Place Vendôme `to generate 5,000 jobs by 2018`

BUSINESS | Page 1
QP to
hand over
management
of some areas
at Mesaieed
Industrial City
to Manateq
INDEX
2 – 10, 28
QATAR
26, 27
COMMENT
1 – 7, 11 – 16
REGION
11
BUSINESS
ARAB WORLD
12
CLASSIFIED
8 – 11
SPORTS
1 – 12
INTERNATIONAL 13 – 25
SPORT | Page 1
Serena,
Murray
cruise at
rain-lashed
Wimbledon
Prayer times
Fajr....3.17 Zuhr....11.37 Asr....3.00
Maghrib.....6.31 Isha.....8.01
Ambulances and police setting up a perimeter, next to people lying on the ground,
after two explosions hit Istanbul’s Ataturk airport yesterday.
WEDNESDAY Vol. XXXVII No. 10134
June 29, 2016
Ramadan 24, 1437 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
The Place Vendôme project will
feature a mall containing over
500 retail outlets, restaurants
and a precinct that will showcase
some of the world’s leading luxury
brands
10 die as suicide
bombers attack T
Istanbul airport
By Peter Alagos
Business Reporter
AFP
Istanbul
A
t least 10 people were killed
yesterday evening in a suicide
attack at the international terminal of Istanbul’s Ataturk airport,
Turkish Justice Minister Bekir Bozdag
said.
Two explosions hit the airport - Turkey’s biggest - followed by gunfire, local television channels reported, adding that all flights had been suspended.
“Unfortunately 10 people have been
killed according to a preliminary toll,”
Bozdag told parliament in Ankara.
Sixty people were wounded, six of
them very seriously, state news agency
Anadolu said.
More than a dozen ambulances raced
to Ataturk airport, CNN Turk said.
The channel cited witnesses as saying two violent blasts shook the international terminal, sparking panic
among passengers.
“It was very strong, everyone panicked and started running in all directions,” one witness told CNN Turk.
Police set up a perimeter around the
site, television images showed.
Turkey has been hit by a string of
deadly attacks in the past year, blamed
on both Kurdish rebels and the Islamic
State (IS) group.
The Turkish airport attack also follows co-ordinated suicide bombings
at Brussels airport and a city metro
station in March that left 32 people
dead.
Qatar condemns explosion
Qatar has strongly condemned the explosion at Istanbul’s Ataturk airport. While
condemning the “cowardly criminal
attacks which run counter to all moral
values and human principles as well as
the teachings of the revealed religions”,
the Foreign Ministry, in a statement,
expressed Qatar’s “solidarity with the
brotherly Republic of Turkey and support
to all measures it takes to maintain its
security and stability”. The statement said
that “Qatar’s support to Turkey stems
from its firm position of rejecting violence
and terrorism in all its forms and manifestations”. It expressed Qatar’s sincere
condolences to the victims’ families, the
Turkish government and people, wishing
the injured speedy recovery.
Istanbul, a major tourism hub that
is home to some 15mn people, has suffered several attacks in recent months,
including a bombing in the heart of the
tourist district that killed a dozen German visitors and was blamed on IS.
Two months later, three Israelis and
an Iranian were killed in a bombing on
the city’s main Istiklal shopping street,
an attack also blamed on IS.
A blast on the tarmac at the other
Istanbul airport, Sabiha Gokcen, killed
a cleaner and wounded another in December, damaging several planes.
Located just outside Turkey’s biggest city, Ataturk airport served more
than 60mn passengers in 2015, making
it one of the busiest in the world.
he multi-billion Qatari riyal mixed-use development
project, Place Vendôme, which
combines the hospitality and retail
sectors, will generate a minimum of
5,000 jobs once it starts operations
in Lusail City by 2018, an official has
said.
Place Vendôme partner AbdulAziz
al-Rabban described the project as
“one-of-its-kind” in the country, and
“will take Qatar to another level of
shopping and tourism”.
“You cannot see another project
like this anywhere else in the country.
In the region, there are around one or
maybe two projects similar to Place
Vendôme,” al-Rabban told Gulf Times.
Place Vendôme is a project of United Developers, a group of four Qatari
investors who partnered to align their
expertise in retail, real estate, construction and contracting. United
Developers envisions Place Vendôme
as a “groundbreaking example” of the
entrepreneurship, vision and energy
of Qatari commitment to the nation’s
development.
The project, which broke ground
on March 17, 2014, is scheduled to
open in 2018, along with two hotels
and a serviced apartments complex,
which were unveiled to the media in
the presence of other Place Vendôme
AbdulAziz al-Rabban: Place Vendôme
partner
Sean Kelly: Place Vendôme project
director
partners, Ibrahim al-Asmakh and
Sheikh Khaled bin Nasser al-Thani.
Also present during the event were
Place Vendôme project director Sean
Kelly and Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Africa and Middle East’s Acquisitions
and Development senior vice president Neil George.
Aside from the three mid-rise
properties located inside Place
Vendôme, the project will feature a
mall containing over 500 retail outlets, restaurants, a central entertainment, and a unique luxury precinct
that will showcase some of the world’s
leading luxury brands.
“The two hotels, Luxury Collection Hotel and Le Méridien Lusail, as
well as the service apartments, will be
located beside the mall, which means
that we will always have tenants, plus
visitors who either want to stay in Qatar or people who want to enjoy our
other amenities.
“To any standalone hotel, a mixed-
used development plan is an advantage. The location of the Place
Vendôme is also fantastic because it is
in front the sea – you have a shopping
mall, elegant hotels, and a magnificent view,” al-Rabban explained.
Asked about the construction
phase of Place Vendôme, al-Rabban
said: “The physical structure of Place
Vendôme is already 95% complete.
From what I understand, the entire
construction phase will be completed
by mid-August this year. From then
on, we will start applying the finishing
touches to the facilities.”
On employment generation, Kelly
added: “We think at a minimum there
would be 5,000 jobs available when
the mall is fully-operational by 2018.
It can vary a bit, depending on what
the retailers would do but with 500
retailers and 650 hotel rooms, and by
the time we have got all the maintenance and security staff, it could reach
to that number.” Page 6
Petrol prices to go up in July
P
etrol prices in Qatar will go up
next month while there will not
be any change in the diesel price
in July, shows an announcement by
the Ministry of Energy & Industry.
According to the Ministry of Energy
& Industry the 91-octane Premium
gasoline will cost QR1.3/litre and Super QR1.4 in July.
The price fixed for this month is
QR1.2/litre (Premium) and QR1.3/l
(Super), which will be in effect until
June 30.
Diesel, however, will remain unchanged at QR1.4/l in July.
Fuel prices in Qatar were allowed
to fluctuate in response to changes
in the global market from May 1,
the Ministry of Energy and Industry
said.
Every month, a special committee comprising representatives from
various government bodies, would
review fuel prices (gasoline and diesel) and make recommendations on
proposed prices for the local market
accordingly.
Cameron holds talks with EU peers following Brexit vote
DPA
Brussels
Fasting times
Iftar today ............................. 6.31pm
Suhoor tomorrow.............. 3.17am
+1.78
+3.84%
in
Our Lord! Give us in this world
that which is good and in the
Hereafter that which is good,
and save us from the torment of
the Fire! (Du’aa)
48.11
+51.19
+0.52%
d
RAMADAN THOUGHT
9,867.94
+269.48
+1.57%
he R
is
bl TA 978
A 1
Q since
Eid holidays
for ministries
An Abu Dhabi court has jailed the
wife of a prominent Emirati for 10
years after convicting her of spying
for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah
movement, local media reported
yesterday. The Emirati woman of
Lebanese origin was found guilty of
“handing over classified information
about top leaders, including how
political and economic decisions are
made at the highest authorities in
the country, to two members of the
intelligence wing of Hezbollah”, Gulf
News reported. Page 11
17,409.72
pu
QATAR | Announcement
Woman jailed
for spying
NYMEX
Place Vendôme
‘to generate 5,000
jobs by 2018’
In brief
REGION | Conviction
QE
Latest Figures
GULF TIMES
The Emiri Diwan has announced
the holiday dates of Eid al-Fitr for
ministries and other government
entities and public institutions as
well as Qatar Central Bank (QCB),
banks, financial institutions under
QCB’s jurisdiction and Qatar
Financial Markets Authority (QFMA).
Holidays for ministries and other
government entities and public
institutions start on Sunday, July
3, and end on Monday, July 11.
Employees are to resume work on
Tuesday, July 12. As for QCB, banks,
financial institutions under QCB’s
jurisdiction and QFMA, the QCB
governor shall specify the start and
end dates of the vacation.
DOW JONES
B
ritain’s outgoing Prime Minister David Cameron yesterday sought to appease his
European Union (EU) counterparts
at talks in Brussels after his country’s momentous decision to leave
the bloc, but nerves remained raw
amid disagreement over the steps
ahead.
Thursday’s referendum, paving
the way for one of the EU’s top three
economies to take the unprecedented
path of exiting the bloc, has triggered
political mayhem in Britain, caused
global market panic and sent shock
waves across the EU.
“While we are leaving the EU, we
mustn’t turn our backs on Europe.
These countries are our neighbours,
our friends, our allies, our partners,”
Cameron, who announced his resignation in the wake of the referendum
outcome, said as he arrived at the
Brussels summit.
Britain’s exit talks should be
“as
constructive
as
possible”,
and the country should aim for
“the closest possible relationship in terms of trade and cooperation and security,” Cameron added.
Pages 17, 18, 26
HIA takes steps to handle passenger rush during Eid holidays
H
amad International Airport
(HIA) has made elaborate arrangements to handle passenger rush during the peak travel season
that begins on June 30.
In a communique yesterday HIA
advised passengers to check-in online, arrive three hours prior to their
flight and use the E-gates (wherever
applicable) to avoid queues.
HIA reminded passengers that
check-in will close 60 minutes prior
to flight departure.
Eid al-Fitr holidays for ministries,
government entities and public institutions in Qatar will begin on July
3 and end on July 11. Effectively, the
holidays will commence on July 1 due
to the weekend.
Hence, Hamad International Airport in Doha is expected to witness
heavy rush of passengers from June
30.
HIA advised general public who are
dropping off or collecting passengers
to use the short-term car park, which
provides complimentary parking for
the first 30 minutes and costs QR5 an
hour thereafter.
Passengers also have the option of
parking their vehicles at the airport’s
long-term car park, which provides
A view of Hamad International Airport (HIA) , Doha.
customers with a regular shuttle
service to the main terminal every 1520 minutes.
The east short-term car park is
more convenient for passengers flying with Qatar Airways, while the
west short-term car park (map) is
better suited for passengers travelling
with all other airlines.
A lost ticket will cost QR35, HIA
cautioned the users of parking facility.
Long-term car park facility is located on the southern end of the passenger terminal. It offers covered and
secured parking for up to 60 days
with complementary shuttle service
to the terminal every 15-20 minutes.
For every completed day (24 hours),
QR45 will be charged at the long-term
car park facility.
A lost ticket will cost QR35 in addition to the actual tariff for the duration of parking, HIA said.
Meanwhile, Qatar Duty Free is offering passengers travelling by Qatar
Airways 10% off shopping vouchers
for online check-in.
For assistance during travel and
updates on deals and offers, passengers can download the ‘HIAQatar’
App available for both Android and
iPhone.
2
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
QATAR
QC panel discusses
recruitment of
domestic workers
T
he recruitment committee at the Qatar Chamber (QC) held a meeting
headed by QC honorary treasurer and head of the committee
Ali Abdullatif al-Misnad.
Various topics related to
the recruitment of domestic
workers, including maids and
ways to ease the procedures
of recruiting such category of
workers, were discussed at the
meeting.
The members discussed the
possibility of opening up the
market to recruit workers from
various countries to reduce the
potential cost on families, de-
lay in the arrival of the maids
and the review of all the clauses
of the employment contract to
maintain the rights of both the
employer and the worker.
The committee also reviewed
a suggestion by representatives of the recruitment agencies to hold a joint meeting with
the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
(MOFA)
and representatives
of the embassies of labour exporting countries to discuss the
potential of expanding the list
of countries from where maids
could be recruited into Qatar.
Al-Misnad pointed out QC has
addressed MOFA Consular Affairs
regarding the recommendations
of its first meeting last week. He
said that progress on related issues will be followed accordingly
to arrive at practical solutions in
such an important issue as the
recruitment of domestic workers
because it affects the lives of many
families in the country.
The Ministry of Administrative Development, Labour
and Social Affairs will be also
directly informed about any
progress on the issues to take
the necessary procedures accordingly. The next meeting of
the committee is to be held after Eid al-Fitr.
Rota brings cheer to Rumailah Hospital residents
R
each Out To Asia (Rota)
volunteers recently visited Rumailah Hospital’s
Residential Care Community
and shared Iftar with disabled
residents as part of their Ramadan 2016 outreach initiative.
The joyful event, sponsored
by Occidental Petroleum Corporation (OXY), highlighted the
importance of community service in Qatar and brought together diverse members of the Qatari
community to socialise and celebrate Ramadan together.
“I really enjoyed the event
and I’m extremely grateful to
have been part of this activity.
To see all the children enjoying
themselves was such an amazing feeling and I would like to
say thank you to Rota for organising this,” said Rota volunteer
Anita Madhoo.
Rota, a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and
Community Development (QF),
has an established reputation for
bridging the gap between differ-
Rota’s Ramadan 2016 Project aims to strengthen relationships with community-based partners.
ent communities in Qatar, while
building a strong culture of dedicated community service.
Mohammed al- Saleh, national programmes director,
Rota, said: “Ramadan presents
a great opportunity for Rota to
further its community outreach
initiatives. Our Ramadan 2016
Project gives Rota volunteers the
chance to engage with members
of the wider community. As part
of Rota’s Ramadan 2016 Project,
volunteers have shared Iftar
Katara plans special programme for Eid
T
Dr al-Sulaiti with the winners of the contest.
he Cultural Village Foundation, Katara, is set to
conduct a special programme for Eid al-Fitr festivities, which will go on for four
days.
In an extension of its Ramadan
festival ‘Qur’an and the creation of man,’ Katara will present
a programme titled “A child’s
dream” on Katara esplanade
with three shows a day in Arabic
and English.
The first show in Arabic starts
at 7.30pm, the second in English
at 8.30pm and the third in Arabic
will start at 9.30pm. Besides, Eid
gifts will be distributed on children after the end of the first and
second shows. Fireworks shows
will start after the conclusion of
the third show daily.
Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-
Sulaiti, Katara general manager,
said that Katara concludes Ramadan festivals with Eid festivities, and is keen to make it a joyous for all its visitors. He pointed
out that the aim of the Eid festival is to give Katara’s visitors,
whether from inside or outside
Qatar, a sense of the festive atmosphere of the good occasion
and give them an opportunity to
spend a good time in an outdoor
family trip.
He further affirmed that Katara has become a well-known
tourist destination in Qatar
and attracts a growing number
of tourists from inside and
outside the country, especially
the GCC region. Accordingly,
the shows will be in Arabic and
English, taking into consideration the culture diversity of the
visitors of the place.
“We work hard to attract more
visitors and let them enjoy the
great variety of our activities and
functions, as Katara has become
an attractive destination inside
and outside the country,” said Dr
al-Sulaiti.
The shows are presented by
a group of performing troupes
in acrobatics, circus, jugglers,
dancers and other performers.
A specially designed equipped
with all the necessary sophisticated machines and lightening
and sound systems will be erected for the Eid festival.
In the meantime, Dr al-Sulaiti
has honoured the children who
won the first places at Katara
Ramadan contest for the Holy
Qur’an memorisation and presented them with prizes.
with patients at the Rumailah
Hospital Residential Care Community for the last six years.
These initiatives serve as an
ideal opportunity for new Rota
volunteers to gain invaluable
community service experience.”
Ikea Patrull
safety gates for
children recalled
The Ministry of Economy and
Commerce, in collaboration with
Hamad and Mohamed Al- Futtaim,
has announced the recall of Ikea
Patrull safety gates for children
as the safety lock could open
unexpectedly and pose a fall risk to
children. Ikea has urged customers
who have a Patrull safety gate for
children to immediately remove
it and return it to the store for a
full refund. The ministry said 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 ministry said that it
will co-ordinate with the supplier
to ensure the recall of defective
products and will communicate
with customers to ensure that the
necessary procedures have been
taken.
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
5
QATAR
Participants of the initiative.
Jaidah Automotive is title
sponsor of 7asanat Olympics
M
ore than 250 volunteers
have taken part in a number
of initiatives as part of the
third 7asanat Olympics, the annual
Ramadan volunteer programme.
Together with Jaidah Automotive,
the exclusive dealer of Chevrolet in
Qatar, the initiative has been launched
by The Youth Company (TYC), Qatar’s
social youth enterprise.
The 7asanat Olympics serve as a
platform for volunteering and engaging with the community during the
holy month. The volunteers have taken
part in activities such as distributing
3,000 Iftar boxes at traffic signals before and after Iftar and teaming up with
Qatar Charity for the #Yestahloon
initiative to clothe low-income workers, collecting clothing and household
good donations from many residential
compounds in Qatar.
Jaidah Automotive, title sponsor of
this year’s 7asanat Olympics, has provided its Jaidah Square showroom as
the #7asanat16 headquarters for the
programme, allowing volunteers to
prepare and launch all the activities
from there. It has also provided several
vehicles for use by the 7asanat team to
transport and deliver charitable Iftar
meals and donations.
As part of the programme, the volunteers have visited children at nu-
merous Hamad Medical Corporation
facilities and elderly citizens in their
homes to entertain them and join
them for Iftar meals courtesy of the
initiative’s sponsors.
Khalid Samir, director of operations at Jaidah Automotive, said: “We
are delighted to be the title sponsor of
The Youth Company’s 7asanat Olympics this year, a fantastic initiative led
by the youth in Qatar with the aim of
giving back to our communities. As a
leading organisation in Qatar, CSR is
at the forefront of our goals and encouraging a culture of giving back to
our community is core and reflects our
company’s values.”
Mannai Corporation hosts Iftar for staff
M
annai Corporation has hosted an Iftar for
the employees of the group. The event,
held at the group’s accommodation facility in the Salwa Industrial Area, was attended
by 600 employees and management from various
divisions of Mannai Group. Khalid Mannai, vice
chairman, Executive Committee, Mannai Corporation, said: “The annual Iftar gathering is an expression of our gratitude to the commitments made by
all the members of the group and provides an opportunity to foster and nurture relationship with
our staff and colleagues.”
6
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
QATAR
Real estate transactions
The total value of trading in real estate sales contracts registered with the Real Estate Registration
Department at the Ministry of Justice from 19 to
23 June mounted to QR 210.6mn. According to
the weekly bulletin issued by the department, the
list of properties that were traded by sale includes
open plots of land, houses and multi purpose
buildings, which are located in the municipalities of Doha, Umm Salal, Al Khor, Al Dhakira, Al
Rayyan, Al Daayen, Al Wakrah and Al Shamal.
Cyprus FM meets
Qatar’s envoy
Minister of Foreign Affairs of
Cyprus Ioannis Kasoulides
has met Qatar’s outgoing
ambassador to Cyprus Hussein
bin Ahmed al-Humaid.The
Cypriot Foreign Minister thanked
the Qatari ambassador for his
efforts in enhancing the relations
between Qatar and Cyprus.
Lusail to get two world-class
hotels, serviced apartments
By Peter Alagos
Business Reporter
T
wo world-class hotels and a serviced
apartments complex
that will add a total of 650
rooms to the luxury development in Qatar are set to
rise inside Place Vendôme,
a multi-billion Qatari riyal
mixed-use
development
project of United Developers in Lusail City, an official
has announced.
Ibrahim al-Asmakh made
the announcement yesterday in the presence of fellow Place Vendôme partners
– Sheikh Khaled bin Nasser
al-Thani and AbdulAziz alRabban, project director Sean
Kelly, and Neil George, senior
vice-president, Acquisitions
and Development, Starwood
Hotels & Resorts Africa and
Middle East.
Al-Asmakh also said
Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Worldwide will operate the
three mid-rise properties,
which are slated to open in
2018.
“We’re pleased to be collaborating with Starwood
Hotels & Resorts on the development of the Luxury
Collection Hotel and Le
Méridien Lusail. The two hotels and serviced apartments
complex are a perfect match
for our brand and will help
make guests’ stay at Place
Vendôme an unforgettable
experience,” Kelly said.
According to Kelly, the
Luxury Collection Hotel and Le Méridien Lusail
and serviced apartments
complex will cater to travellers “looking for a lavish
hospitality experience in
the heart of Qatar’s newest
Neil George, Ibrahim al-Asmakh, Sheikh Khaled bin Nasser al-Thani, AbdulAziz al-Rabban and Sean Kelly during the unveiling
of the two hotels and serviced apartments complex inside Place Vendôme . PICTURE: Jayan Orma
shopping and entertainment destination.”
Luxury Collection Hotel,
Kelly said, “will embody
classical Parisian elegance,”
and will feature 250 luxuriously-appointed guest
rooms, including two presidential suites. He noted that
the Luxury Collection Hotel
will mark the entry of the
brand into Qatar, offering
global explorers “a unique
gateway to this visionary
destination.”
Kelly said Le Méridien
Lusail will offer a more contemporary style that reflects
culture and design from
across France. It will feature
250 guest rooms, including a presidential suite in
one wing, while the other
wing will offer 150 serviced
apartments with a range
of options from studios to
four-bedroom suites designed to cater for individuals or large family groups.
Le Méridien, he said, will
offer signature features such
The retail mix of Place Vendôme aims to cater to the widest possible audience while still
maintaining a certain exclusivity.
as Le Méridien Hub, an innovative reinterpretation of the
traditional hotel lobby.
Kelly added the hotels
will serve as hospitality anchors for the project. The
Luxury Collection Hotel
will connect to the mall via
the department store adjacent to the luxury court.
Le Méridien Lusail and the
serviced apartments will sit
at the northern end of the
development and will connect to the high street fashion section of the mall.
Together, the hotels will
contain up to 20 food and
beverage outlets, including
fine dining options overlooking the canal and a deli
café, plus swimming pools,
rooftop lounges, kids’ clubs,
ballrooms and event space,
a spa, and a business centre.
“We are delighted to work
with United Developers to introduce The Luxury Collection and Le Meridien in Lusail,
allowing us to strengthen and
diversify our brand portfolio across the country. These
signings reinforce our commitment to Qatar, where we
will double our current portfolio by 2020,” George said.
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
7
QATAR
Changes to Civil Defence Traffic diversion on Lijmiliya Road
certified buildings must
T
be approved again: official
A
ny change in the structure or purpose of a Civil
Defence certified building
should be approved again if the
certification is to remain valid,
an official has said.
First Lieutenant Abdullah Essa
al-Kaabi was giving a presentation at an introductory session
on Monday about the New Civil
Defence Law number 5 of 2015,
organised by the Legal Affairs
Section of the General Directorate of Civil Defence (GDCD)’s
Prevention Department.
The public session was attended by many business owners, landlords and consultant offices in the country.
GDCD assistant director general Brigadier Aman Saad alSulaiti, Prevention Department
director Brigadier Ibrahim Abdurrahman al-Muftah, and Le-
gal Affairs Section head Captain
Ahmad Saad al-Khulaifi were
present.
Throughout the session, all
the articles of the law were explained. Legal expert at Legal
Affairs Section Dr Mohamed Sulaiman presented all the related
articles of the law with adequate
explanation. He also answered
the questions of the attendees.
First Lieutenant al-Kaabi explained the mandatory safety
measures and requirements for
a building to be eligible for the
Civil Defence clearance certificate.
These include approval of
architectural drawings of the
building, alarm systems and firefighting equipment before starting the construction, approval
of special engineering plans of
ventilation systems according
to requirements of the authority
concerned, and approaching the
authorities concerned to renew
the certification in a maximum
period of seven days before the
licence expires.
The participants were given
the opportunity to voice their
concerns and clarify doubts on
the topics. Brigadier al-Muftah
stressed that all officials are
ready to co-operate with the
parties concerned with the ultimate purpose of enhancing the
safety of people and property.
“I appreciate that the law is
new and many of you are not
fully aware of its requirements
and stipulations, so our offices
are open for you and you can approach and contact us anytime
and we are ready to co-operate
with you in all possible ways,” he
concluded.
Slight drop in temperature
but no respite from heat
A
drop in temperature is expected in Doha and eastern coastal areas today
due to the prevalence of easterly
winds, the Qatar Met department has said.
However, the mercury level
will continue to be above the
mid-40C level in the central and western parts of the
country, according to information available on the
weather office’s social media
platforms.
Yesterday, the highest temperature recorded in the country
was 48C in Turayna, followed
by 47C in Al Khor, Sheehaniya,
Batna and Karana. In the capital, a highest temperature of 44C
was recorded in the Doha airport
area.
The Met department had earlier forecast that the temperature was expected to reach 48C
in the southern and central areas
yesterday.
The forecast for inshore areas
today says it will be hazy in some
places at first, followed by a hot
day with slight dust and humid
conditions.
Hazy to misty conditions
are also likely in some areas by
night.
Offshore areas, too, are expected to see hazy to misty conditions in some places at times
along with some clouds.
A maximum temperature of
41C has been forecast in Doha
today.
he Public Works Authority, Ashghal, has announced a six-month
traffic diversion from tomorrow
on Lijmiliya Road to allow for the
demolition of the existing carriageway and the construction
of a permanent dual carriageway.
Road users travelling to and
from the Lijmiliya area will be diverted to a 1km parallel diversion
route, which will provide one
lane in each direction, before rejoining Lijmiliya Road, as shown
on the map.
This traffic diversion is the last
one planned for Lijmiliya Road
which forms part of Ashghal’s
Expressway Al SheehaniyaLeatooriya-Lijmiliya project.
Ashghal will install road signs
advising road users of the diversion. The authority has requested all road users to abide by the
speed limit which will be 50kph
in the traffic diversion area, and
follow the road signs to ensure
their safety.
Sections of street in Old Slata area to be closed for six months
T
he Public Works Authority, Ashghal, will implement a closure for
six months from Friday on two
sections of Al Muthaf Street in the Old
Slata area.
Each is about 30m long and on one
lane in each direction, near the Old Slata
intersection. The closure until end of
December this year is in co-ordination
with the Traffic Police Department.
During this period, the second lane
of Al Muthaf Street will remain open to
traffic in both directions, as shown in the
map.
This closure is required to facilitate
the implementation of construction
works of the deep shafts as well as microtunneling works for the sewer lines in
the area.
Ashghal will install road signs to advise motorists of the diversion.
The authority requests all road users
to abide by the speed limits, and follow
the road signs to ensure their safety.
8
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
QATAR
QF Radio to go off air by October-end
Q
F Radio, an initiative of
Qatar Foundation for
Education, Science and
Community Development (QF),
will go off air from October this
year.
QF revealed yesterday that QF
Radio will be entering a transitional phase over the next few
months and will cease transmissions at the end of October 2016.
Past and current successful programmes will be revisited and celebrated over the next
few months. The Ramadan and
summer schedules will be maintained and the general public
will be able to enjoy some of the
programmes until the end of October.
“We are truly proud
of the network’s
accomplishments, both in
Arabic and in English, over
the past seven years”
Since its inception in 2009,
QF Radio has served an essential role in advancing the strong
awareness that Qatar Foundation’s initiatives enjoy today.
Through its quality programming and wide exposure, QF Radio helped communicate the QF
message in the first phase of its
development and was successful
in accomplishing its mandate.
QF has grown exponentially
and achieved results that significantly impact across each of its
core areas of focus in Education,
Research and Community Development. As the organisation
enters a new phase of sustainable development and builds on
its foundation and past achievements to deliver more focused
results, it must continue to be
more efficient and beneficial to
the public, and evolve the way
it communicates with its audiences.
Mohammed al-Beshri, man-
QIC Group holds Suhoor for staff
ager, QF Media Centre said: “We
are truly proud of the network’s
accomplishments, both in Arabic and in English, over the past
seven years. QF Radio has been
a key player in Qatar’s broadcast
sector, and succeeded in connecting QF with the local community through its innovative
and diversify youth and educational programming.”
“Additionally, QF Radio has
covered all of the foundation’s
events and trained many of its
universities’ students, who participated in presenting and producing an array of live and recorded programmes.”
NHRC chief meets Syrian Coalition official
Chairman of the National Human Rights Committee (NHRC) Dr Ali bin Smaikh al-Marri met the legal
adviser of the Syrian National Coalition Haitham al-Maleh, in presence of the Syrian ambassador to
Qatar Nizar al-Haraki. They discussed means of co-operation in issues of mutual concern, and the
mechanisms of action for the establishment of a human rights culture.
GU-Q professor’s book wins top award
G
Qatar Insurance Group has held a Suhoor gathering for its staff and family members in Doha. The
Suhoor was attended by Khalifa Turki al-Subaey, QIC Group president and CEO; Ali al-Fadala, QIC
Group senior deputy president and CEO (in picture); and Salem al-Mannai, deputy Group president
and CEO of QIC – Mena region. Commenting on the occasion, al-Subaey said: “To celebrate the
success of the Group and express our appreciation to our employees, we organised this special
gathering to instil a sense of goodness and giving, which is at the core of the QIC family. Suhoor
serves as a great platform for enhancing communication and socialisation among our employees. It
also catalyses strengthening of bonds of friendship and helps develop a unified family spirit among
the Group’s staff members.”
eorgetown University in
Qatar (GU-Q)’s professor Mohamed Zayani has
been awarded the 2016 Global
Communication and Social
Change Best Book Award from
the International Communication Association (ICA).
Zayani’s book, Networked
Publics and Digital Contention:
The Politics of Everyday Life
in Tunisia (Oxford University
Press, 2015), is part of the Oxford Studies in Digital Politics
Series.
Zayani received his award at
the 66th Annual ICA Conference, which was held earlier
this month in Fukuoka, Japan,
and convened under the theme
“communicating with power”.
The ICA, which is associated
with the United Nations, has
more than 4,500 members in 80
countries.
Based on extensive fieldwork
and in-depth interviews, the
book looks at how the Internet
has redefined politics within
authoritarian contexts.
Manuel Castells, Wallis Annenberg Chair of Communication Technology and Society at
Zayani receives his award at the 66th Annual ICA Conference.
the University of Southern California, described Zayani’s book
as “one of the best analyses of
the social movements that led
to the transformation of the
Arab world, and a major contri-
bution to the understanding of
social movements of the digital
age”.
Craig Calhoun, president of
the London School of Economics and Political Science, noted:
“The case of Tunisia is of global interest as well as crucial to
understanding the Middle East,
and Zayani’s Networked Publics
and Digital Contention offers a
superb analysis.”
Zayani is professor of Critical Theory and director of the
Media and Politics Programme
at GU-Q. He is also an affiliate faculty with the Georgetown Communication, Culture
and Technology Graduate Programme (CCT) and co-director
of the CCT Summer Institute
on Media, Technology and Digital Culture in the Middle East.
Networked Publics and Digital Contention is the first of three
book projects supported by the
Georgetown University Centre
for International and Regional
Studies (CIRS).
Zayani’s book Bullets and
Bulletins: Media and Politics in
the Wake of the Arab Uprisings
(with CIRS manager and editor
for publications Suzi Mirgani)
will be published by Oxford
University Press. He is currently
completing a new collaborative
book project titled The Digital
Middle East.
10
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
QATAR/RAMADAN
Furniture showroom is When is the payment
closed for misleading of Zakatul-Fitr due?
consumers on prices
I
T
An official from MEC pasting closure notices outside the furniture store on Salwa Road.
he Ministry of
Economy
and
Commerce (MEC)
has announced a twoweek administrative closure of a furniture store,
located on Salwa Road for
charging prices contrary
to what were advertised.
The shop had been
advertising through local newspapers the sale
of furniture at wholesale
prices whereas, in reality, it was misleading consumers as the advertised
prices were higher than
true prices registered on
the store’s computer.
The ministry has intensified its campaigns
throughout
the
holy
month of Ramadan in a
bid to monitor markets
and commercial activity to
protect consumer rights.
Inspectors from the
ministry fined the store
and compelled its closure
for a two-week period in
line with article (6) of law
number (8) of 2008.
The law prohibits the
sale, display and promotion of counterfeit and
fraudulent products. A
product is considered
fraudulent if it fails to meet
standards or has expired.
The administrative closure is published on the
ministry’s website as well
as two daily newspapers
at the offending store’s
own expense in line with
article (3) of law no (8) on
consumer protection.
The ministry stated that
it is determined to protect
consumer rights and will
intensify its inspection
campaigns to crack down
on all violations of the
consumer protection law.
The ministry said it will
refer violators of laws and
ministerial decrees to the
competent
authorities,
who will take appropriate
action against perpetrators in order to protect the
rights of consumers.
The Dena armchair is the
epitome of dual fabric styling.
Habitat sets
benchmark
in modern
interior design
Sourced from Britain,
France, and Italy by a
select design panel,
Habitat, a part of AlMana
Group, has created a
niche in contemporary
interior design by owning
a collection of furniture,
sofas, lighting, and
kitchenware.
All of the products featured
in its showroom are
functional, yet beautiful
and well made. “The DNA
of Habitat is that we choose
products to appeal to young
moderns with lively taste,”
the store said in a statement.
Combining optimism and
cheerfulness, Habitat has
set a benchmark in product
creativity and embodies
the essence of the art of
living. The Dena armchair
is the epitome of dual
fabric styling. It elegantly
combines premium quality,
chic and hardwearing
Italian leather with very soft
and beautifully textured
Italian fabric.
The padded backrest
is a mixture of foam
and feathers to ensure
maximum comfort for
reading. Its contemporary
design means it can be
easily combined with a sofa
in either leather or fabric.
Habitat is located on
Old Airport Road next to
Crowne Plaza Hotel.
maams Ash-Shaafi’ee and Ahmad state that the Zakatul-Fitr
payment becomes obligatory after sunset on Eid’s eve, or the last day
of fasting, because this is the end of
Ramadan. Abu Haneefah (and also
Ash-Shaafi’ee in an earlier opinion of
his) held that the sum of Zakatul-Fitr
becomes obligatory at the dawn of
Eid day because it is reported that the
Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,
commanded his Companions to pay
Zakatul-Fitr before going out to perform the prayer of Eid [Al-Bukhari and
Muslim]. (Therefore, if one has a newborn before the dawn of Eid, or one
dies after the sunset of the final day of
fasting, his or her Zakatul-Fitr must
be paid, according to Abu Haneefah).
Also, according to Abu Haneefah it
is possible to pay Zakatul-Fitr in Ramadan in advance of Zakatul-Fitr, or
even just prior to the commencement
of Ramadan. Ash-Shaafi’ee however,
holds that Zakatul-Fitr can be given
on the first day of fasting Ramadan.
Imaams Maalik and Ahmad state that
its payment becomes obligatory after
the sunset of the last day of Ramadan,
but can be paid one or two days earlier.
Where should Zakatul-Fitr be
paid?
In general, the best place for the
collection and distribution of one’s
Zakaah and charity -- and this includes Zakatul-Fitr -- is one’s locality
or community, be it in one’s city, state,
or country. This is strongly implied in
the statement of the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam, in sending the
famed Companion Mu’aath Ibn Jabal
to teach the people of Yemen. He said
to him: “Inform them that Allah has
made the paying of Zakaah obligatory
on them. Take it from their rich and
give it to their poor.”
There are provisions for transferring Zakaah resources to other communities among Muslims; however,
special guidelines for doing so have
been established by Muslim scholars
in accordance with Islamic legislation,
to which the institutions responsible
for the collection and distribution of
Zakaah among Muslims are to adhere.
Zakatul-Fitr: A favourable sign
for our community
The re-emergence of Muslim concern for the paying and collection of
all Zakaah resources and charities -especially Zakatul-Fitr -- is an auspicious sign, indeed, for the Muslim
community. Zakaah has increasingly
taken a central place in contemporary Muslim discourse, as its dynamic
(almost miraculous) possibilities are
again being realised by Muslims. Several conferences on this topic have
taken place in Kuwait, Pakistan, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt in recent
decades. Their focuses have been diverse. A good summary of their scholarly recommendations concerning
Zakatul-Fitr, however, is represented
in the Sixth International Conference
on Contemporary Zakaah Issues held
in Kuwait in 1997. They are summed
up herein.
1. Zakatul-Fitr is obligatory upon
every Muslim who has the food or provision to sustain himself, and those
whom he is obligated to support, on
the eve and the day of Eid, provided
that this exceeds his basic needs.
2. A man is obliged to pay ZakatulFitr for his wife and minor children
who have no money of their own. In
the case of one who has independent
children, one is not obliged for their
payment.
3. What is obligatory is the giving
of a Saa’ (four handfuls) of dates, barley, raisins, or other such grain, equal
to about 2.25kg of wheat. Originally,
the giving of Zakatul-Fitr was limited to the kinds of food that had been
stated in the relevant statement of the
Prophet . However, jurists have established (through proper methods) that
it may be given out of other commonly
consumed foods, such as rice, meat,
milk and so forth, but should be valued
in accordance with the items specified
by the Prophet, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa
sallam.
4. Zakatul-Fitr must be given before the prayer of Eid. It is forbidden to
delay it until after the Eid day. If one,
for any reason, is prevented from giving it at that particular time, one must
pay it after that time passes. If there
is a need, Zakatul-Fitr may be given
at any time from the beginning of the
month of Ramadan that is, its first
day-- until the end of the specified
time [of Eid day].
5. It is permissible for one to delegate another to give Zakatul-Fitr on
one’s behalf.
6. It is permissible for the institutions that collect Zakatul-Fitr to exchange it from goods to currency, and
vice versa, based on the general interest of the community.
7. It is permissible, in special cases,
to transfer Zakatul-Fitr collections
from the people or locality in which it
was collected to nearby communities
in more need. And it is equally permissible to spend Zakatul-Fitr in another
community, if the giving community
has no one in need of it.
8. One must have a clear intention before giving one’s Zakatul-Fitr.
If one delegates, or gives permission,
to another to give Zakatul-Fitr on his
behalf, it is considered an explicit intention.
9. If the community decides, after
due process of consultation among its
leadership and scholars, to delay the
spending of what it has collected from
Zakatul-Fitr payments until after the
day of Eid, then this may be done, provided that it serves a clear benefit for
the community.
10. The Zakatul-Fitr payment
should be dedicated to the poor and
the needy. In some cases, however, it
can be given to eligible recipients of
Zakat of wealth; namely those stated
by Allah in the following verse (which
means): “for the poor and the needy,
and for those who work [to administer
it], and for those whose hearts are to
be reconciled, and for freeing captives
(or slaves), and for those in debt, and
for the cause of Allah, and for the wayfarer…” [Qur’an 9:60]
Article source: http://www.islamweb.net/emainpage/
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
11
REGION
Flare-up
in Yemen
violence
kills 80
AFP
Aden
A Yemeni tribesman from the Popular Resistance Committees, supporting forces loyal to Yemen’s Saudi-backed President, aims his weapon as he
holds a position during fighting against Shia Houthi rebels and their allies in Hilan mountains, west of Marib city.
Yemen counter-terror mission
shows UAE military ambition
Reuters
Abu Dhabi/Washington
T
he United Arab Emirates
is deploying its military
against Al Qaeda in Yemen, and in the process providing
what some see as a badly-needed
new template for counter-terrorism in Arab lands.
UAE special forces are orchestrating the hunt for Al Qaeda in
remote deserts and mountains.
Suicide attacks killing 38 in
Mukalla on Monday show the
challenge.
While the UAE helped to eject
Al Qaeda from the southern
coastal city in April, militant
threats persist – the latest attack
was claimed by Islamic State,
in Yemen a lesser force than Al
Qaeda.
The Emiratis deployed initially
against a different foe – Yemen’s
Houthi group, joining a Saudiled campaign last year to try to
reverse a bid for national power
by a group seen by many Gulf Arabs as a proxy for Iran.
The war weakened the
Houthis, but in the resulting
turmoil Al Qaeda swept across
the eastern side of the country,
seizing more land than it had
ever held and raising tens of
millions of dollars from running
Mukalla, the country’s third
largest port.
The UAE’s Al Qaeda push
meets a demand made repeatedly
by Washington that Gulf Arabs
do more to ensure their own security.
But a so-called “Obama Doctrine” of relying on local allies
instead of big US
military deployments abroad
to fight militants has been seen as
stumbling in Iraq, Syria and Afghanistan, despite funding and
training of local partners.
Yemen may prove a happier
example, its supporters hope.
The UAE response is to use
special forces to try to sharpen
a long-running push against
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), seen as one
of the militant network’s most
capable.
The Emiratis are working with
the United States to train, manage and equip Yemeni fighters in
that effort, signalling they have
the stamina to stick with a campaign that could last long after
the separate confrontation with
the Houthis is resolved.
The ability to run combined
air, sea and land operations, deploy forces clandestinely and
endure scores of troop losses
has won acknowledgement from
Western states long despairing
of the fractured Yemeni army’s
ability to tackle Al Qaeda.
Retired General Anthony Zinni, former chief of US Central
Command, said the UAE was “a
top military” in the region and
“exponentially more capable
than its size might indicate”.
“It has also shown the ability
to hang in there despite casual-
ties. (The UAE) has proven its
willingness to fight alongside the
US and coalitions.”
After months of preparation
the UAE orchestrated the ousting of Al Qaeda from Mukalla by
Yemeni allies in a complex operation backed by US intelligence
support and aerial refuelling.
While Al Qaeda said it staged
a tactical retreat without losses,
it in fact took a beating, coalition
sources said.
Coalition forces estimate Al
Qaeda lost 450 fighters, while the
coalition lost 54 Yemeni fighters.
Al Qaeda fled inland.
“The focus is on not allowing Al Qaeda to recover. Our intent is to keep them on the back
foot,” said a senior coalition military official, who declined to be
named.
“They are the most capable counter-terrorism force on
the ground in Yemen,” said a US
counter-terrorism official familiar with Yemen, who requested
anonymity.
Some in the US government
initially doubted the UAE’s sincerity in attacking AQAP, he
said, but the Mukalla operation
showed that “that’s not the case”.
The UAE’s counter-terrorism
gambit comes with risks.
By taking such a central role in
Yemen the UAE places itself in
the middle of its turbulent politics: In particular its presence
mainly in the south risks entanglement in possible unrest arising from a re-energised separa-
tist movement, whose demands
for independence for the south
are growing louder.
Despite their cultural affinities, UAE officers must take care
not to get on the wrong side of
tribes for whom short-term alliances with militants are a survival tactic.
Militants continue to assassinate coalition-backed military
officers and stage suicide bombings of Yemeni army and police
compounds.
And while the UAE has poured
in more than $400mn in humanitarian aid, Yemenis remain impatient for reconstruction.
For now, Abu Dhabi is undaunted by the challenge and
insists its campaign protects the
whole region.
It suggests it has the Gulf Arab
heritage to help navigate complex
tribal networks.
“As non-Westerners we’re able
to operate with Yemeni fighters
and gain their trust,” the coalition official said.
Washington is paying attention.
US action against Al Qaeda
was at first disrupted by the war
with the Houthis, which forced
the evacuation in early 2015 of
the programme’s US personnel.
But after the Mukalla operation, the Pentagon said a small
number of military personnel
were deployed to help UAE counter-terrorism efforts, in a possible sign of increasing US willingness to re-engage on the ground.
A
flare-up in violence
across Yemen yesterday
killed 80 people, nearly
half of them civilians, officials
said, as lengthy peace talks in
Kuwait made no headway.
The escalation came after a
wave of suicide bombings targeting Yemeni troops killed at
least 42 people on Monday in
the southeastern city of Mukalla, in attacks claimed by the
Islamic State group.
It also comes as UN-brokered talks between Iranbacked Houthi rebels and the
government of President AbdRabbu Mansour Hadi stuttered
despite a visit by UN chief Ban
Ki-moon to push the negotiations.
In the deadliest violence,
warplanes from the pro-government coalition killed 34
people, when they targeted the
Shia rebels in the southwestern
region of Taiz, a Yemeni military official said.
The pre-dawn strike hit a
lorry transporting weapons
for the Houthis as it crossed a
busy road, a provincial official
said, adding four women were
among the dead, as well as 15
rebels.
In the flashpoint city of Taiz,
11 civilians and a soldier were
killed when rebels bombed a
residential area, a military official said.
Hadi promises to uproot terror groups
Yemeni President Abd-Rabbu
Mansour Hadi has promised
to uproot the remnants of
terrorist groups and those
who support and fund them
to undermine the security and
stability of the country.
Hadi said the war on terrorist
groups will not stop whatever
the sacrifices are, adding that
there is no going back on
uprooting terrorism whatever
the price is, stressing that
Emirati woman
jailed for spying
AFP
Abu Dhabi
A
n Abu Dhabi court
has jailed the wife of
a prominent Emirati
for 10 years after convicting her of spying for Lebanon’s Iran-backed Hezbollah movement, local media
reported yesterday.
The Emirati woman of Lebanese origin was found guilty of
“handing over classified information about top leaders,
including how political and
economic decisions are made
at the highest authorities in the
country, to two members of the
intelligence wing of Hezbollah,” Gulf News reported.
She had also provided
“sensitive information” on
meetings of senior officials
in the United Arab Emir-
ates, exploiting her marriage
to “a very important person
and her relationships with
men and women in political
circles close to the decisionmaking authority in the
country,” the daily added.
Local media said the woman was a 48-year-old television presenter they identified
by her initials R.M.A.
They did not elaborate on
her husband’s position but
said he had been unaware of
her activities.
The state security court in
Abu Dhabi convicted her of
“putting the country’s interests and security at risk
by delivering such classified
information to the Iranian
intelligence through agents of
Hezbollah,” Gulf News said.
The UAE and other Gulf Arab
states have blacklisted Hezbollah as a “terrorist” group.
Detained Bahraini activist hospitalised
Bahraini human rights activist
Nabeel Rajab was taken to
hospital yesterday with heart
problems, his Twitter account
said. The activist, 51, has
been repeatedly detained
for organising protests and
publishing tweets deemed
insulting to the Gulf kingdom’s
authorities. He was released
last year after King Hamad
issued a royal pardon “for health
reasons”, but was rearrested
two weeks ago. “#NabeelRajab
Meanwhile, 12 rebels and
three loyalist soldiers were
killed in clashes in Nahm,
northeast of Sanaa, while six
other rebels and two soldiers
died in fighting in Marib, east
of the capital, the official said.
In the same province, a coalition warplane hit a vehicle carrying pro-government forces
“by mistake”, killing four soldiers and wounding four others, another military official
said.
Clashes have continued despite a UN-brokered ceasefire
that entered into effect on April
11 and paved the way for the
peace talks in Kuwait.
In the Gulf emirate, Ban appealed on Sunday to warring
parties to accept a roadmap for
peace and quickly reach a comprehensive settlement to the
15-month-old conflict.
The peace roadmap proposed
by UN special envoy Ismail
Ould Cheikh Ahmed calls for
the formation of a unity government and the withdrawal
and disarmament of the rebels.
Meanwhile, at least seven civilians including two children
were killed in air strikes “probably by drones” on militants
which mistakenly hit a nearby
house in Mahfed, between the
provinces of Abyan and Shabwa
in Yemen’s south, an official
said.
US strikes have taken out
a number of senior Al Qaeda
commanders in Yemen over the
past year.
transferred by ambulance
to Coronary Care Unit after
suffering from heart problems
in solitary confinement,” his
Twitter account said yesterday.
Rajab was apprehended earlier
this month at his home in the
village of Bani Jamra, near the
capital Manama.His lawyer Jalila
al-Sayed said yesterday that
Rajab will face trial on July 12
on charges “probably related to
tweets” which he is said to have
either posted or retweeted.
Yemenis will overcome the
forces of darkness sooner or
later.
He noted that there is no social
incubator for Al Qaeda and
Houthis in Yemeni provinces,
adding that they and their
bloody and destructive ideologies are foreign to Yemen and
aim to implement foreign
agendas with the use of domestic tools that hate peace,
security and stability.
Iran hopes
embassy
attack trial
will restore
confidence
AFP
Tehran
I
ranian President Hassan
Rouhani said yesterday that
he hopes the trial of protesters accused of ransacking the
Saudi embassy in Tehran earlier this year will restore international confidence.
“Every country is responsible for the security of its foreign
embassies,” Rouhani said in a
speech to mark a week of events
on justice in Iran.
“People want to know how a
bunch of rogue individuals who
attacked a foreign embassy in
breach of the law and against the
country’s public security will be
dealt with by the judiciary,” he
said.
The trial of 48 people is due to
open in Tehran on July 18.
The Saudi embassy and its
consulate in Iran’s second city
Mashhad were stormed and
burned on January 2 in protest
against the execution of a prominent Shia cleric in Saudi Arabia.
The Gulf kingdom and some
of its allies the next day severed
diplomatic relations with Iran.
Rouhani said a “transparent”
judiciary was needed to ensure
“people’s trust as well as the
world’s trust in our country”.
“Today we need a growth in
investment for economic prosperity and employment of our
youth. We must give assurance
to all entrepreneurs and investors that their capital is safe and
encourage them to invest,” he
added.
Ahmadinejad
to stand in
2017 elections
Former Iranian president
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has
announced that he will stand in
the presidential election in spring
2017, Shargh daily reported yesterday. The former speaker for Ahmadinejad’s government, GholamHossein Elham, has informed the
board responsible for the election
of the ex-president’s intention to
stand, the report said. Ahmadinejad was now expected to launch
his comeback campaign.
He appeared for the first time in
public this year on Monday when
he gave a speech in Narmak
mosque in Tehran, but he neither
confirmed nor denied his comeback plan, despite enthusiastic
calls from his supporters.
12
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
ARAB WORLD
EgyptAir black box flight recorder ‘has been repaired’
AFP
Cairo
O
ne of the two black box
flight recorders from
the EgyptAir plane that
plunged into the Mediterranean
last month has been repaired,
Egypt’s investigation commission said yesterday, prompting
hopes it could provide clues on
why the aircraft went down.
The two black box recorders
were found two weeks ago, but
were too damaged to extract information on what caused the
passenger jet to go down.
They were sent to France’s
BEA air safety agency — which
also extracted data from the
black boxes of the ill-fated Rio
de Janeiro to Paris flight that
crashed in 2009 — to be repaired,
where they arrived on Monday.
Investigators hope the recorders will reveal the cause of the
May 19 crash of flight MS804
from Paris to Cairo, in which all
66 people on board were killed.
A terror attack has not been
ruled out.
The black box recorder “has
been successfully repaired by
the French accident investigation agency laboratory”, the
UN chief
calls on
Israel to lift
Gaza Strip
blockade
well as two Iraqis, two Canadians and one each from Algeria,
Belgium, Britain, Chad, Portugal, Saudi Arabia and Sudan.
France’s aviation safety agency has said the aircraft transmitted automated messages indicating smoke in the cabin and
a fault in the flight control unit
minutes before it disappeared.
Egyptian investigators confirmed the aircraft had made a
90-degree left turn followed by
a 360-degree turn to the right
before hitting the sea.
The repaired black boxes will
be returned to Cairo for analysis
in Egypt’s aviation ministry laboratories, the committee previously said. French judges are also
probing the May 19 crash.
Prosecutors had previously
opened a preliminary investigation — a normal procedure when
French citizens are involved — and
have handed their findings to judges for a “manslaughter” probe.
The crash follows the bombing of a Russian passenger over
Egypt’s restive Sinai Peninsula
last October, killing all 224 passengers and crew.
The Islamic State group
claimed responsibility for that attack, but there has been no such
claim linked to the EgyptAir crash.
Lebanon fears more
attacks after blasts
Reuters
Beirut/A-Qaa
QNA
Gaza City
T
U
N
Secretary-General
Ban Ki-moon yesterday
called for ending the Israeli blockade on the Gaza Strip
and described it as “collective
punishment”.
The UN chief, who is on a daylong visit to Gaza, said in a press
conference in a UN-run school
that the “blockade on Gaza suffocates its residents, destroys its
economy and impedes reconstruction operations”.
“The blockade is a collective punishment which must be
ended and be held accountable,”
he said, adding that the UN is always with the people of Gaza and
knows the difficult living conditions they are experiencing.
He pointed to the electricity
shortage in Gaza and the unemployment that hit 50% among
the coastal enclave’s youths.
“We must speak openly about
the unacceptable hardships
faced by the people of Gaza in
light of the humiliation, occupation and siege, as well as the
division between the Gaza Strip
and the West Bank,” Ban said.
He called for uniting the West
Bank and Gaza under a democratically elected government
based upon the political programme of the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO).
Ban also thanked donors for
their efforts in the reconstruction of Gaza, pointing out that
90% of the schools and hospitals
were reconstructed.
He stressed that the international community “has a great
responsibility to work continuously and seriously to achieve
peace”, and that the UN will continue to work for a future without occupation and injustice.
Ban’s visit to Gaza came at the
end of a tour in the Middle East.
Before leaving last night, Ban
met Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem
and Palestinian officials including
Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah
and President Mahmoud Abbas.
The UN chief urged Netanyahu to take “courageous steps”
toward peace as he met the Israeli premier on what is expected
to be his farewell visit to Israel
and the Palestinian territories.
In a statement alongside
Netanyahu at the prime minister’s office in Jerusalem, Ban
called for efforts to keep the possibility of a two-state solution
alive.
commission said in a statement.
“Tests have been carried out
and we can be sure the flight parameters were properly recorded,” the investigators said.
“Work to repair the second
black box will commence tomorrow.” The Airbus A320 was
en route from Paris to Cairo
when it crashed in the Mediterranean, with 40 Egyptians and
15 French nationals on board as
A masked Palestinian protester wearing pieces of cloth around
his body keeps watch following clashes with Israeli police at
Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa mosque compound for the third consecutive
day yesterday in Jerusalem’s Old City.
Aqsa site closed
to non-Muslims
after violence
AFP/QNA
Jerusalem
I
sraeli
authorities
announced yesterday they
were closing Jerusalem’s
Al-Aqsa mosque compound
to non-Muslim visitors after a
series of clashes between worshippers and police.
The decision will apply until
the end of the holy month of
Ramadan next week, a police
spokeswoman said.
Clashes between Muslims
and Israeli police have been
taking place every morning
since Sunday over Jewish visits
to the site, with youths throwing stones and security forces
firing tear gas and spongetipped bullets.
Prior to visiting hours yesterday, a stone hit an elderly
Jewish woman in the head at
the adjacent Western Wall plaza, police and medics said.
She was taken to hospital
with light injuries.
Islamic officials accused Israeli authorities of breaking a
tacit agreement on non-Muslim access to the site during
the last 10 days of Ramadan.
The period, which began on
Sunday, is the most solemn
for Muslims and attracts the
highest number of worshippers.
Non-Muslims,
including
Jews, are allowed to visit the
site during set hours but are
barred from praying to avoid
provoking tensions.
Meanwhile, a Palestinian
was shot and injured and dozens others suffocated during
clashes with Israeli forces in
Ash-Shuyukh and Sa’ir towns,
northeast of Hebron yesterday.
Israeli forces raided the vicinity of a dispensary in AshShuyukh and the Sair locality
of Ras al-Arud in the southern
West Bank, triggering clashes
with local Palestinians, state
news agency (WAFA) reported.
Soldiers opened live fire at
local Palestinians who protested the raid, hitting and injuring a Palestinian young man
with a live round in his foot.
Dozens of local Palestinians
suffocated as Israeli soldiers
showered them with tear gas
canisters.
This came as forces raided
the Hebron neighbourhoods
of Ras al-Jora, Ein Sara, alRameh, al-Kassara, Jabal Johar and the main fruit market,
interrogating many locals and
inspecting their ID cards.
he Lebanese government warned yesterday
of a heightened terrorist
threat after eight suicide bombers targeted a Christian village
at the border with Syria, the
latest spillover of that country’s
conflict into Lebanon.
The village of Al-Qaa was
targeted on Monday in two
waves of suicide attacks that
killed five people.
The first group of bombers
attacked before dawn and the
second later at night, two of
them blowing themselves up
near a church.
Security officials believe Islamic State militants were behind the attack.
There has been no claim of
responsibility.
In reference to the number
of attackers, the Lebanese government said the attack and the
“unfamiliar way” it was carried
out represented a new phase
of “confrontation between the
Lebanese state and evil terrorism”.
Prime Minister Tammam
Salam “expressed his fear that
what happened in Al-Qaa is
the start of a new wave of terrorist operations in different
areas of Lebanon”, Information
Minister Ramzi Jreij said in televised comments after a cabinet meeting.
Militants have repeatedly
struck in Lebanon since the
eruption of the war in neighbouring Syria, where the powerful Lebanese group Hezbollah
is fighting in support of President Bashar al-Assad.
Interior Minister Nohad
Machnouk said the attackers
had come from inside Syria,
and not refugee camps hosting
Syrian refugees who number
more than 1mn in Lebanon,
according to the UN refugee
agency UNHCR.
Army commander General
Jean Kahwaji said militants had
started a new phase “but it is
not certain that they have a new
plan”. Speaking in Beirut ahead
of a meeting with Salam and
other security chiefs, he said
the bombers included a woman.
Local authorities imposed
curfews on Syrian refugees in
the area following the attacks.
The Lebanese army said it
had mounted dawn raids on
Syrian refugee camps, detaining 103 people for being illegally
present in Lebanon.
The majority of Syrian refugees have no legal status in Lebanon due to the complications
and costs of obtaining or renewing residency rights under
rules imposed by the Lebanese
government, aid agencies say.
In Al-Qaa, residents armed
with assault rifles fanned out
in the streets for several hours
yesterday, citing the need to
protect the area.
They later dispersed when
the army asked them to go
home.
The head of the Al-Qaa local
council had on Monday night
urged residents to shoot anyone
suspicious.
Security sources said Hezbollah deployed dozens of
armed men in nearby villages to
help secure the area.
“We are not leaving for sure,
we are staying here...we are not
afraid. We are not leaving our
land,” Maher Rizk, a cafe owner,
said.
The UNHCR said the northern region of Lebanon’s Bekaa
Valley hosts a significant population of vulnerable people,
both Lebanese and refugees.
“Law enforcement authorities are conducting follow-up
security operations in the area.
At a time of heightened tensions, it is important that the
communities stand together,”
Matthew Saltmarsh, senior
UNCHR communications officer, said.
Tunisia flaunts security
year after beach massacre
By Mounir Souissi/AFP
Hammamet, Tunisia
P
olicemen on horseback
amble among the sunbathers and new metal
detectors dot hotel entrances
in Tunisia as the North African country seeks to bring back
tourists a year after a seaside
massacre.
Authorities and hotel managers hope improved security
will help to win back the trust
of holidaymakers on the first
anniversary of the militant attack that killed 38 tourists at a
beach resort.
“We used to sell sunshine and
beaches. Today, we sell sunshine, beaches and security,”
says Anis Souissi, who manages
a seaside hotel south of Tunis.
Before its 2011 revolution,
Tunisia attracted almost 7mn
visitors a year, with its tourism sector accounting for 7%
of GDP.
The beach bloodbath was the
second of two deadly militant
attacks that dealt heavy blows
to the key industry last year,
following four years of decline
due to political instability.
Tourists fled in horror on
June 26, as a Tunisian gunman
pulled a Kalashnikov rifle from
inside a furled beach umbrella
and went on a shooting spree
outside a five-star hotel near
the city of Sousse.
It came just months after 21
tourists and a policeman were
killed in another jihadist attack
at the Bardo National Museum
in Tunis.
A year on, the country’s tourism sector is still reeling.
Revenues for the first quarter
of this year were down by 51.7%
compared to last year, according to the central bank.
European visitors to the
country in 2015 had already
dropped by 65.8 % compared
to 2010.
As high season kicks off in
Tunisia, authorities and tourism firms are hoping to boost
confidence and encourage
bookings with increased security checks.
The interior ministry has said
that 70 mobile police posts have
been set up on beaches, with
around 1,500 more policemen
deployed to protect tourists
this year — on top of 1,000 additional security personnel deployed last year.
In
Yasmine-Hammamet,
some 70km (45 miles) southeast
of Tunis, policemen roam the
beaches on foot, in quad bikes
and on horses.
On the sand by the water’s
edge, two policemen in uniform
chat under a red gazebo discreetly marked “police”.
“If anyone looks suspicious —
even if it’s a holidaymaker — we
ask them for their ID,” a plainclothes policeman tells AFP.
After all, the Sousse attacker
had hidden his weapon inside a
parasol, he says.
Following the seaside killings, Prime Minister Habib Essid admitted that the police had
been too slow to respond.
Tunisia’s tourism minister
said in late May that the government was making security
a priority “because without security there can be no recovery”
in the tourism sector.
The authorities had directed
airports and hotels “to conform
to international security norms
and standards”, Selma Elloumi
Rekik said.
But Anis Chemli, who manages a hotel in the island of
Djerba in the country’s southeast, says adopting new security measures is “an added financial burden”.
After last year’s beach attack,
the Iberostar hotel in Djerba
invested in eight extra security
guards, four new sniffer dogs,
48 new surveillance cameras
— each costing 2,000 dinars
($900) — and a metal detector
that cost 9,000 dinars, he says.
“We’re still waiting for a bag
scanner to be delivered,” he
says, adding that the machine
was an investment of 26,600
euros.
According to Chemli, hotels
in the Djerba-Zarzis area have
even banded together to buy the
security forces eight quad bikes
for them to better patrol their
beaches.
Souissi, who manages Le
Royal in Yasmine-Hammamet,
says a third of the hotel’s new
investments last year went towards better security.
Tunisian policemen stand guard at a beach in the coastal resort of Hammamet, some 60km south-east of Tunis. Tunisian
authorities and hotel managers hope improved security will help to win back the trust of holidaymakers on the first
anniversary of the militant attack that killed 38 tourists at a beach resort.
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
13
AFRICA
Ex-president’s aide
charged with graft
AFP
Abuja
N
igeria’s anti-graft agency yesterday charged
former president Goodluck
Jonathan’s
campaign
spokesman with corruption
in yet another arrest of a topranking member of the previous
administration.
Femi Fani-Kayode, who was
also a former aviation minister,
was arraigned in an Abuja court
on corruption charges linked to
Jonathan’s re-election campaign
last year.
He was accused alongside
former finance minister Nenadi
Esther Usman, who was allegedly in charge of campaign
funds for the 2015 polls.
Both were alleged to have siphoned more than 1.5bn naira
($5.3mn) in state funds for “political and personal uses”.
Fani-Kayode pleaded not
guilty to the charges and was
remanded in custody until a bail
hearing on Friday.
President Muhammadu Buhari, who defeated Jonathan in
the 2015 vote, has launched a
wide-ranging campaign against
corruption targeting key members of the Jonathan’s regime.
Former national security adviser Sambo Dasuki is currently
facing a slew of charges over
allegedly bogus arms deals in
which money meant for military
procurement was diverted for
political purposes.
The money was allegedly paid
into accounts of senior figures
to fund Jonathan’s re-election
campaign.
Former party spokesman
Olisa Metuh, who allegedly received a share of the campaign
cash, said he was only acting on
Jonathan’s orders.
A cousin of the former Nigerian leader, Robert Azibaola, is
also standing trial for allegedly
stealing $40 million from public
funds.
Despite the arrest of Jonathan’s key confidantes in connection with his re-election
campaign, the former president has not been charged by
Nigeria’s anti-graft body, the
Economic and Financial Crimes
Commission.
Reuters
Lusaka
Z
Femi Fani-Kayode
Zimbabwe leader diagnosed with cancer
Reuters
Harare
Z
imbabwe’s main opposition leader and President
Robert Mugabe’s chief
rival for the last 17 years said
yesterday he has been diagnosed with cancer of the colon
and is undergoing treatment in
neighbouring South Africa.
Morgan Tsvangirai, 64, who
was Zimbabwe’s prime minister
in an uneasy coalition government with the 92-year-old Mugabe from 2009 until 2013, said
it was important for national
leaders to disclose their health
status.
Morgan Tsvangirai
Mugabe routinely denies local
media reports that he is suffering
from prostate cancer and says
his frequent trips to Singapore
are for routine medical checks.
“As a leader and a public figure, I have taken a decision to
make public my condition,” Ts-
vangirai said, adding that he had
an operation last month and is
on chemotherapy treatment.
“It is my firm belief that the
health of national leaders, including politicians, should
not be a subject of national
speculation and uncertainty.”
Tsvangirai, who lost the 2013
presidential vote against Mugabe, has since 1999 led the
Movement
for
Democratic
Change (MDC) but the party
has, however, been weakened
by splits over how to confront
Mugabe’s ZANU-PF.
The MDC chief, a three time
loser to Mugabe, said although
his condition was unfortunate, he intended to confront
“this development with the
determination to overcome it.”
The MDC, evicted from the
unity government after its
crushing defeat in the 2013 election, is split over whether to
dump Tsvangirai before the next
vote in 2018. Critics say he has
often been outsmarted by Mugabe, Africa’s oldest leader.
The turmoil within the MDC
has been a boost for Mugabe,
whose ZANU-PF party has ruled
Zimbabwe since independence
from Britain in 1980 amid charges
of rigging recent elections.
Mugabe, who intends to contest the 2018 vote at the age of
94, has denied rigging previous
elections.
Training exercise
Liberia policemen standing as a UN convoy passed by on the Monrovia bridge during a training exercise as the UN
Mission in Liberia forces (UNMIL) finally handed back security to Liberia’s military and police, in Monrovia, yesterday.
After devastating back-to-back civil wars in Liberia, the UN launched a peacekeeping mission in September 2003 to
ensure security, rebuild police and military forces from scratch, and disarm rebels.
Major power line to
remote northern Kenya
will be ready by Dec
Reuters
Nairobi
A
major new power line that will
connect the remote northern
region of Kenya to the national
grid, and will be used to transmit wind
power, should be completed by the
end of this year, a senior government
official said yesterday.
The East African nation is ramping
up electricity production and investing in its grid to keep up with growing demand for power and to reduce
frequent blackouts.
It relies heavily on renewables such
as geothermal and hydro power. Private company Lake Turkana Wind is
building Kenya’s biggest wind power
scheme at Lake Turkana which is expected to start producing some power
in September and will be able to start
sending power to the grid once the
power line is ready in December.
Construction on the 428km,
400-kilovolt power line, which will
run from Loiyangalani in northern
Kenya to Suswa in the centre of the
country, started in November and had
been due to be completed by October
but has been delayed by demands for
compensation from landowners along
the route and other issues.
Once the Lake Turkana Wind Power
scheme starts operation it will initially
supply up to 90 MW of electricity but
will eventually have the capacity to
supply 310 MW.
“The transmission line is now being
accelerated,” Fernandes Barasa, managing director of the state-run Kenya
Electricity Transmission Company,
said in an interview.
“Earlier it was supposed to be completed by October, but because of some
Zambia arrests
newspaper editors
in tax dispute
delays - issues along the route - we
have pushed it back by two months
so that we complete it by December
2016,” Barasa said.
He said some land values along the
route had been inflated and the issue took
longer than expected to resolve, requiring
the help of the state-run National Land
Commission and political leaders.
Kenya plans to add 5,000km of
power lines to its existing 3,800km
network by 2017. Only a third of the
country’s 44 million people are connected to the grid, according to its
energy ministry.
Barasa said another power line between Kenya and Ethiopia should be
completed in early 2018.
“The lines will be done by December
2017 and the substation by February
2018. So basically we expect the infrastructure to be operational by the end
of February 2018,” he said.
ambian police yesterday
charged three people including two editors of a
newspaper critical of the government that was shut down last
week, as tensions rose in the run
up to elections in August.
The Zambia Revenue Authority (ZRA) shut down the
Post newspaper last week, demanding $6mn in unpaid taxes
but the newspaper accused the
authorities of trying to silence
it, and claimed the outstanding
bill was part of a court dispute.
Tax officials have not commented on the matter, but
Zambian President Edgar Lungu on Monday defended the
ZRA’s action, saying it did so to
recoup unpaid taxes.
“This was after the trio
gained entry into the Post
newspaper’s head office
in Rhodespark following a
stay granted by the court...”
Yesterday, the Post’s managing editor Joan Chirwa said
police arrested its editor-inchief Fred Mmembe, his wife
Mutinta and deputy managing
editor Joseph Mwenda late on
Monday.
“This was after the trio
gained entry into the Post
newspaper’s head office in
Rhodespark following a stay
granted by the court restraining ZRA from seizing the newspaper’s property,” Chirwa said.
She said the Post – which
has continued publishing from
an unknown location – obtained a court order to resume
operations but the police said
it had not been signed by ZRA.
Police spokesman Rae Hamoonga said the three had
been charged and released on
bond and will appear in court
next week to face charges of,
among others, breaking into a
building.
The opposition says the
government was using repressive laws to restrict its campaigns and that there was a
media clamp down. The presidency has denied the claims,
saying the opposition was
campaigning freely.
Lungu has been in power for
just over a year after winning a
ballot triggered by the death of
his predecessor, Michael Sata,
in October 2014. He faces a
strong challenge from opposition leader Hakainde Hichilema
of the United Party for National
Development at the polls.
Man held for plane arson attempt
AFP
Freetown
A
man was charged with
attempting to set fire
to an Air France plane
at Sierra Leone’s biggest airport after penetrating the
secure zone without a passport or boarding card, court
officials said yesterday.
Airport officials promised
security would be stepped up
after Ibrahim Kanu attempted
to board the flight armed with
petrol, matches and a cigarette
lighter on June 4 at Lungi International Airport, close to
the capital of Freetown.
The prosecution at a Monday
hearing said Kanu had entered
the restricted area reserved for
staff and took a bus connecting to the plane, believed to
have been an Airbus A330-200
headed for Paris.
Air France confirmed that
an individual had managed
to penetrate a restricted area,
but said he was stopped as he
attempted to get on the bus
heading for Flight AF770 and
handed over to police.
A British firm, Westminster
Group, is contracted to provide
security at the airport but has
yet to comment publicly.
Kanu’s bail application was
rejected on the grounds there
was a risk of him fleeing, and
because he is accused of “a very
serious criminal offence”.
Airport Authority general
manager Idrissa Fofanah told
journalists security surveillance had been stepped up
following the incident.
14
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
AMERICAS
Spare farm
‘ghosts’, says
researcher
Thomson Reuters
Foundation
London
U
Women protest in defence of rights to abortion.
Court rejects two
new abortion cases
The court has reaffirmed the decision
it made in the Texas case
Reuters
Washington
T
he US Supreme Court yesterday
let stand lower court rulings that
blocked restrictions on doctors who
perform abortions in Mississippi and Wisconsin a day after the court struck down a
similar measure in Texas.
The laws in both states required doctors to have “admitting privileges”, a type
of difficult-to-obtain formal affiliation,
with a hospital within 48km of the abortion clinic. Both were put on hold by lower
courts. The Mississippi law would have
shut down the only clinic in the state if it
had gone into effect.
The laws in Texas, Mississippi and Wisconsin are among the numerous measures
enacted in conservative US states that
impose a variety of restrictions on abortion.
With its ruling on Monday, the court
gave its most stout endorsement of abortion rights since 1992. Conservative justice Anthony Kennedy joined the court’s
four liberals in the 5-3 decision.
The justices decided that the Texas law
placed an undue burden on women exercising their right under the US constitution to end a pregnancy, established in the
court’s landmark 1973 Roe v Wade decision.
The ruling is likely to encourage abortion rights advocates to challenge similar
restrictive laws in other states.
In November 2015, the Chicago-based
7th US circuit court of appeals struck
down the Wisconsin law.
In the Mississippi case, a federal district
court judge issued a temporary injunction
in 2012 blocking the law because it would
have forced women seeking abortions to
go out of state. The same judge issued a
second injunction in 2013, which was upheld by the New Orleans-based 5th US circuit court of appeals in 2014.
In the major ruling on Monday, the high
court issued a 5-3 ruling striking down
the 2013 Texas law, which had a provision
requiring clinics to have costly hospitalgrade facilities in addition to the “admitting privileges” provision.
Some states have pursued a variety of
restrictions on abortion, including banning certain types of procedures, prohibiting it after a certain number of weeks of
gestation, requiring parental permission
for girls until a certain age, imposing waiting periods or mandatory counselling, and
others.
In May, Oklahoma’s Republican-led
legislature passed a bill calling for prison
terms of up the three years for doctors who
performed abortions, but the state’s Republican governor vetoed it.
A divided US Supreme Court yesterday
rejected an appeal filed by pharmacists
in Washington state who objected on religious grounds to providing emergency
contraceptives to women.
The justices, with three conservatives
dissenting, left in place a July ruling by the
San Francisco-based 9th US circuit court
of appeals that upheld a state regulation
that requires pharmacies to deliver all prescribed medicines in a timely manner.
Justice Samuel Alito, joined by chief
justice John Roberts and justice Clarence
Thomas, wrote a dissenting opinion saying the court’s decision not to hear the
case is “an ominous sign”.
In Washington, the state permits a religiously objecting individual pharmacist to
deny medicine, as long as another pharmacist working at the location provides
timely delivery. The rules require a pharmacy to deliver all medicine, even if the
owner objects.
The case is one of several around the
United States in which people and businesses have sought to opt out of providing
services that conflict with their religious
faith.
Alito said there is evidence the regulation was adopted because of “hostility to
pharmacists whose religious beliefs regarding abortion and contraception are
out of step with prevailing opinion in the
state”.
“If this is a sign of how religious liberty
claims will be treated in the years ahead,
those who value religious freedom have
cause for great concern,” Alito added.
Alito’s comments seemed to refer to the
current vacancy on the court created by
the death of conservative justice Antonin
Scalia in February and the possibility of
a successor appointed by a Democratic
president. If Scalia’s replacement is a liberal, Alito appears to be warning, it would
tilt the court to the left, and a majority may
be less receptive to claims by conservative
religious groups that government is infringing upon their rights.
The Supreme Court in 2014 allowed
certain businesses to object on religious
grounds to the Obamacare law’s requirement that companies provide employees
with insurance that pays for women’s birth
control. The court in May sent a similar
dispute brought by nonprofit Christian
employers back to lower courts without
resolving the main legal issue.
The appeals court said the rules rationally further the state’s interest in patient
safety. Speed is particularly important
considering the time-sensitive nature of
emergency contraception, that court said.
The appeals court had overturned a
lower court that had said the rules were
unconstitutional. The regulation was
challenged by family-owned Stormans
Inc, which operates a pharmacy in a grocery store in Olympia. Two individual
pharmacists who worked elsewhere also
joined the lawsuit.
The objectors are Christians who associate so-called “morning after” emergency contraceptives with abortion.
The US Supreme Court yesterday agreed to decide whether Miami can
pursue lawsuits accusing major banks of
predatory mortgage lending to black and
Hispanic homebuyers resulting in loan
defaults that drove down city tax revenues
and property values.
The justices will hear appeals filed by
Bank of America Corp and Wells Fargo &
Co of a lower court’s decision to permit
the lawsuits by the Florida city against the
banks under the Fair Housing Act, a federal
law outlawing discrimination in housing.
Last September, the Atlanta-based
11th US Circuit Court of Appeals overturned a lower court’s decision to dismiss
such lawsuits by the city against Bank of
America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup Inc
Citigroup decided not to appeal to the Supreme Court. The city accused the banks
of a decade of lending discrimination in its
residential housing market.
Miami accused Wells Fargo, Bank of
America and Citigroup of steering nonwhite borrowers into higher-cost loans
they often could not afford, even if they
had good credit.
The city said the banks’ conduct caused
Miami to lose property tax revenues, drove
down property values and required the
city to pay the costs of repairing and maintaining properties that went into foreclosure due to discriminatory lending.
The court will hear oral arguments and
issue a ruling in its next term, which starts
in October and ends in June 2017.
Ikea to recall chests of drawers
AFP
Washington
F
urniture giant Ikea said
yesterday it would recall
its hugely popular Malm
model of chest of drawers after six children were crushed to
death when the dressers tipped
over.
The recall affects 29mn
chests of drawers sold in the
United States, said Elliot Kaye,
head of the US Consumer Product Safety Commission.
“If you have, or think you
have, one of these drawers...
please act immediately,” said
Kaye, speaking in Washington.
“We’re imploring you.”
The recalled models are unstable if not properly attached
to the wall, “posing a serious
tip-over and entrapment hazard that can result in death or
serious injuries to children”, the
CPSC said. Customers can get a
full refund or have Ikea personnel come to attach wall anchors
at no charge.
The recall affects some 8mn
Malm chests and dressers, and
21mn additional children’s and
adult chests and drawers, all
manufactured between 2002
and June 2016, Kaye said.
A further 6.6mn of the units
were sold in Canada, the CPSC
added.
Kaye said he commended
Ikea for taking “this leading
step for furniture safety”.
A spokeswoman for the Ikea
group, Kajsa Johansson, told
AFP in Stockholm that the
drawers “meet all mandatory
stability requirements on all
markets where sold”, and said
the bureaus were “safe when
anchored to the wall” as instructed.
The Swedish group said six
deaths had been reported in
the past 13 years involving Ikea
chests of drawers, all in the
United States, including three
since 2014.
None of the chests had been
anchored to the wall.
In 2015, Ikea launched a campaign in the United States and
Canada to encourage owners of
the Malm chests of drawers to
anchor them to the wall.
The units include Malm
three, four, and five-drawer
units, as well as various other
models.
A full list of the affected furniture can be found on the IkeaUSA.com website.
S courts should remain
open minded about migrants found working
with false identity papers in
the agricultural sector as employers were often to blame, a
researcher who spent 10 years
studying migrant farm work
said yesterday.
Sarah Horton, an anthropologist at the University of Colorado, found undocumented or
underage farm workers in California were being given stolen, borrowed or forged identity documents by employers
in what is termed “identity
masking”.
Published in the Anthropology of Work Review, the study
found that farm workers described themselves as “working as ghosts” with employers
disguising their employment
from state and federal governments and hiding the use of
child labour.
The study follows a federal
appeals court ruling in May
that undocumented immigrants could be prosecuted for
working under forged, loaned
or stolen documents.
Horton said this did not
take into account employers
exploiting the largely foreign
workers.
“Even as undocumented
migrants may continue to be
arrested for ‘identity theft’
in states like Arizona, my research illustrates the role of
employers in providing work-
Challenge to Canada’s
assisted dying rules
AFP
Ottawa
A
25-year-old
woman
with a progressive neurodegenerative disease
on Monday challenged Canada’s new rules on doctorassisted dying, saying they
should not be restricted to terminally ill patients.
The legislation, which is
barely 10 days old, is much less
comprehensive than what was
originally proposed by a parliamentary special committee
that studied the hugely controversial issue.
The plaintiff, Julia Lamb,
said the law is unconstitutional because it excludes Canadians “who are suffering with no
immediate end in sight”, according to a statement.
Lamb, who is backed by the
British Columbia Liberties
Association, filed her lawsuit
with the province’s supreme
court. She suffers from spi-
nal muscular atrophy, which
causes weakness and wasting of muscles. As the disease
progresses, she could lose
the use of her hands or arms,
need a ventilator to help her
breathe, and no longer be
able to speak, write or use her
computer, as well as require
constant care while being in
constant pain.
“My biggest fear (is that) if
my condition gets much worse
I will become trapped,” she told
a nationally televised press
conference.
“If my suffering becomes
intolerable, I would like to be
able to make a final choice
about how much suffering to
endure,” she said.
Canadians with diseases
such as spinal muscular atrophy, multiple sclerosis, spinal
stenosis, locked in syndrome,
traumatic spinal injury, Parkinson’s disease and Huntingdon’s disease are not eligible
for doctor-assisted dying under the new law.
Fire at gas plant halts
Gulf Coast platforms
Reuters
New York/Houston
A
Elliot Kaye, chair of the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC),
and CPSC employees watch as a 13kg dummy falls under Ikea’s Malm
model chest of drawers.
ers with invented and loaned
documents,” Horton said in a
statement.
“It suggests that judges
must carefully scrutinise any
charges levied against undocumented migrants for working
(on) loaned documents, as employers may have more to gain
from this practice than workers do.”
Every year up to 3mn farm
workers, mostly migrants and
almost half undocumented,
travel from farm to farm, state
to state, to harvest crops, according to the Department of
Labor and research group Student Action with Farmworkers.
Data shows that 75% of farm
workers in the United States
are from Mexico and they
are some of the lowest paid,
least protected, workers in the
country.
Student Action with Farmworkers said the states of California, Texas, Washington,
Florida, Oregon and North
Carolina have the largest numbers of farm workers.
Horton said 10 years of fieldwork workers in California’s
Central Valley found not only
was there widespread identity
masking among adult workers but also among children in
violation of child labour laws.
She said her research also
uncovered that the process of
lending documents had become financially lucrative.
“In exchange for loaning
their documents to workers,
the friends and family members of labor supervisors often
give them a kick-back,” she
said.
t least two offshore oil
platforms halted operations yesterday in the
US Gulf of Mexico after a fire at
a natural gas processing plant
in Mississippi shut a crucial
pipeline that brings output onshore, several companies said.
The fire at Enterprise Products Partners plant in Pascagoula was brought under
control, but officials were still
forced to close the 225-mile
Destin gas pipeline system that
can carry 1.2bn cubic feet per
day from offshore fields to Pascagoula.
Destin, majority-owned by
BP with Enbridge Inc a minority partner, said it was declaring
force majeure, a legal clause
that allows it to scrap commitments, as a result of the fire.
Offshore company LLOG
said it was in the process of
shutting its Delta House floating production system in the
Gulf of Mexico yesterday, a
spokesman said.
Murphy Oil Corp said its
Thunder Hawk platform was
shut in after the fire.
Murphy added it plans to
flow natural gas to an alternate
processing facility and expects
minimal disruptions to its operations.
Several social media messages from Pascagoula residents had said the blaze erupted shortly before midnight at
Chevron Corp’s 330,000 barrels per day refinery in Pascagoula.
The Pascagoula Police Department said the fire was
not at the Chevron refinery.
There were no injuries from
the blaze, Enterprise said.The
cause was under investigation.
Enterprise took ownership of
the plant from BP Plc on June 1.
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
15
ASEAN
New born
Monk who
lead revolt
faces more
charges
Reuters
Yangon
A
The Singapore Night Safari’s first baby elephant calf to be born in six years, is seen as she plays at the zoo, yesterday.
S’pore website owner
jailed for ‘hate’ content
The website featured several cooked
up stories
AFP
Singapore
A
Singaporean man behind a defunct
website that published made-up
articles stirring hatred against
foreigners in the city-state was jailed for
eight months yesterday for sedition.
State prosecutors had pushed for a
strong deterrent sentence on Yang Kaiheng, owner of The Real Singapore (TRS)
website, saying the articles on which the
charges were based were “designed to
provoke hatred against foreigners in Singapore”.
Yang, 27, had earlier claimed trial but
later pleaded guilty to six charges of sowing discord between locals and foreigners
in a series of articles, three of which state
prosecutors said contained “blatant falsehoods designed to insert prominent xenophobic” references.
One article falsely said that a Filipino
family instigated a fracas at a Hindu festival in 2015.
Another fabricated article alleged that
a Chinese woman made her grandson urinate into a bottle inside a metro train.
Yang Kaiheng pleaded guilty to six counts of sedition.
The articles were mostly designed to
inflame hatred against Filipino, mainland
Chinese and Indian nationals working in
labour-starved Singapore, the prosecutors
said.
Prosecutors described Yang as a “calculating opportunist, who realised that by
generating a groundswell of resentment
towards foreigners, he could attract readers to the TRS website and thereby generate vast sums of advertising revenue”.
Yang’s Australian wife, Ai Takagi, who
wrote or edited the articles, was sentenced
in March to 10 months in jail also for sedition.
The popular website, which earned the
duo hundreds of thousands in advertising
revenue, was shut down after Takagi and
Yang were arrested while visiting the island last year.
Both were based in Australia.
Takagi’s sentence is the stiffest so far
ever imposed for sedition in the strict
city-state, which clamps down hard on
any activity seen as promoting racial and
class hatred.
State prosecutors described Yang as the
“proprietor” and “distributor” of TRS and
said a tough sentence on him “must reflect
the fact that this is the most serious case of
sedition to date in Singapore”.
District court Judge Chay Yuen Fatt
noted that Yang had pleaded guilty on
Friday, the day results showed that Britain had voted to bolt out of the European
Union.
“To put it bluntly, nationalism can degenerate very rapidly into xenophobia,
racism, intolerance and violence,” the
judge said.
“Brexit is an example and a reminder
of how strong, uncertain and unpredictable these emotions can be and the ramifications that these feelings can and have
caused.”
Sedition laws in Singapore make it an
offence to promote hostility between different races or classes in the multiracial
society, which is mainly ethnic Chinese
with large Malay and Indian minorities.
Critics, however, say sedition laws, dating back to British colonial rule, can be
used to restrict free speech.
About 40% of the city-state’s 5.5mn
people are foreigners, many of them from
China, India and the Philippines.
Indonesian MPs approve higher
arms spending with eye on China
Myanmar court laid
additional
charges
against a former monk
and leader of the 2007 “Saffron Revolution” anti-junta
uprising yesterday, accusing
him of trespass and “mischief” committed four years
ago.
Nyi Nyi Lwin, better known
as Gambira, was arrested in
January for illegally entering
Myanmar from neighbouring
Thailand.
The new charges relate to
the reopening of monasteries
that were sealed off after the
monk-led protests.
The alleged violations took
place in 2012, after Gambira’s
release from prison where he
had served time for his involvement in the demonstrations.
“Gambira force-opened the
gates of three monasteries in
Yangon, which were sealed off
by the military in the crackdown on the protests, since the
activist monks couldn’t find
anywhere to live after their release in the amnesty in 2012,”
said Gambira’s lawyer, Robert
San Aung.
The charges were laid days
before he was about to be released from prison, where he
has been serving time for allegedly crossing the Thai-Burma border without an official
visa.
He has now been moved
to Yangon’s notorious Insein
prison from Mandalay to face
the new charges.
The fact that a high-profile
political prisoner is moved
around the country and
charged for seemingly minor
offences committed years ago
shows democratic reforms
in Myanmar under Aung San
Suu Kyi’s leadership are still
in their early stages, as many
junta-era institutions, mechanisms and laws remain unchanged.
“He was due to be freed on
July 1, but the authorities seem
afraid of him and don’t want to
let him out,” said Robert San
Aung.
The government cracked
down harshly on the 2007
demonstrations, opening fire
on protesters and sweeping up
those who took part.
At least 31 people were killed
by security forces and thousands arrested, according to
the United Nations.
Gambira was freed from
prison during a 2012 general
amnesty, a year after the junta
handed power to a semi-civilian government, following
49 years of direct rule of the
Southeast Asian nation.
Cambodia PM
warns detractors
Reuters
Phnom Penh
I
nternational powers should
keep out of Cambodian
domestic politics, Prime
Minister Hun Sen warned yesterday as he posed for selfies
with supporters and played
down tension between his ruling party and the opposition.
An opposition win in an
election due in 2018 could tip
the country back into civil
war, the quixotic Cambodian
strong man has warned.
Foreign governments have
accused him of intimidating
his political opponents ahead
of the vote.
Those who portrayed the
country as experiencing a political crisis were guilty of a
“dishonest trick to deceive
public opinion”, Hun Sen said
in the capital, Phnom Penh.
“They must not misconstrue individual mistakes as
political issues and put pressure on the courts,” he added,
in a reference to foreign governments and international
institutions. That is an insult
to people, state institutions
and a dangerous adventure for
the nation.”
Last month, the European
parliament threatened to review nearly half a billion dollars of aid to Cambodia if Hun
Sen’s government continued to
harass political opponents.
The United Nations and
the United States have called
for dialogue between the two
sides.
Tension has risen in Cambodia as opposition leaders Sam
Rainsy and Kem Sokha face legal charges they say have been
trumped up by a judiciary in
thrall to Hun Sen.
The Cambodian prime minister says if they have committed crimes, they must face the
legal consequences.
The opposition says the
prime minister has started a
campaign against it early, to
weaken its campaigning ahead
of the election.
At the last vote in 2013, a
strong performance by the
opposition Cambodia National Rescue Party (CNRP)
nearly cost Hun Sen the premiership.
Sokha has spent one month
in hiding inside the CNRP
headquarters as he seeks to
evade arrest, while Rainsy is
in self-imposed exile to avoid
arrest on charges for which he
had previously received a royal
pardon.
Reuters
Jakarta
Aid pullout hits Aids
patients in Vietnam
I
ndonesian lawmakers yesterday approved higher defence spending this
year to fund, among other things, major
upgrades to military facilities in the Natuna
Islands, whose nearby waters Beijing says
are subject to “over-lapping claims”.
Parliament’s approval came just days
after President Joko Widodo visited the
remote island chain to assert sovereignty
over the area, in what Indonesian officials
described as the strongest message that
has been given to China.
China’s increasingly assertive actions in
the South China Sea, which are worrying
Southeast Asian countries, are fuelling an
increase in security spending in the region.
“(Natuna) needs to be guarded and to
do that the military needs to have proper
facilities, they need additional funds,” said
Johnny Plate, a member of parliament’s
budget committee.
Parliament approved an increase to the
defence ministry’s budget this year to
108.7tn rupiah ($8.25bn), up nearly 10%
from the initial 2016 budget.
Some of the new funds will be used to
upgrade the airbase and build a new port
in the Natuna Islands to allow for more
warships and fighter jets to be based there,
DPA
Hanoi
T
Indonesian President Joko Widodo on the deck of the Indonesian Navy ship KRI Imam Bonjol.
defence minister Ryamizard Ryacudu told
reporters.
Indonesia’s navy has stepped up patrols
around the islands after a series of faceoffs between Indonesian naval vessels and
Chinese fishing boats in the area.
Jakarta objects to Beijing’s inclusion of
waters around the Natuna Islands within
China’s “nine-dash line”, a demarcation
line used by Beijing to show its claims.
Beijing last week said that those waters were subject to overlapping claims on
“maritime rights and interests” between
China and Indonesia.
Jakarta has rejected China’s stance, saying the waters are in Indonesia’s territory.
Despite the objections, Indonesia is not
part of a broader regional dispute over
China’s reclamation activities in the South
China Sea. China claims almost the entire
waters, where about $5tn worth of trade
passes every year.
Brunei, Malaysia, the Philippines, Taiwan and Vietnam also have claims.
housands of HIV/Aids
patients in Vietnam
could face a shortage of
medication as foreign donors
pull out, an advocate for patients said yesterday.
Most treatment of Vietnam’s
260,000 HIV patients comes
from or through US government
agency Pepfar, which has said
it aims to stop providing most
services and support by 2018 as
Vietnam becomes wealthier.
To meet the shortfall, people
living with HIV/Aids will have
to buy government health insurance policies to cover their
treatment.
The number of patients dependent on insurance is expected to rise from a projected
17,000 in 2017 to 51,000 in 2018,
said patients advocate Do Dang
Dong, chairman of the Vietnam
Network of People Living with
HIV/Aids.
“We aren’t in crisis mode,
but we are a middle-income
country already, so most of our
international funding will stop,”
he told DPA yesterday.
Few of the country’s HIV
patients can afford health insurance, according to Tranh
Thi Le Tram, director of the
Centre for Law, Healthcare
and HIV/Aids, in comments to
a government-hosted panel in
Hanoi on June 27 reported by
Vietnam News.
16
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
AUSTRALASIA/EAST ASIA
South China Sea
reefs ‘decimated’
in latest giant
clam harvest
By Farah Master, Reuters
Tanmen, China
O
rnaments made from the
shells of endangered giant
clams, renowned in China
for having auspicious powers and the
lustre of ivory, have become coveted
luxuries, a trend which has wreaked
havoc on the ecosystem of the South
China Sea.
China banned harvesting of giant
clams last year but in the tiny seaside
town Tanmen on the southern island
of Hainan, most stores still sell products made from the over four-footwide shells.
The once sleepy fishing village
has transformed over the past three
years to harvest clams on an industrial scale.
There are around 460 handicraft
retailers, compared to 15 in 2012,
with the industry now supporting
around 100,000 people.
The price of giant clams has risen
40-fold over the past five years,
while the plundering of the seabed
has led to severe degradation of the
reefs, scientists and academics said.
“With rising tensions in the South
China Sea, Tanmen fishermen’s im-
portant role in strengthening China’s claims in the disputed waters
and supporting the People’s Liberation Army navy are recognised by the
Chinese government,” said Zhang
Hongzhou, an associate research fellow at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore.
“As a result, authorities have
turned a blind eye.”
China claims almost the whole
South China Sea, setting it at odds
with rival claims from its Southeast
Asian neighbours, including the
Philippines.
The region accounts for more than
a tenth of global fisheries production.
The Qionghai government, which
looks after Tanmen, announced in
March 2015 that it would strictly
enforce the ban on digging, carrying and selling of endangered marine
species including the giant clams.
“The government is enforcing the
ban,” said Zhang Hongying, an official at the Qionghai government foreign affairs office.
Another official called Zhao said
the authorities were not doing anything to support the industry. “If the
business is legal, our government
won’t stop people doing it,” he said.
“But there’s no government file say-
ing that we are going to do something
to promote the shell industry.”
To harvest the clams, the entire
reef has to be dug up, said Neo Mei
Lin, a marine biologist at the National University of Singapore.
“What used to be really good coral
reefs in there have definitely been
decimated over the last two to three
years,” Lin said.
“I think the Hainanese have essentially taken out all the giant clam
shells from the South China Sea, dead
or alive,” said Ed Gomez, a senior adviser at the University of the Philippines Marine Science Institute.
But during a recent visit to Tanmen, stores lining the harbour
promenade were mostly empty.
Many retailers said business had
dropped since April due to China’s
tough economic climate and soaring
temperatures. “There are no tourists
at the moment. We have to wait until
September,” said Yu Guo, owner of
Xianyu Xuan craft store.
Yu, from Beijing, came to Tanmen
to buy property four years ago and
set up the store with a local partner
as the economy boomed.
“In the good times, we could earn
10mn yuan ($1.52mn) per month,” he
said.
China court orders writer to apologise for challenging propaganda
A
Chinese court has ordered
the former chief editor of an
influential magazine to apologise for challenging an official account of history, as Beijing further
tightens limits on freedom of speech.
Hong Zhenkuai cast doubt on the
story of the Five Warriors of Mount
Langyashan, who allegedly jumped off
a cliff while fighting the Japanese during World War II rather than surrender.
They are touted as patriotic heroes
in schoolbooks and propaganda by
China’s ruling Communist Party as
part of its nationalistic narrative.
But Hong pointed out discrepan-
cies in the story in two 2013 articles
for his progressive magazine Yanhuang Chunqiu, questioning whether two of the five had jumped at all.
The Beijing Xicheng District People’s Court ruled Monday that he had
“tarnished their reputation and honour”, and hurt the feelings of their
two sons, plaintiffs Ge Changsheng
and Song Fubao, along with those of
the Chinese people as a whole.
The court gave Hong three days
to issue a public apology, it said in a
statement on its website.
It was unclear what penalty he
would face should he fail to do so.
The Langyashan soldiers were “a
key component of the spirit of the
Chinese nation”, the court said.
As a Chinese citizen, it added,
Hong should have known better than
to “diminish their heroic image and
spiritual value”.
“The defendant had the ability to
control the potential damaging consequences that arose out of the articles but did not do so,” it said. “His
judgement is clearly faulty and he
should bear legal responsibility.
“The freedom of speech that he
advocates is clearly insufficient as a
defence against his legal wrongs.”
Waterworld!
Posters of candidates on display ahead of a general election in Mongolia’s capital Ulan Bator.
Young Mongolians look
for change after election
Reuters
Ulan Bator
I
n a stretch of open grassland surrounded by yurts, some of the thousands of Mongolians headbanging to
the likes of heavy metal band “Purgatory Destroyers” at the country’s biggest
music festival were thinking about politics as much as partying.
Many young Mongolians, not much
older than the wind-swept, land-locked
democracy squeezed between autocratic
China and Russia, are disillusioned with
the slow economy and established political parties, and could play a decisive
role in parliamentary elections today.
More than half Mongolia’s 3mn people
are under 30 and grew up during a time
of rapid change following a peaceful political revolution in 1990 that saw the
Soviet system replaced by democracy
and the influx of influences from Holly-
Sporting a beard and tattoos, Unenkhuu, 36, said he had taken time off
from organising heavy metal concerts
and playing in a band to pursue elected
office.
“You know some of those members of
parliament, they’ve been in office for at
least like the last four terms, right? And
I mean what has changed? Nothing,” the
rocker-turned-candidate said.
“I think they should all step down and
give way for the new generation.”
Unenkhuu acknowledges he will be in
a tough race as he faces off against the
two largest parties — the Democratic
Party and the main opposition Mongolian People’s Party (MPP). Polls suggest
that voters, fed up from four straight
years of slowing growth under the Democratic Party, are likely to award more
seats to the MPP, which ruled Mongolia
when it was a socialist one-party state
and has held power most often since
democratic reforms in 1990.
Australia jails poaching Vietnam fishermen
AFP
Sydney
T
hirty Vietnamese found illegally
fishing in Australian waters were
yesterday handed suspended jail
sentences and had their boats destroyed
in what authorities said was a strong deterrent message.
The crew were from two boats caught
illegally fishing in a Coral Sea marine reserve off Australia’s north coast on June
2, with diving gear and six tonnes of sea
cucumber — a delicacy in countries such
as China — found on board.
The fishermen all pleaded guilty in
a Darwin court to breaking Australian
fisheries and environmental laws.
Their penalties included suspended
jail sentences ranging from two months
for the crew to five and seven months for
the masters of the vessels.
They were also issued good behaviour
bonds ranging from two to three years,
with up to A$2,000 (US$1,477) to pay if
they are breached.
“Illegal fishing threatens the economic
viability and sustainability of Australia’s
well managed marine resources,” said
Australian Fisheries Management Authority general manager Peter Venslovas.
“The convictions and destruction
of the vessels are a good result and will
send a very strong message to all those
considering illegally fishing in Australian waters.”
The case came on the same day a Papua New Guinean boat was apprehended
for suspected illegal fishing in Australian
waters, allegedly carrying sea cucumber
and two shark fins.
According to a United Nations Development Program report this month, up
to 26mn tonnes of fish is caught illegally
each year.
Stepped up surveillance by Australia
has seen the amount of illegal fishing fall
from highs of 367 boats caught a decade
ago to just 17 so far in the 2015-2016 financial year, government data shows.
Last word: Language of
China’s emperors in peril
By Tom Hancock, AFP
Sanjiazi, China
I
A man pushes a tub carrying children as he gets them back home after school at a flooded area
in Duchang, Jiangxi Province, China.
wood, hip hop and heavy metal.
“The quality of politicians is, I think,
very bad,” said Khishigdelger, a festivalgoer at the Playtime Music Festival. “So
Mongolians need to do something different.”
Turnout at the polls is expected to be
at an all-time low, amid widespread perceptions that the older generation has
hung on to power to further its own interest at a cost to the rest of the country.
Economic growth has fallen from
17.5% in 2011, the year before the Democratic Party took power, to the IMF’s
projected 0.4% for this year.
The resource-rich country has struggled to adapt as the market for coal and
copper slumped on weaker demand from
China, and some blame officials for creating mining disputes.
“Maybe that older generation should
just die off,” says Umbanyamba Unenkhuu, who is running for office as a
member of the National Labour Party.
t was the language of China’s
last imperial dynasty which
ruled a vast kingdom for
nearly three centuries.
But 71-year-old Ji Jinlu is
among only a handful of native
Manchu speakers left.
Traders and farmers from what
are now the borders of China and
Korea, the Manchus took advantage of a crumbling Ming state
and swept south in the 1600s
to establish their own Qing Dynasty.
Manchu became the court
language, its angular, alphabetic
script used in millions of documents produced by one of the
world’s preeminent powers.
Now after centuries of decline
followed by decades of repression, septuagenarian Ji is the
youngest of some nine mothertongue speakers left in Sanjiazi
village, one of only two places in
China where they can be found.
“We mostly speak Chinese
these days — otherwise young
people don’t understand,” he
said, in his sparsely-furnished
hut beside cornfields, before
launching into a self-composed
Manchu lullaby.
Manchu is classed as “critically endangered” by the United
Nations’ cultural organisation
Unesco, which says that half of
the more than 6,000 languages
spoken worldwide are threatened
with extinction, a major loss of
knowledge and diversity for humanity.
But schemes to save Manchu
are spreading as ethnic conciousness grows among the 10mn
strong minority.
The sign for the village primary school in Sanjiazi, in the
northeastern province of Heilongjiang, is in Manchu’s vertical
script, with posters in the language written by pupils lining its
corridors.
Staring intently at an electronic display, a class shouted the
Manchu alphabet, followed by
words for “umbrella” and “cow”.
But instruction was in Chinese, the everyday language of
school life, as were the bellowed
lyrics of a song titled: “We are the
good Manchu children”.
Teacher Shi Junguang, who
painstakingly learnt Manchu
from older residents and records
native speakers before they pass
away, wore a red and turquoise
robe with gold sleeves reminiscent of the group’s traditional
apparel.
But, now, he said, the Manchu
“don’t really have any special
ethnic characteristics in food or
dress.”
“The main thing we have here
is the language.”
Under the Qing — or “pure” —
dynasty, China saw massive territorial expansion before it weakened in the 19th century, assailed
by corruption and pressure from
European and other foreign powers.
Discrimination against nonManchu Chinese remained rife
and helped fuel a series of rebellions which finally saw the dynasty overthrown in 1911.
Republican leader Sun Yat-sen
declared: “To restore the Chi-
nese nation, we must drive the
barbarian Manchus back to the
Changbai Mountains,” their ancestral homeland.
Many remaining Manchus hid
their language, a trend which
intensified
under
Communist leader Mao Zedong, who
launched campaigns to eradicate
foreign and traditional culture.
At the height of Maoism, “No
one spoke the language,” recalled
Ji. “It was a time of destroying
old culture. Who would dare?”
Political controls relaxed in the
1980s following Mao’s death, and
Yang Yuan, an ethnic Manchu
historian in Beijing, said: “Manchu consciousness has started
re-emerging, and now it’s getting
stronger and stronger.”
Several universities currently
offer Manchu courses, and enthusiasts in major cities have
formed clubs to study it.
China has launched a massive
project to translate Qing documents into modern Chinese, an
effort aimed at promoting a view
of the dynasty as essentially Chinese.
But the language is also studied by academics abroad, including many in Japan and the US.
Last year overseas historians
were branded “splittists” whose
work “endangers Chinese unity”
in the official journal of the staterun Chinese Academy for Social
Sciences, in a sign of official fears
over Qing history.
But Harvard University professor Mark Elliott said that
teaching Manchu was considered
less of a threat by the ruling party
than Tibetan or the language of
the mainly Muslim Uighur mi-
nority, as China’s northeastern
provinces were now “so firmly
welded” into the country that
accusations of separatism were
implausible.
“That makes Manchu a little
bit safer,” he added.
Sanjiazi is “more of symbolic
value as the last bastion of Manchu speakers,” Elliot said. “If
the effort is to revive Manchu in
a way that it would be used in
everyday life, I don’t see much
chance of success.”
Teacher Shi admitted that his
charges only have “some understanding” of the language.
Internet savvy young people
have little use for it and dream of
leaving the remote settlement.
Outside school, a group of
blue-uniformed children struggled to remember the Manchu
word for “goodbye”, one adding
in Chinese: “To be honest, our
English is better.”
One of the few mother-tongue
speakers, Meng Xianren, 85, recalled a poverty-stricken youth
punctuated by traditional Manchu pursuits, such as rabbit
hunting using trained eagles.
He repeated a Manchu phrase
meaning “where are you from?”
to 14-year-old Li Kechao, who
hovered in his doorway.
She did her best to parrot the
question back to the village elder,
before admitting: “I don’t understand.”
Spitting on a stone floor, Meng
declared: “Manchus once ruled
over the Han people. But that
time is over”.
“We’ve become like them,” he
added with resignation. “There’s
no difference.”
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
17
BRITAIN/IRELAND
AVIATION
EVENT
ART
ROYALTY
Clear Heathrow plan,
government urged
Banksy spray painted
van to be auctioned
Johnny Depp’s Basquiat
art collection on sale
‘I’m still alive’, jokes
Queen on N Ireland visit
Britain is set to fall down the European league
table for hub airports, the boss of Heathrow
said as he urged the government to back a third
runway. The government said on Monday it
would announce in weeks whether it backed
the expansion of Heathrow or Gatwick, but fears
are growing that the long-awaited investment
decision could become a victim of the political
chaos that has been thrown up by the vote to
leave the European Union. “Now more than ever,
Britain needs to underpin its globally recognised
economic strength by delivering privately funded
infrastructure projects like a third runway,”
Heathrow CEO John Holland-Kaye said.
A SWAT van spray painted by elusive street
artist Banksy will go under the hammer at a
London auction today with an estimated sale
price of around $400,000. ‘SWAT Van’ shows a
group of armed agents hoodwinked by a boy
on one side while the character Dorothy from
‘The Wizard of Oz’ is depicted on the other. The
van was exhibited for the first and only time
in Los Angeles 10 years ago. Auction house
Bonhams has an estimated sale price for the
work in between £200,000 to £300,000. Banksy,
who has kept his identity secret, is known for
works on buildings displaying ironic as well as
provocative social commentary.
Eight works by American artist Jean-Michel
Basquiat collected by actor Johnny Depp over 25
years go under the hammer this month at auction
house Christie’s in London. Almost all the paintings
and drawings, which go on sale on June 29 and 30,
date from 1981 and illustrate the post-punk New
York scene of the time. The auction comes after
the sale of the artist’s Untitled piece from 1982 that
fetched $57.3mn — a Basquiat record — in May.
“The Basquiat market is really high. He just thought
it was the right moment to take advantage of the
world record we broke...last month,” Edmond
Francey, head of Post War and Contemporary Art
at Christie’s in London, said.
“I’m still alive,” quipped the British monarch
Queen Elizabeth when asked about her health,
in her first round of public engagements since
Britain voted to leave the European Union. The
dry remark came during the queen’s two-day trip
to Northern Ireland, where she met with leaders
including Martin McGuinness, a former Irish
Republican Army paramilitary who now serves
as deputy first minister of the British-ruled
province. “Hello, are you well?” McGuinness
asked as he extended his hand in greeting to the
monarch in a televised meeting. “I’m still alive
anyway. Ha,” Queen Elizabeth laughed, shaking
his hand.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip arrive for their
visit to the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland
yesterday.
London must
have more
autonomy,
says mayor
Reuters
London
L
ondon should swiftly be
granted more autonomy
to help it ride out the economic uncertainty unleashed by
Britain’s vote to leave the European Union, Mayor Sadiq Khan
said yesterday.
While the United Kingdom voted 52% to 48% to leave the bloc,
London voted to remain, unlike
most of the rest of England.
Since then, more than 175,000
people have signed an online petition calling for London to become
an independent city-state.
“On behalf of all Londoners, I
am demanding more autonomy
for the capital — right now,” Khan,
who last month became the first
Muslim mayor of a major Western
capital, said in a speech to business
leaders.
“London has to take back control too. Londoners, who voted for
a different path to the rest of England, need more self-determination,” he said. “We need to control
our own destiny.”
Khan, who campaigned for
Britain to remain a member of the
EU, said he was not talking about
making London independent, but
that the city needed to be able to
determine its own future after the
vote triggered turmoil on global
markets.
“You will be pleased to know
I am not planning to blockade
the M25,” he quipped, referring
to London’s orbital motorway.
“Greater devolution is the best
path towards reuniting our country.”
Thursday’s Brexit vote has
sent shockwaves through the EU,
wiped more than $3tn off global
stock markets and increased the
risk that the United Kingdom will
divide after Scotland said it was
highly likely to hold a new referendum on independence.
Khan, a former opposition Labour lawmaker, is seeking devolution of tax-raising powers, as well
as more control over areas including business, transport, housing
and planning, health and policing,
his office said.
“More autonomy in order to
protect London’s economy from
the uncertainty ahead,” said Khan,
45, who grew up in public housing
in inner-city London.
Khan said there was no way to
reverse the result of the referendum and that Britain would leave
the EU, though he expressed concern about the uncertainty that
the vote had created for businesses
in the capital.
“The speed of our exit from the
EU looks likely to be decided in
Brussels, Paris and Berlin rather
than in London,” Khan said.
He added that London, which
is ranked as the EU’s largest and
richest city, must have a seat in
the negotiations with the EU over
Britain’s future relationship with
the bloc.
“Britain must remain part of the
European single market,” he said.
“Remaining in the single market
needs to be priority one, two and
three of our negotiation with the
EU.”
London, which offers by far the
deepest pool of capital in the time
zone between Asia and the US, accounts for 41% of global foreign
exchange turnover.
That is more than double the
nearest competitor, New York, and
well above the 3% of its closest EU
competitors, France and Switzerland.
Banks based in London rely on
a so-called EU “passporting” system which allows them to operate
across the 28-country bloc’s capital market unhindered.
Some banks have said they
would shift operations to the euro
zone if Britain left the EU.
Khan, who succeeded Conservative lawmaker and leading
Brexit campaigner Boris Johnson
as mayor, said he had the support
of local authorities and the City of
London financial centre and called
on business leaders to back his
plan to get more control.
Demonstrators hold up placards with slogans against the split with the EU at an anti-Brexit protest in Trafalgar Square in central London yesterday.
Corbyn defiant after
losing no-trust vote
AFP
London
L
abour Party lawmakers
voted massively against
their leader yesterday
amid political turmoil in Britain after a vote to leave the European Union as candidates to
succeed Prime Minister David
Cameron vied for power behind
the scenes.
Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn lost
a non-binding confidence motion, with 172 Labour MPs voting against him and only 40 in
favour out of a total of 229 Labour lawmakers in the House of
Commons.
But the veteran socialist insisted he would not stand down.
“I was democratically elected
leader of our party for a new
kind of politics by 60% of Labour members and supporters,
and I will not betray them by
resigning. This vote by MPs has
no constitutional legitimacy,”
he said in a statement.
Five days after the shock referendum vote, the two parties
that have dominated Westminster for nearly a century were in
almost complete disarray.
Pro-EU Finance Minister
George Osborne, long tipped to
succeed Cameron, ruled himself
out yesterday while the media
reported that Work and Pensions Minister Stephen Crabb,
a virtual unknown to the public,
would put his name forward.
Former London mayor and
‘Leave’ figurehead Boris Johnson
— now a bogeyman for many in
the “Remain” camp — is tipped
as one of the favourites.
The other is Interior Minister Theresa May who is reportedly seeking support for a rival
bid that the media tipped as the
“Stop Boris” campaign.
The Conservatives have set
a Thursday deadline for nominations and the party said the
winner would be announced on
September 9.
Cameron has said he would
leave it to his successor to invoke Article 50 — the formal
procedure for exiting the European Union.
On the opposition side, over
half of Corbyn’s shadow cabinet
— the leadership of his party —
have now resigned since Sunday
in a co-ordinated series of resignations against the 67-year-
F
irst Minister Nicola Sturgeon will meet European
Parliament chiefs in Brussels
today to seek a way for Scotland to
remain in the European Union, she
said yesterday.
Scotland, a nation of 5mn people, voted to stay in the EU by 62%
to 38% in last week’s referendum,
putting it at odds with the United
Kingdom as a whole, which voted
52% to 48% in favour of Brexit.
Sturgeon has called the prospect
of Scotland being taken out of the
EU “democratically unacceptable”
and said she would take all necessary steps to prevent it, including
revisiting the issue of independence from the United Kingdom.
She said that in an initial visit
to Brussels today she would set
out Scotland’s position to European Parliament President Martin
Schulz and to representatives of
the major groups of European lawmakers.
She also said that after this
week’s European Council, she
intended to discuss the Scottish
issue directly with the European
Commission, the EU’s executive
body. “Our early priority has been
to ensure that there is a widespread awareness across Europe of
Scotland’s different choice in the
referendum and of our aspiration
to stay in the EU,” Sturgeon told
the Scottish parliament.
She said she had already discussed the fallout from the Brexit
vote with the president and prime
minister of Ireland, and that the
Scottish government was directly
in touch with the governments of
other EU member states.
Sturgeon’s Scottish National
Party (SNP) campaigns for Scotland to break away from the UK,
and Sturgeon said after the results
of the EU referendum were announced that a second independence referendum was now “highly
likely”.
Scots rejected independence by
55% to 45% in a 2014 referendum
in which EU membership was presented as one of the key advantages of remaining part of the UK.
Sturgeon argues that the Brexit
vote has changed the context so
profoundly that Scots should be
able to vote again on the issue,
should independence turn out to
be the best way for Scotland to remain an EU member.
The Scottish arm of Conservative Party, which is the main opposition to the SNP in the Scottish
parliament, attacked Sturgeon for
linking the EU issue to the possibility of a second independence
referendum.
“You do not dampen the shockwaves caused by one referendum
by lighting the fuse for another,”
Scottish Conservative leader Ruth
Davidson told the parliament in
Edinburgh.
“(The Brexit vote) does not
break the continuing logic of our
sharing power with the United
Kingdom, not splitting from it.”
The Labour Party, once the
dominant force in Scottish politics
but now a shadow of its former self
following a string of SNP electoral
victories, said millions of Scots
wanted to be part of both the United Kingdom and the EU.
The Conservatives are meanwhile scrambling to choose a
successor to Cameron, who announced his resignation within
hours of the Brexit result last
Friday.
A new poll yesterday put May
in the lead with 31%, against
24% for Johnson.
Nominations for the party
leadership open today, and close
tomorrow.
If more than two candidates
stand, Tory MPs will vote next
week to whittle down the field
to two nominees, before the new
leader is chosen by a postal ballot
of party members, who currently
number around 150,000.
The new Tory leader is expected to be announced on September 9, the party announced
yesterday. Pages 18, 26
You’re not laughing
now: Farage tells MEPs
Sturgeon plans EU talks
to keep Scotland in bloc
Reuters
Edinburgh
old, who only became leader in
September.
Corbyn, a veteran socialist and eurosceptic who voted
against EU membership in a
1975 referendum, has come under heavy criticism from proEU lawmakers for his lukewarm
campaigning in favour of Britain
staying in.
Many experts have blamed the
strong anti-EU vote in Labour
heartlands in northern England
on Corbyn.
But Corbyn himself has
blamed Conservative austerity measures for creating disenchantment in many workingclass areas and said the media
had not covered Labour’s referendum campaign, focussing
instead on rifts within the ruling
Conservatives.
AFP
Brussels
N
Scotland’s First Minister Nicola Sturgeon listens in the debating
chamber of the Scottish Parliament at Holyrood in Edinburgh,
Scotland, yesterday.
igel Farage, leader of the
anti-EU UK Independence Party, told a jeering
European Parliament he had had
the last laugh after Britain defied
their warnings and voted to quit
the EU.
“Isn’t it funny. When I came
here 17 years ago and I said I
wanted to lead a campaign to
get Britain to leave the EU, you
all laughed at me but you are not
laughing now,” Farage told MEPs.
Farage said the European Union was “in denial” about its
failing and wrong-headed ambitions for a united Europe from
which voters were turning away
in droves.
“You have imposed on them
a political union and when the
people in 2005 in the Netherlands and in France voted against
you, you simply ignored them and
brought the Lisbon Treaty in by
the back door!” he told MEPs in
an emergency debate on Britain’s
Brexit vote.
There needs to be a “grown-up
and sensible” approach to negoti-
ating a new relationship between
Britain and the European Union
based on tariff-free access to the
bloc’s single market, Farage said.
“If you were to decide to cut off
your noses to spite faces and to
reject any idea of a sensible trade
deal, the consequences would be
far worse for you than it would
be for us,” the EU lawmaker told
his counterparts in the European
Parliament.
“Let’s cut between us a sensible tariff-free deal and thereafter
recognise that the UK will be your
friend, that we will trade with
you, we will co-operate with you,
we will be your best friends in the
world,” Farage added.
Meanwhile, EU Commission
President Jean-Claude Juncker
accused Farage of deliberately
misleading the public with a claim
that Britain pays 350mn euros a
week to the EU, telling him: “You
lied. You did not tell the truth.”
Farage said Britain should leave
as soon as possible, but that the
process should be amicable, adding that the size of the British
economy and its close links with
the rest of the EU meant that it
should be given a preferential
deal.
18
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
EUROPE
EU tells UK to
leave ‘quickly’
Valls says it’s time to ‘lance the boil’
Reuters
Brussels
E
uropean leaders yesterday told
Britain to act quickly to resolve
the political and economic chaos
unleashed by its vote to leave the European Union, a move the IMF said could
put pressure on global growth.
Financial markets recovered slightly
after the result of last Thursday’s referendum wiped a record $3tn off global shares and sterling fell to its lowest
level in 31 years, but trading was volatile
and policymakers said they would take
all necessary measures to protect their
economies.
European countries are concerned
about the impact of the uncertainty
created by Britain’s vote to leave on the
27 other EU member states.
There is little idea of when, or even
if, the country will formally declare it
is quitting.
“The process for the United Kingdom
to leave the European Union must start
as soon as possible,” French President
Francois Hollande said. “I can’t imagine any British government would not
respect the choice of its own people.”
European Commission President
Jean-Claude Juncker sent a similar
message as he prepared for talks with
British Prime Minister David Cameron
before an EU summit in Brussels, although he did not anticipate an immediate move.
“We cannot be embroiled in lasting
Europe needs to “lance the boil” after
Britain decided to leave the European
Union and reinvent itself, France’s Prime
Minister Manuel Valls said yesterday,
warning that timid steps would only
leave the door open to populist, eurosceptic parties.
Even if Britain was a country that
had always had “one foot in, one foot
out” of the bloc, Europe must not turn a
blind eye to a wider popular malaise, the
Socialist premier said.
“Now is not the time for diplomatic
prudence.
We have to lance the boil,” Valls told
lawmakers at the opening of a parliamentary debate on the consequences of
Britain’s referendum vote on June 23 to
quit the EU.
The Brexit vote highlighted a deepseated unease among voters, Valls said.
Failure to make Europe more relevant
to voters — increasingly disgruntled over
immigration and the erosion of national
uncertainty,” Juncker said in a speech to
the European Parliament, which he interrupted to ask British members of the
assembly who campaigned to leave the
EU why they were there.
Cameron, who called the referendum
and tendered his resignation when it
became clear he had failed to persuade
Britain to stay in the EU, says he will
leave it to his successor to formally declare the country’s exit.
sovereignty in a drive for EU integration
— would leave the doors open to populist
eurosceptic parties.
Valls said President Francois Hollande,
who is in Brussels for a European Council
summit, had a firm message for Britain
that there would be no Brexit negotiations before London triggers a two-year
countdown for completion of the divorce.
“We don’t want to punish them. That
would be absurd,” Valls said. “But Europe
needs clarity. Either they leave or they
stay in the union.”
Britain’s referendum outcome echoed
euroscepticism growing across much of
the continent, including in France where
the far-right National Front cheered the
Brexit and renewed its call for a popular
vote on France’s EU membership.
Valls, though, rejected the idea of a
French referendum.
“Of course we have to let people have
their say. But let’s be clear: a referendum
is not the way to sort out a problem.”
Arriving for the EU summit, he said:
“I’ll be explaining that Britain will be
leaving the European Union but I want
that process to be as constructive as
possible, and I hope the outcome can be
as constructive as possible.
Holding out hope of maintaining
good relations with other European
countries, he said Britain wanted “the
closest possible relationship in terms
of trade and co-operation and security.
British Prime Minister David Cameron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel take places for the traditional family photo at
he EU summit in Brussels yesterday.
Because that is good for us and that is
good for them.”
His party says it aims to choose a new
leader by early September.
But those who campaigned for Britain’s leave vote have made clear they
hope to negotiate a new deal for the
country with the EU before triggering
the formal exit process.
European leaders have said that is
not an option. “No notification, no negotiation,” Juncker said.
After Cameron addressed EU leaders
yesterday evening, they meet today to
discuss Brexit without him.
German Chancellor Angela Merkel
said Britain would not be able to “cherry-pick” parts of the EU, such as access
to the single market, without accepting
principles such as freedom of movement
when it negotiates its exit from the bloc.
“I can only advise our British friends
not to fool themselves...in terms of the
necessary decisions that need to be
made in Britain,” she told German parliament in Berlin.
Cameron will meet other European
counterparts one-on-one before addressing them all at what promises to
be a frosty dinner to discuss what has
become known as Brexit.
EU lawmakers say they want him
to trigger the exit process at the dinner, but an EU official said that was
unrealistic given the political chaos in
London, where both Cameron’s party
and opposition Labour lawmakers are
deeply divided.
The vote has caused new friction in
the EU at a time of crises over a mass
influx of refugees, economic weakness
and tensions on its borders with Russia.
Poland’s foreign minister demanded
Juncker and other leaders of the executive European Commission quit for not
preserving the Union.
The prime minister of Greece, enduring austerity measures in return for
aid, said Europe must change direction.
Germany’s financial market regulator delivered a double blow to London,
saying it could not host the headquarters of a planned European stock exchange giant after Britain leaves the
EU, and could not remain a centre for
trading in euros.
Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte
said England had collapsed “politically,
monetarily, constitutionally and economically”.
Hungary’s Orban for Special EU-UK deal may be inevitable even if it takes time
migration overhaul
By Philip Blenkinsop, Reuters
Brussels
Reuters
Budapest
T
he European Union will
face more big challenges
in the wake of Britain’s
decision to leave if it fails to get
to grips with the migration crisis,
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor
Orban said yesterday.
Orban, a staunch EU critic, told
state television m1 that in his view
migration was the decisive issue
in last week’s British referendum.
“The important question is
what lessons to draw from what
happened, for us Europeans who
are still members of the European Union and want to stay in,”
Orban said.
“If the EU cannot solve the migration situation then such challenges as we saw in the case of the
United Kingdom will increase.”
Orban’s ruling Fidesz party
has initiated a referendum of its
own, to be held in September or
October, on whether Hungary
should reject any future mandatory quotas from Brussels to resettle migrants arriving en masse
from countries such as Syria.
Hungary, which built a fence
on its southern border to keep
out migrants, has repeatedly
accused the EU of weakness in
the face of the crisis, calling for
tough policies like fortified borders and strict immigration procedures.
Politicians in several other
countries have proposed referendums of their own on EU
membership, largely on the
grounds of what they see as a
failed immigration policy.
“Plebiscites are raised in more
and more places because the European Union is seen as unable to
tackle the situation,” Orban said.
“And it criticises countries that
remedy the situation on their
own, instead of honouring and
supporting them. That is bad
politics.”
He said Hungary’s referendum
was about winning a political
mandate for an impending European debate in which member
states will have to thrash out a
robust new migration policy.
“Our goal is to stop (migrants).
Many countries here have a different goal: to let them in, or
bring them in, then spread them
around... There will be no unified
migration policy until we make
clear what goals to use Europe’s
resources for.”
W
ith no suitable readymade deal, the European Union and Britain
could face years of negotiations
to find a settlement that balances
London’s wish to maximise access to EU markets with its demand to regain sovereignty and
limit migration.
The EU’s off-the-shelf model,
the European Economic Area,
extending EU markets to Norway,
Iceland and Liechtenstein, ticks
the box of securing market access, although excludes agriculture and fisheries.
The City of London, the country’s financial hub, is in talks with
government officials to secure
a trade deal similar to Norway’s
that would allow it to sell financial services across the EU single
market of 27 countries.
“Clearly, one of the options is
the Norway model, but whether
that is acceptable to people who
wanted Britain to leave is another
matter,” said Mark Boleat, City
of London head of policy, adding trade bodies and others have
been in “non-stop meetings”
since late last week when Britain
voted in a referendum to leave the
EU.
However, the model gets a
sizeable cross because it would
mean accepting rules set by
Brussels, free movement of people and payment.
Many backers of the campaign
to leave the bloc complained the
EU had eroded Britain’s sovereignty and allowed uncontrolled
numbers of migrants to arrive
from eastern Europe.
Liechtenstein has some control on migration, its tiny size
limiting the right to reside there,
although around half of its workforce still commute from neighbouring countries.
Norway pays an annual 400mn
euros ($443mn) mainly to support eastern EU members and
another 400mn euros into EU
programmes, such as the Galileo
satellite navigation project, some
of which it gets back.
Norway’s Prime Minister Erna
Solberg has said she doubts a
Norway-style relationship with
the EU would work for a much
larger country such as Britain,
with its history.
“We accept a lot of the rules
and regulations that are part of
the internal market decided by
roundtables that we don’t participate in,” Solberg said.
“Norway is a small country
with a different history. We can
accept it because it gives mar-
ket access, job security, it makes
it possible to secure economic
growth,” she said.
The EU-Swiss approach has
been a patchwork of agreements,
but the two have stopped short of
an agreement covering financial
services.
Swiss banks are not allowed to
directly sell products in the bloc.
The deals include free movement of people, although the
parties are wrestling with a 2014
referendum at which the Swiss
expressed their desire to curb
migration.
The Swiss also have to pay for
access, although at around half
the rate related to gross domestic
product as Norway.
A failure to reach an agreement
is not an option for either side.
Britain is in the top six world
economies and a trade war would
damage both sides, with threats
to German car sales or Belgian
ports if tariffs curbed trade.
“If you look at it rationally,
there is good case to be made for
the EU to become more flexible,”
Pieter Cleppe of think tank Open
Europe said. “At the end of the
day, reason will prevail though
there will be a lot of screaming
and shouting before then.”
A number of Brexit supporters — including former London
mayor Boris Johnson, a likely
contender for prime minister
— have pointed to the free trade
deal (CETA) struck between the
European Union and Canada as
a way forward. Agreed in 2014, it
has yet to enter force.
Under such a system, Britain
would avoid having to accept migrants from elsewhere in the bloc
or contributing to the budget,
but would only secure partial access to the EU’s internal market,
particularly for services, which
make up nearly 80% of Britain’s
economy.
For banks, in particular, Canadian companies have to establish
a presence in the EU and comply
with EU regulations.
Under this model, UK-based
financial services firms could
find it more difficult to sell into
the EU.
New EU rules set to enter force
in 2018 may allow firms outside
the EU to sell investment services
inside the bloc.
However, it does not apply to
all financial services and relies
on the European Commission
recognising the third countries’
rules.
Hosuk Lee-Makiyama, director of think tank European
Centre for International Political Economy (ECIPE), says that
a planned EU-US trade deal
(TTIP), the most ambitious each
side has undertaken, could serve
as a template for future EU-UK
ties.
“CETA is basically a tariff
agreement, which makes sense
because Canada and the EU are
mainly trading goods. The UK
and EU are much more integrated
so it would need to cover services
and investment,” Lee-Makiyama
said.
CETA is the EU’s most ambitious trade deal to date. TTIP, still
being negotiated by the European
Union and the United States, is
designed to go beyond traditional
tariff reduction, including cooperation over regulation.
“If you take the European
stance in TTIP, Britain has already agreed to this and it covers
regulatory co-operation, there’s
already a template, but no money
or migration,” Lee-Makiyama
said.
Still, TTIP talks have lasted
almost three years, CETA has yet
to enter force nearly seven years
after negotiations began.
Under EU law, a nation would
leave the EU within two years of
its request to go unless the other
member states agree to an extension.
“It’s unlikely any country
would veto such an extension,”
said Cleppe.”It’s conceivable that
it could take seven to 10 years.”
Benedict delights with
surprise Vatican speech
AFP
Vatican City
P
Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI is greeted by Pope Francis during a ceremony at the Vatican yesterday to mark the 65th anniversary of his
ordination as a priest.
ope Emeritus Benedict XVI
yesterday made a rare public appearance, delighting
senior clerics with an impromptu
speech at a celebration to mark the
65th anniversary of his ordination.
Three years after he became
the first Pope to retire in seven
centuries, the 89-year-old German confounded rumours that his
health was failing by standing for
nearly 10 minutes as he spoke in
a clearly audible, steady voice in a
mixture of Italian and Latin.
“Thank you Holiness, I feel
protected by you,” the erstwhile
Joseph Ratzinger said. “Let us
hope that you can go forward in
your goodness.”
Benedict was replying to a homage from Pope Francis, who said
his predecessor’s prayers “do
so much good and give so much
strength, to me and to the entire
Church.”
Departing from his prepared
speech, Francis also hailed Benedict’s
“healthy and wise sense of humour”
— a quality that the austere-seeming
academic rarely managed to project
during his time in office.
Benedict, who has the official
title of Emeritus Pope, was last
seen in public on December 8 last
year, when he appeared frail as he
joined Francis to launch a Catholic
Jubilee year on the theme of mercy.
Guests at yesterday’s ceremony
included all the heads of the various departments of the Vatican
bureaucracy, the curia, and Georg
Ratzinger, who was ordained as
a priest on the same day as his
younger brother in 1951.
Ever since Benedict stepped
down there have been suggestions
that he is a focus for Church conservatives opposed to Francis’s reform agenda and that he continues
to wield significant influence.
The current Pope addressed
those ideas on Sunday during his
flight home from Armenia.
“When he retired, he said ‘I
promise obedience’ and he has
given it,” Francis told reporters.
“Some have gone to him to
complain about ‘this new Pope’
and he chased them away. With
his Bavarian good manners of
course, but he chased them out.
He is a man of his word, straight,
straight.”
Benedict has made only a handful of public appearances since he
retired on February 28, 2013 saying he no longer had the strength
of mind or body to carry on at the
helm of a church beset by problems ranging from paedophile
priests to financial scandals surrounding the Vatican bank.
A few months later he took up
residence in a former convent
inside the Vatican, where he has
since spent most of his time praying, reading or writing.
Friends say he is slightly unsteady on his legs but that his
mind remains agile — he can still
play pieces by his beloved Mozart
on the piano from memory, according to his personal secretary.
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
19
EUROPE
French again march to
protest labour reform
AFP
Paris
T
housands of people took to
the streets of Paris yesterday
in the latest protest march in
a marathon campaign against the
French Socialist government’s job
market reforms.
The march, along with a strike that
shut down the Eiffel Tower, came as
the French Senate prepared to vote
on the hotly contested reforms aimed
at reining in unemployment by freeing up the job market.
Seven unions yesterday submitted what they called partial results
from a public survey on the draft
law, with 92% of 700,000 respondents calling for its withdrawal.
French President Francois Hollande said last week that his government would “go all the way” to
enact the reforms, which are seen
by critics as too pro-business and a
threat to cherished workers’ rights.
“It is essential not only to allow
businesses to be able to hire more”
but to step up training that will lead
to more jobs, he said.
Prime Minister Manuel Valls will
meet union leaders today and tomorrow but has already signalled he is
not open to further modifying a text
that has already been watered down.
Valls, who has been a lightning
rod for criticism because of his unrelenting stance on the reforms,
conceded little by agreeing to the
meetings.
The prime minister’s office said
they would “review” the situation
but “it is not a matter of reopening a
cycle of negotiations.”
Philippe Martinez, secretary general of the hardline CGT union, said
he hoped the meeting would not be
a mere “courtesy call just to have a
coffee”.
Unions say the main sticking
point is a measure giving precedence
to agreements negotiated between
companies and their staff over deals
reached with unions across entire industrial sectors — notably on
working hours.
The two sides have not met since
Demonstrators walk with flares during a demo against proposed labour law reforms in Bordeaux yesterday.
early March, though Valls telephoned union leaders on May 28.
Yesterday afternoon saw the 11th
demonstration against the reforms
since the wave of protests began on
March 9.
Many of the protests have descended into violence, reaching a
peak in Paris on June 14, just four
days after the start of the Euro 2016
football championships in France.
Hundreds of masked protesters
and police fought running street
battles, and police used water cannon to quell rioters who hurled
projectiles at them and bashed in
storefronts, with 40 people hurt and
dozens arrested.
The unrest led to a tug-of-war
last week when the government initially banned a planned march before allowing it to take place along a
shortened route.
Tens of thousands took part in the
march, which passed off peacefully
under the close watch of 2,000 riot
police and after 100 people were arrested for carrying potential projectiles or face coverings.
A longer march was authorised
for yesterday, with a beefed-up security contingent of 2,500.
At least 24 arrests were made
ahead of the march from the historic
Place de la Bastille across the Seine to
the Place d’Italie in southern Paris.
The right-dominated Senate was
to vote in the early evening on its
version of the labour reform bill,
which is tougher on workers’ rights
than the lower house version.
The Senate wants to scrap the 35hour work week and restore a cap on
the amount employers would have
to pay out when they lose labour
disputes.
The bill then returns to the National Assembly on July 5 — already
on the hardline CGT union’s calendar for another protest.
Last month the government used
a constitutional manoeuvre to push
the bill through the lower house
without a vote in the face of opposition from Socialist backbenchers.
With the two chambers unlikely
to agree a final version, the lower
house will have the final say, and the
government is expected to use the
same manoeuvre to pass the bill into
law without a vote.
According to an opinion poll published yesterday, 73% of the French
would be “shocked” by such a move.
Kremlin dents Turkish hopes for quick restoration of ties
Reuters
Moscow/Ankara
T
he Kremlin yesterday sought
to dampen Turkey’s hopes for
a swift restoration of normal
relations, a day after Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan expressed regret over the downing of a Russian
warplane last year.
The Russian jet was shot down,
with the loss of the pilot, in November while taking part in the Kremlin’s military campaign in war-ravaged Syria.
Ankara said it acted lawfully because the plane had crossed into
Turkish air space; Moscow denied
that happened.
The incident triggered Russian
sanctions against Turkey that have
damaged trade and tourism.
After writing to Russian President
Vladimir Putin to voice his regret on
Monday, Erdogan said he believed
Ankara would normalise relations
with Moscow “rapidly”.
But the Kremlin struck a more
cautious tone yesterday.
“One should not think it possible
to normalise everything within a
few days, but work in this direction
will continue,” spokesman Dmitry
Peskov told reporters on a conference call.
“President Putin has expressed
more than once his willingness to
maintain good relations with Turkey and the Turkish people,” Peskov
said. “Now a very important step
has been made.”
Putin and Erdogan will hold a telephone conversation today at Moscow’s initiative, Peskov said.
Putin has said an apology from
Erdogan was necessary to repair relations.
Erdogan spokesman Ibrahim Kalin said the Turkish president had
expressed regret over the shooting
in a letter to Putin, but added that
this was not an apology.
Even as ties between the two
countries improve, Kalin added,
sticking points over Syria and other
issues would continue.
“In the coming period, Turkey’s
ties with Russia will enter a normalisation phase. Our policies on
Ukraine, Syria and Crimea will not
change, we don’t agree with Russia
on these areas but we will continue
to discuss these issues,” he told reporters.
In the Syrian conflict Russia backs
President Bashar al-Assad while
Turkey and its Western allies support groups opposed to him.
Ankara said it shot down the plane
because it entered Turkish airspace,
an allegation Moscow denies vehementaly.
The Russian pilot ejected from the
plane but was killed by gunfire from
rebels on the ground in Syria as he
parachuted down to earth.
As well as an official apology,
Moscow has also said it wants Turkey to pay compensation for the
incident, in which the Russian pilot ejected but was killed by rebel
gunfire on the ground in Syria as he
parachuted down to earth.
Kalin said Turkey may pay aid
to “relieve Russian pain” over the
shooting but he said that would not
constitute compensation, which
would require a legal ruling or an
agreement.
Turkey says legal proceedings are
underway against an individual al-
legedly responsible for the killing of
the pilot.
Turkey has been hard hit by the
Russian sanctions, particularly in its
key tourism sector.
Data yesterday showed that tourist arrivals in Turkey saw their biggest drop in at least 22 years in May,
with the number of Russians down
by more than 90%.
Turkey’s expression of regret to
Russia on Monday came as it also announced the restoration of diplomatic
ties with Israel after a six-year rupture.
Both moves appear to be aimed at
mending Turkey’s sense of isolation
on the world stage, though Kalin denied they represented a big policy
shift on Ankara’s part.
“Solving these issues allowed
us to return to the normal format.
Turkish foreign policy is not going
through a grand revision,” he said.
Germany puts
spy service on
a tighter leash
AFP
Berlin
G
ermany yesterday approved new measures
to rein in the activities of its foreign intelligence agency after a scandal over improper
collusion with the US National Security Agency.
Two months after replacing the head of the BND
service over the damning revelations, Chancellor
Angela Merkel’s cabinet signed off on the reforms
to keep the country’s spies on a tighter leash.
Oversight of the spy agency directly from Merkel’s office will be beefed up with an external
watchdog panel of jurists, and the list of duties the
BND carries out for the NSA has been overhauled.
While intelligence gathering from EU institutions or partner states will not be explicitly
banned, it will be limited by law to “information to
recognise and confront threats to internal or external security”. Economic espionage is barred.
The reforms, which still require approval from
parliament, are based on the findings of a government-appointed investigator into claims that the
BND spied on its European allies for the NSA.
The 300-page report found the NSA had kept a
long list of European government offices as targets
for espionage and that the United States had thus
“clearly violated treaty agreements”. The probe
was based on a review of telephone numbers and
IP addresses the NSA handed to the BND’s surveillance apparatus with the request that the results to
be sent back to the United States.
The findings indicated that over the years the
BND whittled down the list of thousands of NSA
targets while still maintaining cooperation.
Germany had reacted with outrage when information leaked by former NSA contractor Edward
Snowden revealed in 2013 that US agents were carrying out widespread tapping worldwide, including of Merkel’s mobile phone.
Merkel, who grew up in communist East Germany where state spying on citizens was rampant,
declared repeatedly that “spying among friends is
not on” while acknowledging Germany’s reliance
on the US in security matters.
Germany announced in late April that it was replacing the head of the BND. Gerhard Schindler,
63, will take early retirement from July 1, leaving
the reins to Bruno Kahl, a 53-year-old trained lawyer and high-ranking finance ministry official.
Extremism on the rise in Germany
Political extremism rose sharply in Germany last
year — among far-right but also far-left and Islamist
radical groups — the domestic intelligence agency
said yesterday.
“Extremist groups, whatever their orientation, are
gaining ground in Germany,” said Interior Minister
Thomas de Maiziere, presenting the 2015 report.
The security agency had “observed not just a rise
in membership but also an increase in violence and
brutality,” he said in a statement.
Some 1,408 acts of far-right violence were recorded last year against 990 the previous year, said the
service called the Federal Office for the Protection
of the Constitution.
The sharp rise in racist hate crimes came as
Germany took in a record number of more than 1mn
refugees and migrants asking for political asylum,
and as militant attacks in Paris and Brussels stoke
terrorism fears in Europe.
“The intensity of right-wing extremist militancy
started in early 2015 and increased steadily — from
threats against politicians and journalists to arson
attacks on asylum seeker shelters and attempted
killings,” said the report.
There were 75 arson attacks against refugee
shelters in Germany, five times more than 2014.
The report said that online “social networks play
an important role in agitation and radicalisation”,
as uninhibited hate speech dehumanises minorities
and fuels real-world violent crime.
Far-left acts of violence — often targeting far-right
activists or police — also rose sharply, to 1,608 violent offences from 995 the previous year, said the report. The worst spate of attacks came during mass
protests in March against the European Central
Bank in Frankfurt, when rioters rampaged through
streets and set ablaze police cars.
The service also pointed to the rising threat
posed by Islamists, estimating their number at
about 10,000.
Warsaw risks Moscow’s ire with plan to relocate historic World War II memorials
By Tadeusz Kolasinski, Reuters
Warsaw
M
A man rides a bike in front of the monument of the Gratitude for the Soviet Army Soldiers in Warsaw.
ore than 200 monuments
to Stalin’s Red Army could
be taken from towns across
Poland and relocated on the site of
a former Soviet military base under plans announced yesterday by a
state-backed Polish historical institute.
At the risk of upsetting Moscow,
the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) proposes to house the
so-called “monuments of gratitude to the Red Army” in a park in
the former base at Borne Sulinowo,
a small town 440km northwest of
Warsaw.
Poland, once a member of the
former Soviet bloc but now a western
ally in Nato, is still grappling with the
legacy of war and communist rule
and its relations with Moscow have
been strained for some years.
All the same the IPN’s plan is diplomatically sensitive, as Moscow
protested strongly when one such
monument was removed from the
town of Pieniezno last year.
A spokeswoman for the Russian
embassy in Warsaw, Ekaterina Glazova, said that Poland is obliged to
protect all war memorials under a
1994 bilateral agreement with Russia.
Poland argues the agreement only
relates to cemeteries, while Russia
says it concerns all war memorials
on Polish territory.
The Soviet Union lost more than
20mn people — more than any other
country — in World War II, and Russia considers the memorials a witness to its sacrifices in liberating Europe from the Nazis.
But many Poles resent them as
reminders that Stalin and Hitler invaded their country simultaneously
in 1939, and it remained under Soviet domination for more than four
decades after the war until the overthrow of Communism in 1989.
Poland’s new conservative government of the Law and Justice (PiS)
party has been critical of Russian
policy on Ukraine and is in favour of
keeping EU sanctions on Moscow.
PiS has also reopened an inves-
tigation into the death of president
Lech Kaczynski, the twin brother of
current PiS leader, in a plane crash in
Russia in 2010.
PiS has never explicitly accused
Russia of orchestrating the president’s death, but has said the Kremlin benefited from the crash.
“The plan will include only monuments expressing the gratitude towards the Red Army, and it will not
affect Soviet cemeteries,” said Andrzej Zawistowski, director of the
IPN’s education department.
For that reason, the IPN said, it
had not consulted Russia.
“The educational park will show
these monuments within the right
historical context,” Zawistowski
said. “Educational parks and institutions of this type exist equally in
other states such as Lithuania, Hungary or even Russia.”
The agency has catalogued 229
such monuments and it will now assist local authorities in delivering
them to the park.
But final decisions on whether to
take them off the streets will be made
by local councils.
20
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
INDIA
LEGAL
CRIME
LAW AND ORDER
OBITUARY
EDUCATION
Sadhvi Pragnya’s
bail plea rejected
Gang loots Rs120mn
from Thane cash firm
Main accused in NIA
official’s murder held
Bengaluru woman taxi
driver found dead
Board clerk detained
in exam toppers scam
A special National Investigation Agency court in
Mumbai yesterday rejected the bail application
of 2008 Malegaon blast accused, Sadhvi Pragnya
Singh Thakur. In her plea, Thakur argued that no
case was made out against her as per evidence
collected by the NIA. However, the judge ruled
that prima facie there was evidence available
against the accused, hence the bail application
cannot be considered. The NIA had last month
given its no-objection to the bail and said that
the evidence on record against Thakur was
not sufficient to prosecute her. Seven people
were killed in a massive blast at Malegaon, a
predominantly Muslim town in Nashik district of
north Maharashtra, on September 29, 2008.
In one of the biggest thefts of its kind in
Maharashtra, armed dacoits stormed into
a cash management firm in Thane and fled
with around Rs120mn in cash, police said
yesterday. The incident occurred around 3am
when at least six-eight armed men wielding
guns, revolvers and knives broke into the
offices of CheckMate Pvt Services Ltd. The
gang cut the CCTV cameras’ wires before
looting the cash kept in a van for disbursal to
various bank ATMs. The cash van had been
loaded with currency chests a short while
earlier and was preparing to go on its regular
rounds to refill cash at ATMs when the gang
struck.
The main accused in National Investigation
Agency official Mohamed Tanzeel Ahmed’s
murder was arrested by the special task
force (STF) of the Uttar Pradesh (UP) police
in Noida yesterday. The accused, Muneer,
was arrested along with two associates. He
had been staying in Noida for the last three
days. A 9mm pistol was also recovered,
the official said. Soon after his arrest, the
UP police, NIA officials and the STF have
begun interrogating the accused, who is
alleged to have shot Ahmed, 49, two dozen
times on April 13 in Budayun. Ahmed’s wife
succumbed to gunshot injuries later at a
Delhi hospital.
A 40-year-old woman taxi driver was found
dead at her rented house in the city’s northwest
suburb, police said yesterday. “It appears to be a
case of suicide, as the victim’s (V Bharathi) body
was found hanging from the ceiling of a room
by her landlord on Monday night,” Sanjay Nagar
police inspector Prakash said. No suicide note
was found at her house. Police have registered
a case of unnatural death and shifted the body
to a state-run hospital for autopsy to ascertain
the cause of death. Hailing from Guntur in
Andhra Pradesh, Bharathi was staying alone in
the house as she was single and orphaned. Her
cab was found parked in front of the house in
Nagashettyhalli colony.
The Special Investigation Team (SIT) yesterday
arrested Bihar School Examination Board clerk
Ram Bujhawan Jha in connection with the class
XII toppers’ scam, police said. Earlier, Jha was
detained and interrogated by the SIT. “SIT has
arrested Jha on the basis of revelations made by
others who have been arrested in connection
with the toppers scam,” a police official said. Jha
was produced in a Patna court that sent him to
judicial custody for 14 days. The SIT on Monday
had arrested former board secretary Hariharnath
Jha in connection with the scam. Last week, the
SIT had arrested the board’s former chairman
Lalkeshwar Prasad and his wife Usha Sinha from
Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh.
Protests in
Kashmir as
security forces
kill militant
IANS
Srinagar
I
n a major setback to the Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfit, security forces yesterday
killed one of its top commanders
who was wanted for last year’s attacks on communication towers
in Jammu and Kashmir and many
other terror-related cases, officials said.
The killing triggered violent
protests in Sopore, to where he
belonged.
Police said Sameer Wani was
shot dead after security forces
surrounded a house in Nagri village in Kupwara district, some
100km from here, after information that some militants were
hiding there.
A police officer said security
forces came under heavy fire from
the hideout, leading to fighting
that left Wani, the Hizb divisional
commander for north Kashmir,
dead.
Police alleged that Wani was
wanted for his involvement in
dozens of attacks in Jammu and
Kashmir and had unleashed a
reign of terror last year after masterminding strikes on communication towers and their owners to
cripple cellphone services in the
state.
The attacks on cell phone
towers were claimed by a littleknown militant outfit, Lashkare-Islam. Police said that Wani,
who had earned a nickname
“tower hunter”, had set up the
group as an offshoot of Hizbul
Mujahideen.
The Hizbul Mujahideen had
then denied any involvement and
blamed security agencies for the
attacks that had caused severe
disruption of cellphone services
in parts of the Kashmir Valley.
Hizbul Mujahideen chief Syed
Salahuddin, who also heads the
United Jihad Council (UJC) paid
tributes to the slain militant in
a statement to a Srinagar-based
news agency, CNS.
Wani’s death triggered angry
protests in parts of north Kashmir. As soon as reports of his killing reached his Dooru village in
Sopore sub-district, hundreds
of residents came out to protest,
shouting anti-government and
pro-freedom slogans, witnesses
and officials said.
The protesters set ablaze a police vehicle in Shiva area after his
body reached the village but its
occupants were not harmed.
Dozens of motorcycle-borne
young men took out a rally as the
militant commander’s body was
taken in a procession for funeral
prayers. Hundreds of people attended Wani’s burial in his village.
Markets were closed and public
transport spontaneously went off
the road following Wani’s death.
The protesters also clashed
with police and threw stones at
them. Police fired tear gas canisters to disperse them as tension
ran high in and around the area.
Meanwhile, suspected militants yesterday snatched an AK
47 rifle of a personal security
guard of a Bharatiya Janata Party
leader in central Kashmir Badgam
district.
In Delhi, Union Home Minister
Rajnath Singh reviewed the security situation in the state that has
seen a sudden surge in militancyrelated violence. On Saturday,
militants killed eight paramilitary
troopers in one of the deadliest
firing attacks on their bus in a
south Kashmir town.
National security adviser Ajit
Doval, Union Home Secretary
Rajiv Mehrishi, chiefs of intelligence agencies and other senior
home ministry officials attended
the meeting that also discussed
militant incursion from across
the border.
Heavy rains wreak havoc
Residents wade through flood waters after heavy monsoon rain in Dimapur yesterday. Thousands of people were flooded out of their homes in the northeastern state of
Nagaland following heavy monsoon rains.
BJP plotting to get me
arrested: Delhi minister
IANS
New Delhi
D
elhi Water Minister Kapil Mishra yesterday said
he feared he could be arrested by the Anti-Corruption
Branch (ACB) which has summoned him on July 4 regarding
a “water tanker scam” which he
had exposed.
“I have come to know from
reliable sources that the ACB is
planning to arrest me at the earliest,” Mishra told journalists.
“They want to arrest me as early
as possible.”
The minister said the ACB,
which is under the central government, had summoned him for
questioning regarding the scam
which took place during the previous Congress regime in Delhi.
Congress leader Sheila Dikshit
headed the Delhi government for
15 years till December 2013.
“Why is the Bharatiya Janata
Party after us and not Dikshit?”
Mishra asked, adding he was not
afraid of going to prison. “My
fight against corruption will continue even if I am sent to jail,” he
said.
Mishra said he had submitted the entire fact-finding report
of the water tanker scam with all
proofs against Dikshit to the Delhi
lieutenant governor, but no action
was being taken against her.
“The ACB is not calling Dikshit
for questioning in the Rs400mn
water tanker scam, instead they
have registered charges against
(Chief Minister Arvind) Kejriwal and summoned me for questioning,” he said, adding, “This
shows they want to use this report politically.”
Mishra alleged the ACB was
targeting ministers and officers
of the Aam Aadmi Party government.
“We
had
filed
three
chargesheets against Dikshit in
different matters but the ACB did
not take any action against her.
The vigilance department has
sent 38 cases to ACB to file an FIR
but it did not file any case. They
are only targeting the AAP government,” Mishra claimed.
The AAP government in June
2015 constituted a five-member
fact-finding committee to probe
the irregularities in hiring some
385 stainless steel water tankers by the Delhi Jal Board in 2012
during Dikshit’s rule.
Its report submitted to Delhi
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal
in August 2015 highlights alleged
corruption of Rs400mn in the
process of awarding tenders for
hiring water tankers, and recommended action against Dikshit
and a probe by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and
the ACB.
The ACB had registered charges against Kejriwal and his predecessor Dikshit on June 20 in
connection with the water tanker
scam.
The chargesheet against Kejriwal was registered on the complaint of BJP legislator Vijender
Gupta “for causing delay in the
probe and not cancelling the
contract for water tankers”.
Marxists’ embarrassment continues post-Bengal
O
bituaries of India’s communist movement, significantly the Marxist
version since the others have been
reduced to just hangers-on, had
been set and ready for publishing by several newspapers but the
election results of the Kerala assembly last month made sure that
these remained in cold storage at
least for some more time.
With the Bengal bastion laid to
waste once again, only Kerala remained for the Marxists to show
their relevance in the 21st century.
(Tripura has been with the Marxists for long but a small speck of
a state way out in the north-east
does not produce any echo in the
national capital for it to be considered a talking point.)
The decisive victory in Kerala was expected to inject fresh
life into the party that seemed
ready to wither away with each
passing election. But despite
Pinarayi Vijayan’s much trumpeted ascendency to the chief
minister’s chair in Thiruvananthapuram, the Marxists are being tugged in different directions and the crisis that seemed
to have blown over is once again
confronting the party at the national level.
With the nascent rebellion
that V Achuthanandan seemed
to mount against Vijayan having
been quelled, at least for the time
being, the Marxists must have
been looking to get ahead to regroup and recoup.
But times have certainly
changed from the days when everything was decided by the general secretary and the Politburo
and the cadres down below simply followed those diktats. Like
in everything else, free enterprise
has caught on among the Marxists as well and every move of the
leadership is getting questioned.
Jagmati Sangwan is not the first
top leader to be expelled from the
party for “gross indiscipline” she claims she had resigned before
being expelled, but that’s hairsplitting - but the announcement
last week that the social reformer
from Haryana was being shown
the door could well turn out to be
the beginning of another rebellion
within the party.
Sangwan had opposed the
Left’s disastrous tie-up with the
Congress Party in the West Bengal assembly elections. Although
many in the leadership, former
general secretary Prakash Karat
foremost among them, also opposed the alliance, the party went
ahead with it and, in the event,
even lost its position as the main
opposition in the state. But Sangwan had to pay the price for being
vocal about her opposition.
If opposing the alliance with
Congress was Sangwan’s sin,
CPM member of the West Bengal
assembly, Tanmoy Bhattacharaya,
Delhi Diary
By A K B Krishnan
Gulf Times Correspondent
presented the party with another
problem, this time joining hands
with the Congress Party at a rally
in Kolkata to protest against price
rise under the Trinamool Congress rule.
What made matters worse was
the fact that the CPI(M)-led Left
Front had decided not to join the
rally because it wanted to distance
itself from being seen as cosying
up to the Congress in any manner.
Bhattacharya is a first-time
legislator and, therefore, his utterances like “no one has the right
to disrespect the public mandate”
could well be brushed aside by the
party leadership but not before he
was censured for his indiscipline.
But Kerala Finance Minister
Thomas Isaac is no greenhorn as
far as Marxist ideology is concerned and it is his public support
for Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s moves on the goods and services tax (GST) that has created the
biggest embarrassment both for
the CPI(M) and the Congress.
Isaac was quoted by Indian Express newspaper as saying he “did
not find any reason for standing in
the way of GST”. The CPI(M), led
by its general secretary, Sitaram
Yechuri, had mounted a major offensive against several GST provisions in the Rajya Sabha thanks to
its intimacy with the Congress,
their common enemy being the
ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
But that was before the assembly elections and that was when
these parties were working out
an “arrangement” in West Bengal. But having lost Bengal and
won Kerala, the equations have
changed for the Marxists.
Isaac realises that attacking the
ruling dispensation from the opposition benches is one thing, but
being in power and facing up to the
rigours of governance when the
whole nation is on an aspirational
high is something totally different.
“As (the) practising finance minister of Kerala, I will be foolish to
say I don’t want it (GST),” the daily
quoted Isaac as saying.
In case someone thought that
Isaac had exceeded his brief, endorsement of what the finance
minister said came from none
other than his Chief Minister, Vijayan. “CPI(M) had earlier raised
some reservations. Kerala government has agreed with the bill.
In parliament, when it was discussed, CPI(M) had raised certain
reservations. Kerala government
has no objections,” said Vijayan.
The CPI(M)’s central committee meeting was a stormy affair
not just because of the Sangwan
issue but also due to Vijayan and
Isaac taking a stand contrary to
the party’s declared position. The
objection from the Congress was
a minor issue compared to what
was decidedly an in-house rebellion. The central committee announced it would try to build “a
consensus around the GST” before taking a final decision.
If both the chief minister and
the finance minister of the only
frontline state where it is in power
want the GST, will the committee
or the Politburo dare to go against
their wishes? We will soon know.
Kejriwal’s ‘Brexit’
moment
Britain wants out. Or does it,
considering how second thoughts
are emerging to overpower the first
one? How will ‘Brexit’ affect - or
not affect - India was the subject
of much discussion in all forms of
media these past few days.
Finance Minister Arun Jaitley,
who was away in Beijing while
Britons voted to exit European Union (EU), was quick to announce
that India was well cushioned to
take any blow that might come its
way. Reserve Bank Governor Raghuram Rajan reiterated the country’s financial strength to weather
such storms. The financial markets
did exhibit some panic initially
with the Bombay Stock Exchange
(BSE) prime index falling by as
much as 1,000 points before recouping much of those losses. The
rupee, too, did not go through the
sort of mayhem that some of the
other major currencies experienced against the dollar.
Experts are of the view that except for a few industrial houses
that have heavy investments in
Britain - Tata Sons Ltd for instance
- there could be next to no adverse
impact on India. In fact, some say
this could well be to India’s advantage as both Britain and the European Union will now look to India
for new partnerships.
The Tatas own 19 different
industrial units in the United
Kingdom - Jaguar Land Rover
prominent among them - but the
company says it has no anxiety
about how things will pan out.
Analysts also provided insight
into what ‘Brexit’ could mean in
sociological terms and how nationalists were gaining ascendency all across Europe. Ideas like in-
ternationalism and globalisation,
they felt, have suffered a major
blow and more and more nations
have started looking inward.
Anti-immigrant movements
in the Netherlands, France and
Germany also got a boost from
Britain’s exit vote though in practical terms it might take as much
as two years for the separation to
take complete effect.
Such
high-table
analyses
were beyond Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal. Since it was
purely a matter involving the
British, he could also not blame
his favourite whipping boy, Prime
Minister Narendra Modi, for one
of the most momentous political
convulsions in recent times.
Had Kejriwal known that during Modi’s visit to Britain he had
supported Prime Minister David
Cameron’s (eventually losing)
campaign to remain in EU, then
he would have had something to
say. But since no one in his camp
brought this to his notice, India’s
self-appointed prime minister-inwaiting could only react in typically parochial fashion: he demanded
a referendum in Delhi for the city’s
full statehood. Better sense seems
to have prevailed since then as
subsequent reports said the Delhi
government was planning a “larger and longer public debate” before
pushing for the referendum. Rest
assured Kejriwal will find a way to
remain in the arclight.
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
21
INDIA
ANGER
Indian railway employees, along with members
of Northern Railway Men’s Union (NRMU), hold
placards and shout slogans against the 7th Pay
Commission during a demonstration at a railway
station in Amritsar on yesterday.
OBITUARY
LAW AND ORDER
ECONOMY
TRAVEL
Veteran Naga leader
Isak Chisi Swu dies in Delhi
Chargesheet filed
in Kolkata flyover case
Bad loans by banks
still rising, warns RBI
Airline offers seats at same
fare as Rajdhani Express
Isak Chisi Swu, who for decades spearheaded a
bloody insurgency in Nagaland before shaking
hands with New Delhi, died yesterday after
months of battling a kidney ailment. Swu, the
85-year-old chairman of the National Socialist
Council of Nagalim-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM),
died at 12.40pm at the Fortis Hospital in New
Delhi, doctors said. He had been admitted to the
hospital on July 5 last year for a series of surgeries
that confined him to bed for months. His illness
prevented Isak Swu from attending the signing of
a historic Naga Peace Accord on August 3, 2015
between the NSCN-IM and the government at
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s residence.
The Kolkata police filed a chargesheet before a
court indicting 10 people for culpable homicide
among other offences, in the flyover collapse
case that claimed 26 lives. The police yesterday
also arrested two engineers of the Kolkata
Metropolitan Development Authority. A portion of
the Vivekananda Road flyover in Posta area had
collapsed on March 31 killing 26 people besides
injuring over 100. While the 10 accused arrested in
the case were initially booked for murder among
other offences, the police in the chargesheet
have not included the charge. The police did not
comment on the withdrawal of murder charges
citing the matter to be “sub judice.”
Bad loans held by banks are still rising sharply,
the central bank said yesterday, as it warned the
country’s lenders face “significant challenges”.
The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) noted in its
Financial Stability Report that gross nonperforming assets at Indian banks stood at 7.6%
of their total in March 2016, up from 5.1% in
September. Outgoing RBI governor Raghuram
Rajan has made cleaning up the banking
sector’s mountain of soured loans — defined as
in default or close to it — a priority of his tenure.
“India’s financial system remains stable, even
though the banking sector is facing significant
challenges,” the RBI said in its report.
Air India yesterday said it will offer ‘Super
Fares’ seats to those who are unable to get
confirmed bookings on Rajdhani Express at a
price equivalent to first class seats in the train.
“Under the (Super fares) scheme, passengers
can book the tickets four hours prior to the flight
departure at a fare which is equivalent to that
of Rajdhani Express (1A),” it said in a statement.
The airline said passengers can avail an allinclusive economy class one way fare on select
domestic routes from June 26 to September 30.
At present, 21 Rajdhani Express trains run across
the Indian Railways network and close to 20,000
passengers travel with the train on daily basis.
Dalits’
arrest
issue stalls
Kerala
assembly
IANS
Thiruvananthapuram
T
he Congress-led opposition yesterday staged its
first walkout in the Kerala assembly to protest against
the alleged high-handedness
of Communist Party of IndiaMarxist (CPI-M) workers towards two Dalit women in Chief
Minister Pinarayi Vijayan’s
hometown and the “callous” attitude of the police.
Yesterday was to have been
the first full day of the assembly
session after Vijayan assumed
office last month.
Leading the walkout, opposition leader Ramesh Chennithala
criticised the manner in which
Vijayan had reacted to the issue
of the two Dalit siblings, Akhila
and Anjana, who were falsely
implicated in a trespassing case
and jailed earlier this month.
Akhila’s 18-month baby is with
her at the Kannur jail.
“The chief minister’s first
reaction to this inhumane incident was to claim ignorance.
Then came his next reaction,
‘ask the police’, and then he said
that it’s not the first time that
an 18-month baby along with
her mother was sent to jail. This
clearly shows the attitude of this
government towards Dalits. The
entire approach was callous and
the police was dancing to the
tunes of the political leadership,” Chennithala alleged.
The incident took place at a
village near Thalassery where
the Dalit family of Rajan, a local
Congress leader, has been under
frequent attack from local CPIM workers.
Senior Congress legislator,
K C Joseph, who sought leave
for an adjournment motion to
discuss the issue, said the two
siblings fed up by the insinuations of the local CPI-M leadership had gone to the CPI-M
area office to discuss the issue.
The police then arrested them
on June 17 and produced them
before a magistrate who sent the
two along with the baby to Kannur jail.
“The arrest was recorded
against the apex court’s guidelines and the magistrate also
did not do a fair job. The next
day, the two women got bail.
The same night Anjana was humiliated by two leaders of the
party when she took part in a
TV channel debate. Pained by
the remarks she attempted suicide at her home. Later, she was
taken to a hospital. This is the
inhumane manner in which the
CPI-M is acting and the police
are being used as a tool,” Joseph
claimed.
Vijayan, however, claimed
there have been three earlier cases against the siblings reported
by neighbours, including two of
Rajan relatives and his family.
Visiting Pakistani photo journalists and ORF organisers hold Indian and Pakistani flags
during the Mumbai Karachi Friendship Forum in Mumbai yesterday.
Sena protests Pak team’s Mumbai visit
IANS
Mumbai
S
hiv Sena activists
yesterday attempted
to disrupt a function
at the Mumbai Press Club
here, where a delegation of
Pakistani press photographers was present.
The protesters also raised
anti-Pakistan slogans during the address by the event
organisers. At least two Shiv
Sena activists were whisked
away and later detained by
the Azad Maidan police.
Police presence at the
venue ensured no serious
ruckus was created by the
Shiv Sainiks, as there were
also attempts to pelt stones
at the car of Observer Research Foundation chairman
Sudheendra Kulkarni.
Kulkarni was scheduled to
address a press conference
to introduce the visiting Pakistani photojournalists.
The Shiv Sena activists
raised slogans to protest
Kulkarni’s decision to invite
the photojournalists from
the neighbouring country.
In October last year, Shiv
Sena activists had black-
ened the face of Sudheendra
Kulkarni, a former BJP leader and aide to former prime
minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, ahead of the launch
of a book written by former
Pakistan foreign minister
Khurshid Kasuri.
The Pakistan delegation
arrived here as part of an
ORF project ‘Tasveer-eKarachi’ and ‘Tasveer-eMumbai’ under which five
photographers each from
both countries will exchange visits as “messengers of peace”, Kulkarni said.
The Pakistani delegation
comprises Malika Abbas
of Dawn; Farah Mahbub, a
fine art photographer and
educator; Amean J, a fashion
photographer; Mobeen Ansari, a photojournalist and
storyteller; and documentary photographer Malcolm
Hutcheson.
The Pakistani photojournalists arrived in Mumbai
on June 20 for a 10-day trip,
while the Indian photojournalists will visit Karachi in
early July.
The Indian delegation will
include Chirodeep Chauduri of Nat Geo India, Indranil Mukherjee of Agence
Album launch
Missing boy to be
brought home soon
An Indian boy, Sonu, who went
missing from Delhi six years ago
and was traced in Bangladesh will
be brought back to India on June
30. This was revealed by External
Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj.
“Sonu - who was kidnapped from
Delhi was found in a shelter home
in Bangladesh. We matched the
DNA with his mother. The test is
positive,” Sushma tweeted. “The
Indian High Commission in Dhaka
has obtained Sonu’s custody. He
will reach Delhi on June 30,” the
external affairs minister wrote in
another tweet. Sushma Swaraj
also thanked all those who looked
after Sonu, now 12, in Bangladesh.
Bollywood actors, Tiger Shroff (left) and Disha Patani (right)
pose with producer Bhushan Kumar during the launch of the
single Hindi album Befikra in Mumbai yesterday.
France-Presse,
Prashant
Nakwe of The Hindu, S L
Shanth Kumar of The Times
of India, and documentary
photographer Harkiran S
Bhasin.
“They threatened us and
said we must not permit any
Pakistani to enter Mumbai.
We are not scared. Despite
their threats, we released
Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri’s book in Mumbai last
October. We shall continue
doing so again and again,”
Kulkarni said.
The ORF chief said Mumbai was not the sole preserve
of those who claim to be
“protectors of national interest” and even “we are patriots, are opposed to terror
and extremism”.
“However, we shall not
bow before such extremists who try to stop us from
promoting India-Pakistan
friendship,” the ORF chief
declared, adding that all
Pakistanis are not terrorists and a big section there
is a victim of terror and condemns terrorism.”
Referring to the new ORF
project, he said it would be
“photography for peace” between the two neighbours.
Opposition
dubs Modi
interview ‘a
PR exercise’
IANS
New Delhi
O
pposition parties yesterday dubbed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s
TV interview to the TimesNow
channel as a “PR exercise” and
slammed him for the “imbalance” between his words and
actions.
The Congress said the prime
minister’s body language looked
defensive while the Communist
Party of India-Marxist termed
his interview a public relations
exercise.
Delhi’s ruling Aam Aadmi
Party found fault with the prime
minister’s remarks on Pakistan
and the Janata Dal-United criticised him for “no action” over
Bharatiya Janata Party leaders
and union ministers who create
controversies by making divisive
and communal statements.
The Congress said it would
have been better if the prime
minister had held a press conference instead of giving an interview to the news channel.
“It would have been better if
he had done a press conference
so (that) other journalists could
have got a chance to participate
in a question-answer session.
But that did not happen and I
don’t think that will happen,”
leader of opposition in the Rajya
Sabha, Ghulam Nabi Azad, said.
He said the prime minister
Minister fumes after
missing Air India flight
Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu
yesterday criticised Air India after missing
a flight to Hyderabad though he claimed
he had reached the airport ahead of the
scheduled departure time.
The minister said he was at the airport at
12.30pm to catch the flight set to depart at
1.15pm, only to be told it had been delayed
because the pilot had not yet come.
After waiting for half hour, the minister
returned home. By the time he returned to
the airport, the flight had departed.
“I had to travel to Hyderabad by Air India
AI544... was told (it was) on time.. reached
airport by 1230,” Naidu tweeted.
“Was informed at 1315 that the flight was
delayed as the pilot had not yet come.
Waited up to 1345, boarding didn’t start.
Returned home.” Naidu criticised the air
carrier for lack of transparency.
“Air India should explain how such
things are happening. Transparency and
accountability are the need of the hour.
Hope Air India understands that we are
in the age of competition. Missed an
important appointment.”
Minister of State Mahesh Sharma said Air
India chairman and managing director
Ashwani Lohani said they will conduct
an enquiry into the incident. “We deeply
regret the inconvenience caused due to
flight delay. The pilot was stuck in traffic
jam. An enquiry has been ordered,” Air
India said in a reply to the minister’s
‘tweet’. Air India’s on-time performance
has been the poorest among all airlines
in the country. According to the latest
official data, only 74.3% of Air India’s flights
arrived and departed on time in May at
metro airports compared to 90.2% on time
performance by AirAsia, 85.1% by Vistara,
83.1% by IndiGo and 82.3% by Jet Airways.
looked defensive, going by his
body language.
“I saw a prime minister being
so defensive for the first time.
The lion that would roar in April
2014; we saw him as an old lion.
He looked weak; he was not decisive. It is sad,” Azad said.
The Congress leader also
questioned the outcome of India’s foreign policy ever since
the National Democratic Alliance government came to power
in May 2014, about which Modi
spoke so extensively.
CPI-M leader Brinda Karat
termed Modi’s interview as a
“successful public relations exercise, free of cost”.
“Selfies and self praise seem to
be the motive of present prime
minister and his government.
The basic problems that people
are facing, whether it is price
rise, unemployment or severe
drought condition...such issues
do not even occur to the prime
minister to answer,” Karat said.
AAP leader and Delhi Water
Minister Kapil Mishra slammed
Modi for his statement on Pakistan, saying the prime minister
is still confused over the neighbouring country.
“I am disappointed to see Modi’s changed stance on Pakistan
and also to see his confusion that
whom should India talk to when
it comes to Pakistan,” Mishra
told the media.
He added: “He should listen to
his speeches which he delivered
before becoming prime minister. He is actually talking like
former prime minister Manmohan Singh.”
Modi had said the issue for
New Delhi was who to deal with.
“Will it be with the elected government or other actors? That is
why India will have to be on alert
all the time. India will have to be
alert every moment. There can
never be any laxity in this.”
Senior Janta Dal-United leader Ali Anwar criticised Modi over
the imbalance in his words and
actions.
“You (Modi) are now prime
minister. Rather than giving sermons, he should have acted. He
gave a lecture on (Subramanian)
Swamy but didn’t show courage to act against him. Such an
approach of the prime minister
encourages people like Sakshi
Maharaj, Yogi Adityanath and
others,” Anwar said.
“How will one have faith in
the prime minister’s word when
there is no action,” he added.
Modi had described the Reserve Bank of India Governor
Raghuram Rajan “no less patriotic than anyone” and said
Swamy’s attacks on top finance
ministry officials were “inappropriate”.
He also dubbed Swamy’s attack on Rajan and top finance
ministry officials a “publicity
stunt” and in unmistakable terms
warned him not to consider himself “bigger than the system”.
22
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
LATIN AMERICA
Vaccine against
Zika for humans
one step closer
Dengue is endemic in Brazil
AFP
Paris
N
ew research in lab animals, including Zika vaccines successfully tested
on mice, boosted hopes yesterday
for a jab to shield humans against
the brain-damaging virus.
Two prototype vaccines tested
on lab mice “provided complete
protection against the Zika virus”
with just a single shot, reported
the first team.
“These findings certainly raise
optimism that the development
of a safe and effective vaccine
against Zika virus for humans
may be successful,” said Dan Barouch, director of the Harvard
Medical School’s Center for Virology and Vaccine Research,
who co-authored a paper in Nature.
His optimism was echoed in
a separate study into Zika infection in rhesus macaques – close
genetic relatives of humans and
well-matched animal models for
medical testing.
In a study in sister journal
Nature Communications, a USbased team said they managed for
the first time to infect lab monkeys with the Zika virus.
And they found that a single
infection, mostly symptom-free
as in humans, provided “complete
protection” against later Zika exposure.
“This is a key finding because
it means that a vaccine could be
quite effective against the virus,”
said study co-author Dawn Dudley of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“It also indicates that people
who are already infected with Zika
virus are not susceptible to future
infection, for example during a
future pregnancy.”
Benign in most people, Zika has
been linked to a form of severe
brain damage called microcephaly
in babies, and to rare adult-onset
neurological problems such as
Guillain-Barre Syndrome, which
can result in paralysis and death.
In an outbreak that started last
year, about 1.5mn people have
been infected with Zika in Brazil,
and more than 1,600 babies born
with abnormally small heads and
brains.
On the downside, Dudley’s
team found that the virus persisted as much as two months longer
in pregnant monkeys as nonpregnant ones, who were generally virus-free within 10 days after
infection.
One hypothesis was that the
foetuses themselves are infected,
and remain so for much longer
than adults.
“(M)y concern for Zika virus
in pregnancy is much higher now
than it was six months ago,” Dudley said of the discovery.
The macaque babies have yet to
be born.
There is no cure or vaccine for
Zika, but the World Health Organisation said in April that more
than 60 companies and research
institutions were working on drug
candidates – including 18 vaccines targeting women of childbearing age.
Barouch said the two vaccines
his team tested worked against
two strains of the Zika virus, including one from the Brazil outbreak.
This was the first report of
complete Zika protection in an
animal model, he claimed, and
“a step forward in the development of a Zika virus vaccine.” It
was unclear, though, how long the
immunity lasts.
At least one other vaccine, developed by US biotech firm Inovio
Pharmaceuticals, prompts animals to produce virus-attacking
Zika antibodies, but this was not
necessarily the same as full protection, Barouch explained.
Inovio recently received approval to conduct a Phase I safety
trial in humans.
Outside experts welcomed the
studies but highlighted a number
of unknowns.
“DNA vaccines that work in
mice have a sorry history of not
working in humans,” Peter Openshaw, president of the British Society for Immunology, cautioned
via the Science Media Centre.
Crucially, it was not clear if
the vaccines also produced antibodies against other viruses in
the Zika family, such as dengue,
which could cross-react with the
Zika antibodies to dangerously
enhance infection, commentators
said.
Dengue is endemic in Brazil.
Brazil educates public
on terrorism dangers
AFP
Rio de Janeiro
B
razil’s security forces yesterday unveiled a terrorism
awareness campaign one
month ahead of the Rio Olympics
in a bid to educate ordinary Brazilians over a novel threat to the
Latin American country.
Although subject to rampant
violent crime, Brazil has no history of militant attacks and is not
involved in any of the many conflicts featuring religious extremists around the world.
However with Rio staging South
America’s first Olympic Games
from August 5-21, there are worries that the country’s inexperience could make it vulnerable.
“As our country does not have
a tradition of this kind of threat,
we need people to be more aware,”
General Luiz Felipe Linhares,
spokesman for the defence min-
istry on major events, said in a
statement.
“The message we want to pass
on is: if you are suspicious and
find a suspicious situation, then
it’s de facto suspicious,” he said.
The government is distributing
leaflets and posters through the
city, especially at tourist sites like
hotels and bars, with simple pointers to potential signs of danger.
These include people “acting
strangely and showing intense
nerves,” people pretending to
be officials but unable to show
proper accreditation, the presence of drones in crowded areas,
unattended baggage, and “strong
smells and strange substances.”
“If you think something is suspicious, that’s because it’s suspicious!” the campaign’s slogan
goes.
The material also shows a photograph of a woman in a traditional black and white maid’s costume
with a feather duster apparently
discovering a cache of passports,
mobile phones and a detailed map
in a hotel room.
Anyone with worries is encouraged to phone the emergency
services numbers, such as the police on 190.
The authorities say they expect
some 700,000 tourists from 209
countries to pour into Rio.
There will also be about 100
heads of state and more than
12,000 athletes.
Rio, like most of Brazil, suffers
serious gun crime and 85,000 police and soldiers will be deployed
to keep a lid on trouble during the
Games.
That’s twice as many security
forces as during the 2012 London
Olympics.
A budget crisis means that police are not being paid on time and
officers demonstrating at a rally
on Monday told AFP that police
stations lacked everything from
fuel for squad cars to toilet paper.
A chef preparing a dish at Cafe Bohenia restaurant in Havana.
Change brings culinary
revolution to Cuba
By Carlos Batista
AFP/ Havana
A
t 65, Ramon Alfonso has
seen a lot of history in
his native Cuba. But this
is the first time he has eaten a
vegan salad. After decades of
Communist rule and centuries
of eating meat and beans, the
island is opening up – and so
are its taste buds.
Sitting at Cafe Bohemia on
Havana’s Old Square, Alfonso
gobbles lettuce, eggplant and
cabbage.
There is not an ounce of meat
and rice in sight, but in the searing heat, that suits him just fine.
“I don’t know if I’ll be eating this every day because I’m
not used to it,” he says. “But it
is tasty. And it’s better for the
health and for the weather in a
tropical country like this.”
Under the communist regime, the few diners who could
afford to step out for dinner
faced dreary state-run eateries
with stodgy food and bad service.
Now those state-run restaurants are empty.
The government authorised
privately-run restaurants five
years ago, and the change was
slow to take effect.
But with more tourists coming to Cuba in the past year, its
impact is clear to see now on the
terraces of Havana.
At one state-run joint in Havana’s old quarter, four waiters
sit chatting with not a single
one of the tables occupied. A
few dozen yards away, the privately-run Cafe de las Letras is
crammed with diners munching
its trademark moussaka. With
eggplant smothered in meat and
A waitress holding a dish at Cafe Bohenia restaurant in Havana.
cheese, that is a novel dish for
Cubans who were used to eating the vegetable fried in breadcrumbs.
At another of Havana’s new
wave of trendy restaurants, Versus 1900, the smell of rosemary
fills the kitchen.
Chef Alain Prieto is seasoning
mutton in a Peruvian-inspired
fusion creation.
Beside him a colleague is
cooking crispy vegetable tempura.
“International dishes have
been added to the traditional
creole cuisine,” Prieto says.
“People are starting to eat
differently,” he adds. “More refined.”
In a kitchen workshop run by
the country’s Culinary Federation, its president Eddy Fernandez chucks a spot of oil in the
pan and adds peppers, onion
and garlic. The shredded beef
is pre-cooked and goes into the
pan to sizzle briefly. It is his
modern take on the Cuban clas-
sic vaca frita, or “fried cow”.
Fernandez is helping train a
new generation of Cuban chefs.
Demand for their services has
surged in the past two years, he
says, and standards have risen.
The health ministry says 45%
of adults in Cuba are overweight
and 12 % suffer full obesity.
Chefs are wanted who can
cook classic Cuban dishes but
“with less fat and sugar, little
salt and more fruit and vegetables”, Fernandez says.
When Italian chef Annalisa
Gallina arrived in Cuba three
years ago, she says, salad was
something stuck on the side of
the plate as a decoration.
The country’s cooking was
still emerging from the economic crisis that followed the
collapse of its ally, the Soviet
Union.
That crisis limited eating options in a country that imports
most of its ingredients.
For many Cubans, “if it
doesn’t have rice, beans and
meat, it isn’t food”, says Gallina,
37, who works at Cafe Bohemia. “The Cubans who are most
open to vegetarian cooking
are the ones who have had the
chance to travel abroad.”
President Raul Castro took
over from his brother Fidel,
leader of the 1959 revolution,
in 2008. He has loosened travel
restrictions for Cubans.
The government’s migration
department says hundreds of
thousands of Cubans have travelled abroad since 2013.
Castro has also authorised
some private businesses and has
transferred state eateries to private hands.
“That is a good thing,” says
Fernandez. “State gastronomy
was not working.”
The new generation of restaurateurs faces the challenge of
pleasing the 4mn tourists now
coming to Cuba every year – including a growing number of US
visitors.
In the kitchen at Versus 1900,
Prieto and colleague Omar Gil
show off their organic goods:
cherry tomatoes, raisins and
strawberries. They have grown
the ingredients in their own
garden.
“There is lots of produce to
make the most of in Cuba,” says
Gallina at Cafe Bohemia.
Cubans are used to fruit juice,
but not like the exotic mixes
she serves: guava with pepper
and basil, carrot with ginger or
pineapple with mint.
Cooking programmes on Cuban television have multiplied.
“You sit down in a park with
wifi and download a recipe.
That is how we have learned,”
says Prieto. “We want to go on
like that and improve Cuban
cooking.”
Expanded Panama Canal hopes to win back shipping lines
By Mimi Whitefield
Miami Herald/TNS
M
ore than 100 years ago
when the SS Ancon
sailed into the history
books as the first ship to transit
the Panama Canal, the waterway
was a display of American ingenuity and the Panama Canal Zone
was firmly in US hands.
But the ship that made the first
official trip through the newlyexpanded canal on Sunday was
a Chinese megaship. The United
States completely withdrew from
the canal on December 31, 1999,
and there was barely any US participation in the $5.5bn canal
project, which allows the world’s
bigger ships to transit Panama’s
“highway of the sea”.
The United States remains the
most important user of the canal
and canal officials say it will be for
the foreseeable future, but world
trade patterns have shifted in the
past century and China has become the world’s largest trading
nation.
On Sunday, China COSCO
Shipping’s recently renamed
984-foot-long Panama
undertool the first official voyage
through the expanded canal. It
won the honour in a drawing
among the canal’s top customers.
Although the new locks - tall as
an 11-story building - are an engineering marvel and the expansion
is expected to double the canal’s
capacity, it’s been a long slog. The
project is being delivered nearly
two years behind schedule and
various claims by the Grupo Unidos por El Canal (Group United
for the Canal), the international
consortium that built the expansion, could push the price for the
project even higher.
The Panama Canal Authority
also has its own counter-claims.
Arbitration on the first unresolved
claim gets underway in Miami in
July.
But now- 110mn man hours,
292,000 tons of structural steel,
1.6mn tons of cement and 5mn
cubic meters of concrete later the project is finished.
Panamanian voters approved it
in a 2006 referendum.
“This is a great project from an
engineering and logistical point of
view,” said Giuseppe Quarta, chief
executive of the consortium.
The project, which got underway in 2007, included deepening
and widening the entrances to the
canal, widening and deepening
the navigational channel through
Gatun Lake, deepening the channel at Culebra Cut, raising the
level of the lake, building a new
3.8-mile Pacific access channel,
and construction of larger Atlantic and Pacific locks that are as
long as three Empire State Buildings laid end to end.
The original canal, built at great
human and financial cost, is simply too small to handle the bigger
ships now plying the world’s trade
routes.
Smaller ships, however, will
continue to use the original locks,
and the old and new locks share
much of the original canal route.
With the expansion able to
handle longer, wider and heavier
post-Panamax ships, the canal
authority hopes to win back shipping lines that switched to the
Suez Canal or used US West Coast
ports because their ships couldn’t
fit through the original locks inaugurated on August 15, 1914.
In Panama, the canal is not
A view of the new Pacific locks at the Panama Canal, looking toward
the Balboa port and Panama City.
only the economic lifeblood of
the country that sits between two
oceans, but the expansion project
has become a huge source of pride
for Panamanians.
“The canal is the advantage
that Panama has over everyone
- and it always will,” said Philip
Nichols, professor of legal studies
and business ethics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton
School. “They know they have an
income, no matter what.
It’s like having a good, solid lead
tenant when you’re building a development.”
But fees from ships transiting
through the canal aren’t Panama’s
only source of canal-derived income.
Panama has become a thriving
trans-shipment point for Latin
America-bound cargoes, it is developing a new port on the Atlantic side of the canal and it is in the
process of bidding out construction for a new port at Corozal on
the Pacific side.
“Panama is a natural transshipment hub,” said Benitez.
In recent years, cargo handled
by the Port of Balboa on the Pacific has grown from about 250,000
containers a year to 3.5mn, he
said.
Although the paint is barely dry
on the new locks, the Panama Canal Authority is already studying
the possibility of another larger
set of locks because ships too big
to fit through the new locks are already being built.
Panamanians who have worked
on the canal feel a sense of accomplishment now that the project is
complete.
During the peak of construction, there were 30,000 workers
labouring around the clock.
In the last few weeks, about
2,000 workers have rushed to
complete roads, landscape, paint,
work on the blue-roofed buildings and finish other last-minute
details.
The international consortium
responsible for the design and
construction of the project completed the locks on May 31.
The
consortium
includes
Spain’s Sacyr Vallhermoso; Italy’s
Salini Impregilo, which specializes in water projects; Jan de Nul
Group, a Belgium-based dredging
company; and CUSA, a Panamanian construction company.
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
23
PAKISTAN/AFGHANISTAN
Pakistan’s military courts
challenged over abuse claims
Almost all military court
convicts sentenced to death;
Twenty-seven people file
appeals in civilian courts;
Supreme Court may rule on
12 cases in coming weeks;
Lawyers and families
complain of lack of proper
legal process
Reuters
Islamabad
P
akistan’s Supreme Court
is expected to rule soon
on whether secret military
tribunals set up in early 2015 to
try civilians accused of terrorism
have violated the constitutional
rights of 12 people convicted by
these courts.
The military tribunals were
established after the massacre
in December, 2014, by Islamist
militants of 134 students at an
army-run school in the northwestern city of Peshawar.
Lawmakers authorised the
courts in January last year,
handing over significant judicial
control to a military that is already powerful and has ruled the
country of 190 million people for
about half of its existence.
They have so far convicted 81
people, 77 of whom were sentenced to death, according to the
military’s press wing.
There have been no acquittals,
the military says.
At least 27 convicts have filed
appeals with civilian courts, alleging coercion of confessions
and denial of access to lawyers
and to evidence used against
them, according to Reuters research and local media reports.
Of the 12 cases that have come
before the Supreme Court, the legal
arguments have concluded in nine.
The court has been hearing
the case for the remaining ap-
pellants, and is expected to give
a verdict on all 12 cases together,
possibly in the coming weeks.
Lawyers and relatives of 10
convicts contacted by Reuters
have all complained of abuse by
the military courts while in custody and of serious procedural
shortcomings.
Of those 10, three are before
the Supreme Court, one is at Islamabad High Court and six at
Lahore High Court.
Reuters was unable to independently verify any of the accusations.
Reuters provided written details of the specific allegations in
all 10 cases to the military’s public relations wing.
The office declined to respond.
One of the convicts, Sabir
Shah, was already on trial for
murder in a civilian court when
he disappeared from Lahore’s
central jail in April 2015, according to his family and lawyers.
Five months later, his family read a press release saying he
had been sentenced to death by a
military court.
His lawyers say they still do
not know what evidence was
used against him.
Shah was originally on trial
for murder as an alleged member
of a sectarian group’s hit squad,
and that process had not been
concluded.
Even after the family filed an
appeal with the Lahore High
Court, Shah’s lawyers said they
were not allowed to view the
military’s evidence.
“All of these things will only
become clear to us when we are
provided the (military) judgment,” said Malik Adeel, who has
filed an appeal with the Lahore
High Court.
The military said in a press
release that Shah confessed
to having been involved in the
A man rides a bicycle past the Supreme Court building in Islamabad.
murder of Lahore lawyer Syed
Arshad Ali.
Parliamentarians have explained that the courts were
borne out of necessity in the face
of the militant threat, because
Pakistan’s judicial system was
inefficient and some judges were
afraid to take on cases for fear of
retaliation.
“It was endorsed by the parliament.
If the normal courts could do
the job, why would the military
want to do it?” said a senior security official, who asked not to
be named because he was not
authorised to speak to the media.
At a recent Supreme Court
hearing challenging the military
tribunals, Pakistan’s chief justice questioned whether convicts should be allowed basic
legal rights.
US probing reports that it bombed
hostages in Taliban prison
DPA
Kabul
R
eports that a US airstrike
hit a Taliban prison and
killed several captives
were being investigated, the US
military said yesterday.
“Allegations of civilians killed
in that airstrike is being investigated, that is all I can tell you at
the moment,” said Commander
Ron Flesvig, a spokesman for the
US forces in Afghanistan.
The Taliban said one of their
prisons was hit on Saturday
night by a US airstrike, adding
that the prisoners killed were
members of the security forces.
“Six Kabul administration
soldiers imprisoned by Mujahideen were killed and two others were wounded,” spokesman
Zabihullah Mujahid said late
Monday.
Five militants including prison head and local commander
Mullah Jannat Gul were also
killed, he said.
An Afghan government official said earlier that three prisoners were killed in the airstrike.
Another official, governor
spokesman Hamdullah Danish,
said the three were killed by the
Taliban themselves in retaliation
after the airstrike.
The militants denied that account, and said the “barbaric
Americans” had bombed the
prison knowing people were
held there.
Orders approved by President
Barrack Obama this month allow
a broader US role against the Afghan insurgency, including more
airstrikes, but no additional
boots on the ground.
Around 9,800 US troops are
currently stationed in Afghanistan with plans to reduce that
number to 5,500 at the end of
2016.
“Terrorists are challenging the
constitution and the law of the
land, but their counsel are citing fundamental rights in their
defence,” said Anwar Zaheer
Jamali, adding that international
war crimes precedent allows
summary trials and executions.
At a separate hearing, he
added: “There are exceptional
circumstances, therefore exceptional measures have to be taken
by the state for proper dispensation of justice.”
The senior security source
added: “If someone kills 30 people, you are telling me I should
give him justice? Justice should
be given to those 30 people
killed.”
All the lawyers representing the 10 convicts whose cases
Reuters examined said they were
denied access to court records
and were not allowed to meet
their clients for the duration of
the military trial.
They also said their clients
were either coerced into confessing or deny confessing at all.
According to the military’s
press wing, 78 of 81 accused were
convicted on the basis of confessions.
Human rights lawyer Asma
Jehangir, counsel for two people
who have appealed their death
sentences, said her clients were
forced to affix a thumbprint to a
blank sheet of paper, which was
later turned into a confession.
The military declined to comment on those allegations.
Two families and one lawyer
also said they had been harassed
or threatened after filing appeals.
The father of one convict told
Reuters that four family members were abducted by men in
military uniform and beaten.
“They said that we have dishonoured them and the army as
an institution, and that it would
be better for us if we withdraw
the,” said the father, who spoke
on condition of anonymity for
fear of reprisals.
Reuters could not independently verify his account, and the
military declined to comment.
The International Commission of Jurists, a non-governmental organisation that promotes human rights through
the rule of law, has criticised the
army-run courts.
“Proceedings before Pakistani
military courts fall well short
of national and international
standards requiring fair trials
before independent and impartial courts,” it said in a statement
earlier this year.
In a televised interview, the
army’s spokesman defended the
courts.
“Through a due process of law
the whole case proceeds, after
which the court makes a decision.
And then the death sentence
or whatever sentence is confirmed,” General Asim Bajwa
said.
Since 2007, more than 25,000
Pakistanis have been killed by
Islamist extremists, according to
the South Asia Terrorism Portal.
Pakistan has for years been
battling the Tehreek-e-Taliban
Pakistan (TTP) and other militants fighting to overthrow the
government and impose a strict
interpretation of Islamic law.
The number of militant attacks has come down since Pakistan announced an anti-militancy plan after the assault on
the Army Public School in December, 2014.
Media groups decry rise in
violence against journalists
Reuters
Kabul
V
iolence and intimidation against journalists in Afghanistan has
spiked sharply this month,
with much of it coming from
government security forces,
the main journalists’ right
groups said yesterday.
In addition to the deaths of
two journalists working for
the US National Public Radio,
who were killed in the southern
province of Helmand, numer-
ous cases of beating and intimidation were reported to the
Kabul Press Club and Afghan
Independent Journalist Association (AIJA).
Twenty-two cases were reported in June, around double the monthly level seen in
past years, with 15 carried out
by security forces, four by the
Taliban and another three by
unnamed armed groups, Rahimullah Samander, the head
of AIJA, told a press conference.
“We ask government departments, armed groups and those
who involved in the fighting to
pave the way for reporters to do
their jobs properly,” Samander
said.
International concern about
attacks on journalists has
grown since a Taliban suicide
bomber killed seven staff of Afghanistan’s largest private television station in January.
But the jump in cases of
mistreatment underscores the
sometimes precarious situation facing media workers in
Afghanistan, not just from the
Taliban but also from security
forces.
Hina Rabbani Khar
Pakistan cannot
conquer Kashmir
‘through war’
Agencies
Islamabad
P
akistan cannot “conquer
Kashmir through war” and
Islamabad can progress on
the issue only in an environment
of mutual trust with New Delhi,
former foreign minister Hina
Rabbani Khar has said.
“I believe that Pakistan cannot conquer Kashmir through
war, and if we cannot do that,
the option we are left with is
dialogue; and dialogue can only
proceed with a partner with
which we have normal relations
and a certain level of mutual
trust,” Khar said in an interview
with Geo News.
She claimed that the earlier
Pakistan People’s Party (PPP)
government, despite being a
coalition government, tried its
best to normalise ties with India
through relaxation of visa rules
and by normalising trade ties,
adding that the present Nawaz
Sharif regime can do much more
as it enjoys majority.
“The issues between the two
countries cannot be resolved in a
hostile environment.”
Khar, who remained Pakistan’s foreign minister from 2011
to 2013, maintained that the
Kashmir issue can be resolved “if
we continue to talk on the issue,
then we will reach somewhere”.
DISASTER
Clashes with IS
forces displace
hundreds
Between 400 and 500 families
have been displaced in eastern
Afghanistan by days of fighting
between Islamic State (IS) militants
and national security forces, an
official said yesterday.
“We have sent research teams to
Kot district to find out exact figures”
of the displaced, said Attaullah Khugyani, governor’s spokesman in the
eastern province of Nangarhar. The
ongoing clashes first broke out on
Friday when militants affiliated with
the movement that has declared a
caliphate across northern Iraq and
Syria attacked a checkpoint in the
district, he said.
“More than 160 Islamic State militants have been killed,” Khugyan
said. Seven Afghan troops and five
civilians were also killed, and more
than 30 soldiers and civilians were
wounded, he said.
Afghan president orders investigation into child sex abuse
AFP
Islamabad
A
fghanistan’s
president
has ordered a “thorough
investigation” into institutionalised sexual abuse of
children by police, after AFP
revealed the Taliban are using
child sex slaves to launch deadly
insider attacks.
There has been international
condemnation of paedophilic
“bacha bazi” – literally “boy play”–
which AFP found has been exploited by the Taliban to mount a series
of Trojan Horse attacks over two
years that have killed hundreds of
policemen in the remote southern
province of Uruzgan.
“The president has ordered a
thorough investigation (in Uruzgan) and immediate action based
on findings of the investigation,”
the presidential palace said of
Ashraf Ghani in a statement.
“Anyone, regardless of rank
within the forces, found guilty
will be prosecuted and punished
in accordance and in full compliance of the Afghan laws and our
international obligations,” the
English language statement said.
The ancient custom of bacha
bazi, one of the country’s worst
human rights violations, sees
young boys – sometimes dressed
as women – recruited to police
outposts for sexual companionship and to bear arms.
It is deeply entrenched in
Uruzgan, where police commanders, judges, government
officials and survivors of such
attacks told AFP that the Taliban
are recruiting bacha bazi victims
to attack their abusers.
The claims – strongly denied
by the Taliban – expose child
abuse by both parties in Afghanistan’s worsening conflict.
The presidential statement
said there was “no place” in the
Afghan establishment for abusers, adding it will do “whatever it
takes” to punish them.
The announcement follows a
flurry of international reaction
to AFP’s report.
“We strongly condemn any
abuses of the horrific nature
described in the article,” the
US embassy in Kabul said. “We
urge the Afghan government
to protect and support victims
and their families, while also
strongly encouraging justice and
accountability under Afghan law
for offenders.”
In a letter last week to US Secretary of Defense Ashton Carter,
Congressman Duncan Hunter
demanded a proactive American
role to end bacha bazi in Afghan
forces.
Ashraf Ghani
“I remain concerned that the
Taliban is increasing its use of
children to access security positions and mount insider attacks
against Afghan police,” Hunter
said in the letter seen by AFP.
“It is my belief that we can
begin taking immediate steps to
stop child rape from occurring
in the presence of US forces and
reduce any risk of coinciding insider attacks. This includes imposing a zero-tolerance policy.”
The United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan
(UNAMA) said bacha bazi is of
“high concern” for the international community.
“UNAMA continues to receive
anecdotal reports of bacha bazi,
This file photograph taken on April 30, 2016, shows an Afghan military checkpoint on the outskirts of
Tarin Kot, the capital of southern Uruzgan province. Afghanistan’s president has ordered a “thorough
investigation” into institutionalised sexual abuse of children by police.
including within Afghan security forces, and continues its
engagement with government
to ensure the criminalisation
and prevention of all forms of
exploitation and abuse of children,” Mark Bowden, the UN
deputy special representative for
Afghanistan, told AFP.
The Afghan government an-
nouncement, which did not
specify a timeframe for the investigation, comes ahead of
two crucial donor conferences
on Afghanistan in Warsaw and
Brussels this year.
The war-battered country
remains heavily dependent on
international financial and military assistance, which helps sus-
tain security forces – including
police.
Any perception of apathy
about bacha bazi risks jeopardising that assistance, said
Michael Kugelman, an analyst at
the Woodrow Wilson Center in
Washington.
“No donor in good conscience
can justify funding police forces
that engage in such reprehensible practices,” Kugelman told
AFP.
“There’s already much talk of
donor fatigue, but as donors hear
more about bacha bazi, there’s
bound to be donor fear as well fear of bankrolling institutions
that do morally reprehensible
things.”
The Afghan interior ministry has said it is committed to
institutional reforms, while acknowledging that bacha bazi
within police ranks is a “serious
crime”.
The government last year
launched a probe into sexual
abuse and the illegal recruitment
of child conscripts around Afghanistan.
But the country has yet to pass
legislation criminalising bacha
bazi and no initiatives have been
publicly announced to rescue
any children enslaved by police.
“The absence of any initiatives to release and recover children from their abusers is a serious failure on the part of Afghan
authorities,” Charu Lata Hogg,
an associate fellow at Londonbased Chatham House think
tank, told AFP, adding that donors must pressure Kabul for
change.
“Abuse of children cannot be
passed off as cultural practice.”
24
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
PHILIPPINES
Ex-justice
pushes
for federal
structure
Manila Times
Makati
F
Philippines president-elect Rodrigo Duterte speaks before city hall employees in Davao City, on the southern island of Mindanao.
Duterte to destroy
‘Imperial Manila’
The president-elect is eager to
devolve power to the provinces
AFP
Manila
P
hilippine president-elect Rodrigo
Duterte takes office this week looking to end the domination of “Imperial Manila” with a radical shift to federalism that he says is vital to fighting poverty
and ending a deadly Muslim separatist
insurgency.
Duterte, who won last month’s elections in a landslide, has vowed to have the
constitution rewritten to achieve his bold
plans — which would see power devolved
from the central government in the capital
to newly created states governing the current 81 provinces.
“It (the current system) is an excuse for
them to hang onto power in Imperial Manila.
They have always been there in one single office, running the Philippines,” Duterte said in a speech during the election
campaign.
Such comments are typical fare for Duterte, an anti-establishment figure who
relentlessly rails against the elites who
have mostly ruled the Philippines since
independence from the United States after
World War II.
Duterte will tomorrow take over from
Benigno Aquino, who remains a generally popular figure but nevertheless comes
from one of the remarkably small number
of wealthy clans that have long dominated national politics and overseen one of
Asia’s biggest rich-poor divides.
Duterte will become the first president
from the vast southern region of Mind-
anao, which is one of the nation’s poorest
areas and home to decades-old communist and Muslim insurgencies that have
claimed tens of thousands of lives.
Highlighting his antipathy for Manila
rule, Duterte snubbed his proclamation
by congress as the winner of the elections
— an event normally rich in tradition and
ceremony.
Duterte has also travelled to the capital
just once since winning the election, and
vowed to spend the bulk of his six years as
president based in Davao, which has less
than 2% of the nation’s population and is
1,000km from Manila.
Under Duterte’s federal set-up, the
states will be largely autonomous and allowed to retain most of their income,
rather than remitting it to the central government, which he believes will be a key
driver of economic growth in the impoverished countryside.
He has said the central government
would retain essential national functions,
such as defence, foreign policy and customs.
Duterte has repeatedly said one of the
main benefits of federalism would be to
end separatist rebellions waged by the
country’s impoverished Muslim minority
because they would in effect have autonomy in the new states.
“Nothing short of a federal structure
will give Mindanao peace,” Duterte said on
the campaign trail, and broadly supportive
comments from Muslim rebel leaders in
recent weeks have indicated they are receptive to the plans.
Amending the constitution is a highly
sensitive subject in the Philippines.
Lawmakers have not touched it since it
was rewritten in 1987 following the “People Power” revolution that overthrew dic-
tator Ferdinand Marcos the previous year.
The constitution was redrawn to put in
place safeguards to avoid another dictatorship, including limiting presidents to a
single term of six years.
Tentative attempts by previous presidents to revise the constitution failed amid
strong opposition from groups that feared
the leaders were merely seeking to extend
their reigns.
However Duterte, flush with his election
success that has seen political opponents
swiftly shift allegiances to him, is confident of enjoying big majorities in both
houses of congress, as well as broad popular support, to propel his push.
With Duterte due to turn 77 at the end
of his presidential term, many voters do
not see him as someone who will want to
extend his rule.
Seeking to capitalise on his early-term
popularity, Duterte is aiming to lay the
framework for a referendum to change the
constitution in the first half of his presidency, according to his allies.
Still, what would be the biggest shakeup to Philippines’ democracy since 1987
is by no means assured, and political analysts say opposition could build.
Critics have accused Duterte of being
very vague about his plans, questioned
whether federalism is indeed the panacea to the nation’s woes, and warned
that it could cause more problems than
it solved.
In a nation which already has issues with
weak governance like the Philippines, federalism might result at worst in the break
up of the country, according to Temario
Rivera, chairman of the Center for People
Empowerment in Governance think-tank.
He said federalism could strengthen the
hold of political dynasties or clans that al-
ready monopolise power in local governments, often through the use of private
armies, with a weakened central authority
unable to respond.
“Shifting to a federal system will have
uncertain and unpredictable results,” Rivera told AFP.
As part of tradition not to steal the limelight from the incoming president, outgoing president Benigno Aquino 3rd will be
in his home in Quezon City as a private
citizen while president-elect Rodrigo Duterte takes his oath of office tomorrow.
In his final news briefing yesterday,
presidential communications secretary
Herminio Coloma Jr said Aquino intends
to go back to his residence on Times Street
in Quezon City and rest.
Coloma added that Aquino and Duterte
will meet before the latter takes his oath of
office at Malacanang’s Rizal Hall.
“They will have a one-on-one meeting inside the palace after which president
Aquino will move downstairs to the Palace
grounds where he will be given departure
honours,” he said.
President Aquino, according to Coloma,
will go straight to his car for his departure
from Malacañang, his official residence for
six years.
Duterte will then go back inside the Palace for the inauguration ceremony.
During Aquino’s inauguration in 2010,
he shared a car ride with then outgoing
president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from
the palace to Quirino Grandstand in Manila’s Rizal Park (Luneta).
Meanwhile, Coloma said preparations
for the inauguration are yet to be made final.
Aquino has only a day left in office before his popular successor, Durterte, assumes power.
PDP-Laban misses recruitment
target for house of representatives
Manila Times
Makati
T
he Partido Demokratikong Pilipino
(PDP)-Laban party of incoming
president Rodrigo Duterte is having
a tough time recruiting Duterte’s foot soldiers in the house of representatives.
The recruitment has been snagged by
lawmakers tending to join other political
parties that had signed a coalition agreement with the PDP-Laban rather than join
Duterte’s party.
The PDP-Laban has already signed coalition pacts with the Nacionalista Party
(NP), Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC)
and National Union Party (NUP) and with
57 allied party-list lawmakers.
As of latest count, at least 210 lawmakers from the PDP-Laban and its allied political parties and party-list groups will
form the majority bloc in the House.
But of the 210, there are only 67 lawmakers who are PDP-Laban members or
23% of the chamber.
This is in contrast to the at least
174-strong majority bloc in the 15th Congress in 2010 wherein the bulk of them (90
The house of representatives
lawmakers) were from then presidentelect Benigno Aquino 3rd’s Liberal Party.
The rest of the 174 were from NP (16),
NPC (38) and NUP (30).
Excluded from the 174 are party-list
groups allied with the LP.
By the 16th Congress, the majority bloc
had at least 185 members.
Of this number, 110 lawmakers were
from the LP, 35 legislators from the NPC,
24 from the NUP and 16 from the NP.
Also excluded from the 185 were the LP’s
allied party-list groups.
Outgoing speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr,
LP vice chairman, said the party is yet to
decide on whether to join the Duterte allies in Congress because the PDP-Laban
wants to limit the number of members of
the political parties that want to join the
so-called super majority coalition in the
house of representatives.
“What the PDP-Laban wants is for our
party to have 20 members joining the majority. Where will our other members go
then?” Belmonte told reporters in a chance
interview.
He was at the house of representatives
yesterday for turnover of a bronze statue of
national hero Jose Rizal and of the original
copy of the 1935 constitution–Belmonte’s
erstwhile collection that he donated to the
chamber.
“If we are [fewer] than 20, then there’s
no problem,” according to Belmonte.
At least 50 LP members stayed with the
party even after the defeat of LP standardbearer Manuel Mar Roxas 2nd in the May
polls.
And despite having a meeting with Duterte in Davao City recently, Belmonte
could not say if the LP remains determined
to join the super majority coalition led by
Duterte’s PDP-Laban.
“The LP is not a party with one opinion
[at this point]. Our members have differing views in different situations,” he said
when asked how committed is LP to securing an alliance with the PDP-Laban.
Belmonte offered unsolicited advice.
“I understand that they had to recruit.
They need the numbers to govern congress. When we also came in 2010, we [in
the LP] were not the biggest party. But it
only took a little while when the recruitment was stopped,” he said.
During Belmonte’s speakership in the
15th and 16th congresses, the members of
other political parties such as the NP, NPC
and NUP were allowed to join the minority
or the opposition bloc even if the LP had an
alliance with these political parties.
“That’s because I have maintained good
relations with them. I’ve treated them
fairly, equally…given them recognition. It
is on these bases that I made allies, rather
than forcing them to join the party,” the
speaker said.
ormer chief justice Reynato Puno yesterday
called for the junking of
the unitary form of government, saying it is time to shift
to a federal system which is
“citizen-friendly”.
Speaking at a forum on federalism in Manila, Puno noted
that a presidential form of
government has not brought
progress to the country.
“Too much power has been
given to our national government and even within the national government there is an
imbalance of power between
and among executive, legislative and judicial branches of
government. Too little power
has been given to the local
governments and this insufficient power has stunted their
growth,” he said.
“In sum, I respectfully submit that our unitary form of
government, Imperialist Manila, has failed us,” Puno added,
drawing thunderous applause.
“Our unitary government is
bad enough for its wrong allocation of the powers of government but what is worse is
that our unitary government
has been captured by vested interests. We are ruled by dynasties. We are run by economic
elite. And we are threatened
by criminal syndicates. It is far
more difficult to capture powers
of government in a federal state
than a unitary state,” he said.
According to the former
chief justice, the biggest abuse
of power in a tripartite government has been committed by
the executive department.
“That’s why almost all of
our presidents are being impeached. Why? [They have] all
the powers,” he said.
“Federalism challenges the
political norm that power is
best when centralised, that
sovereignty is indivisible and
cannot be shared and posits
the thesis that states can be
bound together on the basis
of responsible power-sharing,
where the will of the majority of the people will reign but
where the rights of the minority will be allowed to flourish,”
Puno explained.
He noted that even the judiciary is affected by the “political virus”.
“Reality will reveal that the
independence of the judiciary
is sufficiently insulated in our
constitution. The appointment process in the judiciary is
still infected by political virus.
Why is this happening?
Wrong allocation of powers!
In [a] federal government, we
will correct this,” Puno told his
audience.
Alex Brillantes, former University of the Philippines’ dean
of the College of Public Administration and Governance,
however, said there is a need
to change the people’s mindset
before the country can make
the shift from presidential to
federal form of government.
Brillantes also noted that it
is not easy to give up powers.
“That is why we need to
change values,” he said at the
same forum.
Eduardo Araral, vice dean
of the Lee Kuan Yew School of
Public Policy at the National
University of Singapore, said
changing the system will take
time.
He advised the PDP-Laban,
the political party of president-elect Rodrigo Duterte, to
start campaigning for federalism among millennials.
Araral reminded the audience that the basic principle in
federalism is that local public
goods must be managed locally.
The PDP-Laban held a series
of conferences on federalism
and Charter change and invited experts as speakers. Puno
and Brillantes were the speakers yesterday. Araral was the
guest speaker on Monday.
The other speakers were
senator Aquilino Pimentel 3rd
and Jose Abueva, former president of the University of the
Philippines.
All of them favour a presidential-federal system except
for Abueva, who supports a
parliamentary-federal form of
government.
Duterte has planned to form
a committee that will accept
and document proposals for
the shift to a federal form of
government after which a constitutional convention will be
called.
Visaya plans ‘24/7
offensive’ against
Abu Sayyaf
Manila Times
Makati
I
ncoming armed forces
chief lieutenant general
Ricardo Visaya disclosed a
plan to launch non-stop, 24/7
operations against the terrorist
Abu Sayyaf Group (ASG), saying it will be the fastest way to
defeat the jihadists.
“We are planning that, to
fight the Abu Sayyaf 24/7. We
would like to defeat [them].
That’s the fastest way and
can be the best option to fight
them,” Visaya said yesterday.
He said he will formally make
the proposal on July 1 when top
military officials meet president-elect Rodrigo Duterte in a
command conference.
“After the turnover on July 1,
there will be a command conference in the presence of our
new president, then we will
be hearing the guidance of the
president, so we will start from
there,” according to Visaya.
Told about the option given
by Duterte to talk or to fight, he
said that is the prerogative of
the commander-in-chief.
“That is why I said we will
know his instructions on July 1,
but in so far as I am concerned
I will fight them 24/7,” Visaya
pointed out.
He said the armed forces
of the Philippines (AFP) has
enough resources and personnel to launch a 24/7 offensive
against the militants who recently beheaded two Canadian
hostages in Sulu.
The jihadists executed John
Ridsdel and Robert Hall on
April 25 and June 13, respectively, after the government
rejected a total of P600mn in
ransom demanded by the terrorist group for the release of
the two captives.
Meanwhile, Visaya said he
will visit the air force, navy and
army and attend some functions in Manila before flying
to Jolo to discuss with military
commanders there the AFP’s
plan against the Abu Sayyaf
Group.
Earlier, Visaya disclosed that
he may recommend to Duterte the imposition of martial
law in Jolo (Sulu) and Basilan
in southern Mindanao if the
result of the study being conducted by the military deemed
it necessary in crushing the
ASG.
The jihadists have strongholds in Sulu and Basilan.
Last week, the bandits
seized seven Indonesian sailors off the southern Philippine
province of Tawi-Tawi.
The group on Friday freed
Marites Flor, Hall’s fiancee.
It is still holding several hostages, including a Dutch seized
along with the Canadians.
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
25
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
Bangladesh charges 7
over Italian’s murder
AFP
Dhaka
B
angladesh police have
charged seven people including a senior opposition leader over the murder of an
Italian aid worker last September, an officer said yesterday.
The killing near the capital’s
diplomatic zone was the first in a
wave of attacks to be claimed by
the Islamic State group, and was
followed days later by the gunning down of a Japanese farmer
in northern Bangladesh.
Bangladesh authorities reject-
ed the IS claim of responsibility,
saying the group had no presence in the country.
The government and police
say homegrown militants are responsible for the deaths of nearly 50 secular activists, foreigners
and religious minorities killed
over the last three years.
They say the deaths are part
of a plot to destabilise the
country, and have blamed the
main opposition Bangladesh
Nationalist Party (BNP) and its
Islamist ally.
Dhaka Metropolitan Police
deputy commissioner Sheikh
Nazmul Alam said seven people
had been charged with the murder of 50-year-old Italian Cesare
Tavella, including two BNP officials.
“We submitted the chargesheet against the seven on Monday. Those who are charged
include Abdul Quayum who
masterminded the attack,” Alam
said, referring to a senior BNP
official who is believed to be living in exile in Malaysia.
He said the attack was part of
a plot “to tarnish the image of
the country and destabilise it”.
Quayum denied the charge,
telling the Daily Star newspaper
he was being victimised because
of his political affiliation.
BNP spokesman Ruhul Kabir
Rizvi said the charge was “false
and politically motivated”.
“It is an attempt to hide the
real killers,” Rizvi said.
Bangladesh
this
month
launched a nationwide crackdown on local jihadist groups,
arresting more than 11,000 people, under pressure to act on the
spate of killings.
But many rights groups allege the arrests were arbitrary
or were a way to silence political
opponents of the government.
Experts say a government
crackdown on opponents, in-
cluding a ban on the country’s
largest Islamist party following
a protracted political crisis, has
pushed many towards extremism.
Dhaka police chief Asaduzzaman Khan said after Tavella’s
death that his murder was intended to “embarrass the government” and prove the country
was unsafe for foreigners.
International schools closed
temporarily after the murders
and embassies restricted their
diplomats’ movements, while
Australia’s cricket team cancelled a planned tour over security concerns.
Despite dip in ties,
Nepal and India
continue meetings
Sri Lanka’s Deputy Foreign Minister Harsha de Silva
IANS
Kathmandu
Exports will be D
hit by Brexit,
says minister
AFP/IANS
Colombo
S
ri Lanka said yesterday
its trade would be hurt
by the United Kingdom’s
“nightmare” vote to leave the
European Union, with $1bn in
annual exports to the British
market now clouded by uncertainty.
The South Asian nation
famed for its tea and spices is
on the brink of signing up to
a scheme with the European
Union that would grant it lower tariffs on many goods.
But with Britain its largest
EU export market, the shock
Brexit vote will make things
tougher for the cash-strapped
island, likely leading to new
restrictions.
“We knew it was going to be
a nightmare,” Deputy Foreign
Minister Harsha de Silva said.
The dramatic fall in sterling
is likely to inflict extra pain
on Sri Lanka’s exporters, the
minister added.
De Silva and colleagues had
travelled to London last week
to urge voters of Sri Lankan
origin to support the “remain”
campaign.
Britain is one of Sri Lanka’s
biggest export markets and
the country was hoping to improve trade with Britain under
the EU GSP plus trade concession.
Silva said Sri Lanka will this
week formally submit its application to regain GSP plus
from the EU, but since Britain
will now be out of the EU, Colombo will look to sign a new
free trade agreement with the
UK.
“We are now confident of
getting back GSP plus but
since Britain will not be in the
EU we are studying the possibility of signing a free trade
agreement with Britain,” Silva
said.
Sri Lanka lost the EU GSP
plus trade concession when
the former government was
in office over human rights related issues but the new government which took office last
year has met most conditions
to regain GSP plus.
De Silva said Colombo
would now look to fast-track
separate free trade agreements
with China and India to counter the damage.
He said a committee has
been appointed by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe to
study the impact Brexit will
have on Sri Lanka and the remedial measures the country
must take.
“We will strengthen trade
ties with Asia. We need to
expedite the proposed trade
agreements with China and
India,” he said.
The government hopes to
finalise a free-trade deal with
Singapore within a month and
is discussing similar agreements with Japan and South
Korea.
Sri Lanka this month received the first tranche of a
$1.5bn bailout loan from the
International Monetary Fund.
Bangladesh forex reserves top $30bn
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange
reserves have crossed the
$30bn mark amid a boom in
inflow of remittances ahead
of one of the biggest Muslim
religious festivals - Eid al-Fitr
that marks the end of the holy
month of Ramadan.
A senior official of the
Bangladesh Bank (BB) who
did not like to be named said
yesterday that the country’s
foreign exchange reserves
reached a record amount of
$30,001.88mn on Monday,
reflecting the country’s
strength from the economical
and financial point of view.”
Officials reported an increase
in the amount of remittances
ahead of Eid al-Fitr, as millions
of Bangladeshis living and
working abroad scrimp and
save during Ramadan to
send more money home for
relatives.
“Like previous years Eid has
also come as a big boon for
Bangladesh as the country
has been receiving huge
remittances from millions
of expatriates,” said the BB
official.
Bangladesh’s foreign exchange
reserves in April this year
touched the $29bn mark for
the first time.
Officials said Bangladesh’s
current reserves were
enough to pay the country’s
import bills for eight to nine
months.
espite the dip in bilateral
relations - particularly in
the wake of a prolonged
border blockade till only five
months ago, Nepal’s decision to
recall its envoy and cancellation
of the president’s visit, bilateral
engagements and planned meetings with India remain on track.
After the deterioration in ties
since September last year, when
India expressed its unhappiness
with the new Nepali constitution promulgated on September 20, bilateral relations were
steadily improving till the K P
Sharma Oli government abruptly cancelled President Bidhya
Bhandari’s visit to India at the
last moment.
The perception within the
ruling Communist Party of Nepal (Unified Marxist-Leninist)
that Delhi made a failed bid to
topple the Left-led regime in
Kathmandu has not resulted in
the ruling coalition cancelling
bilateral consultations.
Officials said that at least one
dozen meetings between Nepal
and India will be completed ahead
of the planned fourth meeting of
the Nepal-India Joint Commis-
sion at the foreign minister’s level
scheduled to take place in New
Delhi after mid-August.
The joint commission is the
highest-level mechanism between Nepal and India that is
mandated to review the entire
gamut of two neighbours’ bilateral relations.
Meetings at the energy secretary- and commerce secretarylevel began yesterday in New
Delhi on the two key issues between Nepal and India.
In the energy secretary-level
meeting, India has pledged to supply additional 120 MW electricity
to Nepal through the MuzaffarpurDhalkebar trans-border transmission line - in this regard, India has
called on Nepal to complete the
construction of a sub-station at
Dhalkebar at the earliest.
During a meeting of the joint
steering committee (JSC) in New
Delhi, which began on Monday,
the Indian side accepted the request from the Nepali side to
export more electricity to Nepal.
The Nepal-India commerce
secretary-level meeting kicked
off in New Delhi yesterday with
bilateral trade-related matters
prominent on the agenda, tweeted
Nepal’s ministry of foreign affairs.
Trade, construction of integrated check posts on the Nepal-
India border, expansion of Indian rail up to the Nepal border,
and banking facilities to Nepali
nationals working in India,
among others, are on the agenda
of the meeting.
According to Indian ambassador Ranjit Rae, the visits of
Nepali President Bhandari to India and Indian President Pranab
Mukherjee to Nepal are on the
cards and these will improve bilateral ties.
Senior officials from the ministries of water resources held a
meeting in New Delhi in Mayend to discuss issues including
the proposed Koshi high dam
project, inundation in bordering areas in the Nepali Terai due
to building of embankments on
the Indian side and compensation for the Koshi- and Gandakaffected victims.
Last week, surveyors general
from Nepal and India also held
a meeting and decided to install
GPS in all 8,000 Nepal-India
border pillars and decided to
clear the No-Man’s land of all
encroachments.
Earlier this month, another
meeting that deals with procurement of arms and ammunition
from India, which was postponed
during the economic blockade,
also took place in New Delhi.
Zeid Ra’ad al-Hussein speaking during a press conference on Sri
Lanka in Geneva.
Lanka urged to
rein in military,
prosecute
war crimes
Reuters
Geneva
S
ri Lanka must rein in its
military forces, prosecute war crimes committed during the long civil
war with Tamil rebels and win
the confidence of the Tamil
minority, the United Nations
said yesterday.
Witnesses must be protected under an effective transitional justice mechanism that
should include international
judges, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid
Ra’ad al-Hussein said in an
annual report.
The military and Tamil Tiger rebels - who were fighting for an independent Tamil
state in the north and east of
the Indian Ocean island - are
both likely to have committed
war crimes during the 26-year
conflict that ended in 2009,
the UN said last year.
President
Maithripala Sirisena’s government,
formed in March 2015, has
“consolidated its position,
creating a political environment conducive to reforms”,
but governance reform and
transitional justice had lagged,
the report said.
“The early momentum established in investigating
emblematic cases must be
sustained, as early successful
prosecutions would mark a
turning point from the impunity of the past,” it said.
“Continuing allegations of
arbitrary arrest, torture and
sexual violence, as well as
more general military surveillance and harassment, must
be swiftly addressed, and the
structures and institutional
culture that promoted those
practices be dismantled.”
A spokesman for the government in Colombo was not
immediately available for
comment.
Sirisena has said that foreign participation is not needed for an impartial inquiry.
Many Sri Lankans oppose
foreign involvement and supporters of former President
Mahinda Rajapakse believe
that UN efforts aim to punish
the military unfairly.
The UN Human Rights
Council will debate Zeid’s report today when the government is expected to come under fresh pressure to commit
to prosecuting perpetrators.
Sri Lanka acknowledged
this month for the first time
that some 65,000 people were
missing from the war.
The United Nations and activists have long urged justice
for the families of those who
disappeared, including those
alleged to have been secretly
abducted by state-backed
groups and paramilitary outfits.
At least 250 security detainees were still being held under
the Prevention of Terrorism
Act, the UN report said, noting that Zeid had urged the
government during a visit last
September to quickly charge
or release them.
The report voiced concerns
over “military engagement
in commercial activities, including farming and tourism”
and aggressive campaigns
in social media that it said
“stoke nationalism against
ethnic, religious and other
minorities”.
Shortage of safe land frustrates
Lanka disaster relocation efforts
Thomson Reuters Foundation
Gamthuna
E
very time the wind picks
up in the night, the Karunadasas get the shivers.
The couple has been living in this remote village in the
western foothills of Sri Lanka’s
central mountains for over five
decades. But since May, when
a massive landslide hit another
mountain slope 15km away, they
have struggled to sleep at night.
The landslide, which followed
relentless rainfall, buried 130
people in the Egalpitiya area.
But the Karunadasa’s village
may have been on the verge of
slipping as well.
The only road that runs
through town has sunk about
two inches at a spot where it
goes around a narrow curve.
On either side of it, houses now
sport large cracks running across
their walls.
“How can you live here? It is
like living in a death trap,” said
81-year-old P P Karunadasa, as
he stared at a large fissure running
down the wall of his living room.
But his wife said they have no
option but to remain. “No one
has told us whether these are
high risk areas or not, but we
have been told unofficially that
they are,” she said.
The Karunadasa family stand in their living room, near a crack in
their wall that first appeared on May 17, a night when landslides
claimed 130 lives in a neighbouring area, and that has been slowly
widening since.
More extreme weather, linked
to climate change, is raising the
threat from disasters such as
flooding, landslides and drought
in a range of already at-risk places around the world. But moving
people out of harm’s way is an
enormous challenge, not least
because safe places to relocate
families are in short supply almost everywhere.
The Karunadasa family stand
in their living room, near a
crack in their wall that first appeared on May 17, a night when
landslides claimed 130 lives in
a neighbouring area, and that
has been slowly widening since.
TRF/Amantha Perera
In Kegalle district, where the
Karundasas live, most of the
land is hilly, and flat, safe places
are rare. But those are precisely
what authorities are looking
for, with the aim of relocating
landslide victims and families
like the Karundasas who live in
high-risk areas.
“Right now we are having a
problem trying to locate safe
land to move out those displaced,” said Jagath Mahedra,
the Kegalle district head for Sri
Lanka’s national Disaster Management Centre.
A month after the disaster, 42
displacement centres had been
set up around the district, offering safe housing for 3,500
people. But most of those were
located in public institutions
such as schools and places of
worship.
Those now need to be vacated,
so they can be put back to their
original use. But that process
has been hampered by a severe
shortage of safe land to relocate
people, officials said.
The National Building Research Organisation (NBRO) is
currently conducting surveys in
the region to determine zones
at high risk of landslides. So far
it has mapped 20 out of the 61
administrative divisions in the
Kegalle district.
“We have 610 families that
need to be relocated. That
number is definitely going to rise
as the surveys progress,” said
Mohamed Faizal, the top public
official in the landslide-hit area.
The government estimates it
will need more than 300 acres
of land to relocate those whose
homes were destroyed or who
are at high risk, said Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, the Minister for
Disaster Management.
Faizal noted that “not money, but
land, will be our biggest headache.”
It is not only in the hilly regions that the government is
likely to run short of relocation
land. Since landslides and flooding killed close to 200 people in
May and water marooned over
300,000 others in their homes,
the Sri Lanka government has
been exploring the possibility of
relocating thousands of families
living in low-lying areas prone
to floods.
But finding suitable land has
been a struggle.
“All over Sri Lanka we are facing a situation where we just
cannot distribute land ad-hoc,”
Minister Yapa said. In urban areas, like the capital Colombo, an
already large population is one
key reason finding unused land
is difficult.
Yapa said that, to deal with
the problem, the government is
discussing building high-rise
apartments, which are still a
rarity in rural Sri Lanka, as well
as single-family houses on land
used for relocation.
The minister said that while
land was the biggest problem,
families relocating have also
raised concerns over access to
jobs, schools and amenities like
transport.
“It is a complex problem that
we are facing, and it does not
have easy answers,” Yapa said.
26
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
COMMENT
Chairman: Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
Production Editor: C P Ravindran
P.O.Box 2888
Doha, Qatar
editor@gulf-times.com
Telephone 44350478 (news),
44466404 (sport), 44466636 (home delivery)
Fax 44350474
GULF TIMES
GCC needs to
plan for EU
without UK
The UK has voted itself out of the European Union
and is nearing a life without the 28-member union,
the largest trading bloc in the World.
Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) policymakers
have generally sounded confident the overall Brexit
impact on Gulf economies will be muted.
Qatari banks face “immaterial net exposures” to
Brexit-related currencies such as the pound and euro,
according to QNB Financial Services. A prolonged
period of a low interest rate regime, in view of Brexit,
should be positive to GCC economies, says Global
Investment House.
The bilateral trading landscape between the GCC
and the UK as well as the EU may not necessarily be
altered by Brexit, according to experts. The EU has
been unable to reach a free trade agreement with the
GCC since 1988. It may now be possible for the UK,
which last month signed a double taxation avoidance
deal with the UAE, to strike beneficial trade deals with
Gulf governments.
But the “biggest jolt since the fall of the Berlin Wall”
that erased about $3tn from global equity values last
Friday, should be a longer-term concern for Gulf
investors.
Sovereign and private investors from Qatar, Saudi
Arabia, Kuwait and the UAE have been prolific
buyers of British assets in the past decade but they
are holding back now over fears of a property price
slump over Brexit.
Qatar is one of the most
high-profile investors
in London property.
The Qatar Investment
Authority has at least
$7bn directly invested
in equities traded
on the London stock
Exchange, in which
it also holds a 10.3%
stake. Qatar’s total investments in Britain are worth
around £30bn ($44bn), according to a Financial Times
report.
Gulf funds may shun the UK with Brexit becoming
a reality, according to the Institute of International
Finance (IIF). A UK exit would also hit GCC companies
with high exposure to the UK through multiple
channels, the IIF said.
Longer term, GCC investments in the UK as well
as Europe are mainly keeping line with the futuristic
strategy of economic diversification. Total assets
acquired by GCC private investors and sovereign
funds in the EU are estimated at more than €400bn,
according to a 2015 estimate. A Brexit-induced
slowdown in the UK as well as Europe could affect
Gulf investments in the continent; a perceived fall
in demand for oil, the national lifeline of most Gulf
states, could be another worry.
While the post-referendum plunge in the pound
may look UK assets cheaper for Gulf buyers, the
nosedive could also bring down valuations of pounddenominated Gulf assets in the UK.
Britain has now lost its gold-plated AAA rating,
following the Standard & Poor’s downgrade; and the
pound has hit a new 31-year low against the dollar.
But the Brexit impact will largely be determined by the
policies adopted by a country to deal with the contagion.
Brexit is becoming a reality (despite the theoretical
possibility of a second UK referendum on EU
membership). The Gulf needs to plan for an EU sans
the UK.
End of an era as Britain
forsakes European role
The UK has now officially
lost its chance at securing,
once and for all, the
leading role in Europe that
was there for the taking
By Carl Bildt
Rome
I
n the early 1960s, former US
secretary of state Dean Acheson
famously quipped that the United
Kingdom had lost an empire, and
not yet found a role.
Afterwards, successive British
leaders tried to change that, by forging
a new role for Britain in Europe.
The country’s just-concluded
“Brexit” referendum, in which a
majority of voters expressed their
desire to leave the European Union,
represents the spectacular failure of
that effort – and the end of an era.
Britain’s journey toward Europe
began in the early 1970s, when the
firmly pro-European prime minister
Edward Heath took the country into
the European Economic Community,
the EU’s forerunner.
His successor, Harold Wilson,
secured the membership with a 1975
referendum.
And Margaret Thatcher signed
the Single European Act, which
created the single market –one of the
most important steps in European
integration, and one that owed much
to British inspiration.
Her successor, John Major, who
campaigned actively for Britain to
remain in the EU prior to the recent
referendum, was instrumental in
forging the Maastricht Treaty.
While Tony Blair was in power,
he spoke eloquently about Britain’s
European mission.
Then came David Cameron, who
wavered in his attempt to keep the
Conservative Party united, and ended
up with losing both Europe and the
party.
To be sure, Cameron was not
necessarily pitching Europe to an
agreeable audience.
Many Britons retain a certain
nostalgia about the past, which they
recall as more familiar, controlled and
safe.
Many Britons retain
a certain nostalgia
about the past, which
they recall as more
familiar, controlled
and safe
That nostalgia was constantly
reinforced by a vitriolic anti-European
– and, in particular, anti-German –
campaign spearheaded by some of the
country’s leading media.
To read the Daily Mail or the Sun
in the last few years was to encounter
a kind of atavistic nationalism –
often backed by blatant lies – on a
scale rarely seen in other European
countries.
But there was also a problem with
the pitch.
Fearing political fallout, even
leaders who genuinely supported
European integration hesitated to
defend the EU in a bold or inspiring
manner to their constituents.
For their part, the leaders those
who opposed the EU, such as former
London mayor Boris Johnson, who
led the “Leave” campaign, simply
continued to apply a tried and true
formula: stoking the fires of fearbased nationalism.
When British leaders crossed
the English Channel to Europe,
however, everything changed. Leaving
their Euroscepticism behind, they
continued to deepen the UK’s role in
Europe.
When I was Sweden’s foreign
minister, I attended more than
130 meetings of the EU’s various
ministerial councils, and I can
honestly attest that the UK’s voice was
among the most prominent in every
one.
The truth is that the EU that has
emerged over the last decade has been
shaped in no small part by the UK.
Progress on the single market has
helped to boost competitiveness.
New free-trade agreements are
giving European economies access to
major markets around the world.
The achievement of a global
climate agreement promises not just
to protect the environment, but also
to cement Europe’s role as a leader
in sustainability. And enlargement
has enhanced Europe’s security
substantially.
These are, by all reasonable
standards, remarkable UK-led
achievements.
But this was mostly a well-guarded
secret back home.
And that is the failure that lies at the
root of the calamity that is Brexit.
The UK has now officially lost its
chance at securing, once and for all,
the leading role in Europe that was
there for the taking.
What is more, the UK’s national
political landscape is in ruins.
The Conservative Party is deeply
split; the Labour Party is inert under
a nostalgic leftist leadership; and the
Liberal Democrats have more or less
left the scene. And the UK may be
headed toward further ruptures.
Nicola Sturgeon, the first minister
of Scotland, which overwhelmingly
voted to remain in the EU, has said
that another referendum on Scottish
independence is “highly likely”,
calling the removal of Scotland
from the EU “democratically
unacceptable”.
While the likelihood of a breakup
remains impossible to predict, the
virus of political divorce has certainly
proved contagious – and a more
fragmented Europe is undoubtedly a
less safe one.
In answering one question, elderly
English voters – the core of the
“Leave” electorate – have raised a
bevy of new ones.
Will the UK settle for a satellitetype relationship with the EU? Will
it become little more than the rural
hinterland of an offshore financial
centre on the Thames? Will its leaders
find yet another role for it to play in
the world, or allow their country to
fade slowly into irrelevance?
Only time will tell.
In the meantime, the UK is set
to endure substantial political and
economic pain.- Project Syndicate
zCarl Bildt is a former prime minister
and foreign minister of Sweden.
Qatar is one of
the most
high-profile
investors
in London
property
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Britain’s Liberal Democrats Party leader Tim Farron (below right, blue shirt) joining people at an anti-Brexit protest in Trafalgar Square in central London yesterday.
Lessons to be learnt from Brexit
By Abdulbasit A al-Shaibei
Doha
T
he
global
financial
system
in particular
has been closely
following
the British
referendum
dubbed “Brexit”,
which was meant to decide on whether
the United Kingdom (UK) should
continue in the European Union (EU)
or not.
Given the importance of the EU and
the UK to the global economy, the June
23 referendum was closely watched all
over the world.
And in a rather stunning move,
voters in the United Kingdom through
a slender majority opted to leave the
European Union, making the UK the
first country to voluntarily withdraw
from the 28-member political and
economic bloc.
Obviously, many have lined up on
both sides – the “Remain” and the
“Leave” campaign, but the results
of the referendum teach us one very
important thing- not just in politics,
but in all areas - we should not
be overconfident. One should not
discount surprises.
As the referendum has shown,
sometimes people’s perception may be
against you, no matter how you feel or
think about it.
Leading up to the vote, polls
suggested voters would likely stay in
the EU, but in a huge upset on June 23
night, “Leave the European Union”
scored a narrow victory- 52 to 48%.
Another important thing to
consider is that no matter what you
do, the risks are always there.
In life, we face two kinds of risks –
risks right in front of you or foreseen
risks and risks you cannot see- hidden
risks or unforeseen risks.
Brexit’s impact on the
world economy is
quite palpable
This referendum, I believe, is a
good lesson for everyone - politicians,
economists and policymakers on the
risks involved in taking things very
casually.
Overconfidence lands one
in trouble, as the results of the
referendum have shown.
There are many who think this
referendum was not required in the
first place.
There is a perception that some of
the British leaders have put their own
eye out.
That said, the fact remains that the
UK is a wonderful and great country.
Great Britain accounts for nearly 4%
of the world’s output and London is
a major financial centre of the world.
The UK has survived before the EU
and may be able to do without it.
While there will be a fallout on the
UK’s move to leave the EU, the fact,
however, remains that the United
Kingdom was never fully integrated with
the European Union. The British always
had their own currency and their visa
processes are totally different from that
of the EU. They always wanted to carry
their own identity. This, we must take
into account.
And then, there are many,
particularly in Europe, who believe
that “Brexit” will indeed, do good to
the EU. They hold the view that Great
Britain is an obstacle to their decisiontaking capabilities. On many issues,
the EU and UK had divergent views.
So, while there may be some
negatives in the process, there could
be some positives as well, if only those
concerned can leverage on that.
Brexit’s impact on the world
economy is quite palpable. In the
short-term, people may panic. But
what we see right now is not the “real
impact”, but only a “reaction” to the
unexpected results of the referendum.
But a closer look at the global
markets in the days following the
referendum, gives an impression
that it is a “clear over-reaction”.
But as in the case of any transition,
“Brexit” will certainly pose challenges
to policymakers and financial
authorities, both in the UK and
European Union.
People who held divergent views
in the referendum, both within and
outside of the UK, must be carried
along. Any differences of opinion must
be sorted out amicably. In that way,
the process can be made smoother
in the best interest of the British,
European and global economy.
Because of its sound economy
and robustness, the UK has been a
favoured destination for discerning
investors. The high-profile investors
in the UK include many from the GCC
region including Qatar.
In the post-Brexit period,
investors must consider a “basket
of investments” like the “basket of
currencies”, which many countries
have for their own currencies. This
way, the investment-related risks can
be mitigated to a large extent.
Many analysts are also concerned
about currency and market volatility
in the days and weeks ahead.
Volatility in the market is part of a
cycle. Clearly, it is a cyclical process.
Volatility is not always bad; with
volatility, opportunities come…if
the market is flat, there will be fewer
opportunities.
zAbdulbasit A al-Shaibei is a
prominent Qatari banker and is
the chief executive officer of Qatar
International Islamic Bank
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
27
COMMENT
A brief respite to Gaza’s hungry
The traditional tekiyya
is helping to alleviate the
humanitarian crisis in
Gaza
By Sakher Abou El Oun
AFP/Gaza City
I
n her modest home in the Gaza
Strip, Sahar Sherif’s family
watches as she ladles out a broth
of meat and vegetables for a rare
heart-warming meal.
For just a month of the year, a soup
kitchen in the Palestinian enclave
is offering struggling families like
Sherif’s a welcome break from daily
worries about where they will find
their next meal.
During the holy month of Ramadan,
the charity provides the 40-year-old
divorcee and her five children - and
grandchildren - with a square meal
every day at no cost.
“When we eat food from the
tekiyya, we feel better,” says Sherif,
using an Arabic name for the soup
kitchen, an Islamic tradition said to
date back to the era of the Prophet
Ibrahim.
But during the rest of the year when
the kitchen is closed, “I make a pot of
tea, I get two tomatoes out and that’s
it”, she says, wearing a black nylon
overcoat and face veil.
“When there’s no food, we
constantly feel dizzy.”
Residents in the Hamas-ruled
territory have lived under a punitive
Israeli blockade for the last 10 years,
and Egypt has largely kept its border
with Gaza closed since 2013.
Nearly half the war-torn enclave’s
1.9mn inhabitants live under the
poverty line, with 80 % surviving on
humanitarian aid.
During Ramadan, Sherif can carry
home a plate of rice and chicken for
Palestinians preparing food at the tekiyya, Arabic name for the soup kitchen, during the holy month of Ramadan in Gaza City. For just a month of the year, a soup kitchen in the Palestinian enclave is offering
struggling families a welcome break from daily worries about where they will find their next meal. Right: A Palestinian girl receiving food from the tekiyya.
her family to break the daily fast after
sunset - and a broth to eat before
sunrise and another 16 hours of
daytime fasting.
For the rest of the year, food is
one of many daunting expenses
for the head of a poverty-stricken
household.
“I have to pay 500 shekels (115
euros) in rent as well as water and
electricity bills,” says Sherif, whose
two sons are unemployed.
“I receive 100 to 200 shekels in
support, but I’m supposed to pay the
rest on my own,” she says.
The Gaza Strip has been ravaged
by three wars with Israel since
2008.
The Mediterranean enclave’s
unemployment rate of 45% is one of
the highest in the world.
Inside the soup kitchen, volunteers
pile marinated chicken pieces onto
huge trays and stir translucent onions
in cauldrons with paddles.
“In the past, families used to ask
for chairs, a mattress or a fridge,” says
volunteer Deeb Abdul Hamid. “But
these days, they just ask for food.”
The kitchen gives priority to
families without breadwinners such
as those headed by widows, divorcees
or women whose husbands have
emigrated, he says.
Today, government employees
who haven’t received their salaries
also depend on the charity, says
the 24-year-old graduate, who is
unemployed.
The traditional tekiyya is helping to
alleviate the humanitarian crisis.
Hassan al-Khatib, who manages
the soup kitchen in Gaza city, says
every day 150 to 200 families queue up
outside for food.
And more families head to another
kitchen in Khan Yunis in southern
Gaza.
“The tekiyya is an element of
our culture, heritage and history,”
says al-Khatib, his head covered
in a sparkling white scarf and his
salt-and-pepper beard neatly
trimmed.
Tradition has it that the first soup
kitchen opened centuries ago in
Hebron in the West Bank, the other
Palestinian territory now occupied by
Israel.
The Prophet Ibrahim - who is
believed to have been buried in
Hebron with his wife Sarah and sons
- is said to have left food there for
the poor.
The Hebron kitchen - which is said
to stand on the ground where he made
the first donations - is open all year
round.
But in Gaza, the end of Ramadan in
early July will mean an end to these
food handouts.
After the holy month ends, the soup
kitchen will only open twice a week and only as long as private donations
from abroad allow.
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Letters
Three-day forecast
TODAY
A worrying
prospect
Dear Sir,
The historic vote in the United
Kingdom to leave the 28-nation
European Union (EU) is having
repercussions far beyond the European
continent, to no one’s surprise. The
British people, it seems, want greater
control of their economy and their
country’s borders. Stock markets in
many countries tumbled immediately
after the results of the referendum
were announced. The so-called Brexit
has come at a time when the global
economy is going through a period of
instability and uncertain times.
GCC countries need to adjust to the
new situation. As Dr Christian Koch,
of the Geneva-based Gulf Research
Centre Foundation, observed the
other day (“For the GCC states, a
different Europe to deal with from
now on”, Gulf Times, June 26), the
GCC states will now have to deal
with a more fractured Europe and an
EU institution struggling to define
its purpose in the wider integration
process.
It has been observed that the vote
will provide further impetus for
European separatism. Nationalist
forces in countries like France,
Germany, Poland and Hungary are
likely to intensify their own campaigns
against Brussels and against further
European integration.
The GCC states will have to deal
with a UK that is now taking on a
different sort of European identity.
Especially on foreign policy and
defence matters, it is correct to
assume that the UK and other
European countries will no longer be
following a similar approach.
Where will all this lead to? Are we
witnessing the beginning of the end
of the European integration project?
As two world wars had their origins in
Europe, that is a worrying prospect.
Ramesh G Jethwani
(e-mail address supplied)
Great times ahead
for the Philippines
Dear Sir,
Further to the letter, “Changes in
store for Philippines” (Gulf Times,
June 28), I also feel that great times are
lying ahead for the Philippines under
the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte.
I support his plans to step up the
government’s war on crime. He said
the other day that he believed in
retribution. “Why?” he asked and
answered himself: “You should pay.
When you kill someone, rape, you
should die.”
The Philippines has been drifting
along far too much in the past. It is
time for action now. Our country
has an enormous pool of talented
workforce. But the nation still remains
in the clutches of poverty. We must
High: 41 C
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race ahead and I believe Duterte is the
right leader for our country at this
juncture. Hope he will fulfil all his
promises.
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THURSDAY
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supplied)
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Live issues
A must-read book? Go on, make me
By Oliver Burkeman
New York
S
omewhere around the 500th
headline I read in praise of
Hamilton, the universallyacclaimed Broadway musical
due in Europe next year, I was struck
by a deflating thought: I’ll probably
never see it.
Not just because it’s virtually
impossible to get a ticket, but because
so many people – people whose tastes
I trust – have raved about it that I now
regard the prospect with annoyance.
Two years ago, it was the Richard
Linklater movie Boyhood, which I still
haven’t seen; then Elena Ferrante’s
Neapolitan novels, which I still haven’t
read.
Straw polls of friends suggest I’m
not alone in this reaction – call it
“cultural cantankerousness” – which
seems to affect books, films, plays,
holiday destinations and restaurants
equally.
Increasingly, my first thought on
seeing something described as a
“must-read” is‚“Oh really? Try and
make me”.
“Whenever you find
you are on the side of
the majority, it is time
to pause and reflect”
It would be easy to dismiss this as
simple contrarianism.
After all, we live in an era that
champions ostentatious dissent from
the mainstream, whether you’re
a journalist trolling for clicks by
explaining what “Donald Trump gets
right”, or a hipster embracing fashions
because others disdain them.
And contrarianism has its merits:
“Whenever you find you are on the
side of the majority,” Mark Twain
said, “it is time to pause and reflect.”
But unlike contrarianism, cultural
cantankerousness isn’t solely about
appearing different from others: even
alone in a room, I’d be disinclined to
pick up Ferrante’s books if others were
available.
Nor is it because I suspect these
works of art are no good; they’re
probably all sensational.
When it comes to, say, TV shows
about competitive baking, I resist
the pull of the crowd because I’m
confident I’m not missing much.
In the case of Hamilton or Boyhood,
I’m sure my perversity is costing me
real enjoyment.
So what’s going on? One
explanation is what psychologists call
“optimal distinctiveness theory” – the
way we’re constantly jockeying to feel
exactly the right degree of similarity to
and difference from those around us.
Nobody wants to be exiled from the
in-group to the fringes of society; but
nobody wants to be swallowed up by
it, either.
In toddlerhood and teenagerhood,
this manifests as a bloody-minded
refusal to do what we’re told, precisely
to show we can disobey our parents.
Perhaps it never entirely goes away.
But I have a different hunch about
cultural cantankerousness: I think it’s a
defence against the “fear of missing out”.
These days, thanks largely to
technology, we’re more aware than
ever of all the exciting things other
people are up to, in other places.
The result is an edgy, distracted
state of worry that undermines the
pleasure of whatever we’re doing:
what if we could be doing something
better? My irritation at the plaudits
heaped on any given book, film or play
is a way of reasserting control.
Instead of worrying about whether
I should be reading Ferrante, I’m
defiantly resolving that I won’t.
That’s one less thing to worry about
missing, leaving me free to focus
instead on haranguing other people to
watch Better Call Saul.
No, really – if you haven’t seen
it, you must. - Guardian News and
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28
Gulf Times
Wednesday, June 29, 2016
QATAR
Ministry issues travel advisory
T
he Ministry of Interior
(MoI) has offered tips on a
wide range of travel-related issues in view of the upcoming
holiday season.
The advisory, “Tips for Safe
Travel”, lists a series of dos and
don’ts for people who would
travel in the coming weeks to ensure their safety.
Official documents: To begin
with, the advisory urges travellers to ensure that their passports
are valid for at least six months
and obtain a visa on time. “Some
embassies in Qatar require the
signature of children aged 10
years or more on the passport,”
it notes. One should also confirm
the validity of official documents
such as the ID card, driver’s licence, car ownership card and
debit/credit cards.
“Always keep official documents and personal valuables in a
safe and secure place while travelling. Do not pawn your passport or ID card to any party in any
way,” the advisory further states.
In case of any problem, one must
immediately inform the nearest
diplomatic mission of his/her
country and notify officials about
the problem in detail.
Travellers have also been advised to arrange for an international driver’s licence as the transit system in some countries does
not allow a foreigner to drive unless he/she carries a licence issued by those countries.
“Get the international customs transit book (Triptyque) as
this will serve as a guarantor in
front of the Customs authorities of countries through which
you pass or stop during your
journey. Some Arab states require the Triptyque for passing
through their territory,” the MoI
has said, adding that one should
keep a copy of the passport and
visa as this may help in case the
originals go missing. This may be
done by saving copies of both in
one’s email.
Travellers should also collect
the address and telephone numbers of the embassies/consulates
of their country located in their
travel destinations. This will help
them in case of any emergency,
the advisory adds.
Awareness and caution: The
MoI has advised travellers to be
extra cautious about the situation around them – at hotels,
airports, markets, etc – in order
to ensure personal security and
safety.
“Please avoid mingling with
unknown persons while travel-
Keep money secure in a wallet.
Secure the house before travelling. Images courtesy
of MoI
Carry proper currency during the trip.
Check the tyres before leaving.
Get the international customs transit book (Triptyque).
Arrange for an international driver’s licence.
ling,” the advisory says. “Please
avoid carrying jewellery or any
valuables unnecessarily with you
during the travel period. Keep
your money in a purse and ensure
it is available at its place constantly.”
Travellers have also been advised to avoid using illegal taxis
and visiting suspicious localities.
They should act as ambassadors
of their country, follow the rules
and regulations of the host country as well as aviation laws, and
not carry prohibited items.
If accompanied by domestic
workers, the sponsor must enquire about their visas and procedures in this regard.
The advisory also reminds
travellers to ask security agencies for necessary legal approvals
to conduct a search at the place
where they are staying in the host
country if such a situation arises.
“In case there is an investigation in any case, you must report
to the State Mission as soon as
possible,” the MoI has said, adding that people should “carry
currencies consistent with instructions of the host country”
and excessive cash is required to
be declared before Customs officers.
Securing the house before
travel: The MoI has advised
travellers to ensure that they lock
the doors of their house properly – by using one or more highquality locks – before leaving.
They must not leave money, jewellery or other valuables inside
and should instead deposit them
in a bank.
People should also switch off
Keep a functional fire extinguisher in the car.
the electric switchboard, gas
pipelines and main water valve
before leaving their house. Relatives or neighbours could be requested to pass by the house at
intervals during the travel period
to ensure their safety.
Safety tips for travel by road:
The advisory also includes safety
tips for those travelling by road,
some of which were published in
Gulf Times yesterday based on
information obtained from the
ministry’s Facebook page.
One should ensure the capacity of his/her vehicle by getting
a comprehensive technical test
done before starting the trip.
“Check the validity and safety
standard of your vehicle’s tyres
and replace them if needed,” it
notes.
Other safety measures include
wearing seatbelts throughout the
trip as this can prevent injuries
and fatalities, always keeping a
first-aid kit and a functional fire
extinguisher in the vehicle as well
as keeping a set of spare key(s).
Travellers should keep a route
map of the country they are visiting and not allow the fuel level
to dip below the halfway mark,
the advisory states, noting that
children should be made to sit in
the rear seat only.
Overloading a vehicle can be
dangerous for its occupants and
pose a risk to the lives of others.
It can also lead to accidents and
impeding the driver’s vision and
freedom of movement, the MoI
has said.
One should not accompany
unknown persons while travelling or carry any kind of lug-
Maintain enough distance from the vehicle in front.
gage or bags given by such unknown persons.
The advisory has urged travellers to follow traffic signs and
boards put up along the road to
ensure a safe journey, avoid getting fatigued before starting a
trip as tired motorists are often
involved in serious accidents on
highways, switch driving duties with others (holding a valid
licence) every one or two hours
if possible, make several halts
to get adequate rest during long
trips and remain cautious while
approaching areas where animal
movement is expected, especially
at night.
“If you feel drowsy, immediately stop your vehicle and
resume your journey only after
giving yourself some rest. Then,
continue your travel peacefully
and safely and avoid driving during the late hours of the night as
much as possible,” it adds.
Driving in emergency situations (rain, fog and dust): In
such conditions, motorists have
been advised to reduce the speed
as much as possible, drive the vehicle on the right side of the road,
use wipers if it is raining, switch
on the dim lights, not to overtake
and maintain enough distance
from the vehicle in front.
If a vehicle has to be stopped
due to poor visibility or for other
factors, one should stay off the
road and switch on the hazard
lights. Also, s/he should strictly
avoid sudden braking without
giving signals in advance.
The advisory has been issued
by the MoI’s Public Relations Department.
IIFA: Qatar Airways hosts
Bollywood stars and fans
Q
atar Airways was the official airline partner of the
17th International Indian
Film Academy (IIFA) celebrations
in Madrid, Spain, this weekend,
attracting leading celebrities
from the Indian and international film fraternity.
In a statement yesterday, the
Doha-based airline said it “played
an important role in flying distinguished members of the Indian film industry” as guests on
board Qatar Airways to Madrid,
including leading celebrities
such as Sonakshi Sinha, Bipasha
Basu, Fawad Khan, Abhay Deol,
Neil Nitin Mukesh, Vivek Oberoi,
Subhash Ghai, David Dhawan,
Gulshan Grover and others.
Jonathan
Harding, Qatar
Airways senior vice-president
(Europe), said the airline was
delighted to have well-known
celebrities on board from the Indian film fraternity.
“Qatar Airways has the proud
tradition of sponsoring some of
the biggest events in the world,
and as a partner to IIFA, we are
very excited to have hosted these
leading Bollywood celebrities on
our double-daily flights to Madrid, allowing them to experience
our acclaimed Qatari hospitality
and service. As one of the most
popular international events in
Bollywood, IIFA is watched by
Indian film fans from around the
world, and is therefore a perfect platform to showcase Qatar
Airways’ popularity among film
fans.”
One of the most talked-about
annual events in the Indian film
circuit, IIFA 2016 in Madrid attracted more than 150 Bollywood
celebrities and an audience of
approximately 6,500 people.
Bollywood film fans keen to catch
Ooredoo’s popular mascots the Alrabaa entertain children on Doha Corniche.
Ooredoo gifts water and
dates on Doha Corniche
A
Actor Ranveer Singh pictured with the airline’s cabin crew.
Actor Anil Kapoor with Qatar Airways cabin crew at IIFA 2016.
a glimpse of their favourite stars
were not disappointed as many,
including Salman Khan, Hrithik
Roshan, Ranveer Singh, Deepika
Padukone, Priyanka Chopra,
Shahid Kapoor, Farhan Akhtar
and Tiger Shroff, made appearances and gave “spell-binding
performances” during the celebrations.
IIFA has been instrumental in
attracting the most well-known
celebrities in India to travel to
Spain. As the official airline, Qatar Airways has also been able
to facilitate fans travelling from
13 key Indian cities it serves, the
statement adds.
Qatar Airways currently flies
to Madrid two times a day and
connects seamlessly via Doha
to Ahmedabad, Amritsar, Bengaluru, Chennai, Goa, Hyderabad, Kochi, Kolkata, Kozhikode,
Mumbai, New Delhi, Nagpur and
Trivandrum.
fter distributing dates
and water to walkers and
families on the Corniche
during the first week of Ramadan, Ooredoo volunteers have
returned to the site again.
A group of Ooredoo volunteers, and the company’s popular mascots the Alrabaa, arrived
on Monday to surprise people
walking along Doha’s Corniche
with a special gift of water and
dates to break their fast for Iftar.
The volunteers, who represented some of the business
units across the company, were
stationed at the end of the Corniche near West Bay, to distribute the gifts at sunset to passersby as well as people driving
along the seafront.
The Alrabaa were also on
hand to entertain children and
their parents, pose for photographs and spread joy.
Fatima Sultan al-Kuwari, director of community and public relations at Ooredoo, said:
“After the success of our first
distribution on the Corniche,
we wanted to come back and
A child receiving the Iftar kit.
give anyone a chance who had
missed us to join the fun. The
Corniche is beautiful at sunset
and the unity of breaking our
fast with families and our community was a highlight of our
#CloserConnection campaign.
Thank you to everyone who
said hello.”
Customers can follow Ooredoo’s Ramadan campaign via its
Facebook, Instagram or Twitter
page and the hashtag #CloserConnection