Volume 22 | Number 7321 | 2 RiyalsSaturday 21 October 2017 | 1 Safar 1439 www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

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QNA

The airlift that Qatar recently set to evacuate the victims of the ter-rorist attack on the Somali capital Mogad-

ishu, is continuing its duties, upon the directives of Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.

The number of wounded who have been transferred for treat-ment outside Somalia through the air bridge reached 100, where Qatar pays the cost of treatment in a number of hospitals outside Somalia.

A high-level medical team from the Qatari Armed Forces and Hamad Medical Corporation over-saw the transportation and evacuation of critically injured patients for treatment outside Somalia. Last Tuesday, a C17 plane of the Emiri Air Force arrived at Mogadishu airport carrying Qatar’s aid including medical supplies and first aid in support of the victims of these terrorist bombings.

The flight was accompanied by a team from the Qatar International Search and Rescue Group and an integrated medical team from the Qatari Armed Forces and Hamad Medical Corporation.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Qatar has taken over the coor-dination process to receive and provide medical services to the injured in the hospitals that have been accredited.

The Standing Committee for Rescue, Relief and Humanitar-ian Assistance in the affected areas of the brotherly and friendly countries headed by Lekhwiya is responsible for the provision of relief materials and coordination with the concerned authorities to deliver them to

those affected by the terrorist attack in the sisterly Republic of Somalia last week which resulted in scores of deaths and injuries.

Meanwhile, Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Sudan, H E Rashid bin Abdulrahman Al Nuaimi, paid a visit to the injured Somalis who were taken to Khartoum for treat-ment following the attacks in Somali capital recently, as part of Qatar’s efforts to treat them.

A total of 171 injured Somali and their escorts were flown by Qatari military aircraft in two batches last Tuesday and Wednes-day to Khartoum for treatment at a number of public and private hospitals.

The Ambassador said that a staff member of the Embassy has been assigned to the permanent field monitoring of the injured and their escorts, and coordination with the Embassy to facilitate their requests and treatment pro-cedures. Al Nuaimi praised the great efforts made by the Suda-nese government for treating the wounded.

Qatar airlifts and treats 271 Somali blast victims

Poultry farms in Qatar achieve 75% self-sufficiency post siege

Sidi Mohamed The Peninsula

The General Directorate of Traffic has warned young-sters against drifting and reckless driving otherwise the violation may lead to confisca-tion of vehicles for three month, an official at the General Direc-torate of Traffic at The Ministry of Interior said.

“The vehicles of the violators and stunt-drivers are seized in case of violating the law and this confiscation of vehicle is a max-imum period of three months”, the source added.

The punishment also included hefty fines which might reach up to QR3,000 and the cases of repeated violations are transferred to public prosecu-tion, he added.

“In case the driver indulged in drifting destroys public prop-erties, they must pay the cost of the loss occurred. For examples if the driver make a damage to the road, the Public Works

Authority “Ashghal” is the body to take legal action against the said person and the General Directorate of Traffic will trans-fer his case to Ashghal to register a complaint in the court”, he added.

The Investigation Section of the General Directorate of the Traffic strictly monitor such cases. People are cooperating with the department and the res-idents can send pictures of violators and the investigation

section will follow them, the offi-cial added.

The problem and difficulties being faced by the section to control such reckless driving behavior is the fact that these stunt-drivers choose places which are far from the eyes of the police; they choose places like Salwa Road, Al Sailiya, and Airport road.

The official said that the peo-ple used to ask the department to introduce strict monitoring

mechanism against such reck-less drivers.

Earlier a source told The Peninsula that in case the drift-ing is practiced in residential areas which might expose peo-ple’s life to danger, vehicle would be booked for 90 days and “may be transferred to the public prosecution depending on the nature of the offence.”

Many residents are com-plaining from this practice and say that “the problem of stunt-drivers is that they even practice this violation near schools and anyone can see the skid marks of tires on the streets around the schools and this may attract stu-dents to imitate them. The punishment must be increased against those who are doing the drifting near of schools and in residential areas”, said Jassem, a resident in Duhail.

Another resident also men-tioned that the youngsters who were indulged in such practices choose places and times when no one could notice them.

Irfan Bukhari The Peninsula

Owing to the opening of Hamad Port and launch of new shipping lines after imposition of blockade, Qatar’s maritime and logistics company, Milaha, is set to ben-efit from higher earnings of global shipping industry.

“Milaha stands to benefit in the near term from higher earn-ings across the shipping industry, a trend that should also support Qatar’s broader maritime trade ambitions,” said a recent report titled “Qatar to benefit from new shipping services” released by Oxford Business Group.

The report points out that on September 22, the Baltic Dry Index – the main sea freight index that tracks rates for ships carrying dry bulk – reached a near three-and-a-half-year high of 1502. Average daily earnings for Cape, Panamax

and Supramax vessels stood at $22,392, $12,006 and $10,723, respectively, up from $15,202, $5790 and $7019 in the previ-ous year. The OBG report predicts that new (shipping) serv-ices will support Qatar’s efforts to diversify its trading partners, a target underpinned by the country’s $7.4bn Hamad Port.

It particularly mentions two new services launched last month. On September 17 the Swiss-based Mediterranean Shipping Company and Taiwan’s Yang Ming Transport Corpora-tion both opened new weekly lines to Hamad Port.

Four ships, each with the capacity to accommodate 6000 containers, including 400 reefer containers, have begun operating on MSC’s new East Mediterranean Service, which runs between ports in Turkey, Greece, India, Oman and Qatar.

Continued on page 3

Vehicles used for drifting may be impounded for 3 months Milaha to benefit from global shipping industry earnings

A wide-angle view of West Bay skyline along the Corniche. Pic: Kammutty VP / The Peninsula

Architectural splendour

Sanaullah Ataullah The Peninsula

Qatar has achieved 75 percent self-suf-ficiency in poultry and over 47 per-cent in dairy

production and after the blockade an increase of 25 percent and 20 percent was recorded respectively.

“The credit of a sudden increase goes to the dairy and poultry farms which acted quickly for increasing their production capacity to meet growing demands of local market availing the opportunity to grab the mar-ket shares of blockading countries,” said Farhud Hadi Al Hajari, Head of the Live-stock Department at the Ministry of Municipality and Environment.

The self-sufficiency rate of the country in poultry production had reached 75

percent from 50 percent during the pre-blockade period, Al Hajari told a talk show aired by Al Rayyan TV under “Tarheeb” program recently.

Al Hajari said Qatar had also achieved 47.3 percent self-sufficiency in dairy products from 27.5 percent recorded before the block-ade. However, he said the self-sufficiency in red meat production witnessed mar-ginal change from 14 percent to 14.2 percent.

The Head of the Livestock Department also revealed new projects that aim at bringing Qatar in the position of export for dairy and poul-try products.

“The Department issued a total of 25 new licences for dairy and poultry farms after the blockade,” said Al Hajari. He said that construction works on 13 projects – 10 dairy farms and three

poultry farms has begun and existing farms were also being expanded to increase the production.

“With the completion of 13 new projects and expan-sion of existing farms, the self-sufficiency rate of the country in milk production will reach to 196.6 percent,” said Al Hajari adding that additional production would be surplus that could be exported. He said that the daily milk consumption of the country ranges between 600 and 650 tonnes.

“With the help of new projects, the local poultry products will cover 257 per-cent need of local market making huge surplus in chicken and egg production,” said Al Hajari. He said the production of red meat would also reach to 21 percent of total need of the country.

Continued on page 3

QATAR has strongly con-demned the attacks that targeted mosques in Afghani-stan and resulted in a number of deaths and injuries. In a statement, the Ministry of For-eign Affairs reiterated the State of Qatar’s firm stance rejecting violence and terrorism regard-less of motives and reasons.

The statement also stressed Qatar’s total rejection of tar-geting places of worship and intimidating civilians. The Ministry’s statement expressed Qatar’s condolences to the families of the victims, the gov-ernment and people of Afghanistan, and wished the injured a speedy recovery.

At least 72 people were killed when suicide bombers targeted mosques in Kabul and the western province of Ghor. The suicide bomber detonated his device inside a mosque in Dasht-e-Barchi, a western part of Kabul.

See also page 7

A total of 171 injured Somali and their escorts were flown by Qatari military aircraft in two batches last Tuesday and Wednesday to Khartoum for treatment at a number of public and private hospitals.

Qatar strongly condemns attacks in Afghanistan

02 SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 2017HOME

The Peninsula

Aster DM Healthcare, marked the Interna-tional Infection Control Week the Global Hand Hygiene Day by spreading awareness among healthcare professionals.

Week long activities being held at the Aster Hospital and Aster Medical Centers across the country until tomorrow (Saturday), with an ultimate aim to enhance patient safety.

Studies have shown that although compliance rates are improving, significant per-centage of health care workers fail to consistently wash their hands between patients. Most of studies have strongly correlated that the basic cause of any disease is infection spread through the hands.

At Aster, infection preven-tion and control program is driven by guidelines, recom-mendations and regulations governing practice that are issued by the Ministry of Pub-lic Health and other groups those are stakeholders in patient and healthcare worker safety.

Every healthcare worker including doctors; nurses; paramedical, housekeeping and administrator staff have equal role in infection pre-vention and control activity.

Aster DM Healthcare is observing International Infec-tion Control Week the Global Hand Hygiene Day as a con-tinuous commitment towards infection prevention and con-trol for the wellbeing of patients and healthcare workers.

Aster marks International Infection Control Week

Washington The Peninsula

Qatar Foundation Interna-tional (QFI) has brought together four students from Los Angeles, California; Portland, Oregon; and Tucson, Arizona, and seven students from Qatar for the 6th Annual Qatar Leadership Conference (QLC).

The students will present globally-focused service learn-ing projects that they created, each of which meets one of the 2030 United Nations Sustaina-ble Development Goals (SDGs).

The conference, started on October 19 until today, is a joint project run by The Hague Inter-national Model United Nations (THIMUN) Qatar and Northwest-ern University in Qatar. It is the largest professional development conference in the Middle East devoted to high school students and their teachers, designed to develop student and teacher leadership within schools, with particular focus on the Model United Nations program.

Students were selected to attend the QLC based on their participation in YALLAH (Youth

Allied to Learn, Lead and Help) Commit to Action (C2A), a program piloted by QFI in part-nership with the National Youth Leadership Council (NYLC) to develop global citizenship and leadership skills among QFI’s youth community. “We are com-mitted to engaging high school students in activities that are meaningful to them,” said Mag-gie Mitchell Salem, executive director of QFI. “Students par-ticipating in C2A and QFI’s other Youth Engagement activities connect the SDGs with practi-cal, local action that improves communities and connects stu-dents with their peers from dozens of other countries including Qatar.”

The three workshops that the QFI students created and will present include:

Managing A Community Project at 17: A Survival Guide – An interactive workshop that explores engaging youth, mar-keting community project

ideas, and funding challenges (Global Goal 15).

Using the Sustainable Devel-opment Goals to Take Action in your Community – An arts-based educational workshop for young students to teach them how to help protect life below water (Global Goal 14), and a workshop to improve sanitation conditions (Global Goal 6) for the homeless population in Portland, Oregon

Using Advocacy and Global Collaboration to Further the Sustainable Development Goals – Innovative advocacy cam-paigns implemented in three schools to address access to quality education (Global Goal 4), and a workshop using online collaboration, virtual service showcasing, and cross-cultural exchange to create surveys, community meetings and a poster contest to raise

awareness around responsible consumption and production (Global Goal 12)

QFI has launched applica-tions for the 2017-2018 YALLAH Commit to Action program to train and mentor a new cohort of students and inspiring projects revolving around the Sustainable Development Goals. Interested high school students may apply at qfi.fluidreview.com

The Peninsula

In the framework of its contin-uous efforts to support voluntary youth initiatives, NAMA Center, one of Qatar Foundation for Social Work’s (QFSW) Centers, participates in the Fourth International Volun-teering Youth Forum.

The Forum is being organ-ised by Qatar University under the patronage of the Minister of Culture and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanim Al Ali,

T h e I n t e r n a t i o n a l

Volunteering Youth Forum is sponsored by a number of lead-ing institutions in Qatar, namely NAMA Center (Platinum Spon-sor), HDC (Golden Sponsor), Ibtikar (Bronze Sponsor), Qatar Charity (Community Partner), and Al Rayyan Channel (Media Sponsor).

The 3-day long forum at Qatar University started on Octo-ber 19 and will end today.

Students from GCC universi-ties, with more than 400 students are participating in the event in addition to volunteers. The forum

will also host a number of aca-demics and specialists in community service.

In its fourth edition, the forum discusses the ways and means of promoting voluntary work and community service in Gulf universities, with volunteer-ing be addressed as a necessity and learning source for individ-ual and community building. It will also draw lines connecting Qatar University students, par-takers from other universities with voluntary initiatives, and specialists from participating

countries. The most successful experiences in the field of com-munity responsibility, which represent a source of inspiration for those interested in voluntary work, will also be shared.

The forum’s objectives will be achieved through the presen-tation of academic papers by academics and specialists, as well as working papers for a range of projects implemented by Qatar University and other universities as part of participating projects and initiatives. This is in addition to the presentation of a series of

workshops in the field of social e n t r e p r e n e u r s h i p a n d leadership.

On this occasion, Maryam Bint Abdullatif Al Mannai, Acting Executive Director at NAMA, said: “Our participation in the Inter-national Volunteering Youth Forum comes in the context of implementing the strategic direc-tions of NAMA Center, foremost of which is nurturing human cap-ital with youth representing its backbone, owing to their ability to create, innovate and meet the needs of the community.”

NAMA Center aims to nurture human capital

QLC showcases inspiring talents of students

Students pose for a photograph at the 6th Annual Qatar Leadership Conference.

The Peninsula

H E Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud Al Thani, Governor of Qatar Central Bank and Chairman of Qatar

Development Bank, is currently on a visit to Sweden from Octo-ber 18-21 together with Abdulaziz Al-Khalifa, CEO of Qatar Devel-opment Bank.

Sheikh Abdulla was invited by Mikael Damberg, Sweden’s Minister of Enterprise and Inno-vation, for a knowledge sharing visit focused on Innovation and Entrepreneurship in the areas of financial technology, bio-med-ical technology, and waste-to-energy technology. The delegation also contains repre-sentatives from Qatar Financial Center, said a statement issued by Embassy of Sweden in Qatar.

During the visit of Sheikh Abdulla, Governor of Qatar Cen-tral Bank, the Qatari delegation met with several important Swedish public sector, academia, a n d p r i v a t e s e c t o r representatives.

The visit was hosted by Mikael Damberg, Swedish Min-ister of Enterprise and Innovation, who had invited Sheikh Abdullahbin Sauod Al Thani to Sweden.

Along the QCB Governor in the delegation is Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al Khalifa, CEO of Qatar Development Bank, Sheikh Kha-lid bin Saod Al Thani, Director of QCB Financial Stability & Statis-tics Department, Michael Rayn, Executive Manager at Qatar Financial Centre, Abdulrahman bin Hesham Al Suwaidi, CEO Office Manager at QDB, and Rauf Mammadov, CEO Advisor at QDB.

The meetings will also be attended by Abdulaziz Al Naemi,

Chargé d’affaires of the Embassy of the State of Qatar in Stock-holm. Ewa Polano, Ambassador of Sweden to Qatar, is also accompanying the Governor on his visit to Stockholm.

During the visit, Sheikh Abdulla and Abdulaziz Al Khal-ifa met with the Delegation’s host Mikael Damberg, Swedish Min-ister for Enterprise & Innovation. This meeting was also attended by representatives from Vinnova, the Swedish Agency for Innova-tion and Entrepreneurship Promotion, and SISP, Swedish Incubators and Science Parks.

A meeting was also held with Sheikh Abdalla’s Swedish coun-terpart, Stefan Ingves, Governor of the Swedish Riksbank.

A major focus during the visit to Stockholm was knowledge sharing in the area of Financial

Technology, which is currently a prioritised area for Qatar Development Bank.

Sweden has a highly devel-oped ecosystem for the incubation of financial technol-ogy startups, and is strongly recognised in this field. After London, Stockholm has the sec-ond highest number of financial technology startups in Europe. Because of this, Stockholm is a perfect model city for Qatar to engage with in knowledge shar-ing efforts, and this has been recognized by both Qatar Devel-opment Bank and Qatar Central Bank.

Because of this, a Financial Technology Roundtable Semi-nar was hosted for the delegation by Business Sweden. The Semi-nar was attended by the full Qatari delegation, and on the

Swedish side by representatives from several key private sector financial technology companies and banks, including SEB, Seam-less, HiQ, Verisec, Behaviosec, Chromaway, Me2Yo, Beam Wal-let Nordic, and others. A separate meeting was held with EQT, a Swedish private equity firm spe-cial iz ing in f inancial technology.

Another focus area for Qatar Development Bank and for the delegation was innovation and entrepreneurship in bio-medi-cal technology. Because of this, meetings were held with Dr. Niclas Adler, Chairman of Karo-linska Development, and Dr. Hans Wigzell, Professor Emeri-tus and former President of Karolinska Institute’s Nobel Prize Committee.

The Karolinska Institute (KI) is one of the best medical research institutions and univer-sity hospitals in the world, and a member of the prestigious Emeri List published by Qatar’s MoE.

KI proudly counts among its alumni several prominent Qatari doctors in leading positions. Dur-ing this meeting, collaboration opportunities between Sweden and Qatar in the field of bio-medical technology and innovation was discussed, with a focus on how both parties can

leverage their strengths to form a mutually beneficial relation-ship, both on the research and commercial sides.

Another area in which Swe-den is a world leader is waste management. As is well known, Sweden today imports waste from other countries and con-verts it to energy, resulting in Sweden having the lowest per-centage of waste ending up in landfills in the world. As such, Sweden is the best country to learn from in this field, and a knowledge sharing visit was held to Smart City Sweden, under the tagline “Waste to Energy – Waste as a Resource”.

Additionally, the Governor and the Abdulaziz met with

Maria Rankka, CEO of the Stock-holm Chamber of Commerce, following up on her visit to Doha last year. Additional meetings and visits included a study visit to KTH, the Royal Institute of Technology, and its innovation and incubation space, among others.

The visit of Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud Al Thani and Abdulaziz bin Nasser Al-Khalifa to Sweden symbolizes the close relations of the two countries, and a strengthened commitment between Sweden and Qatar in the areas most relevant to Qatar National Vision 2030. It was an important step in the deepening bilateral relationship between the two nations.

Qatar-Sweden collaboration opportunities discussed

Mikael Damberg, Swedish Minister for Enterprise & Innovation (left) and Stefan Ingves, Governor of the Swedish Riksbank.

H E Sheikh Abdulla bin Saoud Al Thani (left) , Governor of Qatar Central Bank and Chairman of Qatar Development Bank.

A major focus during the visit to Stockholm was knowledge sharing in the area of Financial Technology, which is currently a prioritised area for Qatar Development Bank.

Another area in which Sweden is a world leader is waste management. As is well known, Sweden today imports waste from other countries and converts it to energy, resulting in Sweden having the lowest percentage of waste ending up in landfills in the world. As such, Sweden is the best country to learn from in this field, and a knowledge sharing visit was held to Smart City Sweden, under the tagline “Waste to Energy – Waste as a Resource”.

03SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 2017 HOME / MIDDLE EAST / AFRICA

Geneva Reuters

A plague epidemic has killed 94 people on the island of Madagascar and could spread further, the World Health Organization said yesterday.

WHO’s Africa emergencies director, Ibrahima Soce Fall, told reporters in Geneva the organi-sation was racing to stop both

the Madagascar plague and an outbreak of the Ebola-like Mar-burg virus in Uganda that it was confident it could contain.

Plague is endemic in Mada-gascar, but the outbreak that has caused 1,153 suspected cases since August is especially wor-rying because it started earlier in the season than usual, it has hit towns rather than rural areas, and it is mainly causing pneu-monic plague, the most deadly

form of the disease.The outbreak already looks

big when compared with the 3,248 cases and 584 deaths reported worldwide from 2010 to 2015. Fall said the risk to Madagascar remained very high, although the international risk was very low. WHO has deliv-ered antibiotics to Madagascar to treat up to 5,000 patients and as a prophylactic dose for up to 100,000 people who might be

at risk, as well as 150,000 sets of p e r s o n a l p r o t e c t i v e equipment.

About 2,000 healthworkers are tracing people who have had contact with plague sufferers, which should allow the disease to be controlled relatively quickly, Fall said.

“I’m confident that with the strong team we have on the ground, combined with more partners coming and health

workers, we will be able very quickly to reverse the trend.”

In Uganda, WHO hopes to halt an outbreak of Marburg, a highly infectious haemorrhagic fever similar to Ebola, which killed a 50-year-old woman on Oct. 11, three weeks after her brother died of similar symptoms.“The positive thing is that Uganda is very used to man-aging this kind of outbreak,” Fall said.

94 dead in Madagascar plague outbreak

Istanbul Anatolia

Turkey’s president yes-terday lashed out against the US and some European coun-tries for failing to

support Turkey’s fight against terrorism.

Speaking to reporters after the D-8 summit in Istanbul, Recep Tayyip Erdogan singled out recent public displays in sup-port of terrorist groups and terrorist group leaders.

Referring to a banner of con-victed terrorist leader Abdullah Ocalan being displayed by US-supported forces after taking the city of Raqqah, Syria, this week, Erdogan said: “They [PKK/PYD] hung a poster of the terrorist leader somewhere there in Raqqah. How can America explain this? When you speak, you say the PKK is a ‘terrorist organization’.”

Despite recognizing the PKK as a terrorist group -- and against strong Turkish protests -- the US has long armed and equipped the Syrian PKK/PYD, calling it a “reli-able ally” in its war against Daesh.

Referring to a weekend inci-dent in which supporters of the

PKK terrorist organization hung a poster of Ocalan from the Paris headquarters of a major news agency, Agence France Presse (AFP), Erdogan added: “France also hung a poster of the terror-ist leader from a building of its own state TV. Police watched it [happening] from there. How can they explain this?” \ The PKK -- listed as a terrorist organization by Turkey, the EU and US -- has

killed more than 1,200 Turkish security personnel and civilians since July 2015.

Erdogan continued: “They [the PKK] march in Germany. During the march, under police supervision, there is every kind of chant, and they march together with those posters.”

On Monday, around 500 pro-PKK demonstrators gathered at Kennedy Square in Frankfurt and

shouted anti-Turkey slogans, without any confrontation from the police.

Some of the PKK sympathiz-ers carried banned posters and flags of the terrorist group, although Germany’s Interior Min-istry prohibited such posters and flags earlier this year.

Erdogan added: “When we hold bilateral talks, they say, ‘We stand by you in fight against ter-rorism.’ We do not believe you. You do not stand by us. “If you stood by us, you would not pro-tect all of these with the police.”

Erdogan added that the states of the D-8 -- an economic group consisting of eight emerging economies from the Muslim world -- are resolved to help Tur-key fight terror groups such as Fetullah Terrorist Organization (FETO) and the PKK. He said that especially on FETO and the PKK, D-8 members are determined to show solidarity and offer coop-e r a t i o n , i n c l u d i n g intelligence-sharing.

US & Europe not supporting Turkey’s terror war: Erdogan

Erdogan said: “They [PKK/PYD] hung a poster of the terrorist leader somewhere there in Raqqah. How can America explain this? When you speak, you say the PKK is a ‘terrorist organization’.”

Baghdad Reuters

Iraqi forces took control yes-terday of the last district in the oil-rich province of Kirkuk still in the hands of Kurdish Peshmerga fighters following a three-hour battle, security sources said.

The district of Altun Kupri, or Perde in Kurdish, lies on the road between the city of Kirkuk - which fell to Iraqi forces on Monday - and Erbil, capital of the semi-autono-mous region of Kurdistan in northern Iraq that voted in a referendum last month to secede from Iraq against Bagh-dad’s wishes. A force made up of U.S-trained Iraqi Counter-Terrorism Service units, Iranian-backed Popular

Mobilisation and Federal Police began their advance on Altun Kupri at 7:30am, said an Iraqi military spokesman.

“Details will be communi-cated later,” the spokesman said in a short posting on social media.

Kurdish Peshmerga forces withdrew from the town of Altun Kupri, located on the Zab river, after battling the advanc-ing Iraqi troops with machine guns, mortars and rocket pro-pelled grenades, security sources said.

It was not immediately clear whether there had been any casualties in the fighting. The Iraqi forces have advanced into Kirkuk province largely unopposed as most Peshmerga forces withdrew without a fight.

Iraqi forces end takeover of oil-rich Kirkuk province

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a news conference in Istanbul, yesterday.

Gaza City AFP

A high-ranking Hamas delegation began a visit to Iran yesterday to inform its backers in Tehran about reconciliation efforts with rival Palestinian faction Fatah, an official from the Islamist movement said.

The group led by deputy chief Salah Al Aruri will meet senior Iranian officials over the next several days, the rep-resentative said on condition of anonymity, after Israel insisted it will not recognise any unity Palestinian govern-ment unless Hamas cuts off ties with Tehran.

The two Palestinians fac-tions have agreed a landmark deal to end a decade-long split and seek to form a unity government along with other parties, as per the informa-tion available.

Official: Hamas delegation visits Iran

Qatar’s Minister of Foreign Affairs H E Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani has sent a written message to the Minister of Economy and Finance of the Republic of Italy, Pier Carlo Padoan, pertaining to bilateral relations between the two countries. The message was handed over by Ambassador of the State of Qatar to Italy, Abdulaziz bin Ahmed Al Malki, during a meeting with Diplomatic Advisor to the Italian Minister of Economy and Finance, Michele Quaroni.

Message to Italy

The Peninsula

Carnegie Mellon Univer-sity in Qatar (CMU-Q) has announced the Dean’s List for the spring 2017 academic semester, recognising 126 students for exemplary academic performance.

“To earn a place on the Dean’s List is no small feat. In each and every class, stu-dents are challenged to delve deep, think creatively, study and review, and work very, very hard. The students who are on the spring 2017 Dean’s List have risen to the chal-lenge, and I congratulate them and wish them contin-ued success,” said Michael Trick, dean of CMU-Q.

In the spring semester, 29 seniors, 52 juniors, 22 sophomores and 23 fresh-men from each of CMU-Q’s programs—biological sci-e n c e s , b u s i n e s s administration, computer science and information systems.

CMU-Q recognises 126 students

Continued from page 1

Yang Ming, meanwhile, launched its China Gulf Express Service with a single vessel that can also carry 6000 contain-ers. The ship’s route takes in Shanghai, Ningbo, Xiamen and Shekou ports in China, Kaohsi-ung (Taiwan), Port Klang (Malaysia) and Hamad Port.

On Hamad Port, OBG report says that the port has been in partial operation since late 2015, when it began catering to vessels carrying roll-on/roll-off

cargo, livestock and heavy equipment. However, the facil-ity is now able to accommodate large container ships for the first time. “This additional facil-ity is pivotal for Qatar as recent regional tensions have meant that Doha-bound cargo can no longer be transferred from larger ships to smaller vessels in the UAE and at ports in Oman as was previously the case.”

The report suggests that the construction of separate termi-nals designed to handle general cargo, cereal, livestock and

vehicles at Hamad Port is expected to support pursuit of these goals.

Separately, according to statistics released by Mwani (Qatar Ports Management Com-pany) last week, ports of Qatar have seen a steep rise in the movement of cargo in the last s ix months (Apri l to September).

Ports in Qatar have seen strong surge in the movement of general cargo, containers, livestock and aggregates. The movement of containers from

ports has jumped by around 81 percent during April - Septem-ber period this year. According to stats, Mwani Qatar handled 83,260 Twenty Foot Equivalent Units (TEUs) in September 2017 compared to 46,056 TEUs in April this year.

Movement of general cargo witnessed 376 percent surge since June 2017 and 26 percent rise since April 2017 as, the company cleared 148,217 tonnes of general cargo in Sep-tember 2017 compared to 31,105 tonnes in June and

117,614 tonnes in April.Mwani Qatar in cooperation

with its partners had, in the past few months, inaugurated a number of new direct shipping lines between Hamad port and a number of ports in the region and beyond.

The new routes connected Qatar ports to Sohar and Sala-lah ports in Oman, Shuwaikh Port in Kuwait, Karachi port in Pakistan, Izmir port in Turkey, Mundra and Jawaharlal Nehru Port, also known as Nhava Sheva Port, in India.

Milaha to benefit from global shipping industry earnings

Continue from page 1

“We sped up the projects immediately after the siege however the plans were already there to meet the requirements of local market. We were mov-ing according to our plans looking for an alternative source and expanding the facilities to increase the production but the blockade changed everything drastically,” he added. Al Hajari said that livestock sector was growing at the rate of 21 per-cent during past five years. Recent statistics reveal the pop-ulation of livestock including goat, sheep, cow and camels crossed one million in the country.

Speaking on sudden rise of

dairy and poultry production, Al Hajari said that credit goes to the farms that worked day and night to increase their capacity to meet the growing demand in local market. “We visited the farms after blockade and were surprised to see their prepara-tions to increase the capacity,” he added. Al Hajari also thanked consumers for preferring local products. “All products taken to the markets are being sold out, nothing is left to be brought back to the stores,” he added.

Regarding the state support to the farms, Al Hajari said that the Department provides all necessary support to business owners like conducting feasi-bly studies, guidance for suitable projects and closely

following up the projects to remove any obstacle in the way of the implementation.

Meanwhile, a local dairy farm has imported new batch of cows from different sources. A number of dairy and poultry farms that were producing only for personal use before the blockade have expanded their farms to commercial level.

“We started breeding sheep and chicken for commercial purpose about three months ago when the demand surged,” Mohamad Absarul, in-charge of a livestock farm at Umm Salal suburb told The Peninsula. “Now we have about 3,000 sheep and 2,000 chicken. We produce about 30 crates egg per day,” he added.

Poultry farms in Qatar achieve 75% self-sufficiency: Official

04 SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 2017MIDDLE EAST

Blantyre AFP

Malawian police said yesterday that 124 people had arrested after a vigilante mob killed two men accused of being “vampires” trying to obtain human blood for rituals.

The killings bring the death toll to nine as vampire rumours have swept the country’s southern region since last month, forcing authorities to impose a night-time curfew. “One person was burned and another stoned to death by angry mobs in incidents on Thursday for being suspected to be blood suckers,” police spokesman Ramsy Mushani said. The lat-est killings took place outside Blantyre, the country’s com-mercial capital, where angry mobs clashed with police and blocked main roads to pro-test against the alleged vampire threat. Police chief said the arrests had been made in a “coordinated operation”.

Nairobi Reuters

Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga, who says he will boycott a presidential election re-run due next week, said yesterday he would announce a “way forward” the day before the scheduled poll, raising the possibility he might participate after all.

At a memorial in western Kenya for opposition support-ers killed in protests against the vote set for October 26, Odinga told his supporters not to attack “innocent people” including peo-ple who support his rival President Uhuru Kenyatta.

He did not comment on an announcement by the electoral board chief executive Ezra Chi-loba earlier yesterday that he would take three weeks’ leave.

Kenya is holding the re-run after the Supreme Court threw out the result of an August 8 election won by the incumbent Kenyatta but disputed by the challenger Odinga. The opposi-tion leader has refused to participate in the re-run, argu-ing that reforms were needed first to prevent fraud.

The opposition has demanded Chiloba resign, and the announcement that he will not participate in running the vote suggests progress in behind-the-scenes negotiations

involving Western diplomats and religious and civil society lead-ers. Uncertainty over whether Odinga will participate in the election and concerns that it may not proceed peacefully have left Kenya, a traditionally stable Western ally in an often chaotic region, mired in political crisis.

The volatile build-up to the October 26 vote has revived memories for Kenyans of ethni-cally charged violence that killed around 1,200 people after a dis-puted election in 2007, when Odinga also lost and disputed the result.

Chiloba told Reuters that, in light of the opposition’s demands, he was going on leave, and that all arrangements for next week’s vote were in place.

At least 45 people died nationwide in a police crack-down on opposition supporters after the August vote, including a six-month old baby struck on the head by a police baton.

With Odinga yet to respond to Chiloba’s decision to go on leave, diplomats said they were unsure what would happen next.

“The crystal ball is very cloudy at the moment,” a senior western diplomat in Nairobi told Reuters. “The situation is chang-ing by the hour.”

The electoral board has said next week’s election will go ahead. Odinga met its chairman Wafula Chebukati on Thursday

and later told reporters that if there were serious consultations and serious reforms, the oppo-sition could review its boycott.

Chebukati had said a day earlier that he could not guar-antee the election would be free and fair, citing interference from politicians and threats of vio-lence against colleagues. A fellow board member resigned this week after fleeing to the United States, saying she feared for her

life. The opposition has held near-daily protests demanding electoral reforms and the sack-ing of board officials. Police said on Friday four people were killed as a result of their interventions to stop demonstrations.

Kenyatta has meanwhile urged Kenyans to come out in large numbers to vote, insisting the ballot be held. On Thursday, he snubbed an invitation to meet Chebukati, saying he would

instead spend the time campaigning.

In a speech in Nairobi on Fri-day, Kenyatta said the election must not divide the nation or push it to the brink. Disruptions of the vote by “those who thrive in chaos and relish anarchy” would not be tolerated, and security forces “have been enhanced and appropriately deployed to maintain law and order”, he said.

Beirut AP

A US-backed Syrian force declared vic-tory over the Islamic State group in its former “capital” of

Raqqa yesterday, declaring the northern Syrian city free of any extremist presence after a four-month battle that left it in ruins.

At a press conference held inside the city, the Kurdish-led force known as the Syrian Dem-ocratic Forces formally handed over administration of the dev-astated northern city to a council made up of local officials and tribal leaders and a 3,000-strong US-trained police force tasked with governance and security.

In a highly symbolic move, the press conference was held inside the city’s sports stadium which Islamic State militants had turned into an arms depot and a huge prison where they incar-cerated and tortured their opponents.

“Our victory is one against terrorism, and the liberation of Raqqa marks the latest chapter

in the fight against terrorists in Syria,” said Talal Sillo, a spokes-man and senior SDF commander.

Standing before a backdrop of shattered and collapsed build-ings, Sillo appealed to the international community and aid organizations to assist with the city’s reconstruction. The UN and aid organizations estimate about 80 percent of the city is destroyed or uninhabitable.

Associated Press drone foot-age from Raqqa showed the extent of devastation caused by weeks of fighting between Kurd-ish-led forces and the Islamic State group and thousands of

bombs dropped by the US-led coalition.

Footage from Thursday shows the bombed-out shells of buildings and heaps of concrete slabs lay piled on streets littered with destroyed cars. Entire neighborhoods are seen turned to rubble, with little sign of civil-ian life. The video showed entire blocks in the city as uninhabita-ble with knocked-out walls and blown-out windows and doors, while some buildings had sev-eral stories turned to piles of debris. The stadium that was used as an arms depot and prison by the extremists appears to have suffered less damage compared

with surrounding buildings.“We call upon all countries

and peace-loving forces and all humanitarian organizations to participate in rebuilding the city and villages around it and help in removing the scars of war that were inflicted by the (IS) group,” Sillo said.

Sillo said 655 local and inter-national fighters lost their lives fighting IS during the four-month battle for Raqqa. He added that

residents will be allowed to start returning to the city once the mines and explosives are removed. In other cities that the extremists lost earlier, experts worked for weeks to remove booby traps and explosives that kept maiming and killing people long after IS left.

Long before the ground offensive by the Syrian Demo-cratic Forces began in Raqqa in early June, warplanes pounded

the city for months. The US-backed Kurdish-led SDF announced Tuesday they have driven IS militants out of the city after weeks of fighting.

The fall of Raqqa marks a major defeat for IS, which has seen its territories steadily shrink since last year. IS took over Raqqa, located on the Euphrates River, in January 2014, and trans-formed it into the epicenter of its brutal rule.

US-backed Syrian forces declares victory in Raqqa

Mogadishu AP

Thousands of anguished Somalis gathered to pray yesterday at the site of the country’s deadliest attack, while the US military said it had resumed its fight against extrem-ist group Al Shabab with a drone strike.

“This pain will last for years,” said a sheikh leading the prayers, as long lines of mourners stood in front of flattened or tangled buildings. More than 300 people were killed and nearly 400 wounded in Saturday’s truck bombing in Mogadishu, with scores said to be missing.

The US drone strike occurred

Monday about 56km southwest of the capital, the US Africa Com-mand told The Associated Press. It said it was still assessing the results.

Al Shabab has been blamed but has not commented on the bombing, which Somali intelli-gence officials say was meant to target Mogadishu’s heavily forti-fied international airport. Several countries have embassies there.

The US has stepped up mili-tary involvement in the long-fractured Horn of Africa nation since President Donald Trump approved expanded oper-ations against the group early this year. The US has carried out at least 19 drone strikes in Somalia since January.

Eyes on Odinga as election board official takes leave

Female fighters of Syrian Democratic Forces gesture the “V” sign while onboard a pick up truck in Raqqa, yesterday.

The video showed entire blocks in the city as uninhabitable with knocked-out walls and blown-out windows and doors, while some buildings had several storeys turned to piles of debris. The stadium that was used as an arms depot and prison by the extremists appears to have suffered less damage compared with surrounding buildings.

Somalis pray for victims yesterday in Mogadishu on the scene of a massive truck bomb attack.

US military targets rebels after Mogadishu attack

124 held in Malawi over ‘vampire’ lynching: Police

Supporters of Kenya’s opposition leader Raila Odinga of the opposition National Super Alliance (NASA) coalition shout slogans at a political rally at the Kamukunji Ground in Nairobi, yesterday.

Aden AFP

A drone strike targeting a car killed three sus-pected Al Qaeda members, including a leader in the southern Yemen prov-ince of Abyan, local officials said yesterday.

They said the apparent US strike was carried out late Thursday in the Sumaa area of the province, with the lead-er’s body left “incinerated” and his two bodyguards also killed. A similar drone strike on Sunday in Marib province, east of the Yemeni capital Sanaa, killed five suspected Al-Qaeda militants. The United States, the only gov-ernment to operate drones over impoverished country, considers the Yemen-based Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to be the radical group’s dangerous branch.

3 dead in Yemen drone strike

05SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 2017 ASIA

Devotees hold up clothes and umbrellas to receive rice as offerings being distributed by a temple authority on the occasion of the Annakut festival in Kolkata, yesterday.

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New DelhiIANS

New Delhi was shrouded in a thick toxic haze yesterday after a night of fren-z i e d D i w a l i

fireworks sent the air quality plummeting despite a ban on their sale aimed at thwarting a repeat of last year’s ‘airpocalypse’.

India’s Supreme Court had banned the sale of firecrackers ahead of the Hindu festival of lights to prevent a repeat of last year’s post-Diwali air pollution crises that left Delhi’s 20 million residents gasping for weeks.

But late Thursday the read-ings for PM10 pollutants hovered around 1,100 microgram per cubic metre in some parts of the city -- 11 times above the pre-scribed air quality levels of World Health Organisation.

PM10 particles measure less than 10 microns or 10 millionths of a metre -- several times thin-ner than a human hair.

Air quality data from the

state-run Delhi Pollution Con-trol Committee showed pollution levels in a crowded neighbour-hood hit 1,179 around midnight as firework displays reached a crescendo.

Residents of Delhi, rated the most polluted city by WHO in 2014, showed little consideration for the ban, purchasing crackers illegally or using those bought earlier.

The levels had subsided through the night but were still “severe” in several districts

across the capital Friday afternoon.

Nobel peace laureate Kailash Satyarthi said he was pained by Delhi’s nonchalant attitude.

“Delhiites continue to choke on pollution. It is a reflection of our dismissive & disrespectful attitude towards society, law & justice. When will we learn,” he wrote on Twitter.

The spike in levels came on a day when a report in the Lan-cet medical journal said pollution had claimed as many as 2.5 mil-lion lives in India in 2015, the highest in the world.

Globally the number of deaths due to environmental pol-lution stood at nine million - three times more than AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria com-bined, the study said.

Delhi’s air quality typically worsens at the onset of winter, due to pollution from diesel engines, coal-fired power plants, industrial emissions and atmos-pheric dust.

Levels of PM2.5 -- the finer particles linked to higher rates of chronic bronchitis, lung

cancer and heart disease -- have soared since the beginning of this month when millions of farmers in the city’s north burn post-har-vest crop residue.

The court on October 9 had banned sale of firecrackers across the city in anticipation of last year’s catastrophic levels of pollution. But it did not put any restrictions on the bursting of fireworks.

Last year’s Diwali festivities took pollution levels to a record high -- the worst in nearly two decades -- forcing the govern-ment to shut schools and close down a coal-fired power plant.

On Tuesday an environmen-tal watchdog ordered the shutting down of all diesel gen-erators and the city’s lone coal-fired power plant as part of a slew of measures to curb

pollution. Experts however say the air

quality will remain considerably cleaner this year, thanks to a favourable wind system.

“The wind system will not allow stagnation of smoke over the city. We will have better air this time,” said Gufran Beig, chief scientist at India’s state-run Sys-tem of Air Quality Weather Forecasting and Research.

New DelhiAFP

India yesterday welcomed US Sec-retary of State Rex Tillerson’s comments that Washington would rather work with New Delhi than Beijing over the next century, saying it shared his optimism about their burgeoning relationship.

Speaking ahead of a visit to India next week, Tillerson called Wednes-day for deeper cooperation with India in the face of growing Chinese influence in Asia and said Washing-ton wanted to promote a “free and open” region led by prosperous democracies.

President Donald Trump’s top diplomat also said Beijing sometimes acted outside international conven-tions, citing the South China Sea dispute as an example.

India welcomed the comments, saying they “highlighted our shared commitment to a rule-based inter-national order”, the Indian foreign ministry said in a statement.

“We appreciate his positive eval-uation of the relationship and share his optimism about its future directions.”

Tillerson’s remarks came hours after Chinese President Xi Jinping’s speech at the Communist Party congress signalled that Beijing

intended to play a greater role in world affairs.

The unexpectedly sharp com-ments were seen as a warning to Beijing that Washington would build regional alliances to counter China’s ever-growing power, while promoting free trade and open sea lanes.

Beijing responded Thursday by saying that America was biased.

“We hope the US side can look at China’s development and role in the international community in an objective way, and abandon its biased views of China,” foreign min-istry spokesman Lu Kang said.

Experts say stronger US-India

ties could act as a counterweight to an increasingly assertive China, which has been building its military and acting increasingly assertively on the world stage.

India has historically avoided alliances, preferring to maintain cautious relations with both Wash-ington and Beijing, but Trump has developed a warm relationship with Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Tillerson will visit New Delhi next week for talks but the exact dates have yet to be announced.

His visit will also take him to Pakistan, India’s arch-rival and nuclear-armed neighbour.

India hails Tillerson’s call for deeper ties to counter China

New DelhiIANS

The Congress yesterday accused Prime Minister Narendra Modi of being “arrogant” over his remarks on redevelopment of the Kedarnath shrine after the flash floods of 2013, saying he has disrespected the people of Uttarakhand and also slammed him for wearing “Italian glasses” at the holy place.

“Prime Minister Narendra

Modi does baba’s darshan wear-ing an Italian brand Bulgari glasses. Similarly, he promises to develop a ‘New India’ through those Italian glasses,” said Con-gress spokesperson R P N Singh.

“He spoke with arrogance at baba’s shrine,” he said and added this is the first time somebody gave a speech with his back towards the shrine. Congress leader Randeep Singh Surjewala, in a video message, said: “By vis-iting Kedarnath today (Friday),

Modiji has not only disrespected people of Uttarakhand but also showed his arrogance.”

His remarks came after the Prime Minister accused the Con-gress of rejecting his proposal of redeveloping the Himalayan shrine of Kedarnath after the devastating flash floods in 2013.

Firing salvos at Modi, Surjew-ala asked: “After the 2013 disaster, is it only Modiji who is capable of redeveloping Uttarakhand? Was the work done by the then state

government, people and the dev-otees of Shiva to redevelop Kedarnath a waste? Out of 130 crore people, is none capable of redeveloping Kedarnath other than Modiji?” He said: “When the ruler turns arrogant, then his downfall is very close.” He urged the Prime Minister to not disre-spect the people of the state, saying: “Shiva does not ask for help, he asks for devotion.”

“And those who devote themselves, they get the fruits of

their devotion. Modiji should maintain at least some humility at the door of Shiva,” Surjewala added.

Singh also attacked Modi for the redevelopment work of the shrine. “After devastating flash floods in 2013, the UPA govern-ment formed a Cabinet Committee, which sanctioned Rs 8,000 crore for the redevelop-ment. Our government had already released Rs 2,200 crore out of the total amount.”

Delhi chokes on toxic haze despite fireworks ban

A policeman wearing a mask controls the traffic at a busy road on a smoggy morning in New Delhi, yesterday.

Ban ignoredLate on Thursday the readings for PM10 pollutants hovered around 1,100 microgram in some parts of the city.

Residents ignored ban by purchasing crackers illegally or using those bought earlier.

Congress slams Modi for wearing Italian glasses at Kedarnath India tops global pollution deaths: StudyNew DelhiReuters

Pollution caused nine million deaths in 2015 - three times more than Aids, tuberculosis and malaria combined - scientists said, calling for governments in poor countries to act.

India fared worst, with 2.5 million people dying early because of pollution, followed by China with 1.8 million deaths, according to The Lan-cet Commission on Pollution and Health, a two-year initi-ative seeking to highlight the issue. One in six of all deaths worldwide are caused by pol-lution, and the vast majority occur in developing countries, the report in The Lancet med-ical journal said.

“With globalisation, min-ing and manufacturing shifted to poorer countries, where environmental regulations and enforcement can be lax,” said Karti Sandilya, one of the authors and an adviser to envi-ronmental group Pure Earth.

“People in poorer countries - like construction workers in New Delhi - are more exposed to air pollution and less able to protect themselves from expo-sure, as they walk, bike or ride the bus to workplaces that may also be polluted.” In contrast, many people in developed countries commute to air-con-ditioned offices in air-conditioned cars, he said.

ThiruvananthapuramIANS

Veteran CPI-M leader and former Kerala Chief Min-ister V S Achuthanandan turned 94 yesterday.

He is currently one of the country’s oldest and active pol-iticians, and except for a slight slowing of his movements, Achuthanandan continues to remain sharp. He also loses no opportunity to take on his critics and on issues concerning the people. The veteran on Friday morning was busy attending to calls from well-wishers greeting him and also a steady stream of visitors calling on him.

As usual the media was present in large numbers. He also heard a new song on himself. Of late, Achuthanandan has been

maintaining a low profile when it comes to attacking his arch rival - Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.

Vijayan was made the Chief Minister in May last year, after Achuthanandan was asked to lead the assembly election cam-paign. After the CPI-M won the election, Achuthanandan was given the decorative title of “Kerala’s Castro”.

In order to keep him under check, Achuthanandan was made chairman of the Admin-istrative Reforms Commission and was given cabinet status.

Now all eyes are on what move Achuthanandan would make after a difference of opin-ion has surfaced on what political relations the CPI-M should have with the Congress party.

Achuthanandan turns 94, still going strong

Annakut festival

06 SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 2017ASIA

GenevaReuters

Nearly 340,000 Rohingya children are living in squalid conditions in Bang-ladesh camps where

they lack enough food, clean water and health care, the United Nations Children’s Fund (Unicef) said yesterday.

Up to 12,000 more children join them every week, fleeing violence or hunger in Myanmar, often still traumatised by atroc-ities they witnessed, it said in a report “Outcast and Desperate”.

In all, almost 600,000 Rohingya refugees have left northern Rakhine state since August 25 when the UN says the Myanmar army began a cam-paign of “ethnic cleansing” following insurgent attacks.

“This isn’t going to be a short-term, it isn’t going to end anytime soon,” Simon Ingram, the report’s author and a Unicef official, told a news briefing.

“So it is absolutely critical

that the borders remain open and that protection for children is given and equally that children born in Bangladesh have their birth registered.”

Most Rohingya are stateless in Myanmar and many fled with-out papers, he said, adding of the newborns in Bangladesh: “With-out an identity they have no chance of ever assimilating into any society effectively.”

Safe drinking water and toi-lets are in “desperately short supply” in the chaotic, teeming

camps and settlements, Ingram said after spending two weeks in Cox’s Bazar, Bangladesh.

“In a sense it’s no surprise that they must truly see this place as a hell on earth,” he said.

One in five Rohingya chil-dren under the age of five is estimated to be acutely malnour-ished, requiring medical attention, he said.

“There is a very, very severe risk of outbreaks of water-borne diseases, diarrhoea and quite conceivably cholera in the longer-term,” he added.

Unicef is providing clean water and toilets, and has helped vaccinate children against mea-sles and cholera, which can be deadly, he said.

The agency is seeking $76 million under a $434m UN appeal for Rohingya refugees for six months, but is only 7 percent funded, he said, speaking ahead of a pledging conference in Geneva on Monday.

UN agencies are still demand-ing access to northern Rakhine, where an unknown number of Rohingya remain despite UN

reports that many villages and food stocks have been burned.

“We repeat the call for the need for protection of all

children in Rakhine state, this is an absolute fundamental requirement. The atrocities against children and civilians

must end,” Ingram said.“We just must keep putting

it on the record, we cannot keep silent.”

BeijingAFP

Beijingers are going with-out barbecue. Construction sites have halted work. Factories hundreds of kilome-tres away have halted production.

Despite all-out efforts to give the Chinese Communist Party blue skies for its twice-a-dec-ade congress, Beijing’s notorious smog has cloaked the mega-city in its trademark toxic haze.

The capital typically enjoys an unusual succession of clear days when the party holds major events, with smoke-churning factories ordered to shut down.

Even restaurants famous for flavourful shish kebabs turned off their barbecues, with a waiter telling diners at one eatery this week that the lamb delicacies would be off the menu during the congress.

President Xi Jinping had invoked the fight against air con-tamination during his wide-ranging speech to open the congress on Wednesday.

“We need to prevent pollu-tion from its source, continue the action against air pollution, and win the battle for blue skies,” Xi said.

But the smog appeared to have not received the party directive as it enveloped the city all week, prompting many Bei-jingers to don masks for protection.

The counts of PM2.5 -- harmful microscopic particles that penetrate deep into the lungs -- reached 115 Friday afternoon, according to readings from the US embassy.

The World Health Organiza-tion’s recommended maximum exposure is 25 over a 24-hour period.

“It looked polluted out the window so I put on my mask,”

said Euphie Zheng, on the way to her IT job in central Beijing.

China’s national air quality forecasting system attributed the pollution to low atmos-pheric pressure and weak winds.

Beijingers have coined terms for past events that bring purer air as the government shuts down factories and introduces other measures to limit pollution.

In Spring there was “two meetings blue” for the clear skies enjoyed during the session of C h i n a ’ s r u b b e r - s t a m p parliament.

In 2014, then US President Barack Obama was welcomed with pristine air for the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum. Beijingers deemed it “APEC Blue.”

For the party congress, “I was expecting blue skies,” said Primavera Liu, a 33-year-old

translator speaking through a grey smog mask. She did not think the smog would affect the political machinations under-way. “Xi’s probably used to the pollution,” she said. “It’s normal.”

In recent years, the Chinese have become more attuned to the hazards of air pollution.

A new study published in The Lancet medical journal this week reported that pollution claimed nine million lives world-wide in 2015. Almost half of those deaths occurred in India and China.

Another study found air pol-lution in northern China cut life expectancy by three years, com-pared with southern China.

The study, published in Sep-tember by the University of Chicago, looked at life expect-ancy north of the Huai River, where the government supplies residents with coal-fired heat in winter.

Rohingya refugees wait for relief supplies at Thaingkhali refugee camp in Ukhia, yesterday.

Rohingya refugee children in dire state: UnicefFood shortage

Lack of food, clean water and health care put the lives of children in danger at refugee camps in Bangladesh: Unicef

Almost 600,000 Rohingya refugees have left northern Rakhine state since August 25.

Japan braces for election-day typhoon rainsTokyoAFP

A typhoon is expected to lash Japan with heavy rains tomorrow, poten-tially weighing on turnout as millions of voters head to the polls in the world’s third-biggest economy.

Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appealed to voters to cast their

ballots early as Typhoon Lan moves towards Japan bringing driving rain across the country on election day.

“It’s rare to see typhoon rains over such a large swathe of the Japanese archipelago in Octo-ber,” Eiju Takahashi, an official with the Japan Meteorological Agency, said.

Only the northern island of Hokkaido is expected to be

spared the downpour on Sun-day, added Takahashi.

Abe himself cast his vote on Wednesday in Tokyo, telling reporters that the weekend elec-tion “would decide Japan’s future” and urging voters to cast ballots early in anticipation of bad weather.

Turnout has declined to below 60 percent in the last two general elections. The last

election in December 2014 saw a record-low rate of 52.66 percent.

“If it rains on Sunday, the turnout rate will not rise and that would benefit the ruling bloc,” said Mikitaka Masuyama, polit-ical scientist at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies.

Swing voters tend to abstain on rainy days while staunch sup-porters of the ruling Liberal Democratic Party and its coali-tion partner Komeito show up to voting stations whatever the weather, observers say.

“If the turnout rate hits a new record low, that would probably mean the ruling bloc maintains a two-thirds major-ity” said Hidenori Suezawa, financial and fiscal analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities.

That is significant as Abe’s conservative LDP needs a two-thirds majority in both houses of parliament in order to pro-pose changes to the country’s constitution.

“On the other hand, if the turnout rate rises to the 60-per-cent level, new (opposition) parties may make a leap for-ward,” he said.

The key question is how heavy the rain is, said Suezawa. “If it is cloudy or there is light driz-zle, turnout may rise as families may abstain from outings ... but if rains heavily, it could weigh on the turnout rate,” he said.

People listen to the speech by Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe during an election campaign in Tokyo yesterday. Campaigning began on October 10 for the October 22 lower house election.

Nuclear weapons a ‘matter of life and death’ for N Korea MoscowReuters

Pyongyang does not plan to hold any talks with Washington about its nuclear programme, a senior North Korean diplomat said yesterday, declaring that pos-sessing nuclear weapons was a matter of life and death for North Korea, the RIA news agency reported.

Tension has soared on the peninsula following a series of weapons tests by North Korea and a string of increasingly bel-licose exchanges between US President Donald Trump and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.

Trump, in a speech last month at the United Nations, threatened to “totally destroy” North Korea if necessary to defend itself and allies and called the North’s leader a “rocket man” on a suicide mission.

Choe Son-hui, director-general of the North American department of North Korea’s foreign ministry, told a non-proliferation conference in Moscow Washington would “have to put up” with North

Korea’s nuclear status, RIA reported.

“This is a matter of life and death for us. The current situ-a t i o n d e e p e n s o u r understanding that we need nuclear weapons to repel a potential attack.” “We will respond to fire with fire.”

Pyongyang would regard any attempts to strangle the country via UN Security Coun-cil sanctions as an attempt “to declare war”.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, addressing the same conference earlier on Fri-day, urged world powers to get behind a joint Russian-Chinese roadmap for settling the crisis over North Korea’s weapons programme.

“We are convinced that its implementation will promote the lessening of military activ-ity and tension on the Korean peninsula and the forming in Northeastern Asia of a system of equal and indivisible secu-rity,” he said.

The plan proposes a mora-torium on North Korea’s missile and nuclear weapons tests, while South Korea and the United States suspend holding military exercises.

East Timor govt faces uncertainty after defeatDiliAFP

East Timor’s new govern-ment has suffered a major setback after opposition parties vetoed its policy pro-gramme, a blow that could see the impoverished young democracy return to the polls.

The Fretilin party, which won the July election by a nar-row margin, did not receive enough votes to govern alone and has formed a minority coa-lition government with the Democratic Party.

With only 30 seats in the 65-seat house, the government relies on confidence and sup-ply from other parties in parliament.

Prime Minister Mari Alkat-iri said the defeat in parliament on Thursday was “poison to my

government”. “I asked every-one to remain calm, I will go to you and talk to you,” Alkatiri said in tears following the vote.

The bill outlined the gov-ernment’s five-year strategic plan for the impoverished young democracy and included initiatives to improve health, infrastructure and better access to clean water.

East Timor analyst Damien Kingsbury, from Australia’s Deakin University, said if the government failed to pass the bill again the country could return to the polls. “The president has two choices he has either to call for a majority in parliament to choose a new leader and appoint a new prime minister or the country goes to election, proba-bly January next year. That would seem the most likely outcome at this stage,” Kingsbury said.

Smog defies China’s Communist Party congress

07SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 2017 ASIA

A municipal worker fumigates a street to prevent the spread of dengue fever and other mosquito-borne diseases in Rawalpindi, Pakistan, yesterday.

Fumigating the street

KabulAFP

Nearly 60 people were killed when suicide bombers blew themselves up in two separate

mosque attacks in Afghanistan yesterday, officials said, capping a bloody week in the war-torn country.

In the first attack, on a Shia mosque in the Afghan capital Kabul, at least 39 people includ-ing women and children were killed and 45 others wounded when a suicide bomber exploded his device as worship-pers gathered for evening prayer.

“Unfortunately this evening a suicide bomber detonated himself among the worshippers inside a mosque in Dasht-e-Bar-chi neighbourhood of Kabul city,” Kabul police spokesman Abdul Basir Mujahid told AFP.

Interior ministry spokesman Najib Danish confirmed the attack toll on Twitter.

“I was in the mosque bath-room when I heard a blast. I rushed inside the mosque and saw all the worshippers covered in blood,” Hussain Ali said.

“Some of the wounded were fleeing. I tried to stop someone to help me help the wounded but everyone was in a panic. It took ambulances and the police about an hour to reach the area.”

Social media users launched an online campaign calling on people to donate blood for the wounded being treated at two hospitals.

Police initially said a

gunman entered the Imam Zaman mosque in a heavily Shi-ite neighbourhood in the west of the city and opened fire on worshippers.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the grisly attack but recent assaults on Shiite mosques in Afghani-stan have been carried out by Islamic State militants, who belong to the rival Sunni branch of Islam.

In the second assault, a sui-cide bomber detonated himself in a Sunni mosque in the impov-erished and remote central province of Ghor, killing at least 20 and wounding 10, Danish said.

A senior local police com-mander who is believed to have been the target of the attack in Dolaina district was among the dead, district governor Mohsen Danishyar said, although there was no immediate claim of responsibility.

Danishyar put the death toll as high as 30.

The attacks cap one of the bloodiest weeks in Afghanistan

in recent memory, with more than 120 people already killed and hundreds more wounded in four separate Taliban attacks on police and military bases.

Including Friday’s victims at the two mosque attacks, the death toll for the week now stands at more than 180.

In three of the Taliban attacks the assailants used bomb-laden Humvees stolen from Afghan government forces to blast their way into targets, as militants step up direct a t t a c k s o n s e c u r i t y installations.

The last attack on a Shiite mosque in Kabul happened on September 29 as Muslims pre-pared to commemorate Ashura, one of the holiest days in the Islamic calendar.

Six people were killed when a suicide bomber posing as a shepherd blew himself up near Hussainia mosque, one of the biggest Shiite centres in the city, as worshippers gathered for Fri-day prayers.

An attack on another Shiite mosque in the city on August 25 killed 28 people and wounded around 50 others.

Four attackers who set off explosions and fired gunshots laid siege to the mosque in the north of the capital for four hours as dozens of men, women and children had gathered for Friday prayers.

In recent years, the Taliban and Islamic State jihadists have repeatedly targeted the minor-ity Shiite community, who number around three million in overwhelmingly Sunni Afghanistan.

SydneyReuters

The parliament of Austral-ia’s second largest state passed legislation yester-day to allow terminally ill patients to seek medical help to end their lives, a bill that is expected to act as a catalyst for the rest of the country to adopt similar laws.

Any resident of Victoria state

over 18, with a terminal illness and with less than 12 months to live can request a lethal dose of med-ication, the bill permits. Anyone that is too ill to administer the dos-age can ask for a doctor to help.

Many countries have legal-i s e d e u t h a n a s i a o r physician-assisted deaths, including Canada, the Nether-lands, Switzerland, and some states in the United States.

B u t A u s t r a l i a ’ s

federal government has opposed legalising euthanasia even though the remote Northern Territory became the first jurisdiction in the world to do so in 1995.

The federal government enacted its own legislation to override the Northern Territory law in 1997 under rules allowed by the constitution. State law can not be overridden.

The passage of the bill in Vic-toria is expected to herald

assisted death legislation in other Australian states.

“It is a landmark moment. Other states are likely to follow. We have seen this in other juris-dictions and I expect once politicians see how the system works, they will adopt similar models,” said Ben White, direc-tor of the Australian Centre for Health Law Research at Queens-land University of Technology. The issue has divided lawmakers

and medicinal professionals. Vic-torian premier Daniel Andrews introduced the bill following his father’s death from cancer in 2016.

An opponent of the legalisa-tion, Michael Gannon, president of the Australian Medical Asso-ciation, which represents medical practitioners, said state law should not change because of the death of Andrews’ father. He later apologised for the comment.

Nearly 60 dead in suicide attacks on Afghan mosques

Blasts in Kabul & Ghor

At least 39 people, including women and children, were killed as Shia mosque targeted in Kabul.

At least 20 killed in suicide blast at a Sunni mosque in the impoverished province of Ghor.

Asad Afridi emerges as favourite to lead Pakistani Taliban factionPeshawarReuters

Senior militant commander Asad Afridi has emerged as the favourite to become the new leader of a deadly Pakistani Taliban faction, militant sources said yesterday, days after a US drone strike killed the group’s chief. Jamaat-ul-Ahrar (JuA), a splinter faction of the Pakistani Taliban, has killed hundreds of people in bomb attacks and is considered one of the most dan-gerous militant groups in the nuclear-armed South Asian nation.

The killing of JuA chief Omar Khalid Khorasani was a major boost for Pakistan’s anti-mili-tancy campaign and is likely to help ease tension with uneasy ally the United States days ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

Two JuA commanders told Reuters Afridi was nominated to take over during a meeting in Afghanistan by the group’s shura, or leadership council. “Asad Afridi was close to Omar Khalid, who had declared him his deputy,” said one JuA commander.

A second JuA militant, who is a member of the shura,

confirmed Afridi was nominated as the new chief.

Khorasani was seen as rul-ing the group with an iron fist.

“Our organisation used to be a one-man show. All powers were in the hands of Omar Khalid Kho-rasani,” the second commander said. Khorasani was killed during a series of US drone attacks this week in which at least 30 people were killed on the Afghan side of the border. His killing follows a slight thaw in relations between Islamabad and Washington, seemingly sparked by the Paki-stan army last week freeing a US-Canadian couple.

New Zealand election result stokes fearsof migrationWellingtonReuters

Temporary workers and foreign students previ-ously drawn to New Zealand on the promise of gaining residency will start leaving en masse, migration agents say, as the incoming coalition government prom-ises to cut record migration.

The tie-up between the traditionally centre-left Labour Party and nationalist New Zealand First represents an abrupt shift in the formerly open door policy that fuelled strong economic growth but has also been blamed for soaring house prices and growing inequality.

“We are told (foreign) stu-dents are working as many hours as possible to make as much quick money as possi-ble on the understanding there is no more path to res-idency, and they will need to return home,” said Connor Brady, immigration adviser and manager director at agency New Life Global.

New Zealand had almost 122,000 international stu-dents in 2016, up 40 percent from three years earlier, led by China and India.

New Zealand has devel-oped a particularly close economic relationship with China, signing the OECD’s first free-trade deal with Beijing in 2008 and welcoming record Chinese investment and immi-gration in recent years.

But Prime Minister-elect Jacinda Ardern and her coa-lition partner Winston Peters have found common ground in “fortress New Zealand” type policies that align more with the populist movements across Europe and the US.

Australia’s Victoria state edges towards permitting euthanasia

ManilaReuters

Philippine President Rod-rigo Duterte was eager to credit new ally Beijing in the death of militant leader Isnilon Hapilon, saying it was a Chinese rifle that fired the bul-let that finished off Islamic State’s “emir” in Southeast Asia.

The smoking gun that took out the region’s most feared insurgent on Monday was one of the 100 sniper rifles donated by China, Duterte said, although the ranger unit conducting the operation said the shot was fired from a heavier weapon mounted on an armoured vehicle.

Duterte is a huge fan of the Chinese rifles and took a pot-shot himself in the direction of militants in Marawi City recently. Addressing businessmen and diplomats, he singled out ambas-sador Zhao Jianhua for China’s support that led to the crucial killing.

“I would like to officially inform you, Ambassador Zhao, that the rifle that killed Hapilon was a sniper rifle made in China,” Duterte announced late on Thursday, to warm applause from the crowd.

But the version of the final hours of the life of Hapilon and another rebel leader,

Omarkhayam Maute, posted on the Facebook page of a member of the Army Scout Rangers, tells a different story.

The blow-by-blow account on “Scout Ranger Books”, posted the day Hapilon was killed, tells of how the 8th Scout Ranger Company was engaging mili-tants and was not aware the rebel commanders were among those they killed, until fleeing hostages told them.

The soldiers operating at night used thermal imaging on an armoured vehicle and the shot that killed Hapilon came from a gun mounted on top of it, according to the account. No mention was made of Chinese weapons or snipers.

Prior to Duterte’s remarks, two soldiers in that vehicle told CNN Philippines the fixed weapon was remote controlled. A general in Marawi in

command of the armoured assets told Reuters the fixed weapons are 50-calibre machine guns.

Duterte has made a big effort to befriend China and has fre-quently praised its leadership while in contrast, chiding defence treaty ally the United States, its biggest source of weapons and expertise, for what he calls hypocrisy and for treat-ing his country “like a dog”.

Duterte lauds China role in rebel’s death 26 injured in attack at key Pakistan port QuettaReuters

Unidentified men threw a grenade into a labourers’ hostel in the Pakistani port of Gwadar wounding 26 of them, police said yesterday, in an attack likely to raise concern about security for the Pakistani sec-tion of China’s “Belt and Road” initiative.

There was no claim of responsibility for the attack, one of three on Thursday in the gas-rich southwestern province of Baluchistan, a key section of the plan for energy and transport links connecting western China with the Middle East and Europe.

“They labourers were having dinner at the hostel when motorcyclists attacked them with a grenade,” police official Imam Bakhsh said.

Separatist rebels in Balu-chistan, fighting against what they see as the unfair exploi-tation of the province’s resources, have for years attacked energy and infra-structure projects, including the Gwadar deep-sea port on the Arabian Sea.

Philippine soldiers from Marawi are welcomed home by their relatives at Villamor Airbase in Manila, yesterday.

The US administration has cleared a critical hurdle on the way to rewrite the US tax code, after the Senate approved a multi-trillion dollar budget blueprint on Thursday. The Senate voted 51-49 to pass the budget resolution. The Senate’s passage of budget blueprint will help

unlock a procedure that Republicans plan to overhaul the tax code. For the Republicans, the overhauling of American tax system is crucial to achieve their campaign promises.

Trump lauded the vote on Twitter, saying it would be the “first step toward massive tax cuts for the American people.” “The Budget passed late last night, 51 to 49,” he wrote yesterday morning. “We got ZERO Democrat votes with only Rand Paul (he will vote for Tax Cuts) voting against ... This now allows for the passage of large scale Tax Cuts (and Reform), which will be the biggest in the history of our country!”

US stock futures indicated a stronger session on Wall Street yesterday, after the Senate narrowly passed the blueprint. European shares rebounded from their worst day in two months. The passage of budget blueprint is seen as a move paving the way for the tax reform that many investors believe it will help keep the bull market alive.

The recently unveiled America’s tax code, which proposes to dramatically lower taxes on businesses and many households, is facing roadblocks on many counts. Chief among them is that the plan does not provide much detail on how to pay for a plan that analysts have estimated could cost trillions of dollars, according to the detractors.

The framework, a joint product of the Trump administration and Republican leadership, proposes for lowering the corporate rate from 35 to 20 percent. It would also bring down the rate for so-called pass-through businesses to 25 percent. It proposes cuts to personal and business tax rates, in line with previous Trump campaign and House Republican proposals.

Two Wall Street giants had openly come out against President Donald Trump’s tax reform proposals. Billionaire investor Warren Buffet and BlackRock Chief Executive Larry Fink suggested in separate interviews that the corporate rate may not have to be cut as deeply as proposed. “We have a lot of business…I don’t think any of them are non-competitive in the world because of the corporate tax rate”, Buffet told CNBC.

“What is being proposed is a pretty large expansion of our deficits.” Fink told Bloomberg TV.

IMF has issued a caution on the US tax reforms. Going by the overall debt level and the off-the-balance-sheet obligation of the US, the fund feels that ‘whatever the tax reform plan looks like’, it should not increase the deficit. ‘Over the medium term, “tax reform” should be revenue enhancing’, IMF chief economist Maurice Obstfeld said after publishing IMF’s latest global economic forecasts last week.

President Donald Trump’s budget director Mick Mulvaney was quick to react to IMF and other critics. He accused them of wanting the reforms to fail. The sceptics of the plan were “heavily invested in it not working out”, he said.

The Democrats believe that the tax cuts would largely help the wealthiest Americans. They are also sceptical about the White House’s claim that corporate tax cuts would raise wages for the middle class.

08 SATURDAY 21 OCTOBER 2017VIEWS

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CHAIRMANSHEIKH THANI BIN ABDULLAH AL THANI

EDITOR-IN-CHIEFDR. KHALID BIN MUBARAK AL-SHAFIeditorinchief@pen.com.qa

ACTING MANAGING EDITORMOHAMMED SALIM MOHAMEDm.salim@pen.com.qa

US tax reform push

QUOTE OF THE DAY

The battle against Islamic State did not end with the fall of Raqqa and France will maintain its military effort as long asnecessary.

Emmanuel Macron French President

The framework, a joint product of the Trump administration and Republican leadership, proposes for lowering the corporate rate from 35 to 20 percent.

The Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi and the Deputy Chief Commander of the Armed Forces of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) Mohammed bin Zayed bin Sultan al Nahyan is per-

ceived as the “mentor” of the de facto leader of Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. King Salman’s ill health has led to the relegation of most of his responsibility to his son Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman. He is by a stretch the most powerful leader in terms of economic and military might in the Middle East. He controls one of the richest entities in the world Aramco, the state own energy giant. Bin Salman is also the Defense Minister and the leader of the coalition cur-rently battling armed insurgency in Yemen.

Mohammed bin Zayed has been a key player in building confidence in Bin Sal-man’s short political career. According to the Wall Street Journal Bin Salman had an amicable relationship with Qatar however as tensions escalated in the Gulf he had to choose between Doha and the UAE, he chose the latter.

This indicates the influence Mohammed bin Zayed have over the 32 years old Crown Prince. Since their first meeting “at a social event in the desert ” their relationship has blossomed. This has elevated the political status of Bin Zayed and that of a previously obscured UAE in the region. However the deep state in Saudi Arabia has been skepti-cal of the role and politics of UAE in the region and that is creating cracks in their relationship.

First, contrary to the general belief there is still no consensus between the UAE and Saudi Arabia on the post-war political makeup in Yemen. The core objective of the coalition is to drive out the Houthis and forces loyal to the former president of Yemen Ali Abdullah Saleh.

However the two Gulf States differ on the role of the internationally recognised government of President Abd Rabbu Man-sour Hadi. According to Jacqulyn Meyer Kantack a researcher from the Critical Threat Projec