BUSINESS | Page 1
Al Rayyan
GULF TIMES
In brief
QATAR | Greetings
Emir congratulates
new Ethiopian PM
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani yesterday held a
telephone conversation with Ethiopian
Prime Minister Dr Abiy Ahmed. At
the beginning of the call, the Emir
congratulated Ahmed on the occasion
of assuming his duties, and wished
him success. Talks during the call also
dealt with ways to boost the friendly
relations and co-operation between the
two countries, in addition to a number
of issues of mutual interest.
QATAR | Official
Emir condoles with
ruler of Kuwait
His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani, His Highness
the Deputy Emir Sheikh Abdullah bin
Hamad al-Thani and HE the Prime
Minister and Minister of Interior
Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa
al-Thani yesterday sent cables of
condolences to the Emir of Kuwait
Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Jaber al-
Sabah on the death of Sheikh Fadel
Duaij al-Salman al-Sabah.
QATAR | Diplomacy
Defence minister gets
call from UK counterpart
HE the Deputy Prime Minister and
Minister of State for Defence Affairs
Dr Khalid bin Mohamed al-Attiyah
yesterday received a telephone call
from British Defence Secretary Gavin
Williamson. During the phone call,
they exchanged views on further
development of bilateral relations
between the defence ministries of the
two friendly countries and means of
enhancing them.
QATAR | Impact
Iran quake tremors
felt in West Bay
Tremors were felt in Doha’s West Bay
area after an earthquake measuring
5.9 struck the Iranian province of
Bushehr yesterday morning. The Qatar
Meteorology Department, part of the
Civil Aviation Authority, confirmed
this in an Arabic tweet, which said the
“tremors felt by people in the Towers
Zone of Dafna were due to the seismic
waves caused by the earthquake
of Iran”. Many Doha residents also
discussed the tremors on social media.
There was no immediate report of
damage or injuries in Iran.
ARAB WORLD | Decision
Sudan’s president
sacks foreign minister
Sudan’s President Omar al-Bashir has
issued a presidential decree relieving
Foreign Minister Ibrahim Ghandour of
his position, state news agency Suna
reported yesterday. The news agency
did not provide any further details.
AFRICA | Protests
Ramaphosa cuts
short Britain trip
South Africa’s President Cyril
Ramaphosa has cut short his visit to
Britain by a day to return home to
deal with protests in the country’s
North West province, his office said
yesterday.
Qatar steps up efforts for food security in dryland countries
QNA
Doha
Q atar yesterday took a major step
towards achieving food security
for dryland countries by making
Doha the new headquarters of the Glo-
bal Dryland Alliance.
The agreement for this was signed by
HE the Minister of State for Foreign Af-
SPORT | Page 7
Qatar industrial output
up 2% y-o-y in February
PM meets award-winning Qatari innovators
HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani yesterday met with the Qatari innovators who were awarded gold and silver medals at the International Exhibition of
Innovations Geneva held recently. The prime minister praised the efforts of the Qatari inventors and their achievement in the international scientific forum, which brought together inventors from around the world. He
wished them success and further scientific achievements to bring more glory to Qatar in regional and international forums, adding that the winning inventions contribute to improving the quality of life and achieving
further economic and social well-being. The prime minister highlighted the attention the state pays to innovators in different fields and encouraged them to promote the country’s direction towards a knowledge-based
economy. The inventors from the Qatar Scientific Club were awarded six medals – four gold and two silver – in a strong competition with 600 inventors from 40 countries around the world.
Qatar’s private sector
credit growth ‘to rise’
zOpportunities are being created in the consumer goods sector, say bankers
By Tom Arnold and Davide
Barbuscia/ Reuters
Doha
Q atari banks expect private sec-
tor credit growth in the coun-
try to pick up speed in 2018 as
companies borrow and invest to ex-
pand their business, taking advantage
of opportunities created by a regional
political impasse.
The government and state-linked
companies have long been the mainstay
of credit growth and will continue to
be, especially as Qatar prepares to host
the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
But a political rift that erupted be-
tween Qatar and Saudi Arabia, the
United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and
Qatar Airways first to offer
gate-to-gate Internet in Mena
Q atar Airways is the first airline in
the Middle East and North Africa
region (Mena) to provide gate-
to-gate Internet connectivity onboard.
A decision by Qatar’s Communica-
tions Regulatory Authority (CRA) will
allow the provision of Internet service
onboard aircraft at all altitudes. Previ-
ously, the Internet connection was only
permitted when an aircraft was higher
than 3,000m above sea level.
Qatar Airways Group Chief Execu-
tive Akbar al-Baker said: “In another
first for the Mena region, Qatar Airways
passengers will be able to enjoy uninter-
rupted Internet connectivity from the
moment they step on board a Qatar Air-
ways flight. This is another significant
enhancement to our award-winning
levels of service that our passengers
around the globe have come to appreci-
ate. We look forward to welcoming pas-
fairs Sultan bin Saad al-Muraikhi and
GDA Executive Director Ambassador
Bader al-Dafa.
The GDA initiative was put forward
by His Highness the Emir Sheikh Tamim
bin Hamad al-Thani during his speech
at the 68th UN General Assembly in
2013.
The GDA aims to provide support to
researches and new innovations of mem-
ber states and to implement the results.
gun for the
fourth
title
Egypt in June and the subsequent scal-
ing back of some companies and in-
vestments from those countries is cre-
ating a vacuum gradually being filled,
in part, by Qatar’s private sector.
QNB is targeting the private sector
to contribute around 50% of lending
growth in 2018, up from 22.5% in 2017,
said a spokesman for QNB, the largest
bank in the Middle East and Africa by
assets and the lender that has benefited
most from huge government spending
in recent years.
“Looking ahead to 2018 and beyond,
the projected growth of the private sec-
tor will present several opportunities
for the bank to finance the expansion of
business,” said Commercial Bank.
Bankers say opportunities are being
created in the consumer goods sector
sengers on board and helping them stay
connected throughout the flight.”
Approval by the CRA means that
Qatar will be the first country in the
Middle East and North Africa region to
provide gate-to-gate Internet connec-
tivity onboard aircraft. It also reflects
CRA’s alignment with Qatar’s high rate
of technology adoption across vari-
ous sectors, particularly those affecting
transport and communication that are
strategic to Qatar’s future development
and economic growth.
Improvements in technology and de-
velopments in global technical stand-
ards now ensure that on board Internet
service does not cause harmful inter-
ference to either aircraft operations or
land-based public mobile networks.
However, to avoid any interference to
aircraft and land-based mobile services,
restrictions still apply to the onboard
The alliance also aims to provide the best
practices that can be shared with dryland
countries around the world.
After the signing, Foreign Ministry
spokesperson HE Lulwah al-Khater
said food security for dryland countries
would result in further stability and
peace around the world.
GDA also aims to co-operate with lo-
cal, regional and international partners
to find solutions and spread and imple-
as the market share shrinks of suppliers
like Saudi Arabia’s Almarai, the Middle
East’s biggest dairy company, because
of the embargo.
One company filling the vacuum is
Baladna, which is creating a dairy in-
dustry in the country and is planning
an initial public offering in the first half
of 2018.
Other sectors where higher demand
is anticipated include manufactur-
ing and hospitality, while investment
is expected in the LNG sector due to a
sharper rebound in hydrocarbon out-
put
The government has embarked on a
strategy of making the economy self-
sufficient to help weather the effects of
the boycott.
This year’s budget includes awarding
use of mobile GSM services and SMS
when the aircraft is below 3,000m.
While on board, passengers can con-
tinue to enjoy Qatar Airways’ in-flight
entertainment system, Oryx One, which
offers passengers up to 4,000 entertain-
ment options from the latest blockbust-
er movies, TV box sets, music, games
and much more.
Passengers flying on Qatar Airways
flights served by its B777, B787, A350,
A380, and select A320 and A330 aircraft
can also stay in touch with their friends
and family around the world by us-
ing the “award-winning” airline’s on-
board Wi-Fi service.
Qatar Airways operates a modern
fleet of more than 200 aircraft to a net-
work of more than 150 key business and
leisure destinations across Europe, the
Middle East, Africa, Asia Pacific, North
America and South America.
ment them in order to face challenges
related to agriculture, water and energy
in dryland countries, the spokesperson
added.
She said the alliance aims to engage
in joint research and technological in-
novation relevant to the members’ ag-
ricultural, water and energy needs. It
also aims to co-ordinate with the private
sector to implement and spread innova-
tive solutions related to food security,
pu
bl
Q since
is
AT 19
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d
A 78
in
FRIDAY Vol. XXXIX No. 10794
April 20, 2018
Sha’baan 4, 1439 AH
www. gulf-times.com 2 Riyals
Economic
roadshow
starts today
in N Carolina
QNA
Raleigh
A
two-day exhibition will begin
QR29bn of contracts to support growth today in Raleigh, North Caroli-
in the private sector next year, part of na, as part of Qatar’s ‘economic
a drive to diversify and strengthen the roadshow’ in the US.
economy. The exhibition will bring together
So far, the pick-up in private sector representatives from major institu-
growth is far less steep than the period
up to mid-2015 when it reached highs
of around 27%.
It since slowed but has shown signs
tions in Qatar, including the Ministry
of Economy and Commerce, Supreme
Committee for Delivery & Legacy,
Qatar Airways, Doha Film Institute
of recovery in recent months, despite and Qatar Foundation along with a
the impact of the boycott. number of US companies that have
“The previous tightening of financial partnered in investment projects with
conditions between mid-2014 to mid- Qatar, such as Occidental Petroleum,
2016, when hydrocarbon prices precip- Boeing, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhil-
itously declined, does not seem to have lips.
harmed private sector lending post- This is the third such exhibition to
impasse from June 2017 onwards,” said take place during the US tour, with the
Ehsan Khoman, Mena head of research previous editions being held in Miami,
and strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Finan- Florida and Charleston, South Caro-
cial Group. lina. Page 3
Qatar to buy US Air Defence System
The Qatar armed forces signed an agreement to purchase air defence system from
US firm Raytheon at the headquarters of the Qatari military attache in Washington
DC. The agreement was signed by Commander of the Emiri Air Defence Forces,
Brigadier General Hamad bin Mubarak al-Douai, and Raytheon Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer Dr Tom Kennedy. Qatari Military Attache in Washington, Staff
Brigadier Yousef Mohammed al-Kuwari, attended the signing ceremony.
exchange the benefits of new techno- and will work in full co-ordination and
logical and research innovations with consultation with them in the area of
the least developed dryland countries in food security for dryland countries.
an effort to reduce hunger and poverty. He said there was an urgent need to
The spokesperson added that some
land will be allocated to set up storage
for cattle, a farm and a laboratory to
conduct research on desert and dryland.
intensify the efforts in developing food
security programmes, as the world pop-
ulation increases by 200,000 per day,
with a gap between consumption and
Al-Dafa said the alliance is not an al- agriculture investment, as well as cli-
ternative to organisations that work in mate challenges that impose a difficult
this field, but complements their efforts reality on dryland countries.
2 Gulf Times
Friday, April 20, 2018

QATAR
PM meets Liberian ministers Culture Ministry signs co-operation protocol
The Ministry of Culture and
Sports has signed a co-
operation protocol with Islamic
Conference Youth Forum for
Dialogue and Co-operation
(ICYF-DC), which is affiliated
with the Organisation of Islamic
Co-operation (OIC).
HE the Minister of Culture and
Sports Salah bin Ghanem al-Ali
signed the protocol with ICYF-
DC president Elshad Iskandarov
on the sidelines of the meeting
of ministers of youth and sports
of OIC member states as part of
the fourth Islamic Conference
of Youth and Sports Ministers.
The event concluded yesterday
in Baku, Azerbaijan. The
protocol includes organising
joint youth activities between
both parties to be held in
Qatar or any other country, in
HE the Prime Minister and Minister of Interior Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani met yesterday with Liberian addition to supporting events
Minister for Labour Moses Y Kollie and Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs for the Republic of Liberia Varney A Sirleaf on the for Jerusalem, capital of the
occasion of their visit to the country. During the meeting, they reviewed co-operation between the two countries and ways of Islamic youth.
developing them in various fields.

Minister meets ambassadors Chief of Staff in US Centcom Riyadh meet

HE the Minister of State
for Foreign Affairs Sultan
bin Saad al-Muraikhi
met yesterday with
ambassador of Canada
to Qatar Adrian Norfolk.
The meeting discussed
bilateral relations and
means of supporting
and developing them in
addition to matters of
mutual concern.

HE the Minister of State

for Foreign Affairs
Sultan bin Saad al-
Muraikhi met yesterday
with ambassadors
of American friendly
countries accredited to
the State of Qatar. The HE the Chief of Staff of the Qatar Armed Forces Major General (Pilot) Ghanim bin Shaheen al-Ghanim
meeting discussed the yesterday participated in a meeting of the US Central Command in the Saudi capital, Riyadh. The meeting
developments of the Gulf was co-chaired by Chief of the General Staff of Saudi Arabia, First Lt General Fayyad bin Hamed al-Ruwayli
crisis and enhancing the and Commander of the US Central Command, General Joseph Votel, in the presence of the Chiefs of Staff
prospects of co-operation of the GCC states, Jordan and Egypt. The meeting discussed the US Defence Strategy 2018 in addition to
as well as issues of a number of issues related to security and regional affairs and the fight against terrorism and extremism.
common concern. HE the Chief of Staff was accompanied by a number of senior officers from the Qatar Armed Forces.

Qatar, Britain joint naval exercise

Mubadara Awards to fete

outstanding entrepreneurs
I
njaz Qatar, a non-profit organi-
sation and a member of Junior
Achievement (JA) Worldwide, will
host the Mubadara Awards Ceremony
at Hamad Bin Khalifa University Stu-
dent Center on April 30, recognising
some of Qatar’s most outstanding
young entrepreneurs.
JA’s globally recognised Company
Programme is Injaz Qatar’s most in-
teractive and popular education exer-
cise during which student enterprises
are established. It has evolved to be
a prominent event in the Injaz Qatar
calendar of activities.
A total of 22 student teams were
provided with the unique opportuni-
ty to establish and run a real business
over a period of five months with the
guidance of professionals from lead-
ing businesses across Qatar.
As many as 18 student teams, com-
prising 12 from independent and pri-
vate secondary schools and six from
universities, made it to the final stage.
During the programme, students go
through the entire life cycle of a start-
Minor detour on Al Gharrafa Street
up venture as they develop a business
idea, form a team, raise capital of up
to QR11,000, devise business plans,
and produce and sell a product or a
service. Towards the end of the five
months of activity, students present
their entrepreneurial ideas before
a judging panel of business leaders
from the local market.
In the upcoming Mubadara 2018
Awards Ceremony, the innovative
products and services developed by
the student companies will be ex-
hibited and the winners of this year’s
competition will be announced giv-
ing them the opportunity to represent
Qatar at the 2018 regional finals.
Students will vie for one of four
awards: The Best Company of the
Year award sponsored by ExxonMo-
bil, the Best Social Impact Award
sponsored by Ooredoo, the Most
Innovative Product/Service award
sponsored by Hamad Bin Khalifa
University, and the Best Marketing
Plan award sponsored by Frame.
The team winning Best Company of
the Year Award (University level) will
be given ongoing support by Qatar
Business Incubation Centre (QBIC)
and seed funding of QR35,000 from
Boeing to start their real business.
Elaborating on the upcoming event,
Emad al-Khaja, CEO of Injaz Qatar,
observed that each year, the depth of
talent amongst the participants con-
tinues to amaze the organisers.
“Qatar’s youth have an incredible
level of talent and business intuition.
Through events such as the Mubadara
competition, Injaz Qatar provides
these young men and women with an
opportunity to showcase these capa-
bilities. To be able to build up a tan-
gible business setup from an idea, is
in itself an achievement for each one
of them. This will automatically give
them the confidence, and the skills,
to actively contribute towards Qatar’s
economic and social development
when they enter the workforce in a
few years.”
The Awards Ceremony will host
more than 350 guests, including Injaz
Qatar’s board members and repre-
sentatives from the private and public
sector including the education sector
in Qatar.
Boeing Middle East, North Africa
and Turkey president Bernard Dunn
stated that the company is extremely
proud of the Company Programme
and Start-Up, which allows students The British ship HMS Bangor arrived in Doha yesterday to participate in a joint
to experience the full life cycle of a naval exercise between the Qatari Emiri Naval Forces and the British Royal Navy
company but also provides them with in Qatari territorial waters. The Directorate of Defence Communication at the
viable ideas with the resources they Ministry of Defence said the exercise comes on the basis of prior agreements
need to develop their ideas into busi- within the framework of bilateral defence co-operation between the two friendly
nesses. countries to support efforts to combat terrorism, piracy and smuggling, and to
“It is a great platform for students maintain security and stability in the region.
to develop critical business skills
regardless of the career path they
chose,” the Boeing official added.
This year’s Mubadara Award Cer-
emony has ExxonMobil as platinum
sponsor, Ooredoo as gold sponsor
and Hamad Bin Khalifa University as
silver sponsor. Boeing is the strategic
Ministry closes down
partner for the Start-Up programme,
QBIC is the incubation partner who
will host the winner and Frame the
commercial entity for month
T
media partner. he Ministry of Economy and Com- to comply with their obligations under the
merce (MEC) has closed down a Consumer Protection Law and its executive
commercial entity for a month for regulations, and will intensify its inspec-
selling counterfeit sporting merchandise. tion campaigns to control such practices.
The closure came within the frame- It added in a statement that any case

Ashghal will implement a nearly

17-month long minor diversion
on Al Gharrafa Street from today,
Al Hazm Street traffic signal will
be reduced from three lanes to
Top Qatar employers at CMU-Q work of intensive inspection campaigns
carried out by the MEC to monitor the
markets and commercial activities in
involving a violation of the relevant laws
will be forwarded to the competent au-
thorities for appropriate action.
two lanes (as illustrated on the the country with the aim of controlling The ministry urged all consumers to

it was announced yesterday.
The diversion, scheduled to last
until September 30, 2019, will
facilitate the works completion
of the underpass on Al Gharrafa
Street, as part of the Khalifa
Avenue project. During the
detour, both directions of Al
Gharrafa Street between Thani
bin Jasim Street traffic signal and
map).
The authorities will install road
signs guiding motorists to the
diverted route. Ashghal has
requested all road users to abide
by the existing speed limit at
50kph, and follow the road signs
to ensure safety. The diversion
is designed in collaboration with
the General Directorate of Traffic.
M
ore than 35 or- prices and detecting infringements and report violations to the Department of
ganisations came counterfeit goods, as well as products not Consumer Protection, which receives
to Carnegie Mel- conforming to standard specifications. complaints, suggestions and enquiries
lon University in Qatar The ministry affirmed that it will be through its various channels of commu-
(CMU-Q) to meet and firm in dealing with all those who neglect nication. QNA
network with students, in-
cluding this year’s gradu-
ating seniors. The Careers Qatar urges United Nations framework for
Platform event hosted
potential employers from keeping pace with outer space technology
government agencies,

multinational corpora-
tions, and local, Qatar-
based businesses. The
Class of 2018 will graduate
on April 30 at a ceremony
at CMU-Q.
Michael Trick, dean of
CMU-Q, said, “It is en-
couraging to see so many
employers reaching out
and providing opportu-
nities, especially for our
graduating students. For
the members of the Class
of 2018, this is the begin-
ning of a new chapter and
I believe they will transi-
T
he State of Qatar called for united plementation and use of space activities
international efforts to promote in the light of the conventions and the
and frame the United Nations in- promotion of international law on outer
struments on outer space to keep pace space, which would contribute to the op-
The Careers Platform event hosted potential employers with the significant development of space timal regulation of the use and utilisation
from government agencies, multinational corporations, technology and its uses. This came in a of outer space resources.
and local, Qatar-based businesses. speech delivered by Sheikh Ali bin Jassim The ambassador also pointed to Qa-
al-Thani, Qatar’s ambassador to Austria tar’s accession to the Treaty on Princi-
tion smoothly into the now working within Qatar. and permanent envoy to the UN organi- ples Governing the Activities of States in
workplace: they are team Most CMU-Q graduates sations in Vienna before the 57th session the Exploration and Use of Outer Space
players, ask the right ques- choose careers in Qatar, of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of and the ratification of the Agreement
tions, solve problems, and working for top organisa- Outer Space, which was held in Vienna. on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return
work very hard.” tions in the areas of busi- Sheikh Ali said that space activities of Astronauts and the Return of Objects
Many of the organi- ness, science and technol- had become indispensable tools for eco- Launched into Outer Space, as well as the
sations at Careers Plat- ogy. The total number of nomic, social, environmental and health ratification of the Convention on Regis-
form were represented by CMU-Q alumni is nearly development and resource management, tration of Objects Launched into Outer
alumni of CMU-Q who are 800. emphasising the importance of the im- Space. QNA
 Gulf Times
Friday, April 20, 2018 3

QATAR/ARAB WORLD
Katara Publishing House inaugurated
Minister discusses co-operation
prospects with N Carolina officials
H
E the Minister of Econo-
my and Commerce Sheikh
Ahmed bin Jassim bin Mo-
hamed al-Thani has discussed means
of enhancing co-operation with of-
ficials in Raleigh, North Carolina,
during separate meetings held on the
sidelines of Qatar’s ‘economic road-
show’ in the US.
During his meeting with Will
Miller, deputy secretary of the North
Carolina Department of Commerce,
HE the Minister discussed mecha-
nisms to develop co-operation be-
tween the two countries, expand
trade exchanges, encourage the pri-
vate sector to establish joint ventures HE the Minister of Economy and Commerce Sheikh Ahmed bin Jassim bin
to benefit from the promising invest- Mohamed al-Thani with Will Miller.
ment opportunities and the excellent
Katara – the Cultural Village Foundation held the opening ceremony of Katara Publishing House at a special ceremony business environment provided by of Commerce, to discuss means of witnessed by Qatar as well as its high
yesterday evening. A number of dignitaries, including HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh Qatar. developing co-operation between purchasing power.
al-Sada, HE Dr Hamad bin Abdulaziz al-Kuwari, Katara general manager Dr Khalid bin Ibrahim al-Sulaiti and others were HE Sheikh Ahmed also discussed the two countries, expanding trade HE the Minister invited the Cham-
present on the occasion. Katara Publishing House “aims to become a driving force behind the publishing industry in with Chris Chung, CEO of the Eco- exchanges and encouraging the pri- ber of Commerce in Raleigh to visit
Qatar and a connecting link between readers and writers”, the Cultural Village said in a statement. nomic Development Partnership of vate sector to establish joint ven- Qatar with a delegation of major
North Carolina, possibilities of co- tures. companies in order to identify in-
operation in the economic, trade and The meeting also reviewed the vestment opportunities in the State.
investment fields and ways of devel- investment incentives and facili- The Greater Raleigh Chamber of
oping them, investment incentives ties provided by the Qatari economy, Commerce includes under its um-
and the economic diversification which would strengthen partnerships brella more than 2,200 companies.

Official hails agro sector’s achievements strategy adopted by Qatar in order to

QNA private sectors in cooperation with the
Doha Swiss Agency for Development and Co-
operation (SDC).
Sheikh Dr Falih bin Nasser al-Thani
He noted that the second National
Development Strategy 2018-2022 has
already started.
The self-sufficiency in local vegeta-
achieve Qatar National Vision 2030.
Meanwhile, HE the Minister met
Adrienne Cole, president and CEO
of the Greater Raleigh Chamber
and attract US investments to open
new markets in the region, includ-
ing the Qatari market as a promising
one that the US companies look for in
light of the strong economic growth
Qatar and the US have strong eco-
nomic, trade and investment ties that
were reinforced by the signing of the
Framework Agreement on Trade and
Investment in 2004. Business 12

S
heikh Dr Faleh bin Nasser al-Tha-
ni, assistant undersecretary of the
Ministry of Municipality and En-
vironment for agricultural, livestock and
fisheries affairs, yesterday reaffirmed
that, thanks to the increasing attention
of the wise leadership, the agricultural
sector has managed gigantic leaps to-
wards covering the requirements of the
local market and raising the self-suffi-
ciency rates in the agricultural, livestock
and fishery sectors despite the unjust
siege imposed on the country.
The assistant undersecretary made
the remarks at the end of a two-day
seminar on food security the ministry
organized along with the committee
on following up the implementation of
food security policies in the public and
said that finding appropriate solutions
to the challenges facing food security
can only be achieved by coordinating
efforts, exchanging experiences and
utilizing all the available resources of
government, academic and research
institutions at the local, regional and
international levels.
He pointed out that based on the
leadership’s adoption of Qatar National
Vision 2030 and the National Food Se-
curity Program to raise the level of self-
sufficiency in basic commodities for
citizens and residents, where the gov-
ernment and private sectors in exert ef-
forts to achieve the goals of this nation-
al vision through the implementation
of well-studied strategies for national
development.
bles stands at 24%, 86% in dates, and
about 50% in green fodder, he added.
As for animal products, he said that
self-sufficiency in milk and dairy products
in the country has increased to more than
82%, while fresh chicken and table eggs
cover more than 98% and 23% respective-
ly of Qatar’s market consumption.
The number of economic animals in-
creased to about 1.6mn heads, while self-
sufficiency in fish reached about 80%.
Sheikh Dr Falih bin Nasser al-Thani
said the state has undertaken a number
of initiatives to boost food security by
providing opportunities for private
investors in the agricultural field by
launching four large strategic projects
for the production of vegetables over an
area of 1mn sq m per project. HE Sheikh Ahmed during his meeting with Chris Chung.

Assad ups efforts to crush last of besieged enclaves

Reuters The last rebels withdrew from Tuesday, the Organization for the Iraq carries out air strikes on Islamic State in Syria “We hope the Russians keep State militants had been given 48
Beirut eastern Ghouta hours after the Prohibition of Chemical Weap- their promises, even though we hours to agree to withdraw from
Western bombing. ons said. Iraq yesterday carried out air Earlier this month, Abadi had have no trust in them,” he said. an enclave centred around the
Since then, the government The Western countries say strikes on Islamic State posi- said Iraq would “take all neces- In the nearby enclave of East- Yarmouk camp for Palestinian

T
he Syrian government
yesterday stepped up its
efforts to retake the oppo-
sition’s last besieged enclaves, as
rebels prepared to withdraw from
one and a newspaper reported an
ultimatum against another.
President Bashar al-Assad
scored a major victory this month
by retaking eastern Ghouta, the
biggest rebel stronghold near Da-
mascus, putting his forces in by
far their strongest position since
the early months of the seven-
year-old civil war.
The United States, Britain and
France launched a volley of air
strikes last Saturday against three
Syrian targets in retaliation for
a suspected chemical weapons
strike during the Ghouta assault.
But the limited Western inter-
vention, far from any contested
battlefront, has shown no sign of
having any impact on the ground,
where Assad’s forces have
pressed on with his offensive.
has focused on regaining four less
populous encircled enclaves.
Their capture would leave the
opposition holding only its two
main strongholds, located in the
northwest and southwest along
Syria’s international borders.
Diplomacy this week has fo-
cussed on the accusations of
poison gas use in Douma, the
last town to hold out against the
government advance in eastern
Ghouta.
Western countries say scores
of people were gassed to death in
the April 7 chemical attack.
Syria and its ally Russia deny
it.
Now that the rebels have sur-
rendered, the area is under gov-
ernment control, and a team of
international inspectors has so
far been unable to reach it.
The inspectors have delayed
their visit to Douma after their
security team were shot at dur-
ing a reconnaissance trip on
Moscow and Damascus are pre-
venting the inspectors from
reaching the site and may be de-
stroying evidence.
Russia and Assad’s govern-
ment deny this.
Meanwhile, the Western inter-
vention has had no measurable
impact on the wider war, with
rebels continuing to surren-
der under deals that allow them
to withdraw to the opposition
pocket in the northwest in return
for abandoning territory.
State television showed live
footage of buses entering the
town of Dumayr, northeast of
Damascus, to bring out fighters
and their families, while soldiers
stood by the roadside.
Twenty buses would be used
to transfer about 5,000 people,
including 1,500 rebels, to north
Syria after they surrendered their
heavy weapons, Syrian state TV
said.
Dumayr has been covered by
tions in Syria a week after Prime
Minister Haider al-Abadi said his
country would defend itself from
militant threats across the border.
Iraqi F-16 warplanes crossed
into Syria to carry out the strikes
after co-ordination with Syr-
ian President Bashar al-Assad’s
government, an Iraqi military
spokesman said.
“Carrying out air strikes on
Daesh gangs in Syrian territories
is because of the dangers posed
by said gangs to Iraqi territories
and is proof of the improved
capabilities of our armed forces,”
the Iraqi military said in a state-
ment.
an informal ceasefire for years,
but its recovery is important for
the government because it makes
it possible to guarantee the safety
of vehicles travelling on the Da-
mascus-Baghdad highway.
Said Saif, a senior official with
sary measures if they threaten
the security of Iraq”, referring to
the militants who just three years
ago overran a third of Iraq.
The prime minister declared
final victory over the ultra hard-
line group in December but it still
poses a threat from pockets along
the border with Syria and has
continued to carry out ambushes,
assassinations and bombings
across Iraq.
Iraq currently has good rela-
tions with Iran and Russia, Assad’s
main backers in the seven-year
Syrian civil war, while also enjoy-
ing strong support from the
US-led coalition.
one of the rebel groups in the
area, said his group had no choice
but to go along with a Russian-
backed deal to leave the town,
because there were no other out-
side forces that could guarantee
their safety.
ern Qalamoun, which consists
of several towns and an area of
hills and has also been covered
by an informal ceasefire, rebels
said they were also negotiating a
withdrawal deal with Russia.
The army has put military
pressure on rebels in Eastern
Qalamoun to start negotiations
to withdraw, the Syrian Observa-
tory for Human Rights war mon-
itoring group said.
A military news service run by
the government’s Lebanese ally
Hezbollah reported yesterday
that the army had moved into
positions inside the enclave to
entirely encircle one of its towns,
al-Ruhayba.
The Observatory said there
were also talks under way be-
tween Russia and rebels over the
fate of an enclave in central Syria
around the town of Rastan.
Separately, the pro-govern-
ment Al-Watan newspaper re-
ported yesterday that Islamic
refugee south of Damascus.
“If they refuse, the army and
supporting forces are ready to
launch a military operation to
end the presence of the organisa-
tion in the area,” al-Watan said.
Most residents have fled the
camp, once Syria’s largest for
Palestinian refugees, but thou-
sands of civilians are still inside.
Christopher Gunness, a
spokesman for the United Na-
tions Relief and Works Agency
(UNRWA) which looks after
Palestinian refugees said it was
deeply concerned for their safety.
A commander in the regional
military alliance that backs the
Syrian government said the Syr-
ian army had begun shelling the
militant enclave on Tuesday in
preparation for an assault.
Islamic State lost most of its
territory last year, but it still
holds small areas of desert in
eastern Syria on either side of the
Euphrates river.

Morocco’s child maids still suffer like ‘slaves’

By Hamza Mekouar, AFP told AFP. “But gradually, violence cence and long abused by her em- SAF’s programme against child la- port, rehabilitation, to identify fam-
Rabat became my daily life. ployer. bour, says that the fate of maids, ilies,” says Saadoun.
“The mistress used to beat me, INSAF has helped her find shelter. such as Fatima, starts with “failure “Many maids who are minors do
insult me, she always had a reason.” For Fatima, work began at 7am and at school in rural settings, poverty not even know the address of their

Former Moroccan underage maid Fatima, now 17,
talks to AFP inside a house in Rabat.
E
ven a pet animal is better
treated,” sobs 17-year-old
Fatima, one of thousands of
young girls exploited and too often
abused while working as house-
maids for unscrupulous employers
in Morocco.
She has managed to get to the An-
najda help centre for battered wom-
en in the capital, Rabat.
“I only wanted to help my parents,
my family was living in destitution,”
murmurs the teenager, who has
worked as a household servant for
two years.
For the volunteers who offer sup-
port, such stories are commonplace
despite recent legislation to protect
minors from servitude.
Fatima’s parents agreed to let her
leave their southern village at the
age of 15 to work as a domestic, with
the aid of a local intermediary, or
“semsar”.
A place was found and she was
sent to work with a family in Rabat.
“At first I was well-treated,” she
Fatima El Maghnaoui, who runs
the Annajda shelter, talks of slavery
and says teenage Fatima should be at
school.
“It’s a form of slavery, a viola-
tion of the right to education and of
Morocco’s international commit-
ments,” she said.
There are no official figures on the
employment of maids.
But a study carried out in 2010 by
non-governmental bodies reported
that Morocco had between 66,000
and 80,000 domestic workers aged
under 15.
INSAF, an NGO which has cam-
paigned for women’s rights for near-
ly 20 years, lists “degrading working
and living conditions” suffered by
the girls, who are usually from the
country and illiterate.
Latifa’s story caught public atten-
tion recently after the 22-year-old
was taken to hospital in Casablanca
with third-degree burns and broken
bones.
She had been a maid since adoles-
ended late into the night, “some-
times 3am,” she says.
“I used to sleep on the terrace in
the cold, like a domestic animal. I
used to eat the scraps and my feet al-
ways ached from standing up.”
She was not even paid.
“A salary of 800 dirhams a month
($85, or a third of the minimum
wage) was agreed, but I didn’t get a
penny,” she adds.
After the first year she asked for
what she was owed, only for the
mistress of the house to confiscate
her identity papers and forbid any
contact with her family.
Caught in a trap, Fatima decided
to run away.
“I didn’t know anyone, I had no
money and did not even know the
address where I was working,” she
says.
In the end, a young man who lived
nearby helped her get in touch with
an aunt and “bring the ordeal to a
close”.
Omar Saadoun, who heads IN-
and parental ignorance”.
In some areas, “girls are consid-
ered inferior to boys and are the first
in line to be married off or sent to
work as a servant when extra money
is needed,” he said.
Long awaited amid years of de-
bate, legislation to protect maids
was passed in the summer of 2016.
It sets a minimum age of 18 for
household work.
The law covers labour contracts,
a minimum wage, one day off a
week, annual holidays and financial
penalties for failure to abide by the
rules.
Government has hailed the law as
major social progress.
However, it allows another five
years for the employment of 16-18
year-olds, much to the annoyance
of human rights activists, and there
has been little or no assessment of
implementation.
“We need a global strategy...the
legislation does not bring any guar-
antees, there is no system for sup-
employer.”
And, noted El Maghnaoui, “work
inspectors are not authorised to in-
vestigate inside households where
abuse can take place far from prying
eyes.”
Despite the new legislation, non-
government agencies such as INSAF
report that girls as young as eight or
nine are still being taken on as serv-
ants.
After years of servitude, many still
bear the scars.
Hayat, now 38, became a maid at
the age of nine.
“When I think back today, 30
years after, it’s still just as painful,”
she laments.
“I lost my childhood. My first em-
ployer mistreated me, gave me lefto-
vers to eat. He constantly humiliated
me. It was exhausting. I did not have
the strength needed for housework.”
Today she’s a mother and does
“everything to take care of my chil-
dren so they do not live through the
same thing.”
 Gulf Times
4 Friday, April 20, 2018

AFRICA
Ethiopia’s
Dakar erupts in protest new PM
reshuffles
over election law change
Reuters/AFP who had barricaded a street keeper Baba Kane, who closed
cabinet
Reuters
Addis Ababa

E
Dakar near parliament were dispersed his business to join the protests thiopia’s new premier
by tear gas, AFP journalists re- yesterday morning. Abiy Ahmed named a new
ported. Critics of the law say that defence minister yester-

P
rotests flared yesterday
in Senegal’s capital and a
parliamentary debate de-
scended into pushing and shov-
ing over a proposed change to an
election law that critics say will
make it impossible for minor
candidates to run for president
in 2019.
Hundreds of people took to
the streets of Dakar’s downtown
Plateau district, burning tyres
and setting up barricades before
police dispersed crowds with
tear gas and arrested dozens.
Two opposition figures –
Malick Gakou of the Grand Parti
and Thierno Bocoum of the Agir
movement – were among those
arrested, their parties said.
Idrissa Seck, who headed the
government between 2002 and
2004, was also arrested while
“en route for the Assembly”, said
an official from his Rewmi party,
Mbacke Seck.
Kilifa, a popular rapper and
political activist, was also de-
tained.
Around 100 demonstrators
Police also fired tear gas at
around 50 protesters who were
throwing stones at a police ve-
hicle.
Protests were also held in the
northern town of Saint-Louis,
Thies in the west and the central
city of Mbacke.
It was a rare outbreak of un-
rest in a country widely seen as
a beacon of stability and democ-
racy in West Africa, and came
ahead of elections in February
next year in which President
Macky Sall is seeking a second
term.
The proposed bill requires all
election candidates to collect
the supporting signature of 1%
of registered voters in each of
Senegal’s 14 regions, amounting
to 60,000 people.
Ruling party member Abdou
Mbow told Reuters that the pro-
posed law would prevent elec-
tions from being “chaotic” by
ruling out candidates with no
chance of winning.
The authorities say that they
are concerned over a possible
making candidates travel across
the country would rule out
smaller campaigns with low
budgets.
“You need a lot of money to do
this, so to become president you
need money,” said student Alas-
sane Samb at the protest.
Tempers flared inside parlia-
ment and a debate on the bill
was disrupted when politicians
rushed to the front of the cham-
ber, near the speaker’s chair,
and began arguing furiously and
pushing each other.
Last month, former Dakar
mayor and presidential con-
tender Khalifa Sall was sen-
tenced to five years in jail for
embezzlement and falsifying
documents, a penalty that Kha-
lifa’s supporters say was politi-
cally driven.
Police officers fire tear gas during anti-government demonstrations in Dakar. Rights monitor Amnesty In-
ternational meanwhile urged
increase in the number of presi- problems caused in part by the law is attempts by Sall to silence Senegal to “respect the right of
dential candidates in a country record 47 candidate lists which opponents. people to demonstrate peace-
with nearly 300 parties. voters had to choose from. “Macky Sall wants to impose fully and to air their opinions
Parliamentary elections last However, opposition party this law on us, it’s a dictator- against a backdrop of repres-
year were marred by voting members say that the proposed ship,” said 40-year-old shop- sion”.
day as part of a reshuffle to help
implement reforms demanded
by the public during unrest in
which hundreds were killed by
security forces.
Abiy named 10 new ministers
but retained the finance and for-
eign ministers from the cabinet
of his predecessor Hailemariam
Desalegn, who resigned in Feb-
ruary to pave the way for the re-
forms.
“To respond to public demand
a cabinet reshuffle is essential.
This follows the change of lead-
ership that was enacted in an
attempt to change the existing
situation in the country,” Abiy,
a former army officer, told law-
makers.
He told the new ministers to
tackle graft and streamline bu-
reaucracy.
Unrest broke out in the larg-
est province of Oromiya in 2015
largely fuelled by young people
who said they were marginalised
economically and politically in
the country of around 100mn
people.

King renames Swaziland as ‘eSwatini’ Nigeria’s Buhari stirs social media

AFP
Mbabane
eral years, with lawmakers considering
the issue in 2015.
Mswati III has used the new name in
storm with remarks about youth
previous official speeches.

T
he king of Swaziland, one of the The king, who was crowned in 1986 Reuters on oil but it fell into recession in 2016,
world’s few absolute monarchs, aged 18, rules by decree and has often Lagos largely due to low crude prices.
announced yesterday that his been criticised for his lavish lifestyle Growth returned last year but re-
country had changed its name to eS- despite the grinding poverty suffered mains sluggish, and four out of every

watini to mark 50 years since inde-
pendence from British rule.
Meaning “place of the Swazi”, eS-
watini is the Swazi language name for
the tiny nation landlocked between
South Africa and Mozambique.
Unlike some countries, Swaziland
did not change its name when it gained
independence in 1968 after being a
British protectorate for more than 60
years.
King Mswati III declared the name
change during Independence Day cel-
ebrations at a packed sports stadium in
the second city of Manzini.
“I would like to announce that Swa-
ziland will now revert to its original
name,” he said, wearing red military
uniform. “African countries on getting
King Mswati III with Taiwan President
Tsai Ing-wen after awarding her with
the Order of the Elephant during her
visit at an official ceremony in Lozitha
Palace, Manzini, on Wednesday.
independence reverted to their ancient
names before they were colonised.
“So from now on the country will be
officially be known as the Kingdom of
eSwatini.”
The name Swaziland angers some
citizens as it is a mix of Swazi and Eng-
lish.
The move has been mooted for sev-
by many of his citizens.
Political parties are banned from
taking part in elections and only can-
didates approved by chiefs loyal to the
king can stand for office.
The country, which has a popula-
tion of about 1.3mn people, suffers
the highest HIV rate in the world, with
27% of adults infected.
The name change could mean that
the country’s constitution is re-writ-
ten, as well as changes for the Royal
Swaziland Police Force, the Swaziland
Defence Force and the University of
Swaziland.
After independence, Rhodesia be-
came Zimbabwe, Nyasaland became
Malawi, and Bechuanaland became
Botswana.
P
resident Muhammadu Buhari
has drawn criticism from social
media and the opposition alike
for saying that many young Nigerians
think they need “do nothing” to enjoy
free homes, hospitals and schooling
because they live in an oil-rich coun-
try.
Buhari, who said last week that he
will run for a second term in elections
next February, made the comments in
London where he is attending a Com-
monwealth Heads of Government
Meeting (CHOGM).
“More than 60% of the population
is below the age of 30,” he told a busi-
ness forum on Wednesday. “Many of
them haven’t been to school and they
are claiming that Nigeria has been
an oil-producing country, therefore,
they should sit and do nothing, and get
housing, healthcare, education, free.”
This went down badly with the very
people the 75-year-old will need if he
is to remain leader of Africa’s top oil
producer.
The median age in the nation of
around 190mn people is just 18, ac-
cording to the United Nations.
His remarks prompted the ironic
hashtag #LazyNigerianYouths on
Twitter even though Buhari, a former
general who was also a military ruler in
the 1980s, did not use the word “lazy”.
Young Nigerians cited examples of
their industry and fortitude in a nation
where most people live on less than $2
Buhari: said last week that he will run
for a second term in elections next
February.
a day, the quality of public services is
poor and public corruption is rife.
“Imagine living and surviving in a
country that has no plan for you and
constantly tries to make life hard, yet
we survive and try to break through.
We are not #LazyNigerianYouths,”
wrote Twitter user @UmehOMA.
Others used another hashtag –
#LazyNigeranPVC – in reference to
the Permanent Voter Card (PVC) used
to cast a ballot, linking Buhari’s com-
ments to next year’s election.
“Dear #LazyNigerianYouths 2019
is around the corner let us get our
#LAZYNIGERIANPVC so that we
can show him our Laziness,” said one
Twitter user called @Blessmhe.
Buhari has promised to fix the econ-
omy and reduce Nigeria’s dependence
10 people in the workforce are unem-
ployed or underemployed.
The opposition People’s Democratic
Party (PDP) described Buhari’s com-
ments as “false, derogatory and un-
patriotic”.
“Most disheartening is that these
are the same young persons who form
the highest demography of voters that
put their confidence in him in 2015,” it
said in a statement.
The PDP, which was in power in
1999-2015, has not selected a presi-
dential candidate.
Buhari himself still requires his par-
ty’s endorsement, although many see
this as a formality.
Atiku Abubakar, a former vice-
president and erstwhile Buhari ally,
said that he backed the young.
“I will never refer to Nigeria’s youth
as people who sit and do nothing. They
are hard-working,” Abubakar, who left
the president’s party in November and
rejoined the PDP, said in a tweet.
Abubakar, who has declared his
readiness to run for president in 2019,
also said “their entrepreneurial spirit,
work ethic, and creative abilities are
things of pride and should be applaud-
ed”.
Bashir Ahmad, a presidential aide,
tweeted that Buhari had “always ap-
plauded and celebrated Nigerian
youths who excel in different areas of
endeavour, from sports, to academia,
and other realms”.

Burundi MPs approve law to allow

police searches without warrants
AFP “In light of the evolution of crimi-
Nairobi nality in Burundi these past few years,
it was necessary to introduce new rules
exempt from common law in criminal
for the International Federation for
Human Rights (FIDH), said that the
draft law was “clearly a wish to legal-
ise the illegal and arbitrary practices

T
he lower house of Burundi’s
parliament has voted to allow
security forces in the politically
tense nation to conduct night raids
without a search warrant.
The draft law changing the criminal
code was passed late on Wednesday in
the lower house, with 90 votes in fa-
vour and 22 against after eight hours
of debate, parliament announced on
Twitter.
The bill must now go before the
Senate before being passed into law
by President Pierre Nkurunziza “as
fast as possible”, a senior member of
the ruling CNDD-FDD party told AFP,
asking not to be named.
The measure comes in a climate of
tension, arrests and sporadic violence
which has mounted since Nkurunziza
in 2015 stood for a third term in office
in a hotly disputed election.
He has ruled Burundi since 2005 af-
ter a devastating civil war.
proceedings,” Justice Minister Aime-
Laurentine Kanyana told MPs while
presenting the bill.
The new measures will apply in cas-
es of “terrorism, trafficking, and illegal
possession of weapons or narcotics”,
the minister said.
Security forces would be authorised
to carry out “multiple searches target-
ing entire districts and they would also
be allowed to seize computer systems
to investigate data”.
MPs from the Amizero y’Abarundi
(Hope of the Burundians) coalition,
including politicians close to historic
rebel leader Agathon Rwasa, voted
against a bill that was “contrary to the
constitution”, the spokesman for the
parliamentary group, Pierre-Celestin
Ndikumana, told AFP.
“The ruling party has just buried
democracy in Burundi,” Ndikumana
charged.
Justine Duby, a Burundi specialist
that the forces of law and order have
already resorted to for three years in
this country”.
Independent media, together with
local and international NGOs, regu-
larly report incidents where the secu-
rity forces seal off whole districts and
carry out raids and arrests without
mandates, Duby said.
The main targets of the crackdown
have been parts of the capital Bujum-
bura reputed to be opposition strong-
holds.
On Tuesday Human Rights Watch
accused the regime of killing, beating
and intimidating suspected opponents
of a constitutional referendum due on
May 17 that could enable Nkurunziza
to stay in power until 2034.
The International Criminal Court
has started to investigate a political
crisis that has left at least 1,200 people
dead and forced more than 400,000
others to leave the country.
 Gulf Times
Friday, April 20, 2018 5

AMERICAS
PLEDGE

Cuba president
vows to defend
Castro legacy
Cuba’s new president, Miguel Diaz-
Canel, began his term yesterday
Trump unveils
effort to boost
with a promise to defend the
socialist revolution led by the
Castro brothers since 1959, giving a
sober speech that also emphasised
the need to modernise the island’s
economy. Diaz-Canel was sworn
in to replace Raul Castro by the

US weapons
National Assembly in a carefully
managed new chapter for the
Caribbean island.

RECOMMENDATION

UN urges Bogota
to make progress
on peace
Warning of new challenges to
Colombia’s peace deal, the UN
envoy urged the government to
quickly integrate former rebels
sales abroad works for a year, with White The planned revision of US
Reuters
into civilian life as elections loom. Washington House trade adviser Peter Nav- weapons export policy also in-
The first round of a presidential arro playing a major role in driv- cludes a new drone export policy
election will be held on May 27 ing the project forward. that allows smaller lethal drones

following parliamentary polls
last month won by right-wing
parties opposed to the peace
deal — though they fell short
of a majority. UN envoy Jean
Arnault told the Security Council
there must be “a sustained
drive to put the reintegration of
former combatants on a more
solid basis before the end of the
government’s mandate.”
OUTAGE
Puerto Rico
restores power
to customers
Puerto Rico’s power company
said it had restored power to
over 1.1mn homes and businesses
by yesterday morning after a
transmission line failure cut
service to almost all of the island’s
3.4mn residents the day before.
The Puerto Rican Electric Power
Authority, known as PREPA, was
working to restore power to the
less than 30% of customers in the
US territory still without power
after Wednesday morning’s
blackout.
T
he Trump administration
rolled out a long-awaited
overhaul of US arms ex-
port policy yesterday aimed at
expanding sales to allies, saying
it will bolster the American de-
fence industry and create jobs at
home.
The White House aims to
cut the time it takes to approve
arms deals, lowering the hurdle
to bigger sales and sales of more
powerful weapons, and increas-
ing the role of senior US officials
in shepherding deals across the
finish line, as earlier reported by
Reuters.
The initiative builds on Pres-
ident Donald Trump’s efforts
to personally boost arms sales
on calls with foreign heads of
state.
Companies that stand to
benefit from the new policy
most include Boeing Co and the
other top US defence contrac-
tors, Lockheed Martin Cor-
poration, Raytheon Co, Gen-
eral Dynamics Corporation and
Northrop Grumman Corpora-
US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters during a visit to Joint Interagency Task Force tion.
South at Naval Air Station Key West yesterday. The plans have been in the
Navarro said in a statement
the new policies “will create
American manufacturing jobs,
strengthen our allies and part-
ners, support a robust defence
industrial base at home, and
promote American economic
and security interests abroad.”
The initiative builds on
President Donald Trump’s
efforts to personally boost
arms sales on calls with
foreign heads of state
Human rights will now carry
equal weight alongside other
considerations in planned arms
sales including the needs of al-
lied nations and the economic
loss if the US contractor does not
win the sale when decisions are
made on whether to approve an
arms deal.
“This is a balanced policy,”
said Ambassador Tina Kaid-
anow, an official with the state
department who oversees arms
export agreements. “We abso-
lutely look at human rights as
one of a set of considerations
that we look at.”
that can fire missiles and sur-
veillance drones of all sizes will
soon become more widely avail-
able to US allies, Reuters report-
ed in March.
Two potential beneficiar-
ies of the rule changes, Textron
and Kratos Defence and Secu-
rity Solutions, currently market
smaller armed drones interna-
tionally.
The full text of the drone pol-
icy will remain classified along
a list of potential buyers being
given fast-track treatment is ex-
panding to include more coun-
tries, a state department official
said.
Trump has pressed foreign
governments to buy more US-
made weapons in nearly every
call he has had with a head of
state of major allies, a state de-
partment official said earlier this
week.
The new policy will go well
beyond a relaxation of rules
for foreign military sales under
president Barack Obama in 2014
that enabled US arms contrac-
tors to sell more overseas than
ever before.

JUSTICE

Ex-emergency
operator jailed
forhanging up on
No charges over
calls

A former emergency operator

in Texas was convicted of
hanging up on thousands of
911 calls and was sentenced to
10 days in jail and 18 months of
probation. Crenshanda Williams,
Prince drug death
AFP criticised, questions and judged in the
Chaska, US days and weeks to come.”
But he added: “Suspicions and in-
nuendo are categorically insufficient to

44, was found guilty in Houston
of systematically hanging up
on people trying to report
emergencies, the office of Harris
County District Attorney Kim Ogg
said in a statement. A jury found
Williams guilty of interference
with emergency telephone calls, a
misdemeanour.
LEGAL
Governor’s bid to
dismiss case fails
A St Louis judge rejected a bid
to dismiss a criminal invasion of
privacy charge against Missouri
governor Eric Greitens stemming
from a sex scandal involving
an extramarital affair. Judge
Rex Burlison ruled against the
Republican governor’s legal team,
which filed a motion accusing Kim
Gardner, the Democratic circuit
attorney for the city of St Louis, of
prosecutorial misconduct.
T
wo years after pop icon Prince
died of an overdose, prosecutors
yesterday said they would not file
any criminal charges and announced a
settlement with a US doctor who pre-
scribed powerful painkillers for the star.
A prosecutor in Prince’s home state
of Minnesota said it remained unclear
how the Purple One obtained counter-
feit pills containing fentanyl, an intense
opioid, that ultimately killed him.
“The bottom line is we simply do
not have sufficient evidence to charge
anyone with a crime related to Prince’s
death,” Mark Metz, the attorney of
Carver County, home to Prince’s Pais-
ley Park estate, told reporters.
After searches, Metz said that Prince
had bottles of pills marked with com-
mon commercial pain relief labels such
as Bayer and Aleve and that the singer
thought he was taking Vicodin — but
was in fact taking the more potent fen-
tanyl instead.
Metz acknowledged that someone
gave Prince the counterfeit pills, say-
ing: “There is no doubt that the actions
of individuals around Prince will be
support any criminal charges.”
Prince died on April 21, 2016 at age
57 — stunning fans and bandmates who
recall the singer as an outward model
of health who rarely drank alcohol, ate
a vegetarian diet and would kick out
musicians who abused drugs from his
studio.
But the pop star — so versatile he
could literally play guitar blind-folded
behind his back — secretly suffered from
pain stemming from a hip operation.
In his death, Prince became the most
famous face of the epidemic of painkill-
er abuse in the US.
Last year, more than 42,000 people
died and 2.1mn others abused opioids
around the country, according to the
department of health and human serv-
ices.
Moments before the announcement,
federal prosecutors said that they had
reached a settlement with Minnesota
doctor Michael Schulenberg.
The physician had given pills to
Prince by making out prescriptions to
Kirk Johnson, a longtime associate of
the artiste who managed Paisley Park.

Man trolled for jet disaster posts

Reuters thing, but to morbidly video and take power of live streaming. “Live can be a
Dallas pictures to post publicly is completely powerful tool in connecting and sup-
disgusting. Evidently the wrong per- porting communities during moments
son was taken from that flight,” Dennis of crisis,” Simo said in a post.

T
he first reaction of Southwest
Airlines passenger Marty Mar-
tinez when an engine exploded
on the plane on Tuesday was to live
stream what he feared might be his last
minutes of life.
It was possibly the first time some-
one who thought he was going to die in
a plane crash live-streamed the expe-
rience. Martinez lived.
One passenger, bank executive Jen-
nifer Riordan, was killed when she was
partially pulled through a shattered
plane window.
But while Martinez, who runs a Dal-
las marketing agency, said on Wednes-
day he wanted to communicate with
loved ones, many social media users
attacked him in expletive-laced post-
ings, with one saying Martinez himself
should have been the one who died.
“Trying to contact loved ones is one
Miller said on Facebook in a posting
that included colourful language to
describe Martinez.
Many social media users defended
Martinez’s use of Facebook Live, but
some said he violated passengers’ pri-
vacy and sought cheap fame.
Others said he was selfish to focus on
messaging instead of on the critically
injured passenger a few rows away.
“You represent the worst of social me-
dia,” Tom Burke said on Facebook.
The event illustrates thorny issues
facing platforms such as Google’s
YouTube, Twitter’s Periscope and Fa-
cebook, already under pressure over
privacy and news curating, over host-
ing live-streaming material.
Facebook did not respond to a request
for comment on Martinez’s posts.
Earlier this month, Facebook vice
president Fidji Simo talked about the
Martinez explained why he opened
his laptop and fumbled for his credit
card to pay $8 for WiFi while other pas-
sengers were grabbing oxygen masks.
“All I could think of in that mo-
ment was, I need to communicate
with my loved ones,” he said on ABC
Television.”I thought, ‘These are my
last few moments on Earth and I want
people to know what happened.’”
Some social media users questioned
his motives. “I didn’t see you say an-
ything to the people you love,” said
Lakeya Collins on Facebook. “This
social media world today is sickening
Everyone wants to go viral ugggh.”
Other users said he provided impor-
tant images. “God forbid the outcome
had been different, surely friends and
family of those you captured would
have at least had closure knowing the
exact truth,” said Klaudia Olszowka.
 Gulf Times
6 Friday, April 20, 2018
ASIA/AUSTRALASIA
China flies bombers around Taiwan, holds live-fire drills
AFP
Beijing
C
hinese bombers and
spy planes have flown
around Taiwan, the air
force said yesterday as Taipei
accused Beijing of trying to
stoke regional tensions with its
military drills. China sees the
democratically-governed island
as a renegade part of its territory
to be brought back into the fold
and has not ruled out reunifica-
tion by force.
A peace treaty ‘must
be pursued’: Moon
AFP
Seoul
A
peace treaty to formal-
ly end the Korean War
“must be pursued”, South
Korean President Moon Jae-in
said yesterday, ahead of a sum-
mit with Kim Jong-un, leader of
the nuclear-armed North. The
1950-53 Korean War ended in
a ceasefire rather than a peace
treaty, leaving the two sides
technically at war, and the De-
militarised Zone between them
— where Moon and Kim will
meet next Friday — bristles with
minefields and fortifications.
“The armistice that has
dragged on for 65 years must
come to an end,” Moon told media
executives at the presidential Blue
House, adding: “The signing of a
peace treaty must be pursued af-
ter an end to the war is declared.”
But Moon signalled that a treaty
would depend on the North giving
up its nuclear weapons.
“If the inter-Korean sum-
mit or North Korea-US sum-
mit lead to denuclearisation,”
he said, “I think that it won’t
be too difficult to reach practi-
cal agreements in the big picture
on creating a peace regime, nor-
malising North Korea-US ties, or
providing international aid for
the improvement of the North
Korean economy.”
The summit between Moon
and Kim will be the biggest
highlight of a whirlwind of di-
plomacy on and around the pe-
ninsula triggered by the Winter
Olympics, and a precursor to a
much-anticipated meeting be-
tween Kim and US President
Donald Trump. The US leader
warned earlier that his summit
could still be called off, saying:
“If I think that it’s a meeting that
is not going to be fruitful, we’re
not going to go.
“If the meeting, when I’m
there, is not fruitful, I will re-
No-go warning as Japan volcano
erupts for first time in 250 years
A volcano in southern Japan
erupted for the first time
in 250 years yesterday,
spewing steam and ash
hundreds of metres into the
air, as authorities warned
locals not to approach
the mountain. “There is
a possibility that (Mount
Io) will become more
active,” said Makoto Saito,
an official from the Japan
Meteorological Agency
(JMA), confirming the
eruption.
In a televised press
conference, he warned
residents in the area to stay
away from the mountain,
part of the Mount Kirishima
group of volcanoes, as major
ash deposits spread from
the crater. It was the first
eruption of the mountain
since 1768, the JMA said. The
agency warned that large
flying rocks could fall over
a three-kilometre (two-
mile) radius. The eruption
threw smoke and ash 400m
(1,300ft) into the air.
Footage captured by
the JMA and local media
showed thick white and grey
smoke rising from several
areas of the mountain.
There were no immediate
H-6K bombers, Su-30 and
J-11 fighters and reconnaissance
aircraft took part in a patrol
around Taiwan, air force spokes-
man Shen Jinke told the official
Xinhua news agency. Taiwan
Affairs Office spokesman Ma Xi-
aoguang said the exercise served
as a warning against those push-
ing for Taiwanese independence.
Taiwan’s defence ministry
said yesterday multiple Chi-
nese aircraft including bombers
and reconnaissance planes were
spotted on Wednesday after-
noon flying over Miyako Strait —
South Korean soldiers standing guard before a United Nations Command Military Armistice Commission
(UNCMAC) meeting hut in the truce village of Panmunjom within the Demilitarised Zone (DMZ) separating
North and South Korea.
spectfully leave the meeting.”
Trump previously offered his
“blessing” for the two Koreas to
discuss a peace treaty to formally
close the decades-old conflict.
But the question of whether the
North is willing to give up what it
calls the “treasured sword” of its
nuclear arms will be key to any
broader settlement.
North Korea has long said it
needs nuclear weapons to de-
fend itself against a possible US
invasion, and both South Korean
and Chinese officials have cited
Kim as saying he is committed to
denuclearisation of the Korean
peninsula — code for the with-
drawal of US troops and Wash-
ington’s nuclear umbrella over
its security ally, something un-
thinkable in Washington.
For its part the US stresses it
wants to see the complete, irre-
versible and verifiable denuclear-
isation of the North. “Right now,
North Korea is showing the inter-
reports of injuries, Chief
Cabinet Secretary Yoshihide
Suga said, adding that the
government was “taking
all possible measures”
to prevent damage
and casualties. The
eruption occurred a few
kilometres (miles) away
from Shinmoedake, which
featured in the 1967 James
Bond film You Only Live
Twice and erupted in March.
Japan, with scores of active
volcanoes, sits on the so-
called Pacific “Ring of Fire”
where a large proportion
of the world’s earthquakes
and volcanic eruptions
are recorded. In January, a
Japanese soldier was killed
and several other people
injured after an eruption
near a popular ski resort
in northwest of Tokyo.
On September 27, 2014,
Japan suffered its deadliest
eruption in almost 90 years
when Mount Ontake, in
central Nagano prefecture,
burst unexpectedly to life.
An estimated 63 people
were killed in the shock
eruption which occurred as
the peak was packed with
hikers out to see the region’s
spectacular autumn colours.
near Japan’s southern Okinawa
island — into the western Pacific
before returning to their base via
Bashi Channel off southern Tai-
wan.
“China has deliberately ma-
nipulated (the exercise) to pres-
sure and harass Taiwan in an at-
tempt to spark tensions between
the two sides and in the region,”
Chiu Chui-cheng of Taiwan’s
Mainland Affairs Council told a
regular briefing. “(We) will never
bow down to any military threat
and incentive.”
Chinese combat helicopters
Journalists and South Korean and US soldiers inside a United Nations
Command Military Armistice Commission (UNCMAC) meeting hut in
the truce village of Panmunjom within the Demilitarized Zone (DMZ)
separating North and South Korea.
Australian
army bans
symbols
DPA
Sydney
A
ustralia’s army has banned
the use of ‘death’ symbols
such as the pirate Skull and
Crossbones, local media reported
yesterday. General Angus Campbell,
who is to take over as the country’s
next chief of defence in July, issued
the order earlier this week, broad-
caster ABC reported.
Campbell said emblems such as
the Grim Reaper, Spartans, Skull and
Crossbones and comic book vigilan-
te characters Phantom and Punisher
encouraged a “general disregard for
the most serious responsibility of
our profession: the legitimate and
discriminate taking of life.”
“As soldiers our purpose is to serve
the state, employing violence with
humility always and compassion
wherever possible. This symbology
to which I refer erodes this ethos of
service.” Campbell led the govern-
ment’s controversial campaign Oper-
ation Sovereign Borders to intercept
refugee boats before they reached
Australian soil and take the asylum-
seekers to Nauru and Manus Island.
also conducted live-fire drills firing missiles at distant objects
with missiles off southeast Chi- in the water. The reports did not
na, state media said, without say exactly where the exercises
confirming whether the exer- took place, but they occurred on
cises took place in the sensitive the same day that China con-
Taiwan Strait. ducted live-fire drills in the Tai-
The People’s Liberation wan Strait.
Army (PLA) exercise took place Beijing had announced the
Wednesday and involved vari- Taiwan Strait drills last week,
ous types of helicopters that further ramping up tensions fol-
tested “all-weather operational lowing stark warnings against
capability of the air force at sea,” any independence moves by the
the official Xinhua news agency self-ruled island. Vessels had
said. been ordered to avoid a certain
State broadcaster CCTV area off the Chinese mainland,
showed footage of helicopters triggering speculation that a flo-
national community a willing-
ness for a complete denucleari-
sation,” Moon said, but added it
was “too early to guarantee the
success of dialogue”, which could
only come “after a successful US-
North Korea summit”.
North Korea’s state media
yesterday announced it will con-
vene a full meeting of the ruling
Workers’ Party of Korea central
committee to make key policy
decisions.
The official KCNA news agen-
cy gave no indications what they
might be about, saying only that
Friday’s gathering will address
issues of a “new stage” in what
it called “the important historic
period of the developing Korean
revolution”. Analysts say there
could be changes to its stance
towards the US. “It needs a logi-
cal explanation and justification
for the shift in its ties with the
‘enemy’ US, which has held the
North Koreans together for the
past 70 years,” said Kim Dong-
yub, a researcher at the Institute
for Far Eastern Studies at Ky-
ungnam University.
“It looks like they are ready to
do that,” Kim added.
Even so there are multiple
obstacles to reaching a final
Korean War treaty, involving
both sides of the peninsula and
other countries. While the US-
led United Nations command,
China and North Korea are sig-
natories to the decades-old ar-
mistice, South Korea is not. Both
Pyongyang and Seoul claim sov-
ereignty over the whole Korean
peninsula, but a treaty could im-
ply mutual recognition of each
other.
And such promises have been
made before – in the joint state-
ment after the last inter-Korean
summit in 2007, they agreed to
work together to have the leaders
of “the three or four parties di-
rectly concerned ... convene on
the peninsula and declare an end
to the war”.
Cambodian journalists charged
with espionage denied bail
Reuters
Phnom Penh
A
court in Cambodia
yesterday declined to
grant bail to two jour-
nalists who have been charged
with espionage for filing news
reports to a US-funded ra-
dio station. The case of the
two, Uon Chhin and Yeang
Sothearin, has compounded
concern about a crackdown
on criticism and dissent by
Prime Minister Hun Sen, who
aims to extend his rule of more Uon Chhin and Yeang Sothearin, former journalists of the Radio Free Asia (RFA), inside a police
than three decades in a general vehicle as they arrive for a bail hearing at the Appeal Court in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
election in July. “The court de-
nied our appeal,” Keo Vanny, a complaining of a “relentless
lawyer for the pair, told report- crackdown on independent
ers after the hearing. “They voices”, which made it impos-
upheld the Phnom Penh court sible for it to guarantee “the
decision which continues the integrity of RFA’s journalistic
pre-trial detention.” mission”. The two journalists
The two used to work for the have been in pre-trial detention
Washington-based Radio Free since their arrest in November.
Asia (RFA), which broadcasts in They were charged with “pro-
the Khmer language, and which viding information that is de-
the government criticised for structive to national defence
being biased towards the oppo- to a foreign state” after they
sition. RFA shut down its Pho- were caught filing stories to
nom Penh office in September RFA. Both men deny the charge
tilla spearheaded by China’s sole
aircraft carrier would take part in
the exercise.
But Taiwan’s defence min-
istry said Wednesday that
the drills only involved land-
based artillery conducting
“routine” shooting practice,
accusing Beijing of exaggerat-
ing its plans as a form of “ver-
bal intimidation and sabre-
rattling”. The drills coincided
with Taiwanese President Tsai
Ing-wen’s visit to Swaziland,
one of Taipei’s few remaining
international allies.
New role for wife of Kim: First Lady
North Korean leader Kim
Jong-un has given his young,
stylish wife the title of First
Lady in what analysts say is
a major boost to her status
ahead of back-to-back summits
with South Korea and the
United States. Ri Sol-ju has
often accompanied Kim to
official events but made her
first solo public appearance
last weekend at a ballet
performance by a visiting
Chinese troupe.
The North’s state media
reported the outing referring
to her as the “respected First
Lady” – the first time the
title has been used in more
than 40 years, and with the
addition of an adjective usually
reserved for the country’s
leaders. North Korea’s elderly
star anchorwoman Ri Chun-
hee – who is often drafted in
for major announcements
– delivered the news of her
attendance on television,
further enhancing Ri’s
standing.
Dressed in a dusty pink
two-piece skirt suit, Ri was
accompanied by senior North
Korean officials often seen
with the leader, including Kim’s
younger sister, Yo-jong. Ri, a
former star singer, emerged in
2012 and has been regarded
as one of the most high-profile
women in the isolated, deeply
patriarchal nation, but with a
limited role as Kim’s stylish,
coy wife.
Analysts say her promotion
is likely to be part of an effort
to paint North Korea as a
“normal state” as it prepares
for summits with South
Korean President Moon Jae-in
next Friday and later with US
President Donald Trump. It also
gives her a title matching that
of their wives Kim Jung-sook
and Melania. “Promoting Ri
Sol-ju is the most effective
marketing strategy,” An Chan-
il, a defector researcher who
runs the World Institute for
North Korea Studies, told AFP.
“The summit is being held as
equals, so if Melania Trump
attends, Ri will attend,” he said,
noting that the North Korean
leader’s wife accompanied him
when he went to Beijing last
month on his first overseas trip
since inheriting power.
Ri was previously referred to
as “comrade” by the North’s
state media, and the weekend
against them which carries a
prison term of up to 15 years.
“It is very unjust. They in-
tend for us to suffer,” a hand-
cuffed Yeang Sothearin told
reporters as police took him
away after the hearing.
“The government took re-
venge on us because we broad-
casted the real situation about
Cambodia.” A government
spokesman, Phay Siphan, re-
jected any suggestion the gov-
ernment was taking revenge on
Beijing has stepped up mili-
tary patrols around Taiwan and
used diplomatic pressure to iso-
late it internationally since Tsai
took office. Beijing has also been
angered by Washington’s arms
sales to Taipei, and China pro-
tested last month after President
Donald Trump signed a bill al-
lowing top-level US officials to
travel to Taiwan.
Washington switched dip-
lomatic recognition from
Taiwan to China in 1979 but
maintains trade relations with
the island.
report was the first time the
“First Lady” title had been used
to describe the leader’s spouse
since 1974, when it was applied
to Kim Song-ae, the second
wife of North Korea’s founder
Kim Il-sung.
Little is known about Ri, who is
believed to be 29 and to have
three children with Kim, at
least one of them a daughter.
South Korean intelligence
reports have described her
as coming from an ordinary
family with a teacher father
and a doctor mother.
A former member of the
North’s Unhasu Orchestra, Ri
reportedly attended a music
school in China and visited
South Korea in 2005 as a
cheerleader for her country’s
squad in an international
sporting event.
She is known to be a fashion
aficionado and is often
pictured wearing luxury
outfits – on one occasion
carrying what appeared to be
a Christian Dior handbag – in
a country plagued by chronic
poverty. Some analysts point
to Kim’s marginalised mother
Ko Yong-hui as another factor
driving Ri’s expanded role.
Ko, an ethnic Korean from
Japan, had three children with
Kim’s father and predecessor
Kim Jong-il, but had a low
profile throughout her 28-
year marriage. She died in
2004, reportedly from breast
cancer, and her body is said
to have been secretly flown
from Paris, where she was
being treated, to Pyongyang.
A grave was only built for her
in 2012, after Kim inherited
power.
“I think Kim Jong-un’s trauma
of watching his own mother
living in the shadows also
factored in,” said Shin Beom-
chul, an analyst at the Asan
Institute for Policy Studies.
“Growing up watching his
mother could have motivated
him to elevate the status of his
wife.”
Unlike his father and
grandfather, Kim is often seen
accompanied by the women
in his life – namely Ri and Yo
Jong – in a break from the
past when leaders’ spouses
or sisters rarely made public
appearances. Kim sent his
younger sister to the Winter
Games in the South on a
diplomatic charm offensive.
the pair, saying: “We cannot ac-
cept what he said.”
The reporters were arrested
days before the Supreme Court
dissolved the main opposition
Cambodia National Rescue
Party after it was accused of
plotting to take power with the
help of the United States. The
party and the United States
denied the accusation.
Hun Sen and his govern-
ment reject accusation of hu-
man rights violations.
 Gulf Times
Friday, April 20, 2018 7

PLAN
Plastic straw and cotton
bud ban proposed
The government yesterday announced plans to
ban the sale of plastic straws, stirrers and cotton
buds in England, as part of a push to tackle global
marine pollution. Prime Minister Theresa May
said her government will launch a consultation on
banning the single-use items later this year, ahead
of legislation on the issue. The move follows the
2015 introduction of a small charge for carrier bags
in most shops, a ban on plastic microbeads and last
month’s announcement of plans for consumers to
pay a deposit on plastic bottles. “The government
is a world leader on this issue, and the public have
shown passion and energy embracing our plastic
bag charge and microbead ban,” May said.
POLITICS
Labour makes new
pitch to financiers
Shadow chancellor John McDonnell yesterday
offered a new pact to the financial services
industry: higher taxes in return for a seat at
the policymaking table if Labour wins the next
election. McDonnell, a veteran socialist who has
won over many voters with his promises to re-
nationalise services and increase public spending,
said he wanted a “new start” in relations with
London’s lucrative financial sector. “There are some
policies that you will like and some which you will
be less enthusiastic about,” he told a conference
on the future of finance in London. “I don’t expect
some people to be overjoyed at having to pay a bit
more in income tax or corporation tax.”
DATA
Social media fuelling rape
by boys aged 12: police
Children as young as 12 are being prosecuted
for rape in London amid police warnings that
social media is fuelling serious sexual offending
among juveniles. The crimes include some in
which girls have been blackmailed into sex over
pictures taken on phones in “revenge porn type”
offences. Detectives say that girls are also being
provided as “rewards” for boys carrying out
drug-running and other crimes. Some victims
have been subjected to multiple attacks. New
figures from the Metropolitan police reveal that
13 children aged between 10 and 12 were among
196 juveniles from the capital charged with rape
between the start of 2015 and the end of last year.
BRITAIN/IRELAND
FALLOUT
Councillor suspended over
Facebook post on May
A Labour councillor has been suspended from
the party for “abusive” online posts aimed at
senior Tory women. Featherstone councillor
Richard Taylor is under investigation about
a Facebook post in January containing an
expletive to describe Prime Minister Theresa
May. The same word appeared in posts about
Work and Pensions Secretary Esther McVey and
Telford MP Lucy Allan, said the Local Democracy
Reporting Service. Taylor was unavailable for
comment regarding his suspension. He was
suspended by the party on Wednesday after the
content of the now-deleted posts came to light.
Labour has launched an investigation.
CRIME
Two arrested after man’s
murder in Belfast
Two men have been arrested on suspicion of
murder following the death of a man in north
Belfast. The body of the man, who is believed to be
a foreign national, was found in Orient Gardens, off
the Cliftonville Road, on Wednesday night. Police
have appealed for anyone who was in the area
between 1900 and 2200BST on Wednesday, and
has any information about the death, to contact
detectives. The men who have been detained by
police are 26 and 28. Sinn Fein MLA Gerry Kelly
said it was understood a neighbour discovered the
body and contacted police. He believes police are
“close” to identifying the victim who is thought to
have been lying in the street for two hours.

May’s policy on
immigration
almost Nazi-like,
says ex-official
Guardian News and Media to the top. But he later fell out with
London the Cameron administration. For
two years from 2012, he was joint
head of the civil service, shar-

T
he hostile immigration en-
vironment Theresa May set
out to create when she was
at the Home Office was regarded
by some ministers as “almost
reminiscent of Nazi Germany” in
the way it is working, the former
head of the civil service, Lord
Kerslake, has said.
Kerslake, who was speaking
on BBC Newsnight, was the sen-
ior official at the department for
communities and local govern-
ment until 2014, a job that put him
at the heart of Whitehall. He was
commenting on the decision to
scrap thousands of landing cards
that was taken in 2010, which he
insisted would have been referred
to ministers. But the Environment
ing the running of Whitehall with
Sir Jeremy Heywood, the Cabi-
net secretary, before departing
abruptly after two years.
The job was then reunited under
Heywood, in what was widely re-
garded as a political move.
Permanent secretaries like
Kerslake meet every week to dis-
cuss and co-ordinate government
business, and he would have been
very familiar with problems in
other departments. Former Lib-
eral Democrat ministers in the co-
alition and some special advisers
have been speaking out about their
fight to try to soften the policy. Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Charles arrive for the formal opening of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) at Buckingham Palace in London yesterday.
Sarah Teather, who was min-
ister for children and families,
revealed in 2013 that an internal

Queen backs Charles to be

Secretary, Michael Gove, who was
education secretary for some of
the time and would have been in-
volved in aspects of the policy, dis-
missed the claim.
“I’ve never heard anyone make
that comparison before Lord
working group on immigration
was initially named the “hostile
environment working group, with
its name only changed following
LibDem objections.
Teather, who is now the director
of the Jesuit Refugee Service, said:

next Commonwealth head

Kerslake. It’s not for me to criti-
cise a distinguished former public
servant like Lord Kerslake but I re-
spectfully disagree.”
He added that after the Brexit
vote, people felt able to be com-
passionate because countries that
could control their borders were
able to be more generous.
“I think we can see in the na-
“Theresa May was determined to
transform things. She was proud
of wanting to generate a really
hostile environment.
“The Home Office has a cul-
ture of enforcement and disbelief
which runs deep into the walls, AFP ed under her father King George The position is not hereditary, Commonwealth at the opening focuses on development and de-
but it is politically led. It’s a culture London VI with the London Declaration but Prince Charles, who is also ceremony. mocracy, but is placing greater at-
from the top, and it has been a bit of 1949. the heir to the thrones of 16 Com- “You have been the Common- tention on boosting trade.
rich for the Home Secretary, Am- “It is my sincere wish that the monwealth nations, is expected wealth’s most steadfast and fer- During the two days of talks, the

tional conversation that we have
had about the Windrush genera-
tion that people are so glad that
this country has had a tradition of
welcoming people from abroad.”
Gove’s remarks came as the
prime minister addressed the
opening session of the Com-
monwealth heads of government
meeting (CHOGM) yesterday.
At the gathering, the Queen
met the heads of government of
the Caribbean countries, some of
whose former citizens’ lives have
been blighted by the chaos over
immigration documentation.
Kerslake came to Whitehall
from a highly successful career in
local government, and rose rapidly
ber Rudd, to blame civil servants.
When you’ve had a Conservative
home secretary that long, you
cannot moan when civil servants
deliver those policies.”
A LibDem special adviser at the
time, Polly Mackenzie, tweeted
on Tuesday night that the “hos-
tile environment” mission started
with an inter-ministerial group set
up on “migrant access to benefits
and public services”.
Gove went out of his way to
stress Britain’s open approach to
migration and to praise Amber
Rudd’s handling of the affair. He
said her apology had been “grace-
ful” and “a model”, and insisted
she had “taken a grip”.
Q
ueen Elizabeth II, the head
of the Commonwealth,
yesterday opened the
Commonwealth summit for what
may be the last time, voicing hope
that her son would be allowed to
carry on her role.
Queen Elizabeth, who turns 92
tomorrow, welcomed leaders from
the 53 Commonwealth nations
— mostly former colonies — to
Buckingham Palace for two days
of talks that will include discus-
sions on trade, marine protection
and tackling cybercrime.
In her opening speech, Queen
Elizabeth spoke of her own “ex-
traordinary journey” as head of
the Commonwealth, which start-
Commonwealth will continue to
offer stability and continuity for
future generations and will de-
cide that one day, the Prince of
Wales should carry on the impor-
tant work started by my father in
1949,” she said, referring to her
son Prince Charles.
Queen Elizabeth, who has been
the group’s symbolic figurehead
since 1952, gave up long-haul
travel in support of the bien-
nial summit in 2013 and the 2020
gathering is set to be held in Ma-
laysia.
On the closing day today, lead-
ers are expected to discuss who
should follow Queen Elizabeth in
the role.
to get the nod, despite some un-
ease among ardent republicans.
Charles, 69, told Common-
wealth leaders the body had been
“a fundamental feature of my life
for as long as I can remember”.
“The modern Commonwealth
has a vital role to play in building
bridges between our countries,”
he said.
Maltese Prime Minister Joseph
Muscat said of Charles: “We are
certain that when he will be called
upon to do so, he will provide a
solid and passionate leadership
for our Commonwealth.”
Prime Minister Theresa May,
the summit host, paid tribute to
Queen Elizabeth’s service to the
vent champion,” May said. “You
have seen us through some of our
most serious challenges.
“And we commit to sustaining
this Commonwealth, which you
have so carefully nurtured.”
A spectacle of pomp and pag-
eantry was staged to welcome the
leaders, with a guard of honour
and flag bearers greeting arriving
dignitaries.
More than 100 troops from
the Coldstream Guards were in
the honour guard, wearing their
famous scarlet tunics and bear-
skin hats. Born out of the former
British empire, the voluntary or-
ganisation, covering a third of
the world’s population, typically
group is hoping to agree an ocean
governance charter, an agenda for
trade and investment, and a dec-
laration on tackling cybercrime.
Given its highly diverse mem-
bership, if agreements can be
struck within the Common-
wealth, they can likely achieve
wider support.
At the last Commonwealth
summit in 2015, leaders struck a
deal on climate change that helped
pave the way for the Paris agree-
ment days afterwards.
Today’s sessions take place at
Windsor Castle, west of London,
where the leaders are left entirely
alone to discuss whatever they
wish.

Hottest April day

Woman dies after van
crashes into house
Guardian News and Media
Half-brother slams
‘phoney’ Meghan
AFP
London
front of 600 invited guests.
A further 2,640 people will
be welcomed into the castle
woman who was inside the one who may have seen the van grounds.

M
London property at the time died as a in the moments before the colli- eghan Markle’s half- Thomas Markle revealed he
result of the incident. The wom- sion. The van is quite distinctive brother has accused had not received an invite, de-
an’s family have been informed as it is white with a black bonnet the royal bride-to-be spite claiming to have spent

A
90-year-old woman has
been killed after a van
smashed into her house
in Somerset shortly after leaving
a pub.
Police said they had arrest-
ed a 34-year-old woman and
33-year-old man on suspicion
of causing death by dangerous
driving and they remain in police
custody.
Neighbours ran to help the
woman after the vehicle crashed
into the living room of her semi-
detached home in the seaside
town of Clevedon, but say she
died instantly beneath the rub-
ble.
A spokesman for Avon and
Somerset police said: “We’re
continuing to investigate
Wednesday night’s fatal collision
on Yeolands Drive in Clevedon. A
white Ford Transit van collided
with a house causing substantial
damage shortly before 8.30pm.
“Tragically, a 90-year-old
and are being supported by spe-
cially trained officers. Formal
identification has not yet taken
place.”
Inspector Frazer Davey added:
“This was a terribly sad incident
and our thoughts are with the
woman’s family at this difficult
time. While we’re in the early
stages of our investigation we
know the van involved, registra-
tion WR65 LNC, left the Crab
Apple pub moments before col-
liding with the house.
“We have already reviewed
some CCTV from the local area
and as a result of this proc-
ess we have identified a witness
who we’d like to talk to. At about
8.25pm someone is seen talking
to the occupants of the van out-
side the pub.
“I’m keen for this person to
call us as soon possible as I be-
lieve they may have information
which could help our inquiry.
We’re also keen to speak to any-
and two white stripes. It also has
ladders on the roof.”
Julie Elson, 57, who lives four
doors away from where the crash
happened, said: “The lady was
on the phone to her great-grand-
daughter at the time and she (the
great-granddaughter) heard the
bang and came down the road
in her nightie because she lives
in the area. She was hysterical,
screaming.
“She heard the whole thing
over the phone, the poor girl. The
lady would always speak to you, a
true neighbour.
“Everything was manic on
Wednesday night. Everybody
is shocked. My eyes have been
welling up this morning. I’m so
sad. She was still very lively and
hadn’t long given up driving.”
Another neighbour, Robert
Cornock, 71, was one of the first
to enter the house after the crash.
He said the woman had lived
there for more than 35 years.
of forgetting “her roots and her
family” and “acting phoney”
in a stinging interview with a
British newspaper.
Thomas Markle, who lives
in the US state Oregon, hit out
at Prince Harry’s 36-year-old
American fiancee for losing
touch with relatives in recent
years after finding fame acting.
“She is giving the greatest
performance of her life,” he told
the Daily Mirror in an inter-
view published yesterday. “She
is acting phoney. Once she got
into Hollywood she turned into
a different person. She’s clear-
ly forgotten her roots and her
family.”
He added: “Meg likes to por-
tray herself as a humanitarian,
a people’s person and a chari-
A couple eat ice cream as they walk near Tower table person but she is none of
Bridge, in London yesterday. Temperatures have those things to her family.”
soared to over 29C in parts of London, making it the Markle will marry Prince
warmest April day for nearly 70 years. Harry in exactly one month in a
chapel inside Windsor Castle in
many weekends together car-
ing for their dementia-strick-
en grandmother from 2009 to
2011.
He is the latest relative on her
father’s side to go public on the
apparent family rift.
Half-sister Samantha Grant
has given interviews and post-
ed messages on social media
concerning the fractured rela-
tions.
The half-brother said he
hoped senior royals might step
in to ensure he and other rela-
tives get invited to the wedding.
The siblings share the same
father, who reportedly lives in
Mexico.
There has been no confirma-
tion on whether he will attend
the May 19 nuptials.
Thomas Markle noted their
father was present for Meghan
Markle’s first wedding, to film
producer ex-husband Trevor
Engelson, in Jamaica in 2011.
 Gulf Times
8 Friday, April 20, 2018
EUROPE
Germany to take 10,200 North Africa, Middle East refugees next year
DPA
Berlin
G
ermany is to take in a fur-
ther 10,200 refugees this
year and next as part of
a European Union programme,
German Interior Minister Horst
Seehofer said in Berlin yesterday.
Seehofer spoke after meeting
EU Migration, Home Affairs and
Kyrgyz cabinet
falls in surprise
confidence vote
Kyrgyz President Sooronbai
Jeenbekov sacked his cabinet
yesterday after it lost a surprise
no-confidence vote in parliament,
the latest round in an apparent
power struggle between the head
of state and the leader of the
ruling party.
Prime minister Sapar Isakov
lost his job after the ruling
coalition, led by former president
Almazbek Atambayev’s Social
Democratic party, suddenly
pulled its backing.
Of 112 deputies present, 101 voted
against him in the no-confidence
vote.
Sacking Isakov completes a series
of reshuffles that Jeenbekov
began shortly after coming to
power last November, removing
Atambayev’s appointees from
state security and the prosecutor-
general’s office.
Volatility has plagued Kyrgyzstan,
a Central Asian nation of
6mn people, since it gained
independence from Moscow in
1991.
Political conflicts erupted into
violent revolutions in 2005 and
2010.
Hours after the no-confidence
vote, the Social Democrats
nominated Mukhammedkaliy
Abylgaziyev, Jeenbekov’s chief of
staff, for prime minister.
Parliament is expected to confirm
his appointment today.
Woman who
refused to shake
hands loses appeal
France’s highest administrative
court has upheld a decision to
deny a French passport to an
Algerian Muslim who refused
to shake hands with officials
during her citizenship ceremony,
according to a ruling seen by AFP
yesterday.
The woman argued that her
“religious beliefs” prevented
her from shaking hands with
a senior official presiding over
the citizenship ceremony in the
southeastern Isere region in
June 2016, as well as with a local
politician.
The government said that her
behaviour showed she was
“not assimilated into the French
community” – one of the reasons
it can invoke under the civil code
to oppose citizenship for the
spouse of a French national.
The woman, who has been
married to a Frenchman since
2010, appealed the April 2017
decision, calling it an “abuse of
power”.
But the Council of State, the court
of last appeal in such matters,
ruled the government “had not
improperly applied” the law.
British activist
wins ‘Children’s
Nobel Prize’
Rachel Lloyd, a British-born
activist who has campaigned
against sex-trafficking, was
named yesterday the winner
of the World’s Children’s Prize,
sometimes called the Children’s
Nobel Prize.
Lloyd was a victim of sex-
trafficking as a young girl in
Britain.
In 1998, at the age of 23, Lloyd
founded the organisation Girls
Educational and Mentoring
Services (GEMS), which offers
support to girls and young
women who have been subjected
to sex-trafficking and sexually
exploited.
Lloyd received 375,000 kronor
($45,000) for her organisation’s
work.
Former winners of the prize
include teenaged education
activist and Nobel Peace Prize
laureate Malala Yousafzai of
Pakistan.
The award was established in
2000 by the Swedish non-
governmental organisation
Children’s World.
Sweden’s Queen Silvia, one of the
patrons, presented the awards
at a ceremony at Gripsholm
Castle in Mariefred, 70km west of
Stockholm.
Citizenship Commissioner Dim-
itris Avramopoulos.
This year, around 4,600 refu-
gees will be allowed to enter Ger-
many, with 5,600 following in
2019, Seehofer said.
Avramopoulos had earlier told
the newspapers of Germany’s
Funke Media Group that the Ger-
man government agreed to a plan
to take in refugees from North
Africa and the Middle East,
French union’s attempt
to broaden protest fails
Reuters
Paris
A
far-left union bid to turn
a protest yesterday over
a shake-up of the state
railways into a bigger show of re-
sistance to President Emmanuel
Macron appears to have fallen
flat, with the labour movement
split and fewer people taking
part.
Thousands took part in street
marches that it called in Paris
and other cities but the other big
union stayed away and criticised
the CGT’s endeavour despite
their joint battle over the biggest
railway reform since nationali-
sation in 1937.
The CGT was seeking a “con-
vergence of struggles”, where
various industrial disputes and
causes of discontent fuse in one
mass upheaval against the gov-
ernment, as happened in May
1968 and more recently at the
end of 1995.
“This is just the start,” said
Yann Bernard, a representative
of the CGT union’s railway di-
vision, promising more action
against Macron’s broad eco-
Armenia police arrest dozens in anti-PM demonstrations
AFP
Yerevan
M
ass anti-government
protests in the Arme-
nian capital Yerevan
against ex-president Serzh
Sarkisian’s election as prime
minister entered their seventh
day yesterday, with police de-
taining dozens of demonstra-
tors.
Led by opposition MP Nikol
Pashinyan, more than 2,000
protesters marched towards
government headquarters in
the afternoon where a cabinet
meeting was under way.
Protesters held up a huge,
upside-down official portrait of
Sarkisian and shouted anti-gov-
ernment slogans.
“Serzh Sarkisian ... we came
here to tell you that the people
hate you!” Pashinyan shouted.
Earlier, several hundred dem-
onstrators attempted to block-
ade the entrance to the govern-
ment building before riot police
intervened, arresting dozens
and taking them to a local police
station.
Protesters have held mass
demonstrations over recent days
Italy ramps up hunt for Mafia godfather after dawn busts
A Carabiniere military police officer stands by a screen reading
‘operation year zero’, prior to a news conference yesterday by
prosecutor Franco Lo Voi in Palermo.
putting the number at 10,000.
As other EU member states
had agreed to take in 40,000
refugees, the resettlement pro-
gramme’s targets had been
achieved and would probably be
exceeded, Avramopoulos said
ahead of a meeting with Seehofer.
“The German government is
once again at the fore in mat-
ters of international solidarity,”
Avramopoulos said.
nomic reform drive.
But a CGT strike call at the
Paris subway train and bus
group RATP appeared to have
little impact: RATP manage-
ment reported normal service
across most of the grid.
The march turnout was way
short of rallies in the not-too-
distant past.
The CGT union said that
300,000 people demonstrated
across the country, while the in-
terior ministry put the figure at
119,500.
The police counted 11,500
marchers in Paris.
By comparison, hundreds of
thousands more hit the streets
in 2010 to contest a rise in retire-
ment age which ex-President
Nicolas Sarkozy went ahead
with anyway.
Even the police put the figure
at 1.2mn at the height of that
protest.
Nonetheless, a sea of flags
and slogans fluttering over the
crowds showed some people
from beyond the state-owned
railways joined the fray, includ-
ing people from the state hospi-
tal sectors.
As they did, a rolling strike by
Demonstrators attend a protest in Yerevan against the
government after parliament voted to allow former president
Sarkisian to become prime minister.
to denounce Sarkisian’s efforts
to remain in power as prime
minister under a new parlia-
mentary system of government.
On Tuesday parliament elect-
ed Sarkisian to the post of prime
minister, after he had served a
decade as the nation’s president.
The UN High Commissioner
for Refugees lauded the move.
“Resettlement is an important
instrument in the international
protection of refugees,” said its
German representative, Dominik
Bartsch.
The Pro Asyl aid organisation
immediately expressed criticism.
“Germany and the EU are
gloating about the wrong point,”
spokesman Guenter Burkhardt
Employees of French state-owned railway company SNCF and CGT
labour union members sit on a pavement during a demonstration in
Paris against French government reform plans.
rail workers halted train service
for the eighth day this month,
with just one in three high-
speed TGV trains running and
SNCF management saying more
than 20% of staff stopped work.
Two things are working
against a repeat of the upheaval
that the CGT successfully ral-
lied in late 1995 with the help of
broad public support and other
unions, forcing the then gov-
ernment to pull rail and welfare
reforms.
While the CGT opposes rail
liberalisation, one goal of the
Controversial constitutional
amendments approved in 2015
have transferred governing
powers from the presidency to
the premier.
“Armenians are ready to fight
for their future, we will not
stop, our victory is imminent,”
AFP
Rome
I
talian police arrested the
closest aides of Cosa Nos-
tra kingpin Matteo Messina
Denaro yesterday, clamping
down on a tightknit, family-run
clan which has kept the mobster
safely hidden over a quarter of a
century on the run.
Twenty-one people were ar-
rested in towns near the Sicilian
city of Trapani where Denaro’s
criminal empire is based, as part
of the “Year Zero” police investi-
gation that allowed authorities to
uncover a system of paper notes,
or “pizzini”, that Denaro uses to
give orders to his associates.
Those include brothers-in-
said. “At the same time, thou-
sands of refugees are being sent
back to torture centres in Libya.”
He called for an end to co-
operation with the Libyan coast-
guard.
The programme announced
last summer is intended to pro-
vide a direct and secure route to
Europe for those most in need of
asylum.
By autumn 2019, at least
latest reform, the CFDT union is
demanding that the government
mop up the SNCF’s €46bn debt
and wants a new deal in place on
work conditions when the sector
opens to competition.
The head of the CFDT union,
Laurent Berger, told a parlia-
mentary news channel that his
union had nothing to do with
yesterday’s marches.
Neither, he said, would it
stand side-by-side with the
CGT on May 1, a day when labour
rights are celebrated in France
and many other countries.
Special police forces personnel block the entrance of the
government’s headquarters during an anti-government rally in
central Yerevan.
26-year-old protester Misak
Mesropyan told AFP at the rally.
Another protester, pensioner
Ruben, said: “Protests must
continue if we want Serzh (Sark-
isian) to finally step down.”
The influential head of the
Armenian Apostolic Church,
Catholicos Garegin II, expressed
concern over the political tur-
moil.
“Inciting hatred and enmity
as well as any form of violence
are unacceptable,” he said.
New President Armen Sarki-
sian, who is not related to his
predecessor, said in a statement
law Gaspare Como and Rosario
Allegra, both in custody, who al-
legedly manage their boss’s most
important affairs.
“The Trapani Mafia is (secure-
ly) in the hands of fugitive Mat-
teo Messina Denaro and we can
say that because its most impor-
tant members are his own fam-
ily,” said Pasquale Angelosanto,
head of the Italian carabinieri’s
ROS special investigative unit.
Angelosanto was speaking at a
press conference in Sicilian capi-
tal Palermo.
Palermo’s assistant public
prosecutor Paolo Guido said that
six of the accused were local Ma-
fia bosses.
Denaro, now 55, vanished in
1993, with the police seeking his
arrest on a range of crimes in-
50,000 people, mostly from
North Africa, should find a new
home in the EU.
The EU has funded the pro-
gramme with €500mn ($617mn).
Avramopoulos has urged Ger-
many to remove border controls
introduced during the refugee
crisis that saw 890,000 seek asy-
lum in the country in 2015.
Europe’s border-free Schen-
gen zone allows for the reintro-
University students and others shout slogans during a
demonstration in Paris yesterday against the French government’s
reform plans, as part of a national day of protest. The placard reads
‘Macron kills students’.
He said that he did not share
the CGT objective of uniting
very different groups with very
different grievances, from rail-
way workers to power sector
employees and state hospital
staff, and even some students
that he invited “all parties to
start dialogue to find the best
way out of the situation”.
Pashinyan – who earlier an-
nounced the “start of a peace-
ful velvet revolution” – has said
that the movement’s objective
is to bring about a change of
leadership in Armenia through
a nationwide campaign of civil
disobedience.
However, the number of
demonstrators has dwindled
over time, down from roughly
40,000 on Tuesday evening
– the largest protest that the
country has seen in years.
cluding dozens of murders, and
authorities say that he has evad-
ed justice by being more “mo-
bile” than others on the lam, who
tend to hunker down in hideouts.
“It would be pointless to say
we’re closing in on him. He’s a
different type of fugitive to the
other big targets, who’ve all been
arrested, and that means locating
his whereabouts is particularly
hard,” said Palermo prosecutor
Francesco Lo Voi.
Police also arrested a business-
man involved in the online gam-
bling industry, one of Denaro’s
suspected income sources.
Police told reporters that de-
spite reports of Cosa Nostra’s
decline, the Trapani branch was
“particularly lively and active in
control of the area” and operat-
duction of controls during peri-
ods of crisis, but Avramopoulos
said he could not allow this to
continue indefinitely.
“We must return speedily to
the normal functioning of the
Schengen system,” Avramopou-
los said.
Germany has announced that
it plans to extend controls on its
border with Austria beyond a
May deadline.
involved in very separate pro-
tests about university entry cri-
teria.
Forty-year-old Macron has
stood firm and on Wednesday
urged the rail unions to “stop
holding the country hostage”.
On Wednesday evening,
16,000 rallied in central Yer-
evan’s Republic Square.
Protests began in Yerevan last
Friday and have since spread to
the country’s second and third
largest cities, Gyumri and Va-
nadzor.
On Monday police used stun
grenades against protesters who
tried to break through a barbed
wire cordon to get to the parlia-
ment building.
Authorities said that 46 peo-
ple, including six police and
opposition leader Pashinyan,
sought medical assistance.
The country’s new president
was sworn in last week but his
powers will be weaker under the
new system of government.
A former military officer,
Serzh Sarkisian, 63, has been in
charge of the landlocked South
Caucasus nation of 2.9mn peo-
ple for a decade.
He also held the office of
prime minister from 2007 to
2008.
After he was first elected in
2008, 10 people died and hun-
dreds were injured in bloody
clashes between police and sup-
porters of the defeated opposi-
tion candidate.
ing in the longstanding Mafia
industries of extortion, property
fraud and clinching public works
contracts.
Police told AFP that the gang
used people apparently above
suspicion to take part in judi-
cial auctions to buy seized as-
sets cheaply and sell them on at
a profit.
Denaro, a former trigger man
who once reportedly boasted that
he could “fill a cemetery” with
his victims, is believed to have
become the “boss of bosses”
following the death of Salvatore
“The Beast” Riina in November.
In 2015, police discovered that
he was communicating with his
closest collaborators via the use
of pizzini, which were being left
under a rock at a farm in Sicily.
 Gulf Times
Friday, April 20, 2018 9

LEGAL
Kejriwal discharged in
DDCA defamation case
A New Delhi court yesterday discharged
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and suspended
BJP parliamentarian Kirti Azad in a criminal
defamation complaint filed by the Delhi and
District Cricket Association (DDCA) and its then
vice-president Chetan Chauhan. Additional
chief metropolitan magistrate Samar Vishal
allowed Kejriwal’s application for discharge,
saying that there was not an iota of evidence
that the DDCA or any official were personally
defamed by his statement. The court observed
that the allegation is of defamation of DDCA as
a body and therefore it is necessary that some
person outside the DDCA come and say the
association has been defamed.
POLITICS
Yeddyurappa files
poll nomination
BJP chief ministerial candidate for the May 12
Karnataka Assembly polls, B S Yeddyurappa,
yesterday filed his nomination papers
from Shikaripura segment, a party official
said. Shikaripura in Shivamogga district,
about 300km northwest of Bengaluru, is
his hometown from where he is contesting
for the ninth time since 1983, BJP state unit
spokesman S Shantharam said. Yeddyurappa,
75, a Lok Sabha member from Shivamogga
in the state’s Malnad region, was the
Bharatiya Janata Party’s (BJP) first state
chief minister from 2008 to 2011 when he
resigned following an indictment by the state
ombudsman in a multi-crore mining scam.
INVESTIGATION
Parrikar death claims were
act of revenge: Goa police
The fake post on Chief Minister Manohar
Parrikar’s death by Kenneth Silveira, who
has been arrested, was made to avenge the
latter’s 2017 Assembly poll defeat to Parrikar,
Goa Police crime branch claimed yesterday. In
an application filed in the trial court to oppose
Silveira’s bail plea, the crime branch said it is
in the process of tracking all Facebook groups
and their members with links to the accused,
who has been remanded in two-day police
custody. “The accused had contested the polls
from Panaji and lost to Parrikar. The accused
used the social media to post his ill-feelings,”
police Inspector Rajan Nigalye said in his
application before the Panaji court.
BIZZARE
Foreign rule ‘to blame for
lack of respect for women’
Vice President M Venkaiah Naidu yesterday
blamed colonial and foreign rule in India
for the lack of respect towards women
which was leading to crimes against
them. Naidu said the Indian tradition had
always accorded a lot of respect to women.
Addressing the 31st convocation of the
Kurukshetra University, in the historical
town of Kurukshetra, around 100km from
Chandigarh, he urging the youth and
students to shun violence, and said issues
could be resolved peacefully and without
damaging public property. He asked
students to be disciplined and have an
outlook for the development of the country.
INDIA
PROPOSAL
Delhiites may soon get
payout for power outage
Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal yesterday
approved a proposal from the Delhi government
to compensate consumers for unscheduled
power cuts lasting longer than one hour.
“Approved proposal for issue of policy directions
regarding payment of compensation to
consumers in case of power failure,” Baijal
tweeted. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called it
an “innovative policy” and said it would make
power distribution companies accountable to
people. On Tuesday, Kejriwal had approved
the policy to provide compensation to users in
case of “unscheduled power cuts by the private
power distribution companies” and it was sent to
the lieutenant governor for approval.

Anger as ATMs run dry

Rape victims
denied speedy
justice despite
changes in law
Reuters — are lower than for most other
New Delhi crimes.
“The government can make a
hundred laws and yet it will fail

T
he government launched
fast-track courts and a
tougher rape law that in-
cluded the death penalty after
a gruesome assault on a young
woman shocked the country in
2012, but crime statistics indicate
the situation has got worse, not
better, since then.
The data was collated by Reu-
ters amid mounting public an-
ger over crimes against women
after two horrific cases in recent
months that has, once again, cast
a harsh light on systemic prob-
lems plaguing the country’s po-
lice and courts.
The gang rape and murder of an
eight-year-old girl in Kashmir and
the arrest of a ruling party legisla-
tor for the rape of a teenage mother
in Uttar Pradesh have sparked na-
because there is no enforcement,”
said Dushyant Dave, a senior law-
yer at the Supreme Court.
“It needs to take this as an epi-
demic and treat it accordingly, by
completely overhauling the police
machinery, prosecutors and the
judicial system.”
Crime statistics showed that
police files remain open for about
a third of all rapes that were in-
vestigated for each year between
2012 and 2016.
Understaffing is an issue.
The government told parlia-
ment last month police had a
sanctioned strength of nearly 2mn Congress workers stage a demonstration in Allahabad yesterday against the cash crunch and empty ATMs in several parts of the country.
officers, but almost a quarter of
those positions were vacant. Some
of the worst accusations against
the police stem from cases, like the
ones in Uttar Pradesh and Kash-

Furore as top court rules

tionwide outrage, drawing night-
marish parallels with the gang rape
and murder of a student in New
Delhi six years ago.
Amid the wave of anger at that
time, the government promised
mir, where they are alleged to have
bowed to pressure from people of
influence to bury cases.
Vappala Balachandran, a
former top police officer in Ma-
harashtra who has criticised the

out probe into judge death

to speed up rape trials, provide
harsher penalties, including the
death sentence in extreme cases,
and a law against stalking.
But statistics show that since
2012, reported rape cases climbed
60% to around 40,000 in 2016,
with child rape accounting for
about 40%.
The conviction rate of people
government’s response to the re-
cent cases, described how pow-
erful local politicians stall police
investigations.
“The one weapon the politician
has is the threat of transfer (of po-
lice officers) and which they rou- IANS said judge Loya met a natural accused was Amit Shah, who was cally motivated and were aimed mands for an independent probe
tinely exercise. So the investiga- New Delhi death while in Nagpur. then the home minister in Gujarat at defaming Shah. “He (Gandhi) into Loya’s death.
tion is slow, improper and weak,” Dismissing the petitions, the when the chief minister was now got a befitting reply from the Su- The judgment pronounced by
Balachandran said. court said: “There is no doubt Prime Minister Narendra Modi. preme Court today.” Justice Chandrachud took excep-

arrested for rape remains stuck
around 25%.
The backlog of rape cases
pending trial stood at more than
133,000 by the end of 2016, up
from about 100,000 in 2012, Na-
tional Crime Records Bureau data
showed.
In each year during that period,
about 85% of the total rape cases
being heard remained pending.
In general, conviction rates for
crime against women — deaths
following demands for dowry, as-
sault, kidnapping as well as rape
So far the only policy response
to the latest cases has come from
Maneka Gandhi, the minister for
women and child development,
who has advocated applying
the death penalty for rape cases
where the victim is under 12 years
old.
Currently, the Supreme Court
reserves the death penalty for ex-
treme cases, as in the 2012 Delhi
case. Five people were convicted
of rape and murder in that case
within nine months, a remarkably
swift decision for India.
T
he Supreme Court yester-
day dismissed petitions
seeking a SIT (special in-
vestigation team) probe into the
death of judge B H Loya, who
was conducting a trial in the
killing of gangster Sohrabuddin
Sheikh in Gujarat in which now
BJP president Amit Shah was an
accused.
Holding that there was abso-
lutely no merit in the petitions,
a bench of chief justice Dipak
Misra, justice A M Khanwilkar
and justice D Y Chandrachud
and it is clear from the state-
ments of the judicial officers that
Loya died of natural causes.”
Three of the judicial officers,
the court said, had travelled with
judge Loya by train from Mum-
bai to Nagpur to attend a wed-
ding reception. They stayed to-
gether at Ravi Bhawan, attended
the function and during the day
they also visited the residences
of a few judges.
Sohrabuddin Sheikh was al-
legedly shot dead in a stage-
managed shoot-out. One of the
After Loya’s death in Novem-
ber 2014, Shah was discharged
and the Central Bureau of Inves-
tigation refused to file an appeal
against it.
The Supreme Court ruling
yesterday did nothing to qui-
eten the political temperature.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP)
came down heavily on Congress
president Rahul Gandhi, saying
he should apologise to Shah, the
country and the judiciary.
BJP spokesman Sambit Patra
said all the petitions were politi-
Law Minister Ravi Shankar
Prasad echoed the sentiment
and said Gandhi should hang his
head in shame. The Congress
retorted that it was a “sad let-
ter day” in India’s history and
reiterated its demand for a fair
investigation into Loya’s “mys-
terious death”. It listed the chain
of events leading to his death.
The Communist Party of In-
dia-Marxist demanded that the
case be heard by a larger bench
and described as “unfortunate”
the apex court’s rejection of de-
tion to the way the public inter-
est litigation (PIL) was filed and
insinuations were made against
the committee of administrators
of the Bombay High Court and
the judges of the Supreme Court
in the course of the hearing.
But the court said it was not
initiating civil contempt against
the petitioner for scandalising
the judiciary. It pulled up the pe-
titioners for making unfounded
allegations against the judicial
officers which were extraneous
to the issue.

Crawling out to sea

Policemen held for man’s YouTube helps family
find man after 40 years
death allege frame up AFP hir down to the suburb of Bandra
where he was living rough.
Mumbai
By Ashraf Padanna rested Jitin Raj, Santosh Kumar and his mother had sent him with “He was making money as a
Thiruvananthapuram and Sumesh, all belonging to the them. “We then handed him over beggar signing old Hindi songs,”

A
Rural Tiger Force (RTF) formed to officers from the local police man missing for 40 years Firoze Shakir, who shot the video
by the district police chief to station,” the policeman claims in was reunited with his and uploaded it to YouTube in

T
hree Kerala policemen ar-
rested over the death of a
man in custody claim they
are being framed to save their
seniors.
In a video message addressed
to Chief Minister Pinarayi Vi-
jayan and police chief Loknath
Behera, the men requested their
intervention in the investigation.
The police had detained S R
Sreejith, 26, from his home in the
port city of Kochi on the night of
April 6. He was allegedly brutally
thrashed from the moment of his
arrest.
A day after his arrest the po-
lice shifted Sreejith to a hospital
where he died. An autopsy found
18 wounds, big and small, on the
young labourer’s body.
The police chief has since sus-
pended seven officers, including
the circle inspector, and con-
stituted a departmental inquiry
headed by inspector general S
Sreejith.
On Wednesday, the police ar-
catch criminals on the run.
They face charges of murder of
a man arrested in a case of mis-
taken identity.
Four other policemen, includ-
ing Varappuzha sub-inspector
G S Deepak and North Paravur
circle-inspector Crispin Sam,
are also under suspension.
“The policemen were arrested
based on solid evidence. We will
arrest all culprits in the case,”
inspector general S Sreejith told
reporters in Kochi.
“We have also constituted a
five-member medical board to
analyse the post-mortem report,
which is vital for further investi-
gation.”
The RTF personnel were ac-
cused of acting on false informa-
tion that Sreejith was part of a
gang that attacked his neighbour,
Vasudevan, who later committed
suicide.
Recalling the incident, one of
the arrested policemen claimed
they had gone to Sreejith’s home
the video.
“After handing him we left for
another place. They didn’t talk
to us after that. We therefore feel
there’s a conspiracy against us.
We demand justice,” the arrested
policemen pleaded in the video.
The Congress-led opposition
rejected the ongoing investiga-
tion and asked Chief Minister
Pinarayi Vijayan to take moral
responsibility for the collapse
of the law and order situation in
the state.
Vijayan and his senior minis-
ters in Hyderabad for a national
meeting of his Communist Party
of India (Marxist).
“The investigation is not pro-
ceeding satisfactorily consider-
ing the gravity of crime which is
unprecedented,” said Congress
leader Ramesh Chennithala, the
former home minister.
“The arrest of the three and
sparing others has deepened the
mystery. Anti-social elements are
now ruling the police station.”
family yesterday after a
YouTube video of him singing
a popular Hindi film song went
viral.
Khomdram Gambhir Singh
was 26 when in 1978 he left his
home in Imphal, in the remote
northeastern state of Manipur,
and never returned, according to
reports.
For four decades his family
heard nothing.
Then a clip showing a grey-
bearded man singing a Bolly-
wood song on a Mumbai street
3,300kms away appeared online.
In it the singer identifies him-
self as Khomdram Singh of Ma-
nipur.
A viewer brought the video
to the attention of a local asso-
ciation in Imphal who informed
Newly-hatched baby Olive Ridley turtles are dwarfed by the Gambhir’s family.
larger adults as they make their way to the sea on a beach in They recognised him as their
Ganjam district, Odisha. Millions of baby Olive Ridley turtles missing relative and contacted
have been hatching and entering the Bay of Bengal Sea on Imphal police who spoke to their
the coast of Odisha over the past few days. counterparts in Mumbai.
Officers then tracked Gamb-
October last year, said.
Shakir, a street photographer,
said Gambhir, now 66, had told
him that he had been a construc-
tion labourer but had suffered a
couple of accidents and turned
to drink.
Shakir used to see him around
a lot so one day decided to film
him singing.
The video has been viewed
55,000 times and has helped
trace the missing man.
“This is something that has
happened accidentally but I
am hoping this video touches
hearts,” Shakir said.
On Wednesday Imphal officers
flew to Mumbai to take Gambhir
back to his family.
They departed Mumbai yes-
terday and arrived in Imphal late
afternoon.
The Times of India reported
that Gambhir, an ex-army of-
ficer, had separated from his wife
following a brief marriage short-
ly before he left Imphal.
 Gulf Times
10 Friday, April 20, 2018

PAKISTAN

Pakistan elected to
Pakistan cutting two key UN bodies
its dependence Internews
Islamabad

P
akistan was elected to two
United Nations panels on
Monday, a feat that am-

on US arms: FT
Internews have plummeted from $1bn to
Islamabad just $21mn last year.
During the same period, those
from China have also fallen, but
this development, noting that
sales of weapons systems, often
backed by preferential financial
terms, are central to the way the
the last decade, China collabo-
rated much more expansively
with Pakistan.
Since 2010, China has pro-
bassador Dr Maleeha Lodhi said
is in recognition of Islamabad’s
positive contribution to the
work of the world body.
The panels are the UN Com-
mittee on Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs) and the
Unicef Executive Board.
The elections took place at
a session of the 54-member
Economic and Social Council

P
akistan is gradually re-
ducing its dependence on
American military tech-
nology, with China filling the
gap, says a Financial Times (FT)
report, which also warns that
this shift will have geo-political
repercussions.
The long, almost 2,000-word
report notes that the shift start-
ed in the last few months of the
Obama administration, when
Congress blocked the sale of
eight F-16 fighter jets to Pakistan.
In Islamabad, this move was
seen as a confirmation of Paki-
stan’s fear that the United States
“could no longer be relied on
as their armed forces’ primary
source of advanced weapons”, the
report adds.
Pakistan shifted its focus from
F-16s to the JF-17 fighter jets it
is developing with China, and
which is catching up with the
F-16 in terms of capabilities.
The ban accelerated Pakistan’s
efforts to shift its “military pro-
curement away from American-
made weapons towards Chinese
ones, or those made domestically
with Chinese support”.
The report also quotes data
from the Stockholm Interna-
tional Peace Research Institute,
showing that since 2010, US
weapons exports to Pakistan
by much less, from $747mn to
$514mn, making China the big-
gest weapons exporter to Paki-
stan.
“The shift coincided with Is-
lamabad’s growing suspicion
about the closeness between the
US and India, but was acceler-
ated by the killing of Al Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden on Pa-
kistani soil in 2011, which badly
damaged relations with the US,”
the report added.
US President Donald Trump’s
decision to suspend $2bn of mili-
tary aid to Pakistan – announced
in January – further exacerbated
the situation.
Identifying one immediate
impact of the move, the Finan-
cial Times noted that US officials
are “now finding that Islamabad
is less responsive than usual” to
their requests for support in Af-
ghanistan.
Harrison Akins, a research
fellow at the Howard H Baker Jr
Centre for Public Policy at the
University of Tennessee, told the
FT: “The Trump administration’s
decision can only push Pakistan
further into the arms of Beijing
– especially with Pakistan’s shift
from US military supplies to Chi-
nese military supplies.”
The report also identified
longer-term consequences of
US managed its network of mili-
tary alliances and partnerships.
But many of those countries
were now buying some of that
hardware from other govern-
ments, particularly China.
The Financial Times noted that
Pakistan has been buying from
Beijing for decades, starting after
the US placed an arms embargo
on it in the wake of the 1965 war
with India.
“After that, every time Is-
lamabad has suffered diplomatic
problems with Washington, sup-
plies of Chinese weapons have
risen,” it added.
In the 1980s and 1990s, Bei-
jing provided supplies and tech-
nical knowledge to help Pakistan
develop nuclear weapons, and in
the early 1990s shocked Wash-
ington by selling more than 30
M-11 missiles, capable of carry-
ing nuclear warheads.
The report also noted that in
the past decade, the nature of the
military relationship between
China and Pakistan had changed.
China is now selling the “high-
end systems, which the US once
specialised in, to Pakistan’s mili-
tary, and is co-developing many
others”.
Jon Grevatt, an analyst at the
defence research company Jane’s
IHS Markit, told the FT that in
vided A-100 rocket launchers
and HQ-16 air defence missile
systems to Pakistan, while VT-4
tanks are now being tested in Pa-
kistan.
The report, however, focused
on three weapons systems that
encapsulate the new Chinese ca-
pabilities, and threaten US influ-
ence in South Asia.
The first is the JF-17 fighter
aircraft.
In 2007, Pakistan flew its first
two JF-17s, which cost about
one-third of the price paid for an
F-16.
Later, China also shared the
designs so the Pakistan’s armed
forces can build their own, and
even export them.
In 2015, Pakistan used a drone
to attack militants near the Af-
ghan border, which strongly re-
sembled a Chinese design.
In October 2016, just a month
after the US refused to subsidise
new F-16s, Beijing agreed to sell
eight attack submarines to Paki-
stan for about $5bn – the biggest
single arms export deal in the
country’s history.
The report noted that the sub-
marines deal came at a time when
Washington was relying on India
to provide a bulwark against per-
ceived Chinese maritime expan-
sionism.
(ECOSOC), the economic arm
of the United Nations.
Re-elected for the sixth time
to the UN Committee on NGOs,
Pakistan polled 43 of the 53
member states present and vot-
ing.
Five candidates were com-
peting for four seats in the Asia
Pacific Group.
“Pakistan’s election to the
Committee is a strong vote of
confidence by the international
community in our positive role
and contribution in the work of
the United Nations,” Lodhi said
after the election.
“As a member, Pakistan will
continue to promote co-oper-
ation within the UN, with civil
society organisations working
alongside governments to im-
prove the lives of people across
the world,” she said.
The Committee oversees the
implementation of the legal
framework governing the par-
ticipation of NGOs in the work
of the UN.
It considers the applications
of NGOs for consultative status
and makes recommendations to
the ECOSOC.
This consultative status pro-
vides NGOs access to a range
of fora at the UN, including
the Human Rights Council, the
Lodhi: Pakistan’s election to the Committee (on Non-Governmental
Organisations) is a strong vote of confidence by the international
community in our positive role and contribution in the work of the
United Nations.
ECOSOC and its subsidiary
bodies, UN conferences, and
events organised by the presi-
dent of the General Assembly.
“Pakistan has a diverse and
thriving civil society,” Lodhi
said, adding: “The govern-
ment has always demonstrated
a long-standing commitment
to, and encouraged participa-
tion of, civil society in discus-
sions aimed at finding solutions
to the challenges faced by the
world today.”
She assured the countries
that voted for Pakistan of the
country’s firm commitment to
uphold the purposes and the
principles of the UN Charter.
Pakistan’s last term in the
Unicef Executive Board was
from 2013-2015, during which
Lodhi also served as its presi-
dent.
Created in 1946 by the UN
General Assembly, the United
Nations International Chil-
dren’s Fund (Unicef) works in
190 countries and territories to
save children’s lives, to defend
their rights, and to help them
fulfil their potential.
“Pakistan attaches great im-
portance to protecting and pro-
moting the rights of children,
which is both smart economics
and a moral obligation,” Lodhi
commented after the election,
pointing out that Pakistan was
one of the co-initiators of the
1990 World Summit for Chil-
dren, which led to the adoption
of the landmark Conventions
on Rights of Child.
“As a member of the Unicef
Executive Board, Pakistan reaf-
firms its commitment to imple-
ment the ambitious SDG targets
on improving child health and
education, addressing malnu-
trition, ending violence against
children, eradicating poverty
and reducing inequality among
children,” Lodhi said.

Savings scheme for disabled launched

Royal engagements
PTI loses majority The government of Pakistan has launched a savings certificate scheme
for special people in line with its announcement made in the budget for
the current fiscal year of 2017/18.
“The government has formally launched the scheme aiming at payment

in KP assembly of profit to disabled persons at par with Behbood savings certificates,”

a statement said.
Launched in 2003, Behbood savings certificates with a 10-year maturity
period and monthly profits initially targeted widows, but the following
Internews motion moved by the opposi- year it started accepting investments with denominations in the range
Peshawar tion to de-seat KP Chief Min- of Rs5,000 to Rs1mn from senior citizen aged 60 years and above.
ister Pervez Khattak would The government announced plans to launch the savings certificates for
succeed and bring about a disabled individuals in the budget for the fiscal year of 2017/18.

W
ith just weeks re-
maining before
the term of the as-
sembly expires, the Pakistan
Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) has an-
nounced that it would take ac-
tion against more than a dozen
provincial lawmakers for alleg-
edly selling their votes in last
month’s senate elections.
But in doing so, it has thrown
away its simple majority in the
legislature.
Curiously, the opposition in
the house says that it will not
bring a no-confidence mo-
tion and seek to capitalise on
the PTI’s precarious position,
terming such a move pointless.
In a news conference in the
federal capital yesterday, PTI
chairman Imran Khan an-
nounced the names of 18 party
lawmakers (including two who
had joined it from the Qaumi
Watan Party and the rival Paki-
stan Muslim League – Nawaz)
and two coalition members
who had indulged in horse-
trading in the recent Senate
elections.
Khan said that they had is-
sued show-cause notices to
these lawmakers and would
even take their alleged disloy-
alty to the National Accounta-
bility Bureau (NAB) for further
legal action.
Some PTI lawmakers in-
cluded in the list, though, have
vehemently denied the accusa-
tions of horse-trading.
Javed Naseem said that the
change in government.
However, it seems that the
PTI had very coldly calculated
the timing of its move.
With only 40 days left be-
fore the assembly completes
its term, the party had already
made it clear that it did not
have any intention to present
the budget for the next fiscal
year 2018-19.
Hence, they did not require
a majority in the house to pass
the financial bill.
However, the government –
if it hosts a new session of the
assembly – will face trouble
in passing a number of bills
and amendments which it has
pending in the pipeline, in-
cluding one that would allow
it to borrow from the hydro-
electric development fund.
However, that may not force
the government to summon a
session of the assembly since
they can pass ordinances in-
stead of resorting to the assem-
bly to clear amendments.
Should the provincial gov-
ernment call a fresh session of
the house, it would give the op-
position an opportunity to cash
in on the PTI’s self-inflicted
weak position in the house.
However, opposition parties
in the parliament are hesitant
and said that they will have to
think about a no-confidence
motion.
Opposition Leader Maulana
Lutfur Rahman of the Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam – Fazlur (JUI-
Above: Britain’s Queen
Elizabeth II engaging Prime
Minister Shahid Khaqan
Abbasi during a lunchtime
reception yesterday for new
Commonwealth Heads of
Government at Buckingham
Palace in London.
Right: Prime Minister Shahid
Khaqan Abbasi with Britain’s
Prince Charles yesterday at
Clarence House in London, on
the sidelines of the
Commonwealth Heads of
Government Meeting
(CHOGM).
More parties oppose amending Constitution for polls
Internews
Islamabad
During the meeting the re-
port of the committee’s working
group led by Privatisation Minis-
ter Daniyal Aziz was discussed at
to define and interpret the rules
itself.
The third recommendation
of the report was to launch an
The government has already directed the Central Directorate of
National Savings (CDNS) to implement the scheme.
Eighth Wage Board formed for media
The federal government of Pakistan has constituted the Eighth Wage
Board for Newspaper Employees.
According to a notification issued yesterday by the ministry of
information and broadcasting, Shahid Mehmood Khokhar has been
appointed as chairman of the board for 180 days.
Ten members of the board were also named.
They are Hameed Haroon of Dawn Group, Rameeza Nizami and
Shoaibuddin of Nawa-i-Waqt Group, Asif Zubairi of Business Recorder,
Mujeeb-ur-Rehman Shami of Daily Pakistan, Jang Group’s Sarmad Ali,
Sahibzada Zulfiqar of the PFUJ (Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists),
APNEC (All Pakistan Newspaper Employees Confederation) chief
Shafiuddin Ashraf, Bakhtzada Yousafzai of Daily Aaeen, and Nasir
Chishti, who heads the Jang Workers Union.
1,655 KP officers killed in the line of duty
As many as 1,655 officers and jawans of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP)
police have lost their lives in the line of duty during the long years of
war against terror up till the first three months of 2018.
Capital City Police rendered more sacrifices than other districts in the
war against terror, losing 458 up till the end of March, an official said.
KP police public relations director Waqar Ahmad said that Bannu Police
came second and Dera Ismail Khan third, with the loss of 159 and 136
officers and jawans, respectively.
and it should be allowed to carry to attend its meetings – said that
on with its mandate. legislating is the parliament’s job
PTI dissident Siraj Muham- and cannot be termed as “inter-
mad surprised many in the meet- ference”.

party had first tried to expel
him three years ago and it took
a court order to reclaim his
valid seat.
Yasin Khalil refuted the alle-
gations and stated that he had
even met with Khan and the
KP chief minister to convince
them that he did not partake in
horse-trading.
As a result, the PTI is now
only left with just 41 lawmak-
ers of its own, seven from its
coalition partner, the Jamaat-
e-Islami (JI), and an independ-
ent member in the 122-mem-
ber house.
Hence, there is a high prob-
ability that a no-confidence
F) said that it is useless to table
the motion since the assem-
bly’s term is almost over.
“If we bring the motion, it
will take time, and bringing in
a new chief minister for merely
10 to 12 days is useless,” he said.
Rahman, however, criticised
the government for refusing to
present a budget.
“They are running away
from the budget as they know
that they will not be able to
pass it and that the opposi-
tion will mold it according to
their priorities, hence they
announced not to present the
budget to cover-up their own
failure,” he said.
A
fter the Pakistan Tehreek-
e-Insaf (PTI) and the
Pakistan Peoples Party
(PPP) refused to take part in the
proceedings of the special parlia-
mentary committee on delimita-
tion of constituencies yesterday,
three other mainstream parties
opposed the report of the work-
ing group, which called for an
amendment to the Constitution
to allow the upcoming general
elections to be held according to
the existing demarcation of con-
stituencies.
A meeting of the committee
was held with Deputy Speaker
of National Assembly Murtaza
Javed Abbasi in the chair.
length.
The working group had made
three broad demands in its re-
port.
The first is introduction of a
constitutional amendment do
away with the requirement of
holding the general elections ac-
cording to the provincial census
results.
This would result in the polls
being conducted according to the
older demarcation of constitu-
encies.
The second is definition of the
principles of delimitation in leg-
islation, rather than rules taking
away the power of the Election
Commission of Pakistan (ECP)
inquiry into the delimitation
process to investigate the “gross
negligence” of the delimitation
committee.
Representatives of the Jamiat
Ulema-e-Islam – Fazlur (JUI-F),
the Muttahida Qaumi Movement
(MQM), and the Jamaat-e-Islami
(JI) opposed the recommenda-
tions of the report.
The PTI and the PPP have al-
ready disagreed with the working
group.
Both parties have also argued
that there is no requirement for a
majority in the house to get a bill
passed and pointed out that the
ECP is examining the objections
against delimitation right now,
ing by announcing that there is
no harm in postponing the elec-
tions, if necessary, to correct the
errors in delimitation.
Iqbal Qadri of the MQM said
that a party’s appeal to the Su-
preme Court on an objection
concerning delimitation – which
had been rejected by the Elec-
tion Commission – should be
disposed of by the court within
30 days and that the apex court
should constitute three-member
benches in all provinces to deal
with appeals.
Committee chairman Murtaza
Javed Abbasi – criticising a letter
written to the committee by the
ECP conveying its decision not
He alleged that gross irregu-
larities had been committed in
the delimitation process, which
were meant to benefit certain el-
ements within the political sys-
tem.
The National Assembly Dep-
uty Speaker Abbasi hinted that
the parliament might amend the
Election Act and said the ECP
would do well to reclaim its cred-
ibility among political parties.
Speaking with reporters af-
ter the meeting, Privatisation
Minister Aziz said that the ECP
must name the members of the
delimitation committee so that
they could be investigated for
negligence.

Outgoing Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Ronald dela Rosa (left) salutes incoming PNP chief Oscar Albayalde during
the change of command ceremony at Camp Crame in Manila yesterday.
Drugs war officers
given key posts in
police reshuffle
Reuters
Manila
P
olice at the helm of the
Philippine war on drugs
were given top posts in
the national force yesterday,
indicating no let-up in a brutal
crackdown that has caused in-
ternational alarm, and defined
Rodrigo Duterte’s 21-month
presidency.
The job of national police
chief was given to Oscar Albay-
alde, a strict disciplinarian who
has been in charge of Metro Ma-
nila, where the vast majority of
the thousands of drugs war kill-
ings have occurred.
He was succeeded as com-
mander of the capital police by
Camilo Cascolan, the architect
of the controversial operational
plan of the anti-drug campaign,
“Double Barrel”. About 4,100
people have been killed by po-
lice in the Philippines since
July 2016 in what the authori-
ties said were shootouts dur-
Military exercise expanded to include Japan, Australia
Annual US-Philippine military
exercises involving thousands of
troops will be expanded for the
first time to include other countries,
with Japanese and Australian forces
invited to join what will be the
34th edition of the war games. The
Philippines and the United States
have been holding the “Balikatan”
(shoulder-to-shoulder) drills
annually to test the readiness of
their militaries to respond to threats
that include natural disasters and
militant extremist attacks.
The United States embassy
in Manila said in a statement
yesterday Australia and Japan,
two US allies countries with
strategic partnerships with
Robredo files appeal
Philippine Vice-President Leni Robredo gestures while filing a motion for reconsideration
requesting the justices of the Supreme Court to reverse its earlier decision on the ballot shading
threshold, at the Supreme Court in Padre Faura, Metro Manila, Philippines.
Duterte inspects the police formation with outgoing PNP chief
Ronald dela Rosa during the change of command ceremony at
Camp Crame in Manila.
ing anti-narcotics operations.
At least 2,300 drug-related
deaths have occurred separate-
ly, at the hands of what police
the Philippines, would join the
exercises taking place in multiple
locations on the main island of
Luzon, starting on May 7. Britain
has also been invited to observe
training for the mitigation of post-
disaster suffering.
The two weeks of exercises
will focus on mutual defence,
counter-terrorism, humanitarian
assistance and disaster relief that
can also “provide assistance in
the event of crises that endanger
public health and safety”. Soldiers
from United States, Australia,
Japan and the Philippines have
already been renovating schools
in four provinces north of Manila
as well as providing medical
say are unknown assassins.
Human rights groups believe
the death toll has been under-
stated, and accuse the authori-
and dental services in poor rural
areas, the embassy said.
Philippine military spokeswoman
Liezl Vidallon said the four
countries would exchange and
share information and conduct
live-fire training.
The exercises were scaled back
last year in response to President
Rodrigo Duterte’s disdain for the
US-Philippine defence alliance. He
has made no secret of his grudge
against the United States and
believes a US military presence
of any kind in the Philippines
puts his country at risk of being
dragged into conflict, especially
with China, as it beefs-up its
maritime defences.
President Rodrigo Duterte holds a Galil sniper rifle next to outgoing Philippine National Police Chief Ronald Bato Dela Rosa
during the National Police chief handover ceremony in Camp Crame, Quezon City, metro Manila.
ties of executing suspects and
staging crime scenes. Police
deny that and say their more
than 130,000 arrests prove their
intent to preserve life.
Cascolan is the latest officer
promoted to a top command post
having served in the Davao re-
gion during the 22 years Duterte
was a mayor there. The outgoing
police chief, Ronald dela Rosa,
also served in Davao.
Cascolan’s position as head of
operations will go to Mao Aplas-
ca, also from the Davao region.
Albayalde vowed no relent in the
campaign and to ensure conti-
nuity of its “remarkable accom-
plishments”, including arresting
or convincing tens of thousands
of people to surrender, and the
“neutralising” of drug suspects.
“We will not relent on our war
against illegal drugs and other
forms of criminality. The drug
menace, we must all understand,
is a worldwide phenomenon,”
Albayalde said in a speech. “We
will help and support each other
to fight and win this war.”
Driven from home, indigenous
population long for their land
By Rina Chandran
Thomson Reuters
A
s Philippine military
battalions closed in,
shutting down schools,
rounding up men and harassing
women, Tungig Mansumuy had
to make a tough decision: stay
and protect their homes, or flee
to save their lives and risk los-
ing their land. After discussions
with other tribesmen, Man-
sumuy, the chief of a Lumad
tribe in Mindanao island, de-
cided they had to leave and seek
shelter until martial law was
lifted and it was safe to return to
their homes in Talaingod village.
A few men stayed behind to
guard their homes, while the
rest fled by foot in February,
carrying few belongings as they
made the two-day trek down
the mountain, Mansumuy said.
Today 244 of them, mostly
women and children, are in
rickety shelters of bamboo and
tarpaulin in the middle of a
banana plantation in Madaum
village, about 80km from Dav-
ao City, with no inkling of when
they can return to their homes.
“We have endured milita-
risation for a long time, and
we have fled several times be-
fore. But we were always able
to go back,” said Mansumuy,
as his wife nursed their new-
born child, and older children
carried firewood and water to
women cooking on fires.
“This time feels different; we
PHILIPPINES
Philippine National Police Special Action Force (PNP-SAF) troopers march during the
National Police chief handover ceremony in Camp Crame.
New police chief vows reforms
The Philippines’ police forces
need an “internal cleansing,”
said the country’s new national
police chief yesterday, in
response to criticism about
violations and abuses by
the force in its aggressive
campaign against illegal drugs.
Director Oscar Albayalde
said he would “implement
reforms at all levels” of the
national police, which has been
criticised by rights groups for
ignoring civil liberties during
the anti-drug crackdown.
“We will focus on imposing
strict discipline, reform and
internal cleansing,” he said
after taking over as head
The outgoing police chief,
Dela Rosa, will head the bureau
of corrections. He is leaving be-
hind a police force with “a sordid
human rights record”, according
to Carlos Conde, a researcher
have been forced to leave our
homes, and we are being told
we need to give up our lands for
our own good. But we cannot
live like this — we belong in our
ancestral lands, and we want to
go back,” he said.
Minority groups
The Lumad in Mindanao in
southern Philippines are part of
nearly 17mn indigenous people
in the country. They are among
the poorest of minority groups,
with little access to social serv-
ices including education and
healthcare, experts say. They
have been caught in the middle
of a five-decade old insurgency,
as well as a push by logging and
mining companies to tap Mind-
anao’s rich resources including
gold, copper and nickel, after
President Rodrigo Duterte said
he would welcome investors.
Their vulnerability has been
exacerbated by the extension of
martial law imposed in Mind-
anao last May by Duterte, who
has called the island a “flash-
point for trouble” and atroci-
ties by Islamist and communist
rebels.
“Duterte is waging war
against defenceless indigenous
people in Mindanao,” said Du-
phing Ogan, secretary-general
of indigenous peoples’ alliance
Kalumaran. “They are target-
ing our lands, destroying our
mountains and our forests, and
selling out to corporations. This
is an all-out war against minor-
ity people, not against terror.”
of the national police from
Ronald Dela Rosa, who led
President Rodrigo Duterte’s
campaign against illegal
drugs. At the same time,
Albayalde said he would also:
intensify the campaign against
illegal drugs and criminality;
strengthen public engagement;
and implement practical
programmes against crime
prevention.
“The fight against criminality
and illegal drugs has already
come a long way,” he said. “The
crime rate in the country has
gone down ... and I will make
sure that we will continue
the good start in achieving
for the New York based Human
Rights Watch.
In his departure speech, Dela
Rosa lauded Duterte’s for his
courage to order an all-out war
on drugs, and pledged his “un-
A spokesman for Duterte did
not respond to e-mails seeking
comment. The Philippines was
the deadliest country in Asia
last year for land and environ-
ment activists amidst a gov-
ernment crackdown on rural
communities, according to ad-
vocacy group PAN Asia Pacific.
Campaigners say indigenous
people in Mindanao are par-
ticularly vulnerable under mar-
tial law, imposed after militants
took over the city of Marawi.
At least 60 tribal people have
been killed since 2016 when
Duterte came to power, many of
them in Mindanao, according
to rights groups.
Duterte, who is from Mind-
anao, has threatened airstrikes
on indigenous schools that he
said are teaching “subversion”
and communism. Lumad elders
deny this, but dozens of schools
have been shut or destroyed.
The government says it is
worried that mountainous, jun-
gle-clad Mindanao, a region the
size of South Korea that is home
to the Muslim minority, could
attract international extremists.
But activists and United Nations
experts have said the Lumad
have suffered widespread hu-
man right abuses that could
intensify with the extension of
martial law to December.
Thousands of Lumad people
have been displaced and some
killed, said Victoria Tauli-
Corpuz and Cecilia Jimenez-
Damary, the UN Human Rights
Council’s special rapporteurs
Gulf Times
Friday, April 20, 2018 11
the change promised by the
president.” “I shall continue
my low-key but stern kind of
leadership,” he added. Dela
Rosa relinquished his post to
Albayalde amid calls for Dela
Rosa to be held accountable
for the spate of killings amid
the anti-drug war begun when
Duterte’s administration took
office on July 1, 2016.
Human Rights Watch said the
former police chief, popularly
called Bato, the Filipino word
for rock, will “leave behind a
police force with sordid human
rights record unmatched since
the ... dictatorship” of late
strongman Ferdinand Marcos.
questionable loyalty” to him. “It
was an order I certainly could
not refuse. I shared the same
sentiments as the president and
would not let pass the opportu-
nity to do my share,” he said.
on the rights of indigenous
peoples and internally dis-
placed people.
Some of the attacks by mili-
tary personnel were based on
suspicions that the Lumad are
involved with militant groups,
or because they resisted min-
ing activities on their ancestral
land, they said in a report last
December. “They are suffering
massive abuses of their human
rights, some of which are po-
tentially irreversible,” they said.
“Forcing indigenous peoples to
leave their homes has an in-
calculable impact on their very
lives and ways of living — one
that risks erasing their culture
and existence.”
Tauli-Corpuz and more than
600 others were denounced as
communist guerrillas whom
the government wants declared
as “terrorists”. She has denied
the allegations. Campaigners
say the extended militarisa-
tion of Mindanao is intended
to force indigenous people off
their land, so they can be hand-
ed over to mining, energy and
logging companies.
Ancestral domains are pro-
tected by the Indigenous Peo-
ples’ Rights Act 1997, which
recognises their control of
these lands. Commercial use
of the land needs the free, prior
and informed consent of in-
digenous people, according to
UN guidelines. But it is rarely
sought, and social and envi-
ronmental impacts are never
revealed, campaigners say.
 Gulf Times
12 Friday, April 20, 2018

SRI LANKA/BANGLADESH/NEPAL
4 rescuers among 5
killed by ammonia
in Lanka factory
Reuters
Colombo

A
t least five people were killed yesterday in Sri Lanka
after a worker at a rubber factory fell into a tank of
ammonia and co-workers and residents tried to
save him, police said.
The worker who fell into the ammonia tank died, along
with four of those who tried to save him in the accident in
the town of Horana, 50km from the capital, Colombo.
Police spokesman Ruwan Gunasekara said 10 people
were treated in hospital for exposure to ammonia, which is
used in the production of rubber.
He declined to identify the factory where the accident
happened.
An official at the state-run hospital in Horana confirmed
the death toll.
“Workers from a next-door garment factory were also
affected by the gas and they are being brought to hospital,”
said the hospital official, who declined to be identified.
“They are still being brought in.”
Television showed rescue officers wearing breathing ap-
paratus, taking injured out of the factory and searching the
ammonia tank for any other casualties.

Over 500,000 still affected by

drought in Sri Lanka

O
ver 500,000 people still remain affected by the
drought in 10 districts of Sri Lanka, according to a
report released yesterday by the Sri Lankan Disas-
ter Management Centre (DMC).
The DMC said the 10 districts located in the northern,
A handout photo released yesterday by Save The Children of pools of water at a refugee camp for Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh’s Cox’s Bazar district. northwestern and eastern provinces of Sri Lanka had been
affected.
The Puttalam district in the northwestern province is
the worst-affected with 216,670 people suffering from the
drought, Xinhua news agency reported.

Rains flood Rohingya

DMC spokesman Pradeep Kodippili said people had
been affected in terms of scarcity of drinking water and
crop failures.
However, he said the southern, central and western
parts of Sri Lanka were experiencing rain.

15 hurt in Swiss road accident

camps in Bangladesh
AFP lence in Myanmar. deadly in southeast Bangladesh, rain had already “wreaked havoc” Nurul Haq, a Rohingya refu-
involving Sri Lanka tourists

Dhaka “We are seeing areas of flood-
ing in the camps and parts of some
roads have been churned up,” said
which is also prone to powerful
cyclones.
Last season, heavy rain trig-
but the monsoon proper posed a
much greater threat.
“If a big storm hits the camps, it
F
ifteen people were
injured when a coach
carrying tourists
from Sri Lanka crashed
with a two trucks on a
the accident remained un-
clear.
According to the ATS
news agency, the coach was
carrying tourists from Sri
gee, said the brief downpour had Swiss highway, police and Lanka.
turned paths through the camps media said. The driver of the coach
“into long and continuous puddles A tourist coach carry- and a female travel com-

T
he first rains of the year
have flooded parts of the
crowded Rohingya camps in
Bangladesh, aid workers said yes-
terday, wreaking havoc and raising
fears for nearly 1mn refugees ahead
of the monsoon.
A brief but heavy downpour
turned roads into quagmires in the
world’s largest refugee camp, hin-
dering relief efforts and hinting at
the danger ahead for the Rohingya
who have sought refuge from vio-
Fiona MacGregor, a spokeswoman
for the International Organization
for Migration in Cox’s Bazar dis-
trict where the camps are located.
Humanitarian agencies have
been warning for months about
the danger posed by the impend-
ing monsoon, due to start in June,
to the welfare of refugees who live
cheek by jowl in cramped tents on
hillsides.
Landslides and floods caused
by violent monsoon storms can be
gered mud slips in Cox’s Bazar and
nearby Chittagong Hill Tracts,
killing at least 170 people.
More than 100 died in landslides
in the region in 2012, and two years
earlier heavy downpours killed
around 50.
Aid agencies have been rein-
forcing tents with concrete and
sandbags in anticipation of the
monsoon.
Save the Children spokeswoman
Daphnee Cook said yesterday’s
would be nothing short of disas-
trous,” she said.
There are fears heavy flooding
could also overflow latrines and
spread disease in the close con-
fines of the camps, where around
700,000 Rohingya Muslims have
arrived from Myanmar since Au-
gust.
Many of the hillsides were
cleared of trees to make way for
shelters, leaving the land highly
unstable.
of thick mud”.
The UN says about 150,000
refugees are extremely vulnerable
this rainy season and Bangladesh’s
refugee commissioner has said
that 100,000 refugees would be
shifted to safer ground.
Bangladesh has said it would
also start relocating another
100,000 Rohingya to a desolate is-
land off its southern coast in June,
despite warnings the site is prone
to violent weather.
ing 40 passengers collided
with two trucks near the
Winterthur-Wulflingen
exit on a motorway not
far from the northern city
of Zurich, at 3.15pm on
Wednesday, regional police
said.
“Fifteen people were
injured, one of them seri-
ously,” Zurich’s cantonal
police said in a statement,
adding that the cause of
panion riding up front were
stuck and needed to be ex-
tracted by rescue workers,
police said.
The driver suffered mod-
erate injuries, while the
woman was seriously in-
jured, they said.
Twelve of the tourists
were meanwhile slightly
injured, as was the driver
of one of the trucks, police
said.

Trek trail
Former child circus slaves
tackle trafficking in Nepal
By Emma Batha, Reuters “The families are sold a lie. Most-
London ly the children are just never seen
again,” said McLarnon.
“The training is brutal and very

N
epal’s first contemporary
circus is not just remark-
able for its gravity-defying
acts, but for its artists — the contor-
tionists, aerialists and jugglers are
former child slaves.
Having been rescued from In-
dian circuses, they are now using
their skills to educate communities
across Nepal on the dangers of traf-
ficking — a crime that has increased
since a massive earthquake in 2015
devastated the poor Himalayan
country.
The story of Circus Kathmandu is
told in a film Even When I Fall now
on release in Britain.
An estimated 10,000 women
and children are smuggled into In-
dia every year, making it one of the
world’s busiest trafficking routes,
according to the directors.
Shot over six years in Nepal, the
film follows hula hoop performer
Saraswoti and aerial artist Sheetal
as they reclaim their lives, overcome
the stigma faced by trafficking sur-
vivors and reconnect with the fami-
lies that sold them.
“There’s an incredible trans-
formation. They are inspirational
women,” co-director Kate McLar-
non told the Thomson Reuters
Foundation.
Saraswoti was eight when she was
sold into a circus where she learnt
how to throw knives blindfolded.
At 14 she was married off to the
owner’s son and by 17 she had three
children.
Sheetal was trafficked around the
age of five.
Trekkers walk along a path at the Everest region, some 140km northeast of Kathmandu. The route is a busy gateway for tourists, climbers and porters heading Her family were living in a cow-
to the Mount Everest region in Nepal. shed when she was handed over to
traffickers promising a better life.
dangerous, and the conditions are
terrible.”
Members of Circus Kathmandu,
which was created in 2010, are now
using the skills that once enslaved
them to rebuild their self-esteem.
The circus has performed in Du-
bai and at Britain’s Glastonbury
music festival and will shortly visit
Australia.
Co-director Sky Neal, a former
circus aerialist, began work on the
film after helping set up a rehabili-
tation programme for rescued child
performers at a refuge in Kathman-
du.
“I was really shocked to realise
there was a dark side to a world I
love so much,” she said.
“(But) this is not a black and white
story. It’s full of complexity and we
chose not to shy away from that.”
In Nepal, the troupe now rais-
es awareness around trafficking
through workshops using drama
and circus skills.
They will use the film in new
workshops they are creating for key
high risk regions.
“Circus is a great tool for break-
ing down barriers. It’s a family en-
tertainment and it’s the families you
need to be talking to,” said McLar-
non.
The circus is also helping dispel
the stigma suffered by trafficking
survivors when they return home,
she says, particularly girls and
women.
“In Nepal circus has a very bad
name,” one performer says in the
film.
“People assume that all bosses
rape the girls. But circus is an art. I
don’t feel ashamed.”

30 steps in Sha‘baan to prepare for Ramadan
T
he Messenger of Allah,
sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam,
said about Sha‘baan: “That
is a month concerning which
the people are heedless, between Rajab
and Ramadan. It is a month in which
good deeds are taken up to the Lord of
the worlds, and I would like my deeds
to be taken up when I am fasting.” [An-
Nasaa’i; Al-Albaani; Hasan]
If you observe the habits of the
successful people in different walks of
life, you would notice that they strive
hard to prepare and get ready for their
tasks. A student who excels prepares
for his studies before the year begins;
a good runner prepares for the race
long before it starts and there other
numerous examples in our daily life.
Not everyone who prepares gains the
fruit of his endeavours or reaches the
peak of success. People vary even in the
success of their preparation and each
one attains success according to the
effort they exert. Keeping this in mind,
we must ask ourselves: how can one
attain any fruits without preparation,
or rather without any concerns
whatsoever to prepare for it?
As we have now entered the month
of Sha‘baan, we must have a specific
stance of determination. It is the last
stage in the preparation of entering the
month in which one can be saved from
Hellfire, i.e. the month of Ramadan,
the month of the Qur’an and the
month of mercy. So, contemplate the
conditions of those who seek to win
worldly competitions and the effort
they exert to achieve that. What then
should be the case with those who
seek the reward of the Hereafter?
Indeed, there is no point of comparison
between them. Is not the reward of the
Hereafter more deserving of our effort?
Immediately after Ramadan, our
Salaf (righteous predecessors), may
Allah have mercy upon them, used to
ask Allah The Almighty for six months
to accept Ramadan from them and
then for the next six months, they
would ask Him to enable them to live
until the next Ramadan. This is the
degree of importance they accorded
Ramadan and its precious days.
Allah willing, what we aim for and
prepare for are acts of worship from
the Sunnah (Prophetic tradition), not
innovated acts, but our objective is to
increase the frequency of performing
these acts.
Allah The Almighty Says (what
means):
{And hasten to forgiveness from
your Lord and a garden as wide as the
heavens and earth, prepared for the
righteous.} [Qur’an 3: 133]
{So for this let the competitors
compete.} [Qur’an 83: 26]
We must be determined to make
the best use of Ramadan by the will of
The Most Gracious. Do not let its days
slip by like any other days; the days of
Ramadan are precious, if they lapse
they may never come back again. How
many people do not reach or witness
Ramadan? How many people were
not destined to reach the upcoming
Ramadan? From now on, put down a
plan with an objective and a sincere
intention to prepare for Ramadan.
Hence, if death overcomes you before
reaching Ramadan, then you will
die with a sincere intention and a
righteous deed, Allah willing.
Let us take a look at some of the
plans of preparation for Ramadan
during the days of Sha‘baan. However,
before that, keep in mind the
importance of time, do not let even
a minute in Sha‘baan pass without
benefiting from the preparation for
Ramadan.
1- What would you do if you were
to expect an important guest, while
your home is in a mess and needs to be
cleaned? Would you start decorating
it in its unclean state or start cleaning
before anything else?
Begin by setting right your
obligations, adhere to the limits of
Allah The Almighty, and hold yourself
accountable for the sins you committed
throughout the last 11 months since the
past Ramadan. Repent from the past
sins of the year before receiving the
new month of Ramadan. Purify your
heart of any doubts or desires, repent
from every forbidden glance, or sins
involving hearing, or any misdeed your
The benefits of hoping for the best
H
aving hope in Allah The
Almighty bears fruit to the
following:
*It makes one strive more
and exert greater effort in performing
acts of worship.
It makes one even more inclined
to be constantly obedient to Allah The
Almighty.
It makes one enjoy drawing closer
to Allah The Almighty, and makes one
experience the thrill of supplicating
to Him.
It makes one express his ser-
vitude to and need for his Lord, and
makes him realise that he cannot do
without the favours and kindness of
his Lord, even for a period that is as
rapid as the blinking of an eye.
Allah The Almighty loves that
His slaves ask favors of Him and sup-
hand committed and your feet walked
towards. Remember that Allah The
Almighty feels Jealous (which implies
His wrath) when the matters He The
Exalted has forbidden are violated.
Beware of putting off repentance or
procrastinating in this matter. Do not
be deceived by the patience of Allah
The Almighty and His concealment of
your sins. Indeed, Allah The Almighty
gives respite to the oppressor, but
when He finally seizes him, He does
not let him escape.
2- Do not start a deed unless you
have a sincere intention. Your deed
will not be accepted unless it is done
with a sincere intention in accordance
with the rulings of the religion (Islam).
Therefore, you should learn the rulings
of fasting and teach them to your
family and acquaintances starting now.
3- Discipline yourself and be
committed to righteous deeds as of
now, for Ramadan is the school of
the righteous. Allah The Almighty
Says (what means): {O you who have
believed, decreed upon you is fasting
as it was decreed upon those before
you that you may become righteous.}
[Qur’an 2: 183] And the Prophet,
sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam, said:
“Whoever does not give up false
speech and ignorance and acting
accordingly, Allah has no need of his
giving up his food and drink.” [Al-
Bukhari]
4- Make haste to maintain the ties of
kinship and beware of severing them.
The Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu
`alaihi wa sallam, said: “Allah created
His creation, and when He had
finished, Ar-Rahim (the womb) got
up. He said, ‘What is it?’ Ar-Rahim
said: ‘This is the position of one who is
seeking refuge with You from being cut
off.’ He said, ‘Will you not be pleased
if I should maintain ties with the one
maintain ties with you, and cut off the
one who cuts you off?’ Ar-Rahim said,
‘Of course, O Lord.’ He said, ‘Then it
will be so.’” Then, Abu Hurairah, may
Allah be pleased with him, recited the
verse in which Allah The Almighty Says
(what means): {So would you perhaps,
if you turned away, cause corruption
on earth and sever your [ties of]
kinship?} [Qur’an 47: 22] [Al-Bukhari]
If we know this, let us ask, who is
the person that upholds the ties of
kinship? This is what the Messenger
of Allah, sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam,
has explained saying: “The one who
upholds the ties of kinship is not the
one who reciprocates, rather the one
who upholds the ties of kinship is the
one who upholds those ties even if his
relatives cut him off.” [Al-Bukhari]
5- Is there better bliss than a clean
heart? You spend your day and night in
peace of mind while others burn with
jealousy and hatred towards others.
Be keen on having a clean heart from
now on, clearing it to be occupied
by Ramadan and nothing else. The
Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu `alaihi
wa sallam, was asked who is the best
of people. He answered: “The one with
a pure heart and a truthful tongue”.
They said: “The one with a truthful
tongue we know, but who is the one
with a pure heart?” He, sallallaahu
`alaihi wa sallam, replied: “He is pious
and pure with no sin nor injustice nor
grudge nor envy (against anyone).” [Ibn
Maajah]
6- Unfortunately, many people
spend long hours on the Internet,
wasting many bounties and golden
opportunities in Ramadan. How far
removed are they from Imaam Maalik
ibn Anas, may Allah have mercy upon
him, who, when Ramadan arrived,
used to withdraw from reviewing
Hadith and sitting with the people
of knowledge to dedicate himself to
reciting the Noble Qur’an from the
Mus-haf. Start now: if you are an
Internet addict, lessen the hours you
spend surfing the Internet and know
that Ramadan will not wait for you.
7- Hasten to make up for the days
of fasting you missed in the past
Ramadan for a legitimate excuse.
8- In Ramadan, most people are
keen to make a complete recitation of
the Noble Qur’an. In order to make
the recitation and completion become
easy and swift for you, begin reciting in
the month of Sha‘baan, increasing the
time of recitation gradually, so if you
plicate to Him; He is angered by those
who shun supplicating and asking
Him. The one with hope usually sup-
plicates much more than others who
are not, and Allah The Almighty is
angry with those who do not harbour
any hope in the mercy and kindness of
Allah The Almighty. Thus having hope
rescues one from the wrath of Allah
The Almighty.
Hope is what makes the person
enjoy his journey towards Allah The
Almighty and the Hereafter; it makes
him steadfast upon the path because
had it not been that people hoped for
Paradise and that their rewards be
multiplied, then nobody would have
been able to continue on their path
towards Allah The Almighty and the
Hereafter.
It makes one increase in his love
are accustomed to recite one part daily
let it be two or even three – in fact, why
not complete a full recitation every 10
days?
9- In Ramadan, different
voluntary prayers are performed
such as Taraaweeh (night prayer
that takes place after the prayer
of ‘Ishaa’), Qiyaam (standing in
supererogatory prayer at night),
and other supererogatory prayers.
In order to get used to long periods
of standing without any fatigue or
exhaustion, dedicate a longer time
for night prayer starting in Sha‘baan.
Begin by dedicating an hour, increase
it gradually, and start getting used to
long bowing and prostrating.
10- Accustom yourself to dedicating
a longer period of time for supplicating
Allah The Almighty, and memorise
some of the authentic supplications
of the Prophet, sallallaahu `alaihi wa
sallam, for they include precise words
with comprehensive meanings, and
they are better, more blessed, and more
for his Lord, because the more he gets
what he asked and hoped for, the more
his love for his Lord will increase and
the more grateful he becomes to his
Lord – which is one of the implica-
tions of the state of servitude.
Hope makes one reach the state
of being thankful; which is what ser-
vitude is all about.
Hope makes one research more
into the Names and Attributes of Allah
The Almighty.
Hope is interconnected with fear
of Allah The Almighty, because the
one who hopes for the mercy of Allah
The Almighty and His Paradise will
fear that he may not be doing enough
to be worthy of them; this is indeed a
wonderful relationship between the
two different states of the believer’s
heart: hope and fear.
THE SPIRIT OF TRUTH
likely to be answered, Allah willing.
11- Accustom yourself to spending
more time in the Masjid (mosque)
after performing congregational
prayer to prepare for I‘tikaaf (staying
in seclusion in the mosque with the
intention of worship) in the last 10
days of Ramadan, Allah willing. If you
cannot perform full I‘tikaaf, you could
prolong your stay in the masjid, which
is also considered I’tikaaf , as there is
no minimum stipulated time limit for
it.
12- Get used to fasting so that you
do not feel worn out while fasting the
first couple of days in Ramadan. Fast
on alternate days or in the most of the
days of Sha‘baan, Imaam al-Bukhari,
may Allah have mercy upon him,
reported that ‘Aa’ishah, may Allah be
pleased with her, said: “The Prophet,
sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam, did not
fast in any month more than he did
in Sha‘baan, and he used to fast all of
Sha‘baan.”
13- Be prepared to feed the poor
When one hopes for something
and Allah The Almighty grants it to
him, this encourages him to ask for
more and strive harder to please Allah
The Almighty, which consequently
increases his level of faith and brings
him close to the All-Merciful.
The more hope that slaves har-
bour during this life, the more they
will rejoice when attaining what they
have hoped for in the Hereafter, and
the best and highest of all causes for
rejoicing is seeing Allah The Almighty
and attaining His pleasure.
Furthermore, Allah The Almighty
wishes that His slaves fulfil the other
ranks of servitude, such as hum-
bling themselves before Him, relying
on Him in everything, seeking His
support, fearing Him, persevering
through His decrees and thanking
and needy, and provide meals for the
fasting people to break their fast.
Increase the quantity of food you
prepare for lunch, for instance, and
give out the extra food to the poor
in your neighbourhood or to your
building’s janitor. ‘Ataa’, may Allah
have mercy upon him, narrated on
the authority of Zayd ibn Khaalid al-
Juhani, may Allah be pleased with him,
that the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu
`alaihi wa sallam, said: “Whoever gives
Iftaar (the meal to break the fast) to
one who is fasting will have a reward
like his, without that detracting from
the reward of the fasting person in
the slightest.” [At-Tirmithi and An-
Nasaa’i, Al-Albaani: Saheeh]
14- Give alms on a daily basis in the
month of Sha‘baan, so that you may
get used to daily charity in Ramadan
and to be among those mentioned in
the Hadith narrated by Abu Hurairah,
may Allah be pleased with him, that
the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu
`alaihi wa sallam, said: “There is no
day on which the people get up but two
angels come down and one of them
says, ‘O Allah, give in compensation
to the one who spends (in charity),’
and the other says, ‘O Allah, destroy
the wealth of the one who withholds.”
[Al-Bukhari and Muslim]
If it was your habit to give charity
in other than Ramadan, then increase
the quantity you give out in Sha‘baan
whenever you can. Ibn ‘Abbaas, may
Allah be pleased with him, said: “The
Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu `alaihi
wa sallam, was the most generous
of people, and he was at his most
generous during Ramadan, when
Jibreel (angel Gabriel) met him. Jibreel
used to meet with him every night and
teach him the Qur’an. The Messenger
of Allah, sallallaahu `alaihi wa sallam,
was the most generous person, even
more generous and faster in spending
than a strong blowing wind.” [Al-
Bukhari and Muslim]
15- If you intend to perform ‘Umrah
during Ramadan, walk daily for half an
hour in the last 10 days of Sha’baan in
order to prepare yourself, as ‘Umrah in
Ramadan involves physical effort.
16- Lessen your intake of food
during Sha’baan; the more food you
eat the more difficult it is to perform
acts of worship in Ramadan. Accustom
yourself to smaller portions of food
from now or eat several small meals
throughout the day. Include plenty of
vegetables, fruits and dates in your diet
to maintain the level of hydration in the
body and to provide energy.
17- Avoid staying up late, try to sleep
earlier, and wake up one hour prior
to Fajr prayer or earlier to practise
Qiyaam (voluntary night prayers)
and supplicate to Allah The Almighty
before dawn.
18- Train yourself to sleep less. If
your habit is to sleep eight hours, make
it six or less without exhausting your
body, compensating for it with a mid-
day (short) nap.
19- If you are unable to perform
‘Umrah this Ramadan for some reason,
know that if you remain seated after
Fajr prayer until sunrise and perform
two Rak‘ahs (units of prayer) you
would receive the reward of a complete
Haj and ‘Umrah. Anas ibn Maalik, may
Allah be pleased with him, narrated
that the Prophet, sallallaahu `alaihi
wa sallam, said: “Whoever prays
Fajr in congregation then remains
sitting (in the masjid) remembering
and mentioning Allah until the sun
rises, then prays two Rak‘ahs (15
minutes after the sun rises), will have
a reward like that of performing Haj
and ‘Umrah, complete, complete,
complete.” [At-Tirmithi, Al-Albaani:
Hasan li-ghayrih]
20- Perform new acts of worship
that you have never done before. For
example, recite 1,000 verses (that is
equal to Part 29 and Part 30 in the
Qur’an) or give a large sum of money
as charity, to prepare yourself and be
inclined to perform greater acts of
worship in Ramadan.
21- Try to attend a funeral prayer
then follow it until burial, since doing
so entails great reward, and the reward
multiplies in Ramadan. Ibn ‘Umar, may
Allah be pleased with him, narrated
that the Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu
‘alaihi wa sallam, said: “Whoever
Him for His bounties. Thus, Allah
The Almighty decreed that people sin
in order for him to fulfil these ranks,
so His slaves seek the forgiveness
of Allah The Almighty and humble
themselves before Him in order to be
forgiven. If people did not sin, they
would not feel the need to humble
themselves before Him or seek His
forgiveness, nor would they repent to
Him; this is why Allah The Almighty
tests people with these sins, in order
to purify their hearts by this humil-
ity and seeking His pardon. Thus, a
very important aspect of servitude is
fulfilled.
After the slave sins, he humbles
himself before Allah The Almighty,
and then begins to have hope that
Allah The Almighty will forgive his
sin. This results in the slave’s heart
Gulf Times
Friday, April 20, 2018 13
attends the funeral until the prayer has
been offered will have one Qiraat (of
reward).” [An-Nasaa’i] The Messenger
of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi wa sallam,
was asked about the Qiraat, he replied:
“It is equal to ‘Uhud” (a mountain in
Al-Madinah).” [Al-Albaani: Saheeh]
Abu Bakr ibn Ka’b, may Allah be
pleased with him, narrated that the
Messenger of Allah, sallallaahu ‘alaihi
wa sallam, said: “Whoever attends
a funeral prayer he is rewarded with
a Qiraat, and if he attends its burial
he is rewarded with two Qiraats. By
He whom the soul of Muhammad is
in His hands, a single Qiraat is larger
than mount ‘Uhud.” [Ibn Maajah, Al-
Albaani: Saheeh li-ghayrih]
22- Organise your time and make a
timetable to evaluate your performance
and the acts of worship you schedule
for yourself. This is not an innovation
in the religion, but is only a practical
measure to monitor your acts of
worship and to attain Paradise, Allah
willing, which is your chief aim.
23- Withdraw bit-by-bit from
meaningless gatherings that waste
your time. Boycott TV and all
other distraction – even if they are
permissible. Naturally, if they are
forbidden then it is compulsory to
abandon them completely and repent
with the intention of never returning to
them again.
24- Ramadan is a great chance for
smokers to quit this harmful and evil
habit. Accustom yourself from now
on to leave it and make an intention to
quit it completely for the sake of Allah
The Almighty and then for the sake of
your health. Ask Allah The Almighty to
help you with this and rest assured that
if you ask Him with sincerity He will
help you.
25- From this moment on, engage
your tongue to be moist with the
remembrance and mention of Allah
The Almighty; do not slacken in the
remembrance and mention of Allah
The Almighty, seeking forgiveness,
glorifying Allah The Almighty and
reciting Takbeer (i.e. Allahu Akbar). It
is an easy form of worship with a heavy
and great reward from Allaah The
Almighty.
26- Organise your daily work
schedule beginning from Sha‘baan
so that your distraction from worship
may decrease in Ramadan. Prioritise
your tasks and needs so that you cover
most of it before Ramadan starts.
27- Revise what you have memorised
of the Noble Qur’an or memorise some
new Surahs (chapters) in Sha‘baan
so that you could recite it in your
supererogatory prayers in Ramadan.
How happy is the one who prays and
supplicates with verses he knows by
heart!
28- Malls and shops are crowded in
Ramadan and unfortunately, all kinds
of indecency is widespread in such
places, so avoid going there during
Ramadan by buying your grocery, ‘Eid
clothes, and other things in Sha‘baan.
29- Try to formulate a plan for all
the people around you to implement
to prepare for Ramadan in your house,
workplace and the masjid. By doing
so, people will feel the greatness of
this beautiful month rather than being
misled by the dissolute people who call
towards watching serials and indecent
shows. Many TV channels make it a
point to broadcast their grandest and
most lascivious productions during
Ramadan, as opposed to ordinary days,
in order to mislead people and draw
them away from worship.
30- Approach children over seven
years of age in your family, and
motivate them to get used to fasting.
Let them begin with a quarter of a day
then increase to half a day and more
and reward them for their efforts.
Thus when Ramadan begins, fasting
becomes easy for them.
This was an attempt to provide some
guidelines to follow during the month
of Sha’baan in preparation for the
blessed month of Ramadan. However,
one can custom make his own list and
add to this whatever he/she sees more
suitable for his/her own situation.
Article source: http://www.
islamweb.net/emainpage/
becoming more attached to his Lord.
There are three types of hope,
two of which are praised and one
dispraised:
1. The hope of an obedient person
who hopes for the reward from Allah
The Almighty.
2. The hope of a sinful person who
hopes for the forgiveness of Allah The
Almighty.
3. The hope of a negligent person
who continuously sins and then hopes
for the forgiveness of Allah The Al-
mighty, without exerting any effort to
attain His forgiveness. This is a false
hope and wishful thinking, which
deceives no one but the one who har-
bours it; it is by no means considered
to be real hope in Allah The Almighty.
Article source: http://www.is-
lamweb.net/emainpage/
 Gulf Times
14 Friday, April 20, 2018

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

P.O.Box 2888, Doha, Qatar

editor@gulf-times.com
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GULF TIMES
Macron’s party
faces dissent over
immigration bill
20-04-2018
The French parliament votes today on a tough immigration
bill that has sparked rumblings of revolt within President
Emmanuel Macron’s party, with several MPs openly challenging
his plans to speed up deportations of failed asylum-seekers.
The government argues that tighter controls are needed to

UK Windrush issue sours

check the rise of anti-immigration populists, who are on the
march across Europe from Berlin to Budapest after suffering a
setback in last year’s French elections.
The bill aims to both cut waiting times for asylum
applications – from around a year currently to six months –
and make it easier to deport those turned down as “economic”

mood at ‘Family’ reunion

migrants.
The right-wing opposition say the bill is too soft but left-
wing parties and NGOs have branded it repressive.
“We cannot take on the misery of the world,” Macron, who
campaigned as a champion of open borders but has adopted a
tough line on migration since taking office, said in an interview
with BFMTV on Sunday.
Macron pointed to the “ticking bomb” of population growth By William James Barbados high commissioner “If you lay down with dogs, you get for the resignation of Home Secretary
and Andrew MacAskill/ Reuters Guy Hewitt told the BBC that some fleas, and that is what has happened Amber Rudd, one of the most pro-EU
in Africa, wars and climate change among factors that would “Windrush Kids” were being treated with the far-right rhetoric in this ministers in May’s cabinet.
continue driving migration to Europe in the years to come. London
as illegal immigrants even though they country.” As international alliances go, the
Faced with an “unprecedented” wave of arrivals the had gone to school in Britain and paid Tighter border policies, which have Commonwealth is a loose network
government would focus on welcoming those whose lives were

at risk in their country of origin, he said firmly.
France received a
France received record 100,000 asylum
applications last year,
a record bucking the general trend
in Europe, where the
100,000 asylum number of asylum seekers
applications last halved between 2016 and
2017.
year, bucking the A shortage of
accommodation means
general trend in many wind up on the
streets of Paris, or the
Europe northern port of Calais, a
gateway to Britain, where
a squalid camp housing thousands of migrants was razed by the
state in late 2016.
A February survey by pollsters BVA showed 63% of voters
felt there were too many immigrants in France, home to around
6mn people who were born in another country.
The bill doubles the time that failed asylum seekers can be
detained to 90 days, making it easier to deport them.
It also reduces the time they have to lodge their application
from 120 to 90 days and gives them just two weeks to appeal
if unsuccessful, a period slammed by NGOs as far too short to
gather more evidence in support of their claim.
Once accepted, however, refugees will be given more help to
integrate, by, for instance, gaining the right to work and being
given more French classes.
The government has defended the legislation as balanced but
several members of Macron’s usually compliant Republic on
the Move (LREM) party have vowed to reject the bill or abstain
when it is put to a vote today.
“This bill stigmatises foreigners,” Francois-Michel Lambert,
an LREM lawmaker representing the southern Bouches-du-
Rhone region, told BFMTV.
Delphine Bagarry, an MP representing Alpes-de-Haute-
Provence, told France Inter radio that while she supports the
need to shorten the agonising wait for asylum, “it cannot be at
the expense of their right to a defence”.
Fearing that any sign of weakness could embolden dissidents
to break ranks on other issues, party leader Richard Ferrand has
threatened LREM naysayers with expulsion.
But the bill is expected to pass, despite strong opposition
from far-right leader Marine Le Pen – the runner-up to Macron
in last year’s election – and the conservative opposition
Republicans.
The Republicans’ hardline leader Laurent Wauquiez charged
that Macron’s presidency was on course to legalise “a million
more immigrants” by 2022.
Right-wingers have also argued that provisions allowing
underage refugees to bring siblings to live with them in France
will have a “pull effect” on migration.
A
s it prepares to leave the
European Union, Britain’s
attempts to revitalise links
with former colonies at a
lavish summit in London have been
overshadowed by outrage over Prime
Minister Theresa May’s treatment of
Commonwealth migrants.
Threats to deport some relatives of
Caribbean workers who helped rebuild
Britain in the decades after World War
II have soured the mood at the London
reunion of the self-styled “Family” –
the 53 Commonwealth nations bound
together by the shared history of the
now-defunct British Empire.
“It is a matter of denial of the dignity
of citizenship, which really cannot be
restored,” Jamaican Prime Minister
Andrew Holness told the Good Morning
Britain television show.
Speaking alongside May at the
Commonwealth meeting, Holness hoped
for the “speedy implementation” of the
government’s proposals to fix the crisis.
“It is only fair. It will lead to security,
certainly for those who have been
affected, and it is the kind of inclusive
prosperity for which we stand as
Commonwealth peoples,” he said.
The affair has undermined efforts to
revive the Commonwealth and promote
‘Global Britain’ – the rebranding
exercise aimed at building trade
partnerships and developing a new
way of projecting British ‘soft power’
worldwide as the country prepares to
exit the European Union.
The so-called Windrush generation,
named after one of the first ships
bringing Caribbean citizens to Britain,
arrived as children between 1948 and
1971 and some who cannot produce
citizenship documentation are being
denied healthcare, prevented from
working, and even threatened with
deportation.
their taxes.
The Commonwealth evolved out
of the British empire in the mid-20th
century, and Queen Elizabeth has been
its head since she ascended the throne
in 1952.
She regards the Commonwealth as
the greatest success of her reign.
Critics say it is an outdated relic of
Britain’s imperial past and attempts to
give it new life are a desperate bid by
nostalgic Britons to create an “Empire
2.0” that will cushion the impact of the
country’s exit from the European Union.
Advocates, thousands of whom
assembled from across the globe
in London to talk about topics like
trade, the environment and women’s
rights, say it is a lifeline that gives
small countries a seat at the table with
larger states, and has huge potential to
improve life for its 2.4bn residents.
Despite a steady drumbeat of
discontent over Windrush, Prime
Minister May has been caught off-
guard by the issue and forced into a
series of apologies and admissions.
“These people are British, they
are part of us,” May told parliament
on Wednesday. “I want to say sorry
to anyone who has had confusion or
anxiety felt as a result of this.”
The crisis has cast Britain, and May
in particular, in an unsympathetic light
and raised awkward questions about
how the aggressive pursuit of lower
immigration sits alongside the desire to
be an outward-looking global leader.
“This is a day of national shame,”
said David Lammy, a London-based
opposition lawmaker and son of
Windrush migrants, who blamed rising
anti-immigrant sentiment in Britain
over recent years.
Nationalist rhetoric was widely
deployed by parties campaigning for
Brexit.
left some migrants and their children
struggling to prove their citizenship,
are largely a legacy of May’s time as
Home Secretary – a role she held for six
years before becoming prime minister
in 2016.
In 2012 May said: “The aim is to
create here in Britain a really hostile
environment for illegal migration.”
As a result, life for many legal
migrants who had never previously
needed to prove their British
heritage has become harder, with
some of the Windrush generation
sensing a recurrence of the racial
discrimination they faced when they
first arrived.
Sally Daghlian, chief executive of
Praxis Community Projects, says her
organisation has supported more
than 120 people who arrived from the
Caribbean more than 50 years ago and
have now been wrongly labelled as
illegal immigrants.
In some cases, she said people have
been refused entry to Britain after going
to funerals overseas or denied access
to healthcare, lost jobs, and even been
made homeless because they do not
have sufficient paperwork.
“Every story that I have come across
has been appalling, it is difficult to
quantify the human misery,” she said.
“We have created a Britain where
there is great suspicion of anyone who
has a migrant background.”
The episode has raised concerns
about whether the Home Office can
fairly handle the claims of EU residents
after Brexit, when thousands of EU
citizens will need to show they have the
right to remain in Britain.
The European Parliament’s Brexit
co-ordinator, Guy Verhofstadt, said full
guarantees on EU citizens’ rights were
needed in the wake of the crisis.
The affair has also prompted calls
linking large economies like India,
population 1.3bn, with tiny pacific
states like Nauru, population 13,000.
Even within the family, there
is disagreement about the
Commonwealth’s direction, and
Britain’s role within it: questions
have been raised over whether the
queen’s son and heir, Prince Charles,
should succeed her as the head of the
organisation.
Opposition Labour Party leader
and royal sceptic Jeremy Corbyn
has said it may be time to allow the
Commonwealth to decide its own head.
May’s government said it would
lobby for Charles.
“If you decide to give the headship
to Charles then you are talking another
10 or 20 years of a kind of embalming
fluid,” said Philip Murphy, professor of
British and Commonwealth history at
the School of Advanced Study.
“It removes any kind of incentive for
it to survive on its own merits.”
For Britain, hosting its first
Commonwealth Heads of Government
meeting for 20 years, the aim was made
clear on the eve of the gathering: trade.
And it may well be that the Windrush
row will not affect such calculations in
the end.
Even though the Commonwealth
accounts for less than 10% of British
exports, compared to 44% which go to
the EU, bilateral trade deals with the
likes of India, Canada and Australia are
high on the government’s priority list.
“As the United Kingdom leaves
the European Union we have the
opportunity to reinvigorate our
Commonwealth partnerships and usher
in a new era harnessing the movement
of expertise, talent goods and capital
between our nations in a way that we
have not done for a generation or more,”
said trade minister Liam Fox.

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Timothy Harris, St Kitts and Nevis Prime Minister, and other Caribbean leaders and representatives leave following a meeting with Britain’s Prime Minister Theresa May at
© 2018 Gulf Times. All rights reserved 10 Downing Street in London. May has been caught off-guard by the Windrush issue.
 Gulf Times
Friday, April 20, 2018 15

COMMENT

The West’s crisis of confidence will require new, comprehensive

By Carl Bildt
Stockholm international agreements to protect the
interests of sovereign countries.
Sadly, the pronouncements from

I
n an age defined by US President
Donald Trump’s rage, Russian
President Vladimir Putin’s
revisionism, and Chinese
President Xi Jinping’s unbridled
ambition, the international order is
becoming increasingly disorderly,
dysfunctional, and even dangerous.
How did we arrive at this state of
affairs? And how can we leave it
behind?
Until recently, the era following
World War II was a time of benevolent
liberal internationalism. The postwar
order had begun to take shape as early
as 1941, when US president Franklin D
Roosevelt and British prime minister
Winston Churchill drafted the Atlantic
Charter on a ship anchored in Canada’s
Placentia Bay. Though Hitler had
been victorious on the battlefields
of Europe, Churchill and Roosevelt
were determined not only to defeat
the Nazi onslaught, but also to lay the
groundwork for a future of peace and
democracy.
They succeeded beyond what they
probably imagined was possible.
After the Atlantic Charter came the
UN, the Bretton Woods institutions,
the global trade system, the Universal
Declaration of Human Rights, and
much more. During the postwar
decades of decolonisation, many
new countries emerged, and former
enemies united under new alliances
and an overarching structure of
integration.
China’s great “opening up” and
the Soviet Union’s collapse in 1991
marked the start of a quarter-
century of truly remarkable global
progress. In fact, judging by standard
economic, political, and social
indicators, it might well have been
the best quarter-century in human
history. There were no major wars
The politics of idealism and hope has been replaced by the politics of identity and fear.
between superpowers, global trade
expanded and drove economic
growth, poverty was more than
halved, and rapid advances in science
and technology delivered benefits to
every corner of the world.
In recent years, however, the world
has entered a new phase. The politics
of idealism and hope has been replaced
by the politics of identity and fear. This
trend took root in one Western country
after another, but its most notable
manifestations have been in the two
Anglo-Saxon countries that made the
previous period of miraculous progress
possible in the first place.
Today, the confused political debates
in the United Kingdom are tragic to
behold. Since the June 2016 Brexit
referendum, Britain has searched
in vain for an illusory concept of
sovereignty that might prevent the
massive loss of international power
and influence that awaits it after its
departure from the European Union.
The kind of global statesmanship that
the UK once offered the world has
given way to parochial bickering.
But the confused politics of Trump’s
White House are of even greater
consequence. For decades, the White
House was a font of global leadership;
today, it is a source of belligerent
rhetoric that does not even pay lip
service to the idea of a global order.
Indeed, the Trump administration’s
official National Security Strategy
portrays US efforts to safeguard the
global order as counterproductive and
self-defeating. The future it envisions
will be defined wholly by conflicts
between sovereign countries.
Revisions to America’s strategic
posture would be a reasonable
response to Russian aggression and
rule-breaking, particularly in Eastern
Europe, and to China’s growing
assertiveness on the world stage.
But the US president’s first instinct
should be to defend the international
order against rising threats, while
making adjustments to account for
new realities. Addressing climate
change, increased migration, and
the revolution in information and
communication technologies (ICT)
Trump’s White House seem to be
aimed at undermining any sense
of order, with the hope that the US
will come out on top in some future
Hobbesian struggle for total global
dominance. By this logic, international
trade should be regulated not by
rules and institutions, but through
unilateral protectionist measures and
arm-twisting. And institutions like
the EU – which aims to ensure order
and stability through integration –
are treated with indifference, if not
disdain.
From China’s perspective, the
Trump administration’s Hobbesian
vision could prove appealing, provided
that its economy continues to grow,
and that it avoids serious domestic
social or political upheaval. After all,
with fewer global rules, China will face
even fewer obstacles when asserting its
growing influence abroad.
In this scenario, the loser would
undoubtedly be the wider West,
meaning not just Europe but
countries like India, which will remain
committed to liberal democracy,
economic openness, and the values
underpinning that miraculous quarter-
century after the Cold War.
Even barring worst-case scenarios,
the West will be facing a new world
with new aspirants making new
demands about the future. It would
thus be a fateful mistake for Western
powers to abandon the ideas and
institutions that delivered prosperity
and stability in previous decades.
Above all, the two countries most
responsible for creating the postwar
international order must not turn
their backs on it now.- Project
Syndicate
zCarl Bildt is a former prime minister
and foreign minister of Sweden

Diamonds in meteorite ‘remnants of lost planet’ Three-day forecast

the Almahata Sitta meteorite will be
By Ian Sample
London the only known remnants of one of
these long-lost planets. The material
will give scientists a unique window
Early inspections of the meteorite Communications, the Swiss team TODAY
Maximum Temperature : 340c
revealed it to be a ureilite, an unusual now describe fresh analyses that
Minimum Temperature : 230c
composition that does not match show that diamonds in the meteorite
other space rocks known to have come contain specks of an iron-sulphur SATURDAY

D
iamonds found in a
meteorite that exploded
over the Nubian desert in
Sudan a decade ago were
formed deep inside a “lost planet” that
once circled the sun in the early solar
system, scientists said.
Microscopic analyses of the
meteorite’s tiny diamonds revealed
they contain compounds that are
produced under intense pressure,
suggesting the diamonds formed far
beneath the surface of a planet.
In this case, the mysterious world
was calculated to be somewhere
between Mercury and Mars in size.
Astronomers have long
hypothesised that dozens of fledgling
planets, ranging in size from the moon
to Mars, formed in the first 10mn
years of the solar system and were
broken apart and repackaged in violent
collisions that ultimately created the
terrestrial planets that orbit the sun
today.
If the latest findings are confirmed,
into the cosmic conditions that
prevailed in the deep history of the
solar system.
“Simulations have suggested that
the early solar system had tens of
these embryonic planets that collided
with each other to form the terrestrial
planets, but having evidence of one
of them? I wasn’t expecting that,”
said Farhang Nabiei, who studied
pieces of the meteorite at the Federal
Institute of Technology in Lausanne,
Switzerland.
Philippe Gillet, a senior author
on the study, said: “We are doing
archaeology, looking into the past,
and trying to decipher the story of the
solar system.”
The Almahata Sitta meteorite was
the first to be tracked by telescopes as
it sped towards Earth and exploded
over the Nubian desert in 2008. The
event prompted a recovery effort by
the University of Khartoum, which
gathered 480 pieces of the meteorite
amounting to 4kg of battered material.
from the moon or Mars. The finding compound that is thought only to Maximum Temperature : 330c
led some scientists to speculate that it form at pressures greater than 20 Minimum Temperature : 260c
may have had a more exotic origin. gigapascals. They conclude that the SUNDAY
That suspicion grew when researchers diamonds formed with the specks Maximum Temperature : 370c
noticed little diamonds in the meteorite inside them, deep beneath the surface Minimum Temperature : 270c
material. While other meteorites are of an unknown world. Fisherman's forecast
known to contain diamond crystals, “We are probably looking at an
they are generally far smaller. Typical object that was one of the first planets
WARNING
meteorite diamonds are only a few to circle the sun before they collided Inshore : Nil
millionths of a millimetre across and are with each other to create the actual Offshore : Nil
thought to form in collisions with other planets we have today,” said Gillet.
WEATHER
space rocks that send brief but intense James Wittke, who runs the Inshore : Relatively hot daytime and
shockwaves through the carbon-rich meteorite laboratory at Northern scattered clouds at times
asteroids. Arizona University, said the scientists’ with weak chance of light
rain at places
In 2015, researchers at the Swiss lab conclusions were reasonable. “We WIND
teamed up with Japanese scientists think that there were probably many Inshore : Southwesterly-Southeaster-
to argue that the diamonds in the larger ‘parent’ bodies in the early ly 05-15 KT
solar system, which have since been Offshrore : Northwesterly-Southwester-
Almahata Sitta meteorite, which are ly 03-13/18 KT
up to 100 micrometres long, were destroyed, so a since-destroyed body
much larger than could be formed the size of Mercury is reasonable,” Visibility : 04-9 KM
in collisions with other asteroids. he said. “One as large as Mars seems
SEA STATE
They speculated at the time that the a little surprising, but this paper Offshore : 1-3 FT, Rises 5 FT at places
meteorite might have come from a lost presents the best, and perhaps only, at first
planet, but sought more evidence to type of evidence for determining
bolster their theory. the sizes of these parent bodies.” –
Writing in the journal Nature Guardian News and Media Around the region
Weather Weather
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Live issues Kuwait City

Manama
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Tech problems have become part of our daily lives

By Barton Goldsmith who just want to mess with someone
Tribune News Service else’s life because they aren’t having
any fun with their own.
The marketing calls may be the

L
ately it seems that I have most annoying, and thankfully new
had more problems with apps are helping with that, but I find
my computer, phone, and that routinely spending an hour in the
tablet than I’ve had trying to morning fixing an issue that wasn’t my
housebreak the new puppy. It seems fault is really cutting into my coffee-
that device issues are so common by-the-lake time. I have tech support
these days that I’ve started to make and people I can call, but it still takes Around the world
dealing with them part of my morning time and isn’t any fun, and in truth can Weather Weather
routine. Wake up, go to the bathroom, cause more anxiety than a traffic jam. today Max/min tomorrow Max/min
feed the cat, let the dog out, make I’m lucky because I have a tech Athens M Sunny 26/12 M Sunny 21/11
coffee, and fix the techno dilemma of savvy nephew who will come by when Beirut Cloudy 23/18 Showers 22/16
the day. things get really out of control. He Bangkok S T Storms 33/27 P Cloudy 34/27
I’m not ungrateful. I know that does this for a living, so for him it’s Berlin Sunny 27/12 Sunny 21/08
without a spell checker in word like cleaning up spilt milk, and it just Cairo P Cloudy 33/19 P Cloudy 31/16
processing, I wouldn’t have graduated makes me want to cry. Having kids Cape Town P Cloudy 19/12 P Cloudy 19/12
from school or become a writer. in your life can make your tech issues Colombo S T Storms 32/26 S T Stroms 32/26
Computers gave me a living, and I’ve much easier. You may have to bribe Dhaka S T Storms 36/27 S T Storms 36/27
even become a better speller, but them, but that isn’t necessarily a bad Hong Kong P Cloudy 26/23 P Cloudy 26/24
sometimes I long for the dark ages of thing. In fact, I suggest you make Istanbul Showers 14/08 P Cloudy 16/08
the dictionary. computer trouble-shooting a regular Jakarta T Storms 33/25 S T Storm 32/25
True, growing up I couldn’t household duty and tie it to their Karachi Sunny 37/21 Sunny 37/22
understand how you could look up a allowance. London Sunny 26/12 P Cloudy 24/14
word if you couldn’t spell it, and now I guess you have to be wired, or in Manila M Sunny 36/26 M Sunny 35/27
all you have to do is say the word and it my case rewired, for this stuff. Many Moscow P Cloudy 14/07 Rain 18/03
appears onscreen. It’s really helpful for you’ve ever been hacked, you know Now you have to change your people have a hard enough time New Delhi S T Storms 39/22 Sunny 37/22
those of us who deal with dyslexia, but what I’m talking about. First you password, which I am told you should just taking care of their daily lives, New York M Sunny 12/03 Sunny 16/06
computer-related issues like updates, discover that some robot has sent do monthly these days. There are tech issues aside. My number one Paris M Sunny 29/14 M Sunny 27/15
hacking, and even robocalls are getting e-mails about free money to everyone apps that help you remember all your suggestion (if you don’t have a kid in Sao Paulo P Cloudy 26/13 P Cloudy 24/16
in the way of enjoying life. I used to on your contact list, and then you passwords, but just needing one is your life) is to pay for tech support. Seoul Sunny 25/09 M Sunny 25/12
look forward to hearing from friends get some e-mails from those people kind of creepy. There are just too Your time is the most valuable thing Singapore T Storm 31/26 T Storm 31/26
and family, and now just the sound of letting you know you’ve been hacked many people using the Internet to bilk you have, and paying for support Sydney M Sunny 23/18 P Cloudy 22/17
the phone ringing is a tiny bit scary. or asking if the scheme worked for innocents out of their hard-earned will also help you reduce any device- Tokyo Clear 26/13 Clear 26/15
But there are worse problems. If you. And that’s just the first step. money, and too many other people related stress.
 Gulf Times
16 Friday, April 20, 2018
QATAR
HE the Prime Minister and Interior Minister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa al-Thani presents the award to Msheireb Properties’ acting
CEO Ali al-Kuwari as HE the Minister of Energy and Industry Dr Mohamed bin Saleh al-Sada and Kahramaa president Essa bin Hilal al-Kuwari
look on.
Msheireb earns
Tarsheed award
M
sheireb Properties, a
subsidiary of Qatar
Foundation and Qatar’s
leading sustainable developer,
for the second time in a row, has
claimed an award at the National
Programme for Conservation and
Energy (Tarsheed).
Launched as part of Qatar
General Electricity and Water
Corporation’s (Kahramaa) Na-
tional Programme for Conser-
vation and Energy, the Tarsheed
Awards’ ceremony is held under
the patronage of His Highness
the Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Ha-
mad al-Thani.
The ceremony on Wednesday
at Qatar National Convention
Centre was attended by HE the
Prime Minister and Interior Min-
ister Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser
bin Khalifa al-Thani.
The objective is to motivate
developers to adopt building con-
servation practices and encourage
them to embrace energy conserva-
tion strategies that work towards
Qatar’s National Vision 2030.
The National Archive located
at Msheireb Properties’ flagship
project, Msheireb Downtown
Doha (MDD), claimed the Best
Conserving Building Award in
the Government category of the
Tarsheed competition.
This landmark building aims to
reduce energy and water waste by
utilising the best technology and
unique architectural language.
Receiving the award, Ali al-
Kuwari, acting CEO, Msheireb
Properties said: “We are ex-
tremely pleased that our flag-
ship project is being recognised
Scientist elaborates on climate evolution at QNL event
A view of the audience at the lecture.
The National Archive located at Msheireb Properties’ flagship project, Msheireb Downtown Doha, claimed
the Best Conserving Building Award in the Government category of the Tarsheed competition.
and acknowledged for our com-
mitment to sustainable urban
regeneration, which shows our
endeavours to support the plans
of sustainable development
as stated in Qatar vision 2030.
Msheireb Downtown Doha is
emblematic of our mission to
build sustainable modern com-
munities that change the way
people think about urban living.”
The National Archive was
honoured and acknowledged
for its energy and water sav-
ing features, use of non-potable
water, rainwater recovery and
on-site renewable energy gen-
eration. Sustainability is central
to Msheireb Downtown Doha, in
terms of both the conservation of
natural resources and the quality
of its design.
The National Archive’s energy
efficient building design includes
improved building envelopes
of walls and windows, recessed
windows, energy recovery to the
outside air entering the building,
optimised ventilation using car-
bon dioxide (CO2) detectors and
a high efficiency district cooling
plant.
Thicker walls and orientation
enables building to benefit from
the shade of adjacent buildings,
which cools the local environ-
ment and reduces air-condi-
tioning requirements. While
adoption of the latest technology
enables Msheireb Properties to
produce renewable energy, mon-
itor electricity use, and make the
most efficient use of water. All
these translate to reduced emis-
sions, energy and water savings
and minimised waste.
Winning the Best Conserv-
ing Building Award in the Gov-
ernment category of last year’s
Tarsheed competition, the Cul-
tural Forum building is located
at MDD. With aims to have the
largest concentration of gold and
platinum LEED certified build-
ings – while MDD is set to be the
world’s first sustainable regen-
eration project.
Q
atar National Library
(QNL) yesterday hosted a
lecture on the way Qatar’s
changing natural environment
defines its past, present, and fu-
ture, and what that means for
similar regions around the world,
as well as other planets.
Planetary scientist Dr Essam
Heggy’s presentation on ‘Under-
standing Space Exploration and
the Natural Forces that Shaped
the Qatar Peninsula’ capped a
week of events celebrating QNL’s
grand opening.
Dr Heggy is a planetary sci-
entist at the Viterbi School of
Engineering at the University
of Southern California, and a
Rosetta co-investigator at the
National Aeronautics and Space
Administration (NASA) Jet Pro-
pulsion Laboratory.
He discussed how climate
evolution has shaped the history
of Earth, as well as that of other
planets in the solar system.
In the case of early residents
of the Qatar peninsula, they may
QU partners BHC on
joint studies, events
T
he Center for Humanities and Social Sci- utes to fulfilling the national aspirations towards
ences (CHSS) at Qatar University College sustainable development and a knowledge-based
of Arts and Sciences (QU-CAS) yester- economy at the local and international levels. QU
day signed an agreement with the Behavioural contributes to building knowledge as a cornerstone
Healthcare Center (BHC) to establish collabora- of the education process and knowledge transfer
tion in the field of graduate studies and organise and production to shape generations who are ca-
joint studies and events. pable to work in and deal with the labour market.
QU vice president for Research and Graduate “BHC is committed to spread behavioural
Studies Prof Mariam al-Maadeed and BHC gen- awareness within the society, to promote positive
eral manager Rashid bin Mohamed al-Nuaimi behaviour in compliance with the principles of
signed the agreement in the presence of CHSS Islam and ethical values, and to find the mecha-
director Dr Kaltham al-Ghanim and officials from nisms that ensure the protection of the society’s
QU and BHC. members by preventing them from being victims
The terms of the agreement include collabo- to deviations and behavioural disorders.”
ration between both parties to prepare scientific Dr Kaltham al-Ghanim said: “This collabora-
studies on “Social media and behavioural change tion serves to strengthen the agreement that was
among youth” and “Organisational structure of signed between CHSS and BHC last December
moral values among young in the Qatari society”, with the aim to establish collaboration between
an international conference titled “The First In- both parties in the field of promoting behavioural
ternational Interdisciplinary Congress on Behav- health within the society, to boost the capacity
ioural Health”, and a roundtable on “Family role of young people to face and solve behaviour de-
model”, as well as a seminar on “Youth and val- viation problems, and to provide effective thera-
ues”. peutic and awareness services in the field of be-
Prof al-Maadeed said: “QU has many compe- havioural health and behavioural and cognitive
tencies in various fields including energy, envi- treatment.
ronment, health, and information technology as “This agreement aligns with QU’s ongoing ef-
well as society and humanities. The support of forts to promote excellence in interdisciplinary
behavioural health is very important for excel- research and conduct high-quality research
lence in all disciplines and jobs. We are pleased to projects that address contemporary challenges. It
collaborate with the BHC in various areas such as also underlines QU’s role to provide research con-
research activities and student involvements, the sulting services and expertise to meet the needs
organisation of joint events, and the provision of of the society for theoretical and applied research
training to the members of the BHC.” studies in order to develop the productivity of
Al-Nuaimi said: “This agreement aims to serve various institutions, improve the quality of life
Qatari society and to support research. QU is a and achieve the goals of Qatar National Vision
prestigious educational institution that contrib- 2030 and the national development strategies.”
Rashid bin Mohamed al-Nuaimi receiving a commemorative plaque from Prof Mariam al-Maadeed.
prehend that the coastline was
changing.”
Dr Heggy also elaborated on
the ways space exploration al-
lows scientists to better under-
stand water and desert evolution
on Earth, and how technologies
that are being designed to ex-
plore water in the solar system
benefit from being tested in
Earth’s deserts.
He concluded with an exami-
nation of Qatar’s current chang-
ing climate, and how under-
standing and adapting to it will
affect the nation’s growth.
In her concluding remarks, Dr
Dr Heggy addressing the audience at the lecture at QNL yesterday. Sohair Wastawy, executive direc-
tor, QNL, said: “Dr Heggy will be
have been one of the few cultures and the only way to survive it is directing the Science Book Fo-
that developed a scientific herit- to understand it.” rum at QNL in September, and
age associated with both desert The scientist talked about the we look forward to that taking
and coastal changes, including meaning of Qatar’s map, and shape. We also welcome the op-
groundwater and sea levels, dune presented his views about the portunity to provide a forum for
movements, coral reef evolution, changes in Qatar’s coastline. scientific debate, and we will
and shallow-water navigation. He said: “The climate and en- hear a different view from to-
Talking about climate evolu- vironment in Qatar have shaped day’s lecture during the ‘Qatar on
tion, during his lecture Dr Heggy, the society. The people of Qatar Maps’ talk, taking place at QNL
said: “Our climate is changing, were able to intuitively com- on April 29 at 6pm.”