Lee Bo,’” Wong said, referring to a bookseller who went missing in Hong Kong in late December and showed up months later under police custody in mainland China.

A third activist, Andy Chan Ho-tin, who founded the Hong Kong National Party to promote Hong Kong independence, said he must also have been followed in April by reporters at another pro-Beijing newspaper, Wen Wei Po.

He was not aware of it until the paper printed an article and pic-tures alleging Chan’s links to another activist charged with arson.

The article said it had continu-ously staked Chan out at the party’s office and various university cam-pus forums.

Wen Wei Po declined to comment.

Zuma to back Gordhan but can’t stop probe

Reuters

PRETORIA: South African Pres-ident Jacob Zuma said yesterday he backs Finance Minister Pravin Gordhan but cannot intervene in a police investigation over a suspected spy unit at the tax service, signalling a prolonged tussle that could rock markets further.

Gordhan said on Wednesday he had done nothing wrong and had no legal obligation to obey a police summons linked to an investiga-tion into whether he used the South African Revenue Service to spy on politicians including Zuma.

The rand, which had tumbled 5% since Tuesday in response to the investigation, picked up yes-terday and gained further ground

after Zuma’s statement, while gov-ernment bonds also firmed, even though analysts said the president had offered only qualified support.

News of Gordhan’s summons this week compounded investors’ worries about a power struggle between Zuma and Gordhan as Africa’s most industrialised econ-omy teeters near recession and credit rating agencies consider downgrading it to “junk”.

The main opposition party called yesterday for a parliamentary debate into what it called a “witch-hunt” against Gordhan, who was in charge of the tax service when the unit under investigation was set up.

Investors and rating agencies back Gordhan’s plans to rein in gov-ernment spending in an economy that has been forecast by the central bank to register no growth this year.

Zuma said he had noted the con-cerns by individuals and various organisations over the investigation.

“President Jacob Zuma wishes to express his full support and confi-dence in the Minister of Finance and emphasises the fact that the minis-ter has not been found guilty of any wrong doing,” the presidency said in a statement.

Hong Kong activists claim being harassed

Harare oppn seeks security for protest

ONITSHA: A Nigerian man is being charged for provok-ing people and “breach of peace” by naming his dog after President Muham-madu Buhari and painting the name twice on the pet, police said on Wednesday.

“The man bought a dog, named it Buhari, wrote Buhari on both sides of the dog and paraded it” in front of people from the north, said police spokesman, Abimbola Oyeyemi.

He was arrested after a citizen from the north reported him to police but released by a court on bail until his trial starts, the spokesman said, without naming the man.

“His action is pro-vocative and capable of breaching the peace, as you know the volatility of Nigeria now,” he added.

Nigerian arrested

for naming dog

after president

Chinese military

to train Syrian

troops: Govt

BEIJING: China’s mili-tary will provide training for Syrian armed forces, a spokesman for Beijing’s defence ministry said yes-terday, adding it would take place on Chinese soil.

Beijing is a longstand-ing backer of the Syrian government of Bashar Al-Assad, which has engaged in a bloody war that has left more than 290,000 people dead and displaced millions since it began in 2011 with the brutal repres-sion of anti-government demonstrations.

Last week senior Chi-nese military official Guan Youfei met with Syr-ia’s defence minister in Damascus and said he wanted closer military ties with the Syrian gov-ernment, state media reported.

Reuters

BUJUMBURA: Burundi could scrap presidential term limits from its constitution after a commission set up to hear public views on govern-ance said most citizens wanted no curbs on the number of times the head of state may seek re-election.

The central African nation has been gripped by violence for more than a year, triggered by President Pierre Nkurunziza’s decision to seek a third term.

Opponents said the decision, taken in April 2015, violated the constitution, which currently limits presidential tenure to two five-year terms.

Justin Nzoyisaba, chairman of CNDI, a commission set up by Nku-runziza last year to canvas public

opinion on Burundi’s political system, said on Wednesday that most Burun-dians wanted term limits abolished.

The majority of the people the commission met “want the presi-dent...to exercise more than two terms,” he said. “People said they have to erase the term limits; it means that the president can run for any time he wants.”

The commission is expected to send its report to Nkurunziza, who will then send to it parliament for debate and possibly begin a process to amend the constitution.

Critics also said Nkurunziza’s third term bid violated the terms of a 2005 peace deal that ended a previous rebellion.

Burundi would be the latest in a growing list of African coun-tries where term limits have been abolished.

Burundians want term limits removed: Group Reuters

HARARE: Zimbabwe opposi-tion leaders are going to court to demand authorities allow and pro-vide security for a planned march today calling for electoral reform after police chiefs suggested they presented a petition instead.

Leaders from 18 political parties, including Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Morgan Tsvan-girai and former vice president Joice Mujuru will lead today’s demon-stration, which they expect to draw thousands of supporters.

Police used teargas and water cannon on Wednesday to break-up a march by MDC youth supporters, who were protesting against eco-nomic woes and what they say is brutality by security agents.

Police commander for the Harare Central District, Chief Super-intendent Newbert Saunyama, told

protest organisers in a letter yester-day that they could present a petition at the Zimbabwe Electoral Commis-sion without marching, adding that the expected number of participants, 150,000, was too big.

“This office is discouraging the issue of marching in the central busi-ness district, considering the number of participants,” Saunyama said.

“The crowd cannot be accommo-dated in the central business district of Harare as it interrupts with both

human and vehicular traffic.”In the first large scale demon-

strations Zimbabwe has seen since 2007, protests inpsired by social media movements such as #This-Flag led by pastor Evan Mawarire have erupted in the past months.

Protesters want President Rob-ert Mugabe (pictured) to fire corrupt ministers, scrap plans to introduce local bank notes and end cash short-ages that have caused queues at banks.

Today, opposition groups want the government to ensure the electoral field is fair ahead of presi-dential and parliamentary votes due in 2018 and does not favour the rul-ing ZANU-PF party, as well as setting out a roadmap for the ballot.

Mugabe has chided the opposi-tion for seeking his downfall through protests, saying his opponents are afraid of defeat at the ballot box. He denies opposition and Western charges of rigging previous elections.

Myanmar seals off ancient templesReuters

BAGAN: Truckloads of soldiers and squadrons of police sealed off some of the centuries-old Buddhist pagodas around Myan-mar’s ancient capital of Bagan yesterday, a day after at least 187 of the brick temples were dam-aged in a powerful earthquake.

President Htin Kyaw flew to Bagan to meet local residents as authorities scrambled to assess

the full extent of the damage from the 6.8 magnitude quake that shook buildings across the Southeast Asian country and beyond on Wednesday.

“The earth shook for about five minutes,” said Soe Lwin, who was inside the Sulamani temple or “Crowning Jewel”, , with about 15 other tourists when the quake struck.

“One Spanish girl got lightly injured, so we helped her. After that, we ran outside of the

pagoda and saw some parts fall-ing down,” said Soe Lwin.

Although tremors from the quake were felt as far away as Thailand, Bangladesh and eastern India, initial assessments showed the wider damage was limited.

“The overall humanitar-ian impact has been relatively low despite the earthquake’s magnitude,” said Pierre Peron, spokesman for the UN’s Office for the Coordination of Human-itarian Affairs, in a statement.

Myanmar president Htin Kyaw (centre) and goverment officials meet members of the rescue team as they check around the damaged ancient pagoda of Sulamani in Bagan, yesterday.

Edward Leung, a de facto leader of Hong Kong's independence movement, poses in Hong Kong recently, two days after a fight with a reporter claiming to be from a pro-government newspaper.

The opposition called for a parliamentary debate into what it called a ‘witch-hunt’ against Gordhan.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES06 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Pro-green protest

NEW ZEALAND: New Zealand police rescued yesterday a Czech woman traveller who spent nearly a month alone in a war-den’s hut by a remote mountain lake after her male travelling compan-ion was killed in a fall.

The two had become disorientated in heavy snow that covered up markers on their 32km trekking trail in late July this year.

The man fell as they were trying to make their way to safety and the woman spent three nights in the open before finding her way to the hut by Lake Mackenzie, in the country’s South Island.

Hiker found after

a month in New

Zealand mountain

Abu Sayyaf beheads 18-year-old hostageAnatolia

ZAMBOANGA CITY: The Philippines’ military said yesterday that a sev-ered head believed to belong to an 18-year-old Filipino held hostage by a IS-linked militant group has been recovered in a troubled southern island province.

Major Filemon Tan Jr, Western Mindanao Command (Westmin-com) spokesman, said in a statement that the head, believed to belong to Patrick James Almodovar who was kidnapped July 16, was wrapped in

a plastic bag found in Indanan town in Sulu -- an Abu Sayyaf stronghold.

“The severed head was left by three alleged members of the

Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG) aboard a motorcycle,” Tan said, adding that it was currently being processed and investigated by Scene of the Crime Operatives and Indanan Police.

He underlined that the “barbaric murder perpetrated by this terror group” was condemned by “every sensible and peace loving Filipino, including our Muslim brothers whom we work with in peace and develop-ment efforts”.

“The beheading of an innocent man done by the ASG is an absolute affront to the peace loving Moros in the Philippines,” Tan stressed.

The family of the 18-year-old Almodovar said on Wednesday night that they had received a call from the ASG informing them of the beheading.

A family member who requested anonymity due to security concerns said the group had earlier demanded that they pay a $21,530 ransom by 3pm on Wednesday. “The family can-not afford it,” he said.

Responding to reports of the beheading, President Rodrigo Duterte reiterated his directive to the military to “destroy” the group.

“My orders to the police and

armed forces against enemies of the state: seek them out in their lairs and destroy them... The Abu Sayyaf, destroy them, period,” he said.

“Not just a campaign. Go out and destroy them… Don’t ask about human rights,” he added.

Meanwhile, Tan also said that under Duterte’s orders, more troops would be deployed to Sulu and the neighbouring island province of Basi-lan after being withdrawn from other areas plagued by a communist insur-gency, which has declared a ceasefire amid ongoing peace talks with the government.

Reuters

MANILA: Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte yesterday accused a senator heading an inquiry into extra-judicial drug killings of taking bribes from jailed drug lords, which she immediately denied.

The senator, Leila de Lima, who has criticised the surge of killings and called for the Senate investiga-tion, appealed to Duterte in a news conference to “stop this madness”.

More than 1,900 people have been killed in Duterte’s war on drugs since he came to power seven weeks ago, according to police figures.

Police say the toll of about 36 people a day is a result of drug deal-ers resisting arrest or gang feuds.

Duterte, who won a May election on a promise to wipe out drugs and dealers, last month named about 160 officials, judges, police and

soldiers who he said were protect-ing drug traffickers or selling drugs in their communities.

Yesterday, he turned his anger on De Lima.

“De Lima, you are finished,” Duterte told a news conference in Davao City in the south of the coun-try where he used to be mayor and built his reputation as a ruthless crime fighter.

Duterte handed the media a dia-gram purportedly showing links between officials and politicians and big drug dealers locked up in the country’s main prison.

At the top of the list was de Lima.

“De Lima is undergoing a night-mare now,” Duterte said.

De Lima later held her own news conference and denied the president’s accusations as “non-sense and baseless”. She said the diagram showing her atop a web of graft and drugs was “garbage”.

Taiwan’s Tsai oversees first war gamesAFP

PINGTUNG: Taiwanese President Tsai Ing-wen urged the island’s army to improve its performance after a string of accidents, prom-ising to help upgrade equipment as she presided over military drills yesterday.

The war games in the south-ern county of Pingtung, the first of Tsai’s presidency, are part of an annual military exercise which simulates incoming attacks from China, the biggest threat to Tai-wan’s security.

Relations with the mainland have grown increasing frosty since Tsai won the island’s presi-dency in January.

Beijing is highly suspicious of Tsai, whose Democratic Pro-gressive Party is traditionally pro-independence, and has warned her against any attempt at a formal breakaway.

Tsai said yesterday that Tai-wan’s army “needs a set of firm directions” and instructed the defence ministry to work on updating its military strategy.

“Some of the challenges faced by our army come from external structural limitations, others are because our performance isn’t good enough,” she said at a Ping-tung army base after watching fighter jets and tanks fire live rounds.

Yesterday’s war games included more than 100 para-troopers mimicking enemies attempting to invade an army base.

Wearing a bullet-proof vest and helmet, Tsai told soldiers and spectators that the military has been too slow upgrading its equipment and pledged to make the issue a priority.

Vietnamese cuts

off limbs for

insurance payout

HANOI: A Vietnamese woman paid a friend to cut off her hand and foot in a bid to claim a hand-some insurance payout, state-run media reported.

The woman, identified only as L T N, checked into a Hanoi hospital in May with one third of her left foot and one third of her left hand severed, but doc-tors told her they could not reattach the limbs.

She later told police she was struck by a train as she walked on the tracks, according to Tuoi Tre’s English edition.

She submitted a claim to her insurance company for $157,000. But author-ities smelled a fraud.

AFP

BANGKOK: Thailand’s junta leader used emergency powers yesterday to suspend Bangkok’s governor while he is probed for corruption, a major blow to the influential city politician who has faced growing censure.

Sukhumbhand Paribatra, a dis-tant relative of Thailand’s respected royal family, is under investiga-tion for alleged graft connected to

an expensive light display he set up outside city hall in December 2015.

The two-term governor was recently “disowned” by fellow Dem-ocrat party members over that case and string of other shady deals, with some MPs calling on the junta to axe him.

The pro-establishment Dem-ocrats are traditional allies of the military, which seized power in 2014 after it toppled the opposition Puea Thai Party.

“Although the current investiga-tion is not conclusive yet, it is a high profile case,” read the order signed by junta chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha, adding that the governor would be suspended without pay while the investigation is ongoing.

Sukhumbhand has previously denied the graft allegations and defended the New Year’s light instal-lation, saying it attracted tourists and brought some 10 million baht to local food vendors and shopkeepers.

He was on a trip to South Korea when the junta order was released yesterday, a spokeswoman from his office said.

His suspension was issued through Article 44, a controver-sial law that grants the junta chief sweeping powers to make any execu-tive decision in the name of national security.

Prayut has used the law for a range of purposes since his 2014 power grab, from cracking down

on land encroachers to doling out punishment to teenage motorcycle racers.

He has also vowed to clear the kingdom of graft, although his mil-itary government is now facing several corruption scandals of its own, including allegations that an army-built park was riddled with kickbacks.

The junta has also severely restrained free speech under its watch and jailed critics who have

AFP

GOTEMBA: Japan’s military yester-day began four days of live-fire drills near Mount Fuji, an annual exercise that comes this year the day after North Korea test-fired a submarine-launched ballistic missile.

Around 2,400 soldiers, as well as tanks, field guns and helicopters were deployed at training grounds

in the foothills of the country’s most famous mountain.

The drill came as North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un hailed his coun-try’s latest weapons test the “greatest success”.

The 500km flight towards Japan, from a vessel submerged off the northeastern port of Sinpo, far outstripped previous North Korean sub-launched missile tests.

Separately, the defence ministers

of Japan and Australia yesterday condemned recent sabre-rattling from Pyongyang, which carried out a nuclear test in January.

“We are very concerned about the SLBM launch yesterday, as the North Korean move is a grave and imminent threat not only to Japan’s security but also to the region and global society,” Japan’s defence minister Tomomi Inada told visiting Australian coun-terpart Marise Payne.

Japan begins live fire drillsJapanese Ground Self-Defence Force tanks move amongst an umbrella of barrage during an annual live fire exercise at the Higashi-Fuji firing range in Gotemba, at the foot of Mount Fuji, yesterday.

Thai junta suspends Bangkok governor over graft probe

Duterte accuses senator

of ‘taking’ drug money

Pro-environment activists hold a banner while calling for the passing of the ‘Alternative Minerals Management Bill’ mining law during a rally in front of the Senate building in Pasay city, Metro Manila, yesterday.

AFP

SEOUL: North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un declared a submarine-launched missile test the “greatest success”, state media said yesterday, as the UN weighed a condemna-tion of the launch which appears to advance Pyongyang’s nuclear strike capability.

The US mainland and the Pacific are now “within the striking range” of the North’s army, the official KCNA news agency reported Kim as saying after Wednesday’s launch.

The missile was fired from a submarine submerged off the north-eastern port of Sinpo, according to South Korea’s military. It flew 500km towards Japan, far exceed-ing any previous sub-launched tests.

The UN Security Council met for two hours on Wednesday to discuss North Korea’s latest provoc-ative move and agreed to consider a statement condemning the launch.

“There was a general sense of condemnation by most members of the council and therefore we will have to see how we would then be phrasing the press statement,” said Ramlan bin Ibrahim from Malaysia, which cur-rently holds the council’s presidency.

However diplomats expected further haggling with China, Pyongyang’s main ally, over the wording.

Earlier this month, North Korea fired a land-launched ballistic mis-sile directly into Japanese-controlled waters for the first time, drawing an outraged response from Tokyo.

But the Security Council failed to condemn the move after China sought to include language in a statement opposing the THAAD missile defence system that the US plans to deploy in South Korea.

Kim said the latest launch proved the North had joined the “front rank of the military powers fully equipped with nuclear attack capability”.

Pyongyang’s KCTV aired brief footage shot from different camera angles, showing the missile soaring from underwater, igniting and surg-ing almost vertically into the air.

The North’s top newspaper Rodong Sinmun also carried 24 photos of him observing the launch, including one with his hands on his hips roaring with laughter at an observation post.

“He appreciated the test-fire as the greatest success and victory,” it said.

North Korea leader claims missile test ‘greatest success’

Responding to reports of the beheading, Duterte reiterated his directive to the military to ‘destroy’ the group.

Balancing act

PAKISTAN 07FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

ISLAMABAD: The first meeting of the central committee of the “Found-ers Group” of the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI), a group recently formed by party dissidents, will be held in the first week of September in Islamabad to devise the future plan of action.

Yesterday, the head of the “Founders Group” and former information sec-retary of the PTI Akbar S Babar said the group had been formed to mobi-lise genuine workers of the PTI who felt dejected and frustrated over Imran Khan’s act of joining hands with forces of the status quo.

PTI rebels to meet

in Islamabad

next month

MQM grabs top slots in Karachi’s four districts

Internews

KARACHI: The top slot of four of the six district municipal corporations in Karachi were yesterday won by the Muttahida Qaumi Movement’s can-didates in the last phase of the local government election held over eight months after the December 5 polls.

The Pakistan Peoples Party, which runs the Sindh government and has won LG elections in most districts of Sindh, grabbed the top slot of two DMCs South and Malir and also comfortably won the Kara-chi District Council (KDC).

The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf managed to win the elections for vice chairmen of Karachi’s South and West DMCs after making alliances with the PPP and MQM, respectively.

The polling at all the polling sta-tions in the city started smoothly and well in time at 9am as per the Election Commission of Pakistan’s schedule.

It remained peaceful as the police and personnel of the paramil-itary rangers were there to maintain calm in and outside the polling areas.

As it was an indirect election in which the elected council mem-bers of the Karachi Metropolitan

Corporation (KMC), the DMCs and the KDC were to vote and not the people themselves, the electoral process remained an indoor affair as the routine life continued nor-mally, the government and private offices saw the daily business, edu-cational institutions were open and vehicular traffic was as lively as ever.

The election proceedings inside the polling stations remained calm. The voters of the respective munic-ipal bodies were required to bring their computerised national identity cards and the membership cards of the councils they had been elected on.

Sindh Election Commissioner Tanveer Zaki said that the election of Karachi mayor and deputy mayor and chairman and vice chairman of the DMCs were held separately.

He said they had printed sepa-rate ballot papers for the head and the deputies of those municipal bodies.

AFP

PESHAWAR: Unidentified attack-ers killed six people, including five police officers, when they ambushed a convoy in Pakistan’s troubled southwest yesterday, offi-cials said.

The attack occurred near Gurdan area in oil and gas rich, but desperately poor Balochistan province bordering Afghanistan and Iran.

“The convoy headed by a sen-ior local administration official, Naeem Gichki, was passing by an abandoned checkpost of the tribal police...in two vehicles when they were attacked by a group of up to seven people, who were hiding in the post,” provincial home secre-tary Akbar Harifall said.

He said the assailants fired rockets at the vehicles in the con-voy and Gichki and five local tribal policemen were killed and three others injured in the attack.

Another senior local admin-istration official Qurban Magsi confirmed the incident and casualties.

No group immediately claimed responsiblity but Balochistan is plagued by roiling insurgencies and hit by regular militant attacks.

It is also the site of China’s ambitious $46bn China-Pakistan Economic Corridor infrastructure project.

The corridor is considered to be an extension of China’s One Belt, One Road initiative, and the impor-tance of CPEC to China is reflected by its inclusion as part of China’s 13th five-year development plan.

Russia-Pakistan

ties seen vital for

regional stability

ISLAMABAD: It is vital to strengthen relations between Moscow and Islamabad for regional and international security, said Gen Valery Gerasi-mov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, during a meet-ing with Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee Gen Rashad Mahmood.

“The development of constructive rela-tions between Russia and Pakistan is an impor-tant factor in ensuring regional stability and international security,” Gen Gerasimov said.

Attack on American University in Kabul leaves 16 deadReuters

KABUL: Sixteen people, including students and a professor, were killed in an attack on the American Uni-versity in Kabul that had students leaping from the windows in panic, the Afghan government said.

The attack began on Wednesday evening with a large explosion from what officials said was a car bomb followed by gunfire, as suspected militants stormed into the complex where foreign staff and pupils were working.

It ended early yesterday when two gunmen were shot dead by Afghan special forces who sur-rounded the walled compound and worked their way inside, interior ministry officials said.

The Afghan presidential palace said in a statement that seven stu-dents, three security force personnel,

two security guards and one pro-fessor were killed in the attack, the second incident involving the uni-versity this month.

Islamist militant groups, mainly the Afghan Taliban and a local off-shoot of Islamic State, have claimed a string of bomb attacks aimed at toppling the Western-backed gov-ernment of President Ashraf Ghani.

But there was no claim of responsibility for the raid.

Ghani called the assault “a cow-ardly attempt” to hinder progress in Afghanistan. Such attacks would only strengthen the government’s resolve to fight terror, he said.

The university said it was work-ing with authorities to make sure everyone was accounted for.

Fraidoon Obaidi, chief of the Kabul police criminal investigation department said that police had evacuated between 700 and 750 stu-dents from the university, which is

popular with the children of Afghan-istan’s elite.

The Afghan presidential palace said initial findings by the intelli-gence services showed that the attack was planned in neighbouring Paki-stan. Afghanistan frequently accuses militants it says are in Pakistan for attacks on its soil.

Pakistani government and army spokesmen did not respond to requests for comment. Authorities in Islamabad have long rejected accu-sations that Pakistan has provided support and sanctuary to militants who would attack Afghanistan.

The gunmen got into the build-ing despite armed guards and watchtowers.

Students recounted barricading themselves in classrooms or jump-ing from windows to escape when the attack started. Others used an an emergency exit, scaled walls and jumped to safety.

Students walk toward a police vehicle after they were rescued from the site of an attack at the American University of Afghanistan in Kabul, yesterday.

Six die after gunmen

ambush police convoy

UNHCR to set up Afghan repatriation centre Internews

PESHAWAR: To repatriate Afghan refugees in a respectable and digni-fied manner, the UNHCR has decided to open another centre in Paki-stan’s northwest provincial capital of Peshawar and introduce new pro-cedures.

Currently, the UNHCR Voluntary Repatriation Centre (VRC) in Cham-kani is the sole entity responsible for Afghan refugees returning to their home country on a voluntary basis.

However, due to the current mass repatriation of Afghan refugees from Pakistan, the centre is overburdened, resulting in considerable difficulties

for people hailing from the neigh-bouring country. Many of them have been forced to spend nights without any shelter.

To better manage the situation, the UNHCR will open another VRC near the Commissionerate for Afghan Refugees in Hayatabad in the city soon.

The aim is to ease the process of voluntary return.

UNHCR spokesperson in Paki-stan, Dunya Aslam Khan, said the new VRC will provide every facility to refugees who want to voluntar-ily return.

She said the number of repatri-ating refugees has almost doubled over the last two months, while the

VRC in Chamkani can cater to 500 families a day.

The spokesperson said between 3,000 and 3,500 people visit the centre and it is difficult for staff members to handle them at the same time.

She said the centre has a capac-ity of 200 trucks, while the number of these vehicles increases with the growing number of people returning.

Dunya Aslam shared the park-ing capacity has been increased and could accommodate up to 700 trucks at a time.

According to the new procedure prescribed for repatriation, she said refugees will contact the centre on 10 helpline numbers and receive a token

to fix a date and time for their return.Khan said the family concerned

will reach the centre, along with their goods, and all their documentation would be completed without much delay.

Dunya shared that between January to August 23, around 11,551 families have been repatriated to Afghanistan. She added 500 fami-lies are going back to their homeland on a daily basis under the UNHCR voluntary return programme.

However, Bakhtiayar Jan, an Afghan refugee, said the lack of facilities and slow process of doc-umentation at the VRC in Peshawar are causing tremendous difficulty for women and children.

Plantation drive to start on Monday

Internews

ISLAMABAD: A plantation cam-paign by Capital Development Authority (CDA) of Pakistani cap-ital Islamabad would be initiated on August 29 by planting saplings along with Saidpur Range, Shali-mar Cricket Ground at a ceremony to be attended by people belonging to various segment of the society.

CDA Member Environment Sanaullah Aman said 300,000 saplings of different species would be planted besides making arrangements to increase the sur-vival rates of the saplings in areas especially with lower tree density.

Speaking at a meeting held to review arrangements he said tree plantation is national as well as religious responsibility as deforestation in the country has increase the demand of tree plan-tation on mammoth level to meet the required green cover for bet-ter environment.

The saplings would be planted in various areas including green belts, avenues, parks, Simly Catch-ment Area and sectors G-6, G-7, I-9 and I-10.

He said better monitoring mechanism after planting sap-lings is a decisive factor for good adaptation and subsequent sur-vival of plantations.

Police officers and paramilitary rangers were deployed at every polling station to make sure the election proceedings run smoothly.

A man balances himself on a Ferris wheel as he inspects it at a public park in Sardaryab, Charsadda, on the outskirts of Peshawar, yesterday.

Flood woes

A Pakistani motorcyclist falls off his motor-bike into floodwaters following heavy rain in Lahore, yesterday.

VIEWS08 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

The announcement yesterday that dashing batsman Tillakaratne Dilshan will play his final international for Sri Lanka later this week signals the end of an era for the Islanders. The 39-year-old - who invented the ‘Dilscoop’ — a ramp shot that brought him plenty of

runs and unbelievable number of fans around the world — has been part of Sri Lankan cricket folklore for a decade and half.

One of the last giants to quit the game following the departure of Mahela Jayawardene and Kumar Sangakkara in recent times, Dilshan will be remembered for his bold batting and useful off-spin bowling. A reliable fielder with a safe pair of hands, Dilshan was Sri Lanka’s go-to man in the shorter formats of the game for more than a decade.

Ever since Sri Lanka won the World Cup in 1996 under Arjuna Ranatunga’s bold captaincy, the Islanders have enjoyed a massive resurgence in world cricket. With players like Jayawardene, Sangakkara and Dilshan settling down in their defined roles for

the team, cricket-mad Sri Lanka quietly started producing results that showed class and reliability at the top of the batting order.

After a slight hiccup at the 1999 World Cup in England where the Islanders got knocked out before the semi-finals despite arriving as the defending champions, Sri Lanka cricket has only moved forward. At the 2003 World Cup, Australia beat Sri Lanka in the semi-finals and four years later, the two teams featured in the 2007 World Cup final won by Ricky Ponting’s men. At the 2011 World Cup, Sri Lanka reached the World Cup final once again, this time losing to hosts India.

Dilshan played all those finals for Sri Lanka, thanks to his fitness and form sustained over a long period of time. A late bloomer by normal standards, Dilshan made up for lost time by smashing more than a 1000 runs in a calendar year four times in his career. He is only the fourth Sri Lanka to cross the 10,000 mark in ODIs after current selector Sanath Jayasuriya, Jayarwardene and Sangakkara.

A right-hander of considerable merit and hugely important to Sri Lankan cause for more than a decade, Dilshan also appeared in three T20 World Cup finals for his team, losing to Pakistan (2009) and the West Indies (2012). Dilshan finished as a champion in the title clash two years ago against India in Dhaka, a fitting end to a highly entertaining T20 career.

When Dilshan — who captained his team in all formats — enters the dressing room on Sunday against Australia, he’d definitely savour the moment as would the Sri Lankan fans at Dambulla. He will be remembered as one of only few players around the world to have hit a 100 in all the three formats of the game.

Well played, Dilshan! Thanks for the memories.

End of an era

Dilshan finished as a champion in the title clash two years ago against India in Dhaka, a fitting end to a highly entertaining T20 career.

Quote of the dayWe are not at war with Islam, the French republic is welcoming to Muslims, we are protecting them against discrimination.

Manuel Valls French Prime Minister

E S TA 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-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

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In the course of human his-tory tyrants such as Bashar Al Assad in Syria have used brute force and massacres to maintain their rule.

Those who have ordered and carried out atrocities have often attempted to justify them as a legitimate use of force against local dissidents or by employ-ing a foreign conspiracy scenario.

This week Bashar Al Jaa-fari, Assad’s representative at the UN, blamed the 2013 sarin gas attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta on French intelligence.

This ridiculous and feeble accusation is somewhat simi-lar to the crazy characters one sees in tabloid magazines who claim to have been abducted by aliens and forced to do unspeak-able things.

Jaafari’s announcement, ludi-crous as it may seem, is revealing of the delusional depths Assad and his allies have reached.

On August 21, 2013, the world witnessed the horrifying after-math of Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people, which, according to a US report, caused an estimated 1,429 fatali-ties, including 426 children.

No sane human doubted that Assad was the real culprit and that the international commu-nity would soon punish him and his allies for their transgressions.

In his latest interview in the Atlantic Magazine, US President Barack Obama talked about how he had previously drawn a red line and warned Assad that any movement or use of chemical weapons would warrant a direct US military response.

However, the so-called Obama Doctrine, which has steered the US away from involvement in the Middle East, was to prevail.

Consequently, following

Ghouta, Obama opted to take the easy way out by asking Russian President Vladimir Putin, Syria’s main patron, to clean up Assad’s mess.

Accordingly, US Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov orchestrated a dis-honorable arrangement that amounted to a school yard rebuke of a bully.

Rather than, destroying Assad’s capabilities to launch future missile or aerial attacks, he was ordered to hand over his entire chemical weapons cache — an instruction that seems to have had little effect on the regime’s ability to massacre civilians.

Seemingly, this tragic affair ended with Assad being essen-tially rewarded for his crimes. The international community stood helpless as the Ameri-can-Russian consensus pushed the war in Syria to a new level.

However, by killing his own folk Assad was merely walk-ing in the footsteps of his late father, who 31 years earlier had destroyed the city of Hama.

Hafez Al Assad, who was challenged by the Muslim Broth-erhood in Syria, unleashed his wrath and his troops, killing 20,000 of his own people and razing the city to the ground.

The New York Times corre-spondent in the region at the time, Thomas Friedman, reported ask-ing a taxi driver in Hama where

all the houses and people had gone. “You are probably driving on some of them,” was the chill-ing reply.

Friedman went on to coin the term “Hama Rules” to describe the logic that drove Assad to employ such brutally. Simply put, Freidman con-cluded that when dealing with the region, Hama Rules meant there were no rules at all and the most brutal actor would be the last man standing.

While these barbaric rules certainly still apply to this day, especially within the Syrian context, much has changed. Primarily, Hafez Al Assad had a better understanding of local and regional politics and he

knew his people better than his optometrist-turned-pres-ident son could ever do.

Secondly, by allowing Iran and its subsidiaries — Hezbol-lah and Iraqi factions — to set up shop in Syria, Bashar Al Assad has been exposed as unfit to out-maneuver or outfight any of the local opposition groups, prompt-ing his Russian and Iranian allies to do most of the legwork.

The main difference between father and son is that that Hafez never denied ordering the Hama massa-cre, remaining silent and not attempting to justify himself to his own people or the world.

Bashar Al Assad, on the other hand, has had the audacity to gas men, women and children and accuse others of the crime.

Assad can and will con-tinue to accuse France, the Syrian opposition or even Martians of perpetrating the massacre of Ghouta but the harsh reality remains evident — the blood of other Syrian civilians in Duma, Madaya, Aleppo, Daraa and Homs will ensure punishment sooner rather than later.

The writer is a PhD candidate at Georgetown University’s history department. He is the author of “A Campus at War: Student Politics at the American Uni-versity of Beirut, 1967–1975” and a regular columnist for Now Lebanon.

Ghouta Rules: Justice waiting for Assad

By Makram Rabah Anatolia

On August 21, 2013, the world witnessed the horrifying aftermath of Assad’s use of chemical weapons against his own people, which, according to a US report, caused an estimated 1,429 fatalities, including 426 children.

UN chemical weapons experts prepare before collecting samples from one of the sites of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Damascus’ suburb of Zamalka.

OPINION 09 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

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

Why Obama wouldn’t aid Iran’s Green Revolution

By Eli Lake Bloomberg

One of the great hypotheticals of Barack Obama’s presi-dency involves the Iranian uprising that began on June 12, 2009, after Mahmoud

Ahmadinejad was announced the winner of contested presidential elections. What if the president had done more to help the protesters when the regime appeared to be teetering?

It’s well known he was slow to react. Obama publicly downplayed the pros-pect of real change at first, saying the candidates whom hundreds of thou-sands of Iranians were risking their lives to support did not represent fun-damental change.

When he finally did speak out, he couldn’t bring himself to say the election was stolen: “The world is watching and inspired by their participation, regard-less of what the ultimate outcome of the election was.”

But Obama wasn’t just reluctant to show solidarity in 2009. He feared the demonstrations would sabotage his secret outreach to Iran. In his new book, “The Iran Wars,” Wall Street Journal reporter Jay Solomon uncovers new details on how far Obama went to avoid helping Iran’s green movement. Behind the scenes, Obama overruled advisers who wanted to do what America had done at similar transitions from dictatorship to democ-racy, and signal America’s support.

Solomon reports that Obama ordered the CIA to sever contacts it had with the green movement’s sup-porters. “The Agency has contingency

plans for supporting democratic uprisings anywhere in the world.

This includes providing dissidents with communications, money, and in extreme cases even arms,” Solomon writes. “But in this case the White House ordered it to stand down.”

At the time, Solomon reports, Obama’s aides received mixed messages. Members of the Iranian diaspora wanted the president to support the uprisings. Dissident Iranians from inside the coun-try said such support would be the kiss of death. In the end, Obama did nothing, and Iran’s supreme leader blamed him anyway for fomenting the revolt.

It’s worth contrasting Obama’s response with how the US has reacted to other democratic uprisings. The State Department, for example, ran a pro-gram in 2000 through the US embassy in Hungary to train Serbian activists in nonviolent resistance against their dic-tator, Slobodan Milosevic.

Milosevic, too, accused his opposition of being pawns of the US government. But in the end his people forced the dic-tator from power.

Similarly, when Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze met with popular protests in 2003 after rigged elections, George W Bush dispatched James Baker to urge him to step down peacefully, which he did. Even the Obama admin-istration provided diplomatic and moral support for popular uprisings in Egypt in 2011 and Ukraine in 2014.

Iran though is a very different story. Obama from the beginning of his pres-idency tried to turn the country’s ruling clerics from foes to friends. It was an obsession.

And even though the president would impose severe sanctions on the country’s economy at the end of his first term and beginning of his second, from the start of his presidency, Obama made it clear the US did not seek regime change for Iran.

It’s debatable whether the US ever did support such a policy. But it’s striking the lengths to which Obama went to make good on his word.

As Solomon reports, Obama ended US programs to document Iranian human rights abuses. He wrote personal letters to Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei assuring him the US was not trying to overthrow him. Obama repeat-edly stressed his respect for the regime in his statements marking Iran’s annual Nowruz celebration.

His quest to engage the mullahs seems to have influenced Obama’s decision-making on other issues too. When he walked away from his red line against Syria’s use of chemical weap-ons in 2013, Solomon reports, both US and Iranian officials had told him that

nuclear negotiations would be halted if he intervened against Bashar Al Assad.

Obama eventually did get a nuclear deal with Iran. Solomon’s book shines in reporting the details of the diplomacy that led to the 2015 accord.

American diplomats held two sets of negotiations with Iran — one public channel with the British, Chinese, Euro-pean Union, French, Germans, Russians and the United Nations — and another, bilateral track established through the Sultanate of Oman.

In 2013, US officials shuttled on pub-lic busses between two hotels in Geneva to conduct the two tracks before telling their negotiating partners about the for-merly secret channel to Iran.

Eventually, the Iranians wore down the US delegation. At the beginning of the talks in 2013, the US position was for Iran to dismantle much of its nuclear infra-structure. By the end of the talks in 2015, Secretary of State John Kerry and his team “agreed that Iran would then be allowed to build an industrial-scale nuclear program, with hundreds

of thousands of machines, after a ten year period of restraint.”

Other US red lines were demol-ished too. The final deal would allow the UN ban on Iranian missile devel-opment to phase out after eight years, and the arms embargo against Iran to expire after five. Iran would not have to acknowledge that it had tried to develop a nuclear weapon, even though samples the Iranians collected at its Parchin facility found evidence of man-made uranium.

In one particularly revealing pas-sage, Solomon captures the thinking of Kerry, who engaged in detailed negoti-ations over the deal in the final months of the talks.

“So many wars have been fought over misunderstandings, misinterpretations, lack of effective diplomacy,” Kerry told Solomon in a 2016 interview. “War is the failure of diplomacy.”

Kerry’s diplomacy succeeded. But the Middle East got war nonetheless. “The Revolutionary Guard continues to develop increasingly sophisticated

weapons systems, including ballistic missiles inscribed with threats against Israel on their nose cones,” Solomon writes in the book’s concluding chapter. “Khamenei and other revolutionary lead-ers, meanwhile, fine-tune their rhetorical attacks against the United States, seem-ing to need the American threat to justify their existence.”

There was a chance for a better out-come. There is no guarantee that an Obama intervention would have been able to topple Khamenei back in 2009, when his people flooded the streets to protest an election the American presi-dent wouldn’t say was stolen. But it was worth a try. Imagine if that uprising had succeeded. Perhaps then a nuclear deal could have brought about a real peace. Instead, Obama spent his presidency mis-understanding Iran’s dictator, assuring the supreme leader America wouldn’t aid his citizens when they tried to change the regime that oppresses them to this day.

Eli Lake is a Bloomberg View columnist writing about politics and foreign affairs.

Iran though is a very different story. Obama from the beginning of his presidency tried to turn the country’s ruling clerics from foes to friends. It was an obsession.

A pro-democracy rally in Tehran, Iran.

I’m a proud black woman — my son looks white

By Sa’iyda ShabazzThe Washington Post

When I found out I was preg-nant, I had a clear vision of the little boy I would

be raising. I saw a toddler with a big curly afro and light brown skin. We thought that with a black mother and a white father, he’d look something like Heidi Klum and Seal’s kids. When they placed the screaming little baby on my chest he was purple, but a few hours later, he was as white as his dad. All Heidi, no Seal.

I figured that as the days passed he’d get darker. Boy was I wrong. I posted a picture of him on Insta-gram and a friend commented, “He’s so white!” Sure, I was a little disap-pointed that he looked so little like me, but he was my son, half black and half white, and I didn’t care that the latter showed more strongly than the former.

I quickly learned, though, that the

wider world didn’t always respond the same way. I braced myself for comments every time we went out in public. People were constantly sur-prised to learn he was mine. I took him out with my white best friend (my son’s godmother) in the after-noons, and everyone directed their questions about him to her. She’d just point to me. Their faces went from confidence to extreme confu-sion as they tried to figure out how he could have come out of me. I smiled brightly as they recovered and con-tinued fawning over my cute baby.

While I am lucky that most remarks were about how cute he is (they still are), I did get some inter-esting ones. Once, an older black woman (based on her accent, she was from the Caribbean) told me that I was “lucky to have a white baby.” I was gobsmacked. Why was I lucky? Were white people going to accept me more if I had a “white” baby? Did that make me special? Then I was annoyed. What made her think that her comment was okay to say out loud? Another time, an older woman went on a tirade about me and my son in another language. Her son apologised profusely, and I shrugged it off, but it hurt.

When black people look at us, I watch them try to figure out our relationship. They seldom make eye contact with me, but I know they’re looking. When my son calls me “Mommy” or we do something that reveals our relationship, I see

the realisation in their eyes. Often they become cloudy with questions and judgment, but they never say a word. I know what some of them are thinking, especially the women. They consider me a traitor. But my son’s whiteness does not quantify my blackness. Having a child with a white man doesn’t make me or my son any less black.

As if I could forget that we are black. Shortly before my son’s first birthday, a video went viral. In it, Eric Garner, a black man, was savagely placed in a chokehold and subse-quently suffocated by a white police officer. The incident happened a few blocks away from where we live. A few weeks later, a young black man named Michael Brown was killed in Missouri. During the news coverage, I learned that the killing occurred in Ferguson, the town where my boyfriend had lived since he was a kid and where his parents had just moved from.

After the tensions died down in Ferguson, we went for a visit so my son could meet his grandpar-ents. In Missouri, I was painfully aware of my blackness and felt a constant need to be on the defense. When my boyfriend’s parents and I took my son out, I looked like the odd man out, especially in the sub-urbs. My boyfriend’s dad drove us through Ferguson to show me all of the damage that had been done by the protests. He made a few uncom-fortable off-color remarks that I tried to laugh off. As we drove, I felt

an odd sense of solidarity but also heartbreak. It’s one thing to see it on television, but seeing it in person made it so real.

An incident in 2015 solidified things for me. We had just gotten off the bus in my neighborhood and were halfway across the crosswalk, my son in his stroller, when I saw a police car approaching. The lights weren’t flashing and there was no siren, so I continued to cross. But the car continued to slowly pull into the crosswalk. It finally stopped mere inches from the stroller. I turned to the car to look the officers in the eyes and noticed both were female. I was shocked that two women would have no problem nearly running over another woman pushing a stroller. When I posted the incident on Face-book, I had friends try to defend the cops. But this is the same police pre-cinct that had murdered Eric Garner in broad daylight, so I saw the truth.

My son doesn’t realise yet that he and I don’t look alike. To him, I’m just Mommy. But I have to prepare him for the world that he will inhabit. Even though he doesn’t look black, he is black. In our house, Black Lives Matter is more than just a hashtag; it is our reality. Since having a child, I have become more outspoken about the issues black people face. I want to show my son that being black is something to celebrate, even if it’s a side of him that many can’t see. Phi-lando Castile could have been his uncle; Tamir Rice could have been

his cousin; Sandra Bland, his aunt. His blackness is just as much a part of him as his whiteness.

I constantly wonder what the next few years will have in store as my son approaches school age. Will his intelligence and ability be doubted as a result of him hav-ing a black woman as his primary caregiver? Will teachers and admin-istrators assume, like many people before them, that I’m just his nanny? Will kids or their families treat him differently if they saw him and then saw me? I was often embraced by my white peers and their families because I wasn’t your stereotypical black woman. But you only know that when you talk to me. If you look at me, you don’t know that I have a col-lege degree, but you do know that I have brown skin. On the flip side, I know that he’ll experience other privileges as a white male. I don’t see such privilege as a bad thing if you’re aware that the privilege doesn’t exist for everyone. The color of his skin could keep him alive in a bad situa-tion, but what happens when he tells someone he’s mixed?

I want him to accept both sides of himself equally and be proud of them. If doors were to open to him because of his whiteness, I would push him through wholeheartedly — because I know that he would bring the other side of his her-itage with him into the conversation. I have faith that my son will use his unique position to change the world. And what mom doesn’t want that?

I have faith that my son will use his unique position to change the world. The color of his skin could keep him alive in a bad situation, but what happens when he tells someone he’s mixed? I want him to accept both sides of himself equally and be proud of them.

INDIA10 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Anatolia

SRINAGAR: The chief minister of Kashmir yesterday defended recent civilian killings by Indian forces, saying that protesters were a small minority who had attacked police stations and army camps.

“Did the child [who was killed] go to the army camp to buy toffee? Had the 15-year-old boy who was shot dead in Damhal Hanjipora when he attacked a police station gone to fetch milk?” Mehbooba Mufti

said in her first press conference since she took over as Kashmir’s chief minister around three months ago.

“Those people who are creating

havoc, who are 5 percent of the total population, we will deal with them according to the law. We won’t allow them to create problems for the majority of the population and make their lives hell. We will never allow them,” she added.

Mufti addressed reporters along-side Federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh, in the region on a two-day visit in hopes of restoring the gov-ernment’s authority amid massive protests.

At least 68 civilians have been killed and over 6,000 wounded in army’s crackdown on a massive pro-independence uprising trig-gered by last month’s killing of a militant commander by Indian forces.

Since then, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets shouting anti-India and pro-inde-pendence slogans and throwing stones at Indian forces.

The government has so far responded only by the use of force: imposing a 24-hour curfew now in its 48th day, rushing several thou-sand more soldiers, and using live fire and pellet guns (buckshot) on the protesters.

At the press conference, it seemed clear that the Indian gov-ernment has decided to continue using force to quell the pro-inde-pendence protests.

The pro-independence lead-ership who are in charge on the ground, however, continued to face arrest.

After facing a flurry of tough questions over not acknowledging the pro-independence nature of the protests, Mufti angrily called the press conference short and quickly left the room.

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full.

IANS

NEW DELHI: Vinay Sharma, one of the four convicts in the Decem-ber 16, 2012, Nirbhaya gang-rape, was being treated at a city hospi-tal after he tried to commit suicide by hanging himself inside his cell in Tihar Jail, an official said yes-terday.

Sharma was admitted to Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital (DDU) after he consumed pills and tried to hang himself from the ventila-tor of his cell by using a towel on Wednesday night.

“Tamil Nadu Police security personnel prevented Vinay from commiting suicide after they saw him trying to hang himself in his cell around 9.30pm. He was immediately taken to DDU hos-pital for treatment. He is now reportedly out of danger,” Tihar Jail Superintendent Bijendra Kumar said.

IANS

SRINAGAR: Federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh yesterday made a pas-sionate appeal for peace in the Kashmir Valley, saying India’s future was incomplete without a peaceful Kashmir and announced that an all-party delegation will visit the state soon for talks on ending a protracted vio-lent unrest that has killed nearly 70 people since July 9.

At a press conference towards the end of his two-day Kashmir tour, Rajnath Singh conceded a popular demand, saying that an alternative to the use of pellet guns as a tool to control unruly mobs would be found “in a few days”.

During his stay in Srinagar, the Home Minister said he met some 300 people, including leaders of all political parties in the state, with whom he had “good talks”. “Everybody wants peace to be restored. We are extremely sad over the situation. We are pained over the loss of lives,” the minister said with Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti by his side.

In an oblique reference to separatist leaders, the Home Minister said people should “not play with the future of Kashmiri youth”.

“They (youth) should hold books, pens and laptops in their hands and not stones,” he said. “We are linking the future of Kashmiri youth with the future of India. And I appeal to Kashmir people to identify those who are creating trouble.”

He said leaders of all political parties will soon visit here for talks on finding ways to break the logjam in the valley. “I have asked the state government to make all preparations for that.”

Kashmir CM defends deaths of protesters

Nirbhaya rape convict tries to commit suicide

Reuters

NEW DELHI/PARIS: France and India yesterday played down the security risk posed by leaked data on French-designed sub-marines that a source said was probably stolen by a French former employee and that has raised concerns over a $38bn contract with Australia.

More than 22,000 pages of data about six submarines that France’s DCNS is building for India’s navy looked to have been stolen in 2011 by a subcontractor who was fired while providing training in India, the source said.

India’s defence ministry said yesterday that it saw no immedi-ate security risk and the French government said the information in the documments only showed how the submarines operate and did not compromise their security.

India and France are inves-tigating after The Australian newspaper published on Wednes-day details about its Scorpene submarines being built in India by contractor DCNS - 35 percent owned by Thales and 65 percent by the French state.

“It is not a leak, it is theft,” the source said. “We have not found any DCNS negligence, but we have identified some dishonesty by an individual.”

The French government source said security proce-dures would be strengthened for all employees going to work in Australia to ensure one person did not have access to so many documents.

The documents were not clas-sified and at this stage appeared to only focus on how the subma-rines are operated not how they are built and whether they can be detected, the source said.

IANS

NEW DELHI: A day after tell-ing the Supreme Court he had not blamed the RSS as an organisation for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination but only people linked to it, Congress Vice-President Rahul Gandhi (pic-tured), on Thursday said he stands by his comments and will never stop fighting the “hateful and divi-sive agenda” of the RSS.

However, the Bharatiya Janata Party strongly reacted to Gandhi’s stand in the Supreme Court as also his tweet on the issue. It asked if Rahul Gandhi can be blamed for the crimes committed by Congressmen.

“I will never stop fighting the hateful and divisive agenda of the RSS. I stand by every single word I said,” Rahul said in the tweet.

On August 24, Rahul Gandhi’s counsel Kapil Sibal told the Supreme Court that the Congress leader had not blamed the Rashtriya Swayamse-vak Sangh (RSS) as an institution for the assassination of Mahatma Gan-dhi, but the people associated with it.

Sibal said this while referring to an affidavit filed by Rahul Gandhi before the Bombay High Court, chal-lenging the defamation proceedings against him launched by RSS worker Rajesh Madhav Kunte.

Kunte had said that the Con-gress leader, in his election speech at Sonale in Maharashtra on March

6, 2015, had allegedly blamed the RSS for Mahatma Gandhi’s assassination.

The case is pending before a magisterial court in Bhiwandi in Thane district of Maharashtra.

Rahul Gandhi on Thursday also uploaded the video of his election speech at Sonale on Twitter.

BJP spokesman Shrikant Sharma cited the murder cases of Bhanwari Devi in Rajasthan and Naina Sahani in Delhi in which Congress leaders were involved and said going by Rahul’s logic, he could be blamed for the above-mentioned crimes.

“What Rahul Gandhi would like to be called? A murderer,” Sharma said.

Convicted for Bhanwari Devi’s murder, former Rajasthan minister

and Congress leader Mahipal Mad-erna is serving a jail term while Congress leader Sushil Sharma is serving life imprisonment for his wife Naina Sahani’s murder, known as the infamous Delhi tandoor case.

Sharma told IANS: “Rahul knew he cannot speak a lie in the court; so he has again started spreading lies about the RSS outside the court. He was dragged to the court in this mat-ter but still he is not ready to make amends.”

Sharma said that Gandhi should “learn lessons from history”.

“Neither (the then Prime Minis-ters) Indira Gandhi nor Rajiv Gandhi could harm the RSS. Even Sonia Gan-dhi and Manmohan Singh ruled the country for 10 years but they could

not harm it. Where is Rahul Gandhi?” he said.

Rahul Gandhi says stands by words on RSS

IANS

PATNA/BHOPAL: The flood sit-uation in Bihar remained grim yesterday, though the river Ganga and its tributaries started showing sign of receding but hundreds of thousands of affected people have been still strggling for survival, offi-cials said. The situation, however, was easing in neighbouring Mad-hya Pradesh.

More than three million people have been hit by the floods in Bihar. including thousands who have been displaced across the worst-hit 12 districts, the officials said.

According to state disaster man-agement department officials, till date, floods have claimed 31 lives.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar met flood victims during his visit to the affected areas in Patna district and assured all possible help, including timely relief. Nitish

Kumar also directed concerned officials to provide adequate relief and other facilities at relief camps set up by the government.

“Chief Minister has ordered to intensify relief and rescue opera-tions in flood affected areas and to serve food in steel utensils provided from the CM’s relief fund,” an offi-cial said.

However, at several places, flood victims have staged protests and blocked roads to express anger and impatience over the quality and quantity of government aid that has so far been provided to them.

Flood victims, hungry and homeless, many of them forced to live under open sky, have also expressed anger for not providing fodder for their cattle.

About 900 officils of the National Disaster Response Force and the State Disaster Response Force have been deployed in the flood-hit districts.

The two countries have fought three wars — in 1948, 1965, and 1971 — since they were partitioned in 1947, two of which were fought over Kashmir. Since 1989, Kash-miri resistance groups have been fighting against Indian rule for inde-pendence, or for unification with

neighboring Pakistan. More than 70,000 people have

reportedly been killed in the con-flict so far, most of them in the Indian Armed Forces’ counter-insurgency operations. India maintains more than half a million troops in the dis-puted region.

Food parcels are unloaded from an air force helicopter to be distributed among those affected by flooding on the outskirts of Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, yesterday.

Flood situation grim in Bihar; eases in MP

Federal Home Minister Rajnath Singh and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Mehbooba Mufti arrive for a joint press conference in Srinagar, yesterday.

At least 68 civilians have died and over 6,000 wounded in army’s crackdown

Home Minister calls for peaceful Kashmir

India and France see no security risk of leaked submarine data

Congress leaders cross over to Trinamool

KOLKATA: Continuing the exo-dus from opposition parties to the Trinamool Congress, a host of Congress leaders and elected rep-resentatives switched over to West Bengal’s ruling party yesterday.

Former state Congress pres-ident and ex minister Manas Bhunia also kept alive specu-lations that he would also cross over to the Trinamool, saying “it was difficult to say what will happen”.

Bhunia’s brother and West Midnapore district Congress pres-ident Bikash Bhunia joined the Trinamool along with seven bus-loads of Congress leaders, elected rural body representatives and activists from Sabong block.

EUROPE 11FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

AFP

PARIS: France’s highest administra-tive court will decide today whether to overturn the ban on wearing the burkini which has sparked contro-versy at home and abroad.

The State Council began hear-ing arguments yesterday from the Human Rights League and an anti-Islamophobia group which are seeking to reverse a decision by the southern town of Villeneuve-Loubet, near Nice, to ban the Islamic swim-suit. The ruling, due at 3pm (1300 GMT) today, is likely to set a prec-edent for around 30 French towns which have banned the burkini, mostly in the southeast.

A court in the Riviera city of Nice upheld the ban this week. The burkini bans have triggered a fierce debate in France and elsewhere about the

wearing of the full-body swimsuit, women’s rights and secularism.

Anger over the issue was fur-ther inflamed on Wednesday when photographs emerged in the media of police surrounding a woman in a headscarf on a Nice beach removing a long-sleeved top.

But the office of Nice’s mayor denied that the woman had been

forced to remove clothing, telling she was showing police the swim-suit she was wearing under her top, over a pair of leggings, when the pic-ture was taken. The police issued her with a fine and she left the beach, the officials added.

Prime Minister Manuel Valls said he condemned any “stigmatisation” of Muslims, but maintained that the

burkini was “a political sign of reli-gious proselytising”. “We are not at war with Islam... the French repub-lic is welcoming (to Muslims), we are protecting them against discrimina-tion,” he told BFMTV.

But in a sign of the divisions within the Socialist government on the issue, Education Minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem said the

“proliferation” of burkini bans “was not a welcome development”.

Vallaud-Belkacem, who is of Moroccan origin, took issue with the wording of the ban in Nice which linked the measure to the jihad-ist attack in the resort last month in which 86 people were killed.

“In my opinion, there is nothing to prove that there is a link between the terrorism of Daesh and what a woman wears on a beach,” she said, using another term for Islamic State.

But Valls contradicted his min-ister’s claims, saying the bans were necessary to maintain “public order”.

President Francois Hollande made his first comment on the issue yesterday, saying life in France “sup-poses that everyone sticks to the rules and that there is neither provocation nor stigmatisation”.

The former president, Nicolas Sarkozy, who this week launched his bid to regain the presidency, has described the burkini as a “provocation”.

The administrative court in Nice ruled on Monday that the Vil-leneuve-Loubet ban was “necessary” to prevent public disorder after the truck attack in Nice and the murder of a Catholic priest by two jihadists in northern France.

The so-called burkini bans never actually mention the word burkini, although they are aimed at the gar-ment which covers the hair but leaves the face visible and stretches down to the ankles.

The vague wording of the

prohibitions has caused confusion. Apart from the incident featured in the photographs in Nice, a 34-year-old mother of two said on Tuesday she had been fined on the beach in the resort of Cannes wearing leg-gings, a tunic and a headscarf.

“I was sitting on a beach with my family. I was wearing a clas-sic headscarf. I had no intention of swimming,” said the woman, who gave only her first name, Siam.

Anouar Kbibech, the head of the French Council of the Muslim Faith (CFCM), said he was “concerned over the direction the public debate is taking.”

London Mayor Sadiq Khan, the first Muslim mayor of a major West-ern capital, condemned the bans as he visited Paris yesterday. “I don’t think anyone should tell women what they can and can’t wear. Full stop,” he told the London Evening Stand-ard newspaper.

Around 50 people held a protest outside the French embassy in Lon-don, recreating a beach and carrying placards saying “Burkini ban is rac-ist”. Amnesty International called for the ban to be lifted immediately, say-ing it was “fuelled by and is fuelling prejudice and intolerance”.

“These bans do nothing to increase public safety, but do a lot to promote public humiliation,” said the group’s Europe director John Dalhuisen. France firmly separates religion and public life and was the first European country to ban the wearing of the Islamic face veil in public in 2010.

Top French court to rule on burkini ban today

Protesters hold a sign which reads “Islamophobia is not freedom”, outside French Embassy in London yesterday.

The burkini bans have triggered a fierce debate in France and elsewhere about the wearing of the full-body swimsuit, women’s rights and secularism.

AFP

AMATRICE: The death toll from a powerful earthquake in central Italy was revised downwards to 241 yesterday but officials cautioned it could rise again as rescuers con-tinued a grim search for corpses, as powerful aftershocks rocked the devastated area.

Weeping in a campsite erected to house the homeless from a string of mountain villages, Rita Rosine, 63, said her 75-year-old sister was trapped under the ruins of a col-lapsed house, presumed dead.

“The situation is worse than in war. It’s awful, awful ... they say it will take two days to dig her out because they have to shore up the surround-ing buildings. “She didn’t deserve to die like that, she was so good.”

As rescuers sifted through the rubble, questions mounted as to why there had been so many deaths in a thinly-populated area so soon after a 2009 earthquake in the nearby city of L’Aquila left 300 people dead.

That disaster, just 50km south, underscored the region’s vulner-ability to seismic events — but preparations for a fresh quake have been exposed as limited at best.

Giuseppe Saieva, the chief public

prosecutor for most of the area affected, said he would be opening an investigation into whether any-one could be held responsible for the disaster.

In Amatrice a 4.3 magnitude aftershock shook the already badly damaged village yesterday, fueling fears of fresh collapses which could hamper the rescue operation.

Mayor Sergio Pirozzi said over 200 people had died in the village alone, suggesting the total number of victims could increase significantly.

Amatrice normally has a pop-ulation of around 2,500 but it was packed with visitors when the quake struck as people slept in the early hours of Wednesday. The fate of 28 of 32 guests staying in the village’s Hotel Roma was still unclear.

The Red Cross began shipping in food and water supplies for homeless residents. Among those who came to pick up emergency provisions were Maria Atrimala, 48, and her 15-year-old daughter.

“We escaped by pure luck, the stairs of the house held and we ran, blindly in the dark and dust,” she said with tears rolling down her face.

“When we got out we could hear the cries of people still trapped and we helped those we could. “We were in L’Aquila when the earthquake struck there, and now this. We have

Questions mount as Italy weeps for quake victims

friends, relatives that didn’t make it. What the future holds I don’t know.”

Hundreds of people spent the night sleeping in their cars or in hast-ily-assembled tents, the aftershocks adding to their discomfort.

Mario, a father of two small boys, said he was still in shock. “We slept in the car last night, though with the quakes it was hard to sleep at all,” he said between sips of Coke.

“We’ve booked a tent for tonight. But then tomorrow, the next day?” The extensive damage to lightly-used properties has raised the spectre of some of the smaller hamlets in the region becoming ghost towns.

“If we don’t get help, l’Arquata is

finished,” said Aleandro Petrucci, the mayor of Arquata del Tronto, which accounted for 57 of the confirmed deaths to date.

Petrucci said it was impossible to say exactly how many people were in the 13 tiny communities that make up l’Arquata when the disaster struck.

In Pescara del Tronto, which was virtually razed by the quake, there are only four permanently resident families but there could have been up to 300 people there on Wednesday.

Measuring 6.0-6.2 magnitude, the quake’s epicentre was near Amatrice and its shallow depth of 4km exacer-bated its impact. It occurred without

warning but in an area with a long history of killer quakes.

The Civil Protection agency which is coordinating the rescue effort said that in addition to the dead, 264 peo-ple had suffered injuries serious enough to be hospitalised. Several of them are in a critical state.

Rescue workers were pessimistic about the chance of finding any more survivors although the last survivor in L’Aquila was rescued after 72 hours under rubble.

Prime Minister Matteo Renzi vowed lessons from L’Aquila, which still bears the scars of 2009, would be applied. “The objective is to rebuild and start again,” he said.

Reuters

PRAGUE: The Czech Repub-lic supports deeper European defence cooperation that could eventually lead to the creation of a European army, Czech Prime Minister Bohuslav Sobotka said after meeting German Chancellor Angela Merkel yesterday.

Sobotka said more European security and defence cooperation, in addition to the existing part-nership in NATO, was a priority given the need to protect external EU borders and respond to grow-ing security threats from places such as the Middle East.

Creating joint army units would follow a practice long established by countries such as Germany, which has cre-ated them with France and the Netherlands and has discussed military collaboration with other EU partners.

In Tallinn on Wednesday, Mer-kel said she saw no fundamental obstacles to setting up joint units with Estonia, although she added the disparate sizes of the two mil-itaries meant such an endeavour might require the participation of other countries.

Sobotka said his country envisaged further partnerships between EU countries, sug-gesting they could form steps towards the establishment of a European army.

“Certainly the Czech Republic can imagine stronger cooperation in the military area, integration of units, common exercises, and above all securing the capacity to organise operations to sup-port common European foreign policy,” he said.

In his discussion with Merkel, he called the project “a possible joint European army”.

Merkel is meeting 15 other heads of state this week to pre-pare the groundwork for a Sept. 16 summit in Bratislava aimed at giving new agenda to the bloc hit by the immigration wave and Brit-ain’s decision to leave.

European countries have started to increase military spending in light of an increas-ingly aggressive stance by Russia and wars in the Mid-dle East, but funding in most EU states is still far below the 2 percent of GDP they pledge as members of Nato.

AFP

LONDON: Poland is the most com-mon foreign country of birth for people living in Britain, overtaking India, according to official estimates released yesterday.

An estimated 831,000 Polish-born people lived in Britain in 2015, said the Office for National Statistics — a more than 13-fold increase on the 69,000 residents in 2004, when Poland joined the EU and its nation-als gained the right to live and work in Britain.

There were an estimated 795,000 UK residents born in India, which had been the most common country of

birth outside Britain for the previ-ous 11 years.

“Traditionally the UK’s relation-ship with Ireland and the former colonies have been key factors in shaping its migrant population,” said Madeleine Sumption, director of the Migration Observatory at the Univer-sity of Oxford.

“What we can see from current data is that in recent years the EU has played a similar role.”

In 2015, the five most common countries of birth for UK resi-dents born outside Britain were: Poland (831,000); India (795,000); Pakistan (503,000); Republic of Ireland (382,000), and Germany (286,000).

The number of non-UK born

residents rose by 63 percent from 3.3 million in 2004 to 8.6 million in 2015. They now constitute 13.3 per-cent of the population.

The highest level was in London, where some 37 percent of people were born outside Britain. In the Lon-don boroughs of Brent and Newham, the figure was 54 percent, the high-est in the country.

In 2015, Polish was the most com-mon non-British nationality, with an estimated 916,000 residents, up by 847,000 from 2004. Poland has been the largest non-British popu-lation since 2007.

In 2015, the five most common non-British nationalities for UK residents were: Poland (916,000); India (362,000); Republic of Ireland

(332,000); Romania (233,000), and Portugal (219,000).

NET MIGRATION TO BRITAINMeanwhile, net migration to

Britain — the difference between the numbers arriving and leaving — stood at an estimated 327,000 in the year to March.

It marks a slight fall on the previ-ous 12 months but is the third highest on record. Immigration was esti-mated at 633,000, one of the highest recorded levels.

Immigration was a key issue in the June referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union, in which 52 percent voted to leave the bloc.

The Conservative government

was elected on a manifesto pledge to get net migration below 100,000.

“The referendum result dem-onstrated public concern about the scale of immigration. It simply can-not be allowed to continue,” said Andrew Green of campaign group Migration Watch UK.

Immigration Minister Robert Goodwill said: “There is no doubt there is far more to do.”

Reducing immigration would be a priority in Britain’s EU exit negoti-ations, he added.

Separate figures also showed that more than a quarter (27.5 per-cent) of live births in England and Wales last year were to women born outside Britain — the highest level on record.

Damaged houses are seen in Pescara del Tronto yesterday.

Poland now most common foreign country of birth in UK

Czech premier

backs European

army in talks

with Merkel

AMERICAS12 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

AFP

HAVANA: Colombia’s government and the FARC rebels have reached a historic peace agreement to end their half-century civil war that cost hun-dreds of thousands of lives.

After nearly four years of nego-tiations in Cuba, the two sides announced a final deal early yester-day, which President Juan Manuel Santos said would be put to a deci-sive referendum on October 2.

“The Colombian government and the FARC announce that we have reached a final, full and defin-itive accord... on ending the conflict

and building a stable and endur-ing peace,” the two sides said in a joint statement read out in Havana by Cuban diplomat Rodolfo Benitez. “We don’t want one more victim in Colombia.”

In a national address just after the announcement, Santos — who has staked his legacy on the peace process — said the deal marked “the end of the suffering, the pain and the tragedy of war”. He imme-diately launched his campaign for a “Yes” vote in the referendum, which he said would be the most important election of voters’ lives.

“This is a historic and unique opportunity... to leave behind this conflict and dedicate our efforts to building a more secure, safe, equitable, educated country, for all of us, for our children and grandchildren,” he said.

Colombians welcomed the announcement with both scepticism and joy, as many took to the streets late Wednesday night, waving the national flag and carrying balloons emblazoned with the word “yes” to show their support for peace.

“It’s hard to believe that we have lived to see such things, it’s historic for the country,” 24-year-old Mar-cela Cardenas said, before adding that she believes the transformation will be extremely difficult. Local TV in Colombia’s Caribbean city of Bar-ranquilla showed a rapper chanting “Forward with peace, forward!”

The conflict began with the founding of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) in 1964, at a time when leftist guerrilla armies were fighting to sow revolution throughout Latin America.

Over the years, it has killed 260,000 people, uprooted 6.8 mil-lion and left 45,000 missing. Along the way, it has drawn in several leftist rebel groups and right-wing paramil-itaries. Drug cartels have also fueled the violence in the world’s largest cocaine-producing country.

Three previous peace processes with the FARC ended in failure.

But after a major offensive by the army from 2006 to 2009 — led by then-defense minister Santos — a weakened FARC agreed to come to the negotiating table.

Over the past few days, the two sides had been discussing a range of unresolved topics, and worked late into the night Tuesday to draft their joint statement, sources from the two delegations said in Havana.

FARC chief negotiator Ivan Mar-quez called the accord a new chapter for Colombia. “We can now say that fighting with weapons ends and with ideas begins,” he said from Havana.

The peace deal comprises six agreements reached at each step of the arduous negotiations. They cover justice for victims of the conflict, land reform, political participation for ex-rebels, fighting drug trafficking, disarmament and the implementa-tion and monitoring of the accord.

Under the peace deal, the FARC will begin moving its estimated 7,000 fighters from their jungle and moun-tain hideouts into disarmament camps set up by the United Nations, which is helping monitor the ceasefire.

The FARC will then become a polit-ical party. Its weapons will be melted down to build three peace monuments. Special courts will be created to judge crimes committed during the conflict. An amnesty will be granted for less serious offenses. But it will not cover the worst atrocities, such as massacres, torture and rape.

Those responsible for such crimes will face up to 20 years in prison, with lighter sentences if they con-fess. Santos insisted there would be no impunity for such crimes.

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon congratulated the negoti-ators for their perseverance, while emphasising that equal determina-tion will be needed to implement the agreement. EU foreign affairs chief Federica Mogherini warned that a number of challenges remain for implementation, but that the deal would bring lasting peace.

On Twitter Erna Solberg, the prime minister of Norway, one of the countries that mediated the talks, congratulated “both parties for a bold step towards a peaceful Colombia.”

Meanwhile, the White House said US President Barack Obama had called Santos to congratulate him. “The president recognised this historic day as a critical juncture in what will be a long process to fully implement a just and lasting peace agreement,” it said in a statement.

Obama vowed continuing sup-port for Colombia, a key ally in the US war on drugs. Washington has spent more than $10bn on a joint anti-nar-cotics strategy called “Plan Colombia” — recently rebaptized “Peace Colom-bia” by Obama.

Analyst Jorge Restrepo of the Conflict Analysis Resource Center said the agreement allows Colombia to “finally deal with the public policy issues that have been overshadowed by the armed conflict,” such as drugs.

However there are still obsta-cles on the way to peace. Santos’s top rival, former president Alvaro Uribe, is leading a campaign to vote “No” in the referendum, arguing his successor has given too much away to the FARC.

And the government is still fighting a smaller rebel group, the National Liberation Army (ELN), whose ongoing kidnappings have derailed efforts to open peace negotiations.

Colombia, FARC rebels reach historic peace dealAfter nearly four years of negotiations in Cuba, the two sides announced a final deal, which President Juan Manuel Santos said would be put to a decisive referendum on October 2.

Colombia’s FARC lead negotiator Ivan Marquez (left) and Colombia’s lead government negotiator Humberto de la Calle (right) shake hands while Cuba’s Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez looks on, after signing a final peace deal in Havana.

Reuters

INDIANAPOLIS: Several tor-nadoes plowed through central Indiana late on Wednesday, demolishing numerous homes and a Starbucks cafe in the town of Kokomo and cutting off power to thousands of Indianapolis-area residents, but no serious injuries were reported.

Governor and Republican vice presidential nominee Mike Pence, who cut short a campaign trip for running mate Donald Trump and returned to Indiana, said eight funnel clouds were confirmed and three touched down during a “very tough day of weather”.

Tornado warnings were issued in 27 counties, but no one was known to have been killed or badly hurt, Pence said, adding that he would remain in Indiana for “as long as we need to be here.” Pence planned to visit storm-ravaged areas with Lieutenant Governor Eric Holcomb.

Ten to 12 people were reported to have suffered minor inju-ries in Howard County, which apparently bore the brunt of the storms, according to John Erick-son, spokesman for the state Homeland Security Department. At least one “large and extremely dangerous” tornado struck near Indianapolis, the state’s capital and largest city, as severe thun-derstorms rolled through the region in the late afternoon, the National Weather Service said.

But Kokomo, a city of 45,000 people about 100km north of Indianapolis, appeared to be the epicenter of storm damage, including a flattened Starbucks outlet and numerous houses left splintered or with roofs and walls torn away.

The entire front wall and facade of the Starbucks could be seen abruptly collapsing in the wind in cellphone video footage shot from a bar across the street and aired by Indianapolis-based NBC News affiliate WTHR-TV.

Starbucks customers and employees “piled into” the restroom to shield themselves as the storm closed in, according to a police account related to Reuters by City Councilman Bob Cameron.

Shoppers at a nearby Krogers supermarket likewise waited out the storms in coolers at the back of the store. An adjacent shopping mall was reported to have been heavily damaged, and Erickson said a nursing home in Howard County also sustained storm damage.

Republican Presidential nominee Donald Trump listens to United Kingdom Independence Party leader Nigel Farage during a campaign rally at the Mississippi Coliseum in Jackson, Mississippi.

Agencies

WASHINGTON: More than half of respondents in a new poll said they plan to vote for Hillary Clinton — the first time the Democratic presiden-tial candidate has breached that all-important 50 percent threshold.

The poll released yesterday by Quinnipiac University found the former secretary of state leading Trump 51 to 41 percent in a head to head race. “We are starting to hear the faint rumblings of a Hillary Clin-ton landslide as her 10-point lead is further proof that Donald Trump is in a downward spiral as the clock ticks,” said Tim Malloy, assistant director of the Quinnipiac University Poll.

Support for Clinton falls below 50 percent if third-party candidates are thrown into the equation. The former first lady gets 45 percent, with Trump polling 38 percent, when Libertarian Party candidate Gary Johnson and Green Party con-tender Jill Stein are added to the mix.

Johnson gets 10 percent and Stein is at 4 percent in the Quin-nipiac poll. Trump’s campaign has stumbled in recent weeks after a series of perceived gaffes. Commen-tators say it has struggled to make the transition from the scrappy party nomination fight to the battle to become US commander in chief.

“Trump’s missteps, stumbles and gaffes seem to outweigh Clinton’s shaky trust status and perceived shady dealings. Wow, is there any

light at the end of this dark and depressing chapter in American politics?” Malloy said.

Meanwhile, Clinton, who is looking to make history as Ameri-ca’s first female commander in chief, has hit choppy waters as well amid the continuing fallout over her mis-begotten decision to use a private email server for State Department correspondence.

She also has come under scru-tiny for allegedly breaching a firewall between her family char-ity and her role as secretary of state, sparking Republican complaints of special favors granted to donors to the Clinton Foundation.

The Clinton Foundation should shut down or transfer operations to another charity despite its good work to avoid perceptions of “pay-for-play”, The Washington Post and USA Today said in editorials.

USA Today said the global char-ity must close for the Democratic candidate to avoid any appearance of unethical ties. The Post said that these changes were insufficient and should have happened sooner., before Hillary Clinton served as sec-retary of state from 2009 to 2013.

But despite her self-inflicted wounds, many voters perceive fewer potential drawbacks to a Clinton presidency, and she continues to poll well ahead of her Republican rival.

Quinnipiac’s nationwide tele-phone survey of some 1,500 likely voters, taken from August 18 to 24, had a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points.

Reuters

JACKSON: Nigel Farage, a key fig-ure in the successful campaign to get Britain out of the European Union, lent his support to Repub-lican presidential nominee Donald Trump, saying Trump represented the same type of anti-establishment movement that he masterminded in his own country.

Farage appeared with Trump before a cheering crowd of thou-sands at a rally in Mississippi. Farage partly based his Brexit drive on opposition to mass immigration to Britain that he said was leading to rapid change in his country.

His appearance came as Trump sought to moderate his own hardline stance against illegal immigration. In remarks broadcast on Wednes-day, Trump backed further away from his vow to deport millions of illegal immigrants, saying he would be willing to work with those who have abided by US laws while living in the country.

Trump summoned Farage on stage in the middle of his appearance, shook his hand and surrendered the microphone to him. Farage said he would not actually endorse Trump because he did not want to repeat what he called Pres-ident Barack Obama’s meddling in British affairs when Obama urged Britons to vote to stay in the EU.

“I cannot possibly tell you how you should vote in this election. But you know I get it, I get it. I’m hear-ing you. But I will say this, if I was an American citizen I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if you paid me,” Farage said. “In fact, I wouldn’t vote for Hillary Clinton if she paid me,” he added.

Farage drew parallels between the Brexit movement and the sup-port Trump has received from many Americans who feel left behind by Washington.

“They feel people aren’t standing up for them and they have in many cases given up on the whole elec-toral process and I think you have a fantastic opportunity here with this campaign,” he said.

AFP

BRASÍLIA: Senators launched the tense impeachment trial of Brazil’s first woman president, Dilma Rous-seff (pictured), yesterday, with high expectations that she will be sacked within days.

The warm vibe of the Rio Olympic Games faded and tension returned as the emotionally-charged affair neared its climax, threatening to end 13 years of leftist rule in Latin America’s biggest economy.

Chief justice Ricardo Lewand-owski declared the trial open and

later briefly suspended it as senators yelled at each other while debating procedural matters.

The proceedings in the capi-tal Brasilia were considered almost sure to result in Rousseff, 68, being found guilty of cooking the budget books to mask the depth of economic problems during her 2014 reelection campaign.

If she is removed from office, her center-right former vice pres-ident turned rival Michel Temer will be sworn in to serve until 2018. “Senators, now you must turn into judges and set aside your ideologi-cal, partisan and personal positions,” Lewandowski told the house.

But the impeachment affair is heavily politically charged. Rousseff’s rivals blame her for economic chaos and are out to crush her Workers’ Party. Rousseff, who was tortured and imprisoned by the 1970s dicta-torship for membership in a Marxist urban guerrilla group, has sworn to resist what she calls a coup.

“We will fight to reinforce democracy in our country with the same force that I fought against the military dictatorship,” she told sup-porters late Wednesday in Brasilia.

In yesterday’s opening session, Rousseff’s allies voiced procedural objections in vain before the first wit-nesses were to be heard.

The trial will climax Monday when the president, who was sus-pended from office in May, addresses the Senate herself for the first time. A vote is then expected within 48 hours, with a two thirds majority of the 81 senators required to bring Rousseff down.

Senator Raimundo Lira, a Temer ally and strong backer of impeach-ment, told AFP that senators “have already made up their minds and I don’t think there will be any change at the vote.”

A huge metal barricade was been on the esplanade outside Congress to separate rival demonstrators, with large protests expected on Monday.

Tornadoes slam central Indiana cutting power to thousands

Hillary secures 50%

support from US

voters in latest poll

Brexit leader addresses Trump rally

Senators launch impeachment trial against Rousseff

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Reuters

WELLINGTON/SYDNEY: A New Zea-land pizza chain aims to become the world’s first company to offer a com-mercial drone delivery service, a milestone in the once-unthinkable quest to save time and money with an air-borne supply chain dispensing with people.

Some of the world’s biggest com-panies including Amazon.com Inc and Google, or Alphabet Inc as it is known, have plans to make deliveries by drone and aviation authorities in the US, Brit-ain, Australia and New Zealand have been relaxing rules to allow air deliver-ies. Last month, US convenience store

chain 7-Eleven Inc conducted the first single commercial drone delivery — coffee, donuts and a chicken sandwich — as part of a trial.

Domino’s Pizza Enterprises Ltd con-ducted a demonstration pizza delivery by drone in the New Zealand city of Auckland yesterday, and afterwards said it aimed to be the first company to launch a regular drone service, late this year. “We’ve always said that it doesn’t make sense to have a 2-tonne machine delivering a 2kg order,” Domino’s Chief Executive Officer Don Meij said.

With clear skies and small pop-ulation of 4.4 million, New Zealand last year became one of the world’s first countries to clear commercial drone deliveries. Philip Solaris, direc-tor of another drone company, X-craft

Enterprises, said that while New Zea-land has accommodating regulations on drones, Domino’s would be held back by a rule requiring drones to be kept in sight at all times.

Domino’s service would still need to overcome “random hazards (like) power lines, moving vehicles, children in the backyard playing”, he said.

Domino’s said it is also looking at opportunities for drone delivery tri-als in Australia, Belgium, France, The Netherlands, Japan and Germany.

In Australia, drone deliveries will be legal next month, provided the drones stay at least 30 metres (100 feet) from houses. In the United States, drones will be allowed to make deliv-eries from August 29, but not across state lines or over people.

AFP

SINGAPORE: The world’s first driverless taxis went into operation yesterday in Singa-pore in a limited public trial, beating giants like Uber in the race to roll out the revolu-tionary technology.

The “robo-taxi service” is being tested at a small research campus well away from the thrum of the Asian business hub.

Data from the experiment will feed into the roll-out of driverless taxis across the city-state in 2018, said nuTonomy, a US-based tech start-up that developed the software used in the vehicles.

“The trial represents an extraordinary opportunity to collect feedback from riders in a real-world setting,” said nuTonomy chief executive and co-founder Karl Iagnemma. “This feedback will give nuTonomy a unique advantage as we work toward deployment of a self-driving vehicle fleet in 2018,” he said.

The six taxis — Renault Zoe and Mitsubi-shi i-MiEV electric vehicles — will operate in a 2.5 square mile (4 square kilometre) area, with set pick-up and drop-off points. Trips have to be booked through the com-pany’s smartphone app.

Although the high-tech cars will drive themselves, each journey will be accom-panied by a nuTonomy engineer, who will observe how the machine performs, and be ready to take over in the event of a problem, the company said.

Ride-sharing giant Uber said last week that it would be launching driverless cars in the US city of Pittsburgh by the end of August. It has also established a $300 million venture with Chinese-owned, Swed-ish-based Volvo to develop self-driving cars for sale by 2021.

Separately, Google parent Alphabet announced in May that it is partnering Fiat Chrysler in expanding its fleet of self-driv-ing vehicles, which it hopes will hit the road by end-2016.

A man riding bicycle on Doha Corniche despite warning signs installed at several areas. Pic: Salim Matramkot / The Peninsula

Riding unawares

Drone delivery of pizza in New Zealand soon

A delivery drone performs a test flight with a Domino’s pizza box in Auckland.

World’s first self-driving taxis debut in SingaporeAFP

ISTANBUL: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will today inaugurate Istanbul’s third bridge to span the Bosphorus between Europe and Asia, a key project in his drive to create a lasting histori-cal legacy. The work — one of the longest suspensions bridges in the world — will allow Erdogan to show that his dream of creating a glitzy “new Turkey” with ultra-modern infrastructure is on track despite the July 15 failed coup and a string of militant attacks.

The bridge is named after the 16th century Ottoman Sul-tan Selim the Grim (Yavuz Sultan Selim in Turkish). The openings of bridges across the Bosphorus — the first in 1973 and the second in 1988 -- have been landmark dates in the modern history of Istanbul.

The bridge is an architectural marvel spanning the steep banks of the Bosphorus at the entrance to the Black Sea. It is the widest sus-pension bridge in the world with a width of 58.5 metres (192 feet). Its span of 1,408 metres (4,619 feet) is the longest in the world between the supporting pylons.

It will also carry railway lines as well as vehicle traffic, making it the world’s longest suspension bridge with a railway. Its sup-port pylons are just one metre lower than the Eiffel Tower at 323 metres (1,060 feet). The bridge will help relieve congestion in the traffic-clogged city and also pro-vide an essential artery to the new Istanbul airport that is being built close to the Black Sea.

A nuTonomy self-driving taxi drives on the road in its public trial in Singapore yesterday.

Istanbul’s third

Bosphorus bridge

to open today

AFP

MONTREAL: Canadian singer Celine Dion will release today her first album produced with-out direct input from her longtime manager and husband Rene Angelil, who died in January.

Dion has sold more than 220 million albums worldwide since 1981 when Angelil discovered her powerful voice and helped a young girl to launch one of the most successful music careers ever. After guiding Dion’s career for more than a decade as her manager, Angelil married her in 1994 when she was 26. Dion’s latest album, “Encore Un Soir” (“Another Night”), is her first in French in four years. It is due to be followed

up in 2017 by another in English that includes a track called “Recovering” written by US singer-songwriter Pink. “I’m already starting to work on an English album,” Dion told Entertainment Tonight) last month.

Over the summer, she went on a whirlwind tour of France and the French-speaking Cana-dian province of Quebec, where she was born, that included nine sold-out shows at the Bercy arena in Paris and a dozen performances in Quebec to promote the new album. Combining piano ballads, pop-rock guitar riffs and even hip-hop rhythms, “Encore Un Soir” explores Dion’s loss through lyrics about bereavement, the strength of family and the joys of living.

Dion wrote and recorded the title track with longtime collaborator Jean-Jacques Goldman

one month after Angelil died on January 14 from throat cancer at age 73. The ballad, which the pop diva dedicated to her late husband, was released in May.

Several big names in French music, includ-ing singer-songwriters Francis Cabrel and Serge Lama, slam poet Grand Corps Malade, and Jacques Veneruso — whose 2012 song “Talk to My Father” became Dion’s longest-charting sin-gle in France — as well as Algerian R&B singer Zaho collaborated with her on the new album.

Dion also recorded a cover of Quebec music icon Robert Charlebois’s “Ordinary,” delving into her Quebec heritage. And, one track on the album was chosen from 4,000 submissions she received last year from fans after Dion made a public plea for new song suggestions.

Celine Dion to release first album since husband’s death

Canadian singer Celine Dion

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Honda Motor President and CEO Takahiro Hachigo stands next to the company’s all-new NSX supercar during a press preview in Tokyo yesterday. The NSX supercar underwent a full redesign for the first time in 26 years since the introduction of the original NSX.

Honda’s all-new NSX supercar

AFP

STOCKHOLM: Russia’s pipeline project to pump gas to Germany under the Baltic Sea is a bad deal for Europe that would destabi-lise Ukraine, US Vice President Joe Biden (pictured) said yesterday.

“From our perspective, the Nord Stream 2 pipeline is a fundamen-tally bad deal for Europe,” Biden said during a visit to Stockholm where he met with Swedish Prime Minister Stefan Lofven. “To lock in great reliance on Russia will funda-mentally destabilise Ukraine,” Biden said, adding: “Europe needs diverse sources of gas.”

EU states imported 53 percent of their energy in 2014. A third of gas comes from Russia alone and some newer eastern members are almost entirely reliant on Moscow for energy. The EU has been seeking to reduce its dependence on Rus-sian gas.

The European Commission, the EU’s executive arm, has said the Nord Stream pipeline risks con-centrating 80 percent of the EU’s

Russian gas imports on one route and will now look into whether the project meets European laws.

Biden said the energy market “needs to be open and competi-tive, and everyone has to play by the rules”.

In a thinly-veiled reference to Russia, which has on several occa-sions cut off gas supplies to Ukraine amid disputes, Biden added: “No country should be able to use energy as a weapon, to coerce policies from other nations.” He noted that all European nations were now able to access US liquified natural gas if they wanted.

Bloomberg & Reuters

DUBAI: Iran’s Oil Minister Bijan Namdar Zanganeh will join an infor-mal meeting of Opec members next month in Algiers, a state news service

reported, ending uncertainty about whether Opec’s third-biggest pro-ducer would participate.

Producers from the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Coun-tries will meet on the sidelines of an energy policy group in the Alge-rian capital next month to consider conditions in the oil market, Opec’s President and Qatar’s Minister of Energy and Industry H E Mohammed bin Saleh Al Sada, said on August 8.

Saudi Arabia, the world’s largest exporter, is working “to restore bal-ance between supply and demand to support oil prices,” and Opec and non-members will discuss potential steps in Algiers to stabilize markets, Saudi Energy Minister Khalid Al Falih said on August 13.

“I will participate in this

meeting,” Iran’s Zanganeh was cited as saying by the oil ministry’s news service Shana. Zanganeh had not previously committed to attending the meeting, and he didn’t comment on the position Iran will take at the talks. Zanganeh also said he will meet with Opec Secretary-General Mohammed Barkindo “in the near future.”

Oil prices rose. Futures advanced as much as 1.1 percent in New York after falling 2.8 percent Wednesday.

Brent for October settlement rose 25 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $49.30 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange. West Texas Intermediate for Octo-ber delivery rose 13 cents to $46.90 a barrel at 10:19am on the New York Mercantile Exchange. The global

benchmark crude was at a $2.40 premium to WTI.

“The news about the Iranian Oil Minister heading to Algiers is bull-ish,” said Bob Yawger, director of the futures division at Mizuho Securi-ties USA Inc in New York. “This increases the likelihood of an agree-ment to freeze production. It would be a freeze at very high levels, but the market still would take that as bullish.”

In the United States, commercial crude oil stocks rose by 2.5 million barrels to 523.6 million barrels , 16 percent higher than a year ago.

In refined products, stocks around the world are also brimming as demand slows while refinery output remains high.

“Ample inventories were due to

weaker demand in Asia, but more generally were driven by excess sup-ply generated by refiners maximising runs, notably to produce petrol in the US,” BNP Paribas said.

China’s implied oil demand fell 0.3 percent from a year earlier to 10.58 million barrels per day in July, according to Reuters calculations using official data.

Crude oil has gained about 11 per-cent since Opec said it would meet informally to discuss prices and sup-ply, on speculation that the group could agree to freeze output levels. A meeting of Opec and other producing countries in April ended without agreement in Doha when Saudi Arabia demanded that Iran be part of the any deal to limit output. Iran had ruled out a ceil-ing on its production until it recovered

the output levels it had before the US and European Union tightened inter-national sanctions on its oil industry in 2012.

Iran’s production has risen to 3.85 million barrels a day since sanctions were eased in January, Zanganeh said this month, still less than its target for the end of this year of 4 million barrels a day. Opec as a whole has boosted output to record levels since adopting a Saudi-led decision in 2014 to protect the group’s global mar-ket share by forcing out higher-cost producers.

The International Energy Forum, comprising 73 countries that account for about 90 percent of the glo-bal supply and demand for oil and natural gas, will meet in Algiers on September 26-28.

Iran’s oil minister to join Opec talks in AlgeriaBrent for October settlement rose 25 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $49.30 a barrel on the London-based ICE Futures Europe exchange.

Russian gas pipeline ‘bad

deal’ for Europe: Biden

Reuters

LONDON: British retailers reported their strongest sales in six months in August, industry fig-ures showed yesterday, adding to signs that consumers are, for now, taking the country’s vote to leave the European Union in their stride.

The Confederation of Brit-ish Industry said its sales volume index rose to +9, its highest since February, from an initial slump after the Brexit vote to -14 in July.

Sales in September were expected to moderate. The release was in keeping with recent data showing consumers shrugging off the shock Brexit vote, with retail sales boosted by warm weather and by overseas buyers attracted by a cheaper pound.

“While the fall in sterling has boosted visitor numbers to the UK, it is likely to push up the price of imported goods over time, which will mean households will be more likely to rein back spending on non-essentials,” Anna Leach, CBI Head of Economic Analysis and Surveys, said.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Global credit rating agency Moody’s has upgraded Masraf Al Rayan’s long term issuer ratings to A1 from A2 and Counterparty Risk (CR) Assessment to Aa3 (CR) from A1 (CR), with stable outlook.

At the same time the base-line credit assessment (BCA) and adjusted BCA were raised to baa2 from baa3. Concurrently, the rating agency affirmed the Prime-1 short term issuer ratings and Prime-1 (CR) short term CR Assessment.

The outlook on the long-term

ratings has changed to stable from positive. The upgrade of the Bank’s ratings reflects its continued busi-ness diversification as a result of growth and profitability of the UK subsidiary, consistently strong asset quality performance and strong profitability and capital metrics.

These strengths remain moder-ated by the bank’s dependence on key management relationships to generate new business, high degree of concentration on both the asset and liability side of the balance sheet, and the impact of tightening regional liquidity on MAR’s fund-ing profile.

The agency noted that the key

driver of the upgrade is the bank’s increasing geographical diversifica-tion following the growth and first time profitability of its subsidiary ARB UK (Al Rayan Bank UK origi-nally Islamic Bank of Britain/IBB).

Masraf Al Rayan completed the acquisition of ARB UK in January 2014. ARB UK has since grown sig-nificantly and supports a modest but growing retail business outside the saturated Qatari domestic mar-ket. This business has increased the contribution of retail opera-tions towards the Bank’s operating income to 22 percent for the first six months of 2016 from 5 percent for the year 2011.

Reuters

LONDON: Britain’s vote to leave the European Union will have a negative impact on both prices and turnover in the UK housing market, with for-eign investors set to benefit most from bargains among sterling-priced assets, a Reuters poll found.

However, British house prices - a bedrock of consumer wealth - will still rise 2.8 percent this year, 1.3 per-cent next and 2.4 percent in 2018, according to the poll of 24 econo-mists, estate agents and brokers taken in the past week.

London prices will be up 2 per-cent this year, not rise at all next year and then rise 2 percent in 2018.

“Short-term uncertainty and a weaker economy look set to put a dampener on turnover over much of the next 12 months,” Investec chief economist Philip Shaw said.

“But demographics remain a positive driver, banks remain open for business and we envisage slower (economic growth) rather than a col-lapse.” Nearly all respondents said Britain’s pending departure from the EU - the details of which have yet to be thrashed out - would hurt house prices as well as turnover, which matters more for housing’s contri-bution to the overall economy.

The latest survey results were several percentage points weaker in the coming years versus forecasts based on a “Remain” vote in a poll taken before the referendum.

Property was one of the hardest hit sectors after the result of the vote, with shares in the biggest builders and estate agents plunging in the immediate aftermath and investors pulling out of commercial property funds, leading to some suspensions.

But, on Tuesday, Persimmon reported a jump in reservations by buyers of new homes over the last two

months. Just over a third of respond-ents have pencilled in a fall in house prices next year, but those falls were quite tame compared to the heady rises seen during the boom years.

Investors have been snapping up London property for nearly two decades, making huge capital gains on soaring prices, and now that sterling has fallen by more than 10 percent, investment properties look that much cheaper for new foreign buyers.

They were overwhelmingly picked by respondents to the poll as the most likely to benefit from Brexit.

“Foreign buyers will benefit not only from steadier house prices but also from the chance to buy at a lower sterling exchange rate,” ADM Investor Services’ Stephen Lewis said. Nearly every economist, as well as many politicians, said before the referendum that the housing mar-ket would slump, or at best flatline, in the aftermath of a vote to leave.

Brexit to crimp housing market

UK retailers see best sales in 6 months

Moody’s upgrades Masraf Al Rayan’s issuer ratings

BUSINESS18 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

People shop at a Woolworths store in Sydney yesterday. Australian supermarket giant Woolworths reported a large annual net loss of Aus$1.23bn ($940m), its first since listing more than two decades ago, following a failed push into hardware and a slump in food sales.

Woolworths in the red

Reuters

MADRID: Spain’s economy grew strongly in the second quarter as consumer spending stayed robust and demand for exports rose, though there were signs that a vibrant investment climate may be start-ing to cool after months of political uncertainty.

An economic recovery has retained momentum through eight months without a functioning govern-ment, as the country has continued to notch up one of the fastest growth rates in the eurozone this year.

Quarter on quarter GDP growth

reached 0.8 percent, keeping pace with the first quarter and up a tenth of a percentage point from a pre-liminary estimate, yesterday’s final data from national statistics agency INE showed.

Consumer spending grew 3.6 percent year on year as people who kept their jobs through a recession that ended in 2013 took advantage of better times to buy big-ticket goods like washing machines.

Exports of services also per-formed well, INE said, even outside the tourism sector which has been boosted by record numbers of vis-itors this summer. Spain’s acting economy minister, Luis de Guindos, said he expected the economy would

eventually be impacted by the lack of a government. However “from what we can tell there is no slow-down in the third quarter, it will be similar to the second and first,” he told reporters.

After two inconclusive national elections in December and June, the spectre of a third looms. Politicians last week inched closer to ending the impasse when the People’s Party of acting Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy agreed terms to negotiate a pact with a smaller rival, Ciudadanos.

If the agreement is sealed, Ciudadanos will back Rajoy in a parliamentary confidence vote on August 31 on forming a government.

While fallout for gross domestic

product so far has been slight, the political deadlock has triggered con-cerns that companies might delay expansion plans.

A slowdown in manufactur-ers’ investment in equipment and machinery extended into the second quarter, the INE data showed, when it grew at 7.8 percent year-on-year against 9.3 percent in the previous three months and almost 11 percent in the last quarter of 2015.

Analysts from Barclays said they expected investment growth to con-tinue to decelerate, hit by declining business confidence. However, they raised their 2016 growth forecast by 0.3 percentage points to 3.1 percent, citing strong exports.

Bloomberg

NEW YORK: The ride-hailing giant Uber Technologies Inc is not a pub-lic company, but every three months, dozens of shareholders get on a con-ference call to hear the latest details on its business performance from its head of finance, Gautam Gupta (pictured).

Gupta told investors that Uber’s losses mounted in the second quar-ter. Even in the US, where Uber had turned a profit during its first quar-ter, the company was once again losing money.

In the first quarter of this year, Uber lost about $520m before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization, according to peo-ple familiar with the matter. In the second quarter the losses signifi-cantly exceeded $750m, including a roughly $100m shortfall in the US, those people said. That means Uber’s losses in the first half of 2016 totaled at least $1.27bn.

Subsidies for Uber’s drivers are responsible for the majority of the company’s losses globally, Gupta told investors, according to people familiar with the matter. An Uber spokesman declined to comment.

“You won’t find too many tech-nology companies that could lose this much money, this quickly,” said Aswath Damodaran, a business pro-fessor at New York University who has written skeptically of Uber’s astronomical valuation on his blog. “For a private business to raise as

much capital as Uber has been able to is unprecedented.”

Bookings grew tremendously from the first quarter of this year to the second, from above $3.8bn to more than $5bn. Net revenue, under generally accepted accounting prin-ciples, grew about 18 percent, from about $960m in the first quarter to about $1.1bn in the second.

Uber also told investors during the call that it was changing how it calculates UberPool’s contribution to revenue in the second quarter, which had the effect of artificially increas-ing revenue.

Uber’s losses and revenue have generally grown in lockstep as the company’s global ambitions have expanded. Uber has lost money quarter after quarter. In 2015, Uber lost at least $2bn before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortiza-tion. Uber, which is seven years old, has lost at least $4bn in the history of the company.

It’s hard to find much of a prec-edent for Uber’s losses. Webvan and Kozmo.com — two now-defunct phantoms of the original dot-com boom — lost just over $1bn combined in their short lifetimes. Amazon.com Inc is famous for losing money while increasing its market value, but its biggest loss ever totaled $1.4bn in 2000. Uber exceeded that number in 2015 and is on pace to do it again this year.

“It’s hardly rare for companies to lose large sums of money as they try to build significant markets and battle for market share,” said Joe

Grundfest, professor of law and business at Stanford. “The interest-ing challenge is for them to turn the corner to become profitable, cash-flow-positive entities.”

The second quarter of 2016, which ended in June, could repre-sent a nadir for Uber. The company’s losses will likely fall. In July, it cut a deal with its largest global compet-itor, Chinese ride-hailing behemoth Didi Chuxing, washing its hands of its massive losses in that country.

Didi gave Uber a 17.5 percent stake in its business and a $1bn investment in exchange for Uber’s retreat. Uber lost at least $2bn in two years in China, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg in July. Uber won’t see any losses from China on its balance sheet after August, the company said.

Uber’s backers range from ven-ture capital firms like Benchmark Capital to the investment bank Goldman Sachs. Altogether, Uber has raised more than $16bn in cash and debt. Its latest valuation is a whopping $69bn. The company has effectively redistributed at least $1bn to the Chinese working class in the form of heavy subsidies to drivers there. “Uber and Didi Chuxing are investing billions of dollars in China and both companies have yet to turn a profit there,” Uber Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick wrote in a letter announcing the company’s departure from China.

Uber has been engaged in a fierce price war with Lyft Inc this year, and that has also contributed to the enormous losses. Uber has about $8bn in the bank and will soon receive $1bn in cash from Didi, according to a person familiar with the matter. Uber also has access to a $2bn credit line and a $1.2bn loan.

“I think what Uber is trying to do is, ‘Hey, look, we’re going to take the losses up front in order to get to disproportionate scale,’” said Rob-ert Siegel, lecturer in management at Stanford’s business school. “The question is when they can get to profitability.”

Reuters

WASHINGTON: New orders for US manufactured capital goods rose for a second straight month in July as demand for machinery and a range of other products picked up, offer-ing a tentative sign that a business spending downturn was starting to ease.

The economy also got a boost from another report showing an unexpected drop in the number of Americans filing for unemployment benefits last week.

The Commerce Department said non-defence capital goods orders excluding aircraft, a closely watched proxy for business spending plans, increased 1.6 percent last month, the largest gain since January.

These so-called core capital goods orders advanced 0.5 percent in June. July’s rise marked the first back-to-back gain since January 2015.

Business spending has con-tracted since the fourth quarter of 2015, in part as companies slashed capital spending budgets in response to lower oil prices. The increase in core capital goods orders follows a rise in oil and gas drilling activity in recent months.

Still, business investment is likely to be tepid in the third quar-ter amid uncertainty over the global economy after Britain’s decision to leave the European Union and ahead of the November 8 US pres-idential election, economists say.

Heavy machinery maker Cat-erpillar last month lowered its 2016 forecast, citing sluggish demand in mining and other industries. Weak business spending contributed to holding down economic growth to

1.0 percent in the first half of 2016.Shipments of core capital goods,

which are used to calculate equip-ment spending in the government’s gross domestic product measure-ment, fell 0.4 percent last month after decreasing 0.5 percent in June.

But labour market strength should support consumer spend-ing and cushion the blow on the economy from weak business investment. Economic growth is expected to pick up in the third quarter. In a separate report, ini-tial claims for state unemployment benefits slipped 1,000 to a season-ally adjusted 261,000 for the week ended Aug. 20. It was the third straight weekly decline in claims.

Economists had forecast first-time applications for jobless benefits rising to 265,000 in the latest week. Claims have now been below 300,000, a threshold associated with a strong labor market, for 77 straight weeks. That is the longest such stretch since 1973, when the labor market was much smaller.

A 10.5 percent jump in demand for transportation equipment lifted overall orders for durable goods, items ranging from toasters to air-craft that are meant to last three years or more, by 4.4 percent last month. That followed a downwardly revised 4.2 percent drop in June.

Durable goods orders were pre-viously reported to have declined 3.9 percent in June. Civilian air-craft orders surged 89.9 percent in July, but demand for automobiles was flat.

In July, there were hefty increases in orders for machinery, primary metals, fabricated metal products, computers and electronic products, as well as electrical equip-ment, appliances and components.

Uber to lose at least $1.27bn in first half Subsidies for Uber’s drivers are responsible for the majority of the company’s losses globally.

AFP

FRANKFURT: Germany is waking up to the threat of Brexit and could see weaker growth in 2017, analysts said yesterday, after a key business confidence survey showed a sharp decline. The Ifo economic insti-tute’s closely-watched index fell to 106.2 in August from its July level of 108.3, reaching its lowest point since December 2014.

Analysts surveyed by Factset had been expecting a slight rise to 108.5. “The German economy has fallen into a summer slump,” Ifo president Clemens Fuest said in a statement, noting that all sectors surveyed except construction had reported a drop in the index.

August’s sharp drop contrasts with a smaller decline in July, when German business surprised forecast-ers by appearing to shrug off anxiety

over Britain’s late-June vote to quit the European Union.

The latest correction was all the more unexpected after an investor survey by the ZEW institute in mid-August showed a recovery from the huge Brexit slump in confidence in July. Ifo’s headline figure is pro-duced from two figures representing companies’ feelings on the current business environment and the out-look for the next six months.

The sub-index measuring cur-rent business fell to 112.8, two points below its July level. Confidence in the future outlook also took a two-point blow, falling to 100.1 from 102.1 in July. Manufacturers, retailers and whole-salers all reported falling confidence in August. Chemical and electrical firms were among the gloomiest in industry, Ifo chief Fuest said, while food and beverage firms were the least positive among retailers.

But one bright spot was con-struction, where firms had a more

optimistic view of the coming months even as their view of cur-rent business clouded over.

“Today’s Ifo suggests that German businesses have suddenly woken up to Brexit reality,” economist Carsten Brzeski at ING Diba bank said, not-ing that the index often takes time to respond to global events.

While Germany’s run of good economic news has so far been sus-tained by high government spending on refugees and strong appetites for consumption among households, investment remains weak, he went on.

“There is a risk that the Ifo will fall further,” warned Stephen Brown of Capital Economics, noting that the boosts to German firms from low oil prices and a weakening euro are fading. While confidence is stronger than it was in February, when fears of a slowdown in China sent ripples around the world, it still points to a slowdown in German economic growth in 2017, Brown said.

German firms see Brexit clouds approaching

The Peninsula

DOHA: The first Maserati Levante is available in Doha for client test drives. This was announced by Alfardan Sports Motors, the official importer of Maserati in Qatar.

Following the first reveal at Geneva Motor Show in March, the Levante made its first offi-cial appearance in Qatar just weeks later with a static pilot car. In order to achieve the high qual-ity standards and maintain its traditional “Made in Italy” credentials, Maserati strategically invested in a new production line at the historic Mirafiori plant in Turin.

“We’ve had a lot of interest and even orders since the first reveal of the Levante in Qatar, but now finally our customers will be able to test drive it. It’s a beautiful car, no doubt, but only those who have experienced it on-road and off-road can really appreciate it. Maserati has found a way to achieve amazing functionality and off-road

First Maserati Levante

now available for

test drive in Qatar

capability while maintaining the style and per-formance of a real Maserati, as we have come to love them,” Charly Dagher, General Manager of Maserati Qatar at Alfardan Sports Motors, said.

The Levante is available in two variants, the

Levante and the Levante S, both featuring latest evolution of the Maserati 3-litre V6 engine with twin turbo. The Levante will be available start-ing September at the Maserati showroom located at The Pearl-Qatar.

Spanish economy powers ahead in second quarter

US core capital goods orders rise again in July; jobless claims fall

AFP

WASHINGTON: If US Fed-eral Reserve chief Janet Yellen chooses to use her closely watched address on Friday to clear the air, she will have plenty of clearing to do.

Yellen, who will address a ballyhooed annual gathering of central bankers in the crisp cli-mate of Jackson Hole, Wyoming, presides over US monetary policy now derided by market watchers as “schizophrenic”.

On the health of the econ-omy and the dangers of inflation, her colleagues on the committee that sets key interest rates are at odds with each other — with one member perhaps unfairly

chided in the business press for appearing to contradict himself more than once in the space of a single week. All members of the Federal Open Markets Commit-tee agree that interest rates will have to rise. The only question is how soon.

But the central bank this year has retreated from its announced course of rate hikes, fearing for the resilience of the US economy in the face of Brexit, slowing Chi-nese growth and domestic signs of weakness. The question for Yellen, and for global markets affected by her decisions, is whether the American economy is strong enough again.

“I think the problem is we’re all completely befuddled as to their next move,” said Jared Bern-stein, former economic adviser to

Vice President Joe Biden. William Dudley, the influential president of the New York Fed, suggested this month that a rate hike was possible in 2016. Dennis Lock-hart of the Atlanta Fed said there could even be two.

John Williams, president of the San Francisco Fed, appeared to agree, telling The Washington Post on August 11 that rates could rise this year but then publish-ing an essay just four days later saying the time had come “to critically reassess” prevailing interest rate policy and speak-ing of “limits to what monetary policy can and indeed should do.”

For good measure, three days later, Williams, who does not cur-rently have a vote on the FOMC, said publicly that a rate hike would be a good idea “sooner

rather than later.” Futures traders currently put the likelihood of at least one rate hike by December at 51 percent. Bernstein said the Fed was experiencing a moment of policy ferment. The “new normal” that policy makers are contending with is an era of pre-dominantly low interest rates and productivity growth, when rising employment fails to produce the expected gains in inflation and GDP growth is sluggish.

Donald Kohn, who was Fed vice chair until 2010, said that on leaving office he had expected to see a quicker recovery from the Great Recession of 2008 - 2009 but had been surprised by longer-term trends in productiv-ity, demand and interest rates.

“As a consequence, even highly accommodative monetary

policy hasn’t been as stimulative as I anticipated,” he said.

All of this has left key players like Williams and Stanley Fischer, the current vice chair of the Fed, calling for non-traditional measures including new fiscal and regulatory policies, such as investments in infrastructure and education or responsive tax rates that vary with unemployment.

Yellen’s address today is billed as a discourse on the Fed’s “mone-tary policy toolkit” and observers say she is unlikely to give clear signals on the timing of the next rate hike. But markets have lit-tle choice but to watch and listen anyway, looking for hints about her views on the health of the world’s largest economy. Without a doubt, though, investors are not watching the game they are used to.

BUSINESS 19FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Reuters

DUBAI: Most Gulf stock markets fell yesterday with Saudi Arabia sliding for a fifth straight day, led by banks, but United Arab Emirates bourses were firm. Egypt sank as blue chip Orascom Telecom Media and Technology Holding reported a loss.

The Saudi index, which on Wednesday fell below minor technical support on the April low of 6,066 points, sank 0.9 percent yesterday to a six-month clos-ing low of 5,977 points. Turnover was thin; this week’s volume was the lowest in 2016.

That is partly because summer holidays have kept retail investors away. Investors are also worried about the impact on corporate earnings of Saudi Arabia’s eco-nomic slowdown due to low oil prices.

“Liquidity is very poor. To complete relatively small sell orders, traders are being forced to push prices lower. And because of weak sentiment, buy-ers are not being attracted despite the lower prices,” Akber Khan, senior director for asset management at Qatar’s Al Rayan Investment, said of the Saudi market.

Retail investors were also concerned by tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran, he added. Al Rajhi Bank slid 2.3 percent. Investors are fretting about the impact of a severe slump in the Saudi construction sector on the quality of bank loans. Cement shares, exposed to the construction industry, were also weak with Yamamah Cement dropping 3.8 percent.

In Qatar, the index dropped 0.5 percent with oil drilling rig provider Gulf International Services sinking 1.4 percent. However, Khan said that although Qatar’s index had dropped back in the last few days, the mar-ket had continued to see net inflows of foreign funds in anticipation of its upgrade by FTSE to emerging mar-ket status in mid-September.

After early drops, markets in both Dubai and Abu Dhabi closed higher. Dubai’s index closed 0.3 percent higher as GFH Financial, the most heavily traded stock and a speculative favourite of local retail investors, surged 3 percent. Emirates NBD lost 0.6 percent. Sources said that Emirates Islamic, the Shariah-compliant arm of ENBD, had laid off more than 100 people as part of cost-cutting to adjust to a cooler economy. Abu Dhabi’s index edged up 0.2 percent as blue chip Aldar Proper-ties added 1.5 percent. In Egypt, the index fell 1.1 percent as Orascom Telecom, the most heavily traded stock, dropped 1.7 percent.

Most Gulf stock markets fall

Clean air but murky policy as Yellen speech awaited

QE Index 11,134.81 0.46 %

QE Total Return Index 18,015.39 0.46 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 4,206.21 0.19 %

QE All Share Index 3,061.19 0.45 %

QE All Share Banks & Financial Services 3,050.5 0.50 %

QE All Share Industrials 3,318.27 0.84 %

QE All Share Transportation 2,604.43 0.02 %

QE All Share Real Estate 2,720.5 0.13 %

QE All Share Insurance 4,710.75 0.63 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,259.62 0.23 %

QE All Share Consumer Goods & Services 6,531.73 0.08 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON

GOLD AND SILVER

WORLD STOCK INDICES

25-08-2016 Today 24-08-2016 Previous dayIndex 11,134.81 11,186.14

Change 51.33 69.72

% 0.46 0.63

YTD% 6.76 7.26

Volume 4,008,999 3,323,540

Value (QAR) 179,732,315.04 166,632,149.53

Trades 3,552 2,971

Up 10 | Down 28 | Unchanged 03

GOLD QR155.4630 per grammeSILVER QR2.1756 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year LowAll Ordinaries 5631.431 -22.136 -0.39 5691.8 4762.1

Cac 40 Index/D 4395.21 -40.26 -0.91 4607.69 3892.46

Dj Indu Average 18481.48 -65.82 -0.35 18668.4 15450.6

Hang Seng Inde/D 22814.95 -5.83 0.03 23193.9 18278.8

Iseq Overall/D 6163.55 34.6 0.56 6791.68 5286.65

Karachi 100 In/D 39792.1 285.52 0.72 40213.89 29785

Nikkei 225 Index 16555.95 -41.35 -0.25 18951.12 14864.01

S&P 500 Index/D 2175.44 -11.46 -0.52 2193.81 1810.1

EXCHANGE RATECurrency Buying Selling

US$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 4.7773 QR 4.8448

Euro QR 4.0859 QR 4.1431

CA$ QR 2.7941 QR 2.8490

Swiss Fr QR 3.7505 QR 3.8043

Yen QR 0.0359 QR 0.0366

Aus$ QR 2.7494 QR 2.8034

Ind Re QR 0.0538 QR 0.0549

Pak Re QR 0.0344 QR 0.0351

Peso QR 0.0779 QR 0.0795

SL Re QR 0.0248 QR 0.0254

Taka QR 0.0460 QR 0.0470

Nep Re QR 0.0337 QR 0.0343

SA Rand QR 0.2566 QR 0.2617

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS - A LIST OF SHARES FROM THE WORLD

A C C-A/D 1650 1.85 14084

Aarti Drugs-B/D 489.5 -7.1 1492

Aban Offs-A/D 217.8 -3.5 192620

Ador Welding-B/D 287.9 9.9 2312

Aegis Logis-B/D 122.45 5.2 1866003

Alembic-B/D 38.3 0.6 106313

Alkyl Amines-B/D 323.9 5.5 2122

Alok Indus-A/D 3.1 0 2019188

Apollo Tyre-A/D 173.85 -0.4 204259

Asahi I Glass-/D 186.2 -2.95 8996

Ashok Leyland-/D 86.6 -1.95 1373896

Bajaj Hold-A/D 1812.75 30.7 6935

Ballarpur In-B/D 14.43 0.4 708856

Bata India-A/D 535.55 -8.2 35721

Beml Ltd-A/D 1035.75 0.15 18419

Bh Electronic-/D 1209.25 -19.1 13844

Bhansali Eng-T/D 20.6 0.05 42349

Bharat Bijle-B/D 760 -4.45 1579

Bharatgears-B/D 92.1 -1.65 18671

Bhartiya Int-B/D 538.5 7.05 1455

Bhel-A/D 140.85 4.1 1125502

Bom.Burmah-B/D 501.85 -4.7 57462

Bombay Dyeing-/D 43.5 -0.35 161564

Camph.& All-B/D 550.5 -6.1 2891

Canfin Homes-B/D 1485 25.7 8218

Caprihans-Xc/D 92.25 0.65 9751

Castrol India-/D 426 -0.15 796974

Century Enka-B/D 239.05 -0.5 81773

Century Text-A/D 669 -6.1 535947

Chambal Fert-B/D 68.25 -0.9 44151

Chola Invest-A/D 1110 22.5 4747

Chowgule St-T/D 16.35 0.55 1745

Cimmco-B/D 74.5 0.9 19713

Cipla-A/D 563.05 -2.85 128983

City Union Bk-/D 130.8 1.95 15673

Colgate-A/D 947.1 -1.4 26728

Container Cor-/D 1369.2 6.8 7172

Dai-Tichi Kar-/D 439.65 -6.3 3175

Dcm Financia-T/D 1.37 -0.07 2000

Dcm Shram Ind-/D 203.5 -2.65 8133

Dhampur Sugar-/D 110.5 -2.25 74983

Dr. Reddy-A/D 3049.55 10.45 33393

E I H-B/D 113.05 -1.2 4421

E.I.D Parry-A/D 250 -4.1 24815

Eicher Motor-A/D 22005.35 -116.45 2561

Electrosteel-B/D 23.05 -0.35 123290

Emco-B/D 29.45 -0.6 23183

Escorts Fin-B/D 6.06 -0.51 95759

Escorts-A/D 329.35 11.95 965029

Eveready Indu-/D 279 1.05 38585

F D C-B/D 191.85 0.25 2198

Federal Bank-A/D 66.95 -0.8 797185

Ferro Alloys-B/D 5.12 0.22 37695

Finolex-A/D 472 -9.3 14019

Gail-A/D 373.2 7.45 148567

Galada Power-B/D 10.86 -0.53 21724

Gammon India-T/D 15.65 0.25 83611

Garden P -B/D 31.5 0.9 13916

Godfrey Phil-B/D 1203.35 33.9 47910

Goodricke-B/D 210.25 7.25 114849

Goodyear I -B/D 545 0.4 9889

Hcl Infosys-B/D 40.7 -0.55 218324

Him.Fut.Comm-T/D 16.25 0 876653

Himat Seide-B/D 260 -2.5 23784

Hind Unilever-/D 910.35 -9.1 62174

Hind Motors-T/D 5.53 -0.11 39422

Hind Org Chem-/D 16.65 -0.4 14244

Hind.Petrol-A/D 1170.15 -1.05 124776

Hindalco-A/D 154.25 -2.65 459334

Hous Dev Fin-A/D 1357.6 -26.65 59385

I F C I-A/D 27.6 -0.7 597928

Idbi-A/D 73.5 1.6 2851044

Ifb Agro-B/D 385.05 -8.85 1575

Ifb Ind.Ltd.-B/D 391.7 4.3 1792

India Cement-A/D 143.6 -1.3 1026318

India Glycol-B/D 101.75 2.4 69081

Indian Card-B/D 248.25 -6.8 2015

Indian Hotel-A/D 132 1.45 341393

Indo-Tcount-T/D 856.15 7 70472

Indusind-A/D 1180 -1.95 36434

J.B.Chemical-B/D 317.2 5.85 89153

Jagatjit Ind-X/D 71.85 3.4 3900

Jagson Phar-B/D 35.1 -0.7 4503

Jamnaauto-B/D 219.05 -1.9 78980

Jbf Indu-B/D 208.9 -1.6 8699

Jct Ltd-B/D 5.34 0.26 703591

Jenson&Nich.-B/D 8.45 -0.02 20443

Jik Indust-B/D 0.72 -0.03 1130

Jindal Drill-B/D 176.45 -4.75 3652

Jktyre&Ind-A/D 126.05 1.25 1346510

Jmc Projects-T/D 237.65 1.6 8575

Kabra Extr-B/D 105 -2.3 5071

Kajaria Cer-A/D 1279.45 6.1 5137

Kakatiya Cem-B/D 352.7 0.5 30823

Kalyani Stel-T/D 365.4 -8.2 157422

Kanoria Chem-B/D 70.1 -0.45 21143

Kg Denim-B/D 86.7 0.2 11200

Kilburnengg-Xd/D 53.8 0 18169

Kinetic Eng-B/D 79.5 1.4 5436

Kopran-B/D 49.7 -1.1 56440

Lakshmi Elec-B/D 411 3.8 2327

Lakshmi Mach-A/D 3855.55 -84.2 3238

Laxmi Prcisn-B/D 41.85 0.15 2343

Lgb Broth-B/D 458.8 -1.3 1583

Lloyd Metal-B/D 15.15 -0.52 32836

Lok.Hous&Con-T/D 4.55 0 10573

Lumax Ind-B/D 674 -12.9 2555

Lupin-A/D 1522.6 1.5 111835

Lyka Labs-T/D 66.6 -0.75 29788

Mafatlal Ind-B/D 336 -2.9 2986

Mah.Seamless-B/D 215.2 -4.55 4533

Maha Scooter-B/D 1519 22.1 1343

Mangalam Cem-B/D 356.45 0.2 17301

Maral Overs-B/D 28.65 -0.05 2650

Mastek-B/D 132.55 0.05 22680

Max Financial-/D 533.2 10.4 106893

Mrpl-A/D 78.2 -0.3 299640

Nagreeka Ex-B/D 35.8 -1.15 6575

Nahar Spg.-B/D 115.45 -0.6 8282

Nation Alum -A/D 47.15 -0.45 101085

Navneet Edu-B/D 105.35 1.85 24103

Nepc India-T/D 1.41 -0.05 6811

Neuland Lab-B/D 1024.1 -35.4 8880

Nrb Bearings-B/D 117.25 -2.1 2055

O N G C-A/D 238.25 -2.6 179647

Ocl India-B/D 794 -5.65 3984

Oil Country-B/D 25.95 0.1 1841

Onward Tech-B/D 76.25 5.35 111313

Orchid Pharm-B/D 37.4 0.25 158715

Orient Hotel-T/D 25.4 1.15 6955

Orient.Carb.-T/D 745 -0.35 2224

Oudh Sugar-B/D 109.1 -5.7 58586

Patspin India-/D 9.78 0.4 1574

Radico Khait-B/D 95 -1.7 24285

Rallis India-A/D 228.35 -0.9 99803

Reliance Indus/D 431.8 -3 107927

Ruchi Soya-B/D 20.7 -0.05 45888

S Bk Bikaner-B/D 676 -8.85 9237

Salora Inter-B/D 43 1.5 4075

Saur.Cem-B/D 83.2 1.8 220429

Sterling Tool-/D 745 29.45 3032

Tanfac Indust-/D 46 2.1 18486

Tanfac Indust-/D 46 2.1 18486

Thirumalai-B/D 395.6 2.35 39143

Til Ltd.-T/D 262.9 -4.25 2220

Timexgroup-T/D 38.95 0.7 81776

Tinplate-B/D 88.3 -1.35 139280

Ucal Fuel-B/D 155.3 1.15 123388

Ultramarine-B/D 140 2.55 10523

Unitech P -A/D 5.19 0.07 6763903

Univcable-B/D 93.55 -2.15 29278

Uppergsugar-T/D 385.9 -10.55 144906

3i Group/D 616 -4 285388

Assoc.Br.Foods/D 2941 -27 93941

Barclays/D 164.83 -1.75 11262781

Bp/D 429.6 0.6 5131746

Brit Am Tobacc/D 4819.5 19 694321

Bt Group/D 395.2 -0.75 2090380

Centrica/D 236.4 0.3 2039885

Gkn/D 307.2 -4.4 1711906

Hsbc Holdings/D 540.7 -0.4 7861448

Kingfisher/D 373.8 -0.2 1394910

Land Secs Grou/D 1097 -17 506312

Legal & Genera/D 207.364 -3 4184846

Lloyds Bnk Grp/D 58.55 -0.72 42431977

Marks & Sp./D 345.3 7.3 3333800

Next/D 5570 -55 80855

Pearson/D 854 -9 835571

Prudential/D 1356.5 -23.5 1176035

Rank Group/D 218.5 -3 94425

Rentokil Initi/D 216 0.1 386828

Rolls Royce Pl/D 773.5 -15 1292159

Rsa Insrance G/D 501.5 -5.5 948564

Sainsbury(J)/D 243.3 0.1 1561316

Schroders/D 2739 -20 29502

Severn Trent/D 2416 23 67421

Smith&Nephew/D 1232 -2 1413196

Smiths Group/D 1338 -9 308579

Standrd Chart /D 618.1 -6.1 2515254

Tate & Lyle/D 732.5 3 154444

Tesco/D 164.272 0.35 4673479

Unilever/D 3550 23.5 504163

United Util Gr/D 979 10 235831

Vodafone Group/D 234.05 0.75 9838350

Whitbread/D 4143 -32 180703

COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME

NAME CHG TRADED

COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME

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LONDON

BUSINESS VIEWS20 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Threat of war, earthquakes and Brexit can’t stop gas price plungeBy Kelly Gilblom Bloomberg

EVEN after three years, there’s still no sign that the slump in Euro-pean natural gas prices is about to end. Front-month contracts for the fuel are trading near six-year

lows in the Netherlands and UK, while Citi-group Inc to Marex Spectron Group Ltd and Vattenfall AB predict further declines. The slump seems made of Teflon; Since 2013, benchmark gas rates have brushed off a run of political and environmental dramas that would normally lift prices and instead tracked a deepening global oversupply.

Prices barely flickered last week when Ukraine, the largest transit country for Rus-sian gas to the EU, warned of the potential for full-out war with its eastern neighbour and Europe’s biggest supplier. Traders had already shrugged off the Netherlands’ deci-sion to restrict output at Europe’s largest gas field because of earthquakes, Britain’s vote to leave the EU and the region’s widespread opposition of fracking to extract the fuel.

“The impact of these political issues on pricing has been minuscule,” said Mark Devine, the director of Energy Trading Con-sultancy Ltd in Yarm, England, and a former gas trader at Norway’s Statoil ASA. “In short, we have a bit of a supply glut that’s more influential.”

UK gas prices for 2017 may fall closer to $4 per million British thermal units from more than $5 amid an expanding supply glut, Ed Morse, head of commodities research at Citigroup, said in a note.

Marex Spectron, a London-based energy broker, underlined its bearish view on gas last week, while traders surveyed by Bloomberg have forecast declines in all but three weeks since at least April 2015.

Front-month Dutch gas fell for the second day, sliding 0.7 percent by 11:16am in Lon-don. The equivalent UK contract was little changed after having the biggest intraday decline since 2010 on Friday.

Part of the downturn has been due to a two-year slump in oil that ended last year, said Devine at Energy Trading Consultancy. About half of gas contracts in Europe are linked to the price of crude with a six-to-nine month lag, which fell 35 percent in 2015

before rising more than 30 percent this year.Large gas producers outside the EU are

fighting for market share by expanding exports. Russian shipments into Europe rose 14 percent in the first half from a year ear-lier, and Norwegian supplies to the UK are 21 percent above the five-year average. The extra imports have neutralized the influence of declining output in the EU, where produc-tion has fallen to its lowest level since 1971.

LNG HEGEMONYGas traders and network operators are

also confident supply needs will be met through the expansion of liquefied natural gas trading. Last year, about $120bn of LNG was physically bought and sold, making it the second-largest commodity transacted globally, surpassing iron ore, according to Christian Lelong, a New York-based analyst with Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Producers were expected to add 50 million metric tonnes of LNG capacity by the end of the year, equivalent to a fifth of current global demand, according to Sanford C Bernstein & Co. Some of those projects have been delayed, meaning glo-bal gas markets haven’t felt the full effect

of oversupply yet, Citigroup’s Morse said.“As LNG supply from the US increases,

alongside growth from Australia and else-where, global natural gas prices could buckle under the glut,” Morse wrote.

Worldwide gas production in 2015 was 3.5 trillion cubic meters, 70 billion cubic meters higher than consumption, accord-ing to BP Plc data. That’s the biggest surplus in at least a decade.

With climate concerns, gas producers are hoping demand for the fuel will be higher, serving as a replacement for more-pollut-ing coal. So far, better margins at coal plants, energy efficiency and warm weather have kept the need for gas muted.

EU gas consumption fell 19 percent in the decade through 2015, BP data show. Coal demand declined 17 percent in the same period and usage is forecast to fall further this year.

While rising coal costs may help lift demand for gas, prices will by capped by overhanging supply, said Jip van Krimpen, a gas portfolio manager at Vattenfall Energy Trading in Amsterdam. “With the global glut in gas, any price increase will quickly be arbitraged out,” he said.

By Leika Kihara Reuters

THREE years of so-called “Abenomics”, Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe’s (pictured) bold

stimulus programme, has failed to dislodge a deflationary mindset among businesses and consumers.

As the world’s third-largest economy falters again - with a stronger yen gnawing at over-seas profits and domestic consumption sapping compa-nies’ confidence to invest or sufficiently raise wages - firms that increased their prices in the hope of a sustained recovery are rethinking their strategy.

Many consumers, with little extra to go around, are opting for cheaper products - welcome news for the discount retailers who flourished during two dec-ades of economic stagnation.

H o u s e w i f e Yuko Narita, 48, says she is tight-ening the family purse strings and scouting around for sales on daily goods and cloth-ing. “There’s a sense the econ-omy is stalling and companies’ earnings are bad this year, so I’m holding off from spending on big items,” she said.

Nobuko Jin, a 75-year-old part-time worker who receives some pension, says she is cutting back and just buying necessi-ties. “I get the feeling prices are creeping up. I wonder where the benefits of Abenomics are going. I’m trying to spend less,” she said.

Discount store operator Don Quijote Holdings has seen busi-ness revive as the economy loses momentum. It expects operating profit to rise more than 4 percent in the year to next June. “House-hold spending won’t be strong. That’s when consumption cen-tres on discount stores, so it’s a tailwind for us,” said Mitsuo Takahashi, the firm’s chief finan-cial officer.

Restaurant chain operator Skylark Group has cut prices on some items and is offering more cheap lunch menus to lure fam-ily diners. And Fast Retailing Co, owner of the Uniqlo casual wear brand, reversed course this year after two years of price hikes hurt its clothing sales. Its latest quarterly operating profit rose 18.6 percent.

“We’ll continue with our (new) strategy and bring down prices this autumn and winter,” said Ken Okazaki, the company’s

chief finance officer. At discount furniture and home accessories retailer Nitori Holdings, chair-man Akio Nitori said his company won’t raise prices. “Once you lose consumers to your competitors with price hikes, it’s hard to lure them back,” he said.

Japan’s growth stalled in April-June, exports fell last month at the fastest pace since the glo-bal financial crisis, and the mood among businesses has deterio-rated to pre-Abenomics levels.

This all makes it tougher for policymakers, already struggling to fend off external risks, to shift Japan’s deflationary mindset.

The gloom is broadening beyond exporters hit directly by the renewed strength of the yen, which drove down the US dol-lar to around 100 yen - some 25 percent below levels a year ago.

“We’re seeing renewed fears of deflation as the environ-ment surrounding consumption is worsening,” said Akihiro Ito,

senior executive officer at bever-age maker Kirin Holdings.

Isetan Mitsuko-shi, Japan’s biggest department store chain by sales, has seen demand for high-end goods, which surged in the early days of Abe-nomics, slow this

year. “Some expensive goods still sell well so it’s not like we’re back to the old days,” said CEO Hiro-shi Ohnishi. “But the deflationary mindset appears to be returning.”

Abe’s administration insists the economy has emerged strongly from stagnation thanks to its mix of fiscal, monetary stimulus steps and structural reforms. Indeed, the economy grew 2 percent in fiscal 2013 as hopes for Abenomics bolstered Tokyo stocks and pulled the yen off record highs. But it has barely recovered from the hit to con-sumption from a sales tax hike in April 2014, contracting 0.9 percent in fiscal 2014 and grow-ing just 0.8 percent in the year to end-March.

Analysts predict, at best, fee-ble growth in the current quarter as both exports and consump-tion limp along. Abe has this month announced a plan for a 13.5 trillion yen ($135bn) fiscal stimulus package that includes payouts to low-income house-holds in a renewed effort to spur growth. The Bank of Japan also eased policy last month, and may take further steps next month as it reviews its policies. But companies say the fiscal package, focused on public works spending, will do lit-tle to boost growth.

Japanese seek bargains as economy limps while Abenomics loses shine

UK’s Big Six energy suppliers stem customer exodus

By Karolin Schaps Reuters

REBOUNDING energy prices are giving Britain’s ‘Big Six’ energy suppliers a chance to win back ground lost to smaller rivals and stem an exodus of customers that

shaved off more than a billion pounds in revenue last year.

The Big Six — Centrica’s British Gas, SSE, E.ON, RWE npower, EDF Energy and Scottish Power — were hit hard by weak energy prices last year that decimated their upstream profits and lured customers to cheaper tariffs on offer at smaller compet-itors. Britons have also grown increasingly dissatisfied with poor customer service from market leaders, enabling smaller

rivals to snatch mar-ket share with more efficient service and tailored offers such as green energy supply.

As small, independ-ent energy suppliers, such as First Utility, Ovo Energy or Utility Ware-house, buy most of their customers’ energy needs for a shorter period, they were able to slash tariffs as energy prices tum-bled by 20-30 percent over the course of 2015. Large suppliers typically hedge a few years ahead, locking in prices over a longer period. But small players are now having

to increase their tariffs to cover higher wholesale prices, handing the Big Six an opportunity to fight back.

Energy market prices for the winter, the peak demand period for heating, have risen nearly 30 percent since April due to a rise in oil prices and weak gas storage levels.

“Now that commodity prices have bounced back, the discount small suppliers can offer versus the Big Six has been shrink-ing,” said Roland Vetter, head of research at commodity investment firm CF Partners.

Industry data from EnergyUK shows the percentage of consumers switching from a large to a small supplier fell in June to the lowest since April 2015.

RWE won more than 200,000 new Brit-ish customers in July, returning its customer base to end-2015 levels, while No. 2 sup-plier SSE reduced customer losses to 50,000 between March and June, from 90,000 over the same period last year.

Smaller supplier Ovo Energy, in con-trast, has increased its fixed-term tariff by 3.6 percent and Co-operative Energy has lifted one two-year fixed tariff by as much as 103 pounds ($136), according to uswitch, a site that compares energy tar-iffs and takes a commission payment from suppliers when energy users switch.

Some small suppliers may not have sufficient financial means to buy energy further ahead than a few months. Darren Braham, chief finance officer and co-founder of First Utility, said a weak hedging strategy was a “very, very risky proposition”.

The weak hedging position of some small suppliers has worried other players in the market. “If one small supplier goes belly up then it will affect all small suppli-ers,” said Simon Oscroft, a former energy trader at Macquarie, who set up supplier SO Energy in late 2015.

Oscroft said SO Energy customers sign up on 12-month contracts, which his trading team can fully hedge in the for-ward market. Small suppliers contacted by Reuters, including Ovo Energy and Affect Energy, declined to comment on their hedging strategies due to commer-cial sensitivity. Others did not respond to requests for comment.

Smaller providers had increased their share of the electricity market to 13 percent by March this year, and took 14 percent of the gas market, both up from 10 percent in early 2015, according to energy regulator Ofgem, as they also benefited from customer frustration at the Big Six’s tariffs.

In June, the Competition Markets Authority ordered the largest energy sup-pliers to cap some of their most expensive tariffs after a two-year investigation found they had overcharged customers by billions of pounds. Utilities deny overcharging cus-tomers. As smaller rivals face a battle to retain market share, some are moving to strengthen their balance sheets.

Good Energy, which specialises in pro-viding energy from renewable sources, raised 3.1 million pounds in a share offer in June, while some of the biggest independent energy suppliers, including First Utility and Utility Warehouse, have hired established trading businesses, in these cases Shell and npower, to carry out trading and hedging.

But deteriorating balance sheets could prompt more drastic action if wholesale prices continue to rise. Opus Energy, a busi-ness energy supplier in which Telecom Plus holds a 20 percent equity stake, is consid-ering putting itself up for sale, Telecom Plus said last week. All other small suppliers are privately held, making it impossible to ver-ify their most recent financial accounts.

Energy market prices for the winter have risen nearly 30 percent since April due to a rise in oil prices and weak gas storage levels.

About half of gas contracts in Europe are linked to the price of crude with a six-to-nine month lag, which fell 35 percent in 2015 before rising more than 30 percent this year.

A British Gas sign is seen outside its offices in Staines in southern England.

21FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Jason Day

Day, Johnson

command

spotlight at

BethpageReuters

NEW YORK: World number one Jason Day and second-ranked Dustin Johnson launch their title bids at The Barclays amid longer-term hopes of securing the PGA Tour’s season-ending FedExCup and Player-of-the-Year honours.

The Barclays, won last year by Australian Day, is the first of four lucrative FedExCup events that conclude the 2015-16 sched-ule with a play-off bonus of $10m going to the overall champion.

Once the season is over, the PGA Tour rank and file will vote for their Player of the Year where Day, a three-times winner in 2016, and American Johnson, a double champion this year, are the top two contenders.

Day triumphed five times on the PGA Tour last season and can consider himself unfortunate to be edged out by Jordan Spieth, the 2015 Masters and US Open champion, for Player of the Year honours.

Though his three victories this year outnumber the two claimed by Johnson, the long-hitting American holds an edge when it comes to ‘elite’ wins given that he has landed a major (the US Open) and a WGC title (the Bridgestone Invitational).

“A couple more wins should do it ... even with what Dustin has done,” Day told reporters on Wednesday at Bethpage Black in Farmingdale, New York about the challenge he faced in trying to beat Johnson in the race for the Player of the Year accolade.

“If I can get off to a nice start here, that should give me the confidence going forward. He (Johnson) is playing tremen-dous golf. If I get it (Player of the Year), great. If not, no worries. I have plenty of years to try to get it again.

“I was close last year, but with how Jordan played in the majors, obviously he deserved it. If Dus-tin beats me this year, then he deserves it. The biggest thing for me is to focus on what I need to do and try and win.”

Johnson, who clinched his first major title with a three-shot vic-tory in the US Open at Oakmont, is delighted to be second in the FedExCup standings behind Day heading into The Barclays.

“It’s my best position coming into the playoffs since I’ve been on Tour,” said the 32-year-old Amer-ican. “Really excited about that. Still got a lot of work to do. Still want to be in this position going into Atlanta.”

The top 125 players in Fed-ExCup points qualified for The Barclays, and the leading 100 after this week advance to Boston for the Sept. 2-5 Deutsche Bank Championship before the best 70 progress to the BMW Champion-ship in Carmel, Indiana.

Thirty players qualify for the concluding Tour Championship from Sept. 22-25 at East Lake in Atlanta where a points reset will give all those left in the field a mathematical opportunity to win the FedExCup.

However, the top five there control their own destiny and anyone from that quintet would claim the $10m jackpot with an East Lake victory.

Goodbye ‘Dilscoop’, Dilshan to retire after Australia series Reuters

COLOMBO: Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne Dilshan will quit international cricket after the ongoing limited overs series against Australia, the swashbuckling opener announced yesterday.

“I have decided to retire from the ODIs after the third match in Dambulla (on Sunday) and will play the two Twenty20s and then retire completely,” Dilshan told local media.

After the conclusion of the five-match ODI series, Sri Lanka and

Australia will play two Twenty20 matches on September 6 and Sep-tember 9. Inventor of the famous “Dilscoop” ramp shot, Dilshan played the last of his 87 tests in 2013 before quitting the longer format with 5492 runs and 39 wickets.

A wily off-spinner and one of the most agile Sri Lankan fielders even at the age of 39, Dilshan scored 22 and 10 in the first two one-dayers of the ongoing five-match series against world champions Australia.

“I together with my committee wish to extend our sincere apprecia-tion and wish him the very best in his

future endeavours,” Sri Lanka Cricket president Thilanga Sumathipala said in a statement.

According to media reports, the former captain was persuaded to retire as Sri Lanka build a new team under Angelo Mathews with an eye on the 2019 World Cup. Dilshan made his one-day debut against Zimbabwe in 1999 and went on to play 329 ODIs, amassing 10248 runs that included 22 hundreds, with an 86-plus strike rate.

He has also scored 1884 runs in 78 Twenty20 Internationals and was Sri Lanka’s top scorer in this year’s World Twenty20 in India.

PAKISTANAzhar Ali c Ali b Rashid 82

S Khan c Buttler b Wood 16

Mohd Hafeez c Hales b Root 11

Babar Azam lbw Rashid 40

S Ahmed c Wood b Woakes 55

S Malik c Rashid b Plunkett 17

Mohd Nawaz (not out) 17

Imad Wasim (not out) 17

Extras (LB-1, W-4) 5

Total (for 6 wkts in 50 overs) 260Fall of wickets: 1-25, 2-52, 3-113, 4-178,

5-224, 6-226.

Bowling: Woakes 10-2-43-1; Wood 10-

0-57-1 (3w); Plunkett 10-0-52-1; Root

4-0-26-1 (1w); Ali 7-0-30-0; Rashid 9-0-

51-2.

ENGLANDJ Roy c B Azam b Mohd Nawaz 65

A Hales c Mohd Hafeez b Umar Gul 7

J Root (run out-Azhar Ali) 61

E Morgan (not out) 33

B Stokes (not out) 15

Extras (LB-6, W-7) 13

Total (for 3 wkts in 34.3 overs) 194Fall of wickets: 1-27, 2-116, 3-158.

Bowling: Wasim 5-0-23-0; Amir 6-0-

33-0; Gul 6-0-46-1 (2w); Riaz 6-0-30-0

(5w); Nawaz 6.3-0-31-1; Malik 5-0-25-0.

SCOREBOARD

Sri Lanka’s Tillakaratne

Dilshan raises his bat during match against Afghanistan at

the Eden Gardens in Kolkata, in this March 2016 file

photo.

England down

Pakistan in

rain-hit first

one-dayer Reuters

LONDON: England beat Pakistan by 44 runs on the Duckworth/Lewis scoring method in a rain-affected first one-day international in Southampton on Wednesday.

Pakistan made 260 for six in their 50 overs and England moved on to 194 for three in 34.3 overs, Jason Roy making 65 and Joe Root 61, before rain brought a prema-ture end to the match.

Pakistan captain Azhar Ali, who won the toss, hit 82 to lead his team to a below-par total in bright sunshine and ideal batting conditions.

Azhar started slowly but increased the tempo to strike nine fours before top-edging leg-spin-ner Adil Rashid to Moeen Ali at short fine leg.

Babar Azam scored 40 and Sarfraz Ahmed 55 but the tour-ing side never really broke the shackles imposed by a disciplined England attack in which Rashid was the most successful bowler with figures of 2-51.

England lost Alex Hales for seven but Roy flayed six fours and a six and shared a second-wicket partnership of 89 with Root.

Roy was caught on the long-off boundary off Mohammad Nawaz and Root was run out after being called through for an impossible single by captain Eoin Morgan but England were always ahead of the required run rate.

Morgan finished on 33 not out with Ben Stokes on 15.

The second game in the five-match series is at Lord’s on tomorrow.

Earlier, the four-match Test series between the two teams ended in a 2-2 draw following Pakistan’s win at The Oval.

West Indies and India enter new world in United States

AFP

FORT LAUDERDALE, US: West Indies face India in two Twenty20 internationals in Florida at the weekend in a litmus test for both cricket’s future in the US and Carlos Brathwaite’s credentials as Carib-bean skipper.

After India cruised to victory in the Test series and in the aftermath of the Caribbean squad’s latest round of blood-letting, the sides head for the sport’s newest outpost, the Cen-tral Broward Regional Park, the only purpose-built cricket stadium in the US.

Six matches in the recent fran-chise-based Caribbean Premier League were played at the $10 marena while the first full interna-tional matches, two Twenty20 games between New Zealand and Sri Lanka, were staged there in 2010.

Tomorrow and Sunday’s back-to-back fixtures come at a crucial time for the West Indies.

They may be the reigning world champions in the format having tri-umphed in India earlier this year, but that didn’t save Darren Sammy’s job as skipper.

He was sacked in what he claimed was a “30-second phone call” and replaced by Brathwaite who etched his name into West Indies cricket folklore by smashing four sixes in the final over against England to win this year’s World T20 final in Mumbai.

“I think a team like this will be pretty easy to lead, from the point of view that the dressing room is a fun place to be,” said Brathwaite.

“I don’t think it’s a case where I have to negotiate too many egos,” said the new captain.

His first job will be to introduce stability into the engaging but often

frustrating nature of West Indies’ short-form cricket -- before they won their second World T20 in four years, they lost to Afghanistan in the qualifying round.

Despite his heroics in Mum-bai, 28-year-old Brathwaite is a lightweight when it comes to inter-national experience, having played just three Tests, 14 ODIs and eight Twenty 20s. In contrast, the team’s superstar Chris Gayle has 103 Tests, 269 ODIs and 50 T20s to his name as well as a host of batting records.

India, meanwhile, have no wor-ries over their confidence levels heading into the weekend.

They have enjoyed a solid run in T20 series in recent times, winning in Australia, Sri Lanka and claim-ing the Asia Cup before recovering to beat Zimbabwe 2-1 in June.

Twelve of the 14-man Test squad will be in Florida with skipper Virat Kohli handing over leadership duties

to Mahendra Singh Dhoni. They will have revenge on their minds having lost to the West Indies in the semi-finals of this year’s edition of World Twenty20.

A crowd of 15,000 is expected in Florida over each of the two days including vast numbers of expatriates.

“India is a like the rock star of cricket,” Rizwan Mohammed told the Sun Sentinel newspaper whose reporter went to great lengths to demystify the sport for his Ameri-can readership.

“Instead of four bases there are two wickets bracketing a rectangular 22-yard-long dirt pitch at the centre of an oval ground,” wrote the paper’s correspondent.

“The 11 fielders have various ways of getting the batter out, includ-ing striking the wicket behind the batsman with a bowled ball or catch-ing a batted ball on the fly.”

Captain MS Dhoni’s (right) India will take on the West Indies in Twenty20 series in the USA.

Two teams meet in the two-match T20 series as Brathwaite starts debut as Windies captain

Pakistan to play day-night Test against WI AFP

KARACHI: Pakistan yesterday announced the schedule for their series against the West Indies in the United Arab Emirates beginning next month, including their first-ever day-night Test.

The series, which runs from Sep-tember 23 to November 3, includes three Twenty20 internationals and as many one-day and Tests, the highlight being the day-night Test in Dubai in October.

Australia hosted the first-ever day-night Test at Adelaide against New Zealand in November last year, with high attendance figures as it drew fans who could watch the match after their working hours.

The International Cricket Council

(ICC) is attempting to revive waning interest in the five-day game with the day-night innovation, and termed the Adelaide Test a “big success”. Aus-tralia will also host two day-night Tests against South Africa and then Pakistan during their home season,

starting in November.Pakistan’s plans to host the day-

night Test were made after they agreed to play Australia. The West Indies Test will give them their first taste of playing an international match with the new pink balls used

in the day-night Test last year. The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)

said in a statement it “will host its first ever day-night Test match from October 13-17 to be played with the pink ball under lights at the Dubai cricket stadium”.

The West Indies will tune up for the day-night Test with a three-day side game in Sharjah, also under lights. The PCB had offered to host the Twenty20s in Pakistan, but the West Indies refused on security fears.

Pakistan has not hosted any international cricket -- barring three one-days and as many Twenty20s against minnows Zimbabwe in May last year -- since an extremist attack on the Sri Lankan bus in March 2009.

Despite playing all their matches in the neutral venues of the UAE, Pakistan rose to number one in the Test rankings earlier this week.

SCHEDULE20-September WI vs ECB XI warm-up T20 Dubai

23-September 1st T20 Dubai 24-Septemeber 2nd T20 Dubai

27-September 3rd T20 Abu Dhabi 30-Septemeber 1st one-day International - D/N Sharjah

02-October 2nd one-day International - D/N Sharjah 3-4 October WI v ECB XI two-day warm-up match Dubai05-October 3rd one-day International - D/N Abu Dhabi

07-9 October 3-day match - WI vs PCB Patrons XI - D/N Sharjah 13-17 October 1st Test Match - D/N Dubai 21-25 October 2nd Test Match Abu Dhabi

30-October-3 November 3rd Test Match Sharjah

SQUADSWest Indies: Carlos Brathwaite (capt), Andre Fletcher, Andre Rus-sell, Chris Gayle, Dwayne Bravo, Evin Lewis, Jason Holder, John-son Charles, Kieron Pollard, Lendl Simmons, Marlon Samuels, Samuel Badree, Sunil Narine.India: MS Dhoni (capt), Ajinkya Rahane, Amit Mishra, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah, KL Rahul, Mohammed Shami, Ravichandran Ashwin, Ravindra Jadeja, Rohit Sharma, Shikhar Dhawan, Stuart Binny, Umesh Yadav, Virat Kohli.

SPORT22 FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

NHL: Coyotes hire female skating coach AFP

LOS ANGELES: The Arizona Coy-otes officially added Dawn Braid to their hockey staff Wednesday making her the first full-time female skating coach in National Hockey League history.

Braid has been helping the Coyote players with their skat-ing on a part-time basis since last year. She has also worked with the Toronto Maple Leafs, Anaheim Ducks, Buffalo Sabres and Cal-gary Flames.

“It’s something that I’ve wanted to see happen,” she said in a statement released by the Coyotes.

“The fact that they respect what I do enough to name me as a full-time coach or to name me as the first female coach in the NHL, I take a ton of pride in that.

“I’ve worked very hard for this opportunity. It’s been going on for years and I just look forward to going even further with it.”

She also spent seven years with the Athletes Training Center as its director of skating devel-opment, where she instructed a variety of skaters, including New York Islanders centre John Tavares.

“We feel Dawn can provide a real competitive advantage for our team,” Coyotes general manager John Chayka said.

“The game is getting faster and it is all about skating. A lot of times, when you are drafting a young player, skating is the area they need to improve upon. Now we have someone who can help with that.”

There have been several female skating instructors who have worked with NHL teams over the years, including Laura Stamm and Barbara Williams, who became the league’s first female skating coach in 1977 when she joined the New York Islanders.

F1: Hamilton set to take hefty grid penalty

Reuters

SPA-FRANCORCHAMPS: While Formula One leader Lewis Ham-ilton expects to swallow a severe grid penalty at the Belgian Grand Prix this weekend, Mercedes teammate Nico Rosberg hopes to take advantage.

Hamilton won six of the past seven races to turn a 43-point def-icit into a 19-point lead heading into the summer break.

But, after being hampered by mechanical woes during the early part of the season, the British driver has used up his five allotted engine component parts, includ-ing the turbo charger. That means he must take on new components, either here or at the Italian GP next weekend, leading to a grid penalty and demotion to the back of the grid.

“As far I am aware we will be taking the penalty here. I have no engines left,” Hamilton said yes-terday. “We already discussed engine penalties before and that will come into play, but I will do everything I can to minimize the damage.”

Mercedes has yet to confirm whether the penalty will be taken in Spa, where a win for Rosberg would give him 25 points and, depending on Hamilton’s result, even out the championship standings.

“Of course I’m aware of Lewis’ misfortune having to get the grid penalty, and that’s going to make the weekend less difficult for me because he’s my biggest rival,” Rosberg said. “It doesn’t change the pressure I would put myself under.”

Stretching through the Ardennes forest, the Spa circuit is the longest of the year at just over seven kilometers (four-plus miles), features famed corners such as Eau Rouge and Blanchi-mont, an incredibly steep hill, and moody weather that can leave one part of the track damp and another part dry.

EPL: Liverpool look to their Mane man against Spurs

Reuters

LONDON: Such is the impact Sadio Mane has made on Liverpool that the 24-year-old is an automatic pick to face Tottenham Hotspur in the Premier League tomorrow while experienced international team mates scrap it out to play alongside him.

With the 24-year-old Senegalese on the right flank, Liverpool look a potent attacking force but without him they offer a much paler threat and were uninspiring in his absence in last week’s 2-0 defeat at promoted Burnley.

That result doused the optimism flowing from their opening 4-3 win at Arsenal in which the £30m signing from Southampton produced an early contender for goal of the season.

Juergen Klopp’s side return to north London tomorrow after the fit-again Mane inspired their 5-0 League Cup win over Burton Albion

on Tuesday. One particular moment of sorcery, when he jinked past a bewildered full back to set up Divock Origi’s opener, showed why he is inked into the teamsheet.

The last Liverpool signing to make an immediate impact like that was fiery striker Luis Suarez, who hit the ground running, and scor-ing, in 2011.

The Uruguayan formed a deadly partnership with Daniel Sturridge, but the English striker is no longer a guaranteed starter and Klopp must probably select one from Sturridge, Roberto Firmino and Origi - all of whom scored against Burton - as Mane’s partner at White Hart Lane.

“Origi and Sturridge both per-formed, yes...and Roberto eh?,” Klopp said after the Burton game. “It’s my job to find the right solution the job the players have to do is be in the best shape they can be.”

With Philippe Coutinho certain to return, Klopp is juggling formations as well as personnel in search of the line-up to bury Liverpool’s reputa-tion as the league’s most inconsistent performers, brilliant one week and maddening the next.

That charge could never be lev-elled against a Jose Mourinho side and the Portuguese takes Manchester United to Hull City with both teams having won their opening two games.

Even Hull’s most loyal support-ers would not have predicted such a start, many fearing early humil-iation after a turbulent summer in which their manager Steve Bruce left

and Mike Phelan took over in a care-taker capacity.

But Phelan learned how not to panic in his five years as United assistant manager under Alex Fer-guson and a win against his former club would probably seal him a

permanent deal as a takeover by a group of Chinese investors appears to be nearing completion.

Chelsea and Manchester City are the Premier League’s other unbeaten teams and both are well capable of extending that record

at home to Burnley and West Ham United respectively. Chelsea’s Belgian striker Michy Batshuayi is another £30m striker exciting interest and he will hope his double in the 3-2 League Cup win over Bristol Rovers will secure him a starting spot.

Manager Juergen Klopp looks to fielding a strong side for their match against Tottenham Hotspurs tomorrow

Former FIFA President Sepp Blatter speaks to the media as he arrives for his appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) seeking to overturn a suspension imposed by world football’s governing body, in Lausanne yesterday. Blatter is back in court in a final bid for redemption as he seeks to overturn a six-year ban from football following more than a year of scandal.

Blatter says he will accept

verdict as appeal beginsAP

LAUSANNE: Former FIFA president Sepp Blatter arrived for his appeal hearing against a six-year ban from football yesterday, pledging to accept the verdict of the Court of Arbitra-tion for Sport

“I do hope it will be positive for me,” Blatter, sporting a light gray beard, told reporters at around 8 am (0600 GMT) ahead of a closed-door hearing expected to last several hours.

The court’s verdict is expected within several weeks, and could be challenged in a further appeal to Switzerland’s supreme court.

The 80-year-old Blatter denies wrongdoing in authorizing a $2m payment to former FIFA vice pres-ident Michel Platini in 2011. They claimed it was for backdated and

uncontracted salary for work Platini did in advising Blatter from 1999 to 2002.

The so-called “disloyal payment” led Blatter to be put under investi-gation for criminal mismanagement by Swiss federal prosecutors last September. That investigation is ongoing.

FIFA’s ethics committee judged the $2m deal was a conflict of inter-est and initially banned Blatter and Platini for eight years last Decem-ber. FIFA’s appeal committee cut both bans to six years.

Platini’s appeal to CAS was already judged in May, when Blat-ter appeared in person as a witness. Platini promised a further appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal after his ban was only cut from six to four years.

Platini arrived at the hearing around midday local time to be a

witness. Both men have denied any wrongdoing.

“I came here to repeat and say again the truth,” said Platini. The judging panel in his case noted “the absence of any repentance” from the former France great.

The three-member panel for Blatter’s case is expected to respect the verdict of a separate panel which judged Platini. Blatter’s comments yesterday suggest he would not pur-sue a federal case. Federal judges can intervene only if legal process is abused.

“We are football players, we learned to win but also we learned to lose and it will not be the end of the world,” Blatter said outside CAS.

A failure to overturn the ban for Blatter would likely end his hope to one day be named FIFA honor-ary president by its 211 member federations.

Fans hail Hart as Man City win MANCHESTER: Joe Hart (pictured) played potentially his last Manches-ter City game as Pep Guardiola’s team rubber-stamped their place in the Champions League group phase by beating Steaua Bucharest 1-0 on Wednesday.

Leading 5-0 from last week’s away leg, City completed a 6-0 aggregate victory courtesy of Fabian Delph’s second-half header, putting them in yesterday’s group-stage draw in Monaco with room to spare.

But the spotlight at a less than full Etihad Stadium fell squarely on goalkeeper Hart, whose name was chanted by the home fans through-out the game after he was frozen out by new manager Guardiola.

“That was a really special night for me,” Hart, City’s captain for the night, told BT Sport.

“We all know there is a situation going on. This is a special place for me, I’ve made no secret of that. But situations occur in football. We are men and we get on with it.”

With Claudio Bravo poised to complete a £17m ($22m, 20m euros) move from Barcelona, this could have been Hart’s 348th and final City appearance.

A veteran of City’s two Premier League title wins, two League Cup successes and 2011 FA Cup tri-umph, the England goalkeeper, 29, applauded all four corners of the ground before going off at the end. Hart has been linked with a move to Everton or Sevilla. His fellow outcast Yaya Toure was also handed a first competitive start of the season by Guardiola, who saw Nigerian striker Kelechi Iheanacho hobble off with a muscular injury late on.

A picture of Hart had been removed from the stadium’s exterior wall prior to the game as part of a visual facelift, but City’s fans made it clear they were unhappy about his treat-ment by Guardiola.

One group of fans held a banner reading “A GOOD HART THESE DAYS IS HARD TO FIND” and a chant of “Don’t sell Joe Hart!” broke out within

seconds of kick-off. Guardiola has justified his decision to sideline Hart by citing concerns about his passing ability and there were ironic cheers every time the City goalkeeper suc-cessfully picked out a team-mate.

Asked about his successful foot-work after the game, Hart joked: “Pigs do fly!” City controlled the game, but although Iheanacho, Nolito and Delph all hit the target in the first half, none of them came close to troubling Steaua goalkeeper Valentin Cojocaru.

After drawing a block from Cojocaru, Delph made the break-through in the 56th minute when he converted Jesus Navas’s right-wing cross with a glancing header.

But the home fans had other preoccupations and after a chant of “Stand up if you love Joe Hart!” had drawn almost everyone in the ground to their feet, his first save, from Adrian Popa, prompted a huge cheer. There were two further saves, to repel a free-kick from Nicolae Stanciu and a close-range Alexan-dru Tudorie effort, and both were greeted in the same manner.

A straightforward evening for Guardiola took an unwelcome twist towards the end when Iheanacho pulled up abruptly as he chased a through ball and had to be stretch-ered off.

Liverpool’s Sadio Mane in action

during his team’s match against

Burton Albion at Pirelli Stadium.

SPORT 23FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016

Gasquet finds form, reaches quarters

AFP

LOS ANGELES: Top seeded Richard Gasquet defeated French compatriot Stephane Robert in straight sets 6-1, 6-3 to reach the quarter-finals of the ATP Tour’s Winston-Salem Open on Wednesday.

Gasquet saved seven of eight break points and broke the unseeded Robert’s serve five times in the hard-court tournament in North Carolina.

“I’ve known Stephane for a long time now, so I know how dangerous he can be,” Gasquet said.

“He likes to play close to the

baseline. We’ve practised together often, so I know his game and he knows mine. I didn’t make many mistakes today, and that was the difference.”

Gasquet will next face Austral-ia’s John Millman, who came from behind to win 5-7, 6-0, 6-3 against wild card Bjorn Fratangelo.

Taiwan’s Lu Yen-Hsun advanced to his fourth straight Winston-Salem quarter-final with a 6-4, 6-0 win over Argentina’s Diego Schwartzman.

“Fortunately I played really well on game points and on break points,” Lu said. “My serve was there when I needed it, and that helped me a lot today.”

Next up for Lu will be number two seed Roberto Bautista Agut, of Spain, who defeated Cyprus’ Marcos Baghdatis 4-6, 6-3, 6-1.

Fifteenth-seeded Fernando Ver-dasco fired 10 aces as he rolled over fourth seeded American Steve John-son of the Unites States 6-4, 7-6 (9/7).

In the quarter-finals, Verdasco will face Serbia’s Viktor Troicki, who toppled American Sam Querrey 6-2, 7-6 (7/5).

I’ve known Stephane for a long time now so I know how dangerous he can be. He likes to play close to the baseline, says the French star

WINSTON-SALEM RESULTS

WINSTON-SALEM: Results from the ATP Winston-Salem tourna-ment on Wednesday (x denotes seeded player):

Third RoundRichard Gasquet (FRA x1) bt Stephane Robert (FRA) 6-1, 6-3John Millman (AUS) bt Bjorn Fra-tangelo (USA) 5-7, 6-0, 6-3Lu Yen-Hsun (TPE) bt Diego Schwartzman (ARG) 6-4, 6-0Pablo Carreño-Busta (ESP x16) bt Pablo Cuevas (URU x3) 6-3, 7-6 (7/1)Andrey Kuznetsov (RUS x12) bt Jirí Veselý (CZE) 5-5 abandonFernando Verdasco (ESP x15) bt Steve Johnson (USA x4) 6-4, 7-6 (9/7)Roberto Bautista (ESP x2) bt Marcos Baghdatis (CYP x14) 4-6, 6-3, 6-1Viktor Troicki (SRB x9) bt Sam Querrey (USA x6) 6-2, 7-6 (7/5)

NEW HAVEN OPEN RESULTS

NEW HAVEN: Results from the New Haven Open Women’s Singles Round 2 matches on Wednesday 6-Petra Kvitova (Czech Republic) beat Eugenie Bouchard (Canada) 6-3 6-2 Kirsten Flipkens (Belgium) beat Caroline Garcia (France) 7-6(3) 7-5 2-Roberta Vinci (Italy) beat Ana Konjuh (Croatia) 6-2 6-2 Johanna Larsson (Sweden) beat Shelby Rogers (US) 7-6(1) 6-4

LEFT: Petra Kvitova of the Czech Republic signs autographs after her victory over Eugenie Bouchard of Canada.

‘Best yet’ Murray poised to pounce at US Open AFP

NEW YORK: Andy Murray admits he’s playing the best tennis of his life as he looks to capitalise on the grow-ing frailties of his rivals and capture a second US Open title.

Ahead of Monday’s start to the season’s final Grand Slam in New York, the 29-year-old Scot is the sport’s man of the moment.

Since losing the French Open final to Novak Djokovic in June, Mur-ray has won Queen’s Club, a second Wimbledon title and successfully defended his Olympic crown in Rio.

His career-best 22-match win streak came to a halt at the hands of Marin Cilic in the Cincinnati final last weekend when he simply ran out of gas. But that hasn’t dented his confidence that he can claim a second US Open, four years after his breakthrough in New York saw him become the first British man in 76 years to win a Grand Slam title.

“I think I’m playing my best tennis just now... the last four, five months are not even close to any-thing else I had done before,” said Murray, who is chasing a fourth career major.

“It was way, way better. Seven finals in a row, you know. Won obviously Wimbledon again, the Olympics. It’s been really good.”

Murray has played in all of the first three finals of the majors in 2016, losing to world number Djok-ovic in Melbourne and Paris before putting Milos Raonic, one of the sport’s widely-hyped new genera-tion, in his place in a straight sets spanking in the Wimbledon final.

The only worry for Murray is his relatively mediocre record in New York in the years since his first win -- runs to the quarter-finals in 2013 and 2014 were followed by a fourth-round exit to Kevin Ander-son of South Africa 12 months ago.

Murray’s consistency on the tour in recent weeks is in stark contrast to

the rollercoaster fortunes of Djoko-vic, the defending champion in New York. After he won a maiden French Open to complete the career Grand Slam, all talk was of the Serb going on to defend his Wimbledon and US Open titles and clinch a calen-dar Grand Slam.

That’s a feat so rare that only two men have ever achieved it with Rod Laver the most recent in 1969. The expectations proved too heavy a bur-den when the 12-time major winner was dumped out of Wimbledon in the third round.

Although he then won a record 30th Masters trophy in Toronto, a shock first-round loss at the Olym-pics to a rejuvenated Juan Martin del Potro and a withdrawal from Cincin-nati with a wrist injury suggested all is not well with the 2011 and 2015 US Open winner. However, Djokovic’s form in 2016 remains impressive with a win-loss record of 51-5 and seven titles; Murray is 50-7 with four trophies.

Kenya disbands NOC over poor team handling in Rio Reuters

NAIROBI: Kenya has disbanded its National Olympics Committee (NOC-K) because of the poor handling of the east African country’s team dur-ing the Rio Olympics, sports minister Hassan Wario said yesterday.

Wario has set up a committee to investigate the misconduct and it will report its findings by Septem-ber 30. The Directorate of Criminal Investigation has also been asked to begin a probe.

“There was alleged misman-agement of the facilitation of our athletes and the entire team Kenya ranging from accommodation and travel mishaps, mishandling of the accreditation of the list of partici-pants to the provision of kits that never reached the athletes,” Wario told a news conference.

“I do hereby disband the National Olympic Committee with immediate effect and transfer their responsibilities to the Sports Kenya as the interim custodian.”

Before the Games, Kenya team captain Wesley Korir berated local Olympic committee officials, say-ing they needed better management, payment of pending allowances and an immediate end to alleged har-assment of athletes by anti-doping officials.

Francis Paul, NOC-K’s secretary general, said his organisation would consult with the International Olym-pic Committee over Wario’s decision.

“We are going to inform the International Olympic Committee to investigate the matter. We shall meet and discuss,” he said. Despite the problems, Kenya enjoyed its most successful Olympics in Rio, winning six gold medals, six silvers and one bronze, all in track and field.

Weir backs Russia’s banReuters

LONDON: Britain’s Paralympic champion wheelchair racer David Weir has backed the decision to ban Russia from next month’s Rio Paral-ympics for state-sponsored doping.

The Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) on Tuesday upheld the Interna-tional Paralympic Committee (IPC) ban on Russia competing at the Sep-tember 7-18 event.

“It’s probably the right choice if they’ve got evidence that most of the athletes are on a doping

programme,” the six-times Olym-pic champion told British media yesterday.

“It’s a bold step by the IPC and definitely the right one if they’ve got evidence.

“Over the last few years I’ve started to doubt people, which you never want to do. You look at people’s performances and think ‘really?’ and not ‘wow’.”

The six-times wheelchair Lon-don marathon winner said the drug-testing system was less strin-gent outside Britain.

“The doping policy needs to be a

bit more thorough throughout disa-bility sport. Not in the UK, because we’re tested constantly, but through-out championships,” the 37-year-old added.

“We’ve seen athletes getting caught and if it’s happening in the mainstream, it’s got to be happen-ing in the Paralympics. When I was at the European championships I did four events and got tested once.

“Maybe it’s manpower or fund-ing. A lot of nations are throwing millions of pounds at medals and we want to deliver on a level play-ing field.”

Maria del Rosario Espinoza (second left), taekwondo Olympic silver medallist, Maria Guadalupe Gonzalez (second right), athletics silver medallist, Ismael Hernandez (left), modern pentathlon bronze medallist and German Sanchez (right), diving Olympic silver medallist take a selfie photo during a news conference after their return from the 2016 Rio Olympics at the international airport in Mexico City, Mexico.

Gold star missing from ceremony ATHENS: The Greek government was left embarrassed yesterday after a special ceremony to honour the country’s Olympic team went ahead without Anna Korakaki, one of their three gold medallists in Rio.

Shooter Korakaki, 19, won two of Greece’s six medals, gold in the women’s 25 metre pistol final and bronze in the 10 metre air pistol event.

Greece President Prokopis Pavlopoulos met the other medal winners but Korakaki was unable

to attend due to a holiday. Authori-ties had only informed the athletes late on Wednesday afternoon about the tribute event.

“I really do not know what to say, I feel frustrated. I have fallen out with a lot of people recently and obviously we’re now paying the price for it,” Korakaki’s coach and father Tasos Korakakis told Greek sports website gazzetta.gr.

“I really don’t want to believe that she has not been invited delib-erately, but still I have some doubts.

I actually found out from journalists about the tribute event last night and contacted the president of the HOC, Mr (Spiros) Kapralos, who I think is in no way responsible for it, but there are no excuses.”

The Hellenic Olympic Com-mittee (HOC) moved to play down local media reports that Korakaki was deliberately not invited to the ceremony.

“It’s not a case of the athlete not being invited,” a HOC spokesman said.

Fernando Verdasco of Spain returns a shot to Steve Johnson of the US during the

Winston-Salem Open at Wake

Forest University in Winston Salem. Verdasco won 6-4,

7-6 (9/7).

FROM LEFT: Ethiopia’s Feyisa Liesa, Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge and USA’s Galen Rupp pose on the podium of the men’s marathon during the closing ceremony of the Rio 2016 Olympic Games at the Maracana in Rio de Janeiro in this August 21, 2016, file photo.

Gasquet finds form, advances to quarter-finals

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FRIDAY 26 AUGUST 2016 • 23 DHUL QA’DA 1437

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QSL: Giants Al Rayyan begin final drills for title defence

The Peninsula

DOHA: With just over the fortnight left in the new season of eagerly-awaited Qatar Stars League (QSL), reigning champions Al Rayyan have started giving the final touches to preparations for their title defence.

Al Rayyan who enjoyed a dream comeback to the prestigious league after a year’s gap in 2014, resumed training in Doha following their pre-season training camp in Spain.

Four days ago, Al Rayyan returned from an extensive training camp in Spain. The training camp in Spain lasted for 23 days.

Al Rayyan - coached by Jorge Fossati - are preparing for their sea-son-opening Sheikh Jassim Cup clash

against Lekhwiya on September 12.The new season of the QSL will

begin on September 15. During training session under

the watchful eyes of coach Fossati, Al Rayyan squad was a picture of absolute concentration.

The only players missing were the ones on national duty, a club official said.

Last season, Al Rayyan swept

every side in front of them and won the QSL title with five weeks to spare. Meanwhile, influential player Magid Ibrahim has returned to Al Sadd training as the Doha giants continue their preparation for the new foot-ball season.

Al Sadd will play the Qatar national side in a friendly game on Saturday at Jassim Bin Hamad Sta-dium, it was announced yesterday.

Qatar national team is prepar-ing for their 2018 FIFA World Cup qualifying match against Iran on September 1.

Al Sadd face Al Kharaitiyat in their season-opener on September 16 at Jassim Bin Hamad Stadium.

Al Sadd have cancelled a train-ing camp initially planned in the UAE and will instead continue to train in Doha ahead of the new QSL season.

Meanwhile, Al Wakrah have wound up their pre-season training camp in Istanbul with a win against a local club.

Al Wakrah beat Sakarya 2-1 in a friendly game on Wednesday.

After conceding an early goal, Al Wakrah’s Maher Yusuf (24) and Uru-guayan Paulo Oliveira (34) scored the goals for the QSL side.

Al Wakrah’s coach Jose Mauricio got most of his players match time by rotating the squad members in the friendly. Al Wakrah had assem-bled a large squad and the coach is expected to prune the side following the team’s return to Doha.

Mohammed Al Sulaiti, Chairman of Al Wakra mission to Turkey, said: “We are satisfied with our prepara-tions. We got to play a few friendlies also. The general mood in the camp is hugely positive. We feel ready for the new season.”

Al Rayyan’s players during a training session in Doha on Wednesday. The QSL champions resumed their preparations for the new season after few days of rest, following their return from Spain camp.

Al Wakrah players during their friendly match against Sakarya on the last day of their pre-season camp in Istanbul, Turkey, recently. Al Wakrah won 2-1.

Defending champions resume training after tour of Spain as Al Wakrah wind up Istanbul camp with a win over Sakarya

US Soccer slaps Solo with 6-month ban AFP

LOS ANGELES: USA women’s goal-keeper Hope Solo has been slapped with a six-month ban from the national team for her comments in which she called the Swedish play-ers “a bunch of cowards”, US Soccer announced on Wednesday.

The 35-year-old Solo made the comments after the Americans were eliminated in a penalty shootout from the Rio Olympics women’s soc-cer tournament on August 12.

“The comments by Hope Solo after the match against Sweden during the 2016 Olympics were unacceptable and do not meet the standard of conduct we require from our national team players,” US Soccer President Sunil Gulati said in a statement on Wednesday.

“Beyond the athletic arena, and beyond the results, the Olym-pics celebrate and represent the ideals of fair play and respect. We expect all of our representatives to honor those principles, with no exceptions.”

Solo wasn’t backing down on Wednesday and defended her “coward” comments by saying the suspension wasn’t warranted.

“I am saddened by the fed-eration’s decision to terminate my contract,” Solo told Sports Illustrated.

“I could not be the player I am without being the person I am, even when I haven’t made the best choices or said the right things.”

Solo said she plays and speaks with passion and is trying to be an example for future US female

players. “I did the job of a pro ath-lete the only way I knew how - with passion, tenacity, an unrelenting commitment to be the best goal-tender in the world .... to elevate the sport for the next generation of female athletes,” Sports Illustrated quoted her as saying.

This is not the first time Solo has been suspended. She was banned for 30 days in 2015 after an incident at one of the national team’s train-ing camps.

“Taking into consideration the past incidents involving Hope, as well as the private conversations we’ve had requiring her to conduct herself in a manner befitting a US national team member, US.Soccer determined this is the appropriate disciplinary action.”

Solo labelled Sweden “cow-ards” after the world champion Americans’ bid for a fourth straight Olympic gold ended in quarter-final defeat.

“We played a bunch of cowards,” Solo said.

“The better team did not win today. I strongly believe that.”

“I don’t think they’re going to make it far in the tournament.”

Solo made the comments because she felt the Swedes were playing too defensively.

The defeat was the Americans’ first in 15 games at the Olympics and only their third ever in Games history having won four golds and a silver since women’s football was introduced to the Olympic programme.

US Soccer said in the news release that Solo won’t be eligible to try out for the national team again until next February.

Guardiola returning to Barca in Champions League Reuters

MONACO: Pep Guardiola will return to the Nou Camp in the Champions League group stage after his new club Manchester City were drawn against his former Barcelona team yesterday.

The two sides were drawn in Group C alongside Borussia Moenchengladbach and former European champions Celtic in one of the toughest of the eight sections.

Spanish coach Guardiola, who won the Champions League twice with Barca, faced the Catalans when

he was in charge of Bayern Munich two seasons ago and suffered a 5-3 defeat in the semi-finals.

Holders and 11-times winners Real Madrid will have a tough pair of matches against Borussia Dort-mund in Group F although both teams should progress from a section that also contains Sporting Lisbon and Legia Warsaw.

The Polish team are back in the group stage after a 20-year absence.

English Premier League win-ners Leicester City, the only other newcomers among the 32 teams, will face Porto, Club Bruges and FC Copenhagen in Group G.

Porto are taking part in the

group stage for the 21st time, a record they share with Real and Barca. The double champions from

Portugal have won only three of their last 16 ties against English teams in the competition.

Paris St Germain and Arsenal, who are attempting to reach the round of 16 for the 17th time in a row, were drawn in Group A alongside dark horses Basel and rank Bulgar-ian outsiders Ludogorets.

Juventus, Serie A winners for the last five seasons, face Sevilla, Olym-pique Lyonnais and Zagreb in Group H. For the third season running Serie A has only two teams in the group stage. The other side, Napoli, will meet Benfica, Besiktas and Dynamo Kiev in Group B.

Group E is arguably the most evenly-balanced with CSKA Mos-cow, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham Hotspur and Monaco.

Nasser Al Khelaifi, Paris Saint Germain’s club owner reacts before the draw ceremony for the 2016/2017 Champions League Cup, yesterday in Monaco.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE DRAWGroup Stage

GROUP A: Paris St Germain, Arsenal, Basel, LudogoretsGROUP B: Benfica, Napoli, Dynamo Kiev, BesiktasGROUP C: Barcelona, Manchester City, Borussia, CelticGROUP D: Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid, PSV, RostovGROUP E: CSKA Moscow, Bayer Leverkusen, Tottenham, MonacoGROUP F: Real Madrid, Dortmund, Sporting Lisbon, WarsawGROUP G: Leicester City, Porto, Club Bruges, FC CopenhagenGROUP H: Juventus, Sevilla, Olympique Lyonnais, Dinamo Zagreb

USA women’s goalkeeper Hope

Solo has been slapped with a six-month ban

from the national team.

o Goodbye ‘Dilscoop’,

Dilshan to retire after Australia series