Dubai Bolstering ties...2019/02/27 · mah Al Absi said the authority is keen to provide all...

May offers MPs Brexit delay voteLondon

Theresa May has prom-ised MPs a vote on de-laying the UK’s depar-

ture from the EU or ruling out a no-deal Brexit, if they reject

her deal next month.Ms May made a statement

to MPs about Brexit yesterday, amid the threat of a revolt by Remain-supporting ministers.

The PM has promised MPs a meaningful vote on her Brexit deal by 12 March.

But Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn accused the prime minister of another “gro-tesquely reckless” Brexit de-lay.

The prime minister said she will put her withdrawal agree-ment - including any changes she has agreed with the EU - to a meaningful vote by 12 March.

“Let me be clear, I do not want to see Article 50 extend-ed,” she told MPs.

“Our absolute focus should be on working to get a deal and leaving on 29 March.”

02Financial sustainability stressed

03New LMRA system to make hiring of domestic workers ‘more easier’

04Prominent university loses lawsuit against ex-professor

10

300 militants killed, India claims 6WORLD

BUSINESSC E L E B S

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• HM the King reviewed with Kushner the long-standing friendly Bahrain-US relations, and ways to enhance them in various fields.

Manama

His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa yes-terday received, in the

presence of His Royal Highness Prince Salman bin Hamad Al Khalifa, the Crown Prince, Dep-uty Supreme Commander and First Deputy Prime Minister, at the Gudaibiya Palace, Jared Kushner, the senior adviser to

US President, Donald Trump, and his accompanying delega-tion.

Adviser Kushner is visiting the Kingdom, in the first leg of a regional tour that includes a number of countries.

Kushner conveyed to HM the King greetings from US Presi-dent, Donald Trump, as well as his wishes of abundant health and happiness to him.

HM King Hamad welcomed Kushner, and requested him to convey his greetings to Presi-dent Trump.

HM the King reviewed with Kushner the long-standing friendly Bahrain-US relations, and ways to enhance them in various fields.

HM the King expressed pride in the “strong strategic” rela-

tions between the two countries, praising the steady progress of bilateral co-operation in many fields, in light of the two friendly countries’ keenness to strength-en their joint ties.

HM King Hamad lauded the “pivotal” role played by the US Administration, and the tre-mendous efforts it is exerting to promote security, peace and stability across the Middle East region.

The senior adviser to US Pres-ident expressed thanks and ap-preciation to HM King Hamad for the warm welcome and hos-pitality allocated to him during his visit to the kingdom.

Kushner lauded Bahrain’s stances in support of efforts to achieve peace and security in the region.

Bolstering ties His Majesty receives Mr Kushner in the presence of HRH the Crown Prince.

Bahrain-US ties in focus as His Majesty receives top Trump adviser

$1.25bn pledge to Yemen aid effort

Dubai

Saudi Arabia pledged $500 million yesterday in hu-manitarian assistance for

Yemen this year during a UN money-raising conference in Geneva.

The UAE also pledged $500 million while Kuwait commit-ted $250 million for Yemen.

The UN said 40 pledges total-

ling $2.6 billion were received during the day-long confer-ence, a 30-percent increase from the amount drummed up at a similar conference a year ago.

The United Nations’ “Hu-manitarian Response Plan for Yemen” in 2019 seeks $4 bil-lion to reach 15 million people across the country, after rais-ing nearly $2.6 billion last year.

Our absolute focus should be

on working to get a deal and leaving

on 29 March. MAY

Believe it! Gaga wore diamond worth $30m 14 CELEBS

02WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the Ministerial Committee for Financial, Economic and Fiscal Balance Affairs, Shaikh Khalid bin Abdullah Al Khalifa, yesterday at the Gudaibiya Palace, held a meeting with chairmen and deputies of financial and economic affairs committees of the of Representatives and Shura councils. Minister of Finance and National Economy, Shaikh Salman bin Khalifa Al Khalifa, was present. The Deputy Prime Minister stressed that the State budget draft law approved for the fiscal years 2019-2020 has largely taken into account maintaining the stability of public debt and financial sustainability through restructuring the budget to achieve equilibrium between expenditures and revenues by 2022 in accordance with initiatives of the Financial Equilibrium Programme.

Southern Governor Shaikh Khalifa bin Ali Al Khalifa yesterday chaired a Governorate’s Security Committee meeting. The Governor praised the security men’s readiness and vigilance that contributed to establishing security and public safety, thanks to the directives of the Interior Minister General Shaikh Rashid bin Abdulla Al Khalifa. He directed the General Directorate of Traffic’s Representative to set a plan to address traffic congestion across the governorate.

Assistant Foreign Minister Abdulla Al Doseri yesterday met the President of the Human Rights Council, Ambassador Koly Seck, where he stressed the keenness of the Kingdom of Bahrain to co-operate with the Human Rights Council and other UN mechanisms, looking forward to working together through the Kingdom’s membership in the Human Rights Council for 2019-2021. Bahrain, he said, also worked to promote fundamental freedoms, equality, rule of law, and advancement of women in various fields according to a modern methodology and a national strategy emanating from the reform approach to His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa and from its cultural and civilisational values.

Labour and Social Development Minister Jameel Humaidan yesterday inspected the Employment Office at the Labour and Social Development Ministry, where he met customers and was informed about their remarks regarding the employment and rehabilitation services provided by the Ministry. Mr Humaidan said that the registered job-seekers will be included in the National Employment Programme (NEP), calling on them to report to the Ministry to renew their registration, expressing hope that concerted efforts by the public and private parties will contribute to the success of the NEP.

The Crown Prince’s International Scholarship Programme (CPISP) concluded its training for students taking part in the Group 20 Candidacy Programme. The training period comprises part of the selection process for candidates applying for one of CPISP’S ten annual scholarships. The Director of The Crown Prince’s International Scholarship Program (CPISP) Dr Cynthia Gessling praised the hard work, dedication, and performance demonstrated by students during the candidacy training, which began last summer in partnership with the Bahrain Institute of Banking and Finance (BIBF). During the closing session, Dr Gessling presented certificates of achievement to the Candidacy Programme participants, which came at the end of a specially organised training day dedicated to developing team building skills.

Pakistan Ambassador Afzaal Mahmood hosted a dinner for envoys, senior government officials, dignitaries and prominent community members aboard Pakistan Naval Ship Tariq, which is on a visit to the Kingdom.


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New LMRA system to make hiring of domestic workers ‘more easier’

Applications for domestic workers will be referred electronically to eGovernment Authority

• According to the new system, citizens and expatriates wishing to be issued a domestic helper permit can report to one of the offices accredited to LMRA to choose the worker and submit the application electronically.

Manama

The Labour Market Regu-latory Authority (LMRA) will inaugurate in March

the new domestic helpers sys-tem, which will offer new ser-vices for citizens and the ben-eficiaries.

The new system will provide flexibility for families to hire domestic servants with regard to the time period for which they seek their services.

Accordingly, applications for recruitment and the issuance of domestic helpers permits will take place electronically through one of the accredited domestic helpers agencies.

Three operations will be com-bined into one and the benefi-ciary will have the possibility to issue or renew the worker’s permit optionally for one or two years.

The LMRA held yesterday a training session for all domestic helpers agencies to inform them about the new system and its characteristics and the agen-cies’ new prerogatives.

LMRA Chief Executive Ausa-mah Al Absi said the authority is keen to provide all facilities, pointing out that since the last quarter of 2014 when LMRA took charge of the domestic helpers issue, the authority has worked on creating a data base for domestic workers.

He added that in order to op-timise its services by adding new facilities for the benefi-ciaries, the authority will in-augurate a new system to issue permits in March, which will enable the domestic helpers agencies to present the appli-cation electronically on behalf of the beneficiary without the need to visit any public insti-tution.

Mr Al Absi explained that ac-cording to the new system, cit-izens and expatriates wishing

to be issued a domestic helper permit can report to one of the offices accredited to LMRA to choose the worker and submit the application electronically.

The application will be re-ferred electronically to the In-formation and eGovernment Authority to issue an ID number for the worker and the Nation-ality, Passports and Residence Affairs to issue an entry visa without the need to go to any of the competent government institutions.

The LMRA Chief Executive pointed out that the develop-mental steps are in line with the Government Action Plan to use electronic operations to streamline procedures.

He added that permitting domestic helpers agencies to submit applications to bring in domestic workers consists in putting in place all regula-tions to ensure utmost assur-ance for the beneficiaries that there will be no exploitation as the issuance procedures of the permit will only take place after the personal approval of the household either by sign-ing the application or through the electronic key at the In-formation and eGovernment Authority.

Mr Al Absi noted that after completing the permit pro-cedures, the beneficiary will have to pay the fees combined. He pointed out that no extra

payment will be added to the current fees, in line with the directives of the leadership and government.

He added that like any worker in the public and private sec-tors, the biological data of the domestic helper will be taken on arrival at Bahrain Interna-tional Airport.

They include fingerprints, personal photo and signature as well as residence stamp in the passport without the need to report to the General Direc-torate of Nationality, Passports and Residence.

The LMRA Chief Executive pointed out that obtaining the domestic helper’s biological data aims to protect the com-munity and prevent entry of deported or blacklisted workers to the Kingdom of Bahrain or any Gulf country.

He stressed that this step aims to boost social security as it is in conformity with what is currently being applied con-cerning regular workers.

He added after this step the employer (the household) can receive the worker’s ID card from the Information and eGov-ernment Authority by directly reporting to it or applying for it

electronically. “Then, the domestic help-

er can go to the health centre registered with the residence address to undergo the medical check-up.”

Mr Al Absi affirmed that the new system will not only facili-tate the issuance procedures of the permit but will also enable the beneficiary to issue the per-mit for one year or two years optionally.

Upon renewal, the benefi-ciary can also renew for six months, one year or two years optionally, too. The move, he noted, gives more flexibility to families regarding the period of time in which they need the domestic helpers.

Mr Al Absi stressed that in addition to permitting the do-mestic helpers agencies to sub-mit applications, the doors of LMRA will be open to submit the applications directly.

Meanwhile, he warned of dealing with unlicensed agen-cies or mediators. He pointed out that the list of accredit-ed agencies can be found on LMRA’s website www.lmra.bh or by calling the authori-ty’s communication centre on 17506055.

The developmental steps are in line with the Government Action Plan to use electronic operations to streamline procedures. MR AL ABSI


They told us we would go to

heaven if we take the books with us and deliver

them in Bahrain.

DEFENDANT

Prominent university loses lawsuit against ex-professor ‘The university’s demand was against the contract signed between both parties’

• The court rejected the lawsuit and ordered the university to bear the fees of the court and the defendant’s lawyer.

TDT | Manama

The Second High Civil Court yesterday rejected a law-suit filed by a prominent

university in the Kingdom against one of its former professors, de-manding him to repay more than BD12,000 spent on his Master’s and doctoral degrees abroad.

According to the professor’s lawyer, Dr Salim Al Ghumaidh, the university said in its complaint that it had agreed with the pro-fessor to bear the expenses of his

education abroad provided he work with the university for a particular period.

Dr Al Ghumaidh explained that three scholarship sponsorship agreements were signed between both parties in the years 1999, 2003 and 2004 respectively, with the condition that the professor should repay the study expenses to the university if he discontinues the contract.

The lawyer said that his client, after he obtained the Master’s degree in 1999, had returned to teach at the university in the year 2001, but the university offered to sponsor his PhD in the year 2003, before he could complete double the period he spent during his sponsorship, as agreed with the university.

The same agreement was re-newed in the year 2004, as the

professor decided to change the university he was studying in.

The details of the case showed that the university had demanded the professor to repay his wages for 14 years, which is double the period (seven years) it alleged he spent studying both Master’s and PhD degrees.

The lawyer argued that this is contrary to the agreements signed

between both parties, stating that the agreements stipulated that the professor should pay the fees of his scholarship and not his monthly wages.

Dr Al Ghumaidh told the judg-es that the university’s claims are against the provisions of the agreement signed with the pro-fessor, who, he said, had worked for 32 months after being awarded the PhD.

He quoted that the provisions of Article 29/4 of the Civil Ser-vice Bureau Law, stipulates that the government isn’t entitled of demanding the repayment of amounts disbursed to an employ-ee after five years of the date of disbursement.

The court rejected the lawsuit and ordered the university to bear the fees of the court and the defendant’s lawyer.

12,000Bahraini dinars were

demanded by the university in its lawsuit

against the former professor.

Asian men used ‘religious books to smuggle drugs’

TDT | Manama

Two Asian men used an unexpected trick to smuggle marijuana

into the Kingdom by hiding the drugs in religious books.

Their attempt, however, was foiled and they were arrested.

According to court files, the defendants were coming from Dhaka and among their luggage was a box which con-tained religious books.

A customs officer who sus-pected the duo of carrying something illegally ordered for them to be extensively in-spected.

The books were searched as part of the inspection and they were found to have drugs hidden inside them.

The duo are said to have used religious books to quash any doubts on them.

However, during question-ing, they dismissed any link to the books, stating that they were given to them by cler-ics in their hometown before coming to Bahrain.

“They told us we would go to heaven if we take the books with us and deliver them in Bahrain,” one of the defend-ants told prosecutors.

After having their claims declined by the Public Prose-cutors, the pair were tried be-fore the High Criminal Court, which sentenced them to 15 years behind bars each along with a fine of BD5,000.

The defendants also saw their appeals on their sentenc-es rejected yesterday by the High Appeals Court.

The defendants will be de-ported once they complete their sentences.


ASSETS Cash and balances with banks Placements with �nancial institutions Investment in sukukFinancing receivables Receivable from Ijarah investors Investment in equity securities Investment in real estate Equity-accounted investees Other assets Total assets LIABILITIES Placements from �nancial institutions Financing liabilities Other liabilities Total liabilities OWNERS’ EQUITY Share capital Statutory reserve (Accumulated losses)/retained earningsProperty fair value reserve Investment fair value reserveGeneral reserve

Equity attributable to shareholders of the Bank Non-controlling interests Total owners’ equity Total liabilities and owner’s equity

6,62834,02153,413

3,2045,525

82,950133,871

-5,331

324,943

-81,940

5,357

87,297

233,000762

(20,899)-

9474,618

218,428

19,218

237,646

324,943

9,4095,031

91,12711,970

5,89288,987

144,201461

9,619

366,697

2,002102,370

17,682

122,054

233,000762

1,138278

-4,618

239,796

4,847

244,643

366,697

233,000-

233,000

--

-

---

233,000

762-

762

--

-

---

762

1,138(55)

1,083

(21,650)-

(21,650)

(750)418

-

(20,899)

278-

278

-(278)

(278)

---

-

4,618-

4,618

--

-

---

4,618

239,796(55)

239,741

(21,650)669

(20,981)

(750)418

-

218,428

4,847-

4,847

(916)-

(916)

-15,874

(587)

19,218

244,643(55)

244,588

(22,566)669

(21,897)

(750)16,292

(587)

237,646

(22,566)

984,911

90-

471-

11,6062,365(633)

342(3,316)

5,130367

5,0312,053

(3,127)

6,258

(62,967)102,510

--

35048

-

39,941

(2,002)(20,429)

(591)(587)8,650

(14,959)

31,2409,409

40,649

6,62834,021

40,649

1,005

95(397)(139)(298)

(1,127)(623)2,313

-(217)

237849

13,578(9,293)(5,031)27,809(7,337)

20,575

(200,591)178,012(44,214)

9,5464,689(157)

(6,929)

(59,644)

(4,501)29,097

-(71)

10,900

35,425

(3,644)13,053

9,409

9,409-

9,409

CONSOLIDATED INCOME STATEMENT for the year ended 31 December 2018

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION as at 31 December 2018

INCOMEIncome from investment banking services Income from advisory servicesIncome from sukukIncome from invetment in equity securitiesFinance income Income from investment in real estateOther income Total income from continuing operations

Discontinued operations:(Loss) / income from discontinued operations, net

Total income

EXPENSES Sta� cost Finance expense Depreciation and amortization Other operating expenses

Total expenses

(Loss) / Pro�t before fair value changes and impairment allowancesNet fair value changes on investement securitiesImpairment allowances on investments Expected credit loss

(LOSS)/PROFIT FOR THE YEAR

Attributable to: Shareholders of Bank Non-controlling interests

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWSfor the year ended 31 December 2018

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL INFORMATION 31 December 2018

OPERATING ACTIVITIES (Loss) / pro�t for the yearAdjustment for:Depreciation and amortizationNet fair value loss on investment securitiesShare of loss / (pro�t) of equity-accounted investeesGain on sale of equity accounted investeesLoss / (gain) on sale of investment in sukukGain on sale of investment in real estateImpairment allowancesExpected credit lossOther incomeAmortisation of premium or discount, netOperating pro�t before changes in operating assets and liabilities

Changes in operating assets and liabilities:Financing receivablesReceivables from ijarah investorsPlacements with �nancial institutions (with original maturity more than 90 days)Other assetsOther liabilities

Net cash generated from operating activities INVESTING ACTIVITIES Purchase of investment securitiesProceeds from sale of investment securitiesPurchase of investment in real estateProceeds from sale of investment in real estateProceeds from equity accounted investees, netPayment for purchase of equipment, netAssets acquired for leasing

Net cash generated from / (used in) investing activities FINANCING ACTIVITIES Placements from �nancial institutions, netFinancing liabilities, netDividends paidDistribution to non-controlling interestsProceeds from investors for partial sale of subsidiaries

Net cash (used in) / generated from �nancing activities

NET INCREASE / (DECREASE) IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTSCash and cash equivalents at 1 January Cash and cash equivalents at 31 December

Cash and cash equivalents comprise: Cash and balances with banks* Placements with �nancial institutions (with original maturity of 90 days or less)*

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN OWNERS’ EQUITY for the year ended 31 December 2018 Equity attributable to shareholders of the Bank

Equity attributable to shareholders of the Bank

Balance at 1 January 2018 E�ect of adoption of FAS 30

Balance at 1 January 2018 (restated)

Loss for the yearNet changrs in fair value

Total recognised income and expense for the year

Dividends to shareholdersNon-controlling interests arising from partial sale of subsidiariesDistribution to non-controlling interests

Balance at 31 December 2018

31 December 2018

31 December 2017

Sharecapital

31 December2018

US$ 000’s US$ 000’s

US$ 000’s

US$ 000’s

31 December2017

225537

2,0864,3331,1912,429

633

11,434

(90)

11,344

6,979925

987,026

15,028

(3,684)(4,911)

(11,606)(2,365)

(22,566)

(21,650)(916)

(22,566)

908-

4,6503,4071,2182,1341,327

13,644

3,465

17,109

7,7811,194

955,118

14,188

2,921397

(2,313)-

1,005

858147

1,005

31 December2018

31 December2017

Statutoryreserve

Retained earnings/(accumulated losses)

Retained earnings/(accumulated losses)

Property fair value

reserve

--

-

-947

947

---

947

Investment fair value

reserve

General reserve

Total Non-controlling interests

Total owners’

equity

Sharecapital

Statutoryreserve

Property fair value

reserve

General reserve

Total Non-controlling interests

Total owners’

equity

Balance at 1 January 2017Pro�t for the year Net changes in fair valueStatutory reserves

Total recognised income and expense for the year

Non-controlling interests relating to subsidiariesDistribution to non-controlling iterestsAdjustment of losses Balance at 31 December 2017

31 December2018

31 December2017

�e above has been extracted from 31 December 2018 consolidated �nancial statements audited by KPMG who expressed an unquali�ed audit opinion on the �nancials. �e �nancials have been approved by the Board of Directors and are available on Ibdar website at www.Ibdarbank.com.

242,0051,005(332)

-

673

2,036(71)

-

244,643

2,735147

--

147

2,036(71)

-

4,847

239,270858

(332)-

526

---

239,796

4,618---

-

---

4,618

610-

(332)-

(332)

---

278

(66,634)858

-(86)

772

--

67,000

1,138

676--

86

86

---

762

300,000---

-

--

(67,000)

233,000

* Net of expected credit loss of US$ 4 thousands (31 December 2017: Nil)

UK Hizbollah ban welcomed

Decision an important step in efforts to combat terrorism, the Foreign Ministry said

• The Lebanon-based group’s military wing is already outlawed, but the ban will be extended to its political arm.

TDT | Manama

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has welcomed the Government of the

United Kingdom’s designation of Hizbollah in all its forms as a proscribed terrorist organisation.

The ministry affirmed that the decision was an important step in the effort to combat ter-rorism on the regional and the international levels, as Hizbol-lah imposes a real threat to in-ternational peace and security.

The ministry expressed its ap-preciation for the tremendous efforts and the strategic deci-sions of the United Kingdom, adding that such decisions re-flect the keenness of the United Kingdom to combat terrorism

in all its forms and to confront terrorist groups and extreme ideologies.

The ministry also stressed the need for the international community to follow such steps, as well as to enhance mutual co-operation and joint co-or-dination to eradicate violence, extremism and terrorism.

The Ministry of Foreign Af-fairs reiterated the Kingdom’s firm stance in rejecting terror-ism in all its forms and calls for concerted efforts to combat it.

Britain will ban Hizbollah un-der anti-terror laws, the home secretary has announced.

The Lebanon-based group’s military wing is already out-lawed, but the ban will be ex-tended to its political arm.

Sajid Javid said: “Hizbollah is continuing in its attempts to destabilise the fragile situation in the Middle East - and we are no longer able to distinguish between their already banned military wing and the political party.

“Because of this, I have taken the decision to proscribe the group in its entirety.”

The move, to be ratified on Friday, brings Britain in line with allies including the US, where President Donald Trump has made isolating Iran - Hiz-bollah’s sponsor - a central part of his Middle East policy.

It means anyone convicted of being a member of, or drum-ming up support for the group could face a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail.

Even wearing or carrying something which could pro-voke a “reasonable suspicion” of being a member would be an offence and lead to a six-month sentence.

Up to this point, the UK had resisted banning the group in its entirety because it provides social and political functions in Lebanon and has formed part of the country’s government.

Its external security organi-sation was banned in 2001 and its military wing was proscribed seven years later.

Hizbollah is accused of carrying out terrorist operations across the region.

Plea to exclude VAT from EWA services rejected

TDT | Manama

The High Administrative Court yesterday reject-ed a lawsuit filed by a

Bahraini lawyer against the Electricity and Water Author-ity (EWA) demanding the can-cellation of its decision to apply the five per cent Value Added Tax (VAT) on its services.

This follows a complaint lodged by Lawyer Mohammed Al Thawadi urgently demand-ing to suspend and cancel the authority’s decision to apply VAT on subscribers’ bills by the beginning of the current year.

Mr Al Thawadi justified his decision to complain against EWA by stating that the author-ity is the only provider of such services in the country without competition, contrary to the conditions of imposing the tax on commodities.

Explaining further, the law-yer affirmed that one of the conditions required to apply the tax mentions that “the state does not undertake such purchases as sovereign and there is competition between the public and private sectors”, a competition which he said does not exist in the case of providing electricity and water supply services in Bahrain.

He also asserted that the decision is unconstitutional, claiming that Articles 15 and 17 of the Constitution of the Kingdom of Bahrain stipulate

that taxes should only be im-posed through a legislation.

Mr Al Thawadi also accused EWA of not adhering to the Unified GCC VAT Agreement, which he quoted some of its provisions saying: “Article 29 did not stipulate the impo-sition of taxes on electricity supply services, but on the contrary, it gave each state the right to exempt some sectors in accordance with local law.

“Additionally, Article 30 expressly stipulated the ex-emption of government bodies from paying taxes, and there-fore it is not permissible for the authority to collect taxes.”

As reported by Tribune ear-lier, the EWA was represented in the court was the State Cas-es Authority, which claimed that it has the right to impose VAT on the services it provides as it is not a sovereign author-ity that solely provides them.

Mr Al Thawadi said that he would appeal the court’s ver-dict.

Mr Al Thawadi


In an intelligence led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training

camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of Jaish-

e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis who were

being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated. This facility at Balakot was headed by Maulana

Yousuf Azhar (alias Ustad Ghouri), the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar, Chief of JeM

VIJAY GOKHALE

INDIAN FOREIGN SECRETARY

300 militants killed, India claimsNew Delhi, India

India said yesterday its war-planes attacked a militant camp where Pakistan-backed

fighters were preparing suicide attacks on its cities.

A “very large number” of mil-itants from the Jaish-e-Moham-mad (JeM) group were killed in the nightime attack, according to the foreign ministry, while Paki-stan said its fighter jets scrambled to force the Indian jets back and that there were no casualties.

The escalation came after a February 14 suicide bombing claimed by JeM that killed 40 troops in Indian Kashmir, setting off a chain of threats and coun-ter-warnings between the nucle-ar-armed neighbours.

“A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were be-ing trained for fidayeen (suicide) action were eliminated,” Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.

“Credible intelligence was re-ceived that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country,” he told a press conference in New Delhi, describing the threat as “imminent”.

Pakistan’s military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter that the Indian Air Force had violated the Line of

Control that divides Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

“Facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force

(the Indian jets) released pay-load in haste while escaping near Balakot. No casualties or damage.”

The military spokesman also tweeted images of what he said was the Indian payload, show-ing what appeared to be pieces of metal and displaced soil in a heavily forested area.

India’s foreign ministry also said the camp was at Balakot, but gave no further details and the ex-act location of the camp remained unclear.

Balakot is in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, just a few kilometres from the Line of Control.

Escalation fears It was India’s first use of air

strikes against Pakistan since 1971, when the two went to war.

Indian Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and his Pakistan coun-terpart Imran Khan both sum-moned emergency meetings of top ministers in the hours after the attack.

New Delhi had threatened to retaliate after the February 14 bombing, the deadliest in three decades in Kashmir. Modi, who is expected to call an elec-tion in April, had threatened a “jaw-breaking” response.

But at a rally in Rajasthan on Tuesday, the Indian leader did not mention the strike directly. He paid tribute to the military and

said: “I assure the nation that the country is in safe hands.”

Other top Indian officials said the strike displayed the country’s determination to act against Pa-kistan -- which New Delhi accus-es of using militants as proxies against it.

“They say they want India to bleed with a 1,000 cuts. We say that each time you attack us, be certain we will get back at you, harder and stronger,” said foreign affairs minister of state, Vijay Ku-mar Singh, a former head of the Indian army.

Singh posted a picture on Twit-ter of an eagle with a snake in its claws.

Pakistan’s government has denied any role in the Kashmir suicide attack. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tues-day accused India of committing a ceasefire violation with its air-strike and said “we reserve the right to respond adequately.”

Pakistani military analyst Hasan Askari called Tuesday’s events a “dangerous move”.

“If such actions continue, it can escalate into major conflict, which will not serve any purpose but to plunge the region into se-rious crisis,” he said.

Pakistan’s interior ministry an-nounced last week that authori-ties had seized control of a com-plex in Punjab believed to be the JeM headquarters.

Indians celebrate the Indian Air Force (IAF) strike launched on a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) camp in Balakot, in Ahmedabad

A view of a payload dropped by Indian Air Force aircraft in a hilly terrain in the Balakot area.

Narendra Modi, Indian Prime Minister (file)

Indian air force downs drone near Pakistan border: policeAhmedabad, India

India’s air force shot down a drone near the frontier with Pakistan yesterday, officers

said, just hours after New Del-hi announced its warplanes had bombed a militant training camp

over the border. Villagers discov-ered debris from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) not far from the Pakistan border in western Gujarat state, police sources said.

“A UAV has been shot down by the armed forces. We are investi-gating it,” a senior police officer

said on condition of anonymity. Investigators would probe

whether the drone came from Pakistan, he added. The nucle-ar-armed rivals frequently claim to have shot down surveillance craft that strayed into each oth-er’s territory.

The police officer said villagers in Kutch district -- a remote de-sert region -- heard a “loud noise” in the early hours of Tuesday.

He did not elaborate further about the downing of the done or its origins, citing “security con-cerns”.

• Pakistan condemned the Indian action and said it would respond at a time and place of its choice

• India says struck biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot located in thick forest on a hilltop far away from civilian presence.

• The commander of the camp was Maulana Yusuf Azhar (alias Ustad Ghouri), a brother-in-law of JeM leader Masood Azhar, Chief of JeM

• Warplanes had ventured as far as 80 km (50 miles) inside Pakistan

• Pakistan military said its own warplanes had chased off the Indian aircraft before they could inflict any real harm

• “Indian aircraft intruded from Muzaffarabad sector,” Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter

• Indian television networks reported the airstrikes took place at 3.30 am and involved a dozen Mirage fighter planes backed up by Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft

• China urged both countries to exercise restraint

Prepare for all eventualities: Imran Khan to Pakistan

New Delhi

Pakistani Prime Minis-ter Imran Khan yes-

terday asked the country’s armed forces and people to “remain prepared for all eventualities”.

“Forum concluded that India has committed un-called for aggression to which Pakistan shall re-spond at the time and place of its choosing,” the

Pakistan Prime Minis-ter’s office said in a state-ment after the meeting of the National Security Committee that includ-ed the chiefs of all three armed forces and other officials.

“PM has directed that el-ements of national power including the Armed Forc-es and the people of Paki-stan to remain prepared for all eventualities,” it added.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan


In an intelligence led operation in the early hours of today, India struck the biggest training

camp of the Jaish-e-Mohammed in Balakot. In this operation, a very large number of Jaish-

e-Mohammed terrorists, trainers, senior commanders, and groups of jihadis who were

being trained for fidayeen action were eliminated. This facility at Balakot was headed by Maulana

Yousuf Azhar (alias Ustad Ghouri), the brother-in-law of Masood Azhar, Chief of JeM

VIJAY GOKHALE

INDIAN FOREIGN SECRETARY

300 militants killed, India claimsNew Delhi, India

India said yesterday its war-planes attacked a militant camp where Pakistan-backed

fighters were preparing suicide attacks on its cities.

A “very large number” of mil-itants from the Jaish-e-Moham-mad (JeM) group were killed in the nightime attack, according to the foreign ministry, while Paki-stan said its fighter jets scrambled to force the Indian jets back and that there were no casualties.

The escalation came after a February 14 suicide bombing claimed by JeM that killed 40 troops in Indian Kashmir, setting off a chain of threats and coun-ter-warnings between the nucle-ar-armed neighbours.

“A very large number of Jaish-e-Mohammad terrorists, trainers, senior commanders and groups of jihadis who were be-ing trained for fidayeen (suicide) action were eliminated,” Foreign Secretary Vijay Gokhale said.

“Credible intelligence was re-ceived that JeM was attempting another suicide terror attack in various parts of the country,” he told a press conference in New Delhi, describing the threat as “imminent”.

Pakistan’s military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter that the Indian Air Force had violated the Line of

Control that divides Indian- and Pakistani-administered Kashmir.

“Facing timely and effective response from Pakistan Air Force

(the Indian jets) released pay-load in haste while escaping near Balakot. No casualties or damage.”

The military spokesman also tweeted images of what he said was the Indian payload, show-ing what appeared to be pieces of metal and displaced soil in a heavily forested area.

India’s foreign ministry also said the camp was at Balakot, but gave no further details and the ex-act location of the camp remained unclear.

Balakot is in Pakistan’s north-western Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province, just a few kilometres from the Line of Control.

Escalation fears It was India’s first use of air

strikes against Pakistan since 1971, when the two went to war.

Indian Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi and his Pakistan coun-terpart Imran Khan both sum-moned emergency meetings of top ministers in the hours after the attack.

New Delhi had threatened to retaliate after the February 14 bombing, the deadliest in three decades in Kashmir. Modi, who is expected to call an elec-tion in April, had threatened a “jaw-breaking” response.

But at a rally in Rajasthan on Tuesday, the Indian leader did not mention the strike directly. He paid tribute to the military and

said: “I assure the nation that the country is in safe hands.”

Other top Indian officials said the strike displayed the country’s determination to act against Pa-kistan -- which New Delhi accus-es of using militants as proxies against it.

“They say they want India to bleed with a 1,000 cuts. We say that each time you attack us, be certain we will get back at you, harder and stronger,” said foreign affairs minister of state, Vijay Ku-mar Singh, a former head of the Indian army.

Singh posted a picture on Twit-ter of an eagle with a snake in its claws.

Pakistan’s government has denied any role in the Kashmir suicide attack. Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Tues-day accused India of committing a ceasefire violation with its air-strike and said “we reserve the right to respond adequately.”

Pakistani military analyst Hasan Askari called Tuesday’s events a “dangerous move”.

“If such actions continue, it can escalate into major conflict, which will not serve any purpose but to plunge the region into se-rious crisis,” he said.

Pakistan’s interior ministry an-nounced last week that authori-ties had seized control of a com-plex in Punjab believed to be the JeM headquarters.

Indians celebrate the Indian Air Force (IAF) strike launched on a Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) camp in Balakot, in Ahmedabad

A view of a payload dropped by Indian Air Force aircraft in a hilly terrain in the Balakot area.

Narendra Modi, Indian Prime Minister (file)

Indian air force downs drone near Pakistan border: policeAhmedabad, India

India’s air force shot down a drone near the frontier with Pakistan yesterday, officers

said, just hours after New Del-hi announced its warplanes had bombed a militant training camp

over the border. Villagers discov-ered debris from an unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) not far from the Pakistan border in western Gujarat state, police sources said.

“A UAV has been shot down by the armed forces. We are investi-gating it,” a senior police officer

said on condition of anonymity. Investigators would probe

whether the drone came from Pakistan, he added. The nucle-ar-armed rivals frequently claim to have shot down surveillance craft that strayed into each oth-er’s territory.

The police officer said villagers in Kutch district -- a remote de-sert region -- heard a “loud noise” in the early hours of Tuesday.

He did not elaborate further about the downing of the done or its origins, citing “security con-cerns”.

• Pakistan condemned the Indian action and said it would respond at a time and place of its choice

• India says struck biggest training camp of JeM in Balakot located in thick forest on a hilltop far away from civilian presence.

• The commander of the camp was Maulana Yusuf Azhar (alias Ustad Ghouri), a brother-in-law of JeM leader Masood Azhar, Chief of JeM

• Warplanes had ventured as far as 80 km (50 miles) inside Pakistan

• Pakistan military said its own warplanes had chased off the Indian aircraft before they could inflict any real harm

• “Indian aircraft intruded from Muzaffarabad sector,” Pakistani military spokesman Major General Asif Ghafoor said on Twitter

• Indian television networks reported the airstrikes took place at 3.30 am and involved a dozen Mirage fighter planes backed up by Airborne Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft

• China urged both countries to exercise restraint

Prepare for all eventualities: Imran Khan to Pakistan

New Delhi

Pakistani Prime Minis-ter Imran Khan yes-

terday asked the country’s armed forces and people to “remain prepared for all eventualities”.

“Forum concluded that India has committed un-called for aggression to which Pakistan shall re-spond at the time and place of its choosing,” the

Pakistan Prime Minis-ter’s office said in a state-ment after the meeting of the National Security Committee that includ-ed the chiefs of all three armed forces and other officials.

“PM has directed that el-ements of national power including the Armed Forc-es and the people of Paki-stan to remain prepared for all eventualities,” it added.

Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan


KNOW WHAT

Irish tomb raiders steal head of 800-year-old crusaderDublin, Ireland

Tomb-raiding vandals have stolen the head of an

800-year-old mummified body known as the ‘Crusader’ from a Dublin crypt, the local vicar said yesterday.

Archdeacon David Pierpoint of St Michan’s Church warned that the head could quickly de-compose once exposed to the open air and called for its speedy return.

The priest said the raiders had also broken “the bones and the skin” of the body of a nun from 400 years ago in the incident at St Michan’s Church.

Pierpoint said he was alerted by a tour guide on Monday and went down to the crypt to dis-cover “one of the most gruesome sites I’ve seen in a long time”.

“It’s one of those unspeak-able atrocities you hear about and I was unfortunate enough to witness it first hand,” he said, calling the theft “a great loss to the parish, to the city and a great loss to the country”.

Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson said: “I am shocked that someone would target this an-cient burial place and desecrate the remains of those lying within it.

“I would appeal to those re-sponsible to examine their con-sciences and return the head of The Crusader to its rightful place,” he said.

“The Crusader” is so-called because he is believed to have perished during or shortly after participating in a campaign to

capture the holy city of Jeru-salem.

Because of his impressive height, the Crusader’s legs were broken and folded to fit his re-mains inside a coffin in the St Michan’s crypt.

The church -- founded in 1095 -- was also the place where Han-del played the organ before the first performance of his “Mes-siah”.

It is a popular tourist attrac-tion in the centre of the Irish capital, attracting around 28,000 visitors a year.

Visitors are also drawn to the dozens of mummified bodies in the crypt -- some in open coffins.

According to local lore, Bram Stoker found inspiration during a visit for his gothic vampire

horror “Dracula”.Police said the crypt was tar-

geted by thieves overnight be-tween Saturday and Sunday and they were examining CCTV in the area.

Pierpoint said police had found crowbars in the vault, in-dicating it was “a premeditated break-in”.

“I don’t know why anyone would want to do that,” he said, calling on the perpetrators to “consider ways the head could be returned either directly or indirectly”.

“I’d like to think we can get the head back within a day or two but even then it may not be salvageable because of the way decomposition works with a mummified body. It’s very rap-id,” he said.Picture courtesy of @paddycullivan

Britain should give up Chagos Islands: UN court• Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and the site of an American military base leased from Britain in the Indian Ocean

• Britain insisted Mauritius was wrong to have brought the case to the ICJ

The Hague, Netherlands

Britain should give up con-trol of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean “as

rapidly as possible”, the UN’s top court said Monday in a dec-ades-old row with Mauritius over an archipelago that is home to a huge US airbase.

The International Court of Justice said in a legal opinion that Britain had illegally split the islands from Mauritius be-fore independence in 1968, after which the entire population of islanders was evicted.

Mauritius and the exiled Chagossians reacted with de-light to the opinion delivered by judges in The Hague, which is non-binding but will carry heavy symbolic and political weight.

Mauritius Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth hailed a “ historic moment for Mauritius and all its people”.

“Our territorial integrity will now be made complete, and when that occurs, the Chagos-sians and their descendants will finally be able to return home,” he said in a statement.

Britain however defended its hold on the islands, saying the Diego Garcia military base, which has been used to bomb Iraq and Afghanistan, protected people around the world.

“The United Kingdom’s con-tinued administration of the Chagos Archipelago constitutes a wrongful act,” chief judge Ab-dulqawi Ahmed Yusuf said.

“The United Kingdom is un-der an obligation to bring an end to its administration of the Chagos Archipelago as rapidly

as possible, thereby allowing Mauritius to complete the de-colonisation of its territory.”

The UN General Assembly in 2017 adopted a resolution pre-sented by Mauritius and backed by African countries asking the ICJ to offer legal advice on the island chain’s fate and the legal-ity of the deportations.

‘So happy’Colonial power Britain split

off the islands from Mauritius -- which lies around 1,200 miles (2,000 kilometres) away -- three years before Port Louis gained

independence in 1968. It also paid Mauritius three million pounds.

Between 1968 and 1973 around 2,000 Chagos islanders were evicted, to Britain, Mauri-tius and the Seychelles, to make way for a military base on Diego Garcia, the largest of the islands. The evictions were described in a British diplomatic cable at the time as the removal of “some few Tarzans and Man Fridays”.

Diego Garcia is now under lease to the United States and played a key strategic role in the Cold War before being used as a staging ground for US bombing campaigns against Afghanistan and Iraq in the 2000s.

Olivier Bancoult, chairman of the Mauritius-based Chagos Refugees Group, told reporters outside court that he was “so happy”.

“It is a big victory against an injustice done by the British government for many years. We people have been suffering for many years -- I am so lucky to-day,” he said.

The ICJ opinion comes as a stunning blow to London in a case that goes to the heart of historic issues of decolonisation and current questions about

Britain’s place in the world as it prepares to leave the European Union.

Mauritius’ lawyer Philippe Sands said there was “no wiggle room” in the judges’ view and that Britain would resist pres-sure to comply.

“I suspect the United King-dom will say to itself, what re-sistance can we put up to mov-ing forward -- and particularly in the context of Brexit, as the United Kingdom finds itself a little bit isolated in the world,” he told reporters outside court.

Britain’s foreign ministry re-jected the court’s opinion.

“The defence facilities on the British Indian Ocean Territory help to protect people here in Britain and around the world from terrorist threats, organised crime and piracy,” the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said in a statement.

‘Shameful’ evictionsA US official said Washington

saw the case as “purely a bilater-al dispute” between Britain and Mauritius. But he questioned the authority of the court, saying that issues should be resolved through negotiations between governments.

Sala plane did not have commercial licence: investigators

London, United Kingdom

The plane carrying foot-baller Emiliano Sala that

crashed in the Channel last month did not have a commer-cial licence, British investiga-tors said Monday.

But the Air Accidents In-vestigation Branch (AAIB) said the journey would have been allowed as a “private” flight in which costs are shared be-tween pilot and passenger.

“The basis on which the passenger was being carried on N264DB has not yet been established but, previously, the pilot had carried passengers on the basis of cost sharing,” the AAIB said in an interim re-port.

Pilot David Ibbotson, 59, was flying 28-year-old Argentine striker Sala to his new Premier League club Cardiff City from his previous side in Nantes in France on January 21 when the accident happened.

Football agent Mark McKay had a mandate from Nantes to negotiate the transfer of the professional contract between the two clubs.

Nantes has said that the mandate had expired by the time Sala boarded the flight as he had already signed for Cardiff City.

The plane, a Piper PA-46 Malibu from 1984, was regis-tered in the US, according to the report.

‘Extensively damaged’The AAIB said the plane took

off from Nantes Airport at 1915 GMT.

At 1958 GMT, Jersey air traf-

fic control asked the pilot if the plane’s altimeter was working because the radar indicated it was flying lower than it should have been.

T h e we a t h e r ra d a r a t the time showed “a band of showers, some heavy, passing through the area”.

Four minutes later the pi-lot requested clearance to de-scend.

The controller asked if the plane required another de-scent to which the pilot re-sponded: “Negative, just avoid-ed a patch there, but back on heading five thousand feet.”

At 2012 GMT, Ibbotson did request a further descent.

The plane then descend-ed twice and ascended twice before disappearing from the radar.

The wreckage was found on the seabed at a depth of approximately 68 metres, the report said, as investigators released fresh pictures of the plane.

“The aircraft was extensive-ly damaged, and the main body of the aircraft was in three parts held together by electri-cal and flying control cables,” it said.

“The engine had disconnect-ed from the cockpit areas, and the rear section of the fuse-lage had broken away from the forward section adjacent to the trailing edge of the wing.”

Sala’s body was recovered from the wreckage. Ibbotson has never been found, al-though his family are hoping a crowdfunding campaign will help raise funds for an under-water search.

Diego Garcia, the largest island in the Chagos archipelago and the site of an American military base leased from Britain in the Indian Ocean (Courtesy of NYT)

Between 1968 and 1973 around 2,000 Chagos

islanders were evicted, to Britain, Mauritius and the Seychelles, to make way for a military base

on Diego Garcia

The Piper Malibu aircraft, N264DB, that crashed in the English Channel carrying footballer Emiliano Sala and pilot David Ibbotson en route to Cardiff in south Wales.

WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019

Hon. Chairman Najeb Yacob Alhamer | Editor-in-Chief Mahmood AI Mahmood | Deputy Editor-in-Chief Ahdeya Ahmed | Chairman & Managing Director P Unnikrishnan | Advertisement: Update Media W.L.L | Tel: 38444692, Email: [email protected] | Newsroom: Tel: 38444680, Email: [email protected] & circulation: Tel: 38444698/17579877 | Email:[email protected] | Website: www.newsofbahrain.com | Printed and published by Al Ayam Publishing

BARIA ALAMUDDIN

At a time when some world leaders are making extrav-agant and disingenuous

boasts about the strategic defeat of Daesh in Iraq and Syria, other seg-ments of this terrorist movement are establishing a vast “Islamic empire” across Africa.

Across a huge swath of the Sa-hel states — from Mali and Lib-ya through Nigeria and Chad to Egypt, Somalia and Kenya — vast desert and rural regions are either in extremist hands or vulnerable to depredations by these groups.

Daesh’s African franchises have learnt from the mistakes of Syr-ia and Iraq. Rather than seeking maximum attention through gra-tuitous and spectacular violence, they are concentrating on quiet state-building and winning over local people, scrupulously avoid-ing international attention. Un-willing to get bogged down over-seas, Western leaders collaborate by studiously ignoring this threat. However, once Daesh feels suffi-ciently firmly entrenched, it will inevitably revert to brazen attacks against religious minorities and Western targets, along with the savage repression of local people.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram tended to enjoy most media notoriety, despite now being a shadow of its former barbaric self. Yet a ri-val Daesh affiliate with around 5,000 fighters is consolidating a vast area of territory in the Ni-ger-Chad-Cameroon-Nigeria border areas. In December, this entity put hundreds of well-armed

Nigerian troops to flight near Lake Chad. “We were sitting ducks,” reported one Nigerian sergeant. “The terrorists control the whole region now.” Western African leaders have largely abandoned ineffectual attempts to regain territory and frequently suppress negative news about this growing menace.

In Burkina Faso, a succession of terrorist attacks (200 serious attacks since 2016) and abduc-tions of foreign workers prompted the government’s resignation last month, with fears of contagion to coastal states like Ghana and Togo. Extremist elements entered the country through Mali, which has faced its own perfect storm of Is-lamist and separatist insurgencies. With previous administrations reportedly paying off terrorists to prevent attacks, local populations are often sympathetic to outreach by extremists, having lacked even basic services from Burkina Faso’s central government.

In Libya during 2016, a coali-tion of forces pushed Daesh out of Sirte. However, a failure to ad-dress the Libyan conflict allowed Daesh cells to disperse and take root across the country. As well as being an important incubator for terrorism, Libya is a conduit for weapons smuggling to Daesh franchises further south, allowing fighters to outgun local security forces. “The weapons are being smuggled from Islamic State in Libya to their factions in Nigeria and Mali,” said an arms smuggler in Niger, using another term for the terror group. “These groups want to create a big domain. They want their own country.”

Other forms of organised crim-inality are also rife, such as the lu-crative trade in people smuggling. Daesh is devastatingly effective

at raising revenues through such enterprises. Chronic instability breeds a generation of uneducat-ed, armed radicals who know of no other professions than warfare and gangsterism.

In Egypt, Daesh has murdered about 100 Christians over the past two years, slaughtered 224 in the 2015 Russian airliner atrocity, and massacred more than 300 wor-shippers in a 2017 mosque attack. Severe crackdowns by the state perpetuate a cycle of increased anger and fresh waves of recruits. Al Shabab in Somalia, meanwhile, remains deeply entrenched. Its ability to penetrate into neigh-

THE BUTTERFLY COUNTS NOT MONTHS BUT MOMENTS, AND HAS TIME ENOUGH. RABINDRANATH TAGORE

QUOTE OF THE DAY

WILLIAM DAVIES

A good indication of liber-alism’s declining health is the rising profile of the

military in domestic politics.As the clock ticks down on

Britain’s Brexit negotiations and the prospect of “no deal” rises, the fallback of military security looms into view. Britain’s de-fence secretary, Gavin William-son, has stated that an additional 3,500 troops will be on standby to help ensure supplies get into the country, and government officials reportedly have exam-ined the option of martial law in the event of major civil unrest. It is hard not to detect a whiff of excitement about all of this in the reactions of hard-core Brexiteers and their supporters in the media.

A similar sickness is evident across the Atlantic. President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency, provoked by a supposed crisis at the Mexi-

can border, and he has deployed American troops on home soil. Brazil’s new president, Jair Bol-sonaro, a former army captain who exemplifies many of the most frightening trends about the new strongman leaders around the world, has been steadily putting military person-nel in key government positions.

T h e s e a r e m o r e ex p l i c-it demonstrations of military muscle, but the sense that pol-itics has become warlike has been brewing for a while. War metaphors (“culture war,” “so-cial justice warrior”) accumu-late steadily, each implying a breakdown of common political ground. One way to understand the upheavals of the past decade, manifest in political populism and the surge in talk about “post-truth” and “fake news,” is as the penetration of warlike mobili-sation and propaganda into our democracies.

The principle that military and civilian operations should remain separate has been a cornerstone of liberal politics since religious and civil wars tore through Europe in the mid-17th century. The mod-ern division between the army

and civil policing originates in late-17th-century England, when early forms of public administra-tion came to treat (and finance) the two independently of each other. Since then, the rule of law has been distinguished from rule by force.

However, there is an opposing vision of the modern state that also has a long history. According to this alternative ideal, the di-vision between civil government and the military is a pacifist’s conceit that needs overcoming. And it’s not a coincidence that these days nationalists are espe-cially keen to employ the rheto-ric of warfare: The wars that fuel the nationalist imagination are not simply military affairs, going on far away between profession-al soldiers, but also mass mobi-lisations of politicians, civilians and infrastructure. Ever since the Napoleonic Wars witnessed conscription and the strategic mobilisation of the economy, nationalists have looked to war to generate national solidarity and a sense of purpose.

There is another distinctive characteristic of military sit-uations that civilian life often lacks: the promise of an instant

response, without the delays that go with democratic argu-ment or expert analysis. Warfare requires knowledge, of course, just not of the same variety that we are familiar with in times of peace. In civil society, the facts provided by economists, statis-ticians, reporters and academic scientists have a peace-building quality to the extent that they provide a common reality that can be agreed upon. The ideal of independent expertise, which

cannot be swayed by money or power, has been crucial in al-lowing political opponents to nevertheless agree on certain basic features of reality. Facts remove questions of truth from the domain of politics.

War demands a different, more paranoid system of exper-tise and knowledge, which looks at the world as an uncertain and hostile place, where nothing is fixed. In situations of conflict, the most valuable attribute of

knowledge is not that it gener-ates public consensus but that it is up to the minute and aids rap-id decision making. Meanwhile, the information shared with the public must be tailored to incite mass enthusiasm and animosity rather than objectivity.

The conditions that most lend themselves to military responses are those in which time is run-ning out. Of course, many of the emergencies that we face today are fictions: the “emergency” at the Mexican border or, per-haps, the British government’s intentional exaggerations of the threat of a “no deal” Brexit to put pressure on Parliament. Framing an issue as an emergency where time is of the essence is a means of bypassing the much slower civilian world of deliberation and facts.

But there is something else go-ing on. Because of technological changes of the past 30 years or so, initially in our financial system but subsequently in our media, political decision makers are in-creasingly short on time, having to react instantly to a constant flow of data. (If there is one fea-ture of the military mind-set that we can all occasionally relate to,

Daesh on the offensive across Africa

In many African states, instability provides a conducive

environment for weapons to flow and dispersed insurgent

forces to make common cause

Western African leaders have largely abandoned

ineffectual attempts to regain territory and

frequently suppress negative news about this

growing menace.

Everything is war and nothing is trueWhen democracy becomes combat, facts become weapons



BARIA ALAMUDDIN

At a time when some world leaders are making extrav-agant and disingenuous

boasts about the strategic defeat of Daesh in Iraq and Syria, other seg-ments of this terrorist movement are establishing a vast “Islamic empire” across Africa.

Across a huge swath of the Sa-hel states — from Mali and Lib-ya through Nigeria and Chad to Egypt, Somalia and Kenya — vast desert and rural regions are either in extremist hands or vulnerable to depredations by these groups.

Daesh’s African franchises have learnt from the mistakes of Syr-ia and Iraq. Rather than seeking maximum attention through gra-tuitous and spectacular violence, they are concentrating on quiet state-building and winning over local people, scrupulously avoid-ing international attention. Un-willing to get bogged down over-seas, Western leaders collaborate by studiously ignoring this threat. However, once Daesh feels suffi-ciently firmly entrenched, it will inevitably revert to brazen attacks against religious minorities and Western targets, along with the savage repression of local people.

In Nigeria, Boko Haram tended to enjoy most media notoriety, despite now being a shadow of its former barbaric self. Yet a ri-val Daesh affiliate with around 5,000 fighters is consolidating a vast area of territory in the Ni-ger-Chad-Cameroon-Nigeria border areas. In December, this entity put hundreds of well-armed

Nigerian troops to flight near Lake Chad. “We were sitting ducks,” reported one Nigerian sergeant. “The terrorists control the whole region now.” Western African leaders have largely abandoned ineffectual attempts to regain territory and frequently suppress negative news about this growing menace.

In Burkina Faso, a succession of terrorist attacks (200 serious attacks since 2016) and abduc-tions of foreign workers prompted the government’s resignation last month, with fears of contagion to coastal states like Ghana and Togo. Extremist elements entered the country through Mali, which has faced its own perfect storm of Is-lamist and separatist insurgencies. With previous administrations reportedly paying off terrorists to prevent attacks, local populations are often sympathetic to outreach by extremists, having lacked even basic services from Burkina Faso’s central government.

In Libya during 2016, a coali-tion of forces pushed Daesh out of Sirte. However, a failure to ad-dress the Libyan conflict allowed Daesh cells to disperse and take root across the country. As well as being an important incubator for terrorism, Libya is a conduit for weapons smuggling to Daesh franchises further south, allowing fighters to outgun local security forces. “The weapons are being smuggled from Islamic State in Libya to their factions in Nigeria and Mali,” said an arms smuggler in Niger, using another term for the terror group. “These groups want to create a big domain. They want their own country.”

Other forms of organised crim-inality are also rife, such as the lu-crative trade in people smuggling. Daesh is devastatingly effective

at raising revenues through such enterprises. Chronic instability breeds a generation of uneducat-ed, armed radicals who know of no other professions than warfare and gangsterism.

In Egypt, Daesh has murdered about 100 Christians over the past two years, slaughtered 224 in the 2015 Russian airliner atrocity, and massacred more than 300 wor-shippers in a 2017 mosque attack. Severe crackdowns by the state perpetuate a cycle of increased anger and fresh waves of recruits. Al Shabab in Somalia, meanwhile, remains deeply entrenched. Its ability to penetrate into neigh-

THE BUTTERFLY COUNTS NOT MONTHS BUT MOMENTS, AND HAS TIME ENOUGH. RABINDRANATH TAGORE

QUOTE OF THE DAY

WILLIAM DAVIES

A good indication of liber-alism’s declining health is the rising profile of the

military in domestic politics.As the clock ticks down on

Britain’s Brexit negotiations and the prospect of “no deal” rises, the fallback of military security looms into view. Britain’s de-fence secretary, Gavin William-son, has stated that an additional 3,500 troops will be on standby to help ensure supplies get into the country, and government officials reportedly have exam-ined the option of martial law in the event of major civil unrest. It is hard not to detect a whiff of excitement about all of this in the reactions of hard-core Brexiteers and their supporters in the media.

A similar sickness is evident across the Atlantic. President Donald Trump has declared a state of emergency, provoked by a supposed crisis at the Mexi-

can border, and he has deployed American troops on home soil. Brazil’s new president, Jair Bol-sonaro, a former army captain who exemplifies many of the most frightening trends about the new strongman leaders around the world, has been steadily putting military person-nel in key government positions.

T h e s e a r e m o r e ex p l i c -it demonstrations of military muscle, but the sense that pol-itics has become warlike has been brewing for a while. War metaphors (“culture war,” “so-cial justice warrior”) accumu-late steadily, each implying a breakdown of common political ground. One way to understand the upheavals of the past decade, manifest in political populism and the surge in talk about “post-truth” and “fake news,” is as the penetration of warlike mobili-sation and propaganda into our democracies.

The principle that military and civilian operations should remain separate has been a cornerstone of liberal politics since religious and civil wars tore through Europe in the mid-17th century. The mod-ern division between the army

and civil policing originates in late-17th-century England, when early forms of public administra-tion came to treat (and finance) the two independently of each other. Since then, the rule of law has been distinguished from rule by force.

However, there is an opposing vision of the modern state that also has a long history. According to this alternative ideal, the di-vision between civil government and the military is a pacifist’s conceit that needs overcoming. And it’s not a coincidence that these days nationalists are espe-cially keen to employ the rheto-ric of warfare: The wars that fuel the nationalist imagination are not simply military affairs, going on far away between profession-al soldiers, but also mass mobi-lisations of politicians, civilians and infrastructure. Ever since the Napoleonic Wars witnessed conscription and the strategic mobilisation of the economy, nationalists have looked to war to generate national solidarity and a sense of purpose.

There is another distinctive characteristic of military sit-uations that civilian life often lacks: the promise of an instant

response, without the delays that go with democratic argu-ment or expert analysis. Warfare requires knowledge, of course, just not of the same variety that we are familiar with in times of peace. In civil society, the facts provided by economists, statis-ticians, reporters and academic scientists have a peace-building quality to the extent that they provide a common reality that can be agreed upon. The ideal of independent expertise, which

cannot be swayed by money or power, has been crucial in al-lowing political opponents to nevertheless agree on certain basic features of reality. Facts remove questions of truth from the domain of politics.

War demands a different, more paranoid system of exper-tise and knowledge, which looks at the world as an uncertain and hostile place, where nothing is fixed. In situations of conflict, the most valuable attribute of

knowledge is not that it gener-ates public consensus but that it is up to the minute and aids rap-id decision making. Meanwhile, the information shared with the public must be tailored to incite mass enthusiasm and animosity rather than objectivity.

The conditions that most lend themselves to military responses are those in which time is run-ning out. Of course, many of the emergencies that we face today are fictions: the “emergency” at the Mexican border or, per-haps, the British government’s intentional exaggerations of the threat of a “no deal” Brexit to put pressure on Parliament. Framing an issue as an emergency where time is of the essence is a means of bypassing the much slower civilian world of deliberation and facts.

But there is something else go-ing on. Because of technological changes of the past 30 years or so, initially in our financial system but subsequently in our media, political decision makers are in-creasingly short on time, having to react instantly to a constant flow of data. (If there is one fea-ture of the military mind-set that we can all occasionally relate to,

Daesh on the offensive across Africa

In many African states, instability provides a conducive

environment for weapons to flow and dispersed insurgent

forces to make common cause

Western African leaders have largely abandoned

ineffectual attempts to regain territory and

frequently suppress negative news about this

growing menace.



TOP

4TWEETS

04

03

01

Dem Caucus Chair Hakeem Jeffries on

Trump’s national emer-gency declaration: “Pres-ident Trump has more stories than Harry Pot-ter — and all of them are make believe.”

@MEPFuller

Our 12 return safely home after wreak-

ing havoc on terrorist camps in Pakistan. India is proud of its heroes. I salute their valour.

@ikamalhaasan

I congratulate and sa-lute the bravery and

valour of our armed forc-es. Today’s action further demonstrates that India is safe and secure under the strong & decisive leadership of PM @nar-endramodi.

@AmitShah

02

Russian Foreign Min-ister Sergey Lavrov

is in Vietnam at the same time that Trump and Kim Jong Un are in Vietnam for their summit. Coinci-dentally, Lavrov says the U.S. asked for Moscow’s advice in dealing with North Korea before the summit.

@kylegriffin1

Disclaimer: (Views expressed by columnists are personal and need not necessarily reflect our

editorial stances)

bouring states, such as with the recent attack on the Nairobi hotel complex, demonstrates that this threat isn’t going away either.

In states like the Central Afri-can Republic, Sudan, South Sudan and the Democratic Republic of Congo, Daesh does not have a sub-stantive presence, but instability provides a conducive environment for weapons to flow and dispersed insurgent forces to make com-mon cause. Thus, a vast, broad belt can be drawn across Sahel Africa where insurgents are dominant and state control is absent.

Western countries are on the retreat from other counter-terror-

ism battlefront states, such as Syria and Afghanistan. It is thus not surprising that zero attention is being paid to an epic Daesh expan-sion across much of sub-Saharan Africa. Tiny contingents of French or US soldiers train local forces or carry out occasional patrols, but their presence is a drop in a vast ocean.

US President Donald Trump has ludicrously said he may be announcing the defeat of Daesh in Syria and Iraq in the coming days. Yet, even if all remaining pockets of Syrian territory are recaptured, Daesh is scattering, going to ground and regrouping,

reportedly still with hundreds of millions of dollars of assets and around 30,000 active members, according to US intelligence es-timates. Does this sound like a defeated force?

With Daesh veterans from Syr-ia providing additional capacity and experience, and as the group’s centre of gravity shifts toward Africa and Southeast Asia, this may encourage localised forces to hook up as part of a trans-region-al enterprise. For the time being, Daesh leaders have wisely avoided declaring an African caliphate, not wanting to attract unwant-ed attention that could provoke a sharp curb on expansion. Howev-er, the movement is close to having a continent-straddling de facto “caliphate” far more multinational and expansive in essence than its previous doomed experiments.

Africa is portrayed as a geopo-litical backwater. However, as ref-ugees in inflatab le dinghies have proved, Libya’s coast is a boat-ride from Malta, Sicily and Greece. If Osama bin Laden could wage war against the West from caves in Afghanistan, a rejuvenated Saha-ran Daesh would constitute a far greater future threat, with widely dispersed militants proving nigh on impossible to root out.

The resurgence of a major Af-rican terrorism threat is the last thing that international publics want to hear about at a time when all forms of foreign entanglement are deeply politically unpopular. Yet, if we ignore this threat today, we shouldn’t be surprised when this menace emerges from the de-serts of Africa to bite us tomorrow.

(Baria Alamuddin is an award-win-ning journalist and broadcaster in the

Middle East and the UK. She is editor of the Media Services Syndicate and has

interviewed numerous heads of state.)

1812Argentine War of Independ-ence: Manuel Belgrano raises the Flag of Argentina in the city of Rosario for the first time.

1812Poet Lord Byron gives his first address as a member of the House of Lords, in defense of Luddite violence against Industrialism in his home county of Nottinghamshire.

1844The Dominican Republic gains independence from Haiti.

1860Abraham Lincoln makes a speech at Cooper Union in the city of New York that is largely responsible for his election to the Presidency.

TODAY DAY IN

HISTORY

Wide Angle

Are diamonds really forever?

The value of the diamond Lady Gaga wore to the Oscar Awards Ceremony, on Sunday night, was apparently equal to the entire production cost of

her movie “A Star is Born’, if not more.However, as I read the different estimates of its value,

it got me thinking.ABC News said it could be worth more than $40 mil-

lion, while the ‘People’ magazine and ‘The Sun’ maga-zine’ said it could be over $30 million.

Tiffany and Co said, however, that it is ‘priceless’. This luxury jewellery store of New York must have lent the necklace to the singer-actress; because experts tell us that this necklace was a part of the company’s 175th-an-niversary celebration in 2012.

The 128.54-carat yellow stone, considered one of the biggest in the world, was previously worn by the Hol-lywood icon Audrey Hepburn. But only for publicity photos for her 1961 movie ‘Breakfast at Tiffany’s’, and long before it was reset into its current form seen around Lady Gaga’s neck.

‘A Star Is Born’ – with Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga - cost $36 million to make. So, this diamond’s apparent value -- even at $30 million – would still make it the ‘most expensive thing’ ever worn, by any one, to the Oscars!

But, is it really?This question bothered me; because diamonds, and

their value, have been hotly debated for years.

Diamond merchants and jewellers tell us that ‘diamonds are forever’. But owners of diamonds tell us that they are with them ‘forever’ simply because they were unable to sell them again; even for a fraction of what they had paid for.

“Have You Ever Tried to Sell a Di-amond?” asks a very analytical and well-researched article by Edward Jay Epstein (The Atlantic, Feb 1982).

“The diamond invention—the cre-ation of the idea that diamonds are rare and valuable, and are essential signs of esteem—is a relatively recent development in the history of the dia-mond trade” according to him.

Until the late nineteenth centu-ry, only India and, to a small extent, Brazil was able to sell diamonds to the world.

But, in 1870, with diamond mines’ discovery in South Africa, the huge quantities of di-amonds that suddenly came into market caused the

British investors in South African mines, to worry. They did not want diamond prices to fall.

So, they created ‘De Beers Consolidated Mines Ltd.’, a corporate entity that took control of all aspects of the world diamond trade, assuming different forms, in dif-ferent countries.

“De Beers had to control demand as well as supply. Both women and men had to be made to perceive di-amonds not as marketable precious stones but as an inseparable part of courtship and married life”, says the article.

No wonder, in the early part of the 20th century, in Japan, US, and many other countries, young couples soon thought that a shiny little stone was a must, in every marriage. And Marlin Monroe reminded them that “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend’.

But “as soon as you leave the jeweller with a diamond, it loses over 50 per cent of its value,” says Rohin Dhar in his article (The Huffington Post, 6 Dec 2017).

In its history of market manipulation, diamond trade is what it is today, because of what the diamond traders together made us think.

We are told that colour, clarity, cut and carat matters. We are told that the D to Z grading, from crystal-clear to yellow-colour, matters. But does it matter, really?

A star is ‘like a diamond in the sky’, says a familiar nursery rhyme.

With an Oscar and Grammy now, actually, Lady Gaga, the star’s value should be greater than that of her dia-mond.

JOEL INDRUPATI

No wonder, in the early part

of the 20th century, in

Japan, US, and many other

countries, young couples

soon thought that a shiny

little stone was a must, in every

marriage. it’s that we don’t have very much time.) Many of the anxieties sur-rounding “post-truth” and “fake news” are really symptoms of a public sphere that moves too quickly, with too great a volume of information, to the point where we either trust our instincts or latch on to others’. There’s a rea-son Twitter invites users to “fol-low” one another, a metaphor that implies that amid a deluge of data, truth is ultimately deter-mined by leadership.

It’s hardly a coincidence that many of the most transformative technologies that today enable decision makers and strate-gists to react fastest to a rapidly changing environment — like the digital computer and the inter-net — were first developed for military purposes. These same technologies have also taken over the civilian and econom-ic worlds, as tools of surveil-lance and “real time” tracking shift from theaters of war to the realm of market research and psychographic profiling of vot-ers. Social media has introduced games of strategy into public discourse, with deception and secrecy — information warfare — now normal parts of how ar-

guments play out.The culture of an over-accel-

erated public sphere, wrought largely by technologies that we don’t know how to slow, is part-ly responsible for making de-mocracy feel more like combat. But what can we do about it? Liberalism is not set up for this kind of challenge. The liberal ideal of civility is one in which argument and research can move at their own pace and decisions are made after the evidence is in. The separation of war from peace that laid the ground for liberal democracy to develop

was originally a legal achieve-ment, whereas now it also re-quires defending sanctuaries of slowness in the news media, market and universities.

But there is also an undeniable urgency about many of the prob-lems and threats that confront liberal democracies today, like climate change and the rising economic precarity of vulnera-ble populations. Familiar polit-ical divisions surrounding class and identity now provoke rapid, unpredictable new movements, facilitated by social media.

When nationalists introduce metaphors and symbols of war, they connect with a real and realistic sense that time is run-ning out. But for those of us who want to see fewer soldiers on the streets rather than more, the challenge is to find civil — not military — responses to social, economic and ecological prob-lems that escalate at such a pace that they have come to feel like enemy combatants.

(William Davies is a sociologist and political economist at Goldsmiths,

University of London, and the author of the forthcoming “Nervous States:

Democracy and the Decline of Rea-son”.)


The principle that military and civilian operations should remain separate has been a cornerstone of liberal politics since

religious and civil wars tore through Europe.

KNOW WHAT

10

business


Tamkeen, Huawei to launch ICT training

TDT | Manama

Labour Fund “Tamkeen” has partnered with Hua-wei to launch an educa-

tional initiative which will pro-vide 3,000 Bahrainis hands-on competence training in the latest ICT technologies.

The announcement was made through a Memoran-dum of Understanding (MoU) signed at Tamkeen office on 21st February.

Tamkeen and Huawei’s ini-tiative will offer candidates specialised training in the ICT industry’s most cutting-edge fields, including 5G, AI, IoT,

cloud computing, networking and security, etc.

Trainees will also enjoy on-the-job mentoring at Huawei’s premises, and the opportunity to visit Huawei’s headquarters in Shenzhen, China, where they will meet directly with Huawei’s global experts to discuss the most advanced ICT trends and

technologies. A joint-selection committee will confer annually to select outstanding candidates for participation in the project, which will run over a five-year duration.

Dr Ebrahim Mohammed Jana-hi, Chief Executive of Tamkeen, said, “We are grateful to Hua-wei for working with us to offer

Bahraini individuals this unique opportunity which will support our aim to ensure that we are realizing the potential of every Bahraini.”

Jon Lu Yuedong, CEO Huawei Technologies Bahrain, added, “Especially in the 5G era, with leveraging Huawei’s global lead-ing technologies and innova-

tion, we look forward to working with Tamkeen to educate and train selected candidates, there-by supporting the ambitious goals of Bahrain’s Vision 2030.”

Huawei is committed to sup-porting human development and providing opportunities for edu-cation in digital technologies in the Kingdom.

Officials announcing the deal

Huawei is a big com-pany, but its research

and development team is huge — 76,000 em-ployee-strong, in fact.

NASS Corp profit up 21pc, recommends dividend TDT | Manama

Nass Corporation said it has achieved a full year 2018 net profit at-

tributable to equity holders of the parent of BD4.262 million (BD3.525m for the year 2017) up by 21 per cent YoY.

The increase was attributed to gross turnover of BD182.770m (BD173.404m for the year 2017) up by 5pc YoY.

Board of Directors recom-mended a dividend of 5 fils per share i.e. 5pc of issued share capital. Earnings per share for the year 2018 was 19.81 fils com-pared to 16.39 fils in 2017.

The total comprehensive in-come was BD5.178m compared to BD4.465m for the year 2017

up by 16pc YoY.Announcing the results, the

Nass Corporation, Chairman,

Sameer Abdulla Nass said, “De-spite the challenges faced in the construction sector, the com-

pany could achieve a marginal growth both in turnover and net profit.”

For the fourth quarter, net profit attributable to equi-ty holders of the parent was BD2.551m (BD0.761m for Q4 2017) up by 235pc QOQ.

Gross turnover achieved was BD49.644m (BD47.200m for Q4 2017) up by 5pc

The total comprehensive in-come was BD2.674m compared to BD1.119m for Q4 2017 up by 139pc QoQ.

Earnings per share during Q4 2018 was 11.85 fils compared to 3.54 fils in Q4 2017. The total assets as of the end of December 2018 was BD158.629m compared to BD157.965m as of the end of December 2017 up by 0.4pc YoY.

Sameer Abdulla Nass, Nass Corporation, Chairman

AUB launches new website TDT | Manama

Ahli United Bank (AUB) has launched a new state-of-

the-art website with a particu-lar focus on ease of navigation and access to information and services.

The website is targeted to-wards providing quick and easy access to a vast array of products and services that AUB offers in Bahrain and across the region.

The new website delivers several innovative features in-cluding e-forms that make ap-plying for AUB products easy, a unique feature called virtual queuing which allows custom-ers to book appointments at a branch and a new login feature providing access to the bank’s digital platforms.

Speaking on the occasion, Shafqat Anwar- Deputy Group Chief Executive Officer - Op-erations and Technology said, “The aim is to provide conven-ience to our customers at their fingertips.”

Amongst its many new fea-

tures and functionalities, the site provides intuitive links to online banking, mobile bank-ing and other e-channels of the Bank, as well as useful tools in-cluding loan calculators, inter-est rates and dial-up to Bank’s contact centre. The site also offers our customers a handy branch and ATM locator which works with Google Maps.

The bank also introduces virtual forms to apply for sav-ings, current, MyHassad sav-ings accounts and credit cards, at the same time provides the information relating to it.

Shafqat Anwar

Bahrain Development Bank (BDB) employees during a ‘Dynamic Team Building Programme’ held for 27 of its employees at the Sofitel Bahrain Zallaq Thalassa Sea & Spa. The one-day programme was designed by Golden Trust and taught by professional HABC level 3 Certified Trainer and Coach Sameera Ahmed Ali. The five-hour programme, spearheaded by BDB Group CEO Sanjeev Paul, is part of an extensive three-year HR strategy initiated by BDB to further develop inter-departmental team excellence and leadership skills.

VIVA signs 5G deal with HuaweiTDT | Manama

VIVA Bahrain, a telecommu-nication provider in the

Kingdom, signed a nationwide 5G service launch MoU with Huawei.

Signed at the World Mobile Congress in Barcelona, Spain, this agreement will enable VIVA customers to access 5G services across Bahrain by June 2019.

Commenting on the occa-sion, Mohammad Al Khushail Acting CEO at VIVA Bahrain, said: “We continue our com-mitment to accelerate digitiza-tion in Bahrain and ultimately support our leadership’s vi-sion to become a diversified,

knowledge-based economy.”An Jian, President of Middle

East Carrier Network Business Group of Huawei, said: “We will be launching our recent 5G-compliant CPE and cell-phone with VIVA to complete the offering for consumers in Bahrain.”

The deal signing


Closing BellSAUDI 0.3 pc to 8,456 pts

DUBAI 0.9 pc at 2,684 pts

ABU DHABI 0.5 pc to 5,140 pts

QATAR 0.3 pc to 10,256 pts

EGYPT 0.4 pc to 14,887 pts

KUWAIT 0.4 pc to 5,502 pts

BAHRAIN 0.5 pc at 1,415 pts

OMAN was 0.5 pc at 4,089 pts

National Concrete Company held its annual Staff party. Employees were joined at the event by Director Yousif Almoayyed & General Manager Anil Nair. In picture, Director Yousif Almoayyed standing 7th from left with General Manager Anil Nair standing 8th from left with Senior Management and staffs

Kanoo IT wins Digital Innovations awardTDT | Manama

Kanoo IT, a leading infor-mation technology servic-

es company and a subsidiary of Ebrahim K. Kanoo won the Digital Innovations in Client Services at the inaugural Bah-rain edition of the Smart SMB Summit & Awards.

Kanoo IT was recognised for developing and rolling out an Electronic Initial Public Offer-ing (eIPO) software for Bahrain Clear; a wholly owned subsidi-ary of Bahrain Bourse.

The theme of the event was ‘Digital Transformation’, attract-

ing C-level executives who play key roles in leading and facil-itating digital transformation initiatives in their various or-ganizations.

Offering a range of servic-

es including transactions de-pository, clearing, settlement, central registry and registra-tion, the eIPO platform was launched by Bahrain Clear in conjunction with the Initial

Public Offering (IPO) of APM Terminals Bahrain. It allowed investors to complete their subscription in APM Termi-nal Bahrain’s IPO through the online platform to provide a

seamless and convenient mech-anism for IPO subscription applications.

Highlighting the importance of the award Director at Ebra-him K. Kanoo; Waleed Kanoo,

commented, “We at Kanoo IT are proud to receive this award from the prestigious Smart SMB team and are proud of the work that was done on behalf of Bah-rain Bourse.”

The award ceremony

20

2018US$ '000

2018US$ '000

2017US$ '000

2017US$ '000

CONSOLIDATED FINANCIAL STATEMENTS31 December 2018

ASSETS

Cash and bank balances 1,206 1,823 Murabaha Receivables 9,502 13,004 Due from banks and financial institutions 8,496 15,500 Mudaraba receivables 2,496 5,071 Financing receivables 841 5,851 Investment in sukuks 73,405 73,461 Investment in equities and funds 4,771 5,651Investment in real estate 26,556 27,547Equipment 137 139 Other assets 1,180 1,366

TOTAL ASSETS 128,590 149,413

LIABILITIES AND OWNERS' EQUITY

Liabilities Due to short term sukuk investors and banks 74,271 93,461 Staff payables 1,494 979 Other liabilities 678 832

Total liabilities 76,443 95,272

Owners' Equity Share capital 59,039 59,039 Reserves 8,282 8,567 Accumulated losses (15,174) (13,465)

Total owners' equity 52,147 54,141

TOTAL LIABILITIES AND OWNERS' EQUITY 128,590 149,413

Paid-up Investment Total Share Statutory General fair value Total (Accumulated owners’ capital reserve reserve reserve reserves deficit) equity US$ ‘000 US$ ‘000 US$ ‘000 US$ ‘000 US$ ‘000 US$ ‘000 US$ ‘000

Balance at 1 January 2018 59,039 3,881 2,226 2,460 8,567 (13,465) 54,141 Transition adjustment on adoption of FAS 30 - - - - - (2,007) (2,007) as of 1 January 2018 Restated balance as of 1 January 2018 59,039 3,881 2,226 2,460 8,567 (15,472) 52,134 Net profit for the year - - - - - 13 13 Cumulative changes in fair value - - - (285) (285) 285 - Balance at 31 December 2018 59,039 3,881 2,226 2,175 8,282 (15,174) 52,147 Balance at 1 January 2017 59,039 3,669 2,226 2,460 8,355 (15,370) 52,024 Net profit for the year - - - - - 2,117 2,117 Transfer to statutory reserve - 212 - - 212 (212) - Balance at 31 December 2017 59,039 3,881 2,226 2,460 8,567 (13,465) 54,141

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CHANGES IN OWNERS' EQUITY For the year ended 31 December 2018

INCOME Income from: Investment in sukuks 3,485 5,533 Investment in equities and funds 190 58 Due from banks and financial institutions 245 137 Financing receivables 752 329 Mudaraba receivables 56 112 Less: Return to short term sukuk investors and banks (2,180) (1,786) 2,548 4,383 Investment banking fees 443 531 Ijarah income 1,293 1,501 Foreign exchange (Loss) gain (4) 20 Other income 244 116 OPERATING INCOME 4,524 6,551 EXPENSES Staff costs 2,779 2,566 Depreciation 723 724 General and administrative expenses 1,056 1,115 OPERATING EXPENSES 4,558 4,405 NET (LOSS) PROFIT FOR THE YEAR BEFORE IMPAIRMENT PROVISION (34) 2,146 Net recoveries for credit losses 544 (29)Unrealised fair value loss and impairment on investments in funds and real estate (556) - Impairment recoveries on investments - net 59 - NET PROFIT FOR THE YEAR 13 2,117

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF FINANCIAL POSITION At 31 December 2018

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF INCOME For the year ended 31 December 2018

Net cash (used in) from operating activities (11,117) 19,748

NET MOVEMENT IN CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS (11,117) 19,748 Cash and cash equivalents at 1 January 30,327 10,579 CASH AND CASH EQUIVALENTS AT 31 DECEMBER 19,210 30,327

2018US$ '000

2017US$ '000 These were extracted from the Consolidated Financial Statements on which Ernst &

Young issued an unqualified opinion dated 17 February 2019 which are available on LMC website.These Consolidated Financial Statements have been authorized for issuance inaccordance with a resolution of the board of Directors dated 17 February 2019.Liquidity Management Centre B.S.C. (c) is Licensed by the Central Bank of Bahrain as Wholesale Islamic Bank.The Group’s total equity as at 31 December 2018 is US$ 52.147 Million which is less than the minimum capital requirement of US$ 100 Million required under LR Module of Volume 2 of the Central Bank of Bahrain (CBB) rule book (LR- 2.5.2B).”

Hassan Amin JarrarChairman

Ameer A. GhaniDirector

Amer SadiqActing Chief Executive Officer

Liquidity Management Centre B.S.C. (c)CR 49092 P.O. Box 11567, Manama, Kingdom of Bahrain. Tel: +973 1756 8568, Fax: +973 1756 8569

Email: [email protected]

4

4

4

4

CONSOLIDATED STATEMENT OF CASH FLOWSFor the year ended 31 December 2018

The full consolidated statement of cash flows is available in LMC websiteNote:

Reserves

Dubai hits 3-month high

Reuters

Dubai shares hit a three-month high yesterday as all but one of its

real estate firms gained, while Egypt’s blue-chip index de-clined, primarily led by Com-mercial International Bank (COMI).

The Dubai index rose 0.9 per cent to reach its highest in nearly three months. The index, which was one of the world’s worst performing mar-kets last year, has risen 6.1pc year-to-date, mainly trig-gered by strong fourth-quar-ter earnings from real estate firms.

Emaar Properties added 2.5pc in heavy volume and its unit Emaar Development surged 6.8pc.Emaar Malls rose 2.2pc following Monday’s 475.5 million dirhams ($129.47 million) purchase of the 49pc of e-commerce fashion web-site Namshi it did not already own from Global Fashion Group (GFG).

Egypt’s blue-chip index fell 0.4pc.The index is still up 14.2pc so far this year, led by COMI, which has risen 18.1pc.

S a u d i A r a b i a ’s i n d e x changed course after falling for three sessions and rose 0.3pc, with heavyweight pet-rochemical maker Saudi Basic Industries gaining 0.8pc and Al Rajhi Bank adding 0.7pc.

Qatar’s index gained 0.3pc with Qatar National Bank adding 3.9pc. The Abu Dhabi index was up 0.5pc with Abu Dhabi National Hotels surging 14.8pc.

Traders on the floor of Saudi Stock exchange (file)

Batelco launches ‘Global Zone’ TDT | Manama

Batelco, a leading digi-tal solutions provider in

Bahrain, has announced the launch of Global Zone, a car-rier neutral digital business platform.

The platform, according to Batelco, is based on a highly secured Tier III Data Centre, which helps customers to op-erate their digital business in a secured environment.

The platform, Batelco said, will facilitate traffic growth by serving both regional and international partners with the aim of creating a global data exchange that will act as a regional gateway to other parts of the world.

Batelco Chief Global Busi-ness Officer, Adel Al Dayla-mi commented, “Global Zone provides data centre facilities and colocation services that serve as growth accelerators for digital businesses in the region and across the globe, enabling access to Batelco’s robust global network with widely distributed Points-of-Presence.”

Adel Al Daylami


KNOW WHAT

‘Rain’ passes Sandbox test • Rain has been operating within the regulatory sandbox of CBB since December 2017

• Rain is a cryptocurrency exchange that is now Shari’a compliant

• The company is targeting a 2019 launch

TDT | Manama

Rain, a Bahrain-based c r y p t o c u r r e n c y ex-change, yesterday an-

nounced its successful grad-uation of the Central Bank of Bahrain’s (CBB) Regulatory

Sandbox. Rain is also the first cryptocurrency exchange to graduate the CBB sandbox and is in the process of applying for the relevant licence.

Rain also announced that it has passed a Shari’a compli-ance certification. The Shari’a compliance certification was completed by Shariyah Review Bureau (SRB). SRB is licenced by

the Central Bank of Bahrain as a Shari’a Advisory firm author-ised to issue Shari’a compliance certifications.

SRB has reviewed Rain’s bro-kerage service and has deter-mined that the sale, purchase

and custodian activities of Rain are in compliance with Shari’a principles.

The Shari’a certification cov-ers a suite of three cryptocur-rencies (bitcoin, ethereum, and litecoin).

The Rain was founded in 2016 by Yehia Badawy, Abdullah Al-moaiqel, AJ Nelson and Joseph Dallago.

A b d u l l a h A l m o a i q e l , co-founder of Rain said: “We could not be more excited to have graduated the sandbox and are very close to our public launch now.”

Shariyah Review Bureau has been expanding its position in the world of fintech by advising clients like Stellar, X8 Currency, Ovamba and Beehive. “Our en-gagement with Rain is another important step to extending our position in this rapidly growing market,” said Yasser S. Dahlawi, Founder and CEO of SRB.

Abdullah Almoaiqel, co-founder of Rain

Rain was founded in 2016 by Yehia

Badawy, Abdullah Almoaiqel, AJ Nelson and Joseph Dallago

NBB gets new brand identity

TDT | Manama

National Bank of Bahrain (NBB) yesterday announced

the launch of its new brand identity in line with the Bank’s ongoing journey of transforma-tion in today’s rapidly changing banking environment.

The new brand was unveiled at the Euromoney - GCC Finan-cial Forum in Bahrain.

While staying true to those el-ements that have connected NBB and Bahrain, as embodied in the Kingdom’s shield and national

colours, the new identity chang-es to the brand, NBB said, have aimed to showcase the Bank’s progressive new personality and focus. “The new logo has been designed to represent the future, in its simplicity, and has been developed for ease of use on digital platforms”.

Commenting, Chairman of NBB, Farouk Yousuf Khalil Al-moayyed, said, “The evolution of our brand is an important part of our strategy for contin-ued market leadership as well as being integral to the prom-

ise we have made to all of our stakeholders when we began our journey of transformation nearly two years ago – to mod-ernise and do all we can to get closer to and better serve our customers and the Kingdom of Bahrain.”

Jean-Christophe Durand, CEO of NBB, added, “We are de-lighted to announce this impor-tant milestone in our strategy to become a more client-centric and modern bank and are ex-cited about the message we are communicating. The new brand

gives the market another look into where we are going.”

NBB’s new brand has been rolled out across all digital platforms (social media, web-site, mobile application, mo-bile banking, business online banking and ATM screens) and the Bank’s Main, Tubli, Riffa and Hidd branches. NBB’s Abu Dhabi and Riyadh branches will unveil the new signage in March and April, respectively, with the remainder of the Bank’s branch-es to be rebranded over the next 12 months.

Right, officials during the launch. Left, NBB’s new brand identity

Treasurer of the Bahrain Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BCCI) Aref Hejris receiving at Bait Al Tijjar yesterday officials from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) headed by the Chief of Mission to Bahrain Bikas Joshi. During the meeting, Joshi hailed the liberal foreign investment policies and the recent fiscal reforms of the Kingdom. He also commended the measures taken by the government to ration expenditures and reduce budget deficit. Also present at the meeting were BCCI’s vice-treasurer Waleed Kanoo, board members Khalid Al Zayani and Ahmed Al ASaloom, alongside Chief Executive Officer Shaker Al Shater.

Bahrain to launch amphibious busesBTEA celebrates Arab Tourism Day

TDT | Manama

Minister of Industry, Com-merce and Tourism,

Zayed Bin Rashid Al Zayani, said Bahrain will be launching amphibious buses by mid-2019 to facilitate the movement of visitors and residents in the Kingdom.

The minister, speaking dur-ing a celebration held on the occasion of Arab Tourism Day, said, “Through celebrat-ing Arab Tourism Day, we aim to highlight the cultural and tourism landmarks in the Arab countries, within the sustaina-ble development through var-ious programmes that come within the objectives of the Arab Ministerial Council for Tourism and the Arab Tourism Organisation.”

The event was held under the slogan “Tourism and Sus-tainable Development”, in re-sponse to the invitation of the Arab Tourism Organisation to celebrate the birth of Arab traveller Ibn Battuta, which falls on the 25th of February.

Bahrain Tourism and Ex-hibitions Authority (BTEA) held the celebration under the patronage of the Minis-ter of Industry, Commerce and Tourism, Zayed Bin Rashid Al Zayani on Mon-day at ‘Vatel Hospitality and Tourism Business School’ in Al Jasrah.

The event was held in the presence of the Chief Exec-utive Officer of BTEA, Shai-kh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa, several dignitaries in the tourism sector along with several representatives in the tourism sector including ho-tels and restaurants.

During the ceremony, two panel discussions were held.

The first focused on “Ecot-ourism: Mangroves and Pearl Diving Projects”, while the second focused on “Hospitali-ty Sector: Sustainable Human Resources”.

“Our annual celebration of Arab Tourism Day comes in line with the Authority’s strategy to develop the tour-ism sector in the Kingdom of Bahrain, which is an important sector that contributes to the GDP, further increasing em-ployment rates and supporting the national economy,” said the Chief Executive Officer of BTEA, Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa.

13.7m tourists visited Kingdom TDT | Manama

13.7 million international tourists visited Bahrain

in 2018, said CEO of BTEA, Shaikh Khaled bin Humood Al Khalifa.

This, the CEO said is an increase of 7.6 per cent com-pared to 2017.

The average length of stay for each tourist was 2.9 nights in 2018, an increase of 3.8pc compared to the previous year.

Tourist nights amount-ed to 12.8 million nights in 2018, an increase of 3.7pc compared to 2017.

Announcing the latest tourist developments in the Kingdom, the CEO said that Bahrain witnessed un-precedented growth rate in 2018 with the total number of visitors reaching 12 mil-lion, an increase of 5.9pc compared to 2017.

Industry Minister at the event

Participants at the Arab Tourism Day 2019 celebrations

13 Wednesday, February 27, 2019

P A I N T I N G S

Mohammed Nafih Class 1

The Indian School

Need a Female Accountant, lives in Riffa.

Kindly send your CV on [email protected]

URGENTLY REQUIRED

Students of Bahrain Indian School- BHAVANS explain their projects to visitors of the Art and Science exhibition held at the school on Saturday. Children of Grades I to VIII participated in the exhibition that showcased the working models and the display models on various concepts which enabled them to show their interest and understanding of science

Mastering PhysicsBy Aniruddha Baranwal

In continuation of our expert column in education sec-tion for CBSE students, here

are some tips and guidelines for CBSE Grade XII students, who would be appearing for their Physics Board exam on 5th March, 2019.

Physics has always been the core of science owing to its log-ical thoughts and visualizations. Needless to say that scoring in this subject has always been a challenge to many. However, following the last moment tips as suggested below, one can eas-ily optimize one’s performance.

Duration of the exam: 3 hours & 15 minutes where first 15 min-utes is allotted to read the paper and 3 hours for answering.

Format of the paper: The pa-per will have total 27 questions divided into 4 sections A,B,C,D of 1 Mark, 2 marks, 3 marks & 5 marks each respectively.

Utilize your reading time ef-fectively:

1. Once you get the question paper take a deep breath and remind yourself- “I have done sufficient revision and there is no reason that I don’t do well”.

2. Go through the paper and while you read the questions slowly, mentally formulate the answers especially for questions in first two sections. Think of the formulae, graphs, reasons, diagrams to be used to write the answers.

3. While reading the numeri-cal based questions, keep check-ing their units given and Also during this time try to select the “OR” questions which you feel you can do comfortably. Since CBSE has introduced more in-ternal choices from this year choosing the right question to do will not only maximize your marks, but will save time.

4. This time the students should also utilize to select questions to start with. Remem-ber, the first impression always lasts.

Answering the paper: Remem-ber- Presentation Matters

1. A rough time division for each section would be

Section A- 1 mark X 5 ques-tions. Each question should not take more than 2-3 min-utes making it a maximum of 15 minutes.

Section B- 2 marks X 7 ques-tions. Each question should not take more than 5 minutes mak-ing it a maximum of 35 minutes.

Section C- 3 marks X 12 ques-tions. Each question should not take more than 7 minutes mak-ing it a maximum of 85 minutes.

Section D- 5 marks X 3 ques-tions. Each question should not take more than 10 minutes making it a maximum of 80 minutes.

The last 15 minutes should be for revision of the entire paper.

2. Students must answer each question as per marking scheme. Hence a 5 mark ques-tion must take at least 2 sides to 2.5 sides of the answer sheet, a 3 mark question should take around 1-1.5 sides, 2 marks ques-tion should take around 0.5 to 1 side and 1 mark should take around 1 word to 2-4 lines.

3. Any question before at-tempting must be read at least 2 times so as to double sure if that can be done.

4. After completing the ques-tion, student must read the question again as to ensure that he/she has done all the parts.

5. Students should never leave any question un-attempt-ed. Even if they don’t know the answer they should write some-thing related to the question. They can always do this if they have taken sufficient practice tests before the exams

6. Any graph asked to be drawn, it ’s related formula should also be written.

7. Wherever possible, in 1Mark or2Marks questions like True/False, reason should be given even if not asked specif-ically.

8. Wherever possible neat and clean diagram/picture/circuit

must be drawn even if not asked. If specifically asked, the picture must be labelled as well.

9. Students should not forget to write units in the final answer of numerical type questions. Similarly they should not forget to convert quantities into com-mon units and the best would be the S.I. Units.

10. Students may leave final calculation in case of shortage of time but the same should be marked on question paper so that they comeback if they get time. However, leaving the an-swers without final answer is not at all recommended.

11. Students must start with those questions where they are sure so that at least in-first4-5pages there should be minimum mistakes, over writ-ings or cancellations.

12. Any numerical must start with the relevant formula and not directly. Even if student makes some calculation mis-take, he/she will get marks for the formula. Also even if he/she gets correct, he/she will loose marks for not writing the formula.

13. Students should under-stand that they will never loose marks for writing something extra but they can always loose marks if written in short.

• Last Moment revision:Students must not forget to

revise the following topics in the last days including the gap after English Exam on 2nd March.

1. Electrostatics: All the con-

cepts and derivations in Gauss law & Capacitor

2. Moving Charges: Force between 2 parallel wires, Biot Savart’s law

3. Current Electricity: All graphs, drift velocity, Potenti-ometer

4. Magnetism: Diamagnetism, paramagnetism and Ferro-mag-netism

5. Electro-Magnetic Induc-tion: Mutual Inductance and Lenz Law

6. A.C.: R-L-C Series Circuit with special mention to Reso-nance

7. E-M Waves: with special mention to displacement cur-rent

8. Optics: Special focus to Huygen’s Theory, Diffraction, Interference and Optical In-struments and Total Internal Reflection.

9. Atoms and Photo-electric Effect with special focus on Bohr’s Model, graphs and fail-ure of Wave Theory.

10. The Last 2 chapters of Communication and Semicon-ductors.

All the Instruments/Devices : i. Potentiometerii. Generatoriii. Transformeriv. Moving coil galvanometer.v. Cyclotronvi. Amplifier11. Revise all the solved exam-

ples of NCERTJust by following the above

tips one can easily get minimum 4-6 marks more than what one would have got! FIITJEE wishes all the students a very best of luck for CBSE boards

(The author is an Ex-IITian cur-rently working with FIITJEE and has been providing consultancy & Guidance to CBSE students in Bah-rain for CBSE Board, SAT, IIT-JEE and other similar Exams for more than 11 years and has been guiding force behind many success stories. FIITJEE over the last five years have been producing Board Toppers be-cause of such tips & guidance. For more details he can be reached at [email protected] )

Aniruddha Baranwal

BTI Skills to be launched in MarchTDT | Manama

Under the patronage of Dr. Majid Al Nuaimi, Min-

ister of Education, Bahrain Training Institute (BTI) is launching the fifth edition of BTI Skills competition on 27th and 28th March at its premises in Isa Town.

In this context, Dr. Samah Al-Ajjawi, Director General of Bahrain Training Institute, pointed out that “the aim of organizing the skills compe-titions is to raise awareness of the importance of technical and vocational education and training, which forms an im-portant part of the economic development process in the Kingdom of Bahrain”.

“The competition qualifies participants to join BTI team that would represent the Insti-tute in national, regional and international skills competi-tions as it highlights a num-ber of skills selected according to the national and regional specifications and standards. The competition would also contribute to enhancing co-operation between BTI and the industry sector” DG added.

For her part, Head of BTI Trainees Head of BTI Train-ees’ Projects and Competitions Ms. Mona Al- Shoala said that the “BTI Skills” competition at its fifth edition will include 14 technical and vocational skills, these are: Electrical Installation, Plumbing and Heating, IT Network Systems Administration, IT Software Solutions for Business, Web-site Design and Development, Information Network Cabling, Graphic Design Technology, CNC Milling, Welding, Mobile Robotics, Mechatronics, Elec-tronics and the Automobile Technology skill, as well as the Wall and Floor Tiling skill, that is included for the first time at BTI, based on the national and regional standards of the labour market.

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) student Maryam receives the second prize in the 2018 National University of Ireland (NUI) Dr Henry Hutchinson Stewart Medical Scholarships and Prizes in Psychiatry by the Professor McMenamin during the annual White Coat Ceremony. She is the latest RCSI Bahrain student to be honoured, following on from Dr Yusuf Alwan (2014), Dr Hiba Omar Mohamed (2014) and Dr Ali Almoamen (2015), who received second prize for paediatrics, third prize for surgery and second prize for medicine respectively

Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland – Medical University of Bahrain (RCSI Bahrain) during the annual White Coat Ceremony at the Busaiteen campus. The students celebrated their transition to clinical training during the ceremony which is a symbolic event based around the presentation of the students’ white coats and takes place in the Intermediate Cycle stage

14 WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 27, 2019

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Ariana Grande

beats Selena

Gomez on Instagram

Los Angeles

Singer Ariana Grande has beat-en “Back to you” hitmaker Se-lena Gomez to become the most

followed woman on Instagram.According to Billboard, Gomez trailed

behind Grande’s 146,286,173 followers with a count of 146,267,801, reports eonline.com.

Around 13 million more people add-ed Grande to their Instagram feeds over the last four months.The increase in the number of fol-

lowers came in the wake of the release of her latest album “Thank U, Next”.

Not only on Instagram, the “Bang bang” singer is active on Twitter. She has over 61 million follow-ers on the microblogging site.

But both Grande and Gomez trail soccer player Cristiano

Ronaldo who has over 155 million followers as the most followed

person on Ins-tagram.

R. Kelly released

Los Angeles

US singer R. Kelly was

released from jail on a $100,000 bond

after pleading not guilty to 10 sexual abuse charg-es against three minors.

The 52-year-old was released from a Chicago prison on Monday after-noon, reports Efe news.

Kelly briefly appeared at a hearing earlier on Monday at a court here and pleaded not guilty before Judge LeRoy Mar-tin, who is handling the case.

The district attorney in charge, Kimberly Foxx, has indicated that the 10 criminal charges the singer is facing are linked to four victims, three of whom were, at the time of the events, less than 17 years old.

If convicted, Kelly could be sentenced to three to seven years in prison for each of the ac-cusations.

The singer, who sur-rendered to the authori-ties on February 22 after the charges against him were announced and who spent the weekend in prison, has at all times denied having committed any crime.

Mexican president celebrates Oscar for ‘Roma’Los Angeles

Mexican President An-dres Manuel Lopez

Obrador has congratulat-ed the entire team of the Mexican film “Roma” for winning three Oscars.

The week began “with good news”, Obrador said at a press conference on Monday and hailed the film’s director, Alfonso Cuaron, Efe news report-ed.

The 91st Academy Awards on Sunday saw “Roma” become the first Mexican feature to win the Oscar for best foreign film, while Cuaron took home the awards for cinematog-raphy and directing.

“It pleases me very much that a Mexican, that a team, a group of actors, profes-sionals, have this recogni-tion that is so important in cinema,” Obrador said.

Believe it! Gaga wore

diamond worth $30m

Miley Cyrus compliments Priyanka Chopra as ‘pretty love’

Los Angeles

Actress Priyanka Cho-pra’s appearance at the 2019 Vanity Fair

Oscars after party has left not only fans but also singer-ac-tress Miley Cyrus, who was once romantically linked to Priyanka’s husband Nick Jo-nas, in awe of her.

When celebrity make-up artist Pati Dubroff on Mon-day posted a photograph of Priyanka’s party look on Ins-tagram, Miley’s comment on it set tongues wagging.

Miley complimented Pri-yanka saying, “pretty love”.

Priyanka walked the Os-cars after party red carpet in

a black shimmer dress, while Nick sported a blue suit. After the event, they took to social media to share photographs of themselves as they shared some fun and cosy moments together.

“Black Panther” actress Lupita Nyong’o also took to Instagram story to share her happiness after meeting the newlyweds.

“Finally met the Jonases,” wrote the actress of the film, which won three Oscars on Sunday night.

Re-posting Lupita’s post, Priyanka said: “So good see-ing you, Lupita, we need to do it more often!”

• While the diamond was perhaps less attention-grabbing than her iconic meat dress, it was historic in its own right.

Los Angeles

Lady Gaga deliv-ered everything you were hoping

for at this year’s Acade-my Awards: tears during her acceptance speech, a gleaming disposition sit-ting in the front row, and an emotional and stirring performance with co-star Bradley Cooper.

As the star is wont to do, Lady Gaga also turned heads on the red carpet — this time with a 128.54-car-at yellow Tiffany diamond that was worth almost as much as it cost t o p r o d u c e A Star Is Born. The enormous, cush-

ion-shaped diamond is worth nearly $30 million, according to estimates from Tiffany & Co. (For reference, A Star is Born cost around $36 million to produce.) That means Lady Gaga’s diamond is reportedly the most ex-pensive piece of jewelry ever worn at the Academy Awards.

While the diamond was perhaps less atten-tion-grabbing than her iconic meat dress, it was historic in its own right. Audrey Hepburn once wore the same Tiffany diamond, set on a differ-ent piece, for promotional shots for 1961’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s.

Priyanka Chopra

Miley Cyrus

Ariana Grande

Selena Gomez

Injuries open way for Sanchez, Lukaku to shine

Romelu Lukaku and Alexis Sanchez have become bit part players at Manchester United but will get a chance to boost their hopes of a bigger role thanks to an injury crisis

• United missing four attacking players for Palace match

AFP | Manchester

Alexis Sanchez and Rome-lu Lukaku must both take their opportunity

to impress as an injury crisis cuts through Manchester Unit-ed’s squad, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer says.

Both players have struggled for form for much of the season, with Sanchez having started just one Premier League match in 2019, and Lukaku having gone 10 matches without scoring.

The two forwards were her-alded as major signings when they arrived at Old Trafford, but neither would now be consid-ered an automatic starter.

However, United’s squad is stretched to the limit as they prepare for Wednesday’s Pre-mier League trip to Crystal Palace, with 10 players either unavailable or doubtful because of injury.

That list includes four front-line forwards, Anthony Martial, Jesse Lingard, Marcus Rashford and Juan Mata.

Lingard and Mata both had to be substituted during the first half of Sunday’s 0-0 draw at home to Liverpool, while Rash-

ford played to the finish despite an ankle injury caused by Jordan Henderson’s challenge early on.

France forward Martial missed the game with a groin problem.

Caretaker-manager Solskjaer, though, is confident Sanchez and Lukaku have the quality to impress if given a sustained run in the team.

Sanchez did little to impress after replacing Lingard, but

Lukaku did make an impact af-ter being moved from a central position to a wide role in order to reduce the injured Rashford’s workload.

“It’s a chance for them to play to their potential. Reputation is one thing, but the potential is high,” said Solskjaer.

“The two are good mates and they link up well together, so this might be a chance for those two together to find some form

and give us a selection headache for when everyone gets fit.

“Rom created our two biggest chances against Liverpool.

“It’s a different position for him, but Rashy’s injury meant we had to leave him standing up there and running in behind. He couldn’t do too much defending work.

“Rom’s attitude and workrate were fantastic.Hopefully Alexis and Rom can step up.”

‘Taking people on’ Solskjaer confirmed Martial

would not be risked against Pal-ace, although he could return for Saturday’s Premier League home match against Southamp-ton

Club captain Antonio Valen-cia, meanwhile, is several weeks away from a return after aggra-vating a calf injury.

United also have Matteo Darmian, Phil Jones, Nemanja Matic and Ander Herrera on the sidelines so Solskjaer has called up academy graduates Angel Gomes, Tahith Chong and James Garner for the Palace trip.

“They’ve been part of our training for a long time now,” said Solskjaer.

“Angel has been in that successful England Under-17 side, the 2017 World Cup-win-ning team with Jadon Sancho, Phil Foden and Callum Hud-son-Odoi.

10Manchester United’s

players are either unavailable or doubtful

because of injury for Wednesday’s trip to

Crystal Palace

I wanted to take the time today to

apologise fully and in person to the

coach, to Willy, my team-mates and to

the clubKEPA ARRIZABALAGA

15

sports


Alexis Sanchez of Manchester United celebrates scoring their first goal during the FA Cup Fourth Round match between Arsenal and Manchester United at Emirates Stadium on January 25

BIC holds coordination meeting ahead of F1 Bahrain Grand PrixTDT | Manama

Bahrain International Circuit (BIC) held an an-

nual coordination meeting as part of the nation-wide preparations for the upcom-ing Formula 1 Gulf Air Bah-rain Grand Prix 2019, taking place from March 28 to 31 in Sakhir.

BIC officials met with representatives from the various ministries and gov-ernment agencies involved in the hosting of the race.

The gathering took place at the circuit premises, with BIC Chief Executive Shaikh Salman bin Isa Al Khalifa presiding over the event.

Also in attendance were members of BIC manage-ment from different depart-ments.

During the meeting, BIC Governmental Affairs, Se-curity and Safety Director Beshara Abdo Beshara pre-sented a plan detailing all important issues regard-ing the organisation of the Grand Prix weekend. It in-cluded procedures of wel-coming guests from all over the world to the Kingdom of Bahrain, amongst many things.

This year’s Gulf Air Bah-rain Grand Prix is set to be the second of 21 rounds on the 2019 FIA Formula 1 World Championship. The 57-lap sprint in the heart of the Sakhir desert will mark the 999th World Champi-onship race in the history of the top flight.

It is being held as part of the landmark 15th season of BIC and it will be the sixth time it is taking place under BIC’s state-of-the-art flood-lights as a night race.

Falcon CC rally past Rising stars TDT | Manama

Falcon CC defeated Rising stars by 61 runs in a CBA

Division D 25 overs League match.

Rising stars won the toss and elected to bowl

first. Abhijith (50) scored a brilliant half century and was well supported by

Saifudheen (40) who helped Falcon to score

180 runs at the end of 25 overs. Rajesh and Ponnus took two wickets each for Rising Stars. Chasing the target Rising Stars were wound up for 119 runs. Deepak took four wickets for Falcon and Falcon CC won the match by 61 runs.

Brief Score: Falcon CC 180/8 in 25 overs (Abhi-jith 50, Saifudheen 40, Rajesh 2/24) beat Rising

Stars 119/10 (Rajeev 24, Deepak 4/24) by 61 runsOther Match ResultsPak Panthers 124/10 (Bilal

31, Nabeel 3/27) beat Suha Travels 98/10 (Nabeel 21, Noman 4/22) by 26 runs.

Spartans 126/5 in 22.5 overs (Shoaib 37, Shahin

31, Robin 3/13) beat NIA Kerala XI 125/9 (Ratheesh 22, Farhan 4/16) by 5 wickets

Friends XI 135/5 in 17.5 overs (Lijo 55, Sha Alam 26) beat ETS 134/3 (Rizwan 66) by 5 wickets

Via Cloud Royal Blasters 124/4 in 17.5 overs (Siyad 33, Akhil 30) beat Challengers 123/10 (Vidhun 34, Jamson 4/20) by 6 wickets

NDC Bahrain 158/8 in 25 overs (Balaji 64, Laxman 2/25) beat Cebarco 79/10 (Aji 15, Jam-sheer 5/23) by 79 runs

Alpha Fire 121/5 in 18.1 over (Amila 36, Thushara 32, Na-beel 2/25) beat Bharath Leg-ends 120/10 (Deepu 35, Dilhara 4/26) by 5 wickets

Colts CA 99/8 in 22 overs (Nijo 27, Suhas 3/18) beat Lan-tern Lions 98/8 (Benny 24, Yogesh 30, Wilson 2/14) by 2 wickets

Modest 142/10 (Jaseer 56,

Fateh 3/16) beat Black Feather 92/10 (Sam 3, Jaseer 4/14) by 50 runs

Tornado A 208/6 in 25 overs (Vinu 79, Gigin 57, Azar 3/27) beat Super XI 74/10 (Sarfaraz 14, Biju 4/19) by 134 runs

Indian Super Kings 164/9 in 25 overs (Rusubh 26, Rakesh 46, Akhil 3/18) beat GT Abdulaal 71/10 (Shayam 24, Rajesh 4/5, Rakesh 3/9) by 93 runs

Bahrain Hawks 141/7 in 25 overs (Rajesh 25, Abraham 22) bea Santy Excavation 101/10 (Satheesh 21, Satender 2/15) by 40 runs

Fateh Curtain 130/4 in 17.5 overs (Noman 37, Zaid 27) beat RUCT 129/10 (Arjun 57, Adnan 3/18) by 6 wickets

Tisca Stars 146/1 in 18 overs (Omer 58, Nishnu 37) beat Sha-fig Glass 143/10 (Mohamed 38, Murtaza 31, Vipin 3/19) by 9 wickets

Abhijith - Falcon CC

Jamseer - NDC Jaseer - Modest XI

Lijo - Friends XI

Vinu - Tornado A

Chelsea’s Kepa fined, apologises for League Cup final mutinyAFP | London

Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa Arrizabalaga has been

fined a week’s wages by the club after defying manager Maurizio Sarri and refusing to be substituted during the League Cup final on Sunday.

“Although there was a mis-understanding, on reflection, I made a big mistake with how I handled the situation,” Kepa said in a statement on Chelsea’s website which an-nounced the fine.

The club simultaneously published a statement from Sarri in which the manag-er said the pair had spoken following the row, which oc-curred in extra time of the

match which Manchester City won on penalties.

“He has apologised to me, his team-mates and the club,” said Sarri.

“It is up to the club if they want to discipline him ac-cording to the club rules, but for me this matter is now closed.”

Sarri, who reacted fu-riously when Kepa re-fused to be substituted af-ter needing treatment in the closing stages, said the incident had been a “mis-understanding”.

“ T h e re wa s a misunder-standing yes-t e r d a y b u t (Kepa) realis-es he made a big mistake in the way he reacted.

“The team performance as a whole was extremely positive and it is a shame to see how this incident has overshadowed our efforts in what was a very competitive cup final.”

Mourinho wants next club to have empathy as well as ambition

Reuters | London

Fo r m e r M a n c h e s t e r United manager Jose

Mourinho says the next club he joins must have a strong sense of “structural empathy” to help him cope with the demands of mod-ern football, in which player power heavily influences the game.

The Portuguese coach, who was sacked by United after a 2-1/2 year spell last December, intends to re-turn to the game before the start of next season but said he would only join a club that did not have “internal conflict”.

Mourinho’s third season at United was dominated by media reports of a rift with record signing Paul Pogba, before the own-ers pulled the plug on his tenure with the team sit-ting sixth in the Premier League.

“You now have a genera-tion of players who are not just players but the whole package,” the 56-year-old told the Telegraph.

Kepa Arrizabalaga

Solari tight-lipped as scrutiny stays on Bale ahead of Copa Clasico

AFP | Madrid

Santiago Solari dodged seven questions about Gareth Bale

yesterday as the Welshman’s cel-ebration snub continues to domi-nate the build-up to Real Madrid’s

Copa del Rey Clasico against Barcelona.

Madrid face Barca in the second leg of the cup semi-final today, and then again in La Liga four days later, with Bale’s bolshy re-action to scoring against Levante last weekend still the major topic of discussion.

Solari refused to crit-icise or defend Bale’s behaviour after start-ing him only twice in

the eight matches since the 29-year-old returned from a calf injury in January.

M a d r i d ’ s coach was asked about Bale’s discipline, commit-

ment and form but refused to be drawn, insisting his team’s

focus was only the game. “Look, I understand

everyone wants to find a focus and you put

the focus where

it seems important,” Solari said. “But our focus is only on what we think is

important. It is on the game, to win tomorrow, to be united. Where others focus is up to them.”

Asked if he had spoken to Bale about the in-cident against Levante, Solari said: “There are some things that stay in the dressing room and that remain private.”

Bale was left out of the starting line-up at the City of Valencia Stadium and after coming on to convert a second-half penalty, he remained stony-faced while brushing off attempts from team-mates to congratulate him.

“He won us the game,” said Solari after the 2-1 win. “The players can celebrate goals how they want, as long as they score.”

It was the second time this month that Bale’s response to a goal has caused controversy.

After scoring in a 3-1 win over Atletico Madrid two weeks ago, Bale seemed to make an obscene gesture towards the Atletico fans, which could yet see him banned for the Clasico today.

Nishikori comes through ‘tricky’ Dubai debut

No 1 seed Kei Nishikori advances in Dubai with 6-4, 6-3 win over Paire

• Daniil Medvedev beaten by world No 113 Ricardas Berankis

AFP | Dubai

Top seed Kei Nishikori dis-patched “tricky” Benoit Paire 6-4, 6-3 on his de-

but at the Dubai Championships yesterday.

Asia’s top player and the world number six will meet Huburt Hurkacz in the second round at the Aviation Club after the Pole beat French qualifier Corentin Moutet 6-3, 7-5.

Nishikori has shaken up his longtime schedule this season and is playing Dubai for the first time for a welcome change of ATP scenery after limiting himself in the past to North American venues including the defunct Memphis event and Delray Beach.

Victory over the unpredicta-ble Paire who is prone to throw- ing and smashing racquets in

moments of despair, lasted for 81 minutes.

“It’s never easy playing Be-noit, of course. Great serve, great backhand. Tricky player. Good dropshot, good touch,” was Nishikori’s analysis.

“The key to the first set was the (eight-minute) long (third) game in the first set.

“After I got that one, I was more confident - but if he broke back, anything can happen.

“It was a good match, it’s nev-er easy with this wind. I think played good enough tennis to-day.”

Nishikori saved eight break points in the opening set to suc-cessfully blunt the Frenchman’s attack, with two breaks in the second set enough to ensure victory.

The top seed now stands 12-2 on the season after a title in Brisbane, an Australian Open quarter--final and the semis this month in Rotterdam.

Nishikori improved his career edge over Paire, winning his eighth from their 10 meetings.

Lithuanian qualifier Ricar-das Berankis knocked out an-other seed after Monday exits of Karen Khachanov and Mi-

los Raonic as he beat Russian number eight Daniil Medvedev 6-3, 6-3.

“I was feeling good today, re-ally happy with my game today,” the number 113 playing only his third ATP-level match of the season said.

“The plan was to stay as close as possible and not to get into those long rallies which he loves.”

American Denis Kudla elimi-nated last season’s Gstaad win-ner Matteo Berrettini of Italy 2-6, 7-5, 7-5 and Egor Gerasimov of Belarus beat Dutchman Rob-in Haase 7-6 (7/2), 7-6 (7/5).


Look, I understand everyone wants to find a focus and you put the focus where it seems important. But our

focus is only on what we think is important. It is on the game, to

win tomorrow, to be united. Where others focus is up to them

SANTIAGO SOLARI

KNOW WHAT

Nishikori improved his career edge over

Paire, winning his eighth from their 10

meetings

Kei Nishikori hits a return against Benoit Paire

Giovinazzi fastest for Alfa Romeo as F1 testing resumes

Reuters | Barcelona

Formula One fired up its final four-day pre-season

test yesterday with champi-ons Mercedes trying out new aerodynamic parts and Italian Antonio Giovinazzi fastest for Alfa Romeo.

Giovinazzi’s best lap of one minute 18.589 seconds in the Ferrari-powered car was set using the second softest C4 compound tyres towards the end of a sunny session at the Circuit de Catalunya outside Barcelona.

Red Bull’s Pierre Gasly was second on the timesheets with Ferrari’s new recruit Charles Leclerc third, both on harder rubber.

Leclerc managed only 29 laps with the Monegasque losing track time as Ferrari checked the car’s cooling sys-tem.

Five times world champion Lewis Hamilton was eighth

quickest of the 10 drivers on track but did 83 laps, the sec-ond most and one less than Haas driver Kevin Magnussen. Both were on the second hard-est C2 tyres.

The Briton, focusing on long runs, had a different front wing to the one used last week.

Williams had a more en-couraging morning, after missing most of the first test due to the late build of the car, with British rookie George Russell doing 46 laps - more than he managed last week - with the sixth fastest time.

McLaren’s Lando Norris brought out red flags when he pulled over halfway through the session with 38 laps done and the team’s former driver Fernando Alonso arriving in the paddock to watch the af-ternoon running.

The season starts in Austral-ia on March 17.

Alfa Romeo’s Italian driver Antonio Giovinazzi takes part in the tests

Wawrinka edges Harrison to advance in Acapulco

Reuters | Mexico City

Stanislas Wawrinka con-tinued his recent uptick

in form with a 6-4 7-6(6) win over Ryan Harrison on Mon-day to advance to the second round of the Acapulco Inter-national.

The Swiss started the first set with a break to set the tone but had to battle to hold off Harrison in the second set where the American earned a break to even it at 4-4.Waw-rinka clinched the match with his 26th winner of the night.

A three-time Grand Slam champion, Wawrinka reached the final of the Rotterdam Open last week. He lost to

Frenchman Gael Monfils but it was his first appearance in a championship match since the 2017 French Open.Wawrinka’s recent run has returned him to the top 50 in the ATP singles rankings at 42nd.

He will next face seventh seed Steve Johnson, who beat Mexican wild card Gerar-do Lopez Villasenor 7-5 7-5.Eighth-seeded Australian John Millman defeated Spain’s Marcel Granollers 6-3 6-4.

World number two Rafa Na-dal was set to open his bid for the title later yesterday against Mischa Zverev. Second seed Alexander Zverev and third seed John Isner also were to begin their campaigns later yesterday.

Swiss tennis player Stan Wawrinka returns the ball to US tennis player Ryan Harrison

Klopp urges Liverpool to grab ‘once in a lifetime’ opportunityAFP | London

Liverpool manager Ju-rgen Klopp wants his

side to focus on the posi-tives of leading the Premier League with just 11 games to go rather than a recent dip in form.

A run of three draws in four P r e m i e r L e a g u e games has seen the Reds’ lead at the top of the table over Man-chester City cut to just one point.

However, having wait-ed 29 years to win the league, Klopp is focused on looking forward rath-er than back at oppor-tunities missed in recent weeks.

“Usually in a situation where you can be cham-pions for the first time in your life – for a lot of our supporters it would be the first time in their life, and for a lot of my players as well – it’s pure opportunity,” said the German ahead of Watford’s visit to Anfield today.

Gareth Bale

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