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Volkswagen brand chief says no plan

to step down

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

Hala Alhallaq of Iraq takes the Oath of Citizenship as she and 145 others become United States citizens during a naturalisation ceremony at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts yesterday, the US Independence Day. → See also page 15

New identity

TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016 • 30 RAMADAN 1437

RAMADAN

TIMING

Today’s Iftar 6 : 31 pm

Emir congratulates

US President

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani has sent a cable of congratulations to US President Barack Obama on his country’s Independence Day., reports QNA.

Emir talks on phone

with Erdogan

DOHA: Emir H H Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani received last evening a telephone call from Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Discussions dealt with bilateral ties and means to pro-mote them.

Banks to close three

days for Eid

DOHA: Qatar Central Bank (QCB) yesterday announced that Eid Al Fitr holiday for banks operat-ing in the country will be three working days, and will begin on the first day of Eid, QCB said in a press release.

Qatar Stock Exchange also announced that Eid holiday will be three working days, starting from the first day of Eid.

Govt working on uniform contract for house helps

By Mohammed Osman

The Peninsula

DOH A: The Ministr y of Administrative Development, Labour and Social Affairs (MADLS) is currently working on preparing a uniform contract for domestic workers in preparation for the implementation of the amended labour law in December this year.

The draft of the proposed contract was discussed recently at the second meeting of a committee established recently for grading manpower agencies and to find solutions to problems related to the recruitment.

The move is meant to avoid problems related to the delay in wage payment and granting of weekend leave etc which will be specified in the contract.

Employers of domestic workers will be urged to transfer their salaries indicated in the contract to a bank account of the worker or get

invoices from them saying salaries have been paid on time, according to Arabic daily Al Sharq.

A tweet saying “soon there will be a new contract form for domestic workers which includes salary, leave and transfer of salary to bank account” recently went viral in the social media, leading to a hot discussion among nationals. Some expressed surprise at “how the relations with a housemaid, whose duties are very similar to a mother at home, will be managed through a contract, its terms and conditions.”

Some welcomed the idea and said they are ready to pay higher salaries for domestic workers if the problem of their accommodation, food, medical treatment and transport are solved, in addition to taking the burden of recruitment charges.

A citizen said employers are wasting money and time to train and get licence for domestic helps and all these costs are not counted and needed to be mentioned in the contract. Transfer of wage to a bank or getting a receipt signed by the worker is much safer for the employer, said another commentator.

An official from the ministry, when contacted, said: “Until now nothing has been issued officially in this regard and I am reading similar discussions in the social media.”

→ Continued on page 4

Ashghal opens new bridgeThe Peninsula

DOHA: The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) yesterday opened a new bridge extending from the F-Ring Road to Mesaimeer Road.

This bridge provides a direct route to Abu Hamour, Al Mamoura and Salwa Road.

Ashghal pointed out that two additional temporary lanes will be available for vehicles for making a U-turn to F-Ring Road under the bridge to reach Barwa Village, the Religious Complex, Al Wakra and Industrial Area using the new service road which is about a kilometre long.

Additionally, there are two lanes to make a U-turn under the bridge in front of Al Jazeera Academy, providing access to this area through the service road.

This bridge is a vital part of Rawdat Al Khail Road project, which aims to enhance traffic flow and ease traffic jam in the area. It will also connect Industrial Area with Doha city centre and make it easier to reach Barwa Village and the commercial area. It also connects the F-Ring Road with the Wholesale Market and Mesaimeer Street.

The opening was attended by Eng Nasser bin Ali Al Mawlawi, President of Ashghal, Eng Jalal

Yousef Al Salhi, Director of Infrastructure Affairs, Eng Nasser Ghaith Al Kuwari, Manager of the Expressway Projects Department, and Eng Yousef Al Emadi, Manager of the Roads Maintenance Department at Ashghal. From the Traffic Department, in attendance were Brigadier Mohamed Saad Al Kharji, Director of Traffic Department, Brigadier Mohamed Marafi, head of Planning and Traffic Safety, and Abdulrahman bin Abdullah Al Khulaifi the Member of the Central Municipal Council and representative of 10th constituency.

→ Continued on page 2

Three suicide bombers strike in Madinah, Jeddah and QatifAFP

RIYADH: Three suicide bombers struck in Saudi Arabia yesterday in a rare incidence of multiple attacks in the country where the Islamic State group has previously staged deadly attacks.

There were no immediate claims of responsibility.

The latest explosion occurred

at one of Islam’s three holiest sites, the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah in the country’s west where Prophet Muhammad (PBUH) is buried, Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news channel reported.

Other blasts occurred in the Red Sea city of Jeddah near the US con-sulate and in Shia-dominated Qatif in the east of the country.

The Interior Ministry said two security officers were wounded in

the Jeddah bombing.Residents of Qatif said only the

bomber died in that attack, blowing his body apart near a Shia mosque.

Al-Arabiya said the Madinah incident occurred during sunset prayers after which Muslims break their fast during the Holy Month of Ramadan, which ends today.

It showed images of fire raging in a security forces parking lot with at least one body nearby.

The Prophet’s Mosque is particu-larly crowded during Ramadan.

At about the same time as the Madinah blast, another bomber killed himself in Qatif, residents there said.

“Suicide bomber for sure. I can see the body” torn apart, said one witness to the attack in Qatif.

Nasima Al Sada, another resident, said that “one bomber blew himself up near the mosque”.

No bystanders were hurt, she

said. Another witness, who gave his name only as Ayman, said there were two explosions near the mosque.

“One of them was from a car parked outside the mosque and in which there was a man who was, unusually, not joining the prayer,” Ayman said.

Pictures said to be from the scene and circulated by residents showed a small fire burning in the street.

→ See also page 6

Road accidents come

down this Ramadan The Peninsula

DOHA: The Traffic Department distributed discount coupons for installation of thermal insulation in vehicles, roses and Iftar meals to motorists at several traffic lights and other places during Ramadan.

The initiative launched in col-laboration with some government institutions and private companies is aimed at reducing road accidents in the spiritual month when motor-ists speed up to reach the Iftar venue during the last moments.

The presence of traffic police with Iftar meals reduces anxiety of motorists to reach the destina-tion on time.

“The initiative of Traffic Depart-ment is meant to thank motorists for following traffic rules and reg-ulations during Ramadan,” said

Brigadier Mohamed Saad Al Kharji, Director of the Department.

“It is part of an awareness drive launched by the Department to send message to the citizens and expatri-ates that Traffic Police is with them and they want only public safety and security,” he added.

“The latest report suggested that road accidents and violations of traffic rules decreased this Ram-adan compared to previous one,” said Al Kharji.

The Department organised traffic awareness programmes for the visitors at commercial complexes and Souq Waqif during Ramadan.

The Department prepared a complete plan to maintain smooth traffic during the last ten days of Ramadan and Eid-Al-Fitr holidays.

→ Continued on page 4

Employers to be urged to transfer salary to bank account.

The new bridge linking F-Ring Road to Mesaimeer Road was opened yesterday. Pic: Baher A/The Peninsula

Iraqis blame govt

as blast toll

rises to over 200

AFP

BAGHDAD: Iraqis yesterday mourned more than 200 people killed in a Baghdad suicide bomb-ing claimed by the Islamic State jihadist group and accused the government of not doing enough to protect them.

Baghdad, apparently seeking to shore up its image after one of the deadliest ever bombings in Iraq, announced the execution of five convicts and also said it had arrested 40 jihadists.

The grim search continued for bodies at the site of the attack that hit the upmarket Karrada district early on Sunday as it teemed with shoppers ahead of this week’s hol-iday marking the end of Ramadan.

Prime Minister Haider Al Abadi announced efforts to address longstanding security flaws in Baghdad following the blast, which came a week after Iraqi forces recaptured the city of Fallujah from IS.

But Iraqis are furious at the government’s inability to keep residents safe.

→ See also page 6

Eid Al Fitr tomorrow

DOHA: The Crescent Sighting Committee of the Ministry of Endowments (Awqaf) and Islamic Affairs announced last evening that today will be the 30th day of the holy month of Ramadan, and tomorrow will be the first day of Eid Al Fitr, reports QNA.

Doha: Deputy Emir H H Sheikh Abdullah bin Hamad Al Thani sent a cable of congratulations to US President Barack Obama on his country’s Independence Day.

Prime Minister and Interior Minister H E Sheikh Abdullah bin Nasser bin Khalifa Al Thani sent a similar cable to President Obama.

Deputy Emir and

Premier greet US

President Obama

HOME02 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Public Works Authority (Ashghal) will implement a full closure of Al Thumama Junction for 36 hours to lay the final asphalt layer at the junction which is part of the E-Ring Road and Najma Road development project.

The closure will start on Thursday at midnight and continue until noon on Satur-day, in coordination with the Traffic Police Department.

The Traffic on the junction will be diverted to the surrounding streets, as shown in the map.

Motorists coming on the Najma Street Extension Road towards and from Barwa/Al Wakra are advised to take F-Ring Road and Al Mattar Street instead of continuing straight on Najma Street towards the junc-tion, Ashghal said in a statement yesterday.

Ashghal will also install road signs to advise motorists of the closure.

The Authority has urged road users to abide by speed limits and follow the signs for their and others’ safety.

Al Thumama Junction to close

for 36 hours from Thursday

Continued from page 1

Abdullah Dhafer Al Hajri, the first Qatari national who passed the bridge right after its opening, praised the new bridge and high-lighted its importance in ensuring smooth traffic, especially traffic from Hamad International Airport (HIA) and Al Wakra towards Doha.

The bridge with the road con-nected to it will allow movement easily and directly from Al Waab, Salwa Road, Bu Hamour and Al Maamoura to Al Thumama, HIA and the Corniche.

The bridge along with F-Ring Road will provide a 14-km free-flow highway without any traffic signals, which will enhance traf-fic and provides easy access to and from vital areas such as HIA, Salwa Road, Bu Hamour, Al Maamoura and Al Thumama.

The closed exits of Rawdat Al Khalfat, Rawdat Al Dabdaba, Al Kharija Street and Al Rabyat Street will be opened shortly.

The bridge with F-Ring Road extension will make access to important destinations and schools

easier and faster.The Rawdat Al Khail Road

project includes building an 8km

dual carriageway road with three lanes in each direction in addition to six multi-level interchanges.,

They include East Industrial Interchange, Karwa Interchange, Barwa Interchange, Barwa Village

Access Interchange, Woqod Inter-change, and Al Jazeera Interchange on F-Ring Road.

QNA

DOHA: Attorney General H E Dr. Ali bin Fetais Al Marri has ordered the arrest of a public prosecution employee who disclosed secrets relating to an ongoing investiga-tion by the Public Prosecution.

The Public Prosecution said in a statement that the employee in question had filmed a document related to a legal case under inves-tigation and published it on social media in violation of the provi-sions of the law.

Due to the seriousness of the crime being committed by some people, Dr Al Marri stressed that any employee in the public sector or private sector, who publishes any information or documents entrusted thereto, shall be liable to criminal liability in accord-ance with Article 332 of the Penal Code penalising whoever divulges a secret entrusted thereto in his official capacity.

Attorney General

orders arrest of

public prosecution

employee

New bridge to ensure smooth traffic from HIA & Al Wakra

Officials from Ashghal, the Traffic Department at the Ministry of Interior and Central Municipal Council at the opening of the bridge yesterday.

HOME 03 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: The World Innovation Sum-mit for Education (WISE) partnered with EdTechXGlobal to host sessions at the EdTechXEurope 2016 summit in London.

EdTechXEurope brings together the international EdTech commu-nity and showcases innovations and perspectives from around the world.

In collaboration with LinkedIn, WISE, part of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Commu-nity Development (QF), organised a session ‘21st Century Workforce: Refining Skills and Talent Develop-ment Opportunities’. It aimed to raise awareness about employers’ needs when filling jobs that require techni-cal and soft skills in communication and critical thinking.

Formal education systems face challenges when training for such hybrid jobs and addressing the needs of the changing workplace.

The session recognised that technology alone is not the solution to this skills gap and that learning

technologies are helping future workers gain the skills needed.

Partnerships between education institutions and technology com-panies are on the rise, connecting learners with appropriate and timely content and providing businesses with access to ample, well-equipped personnel.

The panellists included Charles Hardy, Strategic Consultant, Linke-dIn; Khalid Alkhudair, Founder and CEO, Glowork, a Saudi Arabia-based WISE Awards finalist project sup-porting women’s employment; and Barbara Schack from Libraries Without Borders. They discussed how learning management sys-tems and massive open online courses (MOOCs) have opened doors to lifelong learning and on-the-job training.

They shared experiences in dig-ital badging in transforming how we measure achievements and demon-strate competencies. They discussed how big data and stronger links between talent and learning plat-forms enable personalised learning.

The second session ‘The Founder

Stories’ featured short presentations from four leaders of EdTech start-ups being supported by the WISE Accelerator Programme.

These included Aldo de Pape of TeachPitch; Jo Besford of Green Shoots; Diana Al Dajani of eduTech-noz; and Leonora Dowley, Country Director, Varkey Foundation, Ghana.

They shared inspiring and per-sonal entrepreneurial journeys, highlighting challenges and visions in education. Stavros N Yiannouka, CEO, WISE, said: “WISE and the WISE Accelerator Programme support and promote innovative education enterprises that help build a better future for all. These dynamic start-ups have demonstrated their added value to technology in edu-cation and WISE is committed to helping them consolidate and reach further.”

The WISE Accelerator Pro-gramme provides mentoring for promising new projects that have shown good results in technology education, helping them progress to the next level with networking opportunities.

Participants at the ‘Founder Stories’ session at EdTechXEurope 2016 in London.

WISE reviews workplace skills at UK forum

The Peninsula

DOHA: Over the last month, Reach Out To Asia (ROTA), a member of Qatar Foundation for Education, Science and Community Devel-opment (QF), has been hosting its annual Ramadan 2016 Project, ‘10 Years of Service’.

The campaign aims at con-necting volunteers with the wider community and the true spirit of the Holy Month. The initiative, which featured activities such as Iftar gatherings and the distribution of groceries, aimed at supporting con-struction workers, the elderly, and other local groups.

Volunteering is at the heart of community development; it helps affect positive social change, while serving as bridge to connect all peo-ple in society. Volunteers play an important role in fostering a sense of belonging, creating solidarity and promoting community spirit.

Ahmed Allenjawi, who took part in this year’s project, said: “My day as a volunteer started around 5pm and ended around 10pm.

“I was greatly moved after taking part in food distribution; the sense of achievement was extraordinary. Around 30 volunteers packed food items into boxes. During one of the

Ramadan activities, we met around 4pm and took a bus to Al Shamal, where we were briefed. We pre-pared tables, prayed, ate and played football and volleyball. We appreci-ate workers’ efforts; it’s because of them that we are where we are as a country.”

Hamad Saad Abu Jbara, another volunteer, said: “My day during Ram-adan started after Asr prayer, when I went to Msheireb Mosque to regis-ter the volunteers and assign them their daily tasks. Then I videotaped the prayer and uploaded it on social media sites.”

The campaign is part of a mul-tifaceted programme to promote volunteerism and foster responsi-ble global citizens in Qatar. ROTA endeavours to help the needy in Qatar and its impact can be felt on the international stage, too. It regularly organises trips to pov-erty-stricken countries, or areas affected by war or natural disasters, and offers support to communities, placing emphasis on providing qual-ity education. “It’s very rewarding being a volunteer. I’m constantly learning new skills and life lessons,

and experiencing new things. It has taught me how important it is to work on myself and the value of building your character. It has helped me become the man I am today.”

Volunteering does not only help strengthen communities, the rewards are many-fold. By making a difference in someone’s life, vol-unteering promotes personal and professional development, offers the opportunity to learn or develop new skills, helps connect individu-als and affords the chance to try new and exciting experiences.

Hamad said: “Its importance lies in creating a generation of young men and women who are ready to give back and sacrifice to make a difference. We all work hard and with great passion to become a promising generation our country can be proud of.”

Volunteers offer their time and expertise to make a difference. Hamad said: “Volunteers are peo-ple who take the initiative, like to meet like-minded individuals and are keen to give others a chance to develop and improve their living standards.”

ROTA volunteers share their experiences this Ramadan

Reach Out To Asia (ROTA) volunteers with ‘Thank You’ packages for distribution to the public.

Volunteers play an important role in fostering a sense of belonging, creating solidarity and promoting community spirit.

The Ramadan cannon on its way to Souq Waqif to announce Iftar yesterday. Today, it will be fired for the last time to complete 30 days of Ramadan. Pic: Baher A / The Peninsula

Ramadan cannon

HOME04 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

The Peninsula

DOHA: The first four courses of Vir-ginia Commonwealth University in Qatar’s (VCUQatar) 2016 Summer Art Camp concluded successfully.

Eight more art and design courses will be held from July 31 to August 18 at VCUQatar.

Children and high school stu-dents of 4-7; 8-12; and 13+ age groups learned art and design tech-niques at the camp in late June and early July at VCUQatar at Educa-tion City.

In the ‘Art Fun – Tea Party’ class, children in 4-7 age group had a fun-filled week as they learned about art and design by making cakes, ice creams and all things sweet with materials such as col-oured clays, cards, and paints.

Students in 8-12 age group at the ‘Art Exploration’ course learned how to design and create mythical creatures by using painting, collage and clay skills to great effect, while children of the same age group in the ‘Print Workshop’ created eye-catching two-colour prints.

Participants in the ‘Fashion Illustration’ class were introduced to fashion drawing styles and

processes being used in the fash-ion industry.

The teachers and assistants described students’ attitude as “wonderful” and “inspiring” as the youngsters wasted no time in get-ting to grips with the materials at hand.

Yousra Ahmed, one of the assistants in the Art Fun class, was impressed by how quickly the children learned. “It was an eye-opening experience to see the skills of these kids grow to such an extent in such a short amount of time.”

Nour Elbasuni, who assisted in the art exploration programme and created a stop motion movie of the children’s mythical creations, said it was wonderful to watch the

children open up to the possibilities of art and design and see how they reached into the “infinite spring of creativity that is inside every one of them”.

Najla, a student who partici-pated in the Art Fun class, said: “I love this summer camp because I love art”, and Ahmed, a student of the Art Exploration course, said: “I enjoyed this monster week because I loved the way I expressed my ideas.”

One- and two-week pro-grammes are available for all age groups starting from the age of six, including drawing and illus-tration, print, collage and creative discovery, arts and design intensive, fashion illustration, and fashion design portfolio.

Registration is ongoing and details are available at http://www.qatar.vcu.edu/community/summer-program. The classes are designed to engage young students in art and design from an early age and are taught by art educators and VCUQ-atar alumni, with the assistance of VCUQatar degree students.

The Peninsula

DOHA: In celebration of Eid Al Fitr, Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Con-vention Hotel invites families and friends to the five-star luxury hotel.

The hotel is offering guests and travellers special promotions on its culinary fares and stays.

Guests can visit Al Hubara, the all-day dining restaurant, to indulge

in the best of Arabic and international cuisine along with gastronomical influences from Italian regions at La Veranda, the Italian restaurant.

Diners can enjoy delicious brunches ranging from QR220 to QR315 per person, at Al Hubara and La Veranda. Guests will also be able to benefit from special room rates which include breakfast and brunch. Making their experience more mem-orable, in-house guests will have exclusive access to the fitness and

recreational facilities.The hotel stands as the pinnacle

of success for Qatar and its travellers as its historic symbol depicts the true art of Arabian hospitality.

We are delighted to celebrate the festive occasion of Eid-Al-Fitr with our patrons from Qatar and beyond, and look forward to welcoming them during the holidays while helping create lifelong memories for them.

Visit the hotel website www.sher-atongranddoha.com for details.

Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention

Hotel invites families to celebrate Eid

Sheraton Grand Doha Resort & Convention Hotel ... the pinnacle of success.

VCUQatar concluded four of 12 courses for youngsters and high school students as part of 2016 Summer Art Camp at Education City.

Children develop art & design skills

VCUQatar Dean Akel Iu Kahera presents a certificate to student Ziyan Qutub who attended the camp. BELOW: Some of the art works created by youngsters on display.

The Peninsula

DOHA: The Pearl-Qatar, United Development Company’s (UDC) flag-ship project and one of the largest urban developments in Qatar, has lined up entertainment activities during Eid-Al-Fitr holidays from tomorrow until Friday.

The activities, in addition to a Eid shopping bazaar ‘Al Maqtoora’, will give residents and visitors the opportunity to spend memorable times with their families.

Over the three days of Eid from 4pm to 9pm, the Pearl-Qatar will host a rich entertainment pro-gramme in Medina Centrale’s indoor arena of Souq Al Medina, featuring family and children recreational activities that will appeal to all ages and interests.

These include game booths, a drawing and colouring station, stilt walkers, face painting, clowns, balloon twisting and decorations, mascots and much more in addition to distribution of popcorn, cotton candy and ice-cream.

Al Maqtoora in Souq Al Medina, side by side with the main event, is one of several ways UDC and

the Pearl-Qatar are partnering with local entrepreneurs by giving them a platform to promote their businesses.

Organised by Bedaya Centre, which supports Qatari start-ups, Al Maqtoora will exhibit food, fashion items, perfumes, jewellery, accesso-ries, drawings and creative designs, among others.

The carefully-planned Eid activ-ities build on a successful track record of previous family events

which witnessed a huge turnout and many happy faces catering fun to the community while reflecting Qatar’s heritage and deep-rooted culture.

As an iconic site of Qatar, the Pearl-Qatar offers residents and vis-itors unmatched shopping, dining and leisure experiences, making the island a unique retail and entertain-ment hub in Qatar that plays a key role in driving tourism to the coun-try, especially during Eid holidays.

The Pearl-Qatar lines up Eid bazaar and entertainment

The Pearl-Qatar gears up to celebrate Eid-Al-Fitr.

Continued from page 1

As per the plan, traffic police patrol units will be deployed in res-idential areas, shopping complexes, markets, entertainment places and around Eid prayer grounds, said Al Kharji.

Private companies provided large quantity of Iftar meals to the Traffic Department for free distri-bution to motorists, said Major Jaber Mohammad Adiba from the depart-ment. Iftar meals were distributed at places, including Al Shihaniya road and Abu Samra check-post.

“A company gave discount cou-pons worth QR900 for installation of thermal insulation for vehicles to distribute to the motorists. A flower shop provided roses to the depart-ment a couple of days ago. The roses were distributed to motorists at Cor-nish and Suq Al Ali.

“Safety and security on road is a collective responsibility of all insti-tutions and individuals, however the department has a bigger role to play. It is keen to interact with motorists to make them understand the impor-tant of traffic rules,” he added.

The enforcement of law to catch violators is the main job of the department, but it is also focus-ing on strengthening relations with motorists on occasions such as Eid and other festivities for public safety.

Continued from page 1

Reduction of domestic workers’ recruitment charges, speeding up of the recruitment process, and increase in the probation period, in addition to adherence to recruitment contract, were among the issues discussed at the meeting held at Qatar Chamber (QC).

Working hours and weekend leave are the major points driving the dis-cussion and a cause of concern for employers, along with laying down means of settling disputes between the two parties in the absence of a spe-cial law regulating relations between domestic workers and employers.

“We are trying to find a balanced solution for all parties, manpower agencies, domestic workers and the

employers, particularly regarding the hike in recruitment charges, delay in the recruitment process in the country of origin, and probation period. These are the controversial issues the com-mittee has been formed to set up rules in line with the labour law and the law regulating entry, exit and residence of expatriates in Qatar,” said a member of the committee requesting anonymity.

He added that the government has decided to set up a special committee after concerns were raised by citizens on social networking sites and local media about recruitment charges, delays and probation period.

The committee includes rep-resentatives from the Ministry of Interior, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, MADLSA, QC and manpower agencies,

according to a press release issued by QC recently.

There is a very high demand for domestic helps of some nationalities, especially during the holy month of Ramadan. For instance, recruitment of housemaids from Indonesia, who are in high demand in Qatar and other GCC countries, faces delay.

According to information received from one manpower agency, recruit-ment from Indonesia costs QR15,200 per domestic worker and there are agencies who charge up to QR17,000, depending on the commission of the agent in Indonesia. Because of the rise in demand during Ramadan, the charges have significantly increased.

Another manager of a Grade A manpower agency pointed out that

recruitment charges for housemaids from Bangladesh and Philippines are normal – QR8200 for Bangladesh and QR11,900 for Philippines.

There is no change in the salary of domestic workers, housemaids in particular, the only significant change being in the cost of recruitment and the delays in the arrival of maids which is one of the major concerns of customers, he added.

The Philippines, Indonesia and Bangladesh are the most expensive compared to other South Asian coun-tries. Asked why Filipina domestics remain hot favourites of Qatari fami-lies, the manager pointed out that it’s because of their education and train-ing in household chores, and they are hardworking and disciplined.

DOHA: The deadline for 50 per-cent discount on fines for all types of traffic violations end on Thurs-day, said a senior official from the Traffic Department.

The depar tment had announced the discount for fines registered before Decem-ber 31, 2015 and starting from January 8, 2016. The first dead-line was April 7, 2016 which was extended to July 7. The depart-ment will remain open during Eid-Al-Fitr holidays from 8am to noon. Motorist can visit the department or use Metrash2 to pay the fines to avail the discount, said Major Jaber Al Adiba.

50% cut on fines

ends on Thursday

Panel to resolve housemaid hiring concerns

Traffic patrols to ensure safety

A traffic inspector gives a rose to a motorist.

05TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

RamadanRamadanThoughts Thoughts

Normally, a guest does not stay long with his host. After dropping by for a while and completing his purpose or

courtesy call, he shall finally say good-bye and depart. When he will return is something that cannot be determined exactly by the host since he does not possess the will of his visitor, nor does he have any control and authority over him. Such visitor could return at his appointed time but may not find the same host for he could have left for the destination from which he will never return at all.

This is how Ramadan manifests itself to the Muslim Ummah so that when it leaves and departs tonight, none of us has the assurance of receiving it again next year simply because none of us knows his fate — whether he will be still around, or will already have joined his Creator — by the time Ramadan returns again next

year. This blessing and virtue-filled guest of the believers has only come and stayed with us for a while to bring us a chance to purify and cleanse our-selves of wrongdoing and misdeeds and lay before us the opportunity to invest for the next world for which all living creatures are inevitably bound.

A person who has been indifferent since the beginning of this month and who only pays little attention to the essence and greatness of Ramadan can still rise up and toil on any act of worship he willingly chooses so as not to be totally deprived of the immense reward lying in wait for him in the life after death. So much is the time spent in roaming around or staying awake at night for senseless things.

“The worth of time is the worth of man ‘s life”, the popular Arab writer Abbas Aqqad said. Once Hasan Al Basari passed by a group of people who made mockery of Ramadan . He then said: ” Indeed, Allah has created the month of Ramadan as a racetrack for his servants where they compete with one another in worshiping Him. A group has advanced ahead and won while other groups have lagged behind and failed to win. What is more aston-ishing is one who laughs and makes fun in the day. Those who have come ahead are the winners and those who have mocked are the losers. “

Lucky is the one who is able to grab the Laylatul Qadar (Night of Power), a single night which could only be found in the last ten days of Ramadan from 20th until 30th – which is better and superior to one thousand months of worship. Allah

said: “We have indeed revealed this message in the Night of Power. And what will explain to thee what the night of power is? The Night of Power is better than a thousand months. There come down the Angels and the spirit by Allah’s permission on every errand: Peace! This until the rise of morning (Quran 97:1-5).

It has been suggested that the Night of Power could be on 23rd , 25th, 27th or 29th . The reason why Allah , the almighty, did not make known on which night this virtuous night falls, is so that His servants will strive hard to seek and seize that par-ticular night by performing various acts of worships starting on the night

of 21st especially like in acts of iba-dah such as tahajjud, recitation of the Quran and many more in the middle of the night.

We often focus on the fasting and Tarawih prayers during Ramadan. However, the blessed month is also a time when generosity is greatly empha-sised. One should try to be exceedingly generous during this month. The Mes-senger of Allah (peace be upon him) was the most generous of people. He was especially generous in Ramadan when the Angel Gabriel would come and review the Quran with him. Gabriel would to review the Quran with him every night during the month of Ram-adan. Verily, when Gabriel would come

and review the Quran with him in Ram-adan, the Messenger of Allah was more generous than the free-blowing wind. Imam Ahmad records this hadith with the additional words at its end, “He was not asked for anything except that he gave it.”

Generosity is expansive and abundant giving. Allah is described as generous. We read in the compi-lation of Imam Al Tirmidhi, from the transmissions of Sa’d bin Abi Waqqas, that the Prophet (PBUH) said: “Allah is generous, He loves generosity; He is noble, He loves nobility.” His compi-lation also mentions, on the authority of Abu Dharr, on the authority of the Prophet (PBUH) narrating directly from

his Lord: O my servants! If the first of you, the last of you; the living of you, the dead of you; the intact of you, the decomposed of you; were to gather in a vast plain, and every individual were to ask of me his wildest dream, and I were to grant everyone what he asked, that would not decrease my dominion as much as [the water taken from] an ocean one of you were to pass by and dip a needle into it and then extract it. That is because I am generous, extant, and glorious. I do what I please. My giv-ing is a word and my punishment is a word. My command to something when I desire it is but to say, “Be, and it is!”

In a well-known narration, Fudail bin Iyyad mentioned, “Every night Allah proclaims, ‘I am gener-ous, I love generosity; I am noble, I love nobility.’” Allah is the most gen-erous of all. His generosity is amplified during certain special times such as the month of Ramadan. It is in the context of discussing Ramadan that he has revealed: When my servants ask about Me, verily I am close by. I respond to the call of the supplicant when he invokes me. (Quran 2:186)

In a hadith the Prophet (PBUH) mentioned, “During Ramadan a caller cries out, ‘Those desiring good come forward, and those desiring evil stay away.’ Allah has those He liberates from Hell, and that occurs every night (during Ramadan).” In that Allah has predisposed His Prophet (PBUH) upon the most perfect and noblest character traits, as is related in a hadith from Abu Huraira, from the Prophet (PBUH)that he said, “I have only been sent to per-fect the noblest of character.”

Bidding farewell to RamadanWhen Ramadan leaves and departs tonight, none of us has the assurance of receiving it again next year simply because none of us knows his fate by the time Ramadan returns again next year.

Worshippers gather after a suicide bomber detonated a device near the security headquarters of the Prophet’s Mosque in Madinah, Saudi Arabia, yesterday.

Explosion hits Holy site

MIDDLE EAST06 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

AFP

BAGHDAD: The death toll from a suicide bombing on a busy Bagh-dad shopping street crossed 200 yesterday as victims succumbed to their injuries and rescuers pulled out bodies from the charred remains of a mall, marking Islamic State’s (IS) deadliest ever single bomb attack on civilians.

Most of those killed died in a huge fire that burned down shops and con-sumed several small malls after the suicide attacker detonated his explo-sives-laden car in the Karrada area of Baghdad in the early hours of Sun-day morning. The street was full of families shopping after breaking their fast during Ramadan and cafes were packed with young people who had gathered to watch the semi-finals in the Euro 2016 soccer tournament.

Some 187 people were killed and more than 250 injured, said a health official. Mohammed Al Rubaie, dep-uty head of Baghdad Provincial Council’s security committee, who said he had been travelling between hospitals and tallying the dead, said that more than 200 died.

The bombing follows attacks in Turkey and Bangladesh over the past week that many have linked to the IS. But it far outstrips them in the number of people killed. As more were confirmed dead yesterday the death toll climbed past the attack on the multi-pronged attack by IS gun-men and suicide bombers in Paris last year, which killed 130.

It was the most deadly single bombing by the group since it formed three years ago as an off-shoot of Al Qaeda, and one of the worst in Iraq’s long struggle with violence since the 2003 US-led invasion.

US officials have warned that the group is likely to intensify its attacks

overseas as it loses ground in Iraq and Syria, but civilians in the Middle East continue to bear the brunt of the campaign of bombings. The attack came at a time apparently chosen to cause maximum loss of life.

Security forces had cordoned off the street on Sunday night, and it was only accessible by foot. A crowd of hundreds gathered to light candles for those killed and black banners had been hung on walls with the names of the dead. Rescuers were still pull-ing bodies out of scorched buildings.

Relatives of the missing were also gathered. “I looked in all the hospi-tals but I haven’t found my son,” said Fathi Kareem, 63, holding a photo of the missing 25-year-old who he said had come out to buy clothes. “I just want to find him to bury him.”

Many bodies were too badly burned by fire to be identified. Zaid Ali Al Yousif, head of Baghdad’s morgue, said he had over 100 uni-dentified bodies there.

AP

KUWAIT CITY: Kuwaiti secu-rity forces said yesterday they have arrested several suspects with alleged ties to the Islamic State group, including an 18-year-old man plan-ning to attack a Shia mosque in the final days of the Muslim fasting month of Ramadan, which ends this week.

Officials did not say when the arrests took place. The announce-ment came shortly before a suicide bomber blew himself up near a hos-pital and US diplomatic mission in neighbouring Saudi Arabia.

The official Kuwait News Agency identified the man accused of plot-ting the attack on the mosque and an Interior Ministry facility as Kuwaiti national Talal Naif Raja. It said he had sworn allegiance to the IS group and planned to deploy a sui-cide vest, other explosives or a rifle in the attack.

Authorities said they also arrested and repatriated a Kuwaiti man who confessed to joining IS while abroad. Also detained were his mother and a son born to a Syr-ian wife. In a separate operation, police detained two other Kuwaitis in possession of assault rifles and the black IS flag, including one working for the Interior Ministry, as well as

an Asian national. Kuwait in Novem-ber reported breaking up another extremist cell operating inside the country that was allegedly helping the Islamic State group by recruiting fighters, raising moneys and broker-ing arms deals.

An IS affiliate calling itself Najd Province claimed responsibility for the June 2015 bombing in the Imam Sadiq Mosque, one of Kuwait’s oldest Shiite houses of worship. That attack, the country’s deadliest in decades, was carried out by a Saudi man and killed 27 people. A court sentenced seven people to death in connection with that attack, though at least one of those sentences has since been reduced to prison time.

Washington Post

SANA’A: Yemen - Driving around this war-battered capital, you can’t help but notice the hate, particularly if you are an American. On giant billboards, scrawled on walls - it’s everywhere.

“America is killing the Yem-eni people. They are feeding on our blood,” reads one billboard.

“Boycott American and Israeli products,” reads another.

Perhaps in no other city is anti-Americanism in such full display today.

The capital and much of this Middle Eastern nation are under the control of the Houthis, a north-ern Shiite rebel group with alleged ties to Iran.

They took advantage of the political and security vacuum that emerged from the 2011 revolution here - part of the Arab Spring upris-ings - that toppled longtime autocrat Ali Abdullah Saleh.

By the fall of 2014, the Houthis had swept southward and occu-pied Sana’a. They forced Saleh’s successor, US- and Western-backed Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi, to resign last year. Soon after, the anti-American slogans emerged throughout the city.

On one level, the anger is an extension of the Houthis’ credos. Their flag reads: “God is Great, Death to America, Death to Israel, Curse on the Jews, Victory to Islam.”

On another level, the slogans

are directed at the United States’ involvement in Yemen’s civil war. Washington is actively backing a Saudi-led coalition that is seeking to restore Hadi to power.

The coalition’s airstrikes, largely using US and British-made bombs, have killed or wounded thousands of civilians, according to human rights groups and witnesses.

Some of the signs speak to a widespread mistrust of the West and its reasons for engaging in the Middle East. As in other parts of the Arab world, there is suspicion here that Washington has gone to war over the region’s oil and other nat-ural resources.

“The American companies enter a country to steal its wealth and humiliate its people,” reads another billboard.

The attitude is another indication of how far Washington’s counter-terrorism objectives in Yemen have been eroded in the aftermath of the Arab revolutions.

For years, successive US admin-istrations worked with Saleh to fight Al Qaeda’s Yemen branch, widely seen by US officials as the most lethal in the terrorist network.

Known as Al Qaeda in the Ara-bian Peninsula or AQAP, the group has staged attacks or attempted attacks on American and European soil in the past several years.

Restoring the ability to effec-tively combat AQAP’s ambitions is perhaps the key reason the Obama administration is backing the Saudi-led intervention in Yem-en’s civil war.

No plans to open base to Russia: TurkeyAFP

ANKARA: Turkey’s foreign minis-ter said yesterday there are no plans to let Russia use a Turkish air base to launch strikes against the Islamic State group despite a thaw between the countries.

Mevlut Cavusoglu moved to clarify his position after appearing to suggest in an interview with TRT television Sunday that Turkey could

let Moscow use the southern Incir-lik base. “That’s not what I said,” Cavusoglu said on television Mon-day, saying his comments had been misinterpreted by the press.

“I said we were ready were coop-erate with everyone in the fight against IS.”

Cavusoglu had said in the TRT interview: “We have opened the Incirlik air base to those who want to participate in the fight against Daesh. So why not cooperate with Russia in the same way?”

Turkey and Russia back opposite sides in the Syrian war, with Mos-cow carrying out strikes in support of its ally President Bashar al-Assad and Turkey seeking his removal from power. Moscow and Ankara plunged into a diplomatic crisis in Novem-ber when Turkey shot down one of Russia’s military jets on the Syrian border.

But over the last week they have announced a bid to repair ties, with Russia set to lift punishing economic sanctions on Turkey.

AP

DUBAI: The American ambassa-dor to the United Arab Emirates expressed regret yesterday over the handcuffing of an Emirati man dressed in traditional clothing who was detained in Ohio over ter-rorism fears. Ahmed Al Menhali’s treatment outside a hotel in Avon, Ohio, became front-page news in the Emirates, a key US ally that is home to the commercial hub of Dubai, and prompted the federation’s govern-ment to formally summon a US diplomat for an explanation.

“The unfortunate incident that Mr Al Menhali endured in the US is deeply regrettable,” Ambassador Barbara Leaf said in a statement on Facebook. Al Menhali, 41, was detained at gunpoint on Wednesday while wearing a traditional white kandura, or ankle-length robe, and headscarf after a hotel clerk raised suspicions he could have links to the Islamic State group.

A 911 caller identifying herself as the clerk’s sister told police he had multiple disposable phones and was “pledging his allegiance or some-thing to ISIS,” according to audio of the call posted by Cleveland’s WEWS-TV. Police camera foot-age showed officers detaining and searching Menhali before determin-ing he was not a threat. He collapsed moments after he was released and was briefly hospitalised.

RAMALLAH: Israeli forces demol-ished the West Bank homes of two Palestinian knifemen whose Decem-ber attack led to the death of two Israelis, including one by friendly fire, the army said yesterday.

The overnight demolitions took place in Qalandia refugee camp, between Jerusalem and Ramallah, with four Palestinians wounded in ensuing clashes, a reporter said.

A military spokeswoman said the military destroyed the homes of Issa Assaf and Annan Abu Habsa, who were shot dead during a December 23 attack near Jerusalem’s Old City.

“During the demolition, multiple

violent riots erupted” with Palestini-ans throwing rocks and opening fire, the spokeswoman said.

Israeli forces eventually opened fire at “main instigators”, she said.

Four Palestinians were lightly wounded in the clashes.

Israel routinely demolishes homes of Palestinian assailants in what it says is a means to deter fur-ther attacks.

UNRWA, the United Nations agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, said Assaf lived in the house of his father, an UNRWA sanitation labourer, with four other mem-bers of the family. “Punitive home demolitions are a form of collective

punishment which are illegal under international law. They inflict distress and suffering on those who have not committed the action which led to the demolition and they often endanger people and property in the vicinity,” said a statement from the agency.

“UNRWA condemns punitive demolitions and reminds Israel, the occupying power, that under inter-national humanitarian law it has an obligation to protect the occupied people and provide services.”

Abu Habsa’s father, Mohammad, said that the army had warned him ahead of the demolition, after the order was approved by the Israeli High Court.

Toll climbs to 200 in worst attack by IS

BAGHDAD: Iraq executed five convicts yesterday, the justice ministry said, linking the timing of the executions to the Baghdad suicide bombing the previous day that killed more than 200 people.

The ministry said it wanted families bereaved in the bombing to know “that their brothers in the justice ministry are continuing to deliver just punishment to those whose hands are stained with the blood of Iraqis”.

“Therefore, we would like to announce the implementation of death sentences against five convicts this morning,” it said in a statement, with-out specifying their crimes.

The ministry also offered its condolences to families of victims of Sun-day’s carnage in Baghdad.

Iraq executes 5 after Baghdad blast

Kuwait foils IS move to attack mosque

Israel razes homes of 2 Palestinians

Signs of hatred towards Americans in Yemeni capital

US ambassador expresses regret over handcuffing of Emirati

Baghdad bombing is the deadliest single bombing by the group since it formed three years ago as an off-shoot of Al Qaeda, and one of the worst in Iraq’s long struggle with violence since the 2003 US-led invasion.

Workers stand on a truck loaded with aid parcels provided by Turkey after it entered the southern Gaza Strip from Israel through the Kerem Shalom crossing near Rafah, yesterday. A Turkish ship carrying aid for Gaza arrived in Israel, a week after the two countries agreed to restore ties that soured over a deadly raid on an aid flotilla.

ASIA / AFRICA 07TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Reuters

NAIROBI: About 300 people marched through the Kenyan capital yesterday to protest over what they said was the extrajudicial killing by police of human rights lawyer, Wil-lie Kimani, his client and their driver.

Demonstrators carried a mock coffin emblazoned with the words “Stop extrajudicial killings.”

Others wore T-shirts with the slo-gan “Stop police executions.” Some carried placards demanding Interior

Minister Joseph Nkaissery resign.Rights groups in Kenya, where

members of the public often com-plain about police corruption, have accused sections of the police service of involvement in extrajudicial kill-ings, including in the case of Kimani, his client Josephat Mwendwa and taxi driver Joseph Muiruri, whose bodies were found last week.

Police officials say they inves-tigate and prosecute any officers suspected of breaking the law.

After lodging a complaint alleg-ing he had been shot and injured by police, Mwendwa was charged with a range of offences, including pos-sessing drugs and resisting arrest, activists said.

The authorities said on Satur-day that three police officers had been arrested in connection with the deaths of the three men, who disappeared after a court hearing on June 23.

“The shocking abduction,

enforced disappearance and extra-judicial killings of lawyer Willie Kimani, as well as his client and their taxi driver...should be cause for alarm over the state of human rights and rule of law in Kenya,” rights group Amnesty International wrote in a statement yesterday.

Kimani and Muiruri also worked for US-based International Justice Mission.

A summary execution is an exe-cution in which a person is accused of a crime and immediately killed without benefit of a full and fair trial.

Summary executions have been practiced by police, military, and paramilitary organisations and are frequently associated with guer-rilla warfare, counter-insurgency, terrorism, and any other situa-tion which involves a breakdown of the normal procedures for han-dling accused prisoners, civilian or military.

Hundreds protest extra-judicial deaths in Nairobi

Twitter suspends

account of Niger

Delta Avengers

Reuters

LAGOS: Twitter yesterday sus-pended the account of Niger Delta Avengers, a militant group that has carried out a series of attacks on oil facilities in Nigeria in the last few months which pushed the country’s crude production to 30-year lows.

The Avengers have used a Twit-ter account as its main form of communication, using it to publicise claims of attacks and as a platform to criticise Nigeria’s government.

The group - which says it wants a greater share of Nigeria’s oil wealth to be passed on to com-munities in the impoverished Niger Delta region - posted messages on Sunday saying it had carried out five attacks in the last few days.

“This account has been sus-pended,” said a statement on the account. “We do not comment on individual accounts for pri-vacy and security reasons,” said a spokesman for the social media site when asked about the reasons for the suspension.

However, the spokesman said the company’s policies included a “specific rule pertaining to vio-lent threats” which states that “you may not make threats of violence or promote violence, including threatening or promot-ing terrorism”.

In February, Twitter said it had shut down more than 125,000 ter-rorism-related accounts since the middle of 2015, most of which were linked to the Islamic State group.

Many tech companies are increasingly taking stronger steps to police controversial content online in the face of threats from legislators to force the companies to report “terrorist activity” on their sites to law enforcement agencies.

AFP

SYDNEY: A Malaysian is among eight men charged over a seizure of the drug “ice” worth some $206m in Australia, authorities said yesterday.

Some 275 kilogrammes of crystal methamphetamine were found under the floorboards of shipping contain-ers after a tip-off, the Department of Immigration and Border Protec-tion said.

As part of a controlled operation, the containers were delivered to an industrial estate in Melbourne and seven Australians and one Malaysian, all aged between 24 and 34, arrested.

“Three were charged with

commercial drug importation offences and the five others were charged with attempting to possess and trafficking a large commercial quantity of methylamphetamine,” the department said, with the maximum penalty life imprisonment.

Australian police said they worked with Chinese authorities on the case, as they cooperate to fight criminal syndicates trafficking ice to Australia and internationally.

The arrests come after 14 sus-pected members of an international drug ring -- eight Chinese and six Malaysians -- were charged in Aus-tralia in May over a Aus$200m seizure of ice.

Australia has launched a

multi-million dollar strategy to combat the growing use of the drug after a government report revealed the country has proportionally more users than most nations.

The Australian Crime Commis-sion study last year showed that ice users had doubled since 2007 to more than 200,000 people in 2013, with anecdotal evidence that numbers have grown since then.

It found that while $80 bought one gramme of ice in China, users in Australia paid $500.

Victoria Police Assistant Com-missioner Stephen Fontana said there was an “ever increasing demand for illicit drugs” and “as long as there is demand, there will be a market”.

Members of the civil society chant slogans during a protest dubbed "Stop extrajudicial killings" on the killing of human rights lawyer, Willie Kimani, his client and their driver in Nairobi, Kenya, yesterday.

Australia seizes 275kg of crystal meth

Police fire tear gas at

rioters in ZimbabweReuters

HARARE: A protest by Zimbabwean taxi drivers against a police crack-down turned violent yesterday when residents joined in and hurled rocks at police, who fired tear gas to dis-perse the rioters.

In the last month, Zimbabwe has witnessed spontaneous pro-tests against government corruption, shortages of money and government plans to circulate local bank notes as the southern African nation strug-gles with a drought and a slowing economy.

Zimbabwean taxi drivers, along with owners of taxi firms, accuse police of seeking to raise money for their operations by imposing hefty fines on their vehicles, which they say impacts on their business.

Police spokeswoman Charity Charamba said that anti-riot police had deployed in two townships out-side Harare and arrested 30 people in connection with the violence.

Charamba added “all those who are inciting and engaging in violence that such misconduct will be severely dealt with.”

A witness said taxi operators teamed up with residents in Epworth township, south of central Harare, to attack police with stones.

“Police fired teargas, beat up pro-testers and broke down doors at some houses, saying they were looking for organisers of the protest.”

In Mabvuku township, to the east of the capital, police fired teargas as taxi operators blocked roads with stones and burning tyres, taxi driver Aaron Mapani said.

Yesterday’s clashes come days

after residents protested in the border town of Beitbridge, 600 kil-ometres south of the capital Harare, last Friday against restrictions on

imports of basic goods from South Africa.

Tear gas or Lachrymatory agents are commonly used for riot control.

Their use in warfare is prohibited by various international treaties. During World War I, increasingly toxic lach-rymatory agents were used.

Kidnapped Sierra Leone diplomat ‘alive and well’AFP

FREETOWN: A senior Sierra Leo-nean diplomat kidnapped in Nigeria last week is alive and in good health, officials in Freetown said yesterday.

Alfred Nelson-Williams, defence attache and deputy head of Sierra Leone’s high commission in Abuja, was abducted on July 1 while trav-elling to Kaduna, 200km north of Nigeria’s federal capital, according to a security official in Kaduna state.

“We are certain he is alive,” presidential spokesman Abdulai

Baytraytay said in a televised address.

“Sierra Leone has sent a special envoy to Abuja as an intermediary to open a line of communication between the alleged kidnappers and our high commission,” the spokes-man said, adding that security considerations meant he was unable to explain how he knew Nelson-Wil-liams was alive.

Sierra Leonean “President Ernest Bai Koroma is very concerned over the kidnap... and is in around-the-clock contact with the president of Nigeria on the matter,” said.

Residents of Epworth suburb flee as riot police fire tear gas after a protest by taxi drivers turned violent in Harare, Zimbabwe, yesterday.

Thai junta sets up security centres ahead of vote on new constitution

Police officials claim they investigate and prosecute any officers suspected of breaking the law.

Reuters

BANGKOK: Thailand’s military government has set up security centres around the country ahead of an August referendum on a new constitution, a spokesman for the government said yesterday.

The centres are the latest meas-ure rolled out by the government as Thailand prepares to vote on a new constitution that critics fear will entrench the military’s influence.

The draft of Thailand’s 20th con-stitution is to replace one scrapped after a 2014 coup by generals who promised stability in Southeast Asia’s second-biggest economy.

The August 7 referendum will be the first real rest of the junta’s pop-ularity since it took power.

A “Centre for Maintaining Peace and Order” has been set up in every one of Thailand’s 76 prov-inces, said Major General Sansern

Kaewkamnerd, spokesman for the Thai prime minister’s office, in order to ensure “no cheating, no lobbying and no persuading people to vote one way or another.”

Provincial governors will be responsible for assembling teams to join the centre including police, troops and civilian volunteers.

“We need to ensure peace during the referendum so that people can decide how our country will move forward,” Sansern said.

Last month junta chief Prayuth Chan-ocha and opposition supporters of ousted populist premier Thaksin Shinawatra both contacted the United Nations after an upsurge in political tension, just a day after police shut down an electoral monitoring cen-tre of the “red shirt” anti-government movement.

The red shirts say the centres are needed to prevent fraud.

Thanawut Wichaidit, a spokes-man for the red shirt movement,

accused the government of double standards.

“We weren’t able to set up our monitoring centres so why should the military government be allowed to set up their centres?” Thanawut said.

“The military government is blindfolding the electorate and lead-ing their hand to vote in the manner they want.”

Under the proposed charter, a junta-appointed Senate with seats reserved for military commanders would check the powers of elected lawmakers for a five-year transi-tional period.

Since May 2014, Thailand has been ruled by a military junta, the National Council for Peace and Order, which has partially repealed the 2007 constitution, declared martial law and nationwide curfew, banned political gatherings, arrested and detained politicians and anti-coup activists, imposed internet censor-ship and taken control of the media.

A rainbow is seen over the parliament building in Tokyo, Japan, yesterday.

Coloured arch

VIEWS08 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Three suicide bombings in Saudi Arabia yesterday are the latest in a string of attacks by jihadists in the holy month of Ramadan. The Muslim world can only react with horror and disbelief because a month for prayer, piety and fostering brotherhood with people

of all faiths has been turned into a month of mayhem and bloodshed. Hundreds of people have been killed and wounded in these attacks – in Orlando in the US, in Istanbul, in Dhaka, in Baghdad and now in Saudi, though the death toll in the Saudi attack is yet to be ascertained. It’s tragically ironic that a vast majority of the victims in these attacks are Muslims though their perpetrators claim to be defenders of the faith.

But the attacks in Saudi show that terrorism is entering a new, and its most dangerous, reprehensible phase. World’s Muslims are in a state of huge shock and anger that one of the three sites targeted yesterday was the Prophet’s Mosque in

Madinah, one of the holiest sites in Islam. A suicide bomber detonated a device near the security quarters of the mosque. The other two blasts took place outside a Shia mosque in Qatif in eastern Saudi and near the US consulate in the Red Sea city of Jeddah. Eyewitnesses reported body parts at the attack site in Qatif.

The attack in Madinah conclusively proves what ordinary Muslims all over the world, their governments and religious leaders have been vociferously proclaiming all these years – that these terrorists have nothing to do with Islam, which is a religion of peace and harmony, and that they are driven by a deviant ideology which doesn’t have even the remotest connection with faith.

The jihadists are out to achieve their nefarious agenda which could be political, sectarian or regional. They have now proved that no symbol or foundation of Islamic faith is beyond their reach. Which article of faith can they quote to justify an attack on Prophet’s Mosque, when the world’s Muslims have gathered there in piety and prayers and that too on the last day of the holy month of Ramadan when Muslims are preparing for Eid Al Fitr?

Though terrorist attacks have happened in Saudi before, coordinated and multiple attacks are rare, which show that militants have been able to establish a certain network. The Islamic world and the international community must stand in solidarity with Saudi in this time of crisis. The fight against terrorism will be long and difficult, but this is a war that we must win.

Terror in Saudi Arabia

By targeting one of the holiest shrines in Islam, the militants have proved that they are the enemies, not defenders, of the faith.

Quote of the day

I have had numerous conversations with various business leaders and indeed leaders of financial institutions over the last ten days.

George Osborne British Finance Minister

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The important thing one discovers when travel-ling across America is that behind the stereotypes and

tabloid headlines, it is just like many other countries, holding a diverse group of people, full of contradic-tions and counterintuitive realities. And it is quite reassuring because this matrix of complexity acts as a bulwark against the wildfire of populist mania spreading in these uncertain times.

But for some odd reason, this multiplicity tends to disappoint much of the world, especially Euro-peans, who like to go to bed every night with simple derogatory gen-eralisations that Americans are like this or Americans are like that — empty circles or small squares — when in reality for every cliché there are endless exceptions to the rule from the Blue Ridge moun-tains of Virginia to Montana plains.

On the same groundhog day that is the Trump campaign, bang-ing out the usual racial slurs against unfortunate minorities such as ban Muslims from entering America, I came across a house in Minneapolis that had a sign planted proudly in their front garden — ‘To Our Mus-lim Neighbors, a Blessed Ramadan’. This is a result of a campaign by the Minnesota Council of Churches which launched an initiative to urge their community to participate in an interfaith outreach to extend best wishes to their neighbors dur-ing the holy month.

Or there was the Latino immi-grant family in Pittsburgh with both parents teaching in the public school system while their three children attend the state-supported Pitts-burgh Creative and Performing Arts School and who between them, play a dozen instruments. The three multilingual teenagers were active supporters of Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary, but happy to now start drumming for Hillary to ensure no wall is built blocking the next generation of migrants from landing on these shores as they have done for hundreds of years.

That this enlightenment exists below the surface of the headlines

shouldn’t be surprising when you consider such facts as 8 of the world’s top 10 universities are in the US, according to The Times Higher Education’s reputation ranking. The 240-year old coun-try is home to almost half of the top 100 universities, 20 of which are located along this American heartland corridor with 5 alone in Pennsylvania.

Similarly, from the school of don’t judge a book by its cover, standing on the porch of a country singer in Livingston, Montana, who like all his neighbours keeps guns in the house, I am told a story of the morning he shot a moose from his front door. But as the conversation moves on to the upcoming elec-tion and gun control, he shares his views that he thinks it is crazy that the law allows people to buy army-style automatic assault weapons, and that he had hoped President Obama would be successful in his fight with the National Rifle Asso-ciation to introduce sensible gun control legislation before he leaves office in January.

A classic left of centre position interwoven with a typical right conservative posture embedded within the same person is much more common in America than it is in Europe, and one can also see this apparent contradiction extrapolated at the State level — what are described as Swing states

— that sometimes vote for Demo-cratic Presidential candidates and sometimes vote for Republicans — and these states determine the outcome of elections.

Colorado is one such state, and for example in the liberal Univer-sity of Colorado town of Boulder the Sports Authority chain store was closing down and offering a 20 percent discount on what you would only describe as military-issue machine guns. Meanwhile down the street and across the state with the passing of Amendment 64 in 2012, Colorado became the first state to open retail shops that sell soft recreational drugs that are illegal in most parts of the world.

The world rarely gets to hear about these rainbow voices that

contravene established narratives, in essence because most interna-tional journalists covering the US are anchored in the coastal cities and don’t often venture out into its heartland. It is easier to sit in your news bureau in New York, Washing-ton DC or Los Angeles and absorb sweeping generalisations to sup-port “what do you expect” clichés that have been peddled for years – Americans are naïve, Europe-ans are sophisticated!

Perhaps Brexit and the emer-gence of the far-right across Europe will soften the tone of this institu-tionalised ignorance. But in reality this misunderstanding flows in both directions across the Atlan-tic, with the American version also well anchored — Europeans are lazy with their 35 hour work weeks, Americans are industrious with only 2 weeks of holiday per year.

With the US, France, Germany, the Netherlands, and possibly Brit-ain, holding national elections over the coming 18 months, it will be crucial that all the diverse and counterintuitive voices of reason are respected, celebrated and sup-ported by like-minded travelers on both sides of the big pond to ensure a bulwark is built to keep the demons of narrow minded nation-alism at bay.

The writer is Founder and Manag-ing Partner, Gulf Intelligence.

America’s quiet diversity offers bulwark to trumpet populist mania

By Sean Evers

And it is quite reassuring because this matrix of complexity acts as a bulwark against the wildfire of populist mania spreading in these uncertain times.

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump addresses the audience at the 2016 Western Conservative Summit in Denver, Colorado.

Each time the US response has been to return to the Russians, offering more concessions and pleading for another deal.

OPINION 09 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

All thoughts and views expressed in these columns are those of the writers, not of the newspaper.All correspondence regarding Views and Opinion pages should be mailed to the Editor-in-Chief.

Did the world fail Ebola orphans in Sierra Leone?

By Cooper Inveen

Al Jazeera

When Save the Children found David Nyorkor in November 2014, he had been locked in his bedroom for six weeks.

It was at the height of the Ebola epi-demic and Yenga, a small village along Sierra Leone’s eastern border with Guinea near the epicentre of the out-break, was devastated.

David had contracted an unknown illness long before Ebola swept through the village and killed nine members of his family. But accurate informa-tion about the disease was scarce and superstition was rampant, so community leaders locked him in a bedroom in his empty family home, where he remained until Save the Children arrived.

“I tried to get out but I was never able, so I stayed in the room, in bed always,” remembers David, who is now 15 years old.

“Then Save the Children came to the village and asked for all the children who didn’t have parents,” David explains. “They took my name and after two days they brought me to Freetown. I was sick and saw no other way, so I was happy. I thought they would give me a new life.”

But, more than 18 months after he was rescued, David is back in the same community — only now, he is disabled.

A victim of a health system dec-imated by the Ebola epidemic and an overwhelmed international relief agency, David’s leg had been amputated — unnecessarily.

Convinced that the six weeks he had spent in isolation in his room in Yenga had ruled out any possibility that he may have had Ebola, Save the Children took David to Connaught Hospital in Freetown instead of to an Ebola treatment centre for observation.

The hospital had been overwhelmed for months by the city’s high rate of Ebola infections and, two weeks after he arrived, junior staff at the hospital went on strike following the deaths of three doctors to the disease in just two days.

By the end of the month, the diminished Connaught Hospital staff announced that they were unable to diagnose David’s condition. Large sores had developed on his left arm and right leg, and with the only pathologist in the country preoccupied with Ebola cases,

hospital staff recommended that his leg be amputated before further observation.

Save the Children, fearing David’s life was in danger due to the spreading sores and delays in administrative processes, agreed. “At the beginning the process was out of our control because it required a lot of back and forth, getting consent from the family, getting doctors to do samples,” said one Save the Children employee who wished to remain anonymous.

“Doctors wanted permission to do laboratory analysis, and that took a lot of consulting and back and forth. Ulti-mately [the amputation] was a decision made at our country office.”

Fatima Sia, one of David’s aunts who had brought him meals while he was con-fined to his room, travelled with him to Freetown and provided consent for the operation.

Sia says that at the time she was under the impression that David’s illness had been identified and that amputation was the only treatment. It wasn’t until after David recovered from the opera-tion that she realised he didn’t yet have a diagnosis.

Save the Children contracted an American social worker, Teresa Brooks, to handle the case. David met Brooks, a former case worker for the Nevada juve-nile corrections system, in January 2015, following his amputation and release from hospital.

Save the Children arranged for David and Sia to live in a spare bedroom in a local family’s house while observation continued, and Brooks visited David several times a week to take him to his weekly check-up, deliver medication and assist him with physical therapy.

“Things only continued to get worse after his leg was amputated,” Brooks recalls. “What tests were available we ran. At one point we got a false-positive on a tuberculosis test and ended up treat-ing him for that for the next six months

without improvement.”By December 2015, almost a year

after his amputation, it was apparent that the tuberculosis diagnosis was incorrect, and David’s doctors recommended that his arm and other leg be amputated as well. This time, however, those at Save the Children responsible for his case, weary of the previous misdiagnosis, did not con-sent to the amputations and arranged for samples from the sores on his body to be sent to a pathologist outside the country in order to identify his illness before tak-ing any further action.

The results showed that David was suffering from a severe bacterial infec-tion. He was treated and cured shortly after his diagnosis. ‘Your time is up’

After he had recovered from the infection, David says, he was told by a number of Save the Children employees that the funding for his case had run dry and he would have to return to Yenga.

“They always asked me if I wanted to go back to Yenga or stay in Freetown, and I told them I wanted to stay,” David says. “I was getting enrolled in school, but they kept saying, ‘Your time is up, your time is up.’ I was very sad.”

David was sent back at the begin-ning of February. According to Brooks, he wouldn’t even have had a wheelchair had she not convinced a local hotel owner to donate one.

Frustrated by the decision to return David to Yenga, Brooks chose to end her year-and-a-half-long relationship with Save the Children and returned to the United States.

“You can’t take someone out of a sit-uation only to put him right back in it without providing him with at least the means to be productive,” Brooks says. “And in this country, to be brought back an amputee, his chances of making a life on his own are incredibly small. There are so many things that could have been done to better this kid’s situation and I

don’t think nearly enough was.” In a country where a disabled per-

son is far more likely (PDF) to experience unemployment, social exclusion, violence and abuse, David faces significant chal-lenges in his future.

Although Save the Children’s policy restricts her from addressing specific cases, Deanne Evans, the organisation’s child protection manager, spoke gener-ally, explaining that “there were a lot of competing demands, and of course in all of that, children fell through the cracks”.

“There are children who suffer today because they didn’t get the services they needed and there are children who died because they didn’t get the service they needed,” Evans says.

“You try to do your best in terms of balancing, and for some that works out well, and for others it doesn’t. It’s very unfortunate, but not at all surprising given the chaos of that situation, that some children just didn’t get the support they needed at the time they needed it most.”

Today, David is living with Sia in Koindu, a small town south of Yenga, in a house a stone’s throw from his school. Sahr Andrew, a local teacher, offered David the spare room in his home a month after he returned to Yenga. “I knew I had to do something,” Andrew says. “His situation is tragic. First and foremost, a kid being handicapped in this country is extremely tragic in itself. It would be too painful for him to come from Yenga every day, and it would cost too much money to hire a motorbike for him. Since I live so close to the school, I thought it wise I give him that assistance.”

Unfortunately, the assistance Andrew is able to provide doesn’t go much fur-ther. The school is rarely open five days a week, he explains, because like many teachers in Sierra Leone, he has never been paid by the central government and maintains a farm to feed himself and his

family.Save the Children used to provide

food subsidies to local teachers to ensure that the schools stayed open, but that pro-gramme ended when the Ebola outbreak began and funds were reallocated to deal with the outbreak and provide treatment for the ill.

Evans says she doesn’t know if fund-ing for the programme will resume.

Although he isn’t receiving financial support, David is attending class when the school is open.

The time he spent out of the class-room meant that he had to resume his final year of primary school. A commu-nity-wide agreement allows for primary school pupils to attend class for free, but he will have to begin paying school fees when he enters the junior secondary level next year.

“If I could have anything, it would be for someone to guarantee him an educa-tion, so I can focus on other tasks and he can have opportunity,” says his aunt Sia as Andrew translates for her.

“David is now a fatherless child and I lost people I rely on, too. I’m tied to David, taking care of him all day. I struggle to feed my own children, and now David,” Sia explains.

But David refuses to give into pessi-mism. He smiles and cracks jokes with his new family, and says that no matter how bad things get, he won’t let negativ-ity take over his life.

Before Ebola he had dreamed of per-forming on stage, and that dream has changed only slightly: instead of dancing for people, he now dreams of becoming a DJ “so people can dance for themselves”.

“People with problems, serious prob-lems, should know that no condition is permanent,” he says, sitting on the edge of his bed. “No matter how bad things get, if no one is encouraging you, you can encourage yourself. You have to, other-wise you won’t make it through.”

In a country where a disabled person is far more likely to experience unemployment, social exclusion, violence and abuse, David faces significant challenges in his future.

David was left without a leg after a misdiagnosis during the chaos of the Ebola epidemic in Sierra Leone

President Obama retreats in Syria — againThe Washington Post

FOR SEVERAL years, the Obama administration’s Syria policy has been stuck in a cycle of failure. Secretary

of State John F Kerry negotiates deals with Russia to end the fighting or create a new government in Damas-cus, while warning that if they are not respected by Russian President Vladimir Putin or Syrian President Bashar Assad, the United States will consider other options, such as step-ping up support for Syrian rebels. In every case, the Russian and Syrian regimes have betrayed their commit-ments, continuing to bomb civilian

areas, employ chemical weapons and deny aid to besieged communi-ties. And no wonder: Each time the US response has been to return to the Russians, offering more concessions and pleading for another deal.

And so it goes again. Senior US officials have publicly confirmed that Syria and Russia have grossly violated a cessation of hostilities negotiated by Kerry in February.

They have continued to attack Western-backed rebels, deliber-ately targeted hospitals and other civilian infrastructure, and blocked aid convoys to besieged towns where children are starving to death.

Kerry warned that the conse-quence of such breaches would be a “Plan B” of stepped-up US support

for anti-Assad rebels. Instead, as The Post’s Josh Rogin has reported, the administration delivered a new proposal to Moscow that offers Putin what he has been seeking for months: greater US-Russian collab-oration in targeting those anti-Assad rebels deemed to be “terrorists.” In exchange, Russia would — again — promise to restrain its own and the Assad regime’s bombing of areas where Western-backed forces are located.

As several experts on Syria told The Post, it is a deal whose only tangible result would likely be the reinforcement of the Assad regime - whose relentless brutality has empowered the Islamic State and Al Qaida. The US-Russian collaboration

would target an offshoot of Al Qaida called Jabhat Al Nusra, whose forces are fighting the Assad regime in sev-eral areas, including the key city of Aleppo.

In practice, the Jabhat Al Nusra forces are intermixed with other rebel units; many Syrian fighters joined the presumed terrorists for practi-cal rather than ideological reasons. An assault on them could have the effect of allowing the Assad regime to achieve what it says is its foremost objective, the recapture of Aleppo, tipping the balance of the civil war in its favour. The anti-Assad rebels backed by the West could be deci-sively undermined, even if Russia and the Syrian regime respected the no-bombing zones — which, given the

history of past agreements, is a most unlikely prospect.

Administration officials claim they have no alternative but to go along with Putin. The former Plan B, more support for rebels, would merely lead to more fighting with little result, they say. It’s the same logic that President Barack Obama has used to deflect proposals for US action in support of anti-Assad forces since 2012 — even as the country, and the region around it, spiralled deeper and deeper into bloodshed, chaos and humanitar-ian crisis. Obama appears fiercely determined to learn nothing from his tragic mistakes in Syria. The latest US proposal, if accepted by Putin, would compound the damage.

Beijing offers talks if Manila ignores arbitration ruling

ZAMBOANGA CITY: In observance with the end of the fast-ing month of Ramadan, newly-installed Philip-pines President Rodrigo Duterte has declared tomorrow a non-working holiday for all govern-ment employees.

“The entire Filipino nation should have the full opportunity to join their Muslim brothers and sisters in peace and har-mony in the observance and celebration of Eid Al Fitr,” read a proclamation issued Duterte.

The statement came as Muslim communities in the majority Christian city of Zamboanga and its envi-rons prepared for the end of the fasting season.

Duterte declares

July 6 ‘Eid holiday’

ASIA / PHILIPPINES10 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Families of Dhaka cafe victims take bodies home

AFP

DHAKA: Relatives of foreign hos-tages murdered in a Bangladeshi restaurant were in Dhaka yesterday to take their loved ones’ bodies home as authorities made the first arrests over the killings.

Many were in tears as Prime Min-ister Sheikh Hasina laid wreaths on the coffins of those killed in the siege at an upmarket cafe in the capital, by

far the deadliest in a spate of recent attacks that have caused interna-tional alarm.

They included nine Italians, seven Japanese, a US citizen and a 19-year-old Indian student.

Witnesses say the perpetrators of the attack, which the Islamic State group has claimed, spared the lives of Muslims while herding foreigners to their deaths, killing many with machete-style weapons.

Among the mourners at the cer-emony in a Dhaka stadium was Muksedur Rahman who described slain Italian textile trader Nadia Benedetti as a “great human being” who had worked to help Bangladeshi survivors of acid attacks.

Italy’s ambassador said Friday night’s attack on the Holey Artisan Bakery cafe was “unprecedented” and promised his country’s full sup-port in tackling a rise in Islamist militancy in Bangladesh.

“This unprecedented attack is also an attack on the very identity

of Bangladesh,” Mario Palma told reporters at the ceremony.

“You deserve all the cooperation from your friends all over the world who supported you for your struggle to achieve independence.”

The government said the bodies of the Italians and Japanese victims would be handed over to diplomats later yesterday before being flown home. The Indian student’s body was also being flown back to her home town yesterday.

US Secretary of State John Kerry offered Washington’s support in a telephone call to Hasina, whose gov-ernment has been unable to stop a wave of Islamist attacks on foreign-ers and religious minorities in officially secular but mostly Muslim Bangladesh.

“(Kerry) encouraged the govern-ment of Bangladesh to conduct its investigation in accordance with the highest international standards and offered immediate assistance from US law enforcement, including the FBI,” said his spokesman John Kirby.

MANILA: Philippine police have seized about 180kg of high-grade methamphetamine worth $19.2 million, officials said yesterday, in a major haul for the government of new President Rodrigo Duterte, who has promised to wipe out crime and cor-

ruption within six months.National Police chief Ron-

ald dela Rosa said police and drug enforcement agents seized the meth-amphetamine hydrochloride, known locally as shabu, in 180 plastic bags on Sunday in an abandoned farm in

northern Cagayan province’s Clav-eria town following a tip from an informant.

Authorities are investigating whether it was smuggled into the Phil-ippines by a foreign syndicate or was manufactured locally, officials said.

Police seize $19.2m worth of drugs

AFP

SYDNEY: Australia’s opposition Labour Party urged Prime Minis-ter Malcolm Turnbull (pictured) to resign yesterday, calling him the “David Cameron of the southern hem-isphere” after he failed to secure an emphatic election victory.

Millionaire former banker Turn-bull took the country to the ballot boxes on Saturday, but his Liberal/

National coalition has so far failed to win enough seats to form government.

Labour leader Bill Shorten, whose party appears to have gained seats in the 150-member House of Repre-sentatives but also fallen short of the 76 needed to govern, said Turnbull had to go.

“This is farcical. Mr Turnbull clearly doesn’t know what he is doing. Quite frankly, I think he should quit,” Shorten told reporters in Sydney.

“He has taken this nation to an

election on the basis of stability; he has delivered instability.”

He said Turnbull’s decision to put

every seat in the upper house Sen-ate up for grabs in a so-called double dissolution election rather than have the usual half-Senate vote had “made a bad situation worse”.

“He Brexited himself. This guy is like David Cameron of the southern hemisphere,” the Labour leader said.

“He leads a divided party, he has had an election and he has delivered an inferior and unstable outcome.”

Britain’s Cameron called a refer-endum on whether the country should

stay in the EU and led the “Remain” campaign. He announced he was quitting after the nation voted to leave.

Turnbull is the country’s fourth leader since 2013 after he ousted fel-low Liberal Tony Abbott as prime minister in a party coup last Septem-ber. He called elections early hoping to shore up support for his ruling coalition.

With the vote count still incom-plete, the anti-immigration One Nation party of Pauline Hanson, who

once claimed Asians were in danger of swamping the country, looks set to win multiple Senate seats.

“How on earth did Mr. Turnbull think that an idea of reform could end up with two or three One Nation sen-ators in the Senate?” Shorten asked.

The vote count in Australia is due to resume today, with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation reporting that the government has 68 seats to Labour’s 67 with five minor players and 10 in doubt.

Australian PM urged to resign after ‘Brexiting’ himself

Seoul: A South Korean court sentenced the leader of a major labour group to five years in jail yesterday for leading a violent protest last year against the labour reform policy of President Park Geun-hye.

Han Sang-gyun, the head of the Korean Con-federation of Trade Unions, the more stri-dent of the country’s two umbrella labour groups, turned himself over to police in December after evading arrest for weeks.

Han was convicted of violating laws on pub-lic assembly and protests as well as obstruction of operation of public serv-ice, the court said.

Seoul labour chief

jailed over violent

protest rally

Reuters

SHANGHAI: China is ready to start negotiations with the Philippines on South China Sea-related issues if Manila ignores an arbitration rul-ing expected next week on their long-running territorial dispute, the official China Daily reported yester-day.

The Philippines brought the case to the Permanent Court of Arbitration in the Hague and a ruling is expected on July 12.

The case contests China’s claims to the bulk of the South China Sea, a body of water through which $5 trillion in ship-borne trade passes every year.

China has said it plans to ignore the Court’s ruling which would rep-resent a snub of the international legal order.

The Philippines, Vietnam, Malaysia, Taiwan and Brunei have

overlapping claims with China in the area.

Beijing has rejected the arbitra-tion case, claiming the court has no jurisdiction and saying it wants to solve the issue bilaterally.

In recent weeks, it has ramped up its propaganda campaign downplay-ing the outcome of the case.

China also plans to hold military drills around the disputed Paracel Islands in the South China Sea from July 5-11, which Vietnam has oppose, state-run Vietnam Television quoted foreign ministry spokesman Le Hai Binh as saying yesterday.

Negotiations between China and the Philippines could cover “issues such as joint development and coop-eration in scientific research if the new government puts the tribunal’s ruling aside before returning to the table for talks”, the China Daily.

China’s main, government-run English newspaper did not name its sources but identified them as

“close to the issues between the two countries”.

“Manila must put aside the result of the arbitration in a substantive approach,” it quoted one source as saying.

China’s Foreign Ministry last month said the two countries had agreed in 1995 to settle disputes in the South China Sea “in a peaceful and friendly manner through con-sultations on the basis of equity and mutual respect”.

China and the Philippines have held many rounds of talks on the proper management of maritime disputes, though have had no nego-tiations designed to settle the actual disputes in the South China Sea, it said.

In the arbitration case, the Philip-pines is contesting China’s claim to an area shown on its maps as a nine-dash line stretching deep into the maritime heart of Southeast Asia, covering hun-dreds of disputed islands and reefs.

Reuters

BEIJING: China strongly criti-cised Japan over a scramble of military aircraft from the two countries yesterday amid a dis-pute over islands in the East China Sea.

Two Japanese fighter jets took “provocative actions” at a high speed near a pair of Chinese fighter jets that were carrying out patrols in the East China Sea on June 17, China’s defence ministry said in a microblog statement yesterday, without specifying where exactly the incident took place.

The Japanese planes used fire-control radar to “light up” the Chinese aircraft, the statement added.

Japan’s senior military officer has acknowledged there was a scramble but has denied that any radar lock by the Chinese jet occurred or that the incident turned dangerous.

“The Japanese plane’s provoc-ative actions caused an accident in the air, endangering the safety of personnel on both sides, and destroying the peace and stabil-ity in the region,” China’s Defence Ministry said, adding the Chinese aircraft “responded resolutely”.

China criticises Japan over

“dangerous” jet scramble

AFP

KATHMANDU: Nepal has opened an investigation into an Indian police couple accused of falsifying pho-tographs to support their claim of summiting Mount Everest this year, an official said yesterday.

Indian police constables Dinesh and Tarakeshwari Rathod ear-lier said they reached the top of the 8,848-metre peak on May 23 but their claims were thrown into doubt after fellow climbers accused the couple of doctoring photographs of themselves on the summit.

“We have started an investiga-tion into the Indian police couple’s claim of scaling Mount Everest,” said Nepal tourism chief, Sudar-shan Prasad Dhakal.

The tourism department initially certified the couple’s summit claims after speaking to their expedition

organisers and to government offi-cials stationed at Everest base camp, Dhakal said.

“In order to provide a certificate to the climber, we rely on their pho-tograph on top of Mount Everest.... If someone fakes their photos, it’s hard to determine that they are not origi-nal,” Dhakal said.

“If proven guilty, we will inval-idate the Indian couple’s certificate and charge them with forgery and fraud.”

The probe began on Sunday evening, he said.

It is not technically an offence to pretend to summit Everest, but authorities are investigating the cou-ple for fraud after eight other climbers filed a complaint against them in India, saying such a con belittles the efforts of genuine mountaineers.

Hundreds fled Everest last year after an earthquake-triggered ava-lanche at base camp killed 18 people.

Philippine police forensic investigators look for evidence in front of the shanty where members of a suspected drug syndicate were killed after a shootout with police in Manila on Sunday.

Nepal probes Indian

couple’s Everest claims

Youth break their fast at a bazaar ahead of Eid Al Fitr, which marks the end of Ramadan, in Singapore, yesterday.

After sunset meal

Many were in tears as PM Hasina laid wreaths on the coffins of those killed in the siege at an upmarket cafe in the capital.

Climber returns

after scaling

China peakISLAMABAD: Pakistani mountain climber Reh-matullah Quraishi has returned after successfully scaling Mount Daguniag in China. Hailing from Chilas in Gilgit-Baltistan, Qurai-shi was the only Pakistani in a group of three Chi-nese, four Taiwanese, four Mongols and four Korean climbers.

The expedition was launched on June 9 and continued till June 15 aimed at encourag-ing mountaineering and drawing attention to smaller peaks between 5,000metres and 6,000 metres. Quraishi is one of the members of the Union of Asian Alpine Associa-tion, and reached the top of the 5,025-metre-high peak at 9:30am on June 12.

Flow of funds

from charities

higher this yearISLAMABAD: The flow of funds from multi-billion charities to a few bigger institutions this Ramadan may be higher than last year despite their lack-lustre donation collection campaigns.

However money trans-fer in the form of zakat, sadqa and khairat seem to be stable, same as last year’s level of Rs150bn ($1.5bn); according to an estimate. Last year the total cash and in-kind donations by companies and individuals were pro-jected at about Rs240bn. Out of this Rs146bn, i.e. 60pc was said to have been disbursed in Rama-zan last year.

Electoral body

to start revision

of electoral rollsISLAMABAD: The Election Commission of Paki-stan approved a plan for Annual Revision of Elec-toral Rolls for the year 2016 to include the names of Computerised National Identity Card (CNIC) in electoral rolls.

The voters who have become disqualified (deaths, cancelled CNICs) will also be excluded from the rolls after their door to door verification fol-lowed by display process, said spokesman of the commission. The voter count is expected to be increased from 93 mil-lion to 98 million after the said revision proc-ess, he added. According to the plan, door to door verification shall be car-ried out from August 1 to August 15 which shall be followed by 21 days of display process starting on August 21, he said.

PAKISTAN 11TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Reuters

KABUL: The international military mission in Afghanistan will fail if troop levels are reduced further, with potentially dangerous repercussions for the rest of the world, a delegation of US lawmakers warned during a visit to Kabul yesterday.

Fifteen years after an American-led operation toppled the Taliban in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, President Barack Obama is considering whether to maintain the current level of 9,800

US troops or reduce it to 5,500 by the end of the year, as current plans call for.

“I cannot guarantee success if we keep 9,800, but I can ensure you failure if we go to 5,500,” Republican Senator Lindsey Graham told report-ers in Kabul.

“I will have a hard time support-ing our continued presence here as it’s not fair to those left behind... They just can’t do the job. If we go to 5,500 this place will fall apart, quickly.”

Graham joined US senators John McCain, Benjamin Sasse, and Joe Donnelly in a visit timed so the bipartisan delegation could visit with troops during the Independence Day holiday. The Obama administration should decide on troop levels “sooner rather than later,” McCain said, arguing that reducing the number of troops could lead to a repeat of the disaster in Iraq, where Islamic State militants seized major cities and wide swathes of territory.

McCain, the Republican chair-man of the Senate Armed Services Committee, sharply criticized the White House’s decision last year to

Internews

ISLAMABAD: The government of Pakistan has modified the Alterna-tive Dispute Resolution (ADR) mode to make it the first choice of taxpay-ers. The current time-consuming process will be cut under the new rules of procedures and help the tax authorities reach out-of-court set-tlement of disputes.

The revised ADR mode applica-ble to all four federal taxes income tax, sales tax, federal excise duty and customs took effect from July 1.

The Finance Act 2004 gave an aggrieved taxpayer the option to approach the Federal Board of Revenue for the appointment of a three-member committee for resolu-tion of any hardship or dispute case.

It was made obligatory for the FBR to constitute an ADR Commit-tee (ADRC) within a period of 60 days after the receipt of such an application.

The committee, comprising a tax officer and two persons from the pri-vate sector, was required to make recommendations within a period of 90 days. If it failed to come up with recommendations within the spe-cific period, the FBR was empowered to dissolve the committee and re-constitute a new body.

Tax analysts said this time-con-suming process was a major hurdle for taxpayers seeking out-of-court settlement. As a result, the ADR did help resolve tax disputes, pending in the courts for years.

The tax reforms commission report had also pointed out that the reason for the failure of ADR was the long delay in finalisation of ADR

panels, heavy presence of retired FBR personnel and the reluctance of FBR officers on the panels to give decisions in favour of the taxpayer, fearing a negative response from the FBR and outside agencies.

The main reason for the failure was that the panel decision had to go to the FBR for final approval; in most cases either the decision would not come or was delayed.

The proposed amendment in the Finance Act 2016 will help the tax department and taxpayers in saving time and money spent on litigations.

As per amendments in the Finance Act 2016, the committee appointed by the FBR will consist of an Inland Revenue Officer along with two other persons,, including an Inland Revenue Officer not below the rank of the commissioner. Earlier it was below the additional commis-sioner.The time limit for passing of the FBR orders has also been extended from 45 days to 90 days. If the FBR does not take a decision within 90 days, the panel’s recom-mendations will be treated as an order passed by the FBR.

FBR official spokesperson Dr Muhammad Iqbal says these amendments were introduced on the requests of taxpayers. “We hope that taxpayers will now opt for out-of-court settlement of their cases”, he remarked.

The ADR was designed to clear the huge backlog of pend-ing disputes, to minimise delay in redressing of taxpayers’ grievances and increase tax collection. The tax reform commission has also recom-mended to the FBR that the panel should have powers to seek expert advice if requested by a taxpayer with the cost to be borne by him.

Govt revises rules

on tax disputes

Internews

ISLAMABAD: At a time when the Pakistani politics seems poised for a storm, over three dozen top public office holders are out of the country for various reasons.

The long Eid holidays are also going to almost paralyse the coun-try for 10 days. The most significant among these political leaders is Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif, who is in London for medical treatment. Nawaz and his family had celebrated Eid with the Saudi royal family last year.

Among other top leaders is the

PPP Co-chairman Asif Ali Zardari who will also spend his Eid abroad. He had also celebrated his Eid in Dubai last year. PPP leader Senator Saeed Ghani said the former presi-dent had already directed the entire leadership of the party to look after all the affairs.

Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani is also in Saudi Arabia to perform Umrah. Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq will also be leaving for Saudi Arabia next week, informed officials said.JUI-F Chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Awami Muslim League chief Sheikh Rashid, Chief Minister Sindh Qaim Ali Shah, Deputy Speaker National Assembly Murtaza Abbasi, Federal Minister for Housing

and Works Akram Durrani, Jamaat-e-Islami Amir Senator Sirajul Haq, PML-N MNA Mian Abdul Manan, PPP Senator Ejaz Dharma, JI MNA Ayesha Syed, Speaker Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly Asad Qaiser, ex JUI-F MNA Hafiz Husain Ahmed and JUI-F AJK President Saeed Yousaf, Senator Taj Muhammad Afridi from Fata and his brother MNA Shah Ji Gul Afridi, PTI MPA Fazl Hakim from Swat, Qaumi Watan Party (QWP) MPA from Char-sadda Sultan Muhammad Khan and Pakistan Muslim League-Q MPA Abdul Karim Nosherwani are said to be performing Umrah. They may return to Pakistan before or after Eid.

Senator Aurangzaib from Fata will celebrate Eid in Dubai.

Over 30 leaders out of the country

People sit on a passenger bus on their return home ahead of the Eid-Al-Fitr festival in Lahore yesterday.

Returning home

US senators warn against troop cutsI cannot guarantee success if we keep 9,800, but I can ensure you failure if we go to 5,500: Senator

An Afghan National Army (ANA) soldier searches a passenger at a checkpoint ahead of forthcoming Eid-Al-Fitr celebrations on the outskirts of Jalalabad, yesterday.

restrict US forces from targeting Tali-ban fighters except in self-defense and other limited circumstances.

Those rules were recently relaxed on the recommendation of American commanders in Kabul, but McCain said it was “almost criminal” that the restrictions were in place for more

than a year. “The rules of engage-ment were so restrictive that it gave an advantage to the Taliban and other terrorist groups,” the senator said. The lawmakers highlighted Afghanistan’s history as one of the original havens for al Qaeda terrorists and pleaded for more patience.

“Ultimately we’re going to win this fight, it’s just going to take decades,” Sasse said. “The American people well understand that staying partnered with a good ally like the Afghan gov-ernment is the best way to deny future safe havens to those who would plot jihadi attacks across the globe.”

Internews

PESHAWAR: Around three mil-lion Afghan refugees (registered and unregistered) seem to be a liability both for Pakistan and Afghanistan. A humanitarian problem is being associated with other issues like border management and terrorism etc.Pakistan following the spirit of

“Ansar-i-Madinah” had welcomed millions of Afghans with open arms in early 1980s.Islamabad is now abandoning the spirit of Muslim brotherhood and asking refugees that “enough is enough.” Afghans are blamed for the country’s law and order situation, terrorism and unem-ployment.

Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz’s frank statementthat “refugee camps

have become safe havens for ter-rorists” indicates major shift in the Islamabad’s Afghan policy.Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Chief Minister Pervez Khattak is giving provocative state-ments against Afghans, demanding federal government not to give fur-ther extension to refugees.

“General perception in Kabul is that government in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa is close to army so ref-ugees are victimised,” says a senior

journalist from the Afghan capital. He said that hatred against Pakistan was 10 times high after clashes at Torkham.On the other hand, Afghan-istan, which was appealing refugees to come back to their country in mid 80s, is now reluctant to accept its own countrymen.

Afghan government plea is that its internal security situation and econ-omy are not in a position to absorb this huge load. After the fall of Dr

Najibullah government in 1992, and the subsequent rise of Taliban and fall of the regime in 2001, more than five million Afghans returned to their country under the voluntary repatri-ation programme.

At that time Afghanistan was in total chaos, but despite that the load was absorbed. Currently Afghan-istan has an elected government and all other nation building insti-tutions including the armed forces

have established themselves well to steer the country out of the crises, but Kabul is not willing to accept its own people.

“Like other countries Pakistan can integrate Afghans too. Almost 70 per cent of the refugee popula-tion is between the age of 15 and 25. They are born and brought up in Paki-stan and do businesses here so why not give them citizenship,” said one senior functionary.

Refugees look like liability for both Pakistan and Afghanistan

Boys play under an overflowing dam along the Powai lake after heavy rains in Mumbai yesterday.

Water wall

INDIA12 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Al Qaeda urgesMuslims to mount attacks

Reuters

NEW DELHI: A regional branch of Al Qaeda urged Muslims in India to revolt and carry out lone wolf attacks, a US monitoring site reported, days after the rival jihadi movement Islamic State claimed responsibility for Bangladesh’s worst militant attack.

The call by Al Qaeda in the Indian Subcontinent (AQIS) follows warnings by security officials and experts that the two groups are try-ing to outdo each other in the region and claim the mantle of global jihad.

An online audio message pur-portedly from Asim Umar, the head of AQIS, said Indian Muslims must fol-low the example of youths in Europe and strike against Indian police and senior officials, holding them respon-sible for communal violence.

“Start Jihad with the strength which Allah has already granted you. Kill the senior officers of institutions and administrative departments that get (people to) start these riots,” AQIS said, accord-ing to US intelligence group SITE. Reuters could not verify the authen-ticity of the recording.

In it, AQIS said Muslims were

present in every part of India and must use their strength to reclaim power in a country they ruled for centuries. “Even if you come out carrying merely knives and swords then, history bears witness, Hindus cannot withstand you,” Umar said.

Since its formation in 2014, AQIS has been trying to incite attacks, but India’s Muslims, who number more than 160 million, have been largely unmoved. Only a handful are known to have tried to join Islamic State, according to Indian officials.

An Indian interior ministry spokesman said he had seen media reports about the latest warning from Al Qaeda, but he had no imme-diate comment to offer. Security agencies were aware of the matter, he added. Both Al Qaeda and Islamic State have claimed a series of kill-ings in Bangladesh over the past year, attacking liberals and foreign-ers. On Friday, militants stormed a restaurant in Dhaka and killed 20 people, most of them foreigners, in an attack claimed by Islamic State.

Bangladesh’s government has long denied the involvement of for-eign Islamist groups in the violence, but some security experts said the restaurant attack undermined that position.

“I think it demonstrates that competition between AQ and the Islamic State isn’t necessarily a good thing, as Islamic State in Bangladesh clearly planned an attack that would outdo Al Qaeda in terms of carnage and international attention,” said Thomas Joscelyn, a senior editor at The Long War Journal that tracks global jihadi groups.

Modi to reshuffle cabinet with many new facesIANS

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Naren-dra Modi is all set to reshuffle his council of ministers today and induct nine new faces in what will be the first such major exercise since he took over the reins in May 2014, party sources said.

“Cabinet expansion tomor-row (Tuesday) at 11am,” Principal spokesperson and Director General of Press Information Bureau Frank Noronha tweeted but did not go into the specifics.

But BJP sources said a dozen names were doing the rounds for

induction, promotion or ouster. They also said that at least nine

new faces may find a place in the ministerial council while three oth-ers were likely to be promoted to the cabinet. Ministers with independent charge — Piyush Goyal (Power, Coal, and New and Renewable Energy), Dharmendra Pradhan (Petroleum and Natural Gas) and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi (Minority Affairs) — are likely to be promoted.

But there was no word yet on the elevation of another probable, Nirmala Sitharaman, who holds independent charge of industries and commerce portfolios.

The likely new faces are Arjun

Ram Meghwal (Lok Sabha, Rajas-than), P P Chaudhary (Lok Sabha, Rajasthan), Anupriya Patel (Lok Sabha, Uttar Pradesh), Anil Desai (Rajya Sabha, Maharashtra), Ajay Tamta (Lok Sabha, Uttarakhand), Mahendra Nath Pandey (Lok Sabha, Uttar Pradesh), Krishna Raj (Lok Sabha, Uttar Pradesh), S S Ahluwalia (Lok Sabha, West Bengal) and Purush-ottam Rupala (Rajya Sabha, Gujarat).

According to the sources, this time around, instead of new members getting calls from the Prime Minister’s Office, it was BJP President Amit Shah who informed them about their likely induction into the cabinet.

IANS spoke to most of these to-be

-ministers and they confirmed they did get a call from the party presi-dent. Some have already reached Delhi while others are on the way.

There has been speculation of a cabinet reshuffle since the Prime Minister met his council of ministers here on June 30 and reviewed impor-tant projects and works of various ministries.

Modi had earlier met Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah and Finance Minister Arun Jait-ley to discuss the issue.

The three were expected to meet again later yesterday to give a final shape to the expansion-cum-reshuf-fle, the sources said.

Relatives of slain Indian teenager TarIshi Jain mourn in Gurgaon, some 35km south of New Delhi. The Indian teenager, among 20 foreigners killed after being taken hostage in Dhaka, was cremated yesterday.

Dhaka terror attack victim Tarishi crematedIANS

GURGAON: The mortal remains of 19-years-old Tarishi Jain, who was among the 20 hostages killed in a gruesome terror attack in Dhaka, was yesterday brought here by her family for the last rites.

The cremation was held at the Shiv Murti Cremation ground near IFFCO Chowk in Gurgaon’s Sector 29 on the Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway.

Central and state ministers were among those who paid trib-utes when the body arrived from Dhaka. Haryana Education Min-ister Ram Bilas Sharma, Gurgaon Deputy Commissioner T L Saty-aprakash and other officials earlier received Tarishi’s mortal remains at Delhi’s IGI Airport.

Union Minister of State for Power Piyush Goyal, and Union Minister of State Rao Inderjit Singh were present.

Terror group’s India branch tells Indians to follow European youth.

Agni-V stuck due to battery glitch: DRDOIANS

NEW DELHI: India’s indigenous nuclear-capable intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) Agni-V, which can reach targets as far as Beijing, has been stuck due to a technical snag with its battery and not because of any other considerations, DRDO Chief S Christopher said.

The problem can be solved and the next testfiring of Agni-V is expected by the year-end, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief added.

Asked about the much-delayed fourth test of Agni-V, Christopher said: “It has been delayed because of a technical snag,” adding: “There is a problem with the battery.”

Asked about the timeframe for the next test, the DRDO chief said: “Our colleagues have said the issue can be resolved. We will do a test before the end of this year.”

The DRDO chief also dismissed

reports that the test was postponed due to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to the US.

“The reasons for delay are only technical,” Christopher said.

Earlier reports had said that the fourth test of Agni-V was scheduled for December 2015, was postponed to January 2016 and then to March, but was rescheduled due to the prime minister’s scheduled visit to the US.

Modi was in the US from June 6 to 8. This was his fourth visit to the US after assuming office two years ago.

The missile was first tested in April 2012 and then in September 2013.

The last test was carried out on January 31, 2015, from a mobile can-ister, under then DRDO chief Avinash Chander, widely known as the man behind the Agni series of missiles, on the last day of his tenure.

In the canisterised launch, a gas generator inside the canister ejects the missile up to a height of about 30 metres. A motor is then ignited to fire

the missile onwards. Soon after, DRDO sources had

said India planned for at least three more tests, and aimed at handing over the missile for user trials by mid-2016.

The Agni-V is the most advanced version of the indigenously built Agni, or Fire, series, part of the Integrated Guided Missile Development Pro-gramme (IGMDP) that started in the 1960s and was once overseen by APJ Abdul Kalam, who later rose to become the Indian president.

Agni’s earlier versions, which have been inducted in the armed forces, can reach anywhere in Paki-stan and parts of western China.

Agni-V is a three-stage missile designed to carry an over one-tonne warhead. Its 5,000km range gives it the farthest reach among all Indian missiles.

India joined the US, Russia, the UK, France and China, which boast ICBM capabilities, when it first tested the Agni-V in 2012.

Leadership

row brews in

Dawoodi Bohra

community

IANS

MUMBAI: The Dawoodi Bohra community’s self-proclaimed Syedna Taher Fakhruddin yes-terday politely called upon his half-cousin Syedna Mufaddal Saifuddin to relinquish his ‘false claim’ and the top community post (Syedna) in return for mercy.

In a letter to Syedna Saifud-din, the rival Syedna Fakhruddin also made it clear that he would not give up the claim to the reli-gious title (Syedna), for resolving which a legal dispute is pending before Bombay High Court.

“I have filed a Chamber Sum-mons in the Bombay High Court to be substituted as a plaintiff in the suit filed by (the late) Syedna Khuzaima Qutbuddin to continue the fight for truth and righteous-ness, which are the hallmarks of our faith,” Syedna Fakhruddin said in his open letter of July 4, released to the media yesterday.

He pointed out that his father and predecessor, the late Syedna Khuzaima Qutbuddin, had thrown a similar challenge, inviting his half-nephew Syedna Saifuddin to a public debate to establish the truth in the interests of the community, but the overture was ignored.

After the passing away of Syedna Qutbuddin on March 30 in the USA, he had anointed his son Taher Fakhruddin to succeed him and he has now asked Syedna Saifuddin to come forth for a sim-ilar public debate.

The present Syedna Saifud-din is the son of the late Syedna Mohammed Burhanuddin who passed away in January 2014, while his half-brother, Qutbud-din was his No 2 as ‘Mazoon’ in the community which he served for 50 years.

After Syedna Burhanuddin’s demise, Mufaddal Saifuddin took over his father’s title, while the self-proclaimed Syedna Qutbud-din challenged it in the court.

Anti-trafficking law is flawed: ActivistsReuters

MUMBAI: Charities and activists have criticised the draft of India’s first anti-human trafficking law, say-ing the proposed legislation is flawed and does not address all aspects of the fast-growing crime.

The Trafficking of Persons bill, unveiled in May, seeks to unify India’s existing anti-trafficking laws, prioritise survivors’ needs and pro-vide for special courts to expedite cases.

Consultations on the draft bill ended last week, and women and child rights campaigners have demanded numerous revisions.

“The new law will only create confusion among those working on the ground because it doesn’t list out all trafficking offences, and does not take into account existing legisla-tions,” said P M Nair, chair professor

at the Tata Institute of Social Sci-ences in Mumbai, and an expert on human trafficking.

“The bill in its current form is a disaster. It needs to be redrafted completely,” he said.

South Asia, with India at its cen-tre, is the fastest-growing and the second-largest region for human trafficking after East Asia, accord-ing to the UN Office for Drugs and Crime.

While there are no official figures on the number of peo-ple trafficked within South Asia, activists say thousands of mostly women and children are traf-ficked in India, as well as from its poorer neighbours Nepal and Bangladesh.

Many are sold into forced mar-riage or bonded labour to work in fields, factories, brick kilns and as domestic servants, or are forced into the vice-trade.

SC rejects petition for CBI probe into Kerala racketIANS

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Supreme Court yesterday dismissed former Kerala Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan’s petition demand-ing a CBI probe into the Kozhikode ice-cream parlour case.

The alleged vice racket in the early 1990s involved an ice cream parlour in Kozhikode in Kerala and was flagged as “ice-cream parlour case” by the media. Several young girls allegedly fell victim to the racket.

Achuthanandan’s petition was filed in the apex court in October 2013 after the Kerala High Court disallowed it.

Achuthanandan has been following the case as, accord-ing to him, the prime accused in it is former Kerala minister P K Kunhalikutty.

In 2011, at the fag end of Achuthanandan’s tenure as Chief Minister, the case was reo-pened based on a new revelation by K A Rauf, a close relative of Kunhalikutty.

But yesterday, the apex court not only disallowed the petition but also came down heavily on the vet-eran politician, saying the court’s precious time should not be used to settle political scores.

Reacting to the verdict, Achuthanandan said he will con-sult legal experts to decide on what needs to be done next.

Kunhalikutty, expressing happi-ness over the verdict, told reporters: “This is the umpteenth time that I am being cleared in the more than two-decade-old case. I have noth-ing against Achuthanandan and I also know that it’s not just he who is behind this case and I know everything.”

Evans quits as

lead host on

BBC’s ‘Top Gear’LONDON: British broad-caster Chris Evans yesterday announced he was to step down as lead presenter of BBC’s hit motoring show “Top Gear” after only one series, which received mixed reviews. Evans replaced Jeremy Clarkson as main host last year following the latter’s high-profile bust up with a producer.

But the new for-mat has suffered from dwindling viewing fig-ures and claims of a rift between Evans and co-presenter Matt LeBlanc, the “Friends” star. “Step-ping down from Top Gear,” Evans, 50, wrote on Twitter. “Gave it my best shot but sometimes that’s not enough. The team are beyond brilliant, I wish them all the best.”

Italy starts

recovering

bodiesROME: Italy has started recovering the bodies of migrants from a small fishing boat that sank with more than 800 peo-ple more than a year ago, a spokesman said yester-day. The boat, which was at depth of 370 metres was salvaged recently. It was the worst sinking in the Mediterranean in dec-ades, according to 28 survivors rescued in 2016.

The overcrowded ves-sel, which had left from Libya, ran into a Portu-guese cargo ship sent to its aid. Nearly 220 bod-ies were recovered at the time in and around the wreck. After bringing up the boat, the Italian navy placed it late Friday at a special site near the Nato base at Augusta on the island of Sicily.

EUROPE 13TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

AP

LONDON: The head of the UK Inde-pendence Party (UKIP), Nigel Farage, resigned yesterday as party leader, the latest British political chief to tumble amid the political turmoil following the country’s vote to leave the Euro-pean Union.

Farage’s departure makes him the third major political figure to announce plans to step aside rather than take ownership of the tumultu-ous times ahead as Britain navigates its departure following the June 23

referendum. An odd power vacuum has replaced the boisterous predict-ability of British politics.

“During the referendum cam-paign, I said I want my country back. What I’m saying today is I want my life back, and it begins right now,” Farage told reporters.

Farage joins Conservative Prime Minister David Cameron, who said he will step aside to allow a successor to deal with the negotiation process to extricate Britain from the EU’s sin-gle market of some 500 million. The favorite to replace him, prominent “leave” campaigner Boris Johnson, declined to stand for the Conserva-tive leadership. The opposition Labour Party is having its own troubles, with leader Jeremy Corbyn clinging to office despite having lost a confidence vote by his party’s lawmakers.

Farage was instrumental in the campaign to have Britain leave the EU, championing the issue of immi-gration. A much-criticized campaign poster featuring thousands of migrants massed at the border alongside the words “Breaking Point,” typified fears that fueled some Brits’ decision to vote for a British exit, or Brexit.

“The victory for the ‘leave’ side in the referendum means that my

Farage steps down as UKIP leader

Nigel Farage (centre), the leader of the United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP), is approached by a man as he arrives for a news conference in central London, yesterday.

political ambition has been achieved,” Farage said. “I came into this strug-gle from business because I wanted us to be a self-governing nation, not to become a career politician.”

Farage said he would retain his seat in the European Parliament to see out the negotiations for Britain’s exit from

the EU. He defended his taunting of other lawmakers in the chamber last week, arguing he wanted Britain’s voice to be heard. Meanwhile, other politicians rushed to try to seize the moment and win a chance at power. British Energy Minister Andrea Leadsom launched her bid to lead the Conservative Party.

Reuters

BRUSSELS: The European Commission will propose today stricter rules on trusts to prevent tax evasion, according to draft legislation, in a move that Britain has long opposed and which was deferred until after the Brexit refer-endum. The EU push to identify owners of trusts has been in the making for years but British Prime Minister David Cameron had succeeded in blocking past attempts by EU authorities, citing a need for privacy for British trusts used to manage inheritances.

It appears to be the first move by the Commission to move ahead with legislation Britain will eventually have no say over following its decision to quit the European Union.

Other EU states believe that lack of transparency about ownership can turn trusts into vehicles for evading taxes.

The Commission draft proposal said trust beneficial owners will have to be recorded in registers that in many cases will be accessible to the public. Britain still has a vote in EU council discussions on new laws, but the vote to leave the Union on June 23 has left its influence very much weakened.

The new EU initiative follows the publication in April of the Panama Papers which revealed widespread tax avoidance practices by wealthy individuals transferring funds offshore through shell companies and other anonymous entities.

Over the past weeks, the British government lobbied the Commission again to avoid a crackdown on trusts. The EU executive postponed the deci-sion until after the June 23 referendum on EU membership.

Britain may ignore these new rules after completing its exit from the EU, a process that would take two years but has not formally started yet.

But EU leaders have repeatedly said after the Brexit vote that if Britain wants to maintain access to the EU internal market after completing its exit from the union, it has to fully apply European Union legislation.

“Remain” campaigners in Britain warned before the vote that the coun-try may end up is a position like Norway, which has to accept EU rules but has no say in formulating them.

The United Kingdom has so far exploited elements of EU legislation to avoid full enforcement of transparency rules.

“Requirements for the registration of beneficial owners of trusts have been clarified, to remove gaps in the legislation and national mismatches,” the draft Commission proposal said.

Existing registers of trust ownership are not easily accessible and are loosely controlled. To close this loophole, the Commission is proposing “to give public access to a set of information on companies and business-type trusts”.

Other types of trusts will have to reveal their beneficial ownership to people with “a legitimate interest,” the document said.

The Commission will formally adopt the legislative proposals at its weekly meeting on Tuesday. The EU Parliament and EU states will have to approve the measures, before they become law.

A swan family makes its way over the Strelasund lagoon off the coast of the Baltic Sea island of Ruegen, northeastern Germany, yesterday.

Following the leader

AFP

PARIS: Billionaire French industri-alist Serge Dassault (pictured), of aviation and software giant Dassault Group, went on trial yesterday for allegedly stashing millions of euros in tax havens.

The 91-year-old Dassault, who is also a member of the French Senate with the conservative Republicans party, is France’s third wealthiest per-son with a net worth estimated by Forbes magazine of $14.8bn.

The tycoon has been caught in a complex legal web, accused of crimes ranging from tax fraud to buying the votes of poor families of immigrant backgrounds in the southern Paris suburb of Corbeil-Essonnes where he was mayor for 14 years.

His trial yesterday relates to charges he stashed some ¤31m from French tax authorities in Luxembourg, Liechtenstein and the Virgin Islands.

The existence of the secret bank accounts emerged during a separate investigation into Dassault, over vote-buying in elections in 2008, 2009 and 2010 in Corbeil-Essonnes. Dassault was mayor of the town from 1995 to 2009. Dassault was charged in April 2014 with vote-buying, com-plicity in illegal election campaign financing and exceeding campaign spending limits.

He was charged alongside seven other people, including his friend and current mayor Jean-Pierre Bechter.

Dassault admits using his vast personal wealth to help residents of Corbeil, but denies any payouts were made in exchange for electoral

support. Witnesses who claim to have been paid have told investigators that in return for support, residents could expect money for driving lessons or help with finding accommodation subsidised by the local council.

In May a court heard the money has fuelled violence, threats and extor-tion in the small town. A close ally of Dassault’s Younes Bounounara was sentenced to 15 years in prison for attempted murder in May for shooting a man who filmed Dassault admitting he had given money to Bounounara.

French satirical newspaper Canard Enchaine later revealed that Dassault had given Bounounara ¤1.7m that he had not shared out as planned.

One of the other suspects in the vote-buying case, accountant Ger-ard Limat, testified in 2014 that he had used two Luxembourg accounts belonging to Dassault to distribute money during electoral campaigns in Corbeil-Essonnes.

Dassault denies the charges of vote-buying, and the case is still under investigation.

Reuters

PARIS: Alain Juppe, front runner to become French president in next year’s election, is offering the UK hope it can negotiate over the thorny issue of free movement of people under a new post-Brexit deal with the bloc, according to the Financial Times.

The newspaper also quoted him saying the border between the two countries should be moved back onto British soil - a foray into the contro-versy over how to deal with migrants camped at the French port of Calais once Britain has quit the EU.

Since Britons voted in a referendum

last month to leave, several European leaders have insisted it must continue to accept the free movement of work-ers if it wants to enjoy the benefits of a loosened link with the bloc.

Concerns about immigration were cited among the main reasons Britons voted to leave the EU. British politi-cians who campaigned for Brexit have said they expect to be able to secure a favourable new trade arrange-ment without having to accept free movement.

The Financial Times did not give a full quote on the subject of free move-ment from Juppe, whom polls show is likely to be the main candidate of the mainstream French right and is

front runner to win the presidency.“We need to find ways to co-oper-

ate, to find a solution to have the UK in the European market, one way or another - whether that is part of the European Economic Area or some-thing else,” he said.

Juppe also said the bilateral Le Touquet accord that allows French customs officials to work on British soil and vice versa should be renegotiated.

The Calais ‘jungle’ camp that has grown up in the past two years as thou-sands of migrants seek to avoid border controls there and reach Britain ille-gally through the Channel Tunnel is controversial on both sides of the Channel.

AFP

BRUSSELS: Nato is set to hold formal talks with Russia shortly after a summit in Warsaw this week where the alli-ance will endorse a military buildup following the Ukraine conflict, chief Jens Stoltenberg said yesterday.

In April the Nato-Russia Council held its first meeting since June 2014 when relations were effectively fro-zen, and the talks ended in “profound

disagreements” over Ukraine and other issues. “The Nato-Russia Council has an important role to play as a forum for dialogue” and could “increase pre-dictability”, Stoltenberg told reporters in Brussels ahead of the two-day sum-mit starting on Friday.

“That is why we are working with Russia to hold another meeting of the council shortly after the summit,” he added. In May Stoltenberg had said Nato member states were aiming to try for a meeting of the Nato-Russia

Council before the summit.“We were ready to have a meeting

before the summit but to be honest it doesn’t matter that much whether it is before or after. The important thing is that it takes place,” Stoltenberg said.

The next Nato-Russia meeting should address “risk reduction, trans-parency and predictability”, especially after incidents including the downing of a Russian plane on the Turkey-Syria border last year and the buzzing of a US ship in the Baltics, he said.

Leaders meeting in the Polish cap-ital this weekend will rubber-stamp the 28-nation alliance’s biggest mil-itary buildup since the Cold War in response to a newly resurgent Russia.

Russia’s 2014 intervention in Ukraine and its annexation of Crimea stung Nato out of its post-Cold War complacency and into a major revamp to boost its readiness and resources to meet a host of new security challenges.

Russia has reacted angrily to the Nato move, with President Vladimir

Putin saying the alliance is provoking an arms race “frenzy” in Europe and that Moscow would respond.

Russia bitterly opposes Nato’s expansion into its Soviet-era satel-lites and has said it will create three new divisions in its southwest region to meet what it has described as a danger-ous military build-up along its borders

It has also warned Finland it will respond if Helsinki opts to join Nato. Finland is set to attend the Warsaw summit as a very close partner country.

EU to table stern rules

Juppe urges talks on free movement

French billionaire

on trial for tax fraud

Nato-Russia talks after Warsaw summit: Stoltenberg

Farage’s departure makes him the third major political figure to announce plans to step aside rather than take ownership of the tumultuous times ahead.

Yesterday’s answer

Yesterday’s answer

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Hoy en la HistoriaJuly 5, 1946

1811: Venezuela declared its independence from Spain1994: Yasser Arafat returned to the West Bank after 27 years in exile2007: Scientists announced the discovery off Hawaii of a possible new species of cephalopod2015: Around 61% of voters in Greece backed the call to vote “no” in a referendum on the proposed budget cuts by creditors in return for urgently needed loans

The bikini, designed by former Renault engineer Louis Reard and named after the Pacific atoll where atom bombs were then being tested, was first modelled in Paris

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Water

Conceptis Sudoku: Conceptis Sudoku is a number-placing puzzle

based on a 9×9 grid. The object is to place the numbers 1 to 9 in

the empty squares so that each row, each column and each 3×3 box

contains the same number only once.

Intruder (2D/Thriller) 12:30, 2:20, 3:00, 4:10, 6:00, 7:30, 7:50, 9:40, 11:30 & 11:50pmNow You See Me 2 (2D/Comedy) 11:30am, 12:30, 1:30, 4:00, 2:00, 4:30, 6:30; 7:00, 7:30, 9:00, 9:30, 11:30, 11:50pm & 12:00 midnightAlbert (2D/Animation) 12:00noon, 1:40, 3:20, 5:00, 6:40 & 8:20pmThe Curse of Sleeping Beauty (2D/Thriller) 12:00noon, 1:50, 3:40, 5:30, 7:20, 9:10 & 11:00pmElvis & Nixon (2D/Comedy) 12:00, 4:00, 8:00 & 12:00midnightRabid Dogs (2D/Action) 2:00, 6:00, 10:00pmMoney Monster (2D/Thriller) 12:00pm, 4:20, 8:40pmThe Nice Guys (2D/Action) 2:00pm, 6:20 & 11:00pmGhosthunters (2D/Horror) 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 6:00, 8:00, 10:00pm & 12:00midnight.X-Men:Apocalypse (3D IMAX/Action) 12:00, 4:40 & 9:40pmWarcraft (3D IMAX/Action) 12:00pm, 4:50 & 9:20pm

School Bus (2D/Malayalam) 2:30 & 9:00pmIntruder (2D/Thriller) 11:15pmElvis & Nixon (2D/Comedy) 3:00 & 8:30pmThe Curse of Sleeping Beauty (2D/Thriller) 10:00pmRabid Dogs (2D/Action) 11:30pm

Now You See Me: The Second Act (2D/Comedy) 3:00pmGhosthunters (2D/Horror) 8:45 Jackson Durai (Tamil) 10:30pm

Ghosthunters (2D/Horror) 2:30 & 11:00pmIntruder (2D/Thriller) 3:00 & 9:00pmThe Curse of Sleeping Beauty (2D/Thriller) 8:30 & 10:45pmElvis & Nixon (2D/Comedy) 3:00 & 10:00pmRabid Dogs (2D/Action) 11:30pm

Now You See Me: The Second Act (2D/Comedy) 8:30pm

Kammati Paadam (Malayalam) 8:00 & 11:00pm

School Bus (2D/Malayalam) 8:00, 9:00, 11:00 & 12:00 midnightJackson Durai (Tamil) 8:00 & 11:00pm

School Bus (2D/Malayalam) 12:30, 3:00, 9:15 & 11:45pm Jackson Durai (Tamil) 12:00, 2.45, 8.45 & 11:30pm

Rabid Dogs (2D/Action) 12:00, 2:00, 4:00, 8:15, 10:15pm & 12:15am

BREAK TIME14 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

AMERICAS 17TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

American

student found

dead in RomeROME: The body of an American university stu-dent who went missing in Rome three days ago was found in the Tiber River yesterday, and police said they were not ruling out homicide.

Beau Solomon, 19, from Wisconsin, was due to start a study abroad programme at John Cabot University, whose campus is in the central Traste-vere district, which is near the river and popular with young people.

Russia conducts

‘aggressive’ moves

near US cruiserNEW YORK: A Russian warship sailed uncomfort-ably close to a US navy ship in the eastern Med-iterranean this week, conducting manoeu-vres that US army officials denounced as “aggres-sive” and “erratic.”

The Yaroslav Mudryy frigate came “unnecessar-ily close” as it passed the guided missile cruiser USS San Jacinto on Thursday, US European Command (EUCOM) said in a state-ment sent to AFP.

“Conducting aggres-sive, erratic manoeuvre and moving unnecessar-ily close to another ship in open seas is inconsistent with prudent seaman-ship,” EUCOM said in the statement, sent on Sunday.

But, it added, the San Jacinto “was never threat-ened” by the Russian ship.

12 dead in

Mexico resort

bus crash CANCUN: Twelve peo-ple including two children died and 30 were injured when their bus turned over yesterday near the Mexican tourist resort of Cancun, emergency serv-ices said.

The bus crashed in the early hours in a wooded area of the Carrillo Puerto municipality, said Reyes Silvestre, head of the local civil protection res-cue team. There were 50 passengers on board. The bus had driven some 200km from the Veracruz region headed for Can-cun. “Among the 12, there was a baby who died at the scene, and another child whose exact age we do not know, who died while being transferred to hospital,” Silvestre said.

15

Reuters

NEW YORK: Presumptive Repub-lican presidential nominee Donald Trump (pictured) yesterday defended a post he made two days earlier to social media that included an image depicting rival Hillary Clinton against a backdrop of cash and a Star of David, while Clinton called the image anti-Semitic.

In a tweet yesterday, Trump said he had not meant the six-pointed star to refer to the Star of David, which is a symbol of Judaism. Rather, he said, the star could have referred to a sher-iff’s badge, which is shaped similarly except for small circles at the ends of

each of its six points, or a “plain star.”His tweet came after Mic News

reported on Sunday that the image attacking Clinton - which included the

words: “History made” and, inside the star, “most corrupt candidate ever!” - had been shared on a neo-Nazi web forum called /pol/. Reuters confirmed the image was posted there on June 22 by viewing a link to an archived ver-sion of a /pol/ page, though the page has since been updated and the image removed.

“Donald Trump’s use of a blatantly anti-Semitic image from racist web-sites to promote his campaign would be disturbing enough, but the fact that it’s a part of a pattern should give vot-ers major cause for concern,” Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, said in a statement emailed to report-ers on Monday.

Trump posted and deleted the tweet on Saturday, then tweeted a

similar image in which the star was replaced by a circle. He lashed out at journalists for continuing to report on the original tweet.

“Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a

tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff’s Star, or plain star!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

The Nazis forced Jews to wear a Star of David on their clothing to iden-tify themselves during the Holocaust.

Saturday’s incident was the lat-est departure by Trump from a recent effort to appease Republicans wor-ried about his brash public persona by trying to appear more restrained. The Republican convention, where Trump is expected to be named the party’s official nominee for the November presidential election, is two weeks away.

In June, Trump fired his cam-paign manager Corey Lewandowski and began using a teleprompter to make speeches, hoping to show that

his campaign could be more inclu-sive after earlier mishaps, including his statement that Mexicans crossing the US border illegally were “rap-ists” and his mocking of a disabled reporter, which Clinton has begun using in attack ads against him.

Ed Brookover, a senior adviser to the Trump campaign, said in an interview on CNN on Monday the campaign felt it had “corrected” the issue about the star by deleting Trump’s original tweet.

Brookover said the image’s earlier appearance on the neo-Nazi forum was irrelevant.

“These images get posted and reposted and reposted on social media on many forums,” he said. “There was never any intention of anti-Semitism.”

Reuters

NEW YORK: The United States celebrated the July Fourth holiday yesterday with parades, baking con-tests and picnics draped in red, white and an extra layer of blue, as police ramped up patrols amid concerns about terrorism and gun violence.

Millions of Americans marked independence from Britain with celebrations as boisterous as a music-packed party by coun-try music legend Willie Nelson for 10,000 people at a race track in Austin, Texas and as staid as colo-nial-era costumed actors reading the Declaration of Independence at the National Archives in Washington.

“It’s a good day for reflecting on the positive things about America - the sense of freedom that you can go after and achieve whatever you want,” said Helen Donaldson, 48, the mother of a multi-ethnic family of four adopted teens living in Maple-wood, New Jersey.

Donaldson, a white Australian immigrant, cheered with her two New Jersey-born African American daughters, both 12 and dressed in white, white and blue, as a record-ing of the Star Spangled Banner played to kick off a children’s relay race. Nearby, in the baking con-test tent, 13-year-old Nate Fisher entered his cherry blueberry tart into competition.

“I have high hopes,” he said, flashing a smile. History may be in the making in the traditional hotdog-eating contest at New York’s Coney Island. Joey “Jaws” Chestnut - a world record holder who ate 69 hotdogs in 10 minutes - attempts to regain his Mustard Yellow Interna-tional Belt from Matt Stonie, who last year ended Chestnut’s run of eight

straight victories. With the holi-day taking place days after attacks in Baghdad, Dhaka and Istanbul, the New York Police Department deployed eight new “vapour wake” dogs, trained to sniff out explosives on a moving target in a crowd. Com-missioner Bill Bratton said on Friday there was no specific threat to New York City.

The department’s presence this holiday will be increased by nearly 2,000 new officers just days after they graduated on Friday from the New York City Police Academy.

“As we always have the capac-ity in New York to put out a lot of resources, that’s the name of the game, in dealing with terrorist threats,” Bratton said.

Police in Chicago, which has seen a spike in gun murders this year, announced a stepped up pres-ence with more than 5,000 officers on patrol over the long weekend, traditionally one of the year’s most violent, said Chicago Police Superin-tendent Eddie Johnson. Local media reported on Friday that 24 people had been shot over the past 24 hours, three fatally.

Dry weather forecasts across the country thrilled fireworks lov-ers, although some spots in Michigan have been so rain-starved that pyro-technic shows were canceled in a handful of communities near Detroit to prevent fires.

Over the weekend in New York, an incident being investigated as a possible fireworks mishap severely injured an 18-year-old Virginia man who stepped on an explosive in Central Park, police said. Police had previously given his age as 19.

In Compton, California, a 9-year-old girl’s hand had to be amputated when she was injured after unwittingly picking up a lit firework, local media said.

Reuters

BRASILIA: Brazil’s federal police served five arrest warrants and con-ducted search and seizure operations in three states yesterday, in the latest round of a sweeping corruption probe around state-run oil firm Petroleo Brasileiro SA.

Police said contractors paid at least 39m reais in bribes to execu-tives of Petrobras, as the oil company is known, and rigged public auctions at Petrobras’ research centre Cenpes.

Part of the funds allegedly

embezzled were directed to the left-ist Workers Party, the ruling party in Brazil from 2003 to May 2016. The party’s former treasurer, Paulo Fer-reira, was already in custody for a separate probe but now faces another arrest warrant for his alleged role in the Petrobras fraud, police said at a press conference.

No arrest warrants were issued against sitting politicians for the Monday raids, the 31st round of the two-year-long “Operation Car Wash.”

The investigation, which has rocked Brazil and led to the arrests of dozens of political and corporate leaders, uncovered a deeply-rooted

corruption and price-fixing scheme at Petrobras and other state-led companies. Though politicians from various of Brazil’s biggest par-ties have been ensnared in the probe, the fallout from the scandal helped topple the Workers Party because it undermined much of the popular and legislative support for Dilma Rouss-eff, who was suspended as president in May. Rousseff, who faces impeach-ment proceedings in Brazil’s Senate over allegations of irregularities in the government budget, was replaced by interim President Michel Temer, a centrist and veteran legislator who was her vice president.

Trump blames media for ‘star’ tweet uproar“Dishonest media is trying their absolute best to depict a star in a tweet as the Star of David rather than a Sheriff’s Star, or plain star!” Trump wrote on Twitter.

A view of the Fountains of Bellagio in Las Vegas, Nevada, yesterday.

Water projectiles US celebrates Fourth

of July amid security

Brazilian police target former Workers

Party treasurer in Petrobras probe

AFP

PARAGUAY: A drought in northern Paraguay has driven thousands of thirsty alligators to crowd around lakes and wells, scaring off cattle from the dwindling water sources, environmentalists and locals said.

Parched leathery corpses of the reptiles lie on the cracked earth near the Pilcomayo River where the bor-ders of Paraguay, Argentina and Bolivia meet.

The Chaco region is suffering its worst drought in 19 years, Pub-lic Works Minister Ramon Jimenez Gaona said recently.

Trying to survive, the reptiles are on the move. “When they find themselves in very dry conditions they tend to walk long distances in the wood in search of food,” said Aida Luz Aquino, a biologist with the Par-aguay branch of the World Wildlife Fund.

The alligators are scaring off local residents and livestock. “Cat-tle cannot approach to drink for fear of being attacked by alligators,” said Alcides Gonzalez, a local herdsman.

Dozens of environmentalists have come to the region to try to help.

The head of the state environ-ment department Rolando De Barros insisted “there are different parts of the river where there is still a lot of water.” But Aquino rejected sugges-tions that the alligators be rounded up and taken away from areas where they pose a threat.

“It is not advisable to move alliga-tors from one place to another,” she said. “Some of them have already gone back into the woods. Others are waiting by the water to save energy

and stress. Moving them would stress them more.”

The Pilcomayo’s waters usually diminish at this time of year.

But this time authorities have been accused of failing to dredge sediment from the riverbed which has blocked up its course in places.

President Horacio Cartes said it was a “critical situation.” But he accused the media of exaggerating a natural phenomenon “that happens all the time.

Drought kills Paraguay’s alligators

Alligators are pictured stuck in the mud of the dry Pilcomayo River in Paraguay yesterday.

Reuters

UNITED STATES: US Secretary of State John Kerry has offered Bangla-deshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina help to investigate those behind the killing of 20 people at a Dhaka res-taurant, as police examine how the young, affluent and educated attack-ers were radicalised.

Police have said all six Islamist gunmen killed in Friday’s attack, unprecedented in Bangladesh for its scale and brutality, were locals, leaving authorities rattled by the apparent spread of extremist ide-ology in a country until recently viewed as a relatively stable secu-lar democracy.

Islamic State (IS) has claimed responsibility for the attack and posted pictures of five grinning fight-ers in front of a black flag who it said were involved in the attack.

Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan rejected those claims, blaming Jamaat-ul-Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), a local militant group which

claims to represent IS but has no proven links. Kerry spoke to Hasina on the telephone and offered FBI help in the investigation.

“The Secretary (Kerry) encour-aged the government of Bangladesh to conduct its investigation in accordance with the highest inter-national standards and offered immediate assistance from US law enforcement, including the FBI,” US State Department spokesman John Kirby said in a statement.

Khan told Reuters in an inter-view that home-grown militants responsible for a wave of killings against individual members of minority groups in the past year and a half were to blame. He said three of the six attackers had been miss-ing for six months.

The gunmen stormed into the restaurant in the diplomatic area late on Friday, before killing at least 20 people once they had separated foreigners from locals. Six were killed and a seventh suspect was captured and is in hospital. Nine Ital-ians, seven Japanese, an American and an Indian were among the dead.

Kerry offers Bangladesh

help to probe attack

MORNING BREAK16 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

FAJR

SHOROOK

ZUHR

ASR

MAGHRIB

ISHA

03.19 am04.48 am

11.38 am03.02 pm

06.31 pm08.01 pm

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HIGH TIDE 04:30 - 18:00LOW TIDE 00:30 - 10:30

Hot daytime with some clouds and slight dust at

places at times.

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The bridge which links F-Ring Road to Salwa Road via Woqod Round-about in Abu Hamour opened to traffic today. The Peninsula / Baher Amin

Argentina’s last polar bear diesAFP

BUENOS AIRES: Argentina’s last polar bear, Arturo, has died aged 31, officials at the controversial zoo where he lived said yesterday.

Arturo was the latest of more than 60 animals to die over recent months at the zoo in the western city of Mendoza.

Other animals were struck down by infections blamed on poor conditions at the zoo, but Arturo’s death was linked to old age.

Environmentalists had cam-paigned for years for him to be transferred to a zoo in Canada.

Arturo died on Sunday “due to a blood circulation imbalance” which caused a general decline in the bear who was already weak due to old age, the zoo said in a statement.

Arturo was brought to Argen-tina from the United States 23 years ago.

IANS

NEW YORK: Be warned if you are an avid selfie-taker since capturing that perfect selfie can put you at risk of developing “selfie elbow” which is slowly becoming a real medical con-dition, says a report.

Like tennis elbow or golfer’s elbow, an addiction to selfie-taking can cause a pain in your primary pic-snapping elbow, a media report said on Monday.

In a recent case,award-winning journalist and NBC’s Today show host Hoda Kotb went to a doctor

complaining of pain in her elbow, elle.com reported.

“I went to the orthopaedist and he said, ‘are you playing tennis or ping-pong?’ I told him I was taking selfies,” Kotb was quoted as saying.

“When you take the picture, your arm is up, bent in a weird way and you just click, click, click -- think about how many you take: 20, 30, or 40. Selfie elbow, everyone has it,” added Kotb, who is also a well-doc-umented figure on photo-sharing website Instagram.

Her doctor recommended icing her elbow and certain exercises to help relieve the soreness.

“Basically, the interface between technology and the human body sometimes causes injuries of over-exuberance,” Jordan Metzl, sports medicine physician at the Hospital for Special Surgery in the US, was quoted as saying in a Cosmopolitan report.

The problem is simply overuse. “You get selfie elbow from taking

too many selfies, as you put too much stress on the muscle and it irritates the area where the muscle comes off the bone and you get this inflamma-tory response,” Metzl added.

The condition can be treated by taking pain relievers like Advil or Motrin for the inflammation and

putting on some ice as well as stretch-ing the muscles.

“Maybe, people should alternate their arms -- start spreading the load,” Metzl pointed out.

From gaming and chatting to selfie-taking, texting and tweeting, there has been a significant rise in injuries in teenagers than before.

“For those who are dedicated selfie-takers, using a selfie stick can work like an arm extender and takes the pressure off the elbow,” suggested Charles Kim, musculoskeletal rehab specialist at Rusk Rehabilitation at NYU Langone Medical Center in the US.

‘Selfie elbow’ becoming new medical condition

E-nose that can smell pesticides and nerve gas

IANS

LONDON: Researchers from the University of Leuven (KU Leu-ven) in Belgium have built a very sensitive electronic nose with metal-organic frameworks (MOFs) that can detect pesticides and nerve gas in very low concen-trations.

“MOFs are like microscopic sponges. They can absorb quite a lot of gas into their minus-cule pores,” said post-doctoral researcher Ivo Stassen.

The chemical sensor can easily be integrated into existing elec-tronic devices.

“You can apply the MOF as a thin film over the surface of, for instance, an electric circuit. Therefore, it’s fairly easy to equip a smartphone with a gas sensor for pesticides and nerve gas,” added professor Rob Ameloot.

The best known electronic nose is the breathalyser. As drivers breathe into the device, a chemi-cal sensor measures the amount of alcohol in their breath.

This chemical reaction is then converted into an electronic signal, allowing the police officer to read off the result.

“We created a MOF that absorbs the phosphonates found in pesticides and nerve gases. This means you can use it to find traces of chemical weapons such as sarin or to identify the residue of pesti-cides on food,” added Stassen.

This MOF is the most sensitive gas sensor to date for these dan-gerous substances.

Expo on Muhammad Ali to open in Qatar By Fazeena Saleem

The Peninsula

DOHA: The first exhibition dedi-cated to the boxing legend and activist Muhammad Ali, since his death, opens in Qatar on Thursday at the Museum of Islamic Art (MIA).

‘Muhammad Ali: Tribute to a Legend,’ the temporary exhibition is curated by Qatar Museums’ 3-2-1 Olympic and Sports Museum and presents a unique collection of arte-facts from the boxing legend’s career.

The significant artefacts include Ali’s momentous ‘draft exemption’ let-ter exhibited for the first time- on loan - on the 50th anniversary since he wrote it. In this letter, addressed the

US Selective Service Directorate on August 23, 1966, Ali refused his ‘draft call up’ to the US armed forces to fight in Vietnam.

Arguably it is a letter which changed history.

The exhibition also showcases photographs and a video of Ali’s visit to Qatar in 1971 and 1990.

The exhibition held under the patronage of Qatar Museums Chair-person, HE Sheikha AI Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa AI Thani, is on show in MIA’s fourth floor eastern gallery.

“This is the first significant exhibition dedicated to the A walk through the exhibition will see great movements of Ali’s career , includ-ing photography from Ali’s outdoor

exhibition bout at the Doha Stadium in 1971,” said Mohammed Al Othman, Director of Public and International relations at Qatar Museums.

The significant Other notable memorabilia on display in ‘ Muham-mad Ali: Tribute to a Legend’ spans Ali’s journey to the 1960 Rome Olym-pics (where he won a gold medal); Ali’s two world title winning bouts against Sonny Liston in 1964; the ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ fight in Kinshasa, Zaire in 1974, where Ali regained his heavy-weight crown from George Foreman; and his final world title winning fight

against Leon Spinks in New Orleans in 1978.

Khalid Yousef AI Ibrahim, Con-sultant at Qatar Museums, said, “We are pleased to organise this inno-vative exhibition and to show our important collection ahead of it mov-ing into the 3-2-1 Olympic and Sports museum’s permanent home at Khal-ifa International Stadium. For many in Qatar and throughout the Arab world, Muhammad Ali truly was ‘the great-est’ - an icon and inspiration as an athlete and a man. This retrospective celebrates that, and his life following

his sad passing.” Ali, ne Cassius Clay, died on June 3

at the age of 74. He is widely regarded as one of the most significant and celebrated sports figures of the 20th century.

From early in his career, Ali was known as an inspiring figure both inside and outside the ring.

He made his professional debut on October 29, 1960, winning a six-round decision over Tunney Hunsaker.

From then until the end of 1963, Clay amassed a record of 19–0 with 15 wins by knockout.

Mohamed Al Othman, Director, Public and International Relations, Qatar Museum (left), and Susan Rees, Head of Conservation, 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum, addressing the media at the press preview of “Muhammad Ali: Tribute to a Legend” exhibition curated by the 3-2-1 Qatar Olympic and Sports Museum at the MIA.

Gloves worn by both Muhammad Ali (right) and Sonny Liston (left) in the famous May 25, 1965 “Phantom Punch” bout in Lewiston, Maine, the most controversial sports event in history. Pic: Salim M / The Peninsula.

Photography festival

People visit the exhibition “Western Camarguais” as part of the photography festival “Rencontres de la photographie d’Arles 2016” in Arles, southern France, yesterday.

Poland to rejig $35bn private pension fund industry

PAGE | 18 PAGE | 19

Gulf Craft launches second

award-winning yacht

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016 • 30 RAMADAN 1437 @peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatarthepeninsulaqatar

Petrochemicals to weigh on GCC’s Q2 earningsBy Satish Kanady

The Peninsula

DOHA: GCC companies’ aggregate second quarter (Q2, 16) profits are expected to decline 10 percent year-on-year, led by 40 percent fall in the petrochemical sector. While the banks expect a modest quarter across the region, real estate sector is likely to witness a weaker performance from the hospitality divisions, Investment Bank SICO “GCC Equities-Quarterly Result Preview’ noted yesterday.

The SICO, which covered 58 blue chip companies in the GCC, including

six in Qatar, said the net interest mar-gin (NIM) will weigh on the second quarter performance of GCC banks. Commercial Bank of Qatar, Doha

Bank, QIB and QNB are the Qatar-based banks covered by the SICO.

During the second quarter, QNB is expected to benefit from Finsbank consolidation.

QIB’s strong lending book growth is expected to continue, while Doha Bank’s higher fee income and NIM will support its earnings.

On the petrochemicals sector, the report noted: “On an aggregate, we forecast earnings to decline 40 per-cent YoY led by lower product prices and rising feedstock cost after lifting of energy subsidies. Real estate sector expect weaker performance from the hospitality divisions. Low single digit growth in operating profit is expected on YoY basis.

Lower urea, steel and commod-ity chemical prices are expected to impact the earnings of Industries Qatar (IQ).

Lower product prices across the board and shutdown are likely to impact the earnings of Saudi Ara-bia’s Petrochem.

The region’s telecom sector’s YoY earning is expected to boost in sec-tor from Ooredoo Qatar and Etisalat. Forex impact is expected to be lower for Etisalat while positive for Oore-doo. Ooredoo is to benefit YoY from strength in Myanmar kyat and Indo-nesian rupiah, leading to forex gain on YoY basis.

Ooredoo’s net profit is projected to grow 36 percent on YoY. On the

Etisalat’s Q2 performance, the SICO analysts noted that the devaluation of Egyptian pound is likely to be offset by benefit from Euro weakness. Oth-erwise, performance will be in line with the first quarter.

The building materials sector is likely to expeerience steep YoY decline in earnings following weak demand, weak pricing power and higher costs.

“We expect RAK Ceramic to main-tain its above industry peer earnings trend with a 2 percent YoY net income growth.”

Consumers sector is expecting a slowdown in discretionary sales and contraction in Saudi players’ mar-gins as a result of lower subsidies.

Abu Dhabi-based food and Bever-ages company Agthia is to report strong numbers driven by decent sales growth and improvement in margins.

On the Logistics and Transpor-tation sector, the SICO analysts said Aramex will continue to benefit from organic growth in express segments as well as growth from acquisitions. Air Arabia is to have a weak quarter due to seasonality.

The GCC healthcare sector is expecting a YoY growth in Saudi Arabia’s Mouwasat and Dallah earn-ings over Q2, 15 driven by additional capacity. Slump in aluminium and fertiliser prices is to drive steep YoY decline in the earnings of industri-als sector.

QIB’s strong lending book growth is expected to continue, while Doha Bank’s higher fee income and NIM will support its earnings.

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Chinese group HNA Chairman Wang Jian (right) and Pierre et Vacances Chairman Gerard Bremond shake hands during a signing ceremony in Paris yesterday about joint projects of the two groups.

HNA and Pierre et Vacances join hands

BUSINESS18 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Volkswagen brand chief says no plan to step downReuters

WOLFSBURG: Volkswagen’s brand chief, Herbert Diess (pictured), is not planning to resign even though he is the subject of investigation by public prosecutors, he told a German news-paper. The carmaker said late last month that prosecutors in Braun-schweig were investigating Diess as part of a probe into whether Europe’s carmaker violated disclosure and market manipulation rules by tak-ing too long to inform investors it had cheated emissions tests.

“It’s not up for debate,” Diess told Sueddeutsche Zeitung in an inter-view published on Monday, when asked if he had thought about step-ping down as a result of the probe.

He added the investigation had taken him by surprise and that he had first heard about it when asked by the media. Volkswagen’s rep-utation will take 12-18 months to recover from the crisis, although a strategic turnaround will take up to 14 years, Diess added.

The company needed to shift its strategic focus to employ more information technology and battery experts, Diess said. The shift would take “two vehicle generations” to be implemented, he said. Modern cars have a lifecycle of around seven years. “We must become more effi-cient, or else we won’t be able to afford the transformation,” he added.

Meanwhile, Volkswagen’s CEO has rejected calls for the carmaker to compensate customers in Europe over the ‘Dieselgate’ emissions scandal along the lines of its $15bn deal in the United States, telling a

German newspaper a similar set-tlement would be inappropriate and unaffordable.

Europe’s Industry Commissioner Elzbieta Bienkowska last week called on Volkswagen to also compensate European owners of its diesel-pow-ered cars, saying it would be unfair for them to be treated differently from US customers just because of a different legal system. “We have a different situation here (in Europe),” Matthias Mueller was quoted as say-ing by Welt am Sonntag. Mueller also said while VW was on a solid financial footing, replicating the US deal in Europe would be tough for VW to cope with financially. “You don’t have to be a mathematician to realise that compensation at arbi-trarily high levels would overwhelm Volkswagen,” he said.

Mueller said he had spoken to Bienkowska in Brussels this week about his views. “In the US the (emis-sion) limits are stricter, which makes the fix more complicated. And tak-ing part in the buyback is voluntary (for customers), which is not the case in Germany, for example,” he said.

Gulf Craft launches second award-winning Majesty 122

The Peninsula

DOHA: Gulf Craft, the world’s innova-tive builder of luxury yachts and leisure boats, is set to announce the launch of the second edition of its award-win-ning Majesty 122 superyacht.

The sale took place in collaboration with Gulf Craft’s exclusive Australian

distributor, Australian Superyachts, acting for the buyer, and the superyacht is due for final delivery in August 2016.

The 37.5-metre superyacht is pow-ered by twin Caterpillar C32 engines, and complies with RINA Commer-cial Yacht Charter Class and Cayman Islands MCA LY3 standards.

Since the yacht was built specifi-cally for the Australian charter market, it also adheres to Australian Maritime Safety Authority (AMSA) Class 2C, 1E, and 1D Commercial Vessel Survey regulations.

With stunning exterior and inte-rior styling courtesy the Gulf Craft Design Studio, the Majesty 122 (M/Y Ghost II) offers luxurious accommo-dation for up to 12 guests across five en suite staterooms, features a jet black gel coat hull, and will be delivered with a metallic silver superstructure. The superyachtwill be based in Sydney and offered for charter on the East Coast of Australia.

Gulf Craft CEO, Erwin Bamps, said: “With commodious interiors, state-of-the-art technology, and pan-oramic windows offering breathtaking

views of gliding seascapes, the Maj-esty 122 is essentially a floating resort that promises passengers a memora-ble journey. The superyacht combines powerful engineering with contempo-rary design, allowing holidaymakers to take the home-away-from-home

experience to the world’s most exotic cruising destinations.”

Australian Superyachts’ Manag-ing Director, Richard Morris, added: “The Majesty 122 is ideally suited to the Australian market, offering versatility for coastal cruising and South Pacific

adventures. Its spacious layout makes it perfect for extended private cruis-ing for family and friends, and it is also optimised for short corporate cruises with more than 100 guests. We are con-fident that the Majesty 122 willreceive a warm welcome on the Australian

charter market.”Since its global launch in March

2015, the Majesty 122 has shown an early start to success. Having won the prestigious Best Asian Built Yacht award at the 2015 Asia Pacific Boat-ing Awards,the Best Yacht Installation award at the 2015 CEDIA Awards, and the Quality and Value Award at the 2016 World Superyacht Awards, the Majesty 122 is atestament to Gulf Craft’s ongoing commitment to deliv-ering world-class craft.

The Majesty 122 has unrivalled lounging areas for entertaining, includ-ing two decks with lavish interiors, an extended balcony and a spacious fly-bridge. The superyacht also offers a fully equipped galley, and a garage able to house a Castoldi16-foot tender and a jet ski.

Established in 1999, Sydney-based Australian Superyachts offers a com-plete range of services to the Australian superyacht sector, including Gulf Craft sales, superyacht management, tech-nical project management, crew placement, and serves as a charter cen-tral agency and yacht agency.

The 37.5-metre superyacht is powered by twin Caterpillar C32 engines, and complies with RINA Commercial Yacht Charter Class and Cayman Islands MCA LY3 standards.

Deloitte predicts revolutionary disruptive

technologies in telecommunications

The Peninsula

DOHA: Deloitte in the Middle East has launched new services which provide support to clients in man-aging revolutionary disruptive technologies.

The service has been launched in collaboration with Deloitte’s Europe, Middle East and Africa Center of Excellence for Telecom Engineer-ing, headquartered in Portugal.

These technologies and Deloitte’s new offerings to Middle East clients were presented at the 5G and Long Term Evolution (LTE) World Middle East and North Africa (Mena) 2016 conference held in Dubai.

“Every 20 years or so, telecom networks experience huge advances in the way they are planned, imple-mented and operated. Key industry revolutions include moving from analog to digital (1960), from copper to fiber (1980), and fixed to mobile

(2000),” said Pedro Marques Tavares, Associate Partner and Leader for Telecom Engineering Center of Excel-lence at Deloitte. “We are currently witnessing the move from physical to virtual, which Deloitte predicts will be the new revolutionary move by 2020, through two disruptive technologies: network functioning virtualisation (NFV) and software-defined networking (SDN).”

“Deloitte in the Middle East is constantly working to expand its range of services and offerings to clients challenged with new technol-ogies and disruptions,” said Rajeev Lalwani, Lead Partner, Technology Consulting, Deloitte in the Mid-dle East. “Our collaboration with Deloitte’s Center of Excellence for Telecom Engineering will provide our clients with cutting-edge tools to adapt and benefit from these disruptions.”

SDN is an emerging architecture of computer networking that allows administrators to manage network

services with a higher-level func-tionality. Tavares shared how SDN will boost network efficiency and how the implementation of SDN will offer new products and services such as: Bandwidth Calendaring, Band-width on demand, Real-time network self-service control, and Context-dependent Quality of Service (QoS).

Deloitte also led a panel focused on Long Term Evolution in the Mid-dle East and North Africa based on current market assessment and pro-jections. The discussion aimed at assessing: (1) how the MENA mar-ket fares compared with global deployments of LTE-Advanced, (2) the impact of emerging technologies and its corresponding effect on LTE players, and (3) subsequent security related issues.

“This is the first time we partici-pate in the 5G World Series and it has reconfirmed our belief that the Mid-dle East Telecom market is ready to make needed advances ahead of the new telecom revolution” said Tavares.

Fiat Chrysler and Honda post solid Canadian sales

Reuters

TURIN: Fiat Chrysler Automobiles and Honda Motor Co Ltd both yes-terday reported a 2 percent rise in June Canadian sales, compared to the same month in 2015, because of increased demand for light trucks. FCA Canada reported a total of 27,776 vehicles sold in June, on an annual basis, while Honda said its Canadian sales rose to 16,905 units during the month.

For the first half of 2016, FCA Canada said in a release it sold 152,439 vehicles, a record high for the automaker. “At the mid-year point, FCA Canada is on pace for another record-setting sales year,” said Dave Buckingham, Chief Operating Officer, FCA Canada, in a release. In May, Canadian auto sales slipped 1.5 percent on an annual basis, the first monthly decline since December 2015.

Shell seeks $2bn from Aramco in Motiva exitReuters

LONDON/HOUSTON: Royal Dutch Shell has asked Saudi Aramco for up to $2bn as part of the breakup of their giant Motiva Enterprises refining joint venture in the United States, the lat-est stumbling point in a partnership fraught with tension.

The payment would be compensa-tion for the Saudi company retaining a larger share of the nearly two dec-ade-old JV. Its split was announced in March and is expected to be completed

in October but disagreements over the payment could postpone the final date, sources close to the talks said.

Under the agreement announced in March, Aramco will take con-trol of Motiva’s largest US refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, and retain 26 distribution terminals. That underscored Aramco’s strategy to expand its global refining foot-print in order to secure markets for its crude oil and could also be part of its ambitious public offer-ing plan. Shell will become the sole owner of Motiva’s Louisiana refiner-ies in Convent and Norco, where it also

operates a chemicals plant, as well as Shell-branded gasoline stations in Florida, Louisiana and the northeast-ern United States.

Shell is focusing on developing its global chemicals business but also plans to sell $30bn of its assets by 2018 to finance its $54bn acquisition of BG Group in February, which will include several refining assets.

The Anglo-Dutch company is seeking $1bn to $2bn from Aramco to compensate for the Saudi company keeping a bigger stake in the JV, two sources close to the talks said.

Aramco nevertheless believes the

fee should be significantly lower, they added. A Shell spokesman declined to comment. An Aramco spokesperson said the company does not comment on speculation. Shell has indicated in the past it will receive a cash payment from Aramco as part of the deal, but the size of the cash consideration has not been disclosed before.

The payment is primarily due to Aramco retaining a larger refining capacity than Shell — the Port Arthur plant can process 603,000 barrels per day (bpd) while the two Louisi-ana plants jointly have a combined 473,000 bpd capacity.

SriLankan Airlines launches Arabic

website for Mideast travellersThe Peninsula

DOHA: SriLankan Airlines, the national carrier of Sri Lanka and a member the ‘One World’ alliance, has launched its Arabic website, provid-ing its Middle Eastern travellers an enhanced and personalised brows-ing experience.

The new website (http://www.sri-lankan.com/en_uk/ae) is equipped with advanced features to provide a hassle-free and comprehensive web experience, allowing the users the convenience of fulfilling travel pre-liminaries at their fingertips, offering them the opportunity to independ-ently control their own bookings. In addition to that, travellers can also

instantly claim the online offers that SriLankan launches and make their payments via credit card, earning more credit in the process.

In celebration of the launch of its Arabic site in the native language, the carrier offers its passengers a discount of 30 percent on all online bookings out of Qatar, Saudi Ara-bia, Kuwait and UAE, to SriLankan’s directly operated destinations right in time for Ramadan celebrations.

Bookings can be made from the June 1 till July 10, 2016 while the travel is restricted between July 25, 2016 and November 30, 2016.

This seasonal offer is the ideal chance for Middle Eastern travel-lers to go out on a vacation or for purchasing air tickets for expatri-ate workers.

Desiree Premachandra, Airlines’ Country Manager (UAE), said: “In our network and market expansions, the Middle East plays a vital role. We are delighted to reach to our passengers in the region with the Arabic site, which will provide them a more com-prehensive and enjoyable browsing experience. We are confident that this will significantly contribute to make SriLankan Airlines a preferred car-rier among Middle Eastern travellers.”

A key feature of the website is the ease with which customers can purchase tickets online and manage their bookings through its simplified user interface to check-in, pre-order meals, request for child care or spe-cial assistance, make purchases from the duty free collection among many such facilities.

Gulf Craft CEO Erwin Bamps (right) and Majesty 122 superyacht.

BUSINESS 19TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Bloomberg

LONDON: Poland’s government plans to dismantle the nation’s privately owned pension fund industry, calling it ineffective and saying a revamp will boost household savings and prop up

the economy.In Poland’s biggest pension

overhaul since 1999, the assets of the 139bn-zloty ($35bn) indus-try will probably be transferred to private retirement accounts and “new enterprises building the strength” of the economy, the Development Ministry in War-saw said yesterday. The aim is to boost pensions savings by up to 22bn zloty annually and give Poles incentives to opt for long-term investment. Authorities plan to work on the proposal over the next 12 months before the pro-gram would go into effect at the start of 2018. “The plan is to give the assets of pension funds to Poles and build Polish capital,” Deputy Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (pictured) said.

“Private pension funds haven’t worked out, the system isn’t serv-ing anyone, doesn’t provide higher pensions and has failed to sup-port growth.”

The revamp would help the eight-month-old government fulfill its election promise by funding state-backed invest-ments and achieving what ruling

party leader Jaroslaw Kaczynski on Saturday called a new “eco-nomic order” based on wealth redistribution and a rejection of free-market reforms. The Law & Justice government has already imposed the European Union’s highest levies on banks and rolled out unprecedented child benefits. Its standoff with the EU over democratic stand-ards has prompted the country’s first-ever credit rating downgrade and spooked investors. Poland’s privately run pension funds, set up in 1999 to provide long-term financing for the nation’s com-panies and make Warsaw into a regional capital hub, own a fifth of the shares traded on the War-saw stock exchange. They were stripped of 51 percent of their

bond holdings in 2014, when the previous administration sought to reduce the country’s debt burden.

The WIG20 index extended its 12-month decline to 25 per-cent and was down 1 percent at 12 pm yesterday. That compares with a 11 percent decline in the MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the past year and the gauge’s 0.4 percent gain Monday, adjusted for currency swings. Poland’s largest bank PKO SA slipped as much as 3.6 percent, while PKN Orlen SA, the country’s top refiner, slumped 2.5 percent. “The market is afraid because of the lack of detail — the key issue is the state’s share in managing these funds and this hasn’t been made precise,” Jaro-slaw Lis, head of equities at BPH TFI SA, said.

QE Index 9,980.11 0.56 %

QE Total Return Index 16,147.15 0.56 %

QE Al Rayan Islamic Index 3,861.28 0.81 %

QE All Share Index 2,772.23 0.47 %

QE All Share Banks & Financial Services 2,679.3 0.30 %

QE All Share Industrials 3,054.61 0.82 %

QE All Share Transportation 2,470.97 0.30 %

QE All Share Real Estate 2,538.23 1.38 %

QE All Share Insurance 4,020.56 0.39 %

QE All Share Telecoms 1,107.71 0.76 %

QE All Share Consumer Goods & Services 6,507.77 1.39 %

QE INDICES SUMMARY QATAR STOCK EXCHANGE

QE MARKET SUMMARY COMPARISON

GOLD AND SILVER

WORLD STOCK INDICES

04-07-2016 Today 03-07-2016 Previous dayIndex 9,980.11 9,924.47

Change 55.64 39.25

% 0.56 0.40

YTD% 4.31 4.84

Volume 2,335,630 1,684,795

Value (QAR) 106,429,932.32 67,239,360.23

Trades 1,767 1,232

Up 27 | Down 10| Unchanged 02

GOLD QR158.4816 per grammeSILVER QR2.3848 per gramme

Index Day’s Close Pt Chg % Chg Year High Year LowAll Ordinaries 5365.2 38.164 0.72 5489.8 4762.1

Cac 40 Index/D 4260.55 -13.41 -0.31 4607.69 3892.46

Dj Indu Average 17949.37 19.38 0.11 18167.6 15370.3

Hang Seng Inde/D 21059.2 264.83 1.27 21794.84 18278.8

Iseq Overall/D 5718.86 -31.1 -0.54 6791.68 5286.65

Karachi 100 In/D 37966.76 183.22 0.48 39039.67 29785

Nikkei 225 Index 15775.8 93.32 0.6 18951.12 14864.01

S&P 500 Index/D 2102.95 4.09 0.19 2132.82 1810.1

EXCHANGE RATECurrency Buying Selling

US$ QR 3.6305 QR 3.6500

UK QR 4.8074 QR 4.8745

Euro QR 4.0280 QR 4.0843

CA$ QR 2.8041 QR 2.8589

Swiss Fr QR 3.7166 QR 3.7684

Yen QR 0.0352 QR 0.0359

Aus$ QR 2.7180 QR 2.7721

Ind Re QR 0.0537 QR 0.0547

Pak Re QR 0.0344 QR 0.0352

Peso QR 0.0770 QR 0.0786

SL Re QR 0.0246 QR 0.0251

Taka QR 0.0461 QR 0.0470

Nep Re QR 0.0336 QR 0.0342

SA Rand QR 0.2486 QR 0.2536

Reuters

DUBAI: Cairo’s main stock index rose 2.9 percent yes-terdy on expectations of a further currency devaluation this fiscal year, while Gulf stock markets closed on a strong footing before the Eid holidays.

On Sunday, Tarek Amer, Egypt’s central bank gov-ernor, was quoted in local papers saying the currency should be a market based one where demand and supply will set the price. Economists now believe it is inev-itable there will be another currency devaluation in the current fiscal year. This boosted the stock market, where most of the shares that traded posted gains and local institutional investors were net buyers, bourse data showed.

Companies that are set to benefit from a currency devaluation are tourist-related, export-oriented and real-estate focused. Egyptian Resorts jumped 7.1 percent and developer Talaat Mostafa Group rose 9.1 percent.

Qatar’s Barwa Real Estate kicked off the Gulf’s sec-ond quarter results season and shares in the developer gained 1.8 percent after it reported a near-trebling of second-quarter net profit. Doha’s main index rose 0.6 percent.

In the Gulf, Abu Dhabi’s index added 0.6 percent, its highest close in 9-1/2 weeks. The index had risen on Sunday after the boards of First Gulf Bank and National Bank of Abu Dhabi approved a proposed merger, aim-ing to complete it in the first quarter of 2017.

NBAD was up 2.0 percent, extending a 4.0 percent gain from the previous session. FGB was flat after clos-ing 2.0 percent higher on Sunday.

Abu Dhabi National Energy added 2.0 percent. Shares in the energy company, which is majority owned by the government, have gained 6.0 percent since Abu Dhabi said it would merge its two sovereign wealth funds Mubadala Development and International Petro-leum Investment Co.

Dubai’s index gained 1.0 percent, with momentum building up in the final hour of trade as investors took positions in mid-sized shares ahead of Eid holidays. Dubai Parks and Resorts added 0.6 percent. Builder Arabtec jumped 2.9 percent. Saudi Arabia’s stock mar-ket was closed for Eid holiday and stock markets in the UAE, Qatar, Kuwait, Oman, Bahrain will be closed as of today and will resume trade on July 9.

Gulf stock markets close on strong footing before Eid holidays

INTERNATIONAL MARKETS - A LIST OF SHARES FROM THE WORLD

A C C-A/D 1603.85 -11.25 8693

Aarti Drugs-B/D 470 3.9 2128

Aban Offs-A/D 213 0.3 250148

Aegis Logis-B/D 126.05 0.3 40018

Alembic-B/D 38.55 0.5 45413

Alok Indus-A/D 4.34 0.05 1739270

Apollo Tyre-A/D 156.2 1.9 195580

Asahi I Glass-/D 162 4.2 37294

Ashok Leyland-/D 97.8 -1.65 1233927

Ballarpur In-B/D 16.45 -0.05 339898

Banaras Bead-B/D 41 0.1 1230

Bata India-A/D 563.8 14.7 26303

Beml Ltd-A/D 898.75 23.7 70317

Bh Electronic-/D 1278.6 7.75 33581

Bhansali Eng-T/D 20.7 0.15 56396

Bharat Bijle-B/D 940 1.15 3958

Bharatgears-B/D 81.4 -0.95 3319

Bhartiya Int-B/D 507.5 -3.35 7242

Bhel-A/D 138.2 6.3 1781535

Bom.Burmah-B/D 415.3 -7.15 8256

Bombay Dyeing-/D 47.3 0.85 467078

Camph.& All-B/D 521.5 -8.25 1962

Canfin Homes-B/D 1210 -11.95 2027

Caprihans-Xc/D 81 -1.4 9671

Castrol India-/D 398.6 5.05 120399

Century Enka-B/D 225 0.95 9214

Century Text-A/D 678.95 14.6 105016

Chambal Fert-B/D 70 0 214639

Chola Invest-A/D 962 -16.15 3940

Chowgule St-T/D 15.3 -0.5 4900

Cimmco-B/D 75.2 5.3 70755

Cipla-A/D 509 1.1 100491

City Union Bk-/D 121.05 0.7 75537

Colgate-A/D 925.45 5.25 19631

Container Cor-/D 1451.05 -5.45 11895

Dai-Tichi Kar-/D 369.45 -4.05 2118

Dcm Shram Ind-/D 166.9 2.65 4803

Dhampur Sugar-/D 122.8 2.35 306099

Dr. Reddy-A/D 3437.5 -39.75 36227

E I H-B/D 112.65 -0.05 6276

E.I.D Parry-A/D 249 -12.45 108331

Eicher Motor-A/D 19420 263.45 3264

Electrosteel-B/D 19.5 0.75 331014

Emco-B/D 27.6 0.7 53372

Escorts Fin-B/D 4.81 -0.01 2545

Escorts-A/D 222 -1.3 358442

Eveready Indu-/D 267 -3.05 11217

F D C-B/D 196.1 11.7 79665

Federal Bank-A/D 60.9 1.85 886879

Ferro Alloys-B/D 5.91 0.08 44672

Finolex-A/D 445 13.2 14252

Forbes-B/D 1260 5 1057

Gail-A/D 397 1.75 182163

Galada Power-B/D 16.85 -0.1 1758

Gammon India-T/D 16.55 -0.2 115504

Garden P -B/D 36 0.05 15422

Godfrey Phil-B/D 875.25 11.8 10099

Goodricke-B/D 175 -3.15 66071

Goodyear I -B/D 534.1 2.3 3602

Hcl Infosys-B/D 42.75 -0.25 434792

Him.Fut.Comm-T/D 19.35 0.2 2062301

Himat Seide-B/D 235.3 3.9 47664

Hind Motors-T/D 4.91 0.04 120827

Hind Org Chem-/D 18 -0.05 21575

Hind Unilever-/D 891.45 -6.65 111935

Hind.Petrol-A/D 1033 12.45 137435

Hindalco-A/D 125.8 1 751189

Hous Dev Fin-A/D 1261.9 17.25 55880

I F C I-A/D 27.9 1.05 1790107

Idbi-A/D 75.1 4.15 1386070

Ifb Ind.Ltd.-B/D 349.6 0 5297

India Cement-A/D 112.9 0.1 326454

India Glycol-B/D 103.4 7.75 147931

Indian Hotel-A/D 131 1.5 159412

Indo-Tcount-T/D 998 20.35 7261

Indusind-A/D 1108.4 -14.6 37914

J.B.Chemical-B/D 254.4 4.85 18765

Jagson Phar-B/D 42.4 -0.2 25241

Jamnaauto-B/D 174 -0.05 78162

Jbf Indu-B/D 218.7 3.9 26607

Jct Ltd-B/D 5.53 0.35 1704958

Jenson&Nich.-B/D 7.98 0.01 11502

Jik Indust-B/D 0.64 0.03 2621

Jindal Drill-B/D 179 6.45 39399

Jktyre&Ind-A/D 92.5 2.5 282833

Jmc Projects-T/D 251.65 -1.65 1400

Kabra Extr-B/D 120.9 5.9 30045

Kajaria Cer-A/D 1200 3.85 13437

Kakatiya Cem-B/D 444.4 -13.6 18840

Kalpat Power-B/D 263.9 6.25 10261

Kalyani Stel-T/D 191 2.4 52251

Kanoria Chem-B/D 72 0.6 61873

Kg Denim-B/D 79.9 0.7 17722

Kilburnengg-Xd/D 58.05 0.15 19401

Kinetic Eng-B/D 85.5 2.55 12331

Kopran-B/D 52.3 0.15 49981

Lakshmi Elec-B/D 428.2 30.7 21825

Lakshmi Mach-A/D 3850 -11.7 1537

Lgb Broth-B/D 476.95 8.75 2138

Lloyd Metal-B/D 29 -0.05 6858

Lok.Hous&Con-T/D 5.78 0.27 34241

Lumax Ind-B/D 711 7.55 4828

Lupin-A/D 1561.55 13.25 71370

Lyka Labs-T/D 74.15 0.95 47894

Mafatlal Ind-B/D 315.6 8.45 5484

Mah.Seamless-B/D 240.1 -4.15 5958

Mangalam Cem-B/D 315 5.65 12299

Maral Overs-B/D 31 0.05 21836

Mastek-B/D 135.9 0.4 12983

Max Financial-/D 529 0.85 66845

Mrpl-A/D 68.3 0.3 77144

Nagreeka Ex-B/D 35 0 21581

Nagreeka Ex-B/D 35 0 21581

Nahar Spg.-B/D 119 1.45 11220

Nation Alum -A/D 43 0.45 105189

Navneet Edu-B/D 99.7 1.8 35969

Nepc India-T/D 1.62 0.07 5750

Neuland Lab-B/D 898.7 7.9 6885

Nrb Bearings-B/D 120.2 4.1 3913

O N G C-A/D 231.5 7.15 826373

Ocl India-B/D 648.1 -2.2 1191

Oil Country-B/D 31.95 0.5 11618

Onward Tech-B/D 70.6 -0.1 2021

Orchid Pharm-B/D 40.1 -0.1 85585

Orient Hotel-T/D 26.35 -0.65 4959

Orient.Carb.-T/D 547.5 -11 4450

Orient.Carb.-T/D 547.5 -11 4450

Oudh Sugar-B/D 131 -1.3 59798

Patspin India-/D 9.7 0.7 16450

Punjab Chem.-B/D 203.4 1.2 10572

Radico Khait-B/D 93.6 1 58427

Rallis India-A/D 217.25 -3.55 37967

Rallis India-A/D 217.25 -3.55 37967

Reliance Indus/D 445.6 8.75 302106

Ruchi Soya-B/D 22.2 0.05 49125

S Bk Bikaner-B/D 660.05 5.95 36582

Salora Inter-B/D 43.25 -0.05 1100

Saur.Cem-B/D 69.95 1.55 63575

Thirumalai-B/D 325 14.9 36818

Til Ltd.-T/D 254 -5 3589

Timexgroup-T/D 40 -0.25 172588

Tinplate-B/D 81.6 0.15 87302

Ucal Fuel-B/D 113.3 1.2 5794

Ucal Fuel-B/D 113.3 1.2 5794

Ultramarine-B/D 141 2.5 13967

Unitech P -A/D 6.38 0.15 12829722

Univcable-B/D 83.25 -0.45 3089

Uppergsugar-T/D 406.05 1.4 76089

3I Group/D 568.5 2.5 529953

Assoc.Br.Foods/D 2720 -12 142542

Barclays/D 140.2963 0.2 15835124

Bp/D 447.7 2.3 9457538

Brit Am Tobacc/D 4939 60 692067

Bt Group/D 404.35 -5.25 7208734

Centrica/D 229.8 0.8 2757602

Gkn/D 270.15 -5.7 1110970

Hsbc Holdings/D 463.9 -5.95 9953903

Kingfisher/D 326.5 -3.5 3835504

Land Secs Grou/D 987.5 -51.5 1084842

Legal & Genera/D 189.3 -2 6621395

Lloyds Bnk Grp/D 54.4596 0.13 78336620

Marks & Sp./D 309.5 -10.6 2314661

Next/D 4841.25 -73 82986

Pearson/D 976.5 1.5 608563

Prudential/D 1273 -10 1289145

Rank Group/D 215.4 -4.8 23074

Rentokil Initi/D 193.5 -1.5 499626

Rolls Royce Pl/D 712.505 1.5 1262585

Rsa Insrance G/D 494.448 -4.4 775823

Sainsbury(J)/D 234.6 -1.5 1343367

Schroders/D 2384 -38 140225

Severn Trent/D 2449 20 178633

Smith&Nephew/D 1276 -6 478671

Smiths Group/D 1156 -9 231296

Standrd Chart /D 576 -5.7 2859372

Tate & Lyle/D 682.5 -8 376656

Tesco/D 177.905 0.75 4585733

Unilever/D 3624.5 4.5 480005

United Util Gr/D 1038 8 521924

Vodafone Group/D 228.3 -0.9 9174261

Whitbread/D 3522 -69 228764

COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME

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COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME

NAME CHG TRADED

COMPANY CLOSE NET VOLUME

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LONDON

Poland to rejig $35bn private pension fund industryAssets of the 139bn-zloty industry will probably be transferred to private retirement accounts.

BUSINESS VIEWS20 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

UK plans lower corporation tax to cushion Brexit hitBy William Schomberg

and Conor Humphries Reuters

Britain has announced plans to cut cor-poration tax to less than 15 percent in an attempt to cushion the shock of the country’s decision to leave the

European Union, raising the prospect of com-petitive tax cuts across the bloc.

Chancellor George Osborne told the Financial Times he wanted to build a “super competitive economy” with low business taxes and a global focus, signalling a determination to remain in his job when a new prime min-ister takes over in September.

The new rate, which was announced with-out a target date, compares with Osborne’s previous target to cut corporation tax to 17 percent by 2020 from 20 percent now. The average rate among the world’s most devel-oped countries is 25 percent.

Confidence in Britain’s economy has been hit by the vote to leave the EU and a lower tax rate could help prevent an exodus of British

firms and attract US and European compa-nies which might otherwise be put off by the uncertainty it has created.

“The prospect of a lower tax base remains appealing for some US companies regardless of Britain’s future status within the EU,” said Ferdinand Mason, a London-based partner at law firm Jones Day. But Britain would also need to negotiate a Norway-style deal on mar-ket access with the rest of Europe, he said.

“If Britain is to become a truly attractive proposition to foreign investors, it is crucial that the UK negotiates a deal with the EU that gives it access to the single market.”

Ireland, where a 12.5 percent corporate tax rate has been a cornerstone of economic policy for 20 years, drawing investors such as Pfizer and Apple, said Osborne’s announce-ment showed how the Brexit vote had altered the dynamics of the EU. “This is a very stark reminder of how the world is changing as a result of the referendum result in the United Kingdom,” Public Expenditure Minister Pas-chal Donohoe told RTE radio.

“The tectonic plates are shifting and this is a very early sign of it. It’s a sharp reminder here, to us, that your tax system and how it’s structured is an essential part of our national

competitiveness,” Donohoe said.Ireland’s transport minister said Osborne’s

move was an “obvious attempt” to lure inves-tors away from Ireland. “If the headline figure was to come down to 12.5 percent in the UK, it would be threatening to us and we would have to adjust accordingly and make our-selves more attractive again,” Shane Ross, an independent minister, said.

The Netherlands said it would review its tax rates to ensure it remained attractive. “It is something we are thinking about with an eye to the future,” finance ministry spokes-man Paul van der Zanden said. “On the one side we want to fight tax avoidance and on the other we need to look at our investment climate.”

A spokesman for Germany’s finance min-istry said plans to cut corporation tax should be fair. “It is clear that it is the (German) gov-ernment’s aim that the issue of taxes is dealt with in a fair way in the single market,” Mar-tin Jaeger said.

Martin Sorrell, chief executive of London-based WPP, the world’s largest advertising agency, backed Osborne’s plan. “The lower, the faster, the better. Hopefully, there’s more stimulus to come,” he said.

Yet uncertainty over Osborne’s role in Britain’s new government leaves a large ques-tion mark over the declared goal. “We don’t know when the tax rate will be cut or even if it will be cut because we don’t know if George Osborne will continue as chancellor,” said Helen Miller, associate director at the Insti-tute of Fiscal Studies.

Cutting the rate from 20 percent now to below 15 percent would cost at least 10 billion pounds based on government estimates, she said. The Organisation for Economic Cooper-ation and Development, in a June 24 internal email seen by Reuters, said a further cut in British corporation tax was unlikely due to a high political cost but if it happened it would “really turn the UK into a tax haven type of economy.”

Some took the announcement by Osborne as the opening salvo in future negotiations with the rest of the EU about Britain’s rela-tionship with its former partners.

Pascal Lamy, a former World Trade Organ-isation head, said Osborne was moving fast to activate one of Britain’s weapons in the talks as well as trying to reassure foreign investors who are worried about Britain’s access to the EU’s single market.

By Jonathan N Crawford Bloomberg

Five years ago, opponents of newly proposed clean-air rules sounded dire warnings of blackouts

and surging electricity prices if coal-burning plants were shuttered.

Welcome to 2016. Instead of rising, the price of electric-ity in the nation’s largest grid is now 40 percent lower than it was back then, even as a record 346 coal-burning units, produc-ing enough electricity to supply 40 million homes, were retired. The difference: America’s shale boom unleashed cheap and abundant natural gas that burns more cleanly than coal.

“You’ve seen the coal come out of the market and then you’ve seen a response from industry to capitalize on that hole in the supply mix,” said Ethan Paterno, a Denver-based energy industry specialist with PA Consulting Group. “The low gas prices are a big, big deal.”

The nation’s emergence as the world’s largest producer of natural gas has not only sped up the closure of coal-burning plants. It’s also put the United States on a surer path to meeting an international accord to slash global warming pollutants and to comply with a host of federal environmental mandates esti-mated to yield billions of dollars in health benefits.

The mid-Atlantic grid, which stretches from Maryland to Chi-cago, has been ground-zero for coal-plant shutdowns as the generators compete with gas burners that have access to the cheapest supplies in the coun-try. In that network, the largest in the US, about 20,000 meg-awatts of gas-fired plants are projected to connect by mid-2019, said Paterno, or enough generation to power for about 20 million homes.

The coal closures were driven mostly by the US Envi-ronmental Protection Agency’s pollution rule, which the agency said would cost $9.6bn annually to implement. The burning of cleaner burning also produces health benefits, including fewer heart attacks, sick days and up to 11,000 fewer premature deaths annually, worth $37bn to $90bn each year, according to the EPA.

More gas-fired generation also helped the US cut emis-sions of carbon dioxide last year to 21 percent below 2005 levels.

The country has set a target to cut greenhouse gases by at least 26 percent below 2005 levels by 2025. Natural gas emits about half as much carbon dioxide as coal when generating power.

The pollution regulation, which requires plants to meet tighter emission limits on mer-cury and other toxins that can be met with the installation of costly scrubbers, first came into force in April 2015. The rule and cheap power prices resulted in the retirement of 13,000 meg-awatts of coal-fired generation just last year. That’s just a slice of more than 36,000 megawatts of coal capacity that has been shuttered since 2011.

Power producers includ-ing Duke Energy Corp and Luminant Generation Com-pany warned in August 2011 that the coal closures would leave the nation’s grid at risk of price spikes and outages, while a US government study projected a boost in prices in parts of the coal-heavy Midwest.

Senator James Inhofe, a Republican from Oklahoma, said in August 2011 that the EPA was reckless in proposing a rule that threatened to put a “signif-icant strain” on the electric grid from the forced closure of hun-dreds of coal plants, and which would raise electricity rates across the country.

Wholesale power in PJM’s benchmark West hub, which includes deliveries to Wash-ington, averaged $30.08 a megawatt-hour in the first quarter, down 41 percent from $51.17 in 2011. The transition was smoothed by other fac-tors as well. Milder weather and technologies boosting efficiency, such as energy-conserving light bulbs and refrigerators, have slowed demand.

With consumption stagnant, cheap fuel is an incentive to build replacement plants. Nat-ural gas prices in Pennsylvania, the home of the most prolific shale reserve, plummeted to as low as 59 cents per million Brit-ish thermal units last year, down from more than $14 in 2008. Gas production has more than doubled since 2012.

The shale boom and coal plant retirements have made the U.S. one of the top three loca-tions for building power plants, along with the Middle East and South Asia, according to Gen-eral Electric Co. “Go back five years ago, and I think of the world’s gas turbine heavy duty market, very little was in the US,” GE Power Chief Executive Officer Steve Bolze said.

Natural gas fills gap as coal drops out of US power market

Driverless fever is here, except in one industry

By Thomas Black

Bloomberg

Peter Mills sees an inconsistency. One arm of the US Department of Transportation is recommending two-person crew be required for freight trains as another plans to

spend billions to help develop driverless tech-nology for long-haul trucks.

“Anything that tilts the competitive playing field concerns me,” said Mills, chief execu-tive officer of Indiana Rail Road. “We’re very truck-competitive.”

The Federal Railroad Administration has proposed the mandate for two operators in many freight-train locomotives, which would lock in an imperative unions have negoti-ated in contracts. According to rail carriers, it would also prevent them from taking full advantage of systems for remote oversight that they’re installing, at a cost of about $10bn and on the order of Congress.

There were two crew members in each of the cabs of BNSF Railway Co trains that collided in Texas on June 28. Of the four employees, one was injured, two were killed and one is missing.

Lawmakers passed a law demanding the remote-oversight sys-tems after a 2008 commuter-train acci-dent in California killed 25 people. Once opera-tional, they may allow all locomotives to operate safely with one person in the cab or eventually to be fully automated, said

Lance Fritz, CEO of Union Pacific Corp, the largest publicly traded railroad. “We should allow technology to take us where it will.” Fritz called it “pretty ironic” that the govern-ment seems to be doing that when it comes to the trucking industry. The National High-way Safety Transportation Administration (NHSTA) has embraced autonomous vehi-cles, including trucks hauling freight, and plans to spend $3.9bn over a decade to fos-ter the technology. “If that’s happening in one mode, why are they coming out with the regulation that locks us into two people in the cab?” said Ed Hamberger, president of the Association of American Railroads.

The government’s support of autonomous technologies is designed to reduce risks across all modes of transportation, said Clark Pettig, a spokesman for the Department of Transpor-tation, in an emailed response to questions.

“Our bottom line is ensuring that the people and goods traveling on our nation’s roads and rails get where they’re going safely.”

The last time the US government angled the field in favor of trucks — with the interstate highway system beginning in the late 1950s

— the rail industry almost went bust within a couple of decades. Congress rebalanced things with the 1980 Staggers Act, deregu-lating rail-freight rates and allowing carriers to close unprofitable lines.

The FRA plans to hold public hearings on the proposed regulations on July 15. Many local governments support them. The Georgia Municipal Association said in public com-ments that mandating two-person crews, with exemptions for smaller railroads, “will be an important step to enhance safety along rail lines that go through Georgia’s cities.”

The freight-rail industry contends there’s no data linking the numbers of operators in the locomotives with safety. Train accidents have dropped 78 percent since 1980 as carriers have stepped up spending on track mainte-nance and technology, according to the rail association. During that time, locomotive

crew sizes have been whittled down from as much as five.

Many European freight railroads use one-person crews, and Rio Tinto in Australia is experimenting with autonomous trains. Indi-ana Rail Road, which operates 250 miles of its own track, has run trains with one per-son since 1997. The single-crew trains have had only one incident with enough damage that required notification to regulators, com-pared with 26 for two-person crews. “If we thought that single-man crews were unsafe, we wouldn’t use them,” Mills said. “We’ve proven that they’re not unsafe.”

Because Mills’ company is a small rail-road, it would be able to operate with a single operator under the new rules — though at a reduced speed. That, Mills said, would negate the benefits of having a smaller crew.

John Risch, national legislative direc-tor for the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation union, has a 17-point list of why a freight train shouldn’t be helmed by one person. Crews can be called up at odd hours and often work 12-hour shifts, making it impor-tant to have someone double-check work and help keep colleagues alert, Risch said, and some functions, such as backing up a train, can’t be performed by just one per-son. “I’ve worked as an engineer for 30 years and there ain’t no way I’m going out there by myself.”

Union Pacific’s Fritz said his railroad isn’t ready yet to go to one-person crews, though that could change after the carrier begins to operate in 2018 with its $2.9bn remote safety system. “It’s not something that railroads can do by fiat,” he said. “We still will have to negotiate with our labor unions who are represented in the cab.”

In 2014, BNSF, owned by Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc, tried to change the locomotive status quo, sealing a deal with labor leaders on one-person crews. Union members overwhelmingly voted it down.

The NHSTA has embraced autonomous vehicles, including trucks hauling freight, and plans to spend $3.9bn over a decade to foster the technology.

Chancellor George Osborne said he wanted to build a “super competitive economy” with low business taxes and a global focus, signalling a determination to remain in his job when a new prime minister takes over in September.

CSX freight trains pass in the siding at Bonnieville, Kentucky.

Sigurdsson proud and positive for Iceland’s future

PAGE | 23 PAGE | 24

Gatlin and Felix storm to US

trials victories

TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016 • 30 RAMADAN 1437

www.thepeninsulaqatar.com

@peninsulaqatar @peninsula_qatarthepeninsulaqatar

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AFP

LYON: The two most expensive players in football go head-to-head tomorrow when Cristiano Ronaldo leads Portugal against club teammate Gareth Bale and Wales in a Euro 2016 semi-final which could lead one to unprecedented glory.

Bale is junior partner when the two line up for Real Madrid, despite winning two Champions Leagues in three years since arriving in Spain for a world record fee to team up with Ronaldo.

However, his performances and three goals in France in leading Wales to their first semi-final in a major tournament, allied to his starring role at the end of Madrid’s season, suggest Bale at 26 is in line to take over from Ronaldo now 31.

The key to Bale’s and Wales’ suc-cess has been built upon a remarkable unity which their star man fosters.

“With our team spirit, it’s like being with your mates on holiday,” said Bale last week, clearly more at ease with the joviality in the Wales camp than the pressure cooker Madrid dressing room.

“Together stronger” has been the moto of Wales’ historic campaign. A unity captured perfectly in the goal that kick started their run after Bale smashed a free-kick into the Slova-kia net just 10 minutes into their first match at a major tournament for 58 years.

With much hype and the expectations of a nation

resting on his shoulders, Bale wheeled away in celebration and headed straight into a pack of adoring team-mates and coaching staff by the Wales bench.

“Balo is just a nice guy, a nice human being, a family guy. He’s live-lier on the pitch than off it because he doesn’t say a lot. He’s very much one of the lads. He’s quiet, unassuming -- that’s just his personality,” said Wales boss Chris Coleman.

“He has matured a bit more as he has got older, but he has always been the same person really - very quiet and it doesn’t float his boat all the attention he gets.”

Despite the quiet nature, Cole-man insists that Bale is a leader in his own right by setting standards for his teammates to match.

“He could be a little bit more demanding because of his game. But that’s why he has got so much respect of the players because he’s not like that. They automatically want to grav-itate that way to where he is. And that’s how it should be, you know. It’s not bringing him down to where we are, and myself included, because he is a special talent.”

Ronaldo’s road to a third Euros semi-final has been more testing.

Frustrated by Iceland in an open-ing 1-1 draw, the three-time world player of the year lashed out at the Atlantic islanders’ “small mentality” - an outburst at odds with the wide-spread fondness for Iceland’s fairytale run. A missed penalty against Austria was papered over by a double against Hungary, which saw him become the first player to score at four European Championship finals.

Ronaldo has subsequently been kept quiet by both Croatia and Poland in the knockout stage, but will still never have a better chance to cap a glorious career with a maiden inter-national triumph as Portugal have progressed to the last four without winning a match in 90 minutes.

“I’ve always said, and I don’t hide it, that I would love to win a title with the national team. We’re on the right road,” he said after squeezing past the Poles on penalties.

However, Ronaldo will also have his eyes on the individual prize when facing Bale in Lyon.

With both having contributed to Madrid’s 11th European Cup win in May -- and hot on the heels of Lionel Messi’s retirement from international football -- whoever emerges victori-ous from Ronaldo and Bale’s personal duel will be favourite to win the Bal-lon d’Or as the world’s best player for 2016.

“Ronaldo is a cannibal. He wants it all. Even in a situation where it seems so difficult to focus on the personal objective like this, he doesn’t lose sight of achieving it,” said Madrid sports daily Marca on Sunday.

“He is not just playing for the first (tournament win for Portugal),

but also his fourth (Balon d’Or).”By contrast, Coleman insists a

Zurich gala in January will be the fur-thest thing from Bale’s mind in Lyon.

“I don’t think that is in Gareth’s head. Of course he’s a human being.

Thoughts will run through his mind, but he’ll be thinking about how we perform in the next game and

nothing beyond that.”

Bashful Bale has ruthless Ronaldo

in his sights

The two most expensive playersin the world go head-to-head in Euro semi-final tomorrow

Despite German injuries, bring on France: LoewAFP

EVIAN: Despite a mounting injury list, Germany coach Joachim Loew is relishing facing the Euro 2016 hosts in Thursday’s semi-final under the motto - ‘Bring on France’.

“It’s great that there’s a game like this. I love playing knock-out games against teams of this calibre,” said Loew in Evian yesterday.

Loew’s cause for optimism over the Marseille semi-final is not obvious with three key players definitely ruled out, while captain Bastian Schweinsteiger is doubt-ful with a new knee injury.

Germany have defender Mats Hummels suspended while Mario Gomez and Sami Khedira are out with injury. Gomez will miss the rest of the tournament.

As Loew acknowledged, France were buoyed by Sunday’s 5-2 hammering of minnows Ice-land in their quarter-final.

And the hosts can expect near fanatical support in Marseille, the heartland of the nation’s die-hard fans.

Nevertheless, Loew shows lit-tle concern as Germany rest up after Saturday’s tense quarter-final penalty shootout win over Italy.

Loew was very clear that Sch-weinsteiger, who has a strained knee, will only face France if fully fit.

The Manchester United star had only recently recovered from tearing the medial ligament in his right knee in March.

“If a player is less than 100 percent fit, then I won’t play him,” said Loew.

“I made that mistake once before in my career and I won’t do it again.”

Loew refused to be drawn about the mistake he referred to -- passing it off from earlier in his career as a club coach.

But he has been in this situa-tion before with Germany.

Loew played Michael Ballack in the Euro 2008 final, when Ger-many were beaten 1-0 by Spain, when the defensive midfielder was carrying a calf injury.

With Gomez sidelined by a torn thigh, Bayern Munich pair Thomas Mueller and Mario Goetze are the most likely options to fea-ture up front against France.

With Khedira out with a partially torn groin and Sch-weinsteiger doubtful with a knee strain, Loew has a bigger prob-lem to resolve in the defensive midfield.

Liverpool’s Emre Can or Borussia Dortmund’s Julian Weigl are the most likely candidates to partner Toni Kroos in Marseille.

Bale trains away from rest of the team-mates AFP

DINARD: Gareth Bale trained apart from his team-mates on Monday as Wales continued preparations for their Euro 2016 semi-final against Cristiano Ron-aldo’s Portugal tomorrow.

While Bale’s team-mates warmed up on the pitch at the team’s training base in Dinard, northwest France, the Real Madrid star and midfielder David Edwards were put through their paces by a fitness coach.

A Football Association of Wales spokesman told AFP that Bale was not injured and the 26-year-old himself said it was merely part of his recovery process after Friday’s 3-1 quar-ter-final win over Belgium.

“I felt a bit stiff after the game, which is normal,” he told a press conference.

“It was just an extra bit of recovery on my own. I have nothing to be worried about and I’ll just continue as normal.” Defender Ben Davies and in-form midfielder Aaron Ramsey were also present for the training session, despite both being sus-pended for Wednesday’s game in Lyon.

The only absentee from the 23-man squad was winger David Cotterill, who observes a custom-ised training schedule devised in consultation with his club, Bir-mingham City.

Wales qualified for the first major tournament semi-final in their history by beating Belgium 3-1 in Lille last Friday.

They are due to train in Dinard again today before trav-elling to Lyon later in the day.

gg6 is in line to take over from now 31.ey to Bale’s and Wales’ suc-

been built upon a remarkableich their star man fosters.h our team spirit, it’s like th your mates on holiday,” last week, clearly more at

h the joviality in the Wales han the pressure cookerressing room.ther stronger” has been the

Wales’ historic campaign. Aptured perfectly in the goal

started their run after Bale a free-kick into the Slova-st 10 minutes into their first a major tournament for 58

much hype and theons of a nation

lon d’Or as the world’s best player for2016.

“Ronaldo is a cannibal. He wantsit all. Even in a situation where itseems so difficult to focus on thepersonal objective like this, hedoesn’t lose sight of achieving it,”said Madrid sports daily Marca onSunday.

“He is not just playing for thefirst (tournament win for Portugal)

but also his fourth (Balon d’Or).”By contrast, Coleman insists a

Zurich gala in January will be the fur-thest thing from Bale’s mind in Lyon

“I don’t think that is in Gareth’shead. Of course he’s a human being

Thoughts will run through his mindbut he’ll be thinking about howwe perform in the next game and

nothing beyond that.”

Wales boss rules out taking over England job Reuters

LYON: Wales manager Chris Cole-man has poured cold water on the possibility of him filling the Eng-land manager’s post recently vacated by Roy Hodgson.

Coleman, who took over from the late Gary Speed in 2012, has guided Wales to a Euro 2016 semi-final showdown against Portugal in Lyon on Wednesday in the country’s first major tournament appearance since 1958.

The 46-year-old, who extended his contract in May until the end of the 2018 World Cup, ruled out the possibility of switching country allegiances.

“It’s something that would never, ever enter my thinking,” Coleman told reporters as he pre-pares for Wales’ first ever last four appearance at a senior interna-tional tournament.

“I’m a Welshman through and through. It would only ever be Wales.”

The former Fulham and Real Sociedad manager added that his desire to manage in Europe’s elite club competition could lure him to the continent rather than a return to the Premier League.

“I quite fancy the chance of going abroad again, because I think that’s my best chance of manag-ing Champions League football,” he added.

Dinard succumbs to charms of Bale and Wales AFP

DINARD: Gareth Bale’s Wales have captured imaginations across Europe with their run to the Euro 2016 semi-finals and nowhere are they more popular than in their Dinard base in northwest France.

The sleepy Brittany resort town, which has a population of around 10,000, has played host to Chris Coleman’s squad for a month and the mutual affection between play-ers and locals has been clear to see.

The players have been taking walks on the beach, playing football with local youngsters and posing for selfies, while Dinard’s shopkeepers and bar owners have festooned the town with Wales flags and window displays.

“The Welsh players are very approachable and close to their fans,” says Didier Dre, who runs a shop selling toys, postcards and beach furniture just around the corner from Dinard’s Plage de l’Ecluse beach.

“We’ve seen very famous play-ers like Gareth Bale taking selfies with supporters. They’re a very relaxed, very cool team. I think that’s their strength.

“It brings us (the people of Dinard) visibility in the media. And it creates a nice bit of atmosphere, at a difficult time for France.”

Last November’s deadly attacks in Paris, claimed by the Islamic State group, cast a pall over the build-up to the tournament.

But the Wales squad’s remote location about 320 kilometres (200 miles) west of Paris has enabled them to banish all thoughts about security from their minds.

Gareth Bale

Cristiano Ronaldo

SPORT22 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Federer advances to Wimbledon last-8

AFP

LONDON: Roger Federer reached his 14th Wimbledon quarter-final and tied Martina Navratilova’s all-time Grand Slam record of 306 match wins on Monday.

The seven-time champion achieved his double landmark by see-ing off Steve Johnson of the United States 6-2, 6-3, 7-5 in the fourth round on Centre Court.

Federer, the third seed, next takes on Croatia’s Marin Cilic for a place in the semi-finals.

Cilic, the ninth seeded Croatian, progressed to his third Wimbledon quarter-final when Japanese fifth seed Kei Nishikori pulled out of their last-16 clash with a rib injury in the second set.

Federer has a 6-1 record over Cilic but the big Croatian stunned the 17-time major champion in the US Open semi-finals in 2014 on his way to his maiden Grand Slam title.

“He brushed me off the court in the US Open a few years ago and I hope to get him back,” said Federer who had former coach Stefan Edberg watching on from the player’s box on Centre Court.

Johnson, the champion on grass at Nottingham this summer and play-ing in his first fourth round at a Slam, was comprehensively out-played in the first two sets.

He rallied to break the 34-year-old Federer in the fourth and sixth games of the third set but the former American college champion was reeled in on both occasions.

“Best of five matches are always tough,” added Federer, whose 14th appearance in a Wimbledon quar-ter-final matches the mark of Jimmy Connors.

“I’m happy with how I played. It wasn’t as easy as maybe it looked. Steve has picked up a lot

of confidence in the last few weeks and he has a nice game for grass but I think I mixed it up well.”

Federer has reached the last eight without dropping a set, easing to four successive wins on Centre Court. “I would never have thought I would win the first four rounds in straight sets. I now need to play my best tennis.”

Nishikori pulled out against Cilic suffering from a rib injury at 6-1, 5-1 down.

The 26-year-old confirmed it was the same injury which forced him out of the Halle tournament in the run-up to Wimbledon. “It got worse after the second round. I couldn’t compete today,” said Nishikori.

Cilic had taken the first set in just 16 minutes, allowing Nishikori only

seven points. Sam Querrey followed up his shock defeat of Novak Djoko-vic by beating French veteran Nicolas Mahut 6-4, 7-6 (7/5), 6-4 to reach his first Grand Slam quarter-final.

Querrey, the 28th seed, is the first American in the last-eight at Wimble-don since Mardy Fish in 2011 which was perfect timing for US Independ-ence Day.

He will face either Canada’s Milos Raonic or David Goffin of Belgium for a place in the semi-finals.

Querrey said he still hasn’t come down from his stunning upset of Djokovic.

“I’m not going to lie. After the Novak match, I watched every high-light I could over and over. Enjoyed the hell out of that moment,” he said after the game.

Later Monday, second seed Andy Murray, the 2013 champion, faces Australian 15th seed Kyrgios, who defeated Rafael Nadal at Wim-bledon in 2014 on his way to the quarter-finals.

Murray has a 4-0 career lead over the Australian with three of those meetings having come in the majors.

Richard Gasquet and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga meet in an all-French duel. Both men are two-time semi-final-ists at the All England Club.

In an all-Czech match-up, world number 64 Jiri Vesely, who beat Djok-ovic in Monte Carlo this year, takes on 10th seed and 2010 runner-up Tomas Berdych.

It will be Vesely’s first appear-ance in a Slam fourth round.

French 32nd seed Lucas Pouille is also in unchartered waters when he faces 2011 quarter-finalist Ber-nard Tomic.

Switzerland’s Roger Federer celebrates a point against Steve Johnson during their men’s singles fourth round match on the eighth day of the 2016 Wimbledon Championships at the All England Lawn Tennis Club in Wimbledon, southwest London, yesterday.

Querrey celebrates

after winning his match against France’s Nicolas Mahut,

yesterday.

Swiss superstar downs Johnson to reach his 14th quarter-final of the prestigious tournament as Querrey keeps winning

Great Britain’s Mark Cavendish (second right) crosses the finish line ahead of Germany’s Andre Greipel (left), France’s Bryan Coquard (second left) and Slovakia’s Peter Sagan (right) at the end of the 223,5km third stage of the 103rd edition of the Tour de France cycling race, between Granville and Angers yesterday.

Tour de France: Cavendish sets new mark with close stage win AFP

ANGERS: Mark Cavendish moved up to joint second on the all-time Tour de France stage win list with victory on yesterday’s third stage by the tightest of margins.

It was Cavendish’s 28th Tour stage victory, and second of this edi-tion in three days, to equal the mark of French hero Bernard Hinault.

Only Belgian legend Eddy Merckx remains ahead of the Manx Missile now with an astonishing 34 stage wins.

“To be honest, when I started my career to think at any point that I’d be mentioned in the same sentence as Bernard Hinault or Eddy Merckx, it’s more than I could have imagined,” said Cavendish.

“No way could I compare myself to the greats in any way.”

The 31-year-old Briton was a hair’s breadth away from losing out to German Andre Greipel, who had dominated the Manxman last year in winning four stages to Cavend-ish’s one.

A metre from the line, Greipel looked sure to win, yet somehow Cavendish stretched out his bike to snatch victory.

“I’ve won and lost by less than that before. I kind of thought I’d got it but you never know until it’s con-firmed,” added Cavendish.

“Greipel’s a gutsy rider, he’s got balls on him. When I went to go around him, he went again.

“I didn’t get him with the sprint, I got him with the lunge, so I was pretty lucky with that.”

He had won far more comfort-ably on Saturday’s opening stage in Normandy, after which he took young daughter Delilah up to the victory podium with him.

This time he took Delilah and her infant brother Frey too.

Until the stunning finish, it had been a most pedestrian of stages, dragged out to six seconds under six hours for the 223.5km trek from Granville to Angers.

Peter Sagan finished fourth on

the stage, just behind Frenchman Bryan Coquard, to maintain his grip on the race leader’s yellow jersey.

“Today was a very relaxing day for us because in the breakaway there was only one rider,” said Sagan.

“He went slow, we went slow also in the group -- it was nice. I was thinking in one moment that we would take a coffee, we had time.

“I saw a bar but afterwards there was no time.

“For 200km it was a transfer and the last 20km was OK.”

But Cavendish’s victory was enough to wrest back the sprinters’ green points jersey from Sagan.

The Slovak still leads by eight seconds to Frenchman Julian Alap-hilippe overall with Spain’s Alejandro Valverde third at 10sec.

For the first 150km the peloton

seemed to be on strike as French rider Armindo Fonseca went on the attack from the off.

The Fortuneo rider eased up to wait for some support but no-one took up the offer and he quickly stretch out to an 11-minute lead over the bunch. It gave Fonseca the chance to ride through his home Brittany region on his own and in the lead but even when he slowed right down, the peloton did so too.

The sedate rhythm was at least to some people’s taste.

FDJ team manager Marc Madiot was feeling nostalgic as he even man-aged to stop in his home village of Renaze to have a drink.

“Today we can enjoy the Tour de France like in the old days: we ride slowly, we stop to kiss friends and family. People are happy,” he said.

Team Dimension Data rider Mark Cavendish of Britain reacts on the podium with his children Delilah Grace (right) and Frey David.

Golf: Johnson closes gap on Day in world rankingsAFP

PARIS: Dustin Johnson (pictured) overtook Jordan Spieth to become the new world number two yester-day, after his thrilling victory in the WGC Bridgestone Invitational.

The US Open champion reeled in Australian world number one Jason Day at Firestone to make it back-to-back titles on Sunday.

The big-hitting American is now fast closing in on Day at the top of the rankings ahead of the British Open at Royal Troon.

Other changes in the rankings saw Bubba Watson claim fifth spot from Henrik Stenson, who took the week off, and Branden Grace break into the top 10 for the first time at the expense of Justin Rose.

Further down the rankings, Thai-land’s Thongchai Jaidee moved up 20 places to 37th after holding off Rory McIlroy to win the French Open.

Meanwhile, Thongchai Jaidee credited his time as a paratrooper in the Thai army for giving him the physical and mental strength to hold off Europe’s finest golfers and win the French Open at the weekend.

The 46-year-old ended his

“perfect week” at Le Golf National near Paris with a closing round three-under-par 68 to finish four strokes ahead of Italy’s Francesco Molinari and five in front of world number four

Rory McIlroy. “It was a special week,” Thongchai said after becoming the oldest winner in French Open history.

“It was my perfect week because I didn’t miss many shots. Anything I miss, I make a good recovery shot and make par.”

Thongchai began his final round with a two-shot lead over McIlroy and mixed four birdies with a single bogey at the final hole to clinch his eighth European Tour title.

The three times the Asian Tour Order of Merit winner said a recent focus on psychology had built upon the toughness he acquired in the Thai military.

“I worked in the army for 14 years. I trained in the army camp about two years as an air bomb paratrooper, that’s why I have to be strong,” Thongchai added.

“When I play golf, I think it is really easy. Because training with the army, I had to wake up at five in the morning, run about two hours every morning and in the evening for two years.”

Thongchai’s victory was a record seventh for Asian golfers on the Euro-pean Tour in a single season and will provide him with a confidence boost as he heads to Troon for the British Open.

GOLF RANKINGS1. Jason Day (AUS) 13.48 pts2. Dustin Johnson (USA) 11.15 (+1)3. Jordan Spieth (USA) 11.15 (-1)4. Rory McIlroy (NIR) 9.145. Bubba Watson (USA) 7.30 (+1)6. Henrik Stenson (SWE) 7.16 (-1)7. Rickie Fowler (USA) 6.658. Adam Scott (AUS) 6.549. Danny Willett (ENG) 6.2510. Branden Grace (RSA) 5.41 (+2)11. Justin Rose (ENG) 5.37 (-1)12. Sergio Garcia (ESP) 5.30 (-1)13. Patrick Reed (USA) 4.9214. Louis Oosthuizen (RSA) 4.6115. Matt Kuchar (USA) 4.36 (+2)

SPORT 23TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Rio Games: CAS to decide Russian athletes’ fate by July 21AFP

GENEVA: The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said yesterday it will decide whether to overturn the ban against Russia’s athlet-ics programme by July 21, two weeks before the start of the Rio Games.

The International Association of Athlet-ics Federations (IAAF) banned Russia’s entire track and field federation following revela-tions of massive, state-sponsored doping.

The suspension first announced in November was maintained last month, which appeared to all but crush Russia’s hopes of sending athletes to the Games in Rio de Janeiro, which open on August 5.

But the announcement from CAS offers

yet another last chance for Russia’s disgraced track and field programme. The IAAF, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) and 68 Russian athletes have reached “a specific arbi-tration agreement” which lets CAS decide on the validity of the IAAF ban, a statement from the Lausanne-based court said.

“The parties have agreed to an expedited procedure which should conclude on 21 July 2016,” the statement added.

Qualification for most athletics events closes on July 11.

But with the Russian case under intense public scrutiny and facing political pressure from Moscow, the IAAF may retain some flex-ibility to extend key deadlines.

The IAAF ban followed a November report from the World Anti-Doping Agency which said Russia’s track and field programme had

been corrupted to the point where even clean drug tests were meaningless.

When it maintained the ban last month, the IAAF said individual Russian athletes who proved they had not been tainted by the coun-try’s tarnished system could still be cleared for Rio.

CAS is not going to conduct such a case-by-case review of each athlete, a spokeswoman for the Lausanne-based court, Katy Hogg, told AFP.

The issue in the CAS appeal is whether the IAAF has grounds to suspend an entire athletics team, given that such a move invar-iably results in punishments for individuals with no positive drug tests on their record.

Hogg said the court’s decision will be narrowly focused on the validity of IAAF competition rule 22.1 which holds that

“athletes whose National Federation is suspended by the IAAF are ineligible for competitions.”

The ROC and the 68 Russian athletes have specifically asked the court to “order that any Russian athlete who is not currently the subject of any period of ineligibility for the commission of an anti-doping rule violation may participate at the 2016 Olympic Games,” assuming they otherwise qualified.

Russian officials have blasted what they call the IAAF’s hypocrisy, noting that two American celebrity sprinters -- Tyson Gay and Justin Gatlin -- will be among a series of athletes competing in Rio who have previ-ously tested positive for doping.

International Olympic Committee exec-utives last month said the IAAF had full authority to decide on which athletes can

contest in Rio. IOC President Thomas Bach said anyone who gets the green light from the IAAF will be allowed to compete under the Russian flag.

That was at odds with the IAAF posi-tion: the governing body said that athletes who individually proved they were drug free could compete under a neutral flag, as the Russian track and field federation would remain banned.

Several Russian track and field stars have already filed petitions with the IAAF to estab-lish their drug-free credentials.

But if CAS overturns the blanket ban, those individual petitions could be rendered meaningless. The court did not provide a list of the 68 athletes involved in the case, but it likely includes most potential Olympians with no positive drug tests on their record.

Gatlin and Felix storm to US trials victories in Eugene

Reuters

EUGENE, Oregon: Allyson Felix and Justin Gatlin powered to the fastest times in the world this year to book their tickets for the Rio Olympics at a high standard US trials on Sunday.

World champion Felix shook off an ailing ankle to win the women’s 400 metres in 49.68 seconds before Gatlin claimed the 100 metres over fellow world medallist Trayvon Bro-mell in 9.80 seconds. The 20-year-old Bromell was second in 9.84.

World-leading performances were also recorded in the men’s 400 metres, long jump, women’s high jump and the decathlon.

Felix, still running in pain from the April injury, accelerated from fifth place off the bend to take the lead on the home straight and keep alive her dream of becoming only the third woman to complete a 200-400 double at the same Olympics.

She starts the 200 metres trials on Friday.

“Two months ago I couldn’t even walk,” the Olympic 200 metres cham-pion told reporters after securing her spot at a fourth Games. “Somehow we found a way.”

Her coach Bob Kersee claimed the victory was the 30-year-old’s great-est performance.

“I just gave it everything I had,” added Felix, who is her country’s most

decorated female sprinter. “Things were hitting me right and left but giv-ing up wasn’t an option.”

Gatlin had shown in the

semi-finals he was ready to make a statement by clocking 9.83 but the 34-year-old was pushed all the way by a fast-starting Bromell in the final

before the 2004 Olympic gold med-allist finished the stronger.

“This year I have had little knocks and bruises, ankles, quads, ham-strings, but at the end of the day when the competition shows and rises, I have got to rise with it,” Gatlin said.

Marvin Bracy (9.98) grabbed the third spot as veterans Mike Rodgers and Tyson Gay took fourth and fifth to miss out on the 100 metres team for the August 5 to 21 Games.

Local favourite English Gardner claimed the women’s title in 10.74 with Tianna Bartoletta and Tori Bowie both clocking 10.78 to also advance.

LaShawn Merritt powered away from the field in the final 50 metres to win the men’s 400 in the year’s best time of 43.97.

The decathlon title went to Ore-gon native Ashton Eaton, whose winning total of 8,750 points is supe-rior to the personal bests of any of his rivals destined for Rio, according to statisticians.

Chaunte Lowe, the 32-year-old mother of three, made her fourth Olympic team in the high jump, outperforming rising world indoor champion Vashti Cunningham.

Lowe cleared 2.01 metres, the first two-metre jump of the year, with the 18-year-old daughter of retired National Football League quarterback Randall Cunningham leaping 1.97 to also qualify the Games.

Jeff Henderson outdueled recent collegiate champion Jarrion Lawson for the long jump title, leaping a wind-assisted 8.59 metres to beat Lawson by one centimetre with the runner-up registering the best legal mark of the season.

Olympic bronze medallist Will Claye finished third but will not be going to Rio because he does not have a legal qualifying mark, leav-ing fourth-placed finisher Marquis Dendy to claim his spot.

The duo powers to fastest times in the world this year as trials inspire several world-leading performances

Paris Saint-Germain’s new Spanish coach Unai Emery poses with a jersey reading “Welcome Unai” at the Parc des Princes Stadium in Paris, yesterday.

Forget Zlatan, we start from

zero, says new PSG boss AFP

PARIS: After a week in the Paris Saint Germain hot-seat Spanish coach Unai Emery unveiled three new signings yesterday as he told fans to forget the past and focus on the future.

PSG’s star striker Zlatan Ibra-himovic signed with Manchester United on Friday after bagging 51 goals last season, but dazzling dribbler Hatem Ben Arfa, Belgian international defender Thomas Meunier and holding midfield gen-eral Grzegorz Krychowiak have all joined since Emery took over.

“We start from zero,” the 44-year-old said as he met the French press for the first time at the Ligue 1 champions’ Parc des Princes yesterday.

“Zlatan in Paris. That was beau-tiful. I had something similar at Sevilla,” said Emery, who won three Europa League titles at Sevilla. “But what happened in the past is over.”

“Now we focus on the future and I’m happy and proud to be here,” added Emery, who explained in Spanish that his recruitment drive was more or less complete.

Meanwhile club President Nasser Al Khelaïfi promised the new coach would assure the continued success of the French champions.

“Our main objective is to go as far as is possible in the Champions League,” he said.

“What Laurent Blanc achieved was great. But I decided to change, to start a new cycle with a new coach,” he said, after agreeing a generous severance package with the outgoing

coach two weeks ago. Ben Arfa was as dramatic as Emery when his turn in the press spotlight came.

“A year ago I was unemployed, now I’m at one of the best clubs in the world,” said the 29-year-old former boy wonder whose career nosedived when he fell foul of a FIFA ruling two seasons ago and spent a year on the sidelines.

“This is sheer happiness he said.“I can go up a whole new level

here,” the former Lyon, Marseille and Newcastle forward said.

PSG also fought off rivals across Europe to snap up giant Belgian international defender Meunier from FC Bruges

The 6ft 3in (1.9m) right-back, 24, who featured twice for Belgium at Euro 2016, has signed a four-year deal for an undisclosed fee.

“I’m honoured to have been chosen by PSG, with all their great players,” Meunier, who has 12 Bel-gium caps, told his new club’s website.

Poland international Kry-chowiak signed a five-year deal with PSG on Sunday for a fee of 26 million euro ($28.9m) after also quit-ting Sevilla where he was an Emery favourite.

“To continue working with Unai Emery obviously played a part in my choice. I’m coming to Paris to expe-rience strong emotions and to win as many trophies as possible,” the 26-year-old said.

PSG President Al Khelaifi said he was “very satisfied” with the sign-ing. “These past two seasons, he was very efficient with Sevilla, in partic-ular on the European scene, and he was one of the most prominent play-ers in the Euro (2016).”

Pakistan’s Amir strikes on England return AFP

TAUNTON, UK: Pakistan’s Mohammad Amir (pic-tured) marked his return to first-class cricket in England with two wickets in quick succession against Somerset at Taunton yesterday.

At lunch on the second day of three in Pakistan’s tour opener, the left-arm fast bowler had taken two wickets for 16 runs in six overs, with former Eng-land opener Marcus Trescothick his maiden senior wicket on English soil for six years.

Amir’s exciting career came to a shuddering halt at Lord’s in 2010 when, during a Test against England, he and new-ball partner Mohammad Asif were caught bowling no-balls to order on the instructions of captain Salman Butt as part of a a tabloid newspaper sting operation.

All three received five-year bans from cricket and together with sports agent Mazhar Majeed, jail terms.

After Pakistan had made 359 for eight declared on the second morning of three in their tour opener against Somerset, Amir took the new ball.

Despite suggestions from England captain Alastair Cook that spectators might jeer Amir, there was nothing but polite applause after his name was

announced on the public address system. Tresco-thick blocked his first ball and took two fours off Amir’s opening over, a push through cover-point and another down to third man.

But Amir struck with his 14th ball back in first-class cricket on English soil.

Left-hander Trescothick, on eight, could only edge a superb outswinger that moved late and wicket-keeper Sarfraz Ahmed held an excellent diving catch. Amir struck again when a full-length inswinger bowled first-class debutant Adam Hose (10).

Somerset were now 23 for two, with Amir hav-ing taken two wickets for six runs in 11 balls. At lunch, Somerset were 56 for three, with Peter Trego 23 not out and James Hildreth nine not out.

Pakistan resumed on their overnight score of 324 for five, with Younis Khan 99 not out.

It took the 38-year-old Younis 12 balls Mon-day to complete his 53rd first-class hundred but he got there with a two to fine leg off Dutch pace-man Paul van Meekeren.

Younis’s century came off 173 balls, including 14 fours.

He was out soon afterwards, well caught by a diving Rouse in the slips off Scotland seamer Josh Davey.

Younis’s exit sparked a mini collapse that saw

Pakistan lose three wickets in seven balls. There was an ironic moment when the first delivery Amir faced was a Davey no-ball.

Next ball, Amir was caught behind off Davey for a duck.

Pakistan’s innings finished with a flourish as Yasir Shah hit a four and a six off the final two deliveries from van Meekeren. Nevertheless van Meekeren, who only joined Somerset on Friday, fin-ished with a commendable three for 78 in 26 overs.

Justin Gatlin runs to victory in the Men’s 100m Final during

the 2016 US Olympic Track & Field Team Trials at Hayward Field on Sunday in Eugene, Oregon.

24 TUESDAY 5 JULY 2016

Reuters

PARIS: With four teams remaining at Euro 2016, below is a guide to the form of the semi-finalists, looking at their strengths and weaknesses.

FRANCEFrance’s form and that of forward

Antoine Griezmann have gone hand in hand with both improving as the tournament has progressed.

Like France, Griezmann has got better and better and the speedy Atletico Madrid attacker is now the tournament’s top scorer with four goals.

Griezmann, who scored one and set up another in Sun-day’s 5-2 win over Iceland, is clearly France’s most dangerous weapon, although they have other attacking talents such as Olivier Giroud, who scored twice against Iceland, and Dimitri Payet, who also scored and assisted.

The host nation boosted their confidence with a scintillat-ing performance against Iceland and showed they could take the game to their opponents from the first whistle, which they had failed to do with sluggish starts in their previous matches.

Coach Didier Deschamps, who has tinkered with his team, seems to have found the right formula in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Griezmann playing close to Giroud up front. With hold-ing midfielder N’Golo Kante available to play against Germany after missing the Iceland game through suspension, however, he might be tempted to revert to a tighter, 4-3-3 system.

Deschamps’s worries are clearly at the back. Centre back Samuel Umtiti, who won his first cap against Iceland, was not totally commanding and Adil Rami, who was suspended, could return to face Germany.

Rami, however, has shown signs of nerves on several occa-sions, as has left back Patrice Evra, leaving France’s defence looking vulnerable, notably from set pieces.

GERMANYGermany will be a different team

from the one that beat Italy when they take on hosts France in Thursday’s semi-final.

Their backline will be missing the suspended Mats Hummels, who had contributed greatly to Germany’s four-match run without conceding a goal prior to Italy scoring against them in the quarter-finals.

Coach Joachim Loew could return to a four-man back-line with Benedikt Hoewedes, solid so far, partnering Jerome Boateng in the centre with Jonas Hector and Joshua Kimmich as full backs.

Loew will also be without his only out-and-out striker Mario Gomez, who muscled his way into the starting lineup during the tournament, squeezing Mario Goetze on to the bench and scoring twice.

The forward, who was in fine form after also topping the Turkish league’s scorers’ list last season, has been ruled out with a muscle injury he sustained in the quarter-final.

Midfielders Sami Khedira and Bastian Schweinsteiger are both doubtful for the game against France after also suffering injuries against Italy.

PORTUGALPortugal have reached the semi-

final without winning any of their five games inside 90 minutes or putting an a truly convincing performance.

But, with a strong defence and the permanent threat that Nani and Cristiano Ronaldo could strike at any moment, they have proved to be extremely difficult opponents to beat.

In fact, they have not lost in 12 com-petitive internationals since Fernando Santos took over at the start of the Euro 2016 qualifying campaign.

The team revolves around Ronaldo even though he some-times appear to be an overbearing presence on his team mates and his insistence on taking every free kick has caused them to waste precious attacking opportunities.

Santos has insisted he is happy for his team to be con-sidered the “ugly duckling” although there is a sense that if Portugal’s top players were all to click, they could be a genu-inely entertaining side.

WALESWales were initially carried on the

shoulders of Gareth Bale but the bur-den of attacking responsibility seems to be spreading through the team with captain Ashley Williams, Hal Robson-Kanu and Sam Vokes scoring in their superb quarter-final victory over Belgium.

Bale remains the attacking talis-man in the Wales team, a focal point for so much of their forward play, but there is enough tal-ent elsewhere for them not to be considered a one-man side.

Midfielder Joe Allen has played the deep lying play-maker role to perfection, immaculately recycling possession and proving a deft link between defence and attack, while centre back Williams has grown in stature throughout the tournament.

Midfielder Aaron Ramsey, however, will be suspended for the semi-final against Portugal, after he picked up a book-ing against Belgium and his absence is likely to be keenly felt.

Ramsey has contributed to five of Wales’s 10 goals at the tournament, scoring one and providing four assists. Defender Ben Davies will also miss the match through suspension.

Euro semi-finalists

Sigurdsson proud, positive for Iceland’s futureAFP

PARIS: Gylfi Sigurdsson (pictured)highlighted Iceland’s pride at con-founding expectations at Euro 2016 despite the disappointment of a 5-2 quarter-final defeat by France on Sunday.

Sigurdsson was one of Iceland’s stars as they shocked England in the last 16 to reach the quarters on their first ever appearance in a major finals.

“I’m very proud. It’s been a fan-tastic tournament, something special for a small team like us,” said the Swansea City man.

“We’ve probably overachieved. It is something no one expected us to do, which is good because it gives kids back home hope that this is

possible and hopefully in the future we’ll be back in the finals.”

And Sigurdsson believes this gen-eration of Icelandic players can now reach the country’s first ever World Cup in Russia despite the limits of their tiny population.

“We have problably 10-15 play-ers who are at a really good age and we’ll be looking forward to the World Cup qualifiers which aren’t too far away.

“The future will be bright for Ice-land and we can continue to progress over the next few years,” he said.

The smallest nation ever to take part in the European championship with a population of just 330,000 stunned England to reach the last eight.

They received a reality check in a 5-2 thrashing by hosts France on Sunday.

Pepe misses Portugal training with muscle problem AFP

MARCOUSSIS: Centre-back Pepe missed Portugal’s training on Mon-day for the Euro 2016 semi-final against Wales because of muscle pain, the Portuguese Football Fed-eration (FPF) announced.

Pulling the Real Madrid player out of training was just a pre-cautionary measure ahead of Wednesday’s match in Lyon, the federation said.

The 33-year-old was the only player missing from the session for Fernando Santos’ men. Mid-fielder Andre Gomes and left-back Raphael Guerreiro returned from knocks over the weekend.

“I was pleased with the way all my players played, but I have to say that Pepe had a huge match,” said Santos, after Pepe’s performance in the quarter-final win over Poland on penalties.

Portugal, led by three-time World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo, are hoping to reach the final of a major tournament for the second time after their 1-0 loss on home soil in the Euro 2004 final to underdogs Greece. The only certain absentee is defensive mid-fielder William Carvalho, who is suspended, with Danilo Perreira favourite to take his place in the side. This could be the last chance for Real Madrid teammates Pepe and Ronaldo to finally claim sil-verware in international football.

Ronaldo has had a difficult tournament, although he did score the two goals in the 3-3 group-stage draw with Hungary that dragged Portugal into the last 16.

France did reconnaissance on Iceland, says PayetAFP

PARIS: France did their home-work to make sure they did not follow England’s example and fall to giant killers Iceland, said goals-corer Dimitri Payet.

“We worked on their weak-nesses and their strengths,” Payet said after the 5-2 quarter-final win at Stade de France. “That is what allowed us to win tonight.”

Payet also praised his under-standing with Antoine Griezmann, now the leading scorer in the tournament with four goals. The Atletico Madrid striker set up Payet for his goal.

“It is a joy to link up with a player like that. We don’t tread on each other’s toes.” He said Griez-mann’s pass for his goal had been “a gift”. Payet said France had to ignore Germany’s injury prob-lems going into the semi-final on Thursday. “What we are going to remember is that they are the world champions. We know what to expect, we know they have qual-ities. But we have become stronger tonight.”

Two goal man-of-the match Olivier Giroud said his side would be out to avenge their 2014 World Cup quarter-final defeat to Ger-many. France lost the game in Brazil 1-0.

“It will be a completely dif-ferent match, they’re the world champions and often in the last four of major tournaments. It will be a great match, we have a lot of desire to get our own back for the World Cup. I’m very proud of what this France side is achieving and I hope we’ll come out once again with the right result,” said Giroud.

France face Everest climb wearing slippery shoes

Reuters

PARIS: France showed against Iceland they could score plenty of goals but their defence once again looked porous and is a real worry for coach Didier Deschamps before facing much tougher opponents in Germany for a place in the European Championship final.

“And now, Everest,” warned a head-line in French sports daily L’Equipe the morning after Sunday’s 5-2 quarter-final win over the sensations of the tournament took France through to a semi-final bat-tle with the world champions.

That headline summed up the task awaiting the host nation, who have fire-power up front but do not look ideally equipped at the back for such a daunt-ing challenge.

Leading 4-0 at halftime against Ice-land, France dropped their guard in the second half, conceding two goals to allow their brave but limited opponents some consolation.

It was not the first time in the tourna-ment that France’s defence showed signs of nerves and looked vulnerable, notably from set pieces.

Centre back Samuel Umtiti, win-ning his first cap in the absence of Adil Rami through suspension, was not totally assured and left back Patrice Evra, 35, looked his age with another sluggish dis-play. Coach Didier Deschamps, who lost his most reliable centre back in Raphael Varane through injury in the build-up to the finals, has several options. He could stick with Umtiti, bring back Rami or play Eliaquim Mangala.

Whoever partners Laurent Koscielny at the heart of the back line, France’s defence will clearly be their main weak-ness when they take on Germany on Thursday in Marseille.

Deschamps will have been satisfied with a few other things he saw on Sun-day, notably the fact that his side scored

plenty of goals and took the game to their opponents straight away, which they had failed to do in previous matches.

“We’re growing,” striker Olivier Giroud, who scored twice and was named man of the match, told reporters yesterday.

Antoine Griezmann and Dimitri Payet, who scored a fine goal each, also shone and Griezmann moved to the top of the scorers table with four goals.

France, chasing their third triumph at a major event on home soil after win-ning the 1984 European championship and 1998 World Cup, had set a place in the last four as their minimum goal.

It could be argued, however, that they are yet to face a top European nation and

that whether this tournament is a success or a failure will depend on how they fare against Germany, who have a record for beating them in the knockout stages of major tournaments.

“We’re looking better but Germany remains Germany,” said Deschamps, whose side lost to the eventual winners in the 2014 World Cup quarter-finals, not to mention painful semi-final exits from the 1982 and 1986 World Cups.

“They are the best team in Europe and in the world and the only ones totally controlling the situation, with technical quality everywhere, from the goalkeeper to the forwards,” Deschamps said.

“We’ll fight for our chances, knowing what we stand up against.”

Weak defence a concern for hosts ahead of Euro semi-final against world champions Germany

France’s forward Dimitri Payet (left) kisses the boot of team-mate Antoine Griezmann after he scored the fourth goal for France during the Euro 2016 quarter-final match against Iceland on Sunday.