Qatar signs deals worth QR3.54bn at Dimdex

Transcription

BUSINESS | Page 1
INDEX
QATAR
2–13, 32
14
REGION
ARAB WORLD
INTERNATIONAL
14, 15
16–29
30, 31
COMMENT
BUSINESS
1–8, 12–16
CLASSIFIED
SPORTS
9–11
1–8
Qatar Airways pledges
its support for aviation
biofuel development
SPORT | Page 1
Roy steers
England
into World
T20 final
DOW JONES
QE
NYMEX
17,716.66
10,312.88
38.29
+83.55
+0.47%
-3.79
-0.04%
+0.01
+0.03%
Latest Figures
pu
REGION | Fee
Tax for Dubai
airport passengers
The emirate of Dubai, whose
airport is the world’s busiest for
international passengers, yesterday
announced it was introducing a
tax on travellers to help finance
expansion. The 35-dirham ($9.50)
fee will apply to all passengers,
including those transiting in
Dubai, on all flights from June 30,
according to a statement carried by
the Wam state news agency. More
than 78mn passengers passed
through Dubai International in 2015,
keeping its place as the world’s
busiest for international passengers
since overtaking London Heathrow
in 2014. The receipts of the new tax
will be channelled into funding the
expansion of Dubai airports, the
statement said.
QATAR | Diplomacy
FM meets Canada’s
chief of staff
HE the Foreign Minister Sheikh
Mohamed bin Abdulrahman alThani met General Jonathan Vance,
Canada’s Chief of Defence Staff,
and John Foster, Deputy Minister of
Department of National Defence, in
Ottawa yesterday. They discussed
relations between Qatar and Canada
and ways to strengthen co-operation
between the two countries in
all fields, including military and
security. They also exchanged views
on the situation in Syria, Iraq, and
Yemen.
BANGLADESH | Politics
Arrest warrant issued
for former premier
A Dhaka court yesterday issued
an arrest warrant for former
Bangladeshi prime minister Khaleda
Zia and 27 activists over firebomb
attacks on a passenger bus during
the last year’s anti-government
agitations, officials said in Dhaka.
District Court judge Kamrul Hossain
Mollah issued the warrant after
investigators pressed charges
against Zia, who is also chief of the
opposition Bangladesh Nationalist
Party, and her supporters over the
attacks that killed a passenger and
hurt dozens of others on January 23,
2015. Page 29
Tunnelling for Doha Metro
reaches new milestone
Q
atar Rail has announced the
completion of tunnelling on
the Green Line with the breakthrough of tunnel boring machine
(TBM) Al Messila at Education City
station, the last underground station
on the stretch before moving towards
the above ground station Al Riffa.
Achieving this major milestone for
Doha Metro comes less than 10 days
after Qatar Rail celebrated completion
of tunnelling on the northern section
of the Red Line. With the construction
progress at Green Line’s underground
station at 57% and overall tunnelling
of Doha Metro at 87%, the project is
progressing fast, according to officials.
Engineer Saad al-Muhannadi, Qatar
Rail CEO, expressed delight in having
completed tunnelling on the Green
Line ahead of schedule and stated that
significant progress is being achieved
across the project as a whole, as preparations are being done to move from
the construction to systems and architectural works.
“We are delighted to have been able
to achieve all this within the timelines
and budgets allocated for this monu-
The tunnel boring machine Al Messila
achieving breakthrough at Education
City station, completing tunnelling on
the Green Line of Doha Metro.
mental endeavour. This has been possible due to the hard work and dedication of all parties involved,” he stated.
Tunnelling on the Doha Metro
Green Line began in September 2014
with six TBMs used to complete the
22km operational line which has 10
underground stations and one above
ground. The Green Line will run for
19km beneath ground level and 3km
above ground.
The Al Messila TBM which completed tunnelling on the Green Line
was launched in January, 2015 and
passed through Al Rayyan Al Qadeem,
Al Shaqab and Qatar National Library
before reaching Education City Station. Once service starts, passengers
can take the Green Line starting from
Al Mansoura Station in the east to
Al Riffa Station in the west, passing
through 11 stations. It will take approximately 24 minutes to travel the
whole line.
The next major milestone Qatar Rail
looks forward to celebrating is completion of tunnelling on Doha Metro’s
Gold Line and later this year its longest line, the Red Line, will also finish
its tunnels. Towards the end of this
year, Qatar Rail expects to move from
construction into systems installation
as track, power supply and signalling
starts to be installed. At this point it
will also start to work on the architectural finishes of the stations of Doha
Metro.
Green Line project director, engineer Jassim al-Ansari observed that
this milestone marked the end of a series of successful breakthroughs all of
which mark the completion of tunnelling in a relatively short period of time.
Bid to improve weather forecasting system
By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter
P
lans are being worked out to set
up more than 50 weather stations across the country in the
next couple of years.
Speaking to Gulf Times at the Doha
International Maritime Defence Exhibition (Dimdex 2016), officials from
the Qatar Civil Aviation Authority’s
Meteorology (Met) department described how state-of-the-art technology was being used to improve forecasting and other operations.
The officials are present at the Qatar
Civil Aviation Authority (QCAA) pavilion at Dimdex, which is being held at
the Qatar National Convention Centre,
to explain the initiatives made by the
department to boost its different operations, such as weather observation,
forecasting, issuance of early warnings
and functioning of weather stations
across the country.
Abdulla al-Mannai, who took over
as the new director of the Met Department recently, is also present
to brief the visitors on the achievements of the authority. Al-Mannai
headed the forecasting and analysis
Abdulla al-Mannai, right, and his colleagues in front of the QCAA mobile van at
Dimdex 2016 yesterday.
section at the department earlier.
The Met Department’s mobile van,
which is equipped with advanced facilities to make hourly weather forecasts, detects sudden changes in wind
directions, unstable sea conditions and
chances of dust formation across the
country and the region, is also parked
at the pavilion.
Two of the officials, Abdulazeez
Ahmed al-Jaber and Mohamed Ali alQubaisi - young Qatari professionals
who graduated from Qatar Aeronautical College - explained how the portable weather station exhibited at the pavilion helped forecasters in performing
their duties.
The portable weather station, imported from South Korea, can provide
weather forecasts for up to 72 hours
and can be especially helpful during
emergencies, said al-Jaber.
“Usually, it is operated from places
where there are no facilities to forecast
weather,” he said, adding that the Met
Department was working out plans to
set up over 50 weather stations in the
country over the next two years.
Currently, the country has around
10 active weather stations.
With the effective use of C-band
technology, the department hopes
to cover weather conditions in the
entire Gulf region shortly, explained
al-Jaber. This is also expected to
help in making long-range weather
forecasts.
To help familiarise the country’s
young generation with the functioning of the Met Department, the mobile van travels to schools at regular
intervals.
“With facilities such as the ones
found in the mobile van, we are able
to educate schoolchildren about the
activities of the department,” said alQubaisi.
The department has already set up a
number of seismic sensors in locations
across the country. These will allow
the department to alert people about
the possibility of earthquakes.
March 31, 2016
Jumada II 22, 1437 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Qatar signs
deals worth
QR3.54bn
at Dimdex
The Emiri Air Force and German
company Reiner Stemme Utility
Air-Systems sign a QR365mn MoU
for the production of drones
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani meeting with UAE Vice-President and Prime Minister and Ruler of Dubai,
Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, at Al Marmoum yesterday afternoon, during a visit to Dubai to attend events of the
Al Marmoum Heritage Festival. During the meeting, they reviewed bilateral relations and discussed a number of issues of
mutual interest. The Emir attended a luncheon banquet hosted by Sheikh Mohamed bin Rashid. The meeting was attended by
Dubai Crown Prince Sheikh Hamdan bin Mohamed al-Maktoum and a number of sheikhs and senior officials.
in
In brief
d
Emir meets UAE vice-president
he R
is
bl TA 978
A 1
Q since
GULF TIMES
THURSDAY Vol. XXXVII No. 10044
Q
atar signed 10 major deals totalling QR3.54bn at the fifth Doha
International Maritime Defence
Exhibition and Conference (Dimdex)
2016 yesterday.
The biggest is a QR2.6bn memorandum of understanding (MoU) between
the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces and European company MBDA for a coastal battery system.
Next is a QR365mn MoU between
the Qatar Emiri Air Force and German
company Reiner Stemme Utility AirSystems for the production of drones.
HE the Minister of State for Defence
Affairs Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah had said at the opening of Dimdex
on Tuesday that the drone production
project had reached an advanced stage.
“You will see a Qatari drone in skies
over Doha by next year,” he had announced.
A QR240mn MoU was signed between the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces and
MBDA for new Exocet MM40 B3 missiles, while a QR134mn deal was inked
between Al Zaeem M B A A Air Academy and French company DCI for fighter
and helicopter pilot training.
Qatar Emiri Naval Forces signed a
MoU of QR95mn with German company MTU Friedrichshafen for maintenance and overhaul of the MTU propulsion system, followed by a QR60mn
deal between the Qatar Armed Forces and French company Thales for
Searchmaster radar.
The Qatar Emiri Air Force signed a
QR50mn, three-year contract with the
US company Lockheed Martin for the
maintenance of C-130 military transport aircraft, whereas the Qatar Emiri
Naval Forces entered into an agreement
with Qatari company Nakilat for the
training of navy officers.
The partnership with Nakilat, the
shipping arm of Qatar’s liquefied natural gas sector, envisages establishing
and operating a national naval centre
for technical simulator training apart
from allowing Qatari naval officers to
train onboard Nakilat Fleet.
The Qatar Armed Forces signed a
MoU with Polish company WKK, specialised in the manufacture of composite materials and fuselage production,
for the purchase of 51% of its shares.
Yet another deal inked by the Qatar
Armed Forces was with the Chinese
National Precision Machinery Import
and Export Corporation (CASIC) for
the provision of support in the fields of
production and military co-operation
between the drone project committee
and CASIC.
Dimdex 2016 also saw the conclusion
of the Middle East Naval Commanders
Conference (MENC) yesterday, under
the auspices of Chief of General Staff
of the Qatar Armed Forces, HE Major General Ghanem bin Shaheen alGhanem.
Held under the theme, “The Maritime Domain – The Centre of Gravity
for the Regional Security Complex of
the Arabian Gulf”, MENC welcomed
senior naval commanders and academics to Doha to discuss the key issues
currently facing maritime security in
the region.
The military and academic speakers
from Canada, France, India, Italy, Pakistan, Qatar, Turkey and the US examined a diverse range of topics relating to the maritime security complex
for the Arabian Gulf states, expanding
beyond a narrow viewpoint of military
security to include energy security,
environmental security and freedom
of navigation around maritime choking points.
MENC is a key component of Dimdex
2016’s three-day programme and as
with the exhibition, official VIP delegations and warship visits, it is both hosted and organised by the Qatar Armed
Forces for the first time this year.
Brig Dr Thani A al-Kuwari, chairman of Dimdex, said the fifth edition
of the MENC conference provided a
high-profile industry forum for GCC
and international naval commanders
to share their insights on the strategic
challenges facing the security of regional waters.
In his opening remarks at MENC,
Chief of the Qatar Emiri Naval Forces,
Staff Major General Mohamed bin
Nasser al-Mohannadi, stated that the
security and economies of all states
along the coast of the Arabian Gulf relied on the fundamental ability to defend the territorial waters from evolving threats.
“Regional and international co-ordination and co-operation is required
to guarantee the energy security, environmental security and freedom of
navigation of our waters from both
the conventional and unconventional
challenges we face in this geo-strategic
region,” he added.
Today is the last day of Dimdex 2016,
with warships and the exhibition still
open to visitors. Page 32
Top officials of Qatar Emiri Naval Forces and Qatari company Nakilat shaking hands
after signing a MoU yesterday at Dimdex 2016.
2
Gulf Times
Thursday, March 31, 2016
QATAR
Emir meets Chinese delegation
HH the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani met the Vice-Chairman of the Standing Committee of China’s National
People’s Congress and President of China-Arab Friendship Association Arken Imirbaki and the accompanying
delegation at the Emiri Diwan yesterday. They reviewed aspects of co-operation between Qatar and China and
exchanged views on topics of common concern. The meeting was attended by HE the Speaker of the Advisory Council
Mohamed bin Mubarak al-Khulaifi.
Rain, strong winds and drop
in temperature forecast
U
nstable
weather
is expected in the
country until tomorrow, the Qatar Met department has said.
There are chances of
scattered rain during this
period, which may become
thundery at times, especially today, and a drop in
the mercury level is also
likely due to strong winds,
according to the weather
report.
Rain is expected across
Qatar, including in Doha,
today.
The unstable weather is
the result of an extension
of a low-pressure system,
charts indicate.
Fresh to strong northerly
winds are expected to continue affecting the country
until Saturday and visibility
may drop to less than 3km
in open areas due to blowing dust. The weather office
has also forecast high waves
and strong winds in offshore
areas.
The Met department has
urged people to remain cautious during this period and
avoid sea activities.
The northerly winds will
be accompanied by a 5-8C
drop in temperature across
the country as compared to
early this week. The minimum and maximum temperatures are expected to
range between 19C and 22C,
and 25C and 29C, respectively.
Meanwhile, today’s forecast states partly cloudy to
cloudy conditions are likely
in both inshore and offshore
areas, and there is a chance
of scattered rain – which
may be thundery at times.
The wind speed may go
up to 35 knots in offshore ar-
eas and 30 knots in inshore
areas during the thundershowers, while the sea level
may rise to 12ft.
The minimum and maximum temperatures in the
country today are expected
to be 19C and 27C, respectively, with the forecast for
Doha being 21C and 27C.
Latest weather updates
could be obtained from
the social media accounts
of the Met department.
More is available at http://
qweather.gov.qa/NewsDetail.aspx#sthash.x1Xdoe68.
dpuf
Gulf Times
3
QATAR
Cabinet approves draft
law on civil decorations
QNA
Doha
T
he weekly Cabinet meeting, presided over by HE
the Prime Minister Sheikh
Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa
al-Thani, yesterday approved a
draft law on awarding civil decorations and referred it to the Advisory Council.
Under the provisions of the
draft law, the award of civil
decorations shall be by an Emiri
decision. The decorations will be
awarded according to this order:
1- Sword of The Founder
‘Sheikh Jassim bin Mohamed bin
Thani’
2- Sash of HH the Father Emir
Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa alThani
3- Decoration of Al Wajbah
More civil decorations can
be created by an Emiri decision
which determines their orders.
Those who receive any of the
civil decorations will be granted
a patent certificate signed by
HH the Emir and the decision of
awarding this decoration shall be
published in the official gazette.
The Department of Emiri Protocol at the Emiri Diwan shall
undertake all executive functions pertaining to the preparation of decorations and patents,
the conservation thereof, and
the follow-up of all related issues.
HE the Deputy Prime Minister
and Minister of State for Cabinet Affairs Ahmed bin Abdullah
bin Zaid al-Mahmoud said the
Cabinet approved a draft decision by the council of ministers
amending some provisions of
the decision No 73 of 2014 forming a committee to oversee petrol
storage and filling stations.
The committee, established
with the Ministry of Energy and
Industry, will be chaired by the
representative of Qatar Petroleum and comprise members from
the bodies concerned.
It is tasked with developing
standards and specifications
for all petrol storage and filling stations, specifying activities permitted for the stations,
evaluating existing stations and
their compatibility with the approved environment, health and
safety norms and standards, and
determining the requirements to
improve and develop the existing
stations.
The Cabinet also approved a
draft decision by the Minister of
Finance on the establishment of
Speaker meets Chinese delegation
a customs office at Hamad Port
according to the map and co-ordination attached to the Emir decision No. 58 of 2015 establishing
Hamad Port.
The weekly Cabinet meeting
also approved a draft agreement
for technical, trade and economic cooperation between the governments of Qatar and Nigeria.
It also approved a draft agreement on encouraging and protecting mutual investments between the governments of Qatar
and Nigeria.
The Cabinet reviewed a proposal to amend some provisions
of Civil and Commercial Procedure Law issued by Law No
13 of 1990 in light of the report
prepared by the competent committee in the Ministry of Justice,
and took the appropriate decision in this regard.
Qatar-Pakistan ties reviewed
HE the Minister of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs Dr Issa Saad al-Jafali
al-Nuaimi met Pakistan’s ambassador to Qatar Shahzad Ahmad in Doha yesterday. They discussed
bilateral relations between Qatar and Pakistan as well as means of developing them.
Al-Kuwari hails Qatar-Unesco relations
QNA
Paris
H
HE the Speaker of the Advisory Council Mohamed bin Mubarak al-Khulaifi met the Vice-Chairman of
the Standing Committee of China’s National People’s Congress and President of China-Arab
Friendship Association Arken Imirbaki in Doha yesterday. Talks during the meeting covered
parliamentary relations between the two countries and ways of enhancing them. The meeting was
attended by HE the Secretary General of the Advisory Council Fahad bin Mubarak al-Khayareen and
the Chinese ambassador to Qatar Li Chen.
E the Adviser at the
Emiri Diwan and Qatar’s
candidate for the post
of Unesco Director-General Dr
Hamad bin Abdul Aziz al-Kuwari has underlined the depth
of relations between Unesco and
Qatar which are based on friendship and co-operation in various
fields.
This came in the first speech
he gave abroad after the declaration of his candidacy for the
post of Unesco director-general
at the diplomats forum in Paris
on Tuesday night in the pres-
Qatar’s candidate for the post of Unesco Director-General Dr Hamad
bin Abdul Aziz al-Kuwari
ence of Qatar’s ambassador
to France Sheikh Mishaal bin
Hamad al-Thani, Qatar’s Permanent Delegate to Unesco Ali
Zainal, a group of Arab and foreign diplomats, representatives
of states to Unesco and French
intellectuals including Jack
Mathieu Emile Lang, the former
French minister of culture and
Director of the Arab World Institute in Paris.
Dr al-Kuwari said in 2003
relations between Qatar and
Unesco began to take a new turn
with the appointment of HH
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser as
Unesco Special Envoy for Basic and Higher Education. He
referred in this respect to the
commitment of Qatar towards
education through WISE Conference, Educate a Child and
Education Above All, paved the
opportunity for more than 10mn
children to have education in the
most vulnerable and marginal
areas of the world.
6
Gulf Times
QATAR
Ministry seeks entries for WSA-Mobile 2016
T
he Ministry of Transport and
Communications is inviting
mobile app developers in Qatar
to submit applications for the World
Summit Award Mobile (WSA-mobile)
2016; a unique global contest for digital
applications that have a strong impact
on society in one of the eight WSA categories.
Individuals, companies, and organisations are invited to join the contest
by submitting their best submissions
from today until April 30. Submissions
can contain mobile applications, SMS
based products, mobile games and interactive mobile productions. There is
no limitation regarding the platforms
or channels the projects work with.
“Mobile usage has outgrown Internet
usage in terms of access and we do more
and more things with our mobiles. The
WSA is seeking for the best m-content
and apps that deliver the most value
and richness and diversity beyond SMS,
games and pictures in order to rise to
the challenge to keep mobile innovation
moving forward,” said Reem al-Mansoori, assistant undersecretary for Digital Society Development, the Ministry
of Transport and Communications and
the competition’s national expert.
The award includes eight categories:
Government & Citizen Engagement,
health & wellbeing, learning & education, environment & green energy,
culture & tourism, smart settlements
& urbanisation, business & commerce
and inclusion & empowerment.
All submitted products from Qatar
will be evaluated by a local jury of experts headed by Reem al-Mansoori,
being the national expert spearheading
the nomination process for Qatar.
Individuals, companies or organi-
ADLQ forum
discusses ‘nature
vs nurture’
C
afé Scientific at
the Anti-Doping
Laboratory Qatar
(ADLQ) in Aspire Zone recently hosted a forum on
the topic ‘Nature versus
nurture’.
The event gathered scientists, physicians, lawyers, football coaches, talent scouts, and members
of the public and engaged
participants in the genes
versus environment debate to determine whether
a person’s skills are inborn
or shaped by experience.
Dr Mohamed al-Maadheed, chairman of ADLQ
Board of Trustees, opened
the discussion by giving
examples of class systems
based on a division of selected talents, identical
twins, and his sons, who
may share the same or
similar genes but grew up
with different skills and
characters, depending on
their environments both
at home and in their peer
group.
Dr Mohamed Alsayrafi,
ADLQ general manager,
said the audience differentiated genetics and behav-
Dr Mohamed al-Maadheed
iour, which he said “maybe
less related, as opposed to
genetics and physical performance, where the genetic component may be
stronger”.
During the forum, some
of the participants argued that genes determine
strengths and potentials
such as individuals with a
great memory for detail.
“In such cases, environment had little or no impact at all,” the participants said.
Other participants argued that “relating everything to genes and inborn
capabilities was flawed,
and more importantly
could disturb the balance
of life and does not allow
for development of the society as a whole.”
sations are invited to submit their
entries to the ministry via e-mail:
[email protected] to be considered
for nomination. Only one product or
app can be nominated from Qatar in
each category. All submitted products
must have been completed after January 1, 2014.
Any submitted product must be free
of offensive or plagiarised content and
may not violate human rights as laid
out in the United Nations Declaration
of Human Rights and its application
by international human rights courts
or panels recognised by the United Nations Organisation.
Submissions which encourage war,
the exercise of violence, fraud, racism
or discrimination will not be accepted
and eliminated. Similarly, submissions
that violate international copyright
provisions will be excluded.
8
Gulf Times
QATAR
Shahry subscribers get international top up facility
O
oredoo has announced its International Top-Up (ITU) service is now
available for Shahry customers, enabling all Ooredoo users to transfer airtime
internationally via their phones.
The Ooredoo ITU service, first launched
in 2010, hitherto allowed Hala customers to
use their mobile phones to send talk time to
20 popular destinations around the world
including India, Nepal, Egypt, Bangladesh,
Philippines, Sri Lanka and Pakistan.
With the new update Ooredoo’s post-paid
Shahry customers can send credit directly to
any international phone number.
Shahry users have to activate the ITU service by calling 111, then send an SMS to 92266
with their selected recipient mobile phone
number (including the international dial code)
and choose the amount in Qatari riyals to send.
While Hala customers have the amount
deducted from their account balance, Shahry
customers will see the transfer amount and fee
deducted from their credit limit and transaction details will show on their monthly bill.
Dr Eiman Mustafawi and Christophe Eon at the signing ceremony.
QU, Total ink pact for
‘green’ water re-use
Q
atar University (QU) and Total E&P Golfe Limited Qatar Science and Technology
Park-B have signed an agreement to
collaborate in finding environmental-friendly solutions for the re-use
of ‘produced waters’ for irrigation
purposes.
The agreement included a
$100,000 fund offered by Total for
the project, which will involve two
students from the Biological and
Environmental Sciences Department as part of their masters thesis.
“We really appreciate Total for
collaborating with us and provid-
ing this grant for this very critical
research project, which addresses
water scarcity in Qatar,” said College
of Arts (CAS) Dean Dr Eiman Mustafawi in her welcome remarks.
“The normal solution is recycle
the available resources we have in
irrigation and other applications,”
he added.
The signing ceremony was attended by Total’s Human Resources,
Communications and Corporate
Social Responsibility vice president Christophe Eon, CAS associate deans for Academic Affairs Dr
Hassan Abdulaziz, Dr Steven Wright
(Planning and Quality Assurance)
and Dr Khalifa al-Hazaa (Outreach
and Engagement), and Biological
and Environmental Sciences Department head Dr Fatima Ammar
al-Naemi.
“This is what we tend to valorise
and promote at Total as part of our
Corporate Social Responsibility policy particularly by reinforcing the
links between the education system
and the industry,” Eon said.
He noted that they are committed
to a large research and development
programme for water management
with strong links and interactions
with their teams in France.
“The general idea is to find the
most adequate combination between suitably treated water from
our operations, local plants and
soils, in order to achieve a sustainable irrigation system,” he added.
Dr Fatima Ammar al-Naemi echoed the statement of Eon saying the
agreement aims to promote the research in the field of reusing water
as well as providing students with
hands-on experiences in the field of
water applications. “We are looking
forward to expand our collaboration.”
10
Gulf Times
QATAR
Recall order for Ikea Gothem lamps
Techno Blue’s
11th showroom
The Ministry of Economy and Commerce (MEC), in collaboration
with Hamad and Mohamed Al-Futtaim, dealer of Ikea in Qatar,
has announced the recall of Ikea Gothem lamps over the risk of
electrical shock.
Ikea customers who have Gothem lamps should immediately
remove the items and bring them back to the store for a full refund.
The ministry said that the recall campaign comes within the
framework of its ongoing efforts to protect consumers and ensure
that suppliers follow up on product defects and recall defective
items.
The MEC will co-ordinate with the supplier to ensure the recall of
defective products and communicate with customers to ensure
that the necessary procedures have been taken.
The ministry has urged all consumers to report violations to its
Consumer Protection and Anti-Commercial Fraud Department
through the following channels: Hotline: 16001, e-mail: info@mec.
gov.qa, Twitter: @MEC_Qatar, Instagram: MEC_Qatar, MEC mobile
app for Android and IOS: MEC_Qatar
Techno Blue, the leading distributor of
many top electronics and appliances
brands in Qatar, recently opened their
new showroom in Al Shafi Street, Rayyan
next to QNB. This is the 11th showroom
for Techno Blue in the country. techno
Blue boasts top-quality service and the
showroom offers the latest in Samsung
televisions, mobile phones, refrigerators,
washing machines, microwave ovens
and vacuum cleaners in addition to
Russel Hobbs small kitchen appliances,
La Germania cookers, Asus laptops, and
Linksys networking products.
Ministry signs R&D
pacts on biosolids
T
he Ministry of Municipality and Environment
(MME), Texas A&M University at Qatar (Tamuq)
and the Qatar Shell Research and Technology Centre (QSRTC) have signed three-year research and development (R&D) agreements exploring the use of Pearl Gas
to Liquids (GTL) biosolids, for the production of fodder
crops at the ministry’s experimental farm in Rawdat Al
Faras.
The signing ceremony took place at the MME and was
attended by Sheikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser al -Thani, the assistant undersecretary for Agricultural Affairs, Livestock
and Fisheries, interim Tamuq dean Dr Ann L Kenimer, and
Michiel Kool, the managing director and chairman of Qatar Shell Companies.
Biosolids are the byproduct of a biological water treatment process at Pearl GTL whereby living micro-organisms, rather than chemicals, treat the industrial water
produced in the gas-to-liquids conversion process.
Global uses of biosolids include application as a soil enhancer to improve and maintain productive soils, stimulate plant growth and increase water retention. They are
also used as a soil enhancer in gardens and parks.
The agreements will focus on research on the feasibility
of using Pearl GTL biosolids as soil enhancer for growing
fodder crops, and evaluating their environmental impact
and benefits in terms of improving the soil composition in
Qatar.
Sheikh Dr Faleh said “At the ministry we aim for inclusive and sustainable growth for future generations in Qatar. That is why we are delighted to collaborate with QSRTC and Tamuq to explore the suitability of use of Pearl
GTL biosolids in agriculture to improve soil properties in
Qatar.”
Kenimer said: “This research collaboration with QSRTC and MME aims to identify sustainable and economically beneficial solutions for industrial by-products. This
project aligns with Texas A&M University at Qatar’s research priorities and supports Qatar’s quest to become a
knowledge-based economy.”
Kool said: “We are extremely proud to once again collaborate with the ministry and Texas A&M at Qatar. This
agreement builds on our existing 10-year R&D collaboration agreement with the Department of Agriculture,
which includes the Rawdat Al Faras research farm.”
Al Khor Hospital surgical team
conducts fibroidectomy
A team from Al Khor Hospital
(AKH), part of the Hamad Medical
Corporation, has successfully
performed a fibroidectomy - the
surgical removal of fibroids on the
womb - on a woman aged 33.
Seventeen uterine fibroid tumours
of varying sizes were removed
from the patient, who has been
discharged from hospital and is
now leading a normal life.
The team was led by Dr Hussain
Shararah, a senior consultant
The surgical team.
and head of the Obstetrics and
Gynaecology Department at AKH, senior specialist Dr Nada
Kheyon, and specialist Dr Gazomati Dayabran.
Dr Shararah said: “The patient was suffering from a
number of conditions including menorrhagia, abdominal
and back pain, frequent urination, chronic constipation
and an inability to conceive. An ultrasound examination
revealed that she had 17 uterine fibroid tumours of different
sizes from 2cm to 12cm. We therefore decided to perform
a fibroidectomy surgery to relieve her of the pain and
increase her chance of getting pregnant.”
He said that uterine fibroids are non-cancerous growths on
the uterus that often appear during childbearing years.
“Uterine fibroids can be caused by heredity or hormonal
factors, skin tone, starting menstruation at an early age,
high consumption of red meat, alcohol consumption and a
low vegetable and fruit intake,” he explained.
MME, Tamuq and QSRTC officials signing the agreements.
Gulf Times
11
QATAR
Health Minister meets German envoy
EU team impressed with
work on 2022 World Cup
QNA
Doha
HE the Minister of Public Health Dr Hanan Mohamed al-Kuwari met German ambassador to Qatar,
Hans-Udo Muzel, in Doha yesterday. Talks dealt with aspects of co-operation between Qatar and
Germany in the health sector and means of enhancing them.
Man gets 5-year jail term for
kidnapping restaurant worker
A
Doha Criminal Court
has sentenced a man to
five years in jail for kidnapping a restaurant worker by
threatening him with a pistol,
local Arabic daily Arrayah reported yesterday.
The defendant became agitated when the restaurant employee did not respond to his requests immediately. He got out
of his vehicle, went inside the
restaurant, shouted angrily at
the worker and left.
But he returned later and
asked for the same worker. When
the worker approached the vehicle, the defendant asked him to
get in but the worker refused.
Subsequently, he threatened
him with a pistol and forced
him to get into the car with him.
The defendant then sped off to
the desert outskirts, where he
dropped his victim and fired a
warning shot.
The scared worker started
running, with the defendant following him in his car and firing
randomly. After some chase, the
defendant left the worker in the
open and went away.
Later, the victim managed to
return to his workplace and reported the issue to the police,
who were able to arrest the defendant. However, the victim
relinquished his claims at the
court and the court convicted
the defendant for owning an unlicensed firearm and threatening
to kill a person.
Hit-and-run
motorist gets
one-year jail
A
motorist has been sentenced to one year in jail
for running over a pedestrian and then escaping from the
scene in his vehicle.
Local Arabic daily Arrayah
reported yesterday that a Doha
Criminal Court also ordered
the defendant to pay a sum of
QR200,000 as blood money for
the legal inheritors of the victim.
Besides, his driving license was
suspended by the court for three
months.
According to the prosecution,
the defendant was speeding
when he ran over a pedestrian
who was crossing the road. The
victim sustained severe injuries in the accident that led to
his death, according to medical
reports. Further, the report said
he did not stop to see what happened to the pedestrian or call
for help for the victim but ran
away instead.
The motorist was identified
after a witness was able to provide his vehicle plate number.
During the hearing, the motorist
justified his escape by telling the
court that he was very afraid and
did not know what to do in such
circumstances. But he admitted
to running over the victim.
T
he Supreme Committee
for Delivery and Legacy
(SC) has received a delegation of members of the European Parliament who were given
an overview of progress and
preparations for the 2022 FIFA
World Cup by the SC Secretary
General Hassan al-Thawadi.
The European delegation
was led by Ramona Manescu,
Member of the European Parliament for the Romanian National Liberal Party, and Sheikh
Ali bin Jasim bin Thani al-Thani, ambassador, Mission of the
State of Qatar to the European
Union.
A wide range of topics were
discussed, including Qatar’s
preparations for the tournament, workers’ welfare, initiatives aimed at building a
sporting industry and fostering
innovation in the region such as
Josoor Institute and Challenge
22 as well as matters related to
security and accommodation for
the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
“It is quite extraordinary to
see how Qatar is developing and
becoming a major player. I have
had the opportunity also to look
at the whole issue of the World
Cup in 2022, and as someone
who is a keen football fan I am
looking forward to the tournament,” Afzal Khan, Member of
the European Parliament for the
British Labour Party, said after
the meeting.
“It is reassuring for me
that progress is being made in
preparations. It will be great
to have the tournament in the
Arab and Muslim world for the
first time. The world we live in
is a global village, and we need
to create ways to join people
because football is something
Customers strike
it rich in Jumbo
Mega Promotion
C
A customer has won a LG 65” Super HD TV worth QR12,999 in the
ongoing Jumbo Mega Promotion.
ustomers have been winning many prizes
in the Jumbo Mega Promotion, launched on
March 27 and running until April 16, offering
over QR1mn worth of gifts across all Jumbo Electronics showrooms, including Harman House.
A customer won a LG 65” Super HD TV worth
QR12,999. The bumper prize of a holiday voucher
to an international destination for two persons is
still up for grabs.
The gifts include TVs, refrigerators, washing machines, projectors, sound bars, Bluetooth speakers,
and restaurant vouchers.
“With the weekend, we
expect more customers to
make purchases and win a
lot of gifts. The customers
need to hurry so that they
can increase their chances of
winning the best gifts before
they run out,” urged C V Rappai, director and CEO, Video
Home & Electronic Centre.
Oman delegation
visits Kahramaa
Qatar General Electricity and
Water Corporation (Kahramaa)
yesterday received a
delegation from “Nama
International Institute” - Oman
yesterday.
This visit was meant to
exchange experience in
the field of environment
and resources protection.
The Omani delegation got
acquainted with Kahramaa’s
role in disseminating the
techniques, regulations and
legislation of electricity and
water conservation as well
as initiatives to make use of
renewable energy.
Qatar-UK security
officials meet
HE the Director General of
Public Security Major General
Saad bin Jassim al-Khulaifi
met Stephen Phipson, Head
of the Defence and Security
Organisation within the UK
Trade & Investment Defence
& Security Organisation (UKTI
DSO).
During the meeting, they
discussed means to enhance
co-operation on issues of
common concern.
The Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy (SC) officials at a meeting with a delegation of members
of the European Parliament.
we share. Qatar really has the
opportunity to bring the world
together, unite the East and the
West. There is so much passion
and love for football here which
I have seen, which is a good
thing,” he added.
The visiting EU delegation
was also given an overview of the
SC Workers’ Welfare Standards
and how they are being implemented across SC projects, having already visited the new accommodation built by Qatar at
Labour City.
“It was good to see the various safety precautions that are
being taken for workers, because this is one of the concerns
you hear when you are outside,”
added Khan. “It is good to see
the progress being made on
that front as well. Today we
visited an area where 100,000
migrant workers are going to be
hosted. Their facilities, recreational and medical, their shopping and leisure areas – seeing
that at first hand changes your
perception. When you are outside just listening to the media,
it doesn’t give you quite the
picture as when you come and
visit it.”
Concluding with his impressions on progress taking place
across the country, the Manchester United fan added that
he would be back for the tournament in 2022.
“I am delighted to have had
this opportunity to visit Qatar.
The SC are dedicated, very professional and passionate about
their work and go into detail to
make sure that every aspect of
this huge project is delivered in
a way which does credit to Qatar
and the FIFA World Cup, and I
am confident that will happen.”
Amjad Bashir, Conservative
British MEP for Yorkshire and
the Humber, added: “Within 18
months there has been such exhilarating and fantastic change,
there is a real buzz about this
place. I’m excited to see not only
the design but also the build of
the stadiums, because I know
from Manchester how excited
the Arab crowd is about football.
It is right that the World Cup
comes to this part of the world,
and a brilliant idea that Qatar
hosts this event. I think they
have thought about everything,
you can never get everything
right, but they have done their
best.”
12
Gulf Times
QATAR
QA launches direct
Birmingham flights
Q
atar Airways yesterday
inaugurated the airline’s
fourth UK gateway with
direct flights between Doha and
Birmingham.
The airline will operate eight
weekly services to Birmingham
with the Boeing 787 Dreamliner
aircraft.
The inaugural flight touched
down at sunrise yesterday and
was greeted by a traditional
water salute.
Qatar Airways chief commercial officer Dr Hugh Dunleavy,
who travelled on board the inaugural flight with British ambassador to Qatar Ajay Sharma,
was greeted at the arrival gate by
Birmingham Airport CEO Paul
Kehoe.
The addition of Birmingham
marks the fourth UK gateway
for the Doha-based carrier after
London Heathrow, Manchester
and Edinburgh.
Qatar Airways Group chief
executive Akbar al-Baker said,
“We are delighted to commence
service to Birmingham. This vi-
Officials and dignitaries are pictured with a celebratory cake replicating Doha’s Museum of Islamic Art to
mark the occasion.
Qatar Airways’ inaugural flight being greeted with a traditional water salute after touching down at
Birmingham.
brant and economically powerful
region represents an important
addition to our worldwide network and is a testament to our
commitment to the UK.
On his part, ambassador Shar-
ma said: “I was delighted to be
able to travel on the inaugural
flight from Doha to Birmingham.
The launch of this new route will
open up further opportunities
for both Qatar and the UK.”
To mark the occasion, officials
and dignitaries, including Hamad al-Muftah - Qatar’s deputy
ambassador to the UK, Sharma,
Dr Dunleavy, Richard Oliver
- Qatar Airways country man-
ager (UK and Ireland), Jonathan
Harding - Qatar Airways senior
vice-president (NSW Europe),
and Kehoe cut a celebratory cake
replicating Doha’s Museum of
Islamic Art.
Qatar Airways now operates 73 flights per week to the
UK from Hamad International
Airport, with 42 flights per
week to London Heathrow,
16 to Manchester, seven to
Edinburgh and eight to Birmingham, giving UK passengers access to more than 150
destinations worldwide.
Meanwhile, Kehoe said: “We
are extremely excited to be wel-
coming Qatar Airways to Birmingham Airport. Connecting
the economically vibrant West
Midlands region with the rapidly developing capital city of
Doha will be hugely beneficial
to passengers at both ends of
the route.”
The Birmingham route is operated by a Boeing 787 Dreamliner
in a two-cabin configuration,
comprising 22 seats in business
class and 232 in economy class.
Birmingham is the largest and
most populous city in the UK
outside of London and is situated in the West Midlands. “With
eight flights a week, including
two flights on Saturday, Qatar
Airways recognises the growth
and demand represented by this
important region in the UK,” the
airline said in a statement.
The weekly schedule is as follows: Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday - Birmingham
to Doha, departure at 8.55am and
arrival at 5.35pm; Doha to Birmingham, departure at 1.30am
and arrival at 6.50am.
Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday
and Sunday - Birmingham to
Doha, departure at 4.20pm and
arrival at 1am (next day); Doha to
Birmingham, departure at 7am
and arrival at 12.20pm.
QA, Rolls-Royce develop training
programme for Qatari nationals
Q
Nine-hour closure on Shamal Road
A nine-hour closure will be
in place tomorrow from
1am to 10am on three of the
four northbound lanes of Al
Shamal Road (after Exit 35),
for approximately 1.3km at
Al Khor intersection, the
Public Works Authority
(Ashghal) announced
yesterday.
During the period, traffic
will be diverted to the
fourth lane of the road
which will remain open.
The speed limit will be
reduced from 120kph to
50kph to ensure the safety
of road users and the
project’s workforce.
The diversion is being
effected to facilitate the
construction of the bridge
at the intersection between
Al Shamal Road and the
New Orbital Highway as
part of the New Orbital
Highway and Truck Route
Project (Contract 4).
atar Airways and RollsRoyce, the airline’s strategic partner, have developed a new training programme
exclusively for Qatari nationals.
Under Qatar Airways’ Al Darb
Qatarisation programme, nominated Qatari delegates visited the
Rolls-Royce facility in Derby, UK,
to attend the Rolls-Royce Business
Management and Commercial
Awareness Programme.
“The annual business management programme provides a
unique learning opportunity for
Qataris enrolled in the Al Darb
Qatarisation programme to connect with and learn from experts
at the leading aero-engine manufacturing company,” according to
a statement.
Chosen for their high performance and as a token of appreciation
for their long-time service with
the company, the selected delegates met with specialists from
Rolls-Royce over a five-day induction programme that introduced them to a variety of subjects crucial to executives in the
aviation industry.
These
included
corporate
strategy, financial management,
relationship management and
customer service management.
Nabeela Fakhri, Qatar Airways
senior vice-president (human
resources), said: “Our Al Darb
Qatarisation programme, part of
Qatar Airways National Talent
Management, identifies the most
talented Qatari individuals to join
our team and empowers them
with the knowledge required to
contribute to the growth of their
national carrier and the rapidly
transforming aviation industry.
“We are pleased to offer this
programme with our esteemed
partners at Rolls-Royce as it reinforces our goal of providing highquality professional development
opportunities that benefit our
employees.”
Qatar Airways’ Al Darb Qatarisation programme is an initiative
that aims to develop young Qataris
to become the leaders of the national carrier. Through initiatives
such as its summer internship
programme and graduate developee programme, Al Darb provides
Under Qatar Airways’ Al Darb Qatarisation programme, nominated Qatari delegates have visited the Rolls-Royce
facility in Derby, UK, to attend the Rolls-Royce Business Management and Commercial Awareness Programme.
students and graduates with reallife projects that add to their work
experience and prepare them for a
successful career in the airline, the
statement notes.
Al Darb includes nine programmes and 36 majors, 13 of
which were added recently. Tailormade programmes are created for
each participant in order to sup-
port and develop Qatarisation. A
term that means “The Pathway”,
Al Darb highlights the different
paths that individuals can take
with Qatar Airways.
Instagram milestone for Qatar Airways
Q
Qatar Airways celebrated the milestone with celebrity chefs at the
recently held Qatar International Food Festival in Doha.
atar Airways has announced that it has
achieved the milestone of
1mn followers on photo-sharing
platform Instagram.
Having launched its Instagram
account in May 2013 the airline has
“managed to attract new followers
at an average rate of 30,000 people
per month, thanks to its engaging
and diverse eye-catching imagery”,
according to a statement.
Often showcasing the popular
destinations on Qatar Airways’
extensive network, the Instagram
account allows followers to travel
the world from their own homes,
inspiring them to explore new environments and experience new
cultures, the statement notes.
“Among the most popular posts
have been Sydney, with a stunning
air-to-air image of the airline’s
first flight over the Opera House,
LA with Mariah Carey performing
at an intimate dinner, and a spectacular landing near the beach in
Phuket.”
Salam al-Shawa, senior vicepresident of marketing and cor-
porate communications at Qatar
Airways, said: “Achieving this
milestone of 1mn followers, plus
the continuous growth across
all our social media platforms,
aligns with Qatar Airways’ vision
to be number one in the aviation
industry.”
The statement points out that
Qatar’s national carrier is forging
new ground on Snapchat (qatarairways) and is currently one of
the only carriers in the world active on the emerging social media
platform.
Gulf Times
13
QATAR
Gulf Craft launches
preview at the Pearl
G
ulf Craft, Qatar’s market
leader for luxury yachts
and leisure boats, yesterday launched an exclusive
preview at The Pearl-Qatar.
Two new superyachts from
the shipyard’s Majesty Yachts
brand and an oceangoing yacht
model from its long-range Nomad Yachts series are among
the attractions of the three-day
event.
The GCC-based shipyard
leads Qatar’s market share for
leisure craft, now accounting
for 50% of domestic purchases.
It translates to a 10% growth
from last year due to the company’s capacity to manufacture
reliable and seagoing craft.
More than 10 yachts and boats
from the builder’s expanding
fleet of Majesty Yachts, Nomad
Yachts, Oryx sport cruisers,
and Silvercraft fishing and family were presented at a private
event yesterday.
“Today, Qatari buyers are
interested in a diverse range of
on-water experiences, marked
by a growing desire for onboard
comfort and extended sea travel,” Gulf Craft chairman Mohamed Hussein al-Shaali said.
“We also understand that Qatari owners want to spend more
time cruising and less time
maintaining their boats, and
that is why our dedicated aftersales support team is always
within reach,” he added.
The fifth edition of Gulf
Craft’s exclusive preview in Qatar follows on the heels of the
company’s global launch of the
three new yachts at the Dubai
International Boat Show. It generated more than AED 80mn in
sales across its comprehensive
portfolio of world-class yachts
and boats.
The new Majesty 110 and the
Majesty 90 superyachts both
combine powerful engineering
and advanced technology with
immaculate design.
A unique venture into the
world of tri-deck (three decks),
the Majesty 110 has abundant
outdoor and indoor entertainment features and numerous
amenities, including a spacious
garage that is large enough to
store a dinghy and a Jet Ski.
Meanwhile, the ample space
onboard the Majesty 90 enables
passengers to move effortlessly
inside and outside the superyacht, giving owners the chance to
customise the fly-bridge to either
fit a dinghy, Jet Ski, or an even
larger seating area, and offering
breathtaking 360-degree views
from the superyacht’s interior.
The Nomad 55 is the latest in
Gulf Craft’s long-range series
of yachts, offering Qataris with
an insatiable appetite for sea
travel an opportunity to take the
five-star loft experience into the
midst of the world’s oceans.
Similar to its sister ship the
Nomad 65, the Nomad 55 emanates world-class engineering
from the inside-out with a hybrid hull designed by celebrated
British yacht designer Andrew
Wolstenholme.
Reaching speeds of up to 25
knots using twin 700 hp engines, the Nomad 55 can travel
long distances without having
to make frequent fuel stops, allowing its passengers to enjoy
an uninterrupted cruising experience.
More than 800 visitors attended the first edition of the fashion week, according to a statement from Lagoona Mall.
14 brands to display their
collections at fashion event
L
The luxury yachts and leisure boats from Gulf Craft at the exclusive preview at The Pearl-Qatar yesterday.
GT readers win music show tickets
Gulf Times readers Rashid Khan, Rkvcs, Mathew, Aswathy Anna Baby, Kuriakose M Jacob and Manoj Mariyil have won a ticket
each to the Punjab Music Group (PMG) event being held today at Sheraton Doha from 7.30pm. Led by popular Pakistani folk
singer Tariq Tafu, the show includes pianist and music composer Razwan Bobby Sarwar, young singer Danish Asif Ali and
talented TV singer Hina Ali. Gulf Times is the media sponsor. The winning coupons were picked by Tariq Tafu and Razwan
Sarwar, along with PMG officials Nazakat Ali Khan, Shahid Rasheed and Amin Motiwala, in the presence of Habib Ullah Sheikh,
senior business development manager, Gulf Times. PMG has been organising music events and cultural shows for South Asian
communities in Doha for the past 10 years. The winners should contact Gulf Times office at 44466620 for their tickets.
QRC takes part in Tunis meeting
QNA
Doha
Q
atar Red Crescent
is taking part in the
UN Humanitarian
Co-ordinator Conference,
which opened in Tunis yesterday.
The three-day event discussed the humanitarian
situation in Libya. It is be-
ing attended by number of
non-governmental organisations and institutions
of the Libyan civil society
and nine international organisations and diplomatic
missions as well as the UN
agencies.
The Qatar Red Crescent
is represented by Director
of Relief and International
Development, Khaled Diab,
who said the conference
agenda includes several
goals and objectives.
They include means of
establishing a direct dialogue between the UN and
its partners, NGOs and the
Libyan national actors to
discuss basic humanitarian
challenges and mechanisms
to provide assistance.
The conference aims to
discuss the gaps and the
challenges of implement-
ing a humanitarian response
plan and make suggestions
to address these gaps and
challenges.
Qatar Red Crescent Society has been conducting
a large-scale relief intervention to help families
displaced or affected by
the armed conflict in Libya, with $10mn funding
from Qatar Development
Fund.
Lucky draw winner strikes gold
Kattamouthiu, one of the winners of ‘Malabar Gold & Diamonds - Win Up to QR1.5mn worth gold coins campaign,’ receives the prize of ‘100 gold coins’ from Shaffi C K, branch manager, Al Khor Mall, in the presence of other officials.
agoona Mall has announced that would host
the second edition of its
bi-annual fashion event, the Lagoona Mall Fashion Week, from
April 2 to 8.
For this season, an extended
edition of the fashion week will
be held for seven consecutive
days with the participation of 14
brands showcasing their “latest and trendiest collections for
Spring/Summer 2016”, according to a statement.
“With daily live shows and
performances from 7pm to 9pm,
the excitement will unfold in the
north court lobby of Lagoona
Mall. The show will be open to
the public and fashion lovers in
Qatar, who will be treated to an
unforgettable fashion experience
highlighting some of the world’s
most renowned brands,” the
statement notes.
The event will feature presentations from leading brands
such as Liu Jo and Max & Co on
April 2, Blugirl Blumarine and
Elisabetta Franchi on April 3,
Karen Millen and Versace Collection on April 4, Adolfo Do-
miniguez and Tadashi Shoji on
April 5, Furla and Pronovias on
April 6 and Patricia Pepe and
Simona Barbera Twin-Set on
April 7.
The event will come to a close
with the preview of collections
from Gerard Darel and Fifty One
East on April 8.
More than 800 visitors attended the first edition of the
Lagoona Mall Fashion Week,
where eight brands exhibited
their latest creations through
live fashion shows, the statement added.
14
Gulf Times
REGION/ARAB WORLD
Khamenei: missiles, not ‘negotiations’ key to Iran security
AFP
Tehran
I
ran’s supreme leader said yesterday that missile power was
key to the country’s future
security, slapping down moderates who say the focus should be
on diplomacy.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who
has the final say in all matters of
state in Iran, praised the pow-
erful Revolutionary Guards for
their “show of advanced and precise missiles” in recent tests that
drew Western criticism.
“In this jungle-like world, if
the Islamic republic seeks negotiations, trade and even technology and science, but has no
defence power, won’t even small
countries dare threaten Iran?”
Khamenei said in remarks published on his official website.
“Our enemies are constantly
enhancing their military and
missile capabilities and given this
how can we say the age of missiles has passed?”
His comments appeared aimed
at ex-president Akbar Hashemi
Rafsanjani, a senior leader of the
reformist and moderate camp,
who last week tweeted: “Tomorrow’s world is the world of dialogue not missiles.”
They also came a day after the
US, France, Britain and Germany
said Iran’s recent ballistic missile
tests violate UN Security Council
resolutions.
The same four countries, along
with Russia and China, reached
the historic agreement with Iran
last year that saw Tehran scale
down its nuclear programme in
exchange for the lifting of sanctions.
A joint letter from the US
and other Western powers sent
on Monday to the UN Security
Council said that missiles recently fired by Iran were “inherently capable of delivering nuclear weapons”.
The letter obtained by AFP
says the missile launches were
“destabilising and provocative”
and defied a 2015 UN resolution,
number 2231.
The resolution includes the
terms of the nuclear accord.
Iran argues that these missiles
are not covered by the UN reso-
lution that accompanied the nuclear accord.
Iran has twice tested ballistic
missiles since the July 14 deal,
prompting Western condemnation and new US sanctions.
“The enemies of the revolution... use dialogue, economic
trade, sanctions, military threats
and any other means to further
their goals,” Khamenei said. “We
should be able to confront and
defend in all of these fields.”
He said those who believe only
diplomacy is the key to Iran’s future are acting out of “ignorance
or treason”.
In response to Iran’s tests, the
US Treasury last week named
units of the Revolutionary
Guards to its sanctions blacklist.
Stressing that he was not
averse to diplomacy, Khamenei said Iran should “negotiate
strongly and vigilantly so we
won’t be deceived.”
Child labour
rises in Gaza
amid soaring
unemployment
Child workforce doubled in
five years; nearly 3,000 under
legal working age, according
to official figures
Reuters
Gaza
C
hild labour has risen
sharply in Gaza, where
youngsters toiling in garages and on construction sites
have become breadwinners for
families feeling the brunt of the
Palestinian enclave’s 43% unemployment rate.
In the past five years, the
number of working children between the ages of 10 and 17 has
doubled to 9,700 in the territory,
according to the Palestinian Bureau of Statistics.
The bureau said 2,900 of those
children are below the legal employment age of 15. Economists in
the narrow coastal strip, home to
1.9mn Palestinians, estimate the
real number of underage workers
could be twice as high.
The increase in Gaza goes
against trends. The International
Labour Organisation says the
worldwide number of children in
labour has fallen by a third since
2000, from 246mn to 168mn,
with more than a fifth in sub-Saharan Africa.
At one garage in downtown
Gaza, 16-year-old Mahmoud
Yazji and another boy, aged 12,
work nine hours a day. Mahmoud
said he earns the equivalent of
$13 a week; the younger boy takes
home half of that.
“My father makes 1,000 shekels ($258) a month. It disappears
in a few days and we struggle for
the rest of the month,” Mahmoud
said.
Haitham Khzaiq, 16, quit
school six months ago to sell
candy apples to visitors at Gaza’s
newly developed seaport, a major
picnic venue. He works a halfday, seven days a week, and said
he earns a total of 20 shekels ($5).
“We are five brothers and eight
sisters. I am the oldest son and I
had to work because my father is
unemployed,” he said. “I don’t
earn enough but it is better than
nothing and it is better than begging people for money.”
A devastating 2014 war between Palestinian militants and
Israel, border restrictions imposed by Israel and Egypt and
the destruction of cross-border
smuggling tunnels by an Egyptian
government at odds with Gaza’s
Hamas rulers have contributed
to economic hardship in the territory.
The UN estimates that 80% of
the population is aid dependent,
with unemployment rising to its
current level from around 35%
five years ago.
“Some people are living like
kings and many others like us are
hardly finding anything to eat,”
said 10-year-old Mohamed, who
sells potato chips on the street
and began working after his father, a construction labourer, lost
his job.
A gap is evident on the Gaza
beachfront, where child vendors
lugging trays of tea, coffee and
snacks mingle with other children using expensive cellphones
to record their family picnics.
Several smart hotels overlook the
port and beachfront.
A Dutch-funded organisation,
El-Wedad Society for Community
Rehabilitation, has been running
a project for three years aimed at
convincing families in Gaza of the
importance of returning working
children to the classroom.
“We are very worried. We feel
children’s rights are being trampled on,” said Naeem al-Ghalban,
who heads the society.
Its representatives visit the
homes of working children they
meet on the street and invite them
to guidance sessions at the organisation’s headquarters. Children
are taken for visits to Gaza’s colleges to show them what could lie
ahead if they go back to school.
Iraqi PM to present his new cabinet lineup today
Iraqi Prime Minister Haider
al-Abadi said he would present
to parliament today his new
cabinet lineup aimed at fighting
corruption, in keeping with a
deadline set by the legislature
earlier in the week.
Abadi announced more than six
weeks ago that he wanted to
replace current ministers with
independent technocrats but
has faced resistance from rivals
who fear it could weaken the
political patronage networks that
have sustained their wealth and
influence for more than a decade.
Failing to deliver on long-promised
anti-corruption measures could
weaken Abadi’s government just
as Iraqi forces are gearing up to try
and recapture the northern city of
Mosul from Islamic State militants.
“Parliament must make up its
mind and proceed with reforms
including the cabinet reshuffle
which it and citizens have been
calling for,” Abadi said in a
statement posted on his website
yesterday. It was unclear whether
the parliament would approve the
new cabinet lineup.
On Tuesday Abadi had appealed
to lawmakers for guidance
on whether to appoint party
politicians or independent
technocrats to the cabinet, but
parliament speaker Salim alJabouri said yesterday it was for
Abadi to decide.
Palestinian boy Mohamed al-Bana, 10, sells mints at a market in Gaza City. Bana, whose father is unemployed, earns around 10 Shekels ($2.5)
per day. The boy starts working after finishing school. He hopes to continue education and become an engineer in the future.
Yemen govt forces push
Al Qaeda back in Aden
AFP
Aden
L
oyalist forces pushed Al
Qaeda out of parts of Aden
yesterday in a new drive
against the militants in Yemen’s
second city where the internationally recognised government
is based, military sources said.
Troops and militia retook the
central prison and deployed on
main roads across the Mansura
residential district after a threehour gunbattle with the militants, the sources said.
There was no immediate word
on casualties.
The Sunni extremists of Al
Qaeda have exploited conflict
between the government and
Shia rebels who overran the
capital Sanaa in September 2014
to expand their control in the
south.
A Saudi-led coalition, which
intervened in support of President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi
when he fled into exile in March
last year, concentrated its firepower on pushing the rebels
and their allies out of Aden and
neighbouring southern provinces, and the militants took advantage.
But in recent days, the coalition has carried out a series of
LuLu opens sixth hypermarket in Bahrain
Loyalist forces stand guard on a main road in the Mansura residential district of Aden after they pushed
Al Qaeda out of parts of the southern city yesterday in a new drive against the militants.
air strikes against Al Qaeda in
cities it has seized including
Hadramawt provincial capital
Mukalla and Abyan provincial
capital Zinjibar.
Five militants were killed
and three wounded in Monday
strikes on Mukalla, a major port
city that the militants seized
last April, provincial officials
said.
Zinjibar residents said that Al
Qaeda fighters were evacuating
public buildings in the city on
Tuesday in apparent fear of new
strikes.
The coalition raids follow a US
strike against an Al Qaeda training camp outside Mukalla last
week that killed 71 militants, according to provincial officials.
On Tuesday, hundreds of people took part in an Al Qaeda-organised protest in Mukalla against
the US raid, witnesses said.
“US raids will not defeat jihad,” banners carried by the
demonstrators said.
But other residents resisted
the militants’ efforts to get them
to join the protest, the witnesses
said.
There has been no let-up in
the longstanding US air war
against Al Qaeda’s Yemen-based
branch, which it regards as the
militant network’s most dangerous.
US strikes have taken out a
number of senior Al Qaeda commanders in Yemen over the past
year.
UAE sending aid to Benghazi
AFP
Abu Dhabi
T
LuLu Group has opened its sixth hypermarket in Bahrain, located at Galleria Mall, New Zinj. The new hypermarket, the group’s 124th
store globally, was officially inaugurated by Bahrain’s Deputy Prime Minister Sheikh Khalid bin Abdullah al-Khalifah in the presence
of Minister for Industry and Commerce Zayed al-Zayani, Labour Minister Jameel Humaidan, British ambassador Simon Martin, US
ambassador William Roebuck, Indian ambassador Alok Kumar Sinha, LuLu Group chairman Yusuffali M A, prominent businessman
Mohamed Dadabhai, LuLu Group CEO Saifee Rupawala, executive director Ashraf Ali M A, Bahrain regional director Juzer Rupawala
and other top officials. The LuLu Group chairman described the opening as a “moment of great pride” for the company. The group will
open two more hypermarkets in the country by the end of 2017 - at Saar and Busaidi, he added.
he United Arab Emirates is
transporting humanitarian aid to residents in the
war-torn Libyan city of Benghazi, the Emirates Red Crescent
announced yesterday.
The first of nine aircraft carrying food, medicine, medical supplies and other materials departed this week to Benghazi, the aid
organisation said in a statement.
“This move... could not have
been timelier as the humanitarian situation in Libya has deteriorated drastically over the past
few months,” said Emirates Red
Crescent Secretary General Mohamed al-Falahi.
Libya’s second city Benghazi
has been the scene of months of
fighting between forces allied
with the internationally recognised government and Islamist
militias, including the Islamic
State group.
“The current move is a continuation of the UAE’s aid efforts
Boxes of humanitarian aid stacked at a warehouse near the Emirates
Red Crescent headquarters in Abu Dhabi, ahead of being transported
residents in the war-torn Libyan city of Benghazi.
in Libya since the beginning of
the crisis there,” said the statement, noting that the Red Crescent had already provided aid to
Libyan refugees in neighbouring
Tunisia.
Libya has descended into chaos since the 2011 ousting of longtime dictator Muammar Gaddafi,
allowing militants to gain ground
in the oil-rich country.
It has had two rival administrations since mid-2014 when an
armed alliance overran the capital, setting up its own authority
and forcing the internationally
recognised parliament to flee to
Libya’s remote east.
Gulf Times
15
ARAB WORLD
Footballer Messi boot donation angers Egyptians
Reuters
Cairo
W
orld Footballer of the
Year Lionel Messi
found himself the unlikely figure of controversy in
Egypt after a local politician and
a soccer official reacted angrily
when he donated a pair of his
boots to raise money for charity.
MBC Masr channel broad-
cast an interview last Saturday
with Barcelona’s Messi on the
television programme ‘Yes I am
Famous’, but the announcement
that the Argentina forward would
auction his boots for charity provoked an unexpected response.
Member of parliament and television presenter Said Hasasin,
appearing on his own talk show,
took off his shoes and said he
would donate them to the poor of
Argentina.
“Whose shoes do you want to
sell, Messi? How much do you
think it will get? You don’t know
that the nail of a baby Egyptian
is worth more than your shoes?
Keep your shoes to yourself or
sell them to Israel.”
“Messi, we Egyptians are
90mn people, who have pride,
we have shoes.”
“We don’t eat off the money of
other peoples’ shoes. I would have
understood if he donated his Bar-
celona uniform to the Egyptians,
it’s accepted. But just the shoes?
It’s humiliating to all Egyptians
and I do not accept this humiliation. Egyptians may not find food,
but they have pride.”
“We Egyptians have never
been humiliated before during
our seven thousand years of civilization.”
Throwing shoes is considered
an insult in the Middle East.
Hasasin called up Azmy Mega-
hed, a spokesman for the Egyptian Football Association, on his
programme, who added:
“I am confused. If he (Messi)
intends to humiliate us, then I
say he’d better put these shoes on
his head and on the heads of the
people supporting him. We don’t
need his shoes and we don’t need
charity from Jewish or Israeli people. Give your shoes to your country, Argentina is full of poverty.”
MBC Masr’s Mona El-
Sharkawy who interviewed Messi
said the gesture had been misinterpreted and that the donation
was not for an Egyptian charity.
“This is so false. It’s a trend on
our show that we take a souvenir
from our guest and put it on auction for charity,” El-Sharkawy
was quoted as saying by news
agency Ahram.
“I am surprised, I didn’t say
we will be giving it to charity in
Egypt or any other place. I don’t
know why they said he is presenting it to Egypt. This was
never said.”
Messi has not commented on
the reaction to his donation.
Former Egypt forward Mido
said he was grateful for Messi’s
gesture, writing on Twitter: “The
most precious thing the writer
owns is his pen ... and the most
precious thing the footballer
owns is his shoes. I hope we stop
the false accusations.”
UN-backed
Libya govt
head arrives
in Tripoli
AFP
Tripoli
T
he head of Libya’s UNbacked unity government arrived yesterday in
Tripoli, but international hopes
of a peaceful power handover
were dealt a swift blow as the unrecognised authorities demanded his departure.
Fayez al-Sarraj, a businessman
named prime minister-designate
under a UN-brokered powersharing deal in December, arrived by sea with a naval escort
along with several members of
his cabinet.
But in a sign of the formidable
challenge facing Sarraj’s government, Tripoli’s unrecognised authorities demanded that he leave
the capital or “hand himself in”.
“Those who entered illegally
and secretly must surrender or
turn back,” the head of the Tripoli authorities Khalifa Ghweil said
in a televised address. “We won’t
leave Tripoli as long as we are not
sure of the fate of our homeland.”
Tripoli’s government had declared a state of emergency ahead
of Sarraj’s anticipated arrival,
and several main highways were
blocked late yesterday by armed
groups - some uniformed and
others in civilian clothes - who
arrived aboard military vehicles,
an AFP reporter said.
Residents hurried to their
homes as cracks of gunfire could
be heard around the capital.
Libya has had two rival administrations since mid-2014 when a
militia alliance overran the capital, setting up its own authority
and forcing the internationally
recognised parliament to flee to
the country’s remote east.
International leaders, increasingly alarmed by the rise of militants and people-smugglers in
the impoverished North African
state, have urged Libya’s political
rivals to support the unity government.
But so far the two administrations have refused to cede power.
A presidential council formed
under the December deal confirmed on its Facebook page that
Sarraj and several other members
had “arrived safe and sound in
Tripoli”.
Sarraj said he would make
“reconciliation and the settlement of security and economic
crises” his top priority.
UN special envoy Martin
Kobler joined a string of Western
officials in hailing Sarraj’s arrival,
urging a “peaceful and orderly
handover of power”.
The EU’s foreign affairs chief
Federica Mogherini said Sarraj’s arrival in the capital was “a
unique opportunity for Libyans
of all factions to reunite”.
She added that the 28-nation
European Union stood ready to
support Libya and had already
prepared an aid package worth
100mn euros ($110mn) for various projects.
Italy, which has offered to lead
a peacekeeping force in Libya if
asked to by the new government,
also welcomed the development.
“It is another step forward for
the stabilisation of Libya,” Foreign Minister Paolo Gentiloni
said.
Sarraj and his cabinet had previously been blocked from entering the capital by the authori-
ties there, who even closed the
airspace several times to prevent
them flying in.
Tripoli residents reacted on
social media to Farraj’s arrival
with a mixture of hope and sarcasm.
Twitter user @alladdinno said
Sarraj’s appearance in the capital
“felt like when the things you ordered online finally arrive”.
The unity government announced this month that it would
start working on the back of a petition signed by a narrow majority of Libya’s elected lawmakers.
The US and its European allies have threatened sanctions
against those who undermine the
political process.
Libya has descended into chaos
since the 2011 ouster of longtime
dictator Muammar Gaddafi, raising fears the Islamic State group
is establishing a new stronghold
just across the Mediterranean.
IS has seized control of Gaddafi’s coastal hometown of Sirte
and launched a wave of attacks,
both against rival Libyan forces
and across the border in Tunisia.
Western countries are considering military action against
the militants in Libya but want a
unity government to request help
first.
The US Special envoy for Libya
Jonathan Winer tweeted that the
country’s politicians “must now
begin crucial work to address full
range of #Libya’s challenges”.
Libya has long been a stepping
stone for migrants seeking to
cross the Mediterranean to Europe, which lies just 300km (185
miles) away, and in recent years
traffickers have exploited the
country’s instability.
Libyan prime minister-designate Fayez al-Sarraj (right) is greeted upon arrival in Tripoli, Libya yesterday.
Dozens feared missing after
migrant boat sinks off Libya
Reuters
Tripoli/Rome
D
ozens of migrants were
feared missing after their
boat sank off Libya yesterday, a spokesman for the
country’s naval forces said, amid
signs of a sharp increase in the
number of people attempting the
dangerous crossing from North
Africa to Europe.
Earlier Italian officials said their
coast guard and navy vessels had
rescued 1,361 migrants yesterday
from boats and rubber dinghies in
the southern Mediterranean.
The Libyan spokesman, Ayoub
Qassem, said naval guards had
intercepted one boat carrying
120 migrants off the coast near
Sabratha and had also managed
to rescue 32 from the boat which
sank. It was not known exactly
how many people were missing.
More than 16,000 people have
made the crossing from north
Africa to Italy in the first three
months of 2016, some 6,000
more than in the same period last
year.
The number of new arrivals
is expected to climb further in
coming months as warmer, more
stable weather kicks in, making it
easier for people traffickers to put
the boats to sea.
The Italian coast guard said
that after saving some 3,680
people over the past three days
a further 350 migrants, most
believed to be minors, had been
spotted on a boat off Sicily and an
operation was under way to bring
them ashore.
Italian officials have also
warned that a deal to limit the
number of migrants travelling via
Turkey to Greece could increase
the flows through Libya to Italy.
However, up until now, the
vast majority of migrants using
the Mediterranean route have
continued to come from subSaharan Africa, with no significant increase in the number of
Syrians, Afghans or Iraqis, who
have mostly been using the Greek
route.
Hundreds of thousands of
migrants have reached Italy in
recent years, looking for a better
life in the West.
Syria opposition rejects unity govt that includes Assad regime
Syria’s main opposition High
Negotiations Committee
yesterday flatly rejected a
demand from President Bashar
al-Assad for any transitional
government to include his
regime.
“International resolutions
speak of... the formation of
a transitional body with full
Land Day rally
powers, including presidential
powers,” HNC senior member
Asaad al-Zoabi said, adding
“Assad should not remain
for even one hour after the
formation” of this body.
“Bashar and his gang live outside
of reality, on another planet... all of
Assad’s recent declarations are an
attempt to evade the question” of
transitional body.
He did not specify which
opposition groups should be
included in the government
but his remarks come with
Damascus facing international
pressure to compromise at UNmediated talks aimed at ending
the five-year conflict that has
killed some 270,000 people.
Israeli army chief warns soldiers
after wounded Palestinian shot
AFP
Jerusalem
I
Israeli Arab demonstrators ride horses during a Land Day rally in the northern Israeli village of Arrabe yesterday. Land Day
commemorates the killing of six Arab citizens of Israel by security forces during protests in 1976 over government land confiscations.
the transition, Zoabi said.
Assad made the demand in
an interview with Russia’s RIA
Novosti state news agency
published yesterday.
The Syrian leader said it would
be “logical for there to be
independent forces, opposition
forces and forces loyal to the
government represented” in any
sraeli army chief of staff Gadi
Eisenkot sent a letter yesterday warning troops to use appropriate force, after a soldier was
caught on video shooting dead a
wounded Palestinian assailant.
The soldier - who last week
shot the Palestinian in the head
while he was lying prone on the
ground - has been arrested and
strongly condemned by top military officials.
But far-right politicians and
protesters have rallied to his
cause, criticised the military’s
response and demonstrated for
his release.
Following the soldier’s arrest,
posters were distributed calling
for Eisenkot’s resignation.
The chief of staff, seen by some
Israelis as a voice of moderation
amid a wave of violence that
erupted in October, said in the
letter that soldiers must always
behave professionally.
“In all situations, we must act
in a professional manner, using
force in a measured and considered way in order to remain faith-
ful to our values,” Eisenkot said.
“We will not hesitate to hold
accountable soldiers and officers
who do not respect operational
and moral criteria that guide us
in our actions.”
The 19-year-old soldier who
shot the Palestinian appeared in
a military court on Tuesday as
several hundred of his supporters
protested outside.
Prosecutors were seeking to
extend his remand in the case,
which has gripped the country
and sparked political tensions,
and the judge decided that he be
kept in custody until today.
The soldier’s identity has remained secret under a gag order,
granted at the request of his lawyers. He holds both Israeli and
French nationality.
Video of Thursday’s killing in
the flashpoint West Bank city of
Hebron spread widely online and
threatened to further inflame Israeli-Palestinian tensions.
It showed a 21-year-old Palestinian, who along with another
man had allegedly stabbed a soldier minutes earlier, lying on the
ground, apparently after being
shot.
The soldier then shoots him
again, in the head, without any
apparent provocation.
A poll released by Israel’s
Channel 2 television showed 57%
of Israeli Jews were opposed to
the soldier being prosecuted.
Rights activists have labelled
it a summary execution, while
Palestinian leaders have called
on the UN to investigate alleged
Israeli “extrajudicial killings”.
The activist who shot the video of the incident has said he and
his family have since received
threats.
The soldier’s arrest reportedly
sparked a heated debate at Sunday’s weekly Israeli government
cabinet meeting.
Education Minister Naftali
Bennett has defended the soldier,
saying he “is not a murderer”.
He and the soldier’s lawyers
have said he may have thought
the Palestinian had explosives,
though he had reportedly been
checked for a suicide belt prior to
the shooting.
Defence
Minister
Moshe
Yaalon has hit back, criticising
those conducting an “unprecedented incitement campaign
against the army, chief of staff,
and senior commanders.”
16
Gulf Times
AFRICA
Touadera
vows to
‘preserve
the peace’
AFP
Bangui
C
entral African Republic’s new
President
Faustin-Archange
Touadera yesterday pledged to
“preserve peace” as he was sworn in following polls aimed at restoring stability in
the wake of three years of turmoil.
The 58-year-old former maths teacher
was the surprise winner of February’s
presidential election - the first since the
outbreak of a wave of inter-communal
violence between Muslim and Christian
militias that has killed thousands of people since 2013.
“I pledge to wholly respect the constitution... and preserve peace,” he said,
promising to carry out his duties “without
any ethnic bias”.
He also pledged to “revamp the army
into an apolitical and secular force” and
launched an appeal for “national reconciliation”.
The swearing-in ceremony at the main
stadium in the capital Bangui was attended by regional leaders, including President Teodoro Obiang Nguema of Equatorial Guinea and Denis Sassou Nguesso
from the Republic of Congo as well as the
foreign and defence ministers of former
colonial ruler France.
It marks the last stage of the political
transition that began with the overthrow
in 2013 of Christian former president
Francois Bozize by the predominantly
Muslim “Seleka” rebel alliance.
The crowds at the ceremony included
29-year-old engineer Igor Ali who said
the day was a “great event which will allow us to finally bury the past.”
Nadege, a shopkeeper who lives with
her six children in a camp in Bangui for
displaced people, added: “I want Touadera to disarm the militia. We have suffered
too much.”
After Bozize’s ouster, the former rebels
ran amok, sacking villages in a wave of
bloodletting that sparked fierce retaliatory attacks on minority Muslims by
Christian-dominated militia.
In November, Pope Francis visited the
country, on his first trip to a war zone,
during which he made an impassioned
plea for peace and reconciliation.
Several weeks later, a constitutional referendum on limiting the president’s tenure
was approved by a large majority, clearing
the way for elections on December 30.
Touadera’s inauguration coincided
ICC to rule
next week
on Ruto case
with an announcement from France that
it would end its military intervention in
the mineral-rich but deeply poor nation
this year.
France launched Operation Sangaris in
December 2013, at the height of the violence that swept the country.
At the time Central African Republic
“was in the throes of civil war, torn by religious tensions, plagued by chaos, on the
brink of pre-genocidal scenarios,” French
Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian said
yesterday in Bangui.
“In the space of two years, the Sangaris
force restored calm and prevented the unacceptable,” he said, announcing that the
operation, which counted 2,500 troops at
its peak, would be wrapped up “during the
course of 2016”.
While admitting that the security situation was “not resolved” yet, Le Drian said
Central Africa was finally “emerging from
a long period of trouble and uncertainty”.
Touadera, who served as prime minister
between 2008-2013 under Bozize, faces
enormous challenges on both the security
and economy fronts.
The so-called “people’s candidate” is
hugely popular - partly due to a measure
he introduced as premier to pay government salaries directly into bank accounts,
ending decades of pay arrears and unpaid
wages.
But another former prime minister
warned Touadera would struggle to raise
revenues. “(The country) remains cut off
from its income due to the systematic
bleeding of revenue by armed groups that
have set themselves up as customs officers (and) tax officials,” said Enoch Derant
Lakoue, a presidential candidate.
Central African economist Achille
Nzotene added: “It’s a balancing act in
terms of security, and he must engage in a
titanic economic recovery effort.”
Like his predecessors, Touadera will be
largely dependent on the international
community to underwrite his government’s budget and security.
The French defence minister also
pointed to another huge task he faces:
putting in place an effective and non-partisan army.
“There has to be a legitimate army and
not one that is divided along ethnic lines
and networks,” he said.
The army, whose strength is estimated
between 7,000 and 8,000, is currently a
ragtag force of ill-paid soldiers who are
poorly trained and often lack basic equipment.
A stray male lion runs during a chase by a Kenya Wildlife Services ranger in the Isinya area of Kajiado county on the outskirts of Nairobi.
Stray lion shot dead in Kenya
K
enyan wildlife rangers yesterday shot dead a stray male lion
on the outskirts of Nairobi after it attacked and injured a local resident, the Kenya Wildlife Service said.
A mob had gathered around the
lion, forcing the rangers to shoot it to
avert further injuries, a spokesman
for the agency said.
“It had injured somebody. There
was a crowd that had formed around
it, so it was practically impossible to
capture it the way we planned to,”
Paul Udoto, communications manager for the wildlife service, told
Reuters by phone.
The lion was the third in recent
weeks to stray from Nairobi National
Park on the outskirts of the capital.
No injuries were reported in the first
case on February 19, but one man was
injured in the second, on March 18.
The wildlife service managed to
capture the stray lions in the first two
incidents and returned them to protected areas.
Safety fears
South African wildlife officials said yesterday they would re-assess a decision
to euthanise a lion named Sylvester
who has escaped twice from a national
park and killed livestock.
Trackers are searching for the
three-year-old animal after he slipped
through a fence at the Karoo National
Park in the south of the country at the
weekend. The South Africa National
Parks authority (SANParks) had announced it would put down the lion
when he was caught - triggering
outrage from some animal lovers.
But yesterday, it said euthanising
Sylvester would only be considered if
“the damage caused is massive and
may include danger to people.”
Images on social media showed
the lion in the latest incident walking in a grassy area next to the fence
of the national park around 9am.
They also showed residents gathering around the animal, some perched
on the back of light trucks.
“The mob had formed and in the
“Some members of the public have
been alarmed by reports that the animal will be euthanised, but no decision
can be taken until the animal is safely
captured,” it added.
The lion could instead be moved to
another national park or private game
reserve, or fencing could be improved
to keep him inside the Karoo park.
On his previous escape last year,
Sylvester killed 28 sheep, a cow and
a kudu antelope during three weeks
on the run in which he roamed for
hundreds of kilometres.
He was finally captured after being
shot by a tranquiliser dart fired from a
helicopter in a hunt that cost 800,000
rand ($54,000).
Sylvester, who was fitted with a
tracking collar after that breakout,
escaped again on Sunday under an
electric fence after heavy rains.
He has since killed one cow on a
private farm, according to reports.
“Though the team of rangers sent
out to search for the lion are experienced in tracking animals in the bush,
the situation on the ground continues
to pose a real danger of a possible
ambush by the animal,” the park
authorities said.
“The lion is currently roaming a remote mountainous area and it is hoped
that it will not encounter humans.”
Locals were warned to use extreme
caution and not to approach him.
process somebody got injured, and
by the time the veterinary and security teams got to the ground it was
already beyond salvation,” Udoto
said. “With that commotion we
risked more injuries or even possible
deaths.”
Nairobi National Park lies on the
city limits, providing visitors views
of lions, rhinos, giraffes, zebras and
other wildlife against a backdrop of
high-rise buildings.
Lions are occasionally spotted in
the city close to the park after they
find a way through fences that protect
the built-up areas near the reserve.
Kenya announces ivory amnesty
AFP
Nairobi
K
AFP
The Hague
W
ar crimes judges will
rule next Tuesday
whether to throw out
a case brought against Kenyan
Deputy President William Ruto
for his alleged role in postelection violence several years
ago which left more than 1,300
dead.
The judges at the International Criminal Court will hand
down their ruling on April 5 on
motions brought by Ruto and his
co-accused, radio boss Joshua
arap Sang, to either acquit them
or find there is no case to answer,
the court said in a statement
yesterday.
“This decision will be notified only in writing. No hearing
will be held,” the statement said,
adding it would be made public
before 5pm on the day.
Ruto, 49, and Sang, 40, have
both denied three charges
of crimes against humanity
namely murder, forcible deportation and persecution arising
out of Kenya’s disputed elections in late December 2007
and its violent aftermath in
early 2008.
Fugitive South African feline gets reprieve on death sentence
Reuters
Nairobi
Children walk down the street of Chibok in Borno State in northeast Nigeria.
enya yesterday launched
a three-week amnesty
to hand in ivory and
rhino horn ahead of the world’s
biggest burning of ivory next
month.
The mass burning, the vast
majority of its ivory and rhino
horn stockpile, will amount to
some 105 tonnes of ivory, seven times the size of any ivory
stockpile destroyed so far, as
well as 1.35 tonnes of rhino
horn.
“Anybody holding any ivory,
rhino horns or any other wildlife trophies or jewellery or
trinkets made from these materials should surrender them,”
environment minister Judi
Wakhungu told reporters, as
preparations for the giant burning ceremony were launched in
Nairobi national park.
“Those who take advantage
of this amnesty will not be
punished.”
The highly publicised display on April 30 will be led by
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta and attended by a gaggle
of celebrities, conservationists
and heads of state.
Kenyatta set fire in March
2015 to a giant pile of 15 tonnes
of elephant ivory, which conservationists said then was the
largest ever burned in Africa.
At the time, the pile of tusks
formed a dramatic 3m tall pyre,
which burned for several days until the ivory was reduced to ash.
“Although the destruction
of ivory and rhino horn will not
in itself put an end to the illegal
trade in these items, it demonstrates Kenya’s commitment to
seeking a total global ban in the
trade of ivory and rhino horn,”
Wakhungu added.
More than 30,000 elephants
are killed for their ivory every
year in Africa to satisfy demand in Asia where raw tusks
sell for around $1,100 a kilogramme.
“The poaching of elephants
and rhinos and illegal wildlife
trade is a major problem across
much of Africa, it threatens the
very survival of these iconic
species,” Wakhungu said.
“Poaching is facilitated by
international criminal syndicates and fuels corruption.”
UN decides against reducing DR Congo peacekeeping force
AFP
Kinshasa
T
he UN yesterday decided against
cutting back its peacekeeping
mission in the Democratic Republic of Congo as fears grow of political turmoil in the vast African country
ahead of elections.
The UN Security Council unani-
mously adopted a French-drafted
resolution extending for one year the
20,000-strong MONUSCO mission,
rejecting appeals from Kinshasa for a
drawdown of the force.
The DR Congo’s foreign minister
told the council last week that the force
should be halved and UN Secretary
General Ban Ki-moon had proposed
cutting 1,700 troops from the mission.
French ambassador Francois Delattre
said the council had refused to downsize
the mission because “the country still
faces very important challenges and it
is the responsibility of the international
community to support it at this time.”
The DRC is supposed to hold elections
in November, but the chances that they
will actually take place are growing dimmer, with President Joseph Kabila suspected of planning to extend his rule after
his mandate runs out at the end of the year.
Congolese Ambassador Ignace Gata
Mavita charged that the council showed
“a lack of flexibility” over its refusal to
downsize MONUSCO and warned the
decision could undermine the “climate
of work on the ground”.
The resolution stated that the council
would be ready to reconsider the troop level
for MONUSCO “once significant progress
has been achieved” in rooting out rebel
groups in the east and protecting civilians.
The French ambassador said the mission at its current force level would help
protect civilians and “support the holding of credible, peaceful and democratic
elections”.
After several disagreements with
Kinshasa over the campaign against
rebels in the east, the UN withdrew
support for military operations in February last year, but decided to restore
ties earlier this month.
Gulf Times
17
AMERICAS
Newark to revamp
stop-frisk practice
By Joseph Ax
Newark
A July 25, 2015, file photo of a man shouting slogans during the ‘Million People’s March Against Police Brutality, Racial
Injustice and Economic Inequality’ in Newark.
roughly 54% of Newark’s population.
It also said officers stole citizens’ property, failed to offer a legal justification
for three-quarters of pedestrian stops
and used excessive force far too often.
Fishman said that Peter Harvey, the
state’s former attorney general, would
oversee the Newark police department’s
compliance with the settlement.
The Newark agreement comes amid
national tensions over police encounters with minorities, which have
sparked frequent protests often led by
the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Justice Department has reached
similar settlements with other cities
in recent years, including Ferguson,
Missouri, which initially rejected a
deal to reform its police practices before capitulating in the face of a federal
lawsuit. The department is also probing the Chicago Police Department in
the wake of several high-profile police
shootings of minorities.
Yesterday’s settlement also comes
two years after a federal judge ruled
New York’s stop-and-frisk policing
amounted to illegal racial profiling and
Most Americans
support torture of
terror suspects: poll
Reuters
Washington
N
early
two-thirds
of
Americans believe torture can be justified to
extract information from suspected terrorists, according to
a Reuters/Ipsos poll, a level of
support similar to that seen in
countries like Nigeria where militant attacks are common.
The poll reflects a US public
on edge after the massacre of 14
people in San Bernardino in December and large-scale attacks in
Europe in recent months, including a bombing claimed by the
militant group Islamic State last
week that killed at least 32 people
in Belgium.
Donald Trump, the frontrunner for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination,
has forcefully injected the issue
of whether terrorism suspects
should be tortured into the election campaign.
Trump has said he would seek
to roll back President Barack
Obama’s ban on waterboarding
- an interrogation technique that
simulates drowning that human
rights groups contend is illegal
under the Geneva Conventions.
Trump has also vowed to
“bring back a hell of a lot worse”
if elected.
Trump’s stance has drawn
broad criticism from human
rights organisations, world bodies, and political rivals.
But the poll findings suggest that many Americans are
aligned with Trump on the issue,
although the survey did not ask
respondents to define what they
consider torture.
“The public right now is coping with a host of negative emotions,” said Elizabeth Zechmeister, a Vanderbilt University
professor who has studied the
link between terrorist threats and
public opinion.
“Fear, anger, general anxiety:
(Trump) gives a certain credibility to these feelings,” she said.
The March 22-28 online poll
asked respondents if torture can
Reuters
Washington
U
P
olice in Newark, New Jersey, will
revamp their practices in stopping and frisking suspects and
submit to a federal monitor under a
deal reached yesterday with the US
Justice Department settling allegations
of civil-rights violations.
The deal, which is subject to court
approval, follows a 2014 finding by the
Justice Department that police engaged in a pattern of unconstitutional
practices including unwarranted stops
that disproportionately targeted black
people, excessive use of force and
stealing from suspects in New Jersey’s
largest city, just 12km from New York
City.
“Far, far too many police reports
have failed to describe a constitutionally adequate reason for stops of people
on the street,” said Paul Fishman, the
top federal prosecutor in New Jersey, at
a press conference outlining the terms
of the settlement.
He noted that the police department’s policy on when to stop a suspect
was unclear and that officers had come
to regard a person’s presence in a highcrime area as suspicious behaviour in
the city of some 277,000 people, more
than half of whom are black.
“We also found that this practice had
a particularly acute impact on AfricanAmericans,” Fishman said in the former
manufacturing centre that has struggled to overcome its image of urban
blight and high crime. “Some of the
people who have been stopped and arrested were lawfully objecting to police
action or simply behaving in a way that
officers perceived as disrespectful.”
The probe found that 85% of pedestrian stops involved blacks, who are
Trump stands
by aide over
battery charge
ordered a federal monitor to oversee
changes.
Newark’s city council voted earlier
this month to create a permanent civilian complaint board to oversee the police department.
Rebuilding trust between police and
residents may take time, however. Marc
King, 68, a black resident, said nothing
short of a top-to-bottom “overhaul” of
the department would fix its problems.
“A complaint review board will fall
on deaf ears,” said King, as he sat on a
bench in downtown Newark yesterday.
S Republican presidential
candidate Donald Trump yesterday vowed to stand by his
campaign manager despite the aide’s
arrest over a misdemeanour battery
charge, drawing criticism from rivals.
Trump, in a round of television interviews, played down the incident involving a reporter and campaign manager Corey Lewandowski, 42, who was
arrested in Florida on Tuesday.
Trump also stood by comments
he made Tuesday night that he was
abandoning his pledge to support
whoever eventually wins the nomination to be the party’s presidential
candidate for the November 8 election.
Police in Jupiter, Florida, charged
Lewandowski with intentionally
grabbing and bruising the arm of
Michelle Fields, then a reporter for the
conservative news outlet Breitbart,
when she tried to question Trump at
a campaign event on March 8.
Trump and Lewandowski had both
initially denied the incident occurred.
Trump is front-runner to be the
Republican nominee after running an
insurgent campaign that has alarmed
many in the party establishment.
Opponents have criticised not just
his proposals on issues such as trade
and immigration but his streams of
insults toward rivals and the aggressive tone of his rallies.
Trump
yesterday
defended
Lewandowski and went further to
allege that the reporter had grabbed
Trump. He said he was considering
legal action in response.
“I’m sure there will be a counterclaim coming down the line,” he told
ABC News.
“She made up this story,” Trump
added on NBC. He told Fox News that
Lewandowski had likely grabbed the
reporter “unknowingly.”
Fields has stood by her account.
“Seriously, just stop lying,” she said in
response to a Twitter post by Trump
following the arrest.
Trump leads his opponents, US
Senator Ted Cruz and Ohio Governor John Kasich, in the race for 1,237
delegates needed to secure the nomination at this summer’s Republican
Party convention.
Cruz told CNN on Tuesday that “of
course” he would fire Lewandowski
over the battery charge. “It shouldn’t
be complicated that members of the
campaign staff should not be physically assaulting the press,” Cruz said.
If Trump does not win the delegates needed before July, the party
will need to turn to a complicated and
likely contentious process to formally
select a nominee at the convention.
Kasich also wavered on Tuesday on
his pledge to back the eventual Republican nominee.
“If the nominee is somebody that I
think is really hurting the country ... I
can’t stand behind them,” Kasich told
CNN.
Former candidate Marco Rubio has
asked party leaders in 21 states and
territories not to release the 172 delegates he won before he quit, media
outlets reported.
Rubio “wants to give voters a
chance to stop Trump,” his aide Alex
Burgos told NBC.
Four appointees of the party’s convention rules committee told Politico
yesterday they are willing to change a
2012 rule requiring candidates to win
a majority in at least eight states to be
eligible for the nomination.
Only Trump has met that threshold
so far.
Ash cloud
‘Plan to share raw data protects privacy’
American spy chiefs have told
Congressmen that a plan to
allow the National Security
Agency (NSA) to share more raw
eavesdropping reports with other
agencies will not be unlawful and
will protect the privacy rights of
US citizens.
In a letter sent on Monday to
two members of Congress and
reviewed by Reuters, Director
of National Intelligence James
Clapper said the NSA’s proposal to
give other spy agencies access to
“unevaluated signals intelligence”
will ensure data is used only for
intelligence activities directed at
foreigners.
Last week, US Representatives
Ted Lieu and Blake Farenthold of
the House Oversight Committee
be justified “against suspected
terrorists to obtain information
about terrorism.”
About 25% said it is “often”
justified while another 38% it
is “sometimes” justified. Only
15% said torture should never be
used.
Republicans were more accepting of torture to elicit information than Democrats: 82% of
Republicans said torture is “often” or “sometimes” justified,
compared with 53% of Democrats.
About two-thirds of respondents also said they expected a
terrorist attack on US soil within
the next six months.
Surveys by other polling agencies in recent years have shown
US support for the use of torture
at around 50%.
A 2014 survey by Amnesty
International, for example, put
American support for torture at
about 45%, compared with 64%
in Nigeria, 66% in Kenya and
74% in India.
Nigeria is battling a sevenyear-old insurgency that has
displaced 2mn people and killed
thousands, while al Shebaab
militants have launched a series
of deadly attacks in Kenya. India is fighting a years-old Maoist
asked the NSA to halt the sharing
plan, suggesting it would be “unconstitutional and dangerous.”
The specifics of the proposal are
still secret.
Lieu, a Democrat from California and Farenthold, a Republican
from Texas, wrote in a March 21
letter to NSA Director Michael
Rogers that the proposal would
violate Fourth Amendment
privacy protections because the
collected data would not require
a warrant before being searched
for domestic law enforcement
purposes.
Monday’s reply from the intelligence chief’s office said the plan
would not allow the use of communications data for domestic
law enforcement.
insurgency that has killed hundreds.
In November, terrorism replaced economy as the top concern for many Americans in
Reuters/Ipsos polling, shortly
after militants affiliated with the
Islamic State killed 130 people in
Paris.
At the same time, Trump
surged in popularity among Republicans, who viewed him as the
strongest candidate to deal with
terrorism. Besides his advocacy
of waterboarding, Trump said
that he would “bomb the hell out
of ISIS,” using an alternative acronym for Islamic State.
“You’re dealing with people
who don’t play by any rules. And
I can’t see why we would tie our
hands and take away options
like waterboarding,” said Jo Ann
Tieken, 71, a Trump supporter.
Tieken said her views had been
influenced by the injuries suffered by her two step-grandsons
while serving in the military four
years ago in Afghanistan.
The Reuters/Ipsos poll included 1,976 people. It has a credibility interval, a measure of accuracy, of 2.5 percentage points
for the entire group and about 4
percentage points for both Democrats and Republicans.
The Pavlof volcano spews ash in the Aleutian Islands of Alaska in this US Coast Guard handout photo.
Many ignorant of Zika facts
AFP
Washington
M
any Americans are unclear on key
facts about the mosquito-borne
Zika virus, which has been linked
to birth defects and is of particular concern
to pregnant women, US researchers said on
Tuesday, warning of a race against time.
The findings were contained in a nationally representative poll of 1,275 adults conducted by the Harvard University T H Chan
School of Public Health in early March. The
survey included 105 households in which a
woman was pregnant or was considering
becoming pregnant in the next year.
In those households, nearly one in four
(23%) were not aware of the association
between Zika and the birth defect, microcephaly, in which infants are born with
unusually small heads.
Thousands of children in Brazil have
been born with the condition, sparking
alarm about a virus that today remains
poorly understood by global scientists.
One in five of these households said they
believed a vaccine exists to prevent Zika,
even though one does not and experts say
such a vaccine will take years to develop.
More than four in 10 (42%) did not realize Zika virus can be sexually transmitted.
Furthermore, one quarter mistakenly
believed symptoms were likely to be apparent, when in fact most of those who are
infected show no signs of illness.
“We have a key window before the mosquito season gears up in communities
within the US mainland to correct misperceptions about Zika virus so that pregnant
women and their partners may take appropriate measures to protect their families,” said Gillian SteelFisher, director of
the poll and research scientist at Harvard.
Among the general public, misconceptions about Zika were also common, the
poll found.
Four in 10 said they thought Zika could
be a danger to future pregnancies, while
the US Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention says Zika is believed to be a
threat only to current pregnancies.
Canadian police break
tobacco smuggling ring
C
anadian police yesterday arrested
nearly 60 people suspected of links
to a tobacco smuggling ring accused
of defrauding the government of half a billion dollars, officials said.
Some 700 police taking part in early
morning raids nabbed suspects across
Quebec and Ontario provinces, including
in two aboriginal communities along the
Canada-US border.
They are accused of drug trafficking and
money laundering as well as cheating the
treasury of some $500mn in cigarette taxes.
The authorities allege the suspects,
ranging from 35 to 65 years of age, smuggled cheap tobacco from the US through
border crossings including Kahnawake
Mohawk and Iroquois ancestral territories.
The group’s reach extended to Europe
and South America, police said.
The investigation, which began in 2014,
constituted “the largest on tobacco smuggling in America to date, and also in crossborder crime between Canada and the US,”
Quebec provincial police Captain Frederick
Gaudreau said in a statement.
Police seized more than 52,800kg of tobacco and $3mn in cash during the raids.
18
Gulf Times
ASEAN
Court
dismisses
bid to
strike out
MH370 suit
Reuters
Kuala Lumpur
A
Myanmar’s new President Htin Kyaw (centre), first Vice President Myint Swe (left) and second Vice President Henry Van Thio attend their swearing-in at union parliament in Naypyidaw.
Suu Kyi aide sworn in
as Myanmar president
AFP
Naypyidaw
M
yanmar entered a new
era yesterday as Aung
San Suu Kyi’s democracy movement took power after
50 years of military domination,
with a close aide of the Nobel
laureate sworn in as president.
Htin Kyaw, a school friend
and confidant of the democracy champion, succeeds former
general Thein Sein, who ushered
in reforms that transformed
Myanmar from a repressive hermit state to a nation full of hope.
As Htin Kyaw took the oath
of office, he hinted he would
change the army-imposed constitution that has excluded his
friend and mentor from the top
post.
Suu Kyi, 70, is barred from
becoming president by the junta-scripted constitution but has
declared that she will steer the
government anyway. Htin Kyaw
is expected to act as her proxy.
The handover at the juntabuilt parliament in the capital
Naypyidaw marks the final act
of a prolonged transition since
Suu Kyi’s National League for
Democracy party swept elections last November.
Russian
killed by
croc while
snorkeling
DPA
Jakarta
A
Russian tourist was found
dead after he was apparently attacked by a saltwater crocodile while snorkeling
in Indonesia’s West Papua province, a rescue official said yesterday.
The body of Sergei Vasilyevich was found on Tuesday near
a blue water mangrove forest in
the Raja Ampat island chain, a
popular diving and snorkeling
spot, said Prasetyo Budiarto,
the head of the local search and
rescue agency. “We believe he
was eaten by a crocodile because we had to chase away a
crocodile before retrieving his
body,” Prasetyo said. “His left
hand was severed and his left
thigh had a gaping wound.”
Vasilyevich’s friends made a
missing person report on Saturday after he failed to return
to his homestay, he said.
Saltwater crocodiles can be
found in mangrove swamps and
estuaries.
Myanmar’s new president Htin Kyaw (left) and National League for
Democracy party leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrives to parliament in
Naypyidaw yesterday.
The NLD won 80% of parliamentary seats, giving them a
massive public mandate to rule.
They are tasked with reviving
a battered economy and a society straitjacketed by the army,
which ruled with an iron fist between 1962 and the start of reforms in 2011 under Thein Sein’s
quasi-civilian administration.
Welcoming a new age of
full civilian government, the
bespectacled new president
pledged to be “faithful to the
people of the republic of the union of Myanmar”.
“I will uphold and abide by
the constitution and its laws. I
will carry out my responsibilities uprightly and to the best of
Ousted party urges
Thais to reject
junta’s constitution
AFP
Bangkok
T
he political party toppled in Thailand’s 2014
coup urged voters yesterday to reject the military’s
proposed new constitution,
describing it as an undemocratic document that would
further entrench army rule.
A panel appointed by the
ruling military junta unveiled
its draft constitution on Tuesday, touting it as the solution
to the kingdom’s decade-long
political crisis.
But critics lambasted it
as divisive and a throwback
to the days when Thailand’s
legislature was weak and controlled by unelected people.
In a statement the Puea
Thai Party told supporters to
vote against the charter during a planned referendum on
August 7.
“(The party) will not accept a charter in which real
power does not belong to the
people,” Puea Thai said in the
statement, putting it on a collision course with the generals.
The junta has warned it will
not tolerate criticism of the
charter in the run-up to the
vote, making debate all but
impossible.
Two opposition politicians
were detained by the military
this week for voicing criticism
of the document and of the
junta.
The Puea Thai administration of then-Prime Minister
Yingluck Shinawatra was
dumped from office in a May
2014 coup that brought army
chief Prayut Chan-O-Cha to
power. He has clamped down
on dissent with an iron fist.
Parties loyal to Yingluck
and her billionaire brother
Thaksin, who was toppled as
premier in a 2006 coup, have
swept the last three elections.
But they are loathed by the
Bangkok elite who are determined to see them never return to power.
If the charter is ratified, it
will perpetuate the military’s
influence.
A junta-appointed senate would check the powers
of lawmakers for a five-year
transitional period following
fresh elections.
my ability,” the 69-year-old
told the chamber.
In a later ceremony at the
presidential palace, Thein Sein
symbolically handed over to his
successor as a smiling Suu Kyi
looked on.
But the army is far from leaving the political scene. The military holds a quarter of all parliamentary seats and three key
posts in the cabinet.
Suu Kyi, the standard-bearer of the fight for democracy,
joins that same cabinet holding
a clutch of positions including
foreign minister.
In a speech later in the day
Htin Kyaw signalled the NLD
would continue its long-stated
vow to amend the constitution
to bring it up to “democratic
standards” -- no small order
given that the military’s bloc in
parliament gives it an effective
veto on any such change.
He gave no details.
Expectations run high among
Myanmar’s 51mn people but the
new government faces a steep
task.
Revolts still rage in ethnic
minority borderlands, poverty
is widespread and the military
holds huge political and economic power.
Sectarian tensions and anti-
Muslim sentiment have flared in
recent years.
US President Barack Obama
hailed an “extraordinary moment” in Myanmar’s history.
“Htin Kyaw’s inauguration
represents a historic milestone
in the country’s transition to a
democratically elected, civilian-led government,” Obama
said in a statement.
But he warned of “significant
challenges going forward,” including on economic development and working to securing
personal freedoms for all.
The European Union welcomed Htin Kyaw’s swearing in
as a “new important step in the
consolidation of the country’s remarkable transition”.
But it added: “Many challenges remain for Myanmar to
become an inclusive, pluralistic
and peaceful democracy.”
NLD lawmakers also have little
practical experience of government. Some were jailed by the
junta, including most famously
Suu Kyi who was held under
house arrest for s total of 15 years.
But on a historic day the party
faithful were undaunted by the
challenges ahead.
“I’m really happy. I am also remembering my colleagues who
sacrificed for this battle (for de-
mocracy),” said NLD lawmaker
Aye Naing.
Among a smattering of NLD
supporters outside parliament,
Yin Myint May welcomed the
handover. “It is the biggest day
for us,” she said.
“Remember we started (the
democracy fight) in 1990,” she
added, referring to elections won
in a landslide by the NLD that
were ignored by the junta.
Myanmar has witnessed a
staggering political change since
2011 under Thein Sein.
Investors and tourists have
begun to pile in as much repression has eased, promising a better
future to a public who now have
access to mobile phones, cheaper
cars and other coveted consumer
goods. Hundreds of political prisoners have been released and media censorship lifted. Most Western sanctions have been rolled
back as a reward.
Suu Kyi’s administration must
still maintain smooth relations
with the military that locked her
and many of her colleagues up
for years. As well as their guaranteed parliamentary bloc, the junta
charter gives the army chief control over the home affairs, border
and defence ministries - and with
it sweeping powers over the civil
service.
Indonesia government pushes to
unshackle victims of mental illness
Vietnam
jails three
women
over flag
protest
AFP
Hanoi
V
Reuters
Serang, Indonesia
I
ndonesian rice farmer Usman has kept his 19-yearold son chained in the family’s tiny wooden hut for more
than a month, reluctant to release the mentally disturbed
boy for fear he might wander
off and steal neighbours’ livestock.
The teenager is one of nearly
20,000 Indonesian victims of
mental illness kept in shackles by
families and government institutions, an illegal practice President
Joko Widodo’s administration
aims to stamp out by the end of
2017. “He stole buffaloes and
clothes,” Usman told Reuters as
he sat beside his son Deden, in
the hut in the district of Serang,
on Indonesia’s island of Java.
“We are the ones who are embarrassed, so I chained him up in
case he disturbs the neighbours.”
Usman lets a doctor give his
son a medical check-up every
two weeks, but says he will not
free the boy until he is “more
stable”.
In a programme launched this
year, Indonesia sends teams of
workers into often-remote hamlets to help free patients kept in
chains and ensure they get the
Malaysian court yesterday dismissed a bid by
national flag carrier Malaysia Airlines Berhad (MAB) to
throw out a suit filed by relatives
of three passengers who went
missing on flight MH370, opening the way for other relatives to
sue the airline.
MH370 disappeared on a flight
from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing on
March 8, 2014, with 239 passengers and crew on board.
More than 50 suits have been
filed in the Malaysian courts over
the plane’s disappearance, while
others have been filed in the US,
Australia, and China.
The Kuala Lumpur High Court
ruling is likely to come as a relief
for relatives, many of whom had
feared they would not be able to
get compensation from Malaysia
Airlines Systems (MAS) after it
transferred all its assets and operations to MAB in a restructuring exercise last year.
MAB had argued that it had
no liability as it was set up eight
months after the aircraft disappeared.
But the court did not accept
that, instead ruling that MAB’s
liability would be determined in
a trial, government lawyer Alice
Loke Yee Ching told reporters.
“It was not plain and obvious
that MAB is not a proper party
(to the suit). That should only be
determined by the full trial,” she
said.
The suit ruled on yesterday
was filed by two teenagers whose
parents and older brother were
on the plane on the ill-fated
flight.
It will be the first case against
the airline to be heard in Malaysia, more than two years after the
plane went missing.
The court, however, dismissed
the teenagers’ bid to also hold
the Malaysian government and
two of its entities liable for the
plane’s disappearance.
The family’s lawyer, Sangeet
Kaur Deo, told reporters the
court had ruled that while the
government had a duty of care
to the plaintiffs, “there was no
breach of that duty”.
Deden, a teenager whose father says suffers from mental illness, lives
chained to a tree under a shelter next to a rice paddy near his family
home in Longkewang village in Serang, Banten province, Indonesia.
medical treatment they need.
“The social ministry and
agencies across Indonesia recognise that there are still a lot of
such cases, so we are determined
to end the shackling practice by
December 2017,” said Social Affairs Minister Khofifah Indar
Parawansa.
The world’s fourth most populous nation has outlawed such
shackling for decades but the
practice continues, particularly
in poor areas.
In the village of Jambu,
80km from the capital, Jakarta,
28-year-old Jumiya has spent
more than four years locked in a
dark wooden shed after showing
signs of a mental disorder following her return from a job in
Syria, her family said.
“People spend years locked up
in chains, wooden stocks, or goat
sheds because families don’t
know what else to do, and the
government doesn’t do a good
job of offering humane alternatives,” said Kriti Sharma, the
author of a report on the issue
published this month by Human
Rights Watch.
ietnam jailed three women yesterday on charges
of spreading anti-state
propaganda after they waved the
flag of the former US-backed
South Vietnam regime, state
media said.
A court in Ho Chi Minh City
found the women guilty of carrying out “propaganda against the
socialist Republic of Vietnam,” the
official Thanh Nien newspaper reported.
The trio had waved the flag of
the former regime - defeated in
1975 after a bitter decades-long
war with the communist north outside the US Consulate General
in the city. The court concluded
the trio’s activities were “serious,
violated national security... and
caused suspicion and distrust in
the people about the party and
state,” the newspaper reported.
The charges fall under article 88 of the communist country’s criminal code, which
rights groups say is one of many
vaguely worded provisions used
to pursue regime critics.
One of the women was handed
a four-year jail term, while the
others were sentenced to three
years each.
Communist Vietnam is routinely criticised for its intolerance of dissent and regularly
prosecutes regime critics.
Gulf Times
19
AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA
China rejects
worry over
web rules
Reuters
Beijing
C
hina’s technology regulator has rejected criticism
of proposed Internet
rules that could block access to
foreign websites, saying there
was misunderstanding about
what some people see as a way to
tighten control over cyberspace.
Experts have said the draft
regulations, like many laws in
China, could be interpreted
broadly and, in extreme cases,
could give authorities the power
to shut off access to all websites
that have not registered their
web addresses in the country.
The Ministry of Industry and
Information Technology said
in its proposed revisions to domain name management regulations Chinese websites must
use domestic domain registration services or risk being cut off
in China and facing fines up to
30,000 yuan ($4,600).
“Internet service providers
must not provide network access
services for domain names connected to the domestic network
but which are not managed by
domestic domain name registration service bodies,” the ministry
said in a draft of the rules posted
on its website last week.
The ministry told Reuters
yesterday there was “misunderstanding” about the regulations
which “did not fundamentally
conflict” with global practices.
The rules “do not involve
websites that are accessed overseas, do not affect users from ac-
China
jails ally
of former
security
chief
Reuters
Beijing
A
former deputy governor
of China’s southern province of Hainan has been
sentenced to 12 years in prison
for corruption, the official Xinhua news agency said yesterday.
Ji Wenlin was a one-time ally of
Zhou Yongkang, the country’s oncepowerful domestic security boss, who
was felled by President Xi Jinping’s
anti-corruption campaign.
Xi has warned that rampant
corruption threatens the survival of the ruling Communist
Party and has waged a campaign
against graft in the past three
years that has swept up scores of
senior officials in the party, the
government, the military and
state-owned companies.
Investigators began looking into
Ji’s activities as early as 2014, Xinhua said, adding that he used his
position to seek benefits, including
investments for several companies,
illegally obtaining 20.4mn yuan
($3.2mn) in assets and bribes.
Ji’s official biography says he
worked under Zhou when the
latter was the party boss of the
southwestern Sichuan province
and the public security minister,
among other posts. Zhou was
jailed for life last June. Several key
Zhou allies have been ensnared in
the anti-graft campaign, including Jiang Jiemin, the former top
regulator of state-owned assets.
In another report, Xinhua said
the trial of a former senior official
who had vigorously backed Xi’s
anti-graft campaign had begun.
Wang Min, the one-time
Communist Party boss of Jinan
city, about 300 km (185 miles)
south of the capital, Beijing, is
suspected of procuring property
and other favours for companies,
and of taking bribes.
cessing the related Internet content and do not affect the normal
development of business for
overseas companies in China,” it
said in an e-mail.
Authorities often issue preliminary laws and regulations for
comment though it is not clear if
regulators will incorporate public feedback in final drafting. The
ministry said it would “earnestly
study” feedback.
Some of China’s biggest websites including Alibaba Group
Holding’s Taobao and Tmall,
Baidu Inc’s search engine,
JD.com Inc’s shopping site and
the Sohu.com Inc news portal
are registered overseas, according to the www.whois.net site,
which provides information on
the registration of websites.
“We are closely examining the
draft regulation and will provide appropriate input,” a Baidu
spokesman told Reuters.
A JD.com spokesman said the
company was studying the draft
but believed the rules would not
have an impact on its business.
Alibaba and Sohu declined to
comment.
China has long operated the
world’s most sophisticated online censorship mechanism,
known as the Great Firewall. The
websites for Google’s services,
Facebook and Twitter are all inaccessible in China.
Under President Xi Jinping,
the government has implemented an unprecedented increase in
Internet control, and sought to
codify the policy within the law.
China’s top Internet regulator,
Lu Wei, has said the government
is not being too restrictive. Officials say controls help maintain
social stability and national security in the face of threats such
as terrorism.
They have also suggested controls provide a good framework
to nurture domestic Internet
firms.
But experts say the rules
would enhance China’s ability
to censor, and allow it to target
sites that are hosted on Chinese
servers but have registered their
domain names overseas, where
they cannot be completely shut
down by Beijing.
“The draft rules aim to ensure
that content hosted on Chinese
servers is accessed through a
domain name managed by a
Chinese registration service
provider,” said Rogier Creemers, a lecturer in China’s politics
and history at the University of
Oxford. “This points to an increased level of control.”
Foreign business groups have
criticised Internet restrictions
as limiting opportunities for
overseas firms and stifling innovation.
James Zimmerman, chairman of the American Chamber
of Commerce in China, said the
proposals were vague, ambiguous, subject to broad interpretation and would slow commerce
and isolate China technologically.
“At a minimum, the regulations would create additional
challenges for both foreign and
domestic companies,” he said in
an email.
British ‘invaded’ Australia,
say university guidelines
AFP
Sydney
L
anguage guidelines that
advise students to describe British explorer
James Cook’s arrival in Sydney
as an “invasion” rather than a
“settlement” were defended by
an Australian university yesterday, denying it was rewriting
history to be politically correct.
The University of New South
Wales (UNSW) Indigenous Terminology guide says that Australia was “invaded, occupied
and colonised”.
“Describing the arrival of the
Europeans as a ‘settlement’ attempts to view Australian his-
tory from the shores of England rather than the shores of
Australia,” the guide says.
But the university rejected
the idea that it was dictating
what language could be used by
students.
“The guide does not mandate
what language can be used,” it said
in a statement, adding that it offered a range of examples of more
and less appropriate language.
“For example the guide suggests referring to Captain Cook
as the first Englishman to map
the continent’s East Coast is
‘more appropriate’ than referring to his “discovery” of
Australia.”
The guide notes that Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
people were in Australia long
before Captain Cook arrived,
making it impossible for him to
“discover” the country.
“Most Aboriginal people find
the use of the word ‘discovery’
offensive,” it added.
The guide likewise says it is
more appropriate to describe
the arrival of British ships in
Australia using terms other
than “settlement”.
The university said students
were always encouraged to form
their own opinions and to suggest that the guide would stifle open debate was “plainly
wrong”.
“Terminology guides such as
this are commonplace across
universities and many public
HK to limit
inoculations for
children
Abe leaves for US
Japan’s Prime Minister Shinzo Abe waves as he departs from Tokyo’s Haneda Airport
yesterday. Abe set off on a five-day trip to the US to attend the Nuclear Security Summit in
Washington.
US will not recognise S China Sea exclusion zone
Reuters
Washington
T
he United States has told
China it will not recognise an exclusion zone in
the South China Sea and would
view such a move as “destabilising,” US Deputy Secretary
of Defence Robert Work said
yesterday.
US officials have expressed
concern that an international court ruling expected
in the coming weeks on a case
brought by the Philippines
against China over its South
China Sea claims could prompt
Beijing to declare an air defense
identification zone, or ADIZ, in
the region, as it did in the East
China Sea in 2013.
Work told an event hosted by
the Washington Post that the
United States would not recognize such an exclusion zone
in the South China Sea, just
as it did not recognise the one
China established in the East
China Sea.
China claims most of the
South China Sea, through
which more than $5 trillion in
global trade passes every year.
“We don’t believe they have
a basis in international law, and
we’ve said over and over (that)
we will fly, sail and go wherever
international law allows,” Work
said.
“We have spoken quite
plainly to our Chinese counterparts and said that we think
an ADIZ would be destabilising. We would prefer that all of
the claims in the South China
Sea be handled through media-
Men charged over
bongo chilli assault
Flavour of the season
A woman pushing a wheelbarrow full of strawberries along a street in Beijing yesterday.
Approval for Fukushima’s ice wall
IANS
Tokyo
J
apan’s Nuclear Regulation
Authority (NRA) yesterday
approved the use of an underground “wall of ice” at the destroyed Fukushima nuclear plant to
help contain spills of contaminated
water into the Pacific Ocean.
After several delays, the
plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric
Power Company (Tepco), today
will be able to begin the process
of freezing the ground around
the buildings that housed the
four reactors that were most affected by the earthquake and
tsunami of March 11, 2011. “This
operation is a challenge, and it
is necessary to carry it out with
tion and not force or coercion,”
he said.
Work spoke as Chinese President Xi Jinping prepared to
visit Washington for a nuclear
security summit this week.
The United States has accused China of raising tensions
in the South China Sea by its
apparent deployment of surface-to-air missiles on a disputed island, a move China has
neither confirmed nor denied.
China, for its part, has repeatedly accused the United
States of militarizing the South
extreme care, and with all necessary details (for follow-up),” said
NRA president Shunichi Tanaka
at the end of a meeting yesterday.
NRA had wanted to analyse this
project, originally raised in 2013,
to certify that Tepco, which has
a long history of negligence, can
properly manage the system without causing additional leaks of radioactive water in the facilities.
Two men who allegedly forced
a teenager to eat red-hot bongo
chillies have been charged with
assault in New Zealand.
Police did not detail the alleged
crimes but the victim, an 18-yearold who cannot be named for
legal reasons, recounted his
ordeal to Fairfax New Zealand
earlier this month.
He claimed a group of men assaulted
him in a basement after an argument
over a prank telephone call,
punching him and forcing him to eat
bongo chilli peppers.
The chillies, cultivated in Fiji,
reportedly measure 100,000350,000 Scoville heat units,
compared to 3,500-8,000 for a
jalapeño.
The youth said he ate one but
could not finish a second and was
punished with a punch in the head.
“My insides were hurting,
sweating, and I couldn’t see
anything or even talk properly,”
he said.
“Everyone was just laughing and
watching.”
He said a man then pulled
down his pants and grabbed
his genitals. Police launched an
investigation after he told his
mother about the alleged sexual
assault the next day.
Two men, aged 24 and 29, were due
to appear in Hamilton District Court
in the North Island, acting detective
Sergeant Paul Van der Zee said.
“The offenders have been
charged with injuring with intent
to injure, common assault and
indecent assault,” he said in
statement.
sector organisations and it is
absolutely appropriate for students and staff to have such a
resource available,” it added.
The guidelines were blasted
by The Daily Telegraph tabloid
as a “whitewash”, a reaction
that indigenous historian Jackie
Huggins said was disappointing.
“We know this country has
a colonial history and that certainly has been characterised
by a devastating land dispossession, violence and unapologetic racism as well,” she told
the Australian Broadcasting
Corporation.
“We cannot deny our history. It’s a history that’s never
fully been taught to us in our
country.”
China Sea through its freedom
of navigation patrols in the region and the expansion of military alliances with countries
such as the Philippines.
In February, Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said
his country’s South China Sea
military deployments were no
different from US deployments
on Hawaii.
Tensions between China and
its neighbours over sovereignty
in the South China Sea have risen
after Beijing embarked on reclamations on disputed islands.
Hong Kong is to limit the number
of non-resident children getting
vaccinations at government
clinics, after an illegal vaccine
scandal in mainland China raised
fears some families would come
to the city for inoculations and
put pressure on supplies.
From tomorrow, Hong Kong’s
Maternal and Child Health
Centres will only accept 120 new
non-resident children a month.
Non-resident children will only
be able to book an appointment
when there is spare capacity and
will have to pay a higher fee.
“The government’s policy is to
accord priority to local children,”
Hong Kong’s Assistant Director
of Health for Family and Elderly
Health Services, Teresa Li, said in
a statement.
“We will closely monitor the
utilisation of services by (nonresident children) and may adjust
the quota or withhold new case
bookings.”
Mainland Chinese authorities
said this month a mother and
daughter had illegally traded
nearly $90mn worth of vaccines
and sold them on to hundreds
of re-sellers around the country,
prompting an outcry from
parents and political leaders.
The vaccines, which police
said were made by licensed
producers, were not kept
refrigerated, meaning they could
be ineffective.
Hong Kong would order
additional vaccine supplies if
needed, another spokeswoman
there said.
The Macau government said
in a statement on Tuesday that
only Macau residents were
entitled to free vaccinations and
government-procured routine
vaccinations would not be given
to visitors.
Hong Kong, a free-wheeling
financial hub and former British
colony, returned to Chinese
rule in 1997 with wide-ranging
autonomy.
China warns Taiwan
over proposed new law
Reuters
Beijing
T
he Chinese government
warned Taiwan yesterday that the passage of
a proposed new law governing relations between the two
could seriously damage the
basis for talks, and that Beijing opposed any obstacles to
developing ties.
China has looked on with
suspicion at Taiwan since
Tsai Ing-wen and her proindependence
Democratic
Progressive Party (DPP) won
presidential and parliamentary elections in January on the
back of a wave of anti-China
sentiment.
In 2014, hundreds of students occupied Taiwan’s parliament for weeks in protests
nicknamed the Sunflower
Movement, demanding more
transparency and fearful of
China’s growing economic
and political influence on the
democratic island.
The protests over the 2013
Cross-Strait Service Trade
Agreement, which aimed to
open up investment from
both sides in industries such
as banking, healthcare, and
tourism, were the largest dis-
play of anti-China sentiment
in Taiwan in years.
The DPP is proposing Taiwan’s parliament first passes a
so-called cross-Taiwan Strait
supervision law before it will
consider agreeing to the trade
pact.
China is worried that the
law would stymie future
agreements with Taiwan.
Asked about the law, a
spokesman for China’s Taiwan
Affairs Office said the basis for
talks between the two sides
should not be damaged.
“Anything that damages the
basis for consultations and
negotiations between the two
sides of the strait, interferes in
or impedes relevant progress
or puts up man-made blocks
on the development of ties,
we will resolutely oppose,”
spokesman An Fengshan said
at a regular briefing.
He did not elaborate.
The trade deal has stalled in
Taiwan’s parliament, although
the manner in which the selfruled island moves forward in
the current February-to-May
session will be seen as a sign
of how Tsai will steer TaiwanChina ties.
China’s trade minister last
month urged Taiwan to pass
the trade pact.
Gulf Times
20
BRITAIN
EU court
clears UK
in Menezes
shooting
Reuters
Strasbourg, France
E
Zac Goldsmith
Mayor rivals clash on
fares and ‘TfL waste’
Both candidates are digging dirt on
each other
Evening Standard
London
Z
ac Goldsmith and Sadiq Khan
clashed over fares yesterday as the
Tory candidate for mayor said a
freeze would endanger plans for 270,000
new homes, while his Labour rival accused
transport chiefs of presiding over “waste,
excess and inefficiency”.
The showdown came over the crucial
battleground of an alleged “black hole” in
Khan’s transport plans, arising from his
promise to hold down Tube and bus fares
for four years.
It began with Goldsmith launching his
transport manifesto in Ilford this morning, with a claim that a fares freeze would
divert £1.9bn from investment and could
cause the cancellation of vital new rail
lines linked to growth and homes, including the Barking Riverside development.
Minutes later, Khan used a speech in
Brixton to hit back with a stinging assault
on “bloated” Transport for London, accusing it of a “culture of excess” and implying there was plenty of room to cover
the lower figure of £450mn that he claims
a freeze would cost.
The skirmish treated Londoners to the
sight of the mayoral frontrunners engaging in political cross-dressing, with the
Conservative candidate arguing for higher
investment and Labour’s one demanding
efficiency savings.
Goldsmith stepped up his attack by
estimating that 270,000 extra homes
and 250,000 new jobs were reliant
on transport schemes funded by the
Sadiq Khan
Transport for London budget.
He scorned Khan’s claim that he could
find risk-free savings, saying: “His union
paymasters will never allow him to make
tough decisions.”
He also mocked Khan for using “David
Brent corporate speak about ‘sweating the
assets’”.
Khan replied with a list of targets for a
“crackdown on waste and inefficiency” at
TfL and said there would be an external
root and branch review of its structures
and functions and a “forensic review”
of its business plan to weed out “vanity
projects”.
“I’ll be the bus driver’s son who makes
commuting more affordable,” he said.
He criticised TfL for paying 450 staff
more than £100,000 a year and spending
£383mn a year on consultants and agency
workers, saying: “It’s simply not acceptable.”
Khan’s controversial pledge of a fares
freeze has seen him at odds with TfL officials.
In January, transport commissioner
Mike Brown confirmed that it would cost
£1.9bn, allowing the Tories to allege a financial black hole in Labour’s plans. Earlier this month, however, he conceded it
was “legitimate” for Labour to use a different calculation.
An attack on Zac Goldsmith for failing to declare donations in the Commons
backfired when Sadiq Khan was accused of
having a worse record.
Goldsmith admitted he may have broken Westminster rules by registering
£120,000 worth of campaign gifts after
the deadline.
However, Khan then found £310,000
worth of donations to him or his local
party under scrutiny, including £149,000
from trade unions.
The furore began when Labour MP Neil
Coyle made a formal complaint after spotting that Goldsmith had reported a batch
of old donations, adding up to £120,000
over several years, on the Register of Member’s Interests last June.
They included two gifts dating to 2010:
£5,500 from his mother and £1,800 from
his half-brother.
£310,000 worth of donations to Sadiq
Khan is under scrutiny.
Both had been declared on the Electoral
Commission’s register of donations, but
not on the separate Register of Member’s
Interests at Westminster.
Standards commissioner Kathryn Hudson has now launched an inquiry into
whether Goldsmith broke rules by failing
to declare the gifts within 28 days.
Coyle welcomed the probe, saying:
“There shouldn’t be one rule for the
former non-dom and another for everyone
else.” But his words rebounded when the
Tories unearthed records of donations to
Khan that appeared to be either registered
late or not at all.
Tory MP Paul Scully, in a letter to Ms
Hudson, said: “There appear to be serious
omissions and irregularities.” He highlighted a £60,000 gift from Unite.
Khan’s spokesman said 20 gifts were
donated after the deadline, mostly by a
few days, but denied union donations to
his Tooting constituency party had to be
listed under the rules.
He added: “This is desperate stuff from
the Tories, who are trying to distract attention from the fact that Zac Goldsmith
is once again facing an official probe into
his campaigns.”
urope’s top human rights
court ruled yesterday
that British prosecutors
were right not to charge police
officers involved in the shooting 11 years ago of a Brazilian
electrician they thought was a
suicide bomber.
Jean Charles de Menezes was
shot seven times in the head
by specialist firearms officers
as he boarded an underground
train at Stockwell station in
south London on July 22, 2005.
He was killed the day after four Islamist militants had
unsuccessfully tried to bomb
the British capital’s transport
network, and police wrongly
thought he was Hussein Osman, one of the attackers on
the run.
British security services
were on a high state of alert
anyway as two weeks earlier
four young British Muslims
had killed 52 people and themselves in bombings on three
underground trains and a bus
in the most deadly peacetime
attack in Britain.
Despite repeated demands
from de Menezes’s family that
the officers involved or their
superiors should be charged,
prosecutors said there was not
enough evidence to take action
against any individuals.
“The decision not to prosecute any individual officer
was not due to any failings in
the investigation or the State’s
tolerance of or collusion in unlawful acts,” the court said in
its ruling.
“Rather, it was due to the
fact that, following a thorough
A
British passenger who posed for a photo
with the EgyptAir hijacker during a sixhour standoff has hailed “the best selfie
ever”.
Health and safety expert Ben Innes, 26, posed
grinning for a snap with Seif Eldin Mustafa as he
was held hostage on a plane in Cyprus.
He was one of four Britons on the jet when it
was forced to divert to Cyprus by a man wearing
a fake suicide belt.
The plane was carrying at least 55 passengers,
including 26 foreigners, on a domestic flight
from Alexandria to Cairo.
After posing for the photo, Innes was later seen
running across tarmac at Larnaca airport as Mustafa
disembarked the plane and surrendered to police.
Speaking to The Sun, Innes said of the photograph: “I’m not sure why I did it, I just threw
caution to the wind while trying to stay cheerful
in the face of adversity.
“I figured if his bomb was real I’d nothing lose
anyway, so took a chance to get a closer look at it.
“I got one of the cabin crew to translate for me
and asked him if I could do a selfie with him.
“He just shrugged OK so I stood by him and
smiled for the camera while a stewardess did the
snap. It has to be the best selfie ever.”
He is said to have approached Mustafa while
being held hostage on the tarmac, and sent the
photograph to one of his flatmates as well as
other friends.
A foreign office spokeswoman said officials
were providing consular support to four British
nationals who were on board.
The alleged hijacker was arrested minutes after some of those being held were seen walking
down the stairs of the plane, with another escaping through a cockpit window before they were
led away by security officers.
EgyptAir said Cypriot authorities at the airport had confirmed “the explosive belt that the
hijacker allegedly said that he was wearing is
fake”.
Officials said early on the hijacking was not an
act of terrorism, and later that the man appeared
to be psychologically unstable.
The man was said to have initially asked to
speak with his Cypriot ex-wife, who police
brought to the airport.
At one point he demanded the release of women held in Egyptian prisons, but he then dropped
the demand and made others.
An official at Egypt’s ministry of foreign affairs said: “He’s not a terrorist, he’s an idiot.
Terrorists are crazy but they aren’t stupid. This
guy is.”
investigation, a prosecutor
had considered all the facts of
the case and concluded that
there was insufficient evidence
against any individual officer
to prosecute.”
In 2007, the Metropolitan Police as an organisation
was found guilty of breaching health and safety laws and
fined £175,000 ($270,130), after the court heard it had made
“shocking and catastrophic”
blunders.
Lawyers for the British government told the European
Court of Human Rights last
June that the death could have
been prevented and was the result of serious operational failures by police, but said the killing did not amount to murder.
The family argued that
prosecutors were wrong not
to charge any individuals, and
that the health and safety offence was an inadequate punishment.
“For 10 years our family has been campaigning for
justice for Jean because we
believe that police officers
should have been held to account for his killing,” Patricia
Armani Da Silva, de Menezes’s cousin, said in a statement last June.
“Jean’s death is a pain that
never goes away for us.”
‘IS’ flag spotted
in Hackney
Evening Standard
London
A
black flag bearing the
letters ‘IS’ which was
spotted in Hackney IS
to be ‘updated’ after a social
media backlash, the marketing team behind it said yesterday.
A banner outside Tesco in
Morning Lane was widely
criticised as resembling propaganda for terror group Islamic State after a picture of it was
posted on social media.
It has now emerged that the
flag was put up to advertise
the Hackney Walk development – a new fashion hub
built in recommissioned railway arches, which is due to
open next month.
The black “IS” banner with
white lettering is part of a
sequence that spells out the
Brit who took grinning snap
with hijacker speaks out
Evening Standard
London
Jean Charles de Menezes
parents in the village of
Gonzaga, Minas Gerais, Brazil.
Ben Innes, right, with Seif Eldin Mustafa.
words “HACKNEY IS FASHION”, according to the Hackney Walk development’s strategy director Andrew Sissons.
Following the backlash, he
told the Standard the flags
were installed over a year ago
and are soon to be updated.
In a statement, Sissons
said: “There is a sequence of
18 banners running along the
lamp posts on Morning Lane
which were installed over a
year ago and are due to be updated shortly.
“They are designed to promote Hackney as a fashion
district. The banner in question is one of a series of three
which clearly reads ‘Hackney
Is Fashion’.
“Unfortunately, one person
has photographed one of the
banners in isolation.”
The flag had sparked criticism after pictures were posted online.
Gulf Times
21
BRITAIN
Sex attacks
like those
in Cologne
‘likely’
Evening Standard
London
N
British opposition Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn arrives at the Tata sports and social club to meet with union representatives and Tata steel workers.
Corbyn is accused of
‘supporting’ terrorists
Corbyn’s past actions are under
scrutiny
Evening Standard
London
A
n Ex-Labour home secretary yesterday launched a devastating attack on Jeremy Corbyn and his top
shadow cabinet lieutenants, accusing
them of giving “tacit support” to Al Qaeda.
Charles Clarke said the failure of the
Labour leader and his key frontbench supporters to back officially listing Al Qaeda
as a terror group just six months before
9/11 had given effective backing to the extremists.
Another former Labour home secretary
Jack Straw said proscribing Al Qaeda had
been critical to stopping Osama bin Laden
killing more innocent people.
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell
and shadow development secretary Diane
Abbott were also among those who failed
to back proscribing Al Qaeda, despite the
group having already slaughtered scores of
people in other attacks.
Clarke told the Standard: “It must have
given comfort to the proscribed organisations that people like Jeremy Corbyn, Diane Abbott and John McDonnell were giving them tacit support.”
He went on: “Proscription was and is a
very important weapon against those organisations which are trying to attack us
and our society.
“We never took any decision to pro-
Former home secretary Charles Clarke
scribe lightly, but only on the basis of a
very considered assessment.”
Straw added: “The power to proscribe
terrorist organisations was and is extremely important.
“Without it terrorist organisations
could get funds and canvass support with
impunity.”
It was six months before Al Qaeda flew
jets into New York’s World Trade Centre
buildings, killing almost 3,000 people,
that Straw and Clarke asked parliament to
proscribe it along with 20 other groups.
It meant it would become a criminal offence carrying a possible ten year prison
sentence to be a member of Al Qaeda or
raise money, promote or arrange its meetings.
Of the 413 MPs who voted on the statutory instrument listing Al Qaeda, just 17
opposed the move.
They included Islington North MP Corbyn and his two main future shadow cabinet backers, the Hayes and Harlington MP
McDonnell and Hackney North and Stoke
Newington MP Abbott.
The leader would not comment today
but at the time Corbyn said in a Commons
debate that proscription of Al Qaeda and
other groups was “causing a great deal of
disquiet in the Islamic, Turkish and Tamil
communities.”
He said some of the 21 organisations
were engaged in ceasefires in their own
countries and “the search for long-lasting
peace”.
A spokesperson for McDonnell said
today that he voted against the measure
because it meant another group, the Sikh
Youth Federation, was proscribed.
He added: “John had many members of
the Sikh community in his constituency
who were members of the group and were
rightly shocked to be on such a list.
“There was no way the list could be
amended. It was a take it or leave it vote.
“And if anything John has subsequently
been proved to be right in the end by the
fact that this government’s recent review
has lifted this unjust ban on the [Sikh]
group.”
In 2001, Labour minister Lord Bassam
said the Sikh group was involved in “assassinations, bombings and kidnappings”.
When his Tory successor Lord Bates lifted
the ban on the group this year, he said it
was clear it was “concerned in terrorism”
at the time of proscription.
The Standard contacted Abbott about
the vote but she had made no response to
the story this morning.
In a 2001 debate before she said: “While
no one denies the atrocities perpetrated by
some groups on the list, what we are at-
tempting to scrutinise tonight is the process, the thinking and the procedure behind
this type of proscription.
“The history of Britain’s withdrawal
from empire is littered with groups that
were described as terrorists, but survived
to take tea with the Queen.”
As well as Al Qaeda, the 2001 vote also
proscribed Hezbollah and Hamas, whose
members Corbyn has since referred to as
“friends”.
The Labour leader also caused controversy when he described the death of Bin
Laden as “yet another tragedy”.
The three Labour figures voted against
the proscription of Al Qaeda despite it
having already been responsible for killing
two people in a 1992 Yemeni hotel bombing, six in the 1993 World Trade Centre
bombing and more than 200 people in US
embassy bombings in 1998.
A year before the Commons vote on
proscription, Al Qaeda also killed 17 US
sailors when it bombed the USS Cole as it
was docked in Yemen.
Tory MP Andrew Bridgen said it showed
that “Labour are a serious risk to our national security”.
In a 2001 debate before the vote Abbot
said: “While no one denies the atrocities
perpetrated by some groups on the list,
what we are attempting to scrutinise tonight is the process, the thinking and the
procedure behind this type of proscription.
“The history of Britain’s withdrawal
from empire is littered with groups that
were described as terrorists, but survived
to take tea with the Queen.”
Man stabbed ‘over £120 debt’
Evening Standard
London
A
man was stabbed to death by a mob
in front of his screaming girlfriend
on a leafy suburban street.
The victim was surounded by the group
of men and knifed on a tree-lined avenue
in North Finchley where houses sell for
£1mn.
The man, named by friends as Ali Nasro,
was cradled by his girlfriend who cried “I
love you” as he lay dying in the middle of
the road.
Witnesses who tried to revive him yesterday told how he was involved in a row
with a man over £120 just minutes before
a car with three more people pulled up and
ambushed him.
He was beaten up before being slashed
across the chest in front of his girlfriend
who was sitting waiting for him in their car
parked just yards from the scene on Woodside Grange Road.
The 22-year-old victim, believed to be
from Hatch End, north west London, was
seen staggering from the entrance of an
alleyway off the street before collapsing in
the car park.
The killing, yesterday afternoon at
about 2.40pm, was opposite a children’s
nursery.
One witness said: “You could hear
shouting. They were saying ‘you were
supposed to give me my £120, ‘why didn’t
you bring my £120?’
“Then three men turned up in a car and
they all got into an argument. One of them
then slashed him across the chest.
“I ran out with tea towels and tried to
save him by putting pressure on his chest
wound. By this time his girlfriend had got
out of the car when she saw him staggering
away, and was just screaming and screaming ‘they have stabbed him’, and while he
was on the floor she was screaming ‘Ali I
love you, I love you Ali’.
“She was praying there on the floor next
to him while he was in and out of consciousness. It was terrible. I couldn’t sleep
last night, all I can see is his face.”
The witness added: “He was having the
argument with one other person at first
then a car pulled with three people in and
they got angry. He tried to defend himself
but they beat him up and then slashed him
across the chest.”
A friend said: “I can’t believe it, I grew
up with him. His girlfriend was there, it’s
so bad. He was such a nice guy, he was
never armed himself.”
The victim had turned up in an Audi car.
A friend who was also with them phoned
for help as the incident unfolded.
Another resident said: “One woman
tried to revive him and then all of a sudden there were several paramedics all
around him trying to revive him as he lay
on the floor. He wasn’t moving and they
had removed his top so they could work
on him.”
A friend of the victim took to Twitter this morning to express her shock and
sadness at his death.
She wrote: “RIP Ali Nasro. Gone but not
forgotten.
“22 years, young man. This is an unfair
world.”
Paramedics battled to save him before
rushing him to a central London hospital
where he was pronounced dead soon after
arrival.
A devastated family member visited the
scene last night, paying silent tribute for a
few minutes before leaving in tears.
The Met Police said detectives from the
Homicide and Major Crime Command are
investigating. No arrests have been made.
A 15-year-old boy has been arrested on
suspicion of murder after a man was found
stabbed to death.
Hassan Abdi Mohamed, 48, from Harlow, Essex, was found collapsed on a path
in the town on March 5.
He had been stabbed and later died of
his injuries.
Essex Police said the 15-year-old, from
north London, was arrested in Holloway
on Tuesday on suspicion of murder and
possession of class A drugs.
An 18-year-old, also from north London, was previously arrested on suspicion
of murder and remains on police bail.
A man has been arrested after two people were found dead at a home in Kent.
Two others are in hospital following an
“altercation” at the property in Canterbury, police said.
Officers were called to the home in
Dickens Avenue at 7.39pm on Tuesday.
Police said it is believed the victims and
the man in custody were known to each
other.
Officers from the Kent and Essex Serious Crime Directorate are investigating.
They are yet to identify the dead people and are in the process of informing the
next of kin.
igel Farage has claimed
Cologne-style mass sex
attacks could happen in
Britain if it stays in the European Union.
The Ukip leader told a 500plus crowd at a pro-Brexit rally
that German Chancellor Angela Merkel had made a big mistake in lifting restrictions on
Syrian refugees last summer.
Public support for asylum
seekers in Germany has fallen
following allegations that hundreds of women were groped,
robbed and intimated at Cologne’s central station on New
Year’s Eve.
Speaking at the cross-party
Grassroots Out event, in Newport, South Wales, Farage said:
“We’ve been through a hundred years of female emancipation and liberation ... and now
the mistakes of Mrs Merkel are
now threatening all of that.
“What we saw outside that
train station in Cologne on New
Year’s Eve was truly and genuinely shocking.
“I am not saying that we are
not immune from such prob-
lems in this country.
“But to me, if you allow the
unlimited access of huge numbers of young males into the
European continent who come
from countries where women
are at best are second class
citizens, don’t be surprised if
scenes that we saw in Cologne
don’t happen more often.”
Dressed in a purple suit and
luminous green tie, Farage took
to the stage in a marquee at the
Rodney Parade stadium to a
standing ovation before drawing laughs from the crowd after
mocking pro-EU campaigners
as “Remainions”.
He accused prime minister
David Cameron of scaremongering over what would happen
to the UK if it left the EU before
calling George Osborne the
“worst Chancellor in modern
times”.
More than 100 women and
girls claimed they were subjected to sex assaults and robberies by gangs of men in Cologne on New Year’s Eve.
It was claimed that men carried out dozens of attacks with
little or no response from authorities. The attacks sparked
a major debate in Germany over
the country’s migration policy.
Single parents
‘locked out of work’
by childcare costs
Evening Standard
London
T
he high cost of childcare
in London is leading to
single parents being
“locked out” of work, a study
has revealed.
Thousands are unable to
work full time due to childcare
costs, which are more than a
third higher than other parts
of the country, research by the
charity Gingerbread found.
One in six single parents are
under employed as a result and
the problem is not being address by the government, the
charity warned.
The research also showed
that half of single parents in
the capital are forced to borrow money to pay to have their
children looked after while they
work.
A single parent in London
will spend half their income,
after housing costs, on a nursery place for a child under the
age of two.
Gingerbread called on London Mayoral candidates to
commit to supporting its campaign to help parents find work.
Chief executive Fiona Weir
said: “Making childcare af-
Single parents in London are
being ‘locked out’ of work.
fordable is essential for supporting more single parents
back into the jobs market and
ensuring that it pays to work.
Not least because work is still
deemed to be the best route
out of poverty.
“Our analysis shows that
supporting single parents into
work not only benefits families,
but also the Exchequer. A 5 per
cent increase in single parents’
employment rate could generate £436mn a year as a result
of increased tax revenue and
reduced benefits.
“This scheme would also
provide a much-needed leg-up
for the thousands of pre-school
parents working in London.
“We’re calling on Mayoral
candidates to support Gingerbread’s plan and plug a gap
that’s currently not being addressed by any level of government or agency.”
12 lambs dead after
shooting spree
Evening Standard
London
L
ambs were killed in a second shooting spree at
nearby farms within the
last week, police have said.
Officers were called to Cherry
Tree Lodge Farm in Crow Tree
Bank, Doncaster, South Yorkshire, and found six lambs dead
and a further six which had suffered injuries so serious that
they had to be put down.
Two ewes were also hurt in
the shooting, thought to have
happened overnight.
Another six lambs were killed
and two more had to be put down
following a shooting last week at
Stoupers Gate Farm, which is
near Hatfield, Doncaster.
Inspector Mark Payling,
from the local policing team,
said: “This is a sickening and
thoughtless act of violence
against animals, which has
caused outrage amongst the
farming community across the
region and beyond.
“Both incidents have caused
distress and outrage not only
in our local communities, but
across South Yorkshire.
“It is simply intolerable and I
want to reassure the local community that we are determined
to find those responsible.
“I understand that people will
be concerned and we are exploring a number of lines of inquiry
to confirm that these incidents
are linked.
“We must keep an open mind
in this early stage of the investigation and this is where any
information that you hold, however small, could prove significant to finding out who did this.”
22
Gulf Times
EUROPE
Migrant arrivals to
Greece rise sharply
Reuters
Athens
M
igrant and refugee arrivals to Greece from
Turkey rose sharply
yesterday, just over a week after
the European Union and Turkey
struck an agreement intended to
cut off the flow and as hundreds
marched through central Athens
to protest that deal.
The demonstrators included
human rights activists, students
and migrants from among the
thousands stranded in Greece by
recent border closures across the
Balkans.
Greek authorities recorded
766 new arrivals between Tuesday morning and yesterday
morning, up from 192 the previous day.
Most entered the country via
the northeastern Aegean island
of Lesbos.
Italy reported an even larger
jump on Tuesday, when officials
there said 1,350 people – mostly
from Africa – were rescued from
small boats taking a longer migration route across the Mediterranean as the weather warmed
up.
The EU Commission said on
Tuesday that flows from Turkey
to Greek islands had reduced in
the last week, with only 1,000
people arriving compared to an
average of 2,000 a day in the last
couple of months.
It was not clear why numbers
had dropped, but the Aegean Sea
had been hit with bad weather
and gale force winds, making the
journey from Turkey on small
rubber boats even more dangerous than usual.
Under the agreement in effect
since March 20, migrants and
refugees who arrive in Greece
from Turkey will be subject to
being sent back once they have
been registered and their individual asylum claim processed.
Returns are due to begin from
April 4, and for each Syrian returned from the Greek islands to
Turkey, one will be sent the other
way for direct resettlement in
Europe.
Human rights groups and
some governments have expressed concerns about the legality of the scheme.
“We should be under no illusion that the EU-Turkey deal will
bring an end to the refugee crisis,” Jane Waterman, of aid group
International Rescue Committee, said yesterday.
Following the Balkan border
closure that preceded the Turkey
deal, an estimated 51,000-plus
refugees and migrants, among
them Syrians, Afghans, Iraqis
and others fleeing conflict in the
Middle East and Asia, are currently stranded in Greece.
Some were among the around
1,000 people who joined the
march to parliament and the adjacent local offices of the European Commission late yesterday,
a police official said.
They pushed children along in
strollers and chanted “open the
borders!”
Others held up banners that
read: “No borders, no nations,
stop deportations” and “Abolish
Children stand yesterday on railway tracks at the Greek-Macedonian
border, near the Greek village of Idomeni, where thousands of
refugees and migrants are stranded by the Balkan border blockade.
G
ermany and the European Union have rejected
protests by Turkey over
a satirical German television
show that mocked President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, saying that
press freedom was sacrosanct,
just as the EU is banking on Ankara’s help in solving its migrant
crisis.
Turkey’s foreign ministry last
week called in Germany’s envoy
to explain an NDR broadcast including a two-minute song that
poked fun at Erdogan, who is
known for his sensitivity to criticism.
German newspapers have
poured scorn on Erdogan for trying to muzzle media and some
have also questioned whether
Germany and the EU have gone
soft on Turkish human rights
because they need Ankara’s cooperation to stem the influx of
migrants.
The incident is particularly
awkward for German Chancel-
AFP/DPA
Larnaca
T
Migrants and refugees rest at the passenger terminal at the port of Piraeus where more than 5,500
migrants and refugees found temporary shelter yesterday.
the racist EU-Turkey agreement”.
“I am here to press Greece to
make Macedonia open the borders,” said 26-year-old Afghan
Mohammad Ansari who has been
in Greece for a month. “Why are
we staying here? We should go.”
Some of the protesters had
taken the train to Athens from
the nearby port of Piraeus, the
country’s biggest, where nearly
6,000 people remain stuck after
having arrived there on ferries
from Greek islands close to Turkey before the deal.
Scores have found shelter in
passenger waiting lounges while
hundreds more sleep in the open,
either in flimsy tents or on blankets spread on the dock.
Queues for the few portable
toilets are long, and scuffles have
broken out in recent weeks over
mobile phone chargers and food
distribution.
International rights group Human Rights Watch has described
conditions at the port, including
basic hygiene, as “abysmal”.
Among those stranded in Piraeus yesterday was Mariam
El Musa, a 37-year-old teacher
from Aleppo, Syria.
“The problem here is the psychology of the people,” she said.
“People are angry and depressed
because the borders are closed,
because it takes ages to have a
meal and because we are dirty
... we Syrians thought we would
stay in Greece for only two or
three days.”
Austria plans further
asylum restrictions
Reuters
Vienna
A
ustria plans to introduce
measures as early as May
to restrict even further
the number of migrants it lets
into the country, the interior and
defence ministers said yesterday.
Austria said in January that it
would limit the number of asylum claims it accepts this year
to 37,500 – less than half of last
year’s 90,000.
It has received around 14,000
claims so far in 2016, according
to the interior minister.
The country has mainly served
as a conduit into Germany for
refugees and migrants from the
Middle East and Africa but has
absorbed a similar number of
asylum-seekers relative to its
much smaller population.
It co-ordinated a domino of
border closures with nearby Balkan countries over the past few
months, which has led to around
50,000 people being stuck in
Greece.
While Austria’s approach has
angered other European Union
states, Vienna says this was necessary to safeguard public order
and internal security.
In the future, only people who
are likely to suffer persecution
if Austria sends them back and
refugees who already have close
family members living in the
country will be granted asylum,
Interior Minister Johanna MiklLeitner said.
“We will not accept any applications for asylum unless we
have to, due to certain criteria
such as Article 8 of the European
Convention on Human Rights,”
Mikl-Leitner said.
Article 8 of the ECHR protects
the private and family life of individuals against arbitrary interference by public authorities and
private organisations.
Migrants will only be able to
file their application for asylum
directly at border crossings in
the future and not any longer at
police stations inside the country, Defence Minister Hans Peter
Doskozil said.
A decision on whether to grant
asylum will be made in an hour
and those not accepted will be
sent back immediately, he said.
Germany, EU reject protest against Erdogan satire
Reuters
Berlin/Brussels
Cyprus remands
man accused of
plane hijacking
lor Angela Merkel, who has led
efforts to forge the migrant deal
between the EU and Turkey, a
candidate for EU membership.
That deal is designed to stop illegal migrants entering Europe in
exchange for financial and political rewards for Ankara, prompting some of Merkel’s critics to
warn that the EU must not lower
its standards on human rights
and basic freedoms.
A spokeswoman for Germany’s
foreign ministry said yesterday
that Berlin had made it very clear
to Ankara that basic freedoms
were “non-negotiable”.
“(It has been) made clear that
despite all the interests Germany
and Turkey share, the view on
press freedom, freedom of expression is non-negotiable for
us,” she said, adding, however,
that Turkey was an important
partner.
The EU was more forthright
in its criticism, saying that summoning the German envoy did
not seem to be in line with the
EU’s cherished freedoms of the
press and of expression.
“(European Commission Pres-
ident Jean-Claude) Juncker believes this moves Turkey further
(away) from the EU rather than
closer to us,” said a spokeswoman, adding that the EU expected
Turkey to uphold the highest
standards on democracy, rule of
law and freedoms.
Turkish state prosecutors
have opened nearly 2,000 cases
against people for insulting Erdogan since 2014, the country’s
justice ministry said this month.
The defendants include cartoonists, academics, journalists
and schoolchildren.
he man accused of hijacking an Egyptian
plane and diverting it to
Cyprus has said he acted out
of desperation to see his exwife and children, as he was
remanded into custody yesterday.
A judge in Larnaca on the island’s southern coast ordered
Egyptian Seif al-Din Mohamed
Mostafa held for eight days
during his first court appearance after Tuesday’s hijacking.
The Egyptian state prosecutor’s office said it had asked for
Mostafa, 58, to be remanded
into its custody under a 1996
bilateral extradition treaty.
Egyptian police have alleged
that Mostafa had a criminal
record for forgery and was also
suspected in a number of fraud,
theft and narcotics cases.
Mostafa is accused of forcing
the Alexandria-to-Cairo flight
to divert to Larnaca, where
he demanded to see his Cypriot ex-wife, with whom he has
children.
“What’s someone supposed
to do when he hasn’t seen his
wife and children in 24 years
and the Egyptian government
won’t let you?” Mostafa told
authorities, police prosecutor
Andreas Lambrianou told the
court.
Police told the court that
Mostafa – described by officials as “psychologically
unstable” – faces possible
charges of hijacking, kidnapping, reckless and threatening
behaviour, and breaches of the
anti-terrorism law.
Mostafa will not face any
formal charges until a later
hearing and only at that point
will he be expected to enter a
plea.
He flashed journalists the
victory sign as he was driven
away by police from the courthouse, which is less than a kilometre (half a mile) from Larnaca airport where a six-hour
stand-off unfolded after the
hijacking.
Most of the 55 passengers
on the EgyptAir flight were
quickly released after it landed
in Larnaca but it took hours of
negotiations, including a conversation with his former wife,
before Mostafa surrendered to
police.
Local daily Phileleftheros
quoted members of the wife’s
Cypriot family as saying that
the estranged couple had four
children but that Mostafa had
shown no interest in them in
years.
Some passengers and crew
escaped only minutes before
the stand-off ended, including one uniformed man who
was seen clambering out of a
cockpit window and dropping
to the ground.
Among them was a 26-yearold British man, Ben Innes,
who asked crew to snap a selfie
of him with Mostafa that has
been widely shared on social
media.
The image features a grinning Innes standing next to
Mostafa, with what appears to
be a rudimentary suicide vest
strapped to his chest.
“I figured if his bomb was
real I’d nothing to lose anyway,
so took a chance to get a closer
look at it,” Innes, a health and
safety auditor from Leeds in
northern England, told Britain’s The Sun newspaper.
“So I stood by him and
smiled for the camera while a
stewardess did the snap. It has
to be the best selfie ever,” he
said.
As it became clear on Tuesday that the hijacker was trying
to contact his ex-wife and was
likely not a real danger, Egyptians also took to social media
to poke fun at the incident,
many using the Twitter hashtag #loveisintheair.
“This is what happens when
you block your ex,” one person wrote on Twitter, while
another opined: “Some may
wonder why the hijacker didn’t
just e-mail his wife. They don’t
realise how terrible Egypt’s Internet is.”
H A Hellyer, an Arab affairs
specialist at the Royal United
Services Institute in London,
tweeted: “My wife just told
me: ‘You don’t love me enough.
You haven’t hijacked a plane to
talk to me. Sort it out’.”
After several hours in Larnaca, passengers on the flight
were flown to Cairo late on
Tuesday.
“Fifteen minutes after departure we saw on the screens
that the plane was not going to
Cairo and it was crossing the
sea,” passenger Noha Saleh said
on arrival in the Egyptian capital. “They said it was a technical problem and they needed to
go to Cyprus or Greece to fix it
... they were professional and
their attitude was normal.”
Egypt’s military said on its
Facebook page that a team of
special forces and negotiators
dispatched to Cyprus after the
hijacking had returned, posting a video showing the troops
boarding a plane.
Concerns were raised about
security at Egyptian airports
after a Russian airliner was
downed on October 31 over the
Sinai Peninsula, killing all 224
people on board.
The Islamic State group
claimed to have smuggled a
bomb on board.
But Egypt’s interior ministry
said in a statement that all security measures had been applied.
Mostafa flashes the ‘V’ sign as he leaves the court in Larnaca in a
police car yesterday.
‘Antarctica alone may lift seas a metre by 2100’
By Marlowe Hood, AFP
Paris
M
elting ice from Antarctica could raise oceans
by 1m before 2100 at
current rates of greenhouse gas
emissions, doubling previous
forecasts for sea level rise, according to a study yesterday.
Such an abrupt change would
spell disaster for major cities and
coastal areas across the globe,
forcing hundreds of millions of
people to seek higher ground.
Over a longer time scale, the
study concluded, the picture is
even grimmer: within 500 years,
Earth’s once-frozen continent
will have lifted water lines by
more than 15m (50’), reconfiguring the planet’s coastlines.
“Frankly, I hope we’re wrong
about this,” Robert DeConto, lead
author of the study and a climate
scientist at the University of
Massachusetts, told AFP.
But independent experts contacted by AFP said that the study
was probably on target.
While sharing DeConto’s sense
of alarm, they praised the new
research, published in the peerreviewed journal Nature, as “really good science”.
Up to now, estimates of how
many centimetres or inches Antarctic melt-off would add to the
world’s oceans over the next 85
years have been conservative.
The latest report from the UN
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), a federation
of several thousand scientists
that report to governments on
global warming and its impacts,
put that number at about a dozen
centimetres (5”), all of it from a
relatively small section called the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet.
The IPCC predicted that total
sea level rise from all sources –
including the expansion of water
as it warms, melting glaciers, and
the Greenland ice sheet – would
probably not top a metre by century’s end.
But the low figure for Antarctica had more to do with gaps in
knowledge than differences of
opinion.
Scientists have long struggled,
for example, to understand the
role Earth’s southern extremity
played during earlier periods of
global warming – 125,000 and
3mn years ago – when temperatures barely warmer than our
own raised oceans to levels 6m to
10m higher than today.
“In both cases, the Antarctic
ice sheet has been implicated as
the primary contributor, hinting
at its future vulnerability,” the
study said.
But how, exactly, the planet’s
ice continent – far colder than
the Arctic, and thus less subject
to melting – disintegrated remained a mystery.
Building on earlier work, DeConto and David Pollard, a climate scientist at Pennsylvania
State University, created computer models integrating for the
first time two mechanisms that
appeared to solve the puzzle.
One is a process called hydrofracturing.
As any teenage can tell you, if
you put a sealed bottle of water
or beer in a freezer, the liquid will
expand and crack the container.
“That’s what happened here,”
said Anders Levermann, an expert on the dynamics of ice
sheets at the Potsdam Institute in
Germany and a lead author of the
chapter on sea levels in the most
recent IPCC report.
“You have meltwater going deep into crevices in the ice
sheet, and then it expands and
cracks the ice open,” pushing it
toward the sea, he told AFP, commenting on the study.
Up to now, scientists have
focused on the impact warming oceans have on the overhang
from ice sheets, which sit on
land.
But it turns out that air temperatures have risen enough to
cause melting on top as well.
The other natural mechanism
is the break-up of buttressing
ice shelves, and the failure of ice
cliffs, that both act as dams for
the ice sheets behind them.
“These are not ‘new’ processes’ per se,” DeConto said. “But
they haven’t been considered at
the continental scale in Antarctica before.”
When the researchers applied
their models to the previous periods of warming, the pieces of
the puzzle fell into place, he said.
It also gave rise to alarming conclusions about what lies
ahead.
“The fact that a model – tested
and calibrated against past examples of sea level rise – simulates
such a strong future response
to warming if very concerning,”
DeConto said, stressing: “This
should be a wake-up call.”
The study adds to new evidence that ocean water marks
may go up more and faster that
previously thought, other scientists said.
“The recent modelling now
favour the view that continuing rapid warming will cause sea
level rise to be larger, and perhaps
much larger, especially if we look
beyond the end of this century,”
said Richard Alley, also a scientist
at Pennsylvania State University.
DeConto did note, however,
that if humanity succeeds in
drastically reducing greenhouse
gas emissions in the coming decades, there is relatively little contribution to sea level rise from
Antarctica.
“That’s the good news here,”
he added.
Gulf Times
23
EUROPE
Dutch minister
stumbles over
attack warning
Reuters
Amsterdam
T
he Dutch security and
justice minister said yesterday that he had made
another factual error in a letter
informing parliament that US
intelligence warned the authorities about two Belgian brothers a
week before the pair carried out
the Brussels attacks.
A series of blunders by Belgium’s security and intelligence
agencies have come to light since
the attacks that killed 32 and
wounded hundreds last week.
It has also exposed weaknesses
in communication between intelligence agencies across Europe.
For the Dutch, it is the second
mistake in as many days by Security and Justice Minister Ard
van der Steur, who was forced on
Tuesday to send a correction of
his first letter addressed to parliament about the intelligence
received on Ibrahim and Khalid
El Bakraoui.
In another missive yesterday,
van der Steur wrote that contrary
to what he had said on Tuesday,
it was not the US Federal Bureau
of Investigation (FBI) that had
warned that two brothers were
being sought by Belgian authorities.
The information actually came
from the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Division
and was forwarded by the Dutch
embassy liaison in Washington,
the minister wrote.
US investigators are helping
their European partners unravel
the network behind the attacks.
But legislators are demanding to know why Dutch agencies
did not act on US intelligence
received on March 16 that Ibrahim was sought by the Belgian
authorities for “his criminal
background”, while Khalid was
wanted for “terrorism, extremism and recruitment”.
Ibrahim was not on international wanted lists when he was
put on a flight from Turkey to
Amsterdam on July 14, 2015 and
disappeared, the minister said on
Tuesday.
He was violating conditions
of parole in Belgium and avoided
potential arrest by requesting
that Turkey deport him to the
Hollande drops plan
to strip citizenship
AFP
Paris
F
Van der Steur: It was the NYPD,
not FBI, that warned about the El
Bakraoui brothers.
closest neighbouring country,
the Netherlands, rather than being sent home. Khalid had been
missing since October.
The Brussels attacks, claimed
by Islamic State (IS), were carried out by the same network as
the Paris attacks in November, in
which 131 people died.
Van der Steur said during a
parliamentary debate on Tuesday night that the Netherlands
had “done all that could have
been done” with the information
it received.
Belgian federal police denied
the minister’s assertion that
their Dutch counterparts had
shared US intelligence about the
brothers at a meeting on March
17.
Four men were detained in
Rotterdam over the weekend.
The main suspect, identified
as 32-year-old Frenchman Anis
B, wanted by France for allegedly
helping prepare an attack that
was never carried out, is resisting extradition – a legal process
expected to take around three
months.
Two others, described as
“having an Algerian background”, are also being held on
terror charges.
A fourth has been released
without charge.
rench President Francois
Hollande has scrapped
contested constitutional
reforms he proposed after the
Paris attacks, in an embarrassing U-turn for his already beleaguered government.
The reforms included a plan to
strip convicted terrorists of their
French nationality, which had
sparked a fierce debate over the
risk that it would create stateless
persons.
Hollande also wanted to enshrine in the constitution a state
of emergency adopted after suicide bombers and gunmen from
the Islamic State group killed 130
people on November 13.
However the lower house National Assembly and oppositiondominated Senate failed to agree
on the exact wording of the text,
a prerequisite for a constitutional
amendment to be adopted in
France.
“A compromise appears out of
reach on the stripping of terrorists’ nationality,” Hollande said.
“I also note that a section of
the opposition is hostile to any
constitutional revision. I deeply
regret this attitude,” the president said in a brief televised
statement. “I have decided to
close the constitutional debate
(but) I will not deviate from the
commitments I have taken ... to
ensure the security of our country.”
Initially Hollande had proposed stripping citizenship from
convicted Islamic militants born
in France who held a second
passport.
But this sparked howls of protest from within his Socialist
party, with critics arguing that
it would create two categories of
French citizens – a sensitive issue in a country where millions
hold two passports.
Polls showed the majority of
terror-weary French people supported the plan, but justice minister Christiane Taubira was so
opposed to the measure that she
resigned.
The right and far-right initially praised the measure, until
the government amended it to
remove any mention of dual nationality.
This sparked criticism over
the potential creation of stateless
citizens.
Hollande’s move to drop the
reform comes as authorities in
Europe face increasing criticism
over laxity and security failings
in the face of the growing Islamic
militant threat.
Links have emerged between
the Islamic State (IS) cell which
attacked Paris and the suicide
bombers who struck Brussels last
week, killing 32 people.
“The threat remains higher
than ever,” said Hollande.
The failure to convince all political parties to fall behind the
reforms will deal a stinging blow
to Hollande, who is hoping to run
for re-election next year.
An Ipsos-Sopra Steria poll
published yesterday showed that
Hollande would be eliminated in
the first round of an election if
held now, no matter who his opponent.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls
said he “bitterly regrets” that the
right refused an “outstretched
hand”.
The leader of the far-right National Front (FN) Marine Le Pen
said Hollande’s decision to scrap
the constitutional reform was “a
historical failure” and called for
him to resign.
However, Hollande’s Socialist
party said the opposition was responsible for the “sad spectacle”.
“We apologise to the French
people. We were not able to
convince the right in general ...
to reinforce our law in the fight
against terrorism,” said party
leader Jean-Christophe Cambadelis.
Hollande was France’s most
unpopular leader in modern history when Paris suffered its first
terrorist attack of 2015, when
gunmen killed 17 people at the
offices of Charlie Hebdo magazine and at a Jewish supermarket
in January.
His popularity briefly rose over
Hollande: A compromise appears out of reach on the stripping of
terrorists’ nationality ... I also note that a section of the opposition is
hostile to any constitutional revision. I deeply regret this attitude.
his handling of those attacks, but
not for long.
The display of political unity
quickly fizzled out after the November attacks, and turned to
blame-trading and infighting
among Socialists who accused
Hollande of shifting to the right
20 IS recruiters
held in Moscow
The price of freedom...
Around 20 Islamic State (IS)
followers were arrested in
Moscow trying to recruit new
fighters for the group, Russia’s
RIA news agency cited a security
source as saying yesterday.
“During a joint operation of the
FSB (Federal Security Service)
and the police, around 20 people
suspected of connections to ISIS
(Islamic State) were arrested,” RIA
quoted the source as saying.
The FSB could not immediately
be reached for comment; the
police declined to discuss the
matter.
“According to preliminary
information, they were searching
for and recruiting new members
in Moscow,” RIA said, citing the
source.
RIA said that the majority of
those arrested were citizens of
the former Soviet republic of
Uzbekistan.
They had fake documents,
including false Turkish driving
licences, it said.
Russia is helping the Syrian army
fight Islamic State in Syria.
Car blast in Russia’s
Dagestan kills officer,
hours after IS killing
AFP
Moscow
O
ne police officer was
killed and another injured
when a car exploded at a
checkpoint in Russia’s volatile
region of Dagestan yesterday,
local police said, hours after another officer died in a bombing
claimed by the Islamic State (IS)
group.
“As police were trying to stop
a car, the driver drove past and
the car exploded,” local police
spokeswoman Fatina Ubaydatova told AFP. “As a result one police officer was killed and one was
injured, according to preliminary
information.”
Ubaydatova said the identity
and fate of the people in the vehicle remained unknown.
An unnamed source in law
enforcement told RIA Novosti
state news agency that a brief car
chase ensued after the vehicle
failed to stop at the checkpoint
and that its occupants hurled an
explosive device at the police car.
The incident came hours after a police officer was killed and
two were injured when explosive devices were detonated on a
main road near Dagestan’s city of
Kaspiysk late on Tuesday as two
police vehicles passed.
The Aamaq news agency,
which is affiliated with IS,
claimed that fighters from the
group were behind the bombing.
The officer killed in the attack yesterday, 35-year-old lieutenant Igor Mutsenik, worked
for the police force of Siberia’s
Krasnoyarsk region but had been
temporarily serving in Dagestan.
His body will be sent home
within the next few days, authorities said.
Investigators said they had
launched a probe into the incident, which the Kremlin refused
to comment on.
Ubaydatova said that Russia’s
national anti-terror committee
would be involved in the investigation.
Tuesday’s attack is the fourth
to be claimed by IS in the North
Caucasus in the last seven
months, according to Caucasian
Knot, a news portal that monitors the region.
Dagestan’s police force refused
to comment about any possible
links between the two incidents
in the region, which occurred
some 100km apart.
Attacks against police are not
uncommon in the North Caucasus region, which faces a simmering Islamist insurgency.
Last year 126 people were
killed in Dagestan as a result of
terror and armed conflict, including 13 law enforcement officers, Caucasian Knot reported.
In February, two police officers
died and two were injured after
attackers detonated a car bomb
at a checkpoint.
Around a dozen civilians were
also injured.
The IS group claimed a deadly shooting in December near
the ancient citadel of Derbent,
southern Dagestan.
Islamist rebels from Dagestan,
which lies immediately east of
Chechnya, are known to have
travelled to join the Islamic State.
Last year the group declared it
had established a “franchise” in
the North Caucasus.
Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Syria, the
Al Nusra Front, has previously
called on Islamic militants from
the Caucasus to attack targets in
Russia in response to Moscow’s
bombing campaign in Syria.
with his hardline response.
Hollande has also faced a series of street protests, first over
economic reforms which Prime
Minister Manuel Valls had to
force through parliament, and
now over plans to reform labour
laws.
Officer ‘was drunk
at crisis meeting’
French army paratroopers patrol near the Eiffel Tower in Paris after the government decided to deploy 1,600 additional police officers to
bolster security at its borders and on public transport following the deadly blasts in Brussels.
France charges main suspect in foiled plot
AFP
Paris
T
he main suspect in a foiled
French attack plot was
charged yesterday with
membership of a terrorist group,
sources close to the investigation
said.
French national Reda Kriket,
34, was arrested near Paris last
week and found to have assault
rifles and homemade explosives
at his home.
His arrest came just four
months after the terrorist carnage that claimed 130 lives in
Paris, and investigators said another major attack had been in an
“advanced stage” of planning.
Two other suspects who have
been charged over the foiled attack plot are in custody in Bel-
gium, which is reeling from the
March 22 suicide bomb attacks
on its airport and metro system.
Another suspect was arrested
in Rotterdam in Sunday. Dutch
police found ammunition at his
home.
Kriket, who is linked to the
suspected ringleader of the Paris
attacks, was found guilty in absentia in Brussels in July of being part of an Islamic militant
recruitment network and sentenced to 10 years in jail.
Investigations showed Kriket
played a key role in financing the
network with money from robberies and stolen goods.
Among those who went to
Syria through the network were
Abdelhamid Abaaoud – the suspected ringleader of the Paris
attacks – and another Paris attacker, Chakib Akrouh.
A Brussels police commissioner
arrived drunk at a meeting on
the evening of last week’s suicide
bomb attacks in the Belgian
capital, local media reported
yesterday.
A report has been issued
and disciplinary measures
could follow, the Belga news
agency wrote, citing a police
spokesperson who confirmed
an earlier report by La Derniere
Heure daily.
The newspaper wrote that
the police meeting had been
convened following the attacks
on Brussels in order to discuss
urgent measures to be taken,
decide on areas for ramped-up
surveillance and look at police
staffing levels.
Denmark eyes measures against ‘hate preachers’
AFP
Copenhagen
T
Rasmussen: In Denmark we have
religious preachers who in reality
abuse our freedoms, preaching
hate.
he Danish government
is considering tightening legislation to prevent
imams who “preach hate” from
spreading their views, Prime
Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen
said yesterday.
“In Denmark we have religious
preachers who in reality abuse
our freedoms, preaching hate,”
he said at a press conference.
At a meeting with opposition
leaders, Rasmussen’s minority right-wing government pre-
sented tentative plans for deterring preachers who “undermine
the society they should be a part
of”, he said.
The proposals included establishing a list of people who
would be barred from entering
the country, similar to a blacklist
used in Britain.
The government also wanted
to look into whether it could
outlaw speech that “undermines
Danish legislation” and ban certain people from coming to a
place of worship, but remained
vague on any details.
Preachers who “don’t respect
the basic norms in our society”
could in the future be stripped of
the right to officiate marriages,
Rasmussen said.
Cross-party talks would continue next week and the government hoped to be able to present
a bill to parliament before the
summer break, he added.
A Danish think-tank focused
on legal issues, Justitia, warned
that banning some imams from
entering the country could violate free speech laws.
“Any entry ban on hate
preachers should be limited to
people who are considered to
pose a threat to national security
or who have encouraged terror-
ism or violence against groups of
people,” it said in a statement.
In a recent documentary series titled The mosques behind
the veil, Danish broadcaster TV2
used a hidden camera to show
how some imams in the country
supported illegal practices such
as the stoning of women and
corporal punishment of children.
The documentary was controversial, with some Danish
Muslims claiming it painted an
unfair picture of the country’s
mosques, while others said it reflected real problems that needed to be addressed.
24
Gulf Times
INDIA
PROTEST
POLITICS
INVESTMENT
WELFARE
CONTROVERSY
Hyderabad university
students want VC to go
Government’s foreign
policy flawed: Congress
CPM blasts 100% FDI in
e-commerce retail
Bihar extends job
quota to third gender
Husband was treated
like a dog, says widow
Students and two professors of University
of Hyderabad vowed after their release
from jail to intensify their struggle till Appa
Rao is removed as the vice chancellor.
Stating that there was no going back on the
movement following the suicide of Dalit
research scholar Rohith Vemula, they said
the police repression had only strengthened
their resolve. Twenty-five students and two
faculty members, who were released from
jail on Tuesday night, reached the campus
to a rousing welcome from friends. A huge
march was taken out on the campus with
students raising revolutionary slogans and
waving blue flags. They held torches as well
as placards.
The Congress yesterday dubbed the
government’s foreign policy “flawed” and said
the opposition will seek answers from Prime
Minister Narendra Modi in parliament. Reacting
to the visit of a Pakistani team to Pathankot to
probe a terror attack, Congress leader Anand
Sharma said: “The foreign policy of the Modi
government is flawed. The prime minister does
not understand the gravity and seriousness of
diplomacy, and he has tried to use every event
as a photo-op opportunity. The opposition
will seek answers from the prime minister on
these issues. He will not be allowed to hide his
failures. We are not against talks with Pakistan
but there is need for more clarity on the
government’s stand.”
The Communist Party of India (Marxist)
yesterday dubbed the government’s move
to allow 100% FDI in e-commerce retail
“an outright surrender to the big foreign
e-commerce retail firms” and demanded
its scrapping. “This is clearly announced to
appease foreign capital on the eve of (Prime
Minister Narendra) Modi’s US visit,” the CPM
said in a statement. “It is also a surrender to the
pressures of the EU (European Union) keeping
in mind the ongoing Free Trade Agreement
talks with EU and the prime minister’s visit to
Brussels.” The CPM said the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) had been vocal against the FDI in
retail trade when it was in the opposition. “Now
it has done a somersault.”
The Bihar government yesterday announced
reservation in jobs to the third gender and set
up a welfare board for them. “The third gender
will be provided reservation in government
jobs and Bihar Rajya Kalyan Board will be set up
soon,” Social Welfare Minister Manju Verma said
in Patna. After the state government recognised
eunuchs and transgenders as “the third gender”
following the Supreme Court order last year,
the latest move to provide reservation in
government jobs is expected to give them
more opportunities to become part of the
mainstream. Last year, the state government
recognised them as the third gender by putting
them in the Annexure 11 of the Other Backward
Classes category.
The wife of a Central Reserve Police
Force trooper from Kerala who drowned
in Chhattisgarh on Wednesday hit out
at officials, accusing them of showing
disrespect to her husband’s body. “My
husband was treated like a dog. They
could have at least used a cloth to cover
his body,” said Lini, wife of the 33-year-old
Anil Achenkunju. “Would they have done
this if the person who died was an officer?
Since my husband was only a jawan, he was
treated like this,” she said in Alappuzha,
Kerala. Lini blamed both CRPF officials and
the home ministry for the manner in which
the body was brought to Kerala in a plastic
cover.
Pakistan
cooking up
spy story
to defame
India: Rijiju
TDP foundation day
Mallya offers
to pay banks
$600mn as
settlement
IANS
New Delhi
T
he government yesterday accused Pakistan of
“cooking up” stories to
defame India and of releasing a
“doctored video” in which an
arrested Indian ex-naval officer
is heard purportedly “confessing” to New Delhi’s alleged involvement in terrorist activities
in Balochistan.
Addressing reporters, Minister of State for Home Kiren
Rijiju said: “The MEA (Ministry
of External Affairs) has already
come out with a statement regarding the forged, doctored
video and the made up story
being created by the Pakistani
establishment. We don’t have
to pay attention to that, and I
feel that this is an internal game
within the Pakistani establishment, their government, the
prime minister and their agencies.”
Pakistan on Tuesday released a video purportedly
showing Kulbushan Jadhav,
whom Islamabad has accused
of being a spy, as saying that
he had been directing various activities in Karachi and
Balochistan “at the behest of
RAW” (Research and Analysis
Wing), the Indian intelligence
agency, and that he was still
with the Indian Navy.
“Doctored videos made by Pakistan will have no effect on international platforms. They are
cooking up stories and doctoring
videos to defame India,” Rijiju
added.
India on Tuesday dismissed
as baseless the remarks made by
Jadhav.
“We have seen a video released by Pakistani authorities
of a former Indian naval officer,
doing business in Iran, who is
in Pakistani custody under unexplained circumstances,” the
MEA said in a statement.
“The video has this individual
making statements which have
no basis in fact. That the individual claims to make the statements of his own free will not
only challenges credulity but
clearly indicates tutoring,” it
said.
Supreme Court gives lenders
a week’s time to respond
Agencies
New Delhi
E
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu speaks to Telugu Desam Party
supporters after garlanding a statue of TDP founder N T Rama Rao during the party`s
foundation day celebration in Hyderabad on Tuesday.
mbattled tycoon Vijay
Mallya has proposed to
repay Rs40bn ($603mn),
less than half of what his defunct
Kingfisher Airlines owes to creditor banks who have approached
the nation’s highest court to recover their dues.
Mallya, who left India on
March 2 and whose exact whereabouts since then are not known,
made the offer yesterday to the
group of lenders led by State
Bank of India to pay the sum by
end-September.
A lawyer for Kingfisher, C S
Vaidyanathan, yesterday submitted the repayment plan to
the Supreme Court. The court
sought the banks’ response within a week to the proposal. It will
hear the case next on April 7.
“It is for you to tell us whether
you reject this or not,” Justice Rohinton Nariman told the banks.
Justice Kurian Joseph then asked
whether Mallya is back in India.
“Where are you? Are you back in
India?” Kurian asked.
“No. The media has vitiated
the atmosphere. The atmosphere is so surcharged against
me... There are cases in which
media created such a surcharged
atmosphere that even beatings
have taken place... the less said
the better,” Mallya’s lawyer Vaidyanathan responded.
“The media ultimately stands
for the public interest. They just
want the money taken from the
banks to be brought back...” Justice Kurian shot back.
Separately, the SBI, the nation’s top lender, said it had re-
C
ongress chief Sonia Gandhi yesterday said the
unity and integrity of Assam were under threat as “two
evil forces have united” against
the Congress.
“The Congress government
had worked very hard in the past
15 years to bring back peace and
prosperity to Assam. However,
the unity and integrity of the state
is at stake now after two evil forces have joined hands in this election,” said Gandhi, with apparent
reference to the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP) and the Asom Gana
Parishad (AGP).
She said the two forces were
opposing the ruling Congress
Party as they know that all sections of the people in Assam were
with it.
Gandhi addressed two public
rallies in Assam yesterday – at
Aamguri in Sivasagar district at
Biswanath Chariali in Sonitpur
district.
The Congress president reminded the people of Assam that
the state was known only for insurgency and bad fiscal health
earlier and that the “same situation will be repeated if these two
evil forces come to power in Assam once again.”
Attacking Narendra Modi,
Gandhi said that the prime minister and the BJP had opposed the
India-Bangladesh Land boundary
Agreement when they were in the
opposition. “However, they made
a U-turn on their position and
signed the LBA agreement immediately after coming to power.”
“While signing the recent
framework agreement regarding the Naga Peace talks too,
the prime minister ignored the
chief ministers of the northeastern states which will be affected
due to the Naga agreement,” said
Gandhi.
“The country wakes up with
Assam tea. The prime minister
often appreciates Assam tea and
says that he used to sell Assam tea.
However, he is now aware about
the pathetic condition of the tea
garden workers in Assam. The tea
garden workers in Assam are still
wondering as to when the ‘aachche din’ (good days) will come in
their lives,” she said, attacking the
prime minister.
“The government cancelled the
special category status for Assam
and the prime minister also tried
to snatch away the subsidised ration of the tea garden workers in
Assam,” she said.
Gandhi also accused the prime
minister of not doing anything for
the welfare of minorities and adivasis (ethnic tribals) of Assam.
“The price rise of essential
commodities is yet to be checked
and prices of essential medicines
have also been increased beyond
the reach of common man,” she
added.
ceived an offer for “settlement
of dues” and was examining the
offer.
The court also heard that
Kingfisher representatives had
communicated with the banks
via video conference, but lawyers representing the banks said
the lenders wished to meet with
Mallya in person.
A lawyer for Mallya said he was
not in the country and that “in
the present ambience (it was) not
needed”.
Kingfisher, once India’s second-biggest airline, ceased operations more than three years ago
after a stretch of losses, leaving
creditors, suppliers and employees with unpaid dues.
As of last November, it owed
the group of banks about $1.4bn
including interest and fees.
A spokesman for Mallya’s UB
Group did not immediately reply
to an e-mail seeking comment
on whether Rs40bn is all Mallya
wants to pay the banks or it is the
first installment of repayment.
The creditor banks stepped up
pressure on Mallya - who gave a
personal guarantee for the Kingfisher loan - after he agreed to a
$75mn settlement with Britain’s
VS, Pinarayi, Mukesh
on LDF election list
Assam’s unity under threat
from ‘two evil forces’: Sonia
IANS
Sivasagar, Assam
Mallya: offers to repay $603mn
Diageo Plc last month to give up
his chairmanship and board position at top Indian spirits maker
United Spirits Ltd. After stepping down, Mallya said he would
spend more time in England
where his children live.
Once known as the “King of
Good Times” for his extravagant lifestyle, Mallya has denied
that he had fled India and said
he would comply with local laws.
Media reports have traced him
to the Hertfordshire village of
Tewin, north of London, where
he owns a house.
His surprise departure has
proved an embarrassment for the
government, which was forced
to admit he had left the country
even as it sought permission to
impound his passport.
Opposition politicians have
demanded to know why the
60-year-old was not arrested
before he flew out on March 2.
India’s financial crimes agency
has also summoned Mallya in
connection with an alleged case
of loan fraud involving state-run
IDBI Bank in Mumbai.
The businessman, who is also
a member of the Rajya Sabha, the
upper house, has criticised the
media for what he has called a
“witch hunt”.
Mallya’s case has taken centre
stage at a time when the central
bank and the government have
begun a crackdown on bank loan
defaulters to clean up the nation’s
ailing state-run banks. Finance
Minister Arun Jaitley has said the
government had asked banks to
go “all out” in their effort to recover money from Kingfisher.
“I don’t want to make any
comments on individual cases
but I think it’s a responsibility of
large groups like his (Mallya’s) to
honourably settle their dues with
the banks,” he said last week.
IANS
Thiruvananthapuram
C
Congress president Sonia Gandhi waves to the crowd at an
election rally in Bishwanath Chariali in Sonitpur yesterday, ahead
of state assembly elections in Assam.
ommunist Party of India (Marxist) veterans V
S Achuthanandan and
his known rival Pinarayi Vijayan
figure in the first list of 124 candidates announced by the Left
Democratic Front in Kerala yesterday.
The list also includes film
star Mukesh and two journalists, LDF leader Vaikom Viswan
announced here. The Kerala assembly election will take place
in May.
“The remaining 16 candidates
will be announced in the coming days as talks are on at various
levels. The LDF manifesto will be
released on April 5,” Viswan said.
The LDF, led by the CPM, on
Monday finalised seat sharing
agreement among its allies.
Former
chief
minister
Achuthanandan, 92, is contesting for the fourth successive time
from Palakkad. He is the eldest
candidate.
Jaik C Thomas, who turns 26
next month, is the youngest LDF
candidate. He will take on Chief
Minister Oommen Chandy in
Puthupally in Kottayam district.
Popular actor Mukesh is one of
the two film stars in the list. He
will contest from Kollam. His selection had been opposed by party activists who favoured former
state minister P K Gurudasan,
the outgoing legislator.
The second film star is K B
Ganesh Kumar, a legislator for 15
years who last year quit the Congress-led UDF to join the Left.
The two journalist candidates
are M V Nikesh Kumar and Veena
George, both from Reporter TV
channel.
Kumar is the son of former
firebrand CPM leader late M
V Raghavan. He will be an independent
candidate
from
Azhikode constituency which his
father won after leaving the CPM
in the 1980s.
Gulf Times
25
INDIA
Uttarakhand court puts on hold assembly floor test
IANS
Dehradun
A
division bench of the Uttarakhand High Court
yesterday put on hold
today’s floor test in the state assembly, setting aside Tuesday’s
ruling of the court.
The bench accepted the central government’s plea challenging the single-judge bench’s
order of Tuesday allowing the
March 31 floor test for the ousted
Harish Rawat government.
The two-judge bench of the
high court comprising Chief
Justice K M Joseph and Justice V
K Bisht also fixed April 6 as the
next date of hearing.
The central government is expected to file an affidavit on its
stand on the dispute regarding
suspension of the state assembly and imposition of President’s
Rule in the hill state.
The division bench’s decision
has come as a reprieve for the
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) and
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
government, which had justified
the imposition of central rule in
the state.
The central government had
rushed Attorney General Mukul
Rohatgi to Nainital to plead
its case before the high court
against Tuesday’s ruling.
On Tuesday, Justice U C Dhyania had ordered a floor test in
the assembly .
Meanwhile, the Shiv Sena
criticised the BJP over the imposition of President’s Rule in
Uttarakhand, accusing its ally of
“strangling democracy”.
In an editorial in the Sena
mouthpiece Saamana, the party
warned that the BJP’s action may
be repeated in Congress-ruled
states like Himachal Pradesh
and Manipur, creating political
instability and anarchy in the
country.
It said the BJP in Uttarakhand used nine rebel Congress legislators to destabilse
the Congress-led government,
which was given time by the
governor till March 28 to prove
its majority.
“A day before this (on
March 27), President’s Rule
was imposed. What has the
BJP gained out of this?” the
Sena asked.
The Sena said earlier the BJP
removed the Congress regime
in Arunachal Pradesh and, after Uttarakhand, Himachal
Pradesh and Manipur could
follow suit.
“Himachal Pradesh Chief
Minister Vir Bhadra Singh is on
the BJP’s ‘radar’ ever since he refused to host the India-Pakistan
cricket match in Dharamshala.
Corruption cases against him
were initiated. It will not be a
surprise if an Uttarakhand is repeated in HP.
“By this, the BJP is giving an
opportunity to the opposition
parties to unite,” the Sena pointed out.
Reiterating its opposition to
the Congress, the Sena made it
clear that a democratically elected government must be removed
only in a democratic manner as
otherwise it would lead to political instability.
In a democracy, the voice of
the opposition is of paramount
importance and should not be
strangled since a single-party
rule would be worse than an
emergency or dictatorship, it
said.
“The country will be destroyed if the opposition is targeted and snuffed out and poison is used on allies,” the Sena
warned.
India blames
Italy for delay
in settling
marine’s case
Agencies
The Hague
I
ndia blamed Italy for delaying the repatriation
of an Italian marine who
has been detained in Delhi for
four years as Prime Minister Narenda Modi arrived at a
summit with the EU in Brussels hoping to defuse the longrunning row.
In 2012, India arrested two
Italian marines who were escorting an oil tanker on suspicion of shooting dead two
fishermen they mistook for
pirates. Though they were not
charged, the pair were barred
from leaving India.
Massimiliano Latorre was
allowed to return home last
year for medical treatment.
But Salvatore Girone has been
confined to Delhi, where he
lives at the Italian ambassador’s residence and reports
regularly to police.
“The trial has not
commenced due to an
obstructive course of
action by Italy”
Italy says Girone’s human rights are being violated
and has asked the Permanent
Court of Arbitration in The
Hague to order India to send
him home.
The case moved to the Court
of Arbitration after India and
Italy agreed to suspend all domestic legal proceedings.
Addressing the UN tribunal,
Francesco Azzarello, Italy’s lead
lawyer in the case, pledged that
Girone would be returned to
India to face charges should it
bring them once the Hague arbitration is finished.
“The only reason Girone
is not allowed to leave India is so that he can act as a
de facto guarantee of Italy’s
obligation to return him for
trial,” Azzarello said. “A human being cannot be used as
a guarantee of the conduct of
a state.”
Waiting until the end of the
case in The Hague, where pro-
ceedings are often lengthy, could
leave Girone detained without
charge for up to eight years, thousands of kilometres from his wife
and young children, he said.
But India’s lawyers say the
delays are the result of Italy’s
2012 decision to escalate the
affair to international courts
rather than letting Indian
courts to handle it.
“The trial has not commenced due to an obstructive course of action by Italy,”
said Neeru Chadha, India’s
lead lawyer. “Italy is now
trying to shift the blame onto
India.”
The dragging case has become a political hot-button issue in Italy with Prime Minister
Matteo Renzi regularly flayed by
opposition leaders for failing to
secure the release of both men.
Azzarello said yesterday
that Italy “gives the solemn
undertaking” the marines will
be returned to India if the PCA
orders Rome to do so.
Azzarello also said he was
hopeful about the petition to
bring Girone back from India.
“It’s not a question of being optimistic or pessimistic,
but obviously Italy is hopeful,
based on its solid humanitarian and legal reasoning, otherwise it would not have come
here,” Azzarello said.
Italy maintains both marines were immune to prosecution since they were
serving on a UN-backed antipiracy mission, and because
the tanker was in international
waters when it fired on the
fishermen.
Italy has paid $190,000 in
compensation to each victim’s
family.
India hopes the Brussels
summit will bring a thaw in
ties with the European Union
and persuade Italy to refrain
from blocking India’s membership of a key global group
on missile technology. Rome
single-handedly
scuppered
India’s bid to join last year.
As part of a broad agenda,
the EU plans to raise the issue
of the marines with Modi, according to sources.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays tribute to the victims of the Brussels terror attack at a street memorial outside Maelbeek metro station yesterday.
PM seeks extradition
treaty with Belgium
Modi pays tribute to Brussels
terror attack victims
Agencies
Brussels
P
rime Minister Narendra
Modi yesterday offered
his deepest condolences
to the families of the victims of
the March 22 terror attacks in
Brussels, and said an extradition
treaty between India and Belgium should be expedited.
He said India shared Belgium’s
pain over the attacks as he added
a wreath of white flowers to a
sea of tributes outside Maalbeek
metro station.
Flanked by Belgian Foreign
Minister Didier Reynders, Modi
bowed his head and clasped his
hands together in tribute to the
victims of the suicide blasts,
which struck a train at the station and the city’s airport.
An Indian citizen, a 31-yearold IT worker, was among the 32
people killed in Belgium’s worstever terror attacks.
“Last week has been a sad
week for Belgium,” Modi said in
a speech alongside his Belgian
counterpart Charles Michel.
“Having experienced terrorist
violence ourselves on countless
occasions, we share your pain,”
he said.
“In this time of crisis, the
whole of India stands in full support and solidarity with the Belgian people.”
Modi said: “As part of our efforts to respond to this common
challenge we could resume discussions on a mutual legal assistance treaty. Negotiations on
extradition treaty and a treaty on
exchange of sentenced prisoners could be concluded expeditiously.”
He said that India and Belgium
shared a long history of friendship.
“A hundred years ago, more
than 130,000 soldiers from India fought in the First World War
alongside your countrymen on
Belgian soil,” the prime minister
said.
“More than 9,000 Indian soldiers made the supreme sacrifice.”
Modi said that India was ready
to welcome Belgian King Phillipe next year which will mark 70
years of diplomatic ties between
the two countries.
He said his talks with Michel
earlier in the day covered the
whole spectrum of ties.
“A system of bilateral foreign
policy consultations would recommend concrete ways to upgrade our partnership,” Modi
said.
Referring to the economic
opportunities India offered to
the world today, Modi said the
India’s macroeconomic fundamentals were robust, and at
7% plus, it was one of the fastest growing economies of the
world.
“I believe that a combination
of Belgian capacities and India’s
economic growth can produce
promising opportunities for
businesses on both sides,” he
said.
“The prime minister and I
have just held a productive interaction with Belgian CEOs and
business persons earlier today. I
invite the Belgian government
Maoist rebels kill seven
CRPF men in Chhattisgarh
Agencies
Dantewada, Chhattisgarh
S
uspected Maoist rebels
triggered a powerful landmine blast in Chhattisgarh
yesterday, killing seven policemen, in the latest attack in the
restive region, the central state’s
police chief said.
A truck carrying the Central
Reserve Police Force (CRPF) officers hit the landmine as it travelled through forested and remote Dantewada district, some
350km south of state capital
Raipur.
“Seven jawans (officers) of the
CRPF were killed,” Chhattisgarh
Director General of Police A N
Upadhyay said.
The rebels looted the truck
of weapons after exploding the
mine which left a large crater in
the road, police said.
It was the biggest attack by
Maoists in Chhattisgarh in recent months.
The dead security personnel
were in civilian clothes and were
returning to their base after a
holiday, police officials said.
“It was a massive blast. The
vehicle flew several feet up in
the air and then landed on the
ground in four pieces,” a police
officer said.
Police officials who rushed to
the scene within 45-50 minutes
said the CRPF men were unarmed.
Local tribals who first got access to the blast site and tipped
off police about the attack said
the bodies of the CRPF men were
beyond recognition.
Chief Minister Raman Singh
denounced the killings and called
it “a clear sign of frustration
among Maoists who are feeling
the heat of increased police presence in their strongholds.
“I salute the supreme sacrifice
of the seven CRPF men. The attack has strengthened my resolve to weed out Maoism from
the state,” he said in Raipur.
Dozens of heavily armed paramilitary troopers launched an
operation to track down the insurgents who reportedly slipped
into nearby forests after the
bloodbath.
Officials at the Chhattisgarh
police headquarters here dubbed
the attack “a classic case of failed
intelligence network” in the Maoist heartland of Bastar which includes Dantewada district.
Home Minister Ajay Chandrakar presided over an emergency meeting of top police and
home department officials in
Raipur to assess the situation.
and companies to pro-actively
associate with India’s ambitious
development projects including
Digital India, Start Up India and
Skill India.”
According to Modi, Belgian
businesses can make their global supply chains more cost
effective by manufacturing in
India.
“India’s goal to modernise infrastructure, especially railways
and ports, and building of 100plus smart cities also presents a
unique investment opportunity
for the Belgian companies,” he
said.
Later in the day, Modi met
with EU President Donald Tusk
and European Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker
for talks expected to focus on
trade co-operation and counterterrorism efforts.
The summit in Brussels - the
13th such meeting between the
European Union and India - is
the first to take place since 2012.
New Delhi hopes it will also help
to improve relations amid a diplomatic row with Italy.
“The EU is one of our strong-
est strategic partners,” Modi
said.
Indian diplomats said that
both sides were looking to take
forward negotiations on Broadbased Trade and Investment
Agreement (BTIA) talks, which
started in 2007 but have stalled
since 2013.
Key sticking points in the
trade talks include European demands that India remove tariffs
on cars and car parts, wine and
spirits. The EU is India’s largest
trading partner.
EU exports to India totalled
just over €38bn ($42.6bn) in
2015, while Indian imports to the
bloc reached almost $40bn, according to data released yesterday by the EU statistics agency
Eurostat.
Ahead of the talks, the medical charity Doctors Without
Borders (MSF) called on Modi
to refrain from agreeing to any
trade concessions that could
impact the country’s production of generic medicines,
which tend to be far cheaper
than brands marketed by large
pharmaceuticals.
Will seal Indo-Bangla
border, says Rajnath
IANS
Duliajan, Assam
H
Police officials inspect a giant crater created by the blast yesterday.
ome Minister Rajnath
Singh yesterday blamed
the Congress for illegal
infiltration into Assam, and said
the central government would
seal the India-Bangladesh border.
“The Congress was never
bothered about the infiltration
into Assam. They have destroyed
the state for their vote bank politics. We are going to seal the border completely so that no infiltrators can enter Assam,” Singh
told a public rally at Duliajan in
Assam’s Dibrugarh district.
“Ever since Bangladesh was
created, there has been infiltration in Assam. I want to ask them
(Congress), why didn’t you seal
the borders? Why didn’t you stop
them from entering into our land?
“The fact remains that they
are not even bothered. The Congress never paid any attention to
the issue of infiltration since beginning,” he said.
“I have visited the IndiaBangladesh border areas and
held talks with the authorities in
Bangladesh. Our government is
committed to solving the infiltration problem. We need some
time to seal the border completely,” he added.
The veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader added that
Prime Minister Narendra
Modi had pledged to curb corruption.
“The whole world knows that
there is not a single case of corruption in the Centre since the
BJP-led coalition took power,”
he said, adding that the party,
if it wins the Assam assembly
elections, would ensure zero
corruption.
26
Gulf Times
LATIN AMERICA
Alternative therapy
for babies hit by Zika
Reuters
Recife, Brazil
D
A screen reading ‘In defence of democracy. No to the coup’ during a demo of Brazilian actors in support of Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff in front of the Duque de Caxias Palace
in Rio de Janeiro.
Impeachment bid is
a coup, says Rousseff
Rousseff is beset by deserting allies
and poor ratings
Agencies
Rio De Janeiro
B
razilian President Dilma Rousseff
yesterday called current efforts to
impeach her in Congress a “coup”
and said she would continue to fight for
social programmes despite an ongoing recession.
Rousseff, announcing the third tranche
of a government housing programme,
during a speech in Brasilia discredited efforts by opposition lawmakers to oust her
because of irregularities in the government budget.
Allies of embattled Brazilian President
Dilma Rousseff horse-traded in Congress
yesterday in a frantic bid to find enough
votes to ride out an impeachment drive
after her main coalition partner quit the
government.
A months-long crisis reducing Latin
America’s biggest country to political paralysis ahead of the Rio Olympics peaked
Tuesday when the centrist PMDB broke its
alliance with the leftist Rousseff ’s Workers’ Party.
The decision left Rousseff isolated as
she tries to survive impeachment in Congress against a background of punishing
recession and a corruption scandal at state
oil company Petrobras that has snared a
cross-section of the country’s elite.
Rousseff faces impeachment over allegedly illegal budgetary manipulations to
cover the extent of Brazil’s recession dur-
ing her re-election campaign in 2014.
The potentially lengthy process is already underway in a preliminary commission and the lower house of Congress could
vote as early as mid-April on whether to
send the case to the Senate for full trial.
To survive, Rousseff needs 172 of the
513 votes in the lower house, or one-third
of the deputies. Until only recently that
seemed doable, despite her massive unpopularity and the intense hostility of opponents in the increasingly divided country.
With the PMDB’s exit, the math gets far
dicier, analysts say.
“The likelihood of impeachment has
greatly increased,” said political analyst
Michael Freitas Mohallem of the Fundacao
Getulio Vargas in Rio de Janeiro.
Loyalists put a brave face on Tuesday’s
debacle, with Chief of Staff Jaques Wagner
calling it an opportunity to “renew” the
government.
Put another way, the government now
has seven ministries and some 580 other
posts to hand out and is ready to horsetrade for support.
Rousseff hopes her main weapon will
be her predecessor in the presidency, the
charismatic and authoritative Luiz Inacio
Lula da Silva -- a renowned wheeler and
dealer.
However, after being accused in the
Petrobras corruption scandal, he has also
become a focal point for opposition attacks, making it questionable whether he
helps or hinders Rousseff more.
The strategy will be to look beyond the
PMDB to the multitude of smaller parties
in the fractious Congress and even to in-
dividual deputies, regardless of their affiliation.
A Rousseff aide told O Globo newspaper
yesterday that even with its heavy presence in the cabinet, the PMDB would only
have delivered 25 to 30 votes against impeachment.
Now the aim is to entice new allies
to come up with 80 anti-impeachment
votes, the aide said. That, added to the
100 votes the government believes it has
already guaranteed, would hit the magic
one-third.
A parallel strategy, analysts say, is to
persuade deputies to abstain, making it
impossible for the opposition to get the
necessary 342 votes.
“They’re all on their computers counting votes, trading votes for jobs and ministries,” Mohallem said.
A cross-party commission is hearing
arguments and is expected to make its recommendation on impeachment on about
April 12. Rousseff ’s defence is already expected to wind up on Monday.
The lower house would then debate and
could vote between April 14-16, according
to a preliminary estimate of the timetable.
If deputies do send the case onto the
Senate, then a process possibly taking
months begins. A two-thirds vote would
again be needed to depose Rousseff.
While Congress fights, ordinary Brazilians are becoming increasingly angry over
the dismal economy and the constant drip
feed of corruption revelations.
Demonstrations both against and in favour of Rousseff and Lula are multiplying,
with Workers’ Party activists planning to
hold rallies in major cities today.
Yesterday, Rousseff supporters rallied
in Brasilia, where the president was opening a new phase of the government’s social
housing program known as My House, My
Life.
Rousseff cancelled a trip to Washington for a nuclear safety summit today and
tomorrow, the state news agency said. A
government spokesman said that in “the
current political context,” it was not advisable.
President Dilma Rousseff ’s popularity
remains close to historic lows, according
to a poll yesterday, amid a mounting political crisis following the loss of her main
coalition partner this week that increased
the risk of her impeachment.
Pollster Ibope said the number of Brazilians who rate Rousseff ’s Workers’ Party
government “bad” or “terrible” dipped to
69% from a record high of 70% in the previous survey in December.
Those who consider it “great” or “good”
edged up to 10% from a record low of 9%,
according to the poll commissioned by the
National Industry Confederation.
Rousseff ’s popularity plummeted last
year as she embarked on her second term
with Brazil sinking deeper into what is
likely to be its worst recession since the
Great Depression in the 1930s.
Eight in 10 Brazilian do not trust Rousseff, according to the poll, which did not
ask respondents about her impeachment.
Other polls show more than two thirds of
Brazilians want to see the leftist leader impeached.
Ibope surveyed 2,002 people between
March 17 and 20. The poll has a margin of
error of 2 percentage points either way.
aniele
Santos
only
wanted to comfort her
boy, Juan Pedro, one
of Brazil’s growing number of
babies born with a birth defect
linked to the Zika infection his
mother had while pregnant.
Just 3 months old, Juan
Pedro’s shrill and constant crying, typical of babies born with
microcephaly, drove his mother to desperation.
According to Santos, the
boy’s fussing was so intense it
led to her husband abandoning
the family.
The boy is receiving traditional care at a hospital in Recife in
northeastern Brazil, the epicentre of the Zika epidemic and the
capital of the state seeing most of
the birth defects associated with
the mosquito-borne virus.
Zika, which has spread rapidly through the Americas,
has not been proven to cause
microcephaly in babies, but
there is growing evidence that
suggests a link. The condition
is defined by unusually small
heads that can result in developmental problems.
Modern medicine has not
been enough for Santos and
many other mothers.
That is where a type of parental therapy group called
“Room to be a Mother” came
in to bring relief to Santos and
others.
The group’s instructors this
month held two free workshops
in Recife for the mostly impoverished mothers of babies born
with birth defects related to the
Zika virus, teaching natural techniques to soothe the children.
Daniele Santos with her baby
Juan Pedro in her home in
Recife, Brazil.
Those include a traditional
Indian shantala massage for
babies, using a simple sling
that keeps babies tightly held
to their mother’s chest for
comfort throughout the day,
and also the use of a specially
shaped bucket for warm baths
meant to mimic the womb.
Santos now uses the massage, sling and bucket soaks
each day.
“His crying after the massages and baths became less
shrill,” Santos says, noting that
Juan Pedro is “much calmer.”
Therapist Rozely Fontoura,
who follows up with the mothers after they take the therapy
classes, said the shantala massage is particularly helpful,
as it works by producing endorphins and by reducing the
stress hormone cortisol.
“Babies with microcephaly
are generally very irritable, they
are very sensitive to stimulants,
they become very irritated and
are difficult to calm down,” she
said. “ So the production of
(endorphins) and the reduction
of cortisol helps a lot.”
Brazil has said it has confirmed more than 900 cases of
microcephaly, and considers
most of them to be related to
Zika infections in the mothers.
Brazil is investigating nearly
4,300 additional suspected
cases of microcephaly.
Colombia launches
talks with ELN
AFP
Bogota
C
olombia’s government
launched peace negotiations yesterday with
the country’s second-biggest
guerrilla group, the left-wing
ELN, broadening the push to
end the country’s bloody halfcentury conflict, officials said.
The two sides “have agreed
to set up public negotiations...
in order to sign a final accord
to end the armed conflict and
agree on changes in search of
peace and equity”, they said in
a joint statement read out by
their delegates.
Colombian government negotiator Frank Pearl and ELN
commander Antonio Garcia
read out the statement in a joint
appearance after talks in the
Venezuelan capital Caracas.
They hope to bring the ELN
into the peace process under
way with Colombia’s biggest
rebel force, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia
(Farc), sealing a broad agree-
ment to end the violence for
good.
The ELN is a leftist group like
the Farc but has fought as a rival to it for territory in a manysided conflict that started as a
peasant uprising in 1964.
While the Farc has observed
a ceasefire since last year as its
peace talks have advanced, the
ELN has continued attacks.
The war between right- and
left-wing guerrillas, government troops and gangs in Colombia is considered the last
major armed conflict in the
Western Hemisphere.
The government of president
Juan Manuel Santos has been
discussing for more than two
years the possibility of launching formal negotiations with
the ELN.
The government has been
holding talks in Havana with
the Farc for the past three years.
They had aimed to sign a
peace agreement on March 23
but that deadline passed with
no deal as key issues have not
yet been resolved, including
disarmament.
Sex trafficking ‘staggering’ in illegal gold mines
Reuters
Bogota
T
he scale of sex trafficking
around illegal gold mines
in parts of Latin America is
“staggering,” and thousands of people working there are prey to labour
exploitation by organised crime
groups, a think-tank said yesterday.
“When these mines are directly
controlled by criminal groups, or in
areas controlled by organised crime,
there is an elevated risk of human
trafficking,” the report by the Geneva-based organisation said.
“In Colombia and Peru particularly, and to a lesser extent in the
other countries studied, our research
uncovered numerous instances of labour trafficking and exploitation, sex
trafficking and child labour.”
The report by the Global Initiative Against Transnational Organised Crime examined the links between illegal gold mining, organised
crime and human trafficking in nine
countries - Peru and Colombia, the
region’s largest producers of illegal
gold, Brazil, Bolivia, Ecuador, Guyana, Mexico, Nicaragua and Venezuela.
Livia Wagner, who wrote the report, said she had seen girls as young
as 12 working in the brothels and bars
around illegal gold mines in Madre de
Dios, a vast province in Peru’s Amazon jungle.
“Sexual exploitation is very much
prevalent in illegal mining areas, especially in Peru and Bolivia, and my
impression is that the girls are getting younger and younger. The scale is
staggering,” Wagner, a private sector
adviser at the Global Initiative, told the
Thomson Reuters Foundation.
High gold prices from 2000 to
2010 created a gold rush and led organised crime groups to move into
the multi-billion dollar illegal mining industry, especially in Peru and
Colombia, the report said.
It quoted Colombian police authorities as saying record gold prices
and a government crackdown on cocaine trafficking had pushed the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Farc) rebel group and criminal
gangs to seek new revenue sources
and expand into illegal mining in the
past five years.
Profits from illegal mining are at
least three times as high as those
from drug trafficking, the Colombian
government says.
Though gold prices have fallen in
recent years, organised crime groups
are still driving the expansion of illegal gold mining, the report said.
Global Initiative estimates up
to 80 percent of the gold mined in
Colombia is illegal, while government officials say about half of all
mining operations in Colombia are
illegal.
In Peru’s Madre de Dios province,
in one mining area alone, known as
Delta 1, around 2,000 sex workers
were employed in 100 brothels, 60%
of them children, according to 2010
estimates by Huarayo Association, a
local campaign group.
“Whenever there are large migrations of men to an area for employment, there is a high demand for sexual services, which often generates
sex trafficking,” the report said.
Most women and girls come from
poor backgrounds with little education and are easy prey for recruiters
who offer them non-existent jobs
as cooks and waitresses in mining
camps.
“The wives of miners ... (in Madre
de Dios) are themselves the principal recruitment agents of new girls
for the bars and brothels,” the report
said.
Men, women and children are
also found in forced labour, essentially slavery, in and around mines
in Bolivia, Brazil, Nicaragua and
Colombia, according to the US State
Department’s 2015 Trafficking in
Persons Report.
A key reason why human trafficking flourishes in the illegal mining
sector is because mines are often
located in jungle areas that are hard
to reach and there are few labour
inspectors and police working in remote rural areas.
“There’s no police presence there,”
Wagner said.
Local authorities trying to combat illegal gold mining have largely
been helpless because of the power
of criminal groups who corrupt officials, the report said.
The governments of Peru and Colombia say clamping down on illegal
mining is a top priority, and both
have created special police units to
tackle the problem.
In the past few years, both
countries have shut down thousands of mines operating without
a government license and have
rescued hundreds of victims of
human trafficking during raids on
illegal mines.
A paramilitary-controlled mine near Suarez, Cauca.
Gulf Times
27
PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN
DIPLOMACY
Pakistani man without arms gets assistive device in India
IANS
New Delhi
A
41-year-old
Pakistani
man who lost both his
arms in an accident was
assisted with an unique innovative device at the Indian Spinal
Injuries Centre (ISIC) here.
Rano, who goes by single
name, suffered a life-altering
Sharif
replaces
attorney
general
accident five years ago leading
to irreparable damage to both
his arms. While his left arm was
amputated from the shoulder, he
lost his right arm from just above
the elbow.
The department of assistive
technology at ISIC created first
of its kind, low-cost assistive
device to enable functioning of
amputated arms, the centre said
in a statement.
movement. We created an innovative low-cost small assistive
device that was attached just
above his elbow,” said Nekram
Upadhyay, head of the department of assistive technology.
“When Rano came to us, he
was also not able to stand
from a sitting position”
After inspecting Rano, the
doctors sought the help of engineers from the assistive technology department at ISIC. The inclusion of assistive device did not
require any clinical intervention.
The device acts like an artificial hand that helps him get a
grip of things. Assistive devices
are created based on the “patient-driven approach” where a
patient is clinically evaluated for
developing the innovative and
appropriate assistive devices
“The device has been created
keeping in mind the requirements and needs of the patients.
We primarily use some technological solution for complex issues with a low-cost approach.
We are happy with our work and
its success,” added Upadhyay.
Rano and his family are happy
that he can live with greater independence in his daily life.
Protesters end sit-in
after ‘deal with govt’
Internews
Islamabad
AFP
Islamabad
P
slamist protesters gathered
in the Pakistani capital ended
their days-long sit-in yesterday after claiming the government had agreed to a number
of their demands including the
hanging of a Christian woman
convicted of blasphemy.
Pakistan’s Interior Minister
Chauhdry Nisar Ali Khan denied
however that a deal had been
struck, saying the demonstrators left “on their own accord”.
The protesters — who numbered some 25,000 at their peak —
had gathered Sunday in support of
Mumtaz Qadri, who was hanged
in late February five years after he
assassinated a liberal Punjab governor over his calls to reform the
country’s blasphemy laws.
The demonstrators clashed
with security forces in Islamabad before setting up camp outside key government buildings
along the capital’s main Constitution Avenue.
Ashraf Asif Jalali, one of the
protest’s main leaders, told
reporters at the protest site
Wednesday evening: “As a result
of the continuous four-day sitin, the government has accepted
our demands.”
“Nobody involved in blasphemy against the Holy Prophet will
be given concessions, whether
they be Asia Bibi or anybody
else,” he added, referring to a
Christian woman on death row
since 2010 over a dispute with
rime Minister Nawaz
Sharif showed the door
to the federation’s top
law officer Salman Aslam Butt
on Tuesday because he apparently lost the case related to the
removal of Pervez Musharraf’s
name from the no-fly list.
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif
approved the resignation of AGP
Salman Aslam Butt and replaced
him with Ashter Ausaf, who was
working as special assistant to
the PM on legal affairs.
Butt was appointed as the
top law officer in January 2014,
reportedly, due to his close association with the premier. He
returned the favour by providing
relief to the federal government
in a number of cases.
In some instances, instead
of engaging local counsel, Butt
himself represented the government of Pakistan before international courts. Legal experts were
quick to brand him as the ‘most
successful AGP’ of the decade.
But he met his Waterloo in the
Musharraf case, earning him the
wrath of the top legal eagles of
Pakistan Muslim League- Nawaz (PML-N) who were unhappy with Butt’s conduct and
called for his replacement.
On March 16, an important
day in Pakistan’s legal history,
Khawaja Mohamed Haris, Akram
Sheikh, Shahid Hamid and Mustafa Ramday were present in
Courtroom No-1 of the Supreme
Court, when the larger bench dismissed the federal government’s
plea against Sindh High Court order to remove Musharraf’s name
from the Exit Control List.
Butt lost the case and the government simply allowed the exdictator to fly off to Dubai. A senior
PML-N leader claims AGP Butt
was much closer to the defence and
therefore, he was shown the door.
Despite several attempts, Butt
was unavailable for comment
about his sudden resignation.
However, another law officer, who
talked with the former AGP said
that Butt resigned because his
personal practice was suffering.
Rano initially used an imported robotic arm which did not
work for him. He also attempted
cosmetic prosthesis which also
failed to provide him any relief.
He was finally referred to ISIC.
“When Rano came to us, he
was also not able to stand from
a sitting position due to nonfunctionality of the cosmetic
prosthesis which met the aesthetics needs but offered no
T
ACCIDENT
A US F-16 warplane crashed on
Tuesday while taking off from
Bagram airfield in Afghanistan,
an official said. The pilot ejected
safely. Pentagon press secretary
Peter Cook said the fighter from
the 455th Air Expeditionary Wing
crashed around 8:30pm. “Coalition
forces are securing the crash site.
The cause of this accident will be
investigated,” Cook said. The Taliban said their fighters shot down
the jet, claiming that all on board
had been killed. The insurgent
group is well known for exaggerating battlefield claims. Cook
said there was no immediate
indication the plane came down
due to enemy action. The pilot
safely ejected and was recovered
by coalition forces, and was being
evaluated by medical personnel.
Bagram is the largest US military
base in Afghanistan and is located
north of Kabul.
DEFENCE
Pakistani supporters of convicted murderer Mumtaz Qadri celebrate as they leave after their leaders announced the end of a protest held in
front of the parliament building in Islamabad yesterday.
Muslim women involving a bowl
of water.
However the interior minister
denied any such deal was made.
“There has been nor written or any other form of agree-
ment,” Khan said.
“We were about to give orders
to law enforcement agencies for
clearing the area but then two
religious personalities intervened.”
The minister added that the
protesters then decided to leave
on their “own accord”.
The stand-off came as Pakistan mourned more than 70
people killed in a Taliban sui-
cide bombing targeting Christians celebrating Easter Sunday
in Lahore, underscoring deep
religious divisions fuelling the
country’s long battle with extremism.
UNHCR conducting key survey of Afghan refugees in Peshawar
he
Commissionerate
Afghan Refugees (CAR)
in Pakistan’s northwest province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, is collecting data
on refugees residing in metro-
The United States has backed
Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s
decision to cancel his US visit,
noting that the current situation
in Pakistan required him to stay
at home. The prime minister was
due in Washington this week to
attend a nuclear security summit
which brings leaders from more
than 50 countries to the US
capital. Sharif, however, cancelled
his trip after the Lahore blasts
that killed 72 innocent people in
a park. “I think, given what just
happened, it’s completely understandable why he would want to
stay at home,” said State Department spokesman John Kirby
when asked to comment on the
prime minister’s decision. Kirby
also agreed with the assessment
that terrorist groups in Pakistan
had recently increased attacks
on civilian targets because a
government-led operation against
their hideouts had put them under pressure. “I know that they’re
under pressure. This group in
particular that claimed the Lahore
attack is TTP,” he said.
US F-16 crashes
in Afghanistan,
pilot ejects
I
Internews
Peshawar
US backs Pakistan
PM’s decision
to cancel trip
politan Peshawar.
This is the first time CAR is
conducting such a survey with
financial support from the United Nations High Commissioner
for Refugees (UNHCR).
Afghan Refugees Repatriation
Cell Director Fazal Rabi shared
CAR is conducting a door-todoor survey on the population of
Afghan refugees who have been
living in Hayatabad for years.
“The aim is to collect data on
documented and undocumented
refugees living in the city,” he said.
The survey started in January
and is in its final stages as almost
all of Hayatabad has been covered, he said. The director added
he could not share the data as of
now, but only after the survey
was completed.“It clearly differentiates between registered and
unregistered Afghan refugees,”
Rabi added, saying initially, the
survey was limited to Hayatabad,
but now will be extended to other
parts of the province. “This survey will help us understand the
needs of refugees. We will be able
to ask for seats for Afghan refugees in schools, colleges and universities in Peshawar,” he said.
Rabi also shared this survey
would also disclose the status of
undocumented refugees living in
Hayatabad. He said the status of
all refugees whose Proof of Registration (PoR) expired would be
considered “illegal”.
US appreciates
Pakistan nuclear
safety measures
Just two days ahead of the Nuclear Security Summit, the United
States has forcefully reiterated that
Pakistan’s nuclear responsibility
has been up to the mark because
of its important security measures in place. “Without question,
Pakistan takes very seriously its responsibility to provide security for
both nuclear material and nuclear
weapons,” said Thomas Countryman, Assistant Secretary of State
for International Security and Nonproliferation. Keeping that resolute
tone, he further said Pakistan
and the US have had continued
discussions on the subject as well.
“As a consequence of the Summit
process as well as our bilateral
co-operation, they [Pakistan] have
taken important steps forward in
providing that security,” he said.
Thomas Countryman was briefing
the foreign media on Tuesday.
Easter bomb strikes at symbolic heart of Pakistan: Lahore
AFP
Lahore
T
he Taliban’s Easter bombing of a crowded park in
Lahore could prove the
trigger for what many see as a
long overdue counter-terror offensive in the bastion of Pakistan’s establishment.
But analysts warn a sweeping military operation in a region traditionally dominated by
the current ruling party could
be another step in a “creeping
coup” by the increasingly assertive army.
At least 73 people perished
and hundreds were injured when
a bomb packed with ball bearings exploded near a playground
on Sunday, the bloodiest episode
in the country since 2014.
The attack, which the Taliban
said was aimed at Christians,
left the shattered bodies of dozens of children strewn around
the park.
It illuminated festering extremism in Punjab, the home
province of three-time Prime
Minister Nawaz Sharif. And, say
observers, it has also given the
powerful army a way into his
citadel.
“Sharif has been resisting the
army’s attempt to carry out a
counter-terror operation in the
province now, and the army has
called his bluff and is doing it,”
says Ahmed Rashid, a leading
security expert.
The generals have already carried out raids in three cities in
Punjab, including state capital
Lahore, and arrested more than
200 people — although they
have stopped short of publicly
calling their actions a full blown
offensive.
Increasing the army’s presence in Punjab could quell militancy as it has done in Karachi,
Pakistan’s heaving metropolis of 20 million people on the
Arabian Sea where paramilitary
Rangers launched an operation
in 2013.
But in the zero-sum game
of Pakistani governance, that
would represent a loss for the
civilian government, which increasingly finds itself playing
second-fiddle to the military.
“What you are witnessing is a
creeping coup,” said Rashid.
“The army already has com-
Supporters of Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) hold lighted candles as they stage a rally in Lahore on March
29, 2016, to pay tribute for the victims of a suicide bomb blast.
plete control of foreign policy
and counter-terror in two
provinces (northwest Khyber
Pakthunkhwa and southern
Sindh), and now is looking at a
third.”
An Islamist insurgency began
rattling Pakistan shortly after
the US-led invasion of Afghanistan toppled the Taliban in 2001.
The presence of thousands
of American troops sent battle-
hardened militants scuttling
across Pakistan’s porous border,
where they became entrenched
in tribal areas.
Since then, much of the official response to the violent Islamism has been concentrated in
the Pashtun-dominated northwest.
But observers say the emphasis on these lawless border areas belies the problems in other
parts of the country.
Lahore is by no means shielded from militancy. It has seen its
share of attacks, including one
on Christians just one year ago
that killed 17.
“The Punjab government has
failed to root out our sectarian militants in the province’s
south,” said Aamir Mughal,
a former intelligence officer
turned analyst.
“The provincial government is
more concerned with its foreign
image and has been stalling a
military operation there to weed
out these groups.”
Such an operation could damage long-standing alliances
Sharif’s party enjoys with Punjabi Islamist groups — including
the Sunni Tehreek movement,
which is leading protests in Islamabad calling for Shariah law.
Lahore looks on itself as the
cultural capital of Pakistan,
home to many of the country’s
liberals, and somewhat above
the fray.
It was the powerbase for
Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, Pakistan’s
first socialist prime minister, and
current premier Sharif, who cut
his teeth as provincial finance
minister in 1983.
“One family from Lahore has
been ruling in Punjab and frequently at the centre since those
years. More than three decades,”
said Badar Alam, editor of Herald
magazine.
“That is one massive reason
why Punjab’s power has continued to grow.”
That is also what made it such
an attractive target for Jamaatul-Ahrar, the Taliban faction
that carried out yesterday’s
bombing.
“Nawaz Sharif should know
that war has reached his doorstep,” militant Ehsanullah Ehsan
wrote on his Twitter account on
Tuesday. “God willing, the mujahideen will be the winners in
this war.”
28
Gulf Times
PHILIPPINES
Govt mulls submarines as
China row simmers: Aquino
AFP
Manila
T
he Philippines may invest
in its first-ever submarine fleet to help protect
its territory in the disputed
South China Sea, President Benigno Aquino said yesterday.
The impoverished nation,
which has never before operated submarines and until now
relied largely on US surplus
ships, has been ramping up defence spending in response to
China’s military expansion in
the region.
China claims almost all of the
South China Sea despite conflicting claims from the Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei.
Aquino said the Philippines
could lose control of its entire
west coast should China succeed in enforcing its claims.
“We’ve had to accelerate the
modernisation of our armed
forces for self-defence needs,”
he told reporters.
“We are a natural transit
point into the Pacific and we are
now studying whether or not we
do need a submarine force,” he
said.
Aquino: defence modernisation
Beijing has reclaimed more
than 2,900 acres from the South
China Sea in less than two years
Commandos ready
to rescue Indonesians
Manila Times
Zamboanga City
I
ndonesia is ready to send
elite police commandos to
the Philippines to rescue
10 of its citizens being held for
ransom by the militant group
Abu Sayyaf.
Manila and Jakarta have
confirmed that the Abu Sayyaf
kidnapped the Indonesians
off Tawi-Tawi province near
the Malaysian border. Jakarta
said the police commandos are
ready to rescue the hostages
who are being held by Alhabsi Misaya, a notorious Abu
Sayyaf leader tagged as behind
the spate of terrorism and kidnappings in Mindanao.
A report by the Straits Times
yesterday quoted Indonesian police spokesman Anton
Charliyan as saying that elite
squads from an anti-terrorism
unit and a police mobile brigade are ready to assist in the
rescue of the crew of the tugboat Brahma 12.
The boat was on its way to
Batangas province in Luzon
when intercepted by gunmen near Languyan Island on
March 26. It was unknown
why the Philippine military
and police forces failed to
protect the Indonesian boat
despite the huge presence of
security forces in Tawi-Tawi
because of nickel mining operations in Languyan.
Indonesia said it is also coordinating with the Interpol
after the Abu Sayyaf demanded P50mn in ransom for the
safe release of the hostages.
The Abu Sayyaf, whose
group is coddling Malaysian
and Indonesian militants in
southern Philippines, has
pledged allegiance to the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria or
ISIS. But the Philippine military said the kidnappers may
be spreading disinformation
on the status of the hostages
to mislead government forces
who are after them.
Brig. Gen. Restituto Padilla,
Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) spokesman, said a
number of reports have reached
the military and these are being
validated carefully. “There were
pieces of information that had
been floated. We have to validate and examine these carefully because these may have
been circulated to mislead the
investigators,” he added.
in an intensive island-building
campaign, and has deployed
surface-to-air missiles on a dis-
puted island there, according to
Taipei and Washington.
China’s military dwarfs that
M
ajority of Filipinos are
aspiring for a simple
and comfortable life,
according to a survey conducted by the National Economic
and Development Authority
(Neda).
The survey held from January to February this year among
10,000 respondents in urban
and rural areas showed that
70% of those polled want “a
medium-sized home, enough
earnings to support everyday
needs, at least one car/vehicle,
the capacity to provide their
children college education and
going on local trips for vacation.”
A small segment or 16.9% of
the respondents aspire for an
affluent life, while 3.9% said
they want to be rich.
Meanwhile,
three-fourths
or 72.1% of the respondents
believe that by 2040, a simple and comfortable life will
be the standard of living for all
Filipinos.For most Filipinos, the
most important economic goal
is the eradication of poverty,
hunger and unemployment, the
survey said.
The next most important
goals are housing, education
and health.
A
prevailing
sentiment
among those polled is that jobs
should be found in the Philippines and that Filipinos should
have options for good quality employment that supports a
comfortable life.
Eighty-eight percent agree
that in 2040, it will be good for
the country if citizens will stay
in the Philippines instead of
leaving to work abroad.
The survey showed that more
than 69% of the respondents
said that if given a choice, they
will choose to work here instead
of working in a different country.
The Neda said Filipinos’ aspiration for a comfortable life is
attainable.
“I guess at this point, the
question that many of you may
have in mind is whether this vi-
may not address the problem
in the most reasonable way,”
he said. Aquino said the South
China Sea dispute concerns
every country since it could
disrupt trade in shipping lanes
through which about a third of
the world’s oil passes.
“The uncertainty breeds instability. Instability does not
promote prosperity,” he said.
But while the Philippines is
fortifying its defences, Aquino
- who will step down in June
when his single six-year term
ends - said that as an impoverished nation the government
would prioritise “butter rather
than guns”.
“We have no illusions of ever
trying to match, trying to engage anybody in an arms race or
in a military build-up,” he said.
In a separate development
a defence department official
confirmed that the Philippines had sealed an agreement
to acquire two anti-submarine
helicopters.
The Anglo-Italian AW159
helicopters will be delivered in
a little over a year, said defence
undersecretary
Fernando
Manalo, adding they would be
the nation’s first.
He did not disclose the cost.
DPA
Manila
O
ne of the Philippines’
most active volcanoes
spewed ash and fiery debris overnight, triggering a small
bushfire on its slope, a government agency said yesterday.
The Philippine Institute of
Volcanology and Seismology
(Phivolcs) said it recorded two
minor eruptions at Kanlaon
volcano in the central province
of Negros Oriental on Tuesday
evening.
“From the southeastern side
of the volcano, the eruption
plume was observed to have
reached 1,500 metres above the
active crater,” the agency said in
a bulletin.
No injuries were reported
from the eruptions, which occurred three months since the
2,435-metre volcano, located
about 520 kilometres south of
Manila, last spewed ash.
Phivolcs reminded the public
to stay outside a four-kilometre
radius danger zone “due to the
further possibilities of sudden
and hazardous steam-driven or
minor ash eruptions.”
Three killed in
Zamboanga
shootout
Leisure
Manila Times
Zamboanga City
P
olice killed three people,
including a naked woman,
in a shootout before dawn
yesterday in Zamboanga City in
southern Philippines that ensued during one of their antidrug operations.
It was unclear if the woman
had been caught in the crossfire
in a house in the village of Baliwasan Tabuk, where two men
allegedly engaged the raiders in
a gun battle.
News reports said the woman
was shot in the back.
Police also said four people
were arrested in the anti-drug
operation.
One policeman — PO1 Jurakman Juhayli, assigned in Tungawan town in Zamboanga Sibugay
province — jumped in the river
upon hearing gunshots, but was
also taken into custody and is
being investigated.
Juhayli, who was in Zamboanga City attending a seminar,
said he thought the rebels had
attacked the neighborhood, so
he jumped into the river to save
his life.
People swim in the polluted waters of Manila Bay.
Most Filipinos aspire for
‘simple, comfortable life’
By Mayvelin U Caraballo
Manila Times
of the Philippines, despite
Aquino’s efforts to raise defence
spending to record levels and
the acquisition of new warships
and fighter jets.
This year China’s proposed defence spending
of 954bn yuan ($147bn) is
about 59 times that of the
Philippines.
The Philippines has turned
to its long time ally the US and
former wartime foe Japan to
bolster its military hardware.
It has also asked a UNbacked arbitration panel to
declare China’s sea claims illegal, with a ruling expected
later this year.
China boycotted the arbitration hearings at The
Hague.
However, buying submarines would not solve the disputes as the Philippines could
not match China’s military
might, said Benito Lim, a political science professor at the
Ateneo de Manila University.
“Aquino should be realistic. He needs force to counter
force,” Lim said, adding the
Philippines should reopen dialogue with China.
“A submarine will be a very
expensive investment, and it
Volcano
spews ash
and fiery
debris
sion is realistic. For us in Neda,
the answer is a resounding yes,
it is possible with the right
policies,” Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Emmanuel Esguerra said during the launch of
the agency’s long-term vision
dubbed as “Ambisyon Natin
2040” in Quezon City yesterday.
Under Ambisyon Natin 2040,
in the next 24 years, Filipinos
will enjoy a stable and comfortable lifestyle and will have equal
opportunities; citizens will not
be burdened by poverty or hunger and have equal opportunities; and the Philippines will be
a predominantly middle-class
society.
“We recognise, however, that
government has a critical role
to play in supporting the realisation of these aspirations,” Esguera said.
He added that the government needs to provide enabling conditions to help Filipinos build up their resources by
fostering sustained economic
growth, investing in people and
protecting them against shocks
that destabilise them. The government also needs to provide
the appropriate “rules of the
game” and ensure that these are
enforced fairly and equally, Esguerra, also the Neda director
general, said.
He noted that sustained
public investments to close the
country’s infrastructure gap
will be important in removing
bottlenecks that have limited
the potential of various sectors.
“We also need to provide
an environment that fosters
competition and rewards innovation, as they are critical for
long-term growth,” the Neda
chief said.
Investments in health and
education, will ensure the
availability of a healthy, highly
trainable and skilled labour
force, allow the poor to benefit
more from growth and foster
the development of a more entrepreneurial society, he added.
The state, Esguerra said,
also needs to adequately protect its citizens against social,
environmental and economic
instability.
Poe pledges better health
services for senior citizens
Manila Times
San Nicolas
S
enator Grace Poe reached
out to senior citizens when
she returned to her home
province of Pangasinan, where
she vowed to improve healthcare
for the elderly.
In a campaign sortie in San
Nicolas town yesterday, Poe
said the government should
make sure that local communities have full access to essential
Poe: assuring health services
medicines. Philippine Statistics
Authority (PSA) figures in 2012
showed that medicines account
for more than half of out-ofpocket expenditures of Filipino
patients.
A December 2015 survey of
Pulse Asia also found that health
was the top concern of Filipinos.
“What we want is this: You
should be able to get your maintenance medicines faster and
easier, whether for diabetes,
high blood pressure or anything
else. The government should
still provide you these medicines
even if you can’t pay for them,”
Poe said.
Public facilities, she added,
must be well-equipped to effectively serve the marginalised
sectors of society such as the
elderly.
The PSA found that 66% of
Filipinos seek medical care from
public hospitals, rural health
units and barangay (village)
health centres.
This is particularly true
among the poorest Filipinos who
use public health facilities 90%
of the time.
“Barangay
health
centres should be able to provide
for your medical needs daily,
whether you have cough or fever
of malaise. So that you will not
have to always go to a hospital,”
Poe said.
The lone independent presidential aspirant also wants a
government programme that
will provide employment for
senior citizens who are still
physically able and mentally
sharp to work again.
Senior citizens constitute 7%
or around 6mn of the Philippine
household population in 2010.
Gulf Times
29
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
Protest by nursing staff
Explosives and
suicide jacket
found in Lanka
IANS
Colombo
S
A nurse shouts slogans as police use water-canons to try to disperse a protest by nursing staff in Dhaka yesterday. Hundreds of nurses blocked an intersection demanding
the reversal of a government decision to recruit nursing staff by requiring them to sit an exam under Bangladesh’s Public Service Commission.
ri Lanka yesterday said
there was no threat to
the country’s security
though a suicide jacket and
explosives were found from
a house in north where the
Tamil Tigers once held sway.
There was no threat to the
national security despite allegations by the opposition that
the Tamil Tiger rebels may
try to regroup, Xinhua news
agency quoted defence secretary Karunasena Hettiarachchi as saying.
“We recover various kind
of ammunition very often as
these were all hidden by the
LTTE during the war. So the
question of our national security being threatened does not
arise,” Hettiarachchi said.
Opposition parliamentarian and former president’s
son, Namal Rajapakse yesterday tweeted that recovery of
a suicide jacket and explosives
in the former war-torn north
Dhaka court orders arrest
of opposition leader Zia
Khaleda Zia and 27 other
leaders of her BNP are
accused of instigating the
petrol bomb attack as part
of a deadly anti-government
campaign of arson in 2015
AFP
Dhaka
A
Bangladesh court yesterday issued an arrest
warrant for opposition
leader Khaleda Zia over a firebomb attack on a bus that killed
two people and injured dozens
last year, a prosecutor said.
The Dhaka court accused Zia
and 27 other leaders and officials of her Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of instigating
the petrol bomb attack as part
of a deadly anti-government
campaign of arson.
“She is the main accused in
the case,” prosecutor Shah Alam
Talukdar said.
“The court issued the warrant of arrest against her and
27 other senior officials and
activists.”
It is not the first time that
Zia — the bitter political rival of Prime Minister Sheikh
Hasina — has faced arrest, and
BNP spokesman Ruhul Kabir
Rizvi dismissed the charge as
“laughable”.
“This is politically motivated
and is part of deep conspiracy
against her,” he said.
The attack took place during
a nationwide blockade last year
of roads, rail and waterways that
the 70-year-old Zia called to try
to force Hasina to resign and
pave the way for new elections.
The blockade unleashed a
wave of deadly violence, leaving more than 120 people dead
as opposition activists firebombed hundreds of buses and
trucks and police responded by
firing live rounds.
Zia was confined to her of-
BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia waves to activists as she arrives for a
rally in Dhaka in this file picture.
fice compound in Dhaka for
months during the blockade,
after she threatened to lead an
anti-government rally through
the capital on the anniversary of
a disputed national election.
“There was no way she could
have instigated the violence as
she was confined to her office at
that time,” her lawyer Sanaullah
Miah said.
“This case is just to harass her
and to keep her politically under
pressure.”
Around 15,000 opposition
supporters and dozens of BNP
senior officials have been arrested as part of a crackdown
by Hasina in the wake of the
unrest.
A judge in the Dhaka Metropolitan Sessions Court issued
the warrant against Zia after
accepting a police charge-sheet
over the attack in Dhaka on
January 10, 2015.
However, it was not immediately clear whether police would
act on the order. Another arrest
warrant issued against Zia last
year was never executed.
Either way, the order is another blow to the two-times
former premier, who has described previous cases against
her as politically motivated and
aimed at keeping her out of
politics.
Police said up to 200 BNP
activists and supporters staged
a protest in front of the party
headquarters in Dhaka as news
of the court’s move emerged.
“They shouted slogans and
staged an impromptu demonstration. But they moved back
to the party office before police
reached the spot,” assistant commissioner of Dhaka Metropolitan
Police Saifur Rahman said.
The BNP’s second-in-command, Fakhrul Islam Alamgir,
was arrested yesterday on separate charges related to the 2015
unrest. He was held in jail before being granted bail on health
grounds.
The BNP boycotted the 2014
general election, leaving the
field clear for its rivals.
The party was further weakened by the crackdown last year,
when police pressed charges
against thousands of their leaders and grassroots activists over
the fire-bombing campaign.
The party has recently been
trying to stage a comeback,
holding a leadership election
this month after more than six
years. It wants to introduce
fresh faces into the leadership.
earlier in the day raised questions if the Tamil Tiger rebels
were trying to regroup in the
island nation.
However,
Hettiarachchi
said that the recovery was
“nothing extraordinary” as
such explosives and ammunition were hidden by the rebels
during the war period.
In addition to the suicide
jacket, police also discovered a
stock of explosives and bullets
which were hidden in a house in
Chawakachcheri, in the north.
Police had reportedly raided
the house on a tip-off that the
owner had in his possession
drugs and marijuana and the
suspect had fled the area during the raid.
The opposition has called on
the government to take responsibility for the “breakdown in
security” and take control of
the escalating crime rate.
The now vanquished Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam
(LTTE) liberally used suicide
bombers to target opponents
during the armed conflict in
Sri Lanka that ended in 2009.
Man plans
to reclaim
Everest
age record
DPA
Kathmandu
A
n 84-year-old Nepali will
attempt to reclaim the
record for oldest person to
scale Mount Everest this year, authorities said yesterday.
Min Bahadur Sherchan first took
the record in May 2008, around a
month before his 77th birthday,
but it was broken in 2013 by Japanese Yuchiro Miura, then 80.
Sherchan, a former Gurkha
serviceman, planned to climb
Everest in 2015, but all expeditions that season were abandoned after an avalanche triggered by an earthquake on April
25 struck the base camp.
The Nepal Tourism Board said that
Sherchan’s permit has been extended
for 2016 along with all other unused
permits from last year.
The world’s highest summit
was first reached by Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay Sherpa in
1953. It has been climbed by thousands of people since then, while
hundreds have died in the attempt.
Nepal should attract JV to construct $1.56bn power plant
Chinese investment to
B
achieve growth: ADB
Reuters
Dhaka
IANS
Kathmandu
T
he Asian Development
Bank (ADB) has suggested that Nepal should
grab the opportunities from
China to achieve the targeted
economic growth rate for the
next two years.
Launching Asian Development Outlook 2016 in Kathmandu yesterday, the ADB
said Asia’s leading economy
China’s structural change in
imports can create immense
opportunities for the border-sharing Nepal, Xinhua
reported.
“China’s
structural
change is a golden chance
for Nepal. Thus, it’s perfect time to attract direct
foreign investment from
the northern neighbour to
strengthen economy,” Kenichi Yokoyama, ADB country
director for Nepal, said while
Kenichi Yokoyama: “China’s
structural change is a golden
chance for Nepal.”
addressing the programme.
ADB has projected a 1.5%
economic growth rate of the
quake ravaged Nepal for the
fiscal year 2016 after a three%
growth last year.
It projected a slow growth
pace for this year in regard
to slow post-earthquake reconstruction, trade and transit disruption followed by
months-long economic blockade and unfavourable monsoon
creating troubles in agriculture
sector.
However, the growth
rate is expected to pick up
to 4.8% in 2017 through
stabilisation of political
climate, acceleration of
reconstruction and normal monsoon favouring
agricultural growth.
ADB is of view that there is
an urgent need to accelerate
reconstruction and implementation of development
programmes to prevent a further slowdown in economic
growth.
The economic growth of
Himalayan country is possible only through the speedy
reconstruction drive and focusing on sectors of energy,
tourism and agriculture, the
bank said.
Nepal witnessed an inflation
rate of 7.2% in 2015 whereas
it was significantly higher in
January this year, standing
at 12.1%.
angladesh-China
Power
Company Limited (BCPCL) will invest $1.56bn in a
coal-fired plant near a proposed
sea port south of Dhaka to produce 1,320 megawatts (MW) of
electricity by 2019, the head of the
joint venture (JV) said yesterday.
Two units with a capacity of
660MW each will be set up at
Dhankhali in Patuakhali district, 319km (199 miles) south of
Dhaka and close to the proposed
Payra sea port, said A M Khurshidul Alam, BCPCL’s managing
director.
BCPCL is a 50:50 JV between China National Machinery Import and Export Corp
and Bangladesh’s North-West
Power Generation Co Ltd.
“To implement the project,
both signed an agreement late
on Tuesday, with equal ownership and 20% equity,” Alam
added. BCPCL will fund 80% of
the investment by a loan from
Chinese banks and raw material coal will be imported from
Indonesia, China and Australia,
Alam said.
The new project will require
USS Blue Ridge anchored at Colombo
US 7th Fleet flagship USS Blue Ridge is seen at Colombo port in Sri Lanka yesterday.
12,000 tonnes of coal daily.
Bangladesh needs to produce 24,000MW daily by 2021
to meet its demand for power
that is growing 10% annually. At
present, it produces 8,500MW a
day and has the capacity to produce 11,000MW per day.
The first unit of BCPCL’s
planned project will come online
in April 2019 and the other one
six months later, Alam said.
30
Gulf Times
COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Editor-in-Chief : Darwish S Ahmed
Production Editor: C P Ravindran
P.O.Box 2888
Doha, Qatar
[email protected]
Telephone 44350478 (news),
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GULF TIMES
Cycling authorities
under pressure
to improve safety
Cycling’s authorities are under pressure to improve
safety after Belgian rider Antoine Demoitie died
following an accident involving a motorbike on
Sunday but it will be a tough task in a sport which is
still largely amateur.
While the International Cycling Union (UCI) has
expressed its sadness over Demoitie’s death without
discussing the circumstances of the accident, the
riders’ association (CPA) has demanded a probe and
improved safety measures.
Demoitie, 25, died after being run over by a race
motorbike during the Gent-Wevelgem classic - only
the latest in a string of incidents involving race
vehicles over the last year.
Slovakia’s Peter Sagan and Portuguese Sergio
Paulinho were sent crashing to the ground by
motorbikes during last year’s Vuelta, while Belgian
Greg van Avermaet, who was soloing towards victory,
was dismounted by a motorbike at the Clasica San
Sebastian.
At the Tour de France, a motorbike collided with
Jakob Fuglsang during a mountain stage while
Frenchman Sebastien Chavanel and New Zealand’s
Jesse Sergent were knocked down by neutral service
cars.
Motorbikes have multiple functions during a race:
some transport reporters and photographers, others
race stewards and the regulators who decide who can
overtake and when.
“Must tragic
circumstances be the
marker for change?”
Australian rider
Michael Rogers asked
recently.
After one his riders
was knocked by a motorbike during the La Drome
Classic race last month, BMC manager Jim Ochowicz
wrote to the UCI demanding action.
Despite the recent incidents, the UCI regulations
only state that “organisers shall demand that press
vehicles be driven by experienced drivers, familiar
with cycle races and knowing how to manoeuvre.
These drivers must hold the licence of a vehicle driver
for a road event.”
Getting the licence, however, is a mere formality.
While limiting the number of vehicles involved in a
race would certainly help, that in itself would not solve
the problem.
Some 70 motorbikes are on the world’s biggest race,
the Tour de France, although only about half of them
can regularly overtake the peloton.
Tour organisers Amaury Sport Organisation (ASO)
have imposed training courses on the motorbike riders
after Dutchman Johnny Hoogerland was sent flying
into barbed wire by a French TV car during the 2011
Tour de France.
ASO own the biggest races in the world with
the exception of the Giro d’Italia and the world
championships.
They bought the Vuelta (Tour of Spain) two years
ago and after last year’s incidents sent chief regulator
Jean-Michel Monin to the race to check how traffic
was being regulated.
According to ASO competitions director Thierry
Gouvenou, while ASO have the means to improve
safety, other organisers may not.
The problem is the sport is still largely amateur, as he
rightly pointed out.
Digital globalisation and
the developing world
While global goods trade
has stalled and cross-border
financial flows have fallen
sharply since 2007, flows
of digital information have
surged
By Laura Tyson and Susan Lund
Berkeley
G
lobalisation is entering a
new era, defined not only
by cross-border flows of
goods and capital, but also,
and increasingly, by flows of data and
information. This shift would seem
to favour the advanced economies,
whose industries are at the frontier
in employing digital technologies in
their products and operations. Will
developing countries be left behind?
For decades, vying for the world’s
low-cost manufacturing business
seemed to be the most promising way
for low-income countries to climb the
development ladder. Global trade in
goods rose from 13.8% of world GDP
in 1985 ($2tn) to 26.6% of GDP ($16tn)
in 2007.
Propelled by demand and
outsourcing from advanced
economies, emerging markets won a
growing share of the soaring trade in
goods; by 2014, they accounted for
more than half of global trade flows.
Since the Great Recession, however,
growth in global merchandise
trade has stalled, mainly owing
to anemic demand in the world’s
major economies and plummeting
commodity prices. But deeper
structural changes are also playing a
role.
Many companies are simplifying
and shortening their supply chains.
For a range of goods, automation
means that production location and
outsourcing decisions no longer
depend primarily on labour costs.
Quality of talent, infrastructure,
energy costs and speed to market
are assuming greater weight in such
decisions.
In the near future, 3D printing could
further reduce the need to ship goods
across long distances.
On its face, this shift to digital
globalisation would seem to work
against developing countries that
have large pools of low-cost labour
but inadequate infrastructure and
education systems.
Advanced economies dominate MGI’s
latest Connectedness Index, which
ranks countries on both inflows and
outflows of goods, services, finance,
people and data relative to their size
and share in each type of global flow.
These flows are disproportionately
concentrated among a small set of
countries, including the US, the United
Kingdom, Germany and Singapore,
with huge gaps between the leaders and
laggards. China is the only emerging
economy to have made it to the top ten
on the index.
Yet digital flows offer developing
countries new ways of engaging
with the global economy. The
near-zero marginal costs of digital
communications and transactions
create new possibilities for conducting
cross-border business on a massive
scale. Alibaba, Amazon, eBay, Flipkart
and Rakuten are turning millions of
small enterprises around the world
into “micro-multinational” exporters.
Companies based in developing
countries can overcome local
market constraints and connect
with customers, suppliers, financing
and talent worldwide. A total of
12% of global goods trade is already
conducted in e-commerce channels.
Moreover, a country need not
develop its own Silicon Valley to
benefit. Countries on the periphery
of the network of global data flows
can benefit more than countries in the
centre.
Digital connections promote
productivity growth; indeed, they
can help developing economies
move to the productivity frontier by
exposing their business sectors to
ideas, research, technologies, and
best management and operational
practices, and by building new
channels to serve large global markets.
But the Internet cannot deliver
such improvements in efficiency and
transparency unless countries build
the digital infrastructure needed
to connect the world’s huge offline
population. The number of Internet
If trade in global goods has indeed
peaked relative to global GDP, it will
be harder for poor countries in Africa,
Latin America and Asia to develop by
becoming the world’s next workshops.
But globalisation itself is not in
retreat.
While global goods trade has stalled
and cross-border financial flows
have fallen sharply since 2007, flows
of digital information have surged:
Cross-border bandwidth use has
grown 45-fold over the past decade,
circulating ideas, intellectual content
and innovation around the world.
New research from the McKinsey
Global Institute (MGI) finds that
cross-border flows of goods, services,
finance, people and data during
this period increased world GDP by
roughly 10% – roughly an additional
$7.8tn in 2014 alone.
In the near future,
3D printing could
further reduce the
need to ship goods
across long distances
Data flows accounted for an
estimated $2.8tn of this gain, exerting
a larger impact than global goods trade
– a remarkable finding, given that the
world’s trade networks developed over
centuries while cross-border data
flows were nascent just 15 years ago.
Digitisation disrupts everything:
the nature of goods changing hands;
the universe of potential suppliers and
customers; the method of delivery,
and the capital and scale required
to operate globally. It expands
opportunities for more types of
firms, individuals, and countries to
participate in the global economy.
It also gives countries and companies
everywhere an opportunity to redefine
their comparative and competitive
advantage. For example, while the US
may have been at a disadvantage in
a world where low labour costs were
paramount in global manufacturing
value chains, digital globalisation plays
directly to its strengths in technology
and innovation.
users worldwide now exceeds 3.2bn,
but at the end of 2015, 57% of the
world’s population, or 4bn people,
remained offline, and many who are
online use only basic cell phones.
In many developing countries,
connectivity is too slow, unreliable,
or expensive to allow entrepreneurs
and individuals to take full advantage
of the new global business and
educational opportunities.
Education systems will also need
to keep up with demand for language
fluency and digital skills. While
40% of the world’s population are
connected to the Internet, 20% are
still unable to read and write.
According to another recent MGI
study, there are also large gender
gaps in access to digital technologies
around the world, and this lack of
access impedes women’s economic
and social empowerment. Lagging
countries that fail to promote gender
equality, invest in education, and
adopt broader governance and
regulatory reforms risk falling
even further behind in reaping the
significant benefits of globalisation.
Twenty-first-century globalisation,
driven by digitisation and rapid
changes in competitive advantage, can
disrupt local industries, companies
and communities and cause job loss,
even as it spurs greater productivity,
boosts overall employment, and
generates economy-wide gains.
Governments must consider these
trade-offs carefully and develop ways
to support those who are harmed by
global flows, giving them paths to new
roles and livelihoods.
To date, few governments have
done so. Ironically, the political
backlash against globalisation is
gaining momentum in many places
even as digitisation increases the
opportunities and economic benefits
that globalisation as to offer. - Project
Syndicate
zLaura Tyson, a former chair of the
US president’s Council of Economic
Advisers, is a professor at the Haas
School of Business at the University
of California, Berkeley, and a senior
adviser at the Rock Creek Group. Susan
Lund is a partner with the McKinsey
Global Institute.
“Must tragic
circumstances
be the marker
for change?”
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2014 Gulf Times. All rights reserved
A view of the Washington Convention Centre where the nuclear summit is being held.
Momentum slows on Obama’s N-security agenda
By Matt Spetalnick
and David Brunnstrom
Reuters/Washington
J
ust as fears of nuclear terrorism
are on the rise, President Barack
Obama’s US-led drive to lock
down all vulnerable atomic
materials worldwide risks losing
momentum.
Obama will convene a global
summit in Washington this week
in the aftermath of deadly militant
attacks in Brussels that have fuelled
concern that Islamic State could
eventually target nuclear plants and
develop radioactive “dirty bombs.”
But despite significant progress
in persuading countries to protect
or rid themselves of bomb-making
materials, much of the world’s
plutonium and enriched uranium
remains poorly secured.
At the same time, the effort has
been complicated by fresh nuclear
advances by North Korea and
diplomatic tensions between the US
and Russia.
All of this weighs on Obama’s
agenda as he prepares to host world
leaders for his fourth and final
Nuclear Security Summit today
and tomorrow. He inaugurated the
event nearly six years ago, early in
his tenure, after using his landmark
2009 Prague speech to lay out the
goal of eventually ridding the world
of nuclear weapons as a central
theme of his presidency.
Obama hosts world
leaders for his fourth
and final Nuclear
Security Summit
today and tomorrow
While Obama’s hopes have bumped
up against geopolitical reality, the
White House is touting a list of nuclear
security achievements as he heads into
his final 10 months in office.
Arms control advocates commend
Obama for his efforts, but many see
progress slowing.
“The Nuclear Security Summits
have had a positive effect, but the
strategic goal of developing an
effective global nuclear security
system remains unachieved,” the
Nuclear Threat Initiative, an antiproliferation watchdog, said in a
report.
According to the group’s Nuclear
Security Index, which tracks the safety
of weapons-usable nuclear materials,
the past two years have brought no
improvement in a range of measures,
including on-site physical protection,
security during transport and the
ability to recover lost radioactive
materials.
The report also said many countries’
nuclear reactors were vulnerable to
online attacks. Seven of 24 countries
with weapons-grade material,
including China and Belgium, received
the lowest possible score for their
facilities’ cyber security.
Other critics point to a lack of an
agreed-upon set of international
standards for nuclear security or
a mechanism for keeping tabs on
common sources of radioactive
material found in hospitals and
medical labs.
However, Laura Holgate, Obama’s
adviser on weapons of mass destruction,
cited commitments from 30 countries
at the last summit in 2014 to secure their
most dangerous material.
“The international community has
made it harder than ever for terrorists
to acquire nuclear weapons, and that
has made us all more secure,” she
told reporters in a teleconference
previewing the summit.
Still, with the summit set to bring
together more than 50 countries
in the wake of last week’s Brussels
attacks, US officials acknowledge that
the threat of nuclear terrorism from
Islamic State could be uppermost in
leaders’ minds.
Two of the suicide bombers had
secretly filmed the daily routine of the
head of Belgium’s nuclear research
and development programme and
considered an attack on a nuclear site
in the country, according to Belgian
media.
US experts are less concerned
about militants obtaining nuclear
weapon components than thefts of
easier-to-acquire ingredients for a
low-tech “dirty bomb” that would use
conventional explosives to disperse
radioactive material and sow panic.
Adding to the sense that Obama’s
last nuclear summit might not be as
productive as the earlier ones, Russian
officials are skipping the meeting.
The White House called the decision a
“missed opportunity”.
Gulf Times
31
COMMENT
Our collective brain makes the difference
As a cultural species,
humans acquire ideas,
beliefs, values, and social
norms from others in their
communities
By Joseph Henrich
Cambridge
I
magine a game of survival that
pits a troop of capuchin monkeys
against you and your work
colleagues. Both teams would
be parachuted into a remote African
forest, without any equipment: no
matches, knives, shoes, fish hooks,
clothes, antibiotics, pots, ropes, or
weapons. After one year, the team with
the most surviving members would be
declared the victor. Which team would
you bet on?
You might assume that the humans,
given our superior intelligence, are
the team to beat. But do you or your
colleagues know how to make bows
and arrows, nets, water containers,
and shelters? Do you know which
plants are toxic?
Can you start a fire without
matches? Can you make fish hooks
or natural glues? Do you know how
to protect yourself from big cats and
snakes at night? The answer to most, if
not all, of these questions is probably
“no”, meaning that your team would
likely lose to a bunch of monkeys –
probably pretty badly.
This raises an obvious question. If
we cannot survive as hunter-gatherers
in Africa, the continent where our
species evolved, how did humans
achieve such immense success relative
to other animals and spread to nearly
all of the earth’s major ecosystems?
Here’s a key piece of the answer:
We are a cultural species. Our unique
psychological capacities allow us
to learn from one another over
generations, facilitating a cumulative
cultural evolutionary process that
produces increasingly complex and
sophisticated technologies, languages,
bodies of knowledge, conceptual
toolkits and adaptive heuristics.
The power of this process arises
not from raw individual intelligence,
but from the reinterpretation of the
serendipitous insights and mistakes
that our intelligence produces.
This means that the rate
of innovation will depend, at
least in part, on the size and
interconnectedness of the pool of
minds contributing to the cultural
evolutionary process. All other things
being equal, larger and more socially
interconnected groups will produce
a greater number of fancier tools,
technologies and techniques, even
if their individual members are less
inventive than those comprising a
smaller, more isolated group.
This finding is supported by
both tightly-controlled laboratory
experiments and historical case
studies. About 10,000 years ago, for
example, rising oceans transformed
Tasmania from an Australian
peninsula into an island.
On the mainland, technological
progress continued unimpeded.
But in Tasmania, groups of huntergatherers began to lose – or failed
to develop – a wide range of useful
technologies: bone tools, fitted coldweather clothing, boomerangs, spearthrowers, and durable boats. When
the Dutch arrived in the seventeenth
century, Tasmanians had the simplest
technology ever encountered by
European explorers.
To understand humans’ social
nature, it is crucial to understand
how culture has driven our genetic
evolution in ways that shape not only
our physiology and anatomy, but also
our social psychology, motivations,
inclinations and perceptions.
From this long process, in which
surviving and thriving meant
acquiring and adhering to the local
social rules, we emerged as potent
social learners.
The foundation of our ability to
form co-operative communities,
organisations and societies arises
not from innate co-operative
tendencies, but from the specifics
of the social norms that we learn,
internalise and enforce on others.
While our innate motivations do
play a role, they are harnessed,
extended, and suppressed by social
norms, which form the institutional
skeleton that allows our innate
inclinations to operate.
This novel view of human nature
and society generates some important
insights.
First, as a cultural species, humans
acquire ideas, beliefs, values, and
social norms from others in their
communities, using cues of prestige,
success, sex, dialect and ethnicity.
We pay particular attention –
especially under conditions of
uncertainty, time pressure and stress
– to domains involving food, danger
and norm violations.
Changing people’s behaviour begins
with an understanding of our cultural
nature, not our rationality.
Second, we gradually internalise
the social norms that we acquire
through a culture-driven process of
self-domestication. (We acquire our
standards for judging and punishing
others through the same process.)
These internalised norms become the
motivations that guide our actions.
This means that people’s preferences,
desires, and motivations are not
fixed, and thus that well-designed
programmes or policies can change
what is automatic, intuitive and
obvious.
Third, the most potent social
norms harness aspects of our evolved
psychology. Social norms for fairness
toward foreigners, for example, are
much harder to sustain and diffuse
than those that demand that mothers
care for their children.
Fourth, our ability to innovate
depends on the size of our collective
brain, which depends on the ability of
social norms to encourage people to
generate, share, and recombine novel
ideas and practices.
Fifth, there is a fundamental link
between institutions and psychology.
Because different societies have
different norms, institutions,
languages and technologies, they
also have different ways of reasoning,
mental heuristics, motivations and
emotional reactions. The imposition
of imported institutions often creates
psychological and social mismatches
that tend to lead to poor outcomes.
Finally, humans lack a certain
degree of rationality, making us
terrible at designing effective
institutions and organisations – at
least for now. I am hopeful that as we
obtain deeper insights into human
nature and cultural evolution, this can
be improved. Until then, we should
take a page from cultural evolution’s
playbook and design systems that
use variation and selection to make
institutions compete.
That way, we can dump the losers
and keep the winners.
By examining the rich interaction and
co-evolution of psychology, culture,
biology, history and genetics, we
have the possibility to gain important
insights into human psychology. This
scientific road has rarely been travelled.
It promises an exciting journey into
unexplored intellectual territory, as we
seek to understand the peculiarity of our
species. - Project Syndicate
zJoseph Henrich is professor of human
evolutionary biology at Harvard
University. His latest book is The Secret
of Our Success: How Culture is Driving
Human Evolution, Domesticating Our
Species, and Making Us Smart.
Weather report
Letters
Three-day forecast
TODAY
Wrong
approach
Dear Sir,
Further to the letter “Questionable
offers” (Gulf Times, March 29), I would
like to state that I was also one of the
victims of the same group referred to
in it. We had responded positively to
the telephone call from an official of
the group and our family visited their
offices located on the Bank Street.
On arrival there, we were greeted by
a friendly person who handed us over
to a sales agent of the group. The sales
agent made us feel very comfortable;
he also had a very friendly attitude. He
began showing us brochures of some
grand hotels, resorts and tourist spots.
We kept on asking him why he was
showing us all these and insisted that
he should come to the point.
But he convinced us first to have
a detailed look at the brochures and
then he would present to us what
the group had to offer. His intention
was to gain our interest in the tourist
spots and hotels. After about an hour
of explaining us the attractiveness
of the tourist destinations, he finally
completed his session. Let me point
out that all through this, he was
extremely charming. And from time
to time, we kept hearing several
announcements of many families
being welcomed to “the club”.
He insisted that we also join
their “club” to get access to these
destinations through a hefty advance
payment, stressing that if it was
paid via credit card, there would be a
discount.
Although we remained sceptical
and I told him of our disinterest to the
scheme, he kept on trying to convince
us. When we finally got up to leave,
he called for his manager who came
to us and also tried to change our
mind. Seeing that we were not at all
interested in their scheme, the two
men’s friendly approach vanished.
We were then treated to a rude look on
the manager’s face who told us that
as per their company policy, even if
we did not join their club, they had
to announce our names and declare
that we had joined their “club”. To
our disbelief, they then made the
announcement. The remaining
invitees might have believed that we
too had joined the “club” though we
hadn’t. I did feel the urge to speak up
and inform the rest of the families
there that it was a lie and just their
marketing strategy. But I couldn’t do
that.
Even if their intention is to woo
the public to join their “club”, their
approach is wrong. How can you gain
the public’s trust when you begin it
with a lie.
High: 27 C
Low : 21 C
reacting to my cold response, asked
me: “Sir, will you be interested to visit
our office to claim the prizes?” I said
“no”. His response was curt: “Next
time don’t fill in our coupons”. Of
course!
Partly cloudy to cloudy with chance
of scattered rain,thundery at times
FRIDAY
High: 24 C
Low: 19 C
Shehla Subhani
PO Box 63
Doha
A waste of
valuable time
Abdul Ghafoor
(Address supplied)
M Cloudy
Please send us
your letters
SATURDAY
High: 26 C
Low: 18 C
P Cloudy
Dear Sir,
In reference to letters “Questionable
offers” (Gulf Times, March 29) and
“Prize scams” (Gulf Times, march 30),
I would like to state that it is the same
modus operandi followed by the group
concerned in many hypermarkets and
department stores. So many people
waste their valuable time through
claiming the “prizes” announced by
the group the next day.
I recently had the same experience
as described in the two letters. Usually
I give such “promoters” a wide berth,
but last week by mistake I filled one
coupon offered to me by a sales agent
and I received a call the next day. After
going gaga over their prizes, the caller,
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Live issues
Is a stand-up desk really healthier?
than reality. A systematic review by
Cochrane researchers looked at 26
studies with 2,174 people. They found
that sit-stand desks reduced sitting by
between 30 minutes and two hours a
day. While this sounds impressive, the
researchers say the studies mostly did
not deliver the up-to-four-hours of
standing that experts recommend.
By Dr Luisa Dillner
London
S
itting is the new smoking –
blamed for increasing the risk of
heart disease and cancer, as well
as diabetes and obesity. Health
guidelines suggest we should spend 150
minutes a week in moderate exercise,
but many of us sit down for more than
half the working day – e-mail means
we don’t even have to get up to talk to
anyone. So it is not surprising that there
is a gap in the market.
Stand-up, sit-stand and treadmill
desks are all the rage. Google and
Microsoft have allegedly bought stacks
of treadmill desks – modified treadmill
bases attached to work surfaces. The
manufacturer of TrekDesk says that a
treadmill-desk set at a walking speed
of 1.5km an hour will burn 2.6 calories a
minute. Such energy expenditure does
not come cheap: desks cost upwards of
£1,000. But do they make people more
active and healthier, or are they this
year’s corporate gimmick?
The research so far is inconclusive.
The benefits may be more myth
Our sedentary
lifestyles are
increasingly being
blamed for a range of
problems
A woman working at a treadmill desk
at home.
Standing desks were also not found to
have much benefit in weight reduction – if
an average-sized man and woman spent
half of their eight-hour working day
standing, they would spend an additional
20 kilocalories and 12 kilocalories each.
This, point out the researchers, is not
enough to prevent obesity or type 2
diabetes. Prolonged standing may also be
difficult for people with low back pain.
Treadmill work stations, though,
were found to reduce sitting by nearly
half an hour in the Cochrane review
and another systematic review found
that they particularly benefited obese
people, improving their levels of good
cholesterol and reducing their waist
circumferences.
So much for the physical effects,
but what about productivity and
brainpower? Exercise is traditionally
thought to improve the ability to
think – but generally only after you
have stopped doing it. A study in
Plos One of 76 people randomly
assigned to a treadmill (moving at
1.5mph) or a sitting desk found that
the sedentary group did better at
recalling lists of words and working
out mental maths problems. It
was easier to concentrate and
remember from a sitting position.
Unsurprisingly, it was also easier to
type faster without making mistakes.
So, while the benefits of standing
desks may be overstated, the risks of
sitting are not. You can take walking
breaks throughout the day and use
the stairs, whatever desk you have.Guardian News and Media
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Gulf Times
QATAR
Modernisation
of fleets ‘to
generate new
opportunities’
By Ramesh Mathew
Staff Reporter
A
s the modernisation of a
number of navies of the
region is currently underway, the France-headquartered high-tech naval solution
provider, DCNS hopes it would
be able to cash in on the emerging opportunities in some of
the countries, including Qatar,
where upgrading of technologies
and solutions are currently on in
full swing.
Speaking to this newspaper,
GCC regional delegate of the
company Jean Luc Thouvenel
said the role played by DCNS
in modernising navies have enhanced its visibility and enlarged
their footprint across the Middle
East in recent years. “After we
manufactured vessels for the use
of the Egyptian Navy in our own
facilities in France, ships were
designed in Egypt, using our
technology solutions in Alexandria, the DCNS official said.
The acclaimed French company, which has supplied an array of vessels to nearly 50 navies
in the world is hopeful that there
would be takers at different levels for their solutions across the
region, where there has been a
remarkable growth in defence
spending by countries.
DCNS builds, designs submarines and surface combatants,
and develops associated systems
and infrastructure. Many naval
bases and naval shipyards are
among its list of clients.
Considered among the leaders
in providing effective solutions
to make naval defence stronger
with advanced frigates and multi-purpose vessels, the company
hopes its role in modernising the
fleets of such navies as those of
Egypt and Saudi Arabia would go
a long way in landing new orders
for its vessels.
DCNS Frigates, helicopter
carriers and Cowind vessels are
also in use by the navy in Malaysia. The company’s technological solutions are also being used
by the Indian navy these days for
building a Scorpene submarine
vessel at Mumbai’s Mazagon
Docks, it is learnt.
The French group has also expanded its expertise and focus
into marine renewable energy in
a big way.
A member of the UN Global
Compact, the company generated revenues of over 3.1bn pounds
last year.
Officials of Qatari Emiri Naval Forces and Raytheon during the recent visit to the US.
Qatari naval officials tour
Raytheon’s missile centre
S
Jean Luc Thouvenel at the DCNS pavilion at Dimdex yesterday. PICTURE: Jayaram
enior officers from the
Qatari Emiri Naval Forces
toured the world’s largest
missile-making facility in Tucson, Arizona, US to learn more
about Raytheon’s Rolling Airframe Missile’s (RAM) capabilities and to see its manufacturing in person.
Raytheon is a major exhibitor within the US pavilion at the
Doha International Maritime
Defence Exhibition and Conference (Dimdex) 2016, which
concludes today.
The Emiri Naval Forces delegation members were Colonel
Mohamed Bu-Hazzaa, Brigadier General Abdulla al-Mazroey, Colonel Jassim Hussain,
Lt Colonel Jaralla al-Nabit,
Lt Colonel Salem Almarri and
Colonel Moh’d al-Dosari (Qatar
Navy).
They interacted with Raytheon RAM Programme director
Alan Davis and his colleagues
C Jeff Meyer, Jerry Carter and
Mark Lindorff.
The recent visit also included a trip to the US Navy’s RAM
programme office in Crystal
City, Virginia, where the visitors received in-depth briefings on the missile’s classified
capabilities.
RAM is a supersonic, lightweight, quick-reaction, fireand-forget weapon designed
to destroy anti-ship missiles.
Its autonomous dual-mode
passive radio frequency and
infrared guidance design allow it to simultaneously defend against anti-ship missiles, helicopters, aircraft and
surface craft.
RAM is co-operatively developed in partnership between the US and Germany
and deployed on more than
165 ships in eight countries.
Earlier this year, the US
Navy awarded Raytheon a
$143mn contract for RAM
Block 2 guided missiles, the
latest version of the interceptor.
RAM Block 2 has a larger,
more powerful rocket motor
and advanced control section,
making it two and a half times
more manoeuvrable with one
and a half times the effective
intercept range.
Turkish military facility ‘to be ready in two years’
AFP
Doha
A
Turkish military base being built in Qatar will be ready within two years, Ankara’s defence minister said yesterday.
It will be the first Turkish military facility
in the region, Ismet Yilmaz told journalists
on the sidelines of the three-day Dimdex defence and security fair in Qatar.
“It (the base) will be completed within two
years,” said Yilmaz, adding the deal had been
approved by the Turkish parliament.
The deal is part of a defence agreement
concluded by Qatar and Turkey in late 2014.
“We want to achieve co-operation in the
field of (military) training and exercises, and
contribute to stability in the region,” said Yilmaz.
The defence minister said the deal was reciprocal and said there were Qatari military
personnel and aircraft currently stationed in
Turkey.
Top officer highlights Indian
navy’s role in regional safety
I
ndian Navy’s Western Command Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief
Sunil
Lanba yesterday recalled the
historic ties and bond between
his country and people of the
Gulf region at the Middle East
Naval Commanders Conference
held alongside the Dimdex 2016.
“This region constitutes India’s immediate neighbourhood,
with the waters of the Arabian
Sea lapping on the shores on either side. We are indeed united
through the sea and India has
a vital stake in the security and
stability of this region,” said the
senior Indian naval official while
addressing participants at the
conference.
While highlighting the historical significance of the Arabian
Sea, the official reminded that
the earliest civilisations thrived
in the littorals surrounding the
sea, and in its adjoining areas including the river basins of Nile,
Euphrates, Tigris and Indus.
“Major religions that originated in this region spread
mainly through the sea routes to
other parts of the world,” he said.
Thus, through the ages, the
Arabian Sea emerged as a melting pot of different societies and
cultures, said the vice admiral
while pointing out that the arrival of Europeans on Indian
shores in the late 15th century,
initiated an imperial race that
led to European powers jostling
for influence and domination,
ultimately resulting in colonisation of this region.
Stressing that Middle East has
more than 50% of the world’s
total oil reserves, he said more
than than 17 million barrels of oil
is passing through the Strait of
Hormuz, making it the world’s
largest oil transit choke point.
“The security and stability
of this region, and its maritime
domain is therefore of vital significance for all nations of the
world,” he said, while recalling
that the developments in the
post-Cold War period had heralded a new era of geopolitical
instabilities, leading to transnational crimes.
While highlighting the necessity of a favourable maritime environment in the Gulf region, the
senior official recalled the Indian
Navy’s efforts to shape maritime
stability through the continuous deployment of its ships in
the Gulf of Aden since 2008 to
counter maritime piracy.
“Co-operative actions by
state agencies, maritime forces
and industry have succeeded in
curbing piracy off Somalia,” he
said while hailing the efforts that
literally eliminated piracy incidents anywhere in the Arabian
Sea since 2013.
Lanba remembered the missions made by as many as 27
Indian naval ships to different
areas of his country and neighbouring nations to help in the
relief operations in the wake of
the 2004 tsunami disaster.
“The developments underscored the immediate requirement for nations to co-operate
in evolving a robust collective
mechanism, to foresee and respond to any future calamity in
the region”, he said.
The official also highlighted
the successful evacuation of more
than 4,000 people of nearly 40
nationalities from the conflict
zones of Lebanon and Yemen last
year. Vice Admiral Lanba, who is
leading a high-level Indian delegation to the Dimdex, earlier
met Qatar’s Minister of State for
Defence Affairs HE Dr Khalid bin
Mohamed al-Attiyah at his office
on Tuesday. He was accompanied
by Indian ambassador Sanjiv Arora, Indian Coast Guard deputy director general S K Goyal and other
members of the delegation.
A host of issues related to defence co-operation between India
and Qatar were discussed at the
meeting.
Dr Khalid K al-Hajri, chairman and CEO of QSTec, flanked by students, inaugurates the solar art exhibition
at Katara yesterday.
Solar art exhibition
kicks off at Katara
A
Vice Admiral Lanba and Indian ambassador Arora at the meeting with Qatar’s Minister of State for Defence Affairs HE Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah.
solar art exhibition initiated by Shams Generation, an educational
initiative by Qatar Solar Technologies (QSTec) in collaboration with Qatar Museums,
was opened yesterday at the
Katara Hall 19 – Gallery 2.
Inaugurated by Dr Khalid K
al-Hajri, chairman and CEO
of QSTec, the event will be
open until April 6. The collective exhibition features
artwork by students from
various schools participating
in the Shams Generation programme using a solar power
kit and recycled materials.
Over 20 schools have incorporated the programme, with
more than 1,500 students
contributing to the artwork
being showcased.
Shams Generation, which
will reach over 7,000 students
in 2016, is the largest ever national-level educational programme of its kind in Qatar
and aims to forge a blueprint
for progress on sustainability
of solar energy as a resource.
On April 6 and 7, the exhibition will make way for a series of workshops for children
to make their own solar lanterns at Katara.
A university programme
has also been launched this
year with a view to collaborate
with more universities and
colleges in Qatar.
Established by QSTec in
2015, Shams Generation is an
interactive hands-on learning programme that combines
art, science, reusing and solar
energy.
Teachers receive instructions on how to implement
the programme and in turn
educate the students.

Qatar signs deals worth QR3.54bn at Dimdex

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