AFC champions

Members of Qatar’s Under-19 national team, which won the AFC U-19 Championship in Myanmar, wave from the team bus at Hamad International Airport yesterday. The jubilant team was received at the airport by excited fans and senior sports officials. (SALIM MATRAMKOT)

See also page 28

editor@pen.com.qa | adv@pen.com.qa Editorial: 4455 7741 | Advertising: 4455 7837 / 4455 7780www.thepeninsulaqatar.comSunday 26 October 2014 • 2 Muharram 1436 • Volume 19 Number 6230

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Four DFI-funded films in race for OscarsBY SACHIN KUMAR

DOHA: This year’s Oscars have a Qatar connection. Four films, which received Doha Film Institute’s (DFI) financial support, are in race for the top honours in cin-ema. The official submis-sions of Lebanon, Mauritania, Panama and Palestine for the 87th Academy Awards were financially supported by the DFI in 2013.

‘Ghadi’ directed by Amin Dora, is the official Lebanese entry,

‘Invasion’ by Abner Benaim is from Panama, ‘Timbuktu’ directed by Abderrahmane Sissako, is Mauritanian and ‘Eyes of a Thief ’ directed by Najwa Najjar, is the official Palestinian entry in the foreign-language film category.

“These four films were sup-ported through the Doha Film Institute grants programme,” Khalil Benkirane, Head of Grants, DFI, told The Peninsula.

These films will face fierce com-petition for the Oscars, consid-ered the ultimate recognition in

the world of cinema. This year, 83 countries have submitted entries in the foreign-language film cat-egory. Of these, five nominees for the Oscars will be announced on January 15, 2015. The winner will be announced in the awards ceremony on February 22 at the Dolby Theatre at Hollywood and Highland Center in Hollywood, USA.

“The grants programme was established in 2010 and since then, more than 180 films have received funding. The original mission of the programme was to support

voices from the Arab world,” said Benkirane. “This remains a central principle to our funding decisions as well as our focus on supporting local talent here in Qatar and the Gulf and also our recent expansion to allow some other countries to participate which helps us to further extend our international reach within the film industry,” he added.

The four entries is the highest number of submissions in a year for DFI.

THE PENINSULAContinued on page 7

Ecuador offers Qatar help in food securityBY JABER AL HARAMI

DOHA: Qatar and Ecuador are passing through the best phase of their relationship, which goes beyond mutual interests and is based on shared values and principles like supporting the Palestinian cause, president of Ecuador Rafael Correa Delgado has said.

Delgado said both the coun-tries have agreed to strengthen cooperation in trade, tourism, petrochemicals, mining, food, education, among other sectors.

“My visit to Qatar is to show respect to the Arab world and the Arab-Islamic culture. Last year the Father Emir H H Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani vis-ited Ecuador and we were keen to reciprocate,” Delgado said in an interview with Al Sharq.

During his recent visit, he said, agreements have been signed between the two countries on double taxation, tourism and waiving visa requirements for holders of diplomatic and spe-cial passports. Asked how the two countries can play a positive role on Middle Eastern and Latin American issues, Delgado said, “This is the best opportunity in history. Ecuador was not known to the Middle East earlier and we didn’t know about GCC and the

Middle East. We didn’t have an embassy in the Middle East. Now we have an embassy in Qatar and Qatar has an embassy in Quito.”

He said the relations between Qatar and Ecuador surpassed economic interests.

“Our relations are not focus-ing only on the economic aspect but extend to culture, science and other areas. We know trade and investment are very impor-tant. Ecuador is producing large amount of food and we have the ability to provide our surplus food to other friendly countries. We may be able to help Qatar in achieving food security,” said Delgado.

On boosting relations in the education and tourism sectors, the president said, eight stu-dents from Ecuador are studying in Qatar and this number can be increased manifold in the years to come. He said there are more opportunities for cooperation in sports, tourism and investment.

The tourism sector in Ecuador has witnessed 15 percent growth which is three times higher than the international growth rate.

“We have discussed with the Emir a proposal to set up joint companies for food exports and imports,” Delgado said.

THE PENINSULAContinued on page 7

Ties to be bolstered in various areas

Aljazeera Forum for Film Festivals launchedDOHA: The Aljazeera Documentary Festival being held at Ritz-Carlton hotel saw the launch of Aljazeera Forum for Film Festivals, a first of its kind initiative globally.

The Aljazeera Festival Director, Abbas Arnaout said this initia-tive represented a big step into the world of documentary films. This new body will enhance the exchange of expertise, foster the documentary film culture, and encourage innovative people and producers. Arnaout was elected an executive director to the forum the first meeting of which will be held in Doha. An internal charter will be created defining the duties and the conditions of joining and membership. Membership shall be open to all types of film fes-tivals worldwide. The forum will also provide moral support to all new directors and producers.

THE PENINSULA

02 HOMESUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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Qatar condemns Sinai explosionsDOHA: The Foreign Ministry has expressed Qatar’s denun-ciation and condemnation of two explosions in Sinai in which scores of Egyptian army per-sonnel were killed or injured.

In a statement, the minis-try said both attacks aimed at undermining security and stabil-ity in Egypt, and described them as contravening humanitarian principles and values. It reiter-ated Qatar’s firm position reject-ing violence in all its forms and manifestations. The ministry extended Qatar’s condolences to the bereaved families and wished the injured speedy recovery.

Qatar construction specifications forum opens todayDOHA: Under the patronage of the Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani, the two-day Conference and Exhibition of Qatar Construction Specifications (QSC 2014) opens today at Qatar National Convention Centre.

The fifth edition of these spec-ifications will also be launched with the participation of over 500 experts and specialists from Qatar and abroad. They will be briefed on latest innovations and technical engineering projects to be presented by commercial companies while topics relevant to these areas will be discussed.

QCS 2014 is the first step towards ‘Qatar international specifications for construction 2017’ as an urgent need for the community to maintain the health and integrity of human beings and their property. QSC 2014 is in line with Qatar National Vision 2030 and the sustainable devel-opment underway in all areas to achieve security and public safety as part of the national strategy for building safety and improving occupational health.

THE PENINSULA/QNA

DOHA: The Ministry of Environment has been criti-cised for not being transpar-ent in the allocation of winter camping sites to citizens.

Residents have complained that the ministry had announced that sites would be distributed on the first-come first-serve basis to those who register first but even citizens who showed up on the first day of registration found most of the good sites had been taken or closed, Arabic daily Al Raya reports.

They called for a review of the distribution mechanism and said

it should be based on the princi-ple of equal opportunities for all citizens to enjoy the short stay at the sites they choose, not those imposed on or simply allocated to them.

Some citizens said sites should not be treated as private prop-erty where some citizens camped every year.

Citizens also called on the min-istry to double the sites on sea shores and land to cope with the growing demand from citizens and residents.

A source from the ministry said it had received a large number of

applications since the first day of registrations on October 14 and about 1,600 citizens had applied and booked sites.

Specific sites like Sealine and Al Khor — both with about 600 camps — received the largest number of applications and the ministry had to stop registration for these and other places which witnessed huge demand such as East Coast, Al Marouna and Al Nouf.

Registration continues until December 17. The camping season is from October 28 until April 18.

The ministry’s units in Doha,

Al Wakra, Umm Salal and Al Rayyan are receiving applications based on the availability of spaces and authorities are making efforts to make registration smooth, with no congestions at the units.

The ministry’s new unit in Al Wakra is also helping reduce con-gestion in Doha.

The ministry is also receiving applications through its website.

This year’s season has some new rules to ensure safety of campers and the environment. They include the start of building tents in 30 days after receiving the licence.

Parachute games of fire or balloon burning and paraglid-ing are banned. It is mandatory to remove tents within 48 hours after the end of the season.

Campers are required to allow inspectors access to camps and denial will lead to forfeiture of the licence.

The ministry is deploying about 200 inspectors to monitor sites and violators will be prosecuted.

About 55 citizens were banned from camping this year after being black-listed for violations last year, according to the minis-try. THE PENINSULA

International universities exhibition todayDOHA: The Minister of Education and Higher Education and Secretary- General of Supreme Education Council H E Dr Mohammed Abdul Wahed Ali Al Hammadi will open today the 5th Qatar International Exhibition of Universities under the theme ‘Towards diversity to stimulate creativity and innovation’ at Qatar National Convention Centre.

The three-day exhibition aims to enhance aware-ness of students, parents and academics of the importance and benefits of university education by bringing them and officials in charge of acceptance in universities and job sectors responsible for scholar-ships in the state, together to brief them on university education, their academic and professional future, terms and requirements of acceptance at participating universities and the best ways to apply.

It also aims to familiar-ise students with proce-dures for obtaining visas, the academic environment and cultural and social context in the countries of those universities.

QNA

Ministry criticised over camping sitesResidents claim allocations not based on first-come first-serve basis despite announcement

DOHA: To raise awareness among university students about the dan-gers associated with nuclear, biologi-cal, and chemical weapons, Georgetown University in Qatar (GU-Q) held the fourth Weapons of Mass Destruction (WMD) Awareness Workshop, co-organ-ised with Qatar’s National Committee for the Prohibition of Weapons (NCPW).

Participants were provided with infor-mation about the types of WMDs, the role of NCPW as a representative body of Qatar in the field of the global WMD disarma-ment movement, and briefed on opportuni-ties to work with NCPW.

Brigadier (Air) Hassan Saleh Al Nesf said, “The workshop falls within the activi-ties of NCPW related to raising awareness in the area of disarmament. This is based on the establishment of the resolution of the committee, and within its cooperation framework with universities to raise risk awareness of such weapons.

“This reflects Qatar’s transparency and policy regarding disarmament,” Brigadier Al Nesf said.

The workshop was held at the Georgetown campus. Students from GU-Q, Qatar University, College of the North

Atlantic-Qatar, Qatar Community College, and other Hamid Bin Khalifa University partners in Education City took part.

Dr Gerd Nonneman, Dean, GU-Q, said, “The university has long been at the fore-front of the study of international affairs and global security - subjects that are cen-tral among the broad range of topics cov-ered in our curriculum.

“Hosting this student-focused workshop with NCPW creates an environment for dialogue with experts on aspects of nuclear, biological, and chemical weapons that could have major impact on Qatar, the region and the world.

“We look forward to working with NCPW to foster debate and raise awareness about policy options to reduce proliferation of and

reliance on WMDs.”Following presentations by NCPW and

GU-Q experts on conventions related to nuclear, biological, and chemical weap-ons, as well as goals and achievements of NCPW, students split into three groups to discuss these topics further with experts, followed by a plenary discussion.

THE PENINSULA

WMDs workshop held for university students

Participants in the workshop.

DOHA: Qatar Red Crescent (QRC) has finalised the first phase of the economic empow-erment project for poor families in Jerusalem, with QR300,000 funding from the General Directorate of Endowments.

The project is implemented by QRC’s representational office in West Bank and the Zakat Alquds Committee

Signed last June and lasting 10 months, the project aims prima-rily to help the target families find a stable source of income, improve their standard of living as well as

economic, social, and psychologi-cal conditions; create more job opportunities and employ more labour in local community; and reduce poverty and unemploy-ment rates among Jerusalem’s Arab population.

Having empowered 46 families so far, the project pursues social development by establishing small income-generating projects in various fields.

Eleven families received five sheep each in addition to feed and water troughs, so that they can sell meat and milk products on

the local market. Thirty-five sewing machines

were distributed to poor families whose breadwinners are widows, so that they can generate some money and afford the cost of living.

In coordination with the Zakat Alquds Committee, a survey was conducted to identify beneficiaries from among the poorest families and families with orphans, who were given priority in receiving the assistance, increasing human-itarian needs with the approach of the winter. THE PENINSULA

QRC project for Jerusalem families

03SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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Ambulance Service accredited by JCI for second timeDOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation’s (HMC) Ambulance Service has been re-accredited by Joint Commission International (JCI).

The Ambulance Service first received accreditation in 2011 and three years on has been consist-ently performing at a high quality level consistent with JCI expecta-tions. HMC’s eight hospitals and their homecare service are also accredited by JCI.

Dr Robert Owen, CEO, Ambulance Service, said: “My team is delighted to be re-accred-ited by JCI. It is an international benchmark that demonstrates that our Ambulance Service is among the best in the world. Accreditation is possible through collaboration, team work and commitment, especially a com-mitment to continuously improve quality.”

Founded in 1994, JCI identifies measures and shares best prac-tices in quality and patient safety with the world.

Its standards were devel-oped by international experts to set up consistent and attain-able expectations for healthcare organisations.

Ooredoo facilitates money transfers to Kenya via M-PesaDOHA: Ooredoo Mobile Money has announced that its custom-ers can send money directly to M-Pesa wallet accounts in Kenya from their mobile phones, thanks to an agreement with the popular African trans-fer service and MoneyGram.

Customers can also send money with Ooredoo Mobile Money via MoneyGram to chosen recipients who can then collect cash at over 940 key locations in Kenya.

New customers can register for free for mobile money by vis-iting any OoredooShop or dialling *140# and entering their QID#.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: The Second International Conference on Water-Pipe Tobacco Smoking (Shisha) Research opens today to describe and analyse ‘colli-sion of two epidemics’ of water-pipe and cigarette smoking globally.

Over 100 consultants and spe-cialists from Qatar and around the world will attend.

Dr Hajar Ahmed Albinali, former minister of health and Director, Cardiology Department, Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC), will deliver the open-ing lecture on ‘Smoking and Cardiovascular Diseases.’

Dr Tawfiq bin Ahmad Khowja, Director-General, Executive Board of GCC Health Ministers’ Council, will speak about ‘GCC Legislation and the Role of Media in Shisha Control.’ The two-day event is hosted by HMC.

A pre-conference training workshop on ‘How to Write a Summary or Abstract for a

Scientific Study Proposal’ was held yesterday with more than 60 participants from Qatar, other GCC and Arab countries, the US and Europe.

It was chaired by Professor Wasim Maziak from Florida International University (Syrian Center for Tobacco Studies).

Other speakers are Professor Rima Afifi from American University of Beirut; Professor Thomas Eissenberg, Virginia Commonwealth University; Professor Scott Sherman, New York University; Professor Ghazi Zaatari, American University of Beirut; and Professor Kenneth Ward, University of Memphis, the US.

Conference Chairman and Head of Smoking Cessation Clinic, HMC, Dr Ahmad Al Mulla, said the event aims to review and synthesise scientific evidence of smoking epidemics on health (biologically, physiologically, socially and economically) and

public policy determinants; build capacity in research on tobacco use, particularly in the eastern Mediterranean region; enhance

linkages and collaborative part-nerships globally; and promote wider regional presence at the 16th International Conference

on Smoking Cessation to be held under the theme ‘Smoking or Health?’ in Abu Dhabi in March 2015. THE PENINSULA

Shisha research forum opens todayGlobal experts to analyse ‘collision of two epidemics’ of water-pipe and cigarette smoking

Participants in the pre-conference training workshop yesterday.

DOHA: Unjustified increase in the prices of properties, espe-cially plots of land, has pushed rentals through the roof, for housing units and commercial space.

If the trend continues, rentals may increase by 10 percent by year-end, say experts from the industry.

Analysts believe indis-criminate rise in the prices of properties is not only putting inflationary pressure on rent-als, but also negatively affecting supply, as developers are discour-aged to start new projects due to thin profit margins and lower levels of expected returns on

investments, local Arabic daily Al Raya reported yesterday.

They say that despite high demand and shortage for hous-ing units and commercial space, real estate transactions during the third quarter of the year remained low, largely due to the high prices of properties.

Many investors see the prices highly inflated and fear price bubble in the real estate market.

“The market slowed down in Q3, 2014, and the same trend is expected to continue over the next couple of months. Sales may pick up momentum only in the beginning of next year,” Khalifa Al Musalman, an real expert was

quoted as saying. He said: “Since the prices of

plots of land and other prop-erties have gone through the roof, developers and investors are finding them less attractive to invest as they expect a very negligible profit margin on their capital.”

He said investors are also reluctant to put their money in new projects due to inflated prices. This is the reason the real estate market has slowed down, he added. “If Lusail and Pearl-Qatar transactions are excluded, the combine value of weekly deals will not be more than QR200m,” he said.

Al Musalman said at a time when the country needs more housing units, developers are withholding their projects and investment decisions, hoping for the prices to come down.

Referring to reports, Al Raya said even the prices of high-end apartments, such as those in the Pearl-Qatar and Lusail have increased, and may continue to go up further next year.

Experts suggest that there is an urgent need of intervention by authorities to develop new cit-ies and provide basic facilities in dedicated areas on the outskirts of Doha and its suburb on a pub-lic-private partnership model.

“Rentals for properties, including housing, will increase by about 10 percent in the second quarter.

“Most of the rise in rentals has been witnessed in newly-built properties,” Sheikh Fahad bin Hamad Al Thani was quoted by local Arabic daily Al Watan.

Sheikh Fahad also suggested that the government needs to come out with amicable solu-tions to control the rising prices of properties at the earliest, and new areas should be developed for housing and related projects to ease pressure on the existing areas.

THE PENINSULA

High property prices pushing up rentals

05SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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ARC’14 invites experts to address Qatar’s challengesDOHA: Qatar Foundation’s Annual Research Conference (ARC’14) is calling on the local science and research community to help address Qatar’s grand challenges by participating in the event next month.

Organisers are look-ing forward to many local experts joining international peers at the two-day event which be held on November 18-19 under the patronage of H H Sheikha Moza bint Nasser, Chairperson, Qatar Foundation (QF).

The forum will bring together experts from Qatar and QF’s Research and Development key entities, in addition to interna-tional experts, to address the country’s cyber security, solar and renewable energy solutions, integrated healthcare and social grand challenges.

It hopes delegates will pro-vide compelling solutions and technologies for the greater good of Qatar, the region and the world.

QA official carrier for jazz festivalDOHA: Qatar Airways (QA) is the official airline for the upcoming Katara European Jazz Festival which brings together some of the finest performers of European Jazz music to Doha, the airline said in a statement.

The three-day event from October 30 is organised by the embassies of France, Austria, Germany, Italy and Switzerland, in cooperation with Katara Cultural Village and Jazzy Colors in Paris.

The event in Katara Cultural Village will consist of three consecutive jazz evenings as well as workshops by interna-tional musicians at Qatar Music Academy.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: Hamad Medical Corporation (HMC) has awarded top honours to 10 win-ning projects at the fifth annual Stars of Excellence staff award ceremony.

The Venous Thromboembolism (VTE) Prevention Program won the Managing Director’s Special Award. The prevention of VTE, which can lead to Deep Vein Thrombosis (DVT), is a key patient safety initiative by HMC.

This year, the winning projects were selected from among 372, which sets the record for the highest number of submissions ever received for the awards.

Each year, winners are cho-sen based on their performance against key criteria such as the application of international best practices, evidence of direct

improvements resulting from the project, and how the project has impacted patient care and overall patient experience.

Dr Hanan Al Kuwari, Managing Director, HMC, said the awards ceremony is an important plat-form to recognise and reward the hard work of HMC staff.

“Every year the quality of sub-missions we receive speaks vol-umes about the excellent work being done at HMC.

“It is important to acknowledge and reward teamwork in organi-sations, as successful partnerships are crucial to an organisation’s success. I am always impressed by the commitment shown by the staff to raise the standards of healthcare in Qatar.”

Other winning projects included Implementation of MRI

Guided Brachytherapy under the Clinical Practice category; Safe Transfer of Patients to their Home Country was awarded under Collaborative Achievement; Operational Performance Award was given to Lighting Power Saving for Better Environment; the Patient Experience Award went to Paediatric Home Total Parenteral Nutrition; the Quality and Patient Safety Award was given to Implementation of the MPDS at Accreditation Level; the Education Award was won by the Baby Friendly Hospital Project and the Research Award was given to Best Translation of Research into Patient Benefit.

The event was held at St Regis Hotel, attended by about 500 employees and officials.

THE PENINSULA

Dr Hanan Al Kuwari (centre), Managing Director, HMC, honouring one of the employees.

HMC presents Stars of Excellence awards Staff involved in 10 projects recognised for hard work

BY FAZEENA SALEEM

DOHA: Indian filmmaker Leena Manimekalai will screen her documentary feature White Van Stories that highlights forced disappearances in Sri Lanka, at the 10th Al Jazeera International Documentary Film Festival today.

The documentary features first-person accounts of people whose relatives have gone miss-ing for political reasons in long history of unexplained disap-pearances in the country, where victims were taken away in a white van, never to be heard of again, Manimekalai told this daily yesterday.

“The festival is the perfect forum to launch the film, as Al Jazeera has broadcast about the conflict in Sri Lanka when the whole world was deaf. Al Jazeera has reached out to stories which were never heard,” she said, add-ing that it is the first international premier for her documentary.

“The festival gives an opportu-nity to talk to people who don’t know about problems faced by people in Sri Lanka. Some don’t know that there are people who speak Tamil,” she said.

Thousands of people have gone

missing in Sri Lanka over the decades — in the 1980s, during the armed revolt of Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna and later as the civil war between the Tamil rebels and the government intensified in the 1990s up to recent time.

White Van Stories, filmed in August 2013, features a rally organised in northern Jaffna town close to the visit of the then UN high commissioner for human rights, Navi Pillay, and stories of seven women with different eth-nic backgrounds, whose relatives have gone missing from different parts of the country.

According to Manimekalai, the documentary is not just about people who have gone missing, but also about decades-long experi-ence of living with a conflict, internal displacement, political instability and fear. “They have a horrifying past and present but they still live lively,” she said.

The 90-minute documentary will be screened at 9am at Ritz-Carlton Doha’s Al Wosail Hall.

Another 29 films will be shown today.

Organised under the patron-age of Sheikh Hamad bin Thamer Al Thani, Chairman, Al Jazeera Media Network Board, the festival is held under the theme ‘Steps,’ showcasing 34 long, 51 medium, 45 short and 31 new horizon films.

At the closing ceremony today, awards will be given away, includ-ing Al Jazeera Golden Award and Jury Award as well as spe-cial awards, including Al Jazeera Documentary Channel Award, Public Liberties an Human Rights Award and Child and Family Award.

The festival has also introduced Best Director Award and Best Camerawork Award to be given in three categories this year.

A winning film will be screened to conclude the festival.

THE PENINSULA

Documentary on forced disappearances in SriLanka to be shown today

Indian filmmaker Leena Manimekalai

07SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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Sana Fashions offers up to 50pc discount

Sana Fashions yesterday launched its first sale with up to 50 percent discount on a large collection of women, men and kids clothing. Sana Fashions has been a value clothing brand since 1987 in the region, offering quality goods at unbelievable prices for the entire family. The clothes are great for gifting as well as they don’t hurt your pocket!

DOHA: Aster Medical Centre (AMC), a division of Aster DM Healthcare, the leading conglomerate in the Middle East and India, organised an interactive ses-sion on breast and cervical cancer to enhance awareness.

With October being marked as the Breast Cancer Awareness Month, the session was held for female staff of Scholars International School, Al Rayyan, on October 22.

It was headed by Dr Jyoti Khanna, a gynaecologist and obstetrician from AMC, Al Rayyan, with over 17 years of experience as a medical prac-titioner. It highlighted causes,

symptoms, self-examination, screenings and treatments of breast and cervical cancer.

Dr Khanna also provided insights on how women tend to neglect their health con-cerns and risk factors of these life-threatening conditions. She said, “Breast cancer is a very common form of cancer among women. Earlier, it was detected only among women between 40 and 50 and above, in post-menopausal stage. Now, women between 20 and 30 are also at high risk, which is increased if a woman has a family history of breast cancer.

“About 80 percent of breast cancer cases are treatable if it

is diagnosed at an early stage. There are symptoms which a woman can identify. Breast lumps or underarm swelling, pain or tenderness, change in size, colour, texture and tem-perature, change in nipple and unusual discharge from it are symptoms that should not be underestimated. Women can conduct self-examination once in two to six months for any unusual changes.”

Dr Khanna said: “Cervical cancer is also common, caused by HPV Virus. Abnormal bleeding from vagina, change in menstrual cycle which can-not be explained, bleeding when something comes in contact

with the cervix, pain during intercourse and vaginal dis-charge tinged with blood are symptoms. “Cervical cancer can be avoided if regular Pap Smear tests are conducted to detect abnormalities in the cer-vix which might cause cancer. Vaccinations are also available to prevent HPV from causing cancer,” she added.

Dr Sameer Moopan, CEO, DM Healthcare-Qatar, said breast and cervical cancer are treatable and understanding of these conditions is important. What is important is having been diagnosed with cancer is not the end of life.

THE PENINSULA

DOHA: HBK Contracting Company, in cooperation with Qatar University (QU) has launched its Summer Internship Programme for Qatari students as part of its commitment to and social responsi-bility initiative towards the country’s progress.

The company hosted a group of students from College of Engineering, introducing them to work experiences in

engineering and con-struction industries.

The students, selected from various disciplines, were trained in many departments at the head office and on construction sites where they gained experiences within HSE, quality management, engineering, planning and construction activities, in fields such as high quality buildings, water pipelines, pumping stations, utility networks and roads.

They were supervised by managers and mentors.

The students com-piled reports which were well received by their professors.

They were also awarded certificates of achieve-ment in a ceremony organised by the company, under the patronage of its President Sheikh Ali bin Hamad Al Thani and attended by some profes-sors from QU.

THE PENINSULA

Officials and students at the event.

HBK hosts interns from QU

80pc of breast, cervical cancer treatable: Experts

Aster officials with staff of Scholars International School during the interactive session.

DOHA: Inspectors from the Ministry of Economy and Commerce have seized 119 counterfeit skin care lotions and shampoos of global brands.

The products were seized mainly from shops in the Central Market, according to a ministry statement yesterday.

Once legal procedures are completed, the violators will face fines of between QR6,000 and QR1m depending on the violation, said the statement.

The seizures came after inspec-tors held training workshops with traders and monitored the supply chains of the products. Yousef Saad Al

Suwaidi, Assistant Director, Consumer Protection Department, and Head, Anti-Commercial Frauds Department, said the ministry is keen to develop an annual plan that includes all business activities and hold workshops with businesses to equip inspectors with knowledge to iden-tify counterfeit products.

He said the ministry will intensify inspection and continue to refer violators to authorities for legal action. He urged consumers to report any suspicious products to both departments which receive complaints and suggestions.

THE PENINSULA

Counterfeit lotions, shampoos seized

Continued from page 1

Other movies submit-ted for the Oscars and financially supported by the DFI were Lust by Khaled El Hagar (Egypt) and Where Do We Go Now? by Nadine Labaki (Lebanon).

The Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film is given to a feature-length motion picture produced outside the US with a predominantly non-English dialogue track.

The DFI is helping

talents in the Arab world to realise filmmaking aspirations and filmmak-ers are also approaching the institute for supports In 2011, the DFI received about 190 applications for grants and this year about 350. THE PENINSULA

Continued from page 1

“We need to build infrastructure in hospi-tality sector and Qatar has a good experience in the field. Qatar can also help us develop our boom-ing real estate sector,” added Delgado.

On Ecuador’s policy towards Middle Eastern issues, he said, “Our for-eign policy is based on values and principles, not on vested interests. We reject any violence against the Arab peoples and any violation of international

laws. We support the Palestinian people and condemn Israeli aggres-sion. We recognise an independent Palestinian state with 1967 borders. Occupation cannot be legitimised by force.”

THE PENINSULA

Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa Delgado is speaking to Jaber Al Harami, Editor-in-Chief, Al Sharq, during the interview.

Ecuador backs Palestinian state

DFI focuses on talents in Arab world

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Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

BY DOM PHILLIPS

The men loading fresh lob-ster onto a pickup truck in this far northeastern coastal town joked as they talked politics, but one central

issue in the country’s upcoming presi-dential runoff clearly divided them — the federal Family Allowance income support that has been paid to millions of poor Brazilians since the governing Workers’ Party took over in 2003.

Jorge Conceicao, 28, said he will vote in tonday’s runoff to re-elect President Dilma Rousseff, the Workers’ Party candidate, whom he described as “rid-ing high” in his fishermen’s colony. He said one reason is the allowance that his family of five collects.

But Valneivaldo Gonçalves, 43, who owns two fishing boats, dismissed the stipend as a vote-buying mechanism. He vowed to vote for Rousseff ’s busi-

n e s s - f r i e n d l y challenger, Aécio Neves, from the c e n t e r - r i g h t Brazilian Social Democratic Party.

Gonçalves is in a minority here in Bahia state, the heartland of Workers’ Party support. The state’s residents voted overwhelm-ingly for Rousseff in the first round of the presiden-tial election Oct. 5 and kept her party at the helm of the state gov-ernment. Many

in Entre Rios say Rousseff is the only choice, because they were worse off before she and her predecessor, Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, took office, help-ing to slash the national poverty rate by 55 percent as Brazil’s economy grew.

The Family Allowance, collected by 1.8 million families in Bahia and half the population in Entre Rios, is widely credited as a key driver of the drop in poverty. Yet, despite the popularity of the Workers’ Party here, there is no shortage of criticism from voters such

as Gonçalves, who say Entre Rios is also a microcosm of some of the party’s fail-ures: Entre Rios still desperately needs more jobs, better security and a more responsive government.

“Dilma is finishing off Brazil,” Gonçalves said.

Josefa dos Santos, 55, gave birth to 14 children in Bahia’s rural outback. Now she lives in a neat and simple house with a flat-screen television and a DVD player in Cidade Nova, a dusty, rural slum just outside Entre Rios. Life before Lula was much tougher, said dos Santos, who added that she has collected a $53 monthly allowance for about eight years.

“In other times, who had enough money to buy this?” she asked, point-ing to the tiled floor. Like most in the area, she said she will vote for Rousseff.

Also in Cidade Nova, a federally funded family health center — another Workers’ Party point of pride — is being expanded. Its resident doctor came to the area as part of a government program through which about 14,000 doctors, with Cubans heavily represented among them, were hired to work in poor, remote areas.

“It is a beautiful experience, because I work with a very needy community,” said the doctor, Havana native Grisel Torres. Even so, Bahia has not improved its health services as much as it could have, said Gustavo Morelli, associate director of the Brazilian consultancy Macroplan, which specialises in public management.

“In health, they evolved but at a slower speed than the rest of the coun-try,” he said. That also is true for educa-tion, Morelli said, describing Bahia as having “not met targets.”

On a hot morning, students spilled out of the Duque de Caxias state high school and loitered in the shade of trees in its overgrown front yard. Resources were not lacking, said the school prin-cipal, Maria da Fatima dos Santos. But she said projects often stalled or were not implemented because of paperwork.

“Our biggest problem is bureaucracy,” she said. She showed off a crumbling con-crete auditorium, no longer safe for use. Since 2012, the school has had the money in its account to renovate the auditorium, but the bureaucratic process involved, managed by the state government, has yet to be completed. “The system leaves us restricted,” dos Santos said.

Entre Rios Mayor Fernando de

Oliveira, of the Social Democratic Party, said the Workers’ Party is more inter-ested in propaganda than in encourag-ing enterprise that can create jobs.

“We could make it so people live with-out the Family Allowance, encouraging them to grow, encouraging them to pro-duce, and not producing dependence,” he said.

The municipality has some fish-ing and tourism in its coastal region, an hour from the city. But inland, the main economic activity aside from farm-ing is producing oil from small wells — bobbing pumpjacks are visible around town — and harvesting eucalyptus for-ests. But the tree harvesting takes place only every six years, providing minimal employment. Unemployment in Bahia was 8.5 percent in 2013, compared with 6.5 percent nationally.

While poverty is declining, homicides in Bahia are increasing. The murder rate more than tripled between 2002 and 2012, according to the Violence Map produced by the Latin American Faculty of Social Sciences, based in Rio de Janeiro.

De Oliveira and Aurea Mercia, his secretary for economic development, tourism and the environment, are bet-ting on an ambitious plan to create an industrial park. In June, after a four-year court battle, the municipality bought about 250 acres of land previ-ously used to grow eucalyptus. Twenty-nine companies have indicated they intend to operate there, Mércia said.

But de Oliveira and Mercia said the state government has given them no support. “In their view, this was an un-realisable dream,” de Oliveira said. The city, and not the state, is funding infra-structure works such as roads, he said.

“We have paving to do,” said Mercia.On a recent evening, a convoy of

police vehicles patrolled Cidade Nova.The previous week, a man died in a

shootout with police. Maj. João Himério, the commander of military police for Entre Rios and surrounding cities, posi-tioned his officers as a group of young men leaned, legs spread, against a wall to be searched. The khaki-clad offic-ers cradled machine guns as red police lights swirled. “They have to rob for the drugs that they consume, because many of them don’t work,” he said.

WP-BLOOMBERG

FOR months now, rumours have been swirling that the new meters being installed by the power distribution companies

run faster than the old ones. People have reported receiving higher bills the moment the new meters are installed. Now we have a letter written on government letterhead, sent to the chief executive officer of the Lahore Electric Supply Company from the Prime Minister’s Inspection Commission asking for details regarding this issue. In the days to come, the same letter will be sent out to CEOs of other distribution companies as well.

“It has been learnt that in the last few

years 2012-13, old meters have been exchanged by the new one [sic] which runs at least 30-35pc faster,” says the letter. It goes on to list a number of problems with the meters and their speed, which in some cases is faster and in others “slower than standard”, meaning the commission sees large-scale defects in the manner in which the sale of electricity at the final point of consumption is being measured.

Rumours of the new meters being faster than the standard ones might be corroborated by the data available with the commission, but it is a little too early to say exactly what information they are acting on. The letter raises some

important questions. For instance, it is far from clear how they became aware of this problem in the first place. Is the commission simply investigating the rumours that have been circulating for a while now, or do they have more exten-sive information to suggest that there are defects in the new meters? If the former is true, we cannot say much until the findings have been reported. But if it is the latter, then we need to know how it is that the commission chose to act on this problem before the water and power ministry did.

The water and power minister appears to have been taken by sur-prise since the letter has arrived in the

middle of an audit being run by three different companies on the state of bill-ing in the power sector. No doubt he will feel that the commission ought to have waited till this audit was complete before raising fresh concerns on their own initiative. But the problems in the hardware are not being investigated under the audit.

The government needs to realise that the problems in the power sec-tor are large, and comparable to, if not larger in scope than, the problems that plagued public-sector banks in the 1990s. What is required is a strong and coherent response under a unified authority. DAWN

A handout divides Brazilians

Patients can beat this disease (Ebola). And we can beat this disease.

Quote ofthe day

Barack Obama US President

The other side

While poverty

is declining,

homicides

in Bahia are

increasing. The

murder rate

more than tripled

between 2002

and 2012.

The shooting at a school in the United States elicited its share of shock and surprise laced with an underlying fear at the state of gun-ownership in the country. However, either due to fewer deaths and injuries or

because of more such incidents robbing them of the shock value, the reaction to the shooting in the Washington school has been relatively muted. This however does not take away from the concern that the issue of gun control has triggered in the country, which has internationally been at the receiving end of criticism for intervention in geopolitical conflicts.

The shooting occurred at Marysville Pilchuck High School near Seattle. A high school student emptied his handgun in a cafeteria, killing one and injuring four other students, before turning the weapon upon himself. Though the motive of Jaylen Fryberg for perpetrating the ghastly act is not clear, police may not have a hard time piecing together the puzzle as two of those injured are his cousins.

Fryberg’s uncle yesterday spoke to media saying that the student’s motive was not just to spray bullets randomly; he had targeted his cousins. The motive of this killing may be different from the other school gun incidents in the United States, but it does not make the crime any less alarming. The American fascination with guns has become a pressing domestic issue and raises eyebrows across the world, especially when such incidents happen.

Students randomly spraying bullets in schools and other gun rampages in the United States have triggered an uproar and a furious public debate over whether gun laws need to be refixed.

Even after President Barack Obama tried to tighten laws related to gun ownership, rampages haven’t abated. This points to a deeper malaise in American society which celebrates freedom and individual liberty of the highest level.

Since December 2012, when a gun rampage at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut killed 20 children and six adults, this is the 75th instance of school shooting,according to Everytown for Gun Safety, an umbrella group started by former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

If school shootings are to become an exception than the norm, Washington has to formulate a policy that not only focuses on gun ownership and ways of clipping the wings of the gun lobby, but also devotes itself to social science research. It is not only the security establishment that has to decide how fewer guns Americans must own. The academia along with leading social scientists and criminologists must come together to devise a plan to reduce gun crimes that not only consume lives but also show the most powerful nation in a poor light.

It was the US that led the way in the discipline of public administration. It is now for Washington to show how it can deal with an issue that reflects on its quality of governance•

Gun control

The latest school shooting in the United States challenges the Obama administration’s handling of gun control.

Editorial

08 VIEWS SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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Accelerated billing

VIEWS 09SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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BY SARAH MARGON

The traffic on the road to Tuz Khurmato, a town about an hour south of Kirkuk, was light on a recent morning when we set out to meet sen-

ior officials from the Kurdish security forces, the pesh merga. Their fortified bases, lean-tos flying various Shia militia flags and makeshift camps for displaced families dotted the side of the high-way. Official Iraqi security forces were nowhere to be seen, even at checkpoints.

Inside a dusty office at the pesh merga base, a field commander relayed what he had seen during recent weeks of fight-ing. “They don’t respect human rights, they arrest anyone,” he said. “They kill, they behead, they burn houses.” He was referring not to the IS but to the gov-ernment-backed Shia militias alongside whom the pesh merga are fighting the Sunni extremist group in an uneasy mar-riage of convenience.

The lines between Shia militias and official security forces have been blurred for years. But with the Iraqi army’s near-total collapse this summer, their strength has increased. Politicians, security force personnel and civilians alike have told Human Rights Watch that these militias “control security” throughout much of

Iraq, a point only reinforced by the recent appointment of Mohammed Ghabban, a Shia politician with strong links to the Badr Brigade, a notorious militia, as Iraq’s interior minister.

In certain parts of Iraq under siege by the IS, the militias continued the fight even after US-led coalition air strikes shifted to other targets. They did this primarily by attacking Sunnis who didn’t flee the IS advance, considering any remaining families “collaborators,” and ransacking, burning and even demolish-ing scores of Sunni villages. In some cases, they travelled from village to village in US Army-issued Humvees, which were probably obtained from the Iraqi gov-ernment. This relentless arson and pil-laging has resulted in death, destruction

and, according to local sources, the dis-placement of more than 7,000 families in recent months.

When we pulled over to the side of the highway to speak with a family living in an abandoned strip mall, a man in his late 40s told me, “I am no more afraid of Daesh” — the Arabic acronym for the IS — “than I am of the Shia militias and the Iraqi government.”

This lawless behaviour, of course, is not a new phenomenon but a pervasive part of post-Saddam Hussein Iraq. A congres-sionally mandated US report from 2007 presciently concluded that “sectarian militias are a fact of life in Iraq. They pose as much danger as Al Qaeda in Iraq and may even be a greater threat to Iraqi’s long-term stability.”

Over the past year, government-backed militias have increased kidnapping and killing of Sunni civilians throughout Baghdad, Diyala and Babil provinces, seriously escalating sectarian violence. Even in areas where Iraqi security forces are still somewhat intact they are increasingly led by militias, mainly Kitaeb Hezbollah and Asaib Ahl Al Haq.

In Irbil, I met with an imam and former businessman who recently fled Fallujah because of the anti-IS campaign. He painted a vivid picture of civilians under siege: Since at least July, there has been no running water and no electricity in Anbar province.

The absence of running water forced people to drink from a contaminated river, which made people sick. As a result,

many Fallujans end up in the hospital but stay only briefly because the hospital itself has become a target for the Iraqi army.

Disturbingly, the imam made clear that the Iraqi air force is still using indis-criminate “barrel bombs” to “go after IS” in Fallujah, despite instructions from Baghdad to stop using them. Other gov-ernments, including that of the US, have condemned the use of these horrendously destructive bombs across the border in Syria but have said nothing about them in Iraq.

Many Fallujah residents who initially fled the fighting in Anbar have had to return home because they’ve run out of resources and receive little or no govern-ment or international assistance. Back at home, they’ve faced the perfect storm of death: Homes are so hot without electric-ity that most families sleep outside, even if it means a greater risk.

As the US and other countries engage in a campaign President Barack Obama said is intended to “degrade and ulti-mately destroy” the IS, the armed group’s cruelty and swift territorial gains have perpetuated a double standard among coalition members who have joined the effort. Indeed, by turning a virtual blind eye to the abuses committed by Iraqi gov-ernment forces and its proxy militias, key partners may be helping to push reluc-tant Sunnis into the IS camp.

A more balanced approach would acknowledge atrocities by all sides while exerting greater pressure on the Iraqi government to carry out long-overdue reforms — including genuinely inclusive politics and steps to overhaul the crimi-nal justice system.

It would mean urging the Iraqi gov-ernment to take an unambiguous and public step away from battlefield tac-tics that violate the laws of war and to commit publicly to security sector reform — including a plan for meaning-ful accountability.

The US has tried much of this before — and at great cost — but it clearly failed. Things need to be different this time, which means making clear that achieving genuine stability in this unstable region won’t be gained by protecting one group at the expense of another. As the fight-ing continues and the atrocities mount, the path for doing something about that reality is fading fast. WP-BLOOMBERG

Fighting IS, militias threaten Iraq’s stability

Coordinator of the international effort against the Islamic State extremist group John Allen (left) of the US and French Foreign Affairs minister Laurent Fabius speak during their meeting at the French Foreign Ministry in Paris on Friday.

By turning a blind eye to the abuses committed by Iraqi government forces and its proxy militias, key partners may be helping push reluctant Sunnis into the IS camp.

10 INTERNATIONALSUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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TEHRAN: Iran has ignored an international campaign to spare the life of a 26-year-old woman convicted of murder by hanging her at dawn yesterday.

Reyhaneh Jabbari had spent five years on death row for stab-bing a 47-year-old surgeon who had previously worked for the intelligence ministry, the official IRNA news agency reported.

The execution drew condemna-tion from the United States and human rights monitor Amnesty International, which dubbed it “a bloody stain on Iran’s human rights record” and “an affront to justice”.

The UN and bodies including the European Union and Amnesty International had said that the interior designer’s confession for killing Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi in 2007 was obtained under intense pressure and threats from Iranian prosecutors, and she

should have had a retrial.Ahmed Shaheed, the UN’s

human rights rapporteur on Iran, said in April that the killing was an act of self defence. Sarbandi had offered to hire Jabbari to redesign his office and took her to an apartment where he tried to sexually abuse her.

Iranian actors and other prom-inent figures had also appealed for a stay of execution. Efforts for clemency had intensified in recent weeks. Jabbari’s mother was allowed to visit her for one hour on Friday, Amnesty said — a custom that tends to precede executions in Iran.

However, Sarbandi’s family insisted the murder was pre-meditated and that Jabbari had confessed to buying a knife two days before the killing.

According to Jalal Sarbandi, the victim’s eldest son, Jabbari

testified that a man was present in the apartment where his father was killed but she had refused to reveal his identity.

He said in April that his fam-ily “would not even contemplate mercy until truth is unearthed”.

“Only when her true inten-tions are exposed and she tells the truth about her accomplice and what really went down will we be prepared to grant mercy,” he said at the time.

Jabbari’s plea of self-defence failed to persuade judges at vari-ous stages of the appeal process up to Iran’s Supreme Court and she remained in prison through-out. Her last chance of reprieve lay with the supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, but he failed to intervene.

After the execution was car-ried out, the Tehran state pros-ecutor’s office issued a statement

that appeared aimed at counter-ing sympathy for Jabbari. It said: “Jabbari had repeatedly confessed to premeditated murder, then tried to divert the case from its course by inventing the rape charge.

“But all her efforts to feign inno-cence were proven false in various phases of prosecution. Evidence was firm. She had informed a friend through text message of her intention to kill. It was ascertained that she had purchased the murder weapon, a kitchen knife, two days before committing murder.”

Amnesty said Jabbari had admitted stabbing the man once from behind, but she inisted another man killed him. The human rights group said her claim was never properly inves-tigated. According to the UN, more than 250 people have been executed in Iran this year.

THE GUARDIAN/AFP

TEHRAN: Several Iranian men arrested on suspicion of com-mitting horrific acid attacks on women have been released due to insufficient evidence, the interior minister revealed yesterday.

The attacks in Isfahan, Iran’s top tourist destination, have shocked the public and provoked a major protest there on Wednesday from citizens who demanded bet-ter security and action over such violent crimes.

Justice officials previously said that four men had been arrested in connection with the attacks. But Interior Minister Abdolreza Rahmani Fazli, quoted on state television’s website, said those in custody had been freed.

He also denounced what he called “a foreign media campaign” to link the attacks to hijab, saying that acid attack victims are usu-ally targeted for reasons of “per-sonal motive or revenge”.

Prosecutor general Ebrahim Raissi, meanwhile, vowed that the attackers would be caught and dealt with, even if the victims were to grant clemency. “These crimes are unforgivable. While victims can grant forgiveness, there is no way we will give up rights of the state against those who caused fear in the population,” Raissi said. “They will be severely punished. We will not allow people, under any pre-text, to disrupt security,” he added.

The attacks in Isfahan come after a new bill in parliament proposed greater powers for morality police and volunteer militias to ensure compliance with hijab. AFP

ISTANBUL: A group of Turkish mothers yes-terday led their 500th protest since the mid-1990s remembering relatives who disappeared allegedly at the hands of the state during one of modern Turkey’s most turbulent periods.

Around 3,000 people turned out to support the protest, held as always on the bustling Istiklal ave-nue in central Istanbul. The group, known as the “Saturday Mothers” for the timing of their weekly protest, has been holding the action on Saturday mornings since May 27, 1995.

Seated on the street outside the gates of Galatasaray University, they held placards with the faces of their relatives who disappeared in the 1980s and 1990s and are believed to have died in police and army detention. The disappearances happened at the peak of the rebellion by the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) demanding self-rule in the mainly Kurdish southeast.

“Bahri Budak, 61 years old, disappeared after being detained in April 1994,” read the words on a picture held by a woman at the protest. The Saturday Mothers group is demanding a full open-ing of the state archives to uncover what happened to their loved ones, prosecution of the perpetrators and the abolition of the statute of limitations for abuses committed by the security forces.

AFP

Clashes in Jerusalem; funeral delayedJERUSALEM: Israeli police clashed with Palestinians across east Jerusalem yesterday ahead of a potentially explosive funeral that was delayed for a day and tight security conditions imposed.

Relatives of Abdelrahman Shaludi, the Palestinian driver who ploughed into a Jerusalem crowd on Wednesday, killing an Israeli baby, were told to be ready to bury him tonight, their lawyer said.

Police branded as a “terror attack” the incident on Wednesday in which Shaludi, 21, from east Jerusalem’s flashpoint Silwan neighbourhood drove at high speed into a crowd of Israelis.

Three-month-old Haya Zissel Braun was killed and six others injured. Shaludi was shot dead by police as he fled on foot.

He was first to have been buried on Friday evening but Israeli media said security authorities wanted to impose draconian security conditions, fearing violence.

Tensions have been running high since the incident with nightly clashes across Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem. As evening fell, violence again erupted.

Silwan residents stoned a sanitation vehicle sent to clean up debris from Friday’s stone-throwing, and police responded with “non-lethal means of dispersal,” spokeswoman Luba Samri said, using a term generally alluding to tear gas or stun grenades.

In Al-Tur on the Mount of Olives, masked Palestinians blocked the road with garbage bins, and threw stones and petrol bombs, police said. Near the Shuafat refugee camp stones were throne at the Jerusalem light railway, a frequent target. Police said a carriage window was damaged but no one hurt.

With tensions further stoked after the

army shot dead a West Bank teenager on Friday, there were also reports of ston-ing of Israeli vehicles on roads around Ramallah.

Relatives of the dead 14-year-old, Orwa Hammad, said his funeral would take place today, to allow his father time to travel from the United States where he is a resident citizen. They said the teenager was also a US national, as was the baby girl killed on Wednesday.

The army said Hammad had been about to hurl a petrol bomb at Israeli motorists near Ramallah when he was shot by troops on a stakeout in the vil-lage of Silwad to protect a road fre-quently used by Jewish settlers.

“The forces fired immediately to

neutralise the danger... and confirmed a hit,” a spokeswoman said. Palestinian officials said Hammad was shot during a stone-throwing protest against troops, a regular occurrence in Silwad, which lies close to the Jewish settlement of Ofra.

Washington expressed its “deepest condolences to the family of a US citi-zen minor who was killed by the Israeli Defence Forces”. State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki called for “a speedy and transparent investigation” into the teenager’s death.

“We continue to urge all parties to help restore calm and avoid escalat-ing tensions in the wake of the tragic recent incidents in Jerusalem and the West Bank,” she added. AFP

TUNIS: Tunisia warned of possible jihadist attacks during today’s landmark parliamentary election, deploy-ing thousands of soldiers and police to guard a vote the prime minister said offers hope to the entire region.

“We know that this will be a target (for jihadist groups) because it is unique in the region. It brings hope,” Mehdi Jomaa said during an inspection of security forces yesterday. Tunisia’s transition to democracy since the 2011 toppling of longtime strongman Zine El Abidine Ben Ali “is the alterna-tive to these people and these groups”, Jomaa added. “They know that the success of (this election) is a threat to them, not only in Tunisia but throughout the region.”

The North African nation is set to deploy around 80,000 soldiers and police to secure polls for the first election of a parliament since the uprising three years ago that inspired the Arab Spring revolutions.

Tunisia has been hailed as a beacon of hope compared with other chaos-hit countries like Libya and Egypt, where revolutions inspired from the Arab Spring toppled veteran autocrats. But its transition has been tested at times by militant attacks blamed on Islamists long sup-pressed under Ben Ali, and by social unrest.

On Friday, Tunisian police killed six suspected mili-tants, five of them women, in a raid on a house on the out-skirts of the capital in which there were also children. A policeman was also killed in a gunfight before the assault.

Today’s election pits the Islamist Ennahda party — which was in power for two years after the revolution — against secular opponent Nidaa Tounes. The main rivals will fight it out with a number of parties run by former Ben Ali stalwarts, as well as a host of leftist and Islamist groups. More than five million voters are to choose 217 deputies in an election that will be followed by a presidential vote on November 23. Fearing possible terrorist attacks, Tunisia has also closed its border with violence-wracked Libya for three days from Friday.

Jomaa said he was confident Sunday’s poll would pass peacefully in spite of the rising tensions as election offi-cials voiced concern. He insisted that Tunisia has “a secu-rity apparatus that is growing in power and effectiveness”.

AFP

Iran hangs woman despite retrial pleaActivists say Jabbari’s confession came under duress; US, Amnesty condemn execution

A December 15, 2008 file picture shows Reyhaneh Jabbari speaking to defend herself during the first hearing of her trial for the murder of a former intelligence official at a court in Tehran.

Suspects in acid attacks freed due to lack of evidence

Iran re-arrests rights lawyer DUBAI: Iranian security forces arrested world-renowned human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh and several others on their way back from a protest yesterday, her husband said.

“While returning from the sit-in outside the Bar Association in Tehran, Nasrin was detained along with several friends and colleagues,” her husband, Reza Khandan, said on his Facebook page. “They photographed and ran identity checks on all the detainees and then released eve-ryone but Nasrin, who is still detained wantonly and without a court order.”

Sotoudeh, who has represented Iranian opposition activists, was sentenced to six years in jail in 2010 and banned from practice after being convicted of spread-ing propaganda and conspiring to harm state security. REUTERS

Palestinians protesting the killing of a teenager throw stones during clashes with Israeli security forces in the West Bank village of Silwad, north of Ramallah, yesterday.

Tunisia warns of jihadist attacks on electon eve

Turkish mothers hold 500th protest for missing kin

MIDDLE EAST 11SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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BAGHDAD/ARBIL: Iraqi secu-rity forces made significant gains against Islamic State in a strate-gic area near Baghdad yesterday and Kurdish fighters retook a northern town after heavy coali-tion air strikes against the Sunni Islamist insurgents.

Iraqi troops seized most of Jurf Al Sakhar, the biggest advance in months of battles against Islamic State in the town about 60km south of Baghdad, senior local officials said. A victory could allow Iraqi authorities to pre-vent the Sunni insurgents from edging closer to the capital and maintaining connections to their strongholds in western Anbar province as well as infiltrating the mainly Shia south.

“We have managed to push out Islamic State terrorists from the town of Jurf Al Sakhar and now we are raising the Iraqi flag over the government offices,” provin-cial governor Sadiq Madloul said.

Speaking to state television in the town, Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi said Iraqis forced out by fighting would soon return to their homes.

State television broadcast foot-age of Iraqi forces moving through

a rural area surrounding Jurf Al Sakhar, where Islamic State had used roadside bombs and snip-ers to keep its enemies from approaching.

Sunni insurgents have been moving fighters, weapons and supplies from western Iraq through secret desert tunnels to Jurf Al Sakhar, Iraqi officials have said. Now it appears government forces have come closer than ever to disrupting that network.

Some Islamic State fighters had fled towards the western city of Falluja, which is held by the group, while fighting still raged near a bridge linking Jurf Al Sakhar to Anbar, said a com-mander and spokesman for Iraqi security forces.

“There has been a significant col-lapse among Islamic State fighters. Attacks by Iraqi army helicopters have not stopped since yesterday,” said Raad Hamza, head of the Hilla Provincial Council.

Speaking by telephone, Hamza said he was in Jurf Al Sakhar with Iraqi security forces.

While Iraq’s army and Shia militias have resisted Islamic State efforts to move closer to Baghdad, Kurdish forces regained

some of the territory the insur-gents seized in the north.

The Kurds retook the town of Zumar and several nearby villages after heavy coalition air strikes against the insurgents, security sources said.

If the Kurds manage to hold Zumar, that could enable them to disrupt Islamic State supply lines to nearby towns and cities.

A Kurdish intelligence officer in Zumar said peshmerga forces had advanced from five directions in the early morning and encoun-tered fierce resistance, but ulti-mately prevailed. A spokesman for the peshmerga ministry also said Zumar was now in Kurdish hands.

Zumar was one of the first Kurdish-controlled towns to be overrun in August by Islamic State who went on to threaten the autonomous region’s capi-tal, prompting air strikes by the United States — a campaign since joined by Britain and France.

If the Kurds are able to keep Zumar, it would also make it eas-ier for them to advance on Sinjar, where Islamic State are besieging members of Iraq’s Yazidi minority on a mountain.

Iraqi forces and Kurds gain ground against ISKurds retake town; US ups pressure with air strikes

Helped by the air strikes, Kurds have regained ground but progress has been hampered by a lack of heavy weaponry and by homemade bombs and booby-traps laid by the militants.

Gains can be easily lost in the war against Islamic State. The Kurds claimed victory in Zumar in September, only to withdraw from the town again after suffer-ing heavy losses.

One peshmerga fighter deployed in the area said a sniper was still at large in a vil-lage adjacent to Zumar, and a car

bomb had exploded when they approached the vehicle, killing seven peshmerga.

In another village, Ayn Al Helwa, the peshmerga said 17 militants had been taken captive, all of them Sunni Turkmen.

While American air strikes have had some impact on the insurgents, it’s not clear whether they will be enough to secure a defeat in the long term in major oil producer Iraq, and Syria.

The United States and its allies conducted 22 air strikes against Islamic State forces in Iraq on

Friday and yesterday, the US Central Command said.

US warplanes also destroyed an Islamic State artillery piece near Kobane, Syria, officials said. The Syrian town near Turkey’s border appears in less danger of falling, but the threat still remains, US officials said on Thursday.

The 22 strikes in Iraq included attacks in the frequently tar-geted areas near the vital Mosul dam, the city of Fallujah and the northern city of Baiji, home of an oil refinery.

REUTERS

‘Foreign hands’ behind Sinai attack, says SisiCAIRO: Egypt’s President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi said yes-terday that an assault on an army checkpoint in the Sinai Peninsula that killed 30 troops was a “foreign-funded opera-tion” and vowed to take drastic action against militants.

In thundering remarks delivered before cameras ahead of a military funeral for the slain troops, Sisi said there are foreign powers that want to “break the back of Egypt”, without elaborating. He vowed to take drastic measures to uproot the militants and said Egypt is engaged in an “extensive war” that will last a long time. “There is a big con-spiracy against us,” he said while standing with army commanders ahead of the funeral.

Militants launched a complex assault on the checkpoint on Friday that involved a car bomb possibly detonated by a suicide attacker, rocket-propelled gre-nades and roadside bombs placed to target rescuers.

Egypt declared a state of emer-gency and imposed a 5pm to 7am

curfew in the restive northern part of the peninsula. No one has yet claimed responsibility for the attack, but it bore the hallmarks of the extremist group Ansar Beit Al Maqdis, which has carried out several attacks on security forces.

Sisi said the aim of the attack was to “break the will of Egypt and the Egyptians as well as the will of the Egyptian army, which is con-sidered a pillar of Egypt”. He called on Egyptians “to be aware of what is being hatched against us” and to be “vigilant and steadfast with the army and the police.”

“All that is happening to us is known to us and we expected it and talked about it before July 3,” he said. He claimed some suc-cess in the fight against militants, saying “dozens of terrorists have been killed in the past weeks and months... hundreds of terrorists have been liquidated”.

The government has blamed much of the violence on Muslim Brotherhood, which it blacklisted as a terrorist group last year. The Brotherhood, which renounced

violence decades ago, has con-demned the attacks and denied any involvement.

A Muslim Brotherhood alli-ance issued a statement on Friday offering sincere condolences to the “families of the martyrs and victims of the treacherous coup.”

It said the soldiers were killed in a “new massacre added to the black record of the military junta that has thrown the army into the political arena and put the Sinai under siege, isolation and schemes of displacement”.

Sisi, earlier in the day, presided over an extraordinary meeting of the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to discuss the recent developments in Sinai.

The Council issued a statement reaffirming the armed forces’ “determination to eradicate ter-rorism from this precious part of Egypt”. “The Council agreed on a plan formulated by the armed forces to combat terrorism in Sinai and other strategic areas,” the statement said.

AP

BEIRUT: Six Lebanese soldiers were killed as the army clashed with Islamist gunmen in north-ern Lebanon for a second day yesterday, using helicopters to fire rockets in the first such air attack since the war in neigh-bouring Syria began.

Soldiers exchanged heavy fire with the gunmen in the city of Tripoli in the morning and moved in on their positions in the after-noon. Three soldiers were wounded in a nearby incident when gunmen opened fire on an army vehicle near the northern village of Bahneen, the sources said. One soldier later died from his wounds.

An officer was killed in another attack near the town of Al Minya, also in the north. The military used two helicopters to fire two rockets at militants in the area after the attack, secu-rity sources said. A third soldier died from wounds sustained in fighting on Friday. At least four militants and two civilians were also killed, and about 14 soldiers wounded, the sources said.

Gunmen also took one soldier captive in Tripoli as he was rid-ing in a taxi, security sources said.

In statements published by the National News Agency, the army leadership said: “The pursuit of terrorist gunmen in Tripoli is continuing and will not be pulled back until after the terrorists are eliminated.” REUTERS

SANA’A: Fighting between Shia rebels and Sunni tribes-men allied to Al Qaeda has left dozens dead in central Yemen, while a suspected US drone strike killed 10 jihadists, tribal sources said yesterday.

The rebels, known as Houthis, have been facing fierce resist-ance from Al Qaeda fighters and tribesmen as they seek to expand their areas of control after seiz-ing the capital Sana’a and the Red Sea port city of Hudeida.

Clashes broke out on Friday evening when Houthi fighters trying to wrest control of the mountains around the central town of Rada, in Baida province, met resistance from Sunni mili-tias, tribal sources said.

“They were repelled each time with heavy losses,” a tribal source said. “The fighting killed dozens, particularly among Huthi ranks.”

Another tribal source said Houthi rebels had been trying to bolster their presence in the province after failing to take full control of Rada.

The source said Houthi fight-ers were assisted by artillery units from the Yemeni army, although this could not be independently verified. Two vehicles carrying suspected Al Qaeda militants near

the combat zone were struck by a missile fired from an unmanned drone, leaving 10 dead, according to tribal sources.

Yemen is a key US ally in the fight against Al Qaeda, allowing Washington to conduct a long-standing drone war against the group on its territory.

At least 60 people were killed in two days of fighting last week around Rada as local tribesman and Al Qaeda gunmen sought to halt the Houthi’s advances.

The Houthis have seized on chronic instability in Yemen since the 2012 ouster of long-serving autocratic president Ali Abdullah Saleh to take control of large parts of the country.

President Abd Rabuh Mansur Hadi’s Sunni-led government has failed to stop their advance, despite a UN-brokered peace deal that was supposed to see them withdraw from the capital.

The fighting has raised fears of Yemen — located next to oil kingpin Saudi Arabia and impor-tant shipping routes in the Gulf of Aden — collapsing into a failed state. The Houthis have also been accused by media watchdog Reporters Without Borders of harassing journalists in Sana’a.

AFP

Lebanon army fights gunmen in Tripoli, six soldiers killed

Three Turkish soldiers shot dead in ‘terrorist’ attackISTANBUL: Masked gun-men yesterday shot dead three Turkish soldiers in the restive Kurdish-majority southeast of the country, the army said, blaming separatist “terrorists” for an attack that threatens to undermine a fragile ceasefire.

The three soldiers were shot dead on the street in the town of Yuksekova in Hakkari province of Turkey’s extreme southeast bordering Iraq and Iran. The attackers escaped but a security operation was underway to appre-hend them, the official Anatolia agency said.

Reports said that the victims had been shot in the head, from behind, while walking in the cen-tre of the town to collect electrical equipment from a police station. There was no claim of responsibil-ity for the attack.

AFP

A new born baby that was given the name Muhammed Obama Muslim at the Suruc Rojova refugee camp in Sanliurfa. Sultan Muslim, a Syrian Kurd, had no doubt what to name her seventh child when he was born, safely in Turkey, after a month-long flight from her home in the Syrian town of Kobane, also known as Ain Al-Arab: Obama.

Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al Sisi gives a speech outside the Supreme Council in Cairo yesterday.

Clashes, drone strike kill dozens in Yemen

A gunman loyal to the Shia Houthi movement stands beside graffiti protesting US drone operations a day after a US drone killed suspected Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) militants, in Sana’a, yesterday,

ISTANBUL: Turkey is keeping 24 people under observation at clinics after a suspicious pow-der was sent to five consulates in Istanbul whose countries are involved in the coalition against IS jihadists, the health ministry said yesterday.

Previously, officials had said that 16 people had been hospi-talised after the yellow powder was delivered to the consulates on Friday. The nature of the substance is being examined by experts from Turkey’s disaster management agency AFAD.

The 24 people under obser-vation are being monitored at clinics specialising in infections and microbiology in Istanbul, the official Anatolia news agency quoted the health ministry as saying. Their general condition is good, it added, without giving further details.

Five foreign citizens work-ing for the consulates are being monitored, as are 19 Turkish citizens, the statement added. Three foreigners and 15 Turks from the Canadian consulate are being monitored, along with two Turks and two foreigners from the German consulate and two Turks from the Belgian consu-late, it said.

AFP

Turkey monitoring 24 over ‘powder’ scare in consulates

12 INTERNATIONALSUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

LOS ANGELES: Two teen-age US girls were fighting for their lives yesterday after they were both shot in the head by a schoolmate during a deadly attack at a Washington state high school a day earlier.

The girls, both 14, are among four victims who were hospital-ised after Friday’s bloodshed that left one student and the young shooter dead in yet another US school attack.

Joanne Roberts, a doctor at Providence Regional Medical Centre in the city of Everett, 50km north of Seattle, said both girls had undergone surgery for head wounds. “The next three days are going to be crucial,” Roberts said, explaining the surgery aimed to relieve brain swelling.

The shooting unfolded on Friday morning when 14-year-old Jaylen Fryberg, a popular first-year student at the Marysville-Pilchuck High School, opened fire in the school cafeteria, classmates and officials said.

“I could see Jaylen standing up with a gun, and he started shooting,” fellow student Josiah Gould, 14, told the Seattle Times. “They were sitting down and he was behind them shooting. After that I just ran.”

The gunman shot four students before killing himself, police said. The student that died was a girl, though authorities did not imme-diately release her name.

The wounded also included a male student, shot in the head and in critical condition, and a

15-year-old boy, in serious condi-tion after he was shot in the jaw. Both boys were being treated at Harborview Medical Centre.

A student identified as Austin told KING 5 television how the shooter was initially quiet before opening fire. “He was just sitting there. Everyone was talking. All of a sudden I see him stand up, pull something out of his pocket,” he said.

“At first I thought it was just someone making a really loud noise with like a bag, like a pretty loud pop until I heard four more after that, and I saw three kids just fall from the table like they were falling to the ground dead.”

Many in the community were baffled by the shooting. Fryberg was a popular student who had played on the football team and had been named a homecom-ing prince just a week ago, local media reported.

“When I saw him, I was like, oh my gosh, that’s Jaylen. I would have never expected it would have been him out of all people,” stu-dent Rachel Heichel said.

Fryberg, a Native American, had left a series of tortured posts on Twitter, suggesting a teenager used to handling guns, and hint-ing that a failed romance may have triggered the shooting.

One post on Instagram showed him brandishing a hunting rifle. “Probably the best BirthDay present ever! I just love my par-ents!!!!,” he posted in a message accompanying the photo.

AFP

KIEV: Ukrainian leaders made final appeals to voters ahead of snap parliamentary elections today that are intended to give impetus to democratic reforms, but are overshadowed by deep-ening conflict with Russia and pro-Russian rebels.

“At last we will elect a pro-Ukrainian and not pro-Moscow, an anti-corruption and not pro-brib-ery, a pro-European parliament,” President Petro Poroshenko said.

His Petro Poroshenko Bloc was forecast to emerge as the biggest party in the 450 seat legislature, although without an absolute majority, meaning he will have to form a coalition, probably with harder-line nationalists.

The elections were called to cement the pro-Western course launched in a February street revolt that overthrew the cor-ruption-tainted, Moscow-backed president Viktor Yanukovich.

For the first time since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Communist Party is not expected

to enter parliament, symbolising what Poroshenko, elected presi-dent in May with 55 percent of the vote, hopes is an irrevers-ible political shift. Polls show a majority of Ukrainians support economic and democratic reforms — especially a crackdown on cor-ruption — leading eventually to European Union membership.

However, the optimism and energy of the revolution have been sucked out by Russia’s seizure of the Crimea region and an upris-ing by pro-Russian rebels in the industrial Donbass region that has killed more than 3,700 people.

With no military victory in sight, Ukrainians may face the same kind of frozen conflict severely weakening other ex-Soviet states, such as Georgia.

Western governments blame Russia for the turmoil and have slapped painful economic sanctions on Moscow. However, President Vladimir Putin accuses the West of stirring up the conflict as part of a strategy to weaken Russia.

In a combative speech on Friday, the Kremlin leader lashed out at the United States and said Ukraine was showing a “lack of goodwill” to end the conflict “by peaceful means”.

The tug-of-war over Ukraine, a country of about 45 million, has propelled nationalist parties to the fore in today’s vote, mean-ing that Poroshenko will be under pressure to deliver on anti-cor-ruption promises and a solution to the armed conflict.

Ukraine had 36.5 million vot-ers, but lost about 1.8 million after the annexation of Crimea in March, while about three million more live in separatist-controlled areas of Lugansk and Donetsk provinces. Twenty seven seats in parliament from the conflict areas will remain empty.

Insurgent leaders are not allow-ing polling stations to open in their areas and instead are holding their own election, which Kiev does not recognise, on November 2.

AFP

BAMAKO: Mali authorities yesterday scrambled to calm fears over Ebola after the dis-ease claimed its first victim in the African country, a con-tagious toddler who took a 1,000km journey on public buses before seeking treatment.

The World Health Organisation warned the situation in Mali was an “emergency,” and said in its latest Ebola situation report that the biggest outbreak on record has now killed 4,922 people, the vast majority of them in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, with 10,141 cases reported.

The US states of New York and New Jersey ordered mandatory quarantine for medics who had treated victims of the disease in west Africa, after a doctor who had returned from the region became the first Ebola case in New York City.

US President Barack Obama sought to calm a jittery public by hugging one of the two nurses who became the first to contract Ebola on American soil after treating a patient, but has now been declared free of the disease.

Mali President Ibrahim Boubacar Keita aimed to ease fears after the death of a two-year-old girl, the first Ebola case in the landlocked country, who travelled from Guinea. “We are doing everything to prevent panic and psychosis,” he said in an interview with French radio.

The girl and her grandmother travelled by public transport from Keweni in Guinea through the towns of Kankan, Sigouri and Kouremale to the Malian capi-tal, Bamako. “The two stayed in Bamako for two hours before travelling on to Kayes,” in Mali’s southwest. The Malian authori-ties were tracing everyone who had contact with the girl and her grandmother and 43 people had been placed under observation, the WHO said. AFP

BONN: With a 2015 deadline looming large for a global pact on curbing climate change, six days of UN talks closed here yester-day with delegates and observers deflated over a lack of progress.

Rifts over responsibilities for galloping emissions of Earth-warming fossil fuels remain deeply entrenched, they said, preventing detailed negotiations on a new agreement.

The meeting of senior officials in the former West German capi-tal was meant to lay the ground-work for December’s round of ministerial-level UN talks in Lima, where a draft of the deal must be outlined for adoption in Paris a year later.

It was also intended to start identifying what information countries will be required to sub-mit when they lodge their pledges for curbing emissions.

A long list of speakers com-plained at yesterday’s closing session of an opportunity lost. Ecuador’s negotiator Walter Schuldt, on behalf of a group of 30-odd Like-Minded Developing Countries that include major pol-luters India and China, said they were “thoroughly dissatisfied” with the outcome.

“We lost valuable negotiating time this week with open-ended discussions,” he said — a senti-ment echoed by African and Arab countries, among others that had hoped for more detailed bartering.

Countries remain divided on such fundamentals as the legal form that the 2015 agreement will take, whether there will be different levels of obligation for rich and poor nations, and how to assess whether national carbon curbing pledges are enough, com-bined, to avoid the worst climate change scenarios.

Many said the Bonn meet-ing merely restated well-known country positions on how respon-sibility for climate action must be shared, instead of discussing details like funding to help poor countries shift to less polluting fuels and adapt to change that can no longer be avoided.

AFP

LONDON: Johann Lamont, leader of the opposition Labour Party in Scotland, quit yester-day, branding the wider UK party leadership “dinosaurs” who failed to grasp how the independence referendum had changed Scottish politics.

Lamont said the party in Scotland needed greater auton-omy as more powers are trans-ferred from London to Edinburgh following the narrowly-contested referendum.

And her resignation with immediate effect highlights deep divisions within the left-of-cen-tre party, led by Ed Miliband, ahead of Britain’s May 2015 gen-eral election.

In last month’s referendum, Scotland voted by 55 percent to 45 percent to remain in the United Kingdom. The pro-independence campaign was led by the Scottish National Party (SNP), the gov-erning party in Scotland, while Labour favoured staying within

the union. “Scotland has chosen home rule — not London rule,” Lamont told the Daily Record newspaper.

“The Labour Party must recog-nise that the Scottish party has to be autonomous and not just a branch office of a party based in London. “There is a danger of Scottish politics being between two sets of dinosaurs ... the Nationalists who can’t accept they were rejected by the people, and some colleagues at Westminster who think nothing has changed.”

Lamont said she had been critically undermined by the central party. “Any leader whose general secretary can be removed by London without any consultation is in an untenable position,” she said.

The 57-year-old added: “This has been orchestrated by people who do not understand the politics they are facing. Scotland has changed forever after the referendum.”

AFP

Members of a district electoral commission carry a ballot box at a polling station in the Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk.

Brazil run-off vote today

Brazil’s presidential candidate Aecio Neves of Brazilian Social Democratic Party (PSDB) waves to supporters after visiting the grave of his grandfather, former president Tancredo Neves, in Sao Joao Del Rei, in Minas Gerais state yesterday. Neves is running neck-and-neck with leftist incumbent Dilma Rousseff on the eve of a run-off vote that will decide Brazil’s presidential election, a poll said.

2 US students fight for lives after shootingSchoolmate kills teen, self in attack

Ukraine gears up for vote today

Mali seeks to contain Ebola fears; girl dies

Deep rifts remain at UN talks on climate pact

Scottish opposition leader Lamont quits

ASIA / PHILIPPINES 13 SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Prayers for Ghulam Azam

Bangladeshi activists and supporters of the Jamaat-e-Islami party gather outside the national mosque in Dhaka yesterday to offer prayers during the funeral of party leader Ghulam Azam. The 91-year-old, who was sentenced to 90 years in prison, died of heart attack in custody on Thursday.

Bid to launch leaflets into N Korea foiledSouth Korean activist Choi Woo-Won (right) shouts anti-North Korea slogans and (RIGHT) activists were blocked by local residents near Imjingak peace park on the border city of Paju, north of Seoul, yesterday.

Riot police clash with activists planning to release balloons carrying about 40,000 propaganda materials

US to pay Philippines $2m for reef damage

PAJU: Tensions flared yester-day as South Korean activists attempting to launch propa-ganda leaflets into the North were thwarted by egg-throwing residents of a border town, fol-lowing threats of retaliation from Pyongyang.

Hundreds of riot police were deployed as the dispute erupted in the town of Paju, some 40 kilometres north of Seoul, when a dozen people with their faces hooded seized an activists’ truck carrying balloons and leaflets.

Police also surrounded a bus

carrying around 20 activists after local residents hurled eggs at it, shouting “Go back. Don’t put our lives in danger!.”

The activists had planned to release balloons carrying around 40,000 leaflets criticising the North’s government across the heavily-militarised frontier.

But with Pyongyang threaten-ing to retaliate over the launch, local residents set up road blocks with tractors and a placard reading “Stop anti-North leaflet launch jeopardising our lives!.”

“We will become victims of

shelling if leaflets are scattered,” read another placard.

The activists retreated after a two-hour protest during which they traded insults with the resi-dents and chanted slogans such as “Let’s terminate the dictatorship of (North Korean leader) Kim Jong-Un!.”

However they did not aban-don their attempt entirely, park-ing their bus on a road leading to the park with some insisting they should try again to float the balloons.

Later new leaflets were brought

in by the activists, but local resi-dents and liberal groups teamed up to foil their repeated attempts.

“Those instigated by North Korea ambushed us to block our event today but we will come back,” Busan University profes-sor Choi Woo-Won, the main organiser of yesterday’s event, told reporters.

Despite Seoul’s stance that the activists have a democratic right to launch the leaflets, police inter-vened to prevent a clash between activists and residents.

More than 1,000 riot police

were deployed in and around the park, the South’s Yonhap news agency said.

Pyongyang, which refers to the activists as “human scum,” has long condemned the launches and in recent weeks has stepped up its demands for Seoul to ban the practice entirely.

Two weeks ago, North Korea border guards attempted to shoot down some balloons, triggering a brief exchange of heavy machine gun fire between the two sides.

“If a rash act of scattering leaf-lets slandering our dignity and

system is taken again in South Korea, its consequences will be very grave,” Rodong Sinmun, the North’s official newspaper, said in a commentary yesterday.

The North has warned that fail-ure to halt future launches could scupper the planned resumption of high-level talks between the two Koreas.

The local residents in Paju insisted that the threats of mili-tary retaliation by North Korea are credible and that the activists are putting their lives and busi-nesses at risk. AFP

YANGON: Myanmar’s press council yesterday said the army had admitted to shooting dead a man in its custody who activists claim was a reporter detained after covering clashes near the conflict-hit eastern border.

Aung Naing was gunned down as he tried to flee detention in Kyaikmaraw town in southeast-ern Mon state on October 4, the interim Myanmar Press Council (MPC) said citing a rare state-ment issued by the military.

He “tried to escape by fighting

with a soldier and attempting to steal his weapon” said the docu-ment, adding that Aung Naing was suspected of being a member of a local armed group.

This was contradicted by activ-ists and local media reports which said he was a freelance journal-ist covering unrest in the region, where fighting between govern-ment troops and rebels has flared in recent weeks.

The US-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said Aung Naing was thought to have

worked for several local news titles but the MPC was unable to confirm his status as a reporter.

The military statement issued Thursday -- a first of its kind from the army which ruled Myanmar with an iron fist for decades -- added the man had been buried in Shwe Wah Chaung village, near where he died.

MPC secretary Kyaw Min Swe said the burial meant it was dif-ficult to verify the army version of events.

“This is a big question to ask

the military, because they can-not show the dead body,” he said, also questioning why the group had received news of the death nearly three weeks after the shooting.

On Friday the CPJ said the death of Aung Naing was “repre-hensible,” adding that he was the first reporter killed in the former junta-run nation since 2007.

“Civilian authorities must investigate the military’s account-ing of his death, which has the ini-tial hallmarks of a cover-up,” said

Shawn Crispin, CPJ’s Southeast Asia representative, in a statement.

“Any soldier found responsible for his extrajudicial killing or mis-treatment before his death must be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.”

Reporters were regularly detained under the junta, which meted out long jail sentences to journalists while choking off information with some of the world’s most draconian censor-ship rules. AFP

Myanmar army killed reporter in custody: Press Council

MANILA,: The United States has agreed to pay the Philippines $2m in compensa-tion for the damage one of its ships inflicted on over 2,000 square meters of Tubbataha Reef early last year, Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said yesterday.

“I received correspondence yes-terday that the US has agreed to pay the compensation, and what is being done at this time is that the documentation is being prepared,”

Del Rosario told the Senate finance subcommittee deliberating on his department’s budget. He said the two governments agreed to set the amount at $2m based on “an inter-agency mechanism.”

The minesweeper USS Guardian ran aground on Tubbataha Reef in the Sulu Sea on Jan 17 last year. The ship had to be disassembled to extri-cate it from the reef, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

THE PHILIPPINE STAR

BEIJING: China’s fight against deeply ingrained corruption will never end, the country’s top official in charge of tackling graft said ahead of a key meet-ing to root out corruption in the world’s second-largest economy.

Since President Xi Jinping launched his high-profile cam-paign against corruption upon assuming office last year a series of senior official have been felled, including powerful former domes-tic security chief Zhou Yongkang.

“All these efforts have gained the support of the general public,” said Wang Qishan, who heads the ruling Communist Party’s Central

Commission for Discipline Inspection

“This is just the beginning,” he said, adding that the party’s anti-graft campaign requires “con-sistency, intensified supervision, discipline and accountability.”

Efforts to build a clean govern-ment “will never be concluded,” Wang was quoted as saying by the official Xinhua news agency late on Friday.

Wang made the comments while talking with overseas members of the advisory board of the School of Economics and Management at Beijing’s elite Tsinghua University, Xinhua said.

“A clean government and a healthy and fair market offers the best soft environment for invest-ment,” it paraphrased Wang as saying.

The party’s graft watchdog begins its annual plenum yes-terday. It is not clear how long it will go on for. The party’s own ple-num ended this week with vague promises to boost the rule of law, but made no mention of the dis-graced Zhou.

The party announced in July that it had launched a corruption investigation into Zhou, following months of speculation about his fate. REUTERS

Fight against China graft to continue

Taiwan rejects Iran lawsuit against bank over arms scamTAIPEI: Taiwan’s Supreme Court has reportedly rejected a bid by Iran to make a Taiwanese bank refund $15m intended for an arms deal that disappeared three decades ago, after it was apparently claimed by three mysterious con artists.

Iran’s defence ministry had sued Taiwan’s Chang Hwa Bank over the deal to purchase arms from the island in 1981.

The deal, according to reports in several Taiwanese newspapers yesterday, was the brainchild of Taiwanese businessman Wu Fu-jeou. Wu reportedly con-vinced the Iranian government that he could help broker an arms deal with Taiwan. Wu requested funds be wired to a joint account at Chang Hwa Bank, under the names of three Iranians repre-senting the government who were supposed to withdraw the funds in Taiwan to pay for the deal, according to Apple Daily. But when they went to do so, they were told that the money had been claimed by three people who had reportedly presented bank officials with correct documents.

China to close plants for forumSHANGHAI: Chinese Vice Premier Zhang Gaoli ordered a temporary shutdown of facto-ries to ensure air quality during a meeting of Asia-Pacific lead-ers in Beijing next month.

It is the strongest measure yet to curb pollution for the November 7-11 meeting in the capital.

Zhang told officials that ensur-ing air quality during APEC is the “priority of priorities,” although the task will be a “tremendous pressure and challenge” given dropping temperatures and the start of the coal burning season in northern China, Xinhua said.

Zhang also said vehicle controls must be strictly enforced and residents should be encouraged to take public transportation.

To ease traffic congestion and curb pollution, Beijing has already announced that public workers in the capital will be given six days off during the APEC meeting.

AGENCIES

WELLINGTON: A Malaysian military attache extradited to New Zealand to face an attempted rape charge was remanded in custody following a brief court appearance.

Muhammad Rizalman Ismail, who stood silently in the dock as Malaysian High Commission staff watched from the public gallery, will reappear in court on Tuesday.

Rizalman was flown from Kuala Lumpur to New Zealand under police escort on Friday and spent the night in custody in Auckland before being put on a flight to Wellington yesterday for his court appearance.

He had fled home to Malaysia in May after invoking diplo-matic immunity when accused of

stalking and attempting to molest 21-year-old Tania Billingsley at her home in the same Wellington suburb where Malaysia’s High Commission is located.

Rizalman, who was a defence staff assistant at the High Commission, faces a jail term of up to 10 years if found guilty.

Billingsley has waived her right to anonymity granted in rape cases under New Zealand law to express her frustration at how the case had been handled.

She said in a television inter-view in July that New Zealand officials appeared more con-cerned about hushing the mat-ter up and avoiding a diplomatic incident than ensuring justice was served. AFP

Malaysia envoy remanded in custody in N Zealand

Govt keen to develop good relations

ISLAMABAD: During the quarter of a century between 1989 and 2014, more than 4,900 Pakistani citizens have perished in around 3,000 incidents of sectarian violence and close to 9,500 have sustained injuries.

The research shows that approximately 525 Pakistanis had lost lives in 128 incidents of sectarian violence during 2013, 509 people had died unnaturally in 57 such incidents during 2010, as many as 507 humans (in 173 incidents) were made to travel towards their eternal abodes dur-ing 2012 because of their religious beliefs and 441 citizens had suc-cumbed to this mode of terrorism in 341 incidents during 2007.

More than 160 Pakistanis have

fallen victim to the monster of sectarianism in well over five dozen incidents till date during the ongoing 2014.

Following Wednesday’s unsuc-cessful suicide attack aimed at killing the JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in Quetta, it is hence worthwhile to peek into the chronology and timeline of anti-state violence, sectarian killings, election-related feuds, tribal shoot-ings, ethnicity and terrorism etc in Baluchistan during last 11 years.

Research reveals at least 125 major incidents have rocked this unfortunate province since June 8, 2003, or the day when some 11 police trainees hailing from the Hazara Shia branch were shot dead at Quetta’s Sariab Road.

While many residents of Baluchistan have lost lives since 2003 after their vehicles had unfortunately hit land mines, even schools, hospitals, mosques and courts have not been spared by the merciless terrorists.

It goes without saying that innumerable Nato oil tankers have been torched during this decade-long period under review and various guest Chinese engi-neers have been shot dead while working on development projects undertaken in Baluchistan, in col-laboration with their country.

A good number of politicians like Maulana Fazlur Rehman and Sanaullah Zehri (provin-cial chief of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz), some sitting

chief ministers and ministers of the time including the likes of the late Baluchistan Chief Minister Jam Muhammad Yousaf, another ex-Chief Minister Nawab Aslam Khan Raisani, former provin-cial Governor Nawab Zulfiqar Magsi, Baluchistan’s ex-provincial Finance Minister Asim Ali Kurd and the Punjab-born Baluchistan Education Minister Shafiq Ahmed Khan etc) have till date been tar-geted with absolute ease since 2003.

Apart from Shafiq Ahmed Khan, who was killed on October 25, 2009 in what appeared to be an incident of ethic and linguistic violence, all others named in the above paragraph were favoured by Lady Luck though.

INTERNEWS

Pakistan ‘will continue trade with India’

Sharif to strengthen party for next elections

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Commerce Khurram Dastagir Khan said yesterday that Pakistan will continue trade with its neigh-bours, including India, despite border tensions.

The minister said that PML-N government is committed to increase regional trade as part of promoting peace without compro-mising on national sovereignty. “The vision of our government is that we must trade with our neighbours,” he said.

Speaking at a consultative meeting ‘Trade with Neighbours: Prospects and Challenges’, organised by the Sustainable Development Policy Institute (SDPI), the minister said that the country’s current tension with India is casting a shadow on economic ties.

The minister said that Pakistan would have to trade in energy for import of electricity from India to overcome the energy crisis. The minister admitted that no doubt extraordinary concessions were given to neighbours for trade facilitation.

“We have been trying to finalise our projects with Iran as well,” the minister said, adding that due to international pressure, his government is facing difficul-ties according to modes of inter-national payments. Pakistan is already purchasing electricity at Gwadar Port from Iran.

Regarding talks on trade with China, the minister stated that

Pakistan has already had a Free Trade Agreement (FTA) with China.

“The direction of this govern-ment is to encourage investment. A new change will be noticed if Gwadar Port is linked with the North,” he said.

Pakistan, he said, was also planning to develop trading land ports at Pakistan’s three neigh-bouring junction points - Wagha, Torkham and Chaman - as gate-ways to regional trade.

State Minister for Privatisation Mohammad Zubair supported the notion of opening of border for trade with India. “Pakistan should trade with India for better stand-ard of living of its own people,” the minister said.

“If we want to develop, we should contribute. It is not about India’s domination on us, we abso-lutely want good relations with India,” the minister said.

“The privatisation minister said that it was time to start with a bold decision. No country in the world can improve its relations without going into business,” he said.

Abid Qayyum Suleri, SDPI’s Executive Director, while uphold-ing the narrative that trade can bring peace, said that countries cannot change their neighbours and regional trade is all about neighbours, building alliance and synergies for economic and social development to minimise conflict and promote peaceful coexistence.

INTERNEWS

ISLAMABAD: Several construc-tion firms working on the Rawalpindi-Islamabad Metro Bus Project have submitted prolongation cost claims running into millions of rupees due to delays caused by the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Awami Tehreek (PAT) sit-ins.

A prolongation cost is claimed by a con-struction firm on the basis of extended duration of work during which costs are incurred as a result of delay.

It includes costs for machinery and labour which are paid for but unused dur-ing the delay period.

The government has also decided to extend the completion date of the project by one month - from December 28, 2014, to January 28, 2015.

The largest claims have been made by construction firms engaged on the Islamabad section of the metro bus project along the Jinnah Avenue, the area most affected by the two sit-ins at D-Chowk.

Though the PTI’s sit-in continues, it has been decided to mobilise machinery and staff at the site.

“A separate committee represent-ing the National Engineering Services

Pakistan (Nespak), Rawalpindi Development Authority (RDA) and con-tractor firms has been formed, which will not only settle the prolongation claims but also work out a strategy to complete the work on most-affected Package-V of the Islamabad-section of the project,” said Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed.

Saeed chaired a meeting at the RDA office yesterday to review progress on the project.

Though Zahid Saeed did not give any details he said major claim has been made by a firm Remark-Reliable, which is working on Package-V where the work has virtually been suspended for the last 75 days due to the sit-ins.

He said the sit-in participants remained present on 1.4 kilometres of the 2.4-kilo-metre-long Package-V on Jinnah Avenue.

He said 30 days of extensive construc-tion work will make up for the delay.

He said Punjab Chief Minister Shahbaz Sharif, who had earlier ordered the authorities to complete the work by December 28, will be requested to extend the deadline to January 28.

INTERNEWS

Pakistan govt clears $1.74m student loansKARACHI: The apex commit-tee of the Student Loan Scheme approved yesterday Rs173.57m ($1.74m) worth of interest-free loans to be given to deserving students so that they could pur-sue higher studies in Pakistan.

The loans were approved dur-ing a meeting of the committee held at the headquarters of the State Bank of Pakistan.

SBP Deputy Governor Saeed Ahmad presided over the meet-ing which was attended by repre-sentatives of the Finance Division, National Bank of Pakistan, MCB Bank, Allied Bank, Habib Bank and United Bank. The Rs500m endowment fund was created for the scheme in the fiscal year 2001-02. The NBP operates the scheme by receiving and scrutinising loan applications, disbursing loan and investing in the endowment fund.

Loans approved will be dis-bursed among 1,072 students enrolled by public sector universi-ties in the under-graduate, gradu-ate, MPhil and PhD programmes of 2012-13 session.

37 rebels killed in AfghanistanKABUL: At least 37 Taliban militants were killed and 55 were injured following military operations in the past 24 hours.

The Ministry of Interior said the operations were conducted by Afghan National Police in coopera-tion with Afghan National Army and Afghan intelligence, National Directorate of Security (NDS) operatives, Khaama press reported

The statement further added the operations were conducted in Farah, Logar, Laghman, Parwan, Nangarhar and Ghazni provinces.

“Also, during these operations, Afghan National Police discovered and confiscated light and heavy rounds ammunition,” it said. Police discovered and defused two different types of IEDs placed by enemies of Afghanistan for destructive activities in Helmand and Takhar provinces.

AGENCIES

PM blames protests for rise in metro bus project costs

ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has decided to reinvigorate the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-N (PML-N) in a manner that in the coming 30 months, it is ready for a coun-trywide campaign for the next polls.

Nawaz, also the president of the PML-N, had an extensive discussion with his party’s chair-man Senator Raja Zafarul Haq on the overall political situation here at the PM House yesterday. Raja Haq is also the leader of the House in the Senate.

It has been decided in the meet-ing that brainstorming would continue at all levels of the party.

Sources said that the prime minister has initiated consulta-tions with the political leadership

of the country, including his own party leaders, to assess the agita-tion mode of certain elements out to harm the country’s interests internally and externally as well.

The meeting had taken place in the backdrop of speculations about a reshuffle/expansion in the federal cabinet. It is under-stood that the two discussed the performance of various ministers and their contribution to the two houses of parliament.

Haq assured the prime minis-ter that the PML-N’s potential should not be underrated since all cadres of the party were asked to stay calm and they showed patience in the face of excesses.

The new role of the party to deal with the upcoming develop-ments will also be discussed in yet

another high-level meeting next week.

Raja Haq appreciated the prime minister and the admin-istration’s handling of the recent chaos created by some elements.

The two agreed to enhance contacts with workers and leaders of the party. Raja Haq briefed the prime minister on the working of the Senate, the source said.

Earlier, PkMAP leader Mahmood Khan Achakzai also called on the prime minister and discussed the political develop-ments. Achakzai expressed con-cern over the losses caused to the nation due to the sit-ins that had allegedly surpassed rupees 1,000 billion.

He was of the opinion that it was to be ascertained whether corruption has inflicted more loss to the country or the sit-ins.

Nawaz Sharif is the 18th and current Prime Minister of Pakistan in office since June 2013.

A veteran politician and

industrialist, he previously served as Prime Minister from November 1990 to July 1993 and from February 1997 to October 1999.

Sharif is the president of Pakistan Muslim League (N), which is currently Pakistan’s larg-est political party, and has formed the government.

As the owner of Ittefaq Group, a leading business conglomerate, he is also one of the country’s wealthiest people.

He is commonly known as the ‘Lion of the Punjab’.

Nawaz entered politics in the 1980s when in the general elec-tions of 1985, he won with an overwhelming majority, both in the National and Provincial Assemblies. INTERNEWS

Sectarian clashes claim 4,900 in 25 years

A paramedic administers polio drops to a child in a hospital in Islamabad. Polio is still endemic in Pakistan and efforts to stamp it out have been badly affected by attacks on vaccinators.

A view of the illuminated historical Badshahi Mosque in Lahore, Pakistan. The ‘Royal Mosque’ was built in 1673 by Mughal Emperor Aurangzeb. It can accommodate some 50,000 worshippers and is the second largest mosque in Pakistan.

Anti-polio campaign

Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif

‘Royal Mosque’

14 PAKISTAN / AFGHANISTANSUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

15INDIA SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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NEW DELHI: India has opted to buy Israel’s Spike anti-tank guided missile, a defence minis-try source said yesterday, reject-ing a rival US offer of Javelin missiles that Washington had lobbied hard to win.

The Defence Acquisition Council (DAC) approved defence procure-ment proposals worth Rs800bn ($13.1bn), many of which were longstanding, at a meeting chaired by Defence Minister Arun Jaitley, the Press Trust of India said.

India, the second most popu-lous nation in the world, is in the midst of a $100bn defence upgrade programme. It cleared proposals worth nearly $3.5 billion in June.

India will buy at least 8,000 Spike missiles and more than 300 launchers in a deal worth Rs32bn ($525m), the source said after the meeting.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s five-month-old govern-ment wants to clear a backlog of defence orders and boost India’s firepower, amid recent border tensions with China and heavy exchanges of fire with Pakistan across the Kashmiri frontier.

“National security is the par-amount concern of the govern-ment,” the source quoted Jaitley, who also holds the finance port-folio, as telling the procure-ment panel. “All hurdles and

bottlenecks in the procurement process should be addressed expe-ditiously so that the pace of acqui-sition is not stymied.”

Spike is a man-portable “fire and forget” anti-tank missile that locks on to targets before shooting. It is produced by Israel’s Rafael Advanced Defence Systems, which declined to comment.

It beat out the rival US Javelin weapons system, built by Lockheed Martin Corp and Raytheon Co, that defence secre-tary Chuck Hagel pitched during Modi’s visit to Washington at the end of September.

Senior US officials had said they were still discussing the Javelin

order as part of a broader push to deepen defence industry ties with India by increasing the share of production done in the country.

The other proposals cleared by the DAC include manufac-turing six conventional subma-rines worth over Rs500bn. The Request for Proposal (RFP) will, however, be open for “compliant yards”, ministry sources said. The government aims at manufactur-ing all six submarines in the time frame of a year.

These submarines will be Air Independent Propulsion (AIP) capable that will enable them to stay underwater for longer and will have features including

stealth and attack cruise missiles.A committee will be set up by

the DAC to decide on the ship-yards that will be issued RFPs for these submarines which will study both public and private shipyards over the next 6-8 weeks. All six submarines will be made in one shipyard.

The navy will also get 12 more Dornier aircraft. These will be built by the Bangalore-based defence public sector unit — Hindustan Aeronautics Limited — at a total cost of Rs1,850 crore. Dorniers are used for maritime surveillance and the navy has a fleet of 40 of these aircraft.

The order for production of

363 infantry fighting vehicle BMP-2 for army units from the Ordinance Factory Board has also been approved. Another army pro-posal worth Rs662 crore for buying radio relay containers has also been approved. It also includes acquiring 1,768 critical rolling stock — open and closed wagons for transport of military equipment at a cost of Rs740 crore.

Analysts estimate that India, the world’s largest arms buyer, will invest as much as $250bn in upgrading its Soviet-era military hardware and close the gap on China, which spends three times as much a year on defence.

THE GUARDIAN/AGENCIES

Defence Ministry spurns US for Israeli missilesAt least 8,000 Spike missiles and more than 300 launchers to be bought in a deal worth Rs32bn

Prime Minister Narendra Modi arriving for an event to host journalists over tea, titled ‘Deepawali Milan’ in New Delhi.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached out to journalists yesterday for the first time since taking office, aiming to mend his rocky rela-tions with the press.

It was Modi’s first formal out-reach to the media after assuming office and it broke the ice when he met journalists, shook hands with them and smiled for selfies.

The right-wing leader has never given a press conference and prefers using state media as well as his huge Facebook and Twitter following to communicate with the masses.

But in an apparent break from the approach passed on by his predecessors, he addressed more than 200 journalists at BJP head-quarters in New Delhi, pledging to meet them more often.

“I am looking for ways to strengthen my relationship with you and... I will try to find time to meet you more often,” Modi said, an announcement wel-comed by journalists who have

complained of a lack of two-way communication with the new government.

After an eight-minute speech in which he thanked the media for its coverage of his ‘Clean India’ campaign — aimed at tidy-ing up public spaces — he stepped off the dais to shake hands and briefly chat with top editors and reporters, who scrambled to pose for “selfies” with the tech-savvy premier.

But Modi faced flak from crit-ics for not taking any questions from the media. He has carefully controlled his communication strategy since coming to power, mostly choosing the state-backed Doordarshan broadcaster and All India Radio to address India’s 1.2 billion-strong population.

He is also immensely popular on Facebook and Twitter — where he has 24 million “likes” and 7.3 million followers respectively — and uses these websites as plat-forms to express his views and make announcements.

Journalists are often asked to refer to official press statements and Modi’s Twitter feed for news, leaving private news organisa-tions grumbling over Modi’s one-way interaction which they say offers no debate and shields him from tough questions.

Modi was flanked by BJP president Amit Shah and Home Minister Rajnath Singh.

While Shah addressed the media, as is part of the custom that party president speaks, Modi was seen chatting with Rajnath Singh and smiling. Shah chose to talk about the recent victories of his party in the assembly elections in Maharashtra and Haryana.

The prime minister however kept politics at bay, and chose to break the ice recounting how once upon a time he was the one to make seating arrangements for the media. Modi was referring to his days in the BJP national head-quarters before he was made the chief minister of Gujarat.

AGENCIES

MUMBAI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi yesterday underlined the need to give importance to preventive health care with simple habits like washing hands among children to reduce the burden on the nation’s health care systems.

Inaugurating the swank renovated Sir H N Reliance Foundation Hospital in south Mumbai here, Modi said treat-ing illness and convalescence were expensive but preventive methods were very cheap. “For instance, if we can provide clean pure drink-ing water, a majority of health problems can be solved.

“After the Sabarmati river was revived with water from the Narmada Dam around 10 years ago, there has not been an outbreak of a single (water-borne disease) epi-demic in the city (Ahmedabad). The people have got clean water and the civic body has made savings of Rs15 crore in bills,” Modi said.

Modi cited examples to show how a simple habit like washing hands before meals among children can prevent many diseases. He touched upon the need to manufac-ture essential medical equipment in India with foreign investment to bring down the cost.

Earlier, the prime minister inaugurated the hospital, now in its 90th year, located in south Mumbai, which has been re-built by Reliance Foundation, led by its chairperson Nita Ambani, into a modern 19-storey tower with two heritage wings. Nita Ambani termed it “a historic day” in the life of the hospital which was re-dedicated to the people of Mumbai.

Founded in 1925 as Mumbai’s first general hospital, the 345-bed, multi-specialty tertiary care hos-pital has six thrust areas: Cardiac sciences, nephro-urology, neuro sci-ences, oncology, orthopaedics and spine, and women and child health. Mukesh Ambani, his wife Nita and other family members welcomed Modi near the entrance to the hospital, along with Maharashtra Governor C V Rao. IANS

NEW DELHI: Assembly elec-tions in Jammu and Kashmir and Jharkhand will be held in five phases beginning November 25 and ending on December 20. By-elections to three Delhi assembly seats will also be held on November 25. Counting for all the seats would be held on December 23, the Election Commission announced yesterday.

“The five phases will be on November 25, December 2, December 9, December 14 and December 20 in both states,” Chief Election Commissioner of India V S Sampath told the media at a briefing held here. He said that the commission was mandated to complete elections in both states before the expiry of the term of their respective state legislatures.

The term of the legislative assembly of Jharkhand ends on January 3, 2015 and that of Jammu and Kashmir on January 19, 2015. “Electoral rolls for Jharkhand were finalised on July 31 while the final electoral roll for Jammu and Kashmir was published on October 15,” Sampath said.

Replying to a question whether it was the appropriate time to conduct elections in the flood-affected state of Jammu and Kashmir, Sampath said that the decision was taken after consulta-tions with all recognised political parties there.

“We are bound by the consti-tution to hold elections before the term of the assembly expires.

When we consulted all recog-nised political parties there, they were of the opinion that there is no need to stall the election,” he maintained. For the 849 people who are still living in camps, voter cards will be distributed to them in their camps, he said.

Considering that both the states are sensitive from the point of view of law and order, Sampath said the commission had made efficient arrangements to avert any untoward incident.

“Both states are sensitive from the security point of view. We have taken all measures to identify the security requirement by having suitable discussion with concerned authorities. There will be deploy-ment of adequate forces to ensure free and fair polls,” he asserted.

The model code of conduct comes into force with immediate effect and shall be applicable to the union government and the states concerned, he added.

The total number of electors in Jharkhand is 20.74 million, and that in Jammu and Kashmir is 7.22 million. “There will be 24,648 polling stations in Jharkhand for its 81 constituencies and 10,015 in Jammu and Kashmir for 87 con-stituencies,” Sampath announced.

The three Delhi constituencies where by-elections will be held on November 25 are Krishna Nagar, Mehrauli and Tughlakabad. Counting for all the seats would be held on December 23, the poll panel announced. IANS

Heavy rain in Bangalore

Motorists ride during heavy rain in the southern Indian city of Bangalore yesterday.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Senior Congress leader Shashi Tharoor (pictured) yesterday launched a cleanliness drive on Kovalam beach, person-ally collecting garbage in bags. Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised his efforts and also retweeted the pictures.

Tharoor, who was sacked as spokesperson of the Congress party for tagging along with Modi’s Swachh Bharat campaign, said that Mahatma Gandhi’s sani-tation drive was a national cause and not aligned to any party.

Prime Minister Modi retweeted the photos of Tharoor on his twit-ter handle @narendramodi and also praised him, writing: “A great effort by @ShashiTharoor! His active participation in Swachh Bharat Mission is very encouraging.”

Earlier, Tharoor, Congress MP

from Thiruvananthapuram, while launching the cleanliness drive on the beach tweeted: “Before my actions today are distorted: a clean India requires no label. Why cede Gandhiji’s sanitation drive to any party? A national cause.”

Tharoor and a few other Congress workers and

representatives of local bodies held brooms and took to the job of cleaning streets.

“I am a Congressman and my ideology is there should be clean surroundings. I first arrived in this city when I was 10 years and at that time even after heavy rains, the city used to be clean due to the excellent drainage facility. But today, urban planning has failed and the place here has become like a sewage dump,” said Tharoor.

Tharoor said it was Mahatma Gandhi who said sanita-tion is more important than independence.

“Cleanliness is a national pro-gramme... not the programme of any particular party,” he added.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had nominated Tharoor to spread the message of a clean India.

IANS

Modi breaks ice with media

Phased polls in J&K and Jharkhand

Tharoor launches cleanliness drive

Kerala nurses want to return to IraqTHIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Kerala nurses who have a valid work visa for Iraq are urging the state government to arrange for their return to that country to join duty. These nurses were in India on annual leave when trouble broke out in Iraq in July this year.

“By now I have received almost a dozen calls from such nurses, who are asking us to see that we make arrangements for them to resume work in Iraq as they have a valid visa and an employment contract,” said an official at the chief minister’s office. In July, around 350 Keralite nurses in Iraq were brought back after militants took control of certain areas there.

The chief minister’s office has asked these nurses to approach the ministry of external affairs. P Sudeep, CEO of Roots Norka, said that currently no fresh ECR (emigration check required) clearance is being given to anyone who wants to travel to Iraq for taking up a job. However, sources at the airport here said that those passengers who have a valid visa to Iraq are going. IANS

PM stresses preventive health careto cut bills

MORNING BREAK16SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Flight of fancy

Google’s Vice-President Alan Eustace is seen wearing a specially designed pressurised space suit as he prepares to make a record-breaking skydive from the stratosphere over New Mexico Friday. Eustace was lifted up 41,420 metres by an enormous balloon, the Paragon Space Development Corporation said, and remained in a free fall for approximately 4.5 minutes before landing safely nearly 43.4km from his launch point, setting a world record for the highest skydive and breaking the sound barrier in the process. Eustace landed safely on the ground just 15 minutes after he was lifted into the air.

Rumour mill in overdrive over actress’ faceLOS ANGELES: The storm over Renee Zellweger’s (pictured) new-look face has thrown the spotlight on one of Hollywood’s eternal questions: how do you grow old in Tinseltown?

The “Bridget Jones” star, who won a best supporting actress Oscar in 2004 for “Cold Mountain,” appeared unrecog-nisable at a women in Hollywood awards show earlier this week.

Gone were the sulky pout and

rounded cheeks from her turn as the eter-nal singleton Jones in the 2000 and 2004 movies, replaced by the 45-year-old’s impres-sively wrinkle-free and slimline face.

She became an instant water-cooler

and Twitter trending topic, with endless comments about what plastic surgery or botox she has had done, while others worried about her health.

Some denounced Hollywood

itself for the pressure it imposes on actresses to meet traditional ideals of beauty. “In Hollywood it’s strange not to (have plastic surgery) if you are a woman. You can’t get work. Movie cast-ing directors won’t hire you if you look old,” said Sasha Stone, founder of www.awardsdaily.com.

It is a Tinseltown taboo, not to be allowed to age naturally, in contrast to places like Britain and France, Stone told AFP.

“It’s an American phenomenon, an American obsession,” she said.

There is a long list of actresses

who have gone under the knife to maintain their youthful appearance: Demi Moore, Nicole Kidman, Meg Ryan, Jane Fonda, Melanie Griffith... to name but a few. Some have gone a little too far in this pact with the devil, finding themselves with slightly over-rounded cheeks or “trout lips,” with a little too much pad-ding around the mouth.

“When they do their face, they hope to keep getting the A-list parts. They don’t want to play grandmothers. They want the leading roles,” said Stone. AFP

LOS ANGELES: When David Henderson was 10 years old, he spent a day with his mother at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in northern California, getting a close-up view of her work as an information tech-nology specialist. Twenty years later, the tables have turned.

Last November, Henderson brought his mother to LinkedIn’s Mountain View, California offices so she could learn more about his job as a project manager there. As part of LinkedIn’s first Bring In Your Parents Day, Henderson’s mom got to meet his colleagues and tour the company’s 25-acre campus. Or Indian fare. Or local handcrafted Philz coffee.

“She works in more of a government workplace and we’ve got an executive chef that came from Mustards,” Henderson says, referencing the landmark Napa Valley restaurant where LinkedIn’s executive chef once worked. “It wasn’t something she could have imagined.”

On November 6, LinkedIn will again roll out the welcome mat for its employees’ parents, and has convinced more than 30 other companies to do so as well. Virgin Group, SAP, British Airways and advertis-ing agency Leo Burnett are among those opening their doors on the same day, in a flip of sorts on the traditional corporate career visit for kids.

Other companies, such as Google and Northwestern Mutual, have launched sim-ilar programmes on their own in recent years, inviting parents in for welcome days or for open houses while their children are interns.

“It’s not like parents are popping in all the time for coffee, but I think it’s slowly becoming more accepted,” says Hannah

Ubl, a consultant with BridgeWorks, a generational research and strategy firm. “There’s this moment where companies are like, ‘We’re going to start working with you rather than against you,’ and they’ve started doing this with parents.”

For years, after all, companies have wor-ried about the growing threat of an invasive species known as the helicopter parent. The hyper-involved moms and dads of the millennial generation were said to be showing up at job interviews, calling hir-ing managers on behalf of their kids and even complaining to employers about their children’s salaries.

Older managers often saw this dynamic as dysfunctional and a workplace burden, says Neil Howe, author of Millennials in the Workplace. So much so, in fact, that when he began predicting a decade ago that companies would one day have events like this, “everyone thought it was funny. It was utter disbelief.” A typical response? “Over my dead body.”

Yet now that the oldest millennials have been in the workplace for a number of years, several companies are starting to embrace employees’ parents as an asset rather than a hindrance. “The fact of the matter is it hasn’t been a problem,” says

Rich Stoddart, CEO of Leo Burnett North America. “Look, if our employees’ parents appreciate the culture of the company and the kinds of things their children do, those employees are going to be happier and more connected and more loyal to our company.”

If there’s any common theme to why companies have started involving parents more, that’s it: Showing the workplace off to parents, and better communicat-ing with them, could stoke higher engage-ment among employees and make them less likely to leave. “If their kids say they want to do something else,” Stoddart says, parents “might just ask, are you sure you want to do that?”

Some companies playing host to fami-lies are careful not to link the idea to mil-lennials. LinkedIn, for instance, casts its effort as both an employee programme and a branding exercise. Meanwhile, a Google spokesperson says its Take Your Parents to Work event, which began in 2012, is simply a fun way to share more about the com-pany with employees’ parents, whatever their age.

PepsiCo CEO Indra Nooyi, for exam-ple, told Fortune earlier this year that she writes letters to the parents of senior lead-ers on her executive team, and she even called the parent of one high-potential candidate for help persuading him to join the company. When the candidate tried to tell his mother he was going to take another job, she told him Nooyi had called and said he should work at Pepsi. “I had no choice!” Nooyi recounted him saying. “Can you imagine going home every day after that and a mom goes, ‘but you should have accepted that offer!’ “

WP-BLOOMBERG

Show your parents what you do at work

LinkedIn employees at the Empire State Building in Manhattan, New York, bring their parents to work in November last year for Parents Day.

Russia moves to permanent winter timeMOSCOW: Russia today is set to turn back its clocks to win-ter time permanently in a move backed by President Vladimir Putin, reversing a three-year experiment with non-stop sum-mer time that proved highly unpopular.

Russia will also tinker with its time zones in order to revert to the full 11 zones from Kamchatka in the Pacific to Kaliningrad on the borders of the European Union — reduced to nine by previous president Dmitry Medvedev.

In one of his highest-profile reforms, Medvedev had backed Russia’s move to permanent Summer Time (Greenwich Mean Time plus four hours) in 2011 on the basis that changing clocks upset people’s biorhythms and made for “unhappy cows”.

But the change provoked a rumble of protest, wtih many Russians unhappy at getting up an hour earlier on pitch-dark winter mornings.

In July, Putin — known for rarely making public appear-ances in the morning — signed a law bringing back winter time (GMT plus three hours). He ruled that the clocks henceforth would never change to summer time.

The seemingly random reforms have riled Russians.

Moskovsky Komsomolets daily ran a cartoon of man hanging himself on the hands of a clock, saying: “I’m so sick of you chang-ing all the time.”

But health officials reassured citizens that the move back to winter time was harmless.

Russia’s full 11 time zones will also be restored after Medvedev had cut down the number of time zones to nine. AFP

South Africans use owls to fight rising rat populationJOHANNESBURG: A young barn owl looks bug-eyed in curi-osity as a bird handler readies it for a new life — to be spent hunting the rats that plague South Africa’s poor and mostly black urban areas.

The Township Owl Project takes juvenile birds rescued from perilous situations, such as when a building where they nested in is demolished, and gives them a new home and a new job.

Expertly clasping a metal ring onto the bird’s leg, handler Craig Nattrass explains: “The

ring is purely there so if the bird is recaptured it can be identi-fied and we can get statistical information.”

After he has finished “band-ing” the bird and two of its sib-lings, the trio will be released at a later date, most likely into one of Johannesburg’s townships.

More than 200 owls have been deployed like this over the past decade, according to Jonathan Haw, head of EcoSolutions, a private environmental planning company that has been steering the initiative on a pro bono basis.

Two species of owls have been used — the barn owl, which has a distinctive oval face, and the much larger spotted eagle owl.

Haw said barn owls are partic-ularly suited to urban conditions because, as their name suggests, they have long been associated with human habitation.

This also makes them ideal for the control of pests such as rats because where humans go, rats follow.

“Barn owls and rats are inex-plicably linked in evolution together,” Haw said.

The owls are released from sites such as schools, where “owl houses” are erected for them to nest. This gets children involved, creating awareness about the problem of pests and the role that predators can play in controlling their numbers.

Haw said schools are also ideal locations because they are quiet at night, when the birds are active and on the prowl. And rather than being located close to each other, each school has a “terri-tory” - as do owls.

In recent months there

have been “rat horror” stories in the South African media about children being attacked by the rodents which find ideal conditions in the over-crowded shantytowns that ring Johannesburg.

Measuring success is not easy but one way is to examine owl pellets at to see what the birds have been preying on. “They are definitely eating rats,” Haw said.

Aside from analysing bird drop-pings, pest control results can be seen in other ways.

REUTERS

Fajr (Dawn) 4:21

Shorook (Sunrise) 5:38

Zuhr (Noon) 11:18

Asr (Afternoon) 2:33

Maghrib (Sunset) 4:59

Isha (Night) 6:29

PRAYER TIME

Weather Conditions:

Hazy at places at first becomes moderate temperature daytime with slight dust and nice by night.

High: 34° Low: 25°

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Sunday 26 October 20142 Muharram 1436

Volume 19Number 6230

Price: QR2

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KUWAIT CITY: Oil-dependent Gulf states will face budget shortfalls if the recent decline in oil prices per-sists, International Monetary Fund chief Christine Lagarde warned yesterday.

A sustained decline of $25 a barrel in the oil price would reduce the revenues of most Gulf countries by 8 percent of gross domestic product, “and put many of them into a fiscal deficit situa-tion,” Lagarde told reporters.

But the six nations of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) have built up fiscal buffers to cope with the immediate impact of the reduction in revenues, she said after a meeting with regional finance ministers and central bank chiefs.

The combined GDP of the GCC last year reached $1.64 trillion, so in this scenario the annual revenue of the six nations could plunge by roughly $130bn.

The total revenue of the GCC states — 90 percent of which come from oil — more than doubled from $317bn in 2008 to $756bn in 2012. It declined slightly to $729bn last year, according to IMF estimates.

The GCC groups Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which together pump 17 million barrels of crude oil per day and depend on oil for about 90 percent of public revenues.

Oil prices have slumped by about 25 percent since June

because of a production glut, weaker demand and a gloomy world economic outlook.

The US benchmark West Texas Intermediate declined to about $81 a barrel on Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Lagarde called on GCC states to implement reforms and stressed the urgent need for fiscal consolidation — an appeal echoed by Kuwait’s finance minister.

Anas Al Saleh urged steps to tackle rising public spending, mainly on wages and subsidies, as well as efforts to boost the role of the private sector.

“Comprehensive economic reforms, including reforming dis-tortions in the public finances, should be enforced,” he said.

Saleh said the Gulf states must diversify their economies and “reduce dependence on oil”.

Forecasts indicate a healthy economic growth for the six GCC nations averaging 4.5 percent in 2014-2015, Saleh said.

“But these forecasts should be treated with caution in light of fast-paced regional and inter-national developments, particu-larly the drop in oil prices which has started to impact the pub-lic finances of GCC states,” the Kuwaiti minister added.

Benefiting from high oil prices for more than a decade, the GCC states have built fiscal reserves estimated at $2.45 trillion by the International Institute of Finance. AFP

Gulf states risk deficit as oil price falls: IMFGCC has fiscal buffers now: Lagarde

Qatar Central Bank Governor H E Sheikh Abdulla Saud Al Thani (left) and Finance Minister H E Ali Sheriff Al Emadi take part in the annual meeting of the finance ministers and central banks governors of the GCC countries yesterday in Kuwait City.

GCC finance ministers, central bank chiefs meet to discuss joint strategyKUWAIT: GCC ministers of financial and eco-nomic affairs and central banks’ governors began here yesterday a joint meeting, aimed at reaching common perspective regarding key issues of com-mon interest in the banking and monetary fields.

Agenda of the meeting, attended by Director-General of the International Monetary Fund Christine Lagarde, includes talks on issues of joint concern, with aim of formulating common perspec-tives in this respect and offering technical sup-port for Gulf Cooperation Council’s member states, Kuwait News Agency (KUNA) reported.

Looming high on the schedule are financial sta-bility in the GCC countries, reforming the labour market to increase employment and productivity, in

addition to enforcing collective precautionary meas-ures as well examining civil servants’ pay scales and salaries in the regional states.

Kuwait, late on Friday, hosted the 99th meeting of the GCC committee of financial and economic cooperation, discussing results of a previous meet-ing of the GCC commission of monetary authorities; governors and central banks and some recommenda-tions on “completing the requirements for the joint GCC custom federation.”

It also hosted the joint meeting of the Committee of Governors of Monetary Agencies and Central Banks. Topics dealt in part with “latest develop-ments at the level of combating money laundering and funding terrorism.” QNA

Nakilat’s nine-month profit grows by 25pcDOHA: Qatar Gas Transport Company Ltd (Nakilat) recorded a net profit of QR693m for the first nine months of 2014, up 25 percent compared to QR553m reported during the same period in 2013.

Commenting on the results, Nakilat’s board of directors said the strong results of the compa-ny’s earnings clearly reflect the strength and stability of the com-pany’s financial position.

The results also represent the company’s prudent strat-egy in exploiting opportunities to develop and grow the com-pany’s main business activities in the field of liquefied natural gas (LNG) transportation to include international markets, which in turn has resulted in an increase in the number of operating ves-sels in Nakilat’s fleet during the year 2014.

The board pointed out that the strong improvement in the LPG vessels’ performance contributed significantly to the achievement of these remarkable results.

In addition to the increased operating activities at the ship-yard facilities, which will continue to underpin the future financial results of the company.

The board has affirmed Nakilat’s continuous commit-ment to pursue its development and growth strategy in the long term, in order to achieve strong returns to its shareholders.

Nakilat will exploit future opportunities to acquire new vessels, serving the international marine sector, and to increase the utilisation rate for the shipyard facilities at Erhama bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard.

Nakilat is a Qatari marine transport company providing the essential transportation link in the State of Qatar’s LNG supply chain. Its LNG shipping fleet is the largest in the world, compris-ing 61 LNG vessels.

Nakilat also manages and operates four large LPG carri-ers. Via two strategic joint ven-tures, Nakilat Keppel Offshore & Marine (N-KOM) and Nakilat Damen Shipyards Qatar (NDSQ), Nakilat operates the ship repair and construction facilities at Erhama bin Jaber Al Jalahma Shipyard. Nakilat also offers a full range of marine support serv-ices to vessels operating in Qatari waters. THE PENINSULA

Qatar’s real estate transaction value hits QR37.2bnDOHA: Qatar’s overall real estate transaction value dur-ing the first nine months of 2014 rose by 15.2 percent to QR37.2bn, compared to QR32.3bn recorded during the same period a year ago. The total transaction value for third quarter of this year (Q3,14) touched QR11.3bn against QR10.6bn or up 6.6 percent year-on-year.

Al Sharq reported the total vol-ume of real estate transaction dur-ing the first quarter of 2014 grew by a whopping 35.2 percent against the same period in 2013. The trans-action volume during the second quarter was up by 8.5 percent to QR14bn compared to a year ago period.

During the first nine months of this year, July witnessed significant

growth in the transaction value. Total transaction value of the month hit QR6.8bn, up 23.6 per-cent compared to July 2013. The value during the month of January stood at QR4.8bn, up 71.8 percent a year ago, but the trade value fell to QR2.9bn in February, down 6.5 percent compared to the same month in 2013, before rebound-ing to QR4.2bn in March, up 44.8

percent during the same month in 2013.

Market watchers forecast that the transaction value of real estate deals in Qatar would jump to more than 20 percent in the run up to the 2022 Fifa World Cup. However, the growing land prices are expected to weigh on the country’s real estate sector, they warned. The week ended October 16, witnessed a

total of 119 real estate transactions, Al Arab reported citing property developer Al Asmakh’s report.

“Qatar’s real estate sector is witnessing an exponential growth. The transaction value of the coun-try’s real estate sector is expected to grow by 30 percent by the end of this year,” Al Sharq quoted busi-nessman Mansour Al Mansour as saying. THE PENINSULA

GWC posts 36.8pc rise in Q3 profitDOHA: Gulf Warehousing Company (GWC) yester-day reported a net profit of QR102.4m ($28.1m) for the third quarter (Q3) of 2014, register-ing a remarkable 36.8 percent growth (year-on-year) compared to QR74.8m ($20.5m) in Q3, 2013, according to a press statement.

Gross revenue reached QR505m ($138.7m) during Q3, 2014, up 26.4 percent compared to QR399.4m ($109.7m) earned in the same period last year. Earnings per share rose to QR2.15 per share during the third quarter, growing by 36.9 per-cent from QR1.57 during the same period in 2013.

“This capacity and desire for expansion is the main driver for the growth in our operations, which in turn has generated this respect-able increase in our revenues and

profits,” said GWC Chairman Sheikh Abdullah bin Fahad bin Jassem bin Jabor Al Thani. “We will ensure continued strong returns on our investments by excelling in the solutions and services we already offer, while seeking out new oppor-tunities and untapped markets.”

The completion of key asset development projects brought GWC’s assets to QR2.05bn, an increase of around QR167m dur-ing the first nine months of 2014, marked by the launch of opera-tions of Phase IV at the Logistics Village Qatar (LVQ). The one mil-lion square metre fully-integrated logistics facility witnessed capac-ity expansion by 81,000 square metres of newly-developed storage and distribution facilities comple-menting LVQ’s existing full range of storage services such as ambient,

dry, chilled and frozen warehous-ing solutions, as well as bulk and open yard storage. The contract logistics, freight forwarding, and record management solutions departments continue to provide high revenues, scoring major con-tracts with a number of ministries, financial institutions, the oil and gas sector, technology companies, and cultural organisations.

This constant endeavour for achievement has not gone unno-ticed, as GWC earned a number of distinctions this quarter. Earlier in the quarter, Arabian Business magazine named GWC one of Qatar’s top 30 companies by market cap. Soon after, the com-pany was awarded the Logistics Excellence Award at the 2014 Qatar Enterprise Agility Awards. THE PENINSULAA worker at the Gulf Warehousing Company.

BUSINESS18SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

DOHA: Qatargas sold its first cargo of liquefied natural gas (LNG) to Jovo LNG Storage and Transportation Co, Ltd, an independent LNG importer from China.

The 64,000 cubic metre cargo was sold on a free-on-board basis and loaded on to the vessel LNG Lerici at Ras Laffan port on October 22 pursuant to the FOB Master Sale and Purchase Agreement signed by the parties earlier this summer. The cargo will be delivered to Jovo’s LNG terminal located in Lisha Island, Dongguan in the Guangdong province.

This represents the first deal of its kind concluded by Qatargas with an independent and privately owned LNG importer in China, where until today Qatargas has only supplied LNG to Chinese state-owned national oil and gas companies. The recent develop-ment in the Chinese market to promote cleaner fuels has encour-aged and supported the growth of smaller LNG players like Jovo which enjoys its niche market in the Guangdong province by provid-ing its customers with LNG deliv-ered by a fleet of trucks, as well as with LPG, methanol and DME.

Qatargas CEO Khalid bin Khalifa Al Thani, said:“This is an impor-tant milestone for Qatargas. This achievement highlights Qatargas’ capability to supply LNG not only

Qatargas sells LNG cargo to China’s JovoFirst deal of this kind with private importer in China

Vessel LNG Lerici at Ras Laffan port.

to major LNG players around the globe, but also demonstrates our ability to work successfully with small-scale buyers and cater to their specific needs. This delivery will undoubtedly encourage other potential independent players both in the People’s Republic of China and across the world to consider Qatargas as a reliable source of LNG no matter how big or small their operations are.”

Jovo CEO Zhang Jianguo said: “After more than two years of hard negotiations and friendly communications, vigorous sup-port from China’s National and Guangdong Provincial Energy Administration has created a new prospect for Chinese private enterprise to import LNG. The

first LNG cargo from Qatargas is an achievement and it is also an important milestone for Jovo. The success of this business deal gave a powerful impetus to the realisation of Jovo’s enterprise mission to pro-mote the low carbon economy and to share the prosperous future. Jovo sincerely hopes that through the future good cooperation with Qatargas, to provide better serv-ice to promote the development of China’s clean energy.”

Qatargas is the world’s largest LNG producing company with a production capacity of 42 MTA. The State of Qatar, as the world’s leading LNG producer, anticipates that of China will become one of the world’s largest gas markets.

THE PENINSULA

Fannie Mae settles shareholder lawsuitNEW YORK: Fannie Mae has reached a $170m settlement of a lawsuit accusing it of misleading shareholders about its finances, risk management and mortgage exposure before it was seized by the US government during the 2008 financial crisis.

The settlement, which requires court approval, was disclosed in a Friday filing with the US District Court in Manhattan.

It resolves shareholder allega-tions that Fannie Mae defrauded shareholders and inflated its stock by issuing false and misleading statements about its internal con-trols, capitalisation, accounting, and exposure to subprime and low-documentation “Alt-A” mortgages.

The settlement allocates $123.8m to common stockholders and $46.2m to preferred stockhold-ers between November 8, 2006 and

September 5, 2008. Fannie Mae’s market value peaked during that period at more than $60bn. It is now $2.71bn. “We are pleased to put this matter behind us,” Joseph Grassi, Fannie Mae’s interim gen-eral counsel, said. “This is another sign of progress as Fannie Mae continues our focus on serving the market and helping lenders make mortgage credit available to quali-fied borrowers.” REUTERS

AMMAN: Jordanian lender Arab Bank Group’s said its nine-month net profit rose 10 percent to $614m compared to last year, attributing it to a diversified portfolio with growth in key markets and a prudent risk strategy.

One of the Middle East’s major financial

institutions, it said yesterday that total loans rose 2.2 percent to $23.7bn at end-September, while deposits grew 3.5 percent to $34.1bn compared to the same period last year. The bank gave no figures for third quarter net profits.

REUTERS

Arab Bank nine-month net profit up 10pc

19BUSINESS SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

FRANKFURT: A group of 25 banks have failed European health checks, while up to 10 of those continue to have a capital shortfall, two people familiar with the matter said, providing a snapshot of the health of the region’s lenders.

The health checks, led by the European Central Bank, found that banks in countries includ-ing Greece, Cyprus, Slovenia and Portugal had fallen short of a minimum capital benchmark at the end of last year and that up to 10 remained in difficulty now, the sources said.

Banks in Spain and France had fared, by and large, better than expected.

The result, which has yet to be finalised by the ECB’s govern-ing council today, provides the most complete picture yet of the robustness of the eurozone’s top 130 lenders.

Those banks with shortfalls will now have two weeks to sub-mit a plan to bolster their capital to the European Central Bank,

25 European banks set to fail health checksUp to 10 banks continue to have capital shortfall

which will decide whether or not it gets the green light.

A spokesman for the European Central Bank said the test results had not yet been finalised, describing reports in the mean-time as speculative.

“The results will not be final until they are considered by the Governing Council of the ECB on Sunday, after which they will be published,” he said.

European banking shares dipped briefly on Friday after Bloomberg News reported that 25 banks within the euro zone would fail the ECB “stress test”.

Portugal’s Finance Minister Maria Luis Albuquerque said that the Lisbon government was confident that the country’s three largest banks had fared well in the stress tests.

The Austrian Finance Minister Hans Joerg Schelling, said only Volksbanken AG was “stress burdened” and the test revealed no surprises, accord-ing to the Austria Press Agency. Volksbanken had already said it

would wind itself down.Meanwhile, Deutsche Bank

passed the ECB-led stress test by a wide margin with a core equity ratio of 8.8 percent compared to a minimum requirement of 5.5 per-cent, two sources familiar with the matter said.

Juergen Fitschen, co-chief executive of Deutsche Bank and president of the BdB association of German private-sector banks, said the results probably gave his country’s banks a clean bill of health.

Shares in the Italian banks considered most at risk of fail-ing the eurozone health checks, including bailed out lender Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena, were sharply higher as investors counted on them doing better than expected.

“Investors are betting that one of the most problematic banks in the eurozone could pass the stress tests with fewer problems than previously thought,” said Vincenzo Longo, strategist at broker house IG. REUTERS

DOHA: China’s latest stimulus meas-ures seem to have been enough to avoid a hard landing, says a weekly report by the QNB Group yesterday.

According to the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), real GDP growth slowed to 7.3 percent in Q3 2014, which is broadly in line with QNB projections of 7.5 per-cent for 2014. The global economy should, therefore, be spared the negative impact of a Chinese hard landing, thanks in part to repeated injections of fiscal and mon-etary stimulus this year. However, the days of voracious Chinese demand driving up global commodity prices are probably over.

In light of slower global and domestic demand, the Chinese authorities have introduced a series of stimulus measures in 2014 to achieve their growth target of 7.5 percent. Following the release of Q1, GDP data in April, the government pro-vided tax breaks for small companies, spending on high speed railways and increased financing for social housing. In

April and June, the central bank cut the reserve requirement ratio for rural banks and banks lending to the agricultural sec-tor and small- and medium-sized enter-prises. This was followed in September and October by two rounds of liquidity injec-tions in the form of three-month loans to banks amounting to more than $110bn. Finally, the central bank cut its bench-mark lending rates on 14-day repurchase agreements twice over the last 30 days.

These stimulus measures seem to have been sufficient to prevent a sharp drop in growth, but the economy is still slow-ing at a gradual pace. Real GDP growth remained well above 7 percent throughout the first nine months of 2014, compared with an average of 7.7 percent in 2013. It is expected to continue slowing gradually in 2015-16, which may result in a soft landing. However, stimulus measures have been so far insufficient to keep growth above the government’s 7.5 percent target. This may be because stimulus measures are being

offset by regulatory restrictions on lending in the shadow banking sector and by weak global and domestic demand.

The various stimulus measures have not resulted in higher overall lending to the economy. Total social financing, a broad measure of lending in the official and shadow banking systems, fell 4.6 percent in the first nine months of 2014 year-on-year. This was mainly due to a series of regulatory measures introduced in the sec-ond half of 2013 and early 2014 to restrict lending in the shadow banking sector. Notwithstanding this decline, growth in the traditional banking system (exclud-ing shadow banks) grew by a healthy 15.9 percent year-on-year in August.

The effectiveness of stimulus measures may be waning as global and domestic demand for Chinese goods is weakening faster than expected. The IMF has just revised downwards its global growth pro-jections for 2014 to 3.3 percent, from 3.7 percent previously. In addition, Chinese

retail sales grew at a slower pace of 11.6 percent in the twelve months to September 2014, compared with an average of 13.2 percent in 2013. As a result, indebted com-panies and individuals are unwilling to borrow more, even at lower interest rates, given overall weaker demand. At the same time, the government is unlikely to engage in a new fiscal stimulus to boost growth. A $600bn stimulus programme launched in 2008 resulted in overinvestment and excess capacity in the economy. This has led to over-indebtedness of corporations and individuals and significant excesses in the shadow banking system. To avoid the mistakes of the past, the government is likely to accept a gradual slowdown in growth in the short term.

Over the medium term, the government is counting on structural reforms to boost growth through a shift to a more market-based, consumption-led growth model as opposed to investment-led in the past. To achieve this goal, the government plans to

liberalise interest rates and the financial sector more generally, introduce market–based pricing of resources and utilities, allow greater private ownership in state-owned enterprises, and ease restrictions on urban migration. This may over time change the economic model of Chinese growth, where private consumption is the dominant contributor.

“Given that these reforms will take time to have an impact, we expect growth to continue slowing for some time in China. Current stimulus measures appear to be sufficient to prevent a hard landing. However, the ramifications of the Chinese slowdown will be felt in the rest of the world. China has been the key driver of global growth since 2009 and its slow-down will be a drag on the global economy. Weaker demand from China is also likely to be a drag on international commodity prices, including oil prices, for some time to come,” the report said.

THE PENINSULA

China’s stimulus measures good for global economy: QNB Group

Volvo Group profits up

South Korean models posing during the presentation of the new Volvo Trucks range in Seoul. Swedish heavy vehicle maker Volvo said its third-quarter net profit had risen to 1.54bn kronor ($212m) thanks to strong demand in North America and Japan.

Medvedev visits factory

Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev (centre), accompanied by Dmitry Pumpyansky (right), head of TMK, Russia’s largest maker of steel pipes for the oil and gas industry, takes a pic-ture during his visit to the Seversky Tube Works in the town of Polevskoy, outside Yekaterinburg, yesterday.

Bestway Group completes Co-operative’s pharma buyoutDOHA: Bestway Group has taken formal control of the Co-operative Group’s pharmacy business. This follows July’s announcement of the £620m deal. The Group worked with JPMorgan and Nomura, sup-ported by Barclays, RBS and its other relationship banks to secure the financing for the acquisition.

Bestway, which has the right to operate under The Co-operative Pharmacy brand for a transitional period of 12 months, has begun developing and testing possible new brands for the business. It expects to confirm the new name for the business before the end of first quarter 2015.

In the meantime, the Group has identified a number of possible sites in Manchester for the new HQ of the pharmacy business.

Following this (and with the Group’s subsequent acquisition of Lafarge Pakistan Cement Ltd a week after the announcement of The Co-operative Pharmacy deal), Bestway will now have an annual turnover of approximately £3.6bn and a global workforce of 33,000 people, with over 11,900 people in the UK. It is the UK’s eighteenth largest privately owned com-pany and seventh largest family-owned business. Along with The Co-operative Pharmacy, which is the UK’s third largest pharmacy business, the Group now consists of the UK’s second largest whole-sale business, and both the largest cement manufacturer and second largest private bank in Pakistan. The pharmacy acquisition marks the latest move in the Group’s con-tinuing diversification strategy.

Zameer M Choudrey, Bestway Group CEO, said: “We are delighted to have brought The Co-operative Pharmacy business into the Bestway family, adding an exciting fourth pillar to our growing and diverse business portfolio.”

THE PENINSULA

ECB tests find €800m-850m shortfall at Ireland’s PTSB DUBLIN: European bank stress tests have found that Ireland’s permanent tsb (PTSB) had a capital shortfall of €800m to €850m at the end of 2013, a source familiar with the proc-ess said.

The shortfall will drop to around €200m ($253m) after tak-ing into account the bank’s finan-cial actions so far this year plus the potential conversion of €400m of contingent capital notes, known as CoCo bonds, the source added.

Finance Minister Michael Noonan said last week that the 99.2 per-cent state-owned bank would be able to raise any additional funds it might need from private inves-tors. All other Irish lenders passed the tests, the result of which are to be released on Sunday. The smallest and weakest of Ireland’s three remaining domestically owned banks, PTSB remains the only loss-making lender. In the first half of this year, however, it cut its underlying loss by 62

percent to €171m. Two thirds of PTSB’s loan book is made up of expensively funded and loss-mak-ing tracker mortgages, which are linked to the European Central Bank’s low interest rates. PTSB, one of European 25 banks that have failed the tests, according to two people familiar with the matter, said it would release a response to the test results today.

The state-controlled mortgage lender recently sold two port-folios of mortgage loans, which

it said improved its regulatory capital position. It has appointed Deutsche Bank to advise on its capital market plans.

In a trading update released after the stock market closed on Friday, PTSB said that it had reduced the amount of money set aside to cover losses on bad loans in the third quarter as it made further progress towards profit-ability. PTSB, which forecasts a return to profit across its busi-nesses by 2017, said it expected

impairment charges on loans to fall significantly in the second half of the year, allowing it to release some provisions.

“Notwithstanding that the group has maintained a con-servative peak-to-trough fall assumption of 55 percent for Irish residential property prices, the group saw a net provision release in the third quarter,” the bank said, without specifying the level of provisions it was writing back.

REUTERS

BUSINESS20SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Trans Pacific trade meet

Trade representatives from 12 nations during the Trans Pacific partnership meeting in Sydney yesterday.

BRUSSELS: The ECB’s presi-dent warned divided eurozone leaders they risked “a relapse into recession” if they failed to press ahead with structural eco-nomic reforms, a message wel-comed by German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

With a recovery coming to a halt in the second quarter and depressed prices reflecting near record unemployment, France and Italy want to shift away from the spending cuts that marked the bloc’s response to the 2009-2012 crisis. But Germany says debt discipline must continue and the European Commission, which acts

as a budget policeman, has until next Wednesday to reject 2015 budgets that fail to comply with EU fiscal rules.

France and Italy are pushing for more spending room in their budgets in return for new com-mitments on structural reforms, and officials say that any changes Paris and Rome make to their budgets are likely to be small.

Many economists say nothing short of a large scale US-style bond-buying programme will revive the economy that is still suffering a hangover from the debt and banking crisis. But European Central Bank President Mario

Draghi told eurozone leaders seated around a large oval table in the EU summit’s red marble building that they could not just rely on the ECB.

“We avoided the collapse of the euro with a joint effort. Now our focus should be to act jointly again to avoid a relapse into a reces-sion,” Draghi said, according to his spokesman, who quoted from his speech. “Hope is not a strategy.”

He said a coherent plan for economic growth had to involve “concrete and credible” struc-tural reforms. Laying out a four-pronged strategy, Draghi emphasised that monetary policy

was only one part of an economic revival plan, the others being reforms, sound public finances and healing the bloc’s sick banks.

Draghi said he wanted to see governments draw up a reform programme by the next EU sum-mit in December. That appeared to be welcomed by Merkel, who has faced sustained pressure from France and Italy and to some extent the United States and the International Monetary Fund, to agree to more government spend-ing to help the economy.

Merkel told a news confer-ence following the summit that she thanked Draghi “for holding

up a mirror for us once again.” “Monetary policy can do some things, that is the job of the inde-pendent European Central Bank,” Merkel said. “But if fiscal policy doesn’t react simultaneously, if we don’t improve our economic policies, our competitiveness and our investment climate, then we won’t come out of this unsatisfac-tory situation,” Merkel said.

The summit underscored how the eurozone has few quick fixes. Merkel said that a mix of private investment, fiscal discipline and openness to fast-growing Asian economies was the way forward.

REUTERS

Eurozone stares at recession: DraghiECB chief warns leaders that they risk recession if they fail to go for structural reforms

Bank of Ireland staff set for first pay rise since crisisDUBLIN: Staff at Bank of Ireland , the country’s largest bank by assets, are set to receive their first pay increase in six years after the part state-owned lender reached an agreement with its largest trade union.

Irish banks have cut thousands of jobs and executive pay as the result of a 2008 banking crash, which led to the closure or merger of half of its domestic banks, the exit of a slew of foreign lenders and an international bailout that it completed last year.

Bank of Ireland said the new proposals would increase sala-ries by 1.75 percent this year, back-dated to July, and by 2 per-cent from January. Staff will also receive a one-off payment equiva-lent to 5 percent of their current salary. The bank, Ireland’s only lender to escape nationalisation, reported a profit for the first time in five years in August.

The Irish Bank Officials Association (IBOA), the coun-try’s largest banking union, will ballot its members next week and recommend the proposals be accepted. Bank of Ireland said talks were taking place with other unions regarding their members.

“The proposals acknowledge the major sacrifices made by Bank of Ireland employees over the last six years in terms of job cuts and reduced earnings,” IBOA General Secretary Larry Broderick said.

Broderick said that the develop-ment should set a precedent for other financial institutions, which are now returning to profitability and facing similar issues in terms of career and reward structures for employees.

The salary increases will not apply to senior management at Bank of Ireland, which has cut staff by over a quarter since the last pay rises in 2008. REUTERS

IMF fights negative interest ratesWASHINGTON: The International Monetary Fund announced a minimum inter-est rate on its unique SDR cur-rency as it fights off the impact of sagging interest rates and deflation from major economies.

The IMF said that from Monday it would maintain a floor rate of 0.05 percent, or five basis points, on its special drawing rights or SDR currency, which represents a basket of the cur-rencies of its largest members.

Currently the rate the Fund pays on the money its members lend to it is 3 basis points. That is also the basis for the global crisis lender’s loan rate to borrowers.

With short-term rates for key SDR components the euro and the yen now running below zero, and the dollar and pound rates barely above zero, that risked pulling the SDR rate down to a

negative level as well, a senior fund official explained.

“Under the current rule there is nothing to stop the SDR rate from going negative,” he said. “Financially, it would be a somewhat perverse situation because our creditor members would be paying for providing us resources.”

But it also acknowledges a worry the IMF, top central bankers, and bond market trad-ers have been expressing of major economies sinking toward deflation.

“This is a reflection of the fact that central banks have set very low interest rates, or even nega-tive,” the official said.

To meet the challenge of his-torically low rates as well, the official said, the IMF will round its rates to three decimal points instead of two as in the past. AFP

Europe auto market to slow down: GhosnSHANGHAI: French car-maker Renault Chairman Carlos Ghosn said yesterday that he expects slower growth in Europe’s auto market next year as it continues to recover from the global economic crisis.

Ghosn, who is also Renault’s chief executive officer, said the European market was growing at six percent so far this year — the best since the 2007 crisis. “I’m expecting in 2015 this recovery to continue,” Ghosn told journalists on the sidelines of an industry forum in China’s commercial hub Shanghai.

“I don’t see another six percent increase. I think the increase will probably be more moderate than six percent... in line with GDP (gross domestic product) growth,” he said, but gave no estimates for Renault alone.

Ghosn is also president and

chief executive officer of Japan’s Nissan Motor Co through an alli-ance between the companies.

Many foreign carmakers turned to China, the world’s larg-est auto market, in the wake of the global crisis as their home markets in the United States or Europe collapsed.

China’s auto market is now slowing as well, as weaker domes-tic economic growth and a cor-ruption crackdown take their toll. But Ghosn said Renault and Nissan were committed to adding production in China.

In late 2013, Renault signed an agreement with Chinese company Dongfeng to set up a joint venture that will start production in 2016 with initial capacity of 150,000 vehicles a year. Nissan has an existing partnership with state-backed Dongfeng, China’s second largest automaker. AFP

Vietnam inflation to dip

Customers shop at a Fivi mart in Hanoi yesterday. Vietnam is expected to keep annual inflation at a rate below 5 percent, or about 2 percentage points below a government target, Prime Minister Nguyen Tan Dung told Parliament. The World Bank has lowered its forecast for Vietnam’s inflation in 2014 to 4.5 percent from 6 percent in a report this month.

India’s finance minister favours interest rate cutNEW DELHI: India’s Finance Minister Arun Jaitley favours a cut in interest rates to trig-ger demand in the construction sector, a newspaper report said yesterday, but the central bank has signal it will not ease pol-icy until it is confident of lower inflation.

In May, Prime Minister Modi was elected on promises that his government would create jobs and rejuvenate the Indian economy, but experts were disappointed by Jaitley’s first budget and a lack of early progress on fixing structural economic problems.

“Currently, interest rates are a disincentive. Now that inflation seems to be stabilising somewhat, the time seems to have come to moderate the interest rates,” Jaitley said in an interview with the Times of India. REUTERS

BY HAROLD MEYERSON

Big Blue’s got the blues. On Monday, IBM’s stock tumbled by 7 percent after it unveiled a dismal quar-terly earnings report that showed a 4 percent drop in revenue — the

10th consecutive quarter of flat or declining sales. Revealing these mournful numbers, the company also announced it would aban-don a policy that set it apart from all other firms: the 2010 pledge from then-CEO Sam Palmisano to raise the earnings per share of its stock to $20 by 2015.

No other company had so explicitly prom-ised to raise the shareholders’ return on their stock. Maximising shareholder value has been the North Star of US corporate policy for decades now, but no other firm pursued it so openly — and disastrously — as IBM.

There are two ways to increase a compa-ny’s earnings per share: Either you increase the earnings, or you reduce the number of shares. Unfortunately for IBM, it had trouble keeping up with the rapid pace of change in the high-tech world. Its earnings flat-lined. To meet Palmisano’s pledge, the company embarked on an orgy of buying back its stock. This had already been an unstated policy at IBM; Palmisano merely made it more explicit.

Since 2000, IBM has spent a mind-bog-gling $108bn — $12bn of that in the first half of this year — buying back shares. It devoted another $30bn to paying dividends. The Financial Times calculated that from 2003 to 2013, the company devoted nearly 80 per-cent of its cash to rewarding shareholders

through buybacks and dividends.In 1993, IBM had 2.3 billion outstanding

shares; 20 years later, it had 1.1 billion. As the Wall Street Journal’s Dennis Berman has pointed out, at that pace the company would have no publicly traded shares at all by 2034.

The rise in earnings per share at IBM entranced big-time investors. No Carl Icahns barraged its managers with com-plaints that it wasn’t returning enough to shareholders (a complaint Icahn has repeat-edly lodged against Apple and other compa-nies more successful than IBM). Palmisano’s pledge, and the company’s history of buy-ing back its shares, even persuaded Warren Buffett, who had previously shied away from investing in tech companies in a nod to the sector’s penchant for creative destruction, to become IBM’s biggest single shareholder. IBM’s appeal, Buffett explained to CNBC, was clear: “They have this terrific rever-ence for the shareholder.” Indeed, so great was this reverence that IBM even incurred major debt to finance its repurchases.

Over the past year, however, some ana-lysts began arguing that increasing earn-ings per share by decreasing the number of shares wasn’t really much of a strategy. David Stockman (once Ronald Reagan’s budget director) called the company “a buyback machine on steroids.” A company that once employed thousands of mathema-ticians and engineers to build the world’s smartest machines had changed its focus from product to finance.

The engineering that mattered most at IBM was financial. But placing so high a pre-mium on rewarding shareholders ultimately

proved unsustainable. On Monday, Buffett’s investment lost $1bn as Big Blue’s stock sank.

What makes IBM’s decline a matter of moment to more than just company share-holders is that the course IBM elected to follow is more the norm than the excep-tion among US corporations. William Lazonick’s survey of the country’s largest publicly traded companies — those listed on the S&P 500 from 2003 to 2012 — found that they devoted 54 percent of their net earnings during that time to repurchasing their own stock, and another 37 percent to shareholder dividends.

Before the 1980s, by contrast, US corpo-rations retained more than half their net earnings for such things as new investments. That share steadily shrank as the goal of maximising shareholder value and pressure from predatory large investors combined to make increasing earnings per share more important than, say, research and devel-opment. (That share also steadily shrank as CEO pay became linked to rising share value.)

Not every company that has subordi-nated expansion and investment to share-holder payouts has suffered the fate of IBM, of course — and IBM itself remains big enough to fund more productive invest-ments, especially since it has now abandoned Palmisano’s pledge. But its tale is nonethe-less emblematic of a sad national story: how a nation that once made the world’s smart-est machines opted instead to try to make the world’s smartest deals — many of which turned out to be abysmally dumb.

WP-BLOOMBERG

BY ANATOLE KALETSKY

Europe is at a make or break moment. Two very different events on Sunday, occurring

at opposite ends of Europe, will largely determine the entire con-tinent’s direction for years ahead: the parliamentary election in Ukraine and bank stress tests and Asset Quality Review con-ducted by the European Central Bank. Before explaining the sig-nificance of these two events, and their unexpected linkage, I need to mention a third announce-ment, due next Wednesday: the European Commission’s verdict on the budget for 2015 submit-ted last week by the French government.

The Commission will next week have to come up with a Solomonic judgment that somehow recon-ciles the French government’s determination to stimulate its economy by cutting taxes with the German-imposed “fiscal compact” that former-President Nicolas Sarkozy rashly accepted in a moment of desperation in the 2012 euro crisis and which requires France to raise taxes

or drastically cut spending in order to reduce its budget deficit to 3 percent of GDP. The fiscal compact rules, if applied literally, would make economic recov-ery in France a mathematical impossibility.

Yet bending these rules will provoke a German public back-lash, and perhaps even a con-stitutional court challenge, that could even force Angela Merkel to renege on her commitment to support the rest of the eurozone.

Depending on how these three events turn out, Europe will either be on the road to a moder-ate economic recovery next year or it will condemned to perma-nent stagnation, possibly leading to the break-up the euro or even the European Union as a whole.

Why are the stakes suddenly so high? With most of Europe sliding back into recession over the summer as a result of the war in Ukraine and the failure to implement the sort of policies of monetary and fiscal stimulus that revived the US, Japanese and British economies, Europe now has an obvious choice: stick to the failed policies which are almost certain to perpetuate economic

stagnation or to change course.When faced with this choice,

the German guardians of the euro’s monetary and fiscal rule-book defend the status quo, no matter how dismal.

Germany’s Bundesbank and Constitutional Court are steeped in the tradition of Ordnungsliberalismus which insists that rules must be obeyed at all costs and that following the letter of the law is more impor-tant than observing its spirit or achieving a desired outcome. But this legalistic philosophy is now running run up against the even more inexorable laws of mathematics, democracy and geopolitics.

What if it is mathematically impossible for governments in France and Italy to abide by EU budget rules, because raising taxes and cutting public spend-ing would crush economic activ-ity and thus widen budget deficits instead of reducing them?

What if electorates refuse to accept a decade of austerity and stagnation simply for the sake of preserving the EU monetary and fiscal rules? And what if Ukraine’s absolute sovereignty

and territorial integrity just cannot be re-established without risking an all-out war with Russia that Western democracies will not tolerate?

While politicians prefer to dodge these dilemmas, the fact is that Europe has now reached a point where some of its rules will have to be changed or reinter-preted and some of its principles compromised.

The only real question is whether Europe arrives at the necessary compromises through conscious political decisions or waits for them to be imposed cha-otically by economic and electoral upheavals.

Which brings us back to the three big events next week and some reasons for optimism. Starting with the Ukrainian election, a victory for President Poroshenko’s moderate party should allow EU leaders to launch a genuine peace process that recognises the loss of Crimea as irreversible and acknowledges Russia’s vital interests in main-taining the military neutrality of its immediate neighbours.

Once these basic conditions are satisfied, a rapprochement

with Russia should become pos-sible, allowing sanctions to be gradually dismantled or at least confirming that sanctions will expire by mid-2015, as currently legislated.

Removing the threat of war or further sanctions in eastern Europe will have a major ben-eficial effect on businesses in Germany and Italy, which been hurt much more by the confron-tation with Russia than European leaders expected.

Sunday’s completion of the AQR has always looked like a necessary, though not suffi-cient, condition for a substantial improvement in monetary policy.

This is because the ECB wants to stimulate private borrowing, as Britain did with the sub-prime mortgage subsidies it announced in March 2013, rather than sup-porting public debt, as in US and Japanese quantitative easing.

For this plan to work, European banks must be recapitalised and cleaned up, which the AQR is designed to achieve. If Sunday’s AQR plan proves convincing (admittedly still a big “if”) the stage will be set for the ECB to announced some serious

monetary stimulus at its next meeting on November 6.

Finally, a U-turn on fiscal aus-terity is highly probable when the Commission delivers its verdict on the French budget on Oct 29, or failing that, in mid-November after a symbolic “re-negotia-tion” leading to some cosmetic strengthening of French struc-tural reforms.

Putting these three events together, Europe has a decent chance of breaking out in the next few weeks from its vicious circle of policy failure and economic stagnation. Whether policymak-ers seize this chance is, of course, open to question given Europe’s long record of doing too little, too late.

If Europe again disappoints expectations, the recession will deepen, with no serious hope of economic recovery next year. In that case, public opinion will veer onto a course of political national-ism and economic disintegration, not just in Greece and Italy but also in France and Germany. By next year it may be too late to reverse this. That’s what is meant by a make-or-break moment.

THE GUARDIAN

The big blues of IBMBY BARRY RITHOLTZ

Under normal circumstances, approving my mortgage application should be a no-brainer: High income, no debt, high credit score. The missus also makes a good income, has an almost-perfect credit score and has been

working for the same business for 28 years.But these are not normal circumstances.Let me jump to the end: Yes, we got our mortgage. We put 20

percent down, bought a house that appraised for more than the purchase price and got a 3.25 percent rate on a mortgage that resets after seven years. We moved in last month.

But the process was surreal. Indeed, it was such a bizarre expe-rience that I started hunting for explanations from people in the industry about why mortgage lending has gone astray. I spoke to numerous experts, many of whom spoke only on background. This column is about what I learned.

By just about any measure, credit is tighter today than it has been in decades. Although former Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s inability to refinance a mortgage is merely anecdotal, consider instead the gauge CoreLogic developed. It used 1998 as a baseline and considered six quantitative measurements to evaluate how loose or easy mortgage lending is. By those metrics, this is the tightest credit market for mortgage lending in at least 16 years.

The absurdities of my experience are worthy of its own rant, but rather than do that, I wanted to focus on what went wrong. The factors that led to the financial crisis were many, but let’s focus on three areas: 1) Changes in credit standards; 2) Automated underwriting; and 3) Incompetent documentation.

In each case, the mortgage-underwriting industry has gone through several changes: In the 1990s, lenders and originators processed most mortgages manually; they had well-defined credit standards; and they gathered documentation for loans in an orderly fashion.

But once the housing boom of the 2000s began, everything got messy. It was a frenzy compounded by three big errors:

1) Credit standards shifted from the borrower’s ability to service the debt to the lender’s ability to sell the loan to a securitiser; 2) Automated underwriting was compromised by banking staffers; and 3) Overwhelming volume led to documentation errors.

These issues created huge problems a few years later when the excesses began to unwind. The foreclosure process was corrupted, the rule of law ignored and property rights were trampled.

Which leads us back to that pendulum. Bankers are still shell-shocked. They are suffering from post-traumatic credit-crisis disorder (PTCCD). A few examples: So-called stated-income and no-doc loans enabled just about anyone to get a mortgage in the 2000s. This was regardless of income, debt ratio, credit history or appraised value of the property. In the past, I referred to this as “Loan Origination Fraud.”

The solution is obvious: Go back to verifying income, check-ing credit scores and requiring a down payment. What lenders do now goes beyond absurd. They don’t need to see every check written during the past 24 months. An explanation isn’t required for every $2,000 deposit into a family checking account. Three years of both personal and professional tax returns seems exces-sive. Yet that and more is what banks are demanding. Those in charge of originating mortgages aren’t dumb; rather, most of them work in large organisations where decision-making is scattered and responsibility is often in the hands of risk-averse commit-tees. Once an organisation the size of Wells Fargo or JPMorgan begins to implement tighter credit practices, employees get turned into paper-pushing bureaucrats. Fearful of more oversight, they engage in overkill.

Perhaps what is needed is a good-faith exemption so bankers who have checked off the main boxes -- credit score, income, debt ratio, down payment, employment history and loan-to-value ratio

-- can use a little judgment for a change.All of this is a sign that banks failed to learn from their mis-

takes. Instead, they seem to be bent on making new ones. Federal rules put in place after the financial crisis to prevent reckless lending are being used as an excuse to do less lending.

Extremes at either end of underwriting standards lead to bad outcomes. In the 2000s, banks ignored traditional underwriting to make reckless loans that went into foreclosure in record numbers.

The lesson not learned: Smart mortgage underwriting, not extreme looseness or tightness, is the how banks make money in the housing sector. It also has the added benefit of giving a kick to the economic recovery. WP-BLOOMBERG

Ukraine poll, bank stress tests to decide Europe’s future

It shouldn’t be painful to get a mortgage

Cartoon Arts International / The New York Times Syndicate

21 BUSINESS VIEWS SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

No. COMPANY TENDER NO. SUBJECTTENDER BOND

TENDER FEES

CLOSING DATE

20 LTC 831/2014 Replacement of 48v battery chargers in

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01/12/2014 Not later

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21LTC

848/2014 Two (2) years price agreement for supply of personal computers and LCD monitors

QR 125,000 QR 500

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22

QF/2014/PD-SS/19707

Provision of interpreting services to Qatar Foundation on call-off basis for 3 years

with option to extend up to 1 year QR 172,500 QR 500

11th November

2014

23QF/2014/PD-

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with option to extend up to 1 year QR 198,000 QR 500

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network

LTC 104-14 Provisioning-Grocery items QR 50,000 QR 1,000 6/11/2014 (13:00hrs)

25

Ministry of Interior

70 2014-2015

Supply of various gifts for the Public Relations Dept

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Supply & installation of various device and equipment for Ministry of Interior Radio

Project FM99.9QR 130,000 QR 500

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Aspire Zone

AF/C/ASP5578/14

Construction & completion of the third floor extension to Aspetar Hospital at

Aspire Zone QR 250,000 QR 500 9/11/2014

28AF/C/

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Mall roof in Aspire Zone QR 1,500,000 QR 2,000 9/11/2014

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Construction, completion, maintenance & upgrading of operation theatres & operational practices of Aspetar

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QR 1,500,000 QR 2,000 9/11/2014

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Fabrication, delivery and installation of the proposed fence along Road No. 03 in

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Relocation of existing pre-cast concrete wall and installation of additional pre-cast

concrete wall at Al Kass in Aspire Zone QR 20,000 QR 200 4/11/2014

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Consultancy service for design and planning works for operation theatres & operational practices at 3rd floor at

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QR 50,000 QR 200 2/11/2014

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Comprehensive maintenance services for the Torch Tower artifical flame at

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Comprehensive biomedical maintenance services agreement for Siemens imaging

equipment at Aspetar QR 50,000 QR 200 28/10/2014

No. COMPANY TENDER NO. SUBJECTTENDER BOND

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1 GT14113200 Provision of diving services QR

10000000.00QR 500 9/11/2014

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off basis in Dukhan fields QR 100,000 QR 200 3/11/2014

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For BH&MM field WHJS QR 2000,000 QR 500 2/11/2014

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lagoons at QP refinery, Mesaieed QR 300,000 QR 500 19/10/2014

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fields QR 600,000 QR 500 30/11/2014

10 GT14114000Epic for extension of metallurgical

laboratory building at QPAA, Dukhan QR 180,000.00 QR 500 30/11/2014

11 GT14113700 Charter of wellhead maintenance vessel QR 750,000 QR 500 23/11/2014

12 GT14113600Miscellaneous instrumentation PCRs at RG and FAHAHIL sector plants in Dukhan fields

QR 400,000 QR 500 23/11/2014

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HMC/TCS/329/2014-

2015 Supply of drugs 5% of the bid QR 350 28/10/2014

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maintenance contract 5% of the bid QR 500 4/11/2014

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22 GECM & TENDERSSUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

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TENDERS

GLOBAL ECONOMIC CRISIS MAP (GECM)

Japan’s economy floundering, BOJ to widely miss inflation goal

TOKYO: Japan’s economy is floundering and analysts polled by Reuters cut their annual growth forecast for a fifth straight month, saying there is no chance the Bank of Japan will meet its 2 percent inflation goal by the next fiscal year.

PARIS: After a slight improvement in August, the number of jobless in France once again increased in September, reaching a new record high of 3.43 million unemployed, government figures revealed Friday.Data from France’s labor ministry showed unemployment rose by 0.6 percent last month, after the modest 0.3 rise it experienced in August.

Indian Government to re-impose gold import curbs to check trade deficit

China GDP growth rate is slowest in five years

Australian inflation falls to 2.3pc

SYDNEY: Australian consumer-price inflation eased in the third quarter after the conservative government removed a tax on carbon emissions, and wage growth remained weak against the backdrop of a sluggish economy. Consumer prices rose 0.5pc in the third quarter from the second and climbed 2.3pc from a year earlier, the Australian Bureau of Statistics said Wednesday.

South Africa’s annual inflation rate drops to 5.9pc

Brazil unemployment rate nears lowest level at 4.pc

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s annual inflation rate has dropped from 6.4 percent in August to 5.9 per cent in September.This is the first month since February that the rate is below the ceiling of the South African Reserve Bank’s target. “The 0.5 percent drop in the rate was largely because of a 67 cents per litre drop in the petrol price. This is equivalent to a decrease of almost 5 per cent,” said Statistics South Africa in a statement.

BRAZILIA: Unemployment in Latin America’s largest economy fell by 0.1 percent last month to 4.9 percent, the lowest level for September in 13 years, the Brazilian Institute for Geography and Statistics, or IBGE, said Thursday. Even so, the rate remains above the 4.3 percent recorded last December, which was the lowest monthly level ever.

Dollar weakens on sluggish US inflation expectations

WASHINGTON: The dollar sank against the yen, euro and British pound Monday as investors took profits on short positions against major currencies ahead of a US inflation report this week that is predicted to push back expectations for higher interest rates. The euro rose 0.4pc versus the dollar, to $1.2807, while the British pound increased 0.5pc, to $1.6179.

NEWDELHI: Barely months after gold import rules were eased, the government is looking to re-impose curbs as the country’s insatiable appetite has led to a surge in the yellow metal coming into India, threatening to undermine the improvement in external balances.

BEIJING: China’s economy in the third quarter grew at its slowest pace in five years as it battles a slumping real-estate market and weak domestic demand and industrial production. The results on Tuesday make it increasingly likely that China will miss its annual growth target for the first time since 1998, in the midst of the Asian financial crisis.

Youth unemployment now at a six-year low French unemployment hits

new record highLONDON: Statistics released yesterday show 72,000 people aged 16-24 were unemployed between June and August, a drop of 29,000 on the same period last year. The figures mean Scotland’s youth unemployment rate has fallen 5.6 per cent in the past 12 months, a larger drop than the 5.1 per cent in the rest of the UK.

Every Sunday

amadadadaadadddddddddadadddddadadaddadaddddadadddadddddddddddddddddddddddddddd MMMeMMMMMMMMMMMMMeMeMeMeMeMediMMMeMeMeMeMeMMeMMMMMeMeMeMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM

23SPORT SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Rashid on target at Losail

WTA mulling new women’s World CupSINGAPORE: Women’s ten-nis is considering introducing a new World Cup team event, its head said yesterday, a move which may bring competition for the soon-to-be-launched International Premier Tennis League.

Stacey Allaster, chair and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association, said plans envisaged a five-day team event “with all-star elements” in one location with ranking points and $4-5 mil-lion in prize money.

Her comments came as the IPTL, brainchild of Indian former doubles player Mahesh Bhupathi, prepares for its debut with four three-day team events in Asia spread over two weeks in November-December.

Allaster said the WTA had looked at successful team com-petitions like golf ’s Ryder Cup, rugby sevens, NBA basketball and the UEFA Champions League football before coming up with the World Cup idea.

“The market recommendation, the demand from sponsors, host nations, and fans, is a World Cup event with all-star elements over a five?day period,” she said in a “WTA State of the Tour” address in Singapore.

“So we are going to go to mar-ket and see if the market is really there. We haven’t decided if we’re going to do it. I’ll say it again: we haven’t decided if we will do it.

“However, we believe we have a responsibility. I think the demand is there. Others are doing it. If we don’t do it, someone else is going to do it. In fact, somebody is doing it.”

The IPTL, with city-based teams including star players and former greats, will feature five one-set matches of singles and doubles. Ties will be played in Manila, Singapore, Mumbai and Dubai.

Allaster said the WTA has also appointed a new president, Micky Lawler, as it aims to push forward 41 years after its creation by American legend Billie Jean King.

She said other innovations which may be tested next year included live-streaming practice, and making players hold open ses-sions where they hit with fans and children. Players may also walk out on court with young girls, adopting a tradition of football and other sports, and spectators will be able to keep balls that are hit into the stands, as in baseball.

AFP

Deena Al Tebaishi, winner in the women’s Skeet event, celebrates at the Qatar Shooting and Archery Association Cup at Losail Shooting Range yesterday. RIGHT: Khalid Rashid Al Muhanadi, winner in the men’s Skeet event in action during the final rounds of the event. PICTURES BY: WASFI

Qatari shooters gear up for Asian Shotgun Championship in Al AinDOHA: Khalid Rashid Al Muhanadi has had come close to clinching the top place in the Skeet competition on several occasions in the past but could clear the final hurdle.

Yesterday, no one could stop him at the Losail Shooting Range in the Association Cup of Qatar Shooting and Archery Association, it was his day.

After settling for second and third place finishes in the past, Khalid finally had the honour of topping in his favourite event.

Khalid, an employee of RasGas, who took to shooting some ten years back was delighted to be on the top. In the final, Khalid saw of the challenge of Abdulaziz Saleh Al Attiyyah, while Rashid Saleh Al Athba finished third.

“It is a nice feeling after waiting for so long for the title. Hopefully I will be able to win many more. The win is good for me for the upcoming championships,” the 26-year-old said.

In the women’s event, Deena Al Tebaishi topped followed by Sarah Gulam Mohamed and Hajar Gulam Mohamed.

The Qatari shooters now will head to Al Ain, UAE for the Asian Shotgun Shooting championship which begins on November 1.

THE PENINSULA

A young boy bites the gold medal while posing for a pic-ture for the photographers during the victory ceremony at Losail Shooting Range yesterday. RIGHT: The podium winners in the women’s Skeet Deena Al Tebaishi, Sarah Gulam Mohamed and Hajar Gulam Mohamed are seen with officials of Qatar Shooting and Archery Association during the victory ceremony.

Royals hold off Giants to take Series lead

Stars soar past Devils, Ducks tame JacketsNEW YORK: The Dallas Stars recorded their first shoot-out win of the season when they beat the New Jersey Devils.

Left winger Jamie Benn and center Jason Spezza scored for Dallas in the shootout, while Dallas goaltender Kari Lehtonen stopped New Jersey wingers Mike Cammalleri and Jaromir Jagr to seal the win.

Dallas, which did not allow a power play opportunity the entire game, got second-period goals from Benn and right winger Patrick Eaves.

Meanwhile, the Anaheim Ducks stretched their winning streak to seven games when they beat the Columbus Blue Jackets.

Defensemen Sami Vatanen, center Ryan Getzlaf and right winger Corey Perry each contrib-uted a goal and an assist.

Rookie goaltender John Gibson allowed just one goal, a wonky puck that fluttered in off an Anaheim defender. In another match, left winger Jonathan Drouin scored the first goal of his NHL career to spark the Tampa Bay Lightning to victory over the Winnipeg Jets. The 19-year-old third overall pick in the 2013 NHL Entry Draft beat Jets goalie Ondrej Pavelec at 4:45 of the sec-ond period as the Lightning went ahead 2-0. REUTERS

SAN FRANCISCO: The Kansas City Royals followed their formula for success to per-fection turning a tight game over to their “monstrous” bullpen to beat the San Francisco Giants yesterday and seize the upper hand in the World Series.

After each team claimed a lop-sided win in the first two games of the best-of-seven, Game Three was a 3-2 nailbiter that gave the visitors a 2-1 lead in the series.

The pivotal victory was pre-served by four hitless innings thrown by Royals relievers.

“Monstrous,” Royals manager Ned Yost said in describing the firepower he is able to call on in the late innings.

“The key factor in all of this for us is timely hitting, great defense, really solid starting pitching, but dynamic back of the bullpen.”

Of the previous 56 times a Fall Classic has been tied 1-1, the team that has won Game Three has gone on to win the Major League Baseball championship two-thirds of the time.

Kansas City starter Jeremy Guthrie pitched five shutout innings before wobbling in the sixth and turning the game over to the bullpen brigade.

Unbeaten through the post-season until they lost the first

game of the World Series at home on Tuesday, the upstart Royals have produced back-to-back wins and could take command of the series in Saturday’s Game Four in San Francisco.

Alex Gordon, Lorenzo Cain and Hosmer each drove in a run for the Royals, in the playoffs for the first time in 29 years, while closer Greg Holland wrapped up the win in the ninth for his seventh save of the postseason.

“We’re just trying to get leads and hand off to our bullpen,” said Hosmer, whose single to center in a battling, 11-pitch at-bat against lefty reliever Javier Lopez gave

Kansas City their third run.“This is a huge win for us and

hats off to the bullpen for holding it down for us.”

The Giants found themselves in an early hole when 39-year-old starter Tim Hudson received a rude welcome when Alcides Escobar stroked his first pitch for a double to left and eventually scored on Lorenzo Cain’s ground out.

“It was high and probably out-side corner or outer third (of the plate),” said Hudson. “He was just swinging. He had his mind made up. Give him credit, he hit it.”

AFP

Golf: Jain wins July Pretect Monthly MugDOHA: Pratyush Jain won the recent July Pretect Monthly Mug with a score of 33 stabl-eford points.

In Flight A, three handicap-per Jain`s score of 33 consisted of nines of 18 and 15 with gross birdies being recorded on holes 4, 9 and 16.

Richard Filby finished runner-up with 31 points playing off an 8 handicap.

Flight B was won by Michael Francis Zeglin (14 handicap) with 40 points and in second place on countback was Gerry Mulvey with

39 points. Highlights of Michaels round were gross birdies on holes 1, 6 and 14.

The scoring in Flight C was even better and winning with 43 points was Timothy Bales. Kenneth Hardman was runner up with 41 points.

The Ladies division was won by Theresa Gow with 33 points. She scored 12 points on the front nine and a sublime 21 points on the back nine.

Joshua Robinson won the long-est drive and was also nearest to the pin. THE PENINSULA

Pratyush Jain, the July Pretect Monthly Mug winner, is seen along with other winners at Doha Golf Club.

Kansas City Royals closer Greg Holland shuts down the San Francisco Giants during the ninth inning of game 3 of the World Series at AT&T Park in San Francisco yesterday. The Royals take a 2-1 series lead defeating the Giants 3-2.

NHL ResultsResults from the NHL games yesterday.

Dallas 3 New Jersey 2

Tampa Bay 4 Winnipeg 2

Colorado 7 Vancouver 3

Edmonton 6 Carolina 3

Anaheim 4 Columbus 1

World Series resultSAN FRANCISCO: Result yesterday from the 110th World Series, Major League Baseball’s best-of-seven championship final:

Kansas City 3 San Francisco 2

(Kansas City leads series 2-1)

SPORT24SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Serena earns shot at title, revenge

Torrid season over as Nadal opts for surgeryLONDON: Rafa Nadal’s announcement on Friday that he will miss the ATP World Tour Finals because of appen-dicitis ended a difficult year for the Spaniard during which he has endured injury, illness and worrying defeats.

The 28-year-old’s ninth French Open crown in June stands out like a beacon in the gloom as for most of the season Nadal has looked like a mere mortal, far from the force of nature that col-lected 14 Grand Slam titles.

On Friday, he was crushed by Croatian teenager Borna Coric at the Swiss Indoor event in Basel, losing the first five games before offering some instinctive resist-ance in a 6-2 7-6 (4) reverse.

Lacking power and timing, hardly surprising considering he has been on antibiotics in a for-lorn bid to delay surgery until after the World Tour Finals next month, Nadal’s performance made uncomfortable viewing for his legion of fans.

A few minutes later he made the decision most had been expecting by withdrawing from the season-ending showpiece in London having already pulled out of next week’s Paris Masters.

Nadal said he would have his grumbling appendix removed on Nov. 3 before spending two months training hard for a return at the Qatar Open in Doha on Jan. 5 -- a tournament he won this year before his body started creaking.

After a career spent fighting ferocious on-court battles against some of the best players ever to wield rackets, question marks will accompany the Mallorcan’s lat-est comeback mission, although at least this time it is not his suspect knees that are under the microscope.

A player who relies so much on

his extraordinary movement and physical powers, not to mention his warrior spirit, can ill afford to be less than 100 percent, as this year has proved.

There was the Australian Open final defeat by Swiss Stanislas Wawrinka when his back failed him.

There were the almost unheard of claycourt defeats by fellow Spaniard David Ferrer and Nicolas Almagro in Monte Carlo and Barcelona respectively and he was being rudely out-hit by Japan’s Kei Nishikori in the Madrid claycourt final before his opponent retired hurt.

Nadal raised his game to win at Roland Garros, beating arch rival Novak Djokovic in the final, but a few weeks later on the lawns of Wimbledon he was blasted off court by Australian firebrand Nick Kyrgios in the fourth round.

The defeat by teenager Kyrgios was Nadal’s last match for three months as a wrist injury ruled him out of the US Open.

When he returned in China it was clear not all was well.

In Beijing he lost to Slovakia’s Martin Klizan and that was

followed by an emphatic defeat by Spaniard Feliciano Lopez in Shanghai, by which time Nadal’s decision to play on with appen-dicitis was looking more bizarre by the day.

Nadal finally admitted defeat on Friday as Coric gave him the kind of grilling he used to dish out routinely.

“I knew it was going to hap-pen. I was ready for that,” said the world number three.

“I know I have to be better for the beginning of 2015 and the only way to be better is work and health. Without health you can-not work.”

Nadal’s absence at the O2 Arena in London, where he has twice reached the final, will take some of the gloss off the event.

He had already qualified, along with Djokovic, Wawrinka, Roger Federer and Marin Cilic, and his withdrawal slightly eases the pressure on the likes of Ferrer, Nishikori, Andy Murray, Tomas Berdych and Milos Raonic who are vying for the remaining places in the event. AFP

Spain’s Rafael Nadal reacts

during his quarterfinal

match against Croatia’s

Borna Coric at the Swiss

Indoors tennis tournament

at the St. Jakobshalle

in Basel, Switzerland,

on Friday.

Swiss Open ATP Results

BASEL, Switzerland: Results from fifth day of the Swiss Indoors ATP tournament (x denotes seeded player):

Quarter-finals: David Goffin (BEL x7) bt Milos Raonic (CAN x4) 6-7 (3/7), 6-3, 6-4; Ivo Karlovic (CRO x8) bt Benjamin Becker (GER) 6-4, 6-4; Borna Coric (CRO) bt Rafael Nadal (ESP x2) 6-2, 7-6 (7/4).

Semi-finals: David Goffin (BEL x7) bt Borna Coric (CRO) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3

Valencia Open ResultsVALENCIA, Spain: Results from the fifth day of the ATP Valencia Open (x denotes seeding):

Quarter-finals: David Ferrer (ESP x1) bt Thomaz Belluci (BRA) 6-1, 6-2; Andy Murray (GBR x3) bt Kevin Anderson (RSA x7) 6-7 (3/7), 6-4, 6-4; Jeremy Chardy (FRA) bt Pablo Carreno Busta (ESP) 6-1, 6-2; Tommy Robredo (ESP) bt Pablo Andujar (ESP) 7-6 (7/4), 6-4.

Semi-finals: Andy Murray (GBR x3) bt David Ferrer (ESP x1) 6-4, 7-5.

Borna Coric of Croatia reacts after winning his match against Spain’s Rafael Nadal at the Swiss Indoors in Basel on Friday.

WTA Finals: American to clash with Halep SINGAPORE: Racquet-smashing Serena Williams fought back from a set down to beat Caroline Wozniacki yes-terday and set up a chance for revenge against Simona Halep in the WTA Finals title match.

The two-time defending cham-pion started poorly but after her racquet paid the price, she domi-nated the second set and emerged victorious from a tense deciding tie-breaker to win it 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6).

The 18-time Grand Slam-winner, seeking her third straight victory at the end-of-season championship, will play Halep in Sunday’s final -- four days after her humiliating 6-0, 6-2 loss to the Romanian.

Halep continued her brilliant run in Singapore with a 6-2, 6-2 dismantling of Poland’s Agnieszka Radwanska as the Singapore tournament’s surprise package made it to the final on debut.

The diminutive world number four, backed by a phalanx of noisy Romanian fans, belted 26 winners against just four conceded as she broke Radwanska five times to win in 68 minutes.

Williams, 33, said she would start out with “low goals” against Halep, after winning just two games in their group match -- her worst performance since she was 16.

“I’m excited. My goal is to win three games. That’ll be my first goal. I’m going to go from there,” joked Williams. “Hopefully I can hold serve. That would be good. Most of all, I hope to break once.”

While Halep cruised, Williams’ fourth win over Wozniacki this year, including the US Open final, was tough and it was the third time this season that she has been pushed to three sets by the

resurgent Dane.The American pushed “reset”

after the first set but when Wozniacki brilliantly saved a match point in the third, Williams needed a net cord to get into the third-set tie-breaker after slip-ping to 1-4 down.

“I hate to lose a match when I have match point. It’s hard to sleep. It’s hard to function,” she said. “I thought, ‘Oh my God. She couldn’t play any better.”

“Then I hit the net cord and I was almost upset on it,” Williams added. “I was like, ‘Why couldn’t you have done that on match point?’”

The players are close and they sang along to “We Belong Together” at a Mariah Carey con-cert on Friday, but friendship was put on one side as a grim-faced Williams strode into Singapore’s Indoor Stadium.

But the American was bro-ken in her first service game and despite finding her range with her serve, in the rallies she struggled with Wozniacki’s placement and court craft.

The pressure exploded when Williams furiously pummelled her racquet into the floor after losing the seventh game to love to go 2-5 down, earning her a warning from the chair umpire.

The reigning champion was broken again as Wozniacki took the first set 6-2, but Williams

returned fired up and she shrieked and bellowed her way to a love hold at the start of the second.

And the tables turned in her favour when she got a break for 3-2, her first lead of the match, and then levelled proceedings at one set each when Wozniacki double-faulted on set point.

Wozniacki won a 26-shot rally to fend off a break point in game four of an increasingly tense deciding set, which crept up to 4-4 before the Dane broke to go ahead. But with Wozniacki serv-ing for the match, Williams found another gear and she broke back for 5-5 with an overhead, cel-ebrating with a raised fist.

There was incredible drama when Wozniacki, serving to stay in the match, survived a match point with two consecutive volleys to force the third-set tie-break.

Williams double-faulted to put Wozniacki 3-1 up but after the helpful net cord, the American reeled off five consecutive points to set up two more match points.

Wozniacki escaped both but when Williams brought up her fourth match point, the Dane’s luck ran out when she swept a forehand wide.

“It clicked today. I thought, ‘Ha! I got you now.’ Not in particular to her (Wozniacki), but in particu-lar what to do against Serena,” Williams said, in what could be an ominous sign for Halep.

But Wozniacki, who was unbeaten in round robin play, had a very different perspective after ending her season with a 10th defeat in 11 matches against Williams.

“This really sucks. You know, being so close and still losing, it really sucks,” said the eighth seed.

AFP

WTA Finals ResultsSINGAPORE: Results from the season-ending WTA Finals in Singapore yesterday (x denotes seeding):

Semi-finals: Serena Williams (USA x1) bt Caroline Wozniacki (DEN x8) 2-6, 6-3, 7-6 (8/6); Simona Halep (ROM x4) bt Agnieszka Radwanska (POL x6) 6-2, 6-2.

Goffin ends Coric dream run to make Swiss finalBASEL, Switzerland: David Goffin ended the dream run of teenager Borna Coric, the con-queror of Rafael Nadal, 6-4, 3-6, 6-3 yesterday to reach the final of the Swiss Indoors.

Croatian Coric, 17, and ranked 124th, was brought down to earth fewer than 24 hours after he won the match of his career, defeat-ing 14-time major winner Nadal in the quarter-finals.

Goffin, who has exploded into form since Wimbledon with a 43-2 record, will face either five-time champion Roger Federer or Croatian Ivo Karlovic in Sunday’s final.

World number 28 Goffin, a low-key character at the best of times whose baby-face disguises a killer instinct on court, credited his steady, calm demeanour with get-ting him through against Coric.

“I’m pretty calm on and off the court,” said the Belgian whose Grand Slam main draw debut at Roland Garros in 2012 was ended by Federer in the fourth round.

“I think my personality helps me manage on the big points. I’m really happy to have won and reached the final,” said the

seventh seed who needed four match points to close out Coric.

“It’s never easy to finish a match. I was nervous and I’m pleased that I won.”

Between Davis Cup, Challengers and ATP play, Goffin has won his last 16 matches since losing in the Wimbledon first round to Andy Murray.

His season has included ATP titles at Kitzbuhel and Metz and four trophies on the lower-level Challenger circuit.

“It’s a great period for me, I’ve been playing better and better in each match, I have the confidence now and that is helping me. I’m able to just keep winning right now.”

Goffin will be playing in his third ATP final and hoping to maintain an undefeated record in title matches.

The Belgian won the first set but found himself level-pegging in the second after Coric struck back with his fifth and sixth aces to earn the second set.

In the third, Goffin broke for 3-1 and eventually earned three match points from a Coric error.

AFP

Murray edges out Ferrer in ValenciaVALENCIA, Spain: Andy Murray took a huge step towards sealing his place in the ATP World Tour finals as he beat top seed David Ferrer 6-4, 7-5 to reach the Valencia Open final yesterday.

Murray has put himself in prime position for a seventh consecutive appearance at the season-ending tournament in London with a run of 17 wins in his last 19 matches, including vic-tory over Ferrer in the final of the Austrian Open last week.

The Scot and Ferrer are cur-rently eighth and ninth in the race to London with four places still up for grabs following Rafael Nadal’s decision to withdraw to have his appendix removed on Friday.

Murray can move as high as fifth in the standings with his third title in little over a month

when he faces Jeremy Chardy or Tommy Robredo in the final on Sunday.

One break of serve in the opening game of the match was enough for Murray to take the first set as he looked polished on serve to take it 6-4.

However, the second set was a rollercoaster as Murray appeared to be cruising to victory when he secured a double break to move ahead 3-0.

Willed on by the home crowd, though, Ferrer, a three-time champion in Valencia, bounced back to move 4-3 ahead.

Murray then had to save a break point to level at 4-4, but the match swung back in Murray’s favour when Ferrer fired long to leave the Scot serving for the match at 6-5. Murray eventually closed it out with a thumping forehand winner. AFP

Belgium’s David Goffin reacts after

winning his semi

final match against

Croatia’s Borna Coric at the Swiss

Indoors tennis tour-

nament at the St.

Jakobshalle in Basel,

Switzerland, yesterday.

Simona Halep of Romania reacts

after defeat-ing Agnieszka Radwanska of Poland during

the semi finals of the WTA Finals in Singapore yesterday.

RIGHT: Serena Williams of the USA in action

against Caroline Wozniacki of

Denmark during their semi-final

match.

25SPORT SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Australia crumble against spinYounis, Shehzad hit hundreds, Pakistan set 438-run victory target for AustraliaDUBAI: Pakistan took a huge step towards victory in the first Test by taking four key Australian wickets after hun-dreds from Younis Khan and Ahmed Shehzad put them in the driving seat in Dubai on yesterday.

After setting an imposing 438-run target, Pakistan rattled the Australians through a brace of wickets apiece from spinners Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah to leave Australia tottering on 59-4 at stumps on the fourth day, need-ing six wickets for a 1-0 lead in the two-Test series.

Chris Rogers (23) and Steven Smith (three) were at the crease as Australia need another 379 for an unlikely win.

Australia’s best chase to win a Test was way back in 1948 when they made 404-3 against England

at Headingley while their best chase against Pakistan was 369-6 at Hobart in 1999.

Australia had raced to 44-0 before Babar struck twice in the 14th over, inducing David Warner, who had scored his third successive test century in the first innings, to come out of the crease for a smart stump-ing when he was on 29 with his first ball and then trapped Alex Doolan (nought) leg before with his last.

Michael Clarke survived a review leg-before decision on nought off Shah before trapped in front of the wicket in the leg-spinner’s next over for three.

Clarke was disappointed at his failure.

“I’m really disappointed with my personal performance in this Test match,” said Clarke who made two in the first innings.

“I am not looking to blame any-body else or criticise anybody else. But if you look at all facets of the game we’ve been outplayed at this stage.

“We’ve got to fight our back-sides off tomorrow and see what happens.”

Shah made it 4-49 catching nightwatchman Nathan Lyon in front of the wicket on a day domi-nated by Pakistan.

Younis hit a record making 103 not out and Shehzad 131 to bolster Pakistan to 286-2 declared.

Younis added 168 for the second wicket with Shehzad as Pakistan plundered 248 runs after resum-ing at 38-0.

Younis swept Steve O’Keefe to square-leg boundary for his sixth boundary to get to his second hundred in the match following his 106 in Pakistan’s 454 in the first innings.

Australia conceded a big 151-run lead after being dismissed for 303 in their first knock.

Younis became the seventh

Pakistani batsmen, but first against Australia, to score twin hundreds in a Test.

Hanif Mohammad (1964), Javed Miandad (1984), Wajahatullah Wasti (1999), Yasir Hameed (2003), Inzamam-ul Haq (2005) and Mohammad Yousuf (2006) had also achieved the distinction in the past.

With his 26th hundred, Younis also edged ahead of Inzamam (25 hundreds) as the highest Test century maker for his country.

It was actually Shehzad who set the tone for quick runs in the morning.

Shehzad, 22, drove paceman Peter Siddle for his eighth four

towards long-on to reach his sec-ond Test hundred.

Pakistan, 116-1 at lunch, cut loose in the second session against a hapless Australian attack on a flat pitch.

Shehzad smashed a four and a six off O’Keefe and then hit Mitchell Marsh twice to the ropes to enter the 90s.

After reaching his hundred, Shehzad smashed two fours and a six off Siddle to take the lead past 370.

He was trapped leg-before soon after tea by spinner O’Keefe, the only successful Australian bowler with 2-112.

In the morning, Australia had

looked to stop the flow of runs and had a good chance of breaking through early, but Brad Haddin failed to grasp a low catch when Shehzad edged one on to the pads which popped out of the wicket-keeper’s hands.

But O’Keefe got his reward when he induced an edge off Ali straight into the hands of Haddin with the score at 71.

Younis hit a six off Lyon and then drove Mitchell Johnson to cover boundary to complete his 29th half-century in Tests, before cutting loose to his hundred.

The second and final Test starts in Abu Dhabi on October 30.

AFP

Younis Khan considered sitting out TestsDUBAI: Record breaking century maker Younis Khan yesterday said he consid-ered skipping the Test series against Australia after being left out of the preceding one-day series.

The 36-year-old right-hander smashed an unbeaten 103 as Pakistan reached 286-2 declared in their second innings in the first Test, a lead of 437 before Australia slumped to at 59-4 at close on the fourth day.

Australia still need another 379 to win or bat throughout 90 overs on Sunday.

Younis’s 26th hundred and his second in the match helped him overhaul Inzamam-ul Haq’s record of most centuries by a Pakistani batsman.

He also became only the seventh Pakistan player to score twin hundreds in a Test and the first to do so against Australia.

But it would not have hap-pened at all had Younis decided not to play the Tests after being snubbed for the one-day series which Pakistan lost 3-0.

“I had thought that it was easy to quit, it was an easy option but I have never cho-sen the easier option in my life,” said Younis after his twin hundreds.

Younis said his family and friends motivated him to play the Tests.

“Everyone backed me. It was a bad episode but my friends and family motivated me saying that this is the time you can have a hundred and beat Inzi’s record and I didn’t have a hun-dred against Australia so I took that challenge,” said Younis.

“At one point I was thinking not to go for the Test matches because Australia are a top ranking team.”

Younis said he always stayed positive.

“It all comes when you think positively, and I was motivated by my family and now I am a proud Pakistani beating Inzi’s record.”

Meanwhile, Australian skip-per Michael Clarke praised Khan as a “gentleman of the game”.

“Younis is a very good player and has been for a long time. I found out yesterday this is only his 93rd Test match, I thought he’d played a lot more than that. He’s one of the gentlemen of our game, a class player,” said Clarke of the Pakistani batsman. AFP

Six-wicket Shakib skittles Zimbabwe out in first TestDHAKA: Left-arm spinner Shakib Al Hasan took six for 59 as Bangladesh dismissed Zimbabwe for 240 on the open-ing day of the first Test in Dhaka yesterday.

Shakib, who made his Test come-back after serving a three-month ban for poor discipline, led a three-pronged spin attack that strangled Zimbabwe on the slow wicket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.

Debutant leg-spinner Jubair Hossain claimed 2-58 and left-arm spinner Taijul Islam finished with 1-42. Opener Sikander Raza was top-scorer for Zimbabwe with 51. Bangladesh were 27 for one in reply by stumps with Shamsur Rahman (eight) and Mominul Haque (14) at the crease.

Opener Tamim Iqbal was dismissed for five, caught by Hamilton Masakadza at second slip off Tinashe Panyangara.

Raza shared a 52-run stand for the fourth wicket with skip-per Brendan Taylor (28), but none of the other batsmen set-tled in to build a partnership after the tourists won the toss and

elected to bat. Shahadat Hossain accounted for the only wicket that fell to a seamer, having Vusi Sibanda caught by wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim in the first over of the match. AFP

Pakistani batsman Younis Khan plays a shot during the fourth day of the first Test against Australia at Dubai International Stadium in Dubai yesterday.

Pakistan (I innings): ..........................454Australia (I innings): ..........................303Pakistan (II innings):Ahmed Shehzad lbw O’Keefe .................131Azhar Ali c Haddin b O’Keefe....................30Younis Khan (not out).............................103Sarfraz Ahmed (not out) ...........................15Extras (B-2, LB-3, W-2) .............................7Total (for 2 wkts decl) ........................286Fall of wickets: 1-71, 2-239.Bowling: Johnson 12-2-34-0; Siddle 14-5-44-0 (1w); Lyon 18-0-72-0; O’Keefe 27-3-112-2; Marsh 7-1-19-0.Australia (II innings):C Rogers (batting) ...................................23D Warner st Ahmed b Babar ....................29A Doolan lbw Babar ...................................0M Clarke lbw Shah ....................................3N Lyon lbw Shah .......................................0S Smith (batting) .......................................3Extras (LB-1) ............................................1Total (for 4 wkts) ..................................59Fall of wickets: 1-44, 2-44, 3-49, 4-49.Bowling: Khan 1-0-6-0; Rahat 1-0-10-0; Hafeez 5-2-12-0; Babar 9-3-22-2; Shah 7-1-8-2.

Scoreboard

Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim (second left) congratulates team-mate Shakib Al Hasan (left) after the dismissal of the Zimbabwe’sTafadzwa Kamungozi during the first day of the first Test match at the Sher-e Bangla National Stadium in Dhaka yesterday.

Marquez grabs record 13th pole in MalaysiaSEPANG, Malaysia: Recently crowned world champion Marc Marquez will start in top posi-tion for today’s Malaysian MotoGP, surpassing the record for the most poles in a single season.

The Spanish Repsol Honda rider clocked a record lap time of one minute 59.791 seconds in Saturday qualifying at Sepang, 0.182 seconds ahead of his team-mate and compatriot Dani Pedrosa.

In third place was Spain’s Jorge Lorenzo, while his Yamaha teammate Valentino Rossi, who is battling him for the season’s runner-up title, qualified in sixth.

It was Marquez’s 13th pole of the year, breaking the previous record of 12 front-row starts in a season jointly held by Australians Mick Doohan and Casey Stoner.

His flying lap toward the end of the session also broke his own record from qualifying last year of 2 minutes 0.011 seconds. He came second in last year’s race.

Marquez said he was “definitely delighted” with his position after

taking a tumble in the fourth practice session.

“Yes, I’m definitely motivated. To achieve 13 poles is not easy, and I’m happy with the record. But the main race is yet to come, and I want to be focused for that,” the 21-year-old said.

“Tomorrow won’t be easy because Dani was also very fast today, but I’m definitely looking to race in dry conditions. If it rains, then it’s a different story.”

The 5.5-kilometre (3.4 mile) Sepang circuit is famed for its hot track temperatures and tropi-cal afternoon downpours. But Saturday’s qualifying remained dry.

Pedrosa, who topped all three practice sessions and has won the last two Malaysian Grand Prix, was the only other rider to fin-ish below the two-minute mark, clocking 1 minute 59.973.

The 29-year-old, who has yet to win a MotoGP championship title, said he was content with his second-place finish.

“I had a really good lap time and was actually surprised with

my timing considering the humid conditions. We did well with the set-up of the bike and will be ready for both weather conditions tomorrow,” he said.

Lorenzo clocked 2 min-utes 0.203, while Germany’s Stefan Bradl and Italy’s Andrea Dovizioso qualified fourth and fifth respectively.

Lorenzo -- while happy with his lap time -- was cautious ahead of Sunday’s race.

“The temperature was high today, and we struggled a little bit with the tyres,” the two-time world champion said.

“But I’m happy today. The team did a good job with the bike, set-ting it up nicely for the corners.”

Crowd favourite Rossi trailed 0.949 seconds behind Marquez.

The Italian legend is currently eight points ahead of Lorenzo, with only Valencia remaining after this.

Marquez, who last year became the youngest MotoGP champion, already clinched this season’s title two races ago in Japan.

AFP

QMMF’s West and Ramos struggle with rear gripSEPANG, Malaysia: In blis-tering tropical heat, QMMF Racing Team riders Anthony West and Roman Ramos quali-fied for 26th and 31st position on the starting grid for the Malaysian Grand Prix.

Both riders rode significantly faster in comparison to day one on the fast and difficult Sepang circuit, improvements that came alongside with crucial steps in the set-up of their Speed Up prototypes.

Australian West was especially happy with his bike in the cooler morning session, before both rid-ers ran into problems with rear tyre grip in suffocating heat dur-ing qualifying.

In the warm-up session today, West and Ramos will try to make the final step with the set-up and improve rear tyre grip for the

race, with the clear goal of hunt-ing down as many other riders as possible and achieving a strong result.

“I was happy this morning because I went straight out and did the fastest time I’ve ever done here, by quite a bit. I was quite happy with that and we contin-ued to make small changes to the bike,” West said.

“The temperatures being so hot it was just difficult to get grip and drive out of the corners. I wasn’t able to put a good lap together in the second session, it was quite hard with the hot tarmac. I just didn’t have the confidence in the rear grip in hot conditions. The race is a little later than usual, which could help us. All things considered, I think we can still be strong in the race,” he added.

THE PENINSULA

Grand Prix of Malaysia Grids

SEPANG, Malaysia: Grids for today’s motorcycling Grand Prix of Malaysia after yesterday’s qualifying:

MotoGP

1. Marc Marquez (ESP/Honda) 1min 59.791sec, 2. Dani Pedrosa (ESP/Honda) at 0.182sec, 3. Jorge Lorenzo (ESP/Yamaha) 0.412, 4. Stefan Bradl (GER/Honda) 0.681, 5. Andrea Dovizioso (ITA/Ducati) 0.912, 6. Valentino Rossi (ITA/Yamaha) 0.949, 7. Aleix Espargaro (ESP/Yamaha) 1.010, 8. Cal Crutchlow (GBR/Ducati) 1.328, 9. Bradley Smith (GBR/Yamaha Tech3) 1.472, 10. Alvaro Bautista (ESP/Honda) 2.503

Moto2

1. Esteve Rabat (ESP/Kalex) 2 minutes 07.429sec, 2. Mika Kallio (FIN/Kalex) at 0.158sec, 3. Sandro Cortese (GER/Kalex) 0.277, 4. Maverick Vinales (ESP/Kalex) 0.325, 5. Thomas Luthi (SUI/Suter) 0.420, 6. Takaaki Nakagami (JPN/Kalex) 0.446, 7. Julian Simon (ESP/Kalex) 0.457, 8. Johann Zarco (FRA/Caterham Suter) 0.527. 9. Dominique Aegerter (SUI/Suter) 0.704, 10. Axel Pons (ESP/Kalex) 0.715

Zimbabwe (I innings):V Sibanda c Rahim b S Hossain ...................6S Raza c Mahmudullah b J Hossain ............51H Masakadza c J Hossain b Al Hasan .........13B Taylor c T Islam b J Hossain ....................28E Chigumbura c M Haque b Al Hasan .........29C Ervine c M Haque b T Islam ....................34R Chakabva c Sh Rahman b Al Hasan .........25J Nyumbu lbw Al Hasan .............................14T Panyangara c (sub) b Al Hasan ..................8T Chatara (not out) ....................................14T Kamungozi c Sh Rahman b Al Hasan..........5Extras (B-12, NB-1) ..................................13Total (all out) ........................................240Fall of wickets: 1-6, 2-31, 3-83, 4-128, 5-142, 6-192, 7-200, 8-221, 9-230, 10-240.

Bowling: S Hossain 14-1-45-1(nb-1); A Hos-

sain 8-2-22-0; S Al Hasan 24.5-5-59-6; T Is-

lam 13-3-42-1; J Hossain 15-1-58-2; M

Mahmudullah 1-0-2-0.

Bangladesh (I innings):

T Iqbal c H Masakadza b Panyangara ...........5

S Rahman (batting) .....................................8

M Haque (batting) .....................................14

Total (for 1 wkt) .....................................27

Fall of wicket: 1-10

To bat: M Mahmudullah, S Al Hasan, M Rahim,

S Hom, T Islam, S Hossain, J Hossain, A Hossain

Bowling: T Panyangara 5-0-20-1; T Chatara

5-2-5-0; E Chigumbura 1-1-0-0; J Nyumbu

1-0-2–0.

Scoreboard

SPORT26SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Al Gharafa storm to victory, Al Ahli trounce Al Wakra in QSL

Asian Cup 2015: Qatar to set up base in CanberraDOHA: Qatar football team will set up their base in Canberra ten days before the kickoff of the AFC Asian Cup 2015, an official of the Qatar Football Association (QFA) said here.

“We will be based in Canberra and we will go ten days before our first match as we want to get used to the conditions in Qatar,” said Mansoor Al Ansari, Director of National Teams Committee of QFA.

Qatar will face UAE in their first match of the AFC Asian Cup 2015 to be held in Australia from January 9 to 31. Sixteen teams from Asia have qualified for the tournament. THE PENINSULA

Australian and Al Gharafa midfielder Mark Bresciano (left), Hani Balan, Qatar Football Association Executive Committee Member and Pablo Kang (right), Australian Ambassador to the UAE and Qatar during Match Australia, an International Sports Business Program organised by Australian Government, Australian Trade Commission and Australia Unlimited, held in Doha on Thursday. The AFC Asian Cup 2015 will be held from January 9 to 31 in Australia.

Qatar Stars League Results & Fixtures

Yesterday’s ResultsAl Khor 1 Al Shamal 0

Al Shahaniya 0 Al Arabi 0

Al Gharafa 2 El Jaish 1

Al Wakra 1 Al Ahli 3

Today’s Fixtures

Umm Salal vs Lekhwiya, Qatar SC Stadium, 5.30pm

Qatar SC vs Al Sadd, Qatar SC Stadium, 7.45pm

Al Kharaityat vs Al Sailiya, Al Khor Stadium, 7.45pm

DOHA: An injury time goal from Moayad Hassan Fedaily helped Al Gharafa edge El Jaish 2-1 in the ninth round match of the Qatar Stars League (QSL) here yesterday.

Fedaily had earlier given the lead for his team in the 37th minute while Mohamed Abdulla Methnani equalised in the 67th minute for El Jaish. Al Gharafa now have 17 points from nine matches while El Jaish remained on 15.

In the other matches yesterday, Al Ahli trounced Al Wakra 3-1, while Al Khor edged Al Shamal 1-0 and the Al Arabi-Al Shahaniya match ended in a goalless draw.

THE PENINSULA

Fedaily scores brace for Al Gharafa in 2-1 win over El Jaish; Al Khor edge Al Shamal

Al Arabi player Paulo Sergio (right) vies for ball possession with Mehrdad Jahanshah Pooladi of Al Shahaniya during their Qatar Stars League (QSL) match at Al Gharafa Stadium yesterday. RIGHT: El Jaish’s Keunho Lee and Bilal Rajab (right) of Al Gharafa during their QSL match at Al Gharafa Stadium yesterday. PICTURES BY: ABDUL BASIT

Wanderers edge Al Hilal in ACL final first legSYDNEY: Australia’s Western Sydney Wanderers beat Saudi Arabia’s Al Hilal 1-0 to seize the early advantage in the two-leg AFC Champions League final in Sydney yesterday.

Substitute striker Tomi Juric’s 64th-minute goal gave the Wanderers a precious lead to take into the second leg in Riyadh next week. Juric, who added the spark required when he came off the bench in the second half, almost gave the Wanderers a two-goal cushion but his shot came off the post with goalkeeper Abdullah Al-Sudairy well beaten.

“It’s definitely a big help for us going there in those kind of con-ditions and we have to perform well over there to finish the job off because it’s only half done at the moment,” Juric said.

“If we go over there full of con-fidence as we are now and stick to our structure and our game plan I think we can bring this one home.”

Wanderers, in only their third season, are bidding to become the first Australian side to win the Asian showpiece after Adelaide United lost to Japan’s Gamba Osaka in the 2008 final.

Coach Tony Popovic praised Juric’s game-changing influence.

“His impact was fantastic. It’s

been seven weeks since he played,” Popovic said.

“Tomi scored a fantastic goal, it was a great overlap and a real striker’s finish. It’s just a shame he didn’t get that second one.

“This result has filled us with confidence. We have to recover well and we’re in for a tough bat-tle next week.

“But they’re going home tonight knowing they’re up against a very tough opponent who can win the title over there.”

The expensively-assembled Al Hilal dominated the opening half and with Nasser Al Shamrani going close to breaking the dead-lock in stoppage time.

But the match turned with the introduction of Juric, who scored seven minutes after coming on for Brendan Santalab.

Defender Antony Golec’s teas-ing cross from the left was met by Juric whose shot went through

the legs of Al-Sudairy into the net amid wild scenes from the 20,000 full house at Sydney’s Parramatta Stadium. Al Hilal were feeling the pressure and Juric almost made them pay when his volley came back off the left post with the goalkeeper on the ground.

The Saudis had a couple of late chances to score a crucial away goal but goalkeeper Ante Covic made a point blank save to deny Salem Al-Dosary and then made a diving save to prevent Yasser Al-Shahrani from scoring moments later.

“We played a very good game. We had a lot of chances, but we lost 1-0,” Al Hilal’s Romanian coach Laurentiu Reghecampf said.

“In the second half we had three or four chances.Their goal-keeper (Covic) did a great job and I think that’s why the result is only 1-0 for them. Normally we have to score two or three goals.

“I’m sure after six days when we play the next game my team is going to win.

“We need only to score one goal and we are going to see what the atmosphere will be in Riyadh.”

It was Western Sydney’s sixth straight win at home in this sea-son’s ACL and their defence has now kept a clean sheet in over 10 hours of football. AFP

Salman Alfaraj of Al Hilal (right) and Daniel Mullen of Western Sydney Wanderers fight

for the ball during the first leg of their Asian Champions League football match in Sydney

yesterday. Western Sydney Wanderers won the game 1-0.

2015 Asian Cup Group FixturesGroup A: Australia, Korea Republic, Kuwait, Oman

09 Jan 2015: Australia vs Kuwait at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

10 Jan 2015: Korea Republic vs Oman at Canberra Stadium

13 Jan 2015: Kuwait vs Korea Republic at Canberra Stadium

13 Jan 2015: Oman vs Australia at Stadium Australia

17 Jan 2015 Australia vs Korea Republic at Brisbane Stadium

17 Jan 2015 Oman vs Kuwait at Newcastle Stadium

Group B: Uzbekistan, Saudi Arabia, Korea DPR, China PR

10 Jan 2015: Uzbekistanvs Korea DPR at Stadium Australia

10 Jan 2015: Saudi Arabia vs China PR at Brisbane Stadium

14 Jan 2015: Korea DPR vs Saudi Arabia at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

14 Jan 2015: China PR vs Uzbekistan at Brisbane Stadium

18 Jan 2015: Uzbekistan vs Saudi Arabia at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

18 Jan 2015 China PR vs Korea DPR at Canberra Stadium

Group C: UAE, Iran, Bahrain, Qatar

11 Jan 2015: UAE vs Qatar at Canberra Stadium

11 Jan 2015: Iran vs Bahrain at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

15 Jan 2015: Bahrainvs UAE at Canberra Stadium

15 Jan 2015: Qatar vs Iran at Stadium Australia

19 Jan 2015: Iran vs UAE at Brisbane Stadium

19 Jan 2015: Qatar vs Bahrain at Stadium Australia

Group D: Japan, Jordan, Palestine, Iraq

12 Jan 2015: Japan vs Palestine at Newcastle Stadium

12 Jan 2015: Jordan vs Iraq at Brisbane Stadium

16 Jan 2015: Palestine vs Jordan at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

16 Jan 2015: Iraq vs Japan at Brisbane Stadium

20 Jan 2015: Japan vs Jordan at Melbourne Rectangular Stadium

20 Jan 2015: Iraq vs Palestine at Canberra Stadium

Asian Cup Past Winners

Japan: 4 times (1992*, 2000, 2004, 2011)

Saudi Arabia: 3 times (1984, 1988, 1996)

Iran: 3 times (1968*, 1972, 1976*)

South Korea: 2 times (1956, 1960*)

Israel: 1 (1964*)

Kuwait: 1 (1980*)

Iraq: 1 (2007)

NB: Israel was expelled from the AFC in the early 1970s and eventually became a member of UEFA

Asian Champions League Result

SYDNEY: Result of an AFC Champions League final first leg match played yesterday:

At Sydney

Western Sydney Wanderers (AUS) 1 (Juric 64) Al Hilal (SA) 0

27SPORT SUNDAY 26 OCTOBER 2014

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Real fight back to beat Barcelona in ‘Clasico’Neymar gives early lead, Suarez returns without scoringMADRID: Luis Suarez’s Barcelona debut ended in defeat as Real Madrid cut the gap on the La Liga leaders to just a point as they came from behind to win El Clasico 3-1 yesterday thanks to goals from Cristiano Ronaldo, Pepe and Karim Benzema.

Playing for the first time in a competitive game since being handed a four- month ban for bit-ing Giorgio Chiellini at the World Cup, Suarez’s Barca career had got off to a flying start as he set up Neymar to slide home the opening goal after just three minutes.

However, Real responded like European champions as Ronaldo levelled from the penalty spot before second-half goals from Pepe and Benzema handed them a deserved ninth consecutive vic-tory in all competitions.

“I am very happy to return to playing, it is a great relief to have this time behind me,” said Suarez, who was substituted after 68 minutes.

“The feeling is bittersweet because of the result but this team has lifted itself many times before.”

Barca boss Luis Enrique insisted he didn’t regret his deci-sion to start the Uruguayan.

“I don’t regret it at all,” said Enrique. “He did more than I expected. He played more and with rhythm. We brought him off because it is very difficult to play the 90 minutes after such a long time.”

Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti, meanwhile, lauded his side’s reaction to conceding early on.

“We didn’t lose our head after losing the early goal,” he said.

“I liked many things about the team, above all the high tempo we played with. The team recovered well with just two days rest after Wednesday and played very well.”

Suarez proved his worth within three minutes as his cross-field pass was taken down by Neymar who skipped inside Dani Carvajal and Pepe before sliding the ball into the far corner for his 11th goal in as many games this season.

The goal sparked Madrid into life as Benzema failed to find the target from a narrow angle as he was pressured by Claudio Bravo before the Frenchman crashed a header off the bar from Ronaldo’s cross.

Both Messi and Neymar were booked for late challenges on Toni Kroos and Carvajal as the hosts upped the pressure in search of an equaliser.

However, they were thankful

to captain Iker Casillas midway through the half as he spread himself to stop Lionel Messi becoming the joint top goalscorer in La Liga history from a tempt-ing cross from Suarez.

Just when Barca had appeared to have taken the sting out of Madrid’s pressing, though, they gifted the hosts a route back into the game as Marcelo’s low cross was blatantly handled inside the area by Gerard Pique.

Ronaldo stepped up and confi-dently buried the resulting spot-kick to become the first man to score against Barcelona in nine league games this season.

The home side could even have gone in at half-time in front as James Rodriguez’s header drifted just wide from another Marcelo cross.

It took Ancelotti’s men just five minutes to go in front after the break as Kroos’s out-swinging corner was powered past Bravo by Pepe.

Barca came close to opening

up the Madrid defence a couple of times as Suarez slipped after turning Sergio Ramos in the box before Ramos made a last-ditch tackle to prevent Messi turning home Neymar’s cut-back.

Casillas then produced another stunning save to prevent Jeremy Mathieu’s rising drive finding the top corner.

However, in their haste for an equaliser, Barca were caught on the counter-attack from their own corner as Isco, Ronaldo and Rodriguez combined to play in Benzema to fire home his seventh El Clasico goal.

Suarez’s debut was then brought to a premature end as he made way for Pedro Rodriguez and matters got even worse for the visitors when Andres Iniesta

hobbled off to be replaced by Sergi Roberto.

Madrid comfortably saw the game out in the final 20 min-utes to inflict Barca’s first league defeat of the season. AFP

La Liga Results All times in GMT

Almeria 0 Athletic Bilbao 1 (Etxeita 56)

Real Madrid 3 (Ronaldo 35-pen, Pepe 50, Benzema 61) Barcelona 1 (Neymar 3)

Valencia 3 (Mustafi 13, Parejo 18, Lomban 64-og) Elche 1 (Jonathas 92)

Today’s Matches

Malaga vs Rayo Vallecano (1000), Espanyol vs Deportivo la Coruna (1500), Sevilla vs

Villarreal (1700), Getafe vs Atletico Madrid (1900)

Real Madrid’s Pepe (left) celebrates with James

Rodriguez (centre) and Marcelo after scoring against Barcelona

during their La Liga ‘Clasico’ match at the Santiago Bernabeu

Stadium in Madrid yesterday. BOTTOM: Barcelona’s Luis Suarez vies for the ball with

Sergio Ramos yesterday.

West Ham shock champions City, Arsenal rout SunderlandLONDON: West Ham United and Southampton maintained their unlikely but impres-sive starts to the season when the Hammers beat champions Manchester City 2-1 and Saints moved up to second with a 1-0 win over Stoke City yesterday.

Chelsea, who visit Manchester United on Sunday, lead the Premier League title chase with 22 points from eight matches while Saints are second with 19 from nine games.

Manchester City are third on 17 after losing at West Ham through goals from Morgan Amalfitano and Diafra Sakho. The champi-ons could trail Chelsea by eight points by Sunday night if Jose Mourinho’s men maintain their unbeaten start to the season and win again at Old Trafford.

In yesterday’s other after-noon games Arsenal won 2-0 at Sunderland, Liverpool were held to a goalless draw at home by Hull City and West Bromwich Albion fought back from 2-0 down to draw 2-2 at home to Crystal Palace.

West Ham did not have it easy against Manchester City who dominated possession but hit the bar twice through Yaya Toure and only scored once through David Silva.

Frenchman Amalfitano put the Hammers ahead with a

tap-in after a brilliant low spin-ning cross from Enner Valencia after 21 minutes.

Senegalese Sakho became the first West Ham player to score in six successive Premier League games when he made it 2-0 with a goal given after goalline tech-nology showed his header had crossed the line in the 75th.

Silva pulled one back for City with a great solo effort as he weaved through the defence two minutes later.

“It wasn’t a lucky victory by any stretch of the imagination today because our commitment and desire to play against the big boys and the present league champions was there for all to see,” West Ham manager Sam Allardyce told BT Sport.

“After David Silva scored their outstanding goal, for me it was about the squad’s determination to make sure of what is a famous victory for us.”

City manager Manuel Pellegrini denied he was under any pres-sure after his side also let slip a 2-0 lead against CSKA Moscow to draw 2-2 in the Champions League in midweek.

He said: “I always feel the pres-sure exactly the same from the first day to today.

“West Ham played very well especially in the first half and they did not allow us to move the

ball but we were very unlucky because we had a lot of chances.”

Southampton’s fairytale start to the season is turning into a credible challenge for a top-four finish after they beat Stoke.

Although they were never likely to reproduce last week’s 8-0 win over Sunderland, Sadio Mane’s 33rd-minute strike sepa-rated the teams at St Mary’s as Southampton won for the sixth time in nine matches.

“The first half was fantastic,” said manager Ronald Koeman. “We played very well and domi-nated the game, scored a good goal and had other good oppor-tunities in the first half but we did not kill the game and it was difficult to the last seconds.”

Last week Southampton scored their biggest league win since 1921 when they thrashed Sunderland but Koeman said: “Maybe this win is more important than last week’s because it’s not always that easy and you have to fight for it”.

Arsenal won for only the sec-ond time in eight league matches, beating Sunderland with Alexis Sanchez scoring twice.

Liverpool’s woes continued when they were held by Hull with Mario Balotelli missing an open goal with almost the last kick.

West Brom rallied against Palace who led at halftime thanks to a volley from Brede Hangeland

and a penalty by Mile Jedinak.Albion hit back in the second

half with a header from substitute Victor Anichebe and a stoppage-time penalty by Saido Berahino.

Swansea ended a run of five league games without a win when they beat Leicester at the Liberty Stadium with a goal in each half from Wilfried Bony.

They are now sixth while Leicester, without a win in four matches since a 5-3 defeat of Manchester United a month ago, have slipped to 16th, two points above the relegation zone.

REUTERS

English Premier League Results

Liverpool 0 Hull 0

Southampton 1 (Mane 33) Stoke 0

Sunderland 0 Arsenal 2 (Sanchez 30, 90)

Swansea 2 (Bony 34, 57) Leicester 0

West Brom 2 (Anichebe 51, Berahino 90-pen) Crystal Palace 2 (Hangeland 16, Jedinak

45-pen)

West Ham 2 (Amalfitano 21, Sakho 75) Manchester City 1 (Silva 77)

Today’s Matches

Burnley vs Everton (1330GMT), Manchester Utd vs Chelsea (1600GMT), Tottenham vs

Newcastle (1330GMT)

Monday’s Match

QPR vs Aston Villa (2000GMT)

West Ham’s Diafra Sakho (centre) celebrates with team-mates after scoring a goal during the English Premier League match against Manchester City at Upton Park in London yesterday.

PARIS: Two penalties by Lucas Moura and a clever chip by Ezequiel Lavezzi helped cham-pions Paris Saint Germain beat Bordeaux 3-0 in Ligue 1 yester-day and put pressure on leaders Marseille.

Resurgent Marseille have 25 points ahead of their game on Sunday at Lyon, where they can clinch a club record 10th straight league win. PSG are second with 21 having played a game more.

Bordeaux coach Willy Sagnol had promised to take the game to the champions and his outfit went into the game level on points with the Parisians.

But with Brazilian interna-tional centreback pair Thiago Silva and David Luiz holding firm, Paris always looked superior in that part of the pitch.

With Edinson Cavani sus-pended and Zlatan Ibrahimovic injured, PSG coach Laurent Blanc started with a makeshift front three of Javier Pastore, Lucas and speedy youngster Jean-Christophe Bahebeck.

Bordeaux had reason for early cheer on 27 minutes when Gregory van Der Wiel delivered a wild studs-up kick to Wahbi Khazri’s heel with the ball gone and the referee right behind him.

He was sent off, but the numer-ical advantage would last a mere 10 minutes.

Andre Poko’s complete miss as he swung at a stray ball would have been comical if the Bordeaux midfielder hadn’t ended up con-necting with Marco Verratti’s knee, and while he was unfortu-nate, he had to walk too.

Sagnol was furious with the red card decision against Poko.

“If that was a red card then maybe (instead of playing foot-ball) we should dance or do figure skating. The referee had the red card out before Veratti even hit the deck,” he complained.

Blanc agreed with Sagnol sug-gesting neither foul had been worth a straight red.

“The sending off motivated the

team, but I’d have liked to see 11 against 11. There is such a thing as a yellow card, and both play-ers who were fouled were able to play on. This is a contact sport,” he explained.

With Bordeaux deflated PSG went on the offensive.

From the ensuing free-kick Luiz was already turning to cel-ebrate a goal but saw his thun-derous shot come back off the post with the wall and ‘keeper well beaten. PSG then spurned a series of chances before Verratti was brought down in the area as the pressure mounted.

With Ibrahimovic and Cavani absent penalty duty fell to Lucas, who stepped up in his pink boots and sent Stephane Carrasso the wrong way, his spot-kick ripping into the opposite corner.

Five minutes into the second-half Lucas himself was brought down as he beat the offside trap and PSG were awarded another penalty.

The Brazilian coolly planted his second spot-kick in the other corner, Carrasso diving the right way but unable to deal with the venom of the shot.

Lavezzi, who was return-ing after being out injured for a month, completed the scoring nine minutes from time when his close-range chip took a deflection off defender Maxime Poundje on its way into the net. AFP

Paris Saint-Germain’s Lucas Moura (centre) celebrates after scoring a goal during a French L1 match against Bordeaux at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris yesterday.

Classy PSG make Bordeaux pay penalty

Ligue 1 Results Paris Saint Germain 3 (Lucas 45+3-pen, 50-pen, Lavezzi 81) Bordeaux 0; Evian 0 Nantes 2 (Veretout 42-pen, Bammou 75);

Reims 1 (Moukandjo Bile 90) Montpellier 0; Bastia 1 (Maboulou 21) Monaco 3 (Germain

5, Kondogbia 78, Ferreira-Carrasco 84); Caen 2 (Nangis 3, Duhamel 53-pen) Lorient 1 (J.

Ayew 24-pen)

Friday’s Match

Toulouse 0 Lens 2 (El Jadeyaoui 11, Bourigeaud 27)

Today’s Matches

Rennes vs Lille, Guingamp vs Nice, Saint-Etienne vs Metz, Lyon vs Marseille

Sunday 26 October 20142 Muharram 1436

Volume 19Number 6230

Price: QR2

editor@pen.com.qa | adv@pen.com.qa Editorial: 44557741 | Advertising: 44557837 / 44557780www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Sport | 23 Sport | 27

Shooting: Khalid on target at Losail

Real beat Barca on Suarez debut

Sport

Asian champs get heroes’ welcomeBY D CHAKRABORTY

DOHA: Proud parents dabbed teary eyes and delighted coaches and officials beamed with joy as Qatar’s under-19 national team returned home to a heroes’ wel-come yesterday, after winning the country’s maiden Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Under-19 Championship in Myanmar.

Two fire trucks greeted the Qatar Airways plane carrying the young stars with a water canon salute at Hamad International Airport and a band began playing Qatar’s national anthem as cap-tain Ahmad Moein emerged with the winners’ trophy and stepped onto the red carpet that had been laid on the tarmac.

With expressions of elation and surprise, some young players waved to family members while others fought back tears of joy as they posed with the trophy in front of a jubilant crowd that had gathered to welcome them.

The Qatari skipper, who was voted the tournament’s most val-uable player, dedicated the victory to the Emir, H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani. “It feels great. I want to thank God and all my team-mates. This is the first time Qatar has won the AFC U-19 Championship and I think this is the beginning of a new era for us. I dedicate the trophy to H H the Emir and hopefully we will con-tinue to keep performing,” Moein said before boarding the bus that was waiting to take the team to Corniche for further celebrations.

Qatar remained undefeated throughout the championship and overcame heavyweight teams such as China on their way to the final where they outclassed DPR Korea 1-0.

When asked how it felt to be chosen as the most valuable player of the tournament, Moein

said: “I feel great that the best player in the championship was from Qatar. I was not confident about winning the best player tro-phy in the beginning…but with the support of my team-mates and the way I played during the tour-nament, my dream came true.”

Told to name their tough-est opponents, the Qatari skip-per said: “The toughest match was the semi-final against hosts Myanmar, the crowd was so loud.”

It was a particularly sweet moment for the officials of Aspire Academy for Sports Excellence. The entire squad, which did so well in Myanmar, was from Aspire Academy.

Aspire Zone CEO Khalid Al Sulaiteen seemed very pleased. “We have been waiting for some-thing like this for a very long time. You can see people are so happy for what Qatar has achieved. We have been criticised for a long time but it is not easy to change the mindset of people. To tell them that they need to sleep on this time, eat this kind of food. What you see today is the result of 10 years’ work. This is the 10th year of the academy, which is really not that long, and now we are getting champions in football, athletics, squash, table tennis.”

He also hoped that this victory

would send out a message to FIFA and the world about foot-ball’s growth in Qatar. “We can now tell them that we are not just investing on nice stadiums and buildings. We are building a strong team. There are lots of countries with millions and mil-lions of people, yet they are not doing anything.”

Al Sulaiteen said now the focus will be on training these players for the Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand next year. “When we went to Myanmar, we weren’t expecting to win. But, now, if you go back and analyse the team’s performances, you will see we have scored 14 goals and we have the best players, best defenders. So all the statistics give a very proud indication of what we have. And we really need to concentrate on this team and support them and put them on a plan for the 2015 Under-20 World Cup in New Zealand,” he said.

Aspire Zone’s CEO said now parents would also be more eager to send their kids to Aspire Academy. “Before people thought it was a normal football club. But now they see what we do for them. Lots of people are amazed after seeing how we design the programme for each player from a scientific point of view, from an educational point of view and per-formance point of view.”

Al Sulaiteen also hoped that the future would bring more success and extended his congratulation to H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani and the Qatar Football Assocation (QFA). “Now our expectations have been increased. I would like to thank Sheikh Jasim bin Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani who is behind all this. Also, I would like to congratulate the QFA and Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa bin Ahmad Al Thani and all his board members.

THE PENINSULA

Qatari boys return with AFC U-19 trophy

ABOVE: The Qatar under-19 national team poses with the AFC U-19 Championship trophy at Hamad International Airport in Doha yesterday. LEFT: Two fire trucks greet the aircraft carrying the Qatar under-19 team with a water cannon salute. RIGHT: Coach Felix Sanchez Bas emerges from the aircraft with his boys. PICTURES: SALIM MATRAMKOT

Secretary General of the Qatar Olympic Committee, H E Sheikh Saoud bin Abdulrahman Al Thani (left), Minister of Youth and Sports H E Salah bin Ghanem bin Nasser Al Ali (centre) and patron of Aspire Academy H H Sheikh Jassim bin Hamad Al Thani wait for the arrival of the Qatar under-19 national team at Hamad International Airport in Doha yesterday.

Aspire Zone CEO Khalid Al Sulaiteen speaks at Ministerial Lounge of Hamad International Airport yesterday.