Ramadan initiative targets diabetes

QATAR | Page 16
SPORT | Page 10
Freej Aspire
activities begin
High and
low for
Bairstow
as Sri Lanka
fight back
INDEX
2, 16
QATAR
COMMENT
14, 15
1 – 12
RAMADAN
3
BUSINESS
ARAB WORLD
3
CLASSIFIED
INTERNATIONAL
4 – 13
SPORTS
7, 8
1 – 12
JONES
QE
NYMEX
17,865.34
9,918.97
48.96
-119.85
-0.67%
+61.02
+0.62%
-1.60
-3.16%
Latest Figures
pu
Palestinian women walking at sunrise towards the Qalandia checkpoint, a main crossing point between the West Bank city
of Ramallah and occupied Jerusalem yesterday, as they head to Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque for the first Friday prayer of
the holy fasting month of Ramadan. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced a slew of punitive and deterrent
measures against Palestinians in the wake of a shooting in a Tel Aviv nightspot, the deadliest attack in a months-long wave of
violence.
Reuters
Geneva
Prayer times
Fajr....3.14 Zuhr....11.33 Asr....2.56
Maghrib.....6.27 Isha.....7.57
Fasting times
Iftar today ............................ 6.27pm
Imsak tomorrow............... 3.04am
I
srael’s cancellation of entry permits for Palestinians following
a deadly attack in Tel Aviv may
amount to collective punishment,
which is banned under international
law, the United Nations’ top human
rights official said yesterday.
The Israeli military on Thursday
revoked permits for 83,000 Palestinians to visit places under its control
and said it would send hundreds more
troops to the occupied West Bank a
day after a gun attack that killed four
Israelis in Tel Aviv.
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein
condemned the attack, spokeswoman
Ravina Shamdasani said.
But he is concerned about the revoking of permits “which may amount
to prohibited collective punishment
and will only increase the sense of
injustice and frustration felt by Palestinians in this very tense time”, she
told a news briefing.
Israel’s actions included suspension
of 204 work permits held by individuals in the extended families of the alleged attackers, she said, and Israeli
security forces sealed off their entire
hometown.
The Geneva Conventions say punishing people for crimes they have not
personally committed can amount to
collective punishment, Shamdasani
said.
US State Department spokesman
Mark Toner declined to characterise
the Israeli action as collective punishment but called on Israel to avoid steps
that might escalate tensions.
“Any time you take sweeping actions like this, there is the possibility... that these actions will only
inflame tensions and escalate tensions,” Toner told reporters.”We
want to see any actions to be temporary in nature and to not impact the
lives of normal Palestinian citizens,”
he added.
There was no immediate claim of
responsibility for the assault by the
two gunmen on Wednesday in a fashionable shopping and dining market
near Israel’s defence ministry.
Meanwhile, French Foreign Minister
Jean-Marc Ayrault has warned that Israel’s decision to bar the entry of Palestinians could raise tensions and lead
to more violence.
“The decision by the Israeli authorities to revoke tens of thousands of entry permits could stoke tensions which
could lead to a risk of escalation,” said
Ayrault.
“We must be careful about anything
that could stoke tensions,” Ayrault told
reporters at UN headquarters.
Ayrault was at the United Nations to
take part in a Security Council debate
on the protection of civilians in peacekeeping, a week after France hosted an
international meeting in Paris on reviving the peace process.
“There must be a political initiative
from the international community to
create conditions conducive to appeasement and a return to negotiations,” said the foreign minister.
The Paris meeting brought together representatives from 29 countries
and international organisations to
agree on the way to re-start talks that
have been comatose since a US peace
initiative collapsed in April 2014.
Page 3
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
P
eople with diabetes continue to
benefit from Qatar Diabetes Association’s 15-year old Ramadan
programme, providing them with the
needed information and advice on
“how to fast safely during the holy
month”.
The Qatar Diabetes Association
(QDA), a member of the Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and
Community Development, launched
the programme ahead of Ramadan, arranging at least three workshops for
male and female patients, as well as for
general practitioners (GPs), aimed at
raising public awareness.
“We continue to educate them (diabetics) on how to fast for one month,”
QDA executive director Dr Abdulla alHamaq told Gulf Times.
He noted that one of the workshops
also involved GPs in health centres and
other private clinics in Qatar.
QDA held open discussions with
the consultants from the Hamad
Medical Corporation (HMC) and
showed them the new practical
guidelines for Ramadan, according
to Dr al-Hamaq.
“The guidelines, published in English, are based on studies, and being
implemented all over the Islamic countries, in Europe and also in the US,” he
said.
Part of the guidelines includes categorising patients (who can fast or not)
into three: the high risk, low risk, and
also the middle risk.
In collaboration with HMC and Primary Health Care, the QDA official
Emotional memorial service for Ali
Reuiters
Louisville, Kentucky
R
eligious and political leaders of
many stripes joined the sports
world and tens of thousands
of ordinary mourners yesterday to
bid farewell to Muhammad Ali, the
boxing champion who jolted America with his showmanship and won
worldwide admiration as a man of
principle.
Ali, a convert to Islam who lost three
prime years of his boxing career for refusing US military service during the
Vietnam War, died a week ago at age
74 as one of the most respected men in
the United States.
Fans chanting “Ali!” and throwing
flowers lined the streets of Louisville,
Kentucky, for a funeral procession.
Ali’s hearse snaked through the city,
pausing for a huge crowed outside his
boyhood home, en route to a cemetery
for a private burial beneath a headstone reading simply “Ali.”
City officials estimated 100,000
people came out to honour Ali, many
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
The Qatar Diabetes Association
has created hotlines (4454-7311,
5527-4919, and 5598-1331) where
residents can call from 8am to 1pm
and from 8pm to 11pm
UN slams Israeli move
as collective punishment
Never will you reach the piety
until you give in charity from that
which you love. And whatever
you spend - indeed, Allah is
Knowing of it [Qur’an 3:19]
in
D
RAMADAN THOUGHT
d
AFP
Paris
Dimitri Payet, right, celebrates scoring
the 2-1 goal with midfielder Blaise
Matuidi during the Euro 2016 group
A football match between France and
Romania at Stade de France, in SaintDenis, north of Paris, yesterday.
June 11, 2016
Ramadan 6, 1437 AH
Ramadan
initiative
targets
diabetes
Payet stunner
rescues France
in Euro opener
imitri
Payet’s
stunning
25-metre strike a minute
from time got hosts France
off to a winning start at Euro 2016
yesterday as they beat Romania 2-1.
Payet was France’s standout performer all night. His cross also created the opener for Olivier Giroud
before Bogdan Stancu’s penalty
looked to have handed Romania a
point.
However, the mercurial West Ham
playmaker produced a moment of
brilliance as he smashed the ball into
the top corner to ensure France’s
month-long festival of football got
off to a flier.
“We had trouble getting out of the
blocks,” French coach Didier Deschamps said.
“But it’s good to get the first game
out of the way and to win,” he added.
Sport Pages 1, 2, 3
he R
is
bl TA 978
A 1
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GULF TIMES
SATURDAY Vol. XXXVII No. 10116
People raise their hands into the air as the funeral procession motorcade for
Muhammad Ali passes by on Grand Avenue in Louisville, Kentucky, yesterday.
travelling from across the country and
across the world.
Some tossed flowers atop the hearse
carrying his casket as part of an 18-car
procession over 37km in a memorial
unlike any other in recent US history.
After Ali’s body was put to rest,
former president Bill Clinton and celebrities such as Billy Crystal, Will
Smith and Mike Tyson were among
those gathered at a 20,000-seat sports
arena for an interfaith memorial service that began with Muslim prayers.
The Reverend Kevin W Cosby, a pas-
tor at a Louisville church, likened Ali
to other ground-breaking black athletes who advanced civil rights such as
baseball player Jackie Robinson, boxer
Joe Louis and track star Jessie Owens.
Earlier on a hot day, some 1,500
people gathered outside Ali’s boyhood
home in a traditionally African-American section of town.
As the hearse arrived, police standing shoulder-to-shoulder cleared a
path, much like a fighter’s entourage
clears his way to the ring.
The hearse stopped at the pink house
as the people, many of whom waited
in the sun for more than three hours,
chanted his name.“It was important for
me to be here,” said Matt Alexander, 63,
who travelled from Florida.”I cried like
a baby when I heard he’d died.
I just didn’t want to believe it because I wanted him to live forever.”
Some foreign dignitaries attended
but Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, who went to a Muslim funeral for
Ali on Thursday, cut short his visit to
Louisville and did not take part in yesterday’s event as planned.
Comment Page 15, Sport Page 12
The QDA gym welcomes people with
diabetes who want to exercise after
the Iftar break. PICTURE: Joey Aguilar
Dr Abdulla al-Hamaq: QDA executive
director
said they also created hotlines (44547311, 5527-4919, and 5598-1331) where
residents can call from 8am to 1pm and
from 8pm to 11pm.
Around 30 doctors are ready to speak
with callers this Ramadan.
Patients can call and ask questions
concerning fasting, treatment and
management of their conditions.
“Our office is open for diabetics in
the morning as well as in the evening
after the breaking of the fast,” alHamaq said.“The gym is also open in
the evening during Ramadan and they
can do some exercise.”
An average of 25 to 45 patients use a
number facilities at the QDA gym from
8pm until midnight this Ramadan, it is
learnt.
“Our gym trainer has to check the
blood sugar of the patients before
they are allowed to exercise, if it is
less than 70, they will not be allowed
until the sugar comes to normal,” alHamaq said.“If it is high, he has to
stop and take a test, if it is lower than
200 they will allow him to do the exercise.”
“We also do not recommend our patients to do exercise before Iftar, it is
very dangerous.
Maybe the blood sugar level will
plummet,” he added.
Ramadan is also an opportunity for
people with diabetes to reduce weight
and totally stop smoking, he noted.
“From our experience, a lot of people
come to us and then take their weight.
After Ramadan, they see a big difference, which is good for them.”
Citing the importance of fasting and
exercise, al-Hamaq believes there is
a big chance for smokers to avoid and
stop their habit.
“We do not recommend smoking because it is a factor to cause some diabetes complications,” he stressed.
Al-Hamaq urged people with diabetes to exercise regularly and stick to
high-fibre and balanced diet to stay
healthy.
Government planning national survey
The Qatar government is planning to
conduct a national survey on diabetes
in 2018 as part of its strategic plan to
prevent the spread of the disease, Qatar
Diabetes Association (QDA) executive
director Dr Abdulla al-Hamaq has said.
“After we make our survey, there will be
a programme for intervention for people
at risk. There will be some diabetes
programmes all over the country,” he
told Gulf Times. From 16.7% prevalence
rate on the Qatari population in 2012,
al-Hamaq noted that the number had
increased by 1.5 to 2% points this year.
A large percentage of those diagnosed
with diabetes were unaware that they
had high sugar levels in their blood.
The increasing number of people
afflicted with what was described as
a pandemic paved the way to launch
public screening campaigns in different
locations in Qatar, offering free diabetes
testing in malls, Corniche and Katara – the
Cultural Village, among others. “This is
only for Qataris; we do not do any survey
for expats because they come and go,”
the QDA official stressed. “But later on we
are thinking of including (some expats) in
our survey, for example people who have
resided for more than 10 years.”
2
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
QATAR
Greetings sent to
Portuguese leader
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani, HH the
Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah
bin Hamad al-Thani and HE
the Prime Minister and Interior
Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin
Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani
yesterday sent separate cables
of congratulations to Portuguese
President Marcelo Rebelo de
Sousa on the occasion of his
country’s National Day.
Early ‘detection of amblyopia
is crucial for good vision’
Strong wind, poor
visibility forecast
By Joseph Varghese
Staff Reporter
A maximum temperature of 46C
is forecast today at Mesaieed,
Wakrah and Al Khor, followed by
45C in Doha, 37C at Dukhan and
Abu Samra and 36C at Ruwais.
Strong wind can be expected at
places during the day and poor
visibility due to dust.
The minimum temperature of
27C is expected at Mesaieed and
Wakrah, followed by 29C at Al Khor,
31C at Ruwais and Dukhan, 32C at
Abu Samra and 34C in Doha.
ids need to be taken for
vision screening at preschooling to avoid the risk
of developing amblyopia or lazy
eye, country’s only orthoptist
Aqsa Syed has told Gulf Times.
A common visual impairment
issue in children, amblyopia is
a condition of reduced vision
in one eye. Early detection of
amblyopia is crucial for equally
good vision in either eye.
Syed works for Sidra Medical and Research Center. She
has been in Qatar for a year now
and has been seeing referred
paediatric patients at Hamad
Medical Corporation with the
Sidra Ophthalmology team and
the HMC paediatric and neuroophthalmology consultants.
Orthoptics is essentially the
diagnosis and management of
eye muscle disorders and vision. An orthoptist is an allied
Suspended jail
term for bid to
steal sheep
A Doha criminal court has handed
down a one year jail term to an
expatriate man for attempting to
steal a sheep, local Arabic daily
Arrayah reported yesterday.
The court ordered that the
sentence shall be suspended
for three years from the date
the verdict becomes final. The
defendant is also to be deported.
The case started when the
defendant went to a livestock
farm on the outskirts of the
country and tried to steal a sheep
and escape with it. However, as
he was carrying the animal on his
shoulders, a worker stopped him.
The defendant tried to convince
the worker to let him go. He told
him that the sheep was from
another farm. The defendant also
offered to pay him QR800 if he
let him go. Finally he fled. But the
worker called his employer who
reported the issue to the police,
who arrested the defendant who
was trying to escape with the
sheep.
‘Trade in Islam’
forum on Monday
The Ministry of Economy and
Commerce (MEC), in co-operation
with Sheikh Eid Charity, is set to
organise a ‘Trade in Islam’ forum
at 10pm, at Sheikh Eid charity
theatre hall at Hazm Al Markhiya
on Monday.
The forum is part of MEC’s
Ramadan initiatives. A group
of senior Muslim scholars and
clergymen discuss the impact of
Islam on the concept of trade and
its regulations.
They will also talk about the social
role of trade within the Islamic
perspective. This is the third
edition of the forum.
K
health professional and has a
biomedical science degree in
orthoptics.
Syed said: “You can improve
the vision of the children until the age of visual maturation
which occurs up to the age of
eight. During my short stay in
Qatar, several children have
been detected with amblyopia,
even at later ages such as age
12.”
She suggested that parents
should consider getting vision
screening done while their children are at pre-school age – as
this can help diagnose vision
problems at an early stage and
prevent conditions like amblyopia from getting worse when
the children are older.
“Young children are not able
to express that they have reduced or weak vision in one
eye as they are unaware of the
condition. This is why it is important for parents to bring in
their pre-school age children
for regular eye checkups. If left
untreated in early childhood,
amblyopia can persist and may
lead to monocular (one eye) visual impairment in adulthood.”
Syed said the role of orthoptists has changed significantly
over the past decade and that
they have moved away from
traditionally managing only
cases related to amblyopia and
squints. Many orthoptists have
extended their practice and this
has enabled ophthalmologists
to concentrate on more complex cases.
“Double vision and blurred
vision are other major vision
related complaints that people
might suffer from. Orthoptists
treat both adults and children
and the symptoms in both the
groups might be different,” she
added.
The orthoptist highlighted
that people and children involved
in road traffic accidents may have
impact eye or head trauma and
subsequently can develop the
problem of double vision.
“The issue of double vision
can be corrected with fresnel
prisms to align the image that
each eye sees. An orthoptist
can manage such patients, carry out pre and post-operative
assessment and evaluation for
people who need surgery of
their eye muscles.”
“Several of the vision and
eye muscle problems can be set
right by conventional non- surgical processes such as glasses,
patching or by using a prism on
the glasses. Sometimes we manipulate the lenses of the glasses or prescribe exercises for
strengthening the eye muscles,
among many more treatment
methods,” she added.
Syed also pointed out that
dry eye is a huge problem in
this part of the world due to the
strong summer heat and sand
storms. She has advised parents
to encourage their children to
wear sun protection glasses and
to take them in for regular eye
examinations.
Qatar fund signs agreement
to support Palestinians
QNA
Geneva
T
he Qatar Development Fund (QDF) and
the United Nations
Conference on Trade and
Development
(UNCTAD)
have signed an agreement
to back the Assistance to
the Palestinian People Unit
(APPU) in order to provide
technical support and training for Palestinians in the
occupied territories.
Faisal bin Abdullah alHenzab, Qatar’s permanent
representative to the UN office and international organisations in Geneva, signed
the agreement on behalf of
the Qatar Development Fund
with UNCTAD secretarygeneral Mukhisa Kituyi.
Al-Henzab
said
the
agreement reiterated Qatar’s
commitment to supporting the UNCTAD mission
in reaching an international
consensus on development
Faisal bin Abdullah al-Henzab with Mukhisa Kituyi after signing the agreement in Geneva.
issues and came as part of Qatar’s constant support for the
Palestinian people.
The UNCTAD secretary general expressed his appreciation
for the financial aid offered by
the Qatar fund, stressing the
importance of continuing the
partnership between Qatar and
UNCTAD, especially as Qatar
prepares to hand over the presidency of UNCTAD during the
14th session in Nairobi in July.
Amna Jaber al-Kuwari, of
Qatar’s office to the World
Trade Organisation in Geneva, participated in the signing
ceremony.
WCM-Q new course sheds light
on impact of diet on health
A
team of local and international experts in
nutrition shared recent
trends and the latest research
into the impact of diet on
health on a new course offered
by Weill Cornell MedicineQatar (WCM-Q).
Organised by WCM-Q’s division of global and public health,
the 50-hour intensive Certificate in Clinical Nutrition Course
gave 51 healthcare professionals,
educators, researchers and dieticians enhanced knowledge of
key issues relating to nutrition
and health.
Through a series of presentations, discussions and
workshops, WCM-Q said
participants learned about
the impact on health of popular nutritional and herbal
supplements,
elimination
and anti-inflammation diets, Mediterranean-style dietary habits, veganism and
vegetarianism, and the role
of nutrition in the causation
and management of chronic
conditions such as obesity,
cancer and diabetes.
“When conceptualising the
course, our attention was drawn
to two noteworthy observations. One, even today, very few
healthcare professional schools
around the world provide adequate instruction in nutrition and lifestyle medicine to
their students,” associate dean
WCM-Q awards attendees who completed the course with a certificate in clinical nutrition.
for Global and Public Health
and course director Dr Ravinder
Mamtani said.
“For example, a 2014 study
in The American Journal of
Medicine cited a survey of
medical schools that found an
average of fewer than 20 hours
over four years devoted to nu-
trition education,” he said.
“Two, there is overwhelming evidence that unhealthy
food choices are linked to many
chronic diseases such as diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
Therefore, ignoring nutrition in
our evaluation and management of our patients or clients is
simply not an option,” Mamtani
added.
The WCM-Q course gives
detailed instructions on how to
plan healthy nutrition regimens
for all types of individuals, including children, pregnant and
lactating women, and the elderly.
All attendees who completed
the course, which was held on
four consecutive Saturdays, were
awarded the Certificate in Clinical Nutrition.
The course consisted of 32
hours of direct, on-site contact
at WCM-Q and another 18 hours
of self-study using online course
materials.
Aqsa Syed, orthoptist at Sidra Medical and Research Center.
Dialysis patients
advised to follow
healthy diet
D
uring Ramadan, dialysis patients should pay
close attention to the
food they eat to stay healthy
when fasting, according to
Hamad Medical Corporation
(HMC) nutrition supervisor
Ghazi Dararkeh.
“Patients on dialysis can
face health problems during
Ramadan if they fail to follow
a healthy diet and fast correctly,” said Dararkeh.
“It is important that they
are aware of what constitutes
a healthy diet and what does
not. I would advise any dialysis patients who are unsure of
the best foods to eat to consult
with their dietitian for advice
before fasting,” the dietitian
explained.
Fasting dialysis patients
during Ramadan should eat
enough protein each day at
Iftar and Suhoor as advised
by their dietitian. They must
follow the basic rules of good
nutrition and consume fluids
only within the recommended
limits, such as around one to
one and a half litres per day to
prevent dehydration. It is also
important to ensure that food
is not too salty to avoid high
blood pressure and feeling
thirsty when fasting.
These patients must avoid
potassium-rich foods like
dates, bananas, oranges,
mangoes, tomatoes, potatoes and okras which are
frequently eaten during Ramadan and avoid potassiumrich juices and drinks such
as Kamaruddin, orange and
mango juices.
They must also eat nonfatty dishes and ensure food
is cooked in a healthy way
by boiling and grilling rather
than frying. They should ensure moderation when eating nut-rich desserts such as
Kataef, which should not be
consumed on a daily basis and
consume sources of calcium
in the required quantities on a
daily basis to maintain healthy
bones.
HMC cautions
on dehydration
during pregnancy
H
amad Medical Corporation ( HMC) has advised that it is important for pregnant women who
are fasting to be aware of how
to fast safely as nutrition during pregnancy plays an important role in the health of both
mother and baby.
“Women who suffer from
constant vomiting and the
loss of fluids during the early months of pregnancy are
advised not to fast as this
may result in severe dehydration,” said Ghazi Daradkeh, nutrition supervisor at
HMC.
“However a pregnant
woman’s body acclimatises
to the unique experience of
fasting, so if her body contains a good enough supply
of energy then fasting does
not negatively affect her,”
explained Daradkeh.
The dietitian explained that
pregnant women should undergo a medical examination
before fasting to ensure they
are free from common health
issues such as high blood sugar
and high blood pressure.
If their doctor does give
permission to fast during
Ramadan, pregnant women
should avoid stimulants such
as coffee, tea and soft drinks
to reduce the intake of caffeine and take care to consume a healthy and balanced
diet.
They should drink sufficient
amounts of water, between
eight to twelve cups per day
to avoid dehydration and start
Iftar with a glass of milk and
some dates, followed by a variety of foods that contain all
food groups.
They must also eat a healthy
snack before bedtime, for example about an hour after
Taraweeh prayer and consume
the permitted quantities of
starches and keep away from
saturated fats.
They must eat protein such
as meat, chicken, fish, eggs
and cheese and take advantage of the opportunity to eat
Suhour.
Pregnant women must
avoid excessive use of spices
and eat multiple meals in low
quantities when permitted
to avoid the feeling of satiety. They should as well stay
away from fatty foods and
fries to avoid heartburn and
weight gain and eat at least
two to three servings of fresh
fruit daily. They must also
perform some kind of physical activity for half an hour a
day.
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
3
ARAB WORLD/RAMADAN
Prayers at Al-Aqsa mosque
Ramadan’s 3D training
B
Palestinians praying in Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound during the first Friday prayers of the fasting month of
Ramadan yesterday.
Israel bars
Palestinians
from entry
The measures came
during the first Friday
of the Muslim holy
month of Ramadan,
when tens of thousands
of Palestinians visit AlAqsa to pray
Reuters
Baghdad
I
srael yesterday temporarily barred Palestinians from entering, a
step criticised by the UN
but which officials claimed
was a response to a Tel Aviv
shooting.
Thousands of Palestinians from the occupied
West Bank, however, were
allowed to attend weekly
Muslim prayers at Al-Aqsa
mosque compound in occupied East Jerusalem.
An army spokeswoman
told AFP that crossings to
Israel from the West Bank
and Gaza Strip would be
closed for Palestinians in all
but “medical and humanitarian cases”.
She said the closure
would remain in force until
midnight tomorrow.
The measures came during the first Friday of the
Muslim holy month of Ra-
madan, when tens of thousands of Palestinians visit
Al-Aqsa to pray.
A spokeswoman for
COGAT, the defence ministry unit which manages
civilian affairs in the West
Bank, said about 10,000
Palestinians were allowed
to visit Al-Aqsa despite the
ban.
Palestinian men between
12 and 35 were not allowed
to enter the mosque, with
those between 35 and 45
needing permission and
those older than 45 having
unrestricted access, police
confirmed.
Sheikh Azzam al-Khatib, head of the Islamic Waqf
which administers AlAqsa, said 100,000 people
attended Friday prayers,
down from more than
200,000 the year before.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu convened
his security cabinet on
Thursday and announced
a slew of measures against
Palestinians after Wednesday’s shooting in a Tel Aviv
nightspot that killed four
people, the deadliest attack
in a months-long wave of
violence.
Among the measures,
the government said it was
revoking entry permits for
more than 80,000 Palestinians to visit relatives in
Israel during Ramadan.
It also revoked work
permits for 204 of the attackers’ relatives and the
army blockaded their West
Bank hometown of Yatta,
with soldiers patrolling and
stopping cars.
The government also
said it was sending two
additional battalions amounting to hundreds
more troops - into the West
Bank.
United Nations rights
chief Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein’s office in a statement
yesterday condemned the
attack but said the Israeli
measures may amount to
“collective punishment”.
“The measures taken
against the broader population punish not the perpetrators of the crime, but
tens - maybe hundreds - of
thousands of innocent Palestinians,” it said.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault expressed concern that the
Israeli measures risked
“fuelling tensions”, while
the US State Department
hoped they would not increase tensions.
Syria regime
raids stall
food aid
distribution
AFP
Beirut
S
yria’s regime bombarded a
rebel-held town outside the
capital yesterday, a resident
and a monitor said, preventing
besieged residents from receiving
food aid after its first such delivery in years.
A convoy of food aid - approved by Damascus - late
Thursday reached the town of
Daraya for the first time since the
regime laid siege to the town in
2012.
“There has been intense random barrel bombing of the town
since 9am local time ,” a member
of the local council told AFP, referring to the crude unguided explosive devices usually dropped
by regime helicopters.
“Aid received by the council has not been distributed yet
because of the intensity of the
raids,” Shadi Matar said, adding
that the raids were ongoing.
The Syrian Observatory for
Human Rights said regime helicopters had dropped at least 20
barrel bombs.
“Heavy barrel bombing on
many areas of Daraya from the
morning has stalled food aid
distribution,” Observatory head
Rami Abdel Rahman said.
Lorries entered Daraya on
Thursday with “food aid, including dry goods and flour,
non-food aid as well as medical
aid,” said Tamam Mehrez, operations director of the Syrian Red
Crescent.
A World Food Programme
worker said that the convoy carried 480 food rations for around
2,400 people for a month.
US, Iraqi officials can’t confirm
reports of IS leader’s injury
Reuters
Baghdad
U
S and Iraqi officials said yesterday they could not confirm a report by an Iraqi TV channel that
Islamic State leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi had been wounded in an air strike in
northern Iraq.
A spokesman for the US-led coalition
fighting the radical Islamist militants,
Colonel Chris Garver, said in an e-mail
that he had seen the reports but had
“nothing to confirm this at this time”.
Brett McGurk, the US envoy to the coalition, told a daily briefing at the White
House in Washington that there was no
reason to believe that Baghdadi was not
alive “even though we haven’t heard of
him since late last year”.
“We presume that he’s still alive,” he
added.”It’s really a matter of time for
him.”
Kurdish and Arab security officials in
northern Iraq said they also could not
confirm the report.
Al Sumariya TV cited a local source in
the northern province of Nineveh saying
that Baghdadi and other Islamic State
leaders were wounded on Thursday in a
coalition air strike on one of the group’s
command headquarters close to the Syrian border.
The channel has good connections
with Shia politicians and Iraqi forces engaged in the battle against Islamic State.
There have been several reports in the
past that Baghdadi, whose real name
is Ibrahim al-Samarrai, was killed or
wounded after proclaiming himself
“caliph” two years ago.
In the last audio message, posted at
the end of December on Twitter accounts that had published Islamic State
statements previously, Baghdadi said
A displaced Iraqi boy from the
embattled city of Fallujah carrying
bags of food provided by the World
Food Programme (WFP) at a camp
where families are taking shelter in
the city of Amriyat al-Fallujah, some
30km south of Fallujah.
the air strikes carried out by Russia and
the US-led coalition had failed to weaken the group.
The ultra-hardline group is under increased pressure in both Iraq and Syria,
and the territory under its control has
shrunk significantly since 2014, limiting the potential for its leaders to move
around or seek shelter.
The US earlier this year announced
an intensification of the war on Islamic
State with more air strikes and more
American troops on the ground to advise
and assist allied forces.
The US-led coalition has regularly
flown raids out of Erbil, the capital of
Iraq’s Kurdistan region, in operations
aimed at killing and capturing Islamic
State leaders.
A Kurdish intelligence official and an
Arab from the Baaj area west of Mosul
said the US-led coalition had conducted
such a raid there a few days ago.
The coalition did not confirm this
raid.
Kurdish Peshmerga forces are positioned in an arc around the north and
east of Mosul while the Iraqi army is
trying to capture Fallujah, 50km west of
Baghdad.
The army’s elite Counter Terrorism
Service was battling yesterday in alShuhada, a southern district of Fallujah,
a Reuters photographer reported from
the scene.
Loud explosions and bursts of gunfire were heard from the district, while
aircraft believed to belong to the US-led
coalition flew overhead.
Al-Shuhada marks the first advance
of the army inside the built-up area of
Fallujah, after two weeks of fighting on
the outskirts to complete the encirclement of the city.
The encirclement was completed with
help from Iran-backed Shia militias.
They deployed behind the army’s
lines and did not take part directly in
the assault on the city to avoid inflaming
sectarian feelings.
A government official said Islamic
State militants are putting up a tough
fight defending the city that stands as
a symbol of the Sunni insurgency that
followed the US occupation of Iraq, in
2003. Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi
said the troops are progressing cautiously in order to protect tens of thousands of civilians trapped in Fallujah.
The United Nations says 90,000 civilians may have remained in Fallujah,
under “harrowing” conditions with little access to food, water and healthcare,
and no safe exit routes.
The insurgents have dug a network
of tunnels to move around without being detected and planted thousands of
mines and explosive devices to delay the
army’s advance.
efore a marathon runner competes in the Olympics,
he undergoes years of intense training - both physical
and mental [2D- two-dimensional]. He must maintain a healthy diet and exercise to make sure his body is fit.
He must also become mentally prepared to ward off all sense
of fatigue and failure during the race. After every practice,
his sport becomes easier to him until he is ready to compete.
Then after he competes, he trains for years again, preparing
for the next Olympics.
Similarly, our Lord, The Most Exalted, has given us the
holy month of Ramadan as a month of training. Unlike the
runner, our training is three-fold: physical, mental, and
spiritual [3D- three-dimensional]. Ramadan trains us for
life, which is our means to Paradise. In Arabic, the word
“Ramadan” means “scorching and burning”. The name
highlights the intensity of the training since, according to
scholars; we physically and mentally scorch and burn our
sins and faults. By the month’s end, if our intentions were
pure, we have bathed ourselves in a pool of spirituality.
Most people think first of the physical aspect of fasting,
which for Muslims is a foundation for the mental and spiritual benefits. Hunger and thirst physically remind us of
Allah’s blessings, which before the fast we had a tendency
to take for granted. Fasting also provides us with numerous
health benefits. The Prophet sallallaahu alaihi wa sallam
said: “The son of Aadam never fills a container worse than
his stomach.” [Ahmad and others]
When we deprive the stomach of food and drink from
dawn till dusk, we improve our digestion and blood pressure, to name a few of the many physical benefits. The acts
of physical restraint during Ramadan improve our selfcontrol for the rest of the year. We must not resume eating
gluttonously and wastefully. We must maintain physical
consciousness to appreciate Allah’s favors and make acts of
worship easier for us.
Ramadan’s mental aspect is more difficult, but the strong
physical foundation also helps to sharpen our focus and
strengthen our will. This training is an example of striving
with one’s inner desires. It exposes our flaws and can help
eliminate or reduce them.
Mental restraint is especially important now, when Islam
is being maligned and we must respond with that which
is better. Patience and mercy are among the virtues we
strengthen during Ramadan. With the combined physical
and mental training we get in Ramadan, we can improve our
relations with Muslims and non-Muslims as we strive for
perfection.
A three-dimensional consciousness: physical, mental,
and spiritual that Muslims throughout history attest it enhances one’s relationship with Allah, wipes clean our slate
of sins and allows us to reap great reward. The Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam stated that Allah declared: “All
deeds of the son of Aadam are for him except for fasting, it
is for Me. And I will reward him for it.”[Muslim] But we need
to remember again the concept of training.
The heightened spiritual consciousness that we gain during Ramadan ameliorates our life to a three dimensional
level: every action we make transforms from being a habit
(physical and mental components of what we do) to becoming an act of worship when under the umbrella of spirituality. It is true, some may say, that spirituality always has that
effect - Ramadan or not. But in Ramadan, this spirituality is
more conscious, deliberate and intense.
A time for spiritual nourishment and self-introspection,
Ramadan heralds a classic opportunity to draw closer to
Allah and to bask in the many blessings that accompany
the month. Commitments ranging from the recitation and
study of the Qur’an to increased charity to regular Taraweeh
attendance are commonly made to reap the rewards of the
fasting month.
To this effect, the Prophet sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam
once said: “By Him in Whose Hands my soul is, the smell
coming out from the mouth of a person observing fast is
better with Allah Almighty than the smell of musk. (Allah
says about the fasting person): ‘He has left his food, drink
and desires for My sake. The fast is for Me. So I will reward
(the fasting person) for it and the reward of good deeds is
multiplied ten times.’” [Al-Bukhari]
Further, with Satan chained and the gates of Paradise
thrown open, the race for good deeds begins in every Ramadan. Yet, as people dive into the anxiously awaited month
of spiritual gains, they realise that it comes with its own set
of challenges. Indeed, just as our everyday test is to practice
Islam while living in the world, this annual retreat-of-sorts
is all about maximising our worship while juggling the demands of our daily lives.
So, along with the fasting and all the plans, chores need
to be taken care of, work must be attended to, and children’s
needs have to be fulfilled. In order to avoid frustration due
to neglecting one’s Ramadan goals or hardship caused by
abandoning certain tasks and routines, a happy medium
must be strived for. Striking this balance will not always be
easy since it entails rescheduled days, little sleep, and a shift
in priorities.
However, the results far outweigh the struggle, a feeling of contentment that we made our very best effort to
capture the true essence of Ramadan. Allah Almighty says
(what means): “O you who have believed, decreed upon you
is fasting as it was decreed upon those before you that you
may become righteous.” [Qur’an 2:183]
Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/
4
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
AFRICA
W African troops join
up in hunt for militants
Reuters
On the Mali/Niger Border
T
he troops joined up at
mid-day on a patch of
cracked earth where Mali
and Niger meet. Nothing marked
the spot, beyond a few shrubs
and acacia trees offering scant
shade to their military pickups.
Deep in the semi-desert, no
fence or customs post delineates
a frontier that means nothing to
jihadists hiding in the vast area,
and yet hinders states trying to
co-ordinate a counter-attack
on the regional arm of Al Qaeda
with the help of France.
“We are precisely on the line
that marks the border,” Eric, a
French army captain, said as
his ‘Barkhane’ detachment was
joined by soldiers from Niger
and Mali.
“The aim is to control this
transit zone for the population
and (against)... armed groups,”
said the officer, who under
guidelines of the French forces
and their West African allies
gave only his first name.
After the meeting, the 40
French troops crossed from Niger into Mali to continue the
operation codenamed Siham,
which aims to flush out al Qaeda.
But the local forces remained on
their own sides of the frontier,
bound by the limits of crossborder co-operation.
The 800km (500 mile) border
between the former French colonies of Niger and Mali, which
runs from the semi-arid Sahel
region north into the Sahara
desert, is largely unpoliced.
With few natural obstacles or
visible frontiers, it is an ideal base
for Al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and its splinter group
Al Morabitoun to launch attacks
across West Africa. Control of the
Sahel is therefore crucial.
Zuma appeals
reinstatement
of graft charges
against him
Reuters
Pretoria
S
A handout photo taken yesterday and released by AMISOM shows Lt Col Joe Kibet, the Spokesperson of the AMISOM, examining weapons
captured from Al Shebaab militants in Halgan village of Hiran region.
As well as kidnapping dozens of Westerners and attacking
military units, they have shaken
the region with a string of attacks
on “soft” targets in Mali, Burkina
Faso and Ivory Coast, including
on two hotels used by foreigners.
On top of this, to the north Libya is in a security vacuum while to
the south, Nigerian-based Boko
Haram militants are fighting to
establish an Islamic state.
France and Belgium have both
suffered communications failures
that allowed Islamist militants to
slip across their borders and stage
attacks since late last year.
So what hope is there for some
of the world’s poorest nations,
such as Niger and Mali which
alone cover an expanse two thirds
of the size of western Europe?
Attempting to answer this
question, West African states
are making a push for better coordination which may be slowly
producing results.
Chad was quick to mobilise
2,000 troops in Niger to prepare a
counterattack against Boko Haram, on a request from Nigerien
President Mahamadou Issoufou,
after the group seized a Nigerien
town last Saturday.
Similarly, in the Siham operation around 1,300 Malian and
Nigerien troops staged a sweep
between blinding sandstorms
for two weeks starting at the end
of May. They collected intelligence, tracked down jihadist
cells and probed suspected training camps, although there was no
fighting with the militants.
“Thanks to co-operation, we
are managing to control this area
that has been uncontrolled for
a long time,” Hamani, a Niger-
ien captain, said as his 80 troops
secured the area near the border
rendezvous. “But we need a much
bigger presence on the ground.”
Three days before the meeting,
Malian troops scoured the desert
on their side, stopping at an encampment by the frontier.
At one point, Malian and
French troops surrounded several terracotta houses, watched by
residents sitting quietly outside,
but there was no sign of militants.
“It was a nomad camp,” a Malian Lieutenant called Mohamed
said after the forces had searched
the whole village. “We are reassured, they are reassured. Mission accomplished,” he said.
The Sahara and Sahel were
long the preserve of nomadic
peoples, such as the Touareg,
who in centuries past built great
Islamic empires on trade con-
necting Africa’s interior with its
Mediterranean coast. Today, the
camel often remains the main
form of transport.
Now the militants, though
driven out of urban centres in
northern Mali by French troops
in 2013, are using the same desert
routes to launch their attacks.
“If we want to avoid seeing
the enemy operating in a country, taking refuge in a second
and stocking up in a third one,
borders have to be controlled,” a
French military officer at Operation Barkhane’s headquarters in
N’Djamena, said.
Since 2014, Chad, Niger, Mauritania, Mali and Burkina Faso
have carried out a number of coordinated operations on either
side of their borders, with the
help of about 3,500 French troops
still in the region.
outh Africa’s President
Jacob Zuma and state
prosecutors yesterday
sought the right to appeal
against a High Court ruling to
review a decision to drop 783
corruption charges against the
head of state.
The National Prosecuting
Authority (NPA) set aside the
charges against Zuma in April
2009, allowing him to run for
president the same month.
But the High Court last
April ordered a review of that
decision, terming it “irrational”, a ruling that opened the
possibility of the charges being reinstated.
The case has re-emerged
before local government elections set for August where the
ruling African National Congress (ANC) faces a challenge
from opposition parties that
have used Zuma’s perceived
failures and scandals in their
campaigns.
The state is appealing the
ruling on the grounds that the
law gives prosecutors the discretion to decide when to lay
charges and that the order for
a review could dilute the NPA’s
powers.
“The court went too far in
saying that Zuma should face
the charges in the indictment,”
NPA lawyer Hilton Epstein
told the court yesterday.
But David Borgstrom, a lawyer for the opposition Democratic Alliance which initiated
the original court application,
said the judgment for a review
should stand.
High court judge Aubrey
Ledwaba said he would rule on
the matter at a later date.
The NPA’s decision in 2009
was based on phone intercepts
presented by Zuma’s legal
team that suggested the timing of the charges may have
been part of a political plot
against him.
The High Court last
April ordered a review
a decision to drop 783
corruption charges
against the head of state
Zuma’s office said the High
Court had made a mistake in
ruling that the public prosecutor was not entitled to terminate a prosecution on the
basis of misconduct and abuse
of the process.
Should the appeal fail and
the charges be reinstated,
it would be another political setback for Zuma after
the Constitutional Court said
in March he had erred by ignoring an order to pay back
some of the 240 million rand
($16 million) in state money
spent on upgrading his private
home.
The hundreds of corruption charges relate to a major
government arms deal arranged in the late 1990s. DA
leader Mmusi Maimane said
on Friday any further delays
in bringing back the charges
were a waste of taxpayers’
money.
“I think it’s an abuse of the
system. It has taken us seven
years to get here. It’s time
Jacob Zuma has his day in
court,” Maimane told journalists after yesterday’s hearing.
South African woman fined for racist comments
A South African court yesterday ordered
a woman to pay 150,000 rand ($9,941) to
charity after she was found guilty of hate
speech for referring to blacks as “monkeys”,
News24 reported.
The case is the latest in a string of similar
incidents that have laid bare the racial
tensions that endure more than two
decades after the end of apartheid rule.
The ruling African National Congress (ANC)
brought charges against former estate agent
Penny Sparrow after she caused public outrage
by saying on her Facebook page that blacks
made beaches dirty like “wild monkeys”.
Under apartheid law, South African beaches
were racially segregated, with beaches
like the one Sparrow referred to, reserved
solely for whites.
“Her words convey the message both
explicitly and implicitly to the reader that
black people are not worthy of being
described as human beings,” Umzinto
Equality Court Magistrate Irfaan Khalil was
quoted as saying on News24.
Khalil ordered Sparrow to pay the fine
within 60 days. Sparrow’s daughter, who
represented her in court, said her mother
was too sick to attend and fears for her life.
The ANC hailed the ruling as a victory for
democracy.
Militants claim fresh attack in Nigeria
AFP
Lagos
A
Niger delta militant group
yesterday claimed a fresh attack on a pipeline operated
by the Nigerian subsidiary of Italy’s
Eni in the restive oil-producing
south.
The Niger Delta Avengers (NDA)
said on its Twitter account: “3am
(0200 GMT) of Friday @NDAvengers blow up the Obi Obi Brass
trunk line belonging to Agip Eni.”
“It is Agip’s major crude oil line in
Bayelsa State,” it added.
There was no immediate confirmation of the attack from Eni but
the state commandant of the Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps,
Desmond Agu, said there was heavy
smoke and fire at the site.
“We got the report at about 4am
and we deployed our team to that
area to check the surroundings,” he
said.
Local traditional rulers had met in
the Southern Ijaw area of Bayelsa for
talks on the attacks, he added.
On Thursday, militants also
bombed a pipeline operated by the
state-run oil firm the Nigerian National Petroleum Corp (NNPC) at
Ogidigben in neighbouring Delta
state.
Industry sources said the attack happened at 7:40 pm along
the Chanomi creek. No group has
claimed responsibility.
The NDA has been attacking facilities operated by Nigerian subsidiaries of Anglo-Dutch oil group
Shell, US firm Chevron, Eni and the
NNPC since the start of the year.
The upsurge in unrest has reduced
Nigeria’s output to 1.6mn barrels
per day, well below the budgetedfor 2.2mn bpd.
That has heaped further pressure
on government revenues already
hit by the global fall in crude prices
since mid-2014.
Agu said the Nigerian secu-
An advertising board concerning the oil pipeline vandaliSation in the City of
Warri in Delta State yesterday.
rity forces were doing their best to
protect infrastructure in the state
and condemned militant groups
for “turning their weapons against
themselves”.
“This destruction is having
a grave impact not just on the
economy of the region but also
on the environment.
“Any polluted environment takes
a long time to recover and become
suitable for farming, fishing and
other uses.
“Invariably these youths are destroying their future and the future
of their children.”
British CEO faces criminal charges
DRC opposition demands
Kabila quit by year’s end
AFP
Genval, Belgium
O
pposition parties in the Democratic Republic of Congo yesterday said they had forged
an alliance to demand that President
Joseph Kabila quit when his term expires in December.
After a two-day meeting in Belgium,
the groups issued a statement saying
they had set up a joint organisation
called “Rassemblement” whose goal is
to “realise the struggle of the Congolese
people for change and a state of law”.
The opposition also a warning to Kabila, saying that if he stayed in power
beyond December 19, when his second
term elapses, it would be tantamount to
a “constitutional coup d’etat”.
But Kabila’s camp - represented by
the Coalition for Presidential Majority
- rejected the resolutions adopted at the
meeting as illegal, denouncing them as
an “attempt to stage a coup d’etat”.
“It’s a plot against the nation,” said
coalition head Aubin Minaku in Kinshasa, who is also president of the National Assembly.
In power since 2001, Kabila is widely
believed to be eyeing a third term in office in contravention of the constitution which allows only two.
The Belgian meeting was called by
veteran opposition figure Etienne Tshisekedi who will head up a committee to
coordinate the group’s decisions.
Tshisekedi, 83, an opposition leader
since the era of Mobutu Sese Seko, who
ruled the country for three decades until
1997, came second to Kabila in a fraudtainted 2011 election. He has been convalescing in Belgium since 2014.
Belgian Foreign Minister Didier Reynders welcomed a meeting whose outcome he hoped would prove “favourable”.
“Belgium welcomes the work undertaken at the gathering this week
with a view to reaching common opposition positions,” Reynders said in a
statement.
The chief executive of British
firm Sable Mining will face
charges in connection with
allegations that the company
presided over a vast network
of corruption, Liberian
investigators said yesterday.
Andrew Groves was indicted
by a presidential anti-graft
taskforce probing claims
made by campaign group
Global Witness that Sable paid
out bribes worth $960,000
(860,000 euros) to gain a
foothold in the country’s
lucrative iron ore industry.
Groves, a British citizen, has
denied the allegations, and the
charges against him were not
released.
President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf has
already requested co-operation
with the British authorities over the
case, in a letter to Prime Minister
David Cameron.
Richard Tolbert, a former banker
and ex-head of Liberia’s National
Investment Commission, the body
overseeing the tendering process
for mining projects, will also face
unspecified charges, according
to a statement issued by the
taskforce naming both men.
Klaus Piprek, a South African
national and onetime country
director of Sable in Liberia, was
also indicted.
All three are now the subject of
an Interpol alert.
Sable co-founder and former
England international cricketer
Phil Edmonds, a former
chairman of the company, was
named as a “co-conspirator” but
has not been formally charged.
The firm is alleged to have
channelled bribes to key officials
through their legal fixer, top
lawyer and ruling party chairman
Varney Sherman, to curry favour
for iron ore concessions.
Sherman was himself indicted
and arrested for “economic
crimes” on May 25, and bailed
along with parliamentary
speaker Alex Tyler.
All the Liberian politicians so
far implicated in the case are
members of Sirleaf’s own Unity
Party.
“When the president of Liberia
announced that Liberia was
opened for business, she did not
say that Liberia was for sale,”
said minister and taskforce head
Jonathan Koffa.
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
5
AMERICAS
VIOLENCE
Mexico gunmen
shoot dead 11
family members
Clinton meets
with Warren
in bid to forge
party unity
Gunmen killed 11 members of a
family in central Mexico in a dawn
attack yesterday, including two
children, officials said. “We can
confirm 11 deaths: five women,
four men and two girls. Two other
minors were badly wounded and
taken to the hospital,” said Vicente
Lopez de la Vega, the mayor of the
town of Coxcatlan, in the state of
Puebla. State government sources
confirmed the mass killing, which
was bloody even by the standards
of violence-stained Mexico.
PEOPLE
Justin Bieber
gets into brawl
after NBA game
Singer Justin Bieber got into
a physical fight with a man
in Cleveland after a National
Basketball Association (NBA) game.
The 22-year-old star was there
to watch the Cleveland Cavaliers
facing off the Golden State Warriors
at the Quicken Loans Arena during
the game 3 of the NBA Finals.
Bieber was caught on camera
throwing punches at a man, but
his much-bigger opponent easily
retaliated with his own fist and sent
the star to the ground.
Reuters
Washington
D
DATA
Canada jobless
rate falls to
6.9% in May
Canada’s unemployment rate fell
0.2 percentage points to 6.9%
in May, the lowest in almost one
year, the government statistical
agency announced. Nearly
14,000 jobs were added in the
month, beating expectations,
according to Statistics Canada.
The figures, however, understate
the jobs situation as the agency
was unable to collect data in Fort
McMurray, Alberta, after wildfires
displaced nearly 100,000
residents and oil workers.
VERDICT
TV actor gets
40 years to life
for wife’s murder
Actor Michael Jace, best known
for playing a policeman on the TV
drama The Shield, was yesterday
sentenced to 40 years to life for
shooting his wife dead in front of
the couple’s two children at their
Los Angeles home, a court official
said. Jace, 53, received a credit of
754 days served for his time spent
imprisoned since his arrest for
the May 2014 killing, Los Angeles
criminal court clerk Melody
Ramirez said. The actor was upset
that his wife wanted a divorce and
he shot her once in the back and
twice more in the legs, according
to prosecutors.
CRIME
Athlete shot in
the head during
robbery bid
A Brazilian competitive shooter
was fighting for her life yesterday
after being shot in the head
during an attempted robbery in
Rio de Janeiro. Anna Paula Cotta,
27, a member of Brazil’s navy who
had tried for the Olympic team
but didn’t get a spot, was shot as
she drove her car in northern Rio.
According to Brazilian newspaper
reports, she had left home at
dawn to help her sick father at
the family business when thieves
attempted to steal the car. When
she tried to escape they opened
fire multiple times.
US Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton addresses the Planned Parenthood Action Fund
in Washington, DC, yesterday.
Venezuela lets Maduro
recall move advance
AFP
Caracas
F
acing mounting pressure from
food shortages, looting and increasingly
violent
protests,
Venezuelan authorities yesterday announced the next stage for a recall referendum against embattled President
Nicolas Maduro.
But the apparent victory for Maduro’s opponents came with a warning
from the head of the National Electoral
Board (CNE), Tibisay Lucena, who told
them any acts of violence would immediately halt the process.
After repeated opposition protests,
Lucena finally announced the CNE
would take fingerprint scans from June
20 to 24 to confirm the identity of people who signed a petition for a recall
referendum.
The electoral board, which the opposition accuses of dragging its feet to
protect Maduro, appeared to have caved
in after protests turned violent on
Thursday and left a prominent opposition lawmaker bloodied and beaten.
Shortly after the unrest, one of the
five members of the CNE, Luis Emilio
Rondon, promised the board would announce a timeline for validating the proreferendum petition, which was submitted on May 2 with 1.8mn signatures.
That is the next step in a lengthy
process to call a vote on sacking the
leftist president, who opponents accuse of driving oil-rich Venezuela to
the brink of economic collapse.
Protests, looting and violent crime
have been mounting in Venezuela as the
country reels from shortages of food,
water, medicine and electricity.
On Thursday, police fired tear gas to
break up a protest led by lawmakers in
the opposition-majority congress, who
tried to march on the CNE’s headquarters. It was the fourth time in recent
days police had cracked down on similar marches.
A brawl broke out and punches flew
when the protesters faced Maduro supporters.
Julio Borges, the congressional majority leader, was attacked with clubs,
punches and kicks from Maduro backers, leaving him with a bloodied nose.
Maduro blamed the violence on his
political enemies and vowed to throw
the “provocateurs” into prison.
Lucena, the country’s top electoral
official, also had a warning for the opposition, even as she agreed to let them
move ahead with the referendum process.
“We want to say very emphatically
(that) any aggression, disturbance or
violence will lead to the immediate
suspension of the process until order,
peace and respect are reestablished,”
she told a press conference.
Hockey icon Howe dies at 88
Reuters
Washington
G
ordie Howe, known as “Mr
Hockey” for a tough but skilful playing style that shattered
records over a career spanning five
decades, died yesterday at the age of
88, the National Hockey League’s Detroit Red Wings said. The cause of
death was not disclosed.
Howe suffered two strokes in October 2014 and from advanced
dementia in recent years.
Howe, a Canadian who
spent his prime playing for
the Detroit Red Wings of the
National Hockey League
(NHL), was considered one
of the greatest hockey
players of all time.
He may have been
eclipsed only by fellow countryman
Wayne Gretzky in terms of goals and
points, but not in grit and longevity.
Howe attributed his long career, 33
seasons, in such a rough sport to passion.
“You’ve got to love what you’re doing,” he once said. “If you love it, you
can overcome any handicap or the
soreness or all the aches and pains
and continue to play for a long, long
time.”
Howe joined the National Hockey League’s
Red Wings in 1946 and
led them to four Stanley
Cup championships before retiring in 1971 after 25 seasons with the team.
He was inducted into the
Hockey Hall of Fame in 1972 but
by the next year he was on the
ice again.
He joined the Houston Aeros of
the upstart World Hockey Association (WHA), alongside sons Mark and
Marty, and taking the team to two consecutive championships.
He would say that playing with his
sons was the highlight of his career.
All three Howes joined the WHA’s
New England Whalers in 1977 and
when the league folded two years later,
the Whalers joined the NHL, giving
Howe one more season in hockey’s top
league.
When he retired for a second time
in 1980, Howe was the NHL’s regular season leader in career goals and
points, both records later broken by
Gretzky.
Howe, the only player to play in
the NHL after turning 50, would
play all 80 games in his final season
as well as a handful of games after
turning 52.
emocratic
presidential
candidate Hillary Clinton yesterday met with
US Senator Elizabeth Warren, a
leading progressive voice, to try
to build party unity for her election campaign against Republican Donald Trump.
The two held talks at Clinton’s Washington home a day
after Warren endorsed Clinton’s
White House bid, adding support from the Democrats’ liberal
wing as Clinton seeks to move
on from her protracted primary
battle with Bernie Sanders.
Warren left the meeting smiling after roughly an hour and did
not speak to reporters outside.
A source familiar with the
meeting said the pair discussed
how best to work together to put
forward a progressive agenda
and stop Trump.
Clinton, the former secretary
of state, earlier this week secured
the delegates needed to win the
party nomination for the November 8 presidential election.
Party leaders are hoping
Sanders will drop his presidential run before the party con-
vention in Philadelphia in July.
Sanders on Thursday said he
would remain in the race through
the final nominating contest in
Washington, D.C., next week
but would work with Clinton to
defeat Trump.
The Warren meeting yesterday fuelled speculation that the
senator from Massachusetts
might be under consideration as
Clinton’s running mate.
Asked in an MSNBC interview on Thursday whether she
had discussed with Clinton the
prospect of being vice president,
Warren said she had not, nor had
she been vetted.
Warren has considered the
idea of serving as Clinton’s running mate but sees obstacles to
that choice, several people familiar with Warren’s thinking
told Reuters this week.
Having support from Warren
would boost Clinton’s ability to
court highly motivated Sanders
supporters who have been fired
up against Clinton during the unexpectedly long primary battle.
Warren and Sanders share
views on issues such as reining in
Wall Street excesses and fighting
income inequality.
President Barack Obama and
Vice President Joe Biden also an-
nounced their support of Clinton on Thursday, handing her a
trio of endorsements expected to
boost her standing heading into
the general election campaign.
Clinton’s first public appearance after acknowledging her
role as the presumptive Democratic nominee and securing the
three prominent Democrats’
backing was a speech yesterday
to Planned Parenthood Action
Fund, the non-partisan arm of
the women’s health group.
Clinton used the speech to
deliver a forceful critique of
Trump’s statement that he
would be “great” for women if
elected to the White House.
“This is a man who has called
women dogs and disgusting animals, it’s kind of hard to imagine
counting on him to respect our
fundamental rights,” Clinton
said.
“We’re in the middle of a
concerted, persistent assault
on women’s health across our
country and we have to ask ourselves and you have to ask everyone you come in contact with,
do we want to put our health,
our lives, our futures in Donald Trump’s hands? Now these
questions are not hypothetical,”
Clinton added.
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
6
ASEAN
Prayer time
Singapore
PM defends
government
Internet
blockage
AFP
Singapore
S
Malaysian Muslims offer prayers on the first Friday of the holy month of Ramadan at the National mosque in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
Five face charges over
trafficking in Thailand
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Bangkok
P
olice charged five Thai
men running a brothel
in Bangkok with human
trafficking after raiding a massage parlour and arresting 121
sex workers, including 15 who
were under the age of 18.
Police Colonel Thepphitak
Saengkla said that of the 15 underage sex workers discovered
after the raid at Nataree Massage earlier this week, one was
Thai and the rest were foreigners - mostly from neighbouring
Myanmar.
The girls are now in the care
of the Ministry of Social Development and Human Security,
Thepphitak said.
“The girls under 18 are victims of human trafficking,” Police Colonel Chayud Marayat,
head investigator in the case
at Huay Khwang district police
station, said yesterday.
Selling sex is illegal in Thailand, but authorities generally
turn a blind eye to the country’s
thriving sex industry, with occasional crackdowns such as
Tuesday’s raid.
Nataree is one of dozens
of “soapy massage” parlours
across Bangkok - where clients
select a woman sitting behind
a “fishbowl” glass wall by a
number pinned to her chest,
then bathes with her and has
intercourse at a cost of around
3,000 baht ($85) for an hour
and a half. The raid at Nataree
made headlines in Thailand
because of a ledger, which was
photographed and shown on
news websites, that appeared
to show bribes to authorities,
including to the tourist police
and immigration police.
Of all the sex workers arrested at Nataree, nearly 100 were
foreigners, Thepphitak said.
The Thai women arrested
were charged with “mingling”
in an entertainment venue,
fined 1,000 baht and released,
he said. One group of adult foreign sex workers is being detained and prosecuted for not
having work permits, he said.
The other group of foreigners has been fined 4,500 baht
for working in a profession that
does not match the one indicated on their work permits,
and are being sent to the immigration detention centre to
be deported.
Usa Lerdsrisuntad, of the
Bangkok-based Foundation for
Women rights group, pressed
for the amendment of Thai
laws that charge sex workers
as criminals. “The law with
respect to prostitution and sex
work has to be changed.
Women should not be criminalised,” she said.
“They have no labour protections.
They don’t have the power to
bargain with their employers.
Some women have no choice
but are in this line of work because their origin communities are unable to provide
them jobs.” The five men arrested and detained have been
charged with human trafficking, with a maximum sentence
of 10 to 15 years imprisonment,
Chayud said.
ingapore’s Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong has
defended the country’s
controversial decision to cut
off civil servants’ work computers from the Internet, calling the move “absolutely necessary” to keep information
systems secure.
“Are we happy? I don’t think
so, because it will slow us
down in terms of day-to-day
productivity. In terms of security, safety of our systems,
safety of our citizens and information concerning them,
it’s absolutely necessary,” he
told Singapore media during a
visit to Myanmar.
Lee said that the defence
and foreign affairs ministries
already have separate computers for Internet access and for
handling sensitive communications.
There was a huge backlash on Wednesday when The
Straits Times newspaper re-
ported that some 100,000
government computers would
be affected by the Internet
blockage, aimed at keeping
data secure and preventing the
spread of malware. It quoted a
cyber security official as saying
that there were 16 attacks on
government systems from unnamed sources in the last year,
but the malware was detected
and destroyed.
Malware is software specifically designed to disrupt
or damage a computer system.
Civil servants would still be
able to access the Internet on
their personal devices such as
tablets and mobile phones.
Public-school teachers and
lecturers would not be affected by the move, officials said.
Singapore is one of the world’s
most Internet-savvy societies,
offering broadband speeds envied by many.
A wide range of government
services are available online,
including registering for marriage, filing complaints to the
police and video consultations
with doctors.
Cambodia unfazed by
Europe parliament flak
DPA
Phnom Penh
C
ambodia’s government
is unfazed by the European Parliament’s calls
to reconsider development
assistance following the detention of five NGO workers,
a government spokesman said
yesterday.
In a resolution passed on
Thursday, the parliament
called on the European External Action Service to reconsider benchmarks for development assistance to Cambodia
in light of the detentions.
“I don’t have any reaction
because it’s just a resolution.
It’s not a law,” Cambodia’s
Ministry of Interior spokesman Phay Siphan said.
“If they criticise us, yes, we
accept it as an informal (warning).” He also asked the European Parliament to respect
Cambodia’s courts and rule of
law.
Human rights groups have
heavily criticised Cambodia
since it detained five NGO
workers in late April for allegedly bribing a witness in a corruption case against deputy
opposition leader Kem Sokha.
The case is widely seen as
politically motivated as the
government seeks to discredit
the opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party ahead of
the 2017 local elections and the
2018 national election.
To defend nation, army to give weapons training to ‘gangsters’
Reuters
Jakarta/Denpasar
I
ndonesia’s army will give
“semi-military”
weapons
training to people including
unemployed men and “gangsters” on the island of Bali, a
spokesman said yesterday, under a programme that has raised
concern about the re-emergence
of military influence.
President Joko Widodo’s administration has become increasingly uneasy about the
military-run “Bela Negara” or
“Defend the Nation” programme
aimed at guarding against “foreign influences” like communism, religious extremism and
homosexuality.
Over the last few months, the
programme has gained momentum, partly in reaction to support from Widodo for an investigation into an anti-communist
purge in 1965.
The suggestion of an investigation has angered some retired
military men, many of whom say
the purge was justified.
The training on the resort island of Bali was apparently the
first to include street thugs,
and was aimed partly at making
them “good citizens”, a military
spokesman said.
“The introduction to weapons
is part of the material so the participants are not bored...and so
they can feel what it’s like in the
military,” said Hotman Hutahaean, spokesman for Bali’s military
command.
Participants in the the Bela Negara — ‘defend the nation’ programme jog at a training centre in Rumpin, Bogor, West Java, Indonesia.
“There will be other material...like marching and physical
training...so the public can know
their rights and obligations, especially gangsters, because they
need to be prepared to be good
citizens,” he said.
Hutahaean said the training
of the “gangsters” would begin
in August and he expected about
100 people to enrol altogether.
He did not elaborate on what
he meant by gangsters but said
no one with a criminal record
would be accepted.
The proposal has raised questions.
“They are basically empow-
ering young guys with murky
backgrounds who will go around
playing army,” said defence expert Yohanes Sulaiman.
“Arming civilians or even
training them this way is not a
good idea unless you organise
them properly and have laws and
regulations to control it.”
The
defence
ministry
launched the “Bela Negara”
programme last year to counter
what it calls an erosion of nationalistic values.
The aim is to mould millions
of civil servants, doctors, students and others into a civilian
defence corps.
But many Indonesian view
“Bela Negara” as an attempt
by the military, which ruled
for decades, to claw back some
of the influence it lost after it
was forced out of politics when
strongman Suharto was ousted
in 1998.
About 1.8mn people na-
tionwide have signed up for
the voluntary programme and
some classes are underway.
Officials
insist
weapons training will be limited
to teaching how to assemble
guns and familiarising participants with weapons through
photographs.
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
7
AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA
S Korea, UN Command join
patrols to halt illegal fishing
Reuters
Seoul
S
outh Korea and the UN
Command, which overseas the Korean War armistice, said yesterday they had
begun a joint operation to keep
Chinese fishing vessels from
operating illegally off the west
coast.
The move comes after South
Korean fishermen, frustrated
with incursions by Chinese
fishing boats in defiance of
coastguard warnings, used rope
to impound two Chinese trawlers this month and handed them
over to authorities.
South Korea’s navy and coast
guard joined with the UN Command to patrol the approximately 60km stretch of waters
in the Han River estuary that
runs between the coasts of the
rival Koreas, a Defence Ministry
official told Reuters.
“Our navy, coastguard and
UN Command set up a military
police to enter into an operation
to expel Chinese fishing vessels,” said the official.
North Korea had been notified of the team’s operation as
a safety precaution, an official
at the Joint Chiefs of Staff said
separately.
Beijing again tightens
supervision of
baby formula
China’s food safety watchdog
has issued further regulations
to tighten supervision of baby
formula, requiring producers
to register and secure permits
to sell their products, state
news agency Xinhua reported
yesterday. The quality of milk and
infant formula in China has been
a sensitive topic after a series of
scandals from 2008 when milk
contaminated by the industrial
chemical melamine killed at least
six children and caused thousands to fall ill. Consumers wary
of made-in-China milk products
have caused a surge in the popularity of foreign brands. In 2015,
China produced 700,000 tonnes
of baby formula, accounting for
65 % of annual sales, Xinhua said.
Under the new rules, domestic
and foreign baby formula producers must register and secure
permits from the China Food and
Drug Administration to sell their
products in China, Xinhua said.
Foreign raw materials used in
their products must be specified,
it said. Packaging and instructions for baby formula use will be
forbidden from making healthrelated claims, such as “good for
(the) brain”, “improves immunity”
or “protects intestinal tracts”, it
quoted the regulation as saying.
Xinhua said police arrested nine
people in April implicated in the
production and sale of counterfeit baby formula.
South Korean patrol boats conducting an operation to drive out Chinese fishing boats from neutral waters close to the disputed sea border
with North Korea yesterday.
North and South Korea are
technically still at war because
their 1950-53 conflict ended
in the armistice, not a peace
treaty.
There were more than 10
Chinese boats fishing in the
estuary yesterday but they fled
to areas near North Korea’s
shore after the South KoreanUN operation began, the Joint
Chiefs of Staff official said.
China’s Foreign Ministry said
Beijing paid close attention to
the education of fishermen and
always urged them to respect
international agreements.
“China is willing to strengthen communication and cooperation in the fishing industry
with related countries in order
to uphold the normal order of
the fishing industry,” it said in
a statement emailed to Reuters.
“China hopes that the South
Korean side will execute the law
in a civilised and rational way,
and thoroughly protect the legal rights of Chinese fishermen,
avoiding incidents that endanger personal safety.”
The waters are near the
Northern Limit Line, the maritime border disputed by the
North which has been the scene
of deadly naval clashes between
the rival Koreas and violent
confrontation between South
Korea’s coastguard and Chinese
fishing vessels.
South Korea has repeated its
complaint to China about illegal fishing by Chinese trawlers since the capture of the two
vessels.
South Korean Foreign Ministry spokesman Cho Joon-hyuk
urged Beijing on Thursday to
help come up with a permanent
solution.
Goldfish submarines, musical
cats in focus at Tokyo toy show
AFP
Tokyo
I
s your life lacking a mini-submarine for your goldfish tank? Or do you really need some musical cats
to brighten your day? Never fear, Japan has just the
thing.
The Tokyo Toy Show offers a smorgasboard of hightech frippery to bemuse, delight and entertain in equal
measure. The annual event, which runs until tomorrow
in the Japanese capital, brings together 160 firms from
all over the world to showcase the best they have to offer
to an expected 160,000 visitors.
Like a doll that has its own Twitter account, or a virtual reality headset that makes the wearer think they are
flying through outer space or walking on the surface of a
distant planet. Toy makers in rapidly-ageing Japan long
ago branched out from targeting children only to aim
their offerings also at adults.
One such example of this superannuation strategy is
“Licca-chan” - Japan’s homegrown version of Barbie
- whose maker Takara Tomy now produces a much-indemand adult version.
Women in their 20s and 30s snapped up a limited
edition version last year, priced at around $100, in three
days. But at the Tokyo Toy Show yesterday, but it was
gadgets that you could only find in Japan that really
caught the eye.
Masayoshi Goto, a spokesman for Takara Tomy ARTS,
proudly showed off his company’s set of musical felines.
“When you press the back of these cats, they meow
in a scale, so you can play music with them,” he proudly
explained.
A toy train or plarail Shinkansen (bottom) equipped with a camera shows off the view from its cockpit to a tablet (left)
during a demonstration by Japan’s toy company Takara Tomy at the International Tokyo Toy Show in Tokyo yesterday.
China
probes
school
playing
fields
AFP
Beijing
C
hinese authorities are investigating playing fields
at some of Beijing’s top
elementary schools after children reportedly fell sick from exposure to artificial turf.
Youngsters have suffered nose
bleeds and allergic reactions
after using running tracks, in
the latest health scare to rock a
country where safety standards
are a major concern.
The news comes less than two
months after reports that hundreds of students had been sickened elsewhere in China because
of their school’s proximity to
shuttered chemical plants.
The Beijing probe, which began last week, sparked a wave of
anxiety online, with hundreds
questioning the country’s commitment to protecting one of its
most valuable assets: its youth.
The reports are a “nightmare”,
said one comment on China’s
popular social media platform
Weibo.
“Where is the Chinese dream
for those children?” it asked.
Toxic air and poisoned food
already create dilemmas for Chinese concerned about their children’s health.
Frequent reports of early onset
cancer and respiratory ailments
create a climate of fear for parents, many of whom who have
only one child thanks to China’s
once strict birthing policies.
But the Beijing cases are particularly unsettling because they
have occurred at schools attended by children of the capital’s
well-to-do.
“If Beijing is like this, it’s even
harder to imagine those campus
fields in other cities,” one commenter wrote.
In April, news outlets reported that almost 500 students
were sickened after a top middle
school relocated to a site close to
decommissioned chemicals factories.
An undisclosed number of
young people were diagnosed
with leukaemia and lymphoma,
both diseases often linked to
pollution exposure.
In Beijing, authorities have
vowed to deal with the issue and
plan to release a report on the
materials used to build the track
next week.
In the meantime, a team of six
doctors has been dispatched to
check into any health effects, a
statement from a Beijing education office said.
But the reassurances left commenters unmoved.
“It’s no use to punish severely
the school or the construction
team,” one commenter said.
The real question that needs
to be asked is “how could this
kind of product receive approval? What were the safety inspectors doing?”
DIPLOMACY
New debris images examined
by MH370 jet search team
AFP
Sydney
I
mages of three new pieces
of debris are being examined by Australian search
teams looking for missing Malaysia Airlines flight MH370,
they said yesterday.
One of the items washed up
on remote Kangaroo Island off
Australia’s south coast, while
the other two were reportedly
found in Madagascar.
“The ATSB has been advised
and has received photos of the
item (on Kangaroo Island),” a
spokesman for the Australian
Transport Safety Bureau, which
is coordinating the search for
the plane, told AFP.”It needs to
be examined before coming to
any conclusion.”
He added that images of other
pieces of debris found in Madagascar were also being studied.
“We have seen the photos
and governments are being
consulted on how best to have
that examined,” he added.
The fate of the passenger
jet, which is presumed to have
crashed at sea after disappearing en route from Kuala
Lumpur to Beijing with 239
passengers and crew on board
in March 2014, remains a mystery.
So far eight pieces of debris, excluding the most recent finds, have been discovered thousands of kilometres
(miles) from the current search
zone far off the west Australian
coast.
They are presumed to have
drifted there with five of the
parts identified as definitely or
probably from the Boeing 777,
while three others are still being examined.
The piece found on Kangaroo Island among seaweed and
driftwood resembles part of a
plane, with the words “Caution
No Step” visible, according to
footage on Channel Seven.
Whether it is from MH370
remains unclear, with the
broadcaster saying another
possibility was that it came
from a Cessna that went down
several kilometres off the island’s coast in 2002.
One of the items found on
the Madagascan island of Nosy
Boraha resembled an airplane
seat part while another appeared to be a cover panel on a
plane wing, the BBC reported.
The first concrete evidence
that MH370 likely met a tragic
end was when a two-metrelong wing part known as a flaperon washed up in the French
overseas territory of La Reunion in July last year.
Australian authorities have
since said two pieces of debris found in Mozambique
were “almost certainly from
MH370” and two fragments
that came ashore in South Africa and Mauritius were also
likely to be from the jet.
Australia is leading the
painstaking search for MH370
in the remote Indian Ocean,
but wild weather has not allowed the three ships involved
to make any progress in recent
weeks.
Protest against violence
Papua New Guinean mothers and sons, residents in Australia, participate in a protest against
police violence earlier in the week against university students in Port Moresby, outside the
Papua New Guinea Consulate in Sydney yesterday.
Fiji, New Zealand
look to mend fences
New Zealand Prime Minister John
Key said yesterday he wanted
to “reset” ties with Suva after his
Fijian counterpart accused Wellington of failing to understand the
coup-plagued Pacific nation.
Making the first visit to Fiji by a
New Zealand leader in a decade,
Key said it was time to look
beyond tensions generated by a
military takeover in 2006.
Key said his trip aimed to “to
reset the relationship so we can
go forward together in a spirit
of great friendship”. However, Fiji
Prime Minister Voreqe Bainimarama, who led the 2006 coup
before winning an election in
2014, told Key that New Zealand
attitudes must change to improve
the relationship. At a welcoming
function for Key late Thursday,
the former military strongman
complained that some New
Zealanders still questioned the legitimacy of his leadership. “I stand
before you tonight not as a coup
maker or dictator - as some in your
country would still have it - but as
the popularly elected, freely chosen
leader of Fiji,” he said. New Zealand
led international calls for sanctions
when Bainimarama seized power in
2006 and he said Wellington now
needed an approach that was “less
prescriptive, more consultative”.
8
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
BRITAIN/IRELAND
TRIAL
COMMENT
LEGAL
AVIATION
OFFBEAT
Actress’s boyfriend
admits triple murder
I’ll meet Trump and tell him
his views are racist: Kenny
Cumbria zoo fined after
keeper killed by tiger
Search begins after
aircraft goes missing
Seagull dyed orange after
falling into curry vat
The boyfriend of Sian Blake faces life in prison
after pleading guilty yesterday to the murder
of the former EastEnders actress and their two
sons. Arthur Simpson-Kent, 48, killed Blake, 43,
who played Frankie Pierre in the BBC soap, and
their sons Zachary, eight, and Amon, four, before
burying them in the back garden of their home in
Erith. He fled the UK for Ghana after the murders
in December last year, but was brought back to
face justice after an international appeal to catch
him. He admitted carrying out the triple killing at
a hearing in April but denied murder. He finally
pleaded guilty yesterday and was remanded in
custody until a sentencing hearing on October 4.
Ireland’s prime minister said he is open to meeting
Donald Trump, who is due to visit Ireland this
month, but he would use the opportunity to tell the
presumptive Republican US presidential nominee
that his views are racist. Enda Kenny told the Irish
parliament last week that he believed Trump had
made “racist and dangerous” comments during
his campaign to secure the Republican nomination
and later said there were no plans in place to meet
him. Pressed by reporters yesterday, Kenny said:
“I would have no difficulty in meeting Trump”.
Asked if he would use a meeting to explain why
he thought Trump’s comments were racist, Kenny
said: “Certainly. I would be very happy to.”
South Lakes Safari Zoo has been fined £255,000
for health and safety failings after zookeeper Sarah
McClay was killed by a tiger in 2013. McClay, 24,
was pounced upon while in the keepers’ corridor of
the tiger house at the zoo in May of that year. South
Lakes, in Dalston-in-Furness, Cumbria, pleaded
guilty at Preston Crown Court to breaches of the
law on Wednesday. At the time of the attack, it
was known as South Lakes Wild Animal Park. The
company was fined an additional £42,500 after
pleading guilty to other breaches of health and
safety law breaches, including one when a zoo
keeper fell from a ladder while preparing to feed
big cats on July 18, 2014.
A search is under way for a microlight aircraft
which has gone missing while travelling between
Northern Ireland and Scotland. The lightweight
craft was on its way from the City of Derry airport
to Stranraer at the time. The coastguard reported it
overdue when it had not been seen by 8.30pm on
Thursday. Two people are understood to have been
onboard when the plane disappeared, somewhere
in a stretch of water known as the North Channel.
Five RNLI lifeboats were launched on Thursday
night from Larne and Red Bay in Northern Ireland
and Portpatrick in Scotland. The Irish Coast Guard’s
helicopter ‘Rescue 116’ joined the search along with
a UK rescue helicopter from Prestwick.
A seagull was dyed bright orange after he
plunged into a vat of chicken tikka masala at
a food factory in Wales. The bird fell in while
trying to scavenge a piece of meat from a bin.
He was rescued by staff and picked up to be
cleaned by a volunteer for Vale Wildlife Hospital
near Tewkesbury in Gloucestershire. Washing
up liquid was used to remove the bright orange
pigment from his feathers - but it failed to wash
away the smell of curry. Veterinary nurse Lucy
Kells said: “We had never seen anything like it
before. The thing that shocked us the most was
the smell. He smelled amazing, he really smelled
good.”
Labour comes
out fighting
against Brexit
AFP
London
A
fter weeks on the sidelines,
senior figures in the opposition Labour party yesterday came out fighting for Britain
to stay in the EU amid fears their
failure to get out the left-wing vote
may result in a Brexit.
Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
is officially backing the “Remain”
campaign but has been keeping a
low profile, leaving members of
Prime Minister David Cameron’s
Conservatives to fight it out between themselves.
But with opinion polls showing
the race for the June 23 referendum
is neck and neck, raising the real
possibility that Britain could become the first country to leave the
EU, senior Labour figures are now
stepping up.
Thousands sign up
as deadline extended
A total of 433,695 Britons applied to vote in the country’s
European Union referendum
during a 48-hour extension
period granted earlier this week
after huge demand close to the
original deadline overwhelmed
the registration website. The
late surge in registration
applications, announced by
Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokeswoman yesterday
after the extended deadline
had passed, brought the total
number of registrations in the
last week to 1.5mn. Not all of
those will be new voters, with
some using the system to check
they are correctly registered.
Ahead of a speech in London
yesterday, former party leader Ed
Miliband acknowledged in a BBC
interview: “Some Labour voters
don’t know where we stand at the
moment.”
Corbyn has refused to share a
platform with Cameron and there
are concerns some Labour voters
will abstain or back a Brexit to give
the Conservative leader a bloody
nose.
Miliband urged them not to,
saying: “This is not a mid-term
protest... This is a once-in-a-generation decision which will shape
our country for decades to come.”
He accused the “Leave” campaign, also backed by the antiimmigration UK Independence
Party (Ukip) leader Nigel Farage,
of “trying to perpetrate a fraud on
Labour voters”.
“They want to get out of the
European Union not to improve
workers’ rights but to sweep them
away,” said Miliband, who stepped
down after losing last year’s general election.
Labour deputy party leader Tom
Watson yesterday released predictions of how Britain might look
outside the EU, on the premise
that Cameron would be ousted in
favour of a more right-wing Conservative government.
The economic turbulence of
a Brexit would create “a massive
black hole in the public finances,
and an unfair Tory government
that will make ordinary families
pay for it through further cuts and
tax rises”, he said.
A YouGov poll for The Times
this week found public opinion
evenly split between leaving or
staying in the EU, but Labour voters favoured “Remain” by 61% to
26%, with the remainder either
not voting or undecided.
However, Labour voters were
also marginally less likely to say
they would definitely vote.
Andy Burnham, Labour’s home
affairs spokesman, admitted in a
BBC interview on Thursday that
the campaign had not focused
enough on its traditional base.
“Here we are two weeks away
from the very real prospect that
Britain will vote for isolation,” he
said.
The leaders of 10 major trade
unions came out in favour of staying in the EU this week, but many
workers blame the mass migration caused by the EU’s freedom of
movement rules for driving down
wages.
Two backbench lawmakers,
John Mann and Dennis Skinner,
yesterday announced that they
were backing Brexit as the best
way to secure workers’ rights.
Queen Elizabeth II (front right) and other members of the royal family attend a service of thanksgiving at St Paul’s Cathedral in London yesterday.
Queen’s 90th birthday
celebrations kick off
AFP
London
A
beaming Queen Elizabeth
II greeted flag-waving
crowds outside St. Paul’s
Cathedral yesterday despite being delayed by London’s traffic
as she made her way to celebrate
her official 90th birthday.
The sprightly monarch who
still keeps a gruelling calendar of
official engagements and events
kicked off three days of celebrations with a thanksgiving ceremony.
The Queen turned 90 on April
Lithuanians trafficked to
chicken farms win case
Thomson Reuters Foundation
London
A
group of Lithuanian men
trafficked to Britain to
work on chicken farms
have won a landmark civil case
against their captors, in the first
ruling against a British firm sued
for modern slavery offences.
A high court judge yesterday
ruled in favour of the victims,
finding the company guilty of
charging prohibited fees, unlawfully withholding wages, and
failing to ensure the workers had
adequate living and working conditions.
The six victims, aged 19 to 58,
sought compensation for injuries,
unpaid wages and breaches of
health and safety. Compensation
will be assessed at a later date.
“This is the first time the High
Court has ruled in favour of victims of trafficking against a British company,” said Shanta Martin
from Leigh Day, the law firm representing the six men, in a statement.
“It is an extremely important
step towards proper compensation for our clients and should be
seen as a warning to British companies that they must eradicate
all forms of modern slavery from
their businesses, whether in the
UK or elsewhere.”
The Lithuanian migrants accused the owners of DJ Houghton,
which supplied chickens and eggs
to supermarkets, of trafficking,
abuse and beatings over several
years.
The first court hearing took
place in 2015, just days after the
Modern Slavery Act came into
force, aimed at cracking down on
traffickers and cleaning up corporate supply chains..
The group was trafficked into
Britain in 2008 and employed
by DJ Houghton to catch birds in
chicken houses. They escaped in
August 2012 and gave statements
to the local police.
They offered to act as witnesses, but the police did not contact
them again, Martin said.
Police raided houses belonging
to DJ Houghton director Darrell
Houghton and company secretary
Jacqueline Judge, just two months
later and freed several suspected
victims of trafficking, but there
were no criminal proceedings
against the pair at the time.
The government has sought to
lead the way in combating human
trafficking, a $150bn a year industry. The workers said they were
harassed and brutalised by their
supervisors, and intimidated with
dogs. One supervisor allegedly
split the lip of a worker by punching him in the face.
“We felt trapped...we were being treated like slaves,” one of the
men, Antanas Galdikas, previously told the solicitors.
The Gangmaster Licensing Authority (GLA), the government
body which regulates the supply
of workers to the agriculture industry, said it revoked the licence
of DJ Houghton immediately after
the police raid on the directors’
properties.
Since the first proceedings, an
additional 10 migrants have come
forward to join the civil claim
against the chicken company.
21, but British monarchs also
have an official birthday celebration nearer the summer to
make the most of the warmer
weather in a tradition going back
250 years.
Dressed in canary yellow, the
Queen entered the 340-yearold cathedral to a fanfare sounded by state trumpeters of the
Household Calvary, accompanied by husband Prince Philip,
who himself celebrated his 95th
birthday yesterday.
Senior royals including Prince
Charles, Prince Harry, Prince
William and his wife Kate were
joined by Prime Minister David
Cameron, opposition Labour
leader Jeremy Corbyn - a noted
republican - and new London
mayor Sadiq Khan.
Veteran naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough, who
was born in the same year as the
Queen, read “Reflections on the
Passing of the Years” by Paddington Bear author Michael
Bond.
Archbishop of Canterbury
Justin Welby, paid tribute to the
Queen’s “wonderful service.”
There was a moment of
drama when a member of the
military fainted on the steps
outside the cathedral while
Catwalk show
waiting for the service to arrive.
To mark the Queen’s birthday,
the royal family released a double portrait taken by celebrity
photographer Annie Leibovitz of
Queen Elizabeth II and the Duke
of Edinburgh who have been
married for more than 68 years.
The picture shows the Queen
in pale pink with Prince Philip
wearing a shirt in the same colour.
The three-day celebrations have the theme of public service, with members of
the NHS, the police and the
fire service represented at the
Man jailed for driving
into crowded marquee
Agencies
London
A
A model presents a creation at the Topman Design
catwalk show at London Collections Men in London
yesterday.
thanksgiving service.
The armed services will be
honoured today - the Queen’s
actual official birthday - and tomorrow will celebrate the work
of charities.
The royal couple hosted a
lunch for visiting governorsgeneral at Buckingham Palace
following the service, while the
streets of London will be lined
with well-wishers today for the
pomp of the Trooping of the
Colour ceremony.
Around 10,000 guests are due
on the Mall, the road leading to
Buckingham Palace, for a street
party tomorrow.
businessman has been sentenced to 16 months behind
bars for drunkenly ploughing his car into a marquee full of
people at a charity ball.
Peter Bialek, 66, from Salisbury,
was trying to move his car out of
a parking space after it had been
boxed in.
He lost control and the vehicle
lurched forward and surged 20
metres into the crowd inside the
marquee.
Bialek was immediately pulled
from the car and assaulted.
At an earlier hearing he pleaded
guilty to three counts of grievous
bodily harm without intent and
causing bodily harm by wanton or
furious driving.
Bialek had not intended to drive
that night but his partner, who had
not been drinking, was unable to
manoeuvre their vehicle out of
their parking space at the ball at
Dene Farm near Andover, Hampshire, on October 3 last year.
Of the 21 people injured, a
65-year-old woman suffered a
fractured ankle, her husband had
three broken ribs and a 22-yearold woman had cuts to her legs.
Bialek’s lawyer, Charles Gabb,
told the court that he had lost control of the car because he had failed
to find the brake pedal.
Gabb said: “From the moment
the car came to a stop when he
turned the keys, he was expressing shock and horror at what happened.”
And he added: “What happened
on that night was a dreadful miscarriage of judgment. The consequences will live with all of the
victims but he too will live with it
for the rest of life.
“It has made the deepest impact
on him possible, it will live with
him until his dying day.”
His stepdaughter Debbie Trant
said: “He is a shadow of his former
self. It’s a terrible shame to see
such a great man be reduced to
this.”
In sentencing, Justice Teare
told Bialek: “I have given considerable weight to your qualities as
a human being, I accept that you
are in every other respect a good
man.”
Bialek has also been banned
from driving for two years and ordered to pay court costs of £750.
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
9
EUROPE
STANCE
COMMENT
LEGISLATION
LAW AND ORDER
VERDICT
Croatian premier refuses
to quit despite pressure
Russia vows response to US
vessel entry into Black Sea
Poland’s new surveillance
law draws criticism
Kazakh forces kill five
suspected terrorists
Uber fined 800,000 euros
over ride-sharing service
Croatia’s technocrat Prime Minister Tihomir
Oreskovic yesterday said he had no plans to
resign under pressure from the conservative
HDZ party, the biggest in the ruling coalition.
The HDZ filed a no-confidence motion against
Oreskovic on Tuesday over his handling of a
political row between the HDZ and its junior
coalition partner, the Most (“Bridge”) party. “I
can’t step down as it would mean I’m guilty and
accept false accusations against me. I want to
respond to it in the parliament which approved
me as prime minister. It is a matter of honour,”
Oreskovic said. The HDZ has accused Oreskovic
of trying to boost his own political power
instead of tackling economic priorities.
The Russian foreign ministry yesterday said
Moscow would respond to a US naval ship’s
entry into the Black Sea with unspecified
measures, adding it and other deployments
were designed to ratchet up tensions ahead of
a Nato summit, the RIA news agency reported.
Russian state media reported that the USS
Porter, a US naval destroyer, entered the Black
Sea a few days ago on a routine deployment, a
move it said raised hackles in Moscow because
it had recently been fitted with a new missile
system. US Navy officials told reporters on
Wednesday the US military would also have
two aircraft carriers in the Mediterranean this
month ahead of a July Nato summit in Warsaw.
A pan-European rights body yesterday
recommended that Poland introduce
more limits to the surveillance powers of
police under a newly amended law. The
law, which came into force in February and
drew criticism from rights group Amnesty
International, expands authorities’ access to
digital data and loosens the legal framework
limiting surveillance by law enforcement.
Poland will host a Nato summit as well as a
gathering of millions of Catholic youth in July
and the government of the Law and Justice
(PiS) party has said surveillance must be
expanded to effectively counter the threat of
terrorism.
Kazakh security forces killed five armed people
yesterday suspected of being militants linked to
deadly attacks this week, the National Security
Committee (KNB) said. A special forces unit
stormed an apartment and killed four suspects
after they refused to surrender and opened
fire, the KNB said in a statement. There were no
casualties among civilians or security forces.
Another man described as “the terrorists’
accomplice” opened fire on police in the street,
lightly wounding two, and was killed in return
fire. Authorities have not identified the group
responsible for attacks on a national guard
base and firearms shops in the city of Aktobe in
which at least 20 died on Sunday.
Uber was fined 800,000 euros ($900,000) by
a French court, half of which was suspended,
over its controversial UberPOP ride-sharing
service that was banned in the country after
violent protests last year. Uber suspended its
low-cost UberPOP offering in France in July
following a storm of opposition to the service
from taxi drivers and the arrest of two of its
French bosses. UberPOP was subsequently
banned in France, but the company
still operates its full-price service using
professional drivers. In the court case, Uber
was charged with “the illegal organisation
of a system that puts clients in contact with
providers of road transport for payment”.
Swimming
lessons for
migrants
whips up
a storm
Hollande
warns unions
not to disrupt
Euro 2016
AFP
Vienna
S
wimming lessons for refugee children have whipped
up a storm in Austria, with
a lifeguard’s car window smashed
and a newspaper yesterday filing
charges against a woman who
said the migrants should drown.
Local newspapers reported
this week that the southern state
of Carinthia was offering the
courses free of charge for unaccompanied minors in order to
prevent accidents in lakes and
swimming pools this summer.
This provoked a torrent of what
local politician called Heinz Kernjak called “ignorant and offensive” online comments, while an
unknown assailant smashed the
window of a van belonging to lifeguards in the town of Wolfsberg.
When national daily Kurier reported the story on Thursday, it
provoked complaints - alongside
messages of support - about the
costs of the lessons to the taxpayer
and how the courses would only
encourage more immigration.
One woman even commented
on Facebook that the migrants
“should drown”, prompting the
Kurier to file charges yesterday
with the authorities, the first time
it has done so for a comment on an
article on the social media website.
“Because of the growing
number of hate posts, Kurier will
from now on be more rigorous in
its efforts against hate posts and in
bringing charges,” the daily said.
Austria last year received
some 90,000 asylum requests,
the second highest per capita in
the European Union, resulting in
a sharp rise in the number of racist attacks, although it lags well
behind neighbouring Germany.
Last week police said that a
fire that burned to the ground
a recently completed but still
empty refugee centre was likely
caused by arsonists. In May a
suspected neo-Nazi was arrested and weapons were recovered
at his home after telling friends
he wanted to massacre migrants.
AFP
Paris
F
People react as teargas thrown by French police during a gathering by England supporters in Marseille,
southeastern France, yesterday on the eve of England’s Euro 2016 football match against Russia.
Belgium arrests new
Brussels attacks suspect
AFP
Brussels
B
elgian police investigating
the Brussels airport and
metro attacks have arrested a man in connection with
“terrorist murders”, the federal
prosecutor said yesterday.
The 31-year-old man, identified only as Ali E H A, was detained on Thursday during a
house search in the Schaerbeek
area of the capital, the prosecutor’s office said.
Several people have previously
been charged over the March 22
suicide bombings at Zaventem
airport and Maalbeek metro station which killed 32 people.
“In connection with the
federal investigation after the
terrorist attacks in Zaventem
and Brussels, a house search
was conducted,” the statement
said.
“The Belgian national Ali E H
A, born on September 23, 1984,
was arrested and later put in
detention by the investigating
judge for participation in the ac-
tivities of a terrorist group, terrorist murders and attempted
terrorist murders, as a perpetrator, co-perpetrator or accomplice.”
It added: “Currently, no further information will be given in
the interest of the investigation.”
The announcement comes
a day after a Belgian court
approved the extradition to
France of Mohamed Abrini, a
key suspect in both the Brussels attacks and the November
Paris attacks in which 130 people were killed.
He will not be handed over to
French authorities for some time
as he is still being investigated
over the Belgium attacks.
Abrini has confessed to
being the “man in the hat”
caught on video with the two
airport bombers and who was
allegedly preparing to detonate a third bomb before fleeing the scene.
Another key suspect linked to
both the Paris and Brussels killings, Salah Abdeslam, was extradited to France in April.
Abdeslam’s brother Brahim
blew himself up during the Paris
massacre.
Both attacks were claimed by
the Islamic State group and appear to be linked to the same cell
of attackers.
The airport bombings were
carried out by Ibrahim El
Bakraoui and Najim Laachraoui
- who was the alleged bombmaker for the November 13 attacks on Paris.
The metro bomber was
Khalid El Bakraoui, Ibrahim’s
brother.
Among the other suspects
charged in Belgium is Swedish
national Osama Krayem, 23, arrested on April 8, who reportedly
told investigators that he was
also to have blown himself up in
the metro but instead disposed
of the explosives in a toilet.
Belgium is still recovering
from the impact of the worst terror attacks in its history.
Brussels airport only fully reopened to passengers this month,
now with increased security, but
it suffered a major power outage
early yesterday which left many
people queueing outside.
rance vowed drastic measures to prevent strikes disrupting Euro 2016 as Europe’s showcase football event
kicked off yesterday in a gloomy
atmosphere worsened by terror
fears.
Glum organisers said that
weeks of industrial action had
dampened the party atmosphere, and there was little fanfare around Paris suggesting
that a major sporting event had
started.
“The image that is being given
is not the one we wanted,” chief
organiser Jacques Lambert admitted just hours before the
tournament’s opening match at
which France faced Romania at
the capital’s Stade de France.
The football extravaganza
comes after months of seemingly endless woes with the
country plagued by terror attacks, floods, political turmoil
and strikes.
But die-hard fans like Daniel
Suciu from Romania refused to
be put off by the gloom and fear
of militants striking the event.
“We live in a dangerous world.
I know it is dangerous but to
support Romania is just more
important than everything,” the
27-year-old said as he headed
to a massive fan zone in Paris for
the opening match.
President Francois Hollande
said he would take “all necessary
measures” to ensure the championships pass off without a
hitch after train drivers vowed to
disrupt services to the stadium
Travel misery
for the opening game. “Public
services will be provided...The
whole of Europe will be watching.”
Public announcements on the
metro system were made in several languages to help fans reach
the stadium.
Both Paris and the southern city of Marseille were also
scrambling to clear stinking piles
of rubbish from pavements after
trade unionists blockaded incineration plants and some bin men
walked off the job.
“Let us be clear, the
government has no
intention of withdrawing
this law, or of unravelling it”
Paris mayor Anne Hidalgo
sent extra rubbish trucks to
clean the streets, but several fans
and locals supported the French
right to strike and said they were
not that bothered.
“It’s a pity, but I don’t care
really. Besides the garbage, everything is well-organised,” said
40-year-old Romanian fan
Moraru.
Another Romanian, Freddy,
26, said he didn’t know why the
workers were striking, but “if the
situation is extremely bad, the
strikers shouldn’t stop, it is the
best time to do it to get true attention.”
France is also on edge over
the prospect of another terror
attack, with the championship
coming just seven months after
Islamic State militants killed 130
people in Paris.
The first match took place
at the Stade de France in Paris where three militants blew
Kurdish militants
claim Istanbul blast
Reuters
Diyarbakir/Istanbul
K
Passengers wait for flight information at the Stockholm
Arlanda Airport yesterday. Several hundred Sweden-based
pilots walked off work yesterday, disrupting about 40 flights
operated by Scandinavian airline SAS, the carrier said. The
strike among 350 pilots began shortly after 6pm (1600 GMT)
after mediated talks failed to bridge differences between the
Swedish pilots’ union and employers.
themselves up at the start of the
November 13 carnage, which
also targeted a concert hall, cafes
and restaurants.
Up to 90,000 police and private security guards have been
drafted in to protect players
and supporters at the tournament.
In another headache for organisers, Air France pilots have
called for a four-day strike from
today, when an estimated 2mn
foreign fans will begin arriving
in earnest.
But Air France chief executive
Frederic Gagey promised that
more than 80 % of flights would
be operating today.
While striking workers have
varying demands, they are united against labour reforms which
the government forced through
parliament without a vote,
which prompted a bitter standoff
with the unions.
Despite the potential disruption to the football championships, the French government
is refusing to budge on a law it
says will help reduce unemployment.
“Let us be clear, the government has no intention of withdrawing this law, or of unravelling it,” Labour Minister Myriam
El Khomri said.
Powerful CGT union leader
Philippe Martinez, who is spearheading the industrial unrest,
said he would not be “blackmailed with the Euro. Our mobilisation will continue.”
Despite the gloom, some are
hoping the tournament will provide a welcome respite from the
woes that have dogged and divided France.
urdish militants yesterday said they carried
out a suicide bombing
which killed eleven people in
Turkey’s biggest city Istanbul this week and warned the
country was no longer safe for
foreign tourists.
A car bomb ripped through
a police bus in central Istanbul during the morning rush
hour on Tuesday near the main
tourist district, a major university and the mayor’s office,
the latest in a series of attacks
in the city this year.
In a statement on its website,
the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks
(TAK), an offshoot of the outlawed Kurdistan Workers Party
(PKK), vowed to continue attacks across Turkey and said
while it was not targeting tourists, they could be at risk.
“Some may miss peace, but
we have just started the war,”
the group said in its statement.
Turkey, the world’s sixthbiggest tourist destination,
has seen a sharp drop-off in
visitors due to concerns about
deteriorating security.
Arrivals saw the biggest
drop in 17 years in April, while
average hotel occupancy rates
are down nearly 70% nationally, according to industry data.
Islamic State has been
blamed for two suicide bombings in Istanbul this year, while
Kurdish militants have increasingly staged attacks outside the largely Kurdish southeast, where they have been
waging an armed insurgency
for three decades.
Peace negotiations between
the PKK and the state collapsed last July, triggering the
worst violence in the southeast
since the peak of the unrest in
the 1990s.
Thousands of militants and
hundreds of security officials
have since been killed.
The unrest has been fuelled
by the war in neighbouring
Syria.
Turkey says the PKK - considered a terrorist group by
the European Union and the
US - has deep ties to the Syrian
Kurdish YPG militia fighting
just across the border.
10
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
INDIA
REPRIEVE
POLITICS
CLAIM
JUSTICE
SETBACK
Maoist leader Ghandy
acquitted of terror charges
Modi planning to target
Sisodia, claims Kejriwal
Mathura violence findings
have exposed Akhilesh: BJP
Five jailed for life
over tourist gang rape
Google’s Street View
plans hit roadblock
A New Delhi court yesterday acquitted Maoist
ideologue Kobad Ghandy of terror charges, but
convicted him for cheating and forgery, and
sentenced him for the period which he has
already spent in the jail, from September 2009.
According to police, Ghandy was involved in
setting up a new network of the banned Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist) in
Delhi. He was arrested here in September 20,
2009, while undergoing treatment for cancer.
Ghandy was living in Delhi to propagate the activities of the CPI-Maoist and he was helped by
co-accused Rajinder Kumar, police said. Kumar
was arrested on March 19, 2010.
Targeting Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Delhi
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal yesterday alleged
that there was a plan by the centre to file charges
against his deputy Manish Sisodia. “Now that Modi
is back in India, I have come to know there is a
plan to file charges against Sisodia and to summon
our Transport Minister Gopal Rai,” Kejriwal told the
Delhi assembly. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader
said he and his colleagues were not going to be
cowed down by the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB)
and threats of arrest. “ We are not afraid of jail,” he
thundered, triggering prolonged thumping of desks
by AAP legislators. Kejriwal also accused the BJP of
being “anti-Dalit and anti-minorities.”
A day after intelligence officers in Mathura
revealed that the Uttar Pradesh government was
warned about illegal arms in Jawaharbagh, the
Bharatiya Janata Party said yesterday the revelation has exposed Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav’s
claim that no one knew about the explosives inside the park. The BJP also reiterated its demand
for a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into
the Mathura violence which claimed 29 lives. In
a sting operation, Inspector Munni Lal Gaur, chief
of local intelligence unit in Mathura, revealed that
the state’s top brass was warned about the dangers posed by the Jawaharbagh squatters, who
were members of a cult gang.
Five men convicted of gang-raping a Danish
tourist in the capital in 2014 were yesterday
sentenced to life in jail, a prosecutor said, the
maximum term possible. They were convicted
on Monday of assaulting the 52-year-old
woman at knifepoint as she returned to her
Delhi hotel. “They will remain in prison for the
remainder of their life,” public prosecutor Atul
Shrivastava said. The men were also given
jail terms for more minor offences including
robbery, which will run concurrently with the
main sentence. Lawyer Dinesh Sharma, who
defended all five, said he would appeal their
convictions.
Google’s plans to introduce its popular Street
View service in India have hit a roadblock after
the interior ministry yesterday said it had rejected
an application from the tech giant, although the
government could yet approve it. The company
applied several months ago to bring in the streetmapping feature showing 360-degree panoramic
images of streets, monuments, mountains and rivers - a service it first introduced in the US in 2007.
An interior ministry spokesman said Google’s
proposal had been rejected but added that a final
decision would likely be taken later in the year.
“We have rejected the plan by Google to expand
its maps feature,” the spokesman said.
Stop censoring
instead of
certifying films,
court tells CBFC
IANS
Mumbai
T
he Bombay High Court
yesterday pulled up the
censor board for insisting on “censoring” films instead of “certifying” them and
asked why it was not banning
Udta Punjab if the movie indeed glorified drugs. The final
verdict on the film’s release will
be out on June 13.
A division bench comprising
Justice S C Dharmadhikari and
Justice Shalini Phansalkar-Joshi
asked the Central Board of Film
Certification (CBFC) to leave it
to viewers to decide whether the
film was defaming a state as the
modern audiences were a mature
lot.
The judges noted that all
this was giving unnecessary
publicity to the film and said
people must be allowed to see
what they want on television
or cinema as “everybody has a
Protest over drugs
in Punjab planned
Congress Vice President Rahul
Gandhi will lead a protest sit-in by
the party on June 13 at Jalandhar
against the scourge of drugs and
deteriorating law and order in Punjab, a senior party leader said. The
dharna at Jalandhar, 150km from
Chandigarh, comes amid a raging
row over the drugs abuse depicted
in the upcoming Bollywood movie
‘Udta Punjab’. Rahul was earlier
criticised by the ruling Shiromani
Akali Dal leadership for saying that
over 70% of Punjab residents were
consuming drugs. “Rahul has been
consistently raising the issue of
(consumption of) drugs in Punjab.
When he raised the issue in Punjab
in 2012, the Akalis accused him
of maligning the Punjabi youth.
The situation has now gone from
bad to worse as the Akalis never
bothered to tackle the problem,”
Congress state leader Rana Gurjeet Singh said. “The eradication of
drugs from Punjab is top priority
for the Congress and the protest
event will be held in that context
only,” the Congress leader said.
choice”. The CBFC must stick
to certifying instead of censoring films, they said.
After completing the second
day’s hearing on a plea filed
by Udta Punjab co-producers
challenging the cuts recommended by CBFC, the judges
said they would pronounce
their verdict on June 13.
Earlier, the CBFC lawyer
Advait Sethna told the court
that some of the scenes recommended for deletion in the film
were “very vulgar” and the lyrics used in the songs were “offensive”. The movie highlights
the drug menace in Punjab.
To this, the court pointed out
that films do not run on such
content and there must be a
storyline and the modern audiences were mature enough.
Sethna further argued that
the film showed the state in
a poor light as Punjab was a
highly productive state. He
added that a dog in the film was
named ‘Jackie Chan’.
On Thursday, the court had
noted that the film wants to
save people from drugs and was
not “made with a view to malign the state or its people”.
Co-produced by Anurag
Kashyap and directed by Abhishek Chaubey, Udta Punjab
stars Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt,
Kareena Kapoor Khan and Diljit
Dosanjh.
Kashyap
accused
CBFC
chairman Pahlaj Nihalani of
bullying and deliberately not
certifying the film slated for release on June 17.
While the CBFC at one point
demanded 89 cuts in the film,
its revising committee brought
down the number to 13.
The row over Udta Punjab
took a new turn after Nihalani suggested that Kashyap
may have taken money from
the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)
to produce the movie ahead of
the Punjab elections due next
year.
Meanwhile Bollywood actress Priyanka Chopra yesterday
supported
Anurag
Kashyap’s Udta Punjab and said
creativity should not be curbed
in democracy.
Dust storm in capital
A sudden change in weather brought welcome respite from the scorching heat in Delhi yesterday evening as light rain accompanied by gusts of dust-laden wind blew across
the city lowering the temperature by as much as six degrees Celsius. “There were reports of rain in some parts of the city in the evening. The scorching sun was covered by the
clouds and the weather cooled around 5pm,” said an India Meteorological Department (IMD) official.
Gunmen abduct woman
NGO worker in Kabul
IANS
Kabul/Kolkata/New Delhi
A
Indian woman, working
with an international aid
agency in Afghanistan,
has been abducted from Kabul,
her family and officials said yesterday.
Armed suspected militants
seized Judith D’Souza, 40, who
works for the Aga Khan Foundation as a senior technical adviser
on gender issues in the Afghan
capital, around Thursday midnight. It was not known who is
responsible for the kidnapping
or whether a ransom was sought
for her release.
Rahul, Congress leaders ‘to
discuss Kerala poll debacle’
IANS
Thiruvananthapuram
S
enior Congress leaders in
Kerala, Oommen Chandy, V M Sudheeran and
Ramesh Chennithala, are scheduled to meet party vice president
Rahul Gandhi in Delhi today.
Gandhi has asked the three
leaders to meet him in Delhi, possibly to discuss the party debacle
in the recent Assembly elections
in the state.
Chandy, who was Kerala chief
minister before being routed by
the Left Democratic Front (LDF),
confirmed the development.
“The meeting will be held today in Delhi. Former defence
minister A K Antony will join in,
though I don’t know whether
party president Sonia Gandhi
will attend,” Chandy said.
State Congress president Sudheeran and leader of the opposition, Chennithala, were in Delhi
earlier this month. However, this
will be the first time the three
will meet the Congress top leaders after the party was defeated in
the polls held on May 16.
According to sources, the
Congress vice president is upset
as the state leaders had assured
him of good results in the election. However, the Congressled United Democratic Front
could win only 47 seats in the
140-member Assembly. The
Congress won just 22 seats of the
87 seats it contested.
Meanwhile, a section of the
Congress leaders here have demanded that Sudheeran step
down from the post of state unit
president. At a meeting last
week, the leaders held Sudheeran
responsible for the poll debacle,
stating he adopted an impractical
stance on the issue of shutting
down of bars. Besides, he was
instrumental in the selection of
candidates for the election, they
added.
With Chandy not taking up the
post of leader of opposition in
the Assembly, Chennithala has
been given the responsibility of
leading the Congress charge in
the House. Chandy has added
that he will not assume up the
role of UDF chairman.
Chandy and Chennithala lead
two rival factions in the state
Congress unit. Party activists
here have been demanding they
bury the hatchet and put up a
united front against the Vijayan
government in the coming days.
The demand for a complete overhaul of the party unit has been
placed before the Congress high
command, sources said.
However, the party high command is in a dilemma even as
Sudheeran looks for an honourable exit by securing a position
at the national level, the sources
disclosed.
The Kerala Assembly is slated
to be in session from next month.
It remains to be seen whether
the uneasiness prevailing in the
Congress subsides after the high
command’s intervention.
Her family told reporters in
her home city of Kolkata that
they learnt about the abduction
from the Indian embassy in Kabul early yesterday morning.
The family urged the Afghan and Indian governments
to act fast so as to rescue Judith
D’Souza, who was set to return
home next week.
“It happened in a different
country. The government of that
country should take steps. She
liked the place as she said there
was a lot of work to be done,” her
sister Agnes said.
“The government of India
must do something and get my
sister back. I want her back,” she
added.
External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj responded and
said: “We will spare no efforts
to rescue her. She is your sister
and India’s daughter. We are doing everything to rescue her,” the
minister tweeted.
Officials in New Delhi said
that the Indian embassy in Kabul was in touch with the Afghan
authorities who were making all
efforts to secure her release.
The Aga Khan Foundation,
which is a part of the Aga Khan
Development Network, said an
unnamed “staff member” was
abducted.
But the aid agency, which
works in health, education and
rural development sectors and
Graft grilling
has pumped nearly $750mn into
Afghanistan’s reconstruction,
didn’t provide more details.
“An investigation by the authorities has been launched, in
conjunction with security officials and various partners. Every
effort is being made to secure the
safe release of the staff member,”
Aga Khan Foundation spokesperson Sam Pickens said.
At Judith’s home in central
Kolkata, her parents were distraught.
Asked
about
Taliban involvement in the
crime, her sister
Agnes said: “I
don’t know.”
Church refusal to bury
star’s relative criticised
IANS
Kottayam (Kerala)
T
Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh was
“evasive” during his second round of questioning at
the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) headquarters
in a disproportionate assets case, CBI officials said
yesterday. The CBI investigators questioned the 81-yearold senior Congress leader for over seven hours after
his arrival at the CBI office around 10.50am.
She said Judith never spoke
about any danger to her. “She
has been abroad before, but this
is the first time this has happened.”
Her father Denzile described Judith as “very brave”.
“We were concerned
about her safety in
Afghanistan but
she said she was
quite safe. She
told us there
was plenty of
security,”
he
said.
Judith was
home twoand-a-halfmonths ago.
he denial of burial to
actress Priyanka Chopra’s grandmother by
the church here was against
the principles of Christianity, a
bishop said here yesterday.
The incident occurred last
week when the body of Mary
John Akhouri was brought to the
St John’s Attamangalam Jacobite
Syrian Church at Kumarakom,
the famed tourist destination,
for the last rites.
Mary John Akhouri, who hails
from Kumarakom, is the maternal grandmother of actress Priyanka Chopra.
Incidentally, the church is the
home parish of Mary John’s parents and her parents are buried in
the church cemetery.
According to Mary John’s relatives, it was her last wish that she
be buried along with her parents
in the church cemetery here.
When the body was brought
here from Mumbai, a section of the
church resisted the burial, forcing
the actress to look elsewhere.
However, Bishop Thomas Mar
Thimeothios, of the Jacobite
Syrian Church, who knew Mary
John well, came to the rescue and
took the lead for the burial at another church in the same district.
The actress was
heartbroken when she
was told that the burial
will not be allowed at her
grandmother’s ancestral
church
Speaking to reporters here, the
bishop said the action of the local church was not in tune with
Christian principles.
The actress was heartbroken when she was told that
the burial will not be allowed
at her grandmother’s ancestral
church.
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
11
PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN
Obama approves more
aggressive Taliban fight
Reuters
Washington
P
resident Barack Obama
has approved giving the
US military greater ability
to accompany and enable Afghan forces battling a resilient
Taliban insurgency, in a move to
assist them more proactively on
the battlefield, a US official said.
The senior US defence official, who spoke on condition
of anonymity, said the decision
would also allow greater use of
US air power, particularly close
air support.
However, the official cautioned: “This is not a blanket
order to target the Taliban.”
Obama’s decision again rede-
fines America’s support role in
Afghanistan’s grinding conflict,
more than a year after international forces wrapped up their
combat mission and shifted the
burden to Afghan troops.
It also comes ahead of
Obama’s eagerly anticipated
decision on whether to forge
ahead with a scheduled reduction in the numbers of US troops
from about 9,800 currently to
5,500 by the start of 2017.
A group of retired generals and senior diplomats urged
Obama last week to forgo those
plans, warning they could undermine the fight against the
Afghan Taliban, whose leader
was killed in a US drone strike in
Pakistan last month.
Under the new policy, the
US commander in Afghanistan,
General John Nicholson, will
be able to decide when it is appropriate for American troops
to accompany conventional
Afghan forces into the field something they have so far only
been doing with Afghan special
forces, the official said.
The expanded powers are
only meant to be employed “in
those select instances in which
their engagement can enable
strategic effects on the battlefield,” the official said.
That means that US forces
should not be expected to accompany Afghan soldiers on
day-to-day missions.
“This added flexibility... is
fully supported by the Afghan
government and will help the
Afghans at an important moment for the country,” the official said.
The decision is a departure from current US rules of
engagement in Afghanistan,
which impose limits on US
forces’ ability to strike at insurgents.
For example, the US military was previously allowed to
take action against the Taliban
“in extremis” - moments when
their assistance was needed to
prevent a significant Afghan
military setback.
That definition, however, left
the US military postured to assist them in more defensive instances. The new policy would
allow US forces to accompany
Afghans at key moments in their
offensive campaign against the
Taliban.
“The US forces will more
proactively support Afghan
conventional forces,” the official said.
The Taliban control or contest
more territory in Afghanistan than
at any time since they were ousted
by a US-backed intervention in
late 2001, and US officials have acknowledged the uneven performance of Afghan security forces.
Large portions of Afghanistan, including the provincial
capital of northern Kunduz and
multiple districts of southern
Helmand province, have fallen,
at times briefly, to the Taliban
over the past year-and-a-half.
Many other districts and provinces are also under varying de-
Charity chief
slams US as
envoy visits
Reuters
Islamabad
H
afiz Saeed, a Pakistani
Islamist with a $10mn
US bounty on his head,
led prayers at a mosque in Islamabad yesterday and called on his
country’s military to shoot down
any American drones entering
Pakistani territory.
The anti-US rhetoric came
as the US special representative
for Afghanistan and Pakistan
visited Islamabad for the first
time since last month’s killing
of Afghan Taliban leader Mullah
Akhtar Mansour in a drone strike
in western Pakistan.
US and Pakistan relations have
been strained by the strike, which
Islamabad has protested against
as a violation of its sovereignty.
Yesterday’s public appearance
by Saeed, whom the US and India accuse of masterminding a
2008 attack on India’s financial
capital Mumbai that killed 166
people, was another reminder of
the many sore points in the Pakistani-US relationship.
The US has offered $10mn for
information leading to Saeed’s
arrest and conviction, but he remains free.
He maintains a low profile for
much of the time, meaning his
A
Pakistani court has upheld the life sentence of
a political activist from
the country’s semi-autonomous
north, which observers say could
see a “nationalist upsurge” in a
region also claimed by India.
Baba Jan, a left wing political
activist from the Hunza Valley
in Pakistan’s northern GilgitBaltistan, was convicted by an
anti-terrorism court for participating in political riots in 2011
and lost an appeal against his life
sentence on Thursday.
Jan has vocally protested what
he and supporters describe as
political, constitutional and human rights violations in the region, organising rallies and demonstrations in protest.
He contested local elections
last year from prison, placing
second in the polls.
“The decision was aimed at
barring Baba Jan from contesting
elections but it will have a counter-productive impact,” said political analyst Amir Hussain.
“This decision will backfire
Hafiz Saeed leading the first Friday prayers of the holy fasting month of Ramadan in Islamabad yesterday.
occasional public appearances
and pronouncements are closely
watched.
“The US stands with India in
their enmity towards Pakistan,”
Saeed told a crowd of hundreds
of people after leading Friday
prayers at the Islamabad mosque.
“We want to request the army
chief and make the air chief realise that it is their duty to shoot
and trigger extremist views like
a nationalistic upsurge,” he said.
Jan has vocally protested
what he and supporters
describe as political,
constitutional and human
rights violations in the
region, organising rallies
and demonstrations in
protest
A simmering resentment has
been building in Gilgit-Baltistan
since Islamabad began mulling
upgrading its constitutional status in a bid to provide legal cover
Above average monsoon
rain likely across Pakistan
Internews
Islamabad
T
he Met office has said
that 10 to 20% more
rainfall than usual is expected across the country during the monsoon season from
mid-June to late July which
could cause flooding in urban
areas and various parts of the
Potohar region.
Higher than average rainfall
is expected in Punjab, Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, Azad
Kashmir (AK) and northeast
Balochistan.
In its Monsoon Outlook of
2016, the Met office has said
that above average rainfall is
also likely in the catchment areas of major banks, which may
cause floods.
Flash floods are also expected in Potohar and western
Punjab and heavy downpours
may generate flash flooding
along the Suleman Range as
well.
Heavy downpours may also
lead to urban flooding in large
cities.
Apart from the direct impact
of heavy rains, the warm monsoon winds coming from the
Bay of Bengal coupled with the
high temperatures may trigger
a Glacier Lake Outburst Flood
(GLOF), landslides and flash
floods in upper KP and Gilgit
Baltistan.
The outlook was presented
at a pre-monsoon 2016 preparedness conference yesterday which was hosted by the
National Disaster Management
Authority (NDMA).
The aim of the conference
was to review the preparatory
efforts by all concerned departments for this year’s monsoon season.
Chairing the conference,
NDMA chairman Asghar Nawaz presented the salient features of the National Monsoon
Contingency Response Directive 2016, which presented a
realistic picture of the response
A collapsed metal awning killed
at least five people after Friday
prayers at a mosque in the
southern Pakistani city of Karachi,
police said yesterday.
A temporary sun shade fell on
the courtyard area of the Usman
mosque in central Karachi
following prayers, said police
official Zulfiqar Haider.
“I was in the mosque myself...
people were offering a prayers
following the conclusion of the
(main) Friday prayer when we
heard a loud crash following a
gust of wind,” he said.
The corrugated metal awning fell
directly on worshippers, he said.
Friday mid-day prayers hold
special significance in Islam,
particularly during the holy
month of Ramadan, which began
this week.
Temperatures in Karachi often hit
maximums of near 40 degrees
Celsius in the summer, and the
awning had been erected to
shield worshippers from the sun.
Karachi, a sprawling metropolis of
more than 20mn people, is one of
the world’s largest urban areas, but
construction codes are often ignored.
It is a problem that is common
across Pakistan. In November, 44
people were killed when a multistorey factory collapsed in the
eastern city of Lahore.
Couple killed
for marrying
without family
consent
down any drone that comes into
Pakistan and respond to it in
kind.”
In response to the May 21 drone
strike that killed Mansour, an Islamist charity Saeed heads, the
Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD), has announced a series of anti-US protests in major cities, with Saeed
expected to be a featured speaker.
Pakistan’s top foreign policy
official and its powerful military
chief met Richard Olson, the US
special representative for Afghanistan and Pakistan, during a visit.
A statement from the military
said Chief of Army Staff General
Raheel Sharif had expressed “serious concern” over the US drone
strike. The US embassy in Islamabad said it had no statement on
Olson’s visit.
Court upholds life sentence for political activist
AFP
Islamabad
grees of Taliban control.
The new authorities that
Obama has given the US military could give it greater leeway
in addressing the shortcomings
of Afghan security forces.
Still, experts warn that its
hard to predict when Afghanistan will be able to stand on its
own against the Taliban, not to
mention the country’s enormous economic difficulties and
fractious political system.
The US government’s top
watchdog on Afghanistan said
that the United States had
wasted billions of dollars in reconstruction aid to Afghanistan
over the past decade, and now
a renewed Taliban insurgency
was threatening the gains that
had been made.
Awning collapse at
mosque kills five
mechanism and the resource
limitations to counter the
threats of monsoon floods.
“The existing response
mechanism has limitations according to which all stakeholders have to operate,” the NDMA
chairman said.
“The weaknesses of the past
should be looked at in order
to bring improvements,” he
added.
The monsoon contingency
response directive, prepared
by the NDMA, is based on four
scenarios including moderately
above normal monsoon which
is said to be most likely, intense
monsoon which is probable,
erratic monsoon which is less
likely and abnormal erratic
monsoon which is declared the
most dangerous.
“While preparations are being made for the most likely scenario of above normal monsoon,
all the concerned departments
must also take precautions
against the other three scenarios
as well,” Nawaz added.
to a multi-billion-dollar Chinese investment plan in the area.
Gilgit-Baltistan, which borders China and Afghanistan, is
not constitutionally part of Pakistan, and like Kashmir, it is also
claimed by India.
Islamabad has historically insisted that the area, along with
the parts of Kashmir it controls,
are semi-autonomous and has
not formally integrated them
into the country, in line with its
position that a referendum on
sovereignty should be carried out
across the whole of the region.
But Pakistan’s adviser on for-
eign affairs Sartaj Aziz last week
confirmed that a committee established to come up with a plan
to reexamine the area’s constitutional status had completed its
work, adding that it was waiting
a final approval from the prime
minister.
Aziz did not give any further
details on what the plan entailed.
Human rights organisations
have been demanding the release
of Baba Jan. An international
petition for his release has been
signed by leading left wing intellectuals, including Noam Chomsky, Tariq Ali and David Graeber.
AFP
Lahore
A Pakistani couple were
murdered in Lahore yesterday
for marrying without their
family’s consent, according to
officials, the second so-called
“honour killing” in the South
Asian nation this week.
Mohammed Ashraf, 56,
killed his daughter Saba and
her husband Karamat Ali a day
after the couple returned to
Lahore’s Kahna area to smooth
over rocky relations with the
family, who disapproved of the
marriage, according to police.
“Eighteen-year-old Saba
had married Karamat Ali, who
is 35, around a year and a half
ago against the will of her family and returned to her home
on Thursday night to settle
matters with father and other
family members,” Falak Sher, a
local police official, said.
Ashraf, a security guard by
profession, opened fire on his
daughter and son-in-law after
becoming infuriated during a
heated conversation.
“He also killed his neighbour Mohammed Akram for
supporting his daughter’s
marriage,” Sher said, adding
that Ashraf and his son Safdar
later surrendered to police and
Waiting for food
Afghan children holding dishes as they wait to receive food donated by a private charity for
the needy during the holy month of Ramadan in the city of Jalalabad yesterday.
confessed to the murders.
The incident comes just
days after another woman in
Lahore, Zeenat Bibi, was set
on fire by her mother for marrying a man of her own choice.
Bibi’s mother later confessed
to the crime.
Earlier yesterday Pakistan’s
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
ordered a comprehensive investigation into Bibi’s killing,
calling the crime un-Islamic.
“Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharif expressed his deep concern and anguish over the killing of the woman in the eastern city of Lahore and said the
incident was against the values and traditions of Islam,”
read a statement from the premier’s office.
Hundreds of women are
murdered by their relatives in
Pakistan each year on the pretext of defending what is seen
as family honour.
“A Girl in the River: The
Price of Forgiveness” - a film
telling the story of a rare survivor of an attempted honour
killing - won an Oscar for best
documentary short in February.
Amid publicity for the film,
Sharif vowed to eradicate the
“evil” of honour killings but
no fresh legislation has been
tabled since then.
Sindh’s mayoral
elections fixed for
June 29
Long overdue elections of the city
mayor/deputy mayor and chairman/
vice chairman of local bodies
institutions in Pakistan’s Sindh
province will be held on June 29.
Polling will be held from 8am
to 4pm without break. The
elected representatives will be
administered oath on July 4.
According to the elections schedule,
which was announced by election
commission (EC) joint secretary
Atta-ur-Rehman yesterday, the
returning officers will issue public
notice in this regard on June 11. They
will receive nomination papers on
June 15 and 16.
The documents will be scrutinised
on June 17 and 18 while appeal
against acceptance or rejection
of the nomination papers can
be filed by June 20, which will
be decided by the appellate
authorities the following day.
They will be allowed to withdraw
nomination papers by June 22
and a final list of candidates with
symbols will be published the
same day paving the way for
conducting polling on June 29.
The result after consolidation
will be declared on June 30
and the notification of returned
candidates will be issued by the
EC on July 2.
12
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
PHILIPPINES
Bilateral talks with China ‘ruled
out’ before tribunal decision
Agencies/Manila Times
Manila
T
he Philippines will not
pursue bilateral talks
with China until an international tribunal decides on
a case brought by the Philippines in connection with claims
in the South China Sea, incoming foreign minister Perfecto
Yasay said yesterday.
The Philippines has brought
a case at an international tribunal in The Hague contesting
China’s claims, a case rejected
by China which wants to solve
the issue bilaterally.
“We should not pursue any
bilateral talks at this time until
we hear, or wait for, the outcome of the decision of the
arbitral tribunal to come out,”
Yasay said in an interview with
ABS-CBN news channel.
Yasay’s remarks follows advice from a former Philippine
foreign minister and a US security expert for President-elect
Rodrigo Duterte not to hold
unconditional bilateral talks
with China to try to resolve the
dispute.
China said on Wednesday the
Philippines had ignored a proposal for a regular talks mechanism over maritime issues, as it
repeated that its door was always open to bilateral talks with
Manila.
Meanwhile, a ruling by an international arbitral tribunal will
in no way solve a bitter maritime
dispute between the Philippines
and China in the West Philippine Sea (South China Sea), according to two of the country’s
former senior diplomats.
This assertion mirrored the
ex-envoys’ backing of the position of the Duterte administration to resume the Philippines’
disrupted bilateral negotiations
with China.
After all, the former senior
diplomats said, the Philippines
will not necessarily enjoy the
expected favourable decision of
the court.
Rosario Manalo, chairman of
the High-Level Task Force on
the Asean Charter and former
Foreign Affairs undersecretary
for international economic relations, noted that it is already
late for the Philippines to compete its claim as China has already built artificial islands
suitable for military use in the
Dozens
of fish
species
in danger:
study
AFP
Manila
D
Members of Akbayan party list group chant slogans during a protest regarding the disputed islands in the South China Sea, in front of the Chinese consulate in Makati City,
Metro Manila yesterday.
disputed waters. “It’s a little
bit too late because the Chinese
have already eaten up all the territories. They have their building activities, right?” she said in
a recent chat.
Manalo explained that “under international law, the country who has physical control is
the owner.”
She suggested that the two
competing countries could undertake joint exploration and
“share the fruits of the sea” to
ease tensions in the South China
Sea (West Philippine Sea).
The West Philippine Sea is
believed to potentially hold
huge deposits of oil and gas.
It is also a rich fishing ground
and a vital maritime route,
where $5 trillion of annual global trade passes through.
China, according to Manalo,
will agree to joint exploration.
“Otherwise, the world will
see them as, ‘What are you? Are
you shameless’?” she said.
China claims nearly 90 percent of the sea though its ninedash line, while the Philippines
insists its rights to areas within
200 nautical miles of its coastline, under the terms of the
United Nations Convention on
the Law of the Sea (Unclos).
Manila in 2013 sought the ruling of The Hague-based Permanent Court of Arbitration (PCA)
to clarify its maritime rights.
But Manalo said the award
will have no bearing if Beijing
will not recognise the decision.
The only way to save the Philippines’ claims, she said, is to
diplomatically talk with China
and ask them: “How we can cooperate? If you keep setting plots
against us, you are in effect hostile to us. Is that the demonstration of friendship on your side?”
Manalo saw no need for the
United States to join the negotiations as it does not have any
claim in the contested territories in the South China Sea.
“We cannot pursue multilateral talks… What’s the interest
of the United States in us? Do
they have any claim to the Philippines or China’s territory?
The problem is only between us
and China,” the diplomat said.
Lauro Baja, former Foreign
Affairs undersecretary for policy and Philippine Permanent
Representative to the United
Nations, clarified that engaging
in bilateral talks with China will
not harm the Philippine case in
the tribunal.
“You can’t resolve an issue
without talking to each other,”
he said in a separate interview.
“I have yet to hear an excuse
or justification that going bilateral will prejudice our case in
the panel. How? These judges
are statesmen, they are learned.
They know how to distinguish
rhetoric, what is legal or what is
reality.”
Baja noted that the question
of territorial integrity or mari-
time entitlement will not be
solved solely on legal ground.
“What the department (Foreign Affairs) or the Philippines
may have missed is that they
relied too much on the legal angle,” he said.
“Second, we relied too much
on the panel and we put all our
eggs in the panel. We should
have had more foresight like the
others.”
Baja dismissed a recommendation of Ernest Bower, senior
adviser to the Washingtonbased Centre for Strategic and
International Studies, to elevate the Philippine case to the
United Nations Security Council if China will not abide by the
court ruling.
ozens of fish species have
disappeared or are on the
verge of being lost from
marine biodiversity hotspot the
Philippines, an environmental
group said yesterday, citing a
new study.
Fishermen reported that 59
coral reef species had gone missing from catches since the 1950s,
according to the study conducted by Haribon, one of the
Philippines’ oldest conservation
groups, and Britain’s Newcastle
University.
It based its findings on interviews with 2,600 fishermen
across the Philippines, which
has one of the highest concentrations of marine species in the
world.
Overfishing to meet the demands of a fast-growing population and Chinese restaurants
around the region was a key factor in the decline, according to
Gregorio dela Rosa, a marine biologist with Haribon.
“These species are usually
served in restaurants, swimming around in aquariums. They
command a high price. If you
have lots of mouths to feed, you
need lots of fish to catch,” dela
Rosa said.
The Philippines’ population
has grown to more than 100mn
people, from about 20mn in the
1950s.
Dela Rosa said demand from
China added to pressure from
the local market.
“It has a very big impact because most of our fish are exported to China, also Singapore
and Hong Kong. The groupers
are highly priced, especially the
red ones which are in demand in
Chinese wedding (receptions),”
he said.
While dynamite and cyanide
fishing are illegal and no longer
rampant, the study found that
they continue to contribute to
depleting fish stocks.
The Philippines is part of the
Coral Triangle, an area of water
spanning Indonesia, Papua New
Guinea, Malaysia, Timor Leste
and the Solomon Islands that
is known as the global centre of
marine biodiversity.
Police arrest 329 over
‘gun ban’ violations
By Thom Picana
Manila Times/ San Fernando City
I
locos region Chief Superintendent Ericson T Velasquez said about 329 persons who violated the Comelec
gun ban have been arrested and
some 244 assorted firearms
were confiscated during the
implementation of the ban all
over the region from January 10
to June 8, 2016.
Velasquez said those arrested consisted of 310 civilians, 12 government officials
and employees, five security
guards and two members of
the Philippine National Police
(PNP) who were carrying firearms, gun replicas, airgun/airsoft gun, explosives and bladed
weapons.
Data from the PRO1’s Regional Investigation and Detective Management Division
(RIDMD), reported that 145
were arrested in Pangasinan,
62 in La Union, 54 in Ilocos Sur
and 68 in Ilocos Norte.
The Region 1 police also
seized 244 assorted firearms
composed of 82 high powered
and 162 low powered firearms;
30 firearm replicas, air guns
and airsoft gun; 32 bladed
weapons; and 36 grenade and
explosives.
Velasquez said the violators
were arrested through checkpoint operations, buy-bust and
police response.
A total of 316 incidents were
recorded wherein 172 were referred to Prosecutor’s Office,
128 were filed in court, two under investigation, two referred
to DSWD, 10 were dismissed
by Prosecutor’s Office and two
where no case was filed.
Velasquez earlier this week
conferred the ‘Medalya ng
Kasanayan’ and ‘Medalya ng
Papuri’ to personnel assigned
at the PRO1 headquarters who
rendered election duties during the 2016 national and local
elections.
The regional director also
conferred awards to his police
personnel on the ground dur-
ing the ceremonial awarding
conducted at the Police Provincial Offices of Pangasinan,
La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos
Norte.
Meanwhile Cordillera region
Chief Supt.
Ulysses Abellera reported
that police operatives regionwide were able to arrest 145
individuals who were charged
with violation of the Omnibus
Election Code.
A report from the Regional
Election Monitoring Action
Centre (Remac) of PRO-Cordillera from January 10, 2016 to
June 8, 2016 listed that a total
of 297 assorted firearms, 1693
ammunitions, 14 bladed weapons, 12 grenades, and 78 other
explosives were confiscated,
surrendered and recovered in
the region during the whole
period of the implementation
of the Comelec gun ban.
Abra Police Provincial Office
scored the highest number of
firearms confiscated, surrendered and recovered with 185
assorted firearms.
Sulu sultan supports Duterte’s war against drugs
The Royal Supreme Sultanate of Sulu Archipelago
and North Borneo Islands (RSSSANBI) gave its full
support to the all-out war on illegal drugs waged
by the incoming Duterte administration with the
issuance of the Sultanate’s Royal Decree recently,
Manila Times reported.
Sultan Abdullah Kiram, of the RSSSANBI issued a
Royal Decree No 2016-03 in line with the pronouncement of President-elect Rodrigo Duterte
who is poised to order the Philippine National
Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency
(PDEA) to tackle illegal drug activities.
Kiram told Manila Times that he issued the royal decree to assist Duterte in his vow that in six months
time of his administration he will bring war right at
the doorsteps of the drug lords and drug pushers.
Kiram has even committed his Royal Security
Group (RSG), headed by a retired PNP officer who
served the United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force
in East Timor, the Middle East, and some African
countries. Kiram said the Royal Decree was with
the full approval of the Royal Council of Ministers
and has to be enforced in co-ordination with the
law enforcement authorities like the PNP, NBI, and
most of all with the PDEA.
A handout video grab photo from a CCTV footage taken yesterday by Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) shows plume of
ash from Mount Bulusan in the rural Sorsogon province, south of Manila.
Spectacular ash explosion at
volcano in eastern province
AFP
Manila
A
volatile volcano in the
eastern Philippines sent
a spectacular column of
ash and steam high into the sky
yesterday.
The plume of ash from Mount
Bulusan in the rural eastern
province of Sorsogon went two
kilometres into the air, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology
and Seismology said in an advisory.
Institute head Renato Solidum
said nobody was living within
a four-kilometre danger zone
near the volcano, but that people
in nearby communities should
wear masks outside or stay indoors.
Solidum said that inhaling
the ash could cause difficulty in
breathing and respiratory illnesses.
Bulusan has had nine similar
explosions since May last year.
Solidum said yesterday’s
lasted for about 30 minutes, and
that more could be expected.
The Philippines is located in
the seismically active Pacific
“Ring of Fire” and has over 20
active volcanoes.
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
13
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL/MALDIVES
Maldives jails ex-VP for
plotting to kill president
AFP
Malé
F
ormer Maldives deputy
leader Ahmed Adeeb has
been jailed for 15 years
for plotting to assassinate the
president, the latest in a string
of prosecutions of senior politicians and opposition figures in
the troubled island nation.
Adeeb was convicted late on
Thursday of attempting to kill
President Abdulla Yameen by
setting off a bomb on his speedboat last September, his lawyer
said.
Two of the vice president’s
military bodyguards were also
convicted after the trial, which
was held behind closed doors.
The verdicts mean almost all
of Yameen’s key rivals are in jail
or exiled from the Maldives, a
popular honeymoon destination
that has been rocked by political
turmoil in recent years.
They come weeks after Mohamed Nasheed, the country’s
first democratically elected
president, was granted asylum in
Britain.
Nasheed, whose legal team
includes high-profile human
rights lawyer Amal Clooney, was
sentenced to 13 years in prison on controversial terrorism
charges last year but was allowed
to travel to Britain for surgery in
January and was granted political asylum last month.
Adeeb, 34, was considered a
close confidant of Yameen until
he was dramatically impeached
in November following allega-
tions he was trying to topple the
president.
“The Criminal Court
has barred me from
calling the trial unfair,
but we have concerns
and intend to launch an
appeal immediately”
Yameen escaped the blast unscathed, but his wife and two
others were slightly injured. The
FBI was called in to investigate
the incident, but found no evidence the blast was caused by a
bomb.
Reporters were barred from
attending the trial after the court
invoked national security concerns and said it would not make
the hearings or verdict public.
Adeeb’s lawyer, Moosa Siraj,
told the Maldives Independent
website he would appeal.
“The Criminal Court has
barred me from calling the trial
unfair, but we have concerns and
intend to launch an appeal immediately,” Siraj said.
Another lawyer who declined
to be named said Adeeb’s two
bodyguards were also convicted
on Thursday, sentenced to 10
years each in jail.
The same court tried former
prosecutor general Muhthaz
Muhsin of conspiracy to kidnap
the president by arranging a fake
arrest warrant in February and
sentenced him on Thursday to 17
years in jail, his lawyer Husnu Al
Suood said.
Adeeb, who enjoyed a meteoric rise until his impeachment, was given a separate
10-year sentence on Sunday
on a terrorism charge relating
to his role in cracking down on
an anti-government protest in
May 2015.
Opposition activists in the
Indian ocean archipelago say
dissidents risk arrest or exile
under Yameen, the half brother
of former strongman Maumoon
Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the
archipelago for 30 straight years
until he was defeated in the first
democratic election in 2008.
In July last year, Yameen
sacked his then vice president
Mohamed Jameel after accusing
him of conspiring to seize power.
Jameel is now living abroad in
self-imposed exile.
Yameen’s Defence Minister
Mohamed Nazim was sentenced
to 11 years in prison in March
In this file photo, Ahmed Adeeb speaking during a press conference in Male.
2015 for trying to topple the government, and another ex-defence minister Tholhath Ibrahim
was jailed for 10 years the following month.
And nearly four months ago,
Yameen secured the jailing of
Sheikh Imran Abdulla, leader
of the opposition Islamist Adhaalath Party.
He was sentenced to 12 years
after being tried for allegedly
inciting unrest during an antigovernment rally in 2015.
Monastery worker hacked to death Lanka decides
to expedite all
A
China-funded
projects
AFP
Dhaka
62-year-old Hindu monastery worker was hacked
to death in Bangladesh
yesterday, police said, the latest
in a series of such attacks on religious minorities in the mainly
Muslim country.
The latest murder came as
Bangladeshi police announced
a special week-long crackdown
on militants as they ramp up efforts to stem the killings, with
five members of a banned Islamist outfit killed in gunbattles
with officers in the past three
days.
Nityaranjan Pande was taking
his regular early morning walk
when unidentified attackers set
upon him, killing him on the
spot, police said.
“As a diabetic, everyday he
walks early in the morning.
Today as he was walking, several attackers hacked him in the
neck... He died on the spot,” local police station chief Abdullah
Al-Hasan said.
“He had been working at the
monastery for around 40 years.
In recent years he was the head
of its office staff,” he said.
There was no immediate
claim of responsibility for the
attack.
But the head of police in the
northwestern district of Pabna, where the Shri Shri Thakur
Anukulchandra Ashram is located, said the killing bore the
hallmarks of recent attacks by
Islamist extremists on minorities and secular activists.
“There was no eyewitness to
the attack as it happened very
early in the morning,” Alamgir
Kabir said.
Bangladesh is reeling from a
wave of murders of secular and
liberal activists and religious
minorities that have left nearly
50 people dead in the last three
years.
The murders have spiked
IANS
Colombo
T
Bangladeshi men forming a human chain in protest against the killing of 62-year-old Hindu monastery worker Nityaranjan Pande, who
was hacked to death in Pabna yesterday.
in recent weeks with a gruesome wave of killings that has
spanned from the capital Dhaka
to remote parts of the north and
coastal south.
“As a diabetic, everyday
he walks early in the
morning. Today as he
was walking, several
attackers hacked him in
the neck... He died on the
spot”
In the past week alone, an
elderly Hindu priest was found
nearly decapitated in a rice field,
a Christian grocer was hacked
to death near a church while the
wife of an anti-terrorism officer
was stabbed and shot.
Her husband had led several
high-profile operations against
the banned Jamayetul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), an
Islamist militant group, in the
southeastern city of Chittagong.
Most of the latest attacks
have been claimed either by
the Islamic State group or by a
South Asian branch of Al Qaeda
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s government has however
blamed homegrown Islamists
for the attacks, rejecting claims
of responsibility from the international jihadist groups.
The JMB is one of the main
domestic militant outfits in the
frame for the murders, with police shooting dead five members
of the group since Tuesday.
Shahidul Hoque, inspector
general of police, vowed in an
address to a meeting of top police officials in Dhaka on Thursday that those involved in the
killing of the police officer’s
wife would be “brought to justice very soon”.
Experts say a government
crackdown on opponents, including a ban on Bangladesh’s
largest Islamist party Jamaate-Islami following a protracted
political crisis, has pushed
many towards extremism.
Victims of the attacks by suspected Islamists have included
secular bloggers, gay rights activists and followers of minority
religions.
Although it is officially secular, around 90% of Bangladesh’s
160mn-strong population is
Muslim. Some eight percent of
the population is Hindu.
A Hindu shop owner was
hacked to death outside his
store in a northern district late
last month, while a Hindu tailor
was killed in April after allegedly making derogatory remarks
about the Prophet Muhammad.
IS claimed responsibility for
both those killings.
he Sri Lankan government
has decided to expedite
development
projects
funded by China, the ministry of
national policy and economic affairs has said.
The ministry said the decision
was taken following talks held
between a Chinese government
delegation and State Minister of
National Policy and Economic
Affairs Niroshan Perera, reports
Xinhua news agency.
Zhou Liujun, head of the Department of Outward Investment and Economic Co-operation of China’s ministry of
commerce, met the state minister and discussed Chinese investments in Sri Lanka.
The state ministry of national
policy and economic affairs said
at the talks it was proposed to finalise a trade and economic pact
between China and Sri Lanka.
Sri Lanka is home to a large
Chinese community. Chinese
tourist arrivals to Sri Lanka have
also seen a rise this year.
ECONOMIC GROWTH: Sri
Lanka is expected to see 5.3%
economic growth in the next
three years despite challenges, the latest Global Economic
Prospects report released by the
World Bank has showed.
“Although facing monetary
and fiscal tightening, growth of
the island will (occur due to) in-
Niroshan Perera
frastructure spending financed
with sizable FDI flows... Recent
restraint imports policy will also
contribute to growth in this year,
and both 2017 and 2018,” Xinhua
news agency quoted the World
Bank as saying.
The report notes that in Sri
Lanka expansionary fiscal policy
has contributed to the increased
deficit and debt levels with government debt levels above 70%
of GDP. Moreover, rising core
inflation and high credit growth
have compelled the central bank
to tighten policy.
However, the report said Sri
Lanka was also making efforts
to prevent the deterioration in
public finances, including the
increase of the VAT rate from 11
to 15%.
The report suggested Sri
Lanka to take such measures as
strengthening public financial
management, broadening the tax
base, reducing exemptions and
improving tax administration
against the backdrop of a fragile
global economy.
Ties with India back on
track, says Nepal Dy PM
IANS
New Delhi
B
Kamal Thapa addressing a press conference in New Delhi yesterday.
ilateral relations between
India and Nepal are now
back on track after recent
hiccups and the Himalayan nation now looks to its southern
neighbour to play a major role
in consolidation of the political change that it has adopted,
Nepal Deputy Prime Minister
Kamal Thapa said yesterday.
“India has been a valued
partner in Nepal’s democratic
transition,” said Thapa while
delivering a talk on “Current developments in Nepal and IndiaNepal relations” at the Observer
Research Foundation in New
Delhi.
Thapa said India-Nepal relations are “unique and special”
and one should not compare
Nepal’s foreign policy vis-a-vis
India and China - its respective
southern and northern neighbours.
“It cannot be same. Each nation has its own character and
so the foreign policy will change
accordingly,” he said.
Thapa, who is also the foreign minister of Nepal, said
Nepal was keen to derive maximum benefit from the two large
global economies surrounding
it - that of China and India. India has already emerged as one
of the fastest developing economies in the world, he pointed
out.
“The
misunderstandings
of the recent past have been
resolved and we are back on
track... as many as 13 bilateral
meetings lined up during JuneJuly are proof that relations are
good,” Thapa earlier told me-
dia persons here at an interaction co-organised by the South
Asian Women in Media and the
South Asian Free Media Association.
In the run-up to the promulgation of Nepal’s federal constitution in September last year
— and for a considerable period
thereafter– relations between
Kathmandu and New Delhi
soured after a wide section of
population in Nepal’s southern
plains, the Terai or the Madhes,
launched an agitation claiming
that the new charter was discriminatory.
Thapa, on a three-day visit
to India - his fifth in the last
eight months - sought to make
clear that the new constitution
was dynamic and amenable to
change if it was so desired.
“We effected the first amendment in the new constitution
within four months of its promulgation... if need be, it can be
amended further,” said Thapa,
who heads a government panel
set up to hold dialogue with
the aggrieved Madhesi political
parties which held nearly sixmonth-long protests in support
of their demands.
“In a democracy - despite it
being the best form of governance, you can’t have everyone
happy,” Thapa observed.
Thapa dismissed reports in the
media that Nepal Prime Minister
K P Sharma Oli told a meeting of
his Communist Party of Nepal
(Unified Marxist-Leninist) that
the anti-constitution agitation
in the Terai region was Indiainspired.
“Prime Minister Oli was
misreported in the media... he
did not say anything like that,”
Thapa asserted.
14
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Production Editor: C P Ravindran
P.O.Box 2888
Doha, Qatar
[email protected]
Telephone 44350478 (news),
44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery)
Fax 44350474
GULF TIMES
President Gauck
to step down after
his eventful term
The job is supposed to be apolitical, but German
President Joachim Gauck - who has announced he will
not seek a second term in 2017 - never had much of a
chance of gliding above it all.
The foreign crises were bad enough, from the fallout
of the global financial crisis to Russia’s annexation of
Crimea.
But Germany has also had a busy four years, between
a surge of refugees that, at times, seemed ready to
destabilise the country, to a resurgence among far-right
parties that has prompted much soul-searching.
In general, Germans have found Gauck, 76, a former
Luthern pastor and rights activist from eastern Germany,
up to the job.
A recent survey showed that 70% of Germans would
like him to stay in the job.
Gauck has indicated that he is flattered by the approval,
but told a gathering in Beijing in March that there were
other factors to consider. “You have to think about your
physical and mental capacities,” he said.
It was seen as an indication that he might be thinking
of calling it quits, especially after many observers had
noticed that the
business of standing
for long stretches
at receptions was
becoming taxing.
The refugee crisis
was one of the
hardest squares to
circle for Gauck.
As refugees poured
into Germany in
2015, xenophobic attacks against them also rose.
That prompted Gauck to make public condemnation
against “the dark Germany” that engaged in such attacks.
But he also tried to be a realist, declaring in October
that Germany had to be aware of its limitations.
The rise of far-right groups like the Alternative for
Germany (AfD) party also required a delicate touch.
Whereas others sought to sideline them, Gauck argued
that it was important to hear what the AfD members had
to say.
Germany had to have the courage to allow democracy to
play out, he said: Tension and differences of opinion are
simply part of it.
In the end, he managed to generally restore the
prestige to an office that was fumbling after its past two
occupants had both left before the end of their terms.
That was never a given when he started: Chancellor
Angela Merkel was widely reported to have only tepidly
backed his candidacy.
At the time, when asked if he was afraid of the high
expectations that came with the office, he said: “Fear has
never been a major theme of my life.”
But he also cautioned Germans that they had not
installed a miracle worker into office either.
Initial signs were dim, as speeches failed to resonate
and his focus on human rights didn’t make much
headway.
He seemed to get his footing in January 2014 when
he spoke at the Munich Security Conference, urging
Germany to stop using its Nazi history as an excuse to
no longer get involved on the international stage, even
advocating sending troops abroad when needed.
Don’t cancel the Olympics
in Rio because of Zika
While Zika can cause severe
outcomes in some, the vast
majority of people who are
infected will not experience
symptoms
By Tara Kirk Sell
The Baltimore Sun/TNS
W
ith the Zika outbreak in
the Americas raging and
the growth of scientific
support about potential
birth defects from maternal infection,
some in public health have called for
the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio to
be postponed or moved.
As a fellow public health researcher
and a pregnant Olympian swimmer
and silver medallist at the 2004
Olympics in Athens, I have a closeup perspective on both sides of this
issue and believe this opinion does not
balance the risks appropriately.
Importantly, there simply isn’t
enough evidence at this point to
support a large-scale, intrusive public
health action that will devastate so
many people.
While Zika can cause severe
outcomes in some, the vast majority
of people who are infected will not
experience symptoms.
Newly-emerging scientific evidence
has shown clear connection between
Zika and birth defects, but there are
simple protective actions that can be
taken to reduce the risk of infection.
Often, decision makers justify
extreme public health interventions
“out of an abundance of caution”
and a desire to remove all risk from
a situation. But these arguments
overlook any real consideration of
the costs of taking these unwarranted
actions, which are often high for those
people who are affected by them.
There are reasonable
precautions to take
during this Zika
outbreak
To be sure, Zika is a scary disease
that can cause serious illness, birth
defects or fetal death. However, there
are greater health risks that people face
every day, much less when they travel
to the Olympics.
About 40,000 people die every year
on Brazil’s roads. Should we ban all
athletes and fans from using motorised
transportation?
Although theories on how people
perceive risk support the idea that
people are more concerned about
Zika than other risks, because of its
potential threat to unborn children,
we’ve never cancelled the Olympics for
rubella before, which can also cause
severe birth defects.
Furthermore, arguments about
the potential for the Olympics to act
as a catalyst for global spread of the
disease fail to take into consideration
that infected travellers have already
and will continue to exit the continent
at a rapid rate in our globally
connected world - this barrier has
likely already been broken thousands
of times over.
This disease will travel, regardless of
the Olympics, which doesn’t represent
a significant amount of the travel to
Zika-affected areas. However, infected
individuals can’t just transmit the
disease to anyone they encounter
- they would need to transmit the
disease through unsafe sex or be bitten
by a mosquito able to transmit the
disease (only a few species can, and
their range is limited), which would
have to then bite another person.
For those who have experienced
the games, it is clear that moving
them on this short notice would be
impossible (planning a quality event of
this magnitude takes years) and would
strike an unnecessary blow to Brazil’s
economy.
Delaying the games would mean that
a whole generation of elite athletes
would have their hearts broken and
their Olympic dreams tossed aside. It’s
not just a game to them.
When I was training for the
Olympics as a swimmer, it was part
of who I was as a person, had shaped
my life choices for years and was how
I made a living. Alterations to training
schedules can make a huge impact on
who makes the team and who stays
home. Once your chance is lost, it is
often lost forever.
When I went to the Athens games,
there were concerns about terrorism,
but I felt this was a risk I could safely
take, and it was. These athletes have
poured their hearts and souls into their
training - they can make their own
choices about the risks they take.
There are reasonable precautions to
take during this Zika outbreak, many of
which are underway. For instance, it’s a
good idea for pregnant women to abide
by CDC recommendations and skip the
games.
Mosquito repellent and advice
on use should be provided to every
athlete and attendee. Mosquito control
activities should continue to be
implemented at the venues.
Zika has the potential to cause
serious illness, but it requires nuanced
public health approaches rather than
blanket actions that do little to balance
risks and benefits.
zTara Kirk Sell ([email protected]) is
an Olympic swimmer and associate at
the UPMC Center for Health Security in
Baltimore.
A recent survey
showed that 70%
of Germans would
like President
Gauck to stay
in the job
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A graffiti with the logo of the Olympic Games on a wall of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
The time for action is now
By Hillary Clinton
Sun Sentinel/TNS
F
ive months
ago, I was
alarmed to
read the first
stories about a new
virus called Zika that was spreading
through South and Central America.
I was particularly concerned by
reports of the disease’s devastating
health consequences for pregnant
women and their babies.
Since then, we’ve all learned a great
deal about the threat posed by the Zika
virus, and it’s become clear that we
have to take urgent action to stop it
from becoming a full-on epidemic.
As of today, Florida has experienced
154 travel-related cases, including 36
pregnant women whose children are
now at risk of developing microcephaly
- a dangerous developmental condition
where babies are born with heads that
are too small.
So far, all of these infections have
been related to travel - people went
to Central and South America, were
bitten by infected mosquitoes there,
and came home with the virus.
But as summer temperatures begin
to rise, we can expect more of the
mosquitoes that carry the virus to
reach American shores.
And we now have evidence that Zika
can be sexually transmitted as well.
To spur action, my campaign has
launched a petition on Change.org that
has collected thousands of signatures,
and I sent two of my top aides to Puerto
Rico to see first-hand what more can be
done to combat Zika’s spread.
They spent time meeting
with government officials and
health experts, visiting affected
neighborhoods, and observing Zikaeducation efforts at a local women,
infants and children clinic.
They saw children playing around
a flooded canal - a high-risk area for
contracting mosquito-borne illnesses
- in an area where most families cannot
afford effective repellent.
Zika is especially
dangerous but it
often exhibits no
symptoms
A mosquito from the genus Aedes, which can carry Zika virus.
And even though there is an effort
under way to rid the island of stagnant
water pools where mosquitoes can
breed, Puerto Rican officials simply do
not have the resources to contain the
problem.
What they saw on the ground made
it crystal clear that more emergency
funding will be required to stop the
spread of the Zika virus in Puerto Rico
and the health crisis looming over the
United States.
Florida has already declared a
public health emergency and is taking
important steps to increase Zika
awareness.
But much more needs to be done at
the federal level as well.
First, as Congress returns to
Washington, it needs to act quickly to
provide federal emergency funding.
Before the recess, the Senate passed
a $1.1bn package to fund Zika research
and prevention.
Now, it’s time for Republicans in the
House to stop playing politics with
people’s health and send this bill to
President Barack Obama’s desk.
Only then can we finally get to
work on creating a functional rapid
diagnostic test for Zika, developing a
vaccine, preventing further infections
through mosquito control and
abatement and expanding our research
into the connection between Zika and
microcephaly.
Second, we need to ensure that all
Americans - and especially pregnant
women - know how to protect
themselves.
Zika is especially dangerous but it
often exhibits no symptoms, which
can make it harder to convince people
of the need to protect themselves and
their families.
The Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention (CDC) Foundation’s
campaign to increase Zika awareness
education in the affected areas,
as well as expanded access to
contraception, deserves strong
support.
Zika is real.
It’s dangerous.
And if we’re serious about stopping
this epidemic in its tracks, then there’s
no time to waste.
zHillary Clinton is the presumptive
Democratic nominee for president.
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
15
COMMENT
Ali was the greatest in more ways than one
Ali enlisted in causes bigger
than himself when he
changed his name, adopted
the Islamic faith and began
speaking out for peace
By Jay Ambrose
Tribune News Service
M
uhammad Ali used to say
that he was the greatest,
and I began to guess
as much when he was
still Cassius Clay and arrived at the
Louisville, Kentucky, airport after
boxing his way to an Olympics gold
medal in Rome.
I lived in Louisville myself and tuned
into the live broadcast on local TV to
watch this amazing, funny, hometown
athlete I had been cheering.
“Where is that Floyd Patterson?”
he asked a man with a microphone.”I
want that Floyd Patterson.” The fact
that I still remember those words 56
years later tells you something.
Here was this precocious amateur,
having won the light heavyweight
division in Rome, saying in so many
audacious words that he was ready to
whip the heavyweight champion of
the world.
While I knew he had a way to go,
I also figured he would eventually
arrive at some supreme destination,
either by knocking people out with his
lightning-fast jabs or flabbergasting
the world with his personality.
Boxing back then was still a major
sport in America, and I loved it.
I had studied it, sat with my father
to watch the fights on TV every Friday
night and boxed some myself at the
YMCA.
I came to see with ever greater
clarity how exceptional this local guy
was with his grace, his big-man speed,
his dodging, weaving and dancing and
Children signing a memorial outside the childhood home of Muhammad Ali in Louisville, Kentucky. Right: People posing for photos outside Ali’s home.
not least his ring intelligence.
He would figure out strategies and
they would work, such as leaning on a
rope while someone he called a dope
wore himself out.
OK, George Foreman was no dope,
but he did get tricked and, as Ali said
about himself, he could be so mean he
could make medicine sick.
In those days, you would mostly
see truly major fights by means of live
broadcasts at movie theatres.
I could easily share a story about
each of those I witnessed, such as one
in Albany, New York, where the guy
next to me was a professional fighter
and would stand up and throw his
own combinations every time Ali did
something amazing.
The memory I like best, however,
is about the time in 1975 when I was
on a fellowship at the University of
Michigan.
Going for the heavyweight
championship again, Ali was facing Joe
Frazier, who had beaten him once.
The theatre was full for this socalled “Thrilla in Manila”. It was as if
the several hundred black folks in the
Ann Arbor audience had a compact.
Every time Ali would connect
with one of his jabs, they’d all shout,
“pow!” He landed a lot of them,
sometimes one right after another,
and so you would hear this loud chorus
singing, “Pow...pow, pow, pow...
pow... pow, pow.”
There was no questioning that this
audience was on Ali’s side, and no
wonder: He was a messenger about
black pride, about standing up for
yourself, about the need for justice.
And so, when Frazier failed to come
out of his corner after the 14th round,
they stood and cheered not just for Ali,
but for what he represented, or so it
seemed to me.
Ali especially enlisted in causes
bigger than himself when he changed
his name, adopted the Islamic faith,
began speaking out for peace and was
a conscientious objector to the draft.
It was sad when blows to the head
helped induce Parkinson’s disease,
leaving him slow of mouth and minus
the old vigour.
But his efforts in reaching out only
increased and he became a symbol of
caring.
He achieved fame by fighting. He
achieved more by gentleness.
zJay Ambrose is an op-ed columnist
for Tribune News Service. Readers may
e-mail him at [email protected]
Weather report
LEGAL HELPLINE
Three-day forecast
Acts of forgery and penal laws
According to Article
204 of the Qatar penal
laws, forging a document
means altering it with an
intention of using it as a
genuine document
By Nizar Kochery
Doha
QUESTION: My colleague
submitted a certificate to the
ministry for attestation but it
withheld the document, stating
that it’s a forged one. But my friend
is not aware of any forgery; he
is innocent. There is a chance of
criminal prosecution. What are the
different instances of forgery?
WY, Doha
ANSWER: Forgery is the making of a
false instrument with intent to deceive.
According to Article 204 of the Qatar
penal laws, forging a document means
altering it with an intention of using it
as a genuine document.
The following acts include forgery:
(1) amending the contents of the
document including the writing,
numbers, signs or photographs;
(2) putting a forged signature or
stamp on a document, or changing an
authentic signature, stamp, thumb
impression or photograph;
(3) obtaining, through fraud, a
person’s signature, stamp or imprint
on a document without the person
knowing its content and without his
consent;
(4) forging or counterfeiting
document and ascribing it to another
person;
(5) filling a signed, stamped
or imprinted blank paper with
information that does not comply with
the correct information of the holder of
the signature, stamp or imprint;
(6) falsely assuming an identity or
changing it in a document that was
made to prove it; and
(7) misrepresenting the truth of a
document.
Witness
intimidation
Q: Does the law protect the
suspect from torture while in
custody? What does the law say on
compelling an accused to confess
by torturing?
FG, Doha
A: According to Article 159 of the Qatar
Penal Laws, whoever, being a public
servant, and being as such public
servant torture, forces or threatens
the accused, a witness or an expert or
orders such measures to cause him to
confess a crime, make statements or
disclose information in this respect or
to hide any issues shall be punished
for imprisonment for a period not
exceeding five years.
If the act of the officer results in a
permanent wound of the victim, the
penalty shall be imprisonment for a
period not exceeding 10 years.
If the act results in the death of the
victim, the penalty shall be capital
punishment or life imprisonment.
Compensation
to contractor
Q: We are subcontractors. The
contractor has just terminated
our contract without any valid
reasons. It has been agreed to
compensate accordingly but
only after many sittings could
we finalise on the compensation
amount. How is the compensation
determined?
VL, Doha
A: The employer has the right of
termination at will but compensation is
payable to the contractor.
Article 707 of the Civil Code
provides that an employer’s
entitlement to terminate a contract
for convenience at any time, provided
that he compensates the contractor
for the expenses he has incurred,
the works he has performed and
completed and for the profit the
contractor would have gained if he had
completed the work.
The law permits the court to assess
or otherwise adjust the compensation
due to the non-terminating party.
If the compensation due is disputed
by the contractual parties, the court
will determine the amount.
Problems
with sponsor
Q: I work in the company of my
sponsor. But the company has
no work now and no salary is
paid. The company management
suggested me to work outside to
meet my expenses. Is it allowed to
work for another person in such a
situation? I’m not on good terms
with my sponsor and he doesn’t
allow me to leave the country. Is
there any alternative to get exit
permit?
BV, Doha
A: The Entry and Exit Laws restrict
working for employers other than
the original employer. Working for
another employer with the same
visa is considered as offence by law
and the offender may be subject to
a penalty of fine, imprisonment and
deportation.
It is also prohibited to any employer
to allow its employees to work with
any other employer or to employ
workers who are not under their
employment.
Article 51 imposes imprisonment for
a term not exceeding three years and a
fine not exceeding fifty thousand riyals
in such cases.
As per Article 18 of the prevailing
Entry and Exit law, if the exit permit
cannot be obtained due to the
objection by the sponsor to grant such
permit, the employee may provide
an exit guarantor or a certificate
that there are no judgments under
execution or claims made against
them issued by the competent courts
after 15 days from the publication of
a notice in two daily newspapers. The
court procedures may take a minimum
of 15 days.
TODAY
High: 45 C
Low : 34 C
Strong wind and high seas by
afternoon
SUNDAY
High: 41 C
Low: 33 C
Cloudy
MONDAY
High: 41 C
Low: 32 C
Cloudy
Fishermen’s forecast
OFFSHORE DOHA
Wind: NW 18-28 KT
Waves: 6-9 Feet
INSHORE DOHA
Wind: NW-N 12-22/30 KT
Waves: 1-3 Feet
Around the region
Abu Dhabi
Baghdad
Dubai
Kuwait City
Manama
Muscat
Riyadh
Tehran
Weather
today
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Cloudy
Cloudy
Sunny
Sunny
P Cloudy
Max/min
44/28
39/24
41/29
46/28
37/32
42/33
45/27
37/23
Weather
tomorrow
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Cloudy
Sunny
Sunny
Sunny
Max/min
42/28
38/24
40/28
44/28
37/31
46/33
42/26
35/21
Weather
tomorrow
Sunny
Sunny
S T Storms
M Cloudy
Sunny
Cloudy
T Storms
T Storms
T Storms
Sunny
I T Storms
Cloudy
Showers
T Storms
S Showers
M Sunny
Cloudy
S Showers
P Cloudy
S Showers
T Storms
P Cloudy
Cloudy
Max/min
29/21
27/21
33/27
24/14
38/23
21/11
29/26
32/27
32/28
28/19
33/25
34/28
19/13
31/24
15/11
40/30
27/16
18/14
16/03
29/17
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26/19
zPlease send your questions by
e-mail to: [email protected]
Mobile:55813105
LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR
According to Article 15, fictitious
profits shall not be distributed among
partners; otherwise the company
creditors may claim against each
partner to reimburse the distribution
received, notwithstanding that this
was made in good faith.
The partner shall not be obliged to
repay the real profits that he actually
received in any year, even if the company
incurs loss in the subsequent years.
All contracts, correspondences,
receipts, notices, advertisements and
other papers issued by the company
shall bear its name, a statement of its
kind, its principal place of business,
and it’s commercial registration
number.
Excluding in the joint stock
company and limited partnership
company, the above information to be
added with the details of the company
capital and the amount paid thereof.
If the company is under liquidation,
it should be mentioned in the papers
issued by the Company.
As per Article 17, the provisions
of the commercial companies’ law
shall apply to foreign companies that
practice their activities in the state,
except for the provisions related to the
establishment of the companies.
Except for companies controlled
by Qatar Central Bank, the ministry
will issue the resolutions regulating
the control with respect to the private
share holding companies, and as for
the public shareholding companies
listed in financial market, the authority
will issue the resolutions regulating
their control.
In all cases, the board of directors
of the company shall undertake
application of the regulating
resolutions mentioned herein, taking
into account that the incorporation
documents of the companies shall not
include anything contrary to those
resolutions.
According to Article 19, the ministry
will, by a resolution, specify the
method of executing the procedures
of incorporating the companies
and issuing the required licenses,
in a way that will ensure their
smooth completion, including the
representation of all concerned bodies
in single window system.
Joint liability company is a company
established by two or more natural
persons who are jointly liable to
the extent of their all assets for the
company’s obligations.
As per Article 22, the name of the
joint liability company shall consist of
the names of all partners or the name
of one or more of them accompanied
by word “and Co”. In addition to the
foregoing, it may have a special trade
name of its own.
Where a name of an individual,
who is not a partner therein, is
knowingly embodied in the name of
the corporation, such person shall
be jointly liable for the company’s
obligations.
Nevertheless, the company may
remain its name with the name of
a withdrawn or deceased partner if
agreed by the withdrawing partner or
the heirs of the late partner.
The memorandum of association
of a joint liability company shall
comprise the following details:
(1)The name of the company, goal,
headquarter, and branches if any;
(2) The name of each partner, titles,
nationalities and domiciles;
(3) The capital and shares
undertaken by each partner whether
paid in cash or in kind, the estimated
value of these shares, subscription
method and due dates;
(4) Date of establishment, and
expiry, if any;
(5) Management of the company and
names of authorized signatories and
the extent of their respective powers;
(6) The date of commencement and
end of financial year; and
(7) The method of distribution of
the profit and loss.
Around the world
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Weather
today
Sunny
P Cloudy
S T Storms
M Sunny
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P Cloudy
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Rain
S T Storms
Rain
M Sunny
S T Storms
Rain
M Sunny
S T Storms
T Storms
Sunny
Clear
Rain
Max/min
28/21
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35/28
23/11
35/24
19/10
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32/27
31/28
25/17
33/24
35/28
21/13
33/25
17/11
42/30
28/22
19/13
16/04
28/21
31/27
19/09
28/18
16
Gulf Times
Saturday, June 11, 2016
QATAR
Freej Aspire activities begin
By Peter Alagos
Business Reporter
A
spire Zone Foundation
(AZF) hosted yesterday a
number of dignitaries at
the opening ceremony of Freej
Aspire, which opens to the public today.
Freej Aspire, a 10-day event,
will run until June 19. The opening ceremony, however, gathered special guests led by AZF
president Hilal al-Kuwari, acting CEO Mohamed al-Suwaidi,
and director general Abdullah
al-Naimi.
Al-Naimi told Gulf Times the
second instalment of Freej Aspire aims to replicate last year’s
success in promoting the spirit
of Ramadan and reviving Qatari
traditions and culture in a fun
way through live entertainment,
food, and shopping, among others.
“Freej Aspire does not only
focus on sports but includes activities related to the Qatari heritage and religious practices,” alNaimi said, adding that the first
edition of Freej Aspire attracted
more than 20,000 visitors.
“This year, we have added
some innovations to the games
and entertainment activities for
the children, which is why we
are expecting a huge turnout of
visitors compared to last year,
said al-Naimi, who noted that
AZF has tripled the size of Freej
Aspire’s children’s area inside
the 8,000sqm, air-conditioned
facility, which is capable of
hosting 3,000 visitors per day.
Freej Aspire, according to alNaimi, is part of Aspire Zone’s
“Ramadan Festival,” a unique
combination of spiritual, sporting, and social activities in celebration and observance of the
holy month.
Citing
advancements
in
technology and the proliferation of electronic gadgets like
smartphones, tablets, and video
games, al-Naimi stressed that
activities at Freej Aspire will help
revive traditions, especially old
Qatari children’s games.
“I have known these age-old
children’s games because I have
played them myself as a child.
But even adults may forget because of today’s advancements
in technology, which is why for
many adults and kids, our activities are here to not only remind
Qataris but to revive these traditions and to promote our culture
to non-Qataris,” he emphasised.
According to al-Naimi, Freej
Aspire is also “a great opportunity” for expatriates, especially
children, to meet new friends
and to learn about the Qatari
culture.
“I believe expatriates should
learn about our culture so they
could understand the traditions
that have been handed over to us
by the elder generation. It is also
an opportunity for them learn
about the ways of Ramadan and
how to celebrate or observe this
holy month,” he explained, adding that “sharing Qatari culture
and tradition is part of Aspire’s
social responsibility.”
More Qatari businesses will showcase traditional and modern food, as
well as clothing and other products.
Traditional Qatari musicians greet visitors of Freej Aspire. PICTURES: Jayan Orma
Aspire president Hilal al-Kuwari leads the opening ceremony of Freej Aspire.
New establishments and activities were added to attract more visitors this year.
10 teams for Katara
beach football tourney
S
Organisers held a draw of lots for the participating teams last Wednesday.
Keen battles in
store at beach
volleyball contest
T
he Ezghowi team defeated
Al Gharrafah, 2-0 while
Al Sharq won against
Al Wa’ab 2-0, and Al Najmah
trounced Al Doha 2-0, during
the opening matches of the Katara – the Cultural Village Beach
Volleyball Championship on
Thursday.
Three matches will be
played every night until the
final match on June 29, said
Katara’s Beach Management,
which is organising and
hosting the competition.
The
tournament
saw
matches between Katara and
Umm-Ghwailenah, Al Saltah
and Al Wakrah; and Musherib playing against Al Muntazah last night.
“The second edition of the
tournament has increased
the number of participating
teams from 10 in 2015 to 12
this year. Also, we changed
the rules of the game and
therefore the number of
players was made less,” tournament supervisor Abdulrahman Yousef said.
He said prizes are divided
into three categories, with
the winner of the title to
get QR30,000, the second
placer receiving QR20,000,
and the third placer getting
QR10,000 at a special ceremony following the final
match of the tournament on
June 29, the 18th of Ramadan.
Yousef added that the 2016
Ramadan edition of the volleyball tournament, which
is divided into two groups of
teams, is witnessing “great
competition as 12 teams including the 2015 champion
Katara are eyeing the first
position and fighting for the
title.”
Players in action at the Katara beach.
ome 10 teams are taking
part in the sixth edition of
Katara – the Cultural Village beach football championship, which kicked off yesterday.
Organised by the Beach Management of Katara, the tournament has gathered some of the
best teams including last year’s
winners, Al Wajbah team (champion), Jou’an team (first runnerup), and the teams of Katara and
Al Ezeiziyeh who ranked third
and fourth successively.
The Al Furjan Football Committee’s qualifying draw took
place last Wednesday in the
presence of organising committee members and representatives of participating teams.
The draw has put the teams of
Katara, Umm Al Afa’ie, Al Matar,
Al Udeid and Sharq in the first
group while the second group
includes Al Wajbah, Jou’an, Ben
Emran, Mbeerik and Al Khor
teams.
The championship will open
with two matches, with the first
taking place at 9:45pm when
Katara team faces Umm Al Afa’ie
team while the second match
will bring together the Al Matar
team and Al Udeid team, who
will play at 10:45pm.
The matches will have three
half-time periods each, and
will be 12-minute long. A fiveminute break will separate each
of the three half-time periods.
The tournament will run until
June 23.