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GWC’s Q3 net profits jump by 11 percent

to QR150m

SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016 • 22 MOHARRAM 1438 • Volume 21 • Number 6958 thepeninsulaqatar @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatar 2 Riyals

President of Pakistan, Mamnoon Hussain, arrived yesterday in Qatar on an official visit. The President and his accompanying delegation were received at Hamad International Airport by Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti. Qatar’s Ambassador to Pakistan Saqer Mubarak Al Mansouri and Pakistan’s Ambassador to Qatar Shahzad Ahmed were also present.

Pakistan President arrives Emir heads to Istanbul todayDOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani will head to Istanbul today for a short working visit to Tur-key, reports QNA. The Emir will meet with President of Turkey, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, to discuss bilateral relations and other issues of common concern.

Turkish FM to visit

Doha on Tuesday

ANKARA: Turkey’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Mevlut Cavusoglu will pay an offi-cial visit to Qatar on Tuesday to resume the procedures for holding the Qatari-Turkish Supreme Strategic Committee, reports QNA. A statement released yester-day from the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that Cavusoglu will also focus during his meetings in Doha on bilat-eral relations and the means to enhance them, in addition to exchanging views on regional and international issues.

New residency law to take effect on Dec 13

By Mohammed Osman The Peninsula

DOHA: The new law No. 21 of 2015 regulating the entry, exit and resi-dency of expatriates will come into force on December 13, one year after its publication in the official gazette.

The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs recently announced a two-month awareness campaign to promote wider understanding of the changes in the Qatari labour and residency laws.

The executive regulations of the new residency law indicate that expa-triate workers who terminate their job contracts and leave the country before completion of the contract period are not allowed to return to

the country before the end of the con-tract period, Al Sharq reports.

The law will have a major impact on expatriate workers as it replaces the sponsorship (Kafala) system with a contract-based one and revoked the exit permit sys-tem and workers could come back to Qatar next day of their departure if he/she found new work contracts, said Jaznan Al Shamari, a prominent lawyer and vice-chairman of Qatari Lawyers Association.

Al Shemari said that the law aims to promote human rights and the rights of expatriate workers and seeks establishment of special committees to resolve labour disputes, in addition to the existing labour courts. “No one needs to fear this law. It protects the rights of all partners — employer and the employee— because their relation will be based on the contract and its terms and conditions,” Al Shemari told The Peninsula.

The way one of the parties could cancel the contract is supposed to be mentioned in the contract itself, said Al Shemari, when asked whether the worker can end his contract before its termination date.

The target groups of the two laws — the labour law and the residency law — are expatriate workers who must be aware of their rights and obligations under the new laws.

According to Abdelaal Khalil, a legal consultant, there is no need for the companies to make new contracts with their employees after implementation of the new law but the existing contracts will be valid as long as the employee is willing to continue in his job.

→ Continued on page 5

Quit Smoking Clinics help 30% give up habitThe Peninsula

DOHA: More than 30 percent of vis-itors at various Quit Smoking Clinics in health centres have given up the habit this year.

Primary Health Care Corpora-tion (PHCC) has helped 195 out of 604 people who visited the Quit Smok-ing clinics to quit smoking over the last nine months. At least one among

three smokers succeeded in dropping the habit for a period of six months, according to officials. PHCC also stressed that most smokers who visit the clinic were between 18 and 30 years of age, and some 35 to 40 per-cent of them had kicked the habit.

Surveys conducted in 2013 showed that 12.1 percent of adult pop-ulation here smokes tobacco. Studies also showed that the number of smok-ers in the 13-15 age group in Qatar

had gone up from 6.5 percent to 9.8 percent, marking an increase of 3.3 percent between 2007 and 2013.

“Quit Smoking Clinics visitors are subjected to a comprehen-sive assessment of their condition, aimed at finding out the readiness of the smoker to quit. They are then given both pharmacological and behavioural treatment along with follow-ups in the clinics,” said Dr Wadha Al Baker, Director of Health

Promotion and Wellness, PHCC.Dr Al Baker stressed that PHCC

has expanded the Quit Smoking Clin-ics to include Leabaib, Al Daayen, Al Gharrafa, Omar bin Khattab, Abu Baker Siddiq and Mesaimeer health centres. Through these clin-ics, PHCC is providing an incentive programme for those who have want to quit smoking for good.

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The Peninsula

ROME: H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari, Cultural Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar’s candidate for the Post of Unesco Director-General, has called on teachers and academics to establish proper educational policies and enhance moral education in order to prevent the rise of extremism.

Addressing the “Mediterranean Universities Union” at the University of La Sapienza in Rome on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the estab-lishment of the Union, Al Kawari said, “A diverse university education contributes greatly to devel-oping a mind that employs critical thinking and allows graduates to personally be able to distin-guish between that which is resolutely good and that which is inherently bad, and encourages peo-ple not to become victims of “thinking by proxy”, which embodies the current mindset among igno-rant, violent extremists.”

He noted that a number of extremist leaders in the world were once students in the most impor-tant and largest universities in vital areas of the globe “where the absence of fostering true values of human kindness has led to the predominance of technicality over innate values, and indoctri-nation over critical thought processes.”

He said the Unesco is inevitably facing a great variety of global challenges that reflect the strong need for new ideas from an aspiring new generation that will be able to step up to

the challenges that lay before us. “The ignorant hands that have destroyed edi-

fices of humanities heritage in Iraq, Syria, Libya, Afghanistan and Timbuktu are the result of an educational system that has failed to produce enlightened minds and knowledgeable citizens; instead it has, unfortunately, “dropped the ball” in

this regard and has produced a number of destruc-tive and extremist minds and thoughts. Sadly, it seems as if the current education system we have in place has replaced hope and optimism with aspects of cynicism,” said Dr Al Kawari.

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Charity lauds Qatar’s

efforts to educate kidsBy Fazeena Saleem The Peninsula

DOHA: A top official at Save the Children International (SCI), the largest children’s charity, has praised Qatar’s efforts to sig-nificantly reduce the number of out-of-school children globally.

Qatar has a noble goal in edu-cating marginalised children, said Thomas R Krift, SCI’s Regional Director for the Middle East and Eurasia, during a recent visit to Doha.

“Qatar has a noble goal to pro-vide access to quality primary education to out- of-school children suffering due to poverty, conflicts and natural disasters,” he told The Peninsula.

Save the Children has partnered with Qatar’s Educate A Child (EAC), in Côte d’Ivoire and Thailand/Myan-mar to help children affected by conflict to enrol and stay in school.

In Ethiopia, a Save the Children and EAC partnership is working to reach the most marginalised chil-dren across five regions, three major cities, and two refugee camps with quality primary education.

“We partner with Educate a Child, in Thailand and Myanmar for a cross border programme. In all those partnerships, our emphasis is on access to education, to really try that schools are available for the less privileged population,” said Krift.

EAC is a programme of Educa-tion Above All Foundation (EAA) founded in 2012 by H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser. EAA aims to build a global movement that contributes to human, social and economic development through the provi-sion of quality education. Under the mandate, the EAC programme aims to provide access to primary educa-tion to out- of-school children. It has commitments in place to reach ten million children by this year.

→ Continued on page 5

The executive regulations of the new residency law indicate that expatriate workers who terminate their job contracts and leave the country before completion of the contract period are not allowed to return to the country before the end of the contract period.

Dr Al Kawari emphasises moral education

H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari with officials in Rome.

DOHA: President of Venezuela, Nicolas Maduro, will arrive in Doha today for an official visit to Qatar, reports QNA. Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani and President Maduro will discuss tomorrow, at the Emiri Diwan, bilateral relations and means to develop them.

Venezuela President

arrives today

HOME 02 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

Minister of Transport and Communications H E Jassim bin Saif Ahmed Al Sulaiti met with Ewa Polano, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden to Qatar yesterday in Doha. The meeting discussed the bilateral relations in the fields of transportation and communications, and means of further enhancing them.

Minister meets Ambassador of Sweden

Continued from page 1

“I would like to stress here the fact that education is the most pro-ductive way to counteract these criminal tendencies, and this, in my opinion, is also the task of uni-versities, as well as all educational facilities around the world,” he added.

He said despite the diverse contributions made by so many countries in the world to sup-port the Unesco cultural, scientific and research projects, the organ-isation was not able to completely

consolidate its projects due to the financial crisis it was experiencing.

“I sincerely believe Unesco is in need of a fresh new momentum that should be characterised by creativ-ity in its approach, creativity that will enable it to deal with on-going developments that hinder the better performance its work as necessary and required,” said Dr Al Kawari.

“Unesco, despite its histori-cal background and vast, cultural achievements, is still unknown for a great many population seg-ments around the world, and I am confident that when this amazing

organisation will be once again introduced to the world with its clearly defined objectives and goals, the international community will realise its important role, now more than ever, to sow peace in human minds, so that societies will react in conjunction with it and provide it with all the means necessary to perform its mission in the most bountiful and productive way,” he added.

He said the financial alterna-tives he was proposing in his plan for Unesco “will continue to facil-itate the achievement of what we aspire towards in the fields of cul-ture, university education and scientific research, to further enrich societies and add to diverse, cultural understanding, support for peace-ful communities and achieving a real change in thinking on human development.”

Dr Al Kawari invited the “Med-iterranean Universities Union” and similar regional organisations to consider taking on new university and scientific research projects related to these issues, and present them as opportunities to be co-financed by the Unesco and major international companies, economic institutions, civil society organisa-tions and philanthropic foundations that are interested in funding such initiatives for the noble objective of truly enhancing the lives and understanding of human beings everywhere, across all walks of life.

Qatar Charity builds school for orphan girls in BangladeshThe Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Charity (QC) has built a school at a cost of QR1m to create educational opportunities to orphan girls in Bangladesh.

The project “Haji Ismet School for the orphans” was needed on urgently basis, said Khalid Abdullah Al Yafei, the Executive Director for Operations Department at QC. As more than 1,000 girl students sponsored by QC were residing in a social welfare centre established by QC in Beherob, Kisho-reganj District.

There are no intermediate and sec-ondary schools near to this centre so they had to walk a long distance to reach to the nearest school facing unfavourable weather

conditions. The project will help the ben-eficiary with secondary and university education and achieve a better future for the children of the targeted areas.

Building this school by Qatar Charity is mainly aimed at raising the level of the stu-dents, providing them with the intermediate and secondary education and permanent and temporary jobs, and reducing the class-rooms overcrowding in the neighbouring schools that follow the two-shift system.

The project was financed by citizens and expatriate as donations.

The facility is a six-storied building stretching in an area of 1,800 sqm, said Dr Mohammad Al Amin Hafez, the Director of Qatar Charity’s office in Bangladesh.

The school offers religious and technical educations with modern education includ-ing handicrafts and medical professions.

The school was built under the Orphans Welfare Program, a key project imple-mented by Qatar Charity in Bangladesh.

The project sponsors 5,700 orphans where four big centres pro-vide a complete care to 2,000 orphans includ-ing accommodation, food, drink, health and education services and vocational training.

The remaining orphans receive a high quality comprehensive care in the educational, health and recreational fields while living with their families.

These centres, which include many facilities and internal departments, aims at providing the orphans with the comprehen-sive education (general, religious and voca-tional), health care and all required services so that they could live a decent life.

Unesco is in need of a fresh new momentum: Dr Al Kawari

H E Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz Al Kawari (second left), Cultural Adviser at the Emiri Diwan and Qatar’s candidate for the post of Director-General at Unesco, at the event.

Benefits of smoke-free life emphasisedContinued from page 1

As part of the programme, patients are initially asked to think about the benefits of smoke-free life. As a second step, smokers are encouraged to quit the habit, avoid temptations and get support from those around them. The next step, vital and effective one involves stopping the habit. Smokers are asked to remind themselves the reasons for starting the programme and fol-low a different daily routine in the early days. The final step involves one to stay non-smoker for good.

Qatar stresses importance of

ending aggression in Syria

QNA

GENEVA: Qatar stressed yesterday its position on the impor-tance of implementing Geneva 1 and UN Security resolution on ending acts of aggression in Syria and allowing the deliv-ery of humanitarian aid. This came during a statement by Qatar in the 25th special session of the Human Rights Coun-cil on the deteriorating situation of human rights in the Syrian Arab Republic. The statement was read by Permanent Rep-resentative of Qatar to the United Nations and international organisations in Geneva Faisal bin Abdullah Al Henzab.

Orphan girls taking their lessons at a classroom of a newly-built school by Qatar Charity in Bangladesh.

QRCS campaign to raise QR15m for displaced IraqisThe Peninsula

DOHA: Qatar Red Crescent Society (QRCS) has activated its emergency operations room at Doha headquarters to collect information about the conditions of displaced people in Iraq.

The move came in response to the alarm-ing situation in Mosul, Nineveh, and the probable wave of displacement across the country due to the current military operations.

Real-time reports are received from

QRCS’s mission in Iraq and its field groups, in collaboration with the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA), QRCS said in a statement yesterday.

A relief campaign has been launched to help more than 120,000 Iraqis expected to flee Mosul over the coming few days. Also, an emergency appeal has been issued to raise QR15m ($4.1m) for a six-month intervention in shelter, relief items, water & sanitation, and health care. Several organisations have already reacted to the appeal, which warned against one of the world›s worst and most complicated humanitarian crises in 2016.

The QR1m project will help the beneficiary with secondary and university education and achieve a better future for the children of the targeted areas.

HOME 03 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: The new regional headquar-ters of Lulu Hypermarket Group on the D-Ring Road was inaugurated by H E Sheikh Hassan bin Khaled Al Thani yesterday at 11:00 am in a glittering ceremony attended by the ambassadors of several nations such as Australia, Spain, Poland, Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, and many other dignitaries includ-ing Muhammed Ahmed Towar Al Kuwari, Vice-Chairman of Qatar Chamber and Vice-President of Qatari Business Council, and officials from the US Commercial Service.

The state of the art regional headquarters of Lulu Group with all most modern amenities extends over an area of 7,000 sqm in three levels with two-level underground park-ing facility.

In the Qatar region, Lulu Group commenced its operations in 2000 with its first venture ‘Lulu Center Department Store’ on Al Rayyan Road and today the Group has six hypermarkets to its credit, and another three hypermarket projects are under progress; one of them will be inaugurated by the last quarter of 2016 at Al Messila.

Lulu Hypermarket Group owned and managed by Yusuffali MA is one the most successful and highly diver-sified consumer business group in the gulf region, having major pres-ence in the fields of supermarkets, department stores and hypermar-kets all over the GCC countries. The Group was christened in the year 1966 by establishing its first venture in the UAE. The Group today stands as an epitome of professional suc-cess with its highly diversified and expanding business empire span-ning the globe. Presently, the Group operates 131 state of the art shopping malls and hypermarkets.

Besides, the Group owns export and re-export houses, Meat process-ing plants, Garment manufacturing units & IT Training Institutes, etc.

Lulu Group also have a broad network of well-established sourcing offices and logistics centres in Brazil, UK, Spain, Hong Kong, the main land China, Thailand, Kenya, Benin, Tan-zania, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast and Vietnam, etc. to cater to the regular requirements of the above stores.

Based in the UAE, Emke Group’s activities today transcend

geographical boundaries to reach India, Hong Kong, UK, US, the mainland China, Thailand, Indone-sia, Kenya, Benin, Tanzania, Egypt, Nigeria, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Vietnam, Malaysia and Middle East countries such as UAE, Oman, Qatar, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt and Yemen.

Over the years, Emke Group has become synonymous for excellence

in the fields of retailing, export, import and distribution of fresh and frozen foodstuff and consumer sta-ple goods, garment manufacturing and IT training etc. Ranked as one of the biggest Indian-owned conglom-erate in the Gulf region, the Group has a vast multi-ethnic organi-sational structure of over 38,400 employees comprising of 37 differ-ent nationalities.

Over 27,700 kids get MMR shots in first four days

The Peninsula

DOHA: Some 27,766 children have been vaccinated in first four days of national immunisation campaign against measles, mumps and rubella (MMR), which began here on Octo-ber 17. So far, no adverse affect has been reported.

The Ministry of Public Health announced that 4,641 children were given the shot at primary health centres, while some 1,200 were vac-cinated at other healthcare facilities, including private clinics. Some 8,672 students were given shot at inde-pendent schools and 13,253 students in private schools.

The one-month campaign, which runs until November 14, is aimed at some 294,000 children between one to 13 years of age. It comes amid 22 recently reported cases of mea-sles in Qatar. Though according to Qatar’s vaccination schedules, chil-dren should be given two MMR shots at 12 and 18 months of age, a few of the children do not develop sufficient immunity against the diseases after the first or the second dose. Hence

the third MMR booster dose is impor-tant, according to MoPH officials.

MoPH is closely monitoring the campaign for any reports of severe side effects of the vaccination. The ministry has also asked parents to ensure that their children eat break-fast on the morning of vaccination.

Children not registered at PHCC can get inoculated at any of the 20 private facilities, providing the vac-cine for free. MoPH stressed that the huge turn up for vaccine reflected the public awareness about of the importance of vaccinating their chil-dren to protect them from infectious diseases. The vaccine is available in all primary healthcare centres in the morning and evenings, HMC outpa-tient department, Sidra Medical and Research Centre, Qatar Petroleum clinics and 23 private health facil-ities for free.

Medical teams from MoPH, HMC, Primary Healthcare Corporation visit schools to administer the vac-cine. Ambulance services are also made available in case of any emer-gency situations.

Children can also be vaccinated at the following private clinics: Doha Clinic hospital, El Emadi Hospital, American Hospital, Al Shefa Poly-clinic, Aster Medical Centre C Ring road (Al Muntaza), Fetomaternal Medical Center, Al Esraa Polyclinic, Aster Medical Centre Plus, Aster Medical Centre -Alkhor, Al Tai med-ical center, Syrian American Medical Centre, Family Medical Centre, Al Hayat Medical Centre, Apollo Clinic, Dr Maher Abbas Clinic, Al Mansoor Polyclinic, Dr Bashar Bashar Clinic, AlKayyali Medical Centre, Tadwai Medical Centre, Atlas Medical Cen-tre and Future Medical Centre.

Lulu moves to new regional headquarters

ABOVE: H E Sheikh Hassan bin Khaled Al Thani, Lulu Group International Managing Director Yusuffali MA, Lulu International Director Mohamed Althaf, Qatar Chamber Vice-Chairman Muhammed bin Ahmed bin Towar Al Kuwari, Ambassadors and RAF Director General Dr Ayed Al Qahtani with other guests after the inauguration of the regional headquarters of Lulu Hypermarket Group on the D-Ring Road in Doha yesterday.RIGHT: The new regional headquarters on the D-Ring Road.Pic: Salim Matramkot/The Peninsula

The one-month campaign, which runs until November 14, is aimed at some 294,000 children between one to 13 years of age.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa will cele-brate the Indian Festival of Lights this year for the first time, since their opening in February 2016. Customers can book a renewing stay-cation at the stylishly appointed rooms. Book from only 935 QAR and indulge in the festivities and get pampered with irresistible inclusions: Includes Complimentary Buffet Breakfast at Seasonal Tastes; 30% discount on treatments at Heavenly Spa by Westin; Includes Compli-mentary Indian Afternoon Tea at Luxe Lounge; and Late check-out upon availability, a press release said.

For stays between 27th October to 4th November 2016 , visit Westindoha.com for more info or call 4492 1555 to make a reser-vation. Other activities and celebrations begin on 27th October 2016 at the hotel’s 1st floor outdoor venue with the launch of the Best Bol-lywood party in town at the Mix Terrace.

Celebrate Diwali at The Westin Doha with

a Sparkly party at Mix Bar Terrace on Thurs-day 27th of October. Enjoy Desi inspired sips and snacks and dance the night away to the

sound of the bollywood beats! Guest DJ includes the renowned DJ Akhtar. It’s time for some Masti at Mix! From 8.30pm til late! To purchase tickets pls visit: https://www.q-tickets.com/events/SPARKLE http://www.westin-doha.com/diwali

FROM 18:30 to 23:00, 30TH OCTO-BER- 4TH NOVEMBER 2016

Following the success of the “Spicy Sunday” Indian buffet theme nights-one of the best in town right now, The Westin Doha Hotel & Spa, team have been preparing to celebrate the festival of lights in their global cuisine restau-rant, Seasonal Tastes with a grand Indian dinner buffet which will be held for a week from 30th October to 4th November in honor of Diwali. Taste the best rotis, curries and tandoori grills in town from just 150QR and celebrate in style! The superb outdoor Terrace with stunning waterfalls coupled with the great outdoor weather at present is the ideal venue to spend with family and friends alike!

Indian themed Dinner buffet is available in Seasonal Tastes

Diwali Special daily from 30th

October- 4th November 2016 from 18.30- 22.00And every Sunday from 18.30- 22.00150QR- including soft drinks250QR- including free flow special

beveragesVisit Seasonaltastesdoha.com or http://

www.westindoha.com/diwali for more info or call 4492 1555 to make a reservation

INDIAN AFTERNOON TEA AT LUXE LOUNGE – UNTIL 4TH NOVEMBER 2016

The celebrations continue as the innovative culinary team at The Westin has created a new concept of an Indian inspired Afternoon Tea with a full flavoured offering that combines savoury treats such as chicken tikka wrap, vegetable samosas, aloo papdi chaat, which is a combi-nation of puff pastry, potato, tamarind chutney and mint sauce. Sweet treats include nankhatai, a spicy-sweet Indian shortbread cookies, Car-damon Pound Cake that is an Asian twist on the traditional version, Son papdi- typical Indian sweet mithai dish – melts beautifully in the mouth with after something spicy and the show-stopper are Mini Indian Falooda made with rose syrup, milk, vermicelli and ice cream. All served with Traditional Masala & cardamom chai or a choice of loose and herbal infusion tea.

Served daily 2-5pm with a price of 140QR for 2 people to share.

Visit Luxeloungedoha.com or http://www.westindoha.com/diwali for more info or call 4492 1555 to make a reservation.

HOME04 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: Sheikh Thani bin Abdullah Foundation for Humanitarian Serv-ices (RAF) has helped 128 children suffering from heart diseases in Dar es Salaam, capital of Tanzania.

The young patients under-went open heart surgeries and angiographies by a team of 30 vol-unteering doctors from Arab and

Muslim countries.The project was implemented at

a cost of QR815,000 in collaboration with Al Muntada Islamic Founda-tion, the RAF’s local partner in the country.

It was financed by the endow-ment fund of Sheikh Thani bin Abullah Al Thani for kindness and goodness. The project was part of RAF’s ongoing campaign “Al Qulub Al Saghira” (small hearts) to provide health services to children with heart diseases.

“This project proved that the medical profession is not only to make money but to serve the human being,” said Abdul Nasir Al Fakhro, Deputy Head of the Mercy of Ambas-sador Unit at RAF.

“We appreciate the doctors who came forward to save the lives of small children. RAF extends its helping hand to rescue people for

the humanitarian cause,” said Al Fakhro.

All operations were conducted at Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tan-zania by a team of 30 specialist doctors from Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Egypt, Jordon, the Philippines and Pakistan.

They treated 128 cases - 52 open heart surgeries and 76 angiographies since the beginning of the campaign. Dhinuraina, another local charity

organization, also cooperated in the implementation of the project.

It is the 16th campaign launched by Al Muntada Islamic Foundation, said Abdullah Al Faiz, General Sec-retary of the foundation.

“We appreciate the efforts of RAF, the medical team and local authority for making this campaign success-ful,” he added.

RAF has supported and financed a noble humanitarian project, said

Dr Lui Abdul Samad, Head of the Medical Team for this campaign, a consultant at the intensive care unit for cardiovascular diseases at the King Faisal Specialist Hospi-tal & Research Center - the Jeddah Branch.

RAF held a ceremony after the conclusion of the project to hon-our the doctors and those who participated in this humanitarian campaign.

Westin Doha to celebrate Indian Festival of Lights

RAF helps 128children withheart diseases

The mother of a beneficiary child interacting with an official from the RAF after undergoing cardiac surgery at a hospital in Tanzania.

All surgeries were conducted at Dar es Salaam, the capital of Tanzania by a team of 30 specialist doctors.

Police College organisesparents’ visitThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Police College organ-ised on Friday a visit programme for parents to encourage the new students after three weeks of join-ing the training programme in the foundation phase.

The foundation phase is a fifty-day training programme at the college headquarters.

Director General of the Police College, Brigadier Mohammed Abdullah Al Muhana Al Marri said that the college received the third batch of students from Qatar and from brotherly countries in the beginning of this month.

The college has offered all academic and training needs to students, and parents have

welcomed and appreciated the step. Al Muhana said that depart-ment is keen to communicate

with parents on mobile phones or through other contacts and reply to any inquiries.

Parents visiting Police College students.

Qatar ‘committed to cooperation for development’QNA

NEW YORK: The State of Qatar will exert maximum efforts to continue its role as a partner in international cooperation.

This came during a speech by a member of Qatar’s delegation to the UN General Assembly, H E Sheikh Khalid Mansour Al Thani. He was speaking during the meet-ing of the second committee, the Economic and Financial Commit-tee, that was held yesterday.

Sheikh Khalid highlighted Addis Ababa’s action agenda as a reflection of the strong efforts made to enhance global partnerships in development. It is also an important part of the 2030 sustainable devel-opment agenda and an addition to the Doha Declaration on Financing for Development, he added.

He said that Qatar continues to provide support to programmes concerned with enhancing coop-eration in economic and social development as well as combat-ing poverty. One example of such efforts includes hosting the Fol-low-up International Conference on Financing for Development in 2008.

Shura Council to attend Geneva meetQNA

DOHA: The Advisory (Shura) Council will participate in the 135th Inter-Parliamen-tary Union (IPU) Assembly due in Geneva on October 23 to 27, 2016, with a delegation

headed by the Deputy Speaker H E Issa bin Rabia Al Kuwari. The agenda of the Assem-bly includes the election of the President and Vice-Presidents of the 135th Assem-bly, a general debate on the human rights abuses and freedom of women to partici-pate in political processes fully.

HOME 05SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: As preparations for Milipol Qatar 2016 have entered the final phase, major exhibitors have announced plans to showcase new products which will represent all sectors of homeland security from explosive detection and forensics to analysis software and surveillance equipment.

Milipol Qatar 2016, the leading event dedicated to Homeland Secu-rity in the Middle East, is set to be the launch platform for a number of regional and international companies to showcase new innovative products when it opens at the Doha Exhibition and Convention Center from October 31 to November 2.

It is the 11th edition of the bian-nual event. “Leading companies within the international Homeland Security industry continue to bring innovative products to enhance the sector around the globe. It is a great honor to be a part of this devel-opment and have served as a key platform for launches for the last 20 years,” Brigadier Nasser bin Fahad Al Thani (pictured), President of Milipol Qatar 2016 Committee, said.

Ahead of Milipol Qatar 2016, Industrial Scientific launched a new standalone multi-gas area monitor designed for all-weather purposes that can be used in industrial work-places and hazardous applications.

Experts in security solutions and crisis management, IREMOS,

will be launching two products this October.

The first from the French com-pany IREMOS Communication, a collaborative platform allowing crisis response teams to access a common logbook, situation reports, as well as all crisis documents and procedures, in real time, regardless of their location on any device. Its second launch is IREMOS Solution, designed to improve the preparation,

management and coordination of different services and actors, internal and external, involved in the event of a terrorist attack.

Leader Healthcare will be unveil-ing its next generation integrated portable intensive care unit (ICU). Moves SLC combines an 02 concen-trator, a unique O2 saving ventilator, a suction system, and a complete vital signs monitoring module into a sin-gle, compact, portable system. It is said to reduce the weight and size of current transport systems by over 50%.

In the field of health and safety, South Korean-OTOS is to launch a new style of safety glasses, that it claims will protect eyes from flying objects in addition to hazardous ultra violet rays.

The sports-style protective glasses provide shaded lenses for sun glare, a forehead cushion to increase anti-fog performance, as well as a side-arm inclination

Distributor Qatar Development and Trading Co. (QDT) will be pro-moting two new target products,

dated for a November launch, dur-ing the exhibition; the first being a portable targeting system that can be used for indoor and outdoor shoot-ing trainings.

The Fulcrum Target System (FTS), which was developed by ex-military personnel in 2007, can be pro-grammed and triggered by multiple devices allowing target movements in different directions.

The second product being show-cased will be the TARGABOT Target System that can be programmed by computer and move up & down, 180° rotational or a combination of both functions, with built-in sequence patterns.

French-based Cegelec Défense will be reveling during the Milipol Qatar 2016 the design of its Mobile Surgical Hospital (MSH) ahead of its launch in January 2017. Other major exhibitors who will be showcasing recently launched products include Bertin Technologies, Hytera Com-munications Corporation Limited, Newcon Optik and Nuctech Com-pany Limited.

The Peninsula

DOHA: Toyota has once again achieved success in the 2016 Middle East Safest Vehicle Awards, the pre-mier annual award for the region’s automotive industry, winning the award in the ‘safest SUV award’ car for its popular Land Cruiser (Pride of The land).

The Transport Safety Award is one of the key highlights of Qatar Transport Safety Forum officially endorsed by the Ministry of Trans-port and Communication in Qatar, and held under the patronage of H E Jassim bin Saif Al Sulaiti, Minister of Transport and Communication. The

ceremony is organised to recognise excellence in the field of Road Safety in the Middle East Region.

The Land Cruiser is a true go anywhere, all-terrain four-wheel drive SUV that has always exceeded expectations all around the globe. It offers elegance, sophistication and luxury while being tough and practical. Moreover, it represents a luxurious bridge between civiliza-tion and adventure while offering not just excitement but also utility. The new Land Cruiser reaffirms a tradition of quality and advanced technology. That is why when people think four-wheel drive SUV -- they automatically think ‘Land Cruiser’ as it sets the standard.

During the prize distribution ceremony Takayuki Yoshitsugu, Chief Representative, Middle East and North Africa Representative Office said “Toyota Motor Cor-poration is striving to make ever better cars with the best Standards of safety.

The prize distribution Cer-emony was attended from AAB side by Serdar Toktamis( CEO) and Murugan R K (COO). From Toyota Motor Corporation, the attendees were Takayuki Yoshitsugu, Chief Representative, Middle East and North Africa Representative Office and Ismail Yagan Senior PR Man-ager Middle East & North Africa Representative Office.

Toyota again wins Middle East Safest Vehicle Award 2016

AAB and Toyota officials receiving the award.

Milipol Qatar 2016 to feature new productsMilipol Qatar 2016 is set to be the launch platform for a number of regional and international companies to showcase their new and innovative products.

Some citizensunhappy about new law

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However, all types of contracts will start from the date of enforce-ment of the new law regardless of how many years the employee had served in the company, but this does not mean the previous years of service are not counted, he observed.

He said the new law applies to all expatriate workers, including domestic helps.

It is not necessary for new-comers to sign a work contract before coming to Doha, he said.

If the employer has agreed to hire the worker and processed his/her entry visa for work, the worker can sign the contract after arriving in Qatar. However, in case he refuses to sign the contract, he would be forced to go home, said Khalil.

Some citizens, commenting on social media, expressed appre-hensions about some provisions of the law but many were more pos-itive as they see it fair and believe that it will create balanced rela-tions between the employer and the employee.

All over the world, peo-ple work according to the job contract but in Qatar the spon-sorship system was making the employer responsible for eve-rything related to the expatriate employee and this is not fair, said a commentator.

The work contract needs to be certified by the Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs and the maximum period for work con-tract is five years.

Those who sign open con-tracts need to stay with the company for a minimum of five years to change their job, said another comment.

→ Continued from page 1

“I hope with other partners, Educate A Child is getting closer to the noble goal of providing primary education to ten million out of school chidlren,” said Thomas R Krift (pictured).

Krift, in his role as the Regional Director for the Middle East and Eurasia for Save the Children International, oversees strategy devel-opment, as well as the implementation of both development and humanitarian response pro-grams, in 19 countries.

He was in Doha to attend the Qatar Founda-tion’s Second Annual Conference for the Doha

International Family Institute, where he spoke about changing role of NGOs in conflict and family policy.

Krift emphasized on the need for inter-national organizations to work with local partners, and develop new partnerships and ways of working with a broader group of stakeholders.

“In conflict areas where we might be more targeted for the simple reason that we are an international NGO, we work very closely with local partners who are generally better posi-tioned to respond and has better access to the community,” he said.

“So our focus is working closely with

the partners, if you look at Syria as a good example, many of those national partner organizations existed prior to the conflict and worked in health and education but not nec-essarily focused on humanitarian response. What we bring to them is not just the fund-ing but we help in operations with our long experience with disaster relief, responding to natural disasters and humanitarian cri-sis ,” he added.

He also said that Save the Children’s work in areas of informal education and health is integrated with psycho-social activities to help children overcome psychological challenges faced during conflicts.

Expert stresses importance of working with local partners

Registration opens for QGBC conferenceDOHA: Qatar Green Building Coun-cil (QGBC) has opened registration for the Qatar Green Building Con-ference 2016 which takes place on November 13–15 at the Qatar National Convention Center (QNCC).

The annual conference, to be held under the patronage of H E

Sheikha Hind bint Hamad Al Thani, Vice Chairperson and CEO of Qatar Foundation (QF), invites academic researchers, sustainability experts, environmentalists and other indus-try practitioners, including urban planners, architects and property consultants from Qatar and beyond.

More than 70 renowned speak-ers from across various industries will present on a range of sus-tainability topics at this year’s conference. The conference will feature four workshops and will provide Certified Continuing Edu-cation (CPD) hours.

MIDDLE EAST06 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

Iraq forces clash with IS in battle for Kirkuk

AFP

KIRKUK: Security forces battled for a second day yesterday with Islamic State group gunmen who infiltrated Kirkuk in a brazen raid that rattled Iraq as it ramped up an offensive to retake Mosul.

A toxic cloud released by a fire IS militants set off at a sulphur plant south of Mosul earlier this week killed at least two civilians and forced some US service members to wear masks.

A day after the shock attack on the Kurdish-controlled city of Kirkuk, jihadist snipers and sus-pected suicide bombers were still at large, prompting Baghdad to send reinforcements.

Special counter-terrorism and intelligence units were hunting down some of the dozens of IS fighters who stormed public buildings in the early hours of Friday.

“We have 46 dead and 133 wounded, most of them members of the security services, as result of the clashes with Daesh (IS),” an Inte-rior Ministry brigadier general said.

The toll was confirmed by a source at the Kirkuk health directo-rate, which called for blood donations to assist with the emergency.

The Kirkuk police chief said 48 jihadist attackers had been killed so far and several others wounded, including a Libyan believed to be among the raid’s leaders.

“The security forces control the situation now but there are still

pockets of jihadists in some southern and eastern neighbourhoods,” Briga-dier General Khattab Omar Aref said.

The large-scale “inghimasi” attack, a term describing jihadist operations in which gunmen, often wearing suicide vests, intend to sow chaos and fight to the death rather than achieve any military goal, caught Kirkuk off guard.

The large city, which lies in an oil-producing region around 240km (150 miles) north of Baghdad, woke up on Friday to find jihad-ists roaming the streets of several neighbourhoods.

They used mosque loudspeakers to broadcast praise of their self-pro-claimed “caliphate”, which has been shrinking steadily since last year and is looking closer than ever to collapse.

Distraction from MosulAbu Omar, a 40-year-old butcher,

spent 24 hours locked up in his home with his wife, mother and three children.

“It felt as if this day lasted a year,” he said. “We could hear shooting and explosions all the time but we didn’t dare venture outside to see what was happening.” One attacker captured by the Kurdish security services on Friday claimed that the Kirkuk raid was planned by IS supremo Abu Bakr Al Baghdadi as a diversion from the offensive on Mosul. “Today’s attack was one of caliph Baghdadi’s plans to demonstrate that the Islamic State is remaining and expanding and reduce the pressure on the Mosul front,” he said, according to an AFP reporter who saw his initial interrogation.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi announced late Friday that he was sending reinforcements to Kirkuk but there was no sign of any major impact on operations around Mosul.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter arrived in Iraq yesterday to review the offensive, which his country and around 60 other nations support.

Mosul is the most populous city in the “caliphate” Baghdadi declared in June 2014 and the operation to recap-ture it is Iraq’s largest in years.

With 3,000 to 4,500 men fac-ing tens of thousands of Iraqi forces backed by massive US-led air power, the outcome of the battle is in lit-tle doubt. But jihadists have been launching dozens of suicide car bombs against advancing forces, slowing their progress.

Iraqi Kurdish security forces patrol a street in the southern suburbs of Kirkuk yesterday.

Wounded in Aleppo

wait for evacuationAFP

ALEPPO: Hundreds of wounded civilians were stranded in rebel-held areas of Syria’s Aleppo yesterday as the UN said security concerns were again preventing evacuations despite Russia extending a ceasefire into a third day.

The unilateral “humanitarian pause” in the Syrian army’s devas-tating Russian-backed assault on the opposition-controlled east of the city has largely held since it began on Thursday morning.

The army says it is an opportunity for civilians and rebel fighters who lay down their arms to leave.

But so far only a handful of the 250,000 civilians still living in the rebel sector have left, and the UN’s plan to evacuate injured people has stalled.

An AFP photographer in the Bus-tan Al Qasr neighbourhood at one of the crossings the army has set up for evacuations said it was deserted yes-terday morning.

After three months of siege by the army and nearly four weeks of relentless air strikes by Syrian and Russian warplanes, trust in govern-ment assurances of safe passage is minimal.

“Members of popular civil com-mittees from regime districts entered the eastern neighbourhoods to try to evacuate the injured but failed,” said Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Syr-ian Observatory for Human Rights.

Syrian state media and Russian authorities have accused rebels in the east of preventing civilians from

leaving and using them as “human shields.”

On Friday, the UN human rights council called for a special investi-gation into the violence in Aleppo in a resolution fiercely critical of Damascus.

More than 2,000 civilians have been wounded since the army launched its offensive to drive the rebels out of the eastern districts they have held since 2012. Nearly 500 peo-ple have been killed.

The United Nations had hoped to use the ceasefire to evacuate seri-ously wounded people, and possibly deliver aid.

But a UN official said yesterday that for a second day the requisite security guarantees had not been received.

“You have various parties to the conflict and those with influence and they all have to be on the same page on this and they are not,” said David Swanson, a spokesman for the UN humanitarian office in neighbour-ing Turkey.

He said discussions were con-tinuing and UN staff and partner organisations were on standby in government-held west Aleppo to begin evacuations if an agreement is reached.

The UN has drawn up a four-day plan that would start with two days of medical evacuations to west Aleppo, rebel-held Idlib province, and Turkey, and continue with more evacuations as well as aid deliveries.

No aid has entered Aleppo since July 7 and food rations will run out by the end of the month, UN chief Ban Ki-moon warned on Thursday.

Libyan naval forces deny attack on boat carrying migrants Reuters

TRIPOLI: Libyan naval forces have denied accusations by a rescue organisation that one of their crew had attacked a migrant boat packed with around 150 people, causing many to fall into the sea and at least four to drown.

A spokesman for the naval forces in Tripoli, Ayoub Qassem said a patrol had only boarded one vessel to check why it was in Libyan waters.

Germany-based Sea-Watch, one of several non-governmental organi-sations operating vessels off the coast of Libya, said on Friday a speed-boat marked “Libyan Coast Guard” swooped in as they went to the aid of an overcrowded rubber boat in the early hours.

At least one man from the Lib-yan vessel jumped into the rubber boat and beat the migrants with a stick, causing a mass panic, a Sea-Watch spokesman said. Part of the rubber boat deflated in the ruckus, toppling most of them into the sea. No

firearms were used. The Sea-Watch crew said it recovered four bodies, but saw others in the water it was not able to retrieve. Of an estimated 150 people on board the rubber boat, Sea-Watch rescued 120.

But Qassem said this was not correct.

“The crew alleged that we attacked them and a number of cas-ualties have been reported but this is not true at all and we call on them to prove this incident if they are right,” he said.

Qassem said that at around

2:30am on Friday, the coast guard of the western region of Libya spotted three vessels off the coast. The patrol commander boarded the vessel and found Sea-Watch was involved.

“The commander asked them why they are in the Libyan waters but the crew of the organisation did not answer logically. The crew was asked to leave,” he said. “It’s a breach and disrespect to Libyan sov-ereignty according to international rules and norms.” Sea-Watch spokes-man Ruben Neugebauer said from Berlin that the position of their ship,

the Sea-Watch 2, was about 14 nau-tical miles off the coast of Zuwarah, Libya, while territorial waters end at 12 nautical miles from the coast.

“It was definitely not in Libya waters,” Neugebauer said of the position of the Sea-Watch 2, offer-ing Reuters historical GPS tracking data from the ship.

“We should have some images at least from the cameras on board,” Neugebauer said. “Because it was dark, we don’t know how much they have seen, but we hope we have something.”

Syrian army used

chemical weapons

to attack village

in 2015: UN

AFP

UNITED NATIONS: The Syr-ian army attacked the village of Qmenas with chemical weapons in March 2015, UN experts said in a report released Friday.

But they were unable to deter-mine who was responsible for two other chemical weapons attacks — against Binnish in Idlib prov-ince in March 2015 and Kafr Zita in Hama province in April 2014.

The report was presented Fri-day to the UN Security Council.

The UN-led joint investi-gative mechanism (JIM) in late August reported that Syrian gov-ernment forces had carried out at least two chemical attacks in 2014 and 2015 and that Islamic State jihadists had used mustard gas as a weapon.

Of the nine total alleged chemical attacks it is considering in its ongoing probe, the JIM has now attributed three to the Syrian government and one to the Islamic State group. In its fourth report, investigators concluded that there is now “sufficient information” that the attack on Qmenas “was caused by a Syrian Arab Armed Forces helicopter dropping a device from a high altitude which hit the ground and released the toxic substance that affected the population.” Investigators say the substance may have been chlo-rine gas, based on the symptoms the victims displayed.

In Kafr Zita, however, the JIM could not confirm that the Syr-ian army had used barrel bombs to dump toxic substances because “the remnants of the device alleg-edly used had been removed,” the report said.

Investigators also said that a “canister with traces of chlorine” was found in Binnish, though the container could not be “linked to any of several incident locations identified.”

The inquiry’s mandate was extended until October 31 to fin-ish the probe.

Reuters

MOGADISHU: Somali pirates have freed 26 Asian sailors held captive in a small fishing village for more than four years since their ship was hijacked in the Indian Ocean, government offi-cials and a maritime expert said yesterday.

The sailors from China, the Philippines, Cambodia, Indone-sia, Vietnam and Taiwan were seized when the Omani-flagged FV Naham 3 was hijacked close to the Seychelles in March 2012, when pirate attacks were com-mon in the area.

“The crew is staying

overnight in Galkayo. They will arrive in (the Kenyan cap-ital) Nairobi at 1830 local time tomorrow,” said John Steed, East Africa region manager for the Oceans Beyond Piracy group.

The mayor of Galkayo in northern Somalia had earlier said the crew was set to arrive in Kenya on Saturday afternoon.

“The crew did not say if ran-som was paid,” mayor Hirsi Yusuf Barre told Reuters.

Their period of captivity is one of the longest among hos-tages seized by pirates in the anarchic Horn of Africa nation.

Steed said one mem-ber of the crew had died during the hijacking while two

succumbed to illness. Among those released, one was being treated for a gunshot wound on his foot and three were diabetic.

The sailors were held in Dabagala near the town of Harardheere some 400 km (250 miles) northeast of the capi-tal Mogadishu. Harardheere became known as Somalia’s main pirate base at the height of the crisis.

The Oceans Beyond Piracy group said the crew were brought ashore by pirates when their ship sank more than a year after its hijacking.

Piracy off Somalia’s coast has subsided in the past three years.

Somali pirates free 26 Asian sailors

Two civilians die after inhaling sulphur fumes from plant set on fire by IS.

Fighting in Yemen despite truceAFP

ADEN: Fierce gun battles erupted overnight between Yemeni rebels and pro-government forces along the border with Saudi Arabia despite a three-day ceasefire due to end late yesterday, military officials said.

Warplanes from the Saudi-led coalition fight-ing in support of President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi also bombed suspected Houthi rebel mis-sile launchers east of the capital Sana’a late on

Friday, a military official said. The air raids came after Patriot missiles shot down two rebel missiles on Thursday over Marib, east of the rebel-held capital.

UN special envoy Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed said on Friday the ceasefire was “fragile but largely holding,” urging all parties “to show restraint, avoid further escalation, and strictly adhere to the 72-hour ceasefire.”

The truce took effect just before midnight on Wednesday to allow aid deliveries in Yemen, where the war has killed thousands and left mil-lions homeless and hungry.

ASIA / AFRICA 07SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

Ivory Coast unrestICC urges African countries to reconsider withdrawal

AFP

THE HAGUE: The International Criminal Court yesterday asked South Africa and Burundi to recon-sider their decisions to withdraw from the troubled institution that was set up to try the world’s worst crimes.

“Although withdrawing from

a treaty is a sovereign act, I regret these decisions and invite South Africa and Burundi to reconsider their positions,” said Sidiki Kaba, president of the assembly of state parties to the ICC founding treaty.

“I urge them to work together with other States in the fight against impunity, which often causes mas-sive violations of human rights,” Kaba said in a statement.

The statement came a day after South Africa dealt a major blow to the court by announcing it would withdraw from the ICC.

Kaba said he was concerned that South Africa and Burundi’s decisions would “pave the way” to other African states leaving the court that is tasked with “prosecuting the most serious crimes that shock the conscience of humanity, namely genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes of aggression”.

The ICC ysterday confirmed

South Africa had officially notified the court of its decision to leave the court, adding that the move had come in the wake of Burundi’s with-drawal process.

Reuters

DOUALA: Cameroon’s president announced yesterday that more than 70 people had been killed and another 600 injured when a passen-ger train crashed on Friday.

The packed Camrail train had been travelling from the capital Yaounde to the port city of Douala. It was derailed at around 11am local time near the station in the town of Eseka, 120km west of the capital, causing carriages to overturn.

“My heartfelt condolences to the bereaved families of the Camrail train derailment in Eseka. Over 70 passengers died and 600 wounded in the accident,” President Paul Biya, who is travelling abroad, said.

“I instructed the government to

provide full assistance to the sur-vivors, while investigations will be made to determine the cause of the derailment.”

Witnesses, including a reporter travelling on the train, said rail workers had added additional carriages to accommodate extra passengers before its departure, though it is not clear if that deci-sion contributed to the accident.

In a statement from Camrail, a unit of French industrial group Bol-lore, the company said it was working with Cameroonian authorities to ensure care for those injured and sup-port for the families of victims.

“Technical investigations are under way currently to determine the causes of this dreadful accident and the conclusions, as soon as they are known, will be communicated,” the emailed statement said.

Cameroon train crash death toll rises to 70Guinea-Bissau‘s

former navy chief

back home

AFP

BISSAU: A former navy chief con-victed in the United States of drug trafficking arrived yesterday back in his native Guinea-Bissau, a key transit point in the cocaine trade.

Jose Americo “Bubo” Na Tch-uto was sentenced to four years in jail by a New York federal court this month but was released for time already served.

Na Tchuto’s friends, family and a group of curious onlookers all greeted him, where the former drug kingpin looked tired and visibly moved to be back home.

Reuters

HARARE: Zimbabwe’s veteran Pres-ident Robert Mugabe (pictured) yesterday avoided the controversial subject of his future as he buried a senior political colleague and friend who had been pressing him to retire.

Mugabe, 92 and one of Africa’s longest serving leaders, is eligible to seek re-election at the end of his current five-year term in 2018, but has increasingly looked frail, stok-ing a scramble in his ruling ZANU-PF party to succeed him.

In an hour-long speech at the state funeral of Cephas Msipa, a former cabinet minister and ZANU-PF member, Mugabe, in power since independence from Britain in 1980, largely dwelt on his comrade’s role in the 1960s-70s liberation struggle.

Msipa, regarded as one of Mugabe’s closest friends, died aged

85 after retiring from government about 10 years ago. In recent years, he told media he had tried but failed to persuade Mugabe to step down.

“I feel sorry for him as a friend. He really needs a rest. It’s good for him, good for his family and good for the party,” Msipa said.

Mugabe has never publicly com-mented on his friend’s views.

But yesterday, he told thousands of mourners that “Msipa was always

an honest man and he always spoke his mind fearlessly.”

Splits have developed in Mugabe’s ZANU-PF over who will take over from him, with one faction said to be manoeuvring to impose his wife Grace as a possible succes-sor against Vice President Emmerson Mnangagwa, a longtime political fixer who has the backing of war veterans.

Political analysts say Mugabe has manipulated Zimbabwean pol-itics to tighten his grip on power and set himself up as a president for life.

He is however facing increasing dissent, with opposition and social movements staging a series of pro-tests in recent months.

With speculation also rising over his health, Mugabe has denied suf-fering from prostate cancer.

Analysts say Zimbabwe could suffer political instability if Mugabe dies in office before the matter of his successor is resolved.

Reuters

NAYPYITAW: Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi yesterday made a pitch to foreign investors, prom-ising a clearer legal framework and opportunities in untapped economic sectors, two weeks after US Pres-ident Barack Obama lifted most sanctions on the country.

Suu Kyi has been criticised for delays in forming a commission to approve foreign investment projects, overzealous scrutiny of construc-tion sites, and an economic plan that lacked details.

That, combined with a big political shake-up after the first democratic elections in decades,

meant foreigners invested only $380m from April to July, down from $2.6bn in the corresponding period last year.

The situation changed in Septem-ber, when Suu Kyi visited Washington, where Obama announced his inten-tion to remove economic sanctions. Suu Kyi quickly followed with a push to pass foreign investment law and other necessary regulations.

“Our government noticed par-ticular criticism from the public that an economic growth of the country is slowing,” said Suu Kyi.

“I would like to stress that no one but our government is more eager to achieve progress, because economic development would help us establish democratic institutions here,” she said.

AFP

NAIROBI: In many parts of Africa albinos are stigmatised or hunted for their body parts, but for one night in Kenya those with the condition took to the catwalk to show off their unique beauty.

Billed by organisers as the first pageant of its kind, young albino men and women on Thursday competed for the title of Miss and Mr Albinism Kenya.

“People with albinism are not seen as beautiful and handsome so it is very rare to find those two words in the same sentence,” said Isaac Mwaura, Kenya’s first albino law-maker and organiser of the pageant.

“We want to show our talent,

we want to confront stigma and discrimination, we want to change our narrative to show that actually, yes it is possible to have people with albinism who are beautiful, who are confident,” he said.

“In Africa people are dark. When someone white is brought into the family, when a mother delivers a baby with albinism they say it is a curse,” said Nancy Njeri Kariuki, 24, from central Kenya, who took part in the pageant.

“There are a lot of challenges, even your fellow children when you are young they are so scared of you.”

However Kariuki, with a brown wig and sparkling green eyes, bursts with confidence as she struts her stuff on the stage in front of a crowd including Deputy President William Ruto.

Contestants dress up as their chosen profession -- fisherman, cook, a female rugby player and a soldier -- in one segment to high-light that they too can be part of the workforce.

Educating and finding employ-ment for people with albinism is still a massive challenge, says Mwuara.

Sarah Wanjohi, 21 -- who dresses up as what she is, the only albino skateboarder she knows -- wants Kenyans to learn “that we are beau-tiful ... we can love, we can catwalk ... we can do what we are perceived not to do.

“It has been very hard for me, you know skateboarders don’t wear heels and stuff.”

The models, chosen in a coun-trywide selection process, were put through a gruelling bootcamp to

teach them how to walk and put on a show.

Michael Ogochi, 21 , said the process worked wonders for his self-confidence.

“Growing up for me was a tough journey since everyone calls you a name and no one wants to be with you. You need to work on your self-esteem and grow a tough skin.”

While albino sufferers’ pale com-plexion and features such as white eyelashes and red-toned hair can lead to rejection from their com-munities, in recent years there has been a rise in albino models in fash-ion magazines and on catwalks.

However in eastern and southern African countries, such as Tanzania, Malawi, Burundi and Mozambique, it is more often grisly attacks on albi-nos that make headlines.

Kenya fights deadly stigma with albino beauty pageant

Mugabe skirts retirement issue

A passenger escapes a train car using a window as others leave from the site of a train derailment in Eseka.

Suu Kyi in pitch to foreign investors

Environment group

wins row against

Aussie fuel depot

Reuters

SYDNEY: An Australia court overturned yesterday government approval of a A$130m fuel depot and port at Port Melville, off the country’s north coast, handing a major victory to environmental activists.

The facility, being developed by a unit of Singapore-based Aus-Group, includes a 30-million-litre oil depot on Melville Island, one of the Tiwi Islands, 120km north of Darwin, the capital of North-ern Territory.

Justice Richard White ruled in favour of the Environment Centre Northern Territory, a non-profit group that challenged a decision by former environment minister Greg Hunt to approve the project without an environmental impact statement, the court said.

“The right outcome has pre-vailed here. This development in my opinion should never have been built without an environ-mental assessment, much less allowed to operate,” said lawyer David Morris, who represented Environment Centre Northern Territory.

The matter has been referred to environment minister Josh Frydenberg, who will decide if a full environmental impact assess-ment is necessary.

The minister and the Federal Department of the Environ-ment did not respond to emailed requests for comment.

Drew English, convener of the Environment Centre Northern Territory, welcomed the ruling.

“This type of large scale development is exactly why we have environmental assessment processes, particularly when you consider the location of this sup-ply base,” English said.

I urge them (South Africa & Burundi) to work together with other States in the fight against impunity: Official

US concerned over

S Africa quitting ICC

WASHINGTON: The United States expressed concern over South Africa’s decision to withdraw its support from the International Criminal Court.

While not itself a member of the criminal court, the United States likes other countries to accept its jurisdiction, seeing it as an arm against the impunity sometimes enjoyed by rogue leaders.

Contestants pose on stage during a pageant hosted by the Albinism Society of Kenya, in Nairobi, yesterday.

Men hold placards reading ‘Referendum October 30, 2016 - I vote yes’ as they cheer during a rally organised by Ivory Coast’s President Alassane Ouattara at the Felix Houphouet-Boigny Stadium, in Abidjan, yesterday.

VIEWS08 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

The latest talks between Taliban and Afghan officials provide a ray of hope at a time of increasing tension in Afghanistan. The specifics of the talks are not clear as it’s too early to spill them, but the fact that negotiations have

happened opens up new opportunities. The Taliban are rising in Afghanistan, with their forces making gains in some areas and the government forces struggling to hold onto their ground after the exit of the Nato and US forces. In such a tenuous and changing situation, nothing is more desirable than getting the insurgents to join the negotiation process to find a lasting solution to the conflict.

The talks have been positive and both sides are optimistic of the possibilities ahead. “Taliban and the Americans have been engaged in a number of rounds of talks,” a Taliban official was quoted as saying. “They have

made some progress, on a very zigzag path. God willing, we hope further talks will create progress.”

The government in Kabul must take a few extra steps to make the current round of negotiations work, even if that involves agreeing to some of the demands of the insurgents. For example, during talks in the past, the Taliban had demanded the release of its prisoners and the removal of the group’s leaders from the UN blacklist. The group also demanded that they should be identified as a

formal movement before participating in peace talks. Both sides need to make compromises for the talks to go ahead, but the government of President Ashraf Ghani must think of taking an extra step in the long-term interest of keeping the negotiations alive.

At the same time, it would be premature to expect the talks to make a breakthrough soon. Several past initiatives had collapsed due to Taliban’s intransigence and unwillingness to make compromises. The militant group has proved more adept at fighting on the ground than finding a solution through talks but this is a process that must be pursued assiduously. There is no other alternative.

In the current situation, the Afghan government faces the challenge of dealing with a divided Taliban. The talks between the two sides in 2015 fell apart after Afghan officials announced the death of the insurgency’s longtime leader, Mullah Mohammed Omar. Since then a leadership struggle within the group has broken into the open and Omar’s successor was killed in a US drone strike in Pakistan.

Ray of hope

Talks between Taliban and Afghan government provide a ray of hope to end the conflict.

Quote of the dayTurkey can never remain idle against massacres, potential refugee waves and clashes along its border, and it will takeaction if necessary.

Binali YildirimTurkish Prime Minister

E S TA B L I S H E D I N 1996

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Some African heads of states will rejoice at the decision by Africa’s most powerful nation, South Africa (SA), sub-

mission of the Instrument of Withdrawal to the United Nations (UN) secretariat in New York on Thursday 20 October 2016. There are a number of African leaders who have possible criminal charges hanging over them. Two of the three current AU Vice Chairpersons, Robert Mugabe and Paul Kagame are con-troversial figures accused and suspected of possible crimes against humanity in their respective countries. So, as political tenures near and pressure mounts for those clinging to power to relin-quish, this latest action by SA couldn’t have come at the right time. The ICC is the only body that could have ensured jus-tice for the aggrieved in Africa. The African Union (AU) sup-ported the establishment of Extraordinary African Cham-ber which recently conducted a trial of the former presi-dent of Chad Hissene Harbe’ for crimes against humanity. Although this was an initiative of the ICC, the AU has gain con-fidence from this experience, a court for Africans led by Africans. AU feels it has sufficient resources and know how henceforth to deal with its own legal challenges. However the challenge is that there is still widespread mistrust and lack of confidence in the AU. Subversions of democracy continue unabated in Africa, including the rising trend of manipulation of constitutions in order to amend and elongate presidential tenures, arrests and torture of opposition leaders and suppression of protests and free-dom of the media.

There are certain very impor-tant factors that need to be considered as the world begins

to digest what might be the end of International Criminal Court (ICC) in Africa. After the end of apartheid the new South Africa was very keen to be accepted by the international community. It was a critical moment in glo-bal politics with the Washington Consensus dictating the global socioeconomic agenda. SA des-perate to establish trust and to lure foreign investment, endorsed and ratified a number of treaties.

Later this hasty action came back to haunt the country, case in point SA’s com-mitment to the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) Public Health and Intellectual Rights. This prevented the production and distribution of generic drugs in South Africa at the time when there were high rates of people affected and living with HIV and AIDS.

The ICC is not a very pop-ular institution in Africa, for very obvious and legitimate reasons. It is regarded by many African as very selective in its application of justice, Africans have been targeted by the ICC whilst other leaders especial those from the West suspected and accused of human viola-tions are sparred.

Furthermore, the continued

violations of human rights by countries like Israel continue to escape indictment by the ICC.

There are many peo-ple around the world who feel that Tony Blair and George Bush should be tried for crimes against humanity in misleading the world about the weapons of mass destruction and for the war in Iraq.

There have been more than enough petitions to the ICC in this regard. These are but few of instances which the African governments and indeed civil societies use to illustrate the selectiveness of the ICC.

SA is the leading member of the AU, the body was launched in SA and former President Mbeki was its inaugural chairperson in 2002.

The decision to leave ICC is probably the most serious for-eign policy decision SA has taken which resonates strongly in Africa, something that the belea-guered President Jacob Zuma desperately needs.

SA’s leadership in this regard will further strengthen its influence within the AU. It will definitely elevate Zuma’s statue within the circle of his African peers. Which raises the question of the timing of

this announcement. The pur-suance of the withdrawal from the ICC by SA at this point is most likely to deligitimise this process irrespective of its merits.

SA under Zuma is too con-troversial to be leading this process. Zuma is facing a string of accusations which might see most of his post presiden-tial era spent in court. The SA Constitutional Court in march 2016 ruled that Zuma violated the constitution by refusing to pay back some of the mil-lions of dollars in public funds spent on the improvements of his home.

Zuma is increasingly seen as the president determined to undermine the rule of law in his favour. Therefore notwith-standing the legitimacy and correctness of this latest move by SA, the timing will likely cre-ate anxiety and suspicion.

Furthermore, the internal squabbles in SA involving the National Persecution Author-ity (NPA) and the Minister of Finance will exacerbate those concerns.

The writer is a Researcher at Direc-torate Studies Centre, Aljazeera Network.

South Africa serves divorce papers to International Criminal Court (ICC)

By Thembisa Fakude Al Jazeera

A file photo of President Jacob Zuma (left) meeting with President Omar Hassan Al Bashir of the Republic of Sudan.

OPINION 09SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

Ukraine and Syria are in US election limbo

By Leonid BershidskyBloomberg

The US presidential election isn’t cause for American anxiety only: Ukraine and Syria are two coun-tries where only the November

8 vote can lead to significant changes — even, if they’re lucky, to ending bloodshed.

Both the end of the war in eastern Ukraine and the resolution of the Syr-ian conflict should concern Europe more than they do the US Ukraine’s Russian-backed rebellion is a direct result of the Kiev authorities’ decision to move toward membership in the European Union.

The Syrian crisis has flooded Europe with refugees. And yet European leaders are either incapable of defusing both sit-uations or unwilling to do anything until they figure out which way the US is going to move.

A Wednesday meeting in Berlin of the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine and a subsequent EU summit on Thursday, both inconclusive, prove that both Ukraine and Syria are now in US elec-tion-induced limbo.

The Berlin meeting was the first summit of the four key countries in a year. German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French Presi-dent Francois Hollande, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko have only met in per-son when they had serious decisions to make — or at least hoped it would be pos-sible. By that standard, the outcome of the meeting was disappointing.

After the five-hour talks were over, no documents were signed and it appeared that the parties had emerged with a dif-ferent understanding of what was agreed. Putin said the four leaders would “con-tinue joint work on the political track” and expand the eastern Ukraine mission of the Organisation for Security and Coopera-tion in Europe.

Poroshenko’s vision of the out-come was more specific: a road map for the full implementation of the shaky 2015 Minsk ceasefire agreement by the end of November and an OSCE “police mission” — an armed contingent to ensure the security and fairness of local elections.

Merkel and Hollande mentioned the road map but no specific deadline for its creation, and cited the OSCE mission but not its “police” function.

It appears that Merkel and Hollande refrained from pressing Putin and Poro-shenko to follow the rather detailed provisions of the Minsk deal. Talk of a road map means these terms, and the order in which they are to be met, will now be renegotiated.

The French and German leaders know perfectly well where that will lead. Poroshenko’s government won’t allow local elections in eastern Ukraine until Russia allows Ukraine to reassume

control of its eastern border. Russia won’t cede control of the border until the elec-tions are held.

Germany and France “continue to ignore Ukraine’s main demand — first restore control over the border and only then talk about Donbass elections,” Mikheil Saakash-vili, governor of Ukraine’s Odessa region, wrote on Facebook. “In any case, half-measures leading to the legalisation of the occupation won’t pass in parliament, and even if they do pass, the Ukrainian public will not accept them.”

That’s why no one except Poroshenko, perennially looking for reasons to accuse Putin of not following agreements, is will-ing to name a specific deadline. Drawing up the road map without a breakthrough in high-level talks leads to a dead end.

President Barack Obama’s administra-tion has largely outsourced the Ukraine crisis to Merkel and Hollande. Assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland has traveled to Kiev to push for the European vision of elections before the border issue has been resolved, and Vice President Joe Biden has commiserated with Poroshenko while calling on him to fight corruption.

The next US administration can break down this pattern, for example by sid-ing with Ukraine on the order in which the political process should unfold, sup-plying Kiev with lethal weapons and

slapping harsher economic sanctions on Russia. It could also side with Russia on elections first and withhold economic and technical assistance from Ukraine until it concedes.

Neither is possible until the next pres-ident is in office, so there is no reason for the sides to agree on anything now.

On Wednesday, Merkel and Hollande also spoke to Putin about Syria, accus-ing Russia of being a party to war crimes in Aleppo. They got nowhere: Putin told them that his course of action depended on the US “We’re hoping that our part-ners, primarily our American partners, will do everything they’ve promised so far, including separating Jabhat Al Nusra terrorists and their ilk from the so-called healthy part of the opposition,” he said after the talks.

The European leaders swallowed this unsubtle hint. On Thursday, an EU summit condemned Russia’s actions in Syria, but the EU leaders failed to call for any specific sanctions on Russia, only threatening “further restrictive measures targeting individuals and entities sup-porting the regime, should the atrocities continue” — a reference to the ineffec-tive sanctions regime that already exists for Russia because of Ukraine.

The US will need to take the lead on this matter. Europe, which has more to

lose than the US from sanctioning Rus-sia economically, won’t make the first move, nor is it sufficiently involved in the Syrian war to discuss political solutions with Putin.

The new US administration will have to decide quickly whether it’s taking the hard line, ratcheting up anti-Russian sanc-tions and perhaps even taking the battle to Syrian leader Bashar Al Assad’s troops, or working out a deal with Putin that will leave Assad in power.

Russia, Europe, Ukraine, the Assad regime and the Syrian rebels could have had some clarity about the US course of action by now. After all, three debates between the two top presidential can-didates have come and gone, and each of the candidates had an opportunity to take a stand.

Instead, the campaign has evolved into a mud-slinging match that is set to con-tinue for another three weeks. Then the winner will be busy forming an adminis-tration and figuring out how to work with the newly elected Congress. Many Ukrain-ians and Syrians won’t live to find out how the US will weigh in.

The writer is a Bloomberg view columnist. He was the founding editor of the Russian business daily Vedomosti and founded the opinion website Slon.ru.

The Syrian crisis has flooded Europe with refugees. And yet European leaders are either incapable of defusing both situations or unwilling to do anything until they figure out which way the US is going to move. A Wednesday meeting in Berlin of the leaders of Germany, France, Russia and Ukraine and a subsequent EU summit on Thursday, both inconclusive, prove that both Ukraine and Syria are now in US election-induced limbo.

Ukrainian servicemen gather near shells during military exercises near the village of Divychky in Kiev region, Ukraine.

My mom, an immigrant, is vetted every day

By Lev GolinkinThe Washington Post

I doubt my mother would pass the “extreme vetting” process Donald Trump has in mind for refugees

seeking a new life in the United States. After 26 years in this country, she still speaks with a heavy accent, misplaces tenses, mumbles. She doesn’t know the Pledge of Allegiance. Her job as a night security guard requires stay-ing awake and making sure the doors stay locked, the perfect position for an immigrant like her.

Before coming to America, Mom

was a psychiatrist, working in a busy clinic in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The city’s population was more than a million, but after 30 years as a doc-tor, she couldn’t run an errand without bumping into a former patient or grateful family member.

It used to annoy me as a child, and I’d tug on her arm, impatient to move on. Once we came to the United States, that was no longer a problem.

We know a handful of ex-Soviet refugees with medical degrees who managed to remain doctors once they came to the United States. Most didn’t. They landed at JFK airport; they received three months’ assistance from a refugee resettlement group, secondhand furniture and driving les-sons, if they were lucky; and then the bills came.

Medical boards and years of sleepless residency are a gantlet for 20-somethings who speak fluent English and have no children. Mom was pushing 50, had no money and couldn’t speak the language.

At first she tried to become a nurse, then a nursing aide, then an EKG technician. The closest she

got to returning to the medical field was a stint helping an old woman take her meds.

I don’t blame the United States for this. You become a refugee because something has gone ter-ribly wrong, because your life reached a point where your best option meant abandoning your goals, roots, identity and the graves of your forefathers, and placing yourself at the mercy of strangers.

Not even the land of opportu-nity can magically make up for all that, which is why the United States has the best-educated taxi drivers and home health aides in the world. For many, menial labor and humil-iation are the price of admission to America. You scrub, you drive, you dream that your children will do better, and you try not to think of the past.

I don’t want Americans to pity my mother; the most obnoxious sound in the world is the cooing tone some people reserve for talking to toddlers and immigrants. I don’t even need Americans to respect her.

The only way for them to compre-hend the full extent of her sacrifice

would be to go through the process themselves: sever all ties and live as perpetual strangers in a foreign land, where the minimum wage is the best hope and dignity comes at a premium.

People often ask if it bothers me that Americans take things for granted. I always reply that I think that’s fantastic. One out of every 113 people on the planet is stateless or internally displaced. We don’t need more.

My one wish is for Americans to appreciate the degree to which my mom and the millions of other stut-tering, thick-accented immigrants in menial jobs have already been vetted, and continue to be vetted, every day.

They’ve been stripped of their personalities, skills, jokes, opinions, dignity and dreams by the language barrier. They’ve been questioned about who they are and what they’re doing in this country — by police, store clerks, employers, customers and the ghosts of their past.

They’ve been vetted since they set foot on US soil, they’re vetted every time they open their mouths, and they’ll continue to be vetted, in an extreme fashion, for the rest of

their lives. When I was a teenager, soaking up English and reveling in my freedom, I was frustrated because I didn’t think my mother loved Amer-ica in the same blind way that I did. Didn’t she realize this was the land of new beginnings? How could she retain nostalgia for her old life?

Then I grew up and imagined having my education nullified, my career and aspirations destroyed, my communication ability reduced to the level of a child’s, and then having to go on knowing that, as far as some were concerned, the low-est, native-born drug dealer would always have a greater claim to this country than I did. And the sicken-ing magnitude of my mom’s sacrifice hit me. I’m in awe that she loves the United States at all.

And yet she does, as do so many others. That’s the best-kept secret about America. Immigrants respect and cherish this land, not because they’re immigrants, but in spite of it. In spite of being reduced to Trojan horses, rabid dogs and poisoned Skittles. In spite of the Trumps in their lives. In spite of all the vetting.

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.

My one wish is for Americans to appreciate the degree to which my mom and the millions of other stuttering, thick-accented immigrants in menial jobs have already been vetted, and continue to be vetted, every day. They’ve been stripped of their personalities, skills, jokes, opinions, dignity and dreams by the language barrier.

ASIA / PHILIPPINES10 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

Art on sand

China slams US patrol near disputed seaAFP

BEIJING: China has slammed the United States for sailing a warship near disputed territory in the South China Sea, saying the move was a “serious illegal act” and “deliber-ately provocative”.

In a statement on its website late Friday night, the country’s defence ministry said two Chinese naval vessels warned off a US ship after it entered “Chinese territorial waters” near the Paracel Islands, known as Xisha in Chinese.

China controls all of the islands,

which are also claimed by Vietnam and Taiwan.

The ship’s “entrance into China’s territorial waters is a serious illegal

act and a deliberately provocative act,” it said, adding that the ministry had made “solemn representations” to Washington.

In a separate online statement, the foreign ministry said the action had “seriously violated China’s sov-ereignty and security interests, and had seriously broken relevant Chi-nese law and international law.”

The Pentagon said Friday it had sent the destroyer USS Decatur close to the Paracel Islands, but that the ship had not passed within the 12 nautical mile zone that international law defines as territorial waters.

The ships transited the area in “a routine, lawful manner without

ship escorts and without incident,” a spokesman said.

The manoeuvre was the third South China Sea “freedom of nav-igation” operation conducted this year by the US, which has repeat-edly stressed it will ignore China’s “excessive” maritime claims.

Friday’s operation was the first since a tribunal at the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague in July ruled there was no legal basis to China’s claims to nearly all of the sea -- a verdict Beijing dismissed vehemently.

China that month held a week of military drills around the Paracels in the northern part of the South China

Sea, during which other ships were prohibited from entering the waters.

Several other nations across the region including the Philippines and Vietnam have rival claims to various parts of the South China Sea.

The US action came as Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte wrapped up a four-day state visit to China, where he pledged to increase cooper-ation with Beijing, while at the same time slamming his country’s long-time ally Washington.

In a joint statement at the end of his trip, the Chinese and Philippine leaders pledged to resume talks over their own territorial dispute in the South China Sea.

Anatolia

YANGON: A further six people have been arrested in military clearance operations in Myanmar’s western Rakhine State following raids on police outposts earlier this month in which nine officers died.

The military said in a state-ment yesterday that the arrests were made Friday around Nga Khu Ya village in Maungdaw -- one of two townships predominantly occupied by the country’s stateless Rohingya Muslim population where police outposts were raided October 9.

The statement said that a total of 19 people -- 13 arrested Wednesday and six on Friday -- have confessed that they were involved in the attack on a police station outpost in Nga Khu Ya.

Two of those held subsequently died in detention Wednesday, although they are understood to have been in poor health on arrest.

A statement released that day had said that 11 suspects were taken into custody.

Since the October 9 attacks, at least 43 people -- nine police offic-ers, four soldiers and 29 suspected attackers -- have been killed, or have died.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) warned in a statement Friday that as troops poured into the region and authorities blocked off the delivery of humanitarian aid to Maungdaw, aid agencies have not been able to conduct a needs assessment.

The statement quoted a World Food Programme (WFP) partner-ships officer as saying they had requested access “from township level to Union level”.

BEIJING: Nearly 80,000 people have been evac-uated in a southern Chinese city as a strong typhoon lashed the region, damaging dikes and dam gates.

The state-run China Daily reported that more than 570 flights in the city of Shenzhen in Guang-dong province were canceled Friday due to Typhoon Haima.

State news agency Xinhua cited the disas-ter relief office of nearby Shanwei city as saying that Haima resulted in 59 dike ruptures, and dam-age to 21 dam gates and 179 water facilities.

Nearly 80,000

evacuated as

storm hits China

Death toll hits

73 in Myanmar

ferry disaster

YANGON: The death toll in a Myanmar ferry sinking has reached 73, authori-ties said, as they wrapped up a week-long search and rescue operation for survivors and prepared to launch an inquiry into the cause of the disaster.

“We were able to sal-vage the sunken ferry and we don’t expect to find any more bodies, so we’ve suspended the res-cue operation,” said Ko Ko Naing, an official of Myanmar’s social welfare ministry.

He said 73 bodies, had been found, in addition to the 159 passengers res-cued alive.

Australians rally for refugees against far-right sentiment

Philippines to keep US ties: Official

Reuters

MANILA: The United States remains the ‘closest friend’ of the Philippines but Manila wants to break away from a ‘mindset of dependency and subservience’ and forge closer ties with other nations, the Philippine foreign minister said yesterday.

The comments by Foreign Affairs Secretary Perfecto Yasay came two days after President Rodrigo Duterte announced his ‘separation’ from Washington, though he went on to strike a more conciliatory tone on Friday.

Yasay said in a Facebook posting that Duterte had ‘unmis-takably’ stated that severing ties with Washington was not in the nation’s interest.

However, he wrote that sep-aration “implies breaking away from the debilitating mindset of dependency and subservience - economically and militarily - that have perpetuated our ‘little brown brothe’ image to America, which has stunted our growth and advancement.”

He said Duterte had told Chi-nese President Xi Jinping and other Chinese leaders during a visit to Beijing that “if they are not willing to lend their support... the Filipinos will chart their destiny alone, despite great odds.”

Yasay’s posting is the latest sign of an administration once again scrambling to put out fires after Duterte’s stunning decla-rations, which if delivered upon could upset the geopolitical bal-ance in a region where China and the United States are vying aggressively for influence.

Reuters

SYDNEY: Thousands of Austral-ians took part yesterday in rallies to welcome refugees and make a stand against rising far-right sentiment against foreigners.

More than 20,000 people, includ-ing prominent politicians, attended demonstrations in 25 cities and towns across the country, Mohammad Al-Khafaji, chief executive of Welcome to Australia, said.

“Events like this are incredibly important, especially whenyou cel-ebrate and go out in the thousands to welcome refugees and people seek-ing asylum,” Al-Khafaji said.

“They feel like they’ve been mar-ginalised, been targeted by these far-right radical movements. They just don’t want to participate any-more for fear of their lives,” he said recently.

Outwardly easy-going Australia has a troubling record on ethnic diversity.

A White Australia Policy, which

was only dismantled in the late 1960s, favored European migrants over non-whites.

Aborigines were administered under flora and fauna laws until then and remain far behind most people in literacy, health and eco-nomic standards.

In recent months, race relations have deteriorated, with anti-immi-gration rhetoric from far-right groups and once fringe parties like Pauline Hanson’s One Nation stok-ing divisiveness.

Fear of attacks by Islamist

militants has also clouded the atti-tude of some people, though there have been no major such attacks in Australia.

The country’s treatment of asylum seekers has been heav-ily criticised by rights groups over allegations of abuses of people in detention, including sexual assaults of women and children.

Under Australia’s tough immi-gration policy, asylum seekers intercepted trying to reach the coun-try by boat are sent for processing at camps in Nauru or to Manus Island in

Papua New Guinea and are not eli-gible for resettlement in Australia.

Amnesty International said this week conditions on Nauru, where about 400 Australian-bound asylum seekers are held, “amount to torture”.

Labor politician Jihad Dib, a member of the New South Wales state parliament, told a Sydney rally that Australia was stronger with multiculturalism.

“What we need to do is make sure every single person that wasn’t here today is aware that our future is bet-ter when we walk together.”

Thais sing royal tribute to late kingAFP

BANGKOK: Tens of thousands of black-clad Thais converged on Bang-kok’s Grand Palace yesterday to sing the royal anthem in a striking display of devotion to the recently deceased King Bhumibol Adulyadej.

The monarch, who died on Octo-ber 13 following years of poor health, was seen as a moral icon and rare figure of unity in a kingdom dogged by corruption and political turmoil.

His death has plunged the nation into grief, with the govern-ment declaring a one-year mourning period and urging the public to don black and dial down all festivities

for at least 30 days. Crowds have been massing outside his glittering Bangkok palace for the past week, with many journeying from far away provinces to pay respects to a man celebrated as the father of the nation.

Some have pitched tents on a large grassy field outside the royal compound, while others have slept on simple bamboo mats.

Google removes content

with royal insults: Junta

Reuters

BANGKOK: Thailand’s govern-ment met with representatives from Internet giant Google, amid growing calls from Thai hardline royalists to bring those who insult the monar-chy to justice, as many Thais look with uncertainty to a future with-out their revered king.

King Bhumibol Adulyadej’s death has thrown the country of 67 million into mourning.

It has also led to the rise of ultra-royalist vigilante groups who say they will punish anyone perceived to have insulted the monarchy during a highly sensitive time for Thailand.

Deputy Prime Minister Prajin Juntong said he met with Google representatives in Bangkok on Friday.

Google affirmed in the meeting that it would continue to help the government remove content from YouTube, a Google subsidiary, that it deemed offensive, he said.

“If any website is inappropriate they said to get in touch with them and inform them of the URL and the time the content was found,” Pra-jin said.

That conforms with Goog-le’s practice around the world,

Alphabet Inc’s Google says. “We have always had clear and consist-ent policies for removal requests from governments around the world and we continue to operate in line with those policies,” a Google spokesperson in California said.

“When we are notified of con-tent that is illegal through official processes, we will restrict it in the country where it’s illegal after a thorough review.”

Thailand’s military government said on Tuesday it was tracking people suspected of insulting the monarchy following the king’s death and would ask other coun-tries to extradite them.

Some critics of the monarchy living abroad have been named and shamed in Thai language web forums.

Thailand’s military government has tried to seek tighter censorship of social media from Facebook, Google and Japan-based instant messenger service LINE since it came to power in 2014 follow-ing a coup it said was necessary to restore peace to the country follow-ing months of unrest.

Thailand’s royal insult law, known as Article 112 in the criminal code, makes it a crime to insult the king, queen, heir or regent. Those who are found guilty face up to 15 years in prison.

Myanmar army arrests six

more over Rakhine attack

Mourners bow as they gather outside of the Grand Palace to sing for a recording of the royal anthem in honour of Thailand’s late King Bhumibol Adulyadej, in Bangkok, yesterday.

The ministry said that the ship’s ‘entrance into their territorial waters is a serious illegal and a deliberately provocative act’.

A boy digs sand on a dirty beach while playing in Colombo, Sri Lanka, yesterday.

ASIA / PAKISTAN 11SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

Enhancing tiesPanama Papers: PM House abuzz with activity

Internews

ISLAMABAD: The Prime Minis-ter House in Islamabad is abuzz with activity – there are plenty of consultations taking place over an impending political showdown.

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is continuously conferring with his close confidantes to weigh his options as the Supreme Court will take up a slew of petitions involving what is now known as ‘Panamagate scandal’ on November 1.

A flurry of secret meetings has been held in the Prime Minis-ter House over the past few days, according to sources.

Primarily, these meetings pored over possible parliamentary legislation and executive actions available with the government in case the apex court decides against the maintainability of five petitions seeking an independent probe into the Panama Papers revelations that the Sharif family has secreted their money in an offshore tax haven.

Apart from these meetings, Premier Sharif has been in regular contact with his top legal wizards.

Sources said the government

would seek to expedite legislation on the Commission of Inquiry Bill 2016 to set up an inquiry commis-sion, if the top court dismissed the petitions on the next hearing.

“The onus will be on us, if the apex court rules against the main-tainability of the petitions,” said a source privy to the government consultations.

Moreover, source said, the gov-ernment would try to question the petitions’ maintainability on the grounds that not Premier Sharif but his family members have been named in the Panama Papers.

“In the first place we will argue against the maintainability of the petitions. But if our arguments do not satisfy the apex court, then we will have no option but to fight the case.”

“If the top court rules in our favour and rejects the petitions, then we will start investigations,” the source added. “The option of setting up an inquiry commission is also open keeping in view the pos-sibility that the apex court might order the government to have the matter investigated through a com-mission. “

Since almost all opposition parties are strongly opposed to the government’s bill, the ruling party has been trying to muster parliamentary support to have the bill passed, insiders said. The bill has been pending in the National Assembly after it was green-lighted by a parliamentary panel.

Bilawal Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party has moved the Panama Papers Inquiries Act 2016 in the Senate in response to the ruling party’s bill.

Rebels release drone footage of attack

PTI plans online fundraising to finance next protest

Reuters

LASHKAR GAH: Afghanistan’s Tal-iban have released drone footage showing a suicide bomber driving a Humvee into a police base in Hel-mand province and blowing it up this month.

An Afghan government offi-cial said the video posted online appeared to be authentic.

The use of video taken by a drone is unusual for the Taliban but more common among the more media-savvy Islamist groups fighting in Iraq and Syria.

The video, 23 minutes long, begins with the purported sui-cide bomber speaking in front of the Humvee, a vehicle provided to Afghan forces by American advisers.

“This is the happiest moment of my life,” the man says, dressed in a black turban and white tunic.

“I am telling the Afghan stooge forces to repent and join the Taliban or we will use this equipment the foreigners gave them, against them and they can’t do anything about it.”

Later, a drone-mounted camera silently films the Humvee speed-ing towards a compound. Facing no apparent resistance, the Hum-vee barrels into the middle of the

base, detonating in flames in front of a large building and producing a cloud of smoke and dust, obscuring the entire compound.

A government official in Hel-mand said the district police chief and several other officials were killed in the attack on October 3, when Taliban militants overran much of Nawa district.

The official, who declined to be named, said the video depicting the attack appeared to be authentic.

The video’s producers used graphics of target-like overlays to give the footage a video game-like feel, an effect used by Islamic State in Syria and Iraq.

Karachi’s Green Line bus project costs grow Pakistan not engaged in arms race in S Asia

Taking a breakNigeria purchases

10 Pakistani-made

trainer aircraft

Internews

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has signed an agreement for the sale of Paki-stani-made 10 Super Mushshak aircraft to the Nigerian Air Force (NAF)

“The contract signing cer-emony was held at Abuja in Nigeria where Air Vice Marshal Iya Abdullahi and Air Marshal Arshad Malik, Chairman of the Pakistan Aeronautical Complex, signed the contract,” Pakistan Air Force (PAF) spokesman Air Com-modore Mohammad Ali has said.

The contract includes oper-ational training and technical support and assistance to NAF. The PAF will completely estab-lish this facility in the shortest possible time.

“The contract will not only open new vistas for export of aviation equipment to foreign countries but also help generate revenue for the country,” Ali said.

The Pakistani-made aircraft is already in service with Saudi Ara-bia, Oman, Iran and South Africa.

The deal strengthens Pakistan Aeronautical Complex’s status as a world class aviation industry

Internews

KARACHI: The Pakistani federal government has approved an addi-tional Rs6.5bn for Karachi’s Green Line Rapid Bus Transit project to extend it by another 10km, as was initially sought by the Sindh provin-cial government.

The initial cost of the project was estimated at Rs16.8bn that would now grow by Rs6.5bn, which would be funded by the federal government,

a provincial government spokesman said.

He said that redesigning of the project to accommodate the exten-sion is now under way with the approval of the additional financial support.

“Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had in principle agreed with the Sindh government when he came to launch the project in February 2016,” said the official.

The provincial government actually proposed that Green Line Rapid Bus Transit system should be

extended to the Merewether Tower which was originally terminating at Municipal Park on M A Jinnah Road.

The proposal, he said, was approved by the prime minister, who asked all the federal institutions concerned to pursue all formalities in this regard and take steps which were necessary to extend the route of the bus service.

Despite an approval from the top, it took almost six months to finally get a nod for additional funding from the federal government, he added.

“This will add another 10km from

its original destination near Munici-pal Park on M A Jinnah Road”.

“For the 10km extra space, the project demanded another Rs6.5bn - Rs5.8bn for infrastructure develop-ment and the rest for other required utilities. So it has been approved and the project is on smooth track to be completed within the given timeframe.”

The Green Line bus project approved by the Executive Commit-tee of National Economic Council is being executed by the Karachi Infra-structure Development Company.

Hindus to get land

for temple and

crematorium

Internews

ISLAMABAD: Meeting the Hindu community’s demands for a temple, community centre and crematorium in Islamabad, the managers of Pakistan’s federal capital have decided to allocate land for the purpose in the city’s H-9 sector.

In the absence of a temple, around 800 Hindus from Islam-abad have been celebrating festivals in their homes, and in case of a death in their commu-nity, they take the bodies either to Rawalpindi or to their native towns for cremation.

The only temple in the twin cities is Krishna Mandir in Kabari Bazaar, Saddar Rawalpindi.

There are also some small temples in residential parts of the Rawalpindi cantonment.

The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has now decided to provide 4,000 sq yards of land at H-9/2, near a plot already allo-cated to the All Pakistan Buddhist Society.

“We have earmarked the plot in H-9 for the Hindu community. They have every right to have their temple and cremation centre in Islamabad,” said CDA Member Planning Asad Kayani.

He also said that a sum-mary for the plot’s allotment had been prepared, and would be placed before the CDA board in its upcoming meeting for formal approval.

The plot would be handed over to the community through the Auqaf Department.

Rights activist Kapil Dev said the CDA’s decision to allocate a plot was “good news for over 800 members of the Hindu community in Islamabad.”

Internews

UNITED NATIONS: In a veiled ref-erence to India, Pakistan has voiced its concern over the growing trans-fer of conventional armaments in volatile regions, saying it had the potential of fuelling instability and jeopardising the delicate regional balance.

“South Asia is a sensitive region where one state’s military spending grossly and vastly outshadows all others,” Ambassador Tehmina Jan-jua, the permanent representative of Pakistan to the United Nations in Geneva, has told the General Assembly’s Disarmament and Inter-national Security Committee.

“We remain concerned over the growing transfers of conventional armaments, especially in volatile regions that are inconsistent with the imperatives of maintaining peace, security and stability,” she said in a debate on conventional weapons.

“The policy of dual stand-ards towards South Asia, based on narrow strategic, political and commercial considerations, must be eschewed,” the envoy said.

Pakistan, she said, was commit-ted to the establishment of strategic stability in South Asia, which includes an element of conventional force balance. “It (Pakistan) neither wants, nor is it engaged in an arms race in the region.”

Janjua said recently that the efforts aimed at eliminating nuclear weapons must not give way to an unworkable imbalance of conventional weapons similar to those that had triggered two world wars.

“Spending on conventional arms had surpassed $1.7 trillion, the ambassador said, adding the total budget of the UN was around three percent of world military expen-ditures and that 33 times more money was being spent on fuelling and exacerbating conflicts than on preventing them.”

“Results would be few and far between if the issue of conven-tional weapons was not addressed in a comprehensive manner,” the Pakistani envoy said.

“The utility of a partial approach that separates motiva-tions for arms production from the controls over their trade and trans-fers will be limited at best. As a result, these weapons will continue to fuel conflicts, destabilise states and societies, inflicting enormous pain and suffering to humanity,” she said.

Pakistan, she added, had devel-oped the necessary legislative, regulatory, enforcement and insti-tutional mechanisms to address the range of issues relating to conven-tional arms.

“We are taking additional meas-ures to strengthen the enforcement regime, which covers imports and licensing,” she said.

Internews

ISLAMABAD: To muster enough financial resources for its planned lockdown of federal capital Islam-abad on November 2, Imran Khan’s Pakistan Tehrik-e-Insaf has set a tar-

get of collecting Rs500m through an online fund-raising campaign.

This will be the first time in Paki-stan’s history that a political party will introduce an online fundrais-ing mechanism to pool resources for political purposes on the pat-tern of the US presidential election campaigns.

Unlike the 126-day long dharna-siege staged in 2014, this time around the PTI has decided to not solely rely on party funds and plans to launch a massive public fundraising campaign for its protest movement.

The party had already released a video showing Imran Khan request-ing party workers to contribute at

least Rs100 each towards the par-ty’s efforts for a successful sit-in.

Such decisions have been taken due to some obvious reasons. It was the start of December 2014 when the PTI’s sit-in organisers commit-tee reported to the party’s central finance wing that its fund accounts had almost gone dry, reporting that

already a whopping Rs301 million had been spent on the exercise - a figure PTI central finance secretary Azhar Tariq denies.

However, an office-bearer of the party’s finance wing added that financially the party was exhausted during the last days of the 2014 sit-ins.

Uruguay’s Foreign Minister Rodolfo Nin Novoa (left) poses for a photo with Vietnam’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Pham Binh Minh at the Government Guesthouse in Hanoi. The two nations will work for the early establishment of a joint committee on economic, trade and investment cooperation in accordance with the Framework Agreement on Trade and Investment that took effect in April 2016.

A monkey eats a banana as it takes a break from performing at a cultural centre in Islamabad, yesterday.

Punjab vehicle registration goes digital

Internews

LAHORE: Pakistan’s northeastern province of Punjab made vehi-cle registration a digital affair by shifting the process online.

New vehicle owners can now apply for registration at the point of sale instead of going to the Excise and Taxation Department. The dealers will now order licence plates from their own outlets.

The inauguration ceremony of the computerised Dealer Vehicle Registration System was launched by Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif .

The Supreme Court will hear Panamagate case on November 1.

INDIA12 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

Women shop at a roadside stall ahead of Diwali in Ahmedabad yesterday.

Women perform a traditional dance during the three-day Tawang festival in Tawang, near the Indo-China border, in north eastern Arunachal Pradesh state, yesterday. The festival which ends tomorrow aims to promote tourism and showcase the culture and traditions of the district in particular, and the state in general.

Festival shopping

Cultural festival

IANS

KOLKATA: Amid reports of wide-spread debit card security breaches, a senior State Bank of India official yesterday said the passwords were compromised in majority of cases.

“I strongly believe password is being compromised and most cases are of false transactions,” Chief Gen-eral Manager of State Bank of India, Bengal circle, Partha Pratim Sen-gupta said.

SBI, the country’s largest commer-cial lender, has advised its customers to use the bank’s own Automated Teller Machine (ATM) network after the security breach of around six lakh debit cards issued by the bank.

“Prima facie information says

a lot of password compromise is happening. But we are obviously looking into the audit trail and will check transaction history of all cus-tomers who have suffered to see if there is any kind of malware prob-lem,” he said.

The bank had blocked the debit cards whose security was reportedly breached due to the malware attack.

Some of the country’s top pri-vate banks like HDFC Bank, ICICI Bank and YES Bank among others too are facing similar issues and sev-eral of the customers’ debit cards are reportedly being compromised.

SBI on Wednesday had blocked close to six lakh debit cards fol-lowing a malware-related security breach in a non-SBI ATM network.

Several other banks such as Axis Bank, HDFC Bank and ICICI Bank too have admitted being hit by sim-ilar cyber attacks -- forcing Indian banks to either replace or request users to change the security codes of as many as 3.2 million debit cards over the last two months.

There were also reports of fraud-sters robbing customers of their bank deposits by calling them up and forc-ing them to give out details of debit cards on the threat of blocking the debit cards.

Sengupta cautioned customers not to divulge details like pin, card verification value, or any other iden-tity information to anybody. “The bank will never ask for these details.”

Debit card fraudsters also sought to target a Member of Parliament.

Communist Party of India-Marx-ist Rajya Sabha member Ritabrata Banerjee yesterday received a call on his mobile phone from an unknown male caller who sought to know his Adhaar card details.

The caller was insistent on get-ting the details even when Banerjee told him he would contact his bank. However, the fraudster disconnected the call the moment Banerjee told him that he would give the number to the police.

“I got a call this morning. As I had missed the call, I called back later. A man took the call and iden-tified himself as a manager of the State Bank of India.” “I asked him to name the area of his operation to which he replied ‘Bandra Branch’.”

“He addressed me as sir and had called to inform that the bank was blocking ATM cards across the country. He said that to activate my ATM card, I needed to follow some instructions,” Banerjee said.

The caller told Banerjee that he had been assigned by the bank for the job and needed details such as his Adhaar card number. “I told him I will contact the bank. But he was insistent, saying he has been given the responsibility to talk to me.

“I said I was giving his number to the police right now. The moment I said that, the phone was disconnected.” According to the MP, despite several efforts the number could not be reached later in the day. He has filed a complaint at a police station.

IANS

MUMBAI: Filmmaker Karan Johar received a major breather when the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) yesterday allowed the release of “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” but with a rider — all the producers who employed Paki-stani artists, must pay `5m each into the Indian Army’s welfare fund as an atonement. Distributors and cinema owners have also come forward in support of the film.

The MNS decision followed Maharashtra Chief Minister Dev-endra Fadnavis’ direct intervention in the matter — a day after Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh vis-ited Mumbai and two days after he

met representatives of Bollywood.Fadnavis convened a meeting

on Saturday which was attended by MNS President Raj Thackeray, Karan Johar and Film and Television Pro-ducers Guild of India’s President Mukesh Bhatt, among others at his official residence, Varsha, to resolve the imbroglio.

“Ae Dil Hai Mushkil” has been in news for featuring Pakistani actor Fawad Khan. Thackeray said hence-forth, all Pakistani artistes, including actors, singers and directors shall be permanently banned from Bol-lywood. “Why should Pakistani actors be given the red carpet wel-come when our soldiers are being killed on the borders? Was the Uri attack the first one,” Thackeray said.

The MNS also imposed certain

conditions on the release of “Ae Dil Hai Mushkil”, including that the producers making a handsome con-tribution to the army welfare fund, and slides paying tribute to the brave Indian soldiers are shown before the start of the film in theatres — to which both Bhatt and Johar readily agreed. The film also stars Ranbir Kapoor, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan and Anushka Sharma.

“We have always raised our voice against Pakistani actors, cricketers coming and working here… This is our victory,” Thackeray asserted, virtually pulling the rug from under his rival, cousin Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena. Interestingly, the Shiv Sena has been agitating against Pakistani artistes, writers, and crick-eters since several decades and is

currently a coalition partner with Bharatiya Janata Party in Mahar-ashtra and in the NDA at the Centre.

Raj Thackeray demanded that each producer employing Pakistani artistes must contribute `5m to the army welfare funds as ‘atonement’ for their actions. The decision by MNS and Fadnavis was later criticised by various other political party lead-ers. Opposition Congress termed the ‘settlement (mandavli)’ as “shock-ing and unconstitutional”.

“It is the prerogative of the cen-tral government to impose a ban on Pakistani artistes, the CM’s duty is to only ensure law and order in the stateÂ… The CM could have made a request to Prime Minister Narendra Modi as it’s a matter concerning for-eign affairs. Fadnavis has interfered

in Modi’s domain,” Congress spokes-person Sachin Sawant said.

Maharashtra Samajwadi Party President Abu Asim Azmi termed it as “a publicity stunt of MNS ending in a ‘settlement’ as was expected by all”. “This country believes in law and orderÂ… In future, the state govern-ment must tackle such ‘threats’ by implementing the law and teach such elements a lesson,” Azmi urged.

Not only political leaders, film-maker and social activist Ashoke Pandit also took to Twitter to con-demn MNS’ demand and said that they are asking for “extortion”. “Pro-ducers who have Pakistan actors in their films to donate `5m is unrea-sonable. Donation has to be from the heart. When forced, it’s extortion,” Pandit tweeted.

Passwords compromised in debit card fraud casesThere were also reports of fraudsters robbing customers by of their bank deposits by calling them up and forcing them to give out details of debit cards on the threat of blocking the debit cards.

IANS

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court has granted bail to Sher Singh Rana, the lone convict in the sensational murder of ban-dit-turned-Lok Sabha member Phoolan Devi here in 2001.

A division bench of Justice Gita Mittal and Justice P S Teji granted bail to Rana on Friday, who was awarded life imprisonment, on a personal bond of `50,000 and two sureties of same amount. Rana, who has undergone close to 13 years’ imprisonment, was also directed by the court to not inter-act with the family of deceased and any witnesses.

He shall disclose the address at which he would remain avail-able as well as his mobile number which he would be using.

Among other conditions, the court in its order also asked Rana to report to Superintendent of Police (SP) of Roorkee, Uttara-khand on the second Saturday of June and December every year from December 10, 2016.

The trial court had on August 8, 2014 convicted Rana while acquitting the 10 other co-accused in the case.

Rana, who was awarded life term on August 14, 2014, was held guilty of offences under sections 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder) and 34 (common inten-tion) under IPC in the case.

Thirty-seven-year-old Phoolan, then a Samajwadi Party MP from Mirzapur constituency in Uttar Pradesh, was shot dead from a close range by three masked gunmen in front of her Ashoka Road residence here in the heart of the capital’s VIP area when she returned home for lunch after attending Lok Sabha session on July 25, 2001.

D e l h i P o l i c e h a d chargesheeted 11 men accusing them of eliminating Phoolan to avenge the 1981 Behmai massa-cre in which she had allegedly killed a number of Thakurs. Rana had challenged his conviction and sentencing order in the high court.

MNS sets terms & withdraws ban on Karan Johar’s ‘Ae Dil...’

IANS

PATNA: The 26-year-old, Tejaswi Yadav, who has become Bihar’s most eligible bachelor after receiv-ing 44,000 marriage proposals on WhatsApp, has said he will marry the girl of parents’ choice.

“I will marry as per the wishes of my parents and the girl they select for me.I will simply prefer an arranged marriage decided by my parents,” Tejaswi said.

Tejaswi said that his parents, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi, would decide his marriage just like they decided his political career. “Mere mata-pita ki pas-and hi meri bhi pasand hogi (My parents’ choice will be my choice, too),” he said. With this statement, Bihar’s Deputy Chief Minister put an end to speculation and break-ing many hearts, a Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) leader close to him said. Incidentally all his seven sisters had arranged marriages.

Tejaswi received the marriage proposals on the WhatsApp contact number which he had provided for complaints over bad roads.

According to an official of road construction department, “Out of 47,000 messages received on the number, nearly 44,000 were per-sonal messages proposing marriage to Tejaswi. Only 3,000 messages were related to road repair.”

Tejaswi and his elder brother, Tej Pratap Yadav, who is also the Health Minister, are among the top most sought after bachelors in Bihar.

IANS

SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir Police yesterday arrested the elder son of Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and stopped his younger son from entering the octogenarian lead-er’s residence, virtually cutting him off from all family contact, sources said.

Naim Geelani, a doctor at a gov-ernment hospital here, was arrested at around 10 a.m. when he was on

his way to the Hyderpora residence of the hardline Hurriyat leader. “He was not allowed inside the house and police arrested him,” a family source said.

The arrest came ahead of the senior Geelani’s scheduled “address to the nation” over telephone yester-day afternoon. The address could not take place due to the jammers placed by the state authorities around the Hyderpora residence.

Geelani’s younger son, Naseem Geelani, an assistant professor at the

Sheri-Kashmir Agricultural Univer-sity of Science and Technology, was stopped by policemen from enter-ing his father’s house in the morning. “You are not allowed to meet Geel-ani,” the police told Naseem.

Naseem later took to Facebook to vent his anger. In an emotional attack on Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minis-ter Mehbooba Mufti, Naseem posted, “I want to ask one simple question to Mohtarma Mehbooba Mufti. When someone even mentions your father’s name, you break into tears. What

about my ailing father who waits to see me everyday?”

The 88-year-old Hurriyat con-ference chairman is suffering from heart ailment, kidney problems and respiratory issues, family sources said.

“He has a pacemaker in heart, is surviving on half a kidney and has multiple other health issues. We (sons) need to see him daily and take his care. But we are not allowed,” Naseem said. “Even my elder brother has been detained,” Naseem said and

added: “He has been taken to Hum-hama police station”.

The police has barred the entry of the senior Geelani’s family mem-bers, media and most visitors to his residence. “Authorities have also installed jammers at the residence to block all phone connectivity,” the source added.

Geelani, who has been leading the unrest in Kashmir Valley since the July 8 killing of Hizbul com-mander Burhan Wani, has been under continuous house arrest.

Geelani’s son arrested; family barred from meeting ailing leader

IANS

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu Acting Gov-ernor C Vidyasagar Rao yesterday called on ailing Chief Minister J Jay-alalithaa at the Apollo Hospital here, where she is admitted since Septem-ber 22 for treatment.

After visiting the Chief Minis-ter in her hospital room and asking after her health, Rao told the media that the AIADMK leader was getting better. “She is progressing well and responding well to the treatment,” he said.

Apollo Chairman C Prathap Reddy briefed the Governor on the treatment regimen of the Chief

Minister. Reddy said the AIADMK leader was under constant obser-vation for all vital parameters.

The Governor was earlier received at the hospital around 11.30am by Finance Minister O Pan-neerselvam, Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker Thambi Durai, state Chief Secretary P. Rama Mohan Rao, CM’s adviser Sheela Balakrishnan and others. Health Principal Secretary J. Radhakrishnan was among the sen-ior officials present on the occasion.

On Friday evening, the hos-pital issued a health bulletin on Jayalalithaa’s condition after nine days, saying she was getting better. However, she continues to be under treatment and observation, the hos-pital release had said.

Phoolan Devi murder case: Sher Singh Rana gets bail

AAP govt to extend

free water scheme

to NDMC areas NEW DELHI: In a major move, the Delhi government yesterday decided to extend the scheme of giving free water of 20,000 litres per month to the residents of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) area with retrospective effect.

“So far, people of entire Delhi, except those living in NDMC area, benefited from this scheme. Now we have decided to retrospec-tively implement the same in NDMC area,” Delhi Chief Minis-ter Arvind Kejriwal said after a cabinet meeting here.

Delhi is divided into three urban regions -- the three Munic-ipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD), the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), and the Delhi Canton-ment Board.

The NDMC area includes VVIP zones, including Lutyens area, Parliament House, Rashtrapati Bhavan, North Block, South Block and the Supreme Court.

Jayalalithaa ‘getting better’Tejaswi Yadav: My

parents to decide

my marriage

EUROPE 13SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

Russia’s civil aviation authority said, the incident could be linked to unfavourable weather conditions with low cloud, falling snow and gusty winds.

Stuffed toys are piled up at the gates of Downing Street during a demonstration urging the British government to intervene in the bombing of Aleppo, in London, yesterday.

SoS to Aleppo

Marseille: Two men have been killed in a shoot-out in the southern French city of Marseille.

The men were 22 and 20 years old. While one had been known to police for drug use, the other had no criminal record.

A third, lightly wounded man aged 24 was also found in the car. He was taken into cus-tody. The men had been attacked by “two men on a scooter. One was armed with a Kalashnikov-style rifle, the other with a handgun,” prosecutor Xavier Tarabeux said.

Belgian mall

evacuated after

armed robbery

BRUSSELS: A Belgian shopping centre was evacuated yesterday after three masked robbers, armed with at least one Kalashnikov rifle, burst into a jewellery store in Chatelineau, 50km south of Brussels, police said.

Police escorted doz-ens of shoppers out of the Cora mall, some of whom confused the sound of glass jewellery display cases being smashed with that of gunfire.

26 injured as

bus hits bridge

in London

LONDON: Twenty-six people were injured yes-terday morning when a double-decker bus crashed into a railway bridge in London, slicing its roof off, the Fire Bri-gade said.

Three people who were trapped on the top deck had to be freed and five were taken to hos-pital after the pre-dawn collision in Tottenham, North London.

“Two fire engines, a fire rescue unit and 15 firefighters were called to a collision involving a bus and a railway bridge on St Lays Road in Tottenham,” the brigade said.

Two dead in

France gangland

shoot-out

AFP

MOSCOW: Nineteen people died when a helicopter carrying oil and gas field workers crashed in a remote area of Siberia in bad weather, Rus-sian investigators said yesterday.

The Mi-8 helicopter carrying 22 people including three crew crashed on Friday night in the far-north-ern Yamalo-Nenetsky region some 2,400km northeast of Moscow, inves-tigators said.

Photos published by the emergen-cies ministry showed the helicopter

broken into pieces and lying on snowy moorland close to woods.

Fog and poor visibility had hin-dered the search for the crash site, as well as the rescue operation, accord-ing to the local emergencies ministry.

Russia’s civil aviation authority said “based on preliminary data, the incident could be linked to unfavour-able weather conditions” with low cloud, falling snow and gusty winds.

It said a special commission would assess crew’s actions as they made the decision to to fly in adverse weather.

The victims died from multi-ple injuries at the scene, while three injured were taken to hospital, said a statement by the Investigative Com-mittee, which probes major incidents.

President Vladimir Putin expressed his condolences to the rel-atives and loved ones of the victims, his spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies.

The helicopter was flying from an oil and gas field in the Siberian region of Krasnoyarsk to small settlement of Urengoi when it crashed around 45km from Urengoi, investigators said.

Due to poor weather, rescu-ers in a helicopter only located the stricken aircraft some seven hours after the crash.

Colonel Dmitry Alexandrov of the emergencies ministry in the Yamalo-Nenetsky region said in televised comments that the helicopter “fell on its right side, and the victims could not get out”.

The survivors were all passengers on the helicopter, the civil aviation authority said. They suffered seri-ous but non-life-threatening injuries, Russian state television reported.

One of the survivors managed to call rescuers on the phone from inside the crashed helicopter, say-ing it “flew into strong winds and fell” Life News website reported.

The helicopter was transport-ing workers from a subcontractor of Russian oil giant Rosneft, TASS state news agency reported. Rosneft’s French first vice-president Eric Liron travelled to the scene, the company said, quoted by TASS.

The region’s governor Dmitry Kobylkin announced a day of mourn-ing yesterday with flags lowered and entertainment events cancelled, call-ing the accident a source of “great sorrow for all of us.”

Mi-8 helicopters are widely used both for civilian and military transport and can carry around 24 passen-gers. Russia uses the helicopters in its

military intervention in Syria.The Investigative Committee

said that the crash could have been caused by a violation of flight safety

regulations, a mechanical problem or difficult weather conditions.

A criminal probe had been launched to investigate possible

violations, it added.The helicopter was made in 1984

and had a flight safety licence valid till 2017, the civil aviation authority said.

AFP

PARIS: Angry French police have taken to the streets for five nights in a row—and Parisians have started to cheer them on, reviving scenes last seen following the Charlie Hebdo attacks in 2015.

The frustrated officers want reinforcements and stiffer penal-ties after a string of attacks on law enforcement, as the issue of safety feeds into France’s looming presi-dential race.

And the fifth night saw people applaud them, recalling the night in January 2015 when some four million people marched through Paris in a show of solidarity against terrorism.

Police wore orange armbands, as they walked along the Rue de Rivoli lit up by the headlights of cars halted by their demonstration, ral-lying from City Hall to the Place de la Bastille.

“We’ve had enough!” they shouted, calling for more resources and tougher penalties for those who attack police, 13 days after four of their colleagues were attacked in Viry-Chatillon, south of Paris.

Encouraging car horns or bicy-cle bells mix with foghorns and whistles blown by the protesting officers, in their civilian clothes.

Gone midnight, revellers poured out onto the pavements—to raise a glass to demonstrating police, and cheer them on. “Bravo!” comes from a window up above. Those protest-ing look up and applaud them back.

The opening notes of the Mar-seillaise strike up from a cafe terrace, and everyone joins in with the French national anthem.

The scenes are reminiscent of the mass march on January 11 last year, a few days after the deadly attack on satirical weekly Charlie

Hebdo and hostage-taking at a Jew-ish supermarket.

Twenty-one months later, the list of police complaints is long, covering everything from an ever-increasing workload, bureaucracy, outdated equipment and what is seen as lenient sentencing for vio-lence against officers.

The frustration has been building for some time, fed by long-standing problems of criminality in the coun-try’s rundown suburbs but boosted by sense of insecurity in France.

The spark for this week’s demonstrations, organised by rank-and-file rather than union leaders, was several petrol bombs thrown at officers in a known troublespot outside Paris on October 8.

“The people with us!” and “The people support angry police,” chanted the protesting officers, visibly moved by the demonstrations of support and sympathy for their cause.

The crowds applauded every police van, every blue flashing light and every siren. Motorists rolled down their windows to thank them, some flashing a V for victory sign.

Not everyone agreed: at one point two young men shouted at the police using crude language. They were surrounded by a group of officers and there was a brief alter-cation, before a policeman took to a megaphone, saying “Keep clam, be professional.”

“I was surprised to see lots of people supporting us... I thought there would be more signs of hos-tility,” said one 25-year-old officer. “People have really understood what has been happening. They’ve seen what isn’t working with our public services.”

Arriving at the Place de la Bastille, the protestors stayed together for a short time before dis-persing to have a break and sing the Marseillaise once more.

Reuters

BERLIN: German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s Bavarian allies will back her if she decides to run for a fourth term next year, a member of the Christian Social Union (CSU) said yesterday, signalling a possible end of a row over migration among conservatives.

“Angela Merkel is our candi-date,” CSU deputy leader Manfred Weber told Spiegel magazine. “There is no doubt about that. I wish this declaration would come

fast - from her and from us.”The CSU, allies of Merkel’s Chris-

tian Democratic Union (CDU), have been demanding that Merkel agrees to an upper limit on the number of asylum seekers Germany is willing to accept every year after a record 890,000 arrived last year. She has rejected such a cap, defending her decision to open Germany’s doors to people fleeing wars and conflicts in the Middle East and Africa.

CSU leader Horst Seehofer wants Merkel to agree to a cap of 200,000 a year. Other CSU members have said such limit was not needed as the

number of new arrivals had fallen drastically this year.

Some 220,000 asylum seekers entered Germany in the first half of this year.

Senior allies of Merkel have been indicating that they expect her to run for a fourth term in 2017 even though her popularity has dipped over the migrant crisis.

Merkel, 62, who has been chan-cellor since 2005, has repeatedly declined to comment on whether she will run in 2017, saying only that she will make her intentions clear in due course.

AFP

LONDON: A Welsh village marked the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster which killed 116 children and 28 adults when a colliery spoil tip collapsed, engulfing a school.

The 1966 tragedy shook Britain and provoked a huge outpouring of sympa-thy as a generation of children mostly aged seven to 10 were all but wiped out—and the few survivors have bat-tled with their memories ever since.

Some 150,000 tonnes of coal waste slid down the hillside before engulfing Pantglas Junior School at 9:15am on October 21, 1966.

Had the landslide happened 20 minutes earlier, the classrooms would

have been empty. Had it struck a few hours later, the children would have already left to start their half-term hol-iday. No survivors were found after 11am on the day of disaster.

Residents in Aberfan, north of Cardiff, took part in a day of com-memorative events, attended by Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales.

The heir to the throne read a message from his mother Queen Elizabeth II, who had visited the grief-stricken village with her hus-band Prince Philip to pay their respects in the days after the disaster.

“You are in my own and my fam-ily’s thoughts, as well as the thoughts of the nation,” the message read.

“I well remember my visit with Prince Philip after the disaster, and the posy I was given by a young

girl, which bore the heart-breaking inscription, ‘From the remaining chil-dren of Aberfan’. “Since then, we have returned on several occasions and have always been deeply impressed by the remarkable fortitude, dignity and indomitable spirit that charac-terises the people of this village.”

Marilyn Morris, 64, spoke of the stoicism with which the village inter-nalised its grief.

“There were six children from my street that died. We just blanked it from our minds, nobody spoke about it,” she said. “It was such a shock that we couldn’t bring ourselves to talk about it but now we are and we are feeling much better for it.”

An emotional memorial service was held in local cemetery. A minute’s silence was observed across Wales.

Russian chopper crash leaves 19 dead in Siberia

Wreckage of Mi-8 helicopter that crashed overnight outside the city of Novy Urengoy.

French police take to streets for fifth day

Merkel’s Bavarian allies back her for fourth term

UK remembers victims of Aberfan tragedy

Britain’s Prince Charles, Prince of Wales, (left) shakes hands with rescue worker Dennis Osborn during a visit to mark the 50th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster, at the Aberfan and Merthyr Vale community centre, Aberfan, South Wales.

Firefighters and villagers search the bodies of a man and his two sons after the collapse of lagoon caused a landslide in Cerro Azul, municipality of Villa Santa, El Paraiso Department, about 150 km from Tegucigalpa. At least seven people died in Honduras, early yesterday.

Landslide claims seven in Honduras

AMERICAS14 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

“We know the difference between leadership and dictatorship, and the peaceful transition of power is one of the things that sets us apart,” Clinton told a rally in Cleveland.

AFP

CLEVELAND: Hillary Clinton excoriated rival Donald Trump as a threat to American democracy for not pledging to honour results of the upcoming presidential election, as the bitter rivals battled for suprem-acy in battleground states.

The 2016 election cycle pitting the Republican nominee against the former secretary of state has turned increasingly toxic, with Trump fueling wild conspiracy theories about vote “rigging” and Clinton warning that the provoc-ative billionaire was straying into authoritarianism.

“We know the difference

between leadership and dictator-ship, and the peaceful transition of power is one of the things that sets us apart,” Clinton told a rally in Cleveland, Ohio, one of the key swing states up for grabs on Novem-ber 8.

“Donald Trump refused to say that he’d respect the results of this election. By doing that, he’s threat-ening our democracy.”

Her comments marked a stern rebuke to Trump’s bombshell sug-gestion during their third and final presidential debate that he may not recognise the election result—a surprising rejection of political norms.

Trump, 70, then told a rally crowd that he could launch a legal challenge if Clinton prevails.

Despite isolated allegations of voter fraud, controversy over the tight 2000 vote and rampant gerry-mandering, US elections have been regarded as free and fair.

Invigorated by both her com-manding poll numbers and Trump’s eyebrow-raising declarations, the candidate vying to become Ameri-ca’s first female president was in Ohio aiming to block Trump’s efforts to claim the blue-collar heartland state.

Trump, well aware that no Republican has ever won the White House without winning Ohio, cam-paigned in the Buckeye State. He is due to head back to the state, with

running mate Mike Pence.Tthe Manhattan real estate mogul

hosted rallies in the battlegrounds of North Carolina and Pennsylvania.

“Eighteen days. You’re going to look back at this election and say this is by far the most important vote you’ve ever cast for anyone at any time,” Trump told a crowd in Fletcher, North Carolina.

“We’re fighting this juggernaut... because they have billions of dollars they’ve raised,” he said of the Clinton campaign, which reportedly has out-spent Trump on television advertising in recent months.

Trump said he would give the campaign everything he had, “right

up until the actual vote.”“Win, lose or draw... I will be

happy with myself,” he added. Clinton is narrowly leading in

polling in North Carolina, a state Obama won in 2008 but lost to Republican Mitt Romney in 2012.

Trump is trailing badly in the polls, and his debate threat opened him up to a stinging attack from Obama at a Miami rally.

“When you try to sow the seeds of doubt in people’s minds about the legitimacy of our election, that under-mines our democracy,” Obama said at a raly on Friday.

“When you suggest rigging or fraud without a shred of evidence...

That is not a joking matter.”Clinton holds leads in several

battleground states, ranging from razor-thin, such as in North Caro-lina, to moderate in Florida and Pennsylvania and commanding in Virginia.

She is even narrowly ahead in Arizona, the traditionally Republi-can-leaning state where First Lady Michelle Obama—who galvanized voters with a searing attack on Trump last week—campaigned for Clinton on Thursday.

If Trump loses Florida, Pennsyl-vania and North Carolina, Clinton is all but assured of victory, experts have said.

Hillary far ahead

in Electoral

College race: Poll

Reuters

NEW YORK: Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton maintained her com-manding lead in the race to win the Electoral College and claim the US presidency, according to the latest States of the Nation project results released yesterday.

In the last week, there has been little movement. Clinton leads Don-ald Trump in most of the states that Trump would need should he have a chance to win the minimum 270 votes needed to win. According to the project, she has a better than 95 per-cent chance of winning, if the election was held this week. The mostly likely outcome would be 326 votes for Clin-ton to 212 for Trump.

Trump came off his best debate performance of the campaign but the polling consensus still showed Clinton winning the third and final face-off on prime-time TV.

And some national polls had the race tightening a wee bit this week though others had Clinton maintain-ing her solid lead. But the project illustrates that the broader picture remains bleak for Trump with 16 days to go until the November 8 election.

Trump did gain ground in South Carolina where his slim lead last week expanded to seven points, mov-ing it into his column from a toss-up. Unfortunately for him, he lost ground in Arizona, which is now too close to call.

Additionally, he is facing a chal-lenge for Utah’s six Electoral College votes from former CIA operative and Utah native Evan McMullin. The inde-pendent candidate is siphoning votes away from Trump in a state that is Republican as any in the nation.

AFP

NEW YORK: She is as calm and thoughtful as her father is stri-dent and impetuous. She is Ivanka Trump (pictured), and the distance she has taken from her father Don-ald has earned her both the respect of Democrats and the head-scratch-ing of analysts.

So the Republican candidate shocked the nation by saying he might not recognise the results of the presidential election if he loses? Ivanka, the model-turned-business-executive, insists “he’ll accept the outcome either way.”

His daughter calls the comments about women “inappropriate and offensive” and admits that her father’s words can be “uncomfortable for us.”

Ivanka, soon to turn 35, is still clearly her father’s protegee. He has been unstinting in his praise for his glamorous offspring, a graduate of the prestigious Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Trump counts on her to attract young and female voters.

In introducing her father at the Republican convention in July, Ivanka bragged about his “strength” and his “kindness and compassion.”

But she also knows when to step back. Having grown up in the spotlight from an early age, Ivanka knows how to tend to her own image—and that of the clothing line that bears her name.

Her Twitter and Instagram accounts help nourish her brand, celebrating women who juggle fam-ily life and work—with impeccable

style—as does a book she plans to publish next year.

They portray an ideal family: her husband Jared Kushner, her “big-gest fan,” for whom she converted to Judaism, and their three children, aged five, three and six months.

She has drawn on her family experiences to distinguish herself during the campaign, quietly urg-ing her father to make promises far removed from Republican ortho-doxy, such as a call for six weeks of paid maternity leave and for child-care tax deductions.

Beyond that, Ivanka insists, she does not delve deeply into politics, unlike her brothers and husband. “I am not the campaign mastermind, as people love to portray and speculate,” she recently told MSNBC television.

But if she has edged away from her father at times in an effort to “salvage her brand,” as The New Yorker magazine has suggested, the balancing act has not been easy.

“Her quest to float along empow-ered but unsullied beside her father throughout this increasingly ugly campaign has been getting harder and harder,” it added.

Her reserve, in any case, has earned her a certain degree of respect in the opposing camp.

When, at the end of their second televised debate on October 9, the moderator pressed Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to cite at least one quality in their opponent, Clinton said, without hesitation: “His children are incredibly devoted and able.”

It was an indirect homage to Ivanka, who is a long-standing friend of Chelsea Clinton, the candidate’s daughter.

Even strongly left-leaning film director Michael Moore, who just released a film strongly support-ive of Clinton, seems to appreciate the young Trump. In an open letter posted on his website, he describes her as a “brilliant” and “very smart and together woman”—the only per-son capable, he said, of intervening to stop her father’s quixotic campaign.

For Sam Abrams, a political sci-entist at Sarah Lawrence College and the conservative Hoover Insti-tution, “When you listen to her... she’s not engaged in the mud-slinging the way the others are; she is trying to be more professional, more mature.”

AFP

WASHINGTON: Russia is wel-come to send observers to the US presidential election, even if their requests smack of a propaganda stunt, the State Department said.

Moscow has been accused of try-ing to undermine the race through cyber attacks against US political tar-gets, and its observers complain they were refused accreditation.

But State Department spokes-man John Kirby said there is no policy to refuse Russian observers.

He noted that Russian offi-cials were offered places on a team being fielded by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors elections in all its member states, including the United States.

“We told the Russian govern-ment that they were welcome to observe our elections,” Kirby said.

“The fact that they have chosen to

not join the OSCE observation mission makes clear this issue is nothing more than a PR stunt,” he added.

Russian observers could also apply directly to individual US states for accreditation, Kirby said, adding that Washington would not stand in their way.

“There’s nothing for us to fear from having Russian observers observing our election,” he told reporters.

“We’re very confident in the sta-bility, the security and the strength of our electoral process. There’s no need to hide from that.”

On Thursday, the Russian news-paper Izvestia reported that Russia had chosen not to join the OSCE observer mission.

Instead, it said, Russian observers had applied directly to US states for accreditation and had been refused.

A Russian electoral official, cited by the paper, accused the State Department of blocking the observers because of its “Russopho-bic tendencies.”

AP

NEW YORK: Multitudes of feral cats roam New York City’s concrete jun-gle, and some now have a practical purpose: They’re helping curb the city’s rat population.

A group of volunteers trained by the NYC Feral Cat Initiative traps wild cat colonies that have become a nuisance or been threatened by construction, then spays or neu-ters and vaccinates them. The goal is to return them to their home ter-ritory, but some end up in areas rife with rats.

Feline rat patrols keep watch over city delis and bodegas, car dealerships and the grounds of a Greenwich Village church. Four cats roam the loading dock at the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center, where food deliveries and garbage have drawn rodents for years.

“We used to hire exterminators, but nature has a better solution,” said Rebecca Marshall, the sustainability manager at the 1.8-million-square-foot center. “And cats don’t cost anything.”

About 6,000 volunteers have completed workshops where they’ve learned proper ways to trap cats.

The programme is run through the privately funded Mayor’s Alli-ance for NYC’s Animals, a coalition of more than 150 animal rescue groups and shelters. It estimates as many as half a million feral and stray cats roam New York’s five boroughs.

The life of a street cat is a tough one. Some are former pets, aban-doned by owners. Plenty die of disease and malnutrition or are hit by vehicles. Others ingest poisoned cat food — set deliberately to get rid of them, cat advocates say.

Many of the animals are dis-placed as a result of New York’s development, with new construction

creating perilous conditions for those that once inhabited the city’s nooks and crannies, from vacant lots, decaying factories and empty warehouses.

One colony of two dozen cats living in a lot on Manhattan’s West Side are about to be displaced by construction on a new $3bn office tower. A City Council member is working with residents and devel-opers to make sure the creatures are moved to a safe location.

The Javits Center’s quartet of cats — Sylvester, Alfreda, Mama Cat and Ginger — were lured to its 56 load-ing docks about two years ago with pet food brought by animal-loving employees. On a recent fall morning, Sylvester stationed himself next to a commercial truck, ready to pounce if needed.

The cats are predators but don’t necessarily kill rats. Instead, experts say the feline scent and droppings repel the rodents.

Hillary warns Trump a threat to democracy

Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton greets supporters during a campaign rally at Cuyahoga Community College in Cleveland, Ohio.

Ivanka Trump doesn’t want to fall with father Russia welcome to observe

US election: State Dept

Stray cat patrol: Feral felines deployed in NYC war on rats

AMERICAS 15SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

The socialist government blocked a presidential recall referendum in a move opposition leaders are calling a coup.

A man carries his son across an area flooded by rains from a tropical storm, after the passing of Hurrcaene Mattehw, in the commune of Torbech, southwest of Haiti, yesterday.

Haiti floods

GEORGIA: Abdomi-nal pain sent Stephanie Jaegers to the hospital.

She told her husband, Michael, she believed it was due to kidney stones. When they arrived at the hospital in Stockbridge, Georgia, doctors asked if she might be pregnant. She said no, and doc-tors began preparing her for X-rays. But doc-tors changed plans and began preparing her for an ultrasound.

Doctors told Michael Jaegers his wife was pregnant — 38 weeks pregnant to be exact.

At 3:50 am, Shaun Jude Jaegers was born. At 7 pounds, 3 ounces and 19 inches long, he appeared to be very healthy, even without prenatal care.

Mexican govt

strikes back

after ambush

MEXICO CITY: One of Mexico’s top organised crime fighters said the government has struck hard against a cartel that ambushed a military con-voy and killed five soldiers last month.

Gustavo Salas, who heads organised-crime division of Attorney Gen-eral’s office, said an operation began in west-ern Mexico’s so-called “Golden Triangle” region.

More than 1,000 acres of marijuana and poppy fields were destroyed, along with more than 30 tonnes of harvested mari-juana and three synthetic drug laboratories.

Salas says authorities know who carried out the ambush, but have not pub-licaly named the cartel.

Abdominal pain

turns into

surprise baby

AP

CARACAS: Venezuela is bracing for turbulence after the socialist govern-ment blocked a presidential recall referendum in a move opposition leaders are calling a coup.

The opposition is urging support-ers to take to the streets, beginning with a march on a major highway led by the wives of jailed activists, while a leading government figure is calling for the arrest of high-profile govern-ment critics.

Polls suggest socialist President Nicolas Maduro would lose a recall vote. But that became a moot issue when elections officials issued an order suspending a recall signature drive a week before it was to start.

“What we saw yesterday was a coup,” said former presidential can-didate Henrique Capriles, who had been the leading champion of recall

effort. “We’ll remain peaceful, but we will not be taken for fools. We must defend our country.”

International condemnation was swift. Twelve western hemisphere nations, including the US and even leftist-run governments such as Chile and Uruguay, said in a statement that the suspension of the referendum and travel restrictions on the opposition leadership affects the prospect for dialogue and finding a peaceful solu-tion to the nation’s crisis.

In another sign of growing regional tensions, Colombia’s flag-ship airline yesterday said it was grounding all flights to Caracas after a mid-air incident involving one of its planes and the Venezuelan air force.

Critical television stations have been closed and several leading oppo-sition activists have been imprisoned. The country’s supreme court, packed with government supporters, has endorsed decree powers for Maduro and said he can ignore Congress fol-lowing a landslide victory for the opposition in legislative elections.

The election commission, which has issued a string of pro-government rulings, halted the recall process on grounds of alleged irregularities in a first-round of signature gathering.

Polls suggest 80 percent of voters wanted Maduro gone this year, and the electoral council also ordered a delay of about six months in guber-natorial elections that were slated for year-end which the opposition was

heavily favored to win. It gave no rea-son for the delay.

The opposition charges that the socialist party has simply decided to put off elections indefinitely in the face of overwhelming voter discontent.

The opposition coalition has called for a massive street protest

on Wednesday, on what would have been the start of the signature-gath-ering campaign.

Maduro was travelling outside the country, but in a televised address on Friday he urged calm at home.

“I call on everyone to remain peaceful, to engage in dialogue, respect law and order and not to

do anything crazy,” he said.Meanwhile, one of most pow-

erful all ies of the President, Diosdado Cabello, said top oppo-sition leaders should be jailed for attempting election fraud. And opposition leaders said a local court blocked eight of their lead-ers from leaving the country.

1 dead; several

injured in clash

over pipeline

in Mexico

AP

MEXICO CITY: One person was killed and several others injured in a clash between members of the Yaqui indigenous group divided over construction of a gas pipeline in northwest Mexico, officials said.

Sonora state public security chief Adolfo Garcia Morales said in a news conference early yester-day that the clash erupted during a protest outside a school in a com-munity called Loma de Bacum. About 400 people between the two sides had gathered by noon.

“It is clear that the conflict is over the gas pipeline,” Garcia said.

IEnova, a subsidiary of San Diego, California.-based Sempra Energy, is building a pipeline for Mexico’s Federal Electric Com-mission that will deliver natural gas from Arizona to power plants in Sonora and Sinaloa states, according to a statement from the company when the contracts were awarded in 2012. The com-pany did not immediately return a call for comment yesterday.

Shots were fired and one man was killed, Garcia said. He called the conflict at the root of the clash “internal” to the Yaquis.

State prosecutor Rodolfo Montes de Oca says the state is investigating the shooting, but the person who shot the gun remained unidentified.

Mario Luna, a spokesman for the Yaquis, said yesterday he was still gathering information. He was far from where the clash occurred and said he could not speak to the specifics of the inci-dent. However, Luna explained that the conflict between Yaqui towns over the pipeline had been ongoing.

Reuters

LOS ANGELES: Former Califor-nia state Senator Ron Calderon was sentenced to more than three years in prison in a public corruption case in which the Democratic pol-itician admitted to accepting about $100,000 in bribes, a spokesman for the prosecutors said.

The sentence concluded the criminal case against a longtime lawmaker who once was one of the most influential figures in the Cali-fornia legislature.

Calderon, who represented the Los Angeles suburb of Montebello, left office in 2014 after serving a dozen years in the state Senate

and four in the Assembly.A federal judge in Los Angeles

sentenced Calderon early yesterday to three-and-half years in prison, Thom Mrozek, a spokesman for the US Attorney’s Office, said in an email.

Calderon also will serve one year under supervision after he is released from prison, Mrozek said.

Calderon’s attorney could not be immediately be reached for comment.

Calderon pleaded guilty in June to a single count of mail fraud, reaching a deal with prosecutors weeks before he was scheduled to stand trial on charges in a 24-count indictment.

He faced a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison for mail fraud but

prosecutors said they agreed under the terms of his plea agreement to seek a sentence of less than six years for the former lawmaker.

Calderon, 59, was one of three Democrats in the state Senate sus-pended over ethics charges in 2014, costing their party a two-thirds majority.

Prosecutors have said Calderon accepted $100,000 in bribes from the owner of a Long Beach hospi-tal to preserve a legal loophole that allowed companies controlled by the owner to charge more for hardware used in spinal surgeries.

Calderon also was accused of taking bribes from undercover Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agents posing as Hollywood executives in exchange for steering

legislation in their favour.His older brother, Tom Cal-

deron, a former member of the state Assembly who became a political consultant, also was named in the indictment and pleaded guilty to a money-laundering charge for allow-ing bribes earmarked for his brother to be funneled through his firm.

Tom Calderon was sentenced last month to six months in prison and six months in home confinement.

The Calderon brothers were members of a political dynasty going back decades in California before they were ensnared in the federal investigation.

Ron Calderon during his career played key roles on a number of com-mittees, including chairing a state Senate committee on elections.

AP

PENNSYLVANIA: Strong storms hit pockets of western and cen-tral Pennsylvania, bringing up to 7 inches of rain, turning roads into rivers, damaging homes in commu-nities as far as 150 miles apart and killing one person.

Governor Tom Wolf ordered state’s National Guard to help in recovery efforts after the storms left a path of destruction, downing power lines, destroying vehicles, damaging railroad beds and trig-gering mudslides. The (Lock Haven) Express reported a man was killed in Clinton County when a tree crashed down on his home.

Winds there had reached up to 100 mph, said National Weather Service meteorologist Craig Evanego.

Flash floods swept away at least two homes in Sullivan County, west of Scranton, according to WNEP-TV. Hundreds more were damaged in Centre County, home to Penn State’s main campus.

“It’s been quite a day,” said Cen-tre County Commissioner Steven Dershem.

The storm brought some of the worst damage the Bald Eagle Val-ley of central Pennsylvania has seen since Hurricane Ivan brought downpours to the area in 2004, Dershem said. About 100 people were displaced, including about three dozen residents from a per-sonal care home, he said.

John D Yingling, director of

Lycoming County’s department of public safety, had launched its nine boat teams to help residents and survey the damage with area bridge inspections and road assessments.

Lycoming County was among the hardest hit, and storms there wiped out the Wallis Run Road bridge across the Loyalsock Creek in Mountoursville, said PEMA spokes-woman Ruth Miller.

The flooding also caused a Sunoco Logistics gasoline pipeline to rupture, spilling an estimated 54,600 gallons into a tributary of the Loyalsock Creek and threat-ening the water supply of several thousand customers.

Pennsylvania American Water late Friday shut down its treatment plant along the Susquehanna River in Milton, downstream of the spill, as a precaution after the DEP said a gaso-line plume was nearing the vicinity.

The company said it expects to have adequate water supplies by redirecting water from another treatment plant and using water it has stored. Customers have been asked to conserve water.

Two other water systems, serv-ing customers in Sunbury and Shamokin Dam, also are potentially impacted by the spill, according to the state environmental officials.

Sunoco Logistics said it detected a drop in pressure around 3 am yes-terday and shut down the pipeline. The company said crew were using skimmers to remove gasoline from impacted waterways — including Wallace Run and Loyalsock Creek — and erecting containment booms downstream.

Reuters

LIMA: Peruvian President Pedro Pablo Kuczynski, a former invest-ment banker who reported earning $700,000 per year before taking office in July, faced a wave of criti-cism for complaining about his salary as a public official.

Kuczynski’s comments, posted online in a video by local daily news-paper Correo, come as his centrist

government has been reeling from a corruption scandal involving a former adviser and deadly protests at one of the country’s biggest copper mines.

The former World Bank econo-mist was pitching a reform to raise the salaries of local mayors before he turned to his own earnings.

“The president of the Repub-lic makes half of what a minister makes. There are two ministers here. Between the two of them they make four times what I make. Does that seem fair to you?” Kuczynski said

before a group representing munic-ipalities. Kuczynski’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Peruvians took to social media to deride the remarks, some draw-ing comparisons with three volunteer firemen who died this week trying to pull people from a fire near the out-skirts of Lima.

“Before he said his dream was to become president to ‘serve Peru.’ Amnesia? Senior moment?’ said Twitter user Rubem Dos Santos.

But some Twitter users said Kuc-zynski should be paid more than his ministers.

The president of Peru earns 15,600 soles ($4,588) per month before taxes. Cabinet ministers earn 30,000 soles per month. The minimum wage in Peru is 850 soles ($250).

Kuczynski reported annual earn-ings of 2,499,235 soles ($735,069) to electoral authorities before narrowly winning his the presidency in a June run-off.

Former California lawmaker jailed for graft

Venezuela braces for turbulence

Venezuelan opposition leader Henrique Capriles speaks next to the president of the National Assembly, Henry Ramos Allup (left), during a press conference in Caracas.

Storms cause floods in

Pennsylvania; one dead

Peru’s wealthy president mocked over salary

HOME16 SUNDAY 23 OCTOBER 2016

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ISHA

04.19 am05.36 am

11.18 am02.34 pm

05.02 pm06.32 pm

Minimum: 26o C Maximum: 35o C

HIGH TIDE 11:00 - 23:45LOW TIDE 02:45 - 19:00

Hazy at places at first, becomes moderate tem-perature daytime.

PRAYER TIMINGS WEATHER

A total of 48 new graduates along with officials at 16th foundation training organised by the General Authority of Customs (GAC) for its new employees. GAC conducted the nine-week training in collaboration with Police Training Institute.

GAC holds 16th foundation training for new employees

ONLINE CHART BUST

‘Ladies Walk the Park’ at AspireThe Peninsula

DOHA: Aspire Zone Foundation (AZF), in collaboration with the Qatar Cancer Society (QCS), on Thursday held ‘Ladies Walk the Park’ breast cancer aware-ness campaign, that aims at driving participants to embrace a healthier lifestyle and become familiar with both the causes of breast cancer and effec-tive prevention methods.

The event was attended by a large number of participants of all ages, in addition dignitaries including Eljazi Mohammed Al Kuwari, Chairman of the Executive Office at the Gulf

Disability Society, Suhaila Al Harb, Head of the Qatari Businesswomen Association, and Seham Al Awami, Director of Special Projects at the International Centre for Sport Secu-rity and Save the Dream programme. An interactive breast cancer awareness seminar was also held accompanied by a question and answer session.

‘Curves’ weight loss centre, the sponsor of this year’s campaign, awarded winners of the question and answer session with vouchers, and engaged participants in a 10 minute warm-up session to prepare them for the one to two kilometre walk, around Aspire Park, that followed.

This partnership with Curves, is

part of Aspire Zone’s efforts to encour-age women to become more active, given that exercise plays an important role in boosting the body’s immune system, and preventing from breast cancer.

Lolwa Al Marri, head of Events at Aspire Zone Foundation, said, “We are excited to host the ‘Ladies Walk the Park’ campaign. We are also proud to partner with the Qatar Cancer Soci-ety for the second consecutive year, to mark the breast cancer awareness month.”

“We’re pleased to see an increas-ing number of participation this year, and this proves that females are more inclined to educate themselves about

breast cancer, and are interested to help with raising awareness,” Al Marri added.

Ghada Samir, one of the partic-ipants at the event, said: “This is my first time participating at such an event, and I’m glad I took part this year. This is not my first time hearing about breast cancer of course, but this seminar had added more to what I had already known about the disease. For example, I now know that breast can-cer doesn’t only affect females, it also affect males but in a smaller ratio, 1 male to 100 females. In addition, breast cancer is the most common type of cancer to cause death among females in Qatar and worldwide.”

Participants taking part in the ‘Ladies Walk the Park’ breast cancer awareness campaign.

CMU-Q admits freshman with highest

mark in the world in IGCSE math

The Peninsula

DOHA: Mohammed Nurul Hoque (pictured), who received the high-est mark in the world in the IGCSE math exam, has joined the Compu-ter Science programme at CMU-Q as a freshman. Nurul Hoque also earned the highest A-level math result in Qatar, and perfect scores on his SAT subject exams.

“We are thrilled that such an accomplished young mathematician has joined Carnegie

Mellon Qatar. Mohammed has a bright future in computer sci-ence,” said Ilker Baybars, dean and CEO of CMU-Q. IGCSE is the International General Certificate of Secondary Education, and is the world’s most popular qual-ification for secondary school students. The standardized exit exam is taken by an estimated 250,000 students each year in

140 countries. A Bangladeshi national, Nurul Hoque was born and raised in Qatar and grad-uated from Tariq Bin Ziyad Secondary School.

14-year-old Palestinian displays his art at Katara The Peninsula

DOHA: General Manager of the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara, Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, inaugurated on Thursday, the exhibition of Palestin-ian artist Mohammed Qraiqea, titled the “Free Bird”.

Also present at the exhibition launch, which comes in collaboration with Palestinian Rozana Youth Association to usher in the beginning of the Palestinian season at the Katara Cultural district, were the Palestinian Ambassador to Qatar, Munir Ghannam and several heads of diplomatic missions to Doha. The exhibition focuses on Palestinian pur-suit for freedom in the expression of art, and features the rich globally-celebrated culture of occupied Pal-estine through innovative artistic themes.

During his tour at the “Free Bird” exhibition, the Katara General Manager said: “Hosting this unique exhibition for a widely-recognised Palestinian tal-ent such as artist Mohammed Qraiqea, who is only 14-year old and started painting since he was 5, is something we are proud of. I wish him and his col-leagues all the success they deserve”.

For his part, Palestinian Ambassador Ghannam expressed his gratitude to the Cultural Village Foun-dation for hosting and displaying the works of artist Qraiqea, stressing the importance of Katara as a renowned platform of culture and art. Ambassador Munir Ghannam added:”Artist Qraiqea comes from the under-occupation and besieged Gaza to send a creative letter of resistance and hope through art and peace to the world”.

The artist also expressed his happiness over see-ing his exhibition staged in Doha after a successful tour in Chicago, the United States of America.

Qraiqea added: “This exhibition echoes the uniqueness of our Palestinian heritage and its rich themes, as well as expressing the dreams of Pales-tinian children under occupation and siege through works where I have mixed oil and wooden colors to convey certain artistic connotations and forms”.

The fully-fledged long Palestinian Season at Katara will run from October until May 2017, and will be featuring recognised Palestinian creative fig-ures, artists, poets, exhibitions and musical shows including national choreography arts such as the Dabki, to bring Palestinian cultural flavour to the multi-national audiences in Doha.

RIGHT: General Manager of the Cultural Village Foundation-Katara, Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim Al Sulaiti, inaugurating the exhibition of Palestinian artist Mohammed Qraiqea, titled the “Free Bird”. on Thursday.ABOVE: One of the artworks of Qraiqea on display at the exhibition.

INSTAGRAM OF THE DAY

Family Fun Fridays held by UDC at the Qanat Quartier in the Pearl Qatar yester-day. pic; Baher Amin