QATAR | Pages 16
Minister
GULF TIMES
In brief
QATAR | Visit
Sierra Leone president
arrives in Doha today
Sierra Leone President Julius Maada
Bio arrives in Doha today on an
official visit to the country. His
Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani will meet him
tomorrow at the Emiri Diwan where
they will discuss enhancing bilateral
relations, ways to develop bilateral
co-operation, as well as a number of
issues of common interest.
ARAB WORLD | Conflict
Israeli forces kill four
in new protests, clashes
Thousands protested along the
Gaza Strip’s border with Israel in
a fourth straight Friday of mass
demonstrations and clashes, with
four Palestinians shot dead by Israeli
forces. Israeli army gunfire killed a
15-year-old boy and two young men,
aged 24 and 25, in northern Gaza,
rescue workers said, and a 29-year-
old Palestinian was shot dead in the
south of the coastal enclave. The
latest deaths brought to 38 the toll
of those killed by Israeli forces since
March 30, with hundreds of others
also wounded by gunfire, according
to Gaza’s health ministry. Page 3
AMERICA | Protest
Shooting at school as
students stage walkout
A Florida high school student shot
and wounded a classmate yesterday
as students around the US staged
walkouts to protest gun violence.
The shooting came as students
nationwide were walking out of
classes to mark the 19th anniversary
of the 1999 carnage at Columbine
High School in Colorado which left
13 people dead. Page 5
BRITAIN | Royals
Commonwealth backs
Charles as next head
Commonwealth leaders agreed
yesterday that Prince Charles should
follow his mother Queen Elizabeth II
as the next head of the group. “The
next Head of the Commonwealth
shall be His Royal Highness Prince
Charles,” the 53 member countries
said. Queen Elizabeth had told
leaders on the first day of a summit
on Thursday that she wanted her
eldest son to succeed her. Queen
Elizabeth, who turns 92 today,
spoke of her own “extraordinary
journey” since pledging to serve the
Commonwealth for life. Page 7
‘A lot of hidden stories’ can be found in the Gulf
A lot to be discovered
underwater, says BBC
docu producer
By Joey Aguilar
Staff Reporter
A
BBC documentary producer has
expressed optimism that “a lot
of hidden stories” can be found
in the Gulf, just like coasts in various
parts of the world.
“It also gets me thinking about how
many hidden stories there are off the
coasts here and around as well,” BBC’s
Blue Planet documentary producer
Jonathan Smith exclaimed on the
sidelines of Blue Planet II’s Coral Reefs
screening at The Pearl-Qatar.
The documentary, narrated by Sir
David Attenborough and with a mu-
sic score by Hans Zimmer, has rapidly
become the most talked about shows
around the world with 220mn views
in China alone. It was the number one
show in the UK in 2017, attracting near-
SPORT | Page 1
‘Garden of Al-Andalus’
exhibition opens
Doha Port call
Doha Port has welcomed the cruise ship Seabourn Encore on her third call in the
2017-18 season to Qatar, Mwani tweeted yesterday. More than 950 passengers and
crew have arrived to explore the country.
The continuing blockade of Qatar makes no sense: FT
It is high time that Saudi
Arabia and the UAE began a
climb down
T
he continuing blockade of Qa-
tar makes no sense and it is high
time that Saudi Arabia and the
UAE began a climb down, the London-
based Financial Times newspaper has
opined.
A sustained propaganda campaign
which involved all types of tactics has
failed thus far to intimidate Qatar into
bending to the will of rival dynasties,
the paper said. “It is symptomatic
nonetheless of how riven the Gulf
states still are 10 months since Saudi
ly 38mn people across the country.
“I don’t know what plans there are
for (a possible) Blue Planet III, all that
what we found and all that what we
managed to film, I truly believe that
we’ve only touched the surface,” Smith
said.
“Of how much there is still to be dis-
covered underwater, I think it is almost
infinite, and so therefore certainly there
will be enough content for it, and there
are so many stories to be found, a lot of
surprises,” he pointed out.
About the airing of the critically ac-
claimed documentary in the country
and the region via beIN’s platform,
Smith said the positive response from
the people in Qatar makes it “a real
pleasure to be here.”
Based on the experience of filming
Blue Planet II, the producer pointed out
that plastics and coral bleaching have
become among the many causes of en-
vironmental concerns on the current
state of the planet.
“We have filmed from the arctic to
Antarctica and almost everywhere in
between in the ocean and wherever
praises
performance
of Qatari
racers
Arabia and the United Arab Emirates
initiated a trade and diplomatic em-
bargo on Qatar, to the detriment of
all.”
Saudi Arabia has long resented
the reluctance of the geographically
smaller nation on its eastern flank to
accept a shadow role, the paper said.
Instead, with the independent pow-
ers of patronage that Qatar has cul-
tivated thanks to its prodigious gas
reserves, Doha has adopted a con-
sistently independent foreign policy
stance.
Qatar’s support for the Islamist
Muslim Brotherhood, and the revolu-
tion in the Arab media engendered by
the Doha-based broadcaster Al Jazeera,
Jonathan Smith at the screening of Blue
Planet II’s Coral Reefs. PICTURE: Jayan
Orma
you go, you see the influence of plas-
tics,” Smith stressed.
He said the BBC Earth crew’s filming in
the arctic was part of the documentary,
which will be aired in the Mena region.
MEC booklet to
ease process for
foreign investors
The third exhibition of Qatari economic tour begins in Raleigh
T
he Ministry of Economy and
Commerce (MEC) has issued a
booklet in Arabic and English to
provide all necessary information and
data to potential investors in Qatar.
This was announced by MEC’s Busi-
ness Development and Investment
Promotion Department director Abdul
Basit al-Ajji at a discussion organised
in co-operation with US-Qatar Busi-
ness Council at Raleigh, North Caro-
lina on Thursday for the members of
the delegation taking part in Qatar’s
economic roadshow.
“The booklet includes all the infor-
mation and data of interest to investors
regarding the registration mechanism,
and the various commercial sectors in
the country,” explained al-Ajji.
Also featured are addresses of all
government entities related to invest-
ment. Issued periodically, the booklet
would ease the process for foreign in-
vestors and introduce them to the basic
economic scene in Qatar with the re-
lated laws, legislations and incentives.
The session reviewed how to create
and facilitate business in Qatar. Dis-
cussed on the occasion were various
related topics and how to benefit from
the various business programmes in
have made it a wayward member of the
club in the view of rival dynasties. They
have not forgiven Qatar either for its
wholehearted backing for the uprisings
that swept Syria, Libya and Egypt dur-
ing the Arab Spring, when Saudi royals
feared their own powers could come
under threat.
Financial Times in its editorial said:
“These differences could have been re-
solved with diplomacy. The ambitious
Saudi crown prince, Mohamed bin Sal-
man, in concert with his counterpart
in Abu Dhabi, Mohamed bin Zayed al-
Nahyan, chose instead to escalate the
feud into another crisis that the Middle
East does not need.”
Among their initial demands were
A scene in one of Blue Planet II’s episodes.
While the crew never set out to make
an environmental series for Blue Planet
II, Smith recounted that the more time
they spend out in the oceans the more
they are seeing change.
He said they never intended to do
SATURDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10795
April 21, 2018
Sha’baan 5, 1439 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
The Qatar-US discussion in progress at Raleigh, North Carolina, US.
the US, and the ways to develop the
export and import opportunities be-
tween the US and Qatar, in addition
to the challenges that could encounter
Qatari firms in the US. This was pre-
sented by Mohamed Barakat, executive
Director of US-Qatar Business Coun-
cil.
MEC’s International Co-operation
and Economic and Trade Agreements
Department director Ahmed Ahen
pointed out that a comprehensive
guidebook will be issued in co-oper-
ation with Qatar Chamber, US-Qatar
Business Council, Qatari Business-
men Association, and the government
that Qatar close Al Jazeera; scale back
co-operation with Iran, with which
Qatar shares its gas; evict a Turk-
ish military base; and sever ties to the
Muslim Brotherhood. They also re-
quired the country to submit to regular
compliance checks.
Financial Times said the blockade
has not been able to break Qatar’s will.
“The emirate can afford, however, to
weather the storm. It is the richest na-
tion per capita in the world. Moreover,
damage to the investment climate in
the Gulf has been shared by all. Sensi-
bly, Doha has resisted the temptation to
retaliate. It has also, by most accounts,
rowed back on foreign adventurism.’
The paper said the onus should be
an episode on coral bleaching for their
Coral Reefs episode but while filming
the behaviour sequences underwater,
the crew witnessed the biggest coral
bleaching event the world has ever
seen.
pu AT 19
bl
Q since
is
he R
d
A 78
in
and private sector entities concerned,
aiming at introducing foreign inves-
tors, and especially US investors on the
investment opportunities in Qatar. It
would be also available on the Internet.
Meanwhile, the third and final edi-
tion of the exhibition, which is part of
Qatar’s economic roadshow in the US,
started yesterday in Raleigh. The earli-
er editions of the exhibition were being
held in Miami, Florida, and Charles-
ton, South Carolina.
The event, which concludes today,
has brought together representatives
from major institutions in Qatar, in-
cluding the MEC. Business Page 1
on the states that created this crisis to
bring it to an end. “Given how far Riya-
dh and Abu Dhabi have gone to whip up
anti-Qatari sentiment, a sudden climb
down is unlikely. But it is high time they
moved in that direction. Toning down
the rhetoric would be a start. Lifting
the blockade incrementally should be
the next.”
For the US, Qatar is an important ally
and hosts the country’s largest offshore
air base. “US President Donald Trump
seems now to be losing patience. He has
offered to host a Camp David summit in
September. The parties to this needless
dispute should use the months before
to start a thaw,” the FT opinion piece
concluded.
The producer added that there has
never been a coral bleaching event of
the scale his crew has witnessed in
two years (of the total four) of filming
Blue Planet II. “I think the bottom line
is we have a lot of reason to be con-
cerned.”
“We couldn’t turn away instead we
turned our cameras into it and we man-
aged to get lapse time over weeks of
the corals disintegrating in front of our
own eyes,” he added. “With all of that
and many other things that people are
seeing through these series, yes there is
cause for concern.”
“But equally, there is a cause for op-
timism and I feel that it is not too late
and I feel like we can make changes and
those changes can make a big differ-
ence,” Smith stressed.
“The mere fact that we are talk-
ing about it now, the mere fact that
the conversation is going on, I think
it gives you hope that there is solu-
tion to be found,” he said. “As long as
we can believe there is hope, as long
as we, the human race make the right
changes.”
 Gulf Times
2 Saturday, April 21, 2018
QATAR
Katara presents
‘Litterateur Trophy’
to poet al-Nama
K
atara - the Cultural Vil-
lage honoured Dr Hassan
al-Nama, a well-known
Qatari writer and poet, by pre-
senting him with ‘Litterateur
Trophy’ award at a ceremony
held at Katara Publishing House
on Thursday night.
A documentary film on the life
and contributions of the writer
was screened on the occasion,
which was attended by a number
of dignitaries including minis-
ters, writers and intellectuals.
The film screened the milestones
of the life of the poet and ambas-
sador Dr al-Nama since his birth
in 1943, and the responsibilities
he assumed since his appoint-
ment as ambassador of Qatar to
India and the permanent repre-
sentative of Qatar to the United
Nations, along with some of his
poetry readings.
Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Su-
laiti, general manager, Katara
– the Cultural Village, said the
opening of Katara Publishing
House represents a pioneer-
ing step towards the establish-
ment of an integrated cultural
project aimed at spreading the
country’s outstanding creative
works in culture,
Rayyan Services Centre tops MoI list
The Rayyan Services Centre
topped the list of Ministry of
Interior (MoI) services centres
in March, the MoI announced on
its Twitter page. Some 67,668
transactions were completed at
the Rayyan centre last month,
WISH announces new study
on healthcare in conflict zones
T
he World Innova-
tion Summit for Health
(WISH), an initiative of
Qatar Foundation (QF), has con-
vened a team of global experts
to prepare a special report on
healthcare in conflict settings, to
be presented at WISH 2018.
The report was announced at
a WISH event at the University
of Oxford’s Harris Manchester
College recently, by Dr Muke-
sh Kapila, chair of the WISH
Healthcare in Conflict Zones
Research Group. Dr Kapila,
who is a professor of Global
Health and Humanitarian Af-
fairs at the University of Man-
chester, was one of two special
Impact of social media on medical professionals discussed at WCM-Q
The possible impact of social
media on the professional identity
of medical professionals was
examined at the latest Weill
Cornell Medicine - Qatar (WCM-Q)
grand rounds.
Dr Dora Stadler, clinical assistant
professor of medicine at WCM-Q,
gave a presentation that explained
how physicians, nurses and
other healthcare professionals
can use social media to benefit
their patients, enhance their own
professional development, foster
Dr Hassan al-Nama receiving the trophy.
heritage, knowledge and arts.
“The establishment of the
publishing house is considered
one of the major steps that
Katara has taken to promote
culture, knowledge and litera-
ture in Qatar. Katara has taken
into account the importance of
printing and publishing in the
promotion of literature
accounting for 27.2% of all the
services (248,828) performed
at MoI services centres spread
across the country (see
infographic). The centre works
from 6am to 6pm, Sunday to
Thursday.
guest speakers at the event.
He was joined as a guest
speaker by Dr Mohamed bin
Ghanim al-Ali al-Maadheed,
chairman of Qatar Red Crescent.
Dr al-Maadheed is one of the
global experts who will be con-
tributing to the WISH report,
which will explore the many
challenges faced by communi-
ties and healthcare practition-
ers living and working in conflict
zones around the world. Experts
from Médecins Sans Frontières
(Doctors Without Borders), the
International Rescue Commit-
tee, Humanity First, and the
World Health Organisation will
also contribute.
collegiality and improve public
health. She also examined some of
the possible pitfalls of careless use
of social media.
Dr Stadler said, “Social media
can be a very powerful and
very positive tool for medical
professionals if used correctly.
We can utilise social media
platforms to build collaborative
networks to share knowledge
across continents, educate the
public about important health
issues, build public confidence
and innovation,” he added.
Al-Sulaiti said that the hon-
ouring Dr al-Nama is a recogni-
tion of his important contribu-
tions to culture, literature and
thought.
Talking to Qatar News Agency
(QNA), Dr al-Nama praised Ka-
tara’s initiative and said he was
very pleased and proud of the
Confidence in property market as
investors, developers attend expo
C
onfidence in the prop-
erty market is on the up
as Doha prepares to host
thousands of local and global
real estate developers and in-
vestors when Cityscape Qatar
opens tomorrow, organisers
have said.
Running until April 25 at the
Doha Exhibition and Conven-
tion Centre under the patron-
age of HE the Prime Minister
and Minister of Interior Sheikh
Abdulla bin Nasser bin Khalifa
al-Thani, the seventh edition
of Cityscape Qatar “will further
drive confidence in the real es-
tate sector” as local and inter-
national developers promote
the latest property offerings,
according to a statement.
This year’s show boasts of
a lineup of up to 50 exhibitors
across more than 9,000sq m
of exhibition space, and will
bring together heavyweight in-
The WISH event gathered
representatives of several or-
ganisations from across the
UK that have an interest in the
topic highlighted. Among those
present were representatives of
humanitarian groups, charities,
universities, and think tanks.
Dr Kapila, said, “We live dur-
ing a time of unprecedented
challenges for humankind, and
central to our well-being is
healthcare. We may or may not
know how to end wars, but I be-
lieve that we’re definitely capa-
ble of mitigating suffering.
“Just because you’re living in
a warzone doesn’t mean that you
have to live with ill health. I’m
and make healthcare resources
more accessible. But we have to be
respectful of the power of social
media and use it in a deliberate,
thoughtful manner.”
Dr Stadler explained that a
carelessly managed social media
presence can compromise the
professional identity of healthcare
workers, adversely affect patient
trust, damage the professional’s
career and possibly bring their
institution into disrepute. Perhaps
most seriously, improper social
establishment of the Katara
Publishing House. “It reflects
the progress and prosperity wit-
nessed in our country,” he added.
He pointed out that the house
will contribute to the building of
civilisation and cultural develop-
ment in the country and contrib-
ute to the cultural enrichment of
the Arab countries by supporting
Arab, Islamic and human culture,
and bridging communication,
love, convergence and harmony
among them.
Dr Mohammed Kafoud, a
writer and former minister,
praised Katara’s launch of the
publishing house, pointing out
that the publishing house not
be limited to Arab creativity and
thought but will include glo-
bal creativity, as part of Qatar’s
interest in arts and literature in
various languages as well as its
interest in other fields.
The Katara Publishing House,
which was opened on Thursday,
aims to become a driving force
behind publishing industry in
Qatar and a connecting link be-
tween readers and writers. It is
located next to Building No 15 at
Katara, close to the Amphitheatre
Boulevard. (QNA)
dustry stakeholders from Qatar
and abroad, including Tur-
key, Georgia, Cyprus, the US,
Pakistan and the UK.
For home buyers and inves-
tors, the four-day exhibition
will provide an opportunity to
network, gain valuable mar-
ket insight and take advan-
tage of exclusive deals, special
offers and payment plans on
the show floor, the statement
notes.
Faariss Khalil, exhibition
manager at Cityscape Qatar,
said visitors attending the show
over the next few days would get
an exclusive look into dynamic
projects shaping the country.
“Cityscape Qatar will give
investors, developers and real
estate professionals the oppor-
tunity to gain insight into the
country’s evolving real estate
market through a wide range
of projects. Undoubtedly, the
Dr Mukesh Kapila
very keen that through WISH’s
focus on healthcare in conflict
settings we’ll spearhead a global
effort to bring help and hope to
the tens of millions of people af-
fected by conflict.”
The event was one of three
that have been organised by
WISH at the University of Oxford
this April. Previously, the Qatar
Foundation initiative used a lec-
ture by Paul Farmer, CEO of Mind,
the UK’s leading mental health
charity, to announce a report
on anxiety and depression.
media use can jeopardise patient
confidentiality.
“Patients have an absolute right
and an expectation that any
information they share with a
healthcare professional will be in
the strictest possible confidence.
Healthcare professionals must be
aware of the risk that social media
presents to patient confidentiality
and make sure they understand
the technology so that no patient
information is ever shared, either
purposefully or by accident.”
Al-Hammadi meets Indian official
Ministry of Foreign Affairs Secretary-General Dr Ahmed bin Hassan al-Hammadi met yesterday
with Indian External Affairs Ministry Secretary T S Tirumurti, during his visit to India. The meeting
reviewed bilateral relations between the two countries, ways of boosting them and enhancing
prospects for co-operation, in addition to issues of common concern.
HMC hosts foreign consultants
H
amad Medical Corpora-
tion (HMC) will host a
number of visiting con-
sultants from various medical
specialities this month.
The visiting consultants are
Dr Alpaslan Enköylü, a Turkish
surgeon specialising in spine
deformities, will visit from
April 24 to 26, conducting clin-
ics and surgeries.
Dr Jeffrey Marks, a general
surgery specialist and pro-
gramme director, general sur-
gery at UH Cleveland Medical
Centre in Cleveland, Ohio, US,
will visit from April 26 to 29.
Dr Gemah Moammer, an
orthopaedic surgeon from
Ontario, Canada, will vis-
it from April 29 to May 4,
show has built up much demand
through its appeal to all sectors
of the real estate industry and
is set to deliver a dynamic and
profitable environment for all
visitors,” he said.
Leading local develop-
ers at this year’s show include
Ezdan, Astad, Cityscape Qa-
tar’s strategic project man-
agement partner, and Mirage
Properties. They will be joined
by first-time exhibitors Qatar
Rail, Katara Hospitality, United
Development Company, Place
Vendome, Msheireb Properties,
Just Real Estate, Qatari Diar and
QNB, as well as international
exhibitors Istihale and Iyimaya
Muhendislik Insaat AS from
Turkey, Richland Consultants
Inc from the US, and real es-
tate companies from Georgia,
Cyprus and Pakistan.
Alongside a host of projects
to be showcased at the exhi-
Roundtable participants explore
investment opportunities
T
he Ministry of Econ-
omy and Commerce
(MEC), in co-operation
with Qatar Chamber, the Qa-
tari Businessmen Association,
US Chamber of Commerce,
Arab-American Chamber
of Commerce and US-Qatar
Business Council, has held
roundtable sectoral discus-
sions on topics of food security,
transport, communications and
information technology (IT).
The sessions brought together
a number of Qatari and Ameri-
can officials and businessper-
sons, nearly 30 US companies
from various industries, includ-
ing Boeing, as well as a number
of companies operating in the
A discussion in progress.
conducting clinics and surgeries.
Patients wishing to make
an appointment should call
the Bone and Joint Center at
4041 1140 or 4041 1141.
Other experts are scheduled
to visit throughout the year as
part of HMC’s focus on hosting
highly-respected physicians
and surgeons from around the
world. Hosting visiting inter-
national consultants who are
experts in their field is in line
with HMC’s commitment to
providing specialised medical
services to the people of Qatar.
Members of the public wish-
ing to book an appointment
with one of the visiting con-
sultants are advised to discuss
this option with their physi-
bition is the Cityscape Qatar
Conference, hosted by DTZ
Qatar, which is expected to wel-
come more than 200 delegates,
the organisers have said.
Edd Brookes, general man-
ager of DTZ and this year’s
conference chairman, said:
“We are thrilled to have City-
scape 2018 extended to four
days while hosting some of
leading real estate companies
from Qatar and abroad. This
year’s Cityscape is set to be a
cracker of an event offering
real insight into the property
world of Qatar.”
A Qatari market overview is
one of the highly-anticipated
topics on the agenda, while
the conference’s panel discus-
sions take an in-depth look
at inbound and outbound in-
vestment opportunities, delve
into smart and sustainable
buildings, and offer updates
fields of tourism and hospitality,
medical equipment, renewable
energy, engineering and con-
struction, real estate, transport,
food production, healthcare,
education, research and energy,
the MEC said in a statement.
Participants explored invest-
ment opportunities and poten-
tial partnerships in addition
to discussing the exchange of
expertise between Qatari busi-
nessmen and their American
counterparts.
Discussions also touched on
co-operation in trading food
supplies. A number of Ameri-
can investors and profession-
als in the pharmaceuticals and
medical services industries ex-
Dr Jeffrey Marks
cian. If your doctor agrees that
an appointment with a visiting
consultant is appropriate, they
will provide a referral.
on the hospitality sector.
Cityscape Qatar Talks runs
parallel to the exhibition, and
includes a stellar programme
with experts from across the
real estate sector. Taking place
on the show floor, Cityscape
Talks provides a free-to-attend
platform offering a wide choice
of presentations, covering a
range of themes and offers visi-
tors the opportunity to network
and make informed investment
decisions.
Some of the topics include
Definition of the Terms of Ref-
erence of the Real Estate Bro-
kerage Department delivered by
Khalid Hassan al-Mehshadi of
the Ministry of Justice; Invest-
ment Hotspot Analysis - Which
Location Works Best For You; A
to Z About the London Property
Market; Luxury Lifestyle Devel-
opment in Turkey and Income
Producing Investment.
pressed interest in investing in
Qatar, while the Qatari partici-
pants highlighted laws related
to the import of medicines and
the establishment of medical
complexes within Qatar.
American investors ex-
pressed significant interest in
investing in the construction
sector in Qatar. On the other
hand, Qatari investors have
shown interest in investing in
development sectors in the US.
The sessions concluded
with bilateral meetings be-
tween Qatari businessmen and
their US counterparts, during
which they agreed to enhance
co-operation and enter into
partnerships.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, April 21, 2018 3

REGION/ARAB WORLD
Iraq resumes
Israeli troops kill four more payments
of war
Palestinians in border protest toward the border from the en-
reparations
to Kuwait
Reuters
Gaza campments to hurl stones and
burning tyres near the fence.
Yesterday they fitted kites Reuters

I
sraeli troops shot dead four with cans of flammable liquid, Geneva/Baghdad
Palestinians on the Gaza- which they flew across the bor-
Israel border yesterday, der to start fires in Israel.

bringing to 35 the death toll in
recent weeks among Palestin-
ian protesters demanding the
right to return to their former
homeland.
Gazans used catapults and
sling-shots to launch stones at
Israeli forces, and some Pales-
tinians brought wire-cutters to
cut through the border fence,
ignoring leaflets dropped by the
Israeli military warning resi-
dents not to approach the fron-
tier.
The deaths included a
15-year-old boy shot dead in
northern Gaza, Palestinian
health officials said, adding that
156 people were wounded by Is-
raeli gunfire.
UN Middle East envoy Nick-
olay Mladenov wrote on Twit-
ter: “It is outrageous to shoot
at children! How does the kill-
ing of a child in Gaza today help
peace? It doesn’t! It fuels anger
and breeds more killing. Chil-
dren must be protected from
violence, not exposed to it.”
In response, a retired former
Israeli army spokesman, Peter
Lerner, tweeted suggestions to
Mladenov, including: “Please go
to Gaza, engage Hamas and get
them to stop sending people to
the fence.”
The planned six-week pro-
test campaign reached its half-
way point yesterday, which saw
smaller crowds than in recent
weeks. As the numbers peaked
during the afternoon Israeli
soldiers called out warnings
in Arabic over loudspeakers to
anyone who approached the
border fence.
Black plumes of smoke from
piles of burning tyres billowed
over the area, and stretcher-
bearers rushed to carry the
wounded to first aid posts.
The protest began on March
Palestinian medics evacuate a wounded protester during clashes with Israeli forces yesterday, east of Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza
Strip, during mass protests along the border of the enclave.
land and outside the occupied
land,” he said on a visit to one of
the border camps. “I say to the
(Israeli occupiers) your time is
gone.”
Israel’s use of live fire has
drawn international criticism
but the Israeli government says
it is protecting its borders and
takes such action when protest-
ers come too close to the border
fence.
The Israeli military said that
around 3,000 Palestinians were
involved in the latest protest,
and that its troops responded
“with riot dispersal means and
Relatives of Palestinian Ahmed al-Athamna, 24, who was killed at the Israel-Gaza border, mourn during are firing in accordance with the
his funeral in Beit Hanoun town, in the northern Gaza Strip. rules of engagement.”
Israel accuses Hamas of stag-
30, and has seen tent encamp- gees to regain their ancestral be replicated elsewhere on Is- ing riots and trying to carry out
ments spring up near the Is- homes in what is now Israel. rael’s frontiers. attacks.
raeli-imposed restricted zone The protests are scheduled to “I say to our people every- Hamas denies this. Although
along the 40km border fence. culminate on May 15, when, ac- where, be prepared for a human organisers say the main pro-
The protesters have revived cording to Hamas leader Ismail deluge on all of the borders of test is intended to be peaceful,
demands for Palestinian refu- Haniya, the Gaza scenes would Palestine, inside the occupied some protesters have advanced
“We aim to distract the
soldiers from shooting and
wounding or killing our people,”
said Mohamed Abu Mustafa,
17, who lost his right leg a few
months ago after being shot by
an Israeli soldier.
Israel’s Foreign Ministry
tweeted a photograph of one
kite daubed with a swastika
flying through the sky trailing
flames. More than 2mn Pales-
tinians are packed into the nar-
row coastal enclave.
Israel withdrew its troops and
settlers from Gaza in 2005 but
maintains tight control of its
land and sea borders.
Egypt also restricts move-
ment in and out of Gaza on its
border.
The protest campaign,
dubbed The Great March of
Return, is leading up to May 15,
when Palestinians mark Nakba
Day, or the Day of Catastrophe,
commemorating their displace-
ment around the time of Israel’s
founding in 1948.
It takes place at a time of
growing frustration over the
prospects for an independent
Palestinian state.
Peace talks between Israel
and the Palestinians have been
stalled for several years and Is-
raeli settlements in the occu-
pied territories have expanded.
US President Donald Trump’s
decision last year to recognise
disputed Jerusalem as Israel’s
capital further fuelled Palestin-
ian anger.
In an apparent sign of con-
cern over the bloodshed on the
border, the Israeli-American
Hollywood actress Natalie
Portman announced she was
pulling out of a ceremony in Is-
rael to accept a million-dollar
prize because of “distressing”
events in the country.
I
raq resumed paying Kuwait
compensation yesterday for
the destruction of Kuwaiti
oil fields and facilities during the
1990-91 Gulf War, the United
Nations said in Geneva in a pre-
pared statement.
The payment had been sus-
pended since October 2014 be-
cause of security and budgetary
problems the Iraqi government
in its fight against Islamic State.
“The United Nations Com-
pensation Commission (UNCC)
today made available $90mn to
the Government of the State of
Kuwait,” the UN said. “With to-
day’s payment, the Commission
has paid out $47.9bn, leaving ap-
proximately $4.5bn remaining to
be paid to the only outstanding
claim.”
The sum owed, as well as the
$90mn payment, goes towards
an overall claim of $14.7bn in
damages by the Kuwait Petro-
leum Corp, the largest approved
by the Geneva-based commis-
sion, set up by the UN Secu-
rity Council in 1991. Payouts are
made quarterly as funds become
available.
The UNCC said in Novem-
ber that Baghdad should fin-
ish paying by the end of 2021
compensation for damages to
states, companies and individu-
als caused by Iraq’s invasion
and seven-month occupation of
Kuwait under former president
Saddam Hussein.
Kuwait and Iraq agreed last
year that payments would gradu-
ally increase from 0.5% of Iraqi oil
proceeds in 2018 to 1.5% in 2019
and 3% in both 2020 and 2021.
Iraq declared victory over Is-
lamic State in December, five
months after Iraqi forces backed
by a US-led coalition captured
the militants’ capital in the
northern city of Mosul.

US ‘bombed’ UN-backed Rights group slams eviction

of refugees in Lebanon
peace talks on Syria: Lavrov AFP
Beirut
tion for forcibly evicting Syrian refugees if it
amounts to nationality-based or religious dis-
AFP was to “lower the temperature” a draft resolution on Syria, seek- Organisation for the Prohibition crimination,” said Bill Frelick, refugee rights di-
Moscow following the strikes. ing UN Security Council support of Chemical Weapons has yet to rector at Human Rights Watch.

H
“I’m very pleased to hear... for a political and humanitarian gain access to the site. uman Rights Watch yesterday criticised “Lebanese leaders should curb rhetoric that
that in spite of what happened response to the conflict that has The new draft resolution calls Lebanese municipalities for what it encourages or condones forced evictions, expul-

T
he United States and its
allies “bombed” UN-
backed peace talks aimed
at ending the war in Syria when
they ordered strikes on the
country this month, Russia’s
foreign minister said yesterday.
The US, France and Britain
“on 14 April bombed not only
made-up chemical sites in Syr-
ia, but also bombed the (UN-
backed peace) talks in Geneva,”
Sergei Lavrov said following a
meeting in Moscow with UN en-
voy Staffan de Mistura.
“We came very close to a re-
launching of the Geneva proc-
ess with a real dialogue between
Syrians, mainly on the question
of constitutional reform,” Lav-
rov added.
De Mistura, who also met
Russian defence minister Sergei
Shoigu, said the UN’s priority
last week and it is still very re-
cent, there is a strong commit-
ment from the Russian Fed-
eration to push for the political
process,” he said.
“It is important we turn the
page on this alleged chemical at-
tack because we need to go back
to the basics,” he added.
The US France and Britain
carried out air strikes on what
they said were Assad’s chemi-
cal weapons installations in re-
sponse to an alleged chemical
weapon attack.
Moscow, an ally of the Syr-
ian regime, has long claimed
an alleged attack in Douma was
“staged” by Syrian rebels and
the civil defence organisation,
the White Helmets.
DRAFT RESOLUTION
Meanwhile, France, the United
States and Britain have amended
so far met resistance from Rus-
sia.
The original draft, which
failed to get the support of Rus-
sia, expressed outrage and con-
demnation of the April 7 chemi-
cal attack in the town of Douma,
where more than 40 people were
killed.The latest version, which
was obtained by AFP, also
condemns the attack but was
amended to read “the reported
use of chemical weapons.”
France, the United States and
Britain launched retaliatory air
strikes a week ago after accusing
the Syrian regime of President
Bashar al-Assad of carrying out
the attack.
Damascus and Moscow have
denied the attack happened,
claiming video of the aftermath
was staged.
A team of experts from the
on UN Secretary-General Anto-
nio Guterres “to explore ways to
resume the formal negotiations”
on a political settlement to the
seven-year-old conflict.
It encourages Guterres
through his special envoy for
Syria, Staffan de Mistura, “to
form a constitutional commit-
tee comprising representatives
of all segments of the Syrian
society.”
That suggestion could be
welcomed by Moscow, since
the creation of such a commit-
tee was proposed in January at
a summit hosted by Russia in
Sochi. Damascus, however, re-
jected it and the idea went no-
where.
The conflict in Syria is the
main topic of an informal Se-
curity Council retreat in Swe-
den this weekend.
called the unjustifiable expulsion of hun-
dreds of Syrians from their homes since 2016, as
sentiment against refugees simmers.
“At least 13 municipalities in Lebanon have
forcibly evicted at least 3,664 Syrian refugees
from their homes and expelled them from the
municipalities, apparently because of their na-
tionality or religion,” from the start of 2016
through to the end of March this year, the New
York-based rights group said.
Almost 1mn Syrians are registered as refugees
in Lebanon, though many expect the real number
is much higher.
The Mediterranean country’s population stood
at just 4mn before neighbouring Syria’s civil war
broke out in 2011, sending tens of thousands of
Syrians fleeing across the border in search of
safety.
Several politicians have blamed a flurry of so-
cial and economic woes in Lebanon on Syrian
refugees, and calls for them to return have in-
creased in the run-up to the country’s first par-
liamentary elections in nearly a decade on May 6.
“Municipalities have no legitimate justifica-
sions, and other discriminatory and harassing
treatment of refugees in Lebanon,” Frelick said.
The evictions have caused refugees to lose
income and property, and their children to miss
school or drop out altogether, according to HRW,
which spoke to 57 Syrians affected by the meas-
ures. Some municipalities have claimed the evic-
tions were based on housing regulation infrac-
tions such as tenants not registering their leases
with them, HRW said.
But despite “widespread breaches by Lebanese
citizens as well, the measures these municipali-
ties have taken have been directed exclusively at
Syrian nationals and not Lebanese citizens”, it
said.
HRW also pointed to discrimination on a reli-
gious basis, with most of the municipalities in-
volved in forcibly evicting and expelling Syrian
refugees predominantly populated by Christians.
All 57 interviewees who spoke to HRW identi-
fied as Muslim.
But, said HRW, “Lebanon’s refugee-hosting
fatigue has been exacerbated by a lack of interna-
tional support” as well.

$1mn reward to locate journalist Saudis intercept ‘ballistic missile from Yemen’
AFP AFP struck Jizan Regional Airport.
Washington Jeddah AFP was unable to reach the
airport for comment, but open-
source flight information ap-

T S
he United States is offering a reward of
$1mn for information about Austin Tice,
an American journalist missing in Syria
since 2012.
The FBI announced the reward this week,
without any explanation on the timing.
“The timing of this reward is unrelated to any
specific event,” an FBI spokeswoman said.
Tice, 36, is believed to the only American jour-
nalist currently held in Syria, one of the most
dangerous countries for the news media in recent
years. A freelance journalist working for Mc-
Clatchy News, the Washington Post, CBS, AFP
and other news organisations, Tice was abducted
in August 2012 near Damascus.
Tice’s family has launched several appeals for
information about his whereabouts, saying they
File photo shows Marc (left) and Debra Tice,
parents of US journalist Austin Tice who was
kidnapped in Syria five years prior, holding
respective dated portraits of him during a
press conference in Beirut.
believe he is still alive. An FBI statement on its
website said it would offer the reward “for infor-
mation leading directly to the safe location, re-
covery, and return” of Tice.
The agency created an e-mail address find-
austintice@fbi.gov and said anyone with infor-
mation could also use the website tips.fbi.gov.
audi air defences intercept-
ed a “ballistic missile” fired
by Yemeni rebels at the
kingdom’s southern coastal city
of Jizan, the Saudi-led coalition
fighting the rebels said.
It was the latest in a series of
such attacks.
“Saudi air defences intercept-
ed a ballistic missile launched by
the Houthi militias targeting Ji-
zan,” the coalition said in a state-
ment.
The Houthis, in a statement
on their news outlet Al-Masirah,
claimed that they fired a “Badr
1” ballistic missile and said it
peared to show flights arriving
and departing on time.
Saudi Arabia has since March
2015 led a coalition of states
fighting to roll back the Houthi
rebels in Yemen and restore its
neighbour’s internationally-rec-
ognised government to power.
Nearly 10,000 people have
since been killed in the conflict,
in what the United Nations has
called the world’s worst humani-
tarian crisis.
In March, an Egyptian labour-
er became the first known fatal-
ity in a rebel missile attack on the Yemenis check the damage in a power station in the aftermath of a
Saudi capital. reported air strike by the Saudi-led coalition in Sanaa, yesterday.
 Gulf Times
4 Saturday, April 21, 2018
AFRICA
Musical harmony
Teenage drummers perform during the African drum festival in Abeokuta, southwestern Nigeria. A three-day drum festival began in Abeokuta, on Thursday designed to
promote the region’s drum culture, rich cultural heritage and to impact knowledge on various techniques of drumming.
Parliament summons
Mugabe over graft
AFP
Harare
A
Zimbabwe parliament
committee has sum-
moned former president
Robert Mugabe to give evidence
on May 9 over diamond corrup-
tion costing billions of dollars,
underlining his fall from power
after 37 years of autocratic rule.
Mugabe, now 94, ruled Zim-
babwe from 1980 until he was
ousted last year after the mili-
tary took over briefly and his
once-loyal ZANU-PF party
turned against him.
“We have set May 9 as the
date on which he will give evi-
dence,” Temba Mliswa, the
chairman of the mines and en-
ergy parliament committee,
told yesterday’s state-owned
Herald newspaper.
“We met today (Thursday) as
a committee and resolved that
Robert Mugabe: under scrutiny
we invite the former president
Mr Mugabe to our committee
to explain the disappearance of
$15bn worth of diamonds,” said
Mliswa, an independent MP.
The lawmakers plan to ques-
tion Mugabe over his 2016 claim
that the country had lost $15bn
(12bn euros at current rates) due
to corruption and foreign ex-
ploitation in the diamond sec-
tor.
It was unclear whether Mu-
gabe, who is in frail health,
would agree to appear before
the committee or make moves
to avoid a potential grilling.
“Parliament is playing its
oversight role,” Thabitha Khu-
malo, spokeswoman for the
MDC opposition party, said.
“We hope that they release the
results of their findings.”
have accused security forces of
using brutal methods to control
the scattered deposits.
Mugabe — whose own re- Over 200 people were killed
gime was accused of siphoning during operations to remove
off diamond profits — has de- illegal panners from the area,
scribed his ousting as a coup. rights groups say.
He was replaced by his Amid allegations of mas-
former deputy, Emmerson sive looting, Zimbabwe allowed
Mnangagwa, a veteran loyalist several diamond companies
in the ZANU-PF party who was companies to mine the area —
backed by senior military offic- most of them as joint ventures
ers. Mugabe, who has not been between the government and
seen in public since his fall, Chinese firms.
exercised ruthless control over Zimbabwe is due to hold
parliament, security forces and elections in July or August, the
the country’s mineral resources first since Mugabe was unseat-
for decades. ed, with the ZANU-PF widely
The parliamentary com- predicted to retain power.
mittee has already summoned Mnangagwa has vowed to
former ministers, ex-police hold a fair vote, and to tackle
chiefs and heads of several gov- graft as he tries to revive the
ernment department. shattered economy by attract-
Zimbabwe discovered al- ing foreign investment and re-
luvial diamonds in Chiadzwa, building many international
in the east of the country, over ties cut under Mugabe’s re-
10 years ago, and rights groups gime.
SA riots force new president
to leave London summit
AFP
Mafikeng
S
outh African police yesterday
fired rubber bullets at protesters
after President Cyril Ramaphosa
cut short a foreign trip to deal with vio-
lent riots over alleged government cor-
ruption and poor public services.
Shops were looted, roads were
blocked and vehicles set alight in North
West province in unrest that posed an
early challenge for Ramaphosa, who
came to power in February.
At least 23 people were arrested and
one man was reported to have died in
sporadic violence that erupted this week
in Mahikeng, the provincial capital.
Ramaphosa arrived in the city yes-
terday and was locked in talks with lo-
cal leaders after he cut short his trip to
a Commonwealth summit in London.
Violent protests are common in
South Africa, but North West province
has been a hotbed of unrest due to boil-
A police officer looks on as protesters chant slogans during protests in Mahikeng,
in the North West province, South Africa, yesterday.
Britain wants
Zimbabwe back in
Commonwealth,
but eyes July polls
Reuters
London
B
ritain said yesterday it
would strongly support
Zimbabwe’s re-entry to
the Commonwealth and praised
President Emmerson Mnan-
gagwa for impressive progress
since Robert Mugabe was top-
pled in a military coup.
But it said Mnangagwa, who
became president following a
military take-over, would still
have to deliver on free and fair
elections in July to win over
Zimbabwe’s critics at home and
abroad.
Zimbabwe left the Common-
wealth network of 53 mostly
former territories of the British
Empire in 2003 after Mugabe,
who had ruled Zimbabwe from
its independence in 1980, came
under criticism over disputed
elections and land seizures from
white farmers.
“The UK would strongly sup-
port Zimbabwe’s re-entry and a
new Zimbabwe that is commit-
ted to political and economic
reform that works for all its peo-
ple,” the Foreign Office said in a
statement.
As Harare looks to rebuild its
international ties, Foreign Sec-
retary Boris Johnson met his
Nurses stage protest
after being sacked
AFP
Harare
S
cores of Zimbabwe nurses
yesterday protested in
Harare’s central city park
after the government dismissed
them for striking over low sala-
ries and poor working condi-
tions.
The nurses, who wore their
white uniforms, demanded the
government reverse its decision
to fire the majority of the 15,000
nurses after they took industrial
action on Monday.
Their walk-out came shortly
after doctors ended a month-
long strike last week.
ing frustration over lack of housing,
health services and jobs.
Police fired rubber bullets as pro-
testers hid behind cardboard sheets,
while roads were littered with burning
tyres and bricks that had been thrown
through the air.
In a statement, Ramaphosa ex-
pressed “serious concern” over clashes
between police and protesters.
He called for people “to express their
grievances through peaceful means and
engagement rather than violence and
anarchy” and urged security forces to
show restraint.
The trigger for the unrest was report-
edly the death on Tuesday of two pa-
tients at a health clinic that was closed
due to a month-long dispute over health
workers’ salaries and contracts.
Much of the anger has been directed
at Supra Mahumapelo, the provincial
premier, who is accused of involvement
in graft scandals that have engulfed the
ruling ANC (African National Con-
gress) party.
Zimbabwean counterpart Sibu-
siso Moyo and ministers from
other nations over breakfast on
the sidelines of the Common-
wealth Heads of Government
Meeting in London.
Moyo — the general who went
on state television in khaki fa-
tigues last November to an-
nounce the military takeo-
ver — also met ministers from
neighbouring African states and
Australia at the breakfast.
Mugabe cast himself as a
liberation hero but opponents
said he drove Zimbabwe’s
economy into the ground and
made the country an interna-
tional pariah.
He was forced to step down
in November during a coup and
was replaced by Mnangagwa.
Johnson praised Mnangagwa’s
record in office in the past 150
days but said a bellwether for
the direction of a new Zimba-
bwe would be the election in
July. “The Zimbabwe govern-
ment must deliver the free and
fair elections the people of Zim-
babwe deserve and which it has
promised,” he said.
The election will pit Mnan-
gagwa against a clutch of op-
ponents including 40-year-
old Nelson Chamisa from the
main opposition Movement for
Democratic Change.
“We want to go back to work
but we cannot go back when we
do not have enough resources,”
Pretty Gudza, a Harare-based
nurse said. “We are putting our
lives at risk.”
Government hospitals are
failing to stock drugs, forcing
patients to buy from private
pharmacies, she said.
Charles Murira, a midwife,
said the situation in hospi-
tals was dire following gov-
ernment’s decision to fire the
nurses. “The situation is so
bad, patients are dying. The
wards are closed, there are no
nurses, they have been fired
and barred to work in hospi-
tals,” Murira said.
PEOPLE
War-torn South
Sudan’s army
chief dies
South Sudan’s army chief died
yesterday, the government said, in
a development that further com-
plicates the running of President
Salva Kiir’s administration amid
a four-year-old civil war. General
James Ajongo died in Cairo after a
short illness at the age of 64.
He had joined the Sudan People’s
Liberation Army (SPLA) in 1983,
when it was still a rebel group fight-
ing for independence from Sudan.
“It is with a heavy heart that I an-
nounce the untimely death of Gen.
James Ajongo Mawut, SPLA army’s
chief of defence force,” govern-
ment spokesman Michael Makuei
Lueth said. He was appointed to the
position after his predecessor Paul
Malong was sacked early last year
amid resignations by some generals
who alleged abuses by the military
and tribal bias in the army ranks.
POLITICS
Eight arrested for
planning to disrupt
key vote in Burundi
Burundi police said yesterday eight
people had been arrested for plan-
ning attacks to disrupt a consti-
tutional referendum next month
that could keep President Pierre
Nkurunziza in power until 2034.
Police spokesman Pierre Nkurikiye
said security forces on Thursday
morning discovered two automatic
weapons and ammunition during
a “search and seizure” operation at
the home of a suspect in western
Burundi. “Our investigation resulted
in the arrest of seven more people,
eight in total, who shared the goal
of disrupting the next referendum
with the use of firearms,”
he said.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, April 21, 2018 5

AMERICAS
Woman
jailed for
life for
Students stage walkout
Canada
mall plot
AFP
to seek tighter gun laws
Reuters/AFP
Ottawa Littleton, Colorado

A T
US woman was sentenced
to life in prison yesterday
for plotting to slaughter
shoppers at a mall in the Cana-
dian port city of Halifax.
Lindsay Souvannarath, 26,
pleaded guilty last year to con-
spiracy to commit murder in the
case.
With credit for time served
behind bars awaiting trial, she
will be eligible for parole after
seven years.
Souvannarath and two co-
conspirators had planned to
shoot shoppers and throw Molo-
tov cocktails at storefronts at the
Halifax Shopping Centre on Val-
entine’s Day 2015.
The port city is home to the
Canadian navy’s Atlantic fleet.
Acting on a tip, police arrest-
ed Souvannarath and Canadian
Randall Shepherd at the Halifax
airport and foiled the plot.
Shepherd was picking up Sou-
vannarath, who had arrived on a
flight from her hometown of Ge-
neva, Illinois.
Shepherd also pleaded guilty
and was sentenced in 2016 to 10
years behind bars.
A third conspirator, James
Gamble, was found dead in his
home on the eve of the would-be
attack.
Nova Scotia Supreme Court
Justice Peter Rosinski told the
court yesterday that Souvannar-
ath is a threat to society, noting
that she has not expressed re-
morse, nor renounced her ideo-
logical motivations for the plot.
housands of students
again walked out of
classes across the United
States yesterday, marking the
19th anniversary of the Colum-
bine High School massacre with
a show of unity aimed at pres-
suring politicians to enact tight-
er gun restrictions.
Students from more than
2,600 schools and institutions
planned to left their classes at
10am local time, organisers said.
It was the second student
walkout since the February 14
massacre of 17 people at Marjory
Stoneman Douglas High School
in Parkland, Florida, and the
emergence of a national student
movement to end gun violence
and toughen restrictions on fire-
arms sales.
Many of the demonstrators
wore orange, a colour that has
come to represent the move-
ment against gun violence, as
they observed a 13-second si-
lence in honour of the 13 killed at
Columbine.
“The children of this nation
are angry, and we demand more
than ‘thoughts and prayers’
tweets,” a survivor of the Park-
land shooting, Amy Luo, told
a crowd of about 400 student
protesters gathered in front of
the US Capitol in Washington.
Outside the White House,
protesters sat in silence while
they listened to the names of gun
violence victims read aloud.
“I’m trying to get an educa-
tion, but I still have a small fear
Student activists rally yesterday against gun violence at Washington
Square Park, near the campus of New York University, New York City.
(above) and on the West Lawn of the US Capitol in Washington, DC
(right.)
that someone will come in with The latest gun violence un-
a gun,” said Ayanna Rhodes, 14, folded about 225 miles (360km)
who walked out of Washington northwest of the Parkland high
International School. “(The Co- school, where two months ago
lumbine killings) happened like a former student killed 17 peo-
20 years ago, and we are still get- ple in the deadliest high school
ting mass shootings in schools.” shooting in US history.
Two gunmen went on a The Sheriff ’s Office for Mari-
shooting rampage at Columbine on County said the suspect was
High School in Colorado in 1999, in custody following the early students that they could face group exited through a side door. some 3,000 schools participat-
leaving 12 students and a teacher morning shooting at Forest High disciplinary steps if they walked The principal declined to an- ed in the #ENOUGH National
dead before killing themselves. School in Ocala, Florida. out. swer questions from Reuters. School Walkout to demand that
The massacre stunned the Despite widespread revul- In suburban Dallas, a dozen The walkouts, speeches and lawmakers seek tighter gun con-
nation but since then, school sion over the school shootings, students dressed in orange all drive to sign up voters were trol regulations.
shootings have become com- the issue of gun control remains chanted “End gun violence!” aimed at pressuring US politi- It also followed “March For
monplace. sensitive in Colorado and across as they huddled in a parking lot cians to enact more restrictions Our Lives” rallies in cities across
Even as students prepared for the country, where the Second across the street from North on gun sales in the run-up to the US on March 24 that were
their protest on Friday morn- Amendment of the Constitu- Garland High School. November’s midterm congres- some of the biggest US youth
ing, news began trickling out tion guarantees the right to bear Freshman Victoria Fierro, sional elections. demonstrations in decades, with
that one person was wounded in arms. 14, said school administrators The latest national rally came hundreds of thousands of young
a shooting at a high school near In some conservative school blocked the doors when about 50 more than a month after tens Americans and their supporters
Ocala, Florida. districts, administrators told students tried to leave, so a small of thousands of students from taking to the streets.

Democrats take
Russia, Trump
campaign to court
Reuters
Washington

T
he Democratic Party sued Russia, Republican Pres-
ident Donald Trump’s campaign and WikiLeaks
yesterday, charging that they conspired to disrupt
the 2016 US presidential election, a court filing showed.
The party alleges in the federal lawsuit in Manhattan
that top Trump campaign officials conspired with the
Russian government and its military spy agency to hurt
Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton and tilt
the election to Trump by hacking Democratic Party com-
puters.
The lawsuit alleges that Trump’s campaign “gleefully
welcomed Russia’s help” in the 2016 election and accuses
the Trump campaign of being a “racketeering enterprise”.
Four US intelligence agencies reported last year that
Russia sponsored the hacking of Democratic Party groups
and other actions during the 2016 campaign.
Part of the effort was to benefit Trump over Clinton, the
agencies said.
The Democratic National Committee blames Russia for
breaches of its computer systems in 2015 and the first half
of 2016.
Hackers disseminated internal communications of par-
ty officials as the Democratic nominating convention got
underway, and WikiLeaks released thousands of e-mails,
some of which were embarrassing for the Clinton cam-
paign.
The lawsuit names Donald Trump Jr, Trump associate
Roger Stone and Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, as
defendants.
Most of the accusations appeared to be based on news
reports and publicly available legal documents and offered
little new information about alleged collusion with Mos-
cow.
The White House did not immediately respond to re-
quests for comment.
Trump has repeatedly denied his campaign colluded
with Russia.
Russia has denied meddling in the election.

Natalie Portman refuses to

attend ceremony for Israeli prize
Israeli-American Hollywood actress Natalie Portman has
refused to attend a ceremony in Israel to accept a million-
dollar prize because of “distressing” events in the country,
the organisers said, announcing that the prize-giving had
been cancelled.
Israel has drawn international criticism in recent weeks for
lethal tactics used during clashes with Palestinians along
the border with Gaza. Thirty-one Palestinians have been
killed and hundreds more wounded.
In a statement on its website, the foundation that awards
the Genesis Prize quoted a representative for Portman
as saying: “Recent events in Israel have been extremely
distressing to her and she does not feel comfortable
participating in any public events in Israel.”
It gave no further details of her reasons.
Portman’s publicist in Los Angeles did not immediately
respond to an e-mail seeking further information was not
answered.
 Gulf Times
6 Saturday, April 21, 2018

ASIA/AUSTRALASIA
ACCIDENT
Australian dies after being
bitten by brown snake
An Australian man has died after he was bitten
on the arm by a suspected brown snake in
northern Queensland, it was reported yesterday.
Paramedics attended a property on Thursday
evening where they found a man in a critical
condition and bystanders giving the man CPR,
the local Townsville Bulletin newspaper said.
Paramedics tried to revive him but he died at the
scene. The man was believed to be 46 years old
and the snake responsible was believed to be an
eastern brown snake about 1.5m long. Lauren
Clayton, a Queensland Ambulance Service
spokeswoman, said there were 66 snake bites in
the Townsville region in the past year.
CONNECTED
North, South Korea open
first direct hotline
North and South Korea have opened a direct
hotline connecting the warring neighbours’
leaders ahead of a closely watched summit
next week. The phone line, which was tested
yesterday, is meant to enable discussions
and avoid misunderstandings between the
offices of South Korea’s Moon Jae-in and North
Korean leader Kim Jong-un, the presidential
office in Seoul said. “This is the first time that a
hotline has been established between the two
leaders,” a spokesman added. The test phone
conversation was four minutes and 17 seconds
long, an official quoted by the Yonhap News
Agency said.
CONTROVERSIAL SHRINE
Dozens of Japan lawmakers
visit war-linked Yasukuni
About 70 Japanese lawmakers yesterday paid
homage at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine in
Tokyo, a source of diplomatic friction with other
Asian countries. The visit to the 149-year-old
war memorial, which honours Japan’s 2.46mn
war dead, including convicted war criminals,
comes ahead of Japan’s three-day spring festival.
Prime Minister Shinzo Abe is likely to refrain
from visiting the shrine during the festival
which begins today. Abe has not offered prayers
at the shrine since December 2013, when his
visit caused an international outcry. Visits by
Japanese political leaders to the shrine provoke
anger from neighbouring countries.
ERROR
Beijing ‘reported’ 2 major
quakes that never happened
China’s earthquake administration said
yesterday that it had accidentally reported two
major quakes which in fact had never happened,
saying they were drills which had been
unintentionally released to the public. Late on
Thursday, the administration said on its website
there had been two 6.5 magnitude quakes
just 10 seconds apart at opposite ends of the
country — in the far western region of Xinjiang
and in the southwestern province of Yunnan. The
information stayed on its website for at least an
hour, though did not appear on its microblog.The
administration said they had in fact been holding
an emergency response exercise.
DISPLACED
Boat carrying 76 Rohingya
lands in Indonesia
A boat carrying 76 Rohingya Muslims landed
yesterday in northwest Indonesia, the latest
in what rights groups expect will be a wave of
dangerous sea crossings by members of the
persecuted minority from Myanmar. The group,
which included eight children and 25 women,
suffered from varying degrees of fatigue and
dehydration, authorities said. “They docked
at our port voluntarily and we have notified
immigration and police about it,” said Muzakkar
A Gani, deputy regent of Bireuen, a district on
the northeast coast of Sumatra island where the
boat arrived. Rights groups said last week that a
boat carrying 70 Rohingya had left Myanmar.

House brawl

Australian and
China warships
face off in South
China Sea
Reuters Sea, where its claims are hotly disputed of navigation in accordance with in-
Beijing/Melbourne by Vietnam as well as the Philippines, ternational laws, there is no problem
Malaysia and Brunei. whatsoever,” Hua said in Beijing. Lawmakers from the ruling Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) and the Kuomintang (KMT) scuffle during a protest
Taiwan also lays claim to most of the “But if Australia has other motives, at the Parliament in Taipei yesterday. Taiwan legislators clashed in parliament over a draft bill to reform the military

C
hinese and Australian naval ves-
sels had an “encounter” in the
South China Sea this week, and
China acted professionally and law-
fully, its defence ministry said, reject-
ing reports China challenged Australian
warships.
The Australian Defence Department
confirmed three ships had recently
travelled to Ho Chi Minh City in Viet-
nam but declined to comment on “op-
erational details related to ships trans-
iting the South China Sea”.
The Australian Broadcasting Corp
cited one official saying the exchanges
sea.
Earlier, Australia’s Defence Depart-
ment said in a statement emailed to Re-
uters that its forces had “maintained a
robust programme of international en-
gagement with countries in and around
the South China Sea for decades”.
“As they have done for many decades,
Australian vessels and aircraft will con-
tinue to exercise rights under interna-
tional law to freedom of navigation and
overflight, including in the South China
Sea,” the Defence Department said.
Australian Prime Minister Malcolm
Turnbull, in London for a Common-
we hope it can see the trend in the South pension system. The amendments are part of a wider pension cutbacks programme that have triggered mass
China Sea is stable and improving, and protests, posing a major challenge for President Tsai Ing-wen.
work together with China and other
neighbouring countries for the peace
and stability of the region.”
China’s construction of islands and
military facilities in the South China
Sea, through which some $3tn in trade
passes annually, has sparked concern it
is seeking to restrict free movement and
Brick-throwing zoo-goers kill kangaroo
extend its strategic reach.
The United States has conduct- Agencies A few weeks later, a five-year-old curity cameras to deter visitors from
ed “freedom of navigation patrols” Shanghai male kangaroo at the same zoo was harming animals in future.
through the South China Sea, stoking slightly injured in a similar way, said China’s lightly regulated zoos and
tension with China which says it will the report posted yesterday on the wildlife parks often make news for the

with the Chinese navy were polite but
“robust”.
China’s Defence Ministry said in a
statement the reports in Australian me-
dia “did not accord with the facts”.
“The Chinese side’s ships used pro-
fessional language to communicate
with the Australian side, and their op-
erations were lawful, in compliance,
professional and safe,” it said.
The “encounter” happened on Sun-
day, it said.
China recently completed extensive
military exercises in the South China
Folk show
wealth Heads of Government meet-
ing, declined to confirm the interaction
between the Australian warships and
the Chinese military, Fairfax media re-
ported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokes-
woman Hua Chunying told a daily news
briefing China’s consistent position
was to support and actively safeguard
the right of all countries to have free-
dom of navigation and overflight in the
South China Sea, in accordance with
international law.
“If Australia is referring to freedom
protect its sovereignty.
Australia is a staunch US ally.
Its navy ships Anzac, Toowoomba
and Success are on a three-month de-
ployment in Southeast Asia, which
will involve exercises with a number of
countries in the region, the Australian
Defence Department said in a state-
ment on April 17.
The Toowoomba sailed to Vietnam
from Malaysia, while the other two
Australian warships went through the
South China Sea from Subic Bay in the
Philippines.
V
isitors to a zoo in southeastern
China killed one kangaroo and
injured another by throwing
bricks at them in an attempt to get
a reaction from the big marsupials,
state media reported.
A 12-year-old female kangaroo
suffered a severely injured foot when
it was struck by bricks and concrete
chunks on February 28 at the Fuzhou
Zoo in Fujian province, China Central
Television reported.
The kangaroo died days later and
an examination by a veterinarian re-
vealed that the cause of death was
likely a ruptured kidney caused by
being struck by the projectiles.
network’s website.
The report included pictures of the
first kangaroo’s smashed and nearly
severed foot, and of the animal re-
ceiving treatment via intravenous
drip before it died.
Visitors to the zoo were known to
try to provoke the Australia mar-
supials to get them to display their
signature hopping mode of loco-
motion using their powerful hind
legs.
The report did not mention wheth-
er anyone was punished over the
matter, but it said the dead female
would be stuffed and put on display
and the zoo would look to install se-
wrong reasons, typically involving
abysmal conditions in which animals
are kept or insensitive actions by visi-
tors in a country where the notion of
animal rights is not deeply ingrained.
Among recent examples, horrified
visitors to an animal park in eastern
China’s Jiangsu province last June
watched as tigers killed a donkey that
was released into their enclosure by
investors angry over a business dis-
pute related to the zoo, according to
media reports.
A few months earlier, a zoo visi-
tor died after he was mauled by tigers
whose enclosure he entered in the city
of Ningbo, south of Shanghai.

Indonesia demands answers from Facebook

Reuters donesian members of parliament this AggregateIQ from its platform after
Jakarta week at a public hearing, where the reports the firm may have improperly
company said that 1,096,666 people had access to the personal data of Fa-
in the country may have had their data cebook users.

I
ndonesia has given Facebook a
week to provide more information
on how personal data of about
1mn of its citizens was misused and
on the steps the company is taking to
prevent such breaches, the country’s
communications ministry said.
More than 115mn Indonesians
use Facebook and authorities in the
Southeast Asian country have been
pressing the firm to explain how per-
sonal data was harvested by political
consultancy Cambridge Analytica via
Children dressed in traditional costumes take part in a folk performance in Panyu, Guangdong province, China. a personality quiz.
A Facebook official apologised to In-
shared, or 1.26% of the global total.
In a statement released yesterday
evening, the ministry said it had sent
a letter to Facebook Ireland Ltd, the
company’s main international busi-
ness unit, in response to an April 10
letter from the company’s head of
data protection.
The ministry had asked for more
details and documents on any misuse
of data, including whether data had
been shared with other third parties
such as CubeYou and Aggregate IQ.
Facebook has said it was suspend-
ing Canadian political consultancy
According to CNBC, Facebook was
also suspending data analytics firm
CubeYou to investigate how it was col-
lecting information through quizzes.
The Indonesian communications
ministry was also seeking confirma-
tion on technical measures to limit
data access in Facebook and more in-
formation on an audit the social me-
dia company was doing on sharing.
The statement said Facebook would
have to meet the requests within sev-
en days of the letter that was sent on
Thursday. Facebook did not immedi-
ately provide comment yesterday.

Ahead of Malaysia vote, bots flood Twitter with pro-govt messages

Reuters specific details. A source close sation (UMNO), said he did not “The prevalence of bots with policies and questioning the op- Many of the graphics attached around the content they post, and
Kuala Lumpur to the matter said the company know who was behind the bot ac- Cyrillic screen names does not position’s promises. to the tweets credited UMNO’s get ‘human’ users to participate,
had suspended 500 accounts tivity and that it was not his team. suggest that Russian social me- Some tweets had photos of BN information technology depart- but that has not happened yet in
involved in the messages on the The government’s communi- dia users are meddling in the supporters carrying party flags ment and some provided details Malaysia, according to DFR Lab.

J
ust weeks before Malaysia
goes to the polls, automated
accounts known as bots are
flooding Twitter with tens of
thousands of pro-government
and anti-opposition messag-
es, according to a review of the
tweets by Reuters and a US digital
media research institute.
Asked about the matter, San
Francisco-based Twitter Inc said
it was focused on identifying and
suspending accounts that violate
its spam policies.
“We continue to fight hard to
tackle any malicious automation
on our platform as well as spam
accounts,” it said, without giving
Malaysian election since they
involved spam or malicious au-
tomation.
Twitter bots, accounts which
can post, like or resend tweets
automatically, are not illegal in
Malaysia and seem to be having
minimal impact on its election
campaign.
But they have come under
global scrutiny amid probes into
Russian meddling in the 2016
US elections using social media
platforms.
Ahmad Maslan, the informa-
tion technology bureau chairman
of Prime Minister Najib Razak’s
United Malays National Organi-
cations and multimedia minister
Salleh Said Keruak did not re-
spond to calls or text messages
seeking comment.
A researcher at the Digital
Forensic Research (DFR) Lab of
the Washington-based Atlan-
tic Council think tank said over
17,000 bots tweeted content re-
lated to the Malaysian election
over the last week.
Nine of the top 10 most active
bot accounts containing anti-op-
position hashtags and pro-gov-
ernment messages had Russian-
sounding names and used the
Cyrillic script, said Donara Baro-
jan, a research associate at DFR.
Malaysian elections, but does in-
dicate that whoever is behind the
campaign purchased some bots
created by Russian-speaking bot
herders,” she said.
Reuters was unable to establish
where the tweets originated or
which firm or individual may be
behind the bot accounts.
Malaysia will hold a general
election on May 9 with Najib’s
Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition,
which is dominated by UMNO,
locked in a tough battle with
former premier Mahathir Moha-
mad and his opposition alliance.
The tweets included visuals il-
lustrating Malaysian government
and “I love PM” signs.
The tweets also include hash-
tags: either BN’s campaign slo-
gans or anti-opposition phrases
or both.
The hashtags that express
disapproval of the opposi-
tion coalition Pakatan Harapan
(PH) include ‘#SayNoToPH’
and ‘#KalahkanPakatan’, which
means “Defeat Pakatan” in Malay.
Two of the anti-opposition
hashtags — ‘#SayNoToPH’ and
‘#KalahkanPakatan’ — were used
around 44,100 times by 17,600
users during April 12-20 and 98
% of the users appear to be bots,
according to Barojan.
of social media pages of BN-
linked accounts.
There was no evidence that
these accounts are behind the
automated tweets.
Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rah-
man, a youth leader in the op-
position alliance, accused the
BN coalition of being behind the
bot campaign but added that the
impact from the bot activity was
“miniscule.” He did not elaborate.
Twitter is not as popular in
Malaysia as Facebook, although a
lot of political discourse appears
on the platform.
Automated tweets of this scale
are meant to generate traffic
Twitter and Facebook are under
scrutiny in the United States where
lawmakers suspect their platforms
were used as part of an alleged
Russian effort to sway the 2016 US
presidential election in favour of
Donald Trump. The Kremlin has
denied the accusations.
The Times reported last year
that Russian Twitter accounts
posted almost 45,000 messag-
es about Brexit in the 48 hours
around the 2016 referendum in
Britain, and that many of the
messages appear to have come
from bots or cyborg accounts.
Russia has denied meddling in
Brexit.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, April 21, 2018 7

LEGAL
Parents of terminally-ill
toddler lose court appeal
The parents of a terminally-ill toddler yesterday
lost a last-ditch legal bid to prevent doctors
from turning off life support for their son
despite getting the support of Pope Francis.
Tom Evans and Kate James had made an
application to the Supreme Court to have the
case re-examined after exhausting all other
legal appeals for their 23-month-old son Alfie
Evans, who is being treated at a hospital in
Liverpool. The parents want to take their son to
be treated at a hospital in Rome. Tom Evans met
with Pope Francis in the Vatican on Wednesday,
pleading with him to “save our son” in a
Facebook post after.
VERDICT
Teen ‘cyber terrorist’
gets two-year detention
A teenager who tricked his way into obtaining
the e-mail and phone accounts of senior US
intelligence officials has been sentenced.
Kane Gamble, 18, targeted CIA, FBI and US
department of Justice databases from his
bedroom in Leicestershire. The Old Bailey was
told Gamble, who has admitted a number of
charges, damaged the “effectiveness” of the
wider law enforcement community. He will
serve two years at a youth detention centre. His
defence said he was “naive” and never meant
to “harm” any individuals. But the judge, Justice
Haddon-Cave said Gamble ran a “campaign of
cyber terrorism”.
EVENT
Queen to celebrate 92nd
birthday at concert party
Queen Elizabeth will attend a special concert today
as the world’s oldest and longest-reigning living
monarch celebrates her 92nd birthday. Singers
Tom Jones, Kylie Minogue, Sting and Shaggy will
be among those who will entertain Elizabeth and
other British royals at the concert, known as “The
Queen’s Birthday Party” at London’s Albert Hall.
The event is a break in tradition for the Queen who
usually spends her birthday privately with little
public celebration, although there were nationwide
events to mark her 90th. Elizabeth was born on
April 21, 1926, in Bruton Street, central London and
became Queen in 1952 at the age of 25, meaning
she has now reigned for more than 66 years.
DECISION
Scottish Power energy bills
for 1mn households raised
Nearly 1mn households will see their energy bills
jump by £63 a year after Scottish Power became
the fourth of the big six suppliers to raise their
prices. The 5.5% increase on a typical dual fuel bill
for 960,000 customers is the same percentage
rise as British Gas announced earlier this month
and higher than ones from E.ON and EDF. The
increase takes effect on June 1 and will affect about
a third of Scottish Power’s customers. Claire Perry,
energy minister, said the rise was “unjustified” and
“extremely disappointing”. SSE and npower are the
only two other big energy firms yet to declare a
price rise, before the government’s planned cap on
standard tariffs later this year.
BRITAIN
ENTERTAINMENT
BBC wins green light for
Scottish TV channel
The BBC has received provisional approval to
launch a new television channel in Scotland from
the broadcasting regulator Ofcom. Costing around
£32mn, the high-definition channel is expected to
go on air later this year, as part of the BBC’s efforts
to address complaints from Scottish National Party
politicians, TV companies and some viewers that it
has neglected Scottish audiences. Ofcom forecast
the channel would attract a small audience of
1.65%-3.65% of Scottish viewers, in part because of
intense competition. The BBC dominates viewing
in Scotland, with a 32% audience share. However,
its channels such as BBC Four or CBeebies
attracted only about 3.75% of viewers last year.

Basking in the sun

Salisbury is
safe despite
likely novichok
‘hotspots’: govt
Guardian News and Media bring to justice these people that
London committed offences of attempted
murder on our doorstep in Salis-
bury.”

T
he government has insisted
Salisbury is safe after one
of its leading scientists said
residue of the nerve agent used in
the attack on the Skripals could
still be as potent as it was when it
was deployed more than six weeks
ago.
At a public meeting in the city,
experts involved in the decontam-
ination effort revealed there could
still be “hotspots” yet to be dis-
covered where the novichok agent
remained in high concentrations.
Officials from the department
for environment, food and rural
affairs (Defra) said military per-
sonnel in protective suits would be
back in the city soon to begin the
lengthy decontamination process.
He said more than 200 officers
and staff from the counter-ter-
rorism network were still working
on the case. Mills added: “This is
a highly complex investigation.
At this moment we believe it is
isolated. Extensive work is going
on reviewing all the available evi-
dence and that will continue for a
number of months.”
Mills was also asked why Sergei
Skripal was not better protected
before the attack – and whether
more protection would be given People relax by the River Thames and Tower Bridge in the warm weather in London yesterday. Britain remained in the grip of unseasonably warm weather for a third
to others in his position. The of- day yesterday with temperatures hitting as high as 26 degrees in some parts of the country. Thursday was recorded as the hottest April day temperature for 70 years.
ficer said work was being done to
understand his residence in Salis-
bury. “That will help inform what
the process is going forward in re-
lation to potential risk,” he said.

Prince Charles chosen

The revelations caused some
alarm and prompted Defra to issue
a statement yesterday spelling out
that it believes there is no danger
to the public.
A Defra spokesperson said: “As
Public Health England has stated,
A fresh insight was given into
the first hours of the incident.
Mills said Skripal’s BMW was
found and moved from the car
park, where it had been left on the
same day he and his daughter fell
ill. The detail suggests that police

Salisbury is safe for residents and
visitors. All work undertaken on
each site will take appropriate
measures to ensure that there is no
additional risk to the public.
“There is no need to take any
additional precautions. Cordons
are in place to protect the public
from any potential risk.”
Barriers are being moved into
place around key sites connected
to head Commonwealth
swiftly realised how serious the
incident was. During the meeting
at city hall in Salisbury there was
criticism from some people who
felt the decontamination process
was taking too long.
Ian Boyd, the chief scientific ad-
viser at Defra, told one critic: “You Agencies There have been calls for the decide that one day the Prince is in Rwanda and the monarch
are underplaying the toxicity of London role to be rotated around the 53 of Wales should carry on the has not taken a long-haul flight
this chemical. You’re also under- member-states, most of which important work started by my for several years now as she cuts
playing how the chemical has been are former British territories, father in 1949,” she said at the back on her official duties.

to the attack on the former Rus-
sian spy Sergei Skripal and his
daughter, Yulia, signalling the
start of the clean-up process. Al-
most 200 military personnel will
spend months decontaminating
nine sites. Also at the meeting,
police spelled out their determi-
nation to track down the perpetra-
tors of the attack.
Asked if they were searching for
a cell of attackers, Paul Mills, the
deputy chief constable for Wilt-
shire, said: “The police service
is absolutely committed to try to
spread. “It (the novichok) does not
degrade as fast as you think it does
… You can assume that it is not
much different now from the day
it was distributed.
“We have to make the assump-
tion that, in certain circumstanc-
es, there will be relatively high
concentrations, probably at very
specific locations, which could be
at levels that are toxic to individu-
als. We do know there are hotspots
like that. We have to make the
assumption that there are still
hotspots to find.”
P
rince Charles was ap-
proved as the successor
to Queen Elizabeth as
head of the Commonwealth at a
meeting of the group’s heads of
government yesterday.
“We recognise the role of
the Queen in championing the
Commonwealth and its peo-
ples,” the Commonwealth lead-
ers said in a statement. “The
next head of the Common-
wealth shall be His Royal High-
ness Prince Charles, the Prince
of Wales.”
but in recent days the Queen,
91, the British government
and other leaders have backed
Charles, 69.
The Commonwealth evolved
out of the British empire in
the mid-20th century, and the
Queen has been its head since
her reign began in 1952.
Charles had long been ex-
pected to take on the role even
though it is not strictly heredi-
tary.
The Queen, who celebrates
her 92nd birthday today, had
“The Commonwealth
has been a fundamental
feature of my life for as
long as I can remember”
made clear her preference for
Charles to succeed her.
“It is my sincere wish that the
Commonwealth will continue
to offer stability and continuity
for future generations and will
formal opening of the leaders’
meeting on Thursday.
Charles himself had also
made an informal pitch for
the role this week, saying in a
speech: “the Commonwealth
has been a fundamental feature
of my life for as long as I can re-
member.”
This week’s London meeting
has been widely assumed to be
the last that the Queen will at-
tend in person.
The meetings are only held
every two years, the next one
The summit has seen thou-
sands of delegates from across
the globe descend on London,
debating issues such as the en-
vironment, women’s rights and
trade.
Britain has sought to use its
hosting of the event as a chance
to reinvigorate the loose alli-
ance of countries, which have a
combined population of 2.4bn
people, eyeing increased trade
and global influence as it pre-
pares to leave the European Un-
ion.

Tower residents spared bill Woman dies in

to replace unsafe cladding
Guardian New and Media
London
resident had feared the financial
ruin of his family, saying his fa-
fire at care home
Guardian News and Media
London
for the removal of flammable
cladding in private blocks.
Chingford and Woodford Green,
described the incident as a “ter-
rible tragedy” and said his “heart
goes out to the victims”.

A
ther was ill because of the worry “The government’s intran- female resident has died He said: “There’s an investi-
and they could not sell the flat sigent refusal to set out a plan in a fire at a care home for gation going on, so I can’t go too

R
esidents of a private hous-
ing complex in Croydon
clad in similar flammable
panels to Grenfell Tower have
been told they will not have to
pay £2mn to make their home
safe, after the company that built
the block said it would meet the
costs instead.
Barratt Homes has indicated
it will pay to have the panels of
the Citiscape block removed and
fund the ongoing cost of 24-hour
fire wardens, saving residents
£31,300 per flat.
The decision is a surprise be-
cause Barratt had no ongoing re-
lationship with the block, which
was managed by an agent for a
separate freeholder, and comes
after a housing tribunal in March
ruled resident leaseholders were
liable for the costs.
It follows a sustained public
campaign by concerned resi-
dents highlighted by the Guard-
ian and which was supported by
their local MP, Steve Reed. One
because no buyer would want to
take on the risk.
The block’s freehold is owned
by the family trust of the multi-
millionaire property mogul Vin-
cent Tchenguiz, but the building
is managed by FirstPort Property
Services. Residents were told in
a meeting on Thursday night by
FirstPort that the threat of ruin-
ous costs had been averted.
More than 130 private apart-
ment complexes in England
have failed cladding tests im-
plemented after the deadly
Grenfell inferno, which spread
rapidly up the west London
tower block because the clad-
ding had a flammable polyeth-
ylene plastic core.
Reed said: “This is fantastic
news for residents in Citiscape
who were facing unaffordable
debt to make their homes safe.”
But he highlighted the fact that
Barratt’s decision represented a
one-off – and said the govern-
ment should be prepared to pay
to remove flammable cladding
wherever it is found has left tens
of thousands of residents in fear.
Instead of relying on the goodwill
of builders the government must
accept responsibility for the fail-
ure of their safety regulations
and take all flammable cladding
down.”
Sajid Javid, the secretary of
state for housing, said: “I ap-
plaud Barratt Developments’
decision to cover the costs of fire
safety works. They have listened
to the concerns of Citiscape
residents, engaged with govern-
ment and have done the right
thing.
“Other building owners and
housebuilders in the private sec-
tor should follow the example set
by Barratt Developments to pro-
tect leaseholders from costs and
begin essential fire safety works.
I want to see all leaseholders
in this position get the peace
of mind they deserve and I am
keeping this under review.”
people with learning dis-
abilities.
More than 70 firefighters tack-
led the blaze at the flats in Ching-
ford, north-east London, just be-
fore 2.15am yesterday.
Richard Janssens from the Lon-
don fire brigade said a female resi-
dent had died by the time they ar-
rived. She is believed to have been
in her 30s.
“The fire was complicated be-
cause of the fatality and the fact
the roof had caught fire, so it had
to be tackled from the inside and
outside, but firefighters got it un-
der control quickly,” Janssens said.
Parts of the ground and first
floors were damaged by fire and
the second floor and roof were
completely destroyed in the three-
storey block on Connington Cres-
cent, the fire brigade said.
Twelve people had left the
building before firefighters arrived
and a further 16 had been evacuat-
Firefighters and police attend to the residential care home fire in ed from neighbouring properties.
Connington Crescent, Chingford, north-east London, yesterday. Iain Duncan Smith, the MP for
far into it, but a neighbour saw all
the smoke coming out and saw
the care home residents running
around the place. She asked has
anyone called the fire brigade and
they said no because they didn’t
know what the number was.
“She called the fire brigade and
it was thanks to her swift action I
suspect, that not more than one
life was lost.”
He went on: “It’s a home that
deals with people with learning
difficulties, so they are very vul-
nerable and often need the best
kind of protection, and we’ll be
wanting to know that a proper in-
vestigation takes place to find out
what happened.”
Pictures from the scene showed
flames pouring out of the roof of
the building.
The block houses Connington
Court and Connington House,
which are both run by Sequence
Care and provide services to sup-
port adults with autism and other
complex needs or behaviours.
 Gulf Times
8 Saturday, April 21, 2018
EUROPE
Top DJ Avicii dead at 28
By Shaun Tandon, AFP
New York
A
vicii, one of the world’s
most successful DJs who
helped lead the global
boom in electronic music, died
yesterday in Oman, his repre-
sentative said.
He was 28.
Two years after his unusually
early retirement due to nagging
health concerns, the Swedish DJ
was found dead on a visit to the
Gulf state’s capital Muscat, a
statement said.
“It is with profound sorrow
that we announce the loss of Tim
Bergling, also known as Avicii,”
his management said without
specifying the cause of death.
“The family is devastated and we
ask everyone to please respect
their need for privacy in this
Hundreds held in
Armenia as protests
enter eighth day
AFP
Yerevan
P
olice arrested some 230
people as opposition
supporters staged sit-ins
and attempted to block traffic
in Armenia’s capital yesterday,
the latest protests at what they
brand a power-grab by ex-
president Serzh Sarkisian.
For the past week, thou-
sands of opposition supporters
have held rallies to denounce
Sarkisian’s efforts to remain in
power as prime minister after a
decade serving as president.
Yesterday demonstrators
waved national flags and held
up placards reading “Sarkisian
is a dictator” as protests in the
impoverished former Soviet
country went into their eighth
day.
“We are supported by 80%
of the people and the time has
come for Serzh Sarkisian to re-
alise that he has to leave,” op-
position lawmaker and protest
leader Nikol Pashinyan told
reporters at the start of a rally
yesterday evening.
Protesters earlier tried to
block roads in response to re-
peated calls by Pashinyan to
paralyse traffic, but police pre-
vented those attempts.
A police spokesman told
AFP more than 233 people
were detained in Yerevan.
Protesters also rallied in the
second city of Gyumri where
they attempted to block a main
road leading to the capital.
The Caucasus country’s re-
ligious leaders called on the
opposition to end street pro-
tests and negotiate with au-
thorities after a meeting with
Sarkisian, news agencies re-
ported.
“We are praying for the situ-
ation to gradually stabilise,”
the head of the Armenian Ap-
ostolic Church Karekin II was
quoted as saying.
Constitutional amendments
approved in 2015 have trans-
ferred power from the presi-
dency to the premier.
Sarkisian in effect remained
the country’s leader by taking
the post of prime minister af-
ter a parliament vote this week.
Opposition supporters have
criticised the 63-year-old
leader over poverty, corruption
and the influence of powerful
oligarchs.
The spokesman for Sarki-
sian’s ruling Republican Party
said that the newly-elected
Opposition supporters ride atop a car during the demonstration
in Yerevan.
difficult time. No further state-
ments will be given.”
Avicii was among the first DJs
to break through in the main-
stream as electronic dance music
grew over the past decade from
nightclubs to Top 40 radio.
He helped produce Madonna’s
last album and created a global
hit out of Coldplay’s A Sky Full of
Stars, to which he added a layer
of energetic electronica.
His biggest hits on his own in-
cluded Wake Me Up, which went
to number one across Europe in
2013 and featured the soul singer
Aloe Blacc.
While the death came as a
shock, Avicii has spoken publicly
in recent years about his health
problems including pancreati-
tis, triggered in part by excessive
drinking.
The condition forced him to
cancel shows in 2014 as he had to
prime minister would not step
down.
“We respects citizens’ right
to freedom of assembly but we
rule out the possibility of the
prime minister resigning,” Ed-
uard Sharmazanov told jour-
nalists late on Thursday.
Human Rights Watch con-
demned the “arbitrary arrests”
of demonstrators.
“One should not underesti-
mate the challenges Armenia’s
police are facing in maintain-
ing law and order, but the
ongoing protests are no jus-
tification to arbitrarily detain
people,” it said in a statement
late on Thursday.
Under a new parliamentary
system of government, law-
makers elected Sarkisian as
prime minister on Tuesday af-
ter he served a decade as presi-
dent from 2008.
Protest leader Pashinyan
this week called for “a peaceful
velvet revolution”.
“The mechanism we are us-
ing is peaceful disobedience,”
he told AFP in an interview.
Analysts say that the op-
position so far lacks resources
to oust the leader even though
huge public anger has built up
in recent years.
The number of demonstra-
tors has somewhat dwindled
over the past few days, down
from roughly 40,000 who took
to the streets on Tuesday when
Sarkisian was elected by par-
liament.
On Thursday, more than
15,000 protesters staged a rally
outside government head-
quarters as Sarkisian chaired
his first cabinet meeting since
the controversial vote.
On Monday police used stun
grenades against protesters
who tried to break through a
barbed wire cordon to get to
the parliament building.
Authorities said at the time
that 46 people, including six
police and Pashinyan sought
medical help.
The country’s new presi-
dent, Armen Sarkisian – no
relation to now prime minister
Serzh – was sworn in last week
but his post is largely ceremo-
nial under the new system of
government.
A former military officer,
Serzh Sarkisian has been in
charge of the landlocked South
Caucasus nation of 2.9mn
people for a decade.
He also held the office of
prime minister from 2007 to
2008.
have his gallbladder and appen-
dix removed.
In 2016, Avicii stunned fans by
announcing his retirement when
he was just 26, saying that he
wanted to leave the high-flying
electronic music lifestyle.
“The scene was not for me,”
he told music magazine Billboard
after his decision.
“It was not the shows and
not the music. It was always the
other stuff surrounding it that
never came naturally to me. All
the other parts of being an art-
ist,” he said.
“I’m more of an introverted
person in general. It was always
very hard for me. I took on board
too much negative energy, I
think,” he said.
Avicii – who for years was one
of the world’s most lucrative
electronic musicians – in 2016
made number 12 on the list of
Latest talks to form
Italian govt collapse
Reuters
Rome
F
ormer prime minister Sil-
vio Berlusconi branded the
5-Star Movement (M5S) a
danger for Italy yesterday, killing
off any lingering chance of a coa-
lition tie-up between his rightist
bloc and the anti-establishment
party.
Berlusconi and his allies, in-
cluding the far-right League,
won the most seats in last
month’s national election, while
the M5S emerged as the largest
single party.
However, both sides fell well
short of an absolute majority and
efforts by the Italian president to
put together a new government
have made little progress, with
multiple vetoes put forward by
various parties making his task
almost impossible.
Latest efforts to overcome the
impasse this week appeared to
make no headway, and President
Sergio Mattarella’s office said the
head of state would consider the
WWII bomb forces mass evacuation in central Berlin
AFP
Berlin
T
housands of people
around Berlin’s central
railway station were evac-
uated yesterday to allow disposal
experts to defuse an unexploded
World War II explosive unearthed
on a building site.
Trains, trams and buses were
either halted or rerouted for the
operation to dispose of the Brit-
ish 500kg bomb that was discov-
ered more than 70 years after the
war.
Authorities declared an exclu-
sion zone with an 800m radius
around the site located just north
of the central railway station, a
transport hub that on a normal
day is used by 300,000 passen-
gers.
Police finally gave the all-clear
around 1.30pm (1130GMT) after
experts successfully disabled the
bomb.
“A short bang. The detonator
has been blown off in a control-
led explosion,” said Berlin police
Turkey parliament approves snap elections on June 24
AFP
Ankara
T
he Turkish parliament has
confirmed elections will
take place on June 24 in
line with a decision by President
Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
The motion presented in par-
liament earlier in the day was
passed by 386 lawmakers in the
550-seat parliament.
The pro-Kurdish leftist Peo-
ples’ Democratic Party (HDP)
top-paid DJs of Forbes magazine,
which said he earned $14.5mn in
the previous year.
Pop star Charlie Puth paid
tribute to Avicii as “the man who
really opened my eyes to what my
production could one day sound
like”.
“Avicii was a genius and a mu-
sic innovator, and I cannot be-
lieve he is no longer with us. RIP
to the very best,” Puth wrote on
Twitter.
Deadmau5 – a fellow top DJ
known for his outspokenness
who had mocked Avicii when he
quit so young – offered his “sin-
cerest and most heartfelt condo-
lences”.
“Banter aside, nobody can
deny what he has accomplished
and done for modern dance mu-
sic and I’m very proud of him,”
Deadmau5 tweeted, adding: “I
would have enjoyed nothing
Berlusconi: The 5-Star are a danger for the country. It is not a
democratic party, it is a party for the unemployed. In my company, I
would hire them to scrub the toilets.
situation over the weekend be-
fore deciding what to do next.
M5S, which promises a cru-
sade against entrenched corrup-
tion, has said it is willing to join
forces with the League, but not
Berlusconi, whose long political
career has been dogged by graft
on Twitter, adding: “#Goodjobs
guys.”
The temporary exclusion
zone covered the train station,
an army hospital, the economy
ministry, an art gallery and a mu-
seum as well as part of the BND
intelligence service’s new head-
quarters.
Many thousands of residents
and employees were ordered to
stay away until the all-clear was
given.
Among them were staff at the
economy ministry who were told
to work from other offices or
from home, or were simply given
the day off, a spokeswoman said.
Police also went house to house
to check the zone was completely
cleared before the bomb disposal
experts began their work.
Temporary shelters were set up
for those affected by the evacua-
tion.
Esen Coskon, 50, who took ref-
uge in one of the shelters with his
22-year-old son, Furkan, said he
learnt of the evacuation from the
media and police, who had sent
leaflets to every home.
walked out of the general assem-
bly before the vote was held, an
AFP photographer in parliament
said.
Erdogan surprised Turk-
ish politics watchers and vot-
ers when he declared that there
would be snap parliamentary and
presidential elections on June 24.
In a week of fast-moving de-
velopments, Erdogan declared
the date just a day after his na-
tionalist ally Devlet Bahceli on
Tuesday urged early polls in Au-
gust.
This picture taken on May 30, 2015 shows Avicii (Tim Bergling) performing at the Summerburst music
festival at Ullevi stadium in Gothenburg, Sweden.
more than ripping into Avicii well
into and beyond our 60s.”
The son of Anki Liden, a prom-
inent Swedish actress, Avicii had
his start uploading tracks on the
Internet and was discovered by
the Dutch superstar Tiesto, who
invited him to play at his residen-
cy in the clubbing hub of Ibiza.
and sex scandals.
Earlier this week, media tycoon
Berlusconi said that he would
have no problem working with
M5S, but yesterday he angrily
slammed the anti-system party
and urged his allies to reconsider
their refusal to seek a pact with
Coskon said he had a feeling of
deja vu, recalling a similar opera-
tion in 2013 which also affected
the area around the main railway
station.
“Everything has been well or-
ganised ... we were told to leave
our apartment at 9am. The police
came to knock on every door,” he
told AFP.
Angela Merkel’s chancellery
building and the Reichstag (par-
liament) lie just a few hundred
metres to the south of the no-go
zone and can keep operating as
usual.
More than 70 years after the
end of the war, unexploded
bombs are regularly found, a po-
tentially deadly legacy of the in-
tense Allied bombing campaign
against Nazi Germany.
In the biggest post-war evacu-
ation, at least 60,000 Frank-
furt residents were forced to
leave their homes in September
last year so that an unexploded
1.8-tonne British bomb dubbed
the “blockbuster” could be de-
fused.
Some 3,000 such unexploded
The elections had been sched-
uled for November 3, 2019 as part
of the constitutional changes ap-
proved in April last year to create
an executive presidency.
While the government argues
the changes will streamline deci-
sion making, the opposition say
that it leads to a one-man regime.
Erdogan said yesterday bt-
hat early elections had not been
called because of his ambitions.
“I still have one-and-a-half
more years left of my mandate as
president. If it were about ambi-
His breakthrough single, Lev-
els, adapted a sample of soul
singer Etta James and earned him
one of his two Grammy nomina-
tions.
Bergling took his stage name
from the Sanskrit word for the
lowest level of hell in Buddhism,
adding an additional “i” at the
the defeated centre-left.
“The 5-Star are a danger for
the country. It is not a democrat-
ic party, it is a party for the un-
employed,” he said during a visit
to Molise, a southern region that
is holding local elections at the
weekend.
“In my company, I would hire
them to scrub the toilets,” he
added, using unusually strong
language even for Berlusconi.
Italians “voted very badly” last
month, he said, and the centre-
left Democratic Party (PD) was
“light years” ahead of M5S.
Later, Berlusconi said that
governing with M5S was no long-
er “desirable or possible”, adding
that the centre-right should seek
a majority in parliament, pre-
sumably with the PD.
However, League leader Mat-
teo Salvini, the de-facto head of
the increasingly fractious rightist
camp, has appeared increasingly
frustrated with Berlusconi and he
rejected a deal with the PD.
“Until yesterday the (centre-
right) alliance was unified,” Sal-
vini told reporters in Milan.
Members of the bomb squad talks with the media next to the defused
World War II bomb at a construction site near the central train station
in Berlin.
bombs are believed to still lie
buried in Berlin, a city of 3mn
people, where disposal squads
are well-practised in defusing
them and other ordnance.
The latest bomb was found
during construction work on
Heidestrasse in the district of
Mitte.
tion, I could have continued,” he
said during a speech in Istanbul.
“The course of domestic and for-
eign politics, military and eco-
nomic developments showed us
the serious costs there would be
if we continued with the current
system.”
“After we evaluated this, we
said ‘let’s take this step’ because
of the worry that our people
would pay the price,” Erdogan
added.
Erdogan became Turkey’s first
directly-elected president in Au-
end for stylistic reasons.
In a 2013 interview for Spotify,
which helped popularise his mu-
sic, he was asked what he wanted
to be doing in 10 years.
“Hopefully the same thing,
though I may not be playing live
as much, maybe producing more
music,” he said.
“If someone pulls out (of the
alliance) using insults and look-
ing to the left, the choice is that
person’s alone,” he added, in ref-
erence to Berlusconi.
Salvini also said he would like
to be given a mandate by the
president to see if he could form
a government.
However, he declined to say if
this meant he was ready to aban-
don Berlusconi and do a deal di-
rectly with M5S, something he
has refused to countenance up
until now.
“I am certainly not going to ask
for votes from the PD,” he said.
If ultimately Salvini stays true
to his word and declines to break
his alliance, the president has
few options left to resolve the
stalemate.
One would be to try to con-
vince the M5S and the PD to work
together.
Another would be to seek con-
sensus for a non-political gov-
ernment of technocrats tasked
with re-writing the electoral law
and prepare for a return to the
polls next spring.
“We’re talking here about
a bomb that measures about
110cm by 45cm, so it’s a hefty
heavyweight blaster with the
potential to cause severe damage
in the centre of town; that’s why
we are going about it very, very
carefully,” said police spokesman
Winfrid Wenzel.
gust 2014, and is favourite to win
again.
The main opposition Republi-
can People’s Party (CHP) is yet to
declare a candidate.
The president earlier said the
campaign had begun and that his
ruling Justice and Development
Party (AKP) would present its
manifesto next Friday.
If no individual obtains 51% of
the vote in the first round of the
presidential election, the second
round will take place on July 8,
Hurriyet daily said.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, April 21, 2018 9

INVESTIGATION
Police probe Twitter claim
over fire at Rohingya camp
The police are investigating a fire that destroyed
a Rohingya settlement in New Delhi last weekend
after a Twitter user claimed responsibility for
setting the blaze. About 40,000 Rohingya from
Myanmar have settled in India in recent years
after fleeing genocide at home. The fire started
early on Sunday and engulfed the shantytown,
forcing its 226 residents to flee. It was the fourth
fire in the settlement in six years and police said
they were investigating the claim of responsibility.
Delhi lawyer Prashant Bhushan on Thursday
filed a complaint asking police to investigate
the Twitter user who claimed responsibility for
torching the houses. The tweet was later deleted.
COMMODITIES
Petrol price touches
five-year high in Delhi
Petrol prices in Delhi touched a fresh high of
Rs74.08 per litre yesterday, the highest in nearly
five years. In September 2013 the price had
touched Rs74.10 a litre. In Kolkata, Mumbai and
Chennai too, prices climbed to new multi-year
highs at Rs76.78, Rs81.93 and Rs76.85 per litre
respectively, the Indian Oil website said. The
previous highs in these cities were Rs78.03
(Kolkata, August 2014), Rs82.07 (Mumbai, March
2014) and Rs76.93 (Chennai, July 2014). Diesel
prices also touched new record levels yesterday.
Diesel prices in Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and
Chennai were Rs65.31, Rs68.01, Rs69.54 and
Rs68.90 per litre respectively.
OBITUARY
Kerala Kaumudi chief
editor Ravi dies aged 68
M S Ravi, the chief editor of Kerala Kaumudi, one
of the oldest newspapers in Kerala, died yesterday,
family sources said. Ravi, 68, was rushed to a
hospital after he felt uneasy. He died at 2.50pm
following a cardiac arrest. He was the youngest
of the four sons of Kerala Kaumudi founder
editor K Sukumaran. Ravi is survived by his wife
and two sons. Kerala Governor justice (retd) P
Sathasivam condoled Ravi’s demise. In a message,
the governor said “I am deeply saddened by the
untimely demise of M S Ravi. As an editor with
social commitment and a sincere concern for
the weaker sections of society, he always upheld
high standards of journalistic conduct.”
LEGAL
Top court snubs plea
on Dawood properties
The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed a plea
of underworld don Dawood Ibrahim’s mother
and sister challenging the Centre’s order to attach
their properties. A bench of justice R K Agrawal and
justice A M Sapre dismissed the plea of Dawood’s
mother Amina Bi and sister Hasina Parker (both
now deceased). The two owned seven residential
properties in Mumbai, including two in Amina Bi’s
name and five in Haseena’s name. The properties
worth crores of rupees were alleged to have
been acquired from Dawood’s ill-gotten wealth.
They had approached the apex court after the
September 2012 order of the Delhi High Court
against notices of forfeiture of their properties.
INDIA
CONTROVERSY
Comedian apologises
for Facebook post
Actor-turned-politician S Ve Shekhar yesterday
apologised for forwarding a message that was
defamatory of women journalists on his Facebook
page. In a statement in Chennai, the noted
comedian and a former legislator, who is now with
the BJP, said he had forwarded a message on his
Facebook page without reading it. He said when
a friend pointed out the content of the post to be
abusive, the post was removed. “I do not endorse
the views expressed in it. I come from a family
that respects women and the women journalist,”
he said. However, he said he was surprised at
how people are spreading the screenshot of the
deleted message without finding that offensive.

Modi ally jailed

over Gujarat
communal
massacre freed
IANS in Gandhinagar and so the former
Ahmedabad minister could not have been at
Naroda Patiya on the day of the ri-
ots, it was claimed.

S
ix years after a trial court
sentenced her to 28 years
in jail and called her the key
instigator in Gujarat’s worst com-
munal massacre that left 97 Mus-
lims dead in 2002 in Ahmedabad’s
Naroda Patiya, the Gujarat High
Court yesterday acquitted former
Gujarat minister Maya Kodnani
stating there was no evidence
against her.
A division bench of the high
court comprising justice Harsha
Devani and justice A S Supehia ac-
quitted Kodnani, stating there was
absence of sufficient proof of her
presence at the crime scene where
huge armed crowds went on a kill-
However, the SIT court had re-
fused to consider this as evidence
stating that Gandhinagar and
Ahmedabad were like twin cit-
ies and Kodnani could easily have
travelled to Naroda Patiya from the
state assembly after 8.30am.
The high court acquitted her
after several witnesses turning
hostile and there was insufficient
evidence to establish her presence
at the scene of the crime.
The court meanwhile upheld the
conviction of Babu Bajrangi, an ac- Congress leaders Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kapil Sibal and CPI leader D Raja attend a press conference to give details on the impeachment motion against the chief justice of
tivist of the Bajrang Dal. The judg- India, in New Delhi yesterday.
ment was pronounced on the appeals
filed by the former BJP minister and
others against their conviction by the

BJP fumes at move to

ing spree for hours.
A SIT (special investigation
team) court had in 2012 found “be-
yond reasonable doubt” that Kod-
nani, a doctor by profession, was
present at the scene of the crime,
instigated mobs to attack Muslims
SIT court. Bajrangi was a key con-
spirator in the massacre.
The Naroda Patiya riots was one
of the worst incidents during the
communal conflagration that en-
gulfed Gujarat following the train
burning incident on February 27,

impeach chief justice

and abetted in the crime.
“In the record of this case, the wit-
nesses have stated that all the dis-
turbances were started and in fact
reached its peak after the arrival of
Kodnani. It stands proved beyond
all reasonable doubt that she was
present and participated in the crime
on that day,” the court had ruled in
August 2012, sentencing Kodnani to
28 years in imprisonment.
2002, at Godhra in which 59 Hin-
dus were killed.
The high court in August 2017
had reserved its order.
The special court had sentenced
32 people, including Kodnani and
Bajrangi. Seven others were given
enhanced life imprisonment of 21 IANS grade and denigrate the institu- death of CBI court judge B H islature, executive and judiciary. tion of judiciary,” she said.
years, which they will serve after New Delhi tions,” BJP spokesperson Meen- Loya, who was conducting a tri- “If the judgements do not The fate of the impeachment
undergoing 10 years’ imprison- akshi Lekhi told reporters here. al in the killing of gangster So- happen the way they want motion rests with Rajya Sabha
ment under IPC section 326 (caus- She said the opposition par- hrabuddin Sheikh in Gujarat in them to, then they will go to chairperson M Venkaiah Naidu,

Yesterday’s acquittal of Kodnani,
who was made a minister after the
riots, came in the backdrop of wit-
nesses turning hostile, six judges
recusing themselves from the hear-
ing and the SIT deciding not to seek
enhancement of her sentence stat-
ing it did not have the Gujarat gov-
ernment’s sanction for it.
BJP president Amit Shah’s tes-
timony in the case in September
2017 was the last one and could
have proved to be the much needed
alibi for Kodnani. He stated that
he saw Kodnani in the Gujarat
Assembly on February 28, 2002,
(the day of the massacre), first at
8.30am and then again at 11am.
The Gujarat Assembly is located
ing grievous hurt).
The remaining accused were
given simple life imprisonment of
14 years. The trial court’s acquittal
of 29 other accused in the case, for
want of evidence, was challenged
by the SIT, even as those convicted
challenged the lower court’s order
in the high court.
Government counsel Prashant
Desai said: “It is clear from the
high court’s judgment that the
court has gone by the ‘no wit-
ness’ theory. Twelve accused have
been convicted. Besides Bajrangi,
Prakash Rathod and Suresh Chara
alias Suresh Langda have been
convicted under the IPC 120 (B) as
key conspirators”.
T
he BJP yesterday hit out
at the Congress and oth-
er opposition parties for
submitting an impeachment
notice for removal of Chief Jus-
tice Dipak Misra, saying it aims
to cover up their repeated fail-
ures in judicial battles.
The BJP also said that the
move was to “degrade and deni-
grate” the judiciary as the Con-
gress and other parties were
getting exposed in the judge-
ments related to the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) leaders.
“It is a sad day because the
government is working in every
possible way but the opposition
is continuously trying to de-
ties were constantly threaten-
ing to bring impeachment mo-
tion against people who chose
to stand independently.
“So, on its own merit, the
cases have fallen because these
were all fabricated cases. There
are evidences to the contrary
and the fabrication could not
go beyond a certain point. That
is why the cases are falling and
to cover up (this), they are using
impeachment proceedings.”
The opposition move came
a day after a Supreme Court
bench headed by chief justice
Misra rejected a public inter-
est litigation for a special in-
vestigation team probe into the
which now BJP president Amit
Shah was an accused.
Commenting on Naroda
Patiya case in which a Gujarat
minister was let off yesterday,
Lekhi said the fact was that the
so-called evidence pertaining to
it could not stand the legal test.
She said the repeated exposures
were showing how institutional
integrity was compromised and
how the “dirty tricks department”
of the Congress was at work.
Accusing the Congress of in-
terfering with the judicial system,
Lekhi reminded them that the
model adopted by B R Ambedkar
for the Constitution was separa-
tion of powers between the leg-
any extent motivated by mal-
ice and demean the institu-
Indians can see the truth, says Rahul
Congress president Rahul
Gandhi yesterday said “there
is hope” on the judge B H Loya
case as millions of “Indians can
see the truth”, a day after the
judge’s family said “there is no
hope left”. “’There is no hope left,
everything is managed’, says
Judge Loya’s family. I want to
tell them, there is hope. There
is hope because millions of
Indians can see the truth. India
will not allow Judge Loya to
who is likely to seek legal opinion
before accepting or rejecting it.
be forgotten,” Gandhi said in a
tweet attaching a news report
quoting his family members.
Attacking the Bharatiya Janata
Party (BJP), Gandhi said truth will
finally catch up with Amit Shah.
“Indians are deeply intelligent.
Most Indians, including
those in the BJP, instinctively
understand the truth about
Shah. The truth has its own
way of catching up with people
like him,” tweeted Gandhi.

Merkel meets Modi

Govt proposes death New W Bengal poll
schedule ordered
penalty for child rapists IANS dates of May 1, 3 and 5 would
change, as per the court order.
Kolkata
IANS in the most horrific manner Justice Talukdar also lifted
Three held for “The issue raised in the peti- the stay on the election proc-
New Delhi Surat horror

T
tion regarding the amendment he Calcutta High Court ess, while directing a fine of
Three people, including the main of the provisions of the Pocso yesterday ordered the Rs500,000 imposed on the

T
he central government
yesterday told the Su-
preme Court it is propos-
ing the death penalty for those
convicted of raping children be-
low the age of 12.
The proposal has come in the
backdrop of nationwide outrage
over the rape and murder of an
eight-year-old girl in Kathua in
Jammu and Kashmir, and sexual
assault of a teenager in Unnao in
Uttar Pradesh.
A bench headed by chief jus-
tice Deepak Misra was told by the
ministry of women and child de-
velopment that it is “proposing”
to amend the Protection of Chil-
dren from Sexual Offences (Pocso)
Act for introducing “death pen-
alty” to the convicts of child rape.
The letter written to additional
solicitor general (ASG) P S Nar-
asimha by women and child devel-
opment ministry deputy secretary
Anand Prakash, said the govern-
ment is “sensitive to the plight of
young children” brutally abused
perpetrator, involved in the rape
and murder of a nine-year-old girl
in Surat have been arrested, the
Gujarat government said yester-
day. Minister of State for Home,
Pradeepsinh Jadeja, said in Ghan-
dhinagar that the Gujarat Police
arrested the key perpetrator from
a village in Ganganagar, Rajas-
than. All the accused are believed
to be originally from Rajasthan.
Police had found the body of the
girl with over 86 injuries dumped
in the bushes near Jeeav Road in
Pandesara area of Surat on April
6. An autopsy revealed that she
was brutally raped and tortured
for days before her murder. The
police cracked the case after
scanning through CCTV footage
of a car moving suspiciously in
the area. “On April 9, a woman’s
decomposed body was found
lying a few kilometres from the
spot where the girl was found
dead. We believe she is the girl’s
mother.” Jadeja said.
Act, 2012, so as to proving maxi-
mum punishment of ‘death pen-
alty’ for commission of offences
of rape of children of 0-12 years
of age group is under active con-
sideration of the ministry.
“The Mministry is sensitive to
the plight of young children bru-
tally abused in the most horrific
manner. The ministry is propos-
ing to amend Pocso Act, 2012,
for introducing ‘death penalty’
for the abuser in the cases of ag-
gravated sexual assault against
children,” the ministry said in a
letter to the apex court.
The court posted the matter
for hearing on April 27. The Pocso
Act was formulated in order to ef-
fectively address sexual abuse and
sexual exploitation of children.
The Centre, on February 1,
2018, told the court death pen-
alty was not the answer for every
child sex abuse case and that
graded penalties for graded of-
fences have been provided under
the Pocso Act, 2012.
West Bengal state elec-
tion commission to make a fresh
announcement extending the
deadline for filing of nomina-
tions for the coming panchayat
(village council) polls and final-
ise a new election schedule.
A single judge bench of jus-
tice Subrata Talukdar, quashing
the SEC’s April 10 order that
had cancelled the extension
for filing nomination which
the state poll panel announced
on the night of April 9, direct-
ed it to issue a fresh deadline
extending the time for filing
nominations in consultation
with the state government and
important stakeholders.
In his 35-page order, the judge
said the commission would then
reschedule the other dates for
the election process as per the
rules and conduct the polls.
As the rules provide for 21
German Chancellor Angela Merkel meets Prime Minister days time between the last date
Narendra Modi in Berlin yesterday. of nomination and the first day
of polling, the original polling
opposition Bharatiya Janata
Party for “forum hopping” by
moving to the high court and
the Supreme Court with the
same pleas, be deposited in the
SEC fund.
Meanwhile, the BJP called the
verdict a victory for the democ-
racy-loving people and those
not allowed to file nominations.
“This is a historic verdict by
the high court. It has played a
courageous role in saving the
democracy in West Bengal.
We welcome it,” BJP petitioner
Pratap Banerjee told media
persons.
Communist Party of India-
Marxist leader Rabin Deb ex-
pressed happiness over the en-
tire panchayat election process
being rescheduled.
The Congress said the high
court’s verdict has proved the
allegations against the ruling
Trinamool Congress of pre-
poll violence and attempting to
influence the SEC were correct.
 Gulf Times
10 Saturday, April 21, 2018

LATIN AMERICA
VIOLENCE
Two killed in Nicaragua
pension demonstrations
A protester and a policeman were killed in the
Nicaraguan capital Managua after demon-
strations over pension reform turned violent,
officials said. The deaths came after protests by
both opponents and supporters of a new law,
which increases employer and employee con-
tributions while reducing the overall amount of
pensions by 5%, rocked the capital for a second
day. A 33-year-old policeman was shot dead, ac-
cording to police, as well as a young male pro-
tester, whom officials said was pro-reform but
members of the opposition said was against.
According to opposition demonstrators, a male
student was also killed.
ANGER
Argentines take to streets
to protest utility rate hikes
Thousands of Argentines took to the streets
to protest a sharp spike in gas and electricity
rates imposed by the government, as President
Mauricio Macri continued to cut subsidies that
had ballooned under his predecessor. Since
taking office in December 2015, Macri has gradu-
ally unwound the subsidies in a bid to reduce
the budget deficit. But that has fuelled inflation,
making consumer price rises harder to contain.
Protesters holding candles — a show of solidarity
with those who may no longer be able to afford
to light their homes with electricity — approached
the country’s Congress in Buenos Aires after dark,
calling for price increases to be over-turned.
PEOPLE
50 migrants reach
Mexico-US border
A group of 50 Central American migrants who
set out from southern Mexico in late March have
reached the US border, having endured the long
journey despite threats by President Donald
Trump to secure the border with National Guard
personnel. Since peaking at around 1,500 people,
the so-called migrant “caravan” has dwindled
under pressure from Trump and Mexican migra-
tion authorities, who vowed to separate those
migrants with a right to stay in Mexico from those
who did not. Every year, thousands of migrants
-especially Central Americans- venture to cross
Mexico and reach the United States, often risking
their lives along the way.
PROPOSAL
Mexico looks to strip
politicians of immunity
Mexico’s lower house of Congress has approved
changes to the constitution to eliminate immunity
from prosecution for all public servants, including
lawmakers and the president, a move meant to
tackle deeply entrenched corruption. The resolu-
tion, which must still be approved by the Senate
and ratified by a majority of state legislatures,
modifies and repeals various provisions of eight
constitutional articles. A sitting president can cur-
rently be put on trial only for treason and “serious
crimes of the common order.” The constitutional
changes would remove those restrictions and
also establish that defamation, libel and slander
cannot be punishable with jail.
SCANDAL
Chile bishop urged to
quit over abuse crisis
The head of Chile’s Catholic Church said that a
bishop accused of covering up sexual abuse should
resign, little more than a week after Pope Frances
said he had made mistakes in handling Chile’s
sexual abuse crisis. Cardinal Ricardo Ezzati told
reporters that Juan Barros, a Chilean bishop who
allegedly concealed abuse of minors by his mentor
Father Fernando Karadima, should resign “without
a doubt,” while adding he would not judge “whether
or not had covered up” the incidents. The Chilean
Church’s call for his resignation follows a letter
from Pope Francis earlier this month in which the
Argentine pontiff said he had made “grave mistakes”
in handling a sexual abuse crisis.

Chile education system’s exploitation attacked

Odebrecht
‘struggles to get
loans as bond
deadline looms’
Reuters trigger early repayment of al-
Sao Paulo most $3bn of dollar-denom-
inated bonds issued by the
Brazilian company, said Sarah

B
razilian engineering con-
glomerate Odebrecht SA
has not yet secured new
bank loans that it has requested
to honour bond payments due
next week, four sources with
knowledge of the matter said,
raising the possibility of a default
triggering some $3bn in early re-
payments.
Talks with Brazil’s biggest
lenders, including Banco Bra-
desco SA, Itau Unibanco Hold-
ing SA, Banco Santander Brasil
SA and state-controlled Banco
do Brasil SA are still ongoing, but
it has been difficult to accom-
modate the different interests
among lenders, the sources said.
If Odebrecht fails to line up
fresh loans, it is not clear the
Leshner Carvalho, director for
Latin America corporate credit
research at Barclays.
In recent weeks, Odebre-
cht has urged banks to extend
new loans amounting to 3.2bn
reais ($945mn), arguing that its
stake in petrochemical company
Braskem SA, has grown in value
as the shares climbed 56% in the
last 12 months.
Odebrecht’s 38% stake in
Braskem is already pledged as
collateral to the banks and its
dividends are also directed to
creditors to serve part of Ode- Demonstrators with a placard that reads “We have said: Enough”, take part in a protest demanding an end to profiteering in the education system in Santiago, Chile.
brecht’s total 70bn reais ($21bn)
in debt.
In previous debt refinancing,
Odebrecht had agreed to accel-
erate the sale of assets to repay

Son of dictator’s aide tipped

group will have enough cash to
honour a 500mn reais ($150mn)
2018 bond repayment due on
April 25, three of the sources
said.
Other bond-related pay-
debt. So far, it has committed to
selling 12bn reais in assets, but
has only received around 7bn
reais, one of the sources said.
The main problem is in Peru,
where the conglomerate has not

to win Paraguay presidency

ments over the next 10 days from
Thursday amount to $11mn.
In a statement Odebrecht said
it was engaged in talks with its
creditors. It did not respond to
questions about its plans for
bond payments due next week.
The banks declined to comment.
Odebrecht was forced to
deleverage rapidly after it was
received proceeds of the sale of
its Chaglla hydropower plant and
Olmos irrigation unit. That has
left Odebrecht pressing banks
for a lifeline, with limited suc-
cess so far.
Some private-sector banks AFP as he is popularly known, is fa- 40-years-old no longer remem- ruption in the wake of Stroess- ing as official propaganda gov-
have agreed to provide new loans Asuncion vourite to succeed outgoing ber the dictatorship, which is why ner’s fall. “I want to show that ernment statements playing up
to Odebrecht if they get prefer- president Horacio Cartes. it is not part of the discussion in my commitment is to the future 4.5 % growth in 2017, among the
ential rights as creditors, a con- Opinion polls give him a lead this campaign,” according to po- of Paraguay.” highest in Latin America.

ensnared in Brazil’s largest-ever
corruption probe.
It has admitted to paying
bribes from Peru to Panama and
has paid $3.5bn in settlements in
the US, Brazil and Switzerland.
The last financial statement
available to creditors showed a
$700mn cash position in Sep-
tember, one of the sources said,
but its current cash position is
unclear.
A final decision among Ode-
brecht’s creditors is expected
early next week, the sources
added.
Cross default clauses on the
bonds mean that a default on
next week’s payments would
dition which displeased other
lenders, two sources said.
Other banks have refused to
provide more cash, but at least
one waived debt limits previous-
ly imposed, according to another
source.
In the talks with creditors,
Odebrecht has agreed to sell its
Braskem stake within two years
to repay the debt, according to
one of the sources.
Odebrecht has discussed hir-
ing the Brazilian unit of invest-
ment bank Moelis & Co as ad-
visor, two of the sources said,
but the bank would only have a
mandate in the event of a debt
restructuring.
T
he US-educated son of a
top aide to Paraguay’s late
dictator Alfredo Stroess-
ner is favourite to win tomor-
row’s presidential election in the
Latin American country.
Opinion polls give Mario
Abdo Benitez of the ruling con-
servative Colorado party a clear
advantage over lawyer Efrain
Alegre from the centrist GANAR
coalition.
Abdo’s family has long been
linked with Stroessner, but it
doesn’t seem to have done his
campaign any harm.
A twice-married 46-year-
old former senator who studied
marketing in the US, “Marito”
of some 20 percentage points.
His father was Stroessner’s
private secretary, and they also
had a family connection.
“What they tell me is that Stro-
essner often stayed at my grand-
mother’s house when he came to
Asuncion to study at the military
college, because there was a dis-
tant relationship between my
grandmother and the mother of
General Stroessner,” he said.
But past connections with the
dictator accused by human rights
groups of up to 3,000 killings and
disappearances during his iron-
fisted 1954-1989 rule have been left
aside in the electoral campaign.
“Those who are less than
litical analyst Francisco Capli.
“I am proud that the victims
who suffered mistreatment and
torture at that time are working
with me today,” Abdo said in an
interview. “This is another era.
If I had been rejected, they
would not be with me.”
Abdo is a product of Para-
guay’s high society but he claims
to have forged his own political
identity since entering politics
in 1992. “I regret the dark part of
our history, but like many Para-
guayans I think it should not be
an excuse to maintain division
among compatriots,” he said. “I
was 17 when Stroessner fell.”
His father was jailed for cor-
For his 55-year-old rival,
former public works minister and
parliament president Efrain Ale-
gre, “Marito represents the past.”
A practising Catholic opposed
to abortion and gay marriage,
his conservative views contrast
with some of the parties in his
centrist GANAR Alliance.
Alegre has advocated slash-
ing electricity bills, citing cheap
power available from the coun-
try’s Itaipu dam — the world’s
second biggest — as well as free
health care for the country’s
poor, which has led to rivals
branding him a populist.
“Macroeconomics doesn’t
feed the people,” he said, reject-
Being an anti-Stroessner
militant in his youth led him to
study law. “For me, studying law
meant youthful rebellion and I
thought it was an important in-
strument to use to fight against
the dictatorship,” he said.
Alegre is contesting his sec-
ond presidential election in five
years, having lost out to tobacco
magnate Cartes in 2013.
The eighth of 12 sons of a
landowner from the southeast,
Alegre says that decades of
conservative Colorado govern-
ments have been synonymous
with “instability, poverty, waste
and corruption” in one of Latin
America’s poorest countries.

Poll campaign Court blocks sales

Fraud alleged in Venezuela
of Frida Kahlo Barbie
food import programme AFP grant certain precautionary meas-
Mexico City ures to protect our rights to Frida
Reuters fresh evidence of such activ- The rule of Venezuelan Presi- Kahlo’s intellectual property,” said
Washington ity during a meeting in Washing- dent Nicolas Maduro, who took the family’s lawyer, Pablo Sangri.

A
ton on the sidelines of the spring office in 2013, has coincided with Mexican court has barred Mattel’s Mexico office did not
meetings of the World Bank, a deep recession caused in part by sales of a controversial Fr- immediately respond to requests

T
he US and Colombia cited
new evidence of fraud in
Venezuela’s food import
programme for the needy, saying
part of the funds often ended up
in the hands of corrupt govern-
ment officials after being fun-
nelled through businesses in
nearby countries.
Army officials and others in
Venezuela tasked with distributing
food amid widespread shortages in
the crisis-hit Opec member have
long been suspected of stealing or
misappropriating government-
related funds, often with the help
of businesses and individuals
based outside of the country.
“This money leaves Venezuela
to buy food but is retained by a
large number of companies and
people with ties to the Venezue-
lan regime,” Colombian Finance
Minister Mauricio Cardenas said
in an interview.
Financial intelligence units from
the US and Colombia presented
Cardenas said, adding the presen-
tation included maps showing the
cross-border operation.
Venezuelan authorities did not
respond to a request for comment.
Cardenas said a component
of the food distribution network
that operates in Colombia was
“well-identified” but “it involves
businesses in other jurisdictions,
so we need to widen our radar.”
He said financial intelligence
units from Panama and Mexico
would join the US and Colom-
bian teams.
“We are going to have an initial
meeting of this financial intelli-
gence group in Panama in May to
see in more detail and drill down
into some businesses that have
been identified as potential vehi-
cles to divert the money,” Carde-
nas said.
Cardenas did not say how
much money was involved but
suggested it could be in the mil-
lions of US dollars.
a plunge in global oil prices and
failed state-led economic policies.
Maduro is running for re-elec-
tion on May 20 in a vote the main
opposition coalition is boycott-
ing because it says the conditions
are stacked in favour of the sit-
ting president.
Meanwhile the European Un-
ion said it could impose further
sanctions on Venezuela if it be-
lieves democracy is being under-
mined there.
EU foreign affairs chief Federica
Mogherini said in a statement she
regretted the way the authorities
under President Nicolas Maduro
had called the May 20 presidential
elections without a consensus on
the “conditions for a credible and
inclusive electoral process.”
In response, Venezuela’s for-
eign ministry said in a statement:
“The European Union and its
member states show their re-
grettable subordination to the
opinions of the US government.”
ida Kahlo Barbie doll in the
painter’s home country, ruling her
family owned the sole rights to her
image, lawyers said.
The Frida Kahlo doll, launched
in March by US toy giant Mattel,
has drawn criticism for putting a
painter known for defying gen-
der norms into the plastic body of
Barbie.
It also drew a lawsuit from Kah-
lo’s relatives, who claimed Mattel
used the painter’s image without
their authorisation and criticised
the company for lightening her
skin, feminising her features and
omitting her famous unibrow.
The court ruling bans sales of
the Frida Barbie immediately in
Mexico, or any use of the “brand,
image and works of Frida Kahlo”
by Mattel. It can still be appealed.
Federal deputy Jair Bolsonaro, a pre-candidate for Brazil’s The family said it would wait for
presidential elections, takes pictures with students of the the final outcome of the Mexican
military college during an Army Day ceremony, in Brasilia, case, then launch a similar lawsuit
Brazil. in the US. “This litigation is in its
first stage. We asked the judge to
for comment.
“I’m thrilled (with the deci-
sion), I think justice is finally being
done,” Kahlo’s great-niece, Mara
Romeo, said. She said the case is
not just a dispute over rights, it is
about who her aunt really was. “It
should have been a much more
Mexican doll, with darker skin, a
unibrow, not so thin because Frida
was not that thin...dressed in more
Mexican clothing, with Mexican
jewelry.”
Kahlo (1907-1954), who was
married to the famous Mexican
muralist Diego Rivera, is to-
day considered one of the great
painters of the 20th century,
particularly for her self-por-
traits, often brimming with pain
and isolation.
Her instantly recognisable look
- unibrow, thick black braids,
flowery, hand-embroidered Mexi-
can “tehuana” dresses - and the
boldness with which she wore it
have made her a pop icon.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, April 21, 2018 11

PAKISTAN
Tribal
areas get
local govt
Team set up to scrutinise
system
Internews
Peshawar
Internet voting system
Internews Dr Muhammad Manshad In an official statement, the disaster and pointed out several reliably relaying the results are passwords can help, the security

T
he Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Islamabad Satti, the chief executive of IT ECP said that all rumours con- risks associated with Internet also important considerations. checks may not be adequate.
(KP) Apex Committee Butler, based in Dubai, has been cerning the availability of such a voting systems. The official said that remote The official also said that a
agreed yesterday to im- asked to lead the team. system were false. He said there are security risks Internet voting presented great- lot of time and money must be

mediately implement a local
government system in the Fed-
erally Administered Tribal Areas
(Fata) of Pakistan to help resolve
basic issues.
The meeting was chaired by
KP Governor Iqbal Zafar Jhagra
and attended by Chief Minister
Pervez Khattak, the Peshawar
corps commander, and senior
functionaries of law enforce-
ment agencies and other depart-
ments.
Participants of the meeting
expressed satisfaction over the
improvement in the law-and-
order situation in the province
and Fata and also discussed
social welfare development
schemes.
They were also apprised about
the border management system
and the pace of fencing on the
border between Pakistan and
Afghanistan.
The committee praised the
decision to remove duties and
taxes on construction mate-
rial and food items for displaced
T
he Election Commission Other members include ECP The ECP explained that they involved, including the risk of er opportunities for fraud, coer- invested to ensure that people
of Pakistan (ECP) has director general of Law Muham- had been considering the idea of the system being infiltrated by cion and vote-buying. were aware that they had the op-
formed a committee to mad Arshad, Punjab Information remote voting facilities for over- hackers, who would be able to Fraud occurs when someone tion to vote electronically.
conduct a technical audit of the Technology Board chairman Dr seas Pakistanis for a long time. cast votes while taking on the votes on behalf of another per- Voters will also need tutori-
Internet voting solution process Umar Saif, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa However, the mechanisms identity of other eligible voters. son without his or her permis- als on how to use the system
that was proposed by the Na- (KP) Informational Technology involved in the operation would The potential for rigging the sion, whereas coercion or vote- and there must be a mechanism
tional Database and Registration Board representative Shahbaz have to go through several system is huge, and it could re- buying takes place when a voter to ensure that any technical
Authority (Nadra). Khan, National University of checks and technical develop- sult in a controversial election. is pressured to vote for candi- problems, should they arise, are
The task force formed on the Science and Technology (Is- ment phases. He said the secrecy of the bal- dates that he or she would not quickly resolved.
directions of the Supreme Court lamabad) assistant professor Dr It would also require multiple lot would also be an issue for the have otherwise. Without proper marketing, it
is mandated to assess the techni- Syed Taha Ali, and representa- pilot tests to ensure that the se- voters using unprotected com- Both present problems for the is going to be difficult to get the
cal soundness of the Web-based tives from the Lahore University curity is foolproof and the sys- puters in public spaces. integrity of the ballot. message across.
automated system that has been of Management Sciences and tem cannot be compromised. There are also concerns about There is an additional risk in The official said that electoral
designed to help overseas Paki- the Institute of Business Admin- The ECP also pointed out that dangerous virus attacks. electronic voting systems if vot- administrators would cede con-
stanis vote through the Internet. istration (Karachi). at the time there were no clear Other potential technical er notification cards which con- trol to hired firms.
Only expatriates who have The task force has been com- legal provisions for the use of problems include power out- tain unique passwords required Contracting electronic voting
been issued national identity missioned days after the ECP electronic voting. ages, malfunctions in Internet to cast a ballot are intercepted. systems to private companies
cards for overseas Pakistanis and rejected rumours circulating on A senior ECP official, when connectivity as well as the pos- Verifying voter identity is also does not bode well for public
valid machine-readable pass- social media about the availabil- contacted, insisted that a hasty sibility of servers shutting down a significant problem when votes confidence either, as results of
ports will be eligible to use the ity of electronic voting facilities introduction of any new tech- or crashing. are not cast in person. the elections will be clouded by
system to cast their votes. for overseas Pakistanis. nology would be a recipe for Storing votes cast online, and While digital signatures and doubts over transparency issues.
PML-N won’t propose names for caretaker PM
The Pakistan Muslim League – Nawaz (PML-N) has decided not to pro-
pose names for the caretaker prime minister, practically surrendered
options to the opposition Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), thus paving
#MeToo hits Pakistan as allegations

mount against leading singer Zafar

persons in Fata.
Appreciating the efforts and
sacrifices rendered by the peo-
ple and personnel of law en-
forcement agencies in Fata and
Malakand division, the apex
committee praised the efforts of
local elders in restoring peace
the way for a consensus caretaker prime minister in June.
“(PML-N leader) Nawaz Sharif conveyed this to Prime Minister Shahid
Khaqan Abbasi, who informed the Leader of the Opposition in the
National Assembly Syed Khursheed Shah during his April 11 meeting
in Islamabad,” a key leader of PML-N revealed yesterday.
Earlier, there was a strong possibility that both the PML-N and the AFP/Internews Zafar (right) has rejected the
PPP would not agree to any consensus candidate, in case both give Islamabad/Karachi allegations by Shafi (below).
panels of their choice.
The incumbent PML-N government is set to end its five-year tenure

and carrying forward develop-
ment activities in their respec-
tive areas.
Expressing determination to
thwart all attempts to sabotage
the achievements of state in-
stitutions, participants of the
meeting said that maligning
these institutions would be dis-
couraged at all levels.
Peace, they said, had been
achieved at a very high cost.
The apex committee members
unanimously agreed to promote
political activities in the tribal
areas.
They welcomed ongoing ef-
forts of tribal elders and elected
representatives in this regard.
Business woes
Traders from the North Waziristan tribal district shout during a protest in Islamabad yesterday. The
traders are protesting the consequences of military operations in 2014 against the Taliban, which they
say damaged local business.
P
by the end of next month. ressure mounted yes-
Sources claim that Sharif knew that the PPP would not accept the terday against Pakistani
nominees of his party and the issue would ultimately be decided by singer Ali Zafar after he
the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP), which he does not want. was hit with a sexual harass-
Another reason for surrendering the option of recommending ment allegation by a leading
someone for interim office is to woo the PPP and its co-chairman Asif actress in the first high profile
Ali Zardari. “#MeToo” accusation.
The sources say that Prime Minister Abbasi has told Khursheed Shah The allegations were trending
to come to an agreement with other opposition parties. across social media in Pakistan
In this context, Khursheed Shah has deliberated upon the choice after popular actress Meesha
of the caretaker prime minister with the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf Shafi posted a lengthy mes-
(PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League – Quaid-e-Azam (PML-Q), and has sage on Twitter, accusing Zafar
reportedly finalised some names. of physically harassing her on
Confirming the development, PML-N Senator Pervaiz Rashid said: “more than one occasion”.
“The PML-N has surrendered the options. We want the opposition to “Today, I speak up because
fill in the slot this time.” my conscience does not allow
He confirmed that Nawaz Sharif has decided not to recommend me to be silent anymore,” she
anyone for the caretaker prime minister. said in a statement posted on
the social media website, adding
that if this could happen to an
established artist like her then
it could happen to any young
woman hoping to enter the in-
dustry.
“I have been subjected, on
more than one occasion, to sex-
ual harassment of a physical na-
ture at the hands of a colleague
from my industry: Ali Zafar.
“These incidences did not
happen when I was young, or
just entering the industry.
“This happened to me despite
the fact that I am an empow-
ered, accomplished woman who
is known for speaking her mind!
This happened to me as a moth-
er of two children,” she claimed.
Shafi is a prominent figure in
the entertainment industry.
She has featured prominently
in Coke Studio and movies like
The Reluctant Fundamentalist.
Zafar is known widely for
musical tracks like Channo and
Rockstar along with roles in
Bollywood films such as Tere Bin
Laden and Kill Dil.
He is also a regular fixture on
Coke Studio.
While several Pakistani ce-
lebrities have come forward to
reveal their childhood experi-
ences of sexual abuse as part of
the #MeToo movement, Shafi’s
statement is the first instance of
a Pakistani entertainer publicly
calling out a peer for sexual mis-
conduct.
Shafi said that when the inci-
dent happened, the first person
she informed was her husband.
“Shortly after that I spoke
about this incident to some-
one on my team, and one of my
friends,” she said, adding that
it shouldn’t be this difficult to
speak out when one was right.
“As parents, we tell our chil-
dren to speak up if somebody
touches them inappropriately
and that it is never their fault.
So why is it this hard to do the
same?” she said. “One shouldn’t
have to be this brave to report
sexual misconduct. I’ve had
support around me, I consider
myself an empowered woman,
and I still had such a hard time
with this decision.”
Her mother, actress Saba
Hamid, said she supported her
daughter’s decision to go public.
“I am hurt and angry and I feel
very strongly about this. That
this can happen with someone
like Meesha who is so empow-
ered is a rude awakening,” she
said.
However, in a tweet Zafar de-
nied the allegations and said he
would take Shafi to court.
In a statement shared on his
Twitter account, he said that he
was deeply aware and in support
of the global #MeToo move-
ment and what it stood for.
“I have nothing to hide. Si-
lence is absolutely not an op-
tion. I categorically deny any
and all claims of harassment
lodged against me by Shafi. I
intend to take this through the
courts of law ultimately I am a
strong believer that the truth al-
ways prevails.”
Following the accusation,
other high-profile voices were
quick to lend their support.
“No woman goes public with
allegations like this just for fun.
Obviously you spend no time
listening to women when they
talk about how widespread
harassment is in our society,”
tweeted Pakistani novelist and
columnist Bina Shah.
The #MeToo and #TimesUp
campaigns have gone global
since allegations of sexual mis-
conduct by Hollywood pro-
ducer Harvey Weinstein were
published last October, spark-
ing an avalanche of accusations
against other powerful men.
However, the movement has
been slow to catch on in Paki-
stan, where women have fought
for their rights for years in a
patriarchal society where so-
called “honour” killings and
attacks on women remain com-
monplace.
In a report released earlier
this week by watchdog Human
Rights Commission Pakistan,
the group said violence against
women remained troubling,
with 5,660 related crimes re-
ported in the country’s four
provinces in the first 10 months
of 2017.
In August, firebrand op-
position leader Imran Khan
was also hit with allegations
of sexual misconduct by a fe-
male lawmaker who accused
the famed cricketer of send-
ing obscene text messages and
promoting a culture of sexism
within his Pakistan Tehreek-
e-Insaf party.
He has denied the allegations.

UN honours

Bilawal Bhutto says dynastic politics was forced upon PPP seven Pakistani
peacekeepers
Seven Pakistani peacekeepers
Internews party that he co-heads with his ing them “allies” and gave them by corruption cases, the chair- who lost their lives for global
Islamabad father Asif Ali Zardari is repre- a “free hand” in the run-up to man answered that his father peace and security were
sentative of a democratic, so- the polls. had spent over 11 years in prison honoured at the annual memorial
cially just, and modern Pakistan. “My candidates were kid- “without a conviction”. ceremony held at United Nations

P
akistan Peoples Party
(PPP) chairman Bilawal
Bhutto-Zardari has said
that the PPP is not dynastic by
choice.
“My grandfather was killed
(hanged by the court), which
forced my mother to enter poli-
tics, and she was assassinated,
which forced me in,” said the
young leader in an interview
with the BBC’s Hardtalk.
“I will not go into the merits
or the demerits of dynastic poli-
tics,” said Bhutto-Zardari when
asked if the PPP was a party only
of the Bhutto family.
The 29-year-old leader said
that while it was true that dy-
nastic politics had no place in
modern democracies, it is a real-
ity in Pakistan.
Bhutto-Zardari said that the
When asked about who really
runs the party – his father or Bi-
lawal himself – he said that the
party made all decisions with
consensus and that no one per-
son is in charge.
To a question on whether the
PPP had forgotten its ideology,
and what it stood for, he said
that the PPP had always been
committed to democracy and
that it maintained its roots.
Bhutto-Zardari said that the
party would look to his grand-
father’s slogan of roti, kapra,
and makaan to campaign for the
elections.
He claimed that the PPP’s op-
position to the Tehreek-e-Tali-
ban Pakistan (TTP) is the reason
why the party did not do well in
the 2013 elections.
He pointed out that the TTP
napped; the prime minister’s
son was kidnapped and the
former governor’s son was also
kidnapped.”
He said it is not only the TTP
that is out against his party, but
also anti-democratic elements
within the country.
“We were not allowed to cam-
paign, the political chief jus-
tice of the time – who has now
gone on to form his own party
– stopped my father from cam-
paigning,” he said.
About the obstacles faced by
the PPP, Bhutto-Zardari pointed
out that no political actor any-
Bhutto-Zardari: dynastic politics ... is a reality in Pakistan. where in the world could have
overcome the problems experi-
had specifically called out the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), enced by the party.
PPP as its enemy, while openly and the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI). Asked what the PPP thought
supporting the Pakistan Muslim He said that the Taliban sup- of allegations of corruption and
League – Nawaz (PML-N), the ported these three parties, call- Asif Zardari’s image tarnished
He said that the PPP had al-
ways fought for democracy
against dictators.
“Each and every single case
brought against my parents – it
took us thirty years, we fought it
out. Each and every single case,
they have been acquitted.”
“‘You have to have lemon
and honey in your tea,’ I told my
mother in our last conversation
before she was killed. She had
been campaigning across the
country … she was a charismat-
ic speaker and spoke from the
heart after a long campaign her
voice had gone away,” said Bhut-
to-Zardari remembering his last
moments with his mother.
Benazir had repeatedly been
threatened by the Taliban but
she had refused to be held back
or swayed by fear.
headquarters in New York.
UN Secretary-General Antonio
Guterres attended the
programme as chief guest.
So far, 156 Pakistani blue helmets
have been killed while serving
under the UN umbrella.
The seven Pakistani
peacekeepers were Naik Qaiser
Abbas, Sepoy Hazrat Bilal,
and Naik Abdul Ghafoor (UN
Multidimensional Integrated
Stabilisation Mission in the
Central African Republic –
MINUSCA), Sepoy Muhammad
Ishtiaq Abbasi, Havildar Zishan
Ahmed, and Naik Attaur Rehman
(UN Organisation Stabilisation
Mission in the Democratic
Republic of the Congo –
MONUSCO), and Sepoy Yasir
Abbas (African Union/UN Hybrid
operation in Darfur).
 Gulf Times
12 Saturday, April 21, 2018

PHILIPPINES

Govt decries European Dancers

Parliament’s ‘interference’
z European Parliament
wants drug-related killings
stopped z About 4,100 killed
in Duterte’s war on drugs
since 2016 z Philippines
says criticism based on
wrong information
Reuters
Philippine police have killed
about 4,100 people since Presi-
dent Rodrigo Duterte took pow-
er in late June 2016 in what the
authorities say were shootouts
during anti-narcotics opera-
tions. Activists say many of the
killings were executions, which
police deny.
liament has crossed a red line
when it called for unwarranted
actions against the Philippines,”
Foreign Secretary Alan Peter
Cayetano said in a statement
late on Thursday.
In the latest violence in the
campaign against drugs, po-
lice announced the killing of 13
than its legislative branch. The
EU is an important source of
development aid, commerce
and investment for the Philip-
pines. European lawmakers also
called on Manila to remove what
they called human rights de-
fenders from its list of people it
considers “terrorists”, including
based on “biased, incomplete
and even wrong information
and does not reflect the true
situation on the ground”.
“In case the members of the
European Parliament are not
aware of it, may we remind
them that their recommended
actions already constitute in-
hope to
keep flame
Duterte and his backers on no-
alive during
Boracay
tice — that continued grave
abuses will come at a price,” a
researcher for the rights group,
closure
Carlos Conde, said in a state-
ment. Presidential spokesman Reuters
Harry Roque said the European Boracay
Parliament was criticising what
the EU supported financially.

A
Manila At least other 2,300 drug-re- people and arrest of 46 in 49 Victoria Tauli-Corpuz, the UN terference in the affairs of a sov- “I find it inconsistent that s night falls on the Philip-
lated deaths have also occurred, anti-drug operations in Bula- special rapporteur on the rights ereign state,” he said. the European Parliament will pine resort island of Bo-
at the hands of what police say can province, north of the capi- of indigenous peoples. New York-based Human condemn the war against drugs, racay, beach-goers eat,

T
he Philippines has de-
nounced what it called
interference in its in-
ternal affairs by the European
Parliament, which urged the
Southeast Asian country to end
“extrajudicial killings” and halt
plans to bring back the death
penalty.
are unknown assassins.
The European lawmakers, in
a resolution on Thursday, con-
demned Philippine authorities
for “trying to justify these mur-
ders with falsified evidence”,
which Manila said was med-
dling and based on wrong in-
formation. “The European Par-
tal Manila, in a span of 12 hours
yesterday.
The European Parliament
and its members have criti-
cised the Philippines’ brutal
anti-narcotics crackdown sev-
eral times, infuriating Duterte,
who has directed his frustration
at the European Union, rather
They also condemned “the
intimidation and the abuse” of
rights activists and journalists,
and said Duterte’s push to re-
introduce the death penalty was
against the country’s interna-
tional obligations.
Cayetano said the European
Parliament’s resolution was
Rights Watch applauded the
European Parliament for adopt-
ing the resolution and for its
support for international efforts
to investigate the Philippine
crackdown.
“It is a timely and forceful
message from the EU parlia-
mentarians putting President
which is now also being fi-
nanced partly by the European
Union,” Roque said in a media
briefing.
He was referring to 3.8mn
euros ($4.7mn) in EU aid an-
nounced in March for gov-
ernment drug rehabilitation
projects.
drink and watch a troupe of fire
dancers twirling flames and per-
forming acrobatics.
Among the dancers is Princess
Taunan, who, like many other
workers in the tourist business,
will be out of a job next week
when the holiday hotspot closes
for up to six months.
The closure is part of a major
clean-up of the island President
Rodrigo Duterte has described as
a “cesspool” due to pollution.

Court to be asked “It’s good. At least it will save

the island and my daughter will
benefit since it’s also for their
future,” Taunan, 22, told Reuters

extra time to Television.

Boracay, due to be closed to
all visitors from April 26, has
joined other beach resorts across

produce drug Southeast Asia facing growing

pressure from a surge in visitors.
The island, which generated
over $1bn last year and is home

war records to more than 30,000 people

whose livelihoods depend on
tourism, can no longer cope with
the strain of 2mn annual visitors,
Reuters “As of this time, there is a the government says.
Manila motion being prepared,” the Some 195 businesses in Bo-
new national police chief, racay were found to be discharg-
Oscar Albayalde, told a news ing untreated waste water into

T
he Philippine govern-
ment will ask the Su-
preme Court for more
time to answer its order to
hand over records of thou-
sands of deadly encounters in
its war on drugs, and will not
comply until the president
agrees, the national police
chief said yesterday.
The high court on April 3
gave police 15 days to com-
ply with a December order to
submit records related to the
bloody drugs war, which the
solicitor-general attempted
to block on the grounds of
national security, arguing it
could endanger police, in-
formants and witnesses.
conference. He said the police
would take orders from Presi-
dent Rodrigo Duterte before
releasing any information
about the drugs war.
“Maybe, even without the
Supreme Court order, he may
order us to give the records,”
he added.
Supreme Court spokesman
Theodore Te said he was una-
ware of any submission from
the police.
About 4,100 people have
since June 2016 been killed by
police and several thousand
more by unknown gunmen
whom the authorities have de-
scribed as vigilantes, or rival
gang members.
the sea, resulting in increased
concentration of human faeces
along the beaches and posing
health risks to swimmers.
Taunan, a fire dancer since she
was 14, said she was trying to
earn as much as possible before
the island shuts down.
“Summer is usually when we
File photo shows members of Philippine National Police SWAT team standing guard near residents during an anti-drugs operation, in get more gigs, but now that it is
Pasig, Metro Manila. closing we won’t have anything,”
she said.
Every night, the island’s
roughly 65 fire dancers put on
New police chief pledges shows at beaches outside resorts
and restaurants.
Wearing colourful costumes,
they dance and spin flaming ob-
jects to upbeat music.

Jealous boyfriend kills partner, five others

In a fit of intense jealousy, a
warehouseman hacked dead
his live-in partner and five
Jennifer’s sister, managed
to escape and told their
neighbour Catlyn Seranon
to pursue drug crackdown
AFP He took over from Ronaldo
Manila Dela Rosa, who retired with
hero’s honours this week af-
ter helping Duterte launch the
the government of the Philip-
pines to put an immediate end
to the extrajudicial killings in
the pretext of a ‘war on drugs’”.
ference” in Manila’s internal
affairs, describing it as “biased”
and “based on wrong informa-
tion”. Duterte last month pulled
Taunan said she earns up to
$10 a night in tips from tourists.
It’s not much, but when com-
bined with the meagre income
earned by Taunan’s live-in part-
ner at a transport co-op, there
is just enough for the family of
three to live on, she said.
The government has set aside

family members, including
their mother and an 11-year-
old boy, in San Leonardo,
Nueva Ecija, at dawn yester-
day, Manila Times reported.
A member of the family was
able to run away with her
one-year-old daughter, clutch-
ing her wounded neck, and
shouted for help. Suspect Jes-
sie Tesoro, 34, escaped after
the hacking spree.
Police identified the victims as
Jennifer Caballero, 28, Tesoro’s
live-in partner; her mother
Leonila, 65; her brother Sergio,
25; her sister Abby Mylene;
her brother-in-law Sonny Cus-
todio; and Joshua Caballero, 11.
Analyn Caballero-Custodio,
what had happened while
Elena Miranda, caretaker of
the victims’ rented house in
Barangay Adorable, immedi-
ately called the police.
Responding policemen and
an emergency rescue team
found the victims sprawled in
a pool of blood.
The bolo (knife) that Tesoro
allegedly used in hacking the
victims was recovered at the
crime scene.
Custodio said they were sleep-
ing when Tesoro attacked
them one by one. Jennifer’s
brother Sergio and Custodio
tried to defend themselves
but were overpowered and
fatally hacked.
T
he newly named top
police commander of
the Philippines pledged
yesterday to keep up President
Rodrigo Duterte’s bloody anti-
drug war despite fresh interna-
tional condemnation over the
killings.
Director General Oscar Al-
bayalde, who was sworn in
Thursday, will now lead the
narcotics crackdown that has
killed thousands since Duterte
came to power just under two
years ago.
“How to sustain the drug
war? In order to sustain it, we
will not change anything,” Al-
bayalde told reporters at his
first press conference as com-
mander.
bloody crackdown.
“Why would we stop a pro-
gramme that is very effective?”
Albayalde added, citing “very
good momentum and gains”
since the alleged police kill-
ing last year of a teenage boy
wrongly accused of drug crimes
that sparked street protests.
Police yesterday announced
another 13 alleged drug sus-
pects were killed in a sweep
that also led to the arrest of 58
people. Albayalde’s comments
came as the Philippines pushed
back against a European Union
Parliament resolution voted
on Thursday that criticised the
crackdown, the latest interna-
tional condemnation of it.
The EU lawmakers called “on
It also expressed “grave con-
cern over credible reports to the
effect that the Philippine police
force is falsifying evidence to
justify extrajudicial killings”.
While police say the campaign
has killed around 4,100 people,
rights groups allege the true
toll is triple that number and
amounts to state-sponsored
murder.
Duterte began the crackdown
in July 2016 after pledging
during the presidential elec-
tion campaign to kill 100,000
criminals to rid society of the
scourge of narcotics.
Philippine Foreign Secretary
Alan Peter Cayetano on Thurs-
day denounced the EU parlia-
mentary resolution as “inter-
his country from the Inter-
national Criminal Court after
The Hague-based body’s chief
prosecutor launched an initial
examination into allegations
lodged against the president
over his drug war.
He also threatened to arrest
the chief ICC prosecutor, Fatou
Bensouda, if she tried to enter
the Philippines to pursue her
investigation.
On Sunday the Philippines
deported EU politician Giaco-
mo Filibeck, who has previously
criticised Duterte’s crackdown,
and on Monday briefly detained
an elderly Australian nun who
has been critical of alleged hu-
man rights violations by Philip-
pine soldiers.
2bn pesos ($38.4mn) to help
informal workers — including
masseuses, tattoo artists, sand
sculptors and dancers — who
complained they will lose their
main source of income during
the closure.
But Taunan said she and other
dancers have yet to hear about
the aid plan from local authori-
ties.
With nowhere else to go, the
Boracay native said she planned
to wait for the tourists to come
back.
“Fire dancers are one of the
things that bring Boracay to life,
and what the island is known
for,” she said. “It won’t be com-
plete without people seeing fire
dancers”.

Residents favour army camp in Marawi city

By Ralph Villanueva during our consultations, the residents the residents who had been there for so
Manila Times of the most affected area are in favour of long.
the camp here,” he said. “Plans have been made without our
Purisima reiterated that the people of participation. Plans that neither bear

T
he people of Marawi are in favour
of a plan of the Armed Forces of
the Philippines (AFP) to build a
military camp in the city, a member of
the task force overseeing the rehabilita-
tion of Marawi said yesterday.
In a Task Force Bangon Marawi news
briefing in Malacanang, Toby Purisima,
Office of Civil Defence assistant sec-
retary, said feedback on the plan from
consultations with the people of Marawi
was generally favourable.
“We have to remember, security
measures are needed in the most af-
fected area because of what happened in
the past, the incident that resulted in the
destruction of the most affected area (in
Marawi),” Purisima added, referring to
the siege of the city by the Maute terror-
ist group from May to October last year.
“We really need security measures
in the area. And based on our feedback
Marawi are not being bypassed on any
step of the rehabilitation.
On January 30, President Rodrigo
Duterte led groundbreaking for the new
military camp in Marawi.
The 10-hectare camp will cost
P400mn and will be developed in Baran-
gay Kapataran.
The AFP earlier said the military camp
would deter another siege by terrorist
groups.
The Manila Times reported on Febru-
ary 26 that terrorists from Marawi are
regrouping and that they may be gearing
up for another attack elsewhere.
Earlier this year, civilian group Ranaw
Multi-Sectoral Movement opposed the
government’s plan to build the camp,
saying they are being ignored by the task
force.
The group said the rehabilitation of
Marawi did not consider the presence of
the stamp of our will nor reflect our cul-
ture. Plans whose mechanics and imple-
mentation are not clear to us,” it said in a
statement.
According to the United Nations
Refugee Agency, 353,921 individuals, or
77,179 families, were displaced from Ma-
rawi City and neighbouring municipali-
ties because of the five-month war.
Duterte initially signed Proclama-
tion 216, which declared martial law and
suspended the writ of habeas corpus in
Mindanao for 60 days on May 23, 2017,
in order to stabilise the situation in Ma-
rawi.
On July 22, martial law was then ex-
tended until the end of the year.
On December 13, 2017, the last day of
Congress, military rule was again ex-
tended for the whole of 2018 to speed
up the rehabilitation and to stunt the re- Residents take a selfie after they were allowed to return to their homes for the first time since the battle between
grouping of the terrorists. government troops and Islamic State militants began in May last year, in the city of Marawi, southern Philippines.

Nepal airport
reopens after
plane skids
off runway
AFP
Kathmandu
A
Malaysian jet carrying
139 people that aborted
its takeoff and skidded
into mud forced Kathmandu air-
port to shut down for more than
12 hours causing flight chaos
yesterday after the latest near
miss on the city’s notoriously
dangerous runway.
Nobody was hurt in the inci-
dent but hundreds of passengers
had flights out of the Nepalese
capital cancelled and all incom-
ing flights were diverted after
the Malindo Airlines Boeing
Eran Wickramaratne, Sri Lanka’s State Minister of Finance and
Mass Media and chairman of the G-24, holds a press conference
during the 2018 Spring Meetings of the International Monetary
Fund and World Bank Group in Washington, DC yesterday.
Govt to press
ahead with
reforms: FM
Agencies
Colombo
S
ri Lanka will continue
to press ahead with re-
forms and the revenue
for the start of the year is on
target, State Finance Minister
Eran Wickramaratne said in an
interview.
“We are more or less on
track” with the reform pro-
gram, said Wickramaratne,
who represents the United
National Party in the coalition
government.
A fuel price formula will
be implemented as planned
and sales of state-owned ho-
tels will proceed, he said in
Washington, where finance
chiefs and central bank bosses
are gathered for the IMF and
World Bank Spring meetings,
reported Bloomberg News.
Nepal honours eight foreign climbers
Agencies
Kathmandu
N
epal government has
honoured eight foreign
mountaineers, who were
part of a team that scaled Mt Ev-
erest in 1978, marking the 40th
anniversary of their ascent of the
world’s highest mountain peak.
The mountaineers, from vari-
ous countries, were felicitated by
Minister for Culture, Tourism and
Civil Aviation Rabindra Adhikari
in a special ceremony organised in
Kathmandu on Thursday.
Standing 8,848m high, Mt Ev-
erest was first summitted in 1953
by Nepal’s Tenzing Norgay and
737 went off the runway late
Thursday.
The jet was speeding down the
Tribhuvan International Airport
runway when the pilots detected
a problem and aborted takeoff,
airport spokesman Prem Nath
Thakur said.
The jet skidded into grass
and came to a halt in mud about
100ft (30m) from the runway at
the airport which had a major
crash last month.
“All aboard are safe,” Thakur
said, adding that the cause
of the cockpit alert was not
immediately known.
Nepal’s only international
airport reopened again just be-
Staying the course on re-
forms is key to Sri Lanka be-
ing able to tap loans from the
International Monetary Fund,
whose terms include a fuel
pricing mechanism to help cut
losses at state-run refiners. A
March deadline for that step
was missed. The South Asian
nation took a $1.5bn loan from
the IMF in 2016 to stave off a
balance of payments crisis.
Wickramaratne said exports
continue to increase and he
played down fears of a global
trade war.
“There is a rise of pop-
ulism globally and I think it’s
a phase that will go through
and eventually settle down
to economic realism, which
is that major trading part-
ners will gain by coming to
some kind of understanding,”
Wickramaratne said. “I would
say it is a glitch.”
New Zealand’s Edmund Hillary.
The mountaineers hon-
oured on Thursday comprised
a 12-member-team which had
a historic summit of the peak
four decades ago, with two of its
members reaching the top of the
world without bottled oxygen.
Eight surviving members
from the team had arrived in Ne-
pal together for the first time for
the event.
Reinhold Messner (Italy), Oswald
Oelz (Switzerland), Peter Habeler
(Austria), Wolfgang Nairz (Austria),
Raimund Margreiter (Austria), Rob-
ert Schauer (Austria), Hanns Schell
(Austria) and Helmut Hagner (Aus-
tria) are the surviving members of
the expedition.
SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
fore midday yesterday after the
jet was “removed without any
damage,” Thakur added.
More than 100 people were
needed to move the jet, its tyres
stuck in grass that had been
turned into a soggy morass by
recent rainfall.
Tow tractors pulled the jet out
of the mud up ramps set up in
front of the tyres.
American traveller Sa-
rah Ann Loreth, heading to
Doha before returning to her
home in Boston, spent hours
on her delayed jet after the
emergency.
“We were supposed to take
off on Thursday but couldn’t
Lanka beefs up tourist China looks to
security after violence peaceful polls
AFP
Colombo
S
ri Lanka announced yes-
terday it would establish
new police posts and step
up patrols at popular resorts
after a spate of sexual attacks
and violence targeting foreign
tourists.
Police chief Pujith Jayasun-
dara said 20 new stations
would be established at holi-
day hotspots to protect visi-
tors from touts and criminals,
despite concerns his force was
already overstretched.
“I wish we had more men
and resources for this job,
but we are making adjust-
ments to our deployments to
ensure better productivity,”
Jayasundara said.
He added the measures were
decided after a Dutch tour-
ist was sexually harassed and
Interpol red notice for Lanka’s top ex-banker
Interpol has issued a red
notice, a request to locate
and provisionally arrest, Sri
Lanka’s former central bank
governor Arjuna Mahendran
who is wanted in connection
with an investigation into a
bond sale, Reuters reports
from Colombo.
President Maithripala
Sirisena said in January that
a presidential commission
investigating 2015 bond sales
had recommended legal action
against Mahendran, a Sri
Lankan-born Singapore citizen
who was central bank governor
at the time, and several others.
Opposition lawmakers have
alleged the 2015 bond auction cost
the state more than $1bn because
of rising borrowing costs.
Messner and Habeler had
scaled the peak in Nepal-Tibet,
without supplementary oxygen
when all of them had scaled the
Everest in 1978.
Messner believes that the
expedition to Sagarmatha, the
Nepalese name for Mt Everest,
has become more of a tourism
event than a mountain expedi-
tion in the recent years.
“Decades ago, climbing
mountain was all about ad-
venture as it was without fixed
schedules and no use of high-
end equipment and technology.
Now, it’s more like a tourism
activity rather than mountain-
eering, it has been quiet easy,”
Messner told media.
People look at an aircraft belonging to Malindo Air that skidded off the runway during takeoff on Thursday night at Tribhuvan International
Airport in Kathmandu, yesterday.
because of the Malaysia flight,”
she said.
“Around 2am the flight at-
tendant informed us the other
flight had slipped off the runway
and was stuck in the mud and
could not be moved.
“They deplaned us around
2:30 am and it was pure chaos.
We went back to the termi-
nal and they had our bags laid
out behind the counter and we
several other tourists were as-
saulted by a gang at a hotel in
the southern resort town of
Mirissa last week.
Five Israeli tourists were
beaten up in the same area this
week and 14 men have been ar-
rested over the two incidents,
police said.
Local media reports have
catalogued several sexual har-
assment complaints by foreign
tourists, with many reluctant
to make official complaints
for fear of drawn-out court
proceedings.
Tourism Minister John Ama-
ratunga appealed to victims to
come forward and promised
to cover the expenses of those
who return to the island to help
identify perpetrators.
The US State Department
warned last year that sexual
crimes against women were on
the rise in Sri Lanka.
While most reported inci-
“International police today
issued a red notice for former
central bank governor
Arjuna Mahendran related
to the investigation by the
police criminal investigation
department of the bond sale,”
police said in a statement.
Mahendran was not
immediately available
for a comment and his
whereabouts were not known.
He has denied wrongdoing.
A Sri Lankan court in February
arrested the owner of dealer
Perpetual Treasuries, Arjun
Aloysius, who is also the son-in-
law of Mahendran, and its chief
executive, Kasun Palisena, on
suspicion of involvement in the
alleged scam.
Aloysius and Palisena have
Minister Adhikary said that
Nepal’s mountaineering activi-
ties are under-publicised and
stressed the need for collectively
working towards promoting
mountain tourism.
“You are our goodwill ambas-
sadors, our missionaries who will
convey the message to world com-
munity in a factual manner,” he
said of the iconic mountaineers
who were honoured at the event.
He also announced the Nepal
government’s plan to observe year
2020 as ‘Visit Nepal Year’ with the
objective of attaining 1.5mn visi-
tors annually, a 50% rise against
the current footfall and increasing
tourism’s contribution to GDP to
25% from the current 5%.
just went behind and grabbed
them.”
Cars eventually took the pas-
sengers to hotels to wait for a re-
organised flight, Loreth said.
The Himalayan nation has
some of the world’s most remote
and tricky runways, flanked by
snow-capped peaks with ap-
proaches that pose a challenge
even for accomplished pilots.
Its only international airport
dents involved non-physical
acts such as cat calls and verbal
harassment, there were sev-
eral serious incidents of sexual
threats, groping and rape.
“Incidents have also occurred
at tourist beaches and smaller
hotels in the Southern province,”
the travel advisory noted.
In 2014, a Sri Lankan court
sentenced a local politician and
three of his supporters to 20
years in jail for the 2011 murder
of British tourist Khuram Shaikh
on Christmas Eve and gang rape
of his Russian partner.
Shaikh, a 32-year-old Red
Cross worker, had tried to stop
a brawl at a southern beach re-
sort when a gang attacked and
killed him.
His girlfriend, who was
knocked unconscious in the
brutal assault, returned to
Sri Lanka in 2014 to give evi-
dence and identified one of her
attackers in court.
also denied any wrongdoing.
The presidential commission
also recommended legal
action against the then
finance minister, Ravi
Karunanayake.
He resigned from his portfolio
in August. He has also denied
wrongdoing.
The central bank said in
January it had suspended four
officers and taken disciplinary
action against several others
in connection with the
allegations of irregularities
in the 2015 government
bond auction and it had
initiated several legislative
changes aimed at preventing
irregularities arising in
connection with future bond
issues.
Trekkers walk along a path at the Mount Everest region, some 140km northeast of Kathmandu, yesterday.
The route is a busy gateway for tourists, climbers and porters heading to the Everest region in Nepal.
struggles with surges in passen-
gers and flights, and faces con-
stant congestion and air traffic.
“Delayed expansion of the air-
port has made things difficult. If
we had the infrastructure, other
flights would not be disrupted
and we could have removed the
aircraft more quickly,” said San-
jeev Gautam, chief of Nepal’s
civil aviation authority.
The incident came one month
in Bangladesh
Agencies
Dhaka
C
hina, the biggest trade
partner with $15bn ex-
ports to Bangladesh,
wants to see the upcoming
general elections to be smooth
and stable.
The Chinese embassy’s eco-
nomic and commercial coun-
sellor, Li Guang Jun, said his
government wants to see a
“peaceful transition of power” in
Bangladesh.
He responded to a question
on Thursday when he said they
have “so many Chinese and
Chinese companies, and we are
concerned about that”.
“We hope the election will
be smooth and stable,” he said
when his comment was sought
about the upcoming elections
and its impact on business ties
with China.
The press briefing at the em-
bassy was organised to publi-
cise the first International Im-
port Expo which will be held in
Shanghai on November 5-10.
“We are of course concerned
as so many Chinese people and
Chinese companies are engaged
in trade and business, and also
have their investment in Bangla-
desh and thus we are concerned
about that,” the diplomat said.
From this year, the import
expo would be held annually to
promote export of its friendly
countries to China, he said,
adding that the upcoming expo
would create a platform for
countries to engage in interna-
tional trade and share business
opportunities with each other.
He said the Chinese govern-
ment has invited Bangladesh,
Gulf Times
Saturday, April 21, 2018 13
after the crash of a US-Bangla
Airways plane at Kathmandu air-
port, which killed 51 people.
In March 2015, a Turkish Air-
lines jet skidded off the runway
as it landed, forcing Tribhuvan
Airport to close for four days.
Nepal has a poor air safety
record. Accidents are common
and Nepal-based airlines are
banned from flying in European
Union airspace.
and the Export Promotion Bu-
reau (EPB) has already showed
its interest in joining the event.
“This is very unique because
it focuses on import although
most countries focus on export.”
According to the diplomat,
the Bangladesh-China bilateral
trade now stands at $16bn. Chi-
na is the largest trading partner
of Bangladesh and Bangladesh’s
export to China now amounts to
$1bn.
He suggested that Bangladesh
should sign a free trade agree-
ment (FTA) with China to give
its exports a boost. Apart from
trade, the FTA would cover in-
vestments. “Chinese investment
would help Bangladesh diversify
its export products which would
ultimately increase Bangladesh’s
exports,” he observed.
Jun said China now has in-
vestments worth $300mn in
Bangladesh. With the latest in-
vestments in the power sector,
the figure will go up manifold.
For example, China is investing
$2bn in Payra of Patuakhali.
Bangladesh would soon sign
a $2.6bn loan deal with China’s
EXIM Bank to finance the rail
link on the Padma Bridge. The
loan would be paid back in 20
years at an interest rate of two
percent and there would be a
grace period of 5 to 7 years, said
the diplomat.
About the Bangladesh, China,
India and Myanmar (BCIM) eco-
nomic corridor, the diplomat
said connectivity is very impor-
tant for economic development
and China is hopeful about im-
plementing the project in future.
He said discussion on Bang-
ladesh-Myanmar-China power
connectivity was underway.
 Gulf Times
14 Saturday, April 21, 2018

COMMENT
CHAIRMAN
Abdullah bin Khalifa al-Attiyah
EDITOR-IN-CHIEF
Faisal Abdulhameed al-Mudahka
Deputy Managing Editor
K T Chacko
Production Editor
Amjad Khan

P.O.Box 2888, Doha, Qatar

editor@gulf-times.com
44350478 (News),
44466404 (Sport),
44466636 (Home delivery)
44350474
facebook.com/gulftimes
twitter.com/gulftimes_Qatar

GULF TIMES
Castro bows out in
Cuba but Cold War
chill returns with US
Raul Castro has stepped down as president and his brother
Fidel is dead but US relations with Cuba are frostier than

No blank cheque for

in years, with their reopened embassies nearly empty and
President Donald Trump hinting at measures that could
further lower the temperature.
A new Cuban president, 58-year-old Miguel Diaz-Canel,
took office on Thursday after decades of rule by the Castros
since they toppled a US-backed dictator in 1959, nationalis-

development banks
ing US properties, allying with the Soviet Union and sending
thousands of Cubans into exile in Florida.
The Castros were personally reviled by at least the older
generation of Cuban-Americans, and some political analysts
believe Diaz-Canel’s ascent to power will make it easier over
time for US politicians to normalise relations.
In the short term, though, the path ahead looks rocky. By Kevin P Gallagher and Jorg Haas and healthcare) can be scaled up to meet from large institutional investors like benefits, not absorbing the costs, of new
In his first speech as president, Diaz-Canel, a stalwart New York other SDGs, such as eliminating poverty. pension and insurance funds. infrastructure investments.
of the ruling Communist Party, clearly stated he intends to Here, MDBs can play an essential But, since then, the World Bank has To address climate change directly,
preserve the one-party socialist system. role, given that the private sector rebranded its approach as “maximising all infrastructure investments should

Moreover, Castro, who will retain considerable political
clout as head of the party, delivered a long parting speech in
which he poured scorn on the Trump administration.
In turn, the White
House was dismissive of
New Cuban the presidential change,
saying the Trump ad-
President Miguel ministration did not see
Diaz-Canel the Cuban people gaining
greater freedoms and had
took office on no intention of soften-
ing its policy toward the
Thursday government.
Trump took office last
year promising to roll back Democratic former President
Barack Obama’s policy of engagement, which included re-
establishing diplomatic relations.
The Republican president made it harder for US businesses
to invest in Cuba, while restoring some limitations on travel
to the island that had briefly become a hotspot for Ameri-
can visitors for the first time in decades following Obama’s
loosening of restrictions.
Trump’s latest choices for his foreign policy team
— Secretary of State nominee Mike Pompeo and new
national security adviser John Bolton — have advocated
a hard line on Cuba and the president has hinted that a
further roll-back of the engagement with Havana is on
the cards. “We’re being very tough on Cuba because we
want the people to have freedom,” Trump said last week
in an interview with Spanish-language network Univi-
sion. “You’re going to see some very, very good things
happen,” he said, adding that Bolton was “very strong
on Cuba and Venezuela.” In a previous role in George W
Bush’s presidency, Bolton included Cuba on an “Axis of
Evil” list.
William LeoGrande, who co-authored a book on the secret
talks that led to the 2014 detente Obama reached with Cas-
tro, said new sanctions “would not be a surprise,” but added
that it was also possibly just more rhetoric.
At a Summit of the Americas in Lima this month, US Vice
President Mike Pence said Cuba’s “tired Communist re-
gime” denied its people basic rights, then walked out of the
gathering.
In reply, Cuban Foreign Minister Bruno Rodriguez decried
a “moral vacuum” in the US government.
Such gestures take Cuba and the United States back to
the familiar territory of their nearly six decades of hostili-
ties.
It was a far cry from the last Summit of the Americas, held
in Panama in 2015.
There Obama shook Castro by the hand as he unwound
what he called a counterproductive US policy of trying to
force change by isolating Cuba.
G
lobal financial leaders are
convening in Washington,
DC, this week for the annual
spring meetings of the World
Bank Group and the International
Monetary Fund. This year, they will
ask the world’s taxpayers to grant the
World Bank and other multilateral
development banks (MDBs) more
capital to fill global infrastructure gaps.
Increasing the capital – and
optimising the existing capital – of
the world’s MDBs is of the utmost
importance. But doing so makes sense
only if that financing is used to move
the world economy in a direction
consistent with the United Nations
Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)
and the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
According to researchers at the
Brookings Institution, the world needs
to invest an additional $3tn per year
in sustainable infrastructure in order
to keep global warming below 2C
relative to pre-industrial levels – the
target enshrined in both the SDGs and
the Paris agreement. Today, however,
infrastructure contributes heavily to
global warming, with about 70% of all
greenhouse-gas emissions coming from
its construction and operation.
That means that the infrastructure we
build – or cease to build – can determine
whether we will achieve global climate
goals. It will also determine whether safe
and affordable infrastructure services (for
example, water, sanitation, electricity,
and national governments often
shy away from such investment.
Private capital markets are inherently
biased toward short-termism,
and tend not to finance long-term
investments in infrastructure.
Although global economic growth is
accelerating, private-sector financing
of infrastructure has been falling,
according to the World Bank, from
$210bn in 2010 to $38bn in 2017.
And while national governments
provide more than 75% of financing
for infrastructure, they tend to avoid
massive expenditures for new projects,
particularly sustainable infrastructure.
Moreover, many governments
have come to prefer public-private
partnerships that allow them to keep
liabilities off-budget. And, as the IMF
recently found, governments often
launch infrastructure projects as a
way to swing votes in the run-up to
elections. Longer-term sustainability
concerns (including infrastructure
maintenance) thus usually take a back
seat to political motives.
In light of these shortcomings,
development banks have a unique role to
play in harnessing expertise and bringing
together stakeholders to finance the
right kinds of infrastructure. To that
end, in 2015, the World Bank and other
MDBs launched a strategy to increase
development financing “from billions
to trillions,” by using public finance to
“crowd in” private investment, especially
finance for development” (MFD),
while failing to demonstrate how it
will actually achieve the SDGs. This
strategic uncertainty should serve as
a reminder that, while MDBs have a
critical role to play, they should not be
given carte blanche.
At Boston University’s Global
Development Policy Center, we estimate
that the MDBs could increase lending
by up to $1.9tn. That said, a blank check
would be disastrous, given that the
current financing pattern of the MDBs –
and particularly the World Bank Group
– is highly carbon-intensive. Moreover,
a recent study by the Inter-American
Development Bank documents how
MDB-financed projects under the current
model have fuelled social inequity and
conflict in different parts of the world.
Taxpayer money for closing global
infrastructure gaps should thus be
conditioned on the MDBs’ recalibration
of their strategies toward the SDGs and
the Paris climate agreement. This will
require reforms to MDBs’ board- and
project-level governance. The goal
should be to ensure that developing
countries – especially those most
vulnerable to climate change – have
more say in development banks’
board-level decisions. In addition,
poorer and vulnerable communities
need to be included in the process
from the beginning, so that they can
provide full prior consent. Affected
communities should be sharing the
be subject to a “Paris test” to confirm
that projects are being carried out in
accordance with the goal of keeping
global warming well below 2C, or even
below 1.5C. The World Bank’s pledge to
end financial support for upstream oil
and gas is a step in the right direction,
but it should be expanded and become
the norm for all MDBs. Moreover,
more impact assessments are needed
to ensure that road, rail, and waterway
projects do not destroy livelihoods or
nearby ecosystems, leading to further
greenhouse-gas emissions and a loss of
vital biodiversity.
Finally, we will need adequate
monitoring and evaluation systems
to enforce a new compact for MDBs.
Without accountability and clear
targets set by the SDGs and the Paris
agreement, the MDBs will continue
to operate according to their own
taxpayer-financed discretion, to
the detriment of the climate, the
environment, and social equity
worldwide. – Project Syndicate
z Kevin P Gallagher is director of the
Global Development Policy Center at
Boston University’s Pardee School of
Global Studies and the co-chair of the
G20 task force for An International
Financial Architecture for Stability and
Development. Jorg Haas is head of the
department of international politics at
the Heinrich Böll Foundation.

To Advertise
advr@gulf-times.com
Display
44466621 44418811
Classified
44466609 44418811
Subscription
circulation@gulf-times.com
Queen Maxima of the Netherlands (right) listens while Jim Yong Kim, President of the World Bank Group (centre), speaks during a forum at the 2018 IMF/World Bank spring
© 2018 Gulf Times. All rights reserved meetings yesterday in Washington, DC.
 Gulf Times
Saturday, April 21, 2018 15

COMMENT

Fifty shades of Trump

By Elizabeth Drew Cohen, his principal personal attorney and
Washington, DC fixer. Ostensibly, the FBI acted because Cohen
had been involved in the most lurid aspects of
Trump’s public career. But Cohen might also

L
ast week was a most unusual one
for President Donald Trump’s
administration. There was no high-
level firing: the only dismissal of any
note was that of the White House aide in charge
of homeland security, who was forced out at the
behest of John Bolton, who had just taken over
as Trump’s third national security adviser in 15
months. Nonetheless, it may well have been the
most turbulent week yet of Trump’s presidency.
Bolton’s appointment was enough to set
much of Washington trembling with fear that
he would reinforce Trump’s most pugnacious
views, for example, that the 2015 Iran nuclear
agreement should be scrapped. Still, it has
been widely speculated that Bolton, reportedly
a bureaucratic whiz, was outmanoeuvred by
Defence Secretary James Mattis on the question
of how far to take the military attack on Syria
in retaliation for the latest use of chemical
weapons by Bashar al-Assad’s government
against its own people. In the end, the attacks
by the US, the United Kingdom, and France
were restricted to targets believed to be
chemical weapons and storage facilities.
Questions are being raised in the Senate
about the suitability of Mike Pompeo, a
hardliner on Muslims and Russia, to succeed
Rex Tillerson as Secretary of State. And with
Bolton now ensconced in the West Wing, the
consensus is that only Mattis stands between
Trump and military overreach. (Mattis
supports the Iran deal.)
Trump’s most peculiar recent personnel
move – part of an ever-growing list of
dismissals – was to fire David Shulkin as head of
the Veterans Administration, a Leviathan of an
agency, and nominate his personal physician for
the job. The number of pending nominations
for high-level positions ahead of November’s
midterm congressional elections is believed
to be one reason for Trump’s reluctance
to fire his most controversial appointee,
Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental
Protection Agency. Pruitt’s determination to
reverse the EPA’s achievements in reducing
US President Donald Trump
air and water pollution, especially regulations
adopted during Barack Obama’s presidency,
bespeaks Trump’s own resentment of Obama.
In addition, major polluting industries are
enthusiastic about Pruitt.
The problem is that in an administration
filled with grifters and experts at indulging
in first-class air travel and other comforts
at taxpayers’ expense, Pruitt is probably the
champ. Trump blows hot and cold on Pruitt,
and observers have learned not to predict what
he might do with regard to any aspect of policy
and personnel.
That is also true of the question creating the
most tension: whether Trump will try to end the
investigation into whether he or his campaign
conspired with Russians to try to swing the
2016 election in his favour. The evidence of
such collusion is mounting. Trump, according
to many observers, has absorbed the idea that
firing Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is
leading the probe, wouldn’t go down well at all.
The supine congressional Republicans, terrified
of Trump and his base of devoted supporters, are
actually beginning to show some spine and are
moving toward backing a resolution that would
protect Mueller, who is supported by a large
majority of the public.
But Trump and his closest congressional
allies are still trying to undermine the
investigation by smearing the FBI, which is
implementing it, and Justice Department
officials who are overseeing the FBI’s work.
Trump has hinted that he may fire Deputy
Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who presides
over the investigation. The president remains
furious that Attorney General Jeff Sessions,
who was Trump’s sole Senate backer from early
in the 2016 campaign, has recused himself from
the investigation.
When Trump gets particularly angry, he
remains so, exhibiting his rage in unexpected
ways. It seems that nothing has made him
angrier than the FBI’s extraordinary April 9 raid
on the office, home, and hotel room of Michael
have been involved in a 2016 conspiracy with
Russia, and his own business affairs are under
investigation.
Since early this year, it has seemed possible
that Trump might be brought down not by
his and his campaign’s possible dealings with
Russia, but by a pulchritudinous adult film star
whose professional name is Stormy Daniels
(her real name is Stephanie Clifford). Daniels
and her aggressive attorney are fearless toward
Trump, on whose behalf Cohen arranged to pay
her $130,000 shortly before the election to keep
quiet about her one-time liaison with Trump,
which occurred early in his marriage to Melania
Trump and four months after the birth of his
son, Barron.
One question raised by the deal is whether
the $130,000, which Cohen says he paid out of
his own pocket without Trump’s knowledge,
amounted to an illegal campaign contribution.
Another mystery is why Trump, who has been
less bothered by revelations of a longer affair
at around the same time with a former Playboy
model, seems particularly terrified of Daniels.
Unusually for him, he has refused to comment
or tweet about her.
At week’s end, a memoir by former FBI
director James Comey, whose firing by Trump
led to Mueller’s appointment, began to leak, also
arousing Trump’s ire. He called Comey a “weak
and untruthful slime ball,” and, as has happened
before, his attack on the author of an unflattering
book helped propel it to the top of the bestseller
list before it was officially released. The attack on
Syria seems to have distracted public attention
from Trump’s scandals only temporarily, given
Comey’s coming high-profile book tour. But
there is a growing sense that what Mueller is in
the process of getting on Cohen may present the
greatest danger of all to the president. – Project
Syndicate
z Elizabeth Drew is a contributing editor to The
New Republic and the author, most recently, of
Washington Journal: Reporting Watergate and
Richard Nixon’s Downfall.

LEGAL HELPLINE Three-day forecast

TODAY
Maximum Temperature : 360c

No claims against partners or liquidator Minimum Temperature

SUNDAY
Maximum Temperature
Minimum Temperature
:

:
:
250c

370c
270c

By Dr Nizar Kochery Liability period liability period, the liability in is not ready to vacate. Can I MONDAY
Doha respect of that element of the disconnect the electricity to Maximum Temperature : 340c
for repair works structure which required repair the building to force the tenant Minimum Temperature : 260c
or reinforcement will remain for a to pay rent? Is there any other Fisherman's forecast
Question: I was a partner in Q: I am one of the partners further 10 years from completion of solution? Please advise.
a limited liability company in in a company which executes those remedial works. JDL, Doha WARNING
Qatar which got liquidated five construction contracts. We have Inshore : Nil
years ago and the name was successfully completed projects A: When there is a lease contract Offshore : Expected thunder rain
struck off from the commercial in different areas. Now we have No right to cut and tenant residing therein, you at places associated with
strond wind and high sea
registration and taxation an issue with a project which we have no right to cut the electricity WEATHER
departments too. A liquidator completed in 2006 and we did power connection connection for any reason even Inshore : Relatively hot daytime
with scattered clouds and
was appointed under a joint all the defect maintenance that when electricity connection is in
weak chance of light rain at
resolution by the partners. Now, occurred during the decennial Q: I have subleased an apartment your name. In the event of non- places.
we, the same partners, want to liability period. After 10 years, and in the lease agreement, the payment, the lessor can file a rental WIND
establish a new company. The are we liable for any defects? Still tenant agreed to pay rent on case before the Rental Disputes Inshore : Southwesterly-Southeaster-
ly 05-15/20 KT
question is that whether due to we receive notices from client on 15th of every month. For the Settlement Committee to claim Offshrore : Southwesterly-Southeaster-
our presence in a new venture, various defects. Please explain initial few months, the tenant for the rent and termination of the ly 06-16/22 KT
any issue may crop up against the to what extent we are liable for paid the rent regularly but now contract. All the lease agreements
Visibility : 04-08 KM
partners or the liquidator? Any defects after 10 years. he is defaulting. Even after are required to be registered by the
chances of court cases? Please UD, Doha repeated requests he refuses to landlord at the Leases Registration SEA STATE
advise. settle the dues. I approached the Office at the Municipality in order Offshore : 2-5 FT, Rises 7 FT at places
during thundery rain.
AST, Doha A: The liability period begins on court concerned which asked to enable landlord to bring a claim
the handover of the project to the me to register the lease deed. I in respect of the lease agreement
Answer: As per Article 321 of the employer. The contractor shall not cannot afford the fee required before the Rental Dispute Settlement Around the region
company law, no claim against liable for defect discovered after the for registration. Moreover, Committee or the Court. Weather Weather
the liquidator concerning the decennial period. If the contractor attestation of the original lease today Max/min tomorrow Max/min
liquidation activities shall be heard carries out repair to any defect is also required and that is not z Please send your questions to Baghdad M Sunny 31/21 M Cloudy 28/16
after the expiry of three years from discovered during the decennial possible at this time. The tenant leges@qatar.net.qa Kuwait City M Sunny 34/22 Sunny 31/23
the declaration date of the end of Manama Sunny 37/26 M Sunny 38/28
liquidation and no claims against Muscat Sunny 31/24 Sunny 33/24
the partners based on the company Tehran S Showers 21/12 S Showers 22/14
activities or against the managers,
board members or auditors based on
LEGAL SYSTEM IN QATAR
the acts done in pursuance of their
functions, shall be heard after such According to Article 268 of the Civil another hearing, the adjournment
a period. and Commercial Procedure law, the order shall be deemed as a mandate
party who requests evidence based for those witnesses present to
on testimony by witnesses have to attend this hearing, unless the court
Clarification on explain to the court in writing or or the deputed judge has exempted
verbally in the hearing, facts which them from attending the hearing.
self-defence law he/she intends to prove, names of If one of the parties to the disputes
persons whose testimony is required has requested, during the specified
Q: Like other countries, what and place of their residence. date for interrogation, an extension
is the law on self-defence in The court may order evidence by of this date, the court or the
Qatar? I would like to have a testimony of witnesses whenever deputed judge shall immediately
clarification on provisions it deems this to be appropriate in decide on this request with an order
Around the world
related to self-defence under the interests of justice. Testimony noted in the minutes. If the judge
Qatar law. What are the acts that by hearing shall only be accepted in rejects the extension, the party may Weather Weather
are considered as actions under the following cases: (1) Death; (2) file grievance to the court based on today Max/min tomorrow Max/min
the exercise of self-defence in Kinship; (3) If one of the parties has a verbal request to be noted in the Athens P Cloudy 21/11 Sunny 24/13
Qatar law? accepted it as proof, provided that the records of the interrogation. The Beirut T Strom 21/16 Sunny 21/16
AS, Doha court shall accept their agreement testimony of witnesses should court shall issue its order on this Bangkok P Cloudy 33/28 M Sunny 34/27
which shall be attached to the hearing explain every one of the incidents matter. This court order shall not Berlin Sunny 21/07 P Cloudy 23/13
A: According to Article 49 of the minutes after affixing its contents that are ordered to be proved, be subject to appeal. It shall not Cairo P Cloudy 30/16 P Cloudy 27/15
penal law, it is not an offence if therein. If the court permits any one otherwise it shall be void. The be permitted to hear testimony of Cape Town P Cloudy 19/12 P Cloudy 19/13
done in the exercise of the right of of the parties to prove an incident judgment shall also include the witnesses upon request made by Colombo S T Stroms 32/26 S T Stroms 32/26
private defence. The right of private through the testimony of witnesses, day and time of commencement of litigants after the expiry of the time Dhaka S T Storms 36/26 S T Storms 36/26
defence shall arise if the following the other party shall have the right to interrogation. Interrogation shall be for interrogation. Hong Kong P Cloudy 26/23 P Cloudy 27/23
conditions are fulfilled: (1) If the refute it in the same manner. conducted before the court. If the As per Article 278, if the witness Istanbul P Cloudy 17/07 Sunny 17/11
defendant faces immediate danger As per Article 271, the court may court is constituted of more than refuses to appear in reply to the Jakarta S T Storm 32/26 S T Storm 33/26
of any offence affecting himself, his decide on its own accord to base one judge, it shall delegate one of its summons of the litigant or the Karachi Sunny 37/22 Sunny 38/23
property, or the person or property its judgment on the testimony of judges to conduct the interrogation. court, the litigant or the Registry London P Cloudy 24/14 S Showers 21/09
of a third party, or if he believes witnesses in cases where the law According to Article 274, of the court, as the case may be, Manila M Sunny 36/27 P Cloudy 35/27
in the existence of such a danger allows proof in such a manner, interrogation shall continue until shall summon him to appear to give Moscow Rain 19/02 Cloudy 06/-1
based on reasonable grounds; (2) If whenever it considers that this serves all the plaintiff’s and defendant’s his testimony at least twenty-four New Delhi Sunny 37/22 Sunny 37/23
it becomes impossible for defendant the interests of justice. Whenever its witnesses are heard at the specified hours before the time fixed for his New York Sunny 16/06 Sunny 16/07
to resort to public authorities to decision is based upon the testimony time. The defence witnesses shall hearing, excluding distance time. Paris M Sunny 28/14 M Sunny 26/12
prevent the danger in due course of of witnesses, the court may, in all be heard at the same session in In urgent cases, this time shall be Sao Paulo Sunny 25/16 P Cloudy 26/16
time; (3) When the defendant has no cases, call on anyone whose testimony which the plaintiff’s witnesses reduced, and the witness may be Seoul P Cloudy 25/12 Rain 19/10
other way to avoid the danger; and it deems appropriate to hear in order provide their evidence unless there notified by the Registry of the court Singapore T Storm 31/26 T Storm 31/26
(4) If defence is necessary to fend to reveal the truth. is any hindrance to this effect. If to appear by a cable ordered by the Sydney S Showers 22/17 P Cloudy 23/14
off the aggression and is compatible The judgment that orders the the interrogation is adjourned to court or the deputed judge. Tokyo Clear 26/14 Clear 27/16
with said aggression.
 Gulf Times
16 Saturday, April 21, 2018

QATAR

‘Gardens of Al-Andalus’ expo opens

T
he exhibition ‘Gardens
of Al-Andalus’ has been
opened at the College of
Islamic Sciences at Education
City, under the patronage of HE
Sheikha Hind bint Hamad al-
Thani, vice chairperson and CEO
of Qatar Foundation (QF).
The exhibition, created by
the Islamic Culture Foundation
(Funci) of Madrid, will be on
until May 31, under the direc-
tion of Funci president Dr Cherif
Abderrahman Jah in collabora-
tion with QF’s Qur’anic Botanic
Garden and its manager Fatima
al-Khulaifi.
The opening was attended by
several diplomatic and academic
figures, including HE Dr Hamad
bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari and
ambassador of Spain Ignacio Es-
cobar.
The exhibition portrays the
Andalusi garden from different
perspectives: botanical, archi-
tectural, scientific, poetic, and
spiritual. HE Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari and Dr Cherif Abderrahman
The exhibition’s goal in Doha Jah at the opening of the exhibition.
is to bring the peoples closer to-
gether and to build bridges be- scientific, political and economic “This exhibition forms part of
tween Qatar and Spain, based on spheres. the programme entitled “Med-
a common culture. “In the exhibition ‘Gardens of O-Med, cultural landscapes in
Dr Jah said it is an honour for Al-Andalus’, Al-Andalus speaks the Mediterranean and the Mid-
Funci, to share with Qatar, “a jour- of its own history and splendour dle East”, set up by Funci with the
ney in time through Al-Andalus, through its gardens, these be- aim of joining forces for environ-
one of the most brilliant periods ing open, multicultural spaces mental research, education and
in the history of mankind, whose in which the scientific influ- conservation, and for recovering
roots are to be found in the Arabian ences and the landscapes of East the scientific and conservationist
Peninsula, cradle of Islam”. and West came together over the spirit that is inherent in Islamic
“The world today cannot deny centuries. civilisation.
the grandeur of this civilisa- “This is why we have chosen the “Funci, a private Spanish in-
tion that bears universal values, Hispanic-Arabic garden as a sym- stitution, which has been work-
which brought light to Hispania bol of a coming-together and of ing for over 30 years on dis-
during the Middle Ages and dialogue amongst peoples. ‘Gar- seminating objective knowledge
whose scientific, philosophi- dens of Al-Andalus’, shows a civi- of Islamic culture in the West,
cal and spiritual projection was lisation that is respectful of nature. hopes to transmit today a mes-
to lay the foundations for the “According to the Holy Qur’an, sage of peace to the world. This is
Renaissance in Europe. This it is nature that provides the an- the same message that Islam sent
civilisation contains the keys to a swers to the new environmental out from Arabia, bringing hearts
balanced development of socie- challenges to be faced by our fu- together, with neither prejudice
A view of the ‘Gardens of Al Andalus’ exhibition. ties, in the human as well as the ture generations. nor frontiers.”

Fishing contest
QU Centre unit earns ISO 9001 certification Katara, the Culture Village
Foundation will see today

Q
atar University (QU)’s Centre of
Community Service and Continu-
ing Education has celebrated ISO
9001 certification for quality management
systems.
This comes in recognition of the centre’s
“continuing commitment to quality and
excellence in management operations”, QU
has said in a statement.
The certificate was presented to Centre of
Community Service and Continuing Edu-
cation director Dr Rajab Abdulla al-Esmail
by Bureau Veritas country chief executive
Selim Kseib in the presence of QU president
Dr Hassan al-Derham, French ambassador
Eric Chevallier, Bureau Veritas business line
manager (System Certification Services)
Vishal Bhat and sales manager (System Cer-
tification Services) Makram Abou-Fakherd-
dine, as well as QU leaders and staff.
In his remarks, Dr al-Derham said:
“Through such certificates, we aim to main-
tain our standards of highest quality. As a
higher education institution, Qatar Univer-
sity seeks to align its academic programmes
with the highest standards. In this regard,
the organisation has been successful in its
accreditation initiatives, earning the en-
dorsement of numerous leading interna-
tional accrediting bodies.
“Additionally, the university strives to
achieve certificates in recognition of excel-
lence and high quality. In this context, we
appreciate the hard work of the centre’s
members to achieve this important step and
for maintaining the highest standards for
stakeholders and clients.”
Chevallier noted, “This certification is a
demonstration of quality and excellence. afternoon the conclusion
Congratulations! Qatar University and the of Senyar traditional fishing
French embassy in Qatar set up a high-level competition for families. The
joint committee. This committee will es- return of the participants will
tablish a roadmap for future education and be celebrated at Katara Beach
research collaborations between Qatar Uni- around 4.30pm. It would
versity and the best French universities and include various traditional
research institutes.” and folk shows.
Dr al-Esmail said: “As part of our com-
mitment to lifelong learning and customer
focus, the centre has developed and imple-
mented a quality policy to maintain high
training standards while focusing on mod-
ernisation and technology. This achieve-
ment demonstrates the centre’s commit-
ment to high standards and our continuous
focus on delivering outstanding continuing
education programmes to the Qatari com-
munity.”

HMC hosts Qatar Stars League delegation

H
amad Medical Corpo-
ration (HMC) recently
hosted members of the
Qatar Stars League when they
visited Hamad Bin Khalifa Medi-
cal City with the Qatar Cup.
Dignitaries and officials at the certification handover ceremony. Previously called the Heir Ap-
parent Cup, the Qatar Cup is one
of the major sporting highlights
of the Qatari football calendar,
showcasing the top four teams in
Women’s Wellness and Research
Center and took the opportunity
to tour the new facilities while
also meeting with staff, patients,
and visitors.
The event was arranged by
HMC Corporate Communica-
tions Department’s public rela-
tions team and aimed to provide
staff, patients, and visitors with
the opportunity to learn about
distinctive design, was manufac-
tured locally.
Members of the delega-
tion expressed their apprecia-
tion to HMC for organising the
event, commenting they were
grateful for the opportunity to
talk about their sport and pro-
mote the upcoming semi-final
matches.
The tour was part of a road-

Urology experts aim to combat prostate cancer the league.

The delegation from the Qa-
tar Stars League visited the new
Medical City hospitals – the Qa-
the Qatar Cup and the tourna-
ment while also having an op-
portunity to meet with some of
show being organised by the Qa-
tar Stars League to promote the
upcoming tournament.
the team’s players, take pictures, It included players from the Al

H
amad Medical Corpora-
tion’s (HMC) Uro-oncol-
ogy Department recently
organised the second forum of
the Uro-Oncology Club.
Held at the Sheraton Grand
Doha Resort and Convention
Hotel, the event highlighted the
latest developments in the diag-
nosis and treatment of prostate
cancer and underscored the im-
portance of multi-disciplinary
teamwork across Qatar’s health
sector.
According to the Ministry of
Public Health’s Qatar National
Cancer Registry, prostate can-
cer accounts for 11.96% of can-
cers diagnosed in men in the
country.
Dr Khalid al-Rumaihi, head
of Urology at HMC and chair-
man of the Uro-oncology Club,
said the forum is an important
platform for urology specialists
to discuss significant advances
in the diagnosis and treatment
of prostate cancer and the latest
Dr Al-Hareth al-Khater
developments in prostate cancer
screening.
He also emphasised the im-
portance of the forum in provid-
ing a professional development
opportunity for specialists work-
ing in the field.
Dr Al-Hareth al-Khater, dep-
uty medical director at the Na-
tional Center for Cancer Care
and Research (NCCCR), at-
tended the event and said pros-
tate cancer is the most common
Dr Khalid al-Rumaihi
cancer among men in Qatar.
He said the good news is that
prostate cancer usually devel-
ops slowly and when found and
treated early, it is often curable.
“While we still don’t know
what causes prostate cancer, we
do know that men who are over-
weight or obese are at greater risk
of developing the disease. We
also know that age and a fam-
ily history of the disease increase
one’s risk. Men with a fam-
ily member who has had prostate tar Rehabilitation Institute, the and see the trophy up close. Duhail, Al Sadd, Al Rayyan, Al
cancer have twice as high a risk Ambulatory Care Center and the The trophy, which features a Gharafa teams.
of being diagnosed as the general
population,” said Dr al-Khater.
The symptoms of prostate
cancer can vary, with some men
having no symptoms and others
experiencing warning signs such
as difficulty urinating, frequent
urination, blood in the urine or
semen, swollen feet, and dis-
comfort in the pelvic area.
Dr al-Khater says it can be dif-
ficult to identify the early-onset
signs and symptoms of the disease,
emphasising the need for consist-
ent and comprehensive screening.
“All men are at risk of prostate
cancer, but the risk greatly in-
creases with age. Prostate cancer
is most common in men over the
age of 60 but screening discus-
sions should begin at the age of
50, or even earlier, for men with
risk factors for the disease, such
as a father or brother who has
had prostate cancer,” said Dr al-
Khater. HMC staff with members of the Qatar Stars League.